Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gustavo A. Madero go͞ostäˈvō ä mädāˈrō [key], city, Federal District, S cent...

(Encyclopedia) Halle hälˈə [key], Fr. Hal, commune, Flemish Brabant prov., central Belgium, on the Charle...

(Encyclopedia) Comtat Venaissin kəNtäˈ vənäsăNˈ [key] or Comtat, region of SE France, Vaucluse dept., comprising the territory around Avignon. Well-irrigated, it is a truck-farming and fruit-growing area. Com...

(Encyclopedia) Lubitsch, Ernst lo͞oˈbĭch [key], 1892–1947, German-American film director, b. Berlin. He studied acting in his native city and in 1911 joined Max Reinhardt's theatre company. Lubitsch turned to d...

(Encyclopedia) investiture, in feudalism, ceremony by which an overlord transferred a fief to a vassal or by which, in ecclesiastical law, an elected cleric received the pastoral ring and staff (the symbols of spiri...

(Encyclopedia) Lackawanna lăkəwäˈnə [key], city (1990 pop. 20,585), Erie co., W N.Y., on Lake Erie; inc. 1909. Formerly a major steel-making center, Lackawanna experienced the rapid and total decline of its for...

(Encyclopedia) iconoclasm īkŏnˈōklăzəm [key] [Gr.,=image breaking], opposition to the religious use of images. Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures, Christian doctrine, and biblical ev...

(Encyclopedia) Catherine of Siena, Saint sēĕnˈə [key], 1347–80, Italian mystic and diplomat, a member of the third order of the Dominicans, Doctor of the Church. The daughter of Giacomo Benincasa, a Sienese dy...

(Encyclopedia) plainsong or plainchant, the unharmonized chant of the medieval Christian liturgies in Europe and the Middle East; usually synonymous with Gregorian chant, the liturgical music of the Roman Catholic C...

(Encyclopedia) Lillie, Beatrice (Lady Peel), 1898–1989, British comedienne, b. Toronto, Ont. as Constance Munston. Lillie first performed in London in 1914 and in New York in 1924. She won an international reputat...