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Ficino, Marsilio

(Encyclopedia)Ficino, Marsilio märsēˈlyō fēchēˈnō [key], 1433–99, Italian philosopher. Under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, Ficino became the most influential exponent of Platonism in Italy in the 15...

Firbank, Ronald

(Encyclopedia)Firbank, Ronald (Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank), 1886–1926, English author. Of a delicate and eccentric nature, Firbank lived the life of a leisured aesthete. His novels, which have appealed to a s...

Fox, Dixon Ryan

(Encyclopedia)Fox, Dixon Ryan, 1887–1945, American historian and educator, b. Potsdam, N.Y. He taught at Columbia from 1912 to 1934, becoming full professor in 1927. From 1934 until his death he was president of ...

illusionism

(Encyclopedia)illusionism, in art, a kind of visual trickery in which painted forms seem to be real. It is sometimes called trompe l'oeil [Fr.,=fool the eye]. The development of one-point perspective in the Renaiss...

Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir

(Encyclopedia)Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir mâr [key], c.1089–1164, Jewish grammarian, commentator, poet, philosopher, and astronomer, b. Tudela, Spain. He traveled widely and wrote a number of ethical treatises, p...

Hall of Fame for Great Americans

(Encyclopedia)Hall of Fame for Great Americans, national shrine, on the campus of Bronx Community College of the City Univ. of New York, Bronx, New York City; est. 1900. The Hall of Fame, a 630-ft (192-m) colonnade...

Herero

(Encyclopedia)Herero hərārˈō [key], Bantu people, mainly in Namibia and Botswana. They number about 75,000. A pastoral tribe noted for their large cattle herds, the Herero probably migrated from the region of L...

Hall, James

(Encyclopedia)Hall, James, 1811–98, American geologist and paleontologist, b. Hingham, Mass., grad. Rensselaer School (later Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), 1832. An authority on stratigraphy and invertebrate ...

golem

(Encyclopedia)golem gōˈləm [key] [Heb.,=an undeveloped lump], in medieval Jewish legend, an automatonlike servant made of clay and given life by means of a charm, or shem [Heb.,=name, or the name of God]. Golems...

Girtin, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Girtin, Thomas gûrˈtən [key], 1775–1802, English draftsman and watercolorist. He was apprenticed to an engraver but was employed, together with J. M. W. Turner, to make topographical drawings. Gi...