Castilian dialect, a dialect of the Spanish language (q.v.), the basis of modern standard Spanish. Originally the local dialect of Cantabria in north central Spain, Castilian spread to Castile. After the merger of the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, and Aragon in the late 15th century, it became the

Spanish literature, the body of literary works produced in Spain. Such works fall into three major language divisions: Castilian, Catalan, and Galician. This article provides a brief historical account of each of these three literatures and examines the emergence of major genres. Although

Castile, traditional central region constituting more than one-quarter of the area of peninsular Spain. Castile’s northern part is called Old Castile and the southern part is called New Castile. The region formed the core of the Kingdom of Castile, under which Spain was united in the late 15th and

Vasco Núñez de Balboa: Career in the New World: …they founded the town of Santa María de la Antigua, the first stable settlement on the continent, and began to acquire gold by barter or war with the local Indians. The colonists soon deposed Enciso, Ojeda’s second in command, and elected a town council; one of its two alcaldes, or…

New Castile, historic provincial region, central upland Spain. It generally includes the area of the Moorish kingdom of Toledo annexed to the former kingdom of Castile in the 11th century ad. In modern Spanish geographic usage, New Castile as an administrative region included the provinces of

Old Castile, historic provincial region, north-central Spain, generally including the limits reached by the kingdom of Castile in the 11th century. Touching the Bay of Biscay on the north, it is separated from New Castile (Castilla la Nueva), to the south, by the ranges of the Sierra de Guadarrama.

Castile-León, comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) and historic region of northwestern Spain, encompassing the provincias (provinces) of Valladolid, Burgos, León, Salamanca, Zamora, Palencia, Ávila, Soria, and Segovia. Its capital is the city of Valladolid. Castile-León is bounded by the

El Greco: Middle years: Luis’ brother, Diego de Castilla, gave El Greco his first commission in Spain, which possibly had been promised before the artist left Italy.

El Greco: Middle years: …in Rome at this period—Luis de Castilla—became El Greco’s intimate friend and was eventually named one of the two executors of his last testament. Luis’ brother, Diego de Castilla, gave El Greco his first commission in Spain, which possibly had been promised before the artist left Italy.

Ramón Castilla was a soldier and statesman who, as president or as the power behind the scene, dominated Peruvian politics for nearly 20 years. A conservative himself, he wisely offered concessions to all sectors of Peruvian society and provided the nation with a long period of political stability

Castile–La Mancha, comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) and historic region of Spain, encompassing the provincias (provinces) of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Albacete. Castile–La Mancha is bounded by the autonomous communities of Madrid to the north, Aragon to the northeast,

Castile-León, comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) and historic region of northwestern Spain, encompassing the provincias (provinces) of Valladolid, Burgos, León, Salamanca, Zamora, Palencia, Ávila, Soria, and Segovia. Its capital is the city of Valladolid. Castile-León is bounded by the

Indian paint brush, any plant of the genus Castilleja (family Scrophulariaceae), which contains about 200 species of partially or wholly parasitic plants that derive nourishment from the roots of other plants. For this reason the plants are seldom cultivated successfully in the flower garden. The

Cristóbal de Castillejo was a poet who was the foremost critic of the Italianate innovations of the Spanish poet Garcilaso de la Vega and the Catalan poet Juan Boscán. While very young, Castillejo entered a monastery, but in 1525 he became the personal secretary to Ferdinand, brother of Charles I

Mayapán: …is a large pyramid, the Castillo, on the great plaza; to the south of it is a circular temple and to the east a temple with a serpent column. The two main groups of buildings each are arranged around a quadrangular court and were connected by a causeway, parts of…

Guatemala: Guatemala from 1931 to 1954: Carlos Castillo Armas. After the group launched an invasion of Guatemala in June 1954, Arbenz was forced to resign.

Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, site of the oldest masonry fort in the United States, built by the Spaniards on Matanzas Bay between 1672 and 1695 to protect the city of St. Augustine, in northeastern Florida. Established as Fort Marion National Monument in 1924, it was renamed in 1942.

