Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Hildebrand, Lay of

(Encyclopedia)Hildebrand, Lay of, fragment of an epic in mixed Low and Old High German composed c.800 in the monastery of Fulda. Hildebrand, armorer of Dietrich of Bern (Theodoric the Great), returns home after man...

Hypsicles of Alexandria

(Encyclopedia)Hypsicles of Alexandria hĭpˈsĭklēz [key], astronomer of ancient Greece. Some authorities place Hypsicles in the 2d cent. b.c. and some in the 2d cent. a.d. The 14th and 15th books of Euclid's Elem...

Heliodorus of Emesa

(Encyclopedia)Heliodorus of Emesa ĕmˈəsə [key], fl. 3d cent., Syrian Greek writer. He wrote the romance Aethiopica, one of the oldest and best of surviving Greek romances. Little is known of his life except tha...

Peter of Blois

(Encyclopedia)Peter of Blois blwä [key], 1135?–1203?, French writer. He was educated in law and theology. From 1167 to 1169 he was tutor to King William II of Sicily. He went (c.1173) to England, where he served...

Bar, Confederation of

(Encyclopedia)Bar, Confederation of, union formed in 1768 at Bar, in Podolia (now in W Ukraine), by a number of Polish nobles to oppose the interference of Catherine II of Russia in Polish affairs. Headed by the Pu...

Pilgrimage of Grace

(Encyclopedia)Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536, rising of Roman Catholics in N England. It was a protest against the government's abolition of papal supremacy (1534) and confiscation (1536) of the smaller monastic propert...

Mary of Burgundy

(Encyclopedia)Mary of Burgundy, 1457–82, wife of Maximilian of Austria (later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I), daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold of Burgundy. The marriage of Mary was a major event in Euro...

Settlement, Act of

(Encyclopedia)Settlement, Act of, 1701, passed by the English Parliament, to provide that if William III and Princess Anne (later Queen Anne) should die without heirs, the succession to the throne should pass to So...

Group of Seven

(Encyclopedia)Group of Seven (G7), international organization officially established in 1985 to facilitate economic and commercial cooperation among the world's largest industrial nations, including efforts to aid ...

Wisconsin, University of

(Encyclopedia)Wisconsin, University of, main campus at Madison; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1848, opened 1849. Its history was disturbed by storms over the policies of Glenn Frank and o...