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Roland de la Platière, Jean Marie

(Encyclopedia)Roland de la Platière, Jean Marie zhäN märēˈ rôläNˈ də lä plätyĕrˈ [key], 1734–93, French revolutionary. An inspector general of commerce at Rouen and Amiens, he went to Paris in 1791 a...

Roland Holst, Henriëtte (van der Schalk)

(Encyclopedia)Roland Holst, Henriëtte (van der Schalk) hĕnrēĕtˈə vän dĕr skhälk rōˈlänt hôlst [key], 1869–1952, Dutch writer. Her early Sonnets and Poems Written in Terza Rima (1895) won praise for o...

Bernardo del Carpio

(Encyclopedia)Bernardo del Carpio bĕrnärˈdō dĕl kärˈpyō [key], hero of medieval Spanish legend. He was supposedly the nephew of Alfonso II of Asturias, against whom he strove to secure his father's release ...

Taillefer

(Encyclopedia)Taillefer tīəfĕrˈ [key], fl. 1066, Norman warrior and trouvère. According to medieval chronicles and evidence in the Bayeux Tapestry, he led the Norman army at Hastings into battle, singing of Ro...

Roncesvalles

(Encyclopedia)Roncesvalles rōnˌthāsväˈlyās [key], Fr. Roncevaux, mountain pass (alt. 3,468 ft/1,057 m), in the Pyrenees, between Pamplona (Spain) and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (France). Tradition has made it th...

Saint Laurent, Yves

(Encyclopedia)Saint Laurent, Yves săN lôräNˈ [key], 1936–2008, French fashion designer, b. Oran, Algeria, as Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent. Moving to Paris at 17, he ultimately established houses of...

Boiardo, Matteo Maria

(Encyclopedia)Boiardo or Bojardo, Matteo Maria mät-tĕˈō märēˈä bōyärˈdō [key], 1441?–1494, Italian poet, count of Scandiano. A favorite at the Este court in Ferrara, he served on diplomatic missions a...

Bayard, horse, in chivalric romance

(Encyclopedia)Bayard bäyärˈdō [key], in chivalric romance, a bay horse, remarkable for his spirit and for his unique ability to fit his size to his rider. He appears in the 12th-century French epic Renaud de Mo...

Great Northern Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Great Northern Peninsula or Petit Nord Peninsula, comprising NW Newfoundland island, Canada, extending 170 mi (274 km) NE from Bonne Bay on the west to Cape Bauld at the tip; White Bay borders it on t...

chansons de geste

(Encyclopedia)chansons de geste shäNsôNˈ də zhĕst [key] [Fr.,=songs of deeds], a group of epic poems of medieval France written from the 11th through the 13th cent. Varying in length from 1,000 to 20,000 lines...

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