Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Soranus

(Encyclopedia)Soranus sərāˈnəs [key], fl. 1st–2d cent. a.d., Greek physician, probably b. Ephesus. He is believed to have practiced in Alexandria and in Rome and was an authority on obstetrics, gynecology, an...

Swindon

(Encyclopedia)Swindon, borough and unitary authority (1991 pop. 127,348), S central England. Swindon was a small village until 1841, when the Great Western RR opened its locomotive and car works there. It became th...

church, aggregation of Christian believers

(Encyclopedia)church [probably Gr.,=divine], aggregation of Christian believers. The traditional belief has the church the community of believers, living and dead, headed by Jesus, who founded it in the apostles. T...

chief

(Encyclopedia)chief or chieftain, political leader of a band, tribe, or confederation of tribes. At the simpler levels of social organization, the band or tribe usually lacks centralized authority and is ruled by t...

Offner, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Offner, Richard, 1889–1965, American art historian, b. Vienna, studied at Harvard, Ph.D. Univ. of Vienna, 1914. An outstanding authority on Italian art of the 13th and 14th cent., he taught at New Y...

Walter of Henley

(Encyclopedia)Walter of Henley or Walter de Henley, fl. 13th cent., English writer on agriculture. His treatise Husbandry, written in Norman French in the mid-13th cent., was the great medieval authority in England...

Botsford, George Willis

(Encyclopedia)Botsford, George Willis, 1862–1917, American historian, b. West Union, Iowa. After some years (1895–1901) at Harvard, he taught (1901–17) ancient history at Columbia. An outstanding authority on...

Gallicanism

(Encyclopedia)Gallicanism gălˈĭkənĭzˌəm [key], in French Roman Catholicism, tradition of resistance to papal authority. It was in opposition to ultramontanism, the view that accorded the papacy complete auth...

Holston

(Encyclopedia)Holston, river, c.120 mi (190 km) long, formed by the uniting of its northern and southern forks, NE Tenn., and flowing SW through the Great Appalachian Valley, joining the French Broad River at Knoxv...

Rutland, county, England

(Encyclopedia)Rutland, county (1991 pop. 32,400), 152 sq mi (394 sq km), central England; administratively, Rutland is a unitary authority (since 1997). Rutland has a rolling terrain and is a rural upland area larg...