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régence style

(Encyclopedia)régence style rāzhäNsˈ [key], transitional style in architecture and decoration originated in France during the regency (1715–23) of Philippe, duc d'Orléans. The most important practitioners of...

Orléans, French royal family

(Encyclopedia)Orléans ôrlāäNˈ [key], family name of two branches of the French royal line. The house of Valois-Orléans was founded by Louis, duc d'Orléans (see separate article), whose assassination (1407) c...

Medici, Italian family

(Encyclopedia)Medici mĕˈdĭchē, Ital. māˈdēchē [key], Italian family that directed the destinies of Florence from the 15th cent. until 1737. Of obscure origin, they rose to immense wealth as merchants and ba...

Angoulême, Marie Thérèse Charlotte, duchesse d'

(Encyclopedia)Angoulême, Marie Thérèse Charlotte, duchesse d' däNgo͞olĕmˈ [key], 1778–1851, wife of Louis Antoine d'Angoulême; daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. She was imprisoned (1792–95) d...

Ferdinand VI, king of Spain

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand VI, b. 1712 or 1713, d. 1759, king of Spain (1746–59), son of Philip V by his first queen, Marie Louise of Savoy. When Ferdinand succeeded his father, his stepmother, Elizabeth Farnese, lo...

Talma, François Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Talma, François Joseph fräNswäˈ zhôzĕfˈ tälmäˈ [key], 1763–1826, French actor. The greatest tragedian of his time, he broke with tradition and foreshadowed the romanticists. He continued L...

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...

Sault Sainte Marie, city, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Sault Sainte Marie so͞o sānt mərēˈ [key], city (1991 pop. 81,476), S Ont., Canada, on the St. Marys River opposite Sault Ste Marie, Mich. A bridge connects the two cities. Sault Ste Marie is an i...

Pourbus

(Encyclopedia)Pourbus po͝orˈbəs, –büs [key], family of Flemish painters. Pieter Pourbus, 1510–84, painted portraits and religious subjects. His Last Judgment is in the Bruges Museum; the Metropolitan Museum...

pseudonym

(Encyclopedia)pseudonym so͞oˈdənĭm [key] [Gr.,=false name], name assumed, particularly by writers, to conceal identity. A writer's pseudonym is also referred to as a nom de plume (pen name). Famous examples in ...