OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sevier, John

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​SEVIER, JOHN (1745–1815), American frontiersman, first governor of Tennessee, was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, on the 23rd of September 1745, of Huguenot ancestry, the family name being Xavier. He settled on the Watauga on the western slope of the Alleghanies in 1772, and served as a captain in Lord Dunmore's War in 1774. Early in 1776 the Watauga settlements were annexed to North Carolina, and Sevier, who from the beginning had been a member of the Watauga government, now represented the district in the provincial congress, which met at Halifax in November-December 1776 and adopted the first state constitution, and in 1777 he was a member of the state House of Commons. He took part in the campaign of 1780 against the British, especially distinguishing himself in the battle of King's Mountain, where he led the right wing. In December 1780 he defeated the Cherokees at Boyd's Creek (in the present Sevier county, Tennessee), laying waste their country during the following spring. Later in the same year (1781), under General Francis Marion, he fought the British in the Carolinas and Georgia. In 1784, when North Carolina. first ceded its western lands to the Federal, government, he took part in the revolt of the western settlements; he was president of the first convention which met in Jonesboro on the 23rd of August, and opposed the erection of a new state, but when the state of Frankland (afterwards Franklin, in honour of Benjamin Franklin) was organized in March 1785, he became its first and only governor (1785–1788), and as such led his riflemen against the Indians; in May 1788, after the end of his term, men in his command massacred several Indians from a friendly village, and thus provoked a war in which Sevier again showed his ability as an Indian fighter. He was arrested by the North Carolina authorities, partly as a leader of the independent government and partly for the Indian massacre, but escaped. About this time he attempted to make an alliance with Spain on behalf of the state of Franklin. In 1789 he was a member of the North Carolina. Senate, and in 1790–1791 of the National House of Representatives. After the final cession of its western territory by North Carolina to the United States in 1790 he was appointed brigadier-general of militia for the eastern district of the “Territory South of the Ohio”; and conducted the Etowah campaign against the Creeks and Cherokees in 1793. When Tennessee was admitted into the Union as astate, Sevier became its first governor (1796–1801) and was governor again in 1803–1809. He was again a. member of the National House of Representatives in 1811–1815, and then was commissioner to determine the boundary of Creek lands in Georgia. He died near Fort Decatur, Georgia, on the 24th of September 1815.
See J. R. Gilmore, The Rear-Guard of the Revolution (New York, 1886), and John Sevier as a Commonwealth Builder (New York, 1887); errors in Gilmore's books are pointed out in Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West (New York, 1894–1896).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sewanee

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​SEWANEE, a village of Franklin county, Tennessee, about 15 m. E. of Winchester, the county-seat, and (by rail) 95 m. S.S.E. of Nashville. Pop. about 1200. Sewanee is served by the Tracy City branch of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis railway. It is on a spur of the Cumberland mountains about 2000 ft. above the sea and about 1000 ft. above the surrounding country. It is a resort for sufferers from malaria and pulmonary complaints. There are mineral springs, coal mines and sandstone quarries here, all on the “ domain,” about 10,000 acres, of the University of the South, a Protestant Episcopal institution of higher learning, founded in 1857, largely through the efforts of Bishop Leonidas Polk, but not opened until 1868. The principal buildings of the University, on a tract of 1000 acres, are all of Sewanee sandstone; they include Walsh Memorial (1890), with offices and college class-rooms; the Library (formerly Convocation Hall, 1886; remodelled 1901), with a tower copied from Magdalen College, Oxford; Thompson Hall (1883; enlarged 1901), with science lecture-rooms and laboratories; Hoffman Memorial (1898), a dormitory; All Saints' Chapel (1909), a copy of King's College Chapel, Cambridge; a Gymnasium (1901); Quintard Memorial (1901), the home of the Sewanee Military Academy (until 1908 the Sewanee Grammar School), the preparatory department of the University; and St. Luke's Memorial (1878), the home of the Theological Department; and St Luke's Memorial Chapel (1907). The University is governed by a board of trustees consisting of the bishop, one clergyman and two laymen from each of 19 Protestant Episcopal, dioceses in the Southern States.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Seward, Anna

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SEWARD, ANNA (1747-1809), English writer, often called the “Swan of Lichfield,” was the elder daughter of Thomas Seward (1708-1790), prebendary of Lichfield and of Salisbury, and author. Born at Eyam in Derbyshire, she passed nearly all her life in Lichfield, beginning at an early age to write poetry partly at the instigation of Dr. Erasmus Darwin. Her verses include elegies and sonnets, and she also wrote a poetical novel, Louisa, of which five editions were published. Miss Seward's writings, which include a large number of letters, are decidedly commonplace, and Horace Walpole said she had “no imagination, no novelty.”
Sir Walter Scott edited her Poetical Works in three volumes (Edinburgh, 1810); to these he prefixed a memoir of the authoress, adding extracts from her literary correspondence. He refused, however, to edit the bulk of her letters, and these were published in six volumes by A. Constable as Letters of Anna Seward 1784-1807 (Edinburgh, 1811). Miss Seward also wrote Memoirs of the Life of Dr Darwin (1804). See E. V. Lucas, A Swan and her Friends (1907); and S. Martin, Anna Seward and Classic Lichfield (1909).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Severy

