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Russo-Turkish Wars

(Encyclopedia)Russo-Turkish Wars. The great eastward expansion of Russia in the 16th and 17th cent., during the decline of the Ottoman Empire, nevertheless left the shores of the Black Sea in the hands of the Ottom...

Abell, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Abell or Abel, Thomas both: āˈbəl [key], d. 1540, English priest, chaplain to Katharine of Aragón. In 1528 he served as Katharine's secret envoy to her nephew, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, in con...

Cressy, Hugh Paulinus

(Encyclopedia)Cressy, Hugh Paulinus krĕˈsē [key], 1605–74, English Benedictine monk. He was educated at Oxford and converted to Roman Catholicism in Rome in 1646. His Exomologesis (1647) is an apologia for his...

German Volga Republic

(Encyclopedia)German Volga Republic, former autonomous republic of the USSR, c.18,000 sq mi (46,600 sq km), along the lower Volga of SW Russia. Its largely German population was descended from the German colonists ...

Novikov, Nikolai Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Novikov, Nikolai Ivanovich nyĭkəlīˈ ēväˈnəvĭch nôˈvēkəf [key], 1744–1818, Russian journalist and publisher. In 1769, with the Drone, he started the vogue of the satirical magazine model...

Kateri Tekakwitha, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Kateri Tekakwitha, Saint gädälēˈ dĕkhäkhwēˈᵺschwa;, –dālēˈ dāgäkwēˈtä [key] or Saint Catherine Tekakwitha, 1656–80, Native American holy woman known as the Lily of the Mohawks, b...

Spada, Lionello

(Encyclopedia)Spada, Lionello lyōnĕlˈlō späˈdä [key], 1576–1622, Italian painter, active mainly in Emilia. His signature was an L placed across a sword [Ital. spada=sword]. His work shows influence of the ...

Hermitage, museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

(Encyclopedia)Hermitage ĕrˌmētäzhˈ [key], museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, one of the world's foremost houses of art, consisting of six buildings along the embankment of the Neva River. Its central building, ...

David, Gerard

(Encyclopedia)David or Davit, Gerard both: gāˈrärt däˈvēt [key], c.1460–1523, Flemish painter, b. Oudewater, Holland. By 1484 he had established himself in Bruges, where he remained until his death. Depende...

Nattier, Jean-Marc

(Encyclopedia)Nattier, Jean-Marc zhäN-märk nätyāˈ [key], 1685–1766, French painter; son of the painter Marc Nattier and the miniaturist Marie Courtois. His early works include historical and mythological pai...