Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

375 results found

Giordano, Luca

(Encyclopedia)Giordano, Luca lo͞oˈkä jōrdäˈnō [key], 1632–1705, Italian decorative painter, b. Naples. He was the pupil of Ribera and Pietro da Cortona. He imitated the works of the great masters with amaz...

Mombasa

(Encyclopedia)Mombasa mŏmbăˈsə, –bäˈsə [key], city (1990 est. pop. 537,000), capital of Coast prov., SE Kenya, mostly on Mombasa island in the Indian Ocean and partly on the mainland (with which it is conn...

Maputo Bay

(Encyclopedia)Maputo Bay, formerly Delagoa Bay dĕlˌəgōˈə [key], inlet of the Indian Ocean, c.55 mi (90 km) long and 20 mi (30 km) wide, S Mozambique, SE Africa; Maputo, the capital and chief port of Mozambiqu...

Castagno, Andrea del

(Encyclopedia)Castagno, Andrea del ändrĕˈä dĕl kästäˈnyō [key], c.1423–1457, major Florentine painter of the early Renaissance. His first recorded painting (1440; now destroyed), effigies of hanged men, ...

Scribe, Augustin Eugène

(Encyclopedia)Scribe, Augustin Eugène ōgüstăNˈ özhĕnˈ skrēb [key], 1791–1861, French dramatist and librettist. He began his prolific and highly successful writing career with vaudeville sketches. One of ...

sertão

(Encyclopedia)sertão sərˈtouN [key] [Port.,=backlands], semiarid hinterland of NE Brazil; c.250,000 sq mi (647,500 sq km). Its characteristic landscape is the caatinga, or thorny scrub forest. The chief occupati...

Rimini

(Encyclopedia)Rimini rēˈmēnē [key], anc. Ariminum, city (1991 pop. 127,960), in Emilia-Romagna, N central Italy, on the Adriatic Sea. It is a highly diversified industrial, commercial, and railroad center and a...

Angelico, Fra

(Encyclopedia)Angelico, Fra frä änjĕlˈĭkō [key], c.1400–1455, Florentine painter, b. Vicchio, Tuscany. He was variously named Guido (his baptismal name), or Guidolino, di Pietro; and Giovanni da Fiesole. Af...

Saramago, José

(Encyclopedia)Saramago, José zho͞ozĕˈ särˌämäˈgo͞o [key], 1922–2010, Portuguese novelist and short-story writer. He became a member of the Communist party in 1969 and was a staunch atheist and a strong ...

Field, Cyrus West

(Encyclopedia)Field, Cyrus West, 1819–92, American merchant, promoter of the first Atlantic cable, b. Stockbridge, Mass.; brother of David Dudley Field and Stephen J. Field. As head of a paper business, he accumu...