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Arras

(Encyclopedia)Arras äräsˈ [key], city, capital of Pas-de-Calais dept., and historic capital of Artois, N France, on the canalized Scarpe River. It is a communications, farm, and indu...

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...

Montpensier, Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de

(Encyclopedia)Montpensier, Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de än märēˈ lwēz dôrlāäNˈ düshĕsˈ də mŏpäsyāˈ [key], 1627–93, French princess, called Mademoiselle and La Grande Mademoiselle; da...

Ursins, Marie Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des

(Encyclopedia)Ursins, Marie Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des märēˈ än də lä trāmwäˈyə prăNsĕsˈ dāzürsănˈ [key], 1642–1722, French noblewoman and unofficial diplomat. After the death of her fi...

Thermidor

(Encyclopedia)Thermidor thûrˈmĭdôr, Fr. tĕrmēdôrˈ [key], 11th month of the French Revolutionary calendar. The coup of 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794) marked the downfall of Robespierre and the end of the Reign ...

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...

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...

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...

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