A-Z Browse

  • “Barbarzyńca w ogrodzie” (work by Herbert)
    ...and Other Poems). After travels in France and Italy between 1958 and 1961, Herbert published the essays inspired by these visits as Barbarzyńca w ogrodzie (1962; Barbarian in the Garden). From 1975 to 1992, he lived mostly in western Europe, although during that time he returned to Poland for the five years from 1981 to 1986. Then, from 1992 until h...
  • Barbasetti, Luigi (Italian fencing master)
    Italian fencing master, much respected in both Italy and Hungary. A student of the great Italian sabre teacher Giuseppe Radaelli, Barbasetti in many ways outstripped his master. His unique insight into fencing helped guide the sport into the 20th century....
  • Barbastella (mammal)
    either of two bats of the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae, found in Europe and North Africa (B. barbastellus) and in the Middle East and Asia (B. leucomelas). Barbastelles have short, wide ears that are joined on the forehead. Their fur is long and dark, with hairs tipped in white or gray. A barbastelle’s body is about ...
  • Barbastella barbastellus (mammal)
    either of two bats of the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae, found in Europe and North Africa (B. barbastellus) and in the Middle East and Asia (B. leucomelas). Barbastelles have short, wide ears that are joined on the forehead. Their fur is long and dark, with hairs tipped in white or gray. A barbastelle’s body is about ...
  • Barbastella leucomelas (mammal)
    either of two bats of the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae, found in Europe and North Africa (B. barbastellus) and in the Middle East and Asia (B. leucomelas). Barbastelles have short, wide ears that are joined on the forehead. Their fur is long and dark, with hairs tipped in white or gray. A barbastelle’s body is about ...
  • barbastelle (mammal)
    either of two bats of the vesper bat family, Vespertilionidae, found in Europe and North Africa (B. barbastellus) and in the Middle East and Asia (B. leucomelas). Barbastelles have short, wide ears that are joined on the forehead. Their fur is long and dark, with hairs tipped in white or gray. A barbastelle’s body is about ...
  • barbat (musical instrument)
    ...samisen). In Japan the Imperial Treasury at Nara preserves three biwas used at a great concert held in 752. The biwa-pipa family can be traced ultimately to Persia, where, as the barbat, it influenced the music of Afghanistan and Turkistan on its way to China and Japan. The skin-bellied lute, in China the sanxian, can be traced in China only to the 13th century;......
  • Barbatia (bivalve genus)
    ...species are found in tropical seas, with only a few species occurring in temperate areas. Ark shells are slow-moving or sedentary. Many species, especially those of the genera Arca and Barbatia, live attached by a byssus (a tuft of horny threads secreted by a gland on the foot) in rock and coral crevices. Other species, particularly of the genus Anadara, live shallowly......
  • Barbauld, Anna Laetitia (British author and editor)
    British writer, poet, and editor whose best writings are on political and social themes. Her poetry belongs essentially in the tradition of 18th-century meditative verse....
  • barbe de capucin (botany)
    The roots are grown in the open during the summer and are taken up in the fall to be forced, or grown indoors out of season, during the winter. One method of forcing produces barbe de capucin, the loose, blanched leaves much esteemed by the French as a winter salad. Another method produces witloef, or witloof, the tighter heads or crowns preferred in Belgium and elsewhere.......
  • Barbé-Marbois, François, marquis de (French statesman)
    French statesman who in 1803 negotiated the Louisiana Purchase by the United States....
  • Barbeau Peak (mountain, Nunavut, Canada)
    ...with towering mountains (especially in the north), vast ice fields, and a deeply indented coastline. Cape Columbia, at latitude 83°07′ N, is the most northerly point of Canada, and Barbeau Peak, at an elevation of 8,583 feet (2,616 metres), is the highest point in Nunavut. Settlements, all quite small, include Eureka, Grise Ford (Aujuittuq), and Alert, a weather station and......
  • barbecue (cooking)
    an outdoor meal, usually a form of social entertainment, at which meats, fish, or fowl, along with vegetables, are roasted over a wood or charcoal fire. The term also denotes the grill or stone-lined pit for cooking such a meal, or the food itself, particularly the strips of meat. The word “barbecue” came into English via the Spanish, who adopted the term from the Arawak Indians of ...
