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Nicaea, empire of

(Encyclopedia)Nicaea, empire of, 1204–61. In 1204 the armies of the Fourth Crusade set up the Latin Empire of Constantinople, but the Crusaders' influence did not extend over the entire Byzantine Empire. Several ...

Saint Mark's Church

(Encyclopedia)Saint Mark's Church, Venice, named after the tutelary saint of Venice. The original Romanesque basilical church, built in the 9th cent. as a shrine for the saint's bones, was destroyed by fire in 967....

Gaiseric

(Encyclopedia)Gaiseric gĕnˈsərĭk, jĕnˈ– [key], c.390–477, king of the Vandals and Alani (428–77), one of the ablest of the barbarian invaders of the Roman Empire. He led (429) his people from Spain into...

Ravenna, city, Italy

(Encyclopedia)Ravenna rävĕnˈnä [key], city (1991 pop. 135,844), capital of Ravenna prov., in Emilia-Romagna, N central Italy, near the Adriatic Sea (with which it is connected by a canal). It is an agricultural...

Crusades

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Crusader States (c.1140) Crusades kro͞oˈsādz [key], series of wars undertaken by European Christians between the 11th and 14th cent. to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. After...

Hydra, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Hydra, in astronomy, southern constellation lying S of Corvus, Crater, Virgo, Leo, and Cancer. It is a long, slender, winding constellation traditionally depicted as a snake and known also as the Wate...

Gryphius, Andreas

(Encyclopedia)Gryphius, Andreas ändrāˈäs grüˈfēo͝os [key], 1616–64, German poet-dramatist, originally named Andreas Greif. He wrote in Latin, new High German, and Silesian dialect. Among his many sonnets,...

volt

(Encyclopedia)volt [for Alessandro Volta], abbr. V, unit of electric potential and electromotive force. It is defined as the difference of electric potential existing across the ends of a conductor carrying a const...

Ferrara-Florence, Council of

(Encyclopedia)Ferrara-Florence, Council of, 1438–45, second part of the 17th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church; the first part was the Council of Basel, canonically convened but after 1437 schismati...

Rambaud, Alfred Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Rambaud, Alfred Nicolas älfrĕdˈ nēkôläˈ räNbōˈ [key], 1842–1905, French historian and politician. He served in the administration of Jules Ferry, was elected senator (1895), and was minist...