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Massenet, Jules

(Encyclopedia)Massenet, Jules zhül mäsənāˈ [key], 1842–1912, French composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatory, where he taught from 1878 to 1896. In addition to many songs, several oratorios, and a numb...

Lady of the Lake

(Encyclopedia)Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian legend, a misty, supernatural figure endowed with magic powers, who gave the sword Excalibur to King Arthur. She inhabited a castle in an underwater kingdom. According t...

Stamma, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Stamma, Philip or Philipp, c.1705–55, Syrian-born chess pioneer. He lived in France and Italy before settling in England c.1737. There he attained a reputation as a fine chess player, popularized th...

Samain, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Samain, Albert älbĕrˈ sämăNˈ [key], 1858–1900, French poet. He was a founder (1890) of the literary periodical Mercure de France. His first collection of verse, Au jardin de l'infante (1893, r...

Richier, Ligier

(Encyclopedia)Richier, Ligier rēshyāˈ [key], c.1500–c.1567, French sculptor. Most of his work is in the churches of his native Lorraine. The most famous is The Entombment, consisting of 13 life-size figures i...

Pellico, Silvio

(Encyclopedia)Pellico, Silvio sēlˈvyō pĕlˈlēkō [key], 1789–1854, Italian dramatic poet. His principal work is Francesca da Rimini (1815, tr. 1856). Imprisoned for eight years by the Austrians as a Carbonar...

Neptune, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Neptune, in astronomy, 8th planet from the sun at a mean distance of about 2.8 billion mi (4.5 billion km) with an orbit lying between those of Uranus and the dwarf planet Pluto; its period of revolut...

Galiani, Ferdinando

(Encyclopedia)Galiani, Ferdinando fārdēnänˈdō gälyäˈnē [key], 1728–87, Italian economist, educated for the church. As a very young man he wrote Della moneta [on money] (1750), which attacked the mercanti...

Bloy, Léon

(Encyclopedia)Bloy, Léon lāôNˈ blwä [key], 1846–1917, French writer. A Roman Catholic and a social reformer, Bloy wrote violent and vituperative attacks on religious conformism and bitter portraits of his li...

Bayard, Pierre Terrail, seigneur de

(Encyclopedia)Bayard, Pierre Terrail, seigneur de bāˈərd; pyĕr tĕrīˈyə sānyörˈ də bäyärˈ [key], c.1474–1524, French military hero, called le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche [the knight without...