A-Z Browse

  • Madonna in a Rose Garden (altarpiece by Schongauer)
    According to contemporary sources, Schongauer was a prolific painter whose panels were sought in many countries. Few paintings by his hand survive. Among these, the “Madonna in a Rose Garden” (1473), altarpiece of the Church of Saint-Martin in Colmar, ranks first in importance. This work combines monumentality with tenderness, approaching the manner of the great Flemish painter......
  • Madonna in Glory (work by Gaddi)
    ...in 1337, Gaddi became the leader of Giotto’s school in Florence. Between 1347 and 1353 he painted a polyptych for San Giovanni Fuorcivitas at Pistoia, and in 1355 he executed a signed and dated “Madonna in Glory” (Uffizi, Florence) for San Lucchese at Poggibonsi. In 1366 he is mentioned in documents for the final time....
  • Madonna lily (plant)
    ...bulbs, usually narrow leaves, and solitary or clustered flowers. The flowers consist of six petallike segments, which may form the shape of a trumpet, with a more or less elongated tube, as in the Madonna lily (Lilium candidum) and Easter lily (L. longiflorum). Alternatively, the segments may be reflexed (curved back) to form a turban shape, as in the Turk’s cap lily (L....
  • Madonna of Carmelo and the Souls of Purgatory (fresco by Tiepolo)
    During this period, Tiepolo was influenced by the robust plastic modelling of his Venetian contemporary Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, as in such works as the monumental Madonna of Carmelo and the Souls of Purgatory (c. 1720). His artistic education, however, was complex and varied: he examined the works of both Venetian and foreign contemporaries and studied......
  • Madonna of St. Francis (painting by Correggio)
    Leaving Mantua, Correggio’s time was divided between Parma and his hometown. His first documented painting, an altarpiece of the “Madonna of St. Francis,” was commissioned for S. Francesco at Correggio in 1514. The best known works of his youth are a group of devotional pictures that became increasingly luscious in colour. They include the “Nativity” (Brera, Mila...
  • Madonna of the Franciscans, The (altarpiece by Duccio)
    ...appeared, and some of these are certainly Duccio’s work; the most significant of these is a small altarpiece representing the Virgin enthroned with angels and called The Madonna of the Franciscans because of the three monks kneeling at the foot of the throne. In this work a developed Gothic style appears in the curving outlines, which give an exquisite......
  • Madonna of the Goldfinch, The (painting by Raphael)
    ...learned from Perugino toward the freer, more flowing style of Leonardo. From Leonardo’s “Virgin of the Rocks” he evolved a new Madonna type seated in a soft and gentle landscape, such as “The Madonna of the Goldfinch” in the Uffizi or those in the Louvre and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. He adopted the “Mona Lisa” format for his portraits...
  • Madonna of the Harpies (painting by Andrea del Sarto)
    ...part of his career. His portraits of his wife, Lucrezia (c. 1513–14 and c. 1522), can be supplemented by many others disguised as Madonnas (e.g., the celebrated Madonna of the Harpies), just as his self-portraits in the Uffizi and in the National Gallery of Scotland at Edinburgh (both c. 1528) can possibly be extended by several others, mo...
  • Madonna of the Long Neck (painting by Parmigianino)
    ...with St. Margaret and Other Saints. In 1531 he returned to Parma, where he remained for the rest of his life, the principal works of this last period being the Madonna of the Long Neck (1534) and the frescoes on the vault preceding the apse of Sta. Maria della Steccata. The latter were to have been only part of a much larger scheme of decoration in......
  • Madonna of the Rosary, The (work by Crespi)
    ...Tintoretto. Crespi’s paintings from 1610 to 1620 are particularly impressive for their simplicity and for the humanization of the religious experiences that they portray; an example is “The Madonna of the Rosary” (c. 1615; Brera, Milan)....
  • Madonna of the Rose Bower (work by Lochner)
    ...draperies lend them a monumental dignity. In 1447 he became a member of the town council, and from the same year dates the splendid “Presentation in the Temple.” The exquisite “Madonna of the Rose Bower” was painted soon afterward....
