Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Sponde, Jean de

(Encyclopedia)Sponde, Jean de zhäN də spôNd [key], 1557–95, French poet and humanist. He held various posts in the court of Henry IV but died destitute because of his reckless nature. His Sonnets of Love and D...

Racine, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Racine, Jean zhäN räsēnˈ [key], 1639–99, French dramatist. Racine is the prime exemplar of French classicism. The nobility of his Alexandrine verse, the simplicity of his diction, the psychologi...

Piaget, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Piaget, Jean zhäNpyäˈjā [key], 1896–1980, Swiss psychologist, known for his research in developmental psychology. After receiving a degree in zoology from the Univ. of Neuchâtel (1918), Piaget'...

Migne, Jacques Paul

(Encyclopedia)Migne, Jacques Paul zhäk pôl mēˈnyə [key], 1800–1875, French publisher of theological works, a Roman Catholic priest (ordained 1824). He set up a printing press in Paris and printed many religi...

Paul the Deacon

(Encyclopedia)Paul the Deacon, c.725–799?, Lombard historian. He received a good education, probably at Pavia, and he learned Latin thoroughly and some Greek. He lived at Monte Cassino and at Charlemagne's court....

Corigliano, John Paul

(Encyclopedia)Corigliano, John Paul kôrˌĭlyänˈō, kərĭgˌlē-änˈō [key], 1938–, American composer, b. New York City. The son of New York Philharmonic first violinist and concertmaster John Corigliano, h...

Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie

(Encyclopedia)Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie pyĕr mōrēsˈ märēˈ düĕmˈ [key], 1861–1916, French physicist and philosopher and historian of science. After studying at the École Normale Supérieure he taught ...

Muldoon, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Muldoon, Paul, 1951–, Irish poet, b. Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, B.A. Queen's Univ., Belfast, 1973. Muldoon worked as an arts producer for the BBC (1973–86), then taught at the Univ. of East Ang...

Scofield, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Scofield, Paul, 1922–2008, English actor, b. Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. Scofield joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1945, and had his first major success in King John. At the Stratford Memorial...

Gauguin, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Gauguin, Paul pôl gōgăNˈ [key], 1848–1903, French painter and woodcut artist, b. Paris; son of a journalist and a French-Peruvian mother. Today Gauguin is recognized as a highly influential fo...