Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Lombards lŏmˈbərdz, –bärdz [key], ancient Germanic people. By the 1st cent. a.d. the Lombards were settled along the lower Elbe. After obscure migrations they were allowed (547) by Byzantine Emp...

(Encyclopedia) Villanovan culture, the culture of a people of N Italy in the early Iron Age (c.1100–700 b.c.). The term is derived from the town of Villanova, near Bologna, where the first excavations of a Villano...

(Encyclopedia) Alexandria, Arabic Al Iskandariyah, city, N Egypt, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is at the western extremity of the Nile River delta, situated on a narrow isthmus between the sea and Lake ...

(Encyclopedia) Spartacus spärˈtəkəs [key], d. 71 b.c., leader in an ancient Italian slave revolt, b. Thrace. He broke out (73 b.c.) of a gladiators' school at Capua and fled to Mt. Vesuvius, where many fugitives...

(Encyclopedia) Padua pădˈyo͞oə [key], Ital. Padova, city (1991 pop. 215,137), capital of Padova prov., in Venetia, NE Italy, connected by canal with the Brenta, Adige, and Po rivers. It is an agricultural, comme...

(Encyclopedia) Samnites sămˈnīts [key], people of ancient Italy. Their country was Samnium. The Samnites were Oscan-speaking and therefore should be included among the Sabelli. The Tabula Agnonensis, a bronze tab...

(Encyclopedia) Nicholas III, d. 1280, pope (1277–80), a Roman named Giovanni Gaetano Orsini; successor of John XXI. As a cardinal he made a great reputation in diplomacy, and he was a close confidant of popes for ...

(Encyclopedia) Vien, Joseph-Marie zhôzëfˈ-märēˈ vyăNˈ [key], 1716–1809, French neoclassical painter. A protégé of the comte de Caylus, he won the Prix de Rome and studied in Italy. He was appointed direc...

(Encyclopedia) Bruyn, Cornelis de broin [key], 1652–c.1726, Dutch portrait painter and traveler. He painted for some years in Italy, where he was known, in Rome, as Adonis. Bruyn is remembered chiefly for the rec...

(Encyclopedia) Lascaris, Constantine kŏnˈstəntēn lăsˈkərĭs [key], d. 1501?, Greek grammarian. After the fall of Constantinople, Lascaris went to Italy and in Milan obtained the patronage of Francesco Sforza....