OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Archangel (government)

See also Arkhangelsk Governorate on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ARCHANGEL (Archangelsk), a government of European Russia, bounded N. by the White Sea and Arctic Ocean, W. by Finland and Olonets, S. by Vologda, and E. by the Ural mountains. It comprehends the islands of Novaya-Zemlya, Vaygach and Kolguev, and the peninsula of Kola. Its area is 331,505 sq. m., and its population in 1867 was 275,779 and in 1897, 349,943. The part which lies within the Arctic Circle is very desolate and sterile, consisting chiefly of sand and reindeer moss. The winter is long and severe, and even in summer the soil is frozen. The rivers (Tuloma, Onega, Dvina, Mezen and Pechora) are closed in September and scarcely thaw before July. The Kola peninsula is, however, diversified by hills exceeding 3000 ft. in altitude and by large lakes (e.g. Imandra), and its coast enjoys a much more genial climate. South of the Arctic Circle the greater part of the country is covered with forests, intermingled with lakes and morasses, though in places there is excellent pasturage. Here the spring is moist, with cold, frosty nights; the summer a succession of long foggy days; the autumn again moist. The rivers are closed from October to April. The inhabitants of the northern districts—;nomad tribes of Samoyedes, Zyryans, Lapps, and the Finnish tribes of Karelians and Chudes—support themselves by fishing and hunting. In the southern districts hemp and flax are raised, but grain crops are little cultivated, so that the bark of trees has often to be ground up to eke out the scanty supply of flour. Potatoes are grown as far north as 65°. Shipbuilding is carried on, and the forests yield timber, pitch and tar. Excellent cattle are raised in the district of Kholmogory on the Dvina, veal being supplied to St Petersburg. Gold is found in the districts of Kola, naphtha and salt in those of Kem and Pinega, and lignite in Mezen. Sulphurous springs exist in the districts of Kholmogory and Shenkursk. The industry and commerce are noticed below in the article on the town Archangel, which is the capital. The government is divided into nine districts, the chief towns of which are—Alexandrovsk or Kola (pop. 300), Archangel (q.v.), Kem (1825), Kholmogory (1465), Mezen (2040), Novaya-Zemlya (island), Pechora, Pinega (1000) and Shenkursk (1308).
See A. P. Engelhardt, A Russian Province of the North (Eng. trans., by H. Cooke, 1899).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Archchancellor

See also Archchancellor on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ARCHCHANCELLOR (Lat. Archicancellarius; Ger. Erzkanzler), or chief chancellor, a title given to the highest dignitary of the Holy Roman Empire, and also used occasionally during the middle ages to denote an official who supervised the work of chancellors or notaries.
In the 9th century Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, in his work, De ordine palatii et regni, speaks of a summus cancellarius, evidently an official at the court of the Carolingian emperors and kings. A charter of the emperor Lothair I. dated 844 refers to Agilmar, archbishop of Vienne, as archchancellor, and there are several other references to archchancellors in various chronicles. This office existed in the German kingdom of Otto the Great, and about this time it appears to have become an appanage of the archbishopric of Mainz. When the Empire was restored by Otto in 962, a separate chancery seems to have been organized for Italian affairs, and early in the 11th century the office of archchancellor for the kingdom of Italy was in the hands of the archbishop of Cologne. The theory was that all the imperial business in Germany was supervised by the elector of Mainz, and for Italy by the elector of Cologne. However, the duties of archchancellor for Italy were generally discharged by deputy, and after the virtual separation of Italy and Germany, the title alone was retained by the elector. When the kingdom of Burgundy or Arles was acquired by the emperor Conrad II. in 1032 it is possible that a separate chancery was established for this kingdom. However this may be, during the 12th century the elector of Trier took the title of archchancellor for the kingdom of Arles, although it is doubtful if he ever performed any duties in connexion with this office. This threefold division of the office of imperial archchancellor was acknowledged in 1356 by the Golden Bull of the emperor Charles IV., but the duties of the office were performed by the elector of Mainz. The office in this form was part of the constitution of the Empire until 1803 when the archbishopric of Mainz was secularized. The last elector, Karl Theodor von Dalberg, however, retained the title of archchancellor until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. H. Reincke in Der alte Reichstag und der neue Bundesrat (Tübingen, 1906) points out a marked resemblance between the medieval archchancellor and the German imperial chancellor of the present day.
See du Cange, Glossarium, s. “Archicancellarius”; and Chancellor.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Battakhin

