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  • ventifact (stone)
    stone that has received one or more highly polished, flattened facets as a result of erosion by windblown sand. The facets are cut in sequence and correlate with the dominant wind direction. As one surface is cut, the stone may become out of balance and may turn to expose another surface to the wind. A ventifact that has been eroded to three curved facets is called a dreikanter. Ventifacts are pr...
  • ventilating (air circulation)
    the natural or mechanically induced movement of fresh air into or through an enclosed space. The supply of air to an enclosed space involves the removal of a corresponding volume of expired air, which may be laden with odours, heat, noxious gases, or dust resulting from industrial processes....
  • ventilation (biology)
    ...called cilia. In the few forms studied, the extraction of oxygen from the water has been found to be low, on the order of 2 to 10 percent. The currents produced by cilial movement, which constitute ventilation, are also utilized for bringing in and extracting food. At low tide or during a dry period, clams and mussels close their shells and thus prevent dehydration. Metabolism then shifts from....
  • ventilation (air circulation)
    the natural or mechanically induced movement of fresh air into or through an enclosed space. The supply of air to an enclosed space involves the removal of a corresponding volume of expired air, which may be laden with odours, heat, noxious gases, or dust resulting from industrial processes....
  • ventilation volume (physiology)
    The quantity of air or water passing through the lungs or gills each minute is known as the ventilation volume. The rate or depth of respiration may be altered to bring about adjustments in ventilation volume. The ventilation volume of humans at rest is approximately six litres per minute. This may increase to more than 100 litres per minute with increases in the rate of respiration and the......
  • ventilator (medical technology)
    ...submerged submarine rapidly surfaces without exhaling during the ascent, sudden expansion of air trapped within the thorax can burst one or both lungs. Another form of barotrauma may occur during mechanical ventilation for respiratory failure. Air pumped into the chest by the machine can overdistend and rupture a diseased portion of the lung. Subsequent breaths delivered by the ventilator are.....
  • Ventimiglia (Italy)
    town, Liguria regione, northwestern Italy. It is situated at the mouth of the Roia River near the French border, just northeast of Nice, France. To the east of the modern town is the ruined Roman town Albium Intemelium, or Albintimilium, with the remains of a theatre. Ventimiglia’s town hall houses a collection of Roman antiquities. Ventimiglia was the seat of a co...
  • Ventimiglia family (Italian family)
    ...III (1337), however, substantial concessions of royal lands to a grasping baronial class increasingly divided the island. Of particular importance in this group were the three great families of the Ventimiglia, the Chiaramonte, and the Passaneto—men so powerful that contemporaries described them as “semi-kings,” having below them some 200 lesser, poor, and violent vassals. ...
  • “ventitrè giorni della città di Alba, I” (work by Fenoglio)
    ...There were memories of the north’s struggle against fascist and Nazi domination from Vittorini and from Beppe Fenoglio (I ventitrè giorni della città di Alba [1952; The Twenty-three Days of the City of Alba]). There were sad tales of lost war by Giuseppe Berto (Il cielo è rosso [1947; The Sky Is Red] and Guerr...
  • Ventnor (England, United Kingdom)
    town (parish), Isle of Wight, historic county of Hampshire, England. The town lies along the southeastern coast of the Isle of Wight. From a small fishing hamlet it grew in the 19th century into a fashionable resort, noted for its mild climate and long hours of sunshine. The novelist Charles Dickens lived for a time nearby, and the poet Algernon Swinburne is b...
  • Ventôse Decrees (French history)
    during the French Revolution, laws providing for the confiscation of the property of enemies of the revolution and its distribution to needy patriots. The Ventôse Decrees are sometimes considered to be the most radical expression of social democracy of the revolution. They were passed by the National Convention (revolutionary assembly) on 8 and 13 Ventôse in the y...
  • ventral aorta (anatomy)
    ...the dorsal vessels. A large sac, the sinus venosus, is situated below the posterior of the pharynx and collects blood from all parts of the body. The blood passes forward through the subpharyngeal ventral aorta, from which branches carry it to small, accessory, branchial hearts that pump it upward through the gill arches. The oxygenated blood is collected into two dorsal aortas that continue......
