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Catherine of Siena, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Catherine of Siena, Saint sēĕnˈə [key], 1347–80, Italian mystic and diplomat, a member of the third order of the Dominicans, Doctor of the Church. The daughter of Giacomo Benincasa, a Sienese dy...

Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da

(Encyclopedia)Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da äˌmārēˈjē [key], 1571–1610, Italian painter. His surname, Caravaggio, came from his birthplace. After an apprenticeship in Milan, he arrived (1592) in Rome w...

Protista

(Encyclopedia)Protista prōˌtŏktĭsˈtə [key], in the five-kingdom system of classification, a kingdom comprising a variety of unicellular and some simple multinuclear and multicellular eukaryotic organisms. Pro...

Pompeii

(Encyclopedia)Pompeii pŏmpāˈ, Ital. pōmpĕˈē [key], ancient city of S Italy, a port near Naples and at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius. Possibly an old Oscan settlement, it was a Samnite city for centuries before it...

Dickinson, Preston

(Encyclopedia)Dickinson, Preston, 1891–1930, American painter, b. New York City. In New York he studied at the Art Students League. From 1910 to 1915 he traveled in Europe, returning often later in life. His stil...

Joseph of Exeter

(Encyclopedia)Joseph of Exeter, fl. c.1190, English poet who wrote in Latin. He is best known for De Bello Trojano (c.1184), an epic poem in six books, written in the style of Vergil. His adventures in the Third Cr...

Narezhny, Vasily Trofimovich

(Encyclopedia)Narezhny, Vasily Trofimovich vəsēˈlyē trəfēˈməvĭch nərĕzhˈnē [key], 1780–1825, Russian novelist. He was an important forerunner of Gogol in his realistic descriptions of Ukrainian and C...

Morrison, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Morrison, Arthur, 1863–1945, English novelist. A journalist, he worked on the National Observer for William Ernest Henley. His stories of life in the London slums include Tales of Mean Street (1894)...

Onslow, George

(Encyclopedia)Onslow, George, 1784–1853, French composer. Onslow studied piano in London and composition in Paris. Although he wrote symphonies, comic operas, and various chamber works, he is remembered principal...

Kelly, George

(Encyclopedia)Kelly, George, 1887–1974, American playwright, b. Philadelphia. He began his career as a vaudevillian, as both an actor and skit writer. His best-known plays, penetrating satires on American middle-...