OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Charles Bianconi

From volume 2 of the work.
Merchant and philanthropist, b. 26 September, 1785, in the duchy of Milan; d. near Clonmel, Ireland, 22 September, 1875. At an early age he was sent to Ireland, as apprentice to an Italian printseller, became a distinguished and wealthy merchant, and was the first to establish (1815-58) throughout the island a system of rapid and cheap transportation of persons and of government mail. He was an intimate friend of O'Connell, a promoter of Catholic Emancipation, a benefactor of many Catholic charities, and a practical friend of the Catholic University at Dublin. The English postmaster general in his Report for 1857 said that "no living man has ever done more than he for the benefit of the sister kingdom". In the development of his vast transportation system he displayed extraordinary energy and ingenuity, and did much to increase the resources of his adopted country, while he promoted in a remarkable way its social relations. His residence at Longfield, near Clonmel, was a centre of hospitality, and a source of much practical activity for the general welfare of his country.
O'Ryan, Charles Bianconi (Dublin, 1905), and Bianconi's life by his daughter, Mrs. Morgan John O'Connell (Dublin, 1885).
THOMAS J. SHAHAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Charles Cahier

From volume 3 of the work.
Antiquarian, born at Paris, 26 February, 1807; died there 26 February, 1882. He made his preparatory studies at the College of Saint-Acheul, and entered the Society of Jesus 7 September, 1824. For some years he tought successively in its colleges at Paris, Brieg in the Swiss Canton of Wallis, at Turin, and at Brugalette in Belgium. The greater part of his life, however, was devoted to the collection, classification, and interpretation of the countless treasures of medieval art surviving in France, Belgium, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe. They interested him not only as relics of its artistic skill, but chiefly as evidences of its Catholic fath. As early as 1840 he began his collaboration with his Jesuit confrére, Father Arthur Martin, an excellent draughtsman, and chief collector of the mass of artistic material that Father Cahier classified and interpreted in the light of Catholic faith and theology. Their first important work was a folio on the thirteenth-century stained glass of the cathedral of Bourges, "Monographie de la cathédrale de Bourges, première partie. Vitraux du XIIIe siècle" (Paris, 1841-44); the substance of it is in Migne (Guinebaut), "Dict. d'Iconographie" (Paris, 1858), 921-38. Their most characteristic work is found in the valuable "Mélanges d'archéologie, d'histoire, et de littérature" etc. (Paris, 1848-59), four quarto volumes of illustrated dissertations on gold and silver church-plate, enamelled ware, carved ivories, tapestries, bas-reliefs, and paintings belonging to the Carlovingian and Romanesque periods (ninth to twelfth century). This important contribution to the history of medieval art was followed later by four more volumes: "Noveaux mélanges d'archéologie, d'histoire, et de littérature sur le moyen-âge" etc. (Paris, 1874-77), in the first volume of which is to be found a memoir of Father Martin by his collaborator. In the meantime Father Cahier had published a monograph in two folio volumes on the saints as grasped by the popular imagination, "Caractéristiques des saints dans l'art populaire" (Paris, 1867). In spite of his numerous digressions and parentheses, says Father Brucker (Vacant, II, 1304), and a somewhat neglected style, Fathe Cahier is never wearisome; a vein of kindly but caustic humor runs through his pages, in which about pungent words and phrases, dictated, however, by candour and the love of truth. He was deeply versed in all kinds of curious medieval lore, and particularly in the "people's calendar" or every-day usages and customs connected with the liturgical life of the Church. Specimens of his uncommon erudition in this respect may be seen in his studies on Christmas and on Epiphany in "Amide la religion" (Paris, 1848-1849), and in his "Calendrier populaire du temps passé" in "Revue de l'art chrétien" (Paris, 1878).
For his life and writings see Polybiblion (Paris, 1882), I, 264-65; DE BACKER AND SOMMERVOGEL, Bibl. de la c. de J., I, 264-65; DANIEL, Etudes religieuses (Paris, 1868), 353-77, 729-50.
THOMAS J. SHAHAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Charles Batteux

