OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Alicante (province)

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​ALICANTE, a province of south-eastern Spain; bounded on the N. by Valencia, W. by Albacete and Murcia, S. by Murcia, and S.E. and E. by the Mediterranean Sea. Pop. (1900) 470,149; area, 2096 sq. m. Alicante was formed in 1833 of districts taken from the ancient provinces of Valencia and Murcia, Valencia contributing by far the larger portion. The surface of the province is extremely diversified. In the north and west there are extensive mountain ranges of calcareous formation, intersected by deep ravines; while farther south the land is more level, and there are many fertile valleys. On the Mediterranean coast, unhealthy salt marshes alternate with rich plains of pleasant and productive huertas or gardens, such as those of Alicante and Denia. Apart from Segura, which flows from the highlands of Albacete through Murcia and Orihuela to the sea, there is no considerable river, but a few rivulets flow east into the Mediterranean. The climate is temperate, and the rainfall very slight. Despite the want of rivers and of rain, agriculture is in a flourishing condition. Many tracts, originally rocky and sterile, have been irrigated and converted into vineyards and plantations. Cereals are grown, but the inhabitants prefer to raise such articles of produce as are in demand for export, and consequently part of the grain supply has to be imported. Esparto grass, rice, olives, the sugar-cane, and tropical fruits and vegetables are largely produced. Great attention is given to the rearing of bees and silk-worms; and the wine of the province is held in high repute throughout Spain, while some inferior kinds are sent to France to be mixed with claret. There are iron and lignite mines, but the output is small. Mineral springs are found at various places. The manufactures consist of fine cloths, silk, cotton, woollen and linen fabrics, girdles and lace, paper, hats, leather, earthenware and soap. There are numerous oil mills and brandy distilleries. Many of the inhabitants are engaged in the carrying trade, while the fisheries on the coast are also actively prosecuted, tunny and anchovies being caught in great numbers. Barilla is obtained from the sea-weed on the shores, and some of the saline marshes, notably those near Torrevieja, yield large supplies of salt. The principal towns, which are separately described, include Alicante, the capital (pop. 1900, 50,142), Crevillente (10,726), Dénia (12,431), Elche (27,308), Novelda (11,388), Orihuela (28,530), and Villena (14,099). Other towns, of less importance, are Aspe (7927), Cocentaina (7093), Monóvar (10,601), Pinoso (7946), and Villajoyosa (8902).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ali Bey

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​ALI, known as Ali Bey (1766–1818), the assumed name of Domingo Badia y Leblich, a Spanish traveller, born in 1766. After receiving a liberal education he devoted particular attention to the Arabic language, and made a special study of the manners and customs of the East. Pretending to be a descendant of the Abbasids, Badia in 1803 set out on his travels. Under the name of Ali Bey el Abbassi, and in Mussulman costume, he visited Morocco, Tripoli, Egypt, Arabia and Syria, and was received as a person of high rank wherever he appeared. He made the pilgrimage to Mecca, at that time in the possession of the Wahabites. On his return to Spain in 1807 he declared himself a Bonapartist, and was made intendant first of Segovia and afterwards of Cordova. When the French were driven from Spain, Badia was compelled to take refuge in France, and there in 1814, published an account of his travels under the title of Voyage d’ Ali Bey en Asie et en Afrique, &c. A few years later he set out again for Syria, under the assumed name of Ali Othman, and, it is said, accredited as a political agent by the French government. He reached Aleppo, and there died on the 30th of August 1818, not without suspicion of having been poisoned.
An account of his Eastern adventures was published in London in 1816, in two volumes, entitled Travels in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria and Turkey, between the years 1803 and 1807.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aliaga

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​ALIAGA, a town of the province of Nueva Ecija, Luzon, Philippine Islands, about 70 m. N. by W. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 11,950. It has a comparatively cool and healthful climate, and is pleasantly situated about midway between the Pampanga Grande and the Pampanga Chico rivers, and in a large and fertile valley of which the principal products are Indian corn, rice, sugar and tobacco. Tagalog is the most important language; Ilocano, Pampango and Pangasinan are also used.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bray (Ireland)

