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

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​SITTING BULL (c. 1837-1890), a chief and medicine man of the Dakota Sioux, was born on Willow Creek in what is now North Dakota about 1837, son of a chief named Jumping Bull. He gained great influence among the reckless and unruly young Indians, and during the Civil War led attacks on white settlements in Iowa and Minnesota. Though he had pretended to make peace in 1866, from 1869 to 1876 he frequently attacked whites or Indians friendly to whites. His refusal to return to the reservation in 1876, led to the campaign in which General George A. Custer (q.v.) and his command were massacred. Fearing punishment for his participation in the massacre, Sitting Bull with a large band moved over into Canada. He returned to the United States in 1881, and after 1883 made his home at the Standing Rock Agency. Rumours of a coming Indian Messiah who should sweep away the whites, and Indian dissatisfaction at the sale of their lands, created such great unrest in Dakota in 1880-1890 that it was determined to arrest Sitting Bull as a precaution. He was surprised and captured by Indian police and soldiers on Grand river on the 15th of December 1890, and was killed while his companions were attempting to rescue him.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Siva

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​SIVA, in Hindu mythology, a god who forms the supreme trinity with Brahma and Vishnu. As Brahma is the creator and Vishnu the preserver, so Siva is the destroyer. His name does not occur in the Vedas, but in later Hinduism he is an important divinity. Though Siva's personal appearance is fully described in the Puranas, it is in the form of the linga (phallic emblem) that he is almost universally worshipped. Death being a transition to a new form of life, the destroyer is really a re-creator, and thus Siva is styled the Bright or Happy One. He is exclusively a post-Vedic god, though he has been identified by the Hindus with the Rudra of the Vedas, and numerous features of Siva's character and history are developed from those of Rudra. See further Brahmanism and Hinduism.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/What-Not

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​WHAT-NOT, a piece of furniture, derived from the French étagère, which was exceedingly popular in England in the first three-quarters of the 19th century. It usually consists of slender uprights or pillars, supporting a series of shelves for holding china, ornaments or trifles of any kind—hence the allusive name. In its English form, although a convenient drawing-room receptacle, it was rarely beautiful. The early mahogany examples are, however, sometimes graceful in their simplicity.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wheatley, Francis

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​WHEATLEY, FRANCIS (1747–1801), English portrait and landscape painter, was born in 1747 at Wild Court, Covent Garden, London. He studied at Shipley's drawing-school and the Royal Academy, and won several prizes from the Society of Arts. He assisted in the decoration of Vauxhall, and aided Mortimer in painting a ceiling for Lord Melbourne at Brocket Hall (Hertfordshire). In youth his life was irregular and dissipated. He eloped to Ireland with the wife of Gresse, a brother artist, and established himself in Dublin as a portrait-painter, executing, among other works, an interior of the Irish House of Commons. His scene from the London Riots of 1780 was admirably engraved by Heath. He painted several subjects for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery, designed illustrations to Bell's edition of the poets, and practised to some small extent as an etcher and mezzotint-engraver. It is, however, as a painter, in both oil and water-colour, of landscapes and rustic subjects that Wheatley is best remembered. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1790, and an academician in the following year. He died on the 28th of June 1801. His wife, afterwards Mrs Pope, was known as a painter of flowers and portraits.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wheaton, Henry

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​WHEATON, HENRY (1785-1848), American lawyer and diplomatist, was born at Providence, Rhode Island, on the 27th of November 1785. He graduated at Brown University in 1802, was admitted to the bar in 1805, and, after two years' study abroad, practised law at Providence (1807-1812) and at New York City (1812-1827). He was a justice of the Marine Court of the city of New York from 1815 to 1819, and reporter of the United States Supreme Court from 1816 to 1827, aiding in 1825 in the revision of the laws of New York. His diplomatic career began in 1827, with an appointment to Denmark as chargé d'affaires, followed by that of minister to Prussia, 1837 to 1846. During this period he had published a Digest of the Law of Maritime Captures (1815); twelve volumes of Supreme Court Reports, and a Digest; a great number of historical articles, and some collected works; Elements of International Law (1836), his most important work, of which a 6th edition with memoir was prepared by W. B. Lawrence and an eighth by R. H. Dana (q.v.); Histoire du Progrès du Droit des Gens en Europe, written in 1838 for a prize offered by the French Academy of Moral and Political Science, and translated in 1845 by William B. Lawrence as A History of the Law of Nations in Europe and America; and the Right of Visitation and Search (1842). The History took rank at once as one of the leading works on the subject of which it treats. Wheaton's general theory is that international law consists of "those rules of conduct which reason deduces, as consonant to justice, from the nature of the society existing among independent nations, with such definitions and modifications as may be established by general consent." In 1846 Wheaton was requested to resign by the new president, Polk, who needed his place for another appointment. The request provoked general condemnation; but Wheaton resigned and returned to the United States. He was called at once to the Harvard Law School as lecturer on international law; but he died at Dorchester, Massachusetts, on the 11th of March 1848.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wheel

