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Sigillaria

(Encyclopedia)Sigillaria sĭjĭlârˈēə [key], genus of fossil club moss allied to Lepidodendron, abundant in the Carboniferous period. The thick trunk was rarely branched and was covered for several feet from th...

Shklovski, Victor Borisovich

(Encyclopedia)Shklovski, Victor Borisovich vēkˈtər bərēˈsəvĭch shklôfˈskē [key], 1893–1984, Russian critic and writer. Shklovski was an exponent of the formalist school, which held that in literature o...

Chinese architecture

(Encyclopedia)Chinese architecture, the buildings and other structures created in China from prehistoric times to the present day. Since the late 19th cent. the Chinese have adopted European architectural styles....

Beethoven, Ludwig van

(Encyclopedia)Beethoven, Ludwig van lŭdˈwĭg văn bāˈtōvən, Ger. lo͝otˈvĭkh fän bātˈhōfən [key], 1770–1827, German composer. He is universally recognized as one of the greatest composers of the West...

Persian literature

(Encyclopedia)Persian literature, literary writings in the Persian language, nearly all of it written in the area traditionally known as Persia, now Iran. The 15th cent. period of the second Turko-Tartar invasi...

Hellenistic civilization

(Encyclopedia)Hellenistic civilization. The conquests of Alexander the Great spread Hellenism immediately over the Middle East and far into Asia. After his death in 323 b.c., the influence of Greek civilization con...

bookkeeping

(Encyclopedia)bookkeeping, maintenance of systematic and convenient records of money transactions in order to show the condition of a business enterprise. The essential purpose of bookkeeping is to reveal the amoun...

Stendhal

(Encyclopedia)Stendhal märē äNrēˈ bĕl [key], 1783–1842, French writer, recognized as one of the great French novelists. He grew up in Grenoble hating his father and the Jesuit, Royalist atmosphere in his ho...

deists

(Encyclopedia)deists dēˈĭsts [key], term commonly applied to those thinkers in the 17th and 18th cent. who held that the course of nature sufficiently demonstrates the existence of God. For them formal religion ...

Costa, Isaäc da

(Encyclopedia)Costa, Isaäc da ēˈsä-äk dä kôˈstä [key], 1798–1860, Dutch poet and historian, b. Amsterdam, of an aristocratic Sephardic Jewish family. Deeply influenced by Bilderdijk, he entered (1822) th...