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De re anatomica (work by Colombo)
De re anatomica (1559; “On Things Anatomical”), his only formal written work, includes several important original observations derived from his dissections on both living animals and human cadavers. His descriptions of the mediastinum (organs and tissues within the thoracic cavity, excluding the lungs), pleura (membrane surrounding the lungs), and peritoneum (membrane......
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De Re Diplomatica (book by Mabillon)
...Renaissance Humanists to denote formal documents of ancient rulers. The interest in and description of such documents came to be called res diplomatica after the famous 17th-century work De Re Diplomatica Libri VI, by Jean Mabillon, a member of the scholarly Benedictine congregation of Saint-Maur. Mabillon’s work first made the study of old documents a reputable science....
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De re metallica (work by Agricola)
During the Middle Ages the rise of metalliferous mining in central Europe inspired the German mineralogist Georgius Agricola to make a detailed study of gold-and silver-mining operations. In his De Re Metallica, published posthumously in 1556, Agricola described the primitive methods of ventilation and personal protection in use, common mining accidents and disasters, and such miners...
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De re militari et de bello (work by Belli)
After serving as commander in chief of the army of the Holy Roman Empire in Piedmont, Belli was appointed (1560) a councillor of state by Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy. His book De re militari et de bello (1563) was for its time an unusually thorough treatment of military law and the rules for conducting war....
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De recuperatione Terrae Sanctae (work by Dubois)
French lawyer and political pamphleteer during the reign of Philip IV the Fair; his most important treatise, De recuperatione Terrae Sanctae (1306, “On the Recovery of the Holy Land”), dealt with a wide range of political issues and gave a good picture of contemporary intellectual trends while ostensibly outlining the conditions for a successful crusade....
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De reditu suo (work by Rutilius Claudius Namatianus)
Roman poet who was the author of an elegiac poem, De reditu suo, describing a journey from Rome to his native Gaul in the autumn of ad 417. The poem is chiefly interesting for the light it throws on the ideology of the pagan landowning aristocracy of the rapidly disintegrating Western Roman Empire....
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De reductione aequationum (work by Hudde)
Born of a patrician family, Hudde served for some 30 years as burgomaster of Amsterdam. In his De reductione aequationum (1713; “Concerning Reduction of Equations”), he was the first to take literal coefficients in algebra as indifferently positive or negative. Two of his discoveries, dating from 1657 to 1658, are known as Hudde’s rules and point clearly toward algorith...
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“De rege et regis institutione” (treatise by Mariana)
A man of liberal mind, Mariana disturbed his superiors with his defense of the heretic Arioso Montano and with his De rege et regis institutione (1598; The King and the Education of the King, 1948), a treatise on government that argued that the overthrow of a tyrant was justifiable under certain conditions. With the assassination of Henry IV of France in 1610, there was an outcry......
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“De regimine principum” (work by Hoccleve)
In 1411 he produced The Regement of Princes, or De regimine principum, culled from a 13th-century work of the same name, for Henry, Prince of Wales. A tedious homily, it contains a touching accolade to Chaucer, whose portrait Hoccleve had painted on the manuscript to ensure that his appearance would not be forgotten. In his later years Hoccleve turned from the ballads addressed to......
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“De regulis iuris” (work by Bulgarus)
...Azzone, and Franciscus Accursius—ultimately prevailed, and Bulgarus himself served as adviser to the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. His most important book, De regulis iuris (On the Rules of Law), is the earliest extant legal gloss from the Bolognese school....
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“De Republica” (work by Cicero)
...marked his new alliance. He was obliged to accept a number of distasteful defenses, and he abandoned public life. In the next few years he completed the De oratore (55) and De republica (started in 54, finished in 52) and began the De legibus (52). In 52 he was delighted when Milo killed Clodius but failed disastrously in his defense of Milo (later written......
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“De rerum natura” (work by Lucretius)
...one single atom had once made a single slight swerve, the build-up of observed phenomena could be accounted for on Darwinian lines. Democritus’ account of evolution survives in the fifth book of De rerum natura, written by a 1st-century-bc Roman poet, Lucretius. The credibility of both Democritus’ and Darwin’s accounts of evolution depends on the assump...
