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Guettard, Jean-Étienne

(Encyclopedia)Guettard, Jean-Étienne zhän-ātyĕnˈ gĕtärˈ [key], 1715–86, French geologist, botanist, and natural historian. He was curator of the natural history collection of the French scientist René de...

Massillon, Jean Baptiste

(Encyclopedia)Massillon, Jean Baptiste zhäN bätēstˈ mäsēyôNˈ [key], 1663–1742, French clergyman, bishop of Clermont from 1717. He was celebrated for his preaching, especially at the courts of Louis XIV an...

Louis the German

(Encyclopedia)Louis the German, c.804–876, king of the East Franks (817–76). When his father, Emperor of the West Louis I, partitioned the empire in 817, Louis received Bavaria and adjacent territories. In the ...

Racine, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Racine, Jean zhäN räsēnˈ [key], 1639–99, French dramatist. Racine is the prime exemplar of French classicism. The nobility of his Alexandrine verse, the simplicity of his diction, the psychologi...

Aragon, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Aragon, Louis lwē ärägôNˈ [key], 1897–1982, French writer. One of the founders of surrealism in literature, Aragon abandoned that philosophy for Marxism after a trip to the USSR in 1931. He was...

Braille, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Braille, Louis brāl, Fr. lwē brīˈyə [key], 1809?–1852, French inventor of the Braille system of printing and writing for the blind. Having become blind from an accident at the age of 3, he was ...

Balzac, Jean Louis Guez de

(Encyclopedia)Balzac, Jean Louis Guez de də bälzäkˈ [key], 1597?–1654, French writer. His Lettres (1624, tr. 1634) and other writings were a great influence in reforming French prose. Their style was marked ...

Louis XI, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XI, 1423–83, king of France (1461–83), son and successor of Charles VII. A born diplomat, Louis skillfully checked his foreign and domestic enemies and set up an efficient central administ...

Géricault, Jean Louis André Théodore

(Encyclopedia)Géricault, Jean Louis André Théodore zhäN lwē äNdrāˈ tāōdôrˈ zhārēkōˈ [key], 1791–1824, French painter. He studied with Antoine Vernet and with Pierre Guérin, in whose studio he met...

Louis Philippe

(Encyclopedia)Louis Philippe lwē fēlēpˈ [key], 1773–1850, king of the French (1830–48), known before his accession as Louis Philippe, duc d'Orléans. The son of Philippe Égalité (see Orléans, Louis Phili...