A-Z Browse

(Prunus persica variety nectarina), smooth-skinned peach of the family Rosaceae, known for more than 2,000 years and grown throughout the warmer temperate regions of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. In tree shape and leaf characteristics the peach and nectarine are indistinguishable, but nectarine fruits look more like plums than peaches because of the ...

Several kinds of useful and beautiful wood come from members of the rose order. The wood of black cherry (Prunus serotina), native to North America, has a reddish brown colour and a warm lustre when finished. It also resists shrinkage and warping and has excellent working properties. Black cherry is a favourite wood for furniture, paneling, woodenware, tool handles, and musical......

(Prunus spinosa), spiny shrub, of the rose family (Rosaceae), native to Europe but cultivated in other regions. The name is also applied to Crataegus calpodendron (or C. tomentosa), commonly called pear haw, another shrub or small tree of the rose family. P. spinosa usually grows less than 3.6 metres (12 feet) tall and has numerous, small leaves. Its dense growth makes...

type of Chinese pottery vase inspired by the shape of a young female body. The meiping was often a tall celadon vase made to resemble human characteristics, especially a small mouth, a short, narrow neck, a plump bosom, and a concave belly. It was meant to hold a single branch of plum tree blossoms. The ...

(Prunus virginiana), shrub or small tree, belonging to the rose family (Rosaceae) and native to North America. It is aptly named for the astringent, acidic taste of its reddish cherries. The fruit may, however, be made into jelly and preserves. The stones are poisonous, as is the wilted foliage, which may contain hydrocyanic acid in varying amounts....

a stimulation of free nerve endings, usually at the junction of the dermis and epidermis of the skin, that evokes a desire to scratch. It has been suggested that an itch is a subthreshold sensation of pain; however, although both itch and pain sensations share common nerve pathways, they are generally considered distinct sensory types. Itching evokes a range of sensations, from a tickling that is...

Polish journalist, short-story writer, and novelist who was one of the leading figures of the Positivist period in Polish literature following the 1863 January Insurrection against Russian rule....

city, northwestern Turkey, along the northern foothills of Ulu Dağ (the ancient Mysian Olympus). Probably founded by a Bithynian king in the 3rd century bc, it prospered during Byzantine times after the emperor Justinian I (reigned ad 527–565) built a palace there. The city first fell to the Seljuq Turks at the end of the 11th century, b...

Greek rhetorician and philosopher who won fame in Rome and throughout the empire for his writings and speeches....

...190, and one of the terms demanded of him by the Romans was that Hannibal should be surrendered. Again accounts of Hannibal’s subsequent actions vary; either he fled via Crete to the court of King Prusias of Bithynia, or he joined the rebel forces in Armenia. Eventually he took refuge with Prusias, who at this time was engaged in warfare with Rome’s ally, King Eumenes II of Pergam...

American neurologist whose discovery of the disease-causing protein called prion in 1982 won him the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine....

in European history, any of certain areas of eastern and central Europe, respectively (1) the land of the Prussians on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea, which came under Polish and German rule in the Middle Ages; (2) the kingdom ruled from 1701 by the German Hohenzollern dynasty, including Prussia and Brandenburg, with Berli...

any of several deep-blue pigments that are composed of complex iron cyanides and hence called iron blues. The most common of these pigments are Prussian, Chinese, Milori, and toning blue. Prussian blue has a reddish tint and is used almost exclusively in paints, enamels, and lacquers; Chinese blue is very dark, with a greenish tint, and is favoured for use in printing inks; Milori blue has a reddi...

(“General State Law”), the law of the Prussian states, begun during the reign of Frederick the Great (1740–86) but not promulgated until 1794 under his successor, Frederick William II. It was to be enforced wherever it did not conflict with local customs. The code was adopted by other German states in the 19th century and remained in force until it was replaced by the civil c...

...or of archaeological and scientific displays to those with exhibitions of minutiae, such as the playing-card museum in Stuttgart. Museums and galleries of great note include the museums of the Prussian Cultural Property Foundation in Berlin—i.e., the Pergamon Museum with its vast collection of Classical and Middle Eastern antiquities, located on the “Museum Island” in the.....

