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Weissenburg in Bayern

(Encyclopedia)Weissenburg in Bayern vīˈsənbo͝ork ĭn bīˈyərn [key] or Weissenburg, town, Bavaria, S Germany. It is a manufacturing center of Middle Franconia; products include gold and silver lace, processed...

Trani

(Encyclopedia)Trani träˈnē [key], town (1991 pop. 50,429), in Apulia, S Italy, on the Adriatic Sea. It is a seaport, a beach resort, and an agricultural center, famous for its wine. Trani enjoyed great prosperit...

Southern California, University of

(Encyclopedia)Southern California, University of, at Los Angeles; coeducational; chartered and opened 1880. The university has a liberal arts college and a graduate school as well as schools of architecture, urban ...

Siegfried

(Encyclopedia)Siegfried sĭgˈərd [key], great folk hero of early and medieval Germanic mythology. His legend, important in several Germanic epics, recounts his killing of the dragon Fafnir, his marriage to Gudrun...

Deller, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Deller, Alfred, 1912–79, English countertenor. He began his career as a chorister in his parish church. From 1940–47 he was a lay clerk at Canterbury Cathedral, and in 1947 he was appointed to the...

Saint-Lô

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Lô săN-lō [key], town (1990 pop. 22,819), capital of Manche dept., NW France, in Normandy. It is an agricultural center and has famous horse stables. Wood products, plaster, and clothing are ...

Bataille, Georges

(Encyclopedia)Bataille, Georges jôrj bətī, –bätī [key], 1897–1962, French writer. Bataille was the founding editor of the journal Critique (1946). Strongly influenced by Nietzsche, he focuses on extreme st...

Carpentier, Alejo

(Encyclopedia)Carpentier, Alejo älāˈhō kärpĕntyārˈ [key], 1904–80, Cuban novelist and musicologist. As a political exile in Paris between 1928 and 1939, Carpentier was strongly influenced by Antonin Artau...

knight

(Encyclopedia)knight, in ancient and medieval history, a noble who did military service as a mounted warrior. As the feudal system disintegrated, knight service was with growing frequency commuted into cash pay...

Bec

(Encyclopedia)Bec bĕk [key], former Benedictine abbey, near the village of Bec-Hellouin, Eure dept., N France, in Normandy. Founded in the 11th cent. by Lanfranc, and later directed by Anselm, who became (1078) th...