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Verdun, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Verdun, Treaty of, the partition of Charlemagne's empire among three sons of Louis I, emperor of the West. It was concluded in 843 at Verdun on the Meuse or, possibly, Verdun-sur-le-Doubs, Soâne-et-L...

Bourbon

(Encyclopedia)Bourbon bo͞orbôNˈ [key], European royal family, originally of France; a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty (see Capetians). One branch of the Bourbons occupies the modern Spanish throne, and othe...

Anne de Beaujeu

(Encyclopedia)Anne de Beaujeu də bōzhöˈ [key], c.1460–1522, regent of France, daughter of the French King Louis XI. With her husband, Pierre de Beaujeu, duc de Bourbon, she acted as regent for her brother, Ch...

Nanteuil, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Nanteuil, Robert rōbĕrˈ näNtöˈyə [key], 1623?–1678, French draftsman and engraver. His pastel portraits gained him popularity, and in 1658 Louis XIV made him draftsman to the royal cabinet. H...

diminishing returns, law of

(Encyclopedia)diminishing returns, law of, in economics, law stating that if one factor of production is increased while the others remain constant, the overall returns will relatively decrease after a certain poin...

Edgerton, Harold

(Encyclopedia)Edgerton, Harold, 1903–90, American inventor and educator, b. Fremont, Nebr. He was educated at the Univ. of Nebraska and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (D.Sc., 1931), and taught at the l...

Frank, Joachim

(Encyclopedia)Frank, Joachim, 1940–, German-American physicist and biochemist, b. Siegen, Germany, Ph.D., Technical Univ. of Munich 1970. He became a U.S. citizen in 1997. Following several postdoctoral appointme...

Rodríguez, Martín

(Encyclopedia)Rodríguez, Martín rôᵺrēˈgās [key], 1771–1844, Argentine general, governor of Buenos Aires prov. (1820–24). With Juan Martín de Pueyrredón, he organized a force to expel the British invad...

Carpentier, Alejo

(Encyclopedia)Carpentier, Alejo älāˈhō kärpĕntyārˈ [key], 1904–80, Cuban novelist and musicologist. As a political exile in Paris between 1928 and 1939, Carpentier was strongly influenced by Antonin Artau...

Balladur, Édouard

(Encyclopedia)Balladur, Édouard ādwärˈ bälädürˈ [key], 1929–, French political leader, b. Turkey. He moved to France as a child and grew up in Marseille. A Gaullist and member of the Rally for the Republi...