Pensaben, Fra Marco, and Fra Marco Mara- VEiA, his assistant, two old painters of the Order of the Dominicans at Venice, flourished in the first half of the IGth century. Pensaben was born at Venice in 148G. Of his parents and boyhood nothing is known. The earliest account takes us back to 1510, when he was a priest at the Dominican convent of Sts. Paul and John in Venice, having only a short time previous to thi.s taken the Dominican habit. In the capitular acts of 1514 he is called sub-prior, and in those of 1524 head sacristan. Laiizi says Pensaben was an artist of sin- gular merit, wholly unknown in the history of art till Frederic! discovered some documents relating to him in the convent of the Dominicans at Trevigi, whith- er he had been invited from Venice. '"In this style, partaking of the ancient and modern taste, is a large picture of St. Nicholas in a church of the Dominicans at Trevigi, in which the cupola, the columns, and the perspective, with a throne, on which is seated the Vir- gin with the infant Jesus, surrounded by saints stand- ing, the steps ornamented by a harping seraph, all dis- cover the composition of Bellini. It was painted by P. Marco Pensaben, assisted by P. !Marco Maraveia. both Dominican priests engaged for this purpose from Ven- ice." Nothing further is known of their work.s. Pen- saben died in 1530. See Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine Arts,\\,61\.
Pensieii, Batti.sta, an Italian engraver who flour- i.shed in the latter part of the IGth century, was a native of Parma, and is usually called Bapiista Parmensis, from his signature. Zani calls his name Baltista Pensieri da Parma, and says that he was a designer, engraver, and a seller of books and prints, and gives four inscrip- tions from his prints (see Spooner). Pensieri resided
PENSIO
901
PENTATEUCH
chiefly at Rome, where he engraved several plates for various masters, and others from his own designs, ex- ecuted in a style resembling that of Cornelius Cort. Among these are the follownig : The Virr/iii and Infant appearing to St. John (alter Baroccio, Bajjtista Parmen- sis fee. 1588): — The Baptism of Christ (Bapt. Parmen- sis):_7'^e Chastittj of St. Joseph (1593) :— 7%e Critci- fxion (in two sheets, Bapt. Parmensis foriiis. 1584). See Spooner, Bio//. Hist, of the Fine A rts, ii, G71.
Pensio, i. e. the enjoyment or use of a part of the fruits of a benefice without service, was formerly a very common occurrence in the Church of liome, and is even now occasionally enjoyed in the Church of England. See SiNKCuiiE. At present in the Romish Church the pensio is accordetl only to priests de emeritii.
Titulis pensionis is the name of the secured income to a priest without regard as to its source.
Penso, JosKPii, also called De la Vega, a Jewish merchant of Spain, is noted for his literary labors as poet, moral philosopher, and orator. He w as born about 1G50 at Espejo, in Cordova; and lived afterwards at Li- vorno, Amsterdam, and Antwerp, at which last place he probably died. lie belongs to the last Spanish Jews who cultivated Spanish poetrj' in a foreign land. He v.Tote, mj?rirl '^T'^BX, "the Prisoners of Hope," an allegorical drama (Amsterd. 1673) : — D'^il^lw CI"!?, " Orchard of Lilies." In both these dramas Penso shows the assiduity of Satan in deluding man from the worship of God, and the many snares he lays in his way to entrap him ; but Providence frustrates all Satan's diabolic de- vices, and righteousness obtains at last the sway over him : — La Rosa, Panetjyrica sacra, a panegj'ric poem in praise of the Mosaic law (ibid. 1G83): — The Life of Adam, in Spanish (ibid. 1683): — Sermon fun'ehre, a. funeral oration in Spanish on the death of his mother, l)rinted together with a funeral oration on the death of his father (ibid. 1683): — JJiscurso Academico moral y sangrado, etc, (ibid. 1683) : — Discursos acadhnicos, mo- rales, rhetoiicos, y sangrados que recito en laflorida A ca- demia de los Floridos, etc. (ibid. 1685). See Fiirst, Bill. Jiid. iii, 75; Griitz, Gesch. d. Jtiden, x, 198; xiii; Kay- serling, Sephardini, p. 316 sq. ; Bihliotheh jUdischer Kan- zelredner, vol. i, Beilage, p. 17; Margoliouth, Modern Judaism investigated, p. 246 ; Delitzsch, Zur Geschichle der jiidischen Poesie, p. 77, 160, 174; De Rossi, Dizio- 7iario storico degli autori Ebrei, p. 326 (Germ, transl. by Hambiu'ger) ; Etheridge, Introduction to Hebrew Liter- ature. p.'389; Wolf, Bibl. Ilebr. i,555; iii, 417; iv,851. (B. P.)
Pentacle of Solomon, a five-angled figure, com- posed of two triangles interlaced ; the legendary seal or sigil of Solomon, carved on an emerald, by which he ruled the gins or daemons, representing the five fingers of the hand of Omnipotence. David's shield had six angles.
Pen'tateiich, the collective title commonly given to the first five books of the O. T. (In the present ar- ticle we adopt a considerable portion of that given in Fairbairn's Bible Dictionary, but with important modi- fications, and extensive additions from other sources.) See MosKS.
I. The Name. — The above is the Greek name given to the books commonly called the Five Books of Moses (i/ Trtvrarmxoc sc. fti(i\oq ; Pentateucluis sc. liber; tlie fivefold book; from Tfr;Y''t'i which, meaning originally "vessel, instrument," etc., came in Alexandrine Greek to mean " book"). In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah it was called " the Law of ]\Ioses" (Ezra vii, 6) ; or " the book of the Law of Moses" (Neh. viii, 1); or simply "thcbookof Moses" (Ezra vi, 18; Neh. xiii, 1; 2 Chron. XXV, 4; XXXV, 12). This was beyond all reasonable doubt our existing Pentateuch. The book which was discovered in the Temple in the reign of Josiah, and which is entitled (2 Chron. xxxiv, 14) "the book of the Law of Jehovah by the hand of Moses," was sub-