OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gemistus Pletho, Georgius

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​GEMISTUS PLETHO [or Plethon], GEORGIUS (c. 1355–1450), Greek Platonic philosopher and scholar, one of the chief pioneers of the revival of learning in Western Europe, was a Byzantine by birth who settled at Mistra in the Peloponnese, the site of ancient Sparta. He changed his name from Gemistus to the equivalent Pletho (“the full”), perhaps owing to the similarity of sound between that name and that of his master Plato. He invented a religious system founded on the speculative mysticism of the Neoplatonists, and founded a sect, the members of which believed that the new creed would supersede all existing forms of belief. But he is chiefly memorable for having introduced Plato to the Western world. This took place upon his visit to Florence in 1439, as one of the deputies from Constantinople on occasion of the general council. Cardinal Bessarion became his disciple; he produced a great impression upon Cosimo de’ Medici; and though not himself making any very important contribution to the study of Plato, he effectually shook the exclusive domination which Aristotle had exercised over European thought for eight centuries. He promoted the union of the Greek and Latin Churches as far as possible, but his efforts in this direction bore no permanent fruit. He probably died before the capture of Constantinople. The most important of his published works are treatises on the distinction between Plato and Aristotle as philosophers (published at Venice in 1540); on the religion of Zoroaster (Paris, 1538); on the condition of the Peloponnese (ed. A. Ellissen in Analekten der mittel- und neugriechischen Literatur, iv.); and the Νόμοι (ed. C. Alexandre, Paris, 1858). In addition to these he compiled several volumes of excerpts from ancient authors, and wrote a number of works on geography, music and other subjects, many of which still exist in MS. in various European libraries.
See especially F. Schultze, Geschichte der Philosophie der Renaissance, i. (1874); also J.A. Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy (1877), ii. p. 198; H.F. Tozer, “A Byzantine Reformer,” in Journal of Hellenic Studies, vii. (1886), chiefly on Pletho’s scheme of political and social reform for the Peloponnese, as set forth in the pamphlets addressed to Manuel II. Palaeologus and his son Theodore, despot of the Morea; W. Gass, Gennadius und Pletho (1844). Most of Pletho’s works will be found in J.P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, clx.; for a complete list see Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca (ed. Harles), xii.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gemmi Pass

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​GEMMI PASS, a pass (7641 ft.) leading from Frutigen in the Swiss canton of Bern to Leukerbad in the Swiss canton of the Valais. It is much frequented by travellers in summer. From Kandersteg (71/2 m. by road above Frutigen, which is 12 m. by rail from Spiez on the Berne-Interlaken line) a mule path leads to the summit of the pass, passing over the Spitalmatte plain, where in 1782 and again in 1895 a great avalanche fell from the Altels (11,930 ft.) to the S.E., causing on both occasions great loss of life and property. The mule path descends on the south side of the pass by an extraordinary series of zigzags, made accessible for mules (though no rider is now allowed to descend on mule-back) by a band of Tirolese workmen in 1740–1741. They are cut in a very steep wall of rock, about 1800 ft. in height, and lead down to the village of Leukerbad, which is 91/2 m. by carriage road past Leuk above the Susten station in the Rhône valley and on the Simplon line. (W. A. B. C.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Goldfish

