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Alkan, Charles Henri Valentin

(Encyclopedia)Alkan, Charles Henri Valentin shärl äNrēˈ väläNtăNˈ ălkăNˈ [key], 1813–88, French pianist and composer; his original surname was Morhange. He was a pianist of great virtuosity and wrote m...

Cosway, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Cosway, Richard kŏzˈwā [key], 1740?–1821, English miniaturist. His work was elegant and modish and became highly popular in his day. There is a collection of his works in Windsor Castle. Perhaps ...

Cinco de Mayo

(Encyclopedia)Cinco de Mayo, May 5, the anniversary of Mexico's victory over France in 1862 in the Battle of Puebla, in which Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza's small, ill-equipped Mexican forces defeated a much larger French...

Coehoorn, Menno van

(Encyclopedia)Coehoorn, Menno van mĕˈnō vän ko͞oˈhôrn [key], 1641–1704, Dutch military engineer and nobleman. He invented a portable bronze siege mortar called the coehorn. He was considered in his day a r...

Immanuel ben Solomon

(Encyclopedia)Immanuel ben Solomon, c.1265–c.1330, Hebrew-Italian poet and scholar, b. Rome. He wrote biblical criticism and, in both Hebrew and Italian, satiric verse and lively stories. His work represents a sy...

Haydon, Benjamin Robert

(Encyclopedia)Haydon, Benjamin Robert, 1786–1846, English historical painter and writer. A painter in the Grand Manner expounded by Reynolds, Haydon was also a popular teacher, writer, and lecturer. His lectures ...

Green, Hetty

(Encyclopedia)Green, Hetty, 1835–1916, American financier, b. Henrietta Howland Robinson, New Bedford, Mass. She inherited a large fortune from her father and invested it so shrewdly that she was considered the g...

Gérôme, Jean Léon

(Encyclopedia)Gérôme, Jean Léon zhäN lāôNˈ zhārōmˈ [key], 1824–1904, French historical and genre painter. He enjoyed a successful career in his day. He studied with Delaroche and adhered to academic tec...

Gedaliah

(Encyclopedia)Gedaliah gĕdəlīˈə [key], in the Bible. 1 Son of Jeremiah's protector Ahikam and guardian under Nebuchadnezzar of the Jews who were exempt from the Captivity. He was treacherously murdered, and th...

Mossi

(Encyclopedia)Mossi mŏsˈē [key], African people, numbering about 2.5 million, mostly in Burkina Faso. From c.a.d. 1000 the Mossi were organized into several kingdoms, one of which has continued to the present da...