  • Madonna of the Snow (work by Sassetta)
    ...(1423–26). His interest in the work of the first generation of Florentine Renaissance painters is reflected in the coherent spatial relationships of the monumental altarpiece of the “Madonna of the Snow,” painted for Siena Cathedral in 1430–32. From this point on, under Gothic influence, Sassetta’s style assumes an increasingly decorative character, manifest i...
  • Madonna of the Stairs (work by Michelangelo)
    ...is the Battle of the Centaurs (c. 1492). The action and power of the figures foretell the artist’s later interests much more than does the Madonna of the Stairs (c. 1491), a delicate low relief that reflects recent fashions among such Florentine sculptors as Desiderio da Settignano....
  • Madonna of the Star (work by Angelico)
    ...delicacy of execution and the vibrant luminosity that seem to spiritualize the figures in Angelico’s paintings. These qualities are notably apparent in two small altarpieces, Madonna of the Star and The Annunciation....
  • Madonna of Victory (altarpiece by Mantegna)
    Notwithstanding ill health and advanced age, Mantegna worked intensively during the remaining years of his life. In 1495 Francesco ordered the Madonna of the Victory (1496) to commemorate his supposed victory at the Battle of Fornovo. In the last years of his life, Mantegna painted the Parnassus (1497), a picture celebrating the marriage......
  • Madonna Rucellai (work by Duccio)
    ...light in 1790 and was published in 1854, it was only in 1930 that it was indisputably determined that the document referred to the Madonna of Sta. Maria Novella, now called the Madonna Rucellai. From the time of Giorgio Vasari, a minor Florentine Renaissance painter who was the earliest, and probably the most influential, biographer of early Italian artists, this......
  • Madonna, The (mother of Jesus)
    the mother of Jesus, an object of veneration in the Christian church since the apostolic age, and a favourite subject in Western art, music, and literature. Mary is known from biblical references, which are, however, too sparse to construct a coherent biography. The development of the doctrine of Mary can be traced through titles that have been ascribed to her...
  • Madonna with Child and Scenes from the Life of Mary (painting by Lippi)
    ...that is absent from the paintings in which he developed a typical motif of 15th-century Florentine art: the Madonna with the Child at her breast. The masterpiece of these is Madonna with Child and Scenes from the Life of Mary, a circular painting now in the Pitti Palace in Florence; it is a clear and realistic mirror of life, transfigured in a most intimate way,......
  • Madonna with Child, Angels, Saints and Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, The (work by Piero della Francesca)
    ...which also indicate that he had discovered Netherlandish painting. The reverse depicts the couple in a triumphal procession accompanied by the Virtues. The Duke reappears as a kneeling donor in an altarpiece from S. Bernardino, Urbino (now in the Brera, Milan). He, the Madonna and her child, and accompanying saints are placed before the apse (semicircular choir) of a magnificent Albertian......
  • Madonna with Pilgrims (work by Caravaggio)
    ...are among the monumental works he produced at this time. Some of these paintings, done at the high point of Caravaggio’s artistic maturity, provoked violent reaction. The Madonna with Pilgrims, or Madonna di Loreto (1603–06), for the Church of San Agostino, was a scandal because of the “dirty feet and torn, filthy......
  • Madonna with SS. Anthony and George (work by Pisanello)
    ...completely freed himself. Even a mature work such as his St. Eustace is encrusted with rich detail that tends to work against spatial clarity. The Madonna with SS. Anthony and George displays a simpler conception. It is dominated by the monumental figures of the two saints and the bust of the Virgin in a mandorla, or almond-shaped......
  • Madonna with SS. John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot, Jerome and Stephen (painting by Rosso)
    The second of Andrea’s important pupils, Rosso Fiorentino, began in a not dissimilar spirit of expressive rebellion. His highly unconventional “Madonna with SS. John the Baptist, Anthony Abbot, Jerome and Stephen” for Santa Maria Nuova (1518; Uffizi) displays an aesthetic anarchy bolder than anything by Pontormo, and by the 1520s he was creating works of savage emotionality......
  • Madonna with SS. Roch and Sebastian (work by Bassano)
    After 1560 Jacopo painted a large number of works, such as the “Madonna with SS. Roch and Sebastian” and “The Adoration of the Magi,” characterized by an unearthly pale light, colours, and nervous, attenuated figures in affectedly sophisticated poses....
