OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bigelow, John

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​BIGELOW, JOHN (1817– ), American journalist and diplomat, was born at Malden, New York, on the 25th of November 1817. He graduated at Union College in 1835, practised law in New York for several years after 1839; took up journalistic work; was joint owner (with William Cullen Bryant) and managing editor of the New York Evening Post (1849–1861); was United States consul at Paris in 1861–1864, and was minister to France in 1864–1867. While consul, Bigelow wrote Les États-Unis d’Amérique en 1863 in order to counteract the apparent desire of the French people for a dissolution of the American Union, by showing them the relative importance of the commerce of the northern and southern states. On discovering in 1863 that a French shipbuilder, with the connivance of Napoleon III., was constructing two formidable iron-clads and two corvettes for the use of the Confederacy, he devoted his energies to thwarting this scheme, and succeeded in preventing the delivery of all but one of these vessels to the Confederate agents. In his work entitled France and the Confederate Navy (New York, 1888) he gives an account of this episode. In 1865–1866, it devolved upon Bigelow, as minister to France, to represent his government in its delicate negotiations concerning the French occupation of Mexico, and he discharged this difficult task with credit. From 1875 to 1877 he served as secretary of state of New York. He wrote books of travel, of popular biography, or of historical or political discussion, &c., from time to time; but his principal literary achievements were editions, between 1868 and 1888, of Franklin’s autobiography and autobiographical writings, copiously annotated; and of the complete works of Franklin, in ten octavo volumes (New York, 1887–1889). These editions were based in part upon the editor’s personal investigations of manuscript sources in France and elsewhere, and supplanted the well-known, long serviceable, but less accurate edition of Jared Sparks (Boston, 1836–1840); they have in turn been supplanted by the edition of A. H. Smythe (10 vols., 1905–1907). Mr Bigelow was a close friend of Samuel J. Tilden, and became his literary executor, editing his speeches and other political writings (1885), publishing a biography in 1895, and editing a two-volume collection of Tilden’s letters and literary memorials (1908). He also wrote a biography of William Cullen Bryant (1890). In 1897 he published a volume entitled The Mystery of Sleep (2nd ed., 1903). In 1909 he published Retrospections of an Active Life.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Biggleswade

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​BIGGLESWADE, a market town in the Biggleswade parliamentary division of Bedfordshire, England, 41 m. N. by W. of London by the Great Northern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5120. It lies on the east bank of the Ivel, a tributary of the Ouse, in a flat plain in which vegetables are largely grown for the London markets. The town is a centre of this trade.
Biggleswade (Bichelswade, Beckeleswade, Bickleswade) is an ancient borough by prescription which has never returned representatives to parliament. The borough court was held by the lord of the manor. At the time of Edward the Confessor, Archbishop Stigand owned the manor, which according to Domesday passed to Ralf de Insula. Henry I. granted it to the bishop of Lincoln, under whose protection the borough evidently grew up. In 1547 the bishop surrendered his rights to the king, and in the 17th century Biggleswade formed part of the jointure of the queens of England. Owing to its important position on the Roman road to the north the town became an agricultural centre for the surrounding district. In 1335 Edward III. renewed the bishop’s licence to hold a Monday market, and annual fairs were held here from very early times. Those for horses are mentioned as famous by Camden. In addition to agriculture, Biggleswade was formerly engaged in straw-plaiting and lace manufacture.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bight

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​BIGHT (O. Eng. bight, bend; cf. Ger. Bucht, a bay, and beugen, to bend), a nautical term for the loop or bent part of a rope, as distinguished from the ends; also a geographical term for a bay between two distant headlands, or with a shallow curve, e.g. the Bight of Benin, the Great Bight of Australia.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cota de Maguaque, Rodrigo

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​COTA DE MAGUAQUE, RODRIGO (d. c. 1498), Spanish poet, who flourished towards the end of the 15th century, was born at Toledo. Little is known of him save that he was of Jewish origin. The Coplas de Mingo Revulgo, the Coplas del Provincial, and the first act of the Celestina have been ascribed to him on insufficient grounds. He is undoubtedly the author of the Dialogo entre el amor y un viejo, a striking dramatic poem first printed in the Cancionero general of 1511, and of a burlesque epithalamium written in 1472 or later. He abjured Judaism about the year 1497, and is believed to have died shortly afterwards.
See “Épithalame burlesque,” edited by R. Foulché-Delbosc, in the Revue hispanique (Paris, 1894), i. 69-72; A. Bonilla y San Martín, Anales de la literature española (Madrid, 1904), pp. 164-167.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Costanzo, Angelo di

