A-Z Browse

  • Galizien (historical region, Eastern Europe)
    historic region of eastern Europe that was a part of Poland before Austria annexed it in 1772; in the 20th century it was restored to Poland but was later divided between Poland and the Soviet Union....
  • gall (plant disease)
    an abnormal, localized outgrowth or swelling of plant tissue caused by infection from bacteria, fungi, viruses, and nematodes or irritation by insects and mites. See black knot; cedar-apple rust; clubroot; crown gall....
  • Gall (Sioux chief)
    Hunkpapa Sioux war chief, who was one of the most important military leaders at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (June 25, 1876)....
  • gall (biochemistry)
    greenish yellow secretion that is produced in the liver and passed to the gallbladder for concentration, storage, or transport into the first region of the small intestine, the duodenum. Its function is to aid in the digestion of fats in the duodenum. Bile is composed of bile acids and salts, phospholipi...
  • gall bladder (anatomy)
    a muscular membranous sac that stores and concentrates bile, a fluid that is received from the liver and is important in digestion. Situated beneath the liver, the gallbladder is pear-shaped and has a capacity of about 50 ml (1.7 fluid ounces). The inner surface of the gallbladder wall is lined with mucous-membrane tissue similar to that of the small intestine...
  • gall crab (crustacean)
    ...is the little pea crab (Pinnotheridae), which lives within the shells of mussels and a variety of other mollusks, worm-tubes, and echinoderms and shares its hosts’ food; another example is the coral-gall crab (Hapalocarcinidae), which irritates the growing tips of certain corals so that they grow to enclose the female in a stony prison. Many of the sluggish spider crabs (Majidae) cover.....
  • gall fly (insect)
    any of several different species of insects that cause swelling (galls) in the tissues of the plants they feed on. This group includes gall midges and certain fruit flies (order Diptera), gall wasps (order Hymenoptera), some aphids (order Homoptera), and certain species of moths (order Lepidoptera)....
  • Gall, Franz Joseph (German anatomist and physiologist)
    German anatomist and physiologist, a pioneer in ascribing cerebral functions to various areas of the brain (localization). He originated phrenology, the attempt to divine individual intellect and personality from an examination of skull shape....
  • gall gnat (insect)
    any minute, delicate insect (order Diptera) characterized by beaded, somewhat hairy antennae and few veins in the short-haired wings. The brightly coloured larvae live in leaves and flowers, usually causing the formation of tissue swellings (galls). A few live in galls produced by other dipterans. Pupation takes place in the gall or in the soil; the winter is passed in an immatu...
  • gall midge (insect)
    any minute, delicate insect (order Diptera) characterized by beaded, somewhat hairy antennae and few veins in the short-haired wings. The brightly coloured larvae live in leaves and flowers, usually causing the formation of tissue swellings (galls). A few live in galls produced by other dipterans. Pupation takes place in the gall or in the soil; the winter is passed in an immatu...
  • Gall, Saint (Irish saint)
    Irish monk who helped spread Irish influence while introducing Christianity to western Europe....
  • gall wasp (insect)
    any of a group of wasps in the family Cynipidae (order Hymenoptera) that are notable for their ability to stimulate the growth of galls (tissue swellings) on plants. Some gall wasp species are gall inquilines, meaning they do not cause the formation of galls but inhabit those made by other insects. The overgrowth of tissue, or gall, presumably is caused by a substance secreted b...
  • Galla (people)
    one of the two largest ethnolinguistic groups of Ethiopia, constituting nearly one-third of the population and speaking a language of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Hamito-Semitic) family. Originally confined to the southeast of the country, they migrated in waves of invasions in the 16th century ad. They occupied all of southern Ethiopia, with some settling along ...
  • Galla language (language)
    The most important Cushitic languages are Oromo, Somali, and Afar. Oromo, together with Amharic, is one of the two most-spoken languages in Ethiopia; it is native to the western, southwestern, southern, and eastern areas of the country. Somali is dominant among inhabitants of the Ogaden and Hawd, while Afar is most common in the Denakil Plain....
  • Galla Placidia (Roman empress)
    Roman empress, the daughter of the emperor Theodosius I (ruled 379–395), sister of the Western emperor Flavius Honorius (ruled 393–423), wife of the Western emperor Constantius III (ruled 421), and mother of the Western emperor Valentinian III (ruled 425–455)....