  • Madonna with the Green Cushion (work by Solari)
    ...type of the Madonna suggests that after his return from Venice Solari was strongly influenced by the great Florentine artist. The colouring and lush atmospheric effects of his well-known “Madonna with the Green Cushion” (Louvre, Paris) also reveal Leonardo’s influence, but its animated composition displays Solari’s own artistic temperament....
  • Madonna with the Violet (work by Lochner)
    In the later 1430s Lochner must have been in the Netherlands again, where he encountered the art of van Eyck. The first work to reflect this influence is the “Madonna with the Violet” (c. 1443). Van Eyck’s influence is most noticeable in Lochner’s chief work, the great town hall altarpiece much admired by Dürer. In this “Altar of the Patron Saints,...
  • Madoqua (antelope)
    (genus Madoqua), any of several small, delicate African antelopes, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), named for the sound it makes when alarmed. The dik-dik stands 30–40 cm (12–16 inches) at the shoulder and weighs 3–5 kg (7–11 pounds). It has an elongated snout and a soft coat that is gray or brownish above, white below. The hair on the crown forms an upright...
  • Madox, Thomas (British historian)
    English legal antiquary and historian whose critical studies of medieval English documents establish him as the virtual founder of British administrative history and the precursor of modern English historical scholarship....
  • Madras (India)
    capital of Tamil Nadu state, India, on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal....
  • Madras (people)
    The Kekayas, Madras, and Ushinaras, who had settled in the region between Gandhara and the Beas River, were described as descendants of the Anu tribe. The Matsyas occupied an area to the southwest of present-day Delhi. The Kuru-Pancala, still dominant in the Ganges–Yamuna Doab area, were extending......
  • Madras Music Academy (institution, Tamil Nādu, India)
    Cultural institutions include the Madras Music Academy, devoted to the encouragement of Carnatic music (the music of the historic region between the southern Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal and the Deccan Plateau). The Kalakshetra is a centre of dance and music, and the Rasika Ranjini Sabha, in Mylapore, encourages the theatrical arts. The suburban town of Kodambakkam, with its numerous......
  • Madras Presidency (region, India)
    ...a trading post at the fishing village of Madraspatnam (now Madras) with the permission of the local ruler. The history of Tamil Nādu from the mid-17th century to 1946 is the story of the Madras Presidency in relationship to the rise and fall of British power in India. After 1946 the Madras Presidency was able to make steady progress, as it had a stable government. In 1953 the......
  • Madras, University of (university, Madras, India)
    state-controlled institution of higher learning located in Madras, India. One of three affiliating universities founded by the British in 1857, Madras has developed as a teaching and research institution since the 1920s. By the mid-1970s the university comprised 11 postgraduate faculties and 22 constituent colleges and was the examining and degree-granting authority for 149 affiliated colleges thr...
  • madrasah (Muslim educational institution)
    in Muslim countries, an institution of higher education. The madrasah functioned until the 20th century as a theological seminary and law school, with a curriculum centred on the Qurʾān. In addition to Islāmic theology and law, Arabic grammar and literature, mathematics, logic, and, in some cases, natural science were studied in madrasahs. Tuit...
  • Madraspatnam (India)
    capital of Tamil Nadu state, India, on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal....
  • madrassah (Muslim educational institution)
    in Muslim countries, an institution of higher education. The madrasah functioned until the 20th century as a theological seminary and law school, with a curriculum centred on the Qurʾān. In addition to Islāmic theology and law, Arabic grammar and literature, mathematics, logic, and, in some cases, natural science were studied in madrasahs. Tuit...
  • Madrazo y Agudo, José de (Spanish artist)
    The principal Neoclassicists in Spain were the painter José de Madrazo y Agudo and the sculptor José Alvarez de Pereira y Cubero....
  • Madre de Dios River (river, South America)
    headwater tributary of the Amazon in southeastern Peru and northwestern Bolivia. It flows from the Cordillera de Carabaya, easternmost range of the Andes, in Peru, and meanders generally eastward past Puerto Maldonado to the Bolivian border. There it turns northeastward and crosses the remote tropical rain forest of northwestern Bolivia. It joins the Beni River at Riberalta in Bolivia after a cour...
