Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

rosary

(Encyclopedia)rosary [rose garden], prayer of Roman Catholics, in which beads are used as counters. The term, applied also to the beads, is extended to Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist prayers that use beads. The tradit...

Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, 2d earl of

(Encyclopedia)Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, 2d earl of, 1540?–1616, Irish chieftain. He was the son of Matthew O'Neill, the illegitimate son of the 1st earl. Hugh succeeded his murdered older brother, Brian, as Baron Dun...

Somerset, Edward Seymour, duke of

(Encyclopedia)Somerset, Edward Seymour, duke of, 1506?–1552, protector of England. He served on various military and diplomatic missions for Henry VIII and, after the marriage of his sister Jane to the king, was ...

Leonardo da Vinci

(Encyclopedia)Leonardo da Vinci də vĭnˈchē, Ital. lāōnärˈdō dä vēnˈchē [key], 1452–1519, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, and scientist, b. near Vinci, a hill village in Tusc...

Liberal party, former British political party

(Encyclopedia)Liberal party, former British political party, the dominant political party in Great Britain for much of the period from the mid-1800s to World War I. By 1914 the Liberal government had passed subst...

Jervis, John, earl of St. Vincent

(Encyclopedia)Jervis, John, earl of St. Vincent järˈvĭs, jûrˈ– [key], 1735–1823, British admiral. His most famous action as commander of the Mediterranean fleet was his defeat in 1797 of 27 Spanish ships o...

Arlington, Henry Bennet, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Arlington, Henry Bennet, 1st earl of, 1618–85, English statesman. He fought for the royalists in the English civil war and, after going into exile, served as an envoy in Spain for the future Charles...

Millau

(Encyclopedia)Millau mēyōˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 22,458), Aveyron dept., S France, on the Tarn River. The center of the French glove industry, the town also has tanning and dyeing industries. Near Millau the Ta...

Lovelace, Ada

(Encyclopedia)Lovelace, Ada (Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace), 1815–1852, English mathematician, b. London as Augusta Ada Byron. The daughter of the poet Lord Byron and Anne Isabella Milbanke, she was...

Browse by Subject