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Gilbert de la Porrée

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert de la Porrée zhēlbĕrˈ də lä pôrāˈ [key], 1076–1154, French scholastic philosopher, b. Poitiers. He taught for 20 years at Chartres, where he was for some time chancellor. He later l...

Luxembourg Palace

(Encyclopedia)Luxembourg Palace, large Renaissance palace in Paris, on the left bank of the Seine near the Sorbonne. It was built (1615–20) for Marie de' Medici by Salomon de Brosse on the site of a former palace...

Pétion de Villeneuve, Jérôme

(Encyclopedia)Pétion de Villeneuve, Jérôme zhārōmˈ pātyôNˈ də vēlnövˈ [key], 1756–94, French revolutionary. A leader of the Jacobins, Pétion sat in the Constituent Assembly, was elected (Nov., 1791)...

Cárdenas, García López de

(Encyclopedia)Cárdenas, García López de gärthēˈä lōˈpĕth dā kärˈdānäs [key], fl. 1540, Spanish explorer in the Southwest. A member of the 1540 expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, he was sel...

Alvear, Carlos María de

(Encyclopedia)Alvear, Carlos María de kärˈlōs märēˈä dā älvāärˈ [key], 1789–1852, Argentine general and statesman. After distinguished service with the Spanish army in Europe, he returned to Argentin...

Plata, Río de la

(Encyclopedia)Plata, Río de la rēˈō ᵺā lä pläˈtä [key], estuary, c.170 mi (270 km) long, SE South America, formed by the Paraná and Uruguay rivers. Between Argentina and Uruguay, the estuary is c.120 mi...

Maintenon, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de

(Encyclopedia)Maintenon, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de fräNswäzˈ dōbēnyāˈ märkēzˈ də măNtənôNˈ [key], 1635–1719, second wife of the French king Louis XIV. Her grandfather was Théodore Agrippa...

Talmage, Thomas De Witt

(Encyclopedia)Talmage, Thomas De Witt tălˈmĭj [key], 1832–1902, American Presbyterian clergyman, b. near Bound Brook, N.J., grad. New Brunswick Theological Seminary (1856). His work in Brooklyn, N.Y., began in...

Balzac, Honoré de

(Encyclopedia)Balzac, Honoré de bălˈzăk, bôl–, Fr. ōnôrāˈ də bälzäkˈ [key], 1799–1850, French novelist, b. Tours. Balzac ranks among the great masters of the novel. Of a bourgeois family, he himsel...

Notre-Dame de Paris

(Encyclopedia)Notre-Dame de Paris nôˈtrə-däm də pärēˈ [key] [Fr.,=Our Lady of Paris], cathedral church of Paris, a noble achievement of early Gothic architecture in France. It stands upon the Île de la Cit...

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