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

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​ASCIANO, a town of Tuscany, in the province of Siena, 19 m. S.E. of the town of Siena by rail. Pop. (1901) 7618. It is surrounded by walls built by the Sienese in 1351, and has some 14th-century churches with paintings of the same period. Six miles to the south is the large Benedictine monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, founded in 1320, famous for the frescoes by Luca Signorelli (1497–1498) and Antonio Bazzi, called Sodoma (1505), in the cloister, illustrating scenes from the legend of St Benedict; the latter master’s work is perhaps nowhere better represented than here. The church contains fine inlaid choir stalls by Fra Giovanni da Verona. The buildings, which are mostly of red brick, are conspicuous against the gray clayey and sandy soil. The monastery is described by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II.) in his Commentaria. Remains of Roman baths, with a fine mosaic pavement, were found within the town in 1898 (G. Pellegrini in Notizie degli scavi, 1899, 6).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aschaffenburg

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​ASCHAFFENBURG, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the right bank of the Main, at its confluence with the Aschaff, near the foot of the Spessart, 26 m. by rail S.E. of Frankfort-on-Main. Pop. (1900) 18,091; (1905) 25,275. Its chief buildings are the Johannisburg, built (1605–1614) by Archbishop Schweikard of Cronberg, which contains a library with a number of incunabula, a collection of engravings and paintings; the Stiftskirche, or cathedral, founded in 980 by Otto of Bavaria, but dating in the main from the early 12th and the 13th centuries, in which are preserved various monuments by the Vischers, and a sarcophagus, with the relics of St Margaret (1540); the Capuchin hospital; a theatre, which was formerly the house of the Teutonic order; and several mansions of the German nobility. The town, which has been remarkable for its educational establishments since the 10th century, has a gymnasium, lyceum, seminarium and other schools. There is an archaeological museum in the old abbey buildings. The graves of Klemens Brentano and his brother Christian (d. 1851) are in the churchyard; and Wilhelm Heinse is buried in the town. Coloured and white paper, ready-made clothing, cellulose, tobacco, lime and liqueurs are the chief manufactures, while a considerable export trade is done down the Main in wood, cattle and wine.
Aschaffenburg, called in the middle ages Aschafaburg and also Askenburg, was originally a Roman settlement. The 10th and 23rd Roman legions had their station here, and on the ruins of their castrum the Frankish mayors of the palace built a castle. Bonifacius erected a chapel to St Martin, and founded a Benedictine monastery. A stone bridge over the Main was built by Archbishop Willigis in 989. Adalbert increased the importance of the town in various ways about 1122. In 1292 a synod was held here, and in 1474 an imperial diet, preliminary to that of Vienna, in which the concordat was decided which has therefore been sometimes called the Aschaffenburg Concordat.
The town suffered greatly during the Thirty Years’ War, being held in turn by the various belligerents. In 1842–1849, King Louis built himself to the west of the town a country house, called the Pompeianum, from its being an imitation of the house of Castor and Pollux at Pompeii. In 1866 the Prussians inflicted a severe defeat on the Austrians in the neighbourhood.
The principality of Aschaffenburg, deriving its name from the city, comprehended an area of 654 English sq. m. It formed part of the electorate of Mainz, and in 1803 was made over to the archchancellor, Archbishop Charles of Dalberg. In 1806 it was annexed to the grand-duchy of Frankfort; and in 1814 was transferred to Bavaria, in virtue of a treaty concluded on the 19th of June between that power and Austria. With lower Franconia, it now forms a district of the kingdom of Bavaria.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aschersleben