  • Galla Placidia, Mausoleum of (mausoleum, Ravenna, Italy)
    One of the earliest of Ravenna’s extant monuments is the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, built in the 5th century ad by Galla Placidia, the sister of the emperor Honorius. Its building technique is Western, but its Latin cross layout, with barrel vaults and a central dome, has Eastern prototypes. The entire upper surface of the mausoleum’s interior is covered with mosaics ...
  • gallabiyah (garment)
    ...of heavy cream-coloured wool decorated with brightly coloured stripes or embroidery. A voluminous outer gown still worn throughout the Middle East in the Arab world is the jellaba, known as the jellabah in Tunisia, a jubbeh in Syria, a ......
  • Gallacini, Teofilo (Italian architect)
    ...before he died) did not appear until well into the 18th century. Other Italian publications tended to be repetitions of earlier ideas with the exception of a tardily published manuscript of Teofilo Gallaccini, whose treatise on the errors of Mannerist and early Baroque architects became a point of departure for later theoreticians....
  • Gallaecia (region, Spain)
    comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) and historic region of Spain encompassing the northwestern provincias (provinces) of Lugo, A Coruña, Pontevedra, and Ourense. It is roughly coextensive with the former k...
  • Gallagher and Shean (American vaudeville team)
    celebrated American vaudeville team especially known for their patter song Absolutely, Mr. Gallagher? Positively, Mr. Shean! Ed Gallagher (in full Edward Gallagher; b. 1863?San Francisco, Calif., U.S.—d. May 28, 1929Astoria, N.Y....
  • Gallagher, Ed (American actor)
    Both men began separate careers as comedy and variety troupers in small-time burlesque and vaudeville before joining in 1910 to form the act of “Gallagher and Shean.” They went separate ways from 1914 to 1920, but in the latter year (at the urging of Shean’s sister Minnie Marx, mother of the Marx Brothers) they rejoined to star in the Shubert Brothers’ Cinderella on ...
  • Gallagher, Edward (American actor)
    Both men began separate careers as comedy and variety troupers in small-time burlesque and vaudeville before joining in 1910 to form the act of “Gallagher and Shean.” They went separate ways from 1914 to 1920, but in the latter year (at the urging of Shean’s sister Minnie Marx, mother of the Marx Brothers) they rejoined to star in the Shubert Brothers’ Cinderella on ...
  • Gallagher, John Patrick (Canadian geologist and industrialist)
    Canadian geologist and industrialist who founded (1950) Dome Petroleum Ltd., built it into a large, successful oil and gas company, and pioneered in exploration in the Beaufort Sea area; he left the company in 1983 as accumulated debt threatened it, and it was taken over in 1988 (b. July 16, 1916, Winnipeg, Man.--d. Dec. 16, 1998, Calgary, Alta.)....
  • Gallagher, Leonora Agnes (American artist)
    American artist whose compositions helped transform weaving from an underappreciated craft into a new form of visual art....
  • Gallagher, Liam (British musician)
    ...(in full Noel Thomas David Gallagher; b. May 29, 1967Manchester) and singer Liam Gallagher (byname of William John Paul Gallagher; b. Sept. 21, 1972Manchester). They we...
  • Gallagher, Noel (British musician)
    Oasis stood for authenticity. At heart the band was two brothers from Manchester, guitarist-songwriter Noel Gallagher (in full Noel Thomas David Gallagher; b. May 29, 1967Manchester) and singer Liam Gallagher (byname of William John Paul Gallagher;......
  • Gallagher, Noel Thomas David (British musician)
    Oasis stood for authenticity. At heart the band was two brothers from Manchester, guitarist-songwriter Noel Gallagher (in full Noel Thomas David Gallagher; b. May 29, 1967Manchester) and singer Liam Gallagher (byname of William John Paul Gallagher;......
  • Gallagher, Rory (Irish musician)
    Irish blues-rock guitarist, singer, and composer (b. March 2, 1948--d. June 14, 1995)....