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​SEVERY (probably connected with the English word “sever”), in architecture, any main compartment or division of a building. The word has been supposed to be a corruption of Ciborium, as Gervase of Canterbury uses the word in this sense; but he probably alludes to the vaulted form of the upper part of the web of each severy.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Severn, Joseph

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​SEVERN, JOSEPH (1793–1879), English portrait and subject painter, was born at Hoxton on the 7th of December 1793, his father, a musician, coming of an old Gloucestershire family. During his earlier years he practised portraiture as a miniaturist; and, having studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, in 1818 he gained the gold medal for his “Una and the Red Cross Knight in the Cave of Despair.” In 1819 he exhibited at the Academy his “Hermia and Helena.” He was an intimate friend of Keats the poet, whom he accompanied to Italy in 1820 and nursed till his death in 1821. His picture of “The Death of Alcibiades” then obtained for him an Academy travelling studentship, and he returned to Rome, where he lived till 1841, marrying in 1828 the daughter of Lord Montgomerie, a ward of Lady Westmoreland, one of his chief patrons, and mingling in the congenial art circles of the city. In 1861, after living in England for nineteen years, mainly for the education of his children, he was appointed British consul at Rome, a post which he held till 1872, and during a great part of the time he also acted as Italian consul. His most remarkable work is the “Spectre Ship” from the Ancient Mariner. He painted “Cordelia watching by the Bed of Lear,” the “Roman Beggar," “Ariel,” “The Fountain,” and “Rienzi,” executed a large altar-piece for the church of St Paul at Rome, and produced many portraits, including one of Baron Bunsen and several of Keats. He died at Rome on the 3rd of August 1879. He had six children, of whom Walter, Arthur and Ann (wife of Sir Charles Newton) were well-known artists.
See the Life and Letters, by William Sharp (1892).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Seville (province)

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​SEVILLE, an inland province of southern Spain, one of the eight provinces into which Andalusia was divided in 1833; bounded on the N. by Badajoz, N.E. by Cordova, S. by Malaga and Cadiz and W. by Huelva. Pop. (1900) 555,256; area 5428 sq. m. The province is bisected by the navigable river Guadalquivir (q.v.), which here receives the Genil and Guadaira on the left, and the Guadalimar on the right. West of the Guadalquivir the surface is broken by low mountain ranges forming part of the Sierra Morena; the eastern districts are comparatively flat and very fertile, except along the frontiers of Cadiz and Malaga, where rise the Sierras of Gibalbin and Algodonales; and there are extensive marshes near the Guadalquivir estuary. Coal, copper, iron ore, silicate of alumina, marble and chalk are the chief mineral products; the province is famous for its oranges, and also exports wheat, barley, oats, maize, olives, oil, wine and chick-peas. Iron-founding and the manufacture of gunpowder and ordnance are carried on by the state, and a great expansion of the other manufactures-leather, pottery, soap, flour, cork products, &c.—took place after 1875 owing to the construction of railways between all the larger towns. Cattle-breeding is an important industry in the plains and marshes. Seville (q.v.) is the capital and chief river-port. Other towns described in separate articles are Écija (pop. 1900, 24,372), Osuna (17,826), Carmona (17,215), Utrera (15,138), Moron de la Frontera (14,190), Marchena (12,468), Lebrija. (10,997).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Poissy

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​POISSY, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, 17 m. W.N.W. of Paris, on the railway from Paris to Rouen. Pop. (1906), 6043. The church, supposed to have been built in the first half of the 12th century, and eventually restored under the direction of Viollet le Duc, is of special architectural interest, as affording one of the earliest and best examples of transition from the Romanesque to the Pointed style. The bridge of Poissy, a very ancient foundation, has been widened and modernized; of the mills which formerly bordered it one was known as Queen Blanche’s. A statue of the painter J. L. E. Meissonier was erected in 1894, close to his house. Poissy supplied butchers’ meat to Paris during six centuries, but in 1867 the market was removed to the metropolis. A handsome fountain stands in the old market-place. Distilling and the manufacture of chairs and flour-milling equipment are carried on and ragstone is quarried.
Poissy, the ancient Pinciacum, was the capital of the country of the Carnutes. In the time of Charlemagne it had a royal palace, where during the 9th century four national assemblies were held. Later it became a favourite residence of Blanche of Castille, and her son, afterwards St Louis, is supposed to have been born there. Philip the Fair gave the castle to the Dominicans, by whom it was completely transformed, and it was in the refectory of the abbey that the famous conference (see below) between the Roman Catholics and Protestants took place in 1561.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Poissy, Colloquy of