In its first phase, from 1834 to 1867, the Zollverein was administered by a central authority, the Customs Congress, in which each state had a single vote. A common tariff, the Prussian Tariff of 1818, shielded the member states from foreign competition, but free trade was the rule internally....

West Baltic language extinct since the 17th century; it was spoken in the former German area of East Prussia (now in Poland and Russia). The poorly attested Yotvingian dialect was closely related to Old Prussian....

In its first phase, from 1834 to 1867, the Zollverein was administered by a central authority, the Customs Congress, in which each state had a single vote. A common tariff, the Prussian Tariff of 1818, shielded the member states from foreign competition, but free trade was the rule internally....

...still engaged in the campaign against the revolution in Hungary, Prussia began to exert diplomatic pressure on the smaller German states to join in the formation of a new federal league known as the Prussian Union. If Frederick William IV had acted with enough determination, he might have been able to reach his goal before Francis Joseph could intervene effectively in the affairs of Germany. Bu...

...union of Lutherans and Reformed was not doctrinal but only administrative. Nevertheless, most Prussian regional churches had by then adopted a uniform church order, taking the name Churches of the Prussian Union....

Fresh cassava leaves are rich in protein, calcium, and vitamins A and C. Their prussic acid level must be reduced to safe limits by boiling; the duration of boiling depends on the variety of the leaves. Cassava leaves are a popular vegetable in Africa, and the tuber also is used in meal for animal feed....

Under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, Prussia reacted immediately: in February 1864, war broke out between Denmark on one side and Prussia and Austria on the other. After the Danish defeat at Dybbøl, in Schleswig, and the consequent occupation of the whole of Jutland, Denmark was forced by the Treaty of Vienna in October to surrender almost all of Schleswig and Holstein to Prussia......

in European history, any of certain areas of eastern and central Europe, respectively (1) the land of the Prussians on the southeastern coast of the Baltic Sea, which came under Polish and German rule in the Middle Ages; (2) the kingdom ruled from 1701 by the German Hohenzollern dynasty, including Prussia and Brandenburg, with Berli...

a tributary of the Danube River, now forming the boundary of Romania with Moldova. Prior to 1940 and the taking of Bessarabia by the Soviet Union, the Prut was almost entirely in Romania. It rises on the northeastern slopes of the Eastern Carpathians in southwestern Ukraine and flows 530 miles (850 km) north, then east past Kolomyya and Chernovky, and finally south-southeast. The Prut receives wat...

a tributary of the Danube River, now forming the boundary of Romania with Moldova. Prior to 1940 and the taking of Bessarabia by the Soviet Union, the Prut was almost entirely in Romania. It rises on the northeastern slopes of the Eastern Carpathians in southwestern Ukraine and flows 530 miles (850 km) north, then east past Kolomyya and Chernovky, and finally south-southeast. The Prut receives wat...

...of Jassy (1792). From 1683 to 1699 it fought the armies of the Holy League in a disastrous war that culminated in the Treaty of Carlowitz (1699). In 1710–11 it fought Russia again, and at the Treaty of the Pruth (1711) it regained some territories previously lost. The war of 1714–18 with Venice and Austria was concluded by the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718); and three wars with Russ...

Russian poet, novelist, and dramatist, an outstanding writer of humorous and satirical verse, serious poetry, and novels and dramas on historical themes....

a tributary of the Danube River, now forming the boundary of Romania with Moldova. Prior to 1940 and the taking of Bessarabia by the Soviet Union, the Prut was almost entirely in Romania. It rises on the northeastern slopes of the Eastern Carpathians in southwestern Ukraine and flows 530 miles (850 km) north, then east past Kolomyya and Chernovky, and finally south-southeast. The Prut receives wat...

...to Czechoslovakia’s independent existence in the mid-1930s prompted Čapek to write several works intended to warn and mobilize his countrymen. The realistic novel Prvni parta (1937; The First Rescue Party) stressed the need for solidarity. In his last plays the appeal became more direct. Bílá nemoc (1937; Power and Glory) presented the tra...

