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Graupner, Gottlieb

(Encyclopedia)Graupner, Gottlieb (Johann Christian Gottlieb), 1767–1836, German-American musician. In 1795 he came to the United States, settling in Charleston, S.C., where he played in the City Theatre Orchestra...

higher criticism

(Encyclopedia)higher criticism, name given to a type of biblical criticism distinguished from textual or lower criticism. It seeks to interpret text of the Bible free from confessional and dogmatic theology. Higher...

Bartsch, Adam von

(Encyclopedia)Bartsch, Adam von (Johann Adam Bernhard von Bartsch) äˈdäm fən bärch [key], 1757–1821, Austrian engraver, etcher, and writer. His critical catalog, Le Peintre Graveur (21 vol., 1803–21), is s...

Faust

(Encyclopedia)Faust yōˈhän [key], fl. 16th cent., learned German doctor who traveled widely, performed magical feats, and died under mysterious circumstances. According to legend he had sold his soul to the devi...

Castaldi, Pamfilo

(Encyclopedia)Castaldi, Pamfilo pämˈfēlō kästälˈdē [key], c.1398–c.1490, Italian humanist and printer. He was the first printer of the city of Milan. Some credit him with the invention of movable type. Se...

Ruska, Ernst

(Encyclopedia)Ruska, Ernst, 1906–88, German electrical engineer. By applying the discovery that electron waves are 100,000 times shorter than those of light, Ruska built a microscope that used a beam of electrons...

Ukrainka, Lesia

(Encyclopedia)Ukrainka, Lesia lāsˈyə o͝okrīnˈkə [key], 1871–1913, Ukrainian poet and dramatist, whose original name was Larysa Kvitka-Kosach. Ukrainka spent most of her life abroad fighting to recuperate f...

biogenetic law

(Encyclopedia)biogenetic law, in biology, a law stating that the earlier stages of embryos of species advanced in the evolutionary process, such as humans, resemble the embryos of ancestral species, such as fish. T...

raven

(Encyclopedia)raven, common name for the largest members of the family Corvidae (crow family), ranging throughout the arctic and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The common raven, Corvus corax, is a gl...

Mason, Lowell

(Encyclopedia)Mason, Lowell, 1792–1872, American composer and music educator, b. Medfield, Mass. While working as a bank clerk in Savannah, Ga., he helped compile an anthology that was published as The Boston Han...