Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Drebbel, Cornelis Jacobszoon

(Encyclopedia)Drebbel, Cornelis Jacobszoon kôrnāˈlĭs yäˈkôpsōn drĕbˈəl [key], 1572–1634, Dutch inventor, physicist, and mechanician. His major inventions were an atmospherically driven clock and the fi...

Dunning, John, 1st Baron Ashburton

(Encyclopedia)Dunning, John, 1st Baron Ashburton, 1731–83, English jurist and politician. He attracted notice in 1762 by his written defense of the British East India Company merchants against their Dutch rivals....

Cumaná

(Encyclopedia)Cumaná ko͞omänäˈ [key], city, capital of Sucre state, NE Venezuela, on the Manzanares River ...

Ems, river, Germany

(Encyclopedia)Ems, river, 208 mi (335 km) long, rising in the Teutoburger Wald, NW Germany, and flowing NW into the North Sea near Emden. Its wide mouth is called the Dollart. The Ems is paralleled for much of its ...

Passaic, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Passaic pəsāˈĭk [key], city (1990 pop. 58,041), Passaic co., NE N.J., a port on the Passaic River; settled 1678 by Dutch traders as Acquackanonk, named Passaic 1854, inc. as a city 1873. Formerly ...

Ryswick, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Ryswick, Treaty of, 1697, the pact that ended the War of the Grand Alliance. Its signers were France on one side and England, Spain, and the Netherlands on the other. It was a setback for Louis XIV, w...

Nias

(Encyclopedia)Nias nēˈäs [key], volcanic island (1990 pop. 588,543), 1,842 sq mi (4,771 sq km), Indonesia, in the Indian Ocean, off Sumatra. Most of the population are descended from the Niah people; their econo...

Netscher, Caspar

(Encyclopedia)Netscher, Caspar käsˈpär nĕchˈər [key], 1639–84, Dutch portrait and genre painter, b. Heidelberg. He moved to Holland, where he studied with Ter Borch. Netscher was especially adept in the ren...

Vries, Adriaen de

(Encyclopedia)Vries, Adriaen de äˈdrēän də vrēs [key], c.1560–c.1626, Dutch sculptor. Having studied in Florence under Giovanni Bologna, he carried into Bohemia and Germany the influence of the Italian Rena...

Wouwerman, Philips

(Encyclopedia)Wouwerman, Philips fēˈlĭps vouˈvərmän [key], 1619–68, Dutch painter of Haarlem. He is best known for his spirited scenes of battles, encampments, cavalry skirmishes, and hunts. Of these he pai...