OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Quimper

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​QUIMPER, formerly Quimper-Corentin, a town of France, capital of the department of Finistère, 158 miles north-west of Nantes and 68 miles south-east of Brest on the railway between those towns. Pop. (1906) 16,559. The delightful valley in which it lies is surrounded by high hills and traversed by the Steir and the Odet, which, meeting above the town, form a navigable channel for vessels of 150 tons to the sea (11 miles). There is a small general shipping trade. Of the town walls (15th century) a few portions are preserved in the terrace of the episcopal palace and in the neighbourhood of the college. Quimper is the seat of a bishopric in the province of Rennes. The cathedral, dedicated to St Corentin and erected between 1239 and 1515, has a fine facade (c. 1425), the pediment of which is crowned by a modern equestrian statue of King Grallon, and adorned (like several other external parts of the building) with heraldic devices in granite. Two lateral towers with modern spires (1854–56) and turrets reach a height of 247 feet. The axis of the choir is deflected towards the north, a feature not uncommon, but here exaggerated. The nave and the transept are in the style of the 15th century, and the central boss bears the arms of Anne of Brittany (1476–1514). The terminal chapel of the apse dates from the 13th century. In the side chapels are the tombs of several early bishops. The high altar, tabernacle, and ciborium are costly works of contemporary art. The pulpit panels represent episodes in the life of St Corentin. Of the other churches may be mentioned the church of Locmaria, dating from the 11th century, and the chapel of the 15th century connected with the episcopal palace. A number of houses, in wood or stone, date from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The museum, built in 1869–70, contains archaeological collections and about 1300 paintings and drawings. In 1868 a bronze statue of Laennec the inventor of the stethoscope (born at Quimper in 1781) was erected in Place St Corentin.
Quimper, or at least its suburb Locmaria (which lies below the town on the left bank of the Odet), was occupied in the time of the Romans, and traces of the ancient foundations exist. Later Quimper became the capital of, Cornouailles and the residence of its kings or hereditary counts. It is said to have been Grallon Meur (i.e. the Great) who brought the name of Cornouailles from Great Britain and founded the bishopric, which was first held by St Corentin about 495. Hoel, count of Cornouailles, marrying the sister and heiress of Duke Conan in 1066, united the count ship with the duchy of Brittany. Quimper suffered in the local wars of succession. In 1344 it was sacked by Charles of Blois. Monfort failed in his attempt to take the town by storm on August 11, 1345, but it opened its gates to his son John IV. in 1364 after the victory at Auray. At a later period it sided with the League. Doubtless on account of its distance from the capital, Quimper, like Carpentras and Landerneau, has been a frequent butt of French popular wit.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sogne Fjord

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​SOGNE FJORD, a great inlet of the west coast of Norway, penetrating the mainland to a distance of 136 m. It is the longest fjord in Norway, and the deepest, approaching 700 fathoms in some parts. Sognefest at its entrance is 50 m. by water from Bergen, in 61° 5′ N. The general direction from the sea is easterly. For the first 50 m. the sombre flanking mountains are unbroken by any considerable branch, but from this point several deep, narrow inlets ramify, penetrating the Jostedalsbrae and Jotunfjeld to the north and the northward extension of the Hardangerfjeld to the south, walled in at their heads by snow-clad mountains and frequented by travellers on account of the magnificent scenery. The principal are Fjaerlands, Sogndals and Lyster fjords to the north, Aardals fjord to the east, Laerdals and Aurlands fjords to the south. From the last branches the Naerö fjord, with a precipitous valley of great beauty (Naerödalen) at its head, traversed by a road, from Gudvangen on the fjord, across the Stalheim Pass to Vossevangen. The other principal villages are Vadheim on the outer fjord, the terminus of the road from Nordfjord; Balholm and Fjaerland (centres for visiting the fine glaciers of Jostedal); Lekanger, Sogndal, and Laerdalsören, whence a road strikes south-east for the Valders and Hallingdal districts.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Soest

