OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Veronica, St

See also Saint Veronica on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VERONICA, ST. According to the most recent version of the legend, Veronica was a pious woman of Jerusalem, who, moved with pity by the spectacle of Jesus carrying His cross to Golgotha, gave Him her kerchief in order that He might wipe the drops of agony from His brow. The Lord accepted the offering, and after using the napkin handed it back to her with the image of His face miraculously impressed upon it. This, however, is not the primitive form of the legend, which a close examination shows to be derived from the following story related by Eusebius in his Historia Ecclesiastica (vii. 18). At Caesarea Philippi dwelt the woman whom the Lord healed of an is^ue of blood (Matt. ix. 20), and at the door of her house stood, on one side a statue of a woman in an attitude of supplication, and on the other side that of a man stretching forth his hand to the woman. It was said that the male figure represented Christ, and that the group had been set up in recognition of the miraculous cure. Legend was not long in providing the woman of the Gospel with a name. In the West she was identified with Martha of Bethany; in the East she was called Berenike, or Beronike, the name appearing in as early a work as the Acta Pilati, the most ancient form of which goes back to the 4th century. Towards the 6th century the legend of the woman with the issue of blood became merged in the legend of Pilate, as is shown in the writings known in the middle ages as Cura sanitatis Tiberii and Vindicta Salvaloris. According to the former of these accounts Veronica, in memory of her cure, caused a portrait of the Saviour to be painted. The emperor Tiberius, when afflicted with a grievous sickness, commanded the woman to bring the portrait to him, worshipped Christ before her eyes, and was cured. The legend continued to gather accretions, and a miraculous origin came to be assigned to the image. It ​appears that in the 12th century the image began to be identified with one preserved at Rome, and in the popular speech the image, too, was called Veronica. It is interesting to note that the fanciful derivation of the same Veronica from the words Vera icon (είκών) “true image”—is not, as has been thought, of modern origin, since it occurs in the Otia Imperialia (iii. 25) of Gervase of Tilbury (fl. 1211), who says: “Est ergo Veronica pictura Domini vera.” In several churches the office of St Veronica, matron, is observed on various dates.
See Acta Sanctorum, February, i. 449–57; L. F. C. Teschendorf, Evangelia apocrypha (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1877), p. 239; E. von Dobschütz, Christus bilder (Leipzig, 1899); H. Thurston, The Stations of the Cross (London, 1906).  (H. De.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Veronal

See also Barbital on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VERONAL, in medicine, diethylmalonyl urea or diethyl-barbituric acid (C$_2$H$_2$)$_2$C[CO NH]$_2$CO, extensively used as a hypnotic. It is prepared by condensing diethylmalonic ester with urea in the presence of sodium ethylate, or by acting with ethyl iodide on the silver salt of malonyl urea; it forms a white crystalline powder, which is odourless, and has a slightly bitter taste. Its introduction followed the investigations of Emil Fischer and J. v. Merling on the pharmacological properties of certain open and closed ureides. Led thereto by the impression that hypnotic action appears to be largely dependent on the presence of ethyl groups, they prepared diethylacetyl urea, diethylmalonyl urea, and dipropylmalonyl urea. All three were found to be hypnotics: the first was about equal in power to sulphonal, whilst the third was four times as powerful, but its use was attended by prolonged after-effects. Veronal was found to be midway. It is best given in cachets (10 to 15 grains). As it does not affect the circulatory or respiratory systems, or temperature, it can be employed in many diseased conditions of the heart and lungs as well as in mental disturbances, acute alcoholism, morphinomania and kidney disease. If taken during a prolonged period it seems to lose its effect. A soluble salt of veronal has been introduced under the name of medinal. Although the toxicity of veronal is low, 13 s grains having been taken in a single dose without serious results, the unreasonable consumption by persons suffering from insomnia has led to many deaths, and it has been suggested that the sale should be restricted by the Pharmacy Acts.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Verres, Gaius