  • ventral body (bone)
    Each vertebra, in higher vertebrates, consists of a ventral body, or centrum, surmounted by a Y-shaped neural arch. The arch extends a spinous process (projection) downward and backward that may be felt as a series of bumps down the back, and two transverse processes, one to either side, which provide attachment for muscles and ligaments. Together the centrum and neural arch surround an......
  • ventral cochlear nucleus (anatomy)
    ...the cochlear nerve terminate when they reach a collection of nerve cells called the cochlear nucleus. The cochlear nucleus consists of several distinct cell types and is divided into the dorsal and ventral cochlear nucleus. Each cochlear nerve fibre branches at the cochlear nucleus, sending one branch to the dorsal and the other branch to the ventral cochlear nucleus....
  • ventral horn (anatomy)
    ...of horns throughout most of the spinal cord: (1) the dorsal horns, composed of sensory neurons, (2) the lateral horns, well defined in thoracic segments and composed of visceral neurons, and (3) the ventral horns, composed of motor neurons. The white matter forming the ascending and descending spinal tracts is grouped in three paired funiculi, or sectors: the dorsal or posterior funiculi, lying...
  • ventral motor root (anatomy)
    ...cell bodies of afferent nerve fibres (those carrying impulses toward the central nervous system); efferent neurons (carrying motor impulses away from the central nervous system) are present in the ventral root ganglia....
  • ventral nerve cord (animal anatomy)
    The ventral nerve cord, connected to the brain by the circumesophageal connectives, is composed of a double row of ganglia connected longitudinally by connectives and transversely by commissures. Different groups of arthropods exhibit different degrees of fusion of the ganglia. In insects the first ganglion, the subesophageal, is formed by fusion of three pairs of ganglia; it sends nerves to......
  • ventral ramus (anatomy)
    Ventral rami of the spinal nerves carry sensory and motor fibres for the innervation of the muscles, joints, and skin of the lateral and ventral body walls and the extremities. Both dorsal and ventral rami also contain autonomic fibres....
  • ventral root (anatomy)
    ...cell bodies of afferent nerve fibres (those carrying impulses toward the central nervous system); efferent neurons (carrying motor impulses away from the central nervous system) are present in the ventral root ganglia....
  • ventral symphysis (anatomy)
    ...pelvic girdle of some reptiles has a loose connection with the spine. In most reptiles the ilium is joined to two sacral vertebrae. Both the pubic and the ischial parts usually meet in the so-called ventral symphysis, from which a cartilage or a bone, the hypoischium, projects backward to support the margin of the cloacal orifice, and another, the epipubis, projects forward. A few snakes (e.g.,...
  • “Ventre de Paris, La” (work by Zola)
    ...example, explores the land speculation and financial dealings that accompanied the renovation of Paris during the Second Empire. Le Ventre de Paris (1873; The Belly of Paris) examines the structure of the Halles, the vast central market-place of Paris, and its influence on the lives of its workers. The 10 steel pavilions that make up the market....
  • Ventre Livre, Lei do (Brazil [1871])
    measure enacted by the Brazilian parliament in 1871 that freed children born of slave parents. The law was passed under the leadership of José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Viscount do Rio Branco, premier during 1871–73, and Joaquim Nabuco de Araujo, a leading abolitionist. Although the children were set free, the measure allowed the parents’ owners to require such children to work...
  • ventricle (brain)
    Deep within the white matter of the cerebral hemispheres are cavities filled with cerebrospinal fluid that form the ventricular system. These cavities include a pair of C-shaped lateral ventricles with anterior, inferior, and posterior “horns” protruding into the frontal, temporal, and occipital lobes, respectively. Most of the cerebrospinal fluid is produced in the ventricles, and.....
  • ventricle (heart)
    muscular chamber that pumps blood out of the heart and into the circulatory system. Ventricles occur among some invertebrates. Among vertebrates, fishes and amphibians generally have a single ventricle, while reptiles, birds, and mammals have two....
