PASCOLI, GIOVANNI (1855-1912), Italian poet, was born at San Mauro di Romagna on Dec. 31, 1855. He studied at the college of the Scolopi fathers at Urbino, and at the University of Bologna. He then became a secondary school teacher. In 1891 he published his first volume of verse, Myricae. He then held chairs successively at the Universities of Bologna, Messina and Pisa, and, finally, was appointed to succeed Carducci as professor of Italian literature at Bologna. He published other volumes of poetry, Primi poemetti ( 1912) , Nuovi poemetti, Canti di Castelvecchio, Poemi conviviali, Poemi del Risorgimento, Canzoni di Re Enzio (1908) and Carmina (in Latin). Pascoli was a mystic, given to meditation and solitude, and his poetic out put faithfully reflects the characteristics of his melancholy and extremely sensitive temperament. He died at Bologna on April 6, 1912.
See A. Galletti, La poesia e l'arte di G. Pascoli (1918) ; J. J. Hart man, De Joanne Pascoli poeta Latino (1920) ; F. Morabito, Il Misticismo di Giovanni Pascoli (1920) A. Valentin, I Pascoli, Les themes de son inspiration (1925).
a maritime department of northern France, formed in 1790 of nearly the whole of Artois and the northern maritime portion of Picardy including Boulonnais, Calaisis, Ardrésis, and the districts of Langle and Bredenarde, and bounded north by the Straits of Dover ("Pas de Calais"), east by the department oc Nord, south by that of Somme, and west by the English channel. Pop. (1931) 1,205,191; area 2,606 sq.m. Except in the neighbourhood of Boulogne-sur-Mer with its cotes de fer or "iron coasts," the seaboard of the department, which measures 65 m., consists of dunes. From the mouth of the Aa (the limit towards Nord) it trends west-south-west to Gris Nez, the point of France nearest to England; in this section lie the port of Calais, Cape Blanc Nez, rising 44o ft. above the sandy shores, and the port of Wissant (Wishant). The seaside resorts include Boulogne, Berck-sur-Mer, Paris-Plage, Wimereux, etc. Beyond Griz Nez the direction is due south; in this section are the small port of Ambleteuse, Boulogne at the mouth of the Liane, and the two bays formed by the estuaries of the Canche and the Authie (the limit towards Somme).
The dominant feature of the department is the Cretaceous scarp extending north-westward towards the sea, and revealing, between Boulogne and Calais, lower Cretaceous, Jurassic and a little Palaeo zoic rock in what is really the eastern end of the Wealden dome of south-east England. The greatest height reached by the scarp in the department is about 710 ft. in the north-west. The scarp overlooks the plains of Flanders on the north and is the source of the Aa, Lys, Scarpe, Sensee and Escant. It is the defensible line of France in the north, and most of it remained in the possession of the Franco-British armies throughout the World War, but the ridges of Vimy and Bapaume were the scenes of very severe fight ing, and the German armies penetrated across the continuation of the scarp farther to the south-east. To the north of the hills
running between St. Omer and Boulogne, to the south of Grave lines and the south-east of Calais, lies the district of the Watter gands, fens now drained by means of canals and dikes, and turned into highly productive land. The climate is free from extremes of heat and cold, but damp and changeable. At Arras the mean annual temperature is ; on the coast it is higher. The rainfall varies from 24 to 32 in., though at Cape Gris Nez the latter figure is much exceeded. Cereals are largely grown and also potatoes, sugar-beets, forage, oil-plants and tobacco. Market gardening flourishes in the Wattergands. Livestock and poultry are reared, and the horses of the Boulonnais are famous.
The department is the chief in France for the production of coal, its principal coal-basin, a continuation of that of Valen ciennes, centring round Bethune. The manufacture of beetroot sugar, oil and alcohol distilling, iron-working, dyeing, brewing, paper-making, and various branches of the textile manufacture, are the chief industries. Boulogne, Calais and Staples equip vessels for the cod, herring and mackerel fisheries. Calais and Boulogne are important ports of passenger-transit for England; and Boulogne also carries on a large export trade in the products of the department. The canal system comprises part of the Aa, the Lys, the Scarpe, the Deille (a tributary of the Lys passing by Lille), the Lawe (a tributary of the Lys passing by Bethune), and the Sensee (an affluent of the Scheldt), as well as the canals of Aire to Bauvin, Neuffosse, Calais, Calais to Ardres, etc., and thus a line of communication is formed from the Scheldt to the sea by Bethune, St. Omer and Calais, with branches to Gravelines and Dunkirk. The department is served by the Northern railway.
Pas-de-Calais forms the diocese of Arras (archbishopric of Cambrai), belongs to the district of the I. army corps, the edu rational division (academie) of Lille ; the appeal court is at Douai. There are five arrondissements (Arras, Bethune, Boulogne, Montreuil-sur-Mer and St. Omer) with 46 cantons and 905 com munes. The chief towns are Arras, the capital, Boulogne, Calais, St. Omer, Bethune, Lens, Montreuil-sur-Mer, Bruay, Berck, Staples and Aire-sur-la-Lys (qq.v.). Lievin (26,698), Henin Lietard (22,631), in the neighbourhood of Lens, are large centres of population. Lillers (pop. 8,364) carries on boot-making and has a fine 12th century Romanesque church; Hesdin owes its regular plan to Charles V., by whom it was built ; and St. Pol has the remains of medieval fortifications and castles and gave its name to the famous counts of St. Pol.