Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Devils Island, Fr. Île du Diable, the smallest and southernmost of the Îles du Salut, in the Caribbean Sea off French Guiana. A penal colony founded in 1852, it was used largely for political prison...

(Encyclopedia) physiocrats fĭzˈēəkrătsˌ [key], school of French thinkers in the 18th cent. who evolved the first complete system of economics. They were also referred to simply as “the economists” or “th...

(Encyclopedia) Burlamaqui, Jean Jacques zhäN zhäk bo͝orlämäkēˈ [key], 1694–1748, Swiss jurist. His chief works are Principes du droit naturel [principles of natural law] (1747) and Principes du droit politi...

(Encyclopedia) Mâle, Émile āmēlˈ mäl [key], 1862–1954, French art historian. Mâle pioneered the study of French art of the Middle Ages, its forms, and especially the Eastern sources of sculptural iconograph...

(Encyclopedia) veld or veldt both: vĕlt, Du. fĕlt [key] [Du.,=field], term applied to the grassy undulating plateaus of the Republic of South Africa and of Zimbabwe. The veld comprises territory of varying elevati...

(Encyclopedia) Ionesco, Eugène özhĕnˈ yŏnĕsˈkō [key], 1912–94, French playwright, b. Romania. Settling in France in 1938, he contributed to Cahiers du Sud and began writing avant-garde plays. His works str...

(Encyclopedia) Chandos, Sir John shănˈdŏs, chănˈ– [key], d. 1370, English soldier and administrator of English territories in France. A friend of Edward the Black Prince, he won distinction in the Hundred Yea...

(Encyclopedia) Nerval, Gérard de zhārärˈ də nĕrvälˈ [key], 1808–55, French writer, an early romantic. His real name was Gérard Labrunie. His writings include translations of Faust (1828) and other German ...

(Encyclopedia) Cluny Museum, 14th- and 15th-century Gothic and Renaissance structure in Paris, built by Pierre de Chaslus, abbot of Cluny, and rebuilt by Jacques d'Ambroise. The site is that of the ancient Roman bat...

(Encyclopedia) Peter the Cruel, 1334–69, Spanish king of Castile and León (1350–69), son and successor of Alfonso XI. His desertion of his wife, Blanche of Bourbon, for María Padilla and his favors to the Padi...