Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Forain, Jean Louis

(Encyclopedia)Forain, Jean Louis zhäN lwē fôrăNˈ [key], 1852–1931, French painter, etcher, and lithographer. One of the foremost etchers of his day, Forain is best known for his political cartoons and social...

Family Compact, in French and Spanish history

(Encyclopedia)Family Compact, several alliances between France and Spain in the form of agreements between the French and Spanish branches of the Bourbon family. The first of the three compacts, the Treaty of the E...

Louis, Joe

(Encyclopedia)Louis, Joe (Joseph Louis Barrow) lo͞oˈĭs [key], 1914–81, American boxer, b. Lafayette, Ala. His father, a sharecropper, died when Louis was four years old, and in 1926 his stepfather took the fam...

Ferdinand I, king of the Two Sicilies

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand I, 1751–1825, king of the Two Sicilies (1816–25). He had previously been king of Naples (1759–99, 1799–1805, 1815–16) as Ferdinand IV and king of Sicily (1759–1816) as Ferdinand ...

Berthier, Louis Alexandre

(Encyclopedia)Berthier, Louis Alexandre lwē älĕksäNˈdrə bĕrtyāˈ [key], 1753–1815, marshal of France. He served in the American Revolution and in the French Revolutionary Wars, distinguishing himself unde...

La Trémoille, Louis de

(Encyclopedia)La Trémoille or La Trimouille, Louis de də lä trāmoiˈyə or trēmo͞oˈyə [key], 1460–1525, French general; grandson of Georges de La Trémoille. He commanded the army that attempted to secur...

French bulldog

(Encyclopedia)French bulldog, breed of small, alert nonsporting dog with batlike ears, developed in France in the second half of the 19th cent. It stands about 12 in. (30.4 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from ...

Céline, Louis Ferdinand

(Encyclopedia)Céline, Louis Ferdinand lwē fĕrdēnNˈ sālēnˈ [key], 1894–1961, French author, whose real name was Louis Ferdinand Destouches. Céline wrote grim, scatological, and blackly funny novels. His f...

Gottschalk, Louis Moreau

(Encyclopedia)Gottschalk, Louis Moreau môrōˈ gŏtˈshôk [key], 1829–69, American pianist and composer, b. New Orleans, of English-French parentage, studied in Paris. Chopin and Berlioz praised his playing, an...

Boudin, Eugène Louis

(Encyclopedia)Boudin, Eugène Louis özhĕnˈ lwē bo͞odăNˈ [key], 1824–98, French painter. He began painting at 25 in Paris. His best-known paintings are beach scenes of Brittany, Normandy, and the Netherland...