Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Davis, Rebecca Harding, 1831–1910, American novelist, b. Washington, Pa.; mother of Richard Harding Davis. Her early nonfiction pieces, particularly those collected under the title Life in the Iron ...

(Encyclopedia) Medici, Alessandro de' mĕˈdĭchē, Ital. māˈdēchē [key], 1510?–37, duke of Florence (1532–37); probably an illegitimate son of Lorenzo de' Medici, duke of Urbino. His prominence began when ...

(Encyclopedia) Albret älbrāˈ [key], former duchy, SW France, in the Landes of Gascony. The powerful lords of Albret became kings of Navarre by the marriage (1484) of Jean d'Albret with Catherine de Foix, queen of...

(Encyclopedia) Gueux gö [key] [Fr.,=beggars], 16th-century Dutch revolutionary party. In 1566 more than 2,000 Dutch and Flemish nobles and burghers (both Protestants and Roman Catholics) signed a document—the so-...

(Encyclopedia) Cowell, Henry Dixon kouˈəl [key], 1897–1965, American composer and pianist, b. Menlo Park, Calif., largely self-educated, studied musicology in Berlin (1931–32). Cowell experimented with new mus...

(Encyclopedia) Pearson, John, 1613–86, English prelate and scholar. He was a royalist chaplain (1645) in the civil war, but during Cromwell's regime he lived quietly in London. His Exposition of the Creed (1659), ...

(Encyclopedia) Arras, Treaty of. 1 Treaty of 1435, between King Charles VII of France and Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. Through it, France and Burgundy became reconciled. Philip deserted his English allies and r...

(Encyclopedia) Kane, Elisha Kent, 1820–57, American physician and arctic explorer, b. Philadelphia. Seeking adventure after medical school, Kane entered naval service and before he was 30 had seen many parts of th...

(Encyclopedia) Paray-le-Monial pärāˈ-lə-mônyälˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 10,568), Saône-et-Loire dept., E central France. Ceramics and hosiery are produced. In the 17th cent. St. Margaret Mary founded the cult...

(Encyclopedia) Byrne, Jane, 1934–2014, American politician, b. Chicago as Margaret Jane Burke. She was Chicago's consumer sales commissioner (1968–77) under Mayor Richard Daley before she became the first woman ...