OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Curély, Jean Nicolas

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​CURÉLY, JEAN NICOLAS (1774–1827), French cavalry leader, was the son of a poor peasant of Lorraine. Joining, in 1793, a regiment of hussars, he served with great distinction as private and as sous-officier in the Rhine campaigns from 1794 to 1800. He was, however, still a non-commissioned officer of twelve years’ service, when at Afflenz (12th of November 1805) he attacked and defeated, with twenty-five men, a whole regiment of Austrian cavalry. This brilliant feat of arms won him the grade of sous-lieutenant, and the reputation of being one of the men of the future. The next two campaigns of the Grande Armée gained him two more promotions, and as a captain of hussars he performed, in the campaign of Wagram, a feat of even greater daring than the affair of Afflenz. Entrusted with despatches for the viceroy of Italy, Curély, with forty troopers, made his way through the Austrian lines, reconnoitred everywhere, even in the very headquarters-camp of the archduke John, and finally accomplished his mission in safety. This exploit, only to be compared to the famous raids of the American Civil War, and almost unparalleled in European war, gained him the grade of chef d’escadrons, in which for some years he served in the Peninsular War. Under Gouvion St Cyr he took part in the Russian War of 1812, and in 1813 was promoted colonel. In the campaign of France (1814) Curély, now general of brigade, commanded a brigade of “improvised” cavalry, and succeeded in infusing into this unpromising material some of his own daring spirit. His regiments distinguished themselves in several combats, especially at the battle of Arcis-sur-Aube. The Restoration government looked with suspicion on the most dashing cavalry leader of the younger generation, and in 1815 Curély, who during the Hundred Days had rallied to his old leader, was placed on the retired list. Withdrawing to the little estate of Jaulny (near Thiaucourt), which was his sole property, he lived in mournful retirement, which was saddened still further when in 1824 he was suddenly deprived of his rank. This last blow hastened his death. Curély, had he arrived at high command earlier, would have been ranked with Lasalle and Montbrun, but his career, later than theirs in beginning, was ended by the fall of Napoleon. His devoted friend, De Brack, in his celebrated work Light Cavalry Outposts, considers Curély incomparable as a leader of light cavalry, and the portrait of Curély to be found in its pages is justly ranked as one of the masterpieces of military literature. The general himself left but a modest manuscript, which was left for a subsequent generation to publish.
See also Thoumas, Le Général Curély: itinéraires d’un Cavalier léger, 1793–1815 (Paris, 1887).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Curvilinear

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​CURVILINEAR, in architecture, that which is formed by curved or flowing lines; the roofs over the domes and vaults of the Byzantine churches were generally curvilinear. The term is also given to the flowing tracery of the Decorated and the Flamboyant styles.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Curwen, John

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​CURWEN, JOHN (1816–1880), English Nonconformist minister and founder of the Tonic Sol-Fa system of musical teaching, was born at Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, of an old Cumberland family. His father was a Nonconformist minister, and he himself adopted this profession, which he practised till 1864, when he gave it up in order to devote himself to his new method of musical nomenclature, designed to avoid the use of the stave with its lines and spaces. He adapted it from that of Miss Sarah Ann Glover (1785–1867) of Norwich, whose Sol-Fa system was based on the ancient gamut; but she omitted the constant recital of the alphabetical names of each note and the arbitrary syllable indicating key relationship, and also the recital of two or more such syllables when the same note was common to as many keys (e.g. “C, Fa, Ut,” meaning that C is the subdominant of G and the tonic of C). The notes were represented by the initials of the seven syllables, still in use in Italy and France as their names but in the “Tonic Sol-Fa” the seven letters refer to key relationship and not to pitch. Curwen was led to feel the importance of a simple way of teaching how to sing by note by his experiences among Sunday-school teachers. Apart from Miss Glover, the same idea had been elaborated in France since J. J. Rousseau’s time, by Pierre Galin (1786–1821), Aimé Paris (1798–1866) and Emile Chevé (1804–1864), whose method of teaching how to read at sight also depended on the principle of “tonic relationship” being inculcated by the reference of every sound to its tonic, by the use of a numeral notation. Curwen brought out his Grammar of Vocal Music in 1843, and in 1853 started the Tonic Sol-Fa Association; and in 1879, after some difficulties with the education department, the Tonic Sol-Fa College was opened. Curwen also took to publishing, and brought out a periodical called the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, and in his later life was occupied in directing the spreading organization of his system. He died at Manchester on the 26th of May 1880. His son John Spencer Curwen (b. 1847), who became principal of the Tonic Sol-Fa College, published Memorials of J. Curwen in 1882. The Sol-Fa system has been widely adopted for use in education, as an easily teachable method in the reading of music at sight, but its more ambitious aims, which are strenuously pushed, for providing a superior method of musical notation generally, have not recommended themselves to musicians at large.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Curtius Rufus, Quintus

