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Copernican system

(Encyclopedia)Copernican system, first modern European theory of planetary motion that was heliocentric, i.e., that placed the sun motionless at the center of the solar system with all the planets, including the ea...

Commagene

(Encyclopedia)Commagene kŏməjēˈnē [key], ancient district of N Syria, on the Euphrates River and S of the Taurus range, now in SE Asian Turkey. Its metropolis, Samosata, was founded by Samos, the king of Comma...

Daddi, Bernardo

(Encyclopedia)Daddi, Bernardo bārnärˈdō dädˈdē [key], fl. 1312–48, Italian painter of the Florentine school. First influenced by his contemporary Giotto, he soon adopted the delicate line and lyrical expre...

chronicle plays

(Encyclopedia)chronicle plays, dramas based upon 16th-century chronicles in English, particularly those of Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed. These plays became very popular late in the reign of Elizabeth I, when, ...

Cleves, duchy of

(Encyclopedia)Cleves, duchy of, former state, W Germany, on both sides of the lower Rhine, bordering on the Netherlands. Cleves was the capital. A county from late Carolingian times, it acquired (late 14th cent.) t...

Field of the Cloth of Gold

(Encyclopedia)Field of the Cloth of Gold, locality between Guines and Ardres, not far from Calais, in France, where in 1520 Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France met for the purpose of arranging an alliance...

Jacopone da Todi

(Encyclopedia)Jacopone da Todi yäkōpôˈnā dä tôˈdē [key], 1230?–1306, Italian religious poet, whose name was originally Jacopo Benedetti. After the sudden death of his wife, he renounced (c.1268) his care...

Aubusson, Pierre d'

(Encyclopedia)Aubusson, Pierre d' pyĕr dōbüsôNˈ [key], 1423–1503, French soldier, a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, and grand master of the Knights Hospitalers (1476–1503). In 1480 he valiantly defe...

Velay

(Encyclopedia)Velay vəlāˈ [key], region, E central France, in the Massif Central and partly in Haute-Loire dept. Partly volcanic in origin, the region has many high arid plateaus, some of startling beauty. Le Pu...

Blanche of Castile

(Encyclopedia)Blanche of Castile bläNsh, kăstēlˈ [key], 1185?–1252, queen of Louis VIII of France and regent during the minority (1226–34) of their son Louis IX. A forceful and capable ruler, she checked th...