Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Larkin, Oliver Waterman

(Encyclopedia)Larkin, Oliver Waterman, 1896–1970, American art historian, b. Medford, Mass. Larkin taught at Smith from 1924 to 1964. His major work is Art and Life in America (1949; Pulitzer Prize in history, 19...

censor

(Encyclopedia)censor sĕnˈsər [key], title of two magistrates of ancient Rome (from c.443 b.c. to the time of Domitian). They took the census (by which they assessed taxation, voting, and military service) and su...

Bradshaw, John

(Encyclopedia)Bradshaw, John, 1602–59, English regicide judge. In 1649 he was made president of the parliamentary commission to try Charles I, other lawyers of greater prominence having refused the position. For ...

Bay Shore

(Encyclopedia)Bay Shore, uninc. village (2020 pop. 29,799), Islip town, Suffolk co., SE N.Y., on the south shore of Long Island, at the widest point of Great South Ba...

Saint James's Palace

(Encyclopedia)Saint James's Palace, in Westminster, London, England, on St. James's Street and fronting on Pall Mall. Henry VIII built the palace and established the park around it. It was the London royal residenc...

Shephatiah

(Encyclopedia)Shephatiah shĕfətīˈə [key], in the Bible. 1 One of David's mighty men. 2 Chief Simeonite under David. 3 Son of David. 4 Son of Jehoshaphat. 5 Prince in Jeremiah's time. 6 Shephathiah: Benjamite. ...

Holocene epoch

(Encyclopedia)Holocene epoch hŏlˈəsēn [key] or Recent epoch, most recent of all subdivisions of geologic time, ranging from the present back to the time (c.11,000 years ago) of almost complete withdrawal of the...

Desargues, Gérard

(Encyclopedia)Desargues, Gérard zhārärˈ dəzärgˈ [key], 1591–1661, French mathematician and engineer, a founder of modern geometry. He discovered the theorems on involutions and transversals known by his na...

Dryburgh Abbey

(Encyclopedia)Dryburgh Abbey drīˈbərə [key], Premonstratensian abbey, Scottish Borders, SE Scotland, on the Tweed below Melrose. Founded in 1150, it was several times destroyed (1322 and 1545) and rebuilt and i...

Constitution of Athens

(Encyclopedia)Constitution of Athens, treatise by Aristotle or a member of his school, written in the late 4th cent. b.c. It was lost until discovered on Egyptian papyrus in 1890. It is a history of the Athenian go...

Browse by Subject