OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vitelli, Vitellozzo

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​VITELLI, VITELLOZZO ( ?–1502), Italian condottiere. Together with his father, Niccolò, tyrant of Città di Castello, and his brothers, who were all soldiers of fortune, he instituted a new type of infantry armed with sword and pike to resist the German men-at-arms, and also a corps of mounted infantry armed with arquebuses. Vitellozzo took service with Florence against Pisa, and later with the French in Apulia (1496) and with the Orsini faction against Pope Alexander VI. In 1500 Vitellozzo and the Orsini made peace with the pope, and the latter's son Cesare Borgia, being determined to crush the petty tyrants of Romagna and consolidate papal power in that province, took the condottieri into his service. Vitellozzo distinguished himself in many engagements, and in 1501 he advanced against Florence, moved as much by a desire to avenge his brother Paolo, who while in the service of the republic had been suspected of treachery and put to death (1499), as by Cesare's orders. In fact, while the latter was actually negotiating with the republic, Vitelli seized Arezzo. Forced by Borgia and the French, much against his will, to give up the city, he began from that moment to nurture hostile feelings towards his master and to aspire to independent rule. He took part with the Orsini, Oliverotto da Fermo and other captains in the conspiracy of La Magione against the Borgia; but mutual distrust and the incapacity of the leaders before Cesare's energy and the promise of French help, brought the plot to naught, and Vitelli and other condottieri, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Cesare once more, seized Senigallia in his name. There they were decoyed by him and arrested while their troops were out of reach, and Vitelli and Oliverotto were strangled that same night (31st of December 1502).
See vol. iii. of E. Ricotti's Storia della compagnie di ventura (Turin, 1845). in which Domenichi's MS. Vita di Vitellozzo Vitelli is quoted; C. Yriarte, Cesar Borgia (Paris, 1889); P. Villari, Life and Times of N. Machiavelli (English ed., London, 1892); see also under Alexander VI. and Cesare Borgia.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vitet, Ludovic

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​VITET, LUDOVIC (1802-1873), French dramatist and politician, was born in Paris on the 18th of October 1802. He was educated at the École Normale. His politics were liberal, and he was a member of the society “Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera.” On the triumph of liberal principles in 1830 Guizot created an office especially for Vitet, who became inspector-general of historical monuments. In 1834 he entered the Chamber of Deputies, and two years later was made a member of the Council of State. He was consistent in his monarchist principles, and abstained from taking any part in politics during the second empire. The disasters of 1870-71 reawakened Vitet's interest in public affairs, and he published in the Revue des deux mondes his optimistic “Lettres sur le siège de Paris.” He died in 1873.
Vitet was the author of some valuable works on the history of art, and his Monographie de l'Église Notre Dame de Noyon (1845) especially did much to awaken popular interest in architecture. In the early days of the Romantic movement he wrote some vivid dramatic sketches of the time of the League. They are: Les Barricades, scènes historiques (1826), Les États de Blois, scènes {1827), and La Mort de Henri III. (1829), all three being published together in 1844 with the title of La Ligue. The best of these is the États de Blois, in which the murder of the duke of Guise is described in the most convincing manner.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vitriol

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​VITRIOL, a name given to sulphuric acid and to certain sulphates. Oil of vitriol is concentrated sulphuric acid. Blue or Roman vitriol is copper sulphate; green vitriol, ferrous sulphate (copperas); white vitriol, zinc sulphate; and vitriol of Mars is a basic iron sulphate.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vitebsk (town)

