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

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​MELLE, a town of western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Deux-Sèvres, on the left bank of the Béronne, 21 m. E.S.E. of Niort by rail. Pop. (1906), 2231. Melle has two churches in the Romanesque style of Poitou, St Pierre and St Hilaire, the latter ornamented with sculptured arcading. The hospital has a richly carved doorway of the 17th century. The church of St Savinien (11th century) serves as a prison. The town has trade in farm-produce, mules and other live stock; distilling is carried on. Melle (Metallum) derives its name from the lead mine worked here during the Roman occupation and in the early middle ages. At the latter period it had a mint. In later times it was a possession of the counts of Maine.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Melodrama

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​MELODRAMA (a coined word from Gr. μέλος, music, and δρᾶμα, action), the name of several species of dramatic composition. As the word implies, “melodrama” is properly a dramatic mixture of music and action, and was first applied to a form of dramatic musical composition in which music accompanied the spoken words and the action, but in which there was no singing. The first example of such a work has generally been taken to be the Pygmalion of J. J. Rousseau, produced in 1775. This is the source of romantic dramas depending on sensational incident with exaggerated appeals to conventional sentiment rather than on play of character, and in which dramatis personae follow conventional types—the villain, the hero wrongfully charged with crime, the persecuted heroine, the adventuress, &c. At first the music was of some importance, forming practically a running accompaniment suitable to the situations—but this has gradually disappeared, and, if it remains, is used mainly to emphasize particularly strong situations, or to bring on or off the stage the various principal characters. Such plays first became popular in France at the beginning of the 19th century. One of the most prolific writers of melodramas at that period was R. C. G. de Pixericourt (1773–1844). The titles of some of his plays give a sufficient indication of their character; e.g. Victor, ou l’enfant de la forêt (1797); Carlina, ou l’enfant du mystère (1801); Le Monastère abandonné, ou la malédiction paternelle (1816). Another form of melodrama came from the same source, but developed on lines which laid more emphasis on the music, and is of some importance in the history of opera. Probably the first of this type is to be found in Georg Benda’s Ariadne auf Naxos (1774). The most familiar of such melodramas in Gay’s Beggar’s Opera. In these the dialogue is entirely spoken. In true opera the spoken dialogue was replaced by recitative. It may be noticed that the speaking of some parts of the dialogue is not sufficient to class an opera as a “melodrama” in this sense, as is proved by the spoken grave-digging scene, accompanied by music, in Fidelio, and the incantation scene in Der Freischütz. To this the English term “declamation” is usually applied; the Germans use Melodram. But see Opera.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Melksham

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​MELKSHAM, a market town in the Westbury parliamentary division of Wiltshire, England, 951/4 m. W. of London by the Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901), 2450. It lies in a valley sheltered by steep chalk hills on the east, its old-fashioned stone houses lining a single broad street, which crosses the Upper Avon by a bridge of four arches. The church preserves some remnants of Norman work and a Perpendicular south chapel of rare beauty. Melksham possesses cloth-mills where coco-nut fibre and hair cloth are woven, flour-mills and dye-works. On the discovery of a saline spring in 1816, baths and a pump-room were opened, but although two other springs were found later, the attempt to create a fashionable health resort failed. The surrounding deer-forest was often visited by Edward I. Lacock Abbey, 3 m. distant, was founded in 1232 for Austin canonesses, and dissolved in 1539. Portions of the monastic buildings remain as picturesque fragments in and near the modern mansion called Lacock Abbey.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mellitic Acid

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​MELLITIC ACID (benzene hexacarboxylic acid), C$_6$(COOH)$_6$, was first discovered in 1799 by M. H. Klaproth in the mineral honeystone, which is the aluminium salt of the acid. The acid may be prepared by warming honeystone with ammonium carbonate, boiling off the excess of the ammonium salt and adding ammonia to the solution. The precipitated alumina is filtered off, the filtrate evaporated and the ammonium salt of the acid purified by recrystallization. The ammonium salt is then converted into the lead salt by precipitation with lead acetate and the lead salt decomposed by sulphuretted hydrogen.
The acid may also be prepared by the oxidation of pure carbon, or of hexamethyl benzene, in the cold, by alkaline potassium permanganate (F. Schulze, Ber., 1871, 4, p. 802; C. Friedel and J. M. Crafts, Ann. chim. phys., 1884 [6], 1, p. 470). It crystallizes in fine silky needles and is soluble in water and alcohol. It is a very stable compound, chlorine, concentrated nitric acid and hydriodic acid having no action upon it. It is decomposed, on dry distillation, into carbon dioxide and pyromellitic acid, C$_{10}$H$_6$O$_8$; when distilled with lime it gives carbon dioxide and benzene. Long digestion of the acid with excess of phosphorus pentachloride results in the formation of the acid chloride, C$_6$(COCl)$_6$, which crystallizes in needles, melting at 190° C. By heating the ammonium salt of the acid to 150–160° C. as long as ammonia is evolved, a mixture of paramide (mellimide), C$_6$(CO CO NH)$_3$, and ammonium euchroate is obtained. The mixture may be separated by dissolving out the ammonium euchroate with water. Paramide is a white amorphous powder, insoluble in water and alcohol.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mellitus

