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aquatint

(Encyclopedia)aquatint äˈkwətĭntˌ [key], etching technique. The plate is covered with a porous ground, or resist, through which acid bites many tiny pockmarks in the metal. If an area is to be completely white...

Meuse, department, France

(Encyclopedia)Meuse möz [key], department (1990 pop. 196,344), NE France, in Lorraine, bordering on Belgium. Bar-le-Duc, the capital, and Verdun are the chief towns. Its industries include the manufacture of metal...

Necker, Suzanne (Curchod)

(Encyclopedia)Necker, Suzanne (Curchod) nĕkĕrˈ [key], 1739–94, French writer; wife of Jacques Necker and mother of Mme de Staël. Her salon was frequented by celebrated Frenchmen and foreign visitors. A hospi...

Negri, Ada

(Encyclopedia)Negri, Ada äˈdä nĕˈgrē [key], 1870–1945, Italian writer. Her first poems, Fatalità (1892, tr. Fate and Other Poems, 1898) voiced bitter protest against the state of the poor. Her passionate l...

Argenson, Marc Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, comte d'

(Encyclopedia)Argenson, Marc Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, comte d' märk pyĕr də vwäyāˈ də pōmēˈ kôNt därzhäNsôNˈ [key], 1696–1764, French statesman and patron of literature; younger brother of René ...

Brunschvicg, Léon

(Encyclopedia)Brunschvicg, Léon lāôNˈ brünˈshvēk [key], 1869–1944, French philosopher, b. Paris. From 1909 until his death he taught at the Sorbonne. Brunschvicg's philosophy, which has had considerable in...

Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de zhôrzh lwē ləklĕrkˈ kôNt də büfôNˈ [key], 1707–88, French naturalist and author. From 1739 he was keeper of the Jardin du Roi (later the Jardin des ...

Viardot-Garcia, Pauline

(Encyclopedia)Viardot-Garcia, Pauline pōlēnˈ vyärdōˈ-gärsēäˈ [key], 1821–1910, French mezzo-soprano; sister of Maria Malibran; pupil of her father, Manuel García. Following her concert debut in Brussel...

Vulcan, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Vulcan, in astronomy, hypothetical planet whose existence was proposed by Le Verrier to explain part of the advance of the perihelion of Mercury, not all of which could be accounted for by gravitation...

trouvères

(Encyclopedia)trouvères tro͞ovĕrˈ [key], medieval poet-musicians of central and N France, fl. during the later 12th and the 13th cent. The trouvères imitated the troubadours of the south. Written in the dialec...

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