Provencal language See Occitan language
Provence \pro-'va n s\ Historical, cultural, and governmental region, southeast-coastal France. Provence was part of Roman Gallia Transalpina. m With the breakdown of the Roman Empire in the late 5th century,
Provence was invaded successively by the Visigoths, Burgundians, and Ostrogoths. It came under the rule of the Franks c. 536. During the 13th century it was involved in the Albigensian Crusade. It was united with the French crown in 1481. The language of Provence, Provencal, was impor¬ tant in medieval literature, and Provence’s Romanesque architecture was an outstanding cultural achievement of the Middle Ages. The region suf¬ fered in the 16th-century Wars of Religion. In 1790, during the French Revolution, it lost its political institutions and was divided into several departements. The historical region of Provence is roughly coextensive with the present-day region of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur (pop., 2003 est.: 4,665,051), which has an area of 12,124 sq mi (31,400 sq km); its capital is Marseille.
proverb Succinct and pithy saying that is in general use and expresses commonly held ideas and beliefs. Proverbs are part of every spoken lan¬ guage and folk literature, originating in oral tradition. Often a proverb is found with variations in many different parts of the world. Literate soci¬ eties dating to the ancient Egyptians have collected proverbs. One of the earliest English proverb collections, The Proverbs of Alfred, dates from c. 1150-80. In North America the best-known collection is probably Poor Richard’s, an almanac published 1732-57 by Benjamin Franklin.
Providence City (pop., 2000: 173,618), capital of Rhode Island, U.S. It is located at the head of Narragansett Bay on the Providence River. Founded in 1636 by Roger Williams as a refuge for religious dissenters, it
was partly destroyed in King Philip's War in 1676. It played an important role in the American Revolution and was a major port in trade with the West Indies in the 18th century. Incorporated as a city in 1831, it became the sole capital of the state in 1900. Previously it had shared that honour with Newport since 1854. A seaport and an industrial and commercial centre, it is the focus of a metropolitan area that includes Pawtucket and East Providence. Educational institutions include Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Provincetown Town (pop., 2000: 3,431), eastern Massachusetts, U.S. At the northern tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown was the first landing place of the Pilgrims in 1620, and the Mayflower Compact was drawn up in its harbour. Incorporated as a town in 1727, it was a whaling and fishing port in the 19th century. Bounded by the Cape Cod National Seashore, it is a popular summer resort and noted artists’ colony. The Provincetown Play¬ ers theatre group originated there.
Provincetown Players U.S. theatrical company. It was founded in 1915 by a group of writers and artists in Provincetown, Mass., to encour¬ age new and experimental works. Among their first productions, which were often staged in members’ homes, was the first play by Eugene O'Neill, a founding member whose career was launched by the Players. In 1916 the players moved to New York’s Greenwich Village. There they introduced several more of O’Neill’s plays as well as works by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Susan Glaspell, Paul Green, and dozens of other play¬ wrights. The company disbanded after the stock-market crash of 1929, though the Provincetown Playhouse has continued to serve intermittently as a theatre into the 21st century.
Provisions of Oxford See Provisions of Oxford
Provisors, Statute of (1351) Law passed by the English Parliament during the reign of Edward III. It set up procedures to increase royal con¬ trol over the papal practice of making appointments to church benefices in England, and damaged English relations with the church.
Provo City (pop., 2000: 105,166), north-central Utah, U.S. Situated on the Provo River between Utah Lake and the Wasatch Mountains, it was founded in 1849 by Mormon colonists. Construction of railroads in the 1870s spurred the city’s development as a centre for the mining of silver, lead, copper, and gold. The founding in 1875 of Brigham Young Acad¬ emy (now Brigham Young University) also contributed to Provo’s growth. The city’s industries include steel, canning, electronics, and textiles. Nearby is Timpanogos Cave National Monument.
Proximo Centauri See Alpha Centauri
Prozac First of the class of antidepressant drugs called selective seroto¬ nin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), generic name fluoxetine hydrochloride. Introduced in 1986 as a treatment for clinical depression, Prozac is also used to treat a variety of other psychiatric disorders, including obsessive- compulsive disorder and bulimia nervosa. The drug, taken as a pill, appar¬ ently achieves its therapeutic effect by interfering with the reabsorption of the neurotransmitter serotonin within the brain.
Prudhoe Vpru-do\ Bay Small inlet of the Beaufort Sea, northern Alaska, U.S. It has been the centre of oil-drilling activities since the dis¬ covery in 1968 of vast petroleum deposits on Alaska’s North Slope. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline links the area to Valdez on Prince William Sound.
Prudhomme, Sully See Sully Prudhomme
Prud'hon \prm-'db n \, Pierre-Paul (b. April 4, 1758, Cluny, France—d. Feb. 16, 1823, Paris) French painter. During his years in Rome (1784-88), the works of Correggio inspired him to introduce a softer effect into French painting, then dominated by the austere style of Jacques- Louis David. He made drawings for engravers before he came to the atten¬ tion of Napoleon. His portrait of the empress Josephine (1805) exhibits the seductive and mysterious quality with which he invested his portraits of women. He achieved fame and received the Legion of Honor for his alle¬ gorical Crime Pursued by Divine Vengeance and Justice (1808). His elegant style served as a bridge from late 18th-century Neoclassicism to 19th-century Romanticism.
Prusiner, Stanley (Ben) (b. May 28, 1942, Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.) U.S. neurologist. He earned his M.D. from the University of Pennsylva¬ nia and subsequently taught at UC-San Francisco (1974-84) and UC-Berkeley (from 1984). As a medical resident, he was intrigued by spongiform encephalopathies when a patient died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob dis-
Marcel Proust, oil painting by Jacques- Emile Blanche; in a private collection.
PERMISSION S.P.AD.E.M. 1971 BY FRENCH REPRODUCTION RIGHTS, INC.; PHOTOGRAPH J.E. BULLOZ
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Prussia ► psychoanalysis I 1559
ease; he later studied the related sheep disorder scrapie and in 1982 reported isolation of its causative agent, which he called a prion. Initially criticized, his prion theory was eventually generally accepted, and his research received world attention when mad cow disease emerged in Brit¬ ain. The theory may also shed light on disorders such as Alzheimer disease and parkinsonism, which share traits with prion-based diseases. His work won him a 1997 Nobel Prize.
Prussia German Preussen \'prois- 3 n\ In European history, any of three areas of eastern and central Europe. The first was the land of the Prussians on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea, which came under Polish and German rule in the Middle Ages. The second was the king¬ dom ruled from 1701 by the German Hohenzollern dynasty, including Prussia and Brandenburg, with Berlin as its capital. It seized much of northern Germany and western Poland in the 18th—19th century and united Germany under its leadership in 1871. The third was the state cre¬ ated after the fall of the Hohenzollems in 1918, which included most of their former kingdom and which was abolished by the Allies in 1947 as part of the political reorganization of Germany after its defeat in World War II.