Tody, common name for small (3–4 in./9–10 cm) West Indian birds of the family Todidae, comprising the single genus Todus. Bright green above with red throats, they are forest birds called robi...

Jacopone da Todi, 1230?–1306, Italian religious poet, whose name was originally Jacopo Benedetti. After the sudden death of his wife, he renounced (c.1268) his career as an advocate, gave his ...

Stabat Mater Dolorosa [Lat.,=the sorrowful mother was standing], 13th-century hymn of the Roman Church attributed to Jacopone da Todi. A prayer meditating on the sorrows of the Virgin Mary in ...

Martin I, Saint, d. 655?, pope (649–55?), an Italian, b. Todi; successor of Theodore I. On his accession he summoned a great council at the Lateran, as St. Maximus had urged, to deal with Mono...

Masolino da Panicale, 1383–c.1447, Florentine painter of the early Renaissance, whose real name was Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini. His versatile painting incorporated his feeling for decorative c...

Kingfisher, common name for members of the family Alcedinidae, essentially tropical and subtropical land birds, with affinities to trogons and swifts and related to the hornbill. Kingfishers h...

Boniface VIII, 1235–1303, pope (1294–1303), an Italian (b. Anagni) named Benedetto Caetani; successor of St. Celestine V.As a cardinal he was independent of the factions in the papal court, an...

Hymn, song of praise, devotion, or thanksgiving, especially of a religious character (see also cantata).Early Christian hymnody consisted mainly of the Psalms and the great canticles Nunc dimi...

Italian literature, writings in the Italian language, as distinct from earlier works in Latin and French. The first Italian vernacular literature began to take shape in the 13th cent. with the...

Roman art, works of art produced in ancient Rome and its far-flung provinces. From the 7th to the 3d cent. B.C., Etruscan art flourished throughout central Italy, including Latium and Rome. It...