Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Perrault, Claude

(Encyclopedia)Perrault, Claude pĕrōˈ [key], 1613–88, French architect, scientist, and physician. One of the most eminent French scholars of his time, he advanced the study of anatomy and made other scientific...

Perret, Auguste

(Encyclopedia)Perret, Auguste ōgüstˈ pĕrāˈ [key], 1874–1954, French architect. He left the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris to join the family construction firm with his brother Gustave, and began to exper...

Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas

(Encyclopedia)Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas nēkôläˈ bwälōˈ-dāprāōˈ [key], 1636–1711, French literary critic and poet. He was the spokesman of classicism, drawing his principles from his contemporaries, a...

Oahe Dam

(Encyclopedia)Oahe Dam ōwäˈhē [key], major unit of the Missouri River basin project, 242 ft (74 m) high and 9,360 ft (2,853 m) long, on the Missouri River, central S.Dak., near Pierre; built 1948–63 by the U....

Saint-Germain-des-Prés

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Germain-des-Prés săN-zhĕrmăNˈ-dā-prā [key], historic abbey and church of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine. It was founded (6th cent.) by Childebert I; several Merovingian kings were b...

Geffrard, Nicholas Fabre

(Encyclopedia)Geffrard, Nicholas Fabre nēkôläˈ fäˈbrə zhĕfrärˈ [key], 1806–79, president of Haiti (1859–67). He took part (1843) in the revolt against Jean Pierre Boyer and led the insurrection that o...

David d'Angers

(Encyclopedia)David d'Angers or Pierre-Jean David dävēdˈ däNzhāˈ; pyĕr-zhäN [key], 1788–1856, French sculptor. His works are numerous and present national figures, often nude, in statues, busts, reliefs, ...

Dumas, Alexandre (Dumas fils), 1824–95, French dramatist and novelist

(Encyclopedia)Dumas, Alexandre, known as Dumas fils fēs [key], 1824–95, French dramatist and novelist, illegitimate son of Alexandre Dumas (1802–70, Dumas Père). He was the chief creator of the 19th-century c...

David, Félicien César

(Encyclopedia)David, Félicien César fālēsyăNˈ sāzärˈ dävēdˈ [key], 1810–76, French composer. His ode-symphony Le Desert (1844) and his opera Lalla-Roukh (1862) contain Eastern elements, presaging the ...

Demangeon, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Demangeon, Albert dāmäNzhōNˈ [key], 1872–1940, French geographer, specializing in the study of regional and economic geography. His best-known works include Le Déclin de L'Europe (1920), L'Empi...