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​VITEBSK, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on both banks of the W. Dvina, and on the railway from Smolensk to Riga, 85 m. N.W. from the former. Pop. (1885) 54,676; (1897) 63,871. It is an old town, with decaying mansions of the nobility, and dirty Jewish quarters, half of its inhabitants being Jews. There are two cathedrals, founded in 1664 and 1777 respectively. The church of St Elias, a fine example of the Old Russian style of architecture, founded in 1643, was burned down in 1904. The manufactures are insignificant, and the poorer classes support themselves by gardening, boat-building and the flax trade, while the merchants carry on an active business with Riga in corn, flax, hemp, tobacco, sugar and timber.
Vitebsk (Dbesk, Vitbesk and Vitepesk) is mentioned for the first time in 1021, when it belonged to the Polotsk principality. Eighty years later it became the chief town of a separate ​principality, and so continued until 1320, when it came under the dominion of the Lithuanians. In the 16th century it fell to Poland. Under the privileges granted to the city by the Polish sovereigns it flourished, but it soon began to suffer from the wars between Russia and Poland, during which it was thrice taken by the Russians and burned. Russia annexed it inally in 1772.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vitellius, Aulus

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​VITELLIUS, AULUS, Roman emperor from the 2nd of January to the 22nd of December A.D. 69, was born on the 24th of September A.D. 15. He was the son of Lucius Vitellius, who had been consul and governor of Syria under Tiberius. Aulus was consul in 48, and (perhaps in 60–61) proconsul of Africa, in which capacity he said to have acquitted himself with credit. Under Galba, to the general astonishment, at the end of 68 he was chosen to command the army of Lower Germany, and here he made himself popular with his subalterns and with his soldiers by outrageous prodigality and excessive good nature, which soon proved fatal to order and discipline. Far from being ambitious or scheming, he was lazy and self-indulgent, fond of eating and drinking, and owed his elevation to the throne to Caecina and Valens, commanders of two legions on the Rhine. Through these two men a military revolution was speedily accomplished, and early in 69 Vitellius was proclaimed emperor at Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne), or, more accurately, emperor of the armies of Upper and Lower Germany. In fact, he was never acknowledged as emperor by the entire Roman world, though at Rome the senate accepted him and decreed to him the usual imperial honours. He advanced into Italy at the head of a licentious and ruffianly soldierly, and Rome became the scene of riot and massacre, gladiatorial shows and extravagant feasting. As soon as it was known that the armies of the East, Dalmatia and Illyricum had declared for Vespasian, Vitellius, deserted by many of his adherents, would have resigned the title of emperor. It was said that the terms of resignation had actually been agreed upon with Primus, one of Vespasian's chief supporters, but the praetorians refused to allow him to carry out the agreement, and forced him to return to the palace, when he was on his way to deposit the insignia of empire in the temple of Concord. On the entrance of Vespasian's troops into Rome he was dragged out of some miserable hiding-place, driven to the fatal Gemonian stairs, and there struck down. “Yet I was once your emperor,” were the last and, as far as we know, the noblest words of Vitellius. During his brief administration Vitellius showed indications of a desire to govern wisely, but he was completely under the control of Valens and Caecina, who for their own ends encouraged him in a course of vicious excesses which threw his better qualities into the background.
See Tacitus, Histories; Suetonius, Vitellius; Dio Cassius lxv.; Merivale, Hist. of the Romans under the Empire, chs. 56, 57; H. Schiller, Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, i. pt. 1; W. A. Spooner's ed. of the Histories of Tacitus (introduction); B. W. Henderson, Civil War and Rebellion in the Roman Empire, A.D. 69–70 (1908).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Noirmoutier

