a sort of cheese much esteemed among the Italians; so named from the duchy of Parma where it is made, and whence it is conveyed to various parts of Europe.

The excellent pasture grounds of this country are watered by the Po; and the cows from whose milk this cheese is made yield a great quantity of it. Of this cheese there are three sorts; the fromaggio di forma, about two palms in diameter, and seven or eight inches thick; and the fromaggi di ribiolo and di ribalini, which are not so large. This cheese is of a saffron colour; and the best is kept three or four years. See Cheese.

PARNIGIANO, a celebrated painter, whose true name was Francesco Mazzuoli; but he received the former from the city of Parma, where he was born, in 1504. He was brought up under his two uncles, and was an eminent painter when but 16 years of age. He was famous all over Italy at 19; and at 23 performed such wonders, that when the general of the emperor Charles V. took Rome by storm, some of the common soldiers having, in facking the town broke into his apartments, found him intent upon his work, and were instantly struck with the beauty of his pieces, that instead of involving him in the plunder and destruction in which they were then employed, they resolved to protect him from all manner of violence; which they actually performed. His works are distinguished by the beauty of the colouring, the invention, and drawing. His figures are spirited and graceful, particularly with respect to the choice of attitude, and in their dresses. He also excelled in music, in which he much delighted.

In large compositions Parmigiano did not always reach a high degree of excellence; but in his holy families, and other similar subjects, the gracefulness of his heads, and the elegance of his attitudes, are peculiarly delightful. For the celebrity of his name he seems to be chiefly indebted to his numerous drawings and etchings; for his life being short, and a great part of it consumed in the idle study of alchemy, in pursuit of the philosopher's stone, and in the seducing avocations of music and gambling, there was but little time left for application to the laborious part of his business. His paintings in oil are few in number, and held in high esteem, as are also his drawings and etchings; good impressions of these last being very rarely to be found. He was the first that practised the art of etching in Italy; and probably he did not at first know, that it had been for some years practised in Germany. When he set out for Rome, he was advised to take some of his pictures with him, as a means of getting himself introduced into the acquaintance of the nobility and artists in that celebrated city. One of them is mentioned by his biographers as a masterpiece. It was his own portrait painted upon a piece of wood of a convex form, in imitation of a convex mirror. The surface is said to have been so wonderfully executed, that it had the appearance of real glass, and the head, as well as every part of the furniture of the chamber in which he was supposed to sit, was so artfully managed, that the whole formed a very complete piece of deception. At Rome he was employed by Pope Clement VII. who was highly pleased with his performances, and rewarded him liberally. A circumcision which he painted for him was particularly esteemed as a capital work. In it Parmigiano was successful in introducing a variety of lights, without destroying the general harmony. When Charles V. came to Bologna to be crowned emperor of the Romans, Parmigiano failed not to be present at that singular ceremony; and so accurately marked the countenance of the emperor, that at his return home, he was enabled from memory to make out a surprising likeness. In the same piece he introduced the figure of Fame placing a crown of laurel on the head of the emperor, whilst a young Hercules presented him with a globe of the world. Before it was quite finished, the painter and his piece were introduced to Charles by the Pope, but to little purpose; for the emperor left Bologna a few days after, without ordering him any recompense for his labour. In the church of Madonna della Stercato at Parma are still to be seen several of the works of this artist; among which one of Sibyls, and two others of Moses, and of Adam and Eve, are much admired. So also is a Dead Christ, with the Virgin in sorrow, in the church of the Dominicans at Cremona. In the Houghton collection of pictures, now in possession of the empress of Russia, is one of his best pictures, representing Christ laid in the sepulchre, for which he is said to have been knighted by the duke of Parma. His principal works are at Parma, where he died poor in 1540.