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Belvedere

(Encyclopedia)Belvedere bĕlˈvədēr, Ital. bālvādĕˈrā [key], court of the Vatican named after a villa built (1485–87) for Innocent VIII. The villa was decorated with frescoes by Pinturicchio and others; a ...

Warner, Sylvia Townsend

(Encyclopedia)Warner, Sylvia Townsend, 1893–1978, English novelist and poet. Her first published work was poetry, The Espalier (1925), but she became more generally known with two novels of gentle fantasy, Lolly ...

Purdy, James Otis

(Encyclopedia)Purdy, James Otis, 1914–2009, American writer, b. near Hicksville, Ohio; studied Bowling Green State College (B.A., 1935), Univ. of Chicago (M.A., 1937), Univ. of Pueblo, Mexico. Idiosyncratic and a...

Alfonso IV, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Alfonso IV, 1291–1357, king of Portugal (1325–57), son and successor of Diniz. Disgruntled by the favoritism his father showed toward Alfonso's illegitimate half-brothers, Alfonso rose in revolt i...

Albornoz, Gil Álvarez Carrillo de

(Encyclopedia)Albornoz, Gil Álvarez Carrillo de hēl älˈvärĕth kärēˈlyō dā älbôrnôthˈ [key], 1310?–1367, Spanish and papal statesman and general, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Under Alfonso...

Fouquet, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Fouquet or Foucquet, Jean or Jehan all: zhäN fo͞okāˈ [key], c.1420–c.1480, French painter and illuminator. He was summoned to Rome in the 1440s to paint the portrait (now lost) of Pope Eugenius ...

Gasparri, Pietro

(Encyclopedia)Gasparri, Pietro pyĕˈtrō gäspärˈrē [key], 1852–1934, Italian churchman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He taught canon law at the Catholic Institute in Paris (1879–98) and was apost...

Liu Hsiu

(Encyclopedia)Liu Hsiu lyo͞o shyo͞o [key], a.d. 6–a.d. 57, restorer of the Han dynasty. As first emperor (a.d. 25–a.d. 57) of the Later, or Eastern, Han (a.d. 25–a.d. 200), he curbed the power of the imperi...

papacy

(Encyclopedia)CE5 papacy pāˈpəsē [key], office of the pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church. He is pope by reason of being bishop of Rome and thus, according to Roman Catholic belief, successor in the see ...

Pius XII

(Encyclopedia)Pius XII, 1876–1958, pope (1939–58), an Italian named Eugenio Pacelli, b. Rome; successor of Pius XI. Ordained a priest in 1899, he entered the Vatican's secretariat of state. He became (1912) und...