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“De rerum naturis” (work by Rabanus)
...and writings, he is important specifically for quoting and recapitulating the heritage of learning that he gathered from classical and early Christian authors. His most extensive work is the De rerum naturis (842–847; “On the Nature of Things”), also known as De universo (“On the Universe”), an encyclopaedia of knowledge in 22 books synthesizing....
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“De Rerum Originatione” (work by Leibniz)
...the two; rather, the Supreme Watchmaker has so exactly matched body and soul that they correspond—they give meaning to each other—from the beginning. In 1697, De Rerum Originatione (On the Ultimate Origin of Things) tried to prove that the ultimate origin of things can be none other than God. In 1698, De Ipsa Natura (“On Nature Itself”) explained the......
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De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI (work by Copernicus)
...Brandenburg-Nürnberg Church Order (1532) and compiled the liturgically conservative Pfalz-Neuberg Church Order (1543). By substituting his own preface in 1543 to Nicolaus Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI (“Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs”), which introduced Copernican theories in a purely hypothetical......
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de Rham, Georges (Swiss mathematician)
...Brandenburg-Nürnberg Church Order (1532) and compiled the liturgically conservative Pfalz-Neuberg Church Order (1543). By substituting his own preface in 1543 to Nicolaus Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI (“Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs”), which introduced Copernican theories in a purely hypothetical......
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De Roberto, Federico (Italian author)
...put down in an unfamiliar milieu and—as would happen in real life—left to pick up the threads from gossip and chance remarks. Another verista, Federico De Roberto, in his novel I vicerè (1894; The Viceroys), has given a cynical and wryly funny account of an aristocratic Sicilian family that adapted all too......
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De Roma triumphante (work by Biondo)
...and to the condottiere Francesco Sforza, he wrote De Roma instaurata, 3 vol. (1444–46; “Rome Restored”), a reconstruction of ancient Roman topography. In 1459 he wrote De Roma triumphante, a discussion of pagan Rome as a model for new reform in administrative and military institutions. The book was extremely influential, serving both to provide a new conceptio...
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De Rossa, Proinsias (Irish politician)
...the Workers’ Party in 1992 and went on to serve in the government of the Irish republic between 1994 and 1997. In 1999 the party was incorporated into the Labour Party, and Democratic Left leader Proinsias De Rossa became Labour Party president....
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De Rudimentis Hebraicis (work by Reuchlin)
...1512. Reuchlin was a pioneer in the scientific study of classical Greek and translated many classical texts. In the 1490s he became interested in Hebrew, and in 1506 there appeared his celebrated De Rudimentis Hebraicis (“On the Fundamentals of Hebrew”), a grammar and lexicon that was of great importance in promoting the scientific study of Hebrew and hence of the Old......
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De Ruyter, Michiel Adriaanszoon (Dutch admiral)
Dutch seaman and one of his country’s greatest admirals. His brilliant naval victories in the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch wars enabled the United Provinces to maintain a balance of power with England....
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De sacramentis corporis et sanguinis Dominici (work by Alger of Liège)
...et justitia (“On Mercy and Justice”), a collection of biblical and patristic extracts with a commentary—an important work for the history of church law and discipline; De sacramentis corporis et sanguinis Dominici (“Concerning the Sacraments of the Body and the Blood of the Lord”), a treatise on the Eucharist in opposition to the Berengari...
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De sacro altaris mysterio (work by Innocent III)
The modern colour sequence of the Roman Catholic Church was first outlined in Pope Innocent III’s treatise De sacro altaris mysterio (Book I, chapter 65, written before his election as pope in 1198), though some variations are admitted. White, as a symbol of purity, is used on all feasts of the Lord (including Maundy Thursday and All Saints’) and feasts of confessors and virgi...
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De Sanctis, Francesco (Italian critic)
Italian literary critic whose work contributed significantly to the understanding of Italian literature and civilization....
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De Santis, Giuseppe (Italian director)
Italian film director whose Riso amaro (Bitter Rice) was considered the first successful Neorealist film and established his career; in 1995 he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Berlin Film Festival (b. Feb. 11, 1917--d. May 16, 1997)....
