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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...

Boccaccio, Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Boccaccio, Giovanni jōvänˈnē [key], 1313–75, Italian poet and storyteller, author of the Decameron. Born in Paris, the illegitimate son of a Tuscan merchant and a French woman, he was educated a...

shopping center

(Encyclopedia)shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marke...

Columbus, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Columbus, Christopher, Ital. Cristoforo Colombo krēstōˈbäl kōlōnˈ [key], 1451–1506, European explorer, b. Genoa, Italy. Columbus was not the first European mariner to sail to the New World�...

Cologne

(Encyclopedia)Cologne kəlōnˈ [key], Ger. Köln, city (2021 est. metro area pop. 1,129,000), North Rhine�...

Glass, Philip

(Encyclopedia)Glass, Philip, 1937–, American composer, b. Baltimore. Considered one of the most innovative of contemporary composers, he was a significant figure in the development of minimalism in music. Glass a...

Gonzaga

(Encyclopedia)Gonzaga gōntsäˈgä [key], Italian princely house that ruled Mantua (1328–1708), Montferrat (1536–1708), and Guastalla (1539–1746). The family name is derived from the castle of Gonzaga, a vil...

Ukrainian literature

(Encyclopedia)Ukrainian literature, literary writings in the Ukrainian language. Kievan Church Slavonic texts of the 11th cent. and W Ukrainian texts of the 13th cent. show Ukrainian linguistic features, which pred...

Toledo , city, Spain

(Encyclopedia)Toledo, city (1990 pop. 60,671), capital of Toledo prov. and of Castile–La Mancha, central Spain, on a granite hill surrounded on three sides by a gorge of the Tagus River. Historically and cultural...

Barcelona

(Encyclopedia)Barcelona bärˌsəlōˈnə, Catalan bärˌsəlōˈnə, Span. bärˌthālōˈn...