Pi'non (Heb. Pinon', lb*1!?, prob. i. q. Punon; Sept •I'Hrcii': Vulg. Phinon), one of the ••duke-" of Edom; that is, head or founder of a tribe of that nation (Gen. xxxvi, 11: l Chron. i, 52). By Eusebiua and Jerome ( Onomast icon, (ii, !■,:,!■. and 1'enoni the scat of the tribe
is said to ha\ e keen at Pillion, one of the stations of the Israelites in the Wilderness ; which again they identify with Phaeno, " between Petra and /oar." the site of ike famous Roman copper-mines. No name answering to Pi- non appears to have keen yet discovered in Arabic liter- ature or among the existing tribes. Smith. See Pi sos.
Pins, Jeam de, a French prelate noted for his dip- lomatic career, was born at Toulouse towards 1470. He was the third son of Gaillard de Pins, and studied un- der the guidance of his eldest brother at Toulouse, Poitiers, Paris, and in Italy, w here he became proficient in (.reck and Latin letters through the lessons ol Phi- lippo Bersaldo the elder, in I 197 he embraced the cl< t- ical profession; returned to Italy, where he spent five ! was in 1511 appointed clerk-counsellor at the parliament ol his native city. Antoine Duprat, with whom he was closely acquainted, took him to Italy, and had him appointed counsellor at the parlia- ment founded by Francis I at Milan. He there man- aged someverj intricate matters with so much prudence and dexterity thai the king sent him on an embassy to Venice in 151(5, and to Rome in 1520. < »n both oc- casions he showed extraordinary aptitude for political negotiations, and displayed greal zeal for the interests of religion and the Rlon of his country. A pontifical brief "i Dec. 27, 1520, shows thai .lean de Pins was made bishop of Pamiers. Put he never governed thai bishopric, and was in 1523 appointed bishop of EUeux. In 1627 he founded and endowed the chapter ol Saint-
■) bare. The most learned men of his time spoke in praise of his erudition; and cardinal Sadolet submitted to him his own works before giving them to the printer. In 1673 his bust was placed in the Salle des Toulou- sains Illustres, at the capitol of Toulouse. Jean >\>- Pins wrote in most elegant Latin, and deserved the fol- lowing eulogy at the hands of Erasmus, who was Buch a competent judge in the matter: -Potest inter Tulli- aiue dictionis competitores numerari Johannes Pinus." We have of him. Vita J'/ii/i/'j-i Bersaldi majoris • Bo- logna, L505, 4to): — Vita Sand a Catharina Senensis (ibid. 1505, Ito): Din Rocki Narbonensis Vita (Ven. and Par. 1516, 8vo): — AUobrogica narrationis libellus (ibid. 1516, Ito); this is a kind of novel composed for the instruction of the children ol the chancellor An- toine Duprat: — 1>i vita aulica (Toulouse, 4to); this work is held in greal esteem:- />> darisfami Par. 1521, fol.); remarkable for the elegance of the compo- sition. Pins died at Toulousi No\. i. ].~,:,7.— Iloefer, .\uiir. Bioff. Generate, \1. 277.
Pinsker, Simcha, a noted recent Hebraist, was born at TarnopoL Austrian Poland (Galicia), in 1801. He was the son of a rabbi see Shi bai it . and was well
trained in Hebrew lore. Becoming interested in the doctrines of the Chasidim (q. v.), he joined the ranks of the so-called Kotzker-Chasidim, who, in the theory of mystic views, as well as in the practice, favored worldly gayety coupled with cynical elements. At the same time he suffered himself to be drawn into the whirlpool of a noisy commercial life, which induct d him to enter upon several large speculations: his genius could not long remain imprisoned in these strange spheres, and, with the loss of his entire fortune, he finally abandoned these schemes. He took up his abode in Odessa, which was then a flourishing town.
and tilled the situation of Rabbinical secretary, and al- though the pittance of a salary which was paid kirn was barely enough for his existence, he was always in good spirits. Put it was not to he expected that a man of Pinsker's talents should long rest content in such a limited sphere. Perceiving how miserable was the condition, in regard to culture, of the South-Russian .lews, which he bad no doubt was ,iU(. to a faulty, anti- quated education, he determined to exert himself for the establishment of Jew ish el) mentary schools, in which the children could receive a proper religious and secu- lar training, suitable to those times. < Messa. heinc; the commercial centre of Southern Russia, seemed to him just adapted for such an institution, and Simcha Pin- sker lost no time in communicating this important mat- ter to his friend [saac llorow it/, a native of Brody, who ai once look greal interest in the proposition. The two
young men made known the object they had in view to M'\ era! influential parties, and soon snece eded in gain- ing for their plan the conjunction of eminent men, who
made all necessary arrangements with ike congrega- tion and the government, and thus readily accomplished the object, Pinsker «:i- placed at the head of the newly founded School, and in that capacity he labored iiniil 1840, when he removed to Vienna on a pension for the remainder of his life. Pinsker is noted, how- ever, not simply as the founder and propagator of a