Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Marie de' Medici mĕdˈĭchē [key], 1573–1642, queen of France, second wife of King Henry IV and daughter of Francesco de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany. She was married to Henry in 1600. After his...

(Encyclopedia) Hudson, Henry, fl. 1607–11, English navigator and explorer. He was hired (1607) by the English Muscovy Company to find the Northeast Passage to Asia. He failed, and another attempt (1608) to find a ...

(Encyclopedia) Garner, Erroll Louis, 1921–77, American jazz pianist and composer, b. Pittsburgh. He wrote some 200 songs, including “Misty,” “Dreamy,” and “Solitaire.” He developed a unique style of pi...

(Encyclopedia) Louis X, Fr. Louis le Hutin lwē lə ütâNˈ [key] [the quarrelsome], 1289–1316, king of France (1314–16), son and successor of Philip IV. His reign was dominated by his uncle, Charles of Valois,...

(Encyclopedia) Balzac, Jean Louis Guez de də bälzäkˈ [key], 1597?–1654, French writer. His Lettres (1624, tr. 1634) and other writings were a great influence in reforming French prose. Their style was marked ...

(Encyclopedia) Laveran, Charles Louis Alphonse shärl lwē älfôNsˈ lävəräNˈ [key], 1845–1922, French physician. While an army surgeon in Algiers he discovered (1880) the parasite that causes malaria and wro...

(Encyclopedia) Fizeau, Armand Hippolyte Louis ärmäNˈ ēpôlētˈ lwē fēzōˈ [key], 1819–96, French physicist. The first to measure (1849) the velocity of light in air, he also determined its speed in water. ...

(Encyclopedia) Fuseli, Henry fyo͞oˈzĭlē [key], 1741–1825, Anglo-Swiss painter and draftsman, b. Zürich. He was known also as Johann Heinrich Fuessli or Füssli. He took holy orders but never practiced the pri...

(Encyclopedia) Monvel, Louis Maurice Boutet de: see Boutet de Monvel, Louis Maurice. ...

(Encyclopedia) Peacham, Henry, 1576?–1643?, English author, b. Hertfordshire, educated at Cambridge. The Compleat Gentleman (1622), his best-known work, offers his formula for the ideal Englishman. Among his other...