Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Grand-Pré

(Encyclopedia)Grand-Pré grăn-prā, Fr. gräN-prā [key] [Fr.,=large field], village, W central N.S., Canada, on an arm of the Bay of Fundy. The area is famous for having been an early settlement of the Acadians, ...

Gildas, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Gildas, Saint gĭlˈdəs [key], d. 570, British historian, possibly a Welsh monk. Shortly before 547 he wrote the De excidio et conquestu Britanniae, a Latin history of Britain dealing with the Roman ...

Gerard, James Watson

(Encyclopedia)Gerard, James Watson jərärdˈ [key], 1867–1951, U.S. ambassador to Germany (1913–17), b. Geneseo, N.Y. As ambassador, he handled many delicate negotiations, including those concerning the German...

gargoyle

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Gargoyle gargoyle gärˈgoil [key], waterspout used in medieval Europe to draw rainwater from church and cathedral roofs. Gargoyles were fashioned imaginatively in the form of human grotesques...

Huntingdon, Henry Hastings, 3d earl of

(Encyclopedia)Huntingdon, Henry Hastings, 3d earl of, 1535–95, English nobleman. Through his mother, Catherine Pole, a great-granddaughter of the duke of Clarence (brother of Edward IV and Richard III), Hastings ...

Juno, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Juno jo͞oˈnō [key], in astronomy, 3d asteroid to be discovered. It was found in 1804 by C. Harding. It has a diameter of c.120 mi (190 km). Its average distance from the sun is 2.67 astronomical un...

Decorated style

(Encyclopedia)Decorated style, name applied to the second period of English Gothic architecture from the late 13th to the mid-14th cent. The basic structural elements developed during the Early English style (late ...

Firishta

(Encyclopedia)Firishta or Ferishta both: fĭrĭshtăˈ [key], c.1560–c.1620, Indian Muslim historian. His given name was Muhammad Kasim Hindu Shah. Under the patronage of the shah of Bijapur, he wrote a history o...

Acominatus, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Acominatus, Michael kōnēāˈtēz [key], c.1140–1220, Byzantine writer and metropolitan of Athens. Acominatus' speeches, poems, and letters give much information about medieval Athens, which he, a ...

prelude

(Encyclopedia)prelude prāˈlo͞od [key], musical composition of no universal style, usually for the keyboard. It was originally used to precede a ceremony and later a second, often larger piece. Early preludes rep...