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​BRAY, a seaport and watering-place of Co. Wicklow, Ireland, 12 m. S.S.E. of Dublin on the Dublin & South-Eastern railway, situated on both sides of the river Bray. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7424. For parliamentary purposes it is divided between the eastern division of county Wicklow and the southern of county Dublin. A harbour was constructed by the urban district council (the harbour authority) which accommodates ships of 400 tons. There is some industry in brewing, milling and fishing, but the town, which is known as the “Irish Brighton,” is almost wholly dependent for its prosperity on visitors from Dublin and elsewhere. It therefore possesses all the equipments of a modern seaside resort; there is a fine sea-wall with esplanade upwards of a mile in length; the bathing is good, and race meetings are held. The town is rapidly increasing in size. The coast, especially towards the promontory of Bray Head, offers beautiful sea-views, and some of the best inland scenery in the county is readily accessible, such as the Glens of the Dargle and the Downs, the demesne of Powerscourt, the Bray river, with its loughs, and the pass of the Scalp. The demesne of Kilruddery, the seat of the earls of Meath, is specially beautiful. About 1170 Bray was bestowed by Richard de Clare or Strongbow, earl of Pembroke and Strigul, on Walter de Reddesford, who took the title of baron of Bray, and built a castle.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bray, Thomas

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​BRAY, THOMAS (1656–1730), English divine, was born at Marton, Shropshire, in 1656, and educated at All Souls’ College, Oxford. After leaving the university he was appointed vicar of Over-Whitacre, and rector of Sheldon in Warwickshire, where he wrote his famous Catechetical Lectures. Henry Compton, bishop of London, appointed him in 1696 as his commissary to organize the Anglican church in Maryland, and he was in that colony in 1699–1700. He took a great interest in colonial missions, especially among the American Indians, and it is to his exertions that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel owes its existence. He also projected a successful scheme for establishing parish libraries in England and America, out of which grew the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. From 1706 till his death in February 1730 he was rector of St Botolph-Without, Aldgate, London, being unceasingly engaged in philanthropic and literary pursuits.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bray, Sir Reginald

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​BRAY, SIR REGINALD (d. 1503), British statesman and architect, was the second son of Sir Richard Bray, one of the privy council of Henry VI. Reginald was born in the parish of St John Bedwardine, near Worcester, but the date of his birth is uncertain. He was receiver-general and steward of the household to Sir Henry Stafford, second husband of Margaret, countess of Richmond, whose son afterwards became King Henry VII. The accession of the king Henry VII. favoured the fortunes of Reginald Bray, who was created a knight of the Bath at the coronation and afterwards a knight of the Garter. In the first year of Henry VII.’s reign he was given a grant of the constableship of Oakham Castle in Rutland, and was appointed joint chief justice with Lord Fitz Walter of all the forest south of Trent and chosen of the privy council. Subsequently he was made high treasurer and chancellor of the duchy of ​Lancaster. In October 1494 he became high steward of the university of Oxford, and he was a member of the parliament summoned in the 11th year of Henry VII’s reign. In June 1497 he was at the battle of Blackheath, and his services in repressing the Cornish rebels were rewarded with a gift of estates and the title of knight banneret. His taste and skill in architecture are attested by Henry VII.’s chapel at Westminster and St George’s chapel at Windsor. He directed the building of the former, and the finishing and decoration of the latter, to which, moreover, he was a liberal contributor, building at his own expense a chapel still called by his name and ornamented with his crest, the initial letters of his name, and a device representing the hemp-bray, an instrument used by hemp manufacturers. He died in 1503, before the Westminster chapel was completed, and was interred in St George’s chapel.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bray (England)