  • barbed wire
    fence wire usually consisting of two longitudinal wires twisted together to form cable and having wire barbs wound around either or both of the cable wires at regular intervals. The varieties of barbed wire are numerous, with cables being single or double, round, half-round, or flat and having a range of gauges. The twisted double cable provides extra strength and permits contraction and expansio...
  • Barbegal (France)
    Little is known of the details of geared-mill development between the time of Vitruvius and the 12th century. An outstanding installation was the grain mill at Barbegal, near Arles, Fr., which had 16 cascaded overshot wheels, each 7 feet (2 metres) in diameter, with wooden gearing. It is estimated that this mill could meet the needs of a population of 80,000....
  • Barbeitos, Arlindo (Angolan poet)
    Angolan poet, many of whose works, written in Portuguese, portray in a subtle manner the struggle of his people for independence as well as the essential harmony between man and nature....
  • Barbeitos, Arlindo do Carmo Pires (Angolan poet)
    Angolan poet, many of whose works, written in Portuguese, portray in a subtle manner the struggle of his people for independence as well as the essential harmony between man and nature....
  • barbel (fish species)
    The barbel (B. barbus) of central and western European rivers is a slender, rather elongate fish with a thick-lipped, crescent-shaped mouth and four barbels, which it uses to search out fish, mollusks, and other food along the river bottom. The barbel is greenish and usually attains a length and weight of about 75 cm (30 inches) and 3 kg (6.5 pounds). It is a good sport fish....
  • barbel (fish anatomy)
    ...any of numerous freshwater fishes belonging to a genus in the carp family, Cyprinidae. The barbs are native to Europe, Africa, and Asia. The members of this genus typically have one or more pairs of barbels (slender, fleshy protuberances) near the mouth and often have large, shining scales. The species vary widely in size; certain barbs are only about 2.5–5 cm (1–2 inches) long,.....
  • barbel (fish)
    (genus Barbus), any of numerous freshwater fishes belonging to a genus in the carp family, Cyprinidae. The barbs are native to Europe, Africa, and Asia. The members of this genus typically have one or more pairs of barbels (slender, fleshy protuberances) near the mouth and often have large, shining scales. The species vary widely in size; certain barbs are only about 2.5...
  • barbell (weight)
    The weight used in modern competitive lifting is the barbell, a steel bar or rod to which cast-iron or steel disk weights are attached at each end on a revolving sleeve. The range of weights added is 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, 2.5, and 1.25 kg (55, 44, 33, 22, 11, 5.5, and 2.75 pounds)....
  • Barbella, Thomas Rocco (American boxer)
    American boxer and world middleweight champion (1947–48)....
  • Barbellion, Wilhelm Nero Pilate (British author)
    English author who wrote The Journal of a Disappointed Man (1919), extracts from diaries that he had kept between 1903 and 1917. The book was immediately acclaimed upon publication, a few months before Cummings’ death, not only for providing a vivid insight into his passion for zoology and music but also as a poignant revelation of the sense of failure and thwarted ambitions of a sen...
  • barber
    a person whose primary activities in the 20th century are trimming and styling the hair of men, shaving them, and shaping their beards, sideburns, and moustaches. Barbers, or hairdressers, often provide shampooing, manicuring, hair dying, permanent waves, and shoe polishing within their shops, or salons. See also hairdressing....
  • Barber, Alice (American illustrator)
    American illustrator whose work appeared regularly in the most popular books and magazines of her day....
  • Barber, Bernard (American sociologist)
    To consider drugs only as medicinal agents or to insist that drugs be confined to prescribed medical practice is to fail to understand man. The remarks of the American sociologist Bernard Barber are poignant in this regard:Not only can nearly anything be called a “drug,” but things so called turn out to have an enormous variety of psychological and social......
  • Barber, John (British inventor)
    ...with the modern gas-turbine engine, which includes a compressor, combustion chamber, and turbine to make up a self-contained prime mover. The first patent to approximate such a system was issued to John Barber of England in 1791. Barber’s design called for separate reciprocating compressors whose output air was directed through a fuel-fired combustion chamber. The hot jet was then played...
  • Barber of Bagdad, The (opera by Cornelius)
    German composer and author, known for his comic opera Der Barbier von Bagdad (The Barber of Bagdad)....
