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

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​OTRANTO, a seaport and archiepiscopal see of Apulia, Italy, in the province of Lecce, from which it is 291/2 m. S.E. by rail, 49 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 2295. It is beautifully situated on the east coast of the peninsula of the ancient Calabria (q.v.). The castle was erected by Alphonso of Aragon; the cathedral, consecrated in 1088, has a rose window and side portal of 1481. The interior, a basilica with nave and two aisles, contains columns said to come from a temple of Minerva and a fine mosaic pavement of 1166, with interesting representations of the months, Old Testament subjects, &c. It has a crypt supported by forty-two marble columns. The church of S. Pietro has Byzantine frescoes. Two submarine cables start from Otranto, one for Valona, the other for Corfu. The harbour is small and has little trade.
Otranto occupies the site of the ancient Hydrus or Hydruntum, a town of Greek origin. In Roman times it was less important than Brundusium as a point of embarkation for the East, though the distance to Apollonia was less than from Brundusium. It remained in the hands of the Byzantine emperors until it was taken by Robert Guiscard in 1068. In 1480 it was utterly destroyed by the Turkish fleet, and has never since recovered its importance. About 30 m. S.E. lies the promontory of S. Maria di Leuca (so called since ancient times from its white cliffs), the S.E. extremity of Italy, the ancient Promontorium Iapygium or Sallentinum. The district between this promontory and Otranto is thickly populated, and very fertile. (T. As)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Othman

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​OTHMAN (c. 574–656), in full Othmān ibn ʽAffān, the third of the Mahommedan caliphs, a kinsman and son-in-law of Mahomet and cousin of Abu Sofian, whose son Moawiya became the first of the Omayyad dynasty. He was elected caliph in succession to Omar in 644, but owing to his alternate weakness and cruelty and his preference of the Koreish for all responsible positions irrespective of their capacity, he produced strife throughout the empire which culminated in his assassination by Mahommed, son of Abu Bekr. He was succeeded by Ali (q.v.). See Caliphate, A. § 3.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Othniel

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​OTHNIEL, in the Bible, a clan settled at Debir or Kirjathsepher in S. Palestine (Judg. i. 12 sqq.. Josh. xv. 16 sqq., contrast Josh. x. 38 seq.), described as the "brother" of Caleb. The name appears in Judg. iii. 7-11 (see Judges), as that of a hero who delivered Israel from a North Syrian king. That a king from the Euphrates who had subjugated Canaan should have been defeated by a clan of the south of Palestine has been doubted. There is no evidence of such a situation, and it has been conjectured that Cushan-Rishathaim (the name suggests “C. of double wickedness”!) of Aram (ארם) has arisen from some king (cp. Husham, Gen. xxxvi. 34) or clan (cp. Cush, Num. xii. 1; Cushan, Hab. iii. 7) of Edom (אֱדוֹם) to the south or south-east of Palestine. Othniel recurs in 1 Chron. iv. 13.
See A. Klostermann, Gesch. d. Volkes Israel (1896), p. 122; Cheyne, Ency. Bib. col. 969 seq. and references; also the literature to Judges.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Otley

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​OTLEY, a market town in the Otley parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 13 m. N.W. of Leeds on the Midland and the North-Eastern railways. Pop. of urban district (1901) 9230. It is picturesquely situated on the south bank of the Wharfe, at the foot of the precipitous Chevin Hill, 925 ft. in height. In this neighbourhood excellent building-stone is quarried, which was used for the foundations of the Houses of Parliament in London, and is despatched to all parts of England. The church of All Saints has Norman portions, and a cross and other remains of pre-Norman date were discovered in restoring the building. There are interesting monuments of members of the Fairfax family and others. Worsted spinning and weaving, tanning and leather-dressing, paper-making and the making of printing-machines are the principal industries. The scenery of Wharfedale is very pleasant. In the dale, 7 m. below Otley, are the fine ruins of Harewood Castle, of the 14th century. The neighbouring church contains a noteworthy series of monuments of the 15th century in alabaster.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Romilly-sur-Seine

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​ROMILLY-SUR-SEINE, a town of north-central France, in the department of Aube, a mile from the left bank of the Seine and 24 m. N.W. of Troyes, on the Paris-Belfort line. Pop. (1906) 9777.
Romilly is an important industrial town, with extensive manufactures of cotton and woollen hosiery, and of the special machinery and appliances required for the industry. The Eastern Railway Company has large workshops here.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Romorantin

