Agostino Di Giovanni was a late Gothic sculptor, best known for his work, with Agnolo di Ventura, on the tomb of Guido Tarlati. Agostino is first heard of in Siena in 1310 and again lived there in 1340–43. After 1320 he was active with Agnolo at Volterra, where they executed a number of scenes from

Rubem Fonseca: Agosto (1990; “August”), usually considered his best-known work, tells the story leading up to the 1954 suicide of Getúlio Vargas, the former two-time president of Brazil. O selvagem da ópera (1994; “The Savage of the Opera”) takes 19th-century Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Gomes as its…

Marie de Flavigny, countess d’Agoult was a writer known for her role in and descriptions of Parisian society in the 1840s. She was the daughter of the émigré Comte de Flavigny. In 1827 she married Col. Charles d’Agoult, 20 years her senior. She had early shown strength of will and enthusiasm for

agouti, (genus Dasyprocta), any of about a dozen species of tropical American rodents resembling the small forest-dwelling hoofed animals of tropical Africa and Asia (see chevrotain; duiker; royal antelope). Agoutis weigh up to 6 kg (13 pounds), with an elongated body measuring up to 76 cm (2.5

paca, (genus Cuniculus), either of two species of South American rodents with piglike bodies, large heads, and swollen cheeks. They have short ears, large eyes, and long whiskers, and their bodies are stout, with large rumps and short limbs. The front feet have four toes, and the hindfeet have

paca: The paca (Cuniculus paca) is found from eastern Mexico to northern Argentina and northern Uruguay, living in tropical forests at elevations ranging from sea level to 3,000 metres (9,800 feet). It weighs 5 to 13 kg (11 to 29 pounds) and has a body length of…

paca: The mountain paca (C. taczanowskii) is smaller and has a long dense coat. Found high in the Andes Mountains from western Venezuela to northwestern Bolivia, it lives at the upper limits of mountain forest and in alpine pastures.

Assam People’s Council, regional political party in Assam state, northeastern India, founded in 1985. The AGP’s initial purported and yet limited objective was to “protect the interests of the genuine residents of Assam” by seeking to deport a large number of illegal immigrants who had been coming

AGP, graphics hardware technology first introduced in 1996 by the American integrated-circuit manufacturer Intel Corporation. AGP used a direct channel to a computer’s CPU (central processing unit) and system memory—unlike PCI (peripheral component interconnect), an earlier graphics card standard

nuclear reactor: Advanced gas-cooled reactor: The advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) was developed in the United Kingdom as the successor to reactors of the Calder Hall class, which combined plutonium production and power generation. Calder Hall, the first nuclear station to feed an appreciable amount of power into…

Kofi Annan: …was named chairperson of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an organization aiding small-scale farmers; AGRA was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. He later played a crucial role in resolving the Kenyan election crisis that began in late December 2007,…

Agra, city, western Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. It lies in the Indo-Gangetic Plain on the Yamuna (Jumna) River about 125 miles (200 km) southeast of Delhi. There was an early reference to an “Agravana” in the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, and Ptolemy is said to have called the site

Agra Fort, large 16th-century fortress of red sandstone located on the Yamuna River in the historic city of Agra, west-central Uttar Pradesh, north-central India. It was established by the Mughal emperor Akbar and, in its capacity as both a military base and a royal residence, served as the seat of

Agra: The Jāmiʿ Masjid, or Great Mosque, and the elegant tomb of Iʿtimād al-Dawlah (1628), of white marble, are located near the Taj Mahal. To the northwest, at Sikandra, is the tomb of Akbar.

metalwork: Middle Ages: These little plaques and agraffes (hat badges) were generally miniature versions of religious images worshiped at the place where they were on sale. A number of these Italian, English, French, and German pilgrim badges, dating from the 13th to the 16th century, have survived.

metalwork: Middle Ages: These little plaques and agraffes (hat badges) were generally miniature versions of religious images worshiped at the place where they were on sale. A number of these Italian, English, French, and German pilgrim badges, dating from the 13th to the 16th century, have survived.

