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Negri, Ada

(Encyclopedia)Negri, Ada äˈdä nĕˈgrē [key], 1870–1945, Italian writer. Her first poems, Fatalità (1892, tr. Fate and Other Poems, 1898) voiced bitter protest against the state of the poor. Her passionate l...

Licata

(Encyclopedia)Licata lēkäˈtä [key], city (1991 pop. 41,300), S Sicily, Italy, on the Mediterranean Sea at the mouth of the Salso River. Licata is a seaport, seaside resort, and commercial and industrial center....

Vida, Marco Girolamo

(Encyclopedia)Vida, Marco Girolamo märˈkō jērôˈlämō vēˈdä [key], c.1490–1566, Italian poet, b. Cremona. After joining the humanist court of Pope Leo X, he was given a priory at Frascati and was commiss...

Tartaglia, Niccolò

(Encyclopedia)Tartaglia, Niccolò nēk-kōlôˈ tärtäˈlyä [key], c.1500–1557, Italian engineer and mathematician. Largely self-educated, he taught mathematics at Verona, Brescia, and Venice. A pioneer in appl...

Bontempelli, Massimo

(Encyclopedia)Bontempelli, Massimo mäsˈsēmō bōntĕmpĕlˈlē [key], 1878–1960, Italian writer and critic. One of the first of the intellectuals to support fascism, he was also a convert to futurism for a tim...

Puskás, Ferenc

(Encyclopedia)Puskás, Ferenc, 1927–2006, Hungarian soccer player. A relatively slow but extremely powerful forward, Puskás became famous for his extraordinarily effective left-footed kick. He began playing prof...

Betti, Ugo

(Encyclopedia)Betti, Ugo o͞oˈgō bətˈtē [key], 1892–1953, Italian dramatist and poet. He was a judge by profession. His earliest published works were two volumes of poetry (1922 and 1932), but he is remember...

Piazzi, Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Piazzi, Giuseppe jo͞ozĕpˈpā pyätˈtsē [key], 1746–1826, Italian astronomer, a Theatine priest from 1769. He became (1781) professor of mathematics at the Univ. of Palermo, supervised construct...

pinnacle

(Encyclopedia)pinnacle pĭnˈĭkəl [key], minor architectural motif of vertical tapering shape, usually crowning a pier, buttress, or gable. Although sometimes it appears in Renaissance design, as in the Certosa d...