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Kafka, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Kafka, Franz fränts käfˈkä [key], 1883–1924, German-language novelist, b. Prague. Along with Joyce, Kafka is perhaps the most influential of 20th-century writers. From a middle-class Jewish fami...

Burgess, John William

(Encyclopedia)Burgess, John William, 1844–1931, American educator and political scientist, b. Tennessee. He served in the Union army in the Civil War and after the war graduated from Amherst (1867). He was admitt...

Hundred Years War

(Encyclopedia)Hundred Years War, 1337–1453, conflict between England and France. The Hundred Years War inflicted untold misery on France. Farmlands were laid waste, the population was decimated by war, famine, ...

Innocent III

(Encyclopedia)Innocent III, b. 1160 or 1161, d. 1216, pope (1198–1216), an Italian, b. Anagni, named Lotario di Segni; successor of Celestine III. Innocent III was succeeded by Honorius III. Amid all his politi...

Württemberg

(Encyclopedia)Württemberg vürˈtəmbĕrkˌ [key], former state, SW Germany. Württemberg was formerly also spelled Würtemberg and Wirtemberg. The former state bordered on Baden in the northwest, west, and southw...

Nivernais

(Encyclopedia)Nivernais nēvĕrnāˈ [key], region and former province, central France. It roughly coincides with Nièvre dept. Drained by the Loire and the Yonne, it is a hilly plateau, rising to the Morvan Mts. i...

Leoni, Leone

(Encyclopedia)Leoni, Leone lāōˈnā lāōˈnē [key], 1509–90, Italian sculptor and medalist, called Leone Aretino. Entering the service of the emperor, Charles V, he devoted himself to making statues, busts, a...

Salome

(Encyclopedia)Salome səlōˈmē [key], in the New Testament. 1 Daughter of Herod Philip and Herodias. She is generally supposed to be the daughter who danced to obtain the head of John the Baptist. See Herod 2 One...

Roosebeke, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Roosebeke, battle of rōˈzəbāˌkə [key], 1382, in the modern-day village of Westrozebeke, Staden commune, West Flanders prov., W Belgium. The French under Olivier de Clisson defeated Flemish weave...

Fischart, Johann

(Encyclopedia)Fischart, Johann yōˈhän fĭshˈärt [key], b. 1548, d. 1590 or 1591, German satirist and moralist. He lived in Strasbourg. He translated and paraphrased works by Rabelais called Geschichtsklitterun...