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Pangolin

Pangolins, sometimes known as scaly anteaters, are mammals of the order Pholidota. The one extant family, the Manidae, has three genera: Manis, Phataginus, and Smutsia. Manis comprises four species found in Asia, while Phataginus and Smutsia include two species each, all found in sub-Saharan Africa. These species range in size from 30 to 100 cm. A number of extinct pangolin species are also known. In September 2023, nine species were reported.

Pangolins have large, protective keratin scales, similar in material to fingernails and toenails, covering their skin; they are the only known mammals with this feature. They live in hollow trees or burrows, depending on the species. Pangolins are nocturnal, and their diet consists of mainly ants and termites, which they capture using their long tongues. They tend to be solitary animals, meeting only to mate and produce a litter of one to three offspring, which they raise for about two years. Pangolins superficially resemble armadillos, though the two are not closely related; they have merely undergone convergent evolution.

Pangolins are threatened by poaching (for their meat and scales, which are used in traditional medicine ) and heavy deforestation of their natural habitats, and are the most trafficked mammals in the world. , there are eight species of pangolin whose conservation status is listed in the threatened tier. Three (Manis culionensis, M. pentadactyla and M. javanica) are critically endangered, three (Phataginus tricuspis, Manis crassicaudata and Smutsia gigantea) are endangered and two (Phataginus tetradactyla and Smutsia temminckii) are vulnerable on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Etymology
The name of order Pholidota comes from Ancient Greek ϕολιδωτός – "clad in scales" from φολίς pholís "scale".

The name "pangolin" comes from the Malay word pengguling meaning "one who rolls up" from guling or giling "to roll"; it was used for the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica). However, the modern name is tenggiling. In Javanese it is terenggiling; and in the Philippine languages, it is goling, tanggiling, or balintong (with the same meaning).

In ancient India, according to Aelian, it was known as the phattáges (φαττάγης).

Description

The physical appearance of a pangolin is marked by large, hardened, overlapping, plate-like scales, which are soft on newborn pangolins, but harden as the animal matures. They are made of keratin, the same material from which human fingernails and tetrapod claws are made, and are structurally and compositionally very different from the scales of reptiles. The pangolin's scaled body is comparable in appearance to a pine cone. It can curl up into a ball when threatened, with its overlapping scales acting as armor, while it protects its face by tucking it under its tail. The scales are sharp, providing extra defense from predators.

Pangolins can emit a noxious-smelling chemical from glands near the anus, similar to the spray of a skunk. They have short legs, with sharp claws which they use for burrowing into ant and termite mounds and for climbing.

The tongues of pangolins are extremely long, and like those of the giant anteater and the tube-lipped nectar bat, the root of the tongue is not attached to the hyoid bone, but is in the thorax between the sternum and the trachea. Large pangolins can extend their tongues as much as 40 cm, with a diameter of only about 0.5 cm.

Behaviour

Most pangolins are nocturnal animals which use their well-developed sense of smell to find insects. The long-tailed pangolin is also active by day, while other species of pangolins spend most of the daytime sleeping, curled up into a ball ("volvation").

Arboreal pangolins live in hollow trees, whereas the ground-dwelling species dig tunnels to a depth of 3.5 m.

Some pangolins walk with their front claws bent under the foot pad, although they use the entire foot pad on their rear limbs. Furthermore, some exhibit a bipedal stance for some behaviour, and may walk a few steps bipedally. Pangolins are also good swimmers.

Diet
Pangolins are insectivorous. Most of their diet consists of various species of ants and termites, and may be supplemented by other insects, especially larvae. They are somewhat particular and tend to consume only one or two species of insects, even when many species are available to them. A pangolin can consume 140 to 200 g of insects per day. Pangolins are an important regulator of termite populations in their natural habitats.

Pangolins have very poor vision. They also lack teeth. They rely heavily on smell and hearing, and they have other physical characteristics to help them eat ants and termites. Their skeletal structure is sturdy and they have strong front legs that are used for tearing into termite mounds. They use their powerful front claws to dig into trees, soil, and vegetation to find prey, then proceed to use their long tongues to probe inside the insect tunnels and to retrieve their prey.

The structure of their tongue and stomach is key to aiding pangolins in obtaining and digesting insects. Their saliva is sticky, causing ants and termites to stick to their long tongues when they are hunting through insect tunnels. Without teeth, pangolins also lack the ability to chew; but while foraging, they ingest small stones (gastroliths), which accumulate in their stomachs to help to grind up ants. This part of their stomach is called the gizzard, and it is also covered in keratinous spines. These spines further aid in the grinding up and digestion of the pangolin's prey.

Some species, such as the tree pangolin, use their strong, prehensile tails to hang from tree branches and strip away bark from the trunk, exposing insect nests inside.

Reproduction

Pangolins are solitary and meet only to mate, with mating typically taking place at night after the male and female pangolin meet near a watering hole. Males are larger than females, weighing up to 40% more. While the mating season is not defined, they typically mate once each year, usually during the summer or autumn. Rather than the males seeking out the females, males mark their location with urine or feces and the females find them. If competition over a female occurs, the males use their tails as clubs to fight for the opportunity to mate with her.

Gestation periods differ by species, ranging from roughly 70 to 140 days. African pangolin females usually give birth to a single offspring at a time, but the Asiatic species may give birth to from one to three. Weight at birth is 80 to 450 g, and the average length is 150 mm. At the time of birth, the scales are soft and white. After several days, they harden and darken to resemble those of an adult pangolin. During the vulnerable stage, the mother stays with her offspring in the burrow, nursing it, and wraps her body around it if she senses danger. The young cling to the mother's tail as she moves about, although, in burrowing species, they remain in the burrow for the first 2–4 weeks of life. At one month, they first leave the burrow riding on the mother's back. Weaning takes place around 3 months of age, when the young begin to eat insects in addition to nursing. At 2 years of age, the offspring are sexually mature and are abandoned by the mother.

Taxonomy

 * Order: Pholidota Weber, 1904
 * Genus: †Euromanis Gaudin, Emry & Wible, 2009
 * Family: †Eurotamanduidae Szalay & Schrenk, 1994
 * Suborder: Eupholidota Gaudin, Emry & Wible, 2009
 * Superfamily: Manoidea Gaudin, Emry & Wible, 2009
 * Family: Manidae Gray, 1821
 * Family: †Patriomanidae Szalay & Schrenk 1998 [sensu Gaudin, Emry & Pogue, 2006]
 * Incertae sedis
 * Genus: †Necromanis Filhol, 1893
 * Superfamily: †Eomanoidea Gaudin, Emry & Wible, 2009
 * Family: †Eomanidae Storch, 2003

Among placentals
The order Pholidota was considered to be the sister taxon to Xenarthra (neotropical anteaters, sloths, and armadillos), but recent genetic evidence indicates their closest living relatives are the carnivorans, with which they form a clade, the Ferae. Palaeanodonts are even closer relatives to pangolins, being classified with pangolins in the clade Pholidotamorpha. The split between carnivorans and pangolins is estimated to have occurred 79.47 Ma (million years) ago.

Among Manidae
The first dichotomy in the phylogeny of extant Manidae separates Asian pangolins (Manis) from African pangolins (Smutsia and Phataginus). Within the former, Manis pentadactyla is the sister group to a clade comprising M. crassicaudata and M. javanica. Within the latter, a split separates the large terrestrial African pangolins of the genus Smutsia from the small arboreal African pangolins of the genus Phataginus.

Asian and African pangolins are thought to have diverged about 41.37 Ma ago. Moreover, the basal position of Manis within Pholidota suggests the group originated in Eurasia, consistent with their laurasiatherian phylogeny.

Threats

Pangolins are in high demand in southern China and Vietnam because their scales are believed to have medicinal properties in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine. Their meat is also considered a delicacy. 100,000 are estimated to be trafficked a year to China and Vietnam, amounting to over one million over the past decade. This makes them the most trafficked animal in the world. This, coupled with deforestation, has led to a large decrease in the numbers of pangolins. Some species, such as Manis pentadactyla have become commercially extinct in certain ranges as a result of overhunting. In November 2010, pangolins were added to the Zoological Society of London's list of evolutionarily distinct and endangered mammals. All eight species of pangolin are assessed as threatened by the IUCN, while three are classified as critically endangered. All pangolin species are currently listed under Appendix I of CITES which prohibits international trade, except when the product is intended for non-commercial purposes and a permit has been granted.

China had been the main destination country for pangolins until 2018, where it was surpassed by Vietnam. In 2019, Vietnam was reported to have seized the largest volumes of pangolin scales, surpassing Nigeria that year.

Pangolins are also hunted and eaten in Ghana and are one of the more popular types of bushmeat, while local healers use the pangolin as a source of traditional medicine.

Though pangolins are protected by an international ban on their trade, populations have suffered from illegal trafficking due to beliefs in East Asia that their ground-up scales can stimulate lactation or cure cancer or asthma. In the past decade, numerous seizures of illegally trafficked pangolin and pangolin meat have taken place in Asia. In one such incident in April 2013, 10000 kg of pangolin meat were seized from a Chinese vessel that ran aground in the Philippines. In another case in August 2016, an Indonesian man was arrested after police raided his home and found over 650 pangolins in freezers on his property. The same threat is reported in Nigeria, where the animal is on the verge of extinction due to overexploitation. The overexploitation comes from hunting pangolins for game meat and the reduction of their forest habitats due to deforestation caused by timber harvesting. The pangolin are hunted as game meat for both medicinal purposes and food consumption.

