Monday, May 31, 2004

Amyot, Jacques

Amyot was educated at the University of Paris and at Bourges, where he became professor of Latin and Greek

Sunday, May 30, 2004

Floral Decoration, 17th century

The arrangement of plant materials truly became an art and an important decorative device in the 17th century. During this period of worldwide exploration, colonization, and commerce, new plants were introduced into Europe, where an avid interest in horticulture developed. Still-life paintings of the late 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries reveal what a great variety of

Saturday, May 29, 2004

Bahrain, Settlement patterns

The majority of the population now dwells in towns, but in the north and northwest of the main island, where irrigation has long been carried out using artesian water, there are numerous small villages and isolated dwellings where horticulture is the way of life. This area has an aspect of great fertility, which contrasts starkly with the bare desert appearance of

Friday, May 28, 2004

Accesi, Compagnia Degli

Company that performed commedia dell'arte (improvised popular Italian comedy) in the early 1600s. The name means �the stimulated.� Leadership was provided by Tristano Martinelli (famous for his portrayal of Arlecchino, the mischievous servant) and Pier Maria Cecchini (known as the leading interpreter of the character Fritellino, as well as the author of valuable texts

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Frederick Vii

The son of the future king Christian VIII and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Frederick in 1839 was appointed governor of the island of Fyn. As a crown prince, he had two unhappy marriages: first, in 1828, to his second cousin Wilhelmina

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Ramat Gan

City, west-central Israel, on the Plain of Sharon just east of Tel Aviv - Yafo. Founded in 1921, it is the largest satellite city in the Tel Aviv - Yafo metropolitan area, with fine residential quarters, extensive parks and gardens, including a national park, and the nation's principal athletic stadium, seating 50,000 persons. It is also the home of Bar-Ilan University, a religiously oriented

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Canal Zone

Also called �Panama Canal Zone, � historic administrative entity in Panama over which the United States exercised jurisdictional rights from 1903 to 1979. It was a strip of land 10 miles (16 km) wide along the Panama Canal, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and bisecting the Isthmus of Panama. It covered 553 square miles (1,432 square km), of which about one-third was water (principally Gatun Lake). The Canal Zone

Monday, May 24, 2004

Half-timber Work

Method of building in which external and internal walls are constructed of timber frames and the spaces between the structural members are filled with such materials as brick, plaster, or wattle and daub. Traditionally, a half-timbered building was made of squared oak timbers joined by mortises, tenons, and wooden pegs; the building's cagelike structural skeleton

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Lord Chief Justice

In England and Wales, the head of the Queen's (or King's) Bench Division of the High Court of Justice and next in rank to the lord chancellor. Appointed by the crown on the nomination of the prime minister, he usually presides over the Court of Criminal Appeal and is an ex officio member of the Court of Appeal. He is invariably raised to the peerage on appointment and so is able

Saturday, May 22, 2004

Pippin Iii

The pope was in need of aid. Aistulf, king of the Lombards, had seized Ravenna with its lands, known as the exarchate. Soon, Lombard troops marched south, surrounded Rome, and prepared to lay siege to its walls. So matters stood when in 752 Zacharias died and Stephen II became pope. In November 753 Pope Stephen made his way over the stormy mountain passes to Frankish territory. He

Friday, May 21, 2004

Tivoli

The park was opened in 1843 by the writer-architect

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Morant, Sir Robert Laurie

Morant was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, and went in November 1886 to Siam (now Thailand) as tutor to the royal family and prepared for King Chulalongkorn an educational plan for the whole country. He returned

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Kwangsi, The revolution

Together with neighbouring Kwangtung, Kwangsi in the early years of the 20th century became the base of the nationalist revolution led by Sun Yat-sen. Between 1906 and 1916 the provincial leaders of Kwangsi supported the establishment of a republic, and during the following decade played an active role in the reorganization of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang). Following

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Quince

Fruit tree of the genus Cydonia, of the rose family (Rosaceae). The much-branched shrubs or small trees have entire leaves with small stipules and bear large, solitary, white or pink flowers like those of the pear or apple but with leafy calyx lobes and a many-celled ovary, in each cell of which are numerous horizontal ovules. The fruits may be round and flattened or somewhat

Sunday, May 16, 2004

Venera

Any of a series of unmanned Soviet planetary probes that were sent to Venus. Venera 2 (launched in 1965) flew to within 25,000 miles (40,200 km) of Venus in February 1966, and Venera 3 crash-landed on its surface the following month, becoming the first spacecraft to strike another planet. Venera 4 (1967) analyzed the chemical composition of Venus' upper atmosphere and provided the scientific community

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Zhou Yang

Zhou joined the Chinese Communist Party soon after the failure of the revolution in 1927. A graduate of Ta-hsia University in Shanghai in 1928, he went to Japan for advanced study in 1929. Upon returning to China in 1931 he became one of the leaders

Friday, May 14, 2004

Saramacca

Creole language, based on English, spoken by Bush Negroes in the Guianas. See Sranantonga.

