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quarter sessions (law)
formerly, in England and Wales, sessions of a court held four times a year by a justice of the peace to hear criminal charges as well as civil and criminal appeals. The term also applied to a court held before a recorder, or judge, in a borough having a quarter sessions separate from that of the county in which the borough was situated. Under the Courts Act of 1971, all of the ...
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quarter tone (music)
Quarter tones had been used as early as 1849 by the French composer Fromental Halévy, but Hába drew his inspiration from Moravian folk tunes and rhythms, music abounding in microtones. In 1919 he wrote a quarter-tone String Quartet, but his earliest mature work using microtones was the Third String Quartet (1922). His opera Matka (The Mother), first......
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quarter-horse racing (sport)
in the United States, the racing of horses at great speed for short distances on a straightaway course, originally a quarter of a mile, hence the name. Quarter-horse racing was begun by the early settlers in Virginia shortly after Jamestown was established in 1607. Traditionally the course was 0.25 mile (400 m), using whatever pathways were available or could be cut through the forests, and later...
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quarter-wave plate (instrument)
...is so selected that the path difference for the ordinary and the extraordinary rays is one-quarter the wavelength of the single-wavelength, or monochromatic, light used. Such a crystal is called a quarter-wave plate, and the reality of the circular polarization is shown by the fact that, when the quarter-wave plate is suitably suspended and irradiated, a small torque—that is, twisting......
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quarterback (sports)
...the 1930s, but college football remained fundamentally a power running game into the 1980s. College coaches’ most distinctive innovations in the 1970s and ’80s came in offenses that featured running quarterbacks—the triple-option schemes such as the wishbone and veer (with the quarterback handing the ball off to a fullback, pitching it to a tailback, or keeping it himself),...
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quarterdeck (ship part)
...for the area around the foremast in 19th-century men-of-war, although the deck was flush from bow to stern. Many cargo vessels have a forecastle (deck). The aftercastle was superseded by the quarterdeck....
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quartering (military logistics)
The provision of military facilities, as distinct from fortification, did not become a large and complex sphere of logistic activity until the transformation of warfare in the industrial era. In that transformation the traditional function of providing nightly lodgings or winter quarters for the troops dwindled to relative insignificance in the mushrooming infrastructure of fixed and temporary......
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quartering (heraldry)
In the quarterings and the marshaling (arrangement of more than one coat of arms on the same shield), the position of heiresses must be considered first. The children of an heraldic heiress are entitled on her death to quarter her arms with their father’s (the arrangement is to show the shield divided into four quarters so that quarters 1 and 4 are the father’s arms, 2 and 3 the moth...
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Quartering Act (Great Britain [1765])
(1765), in American colonial history, the British parliamentary provision (actually an amendment to the annual Mutiny Act) requiring colonial authorities to provide food, drink, quarters, fuel, and transportation to British forces stationed in their towns or villages. Resentment over this practice is reflected in the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids it in peacetime....
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“Quarterly Pursuit” (British periodical)
daily publication of the London Metropolitan Police that carries details of stolen property and of persons wanted for crime. It is distributed without charge to British and certain European police forces....
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Quarterly Review, The (British periodical)
...Thomas Arnold, and the legal historian Sir James Stephen. The Edinburgh Review’s prestige and authority among British periodicals during the 19th century were matched only by that of The Quarterly Review....
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Quartermass Xperiment, The (film by Guest)
It was not until the mid-1950s that Hammer hit upon its winning formula of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), directed by Val Guest and starring Brian Donlevy, was a film version of a successful British television series. Hammer’s production of The Snorkel (1958), the story of a teenager who suspects that her stepfather is a murderer, marked...
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quartermaster (army officer)
officer who superintends arrangements for the quartering and movement of troops. In Europe the office dates back at least to the 15th century. During the late 17th century, when the minister of war of King Louis XIV of France reorganized the army, he created a quartermaster general’s department that dotted the countryside with strategically located and...
