- Industry: Library & information science
- Number of terms: 49473
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
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 ...
A French mathematician and astronomer, born at Paris, of so precocious a genius, that he was admitted to the Academy of Sciences at the age of 18; published a theory of the figure of the earth, and computed the orbit of Halley's comet (1713-1765).
Industry:Language
Author of "Flowers of the Forest"; in her day the leader of Edinburgh society; was acquainted with Burns, and recognised in his boyhood the genius of Scott (1713-1795).
Industry:Language
Poet and man of letters, born in the parish of Keir, Dumfriesshire; bred to the mason craft, but devoted his leisure hours to study and the composition of Scottish ballads, which, when published, gained him the notice of Sir Walter Scott; in 1810 he went to London, where he wrote for periodicals, and obtained employment as assistant to Chantrey the sculptor, in which post he found leisure to cultivate his literary proclivities, collating and editing tales and songs, editing Burns with a Life, and writing the Lives of famous artists, and died in London; "a pliant, Naturmensch," Carlyle found him to be, "with no principles or creed that he could see, but excellent old habits of character" (1784-1842).
Industry:Language
Baron Jean Baptiste de Clootz, a French Revolutionary, born at Clèves; "world-citizen"; his faith that "a world federation is possible, under all manner of customs, provided they hold men"; his pronomen Anacharsis suggested by his resemblance to an ancient Scythian prince who had like him a cosmopolitan spirit; was one of the founders of the worship of Reason, and styled himself the "orator of the human race"; distinguished himself at the great Federation, celebrated on the Champ de Mars, by entering the hall on the great Federation Day, June 19, 1790, "with the human species at his heels"; was guillotined under protest in the name of the human race (1755-1794).
Industry:Language
A French scholar and critic, born at Castres, in Languedoc; assisted by his wife, executed translations of various classics, and produced an edition of them known as the "Delphin Edition" (1651-1722).
Industry:Language
Electrician, born at Somersetshire; made several discoveries in the application of electricity; he was a zealous scientist, and apt to be over-zealous (1784-1855).
Industry:Language
An English deist, an intimate friend of Locke; his principal works were "Discourse on Freethinking," "Philosophical Inquiry into Liberty and Necessity," and "Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion," which gave rise to much controversy; he was a necessitarian, and argued against revelation (1676-1729).
Industry:Language
An illustrious Italian painter, born at Correggio, in Modena; founder of the Lombard school, and distinguished among his contemporaries for the grace of his figures and the harmony of his coloring; he has been ranked next to Raphael, and it has been said of him he perfected his art by adding elegance to truth and grandeur; he is unrivalled in chiaroscuro, and he chose his subjects from pagan as well as Christian legend (1494-1534).
Industry:Language
A Roman decemvir and patrician in 451 B.C.; outraged Virginia, a beautiful plebeian damsel, whom her father, on discovering of the crime, killed with a knife snatched from a butcher's stall, rousing thereby the popular rage against the decemvir, who was cast into prison, where he put an end to himself, 449 B.C.
Industry:Language
