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Ovid

(Encyclopedia)Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) ŏvˈĭd [key], 43 b.c.–a.d. 18, Latin poet, b. Sulmo (present-day Sulmona), in the Apennines. Although trained for the law, he preferred the company of the literary cote...

Accademia della Crusca

(Encyclopedia)Accademia della Crusca äk-kädĕˈmēä dĕlˈlä kro͞osˈkä [key] [Ital.,=academy of the chaff], Italian literary society founded in Florence in 1582 to maintain the purity of the language. Leonar...

Fantin-Latour, Ignace Henri Jean Théodore

(Encyclopedia)Fantin-Latour, Ignace Henri Jean Théodore ēgnäsˈ äNrēˈ zhäNˈ tēōdôrˈ fäNtăNˈ-läto͞orˈ [key], 1836–1904, French painter and lithographer. He is best known for his portrait groups o...

Britton, John

(Encyclopedia)Britton, John, 1771–1857, English antiquary and topographer. The long list of his writings includes biographies, critical works on art and literature, and the descriptions of landscapes and building...

Winter, William

(Encyclopedia)Winter, William, 1836–1917, American drama critic, biographer, and poet, b. Gloucester, Mass., grad. Harvard Law School, 1857. A member of the literary bohemians who met in Pfaff's Cellar in New Yor...

aegis

(Encyclopedia)aegis ēˈjĭs [key], in Greek mythology, weapon of Zeus and Athena. It possessed the power to terrify and disperse the enemy or to protect friends. The aegis was usually described as a garment made o...

Bosanquet, Bernard

(Encyclopedia)Bosanquet, Bernard bōˈzənkĭt [key], 1848–1923, English philosopher, educated at Oxford. He lectured there (1871–81) and at St. Andrews (1903–8). His major works include A History of Aestheti...

Pythagoras

(Encyclopedia)Pythagoras pĭthăgˈərəs [key], c.582–c.507 b.c., pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, founder of the Pythagorean school. He migrated from his native Samos to Crotona and established a secret religiou...

Swedenborg, Emanuel

(Encyclopedia)Swedenborg, Emanuel swēdˈənbôrg; āmäˈno͞oĕl svāˌdənbōrkˈ [key], 1688–1772, Swedish scientist, religious teacher, and mystic. His religious system, sometimes called Swedenborgianism, is...

Smith, Sydney

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Sydney, 1771–1845, English clergyman, writer, and wit, ordained in the Church of England in 1794. In 1798 he went as a tutor to Edinburgh, where he studied medicine, occasionally preached, an...