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Boccaccio, Giovanni

(Encyclopedia)Boccaccio, Giovanni jōvänˈnē [key], 1313–75, Italian poet and storyteller, author of the Decameron. Born in Paris, the illegitimate son of a Tuscan merchant and a French woman, he was educated a...

Mann, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Mann, Thomas tōˈmäs män [key], 1875–1955, German novelist and essayist, the outstanding German novelist of the 20th cent., b. Lübeck; brother of Heinrich Mann. A writer of great intellectual br...

Ashi, Rab

(Encyclopedia)Ashi or Asser, Rab äˈshē, äsˈər [key], c.352–c.424, Jewish scholar of Babylon. He was a judge, community administrator, and teacher of considerable influence both on contemporary Jewish societ...

Pázmány, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Pázmány, Peter päzˈmänyə [key], 1570–1637, Hungarian churchman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Of a Calvinist family, he was converted to Catholicism in 1583, entered the Society of Je...

telepathy

(Encyclopedia)telepathy, supposed communication between two persons without recourse to the senses. The word was formulated in 1882 by Frederic William Henry Myers, English poet, essayist, and a leading founder of ...

Rogers, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Rogers, Samuel, 1763–1855, English poet. Independently wealthy, he owned a beautiful home on St. James Street, Westminster, which became the center of literary society. He was famous for his convers...

Cursor Mundi

(Encyclopedia)Cursor Mundi kûrˈsôr mŭnˈdī [key], a long religious epic in Middle English relating the history of the world as recorded in the Old and New Testaments. This anonymous poem (written c.1300) is a ...

Clark, Francis Edward

(Encyclopedia)Clark, Francis Edward, 1851–1927, American Congregational clergyman, founder of Christian Endeavor. He was born of American parents in Aylmer, Que., and was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1873....

Garnier, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Garnier, Charles (Saint Charles Garnier) shärl gärnyāˈ [key], 1606–49, French missionary in North America, one of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and...

Sorolla y Bastida, Joaquín

(Encyclopedia)Sorolla y Bastida, Joaquín hwäkēnˈ sōrōˈlyä ē bästēˈᵺä [key], 1863–1923, Spanish painter, b. Valencia. He is noted for his large landscapes in full, glowing sunlight, painted in stron...