Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Grand Canal, Chinese Da Yunhe [large transit river], longest in the world, extending c.1,000 mi (1,600 km) from Beijing to Hangzhou, E China, and forming an important north-south waterway on the North...

(Encyclopedia) Lisbon lĭzˈbən [key], Port. Lisboa, ancient Olisipo, city (1991 pop. 677,790), W Portugal, capital of Portugal and of Lisboa dist., on the Tagus River where it broadens to enter the Atlantic Ocean....

(Encyclopedia) Brazilian literature, the writings of both the European explorers of Brazil and its later inhabitants. In 1902 Euclides da Cunha wrote his masterly description of an uprising in the Brazilian northe...

(Encyclopedia) Parmigianino –jäˈnō [key], 1503–40, Italian painter and etcher, one of the most sensitive mannerist artists (see mannerism) and one of the period's finest draftsmen. His real name was Girolamo ...

(Encyclopedia) bronze sculpture. Bronze is ideal for casting art works; it flows into all crevices of a mold, thus perfectly reproducing every detail of the most delicately modeled sculpture. It is malleable beneath...

(Encyclopedia) Della Robbia dĕlˌə rŏbˈēə, Ital. dĕlˈlä rôbˈbyä [key], Florentine family of sculptors and ceramists famous for their enameled terra-cotta or faience. Many of the Della Robbia pieces are s...

(Encyclopedia) Abravanel or Abarbanel, Judah, c.1460–c.1523, Jewish philosopher, physician, and poet, son of Isaac Abravanel, b. Lisbon; he is also known as Leone Ebreo. He fled (1483) from Portugal to Spain with ...

(Encyclopedia) Quaternary period kwətûrˈnərē [key], younger of the two geologic periods of the Cenozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table) from 2 millon years ago to t...

(Encyclopedia) Pius IX, 1792–1878, pope (1846–78), an Italian named Giovanni M. Mastai-Ferretti, b. Senigallia; successor of Gregory XVI. He was cardinal and bishop of Imola when elected pope. For two years he p...

(Encyclopedia) Padua pădˈyo͞oə [key], Ital. Padova, city (1991 pop. 215,137), capital of Padova prov., in Venetia, NE Italy, connected by canal with the Brenta, Adige, and Po rivers. It is an agricultural, comme...