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Academy, Gallery of the ... Accursius, Franciscus

Academy, Gallery of the museum of art in Florence chiefly famous for its several sculptures by Michelangelo, notably his "David." It also has a collection of 15th- and 16th-century paintings and many 13th-16th-century Tuscan paintings. It was founded in 1784 by the grand duke Pietro Leopoldo and was subsequently enlarged. Acadia North American Atlantic seaboard possessions of France in the 17th and 18th centuries. Centred in what are now New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, Acadia was probably intended to include parts of Maine (U.S.) and Quebec. Acadia National Park national park on the Atlantic coast of Maine, U.S., astride Frenchman Bay. It has an area of 65 square miles (168 square km) and was originally established as Sieur de Monts National Monument (1916), named for Pierre du Guast, sieur (lord) de Monts. It became the first national park in ... Acadia University Privately endowed university in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded in 1838, it took its current name and status in 1891. It has faculties of arts, professional studies, science, theology, education, and graduate studies. Acadia ranks among the country's top undergraduate institutions. Acadian orogeny a mountain-building event that affected an area from present-day New York to Newfoundland during the Devonian Period (416 to 359.2 million years ago). Originally a depositional fore-arc basin formed from what was formerly known as the Appalachian Geosyncline; subsequent compressional orogenic activity caused the deposits to be folded as a ... Acajutla Pacific seaport, southwestern El Salvador. Spanish conquistadores defeated the Indians there in 1524, and it subsequently flourished as a colonial port. The old town has been rebuilt inland in order to make room for new port facilities. Acajutla is El Salvador's principal port and handles a large portion of its ... Acambaro city, southeastern Guanajuato estado (state), central Mexico. Acambaro lies along the Lerma River in the southern portion of the Mesa Central at 6,388 feet (1,947 metres) above sea level. A Spanish settlement was founded there in 1526 on the site of a small Tarascan Indian village. With the construction of ... Acanthaceae one of 23 families in the mint order of flowering plants (Lamiales), containing approximately 230 genera and nearly 3,500 species distributed predominantly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The greater part of the Acanthaceae family are herbs or shrubs, but climbers (vines) and trees occur as well. The ... acanthite a silver sulfide mineral (Ag2S) that is the most important ore of silver. It is abundant, with other silver minerals, in the sulfide mineral deposits of Kongsberg, Nor.; Kremnica, Slovakia; Zacatecas, Mex.; and the Comstock Lode, Nev., U.S. acanthus in architecture and decorative arts, a stylized ornamental motif based on a characteristic Mediterranean plant with jagged leaves, Acanthus spinosus. It was first used by the Greeks in the 5th century BC on temple roof ornaments, on wall friezes, and on the capital of the Corinthian column. One of the ... Acapulco city and port, Guerrero estado (state), southwestern Mexico. Situated on a deep, semicircular bay, Acapulco is a resort with the best harbour on the Pacific coast of Mexico and one of the finest natural anchorages in the world. The town lies on a narrow strip of land between the bay ... Acarai Mountains low range on the border of Brazil (Para state) and southern Guyana. The mountains, which rise to about 2,000 feet (600 metres) above sea level, run in an east-west direction for about 80 miles (130 km) and form part of the northern watershed of the Amazon Basin. The whole area ... Acari, Rio de stream in southwestern Peru, rising in the Cordillera Occidental and flowing to the Pacific Ocean; its valley is the site of remains of the Nazca culture. acarid any member of the subgroup of the arthropod class Arachnida that includes the mites and ticks. Acarigua city, northern Portuguesa estado (state), northwestern Venezuela. Formerly the state capital, Acarigua is a principal commercial centre of the northern portion of the Llanos (plains), in which cattle, sugarcane, cotton, corn (maize), and rice are the principal products. Industries in the city include sawmilling and dairying. Acarigua is accessible by ... Acarnania district of ancient Greece bounded by the Ionian Sea, the Ambracian Gulf, Mount Thyamus, and the Achelous River. Corinth founded several colonies on the coast of Acarnania in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Originally a tribal unit, Acarnania developed into a federal state with generals and other magistrates, a ... acatalasia rare hereditary metabolic disorder caused by lack of the organic catalyst or enzyme called catalase. Although a deficiency of catalase activity is noted in many tissues of