Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Batumi bəto͝omˈ [key], city (2021 est. pop. 121,806), capital of Adjarian Autonomous R...

(Encyclopedia) Watling Street wŏtˈlĭng [key], important ancient road in England, built by the Romans in the course of their military occupation. It ran from London generally north to the intersection with the Fos...

(Encyclopedia) toy, article designed to be played with, chiefly for children. Archaeological research has revealed numerous playthings from prehistoric civilizations. Early Egyptian, Greek, and Roman dolls, tops, ba...

(Encyclopedia) U, 21st letter of the alphabet, corresponding to the Greek upsilon [Gr.,=u without the aspirate]. Until the late Middle Ages the capital was V, the minuscule u, no distinction being made between the c...

(Encyclopedia) Roscelin rŏsˈəlĭn [key], c.1045–c.1120, French scholastic philosopher, also called Roscellinus, Johannes Roscellinus, and Jean Roscelin. Roscelin was one of the first thinkers of the Middle Ages...

(Encyclopedia) Saint Gall, former Benedictine abbey, at St. Gall, Switzerland. Originating in a cell built c.614 by St. Gall, an Irish missionary (see Columban, Saint), it became an abbey under Charles Martel (8th c...

(Encyclopedia) Gelasius I, Saint jĭlāˈshēəs [key], d. 496, pope (492–96); successor of St. Felix III (also known as Felix II). He was a firm upholder of the papal supremacy in a dispute with Anastasius, the B...

(Encyclopedia) genre zhänˈrə [key], in art-history terminology, a type of painting dealing with unidealized scenes and subjects of everyday life. Although practiced in ancient art, as shown by Pompeiian frescoes,...

(Encyclopedia) half-timber house, type of construction of the Middle Ages in N Europe, used chiefly for dwellings. Some French examples date from the 12th cent., and by the 13th cent. the building method had reached...

(Encyclopedia) courtly love, philosophy of love and code of lovemaking that flourished in France and England during the Middle Ages. Although its origins are obscure, it probably derived from the works of Ovid, vari...