  • Gallagher, Smilin’ Jack (Canadian geologist and industrialist)
    Canadian geologist and industrialist who founded (1950) Dome Petroleum Ltd., built it into a large, successful oil and gas company, and pioneered in exploration in the Beaufort Sea area; he left the company in 1983 as accumulated debt threatened it, and it was taken over in 1988 (b. July 16, 1916, Winnipeg, Man.--d. Dec. 16, 1998, Calgary, Alta.)....
  • Gallagher, Tess (American poet)
    American poet, author of naturalistic, introspective verse about self-discovery, womanhood, and family life....
  • Gallagher, William John Paul (British musician)
    ...(in full Noel Thomas David Gallagher; b. May 29, 1967Manchester) and singer Liam Gallagher (byname of William John Paul Gallagher; b. Sept. 21, 1972Manchester). They we...
  • Galland, Adolf (German officer)
    German fighter ace and officer who commanded the fighter forces of the Luftwaffe (German air force) during World War II....
  • Galland, Adolf Joseph Ferdinand (German officer)
    German fighter ace and officer who commanded the fighter forces of the Luftwaffe (German air force) during World War II....
  • Galland, Antoine (French scholar)
    French Orientalist and scholar, best known for his adaptation of the Middle Eastern tales Les Mille et une nuits (1704–17; The Thousand and One Nights)....
  • Galland, Mathilde (American medical researcher)
    American medical researcher and health educator, known for her determined work in combating AIDS and HIV through research and education....
  • Gallant Fox (racehorse)
    (foaled 1927), American racehorse (Thoroughbred) who in 1930 won the U.S. Triple Crown—the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. A bay colt sired by Sir Gallahad III (bred in France) out of Marguerite, he raced for only two seasons (1929–30), winning 11 of 17 starts. His winnings of $308,275 as a three-year-old was a single season record for 17 years, and his...
  • Gallant, Mavis (Canadian author)
    Canadian-born writer of essays, novels, plays, and especially short stories, almost all of which were published initially in The New Yorker magazine. In unsentimental prose and with trenchant wit she delineated the isolation, detachment, and fear that afflict rootless North American and European expatriates....
  • gallant style (music)
    ...could provide a vehicle for consolidating the process begun nearly two centuries earlier by the revolution from equal-voiced polyphony to monody, with its emphasis on melody and harmony. The Rococo style of the mid-18th century, generally known as style galant, had attained a halfway stage in which counterpoint had been virtually dropped and tunes had occupied the forefront of......
  • Gallas, Matthias, Graf von Campo, Herzog von Lucera (Austrian general)
    imperial general whose ineffectiveness severely damaged the Habsburg cause in the latter stages of the Thirty Years’ War....
  • Gallathea (play by Lyly)
    ...the antics of vulgar characters complement but also criticize the follies of their betters. Only Lyly, writing for the choristers, endeavoured to achieve a courtly refinement. His Gallathea (1584) and Endimion (1591) are fantastic comedies in which courtiers, nymphs, and goddesses make rarefied love in intricate, artificial patterns, the very......
  • Gallatin (Tennessee, United States)
    city, seat of Sumner county, north-central Tennessee, U.S., near the Cumberland River, about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Nashville. Founded in 1802, the city was named for Albert Gallatin, secretary of the treasury under two U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. During the American Civil War...
  • Gallatin, Abraham Alfonse Albert (United States government official)
    fourth U.S. secretary of the Treasury (1801–14). He insisted upon a continuity of sound governmental fiscal policies when the Republican (Jeffersonian) Party assumed national political power, and he was instrumental in negotiating an end to the War of 1812....
  • Gallatin, Albert (United States government official)
    fourth U.S. secretary of the Treasury (1801–14). He insisted upon a continuity of sound governmental fiscal policies when the Republican (Jeffersonian) Party assumed national political power, and he was instrumental in negotiating an end to the War of 1812....
  • Gallatin River (river, United States)
    river rising in the Gallatin Range in the northwestern corner of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S., and flowing 120 miles (193 km) north to Three Forks, in southwestern Montana. There it joins with its tributary, the East Gallatin (which rises near Mount Blackmore), and the Madison and Jefferson rivers to form the Missouri River. Named for Albert Gallatin, the early 19th-century statesman,...
  • Gallatin School of Individualized Study (educational division, New York University, New York City, New York, United States)
    ...school; a college of dentistry; a law school; a school of social work; a school of the arts, with training in the performing and visual arts; and a school of continuing education. The university’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study was organized in 1972 to provide opportunities for earning degrees through innovative study programs. Total enrollment is approximately 48,300....
  • Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins (American educator)
    educational philanthropist and founder of the first American school for the deaf....
  • Gallaudet University (university, Washington, District of Columbia, United States)
    ...and is supported largely by federal appropriations. The University of the District of Columbia, which had its origins in 1851, was formed by a merger of several municipal institutions in 1977. Gallaudet University (1857), for the education of the deaf, receives both private and federal support. The University of Maryland, George Mason University, and the Northern Virginia Campus of the......
  • gallbladder (anatomy)
    a muscular membranous sac that stores and concentrates bile, a fluid that is received from the liver and is important in digestion. Situated beneath the liver, the gallbladder is pear-shaped and has a capacity of about 50 ml (1.7 fluid ounces). The inner surface of the gallbladder wall is lined with mucous-membrane tissue similar to that of the small intestine...
  • gallbladder disease
    a muscular membranous sac that stores and concentrates bile, a fluid that is received from the liver and is important in digestion. Situated beneath the liver, the gallbladder is pear-shaped and has a capacity of about 50 ml (1.7 fluid ounces). The inner surface of the gallbladder wall is lined with mucous-membrane tissue similar to that of the small intestine...
  • Galle (astronomy)
    The other five known rings of Neptune—Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago, and Galatea, in order of increasing distance from the planet—lack the nonuniformity in density exhibited by Adams. Le Verrier, which is about 110 km (70 miles) in radial width, closely resembles the nonarc regions of Adams. Similar to the relationship......
  • Galle (Sri Lanka)
    port and city, Sri Lanka, situated on a large harbour on the island’s southern coast. Galle dates from the 13th century, possibly much earlier, but it became the island’s chief port during the period of Portuguese rule (1507–c. 1640). Under Dutch rule it was the island capital until 1656, when Colombo replaced it. The rise of Colombo...
  • Gallé, Émile (French glass designer)
    celebrated French designer and pioneer in technical innovations in glass. He was a leading initiator of the Art Nouveau style and of the modern renaissance of French art glass....
  • Galle, Johann Gottfried (German astronomer)
    German astronomer who on Sept. 23, 1846, was the first to observe the planet Neptune....
  • galleass (sailing vessel)
    The coming of mighty men-of-war did not mean the immediate end of oared warships. In fact, some types of galleys and oared gunboats continued to serve well into the 19th century. Indeed, the Battle of Lepanto (1571), in which a combined European fleet defeated the Turkish fleet, differed little from traditional galley warfare with two exceptions. First, the scale of the action was very large,......
  • Gallego
    Romance language with many similarities to the Portuguese language. It is spoken by some 4 million people, mostly in the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain—where almost 90 percent of the population spoke Galician at the turn of the 21st century—but also in adjacent regions of Portugal (notably Trás-os-Montes)....
  • Gallego, João (Spanish explorer)
    Spanish navigator who in the service of Portugal discovered the islands of Ascension and St. Helena, both off the southwestern coast of Africa....
  • Gallegos (river, South America)
    ...permanent streams of Andean origin (the Colorado, Negro, Chubut, Senguerr, Chico, and Santa Cruz rivers). Most of the valleys either have intermittent streams—such as the Shehuen, Coig, and Gallegos rivers, which have their sources east of the Andes—or contain streams like the Deseado River, which completely dry up along all or part of their courses and are so altered by the......
  • Gallegos, Blasco (Portuguese explorer)
    Founded in 1885, it was named for Blasco Gallegos, one of Ferdinand Magellan’s pilots, who is credited with discovering the river. Prehistoric cave paintings near the city are reminiscent of the Lascaux cave paintings in Dordogne, France....
  • Gallegos Freire, Rómulo (president of Venezuela)
    president of Venezuela (in 1948) and novelist, best known for his forceful novels that dramatize the overpowering natural aspects of the Venezuelan Llanos (grasslands), the local folklore, and such social events as alligator hunts....
  • Gallegos, Rómulo (president of Venezuela)
    president of Venezuela (in 1948) and novelist, best known for his forceful novels that dramatize the overpowering natural aspects of the Venezuelan Llanos (grasslands), the local folklore, and such social events as alligator hunts....