the body, including the red blood cells, bone marrow, liver, and skin, only about half of the affected persons have symptoms, which consist ... acceleration rate at which velocity changes with time, in terms of both speed and direction. A point or an object moving in a straight line is accelerated if it speeds up or slows down. Motion on a circle is accelerated even if the speed is constant, because the direction is continually ... acceleration stress physiological changes that occur in the human body in motion as a result of rapid increase of speed. Rapid acceleration and surges in acceleration are felt more critically than are gradual shifts. Pilots are especially subject to the effects of acceleration because of the high speeds at which they travel. ... accelerator in the rubber industry, any of numerous chemical substances that cause vulcanization (q.v.) of rubber to occur more rapidly or at lower temperatures. Many classes of compounds act as accelerators, the most important being organic materials containing sulfur and nitrogen, especially derivatives of benzothiazole. accelerometer instrument that measures the rate at which the velocity of an object is changing (i.e., its acceleration). Acceleration cannot be measured directly. An accelerometer, therefore, measures the force exerted by restraints that are placed on a reference mass to hold its position fixed in an accelerating body. Acceleration is computed ... accent in phonetics, that property of a syllable which makes it stand out in an utterance relative to its neighbouring syllables. The emphasis on the accented syllable relative to the unaccented syllables may be realized through greater length, higher or lower pitch, a changing pitch contour, greater loudness, or a combination ... accent in prosody, a rhythmically significant stress on the syllables of a verse, usually at regular intervals. The word accent is often used interchangeably with stress, though some prosodists use accent to mean the emphasis that is determined by the normal meaning of the words while stress is used to mean ... accent in music, momentary emphasis on a particular rhythmic or melodic detail; accent may be implied or specifically indicated, either graphically for example, , -) or verbally (sforzato, abbreviated sfz). In metrically organized music, accents serve to articulate rhythmic groupings, especially in dances where regular accentuation facilitates the patterning of steps. ... accentor any of about 13 species of bird in the Old World family Prunellidae (order Passeriformes). They have slender bills and rounded wings, and they frequently hop or move with a peculiar motion that has given them another name, shufflewing. The accentors range in colour from dark brown or gray to ... accentual verse in prosody, a metrical system based only on the number of stresses or accented syllables in a line of verse. In accentual verse the total number of syllables in a line can vary as long as there are the prescribed number of accents. This system is used in Germanic poetry, ... accentual-syllabic verse in prosody, the metrical system that is most commonly used in English poetry. It is based on both the number of stresses, or accents, and the number of syllables in each line of verse. A line of iambic pentameter verse, for example, consists of five feet, each of which is ... acceptance short-term credit instrument consisting of a written order requiring a buyer to pay a specified sum at a given date to the seller, signed by the buyer as an indication of his intention to honour his obligation. Acceptances are used in financing export and import operations and in some domestic ... Accesi, Compagnia degli company that performed commedia dell'arte (improvised popular Italian comedy) in the early 1600s. The name means "the stimulated." Leadership was provided by Tristano Martinelli (famous for his portrayal of Arlecchino, the mischievous servant) and Pier Maria Cecchini (known as the leading interpreter of the character Fritellino, as well as the ... accessory in criminal law, a person who becomes equally guilty in the crime of another by knowingly and voluntarily aiding the criminal before or after the crime. An accessory is one kind of accomplice, the other being an abettor, who aids the criminal during the act itself. Common law once treated ... accessory mineral any mineral in an igneous rock not essential to the naming of the rock. When it is present in small amounts, as is common, it is called a minor accessory. If the amount is greater or is of special significance, the mineral is called a varietal, or characterizing, accessory and ... acciaccatura in music, ornamental note sometimes confused with appoggiatura (q.v.). Acciaiuoli, Niccolo statesman, soldier, and grand seneschal of Naples who enjoyed a predominant position in the Neapolitan court. accidental in music, sign placed immediately to the left of (or above) a note to show that the note must be changed in pitch. A