Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Lully, Jean Baptiste

(Encyclopedia)Lully, Jean Baptiste zhäN bätēstˈ lülēˈ [key], 1632–87, French operatic composer, b. Florence, Italy. His name originally was Giovanni Battista Lulli. A self-taught violinist, he went to Fran...

Proust, Joseph Louis

(Encyclopedia)Proust, Joseph Louis zhôzĕfˈ lwē pro͞ost [key], 1754–1826, French chemist. He was professor of chemistry at the artillery school in Segovia, Spain, and director of the laboratory of Charles IV ...

Louis I, king of Naples

(Encyclopedia)Louis I, 1339–84, king of Naples (1382–84; rival claimant to Charles III), duke of Anjou, count of Provence, second son of John II of France. He founded the second Angevin line in Naples. As a reg...

Nathan, George Jean

(Encyclopedia)Nathan, George Jean, 1882–1958, American editor and drama critic, b. Fort Wayne, Ind. He left the New York Herald to join H. L. Mencken in editing Smart Set (1914–23), which they made into a guide...

Saint Charles

(Encyclopedia)Saint Charles. 1 City (1990 pop. 22,501), Kane co., NE Ill., on the Fox River, a suburb of Chicago; inc. 1850. Located in an agricultural area (corn and soybeans), the city has food-processing, alumin...

Bent, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Bent, Charles, 1799–1847, American frontiersman, b. St. Louis. He entered the fur trade of the Missouri River and became one of the mountain men. His interests turned to the Southwest, and he led ex...

Belmondo, Jean-Paul

(Encyclopedia)Belmondo, Jean-Paul zhäN-pōl bĕlmôNdōˈ [key], 1933–, French film actor, b. Neuilly-sur-Seine, studied Paris Conservatory. Belmondo made his film debut in 1957, but first gained fame in Breathl...

Charles of Valois

(Encyclopedia)Charles of Valois välwäˈ [key], 1270–1325, French prince and military leader, third son of Philip III and father of Philip VI. He dominated the reign in France of his nephew Louis X. On the excom...

Fragonard, Jean-Honoré

(Encyclopedia)Fragonard, Jean-Honoré zhäN-ōnôrāˈ frägônärˈ [key], 1732–1806, French painter. He studied with Chardin, Carle Vanloo, and intensively with Boucher, whose style he assimilated. He won the P...

Louis XIV, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis XIV, 1638–1715, king of France (1643–1715), son and successor of King Louis XIII. Although he had a series of mistresses, Louis XIV finally came under the influence of Mme de Maintenon, wh...