COVID-19 infection
The nucleic acid sequence of a specific receptor-binding domain of the spike protein belonging to coronaviruses taken from pangolins was found to be a 99% match with SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus which causes COVID-19 and is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers in Guangzhou, China, hypothesized that SARS-CoV-2 had originated in bats, and prior to infecting humans, was circulating among pangolins. The illicit Chinese trade of pangolins for use in traditional Chinese medicine was suggested as a vector for human transmission. However, whole-genome comparison found that the pangolin and human coronaviruses share only up to 92% of their RNA. Ecologists worried that the early speculation about pangolins being the source may have led to mass slaughters, endangering them further, which was similar to what happened to Asian palm civets during the SARS outbreak. It was later proved that the testing which suggested that pangolins were a potential host for the virus was flawed, when genetic analysis showed that the spike protein and its binding to receptors in pangolins had minimal effect from the virus, and therefore were not likely mechanisms for COVID-19 infections in humans.

Pestivirus and Coltivirus
In 2020, two novel RNA viruses distantly related to pestiviruses and coltiviruses have been detected in the genomes of dead Manis javanica and Manis pentadactyla. To refer to both sampling site and hosts, they were named Dongyang pangolin virus (DYPV) and Lishui pangolin virus (LSPV). The DYPV pestivirus was also identified in Amblyomma javanense nymph ticks from a diseased pangolin.

Folk medicine
Pangolin scales and flesh are used as ingredients for various traditional Chinese medicine preparations. While no scientific evidence exists for the efficacy of those practices, and they have no logical mechanism of action, their popularity still drives the black market for animal body parts, despite concerns about toxicity, transmission of diseases from animals to humans, and species extermination. The ongoing demand for parts as ingredients continues to fuel pangolin poaching, hunting and trading.

The first record of pangolin scales occurs in Ben Cao Jinji Zhu ("Variorum of Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica", 500 CE), which recommends pangolin scales for protection against ant bites; burning the scales as a cure for people crying hysterically during the night. During the Tang dynasty, a recipe for expelling evil spirits with a formulation of scales, herbs, and minerals appeared in 682, and in 752 CE the idea that pangolin scales could also stimulate milk secretion in lactating women, one of the main uses today, was recommended in the Wai Tai Mi Yao ("Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library"). In the Song dynasty, the notion of penetrating and clearing blockages was emphasized in the Taiping sheng hui fan ("Formulas from Benevolent Sages Compiled During the Era of Peace and Tranquility"), compiled by Wang Huaiyin in 992.

In the 21st century, the main uses of pangolin scales are quackery practices based on unproven claims the scales dissolve blood clots, promote blood circulation, or help lactating women secrete milk. The supposed health effects of pangolin meat and scales claimed by folk medicine practitioners and quacks are based on their consumption of ants, long tongues, and protective scales.

The official pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China included Chinese pangolin scales as an ingredient in TCM formulations. Pangolins were removed from the pharmacopoeia starting from the first half of 2020. Although pangolin scales have been removed from the list of raw ingredients, the scales are still listed as a key ingredient in various medicines.

Pangolin parts are also used for medicinal purposes in other Asian countries such as India, Nepal and Pakistan. In some parts of India and Nepal, locals believe that wearing the scales of a pangolin can help prevent pneumonia. Pangolin scales have also been used for medicinal purposes in Malaysia, Indonesia and northern Myanmar. Indigenous people in southern Palawan, Philippines, have held the belief that elders could avoid prostate illnesses by wearing belts made with the scales.

Conservation

As a result of increasing threats to pangolins, mainly in the form of illegal, international trade in pangolin skin, scales, and meat, these species have received increasing conservation attention in recent years. , the IUCN considered all eight species of pangolin on its Red List of Threatened Species as threatened. The IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group launched a global action plan to conserve pangolins, dubbed "Scaling up Pangolin Conservation", in July 2014. This action plan aims to improve all aspects of pangolin conservation with an added emphasis on combating poaching and trafficking of the animal while educating communities on its importance. Another suggested approach to fighting pangolin (and general wildlife) trafficking consists in "following the money" rather than "the animal", which aims to disrupt smugglers' profits by interrupting money flows. Financial intelligence gathering could thus become a key tool in protecting these animals, although this opportunity is often overlooked. In 2018, a Chinese NGO launched the Counting Pangolins movement, calling for joint efforts to save the mammals from trafficking. Wildlife conservation group TRAFFIC has identified 159 smuggling routes used by pangolin traffickers and aims to shut these down.

Many attempts have been made to breed pangolins in captivity, but due to their reliance on wide-ranging habitats and very particular diets, these attempts are often unsuccessful. Pangolins have significantly decreased immune responses due to a genetic dysfunction, making them extremely fragile. They are susceptible to diseases such as pneumonia and the development of ulcers in captivity, complications that can lead to an early death. In addition, pangolins rescued from illegal trade often have a higher chance of being infected with parasites such as intestinal worms, further lessening their chance for rehabilitation and reintroduction to the wild.

The idea of farming pangolins to reduce the number being illegally trafficked is being explored with little success. The third Saturday in February is promoted as World Pangolin Day by the conservation NPO Annamiticus. World Pangolin Day has been noted for its effectiveness in generating awareness about pangolins.

In 2017, Jackie Chan made a public service announcement called WildAid: Jackie Chan & Pangolins (Kung Fu Pangolin).

In December 2020, a study found that it is "not too late" to establish conservation efforts for Philippine pangolins (Manis culionensis), a species that is only found on the island province of Palawan.

Taiwan
Taiwan is one of the few conservation grounds for pangolins in the world after the country enacted the 1989 Wildlife Conservation Act. The introduction of Wildlife Rehabilitation Centers in places like Luanshan (Yanping Township) in Taitung and Xiulin townships in Hualien became important communities for protecting pangolins and their habitats and has greatly improved the survival of pangolins. These centers work with local aboriginal tribes and forest police in the National Police Agency to prevent poaching, trafficking, and smuggling of pangolins, especially to black markets in China. These centers have also helped to reveal the causes of death and injury among Taiwan's pangolin population. Today, Taiwan has the highest population density of pangolins in the world.

title: Pangolin


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Pierrot

Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte, whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. The name is a diminutive of Pierre (Peter), via the suffix -ot and derives from the Italian Pedrolino. His character in contemporary popular culture—in poetry, fiction, and the visual arts, as well as works for the stage, screen, and concert hall—is that of the sad clown, often pining for love of Columbine, who usually breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Sometimes he appears with a frilled collaret and a hat, usually with a close-fitting crown and wide round brim and, more rarely, with a conical shape like a dunce's cap.

Pierrot's character developed from being a buffoon to an avatar of the disenfranchised. Many cultural movements found him amenable to their respective causes: Decadents turned him into a disillusioned foe of idealism; Symbolists saw him as a lonely fellow-sufferer; Modernists made him into a silent, alienated observer of the mysteries of the human condition. Much of that mythic quality ("I'm Pierrot," said David Bowie: "I'm Everyman") still adheres to the "sad clown" in the postmodern era.

Origins: seventeenth century

Pierrot is sometimes said to be a French variant of the sixteenth-century Italian Pedrolino, but the two types have little but their names ("Little Pete") and social stations in common. Both are comic servants, but Pedrolino, as a so-called "first" Zanni, often acts with cunning and daring, an engine of the plot in the scenarios where he appears. Pierrot, on the other hand, as a "second"' Zanni, stands "on the periphery of the action". He dispenses advice and courts his master's young daughter, Columbine, bashfully.

His origins among the Italian players in France go back to Molière's peasant Pierrot in Don Juan, or The Stone Guest (1665). In 1673, the Comédie-Italienne made its own contribution to the Don Juan legend with an Addendum to "The Stone Guest", which included Molière's Pierrot. Thereafter the character—sometimes a peasant, but more often now an Italianate "second" Zanni—appeared fairly regularly in the Italians' offerings, his role always taken by one Giuseppe Giaratone (or Geratoni, fl. 1639-1697).

Among the French dramatists writing roles for Pierrot were Jean de Palaprat, Claude-Ignace Brugière de Barante, Antoine Houdar de la Motte, and Jean-François Regnard. They present him as an anomaly among busy social personalities around him. Columbine laughs at his advances; his masters who are in pursuit of pretty young wives brush off his warnings to act their age. His isolation bears the pathos of Watteau's portraits.

France
An Italian company was called back to Paris in 1716, and Pierrot was reincarnated by the actors Pierre-François Biancolelli (son of the Harlequin of the banished troupe of players) and, after Biancolelli abandoned the role, the celebrated Fabio Sticotti (1676–1741) and his son Antoine Jean (1715–1772). But the character seems to have been regarded as unimportant by this company, since he appears infrequently in its new plays.

The character appeared often in the eighteenth century on Parisian stages. Sometimes he spoke gibberish, sometimes the audience itself sang his lines, inscribed on placards held aloft. He could appear as a valet, a cook, or an adventurer; his character is not strictly defined."

In the 1720s, Pierrot came into his own. In plays like Trophonius's Cave (1722) and The Golden Ass (1725), one meets an engaging Pierrot. The accomplished comic actor Jean-Baptiste Hamoche portrayed him with success. After 1733, he rarely appears in new plays.

Pierrot also appeared in the visual arts and in folksongs ("Au clair de la lune"). The art of Claude Gillot (Master André's Tomb [c. 1717]), of Gillot's students Watteau (Italian Actors [c. 1719]) and Nicolas Lancret (Italian Actors near a Fountain [c. 1719]), of Jean-Baptiste Oudry (Italian Actors in a Park [c. 1725]), of Philippe Mercier (Pierrot and Harlequin [n.d.]), and of Jean-Honoré Fragonard (A Boy as Pierrot [1776–1780]) features him prominently.

England
As early as 1673, just months after Pierrot had made his debut in the Addendum to "The Stone Guest", Scaramouche Tiberio Fiorilli and a troupe assembled from the Comédie-Italienne entertained Londoners with selections from their Parisian repertoire. And in 1717, Pierrot's name first appears in an English entertainment: a pantomime by John Rich entitled The Jealous Doctor; or, The Intriguing Dame. Thereafter, until the end of the century, Pierrot appeared fairly regularly in English pantomimes (which were originally mute harlequinades; in the nineteenth century, the harlequinade was a "play within a play" during the pantomime), finding his most notable interpreter in Carlo Delpini (1740–1828). Delpini, according to the popular-theater historian, M. Willson Disher, "kept strictly to the idea of a creature so stupid as to think that if he raised his leg level with his shoulder he could use it as a gun." Pierrot was later displaced by the English clown.

