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Herder, Johann Gottfried von

(Encyclopedia)Herder, Johann Gottfried von yōˈhän gôtˈfrēt fən hĕrˈdər [key], 1744–1803, German philosopher, critic, and clergyman, b. East Prussia. Herder was an enormously influential literary critic ...

Witelo of Silesia

(Encyclopedia)Witelo of Silesia or Vitelo, c.1230–75, Silesian physicist, philosopher, and theologian. He studied in Paris and Padua and spent time at the papal palace in Viterbo, Italy. His ten-volume work on op...

Schiller, Friedrich von

(Encyclopedia)Schiller, Friedrich von, 1759–1805, German dramatist, poet, and historian, one of the greatest of German literary figures, b. Marbach, Württemberg. The poets of German romanticism were strongly inf...

Le Clerc, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Le Clerc, Jean lə klĕrˈ [key], Latin Johannes Clericus, 1657–1736, Swiss Arminian theologian and biblical scholar. He preached in France and in London, then, drawn to the teachings of the Dutch ...

Laski, John

(Encyclopedia)Laski, John yän lăsˈkē [key], Latin Johannes Alasco, 1499–1560, Polish Protestant reformer. A learned priest, he went in 1523 to Basel, where he was a close friend of Erasmus. After returning to...

Breitenfeld

(Encyclopedia)Breitenfeld brīˈtənfĕltˌ [key], village, Saxony, S central E Germany. It gave its name to two battles of the Thirty Years War. Gustavus Adolphus (Gustavus II) of Sweden there defeated the imperia...

Roscelin

(Encyclopedia)Roscelin rŏsˈəlĭn [key], c.1045–c.1120, French scholastic philosopher, also called Roscellinus, Johannes Roscellinus, and Jean Roscelin. Roscelin was one of the first thinkers of the Middle Ages...

Bürgi, Joost

(Encyclopedia)Bürgi, Joost or Jost, 1552–1632, Swiss mathematician and instrument maker. As the official clockmaker (1579–92) to Duke Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassell, he developed the first clock with a minute han...

Cassian, John

(Encyclopedia)Cassian, John kăshˈən [key] (Johannes Cassianus), 360–435, an Eastern Christian monk and theologian who brought Eastern spirituality to the West. Cassian toured the ascetic monastic settlements o...

Tübingen

(Encyclopedia)Tübingen tüˈbĭng–ən [key], city (1994 pop. 83,553), Baden-Württemberg, SW Germany, on the Neckar River. It is a cultural and industrial center; manufactures include textiles, machinery, metal ...