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​BRAY, a village in the Wokingham parliamentary division of Berkshire, England, beautifully situated on the west (right) bank of the Thames, 1 m. S. of Maidenhead Bridge. Pop. (1901) 2978. There are numerous riverside residences in the locality. The church of St Michael has portions of various dates from the Early English period onward, and is much restored. It contains a number of brasses of the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. A well-known ballad, “The Vicar of Bray,” tells how a vicar held his position by easy conversions of faith according to necessity, from the days of Charles II. until the accession of George I. and the foundation of “the illustrious house of Hanover” (1714). One Francis Carswell, who is buried in the church, was vicar for forty-two years, approximately during this period, dying in 1709; but the legend is earlier, and the name of the vicar who gave rise to it is not certainly known. That of Simon Aleyn, who held the office from c. 1540 to 1588, is generally accepted, as, in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary and Elizabeth, he is said to have been successively Papist, Protestant, Papist and Protestant. The name of Simon Simonds is also given on the authority of the vicar of the parish in 1745; Simonds died a canon of Windsor in 1551, but had been vicar of Bray. Tradition ascribes the song to a soldier in Colonel Fuller’s troop of dragoons in the reign of George I.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bravo

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​BRAVO (Ital. for “brave”), the name for hired assassins such as were formerly common in Italy. The word had at first no evil meaning, but was applied to the retainers of the great noble houses, or to the cavalier-type of swashbucklers familiar in fiction. In later Italian history, especially in that of Venice, the bravi were desperate ruffians who for payment were ready to commit any crime, however foul.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Braunau

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​BRAUNAU (Czech Broumov), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 139 m. E.N.E. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900) 7622, chiefly German. The town is built on a rocky eminence on the right bank of the Steine. It has an imposing Benedictine abbey, once a castle, but converted into a religious house in 1322, when Ottakar I. gave the district to the Benedictines. Noteworthy also is the great church of Saints Wenceslaus and Adalbert, built between 1683 and 1733. This stands on the site where, in 1618, the Protestants attempted to build a church, the forcible prevention of which by Abbot Wolfgang Solander was the immediate cause of the protest of the Bohemian estates and the “defenestration” of the ministers Martinic and Slavata, which opened the Thirty Years’ War. After the battle of the White Hill, near Prague (1620), the town was deprived of all its privileges, which were, however, in great part restored nine years later. It is now a manufacturing centre (cloth, woollen and cotton stuffs, &c.) and has a considerable trade.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Braunsberg

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​BRAUNSBERG, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, 38 m. by rail S.W. of Königsberg, on the Passarge, 4 m. from its mouth in the Frisches Haff. Pop. (1900) 12,497. It possesses numerous Roman Catholic institutions, of which the most important is the Lyceum Hosianum (enjoying university rank), founded in 1564 by the cardinal bishop Stanislaus Hosius. Brewing, tanning, and the manufactures of soap, yeast, carriages and bricks are the most important industries of the town, which also carries on a certain amount of trade in corn, ship timber and yarn. The river is navigable for small vessels. The castle of Braunsberg was built by the Teutonic knights in 1241, and the town was founded ten years later. Destroyed by the Prussians in 1262, it was restored in 1279. The town, which was the seat of the bishops of Ermeland from 1255 to 1298, was granted the “law of Lübeck” by its bishop in 1284, and admitted to the Hanseatic League. After numerous vicissitudes it fell into the hands of the Poles in 1520, and in 1626 it was captured by Gustavus Adolphus. The Swedes kept possession till 1635. It fell to Prussia by the first partition of Poland in 1772.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brayley, Edward Wedlake

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​BRAYLEY, EDWARD WEDLAKE (1773–1854), English antiquary and topographer, was born at Lambeth, London, in 1773. He was apprenticed to the enamelling trade, but early developed literary tastes. He formed a close friendship with John Britton, which lasted for sixty-five years. They entered into a literary partnership, and after some small successes at song and play writing they became joint editors of The Beauties of England and Wales, themselves writing many of the volumes. Long after he had become famous as a topographer, Brayley continued his enamel work. In 1823 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He died in London on the 23rd of September 1854. His other works include Sir Reginalde or the Black Tower (1803); Views in Suffolk, Norfolk and Northamptonshire, illustrative of works of Robt. Bloowifield (1806); Lambeth Palace (1806); The History of the Abbey Church of Westminster (2 vols., 1818); Topographical Sketches of Brighthelmstone (1825); Historical and Descriptive Accounts of Theatres of London (1826); Londiniana (1829); History of Surrey (5 vols., 1841–1848).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brattleboro