  • Madre e Maestra Catholic University (university, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic)
    ...business leaders, and the national and U.S. governments. Apec University (1965) is also located in Santo Domingo, whereas Central del Este University (1970) is in San Pedro de Macorís. The Madre e Maestra Pontifical Catholic University (1962) is based in Santiago but also has a campus in the capital....
  • “Madre, La” (work by Deledda)
    ...(1904; Ashes; film, 1916, starring Eleonora Duse), in which an illegitimate son causes his mother’s suicide; and La madre (1920; The Woman and the Priest; U.S. title, The Mother), the tragedy of a mother who realizes her dream of her son’s becoming a priest only to see him yield to the temptations of the flesh. In these and others of her more than 40 no...
  • Madre, Laguna (lagoon, United States-Mexico)
    narrow, shallow lagoon along the shore of southern Texas, U.S., and northeastern Mexico, sheltered from the Gulf of Mexico by barrier islands, of which Padre Island (a national seashore) in Texas is the most notable. The lagoon is divided into two sections by the broad delta of the Rio Grande; the U.S. portion extends southward for 120 miles (190 km) from Corpus Christi Bay, and...
  • madre naturaleza, La (work by Pardo Bazán)
    ...brand of naturalism that affirmed the free will of the individual. Her finest and most representative novels are Los Pazos de Ulloa (1886; The Son of a Bondwoman) and its sequel, La madre naturaleza (1887; “Mother Nature”)—studies of physical and moral ruin among the Galician squirearchy, set against a beautiful natural background and a mo...
  • Madreporaria (invertebrate)
    Many cnidarian polyps are individually no more than a millimetre or so across. Polyps of most hydroids, hydrocorals, and soft and hard corals, however, proliferate asexually into colonies, which can attain much greater size and longevity than their component polyps. Certain tropical sea anemones may be a metre in diameter, and some temperate ones are nearly that tall. Anthozoans are long-lived,......
  • madreporite (anatomy)
    ...system consists of a series of fluid-filled canals lined with ciliated epithelium and derived from the coelom. The canals connect to the outside through a porous, button-shaped plate, called the madreporite, which is united via a duct (the stone canal) with a circular canal (ring canal) that circumvents the mouth. Long canals radiate from the water ring into each arm. Lateral canals branch......
  • Madrid (Spain)
    city, capital of Spain and of Madrid provincia (province). Spain’s arts and financial centre, the city proper and province form a comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) in central Spain....
  • Madrid (province, Spain)
    comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of central Spain, coextensive with the provincia (province) of the same name. It is bounded by the autonomous communities of Castile-León to the north and west and Castile–La Mancha to the east and south. The autonomous community of Madrid was established.....
  • Madrid (autonomous area, Spain)
    comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of central Spain, coextensive with the provincia (province) of the same name. It is bounded by the autonomous communities of Castile-León to the north and west and Castile–La Mancha to the east and south. The autonomous community of Madri...
  • Madrid bombing (terrorist attack, Madrid, Spain [2004])
    ...the U.S.- and British-led war to oust Ṣaddām Ḥussein’s government in Iraq despite opposition by some 90 percent of Spain’s citizens (see Iraq War). On March 11, 2004, 10 bombs exploded on four trains in Madrid, killing some 200 people and injuring some 1,500 others in the worst terrorist incident in Europe since World War II. In elections held three day...
  • Madrid, Carlos María de los Dolores de Borbón y Austria-Este, Duke de (Spanish noble)
    the fourth Carlist, or Bourbon traditionalist, pretender to the Spanish throne (as Charles VII) whose military incompetence and lack of leadership led to the final decline of the Carlist cause....
  • Madrid, Club of (organization)
    ...From 1996 to 2000 she served as the Canadian consul-general in Los Angeles. Afterward, she resumed her fellowship at Harvard, and from 2004 to 2006 she served as secretary-general for the Club of Madrid, a group she helped found, which includes former heads of government and attempts to enhance democracy throughout the world. She was active in various nongovernmental organizations,......
