Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Pereda, Jose Maria de ... Perignon, Dominique-Catherine, marquis de

Pereda, Jose Maria de: Spanish writer, the acknowledged leader of the modern Spanish regional novelists. Born of a family noted for its fervent Catholicism and its traditionalism, Pereda looked an authentic hidalgo. An older brother provided him with an income that allowed him to ...
Peredvizhniki: (Russian: The Wanderers), group of Russian painters who in the second half of the 19th century rejected the restrictive and foreign-inspired classicism of the Russian Academy to form a new realist and nationalist art that would serve the common man. ...
Peregrinatio Etheriae: an anonymous and incomplete account of a western European nun's travels in the Middle East, written for her colleagues at home, near the end of the 4th century. It gives important information about religious life and the observances of the ...
peregrine falcon: the most widely distributed bird of prey species, with breeding populations on every continent and many oceanic islands. Sixteen subspecies are recognized.
Peregrinus of Maricourt, Peter: French crusader and scholar who wrote the first extant treatise describing the properties of magnets.
Peregrinus Proteus: Greek Cynic philosopher remembered for his spectacular suicide-he cremated himself on the flames of the Olympic Games in 165.
Pereira: city, capital of Risaralda departamento, west-central Colombia. It is situated in the western foothills of the Cordillera Central above the Cauca River valley. It was founded in 1863 on the former site of Cartago by Remigio Antonio Canarte and was ...
Pereira, Irene Rice: American painter who explored abstraction and metaphysics in her work.
Pereira, Nuno Alvares, Blessed: outstanding Portuguese military leader, known also as the Holy Constable, whose victory over Castilian forces in the historic Battle of Aljubarrota (Aug. 14, 1385) assured his nation's independence.
Perelman, S.J.: American humorist who was a master of wordplay in books, movies, plays, and essays.
Peres, Shimon: Polish-born Israeli statesman, who served as prime minister of Israel (1984-86 and 1995-96) and leader of the Israel Labour Party (1977-92, 1995-97, and 2003-05). In 1993, in his role as Israeli foreign minister, Peres helped negotiate a peace accord with ...
Pereskia: genus of about 20 species of trees, shrubs, and vines, family Cactaceae, native to the West Indies, Mexico, and Central and South America, especially coastal areas. Leafy cactus (P. aculeata), also known as Barbados, or West Indian, gooseberry, is cultivated ...
Peresvetov, Ivan Semenovich: early Russian progressive social critic.
Peretz, I.L.: prolific writer of poems, short stories, drama, humorous sketches, and satire who was instrumental in raising the standard of Yiddish literature to a high level.
Pereyaslav Agreement: (Jan. 18 [Jan. 8, Old Style], 1654), act undertaken by the rada (council) of the Cossack army in Ukraine to submit Ukraine to Russian rule, and the acceptance of this act by emissaries of the Russian tsar Alexis; the agreement ...
Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy: city, Kiev oblast (province), Ukraine. Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy has existed since the 10th century, when it was known as Pereyaslav-Russky. It was a border stronghold of the Kievan state but was overrun by Mongol Tatars in 1239. In 1654 Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a ...
Perez de Ayala, Ramon: Spanish novelist, poet, and critic who excelled in philosophical satire and the novel of ideas.
Perez de Cuellar, Javier: Peruvian diplomat, who served as the fifth secretary-general of the United Nations (1982-91) and as prime minister of Peru (2000-01).
Perez de Guzman, Fernan: Spanish poet, moralist, and historian, author of the first important work of history and historiography in Spanish. His historical portraits of his contemporaries earned him the title of the "Spanish Plutarch."
Perez de Hita, Gines: Spanish writer, author of Historia de los vandos de los Zegries y Abencerrages (1595-1619; "History of the Zegries and Abencerrages Factions"), usually referred to as Guerras civiles de Granada ("The Civil Wars of Granada"). The book is considered the first ...
Perez Esquivel, Adolfo: Argentine sculptor and architect, who became a champion of human rights and nonviolent reform in Latin America. His work as secretary-general of Peace and Justice (Paz y Justicia), an ecumenical organization established in 1974 to coordinate human rights activities throughout ...
Perez Galdos, Benito: writer who was regarded as the greatest Spanish novelist since Miguel de Cervantes. His enormous output of short novels chronicling the history and society of 19th-century Spain earned him comparison with Honore de Balzac and Charles Dickens.
Perez Jimenez, Marcos: professional soldier and president (1952-58) of Venezuela whose regime was marked by extravagance, corruption, police oppression, and mounting unemployment.
Perez, Antonio: Spanish courtier who was secretary to King Philip II of Spain and later became a fugitive from Philip's court.
Perez, Carlos Andres: president of Venezuela from 1974 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1993.