Denmark
In 1800, a troupe of Italian players led by Pasquale Casorti performed in Dyrehavsbakken. Casorti's son, Giuseppe (1749–1826), began appearing as Pierrot in pantomimes, which now had a formulaic plot structure. Pierrot is still a fixture at Bakken, at nearby Tivoli Gardens and Tivoli Friheden in Aarhus.

Germany
Ludwig Tieck's The Topsy-Turvy World (1798) is an early—and highly successful—example of the introduction of the commedia dell'arte characters into parodic metatheater. (Pierrot is a member of the audience watching the play.)

Spain
The penetration of Pierrot and his companions of the commedia into Spain is documented in a painting by Goya, Itinerant Actors (1793). It foreshadows the work of such Spanish successors as Picasso and Fernand Pelez, both of whom also showed strong sympathy with the lives of traveling saltimbancos.

Pantomime of Deburau at the Théâtre des Funambules
The Théâtre des Funambules was a little theater licensed in its early years to present only mimed and acrobatic acts. It was the home, beginning in 1816, of Jean-Gaspard Deburau (1796–1846), the most famous Pierrot ever. He was immortalized by Jean-Louis Barrault in Marcel Carné's film Children of Paradise (1945).

Deburau, from the year 1825, was the only actor at the Funambules to play Pierrot, and he did so in several types of pantomime: rustic, melodramatic, "realistic", and fantastic. His style, according to Louis Péricaud, formed "an enormous contrast with the exuberance, the superabundance of gestures, of leaps, that ... his predecessors had employed." He altered the costume: he dispensed with the frilled collaret, substituted a skullcap for a hat, and greatly increased the wide cut of both blouse and trousers. Deburau's Pierrot avoided the crude Pierrots—timid, sexless, lazy, and greedy— found in earlier pantomime.

The Funambules Pierrot appealed to audiences in the faery-tale style which incorporoate the commedia types. The plot often hinged on Cassander's pursuit of Harlequin and Columbine, having to deal with a clever and ambiguous Pierrot. Deburau early—about 1828—caught the attention of the Romantics. In 1842, Théophile Gautier published a fake review of a "Shakespeare" pantomime he claimed to have seen at the Funambules. It placed Pierrot in the company of over-reachers in high literature like Don Juan or Macbeth.

Pantomime after Baptiste: Charles Deburau, Paul Legrand, and their successors
Deburau's son, Jean-Charles (or, as he preferred, "Charles" [1829–1873]), assumed Pierrot's blouse the year after his father died. Another important Pierrot of mid-century was Charles-Dominique-Martin Legrand, known as Paul Legrand (1816–1898; see photo at top of page). He began appearing at the Funambules as Pierrot in 1845. Legrand left the Funambules in 1853 for the Folies-Nouvelles, which attracted the fashionable set, unlike the Funambules' working-class audiences. Legrand often appeared in realistic costume, his chalky face his only concession to tradition, leading some advocates of pantomime, like Gautier, to lament that he was betraying the character of the type. Legrand's Pierrot influenced future mimes.

France
In the 1880s and 1890s, the pantomime reached a kind of apogee, and Pierrot became ubiquitous. Moreover, he acquired a female counterpart, Pierrette, who rivaled Columbine for his affections. A Cercle Funambulesque was founded in 1888, and Pierrot (sometimes played by female mimes, such as Félicia Mallet) dominated its productions until its demise in 1898. Sarah Bernhardt even donned Pierrot's blouse for Jean Richepin's Pierrot the Murderer (1883).
 * Popular and literary pantomime

But French mimes and actors were not the only figures responsible for Pierrot's ubiquity: the English Hanlon brothers (sometimes called the Hanlon-Lees), gymnasts and acrobats who had been schooled in the 1860s in pantomimes from Baptiste's repertoire, traveled (and dazzled) the world well into the twentieth century with their pantomimic sketches and extravaganzas featuring riotously nightmarish Pierrots. The Naturalists—Émile Zola especially, who wrote glowingly of them—were captivated by their art. Edmond de Goncourt modeled his acrobat-mimes in his The Zemganno Brothers (1879) upon them; J.-K. Huysmans (whose Against Nature [1884] would become Dorian Gray's bible) and his friend Léon Hennique wrote their pantomime Pierrot the Skeptic (1881) after seeing them perform at the Folies Bergère. (And, in turn, Jules Laforgue wrote his pantomime Pierrot the Cut-Up [Pierrot fumiste, 1882] after reading the scenario by Huysmans and Hennique.) It was in part through the enthusiasm that they excited, coupled with the Impressionists' taste for popular entertainment, like the circus and the music-hall, as well as the new bohemianism that then reigned in artistic quarters like Montmartre (and which was celebrated by such denizens as Adolphe Willette, whose cartoons and canvases are crowded with Pierrots)—it was through all this that Pierrot achieved almost unprecedented currency and visibility towards the end of the century. He invaded the visual arts —not only in the work of Willette, but also in the illustrations and posters of Jules Chéret; in the engravings of Odilon Redon (The Swamp Flower: A Sad Human Head [1885]); and in the canvases of Georges Seurat (Pierrot with a White Pipe [Aman-Jean] [1883]; The Painter Aman-Jean as Pierrot [1883]), Léon Comerre (Pierrot [1884], Pierrot Playing the Mandolin [1884]), Henri Rousseau (A Carnival Night [1886]), Paul Cézanne (Mardi gras [Pierrot and Harlequin] [1888]), Fernand Pelez (Grimaces and Miseries a.k.a. The Saltimbanques [1888]), Pablo Picasso (Pierrot and Columbine [1900]), Guillaume Seignac (Pierrot's Embrace [1900]),  Théophile Steinlen (Pierrot and the Cat [1889]), and Édouard Vuillard (The Black Pierrot [c. 1890]). The mime "Tombre" of Jean Richepin's novel Nice People (Braves Gens [1886]) turned him into a pathetic and alcoholic "phantom"; Paul Verlaine imagined him as a gormandizing naïf in "Pantomime" (1869), then, like Tombre, as a lightning-lit specter in "Pierrot" (1868, pub. 1882). Laforgue put three of the "complaints" of his first published volume of poems (1885) into "Lord" Pierrot's mouth—and dedicated his next book, The Imitation of Our Lady the Moon (1886), completely to Pierrot and his world. (Pierrots were legion among the minor, now-forgotten poets: for samples, see Willette's journal The Pierrot, which appeared between 1888 and 1889, then again in 1891.) In the realm of song, Claude Debussy set both Verlaine's "Pantomime" and Banville's "Pierrot" (1842) to music in 1881 (not published until 1926)—the only precedents among works by major composers being the "Pierrot" section of Telemann's Burlesque Overture (1717–22), Mozart's 1783 "Masquerade" (in which Mozart himself took the role of Harlequin and his brother-in-law, Joseph Lange, that of Pierrot), and the "Pierrot" section of Robert Schumann's Carnival (1835). Even the embryonic art of the motion picture turned to Pierrot before the century was out: he appeared, not only in early celluloid shorts (Georges Méliès's The Nightmare [1896], The Magician [1898]; Alice Guy's Arrival of Pierrette and Pierrot [1900], Pierrette's Amorous Adventures [1900]; Ambroise-François Parnaland's Pierrot's Big Head/Pierrot's Tongue [1900], Pierrot-Drinker [1900]), but also in Emile Reynaud's Praxinoscope production of Poor Pierrot (1892), the first animated movie and the first hand-colored one.
 * Visual arts, fiction, poetry, music, and film

Belgium
In Belgium, Félicien Rops depicted a grinning Pierrot who witnesses an unromantic backstage scene (Blowing Cupid's Nose [1881]). James Ensor painted Pierrots obsessively, in various poses from prostrate to bowing his head in despondency, sometimes even with a smiling skeleton. The Belgian poet and dramatist Albert Giraud also identified with the Zanni: the fifty rondels of his Pierrot lunaire (Moonstruck Pierrot, 1884) inspired generations of composers (see Pierrot lunaire below), and his verse-play Pierrot-Narcissus (1887) offered a definitive portrait of the poet-dreamer. The choreographer Joseph Hansen staged the ballet Macabre Pierrot in 1884 in collaboration with the poet Théo Hannon.

England
Pierrot figured prominently in the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley, and various writers referenced him in their poetry. Ethel Wright painted Bonjour, Pierrot! (a greeting to a dour clown sitting disconsolate with his dog) in 1893. The Pierrot of popular taste also spawned a uniquely English entertainment. In 1891, the singer and banjoist Clifford Essex, resolved to create a troupe of English Pierrot entertainers, and called them the seaside Pierrots who, as late as the 1950s, performed on the piers of Brighton, Margate, and Blackpool. They inspired the Will Morris Pierrots, named after their Birmingham founder. They originated in the Smethwick area in the late 1890s and played to large audiences in the Midlands. Walter Westley Russell committed these performers to canvas in The Pierrots (c. 1900).

Pierrot's mask claimed the attention of the great theater innovator Edward Gordon Craig. Craig's involvement with the figure grew with time. In 1897, Craig, dressed as Pierrot, gave a quasi-impromptu stage-reading of Hans Christian Andersen's story "What the Moon Saw" as part of a benefit performance for theater artists in need.