  • Madrid Codex (Mayan literature)
    together with the Paris and Dresden codices, one of several richly illustrated glyphic texts of the pre-Conquest Mayan period to have survived the mass book-burnings by the Spanish clergy during the 16th century. The Madrid Codex is believed to be a product of the late Mayan period (c. ad 1400) and is possibly a post-Classic copy of Classic Mayan scholarship...
  • Madrid, Complutensian University of (university, Madrid, Spain)
    institution of higher learning founded in 1508 at Alcalá de Henares, in the province of Madrid, and moved in 1836 to the city of Madrid....
  • Madrid, Comunidad de (autonomous area, Spain)
    comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of central Spain, coextensive with the provincia (province) of the same name. It is bounded by the autonomous communities of Castile-León to the north and west and Castile–La Mancha to the east and south. The autonomous community of Madri...
  • Madrid Conference (1932)
    ...The Washington Conference of 1927 widened the area of cooperation in respect to radiotelegraph, broadcasting, and the international allocation of wavelengths, or frequencies. It was followed by the Madrid Conference of 1932, which codified the rules and established the official international frequency list. This agreement stabilized the situation until World War II, after which the European......
  • Madrid Hurtado, Miguel de la (president of Mexico)
    president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988....
  • Madrid, Miguel de la (president of Mexico)
    president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988....
  • Madrid, Parque de (park, Madrid, Spain)
    the main park of Madrid, Spain. Originally called the Parque del Buen Retiro, or “pleasant retreat,” and today covering approximately 350 acres (142 hectares), it was planned in the 1550s and redesigned on the instructions of Gaspar de Guzmán, Conde-Duque de Olivares (chief minister to King Philip IV), who added a palace and a theatre (where comedies of Lope...
  • Madrid, Treaties of (European history)
    ...Emperor and king of Spain, while Charles married John’s sister Isabella. These marriages paved the way for the eventual succession of Philip II of Spain to the Portuguese throne in 1580. By the Treaty of Madrid (1529), Portugal secured the Moluccas, or Spice Islands (now part of Indonesia), while recognizing Spain’s claim to the Philippines; this complemented the Treaty of Tordesi...
  • Madrid, Treaty of (European history [1526])
    (Jan. 14, 1526), treaty between the Habsburg emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain) and his prisoner Francis I, king of France, who had been captured during the Battle of Pavia in February 1525 and held prisoner until the conclusion of the treaty....
  • Madrid, Universidad Complutense de (university, Madrid, Spain)
    institution of higher learning founded in 1508 at Alcalá de Henares, in the province of Madrid, and moved in 1836 to the city of Madrid....
  • Madrid, University of (university, Madrid, Spain)
    institution of higher learning founded in 1508 at Alcalá de Henares, in the province of Madrid, and moved in 1836 to the city of Madrid....
  • madrigal (vocal music)
    form of vocal chamber music that originated in northern Italy during the 14th century, declined and all but disappeared in the 15th, flourished anew in the 16th, and ultimately achieved international status in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The origin of the term madrigal is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Latin matricale (meaning “in the mother tongue”; ...
  • madrigal comedy (musical genre)
    Italian musical genre of the late 16th century, a cycle of vocal pieces in the style of the madrigal and lighter Italian secular forms that are connected by a vague plot or common theme. Madrigal comedies were sung in concerts and social gatherings, not staged; in his L’Amfiparnaso (The Slopes of Parnassus...
  • Madrigali (work by Hassler)
    Hassler’s style is a fusion of German counterpoint and Italian form. His Madrigali (1596), though avoiding the harmonic experiments of such 16th-century madrigalists as Luca Marenzio, are considered to be among the finest of their time. His instrumental compositions and his church music—Protestant and Roman Catholic—were widely imitated. His Germa...
  • “Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi” (work by Monteverdi)
    ...collection of his madrigals assembled by Monteverdi himself in 1638. A vast retrospective anthology of music dating from 1608 onward, it sets out to display Monteverdi’s theories, as its title, Madrigals of War and Love, denotes....