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​CURTIUS RUFUS, QUINTUS, biographer of Alexander the Great. Of his personal history nothing is known, nor can his date be fixed with certainty. Modern authorities regard him as a rhetorician who flourished during the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41–54). His work (De Rebus gestis Alexandri Magni) originally consisted of ten books, of which the first two are entirely lost, and the remaining eight are incomplete. Although the work is uncritical, and shows the author’s ignorance of geography, chronology and military matters, it is written in a picturesque style.
There are numerous editions: (text) T. Vogel (1889), P. H. Damste (1897), E. Hedicke (1908); (with notes), T. Vogel (1885 and later), M. Croiset (1885), H. W. Reich (1895), C. Lebaigue (1900), T. Stangl (1902). There is an English translation by P. Pratt (1821). See S. Dosson, Étude sur Quinte-Curce, sa vie, et ses œuvres (1887) a valuable work; F. von Schwarz, Alexander des Grossen Feldzüge in Turkestan (1893), a commentary on Arrian and Curtius based upon the author’s personal knowledge of the topography; C. Wachsmuth, Einleitung in das Studium der alten Geschichte (1895), p. 574, cf. p. 567, note 2; Schwarz, “Curtius Rufus” No. 31 in Pauly-Wissowa (1901).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Curzola

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​CURZOLA (Serbo-Croatian Korčula or Karkar), an island in the Adriatic Sea, forming part of Dalmatia, Austria; and lying west of the Sabionicello promontory, from which it is divided by a strait less than 2 m. wide. Its length is about 25 m.; its average breadth, 4 m. Curzola (Korčula), the capital and ​principal port, is a fortified town on the east coast, and occupies a rocky foreland almost surrounded by the sea. Besides the interesting church (formerly a cathedral), dating from the 12th or 13th century, the loggia or council chambers, and the palace of its former Venetian governors, it possesses the noble mansion of the Arnieri, and other specimens of the domestic architecture of the 15th and 16th centuries, together with the massive walls and towers, erected in 1420, and the 15th-century Franciscan monastery, with its beautiful Venetian Gothic cloister. The main resources of the islanders are boat-building (for which they are celebrated throughout the Adriatic), fishing and seafaring, the cultivation of the vine, corn and olives, and breeding of mules. Pop. (1900) of island, 17,377; of capital (town and commune), 6486. Prehistoric grave-mounds are common on the hills of the interior, and in later times Curzola may have been a Phoenician settlement. Its early history is very obscure, but it was certainly colonized by Greeks from Cnidus. The present name is a corruption of the Gr. Κέρκυρα Μέλαινα, or Lat. Corcyra Nigra, “Black Corcyra”; and is perhaps due to the dark pines which still partly cover the island. In 998 Curzola first came under Venetian suzerainty. During the 12th century it was ruled by Hungary and Genoa in turn, and enjoyed a brief period of independence; but after 1255 its hereditary counts again submitted to Venice. The Roman Catholic see of Curzola, created in 1301, was only suppressed in 1806. Curzola surrendered to the Hungarians in 1358, was purchased by Ragusa (1413–1417), and finally declared itself subject to Venice in 1420. In 1571 it defended itself so gallantly against the Turks that it obtained the designation fidelissima. From 1776 to 1797 it succeeded Lesina as the main Venetian arsenal in this region. During the Napoleonic wars it was ruled successively by Russians, French and British, ultimately passing to Austria in 1815.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bonifacius

