Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Nin, Anaïs

(Encyclopedia)Nin, Anaïs ənīˈĭs nĭn, nēn [key], 1903–77, American writer, b. Paris. The daughter of the Spanish composer Joaquín Nin, she came to the United States as a child. She was a psychoanalytic pat...

herbal

(Encyclopedia)herbal, early botanical book containing descriptions and illustrations of herbs and plants with their properties, chiefly those qualities that made them useful as medicines or condiments. Most of the ...

kinetic art

(Encyclopedia)kinetic art, term referring to sculptured works that include motion as a significant dimension. The form was pioneered by Marcel Duchamp, Naum Gabo, and Alexander Calder. Kinetic art is either nonmech...

Coronel

(Encyclopedia)Coronel kōrōnĕlˈ [key], S central Chile, a port on the Pacific Ocean. Part of the Great C...

Carlos, prince of the Asturias

(Encyclopedia)Carlos, 1545–68, prince of the Asturias, son of Philip II of Spain and Maria of Portugal. Don Carlos, who seems to have been mentally unbalanced and subject to fits of homicidal mania, was imprisone...

Franco-Prussian War

(Encyclopedia)Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, 1870–71, conflict between France and Prussia that signaled the rise of German military power and imperialism. It was provoked by Otto von Bismarck (the Prus...

Thiers, Adolphe

(Encyclopedia)Thiers, Adolphe ädôlfˈ tyĕr [key], 1797–1877, French statesman, journalist, and historian. After studying law at Aix-en-Provence, Thiers went (1821) to Paris and joined the group of writers that...

Makart, Hans

(Encyclopedia)Makart, Hans häns mäˈkärt [key], 1840–84, Austrian history painter, studied with Karl von Piloty. His early success was phenomenal. The emperor of Austria provided him with a studio, and his sho...

Rheticus

(Encyclopedia)Rheticus (Georg Joachim von Lauchen) rāˈtēko͝os, gāˈôrk yōäˈkhĭm fən louˈkhən [key], 1514–76, German astronomer, mathematician, and first disciple of Copernicus. In 1540 he printed a s...

Giessen

(Encyclopedia)Giessen gēˈsən [key], city, Hesse, central Germany, on the Lahn River. It is an industrial...