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flagellants

(Encyclopedia)flagellants flăjˈələnts, fləjĕlˈənts [key], term applied to the groups of Christians who practiced public flagellation as a penance. The practice supposedly grew out of the floggings administe...

Langland, William

(Encyclopedia)Langland, William, c.1332–c.1400, putative author of Piers Plowman. He was born probably at Ledbury near the Welsh marshes and may have gone to school at Great Malvern Priory. Although he took minor...

Persepolis

(Encyclopedia)Persepolis pərsĕpˈəlĭs [key] [Gr.,=city of Persia], ancient city of Persia, ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid empire under Darius I and his successors. The administrative capitals were elsewhe...

Apollinaire, Guillaume

(Encyclopedia)Apollinaire, Guillaume gēyōmˈ äpōlēnârˈ [key], 1880–1918, French poet. He was christened Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky. Apollinaire was a leader in the restless period of technical inn...

Herrera, Abraham Cohen de

(Encyclopedia)Herrera, Abraham Cohen de ār-rāˈrä [key], c.1570–1635, Jewish philosopher and kabbalist, also called Alonso Nunez de Herrera and Abraham Irira. Born possibly in Portugal of a Marrano family, his...

Karlsruhe

(Encyclopedia)Karlsruhe kärlsˈro͞oə [key], city (1994 pop. 278,000), Baden-Württemberg, SW Germany, on the northern fringes of the Black Forest, connected by canal with a port on the nearby Rhine River. It is ...

Baeck, Leo

(Encyclopedia)Baeck, Leo lāˈō bĕk [key], 1873–1956, German rabbi and scholar. He studied at the conservative Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau and then at the liberal Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des...

Jena

(Encyclopedia)Jena yāˈnä [key], city (1994 pop. 100,090), Thuringia, E central Germany, on the Saale River. Manufactures of this industrial center include pharmaceuticals, glass, optical and precision instrument...

musicology

(Encyclopedia)musicology, systematized study of music and musical style, particularly in the realm of historical research. The scholarly study of music of different historical periods was not practiced until the 18...

bassoon

(Encyclopedia)bassoon băso͞onˈ [key], double-reed woodwind instrument that plays in the bass and tenor registers. Its 8-ft (2.4-m) conical tube is bent double, the instrument thus being about 4 ft (1.2 m) high. ...