...area only under Stefan Nemanja. Stefan assumed the throne of Raška in 1168, but he continued to acknowledge the supremacy of Byzantium until 1185. In 1196 he abdicated in favour of his son Stefan (known as Prvovenčani, or the “First-Crowned”), who in 1217 secured from Pope Honorius III the title of “King of Serbia, Dalmatia, and Bosnia.” Under the......

hilly region, southeastern Ukraine. Part of the Ukrainian Crystalline Shield, the Azov Upland is an area of denuded mountains, extending from the Dnieper River for 100 miles (160 km) to the Donets Ridge and sloping gently down southeastward to the Sea of Azov. The highest point is Mount Mohyla-Belmak (1,063 feet [324 m]), 65 miles (105 km) southwest of Donetsk. The soil cover, w...

...less dense there, and the rivers carry comparatively less water. The principal tributaries of the middle Dnieper are the Ros, Sula, Pesl, Vorskla, and Samara. The lower Dnieper basin lies within the Black Sea Lowland, in the black-soil steppe area, which has now been completely plowed up. The grassy steppe vegetation has been preserved only in the nature reserves and preserves and in old ravine...

...a year and a day, thus gaining the name Pwyll Pen Annwn (“Head of Annwn”). With the aid of the goddess Rhiannon, who loved him, Pwyll won her from his rival, Gwawl. She bore him a son, Pryderi, who was abducted by Gwawl. Pryderi was later restored to his parents and succeeded Pwyll as ruler both in Dyfed and Annwn. In Arthurian legend, Pwyll’s caldron became the Holy Grail,...

...is located near Nikopol. Bituminous and anthracite coal used for coke are mined in the Donets Basin. Energy for thermal power stations is obtained using the large reserves of brown coal found in the Dnieper River basin (north of Kryvyy Rih) and the bituminous coal deposits of the Lviv-Volyn basin. The coal mines of Ukraine are among the deepest in Europe. Many of them are considered dangerous.....

The rolling plain of the Dnieper Upland, which lies between the middle reaches of the Dnieper (Dnipro) and Southern Buh (Pivdennyy Buh, or the Boh) rivers in west-central Ukraine, is the largest highland area; it is dissected by many river valleys, ravines, and gorges, some more than 1,000 feet (300 metres) deep. On the west the Dnieper Upland is abutted by the rugged Volyn-Podilsk Upland,......

...is located near Nikopol. Bituminous and anthracite coal used for coke are mined in the Donets Basin. Energy for thermal power stations is obtained using the large reserves of brown coal found in the Dnieper River basin (north of Kryvyy Rih) and the bituminous coal deposits of the Lviv-Volyn basin. The coal mines of Ukraine are among the deepest in Europe. Many of them are considered dangerous.....

city, northern Ukraine, on the Uday River. It is one of the oldest cities in Ukraine, being first documented in 1092. It was destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century. In modern times it became a centre of the oil industry based on local deposits (those of the Dnieper-Donets depression), with engineering, textiles, clothing, and food industries as well. Teacher-training and m...

city, northern Ukraine, on the Uday River. It is one of the oldest cities in Ukraine, being first documented in 1092. It was destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century. In modern times it became a centre of the oil industry based on local deposits (those of the Dnieper-Donets depression), with engineering, textiles, clothing, and food industries as well. Teacher-training and m...

...this view and suggest that the group evolved recently, as indicated by fossil and molecular data. The oldest chromophyte fossils, putative brown algae, are approximately 400 million years old. Coccolithophores, coccolith-bearing members of the Prymnesiophyceae, date from the Late Triassic Epoch (230 to 200 million years ago), with one reported from approximately 280 million years ago.......

...and Florida; the nature of the poison is unknown. Deaths of large numbers of brackish-water pond fishes because of Prymnesium parvum have been reported in Israel; the poison is known as prymnesin....

...almost all marine; Ectocarpus, Macrocystis, and Sargassum.Class Prymnesiophyceae (Haptophyceae)Many with haptonema, a hairlike appendage between two flagella; no tubular hairs; many with organic scales; some deposit calcium carbonate...

...almost all marine; Ectocarpus, Macrocystis, and Sargassum.Class Prymnesiophyceae (Haptophyceae)Many with haptonema, a hairlike appendage between two flagella; no tubular hairs; many with organic scales; some deposit calcium carbonate...