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De Santis, Pasqualino (Italian cinematographer)
Original Screenplay: Mel Brooks for The ProducersAdapted Screenplay: James Goldman for The Lion in WinterCinematography: Pasqualino De Santis for Romeo and JulietArt Direction: John Box and Terence Marsh for Oliver!Original Score for a Motion Picture: John Barry for The Lion in WinterScore of a Musical Picture Original or Adaptation:......
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De Sapientia Veterum (essay by Bacon)
...Even then, his political influence remained negligible, a fact that he came to attribute to the power and jealousy of Cecil, by then earl of Salisbury and the King’s chief minister. In 1609 his De Sapientia Veterum (“The Wisdom of the Ancients”), in which he expounded what he took to be the hidden practical meaning embodied in ancient myths, came out and proved to be...
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De sarcienda ecclesiae concordia (work by Erasmus)
...Philipp Melanchthon’s Augsburg Confession was to initiate the first meaningful discussions between Lutheran and Catholic theologians. He nonetheless encouraged such discussion in De sarcienda ecclesiae concordia (1533), which suggested that differences on the crucial doctrine of justification might be reconciled by considering a duplex.....
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“De Sedibus et Causis Morborum per Anatomen Indagatis” (work by Morgagni)
The autopsy came of age with Giovanni Morgagni, the father of modern pathology, who in 1761 described what could be seen in the body with the naked eye. In his voluminous work On the Seats and Causes of Diseases as Investigated by Anatomy, he compared the symptoms and observations in some 700 patients with the anatomical findings upon examining their bodies. Thus, in Morgagni’s work ...
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De septem donis Spiritu Sancti (work by Stephen of Bourbon)
One of the earliest extant sources for the Joan legend is the De septem donis Spiritu Sancti (“The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit”) by the 13th-century French Dominican Stephen of Bourbon, who dated Joan’s election c. 1100. In this account the nameless pontiff was a clever scribe who became a papal notary and later was elected pope; pregnant at the time of her......
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De Sica, Vittorio (Italian director)
film director and actor who was a major figure in the Italian Neorealist movement....
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De significatu verborum (work by Verrius Flaccus)
Latin grammarian who made an abridgment in 20 books, arranged alphabetically, of Marcus Verrius Flaccus’ De significatu verborum (“On the Meaning of Words”), a work that is otherwise lost. A storehouse of antiquarian learning, it preserves by quotation the work of other authors that has not survived elsewhere. The first half of Festus’ work, too, is lost, but a f...
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De sinibus, chordis et arcubus (work by Levi ben Gershom)
In 1321 Levi wrote his first work, Sefer ha-mispar (“Book of the Number”), dealing with arithmetical operations, including extraction of roots. In De sinibus, chordis et arcubus (1342; “On Sines, Chords, and Arcs”) he presented an original derivation of the sine theorem for plane triangles and tables of sines calculated to five decimal places. On the......
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De Sitter model (astronomy)
De Sitter’s concept of the universe differed in some respects from that of Einstein. Einstein’s relativistic conception of curved space led him to envision the universe as static and unchanging in size, but de Sitter maintained that relativity actually implied that the universe was constantly expanding. This view was later supported by Edwin Hubble’s observations of distant ga...
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De Sitter universe (astronomy)
De Sitter’s concept of the universe differed in some respects from that of Einstein. Einstein’s relativistic conception of curved space led him to envision the universe as static and unchanging in size, but de Sitter maintained that relativity actually implied that the universe was constantly expanding. This view was later supported by Edwin Hubble’s observations of distant ga...
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De situ orbis (work by Mela)
author of the only ancient treatise on geography in classical Latin, De situ orbis (“A Description of the World”), also known as De chorographia (“Concerning Chorography”). Written about ad 43 or 44, it remained influential until the beginning of the age of exploration, 13 centuries later. Though probably intended for the general reader, Mela...
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de Smedt, Edward (American engineer)
...bitumen to draw upon and where engineers were therefore forced to study the principles behind the behaviour of this material. The first steps came in the 1860s, with the work of Belgian immigrant Edward de Smedt at Columbia University in New York City. De Smedt conducted his first tests in New Jersey in 1870 and by 1872 was producing the equivalent of a modern “well-graded”......