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​BRATTLEBORO, a village of Windham county, Vermont, U.S.A., in a township (pop. 1910, 7541) of the same name, in the south-east part of the state, 60 m. N. of Springfield, Massachusetts, on the Connecticut river. Pop. (1890) 5467; (1900) 5297 (686 foreign-born); (1910) 6517. It is served by the Central Vermont and the Boston & Maine railways. Situated in a hilly, heavily wooded country, it is an attractive place, with a few houses dating from the 18th century. Among the manufactures are toys, furniture, overalls and organs, the Estey and the Carpenter organs being made there. First settled about 1753, Brattleboro took its name from one of the original patentees, William Brattle (1702–1776), a Massachusetts loyalist. It was incorporated ten years later.
See H. Burnham, Brattleboro (Brattleboro, 1880), and H. M. Burt, The Attractions of Brattleboro, Glimpses of Past and Present (Brattleboro, 1866).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bergerac

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​BERGERAC, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Dordogne, on the right bank of the Dordogne, 60 m. E. of Bordeaux on the railway to Cahors. Pop. (1906) town, 10,545; commune, 15,623. The river is rendered navigable by a large dam and crossed by a fine bridge which leads to the suburb of La Madeleine. Apart from a few old houses in the older quarter by the river, the town contains no monuments of antiquarian interest. There is a handsome modern church built in the middle of the 19th century. Bergerac is the seat of a sub-prefect and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce and a communal college. Wine of fine quality is grown in the district and is the chief source of the commerce of the town, which is mainly carried on with Libourne and Bordeaux. There is trade in grain, truffles, chestnuts, brandy and in the salmon of the Dordogne. The town has flour-mills, iron-works, tanneries, distilleries and nursery-gardens, and it has manufactures of casks and of vinegar. There are quarries of millstone in the vicinity. In the 16th century Bergerac was a very flourishing and populous place, but most of its inhabitants having embraced Calvinism it suffered greatly during the religious wars and by the revocation of the edict of Nantes (1685). It was in 1577 the scene of the signing of the sixth peace between the Catholics and Protestants. Its fortifications and citadel were demolished by Louis XIII. in 1621.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bergk, Theodor

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​BERGK, THEODOR (1812–1881), German philologist, was born at Leipzig on the 22nd of May 1812. After studying at the university of his native town, where he profited by the instruction of G. Hermann, he was appointed in 1835 to the lectureship in Latin at the orphan school at Halle. After holding posts at Neustrelitz, Berlin and Cassel, he succeeded (1842) K. F. Hermann as professor of classical literature at Marburg. In 1852 he went to Freiburg, and in 1857 returned to Halle. In 1868 he resigned his professorship, and settled down to study and literary work in Bonn. He died on the 20th of July 1881, at Ragatz in Switzerland, where he had gone for the benefit of his health. Bergk’s literary activity was very great, but his reputation mainly rests upon his work in connexion with Greek literature and the Greek lyric poets. His Poetae Lyrici Graeci (1843. 5th ed. 1900, &c.), and Griechische Litteraturgeschichte (1872–1887, completed by G. Hinrichs and R. Peppmüller) are standard ​works. He also edited Anacreon (1834), the fragments of Aristophanes (1840), Aristophanes (3rd ed., 1872), Sophocles (and ed., 1868), a lyric anthology (4th ed., 1890). Among his other works may be mentioned: Augusti Rerum a se gestarum Index (1873); Inschriften römischer Schleudergeschosse (1876); Zur Geschichte und Topographie der Rheinlande in römischer Zeit (1882); Beiträge zur römischen Chronologie (1884).
His Kleine philologische Schriften have been edited by Peppmüller (1884–1886), and contain, in addition to a complete list of his writings, a sketch of his life. See Sandys, Hist. of Class. Schol iii. 146 (1908).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bergues

