Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Maecenas

(Encyclopedia)Maecenas (Caius Maecenas) mĭsēˈnəs, mē– [key], d. 8 b.c., Roman statesman and patron of letters. He was born (between 74 b.c. and 64 b.c.) into a wealthy family and was a trusted adviser of Oct...

academies of art

(Encyclopedia)academies of art, official organizations of established artists. Lorenzo de' Medici's informal circle of great artists and thinkers was modeled on similar groups formed in classical Greece. The first ...

Watson, Doc

(Encyclopedia)Watson, Doc (Arthel Lane Watson), 1923–2012, American country-music singer and musician, b. Stony Fork, N.C. Blind from infancy, he learned to play the harmonica, banjo, and guitar in his youth. His...

Braga, Teófilo

(Encyclopedia)Braga, Teófilo təôˈfəlo͝o bräˈgä [key], 1843–1924, Portuguese intellectual and political leader, b. Ponta Delgada in the Azores. At the Univ. of Coimbra he was a member of the positivist ci...

Broch, Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Broch, Hermann hĕrˈmän brôkh [key], 1886–1951, Austrian novelist. Broch is one of the masters of European modernism. Influenced by Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Kraus, and the Vien...

Sologub, Feodor

(Encyclopedia)Sologub, Feodor fyôˈdər sələgo͞opˈ [key], pseud. of Feodor Kuzmich Teternikov, 1863–1927, Russian poet and prose writer. By profession a schoolteacher and as a poet one of the older symbolist...

Sillanpää, Frans Eemil

(Encyclopedia)Sillanpää, Frans Eemil fräns āˈmĭl sĭlˈlänpăˌ [key], 1888–1964, Finnish novelist. As a young man Sillanpää studied natural science at Helsinki and came under the influence of an artisti...

silo

(Encyclopedia)silo, watertight and airtight structure for making and storing silage. Silos vary in form from a covered pit, such as was used by the early Romans, to the modern storage tower, dating from the 19th ce...

Finnmark

(Encyclopedia)Finnmark fĭnˈmärk [key], county, 18,783 sq mi (46,648 sq km), N Norway, bordering on the A...

grayling

(Encyclopedia)grayling, common name for a brilliantly colored fish belonging to the genus Thymallus, of the family Salmonidae (salmon family), and closely allied to the smelt. Graylings are found chiefly in clear, ...