Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bruno, Giordano

(Encyclopedia)Bruno, Giordano jōrdäˈnō bro͞oˈnō [key], 1548–1600, Italian philosopher, b. Nola. The son of a professional soldier, he entered the Dominican order early in his youth and was ordained a pries...

structuralism

(Encyclopedia)structuralism, theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves. This method found wide use from th...

Quatre Bras

(Encyclopedia)Quatre Bras käˈtrə bräˈ [key], village, Walloon Brabant prov., central Belgium, just south of Waterloo. There, on June 16, 1815, in a battle of the Waterloo campaign, the British under Arthur Wel...

Saint-Mihiel

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Mihiel săN-mēyēlˈ [key], town (1993 est. pop. 5,435), Meuse dept., NE France, in Lorraine, on the Meuse River. Its chief manufactures are eyeglasses, plywood, and copper products. Saint-Mihi...

chivalry

(Encyclopedia)chivalry shĭvˈəlrē [key], system of ethical ideals that arose from feudalism and had its highest development in the 12th and 13th cent. Chivalric ethics originated chiefly in France and Spain and ...

Desmarets, Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Desmarets, Nicolas nēkôläˈ dāmärāˈ [key], 1648–1721, French statesman; the nephew of Jean Baptiste Colbert. He became director of finances in 1703 and succeeded Michel Chamillart as controll...

Guise

(Encyclopedia)Guise gēz, gwēz [key], influential ducal family of France. Henri's brother Louis de Lorraine, Cardinal de Guise, 1555–88, was killed at the same time as Henri. After their deaths the leadersh...

Martelly, Michel Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Martelly, Michel Joseph, 1961–, Haitian musician and political leader. After periods of living in the United States, he returned home in 1987 and became a keyboard player and singer, specializing in...

Bagaza, Jean-Baptiste

(Encyclopedia)Bagaza, Jean-Baptiste zhäN-bätēstˈ bägäzäˈ [key], 1946–2016, Burundian army officer and political leader. An ethnic Tutsi, he was educated at Belgian military schools, rose through the ranks...

La Salle, Robert Cavelier, sieur de

(Encyclopedia)La Salle, Robert Cavelier, sieur de rōbĕrˈ kävəlyāˈ syör də lä sälˈ [key], 1643–87, French explorer in North America, one of the most celebrated explorers and builders of New France. He ...
 

Browse by Subject