Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

196 results found

Jussieu

(Encyclopedia)Jussieu zhüsyöˈ [key], French family of distinguished botanists. Antoine de Jussieu, 1686–1758, was director of the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. He edited Jacques Barrelier's posthumously published...

M'Ba, Léon

(Encyclopedia)M'Ba, Léon lāôNˈ əmbäˈ [key], 1902–67, Gabonese political leader. He was a member of the dominant Fang ethnic group. When Gabon became a self-governing republic in the French Community (1958)...

Delaherche, Félix Auguste

(Encyclopedia)Delaherche, Félix Auguste fālēksˈ ōgüstˈ dəläârshˈ [key], 1857–1940, French potter. He is considered the greatest ceramist since Bernard Palissy. Working alone in the village of La Chapel...

Arsonval, Arsène d'

(Encyclopedia)Arsonval, Arsène d' ärsĕnˈ därsôNvälˈ [key], 1851–1940, French physicist and physician. He worked under Claude Bernard and under C. E. Brown-Séquard (whom he succeeded in 1897 at the Collè...

Armagnacs and Burgundians

(Encyclopedia)Armagnacs and Burgundians, opposing factions that fought to control France in the early 15th cent. The rivalry for power between Louis d'Orléans, brother of the recurrently insane King Charles VI, an...

Cistercians

(Encyclopedia)Cistercians sĭstrˈshənz [key], monks of a Roman Catholic religious order founded (1098) by St. Robert, abbot of Molesme, in Cîteaux [Cistercium], Côte-d'Or dept., France. They reacted against Clu...

Van Vechten, Carl

(Encyclopedia)Van Vechten, Carl văn vĕkˈtən [key], 1880–1964, American music critic, novelist, and photographer, b. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, grad. Univ. of Chicago, 1903. While he was a leading music and dance cri...

Lilith

(Encyclopedia)Lilith lĭlˈĭth [key], female demon of Jewish mythology, originally probably the Assyrian storm demon Lilitu. In Talmudic tradition many evil attributes were given to this supposedly nocturnal creat...

Troubetzkoy, Paul, Prince

(Encyclopedia)Troubetzkoy, Paul, Prince tro͞obĕtskoiˈ, tro͞obĕtsˈkoi, Rus. tro͞obyĭtskoiˈ [key], 1866–1938, Russian sculptor, b. Italy. The son of a Russian nobleman and an American woman, Troubetzkoy wo...

Marengo, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Marengo, battle of, a major engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought on June 14, 1800, at the village of Marengo in Piedmont, N Italy. Determined to throw the Austrians back from positions ...