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​POISSY, COLLOQUY OF, a conference held in 1561 with the object of effecting a reconciliation between the Catholics and Protestants of France. It was initiated by Queen Catherine de’ Medici, regent during the minority of her son Charles IX. In the policy of which it was the outcome she enjoyed the support of the Chancellor Michel de l’Hopital and the lieutenant-general of the kingdom, Anthony of Navarre; while on the other hand the heads of the Catholic party had attempted to frustrate any form of negotiation. Theodore Beza from Geneva and Peter Martyr Vermigli from Zurich appeared at the colloquy; the German theologians to whom invitations had been dispatched only arrived in Paris after the discussion was broken off. The conference was opened on the 9th of September in the refectory of the convent of Poissy, the king himself being present. The spokesman of the Reformed Church was Beza, who, in the first session, gave a lengthy exposition of its tenets, but excited such repugnance by his pronouncements on the Communion that he was interrupted by Cardinal Tournon. In the second session (Sept. 16) he was answered by the cardinal of Lorraine, who discharged his task with skill and moderation. On the motion, however, of Ippolito d’Este, the papal legate, exception was taken to the further conduct of the negotiations in full conclave; and a committee of twenty-four representatives, twelve from each party, was appointed—ostensibly to facilitate a satisfactory decision. On the Catholic side, as was speedily demonstrated, there existed no sort of tendency to conciliation. On the contrary, the cardinal of Lorraine, by his question whether the Calvinists were prepared to sign the Confession of Augsburg, attempted to sow dissension between them and the Lutheran Protestants of Germany, on whose continued support they calculated. The Catholic delegates, moreover, discovered a powerful auxiliary when Lainez, the general of the Jesuit order, which had been admitted into France a short time previously, entered the debate; and the acrimony with which he opposed the Protestants was of material service in clarifying the situation. Still a further reduction was made in the number of members, and a small residuum consisting of five Catholics and five Protestants undertook the task of devising a formula on which the two churches might unite with regard to the question of the Communion. Their difficult labours even seemed on the point of success when the assemblage of prelates refused assent, and the conference broke up on the 9th of October—a result which barred the way to a pacific understanding with the Huguenots.
See H. Kupffel, Le Colloque de Poissy (Paris, 1868), E Lacheinmann in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie f. protest. Theologie (3rd ed, 1904), xv. 497. (C. M.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Poitou

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​POITOU, one of the old provinces of France, which also formed one of the great military governments of the kingdom, was bounded on the N. by Brittany, Anjou and Touraine, on the S. by Angoumois and Aunis; on the E. by Touraine, Berri and Marche; and on the W. by the ocean. It was divided into Lower Poitou, which corresponded to the modern department of La Vendée, and Upper Poitou, now split into the departments of Deux-Sevres and Vienne. The principal towns in Upper Poitou were Poitiers the capital, Mirebeau, Chatellerault, Richelieu, Loudun, Thouars, Mauléon, Parthenay, Niort, &c.; and in Lower Poitou Fontenay-le-Comté, Maillezais, Lucon and Roche-sur-Yon. Île d’Yeu or Île-Dieu and Noirmoutier belonged to the province. Ecclesiastically, Poitou was a diocese which was broken up in 1317 to form two new dioceses of Lucon and Maillezais, the seat of the latter was transferred in the 17th century to La Rochelle. For the administration of justice, Poitou was attached to the parlement of Paris. After 778 it formed part of the domain of the counts of Poitiers (q.v.). Poitou (Poictou, Pictavia) takes its name from the Pictones or Pictavi, a Gallic nation mentioned by Caesar, Strabo and Ptolemy, and described by Strabo as separated from the Namnetes on the north by the Loire. It formed part of the territory known as Aquitaine (q.v.).
For the history see the Mémoires of the Société des Antiquaires de l’Ouest (1835 sqq.) and the documents published by the Archives historiques du Poitou (1872 sqq.); also the Dictionnaire topographique de la Vienne, by L. Rédet (1881).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Polabs

