Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Papal States, Ital. Lo Stato della Chiesa, from 754 to 1870 an independent territory under the temporal rule of the popes, also called the States of the Church and the Pontifical States. The territory...

(Encyclopedia) Medieval Latin literature, literary works written in the Latin language during the Middle Ages. Many literary genres were already being taken over by writing in the vernacular, which had begun in...

(Encyclopedia) Nabokov, Vladimir vlädēˈmĭr näbôˈkŏf [key], 1899–1977, Russian-American author, b. St. Petersburg, Russia. He emigrated to England after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and graduated from Cam...

(Encyclopedia) Kennedy, Robert Francis, 1925–68, American politician, U.S. Attorney General (1961–64), b. Brookline, Mass., younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and son of Joseph P. Kennedy. A graduate o...

(Encyclopedia) Vienna vēĕnˈə [key], Ger. Wien, city and province (1991 pop. 1,539,848), 160 sq mi (414 sq km), capital and largest city of Austria and administrative seat of Lower Austria, NE Austria, on the Dan...

(Encyclopedia) Albigenses ălbĭjĕnˈsēz [key] [Lat.,=people of Albi, one of their centers], religious sect of S France in the Middle Ages. In 1208 the papal legate, a Cistercian, Peter de Castelnau, was murdere...

(Encyclopedia) Anthropocene Epoch, an unofficial term used by scientists to describe a period of time—up to the present—in which humanity has impacted the planet on a global scale. The phrase was fir...

(Encyclopedia) Brook, Peter, 1925–, English theatrical director, b. London, grad. Oxford (1943). An innovative, unconventional, and controversial figure, Brook mounts energetic productions in which the entire stag...

(Encyclopedia) Aeschylus ĕsˈkĭləs, ēsˈ– [key], 525–456 b.c., Athenian tragic dramatist, b. Eleusis. The first of the three great Greek writers of tragedy, Aeschylus was the predecessor of Sophocles and Eur...

(Encyclopedia) Charles VI, 1685–1740, Holy Roman emperor (1711–40), king of Bohemia (1711–40) and, as Charles III, king of Hungary (1712–40); brother and successor of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I. Charles was...