Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Barbazan, Arnaud Guillaume, seigneur de

(Encyclopedia)Barbazan, Arnaud Guillaume, seigneur de ärnōˈ gēyōmˈ sānyörˈ də bärbäzäNˈ [key], c.1360–1431, French general in the Hundred Years War. He was called le chevalier sans reproche [the kni...

Vercors

(Encyclopedia)Vercors vĕrkôrˈ [key], 1902–91, French writer and illustrator, whose original name was Jean Bruller. Vercors served in the French resistance movement and helped to found Les Éditions de Minuit, ...

mechanics

(Encyclopedia)mechanics, branch of physics concerned with motion and the forces that tend to cause it; it includes study of the mechanical properties of matter, such as density, elasticity, and viscosity. Mechanics...

Camus, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Camus, Albert älbĕrˈ kämüˈ [key], 1913–60, French writer, b. Mondovi (now Dréan). Camus was one of the most important authors and thinkers of the 20th cent. While a philosophy student at the ...

Archimedes

(Encyclopedia)Archimedes ärkĭmēˈdēz [key], 287–212 b.c., Greek mathematician, physicist, and inventor. He is famous for his work in geometry (on the circle, sphere, cylinder, and parabola), physics, mechanic...

Garat, Dominique Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Garat, Dominique Joseph dōmēnēkˈ zhôzĕfˈ gäräˈ [key], 1749–1833, French revolutionary. He was minister of justice (1792–93) during the trial of King Louis XVI and notified the king of th...

Vittorini, Elio

(Encyclopedia)Vittorini, Elio ĕˈlyō vēt-tōrēˈnē [key], 1908–66, Italian novelist, b. Syracuse, Sicily. Between 1934 and 1941 Vittorini translated the works of D. H. Lawrence, Poe, Faulkner, Hemingway, T. ...

Bow Bells

(Encyclopedia)Bow Bells bō [key], in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow (Bow Church), Cheapside, London, England. The church is located in mid-London, and tradition says that only one who is born within sound of the Bo...

Sully-Prudhomme, René François Armand

(Encyclopedia)Sully-Prudhomme, René François Armand rənāˈ fräNswäˈ ärmäNˈ sülēˈ-prüdômˈ [key], 1839–1907, French poet associated with the Parnassians. His early poetry, including Stances et poèm...

Cap-Haïtien

(Encyclopedia)Cap-Haïtien käp-äēsyăNˈ [key], city, N Haiti, on the Atlantic Ocean. Haiti's second largest city, ...

Browse by Subject