Alonso de Castillo Solorzano was a Spanish novelist and playwright whose ingenuity expressed itself best in his short stories. His father served in the court of the Duke of Alba and the son with the Marqués del Villar and two marqueses de los Vélez. His stories are usually of adventure but treated

Pedro Castillo is a Peruvian politician, union leader, and schoolteacher who served as president of Peru from 2021 to 2022, when he was removed from office by the Congress of the Republic. The third of nine children, Castillo grew up in Puña, a remote village in the department of Cajamarca, in

Latin American literature: Poetry: Mother Francisca Josefa de la Concepción de Castillo y Guevara, who wrote a prose autobiography, Vida (published 1817; “Life”), at the behest of her confessor, also composed the poetry in Afectos espirituales (written mostly in the early and mid-1700s; published 1843; “Spiritual Feelings”). Both these…

Ana Castillo is an American poet and author whose work explores themes of race, sexuality, and gender, especially as they relate to issues of power. Castillo studied art education at Northeastern Illinois University (B.A., 1975), where she became involved in Hispanic American artistic, activist,

Western painting: Spain and Portugal: Antonio del Castillo and Juan de Valdés Leal were the most important painters active in Andalusia after Murillo, and the works of both reveal that liveliness of handling, with accents of strong local colour, which replaced the sober realism popular in the first half of…

Chichén Itzá: …of such major buildings as El Castillo (“The Castle”), a pyramid that rises 79 feet (24 meters) above the Main Plaza. El Castillo has four sides, each with 91 stairs and facing a cardinal direction; including the step on the top platform, these combine for a total of 365 steps—the…

Michel del Castillo is a Spanish-born novelist writing in French, who became famous at 24 for a short novel, Tanguy (1957; A Child of Our Time). Though written as fiction, it is the story of his experiences as a political refugee and a prisoner in concentration camps, and, like The Diary of Anne

Michel del Castillo is a Spanish-born novelist writing in French, who became famous at 24 for a short novel, Tanguy (1957; A Child of Our Time). Though written as fiction, it is the story of his experiences as a political refugee and a prisoner in concentration camps, and, like The Diary of Anne

Pedro Castillo is a Peruvian politician, union leader, and schoolteacher who served as president of Peru from 2021 to 2022, when he was removed from office by the Congress of the Republic. The third of nine children, Castillo grew up in Puña, a remote village in the department of Cajamarca, in

Argentina: The conservative restoration and the Concordancia, 1930–43: …in 1940, and his successor, Ramón S. Castillo, restored the conservative coalition to power and gained the support of General Justo.

Latin American art: Modernismo (1890–1920): …Peruvian artists Carlos Baca-Flor and Teófilo Castillo. In his paintings, such as the small oil-on-board Couple (1900), Baca-Flor built up a heavy impasto of contrasting bright and dark pigments. Castillo’s subject matter depicted the colonial legacy. In Burial of St. Rose of Lima (1918), for example, his passionate, disconnected brushstrokes…

Battle of Castillon, (July 17, 1453), the concluding battle of the Hundred Years’ War between France and England. The French had won Guyenne and Gascony back from English rule in 1451, but their long-unfamiliar regime soon proved objectionable to many of the inhabitants, who therefore welcomed the

Castine, historic resort town, Hancock county, southern Maine, U.S., on a promontory in Penobscot Bay, across the water from Belfast (west). For 200 years the place held a key position in the struggle between England and France—and to a lesser extent the Netherlands—for control of the Acadian

directing: Casting: There is a crucial responsibility at the other end of the production schedule, before rehearsals even begin. It is the casting process, which is often regarded as an art in itself. An error in casting can be fatal, no matter how much imagination, hard…

fishing: Early history: …free-running line, useful for both casting and playing a hooked fish. This method intensified the need to develop a means of taking up and storing longer lines and led to the invention of the fishing reel.

casting, in the metal and plastics industry, the process whereby molten material is poured or forced into a mold and allowed to harden. See

Frank Stockton: The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine (1886) told of two middle-aged women on a sea voyage to Japan who become castaways on a deserted island. A sequel appeared in 1888 as The Dusantes.