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​MELLITUS (d. 624), bishop of London and archbishop of Canterbury, was sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great in 601. He was consecrated by St Augustine before 604, and a church was built for him in London by Aethelberht, king of Kent; this church was dedicated to St Paul, and Mellitus became first bishop of London. About ten years later the East Saxons reverted to heathenism and the bishop was driven from his see. He took refuge in Kent and then in Gaul, but soon returned to England, and in 619 became archbishop of Canterbury in succession to Laurentius. He died on the 24th of April 624.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Melloni, Macedonio

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​MELLONI, MACEDONIO (1798–1854), Italian physicist, was born at Parma on the 11th of April 1798. From 1824 to 1831 he was professor at Parma, but in the latter year he was compelled to escape to France, having taken part in the revolution. In 1839 he went to Naples and was soon appointed director of the Vesuvius observatory, a post which he held until 1848. Melloni received the Rumford medal of the Royal Society in 1834. In 1835 he was elected correspondent of the Paris Academy, and in 1839 a foreign member of the Royal Society. He died at Portici near Naples of cholera on the 11th of August 1854. Melloni’s reputation as a physicist rests especially on his discoveries in radiant heat, made with the aid of the thermomultiplier or combination of thermopile and galvanometer, which, soon after the discovery of thermoelectricity by T. J. Seebeck, was employed by him jointly with L. Nobili in 1831. His experiments were especially concerned with the power of transmitting dark heat possessed by various substances and with the changes produced in the heat rays by passage through different materials. Substances which were comparatively transparent to heat he designated by the adjective “diathermane,” the property being “diathermanéïté,” while for the heat-tint or heat-coloration produced by passage through different materials he coined the word “diathermansie.” In English, however, the terms were not well understood, and “diathermancy,” was generally used as the equivalent of “diathermanéïté.” In consequence Melloni about 1841 began to use “diathermique” in place of “diathermane,” “diathermasie” in place of “diathermanéïté,” and “thermocrose” for “diathermansie.” His most important book, La thermocrose ou la coloration calorifique (vol. i., Naples, 1850), was unfinished at his death. He studied the reflection and polarization of radiant heat, the magnetism of rocks, electrostatic induction, daguerrotypy, &c.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pathan

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​PATHAN, the name applied throughout India to the Afghans, especially to those permanently settled in the country and to those dwelling on the borderland. It is apparently derived from the Afghan name for their own language, Pushtu or Pukhtu, and may be traced back to the Paktues of Herodotus. In 1901 the total number of Pathans in all India was nearly 31/2 millions, but the speakers of Pushtu numbered less than {{nowrap|11/4 millions.} The name is frequently, but incorrectly, applied to the Mahommedan dynasties that preceded the Moguls at Delhi, and also to the style of architecture employed by them; but of these dynasties only the Lodis were Afghans.
The Pathans of the Indian borderland inhabit the mountainous country on the Punjab frontier, stretching northwards from a line drawn roughly across the southern border of the Dera Ismail Khan district. South of this line are the Baluchis. The Pathans include all the strongest and most warlike tribes of the North-West frontier of India, such as the Afridis, Orakzais, Waziris, Mohmands, Swatis and many other clans. Those in the settled districts of the North-West Frontier Province (in 1901) numbered 883,779, or more than two-fifths of the population. Each of the principal divisions is dealt with separately in this work under its tribal name. The Pathans are split up into different tribes, each tribe into clans, and each clan into sections, so that the nomenclature is often very puzzling. The tribe, clan and section are alike distinguished by patronymics formed from the name of the common ancestor by the addition of the word zai or khel; zai being a corruption of the Pushtu word zoe, meaning son, while khel is an Arabic word meaning an association or company. Both terms are used indifferently for both the larger and smaller divisions. Pathans enlist largely in the native army of India; and since the frontier risings of 1897 they have been formed with increasing frequency into class-regiments and regiments of native militia. They make excellent soldiers. The greater part of the Pathan country was placed under British political control by the Durand agreement made with the Amir of Afghanistan in 1893.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Patey, Janet Monach