Austria and Germany
Although he lamented that "the Pierrot figure was inherently alien to the German-speaking world", the playwright Franz Blei introduced him enthusiastically into his playlet The Kissy-Face: A Columbiade (1895), and his fellow-Austrians Richard Specht and Richard Beer-Hofmann made an effort to naturalize Pierrot—in their plays Pierrot-Hunchback (1896) and Pierrot-Hypnotist (1892, first pub. 1984), respectively—by linking his fortunes with those of Goethe's Faust. Still others among their countrymen simply sidestepped the issue of naturalization: Hermann Bahr took his inspiration for his Pantomime of the Good Man (1893) directly from his encounter with the exclusively French Cercle Funambulesque; Rudolf Holzer set the action of his Puppet Loyalty (1899), unapologetically, in a fabulous Paris; and Karl Michael von Levetzow settled his Two Pierrots (1900) in the birthplace of Pierrot's comedy, Italy.

In Germany, Frank Wedekind introduced the femme-fatale of his first "Lulu" play, Earth Spirit (1895), in a Pierrot costume. In a similar spirit, the painter Paul Hoecker put cheeky young men into Pierrot costumes to ape their complacent burgher elders in Pierrots with Pipes (c. 1900) and swilling champagne in Waiting Woman (c. 1895).

Italy
Canio's Pagliaccio in the famous opera (1892) by Leoncavallo is close enough to a Pierrot to deserve a mention here. Much less well-known is the work of two other composers—Mario Pasquale Costa and Vittorio Monti. Costa's pantomime L'Histoire d'un Pierrot (Story of a Pierrot), which debuted in Paris in 1893, was so admired in its day that it eventually reached audiences on several continents, was paired with Cavalleria Rusticana by New York's Metropolitan Opera Company in 1909, and was premiered as a film by Baldassarre Negroni in 1914. Its libretto, like that of Monti's "mimodrama" Noël de Pierrot a.k.a. A Clown's Christmas (1900), was written by Fernand Beissier, one of the founders of the Cercle Funambulesque. (Monti would go on to acquire his own fame by celebrating another spiritual outsider much akin to Pierrot—the Gypsy. His Csárdás [c. 1904], like Pagliacci, has found a secure place in the standard musical repertoire.)

The portrait and genre painter Vittorio Matteo Corcos produced Portrait of Boy in Pierrot Costume in 1897.

Spain
In 1895, the playwright and future Nobel laureate Jacinto Benavente wrote rapturously in his journal of a performance of the Hanlon-Lees, and three years later he published his only pantomime: The Whiteness of Pierrot. A true fin-de-siècle mask, Pierrot paints his face black to commit robbery and murder; then, after restoring his pallor, he hides himself, terrified of his own undoing, in a snowbank—forever. Thus does he forfeit his union with Columbine (the intended beneficiary of his crimes) for a frosty marriage with the moon.

North America
Pierrot and his fellow masks were late in coming to the United States, which, unlike England, Russia, and the countries of continental Europe, had had no early exposure to commedia dell'arte. The Hanlon-Lees made their first U.S. appearance in 1858, and their subsequent tours, well into the twentieth century, of scores of cities throughout the country accustomed their audiences to their fantastic, acrobatic Pierrots. But the Pierrot that would leave the deepest imprint upon the American imagination was that of the French and English Decadents, a creature who quickly found his home in the so-called little magazines of the 1890s (as well as in the poster-art that they spawned). One of the earliest and most influential of these in America, The Chap-Book (1894–98), which featured a story about Pierrot by the aesthete Percival Pollard in its second number, was soon host to Beardsley-inspired Pierrots drawn by E.B. Bird and Frank Hazenplug. (The Canadian poet Bliss Carman should also be mentioned for his contribution to Pierrot's dissemination in mass-market publications like Harper's.) Like most things associated with the Decadence, such exotica discombobulated the mainstream American public, which regarded the little magazines in general as "freak periodicals" and declared, through one of its mouthpieces, Munsey's Magazine, that "each new representative of the species is, if possible, more preposterous than the last." And yet the Pierrot of that species was gaining a foothold elsewhere. The composers Amy Beach and Arthur Foote devoted a section to Pierrot (as well as to Pierrette, his Decadent counterpart) in two ludic pieces for piano—Beach's Children's Carnival (1894) and Foote's Five Bagatelles (1893).

The fin-de-siècle world in which this Pierrot resided was clearly at odds with the reigning American Realist and Naturalist aesthetic (though such figures as Ambrose Bierce and John LaFarge were mounting serious challenges to it). It is in fact jarring to find the champion of American prose Realism, William Dean Howells, introducing Pastels in Prose (1890), a volume of French prose-poems containing a Paul Margueritte pantomime, The Death of Pierrot, with words of warm praise (and even congratulations to each poet for failing "to saddle his reader with a moral"). So uncustomary was the French Aesthetic viewpoint that, when Pierrot made an appearance in Pierrot the Painter (1893), a pantomime by Alfred Thompson, set to music by the American composer Laura Sedgwick Collins, The New York Times covered it as an event, even though it was only a student production. It was found to be "pleasing" because, in part, it was "odd". Not until the first decade of the next century, when the great (and popular) fantasist Maxfield Parrish worked his magic on the figure, would Pierrot be comfortably naturalized in America.

Of course, writers from the United States living abroad—especially in Paris or London—were aberrantly susceptible to the charms of the Decadence. Such a figure was Stuart Merrill, who consorted with the French Symbolists and who compiled and translated the pieces in Pastels in Prose. Another was William Theodore Peters, an acquaintance of Ernest Dowson and other members of the Rhymers' Club and a driving force behind the conception and theatrical realization of Dowson's Pierrot of the Minute (1897; see England above). Of the three books that Peters published before his death (of starvation) at the age of forty-two, his Posies out of Rings: And Other Conceits (1896) is most notable here: in it, four poems and an "Epilogue" for the aforementioned Dowson play are devoted to Pierrot. (From the mouth of Pierrot loquitur: "Although this pantomime of life is passing fine,/Who would be happy must not marry Columbine".)

Another pocket of North-American sympathy with the Decadence—one manifestation of what the Latin world called modernismo—could be found in the progressive literary scene of Mexico, its parent country, Spain, having been long conversant with the commedia dell'arte. In 1897, Bernardo Couto Castillo, another Decadent who, at the age of twenty-two, died even more tragically young than Peters, embarked on a series of Pierrot-themed short stories—"Pierrot Enamored of Glory" (1897), "Pierrot and His Cats" (1898), "The Nuptials of Pierrot" (1899), "Pierrot's Gesture" (1899), "The Caprices of Pierrot" (1900)—culminating, after the turn of the century (and in the year of Couto's death), with "Pierrot-Gravedigger" (1901). For the Spanish-speaking world, according to scholar Emilio Peral Vega, Couto "expresses that first manifestation of Pierrot as an alter ego in a game of symbolic otherness ..."

Central and South America
Inspired by the French Symbolists, especially Verlaine, Rubén Darío, the Nicaraguan poet widely acknowledged as the founder of Spanish-American literary Modernism (modernismo), placed Pierrot ("sad poet and dreamer") in opposition to Columbine ("fatal woman", the arch-materialistic "lover of rich silk garments, golden jewelry, pearls and diamonds") in his 1898 prose-poem The Eternal Adventure of Pierrot and Columbine.

Russia
In the last year of the century, Pierrot appeared in a Russian ballet, Harlequin's Millions a.k.a. Harlequinade (1900), its libretto and choreography by Marius Petipa, its music by Riccardo Drigo, its dancers the members of St. Petersburg's Imperial Ballet. It would set the stage for the later and greater triumphs of Pierrot in the productions of the Ballets Russes.

Nineteenth-century legacy
The Pierrot bequeathed to the twentieth century had acquired a rich and wide range of personae. He was the naïve butt of practical jokes and amorous scheming (Gautier); the prankish but innocent waif (Banville, Verlaine, Willette); the narcissistic dreamer clutching at the moon, which could symbolize many things, from spiritual perfection to death (Giraud, Laforgue, Willette, Dowson); the frail, neurasthenic, often doom-ridden soul (Richepin, Beardsley); the clumsy, though ardent, lover, who wins Columbine's heart, or murders her in frustration (Margueritte); the cynical and misogynistic dandy, sometimes dressed in black (Huysmans/Hennique, Laforgue); the Christ-like victim of the martyrdom that is Art (Giraud, Willette, Ensor); the androgynous and unholy creature of corruption (Richepin, Wedekind); the madcap master of chaos (the Hanlon-Lees); the purveyor of hearty and wholesome fun (the English pier Pierrots)—and various combinations of these. Like the earlier masks of commedia dell'arte, Pierrot now knew no national boundaries. Thanks to the international gregariousness of Modernism, he would soon be found everywhere.

Pierrot and modernism
Pierrot played a seminal role in the emergence of Modernism in the arts. He was a key figure in every art-form except architecture.

With respect to poetry, T. S. Eliot's "breakthrough work", "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915), owed its existence to the poems of Jules Laforgue, whose "ton 'pierrot'" informed all of Eliot's early poetry. (Laforgue, he said, "was the first to teach me how to speak, to teach me the poetic possibilities of my own idiom of speech.") Prufrock is a Pierrot transplanted to America. Another prominent Modernist, Wallace Stevens, was undisguised in his identification with Pierrot in his earliest poems and letters—an identification that he later complicated and refined through such avatars as Bowl (in Bowl, Cat and Broomstick [1917]), Carlos (in Carlos Among the Candles [1917]), and, most importantly, Crispin (in "The Comedian as the Letter C" [1923]).

As for fiction, William Faulkner began his career as a chronicler of Pierrot's amorous disappointments and existential anguish in such little-known works as his play The Marionettes (1920) and the verses of his Vision in Spring (1921), works that were an early and revealing declaration of the novelist's "fragmented state". (Some critics have argued that Pierrot stands behind the semi-autobiographical Nick Adams of Faulkner's fellow-Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway, and another contends that James Joyce's Stephen Dedalus, again an avatar of his own creator, also shares the same parentage.)

