Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Musset, Alfred de (Louis Charles Alfred de Musset) älfrĕdˈ də müsāˈ [key], 1810–57, French romantic poet, dramatist, and fiction writer. His first collection of poems, Contes d'Espagne et d'I...

(Encyclopedia)  De Niro, Robert Anthony, Jr., 1943-, American film actor and director, b. New York, N.Y. Both of De Niro’s parents were painters; De Niro was raised...

(Encyclopedia) Granjon, Robert grănˈjən, Fr. rōbĕrˈ gräNzhôNˈ [key], fl. 1545–88, French designer of type and printer. He began his work in Paris and afterward worked in Lyons, Antwerp, and Rome. The type...

(Encyclopedia) Merrill, Robert, 1917–2004, American baritone, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Moishe Miller. In 1945 he won the Metropolitan Opera's Auditions of the Air and in the same year made his debut as Germont in Ver...

(Encyclopedia) Castile–La Mancha kăstēlˈ–lä mänˈchə [key], autonomous community, 30,680 s...

(Encyclopedia) Juana la Beltraneja hwäˈnä lä bĕltränāˈhä [key], 1462–1530, Castilian princess, daughter of Juana of Portugal, queen of Henry IV of Castile. Her paternity was generally attributed to the co...

(Encyclopedia) Ursins, Marie Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des märēˈ än də lä trāmwäˈyə prăNsĕsˈ dāzürsănˈ [key], 1642–1722, French noblewoman and unofficial diplomat. After the death of her fi...

(Encyclopedia) Mendoza, Pedro de dā māndōˈthä [key], b. 1501 or 1502, d. 1537, Spanish conquistador, first adelantado [civil and military governor] of Río de la Plata (present-day Argentina). After a military...

(Encyclopedia) Robert Guiscard gēskärˈ [key], c.1015–1085, Norman conqueror of S Italy, a son of Tancred de Hauteville (see Normans). Robert joined (c.1046) his brothers in S Italy and fought with them to expel...

(Encyclopedia) Labadie, Jean de, or Jean de la Badie both: zhäN də lä bädēˈ [key], 1610–74, French mystic, founder of the Labadists, a quietist sect. He had been a Roman Catholic priest, but c.1650 he embrac...