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​GOLDFISH (Cyprinus or Carassius auratus), a small fish belonging to the Cyprinid family, a native of China but naturalized in other countries. In the wild state its colours do not differ from those of a Crucian carp, and like that fish it is tenacious of life and easily domesticated. Albinos seem to be rather common; and as in other fishes (for instance, the tench, carp, eel, flounder), the colour of most of these albinos is a bright orange or golden yellow; occasionally even this shade of colour is lost, the fish being more or less pure white or silvery. The Chinese have domesticated these albinos for a long time, and by careful selection have succeeded in propagating all those strange varieties, and even monstrosities, which appear in every domestic animal. In some individuals the dorsal fin is only half its normal length, in others entirely absent; in others the anal fin has a double spine; in others all the fins are of nearly double the usual length. The snout is frequently malformed, giving the head of the fish an appearance similar to that of a bull-dog. The variety most highly prized has an extremely short snout, eyes which almost wholly project beyond the orbit, no dorsal fin, and a very long three- or four-lobed caudal fin (Telescope-fish).
Telescope-fish.
The domestication of the goldfish by the Chinese dates back from the highest antiquity, and they were introduced into Japan at the beginning of the 16th century; but the date of their importation into Europe is still uncertain. The great German ichthyologist, M. E. Bloch, thought he could trace it back in England to the reign of James I., whilst other authors fix the date at 1691. It appears certain that they were brought to France, only much later, as a present to Mme de Pompadour, although the de Goncourts, the historians of the mistresses of Louis XV., have failed to trace any records of this event. The fish has since spread over a considerable part of Europe, and in many places it has reverted to its wild condition. In many parts of south-eastern Asia, in Mauritius, in North and South Africa, in Madagascar, in the Azores, it has become thoroughly acclimatized, and successfully competes with the indigenous fresh-water fishes. It will not thrive in rivers; in large ponds it readily reverts to the coloration of the original wild stock. It flourishes best in small tanks and ponds, in which the water is constantly changing and does not freeze; in such localities, and with a full supply of food, which consists of weeds, crumbs of bread, bran, worms, small crustaceans and insects, it attains to a length of from 6 to 12 in., breeding readily, sometimes at different times of the same year.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Golding, Arthur

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​GOLDING, ARTHUR (c. 1536–c. 1605), English translator, son of John Golding of Belchamp St Paul and Halsted, Essex, one of the auditors of the exchequer, was born probably in London about 1536. His half-sister, Margaret, married John de Vere, 16th earl of Oxford. In 1549 he was already in the service of Protector Somerset, and the statement that he was educated at Queen’s College, Cambridge, lacks corroboration. He seems to have resided for some time in the house of Sir William Cecil, in the Strand, with his nephew, the poet, the 17th earl of Oxford, whose receiver he was, for two of his dedications are dated from Cecil House. His chief work is his translation of Ovid. The Fyrst Fower Bookes of P. Ovidius Nasos worke, entitled Metamorphosis, translated oute of Latin into Englishe meter (1565), was supplemented in 1567 by a translation of the fifteen books. Strangely enough the translator of Ovid was a man of strong Puritan sympathies, and he translated many of the works of Calvin. To his version of the Metamorphoses he prefixed a long metrical explanation of his reasons for considering it a work of edification. He sets forth the moral which he supposes to underlie certain of the stories, and shows how the pagan machinery may be brought into line with Christian thought. It was from Golding’s pages that many of the Elizabethans drew their knowledge of classical mythology, and there is little doubt that Shakespeare was well acquainted with the book. Golding translated also the Commentaries of Caesar (1565), Calvin’s commentaries on the Psalms (1571), his sermons on the Galatians and Ephesians, on Deuteronomy and the book of Job, Theodore Beza’s Tragedie of Abrahams Sacrifice (1577) and the De Beneficiis of Seneca (1578). He completed a translation begun by Sidney from Philippe de Mornay, A Worke concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion (1604). His only original work is a prose Discourse on the earthquake of 1580, in which he saw a judgment of God on the wickedness of his time. He inherited three considerable estates in Essex, the greater part of which he sold in 1595. The last trace we have of Golding is contained in an order dated the 25th of July 1605, giving him licence to print certain of his works.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Goldmark, Karl

