Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

alphorn

(Encyclopedia)alphorn or alpenhorn [Ger.,=Alps horn], wooden horn from 3 ft to 12 ft (91 cm–3.7 m) long, sometimes curved slightly, with conical bore and a cup-shaped mouthpiece. It produces only the natural harm...

Yourcenar, Marguerite

(Encyclopedia)Yourcenar, Marguerite märgərētˈ yo͞orsənärˈ [key], 1903–87, French writer, b. Belgium as Marguerite de Crayencour. The first woman elected (1980) to the prestigious French Academy, Yourcenar...

Millet, Jean François, 1814–75, French painter

(Encyclopedia)Millet, Jean François, 1814–75, French painter. He was born into a poor farming family. In 1837 an award enabled him to go to Paris, where he studied with Delaroche. In 1849 he settled in Barbizon,...

Francis, French prince, duke of Alençon and Anjou

(Encyclopedia)Francis, 1554–84, French prince, duke of Alençon and Anjou; youngest son of King Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici. Although ill-shapen, pockmarked, and endowed with a curiously formed no...

French, John Denton Pinkstone, 1st earl of Ypres

(Encyclopedia)French, John Denton Pinkstone, 1st earl of Ypres ēˈprə [key], 1852–1925, British field marshal. After a long career in the army, during which he served in Sudan (1884–85) and in the South Afric...

Roland

(Encyclopedia)Roland rōˈlənd [key], the great French hero of the medieval Charlemagne cycle of chansons de geste, immortalized in the Chanson de Roland (11th or 12th cent.). Existence of an early Roland poem is ...

Brain, Dennis

(Encyclopedia)Brain, Dennis, 1921–57, British horn player. Brain studied with his father, Aubrey, at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He played principal horn with first the Royal Philharmonic and then the P...

Hoorn, Philip de Montmorency, count of

(Encyclopedia)Hoorn or Horn, Philip de Montmorency, count of both: hôrn [key], 1518?–1568, Netherlands nobleman, member of the council of state during the regency of Margaret of Parma. In 1562 he joined with the...

Kryvyy Rih

(Encyclopedia)Kryvyy Rih krĭvĭˈ rĭkh [key], Rus. Krivoy Rog, city (1989 pop. 713,000), SE Ukraine, at the confluence of the Inhulets and Saksagan rivers. It is a rail junction, an industrial center, and a metal...

Browse by Subject