See also Batahin on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BATTAKHIN, African “Arabs” of Semitic stock. They occupy the banks of the Blue Nile near Khartum, and it was against them that General Gordon fought most of his battles near the town. Their sheikh, El Obeid, routed Gordon’s troops on the 4th of September 1884, a defeat which led to the close investment of Khartum. In the 18th century James Bruce described them as “a thieving, pilfering lot.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Battalion

See also Battalion on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BATTALION, a unit of military organization consisting of four or more companies of infantry. The term is used in nearly every army, and is derived through Fr. from It. battaglione, Med. Lat. battalia (see Battle). “Battalion” in the 16th and 17th centuries implied a unit of infantry forming part of the line of battle, but at first meant an unusually large battalia or a single large body of men formed of several battalias. In the British regular service the infantry battalion is commanded by a lieut.-colonel, who is assisted by an adjutant, and consists at war strength of about 1000 bayonets in eight companies. Engineers, train, certain kinds of artillery, and more rarely cavalry are also organized in battalions in some countries.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Battambang

See also Battambang on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BATTAMBANG, or Battambong (locally Phratabong), the chief town of the north-western division of Cambodia, formerly capital of Monton Kmer, i.e. “The Cambodian Division,” one of the eastern provinces of Siam, now included in the French protectorate of Cambodia. It is situated in 103° 6′ E., 13° 6′ N., in the midst of a fertile plain and on the river Sang Ke, which flows eastwards and falls into the Tonle or Talé Sap, the great lake of Cambodia. The town is a collection of bamboo houses of no importance, but there is a walled enceinte of some historical interest. Trade is small and is carried on by Chinese settlers, chiefly overland with Bangkok, but to a small extent also by water with Saigon. The population is about 5000, two-thirds Cambodian and the remainder Chinese and Siamese. The language is Cambodian.
Battambang was taken by the Siamese when they overran the kingdom of Cambodia towards the end of the 18th century, and was recognized by the French as belonging to Siam when the frontier of Cambodia was adjusted by treaty in 1867–1872. In another treaty in 1893, Siam bound herself to maintain no armed forces there other than police, but this arrangement was annulled by the treaty of 1904, by which Battambang was definitely admitted to lie within the French sphere of influence. Under a further treaty in March 1907 (see Siam), the district of Battambang was finally ceded to the French.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Battanni

See also Bettani on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BATTANNI, or Bhitani, a small tribe on the Waziri border of the North-West Frontier Province of India. The Battannis hold the hills on the borders of Tank and Bannu in the Dera Ismail Khan district, from the Gabar mountain on the north to the Gomal valley on the south. They are only 3000 fighting men strong, and are generally regarded as the jackals of the Waziris. Their chief importance arises from the fact that no raids can be carried into British districts by the Mahsud Waziris without passing through Battanni territory. A small British expedition against the Battannis was led by Lt.-Col. Rynd in 1880. Under the excitement caused by the preaching of a fanatical mullah the Mahsud Waziris had attacked the town of Gomal. The Battannis failed to supply information as to their ​movements, and gave them a passage through their lands. The British troops accordingly stormed the Hinis Tangi defile in face of opposition, and burned the village of Jandola.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Battaglia

See also Battaglia Terme on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BATTAGLIA, a town of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Padua, 11 m. S.S.W. by rail from Padua. Pop. (1901) 4456. It lies at the edge of the volcanic Euganean Hills, and is noted for its warm saline springs and natural vapour grotto. A fine palace was erected in the Palladian style in the 17th century by Marchese Benedetto Selvatico-Estense, then owner of the springs.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bombardment

See also Bombardment on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOMBARDMENT, an attack by artillery fire directed against fortifications, troops in position or towns and buildings. In its strict sense the term is only applied to the bombardment of defenceless or undefended objects, houses, public buildings, &c., the object of the assailant being to dishearten his opponent, and specially to force the civil population and authorities of a besieged place to persuade the military commandant to capitulate before the actual defences of the place have been reduced to impotence. It is, therefore, obvious that mere bombardment can only achieve its object when the amount of suffering inflicted upon non-combatants is sufficient to break down their resolution, and when the commandant permits himself to be influenced or coerced by the sufferers. A threat of bombardment will sometimes induce a place to surrender, but instances of its fulfilment being followed by success are rare; and, in general, with a determined commandant, bombardments fail of their object. Further, an intentionally terrific fire at a large target, unlike the slow, steady and minutely accurate “artillery attacks” directed upon the fortifications, requires the expenditure of large quantities of ammunition, and wears out the guns of the attack. Bombardments are, however, frequently resorted to in order to test the temper of the garrison and the civil population, a notable instance being that of Strassburg in 1870. The term is often loosely employed to describe artillery attacks upon forts or fortified positions in preparation for assaults by infantry.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bombazine

