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Dong Nai

(Encyclopedia)Dong Nai or Donnai both: dôngˈnīˈ [key], river, c.300 mi (480 km) long, rising as the Da Dung in the mountains of S central Vietnam. It flows SW past Bien Hoa and joins with the Saigon River below...

silverpoint

(Encyclopedia)silverpoint, method of drawing whereby a silver-tipped instrument is dragged across paper prepared with ground bone dust and gum water and then tinted with a pigment. The procedure results in drawings...

Lee, Spike

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Spike (Shelton Jackson Lee), 1957–, African-American filmmaker, b. Atlanta, Ga. As a student at New York Univ., he won recognition with his gradu...

aria

(Encyclopedia)aria ärˈēə [key], elaborate and often lengthy solo song with instrumental accompaniment. In the 16th cent. it was a melody improvised over a strophic bass line, and a distinction was made between ...

Medici, Italian family

(Encyclopedia)Medici mĕˈdĭchē, Ital. māˈdēchē [key], Italian family that directed the destinies of Florence from the 15th cent. until 1737. Of obscure origin, they rose to immense wealth as merchants and ba...

D'Annunzio, Gabriele

(Encyclopedia)D'Annunzio, Gabriele gäbrēĕˈlā dän-no͞onˈtsyō [key] 1863–1938, Italian poet, novelist, dramatist, and soldier, b. Pescara. He went to Rome in 1881 and there began his literary career. Consi...

mandolin

(Encyclopedia)mandolin mănˌdəlĭnˈ, mănˈdəlĭnˌ [key], musical instrument of the lute family, with a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, plucked with the fingers or with...

Ferdinand II, king consort of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand II, 1816–85, king consort of Portugal (1837–53). The eldest son of Ferdinand, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, he married Maria II (Maria da Glória) of Portugal in 1836. After her death (1853...

Ferri, Ciro

(Encyclopedia)Ferri, Ciro chēˈrō fĕrˈrē [key], 1634–89, Italian baroque painter, etcher, and architect, the most celebrated pupil of Pietro da Cortona. He imitated Cortona's style with such success that he ...

Omuta

(Encyclopedia)Omuta –dä [key], city (1990 pop. 150,453), Fukuoka prefecture, W Kyushu, Japan, a port on the Amakusa Sea. With conversion from coal to petroleum in the 1960s, Omuta's coal mining decreased, which ...