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Pontevedra

(Encyclopedia)Pontevedra pōntāvāˈᵺrä [key], city (1990 pop. 70,356), capital of Pontevedra prov., NW Spain, in Galicia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Lérez River. It is a major fishing port. Clo...

Sforza, Francesco I

(Encyclopedia)Sforza, Francesco I , sfôrˈtsä [key], 1401–66, duke of Milan (1450–66); illegitimate son of Muzio Attendolo Sforza. He succeeded his father as leader of his band of mercenaries, and by his valo...

Austrian Succession, War of the

(Encyclopedia)Austrian Succession, War of the, 1740–48, general European war. In 1744 Frederick II, fearing the rising power of Austria, started the Second Silesian War by invading Bohemia; he was soon expell...

Luini, Bernardino

(Encyclopedia)Luini, Bernardino bārnärdēˈnō lo͞oēˈnē [key], c.1480–1532, b. Luino, Italian painter, son of Giovanni Lutero. Among the extant works of his early years (before 1510) are a Pietà (Santa Mar...

Letta, Enrico

(Encyclopedia)Letta, Enrico, 1966–, Italian political leader, b. Pisa. He actively entered politics in 1994, joining the center-left Italian People's party. He held a post in the finance ministry as Italy prepare...

Manzoni, Alessandro

(Encyclopedia)Manzoni, Alessandro älās-sänˈdrō mändzôˈnē [key], 1785–1873, Italian novelist and poet. Taken in his youth to Paris by his mother in 1805, Manzoni embraced the deism that he was later to di...

Miguel

(Encyclopedia)Miguel mēgĕlˈ [key], 1802–66, Portuguese prince; son of John IV of Portugal and younger brother of Pedro I of Brazil. He led an unsuccessful revolt against his father in 1824. On John's death (18...

Hail Mary

(Encyclopedia)Hail Mary: see Ave Maria.

Martínez Sierra, Gregorio

(Encyclopedia)Martínez Sierra, Gregorio grāgōˈrēō märtēˈnĕth syāˈrä [key], 1881–1947, Spanish dramatist, novelist, and poet. His masterpiece is Canción de cuna (1911, tr. The Cradle Song, 1917), but...

Digby, Sir Kenelm

(Encyclopedia)Digby, Sir Kenelm, 1603–65, English author and man of affairs. In 1628 he conducted a highly successful privateering raid against a French and Venetian fleet at Scanderoon (now Iskenderun, Turkey). ...