...and planktonic; approximately 300 species; more fossil coccolithophores known; Chrysochromulina, Emiliania, and Prymnesium.Class Raphidophyceae (Chloromonadophyceae)Flagellates with mucocysts (mucilage-releasing bodies) occasionally ...

Several algae produce toxins lethal to fish. Prymnesium parvum (class Prymnesiophyceae) has caused massive die-offs in ponds where fish are cultured, and Chrysochromulina polylepis (class Prymnesiophyceae) has caused major fish kills along the coasts of the Scandinavian countries. Other algae, such as ......

English Puritan pamphleteer whose persecution by the government of King Charles I (reigned 1625–49) intensified the antagonisms between the king and Parliament in the years preceding the English Civil Wars (1642–51)....

city, seat (1907) of Mayes county, northern Oklahoma, U.S., located northeast of Tulsa. It was settled in 1872 and named for Nathaniel Pryor, a scout on the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the builder of a trading post (1820) on the Verdigris River near the present city site. Pryor is a trade centre for an agricultural area...

city, seat (1907) of Mayes county, northern Oklahoma, U.S., located northeast of Tulsa. It was settled in 1872 and named for Nathaniel Pryor, a scout on the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the builder of a trading post (1820) on the Verdigris River near the present city site. Pryor is a trade centre for an agricultural area...

...on May 1, 1960. President John F. Kennedy commuted Abel’s sentence, and, on Feb. 10, 1962, in a ceremony on a bridge between West Berlin and East Germany (Potsdam), Abel was exchanged for Powers and Frederic L. Pryor, an American student who had been held without charge in East Germany since August 1961....

American comedian and actor, who was one of the leading comics of the 1970s and ’80s. His comedy routines drew on a variety of downtrodden urban characters, rendered with brutal emotional honesty....

American comedian and actor, who was one of the leading comics of the 1970s and ’80s. His comedy routines drew on a variety of downtrodden urban characters, rendered with brutal emotional honesty....

river in Ukraine and Belarus, a tributary of the Dnieper River. It is 480 miles (775 km) long and drains an area of 44,150 square miles (114,300 square km). It rises in northwestern Ukraine near the Polish border and flows eastward in Ukraine and then Belarus through a flat, forested, and swampy basin known as the Pripet Marshes to Mazyr; th...

river in Ukraine and Belarus, a tributary of the Dnieper River. It is 480 miles (775 km) long and drains an area of 44,150 square miles (114,300 square km). It rises in northwestern Ukraine near the Polish border and flows eastward in Ukraine and then Belarus through a flat, forested, and swampy basin known as the Pripet Marshes to Mazyr; th...

...that combined a vast store of folk song, previously despised and unrecorded, with imitation of contemporary English popular poetry and sophisticated lyrics. Landmarks of this new development were Edmwnd Prys’s metrical version of the Psalms and Rhys Prichard’s Canwyll y Cymry (1646–72; “The Welshman’s Candle”), both written in so-called free metr...

town hall of a Greek city-state, normally housing the chief magistrate and the common altar or hearth of the community. Ambassadors, distinguished foreigners, and citizens who had done signal service were entertained there. Prytanea are attested at Sigeum in the Troas from the 6th century bc and at various dates in Cyzicus, Erythrae, Priene, Ephesus, Epidamnus, Rhodes, and Olympia. I...

...hēliaia (public court), take part in the election of archons (chief magistrates), and confer special privileges on individuals. In the Athens of the 5th and 4th centuries bc, the prytaneis, a committee of the Boule (council), summoned the Ecclesia both for regular meetings, held four times in each 10th of the year, and for special sessions. Aside from confirma...

town hall of a Greek city-state, normally housing the chief magistrate and the common altar or hearth of the community. Ambassadors, distinguished foreigners, and citizens who had done signal service were entertained there. Prytanea are attested at Sigeum in the Troas from the 6th century bc and at various dates in Cyzicus, Erythrae, Priene, Ephesus, Epidamnus, Rhodes, and Olympia. I...

