Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Agostino di Duccio ägōstēˈnō dē do͞otˈchō [key], b. 1418, d. after 1481, Florentine sculptor. Agostino worked mainly in other parts of Italy; he carved marble narrative reliefs for the facade...

(Encyclopedia) Costa, Lorenzo lōrĕnˈtsō kōˈstä [key], 1460–1535, Italian painter of the Ferrarese and Bolognese schools. Trained in the manner of such painters as Tura and Cossa, he modified the strident Fe...

(Encyclopedia) Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, better known as Virginia Tech, at Blacksburg; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered and opened 1872 as an agricultural and mecha...

(Encyclopedia) Ptolemy XIV, d. 44 b.c., king of ancient Egypt (47–44 b.c.), the last of the Macedonian dynasty, but for his sister, Cleopatra. He was a child when his brother Ptolemy XIII drowned. Julius Caesar ma...

(Encyclopedia) Fair, James Graham, 1831–94, American financier, b. near Belfast, Ireland. He emigrated to America as a child, grew up on an Illinois farm, and went west in 1851 in search of gold. In partnership wi...

(Encyclopedia) Angelico, Fra frä änjĕlˈĭkō [key], c.1400–1455, Florentine painter, b. Vicchio, Tuscany. He was variously named Guido (his baptismal name), or Guidolino, di Pietro; and Giovanni da Fiesole. Af...

(Encyclopedia) Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 1939–, Canadian novelist and poet. Atwood is a skilled and powerful storyteller whose novels, set mainly in the near future, sometimes make use of such popular genres as hi...

(Encyclopedia) Marschner, Heinrich August hīnˈrĭkh ouˈgo͝ost märshˈnər [key], 1795–1861, German opera composer. Marschner's first opera, Heinrich IV und d'Aubigné, was produced by Carl Maria von Weber in ...

(Encyclopedia) Matamoros, Mariano märyäˈnō mätämōˈrōs [key], d. 1814, Mexican revolutionist in the war against Spain. He was, like Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and José María Morelos y Pavón, a priest with ...

(Encyclopedia) Peruzzi, Baldassare bäldäs-säˈrā pāro͞otˈtsē [key], 1481–1536, Italian architect and painter of the High Renaissance and mannerist periods. His outstanding architectural works are the Villa...