  • ventricle of Morgagni (anatomy)
    ...by a continuous mucous membrane, which closely follows the outlines of all structures. Immediately above and slightly lateral to the vocal cords, the membrane expands into lateral excavations, one ventricle of Morgagni on each side. This recess opens anteriorly into a still smaller cavity, the laryngeal saccule or appendix. As the mucous membrane emerges again from the upper surface of each......
  • ventricular arrhythmia (pathology)
    Ventricular arrhythmias represent the major mechanism of cardiac sudden death, which is the leading cause of death in the United States, where each year more than 325,000 people die suddenly. Almost all of these deaths are related to ventricular fibrillation. While this rhythm disturbance may be associated with heart attack (myocardial infarction), evidence suggests that more than half are not......
  • ventricular assist device (medical device)
    Mechanical hearts, which include total artificial hearts and ventricular assist devices (VADs), are machines that are capable of replacing or assisting the pumping action of the heart for prolonged periods without causing excessive damage to the blood components. Implantation of a total artificial heart requires removal of both of the patient’s ventricles (lower chambers). However, with the...
  • ventricular dilation (pathology)
    ...left ventricular enlargement, which can increase the volume of blood that is ejected from the ventricle, temporarily improving cardiac output. This increase in size of the ventricular cavity (called ventricular dilation), however, also results in a reduction in the percentage of the left ventricular volume of blood that is ejected (called ejection fraction) and has significant functional......
  • ventricular dysphonia (medicine)
    ...with a mirror. The false cords close tightly during each sphincter action for swallowing; when this primitive mechanism is used for phonation, it causes the severe hoarseness of false-cord voice (ventricular dysphonia)....
  • ventricular enlargement (pathology)
    ...of compensatory reactions are initiated that may temporarily provide a return to sufficient ventricular function. One mechanism of compensation associated with left ventricular failure is left ventricular enlargement, which can increase the volume of blood that is ejected from the ventricle, temporarily improving cardiac output. This increase in size of the ventricular cavity (called......
  • ventricular fibrillation (pathology)
    a type of arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm) characterized by the irregular and uncoordinated contraction of the muscle fibres of the ventricles, the lower chambers of the heart. Since ventricular fibrillation completely prevents the heart from functioning as a pump, it quickly brings death unless emergency measures restore the circulation o...
  • ventricular fold (anatomy)
    The ventricular folds, located just above the vocal cords, are sometimes termed false vocal cords because they are not involved in voice production. ...
  • ventricular hypertrophy (pathology)
    ...ventricular volume, however, results in an increase in internal load. Over time the ventricle responds by increasing the size of individual muscle cells and thickening the ventricular wall (ventricular hypertrophy). Ventricular hypertrophy causes increased stiffness of the left ventricle, thereby placing a limitation on the amount of compensatory increase in ventricular volume that can......
  • ventricular septal defect (pathology)
    opening in the partition between the two ventricles, or lower chambers, of the heart. Such defects are congenital and may be accompanied by other congenital defects of the heart, most commonly pulmonary stenosis....
  • ventricular tachycardia (pathology)
    ...into an arrhythmia. Reentry mechanisms are important components of ventricular arrhythmias and may be as simple as a premature ventricular beat coupled to a normal beat or as serious as a dangerous ventricular tachycardia. Under any circumstance where cardiac injury has occurred, a ventricular arrhythmia may potentially become a lethal ventricular event. In contrast, premature ventricular......
  • ventriculus
    saclike expansion of the digestive system, between the esophagus and the small intestine; it is located in the anterior portion of the abdominal cavity in most vertebrates. The stomach serves as a temporary receptacle for storage and mechanical distribution of food before it is passed into the intestine. In animals whose stomachs contain digestive glands, some...
  • ventriloquism (entertainment arts)
    the art of “throwing” the voice, i.e., speaking in such a manner that the sound seems to come from a distance or from a source other than the speaker. At the same time, the voice is disguised (partly by its heightened pitch), adding to the effect. The art of ventriloquism was formerly supposed to result from a peculiar use of the stomach during inhalation—hence the nam...
