OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fontana, Prospero

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​FONTANA, PROSPERO (1512–1597), Italian painter, was born in Bologna, and became a pupil of Innocenzo da Imola. He afterwards worked for Vasari and Perino del Vaga. It was probably from Vasari that Fontana acquired a practice of offhand, self-displaying work. He undertook a multitude of commissions, and was so rapid, that he painted, it is said, in a few weeks an entire hall in the Vitelli palace at Città di Castello. Along with daring, he had fertility of combination, and in works of parade he attained a certain measure of success, although his drawing was incorrect and his mannerism palpable. He belongs to the degenerate period of the Bolognese school, under the influence chiefly of the imitators of Raphael—Sabbatini, Sammachini and Passerotti being three of his principal colleagues. His soundest successes were in portraiture, in which branch of art he stood so high that towards 1550 Michelangelo introduced him to Pope Julius III. as a portrait-painter; and he was pensioned by this pope, and remained at the pontifical court with the three successors of Julius. Here he lived on a grand scale, and figured as a sort of arbiter and oracle among his ​professional brethren. Returning to Bologna, after doing some work in Fontainebleau and in Genoa, he opened a school of art, in which he became the preceptor of Lodovico and Agostino Caracci; but these pupils, standing forth as reformers and innovators, finally extinguished the academy and the vogue of Fontana. His subjects were in the way of sacred and profane history and of fable. He has left a large quantity of work in Bologna,—the picture of the “Adoration of the Magi,” in the church of S. Maria delle Grazie, being considered his masterpiece—not unlike the style of Paul Veronese. He died in Rome in 1597.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fontane, Theodor

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​FONTANE, THEODOR (1819–1898), German poet and novelist, was born at Neu-Ruppin on the 30th of December 1819. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a chemist, and after qualifying as an apothecary, he found employment in Leipzig and Dresden. In 1844 he travelled in England, and settling in Berlin devoted himself from 1849 to literature. He made repeated journeys to England, interesting himself in old English ballads, and as the first-fruits of his tours published Ein Sommer in London (1854); Aus England, Studien und Briefe (1860) and Jenseit des Tweed, Bilder und Briefe aus Schottland (1860). Fontane was particularly attached to the Mark of Brandenburg, in which his home lay; he was proud of its past achievements, and delighted in the growth of the capital city, Berlin. The fascination which the country of his birth had for him may be seen in his delightfully picturesque Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg (1862–1882, 4 vols.). He also described the wars of Prussia in Der schleswig-holsteinische Krieg im Jahre 1864 (1866) and Der deutsche Krieg von 1866 (1869). He proceeded to the theatre of war in 1870, and, being taken prisoner at Vaucouleurs, remained three months in captivity. His experiences he narrates in Kriegsgefangen. Erlebtes 1870 (1871), and he published the result of his observations of the campaign in Der Krieg gegen Frankreich 1870–71 (1874–1876). Like most of his contemporaries, he at first sought inspiration for his poetry in the heroes of other countries. His Gedichte (1851) and ballads Männer und Helden (1860) tell of England’s glories in bygone days. Then the achievements of his own countrymen entered into rivalry, and these, as an ardent patriot, he immortalized in poem and narrative. It is, however, as a novelist that Fontane is best known. His fine historical romance Vor dem Sturm (1878) was followed by a series of novels of modern life: L’Adultera (1882); Schach von Wuthenow (1883); Irrungen, Wirrungen (1888); Stine (1890); Unwiederbringlich (1891); Effi Briest (1895); Der Stechlin (1899), in which with fine literary tact Fontane adapted the realistic methods and social criticism of contemporary French fiction to the conditions of Prussian life. He died on the 20th of September 1898 at Berlin.
Fontane’s Gesammelte Romane und Erzählungen were published in 12 vols. (1890–1891; 2nd ed., 1905). For his life see the autobiographical works Meine Kinderjahre (1894) and Von zwanzig bis dreissig (1898), also Briefe an seine Familie (1905); also F. Servaes, Theodor Fontane (1900).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fontenay-le-Comte