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​PATEY, JANET MONACH (1842–1894), English vocalist, was born in London on the 1st of May 1842, her maiden name being Whytock. She had a fine alto voice, which developed into a contralto, and she studied singing under J. Wass, Pinsuti and Mrs Sims Reeves. Miss Whytock’s first appearance, as a child, was made at Birmingham, and her first regular engagement was in 1865, in the provinces. From 1866, in which year she sang at the Worcester festival, and married John Patey, a bass singer, she was recognized as one of the leading contraltos; and on the retirement of Mme Sainton-Dolby in 1870 Mme Patey was without a rival whether in oratorio or in ballad music. She toured in America in 1871, sang in Paris in 1875, and in Australia in 1890. She died at Sheffield on the 28th of February 1894.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rothelin, Jacqueline de Rohan

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​ ROTHELIN, JACQUELINE DE ROHAN, Marquise de (c. 1520-1587), daughter of Charles de Rohan and Jeanne de Saint-Severin. Her husband, Francois of Orleans-Longueville, marquis de Rothelin, died in 1548, and in watching her son's interests in Neuchâtel she was brought into contact with the reformers in Switzerland. She then embraced Protestantism and turned her château at Blandy, in Brie, into a refuge for Huguenots. In 1567 she underwent a term of imprisonment at the Louvre for harbouring Protestants.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rota, Court of

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​ROTA, COURT OF, one of the departments of the medieval papal organization, existing alongside the Dataria, the Poenitentiaria, the two Signaturas (S. Gratiae and S. Justitiae), and other bureaus. The Rota was the supreme court of Christendom. It consisted of twelve members, three from Rome, two from Spain, one each from Bologna, Ferrara, Venice, Milan, Germany, France, and (alternately) Tuscany or Perugia. It declined in importance when the Signitura Justitiae was set above it as the court of appeal for Italy, and more so as the geographical jurisdiction of the pope was gradually lessened. After the Council of Trent the old arrangements were replaced by the Congregations, permanent committees of cardinals which deal with definite branches of business. The Rota, however, was restored to its functions as supreme court of appeal by Pope Pius X. in 1908 (see Curia Romana).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber

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​ROTHENBURG-OB-DER-TAUBER, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, 49 m. by rail S.W. of Nuremberg. Pop. (1905) 8436. It is beautifully situated on an eminence 200 ft. above the Tauber. It is flanked by medieval walls, towers and gates, and its antique appearance has been carefully preserved. Perhaps the most interesting building is the town hall, one part of which dates from 1240 and the other from 1572. The latter is a beautiful Renaissance structure, with a magnificent façade and a delicate spire, and contains a grand hall, the Kaisersaal, in which every Whit Monday a play, Der Meistertrunk, which commemorates the capture of the town by Tilly in 1631, is performed. Other buildings are the Gothic church of St James, with curiously carved altars and beautiful stained-glass windows, and containing in the Toppler chapel the tomb of the burgomaster, Heinrich Toppler; the 15th-century church of St Wolfgang; the Franciscan church; and five other churches. The town has many picturesque houses, and possesses a library with some interesting archives. It has manufactures of toys and agricultural machinery, electrical works and breweries.
Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber, mentioned in the chronicles in 304 as Rotinbure, was probably a residence of the dukes of Franconia. It first appears as a town in 942 and until 1108 was the seat of the counts of Rothenburg-Komburg; when this line became extinct it passed to the family of Hohenstaufen, one member of which took the title of duke of Rothenburg. In 1172 it became a free imperial city and it attained the zenith of its prosperity under the famous burgomaster Heinrich Toppler (1350–1408). It took part in the movements in South Germany during the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1631 Rothenburg was stormed by Tilly, and the cup of wine presented by the burgomaster, which, according to tradition, saved the town from destruction, is annually commemorated in the play mentioned above.
See Bensen, Beschreibung und Geschichte der Stadt Rothenburg (Erlangen, 1856); Merz, Rothenburg in alter und neuer Zeit (2nd ed., Ansbach, 1881); Schultheiss, Rothenburg, ein Städtebild (Zurich, 1892); and Das Festspiel zu Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber (Munich, 1892); and W. Klein, Führer durch die Stadt Rothenburg (Rothenburg, 1888).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rotherham

