Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Say, Thomas, 1787–1843, American naturalist, b. Philadelphia. He went on collecting expeditions to Georgia and Florida and, with Stephen H. Long, to the Rocky Mts. and up the Mississippi and Minneso...

(Encyclopedia) manes māˈnēz [key], in Roman religion, spirits of the dead. Originally, they were called di manes, a collective divinity of the dead. Manes could also refer to the realm of the dead and, later, to ...

(Encyclopedia) Cannizzaro, Stanislao stänēsläˈō kän-nēt-tsäˈrō [key], 1826–1910, Italian chemist. From 1861 he was professor at Palermo and from 1871 at Rome, where he was also a member of the senate and...

(Encyclopedia) Donizetti, Gaetano gītäˈnō dōnēdzĕtˈtē [key], 1797–1848, Italian composer. He studied music in Bergamo and Bologna and achieved success with his first opera, Enrico di Borgogna (1818). His ...

(Encyclopedia) Verrocchio, Andrea del ändrĕˈä dĕl vār-rôkˈkyō [key], 1435–88, Florentine sculptor and painter, whose real name was Andrea di Michele di Francesco di Cioni. He was a leading figure in the e...

(Encyclopedia) Sontag, Henriette kôntĕsˈsä rôsˈsē [key], 1806–54, German operatic soprano, studied at the Prague Conservatory. In Vienna in 1823 she created the leading role in Weber's Euryanthe and in 1824...

(Encyclopedia) Monteverdi, Claudio klouˈdyō mōntāvĕrˈdē [key], 1567–1643, Italian composer; first great figure in the history of opera. His earliest published works, a set of three motifs, appeared when he ...

(Encyclopedia) Garda, Lake gärˈdä [key], Ital. Lago di Garda or Benaco, largest lake of Italy, 143 sq mi (370 sq km), between Lombardy and Venetia, N Italy. It is c.32 mi (52 km) long, with a maximum width of c.1...

(Encyclopedia) John I or John the Posthumous, 1316, king of France, posthumous son of King Louis X. He lived only five days and was succeeded by his uncle, Philip V. According to legend, a dying child was substitute...

(Encyclopedia) Eco, Umberto əmbĕrˈtō ĕcō [key], 1932–2016, Italian novelist, essayist, and semiotics scholar. His first novel, the best-selling Il nome della rosa (1980; tr. The Name of the Rose, 1983, film ...