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​VERRES, GAIUS (c. 120–43 B.C.), Roman magistrate, notorious for his misgovernment of Sicily. It is not known to what gens he belonged. He at first supported Marius and the popular party, but soon went over to the other side. Sulla made him a present of land at Beneventum, and secured him against punishment for embezzlement. In 80, Verres was quaestor in Asia on the staff of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella, governor of Cilicia. The governor and his subordinate plundered in concert, till in 78 Dolabella had to stand his trial at Rome, and was convicted, mainly on the evidence of Verres, who thus secured a pardon for himself. In 74, by a lavish use of bribes, Verres secured the city praetorship, and, as a creature of Sulla, abused his authority to further the political ends of his party. He was then sent as governor to Sicily, the richest of the Roman provinces. The people were for the most part prosperous and contented, but under Verres the island experienced more misery and desolation than during the time of the first Punic or the recent servile wars. The corn-growers and the revenue collectors were ruined by exorbitant imposts or by the iniquitous cancelling of contracts; temples and private houses were robbed of their works of art; and the rights of Roman citizens were disregarded. Verres returned to Rome in 70, and in the same year, at the request of the Sicilians, Cicero prosecuted him. Verres entrusted his defence to the most eminent of Roman advocates, Q. Hortensius, and he had the sympathy and support of several of the leading Roman nobles. The court was com- posed exclusively of senators, some of whom might have been his personal friends. But the presiding judge, the city praetor, M'. Acilius Glabrio, was a thoroughly honest man, and his assessors were at least not accessible to bribery. Verres vainly tried to get the trial postponed till 69 when his friend Metellus would be the presiding judge, but in August Cicero opened the case. The effect of the first brief speech was so overwhelming that Hortensius refused to reply, and recommended his client to leave the country. Before the expiration of the nine days allowed for the prosecution Verres was on his way to Massilia. There he lived in exile till 43, when he was proscribed by Antony, the reason alleged being his refusal to surrender some of his art treasures which Antony coveted. Verres may not have been quite so black as he is painted by Cicero, on whose speeches we depend entirely for our knowledge of him, but there can hardly be a doubt that he stood pre-eminent among the worst specimens of Roman provincial governors. Of the seven Verrine orations only two were actually delivered; the remaining five were compiled from the depositions of witnesses, and published after the flight of Verres.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Verrius Flaccus, Marcus

See also Verrius Flaccus on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VERRIUS FLACCUS, MARCUS (c. 10 B.C.), Roman grammarian and teacher, flourished under Augustus and Tiberius. He was a freedman, and his manumitter has been identified with Verrius Flaccus, an authority on pontifical law; but for chronological reasons the name of Veranius Flaccus, a writer on augury, has been suggested (Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Lit. 199, 4). He gained such a reputation by his methods of instruction that he was summoned to court to bring up Gaius and Lucius, the grandsons of Augustus. He removed there with his whole school, and his salary was greatly increased on the condition that he took no fresh pupils. He died at an advanced age during the reign of Tiberius (Suetonius, De Grammaticis, 17), and a statue in his honour was erected at Praeneste, in a marble recess, with inscriptions from his Fasti. Flaccus was also a distinguished philologist and antiquarian investigator. For his most important work (De Verborum Significatu) see Festus, Sextus. Of the calendar of Roman festivals (Fasti Praenestini) engraved on marble and set up in the forum at Praeneste, some fragments were discovered (1771) at some distance from the town itself in a Christian building of later date, and some consular fasti in the forum itself (1778). The collection was subsequently increased by two new fragments.
Other lost works of Flaccus were: De Orthographia: De Obscuris Catonis, an elucidation of obscurities in the writings of the elder Cato; Saturnus, dealing with questions of Roman ritual; Rerum memoria dignarum libri, an encyclopaedic work much used by Pliny the elder; Res Etruscae, probably on augury.
For the fragments of the Fasti see Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, i. pp. 311, 474; G. Gatti, “Due nuovi Frammenti del Calendario di Verrio Flacco,” in Atti delta r. Accademia dei Lincei, 5th sen, vol. 5, pt. 2, p. 421 (1898); Winther, De fastis Verrii Flacci ab Ovidio adhibitis (1885); J. E. Sandys, Classical Scholarship (ed. 1906), vol. i., index, s.v. “Verrius”; fragments of Flaccus in C. O. Müller’s edition of Festus; see also H. Nettleship, Lectures and Essays.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vernon