  • ventriloquist’s dummy
    Somewhat similar figures, though artistically altogether inferior, are the dummies used by ventriloquists; ventriloquism, as such, has no relation to puppetry, but the ventriloquists’ figures, with their ingenious facial movements, are true puppets. The technique of the human actor carrying the puppet actor onto the stage and sometimes speaking for it is one that has been developed a great ...
  • Ventris, Michael (British architect and cryptographer)
    English architect and cryptographer who in 1952 deciphered the Minoan Linear B script and showed it to be Greek in its oldest known form, dating from about 1400 to 1200 bc, roughly the period of the events narrated in the Homeric epics....
  • Ventris, Michael George Francis (British architect and cryptographer)
    English architect and cryptographer who in 1952 deciphered the Minoan Linear B script and showed it to be Greek in its oldest known form, dating from about 1400 to 1200 bc, roughly the period of the events narrated in the Homeric epics....
  • ventrobasal complex (anatomy)
    ...response to noxious input. In fact, it may be said that pain reaches consciousness in the thalamus. The thalamus receives noxious input from the spinal cord in two regions, a lateral part called the ventrobasal complex and a medial part consisting of several nuclei. The ventrobasal complex is involved with the accurate temporal and spatial localization of conscious sensation, while the medial.....
  • ventromedial hypothalamus (biology)
    ...sexual behaviours reduced by anterior hypothalamic damage, it has been suggested that this region contains receptors sensitive to changes in the levels of circulating sex hormones. Damage to the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) also arrests estrus in females and sexual behaviour in males, but hormone replacement therapy successfully restores these functions, suggesting that VMH is involved......
  • Ventroplicida (mollusk class)
    any small, wormlike, marine mollusk of the class Aplacophora. Unlike most mollusks, solenogasters have no shell. They are covered instead by a spiny cuticle. Most are 2.5 cm (1 inch) or less in length. The largest is 30 cm long. The animals occur at ocean depths of 30 to 1,800 m (100 to 5,900 feet). About 150 species are known. ...
  • Ventspils (Latvia)
    city and port, western Latvia. It lies at the mouth of the Venta River on the Baltic Sea coast. A settlement existed there in the 2nd millennium bc, and by the 10th century ad it was inhabited by Wends (a Slavic people). In 1242 the Teutonic Knights built a castle there, and in 1378 town status was conferred. A shipyard was established in 1642, and in 1904 Ventspils was...
  • Ventuari River (river, Venezuela)
    After its bifurcation in the Casiquiare, the Orinoco bends to the northwest and flows in great meandering curves to its confluence with the Ventuari River. There the river turns to the west to run between high alluvial banks, its course marked by extensive sandbars. Near San Fernando de Atabapo, the Atabapo and Guaviare rivers join the Orinoco, marking the end of the upper Orinoco....
  • Ventuosa Compagnia dei Musici (Italian music organization)
    ...last 12 years of his life, including volumes of motets (choral compositions based on sacred texts), masses, and madrigals. He also helped to found an association of professional musicians called the Vertuosa Compagnia dei Musici....
  • Ventura (California, United States)
    city, seat (1873) of Ventura county, southern California, U.S. It lies on the Pacific coast overlooking the Santa Barbara Channel. It is the site of the San Buenaventura Mission, the ninth and last mission founded (1782) by Junípero Serra, which was restored as a historic site and remains an active parish. After the mission lands were secularized, a Mex...
  • Ventura, Jesse (American politician and pro wrestler)
    Ready to rumble through 1999 was Jesse (“The Body”) Ventura, the former professional wrestler who pulled off a stunning political upset in the November 1998 elections to become governor of Minnesota. In his years as a pro wrestler, the 1.93-m (6-ft 4-in), 117-kg (260-lb) Ventura was known for delivering flying elbow drops and booming tirades. Continuing in his signature off-the-top-r...
  • venture capital (business)
    ...By 1972 the U.S. military accounted for only 12 percent of semiconductor sales, compared with more than 50 percent during the early 1960s. With the growth in consumer applications, by the mid-1970s venture capitalists had replaced the U.S. government as the primary source of financing for start-ups. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs were quickly establishing firms to supply the semiconductor......