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De Smet (South Dakota, United States)
city, seat (1880) of Kingsbury county, east-central South Dakota, U.S. It lies about 70 miles (110 km) northwest of Sioux Falls, about halfway between Huron (west) and Brookings (east). It was settled in 1879 during construction of the railroad and was named for Pierre-Jean de Smet, a Belgian Jesuit miss...
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“De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus” (work by Steno)
Steno traveled extensively in Italy, and in 1669 he published his geological observations in De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento dissertationis prodromus (The Prodromus of Nicolaus Steno’s Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body Enclosed by Process of Nature Within a Solid). In this work, a milestone in the literature of geology, he laid the foundations of the science of...
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“De sophisticis elenchis” (work by Aristotle)
It is possible that two of Aristotle’s surviving works on logic and disputation, the Topics and the Sophistical Refutations, belong to this early period. The former demonstrates how to construct arguments for a position one has already decided to adopt; the latter shows how to detect weaknesses in the arguments of others. Although neither wo...
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de Soto, Hernando (Spanish explorer)
Spanish explorer and conquistador who participated in the conquests of Central America and Peru and, in the course of exploring what was to become the southeastern United States, discovered the Mississippi River....
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de Souza Faria, Romário (Brazilian athlete)
Idolized by the public, the despair of authority--Brazilian association football (soccer) player Romário de Souza Faria was one of the sport’s most colourful players. In 1994 he led Brazil to victory and won the Golden Ball as the most gifted performer in the World Cup....
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de Souza, Isidore (Benin archbishop)
Benin religious figure who served as Roman Catholic archbishop of Cotonou from 1991; he was a major force in his country’s transition to a multiparty democracy (b. April 4, 1934, Ouidah, Dahomey, French West Africa [now Benin]—d. March 13, 1999, Grand Popo, Benin)....
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De Souza, Ivo (Jamaican diplomat)
Jamaican diplomat who served as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II and in 1953 founded the British Caribbean Welfare Service, which he headed until 1962, when he joined the diplomatic service of the newly independent Jamaica and helped foster international relations, notably in promoting free trade among other less-developed nations (b. Aug. 24, 1918--d. Jan. 19, 1997)....
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“De spiritu et littera” (work by Augustine)
...on Pelagianism have had a long history in Christianity, notoriously resurfacing in the Reformation’s debates over free will and predestination. De spiritu et littera (412; On the Spirit and the Letter) comes from an early moment in the controversy, is relatively irenic, and beautifully sets forth his point of view. De gratia Christi et de peccato......
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De spirituali amicitia (work by Saint Aelred of Rievaulx)
Aelred’s surviving works deal with either devotion or history. De spirituali amicitia (Spiritual Friendship), considered to be his greatest work, is a Christian counterpart of Cicero’s De amicitia and designates Christ as the source and ultimate impetus of spiritual friendship. His historical works include the incomplete Genealogia regum Anglorum....
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“De Statica Medicina” (work by Santorio)
...in relation to his solid and liquid excretions. After 30 years of continuous experimentation, he found that the sum total of visible excreta was less than the amount of substance ingested. His De Statica Medicina (1614; “On Medical Measurement”) was the first systematic study of basal metabolism....
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De Statu Ecclesiae et Legitima Potestate Romani Pontificis (work by Hontheim)
Under the pseudonym Justinus Febronius he published in 1763 his most important work, De Statu Ecclesiae et Legitima Potestate Romani Pontificis (“Concerning the State of the Church and the Legitimate Power of the Roman Pope”). Moved by concern over a divided Christendom and influenced by 18th-century rationalism, Hontheim urged the limitation of papal power and its subjection....
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“De Statu Imperii Germanici ad Laelium Fratrem Dominum Trezolani Liber Unus” (work by Pufendorf)
...chair of natural law for Pufendorf in the arts faculty at the University of Heidelberg—the first of its kind in Germany. From 1661 to 1668 Pufendorf taught at Heidelberg, where he wrote The Present State of Germany (1667). Written under the pseudonym Severnius de Monzabano Veronensis, the work was a bitter attack on the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire and the house of....