  • Barber of Seville, The (opera by Paisiello)
    ...Paisiello was invited by the Russian empress Catherine II to St. Petersburg, where he remained for eight years. Among the works he produced for Catherine was Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1782; The Barber of Seville), which some consider his masterpiece, on a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, after Beaumarchais’s comedy Le Barbier de Séville....
  • Barber of Seville, The (opera by Rossini)
    ...from Rome to spend the carnival season of 1816. The first of Rossini’s Rome operas was unsuccessful. So was the second, Almaviva, soon to become Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816; The Barber of Seville). The Romans, who knew and loved Giovanni Paisiello’s version of Eugène de Beaumarchais’s play, took a dislike to this new setting, but when it was gi...
  • Barber of Seville, The (play by Beaumarchais)
    French author of two outstanding comedies of intrigue that still retain their freshness, Le Barbier de Séville (1775; The Barber of Seville, 1776) and Le Mariage de Figaro (1784; The Marriage of Figaro, 1785)....
  • barber paradox
    ...involving sets that contain themselves as elements—e.g., by taking ϕ(x) to be ¬(x ∊ x). Russell illustrated this by what has come to be known as the barber paradox: A barber states that he shaves all who do not shave themselves. Who shaves the barber? Any answer contradicts the barber’s statement. To avoid these contradictions Russe...
  • Barber, Patricia (American singer)
    She rose from Chicago cult performer to international jazz star, but Patricia Barber’s rise was slow and far from steady. On one opening night in 1984 at a small club on the city’s fashionable Gold Coast, only two people showed up. “A year later there were lines of people around the block waiting to get in,” says Barber, and that six-nights-a-week gig stretched into eig...
  • Barber, Red (American broadcaster)
    American baseball broadcaster, who was the homespun radio and television announcer for the Cincinnati Reds (1934–39), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–53), and New York Yankees (1954–66) professional baseball teams....
  • Barber, Samuel (American composer)
    American composer who is considered one of the most expressive representatives of the lyric and Romantic trends in 20th-century classical music....
  • barber shop quartet singing (music)
    form of popular choral music consisting of unaccompanied male singing, with three voices harmonizing to the melody of a fourth voice. The voice parts are tenor, lead, baritone, and bass, with the lead normally singing the melody and the tenor harmonizing above. The emphasis is on close, carefully arranged harmony, synchronization of word sounds, and the use of such devices as variation of tempo, v...
  • Barber, Walter Lanier (American broadcaster)
    American baseball broadcaster, who was the homespun radio and television announcer for the Cincinnati Reds (1934–39), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–53), and New York Yankees (1954–66) professional baseball teams....
  • Barbera, Joseph (American animator)
    American motion-picture animator (b. March 24, 1911, New York, N.Y.—d. Dec. 18, 2006, Los Angeles, Calif.), collaborated for more than half a century with William Hanna, and the two created some of the most beloved characters on the big and small screen, including Tom (the cat) and Jerry (the mouse) for MGM and such TV favourites as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, and the Jet...
  • Barbera, Joseph Roland (American animator)
    American motion-picture animator (b. March 24, 1911, New York, N.Y.—d. Dec. 18, 2006, Los Angeles, Calif.), collaborated for more than half a century with William Hanna, and the two created some of the most beloved characters on the big and small screen, including Tom (the cat) and Jerry (the mouse) for MGM and such TV favourites as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, and the Jet...
  • Barbere, John (Scottish author)
    author of a Scottish national epic known as The Bruce, the first major work of Scottish literature....
  • Barberi, Domenico, Blessed (Italian mystic)
    mystic and Passionist who worked as a missionary in England....
  • Barberini, Antonio (Roman aristocrat)
    Antonio Barberini defended Florence in 1530 and then went to Rome, to which in 1555 he summoned his nephew Francesco (1528–1600), the real founder of the Barberini dynasty. Francesco and his brother Raffaelo accumulated the riches and trade advantages that became the base of the Barberini power. Francesco (1597–1679) was the first cardinal nominated by his uncle Pope Urban VIII......
  • Barberini family (Roman family)
    an aristocratic Roman family, originally of Barberino in the Else valley; they later settled first in Florence and then in Rome, where they became wealthy and powerful....
