Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Juana Inés de la Cruz

(Encyclopedia)Juana Inés de la Cruz hwäˈnä ēnāsˈ dā lä kro͞os [key], 1651–95, Mexican poet. She is considered the greatest lyric poet of the colonial period. A beautiful and intellectually precocious gi...

Gilbert, William

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert, William, 1544–1603, English scientist and physician. He studied medicine at Cambridge (M.D., 1569), where he was elected a Fellow of St. John's College, and set up practice in London, becom...

Boethius

(Encyclopedia)Boethius bōēsˈ [key] (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius), c.475–525, Roman philosopher and statesman. An honored figure in the public life of Rome, where he was consul in 510, he became the able...

De Soto, Hernando

(Encyclopedia)De Soto, Hernando dĭsōˈtō, Span. ĕrnänˈdō dā sōˈtō [key], c.1500–1542, Spanish explorer. After serving under Pedro Arias de Ávila in Central America and under Francisco Pizarro in Peru,...

García Lorca, Federico

(Encyclopedia)García Lorca, Federico fāᵺārēˈkō gärthēˈä lôrˈkä [key], 1898–1936, Spanish poet and dramatist, b. Fuente Vaqueros. The poetry, passion, and violence of his work and his own tragic and...

mountain climbing

(Encyclopedia)mountain climbing, the practice of climbing to elevated points for sport, pleasure, or research. Also called mountaineering, it is practiced throughout the world. Many mountain climbing clubs have...

Rabelais, François

(Encyclopedia)Rabelais, François răbˈəlā, Fr. fräNswäˈ räblāˈ [key], c.1490–1553, French writer and physician, one of the great comic geniuses in world literature. His father, a lawyer, owned several e...

De Voto, Bernard Augustine

(Encyclopedia)De Voto, Bernard Augustine də vōˈtō [key], 1897–1955, American writer and editor, b. Ogden, Utah, grad. Harvard, 1920. He taught at Northwestern Univ. (1922–27) and then at Harvard (1929–36)...

Canadian art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Canadian art and architecture, the various types and styles arts and structures produced in the geographic area that now constitutes Canada. For a discussion of the art of indigenous peoples of Canada...

Diamond Necklace, Affair of the

(Encyclopedia)Diamond Necklace, Affair of the, scandal that took place at the court of King Louis XVI of France just before the French Revolution. An adventuress who called herself the comtesse de La Motte duped Ca...
 

Browse by Subject