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​ROTHERHAM, a market-town and municipal borough in the Rotherham parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 5 m. N.E. of Sheffield, on the Midland, North-Eastern and Great Central railways. Pop. (1891) 42,06I; (1901) $4,349. It lies in the valley of the Don, where that river is joined by the Rother, and has communication by water with the Humber. The Don is crossed by a bridge on which is a small ancient building, formerly a chapel. The parish church of All Saints, occupying the site of a building dating from Anglo-Saxon times, was erected in the reign of Edward IV., and is among the best specimens of Perpendicular in the north of England. The town possesses iron, steel and brass works, railway wagon works, potteries, glass-works, breweries, saw-mills and rope-yards. At the township of Masborough, opposite Rotherham across the Don, works were established in 1746 by Samuel Walker, a successful iron master. The municipal borough, incorporated in 1871, is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 6012 acres. The town was of some importance in Anglo-Saxon times, and at Templeborough, on the S.E. side of Rotherham, there was a Roman fort, but its traces are effaced. In the time of Edward the Confessor, Rotherham possessed a market and a church. During the Civil War it sided with the Parliament. It was taken by the Royalists in 1643, but after the victory of Marston Moor was yielded to a detachment of the Parliamentary forces.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Roth, Justus Ludwig Adolf

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ROTH, JUSTUS LUDWIG ADOLF (1818-1892), German geologist and mineralogist, was born at Hamburg on the 15th of September 1818. In 1867 he was appointed professor of mineralogy at the university of Berlin. He may be regarded as one of the founders of petrographical science. In his published papers he dealt with metamorphism and crystalline schists, discussed the origin of serpentine, and wrote on Vesuvian rocks and on Ponza Island. His separate works included Der Vesuv und die Umgebung von Neapel (1857); Beiträge zur Petrographie der plutonischen Gesteine (1869-84); Allgemeine und chemische Geologie (3 vols., 1879-93); and Über die Erdbeben (1882). He died at Berlin on the 1st of April 1892.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rotherham, Thomas

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​ROTHERHAM, THOMAS (1423-1500), archbishop of York, also called Thomas Scot, was born at Rotherham on the 24th of August 1423; he was educated in his native town and seems to have been connected with both the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Having entered the church he became rector of Ripple, Worcestershire, and later of St Vedast, Foster Lane, London, and it was probably when he was chaplain to John de Vere, earl of Oxford, that he made the acquaintance of Elizabeth Woodville, afterwards the queen of Edward IV. In 1467 Rotherham became keeper of the privy seal to this king; in 1468 he was appointed bishop of Worcester, in 147-2 bishop of Lincoln and in 1475 chancellor of England. Several times he went to France on public business; in 1475 at the treaty of Picquignyhe received a pension from Louis XI. of France, and in 1480 he was chosen archbishop of York. When Edward IV. died in April 1483 the archbishop remained true to his widow Elizabeth, and consequently lost the chancellorship and was put into prison by Richard III. He was soon set at liberty, and he died in 1 500 at Cawood, near York. At Oxford Rotherham built part of Lincoln College and increased its endowment; at Cambridge, where he was chancellor and master of Pembroke Hall, he helped to build the University Library. He founded a college at Rotherham, which was suppressed under Edward VI., and he was responsible for the building of part of the church of All Saints there. .
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rothesay

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​ROTHESAY, a royal, municipal and police burgh, and the chief town of the county and island of Bute, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 9378. It is situated on a beautiful bay, 40 m. S.W. of Glasgow, with which there is regular communication by railway steamers from Wemyss Bay, Gourock, Greenock (Prince's Pier) and Craigendoran, as well as by many other steamers from Glasgow and the Clyde ports. It is apopular watering-place, and as the bay is sheltered by low wooded hills and aliords excellent anchorage, it is well patronized by yachts. Loch Striven, on the opposite shore of Argyllshire, is known as the “Rothesay weather-glass,” its appearance furnishing a certain clue to meteorological'conditions. The town is under the jurisdiction of a provost and council. Rothesay has ceased to be a manufacturing centre, fishing being now its chief industry. Owing to its mild and equable climate it is a resort of invalids. There is a tramway to Port Bannatyne, pleasantly situated on the east horn of Kames Bay, and Craigmore, about 1 m. west of Rothesay, is a fashionable suburb. Ardbeg Point, Loch Fad, Loch Ascog and Barone Hill (530 ft.) are all within a mile and a half of the town, and there are numerous excursions by road to other points of interest. The Kyles of Bute are within a short sail of Rothesay. In the centre of the town are the ruins of a castle erected in 1098 either by Magnus Barefoot, king of Norway, or by the Scots as a defence against the Norwegians, with whom during the 13th century, and earlier, there was constant strife. The village which grew up round the castle was made a royal burgh by Robert III., who, in 1398, created his eldest son David duke of Rothesay, a title which became the highest Scottish title of the heir-apparent to the crown of the United Kingdom. During the Commonwealth the castle was garrisoned by Cromwell's troops. It was burned by the followers of Argyll in 1685, and remained neglected till the rubbish was cleared away by the second marquess of Bute in 1816. It was repaired by the third marquess.