  • Barberini, Francesco (Roman cardinal)
    Antonio Barberini defended Florence in 1530 and then went to Rome, to which in 1555 he summoned his nephew Francesco (1528–1600), the real founder of the Barberini dynasty. Francesco and his brother Raffaelo accumulated the riches and trade advantages that became the base of the Barberini power. Francesco (1597–1679) was the first cardinal nominated by his uncle Pope Urban VIII......
  • Barberini, Francesco (Roman aristocrat)
    Antonio Barberini defended Florence in 1530 and then went to Rome, to which in 1555 he summoned his nephew Francesco (1528–1600), the real founder of the Barberini dynasty. Francesco and his brother Raffaelo accumulated the riches and trade advantages that became the base of the Barberini power. Francesco (1597–1679) was the first cardinal nominated by his uncle Pope Urban VIII......
  • Barberini ivory (Christian art)
    ...a bust of Christ. They thus illustrated the Byzantine ideas of hierarchy, Christ above and the world below, dominated by the emperor as Christ’s vice-regent. The finest of them, known as the Barberini ivory, is in the Louvre and probably depicts Anastasius I (491–518); another, of his wife, the empress Ariadne, is divided between several collections....
  • Barberini, Maffeo (pope)
    pope from 1623 to 1644....
  • Barberini, Palazzo (palace, Rome, Italy)
    ...The Palazzo della Consulta (1734) was erected for part of the papal administration. The Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, built by a Borghese cardinal in 1603, is still a private house. The Palazzo Barberini farther up the hill, constructed 1629–33 on the site of the old Palazzo Sforza, was occupied by the family until 1949. Part of the collection of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte.....
  • Barberini vase (ancient Roman vase)
    Roman vase (1st century ad) of dark blue glass decorated with white figures, the finest surviving Roman example of cameo glass. Originally owned by the Barberini family (and sometimes called the Barberini Vase), it came into the possession of the duchess of Portland in the 18th century. The vase has been extensively copied, par...
  • barberry (plant)
    any of almost 500 species of thorny evergreen or deciduous shrubs constituting the genus Berberis of the family Berberidaceae, mostly native to the North Temperate Zone, particularly Asia. Species of Oregon grape, previously included in Berberis but now assigned to the genus Mahonia, are sometimes called barberry (see Oregon grape)....
  • barberry family (plant)
    the barberry family of the buttercup order (Ranunculales), comprising 14 genera and 701 species of perennial herbs and shrubs. Its members occur in most temperate regions of the world. Many of the shrub forms have spines or spiny-margined leaves. The form of the flower is highly variable....
  • barbershop quartet singing (music)
    form of popular choral music consisting of unaccompanied male singing, with three voices harmonizing to the melody of a fourth voice. The voice parts are tenor, lead, baritone, and bass, with the lead normally singing the melody and the tenor harmonizing above. The emphasis is on close, carefully arranged harmony, synchronization of word sounds, and the use of such devices as variation of tempo, v...
  • Barberton (Ohio, United States)
    city, Summit county, northeastern Ohio, U.S., just south of Akron, on the Tuscarawas River, there dammed to form the Portage Lakes. It was founded in 1890 by Ohio C. Barber as the new site of his match factory (later the Diamond Match Company), which had been established in 1867 in Akron. Manufactures now include chemicals, heavy boilers, rubber goods, metal and iron products, a...
  • Barberton belt (geological region, Africa)
    The first fossil evidence of terrestrial life is found in the early Archean sedimentary rocks of the greenstone-granite belts (metamorphosed oceanic crust and island arc complexes) of the Barberton craton in South Africa and in the Warrawoona Group, which are both about 3.5 billion years old. There are two types of these early, simple, biological structures: microfossils and stromatolites......
  • Barberton greenstone belt (geological region, Africa)
    The first fossil evidence of terrestrial life is found in the early Archean sedimentary rocks of the greenstone-granite belts (metamorphosed oceanic crust and island arc complexes) of the Barberton craton in South Africa and in the Warrawoona Group, which are both about 3.5 billion years old. There are two types of these early, simple, biological structures: microfossils and stromatolites......
  • barbet (bird)
    any of about 75 species of tropical birds constituting the family Capitonidae (order Piciformes). Barbets are named for the bristles at the bases of their stout, sharp bills. They are big-headed, short-tailed birds, 9–30 cm (3.5–12 inches) long, greenish or brownish, with splashes of bright colours or white. The smallest barbets are known as tinkerbirds (see...
