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Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Gaudens, Augustus sānt-gôdˈənz [key], 1848–1907, American sculptor, b. Dublin, Ireland. His family immigrated to New York when he was an infant. An apprentice in cameo cutting at 13, he ga...

Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth

(Encyclopedia)Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth ālēzäbĕtˈ vēzhāˈ-ləbröNˈ [key], 1755–1842, French portrait painter; pupil of her father, the painter Louis Vigée. She was influenced by Greuze. Summoned to Vers...

Épernon, Jean Louis de Nogaret, duc d'

(Encyclopedia)Épernon, Jean Louis de Nogaret, duc d' zhäN lwē də nōgärāˈ dük dāpĕrnôNˈ [key], 1554–1642, French nobleman. He distinguished himself during the civil wars at the beginning of the reign ...

Flourens, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Flourens, Pierre (Marie Jean Pierre Flourens) pyĕr flo͞oräNsˈ [key], 1794–1867, French physiologist. He demonstrated the respiratory center in the medulla and the function of the cerebellum in m...

Vatel, François

(Encyclopedia)Vatel, François fräNswäˈ vätĕlˈ [key], fl. 17th cent., French chef, famous in the time of Louis XIV. Mme Marie de Sévigné, in her letters, speaks of him as the chef of the prince of Condé an...

Peri, Jacopo

(Encyclopedia)Peri, Jacopo yäˈkōpō pĕˈrē [key], 1561–1633, Italian composer and singer. Dafne (c.1597), perhaps the first opera, was composed by both Peri and Jacopo Corsi. The librettist, Ottavio Rinuccin...

Ferdinand, king of Romania

(Encyclopedia)Ferdinand, 1865–1927, king of Romania (1914–27), nephew of Carol I. The second son of the Prussian prince, Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he was designated successor to the heirless Carol I ...

Josephine

(Encyclopedia)Josephine, 1763–1814, empress of the French (1804–9) as the consort of Napoleon I. Born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Martinique, she was married in 1779 to Alexandre de Beauharnais...

Carol II

(Encyclopedia)Carol II, 1893–1953, king of Romania, son of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie. While crown prince, he contracted a morganatic marriage with Zizi Labrino but divorced her to marry (1921) Princess Helen...

Saint-Jean-de-Luz

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Jean-de-Luz săN-zhäN-də-lüz [key], town (1990 pop. 13,181), Pyrénées-Atlantiques dept., SW France, in the Basque region (see Basques), on the Bay of Biscay. It is a beach resort with a cas...