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Hydra, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Hydra, in astronomy, southern constellation lying S of Corvus, Crater, Virgo, Leo, and Cancer. It is a long, slender, winding constellation traditionally depicted as a snake and known also as the Wate...

Rampolla del Tindaro, Mariano

(Encyclopedia)Rampolla del Tindaro, Mariano märyäˈnō rämpôlˈlä dĕl tēnˈdärō [key], 1843–1913, Italian churchman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was a nobleman. He was papal nuncio at Madri...

Fernán González

(Encyclopedia)Fernán González fārnänˈ gōnthäˈlāth [key], d. 970, first count of Castile. As count of Burgos from c.930 he took advantage of Leonese divisions and the war against the Moors to establish the ...

Basiliscus

(Encyclopedia)Basiliscus băˌsĭlĭsˈkəs [key], d. c.477, usurper at Constantinople (475–76). He was responsible for the failure of the expedition sent (468) against the Vandals by his brother-in-law Leo I. He...

Henry of Burgundy

(Encyclopedia)Henry of Burgundy, d. 1112, count of Portugal. One of a group of French nobles called by Alfonso VI of León to assist in the fight against the Moors, he arrived in Spain c.1095. He was assigned a por...

Gregory II, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Gregory II, Saint, d. 731, pope (715–31), a Roman; successor of Constantine. When Byzantine Emperor Leo III tried to impose iconoclasm in Italy by an imperial edict, Gregory answered that the empero...

Simeon I

(Encyclopedia)Simeon I, c.863–927, ruler (893–927) and later first czar of Bulgaria. He was placed on the throne by his father, Boris I, who had returned from a monastery to depose his first son, Vladimir (reig...

Troyat, Henri

(Encyclopedia)Troyat, Henri ŏ–rēˈ trôtäˈ [key], 1911–2007, French novelist and biographer, b. Moscow as Lev Aslanovich Tarassov. He and his family fled the Russian Revolution and settled (1911) in Paris. ...

iconoclasm

(Encyclopedia)iconoclasm īkŏnˈōklăzəm [key] [Gr.,=image breaking], opposition to the religious use of images. Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures, Christian doctrine, and biblical ev...

Mun, Albert, comte de

(Encyclopedia)Mun, Albert, comte de älbĕrˈ kôNt də möN [key], 1841–1914, French Roman Catholic leader and politician. A monarchist at first, he later loyally supported the Third Republic. He was one of the ...