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​FONTENAY-LE-COMTE, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Vendée 30 m. N.E. of La Rochelle on the State railway between that town and Saumur. Pop. (1906) town, 7639; commune, 10,326. Fontenay, an ancient and straggling town, is situated a few miles south of the forest of Vouvant and on both banks of the Vendée, at the point where it becomes navigable. The church of Notre-Dame (15th to 18th centuries), which has a fine spire and a richly sculptured western entrance, and the church of St Jean (16th and 17th centuries) are the chief religious buildings. The town has several houses of the 16th and 17th centuries. The most remarkable of these is the Hôtel de Terre Neuve (1595–1600), which contains much rich decoration together with collections of furniture and tapestry. Fontenay was the birthplace of many prominent men during the 15th and 16th centuries, and the Fontaine des Quatre-Tias, a fountain in the Renaissance style, given to the town by King Francis I., commemorates the fact. The chief square is named after François Viète, the great mathematician, who was born at Fontenay in 1540. The public institutions of the town include a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. Among its industries are the manufacture of felt hats, oil and soap and timber-sawing, flour-milling and tanning. There is trade in horses, mules, timber, grain, fruit, &c.
Fontenay was in existence as early as the time of the Gauls. The affix of “comte” is said to have been applied to it when it was taken by King Louis IX. from the family of Lusignan and given to his brother Alphonse, count of Poitou, under whom it became capital of Bas-Poitou. Ceded to the English by the treaty of Brétigny in 1360 it was retaken in 1372 by Duguesclin. It suffered repeated capture during the Religious Wars of the 16th century, was dismantled in 1621 and was occupied both by the republicans and the Vendeans in the war of 1793. From 1790 to 1806 it was capital of the department of Vendée.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fontana, Domenico

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​FONTANA, DOMENICO (1543–1607), Italian architect and mechanician, was born at Mili, a village on the Lake of Como, in 1543. After a good training in mathematics, he went in 1563 to join his elder brother, then studying architecture at Rome. He made rapid progress, and was taken into the service of Cardinal Montalto, for whom he erected a chapel in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore and the villa Negroni. When the cardinal’s pension was stopped by the pope, Gregory XIII., Fontana volunteered to complete the works in hand at his own expense. The cardinal being soon after elected pope, under the name of Sixtus V., he immediately appointed Fontana his chief architect. Amongst the works executed by him were the Lateran palace, the palace of Monte Cavallo (the Quirinal), the Vatican library, &c. But the undertaking which brought Fontana the highest repute was the removal of the great Egyptian obelisk, which had been brought to Rome in the reign of Caligula, from the place where it lay in the circus of the Vatican. Its erection in front of St Peter’s he accomplished in 1586. After the death of Sixtus V., charges were brought against Fontana of misappropriation of public moneys, and Clement VIII. dismissed him from his post (1592). This appears to have been just in time to save the Colosseum from being converted by Fontana into a huge cloth factory, according to a project of Sixtus V. Fontana was then called to Naples, and accepted the appointment of architect to the viceroy, the count of Miranda. At Naples he built the royal palace, constructed several canals and projected a new harbour and bridge, which he did not live to execute. The only literary work left by him is his account of the removal of the obelisk (Rome, 1590). He died at Naples in 1607, and was honoured with a public funeral in the church of Santa Anna. His plan for a new harbour at Naples was carried out only after his death. His son Giulio Cesare succeeded him as royal architect in Naples, the university of that town being his best-known building.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Allen, Thomas