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quarterstaff (weapon)
a staff of wood from 6 to 9 feet (about 2 to 3 m) long, used for attack and defense. It is probably the cudgel or sapling with which many legendary heroes are described as being armed. The quarterstaff attained great popularity in England during the Middle Ages. It was usually made of oak, the ends often being shod with iron, and it was held with both hands, the right hand grasping it one-quarter...
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quartet (music)
a musical composition for four instruments or voices; also, the group of four performers. Although any music in four parts can be performed by four individuals, the term has come to be used primarily in referring to the string quartet (two violins, viola, and cello), which has been one of the predominant genres of chamber music since about 1750. The term may a...
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quartet (spectroscopy)
...pattern of the absorption peaks. In the bromoethane example, the CH3 peak is split into three distinct peaks, called a triplet. The CH2 peak is split into four peaks, called a quartet. These multiple peaks are caused by nearby hydrogen atoms through a process termed spin-spin splitting. Each set of equivalent hydrogens on a given carbon is split into an n+1......
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quartic equation
Another subject that was transformed in the 19th century was the theory of equations. Ever since Tartaglia and Ferrari in the 16th century had found rules giving the solutions of cubic and quartic equations in terms of the coefficients of the equations, formulas had unsuccessfully been sought for equations of the fifth and higher degrees. At stake was the existence of a formula that expresses......
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Quartier Latin (district, Paris, France)
South of the city centre are the quintessential Left Bank neighbourhoods known as Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Latin Quarter (Quartier Latin). The boulevard Saint-Germain itself begins at the National Assembly building, curving eastward to join the river again at the Sully Bridge. A little less than halfway along the boulevard is the pre-Gothic church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.......
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“quartiere, Il” (work by Pratolini)
His first important novel, Il quartiere (1944; The Naked Streets), offers a vivid, exciting portrait of a gang of Florentine adolescents. Cronaca familiare (1947; Two Brothers) is a tender story of Pratolini’s dead brother. Cronache di poveri amanti (1947; A Tale of Poor Lovers), which has been called one of the finest works of Italian Neorealism,.....
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quartile (statistics)
...below the pth percentile, and roughly 100 − p percent of the data values are above the pth percentile. Percentiles are reported, for example, on most standardized tests. Quartiles divide the data values into four parts; the first quartile is the 25th percentile, the second quartile is the 50th percentile (also the median), and the third quartile is the 75th......
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Quartodecimanism (Christianity)
...to sunset. The question arose of how the evening of the 14th day should be calculated, and some—the Quintodecimans—claimed that it meant one particular evening, but others—the Quartodecimans—claimed that it meant the evening before, since sunset heralded a new day. Both sides had their protagonists, the Eastern churches supporting the Quartodecimans, the Western......
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Quarton, Enguerrand (French painter)
French religious painter of the late Gothic period, famous for his “Coronation of the Virgin.”...
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quartz (mineral)
widely distributed mineral of many varieties that consists primarily of silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2). Minor impurities such as lithium, sodium, potassium, and titanium may be present. Quartz has attracted attention from the earliest times; water-clear crystals were known to the ancient Greeks as krystallos—hence the name crystal, or more commonly rock crystal, applied...
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quartz arenite (sandstone)
variety of the rock quartzite formed by deposition of silica in subterranean sandstone....
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quartz cat’s-eye (gemstone)
...Precious, or oriental, cat’s-eye, the rarest and most highly prized, is a greenish chatoyant variety of chrysoberyl called cymophane; the chatoyant effect is due to minute parallel cavities. Quartz cat’s-eye, the commonest, owes its chatoyancy and grayish-green or greenish colour to parallel fibres of asbestos in the quartz; although it comes from the East, it is often called occi...
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quartz latite (mineral)
intrusive igneous rock (solidified from a liquid state) that contains plagioclase feldspar, orthoclase feldspar, and quartz. It is abundant in the large batholiths (great masses of igneous rocks mostly deep below the surface) of the world’s mountain belts. Quartz monzonite differs from granodiorite by containing more alkali feldspar, usually more biotite and less hornblende, and oligoclase ...