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​WHEEL (O. Eng. hwēol, hweohl, &c., cognate with Icel. hjōl, Dan. hiul, &c.; the Indo-European root is seen in Sanskrit chakra, Gr. κύκλος, circle, whence "cycle"), a circular frame or solid disk revolving on an axis, of which the function is to transmit or to modify motion. For the mechanical attributes and power of the wheel and for the modification of the lever, known as the "wheel and axis," and of the mechanical powers, see Mechanics. The most familiar type of the wheel is of course that used in every type of vehicle, but it forms an essential part of nearly every kind of mechanism or machinery. Vehicular wheels in the earliest times were circular disks either cut out of solid pieces of wood, or formed of separate planks of wood fastened together and then cut into a circular shape. Such may be still seen in use among primitive peoples to-day, especially where the tracks, if any exist, are of the roughest description, and travelling is heavy. The ordinary wheel consists of the nave (O. Eng. nafu, cf. Ger. Nabe, allied with "navel"), the central portion or hub, through which the axle passes, the spokes, the radial bars inserted in the nave and reaching to the peripheral rim, the felloe or felly (O. Eng. felge, Ger. Felge, properly that which fitted together, Teut. felhan, to fit together). From the monuments we see that the ancient Egyptian and Assyrian chariots had usually six spokes; the Greek and Roman wheels from four to eight. (See further Carriage and Chariot; also Tire; and articles on Bicycle; Tricycle; and Motor Vehicles.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wheel, Breaking on the

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​WHEEL, BREAKING ON THE, a form of torture and execution formerly in use, especially in France and Germany. It is said to have been first used in the latter country, where the victim was placed on a cart-wheel and his limbs stretched out along the spokes. The wheel was made to slowly revolve, and the man's bones broken with blows of an iron bar. Sometimes it was mercifully ordered that the executioner should strike the criminal on chest and stomach, blows known as coups de grâce, which at once ended the torture, and in France he was usually strangled after the second or third blow. A wheel was not always used ​In some countries it was upon a frame shaped like St Andrew's Cross that the sufferer was stretched. The punishment was abolished in France at the Revolution. It was employed in Germany as late as 1827. A murderer was broken on the row or wheel at Edinburgh in 1604, and two of the assassins of the regent Lennox thus suffered death.
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Abassa

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
OF
CELEBRATED WOMEN.
ABASSA, an Arabian Princess of the Eighth Century,
SISTER of the famous Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid; who thought so highly of her wit, accomplishments, and beauty, that he lamented he was her brother, believing no other husband could be found worthy of her. To sanction, however, a wish he had of conversing, at the same time, with the two most enlightened people he knew, he married her to Giaffer, his visier, on condition, that they should see each other only in his presence. This law they transgressed; and Abassa had a son, who was privately sent to Mecca. But the fatal secret remained not long unknown to the Caliph, who was so transported with rage, that he ordered, not only the execution of Giaffer, but, that none might remain, who could boast an alliance with the blood of Ali, of his whole family also, the amiable and beneficent Barmecides, whose death was long deplored as a public calamity.
It is uncertain what befel Abassa: some say she was shut up in a dungeon, where she died of grief; others, that she was driven from the palace, and reduced to extreme want. Probability is in favour of the first account. Abassa had a fine poetical genius.
F. C. Notes to the Knights of the Swan, by Madame Genlis, &c.
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Agnes

AGNES,
Canonized in the Romish church, whose history is at present nearly lost in obscurity. Some particulars are, however, related, which bear much affinity to the preceding article.
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Acciaiuoli, (Madeleine Salvetti)

ACCIAIUOLI, (MADELEINE SALVETTI) an Italian Poetess. Died 1610.
The wife of a gentleman of Florence, who was no less celebrated for her attachment to polite literature, to which she devoted great part of her time, than for her virtue, exquisite beauty, and the fine taste which was conspicuous in her poetical works. Two volumes in quarto were published at Florence in 1590, principally consisting, according to the custom of the age, particularly in France and Italy, of poems in praise of the grand duke and duchess. She left an unfinished epic poem, entitled David persecuted.
F. C. &c.
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Adrichomia, (Cornelia)

ADRICHOMIA, (CORNELIA) a Dutch Nun of the Sixteenth Century.
Daughter of a gentleman in Holland, and a nun of the order of St. Augustin. She distinguished herself by her talent for poetry which she exercised only on religious subjects; one of which was, A Version of the Psalms of David.
Female Worthies, &c.
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Afra