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Ben Thuy

Town, northern Vietnam, on the Ca River, just southeast of the urban centre of Vinh. Just upstream from where the Ca River enters the Gulf of Tonkin where it meets the South China Sea, Ben Thuy serves as the outport of Vinh, and much of the trade of the central part of the country is funneled through it.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Avempace

Avempace's chief philosophical tenets seem to have included belief in the possibility that the human soul could become united with the Divine. This

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Ash Wednesday

In the Christian church, the first day of Lent, occurring 6 1/2 weeks before Easter (between February 4 and March 11, depending on the date of Easter). In the early Christian church, the length of the Lenten celebration varied, but eventually it began 6 weeks (42 days) before Easter. This provided only 36 days of fast (excluding Sundays). In the 7th century, 4 days were added before the first Sunday

Monday, May 10, 2004

Prickly Poppy

Also called �Argemony� any of approximately 30 species of the genus Argemone, North American and West Indian plants belonging to the poppy family (Papaveraceae). Most have spiny leaves, yellow or orange sap, and prickly fruits. Some species have become naturalized in arid regions of South America, Asia, and Africa. Prickly poppies are cultivated as garden ornamentals but frequently become

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Spalacotherium

Genus of extinct primitive, probably predaceous mammals known from fossils found in Late Jurassic deposits of Europe. The genus Spalacotherium is representative of the symmetrodonts, a group characterized by molar teeth with three cusps arranged in a triangle. The symmetrodonts are among the oldest known mammals and may in some way have played a role in the development

Saturday, May 08, 2004

New Church

Also called �Swedenborgians, � church organized in the General Conference of the New Church, the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the U.S.A., and the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Its members are followers of the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th-century Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. Swedenborg did not himself found a church, but he believed that his writings

Friday, May 07, 2004

Catafalque

Ornate, often theatrical, usually movable funereal structure mounted on a stage to support a coffin for a lying-in-state. It is used for royalty and personages of distinction and is normally set up in a historic public hall, such as Westminster Hall, London, and the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. The reputation of the Spanish architect Jos� Churriguera, known for

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Catafalque

To assist and increase individual participation in a fuller Jewish life, the United Synagogue has administrative divisions for youth activities, Jewish

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Lowestoft Porcelain

English phosphatic soft-paste ware, resembling Bow porcelain, produced in Lowestoft, Suffolk, from 1757 to 1802; the wares are of a domestic kind, such as pots, teapots, and jugs. Generally on a small scale and light in weight, they are decorated in white and blue or in a polychrome that utilizes a bright brick red. After 1770 transfer printing was used. The shapes were copied from silverwork

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Berchtold, Leopold, Count (graf) Von

A wealthy landowner in Hungary and Moravia, Berchtold, through marriage, became one of the richest men in Austria-Hungary. He entered the diplomatic service in 1893, held posts in Paris and London, and in 1906 was appointed

Monday, May 03, 2004

Celestine Ii

A scholar of noble birth, he studied under Peter Ab�lard, with whom he remained on friendly terms even after Ab�lard's condemnation at the Council of Sens (1140). He was made cardinal deacon in 1127 by Pope Honorius II and cardinal priest (c. 1134) by Pope Innocent II, whom he was elected to succeed on Sept. 26, 1143. As pope (consecrated

Sunday, May 02, 2004

Lorentz, Hendrik Antoon

In his doctoral thesis at the University of Leiden (1875), Lorentz refined the electromagnetic theory of James

Saturday, May 01, 2004

Anatolian Religion

Beliefs and practices of the ancient peoples and civilizations of Turkey and Armenia, including the Hittites, Hattians, Luwians, Hurrians, Assyrian colonists, Urartians, and Phrygians. For historical background, see Anatolia.