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Leonardo da Vinci

(Encyclopedia)Leonardo da Vinci də vĭnˈchē, Ital. lāōnärˈdō dä vēnˈchē [key], 1452–1519, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist, b. near Vinci, a hill village in Tusc...

Acosta, Uriel

(Encyclopedia)Acosta, Uriel dä kōˈstä [key], c.1585–1640, Jewish rationalist, b. Oporto, Portugal. His original name was Gabriel da Costa, and his family had been converted to Roman Catholicism. When he reach...

Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da

(Encyclopedia)Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da äˌmārēˈjē [key], 1571–1610, Italian painter. His surname, Caravaggio, came from his birthplace. After an apprenticeship in Milan, he arrived (1592) in Rome w...

Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y

(Encyclopedia)Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y rôᵺrēˈgāth ᵺā sēlˈvä ē vāläthˈkāth [key], 1599–1660, b. Seville. He was the most celebrated painter of the Spanish school. Velázquez's dev...

Cortona, Pietro Berrettini da

(Encyclopedia)Cortona, Pietro Berrettini da pyāˈtrō bār-rĕt-tēˈnē dä kōrtôˈnä [key], 1596–1669, Italian baroque painter and architect, b. Cortona. The Barberini family commissioned him to paint fresc...

Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da

(Encyclopedia)Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da jōvänˈnē pyārlo͞oēˈjē päˌlāstrēˈnä [key], c.1525–1594, Italian composer whose family name was Pierluigi; b. Palestrina, from which he took his name. ...

Bilderdijk, Willem

(Encyclopedia)Bilderdijk, Willem wĭlˈəm bĭlˈdərdīk [key], 1756–1831, Dutch poet. He tutored Louis Bonaparte in Dutch and later conducted a small private college at Leiden, where his pupils included Isaäc ...

Eusebio

(Encyclopedia)Eusebio (Eusebio Ferreira da Silva), 1942–2014, generally considered Portugal's greatest soccer player, b. Mozambique. The “Black Panther” first played (1957–60) on the Sporting Lourenço Marq...

Rousseff, Dilma

(Encyclopedia)Rousseff, Dilma jēlˈmä ro͞oˈsĕf [key], 1947–, Brazilian political leader, b. Belo Horizonte. The daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant lawyer and a Brazilian teacher, she was trained as an economi...

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