Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Linacre, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Linacre or Lynaker, Thomas both: lĭˈnəkər [key], 1460?–1524, English humanist and physician. He took the degree of doctor of medicine at the Univ. of Padua, returned to England c.1492, and becam...

Erpenius, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Erpenius, Thomas ûrpēˈnēəs [key], 1584–1624, Dutch Orientalist, whose name in Dutch was Van Erpe. Erpenius was one of the most celebrated scholars of his day and wrote several grammars of Middl...

Arnold, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Arnold, Thomas, 1795–1842, English educator, b. Isle of Wight, educated at Winchester school and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was a fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1815 to 1819, was o...

Coram, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Coram, Thomas kôrˈəm [key], 1668?–1751, English philanthropist and colonizer. He lived for some years in Massachusetts, working as a shipbuilder. On his return to England he became (1732) a trust...

Godfrey, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Godfrey, Thomas, 1736–63, American poet and playwright, b. Philadelphia. The son of Thomas Godfrey, who invented the quadrant, he became apprenticed to a watchmaker after his father's early death. G...

Tickell, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Tickell, Thomas tĭkˈəl [key], 1686–1740, English poet and translator. A contributor of verse to the Spectator, he was a friend of Addison, for whom he wrote a fine elegy (1721). His translation o...

Thomas, Seth

(Encyclopedia)Thomas, Seth, 1785–1859, American clock manufacturer, b. Wolcott, Conn. In 1812 he sold his partnership in a clock business established by Eli Terry and set up a factory to make metal-movement clock...

Couture, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Couture, Thomas tômäˈ ko͞otürˈ [key], 1815–79, French academic painter. He was a pupil of Gros and Delaroche. He achieved fame with his vast orgy painting, Romans in the Decadence of the Empir...

Usk, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Usk, Thomas ŭsk [key], d. 1388, English politician and author. He was under-sheriff of London. While in Newgate Prison he wrote Testament of Love, an allegory in prose describing and justifying the p...

Thomas à Kempis

(Encyclopedia)Thomas à Kempis kĕmˈpĭs [key], b. 1379 or 1380, d. 1471, German monk, traditional author of The Imitation of Christ, b. Kempen, Germany. He was schooled at Deventer, in the Netherlands, the center...

Browse by Subject