Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

0-9

Cassini, Gian Domenico ... Castilho, Antonio Feliciano de

Cassini, Gian Domenico: Italian-born French astronomer who, among others, discovered Cassini's division, the dark gap between the rings A and B of Saturn; he also discovered four of Saturn's moons. In addition, he was the first to record observations of the zodiacal light.
Cassini, Jacques: French astronomer who compiled the first tables of the orbital motions of Saturn's satellites.
Cassino: town, Frosinone provincia, Lazio (Latium) regione, central Italy. Cassino lies along the Rapido River at the foot of Monte (mount) Cassino, 87 miles (140 km) southeast of Rome. It originated as Casinum, a town of the ancient Volsci people on ...
Cassiodorus: historian, statesman, and monk who helped to save the culture of Rome at a time of impending barbarism.
Cassiopea: genus of marine jellyfish constituting the order Rhizostomeae (class Scyphozoa, phylum Cnidaria) and found in tropical waters. Members of the genus measure more than 100 mm (4 inches) in diameter. They are flattish, with four to six flat, short-sided branches ...
Cassiopeia: in astronomy, a constellation of the northern sky, easily recognized by a group of five bright stars forming a slightly irregular W. It lies at one hour right ascension (the coordinate of the celestial sphere analogous to longitude on the ...
Cassirer, Ernst: German-Jewish philosopher, educator, and prolific writer, remembered for his interpretation and analysis of cultural values.
cassiterite: heavy, metallic, hard tin dioxide (SnO₂) that is the major ore of tin. It is colourless when pure, but brown or black when iron impurities are present. Commercially important quantities occur in placer deposits, but cassiterite also occurs in granite ...
Cassius Dionysius: ancient North African writer on botany and medicinal substances, best known for his Greek translation of the great 28-volume treatise on agriculture by the Carthaginian Mago (Columella, called Mago; sometimes described as the father of agriculture). The work was highly ...
Cassius Longinus, Gaius: prime mover in the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar in 44 BC.
Cassius Longinus, Gaius: prominent Roman jurist, a pupil of the famous jurist Massurius Sabinus, with whom he founded a legal school.
Cassius Longinus, Quintus: Roman official whose tyrannical government of Spain greatly injured Julius Caesar's cause in Spain during the civil war (49-45) between Caesar and the Optimates. He was either a brother or a cousin of the famous assassin of Caesar.
Cassius Vecellinus, Spurius: Roman consul who, by bringing peace to the area around Rome, contributed to the growth of the city in an early phase of its development.
Cassius, Gaius: one of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After the death of Caesar he joined the party of Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus (the more famous Cassius and prime mover of the assassination).
Cassivellaunus: powerful British chieftain who was defeated by Julius Caesar during his second raiding expedition into Britain (54 BC).
cassock: long garment worn by Roman Catholic and other clergy both as ordinary dress and under liturgical garments. The cassock, with button closure, has long sleeves and fits the body closely. In the Roman Catholic church the colour and trim vary ...
Cassola, Carlo: Italian Neorealist novelist who portrayed the landscapes and the ordinary people of rural Tuscany in simple prose. The lack of action and the emphasis on detail in his books caused him to be regarded as a forerunner of the French ...
Casson, Alfred Joseph: Canadian painter who was a member of the Group of Seven, a group of painters that forged a national identity through the visual arts with their paintings of the Canadian landscape.
cassone: Italian chest, usually used as a marriage chest, and the most elaborately decorated piece of furniture of the Renaissance. Cassoni traditionally were made in pairs and sometimes bore the respective coats of arms of the bride and groom. They contained ...
cassoulet: French dish of white beans baked with meats; it takes its name from its cooking pot, the cassole d'Issel. Originating in Languedoc in southwest France, cassoulet was once simple farmhouse fare, but it has been elaborated into a rich and ...
cassowary: any of several species of large flightless birds of the Australo-Papuan region. Cassowaries are the only members of the family Casuariidae and belong to the order Casuariiformes, which also includes the emu. The cassowary has been known to kill humans ...
cast iron: an alloy of iron that contains 2 to 4 percent carbon, along with varying amounts of silicon and manganese and traces of impurities such as sulfur and phosphorus. It is made by reducing iron ore in a blast furnace. The ...
Castagno, Andrea del: one of the most influential 15th-century Italian Renaissance painters, best known for the emotional power and naturalistic treatment of figures in his work.
Castalia: a source of poetic inspiration. Castalia was the name of a nymph who threw herself into or was transformed into a spring to evade the pursuit of Apollo. The spring was then named after her, and it was a source ...
castanets: percussion instrument of the clapper family, consisting of two hollowed-out pear-shaped pieces of hardwood, ivory, or other substance hinged together by a cord. Castanets are usually held in the hand and struck together. They are played in differently pitched pairs ...
caste: in biology, a subset of individuals within a colony (society) of social animals that is specialized in the function it performs and distinguished by anatomical or morphological differences from other subsets.
caste: any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous occupational groups that together constitute traditional societies in South Asia, particularly among Hindus in India. Although sometimes used to designate similar groups in other societies, the "caste system" is uniquely developed in Hindu societies.