From volume 2 of the work.
Abbé and writer on philosophy and aesthetics, b. near Vouziers, France, 6 May, 1713; d. at Paris, 14 July, 1780. He was professor at Paris of the humanities and rhetoric, then of Greek and Roman philosophy, and was made a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and of the Académie Française. His works on Epicurus and other Greek philosophers attracted much attention. At the time of his death he was issuing a large collection of memoirs on China; the series was continued by Bréquigny and de Guignes. Of Batteux's writings those that received at once the most praise and blame were the following three works: "Beaux-arts réduits à un même principe", "Cours de belles-lettres", and "Traité de la construction oratoire". These were issued later in five volumes under the common title: "Cours des belles-lettres", and in a new edition of six volumes, in 1824, as "Principes abrégés de la littérature".
Following Aristotle, but taking at the same time a somewhat one-sided and superficial view of the philosopher's meaning, Batteux deduced art from the free imitation of nature, that is, from the free copying of nature in its beautiful forms. Utility is the aim of the mechanical arts; beauty, the end of the fine arts, and both utility and beauty the aim of the beautifying arts. Architecture and oratory belong to the last category. The arts aim to influence either sight or hearing and are divided, therefore, into two classes. Besides these the rhythmical arts, music and dancing, and, in addition, painting and poetry are closely related to one another. In these writings there is a lack of comprehensive definitions of the different arts; those given are often inexact and uncertain. Nevertheless, Batteux may be regarded as the real founder of aesthetics in France. Of his works devoted exclusively to rhetoric and poetry mention should be made of "Les quatres poétiques d'Aristot, d'Horace, de Vida, et de Boileau" in two volumes.
Critical mention of Batteux may be found in: Necrologe des hommes celebres de France, XVI; Annee litteraire, 1780; Schasler, Gesch. der Zesthetik; Zimmermann, Gesch. der Aesthetik.
G. GIETMANN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Lorenzo Lotto

From volume 9 of the work.
Italian portrait painter, born at Venice, 1480; died at Loreto, 1556. This eminent artist was one of the best portrait painters who ever lived, and occupies an almost unique position, especially amongst Italian artists, for his extraordinary skill in detecting the peculiarities of personal character and his power of setting them forth in full accord with the temperament and mood of his sitters. He was a great colourist, and possessed of a passionate admiration for the beautiful, with a somewhat definite tendency towards the ecstatic and mystical, in religion. He appears to have been a man of strong personal faith, and had a sincere devotion to Loreto and its great relic, the Holy House, spending his final years in that city, and devoting himself very largely to its interests. His early works were painted at Treviso, and from that place he went to Recanati in 1508 to paint an important altar-piece. We do not know who was his master, but his work reveals affinity with that of Alvise Vivarini. He is believed to have painted some frescoes in the upper floor of the Vatican in 1509, but, whether or not these were executed, he evidently studied the work of Raphael when in Rome, as in his own paintings from 1512 to 1525 there are many Raphaelistic characteristics. He first reached Bergamo, the place with which his name is so closely connected, in 1513, spent some five years there, and, after a visit to Venice in 1523, returned again to the same place. In 1512 and in 1526 he was painting at Jesi, the two works executed in the latter year being of high importance. A wonderful picture is the great "Crucifixion", painted at Monte San Giusto in 1531. In the following year he was in Venice, and a couple of years afterwards again in Bergamo. Many of his finest pictures were painted for small rural towns, such as Cingoli, Mogliano, Trescorre, and Jesi. Fortunately most of his works are dated, and he left behind him an account book, which he commenced in 1539, and in which he records the names of his later pictures. This book he kept down to within a few months of his death. There are a few of his drawings in existence, notably at Chatsworth, Wilton House, the Uffizi, and Vienna. Almost all his latest productions are at Loreto, but during the last three years of his life, he appears to have laid aside his brush.
He has been the subject of a monumental book by BERNHARD BERENSON (London, 1901), an essay in constructive art criticism that is not only the standard work on Lotto, but is also a psychological romance evolved out of the minutest criticism, and is the representative and classic work for all followers of Morellian analysis. To this work and to the detached Essays of GRONAU and MARY LOGAN the student must be referred. For earlier information, see TASSI, Le Vite de' Pittori Bergamaschi (Bergamo, 1793); VASARI, Vite de' piu eccelenti pittori (Florence, 1550), ed. MILANESI (Florence, 1878-85).
GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON.
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Lorenzo di Credi

