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Ronsard, Pierre de

(Encyclopedia)Ronsard, Pierre de pyĕr də rôNsärˈ [key], 1524–1585, French poet. As page, then squire, Ronsard seemed destined for a career at court both in France and abroad. However, deafness turned him to ...

Boisguilbert, Pierre le Pesant, sieur de

(Encyclopedia)Boisguilbert, Pierre le Pesant, sieur de pyĕr lə pəzäNˈ syör də bwägēlbĕrˈ [key], 1646–1714, French economist. A local official of Rouen after 1689, he proposed a radical alteration of th...

Séguier, Pierre, duc de Villemor

(Encyclopedia)Séguier, Pierre, duc de Villemor pyĕr sāgyāˈ dük də vēlmôrˈ [key], 1588–1672, chancellor of France. Beginning as counselor to the Parlement of Paris, he rose to become chancellor in 1635. ...

Charlevoix, Pierre François Xavier de

(Encyclopedia)Charlevoix, Pierre François Xavier de pyĕr fräNswäˈ zävyāˈ də shärləvwäˈ [key], 1682–1761, French Jesuit traveler and historian. He taught at the Jesuit college in Quebec and at the Col...

Villeneuve, Pierre de

(Encyclopedia)Villeneuve, Pierre de pyĕr də vēlnövˈ [key], 1763–1806, French admiral. He commanded the rear guard of the fleet in the disastrous battle of Abu Qir (1798). His defeat at the battle of Trafalga...

Louÿs, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Louÿs, Pierre pyĕr lo͞oēˈ [key], 1870–1925, French writer of the Parnassian school, whose real name was Pierre Louis. His early poems, collected as Astarté (1891), first appeared in the Conque...

De Smet, Pierre Jean

(Encyclopedia)De Smet, Pierre Jean pyĕr zhäN də smĕtˈ [key], 1801–73, Jesuit missionary in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, b. Belgium. He emigrated to the United States in 1821, served his novitiate in Florissan...

Moreau, Jean Victor

(Encyclopedia)Moreau, Jean Victor môrōˈ [key], 1763–1813, French general in the French Revolutionary Wars. Despite his successes on the Rhine and in Germany (1796–97), he was dismissed for withholding compr...

Fermat, Pierre de

(Encyclopedia)Fermat, Pierre de pyĕr də fĕrmäˈ [key], 1601–65, French mathematician. A magistrate whose avocation was mathematics, Fermat is known as a founder of modern number theory and probability theory....

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