Nanda dynasty: Dhanananda, the last of this list, possibly figures as Agrammes, or Xandrames, in classical sources, a powerful contemporary of Alexander the Great. The Nanda line ended with him in about 321 bce when Chandragupta laid the foundation for Mauryan power.

Aristides Agramonte y Simoni was a physician, pathologist, and bacteriologist. He was a member of the Reed Yellow Fever Board of the U.S. Army that discovered (1901) the role of the mosquito in the transmission of yellow fever. Agramonte was the son of a prominent physician who had been killed

agranulocytosis, acute infection characterized by severe sore throat, fever, and fatigue and associated with an extreme reduction of white blood cells, or leukocytes (a condition known as leukopenia), particularly the white cells known as neutrophils (neutropenia). In most cases, agranulocytosis

agranulocytosis, acute infection characterized by severe sore throat, fever, and fatigue and associated with an extreme reduction of white blood cells, or leukocytes (a condition known as leukopenia), particularly the white cells known as neutrophils (neutropenia). In most cases, agranulocytosis

conservatism: Continental Europe: …of conservative party were the agrarian (particularly in Scandinavia), the Christian Democratic, and those parties allied closely with big business. These categories are very general and are not mutually exclusive.

John Crowe Ransom: …who became known as the Agrarians. Their I’ll Take My Stand (1930) criticized the idea that industrialization was the answer to the needs of the South.

Thomas Paine: In Europe: Rights of Man: …of his last great pamphlet, Agrarian Justice (1797), with its attack on inequalities in property ownership, added to his many enemies in establishment circles.

epigraphy: Ancient Rome: …Acilia Repetundarum (123 bce) and Lex Agraria (111 bce) were found in the 16th century on opposite sides of what was once a large bronze tablet; the local laws of the town of Bantia (on the borderlands of Lucania and Apulia in southern Italy) are inscribed on a fragmentary bronze…

Agrarian League, extraparliamentary organization active under the German empire from 1893. Formed to combat the free-trade policies (initiated in 1892) of Chancellor Leo, Graf (count) von Caprivi, the league worked for farmers’ subsidies, import tariffs, and minimum prices. Caprivi’s successor

Finland: Agrarian reform: …the Agrarian Party (now the Centre Party), have been a major factor in Finnish politics.

Sweden: Political process: … (formerly the Conservative Party), the Centre Party, the Liberal Party, and the Green Party—and two socialist parties—the Swedish Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SAP; commonly called the Social Democratic Labour Party) and the Left Party (former Communist Party). The SAP is closely allied with the trade unions and was in power…

Belarus: Political process: …Party of Belarus; and the Agrarian Party. Opposition parties are permitted, but they have had little electoral success. They include the Party of Communists of Belarus (PKB); the Party of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF); the Conservative-Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front; the right-of-centre United Civic Party; and the…

Richard Henry Tawney: …wrote his first major work, The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century (1912). That study of the use of land in an underdeveloped economy that was simultaneously in the midst of a population explosion and a price revolution (caused by the influx of New World gold and silver) opened a…

land reform, a purposive change in the way in which agricultural land is held or owned, the methods of cultivation that are employed, or the relation of agriculture to the rest of the economy. Reforms such as these may be proclaimed by a government, by interested groups, or by revolution. The

Iraq: Economic development to 1980: …had been taken with the Agrarian Reform Law of 1958, which provided for distributing to peasants lands in excess of a certain maximum ownership. A decade later less than half of the land had been distributed. In 1969 a revised Agrarian Reform Law relieved the peasants from payments for their…

China: Reconstruction and consolidation, 1949–52: Under the Agrarian Reform Law of 1950, the property of rural landlords was confiscated and redistributed, which fulfilled a promise to the farmers and smashed a class identified as feudal or semifeudal. The property of traitors, “bureaucrat capitalists” (especially the “four big families” of the Nationalist Party…

Finland: Agrarian reform: …the Agrarian Party (now the Centre Party), have been a major factor in Finnish politics.

agrarianism, in social and political philosophy, perspective that stresses the primacy of family farming, widespread property ownership, and political decentralization. Agrarian ideas are typically justified in terms of how they serve to cultivate moral character and to develop a full and

Delhi: Architecture: …stepwell examples in Delhi are Agrasen ki Baoli and Gandhak ki Baoli.