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​BERGUES, a town of northern France, in the department of Nord, at the junction of the canal of the Colme with canals to Dunkirk and Furnes (in Belgium), 5 m. S.S.E. of Dunkirk by rail. Pop. (1906) 4499. The town has a belfry, the finest in French Flanders, dating from the middle of the 16th century and restored in the 19th century. The church of St Martin is a brick building of the 17th century in the Gothic style with a modern façade. The town hall, dating from the latter half of the 19th century, contains a municipal library and an interesting collection of pictures. The industries of the town include brewing and malting, and the manufacture of brushes and oil.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Berghaus, Heinrich

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​BERGHAUS, HEINRICH (1797–1884), German geographer, was born at Kleve on the 3rd of May 1797. He was trained as a surveyor, and after volunteering for active service under General Tauenzien in 1813, joined the staff of the Prussian trigonometrical survey in 1816. He carried on a geographical school at Potsdam in company with Heinrich Lange, August Petermann, and others, and long held the professorship of applied mathematics at the Bauakademie. But he is most famous in connexion with his cartographical work. His greatest achievement was the Physikalischer Atlas (Gotha, 1838–1848), in which work, as in others, his nephew Hermann Berghaus (1828–1890) was associated with him. He had also a share in the re-issue of the great Stieler Handatlas (originally produced by Adolf Stieler in 1817–1823). and in the production of other atlases. His written works were numerous and important, including Allgemeine Länder- und Völkerkunde (Stuttgart, 1837–1840), Grundriss der Geographie in fünf Büchern (Berlin, 1842), Die Völker des Erdballs (Leipzig, 1845–1847), Was man von der Erde weiss (Berlin, 1856–1860), and various large works on Germany. In 1863 he published Briefwechsel mit Alexander von Humboldt (Leipzig). He died at Stettin on the 17th of February 1884.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bergler, Stephan

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​BERGLER, STEPHAN, German classical scholar, was born about 1680 at Kronstadt in Transylvania. The date of his death is uncertain. After studying at Leipzig, he went to Amsterdam, where he edited Homer and the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux for Wetzstein the publisher. Subsequently, at Hamburg, he assisted the great bibliographer J. A. Fabricius in the production of his Bibliotheca Graeca and his edition of Sextus Empiricus. He finally found a permanent post in Bucharest as secretary to the prince of Walachia, Alexander Mavrocordato, whose work Περὶ τῶν καθηκόντων (De Officiis) he had previously translated for Fritzsch, the Leipzig bookseller, by whom he had been employed as proof-reader and literary hack. In the prince’s library Bergler discovered the introduction and the first three chapters of Eusebius’s Demonstratio Evangelica. He died in Bucharest, and was buried at his patron’s expense. According to another account, Bergler, finding himself without means, drifted to Constantinople, where he came to an untoward end (c. 1740). He is said to have become a convert to Islam; this report was probably a mistake for the undisputed fact that he embraced Roman Catholicism. Bergler led a wild and irregular life, and offended his friends and made many enemies by his dissipated habits and cynical disposition. In addition to writing numerous articles for the Leipzig Acta Eruditorum, Bergler edited the editio princeps of the Byzantine historiographer Genesius (1733), and the letters of Alciphron (1715), in which seventy-five hitherto unpublished letters were for the first time included.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bergedorf

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​BERGEDORF, a town of Germany, in the territory of Hamburg, on the river Bille, 10 m. by rail E. by S. from the city. Pop. (1900) 23,728. It produces vegetables and fruit for the Hamburg markets, and carries on tanning, glass manufacture, brewing and brick-making. It received civic rights in 1275, belonged to Lübeck and Hamburg conjointly from 1420 to 1868, and in the latter year was purchased by Hamburg. The surrounding district, exceptionally fertile marshland, is known as Die Vierlande, being divided into four parishes, whence the name is derived.