Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Gregory, Lady Augusta

(Encyclopedia)Gregory, Lady Augusta (Isabella Augusta Persse), 1859–1932, Irish dramatist. Though she did not begin her writing career until middle-age, Lady Gregory soon became a vital force in the Irish drama. ...

Unitarian Universalist Association

(Encyclopedia)Unitarian Universalist Association, Protestant church in the United States formed in 1961 by the merger of the American Unitarian Association (see Unitarianism) and the Universalist Church of America....

Beaumont, William

(Encyclopedia)Beaumont, William, 1785–1853, American physician, b. Lebanon, Conn. He was privately educated and was licensed (1812) to practice in Vermont. His Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice an...

Gregory XII

(Encyclopedia)Gregory XII, c.1327–1417, pope (1406–15), a Venetian named Angelo Correr; successor of Innocent VII. As a condition of election, Gregory promised to do everything possible to end the Great Schism,...

John I, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona

(Encyclopedia)John I, 1350–95, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (1387–95), son and successor of Peter IV. During his reign Aragón lost (1388) the duchy of Athens. An enthusiastic patron of learning and a...

Nag Hammadi

(Encyclopedia)Nag Hammadi näg häˈmädi [key], a town in Egypt near the ancient town of Chenoboskion, where, in 1945, a large cache of gnostic texts in the Coptic language was discovered. The Nag Hammadi manuscri...

Olynthus

(Encyclopedia)Olynthus ōlĭnˈthəs [key], ancient city of Greece, on the peninsula of Chalcidice (now Khalkidhikí), NE of Potidaea. A league of Chalcidic cities grew up in the late 5th cent. b.c., and Olynthus, ...

Colonna

(Encyclopedia)Colonna kōlônˈnä [key], noble Roman family that played a leading part in the history of Rome from the 12th to the 16th cent. They were hereditary enemies of the Orsini and Caetani families, genera...

Logau, Friedrich, Freiherr von

(Encyclopedia)Logau, Friedrich, Freiherr von frēˈdrĭkh frīˈhĕr fən lōˈgou [key], 1604–55, German poet, b. Silesia. Influenced by Martin Opitz, Logau wrote epigrams in the contemporary fashion, bringing a...

Maipú

(Encyclopedia)Maipú mīpo͞oˈ [key], battlefield, central Chile, a few miles S of Santiago. On Apr. 5, 1818, San Martín routed the Spanish royalist army at Maipú and assured Chilean independence. The victory ma...