Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Niatross ... Nicholls, Gwyn

Niatross: (foaled 1977), American harness racehorse (Standardbred), one of the greatest pacers in history, who in his two-year racing career set records for American career winnings ($2,019,212) and, in the second year, a record for one-year winnings for a horse of ...
Niaux: cave at Ariege, France, that is famous for its carefully drawn wall paintings in a black-outlined style typical of the classical Magdalenian period of Paleolithic art. This period is estimated to have lasted from approximately 15,000 to 10,000 BC. Niaux ...
Nibelungenlied: Middle High German epic poem written about 1200 by an unknown Austrian from the Danube region. It is preserved in three main 13th-century manuscripts, A (now in Munich), B (St. Gall), and C (Donaueschingen); modern scholarship regards B as the ...
Nicaea, Council of: (787), the seventh ecumenical council of the Christian church, meeting in Nicaea (now Iznik, Tur.). It attempted to resolve the Iconoclastic Controversy, initiated in 726 when Emperor Leo III issued a decree against the worship of icons. The council declared ...
Nicaea, Council of: (325), the first ecumenical council of the Christian church, meeting in ancient Nicaea (now Iznik, Tur.). It was called by the emperor Constantine I, an unbaptized catechumen, or neophyte, who presided over the opening session and took part in the ...
Nicaea, empire of: independent principality of the fragmented Byzantine Empire, founded in 1204 by Theodore I Lascaris (1208-22); it served as a political and cultural centre from which a restored Byzantium arose in the mid-13th century under Michael VIII Palaeologus.
Nicander: Greek poet, physician, and grammarian. Little is known of Nicander's life except that his family held the hereditary priesthood of Apollo at Colophon.
Nicaragua: country of Central America, bounded by Honduras on the north, the Caribbean Sea on the east, Costa Rica on the south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It is the largest of the Central American republics, with an area ...
Nicaragua, Lake: the largest of several freshwater lakes in southwestern Nicaragua and the dominant physical feature of the country; it is also the largest lake in Central America. Its aboriginal name was Cocibolca, meaning "sweet sea"; the Spanish called it Mar Dulce; ...
Nicaro: city, eastern Cuba. It is situated on Levisa Bay, a nearly landlocked arm of the Atlantic Ocean, at the base of the Lengua de Pajara peninsula. Nicaro is Cuba's major centre for the refining of nickel and cobalt from nickel ...
Niccoli, Niccolo: wealthy Renaissance Humanist from Florence whose collections of ancient art objects and library of manuscripts of classical works helped to shape a taste for the antique in 15th-century Italy.
niccolite: an ore mineral of nickel, nickel arsenide (NiAs). It is commonly found associated with other nickel arsenides and sulfides, as in the Natsume nickel deposits, Japan; Andreas-Berg, Ger.; Sudbury, Ont.; and Silver Cliff, Colo. Niccolite is classified in a group ...
Niccolo Dell'arca: early Renaissance Italian sculptor famed for his expressionistic use of northern Gothic realism in combination with true compositional principles of Renaissance art. Niccolo takes his name from the tomb (arca in Italian) of St. Dominic in the church of S. ...
Nice: seaport city, Mediterranean tourist centre, and capital of Alpes-Maritimes departement, Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur region, southeastern France. The city is located on the Baie (bay) des Anges, 20 miles (32 km) from the Italian border. Sheltered by ...
Niceforo, Alfredo: Italian sociologist, criminologist, and statistician who posited the theory that every person has a "deep ego" of antisocial, subconscious impulses that represent a throwback to precivilized existence. Accompanying this ego, and attempting to keep its latent delinquency in check, according ...
Nicene Creed: a Christian statement of faith that is the only ecumenical creed because it is accepted as authoritative by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and major Protestant churches. The Apostles' and Athanasian creeds are accepted by some but not all ...
Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos: Byzantine historian and litterateur whose stylistic prose and poetry exemplify the developing Byzantine humanism of the 13th and 14th centuries and whose 23-volume Ecclesiasticae historiae ("Church History"), of which only the first 18 volumes survive, constitutes a ...
Nicephorus I: Byzantine emperor from 802 who late in his reign alienated his subjects with his extremely heavy taxation and frequent confiscations of property.
Nicephorus I, Saint: Greek Orthodox theologian, historian, and patriarch of Constantinople (806-815) whose chronicles of Byzantine history and writings in defense of Byzantine veneration of icons provide data otherwise unavailable on early Christian thought and practice.
Nicephorus II Phocas: Byzantine emperor (963-969), whose military achievements against the Muslim Arabs contributed to the resurgence of Byzantine power in the 10th century.
Nicephorus III Botaneiates: Byzantine emperor (1078-81) whose use of Turkish support in acquiring and holding the throne tightened the grip of the Seljuq Turks on Anatolia.
Nicetas Of Remesiana: Greek bishop, theologian, and composer of liturgical verse, whose missionary activity and writings effected the Christianization of the Serbian Slavic regions and cultivated a Latin culture among the barbarians in the lower Danube Valley.
