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Gresset, Jean Baptiste Louis

(Encyclopedia)Gresset, Jean Baptiste Louis zhäN bätēstˈ lwē grĕsāˈ [key], 1709–77, French poet and dramatist. He was the author of a mock epic, Vairvert (1734), and of a successful comedy, Le Méchant (17...

Tull, Jethro

(Encyclopedia)Tull, Jethro, 1674–1741, English agriculturist and inventor. He studied methods of agriculture in England, France, and Italy and influenced British agriculture through his writings, which include Th...

Acosta, José de

(Encyclopedia)Acosta, José de hōsāˈ ᵺā äkōˈstä [key], c.1539–1600, Spanish Jesuit missionary to Peru. He wrote a well-known history of the Spanish colonial period, The Natural and Moral History of the ...

Biggs, E. Power

(Encyclopedia)Biggs, E. Power (Edward George Power Biggs), 1906–77, Anglo-American organist. Biggs studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He emigrated to the United States in 1930. Through many recitals, ...

Ur

(Encyclopedia)Ur ûr [key], ancient city of Sumer, S Mesopotamia. The city is also known as Ur of the Chaldees. It was an important center of Sumerian culture (see Sumer) and is identified in the Bible as the home ...

Midland, town, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Midland, town (1991 pop. 13,865), S Ont., Canada, on Georgian Bay, NW of Toronto. Midland is a port and has grain elevators and plants that manufacture textiles, cameras, optical goods, and other prod...

Rohtak

(Encyclopedia)Rohtak rōˈtək [key], city (1991 pop. 216,096), Haryana state, N central India. Rohtak is a district administrative center and a market for grain and cotton. Sculpture from the Buddhist period (c.60...

étude

(Encyclopedia)étude āˈto͞od [key], a brief musical composition, usually for piano, fashioned to instruct an instrumentalist in a particular technical problem, such as scales or trills. Succeeding the toccata, p...

Valentine, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Valentine, Saint, d. c.270, Roman martyr priest. The customs connected with him in English-speaking countries are probably a survival from a period when a pagan festival associated with love occurred ...

trilobite

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Dorsal view of a trilobite trilobite trīˈləbītˌ [key], subphylum of the phylum Arthropoda that includes a large group of extinct marine animals that were abundant in the Paleozoic era. Th...