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​ASCHERSLEBEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Saxony, 36 m. by rail N.W. from Halle, and at the junction of lines to Cöthen and Nienhagen. Pop. (1900) 27,245; (1905) 27,876. It contains one Roman Catholic and four Protestant churches, a synagogue, a fine town-hall dating from the 16th century, and several schools. The discovery of coal in the neighbourhood stimulated and altered its industries. In addition to the manufacture of woollen wares, for which it has long been known, there is now extensive production of vinegar, paraffin, potash and especially beetroot-sugar; while the surrounding district, which was formerly devoted in great part to market-gardening, is now turned almost entirely into beetroot fields. There are also iron, zinc and chemical manufactures, and the cultivation of agricultural seeds is carried on. In the neighbourhood are brine springs and a spa (Wilhelmsbad). Aschersleben was probably founded in the 11th century by Count Esico of Ballenstedt, the ancestor of the house of Anhalt, whose grandson, Otto, called himself count of Ascania and Aschersleben, deriving the former part of the title from his castle in the neighbourhood of the town. On the death of Otto III. (1315) Aschersleben passed into the hands of the bishop of Halberstadt, and at the peace of 1648 was, with the bishopric, united to Brandenburg.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Asclepiades (of Samos)

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​ASCLEPIADES, of Samos, epigrammatist and lyric poet, friend of Theocritus, flourished about 270 B.C. He was the earliest and most important of the convivial and erotic epigrammatists. Only a few of his compositions are actual “inscriptions”; others sing the praises of the poets whom he specially admired, but the majority of them are love-songs. It is doubtful whether he is the author of all the epigrams (some 40 in number) which bear his name in the Greek Anthology. He possibly gave his name to the Asclepiadean metre.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ascitans

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​ASCITANS (or Ascitae; from ἀσκός, the Greek for a wine-skin), a peculiar sect of 2nd-century Christians (Montanists), who introduced the practice of dancing round a wine-skin at their meetings.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ascites

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​ASCITES (Gr. ἀσκίτης, dropsical, from ἀσκός, bag; sc. νόσος, disease), the term in medicine applied to an effusion of non-inflammatory fluid within the peritoneum. It is not a disease in itself, but is one of the manifestations of disease elsewhere—usually in the kidneys, heart, or in connexion with the liver (portal obstruction). Portal obstruction is the commonest cause of well-marked ascites. It is produced by (1) diseases within the liver, as cirrhosis (usually alcoholic) and cancer; (2) diseases outside the liver, as cancer of stomach, duodenum or pancreas, causing pressure on the portal vein, or enlarged glands in the fissure of the liver producing the same effect. Ascites is one of the late symptoms in the disease, and precedes dropsy of the leg, which may come on later, due to pressure on the large veins in the abdominal cavity by the ascitic fluid. In ascites due to heart disease, the dropsy of the feet and legs precedes the ascites, and there will be a history of palpitation, shortness of breath, and perhaps cough. In the ascites of kidney troubles there will be a history of general oedema—puffiness of face and eyes on rising in the morning probably having attracted the attention of the patient or his friends previously. Other less common causes of ascites are chronic peritonitis, either tuberculous in the young, or due to cancer in the aged, and more rarely still pernicious anaemia.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brieg (Valais)

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​BRIEG, often now spelt Brig (Fr. Brigue, Ital. Briga), a picturesque small town in the Swiss canton of the Valais, situated at the foot of the northern slope of the Simplon Pass, on the right bank of the Saltine stream, and a little above its junction with the Rhone. Its older houses are very Italian in appearance, while its most prominent buildings (castle, former Jesuits’ college and Ursuline convent) all date from the 17th century, and are due to the generosity of a single member of the local Stockalper family. The prosperity of Brieg is bound up with the Simplon Pass (q.v.), so that it gradually supplanted the more ancient village of Naters opposite, becoming a separate parish (the church is at Glis, a few minutes from the town) in 1517. Its medieval name was Briga dives. The opening of the carriage road across the Simplon (1807) and of the tunnel beneath the pass (1906), as well as the fact that above Brieg is the steeper and less fertile portion of the Upper Valais (now much frequented by tourists), have greatly increased the importance and size of the town. The opening of the railway tunnel beneath the Lötschen Pass, affording direct communication with Bern and the Bernese Oberland, is calculated still further to contribute to its prosperity. The new town extends below the old one and is closer to the right bank of the Rhone. In 1900 the population was 2182, almost all Romanists, while 1316 were German-speaking, 719 Italian-speaking (the Simplon tunnel workmen), and 142 French-speaking, one person only speaking Romonsch.  (W. A. B. C.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brielle

