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Albuquerque, Afonso de

(Encyclopedia)Albuquerque, Afonso de əfôNˈzō dĭ əlbo͞okĕrˈkə, –də älˌbəkĕrˈkə [key], 1453–1515, Portuguese admiral, the effective founder of the Portuguese Empire in the East. He first went to ...

Vicente, Gil

(Encyclopedia)Vicente, Gil Port. zhēl vēsĕntˈə, Span. hēl vēthĕnˈtā [key], 1470?–1536?, Portuguese dramatist and poet, considered second only to Camões. Vicente was attached to the courts of the Portug...

Boston Public Library

(Encyclopedia)Boston Public Library, founded in 1848, chiefly through the gift of Joshua Bates, and opened to the public in 1854. It is the oldest free public city library supported by taxation in the world and the...

Da Ponte, Lorenzo

(Encyclopedia)Da Ponte, Lorenzo lōrĕntˈsō dä pônˈtā [key], 1749–1838, Italian librettist and teacher, b. Ceneda as Emmanuele Conegliano. Born Jewish, he converted to Catholicism at 14, became (1773) a pri...

Quental, Antero de

(Encyclopedia)Quental, Antero de äntĕˈrō dĭ kēntälˈ [key], 1842–91, Portuguese poet. A brilliant student at the Univ. of Coimbra, he led the Coimbra dissidents in their opposition to the monarchy and to r...

Burton, Sir Richard Francis

(Encyclopedia)Burton, Sir Richard Francis, 1821–90, English explorer, writer, and linguist. He joined (1842) the service of the East India Company and, while stationed in India, acquired a thorough knowledge of t...

Sirach, book of the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Sirach ēklēˌzēăsˈtĭkəs [key] [Lat. from Gr.,=ecclesiastical], book included in the Septuagint and in the Roman Catholic canon of the Old Testament but not included in the Hebrew Bible and plac...

Mombasa

(Encyclopedia)Mombasa mŏmbăˈsə, –bäˈsə [key], city (1990 est. pop. 537,000), capital of Coast prov., SE Kenya, mostly on Mombasa island in the Indian Ocean and partly on the mainland (with which it is conn...

Mbundu

(Encyclopedia)Mbundu əmbo͞onˈdo͞o [key], black African ethnic group, W Angola. The Mbundu speak Bantu languages and number about 6 million. By the late 15th cent. they had formed the Ndongo kingdom, ruled by th...

Endo, Shusaku

(Encyclopedia)Endo, Shusaku shəsäˈko͝o ĕnˈdō [key], 1923–1996, one of the finest 20th-century Japanese novelists, b. Tokyo. Baptized a Roman Catholic at 11, he is often compared to Graham Greene for his de...
 

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