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​GOLDMARK, KARL (1832–), Hungarian composer, was born at Keszthely-am-Plattensee, in Hungary, on the 18th of May 1832. His father, a poor cantor in the local Jewish synagogue, was unable to assist to any extent financially in the development of his son’s talents. Yet in the household much music was made, and on a cheap violin and home-made flute, constructed by Goldmark himself from reeds cut from the riverbank, the future composer gave rein to his musical ideas. His talent was fostered by the village schoolmaster, by whose aid he was able to enter the music-school of the Oedenburger Verein. Here he remained but a short time, his success at a school concert finally determining his parents to allow him to devote himself entirely to music. In 1844, then, he went to Vienna, where Jansa took up his cause and eventually obtained for him admission to the conservatorium. For two years Goldmark worked under Jansa at the violin, and on the outbreak of the revolution, after studying all the orchestral instruments he obtained an engagement in the orchestra at Raab. There, on the capitulation of Raab, he was to have been shot for a spy, and was only saved at the eleventh hour by the happy arrival of a former colleague. In 1850 Goldmark left Raab for Vienna, where from his friend Mittrich he obtained his first real knowledge of the classics. There, too, he devoted himself to composition. In 1857 Goldmark, ​who was then engaged in the Karl-theater band, gave a concert of his own works with such success that his first quartet attracted very general attention. Then followed the “Sakuntala” and “Penthesilea” overtures, which show how Wagner’s influence had supervened upon his previous domination by Mendelssohn, and the delightful “Ländliche Hochzeit” symphony, which carried his fame abroad. Goldmark’s reputation was now made, and very largely increased by the production at Vienna in 1875 of his first and best opera, Die Königin von Saba. Over this opera he spent seven years. Its popularity is still almost as great as ever. It was followed in November 1886, also at Vienna, by Merlin, much of which has been rewritten since then. A third opera, a version of Dickens’s Cricket on the Hearth, was given by the Royal Carl Rosa Company in London in 1900. Goldmark’s chamber music has not made much lasting impression, but the overtures “Im Frühling,” “Prometheus Bound,” and “Sapho” are fairly well known. A “programme” seems essential to him. In opera he is most certainly at his best, and as an orchestral colourist he ranks among the very highest.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Goldingen

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​GOLDINGEN (Lettish, Kuldiga), a town of Russia, in the government of Courland, 55 m. by rail N.E. of Libau, and on Windau river, in 56° 58′ N. and 22° E. Pop. (1897) 9733. It has woollen mills, needle and match factories, breweries and distilleries, a college for teachers, and ruins of a castle of the Teutonic Knights, built in 1248 and used in the 17th century as the residence of the dukes of Courland.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Golds

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​GOLDS, a Mongolo-Tatar people, living on the Lower Amur in south-eastern Siberia. Their chief settlements are on the right bank of the Amur and along the Sungari and Usuri rivers. In physique they are typically Mongolic. Like the Chinese they wear a pigtail, and from them, too, have learnt the art of silk embroidery. The Golds live almost entirely on fish, and are excellent boatmen. They keep large herds of swine and dogs, which live, like themselves, on fish. Geese, wild duck, eagles, bears, wolves and foxes are also kept in menageries. There is much reverence paid to the eagles, and hence the Manchus call the Golds “Eaglets.” Their religion is Shamanism.
See L. Schrenck, Die Völker des Amurlandes (St Petersburg, 1891); Laufer, “The Amoor Tribes,” in American Anthropologist (New York, 1900); E. G. Ravenstein, The Russians on the Amur (1861).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Goldfinch