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​BONIFACIUS (d. 432), the Roman governor of the province of Africa who is generally believed to have invited the Vandals into that province in revenge for the hostile action of Placidia, ruling in behalf of her son the emperor Valentinian III. (428–429). That action is by Procopius attributed to his rival Aëtius, but the earliest authorities speak of a certain Felix, chief minister of Placidia, as the calumniator of Bonifacius. Whether he really invited the Vandals or not, there is no doubt that he soon turned against them and bravely defended the city of Hippo from their attacks. In 432 he returned to Italy, was received into favour by Placidia, and appointed master of the soldiery. Aëtius, however, resented his promotion, the two rivals met, perhaps in single combat, and Bonifacius, though victorious, received a wound from the effects of which he died three months later.
The authorities for the extremely obscure and difficult history of these transactions are well discussed by E. A. Freeman in an article in the English Historical Review, July 1887, to which the reader is referred. But compare also Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii. pp. 505-506, edited by J. B. Bury (London, 1897).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Boniface of Savoy

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​BONIFACE OF SAVOY (d. 1270), archbishop of Canterbury, became primate in 1243, through the favour of Henry III., of whose queen, Eleanor of Provence, he was an uncle. Boniface, though a man of violent temper and too often absent from his see, showed some sympathy with the reforming party in the English church. Though in 1250 he provoked the English bishops by claiming the right of visitation in their dioceses, he took the lead at the council of Merton (1258) in vindicating the privileges of his order. In the barons’ war he took the royalist side, but did not distinguish himself by great activity.
See Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora; François Mugnier, Les Savoyards en Angleterre (Chambéry, 1890).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bonne-Carrère, Guillaume de

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​BONNE-CARRÈRE, GUILLAUME DE (1754–1825), French diplomatist, was born at Muret in Languedoc on the 13th of February 1754. He began his career in the army, but soon entered the diplomatic service under Vergennes. A friend of Mirabeau and of Dumouriez, he became very active at the Revolution, and Dumouriez re-established for him the title of director-general of the department of foreign affairs (March 1792). He remained at the ministry, preserving the habits of the diplomacy of the old régime, until December 1792, when he was sent to Belgium as agent of the republic, but he was involved in the treason of Dumouriez and was arrested on the 2nd of April 1793. To justify himself, he published an account of his conduct from the beginning of the Revolution. He was freed from prison in July 1794. Napoleon did not trust him, and gave him only some unimportant missions. After 1815 Bonne-Carrère retired into private life, directing a profitable business in public carriages between Paris and Versailles.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bonifacio

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​BONIFACIO, a maritime town at the southern extremity of Corsica, in the arrondissement of Sartène, 87 m. S.S.E. of Ajaccio by road. Pop. (1906) 2940. Bonifacio, which overlooks the straits of that name separating Corsica from Sardinia, occupies a remarkable situation on the summit of a peninsula of white calcareous rock, extending parallel to the coast and enclosing a narrow and secure harbour. Below the town and in the cliffs facing it the rock is hollowed into caverns accessible only by boat. ​St Dominic, a church built in the 13th century by the Templars, and the cathedral of Santa Maria Maggiore which belongs mainly to the 12th century, are the chief buildings. The fortifications and citadel date from the 16th and 17th centuries. A massive medieval tower serves as a powder-magazine. The trade of Bonifacio, which is carried on chiefly with Sardinia, is in cereals, wine, cork and olive-oil of fine quality. Cork-cutting, tobacco-manufacture and coral-fishing are carried on. The olive is largely cultivated in the neighbourhood and there are oil-works in the town.
Bonifacio was founded about 828 by the Tuscan marquis whose name it bears, as a defence against the Saracen pirates. At the end of the 11th century it became subject to Pisa, and at the end of the 12th was taken and colonized by the Genoese, whose influence may be traced in the character of the population. In 1420 it heroically withstood a protracted siege by Alphonso V. of Aragon. In 1554 it fell into the hands of the Franco-Turkish army.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bonivard, François