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De Stella Nova (work by Kepler)
...Astronomia Nova [New Astronomy]), he also wrote important treatises on the nature of light and on the sudden appearance of a new star (1606; De Stella Nova, “On the New Star”). Kepler first noticed the star—now known to have been a supernova—in October 1604, not long after a conjunction of Jupiter and Sat...
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“De Stella Nova in Pede Serpentarii” (work by Kepler)
...Astronomia Nova [New Astronomy]), he also wrote important treatises on the nature of light and on the sudden appearance of a new star (1606; De Stella Nova, “On the New Star”). Kepler first noticed the star—now known to have been a supernova—in October 1604, not long after a conjunction of Jupiter and Sat...
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De Studio Militari (work by Upton)
...was produced about 1394. Then came a Welsh treatise by John Trevor, the Llyfr arfau (“Book of Arms”). Nicholas Upton, a canon of Salisbury Cathedral, about 1440 wrote De studio militari (“On Military Studies”). John of Guildford’s treatise was printed in 1654 with Upton’s work and the Aspilogia of Sir Henry Spelman...
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De studio theologico (work by Nicholas of Clémanges)
...the Fruit of Seclusion”), written at the height of the papal crisis in 1408, proposed criteria for settling the schism. In addition to several biblical commentaries he composed the tract De studio theologico (“On Theological Study”), in which he criticized the abstractions of medieval scholastic philosophy and urged theologians to a more direct exposition of biblical...
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De subitaneis mortibus (work by Lancisi)
...he related the prevalence of malaria in swampy districts to the presence of mosquitoes and recommended drainage of the swamps to prevent the disease. He wrote the classic monograph De subitaneis mortibus (1707; “On Sudden Death”) at the request of Clement XI to explain an increase in the number of sudden deaths in Rome. Lancisi attributed sudden death to such......
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De subtilitate rerum (work by Cardano)
...a century before Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat. Cardano’s popular fame was based largely on books dealing with scientific and philosophical questions, especially De subtilitate rerum (“The Subtlety of Things”), a collection of physical experiments and inventions, interspersed with anecdotes....
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De sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia (work by Petrarch)
...time from 1370 between Padua and Arquà, in the neighbouring Euganean hills, where he had a little house. There he wrote the defense of his Humanism against the critical attack from Venice, De sui ipsius et multorum ignorantia. He was still in great demand as a diplomat; in 1370 he was called to Rome by Urban V, and he set off eager to see the fulfillment of his great dream of a ne...
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“De summa temporum vel origine actibusque gentis Romanorum” (work by Jordanes)
...lived in a Roman province on the lower Danube River. In the title of the work, Jordanes confuses the Goths with the Getae, a wholly distinct people. Jordanes’ other extant work is the chronicle De summa temporum vel origine actibusque gentis Romanorum (“The High Point of Time, or the Origin and Deeds of the Roman People”), also completed in 551 and called the Roma...
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De Tactu (work by Weber)
...he conducted many anatomical investigations, he is known chiefly for his work on sensory response to weight, temperature, and pressure; he described a number of his experiments in this area in De Tactu (1834; “Concerning Touch”). Weber determined that there was a threshold of sensation that must be passed before an increase in the intensity of any stimulus could be......
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De tal palo tal astilla (work by Pereda)
...“The Unfettered Ox”); Don Gonzalo González de la Gonzalera (1879), a satire on the revolution of 1868 and a eulogy of the old patriarchal system of government; and De tal palo tal astilla (1880; “As the Wood, So the Chips”), a protest by a rigid Catholic against the liberal religious tendencies advocated by his friend Benito Pérez......
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De temporibus suis (work by Cicero)
...is a minor but by no means negligible figure in the history of Latin poetry. His best known poems (which survive only in fragments) were the epics De consulatu suo (On His Consulship) and De temporibus suis (On His Life and Times), which were criticized in antiquity for their self-praise. Cicero’s verse is technically important; he refined the hexameter, using words ...
