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Lorenzo Monaco

(Encyclopedia)Lorenzo Monaco mōˈnäkō [key], c.1370–1425?, Italian painter, one of the leading artists in Florence at the beginning of the 15th cent. His real name was Piero di Giovanni. Born in Siena, he came...

Udine

(Encyclopedia)Udine o͞oˈdēnā [key], city (1991 pop. 99,189), capital of Udine prov., Friuli–Venezia Giulia, NE Italy. Manufactures include machinery, textiles, metals, and chemicals. In the 10th cent. Emperor...

sodium silicate

(Encyclopedia)sodium silicate, any one of several compounds containing sodium oxide, Na2O, and silica, Si2O, or a mixture of sodium silicates. Sodium orthosilicate is Na4SiO4 (or 2Na2O·SiO2); sodium metasilicate i...

Sangallo

(Encyclopedia)Sangallo säng-gälˈlō [key], three Italian Renaissance architects, two brothers and their nephew. Giuliano da Sangallo, 1445–1516, designed the Church of Santa Maria delle Carceri at Prato and pa...

oratorio

(Encyclopedia)oratorio ôrətôrˈēō [key], musical composition employing chorus, orchestra, and soloists and usually, but not necessarily, a setting of a sacred libretto without stage action or scenery. The imme...

Enlightenment

(Encyclopedia)Enlightenment, term applied to the mainstream of thought of 18th-century Europe and America. Centered in Paris, the movement gained international character at cosmopolitan salons. Masonic lodges pla...

Medici, Italian family

(Encyclopedia)Medici mĕˈdĭchē, Ital. māˈdēchē [key], Italian family that directed the destinies of Florence from the 15th cent. until 1737. Of obscure origin, they rose to immense wealth as merchants and ba...

Leiter, Saul

(Encyclopedia)Leiter, Saul lītˈər [key], 1923–2013, American photographer, b. Pittsburgh. A painter in the early 1940s, Leiter switched to photography late in the decade. Along with Robert Frank and Diane Arbu...

Brazza, Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de

(Encyclopedia)Brazza, Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de pyĕr pōl fräNswäˈ kämēˈyə sävôrnyäNˈ də bräzäˈ [key], 1852–1905, Franco-Italian empire builder. He was born Pietro Paolo Savorgnan...

Sutherland, Dame Joan

(Encyclopedia)Sutherland, Dame Joan, 1926–2010, Australian coloratura soprano and one of the most famous singers of the 20th cent. Sutherland studied in her hometown of Sydney, where she made her concert debut (1...