Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Cursor Mundi kûrˈsôr mŭnˈdī [key], a long religious epic in Middle English relating the history of the world as recorded in the Old and New Testaments. This anonymous poem (written c.1300) is a ...

(Encyclopedia) Fitzpatrick, Benjamin, 1802–69, governor of Alabama (1841–45), b. Greene co., Ga. As a youth, he moved to Alabama (then still part of Mississippi Territory), where after two terms as governor, he ...

(Encyclopedia) jingoism jĭngˈgōĭzəm [key], advocacy of a policy of aggressive nationalism. The term was first used in connection with certain British politicians who sought to bring England into the Russo-Turki...

(Encyclopedia) Adams, Charles Francis, 1866–1954, U.S. Secretary of the Navy (1929–33), b. Quincy, Mass.; grandson of Charles Francis Adams (1807–86). He practiced law for a brief period in Boston but for most...

(Encyclopedia) Varchi, Benedetto bānādĕtˈtō värˈkē [key], 1502?–1565, Italian poet and historian. A protégé of Filippo Strozzi and Cosimo de' Medici, he was commissioned to write the history of Florence....

(Encyclopedia) Beth-zur bĕth-zûrˈ [key], town, ancient Palestine, N of Hebron, on the Jerusalem road. It is the modern Khirbat Tubaygah, the West Bank. Excavations (1924, 1931, 1957) have revealed settlements fro...

(Encyclopedia) Giesebrecht, Wilhelm von vĭlˈhĕlm fən gēˈzəbrĕkht [key], 1814–89, German historian. A gifted student of Ranke, he later taught at the Univ. of Königsberg. His Geschichte der deutschen Kaise...

(Encyclopedia) Nitti, Francesco Saverio fränchāsˈkō sävāˈrēō nētˈtē [key], 1868–1953, Italian premier and economist. A professor of economics at the Univ. of Naples, he entered parliament in 1904 and w...

(Encyclopedia) Melville, Sir James, 1535–1617, Scottish diplomat. He was a page to Mary Queen of Scots in France and, after her return to Scotland, was employed as Mary's representative at the court of Elizabeth I...

(Encyclopedia) Brewster, Kingman, Jr., 1919–88, American educator and public official, b. Longmeadow, Mass., grad. Yale (A.B., 1941) and Harvard (LL.B., 1948). He was a professor of law at Harvard (1950–60) and ...