Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Notker Labeo

(Encyclopedia)Notker Labeo läˈbēō [key], c.950–1022, German monk, also known as Teŭtonĭcus. He was a teacher at St. Gall. Notker translated into Old High German Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy, Capella...

La Hire, Laurent de

(Encyclopedia)La Hire or La Hyre, Laurent de lä ēr [key], 1606–56, French painter. He produced many portraits and historical paintings, a few romantic landscapes, important decorative works for Richelieu, Pier...

Byng, John

(Encyclopedia)Byng, John, 1704–57, British admiral; son of George Byng, Viscount Torrington. Sent (1756) to prevent the French from taking Minorca, he arrived when the island was already under siege and, after an...

Tate, Nahum

(Encyclopedia)Tate, Nahum nāˈhəm [key], 1652–1715, English poet and dramatist, b. Dublin. He wrote several popular adaptations of Shakespeare, the most famous being his King Lear (1681), in which he omitted th...

Urban IV

(Encyclopedia)Urban IV, d. 1264, pope (1261–64), a Frenchman (b. Troyes) named Jacques Pantaléon; successor of Alexander IV. In the pontifical service he was sent on missions into N Germany; then he was made bis...

West, Morris

(Encyclopedia)West, Morris (Morris Langlo West), 1916–99, Australian novelist, b. Melbourne. West's novels often reveal an interest in both Roman Catholicism and international politics, as reflected in his best-s...

Bridget of Sweden, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Bridget of Sweden, Saint, c.1300–1373, Swedish nun, one of the great saints of Scandinavia. She was a noblewoman at court and the mother of eight children. After her husband's death she founded (134...

Bamberg

(Encyclopedia)Bamberg bämˈbĕrk [key], city, Bavaria, S Germany, a port on the Regnitz River. It is an in...

Dominic, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Dominic, Saint dŏmˈənĭk [key], 1170?–1221, Castilian churchman, named Domingo de Guzmán, founder of the Dominicans. He studied at Palencia and became a canon, then prior of canons, of the cathe...

Halleck, Henry Wager

(Encyclopedia)Halleck, Henry Wager, 1815–72, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Oneida co., N.Y., grad. West Point, 1839. He entered the Corps of Engineers and became an expert on fortifications; his Ele...

Browse by Subject