Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Pleven, René rənāˈ plĕväNˈ [key], 1901–93, French political leader. He held various diplomatic and financial posts in the Free French government during World War II and served (1944–46) as ...

(Encyclopedia) Glorioso Islands glōrˌēōˈsō, –zō [key], Fr. Îles Glorieuses, island group, c.2 sq mi (5 sq km), in the Mozambique Channel, W Indian Ocean, 125 mi (200 km) WNW of N Madagascar, part of the Sc...

(Encyclopedia) manuscript, a handwritten work as distinguished from printing. The oldest manuscripts, those found in Egyptian tombs, were written on papyrus; the earliest dates from c.3500 b.c. parchment, which succ...

(Encyclopedia) Deraismes, Maria märēäˈ dərāmˈ [key], 1828–94, French feminist. She was a founder (1869) of the first French society dedicated to improving conditions and securing greater educational advanta...

(Encyclopedia) Bodel, Jehan zhäN bōdĕlˈ [key], b. c.1165, French trouvère of Arras. He is the author of one of the earliest dramas entirely in French, a mystery play entitled Le Jeu de Saint Nicolas (c.1200). ...

(Encyclopedia) Vaugelas, Claude Favre de klōd fäˈvrə də vōzhəläˈ [key], 1585–1650, French grammarian. He set up, in his Remarques sur la langue française (1647), the usage of cultured people as the stand...

(Encyclopedia) Seneffe or Seneff both: sənĕfˈ [key], small town, Hainaut prov., S central Belgium, near Charleroi. At Seneffe, the French under Louis II de Condé defeated (1674) the Dutch, and the French under M...

(Encyclopedia) Condorcet, Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de märēˈ zhäN äNtwänˈ nēkôläˈ kärētäˈ märkēˈ də kôNdôrsāˈ [key], 1743–94, French mathematician, philosopher, and politic...

(Encyclopedia) Fort Duquesne dəkānˈ, do͞o– [key], at the junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, on the site of Pittsburgh, SW Pa. Because of its strategic location, it was a major objective in the l...

(Encyclopedia) Hawke of Towton, Edward Hawke, 1st Baron touˈtən [key], 1705–81, British admiral. He entered the navy in 1720 and first saw fighting as commander of a ship in the battle of Toulon (1744). He was p...