  • Madrigals and Motetts of 5 Parts (work by Gibbons)
    Gibbons’s full anthems are among his most distinguished works, as are the “little” anthems of four parts. His Madrigals and Motetts of 5 Parts was published in 1612. This collection contains deeply felt and very personal settings of texts that are, for the most part, of a moral or philosophical nature. It shows Gibbons’s mastery of the poly...
  • Madrigals of War and Love (work by Monteverdi)
    ...collection of his madrigals assembled by Monteverdi himself in 1638. A vast retrospective anthology of music dating from 1608 onward, it sets out to display Monteverdi’s theories, as its title, Madrigals of War and Love, denotes....
  • Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley (Andorra)
    Andorra consists of a cluster of mountain valleys whose streams unite to form the Valira River. The Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley, which occupies about one-tenth of Andorra’s land area and is characterized by glacial landscapes, steep valleys, and open pastures, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004. With only a tiny proportion of Andorra’s land cultivable, the traditio...
  • madrona (plant)
    A. menziesii, variously known as the madrona, Pacific madrona, laurelwood, and Oregon laurel, occurs in western North America from British Columbia to California. It grows about 23 metres (75 feet) tall. The dark, oblong, glossy leaves are from 5 to 15 cm (2 to 6 inches) long and are coloured grayish green beneath. The whitish flowers grow in pyramidal clusters 7–23 cm (3–9......
  • madrone (tree genus)
    genus of about 14 species of broad-leaved evergreen shrubs or trees, of the heath family (Ericaceae), characterized by white or pink flowers in loose, terminal clusters and by many-seeded, fleshy, red or orange berries with a distinctive irregular surface; the leaves are alternate and stalked. The plants are native to southern Europe and western North America. A. menziesii and A. unedo...
  • Madsen, Michael (Haitian business executive and politician)
    Haitian business executive and politician who became a powerful figure in Haiti as the founder of the Haitian National Brewery, which introduced the country’s first national beer (Prestige), and as the founder in 2004 of the Haitian Liberal Party, which he launched following the overthrow of Haitian Pres. Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Madsen, the grandson of a Danish entrepreneur who arrived in t...
  • madtom (catfish)
    any of several North American catfishes of the genus Noturus, of the family Ictaluridae. They are sometimes classified in two genera, Noturus and Schilbeodes. Generally about 5–7.5 cm (2–3 inches) long, madtoms are the smallest ictalurids and are characterized by a long adipose fin that in some species joins the rounded tail fin....
  • Madura (India)
    city, south-central Tamil Nādu state, southeastern India, bounded on the west by Kerala state. It is the second largest, and probably oldest, city in the state. Located on the Vaigai River and enclosed by the Anai, Naga, and Pasu (Elephant, Snake, and Cow) hills, the compact old city, site of the Pāṇḍya (4th–11th century ad) capital, centres on M...
  • Madura (island, Indonesia)
    island, Jawa Timur provinsi (province), Indonesia, off the northeastern coast of Java and separated from the city of Surabaya by a narrow, shallow channel. The island, which covers an area of 2,042 square miles (5,290 square km), has an undulating surface rising to 700 feet (210 metres) in the west and to more than 1,400 feet (430 metres) in the east....
  • Madura foot (pathology)
    fungus infection, usually localized in the foot but occurring occasionally elsewhere on the body, apparently resulting from inoculation into a scratch or abrasion of any of a number of fungi: Penicillium, Aspergillus, or Madurella, or actinomycetes such as Nocardia....
  • Madurai (India)
    city, south-central Tamil Nādu state, southeastern India, bounded on the west by Kerala state. It is the second largest, and probably oldest, city in the state. Located on the Vaigai River and enclosed by the Anai, Naga, and Pasu (Elephant, Snake, and Cow) hills, the compact old city, site of the Pāṇḍya (4th–11th century ad) capital, centres on M...
  • Madurai dialect (pre-Tamil dialect)
    ...separate entities; a third major Dravidian linguistic and cultural unit, Telugu, appeared in the Andhra country. In the period from 300 to 100 bc, one of the pre-Tamil dialects (probably that of Madurai) gained prestige and became the standard literary language (centamil), the written form of early Old Tamil, which became established in poetic texts and in its earliest gram...
