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Littré, Maximilien Paul Émile

(Encyclopedia)Littré, Maximilien Paul Émile mäksēmēlyăNˈ pōl āmēlˈ lētrāˈ [key], 1801–81, French lexicographer. Known as a positivist philosopher and as professor of history and geography at the Éc...

Salamanca, University of

(Encyclopedia)Salamanca, University of, at Salamanca, Spain; founded 1218 by Alfonso IX of León, reorganized 1254 by Alfonso X of Castile and León. It has faculties of philosophy, philology, geography and history...

Nordenskjöld, Nils Otto Gustaf

(Encyclopedia)Nordenskjöld, Nils Otto Gustaf, 1869–1928, Swedish geographer and explorer, nephew of Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld. He headed an expedition to Patagonia (1895–97) and later explored the Klondike...

Abu al-Fida

(Encyclopedia)Abu al-Fida äˌbo͞o äl-fēˈdä, –fĭdäˈ [key], 1273–1331, Arab historian, b. Damascus. He fought against the Christians in the last period of the Crusades and later became (1310) governor of...

Rennell, James

(Encyclopedia)Rennell, James, 1742–1830, English cartographer, geographer, and oceanographer. He was surveyor general (1764–77) of Bengal and published A Bengal Atlas (1779). He constructed the first approximat...

Albert, Carl Bert

(Encyclopedia)Albert, Carl Bert, 1908–2000, U.S. Congressman (1947–76), b. McAlester, Okla. Admitted to the bar in 1935, Albert enlisted (1941) in the army as a private, served (1942–46) in the Pacific during...

Ptolemy

(Encyclopedia)Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus), fl. 2d cent. a.d., celebrated Greco-Egyptian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer. He made his observations in Alexandria and was the last great astronomer of ancie...

Münster, Sebastian

(Encyclopedia)Münster, Sebastian sābäsˈtyänˌ münˈstər [key], 1489–1552, German scholar and geographer. He was a Franciscan monk but after the Reformation became a Protestant and taught at Heidelberg and ...

Brigham, Albert Perry

(Encyclopedia)Brigham, Albert Perry, 1855–1932, American geographer, b. Perry, N.Y., grad. Colgate Univ., 1879, M. A. Harvard, 1892. After nine years in the Baptist ministry (1882–91) he became professor of geo...

Smith, Sir George Adam

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Sir George Adam, 1856–1942, Scottish biblical scholar and Hebraist, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. He was professor of Old Testament language, literature, and theology in the United Free C...