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​ALLEN, or Alleyn, THOMAS (1542–1632), English mathematician, was born at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire on the 21st of December 1542. He was admitted scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1561; and graduated as M.A. in 1567. In 1580 he quitted his college and fellowship, retired to Gloucester Hall, and became famous for his knowledge of antiquity, philosophy and mathematics. Having received an invitation from Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, a great friend and patron of men of science, he spent some time at the earl’s house, where he became acquainted with Thomas Harriot, John Dee and other famous mathematicians. He was also intimate with Sir Robert Cotton, William Camden, and their antiquarian associates. Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, had a particular esteem for Allen, and would have conferred a bishopric upon him, but his love of solitude made him decline the offer. His great skill in mathematics and astrology earned him the credit of being a magician; and the author of Leicester’s Commonwealth accuses him of employing the art of “figuring” to further the earl of Leicester’s unlawful designs, and of endeavouring by the black art to bring about a match between his patron and Queen Elizabeth. Allen was indefatigable in collecting scattered manuscripts relating to history, antiquity, astronomy, philosophy and mathematics. A considerable part of his collection was presented to the Bodleian library by Sir Kenelm Digby. He died on the 30th of September 1632 at Gloucester Hall. He published in Latin the second and third books of Claudius Ptolemy of Pelusium, Concerning the Judgment of the Stars, or, as it is commonly called, of the Quadripartite Construction, with an Exposition. He also wrote notes on John Bale’s De Scriptoribus M. Britanniae.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Allen, William Francis

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​ALLEN, WILLIAM FRANCIS (1830–1889), American classical scholar, was born at Northborough, Massachusetts, on the 5th of September 1830. He graduated at Harvard College in 1851 and subsequently devoted himself almost entirely to literary work and teaching. In 1867 he became professor of ancient languages and history (afterwards Latin language and Roman history) in the university of Wisconsin. He died in December 1889. His contributions to classical literature chiefly consist of schoolbooks published in the Allen (his brother) and Greenough series. The Collection of Slave Songs (1867), of which he was joint-editor, was the first work of the kind ever published.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Allentown

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​ALLENTOWN, a city and the county-seat of Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Lehigh river, about 62 m. N.N.W. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890) 25,228; (1900) 35,416, of whom 2994 were foreign-born, 1065 being of German birth; (1910) 51,913. It is served by the Central of New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley, the Perkiomen (of the Reading system) and the Philadelphia & Reading railways. The city is situated on high ground sloping gently towards the river and commanding diversified views of the surrounding country. Hamilton Street, the principal business thoroughfare, extends over 2 m. from E. to W., and in what was once the centre of the city is Centre Square, in which there is a monument to the memory of the soldiers and sailors who fell in the Civil War. Allentown is the seat of a state homoeopathic hospital for the insane, of the Allentown College for Women (Reformed Church, 1867), and of Muhlenberg College (1867), an Evangelical Lutheran institution which grew out of the Allentown Seminary (established in 1848 and incorporated as the “Allentown Collegiate Institute and Military Academy” in 1864); in 1907 the college had 191 students, of whom 109 were in the Allentown Preparatory School (1904), formerly the academic department of the college and still closely affiliated with it. The surrounding country is well adapted to agriculture, and slate, iron ore, cement rock and limestone are found in the vicinity. Allentown is an important manufacturing centre, and the value of its manufactured products increased 90·9% from 1890 to 1900, and of its factory product 13·2% between 1900 and 1905. In 1905 the city ranked sixth among the cities of the country in the manufacture of silk and silk goods, its most important industry. Other important manufactures are iron and steel, slaughtering and meat-packing products, boots and shoes, cigars, furniture, men’s clothing, hosiery and knit goods, jute and jute goods, linen-thread, malt liquors, brick, cement, barbed wire, wire nails and planing-mill products. Allentown’s total factory product in 1905 was valued at $16,966,550, of which $3,901,249, or 23%, was the value of silk and silk goods. The municipality owns and operates its water-works. Allentown was first settled in 1751; in 1762 it was laid out as a town by James Allen, the son of a chief-justice of the province, in honour of whose family the city is named; in 1811 it was incorporated as a borough and its name was changed to Northampton; in 1812 it was made the county-seat; in 1838 the present name was again adopted; and in 1867 the first city charter was secured. The silk industry was introduced in 1881.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Allen, Grant

