Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Shop

0-9

Peter I ... Petri, Laurentius

Peter I: king of Serbia from 1903, the first strictly constitutional monarch of his country. In 1918 he became the first king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called ...
Peter I: king of Aragon from June 1094. The son of Sancho Ramirez, the third in order of the historic kings of Aragon, Peter belonged to times anterior to the authentic written ...
Peter I: king of Portugal from 1357 to 1367.
Peter I: duke or count of Brittany from 1213 to 1237, French prince of the Capetian dynasty, founder of a line of French dukes of Brittany who ruled until the mid-14th century.
Peter I: the great vladika, or prince-bishop, of Montenegro from 1782 to 1830, who won full independence of his country from the Turks.
Peter I: tsar of Russia, who reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V (1682-96) and alone thereafter (1696-1725) and who in 1721 was proclaimed emperor (imperator). He was one ...
Peter II: the vladika or prince-bishop of Montenegro from 1830 to 1851, renowned as an enlightened ruler, an intrepid warrior, and especially as a poet. His principal works were "The Ray of ...
Peter II: duke of Brittany (from 1450), son of John V (or VI) and brother of his predecessor Francis I. He made an important innovation in limiting the right of asylum in ...
Peter II: emperor of Russia from 1727 to 1730. Grandson of Peter I the Great (ruled 1682-1725), Peter II was named heir to the Russian throne by Catherine I (ruled 1725-27) and ...
Peter II: king of Portugal whose reign as prince regent (1668-83) and as king (1683-1706) was marked by the consolidation of royal absolutism and the reduction of the significance of the Cortes ...
Peter II: the last king of Yugoslavia.
Peter II: king of Aragon from 1196 to 1213, the eldest son and successor of Alfonso II.
Peter III: king of Aragon from July 1276, on the death of his father, James I, and king of Sicily (as Peter I) from 1282.
Peter III: emperor of Russia from Jan. 5, 1762 (Dec. 25, 1761, O.S.), to July 9 (June 28, O.S.), 1762.
Peter III: king consort of Portugal from 1777, with Queen Maria I. The younger son of John V of Portugal, he was married in July 1760 to the daughter of his elder ...
Peter IV: king of Aragon from January 1336, son of Alfonso IV.
Peter Lombard: bishop of Paris whose Four Books of Sentences (Sententiarum libri IV) was the standard theological text of the Middle Ages.
Peter Martyr: name commonly used in English for (1) St. Peter Martyr, who was killed in 1252 by the Cathari, a heretical Christian sect; (2) Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, who was an Italian ...
Peter Martyr D'anghiera: chaplain to the court of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, and historian of Spanish explorations, who became a member of Emperor Charles V's Council ...
Peter Martyr, Saint: inquisitor, vigorous preacher, and religious founder who, for his militant reformation, was assassinated by the neo-Manichaean sect, the Cathari (heretical Christians who held unorthodox views on the nature of good ...
Peter Nolasco, Saint: founder of the order of Our Lady of Ransom (Mercedarians, or Nolascans), a religious institute originally designed to ransom Christian captives from the Moors; today, the Mercedarians, whose numbers have ...
Peter Of Alcantara, Saint: Franciscan mystic who founded an austere form of Franciscan life known as the Alcantarines or Discalced (i.e., barefooted) Friars Minor. He is the patron saint of Brazil.
Peter Of Castelnau: Cistercian martyr, apostolic legate, and inquisitor against the Albigenses, most particularly the Cathari (heretical Christians who held unorthodox views on the nature of good and evil), whose assassination led to ...
Peter the Apostle, Saint: disciple of Jesus Christ, recognized in the early Christian church as the leader of the disciples and by the Roman Catholic church as the first of its unbroken succession of ...
Peter the Great Bay: inlet, Sea of Japan, northwestern Pacific Ocean, in the Maritime (Primorye) region of far eastern Russia. The bay extends for 115 miles (185 km) from the mouth of the Tumen ...
