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Maimonides

(Encyclopedia)Maimonides mīˈmən [key], 1135–1204, Jewish scholar, physician, and philosopher, the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, b. Córdoba, Spain, d. Cairo. He is sometimes called Rambam...

Kuchma, Leonid Danylovych

(Encyclopedia)Kuchma, Leonid Danylovych lĭŭnyētˈ dənyēˈləvĭch ko͝ochˈmä [key], 1938–, Ukrainian politician, president of Ukraine (1994–2005). Formerly the manager of the Soviet Union's largest missi...

Ravel, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Ravel, Maurice mōrēsˈ rävĕlˈ [key], 1875–1937, French composer, b. in the Pyrenees. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1889, where he was later a student of Fauré. Ravel became a leading ex...

Reginald of Châtillon

(Encyclopedia)Reginald of Châtillon shätēyôNˈ [key], d. 1187, Crusader, lord of Krak and Montreal in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. He came to the Holy Land in the Second Crusade and married (1153) Constance,...

Nauman, Bruce

(Encyclopedia)Nauman, Bruce nouˈmən [key], 1941–, American artist, b. Fort Wayne, Ind., B.A. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison (1964), M.F.A. Univ. of California, Davis (1966). One of the most innovative and influent...

Verrocchio, Andrea del

(Encyclopedia)Verrocchio, Andrea del ändrĕˈä dĕl vār-rôkˈkyō [key], 1435–88, Florentine sculptor and painter, whose real name was Andrea di Michele di Francesco di Cioni. He was a leading figure in the e...

Seymour of Sudeley, Thomas Seymour, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Seymour of Sudeley, Thomas Seymour, Baron, 1508?–1549, English nobleman. After the marriage (1536) of his sister Jane to Henry VIII, he served on various diplomatic missions, was in command of the E...

Close, Chuck

(Encyclopedia)Close, Chuck (Charles Thomas Close), 1940–2021, American painter, b. Monroe, Wash., Univ. of Washington (B.A., 1962), Yale Univ. (B.F.A., 1963; M.F.A...

champagne, sparkling white wine

(Encyclopedia)champagne shămpānˈ [key], sparkling white wine made from grapes grown in the old French province of Champagne. The best champagne is from that part of the Marne valley whose apex is Reims, the cent...

date

(Encyclopedia)date, name for a palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and for its edible fruit. Probably native to Arabia and North Africa, it has from earliest times been a principal food in many desert and tropical regions. ...