In music, historians of Modernism generally place Arnold Schoenberg's 1912 song-cycle Pierrot lunaire at the very pinnacle of High-Modernist achievement. And in ballet, Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka (1911), in which the traditionally Pulcinella-like clown wears the heart of Pierrot, is often argued to have attained the same stature.

Students of Modernist painting and sculpture are familiar with Pierrot (in many different attitudes, from the ineffably sad to the ebulliently impudent) through the masterworks of his acolytes, including Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Georges Rouault, Salvador Dalí, Max Beckmann, August Macke, Paul Klee, Jacques Lipchitz—the list is very long (see Visual arts below).

As for the drama, Pierrot was a regular fixture in the plays of the Little Theatre Movement (Edna St. Vincent Millay's Aria da Capo [1920], Robert Emmons Rogers' Behind a Watteau Picture [1918], Blanche Jennings Thompson's The Dream Maker [1922]), which nourished the careers of such important Modernists as Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, and others.

In film, a beloved early comic hero was the Little Tramp of Charlie Chaplin, who conceived the character, in Chaplin's words, as "a sort of Pierrot".

As the diverse incarnations of the nineteenth-century Pierrot would predict, the hallmarks of the Modernist Pierrot are his ambiguity and complexity.

One of his earliest appearances was in Alexander Blok's The Puppet Show (1906), called by one theater-historian "the greatest example of the harlequinade in Russia". Vsevolod Meyerhold, who both directed the first production and took on the role, dramatically emphasized the multifacetedness of the character: according to one spectator, Meyerhold's Pierrot was "nothing like those familiar, falsely sugary, whining Pierrots. Everything about him is sharply angular; in a hushed voice he whispers strange words of sadness; somehow he contrives to be caustic, heart-rending, gentle: all these things yet at the same time impudent."

Pierrot lunaire
The fifty poems that were published by Albert Giraud (born Emile Albert Kayenbergh) as Pierrot lunaire: Rondels bergamasques in 1884 were set to music several times. The best known version is by Arnold Schoenberg, i.e., his Opus 21: Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds Pierrot lunaire (Thrice-Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's Pierrot lunaire—Schoenberg was numerologically superstitious). This led, among other things, to ensemble groups' appropriating Pierrot's name, such as the English Pierrot Players (1967–70). The Pierrot behind those cycles has invaded worlds well beyond those of composers, singers, and ensemble-performers. Theatrical groups such as the Opera Quotannis have brought Pierrot's Passion to the dramatic stage; dancers such as Glen Tetley have choreographed it; poets such as Wayne Koestenbaum have derived original inspiration from it. It has been translated into still more distant media by painters, such as Paul Klee; fiction-writers, such as Helen Stevenson; filmmakers, such as Bruce LaBruce; and graphic-novelists, such as Antoine Dodé. A passionately sinister Pierrot Lunaire has even shadowed DC Comics' Batman. Pierrot is aptly honored in the title of a song by the British rock-group The Soft Machine: "Thank You Pierrot Lunaire" (1969).

Carnivals
Pierrot appears among the revelers at various international carnivals. His name suggests kinship with the Pierrot Grenade of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, being a satire on the richer and more respectable Pierrot. Pierrot Grenade was a finely dressed masquerader and deeply supreme scholar/ jester proud of his ability to spell any word in his own fashion and quoting Shakespearean characters as Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony and Othello at length.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Pierrot


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James White (author)

James White (7 April 1928 – 23 August 1999) was a Northern Irish author of science fiction novellas, short stories and novels. He was born in Belfast and returned there after spending some early years in Canada. After a few years working in the clothing industry, he worked at Short Brothers Ltd., an aircraft company based in Belfast, from 1965 until taking early retirement in 1984 as a result of diabetes. White married Margaret Sarah Martin, another science fiction fan, in 1955 and the couple had three children. He died of a stroke.

He became a fan of science fiction in 1941 and co-wrote two fan magazines, from 1948 to 1953 and 1952 to 1965. Encouraged by other fans, White began publishing short stories in 1953, and his first novel was published in 1957. His best-known novels were the twelve of the Sector General series, the first published in 1962 and the last after his death. White also published nine other novels, two of which were nominated for major awards, unsuccessfully.

White abhorred violence, and medical and other emergencies were the sources of dramatic tension in his stories. The "Sector General" series is regarded as defining the genre of medical science fiction, and as introducing a memorable crew of aliens. Although missing winning the most prestigious honours four times, White gained other awards for specific works and for contributions to science fiction. He was also Guest-of-Honour of several conventions.

Biography
James White was born to a Catholic family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 7 April 1928, and spent part of his early life in Canada. He was educated in Belfast at St. John's Primary School (1935–1941) and St. Joseph's Technical Secondary School (1942–1943). As a teenager he lived with foster parents. He wanted to study medicine but financial circumstances prevented this. Between 1943 and 1965 he worked for several Belfast tailoring firms and then as assistant manager of a Co-op department store. He married Margaret ("Peggy") Sarah Martin, another science fiction fan, in 1955 and the couple had three children: daughter Patricia, and sons Martin and Peter. White later worked for the aeroplane builders Short Brothers Ltd. as a technical clerk (1965–1966), publicity assistant (1966–1968), and publicity officer (1968–1984).

He became a science fiction fan in 1941, attracted particularly by the works of E. E. "Doc" Smith, which featured good aliens as well as evil ones, and of Robert A. Heinlein, many of whose stories concern ordinary people. In 1947 he met another Irish fan, Walter A. ("Walt") Willis, and the two helped to produce the fan magazines Slant (1948–1953) and Hyphen (1952–1965), which featured stories and articles by noted authors including John Brunner, A. Bertram Chandler, and Bob Shaw. In 2004 both White and Willis were nominated for the retrospective Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer of 1953, although neither won. White said that he started writing stories because the Slant team felt that Astounding Science Fiction was too dominated by prophesies of nuclear doom, and his friends dared him to write the kind of story that they all liked to read. He said that getting published was fairly easy during the 1950s, as the World War II restrictions on paper were ended, and there were at least 12 science magazines in Britain and about 40 in the United States. His first published short story, "Assisted Passage", a parody of 1950s Anglo-Australian emigration policies, appeared in the January 1953 edition of the magazine New Worlds. Further stories appeared in New Worlds during the next few years, but White's attempt to access the more lucrative American market by submitting stories to Astounding Science Fiction stalled after the publication of "The Scavengers". White later said that his optimism about inter-species relations was unpalatable to Astounding's xenophobic editor, John W. Campbell. As a result, White's work was little-known outside the UK until the 1960s.

In 1957, Ace Books published White's first novel, The Secret Visitors, which included locations in Northern Ireland. The book had previously been serialised in New Worlds with the title Tourist Planet. Ace Books' science fiction editor, Donald A. Wollheim, thought the original ending was too tame and suggested that White should insert an all-out space battle just after the climactic courtroom scene. In November the same year New Worlds published White's novelette Sector General, and editor John ("Ted") Carnell requested more stories set in the same universe, founding the series for which White is known best. White gained "a steady following" for his "scientifically accurate" stories, which were examples of hard science fiction in New Worlds, despite the magazine's promotion of literary "New Wave" science fiction during the 1960s.

White kept his job with Short Brothers and wrote in the evenings, as his stories did not make enough money for him to become a full-time author. In 1980 he taught a literature course at a Belfast branch of the Workers Educational Association. When diabetes had severely impaired his eyesight, he took early retirement in 1984 and relocated to the north Antrim resort town of Portstewart, where he continued to write. For many years he was a Council Member of the British Science Fiction Association and, with Harry Harrison and Anne McCaffrey, a Patron of the Irish Science Fiction Association. White was also a strong pacifist. He died of a stroke on 23 August 1999, while his novels Double Contact and The First Protector were being prepared for publication. His wife Peggy, son Martin, and daughter Patricia survived him.

Sector General
The Sector General series consists of 12 books published originally between 1962 (Hospital Station) and 1999 (Double Contact). Additional short stories set in the Sector General Universe ('"Countercharm", "Tableau", "Occupation: Warrior", and "Custom Fitting") appear in other collections by White.

Sector General is a gigantic multi-species hospital space station founded as a peace-making project by two heroes from opposite sides of humanity's only full interstellar war. The hospital accommodates patients and staff from dozens of species, with different environmental requirements, behaviours and ailments. Initially most of the stories concern the career of Doctor Conway, who rises from junior surgeon to Diagnostician. In the fourth book the Galactic Federation decides that the emergency service which the hospital offers to victims of space accidents and planetary catastrophes is the most effective means of making peaceful contact with new spacefaring species, which allows the series to expand its range of plots, characters and settings. The seventh and later books each have a different and usually alien viewpoint character, which gave them "considerable new pep". They also expand the range of issues beyond purely medical, and in Mike Resnick's opinion treat issues such as guilt and forgiveness better than most science fiction.

The series defined the subgenre of multi-species medical stories, and was "the first explicitly pacifist space opera" series, when much of contemporary space opera from the United States was notably military.

Other novels
Second Ending (1961), which White described as "about the last man on Earth" but with "an upbeat ending", was short-listed for a Hugo Award.

The Escape Orbit (1964; titled Open Prison in the UK), which was short-listed for a Nebula Award, chronicles the efforts of human prisoners of war to survive after being dumped on a hostile planet without tools or weapons.

All Judgement Fled (1968), which won the 1972 Europa Award, was described by Mike Resnick as his favourite among White's novels and as "Rendezvous with Rama done right."

White's other novels not part of the Sector General series are:
 * The Secret Visitors (1957)
 * The Watch Below (1966)
 * Tomorrow is Too Far (1971)
 * Dark Inferno (1972) (alternate title: Lifeboat)
 * The Dream Millennium (1974)
 * Underkill (1979)
 * Federation World (1988)
 * The Silent Stars Go By (1991)
 * Earth:Final Conflict:First Protector (1999)

Collections and short stories
The title story of White's collection Deadly Litter (1964) anticipated the dangers of space debris although there had been only a few orbital missions. The White Papers was produced by NESFA (New England Science Fiction Association) to commemorate White's being the Guest-of-Honour at the 1996 Worldcon, and includes short stories and fan magazine articles by White, plus sections of Gary Louie's guide to the Sector General series. Among the stories, "Custom Fitting" (1976) was short-listed for a Hugo Award, and "Sanctuary" (1988) won an Analog Analytical Laboratory Award. His short story "Un-Birthday Boy", published in the magazine Analog in 1996 but not in a collection or anthology, was short-listed for a Hugo Award.