AFRA, Martyr in Crete, during the Dioclesian Persecution.
A Pagan and courtezan, Afra had no sooner heard the gospel preached, than she was struck with horror at her past life. She confessed her sins, and was baptized; but her former lovers, enraged that they could no longer obtain admission at her house, denounced her as a Christian. She was examined, confessed her faith before the judge with firmness, and was burnt alive. Her mother and three servants, who had shared her crimes and her repentance, were arrested, as they watched at her tomb, and suffered the same punishment.
F. C.
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Agalis

AGALIS, or AGATHIS,
A Woman of the island of Corfu, whose knowledge is highly spoken of by ancient authors. She excelled principally in rhetoric and grammar. It is said she composed some treatises on these subjects. Meursius, in his work on Grecian games, attributes the invention of a play at ball to her.
F. C. &c.
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country

A
BIOGRAPHICAL
DICTIONARY
OF THE
CELEBRATED WOMEN
OF
EVERY AGE AND COUNTRY.
By MATILDA BETHAM.
London:
PRINTED FOR B. CROSBY AND CO., STATIONERS' COURT, LUDGATE-HILL; TEGG AND CASTLEMAN, WARWICK-LANE; AND E. LLOYD, HARLEY-STREET, CAVENDISH-SQUARE.
1804.
PRINTED BY BETHAM AND WARDE,
       FURNIVAL'S-INN COURT, HOLBORN.
PREFACE.
Some years since I began to collect the materials, from which the following work is composed, not according to any predetermined plan of compilation, nor even with a serious design of presenting them to the public. But my collection was increased, as my reading was extended; and I was induced to believe, that a General Dictionary of Women, who had been distinguished by their actions or talents, in various nations, or at different periods of the world, digested under an alphabetical arrangement, which had never been done in our language, might meet with a favourable reception.
Under this impression, I put forth, in the year 1801, proposals for publishing my projected work, in four volumes, octavo. But this intention had not been long announced, before advertisements appeared of another work being in the press, under a similar title. Not meaning to run a race with any other author, I desisted for a while from my undertaking. But when, upon the publication of that work, I found it to be rather a selection of historical extracts, than a digested compilation of Female ​Biography, which it had been, and is now, my object to produce; I resumed my original idea of publishing, although upon a more contracted scale than I had before designed.
The book, which now, with much diffidence, I submit to the public judgement, must have many claims on their indulgence; most, in those parts, certainly, where I have hazarded original criticism, or observation. For the rest, authenticity, and impartiality, have been my aim throughout, conceiving those principles to be of more consequence in a work of this kind, than ornamental writing.
I have had communications and assistance from several friends, and have made liberal use of the aid afforded me in Le Dictionnaire des Femmes Célébres: which, however, I had never seen till after the greatest part of my own materials was collected; and, in all such cases, I have, to avoid repetition, marked the articles with the initials F. C. only. To other quotations I have noted the authority more at length.
M. Betham.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Acca Laurentia

ACCA LAURENTIA, Nurse of Romulus and Remus,
Wife of the shepherd Faustulus, was deified by the Romans, who instituted a yearly sacrifice to her honour.
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Adorni, (Catherine Fieschi)

ADORNI, (CATHERINE FIESCHI). Born at Genoa, 1447. Died 1510.
Author of two books of great repute, one on Purgatory, and the other, A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body, is said to have treated, in a very judicious manner, difficult theological subjects, though not learned. She was of a good family, and the wife of a Genoese nobleman, whose strange temper she suffered many years with great patience. She was a religious enthusiast; and used to have fits, or ecstacies, in which she usually spoke in verse, though she never composed in it at other times: but, a taste for poetry, which made her frequently get passages by heart, uncertain health, and a too lively imagination, may easily account for what then appeared miraculous.
F. C.
# A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Agatha

AGATHA, a Sicilian Martyr, A. D, 251,
Was of a noble family at Palermo. Her beauty inspired Quintius, governor of Sicily, under the emperor Decius, with the most violent love: and, being a Christian, he employed not only intreaties, but menaces, to seduce her; till, wearied out by the obstinacy of her virtue, he thought only of vengeance. Her body was cruelly mangled, and afterwards rolled on burning coals and broken potsherds. She was then carried back to die in prison: and her name is still ranked in the list of saints in the Roman calendar.
F. C.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Matilda, daughter of Baldwin de Lille

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MATILDA,
Daughter of Baldwin de Lille, Count of Flanders, married her cousin, William of Normandy, afterwards King of England. The pope granted them absolution on their marriage, on condition of their erecting two chapels, which they did. She is distinguished for working the tapestry in wool, portraying the descent upon England, which is still preserved in the cathedral at Bayeux. She was a woman of great kindness and generosity; and her death, in 1083, was a source of unfeigned sorrow to her husband, and deep regret of the people both of England and Normandy.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Mattugliana Mea

