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Sorel, Agnès

(Encyclopedia)Sorel, Agnès änyĕsˈ sôrĕlˈ [key], c.1422–1450, mistress (1444–50) of Charles VII of France. She was the first mistress of a French king to be officially recognized as such. Witty and astute...

Brosse, Salomon de

(Encyclopedia)Brosse, Salomon de sälōmôNˈ də brôs [key], 1571–1626, French architect, trained by his grandfather, Jacques du Cerceau, the elder. He paved the way for the next generation in the use of classi...

cancan

(Encyclopedia)cancan kănˈkăn [key], a lively French dance marked chiefly by high kicking. It was developed in Paris in the 1830s and became a popular social dance there. By the mid-19th cent. it was incorporated...

Madeleine

(Encyclopedia)Madeleine mădˈəlĭn, Fr. mädlĕnˈ [key] [Fr.,=Magdalen, i.e., Mary Magdalen], large church of Paris, in the Place de la Madeleine. It was originally planned by J. A. Gabriel as a part of his layo...

Rossetti, Gabriele

(Encyclopedia)Rossetti, Gabriele rōsĕtˈē [key], 1783–1854, Italian poet and critic; father of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and of Christina Rossetti. Exiled in 1821, he fled first to Malta, where he stayed for thr...

existentialism

(Encyclopedia)existentialism ĕgzĭstĕnˈshəlĭzəm, ĕksĭ– [key], any of several philosophic systems, all centered on the individual and his relationship to the universe or to God. Important existentialists o...

Chaleur Bay

(Encyclopedia)Chaleur Bay shəlo͝orˈ [key], inlet of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, c.85 mi (140 km) long and from 15 to 25 mi (24–40 km) wide, between N N.B. and the Gaspé Peninsula, E Que., Canada. It is the subm...

Urban IV

(Encyclopedia)Urban IV, d. 1264, pope (1261–64), a Frenchman (b. Troyes) named Jacques Pantaléon; successor of Alexander IV. In the pontifical service he was sent on missions into N Germany; then he was made bis...

Smith College

(Encyclopedia)Smith College, at Northampton, Mass.; undergraduate for women, graduate coeducational; chartered 1871, opened 1875 through a bequest of Sophia Smith. The first president, Laurenus Clark Seelye, was in...

Marat, Jean Paul

(Encyclopedia)Marat, Jean Paul zhäN pōl märäˈ [key], 1743–93, French revolutionary, b. Switzerland. He studied medicine in England, acquired some repute as a doctor in London and Paris, and wrote scientific ...