Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Mena, Juan de hwän dā māˈnä [key], 1411–56, Spanish poet and scholar. Influenced by the Italian school, he modeled his chief work Laberinto de Fortuna (1444) upon Dante. This 300-stanza allegor...

(Encyclopedia) Sacrobosco, Johannes de yōhänˈəs də săkrōbŏsˈkō [key], or John of Hollywood, c.1200–1256, English mathematician and astronomer. He wrote several widely read and influential books: Algorism...

(Encyclopedia) Cormenin, Louis Marie de La Haye, vicomte de lwē märēˈ də lä ā vēkôNtˈ də kôrmənăNˈ [key], 1788–1868, French politician, jurist, and pamphleteer. He held minor offices under Napoleon,...

(Encyclopedia) Guérin, Maurice de (Georges Maurice de Guérin) zhôrzh mōrēsˈ də gārăNˈ [key], 1810–39, French writer. At his early death he left two fragmentary prose poems, Le Centaure and La Bacchante, ...

(Encyclopedia) Montgomery, Gabriel, seigneur de Lorges, comte de gäbrēĕlˈ sānyörˈ də lôrzh kôNt də môNgômərēˈ [key], c.1530–1574, French soldier. Captain of the Scottish guards of King Henry II of ...

(Encyclopedia) Campomanes, Pedro Rodríguez de, conde de Campomanes pāˈᵺrō rôᵺrēˈgāth kōnˈdā dā kämpōmäˈnās [key], 1723–1802, Spanish statesman, economist, and author. As president of the counc...

(Encyclopedia) Medici, Francesco de' dā mĕˈdĭchē, Ital. māˈdēchē [key], 1541–87, grand duke of Tuscany (1574–87); son and successor of Cosimo I de' Medici. In his reign the decline of the Medici family...

(Encyclopedia) Bourbon, Antoine de bo͞orbôNˈ [key], 1518–62, duc de Vendôme, king of Navarre through his marriage to Jeanne d'Albret; father of Henry IV of France. He converted to Protestantism after his marr...

(Encyclopedia) Unamuno, Miguel de mēgĕlˈ dā o͞onämo͞oˈnō [key], 1864–1936, Spanish philosophical writer, of Basque descent, b. Bilbao. The chief Spanish philosopher of his time, he was professor of Greek ...

(Encyclopedia) Oña, Pedro de pāˈᵺrō ᵺā ōˈnyä [key], 1570?–1643, Chilean poet. Having been born in Latin America, he is considered Chile's first national poet. His poetry is both epic and religious. Ins...