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Capgrave, John

(Encyclopedia)Capgrave, John, 1393–1464, English author and Augustinian friar. One of the most learned men of his day, he was a distinguished theologian, philosopher, and historian. His writings, many of which ha...

Edgeworth, Richard Lovell

(Encyclopedia)Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 1744–1817, Anglo-Irish educational theorist, b. Bath, England, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Oxford; father of Maria Edgeworth. A member of the literary cote...

Delderfield, R. F.

(Encyclopedia)Delderfield, R. F. (Ronald Frederick Delderfield), 1912–73, English writer, b. London. He did not start writing novels until he was 44, after having been a successful playwright and newspaperman. Hi...

Alkan, Charles Henri Valentin

(Encyclopedia)Alkan, Charles Henri Valentin shärl äNrēˈ väläNtăNˈ ălkăNˈ [key], 1813–88, French pianist and composer; his original surname was Morhange. He was a pianist of great virtuosity and wrote m...

Cosway, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Cosway, Richard kŏzˈwā [key], 1740?–1821, English miniaturist. His work was elegant and modish and became highly popular in his day. There is a collection of his works in Windsor Castle. Perhaps ...

Cinco de Mayo

(Encyclopedia)Cinco de Mayo, May 5, the anniversary of Mexico's victory over France in 1862 in the Battle of Puebla, in which Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza's small, ill-equipped Mexican forces defeated a much larger French...

Coehoorn, Menno van

(Encyclopedia)Coehoorn, Menno van mĕˈnō vän ko͞oˈhôrn [key], 1641–1704, Dutch military engineer and nobleman. He invented a portable bronze siege mortar called the coehorn. He was considered in his day a r...

Immanuel ben Solomon

(Encyclopedia)Immanuel ben Solomon, c.1265–c.1330, Hebrew-Italian poet and scholar, b. Rome. He wrote biblical criticism and, in both Hebrew and Italian, satiric verse and lively stories. His work represents a sy...

Haydon, Benjamin Robert

(Encyclopedia)Haydon, Benjamin Robert, 1786–1846, English historical painter and writer. A painter in the Grand Manner expounded by Reynolds, Haydon was also a popular teacher, writer, and lecturer. His lectures ...

Green, Hetty

(Encyclopedia)Green, Hetty, 1835–1916, American financier, b. Henrietta Howland Robinson, New Bedford, Mass. She inherited a large fortune from her father and invested it so shrewdly that she was considered the g...