Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Magna Carta or Magna Charta [Lat., = great charter], the most famous document of British constitutional history, issued by King John at Runnymede under compulsion from the barons and the church in...

(Encyclopedia) trench mouth, common term for Vincent's infection, an ulcerative membranous infection of the gums and mouth, by noncontagious infection, associated with a fusiform bacillus and a spirochete. Poor oral...

(Encyclopedia) Batory: see Stephen Báthory and Báthory, family. ...

(Encyclopedia) Chancellor, Richard, d. 1556, English navigator. When, largely under the inspiration of Sebastian Cabot, a group of men in England undertook to finance a search for the Northeast Passage to Asia, Chan...

(Encyclopedia) Tourville, Anne Hilarion de Cotentin, comte de än ēläryôNˈ də kôtäNtăNˈ kôNt də to͞orvēlˈ [key], 1642–1701, French naval commander. He served in the wars of King Louis XIV and was mad...

(Encyclopedia) Lombardi, Vince (Vincent Thomas Lombardi), 1913–70, American football coach, b. New York City. As a student at Fordham, he was a member of the famed “Seven Blocks of Granite” line. After great s...

(Encyclopedia) Hurt, John (Sir John Vincent Hurt), 1940–2017, English actor, b. Chesterfield, Derbyshire, grad. Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1962). Known for his sympathetic portrayal of unusual, often unappeali...

(Encyclopedia) Cossa, Francesco, or Francesco del Cossa fränchĕsˈkō dĕl kôsˈsä [key], c.1435–1477?, Italian painter. He was a leading representative of the Ferrarese school and was regarded, with Ercole de...

(Encyclopedia) Stubbs, George, 1724–1806, English painter known for his studies of horses. Self-taught, Stubbs was interested in comparative anatomy and published his Anatomy of the Horse (1766), which is still ad...

(Encyclopedia) Vannes vän [key], town (1990 pop. 48,454), capital of Morbihan dept., NW France, in Brittany, on the Gulf of Morbihan. It is an important agricultural and tourist center that produces processed food,...