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quartz microbalance (measurement instrument)
Small quartz microbalances with capacities of less than a gram have been constructed with a reliability much greater than is ordinarily found with small assay-type balances having a metal beam with three knife-edges. Microbalances are used chiefly to determine the densities of gases, particularly of gases obtainable only in small quantities. The balance usually operates in a gas-tight chamber,......
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quartz monzonite (mineral)
intrusive igneous rock (solidified from a liquid state) that contains plagioclase feldspar, orthoclase feldspar, and quartz. It is abundant in the large batholiths (great masses of igneous rocks mostly deep below the surface) of the world’s mountain belts. Quartz monzonite differs from granodiorite by containing more alkali feldspar, usually more biotite and less hornblende, and oligoclase ...
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quartz-crystal clock (instrument)
The timekeeping element of a quartz clock consists of a ring of quartz about 2.5 inches (63.5 mm) in diameter, suspended by threads and enclosed in a heat-insulated chamber. Electrodes are attached to the surfaces of the ring and connected to an electrical circuit in such a manner as to sustain oscillations. Since the frequency of vibration, 100,000-hertz, is too high for convenient time......
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quartzarenite (mineral)
Quartz arenites are usually white, but they may be any other colour; cementation by hematite, for example, makes them red. They are usually well sorted and well rounded (supermature) and often represent ancient dune, beach, or shallow marine deposits. Characteristically, they are ripple-marked or cross-bedded and occur as widespread thin blanket sands. On chemical analysis, some are found to......
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quartzite (mineral)
sandstone that has been converted into a solid quartz rock. Unlike sandstones, quartzites are free from pores and have a smooth fracture; when struck, they break through, not around, the sand grains, producing a smooth surface instead of a rough and granular one. Conversion of sandstone to quartzite may be accomplished by precipitation of silica from interstitial waters below the Earth’s su...
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quasar (astronomy)
any of a class of rare cosmic objects of high luminosity that often have strong radio emission that is observed at great distances. These objects are also called QSOs, which stands for “quasi-stellar objects.”...
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quasi extra territorium (law)
...residences, and their goods as though they were located outside the host country—to justify diplomatic exemption from both criminal and civil law. The doctrine of quasi extra territorium (Latin: “as if outside the territory”) was developed by the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) to sanction such privileges, and during the......
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quasi in rem (judgment)
...no personal liability on anyone but adjudicates the interests of all persons in a specific thing or property in the custody of the court or otherwise subject to its jurisdiction. The designation quasi in rem describes a judgment that affects the interests of one particular party, rather than all parties, in a thing or property within the control or jurisdiction of the court. Once a......
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quasi-biennial oscillation (air current)
layer of winds that encircle the Earth in the lower stratosphere, at altitudes from 20 to 40 kilometres (about 12 to 25 miles), between latitudes 15° N and 15° S. They blow at velocities of 25 to 50 metres per second (about 55 to 110 miles per hour). They are alternately easterly and westerly, reversing about every 13 months. The quasi-biennial oscillation was originally known as the...
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quasi-contract (law)
Quasi-contract embraced obligations that had no common feature save that they did not properly fall under contract, because there was no agreement, or under delict, because there was no wrongful act. The most noticeable examples were, first, negotiorum gestio, which enabled one who intervened without authority in another’s affairs for the latter’s benefit to claim reimbursemen...
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quasi-delict (law)
Quasi-delict covered four types of harm, grouped together by no clearly ascertainable principle. They included the action against an occupier for harm done by things thrown or poured from his house into a public place and the action against a shipowner, innkeeper, or stablekeeper for loss caused to customers on the premises through theft or damage by persons in his service....
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quasi-olfaction (sense)
...to the standard four qualities of taste: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. It has been established that the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) has a highly effective sense, called quasi-olfaction, operating through pits in the back of the tongue. This sense permits dolphins to experience what would be classified as smell, but quasi-olfaction does not involve the nasal......
