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Ottocar II

(Encyclopedia)Ottocar II or Přemysl Ottocar II, c.1230–1278, king of Bohemia (1253–78), son and successor of Wenceslaus I. Ottocar shrewdly exploited the disorders of the great interregnum in the Holy Roman Em...

Demangeon, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Demangeon, Albert dāmäNzhōNˈ [key], 1872–1940, French geographer, specializing in the study of regional and economic geography. His best-known works include Le Déclin de L'Europe (1920), L'Empi...

Romance languages

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Romance languages, group of languages belonging to the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Italic languages). Also called Romanic, they are spoken by about 670 millio...

Martin I, Saint, d. 655?, pope

(Encyclopedia)Martin I, Saint, d. 655?, pope (649–55?), an Italian, b. Todi; successor of Theodore I. On his accession he summoned a great council at the Lateran, as St. Maximus had urged, to deal with Monothelet...

narthex

(Encyclopedia)narthex närˈthĕks [key], entrance feature peculiar to early Christian and Byzantine churches, although also found in some Romanesque churches, especially in France and Italy. Usually extending acro...

Istria

(Encyclopedia)Istria ĭsˈtrēə [key], Croatian Istra, mountainous peninsula c.1,500 sq mi (3,900 sq km), in Slovenia and Croatia, projecting into the N Adriatic between the gulfs of Trieste and Fiume. A section o...

Edirne

(Encyclopedia)Edirne āˌdrēənōˈ pəl [key], city, capital of Edirne prov., NW Turkey, in Thrace. It is the ...

Duccio di Buoninsegna

(Encyclopedia)Duccio di Buoninsegna do͞otˈchō dē bwōnēnsāˈnyä [key], fl. 1278–1319, early Italian artist, first great painter of Siena. Infusing new life into the stylized Byzantine tradition, he initiat...

Constanţa

(Encyclopedia)Constanţa kônstänˈtsä [key], city, SE Romania, on the Black Sea. It is the administrative center ...

cloth of gold

(Encyclopedia)cloth of gold, fabric woven wholly or partly of gold threads. From remote times gold has been used as material for weaving either alone or with other fibers. In India tapestries were made from gold th...