Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Vélez de Guevara, Luis lo͞oēsˈ vāˈlāth ᵺā gāväˈrä [key], 1579?–1644, Spanish playwright and novelist. He was a follower of Lope de Vega and wrote many popular plays noted for their poe...

(Encyclopedia) Institut de France ăNstētüˈ də fräNs [key], cultural institution of the French state. Founded in 1795 by the Directory, it replaced five learned societies that had been suppressed in 1793 by the...

(Encyclopedia) Pachmann, Vladimir de vlədyēˈmĭr də päkhˈmän [key], 1848–1933, Russian pianist, studied with his father, a violinist, and at the Vienna Conservatory. He devoted himself almost exclusively to...

(Encyclopedia) Acosta, José de hōsāˈ ᵺā äkōˈstä [key], c.1539–1600, Spanish Jesuit missionary to Peru. He wrote a well-known history of the Spanish colonial period, The Natural and Moral History of the ...

(Encyclopedia) Folquet de Marseille fôlkāˈ də märsāˈyə [key], 1150–1231, Provençal troubadour. He took orders, rose to be archbishop of Toulouse, and became notorious as the chief prosecutor in Provence o...

(Encyclopedia) Bartholomew de Glanville or Bartholomaeus Anglicus bärthŏlˌəmēˈəs ăngˈglĭkəs [key], fl. c.1250, English Friar Minor. He taught theology at Paris, and he was the author of De proprietatibus ...

(Encyclopedia) Val-de-Marne väl-də-märn [key], department (1990 pop. 1,219,300), N central France, adjoining Paris on the southeast. Créteil is the capital. ...

(Encyclopedia) La Fayette, Marie Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, comtesse de də läfāĕtˈ [key], 1634–92, French novelist of the classical period, whose chief work, La Princesse de Clèves (1678), is the first ...

(Encyclopedia) Argenson, René Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d' rənāˈ lwē də vwäyāˈ də pōmē märkēˈ därzhäNsôNˈ [key], 1694–1757, French foreign minister (1744–47), brother of Marc Pierre d'...

(Encyclopedia) Tuatha De Danann to͞oˈəthə dā däˈnän [key], in Irish mythology, invaders of ancient Ireland before the Milesians. They were endowed with great supernatural powers, which enabled them to defeat...