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​BRIELLE (Briel or Bril), a seaport in the province of South Holland, Holland, on the north side of the island of Voorne, at the mouth of the New Maas, 51/2 m. N. of Hellevoetsluis. Pop. (1900) 4107. It is a fortified place and has a good harbour, arsenal, magazine and barracks. It also possesses a quaint town hall, and an orphanage dating from 1533. The tower of the Groote Kerk of St Catherine serves as a lighthouse. Most of the trade of Brielle was diverted to Hellevoetsluis by the cutting of the Voornsche Canal in 1829, but it still has some business in corn and fodder, as well as a few factories. A large number of the inhabitants are also engaged in the fisheries and as pilots.
The chief event in the history of Brielle is its capture by the Gueux sur Mer, a squadron of privateers which raided the Dutch coast under commission of the prince of Orange. This event, which took place on the 1st of April 1572, was the first blow in the long war of Dutch independence, and was followed by a general outbreak of the patriotic party (Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, part iii. chapter vi.). “The Brill” was one of the four Dutch towns handed over to Queen Elizabeth in 1584 as security for English expenses incurred in aiding the Dutch. Brielle is the birthplace of the famous admiral Martin van Tromp, and also of Admiral van Almonde, a distinguished commander of the early 18th century.
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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bridport

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​BRIDPORT, a market town and municipal borough in the Western parliamentary division of Dorsetshire, England, 18 m. N.W. of Dorchester, on a branch of the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 5710. It is pleasantly situated in a hilly district on the river Brit, from which it takes its name. The main part of the town is about a mile from the sea, with which it is connected by a winding street, ending at a quay surrounded by the fishing village of West Bay, where the railway terminates. The church of St Mary is a handsome cruciform Perpendicular building. The harbour is accessible only to small vessels. There is some import trade in flax, timber and coal. The principal articles of manufacture have long been sailcloth, cordage, linen and fishing-nets. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 593 acres.
Bridport was evidently of some importance before the Conquest, when it consisted of 120 houses rated for all the king’s services and paying geld for five hides. By 1086 the number of houses had decreased to 100, and of these 20 were in such a wretched condition that they could not pay geld. The town is first mentioned as a borough in the Pipe Roll of 1189, which states that William de Bendenges owed £9: 10s. for the ancient farm of Bridport, and that the men of the town owed tallage to the amount of 53s. 10d. Henry III. granted the first charter in 1252–1253, making the town a free borough and granting the burgesses the right to hold it at the ancient fee farm with an increase of 40s., and to choose two bailiffs to answer at the exchequer for the farm. A deed of 1381 shows that Henry III. also granted the burgesses freedom from toll. Bridport was incorporated by James I. in 1619, but Charles II. granted a new charter in 1667, and by this the town was governed until 1835. The first existing grant of a market and fairs to Bridport is dated 1593, but it appears from the Quo Warranto Rolls that Edward I. possessed a market there. The town was noted for the manufacture of ropes and cables as early as 1213, and an act of parliament (21 Henry VIII.) shows that the inhabitants had “from time out of mind” made the cables, ropes and hawsers for the royal navy and for most of the other ships. Bridport was represented in parliament by two members from 1395 to 1867. In the latter year the number was reduced to one, and in 1885 the town was disfranchised.
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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brie