See also Vernon, Eure on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VERNON, a town of north-western France, in the department of Eure, 19 m. E.N.E. of Evreux by road. Pop. (1906) 7274. Vernon stands on the left bank of the Seine opposite the forest of Vernon, a stone bridge uniting it to Vernonnet on the right bank, where there are important stone] quarries. The forest of Bizy lies to the south of the town. Its church is an interesting building dating from the 12th to the 15th centuries, and there is a cylindrical keep built by Henry I. of England. The port on the Seine carries on trade in stone and coal, and the town has workshops for the manufacture of army engineering material and manufactures benzine, aniline dyes, wooden shoes, liqueurs, &c.
Vernon in 1196 was ceded by its count to Philip Augustus, Richard I. resigning his suzerainty. The first Estates of Normandy were held at Vernon in 1452.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Veroli

See also Veroli on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​VEROLI (anc. Verulae), a town and episcopal see of the province of Rome, Italy, 10 m. by road N.E. of Frosinone, 1870 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 2622 (town); 12,655 (commune). The town is situated on a hill in a strong position with a fine view, on the site of the ancient Hernican town of Verulae, 7 m. S.E. of Aletrium. It retains remains of its ancient polygonal enceinte, especially near the summit of the hill, later occupied by a medieval castle. It is hardly men- tioned in history: we know that it became a municipium in 90 B.C. The cathedral treasury contains the breviary of S. Louis of Toulouse, and some interesting reliquaries, one in ivory with bas-reliefs, and two in the Gothic style, of silver gilt.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Breslaur, Emil

​BRESLAUR, Emil. See vol. ii. 735a.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Breve

From volume 1 of the work.
​BREVE (Fr. Carrée; Ital. Breve). A note of the value of two semibreves, rarely met with in modern music, in which there is no place for it, as the longest bar commonly used (viz. a bar of 12-8 time) has but the value of a semibreve and a half. Although now nearly obsolete from its great length, the breve was originally (as indicated by its name, derived from brevis, short) the shorter of the two notes of which the earliest measured music, invented about A.D. 1200, was composed. These two notes, which corresponded to the long and short syllables of the text to which they were sung, were termed longa and brevis, and were written thus, and . The proportion which they bore to each other was not always constant, the longa containing sometimes three breves, in which case it was called perfect, and sometimes only two, when it is said to be imperfect. So likewise, after the introduction of a still shorter note called semibrevis, the brevis could be either perfect or imperfect, and consist of three or two semibreves. These variations of proportion, which, together with many others, remained in use until about the middle of the 17th century, and which could not but have added immensely to the difficulty of the study of music, were dependent on the order in which the longer and shorter notes followed each other, and also upon the appearance of certain time-signatures which were placed at the beginning of the composition. For a full account of these the reader is referred to Bellermann's treatise 'Die Mensuralnoten und Taktzeichen des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts,' Berlin, 1858.
The breve, together with other notes belonging to the same epoch, was originally written black, the more modern white notes (Fr. blanches) written in outline being introduced by Dufay about the end of the 14th century. After this period black notes (Fr. noires) were exclusively used to express diminution, the note made black losing a portion of its value, either one-third or one-fourth, according to circumstances. A relic of this custom survives in modern music in the method of writing minim and crotchet.
In modern music the breve, in the rare cases in which it is used, is always written white, and either of an oblong form, thus , or oval with two small vertical strokes at each end, thus .
[ F. T. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bremner, Robert

From volume 1 of the work.
[ E. F. R. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Briard, Étienne

From volume 1 of the work.
[ F. G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bride of Dunkerron, The

From volume 1 of the work.
[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bride of Song, The

From volume 1 of the work.
[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Brendel, Karl

