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Vis

(Encyclopedia)Vis vēs [key], Gr. Issa, Ital. Lissa, island, 35 sq mi (91 sq km), Croatia, off the Dalmatian coast in the Adriatic. A popular resort, its chief industries are fishing, citrus farming, and wine makin...

Devrient, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Devrient, Ludwig lo͝otˈvĭkh dəvrēăNˈ [key], 1784–1832, German actor. He abandoned a commercial career in 1804 to join a traveling theatrical company. In Berlin he was a favorite in comedy and...

Lyra

(Encyclopedia)Lyra līˈrə [key] [Lat.,=the lyre], northern constellation lying S of Draco, E of Hercules, and W of Cygnus. Although many civilizations represented it as a bird, it was also depicted as a tortoise....

Friedrich Schiller University of Jena

(Encyclopedia)Friedrich Schiller University of Jena frēˈdrĭkh shĭlˈər, yāˈnə [key], at Jena, Germany; founded 1548 as an academy; became the Univ. of Jena 10 years later. The school gained an international...

Fuseli, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Fuseli, Henry fyo͞oˈzĭlē [key], 1741–1825, Anglo-Swiss painter and draftsman, b. Zürich. He was known also as Johann Heinrich Fuessli or Füssli. He took holy orders but never practiced the pri...

John of Leiden

(Encyclopedia)John of Leiden, c.1509–1536, Dutch Anabaptist leader. His original name was Beuckelszoon, Beuckelzoon, Bockelszoon, Bockelson, Beukels, or Buckholdt. John of Leiden was attracted to the extreme left...

metronome

(Encyclopedia)metronome mĕˈtrənōmˌ [key], in music, originally pyramid-shaped clockwork mechanism to indicate the exact tempo in which a work is to be performed. It has a double pendulum whose pace can be alte...

Weiser, Conrad

(Encyclopedia)Weiser, Conrad wīzˈər [key], 1696–1760, American pioneer, b. Württemberg, Germany. Arriving in America in 1710, his family settled in Livingston Manor, N.Y., and later at Schoharie. While still ...

rococo, in music

(Encyclopedia)rococo, in music, 18th-century reaction against the baroque style. Less formal and grandiose in structure, it was a graceful rather than a profound style, more hedonistic than venturesome. Extreme man...

Selten, Reinhard

(Encyclopedia)Selten, Reinhard (Reinhard Justus Reginald Selten), 1930–2016, German mathematician and economist, b. Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), Ph.D. Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Univ., Frankfurt, 1961. He...