Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

259 results found

Piero della Francesca

(Encyclopedia)Piero della Francesca pyĕˈrō dĕlˈlä fränchāsˈkä [key], c.1420–1492, major Italian Renaissance painter, b. Borgo San Sepolcro (modern Sansepolcro). All his masterpieces were created in town...

Galli-Curci, Amelita

(Encyclopedia)Galli-Curci, Amelita ämālēˈtä gälˈlē-ko͞orˈchē [key], 1889–1963, Italian coloratura soprano. She studied piano at the Milan Conservatory and meanwhile trained her own voice. From the time...

Borgese, Giuseppe Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Borgese, Giuseppe Antonio jo͞ozĕpˈpā äntōˈnyō bōrjāˈzā [key], 1882–1952, Italian-American author, b. near Palermo, Ph.D. Univ. of Florence, 1903. From 1910 to 1931 he taught at the unive...

Po, river, Italy

(Encyclopedia)Po pō, It. pô [key], Latin Padus, longest river of Italy, c.405 mi (650 km) long, rising in the Cottian Alps of Piedmont, NW Italy. It winds generally east in a wide valley, past Turin, Pavia, Piace...

Rosso, Medardo

(Encyclopedia)Rosso, Medardo rôsˈsō [key], 1858–1928, Italian sculptor. A painter until 1883, he turned to sculpture and worked periodically in Paris but lived mainly in Milan. He was a friend of Degas and Ro...

Visconti, Luchino

(Encyclopedia)Visconti, Luchino vēskônˈtē [key], 1906–76, Italian film director and writer, b. Milan as Luchino Visconti de Modrone. One of Italy's most acclaimed directors, Visconti has been called the fath...

Frederick I, Holy Roman emperor and German king

(Encyclopedia)Frederick I or Frederick Barbarossa bärbərôsˈə [key] [Ital.,=red beard], c.1125–90, Holy Roman emperor (1155–90) and German king (1152–90), son of Frederick of Hohenstaufen, duke of Swabia,...

Alboin

(Encyclopedia)Alboin ălˈboin [key], d. 572?, first Lombard king in Italy (569–572?). With the Avars he defeated the Gepidae (see Germans). He then led (568) an army across the Alps into Italy, took (569) Milan,...

Fontana, Lucio

(Encyclopedia)Fontana, Lucio, 1899–1968, Italian artist, b. Argentina. He lived (1905–22) in Milan, then several times moved from Italy to Argentina and back, remaining in Italy after 1947. Much of his early wo...