  • Ventures, the (American music group)
    American musical group that gained fame with its instrumental interpretations of pop hits and that served as a prototype for guitar-based rock groups. The principal members were rhythm guitarist Don Wilson (b. Feb. 10, 1933Tacoma, Wash., U.S.), bassist Bob Bogle...
  • Venturi effect (physics)
    ...area, for example, the fluid speeds up in constricted areas so that the pressure the fluid exerts is least where the cross section is smallest. This phenomenon is sometimes called the Venturi effect, after the Italian scientist G.B. Venturi (1746–1822), who first noted the effects of constricted channels on fluid flow....
  • venturi flume (measurement instrument)
    short pipe with a constricted inner surface, used to measure fluid flows and as a pump. The 18th–19th-century Italian physicist Giovanni Battista Venturi, observing the effects of constricted channels on fluid flow, designed an instrument with a narrow throat in the middle; fluid passing through the tube speeds up as it enters the throat, and the pressure drops. There are countless applica...
  • Venturi, Giovanni Battista (Italian mathematician)
    ...up in constricted areas so that the pressure the fluid exerts is least where the cross section is smallest. This phenomenon is sometimes called the Venturi effect, after the Italian scientist G.B. Venturi (1746–1822), who first noted the effects of constricted channels on fluid flow....
  • Venturi, Lionello (American art critic)
    ...less general than philosophical theorizing about art, however informed by theoretical generalizations it may be. In his seminal book History of Art Criticism (1936), Lionello Venturi asks: “What is criticism if not a relationship between a principle of judgment and the intuition of a work of art or of an artistic personality?” The principle of......
  • venturi meter (measurement instrument)
    short pipe with a constricted inner surface, used to measure fluid flows and as a pump. The 18th–19th-century Italian physicist Giovanni Battista Venturi, observing the effects of constricted channels on fluid flow, designed an instrument with a narrow throat in the middle; fluid passing through the tube speeds up as it enters the throat, and the pressure drops. There are countless applica...
  • venturi nozzle (measurement instrument)
    short pipe with a constricted inner surface, used to measure fluid flows and as a pump. The 18th–19th-century Italian physicist Giovanni Battista Venturi, observing the effects of constricted channels on fluid flow, designed an instrument with a narrow throat in the middle; fluid passing through the tube speeds up as it enters the throat, and the pressure drops. There are countless applica...
  • Venturi, Robert (American architect)
    American architect who proposed alternatives to the functionalist mainstream of 20th-century American architectural design. He became the unofficial dean of the eclectic movement known as postmodernism....
  • Venturi, Robert Charles (American architect)
    American architect who proposed alternatives to the functionalist mainstream of 20th-century American architectural design. He became the unofficial dean of the eclectic movement known as postmodernism....
  • venturi tube (measurement instrument)
    short pipe with a constricted inner surface, used to measure fluid flows and as a pump. The 18th–19th-century Italian physicist Giovanni Battista Venturi, observing the effects of constricted channels on fluid flow, designed an instrument with a narrow throat in the middle; fluid passing through the tube speeds up as it enters the throat, and the pressure drops. There are countless applica...
  • Venturia inaequalis (biology)
    ...include such important plant pathogens as powdery mildew of grape (Uncinula necator), Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma ulmi), and the chestnut blight (Endothia parasitica). Venturia inequalis, the cause of apple scab. Perhaps the most indispensable fungus of all is an ascomycete, the common yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), whose varieties leaven the dough in......
  • Venturia inequalis (biology)
    ...include such important plant pathogens as powdery mildew of grape (Uncinula necator), Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma ulmi), and the chestnut blight (Endothia parasitica). Venturia inequalis, the cause of apple scab. Perhaps the most indispensable fungus of all is an ascomycete, the common yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), whose varieties leaven the dough in......
  • veṇu (musical instrument)
    ...and one or more drone instruments. The most commonly heard main melody instruments are the vīṇā, a long-necked, fretted, plucked lute with seven strings; the veṇu, a side-blown bamboo flute; the nagaswaram, a long, oboe-like, double-reed instrument with finger holes; the violin, imported from the West about 200 years ago, played while......