  • Madurese (people)
    native population of the arid and infertile island of Madura, found today on Madura, the Kangean Islands, and the adjacent coast of northeastern Java in Indonesia. Of Deutero-Malay stock, the Madurese speak two principal dialects—West Madurese (concentrated in Pamekasan) and East Madurese (most prevalent in Sumenep)—and a minor variation in the nearby Kangean Islands. The Madurese o...
  • Madurese language
    an Austronesian language of the Indonesian subfamily, spoken on Madura Island, some smaller offshore islands, and the northern coast of Java, Indonesia. Dialects include Eastern, or Sumenep, and Western, including Bangkalan and Pamekasan. Sumenep is the standard dialect for educational purposes....
  • Maduromycosis (pathology)
    fungus infection, usually localized in the foot but occurring occasionally elsewhere on the body, apparently resulting from inoculation into a scratch or abrasion of any of a number of fungi: Penicillium, Aspergillus, or Madurella, or actinomycetes such as Nocardia....
  • Madvig, Johan Nicolai (Danish scholar)
    classical scholar and Danish government official who published many works on Latin grammar and Greek syntax and helped to lay the foundation of modern textual criticism; his exemplary edition of Cicero’s De finibus bonorum et malorum (“On Good and Evil Endings”) appeared in 1839....
  • Madwoman of Chaillot, The (work by Giraudoux)
    ...are La Guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu (1935; Eng. adaptation by Christopher Fry, Tiger at the Gates) and La Folle de Chaillot (1946, Eng. adaptation by Maurice Valency, The Madwoman of Chaillot), in which a tribunal of elderly, eccentric Parisian ladies, assisted by a ragpicker, wipe out a world of speculators. He also wrote the scripts to two films: La......
  • Madyan (geographical region, Arabia)
    ...from the name, meaning “Difficult,” of a prominent highland tribal confederation). In places the escarpment has two parallel ranges, with the lower range closer to the coast. In Midian (Madyan), the northernmost part of the Hejaz, the peaks have a maximum elevation of nearly 9,500 feet. The elevation decreases to the south, with an occasional upward surge such as Mount......
  • Madyan al-Ghawth, Shuʿayb Abū (Ṣūfī teacher)
    ...Mahdi was slowly being superseded by the spread of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) and the veneration of Sufi holy men. Sufism had a prominent representative during the Almohad period in the person of Shuʿayb Abū Madyan al-Ghawth (died 1197). At the Almohad court, however, the sciences and philosophy were cultivated. The philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroës) wrote his famous commenta...
  • Mae Hong Son (Thailand)
    town, extreme northwestern Thailand, in the Daen Lao Range. Mae Hong Son has an airport with scheduled flights to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Lampang, and Phrae....
  • Mae Klong (river, Thailand)
    tributary of the Mae Klong River, flowing wholly in western Thailand. It rises near Three Pagodas Pass (Phra Chedi Sam Ong) on the mountainous Myanmar-Thailand border and runs southeast, parallel to the border, to its confluence near Kanchanaburi town with the Mae Klong, which itself empties into the Gulf of Thailand at Samut Songkhram. Internationally the river is remembered for a bridge that......
  • Mae Nam Chao Phraya (river, Thailand)
    principal river of Thailand. It flows south through the nation’s fertile central plain for more than 225 miles (365 km) to the Gulf of Thailand. Thailand’s capitals, past and present (Bangkok), have all been situated on its banks or those of its tributaries and distributaries, as are many other cities....
  • Mae Nam Khong (river, Southeast Asia)
    longest river in Southeast Asia, the 7th longest in Asia, and the 12th longest in the world. It has a length of about 2,700 miles (4,350 km). Rising in southeastern Qinghai province, China, it flows through the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan province, after which it forms part of the international border between Myanmar...
  • Mae Nam Khwae Noi (river, Thailand)
    tributary of the Mae Klong River, flowing wholly in western Thailand. It rises near Three Pagodas Pass (Phra Chedi Sam Ong) on the mountainous Myanmar-Thailand border and runs southeast, parallel to the border, to its confluence near Kanchanaburi town with the Mae Klong, which itself empties into the Gulf of Thailand at Samut Songkhram. Internationally the river is remembered for a bridge that was...