X: 2013–2023: Twitter as a public company: In 2022, Twitter announced Elon Musk would acquire it and that Musk was to become the company’s sole owner. But, in an apparent case of buyer’s remorse, three months later Musk announced that he would be…

Peter Agre is an American doctor, corecipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2003 for his discovery of water channels in cell membranes. He shared the award with Roderick MacKinnon, also of the United States. In 1974 Agre earned an M.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

María de Agreda was an abbess and mystic. In 1620 she took her vows as a Franciscan nun and in 1627 became abbess of a Franciscan monastery in Agreda, retaining this office, except for a brief period, until her death. Her virtues and holy life were universally acknowledged, but controversy arose

Agreed Framework, 1994 political agreement in which North Korea agreed to suspend its nuclear power program in return for increased energy aid from the United States. The Agreed Framework sought to replace North Korea’s nuclear power program with U.S-supplied light-water reactors, which are more

Niger-Congo languages: Noun classes: …meaning ‘those people have arrived’), concordial elements link all three parts of the sentence by the prefix wa-. This may be compared to the singular construction m-tu yu-le a-mefika ‘that person has arrived.’

contract, in the simplest definition, a promise enforceable by law. The promise may be to do something or to refrain from doing something. The making of a contract requires the mutual assent of two or more persons, one of them ordinarily making an offer and another accepting. If one of the parties

Sir John Wildman: …helped to write the first Agreement of the People. These expressed the political program of the democratic republican, or Leveler, section of the army, which opposed all compromise with Charles I. In the debates that took place during 1647 in the general council of the army he defended this program…

Good Friday Agreement, accord reached on April 10, 1998, and ratified in both Ireland and Northern Ireland by popular vote on May 22 that called for devolved government in Northern Ireland. By the mid-1960s the demographic majority that Protestants enjoyed in Northern Ireland ensured that they were

Brazil: Highlands, coastal regions, and the Pantanal: Woodlands known as agreste are found in slightly more humid areas. Most areas of agreste are located near the São Francisco River and on elevated slopes, where some remaining moisture in the air is wrung from the trade winds. Thorny trees in those regions may attain heights of…

Ağrı, city, in the highlands of eastern Turkey. It lies 5,380 feet (1,640 metres) above sea level in the valley of the Murat River, a tributary of the Euphrates River. The city is a centre for trade in livestock and livestock products and is a transit station on the main highway from Turkey to

Mount Ararat, volcanic massif in extreme eastern Turkey, overlooking the point at which the frontiers of Turkey, Iran, and Armenia converge. Its northern and eastern slopes rise from the broad alluvial plain of the Aras River, about 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) above sea level; its southwestern slopes

Agri Decumates, in antiquity, the Black Forest and adjoining areas of what is now southwestern Germany between the Rhine, Danube, and Main rivers. The name may imply earlier occupation by a tribe with 10 cantons. The Romans under the Flavian emperors began annexing the area in ad 74 to secure

Mount Ararat, volcanic massif in extreme eastern Turkey, overlooking the point at which the frontiers of Turkey, Iran, and Armenia converge. Its northern and eastern slopes rise from the broad alluvial plain of the Aras River, about 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) above sea level; its southwestern slopes

agribusiness, agriculture regarded as a business; more specifically, that part of a modern national economy devoted to the production, processing, and distribution of food and fibre products and by-products. In highly industrialized countries, many activities essential to agriculture are carried on

biochar, form of charcoal made from animal wastes and plant residues (such as wood chips, leaves, and husks) that undergo pyrolysis, a process that rapidly decomposes organic material through anaerobic heating. A technique practiced for many centuries by tribes of the Amazon Rainforest, the