sharp () raises a note by a semitone; a flat () lowers it by a semitone; a natural () restores it to the original pitch. Double ... accipiter any bird of the genus Accipiter, largest genus of the birds of prey, consisting of about 50 species of falconiform birds, or "bird" hawks, of the family Accipitridae. Sometimes accipiters are referred to as the "true" hawks. They have broad, short wings and comparatively long legs and tail. They range ... accismus a form of irony in which a person feigns indifference to or pretends to refuse something he or she desires. The fox's dismissal of the grapes in Aesop's fable of the fox and the grapes is an example of accismus. A classic example is that of Caesar's initial refusal to ... Accius, Lucius one of the greatest of the Roman tragic poets, in the view of his contemporaries. His plays (more than 40 titles are known, and about 700 lines survive) were mostly free translations from Greek tragedy, many from Euripides, with violent plots, flamboyant characterizations, and forceful rhetoric. His tragedies were performed ... acclimatization any of the numerous gradual, long-term responses of an organism to changes in its environment. Such responses are more or less habitual and reversible should environmental conditions revert to an earlier state. accompaniment in music, auxiliary part or parts of a composition designed to support the principal part or to throw it into relief. In secular medieval music and in much folk and non-European music, instrumental accompaniments for singers consist of unison or octave duplications of the melody (sometimes with slight differences, creating ... accomplice in law, a person who becomes equally guilty in the crime of another by knowingly and voluntarily aiding the other to commit the offense. An accomplice is either an accessory or an abettor. The accessory aids a criminal prior to the crime, whereas the abettor aids the offender during the ... Accoramboni, Vittoria Italian woman whose life story aroused a great deal of contemporary interest and was later the basis for a play by John Webster, The White Devil (1612), and for a novel by Ludwig Tieck, Vittoria Accorombona (1840). accordion free-reed portable musical instrument, consisting of a treble casing with external piano-style keys or buttons and a bass casing (usually with buttons) attached to opposite sides of a hand-operated bellows. Account of My Hut, An poetic diary by Kamo Chomei, written in Japanese in 1212 as Hojoki. It is admired as a classic literary and philosophical work. account payable any amount owed by a company as the result of a purchase of goods or services from another company on a credit basis. Under a trade-credit arrangement, the purchasing company, after placing its order with the seller, receives the goods and an invoice denoting the price of the goods and ... account receivable any amount owed to a business by a customer as a result of a purchase of goods or services from it on a credit basis. The company making the sale does not receive an acceptance or promissory note (i.e., written orders or promises to pay) from the purchaser but merely ... accountability principle according to which a person or institution is responsible for a set of duties and can be required to give an account of their fulfilment to an authority that is in a position to issue rewards or punishment. Despite the apparent precision of this definition, controversy has arisen about ... accounting systematic development and analysis of information about the economic affairs of an organization. This information may be used in a number of ways: by a firm's managers to help them plan and control ongoing operations; by owners and legislative or regulatory bodies to help them appraise the organization's performance and ... Accra capital and largest city of Ghana, on the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean). The city lies partly on a cliff, 25 to 40 feet (8 to 12 metres) high, and spreads northward over the undulating Accra plains. The area's susceptibility to faulting is the cause of occasional earthquakes. accretion disk a disklike flow of gas, plasma, dust, or particles around any astronomical object in which the material orbiting in the gravitational field of the object loses energy and angular momentum as it slowly spirals inward. In astrophysics, the term accretion refers to the growth in mass of any celestial object ... acculturation the processes of change in artifacts, customs, and beliefs that result from the contact of two or more cultures. The term is also used to refer to the results of such changes. Two major types of acculturation, incorporation and directed change, may be distinguished on the basis of the conditions ... Accursius, Franciscus Italian legal scholar and leading jurist of the 13th century who was responsible for the renovation of Roman law. He was the last of a series of legal glossators (annotators) of Justinian's compilation of Roman law.