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Cefalù

(Encyclopedia)Cefalù chāfälo͞oˈ [key], town, N Sicily, Italy, a port on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is a co...

Bernina

(Encyclopedia)Bernina bĕrnēˈnä [key], mountain group, part of the Rhaetian Alps on the Swiss-Italian border, SE Switzerland. Piz Bernina is the highest (13,304 ft/4,055 m) peak. The group has many glaciers; Mor...

Bicocca, La

(Encyclopedia)Bicocca, La lä bēkôkˈkä [key], former village, Lombardy, N Italy, now part of Milan. There, in 1522, the vicomte de Lautrec, commanding a French army and Swiss mercenaries, was defeated by a comb...

Böcklin, Arnold

(Encyclopedia)Böcklin or Boecklin, Arnold both: ärˈnôlt bökˈlēn [key], 1827–1901, Swiss painter. Most of his life was spent in Italy. With Feuerbach he led the group of painters known as “German Romans,�...

Leopardi, Giacomo

(Encyclopedia)Leopardi, Giacomo jäˈkōmō lāōpärˈdē [key], 1798–1837, Italian poet and scholar, considered Italy's outstanding 19th-century poet. An intellectual prodigy, he taught himself Hebrew and ancie...

Lepidus

(Encyclopedia)Lepidus lĕpˈĭdəs [key], family of the ancient Roman patrician gens Aemilia. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, d. 152 b.c., was a consul in 187 and 175 b.c., a censor in 179 b.c., and pontifex maximus [high...

Magna Graecia

(Encyclopedia)Magna Graecia măgˈnə grēˈshə [key] [Lat.,=great Greece], Greek colonies of S Italy. The Greek overseas expansion of the 8th cent. b.c. founded a number of towns that became the centers of a new,...

Malaspina, Alejandro

(Encyclopedia)Malaspina, Alejandro or Alessandro älāhänˈdrō mäläspēˈnä; älās-sänˈdrō [key], 1754–1810, Italian-Spanish naval officer and explorer, b. Mulazzo, Italy. From a minor N Italian noble fa...

degree, academic

(Encyclopedia)degree, academic, title bestowed upon a student on the fulfillment of certain requirements or given as an honor to an eminent person. The practice of awarding degrees originated in the universities of...

Fermi, Enrico

(Encyclopedia)Fermi, Enrico ĕnrēˈkō fĕrˈmē [key], 1901–54, American physicist, b. Italy. He studied at Pisa, Göttingen, and Leiden, and taught physics at the universities of Florence and Rome. He contribu...