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​NOIRMOUTIER, an island of western France, belonging to the department of Vendée, and protecting the Bay of Bourgneuf on the south-west. Pop. (1906) 8388. The area amounts to 22 sq. m., one-sixth dunes. Between the island and the mainland is a sandbank laid bare at low water, and crossed by an embankment and carriage road some 21/2 m. long. It was not till about 1766 that it was found possible to walk across to the island, which lies from N.N.W. to S.S.E., and is 12 m. long, its breadth varying from 1 m. in the south part to 3 or 4 m. in the north. It appears to be formed of alluvial deposits gradually accumulated round a rock of no great size situated at the meeting-place of the Gascony and Brittany currents. Fishing, agriculture, oyster-breeding and work in the salt marshes also occupy the inhabitants. There are two communes, Noirmoutier and Barbatre. Noirmoutier, which has a small port, has about 2165 of its 6644 inhabitants gathered together in a little town with narrow and winding streets. Its castle was once the residence of the abbot of Her. In the church (12th, 14th and 19th centuries) there is a crypt of the 11th century. A mile to the north of the town lies a pleasant watering-place, rendered picturesque by the La Chaise woods (evergreen oaks and pines), and a grand confusion of rocks, among which lie charming beaches. A dolmen, several menhirs, and the ruins of a Gallo-Roman villa with its hot baths show that the island must have been occupied at an early date; but the first fact in its recorded history is the foundation of the Benedictine monastery of Her by St Philibert about 680. From this monastery the name Noirmoutier (Heri monasterium, Hermoutier) is derived. It had already attained to great prosperity when it was pillaged by the Normans in 825 and 843. In 1205 the abbey of Notre Dame la Blanche was built at the north extremity of the island to take the place of a Cistercian convent established in the Île du Pilier, at that time attached to Noirmoutier by a dike. This abbey was ruined by the Protestants in 1562. In the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries the island belonged to the family of La Tremoille, and in 1650 the territory was made a duchy. In 1676 the island was captured by the Dutch. Having been seized by Charette during the war of Vendée, it was recovered by the Republican general, Haxo, who caused the Vendean leader, d’Elbée, to be shot.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nogent-sur-Marne

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​NOGENT-SUR-MARNE, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine, on a hill on the right bank of the Marne, 6 m. E. of Paris by rail. Pop. (1906) 11,463. The Eastern railway here crosses the Marne valley by a viaduct 875 yds. in length. Nogent has a Gothic church, with a tower of the Romanesque period, in front of which there is a monument to Watteau, who died here in 1721. Chemical products are manufactured. The fine situation of the town gained it the name of Beauté, and Charles V. built a château here (demolished in the 18th century) which was presented by Charles VII. to Agnes Sorel with the title of Dame de Beauté. An island in the Marne to the south of the town is still known as the Île de Beauté.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Noise

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​NOISE (a word of doubtful origin; O. Fr. nogse or nose; Prov. nausa, which points to Lat. nausea, sickness, as the origin; others take Lat. noxia, harm, as the source), an excessive, offensive, persistent or startling sound. By the common law of England freedom from noise is essential to the full enjoyment of a dwelling house, and acts which affect that enjoyment may be actionable as nuisances. But it has been laid down that a nuisance by noise, supposing malice to be out of the question, is emphatically a question of degree (Gaunt v. Finney, 1872, 8 Ch. Ap. 8). The noise must be exceptional and unreasonable. The ringing of bells, building operations, vibration of machinery, fireworks, bands, a circus, merry-go-rounds, collecting disorderly crowds, dancing, singing, &c., have been held under certain circumstances to constitute nuisances so as to interfere with quiet and comfort, and have been restrained by injunction. Noise occasioned by the frequent repetition of street cries is frequently the subject of local by-laws, which impose penalties for infringement.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Noli

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​NOLI, a coast village of Liguria, Italy, in the province of Genoa, from which it is 36 m. S.W. by rail, 13 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 1985. It is a town of considerable antiquity, now decayed, and has an ancient church of S. Paragorio, once the cathedral, a Romanesque basilica dating from the 11th century, with interesting works of art. The diocese has been united with that of Savona.
See A. d’Andrade, Relazione dell’ Ufficio Regionale per la conservazione dei monumenti del Piemonte e della Liguria (Turin, 1899), 100 seq.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nogi, Kiten

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​NOGI, KITEN, Count (1849–), Japanese general, was born in Choshu. He commanded a brigade at the battle of Kinchow (1894) and the subsequent capture of Port Arthur from the Chinese; but the most memorable events of his career were the siege of Port Arthur by the third army corps of Japan under his command in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), and the great flanking march made by the same army in the battle of Mukden.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Noisome

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​NOISOME, harmful, offensive, especially of that which causes physical disgust. The word is formed from the obsolete “noy,” trouble, a shortened form of “annoy,” now only used as a verb, to cause trouble, the usual substantive being “annoyance.” The O. Fr. anoi, anui (modern ennui) is an adaptation of Lat. in odio esse, venire or habere, to be sick, tired of anything (odium, disgust, hatred). The word has no connexion with Lat. nocere, to hurt.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nokes, James