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MATTUGLIANA MEA.
Among the women who gave lustre to the literature of Bologna during the fifteenth century, was Bartolomea, whom her contemporaries universally called Mea. She is supposed to have been the wife of Michele Mattugliani, or Mattugani, a man honoured and respected by his fellow-citizens, both for his own merit, and for the elevated situation to which his birth entitled him. She is represented as beautiful, accomplished, and learned. A modern Bolognese writer has indulged his imagination with the probabilities of a romantic attachment between her and the young Carlo Cavalcabo; but this is mere fantasy: we have nothing to authenticate, or even afford the slightest base for such a legend. On the contrary, Mea appears to have been a prudent, virtuous wife. Carlo Cavalcabo, elevated to the lordship of Bologna in 1405, took pleasure in a select society of intellectual persons. He addressed to the Bolognese poetess' a poetical epistle which breathes nothing but the most respectful friendship. She replied to it by an answer in terza rima, which is the only one of her works now-extant. The poetry is graceful, sweet, and of an elevated moral tone. She enumerates the titles and honours of Cavalcabo, gives him just praise without adulation; in a dignified manner she thanks him for attributing so much merit to her, while she modestly disclaims his praises; she says they will be to her an incentive to improvement. Then follows a learned account of those women who have honoured their sex by virtue, with deprecations for those who have sought other than honest fame. She concludes by exhorting the Lord of Cremona to meritorious enterprises.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/McIntosh, Maria Jane

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McINTOSH, MARIA JANE,
Is a native of Georgia, in America. She was born at Sunbury, a village about forty miles south of Savannah, and received all the education which she derived from schools at an academy in her native place. In 1835, Miss McIntosh removed to the city of New York, where she has since resided. Her first printed work, "Blind Alice," was published in 1840. It was followed, at various intervals, by the other tales, known as "Aunt Kitty's," which appeared in the following order:—"Jessie Grahame," "Florence Arnott," "Grace and Clara," and "Ellen Leslie;" the last being published in 1842. "Conquest and Self-Conquest," "Woman an Enigma," "Praise and Principle" and a little tale called "The Cousins," were published between 1848 and 1846. In 1847, the "Two Lives, or to seem and to be," was issued; and since that "Aunt Kitty's Tales," collected into one volume and carefully revised, "Charms and Counter-Charms," and "Woman in America—her Work and her Reward." In 1850, appeared "The Christmas Guest," intended as a book for the holidays.
In all Miss McIntosh's writings, there are evidences of originality and freshness of mind, as well as of good judgment and sound religious principle. In her two longer tales, she has displayed unusual power in depicting the passions and interesting the feelings. In her work on woman, she has shown herself to be one who thinks and judges for herself, uninfluenced and undisturbed by the clamour of conflicting opinions; and there have been few books on that much-canvassed topic which show so much sound common sense, as well as thought and earnestness. Her style is easy and graceful, and her first object is evidently the maintenance of pure morality and religion.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Matraini, Clara Cantarini

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MATRAINI, CLARA CANTARINI,
Was of a noble family of Lucca, and one of the best Italian poets of the sixteenth century. Her style is said to be pure, correct, and full of force and elegance; her ideas clear, noble, and ingenious; and she particularly excels as a lyrist. Many of her pieces were printed at Venice, in 1560. Many others were subjoined to her letters, which were printed at Lucca in 1595. In these she appears well instructed in sacred history, and in theology in general; one, to her son, contains many useful maxims of manners and conduct. Her "Christian Meditations," mixed with very beautiful scraps of poetry, and concluded by a female's ode to the Almighty, were printed there. She also wrote a life of the Virgin Mary, in which are many pieces of poetry; others are found in different collections. She was well skilled in the Platonic philosophy, was generally esteemed by the literati of that age, and corresponded with many of them.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Mellon, Harriet, Duchess of St. Albans

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MELLON, HARRIET, DUCHESS OF ST. ALBANS,
Was born in Westminster, about 1775. Her father was a gentleman in the service of the East India Company, but died before the birth of his daughter. Her mother afterwards married Mr. Entwistle, a professor of music, and leader of the band at the York theatre. Miss Mellon was educated for the stage, and made ​her debut at Drury-Lane, London, in 1793; she was considered at the head of the second-rate actresses, and was often intrusted with first-rate comic characters. In 1815, Miss Mellon married Mr. Coutts, a wealthy banker, who had long been attached to her; and, at his death, in 1822, he left her his immense fortune. Mrs. Coutts afterwards married the Duke of St. Albans, a man much younger than herself. On her death, she left most of the property to Miss Burdett, daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, on the condition that the young lady should bear, in addition to Burdett, the surname and arms of Coutts.