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​GOLDFINCH (Ger. Goldfink), the Fringilla carduelis of Linnaeus and the Carduelis elegans of later authors, an extremely well-known bird found over the greater parts of Europe and North Africa, and eastwards to Persia and Turkestan. Its gay plumage is matched by its sprightly nature; and together they make it one of the most favourite cage-birds among all classes. As a songster it is indeed surpassed by many other species, but its docility and ready attachment to its master or mistress make up for any defect in its vocal powers. In some parts of England the trade in goldfinches is very considerable. In 1860 Mr Hussey reported (Zool., p. 7144) the average annual captures near Worthing to exceed 11,000 dozens—nearly all being cock-birds; and a witness before a committee of the House of Commons in 1873 stated that, when a boy, he could take forty ​dozens in a morning near Brighton. In these districts and others the number has become much reduced, owing doubtless in part to the fatal practice of catching the birds just before or during the breeding-season; but perhaps the strongest cause of their growing scarcity is the constant breaking-up of waste lands, and the extirpation of weeds (particularly of the order Compositae) essential to the improved system of agriculture; for in many parts of Scotland, East Lothian for instance, where goldfinches were once as plentiful as sparrows, they are now only rare stragglers, and yet there they have not been thinned by netting. Though goldfinches may occasionally be observed in the coldest weather, incomparably the largest number leave Britain in autumn, returning in spring, and resorting to gardens and orchards to breed, when the lively song of the cock, and the bright yellow wings of both sexes, quickly attract notice. The nest is a beautifully neat structure, often placed at no great height from the ground, but generally so well hidden by the leafy bough on which it is built as not to be easily found, until, the young being hatched, the constant visits of the parents reveal its site. When the broods leave the nest they move into the more open country, and frequenting pastures, commons, heaths and downs, assemble in large flocks towards the end of summer. Eastward of the range of the present species its place is taken by its congener C. caniceps, which is easily recognized by wanting the black hood and white ear-coverts of the British bird. Its home seems to be in Central Asia, but it moves southward in winter, being common at that season in Cashmere, and is not unfrequently brought for sale to Calcutta. The position of the genus Carduelis in the family Fringillidae is not very clear. Structurally it would seem to have some relation to the siskins (Chrysomitris), though the members of the two groups have very different habits, and perhaps its nearest kinship lies with the hawfinches (Coccothraustes). See Finch. (A. N.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Goldfuss, Georg August

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​GOLDFUSS, GEORG AUGUST (1782–1848), German palaeontologist, born at Thurnau near Bayreuth on the 18th of April 1782, was educated at Erlangen, where he graduated Ph.D. in 1804 and became professor of zoology in 1818. He was subsequently appointed professor of zoology and mineralogy in the university of Bonn. Aided by Count G. Münster he issued the important Petrefacta Germaniae (1826–1844), a work which was intended to illustrate the invertebrate fossils of Germany, but it was left incomplete after the sponges, corals, crinoids, echinids and part of the mollusca had been figured. Goldfuss died at Bonn on the 2nd of October 1848.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Parent, Simon Napoleon

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​PARENT, SIMON NAPOLEON (1855–), Canadian politician, son of Simon Polycarpe Parent, merchant, was born in the village of Beauport, in the province of Quebec, on the 12th of September 1855. He was educated at Laval University, where he graduated in 1881. In the same year he was called to the bar of the province of Quebec. He married in 1877 Marie Louise Clara Gendron, of Beauport. In 1890 Parent was elected a member of the municipal council of Quebec, and served as mayor of the city from 1894 to 1906. From the year 1890 to 1905 he represented the county of Saint-Sauveur as a Liberal in the legislative assembly of his native province, and on the formation of the Marchand administration in 1897 he accepted the portfolio of minister of lands, forests and fisheries. After Marchand’s death in September 1900 he was called by the lieutenant-governor to form a cabinet, and continued in office as prime minister until his retirement from public life in August 1905. Parent proved a capable administrator of provincial and municipal affairs. Under his administration the finances of the city of Quebec were improved, an electric car service was provided, public parks were opened, a system of electric light was established and the streets were well paved. In 1905 he became chairman of the Transcontinental railway of Canada.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pareja, Juan de