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​BRIE (Briegus saltus, from Celtic briek, clay), an agricultural district of northern France, to the E. of Paris, bounded W. and S. by the Seine, N. by the Marne. It has an area of 2400 sq. m., comprising the greater part of the department of Seine-et-Marne, together with portions of the departments of Seine, Seine-et-Oise, Aisne, Marne and Aube. The western portion was known as the Brie française, the eastern portion as the Brie champenoise. The Brie forms a plateau with few eminences, varying in altitude between 300 and 500 ft. in the west, and between 500 and 650 ft. in the east. Its scenery is varied by forests of some size—the chief being the Forêt de Senart, the Forêt de Crécy and the Forêt d’Armainvilliers. The surface soil is clay in which are embedded fragments of siliceous sandstone, used for millstones and constructional purposes; the subsoil is limestone. The Yères, a tributary of the Seine, and the Grand Morin and Petit Morin, tributaries of the Marne, are the chief rivers, but the region is not abundantly watered and the rainfall is only between 20 and 24 in. The Brie is famous for its grain and its dairy products, especially cheeses.
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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brieg (Silesia)

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​BRIEG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia, on the left bank of the Oder, and on the Breslau and Beuthen railway, 27 m. S.E. of the former city. Pop. (1900) 24,090. It has a castle (the residence of the old counts of Brieg), a lunatic asylum, a gymnasium with a good library, several churches and hospitals, and a theatre. Its fortifications were destroyed by the French in 1807, and are now replaced by beautiful promenades. Brieg carries on a considerable trade, its chief manufactures being linen, embroideries, cotton and woollen goods, ribbons, leather, machinery, hats, pasteboard and cigars. Important cattle-markets are held here. Brieg, or, as it is called in early documents, Civitas Altae Ripae, obtained municipal rights in 1250 from Duke Henry III. of Breslau, and was fortified in 1297; its name is derived from the Polish Brzeg (shore). Burned by the Hussites in 1428, the town was soon afterwards rebuilt, and in 1595 it was again fortified by Joachim Frederick, duke of Brieg. In the Thirty Years’ War it suffered greatly; in that of the Austrian succession it was heavily bombarded by the Prussian forces; and in 1807 it was captured by the French and Bavarians. From 1311 to 1675 Brieg was the capital of an independent line of dukes, a cadet branch of the Polish dukes of Lower Silesia, by one of whom the castle was built in 1341. In 1537 Frederick II., duke of Liegnitz, Brieg and Wohlau, concluded with Joachim II., elector of Brandenburg, a treaty according to which his duchy was to pass to the house of Brandenburg in the event of the extinction of his line. On the death of George William the last duke in 1675, however, Austria refused to acknowledge the validity of the treaty and annexed the duchies. It was the determination of Frederick II. of Prussia to assert his claim that led in 1740 to the war that ended two years later in the cession of Silesia to Prussia.
See Stokvis, Manuel d’histoire, iii. pp. 54, 64.
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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brunswick (Georgia)

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​BRUNSWICK, a city and the county-seat of Glynn county, Georgia, U.S.A., and a port of entry, on St Simon Sound, about 12 m. from the Atlantic Ocean, and about 100 m. S. of Savannah. Pop. (1890) 8459; (1900) 9081, of whom 5184 were of negro descent; (1910 U.S. census) 10,182. It is one of the seaports of Georgia, the Federal government having dredged a channel in the inner harbour 21 ft. deep at mean low water and a channel across the outer bar 19.3 ft. deep at mean low water—there is a rise of 7.2 ft. at high tide. St Simon Island and Jekyl Island (a winter resort of wealthy men), lying between the ocean and the mainland, protect the harbour. The city is served by the Southern, the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic, and the Atlantic Coast Line railways; it is also connected by lines of steamboats with various ports along the coast, including New York and Boston. Brunswick’s growth has been retarded by the successful rivalry of other cities, notably Savannah; but it has a considerable export trade, principally in lumber, cross-ties and naval stores—its exports were valued at $13,387,838 in 1908—and various manufactories, including planing mills, cooperage works and oyster canneries. It was settled about 1772, and received a city charter in 1856.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brunton, Mary

