Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Fludd, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Fludd or Flud, Robert, 1574–1637, English mystic philosopher. Educated at Oxford and on the Continent, he became a London physician. Strongly influenced by the mystical doctrines of Paracelsus, he a...

Walker, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Walker, Robert, d. 1658?, English painter, a follower of Van Dyck and favorite portraitist of Oliver Cromwell. His portraits of Cromwell and his family and followers are convincing studies of Puritan ...

Erskine, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Erskine, Robert, 1735–80, geographer and surveyor general to the American Revolutionary army, b. Dunfermline, Scotland. His several hundred detailed maps of the region W of the Hudson River, showing...

Fortune, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Fortune, Robert, 1813–80, British botanist. He traveled in Asia for the Royal Horticultural Society and later for the East India Company and brought back to England a number of chrysanthemums, the J...

Delaunay, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Delaunay, Robert rōbĕrˈ dəlōnāˈ [key], 1885–1941, French painter; husband of Sonia Delaunay-Terk. By 1909, Delaunay had progressed from a neoimpressionist phase to cubism, applying cubist pri...

Monckton, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Monckton, Robert mŭngkˈtən [key], 1726–82, British general. After service in Flanders and Germany during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), he was sent (1752) to Nova Scotia, where h...

Koch, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Koch, Robert rōˈbĕrt kôkh [key], 1843–1910, German bacteriologist. He studied at Göttingen under Jacob Henle. As a country practitioner in Wollstein, Posen (now Wolsztyn, Poland), he devoted mu...

Fulton, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Fulton, Robert, 1765–1815, American inventor, engineer, and painter, b. near Lancaster, Pa. He was a man remarkable for his many talents and his mechanical genius. An expert gunsmith at the time of ...

Robert of Courtenay

(Encyclopedia)Robert of Courtenay kôrtˈnē, ko͝ortənāˈ [key], d. 1228, Latin emperor of Constantinople (1218–28). His father, Peter of Courtenay, was elected by the Latin nobles to succeed Henry of Flanders...

Bakewell, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Bakewell, Robert, 1725–95, English livestock breeder and agriculturist. He successfully bred livestock for meat rather than appearance, developing new breeds, which included the Leicester sheep and ...