Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Balzac, Honoré de bălˈzăk, bôl–, Fr. ōnôrāˈ də bälzäkˈ [key], 1799–1850, French novelist, b. Tours. Balzac ranks among the great masters of the novel. Of a bourgeois family, he himsel...

(Encyclopedia) Soubise, Benjamin de Rohan, seigneur de bäNzhämăNˈ də rōäNˈ sānyûrˈ də so͞obēzˈ [key], 1583–1642, French Protestant general. He fought under Maurice of Nassau in the Netherlands and s...

(Encyclopedia) Pole, English noble family. The first member of importance was William de la Pole, d. 1366, a rich merchant who became the first mayor of Hull (1332) and a baron of the exchequer (1339). His oldest so...

(Encyclopedia) Île-de-France ēl-də-fräNs [key], region and former province, N central France, in the center of the Paris basin, a fertile depression where the Marne and Ouse rivers join the Seine. Containing par...

(Encyclopedia) Favras, Thomas de Mahy, marquis de tômäˈ də mäēˈ märkēˈ də fävräsˈ [key], 1744–90, French royalist. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, he plotted (1789) with the comte de La ...

(Encyclopedia) Pardo Bazán, Emilia, condesa de āmēˈlyä kōndāˈsä dā pärˈᵺō bäthänˈ [key], 1852–1921, Spanish novelist and critic. Her biography of St. Francis of Assisi appeared the same year as h...

(Encyclopedia) Baptists, denomination of Protestant Christians holding a distinctive belief with regard to the ordinance of baptism. Since 1644 the name has been applied to those who maintain that baptism should be ...

(Encyclopedia) Ré rā [key], island (1991 pop. 13,973), 33 sq mi (85 sq km), Charente-Maritime dept., off La Rochelle, W France, in the Bay of Biscay. The island is largely agricultural; it has oyster beds, some fi...

(Encyclopedia) Maupertuis, Pierre Louis Moreau de pyĕr lwē môrōˈ də mōpĕrtüēˈ [key], 1698–1759, French mathematician and astronomer. For his skillful support of Newton's theory he was admitted to the Ro...

(Encyclopedia) Castillejo, Cristóbal de krēstōˈbäl dā kästēlyāˈhō [key], c.1490–1550, Spanish poet of the Renaissance. As secretary to the king of Bohemia, Castillejo visited Vienna and other European c...