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Rubens, Peter Paul

(Encyclopedia)Rubens, Peter Paul, 1577–1640, foremost Flemish painter of the 17th cent., b. Siegen, Westphalia, where his family had gone into exile because of his father's Calvinist beliefs. Almost every princ...

progressive education

(Encyclopedia)progressive education, movement in American education. Confined to a period between the late 19th and mid-20th cent., the term “progressive education” is generally used to refer only to those educ...

Counter Reformation

(Encyclopedia)Counter Reformation, 16th-century reformation that arose largely in answer to the Protestant Reformation; sometimes called the Catholic Reformation. Although the Roman Catholic reformers shared the Pr...

Holbein, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Holbein, Hans häns hôlˈbīn [key] the elder, c.1465–1524, German painter and draftsman. Holbein worked principally in Augsburg and Ulm, painting altarpieces for churches and probably creating por...

Milan, city, Italy

(Encyclopedia)Milan mĭlănˈ, –änˈ [key], Ital. Milano, Lat. Mediolanum, city (1991 pop. 1,369,231), capital of Lombardy and of Milan prov., N Italy, at the heart of the Po basin. Because of its strategic posi...

Nicholas II, czar of Russia

(Encyclopedia)Nicholas II, 1868–1918, last czar of Russia (1894–1917), son of Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna. Discontent at home grew, the army tired of war, the food situation deteriorated, the governme...

Poe, Edgar Allan

(Encyclopedia)Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809–49, American poet, short-story writer, and critic, b. Boston. He is acknowledged today as one of the most brilliant and original writers in American literature. His skillfully...

Virgin Islands

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Virgin Islands, group of about 100 small islands, West Indies, E of Puerto Rico. The islands are divided politically between the United States and Great Britain. Although constituting the weste...

Mindanao

(Encyclopedia)Mindanao mĭndənäˈō, –nouˈ [key], island (1990 pop. 13,535,738), 36,537 sq mi (94,631 sq km), second largest of the Philippine islands, NE of Borneo. About one fifth of the island's population ...

Bach, Johann Sebastian

(Encyclopedia)Bach, Johann Sebastian bäkh [key], 1685–1750, German composer and organist, b. Eisenach; one of the greatest and most influential composers of the Western world. He brought polyphonic baroque musi...