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Metropolitan Opera Company

(Encyclopedia)Metropolitan Opera Company, term used in referring collectively to the organizations that have produced opera at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City. The original house, at West 39th Street an...

Reformation

(Encyclopedia)Reformation, religious revolution that took place in Western Europe in the 16th cent. It arose from objections to doctrines and practices in the medieval church (see Roman Catholic Church) and ultimat...

book

(Encyclopedia)book. The word book has come to have many meanings, e.g., any collection of sheets of paper, wood, or other material sewn or bound together; a division of a written work (books of the Bible, books of ...

Lutheranism

(Encyclopedia)Lutheranism, branch of Protestantism that arose as a result of the Reformation, whose religious faith is based on the principles of Martin Luther, although he opposed such a designation. When Luther r...

Vienna, city and province, Austria

(Encyclopedia)Vienna vēĕnˈə [key], Ger. Wien, city and province (1991 pop. 1,539,848), 160 sq mi (414 sq km), capital and largest city of Austria and administrative seat of Lower Austria, NE Austria, on the Dan...

Nobel Prizes (table)

(Encyclopedia)Nobel Prizes

Enlightenment

(Encyclopedia)Enlightenment, term applied to the mainstream of thought of 18th-century Europe and America. Centered in Paris, the movement gained international character at cosmopolitan salons. Masonic lodges pla...

Dutch art

(Encyclopedia)Dutch art, the art of the region that is now the Netherlands. As a distinct national style, this art dates from about the turn of the 17th cent., when the country emerged as a political entity and dev...

secret police

(Encyclopedia)secret police, policing organization operating in secrecy for the political purposes of its government, often with terroristic procedures. Many states, including Chile, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Romania,...

classification

(Encyclopedia)CE5 classification, in biology, the systematic categorization of organisms into a coherent scheme. The original purpose of biological classification, or systematics, was to organize the vast number...