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Lundy Isle

(Encyclopedia)Lundy Isle, 3 mi (4.8 km) long, off Devon, SW England, at the mouth of the Bristol Channel. Granite was quarried there for centuries. Inhabited in prehistoric times, Lundy Isle was a stronghold of pir...

Dordogne, river, France

(Encyclopedia)Dordogne, river, c.305 mi (490 km) long, rising near the Puy de Sancy in the Auvergne Mts., S central France. It flows southwest to join the Garonne River N of Bordeaux and to form the Gironde. The up...

Erpenius, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Erpenius, Thomas ûrpēˈnēəs [key], 1584–1624, Dutch Orientalist, whose name in Dutch was Van Erpe. Erpenius was one of the most celebrated scholars of his day and wrote several grammars of Middl...

John Climax, Saint

(Encyclopedia)John Climax, Saint [Gr.,=ladder], d. c.649, Syrian hermit of Mt. Sinai. Little is known of his life, but his guide to the spiritual life in 30 steps, The Ladder of Paradise, was widely read in the Mid...

Ruysbroeck, John

(Encyclopedia)Ruysbroeck, John, Dutch Jan van Ruusbroec yän vän roisˈbro͞ok [key], 1293–1381, Roman Catholic mystic, b. Brabant (now in Belgium and the Netherlands). He was an Augustinian canon. In middle age...

Perpendicular style

(Encyclopedia)Perpendicular style, term given the final period of English Gothic architecture (late 14th–middle 16th cent.) because of the predominating vertical lines of its tracery and paneling. It is also call...

Layamon

(Encyclopedia)Layamon lāˈəmən, –mŏn, līˈ– [key], fl. c.1200, first prominent Middle English poet. He described himself as a humble priest attached to the church at Ernley (Arley Regis) near Radstone. His...

Lea, Henry Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lea, Henry Charles lē [key], 1825–1909, U.S. historian, b. Philadelphia. He was associated with the family publishing business for many years, but his real interest was in historical work. Working ...

Hyksos

(Encyclopedia)Hyksos hĭkˈsōs [key] [Egyptian,=rulers of foreign lands], invaders of ancient Egypt, now substantiated as the XV–XVIII dynasties. They were a northwestern Semitic (Canaanite or Amorite) people wh...

Schouten, Willem Cornelis

(Encyclopedia)Schouten, Willem Cornelis vĭlˈəm kôrnāˈlĭs skhouˈtən [key], 1567?–1625, Dutch navigator. In 1615 he sailed from Texel island, Holland, in command of an expedition whose objective was to eva...
 

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