  • Barbetomagus (Germany)
    city, Rhineland-Palatinate Land (state), southwestern Germany. Worms is a port on the left (west) bank of the Rhine River, just northwest of Mannheim. Known originally as Celtic Borbetomagus, by the reign of Julius Caesar it was called Civitas Vangionum, the chief town of the Vangione...
  • barbette (military technology)
    In the 1890s the “barbette” mounting for coastal-defense guns became the preferred pattern. Here the mounting was in a shallow pit, protected from enemy fire, but the muzzle and upper shield were permanently in view, firing across a parapet that helped protect the gunners. This type of mounting was made practical by the development of hydraulic recoil control systems, which......
  • Barbey d’Aurevilly, Jules-Amédée (French author and critic)
    French novelist and influential critic who in his day was influential in matters of social fashion and literary taste. A member of the minor nobility of Normandy, he remained throughout his life proudly Norman in spirit and style, a royalist opposed to democracy and materialism and an ardent but unorthodox Roman Catholic....
  • Barbeya (plant genus)
    genus of dicotyledonous flowering tree, the sole species of which is B. oleoides. It grows in Ethiopia and Somalia and on the Arabian Peninsula. Barbeya has the general aspect of the olive tree but many botanical characteristics of the elm. Barbeya is included in the rose order (Rosales) as a separate family, Barbeyaceae; the taxonomic placement of the family is uncertain, how...
  • Barbeya oleoides (plant)
    genus of dicotyledonous flowering tree, the sole species of which is B. oleoides. It grows in Ethiopia and Somalia and on the Arabian Peninsula. Barbeya has the general aspect of the olive tree but many botanical characteristics of the elm. Barbeya is included in the rose order (Rosales) as a separate family, Barbeyaceae; the taxonomic placement of the family is uncertain,......
  • barbican (tower)
    ...front of the gateways by drawbridges—i.e., bridges that could be drawn back or raised from the inner side in order to prevent the moats from being crossed. The gateway was often protected by a barbican—a walled outwork in front of the gate—and the passage through the gateway was defended by portcullises, doors, and machicolations. Portcullises were generally made of oak, we...
  • Barbican (neighbourhood, London, United Kingdom)
    area in the City of London containing residential towers and Barbican Centre, a complex of theatres, halls, and cultural facilities. The London Symphony Orchestra is resident in the arts complex, which is also the London home of the Royal Shakespeare Company....
  • Barbie (doll)
    an 11-inch- (29-cm-) tall plastic doll with the figure of an adult woman that was introduced in 1959 by Mattel, Inc., a southern California toy company. Ruth Handler, who cofounded Mattel with her husband, Elliot, spearheaded the introduction of the doll. Barbie’s physical appearance was modeled on the German Bild Lilli doll, a risqué gag gift for men based upon a ...
  • Barbie, Klaus (Nazi leader)
    Nazi leader, head of the Gestapo in Lyon from 1942 to 1944, who was held responsible for the death of some 4,000 persons and the deportation of some 7,500 others....
  • Barbier, Antoine-Alexandre (French librarian)
    French librarian and bibliographer who compiled a standard reference directory of anonymous writings and who helped in preserving scholarly books and manuscripts during and after the French Revolution....
  • Barbier, Charles (French army officer)
    When Louis Braille entered the school for the blind in Paris, in 1819, he learned of a system of tangible writing using dots, invented in 1819 by Capt. Charles Barbier, a French army officer. It was called night writing and was intended for night-time battlefield communications. In 1824, when he was only 15 years old, Braille developed a six-dot “cell” system. He used Barbier’...
  • “Barbier de Séville, Le” (play by Beaumarchais)
    French author of two outstanding comedies of intrigue that still retain their freshness, Le Barbier de Séville (1775; The Barber of Seville, 1776) and Le Mariage de Figaro (1784; The Marriage of Figaro, 1785)....
  • Barbier, John (Scottish author)
    author of a Scottish national epic known as The Bruce, the first major work of Scottish literature....
  • “Barbier von Bagdad, Der” (opera by Cornelius)
    German composer and author, known for his comic opera Der Barbier von Bagdad (The Barber of Bagdad)....
