Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Acosta, José de hōsāˈ ᵺā äkōˈstä [key], c.1539–1600, Spanish Jesuit missionary to Peru. He wrote a well-known history of the Spanish colonial period, The Natural and Moral History of the ...

(Encyclopedia) Folquet de Marseille fôlkāˈ də märsāˈyə [key], 1150–1231, Provençal troubadour. He took orders, rose to be archbishop of Toulouse, and became notorious as the chief prosecutor in Provence o...

(Encyclopedia) Bartholomew de Glanville or Bartholomaeus Anglicus bärthŏlˌəmēˈəs ăngˈglĭkəs [key], fl. c.1250, English Friar Minor. He taught theology at Paris, and he was the author of De proprietatibus ...

(Encyclopedia) Val-de-Marne väl-də-märn [key], department (1990 pop. 1,219,300), N central France, adjoining Paris on the southeast. Créteil is the capital. ...

(Encyclopedia) La Fayette, Marie Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, comtesse de də läfāĕtˈ [key], 1634–92, French novelist of the classical period, whose chief work, La Princesse de Clèves (1678), is the first ...

(Encyclopedia) Argenson, René Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d' rənāˈ lwē də vwäyāˈ də pōmē märkēˈ därzhäNsôNˈ [key], 1694–1757, French foreign minister (1744–47), brother of Marc Pierre d'...

(Encyclopedia) Tuatha De Danann to͞oˈəthə dā däˈnän [key], in Irish mythology, invaders of ancient Ireland before the Milesians. They were endowed with great supernatural powers, which enabled them to defeat...

(Encyclopedia) Dia Art Foundation, American foundation that supports contemporary art and artists, est. 1974 by art dealer Heiner Friedrich and his wife, art patron Philippa de Menil. The foundation, which commissio...

(Encyclopedia) Maistre, Joseph de zhôzĕfˈ də mĕsˈtrə [key], 1753–1821, French writer and diplomat. Born in Savoy, he was Sardinian ambassador at St. Petersburg from 1803 to 1817. A passionate Roman Catholic...

(Encyclopedia) De Filippo, Eduardo ādwärˈdō dā fēlĭpˈpō [key], 1900–1984, Neapolitan playwright and actor. In his scores of plays he combined pathos and farce. Napoli milionaria (1946) depicts postwar Nap...