Tacitus: First literary works: …98 Tacitus wrote two works: De vita Julii Agricolae and De origine et situ Germanorum (the Germania), both reflecting his personal interests. The Agricola is a biographical account of his father-in-law’s career, with special reference to the governorship of Britain (78–84) and the later years under Domitian. It is laudatory…

Alexander Agricola was a composer of the late Burgundian polyphonic school. Agricola was educated in the Netherlands and entered the service of Charles VII of France. He later went to Milan and in 1474 was at the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici. The same year he returned to the Netherlands. In 1500 he

Georgius Agricola was a German scholar and scientist known as “the father of mineralogy.” While a highly educated classicist and humanist, well regarded by scholars of his own and later times, he was yet singularly independent of the theories of ancient authorities. He was indeed among the first to

Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a Roman general celebrated for his conquests in Britain. His life is set forth by his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus. After serving as military tribune under Suetonius Paulinus, governor in Britain (59–61), Agricola became, successively, quaestor in Asia (64), people’s

Johann Agricola was a Lutheran Reformer, friend of Martin Luther, and advocate of antinomianism, a view asserting that Christians are freed by grace from the need to obey the Ten Commandments. At Wittenberg, Agricola was persuaded by Luther to change his course of study from medicine to theology.

Martin Agricola was a composer, teacher, and writer on music, one of the first musicians to concern himself with the needs of the Reformed churches and to publish musical treatises in the vernacular. Agricola was self-taught, called to music “from the plough,” as his chosen surname suggests. He

Uralic languages: Finnish: …alphabet book from 1543 by Mikael Agricola, founder of the Finnish literary language; Agricola’s translation of the New Testament appeared five years later. Finnish was accorded official status in 1809, when Finland entered the Russian Empire after six centuries of Swedish domination. The publication of the national folk epic, the…

Rodolphus Agricola was a Dutch humanist who, basing his philosophy on Renaissance ideas, placed special emphasis on the freedom of the individual and the complete development of the self, from both an intellectual and a physical standpoint. His ideas influenced Desiderius Erasmus, another Dutch

Iraq: Agriculture, forestry, and fishing: About one-eighth of Iraq’s total area is arable, and another one-tenth is permanent pasture. A large proportion of the arable land is in the north and northeast, where rain-fed irrigation dominates and is sufficient to cultivate winter crops, mainly wheat and…

Agricultural Adjustment Act, in U.S. history, legislation signed in May 1933 by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the Hundred Days phase of his New Deal domestic program. The Agricultural Adjustment Act was designed to provide immediate economic relief to farmers during the Great Depression

Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), in U.S. history, major New Deal program to restore agricultural prosperity during the Great Depression by curtailing farm production, reducing export surpluses, and raising prices. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (May 1933) was an omnibus farm-relief

agricultural sciences: Agricultural economics: Agricultural policy is concerned with the relations between agriculture, economics, and society. Land ownership and the structure of farm enterprises were traditionally regarded as primarily social problems. The growth of agricultural production in the 20th century, accompanied by a decline in size of the rural…

Tennessee State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee. A historically black university, it still has a largely African American enrollment. Tennessee State is a

Auburn University, public, coeducational institution of higher education located in Auburn, Alabama, U.S. The university offers a broad range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs and is noted for its colleges of engineering and business. Degrees in nursing, pharmacy, and veterinary

Texas A&M University: The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas became the state’s first institution of higher education when it opened in 1876. It was originally created as a military institution, and military training was required until 1965; the university has one of the largest Reserve Officer Training Corps…

Mississippi State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning near Starkville, Mississippi, U.S. It is a land-grant university that is made up of eight colleges and schools. There is also a branch at Meridian. Undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees are awarded in

