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Encyclopedias since 1768

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Capitano ... capybara

Capitano: stock character of the Italian commedia dell'arte. He was the prototype of a pretentious but cowardly military man. One of the earliest of the commedia characters, he was a descendant of the Miles Gloriosus, the braggart soldier of ancient Roman ...
capitation: major direct tax in France before the Revolution of 1789, first established in 1695 as a wartime measure. Originally, the capitation was to be paid by every subject, the amount varying according to class. For the purpose of the tax, ...
Capito, Wolfgang Fabricius: Christian humanist and Roman Catholic priest who, breaking with his Roman faith, became a primary Reformer at Strasbourg.
Capitol Reef National Park: long, narrow area of imposing sandstone formations in south-central Utah, U.S., just east of Torrey. Established as a national monument in 1937, it became a national park in 1971. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are ...
Capitol, United States: the meeting place of the United States Congress and one of the most familiar landmarks in Washington, D.C. It is situated on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial lie to ...
Capitoline Museums: complex of art galleries on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The collection was initially founded in 1471 by Pope Sixtus IV, who donated statuary recovered from ancient ruins. It was augmented by gifts from later popes and, after 1870, by ...
capitulary: ordinance, usually divided into articles (Latin: capitula), promulgated by the Carolingian sovereigns (Charlemagne and his heirs) in western Europe (8th to late 9th century). These ordinances dealt with various issues of administration, the royal domains, and public order and justice, ...
capitulation: in the history of international law, any treaty whereby one state permitted another to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction over its own nationals within the former state's boundaries. The term is to be distinguished from the military term "capitulation," an agreement for ...
Capodimonte porcelain: soft-paste porcelain produced by a factory established in 1743 at the Palazzo of Capodimonte by Charles III of Naples. Ware was produced there in large quantity and wide variety until 1759, when the concern was dismantled and removed to Buen ...
Capodimonte, National Museum and Galleries of: art museum in Naples housed in the Palazzo of Capodimonte (begun 1738).
capoeira: folk dance popular in the Brazilian northeast. It was brought to Brazil by slaves from Angola. Capoeira was originally a deadly sport in which the participants, often with blades strapped to their ankles, swung their legs high in attack, somersaulted, ...
Capone, Al: the most famous American gangster, who dominated organized crime in Chicago from 1925 to 1931.
Caporetto, Battle of: (Oct. 24, 1917), Italian military disaster during World War I in which Italian troops retreated before an Austro-German offensive on the Isonzo front, northwest of Trieste, where the Italian and Austrian forces had been stalemated for two and a half ...
Capote, Truman: American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. His early writing extended the Southern Gothic tradition, but he later developed a more journalistic approach in the novel In Cold Blood (1965), which remains his best-known work.
Capp, Al: American cartoonist who created the popular comic strip "Li'l Abner."
Cappadocia: ancient district in east-central Anatolia in the rugged plateau north of the Taurus Mountains, important as a Roman ally, client, and, later, province. The earliest records of Cappadocia date from the 6th century BC, when its feudal nobility was dominated ...
Capparales: caper order of dicotyledonous flowering plants, a division of the subclass Dilleniidae.
Cappel, Louis: French Huguenot theologian and Hebrew scholar.
Capponi, Gino, Marchese: historian, statesman, and leader of liberalism in Tuscany who played an extremely influential role in the rise of the Risorgimento. His salon in Florence was long a centre for the leading liberal thinkers of Europe.
Capra, Frank: American motion-picture director best known for a series of gently satiric and sentimental situation comedies during the 1930s and '40s.
Capraia Island: (from capra, "wild goat"), island of the Arcipelago Toscano, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, between the Italian mainland and the north point of Corsica. Part of Livorno province, it is mountainous and volcanic, rising to 1,467 feet (447 m). Capraia produces ...
Caprara, Giovanni Battista: Roman Catholic churchman and diplomat who negotiated between the Vatican and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Capreolus, Jean: Dominican scholar whose Four Books of Defenses of the Theology of St. Thomas Aquinas (written 1409-33), generally known as the Defensiones, contributed to a revival of Thomistic theology and won for the author the sobriquet Prince of the Thomists. He ...
Caprera Island: island in the Tyrrhenian Sea (of the Mediterranean) off northeastern Sardinia, Italy. Administratively part of La Maddalena comune (commune), it has an area of 6 square miles (16 square km) and is connected by causeway with the ...
Capri, Island of: island near the southern entrance to the Bay of Naples, Campania regione (region), southern Italy; it lies opposite the Sorrento peninsula, to which it was joined in prehistoric times. The island is a single block of limestone ...
capriccio: (Italian: "caprice"), lively, loosely-structured musical composition often incorporating a well-known or popular tune. As early as the 16th century the term was occasionally applied to such seemingly eccentric novelties as canzonas, fantasias, and ricercari (often modelled on vocal imitative polyphony). ...
Capricorn-Bunker Group: cluster of 13 islands at the southern extremity of the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, on the Tropic of Capricorn between Capricorn Channel and Keppel Bay. They are true coral cays, comprising sandy detritus on ...
