1664; the first charter was granted to William Penn in 1681.  In the Revolution it took a prominent part, and was among the first States of the Union.  Education is well advanced; there are 20 State colleges.  The mining population includes many Irish, Hungarian, and Italian immigrants, among whom riots are frequent.  Of the agriculturists many are of Dutch descent, and about two millions still speak a Low German patois known as Pennsylvanian Dutch.  HARRISBURG (39) is the capital; the metropolis is PHILADELPHIA (1,047), the second largest city in the country; while PITTSBURG (239), ALLEGHANY (105), SCRANTON (75), and READING (59) are among the many large towns.

PENNY, originally a silver coin, weighed in the 7th century 1/240-th of a Saxon pound, but decreased in weight till in Elizabeth’s time it was 1/63 of an ounce troy.  It was at first indented with a cross so as to be broken for halfpennies and farthings, but silver coins of these denominations were coined by Edward I. Edward VI. stopped the farthings, and the halfpence were stopped in the Commonwealth.  Copper coinage was established in 1672.  The present coins were issued first in 1860.  They are half the size of their predecessors, and intrinsically worth one-seventh of their nominal value.

PENNY WEDDING, a wedding at which the guests pay part of the charges of the festival.

PENRITH (9), a market town of Cumberland, and tourist centre for the English lakes; contains a very old church and school, and ruins of a picturesque castle.  Brewing, iron-founding, and timber-sawing are its industries.

PENRYN (3), a Cornish market town at the head of Falmouth harbour; has manufactures of paper, woollen cloth, and gunpowder.  It has considerable fishing industry, and ships the Penryn granite quarried near.

PENSEROSO, II, a famous Italian poem by Milton, written in 1633.

PENSIONARY, THE GRAND, a State functionary of Holland, whose office, abolished in 1795, it was to superintend State interests, register decrees, negotiate with other countries, and take charge of the revenues, &c.

PENTACLE.  See PENTAGRAM.

PENTAGRAM, a symbol presumed to possess a magical influence, particularly to charm away evil spirits, formed by placing the figure of an equilateral triangle athwart another.

PENTAMERONE, a collection of tales in the Neapolitan dialect, supposed to be told during five days by ten old women to a pseudo-princess, and published at Naples 1637; is of great value to students of folk-lore.

PENTATEUCH, the name given by Origen to the first five books of the Bible, which the Jews call the Law or Five-fifths of the Law, the composition of which has of late years been subjected to keen critical investigation, and the whole ascribed to documents of different dates and diverse authorship, to the rejection of the old traditional hypothesis that it was the work of Moses, first called in question by Spinoza, and shown to be untenable by JEAN ASTRUC (q. v.).