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Ursins, Marie Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des

(Encyclopedia)Ursins, Marie Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des märēˈ än də lä trāmwäˈyə prăNsĕsˈ dāzürsănˈ [key], 1642–1722, French noblewoman and unofficial diplomat. After the death of her fi...

birth control

(Encyclopedia)birth control, practice of contraception for the purpose of limiting reproduction. Although contraceptive techniques had been known in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the modern movement for birth ...

Peri, Jacopo

(Encyclopedia)Peri, Jacopo yäˈkōpō pĕˈrē [key], 1561–1633, Italian composer and singer. Dafne (c.1597), perhaps the first opera, was composed by both Peri and Jacopo Corsi. The librettist, Ottavio Rinuccin...

Vatel, François

(Encyclopedia)Vatel, François fräNswäˈ vätĕlˈ [key], fl. 17th cent., French chef, famous in the time of Louis XIV. Mme Marie de Sévigné, in her letters, speaks of him as the chef of the prince of Condé an...

Ferdinand, king of Romania

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand, 1865–1927, king of Romania (1914–27), nephew of Carol I. The second son of the Prussian prince, Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he was designated successor to the heirless Carol I ...

Chambord, Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Chambord, Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné, comte de äNrēˈ shärl fĕrdēnäNˈ märēˈ dyödônāˈ kôNt də shäNbôrˈ [key], 1820–83, Bourbon claimant to the French throne, posthumo...

Josephine

(Encyclopedia)Josephine, 1763–1814, empress of the French (1804–9) as the consort of Napoleon I. Born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Martinique, she was married in 1779 to Alexandre de Beauharnais...

Carol II

(Encyclopedia)Carol II, 1893–1953, king of Romania, son of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie. While crown prince, he contracted a morganatic marriage with Zizi Labrino but divorced her to marry (1921) Princess Helen...

Horne, Marilyn

(Encyclopedia)Horne, Marilyn, 1934–, American mezzo-soprano, b. Bradford, Pa. She established herself with her characterization of Marie in Alban Berg's Wozzeck at the San Francisco Opera in 1960. In 1970 she mad...

eau de Cologne

(Encyclopedia)eau de Cologne ō də kəlōnˈ [key], dilute perfume [commonly called cologne in English] introduced c.1709 in Cologne, Germany, by Jean Marie Farina. It was probably a modification of a popular form...