Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Villa d'Este ... Vinaya Pitaka

Villa d'Este: estate in Tivoli near Rome with buildings, fountains, and terraced gardens designed (1550) by the Mannerist architect Pirro Ligorio for the governor Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este. Before being confiscated as his residence, the property had been a Benedictine convent.
Villa Giulia, Museo Nazionale di: (Italian: National Museum of Villa Giulia), museum in Rome principally devoted to antiquities of the pre-Roman period from ancient Umbria, Latium, and southern Etruria. It is housed in the Villa Giulia, or Villa di Papa Giulio (Pope Julius), which was ...
Villa Maria: city, east central Cordoba province, north central Argentina, on the Rio Tercero at the northwestern limits of the Pampa. Founded in 1867, it was nominated but rejected as the site for the national capital in 1871. It is a rail ...
Villa Nueva: suburb east of the city of Mendoza, in north Mendoza provincia (province), western Argentina. It lies in the intensively irrigated Mendoza River valley, at the base of the Andes Mountains fronting on the west. It is both ...
Villa Obregon: delegacion (legation), north-central Distrito Federal (Federal District), central Mexico, in the Valley of Mexico. Formerly known as San Angel and San Jacinto Tenanitla, the original settlement dates from the colonial era. The cool climate and attractive landscape ...
Villa, Pancho: Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla leader, who fought against the regimes of both Porfirio Diaz and Victoriano Huerta and after 1914 engaged in civil war and banditry.
Villa-Lobos, Heitor: Brazilian composer and one of the foremost Latin American composers of the 20th century, whose music combines indigenous melodic and rhythmic elements with Western classical music.
Villach: city, Bundesland Karnten (federal province of Carinthia), southern Austria, on the Drava (Drau) River at the eastern foot of the Villacher Alps, west of Klagenfurt. It originated as the Roman town of Bilachinium and formed part of the bishopric of ...
Villafranca, Conference of: meeting between French emperor Napoleon III and Emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria, resulted in a preliminary peace (July 11, 1859) ending the Franco-Piedmontese war against Austria (1859); it marked the beginning of Italy's unification under Piedmontese leadership. Napoleon made ...
Village, The: city, Oklahoma county, central Oklahoma, U.S. The Village was founded by local store owners in 1949 to prevent the then-rural area from being annexed by Oklahoma City. It comprises only 2.5 square miles (6.5 square km) of land. Inc. town, ...
Villahermosa: city, capital of Tabasco state, southeastern Mexico. It is in the Gulf lowlands at 33 ft (10 m) above sea level, on the Rio Grijalva. Founded in 1596 as Villa Felipe II, the settlement has also been known as San ...
villancico: genre of Spanish song, most prevalent in the Renaissance but found also in earlier and later periods. It is a poetic and musical form and was sung with or without accompanying instruments. Originally a folk song, frequently with a devotional ...
Villandry: village in Indre-et-Loire departement, Centre region, France. It is situated along the Cher River southwest of Tours and is the site of a chateau built in 1532 by Jean Le Breton, the secretary of state for Francois I. The chateau ...
villanella: 16th-century Italian rustic part-song, usually for three unaccompanied voices, having no set form other than the presence of a refrain. The villanella was most often written in chordal style with clear, simple rhythm. Traditional rules of composition were sometimes broken; ...
villanelle: rustic song in Italy, where the term originated (Italian villanella from villano: "peasant"); the term was used in France to designate a short poem of popular character favoured by poets in the late 16th century. Du Bellay's "Vanneur de Ble" ...
Villani, Giovanni: Italian chronicler whose European attitude to history foreshadowed Humanism.
Villanova University: private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Villanova, Pennsylvania, U.S. It is affiliated with the Augustinian order of the Roman Catholic church. It offers degree programs at the associate, bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional levels. Degrees are granted through colleges ...
Villanovan culture: Early Iron Age culture in Italy, named after the village of Villanova, near Bologna, where in 1853 the first of the characteristic cemeteries was found. The Villanovan people branched from the cremating Urnfield cultures of eastern Europe and appeared in ...
Villanueva y Geltru: city, Barcelona province, in the autonomous community (region) of Catalonia, northeastern Spain, southwest of Barcelona. The city was chartered by James I of Aragon in 1274. It has a museum founded by the Catalan writer-politician Victor Balaguer containing an "Annunciation" ...
Villanueva, Carlos Raul: Venezuelan architect often credited with being the father of modern architecture in his country.
Villard De Honnecourt: French architect remembered primarily for the sketchbook compiled while he travelled in search of work as a master mason. The book is made up of sketches and writings concerning architectural practices current during the 13th century.
Villard, Henry: U.S. journalist and financier, who became one of the major United States railroad and electric utility promoters.
Villarreal de los Infantes: city, Castellon province, in the autonomous community (region) of Valencia, eastern Spain. The city is northeast of Valencia city on the Rio Mijares, just southwest of Castellon de la Plana. It was founded in 1274 by King James I of ...
Villarrica: capital, Guaira department, southern Paraguay. Founded in 1576 on the Parana River, the settlement was moved in 1682 to its present site at the edge of the westward extension of the Brazilian Highlands, including the Ybytyruzu mountains at 820 ft ...
