Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Daru, Pierre Antoine, Comte pyĕr äNtwänˈ kôNt därüˈ [key], 1767–1829, French soldier, administrator, statesman, and writer. He served in the French Revolutionary Wars, was imprisoned during ...

(Encyclopedia) Prud'hon, Pierre Paul pyĕr pôl prüdôNˈ [key], 1758–1823, French painter; 13th child of a Cluny stonemason. He gained recognition in 1796 with Truth Descending from the Heavens Led by Wisdom (Lo...

(Encyclopedia) Le Tellier, Michel mēshĕlˈ lə tĕlyāˈ [key], 1603–85, French statesman. A minister of state under Cardinal Mazarin, he became war minister in 1643. He later shared his duties with his son, the...

(Encyclopedia) van der Meer, Simon, 1925–2011, Dutch physical engineer. He spent nearly his entire career at CERN, where he did his most important work with Carlo Rubbia. They discovered the W and Z particles, whi...

(Encyclopedia) Radisson, Pierre Esprit pyĕr ĕsprēˈ rädēsôNˈ [key], c.1632–1710, French explorer and fur trader in North America. He arrived in Canada in 1651. His journals, first published as the Voyages o...

(Encyclopedia) Didot, François fräNswäˈ dēdōˈ [key], 1689–1757, Parisian printer. The son of a printer, Denis Didot, he was the first of the family to win fame in his craft. His son, François Ambroise Dido...

(Encyclopedia) du Plessix Gray, Francine, 1930–2019, French-American writer, b. Warsaw, studied Bryn Mawr, Black Mountain College, B.A. Barnard, 1952. She worked first as a writer and editor for radio and magazine...

(Encyclopedia) Ramelli, Agostino ägōstēˈnō rämĕlˈlē [key], c.1531–c.1600, Italian engineer who served in the armies of the marquis de Marignan and of the duc d'Anjou (later Henry III of France). His book,...

(Encyclopedia) Lovat, Simon Fraser, 11th Baron lŭvˈət [key], 1675?–1747, Scottish nobleman and Jacobite conspirator. The nephew of the 9th baron, he and his father contested the passing of the title to his cous...

(Encyclopedia) Sucre, Antonio José de äntôˈnyō hōsāˈ ᵺā so͞oˈkrā [key], 1795–1830, South American revolutionist, b. Cumaná, Venezuela. He joined (1811) the forces fighting for independence from Spai...