Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) celesta sĭlĕˈstə [key], keyboard musical instrument patented in 1886 by Auguste Mustel of Paris. It consists of a set of steel bars fastened over wood resonators and struck by hammers operated fro...

(Encyclopedia) Sabatier, Paul, 1858–1928, French Protestant clergyman and historian; brother of Auguste Sabatier. Ill health required his withdrawal from the active ministry, and he went to Assisi, Italy; there he...

(Encyclopedia) Estournelles de Constant, Paul Henri Benjamin, baron d' pōl äNrēˈ bäNzhämăNˈ bärôNˈ dāto͞ornĕlˈ də kôNstäNˈ [key], 1852–1924, French diplomat and pacifist. He wrote and spoke tire...

(Encyclopedia) Michel, Charles Yves Jean Ghislaine, 1975–, Belgian political leader, b. Namur, grad. Free Univ. of Brussels and Univ. of Amsterdam (1998). A French-speaking Liberal, he served (1994–99) on the Wa...

(Encyclopedia) Servan-Schreiber, Jean-Jacques, 1924–2006, French journalist, politician, and public intellectual, b. Paris, grad. École Polytechnique (1947). A political writer at Le Monde (1948–53), he moved o...

(Encyclopedia) Bemba Gombo, Jean-Pierre, 1962–, Congolese politician. Born to wealthy parents, he was educated in Brussels and built a business empire in what was then Zaïre. In the early 1990s he was personal as...

(Encyclopedia) Meudon mödôNˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 46,173), Hauts-de-Seine dept., N central France, a suburb SW of Paris. Metal products, automobile bodies, and explosives are the chief manufactures. The astroph...

(Encyclopedia) Carolus-Duran kärôlüsˈ-düräNˈ [key], 1837–1917, French painter whose original name was Charles Auguste Émile Durand. He was influenced by Courbet and studied in Lille and Paris. In 1861 he w...

(Encyclopedia) Rousseau, Jean Jacques ro͞osōˈ [key], 1712–78, Swiss-French philosopher, author, political theorist, and composer. Rousseau's influence on posterity has been equaled by only a few, and it is...