Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bembo, Pietro

(Encyclopedia)Bembo, Pietro pyāˈtrō bĕmˈbō [key], 1470–1547, Italian humanist, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. A favorite of the Medici, he was secretary to Pope Leo X and was made a cardinal by Paul...

Salandra, Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Salandra, Antonio äntôˈnyō sälänˈdrä [key], 1853–1931, Italian premier (1914–16). He entered parliament as a moderate conservative (1886), held various cabinet posts from 1891 to 1910, and...

Trissino, Gian Giorgio

(Encyclopedia)Trissino, Gian Giorgio jän jôrˈjō trēs–sēˈnō [key], 1478–1550, Italian poet and philologist. His play Sofonisba (written 1515, produced 1557) introduced classical Greek dramatic techniques...

Da Ponte, Lorenzo

(Encyclopedia)Da Ponte, Lorenzo lōrĕntˈsō dä pônˈtā [key], 1749–1838, Italian librettist and teacher, b. Ceneda as Emmanuele Conegliano. Born Jewish, he converted to Catholicism at 14, became (1773) a pri...

Hedge, Frederic Henry

(Encyclopedia)Hedge, Frederic Henry, 1805–90, American Unitarian clergyman and author, b. Cambridge, Mass., educated in Germany and at Harvard. He held several New England pastorates. In 1836 he joined Emerson an...

Grassmann, Hermann Günther

(Encyclopedia)Grassmann, Hermann Günther hĕrˈmän günˈtər gräsˈmän [key], 1809–77, German mathematician and Sanskrit scholar, educated in Berlin. He invented a new algebra of vectors (somewhat similar to...

Goodspeed, Edgar Johnson

(Encyclopedia)Goodspeed, Edgar Johnson, 1871–1962, American Greek scholar, b. Quincy, Ill., grad. Denison Univ. (B.A., 1890; D.D., 1928) and Univ. of Chicago (B.D., 1897; Ph.D., 1898). He taught at the Univ. of C...

Ginsburg, Christian David

(Encyclopedia)Ginsburg, Christian David gĭnzˈbərg [key], 1831–1914, English Hebrew scholar, b. Warsaw. He was converted to Christianity in 1846 and settled in England. He translated (1857) the Song of Songs, w...

Nahmanides

(Encyclopedia)Nahmanides nähmänˈĭdēz [key], 1194–c.1270, Jewish scholar, exegete, and kabbalist, b. Spain. He wrote commentaries on the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. A mystic, he rejected part of Maimonides' ...

Morley, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Morley, Christopher, 1890–1957, American editor and author, b. Haverford, Pa., grad. Haverford College, 1910. He was a Rhodes scholar. Morley was one of the founders of the Saturday Review of Litera...