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Firishta

(Encyclopedia)Firishta or Ferishta both: fĭrĭshtăˈ [key], c.1560–c.1620, Indian Muslim historian. His given name was Muhammad Kasim Hindu Shah. Under the patronage of the shah of Bijapur, he wrote a history o...

Acominatus, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Acominatus, Michael kōnēāˈtēz [key], c.1140–1220, Byzantine writer and metropolitan of Athens. Acominatus' speeches, poems, and letters give much information about medieval Athens, which he, a ...

prelude

(Encyclopedia)prelude prāˈlo͞od [key], musical composition of no universal style, usually for the keyboard. It was originally used to precede a ceremony and later a second, often larger piece. Early preludes rep...

Preti, Mattia

(Encyclopedia)Preti, Mattia mät-tēˈä prĕˈtē [key], 1613–99, Italian baroque painter, called Il Calabrese for his birthplace. Preti went to Rome c.1630 and studied with Lanfranco. His most dramatic works we...

Tourgée, Albion Winegar

(Encyclopedia)Tourgée, Albion Winegar to͝orzhāˈ [key], 1838–1905, American author and lawyer, b. Williamsfield, Ohio, studied at the Univ. of Rochester. After serving in the Union army he was for a few years ...

relief

(Encyclopedia)relief, in sculpture, three-dimensional projection from a flat background. In alto-relievo, or high relief, the protrusion is great; basso-relievo, or bas-relief, protrudes only slightly; and mezzo-re...

Robert of Gloucester

(Encyclopedia)Robert of Gloucester glŏsˈtər [key], fl. 1260–1300, English chronicler. Possibly a monk of Gloucester, he is known only from the vernacular metrical chronicle of English history that bears his na...

Walpole, Sir Spencer

(Encyclopedia)Walpole, Sir Spencer, 1839–1907, English historian. He held a number of minor public offices and served as private secretary in the home office to his father, Sir Spencer Horatio Walpole, whose biog...

Bosse, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Bosse, Abraham äbrä-ämˈ bôs [key], 1602–76, French engraver and painter. He studied art in Paris and became a teacher of perspective in the Académie royale. A prolific and skillful worker, he ...

Bradley, James

(Encyclopedia)Bradley, James, 1693–1762, English astronomer. His discovery of the aberration of light, announced in 1728, provided an important line of evidence for the motion of the earth around the sun. In 1742...