  • Mae Nam Mun (river, Thailand)
    main river system of the Khorat Plateau, in eastern Thailand. The Mun rises in the San Kamphaeng Range northeast of Bangkok and flows east for 418 miles (673 km), receiving the Chi River, its main tributary, and entering the Mekong River at the Laotian border. Nakhon Ratchasima and Ubon Ratchathani are the chief towns on its banks. The river is seasonally navigable below Ubon Ratchathani and is us...
  • Maeander River (river, Turkey)
    river, southwestern Turkey. It rises on the Anatolian plateau south and west of Afyon and flows westward through a narrow valley and canyon. At Sarayköy it expands into a broad, flat-bottomed valley with a typical Mediterranean landscape, dotted with fig trees, olive groves, and vineyards. Near the town of Aydın the river turns southwest, emptying into the Aegean Sea after a course o...
  • Maebara Issei (Japanese politician)
    Japanese soldier-politician who helped to establish the 1868 Meiji Restoration (which ended the feudal Tokugawa shogunate and reinstated direct rule of the emperor) and who became a major figure in the new government until 1876, when he led a short-lived revolt that cost him his life....
  • Maebashi (Japan)
    capital, Gumma ken (prefecture), Honshu, Japan, on the Kantō Plain. An old castle town, in the Muromachi period (1338–1573) it was called Umayabashi. It was the seat of the Matsudaira family during the Tokugawa period (1603–1867). The city grew rapidly after World War II as an industrial and communications centre. It continues to produce silk yarn. Po...
  • Maecenas, Gaius (Roman diplomat and patron)
    Roman diplomat, counsellor to the Roman emperor Augustus, and wealthy patron of such poets as Virgil and Horace. He was criticized by Seneca for his luxurious way of life....
  • Maecenas, Gaius Cilnius (Roman diplomat and patron)
    Roman diplomat, counsellor to the Roman emperor Augustus, and wealthy patron of such poets as Virgil and Horace. He was criticized by Seneca for his luxurious way of life....
  • Maecht, Philip de (Dutch weaver)
    James I established in 1619 by royal charter a factory of tapestry weaving at Mortlake near London. It was staffed by 50 Flemings. Philip de Maecht, a member of the famous late 16th- and 17th-century family of Dutch tapestry weavers, was brought from the de La Planche-Comans factory in Paris, where he had been the master weaver, to hold the same position at Mortlake. The royal factory......
  • Maeda family (Japanese family)
    the daimyo, or lords, of Kaga Province (now part of Ishikawa Prefecture) in central Japan, whose domain was second only to that controlled by the powerful Tokugawa family....
  • Maeda Seison (Japanese painter)
    Maeda Seison (1885–1977), prominent in the next generation of nihonga artists, which also included Imamura Shikō (1880–1916), Yasuda Yukihiko (1884–1978), Kobayashi Kokei (1883–1957), and Hayami Gyoshū (1894–1935), employed an eclectic assortment of earlier Japanese painting techniques. At Okakura’s suggestion he studied......
  • Maeda Toshiie (Japanese warlord)
    Having become the dominant warrior family in west-central Japan sometime before the 16th century, the Maeda gained national prominence, as well as enlarged domains, when Maeda Toshiie (1538–99), head of the clan, allied himself with the great warrior Oda Nobunaga in his effort to reunify Japan after more than a century of civil unrest. Upon Oda’s death Toshiie allied with his success...
  • Maeda Toshinaga (Japanese warlord)
    When trouble developed among the five co-regents, Toshiie’s son, Maeda Toshinaga (1562–1614), sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was attempting to usurp the central power. As a reward for their services at the Battle of Sekigahara (Oct. 20, 1600), from which the Tokugawa emerged as the dominant power in Japan, the Maeda domains were considerably expanded. In terms of total taxable incom...
  • Maejima, Hisoka (Japanese official)
    ...of communications had existed in Japan from ancient times, it was not until 1870 that the creation of a comprehensive government-operated postal service was proposed. The idea was put forward by Hisoka Maejima, often called “the Father of the Post” in Japan. It was rapidly accepted by the government, which set up a service between Tokyo and Ōsaka on April 20, 1871, and......

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