Pygmy dipole resonance in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msup><mml:mrow/><mml:mn>208</mml:mn></mml:msup></mml:math>Pb

Scattering of protons of several hundred MeV is a promising new spectroscopic tool for the study of electric dipole strength in nuclei. A case study of ${}^{208}$Pb shows that, at very forward angles, ${J}^{\ensuremath{\pi}}={1}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ states are strongly populated via Coulomb excitation. A separation from nuclear excitation of other modes is achieved by a multipole decomposition analysis of the experimental cross sections based on theoretical angular distributions calculated within the quasiparticle-phonon model. The $B(E1)$ transition strength distribution is extracted for excitation energies up to 9 MeV; that is, in the region of the so-called pygmy dipole resonance (PDR). The Coulomb-nuclear interference shows sensitivity to the underlying structure of the $E1$ transitions, which allows for the first time an experimental extraction of the electromagnetic transition strength and the energy centroid of the PDR.