Peres—See Pires.
Periplus Maris Erythræi, a survey of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean as far as the coast of Malabar. In his interesting account, written about between a.d. 54 and 68, the author, commonly called Arrian of Alexandria, gives a list of imports and exports of the various places which he had visited or of which he had good informations. See Vincent, Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, etc. London, vol. i. (1800), ii. (1805); also C. Müller, Geographi græci minores, i. (Paris, 1855) 257-305. Anonymi (Arriani ut fertur) Periplus maris erythræi.
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Physicians of Myddvai (Meddygon Myddfai). Rhys Gryg (i.e. the Hoarse), prince of South Wales (died in 1233 at Llandeilo Vawr), had his domestic physician, namely Rhiwallon, who was assisted by his three sons Cadwgan, Gruffydd, Einion, from a place called Myddvai, in the present county of Caermarthen. They made a collection of recipes, the original manuscript of which is in the British Museum. Another collection has been compiled, from the original sources, by Howel the Physician, son of Rhys, son of Llewelyn, son of Philip the Physician, a lineal descendant of Einion, the son of Rhiwallon. Both these compilations have been published at Llandovery in 1861, together with a translation, by John Pughe, under the above title (470 pp.)
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Pires, Tomé (or Pyres, Pirez, as he also writes his name himself), a Portuguese apothecary. He was the first ambassador sent, probably in 1511, from Europe, or at least from Portugal, to China. Pires addressed, in 1512-1516, several letters from Cochin and Malacca to the Admiral Affonso d’Albuquerque and to King Manuel of Portugal. One of them, written January 27, 1516, from Cochin to the King, enumerates many drugs which were to be met with in that place—“dando l-lhe noticias das drogas da India,” says the writer. This letter, still existing in the Real y Nacional Archivo da Torre do Tombo (corpo chronologico, part i. fasc. 19, No. 102), was communicated in 1838 by Bishop Condo Don Francisco de San Luiz to the Portuguese Pharmaceutical Society, and published in their “Jornal de Socied. Pharm. Lusit. ii. (1838) 36.” It will also be found in the pamphlet[2785] “Elogio historico e noticia completa de Thomé Pires, pharmaceutico e primeiro naturalista da India; e o primeiro embaixador europeo a China. Memoria publicada na Gazeta de Pharmacia por Pedro José da Silva.” ... Lisboa, 1866. 47 pp. (“y 22 fac simile de sua signatura”). We had, moreover, before us an authentic copy of the letter under notice, obligingly written 1st December, 1869, for one of us by Senhor Joaquim Urbano de Veiga, the Secretary of the Sociedad Pharmaceutica Lusitana. According to Colmeiro, La Botánica y los Botánicos de la Peninsula Hispano-Lusitana, Madrid, 1858. 148, Peres was attached to the factory of Malacca as a “scribano” (secretary?) and “por tener conocimientos farmacéuticos,” and was sent to China, with the character of an ambassador, in order to examine more freely the plants. He was imprisoned, says Colmeiro, at Pekin, and there died soon after 1521 in prison. Yet Abel Rémusat, in the 34th volume of the “Biographie universelle” (1823), p. 498, and also in his “Nouveaux mélanges asiatiques” ii. (1828) 203, states that Pires proceeded first to Canton, and reached Pekin in 1521. From this place he was sent to Canton and imprisoned for many years from political causes. He was still living in 1543.
Piso, Willem. The Dutch, having conquered in 1630 from the Spanish the north-eastern part of the Brazilian coast, between Natal and Porto Calvo, Count Johann Moriz von Nassau-Siegen was appointed, in 1636, Governor-General of these possessions. He left them in 1644; the history of his reign is contained in the work of Barlæus, Rerum per Octoennium ... gestarum ... historia, Amstelodami, 1647. The Count had also instituted a scientific exploration of the environs of Pernambuco (or Recife), his residence, by his physician Piso and Marcgraf, the friend of the latter (see M.), who lived also at the Count’s court. They devoted several years (from 1638 to 1641) zealously to their task. The results of their investigations are found in—(1) Historia naturalis Brasiliæ, published by Joh. de Laet, Lugd. Bat., 1643. (2) Pisonis de medicina brasiliensi libri iv., et G. Marcgravii historiæ rerum naturalium Brasiliæ libri viii. Lugd. Bat., 1648. (3) Pisonis de utriusque Indiæ historia naturali et medica libri xiv. Amstelodami, 1658.
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