Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gothic revival, term designating a return to the building styles of the Middle Ages. Although the Gothic revival was practiced throughout Europe, it attained its greatest importance in the United Stat...

(Encyclopedia) Sin sĭn [key], moon god of Semitic origin, worshiped in ancient Middle Eastern religions. One of the principal deities in the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheons, he was lord of the calendar and of wis...

(Encyclopedia) Avranches ävräNshˈ [key], town, Manche dept., NW France, in Normandy, on the English Channel. Because of its proximity to the rocky island of Mont-Saint-Michel, Avranch...

(Encyclopedia) Ash Wednesday, in the Western Church, the first day of Lent, being the seventh Wednesday before Easter. On this day ashes are placed on the foreheads of the faithful to remind them of death, of the so...

(Encyclopedia) Weymouth and Melcombe Regis wāˈməth, mĕlˈkəm rēˈjĭs [key], town (1991 pop. 38,384), Dorset, SW England, on Weymouth Bay. It is a port and a resort town with wide beaches. The port was active ...

(Encyclopedia) Braga, city (1991 est. pop. 86,316), capital of Braga dist., NW Portugal, in Minho. It is an agricultural trade center that produces electronics, textiles, and firearms. The ancient Bracara Augusta, i...

(Encyclopedia) Focillon, Henri äNrēˈ fôsēyôNˈ [key], 1881–1943, French art historian. Focillon, who was professor of art history at the Collège de France, was an authority on medieval art, the subject of h...

(Encyclopedia) jongleurs zhông-glörˈ [key], itinerant entertainers of the Middle Ages in France and Norman England. Their repertoire included dancing, conjuring, acrobatics, the feats of the modern juggler, singi...

(Encyclopedia) Solingen zōˈlĭng-ən [key], city (1994 pop. 166,064), North Rhine–Westphalia, W Germany, on the Wupper River opposite Remscheid. It is a major center of the German cutlery industry. Solingen stee...

(Encyclopedia) Benha bänˈ– [key], city (1986 pop. 115,701), capital of Qalyubiyah governate, N Egypt, in the Nile River delta. A rail junction and trade center, Benha has cotton-ginning, rug-weaving, and food-pr...