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Picard, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Picard, Jean, 1620–82, French astronomer, noted for having made the first accurate measurement of a degree of the earth's meridian. The figures he established were of great value to Newton in his ca...

Saint Jean

(Encyclopedia)Saint Jean săN zhäN [key], city (1991 pop. 37,607), S Que., Canada, on the Richelieu River, SE of Montreal. It is an industrial center with textile and hosiery mills and manufactures such as sewing ...

Cavalier, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Cavalier, Jean zhäN kävälyāˈ [key], 1681?–1740, French Protestant soldier, a leader of the Camisards. From his home in the Cévennes region of France, he fled to Geneva (1701) when persecution ...

Castex, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Castex, Jean, 1965–, French government official and political leader. A member of the center-right Republicans (and its predecessor, the Union for a Popular Movement), Castex has held a variety of c...

Pucelle, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Pucelle, Jean zhäN püsĕlˈ [key], c.1300–1355, French manuscript illuminator. Master of a celebrated workshop in Paris during the 1320s, Pucelle produced a masterpiece of illumination and a styli...

Balue, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Balue, Jean zhäN bälüˈ [key], c.1421–1491, French statesman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. A trusted adviser of the French king Louis XI, he saved Paris for the king during the revolt o...

Renoir, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Renoir, Jean zhäN rənwärˈ [key], 1894–1979, French film director and writer, b. Paris; son of Pierre Auguste Renoir. He made his first film in 1926. Gathering around him a devoted coterie of act...

Ribaut, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Ribaut or Ribault, Jean both: zhäN rēbōˈ [key], c.1520–65, French mariner and colonizer in Florida, b. Dieppe. When Gaspard de Coligny decided to plant a French colony as an asylum for Huguenots...

Petitot, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Petitot, Jean lwēˈ [key], 1653–c.1730, was in the service of Charles II of England. Specimens of his work are preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum. ...

Vigo, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Vigo, Jean zhäN vēgōˈ [key], 1905–34, French movie director, whose original name was Jean Almereyda. His reputation is based on two superb films: Zéro de Conduite (1933) and L'Atalante (1934, u...