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Barker, Eugene Campbell

(Encyclopedia)Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874–1956, American historian, b. Walker co., Tex. His distinguished teaching career, begun in 1899, was almost entirely at the Univ. of Texas. An outstanding social histori...

Spagna, Lo

(Encyclopedia)Spagna, Lo lō späˈnyä [key], c.1450–c.1528, Italian painter, b. Spain, whence his nickname. His real name was Giovanni di Pietro. His art belongs to the Umbrian school and reveals his indebtedne...

Senancour, Étienne Pivert de

(Encyclopedia)Senancour, Étienne Pivert de ātyĕnˈ pēvĕrˈ də sənäNco͞orˈ [key], 1770–1846, French writer. He is known principally for his autobiographical epistolary novel Obermann (1804, tr. 1903). Th...

Shakhmatov, Aleksey Aleksandrovich

(Encyclopedia)Shakhmatov, Aleksey Aleksandrovich əlĭksyāˈ əlĭksänˈdrəvĭch shôkmətôfˈ [key], 1864–1920, Russian philologist and historian. Shakhmatov's many books on the history of the Russian langua...

Shakhty

(Encyclopedia)Shakhty shäkhˈtē [key], city (1989 pop. 226,000), SW European Russia; a major anthracite-mining center of the Donets Basin. Industrial products include iron, clothing, brewed beverages, and footwea...

Owl and the Nightingale, The

(Encyclopedia)Owl and the Nightingale, The, Middle English poem written probably by Nicholas de Guildford of Dorsetshire about the beginning of the 13th cent. Written in 2,000 lines of octosyllabic couplets, it des...

drought

(Encyclopedia)drought, abnormally long period of insufficient rainfall. Drought cannot be defined in terms of inches of rainfall or number of days without rain, since it is determined by such variable factors as th...

Copán

(Encyclopedia)Copán kōpänˈ [key], ruined city of the Maya, W Honduras, in a small river valley of the same name. Copán is noted for its fine sculptured stele and majestic architecture. The ruins were the site ...

Hesiod

(Encyclopedia)Hesiod hēˈsēəd, hĕsˈ– [key], fl. 8th cent.? b.c., Greek poet. He is thought to have lived later than Homer, but there is no absolute certainty about the dates of his life. Hesiod portrays hims...

Academy

(Encyclopedia)Academy, school founded by Plato near Athens c.387 b.c. It took its name from the garden (named for the hero Academus) in which it was located. Plato's followers met there for nine centuries until, al...