Peter the Hermit: ascetic and monastic founder, considered one of the most important preachers of the First Crusade. He was also, with Walter Sansavoir, one of the leaders of the so-called People's Crusade, ...
Peter The Venerable: outstanding French abbot of Cluny whose spiritual, intellectual, and financial reforms restored Cluny to its high place among the religious establishments of Europe.
Peter V: king of Portugal who conscientiously and intelligently devoted himself to the problems of his country during his short reign (1853-61).
Peter, Apocalypse of: pseudepigraphal (noncanonical and unauthentic) Christian writing dating from the first half of the 2nd century AD. The unknown author, who claimed to be Peter the Apostle, relied on the canonical ...
Peter, Gospel of: pseudepigraphal (noncanonical and unauthentic) Christian writing of the mid-2nd century AD, the extant portion of which covers the condemnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus. Because the work reflects the view ...
Peter, Hugh: English Independent minister, army preacher, and propagandist during the Civil War and Commonwealth.
Peter, Laurence J: Canadian teacher and author of the best-selling book The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong (1969).
Peter, letters of: two New Testament writings attributed to the foremost of Jesus' 12 Apostles but perhaps written during the early 2nd century.
Peter, Paul and Mary: American folksingers at the forefront of the folk music revival of the 1960s who created a bridge between traditional folk music and later folk rock. The group comprised Peter Yarrow ...
Peterborough: city and unitary authority, geographic county of Cambridgeshire, England. At the core of the city and unitary authority is a historic region called the Soke of Peterborough, which encompasses the ...
Peterborough: town (township), Hillsborough county, southern New Hampshire, U.S., that lies at the confluence of the Contoocook and Nubanusit rivers. It includes the communities of Peterborough and West Peterborough. The site, ...
Peterborough: city, seat of Peterborough county, southeastern Ontario, Canada. It lies along the Otonabee River, 70 miles (115 km) east-northeast of Toronto. In 1821 Adam Scott founded a sawmill and gristmill ...
Peterborough, Soke of: historic region surrounding the town of Peterborough, now part of the city and unitary authority of Peterborough, in the historic county of Northamptonshire, England. The Soke was historically also known ...
Peterhead: town and fishing port, council area and historic county of Aberdeenshire. Peterhead is the most easterly town in Scotland. Founded in 1593, it developed as a port and functioned briefly ...
Peterloo Massacre: (Aug. 16, 1819), in English history, the brutal dispersal by cavalry of a radical meeting held on St. Peter's Fields in Manchester. The "massacre" (likened to Waterloo) attests to the ...
Petermann Ranges: low mountains extending for 200 miles (320 km) from east-central Western Australia southeast to the southwest corner of Northern Territory. A continuation of the granite and gneiss formations in the ...
Peters, Carl: German explorer who advanced the establishment of the German East African protectorate of Tanganyika, now a part of Tanzania.
Peters, Ellis: English novelist especially noted for two series of mysteries: one featuring medieval monastics in Britain and the other featuring a modern family.
Peters, Lenrie: physician, novelist, and one of western Africa's most important poets.
Petersburg: city, administratively independent of, but located in, Dinwiddie and Prince George counties, southeast Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Appomattox River (bridged), adjacent to Colonial Heights and Hopewell, 23 miles ...
Petersburg: city, seat (1839) of Menard county, central Illinois, U.S. It lies on the Sangamon River, about 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Springfield. The area was settled about 1820, and ...
Petersburg Campaign: (1864-65), series of military operations in southern Virginia during the final months of the American Civil War that culminated in the defeat of the South.
Peterson, Esther: American consumer advocate who worked to make product information available to the public.
Peterson, Oscar: Canadian jazz pianist best known for his dazzling solo technique.
Peterson, Roger Tory: American ornithologist, author, conservationist, and wildlife artist whose field books on birds, beginning with A Field Guide to the Birds (1934; 4th ed. 1980), did much in the United States ...