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​BRUNTON, MARY (1778–1818), Scottish novelist, was born on the 1st of November 1778 in the island of Varra, Orkney. She was the daughter of Captain Thomas Balfour of Elwick. At the age of twenty she married Alexander Brunton, minister of Bolton in Haddingtonshire, and afterwards professor of oriental languages at Edinburgh. Mrs Brunton died on the 19th of December 1818. She was the author of two novels, popular in their day, Self-control (1810), and Discipline (1814; 1832 edition with memoir); and of a posthumous fragment, Emmeline (1819).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brunsbüttel

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​BRUNSBÜTTEL, a seaport town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, on the N. bank of the Elbe, 60 m. N.W. from Hamburg. Pop. (1905) 2500. Brunsbüttel is the west terminus of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, which is closed there by double locks. Here also are an inner harbour, 1640 ft. long and 656 ft. wide, a coaling station, and a small harbour for the tugs and other vessels belonging to the canal company.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brusa

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​BRUSA, or Broussa (anc. Prusa), the capital of the Brusa (Khudavendikiar) vilayet of Asia Minor, which includes parts of ancient Mysia, Bithynia, and Phrygia, and extends in a south-easterly direction from Mudania, on the Sea of Marmora, to Afium-Kara-Hissar on the Smyrna-Konia railway. The vilayet is one of the most important in Asiatic Turkey, has great mineral and agricultural wealth, many mineral springs, large forests, and valuable industries. It exports cereals, silk, cotton, opium, tobacco, olive-oil, meerschaum, boracite, &c. The Ismid-Angora and Eskishehr-Konia railways pass through the province. Population of the province, 1,600,000 (Moslems, 1,280,000; Christians, 317,000; Jews, 3000).
The city stretches along the lower slopes of the Mysian Olympus or Kechish Dagh, occupying a position above the valley of the Nilufer (Odrysses) not unlike that of Great Malvern above the vale of the Severn. It is divided by ravines into three quarters, and in the centre, on a bold terrace of rock, stood the ancient Prusa. The modern town has clean streets and good roads made by Ahmed Vefyk Pasha when Vali, and it contains mosques and tombs of great historic and architectural interest; the more important are those of the sultans Murad I., Bayezid (Bajazet) I., Mahommed I., and Murad II., 1403–1451, and the Ulu Jami’. The mosques show traces of Byzantine, Persian and Arab influence in their plan, architecture and decorative details. The circular church of St Elias, in which the first two sultans, Osman and Orkhan, were buried, was destroyed by fire and earthquake, and rebuilt by Ahmed Vefyk Pasha. There are in the town an American mission and school, and a British orphanage. Silk-spinning is an important industry, the export of silk in 1902 being valued at £620,000. There are also manufactories of silk stuffs, towels, burnús, carpets, felt prayer-carpets embroidered in silk and gold. The hot iron and sulphur springs near Brusa, varying in temperature from 112° to 178° F., are still much used. The town is connected with its port, Mudania, by a railway and a road. There is a British vice-consul. Pop. 75,000 (Moslems, 40,000; Christians, 33,000; Jews, 2000).
Prusa, founded, it is said, at the suggestion of Hannibal, was for a long time the seat of the Bithynian kings. It continued to flourish under the Roman and Byzantine emperors till the 10th century, when it was captured and destroyed by Saif-addaula of Aleppo. Restored by the Byzantines, it was again taken in 1327 by the Ottomans after a siege of ten years, and continued to be their capital till Murad I. removed to Adrianople. In 1402 it was pillaged by the Tatars; in 1413 it resisted an attack of the Karamanians; in 1512 it fell into the power of Ala ed-Din; and in 1607 it was burnt by the rebellious Kalenderogli. In 1883 it was occupied by the Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha, and from 1852–1855 afforded an asylum to Abd-el-Kader.
See L. de Laborde, Voyage de l’Asie Mineure (Paris, 1838); C. Texier, Asie Mineure (Paris, 1839).