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Medici, Italian family

(Encyclopedia)Medici mĕˈdĭchē, Ital. māˈdēchē [key], Italian family that directed the destinies of Florence from the 15th cent. until 1737. Of obscure origin, they rose to immense wealth as merchants and ba...

Martin, 1356–1410, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona

(Encyclopedia)Martin, 1356–1410, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (c.1395–1410) and, as Martin II, king of Sicily (1409–10). He succeeded his brother, John I, in Aragón and became king of Sicily on the...

electors

(Encyclopedia)electors, in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, the princes who had the right to elect the German kings or, more exactly, the kings of the Romans (Holy Roman emperors). Until the reign (1493–1519...

Duprat, Antoine

(Encyclopedia)Duprat, Antoine äNtwänˈ düpräˈ [key], 1463–1535, chancellor of France and cardinal. First president of the Paris Parlement (1508), he was a trusted adviser of Louise of Savoy, who appointed hi...

Constantine VI, Byzantine emperor

(Encyclopedia)Constantine VI, b. c.770, Byzantine emperor (780–97), son and successor of Leo IV. His mother, Irene, was regent until 790, when she was deposed by a military revolt. Constantine recalled her in 792...

Giaever, Ivar

(Encyclopedia)Giaever, Ivar, 1929–, Norwegian-American physicist, Ph.D. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1964. He was a researcher at General Electric from 1954 to 1988, when he joined the faculty at his alma ma...

Jones, Jim

(Encyclopedia)Jones, Jim, 1931–78, American religious leader, b. Lynn, Indiana. An influential Indianapolis preacher from the 1950s and onetime head of the city's Human Rights Commission, Jones formed the raciall...

Adrian I, pope

(Encyclopedia)Adrian I, d. 795, pope (772–95), a Roman; successor of Stephen IV. At Adrian's urging, Charlemagne crossed the Alps and defeated the Lombard king, Desiderius, who had annexed papal territory. That d...

Theodore of Studium, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Theodore of Studium, Saint sto͞oˈdēəm [key], 759–826, Byzantine Greek monastic reformer, also called St. Theodore the Studite. As an abbot he was early exiled for opposing the marriage of Empero...

Rosenfeld, Morris

(Encyclopedia)Rosenfeld, Morris rōˈzənfĕlt [key], 1862–1923, Jewish poet, b. Russian Poland. His name was originally Moshe Jacob Alter. He worked as a tailor in London and as a diamond grinder in Amsterdam be...