PICARDY(La Picardie), one of the old feudal provinces of France, was bounded N. by Hainault, Artois, and the English Channel, E. by Champagne, S. by île-de France, and W. by Normandy and the Channel. Northern Picardy (subdivided into Upper and Lower Picardy) was formed into one of the great military governorships of the kingdom, while Southern Picardy was included in the governorship of Île-de-France. Upper Picardy comprised the districts (pays) of Amienois, Sanierte, Vermandois, and Thierache; Lower Picardy Boulonnais, Ponthieu, Vimeu, and the Pays Reconquis (or Calais, Guines, Ardre, and Oye); and Southern Picardy Beauvaisis, Soissonais, and Laonnais. The territory is now divided among the departments of Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Aisne, Oise, and Nord.

The name Picardy does not appear before the 13th century. Under the Romans the country formed part of Belgica Secunda, and was inhabited by various Belgian tribes—the Morini, Ambiani, Veromandui, Bellovaci, and Suessiones, whose names still appear in Amiens, Vermandois, Beauvais, and Soissons. After forming part of the kingdom of Soissons and of Neustria, Picardy (that is, the countship of Vermandois, &c.) passed to the counts of Flanders. It was finally united with the French crown by Louis XI.

See De Vérité (1770-74), Dubelloy (1770). La Bourt (1840), Roger (1842-43), and Cocheris (1854). V. de Beauvillé has published a magnificent Recueil de documents inédits concernant la Picardie, 1861, 1867, <fcc.

PICCINI, or Piccinni, Niccola (1728-1800), musical composer, was born at Bari in 1728, and educated, under Leo and Durante, at the Conservatorio di San Onofrio in Naples. His first opera, Le Donne dispettose, produced in 1754, won him a high reputation, which he maintained creditably until 1760, when he composed, at Rome, the chef cPoeuvre of his early life, La Cecchina, ossia la Buona Figliuola, an opera buff a which attained a European success, little less remarkable than that of Pergolesi’s Serva Padrona. In a very short time this charming piece found its way not only to every theatre in Italy, but to Paris, to London, and to every great city on the Continent. It was even represented by marionettes; and every new fashion was named alia Cecchina. Six years after this Piccini was invited to Paris. He knew nothing of French, but his librettist, Marmontel, assisted him to such good purpose that, after the production of his first French opera, Roland, he was carried home from the theatre in triumph. All his next works were successful; but, unhappily, the directors of the Grand Opéra conceived the mad idea of deliberately opposing him to Gluck, by persuading the two composers to treat the same subject— Iphigénie en Tauride — simultaneously. The Parisian public now divided itself into two rival parties, which, under the names of Gluckists and Piccinists, carried on an unworthy and disgraceful war, equally ruinous to both artists, who would gladly have withdrawn from its violent excesses. That the final victory should be obtained by the Gluckists was inevitable; for Piccini, though a brilliant ornament of the Italian school, was no match for his illustrious antagonist. Gluck’s masterly Iphigénie was first produced on May 18, 1779. Piccini’s Iphigénie followed ...