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​BONIVARD, FRANÇOIS (1493–1570), the hero of Byron’s poem, The Prisoner of Chillon, was born at Seyssel of an old Savoyard family. Bonivard has been described as “a man of the Renaissance who had strayed into the age of the Reformation.” His real character and history are, however, widely different from the legendary account which was popularized by Byron. In 1510 he succeeded his uncle, who had educated him, as prior of the Cluniac priory of St Victor, close to Geneva. He naturally, therefore, opposed the attempts of the duke of Savoy, aided by his relative, the bishop of the city, to maintain his rights as lord of Geneva. He was imprisoned by the duke at Gex from 1519 to 1521, lost his priory, and became more and more anti-Savoyard. In 1530 he was again seized by the duke and imprisoned for four years underground, in the castle of Chillon, till he was released in 1536 by the Bernese, who then wrested Vaud from the duke. He had been imprisoned for political reasons, for he did not become a Protestant till after his release, and then found that his priory had been destroyed in 1534. He obtained a pension from Geneva, and was four times married, but owing to his extravagances was always in debt. He was officially entrusted in 1542 with the task of compiling a history of Geneva from the earliest times. In 1551 his MS. of the Chroniques de Genève (ending in 1530) was submitted to Calvin for correction, but it was not published till 1831. The best edition is that of 1867. The work is uncritical and partial, but is his best title to fame.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bonnat, Léon Joseph Florentin

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​BONNAT, LÉON JOSEPH FLORENTIN (1833– ), French painter, was born at Bayonne on the 20th of June 1833. He was educated in Spain, under Madrazo at Madrid, and his long series of portraits shows the influence of Velasquez and the Spanish realists. In 1869 he won a medal of honour at Paris, where he became one of the leading artists of his day, and in 1888 he became professor of painting at the École des Beaux Arts. In May 1905 he succeeded Paul Dubois as director. His vivid portrait-painting is his most characteristic work, but his subject pictures, such as the “Martyrdom of St Denis” in the Panthéon, are also famous.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bonitz, Hermann

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​BONITZ, HERMANN (1814–1888), German scholar, was born at Langensalza in Saxony on the 29th of July 1814. Having studied at Leipzig under G. Hermann and at Berlin under Böckh and Lachmann, he became successively teacher at the Blochmann institute in Dresden (1836), Oberlehrer at the Friedrich-Wilhelms gymnasium (1838) and the Graues Kloster (1840) in Berlin, professor at the gymnasium at Stettin (1842), professor at the university of Vienna (1849), member of the imperial academy (1854), member of the council of education (1864), and director of the Graues Kloster gymnasium (1867). He retired in 1888, and died on the 25th of July in that year at Berlin. He took great interest in higher education, and was chiefly responsible for the system of teaching and examination in use in the high schools of Prussia after 1882. But it is as a commentator on Plato and Aristotle that he is best known outside Germany. His most important works in this connexion are: Disputationes Platonicae Duae (1837); Platonische Studien (3rd ed., 1886); Observations Criticae in Aristotelis Libros Metaphysicos (1842); Observationes Criticae in Aristotelis quae feruntur Magna Moralia et Ethica Eudemia (1844); Alexandri Aphrodisiensis Commentarius in Libras Metaphysicos Aristotelis (1847); Aristotelis Metaphysica (1848–1849); Über die Kategorien des A. (1853); Aristotelische Studien (1862–1867); Index ​Aristotelicus (1870). Other works: Über den Ursprung der homerischen Gedichte (5th ed., 1881); Beiträge zur Erklärung des Thukydides (1854), des Sophokles (1856–1857). He also wrote largely on classical and educational subjects, mainly for the Zeitschrift für die österreichischen Gymnasien.
A full list of his writings is given in the obituary notice by T. Gompertz in the Biographisches Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde (1890).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Flannelette