chess: Rook: Each player has two rooks (formerly also known as castles), which begin the game on the corner squares a1 and h1 for White, a8 and h8 for Black. A rook can move vertically or horizontally to any unobstructed square along the file or rank…

castle, medieval stronghold, generally the residence of the king or lord of the territory in which it stands. Strongholds designed with the same functionality have been built throughout the world, including in Japan, India, and other countries. The word castle is sometimes applied to prehistoric

castle, in ship construction, structure or area raised above the main deck for combat or work purposes. The name was derived from early similarities to fortress turrets. The forecastle and aftercastle (or sterncastle) are at the bow and stern of the vessel. A top castle was perched on masts of some

Honduras: Agriculture, forestry, and fishing: …Company and United Brands) and Dole (formerly Standard Fruit and Steamship Company and Castle & Cooke)—hold a disproportionate amount of the country’s agricultural land and produce a substantial part of the national income by growing the majority of the country’s banana crop. Important export crops other than bananas include coffee…

stand-your-ground laws: …it built upon the so-called Castle Doctrine, which states that people have the right to defend themselves with deadly force when confronted by an intruder in their home (i.e., their “castle”). The roots of the Castle Doctrine are found in English common law, referenced as early as 1604. It originally…

New York City: Ethnic and religious diversity: …the pressure of immigration that Castle Garden, near the Battery, was converted into a reception centre, a role it fulfilled from 1855 to 1890. By the time of the American Civil War, Irish, Germans, and several other ethnic groups made the city’s population more than half foreign-born.

castle guard, in the European feudal tenure, an arrangement by which some tenants of the king or of a lesser lord were bound to provide garrisons for royal or other castles. The obligation would in practice be discharged by subtenants, individual knights who held their fiefs by virtue of performing

Hastings: …of a medieval castle crown Castle Hill, which is situated on the sandstone cliffs overlooking the old fishing settlement and port at the mouth of a steep valley. The main shopping center lies west of that old nucleus, which is notable for its numerous antique shops. The resort has developed…

Budapest: Buda: In a central position is Castle Hill (Várhegy), 551 feet (168 metres) above sea level and crowned by the restored Buda Castle (Budai vár, commonly called the Royal Palace). In the 13th century a fortress was built on the site and was replaced by a large Baroque palace during the…

Castle Hill Rising, (March 4–5, 1804), the first rebellion in Australian history. Involving Irish convicts (for the most part, political offenders), the uprising began with the rebels’ seizure of the New South Wales convict station at Parramatta on March 4 and culminated in a clash between the

Norman Mailer: …written by Jesus Christ, and The Castle in the Forest (2007), narrated by a devil, tells the story of Adolf Hitler’s boyhood.

Jostein Gaarder: …Daughter), Slottet i Pyreneene (2008; The Castle in the Pyrenees), and Dukkeføreren (2016; “The Puppet Master”).

Loch Leven: On Castle Island are the ruins of the late 14th-century Lochleven Castle, which served as a place of detention for many important persons, including Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1567 she signed her abdication there. During her escape in 1568 the castle keys were thrown into…

Battle for Castle Itter, World War II military engagement in which U.S. soldiers joined forces with renegade German troops to turn back a Waffen-SS assault on a stronghold in Tirol, Austria, where elite French political figures were being held prisoner by the Nazis. The battle took place on May 5,

Sydney Pollack: Film directing: …that film and returned for Castle Keep (1969), a World War II adventure about a group of soldiers (including Peter Falk and Bruce Dern) who take refuge in a Belgian castle.

Sir Donald Currie: …and politician, founder of the Castle Line of steamers between England and South Africa, and later head of the amalgamated Union–Castle Line.