Other collections include:
 * The Aliens Among Us (1969)
 * Monsters and Medics (1977; published by Ballantine Books; includes the novel Second Ending)
 * Futures Past (1982) (includes the Sector General story "Spacebird")

Critical appraisal
Paul Kincaid described White as a second-rank writer who occasionally produced first-rank works, and attracted a devoted but not wide audience. Kincaid noted that his plots were often formulaic and his writing employed a predictable set of techniques and mannerisms, along with a "studied quietness." On the other hand, John Clute wrote that "in the depiction of goodness may lie the real genius of James White," Mike Resnick described the Sector General series' characters as "the most memorable crew of aliens ever created," and Graham Andrews wrote that White's aliens are really alien, not just human minds with exotic biologies. Michael Ashley commented that the setting of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is reminiscent of Sector General, and Mark R. Leeper noted similarities between Sector General's setting and that of television's Babylon 5. Chris Aylott wrote that White's plot construction and writing, including occasionally clumsy exposition, are typical of the Golden Age of science fiction in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.

Algis Budrys concluded his review of The Watch Below with "... this is very nice writing when considered simply as prose and as an attempt to involve the reader's emotions." However, when reviewing All Judgment Fled he wrote, "I suspect that he generates so much tension within himself while writing a book that he literally cannot bear to come to grips with crucial scenes."

White said of his approach to producing stories, "Of course, the plot idea must come first – but the characters soon take over," and compared it to using a compass rather than a map. He explained that he was drawn to medical themes by two factors: they offered opportunities for dramatic tension without war; and he had wanted to become a doctor, but had to go to work instead. His avoidance of violent themes is as strong in his non-medical stories as in the Sector General series.

None of White's works won Hugo or Nebula Awards, although four were short-listed. However, he won a Europa Prize in 1979, an Analog Analytical Laboratory Award in 1988 and a Science Fiction Chronicle Reader Award in 1996. In 1998, White received the NESFA (New England Science Fiction Association) Edward E. Smith Memorial Award ("Skylark Award") for contributions to science fiction, named after a story by one of his inspirations, E. E. "Doc" Smith, and appreciated this so much that he donated his complete collection of Slant magazines to NESFA. The next year he was inducted into the European Science Fiction Society's Hall of Fame. White was Guest-of-Honour at many conventions including: the 1971 and 1985 Novacons in the United Kingdom; three Beneluxcons (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg); the 1998 Octocon (Ireland); a Nicon (Northern Ireland); and the 1996 Worldcon.

Since 2000 the James White Award has been presented for the best short story by a non-professional writer. The judges are professional authors and editors, and have included Mike Resnick, Orson Scott Card, Lois McMaster Bujold, Peter F. Hamilton, Christopher Priest and Robert Sheckley.

title: James White (author)


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Nash embedding theorems

The Nash embedding theorems (or imbedding theorems), named after John Forbes Nash Jr., state that every Riemannian manifold can be isometrically embedded into some Euclidean space. Isometric means preserving the length of every path. For instance, bending but neither stretching nor tearing a page of paper gives an isometric embedding of the page into Euclidean space because curves drawn on the page retain the same arclength however the page is bent.

The first theorem is for continuously differentiable (C1) embeddings and the second for embeddings that are analytic or smooth of class Ck, 3 ≤ k ≤ ∞. These two theorems are very different from each other. The first theorem has a very simple proof but leads to some counterintuitive conclusions, while the second theorem has a technical and counterintuitive proof but leads to a less surprising result.

The C1 theorem was published in 1954, the Ck-theorem in 1956. The real analytic theorem was first treated by Nash in 1966; his argument was simplified considerably by. (A local version of this result was proved by Élie Cartan and Maurice Janet in the 1920s.) In the real analytic case, the smoothing operators (see below) in the Nash inverse function argument can be replaced by Cauchy estimates. Nash's proof of the Ck- case was later extrapolated into the h-principle and Nash–Moser implicit function theorem. A simpler proof of the second Nash embedding theorem was obtained by who reduced the set of nonlinear partial differential equations to an elliptic system, to which the contraction mapping theorem could be applied.

Nash–Kuiper theorem ($C^{1}$ embedding theorem)
Given an $m$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $(M, g)$, an isometric embedding is a continuously differentiable topological embedding $f: M → ℝ^{n}$ such that the pullback of the Euclidean metric equals $g$. In analytical terms, this may be viewed (relative to a smooth coordinate chart $x$) as a system of $1⁄2m(m + 1)$ many first-order partial differential equations for $n$ unknown (real-valued) functions:
 * $$g_{ij}(x)=\sum_{\alpha=1}^n\frac{\partial f^\alpha}{\partial x^i}\frac{\partial f^\alpha}{\partial x^j}.$$

If $n$ is less than $1⁄2m(m + 1)$, then there are more equations than unknowns. From this perspective, the existence of isometric embeddings given by the following theorem is considered surprising. "Nash–Kuiper theorem. Let $(M, g)$ be an $m$-dimensional Riemannian manifold and $f: M → ℝ^{n}$ a short smooth embedding (or immersion) into Euclidean space $ℝ^{n}$, where $n ≥ m + 1$. This map is not required to be isometric. Then there is a sequence of continuously differentiable isometric embeddings (or immersions) $M → ℝ^{n}$ of $g$ which converge uniformly to $f$."

The theorem was originally proved by John Nash with the stronger assumption $n ≥ m + 2$. His method was modified by Nicolaas Kuiper to obtain the theorem above.

The isometric embeddings produced by the Nash–Kuiper theorem are often considered counterintuitive and pathological. They often fail to be smoothly differentiable. For example, a well-known theorem of David Hilbert asserts that the hyperbolic plane cannot be smoothly isometrically immersed into $ℝ^{3}$. Any Einstein manifold of negative scalar curvature cannot be smoothly isometrically immersed as a hypersurface, and a theorem of Shiing-Shen Chern and Kuiper even says that any closed $m$-dimensional manifold of nonpositive sectional curvature cannot be smoothly isometrically immersed in $ℝ^{2m – 1}$. Furthermore, some smooth isometric embeddings exhibit rigidity phenomena which are violated by the largely unrestricted choice of $f$ in the Nash–Kuiper theorem. For example, the image of any smooth isometric hypersurface immersion of the round sphere must itself be a round sphere. By contrast, the Nash–Kuiper theorem ensures the existence of continuously differentiable isometric hypersurface immersions of the round sphere which are arbitrarily close to (for instance) a topological embedding of the sphere as a small ellipsoid.

Any closed and oriented two-dimensional manifold can be smoothly embedded in $ℝ^{3}$. Any such embedding can be scaled by an arbitrarily small constant so as to become short, relative to any given Riemannian metric on the surface. It follows from the Nash–Kuiper theorem that there are continuously differentiable isometric embeddings of any such Riemannian surface where the radius of a circumscribed ball is arbitrarily small. By contrast, no negatively curved closed surface can even be smoothly isometrically embedded in $ℝ^{3}$. Moreover, for any smooth (or even $C^{2}$) isometric embedding of an arbitrary closed Riemannian surface, there is a quantitative (positive) lower bound on the radius of a circumscribed ball in terms of the surface area and curvature of the embedded metric.

In higher dimension, as follows from the Whitney embedding theorem, the Nash–Kuiper theorem shows that any closed $m$-dimensional Riemannian manifold admits an continuously differentiable isometric embedding into an arbitrarily small neighborhood in $2m$-dimensional Euclidean space. Although Whitney's theorem also applies to noncompact manifolds, such embeddings cannot simply be scaled by a small constant so as to become short. Nash proved that every $m$-dimensional Riemannian manifold admits a continuously differentiable isometric embedding into $ℝ^{2m + 1}$.

At the time of Nash's work, his theorem was considered to be something of a mathematical curiosity. The result itself has not found major applications. However, Nash's method of proof was adapted by Camillo De Lellis and László Székelyhidi to construct low-regularity solutions, with prescribed kinetic energy, of the Euler equations from the mathematical study of fluid mechanics. In analytical terms, the Euler equations have a formal similarity to the isometric embedding equations, via the quadratic nonlinearity in the first derivatives of the unknown function. The ideas of Nash's proof were abstracted by Mikhael Gromov to the principle of convex integration, with a corresponding h-principle. This was applied by Stefan Müller and Vladimír Šverák to Hilbert's nineteenth problem, constructing minimizers of minimal differentiability in the calculus of variations.

Ck embedding theorem
The technical statement appearing in Nash's original paper is as follows: if M is a given m-dimensional Riemannian manifold (analytic or of class Ck, 3 ≤ k ≤ ∞), then there exists a number n (with n ≤ m(3m+11)/2 if M is a compact manifold, and with n ≤ m(m+1)(3m+11)/2 if M is a non-compact manifold) and an isometric embedding ƒ: M → Rn (also analytic or of class Ck). That is ƒ is an embedding of Ck manifolds and for every point p of M, the derivative dƒp is a linear map from the tangent space TpM to Rn which is compatible with the given inner product on TpM and the standard dot product of Rn in the following sense:
 * $$\langle u,v \rangle = df_p(u)\cdot df_p(v)$$

for all vectors u, v in TpM. When $n$ is larger than $1⁄2m(m + 1)$, this is an underdetermined system of partial differential equations (PDEs).

