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mandolin

(Encyclopedia)mandolin mănˌdəlĭnˈ, mănˈdəlĭnˌ [key], musical instrument of the lute family, with a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, plucked with the fingers or with...

Accolti, Benedetto

(Encyclopedia)Accolti, Benedetto bānādĕtˈtō äk-kôlˈtē [key], c.1415–1466?, Italian humanist and historian. From his history of the First Crusade, Tasso supposedly drew the idea for Jerusalem Delivered. H...

Krag, Jens Otto

(Encyclopedia)Krag, Jens Otto yĕns ôˈtō kräkh [key], 1914–78, Danish political leader. A Social Democrat, he entered parliament in 1947 and played a leading role in shaping Denmark's postwar economic policie...

Hierapolis

(Encyclopedia)Hierapolis hīərăpˈəlĭs [key], ancient city of Phrygia, W Asia Minor, 7 mi (11.3 km) N of Laodicea and on a plateau 500 ft (152 m) above the Lycus valley (in present-day Turkey). Devoted to the w...

Forain, Jean Louis

(Encyclopedia)Forain, Jean Louis zhäN lwē fôrăNˈ [key], 1852–1931, French painter, etcher, and lithographer. One of the foremost etchers of his day, Forain is best known for his political cartoons and social...

Hsia Kuei

(Encyclopedia)Hsia Kuei shyä gwā [key], c.1180–1230, Chinese painter of the Sung dynasty. Little is known of his life. He and his contemporary Ma Yüan were regarded as the greatest landscape painters of the da...

Ibarra, Francisco de

(Encyclopedia)Ibarra, Francisco de fränthēsˈkō ᵺā ēbäˈrä [key], 1539?–1575, Spanish conquistador in Mexico. In 1554, after founding Fresnillo, he headed an expedition to the N of Zacatecas. For the nex...

Ekkehard

(Encyclopedia)Ekkehard ĕkˈəhärt [key], name of several medieval German authors, monks of the monastery of St. Gall, which is in present-day Switzerland. Ekkehard I wrote the famous Latin epic Waltharius (c.930)...

Al-Farghani

(Encyclopedia)Al-Farghani ălfrəgāˈnəs [key], d. after 861, Arab astronomer. Al-Farghani was born in Farghana, Transoxania (present-day Fergana, Uzbekistan), and died in Egypt. His most important work, written ...

Sembrich, Marcella

(Encyclopedia)Sembrich, Marcella sĕmˈbrĭk [key], 1858–1935, stage name of Praxede Marcelline Kochanska, Polish coloratura soprano. She studied piano and violin at the Lemberg Conservatory. Urged by Liszt to tr...