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​NOKES (Noke, Noak, Noakes), JAMES (d. 1692), an English actor, whose laughter-arousing genius is attested by Cibber and other contemporaries. Sir Martin Mar-all, Sir Davy Dunce and Sir Credulous Easy were among his favourite parts. His success as the Nurse in Nevil Payne’s Fatal Jealousy was so great that he was thereafter nicknamed “Nurse Nokes.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nogent-le-Rotrou

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​NOGENT-LE-ROTROU, a town of northern France, formerly capital of the district of Perche and now capital of an arrondissement in the department of Eure-et-Loir on the Huisne, 38 m. W.S.W. of Chartres by rail. Pop. (1906) 6884. In the early part of the 17th century the overlordship was acquired by the duke of Sully, financial minister of Henry IV. In the courtyard of the hospital, originally founded at the end of the 12th century, there is a small building containing the tomb of Sully and his wife. On the hill overlooking the town stands the château of the counts of Perche, of which the donjon dating from the first half of the 11th century is the oldest portion. To Rotrou I., founder of the château, the town owes the second part of its name. ​Nogent preserves three Gothic churches and the remains of the old priory of St Denis, and there are statues of General St Pol, killed at Sevastopol, and of the poet Rémy Belleau (16th century), a native of the town. The town has a sub-prefecture, a tribunal of first instance, a communal college and institution for deaf mutes.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nogent-sur-Seine

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​NOGENT-SUR-SEINE, a town of north-central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Aube, on the left bank of the Seine, 35 m. N.W. of Troyes on the Paris-Belfort line. Pop. (1906) 3791. The river at this point forms an island, which supports a stone bridge of the 17th century. The chief building is the church of St Laurent (1421–1554). A lateral portal in the flamboyant style and the Renaissance tower at the west end are of great beauty. The town is the seat of a sub-prefect and has a tribunal of first instance. There is trade in grain, flour, fodder, wood and cattle. Nogen-sur-Seine was in 1814 the scene of fighting between the French and Austrians.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sumach

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​SUMACH. The Sumach of commerce is the finely ground leaves of Rhus coriaria, a native of the North Mediterranean region from Portugal to Asia Minor; it is a shrub or low tree with hairy leaves composed of 11 to 15 elliptical leaflets with large blunt teeth, and large loose panicles of whitish-green flowers. Another species, Rhus cotinus, known as Venetian Sumach, also a native of southern Europe and Asia Minor, yields the yellow dye-wood known as young fustic; it is also known as the Smoke-plant or Wig-tree, from the feathery or hairy appearance of the flower-stalks, which become elongated and hairy after the flowering. The genus Rhus is a member of the natural order Anacardiaceae and contains about 120 species of trees or shrubs mostly native in the temperature regions of both hemispheres. The leaves are alternate and simple or compound, with few to many entire-margined or serrated leaflets, and terminal or axillary panicles of small flowers with parts in fours or sixes. The species are mostly poisonous, some being especially noxious. Such are Rhus toxicodendron, the North American poison ivy, a shrub climbing on rocks and trees by means of rootlets, and poisonous to the touch. R. venenata, the North American poison elder sumach or dogwood, also contains an extremely irritant poison. R. vermicifera is the Japan lacquer or varnish-tree. Several species are cultivated in the British Isles as store, greenhouse or hardy trees.
Sumach, Rhus coriaria.
1. Flower. 2. Cluster of fruit. 3. One fruit. 4. A seed.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sumbul

