Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Appian Way

(Encyclopedia)Appian Way ăpˈēən [key], Lat. Via Appia, most famous of the Roman roads, built (312 b.c.) under Appius Claudius Caecus. It connected Rome with Capua and was later extended to Beneventum (now Benev...

Ruthven

(Encyclopedia)Ruthven rĭvˈən, ro͞othˈvən [key], Scottish noble family, believed to trace its ancestry to Thor, a Saxon or Dane, who settled in Scotland in the reign of David I. The name is derived from lands ...

Russian and Soviet Rulers since 1462 (table)

(Encyclopedia)Russian and Soviet Rulers since 1462(including dates of rule) House of Rurik House of Godunov Usurpers House of Romanov Provisional Government(premiers) Soviet Russia (1917–22) and the U...

Montfort, Simon de

(Encyclopedia)Montfort, Simon de mŏntˈfərt, Fr. môNfôrˈ [key], c.1160–1218, count of Montfort and earl of Leicester. A participant in the Fourth Crusade (1202–4), he did not join in the sack of Constantin...

Alessandria

(Encyclopedia)Alessandria älās-sänˈdrēä [key], city, capital of Alessandria prov., in Piedmont, NW Italy, at the confluence of the Tanaro and Bormida rivers. It is an industrial c...

Spinello di Luca Spinelli

(Encyclopedia)Spinello di Luca Spinelli spēnĕlˈlō dē lo͞oˈkä spēnĕlˈlē [key], c.1346–1410, Italian painter, usually called Spinello Aretino from his birthplace, Arezzo. He was a leading exponent of th...

Battenberg

(Encyclopedia)Battenberg bătˈənbûrg [key], German princely family, issued from the morganatic union of Alexander, a younger son of Louis II, grand duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, and Countess Julia von Hauke, who was ...

duel

(Encyclopedia)duel, prearranged armed fight with deadly weapons, usually swords or pistols, between two persons concerned with a point of honor. The duel may have originated in the wager of battle, an early mode of...

Innocent IV

(Encyclopedia)Innocent IV, d. 1254, pope (1243–54), a Genoese named Sinibaldo Fieschi, a distinguished jurist who studied and later taught law at the Univ. of Bologna; successor of Celestine IV. He was of a noble...

Arns, Paulo Everisto

(Encyclopedia)Arns, Paulo Everisto, 1921–2016, Brazilian Roman Catholic cardinal and social activist. He joined the Franciscans in 1943, was ordained in 1945, and studied at the Sorbonne (Ph.D. 1946). After teach...