Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Tauler, Johannes yōhänˈəs touˈlər [key], c.1300–1361, German mystic. He was a Dominican. He met Meister Eckhart, either at Strasbourg or in Cologne, where he went to study, and he was one of E...

(Encyclopedia) German literature, works in the German language by German, Austrian, Austro-Hungarian, and Swiss authors, as well as by writers of German in other countries. The postwar decades saw a gradual litera...

(Encyclopedia) Capito, Wolfgang Fabricius kăpˈĭtō, Ger. vôlfˈgäng fäbrēˈtsyo͝os käˈpētō [key], 1478–1541, German Protestant reformer, whose original family name was Köpfel. As a well-known humanist...

(Encyclopedia) America [for Amerigo Vespucci], the lands of the Western Hemisphere—North America, Central (or Middle) America, and South America. The world map published in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller is the fir...

(Encyclopedia) Jonas, Justus yo͝osˈto͝os yōˈnäs [key], 1493–1555, German Protestant reformer. In 1521, Jonas, then a professor at the Univ. of Erfurt, accompanied Martin Luther to the Diet of Worms. During t...

(Encyclopedia) Sokoloff, Nicolai nyĭkəlīˈ sōˈkəlôfˌ [key], 1886–1965, American conductor and violinist, b. near Kiev, Russia. After studying at Yale and under Charles Martin Loeffler, he toured France and...

(Encyclopedia) Hani, Chris 1942–1993, anti-apartheid activist, politician, and soldier. A legendary figure in South African history and a key participant in the ...

(Encyclopedia) Catullus (Caius Valerius Catullus) kətŭlˈəs [key], 84? b.c.–54? b.c., Roman poet, b. Verona. Of a well-to-do family, he went c.62 b.c. to Rome. He fell deeply in love, probably with Clodia, sist...

(Encyclopedia) Constance, Council of, 1414–18, council of the Roman Catholic Church, some of its sessions being reckoned as the 16th ecumenical council. It was summoned to end the Great Schism (see Schism, Great),...

(Encyclopedia) pessimism, philosophical opinion or doctrine that evil predominates over good; the opposite of optimism. Systematic forms of pessimism may be found in philosophy and religion. In religion Buddhism and...