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​ALLEN, GRANT [Charles Grant Blairfindie], (1848–1899), English author, son of a clergyman of Irish descent, was born at Kingston, Ontario, Canada, on the 24th of February 1848. He was educated partly in America and France, and in England at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, and afterwards at Merton, Oxford. He was for a few years a schoolmaster in Jamaica, but then made his home in England, where he became prominent as a writer. He died at his house on Hindhead, Haslemere, on the 24th of October 1899. Grant Allen was a voluminous author. He was full of interesting scientific knowledge and had a gift for expression both in biological exposition and in fiction. His more purely scientific books (such as Physiological Aesthetics, 1877; The Evolutionist at Large, 1881; The Evolution of the Idea of God, 1897) contain much original matter, popularly expressed, and he was a cultured exponent of the evolutionary idea in various aspects of biology and anthropology. He first attracted attention as a novelist with a sensational story, The Devil’s Die (1888), though this was by no means his first attempt at fiction; and The Woman who Did (1895), which had a succès de scandale on account of its treatment of the sexual problem, had for the moment a number of cheap imitators. Other volumes flowed from his pen, and his name became well known in contemporary literature. But his reputation was essentially contemporary and characteristic of the vogue peculiar to the journalistic type.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Allen, James Lane

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​ALLEN, JAMES LANE (1850– ), American novelist, was born near Lexington, Kentucky, on the 21st of December 1850. He graduated at Kentucky University, Lexington, in 1872, taught at Fort Spring, Kentucky, at Richmond and at Lexington, Missouri, and from 1877 to 1879 at the academy of Kentucky University, where he was principal and taught modern languages; in 1880 he was professor of Latin and English at Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia; and then became head of a private school at Lexington, Kentucky. Subsequently he gave up teaching, went to New York City, where he secured commissions for sketches of the Blue Grass region, and thereafter devoted himself to literature. His Choir Invisible, coming after other successful stories, made his name well known in England as well as America. His published works include: With Flute and Violin (1891), The Blue Grass Region (1892), John Gray (1893), A Kentucky Cardinal (1894), Aftermath (1895), A Summer in Arcady (1896), The Choir Invisible (1897), The Reign of Law (1900), The Mettle of the Pasture (1903), and The Bride of the Mistletoe (1909.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Allen, John

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​ALLEN, JOHN (1476–1534), English divine, after studying at both Oxford and Cambridge, was sent by Archbishop Warham on an ecclesiastical mission to Rome. On his return he held a number of livings in succession, and in 1516 was rector of South Ockenden, Essex, and prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral. In the suppression of the minor monasteries in 1524–1525 he gave Wolsey much assistance, and became prebendary of Nottingham in 1526 and of St Paul’s, London, in 1527. These prebends he resigned in 1528 on his election as archbishop of Dublin. For ​four years he was chancellor of Ireland but his career was full of trouble. In 1531 he was fined under the Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire, and in 1534 met a violent death at the hands of Lord Thomas Fitzgerald’s followers.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Alleppi

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​ALLEPPI, or Aulapalay, a seaport of southern India, in the state of Travancore, 33 m. south of Cochin, situated on a strip of coast between the sea and one of those backwaters that here form the chief means of inland communication. Pop. (1901) 24,918. There is a lighthouse, 85 ft. high, with a revolving white light visible 18 m. out at sea. Though the third town in the state in point of population, Alleppi is the first in commercial importance. It commands a fine harbour, affording safe anchorage for the greater part of the year. It was opened to foreign trade towards the latter end of the 18th century. The exports consist of coffee, pepper, cardamoms and coco-nuts. There are factories for coir-matting. The raja has a palace, and Protestant missionaries have a church.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Allenstein

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​ALLENSTEIN, a garrison town of Germany, in the province of East Prussia, on the river Alle, 100 m. by rail N.E. from Thorn, and 30 m. from the Russian frontier. Pop. (1900) 24,295. It has a medieval castle, several churches, a synagogue and various industries—iron-foundries, saw-mills, brick-works, and breweries; also an extensive trade in cereals and timber.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hersent, Louis

