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Sète

(Encyclopedia)Sète, formerly Cette both: sĕt [key], town (1990 pop. 41,916), Hérault dept., S France, in Languedoc, on the Mediterranean. It is one of the most important commercial and fishing ports of S France,...

Muscle Shoals

(Encyclopedia)Muscle Shoals, town (1990 pop. 9,611), Colbert co., NW Ala., on the Tennessee River opposite Florence; inc. 1923. Chemicals, truck trailers, and nuts, screws, and bolts are manufactured. The river for...

Beauvais

(Encyclopedia)Beauvais bōvāˈ [key], town, capital of Oise dept., N France. Tractors, ceramic tiles, text...

Gobelins, Manufacture nationale des

(Encyclopedia)Gobelins, Manufacture nationale des mänüfäktürˈ näsēônälˈ dā gôblăNˈ [key], state-controlled tapestry manufactory in Paris. It was founded as a dye works in the mid-15th cent. by Jean Go...

École des Beaux-Arts

(Encyclopedia)École des Beaux-Arts ākôlˈ dā bōzärˈ [key][Fr.,=school of fine arts], French national school of fine arts, on the Quai Malaquais, Paris, founded in 1648 by Charles Le Brun with the consent of ...

Perrault, Claude

(Encyclopedia)Perrault, Claude pĕrōˈ [key], 1613–88, French architect, scientist, and physician. One of the most eminent French scholars of his time, he advanced the study of anatomy and made other scientific...

farming, in taxation

(Encyclopedia)farming, in the history of taxation, collection of taxes through private contractors. Usually, the tax farmer paid a lump sum to the public treasury; the difference between that sum and the sum actual...

Fouquet, Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Fouquet or Foucquet, Nicolas fo͞okāˈ [key], 1615–80, superintendent of finance (1653–61) under King Louis XIV of France. His loyalty to Cardinal Mazarin during the Fronde helped to secure his ...

East India Company, French

(Encyclopedia)East India Company, French, 1664–1769, commercial enterprise planned by Jean Baptiste Colbert and chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere. It failed to found...

Le Brun, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Le Brun, Charles lə bröNˈ [key], 1619–90, French painter, decorator, and architect. He studied with Vouet and in Rome. Strongly influenced by Poussin, he returned in 1646 to Paris, where he grad...

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