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De temporum ratione (work by Bede)
...scriptural commentary, and historical and biographical. His earliest works include treatises on spelling, hymns, figures of speech, verse, and epigrams. His first treatise on chronology, De temporibus (“On Times”), with a brief chronicle attached, was written in 703. In 725 he completed a greatly amplified version, De temporum ratione (“On the Reckoning......
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De Tham (Vietnamese patriot)
Vietnamese resistance fighter and enemy of French colonialism during the first two decades of French rule in Indochina....
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De thematibus (work by Constantine VII)
...Constantine had apparently inherited a passion for learning and writing; he worked full-time at it until he was almost 40, when he became sole emperor. Nor did he change tastes thereafter. De thematibus, probably his earliest book, is mainly a compilation of older sources on the origins and development of the provinces of the empire. An apologetic biography of his grandfather Basil......
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De Thessalonica urbe a Normannis capta (work by Eustathius of Thessalonica)
During the siege and sack of Thessalonica in 1185 by the Normans under William II of Sicily, Eustathius bargained with the invaders for the safety of his people. He recounted these events in his De Thessalonica urbe a Normannis capta (“On the Conquest of Thessalonica by the Normans”). Opposing the formalism petrifying the Eastern Church, he criticized clerical complacency in.....
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de Tirtoff, Romain (Russian designer)
fashion illustrator of the 1920s and creator of visual spectacle for French music-hall revues. His designs included dresses and accessories for women; costumes and sets for opera, ballet, and dramatic productions; and posters and prints. (His byname was derived from the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T.)...
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de Toni–Fanconi syndrome (pathology)
a metabolic disorder affecting kidney transport, characterized by the failure of the kidney tubules to reabsorb water, phosphate, potassium, glucose, amino acids, and other substances. When the disorder is accompanied by cystinosis, a deposition of cystine crystals, it is called Fanconi’s syndrome; there is some variation, however, in the designation o...
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De Toth, André (Hungarian director)
Hungarian-born film and television director (b. May 15, 1913?, Mako, Austria-Hungary—d. Oct. 27, 2002, Burbank, Calif.), made a number of raw, violent, and psychologically disturbing B movies, including Ramrod (1947), Pitfall (1948), and Crime Wave (1954), that gained him a cult following, but he became best known to the general public for House of Wax (1953), co...
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de Tott, Baron François (French military officer)
...on the central government’s inability to extend its authority over the local rulers (aʿyān) of its provinces in Europe and Asia. Assisted by Baron François de Tott, a French artillery officer, they were more successful in their military reforms: the artillery corps was reorganized, an engineering school closed by the Janissaries...
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De triangulis omnimodis (work by Regiomontanus)
Regiomontanus thoroughly mastered Hellenistic and medieval mathematics. His own contributions to the subject range from the formalization of plane and spherical trigonometry in De triangulis omnimodis (1464; “On Triangles of All Kinds”) to his discovery of a Greek manuscript (incomplete) of Arithmetica, the great work of Diophantus of Alexandria (fl. c.......
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De trinitate (work by Novatian)
Novatian’s apologetic De trinitate (“On the Trinity”), considered to be his most important work, summarizes and defends the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity against contemporary heresies. In De cibis Judaicis (“Concerning Jewish Foods”), he points out that dietary laws and other practical prohibitions of the Old Testament must be understood spiritua...
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“De Trinitate” (work by Augustine)
...the Holy Spirit alone guarantees the complete redemption of humanity: “through participation in the Holy Spirit we partake of the divine nature.” In his work De Trinitate (“On the Trinity”), Augustine undertook to render the essence of the Trinity understandable in terms of the Trinitarian structure of the human person: the Holy Spirit......
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De Trinitatis erroribus librii vii (work by Servetus)
...Lyon, Geneva, and Basel. At Basel and Strasbourg he met with Reformation leaders John Oecolampadius, Martin Bucer, and Kaspar Schwenckfeld. Servetus published his new ideas on the Trinity in De Trinitatis erroribus libri vii (1531), attacking the orthodox teaching and attempting to form a view of his own, asserting that the Word is eternal, a mode of God’s self-expression, whereas...