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​PAREJA, JUAN DE (1606–1670), Spanish painter, was born a slave in the West Indies about 1606, and in early life passed into the service of Velazquez, who employed him in colour grinding and other menial work of the studio. By day he closely watched his master’s methods, and by night stealthily practised with his brushes until he had attained considerable manipulative skill. The story goes that, having succeeded in producing a picture satisfactory to himself, he contrived furtively to place it among those on which Velazquez had been working, immediately before an expected visit of King Philip IV. The performance was duly discovered and praised, and Pareja forthwith received his freedom, which, however, he continued to devote to his former employer’s service. His extant works are not very numerous; the best known, the “Calling of St Matthew,” now in the Prado, Madrid, has considerable merit as regards technique, but does not reveal much originality, insight or devotional feeling. He died in 1670.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pargetting

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​PARGETTING (from O. Fr. pargeter or parjeter; par, all over, and jeter, to throw, i.e. “rough cast”; other derivations suggested have been from Lat. spargere, to sprinkle, and from paries, a wall, the last due to writing the parjet in the form pariet), a term applied to the decoration in relief of the plastering between the studwork on the outside of half-timber houses, or sometimes covering the whole wall. The devices were stamped on the wet plaster. This seems generally to have been done by sticking a number of pins in a board in certain lines or curves, and then pressing on the wet plaster in various directions, so as to form geometrical figures. Sometimes these devices are in relief, and in the time of Elizabeth represent figures, birds, foliages, &c.; fine examples are to be seen at Ipswich, Maidstone, Newark, &c. (See Plaster-work.) The term is also applied to the lining of the inside of smoke flues to form an even surface for the passage of the smoke.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pardo Bazán, Emilia

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​PARDO BAZÁN, EMILIA (1851–), Spanish author, was born at Corunna, Spain, on the 16th of September 1851. Married in her eighteenth year to Sr D. José Quiroga, a Galician country gentleman, she interested herself in politics, and is believed to have taken an active part in the subterranean campaign against Amadeo of Savoy and, later, against the republic. In 1876 she came into notice as the successful competitor for a literary prize offered by the municipality of Oviedo, the subject of her essay being the Benedictine monk, Benito Jerónimo Feijóo. This was followed by a series of articles inserted in La Ciencia cristiana, a magazine of the purest orthodoxy, edited by Juan M. Orti y Lara. Her first novel, Pascual López (1879), is a simple exercise in fantasy of no remarkable promise, though it contains good descriptive passages of the romantic type. It was followed by a more striking story, Un Viaje de novios (1881), in which a discreet attempt was made to introduce into Spain the methods of French realism. The book caused a sensation among the literary cliques, and this sensation was increased by the appearance of another naturalistic tale. La Tribuna (1885), wherein the influence of Zola is unmistakable. Meanwhile, the writer’s reply to her critics was issued under the title of La Cuestión palpitante (1883), a clever piece of rhetoric, but of no special Value as regards criticism or dialectics. The naturalistic scenes of El Cisne de Vilamorta (1885) are more numerous, more pronounced, than in any of its predecessors, though the authoress shrinks from the logical application of her theories by supplying a romantic and inappropriate ending. Probably the best of Sra Párdo Bazan’s work is embodied in Los Pazos de Ulloa (1886), the painfully exact history of a decadent aristocratic family, as notable for its portraits of types like Nucha and Julián as for its creation of characters like those of the political bravos, Barbacana and Trampeta. Yet perhaps its most abiding merit lies in its pictures of country life, its poetic realization of Galician scenery set down in an elaborate, highly-coloured style, which, if not always academically correct, is invariably effective. A sequel, with the significant title of La Madre naturaleza (1887), marks a further advance in the path of naturalism, and henceforward Sra Pardo Bazán was universally recognized as one of the chiefs of the new naturalistic movement in Spain. The title was confirmed by the publication of Insolación and Morriña, both issued in 1889. In this year her reputation as a novelist reached its highest point. Her later stories. La Cristiana (1890), Cuentos de amor (1894), Arco Iris (1895), Misterio (1903) and La Quimera (1905), though not wanting in charm, awakened less interest. In 1905 she published a play entitled Verdad, remarkable for its boldness rather than for its dramatic qualities. (J. F.-K.)