Capricornus: in astronomy, zodiacal constellation lying between Aquarius and Sagittarius, at about 21 hours right ascension (the coordinate on the celestial sphere analogous to longitude on the Earth) and 20° south declination (angular distance south of the celestial equator). Its stars ...
Caprifoliaceae: the honeysuckle family of the teasel order (Dipsacales), well known for its many ornamental shrubs and vines, primarily composed of north temperate species but including some tropical mountain plants. The family has 18 genera and about 500 species, mostly woody ...
caprimulgiform: (order Caprimulgiformes), any member of about 100 species of soft-plumaged birds, the major groups of which are called nightjars, nighthawks, potoos, frogmouths, and owlet frogmouths. The order also includes the aberrant oilbird of South America. Most are twilight or night-flying ...
Caprivi Strip: long, narrow extension of Namibia, running about 280 miles (450 km) from the northeast corner of the main block of the country eastward to the Zambezi River. Its width varies from about 20 to 65 miles (32 to 105 km). ...
Caprivi, Leo, Graf von: distinguished soldier who was Bismarck's successor as Germany's imperial chancellor during 1890-94.
Caprock Escarpment: geological feature, Texas, U.S., that forms a natural transition between the High Plains (west) and the western edge of the North Central Plains (east). It forms the eastern border of the semiarid Llano Estacado (Spanish: "Staked Plain") and is a ...
Caproli, Carlo: Italian composer, violinist, and organist, considered by Angelo Berardi and others to be one of the best composers of cantatas of his time.
Caproni, Giorgio: Italian poet whose extensive body of work was largely collected in Tutti le poesie (1983; "All the Poems").
capsaicin: the most abundant of the pungent principles of the red pepper (Capsicum). It is an organic nitrogen compound belonging to the lipid group, but it is often erroneously classed among the alkaloids, a family of nitrogenous compounds with marked physiological ...
Capsian industry: a Mesolithic (8000 BC-2700 BC) cultural complex prominent in the inland areas of North Africa. Its most characteristic sites are in the area of the great salt lakes of what is now southern Tunisia, the type site being Jabal al-Maqta', ...
capstan: mechanical device used chiefly on board ships or in shipyards for moving heavy weights by means of ropes, cables, or chains. Capstans also have been used in railroad yards for spotting (positioning) freight cars. A capstan consists of a drum, ...
capsule: in botany, dry fruit that opens when ripe. It splits from apex to base into separate segments known as valves, as in the iris, or forms pores at the top (poppy), or splits around the circumference, with the top falling ...
captain: a rank in the military and maritime service, and the highest-ranking company officer. In most armies and in some air forces, a captain is the commander of the largest group of soldiers that an officer can be expected to know ...
Captain Beefheart: innovative American avant-garde rock and blues singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. Performing with the shifting lineup of musicians known as His Magic Band, Captain Beefheart produced a series of albums from the 1960s to the '80s that had limited commercial appeal ...
captain general: in colonial Spanish America, the governor of a captaincy general, a division of a viceroyalty. Captaincies general were established districts that were under serious pressures from foreign invasion or Indian attack. Although under the nominal jurisdiction of their viceroys, captains ...
Captorhinus: genus of extinct reptiles found as fossils in Permian rocks of North America (the Permian Period lasted from 286 to 245 million years ago). Captorhinus was small with slender limbs; its full length was about 30 cm (12 inches), and ...
capture: in nuclear physics, process in which an atomic nucleus absorbs a smaller particle. See beta decay; neutron capture.
Capua: town and episcopal see, Caserta province, Campania region, southern Italy, on the Volturno River and the ancient Appian Way, north of Naples. Casilinum was a strategic road junction and was contended for by the Carthaginian general Hannibal and the Romans ...
Capua: in ancient times, the chief city of the Campania region of Italy; it was located 16 miles (26 km) north of Neapolis (Naples) on the site of modern Santa Maria Capua Vetere. The nearby modern city of Capua was called ...
Capuana, Luigi: Italian critic and writer who was one of the earliest Italian advocates of realism. Capuana influenced many writers, including the novelist Giovanni Verga and the playwright Luigi Pirandello, who were his friends.
Capuchin: an autonomous branch of the Franciscan order of religious men, begun as a reform movement in 1525 by Matteo da Bascio, who wanted to return to a literal observance of the rule of St. Francis of Assisi and to introduce ...
capuchin monkey: common Central and South American primate found in tropical forests from Nicaragua to Paraguay. Capuchins, considered among the most intelligent of the New World monkeys, are named for their "caps" of hair, which resemble the cowls of Capuchin monks. These ...
Capulin Volcano National Monument: extinct volcano in northeastern New Mexico, U.S., about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Raton. It was established in 1916 as Capulin Mountain National Monument, its boundary changed in 1962, and it was renamed in 1987. The monument, which covers ...
capybara: the largest living rodent, a semiaquatic mammal of Central and South America. The capybara is the sole member of the family Hydrochoeridae, but it resembles the cavy and guinea pig of the family Caviidae.