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​SOEST, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, situated in a fertile plain (Soester Börde), 33 m. E. ​of Dortmund, on the main railway Cologne–Elberfeld–Berlin, Pop. (1005), 17,394. Its early importance is attested by its seven fine churches (six Protestant), of which the most striking are St Peter's, the Wiesenkirche, a gem of Gothic architecture, Maria zur Höhe—St Mary-on-the-height—with beautiful mural frescoes, founded in 1314 and restored in 1850–1852, and the Roman Catholic cathedral, founded in the 10th century by Bruno, brother of Otto the Great (the present building was erected in the 12th century). This last, with its very original façade, is one of the noblest ecclesiastical monuments of Germany. Remains of the broad wall, now partly enclosing gardens and fields, and one of the gates remain; but the thirty-six strong towers which once defended the town have disappeared and the moats have been converted into promenades. The town-hall (1701) contains valuable archives, and among the numerous educational establishments must be mentioned the gymnasium, founded in 1534, through the instrumentality of Melanchthon, an evangelical teachers' seminary, an agricultural school, and a blind asylum. Iron-working, the manufacture of soap, hats, sugar, cigars, bricks and tiles, linen-weaving, tanning and brewing, together with market-gardening and farming in the neighbourhood, and trade in cattle and grain are the leading industries.
Mentioned in documents as early as the 9th century, Soest was one of the largest and most important Hanseatic towns in the middle ages, with a population estimated at from 30,000 to 60,000. It was one of the chief emporiums on the early trading route between Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Its code of municipal laws (Schran; jus susatense), dating from 1144 to 1165, was one of the earliest and best, and served as a model even to Lübeck. On the fall of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, Soest passed with the rest of Angria to Cologne. In the 15th century the strife between the townsmen and the archbishops broke out in open war, and in 1444 the strong fortifications of the town withstood a long siege by an army of 60,000 men. The women of Soest are said to have distinguished themselves in this contest (Soester Fehde). Papal intervention ended the strife, and Soest was permitted to remain under the protection of the dukes of Cleves. The prosperity of the town waned in more modern times: in 1763 its population was only 3800; in 1816 it was 6687.
See Vogeler, Soest, seine Altertümer und Sehenswürdigkeiten (Soest, 1890); Hausberg, Die soester Fehde (Trier, 1882); Sümmermann, Die Wandmalereien in der Kirche Maria zur Höhe in Soest (Soest, 1890); Aldenkirchen, Die mittelälterliche Kunst in Soest (Bonn, 1875); Ludorff und Vogeler, Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Soest (Soest, 1905).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sodor and Man

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​SODOR AND MAN, the name of the bishopric of the Church of England which includes the Isle of Man and adjacent islets. In 1154 the diocese of Sodor was formed to include the Hebrides and other islands west of Scotland (Norse Sudr-eyjar, Sudreys, or southern isles, in distinction from Nordr-eyjar, the northern isles of Orkney and Shetland) and the Isle of Man. It was in the archdiocese of Trondhjem in Norway. (The connexion of the Isle of Man with Norway is considered s.v. Man, Isle of). A Norwegian diocese of Sodor had been in existence previously, but its history is obscure, and the first union of Man with it in 1098 by Magnus Barefoot is only traditional. The Norwegian connexion was broken in 1266, and in 1334 Man was detached from the Scottish islands. The cathedral of Sodor was on St Patrick’s Isle at Peel (q.v.), and it is possible that the name Sodor being lost, its meaning was applied to the isle as the seat of the bishop. The termination “and Man” seems to have been added in the 17th century by a legal draughtsman ignorant of the proper application of the name of Sodor to the bishopric of Man. By the latter part of the 16th century the terms Sodor and Man had become interchangeable, the bishopric being spoken of as that of Sodor or Man. Till 1604 the bishops invariably signed themselves Sodorensis; after that date and till 1684, sometimes Soderensis and sometimes “Sodor and Man,” and after 1684 always “Sodor and Man.” The see, while for some purposes in the archdiocese of York, has its own convocation. The bishop sits in the House of Lords, but has no vote.
See A. W. Moore, History of the Isle of Man (London, 1900).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Soffioni

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​SOFFIONI (sometimes spelt suffioni), a name applied in Italy to certain volcanic vents which emit jets of steam, generally associated with hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide, sometimes also with a little ammonia and marsh-gas. The soffioni are usually arranged in groups, and are best represented in the Maremma of Tuscany, where they contain a small proportion of boric acid, for which they are utilized industrially. For such natural steam-holes, the French geologists often use the term soufflards in place of the Italian soffioni.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sofa

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​SOFA, a long couch with stuffed back, arms and seat, to hold two or more persons. The word is of Arabic origin, and is an adaptation of suffah, couch, from root saffa—to draw up in line. According to Richardson, Dict. of Eng. Lang. quoted by Skeat, the Arabic suffah was particularly a reclining place of wood or stone placed before the doors of Oriental houses. In the history of furniture the sofa was a development of the straight backed settee. It was not so much therefore a long chair or combination of chairs, as a seat or couch for reclining. The early 19th-century type had a back with a single arm at one end, the other being left open. The most favoured modern form is that known as the Chesterfield, with double arms and back, heavily padded. (See also Settee.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sofala