  • Gallehus Horns (Scandinavian artifacts)
    pair of gold, horn-shaped artifacts from 5th-century Scandinavia that constituted the most notable examples of goldwork of that period. They were unearthed at Gallehus, Jutland, Den., in 1639 and 1734 and were stolen and melted down in 1802. Replicas made from drawings are now in the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen. The larger horn, which measured more than 2.5 feet (0.75 m) long, bore the run...
  • Gallen-Kallela, Akseli (Finnish artist)
    pair of gold, horn-shaped artifacts from 5th-century Scandinavia that constituted the most notable examples of goldwork of that period. They were unearthed at Gallehus, Jutland, Den., in 1639 and 1734 and were stolen and melted down in 1802. Replicas made from drawings are now in the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen. The larger horn, which measured more than 2.5 feet (0.75 m) long, bore the run...
  • galleon (sailing vessel)
    full-rigged sailing ship that was built primarily for war, and which developed in the 15th and 16th centuries. The name derived from “galley,” which had come to be synonymous with “war vessel” and whose characteristic beaked prow the new ship retained. A high, square forecastle rose behind the bow, the three or four masts carried both square and fore-and-aft sails, and...
  • Galleria Borghese (museum, Rome, Italy)
    state museum in Rome distinguished for its collection of Italian Baroque painting and ancient sculpture. It is located in the Borghese Gardens on the Pincian Hill and is housed in the Villa Borghese, a building designed by the Dutch architect Jan van Santen (Giovanni Vasanzio) and built between 1613 and 1616....
  • Galleria degli Uffizi (museum, Florence, Italy)
    art museum in Florence that has the world’s finest collection of Italian Renaissance painting, particularly of the Florentine school. It also has antiques, sculpture, and more than 100,000 drawings and prints. In 1559 the grand duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I de’ Medici, engaged the painter-architect Giorgio Vasari to plan a building for the offices (uffizi) of th...
  • Galleria dell’Accademia (museum, Florence, Italy)
    museum of art in Florence chiefly famous for its several sculptures by Michelangelo, notably his “David.” It also has a collection of 15th- and 16th-century paintings and many 13th–16th-century Tuscan paintings. It was founded in 1784 by the grand duke Pietro Leopoldo and was subsequently enlarged....
  • Galleria mellonella (insect)
    Other interesting pyralids include the wax moth (Galleria mellonella), also known as bee-moth, or honeycomb moth. The larvae usually live in beehives and feed on wax and young bees and fill the tunnels of the hive with silken threads. Bee-moth larvae are particularly destructive to old or unguarded colonies and to stored combs. Larvae of the cactus moth (Cactoblastis cactorum)......
  • Galleria Umberto I (area, Naples, Italy)
    ...Naples has no modern parallel, the San Carlo remains an important element of Europe’s musical life. Across the busy intersection from the San Carlo, the late 19th-century arcades of the cruciform Galleria Umberto I serve, under their glass cupola, as an ornate meeting place; the arcades were familiar ground to Allied servicemen in the closing phase of World War II—a dramatic perio...
  • Galleriinae (insect subfamily)
    ...wing venation; small subfamily Nymphulinae has aquatic larvae with tracheal gills for living in still or running fresh water; larvae of subfamily Pyralinae are mostly scavengers, as are those of the Galleriinae, many of which live in bee or wasp nests; larvae of the large subfamily Phycitinae have very diverse habits, including predation on scale......
  • gallery (architecture)
    in architecture, any covered passage that is open at one side, such as a portico or a colonnade. More specifically, in late medieval and Renaissance Italian architecture, it is a narrow balcony or platform running the length of a wall. In Romanesque architecture, especially in Italy and Germany, an arcaded wall-passage on the outside of a structure is known a...
  • gallery, art
    In order to experience art, we should of course visit museums. They are the prime locus where the uniqueness of an artist’s work can be encountered. Yet even in museums, which are more and more acquiring the significance of churches, art is seen in very unpromising conditions. Each work was made to be seen alone, but in a museum we are able to appraise it only in a room full of other works,...
  • gallery camera (photography)
    ...on a plane surface, without the distortions common (though usually unnoticed) in the average portrait or amateur camera lens. Process cameras are designated as gallery or darkroom types. The gallery camera is freestanding and may be installed in any convenient location, but film must be removed in a light-tight cassette and processed in a separate darkroom. The darkroom camera is......
