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Du Cange, Charles du Fresne, sieur

(Encyclopedia)Du Cange, Charles du Fresne, sieur shärl dü frĕn syör dü käNzh [key], 1610–88, French medieval historian and philologist. He is principally known for his Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitat...

Sandeau, Jules

(Encyclopedia)Sandeau, Jules zhül säNdōˈ [key], 1811–83, French novelist. His best-known work is the romance Mademoiselle de la Seiglière (1848), dramatized in 1851. He collaborated several times with author...

Pandarus

(Encyclopedia)Pandarus pănˈdərəs [key], in Greek legend, a Trojan warrior. In the Trojan War (as recounted in Homer's Iliad) he broke the truce by wounding Menelaus and soon after was killed by Diomed. In the m...

Avalon

(Encyclopedia)Avalon ăvˈəlŏn [key], in Celtic mythology, the blissful otherworld of the dead. In medieval romance it was the island to which the mortally wounded King Arthur was taken, and from which it was exp...

Micaëlis de Vasconcelos, Carolina

(Encyclopedia)Micaëlis de Vasconcelos, Carolina kärōlēˈnä mēkäāˈlĭs dĭ väshˌko͝onsĕlˈo͝osh [key], 1851–1925, Portuguese scholar, b. Berlin. As a youth she gained a considerable reputation as a R...

Heliodorus of Emesa

(Encyclopedia)Heliodorus of Emesa ĕmˈəsə [key], fl. 3d cent., Syrian Greek writer. He wrote the romance Aethiopica, one of the oldest and best of surviving Greek romances. Little is known of his life except tha...

Euhemerus

(Encyclopedia)Euhemerus yo͞ohĕmˈərəs [key], fl. c.300 b.c., Cyrenaic philosopher, b. Sicily. He is famous for a theory of mythology embodied in his philosophical romance, Sacred History, a work of which only f...

Barbour, John

(Encyclopedia)Barbour, John bärˈbər [key], c.1316?–1395, Scottish poet. He was archdeacon of Aberdeen from 1355 until his death. His romance, The Bruce (1375), celebrating Scotland's emancipation from England,...

Spanish language

(Encyclopedia)CEE Spanish language, member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Romance languages). The official language of Spain and 19 Latin American nati...

Lewis, Sir George Cornewall

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Sir George Cornewall, 1806–63, English statesman and man of letters. Entering Parliament as a Liberal in 1847, he served as chancellor of exchequer (1855–58), home secretary (1859–61), an...