Krasiński’s best-known poem, Przedświt (1843; “The Moment Before Dawn”), was an inspiration to his countrymen in trying times. It pictures Poland’s partition as a sacrifice for the sins of the entire world but optimistically predicts Poland’s resurrection and emergence as a world leader because of its sacrifice....

city, Podkarpackie województwo (province), southeastern Poland, near the border of Ukraine. Located on the San River on Mount Zamkowa, at the juncture of the Carpathian Mountains and the Sandomierz Basin, the city serves as a marketing centre for the region, relying upon food processing and the metal, timber, and textile industries....

...and King Otakar II (Přemysl Otakar II) even tried to gain the imperial crown. His son Wenceslas II profited from the chaos prevailing in the Polish duchies—a bid for unification by Przemysł II of Great Poland (crowned king in 1295) was cut short by his assassination—to become king of Poland in 1300. Establishing an administration based on provincial royal officials.....

...in a desire to reinstate imagination as paramount in literature; hence, the movement is also known as Neoromanticism, Modernism, and Symbolism. Among its pioneers were Antoni Lange, the poet, and Zenon Przesmycki (pseudonym Miriam), editor of the Symbolist review Chimera. Both made translations from a number of other languages and expressed aesthetic theories in.....

(subspecies Equus caballus przewalskii), last wild horse subspecies surviving in the 21st century. It was discovered in western Mongolia in the late 1870s by the Russian explorer N.M. Przhevalsky. Several expeditions since 1969 have failed to find this horse, which probably crossed with half-wild domesticated horses and lost its di...

...after World War I, when he returned to Poland from Russian Turkestan. As a citizen of the Austrian-ruled part of Poland, he had been interned there as an Austrian subject. In 1924 he published Przez płonący Wschód (“Across the Blazing East”), a colourful recollection of his own adventures in Russia during the 1917 revolution and the civil war. His...

city, eastern Ysyk-köl oblasty (province), Kyrgyzstan, at the northern foot of the Teriskey Alatau (Teskey Ala) Mountains at an elevation of 5,807 feet (1,770 metres) on the Karakol River. The city was founded in 1869 as a Russian military and administrative outpost; it was twice renamed for the Russian explorer Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przheva...

Russian traveler, who, by the extent of his explorations, route surveys, and plant and animal collections, added vastly to geographic knowledge of east-central Asia....

one of the complex mountain chains that form the Kunlun Mountains in western China. The Arkatag is the highest range of the Kunluns with the peaks of Ulugh Muz Tagh at its western end and Shapka Monomakha (also known as Chong Karlik Tagh) at the eastern end, both more than 25,300 ft (7,700 m)....

(subspecies Equus caballus przewalskii), last wild horse subspecies surviving in the 21st century. It was discovered in western Mongolia in the late 1870s by the Russian explorer N.M. Przhevalsky. Several expeditions since 1969 have failed to find this horse, which probably crossed with half-wild domesticated horses and lost its di...

Polish poet, a leading figure of the Awangarda Krakowska, an avant-garde literary movement that began in Kraków in 1922....

...in the west and east, respectively, had replaced the area’s earlier Germanic inhabitants. In 1160, under Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, Christianity and German domination were introduced. Przybysław (Přibislav), son of the vanquished Obodrite ruler Niklot, became Henry’s vassal and founded the Mecklenburg dynasty. In a series of partitions, four separate lines were....

Polish essayist, playwright, and poet notable for espousing art as the creator of human values....

Jewish Ḥasidic leader who sought to turn Polish Ḥasidism away from its reliance on miracle workers. He advocated a new approach that combined study of the Torah with ardent prayer....

an important member of the class of synthetic organic polymers, composed of long-chain molecules prepared by a chemical reaction in which many (usually 2,000–3,000) molecules of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene become linked together....