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De triumphis ecclesiae (poem by Garland)
...Compendium grammatice (“Outline of Grammar”), Liber de constructionibus (“Book on Constructions”), and a Latin vocabulary. Two of his best-known poems are De triumphis ecclesiae (“On the Triumphs of the Church”), which gives a detailed account of the crusade against the Cathari, and Epithalamium beatae Mariae Virginis......
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De único modo (work by Las Casas)
...After various adventures in Central America, where his ideas on the treatment of the natives invariably brought him into conflict with the Spanish authorities, Las Casas wrote De único modo (1537; “Concerning the Only Way of Drawing All Peoples to the True Religion”), in which he set forth the doctrine of peaceful evangelization of the Indian.......
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“De universo” (work by Rabanus)
...and writings, he is important specifically for quoting and recapitulating the heritage of learning that he gathered from classical and early Christian authors. His most extensive work is the De rerum naturis (842–847; “On the Nature of Things”), also known as De universo (“On the Universe”), an encyclopaedia of knowledge in 22 books synthesizing....
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de Valera, Eamon (president of Ireland)
Irish politician and patriot, prime minister (1932–48, 1951–54, 1957–59), and president (1959–73). An active revolutionary from 1913, he became president of Sinn Féin in 1918 and founded the Fianna Fáil Party in 1924. In 1937 he took the Irish Free State out of the British Commonwealth and made his country a “sovereign” state, renamed Ireland...
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de Valera, Edward (president of Ireland)
Irish politician and patriot, prime minister (1932–48, 1951–54, 1957–59), and president (1959–73). An active revolutionary from 1913, he became president of Sinn Féin in 1918 and founded the Fianna Fáil Party in 1924. In 1937 he took the Irish Free State out of the British Commonwealth and made his country a “sovereign” state, renamed Ireland...
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de Valois, Dame Ninette (Irish dancer)
Irish dancer, choreographer, and founder of the company that in October 1956 became the Royal Ballet. She was influential in establishing ballet in England....
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“De variolis et morbillis” (work by Rhazes)
...who wrote a voluminous treatise on medicine, Kitāb al-hāḳī (“Comprehensive Book”), but whose most famous work, De variolis et morbillis (A Treatise on the Smallpox and Measles), distinguishes between these two diseases and gives a clear description of both....
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de Varona, Donna (American athlete and sportscaster)
American athlete and sportscaster who, after a record-breaking amateur career as a swimmer, established herself as an advocate for women’s and girls’ sports opportunities....
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de Vaucouleurs classification (astronomy)
Other classification schemes similar to Hubble’s follow his pattern but subdivide the galaxies differently. A notable example of one such system is that of de Vaucouleurs. This scheme, which has evolved considerably since its inception in 1959, includes a large number of codes for indicating different kinds of morphological characteristics visible in the images of galaxies (see the t...
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de Vaucouleurs, Gerard (American astronomer)
French-born U.S. astronomer whose pioneering studies of distant galaxies contributed to knowledge of the age and large-scale structure of the universe (b. April 25, 1918--d. Oct. 7, 1995)....
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De Venarum Ostiolis (work by Fabricius ab Aquapendente)
...successor to the chair of surgery and anatomy (1562–1613), Fabricius built a reputation that attracted students from all of Europe. The English anatomist William Harvey was his pupil. In De Venarum Ostiolis (1603; “On the Valves of the Veins”), Fabricius gave the first clear description of the semilunar valves of the veins, which later provided Harvey with a crucial....
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De Vera Intelligentia Auxilii Efficacis (work by Suárez)
...subsequently burned Suárez’ Defensio on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. On the question of man’s ability to effect his own salvation by his works, Suárez, in his De Vera Intelligentia Auxilii Efficacis (1605, pub. 1655), supported the view of the Congruist movement, which held that God gave man sufficient grace to achieve the virtuou...
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De Veritate (work by Herbert of Cherbury)
De Veritate (“On Truth”) was published in Paris in 1624. Thereafter he devoted himself to philosophy, history, and literature. When the Civil War broke out he lacked enthusiasm for either cause; however, he opened Montgomery Castle to the Parliamentary forces in 1644 and met with severe criticism....