Castel Gandolfo: village and castle, Rome provincia, Lazio regione, central Italy. It lies on the edge of Lake Albano, in the Alban Hills just south of Rome. Its palace is notable as the summer residence of ...
Castel Sant'Angelo: structure in Rome, Italy, that was originally the mausoleum of the Roman emperor Hadrian and, until Caracalla, the burial place of the Antonine emperors. It was built AD 135-139 and converted into a fortress in the 5th century. It is ...
Castelar y Ripoll, Emilio: statesman and author, one of the most powerful champions of Spanish republicanism in the latter half of the 19th century. He was president of the first Spanish Republic from September 1873 to January 1874.
Castelfranco Veneto: town, Treviso provincia, Veneto regione, northern Italy. It lies west of Treviso. Founded in 1199 by Treviso city as a bulwark against the Paduans, it is surrounded by medieval walls enclosing the remains of the 12th-century castle. The town was ...
Castellammare di Stabia: city and episcopal see, Napoli provincia, Campania regione, southern Italy. It lies in the southeast angle of the Bay of Naples southeast of Naples. Its name is derived from the Roman resort of Stabiae (just northeast), destroyed by the eruption ...
Castellanos, Rosario: novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, and diplomat who was probably the most important Mexican woman writer of the 20th century. Her 1950 master's thesis, Sobre cultura femenina ("On Feminine Culture"), became a turning point for modern Mexican women writers, who ...
Castellon: provincia in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Valencia, eastern Spain, and northernmost of the three provinces corresponding to the ancient kingdom of Valencia. Castellon comprises three distinct regions: the inhospitable Maestrazgo in the mountainous northwest; the Mijares and Palancia ...
Castellon de la Plana: city, capital of Castellon provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Valencia, eastern Spain. Castellon de la Plana is situated north of Valencia city on a fertile plain near the Mediterranean coast. Founded originally on top of the nearby ...
Castelnau, Michel de, Sieur De La Mauvissiere: French diplomat and soldier, noted for his Memoires of the beginnings of the Wars of Religion (1562-98).
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mario: Italian-born composer in the Neoromantic style.
Castelo Branco: city and capital of Castelo Branco distrito ("district"), central Portugal, near the border with Spain. The surrounding region was occupied by Roman legions and has many Roman ruins, but the city itself originated as an old frontier fortress and is ...
Castelo Branco: distrito ("district"), central Portugal. To the northwest it is dominated by the mountain blocks of Estrela (6,539 feet [1,993 m]) and Guardunha (4,026 feet [1,227 m]). Between these mountains, in the upper Zezere River valley, Cova de Beira is a ...
Castelo Branco, Camilo: Portuguese novelist whose 58 novels range from Romantic melodramas to works of realism. He is sometimes known as the Portuguese Balzac.
Castelo Melhor, Luiz de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 3o conde de, 6o Conde Da Calheta: Portuguese royal favourite who, as effective governor of Portugal from 1662 to 1667 during the reign of Afonso VI, was responsible for the successful prosecution of the war against Spain, which led, in 1668, to Spanish recognition of Portugal's independence.
Castelvetrano: town, Trapani province, western Sicily, Italy, southeast of Marsala. Historic monuments include the churches of S. Domenico (1470) and of the Madre (16th century). In the town hall there is a 5th-century bronze statue of the Ephebus of Selinus (Selinonte). ...
Castelvetro, Lodovico: a dominant literary critic of the Italian Renaissance, particularly noted for his translation of and independently rendered conclusions from Aristotle's Poetics, in which he defended the dramatic unities of time, place, and action, as well as the use of poetry ...
Casti, Giovanni Battista: Italian poet, satirist, and author of comic opera librettos, chiefly remembered for the verse satires Poema tartaro (1787; "Tartar Poem") and Gli animali parlanti (1802, "The Talking Animals"; Eng. trans. The Court and Parliament of Beasts, 1819).
Castiglione, Baldassare: Italian courtier, diplomat, and writer, best known for his dialogue Il cortegiano (The Courtier).
Castiglione, Giovanni Benedetto: Italian painter and one of the most important technical innovators in the history of printmaking. Beginning in the highly artificial style of Mannerism, Castiglione was a productive painter who left portraits, historical pieces, and landscapes but who excelled in depicting ...
Castiglione, Virginia Oldoini Verasis, Countess di: Tuscan noblewoman who occupied a predominant position in the courts of both Turin and Paris and influenced Franco-Italian political relations.
Castile: traditional central region constituting more than one-quarter of the area of peninsular Spain. Castile's northern part is called Old Castile and the southern part is called New Castile. The region formed the core of the Kingdom of Castile, under which ...
Castile and Leon: comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") and historic region of northwestern Spain, encompassing the provinces of Valladolid, Burgos, Leon, Salamanca, Zamora, Palencia, and Segovia. The autonomous community was established in 1983 from the historic region of Old Castile. Its capital is the ...
Castile-La Mancha: comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") and historic region of Spain, encompassing the central Spanish provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Albacete.
Castilho, Antonio Feliciano de: poet and translator, a central figure in the Portuguese Romantic movement.