  • venue (law)
    in law, locality in which a criminal offense or civil litigation is to be conducted. The concept of venue involves important issues of public policy in the adjudication of crimes....
  • Venugopal Wild Life Park (park, India)
    Somnāthpur, to the east, has a temple built (1268) under the Hoysaḷa dynasty. Bandipur Sanctuary, part of the Venugopal Wild Life Park (1941), is usually approached from Mysore; it is noted for herds of gaur (Indian bison) and spotted deer, has a network of roads for observation, and adjoins Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nādu state....
  • Venugrama (India)
    city, northwestern Karnātaka (formerly Mysore) state, southern India. It is located in the Western Ghāts at an elevation of 2,500 feet (760 m) above sea level. The city dates from the 12th century. It later exercised strategic control over the plateau routes to Goa and the western coast. Its early name, Venugrama, is said to be derived from the bamboos characteristic of the region. ...
  • venule (anatomy)
    ...that they receive and distribute. From the capillaries, the blood, now depleted of oxygen and burdened with waste products, moving more slowly and under low pressure, enters small vessels called venules that converge to form veins, ultimately guiding the blood on its way back to the heart....
  • Venus (Illinois, United States)
    city, Hancock county, western Illinois, U.S. It lies along the Mississippi River, about 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Burlington, Iowa. The area was long inhabited by Sauk and Fox Indians before American settlement. Permanent settlement was begun in 1824 by Captain James White, and the area soon became k...
  • Venus (Roman goddess)
    ancient Italian goddess associated with cultivated fields and gardens and later identified by the Romans with the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite....
  • Venus (planet)
    second planet from the Sun and sixth in the solar system in size and mass. No planet approaches closer to Earth than Venus; at its nearest it is the closest large body to Earth other than the Moon. Because Venus’s orbit is nearer the Sun than Earth’s, the planet is always roughly in the same direction in the sky as the Sun and can be seen only in...
  • Venus (film by Michell)
    ...Lawrence of Arabia, Becket, The Lion in Winter, Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Ruling Class, The Stunt Man, My Favorite Year, and Venus (2006); in 2002 he was awarded an honorary Oscar. He received an Emmy Award for his performance as Bishop Cauchon in the television miniseries Joan of Arc (1999)....
  • Venus and Adonis (opera by Blow)
    organist and composer, remembered for his church music and for Venus and Adonis, which is regarded as the earliest surviving English opera....
  • Venus and Adonis (poem by Shakespeare)
    ...a munificent patron of writers, including Barnabe Barnes, Thomas Nashe, and Gervase Markham. He is best known, however, as the patron of Shakespeare, who dedicated the poems Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594) to him. It has also been argued, albeit inconclusively, that Shakespeare’s sonnets were addressed to hi...
  • Venus and Adonis (painting by Titian)
    ...in pairs, but otherwise they do not constitute a comprehensive iconographic program. The first pair (still in Madrid) consists of the Danae with Nursemaid and the Venus and Adonis. The magnificent nude Danae lies upon her couch, knees raised, as Jupiter descends to her in the form of golden rain, and her nursemaid rather amusingly......
  • Venus and Adonis stanza (poetry)
    a stanza consisting of an iambic pentameter quatrain and couplet with the rhyme scheme ababcc. The stanza was so called because it was used by William Shakespeare in his poem Venus and Adonis (1593)....
  • Venus and Cupid with an Organist (painting by Titian)
    The Venus and Cupid with an Organist and the Venus and the Lute Player are variations on the theme of the earlier Venus of Urbino. Aside from the emphasis on the idealized beauty of the nude goddess, it is generally believed that symbolism is involved in these pictures, although the precise meanings have been......
  • Venus and Mars (painting by Botticelli)
    ...are four of Botticelli’s most famous works: Primavera (c. 1477–82), Pallas and the Centaur (c. 1485), Venus and Mars (c. 1485), and The Birth of Venus (c. 1485 [see above]). The Primavera, or ...