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​SOFALA, a Portuguese seaport on the east coast of Africa, at the mouth of a river of the same name, in 20° 12′ S. Pop. (1900), about 1000. The town possesses scarcely a trace of its former importance, and what trade it had was nearly all taken away by the establishment of Beira (q.v.) a little to the north in 1890. Sofala Harbour, once capable of holding a hundred large vessels, is silting up and is obstructed by a bar. Ruins exist of the strong fort built by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Previous to its conquest by the Portuguese in 1505 Sofala was the chief town of a wealthy Mahommedan state, Arabs having established themselves there in the 12th century or earlier. At one time it formed part of the sultanate of Kilwa (q.v.). Sofala was visited by the Portuguese Jew, Pero de Covilhão, in 1489, who was attracted thither by the reports of gold-mines of which Sofala was the port. The conquest of the town followed, the first governors of the Portuguese East African possessions being entitled Captains-General of Sofala. (See Portuguese East Africa.) Thomé Lopes, who accompanied Vasco da Gama to India in 1502 and left a narrative of the voyage (first printed in Ramusio, Viaggi e Navegationi) , identifies Sofala with Solomon's Ophir and states that it was the home of the Queen of Sheba. This identification of Sofala with Ophir, to which Milton alludes (Par. Lost, xi. 399–401) is untenable.
The small island of Chiloane, with a good harbour, 40 m. S. of Sofala, has been colonized from Sofala (the township being named Chingune) as has also the island Santa Carolina, in the Bazaruto archipelago.
See Bull. Geogr. Soc. Mozambique (1882) for an account of the Sofala mines; and, generally, Idrísí, Climate, i. § 8, O. Dapper, Description de l'Afrique (Amsterdam, 1686); T. Baines, The Gold Regions of South Africa (1877); G. McC. Theal's Records of South Eastern Africa (1898–1903); Sir R. Burton's notes to his edition of Camoens.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Soffit

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​SOFFIT (from Fr. soffite, Ital. soffitta, a ceiling, formed as if from suffictus for suffixus, Lat. suffigere, to fix underneath), a term in architecture given to the underside of any constructional feature; as for instance that of an arch or an architrave whether supported by piers or columns; also to the underside of a flight of stairs, and in the classic entablature to the underside of the projecting cornice.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sogdiana

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​SOGDIANA (Sugdiane, O. Pers. Sughuda), a province of the Achaemenian Empire, the eighteenth in the list in the Behistun inscription of Darius (i. 16), corresponding to the modern districts of Samarkand and Bokhara; it lay north of Bactriana between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, and embraced the fertile valley of the Zerafshan (anc. Polytimetus). Under the Greeks Sogdiana was united in one satrapy with Bactria, and subsequently it formed part of the Bactrian Greek kingdom till the Scythians (see Scythia) occupied it in the middle of the 2nd century B.C. The valley of the Zerafshan about Samarkand retained even in the middle ages the name of the Soghd of Samarkand. Arabic geographers reckon it as one of the four fairest districts in the world.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Soham

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​SOHAM, a town in the Newmarket parliamentary division of Cambridgeshire, England, 5 m. S.E. of Ely by a branch of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901), 4230. It lies in the midst of the flat fen country. To the west a rich tract, still known as Soham Mere, marks the place of one of the many wide and shallow sheets of water in the district now drained. The church of St Andrew is cruciform and had formerly a central tower; the existing western tower is of fine and ornate Perpendicular work. The body of the church, however, is mainly transitional Norman with additions principally Decorated, including a beautiful east window, much ancient woodwork, and other details of interest. The grammar school dates from 1687. The road from Soham to Ely was constructed as a causeway across the fens by Hervey le Breton, first bishop of Ely (1109–1131). The trade of the town is agricultural, fruit-growing and market-gardening being largely carried on in the vicinity.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Reconnaissance

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​RECONNAISSANCE (from Fr. reconnaître, to recognize, Lat. recognoscere), a military term denoting the reconnoitring or examination of an enemy's position or movements, or of a tract of ground. Reconnaissances naturally vary indefinitely according to the purposes for which they are undertaken. A topographical reconnaissance is practically a survey of a tract of country or route, comprising both a map and a report as to its advantages and disadvantages. All reconnoitring work of this character is done by officers with small patrols, escorts or assistants. Strategical reconnaissance is performed by contact squadrons, which send forward officers and patrols to find the enemy. Tactical reconnaissance falls to the lot of troops of all arms, whether in contact with the enemy or for self-protection. A reconnaissance by a large force of all arms with the idea of provoking an enemy into showing his hand, if necessary by fighting, is called a reconnaissance in force.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Recorder (legal officer)

