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Mandeville, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Mandeville, Sir John, 14th-century English author of The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. Originally written in Norman French, the work became enormously popular and was translated into English, Latin,...

Flourens, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Flourens, Pierre (Marie Jean Pierre Flourens) pyĕr flo͞oräNsˈ [key], 1794–1867, French physiologist. He demonstrated the respiratory center in the medulla and the function of the cerebellum in m...

Coquerel, Athanase Laurent Charles

(Encyclopedia)Coquerel, Athanase Laurent Charles ätänäzˈ lōräNˈ shärl kôkrĕlˈ [key], 1795–1868, French Protestant clergyman, noted for his eloquence as a preacher. From 1832 he was pastor of the Reform...

Tallien, Thérésa Cabarrus

(Encyclopedia)Tallien, Thérésa Cabarrus tälyăNˈ [key], 1773–1835, French political figure, of Spanish parentage. The divorced wife of a marquis de Fontenay, she became intimate with the revolutionary Jean L...

Don Juan

(Encyclopedia)Don Juan dŏn wän, jo͞oˈən, Span. dōn hwän [key], legendary profligate. He has a counterpart in the legends of many peoples, but the Spanish version of the great libertine has become the most un...

Fabre d'Églantine, Philippe François Nazaire

(Encyclopedia)Fabre d'Églantine, Philippe François Nazaire fēlēpˈ fräNswäˈ näzĕrˈ fäˈbrə dāgläNtēnˈ [key], 1755–94, French dramatist and revolutionist. His chief work, Le Philinte de Molière (1...

Morin, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Morin, Paul pôl môrăNˈ [key], 1889–1963, French Canadian poet, b. Montreal. After taking degrees in the arts, science, and law at Laval Univ., he studied in Paris. His two books of poems, Le Pao...

Ponge, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Ponge, Francis fräNsēsˈ pôNzh [key], 1899–1988, French essayist and poet. A controversial figure, he was opposed to emotional and symbolic poetic methods. His method was to observe things meticu...

Thomas, Ambroise

(Encyclopedia)Thomas, Ambroise äNbrwäzˈ tōmäˈ [key], 1811–96, French operatic composer, studied at the Paris Conservatory, receiving the Prix de Rome in 1832. He later taught composition there and became it...

Rove Tunnel

(Encyclopedia)Rove Tunnel rōv, Fr. rôv [key], southern section of the Marseilles-Rhône Canal, 4.5 mi (7.2 km) long and 72 ft (22 m) wide, Bouches-du-Rhône dept., SE France; opened 1927. Starting near the villag...