From volume 4 of the work.
Florentine painter, b. at Florence, 1459; d. there, 1537. Vasari gives his family name as Sciarpelloni, but his original name seems to have been Barducci. He was a pupil first of the goldsmith Credi, from whom he took his name, and then of the sculptor Verrocchio, having as fellow-pupils Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci. To the latter painter Lorenzo attached himself in terms of friendship, and he copied the manner of Leonardo with great success. When Verrocchio went to Venice to cast the bronze equestrian statue of Colleoni, he left to Lorenzo the entire administration of all his affairs, and in his will charged him to complete the statue, which he had been unable to finish, adding the following remark: "Because he has the ability to finish it properly". Leonardo was, however, instructed by the Venetians to complete the figure. Di Credi was a devout follower of Savonarola and a man of deeply religious character. He was an eminent portrait-painter, and his religious pictures were in great demand for the churches and convents of Florence and the neighbourhood. One of the finest is at Pistoja, originally painted for the hospital of the Ceppo. The portrait of Verrocchio is at Florence. Other examples are at Berlin, Dresden, London, Paris, Rome, and Turin. They are all remarkable for their magnificence of colour, exquisite composition, but extraordinary rigidity of drapery, the folds having the appearance of metal work in many cases and revealing the original training as a goldsmith which the artist received. He died at the age of seventy-eight in his own house in Florence, near Santa Maria Nuova, and was buried in San Pietro Maggiore. A little while before his death he bequeathed to the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova a farm which he had purchased at Casciano. He was said to have been a very slow painter, but took immense pains in the execution of all he did, prepared and ground all his own colours, and finished his paintings with exquisite refinement and care.
VASARI, Vite dei pittori (1550); BOTTARI, Note alle vite dei pittori (Rome, 1767-72); IDEM, Lettere Pittoriche (Rome, 1754-59); IDEM, Dialoghi (Lucca, 1754); unpublished MSS. of ORETTI at Bologna; BRYAN, Dict. of Painters and Engravers (New York, London, 1903); BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB, Catalogues.
GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Lorenzo Costa

From volume 4 of the work.
Ferrarese painter, b. at Ferrara in 1460; d. at Mantua in 1535. He is believed to have been a pupil of either Tura or Cossa. At the age of twenty-three Costa established himself at Bologna, under the patronage of the Bentivogli family, in the same workshop as Francia. The two men were much influenced by each other; Francia worked as a goldsmith, but Costa had the greater imagination, wider knowledge, and more perfect skill in drawing. It is probable that his coming to Bologna was the cause of Francia's change of craft, and that but for this friendship the greater man would have remained all his life a goldsmith. Costa's earliest work in Bologna is the fresco in San Giacomo Maggiore (1480); his greatest, the altar-piece in San Giovanni in Monti (1497). The two friends united in painting the altar-piece for the church of the Misericordia, the centre and upper part of which still remain in Bologna, while the predella by Costa is at Milan. They worked for the same patrons, decorated the same walls of palace, church, and oratory, and both suffered when Bentivogli was driven from Bologna in 1509, and his palace became a heap of ruins. Costa then passed into the service of the Gonzaga family at Mantua. His work can be well studied in Bologna, but there are pictures by him also in Milan, Berlin, London, and Paris. His early frescoes are in the Schifanoia in Ferrara, and some of his latest in the Schalcheria Castle at Mantua. He himself engraved more than one plate after his pictures. His paintings are very much in the style of those by Francia, but the subjects are treated in a freer and more picturesque manner. The colouring is always energetic, the heads of the figures well modelled and full of expression, the architectural backgrounds rich, varied, and accurate, and the perspective thoughtful and well planned. The draperies in Costa's work are far less than those in Francia's, and fall in easy and not in rigid folds.
MALVASIA, Felsina Pittrice (Bologna, 1678); ORLANDI, Abbecedario Pittorico (Bologna, 1719); ORETTI, unpublished Notebooks in the Arciginnasio Library, Bologna; WILLIAMSON, Francia in Burlington Fine Arts Club's Catalogue (1894); BRYAN, Dict. of Painters and Engravers (New York, 1903), s.v.
GEORGE CHARLES WILLIAMSON
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Lorenzo Respighi

