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John of Speyer

(Encyclopedia)John of Speyer spīˈər [key], d. 1470, first printer in Venice, b. Bavaria. He designed and patented the first type purely roman in character. It appears in Cicero's Epistulae ad familiares and Plin...

investiture

(Encyclopedia)investiture, in feudalism, ceremony by which an overlord transferred a fief to a vassal or by which, in ecclesiastical law, an elected cleric received the pastoral ring and staff (the symbols of spiri...

Sigismund

(Encyclopedia)Sigismund sĭjˈĭsmənd, sĭgˈ– [key], 1368–1437, Holy Roman emperor (1433–37), German king (1410–37), king of Hungary (1387–1437) and of Bohemia (1419–37), elector of Brandenburg (1376�...

Theodosius I

(Encyclopedia)Theodosius I or Theodosius the Great, 346?–395, Roman emperor of the East (379–95) and emperor of the West (394–95), son of Theodosius, the general of Valentinian I. He became (375) military gov...

Putrajaya

(Encyclopedia)Putrajaya, administrative capital of Malaysia and federal territory, 111,313 acres (4,580 hectares), S Malay Peninsula. Construction on the planned city located 25 mi (40 km) south of Kuala Lumpur was...

Villehardouin

(Encyclopedia)Villehardouin vēlärdwăNˈ [key], French noble family that ruled the Peloponnesus from 1210 to 1278. Geoffroi I de Villehardouin, d. 1218, nephew of the historian and marshal of Champagne and Romani...

San Marcos, University of

(Encyclopedia)San Marcos, University of, at Lima, Peru; the first university in South America; founded 1551 by the Spanish king Charles I (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) and recognized by papal bull in 1571; closed ...

Vibo Valentia

(Encyclopedia)Vibo Valentia vēˈbō välānˈtyä [key], town (1991 pop. 34,836), Calabria, S Italy, near the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is an agricultural and commercial center. A flourishing Roman town, Vibo was destroy...

Victorinus

(Encyclopedia)Victorinus (Caius Marius Victorinus Afer) vĭktərīˈnəs [key], fl. 361, Roman grammarian, b. Africa. He became renowned as a teacher of rhetoric in Rome and as an advocate of Neoplatonism. Becoming...

Fronto

(Encyclopedia)Fronto (Marcus Cornelius Fronto) frŏnˈtō [key], fl. 2d cent., Roman teacher and rhetorician, b. Numidia, Africa. Antoninus Pius made him consul in 143. A successful teacher and government official,...