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Gemistus Pletho, Georgius

(Encyclopedia)Gemistus Pletho, Georgius jôrˈjəs jĭmĭsˈtəs plēˈthō [key], c.1355–1452, Byzantine scholar and philosopher, b. Constantinople. He represented the Orthodox Eastern Church at the Council of F...

Murano

(Encyclopedia)Murano mo͞oräˈnō [key], suburb of Venice, NE Italy, on five small islands in the Lagoon of Venice. From the late 13th cent. it was the center of the Venetian glass industry, which reached a peak i...

Monreale

(Encyclopedia)Monreale mōnrāäˈlā [key], town (1991 pop. 26,256), NW Sicily, Italy, near Palermo. An agricultural market and tourist center, it commands a magnificent view of the fertile Conca d'Oro plain. A fa...

Cheke, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Cheke, Sir John chēk [key], 1514–57, English scholar. As professor of Greek at Cambridge he taught Roger Ascham and later was tutor to Edward VI. A Protestant, he was imprisoned by Mary I. Although...

Chaeronea

(Encyclopedia)Chaeronea kĕrənēˈə [key], ancient town of Boeotia, Greece, in the Cephissus (now Kifisós) River valley and NW of Thebes. There the Athenians and Thebans were defeated (338 b.c.) by the Macedonia...

Tolentino

(Encyclopedia)Tolentino tōlāntēˈnō [key], town (1991 pop. 18,346), in the Marche, central Italy, on the Chienti River. In 1797, Pope Pius VI signed at Tolentino a humiliating treaty with Napoleon Bonaparte, un...

Menelik II

(Encyclopedia)Menelik II mĕnˈəlĭk [key], 1844–1913, emperor of Ethiopia after 1889. He was originally ras (ruler) of Shoa (central Ethiopia). After the death (1868) of Emperor Tewodros II, Menelik, with Itali...

Duprat, Antoine

(Encyclopedia)Duprat, Antoine äNtwänˈ düpräˈ [key], 1463–1535, chancellor of France and cardinal. First president of the Paris Parlement (1508), he was a trusted adviser of Louise of Savoy, who appointed hi...

Giaever, Ivar

(Encyclopedia)Giaever, Ivar, 1929–, Norwegian-American physicist, Ph.D. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1964. He was a researcher at General Electric from 1954 to 1988, when he joined the faculty at his alma ma...

Jones, Jim

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Jim, 1931–78, American religious leader, b. Lynn, Indiana. An influential Indianapolis preacher from the 1950s and onetime head of the city's Human Rights Commission, Jones formed the raciall...