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Stamma, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Stamma, Philip or Philipp, c.1705–55, Syrian-born chess pioneer. He lived in France and Italy before settling in England c.1737. There he attained a reputation as a fine chess player, popularized th...

Samain, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Samain, Albert älbĕrˈ sämăNˈ [key], 1858–1900, French poet. He was a founder (1890) of the literary periodical Mercure de France. His first collection of verse, Au jardin de l'infante (1893, r...

Richier, Ligier

(Encyclopedia)Richier, Ligier rēshyāˈ [key], c.1500–c.1567, French sculptor. Most of his work is in the churches of his native Lorraine. The most famous is The Entombment, consisting of 13 life-size figures i...

Pellico, Silvio

(Encyclopedia)Pellico, Silvio sēlˈvyō pĕlˈlēkō [key], 1789–1854, Italian dramatic poet. His principal work is Francesca da Rimini (1815, tr. 1856). Imprisoned for eight years by the Austrians as a Carbonar...

Niemeyer Soares, Oscar

(Encyclopedia)Niemeyer Soares, Oscar o͝oskärˈ nēˈmīər so͝oäˈrəs [key], 1907–2012, Brazil's foremost 20th-century architect, b. Rio de Janeiro. Influenced by Le Corbusier, Niemeyer developed an architec...

Neptune, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Neptune, in astronomy, 8th planet from the sun at a mean distance of about 2.8 billion mi (4.5 billion km) with an orbit lying between those of Uranus and the dwarf planet Pluto; its period of revolut...

Galiani, Ferdinando

(Encyclopedia)Galiani, Ferdinando fārdēnänˈdō gälyäˈnē [key], 1728–87, Italian economist, educated for the church. As a very young man he wrote Della moneta [on money] (1750), which attacked the mercanti...

Bloy, Léon

(Encyclopedia)Bloy, Léon lāôNˈ blwä [key], 1846–1917, French writer. A Roman Catholic and a social reformer, Bloy wrote violent and vituperative attacks on religious conformism and bitter portraits of his li...

Bayard, Pierre Terrail, seigneur de

(Encyclopedia)Bayard, Pierre Terrail, seigneur de bāˈərd; pyĕr tĕrīˈyə sānyörˈ də bäyärˈ [key], c.1474–1524, French military hero, called le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche [the knight without...

Philippe, Édouard Charles

(Encyclopedia)Philippe, Édouard Charles, 1970–, French lawyer and political leader, b. Rouen, grad. Paris Institute of Political Studies, 1992, National School of Administration, 1997. He worked as a lawyer for ...