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​FLANNELETTE, a cotton cloth made to imitate flannel. The word seems to have been first used in the early ’eighties, and there is a reference in the Daily News of 1887 to “a poverty-stricken article called flannelette.” Now it is used very extensively for underclothing, night gear, dresses, dressing-gowns, shirts, &c. It is usually made with a much coarser weft than warp, and its flannel-like appearance is obtained by the raising or scratching up of this weft, and by various finishing processes. Some kinds are raised equally on both sides, and the nap may be long or short according to the purpose for which the cloth is required. A considerable trade is done in plain cloths dyed, and also in woven coloured stripes and checks, but almost any heavy or coarse cotton cloth can be made into flannelette. It is now largely used by the poorer classes of the community, and the flimsier kinds have been a frequent source of accident by fire. It is, however, when used discreetly and in a fair quality, a cheap and useful article. A flannelette, patented under the title of “Non-flam,” has been made with fire-resisting properties, but its sale has been more in the better qualities than in the lower and more dangerous ones. Flannelette is made largely on the continent of Europe, and in the United States as well as in Great Britain.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Flatbush

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​FLATBUSH, formerly a township of Kings county, Long Island, New York, U.S.A., annexed to Brooklyn in 1894, and after the 1st of January 1898 a part of the borough of Brooklyn, New York City. The first settlement was made here by the Dutch about 1651, and was variously called “Midwout,” “Midwoud” and “Medwoud” (from the Dutch words, med, “middle” and woud, “wood”) for about twenty years, when it became more commonly known as Vlachte Bos (vlachte, “wooded”; bos, “plain”) or Flackebos, whence, by further corruption, the present name. Farming was the chief occupation of the early settlers. On the 23rd of August 1776 the village was occupied by General Cornwallis’s division of the invading force under Lord Howe, and on the 27th, at the disastrous battle of Long Island (or “battle of Flatbush,” as it is sometimes called), “Flatbush Pass,” an important strategic point, was vigorously defended by General Sullivan’s troops.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Flannel

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​FLANNEL, a woollen stuff of various degrees of weight and fineness, made usually from loosely spun yarn. The origin of the word is uncertain, but in the 16th century flannel was a well-known production of Wales, and a Welsh origin has been ​suggested. The French form flanelle was used late in the 17th century, and the Ger. Flanell early in the 18th century. Baize, a kind of coarse flannel with a long nap, is said to have been first introduced to England about the middle of the 16th century by refugees from France and the Netherlands. The manufacture of flannel has naturally undergone changes, and, in some cases, deteriorations. Flannels are frequently made with an admixture of silk or cotton, and in low varieties cotton has tended to become the predominant factor. Formerly a short staple wool of fine quality from a Southdown variety of the Sussex breed was principally in favour with the flannel manufacturers of Rochdale, who also used largely the wool from the Norfolk breed, a cross between the Southdown and Norfolk sheep. In Wales the short staple wool of the mountain sheep was used, and in Ireland that of the Wicklow variety of the Cottagh breed, but now the New Zealand, Cape and South American wools are extensively employed, and English wools are not commonly used alone. Over 2000 persons are employed in flannel manufacture in Rochdale alone, which is the historic seat of the industry, and a good deal of flannel is now made in the Spen Valley district, Yorkshire. Blankets, which constitute a special branch of the flannel trade, are largely made at Bury in Lancashire and Dewsbury in Yorkshire. Welsh flannels have a high reputation, and make an important industry in Montgomeryshire. There are also flannel manufactories in Ireland.
A moderate export trade in flannel is done by Great Britain. The following table gives the quantities exported during three years:—
| | 1904. | 1905. | 1906. |
| Yards | 9,758,300 | 9,220,500 | 8,762,200 |
In 1877 the export was 9,273,429 yds., so it appears that this trade has varied comparatively little. The imports of flannel are not very large.
Many so-called flannels have been made with a large admixture of cotton, but the Merchandise Marks Act has done something to limit the indiscriminate use of names. Unquestionably the development of the flannel trade has been checked by the great increase in the production of flannelettes, the better qualities of which have become formidable competitors with flannel. There must, however, be a regular and large demand for flannel while theory and experience confirm its value as a clothing particularly suitable for immediate contact with the body.