Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Repplier, Agnes

(Encyclopedia)Repplier, Agnes rĕpˈlēr [key], 1858–1950, American essayist, b. Philadelphia. Her essays, esteemed for their scholarship and wit, are collected in several volumes, including Books and Men (1888),...

Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth

(Encyclopedia)Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth ālēzäbĕtˈ vēzhāˈ-ləbröNˈ [key], 1755–1842, French portrait painter; pupil of her father, the painter Louis Vigée. She was influenced by Greuze. Summoned to Vers...

Curie

(Encyclopedia)Curie kürēˈ [key], family of French scientists. Pierre Curie, 1859–1906, scientist, and his wife, Marie Sklodowska Curie, 1867–1934, chemist and physicist, b. Warsaw, are known for their work o...

Sue, Eugène

(Encyclopedia)Sue, Eugène özhĕnˈ sü [key], 1804–57, French novelist, whose name was originally Marie-Joseph Sue. A surgeon in the French navy, he went into exile when Napoleon III came to power. Sue's popula...

Iguala

(Encyclopedia)Iguala ᵺā lä ēnˌdāpĕndĕnˈsyä [key], city, Guerrero state, S Mexico, on the...

Poison Affair

(Encyclopedia)Poison Affair, in French history, scandal implicating a number of prominent persons at the court of King Louis XIV. It began with the trial of Marie Madeleine d'Aubray, marquise de Brinvilliers (c.163...

Álvarez, José

(Encyclopedia)Álvarez, José (José Álvarez de Pereira y Cubero) hōsāˈ älˈvärĕth dā pārāˈrä ē ko͞obāˈrō [key], 1768–1827, Spanish neoclassical sculptor. He was a follower of Canova. Álvarez wa...

Bernadette, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Bernadette, Saint bûrnədĕtˈ [key], 1844–79, French peasant girl who reported seeing the Virgin Mary in apparitions at a grotto near Lourdes, her home, in 1858. She was born Marie Bernarde Soubir...

Carlos, second son of Charles IV of Spain

(Encyclopedia)Carlos (Carlos María Isidro de Borbón), 1788–1855, second son of Charles IV of Spain. He was the first Carlist pretender. After his father's abdication (1808) he was, with the rest of his family, ...

Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von

(Encyclopedia)Helmholtz, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von hĕrˈmän lo͞otˈvĭkh fĕrˈdēnänt fən hĕlmˈhôlts [key], 1821–94, German scientist. Although known especially as a physicist and biologist, he was al...