Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

hermeneutics

(Encyclopedia)hermeneutics, the theory and practice of interpretation. During the Reformation hermeneutics came into being as a special discipline concerned with biblical criticism. The Protestant theologian Friedr...

Reuter, Fritz

(Encyclopedia)Reuter, Fritz (Heinrich Ludwig Christian Friedrich Reuter) , hīnˈrĭkh lo͞otˈvĭkh krĭsˈtyän frēˈdrĭkh [key], 1810–74, German writer. His tales of Mecklenburg life are among the best of Ge...

Swiss literature

(Encyclopedia)Swiss literature. The literature of Switzerland is written in German, French, Italian, and Romansh, with German predominating. The extensive literature in Romansh dialect (see Rhaeto-Romanic) is littl...

Heinse, Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Heinse, Wilhelm vĭlˈhĕlm hīnˈsə [key], 1746–1803, German novelist. His principal novels, Ardinghello; or, An Artist's Rambles in Sicily (1787, tr. 1839) and Hildegard von Hohenthal (1795–96)...

Dumba, Konstantin Theodor

(Encyclopedia)Dumba, Konstantin Theodor kônstäntēnˈ tāˈōdôr do͝omˈbä [key], 1856–1947, Austro-Hungarian diplomat. As ambassador (1913–15) to the United States, he was involved with Franz von Papen an...

Pfeffer, Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Pfeffer, Wilhelm vĭlˈhĕlm pfĕˈfər [key], 1845–1920, German plant physiologist. He was professor of botany successively at the universities of Bonn, Basel, Tübingen, and Leipzig (from 1887). W...

Carstens, Asmus Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Carstens, Asmus Jacob äsˈmo͝os yäˈkôp kärˈstəns [key], 1754–98, German historical painter and engraver, b. Schleswig. He studied in Copenhagen and in Italy. He was influenced by the work of...

serial music

(Encyclopedia)serial music, the body of compositions whose fundamental syntactical reference is a particular ordering (called series or row) of the twelve pitch classes—C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B—t...

games, theory of

(Encyclopedia)games, theory of, group of mathematical theories first developed by John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern. A game consists of a set of rules governing a competitive situation in which from two to n i...

Browse by Subject