Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Columbia University, mainly in New York City; founded 1754 as King's College by grant of King George II; first college in New York City, fifth oldest in the United States; one of the eight Ivy League ...

(Encyclopedia) common law, system of law that prevails in England and in countries colonized by England. The name is derived from the medieval theory that the law administered by the king's courts represented the co...

(Encyclopedia) Dante Alighieri dănˈtē, Ital. dänˈtā älēgyĕˈrē [key], 1265–1321, Italian poet, b. Florence. Dante was the author of the Divine Comedy, one of the greatest of literary classics. Dante's ...

(Encyclopedia) Tuapse to͞oəpsyĕˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 63,100), Krasnodar Territory, SE European Russia, on the Black Sea. It is a major petroleum port and the terminal of the pipeline from the Grozny oil field...

(Encyclopedia) baboon, any of the large, powerful, ground-living monkeys of the genus Papio, also called dog-faced monkeys. Five subspecies live in Africa, with one species extending into the Arabian peninsula. They...

(Encyclopedia) bobolink bŏbˈəlĭngkˌ [key], common name in the N United States and Canada for an American songbird, Dolichonyx oryzivorus, related to the blackbird and the oriole, belonging to the family Icterid...

(Encyclopedia) fertility rites, magico-religious ceremonies to insure an abundance of food and the birth of children. The rites, expressed through dances, prayers, incantations, and sacred dramas, seek to control th...

(Encyclopedia) electrostatics, study of phenomena associated with charged bodies at rest (see charge; electricity). A charged body has an excess of positive or negative charges, a condition usually brought about by ...

(Encyclopedia) Hades hāˈdēz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology. 1 The ruler of the underworld: see Pluto. 2 The world of the dead, ruled by Pluto and Persephone, located either underground or in the...

(Encyclopedia) Homer, principal figure of ancient Greek literature; the first European poet. The Odyssey is written in 24 books and begins nearly ten years after the fall of Troy. In the first part, Telemachus, Od...