Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Puskás, Ferenc

(Encyclopedia)Puskás, Ferenc, 1927–2006, Hungarian soccer player. A relatively slow but extremely powerful forward, Puskás became famous for his extraordinarily effective left-footed kick. He began playing prof...

Betti, Ugo

(Encyclopedia)Betti, Ugo o͞oˈgō bətˈtē [key], 1892–1953, Italian dramatist and poet. He was a judge by profession. His earliest published works were two volumes of poetry (1922 and 1932), but he is remember...

Piazzi, Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Piazzi, Giuseppe jo͞ozĕpˈpā pyätˈtsē [key], 1746–1826, Italian astronomer, a Theatine priest from 1769. He became (1781) professor of mathematics at the Univ. of Palermo, supervised construct...

pinnacle

(Encyclopedia)pinnacle pĭnˈĭkəl [key], minor architectural motif of vertical tapering shape, usually crowning a pier, buttress, or gable. Although sometimes it appears in Renaissance design, as in the Certosa d...

Calderón Bridge

(Encyclopedia)Calderón Bridge käldārōnˈ [key], site of a decisive battle in the Mexican revolution against Spain, fought on the Lerma River E of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. On Jan. 17, 1811, insurgents comma...

Canby, Henry Seidel

(Encyclopedia)Canby, Henry Seidel, 1878–1961, American editor and critic, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Yale, 1899. He taught at Yale for over 20 years, achieving professorial rank in 1922. He established and edited...

Valera y Alcalá Galiano, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Valera y Alcalá Galiano, Juan hwän välāˈrä ē älkäläˈ gälyäˈnō [key], 1824–1905, Spanish writer and diplomat. Of a leading liberal family, Valera was a diplomat until 1858, and he late...

Tintoretto

(Encyclopedia)Tintoretto tēntōrĕtˈtō [key], 1518–94, Venetian painter, whose real name was Jacopo Robusti. Tintoretto is considered one of the greatest painters in the Venetian tradition. He was called Il Ti...

Domenchina, Juan José

(Encyclopedia)Domenchina, Juan José hwän hōsāˈ dōmānchēˈnä [key], 1898–1959, Spanish poet and critic, b. Madrid. He was active in the transition from modernismo to the “new poetry.” Such early volum...

Davies, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Davies, Samuel dāˈvēz [key], 1723–61, American Presbyterian clergyman, b. New Castle co., Del. Ordained as an evangelist, he went in 1747 to Hanover co., Va., where he was soon the center of a re...

Browse by Subject