after lived as a soldier, pirate, and merchant, working from
East Africa to Japan. In 21 years he was captured 13 times,
enslaved 17 times, and shipwrecked on several occasions.
Pinto’s voyages to Indo-China opened new trade mar-
kets for Europeans, although his greed caused the Chinese
to torture him after he robbed a sacred tomb at Calempluy.
After escaping from China, he became one of the first Eu-
ropeans to visit Japan. He later met St. FRANCIS XAVIERand
subsequently became a Jesuit novice. However, he was un-
suited to the life of the Jesuits and returned to Portugal
(1558), where he married and settled in Almada to com-
pose his famous book. Pinto’s life story, the Peregrinação,
was not published until 1614. He had done so much that
the book was considered a fantasy (the possible reason for
the delay in publication), but it is now acknowledged as
thorough and accurate, if somewhat embellished by fanci-
ful first-person escapades. Whatever the doubts about its
strict veracity, it was hugely popular and in the course of
the 17th century was translated into Spanish, French,
Dutch, English, and German.
Pinturicchio, Bernardo, il (Bernardino di Betto) (c.
1454–1513) Italian painter
Pinturicchio was a native of Perugia. Among his earliest
work are two panels in a series depicting the miracles of
St. Bernardino of Siena (c. 1473; Galleria Nazionale dell’
Umbria, Perugia). In the early 1480s Pinturicchio accom-
panied PERUGINOto Rome and collaborated with him on
two frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, but he also became a
member of the painters’ guild in Perugia (1481) and exe-
cuted work there, including a number of decorative
Madonnas of a type for which he became famous.
He was also much in demand as a painter of frescoes,
and examples of his work in this genre survive in several
towns in Umbria. His first major independent commission
however was in Rome: the cycle on St. Bernardino of Siena
in the Bufalini chapel in Sta. Maria in Aracoeli (c. 1485–
90). Cardinal Giuliano DELLA ROVERE(later Pope JULIUS II)
commissioned him soon afterwards to decorate part of the
Palazzo Colonna, and della Rovere patronage continued in
commissions for decorations for chapels in Sta. Maria del
Popolo, Rome. Pope Innocent VIII was another patron,
but Pinturicchio’s work for him on the Belvedere at the
Vatican is almost entirely lost. Innocent VIII’s successor,
ALEXANDER VI, employed Pinturicchio on the great decora-
tive scheme for the Borgia apartments in the Vatican
(1492–95). Outside Rome, Pinturicchio worked in the
1490s on frescoes in the Eroli chapel in the cathedral at
Spoleto (1497). One of his best paintings also dates from
this period, the Madonna and Saints altarpiece for a Peru-
gian church (1495; Galleria Nazionale dell’ Umbria).
In the early 1500s Pinturicchio was at work in Siena.
One of his most successful decorative schemes is the cycle
of frescoes (1502–07) in the Piccolomini library there; 10
scenes from the life of Pope PIUS IIare placed in attractive
architectural settings and peopled with varied and grace-
ful figures (see Plate XII). At about the same time he also
painted frescoes in the chapel of St. John the Baptist in the
cathedral and in about 1509 he decorated the Palazzo del
Magnifico (his paintings from there are now dispersed,
with a number in the Metropolitan Museum, New York).
In 1507 he paid a final visit to Rome to decorate the choir
of Sta. Maria del Popolo for his old patron, Julius II. He
continued his prolific output right up to his death in
Siena.Piombo, Sebastiano del See SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBOPirckheimer, Caritas (1467–1532) German nun,
humanist, letter writer, and poet
Sister of the humanist Willibald PIRCKHEIMER, she was
well educated and took religious vows as a Franciscan
nun at age 16, entering a convent in Nuremberg. Here she
became one of the outstanding female scholars of 16th-
century Germany, thanks to her correspondence (in Latin)
with intellectuals of the day who supported reform within
the Church. In 1503, having been elevated to abbess, she
wrote a history of her convent. As a staunch Roman
Catholic, she held out against the tide of Protestantism
sweeping across Germany, but her beleaguered order
rapidly disintegrated. Her spiritual testimony of the battle
to preserve her faith and religious practice is her Den-
würdigkeiten (1524-28), which is also a valuable account
of the intellectual debates concerning the Reformation in
contemporary Nuremberg.Pirckheimer, Willibald (1470–1530) German humanist
Pirckheimer was born at Eichstätt into a wealthy Nurem-
berg commercial family with scholarly interests. His sister
Caritas PIRCKHEIMERwas also renowned for her learning.
He was sent to Padua and Pavia to study law, but showed
more interest in Greek, philosophy, the sciences, and
other subjects. From his return in 1495 until 1523 he was
a Nuremberg city councilor, and he led a contingent from
Nuremberg in the Swiss war of 1499. This experience re-
sulted in his vivid historial account of the war, Bellum Hel-
veticum, not published until 1610.
A renowned scholar, Pirckheimer edited Greek and
Latin works and made many translations from Greek into
Latin and from Greek and Latin into German. At the re-
quest of Emperor Maximilian I, he translated the Hiero-
glyphica of the Egyptian Horapollo from Greek into Latin,
with illustrations by his lifelong friend Albrecht DÜRER.
This work introduced German scholars to EGYPTIAN STUD-
IES. In recognition of this and other imperial commissions,
Pirckheimer was appointed imperial councilor. His wealth
enabled him to build up one of the largest private libraries
in Germany, to collect ancient coins, and to hold open
house for other scholars. He corresponded with manyPPiirrcckkhheeiimmeerr,, WWiilllliibbaalldd 3 37799