Petherick, John: British trader and explorer who investigated the western tributaries of the Nile River and made zoological and ethnological discoveries in the Sudan and central Africa. He was the first European ...
Pethick-Lawrence, Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, Baron: British politician who was a leader of the woman suffrage movement in Great Britain during the first two decades of the 20th century; he later served (1945-47) as secretary of ...
Petion de Villeneuve, Jerome: politician of the French Revolution who was at first a close associate, and later a bitter enemy, of the Jacobin leader Maximilien de Robespierre.
Petion, Alexandre Sabes: Haitian liberator and president remembered by the Haitian people for his liberal rule and by South Americans for his support of Simon Bolivar during the struggle for independence from Spain.
Petionville: eastern suburb of Port-au-Prince, southern Haiti, on the cool northern hills of the Massif de la Selle. Named for Alexandre Sabes Petion, who fought in Haiti's wars for independence in ...
Petipa, Marius: dancer and choreographer who worked for nearly 60 years at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and had a profound influence on modern classical Russian ballet. He directed many of ...
petit jury: a group chosen from the citizens of a district to try a question of fact. Distinct from the grand jury, which formulates accusations, the petit jury tests the accuracy of ...
petit point: form of canvas embroidery similar to cross-stitch embroidery (q.v.), but even finer because of its small scale. The squareness and regularity of the outlines of the forms represented is less ...
Petit porcelain: French hard-paste porcelain produced by Jacob Petit (b. 1796). Petit worked at the porcelain factory at Sevres as a painter. With his brother Mardochee he bought a porcelain factory in ...
Petit, Roland: French dancer and choreographer whose dramatic ballets combined fantasy with elements of contemporary realism.
petition: written instrument directed to some individual, official, legislative body, or court in order to redress a grievance or to request the granting of a favour. Petitions are also used to ...
Petitot, Jean: Swiss painter who was the first great miniature portraitist in enamel.
Petlyura, Symon Vasilyevich: socialist leader of Ukraine's unsuccessful fight for independence following the Russian revolutions of 1917.
PETN: a highly explosive organic compound belonging to the same chemical family as nitroglycerin-i.e., the nitric acid esters of polyalcohols.
Peto, John Frederick: American still-life painter who, though influenced by the style and subject matter of the better-known trompe l'oeil ("fool-the-eye") still-life painter William Harnett, developed a distinctive mode of expression.
Petofi, Sandor: one of the greatest Hungarian poets and a revolutionary who symbolized the Hungarian desire for freedom.
Petoskey: resort city, seat (1853) of Emmet county, northwestern Michigan, U.S., on Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan, 67 miles (108 km) northeast of Traverse City. Settled in 1852 and named ...
Petra: ancient city, centre of an Arab kingdom in Hellenistic and Roman times; its ruins are in southwest Jordan. The city was built on a terrace, pierced from east to west ...
Petrakis, Harry Mark: American novelist and short-story writer whose exuberant and sensitive works deal with the lives of Greek immigrants in urban America.
Petralona skull: an ancient human cranium discovered in 1960 in a cave near Thessaloniki, northeastern Greece. The age of this skull has been difficult to establish. At first it was believed to ...
Petrarch: Italian scholar, poet, and Humanist whose poems addressed to Laura, an idealized beloved, contributed to the Renaissance flowering of lyric poetry. Petrarch's inquiring mind and love of classical authors led ...
Petrassi, Goffredo: one of the most influential Italian composers of the 20th century. He is known for incorporating various avant-garde techniques into a highly personal style.
Petre, Sir Edward, 2nd Baronet: English Jesuit, favourite of King James II of Great Britain.
petrel: any of a number of seabirds of the order Procellariiformes, particularly certain members of the family Procellariidae, which also includes the fulmars and the shearwaters. Members of the family Hydrobatidae ...
Petri, Elio: Italian motion picture director and screenwriter.
Petri, Laurentius: Lutheran churchman, a leader of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden and the first Protestant archbishop of Uppsala (1531-73).