From volume 1 of the work.
​BRENDEL, Dr. Karl Franz, musical critic, born Nov. 25, 1811, at Stollberg in the Harz; educated at the Gymnasium of Freiberg in Saxony, where his father was Berg-Rath, and at the universities of Leipsic and Berlin. Music always formed his special pursuit, in which he was mainly assisted by Anacker and Wieck. He began his public career with lectures on the history of music, delivered in Freiberg and in Dresden. In 1844 he settled in Leipsic as proprietor of Schumann's 'Neue Zeitschrift,' which he edited from Jan. 1, 1845, at the same time teaching musical history and æsthetics in Mendelssohn's newly established Conservatorium. Here he delivered the public lectures on which he founded his most comprehensive work, 'Geschichte der Musik in Italien, Frankreich, und Deutschland' (1852; 4th edition 1867), an attempt to treat the various historical developments of the art from one practical point of view. More important however were his articles in the 'Neue Zeitschrift,' written as a strenuous advocate of modern ideas in music. His first efforts were devoted to the recognition of Schumann; but in ​time the paper became the organ of Wagner and Liszt. Brendel certainly had a rare power of appreciating the ideas of the real leaders of the movement, and of illustrating and developing them effectively, and thus materially assisted the movement. His treatment is dry, logical, and didactic; but what it wants in directness and poetical force is made up for by the perseverance with which he urges his arguments.
[ A. M. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Brewer, Thomas

From volume 1 of the work.
[ E. F. R. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Brent, Charlotte

[ W. H. H. ]
# A Complete Guide to Heraldry/Chapter 40

CHAPTER XL
HATCHMENTS
A custom formerly prevailed in England, which at one time was of very considerable importance. This was the setting up of a hatchment after a death. No instances of hatchments of a very early date, as far as I am aware, are to be met with, and it is probably a correct conclusion that the custom, originating rather earlier, came into vogue in England during the seventeenth century and reached its height in the eighteenth. It doubtless originated in the carrying of ceremonial shields and helmets (afterwards left in the church) at funerals in the sixteenth century, and in the earlier practice of setting up in the church the actual shield of a deceased person. The cessation of the ceremonial funeral, no doubt, led to the cult of the hatchment. Hatchments cannot be said even yet to have come entirely to an end, but instances of their use are nowadays extremely rare, and since the early part of the nineteenth century the practice has been steadily declining, and at the present time it is seldom indeed that one sees a hatchment in use. The word "hatchment" is, of course, a corruption of the term "achievement," this being the heraldic term implying an emblazonment of the full armorial bearings of any person.
The manner of use was as follows. Immediately upon the death of a person of any social position a hatchment of his or her arms was set up over the entrance to his house, which remained there for twelve months, during the period of mourning. It was then taken down from the house and removed to the church, where it was set up in perpetuity. There are few churches of any age in this country which do not boast one or more of these hatchments, and some are rich in their possession. Those now remaining—for example, in St. Chad's Church in Shrewsbury—must number, I imagine, over a hundred. There does not appear to have been any obligation upon a clergyman either to permit their erection, or to allow them to remain for any specified period. In some churches they have been discarded and relegated to the vestry, to the coal-house, or to the rubbish-heap, whilst in others they have been carefully preserved.
The hatchment was a diamond-shaped frame, painted black, and ​enclosing a painting in oils upon wood, or more frequently canvas, of the full armorial bearings of the deceased person. The frame was usually about five feet six in height, and the rules for the display of arms upon hatchments afford an interesting set of regulations which may be applied to other heraldic emblazonments. The chief point, however, concerning a hatchment, and also the one in which it differs from an ordinary armorial emblazonment, lay in the colour of the groundwork upon which the armorial bearings were painted. For an unmarried person the whole of the groundwork was black, but for a husband or wife half was black and half white, the groundwork behind the arms of the deceased person being black, and of the surviving partner in matrimony white. The background for a widow or widower was entirely black.
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nibelungen

From volume 2 of the work.
[ F. H. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nicolini, Ernest