Under Diouf the Socialist Party (PS) maintained Senghor’s alliance with the Muslim hierarchies. When the PS secured more than 80 percent of the votes in the 1983 elections, there were complaints of unfair practice, and the eight deputies returned by the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) of Abdoulaye Wade initially refused to take their seats. Nevertheless, the framework of parliamentary......

toxic organic compound used alone or in combination with methyl bromide as a soil fumigant and fungicide. Chloropicrin has a boiling point of 112 °C (234 °F). Its vapours are irritating to the skin, eyes, and upper respiratory tract, and it has been used in chemical warfare and as a tear gas...

video game console released in 1994 by Sony Computer Entertainment. The PlayStation, one of a new generation of 32-bit consoles, signaled Sony’s rise to power in the video game world. Also known as the PS One, the PlayStation used compact discs (CDs), heralding the video game industry’s move away from cartridges....

Pressure-sensitive adhesives, or PSAs, represent a large industrial and commercial market in the form of adhesive tapes and films directed toward packaging, mounting and fastening, masking, and electrical and surgical applications. PSAs are capable of holding adherends together when the surfaces are mated under briefly applied pressure at room temperature. (The difference between these......

major French automotive manufacturer and holding company, incorporated in France in 1896 as Société Anonyme des Automobiles Peugeot. The company merged with another large French automobile producer, Citroën SA, in 1976, the combination assuming the current name. Headquarters are in Paris....

Bethe served on numerous advisory committees to the United States government, including the President’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). As a member of PSAC, he helped persuade President Dwight D. Eisenhower to commit the United States to ban atmospheric nuclear tests. (The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which banned atmospheric nuclear testing, was finally ratified in 1963.) In 1972 Bethe...

Malta’s national poet, sometimes called “the bard of Malta,” or “the Chaucer of Malta.” His work has both romantic and classical affinities. His love of nature and his motherland together with his religious sensibility exemplify the former; his fondness for traditional metre (notably in his sonnets, which are considered particularly fine) exemplifies the latter....

An important cotton pest is the cotton fleahopper (Psallus seriatus). The oval-shaped adult is about 3 mm long and pale green in colour, with four black spots on its body. It passes the winter in the egg stage in the plant tissues of weeds. In the spring after the eggs hatch, the nymphs eat the weeds; they then migrate to nearby cotton fields to feed on the cotton plant. Later, the......

melodic recitation formula used in the singing of the psalms and canticles of the Bible, followed by the “Gloria Patri” (“Glory Be to the Father”) during the chanting of the liturgical hours, or divine office. In the Gregorian chant repertory there are eight psalm tones. Because each psalm verse is divided into two halves, the psalm tones have a bina...

Among the forgers who have tried to make the experts look foolish is George Psalmanazar (1679?–1763). A Frenchman, he went to England where he pretended, with great success, to be a native of Formosa (Taiwan), and published a book about that island, which he had never visited. Another is William Lauder, who attempted to prove Milton guilty of plagiarism by quoting 17th-century poets who......

...the motivation for the psalms and in the practice of worship in ancient Israel. He wrote Psalmenstudien, 6 vol. (1921–24; “Studies in the Psalms,” later popularized as The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, 1962), one of the major works of biblical commentary of the 20th century. Depicting the psalms in their concrete cultural milieu, he emphasized the cultic ...

...Catholics ennobled within the first years of James’s reign: the Earl of Northampton and Lord Petre of Writtle, another close friend of Byrd’s. One further publication came from Byrd, the Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets of 1611, containing English sacred and secular music....

...(Italian choral pieces) and chansons, he published seven collections of lieder (German part-songs). Probably his best known work is his sombre, impressive collection of penitential psalms, Psalmi Davidis Poenitentiales (1584). Its rediscovery and edition in 1838 by S.W. Dehn initiated a revival of interest in Lasso’s works....

...historian for King John III Sobieski and was present at Sobieski’s victory over the Turks at Vienna in 1683. Kochowski developed a deep sense of patriotism, which he best expressed in his epic Psalmodia polska (1695; “Polish Psalmody”). The major theme of the 36 psalms of the Psalmodia is Poland’s messianic role in the salvation of the world...

singing of psalms in worship. In biblical times professional singers chanted psalms during Jewish religious services. Occasionally, the congregation interpolated a short refrain between the chanted verses. The alternation of soloist and chorus was called responsorial psalmody (see responsory). Another method, antiphonal psalmody, was the alternation by...

book of the Old Testament composed of sacred songs, or of sacred poems meant to be sung. In the Hebrew Bible, Psalms begins the third and last section of the biblical canon, known as the Writings (Hebrew Ketuvim)....