From volume 12 of the work.
Born at Cortemaggiore, Province of Piacenza, 7 October, 1824; died at Rome, 10 December, 1889. He studied mathematics and natural philosophy, first at Parma and then at the University of Bologna, where he obtained his degree ad honorem in 1845. In 1849 he was appointed as substitute to the chair of rational mechanics and hydraulics in the same university, two years later professor of optics and astronomy, and finally in 1855 he became director of the Bologna observatory of Milan. From 1855 to 1864 he discovered, at Bologna, three comets (1862 IV, 1863 II, and 1863 V) and made himself known by other important works of meteorology and astronomy. In 1865 the Italian Government, already established in Bologna for five years, imposed upon the university professors the oath of subjection to the dynasty of Victor Emmanuel II. Three professors refused to take it: Chelini, Filopanti, and Respighi. In consequence of this refusal, the last-named had to leave the chair and the direction of the observatory. He then went to Rome, which still continued under the government of the pope, and obtained the position of astronomer at the observatory of the Capitol, directed by Calandrelli. In 1866, a year after the death of the latter, Respighi succeeded him both in the directorship of the observatory at the Capitol and in the chair of astronomy at the Sapienza. In 1866 he made important observations on the lunar crater Linnæus. In 1867 and 1868 he began his celebrated studies of the scintillation of stars. In October, 1869, he made the first spectroscopic observations on the border of the sun.
Rome having been occupied by the Italian Government (1870), Respighi (October, 1871) found himself again confronted with the question of the oath. He had been invited by the British Government to take part in an expedition to the Indies for the solar eclipse in December, 1871. This invitation gave so much distinction to the astronomer that the Italian Minister of Public Instruction offered him a sum to defray the expenses of the journey. Respighi accepted on condition that he should not be subject to take the oath. It does honour to the minister that he did not insist upon a condition with which a loyal subject of the pope would not have complied even if his refusal cost him his position. Six years later, in 1877, Respighi was appointed Knight of the Civil Order of Savoy; to receive this honour it became again necessary to take the oath. In a letter to the Minister of Instruction, Respighi refused and returned the cross which had been already sent to him. Besides the aforementioned studies, we owe to him other very important researches, on spectra of stars and on the solar corona, as also the first systematic observations on solar protuberances. Moreover, he discovered and practised new methods to determine the diameter of the sun and the zenith distances of stars. Finally, astronomy owes Respighi a masterly catalogue of the absolute declinations of 2534 boreal stars. After Schiaparelli, Respighi was the most prominent Italian astronomer of the nineteenth century.
V. CERULLI
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Lorenzo Cozza

From volume 4 of the work.
Friar Minor, cardinal, and theologian, b. at San Lorenzo near Bolsena, 31 March, 1654; d. at Rome, 18 January, 1729. He filled the position of lector at Naples and Viterbo, where he became guardian of the convent. Cardinal Sacchetti chose Cozza as his confessor and adviser, thus giving rise to a friendship that lasted through life. While in the Orient, whither he had been sent as superior of the Franciscan monastery in Jerusalem, Cozza found leisure to compose several important works, and as legate of the supreme pontiff he reconciled the Maronites and the Patriarch Jacobus Petrus of Antioch, who had long been at variance with the Holy See. In 1715 he returned to Rome, in 1723 was elected minister general, and on 9 December, 1726, was made cardinal by Benedict XIII. The remaining years of his life were passed at Rome in quiet and study in the little convent of St. Bartholomew on the Island. His writings include "Historia polemica de Græcorum schismate" (Rome, 1719-20); "Commentarii historico-dogmatici" (Rome, 1707); and "Terra Sancta vindicata a calumniis", the last still unpublished.
MARCELLINO DA CIVEZZA, Saggio di Bibliografia Sanfrancescana (Prato, 1879), 129-130, n. 166; GOLUBOVICH, Serie dei Superiori di Terra Santa (Jerusalem, 1898), 98, n. 168; HURTER, Nomenclator, II, 1001; CARDELLA, Memorie storiche dei cardinali della S. Romana Chiesa (Rome, 1792), VIII, 223.
STEPHEN M. DONOVAN
# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Lorenzo Da Ponte