  • Venus and the Lute Player (painting by Titian)
    The Venus and Cupid with an Organist and the Venus and the Lute Player are variations on the theme of the earlier Venus of Urbino. Aside from the emphasis on the idealized beauty of the nude goddess, it is generally believed that symbolism is involved in these pictures, although the precise meanings have been......
  • venus clam (bivalve)
    ...quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria), also known as the cherrystone clam, littleneck clam, or hard-shell clam, and the southern quahog (M. campechiensis) belong to the family of venus clams (Veneridae). M. mercenaria is about 7.5 to 12.5 cm (3 to 5 inches) long. The dingy white shell, which is thick and rounded and has prominent concentric lines, is found in the......
  • Venus comb (marine snail)
    marine snail, a species of murex....
  • Venus de Milo (sculpture)
    ancient statue of Aphrodite, now in Paris at the Louvre Museum. Carved by a sculptor of Antioch on the Maeander River in about 150 bc, it was found on the Aegean island of Melos in 1820. The general composition derives from a 4th-century Corinthian statue. The action and modernized drapery give the Venus great nobility. The statue is a conspicuous example of the H...
  • Venus Express (spacecraft)
    The European Space Agency’s Venus Express, which was launched in 2005, entered into orbit around Venus the following year, becoming the first European spacecraft to visit the planet. Venus Express carried a camera, a visible-light and infrared imaging spectrometer, and other instruments to study Venus’s magnetic field, plasma environment, atmosphere, and surface for a planned mission...
  • Venus figurine (archaeology)
    Neanderthals and other prehistoric peoples used natural amulets in burials, and so-called Venus figurines dating to about 25,000 bc may be among the earliest of man-made amulets. The MacGregor papyrus of ancient Egypt lists 75 amulets. One of the commonest was the scarab beetle, worn by the living and dead alike. The scarab (q.v.) symbolized life—perhaps because it push...
  • Venus in the Cloister; or, The Nun in Her Smock (book)
    ...Edmund Curll became the first person to be convicted on a charge of obscenity in England in the common law (as opposed to the ecclesiastical) courts, for his publication of a new edition of Venus in the Cloister; or, The Nun in Her Smock, a mildly pornographic work that had been written several decades earlier; his sentence, a fine and one hour in the pillory, was delayed because.....
  • Venus of Urbino (painting by Titian)
    The standard for the reclining nude female obliquely placed in the picture space was established by Giorgione in the Sleeping Venus. In Titian’s Venus of Urbino the ideal rendering of the body and the position remain virtually unchanged, except that the goddess is awake and reclines upon a couch within the spacious room of a palace. ...
  • Venus, Temple of (building, Baiae, Italy)
    ...(about 71 feet [21.5 metres] in diameter) dates from the late Republic. Reminiscent in its present condition of the Pantheon, it was the swimming pool of a large bath. The “temples” of Venus and Diana are of the Hadrianic period (2nd century ad) and are somewhat larger. Venus, which is 86 feet (26.3 metres) in diameter, was also a bath’s swimming pool, while D...
  • “Venus Victrix” (sculpture by Canova)
    ...Among his works are the tombs of popes Clement XIV (1783–87) and Clement XIII (1787–92) and statues of Napoleon and of his sister Princess Borghese reclining as Venus Victrix. He was created a marquis for his part in retrieving works of art from Paris after Napoleon’s defeat....
  • Venus with a Mirror (painting by Titian)
    The Venus with a Mirror (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), the one original among several versions, is a natural theme for the goddess of love and beauty. Yet Titian is the first artist to show her with a mirror held by Cupid. Her form is somewhat more heroic than hitherto, and her head to a limited degree is inspired by ancient sculpture. The superb......
  • Venusia (Italy)
    town and episcopal see, Basilicata regione, southern Italy. It is situated on the lower slope of Mount Vulcano, north of Potenza. Originally a settlement of the Lucanians (an ancient Italic tribe), it was taken by the Romans after the Samnite Wars (291 bc); from its position on the Appian Way it became an important Roman garrison town. The poet Horace was bo...
