Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gregory, James, 1638–75, Scottish mathematician. He invented a reflecting telescope (1661), which he described in his Optica promota (1663). In 1668 he became professor of mathematics at the Univ. o...

(Encyclopedia) Gregory XIII, 1502–85, pope (1572–85), an Italian named Ugo Buoncompagni, b. Bologna; successor of St. Pius V. He is best known for his work on the calendar, and the reformed calendar, the Gregori...

(Encyclopedia) Mason, Daniel Gregory: see under Mason, Lowell. ...

(Encyclopedia) Abbey Theatre, Irish theatrical company devoted primarily to indigenous drama. W. B. Yeats was a leader in founding (1902) the Irish National Theatre Society with Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge, and A. E. ...

(Encyclopedia) Lamb, Lady Caroline: see under Melbourne, William Lamb, 2d Viscount. ...

(Encyclopedia) Stanhope, Lady Hester Lucy, 1776–1839, English traveler. Leaving England in 1810, she traveled in the Levant, adopting Eastern male dress and a religion that was a composite of Christianity and Isla...

(Encyclopedia) Gregory of Nyssa, Saint nĭsˈə [key], d. 394?, Cappadocian theologian; brother of St. Basil the Great and his successor as champion of orthodoxy. He became bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia in 371, was ...

(Encyclopedia) Rich, Penelope, Lady, 1562–1607, the “Stella” of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella (1591). Daughter of Walter Devereux, first earl of Essex, she married (1581) Lord Rich (later earl of Wa...

(Encyclopedia) Masham, Abigail, Lady măshˈəm [key], d. 1734, favorite of Queen Anne of England. Her maiden name was Abigail Hill. A plain, intelligent person, she became (1704) bedchamber woman to the queen throu...

(Encyclopedia) Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian legend, a misty, supernatural figure endowed with magic powers, who gave the sword Excalibur to King Arthur. She inhabited a castle in an underwater kingdom. According t...