From volume 4 of the work.
Poet, b. at Cenada, Italy, 1749; d. in New York, 17 Aug., 1838. He was the son of a Jew and was at first named Emmanuel Conegliano. When he was fourteen years old his father and the other members of the family embraced Christianity and were baptized, 20 Aug., 1763, in the cathedral of Ceneda. The bishop of the see, Lorenzo Da Ponte, seeing the talents of the lad, gave him his own name and sent him to the local seminary to be educated. Here Da Ponte remained for five years, and then went to teach in the University of Treviso. Political complications sent him to Vienna, where he met Mozart and composed for him the librettos of the operas "Le Nozze di Figaro", "Don Giovanni", and "Cosi fan tutte". He did not remain long in Vienna, but went to London, whence, after a somewhat chequered career, he emigrated to New York. Unsuccessful commercial ventures and unprofitable efforts to establish opera in that city followed, and he then settled down as a teacher of Italian with a nominal connection with Columbia College. Da Ponte enjoys the distinction of being the first teacher in America to lecture on Dante's "Divina Commedia". He was buried in the old Catholic cemetry in East Eleventh Street, and as the grave was never marked it cannot now be located. His daughter married Dr. Henry James Anderson, for many years professor of mathematics and astronomy in Columbia College, and a prominent Catholic philanthropist.
MARCHESAN, Della vita e delle opere di Lorenzo da Ponte (Treviso, 1900); GROVE, Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1904), III; U.S. Cath. Hist. Soc. Hist., Records and Studies (New York, Nov., 1907), V, Part I.
THOMAS F. MEEHAN
# Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/American Protective Association

Edition of 1921; disclaimer.
AMERICAN PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION, popularly known as the “A. P. A.,” a secret order organized throughout the United States, with branches in Canada. Its chief doctrine is that “subjection to and support of any ecclesiastical power not created and controlled by
American citizens, and which claims equal, if not greater, sovereignty than the Government of the United States of America, is irreconcilable with American citizenship”; and it accordingly opposes “the holding of offices in National, State, or Municipal Government by any subject or supporter of such ecclesiastical power.” Another of its cardinal purposes is to prevent all public encouragement and support of sectarian schools. It does not constitute a separate political party, but seeks to control existing parties. The order was founded March 13, 1887, and at one time had 2,000,000 members. It has virtually died out.
# Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Andreyev, Leonid

Edition of 1921; disclaimer.
ANDREYEV, LEONID, a Russian author, born at Oryol, Russia, 1871. He received his education at the gymnasium at Oryol and St. Petersburg University. He early turned his attention to literature and speedily achieved an international reputation. His writing was brilliant, but marked by the morbidity characteristic of the Russian school. Among his well-known works may be mentioned "Red Laughter," "Life of Man," and "Anathema." He died suddenly in Finland in February, 1919, from excitement, caused by a Bolshevist raid in the vicinity of his residence.
# Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Alsberg, Carl Lucas

Edition of 1921; disclaimer.
ALSBERG, CARL LUCAS, an American biochemist, born in New York In 1877. He graduated from Columbia University in 1896 and later studied in Germany. He was in the chemical department of Harvard University from 1905 to 1908. In the latter year he became chemical biologist for the Bureau of Plant Industry, serving until 1912, when he became Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry in the United States Department of Agriculture. He was a member of many chemical societies.
Source: Collier's New Encyclopedia 1. (1921) New York: P.F. Collier & Son Company. 132.
# Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/American Legion

Edition of 1921; disclaimer.
AMERICAN LEGION, an organization composed of members who served in the United States army or navy during the World War. It was incorporated Sept. 16, 1919, though it had been informally organized in Paris in the preceding March. The preamble to its constitution sets forth its objects as being “to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America; to maintain law and order; to foster and perpetuate a hundred per cent. Americanism; to preserve the memories and incidents of our association in the Great War; to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state, and nation; to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses; to make right the master of might; to promote peace and good will on earth; to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy; to consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.” The legion aims to be non-political and not to promote candidacy of persons seeking public office. Its first national convention was held at Minneapolis, Minn., Nov. 10-11, 1919. Col. F. W. Gailbraith, national commander for 1921, was killed in an accident on June 9, 1921. John W. Emery, of Grand Rapids, Mich., was elected on June 14, 1921, to succeed F. W. Gailbraith. The national headquarters are in New York City.