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clearing

(Encyclopedia)clearing, in banking, the periodic settling of bankers' claims against each other, for which local banks establish clearinghouse associations. Clearinghouses are said to have existed in Florence by a....

Sagarra, Josep Maria de

(Encyclopedia)Sagarra, Josep Maria de (Josep Maria de Sagarra i Castellarnau) zhōsĕpˈ mərēˈə dā səgärˈrə ē kästəl-lyärˈnou [key], 1894–1961, Catalonian poet, novelist, and playwright. He publishe...

Howe, Richard Howe, Earl

(Encyclopedia)Howe, Richard Howe, Earl, 1726–99, British admiral; elder brother of Viscount Howe. He won early recognition in the Seven Years War for his operations in the English Channel. After the outbreak of t...

Breton literature

(Encyclopedia)Breton literature brĕtˈən [key], in the Celtic language of Brittany. Although there are numerous allusions in other literatures of the 12th to 14th cent. to the “matter of Brittany,” which incl...

Royal Danish Ballet

(Encyclopedia)Royal Danish Ballet, one of the oldest major ballet companies, established at the opening of Denmark's Royal Theater in Copenhagen in 1748. Its ballet school, which trains the group's dancers, has als...

Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of ĕks-lä-shäpĕlˈ [key]. 1 Compact of May 2, 1668, that ended the French invasion of the Spanish Netherlands (see Devolution, War of). France kept most of its conquests in...

Jura, mountain range, France and Switzerland

(Encyclopedia)Jura jo͝orˈə, Fr. zhüräˈ, Ger. yo͞oˈrä [key], mountain range, part of the Alpine system, E France and NW Switzerland, occupying parts of the French region of Franche-Comté and the Swiss cant...

Périer, Casimir Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Périer, Casimir Pierre käzēmērˈ pyĕr pĕryāˈ [key], 1777–1832, French statesman. He was a member of a wealthy bourgeois family. His father, Claude Périer, a manufacturer and financier of Gr...

Louis XVII, titular king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XVII (Louis Charles), 1785–1795?, titular king of France (1793–95), known in popular legend as the “lost dauphin.” The second son of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, he became ...

Charles VII, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Charles VII (Charles the Well Served), 1403–61, king of France (1422–61), son and successor of Charles VI. His reign saw the end of the Hundred Years War. Although excluded from the throne by the ...