PERGOLESE, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, an eminent musician of the Neapolitan school. Evidence the date and place of his birth is conflicting; probably the correct account is that of the marchese di Villarosa, his latest biographer, who states that he was born at Jesi, near Ancona, on the Jan. 3, 1710. In 1717 he was admitted into the Conservatorio dci Poveri di Gest Cristo at Naples, where he studied the violin under Domenico di Matteis, and musical composition under Gaetano Greco and Durante. Under the conviction that melody and taste were sacrificed to learning by most of the masters of his time, he abandoned the style of Scurlatti and Greco for that of Vinci and Hasse. His first great work was the oratorio of San Gvglielmo d'ilguitania, com posed in 1731. In that and the following year appeared his operas of La Serra Padl'ona; II Prigionier Superbo; and Lo 'Prate Ynnamorato; in 1734, Adrian° in Siria; in 1735, II Fleminio and Olimpiade. In 1734 he received the appointment of maestro di eapella of the church of Loretto. In consequence of delicate health he removed to Pozzuoli, where he composed the cantata of Orfeo, and his pathetic &What Mater Ile died there of consumption in 1736. Besides the above-mentioned works, Pcrgolese composed a number of pieces for the church, which were better appreciated during his life-time than his secular compositions, also a violin concerto, and thirty trios for violin, violoncello, and harpsicho•d. His works are all characterized by sweetness and freedom
of style.
PERI (Fairy), according to the mythical lore of the cast, a being begotten by fallen spirits, which spends its life. in all imaginable delights, is immortal, but is forever exeln ded from the joys of paradise. It takes an intermediate 'place between angels and demons, and is either male or female. So far from there being only female penis, as is supposed by some, and these the wives of the dews, the penis live, on the contrary, in constant warfare with these dews. Otherwise, they are of the most innocuous character to mankind, and, exactly as the fairies, with whom our own popular mythology has made us familiar, are, when females, of surpassing beauty. One of the finest compli ments to be paid to a Persian lady is to speak of her as perizadeh (born of a peri; Greek, parisatis). They belong to the great family of genii, or gin: a belief in whom is enjoined in the Koran, and for whose conversion, as well as for that of man, Mohammed was sent (cf. Koran, chaps. lv., lxxii., and lxxiv.).