China: Finance: …bank for the public; the Agricultural Bank of China, which serves the agricultural sector; and the China Investment Bank, which handles foreign investment. Many foreign banks maintain offices in China’s larger cities and the special economic zones. In 2005 the China Construction Bank became the first of China’s “big four”…

agricultural sciences, sciences dealing with food and fibre production and processing. They include the technologies of soil cultivation, crop cultivation and harvesting, animal production, and the processing of plant and animal products for human consumption and use. See also agricultural

Michigan State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in East Lansing, Mich., U.S. It was a pioneer among land-grant universities and is a noted institution of research. Through its more than a dozen colleges it provides comprehensive undergraduate, graduate, and

Montana State University, public, coeducational university system whose main campus is in Bozeman, Montana, U.S. The university comprises four campuses throughout Montana, including (in addition to the main campus) MSU-Northern in Havre, MSU-Billings, and Montana State University-Great Falls

Utah State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Logan, Utah, U.S. It is a comprehensive, land-grant university with about 45 academic departments within colleges of Agriculture, Business, Education, Engineering, Family Life, Natural Resources, Science, Humanities,

West Virginia University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning, one of the state universities of West Virginia, U.S., and a land-grant institution. West Virginia University is located on two campuses in Morgantown. It was established in 1867 as the Agricultural College of West

agricultural economics, study of the allocation, distribution, and utilization of the resources used, along with the commodities produced, by farming. Agricultural economics plays a role in the economics of development, for a continuous level of farm surplus is one of the wellsprings of

Malawi: Agriculture, forestry, and fishing: …and marketed solely by the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), which also dominated the fertilizer business. Because ADMARC kept a high proportion of the profits, this arrangement was to the disadvantage of smallholders, whose conditions improved little. In 1987 the ADMARC monopoly over smallholder produce was ended. Through schemes…

agricultural economics, study of the allocation, distribution, and utilization of the resources used, along with the commodities produced, by farming. Agricultural economics plays a role in the economics of development, for a continuous level of farm surplus is one of the wellsprings of

agricultural sciences: Agricultural engineering: Agricultural engineering includes appropriate areas of mechanical, electrical, environmental, and civil engineering, construction technology, hydraulics, and soil mechanics.

farm machinery, mechanical devices, including tractors and implements, used in farming to save labour. Farm machines include a great variety of devices with a wide range of complexity: from simple hand-held implements used since prehistoric times to the complex harvesters of modern mechanized

adult education: Adult-education agencies and institutions: Agricultural extension services, though almost wholly an American development, are conducted on a scale great enough to rate separate mention. The extension service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducts agricultural, home economics, and even public affairs programs in every county in the United States.…

farm machinery, mechanical devices, including tractors and implements, used in farming to save labour. Farm machines include a great variety of devices with a wide range of complexity: from simple hand-held implements used since prehistoric times to the complex harvesters of modern mechanized

Italy: Domestic policies: A land-workers union, the Federation of Agricultural Labourers (Federterra), was formed in 1901, and the various Socialist-led unions formed a confederation of labor in 1906. Some unions depended heavily on public works schemes subsidized by government. Others, such as Federterra, relied on Giolitti’s reform legislation favoring cooperatives and on…

agricultural sciences: Agricultural economics: Agricultural law concentrates on legal issues of both theoretical and practical significance to agriculture such as land tenure, land tenancy, farm labour, farm management, and taxation. From its beginnings at the University of Illinois in the 1940s, modern agricultural law has evolved to become a…

farm machinery, mechanical devices, including tractors and implements, used in farming to save labour. Farm machines include a great variety of devices with a wide range of complexity: from simple hand-held implements used since prehistoric times to the complex harvesters of modern mechanized

farm management, making and implementing of the decisions involved in organizing and operating a farm for maximum production and profit. Farm management draws on agricultural economics for information on prices, markets, agricultural policy, and economic institutions such as leasing and credit. It