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quasi-particle (physics)
in physics, a disturbance, in a medium, that behaves as a particle and that may conveniently be regarded as one. A rudimentary analogy is that of a bubble in a glass of beer: the bubble is not really an independent object but a phenomenon, the displacement of a volume of beer by carbon dioxide gas, but, because of the characteristics of the surface of liquid in contact with the...
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quasi-periodic crystal
matter formed atomically in a manner somewhere between the amorphous solids of glasses (special forms of metals and other minerals, as well as common glass) and the precise pattern of crystals. Like crystals, quasicrystals contain an ordered structure, but the patterns are subtle and do not recur at precisely regular intervals. Rather, quasicrystals appear to be formed from two ...
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quasi-reflexive relation (logic)
...even themselves. But this relation is reflexive in the weaker sense that whenever an object is of the same length as anything it is of the same length as itself. Such a relation is said to be quasi-reflexive. Thus ϕ is quasi-reflexive if(∀x)[(∃y)ϕxy ⊃ ϕxx].A reflexive relation is of course als...
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quasi-rent (economics)
...like land, it is a “free gift of nature.” A particularly effective machine also, though its supply can be increased in time by productive effort, may for a period also earn a quasi-rent, until supply has caught up with demand. Where its supply is artificially restricted by a monopoly, the quasi-rent may in fact continue indefinitely. All monopoly profits, it has been......
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quasi-static wave (hydrology)
In a long-favoured application of beam theory to the design of a ship’s hull, the ship is assumed to be supported by a quasi-steady wave (i.e., not moving with respect to the ship) of a length equal to the length of the ship and one-twentieth of this length in height. The ship is taken to be supported by wave crests located at its bow or stern or by a single crest at its mid-length. The hul...
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quasi-steady wave (hydrology)
In a long-favoured application of beam theory to the design of a ship’s hull, the ship is assumed to be supported by a quasi-steady wave (i.e., not moving with respect to the ship) of a length equal to the length of the ship and one-twentieth of this length in height. The ship is taken to be supported by wave crests located at its bow or stern or by a single crest at its mid-length. The hul...
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quasi-stellar object (astronomy)
any of a class of rare cosmic objects of high luminosity that often have strong radio emission that is observed at great distances. These objects are also called QSOs, which stands for “quasi-stellar objects.”...
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quasi-stellar radio source (astronomy)
any of a class of rare cosmic objects of high luminosity that often have strong radio emission that is observed at great distances. These objects are also called QSOs, which stands for “quasi-stellar objects.”...
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Quasi-War (United States history)
...with the second greatest number of votes, became vice president. Wars in Europe and on the high seas, together with rampant opposition at home, gave the new administration little peace. Virtual naval war with France had followed from American acceptance of British naval protection. In 1798 a French attempt to solicit bribes from American commissioners negotiating a settlement of differences......
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quasicrystal
matter formed atomically in a manner somewhere between the amorphous solids of glasses (special forms of metals and other minerals, as well as common glass) and the precise pattern of crystals. Like crystals, quasicrystals contain an ordered structure, but the patterns are subtle and do not recur at precisely regular intervals. Rather, quasicrystals appear to be formed from two ...
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quasicrystalline solid
matter formed atomically in a manner somewhere between the amorphous solids of glasses (special forms of metals and other minerals, as well as common glass) and the precise pattern of crystals. Like crystals, quasicrystals contain an ordered structure, but the patterns are subtle and do not recur at precisely regular intervals. Rather, quasicrystals appear to be formed from two ...
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Quasimodo, Salvatore (Italian poet)
Italian poet, critic, and translator. Originally a leader of the Hermetic poets, he became, after World War II, a powerful poet commenting on modern social issues. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1959....
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quasiparticle (physics)
in physics, a disturbance, in a medium, that behaves as a particle and that may conveniently be regarded as one. A rudimentary analogy is that of a bubble in a glass of beer: the bubble is not really an independent object but a phenomenon, the displacement of a volume of beer by carbon dioxide gas, but, because of the characteristics of the surface of liquid in contact with the...
