Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Bernardo del Carpio bĕrnärˈdō dĕl kärˈpyō [key], hero of medieval Spanish legend. He was supposedly the nephew of Alfonso II of Asturias, against whom he strove to secure his father's release ...

(Encyclopedia) Robert the Devil, hero of a medieval legend. He was sold to the devil by his mother before his birth but upon discovering the fact did penance and was able to purify himself of his many sins. The tale...

(Encyclopedia) Shekinah shēkīˈnə [key] [Heb.,=dwelling, presence], in Judaism, term used in the Targum (Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible) and elsewhere to indicate the manifestation of the presence of God...

(Encyclopedia) Brendan, Saint, d. 577?, Irish abbot of Clonfert, Co. Galway. A popular medieval story told how he traveled westward to wonderful islands—an Irish version of a widespread legend. His feast is May 16...

(Encyclopedia) Utrera o͞otrāˈrä [key], city (1990 pop. 43,006), Seville prov., S Spain, in Andalusia, on a branch of the Guadalquivir River. It is a rail junction and processing center of a fertile agricultural ...

(Encyclopedia) Salgótarján shŏlˈgōtŏrˌyän [key], city (1991 est. pop. 47,500), N Hungary, near the Slovak border. It is an industrial center with ironworks, glassworks, and manufactures of agricultural machi...

(Encyclopedia) Eco, Umberto əmbĕrˈtō ĕcō [key], 1932–2016, Italian novelist, essayist, and semiotics scholar. His first novel, the best-selling Il nome della rosa (1980; tr. The Name of the Rose, 1983, film ...

(Encyclopedia) Abd ar-Rahman I, d. 788, first Umayyad emir of Córdoba (756–88). The only survivor of the Abbasid massacre (750) of his family in Damascus, he fled from Syria and eventually went to Spain. There he...

(Encyclopedia) Mansfield, William Murray, 1st earl of, 1705–93, English jurist. As solicitor general (1742–54) he prosecuted the Scottish rebel lords, Balmerino (Arthur Elphinstone), Kilmarnock, and Lovat. In 17...

(Encyclopedia) Macerata mächāräˈtä [key], town (1991 pop. 43,040), capital of Macerata prov., in the Marche, central Italy. It is an agricultural and light industrial center. Macerata was ruled by the papacy fr...