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​RECORDER, in its original sense, one who sets down or records. Hence applied to a person with legal knowledge who was appointed by the mayor and aldermen to “ record ” or keep in mind the proceedings of their court, as well as the customs of the city. The word is now chiefly used of the principal legal officer of a city or borough having a separate court of quarter sessions. He must be a barrister of five years' standing, appointed by the crown and holding office during good behaviour, and receiving “ such yearly salary, not exceeding that stated in the petition on which the grant of a separate court of quarter sessions was made,” as the sovereign directs (Municipal Corporations Act 1882, s. 163). The recorder holds, once in every quarter of a year, or oftener, if he thinks fit, a court of quarter sessions in and for the borough. He is sole judge of the court, “ having cognizance of all crimes, offences, and matters cognizable by courts of quarter sessions for counties in England,” except that he may not allow or levy any borough rate, or grant licences (s. 165). He is not eligible to serve in parliament for the borough, or to be an alderman or councillor, or stipendiary magistrate for the borough, though he may be revising barrister and is eligible to serve in Parliament except for the borough. He may be appointed recorder for two or more boroughs conjointly. He may, in case of sickness or unavoidable absence, appoint in writing a barrister of five years’ standing to act as deputy recorder for him. A recorder is ex officio a justice for the borough.
The recorder of London is judge of the lord mayor’s court, and one of the commissioners of the central criminal court. His salary is £4000 a year. He is appointed by the lord mayor and aldermen, but by the Local Government Act 1888, s. 42, sub-s. 14, after the vacancy next after the beginning of the act, no recorder may exercise any judicial function unless he is appointed by the sovereign to exercise such function. See Quarter Sessions, Court of.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Recorde, Robert

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​RECORDE, ROBERT (c. 1510–1558), Welsh physician and mathematician, was descended from a respectable family of Tenby in Wales. He entered the university of Oxford about 1525, and was elected fellow of All Souls’ College in 1531. Having adopted medicine as a profession, he went to Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.D. in 1545. He afterwards returned to Oxford, where he publicly taught mathematics, as he had done prior to his going to Cambridge. It appears that he afterwards went to London, and acted as physician to Edward VI. and to Queen Mary, to whom some of his books are dedicated. He died in the King’s Bench prison, Southwark, where he was confined for debt, in 1558.
Recorde published several works upon mathematical subjects, chiefly in the form of dialogue between master and scholar, viz.:—The Grounde of Artes, teaching the Worke and Practise of Arithmeticke, both in whole numbers and fractions (1540); The Pathway to Knowledge, containing the First Principles of Geometry . . . bothe for the use of Instrumentes Geometricall and Astronomicall, and also for Projection of Plattes (London, 1551); The Castle of Knowledge, containing the Explication of the Sphere both Celestiall and Materiall, &c. (London, 1556); The Whetstone of Witte, which is the second part of Arithmetike, containing the Extraction of Rootes, the Cossike Practice, with the Rules of Equation, and the Woorkes of Surde Numbers (London, 1557). This was the first English book on algebra. He wrote also a medical work, The Urinal of Physic (1548), frequently reprinted. Sherburne states that Recorde also published Cosmographiae isagoge, and that he wrote a book De Arte faciendi Horologium and another De Usu Globorurn et de Statu temporum. Recorde’s chief contributions to the progress of algebra were in the way of systematizing its notation (see Algebra, History).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wantage

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​WANTAGE, a market town in the Abingdon parliamentary division of Berkshire, England. Pop. of urban district (1901), 3766. It lies in the richly wooded Vale of White Horse, in a hollow at the foot of the steep hills which border the Vale on the south, 2 m. S. of Wantage Road station on the Great Western railway, with which a steam tramway connects it. The church of St Peter and St Paul is cruciform, and as a whole Perpendicular in appearance, but retains a nave arcade and ornate tower-arches of the Early English period. The font is a fine specimen of the same style; and there is beautiful woodwork in the chancel. An altar-tomb in alabaster of 1361, and a fine brass of 1414, commemorate members of the family of Fitzwarren. There are other brasses of the 15th and 16th centuries. The neighbouring building of the grammar school preserves a Norman door from another church, which formerly stood in the same churchyard with St Peter's. In the broad market-place is a great statue of King Alfred, executed by Count Gleichen and unveiled in 1877; for Wantage is famous as the birthplace of the king in 849. The town has a large agricultural trade and ironworks.
The title of Baron Wantage of Lockinge was taken in 1885 by Sir Robert Loyd-Lindsay (b. 1832) on his elevation to the peerage. He was the son of General James Lindsay of Balcarres, but took the additional surname of Loyd in 1858 on marrying the heiress of Lord Overstone, the banker; he fought with his regiment the Scots Fusilier Guards in the Crimea and won the V.C., retiring as lieutenant-colonel. He was M.P. for Berks from 1865 to 1885, and was financial secretary to the War Office in 1877-1880. The title became extinct at his death in 1900.