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​POLABS (Po =o n, Laba = Elbe), the Slavs (q v.) who dwelt upon the Elbe and eastwards to the Oder. Their chief tribes were the Vagri in Holstein, the Bodriči or Obotritae in Mecklenburg, the Ljutiči or Wiltzi in western Pomerania, the Sprevane on the Spree and the Glomači or Dalemintsi in Saxony. Except the Lithuanians they were the last Europeans to be Christianized; their chief sanctuary was at Arcona on the Isle of Rugen. They were converted and conquered by the 12th century and systematically germanized. By the 17th century Slavonic survived only in a tiny patch in the east of Hanover about Luchow, where a few words were still understood at the beginning of the 19th century. The population of the district still goes by the name of Wends (q.v.). The chief remains of the language are a paternoster, a few phrases and a short vocabulary written down by Pastor Chr. Henning (c. 1700), and the diary of J. Paruns Schultze (d. 1734). These were edited by A. Hilferding (St Petersburg, 1856), and a grammar was published there by A. Schleicher (1871). M. Porzezinski and Fr. Lorentz are the chief later authorities. Polabian agrees mostly with Polish and Kašube with its nasalized vowels and highly palatalized consonants. It had, however, long vowels and a free accent. The remains of it are most corrupt, having been written down when the language was full of Low German by people who did not know Slavonic.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pokeberry

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​POKEBERRY, POKEWEED (from the American-Indian pocan, applied to any plant yielding a red or yellow dye), in botany, the popular name of Phylolacca decandra, a strong-smelling perennial herb, a native of North America, with ovate-lanceolate sharp-pointed leaves, racemes of small greenish-white flowers and flattish berries nearly 1/2 in. in diameter, which contain a crimson juice. The young asparagus-like shoots are sometimes used as a pot-herb, but the roots are poisonous. The plant is often cultivated in Europe, and has become naturalized in the Mediterranean region.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Polacca

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​POLACCA, the Italian name for a three-masted merchant vessel, formerly common in the eastern waters of the Mediterranean. The masts were of one piece and the sails were square or lateen-shaped. The name appears in various forms in other languages, e.g. Fr. polaque or polacre, Sp. polacra, Du. polaak or Ger. Polack, and certainly means Polish, although there is no explanation to be found for any connexion between Poland and such a Mediterranean vessel.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maes, Nicolas

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​MAES, NICOLAS (1632–1693), Dutch painter, was born at Dordrecht, and went about 1650 to Amsterdam, where he entered Rembrandt’s studio. Before his return to Dordrecht in 1654 Maes painted a few Rembrandtesque genre pictures, with life-size figures and in a deep glowing scheme of colour, like the “Reverie” at the Ryks Museum in Amsterdam, the “Card Players” at the National Gallery, and the “Children with a Goat Carriage,” belonging to Baroness N. de Rothschild. So closely did his early style resemble that of Rembrandt, that the last-named picture, and other canvases in the Leipzig and Budapest galleries and in the collection of Lord Radnor, were or are still ascribed to Rembrandt. In his best period, from 1655 to 1665, Maes devoted himself to domestic genre on a smaller scale, retaining to a great extent the magic of colour he had learnt from Rembrandt. Only on rare occasions did he treat scriptural subjects, as in the earl of Denbigh’s “Hagar’s Departure,” which has been ascribed to Rembrandt. His favourite subjects were women spinning, or reading the Bible, or preparing a meal. In 1665 he went to Antwerp, where he remained till 1678, in which year he probably returned to Amsterdam. His Antwerp period coincides with a complete change in style and subject. He devoted himself almost exclusively to portraiture, and abandoned the intimacy and glowing colour harmonies of his earlier work for a careless elegance which suggests the influence of Van Dyck. So great indeed was the change, that it gave rise to the theory of the existence of another Maes, of Brussels. Maes is well represented at the National Gallery by five paintings: “The Cradle,” “The Dutch Housewife,” “The Idle Servant,” “The Card Players,” and a man’s portrait. At Amsterdam, besides the splendid examples to be found at the Ryks Museum, is the “Inquisitive Servant” of the Six collection. At Buckingham Palace is “The Listening Girl” (repetitions exist), and at Apsley House “Selling Milk” and “The Listener.” Other notable examples are at the Berlin, Brussels, St Petersburg, the Hague, Frankfort, Hanover and Munich galleries.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maenads

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​MAENADS (Gr. Μαινάδες, frenzied women), the female attendants of Dionysus. They are known by other names—Bacchae, Thyiades, Clodones and Mimallones (the last two probably of Thracian origin)—all more or less synonymous.
See the exhaustive articles by A. Legrand in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dictionnaire des antiquités and A. Rapp in Roscher’s Lexikon der Mythologie; also editions of Euripides, Bacchae (e.g. J. E. Sandys).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maenius, Gaius

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​MAENIUS, GAIUS, Roman statesman and general. Having completed (when consul in 338 B.C.) the subjugation of Latium, which with Campania had revolted against Rome, he was honoured by a triumph, and a column was erected to him in the Forum. When censor in 318, in order that the spectators might have more room for seeing the games that were celebrated in the Forum, he provided the buildings in the neighbourhood with balconies, which were called after him maeniana.
See Festus, s.v. Maeniana; Livy viii. 13, ix. 34; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 11 (5).