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​COSTANZO, ANGELO DI (c. 1507–1591), Italian historian and poet, was born at Naples about 1507. He lived in a literary circle, and fell in love with the beautiful Vittoria Colonna. His great work, Le Istorie del regno di Napoli dal 1250 fino al 1498, first appeared at Naples in 1572, and was the fruit of thirty or forty years’ labour; but nine more years were devoted to the task before it was issued in its final form at Aquila (1581). It is still one of the best histories of Naples, and the style is distinguished by clearness, simplicity and elegance. The Rime of di Costanzo are remarkable for finical taste, for polish and frequent beauty of expression, and for strict obedience to the poetical canons of his time.
See G. Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. vii. (Florence, 1812).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Costello, Dudley

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​COSTELLO, DUDLEY (1803–1865), English journalist and novelist, son of Colonel J. F. Costello, was born in Ireland in 1803. He was educated for the army at Sandhurst, and served for a short time in India, Canada and the West Indies. His literary and artistic tastes led him to quit the army in 1828, and he then passed some years in Paris. He was introduced to Baron Cuvier, who employed him as draughtsman in the preparation of his Règne animal. He next occupied himself in copying illuminated manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Royale; and to him and his sister belongs the merit of being the first to draw general attention to this beautiful forgotten art, and of thus leading to its revival. About 1838 Costello became foreign correspondent to the Morning Herald; in 1846 he became foreign correspondent of the Daily News; and during the last twenty years of his life he held the post of sub-editor of the Examiner. He wrote A Tour through the Valley of the Meuse (1845) and Piedmont and Italy, from the Alps to the Tiber (1859–1861). Among his novels are Stories from a Screen (1855), The Millionaire (1858), Faint Heart never won Fair Lady (1859) and Holidays with Hobgoblins (1860). He died on the 30th of September 1865.
His elder sister, Louisa Stuart Costello (1799–1870), author and miniature painter, was born in Ireland in 1799. Her father died while she was young, and Louisa, who removed to Paris with her mother in 1814, helped to support her mother and brother by her skill as an artist. At the age of sixteen she published a volume of verse entitled The Maid of the Cyprus Isle, and other poems. This was followed in 1825 by Songs of a Stranger, dedicated to W. L. Bowles. Ten years later appeared her Specimens of the Early Poetry of France, illustrated by beautifully executed illuminations, the work of her brother and herself. It was dedicated to Moore, and procured her his friendship as well as that of Sir Walter Scott. Her principal works are—A Summer among the Bocages and Vines (1840); The Queen’s Poisoner (or The Queen-Mother), a historical romance (1841); Béarn and the Pyrenees (1844); Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen (1844); The Rose Garden of Persia (1845), a series of translations from Persian poets, with illuminations by herself and her brother; The Falls, Lakes and Mountains of North Wales (1845); Clara Fane (1848), a novel; Memoirs of Mary of Burgundy (1853); and Memoirs of Anne of Brittany (1855). She died at Boulogne on the 24th of April 1870.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Coster-monger

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​COSTER-MONGER (originally Costard-monger, a seller of costards, a species of large ribbed apple). The word “monger” is common, in various forms, in Teutonic languages in the sense of trader or dealer, and appears in “iron-monger” and “fish-monger,” and with a derogatory significance of petty or underhand dealing in such words as “scandal-monger.” A “coster-monger,” or “coster,” originally, therefore, one who sold apples and fruit in the street, is now an itinerant dealer in fruit, vegetables or fish, but more particularly, as distinguished from a “hawker” on the one hand, and “general dealer” on the other, is a street trader in the above commodities who uses a barrow. The coster-monger’s trade in London, so far as it falls under clause 6 of the Metropolitan Streets Act 1867, which deals with obstruction by goods to footways and streets is subject to regulations of the commissioner of police. So long as these are carried out, coster-mongers, street hawkers and itinerant traders are exempted, by an amending act, from the liabilities imposed by clause 6 of the above act.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cotgrave, Randle

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​COTGRAVE, RANDLE (?–1634), English lexicographer, came of a Cheshire family, and was educated at Cambridge, entering St John’s College in 1587. He became secretary to Lord Burghley, and in 1611 published his French-English dictionary (2nd ed., 1632), a work of real historical importance in lexicography, and still valuable in spite of such errors as were due to contemporary want of exact scholarship.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Costaki, Anthopoulos

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​COSTAKI, ANTHOPOULOS (1835–1902), Turkish pasha, was born in 1835. He became a professor at the Turkish naval college; then entered the legal branch of the Turkish service, rising to the post of procureur impérial at the court of cassation. He was governor-general of Crete; and in 1895 was appointed Ottoman ambassador in London, a post which he continued to hold until his death at Constantinople in 1902. He bore throughout his career the reputation of an intelligent and upright public servant.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cosway, Richard

