Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Nast, Thomas, 1840–1902, American caricaturist, illustrator, and painter, b. Landau, Germany. He was brought to the United States in 1846. He began his career as a draftsman for Frank Leslie's Illus...

(Encyclopedia) Francis II, 1836–94, last king of the Two Sicilies (1859–61), son and successor of Ferdinand II. A weak ruler, he let his ministers follow his father's reactionary policy. Faced with the growing m...

(Encyclopedia) Catania kätäˈnyä [key], city, capital of Catania prov., E Sicily, Italy, on the Gulf of C...

(Encyclopedia) Morricone, Ennio, 1928–2020, Italian composer. Most famous for his film scores for 1960s spaghetti westerns, he also composed for comedies, historical dramas, and thrillers. Combining music with hau...

(Encyclopedia) Visconti-Venosta, Emilio, marchese di āmēˈlyō märkāˈzā dē vēskônˈtē-vānôˈstä [key], 1829–1914, Italian patriot and statesman. At first a follower of Giuseppe Mazzini, he broke with ...

(Encyclopedia) Victor Emmanuel II, 1820–78, king of Sardinia (1849–61) and first king of united Italy (1861–78). He fought in the war of 1848–49 against Austrian rule in Lombardy-Venetia and ascended the thr...

(Encyclopedia) Depretis, Agostino ägōstēˈnō dāprĕˈtēs [key], 1813–87, Italian premier. An early supporter of the revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini, he entered the Sardinian parliament after 1848 and was a le...

(Encyclopedia) Trevelyan, George Macaulay, 1876–1962, English historian; son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan. Educated at Cambridge, he became professor of modern history there in 1927 and was master of Trinity Colle...

(Encyclopedia) Vigo, Francis vēˈgō, vīˈgō [key], 1747–1836, American frontier trader and merchant, supporter of the American Revolution. He was born at Mondovi, Italy, and originally named Giuseppe Maria Fra...

(Encyclopedia) Scala, La [Teatro alla Scala], one of the world's great opera houses, located in Milan, Italy. It opened in 1778 with a production of Antonio Salieri's Europa Riconosciuta. Built on the site of the Ch...