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quasiperiodicity (physics)
...Steinhardt, physicists at the University of Pennsylvania, proposed a resolution of this apparent conflict. They suggested that the translational order of atoms in quasicrystalline alloys might be quasiperiodic rather than periodic. Quasiperiodic patterns share certain characteristics with periodic patterns. In particular, both are deterministic—that is, rules exist that specify the......
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Quassia (plant genus)
Simaroubaceae, or the quassia family, consists of 19 genera and 95 species of trees and shrubs that are mostly tropical in distribution. Quassia, with 40 species in the rainforests of tropical America and Africa, contains trees and shrubs that are the source of bitter-tasting compounds used as a vermifuge (to kill intestinal worms) and as insecticides....
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quassia (chemical compound)
...the male flowers release a disagreeable odour. Several varieties have colourful, twisted fruits and coloured leafstalks. Bark of species of the genera Quassia and Picrasma yields quassia, a bitter substance used in medicines. The crucifixion thorn (Castela emoryi) is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States....
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Quassia amara (plant)
...Female plants are preferred because the male flowers release a disagreeable odour. Several varieties have colourful, twisted fruits and coloured leafstalks. Bark of species of the genera Quassia and Picrasma yields quassia, a bitter substance used in medicines. The crucifixion thorn (Castela emoryi) is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States....
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quassia family (plant family)
the quassia family of flowering plants, in the order Sapindales, comprising 25 genera of pantropical trees, including Ailanthus, or the tree of heaven. Members of the family have leaves that alternate along the stem and are composed of a number of leaflets arranged along an axis. Most species have small flowers, bitter bark, and fleshy fruits that are sometimes winged. T...
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quassia wood (plant)
...Female plants are preferred because the male flowers release a disagreeable odour. Several varieties have colourful, twisted fruits and coloured leafstalks. Bark of species of the genera Quassia and Picrasma yields quassia, a bitter substance used in medicines. The crucifixion thorn (Castela emoryi) is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States....
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Quasthoff, Thomas (German singer)
Bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff made his opera debut in April 2003, singing the role of Don Fernando in a production of Beethoven’s Fidelio with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic at the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Austria. For any other singer, the event would have been a momentous musical watershed, but in Quasthoff’s case it was also a triumph of the human s...
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Quataquois (people)
...are believed to have migrated from what is now southwestern Montana into the southern Great Plains in the 18th century. Numbering some 3,000 at the time, they were accompanied on the migration by Kiowa Apache, a small southern Apache band that became closely associated with the Kiowa. Guided by the Crow, the Kiowa learned the technologies and customs of the Plains Indians and eventually......
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Quaternary
in the geologic history of Earth, a unit of time within the Cenozoic Era, beginning approximately 2.6 million years ago and continuing to the present day. The Quaternary has been characterized by several periods of glaciation (the “ice ages” of common lore), when ice sheets many kilometres thick have covered vast areas of the continents...
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quaternary ammonium compound (chemical compound)
...have been replaced by organic groups. In chemical notation these three classes are represented as RNH2, R2NH, and R3N, respectively. A fourth category consists of quaternary ammonium compounds, which are obtained by replacement of all four hydrogen atoms of the ammonium ion, NH4+; an anion is necessarily associated......
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Quaternary Period
in the geologic history of Earth, a unit of time within the Cenozoic Era, beginning approximately 2.6 million years ago and continuing to the present day. The Quaternary has been characterized by several periods of glaciation (the “ice ages” of common lore), when ice sheets many kilometres thick have covered vast areas of the continents...
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quaternary system (crystallography)
...tends to develop at lower temperatures than monticellite as the process of decarbonation in the contact zone progresses. Fayalitic olivines develop within metamorphosed iron-rich sediments. In the quaternary (i.e., four-component) system Fe2O3-FeO-SiO2-H2O, fayalite is associated with the minerals greenalite (iron-serpentine), minnesotaite......
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quaternion
Clifford developed the theory of biquaternions (a generalization of the Irish mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton’s theory of quaternions) and then linked them with more general associative algebras. He used biquaternions to study motion in non-Euclidean spaces and certain closed Euclidean manifolds (surfaces), now known as “spaces of Clifford-Klein.” He showed that space...