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​ROMORANTIN, a town of central France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Loir-et-Cher, 31 m. S.E. of Blois by rail. Pop. (1906) town, 6836; commune, 8374. The town is situated on the Sauldre at its confluence with the Morantin, whence its name (Rivus Morantini). A church dating mainly from the 12th century, a gateway of the 16th century and some old houses are the chief objects of interest. The remains of a chateau rebuilt by Francis I. in the Renaissance style are used as the sub-prefecture. Tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a communal college are among the public institutions. The manufacture of flannel and cloth especially for army clothing is carried on, together with trade in wine, live stock, agricultural produce and the asparagus of the vicinity.
In 1560 Romorantin gave its name to an edict which prevented the introduction of the Inquisition into France. The industrial importance of the town dates from the later middle ages.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Romsey

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​ROMSEY, a market town and municipal borough in the New Forest parliamentary division of Hampshire, England, 7 m. N.W. of Southampton by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 4365. It is pleasantly situated in the rich valley of the Test. The abbey church of SS. Mary and Elfleda is one of the finest examples in England of a great Norman church little altered by later builders. Its history is not clear, but a house was founded here by Edward the elder (c. 910), and became a Benedictine nunnery. The church, which is the only important relic of the foundation, is cruciform, with a low central tower. Building evidently began in the first half of the 12th century, and continued through it, as the western part of the nave shows the transition to the Early English style, which appears very finely in the west front. Decorated windows occur in the east end, beyond which a chapel in this style formerly extended. Perpendicular insertions are insignificant. The nave and choir have aisles, triforium and clerestory. The transepts have eastern apsidal chapels, as have the choir aisles, though the walls of these last are square without. Foundations of the apse of a large pre-Norman church have been discovered below the present building. In Romsey there are tanyards, ironworks and works of the Berthon Boat Company. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 533 acres.
Romsey (Romesyg, Romeseie) probably owed its origin, as it did its early importance, to the abbey. At the time of the Domesday Survey it was owned by the abbey, which continued to be the overlord until the dissolution. There is no evidence to show that Romsey was a borough before the charter of incorporation granted by James I. in 1608. This was confirmed by William III. in 1692, and the corporation was reformed in 1835. Romsey has never been represented in parliament. The right to hold a fair was granted to the abbey by Henry III. ​in 1271, and fairs were held on Easter Monday, on August 26 and November 8. The market now held on Thursday, formerly on Saturday, dates from 1272. Every alternate Thursday is a great market. In medieval times Romsey had a considerable share of the woollen trade of Hampshire, but by the end of the 17th century this manufacture began to decline, and the introduction of machinery and the adoption of steam led to its subsequent transference to the northern coal centres. The clothing trade was replaced by the manufacture of paper, an industry which still exists.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Romney

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​ROMNEY (New Romney), a municipal borough and one of the Cinque Ports in the Ashford parliamentary division of Kent, England, 75 m. S.E. by E. of London by the South-Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1901) 1328. It lies in the open, flat and low tract of Romney Marsh, part of a level extending from Winchelsea in the south-West to Hythe in the north-east, which was within historic times in great part covered by an estuarine inlet of the sea. The river Rother, which now has its mouth at Rye Harbour, formerly entered the sea here, but had its course wholly changed during a great storm in 1287, and the gradual accretion of land led to the decay, not only of Romney, but of Winchelsea and Rye as seaports. Romney Marsh itself, which extends north of New Romney, is protected by a seawall of great thickness, and its guardianship and drainage is in the hands of a special ancient corporation. The level affords pasturage for vast flocks of sheep. New Romney, which is now over a mile from the sea, has large sheep fairs, but little other trade. Of the five churches mentioned here in the Domesday Survey only one remains, but this, dedicated to St Nicholas, is a rich Norman building with later additions. Its Norman west tower is among the finest in England, and it has a beautiful Decorated east window with reticulated tracery. New Romney, the name of which distinguishes it from the decayed village of Old Romney, 2 m. W., is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and twelve councillors. Area, 1351 acres. Littlestone-on-Sea, on the coast E. of New Romney, is in some favour as a seaside resort and has excellent golf-links.
Its fine harbour was the cause of the early importance of Romney (Romenal, Romenhall). The annual assembly of the Cinque Ports, called the Brodhull, was held here owing to its central position. At the time of Domesday the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of Bayeux were joint lords. Romney also owed maritime service to the king, which consisted of supplying five ships to serve for fifteen days in the year. A confirmation of liberties was granted by John in 1205. The town, which was a borough by prescription, was governed “ from time immemorial ” by twelve jurats; a bailiff was appointed by the archbishop, but the rights of the overlord seem to have been small, and in 1521 the inhabitants denied the bailitf the right of presiding with the jurats over their court. Elizabeth changed the style of incorporation to the mayor, jurats and commonalty, and another charter was granted by James II. in 1686, which remained the governing charter until 1835. The Cinque Ports were first summoned to parliament in 1265; the first returns for Romneyare for 1266; it returned two members until it was disfranchised in 1832.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Romsdal

