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Morisot, Berthe

(Encyclopedia)Morisot, Berthe bĕrt môrēzōˈ [key], 1841–95, French impressionist painter. She studied with many gifted painters, including Corot. She formed a close friendship with Manet, who became her broth...

atrium

(Encyclopedia)atrium āˈtrēəm [key], term for an interior court in Roman domestic architecture and also for a type of entrance court in early Christian churches. The Roman atrium was an unroofed or partially roo...

Namier, Sir Lewis Bernstein

(Encyclopedia)Namier, Sir Lewis Bernstein nāmˈyər [key], 1888–1960, English historian, b. Poland. He attended the London School of Economics and Oxford and became professor at the Univ. of Manchester in 1931, ...

Matthew, Gospel according to

(Encyclopedia)Matthew, Gospel according to, 1st book of the New Testament. Scholars conjecture that it was written for the church at Antioch toward the end of the 1st cent. Traditonally regarded as the earliest Gos...

Rossini, Gioacchino Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Rossini, Gioacchino Antonio jōäk-kēˈnō äntôˈnyō rōs-sēˈnē [key], 1792–1868, Italian operatic composer, one of the great masters of the Italian opera buffa. His parents were both musicia...

Schiele, Egon

(Encyclopedia)Schiele, Egon āˈgôn shēˈlə [key], 1890–1918, Austrian expressionist painter and draftsman, studied Vietta Academy of Fine Arts. Influenced by the French impressionists, then by Gustav Klimt, S...

Selborne, Roundell Palmer, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Selborne, Roundell Palmer, 1st earl of sĕlˈbôrn [key], 1812–95, British jurist and statesman. Called to the bar in 1837, he entered Parliament in 1847 as a nominal Conservative. He soon was assoc...

Chambers, Whittaker

(Encyclopedia)Chambers, Whittaker, 1901–61, U.S. journalist and spy, b. Philadelphia. He joined the U.S. Communist party in 1925 and wrote for its newspaper before engaging (1935–38) in espionage for the USSR. ...

Gilbert, Grove Karl

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert, Grove Karl, 1843–1918, American geologist, b. Rochester, N.Y., grad. Univ. of Rochester, 1862. When the U.S. Geological Survey was created in the Dept. of the Interior in 1879 (to replace f...

divination

(Encyclopedia)divination, practice of foreseeing future events or obtaining secret knowledge through communication with divine sources and through omens, oracles, signs, and portents. It is based on the belief in r...