...the motivation for the psalms and in the practice of worship in ancient Israel. He wrote Psalmenstudien, 6 vol. (1921–24; “Studies in the Psalms,” later popularized as The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, 1962), one of the major works of biblical commentary of the 20th century. Depicting the psalms in their concrete cultural milieu, he emphasized the cultic ...

a pseudepigraphal work (not in any biblical canon) comprising 18 psalms that were originally written in Hebrew, although only Greek and Syriac translations survive. Like the canonical Psalms, the Psalms of Solomon contains hymns, poems of admonition and instruction, and songs of thanksgiving and lamentation. Some of these psalms also contain technical musical notations suggesting that they ...

The poems in Salmos (1964; The Psalms of Struggle and Liberation) represent Cardenal’s rewriting of the biblical psalms of David and condemn modern-day evils. These poems, like many of his others, express the tension between his revolutionary political fervour and his religious faith. The book culminates in an apocalyptic view of the world, a theme that becomes an obsession in...

...in the following year Byrd’s wife, Julian. These sad events may have prompted him to set his musical house in order, for in the next three years he published four collections of his own music: Psalms, Sonets, & songs of sadnes & pietie (1588), Songs of sundrie natures (1589), and two further books of Cantiones Sacrae (1589 and 1591). The two secular vol...

book of the Old Testament composed of sacred songs, or of sacred poems meant to be sung. In the Hebrew Bible, Psalms begins the third and last section of the biblical canon, known as the Writings (Hebrew Ketuvim)....

...early verse was of an official nature, but that of the church was hardly more lively than that of the fili, who often affected a deliberately obscure style. More interesting was the 10th-century Psalter, a biblical history in 150 poems. But the real glory of Irish verse lay in anonymous poets who composed poems such as the famous address to Pangur, a white cat. They avoided complicated.....

In the most advanced ruminants, the much enlarged stomach consists of four parts. These include the large rumen (or paunch), the reticulum, the omasum (psalterium or manyplies)—which are all believed to be derived from the esophagus—and the abomasum (or reed), which corresponds to the stomach of other mammals. The omasum is almost absent in chevrotains. Camels have a three-chambered....

...of the Apocalypse”), Joachim seeks to probe the imminent crisis of evil, as pictured in the apocalyptic symbols of Antichrist, and the life of the spirit to follow. His third main work, the Psalterium decem chordarum (“Psaltery of Ten Strings”), expounds his doctrine of the Trinity through the symbol of his vision of the 10-stringed psaltery. Here and in a lost tract...

...tradition attendant upon the Norman invasion, arrested for a while the movement toward the production of the English Bible. Within about 50 years (c. 1120) of the Conquest, Eadwine’s Psalterium triplex, which contained the Latin version accompanied by Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon renderings, appeared. The contemporary Oxford Psalter achieved such influence that it became th...

(from Greek psaltērion: “harp”), musical instrument having plucked strings of gut, horsehair, or metal stretched across a flat soundboard, often trapezoidal but also rectangular, triangular, or wing-shaped. The strings are open, none being stopped to produce different notes. The instrument, probably of Near Eastern origin in late classical times, reached Europe in the ...

...without musical notation, for several centuries. The earliest manuscripts with decipherable music are believed to date from the 13th century. Manuscripts containing soloists’ sections are called psaltika (from psaltēs, “church singer”). Choral parts are preserved in asmatika (from asma, “song”). The musical settings tend to b...

...tit (Aegithalos caudatus) of Eurasia. It is pinkish and black, with white head, and its tail makes up half of its 14-centimetre (6-inch) total length. One of the world’s tiniest birds is the pygmy tit (Psaltria exilis) of Java, with head and body length of 7 cm....

gray bird of western North America, belonging to the songbird family Aegithalidae, or Paridae (order Passeriformes). The common bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus), 11 centimetres (4.5 inches) long, ranges from British Columbia, Can., to Guatemala. “Black-eared” forms have been separated, perhaps unwarrantedly, as P. melanotis. Bands of bushtits forage busily for insects in...