  • gallery grave (tomb)
    long chamber grave, a variant of the collective tomb burials that spread into western and northwestern Europe from the Aegean area during the final stage of the northern Stone Age (c. 2000 bc). In the Severn-Cotswold area of Britain, the gallery graves have pairs of side chambers. Segmented graves with concave forecourts are found in Ulster and southwestern Scotland. In the P...
  • Gallery of Harlem Portraits, A (poetry by Tolson)
    Tolson’s most important work is the posthumous collection A Gallery of Harlem Portraits (1979). Modeled on Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, this collection is an epic portrait of a culturally and racially diverse community. The lives and emotions of its characters are portrayed in blues lyrics, dramatic monologues, and free verse....
  • galleta (plant)
    in botany, genus of perennial grasses in the family Poaceae, consisting of about seven species native primarily to warm, dry areas of southern North America. They are known variously as galleta, big galleta, and curly mesquite....
  • galley (ship)
    large seagoing vessel propelled primarily by oars. The Egyptians, Cretans, and other ancient peoples used sail-equipped galleys for both war and commerce. The Phoenicians were apparently the first to introduce the bireme (about 700 bc), which had two banks of oars staggered on either side of the vessel, with the upper bank situated above the lower so as to permit ...
  • galley (printing)
    ...publication. Proofreading dates from the early days of printing. A contract of 1499 held the author finally responsible for correction of proofs. In modern practice, proofs are made first from a galley, a long tray holding a column of type, and hence are called galley proofs; the term is sometimes also used for the first copy produced in photocomposition and other forms of typesetting that......
  • Galley Hill man (anthropology)
    While new discoveries have clarified the human story, older ones, which had served only to cloud it, have been repudiated. Piltdown man was shown unequivocally to be a fake in 1953; and Galley Hill man in England, the Olmo remains in Italy, and the Calaveras skull in the United States have been shown to be recent intrusions (burials in the case of Galley Hill and Olmo, fraudulent in the case of......
  • galley proof (printing)
    ...A contract of 1499 held the author finally responsible for correction of proofs. In modern practice, proofs are made first from a galley, a long tray holding a column of type, and hence are called galley proofs; the term is sometimes also used for the first copy produced in photocomposition and other forms of typesetting that do not involve metal type....
  • galley warfare
    sea warfare fought between forces equipped with specialized oar-driven warships, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea, where it originated in antiquity and continued into the age of gunpowder....
  • Gallgaidhel (people)
    The name Galloway is derived from the Gallgaidhel, or Gallwyddel (“Stranger Gaels”), the original Celtic people of this region, called Novantae by the Romans. The last “king” of Galloway died in 1234. During the 14th century the Balliols and Comyns were the chief families, succeeded about 1369 by the Douglases (until 1458) and in 1623 by the Stewarts. The 17th-century.....
  • Galli (people)
    ...isolated area west of the Pyrenees in both Spain and France, who speak a language unrelated to other European languages, and whose origin remains unclear. The Celtic tribes, known to the Romans as Gauls, spread from central Europe in the period 500 bc–ad 500 to provide France with a major component of its population, especially in the centre and west. At the f...
  • Galli (ancient priests)
    priests, often temple attendants or wandering mendicants, of the ancient Asiatic deity, the Great Mother of the Gods, known as Cybele, or Agdistis, in Greek and Latin literature. The Galli were eunuchs attired in female garb, with long hair fragrant with ointment. Together with priestesses, they celebrated the Great Mother’s rites with wild music and dancing until their f...
  • Galli, Amelita (American singer)
    Italian-born American singer, one of the outstanding operatic sopranos of her time....
  • Galli, Giovanni Maria (Italian artist)
    The family took its name from the birthplace of its progenitor, Giovanni Maria Galli (1625–65), who was born at Bibbiena near Florence. He studied painting under Francesco Albani and first laid the foundations of an artistry that was carried on by his descendants, who devoted themselves to scenic work for the theatre. Employing freely the highly ornate style of late Baroque architecture......
  • Galli-Curci, Amelita (American singer)
    Italian-born American singer, one of the outstanding operatic sopranos of her time....