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quatrain (poetry)
Ghassaniy is known particularly as an outstanding composer of quatrains (the most popular Swahili verse form for both philosophical and topical themes). Although he experimented little with prosody, his work ranged widely in type from didactic verse to love poems and from poems on domestic life (his shrewish second wife was a source of poetic inspiration) to political satire. His concern with......
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Quatre Bornes (Mauritius)
town (“township”) on the island of Mauritius, in the western Indian Ocean. It lies in the western highlands region of the country, about 9 miles (14 km) south of Port Louis, the national capital. Quatre Bornes (French: “Four Boundaries”) was named for the boundary stones that marked the limits of four large sugar estates once situated there. Sugarcane is still produced...
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Quatre Cantons, Lac des (lake, Switzerland)
principal lake of central Switzerland, surrounded by the cantons of Lucerne, Nidwalden, Uri, and Schwyz. The lake is named after the city of Lucerne, which lies at its western end. The lake is most beautifully situated between steep limestone mountains, the best-known being the Rigi (north) and Pilatus (west), at an elevation of 1,424 feet (434 m). The lake’s area is 44 s...
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“Quatre cents coups, Les” (film by Truffaut)
Truffaut was born into a working-class home. His own troubled childhood provided the inspiration for Les Quatre Cents Coups (1959; The 400 Blows), a semiautobiographical study of a working-class delinquent. It is the first of the Antoine Doinel trilogy, tracing its hero’s evolution from an antisocial anguish to a happy and settled domesticit...
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“Quatre Évangiles, Les” (work by Zola)
...Les Trois Villes (1894–98; The Three Cities) and Les Quatre Évangiles (1899–1903; The Four Gospels) are generally conceded to be far less forceful than his earlier work. However, the titles of the novels in the latter series reveal the values that underlay his entire life......
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“Quatre Fils Aymon, Les” (chanson de geste)
hero of an Old French chanson de geste of the same name (also known as Les Quatre Fils Aymon [“The Four Sons of Aymon”]), whose story may contain elements of prehistoric myth and whose theme long survived in folktale and ballad throughout western Europe. Renaud slays Charlemagne’s nephew after a quarrel over chess, and, mounting his marvellous steed Bayard (which under...
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Quatre Gats (Spanish art group)
...people. In 1899 these works were exhibited in Barcelona as well as in Paris by the influential dealer Ambroise Vollard. In Barcelona, Nonell was the leader of a group of young artists called the Quatre Gats (“Four Cats”). Another member of the group was Pablo Picasso, who was influenced by Nonell’s realistic works....
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Quatre incarnations du Christ, Les (poetry by Hasselt)
Van Hasselt worked for almost 20 years on his epic masterpiece, Les Quatre incarnations du Christ (first published in its entirety in 1867; “The Four Incarnations of Christ”), in which he presents great historical events as steps toward a final establishment of Christ’s kingdom on earth. Though meticulously researched and highly refined in form, van Hasselt’s poe...
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Quatre-Bras, Battle of (European history)
...Dutch, Belgian, and German units) and about 45,000 Prussians, the main force of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher’s command. After defeating the Prussians at Ligny and holding Wellington at Quatre-Bras in secondary battles south of Waterloo on June 16, Napoleon’s marshals, Michel Ney and Emmanuel de Grouchy, failed to attack and annihilate either enemy while their armies were s...
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Quatre-Nations, Collège des (school, France)
...was originally occupied by the Nesle Tower (Tour de Nesle), a defense work for the Left Bank terminus of the city wall of 1220. Louis Le Vau designed the additional buildings in 1663 to house the College of the Four Nations (Collège des Quatre-Nations), paid for by a legacy from Louis XIV’s minister Cardinal Mazarin, who had brought the four entities in question—Pignerol......