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​ROMSDAL, the valley of the river Rauma, in Norway. The Rauma is a torrent descending from Lake Lesjekogen to the Romsdal Fjord on the west coast (62° 30' N.). The nearest port is Molde, from which steamers run to Veblungsnaes (30 m.) at the foot of the Valley. A good road traverses the valley, which is one of the finest in southern Norway, flanked by steep mountains terminating in abrupt peaks—Vengetinder (5960 ft.), Romsdalshorn (5105), Troldtinder (“ witch-peaks,” 6010) and others. Several waterfalls are seen, such as the Mongefos, the Vaermofos, falling nearly 1000 ft., and the Slettafos. Lake Lesjekogen also drains from the opposite end by the Laagen or Lougen river to the Glommen, and so to the Skagerrack, and the road follows its valley, the Gudbrandsdal. The Romsdal gives its name to an amt (county) extending from the promontory of Stadt in the south to Ram Fjord in the north, including the Stor, Molde, Halse and their branch fjords, the ports of Aalesund, Molde and Christiansund, and reaching inland to the Dovrefjeld.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Romilly, John Romilly, 1st Baron

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​ROMILLY, JOHN ROMILLY, 1st Baron (1802–1874), English judge, was the second son of Sir Samuel Romilly, and was born on the 10th of January 1802. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn in 1827. He first entered parliament in 1832 as member for Bridport, and in 1843 he became a queen’s counsel. He was elected M.P. for Devonport in 1847, and was appointed solicitor general in 1848 in Lord John Russell’s administration and attorney-general in 1850. In 1851 he was appointed master of the rolls, and continued to sit for Devonport till the general election in 1852, when he was defeated. He was the last master of the rolls to sit in parliament. Romilly. was raised to the peerage as Baron Romilly of Barry in 1866, and ​retired from the mastership of the rolls in 1873. He did muchto remove the restrictions which had long hampered research among the public records and state papers. Lord Romillydied in London on the 23rd of December 1874.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Perizonius

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​PERIZONIUS (or Accinctus), the name of Jakob Voorbroek (1651–1715), Dutch classical scholar, who was born at Appingedam in Groningen on the 26th of October 1651. He was the son of Anton Perizonius (1626–1672), the author of a once well-known treatise, De ratione studii theologici. Having studied at the university of Utrecht, he was appointed in 1682 to the chair of eloquence and history at Franeker through the influence of J. G. Graevius and Nicolas Heinsius. In 1693 he was promoted to the corresponding chair at Leiden, Where he died on the 6th of April 1715. The numerous works of Perizonius entitle him to a very high place among the scholars of his age. Special interest attaches to his edition of the Minerva of Francisco Sanchez or Sanctius of Salamanca (1st ed., 1587; ed. C. L. Bauer, 1793–1891), one of the last developments of the study of Latin grammar in its pre-scientific stage, when the phenomena of language were still regarded as for the most part disconnected, conventional or fortuitous. Mention should also be made of his Animadversiones historicae (1685), which may be said to have laid the foundations of historical criticism, and of his treatises on the Roman republic, alluded to by Niebuhr as marking the beginning of that new era of historical study with which his own name it so closely associated.
The article on Perizonius in Van der Aa's Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden contains full biographical an bibliographical particulars; see also F. A. Eckstein in Ersch and Gruber's Allgemeine Encyklopädie.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Perkins, Jacob

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​PERKINS, JACOB (1766–1849), American inventor and physicist, was born at Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1766, and was apprenticed to a goldsmith. He soon made himself known by a variety of useful mechanical inventions, and in 1818 came over to England with a plan for engraving bank-notes on steel, which ultimately proved a signal success, and was carried out by Perkins in partnership with the English engraver Heath. His chief contribution to physics lay in the experiments by which he proved the compressibility of water and measured it by a piezometer of his own invention (see Phil. Trans., 1820, 1826). He retired in 1834, and died in London on the 30th of July 1849.
His second son, Angier March Perkins (1799?–1881), also born at Newburyport, went to England in 1827, and was the author of a system of warming buildings by means of high pressure steam. His grandson, Loftus Perkins (1834–1891), most of whose life was spent in England, experimented with the application to steam engines of steam at very high pressures, constructing in 1880 a yacht, the “Anthracite,” whose engines worked with a pressure of 500 ℔ to the sq. in.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Perles, Joseph

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​PERLES, JOSEPH (1835–1894), Jewish rabbi, was born in Hungary in 1835, and died at Munich in 1894. He was one of the first rabbis trained at the new type of seminary (Breslau). Perles’ most important essays were on folk-lore and custom. There is much that is striking and original in his history of marriage (Die jüdische Hochzeit in nachbiblischer Zeit, 1860), and of mourning customs (Die Leichenfeierlichkeiten im nachbiblischen Judenthum, 1861), his contributions to the sources of the Arabian Nights (Zur rabbinische Sprach-und Sagenkunde, 1873), and his notes on rabbinic antiquities (Beiträge zur rabbinischen Sprach-und Altertumskunde, 1893). Perles’ essays are rich in suggestiveness, and have been the starting-point of much fruitful research. He also wrote an essay on Nachmanides, and a biography and critical appreciation of Rashba (1863). (I. A.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Perkins, Charles Callahan