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De Veritate Religionis Christianae (work by Grotius)
...(1601; Adam in Exile), which was greatly admired by the English poet John Milton. Grotius also published many theological and politico-theological works, including De Veritate Religionis Christianae (1627; The Truth of the Christian Religion), the book that in his lifetime probably enjoyed the highest popularity among his works....
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de Villepin, Dominique (prime minister of France)
French diplomat, politician, and writer who served as interior minister (2004–05) and prime minister (2005–07) in the neo-Gaullist administration of Pres. Jacques Chirac....
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de Villiers, Dawie (South African athlete)
South African rugby union player who was one of the sport’s greatest scrum halves and captain of the South African national team, the Springboks, from 1965 to 1970. After his playing days ended, he went on to a highly successful political career....
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De Vinna, Clyde (German cinematographer)
Writing: Hans Kraly for The PatriotCinematography: Clyde De Vinna for White Shadows in the South SeasArt Direction: Cedric Gibbons for The Bridge of San Luis Rey and other pictures...
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De Vinne, Theodore L. (American author)
American author of many scholarly books on the history of typography....
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De Vinne, Theodore Low (American author)
American author of many scholarly books on the history of typography....
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“De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius” (work by Galvani)
Galvani delayed the announcement of his findings until 1791, when he published his essay De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius (Commentary on the Effect of Electricity on Muscular Motion). He concluded that animal tissue contained a heretofore neglected innate, vital force, which he termed “animal electricity,” which activated nerve and muscle when......
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De viris illustribus (work by Nepos)
Nepos came, like Catullus, from Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy). His principal writings were De viris illustribus (“On Famous Men”; in at least 16 books), comprising brief biographies of distinguished Romans and foreigners; Chronica (in 3 books), which introduced to the Roman reader a Greek invention, the universal comparative chronology;......
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De viris illustribus (work by Suetonius)
Roman biographer and antiquarian whose writings include De viris illustribus (“Concerning Illustrious Men”), a collection of short biographies of celebrated Roman literary figures, and De vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars). The latter book, seasoned with bits of gossip and scandal relating to the lives of the first 11 emperors, secured him lasting fame....
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De viris illustribus (work by Saint Jerome)
...His petulance in early correspondence with St. Augustine, stemming from the African’s strictures on Jerome’s biblical efforts, imperilled their mutual respect. His catalog of Christian authors, De viris illustribus (“Concerning Illustrious Men”), was written in 392/393 to counter pagan pride in pagan culture. Against the monk Jovinian, who asserted the equalit...
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De viris illustribus (work by Petrarch)
...and some of the vernacular Rime inspired by his love for Laura. At Vaucluse he began to work on Africa, an epic poem on the subject of the Second Punic War. He also began work on De viris illustribus, intended as a series of biographies of heroes from Roman history (later modified to include famous men of all time, beginning with Adam, as Petrarch’s desire to emphasi...
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De viris illustribus (work by Gennadius)
theologian-priest whose work De viris illustribus (“On Famous Men”) constitutes the sole source for biographical and bibliographical information on numerous early Eastern and Western Christian authors....
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De Virtute et Statu Religionis (work by Suárez)
At the request of Pope Paul V and others, he wrote apologetic works on the nature of the Christian state. Among them were De Virtute et Statu Religionis (1608–09) and Defensio Fidei Catholicae (1613), opposing Anglican theologians who defended the claim of kings to rule as God’s earthly representatives. This theory, the divine right of kings, was advanced in England at ...
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“De Vita Caesarum” (work by Suetonius)
...Sirmione, on Lake Garda, though he preferred to live in Rome and owned a villa near the Roman suburb of Tibur, in an unfashionable neighbourhood. According to an anecdote in the Roman biographer Suetonius’ Life of Julius Caesar, Catullus’ father was Caesar’s friend and host, but the son nevertheless lampooned not only the future dictator but also his son-in-law Pompe...
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“De vita contemplativa” (essay by Philo Judaeus)
...settled on the shores of Lake Mareotis in the vicinity of Alexandria, Egypt, during the 1st century ad. The only original account of this community is given in De vita contemplativa (On the Contemplative Life), attributed to Philo of Alexandria. Their origin and fate are both unknown. The sect was unusually severe in discipline and mode of life. According to Philo, t...
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