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Straubing

(Encyclopedia)Straubing shtrouˈbĭng [key], city (1994 pop. 43,586), Bavaria, SE Germany, on the Danube (Donau) River. It is an agricultural market of Lower Bavaria and an industrial center. Manufactures include m...

Bisceglie

(Encyclopedia)Bisceglie bēshĕlˈyēā [key], city, Apulia, S Italy, on the Adriatic Sea. It is a seaport, ...

Berry, former province, France

(Encyclopedia)Berry bĕrēˈ [key], former province, central France. Bourges, the capital, and Châteauroux are the chief towns. Cattle are raised on the Champagne Berrichonne, a semiarid plateau that covers most o...

alchemy

(Encyclopedia)alchemy ălˈkəmē [key], ancient art of obscure origin that sought to transform base metals (e.g., lead) into silver and gold; forerunner of the science of chemistry. Some scholars hold that it was ...

Nadal, Rafael

(Encyclopedia)Nadal, Rafael (Rafael Nadal Parera), 1986–, Spanish tennis player, b. Majorca. Widely regarded as the greatest clay-court player ever, “Rafa” turned professional at 15. In 2005 he won his first ...

Ladislaus II, king of Poland

(Encyclopedia)Ladislaus II or Ladislaus Jagiello yägyĕˈlō [key], 1350?–1434, king of Poland (1386–1434), grand duke of Lithuania (1378–1401), founder of the Jagiello dynasty. Leaguing with Poland against ...

Zähringen

(Encyclopedia)Zähringen tsĕrˈĭng-ən [key], noble German family. It took its name from a now ruined castle near Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, and can be traced to the 10th cent. The family held extensive fiefs i...

Wettin

(Encyclopedia)Wettin vĕtˈĭn [key], German dynasty, which ruled in Saxony, Thuringia, Poland, Great Britain, Belgium, and Bulgaria. It takes its name from a castle on the Saale near Halle. The family gained promi...

Gascony

(Encyclopedia)Gascony găsˈkənē [key], Fr. Gascogne, region of SW France. It is now coextensive with the departments of Landes, Gers, and Hautes-Pyrénées and parts of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Lot-et-Garonne, Ta...

Henry I, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Henry I, c.1008–1060, king of France (1031–60), son and successor of King Robert II. To defend his throne against his mother, his brothers Robert and Eudes, and subsequently against the count of B...