  • Gallia (work by Gounod)
    ...1870 he spent five years in London, formed a choir to which he gave his name (and which later became the Royal Choral Society), and devoted himself almost entirely to the writing of oratorios. Gallia, a lamentation for solo soprano, chorus, and orchestra, inspired by the French military defeat of 1870, was first performed in 1871 and was followed by the oratorios La......
  • Gallia (ancient region, Europe)
    the region inhabited by the ancient Gauls, comprising modern-day France and parts of Belgium, western Germany, and northern Italy. A Celtic race, the Gauls lived in an agricultural society divided into several tribes ruled by a landed class....
  • Gallia Belgica (ancient province, Europe)
    one of three Gallic provinces organized by Julius Caesar; it became one of the four provinces of Gaul under the Roman Empire. As established by Augustus (27 bc), Belgica stretched from the Seine River eastward to the Rhine and included the Low Countries in the north and the Helvetian territory (western Switzerland) in the south. Its capital was Durocortorum Remorum...
  • Gallia Cisalpina (Roman province, Europe)
    in ancient Roman times, that part of northern Italy between the Apennines and the Alps settled by Celtic tribes. Rome conquered the Celts between 224 and 220 bc, extending its northeastern frontier to the Julian Alps....
  • Gallia Comata (Roman territory, Europe)
    (Three Gauls), in Roman antiquity, the land of Gaul that included the three provinces of (1) Aquitania, bordered by the Bay of Biscay on the west and the Pyrenees on the south; (2) Celtica (or Gallia Lugdunensis), with Lugdunum (Lyon) as its capital, on the eastern border of Gaul and extending northwest to include Brittany; and (3) Belgica (or Gallia Belgica), in the north, whe...
  • Gallia Lugdunensis (Roman province, Europe)
    a province of the Roman Empire, one of the “Three Gauls” called the Gallia Comata. It extended from the capital of Lugdunum (modern Lyon) northwest to all the land between the Seine and the Loire rivers to Brittany and the Atlantic Ocean. It included what came to be Paris....
  • Gallia Lugdunensis Secunda (region, France)
    historic and cultural region encompassing the northern French départements of Manche, Calvados, Orne, Eure, and Seine-Maritime and coextensive with the former province of Normandy....
  • Gallia Narbonensis (Roman province)
    ancient Roman province that lay between the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Cévennes Mountains. It comprised what is now southeastern France....
  • Gallia Nova (French colonies, North America)
    (1534–1763), the French colonies of continental North America, initially embracing the shores of the St. Lawrence River, Newfoundland, and Acadia (Nova Scotia) but gradually expanding to include much of the Great Lakes region and parts of the trans-Appalachian West....
  • Gallia Transalpina (Roman province, Europe)
    in Roman antiquity, the land bounded by the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Pyrenees, the Atlantic, and the Rhine. It embraced what is now France and Belgium, along with parts of Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland....
  • Galliano, John Charles (British fashion designer)
    The arrival in October 1996 of maverick British fashion designer John Galliano as designer in chief at Christian Dior heralded a fresh start for the beleaguered reputation of haute couture. His appointment followed his 11-month stint at Givenchy, where he was the controversial choice to replace Hubert de Givenchy, the refined founder of the house. Galliano’s first couture collection featur...
  • galliard (dance)
    (French gaillard: “lively”), vigorous 16th-century European court dance. Its four hopping steps and one high leap permitted athletic gentlemen to show off for their partners. Performed as the afterdance of the stately pavane, the galliard originated in 15th-century Italy. It was especially fashionable from c. 1530 to 1620 in France, Spain, and Englan...
  • gallibiya (garment)
    ...of heavy cream-coloured wool decorated with brightly coloured stripes or embroidery. A voluminous outer gown still worn throughout the Middle East in the Arab world is the jellaba, known as the jellabah in Tunisia, a jubbeh in Syria, a ......
  • gallic acid (chemical compound)
    substance occurring in many plants, either in the free state or combined as gallotannin. It is present to the extent of 40–60 percent combined as gallotannic acid in tara (any of various plants of the genus Caesalpinia) and in Aleppo and Chinese galls (swellings of plant tissue), from which it is obtained commercially by the action of acids or alkalies. An Aleppo gall has a spherica...

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