See also Bombazine on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOMBAZINE, or Bombasine, a stuff originally made of silk or silk and wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone. Good bombazine is made with a silk warp and a worsted weft. It is twilled or corded and used for dress-material. Black bombazine has been used largely for mourning, but the material has gone out of fashion. The word is derived from the obsolete French bombasin, applied originally to silk but afterwards to “tree-silk” or cotton. Bombazine is said to have been made in England in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and early in the 19th century it was largely made at Norwich.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bona, John

See also Giovanni Bona on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BONA, JOHN (1609–1674), Italian cardinal and author, was born at Mondovi in Piedmont, on the 10th of October 1609. In 1624 he joined the Congregation of Feuillants and was successively elected prior of Asti, abbot of Mondovi and general of his order. He was created cardinal in 1669 by Clement IX., and during the conclave, which followed that pope’s death, was regarded as a possible candidate for the papacy. He died on the 27th of October 1674. Bona’s writings are mainly concerned with liturgical and devotional subjects. Of the numerous editions of his works, the best are those of Paris (1677), Turin (1747) and Antwerp (1777). Stores of interesting rubrical information, interspersed with verses and prayers, are to be found in the De Libris Liturgicis and the Divina Psalmodia; recent advances in liturgical studies, however, have somewhat lessened their value. The De Discretione Spirituum treats of certain higher phases of mysticism; the Via Compendii ad Deum was well translated in 1876 by Henry Collins, O. Cist., under the title of An Easy Way to God. Sir Roger L’Estrange’s translation (The Guide to Heaven, 1680) of the Manuductio ad Coelum was reprinted in 1898, and a new edition of the Principia Vitae Christianae, ed. by D. O’Connor, appeared in 1906. The devotional treatise De Sacrificio Missae is the classical work in its field (new edition by Ildephonsus Cummins, 1903).
The chief source for the life of Bona is the biography by the Cistercian abbot Bertolotti (Asti, 1677); the best modern study is by A. Ighina (Mondovi, 1874).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bomberg, Daniel

See also Daniel Bomberg on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOMBERG, DANIEL, a famous Christian printer of Hebrew books. His chief activity was in Venice between 1516 and 1549 (the year of his death). Bomberg introduced a new era in Hebrew typography. Among other great enterprises, he published the editio princeps (1516–1517) of the rabbinical Bible (Hebrew text with rabbinical commentaries, &c.). He also produced the first complete edition of the Talmud (1520–1523).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bombay Furniture

See also Bombay furniture on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOMBAY FURNITURE. “Bombay blackwood furniture” is a term applied to a rather extensive class of articles manufactured in the city of Bombay and in the towns of Surat and Ahmedabad in India. The wood used is Shisham or blackwood (Dalbergia), a hard-grained dark-coloured timber which with proper treatment assumes a beautiful natural polish. Much of the so-called Bombay furniture is clumsy and inelegant in form, defects which it is suggested by experts, like Sir George Birdwood, it owes to the circumstance that the original models were Dutch. Some of the smaller articles, such as flower stands, small tables, and ornamental stands, are, however, of exceedingly graceful contour, and good examples are highly prized by collectors. The carving at its best is lace-like in character, and apart from its inherent beauty is attractive on account of the ingenuity shown by the worker in adapting his design in detail to the purpose of the article he is fashioning. The workmen who manufacture the most artistic Bombay furniture are a special class with inherited traditions. Often a man knows only one design, which has been transmitted to him by his father, who in his turn had had it from his father before him. In recent years under European auspices efforts have been made with a certain measure of success to modernize the industry by introducing portions of the native work into furniture of Western design. In the main, however, the conventional patterns are still adhered to. “Bombay boxes” are inlaid in geometrical patterns on wood. The inlaying materials consist of the wire, sandal wood, sapan wood, ebony, ivory and stags’ horns, and the effect produced by the combination of minute pieces of these various substances is altogether peculiar and distinctive.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bombelles, Marc Marie, Marquis de

