- Industry: Library & information science
- Number of terms: 49473
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Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books. The ...
Author of the "Faerie Queene," and one of England's greatest poets; details of his life are scanty and often hypothetical; born at London of poor but well-connected parents; entered Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, as a "sizar" in 1569, and during his seven years' residence there became an excellent scholar; took a master's degree, and formed an important friendship with Gabriel Harvey; three years of unsettled life followed, but were fruitful in the production of the "Shepheards' Calendar" (1579), which at once placed him at the head of the English poets of his day; had already taken his place in the best London literary and political circles as the friend of Sir Philip Sidney and Leicester, and in 1580 was appointed private secretary to Lord Grey, then proceeding to Ireland as the Lord Deputy, and although his master soon returned to England Spencer continued to make his home in Ireland, where he obtained some civil appointments, and in 1591 entered into possession of a considerable portion of the forfeited estates of the Earl of Desmond, adjacent to his house, Kilcolman Castle, co. Cork; seems to have been a pretty stern landlord, and, as expounded in his admirable tract, "A View of the Present State of Ireland," the advocate of a policy of "suppression and repression"; consequently was little loved by the Irish, and on the outbreak of Tyrone's rebellion in 1598 his house was sacked and burned, and he himself forced to flee to London, where he died a few weeks later "a ruined and heart-broken man"; the rich promise of the "Shepheards' Calendar" had been amply fulfilled in the "Complaints," "Amoretti," "Colin Clout's Come Home Again," the "Epithalamium" the finest bridal song in any language, and above all in the six published books of "The Faerie Queene" (1589 and 1596), in which all his gifts and graces as a poet are at their best; "He may be read," says Professor Saintsbury, "in childhood, chiefly for his adventure; in later youth, for his display of voluptuous beauty; in manhood, for his historical and ethical weight; in age, for all combined" (1552-1599).
Industry:Language
Authors of the famous parodies "The Rejected Addresses," born at London: James, in business as a solicitor, and Horace, a wealthy stockbroker; both were occasional contributors to the periodical press before the public offer of a prize for the best poetical address to be spoken at the re-opening of Drury Lane Theatre prompted them to issue a series of "Rejected Addresses," parodying the popular writers of the day—Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, etc.; intensely clever, these parodies have never been surpassed in their kind; Horace was also a busy writer of novels now forgotten, and also published two vols. of poetry; James subsequently wrote a number of Charles Mathews' "Entertainments" (James, 1775-1839; Horace, 1779-1849).
Industry:Language
Baptized Jacopo Robusti, a famous Italian artist, one of Ruskin's "five supreme painters," born at Venice; save for a few lessons under Titian he seems to have been self-taught; took for his models Titian and Michael Angelo, and came specially to excel in grandeur of conception and in strong chiaroscuro effects; amongst his most notable pictures are "Belshazzar's Feast," "The Last Supper," "The Crucifixion," "The Last Judgment," "The Resurrection," etc.; some of these are of enormous size (1518-1594).
Industry:Language
Belief in the existence of God associated in general with a belief in Providence and Revelation.
Industry:Language
Belonging to New York State, and comprising the county of Richmond; is a picturesque island (14 m. long), 5 m. SW. of New York, separated from Long Island by the Narrows and from New Jersey by the Kill van Kull and Staten Island Sound; pretty watering-villages skirt its shores, and Forts Richmond and Wadsworth guard the entrance to the Narrows. 2, A lofty, precipitous, and rugged island, snow-clad most of the year, belonging to Argentina, lying to the SE. of Tierra del Fuego, from which it is separated by Le Maire Strait (40 m.).
Industry:Language
Biblical scholar and critic, born at Keig, Aberdeenshire; educated for the Scottish Free Church, became professor of Hebrew in the connection at Aberdeen; was prosecuted for heresy in the matter of the origin of the books of the Old Testament, and finally removed from the chair; became joint-editor of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," and finally professor of Arabic at Cambridge; he was a man of versatile ability, extensive scholarship, keen critical acumen, and he contributed not a little to vindicate the claims of the scholar in regard to the Bible (1846-1894).
Industry:Language
Biblical scholar, born in Saxony; spent his life in textual criticism; his great work "Critical Edition of the New Testament" (1815-1874).
Industry:Language
Biographer of the queens of England, born at Roydon Hall, near Southwold, Suffolk; had already published poems and some minor works before she conceived the plan of writing a series of biographies of the queens of England; these appeared in 12 vols. during 1840-1848, and such was their popularity that a similar work dealing with the queens of Scotland was immediately undertaken; was aided in these by her sister Elizabeth (1794-1875); was the author of various other works, "Lives of the Seven Bishops," "Bachelor Kings of England," etc.; her writings are of no value as history, but are full of entertaining details (1806-1874).
Industry:Language
Bishop and antiquary, born at Market Lavington, Wiltshire; became a graduate and Fellow of Oxford; took orders, and rose to be bishop of St. Asaph; his reputation as a learned and accurate antiquary rests on his two great works "Notitia Monastica, or a Short Account of the Religious Houses in England and Wales," and "Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica," a veritable mine of biographical and bibliographical erudition; bequeathed valuable collections of charters, deeds, etc., to the Bodleian Library (1674-1735).
Industry:Language
Bishop of Bath and Wells, born at Grantham; rose in the Church through a succession of preferments: is credited with the authorship of one of the oldest comedies in the English language, "Gammer Gurton's Needle," turning on the loss and recovery by her of the needle with which she was mending her goodman's breeches (1543-1607).
Industry:Language