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“Quatre-vingt-neuf” (work by Lefebvre)
...degree, Lefebvre began university teaching, and in 1935 he was made a professor at the Sorbonne. Among his other books are Napoléon (1935) and Quatre-vingt-neuf (1939; The Coming of the French Revolution), which was written for the nonspecialist and is perhaps the best general picture of the ancien régime available in English. Lefebvre’s exhaustive......
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quatre-vingts (numeral system)
...the gross measure by twelves. In English the base 20 occurs chiefly in the score (“Four score and seven years ago…”); in French it survives in the word quatre-vingts (“four twenties”), for 80; other traces are found in ancient Celtic, Gaelic, Danish, and Welsh. The base 60 still occurs in measurement of time and angles....
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Quatrième Siècle, Le (novel by Glissant)
...Crack”; Eng. trans. The Ripening) won him France’s Prix Théophraste Renaudot (1958), an important annual award bestowed upon a novel. In Le Quatrième Siècle (1962; “The Fourth Century”), he retraced the history of slavery in Martinique and the rise of a generation of young West Indians, trained in...
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Quattro Coronati (work by Nanni di Banco)
...Installed on the cathedral’s western facade, this figure is more Gothic in feeling than his later, more classical works for the guilds of the Or San Michele in Florence. Of the latter, the “Quattro Coronati” (“Four Crowned Saints”; c. 1411–13; see photograph) is considered his masterpiece. Influenced by antique art, the four saints are......
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“Quattro libri dell’architettura, I” (work by Palladio)
At the end of 20 years of intensive building, Palladio in 1570 published I quattro libri dell’architettura. This work was a summary of his studies of classical architecture. He used a number of his own designs to exemplify the principles of Roman design. The first book contains studies of materials, the classical orders, and decorative ornaments; the second, many of Palladio’s...
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Quattro pezzi sacri (opera by Verdi)
...published, along with the somewhat earlier and slighter Ave Maria and Laudi alla Vergine Maria, under the title Quattro pezzi sacri (Four Sacred Pieces) in 1898. After a long decline Giuseppina had died in 1897, and Verdi himself gradually grew weaker and died four years......
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“quattro rusteghi, I” (opera by Wolf-Ferrari)
...of Carlo Goldoni. His humour, however, was Germanic rather than Italian, and most of his works were produced in Germany. His most successful comic operas, I quattro rusteghi (1906; The School for Fathers) and Il segreto di Susanna (1909; The Secret of Susanne), presented 18th-century styles orchestrated in the manner of the 20th century. Comic points in these......
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“Quattro Santi Coronati” (work by Nanni di Banco)
...Installed on the cathedral’s western facade, this figure is more Gothic in feeling than his later, more classical works for the guilds of the Or San Michele in Florence. Of the latter, the “Quattro Coronati” (“Four Crowned Saints”; c. 1411–13; see photograph) is considered his masterpiece. Influenced by antique art, the four saints are......
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Quattrocento (Italian art history)
the totality of cultural and artistic events and movements that occurred in Italy during the 15th century, the major period of the Early Renaissance. Designations such as Quattrocento (1400s) and the earlier Trecento (1300s) and the later Cinquecento (1500s) are useful in suggesting the changing intellectual and cultural outlooks of late- a...
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Quattuor Americi navigationes (work by Vespucci)
...gonfalonier (magistrate of a medieval Italian republic) Piero Soderini, and printed in Florence in 1505; and of two Latin versions of this letter, printed under the titles of “Quattuor Americi navigationes” and “Mundus Novus,” or “Epistola Alberici de Novo Mundo.” The second series consists of three private letters addressed to the Medic...
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Quattuor controversiae (work by Carranza)
In 1546 Carranza published his Summa conciliorum (“Summary of the Council Meetings”) and his Quattuor controversiae (“Four Controversies”). The latter work, an important study of the authority within the Roman Catholic church of tradition, Scripture, the pope, and the councils, forestalled the work of the Dominican theologian Melchor Cano, who accused......
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Quatuor en fa dièse, Le (musical by Marcel)
...infidelity, and the consummation or frustration of personal relationships in his early plays, such as La Grâce, Le Palais de sable, Le Coeur des autres, and L’Iconoclaste. In Le Quatuor en fa dièse his musical, philosophical, and dramatic dispositions merge to render vividly the sense of the interpenetration of persons whose lives are bound up with one ...