  • “Barbiere di Siviglia, Il” (opera by Paisiello)
    ...Paisiello was invited by the Russian empress Catherine II to St. Petersburg, where he remained for eight years. Among the works he produced for Catherine was Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1782; The Barber of Seville), which some consider his masterpiece, on a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini, after Beaumarchais’s comedy Le Barbier de Séville....
  • “Barbiere di Siviglia, Il” (opera by Rossini)
    ...from Rome to spend the carnival season of 1816. The first of Rossini’s Rome operas was unsuccessful. So was the second, Almaviva, soon to become Il barbiere di Siviglia (1816; The Barber of Seville). The Romans, who knew and loved Giovanni Paisiello’s version of Eugène de Beaumarchais’s play, took a dislike to this new setting, but when it was gi...
  • Barbieri, Giovanni Francesco (Italian artist)
    Italian painter whose frescoes freshly exploited the illusionistic ceiling, making a profound impact on 17th-century Baroque decoration. His nickname Il Guercino (“The Squinting One”) was derived from a physical defect....
  • Barbin, François (French potter)
    A factory at the Rue de Charonne, in Paris, was started by François Barbin in 1735 and removed to Mennecy in 1748. The early productions were in the manner of Saint-Cloud and Rouen. Later, some excellent flower painting was done, and figure modelling was excellent in quality. Small porcelain boxes from Mennecy, often in the form of animals, are much sought in the 20th century....
  • Barbirolli, Giovanni Battista (English musician)
    English conductor and cellist....
  • Barbirolli, Sir John (English musician)
    English conductor and cellist....
  • barbital (pharmacology)
    ...a calming effect), as hypnotics (to produce sleep), or as an adjunct in anesthesia. Barbiturates are derivatives of barbituric acid (malonyl urea), which is formed from malonic acid and urea. Barbital was first synthesized in 1903, and phenobarbital became available in 1912. Barbiturates act by depressing the central nervous system, particularly on certain portions of the brain, though......
  • barbiturate (pharmacology)
    any of a class of organic compounds used in medicine as sedatives (to produce a calming effect), as hypnotics (to produce sleep), or as an adjunct in anesthesia. Barbiturates are derivatives of barbituric acid (malonyl urea), which is formed from malonic acid and urea. Barbital was first synthesized in 1903, and p...
  • barbituric acid (chemical compound)
    an organic compound of the pyrimidine family, a class of compounds with a characteristic six-membered ring structure composed of four carbon atoms and two nitrogen atoms, that is regarded as the parent compound of the barbiturate drugs. It is used in the production of riboflavin, a nutritional factor (see vitamin B2)....
  • Barbizon school (French painting)
    mid-19th-century French school of painting, part of a larger European movement toward naturalism in art, that made a significant contribution to the establishment of Realism in French landscape painting. Inspired by the Romantic movement’s search for solace in nature, the Barbizon painters nevertheless turned away from the melodramatic picturesqueness of established Roman...
  • Barbo, Pietro (pope)
    Italian pope from 1464 to 1471....
  • Barbon, Nicholas (English economist)
    English economist, widely considered the founder of fire insurance....
  • Barbon, Praise-God (English preacher)
    English sectarian preacher from whom the Cromwellian Barebones Parliament derived its nickname....
  • Barbon, PraiseGod (English preacher)
    English sectarian preacher from whom the Cromwellian Barebones Parliament derived its nickname....
  • barbooth (game)
    dice game of Middle Eastern origin, used for gambling; in the United States it is played chiefly by persons of Greek or Jewish ancestry. The shooter casts two dice (traditionally miniature dice). If he throws 3–3, 5–5, 6–6, or 6–5, he wins; if he throws 1–1, 2–2, 4–4, or 1–2, he loses. Other combinations are meaningless. A second player (the ...
  • Barbosa de Rosario, Pilar (Puerto Rican historian)
    Puerto Rican historian and political adviser who in 1921 became the first woman to teach at the University of Puerto Rico; she was named the commonwealth’s official historian in 1993 and served as mentor to generations of politicians, notably from the ruling New Progressive Party (b. July 4, 1897--d. Jan. 22, 1997)....
  • Barbosa, Jorge (Cape Verdean poet)
    African poet who expressed in Portuguese the cultural isolation and the tragic nature of life on the drought-stricken Cape Verdean islands. In delicately phrased verse that became a model for later poets, he often praised the stoic endurance of a people caught in an inhospitable, forgotten land....