See also Marc Marie, Marquis de Bombelles on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​BOMBELLES, MARC MARIE, Marquis de (1744–1822), French diplomatist and ecclesiastic, was the son of the comte de Bombelles, tutor and guardian of the duke of Orleans. He was born at Bitsch in Lorraine, and served in the army through the Seven Years’ War. In 1765 he entered the diplomatic service, and after several diplomatic missions became ambassador of France to Portugal in 1786, being charged to win over that country to the Family Compact; but the madness of the queen and then the death of the king prevented his success. He was transferred to Vienna early in 1789, but the Revolution cut short his diplomatic career, and he was deprived of his post in September 1790. He remained attached to Louis XVI., and was employed on secret missions to other sovereigns, to gain their aid for Louis. In 1792 he emigrated, and after Valmy lived in retirement in Switzerland. In 1804, after the death of his wife, he withdrew to the monastery of Brünn in Austria, and became bishop of Oberglogau in Prussia. In 1815 he returned to France, and became bishop of Amiens (1819). He died in Paris in 1822.
His son, Louis Philippe, comte de Bombelles (1780–1843), born at Regensburg, passed his life in the diplomatic service of Austria. In 1814 he became Austrian ambassador to Denmark, and in 1816 filled a similar position at Dresden.  (E. Es.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Alexandersbad

See also Bad Alexandersbad on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ALEXANDERSBAD, a watering-place of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, romantically situated in the Fichtelgebirge, near Wunsiedel, at a height of 1900 ft. above the sea. Pop. 1200. Its waters, which are ferruginous and largely charged with carbonic acid gas, are of use in nervous and rheumatic ​disorders. In the neighbourhood is the Luisenburg (or Luxburg), so called after a visit paid by Queen Louise of Prussia in 1805, a hill covered by majestic granite rocks, commanding a grand view of the whole range of the Fichtelgebirge.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Alexandria Troas

See also Alexandria Troas on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ALEXANDRIA TROAS (mod. Eski Stambul), an ancient Greek city of the Troad, situated on the west coast at nearly its middle point, a little south of Tenedos. It was built by Antigonus, perhaps about 310 B.C., and was called by him Antigonia Troas. Early in the next century the name was changed by Lysimachus to Alexandria Troas, in honour of Alexander’s memory. As the chief port of north-west Asia Minor, the place prospered greatly in Roman times, and the existing remains sufficiently attest its former importance. Thence St Paul sailed for Europe for the first time, and there occurred later the episode of the raising of Eutychus (Acts xx. 5-12). The site is now covered with valonia oaks, and has been much plundered, e.g. by Mahommed IV., who took columns to adorn his new Valideh mosque in Stambul; but the circuit of the old walls can be traced, and in several places they are fairly well preserved. They had a circumference of about six English miles, and were fortified with towers at regular intervals. Remains of some ancient buildings, including a bath and gymnasium, can be traced within this area. Trajan built an aqueduct which can still be traced. The harbour had two large basins, now almost choked with sand. A Roman colony was sent to the place, as Strabo mentions, in the reign of Augustus. The abridged name “Troas” (Acts xvi. 8) was probably the current one in later Roman times.  (D. G. H.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Alexandretta

See also İskenderun on Wikipedia; the 9th edition; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​ALEXANDRETTA, or Iskanderun (med. Scanderoon), a town of N. Syria, situated in the N.E. angle of the Levantine Mediterranean on the S.E. of the gulf to which it gives a title. Pop. about 10,000, two-thirds Moslem. Iskanderun preserves the name, but probably not the exact site, of Alexandria ad Issum, founded by Alexander in 333 B.C., about 23 m. S. of the scene of his victory, to supersede Myriandrus as key of the Syrian Gates (Beilan Pass). The importance of the place ever since has been derived from its relation to this pass, the easiest approach to the open ground of N. Syria of which Antioch and Aleppo have been the successive capitals; and this relation has prevailed over the extreme unhealthiness of the site, which lies on marshy deltaic ground, screened by the horseshoe of Elma Dagh from all purifying influences of N. and E. winds. As the main outlet for the overland trade from Bagdad and India, whose importance was great until the establishment of the Egyptian overland route, the place was a great resort, first of Genoese and Venetian merchants, then of those of West and North European nations. The British Levant (Turkey) Company maintained an agency and factory here for 200 years, till 1825, in spite of appalling mortality among its employés. Alexandretta is still the main port for the Aleppo district, to which a good chaussée leads over the Beilan Pass, and it has a considerable export trade in tobacco, silk, cereals, liquorice, textiles. The health of the place has improved with the draining of the marshes and the provision of a better supply of water, but still leaves much to be desired. The wealthier inhabitants have summer residences at Beilan near the summit of the pass, long a stronghold of freebooting Dere Beys and the scene of the victory won by Ibrahim Pasha in 1832, which opened Cilicia to his advance. There are resident consuls of all the principal powers, and the port is well served by coasting steamers under European and Ottoman flags. The distance by road to Aleppo has been shortened to about 70 m., and Antakia (Antioch) is about 45 m. distant by a branch of the same chaussée.  (D. G. H.)