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absolute pitch

(Encyclopedia)absolute pitch, the position of a tone in the musical scale determined according to its number of vibrations per second, irrespective of other tones. The term also denotes the capacity to identify any...

Owl and the Nightingale, The

(Encyclopedia)Owl and the Nightingale, The, Middle English poem written probably by Nicholas de Guildford of Dorsetshire about the beginning of the 13th cent. Written in 2,000 lines of octosyllabic couplets, it des...

Ribeiro, Bernardim

(Encyclopedia)Ribeiro, Bernardim bərnərdēmˈ rēbāˈro͝o [key], 1482?–1552?, Portuguese poet. Ribeiro was a figure at the Lisbon court and is said to have gone mad after an unhappy love affair. Saudades, or ...

Eyskens, Gaston

(Encyclopedia)Eyskens, Gaston gästôNˈ īˈskəns [key], 1905–88, Belgian political leader. He became a professor at the Univ. of Louvain in 1931. A Christian Socialist member of parliament (1939–73), he head...

Kissinger, Henry Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Kissinger, Henry Alfred kĭsˈənjər [key], 1923–2023, American political scientist and U.S. secretary ...

republic

(Encyclopedia)republic [Lat. res publica,=public affair], today understood to be a sovereign state ruled by representatives of a widely inclusive electorate. The term republic formerly denoted a form of government ...

Gerry, Elbridge

(Encyclopedia)Gerry, Elbridge gĕrˈē [key], 1744–1814, American statesman, Vice President of the United States, b. Marblehead, Mass. He was elected (1772) to the Massachusetts General Court, where he became a f...

Graves, Thomas Graves, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Graves, Thomas Graves, Baron, 1725?–1802, British admiral. During the American Revolution his fleet was routed (1781) by the comte de Grasse at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, a defeat that led directl...

Cavendish, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Cavendish, Thomas, 1560–92, English navigator. He commanded a ship in the flotilla under Sir Richard Grenville sent (1585) by Sir Walter Raleigh to establish the first colony in Virginia. In 1586, i...

Carlos, second son of Charles IV of Spain

(Encyclopedia)Carlos (Carlos María Isidro de Borbón), 1788–1855, second son of Charles IV of Spain. He was the first Carlist pretender. After his father's abdication (1808) he was, with the rest of his family, ...