The Nash embedding theorem is a global theorem in the sense that the whole manifold is embedded into Rn. A local embedding theorem is much simpler and can be proved using the implicit function theorem of advanced calculus in a coordinate neighborhood of the manifold. The proof of the global embedding theorem relies on Nash's implicit function theorem for isometric embeddings. This theorem has been generalized by a number of other authors to abstract contexts, where it is known as Nash–Moser theorem. The basic idea in the proof of Nash's implicit function theorem is the use of Newton's method to construct solutions. The standard Newton's method fails to converge when applied to the system; Nash uses smoothing operators defined by convolution to make the Newton iteration converge: this is Newton's method with postconditioning. The fact that this technique furnishes a solution is in itself an existence theorem and of independent interest. In other contexts, the convergence of the standard Newton's method had earlier been proved by Leonid Kantorovitch.

title: Nash embedding theorems


text:
College of Sorbonne

The College of Sorbonne (Collège de Sorbonne) was a theological college of the University of Paris, founded in 1253 (confirmed in 1257) by Robert de Sorbon (1201–1274), after whom it was named.

The Sorbonne was disestablished by decree of 5 April 1792, after the French Revolution, along with the other Paris colleges. It was restored in 1808, then closed finally in 1882.

In recent times the name "Sorbonne" came to refer to the group of liberal arts faculties of the University of Paris, in contrast to the vocational faculties of law and medicine. "Sorbonne" is also used to refer to the main building of the University of Paris in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, which houses several faculties created when the University was divided into thirteen autonomous universities in 1970.

Overview
Robert de Sorbon was the son of peasants from the village of Sorbon in the Ardennes, who became a master of theology, a canon of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, and the confessor and chaplain of King Louis IX (Saint Louis). At the time that he founded his college, the University of Paris had already been in existence for half a century, and already had thousands of students. Obtaining a higher degree in theology could take as long as twenty years, and therefore required considerable financial support. Students who belonged to the religious orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans, or from the large monasteries of Cluny or Citeaux, received housing and board from their religious orders, but independent students did not. Sorbon founded his college to provide housing and board for poorer students of theology who did not have such support.

Sorbon purchased several houses on Rue Coupe-Gueule (now Rue de la Sorbonne) and made them into lodging for students. The college was founded in 1253. Louis IX confirmed the foundation in 1257. Initially the college has about twenty students, called socii. As the college grew, Sorbon provided a library containing over a thousand volumes by 1292, the largest in the university, and a chapel. The Sorbonne became the most distinguished theological institution in France, and its doctors were frequently called upon to render opinions on important ecclesiastical and theological issues. In 1470, the Sorbonne had one of the first printing presses in France. It was particularly active in the effort to suppress heresy and the spread of Protestant doctrines. Its students included Cardinal Richelieu, who studied there from 1606 to 1607. Richelieu became Proviseur, or administrator of the college on 29 August 1622. Between 1635 and 1642, Richelieu renovated the Sorbonne; he consolidated the Sorbonne with two smaller colleges, and built a complex of new buildings, including a domed chapel, around a large courtyard. Richelieu left a large part of his fortune and his library to the Sorbonne, and he was buried in the chapel. Only the chapel remains of the Richelieu era buildings.

The Sorbonne was closed to students in 1791 during the French Revolution. For a brief time, under Robespierre, the chapel became a Temple of Reason. Napoleon turned the college buildings into studios for artists. In 1822, it became the home of the faculties of letters, sciences and theology of the University of Paris. In 1885, as part of the Third Republic policy of separation of church and state, the theology faculty was officially closed. The old buildings of the Sorbonne, with the exception of the chapel, were demolished and the new Sorbonne building, designed by Henri Paul Nénot, opened in 1889, the centenary of the French Revolution. It contained a large amphitheater, reception halls and meeting rooms, the offices of the rector of the University of Paris, and the faculties of arts and sciences. The chapel was no longer used for religious services, but only for official ceremonies and exhibitions.

In 1971, as a result of the riots of demonstrations of May 1968, the University of Paris was broken up into thirteen independent faculties. The New Sorbonne building became the home of the Universities of Paris I, II, III, IV, V, the École Nationale des Chartes, and the École pratique des hautes études.

Foundation
Robert de Sorbon, a native of Le Réthelois, was a distinguished professor and famous preacher who lived from 1201 till 1274. Sorbon found that there was a defect in the primitive organization of the University of Paris. The two principal mendicant orders—the Dominicans and the Franciscans—each had colleges at Paris where they delivered lectures which day students could attend without fee.

Robert de Sorbon decided that the university should also provide free instruction, so that it could compete with the religious orders. Further, he believed the society of professors should follow the practices of the cenobitic life, except in vows. His important work was made possible by the high esteem in which de Sorbon was held at Paris, together with his intellectual brilliance, great generosity, and the assistance of his friends. The foundation dates from 1257 or the beginning of 1258. Guillaume de Saint-Amour, Gérard d'Abbeville, Henry of Ghent, Guillaume des Grez, Odo of Douai, Chrétien de Beauvais, Gérard de Reims, Nicolas de Bar were among the most illustrious scholars connected either with the first chairs in the Sorbonne, or with the first association that constituted it. These savants were already attached to the university staff.

Organization
The constitution of the society as conceived by De Sorbon was simple: an administrator (provisor), associates (socii), and guests (hospites). The provisor was the head; nothing could be done without consulting him; he installed the members selected by the society, and confirmed the statutes drawn up by it; he had to provide for everything.

The associates formed the body of the society. To be admitted to it, the candidate was required to have taught a course of philosophy. There were two kinds of associates, the bursaires and the pensionnaires. The latter paid forty (Paris) pounds a year; the former were provided for by the house. The burse could be granted only to persons not having an income of forty (Paris) pounds. There was a primus inter pares, the prior, who presided over all internal affairs of the house.

Doctors and bachelors were alike eligible, but, owing to the number of the latter, the custom rapidly grew up of selecting only bachelors. Other persons were candidates for admission to the society rather than members of it. From the material and intellectual point of view, they enjoyed the same privileges as the members: board, lodging, books, spiritual and scholastic exercises but they had no votes. When they had fulfilled the condition of teaching philosophy, they were admissible as members. The course of studies lasted ten years, during which time their burses continued; but if, at the end of ten years, they had not given proof of their ability, either as teachers or as preachers, they had to give up their burse.

History
The general lectures were open to the public, attracting students who were not affiliated with either division of the society. Doctors and bachelors were permitted to house other needy students. In addition to classroom instruction, there was an obligation to preach and work in the parishes. As part of their training for this role, members had to deliver sermons or discussions (collationes) to the community on designated days. The spiritual aspect of their duties was also emphasized. Conferences, usually delivered by the prior, on this important part of the Christian and priestly life were given especially to the interns.

For twenty years the ability of the administrator, or provisor, corresponded to the foreseeing devotedness of the founder. This stretch of time showed the effectiveness of the administrative measures which De Sorbon had adopted. He had written down the rules in thirty-eight articles. This rule was directed towards the maintenance of common life, from silence in the refectory, to simplicity of authorized dress. As circumstances permitted, about 1271 De Sorbon added a literary college: this was the Collège de Calvi or the "little Sorbonne".

The constitution which Robert de Sorbon gave to his college lasted for centuries. If Claude Héméré (1574–1650, librarian of the Sorbonne) saw in the project the conception of a powerful intellect, "Hoc primus in lycaeo Parisiensi vidit Robertus", its realization became a model college for others. The expression Pauvres maîtres et étudiants en théologie seems to emphasize the two primary characteristics of the society: equality in poverty, an equality so perfect between masters and pupils that it designated them by a common name; the poverty of the pupils, since most of them were bursaires; the poverty of the masters, since, content with what was strictly necessary, they renounced all other professional remuneration. This equality was always maintained with scrupulous care; the Sorbon repeated as an axiom, Omnes nos sumus socii et aequales, and referred to the college as pauperem nostram Sorbonem.

From the outset the college enjoyed the favour of the Holy See. Pope Alexander IV (1259) urged the French bishops to support it, Urban IV (1262) recommended it to the goodwill of the whole Christian world, and Clement IV (1268) granted it papal approbation. Wealthy benefactors provided it with ample endowment. A high standard of scholarship was maintained and the severity of the actus Sorbonnicus, or examination for degrees, including the defence of the "thesis Robertina", became proverbial. The professorial corps was highly respected. From all parts of Europe, theological and political questions were sent to it for solution.

In 1470 the Sorbonne introduced the art of printing into France by calling to Paris three of Gutenberg's associates, Gering, Friburger, and Crantz. Among its principal patrons and benefactors was Cardinal Richelieu, who held for a time the office of provisor and who, in 1635, laid the cornerstone of an edifice to be built at his expense for the use of the college. He was buried in the church of the Sorbonne, where his tomb is still preserved.

The doctors of the college were loyal defenders of the Catholic faith against the inroads of Protestantism and the Enlightenment. As other teachers of theology in the university became members of the Sorbonne, by the beginning of the sixteenth century, its staff was practically identical with the university faculty. De Sorbon had created a library. It expanded rapidly, due to numerous gifts.

On the other hand, the professors gave their support to Gallicanism and obliged their members to subscribe to the "four articles". This attitude naturally weakened the prestige of the Sorbonne as a theological school. Ecclesiastical students had to seek their education in the seminaries. The Sorbonne itself was disestablished by decree of 5 April 1792, after the French Revolution.

Napoleon restored it in 1808 as the theological faculty of the newly organized university. It did not, however, regain its former standing or influence, though it continued in existence until 1882, when it was finally suppressed. In 1884 the construction of the present building was begun and it was completed in 1889. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was occupied by the various departments of letters and science which formed the École des Hautes Etudes.

