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Île-de-France, region, France

(Encyclopedia)Île-de-France ēl-də-fräNs [key], region and former province, N central France, in the center of the Paris basin, a fertile depression where the Marne and Ouse rivers join the Seine. Containing par...

Asser

(Encyclopedia)Asser ăsˈər [key], d. 909, Welsh clergyman, monk of St. David's Abbey, Pembrokeshire. He went c.884 to the court of King Alfred, helped Alfred learn Latin, and later was made a bishop. He is rememb...

Calmet, Augustin

(Encyclopedia)Calmet, Augustin ōgüstăNˈ kälmāˈ [key], 1672–1757, French biblical scholar, a Benedictine abbot at Nancy and Sens. His critical commentaries were widely studied until the 19th cent. when the ...

Riesa

(Encyclopedia)Riesa rēˈzä [key], city (1994 pop. 42,656), Saxony, E central Germany, on the Elbe River. It is a river port, rail junction, and industrial center. Manufactures include tires, soap, and building ma...

Amesbury, town, England

(Encyclopedia)Amesbury āmzˈbərē [key], town, Wiltshire, S central England. Located on Salisbury plain, the town is among the oldest continuously settled locations in Great Britain. In 980 the widow of King Edga...

Gibbons, Orlando

(Encyclopedia)Gibbons, Orlando, 1583–1625, English organist and composer. He became organist of the Chapel Royal about 1603, court virginalist in 1619, and organist at Westminster Abbey in 1623. His compositions ...

Jocelin de Brakelond

(Encyclopedia)Jocelin de Brakelond jŏsˈlĭn də brākˈlŏnd [key], fl. 1200, English chronicler, a monk of Bury St. Edmunds. His chronicle of St. Edmund's Abbey, covering the years 1173–1202, is written in a s...

Paisley

(Encyclopedia)Paisley pāzˈlē [key], town (1991 pop. 84,330), Renfrewshire, W Scotland, on the White Cart Water, a stream. It has a thriving textile industry and is an extremely large producer of thread. Other ma...

Bangor, town, Northern Ireland

(Encyclopedia)Bangor băngˈgər [key], town, North Down dist., E Northern Ireland, on Belfast Lough. It is ...

Woburn, village, England

(Encyclopedia)Woburn wo͞oˈbərn [key], village, Central Bedfordshire, S central England. It is famous for Woburn Abbey (seat of the dukes of Bedford; see Russell, family), an 18th-century mansion constructed on t...