Castle Morpeth, former borough (district), administrative and historic county of Northumberland, northeastern England, in the southeastern part of the county. It lies just northwest of the heavily industrialized metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear and borders the North Sea on the northeast. Castle

The Castle of Crossed Destinies, semiotic fantasy novel by Italo Calvino, published in Italian in 1973 as Il castello dei destini incrociati. It consists of a series of short tales gathered into two sections, “The Castle of Crossed Destinies” and “The Tavern of Crossed Destinies.” The novel

English literature: Thomson, Prior, and Gay: In The Castle of Indolence (1748) Thomson’s model is Spenserian, and its wryly developed allegory lauds the virtues of industriousness and mercantile achievement.

Robert Recorde: Writings: Then followed The Castle of Knowledge (1556), a treatise on the sphere and Ptolemaic astronomy—though it also made favourable mention of the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), promising to deal with the subject at greater length in a subsequent work. His last work, The Whetstone of…

Anglo-Norman literature: Religious and didactic writings.: …the most important, the “Castle of Love,” being the oldest in French.

The Castle of Otranto, novel by Horace Walpole, published under a pseudonym in 1764 (though first editions bear the next year’s date). It is considered the first Gothic novel in the English language, and it is often said to have founded the horror story as a legitimate literary form. Walpole

morality play: …plays surviving in English is The Castle of Perseverance (c. 1425), about the battle for the soul of Humanum Genus. A plan for the staging of one performance has survived that depicts an outdoor theatre-in-the-round with the castle of the title at the centre. Of all morality plays, the one…

Bodrum: Their spectacular castle, the Petronium, or Castle of St. Peter, remained a Christian stronghold until the Ottoman sultan Süleyman I the Magnificent captured it in 1522. The castle continues to be the town’s major landmark. The ruins of the Mausoleum of Mausolus, ruler of Caria (4th century bce), at…

René Magritte: In The Castle of the Pyrenees (1959) a huge stone topped by a small castle floats above the sea. Other representative fancies were a fish with human legs, a man with a bird cage for a torso, and a gentleman leaning over a wall beside his…

Malbork Castle, massive brick fortress enclosing three fortified castles that was built in the 13th century by Teutonic Knights in Malbork, Poland. Encompassing 52 acres (21 ha), Malbork Castle is Europe’s largest fortress by land area. It stands on the banks of the Nogat River, about 25 miles (40

Anatole Litvak: The Hollywood years: Litvak then made Castle on the Hudson (1940), a remake of Michael Curtiz’s 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932), with John Garfield as a jewel thief sentenced to prison and Ann Sheridan as his girlfriend. Litvak was next given a more prestigious production, the lavish All This, and…

Castle Point, borough (district), administrative and historic county of Essex, eastern England, on the north side of the River Thames near its mouth. Castle Point is a low-lying borough of tidal inlets and reclaimed land protected by embankments and dikes. The parishes (towns) of Canvey Island to

Castle Rackrent, novel by Maria Edgeworth, published in 1800. The work satirizes the Irish landlords of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Noted for its insight into Irish regional life, the book chronicles three generations of the landed Rackrent family and was the model on which Sir Walter

Castle Rackrent, novel by Maria Edgeworth, published in 1800. The work satirizes the Irish landlords of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Noted for its insight into Irish regional life, the book chronicles three generations of the landed Rackrent family and was the model on which Sir Walter

Castle Rising, village (“parish”), King’s Lynn and West Norfolk borough, administrative and historic county of Norfolk, England. A great Norman castle with a massive square keep stands within a 12-acre (5-hectare) enclosure formed by artificial ramparts of earth and a ditch, which is crossed by an

Edinburgh: City site: …core is the Old Town’s Castle Rock, a plug of black basalt sealing the vent of an extinct volcano. It stands 250 feet (76 metres) above the valley floor and is crowned by the famous Edinburgh Castle, which, subtly floodlit every night, stirs even the habituated townsfolk. Glacial ice once…

Tim Robbins: …season of the horror series Castle Rock.

Rob Reiner: Success as a film director: In 1987 Reiner cofounded Castle Rock Entertainment, a studio that produced many of his ensuing films. (It was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., in 1993 and, following its 1996 sale to Time Warner, became part of Warner Brothers.)