Notable alumni

 * Antoine Arnauld
 * Hardouin de Beaumont de Péréfixe, Bishop of Rodez
 * Pope Clement VI
 * Jean-Baptiste Dubos, historian and critic, Perpetual Secretary of the Académie Française
 * Philippe de Gamaches, theologian, first Chair of Theology at the Sorbonne
 * Jérôme-Claude Gandolphe, delegate to the National Constituent Assembly
 * Charles Gobinet, religious writer and teacher, early principal of the Collège du Plessis
 * Jean Gobinet, theologian, early principal of the collège du Plessis
 * Joseph Hook
 * Jacques Lescot, Bishop of Chartres, principal of the Collège de Dainville
 * Gabriel de Nail, Great bard of Amiens
 * Louis-Antoine de Noailles, Archbishop of Paris
 * Jean-Jacques Olier, founder of the Society of Saint-Sulpice
 * Nicole Oresme, Old master of the Collège de Navarre
 * Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal de Richelieu and chief minister to Louis XIII
 * Edmond Richer
 * Pierre Sigorgne, High vicar of the Diocese of Macon, correspondent for the Institute
 * Pierre-François Tinthoin
 * Madame Wei Tao-Ming (Chen Yu-Hsiu)
 * Thomas of Ireland, author of the popular florilegium Manipulus florum.
 * Moises Bahamon, creator of LISA: the SHIPWRECKED
 * Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

title: College of Sorbonne


text:
Talk:First-person shooter

Article merged: See old talk-page here

'Good' article? Where's the cultural/sociological stuff?
I was somewhat surprised to find that this 'good' article does not discuss issues related to the cultural, gender and racial elements associated with FPS history. These are all essential dimensions that any remotely academic treatment of the subject should incorporate. See, for example, here.

As it stands now, the piece seems to have been written (certainly in good faith) by players and fans, and is therefore overly abundant in technical, game-play and commercial-title-related information. It is also excessively descriptive and lacks interpretation and reflexivity.

In my opinion, a considerable editorial overhaul is needed. Sb2s3 (talk) 10:56, 14 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Is this still a concern? I can get the community reassessment process started for you (unless you want to go individual)? AIRcorn (talk) 23:46, 22 March 2018 (UTC)

why isn't quake ever mentioned or the first 3d fps?
quake was a defining game, and half-life even used it's engine; and, i know if this is the case, might have been the first 3d fps. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:40C:4302:2710:3424:E0AA:8356:D951 (talk) 05:16, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

Wrong information in article: Quake is not the first FPS with full 3D environment and enemies
Quake is not the very first full real 3D FPS. "Terminator Future Shock" had full 3D maps, models and enemies a year before that. As much as I love Quake since its release and playing it to this day, the information provided here is just wrong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Resonicde (talk • contribs) 13:15, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
 * We'd need sources to make that assessment. --M asem (t) 13:23, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

 * I checked this out and some gameplay footage on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBNSThWSZu4) shows that, at a minimum, many of the powerups and environment objects (like barrels) are still bitmapped sprites. 73.70.13.107 (talk) 23:04, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

Name
The "First Person Shooter" Stand For, ... — Preceding unsigned comment added by WS2022isback (talk • contribs) 20:57, 25 December 2022 (UTC)

Fair use image problems
At this moment the File:Halflife ingame.jpg image does not seem to have a correct rationale, because it's not tied to any place in the article and has a generic "A player engaging in combat during an above-ground section in Half-Life." text which doesn't give any reasoning for why it's the topmost picture. Older version had a different text, and the lead section was also quite different, which looks like a valid fair use usage.

But at this moment the fair use rationale is not acceptable, and the "Entire screenshot to show game graphics and low-resolution UI to showcase the evolution of FPS video games" on the file page does not match the usage. Purpose of use isn't correct either -- "The image is placed at the beginning of a section discussing the work, to help the user quickly identify the work and know they have found what they are looking for.", which does not match the current usage.

So for now, this image needs to be replaced with a screenshot of any free first-person game which illustrates the "First-person shooter" term. Sleeps-Darkly (talk) 19:13, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

Rise of Virtual Reality Paragraph
I'm not a regular Wikipedia contributor, but I added a paragraph for Virtual Reality. Perhaps it needs more links or whatever, but I think it's entirely necessary for this wiki page to highlight the VR impact on FPS games. Rather than simply erasing the work, please share what needs to be improved to keep this paragraph. ￼ 173.25.18.35 (talk) 22:16, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

 * It was full of opinionated statements (see WP:NPOV) and was not based on reliable sources (see WP:RS). The whole thing would need to be rewritten based on other sourcing. MrOllie (talk) 22:36, 28 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I appreciate the feedback and your dedication to keeping the standard of quality in Wikipedia high. I would not agree with "full of opinions", but there were a couple and I've adjusted the paragraph to remove subjective wording, made the paragraph more concise and consistent with the wiki page and provided even more citations and added a couple wikipedia links.  I value any additional feedback while keeping this paragraph in-tact as it's important to the FPS genre. 173.25.18.35 (talk) 08:08, 31 December 2023 (UTC)
 * One more note on sources: I tried to find the most neutral sources with data (which some are), but some sources are opinioniated as they are the best sources I could find and still fit Wikipedia's Reliable Sources (see WP:RS) definition: "...reliable sources are not required to be neutral, unbiased, or objective. Sometimes non-neutral sources are the best possible sources for supporting information about the different viewpoints held on a subject." 173.25.18.35 (talk) 08:16, 31 December 2023 (UTC)

Dactyl Nightmare
Dactyl Nightmare was the first full 3d FPS, if not the first true FPS. Look it up, it's a 1991 arcade VR game rendered in full 3d, predating Quake and even Wolfenstein 3D. It was a deathmatch multiplayer FPS, the gameplay was full 3d (3 axis), and players could fire in any direction, unlike in games like Wolfenstein 3D or Doom.

This should definitely be mentioned in the article. Anyone up for adding it, or should I do it? Endianer (talk) 03:10, 4 January 2024 (UTC)

 * Do you have a source that specifically calls it the first true FPS? M asem (t) 03:41, 4 January 2024 (UTC)

Controversy in FPS Video Games
There have been a number of studies and significant debate on the effects of violence in video games. First-person shooters are often cited as the source for desensitization of youth. I linked a Wikipedia article on this topic in the "See Also" section. Would it make sense to add a short note to the "research" section? Something like:

"There have been a number of studies and significant debate on the effects of violence in video games. First-person shooters are often cited as the source for desensitization of youth. See more at ."

Or is it best to just leave it as is (in the "see also" section)? 173.25.18.35 (talk) 10:30, 4 January 2024 (UTC)

Tilkimo yhiceskjonmopritershin''yuu Diznrishine

@I initdnete'' 196.188.188.222 (talk) 10:00, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:First-person shooter


text:
Leonardo Bruni

Leonardo Bruni or Leonardo Aretino (c. 1370 – March 9, 1444) was an Italian humanist, historian and statesman, often recognized as the most important humanist historian of the early Renaissance. He has been called the first modern historian. He was the earliest person to write using the three-period view of history: Antiquity, Middle Ages, and Modern. The dates Bruni used to define the periods are not exactly what modern historians use today, but he laid the conceptual groundwork for a tripartite division of history.

Biography
Leonardo Bruni was born in Arezzo, Tuscany circa 1370. Bruni was the pupil of political and cultural leader Coluccio Salutati, whom he succeeded as Chancellor of Florence, and under whose tutelage he developed his ideation of civic humanism. He also served as apostolic secretary to four popes (1405–1414). Bruni's years as chancellor, 1410 to 1411 and again from 1427 to his death in 1444, were plagued by warfare. Though he occupied one of the highest political offices, Bruni was relatively powerless, compared to the Albizzi and Medici families. Historian Arthur Field has identified Bruni as an apparent plotter against Cosimo de' Medici in 1437 (see below). Bruni died in 1444 in Florence and was succeeded in office by Carlo Marsuppini.

Significance
Bruni's most notable work is Historiarum Florentini populi libri XII (History of the Florentine People, 12 Books), which has been called the first modern history book. While it probably was not Bruni's intention to secularize history, the three period view of history is unquestionably secular and so Bruni has been called the first modern historian. The foundation of Bruni's conception can be found with Petrarch, who distinguished the classical period from later cultural decline, or tenebrae (literally "darkness"). Bruni argued that Italy had revived in recent centuries and could therefore be described as entering a new age.

One of Bruni's most famous works is New Cicero, a biography of the Roman statesman Cicero. He was also the author of biographies in Italian of Dante and Petrarch. It was Bruni who used the phrase studia humanitatis, meaning the study of human endeavors, as distinct from those of theology and metaphysics, the source of the term humanists.

As a humanist Bruni was essential in translating into Latin many works of Greek philosophy and history, such as Aristotle and Procopius. Bruni's translations of Aristotle's Politics and Nicomachean Ethics, as well as the pseudo-Aristotelean Economics, were widely distributed in manuscript and in print. His use of Aelius Aristides' Panathenicus (Panegyric to Athens) to buttress his republican theses in the Panegyric to the City of Florence (c. 1401) was instrumental in bringing the Greek historian to the attention of Renaissance political philosophers (see Hans Baron's The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance for details). He also wrote a short treatise in Greek on the Florentine constitution.

Bruni was one of the first Humanists to confront Plato's discussion of same-sex relationships.

Bruni died in Florence in 1444, and is buried in a wall tomb by Bernardo Rossellino in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence.

Latin texts online

 * An vulgus et literati eodem modo per Terentii Tullique tempora Romae locuti sint
 * Calphurnia et Gurgulia
 * De Bello Gallico Adversus Gothos
 * Digitized from a copy at the John Adams Library.
 * De studijs et litteris ad illustem dominam baptistam de malatesta tractatulus. Leipzig 1496.
 * Epistola ad Baptistam de Malatestis.
 * De interpretatione recta on Wikisource
 * Lewis E 54 De primo bello punico (On the first Punic War) at OPenn

German texts online

 * De duobus amantibus Guiscardo et Sigismunda. Ulm, Johann Zainer, ca. 1476–1477. From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress

title: Leonardo Bruni