Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Viète, François

(Encyclopedia)Viète or Vieta, François fräNswäˈ vyĕt, vyātäˈ, vīēˈtə [key], 1540–1603, French mathematician. As a founder of modern algebra, he introduced the use of letters as algebraic symbols and ...

Harper, Ida Husted

(Encyclopedia)Harper, Ida Husted, 1851–1931, American woman suffragist. Allied with the woman-suffrage movement from 1898, she became the official reporter and historian of the National American Woman Suffrage As...

Hohenzollern, German princely family

(Encyclopedia)Hohenzollern hōˌən-tsôlˈərn [key], German princely family that ruled Brandenburg (1415–1918), Prussia (1525–1918), and Germany (1871–1918). Originating in S Germany and traceable to the 11...

Vandals

(Encyclopedia)Vandals, ancient Germanic tribe. They originated in N Jutland and, along with other Germanic peoples, settled in the valley of the Oder about the 5th cent. b.c. They appeared in Pannonia and Dacia in ...

Matthias

(Encyclopedia)Matthias, 1557–1619, Holy Roman emperor (1612–19), king of Bohemia (1611–17) and of Hungary (1608–18), son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. He was appointed governor of Austria (1593) by h...

Germanus of Auxerre, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Germanus of Auxerre, Saint jərmāˈnəs, ōsĕrˈ [key], d. 448, Gaulish churchman, bishop of Auxerre (after c.418). St. Patrick was under his tutelage for 12 years. Popes Celestine I and Leo I sent ...

Josephson, Brian David

(Encyclopedia)Josephson, Brian David, 1940–, British physicist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1964. After several postdoctoral appointments, he joined the faculty at Cambridge in 1974. Josephson was co-recipient, with Leo Esa...

Pius IX

(Encyclopedia)Pius IX, 1792–1878, pope (1846–78), an Italian named Giovanni M. Mastai-Ferretti, b. Senigallia; successor of Gregory XVI. He was cardinal and bishop of Imola when elected pope. For two years he p...

Duggah

(Encyclopedia)Duggah or Dougga both: do͞oˈgə [key], village, Tunisia, SW of Tunis. It is a tourist spot noted for the ruins of the ancient city of Thugga, including a Punic mausoleum (2d cent. b.c.); temples, ar...

Boris I

(Encyclopedia)Boris I, d. 907, khan [ruler] of Bulgaria (852–89). Baptized in 864, he introduced Christianity of the Byzantine rite among the Bulgarians. There followed a rivalry between Rome and Constantinople f...