writer, printer, and antiquary who, through numerous volumes of literary anecdotes, made an invaluable contribution to posterity's knowledge of the lives and works of 18th-century men of letters in England.
American motion-picture and stage director whose productions focus on the absurdities and horrors of modern life as revealed in personal relationships.
one of the most prominent American motion-picture actors of his generation, especially noted for his versatile portrayals of unconventional, alienated outsiders.
American astronomer best known for discovering four satellites of Jupiter: the 9th in 1914 (at Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California), the 10th and 11th in 1938, and the 12th in 1951 (all at Mount Wilson Observatory, Calif.).
Athenian politician and general during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) between Sparta and Athens. He was in charge of the Athenian forces engaged in the siege of Syracuse, Sicily, and the failure of the siege contributed greatly to the ultimate ...
island group, Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory, India, lying about 800 miles (1,300 km) east of Sri Lanka. The islands, along with the Andaman Islands to the north, constitute the boundary between the southeastern Bay of Bengal (west) and ...
Austroasiatic languages spoken on the Nicobar Islands and once considered to form a distinct family within the Austroasiatic stock. More recent data on these hitherto poorly known languages suggest that they form a distinct branch of the Mon-Khmer family, itself ...
Greek Orthodox monk and author of ascetic prayer literature. He was influential in reviving the practice of Hesychasm, a Byzantine method of contemplative prayer.
writer and bookseller who, with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn, was a leader of the German Enlightenment (Aufklarung) and who, as editor of the reformist journal Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek ("German General Library"), was critical of such younger writers as ...
French theologian, author, moralist, and controversialist whose writings, chiefly polemical, supported the Roman Catholic reform movement known as Jansenism.
French bacteriologist who received the 1928 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery (1909) that typhus is transmitted by the body louse.
British diplomat and author of more than 125 books, including political essays, travel accounts, and mystery novels. His three-volume Diaries and Letters (1966-68) is a valuable document of British social and political life from 1930 to 1964.
Neo-Pythagorean philosopher and mathematician who wrote Arithmetike eisagoge (Introduction to Arithmetic), an influential treatise on number theory. Considered a standard authority for 1,000 years, the book sets out the elementary theory and properties of numbers and contains the earliest-known Greek ...
city about 4 miles (6 km) north of Preveza, northwestern Greece. It was founded in 31 BC by Octavian (who in 27 BC was to become the Roman emperor Augustus) in commemoration of his victory over Antony and Cleopatra at ...
(Sept. 25, 1396), military engagement that resulted in a Turkish victory over an army of European crusaders. It brought an end to massive international efforts to halt Turkish expansion into the Balkans and central Europe.
city and capital of the Republic of Cyprus. It lies along the Pedieos River, in the centre of the Mesaoria Plain between the Kyrenia Mountains (north) and the Troodos range (south). The city is also the archiepiscopal seat of the ...
an organic compound that is the principal alkaloid of tobacco. (An alkaloid is one of a group of nitrogenous organic compounds that have marked physiological effects on humans.) Nicotine occurs throughout the tobacco plant and especially in the leaves. The ...
peninsula in western Costa Rica that is bounded on the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, on the northeast by the Cordillera de Guanacaste, and on the southeast by the Gulf of Nicoya. Costa Rica's largest peninsula, Nicoya measures ...
inlet that indents the west-central part of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The inlet extends northward and northwestward from Cape Blanco and Judas Point for about 50 miles (80 km). Cape Blanco, on the Nicoya Peninsula, and Judas Point, ...
French faience (tin-glazed earthenware) and porcelain produced in the 18th and 19th centuries by a factory at Niderviller, in Lorraine. Production of the faience falls into three periods. In 1755-70, under the ownership of Baron de Beyerle and the artistic ...
genus of about 25 South American plants of the pineapple family (Bromeliaceae) that grow upon the branches of trees. Several species are cultivated indoors as decorative plants for their handsome foliage and colourful red, purplish, or white flowers.
demi-canton ("half canton"), central Switzerland, formerly part of the canton of Unterwalden. Drained by the Engelberger Aa (river), it occupies the eastern part of former Unterwalden canton. Nidwalden means "below the forest" and refers to the great forest of Kerns ...
German historian who started a new era in historical studies by his method of source criticism; all subsequent historians are in some sense indebted to him.
American Protestant theologian and educator who was considered a leading authority on ethics and U.S. church history. He was a foremost advocate of theological existentialism.
American theologian who had extensive influence on political thought and whose criticism of the prevailing theological liberalism of the 1920s significantly affected the intellectual climate within American Protestantism. His exposure, as a pastor in Detroit, to the problems of American ...
range of the Eastern Alps in central Austria; lying between the Enns and Mur rivers, it extends 75 miles (120 km) westward to the headstreams of the two rivers. The scenic, well-forested mountains rise to their highest elevation at Hochgolling ...
Bundesland (federal state), northeastern Austria. It is bordered by the Czech Republic on the north, Slovakia on the east, and by Bundeslander Burgenland on the southeast, Steiermark (Styria) on the south, and Oberosterreich (Upper Austria) on the west. Niederosterreich Bundesland ...
black metallic alloy of sulfur with silver, copper, or lead that is used to fill designs that have been engraved on the surface of a metal (usually silver) object. Niello is made by fusing together silver, copper, and lead and ...
Danish poet who became the symbol of his generation's desire for freedom and who was killed as a result of his participation in the organized Danish resistance to the German occupation during World War II.
