Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Domrémy-la-Pucelle

(Encyclopedia)Domrémy-la-Pucelle dôNrāmēˈ-lä-püsĕlˈ [key], village, Vosges dept., E France, in Lorraine, on the Meuse River. Joan of Arc was born (1412?) in the village. The house in which she was born is ...

Chapelain, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Chapelain, Jean zhäN shäplăNˈ [key], 1595–1674, French critic and poet. His works include La Pucelle (1656), an epic poem about Joan of Arc. Chapelain was a founding member of the French Academy...

arc, in electricity

(Encyclopedia)arc, in electricity, highly luminous and intensely hot discharge of electricity between two electrodes. The arc was discovered early in the 19th cent. by the English scientist Sir Humphry Davy, who so...

arc, in geometry

(Encyclopedia)arc, in geometry, a curved line or any part of it; in particular, a portion of the circumference of a circle. The length s of an arc of a circle of radius r and subtending a central angle of θ radian...

Frémiet, Emmanuel

(Encyclopedia)Frémiet, Emmanuel ĕmänüĕlˈ frāmyāˈ [key], 1824–1910, French sculptor; pupil and nephew of Rude. He was noted for his vigorous characterizations of animal and historical figures. His equestr...

La Hire

(Encyclopedia)La Hire lä ēr [key], c.1390–c.1443, French commander in the Hundred Years War, whose real name was Étienne de Vignoles or Vignolles. He entered (1418) the service of the dauphin (later King Charl...

Cooney, Joan Ganz

(Encyclopedia)Cooney, Joan Ganz, 1929–, American television producer, b. Phoenix, Ariz. After graduating (1951) from the Univ. of Arizona, Cooney worked as a newspaper reporter and television publicist for ten ye...

Maragall i Gorina, Joan

(Encyclopedia)Maragall i Gorina, Joan zhōänˈ märəgälˈlyə ē gŏrēˈnə [key], 1860–1911, Catalonian poet and essayist. For many years he wrote articles and essays for the influential newspaper Diario de ...

Sutherland, Dame Joan

(Encyclopedia)Sutherland, Dame Joan, 1926–2010, Australian coloratura soprano and one of the most famous singers of the 20th cent. Sutherland studied in her hometown of Sydney, where she made her concert debut (1...

Robinson, Joan Violet

(Encyclopedia)Robinson, Joan Violet, 1903–83, British economist, b. Surrey, England. A socialist, she worked with Keynes and taught at Cambridge (1931–71). Her treatise, The Economics of Imperfect Competition (...