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Niš

(Encyclopedia)Niš or Nish both: nēsh [key], city (1991 pop. 175,391), SE Serbia, on the Nišava River. An important railway and industrial center, it has industries that textiles, cigarettes, electronics, and spi...

Mardi Gras

(Encyclopedia)Mardi Gras märˈdē grä [key], last day before the fasting season of Lent. It is the French name for Shrove Tuesday. Literally translated, the term means “fat Tuesday” and was so called because ...

Latgale

(Encyclopedia)Latgale lătgălˈēə [key], region and former province, in Latvia, N of the Western Dvina River. Daugavpils was the chief city. The region was settled in the early Middle Ages by the Latgalians, who...

Arezzo

(Encyclopedia)Arezzo ärĕtˈtsō [key], city, capital of Arezzo prov., Tuscany, central Italy. It is an agricultural trade center and has machine, clothing, gold, and jewelry industrie...

parchment

(Encyclopedia)parchment, untanned skins of animals, especially of the sheep, calf, and goat, prepared for use as a writing material. The name is a corruption of Pergamum, the ancient city of Asia Minor where prepar...

Passion play

(Encyclopedia)Passion play, genre of the miracle play that has survived from the Middle Ages into modern times. Its subject is the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Passion plays were first given in Lati...

Calais

(Encyclopedia)Calais kälāˈ [key], city, Pas-de-Calais dept., N France, in Picardy, on the Straits of Dov...

Sylvester II

(Encyclopedia)Sylvester II, c.945–1003, pope (999–1003), a Frenchman (b. Auvergne) named Gerbert; successor of Gregory V. In his youth he studied at Muslim schools in Spain and became learned in mathematics and...

Beauvais

(Encyclopedia)Beauvais bōvāˈ [key], town, capital of Oise dept., N France. Tractors, ceramic tiles, text...

universals

(Encyclopedia)universals, in philosophy, term applied to general or abstract objects such as concepts, qualities, relations, and numbers, as opposed to particular objects. The exact nature of a universal deeply con...