The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pallissy \Pallissy\ (p[aum]*l[-e]*s[-e]"), prop. n. Bernard
Pallissy, the great French potter, was born in Agen, in 1509,
and wandered as a glass and portrait painter until he married
and settled in Saintes in 1538. While working here as a
surveyor his attention was attracted by an enameled cup, and
he determined to discover the process and after 16 years of
continuous labor and experiment in which he used all his
resources and burned the tables and floors for fuel, he
succeeded, and though imprisoned in 1562 as a Huguenot he was
released by royal edict and appointed "inventor of figulines"
to the king. He removed to Paris in 1564, and through the aid
of Catherine de Medici was saved from the massacre of St.
Bartholomew. From 1575 to 1584 he gave a course of lectures
on physics and natural history, demonstrating the origin of
springs, the formation of fossil shell, and the best method
of purifying water. In 1585, however, he was again arrested
as a Huguenot and imprisoned in the Bastille, where he died
in 1589. See H. Morley's Palissy the Potter.
--Student's
Cyclopedia, 1897.
[PJC] Palkee \Pal"kee\, n. [Hind. p[=a]lk[=i]; of the same
origin as E. palanquin.]
A palanquin.
--Malcom.