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​COSWAY, RICHARD (c. 1742–1821), English miniature painter, was baptized in 1742; his father was master of Blundell’s school, Tiverton, where Cosway was educated, and his uncle mayor of that town. He it was who, in conjunction with the boy’s godfather, persuaded the father to allow Richard to proceed to London before he was twelve years old, to take lessons in drawing, and undertook to support him there. On his arrival, the youthful artist won the first prize given by the newly founded Society of Arts, of the money value of five guineas. He went to Thomas Hudson for his earliest instruction, but remained with him only a few months, and then attended William Shipley’s drawing class, where he remained until he began to work on his own account in 1760. He was one of the earliest members of the Royal Academy, Associate in 1770 and Royal Academician in 1771. His success in miniature painting is said to have been started by his clever portrait of Mrs Fitzherbert, which gave great satisfaction to the prince of Wales, and brought Cosway his earliest great patron. He speedily became one of the most popular artists of the day, and his residence at Schomberg House, Pall Mall, was a well-known aristocratic rendezvous. In 1791 he removed to Stratford Place, where he lived in a state of great magnificence till 1821, when after selling most of the treasures he had accumulated he went to reside in Edgware Road. He died on the 4th of July 1821, when driving in a carriage with his friend Miss Udney. He was buried in Marylebone New church.
He married in 1781 Maria Hadfield, who survived him many years, and died in Italy in January 1838, in a school for girls which she had founded, and which she had attached to an important religious order devoted to the cause of female education, known as the Dame Inglesi. She had been created a baroness of the Empire on account of her devotion to female education by the emperor Francis I. in 1834. Her college still exists, and in it are preserved many of the things which had belonged to her and her husband.
Cosway had one child who died young. She is the subject of one of his most celebrated engravings. He painted miniatures of very many members of the royal family, and of the leading persons who formed the court of the prince regent. Perhaps his most beautiful work is his miniature of Madame du Barry, painted in 1791, when that lady was residing in Bruton Street, Berkeley Square. This portrait, together with many other splendid works by Cosway, came into the collection of Mr J. Pierpont Morgan. There are many miniatures by this artist in the royal collection at Windsor Castle, at Belvoir Castle and in other important collections. His work is of great charm and of remarkable purity, and he is certainly the most brilliant miniature painter of the 18th century.
For a full account of the artist and his wife, see Richard Cosway, R.A., by G. C. Williamson (1905). (G. C. W.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cotes, Roger

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​COTES, ROGER (1682–1716), English mathematician and philosopher, was born on the 10th of July 1682 at Burbage, Leicestershire, of which place his father, the Rev. Robert Cotes, was rector. He was educated at Leicester school, and afterward at St Paul’s school, London. Proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1699, he obtained a fellowship in 1705, and in the following year was appointed Plumian professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy in the university of Cambridge. He took orders in 1713; and the same year, at the request of Dr Richard Bentley, he published the second edition of Newton’s Principia with an original preface. He died on the 5th of June 1716, leaving unfinished a series of elaborate researches on optics, and a large amount of unpublished manuscript. He contributed two memoirs to the Philosophical Transactions, one, “Logometria,” which discusses the calculation of logarithms and certain applications of the infinitesimal calculus, the other, a “Description of the great fiery meteor seen on March 6th, 1716.” After his death his papers were collected and published by his cousin and successor in the Plumian chair, Dr Robert Smith, under the title Harmonia Mensurarum (1722). This work included the “Logometria,” the trigonometrical theorem known as “Cotes’ Theorem on the Circle” (see Trigonometry), his theorem on harmonic means, subsequently developed by Colin Maclaurin, and a discussion of the curves known as “Cotes’ Spirals,” which occur as the path of a particle described under the influence of a central force varying inversely as the cube of the distance. In 1738 Dr Robert Smith published Cotes’ Hydrostatical and Pneumatical Lectures, a work which was held in great estimation. The exceptional genius of Cotes earned encomiums from both his contemporaries and successors; Sir Isaac Newton said, “If Mr Cotes had lived, we should have known something.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Albany (river)

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​ALBANY, a river of Canada, forming part of the boundary between the province of Ontario and the district of Keewatin. It rises in Lake St Joseph in 91° 25′ W. and 50° 55′ N., and flows E.N.E. into James Bay, its total length being over 400 m. It is navigable for nearly half its length, to Martin’s Falls. There are four Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts on its banks, including Fort Albany at its mouth. The Ogoki and Kenogami rivers are the principal tributaries.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Albategnius