Perez, Tony: professional baseball player in the United States for 23 years with the Cincinnati Reds, Montreal Expos, and Philadelphia Phillies of the National League and the Boston Red Sox of the American League.
perfect gas: a gas that conforms, in physical behaviour, to a particular, idealized relation between pressure, volume, and temperature called the general gas law. This law is a generalization containing both Boyle's law and Charles's law as special cases and states that ...
perfect number: a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its proper divisors. The smallest perfect number is 6, which is the sum of 1, 2, and 3. Other perfect numbers are 28, 496, and 8,128. The discovery of such ...
performance: in law, act of doing that which is required by a contract. The effect of successful performance is to discharge the person bound to do the act from any future contractual liability.
perfume: fragrant product that results from the artful blending of certain odoriferous substances in appropriate proportions. The word is derived from the Latin per fumum, meaning "through smoke." The art of perfumery was apparently known to the ancient Chinese, Hindus, Egyptians, ...
perfume bottle: a vessel made to hold scent. The earliest example is Egyptian and dates to around 1000 BC. The Egyptians used scents lavishly, especially in religious rites; as a result, when they invented glass, it was largely used for perfume vessels. ...
Perga: ancient city of Pamphylia, (in modern Antalya il [province], Turkey). It was a centre of native culture and was a seat of the worship of "Queen" Artemis, a purely Anatolian nature goddess.
Pergamino: city of northern Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Located within the Pampa, it is about 135 mi (220 km) northwest of the ciy of Buenos Aires. It was first mentioned in 1626 as an unpopulated spot where a group of Spaniards ...
Pergamum: ancient Greek city in Mysia, situated 16 miles from the Aegean Sea on a lofty isolated hill on the northern side of the broad valley of the Caicus (modern Bakir) River. The site is occupied by the modern town of ...
pergola: garden walk or terrace, roofed with an open framework over which plants are trained. Its purpose is to provide a foundation on which climbing plants can be seen to advantage and to give shade. It was known in ancient Egypt ...
Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista: Italian composer whose intermezzo La serva padrona ("The Maid Turned Mistress") was one of the most celebrated stage works of the 18th century.
Perhimpunan Indonesia: an Indonesian students' organization in The Netherlands, formed in the early 1920s, which provided a source of intellectual leadership for the Indonesian nationalist movement. This association originated in 1908 as the Indische Vereeniging (Indies Association), which changed its name to ...
Peri Rossi, Cristina: short-story writer, novelist, and poet who is considered one of the leading Latin American writers to have published in the period after the "boom of the Latin American novel" (when Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, Julio Cortazar, ...
Peri, Jacopo: Italian composer noted for his contribution to the development of dramatic vocal style in early Baroque opera.
periaktos: ancient theatrical device by which a scene or change of scene was indicated. It was described by Vitruvius in his De architectura (c. 14 BC) as a revolving triangular prism made of wood, bearing on each of its three sides ...
Periander: second tyrant of Corinth (c. 628-588), a firm and effective ruler who exploited his city's commercial and cultural potential. Much of the ancient Greek representation of Periander as a cruel despot probably derives from the Corinthian nobility, with whom he ...
Peribsen: Egyptian king of the 2nd dynasty (c. 2775-c. 2650 BC), who promoted the cult of the god Seth over that of Horus, the god favoured by his predecessors. His tomb was located in Seth's district in Upper Egypt, at Abydos. ...
pericarditis: inflammation of the pericardium, the membranous sac that encloses the heart. Acute pericarditis may be associated with any of a number of diseases and conditions, including myocardial infarction (death of a section of heart muscle), uremia (abnormally high levels of ...
periclase: magnesium oxide mineral (MgO) that occurs as colourless to grayish, glassy, rounded grains in marble and in some dolomitic limestones, where it formed by the metamorphosis of dolomite at high temperatures. Rocks containing periclase have been identified at Monte Somma ...
Pericles: play in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1606-08 and published in a quarto edition in 1609, a defective and at times nearly unintelligible text that shows signs of having been memorially reconstructed. The editors of the First Folio ...
Pericles: Athenian statesman largely responsible for the full development, in the later 5th century BC, of both the Athenian democracy and the Athenian empire, making Athens the political and cultural focus of Greece. His achievements included the construction of the Acropolis, ...
peridot: gem-quality, transparent green olivine in the forsterite-fayalite series (q.v.). Gem-quality olivine has been valued for centuries; the deposit on Jazirat Zabarjad (Saint Johns Island), Egypt, in the Red Sea that is mentioned by Pliny in his Natural History (AD 70) ...
peridotite: a coarse-grained, dark-coloured, heavy, intrusive igneous rock that contains at least 10 percent olivine, other iron- and magnesia-rich minerals (generally pyroxenes), and not more than 10 percent feldspar. It occurs in four main geologic environments: (1) interlayered with iron-, lime-, ...
Perier, Casimir: French banker and statesman who exercised a decisive influence on the political orientation of the reign of King Louis-Philippe.
periglaciology: study of the large areas of the Earth that were adjacent to but not covered by ice during the glacial periods. Modern representatives of these areas are the sub-Arctic tundra and permafrost regions located in the Northern Hemisphere. All of ...
Perignon, Dominique-Catherine, marquis de: general and marshal of France, active during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.