Villars, Claude-Louis-Hector, duc de: (duke of) French soldier, King Louis XIV's most successful commander in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14).
Villavicencio: capital of Meta departamento, central Colombia, situated on the eastern slopes of the Andean Cordillera (mountains) Oriental. Founded in 1840, the city was named after Antonio Villavicencio, who was an early advocate of the struggle for independence from Spain. It ...
Villaviciosa: port town, Asturias provincia and comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), northwestern Spain, in the Costa Verde resort area. The town is a fishing port northeast of Oviedo city, where the Villaviciosa Inlet enters the Bay of Biscay. Used by the ancient ...
Villefranche-sur-Mer: harbour town and Mediterranean resort, Alpes-Maritimes departement, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region, southeastern France. Situated on the wooded slopes surrounding the magnificent roadsteads immediately east of Nice, the town is dominated by Mount Boron. It is connected by a corniche (cliffside) road ...
Villefranche-sur-Saone: town, Rhone departement, Rhone-Alpes region, east-central France, located 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the Saone River. Founded in the 12th century, the town became the capital of the Beaujolais district. After enduring three sieges in the 15th and 16th ...
Villegagnon Island: island in Guanabara Bay, southeastern Brazil, connected by a causeway to Rio de Janeiro's Santos Dumont Airport on the mainland. In 1555 French Huguenots from nearby Laje Island under Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon established the colony of La France Antarctique ...
Villegas, Esteban Manuel de: Spanish lyric poet who achieved great popularity with an early book of poems, Poesias eroticas y amatorias (1617-18).
Villehardouin, Geoffrey of: French soldier, chronicler, marshal of Champagne, and one of the leaders of the Fourth Crusade (1201-04), which he described in his Conquest of Constantinople. He was the first serious writer of an original prose history in Old ...
Villejuif: town, Val-de-Marne departement, Paris region, southern suburb of Paris, France. It has a psychiatric hospital and a cancer research institute and manufactures glass, sheet metal, and aircraft parts. Pop. (1982) 42,852.
Villele, Joseph, comte de: French conservative politician and prime minister during the reign of Charles X.
Villella, Edward: American ballet dancer who in 1986 became the founding artistic director of the Miami City Ballet. As a dancer, he was one of the principal performers of the New York City Ballet, where he was noted for his powerful technique, ...
Villemin, Jean Antoine: French physician who proved tuberculosis to be an infectious disease, transmitted by contact from humans to animals and from one animal to another.
Villena: city, Alicante provincia, in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Valencia, southeastern Spain. It lies about 45 miles (70 km) northeast of Murcia. Dating from Roman times, Villena was later part of the Moorish kingdom of Valencia and was taken ...
Villeneuve, Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de: French admiral who commanded the French fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805).
Villeurbanne: city, Rhone departement, Rhone-Alpes region, east-central France. Villeurbanne forms the eastern part of the metropolitan agglomeration of Lyon. It is located on the right bank of the Rhone River. The first skyscrapers in France were built there. The city's industries ...
Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, Auguste, comte de: French poet, dramatist, and short-story writer whose work reflects a revolt against Naturalism and a combination of Romantic idealism and cruel sensuality. His hatred of the mediocrity of a materialistic age and his compelling personality made a considerable impression on ...
Villon, Francois: one of the greatest French lyric poets. He was known for his life of criminal excess, spending much time in prison or in banishment from medieval Paris. His chief works include Le Lais (Le ...
Villon, Jacques: French painter and printmaker who was involved in the Cubist movement; later he worked in realistic and abstract styles.
villota: type of 16th-century Italian secular song similar to the villanella but having its origins in folk music. The villota has no structural uniformity and usually weaves a popular or street song into its textual and musical fabric. ...
villus: in anatomy any of the small, slender, vascular projections that increase the surface area of a membrane. Important villous membranes include the placenta and the mucous-membrane coating of the small intestine. The villi of the small intestine project into the ...
Vilnius: city, capital of Lithuania, at the confluence of the Neris (Russian Viliya) and Vilnia rivers.
Vilnius dispute: post-World War I conflict between Poland and Lithuania over possession of the city of Vilnius (Wilno) and its surrounding region.
Vilyuy River: river in east-central Siberia, flowing mainly through Sakha (Yakutiya) in eastern Russia. The longest tributary of the Lena, it has a length of 1,647 miles (2,650 km) and a drainage basin of about 190,000 square miles (491,000 square km). The ...
vina: any of several stringed musical instruments of India, including arched harps (before AD 1000), stick zithers, and lutes.
Vina del Mar: Pacific Ocean resort, Valparaiso region, central Chile, just northeast of Valparaiso city. A large municipal gaming casino, beaches, and a pleasant summer climate attract substantial numbers of domestic and foreign vacationers. Hotels, exclusive clubs, a racecourse, public gardens and plazas, ...
vinaigrette: small metal perfume container usually made of gold or silver and containing a pierced metal tray beneath which was placed a piece of sponge soaked in an aromatic substance such as vinegar combined with lavender. Vinaigrettes were made as boxes ...
Vinaya Pitaka: (Pali and Sanskrit: "Basket of Discipline"), the oldest and smallest of the three sections of the Buddhist canonical Tipitaka ("Triple Basket") and the one that regulates monastic life and the daily affairs of monks and nuns according to rules attributed ...