  • Barbosa, Jorge Vera-Cruz (Cape Verdean poet)
    African poet who expressed in Portuguese the cultural isolation and the tragic nature of life on the drought-stricken Cape Verdean islands. In delicately phrased verse that became a model for later poets, he often praised the stoic endurance of a people caught in an inhospitable, forgotten land....
  • Barbosa Lima Sobrinho, Alexandre José (Brazilian journalist and politician)
    Brazilian journalist and politician (b. Jan. 22, 1897, Recife, Braz.—d. July 16, 2000, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.), was a longtime columnist for the daily newspaper Jornal do Brasil and head of the Brazilian Press Association for more than 25 years. After graduating from law school in 1917, Barbosa Lima went to work for Jornal do Brasil. He became the paper’s editor in chief...
  • Barbot, Clément (Haitian statesman)
    ...a program of popular reform and black nationalism, Duvalier was elected president in September 1957. Setting about to consolidate his power, he reduced the size of the army and, with his chief aide, Clément Barbot, organized the Tontons Macoutes (“Bogeymen”), a private force responsible for terrorizing and assassinating alleged foes of the regime....
  • Barbotine ware (pottery)
    pottery decorated with a clay slip applied by means of a technique first employed on Rhenish pottery prior to the 3rd century ad. The slip was applied by piping, in the same way icing is applied to cakes. It was used to adorn the edges of flat dishes with such designs as small flowers. By the 3rd century it started to oust molded ornamentation. Ernest Chaplet began to experiment wit...
  • barbotte (game)
    dice game of Middle Eastern origin, used for gambling; in the United States it is played chiefly by persons of Greek or Jewish ancestry. The shooter casts two dice (traditionally miniature dice). If he throws 3–3, 5–5, 6–6, or 6–5, he wins; if he throws 1–1, 2–2, 4–4, or 1–2, he loses. Other combinations are meaningless. A second player (the ...
  • Barbou, Joseph Gerard (French printer)
    ...One such artist was Frenchman Charles Eisen, who illustrated French poet Jean de La Fontaine’s Contes et nouvelles en vers (1762; Tales and Novels in Verse). In this work, Joseph Gerard Barbou, the printer, used types and ornaments by Fournier, full-page engravings by Eisen, and complex spot illustrations and tailpieces by Pierre-Phillippe Choffard. This superb ...
  • Barbour, Dave (American musician)
    Lee married Goodman’s guitarist, Dave Barbour, in late 1943 and briefly retired. Upon returning to the music scene in 1945, she launched a second career as a songwriter and collaborated with Barbour on several songs that became hits, including It’s a Good Day, I Don’t Know Enough About You, Everything Is Movin...
  • Barbour, Ian (American theologian and physicist)
    On May 11, 1999, American theologian and physicist Ian Barbour was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, the world’s largest annual monetary award—$1,240,000—for his “deep and lasting contribution toward the needed integration of scientific and religious knowledge and values.” The prize was established by Sir John Templeton in 1972 to honour indiv...
  • Barbour, John (Scottish author)
    author of a Scottish national epic known as The Bruce, the first major work of Scottish literature....
  • Barbour, Philip P. (United States jurist)
    associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1836–41) and political figure known for his advocacy of states’ rights and strict construction of the U.S. Constitution....
  • Barbour, Philip Pendleton (United States jurist)
    associate justice of the United States Supreme Court (1836–41) and political figure known for his advocacy of states’ rights and strict construction of the U.S. Constitution....
  • Barbourville (Kentucky, United States)
    city, seat of Knox county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S. It lies on the Cumberland River, in the Cumberland Mountains, and is a gateway to Daniel Boone National Forest. It was founded in 1800 and named for James Barbour, who donated land for the town site. Union College was established there by the Methodist Church in 1879. The Dr. Thomas Walker State Historic S...
  • Barbuda (island, West Indies)
    city, seat of Knox county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S. It lies on the Cumberland River, in the Cumberland Mountains, and is a gateway to Daniel Boone National Forest. It was founded in 1800 and named for James Barbour, who donated land for the town site. Union College was established there by the Methodist Church in 1879. The Dr. Thomas Walker State Historic S...

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