Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Mignard, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Mignard, Pierre pyĕr mēnyärˈ [key], 1612–95, French painter. In 1657 he was summoned by Louis XIV to portray the king and celebrities of the court. In 1664 he decorated, in fresco, the cupola of...

Duplessis, Maurice Le Noblet

(Encyclopedia)Duplessis, Maurice Le Noblet mōrēsˈ lə nôblāˈ düplĕsēˈ [key], 1890–1959, Canadian lawyer and political leader. Elected in 1927 to the Quebec legislature, he was leader (1933–35) of the ...

Restif de la Bretonne, Nicolas Edme

(Encyclopedia)Restif de la Bretonne, Nicolas Edme nëkôläˈ ĕdˈmə rĕstēfˈ də lä brətônˈ [key], 1734–1806, French novelist. A printer by trade, he wrote and published over 250 novels, mostly based on ...

Pisan, Christine de

(Encyclopedia)Pisan, Christine de krēstēnˈ də pēzäNˈ [key], 1364–c.1430, French poet, of Italian descent. She wrote many verse romances and works in prose, as well as the lyric poems for which she is most ...

Coppée, François

(Encyclopedia)Coppée, François fräNswäˈ kôpāˈ [key], 1842–1908, French poet and dramatist. He won fame with the one-act comedy Le Passant (1869, tr. 1881), in which Sarah Bernhardt made her first successf...

Vélez de Guevara, Luis

(Encyclopedia)Vélez de Guevara, Luis lo͞oēsˈ vāˈlāth ᵺā gāväˈrä [key], 1579?–1644, Spanish playwright and novelist. He was a follower of Lope de Vega and wrote many popular plays noted for their poe...

Le Play, Pierre Guillaume Frédéric

(Encyclopedia)Le Play, Pierre Guillaume Frédéric pyĕr gēyōmˈ frādārēkˈ lə plā [key], 1806–82, French sociologist and economist. As an engineer he traveled through Europe, gathering data on the budgets...

Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan

(Encyclopedia)Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan lĕˈ fənyo͞o [key], 1814–73, Irish author. He spent his early career as a journalist. In 1863, he began producing a series of stories noted for their reflections of Irish...

Tristan L'Hermite, François

(Encyclopedia)Tristan L'Hermite, François fräNswäˈ trēstäNˈ lĕrmētˈ [key], pseud. of François L'Hermite, 1601–55, French playwright and poet. Poor and plagued by ill health, he was a page in the court ...
 

Browse by Subject