Nicetas Stethatos: Byzantine mystic, theologian, and outspoken polemist who played the principal theoretical role in the 11th-century Greek Orthodox-Latin church controversy concluding in the definitive schism of 1054.
niche: in ecology, the smallest unit of a habitat that is occupied by an organism. Habitat niche refers to the physical space occupied by the organism; ecological niche refers to the role it plays in the community of organisms found in ...
niche: in architecture, decorative recess set into a wall for the purpose of displaying a statue, vase, font, or other object. Niches were used extensively in both interior and exterior walls by the architects of ancient Rome. A fine extant example ...
Nichinan: city, southern Miyazaki ken (prefecture), southeastern Kyushu, Japan. It lies just inland from the Pacific Ocean. A type of Japanese cedar called obi has been cultivated in the area since the early 19th century ...
Nichiren: militant Japanese Buddhist prophet who contributed significantly to the adaptation of Buddhism to the Japanese mentality and who remains one of the most controversial and influential figures in Japanese Buddhist history. After an exhaustive study of the various forms of ...
Nichiren Buddhism: school of Japanese Buddhism named after its founder, the 13th-century militant prophet and saint, Nichiren. It is one of the largest schools of Japanese Buddhism.
Nicholas: Russian grand duke and army officer who served as commander in chief against the Germans and Austro-Hungarians in the first year of World War I and was subsequently (until March 1917) Emperor Nicholas II's viceroy in the Caucasus and commander ...
Nicholas: last imperial antipope, whose reign (May 1328 to August 1330) in Rome rivalled the pontificate of Pope John XXII at Avignon.
Nicholas Brothers: tap-dancing duo whose suppleness, strength, and fearlessness made them one of the greatest tap dance acts of all time. Fayard Antonio Nicholas (b. October 20, 1914, Mobile, Alabama, U.S., -d. January 24, 2006, Los Angeles, California, ) and his brother ...
Nicholas I: prince (1860-1910) and then king (1910-18) of Montenegro, who transformed his small principality into a sovereign European nation.
Nicholas I: Byzantine patriarch of Constantinople (901-907; 912-925), who contributed measurably to the attempted reunion of the Greek and Roman churches and who fomented the tetragamy controversy, or the question of a fourth marriage for the Eastern Orthodox.
Nicholas I: Russian emperor (1825-55), often considered the personification of classic autocracy; for his reactionary policies, he has been called the emperor who froze Russia for 30 years.
Nicholas I, Saint: pope from 858 to 867, master theorist of papal power, considered to have been the most forceful of the early medieval pontiffs, whose pontificate was the most important of the Carolingian period and prepared the way for the 11th-century reform ...
Nicholas II: the last Russian emperor (1894-1917), who, with his wife, Alexandra, and their children, was killed by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution.
Nicholas II: pope from 1059 to 1061, a major figure in the Gregorian Reform.
Nicholas III: pope from 1277 to 1280.
Nicholas III: Eastern Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople (1084-1111), theologian and liturgical scholar noted for combatting doctrinal heresy and composing sacramental prayer texts for the Byzantine liturgy. Among Nicholas' liturgical compositions are prayers and responses in the service rituals for baptism, marriage, confession, ...
Nicholas IV: pope from 1288 to 1292, the first Franciscan pontiff.
Nicholas Of Autrecourt: French philosopher and theologian known principally for developing medieval Skepticism to its extreme logical conclusions, which were condemned as heretical.
Nicholas Of Clemanges: theologian, humanist, and educator who denounced the corruption of institutional Christianity, advocated general ecclesiastical reform, and attempted to mediate the Western Schism (rival claimants to the papacy) during the establishment of the papal residence in Avignon, Fr.
Nicholas Of Cusa: cardinal, mathematician, scholar, experimental scientist, and influential philosopher who stressed the incomplete nature of man's knowledge of God and of the universe.
Nicholas Of Damascus: Greek historian and philosopher whose works included a universal history from the time of the Assyrian empire to his own days.
Nicholas of Flue, Saint: hermit, popular saint, and Swiss folk hero. His intervention in a conflict between cantonal factions over the admission of Fribourg and Solothurn to the Swiss Confederation led to the agreement of Stans (Dec. 22, 1481), which forestalled civil war and ...
Nicholas Of Hereford: theological scholar and advocate of the English reform movement within the Roman Church who later recanted his unorthodox views and participated in the repression of other reformers. He collaborated with John Wycliffe on the first complete English translation of the ...
Nicholas Of Lyra: author of the first printed commentary on the Bible and one of the foremost Franciscan theologians and influential exegetes (biblical interpreters) of the Middle Ages.
Nicholas Of Verdun: the greatest enamelist and goldsmith of his day and an important figure in the transition from late Romanesque to early Gothic style. He was an itinerant craftsman who travelled to the site of his commission; therefore most of what is ...
Nicholas V: influential Renaissance pope (reigned 1447-55) and founder of the Vatican Library. Soon after his election, he brought to an end the schism caused by rivalries between popes and councils. By 1455 he had restored peace to the Papal States and ...
Nicholas, Saint: one of the most popular minor saints commemorated in the Eastern and Western churches and now traditionally associated with the festival of Christmas. In many countries children receive gifts on December 6, Saint Nicholas Day.
Nicholls, Gwyn: one of the greatest rugby players of all time.