Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Musset, Alfred de

(Encyclopedia)Musset, Alfred de (Louis Charles Alfred de Musset) älfrĕdˈ də müsāˈ [key], 1810–57, French romantic poet, dramatist, and fiction writer. His first collection of poems, Contes d'Espagne et d'I...

Bourbaki, Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Bourbaki, Nicolas, pseudonym under which a group of 20th cent. mathematicians has written a series of treatises on pure mathematics. The mathematicians have all been associated with the Ecole Normale ...

Weygand, Maxime

(Encyclopedia)Weygand, Maxime mäksēmˈ vāgäNˈ [key], 1867–1965, French general, b. Belgium. A career army officer, he was (1914–23) chief of staff to Marshal Foch, and in 1920 he directed the defense of Wa...

primitivism

(Encyclopedia)primitivism, in art, the style of works of self-trained artists who develop their talents in a fanciful and fresh manner, as in the paintings of Henri Rousseau and Grandma Moses. The term primitive ha...

Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de

(Encyclopedia)Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de pyĕr lwē môrōˈ də mōpĕrtüēˈ [key], 1698–1759, French mathematician and astronomer. For his skillful support of Newton's theory he was admitted to the Ro...

Baroja y Nessi, Pío

(Encyclopedia)Baroja y Nessi, Pío pēˈō bärōˈhä ē nāsˈsē [key], 1879–1956, Spanish novelist from the Basque Country, member of the group of writers known as the Generation of '98. He left medicine to d...

Larreta, Enrique Rodríguez

(Encyclopedia)Larreta, Enrique Rodríguez ānrēˈkā rôᵺrēˈgāth lärrāˈtä [key], 1875–1961, Argentine novelist. Larreta lived for many years in Spain and France. His fame rests on La gloria de don Ramir...

Quilmes

(Encyclopedia)Quilmes kēlˈmēs [key], city (1991 pop. 509,445), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina, on the Río de la Plata estuary. It is a district administrative center and a major industrial city, with one of th...

Bichat, Marie François Xavier

(Encyclopedia)Bichat, Marie François Xavier märēˈ fräNswäˈ zävyāˈ bēshäˈ [key], 1771–1802, French anatomist and physiologist. He studied the tissues, giving them that name and classifying them into 2...

satire

(Encyclopedia)satire, term applied to any work of literature or art whose objective is ridicule. It is more easily recognized than defined. From ancient times satirists have shared a common aim: to expose foolishne...