Petrel

3692

Petrifaction

 

Arezzo. The family eventualh settled at
Avignon and in 1326 Petrarch entered the
priesthood. In 1327 he first saw Laura (prob-
ably the wife of Hugo de Sacle), \\ho was
destined to inspire all his love poetry. His
friendship with the great Roman family of
the Colonna dates from this period. In 13^3-7
he travelled in France, Belgium, and Ger-
many, collecting mss. of the classics. In 1340
he accepted the poet's laurel wreath from the
Roman Senate, being crowned at Easter,
1341. On April 6, 1348, his Laura died; and
though he went once again to Vaucluse (near
Avignon), he left his beloved spot for good
in I3S3-
Petrarch may be considered as the earliest
of the great humanists of the Renaissance. It
is upon his Latin works that he based his
hope of immortality. These works may be
divided into poems, moral and religious prose
works, historical prose works, minor writ-
ings, and letters. The twelve eclogues which
compose the Carmen Bucolicum (1347-56)
narrate, in pastoral guise, events of the poet's
life and times. Among works testifying to
Petrarch's mysticism and religious feeling the
finest is perhaps the Secretum or De Con-
temptn Mundi (c. 1342), consisting of three
dialogues between the author and St. August-
ine. The De Vita Solitaria (1346-56) cele-
brates the hermits of all ages. The Psalmi
Pcenitentiales were written to solace the
poet's grief. The Letters (1326-74) are in-
valuable as a record of the author and his
age, and are conspicuous for their literary
merit. The rare and beautiful Canzoniere
consist of 317 sonnets with canzoni, scstine,
ballads, and madrigals, nearly all love poems,
inspired by Laura. Consult English mono-
graphs on the poet by Reeve, Ward, Mills
(1904), Hollway-Calthrop (1907), and Maud
and jerrold (1909).

Stormy Petrel
Petrel (Procellaria) > a genus of sea birds
of the family which includes the albatrosses,
shearwaters, fulmars, and petrels proper, and
is allied to the gulls. The true petrels, of

which there are a number of widely distri-
buted species, are long-winged birds of pow-
erful flight. The best-known species is the
Stormy Petrel (P. pdagica) or Mother
Carey's Chicken, which is scarcely larger than
a lark, and is the smallest web-footed bird
known. The bird is essentially oceanic, and
rarely comes on shore save at the breeding
season, when it lays a single egg in a burrow,
a rock crevice, or even on the bare ground.
Because of its frequent appearance before or
during stormy weather, and possibly also be-
cause of its blackness, it is regarded by sailors
as a bird of evil omen.
Petri, Laurentius (1499-1573), Swedish
reformer, studied under Luther at Witten-
berg; was made first Protestant archbishop
of Upsala. Along with his brother Olaus he
succeeded in converting Sweden to the Re-
formed doctrines, and with him superintend-
ed the translation of the Bible into Swedish
Petri, Olaus (1493-1552), Swedish re-
former, brother of Laurentius. He studied
under Luther and Melanchthon at Witten-
berg. By Gustavus i. he was recalled to act
as town clerk of Stockholm, to preach the
doctrines of the Reformation, and in 1531 to
become chancellor of the kingdom. Petri was
the first to introduce the Reformation into
Sweden. In 1526 he translated the New Tes-
tament into Swedish, and in 1541, with his
brother Laurentius, the Old Testament. He
also compiled the first Swedish hymn book.
Petrie, William Matthew Flinders
(1853-1942), English Egyptologist, was born
in Charlton, Kent. In i<S8o he turned from
British archaeology to Egyptian research, From
1884 to 1886 he carried out excavations prov-
ing the presence of Greek settlements at
Naucratis and D;iphnse, and in 1892 was ap-
pointed professor of Egyptology in Univer-
sity College, London. His principal discover-
ies have been inscriptions of the Israelite
War at Thebes, Hyksos camp, the city of
Onias, the palace of Memphis, Tarkhan, and
the Treasure of Lahun. His numerous works
include: Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh
(1883) ; History of Egypt (new eel, 1903-
25) ; Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties
(1901) ; Revolutions of Civilisation (1911) ;
The Formation of the Alphabet (1912) ; Pre-
historic Egypt (1917); Social Life in Egypt
(1923) ; Religious Life in Egypt (1924) ;
Tombs of the Courtiers (1925) ; Buttons and
Scarabs (1926); Seventy Years in Arch&ol*
Petrifaction. Fossils are said to be petti*