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​PERKINS, CHARLES CALLAHAN (1823–1886), American artist and author, was born in Boston and educated at Harvard, subsequently studying art in Rome and Paris. Returning to Boston, he helped to found the Museum of Fine Arts, of which he was honorary director, and for many years he played a leading part in artistic circles as a cultured critic and writer. His chief publications were Tuscan Sculptors (1864) and Italian Sculptors (1868)-replaced in 1883 by The Historical Handbook of Italian Sculptors-Art in Education (1870), and Sepulchral Monuments in Italy (1885).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Perleberg

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​PERLEBERG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on the Stepenitz, 6 m. N .E. from Wittenberge by the railway to Neustrelitz. Pop. (1905), 9502. It contains a fine Gothic Evangelical church, a Roman Catholic church, a synagogue and several schools, and has a town-hall, dating from the 15th century, and a Roland column. Its chief manufactures are machinery, soap, blacking and clogs.
See Höpfner, Perleberger Reimchronik. Perleberg von 1200 bis 1700 (Perleberg, 1876).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rosas, Juan Manuel

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​ROSAS, JUAN MANUEL (1793–1877), tyrant of Buenos Aires, was born on the 30th of March 1793, in the city of that name. His father, Leon Ortiz de Rosas, was an owner of cattle runs (estancias) and a trader in hides, who took an active part in defeating the English attack on the city in 1807. Juan Rosas received so little education that he had to learn to read and write when he was already a married man and a successful cattle breeder. From a very early age he was left in charge of one of his father's establishments. When he was eighteen he married Maria de la Encarnacion Escurra. His mother having suspected him of appropriating money, he left his parents, and for some time subsisted by working as a vaquero or cowboy, and then as overseer on the estates of other owners; but he accumulated money, and by the help of a loan from a friend he became possessed of a cattle run of his own, Los Cerrillos. The anarchical state of the country since its independence of Spain had favoured the Indians, who had taken the offensive and raided up to within forty miles of Buenos Aires. Rosas obtained leave to arm his cowboys. Under his management Los Cerrillos became a refuge for adventurers, whom he paid and fed well, but from whom he exacted implicit obedience. His followers became a fighting force of acknowledged efficiency, and Rosas took practically the position of an independent ruler whose help was sought by contending political parties. By attending to his own interest only, and by astute intrigue, or savage fighting when necessary, he grew in power from 1820 onwards, and from 1835 to 1852 ruled as dictator (see Argentina). It is probable that he would have continued to govern in Buenos Aires till his death if his ambition had not led him into wars with all his neighbours. He wished to extend the authority of the Republic over all the territory which had belonged to the Spanish vice royalty of Buenos. This led him directly into wars with Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile, and into “warlike operations” with England and France, with whom he had other causes of quarrel arising out of the complaints of traders and bondholders. His government was overthrown in 1852 by a coalition of his neighbours and the defection of several of his generals, and even members of his own family who lived in fear of his suspicions and violence. He took refuge in England, and lived at Swaythling, near Southampton, till his death on the 14th of March 1877. A portrait taken in 1834 and reproduced by Sir Woodbine Parish in his Buenos Ayres and Provinces of the Rio de la Plata (London, 1852) represents Rosas as a fine-looking man of the handsome Spanish type.
See O. Martens, Ein Caligula unseres Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1896), which contains a full bibliography.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rosamond

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​ROSAMOND, known as “ The Fair ” (d. c. 1176), mistress of Henry II., king of' England, is believed to have been the daughter of Walter de Clifford of the family of Fitz-Ponce. The evidence for the paternity is, however, only an entry of a statement made by the jurors of the manor of Corfham in a Hundred Roll of the second year of the reign of Edward I. (1274), great grandson of Henry II. Rosamond is said to have been Henry's mistress secretly for several years, but was openly acknowledged by him only when he imprisoned his wife Eleanor of Acquitaine as a punishment for her encouragement of her sons in the rebellion of 1173–74. She died in or about 1176, and was buried in the nunnery church of Godstow before the high altar. The body was removed by order of St Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, in 1191, and was, seemingly, reinterred in the chapter house. The story that she was poisoned by Queen Eleanor first appears in the French Chronicle of London in the 14th century. The romantic details of the labyrinth at Woodstock, and the clue which guided King Henry II. to her bower, were the inventions of story-writers of later times. There is no evidence for the belief that she was the mother of Henry's natural son William Longsword, earl of Salisbury.