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criticism

(Encyclopedia)criticism, the interpretation and evaluation of literature and the arts. It exists in a variety of literary forms: dialogues (Plato, John Dryden), verse (Horace, Alexander Pope), letters (John Keats),...

Counter Reformation

(Encyclopedia)Counter Reformation, 16th-century reformation that arose largely in answer to the Protestant Reformation; sometimes called the Catholic Reformation. Although the Roman Catholic reformers shared the Pr...

Amis, Sir Kingsley

(Encyclopedia)Amis, Sir Kingsley āˈmĭs [key], 1922–95, English novelist. He attended St. John's College, Oxford (B.A., 1949) and for some 20 years taught at Oxford, Swansea, and Cambridge and in the United Sta...

Louis XII, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XII, 1462–1515, king of France (1498–1515), son of Charles, duc d'Orléans. He succeeded his father as duke. While still duke, he rebelled against the regency of Anne de Beaujeu and was impr...

projective geometry

(Encyclopedia)projective geometry, branch of geometry concerned with those properties of geometric figures that remain invariant under projection. The basic elements are points, lines, and planes, and the following...

Clinton, George, vice president of the United States

(Encyclopedia)Clinton, George, 1739–1812, American statesman, vice president of the United States (1805–1812), b. Little Britain, N.Y. Before he was 20 he served on a privateer and, in the French and Indian War...

minimalism

(Encyclopedia)minimalism, schools of contemporary art and music, with their origins in the 1960s, that have emphasized simplicity and objectivity. In music, the minimalist movement was, like minimal art, a react...

African National Congress

(Encyclopedia)African National Congress (ANC), the oldest black (now multiracial) political organization in South Africa; founded in 1912. Prominent in its opposition to apartheid, the organization began as a nonvi...

Saint Peter's Church

(Encyclopedia)Saint Peter's Church, Vatican City, principal and one of the largest churches of the Christian world. The present structure was built mainly between 1506 and 1626 on the original site of the Vatican c...

Anjou

(Encyclopedia)Anjou äNzho͞oˈ [key], region and former province, W France, coextensive roughly with Maine-et-Loire and parts of Indre-et-Loire, Mayenne, and Sarthe depts. Angers, the historic capital, and Saumur ...