Castletown: Castle Rushen, perhaps founded in 947–960 by Godred the Dane, is essentially Norman, largely rebuilt in the 14th century, with 16th-century additions. It was the residence of the lords of Man until the 18th century. The massive square keep, or strongest part, is surrounded by…

Japan: Commerce, cities, and culture: …period, mainly represented by the castle towns of the various daimyo. These daimyo, numbering some 250 for most of the period, were allowed by the bakufu to have but one castle, and thus there was a move to pull down other castles and concentrate the samurai of each han in…

Vernon and Irene Castle: Vernon and Irene were married in 1911 and as dance partners became famous worldwide. They popularized such dances as the glide, the castle polka, the castle walk, the hesitation waltz, the maxixe, the tango, and the bunny hug.

nuclear weapon: Further refinements: …designed and initially tested during Operation Castle in 1954. The first test of the series, conducted on March 1, 1954, was called Bravo. It used solid lithium deuteride rather than liquid deuterium and produced a yield of 15 megatons, 1,000 times as large as the Hiroshima bomb. Here the principal…

The Castle, allegorical novel by Franz Kafka, published posthumously in German as Das Schloss in 1926. The setting of the novel is a village dominated by a castle. Time seems to have stopped in this wintry landscape, and nearly all the scenes occur in the dark. K., the otherwise nameless

Ivan Klíma: Zámek (1964; The Castle) depicts elitist intellectuals in a castle who murder their visitors; it was considered a parable on communist morality. Porota (1969; The Jury) portrays a dilemma of responsibility versus despotism; it was the last of his plays to be freely performed in Czechoslovakia. Klíma’s…

Ismail Kadare: …Albanian history are Kështjella (1970; The Castle or The Siege), a recounting of the armed resistance of the Albanian people against the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century, and Dimri i madh (1977; “The Great Winter”), which depicts the events that produced the break between Albania and the Soviet Union…

Vernon and Irene Castle: Vernon and Irene were married in 1911 and as dance partners became famous worldwide. They popularized such dances as the glide, the castle polka, the castle walk, the hesitation waltz, the maxixe, the tango, and the bunny hug.

Vernon and Irene Castle were an American husband-and-wife dancing team, famous as the originators of the one-step and the turkey trot. Vernon and Irene were married in 1911 and as dance partners became famous worldwide. They popularized such dances as the glide, the castle polka, the castle walk,

William Castle was an American director known for the innovative marketing techniques he used to promote his B-horror movies. He began his entertainment career as an actor in Off-Broadway productions, and he later directed a well-received stage version of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. During this

intrinsic factor: …1920s by the American physician William B. Castle, whose research into the cause of pernicious anemia indicated that two substances were involved: one that is produced in the body (intrinsic) and the other—an extrinsic factor, later identified as vitamin B12—that is supplied in the diet.

Castlebar, market and county town, County Mayo, Ireland, at the head of Lough (lake) Castlebar. The town was founded early in the 17th century and was incorporated in 1613. The administrative seat of the county and a fast-growing town, it is an active market area and tourism centre, popular with

Aberdeen: …and 14th centuries, survive near the Castlegate, the historic marketplace of New Aberdeen and commercial heart of the modern city. The Castlegate still contains an old Market (City) Cross (1686). Nearby are two ancient houses, Provost Skene’s House (c. 1545), now a local history museum, and Provost Ross’s House (1593).…

Castlemaine, city in central Victoria, southeastern Australia, located 8 miles (13 km) east of the Loddon River and 78 miles (126 km) northwest of Melbourne. In 1836 the area was crossed by Major Thomas Mitchell, and in 1851 gold was found in Specimen Valley. The mining settlement employed about

Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland was a favourite mistress of the English king Charles II; she bore several of his illegitimate children. According to the diarist Samuel Pepys, she was a woman of exceptional beauty, but others commented on her crude mannerisms. She was the daughter of William

Castlereagh, former district (1973–2015) located directly southeast of Belfast, astride the former counties of Down and Antrim, now part of the Lisburn and Castlereagh City district, Northern Ireland. Its rolling lowlands border the former districts of Lisburn to the southwest, North Down to the

Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh was a British foreign secretary (1812–22), who helped guide the Grand Alliance against Napoleon and was a major participant in the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe in 1815. Castlereagh was one of the most distinguished foreign secretaries in

Braemar, village, on the Clunie Water (stream) at its confluence with the River Dee, that is the centre of the picturesque mountainous region of Braemar in the council area and historic county of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The Jacobite Fifteen Rebellion of 1715 began in Braemar. The village is now a

Castleton State College, public, coeducational institution of higher learning located in Castleton, Vermont, U.S. The curriculum is based in the traditional liberal arts and sciences, and the university also offers study in business, education, social sciences, and health sciences. Master’s degree

Castletown, town and ancient capital of the Isle of Man, one of the British Isles, on Castletown Bay, which is formed by the River Silver Burn. Castle Rushen, perhaps founded in 947–960 by Godred the Dane, is essentially Norman, largely rebuilt in the 14th century, with 16th-century additions. It

chess: Castling: The one exception to the rule that a player may move only one piece at a time is a compound move of king and rook called castling. A player castles by shifting the king two squares in the direction of a rook, which is…

alkali metal: History: …hydroxide, a technique called the Castner process, was replaced in 1926 by the Downs cell process. This process, in which a molten sodium chloride–calcium chloride mixture (to reduce the melting point) is electrolyzed, produces both sodium metal and chlorine.

Lepidoptera: Annotated classification: Family Castniidae (castniid moths) Approximately 130 species in Central and South America; medium-size to large diurnal species of the New World and Indo-Australian tropics; adults powerful fliers, heavy-bodied and broad-winged; clubbed antennae, bright colors; often mimic other butterflies and diurnal moths; larvae are often stem borers. Superfamily…

Lepidoptera: Annotated classification: Family Castniidae (castniid moths) Approximately 130 species in Central and South America; medium-size to large diurnal species of the New World and Indo-Australian tropics; adults powerful fliers, heavy-bodied and broad-winged; clubbed antennae, bright colors; often mimic other butterflies and diurnal moths; larvae are often stem borers. Superfamily…

beaver, (genus Castor), either of two species of amphibious rodents native to North America, Europe, and Asia. Beavers are the largest rodents in North America and Eurasia and the second largest rodents worldwide. Their bodies extend up to 80 cm (31 inches) long and generally weigh 16–30 kg (35–66

Castor, multiple star having six component stars, in the zodiacal constellation Gemini. The stars Castor and Pollux are named for the twins of Greek mythology. (List of Brightest Stars as Seen from Earth) Castor’s combined apparent visual magnitude is 1.58. It appears as a bright visual binary, of

Dioscuri, (Dioscuri from Greek Dioskouroi, “Sons of Zeus”), in Greek and Roman mythology, twin deities who succoured shipwrecked sailors and received sacrifices for favourable winds. They were the children of Leda and either Zeus, the king of the gods, or Tyndareus, Leda’s mortal husband and the

Dioscuri, (Dioscuri from Greek Dioskouroi, “Sons of Zeus”), in Greek and Roman mythology, twin deities who succoured shipwrecked sailors and received sacrifices for favourable winds. They were the children of Leda and either Zeus, the king of the gods, or Tyndareus, Leda’s mortal husband and the

Araliaceae: Hari-giri, or castor aralia (Acanthopanax ricinifolius), is used in Japan in building and in furniture making.

castor-oil plant, (Ricinus communis), large plant of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), grown commercially for the pharmaceutical and industrial uses of its oil and for use in landscaping. Probably native to tropical Africa, the castor-oil plant has become naturalized throughout warm areas of the

beaver: American beavers (Castor canadensis) occur throughout forested parts of North America to northern Mexico, including the southwestern United States and northern Florida. Beavers were at the heart of the fur trade during colonial times and contributed significantly to the westward settlement and development of North…

opera: Early opera in France and England: …comedy Platée (1745), and, particularly, Castor et Pollux (1737; libretto by Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard), a tragédie that was performed at the Paris Opéra 254 times in 48 years. Rameau, like virtually every other French opera composer, set the language to music with such elegance and clarity that it can easily be…