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​HERSENT, LOUIS (1777–1860), French painter, was born at Paris on the 10th of March 1777, and becoming a pupil of David, obtained the Prix de Rome in 1797; in the Salon of 1802 appeared his “Metamorphosis of Narcissus,” and he continued to exhibit with rare interruptions up to 1831. His most considerable works under the empire were “Achilles parting from Briseis,” and “Atala dying in the arms of Chactas” (both engraved in Landon’s Annales du Musée); an “Incident of the life of Fénelon,” painted in 1810, found a place at Malmaison, and “Passage of the Bridge at Landshut,” which belongs to the same date, is now at Versailles. Hersent’s typical works, however, belong to the period of the Restoration; “Louis XVI. relieving the Afflicted” (Versailles) and “Daphnis and Chloë” (engraved by Langier and by Gelée) were both in the Salon of 1817; at that of 1819 the “Abdication of Gustavus Vasa” brought to Hersent a medal of honour, but the picture, purchased by the duke of Orleans, was destroyed at the Palais Royal in 1848, and the engraving by Henriquel-Dupont is now its sole record. “Ruth,” produced in 1822, became the property of Louis XVIII., who from the moment that Hersent rallied to the Restoration jealously patronized him, made him officer of the legion of honour, and pressed his claims at the Institute, where he replaced van Spaendonck. He continued in favour under Charles X., for whom was executed “Monks of Mount St Gotthard,” exhibited in 1824. In 1831 Hersent made his last appearance at the Salon with portraits of Louis Philippe, Marie-Amélie and the duke of Montpensier; that of the king though good, is not equal to the portrait of Spontini (Berlin), which is probably Hersent’s chef-d’œuvre. After this date Hersent ceased to exhibit at the yearly salons. Although in 1846 he sent an excellent likeness of Delphine Gay and one or two other works to the rooms of the Société d’Artistes, he could not be tempted from his usual reserve even by the international contest of 1855. He died on the 2nd of October 1860.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hersfeld

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​HERSFELD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, is pleasantly situated at the confluence of the Geis and Haun with the Fulda, on the railway from Frankfort-on-Main to Bebra, 24 m. N.N.E. of Fulda. Pop. (1905) 8688. Some of the old fortifications of the town remain, but the ramparts and ditches have been laid out as promenades. The principal buildings are the Stadt Kirche, a beautiful Gothic building, erected about 1320 and restored in 1899, with a fine tower and a large bell; the old and interesting town hall (Rathaus) and the ruins of the abbey church. This church was erected on the site of the cathedral in the beginning of the 12th century; it was built in the Byzantine style and was burnt down by the French in 1761. Outside the town are the Frauenberg and the Johannesberg, on both of which are monastic ruins. Among the public institutions are a gymnasium and a military school. The town has important manufactures of cloth, leather and machinery; it has also dye-works, worsted mills and soap-boiling works.
Hersfeld owes its existence to the Benedictine abbey (see below). It became a town in the 12th century and in 1370 the burghers, having meanwhile shaken off the authority of the abbots, placed themselves under the protection of the landgraves of Hesse. It was taken and retaken during the Thirty Years’ War and later it suffered from the attacks of the French.
The Benedictine abbey of Hersfeld was founded by Lullus, afterwards archbishop of Mainz, about 769. It was richly endowed by Charlemagne and became an ecclesiastical principality in the 12th century, passing under the protection of the landgraves of Hesse in 1423. It was secularized in 1648, having been previously administered for some years by a member of the ruling family of Hesse. As a secular principality Hersfeld passed to Hesse, and with electoral Hesse was united with Prussia in 1866. In the middle ages the abbey was famous for its library.
See Vigelius, Denkwürdigkeiten von Hersfeld (Hersfeld, 1888); Demme, Nachrichten und Urkunden zur Chronik von Hersfeld (Hersfeld, 1891–1901), and P. Hafner, Die Reichsabtei Hersfeld bis zur Mitte des 13ten Jahrhunderts (Hersfeld, 1889).