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​SUMBUL, or Sumbal, also called Musk Root, a drug occasionally employed in European medical practice. It consists of the root of Ferula sumbul, Hook., a tall Umbelliferous plant found in the north of Bokhara, its range apparently extending beyond the Amur. It was first brought to Russia in 1835 as a substitute for musk; and in 1867 was introduced into the British pharmacopoeia. The root as found in commerce consists of transverse sections an inch or more in thickness and from 1 to 3 or more inches in diameter. It has a dark thin papery bark, a spongy texture, and the cut surface is marbled with white and blackish or pale brown; it has a musky odour and a bitter aromatic taste. The action and uses of the drug are the same as those of as asafetida (q.v.) It owes its medicinal properties to a resin and an essential oil. Of the former it contains about 9% and of the latter ⅓%. The resin is soluble in ether and has a musky smell, which is not fully developed until after contact with water.
Under the name of East Indian sumbul, the root of Dorema ammoniacum, Don., has occasionally been offered in English commerce. It is of a browner hue, has the taste of ammoniacum, and gives a much darker tincture than the genuine drug; it is thus easily detected. The name “sumbal” (a word of Arabic origin, signifying a spike or ear) is applied to several fragrant roots in the East, the principal being Nardostachys jatamansi, D.C. (see Spikenard). West African sumbul is the root of a species of Cyperus.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Summit

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​SUMMIT, a city of Union county, New Jersey, U.S.A., in the north-east of the state, about 21 m. W. of New York City. Pop. (1900) 5302, of whom 1397 were foreign-born; (1905) 6845; (1910) 7500. It is served by the Morris & Essex and the Passaic & Delaware divisions of Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad, and by the Rahway Valley railroad extending to Roselle, 9 m. distant. Summit is picturesquely situated on the crest of a ridge called Second Mountain, with a mean elevation of 450 ft. It is a residential suburb of New York, and attracts a number of summer residents. Among its institutions are a public library (1874), a home for blind children, the Overlook hospital and the Kent Place school (1894) for girls. On Hobart -Hill there is a monument marking the site of a beacon light and a signal gun used during the War of Independence. Summit was incorporated as a township in 1869 from parts of the townships at Springfield and New Providence, and was chartered as a city in 1899.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sumba

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​SUMBA (Tjendana, or Sandalwood), one of the Lesser Sunda Islands in the Dutch East Indies, lying south of Flores, from which it is separated by Sumba strait, about 10° S., 120° E. It has an area of about 4600 sq. m., consists of a plateau with an extreme elevation of about 3300 ft., and appears to be composed mainly of sedimentary rocks. It has a large Malay population (estimated at 200,000). Some trade is carried on in cotton, ponies, edible birds' nests, tortoiseshell, &c., mainly by Bugis and Arabs, the chief centre for which is Waingapu or Nangamessi on the north-east coast. Sumba is included in the Dutch residency of Timor, together with the lesser island of Savu, to the east. From this last island the sea is enclosed by Timor, Sumba and the islands between them, and Flores and the chain of islands east of it is called the Savu Sea.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Summanus

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​SUMMANUS, according to some, an old Sabine or Etruscan deity; the name, however, is Latin, formed by assimilation from sub-mānus (cf. mane, Matuta), signifying the god of the time “before the morning.” His sphere of influence was the nocturnal heavens, thunderstorms at night being attributed to him, those by day to Jupiter. Summanus had a temple at Rome near the Circus Maximus, dedicated at the time of the invasion of Italy by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus (278), when a terra-cotta image of the god (or of Jupiter himself) on the pediment of the Capitoline temple was struck by lightning and hurled into the river Tiber. Here sacrifice was offered every year to Summanus on the 20th of June, together with cakes called summanalia baked in the form of a wheel, supposed to be symbolical of the car of the god of the thunderbolt. In Plautus (Bacchides iv. 8, 54) Summanus and the verb sum man are are used for the god of thieves and the act of stealing, with obvious reference to Summanus as a god of night, a time favourable to thieves and their business. The later explanation that Summanus is a contraction from Summus Manium (the greatest of the Manes), and that he is to be identified with Dis Pater, is now generally rejected.
See Augustine, De civitate dei, iv. 25; Ovid. Fasti, vi. 729; Festus, ​s.v. Provorsum fulgor; G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer (1902); W. W. Fowler, The Roman Festivals (1899).