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Quauhteca (Aztec deity)
Two categories of dead persons went up to the heavens as companions of the sun: the Quauhteca (“Eagle People”), who comprised the warriors who died on the battlefield or on the sacrificial stone, and the merchants who were killed while traveling in faraway places; and the women who died while giving birth to their first child and thus became Cihuateteo, “Divine Women.”...
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quay (sea works)
artificially enclosed basin into which vessels are brought for inspection and repair....
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Quay, Matthew S. (American politician)
...with law partner Edward P. Allinson, which advocated certain municipal reforms. The politics of reform did not long hold his interest, however, as he became associated with state party boss Matthew S. Quay. In 1895 Penrose ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for mayor of Philadelphia. Two years later he was elected to the U.S. Senate and was successively reelected until his......
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Quay, Stephen (American animator)
...Alice (1988), Faust (1994), and Conspirators of Pleasure (1996). Švankmajer’s most dedicated disciples are the Quay brothers, Stephen and Timothy, identical twins born in Philadelphia who moved to London to create a series of meticulous puppet animations steeped in the atmosphere and ironic fatalism of Eastern Europe. ...
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Quay, Timothy (American animator)
...(1988), Faust (1994), and Conspirators of Pleasure (1996). Švankmajer’s most dedicated disciples are the Quay brothers, Stephen and Timothy, identical twins born in Philadelphia who moved to London to create a series of meticulous puppet animations steeped in the atmosphere and ironic fatalism of Eastern Europe. Their ......
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quay wall (engineering)
...the normal course of traffic and cargo transfer. The latter function was later rendered by another group of structures especially designed for that purpose and given different designations such as quay wall, pier, and wharf. The term dock is still often used in a generic sense to indicate all waterfront docking facilities, either dry basin or berthing structures....
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Quayle, Dan (vice president of United States)
44th vice president of the United States (1989–93) in the Republican administration of President George Bush....
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Quayle, James Danforth (vice president of United States)
44th vice president of the United States (1989–93) in the Republican administration of President George Bush....
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Quayle, Sir Anthony (British actor)
British actor and director who was well known for his roles in classic plays on the stage as well as for his motion-picture career....
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Quayle, Sir John Anthony (British actor)
British actor and director who was well known for his roles in classic plays on the stage as well as for his motion-picture career....
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Quʿayqʿān, Mount (mountain, Saudi Arabia)
...is surrounded by the Ṣirāt Mountains, the peaks of which include Mount (Jabal) Ajyad, which rises to 1,332 feet, and Mount Abū Qubays, which attains 1,220 feet, to the east and Mount Quʿayqʿān, which reaches 1,401 feet, to the west. Mount Hirāʾ rises to 2,080 feet on the northeast and contains a cave in which Muhammad sought isolation and ...
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Quba (Azerbaijan)
city in northeastern Azerbaijan. It is situated on the eastern slopes of the Greater Caucasus, on the right bank of the Kudial River. In the 18th century a khanate was founded with Quba as the capital. The khanate was occupied by Russian troops in 1806 and ceded to Russia by Iran in 1813. The city of Quba is the centre of a fruit-growing region known particularly for its apples, and food processi...
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Quba-Xaçmaz (region, Azerbaijan)
The Quba-Xaçmaz region lies to the north of Abşeron. Its coastal lowlands specialize in grain and vegetable production, while vast orchards surround the towns of Quba and Qusar. The mountain slopes are used for grazing. Special breeds of sheep are raised; their skins are used in the local fur industry....
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Qubbat aṣ-Ṣakhrah (monument, Jerusalem)
shrine in Jerusalem that is the oldest extant Islamic monument. The rock over which the shrine was built is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. The Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, is traditionally believed to have ascended into heaven from the site. In Jewish tradition, it is here that Abraham, the progenitor and first patriarch of the Hebrew people, is said to have prepared to sacrifice his son ...
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