From volume 2 of the work.
​NICOLINI, originally Ernest Nicolas, son of an hotel-keeper of Dinard, Brittany, was born at Tours, Feb. 23, 1834. He was for a short time a pupil at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 1855 gained a second accessit in Comic Opera. Shortly after he was engaged at the Opéra Comique, where he remained until 1859, without any marked success. In that year he went to Italy, and under the name of Nicolini sang at Milan, Florence, Turin, and elsewhere, with fair success. He returned to Paris in 1862, to the Salle Ventadour, with better results than before, and sang there for several seasons till 1870.
[ A. C. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Neumark, Georg

[ M. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/New Philharmonic Society, The

From volume 2 of the work.
[ G. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nicolai, Otto

From volume 2 of the work.
​NICOLAI, Otto, eminent composer and conductor, born at Königsberg June 9, 1810. His home was unhappy and his education neglected, except for the piano, which he was well taught. At 16 he ran away, but found a protector in Justizrath Adler of Stargard, who assisted him in his studies, and in 1827 sent him to Berlin, where he took lessons from Zelter and Klein. In 1833 the Chevalier de Bunsen sent for him to Rome as organist to the chapel of the Prussian Embassy, and there, under Baini, he studied the ancient Italian masters, without neglecting those of modern date. Towards the close of 1837 he went to Vienna, and became Capellmeister and singing-master of the court opera, returning to Rome in Oct. 1838. He then composed a series of operas in the prevailing taste of the day. 'Enrico Secondo' and 'Rosmonda d'Inghilterra' (1839) were given at Trieste, and 'Il Templario' (1840) with great success at Turin; but 'Odoardo e Gildippe' (Genoa) and 'Il Proscritto' (Milan) were not so well received. In 1841 he accepted the first Capellmeistership of the court opera at Vienna, and remained till Easter 1847, highly appreciated as a conductor. Here were produced his 'Templario' (1841, German 45) and 'Die Heimkehr des Verbannten' (1844) a remodelling of 'Il Proscritto,' in which Staudigl was much applauded. With the avowed object of giving first-rate performances of Beethoven's Symphonies, he founded the Philharmonic concerts, the first of which took place March 28, 1842. A mass (composed 1843) dedicated to Frederic William IV, and a Fest-ouverture for the Jubilee of the University of Königsberg (1844) led to his appointment as director of the newly-founded Domchor, and Court-Capellmeister of the opera in Berlin, and he gave a farewell concert in the large Redoutensaal at Vienna (April 1, 1847) at which Jenny Lind sang, and some of the instrumental music in 'Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor' was produced for the first time. He completed that opera in Berlin, and the first performance took place on March 9, 1849, with brilliant success, which he did not live to enjoy, as he expired of apoplexy on May 11. The opera was given in Vienna (with recitatives by Proch) Feb. 12, 1852, and in London (as 'Falstaff') May 3, 1864, and holds its place as one of the most popular of comic operas.
[ C. F. P. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nicholson, Charles

From volume 2 of the work.
[ W. H. H. ]
# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nicodé, Jean-Louis

​NICODE, Jean-Louis, a pianist and composer of Polish birth, well known in Germany. He was born at Jerczik near Posen, in 1853, was brought at an early age to Berlin by his ​father, an amateur of music, who, after losing his property, earned a living by his violin playing. Jean-Louis received musical instruction in Berlin, resided there for some years as a teacher and executant, and was offered in 1879 a professorship at the Dresden Conservatoire. Nicodé held this post until 1885. In the meantime he had won a reputation by his compositions; and on coming forward as conductor of orchestral concerts was accorded by the public and the press hearty support and sympathy, which increased when his talent for conducting became evident. Under Nicodé, virtuosi of the first rank are heard in Dresden, in conjunction with the band of the Gewerbehaus, at the Subscription—or, as they have come to be called, the Philharmonic—Concerts; whereas the excellent though infrequent concert performances of the Court Orchestra did not admit of the introduction of the solo element.
[ L. M. M. ]