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​ALBATEGNIUS (c. 850–929), an Arab prince and astronomer, correctly designated Mahommed ben Gebir al Batani, his surname being derived from his native town, Batan in Mesopotamia. From his observations at Aracte and Damascus, where he died, he was able to correct some of Ptolemy’s results, previously taken on trust. He compiled new tables of the sun and moon, long accepted as authoritative, discovered the movement of the sun’s apogee, and assigned to annual precession the improved value of 55″. Perhaps independently of Aryabhatta (born at Pātaliputra on the Ganges 476 A.D.), he introduced the use of sines in calculation, and partially that of tangents. His principal work, De Motu Stellarum, was published at Nuremberg in 1537 by Melanchthon, in a blundering Latin translation by Plato Tiburtinus (fl. 1116), annotated by Regiomontanus. A reprint appeared at Bologna in 1645. The original MS. is preserved at the Vatican; and the Escorial library possesses in MS. a treatise of some value by him on astronomical chronology. Albategnius takes the highest rank among Arab astronomers.
See Houzeau, Bibliographie astronomique, i. 467; M. Marie, Histoire des sciences, ii. 113; R. Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie, p. 67; Delambre, Hist. de l’astr. au moyen âge, ch. ii.; Phil. Trans. 1693 (913), where E. Halley supplies corrections to some of the observations recorded in De Motu Stellarum.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Albay

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​ALBAY, a city and the capital of the province of Albay, Luzon, Philippine Islands, near an inlet on the W. shore of the Gulf of Albay, 215 m. by wagon-road S.E. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 14,049; in October 1907 the towns of Daraga (pop. 1903, 18,695) and Legaspi (pop. 1903, 9206) were merged with Albay, making its total population, on the basis of the 1903 census, 41,950. Albay is one of the most important cities of the Philippine Islands. It is built on level ground near the S. base of Mount Mayon, a beautiful volcanic peak, 7916 ft. high, from which it is sheltered by the Linguin hills. The surrounding country is one of the most important hemp-producing districts in the Philippines; sinamay is woven here, and large quantities of hemp are shipped from here to Manila. Cocoa, copra, sugar and sweet potatoes are other important products of the district. The language is Bicol. The old town, called Cagsaua, which stood a short distance E.N.E. of the new, was completely destroyed by ​an eruption of the volcano in 1814 (about 1200 people being killed), and the new town was almost entirely destroyed by the insurgents in February 1900, an ancient stone church of much beauty (in what was formerly Daraga) being left standing on an elevated site commanding a view of the surrounding country. The town was rebuilt on a larger scale by Americans.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Albenga

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​ALBENGA, a town and episcopal see of Liguria, Italy, on the N.W. coast of the Gulf of Genoa, in the province of Genoa, 521/2 m. S.W. of Genoa by rail. Pop. (1901) 6248. Albenga is the ancient Album Ingaunum or Albingaunum, the chief town of the Ingauni, one of the most important of the Ligurian tribes, whose territory reached as far as Genoa. Under the empire it was a municipium; an inscription records the restoration of the walls, forum, harbour, &c., by Constantius A.D. 354. A little way outside the town to the E. is a well-preserved Roman bridge nearly 500 ft. long and 111/2 ft. wide, with 10 arches, each with a span of 37 ft. It belonged to the coast road and is now known as Ponte Lungo. To the S. of the town is a conspicuous monument, 27 ft. high, in the form of a rectangular pillar, resembling a tomb; but as there is no trace of a door to a sepulchral chamber it may be a shrine. In the town itself there are no Roman remains; but there is a good Gothic cathedral in brick, and an interesting octagonal baptistery, attributed to the 8th or 9th century, the arches being supported by ancient columns, and the vaulting decorated with mosaics. Some of the medieval palaces of Albenga have lofty brick towers.
See A. d’Andrade in Relazione dell’ Ufficio Regionale per la Conservazione dei monumenti del Piemonte e della Liguria (Turin, 1899), 114 seq.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Albert (Madame)

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​ALBERT, Madame (c. 1805–1846), French actress, whose maiden name was Thérèse Vernet, was born of a family of players. She first appeared in children’s and ingénue parts, and in comic opera, and it was not until 1827, two years after her Paris début, that her great talents were seen and appreciated. In Caleb Valentine, Henry V., Madame Dubarry, Catherine II., Leontine, Un duel sous le cardinal de Richelieu, and many other plays, her grace, beauty and distinction of manner made her the idol of Paris, and her circle of admirers was widened by long tours of the provinces and abroad. Ill-health compelled her to retire in 1846. She was twice married, about 1825 to Albert Rodrigues, an actor who played under his Christian name, and in 1846 to Eugène Bignon (1812–1858), the actor and playwright.