  • Venus’s flower basket (sponge)
    any of several sponges of the genus Euplectella, especially E. aspergillum (class Hyalospongiae, glass sponges). The name Venus’s flower basket derives from the sponges’ delicate, white, latticelike skeletons. In the living animal the skeleton is covered by a thin layer of cells. E. aspergillum is found in a small area of the sea near...
  • Venus’s girdle (jellyfish)
    (Cestum veneris) ribbon-shaped comb jelly of the order Cestida (phylum Ctenophora) found in the Mediterranean Sea. Its graceful, transparent body, which is a delicate violet in colour, is 1 metre (about 40 inches) or more long and about 5 cm (2 inches) wide. It has a well-developed musculature and swims with an undulating motion....
  • Venus’s looking glass (plant)
    (Legousia, or Specularia, speculum-veneris), species of annual herb of the bellflower family (Campanulaceae), native to sandy, sunny parts of the Mediterranean region. It is grown as a garden ornamental for its blue, violet, or white, wide-open, bell-shaped flowers. The long calyx (collection of fused sepals) resembles a mirror handle and is the source of the plant’s common n...
  • Venus’s-flytrap (plant)
    (species Dionaea muscipula), flowering perennial plant of the sundew family (Droseraceae), notable for its unusual habit of catching and digesting insects and other small animals. The only member of its genus, the plant is native to a small region of North and South Carolina, where it is common in damp, mossy areas....
  • Venus’s-hairstone (mineral)
    variety of quartz interspersed with fine crystals of the mineral rutile....
  • venustas (architecture)
    This Latin term for “beauty” (literally, the salient qualities possessed by the goddess Venus) clearly implied a visual quality in architecture that would arouse the emotion of love; but it is of interest to note that one of the crucial aspects of this problem was already anticipated by Alberti in the 15th century, as is made clear by his substitution of the word amoenitas......
  • Venuti, Joe (American musician)
    Lang began playing violin in boyhood; his father, who made fretted stringed instruments, taught him to play guitar. In the early 1920s he played with former schoolmate Joe Venuti in Atlantic City, N.J., and then toured with the Mound City Blue Blowers. He settled in New York City in 1924, where he played in dance bands. He quickly became a favourite in studios, making noted recordings with......
  • Venutius (king of Brigantes)
    ...who had fled to Brigantium to rally support for his cause, and turned him over to the Romans. In so doing she assured continuation of Roman support. From 52 to 57, when her husband and coruler, Venutius, twice attempted to overthrow her by stirring up anti-Roman sentiment, the Roman legions put down the uprisings. Venutius and Cartimandua were reconciled and reigned together until 69, when......
  • Venyukovia (fossil reptile)
    genus of extinct mammallike reptiles (therapsids) that are found as fossils in Permian deposits in eastern Europe (the Permian Period began 299,000,000 years ago and lasted 48,000,000 years). Venyukovia was herbivorous, with primitive teeth; it is thought that Venyukovia may well have been the ancestor of an important group of plant-eating therapsids, the Dicynodontia. Venyukovia...
  • Vep (people)
    ...section: the Mordvin, Mari (formerly Cheremis), Udmurt (Votyak) and Komi (Zyryan), and the closely related Komi-Permyaks live around the upper Volga and in the Urals, while Karelians, Finns, and Veps inhabit the northwest. The Mansi (Vogul) and Khanty (Ostyak) are spread thinly over the lower Ob basin (see Khanty and Mansi)....
  • “Vepkhis-tqaosani” (work by Rustaveli)
    The date of composition of Shota Rustaveli’s Vepkhvistqaosani (The Knight in the Panther’s Skin) can only be conjectured. It is not mentioned in the chronicle Istoriani da azmani sharavandedtani (Histories and Praises of Crowned Monarchs), composed just after Queen Tamara’s death (c. 121...
  • “Vepkhvistqaosani” (work by Rustaveli)
    The date of composition of Shota Rustaveli’s Vepkhvistqaosani (The Knight in the Panther’s Skin) can only be conjectured. It is not mentioned in the chronicle Istoriani da azmani sharavandedtani (Histories and Praises of Crowned Monarchs), composed just after Queen Tamara’s death (c. 121...
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