Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Epirus, despotate of

(Encyclopedia)Epirus, despotate of. When, in 1204, the army of the Fourth Crusade set up the Latin Empire of Constantinople on the ruins of the Byzantine Empire, an independent Greek state emerged in Epirus under M...

aberration of starlight

(Encyclopedia)aberration of starlight, displacement of the apparent path of light from a star, resulting in a displacement of the apparent position of the star from its true position; discovered by the English astr...

Otto of Freising

(Encyclopedia)Otto of Freising frīˈzĭng [key], b. after 1111, d. 1158, German chronicler, bishop of Freising. He was a son of Leopold III of Austria, a half-brother of Emperor Conrad III, and an uncle of Emperor...

Northumbria, kingdom of

(Encyclopedia)Northumbria, kingdom of nôrthŭmˈbrēˈə [key], one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England. It was originally composed of two independent kingdoms divided by the Tees River, Bernicia (including mod...

Trianon, Treaty of

(Encyclopedia)Trianon, Treaty of, 1920, agreement following World War I in which the Allies disposed of Hungarian territories. The internal chaos in Hungary that followed the dissolution (1918) of the Austro-Hungar...

atlantes

(Encyclopedia)atlantes ătlănˈtēz [key] [Latin plural of Atlas], sculptured male figures serving as supports of entablatures, in place of a column or pier. The earliest (c.480–460 b.c.) and most important exam...

Epidaurus

(Encyclopedia)Epidaurus ĕpĭdôrˈəs [key], ancient city of Greece, on an inlet of the Saronic Gulf, NE Peloponnesus. It was celebrated as the site of the temple of Asclepius, which dates from the 4th cent. b.c. ...

Puy de Dôme

(Encyclopedia)Puy de Dôme, extinct volcano of the Massif Central and the second highest peak (4,806 ft/1,465 m) of the Auvergne Mts., central France, W of Clermont-Ferrand. Crops are raised on the lower slopes; th...

Johanan ben Zakkai

(Encyclopedia)Johanan ben Zakkai jōhănˈən bĕn zăkˈāī [key], leader of the Pharisees of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Temple in a.d. 70, afterward founder of the Jewish academy at Jamnia. He empha...

Scotland, Church of

(Encyclopedia)Scotland, Church of, the established national church of Scotland, Presbyterian (see Presbyterianism) in form. The first Protestants in Scotland, led by Patrick Hamilton, were predominantly Lutheran. H...