agricultural sciences: Agricultural economics: Agricultural policy is concerned with the relations between agriculture, economics, and society. Land ownership and the structure of farm enterprises were traditionally regarded as primarily social problems. The growth of agricultural production in the 20th century, accompanied by a decline in size of the rural…

agricultural sciences: Agricultural economics: Agricultural policy is concerned with the relations between agriculture, economics, and society. Land ownership and the structure of farm enterprises were traditionally regarded as primarily social problems. The growth of agricultural production in the 20th century, accompanied by a decline in size of the rural…

agricultural economics, study of the allocation, distribution, and utilization of the resources used, along with the commodities produced, by farming. Agricultural economics plays a role in the economics of development, for a continuous level of farm surplus is one of the wellsprings of

United States National Arboretum: Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. The arboretum was established in 1927 by an act of Congress and occupies 446 acres (180 hectares) on the west bank of the Anacostia River. Among the more than 7,000 kinds of plants are special collections of azaleas, bonsai, camellias, hollies, apple…

agricultural revolution, gradual transformation of the traditional agricultural system that began in Britain in the 18th century. Aspects of this complex transformation, which was not completed until the 19th century, included the reallocation of land ownership to make farms more compact and an

agricultural sciences, sciences dealing with food and fibre production and processing. They include the technologies of soil cultivation, crop cultivation and harvesting, animal production, and the processing of plant and animal products for human consumption and use. See also agricultural

land reform: Latin America: …estates are run by the Agricultural Societies of Social Interest (SAIS), a mechanism devised to avoid breaking up economically efficient enterprises rather than to modify the tenure institutions.

Poland: The January 1863 uprising and its aftermath: …and the creation of the Agricultural Society to tackle the peasant question. Simultaneously, Alexander II warned the Poles against political “daydreaming.” The Agricultural Society, a union of reformist landowners headed by the popular Hrabia (count) Andrzej Zamoyski, debated changes in the agrarian sector but found it hard to avoid politics.…

agricultural sciences: Agricultural economics: Agricultural policy is concerned with the relations between agriculture, economics, and society. Land ownership and the structure of farm enterprises were traditionally regarded as primarily social problems. The growth of agricultural production in the 20th century, accompanied by a decline in size of the rural…

The Ohio State University: …Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and the Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster. The institute and the branches in Mansfield and Newark are primarily two-year colleges. The main campus in Columbus is a comprehensive research institution with land-grant status. It comprises some two dozen schools and colleges, including colleges of food, agriculture, and…

agricultural technology, application of techniques to control the growth and harvesting of animal and vegetable products. Mechanical processing of soil so that it is in the proper physical condition for planting is usually referred to as tilling; adding nutrients and trace elements is called

Brook Farm, short-lived utopian experiment in communal living (1841–47). The 175-acre farm was located in West Roxbury, Mass. (now in Boston). It was organized and virtually directed by George Ripley, a former Unitarian minister, editor of The Dial (a critical literary monthly), and a leader in the

University of South Carolina, coeducational U.S. state university system based in South Carolina’s capital city of Columbia. In addition to the main campus at Columbia, there are four-year branch campuses at Aiken and Spartanburg and two-year regional campuses at Union, Sumter, Beaufort, Lancaster,

Colorado State University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S. It is a land-grant university and a part of Colorado’s state university system. Colorado State consists of the colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Applied Human Sciences, Business,

Pennsylvania State University, coeducational state-supported system of higher education in Pennsylvania, U.S. The main campus, at University Park, is the system’s largest branch and is the focus of its graduate and four-year undergraduate education. The system also includes the four-year school

origins of agriculture, the active production of useful plants or animals in ecosystems that have been created by people. Agriculture has often been conceptualized narrowly, in terms of specific combinations of activities and organisms—wet-rice production in Asia, wheat farming in Europe, cattle

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), executive division of the U.S. federal government in charge of programs and policies relating to the farming industry and the use of national forests and grasslands. Formed in 1862, the USDA works to stabilize or improve domestic farm income, develop foreign