OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beaufort, Louis de

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​BEAUFORT, LOUIS DE (d. 1795), French historian, of whose life little is known. In 1738 he published at Utrecht a Dissertation sur l’incertitude des cinq premiers siècles de l’histoire romaine, in which he showed what untrustworthy guides even the historians of highest repute, such as Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, were for that period, and pointed out by what methods and by the aid of what documents truly scientific bases might be given to its history. This was an ingenious plea, bold for its time, against traditional history such as Rollin was writing at that very moment. A German, Christopher Saxius, endeavoured to refute it in a series of articles published in vols. i.-iii. of the Miscellanea Liviensia. Beaufort replied by some brief and ironical Remarques in the appendix to the second edition of his Dissertation (1750). Beaufort also wrote an Histoire de César Germanicus (Leyden, 1761), and La République romaine, ou plan général de l’ancien gouvernement de Rome (The Hague, 1766, 2 vols. quarto). Though not a scholar of the first rank, Beaufort has at least the merit of having been a pioneer in raising the question, afterwards elaborated by Niebuhr, as to the credibility of early Roman history.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beaufort Scale

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​BEAUFORT SCALE, a series of numbers from 0 to 12 arranged by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774–1857) in 1805, to indicate the strength of the wind from a calm, force 0, to a hurricane, force 12, with sailing directions such as “5, smacks shorten sails” for coast purposes, and “royals, &c., ‘full and by’ ” for the open sea. An exhaustive report was made in 1906 by the Meteorological Office on the relation between the estimates of wind-force according to Beaufort’s scale and the velocities recorded by anemometers belonging to the office, from which the following table is taken:—
| Beaufort scale. | Corresponding wind. | Limits of hourly velocity. |
| Numbers. | | Miles per hour. |
| 0 | Calm | Under 2 |
| 1–3 | Light breeze | 2–12 |
| 4–5 | Moderate wind | 13–23 |
| 6–7 | Strong wind | 24–37 |
| 8–9 | Gale | 38–55 |
| 10–11 | Storm | 56–75 |
| 12 | Hurricane | Above 75 |
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beaufort West

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​BEAUFORT WEST, in Cape province, South Africa, the capital of a division of this name, 339 m. by rail N.E. of Cape Town. Pop.(1904) 5481. The largest town in the western part of the Great Karroo, it lies, at an elevation of 2792 ft., at the foot of the southern slopes of the Nieuwveld mountains. It has several fine public buildings and the streets are lined with avenues of pear trees, while an abundant supply of water, luxuriant orchards, fields and gardens give it the appearance of an oasis in the desert. It is a favourite resort of invalids. The town was founded in 1819, and in its early days was largely resorted to by Griquas and Bechuana for the sale of ivory, skins and cattle. The Beaufort West division has an area of 6374 sq. m. and a pop. (1904) of 10,762, 45% being whites. Sheep-farming is the principal industry.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beauce

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​BEAUCE (Lat. Belsia), a physical region of north-central France, comprising large portions of the departments of Eure-et-Loir and Loir-et-Cher, and also extending into those of Loiret and Seine-et-Oise. It has an area of over 2800 sq. m., its limits being roughly defined by the course of the Essonne on the E., of the Loire on the S., and of the Brenne, the Loir and the Eure towards the W., though in the latter direction it extends somewhat beyond these boundaries. The Beauce is a treeless, arid and monotonous plain of limestone formation; windmills and church spires are the only prominent features of the landscape. Apart from the rivers on its borders, it is watered by insignificant streams, of which the Conie in the west need alone be mentioned. The inhabitants live in large villages, and are occupied in agriculture, particularly in the cultivation of wheat, for which the Beauce is celebrated. Clover and lucerne are the other leading crops, and large flocks of sheep are kept in the region. Chartres is its chief commercial centre.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Beauchamp, Alphonse de

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​BEAUCHAMP, ALPHONSE DE, French historian and man of letters, was born at Monaco in 1767, and died in 1832. In 1784 he entered a Sardinian regiment of marines, but on the outbreak of war with the French Republic, he refused to fight in what he considered an unjust cause, and was imprisoned for several months. After being liberated he took up his residence in Paris, where he obtained a post in one of the government offices. On the fall of Robespierre, Beauchamp was transferred to the bureau of the minister of police, and charged with the superintendence of the press. This situation opened up to him materials of which he made use in his first and most popular historical work, Histoire de la Vendée et des Chouans, 3 vols., 1806. The book, received with great favour by the people, was displeasing to the authorities. The third edition was confiscated; its writer was deprived of his post, and in 1809 was compelled to leave Paris and take up his abode in Reims. In 1811 he obtained permission to return, and again received a government appointment. This he had to resign on the Restoration, but was rewarded with a small pension, which was continued to his widow after his death.
Beauchamp wrote extensively for the public journals and for the magazines. His biographical and historical works are numerous, and those dealing with contemporary events are valuable, owing to the sources at his disposal. They must, however, be used with great caution. The following are worth mention:—Vie politique, militaire et privée du général Moreau (1814); Catastrophe de Murat, ou Récit de la dernière révolution de Naples (1815); Histoire de la guerre d’Espagne et du Portugal, 1807–1813 (2 vols., 1819); Collection de mémoires relatifs aux révolutions d’Espagne (2 vols., 1824); Histoire de la révolution de Piémont (2 vols., 1821, 1823); Mémoires secrets et inédits pour servir à l’histoire contemporaine (2 vols., 1825). The Mémoires de Fouché have also been ascribed to him, but it seems certain that he only revised and completed a work really composed by Fouché himself.
See an article by Louis Madelin in La Revolution française (1900).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Extortion

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​EXTORTION (Lat. extorsio, from extorquere, to twist out, to take away by force), in English law the term applied to the exaction by public officers of money or money’s worth not due at all, or in excess of what is due, or before it is due. Such exaction, unless made in good faith (i.e. in honest mistake as to the sum properly payable), is a misdemeanour by the common law and is punishable by fine and (or) imprisonment. Besides the punishment above stated, an action for twice the value of the thing extorted lies against officers of the king (1275, 3 Edw. I. c. 26). There are numerous provisions for the punishment of particular officers who make illegal exactions or take illegal fees: e.g. sheriffs and their officers (Sheriffs Act 1887), county court bailiffs (County Courts Act 1888), clerks of courts of justice, and gaolers who exact fees from prisoners. A gaoler is also punishable for detaining the corpse of a prisoner as security for debt. The term “public officer” is not limited to offices under the crown; and there are old precedents of criminal proceedings for extortion against churchwardens, and against millers and ferrymen who demand tolls in excess of what is customary under their franchise.
The term extortion is also applied to the exaction of money or money’s worth by menaces of personal violence or by threats to accuse of crime or to publish defamatory matter about another person. These offences fall partly under the head of robbery and partly under blackmail, or what in French is termed chantage.
See Russell on Crimes (6th ed., vol. i. p. 423; vol. iii. p. 348).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Extract

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​EXTRACT (from Lat. extrahere, to draw out), in pharmacy, the name given to preparations formed by evaporating or concentrating solutions of active principles; tinctures are solutions which have not been subjected to any evaporation. “Liquid extracts” are those of a syrupy consistency, and are generally prepared by treating the drug with the solvent (water, alcohol, &c.) and concentrating the solution until it attains the desired consistency. “Ordinary extracts” are thick, tenacious and sometimes even dry preparations; they are obtained by evaporating solutions as obtained above, or the juices expressed from the plants.
Extraction, in chemical technology, is a process for separating one substance from another by taking advantage of the varying solubility of the components in some chosen solvent. The term “lixiviation” is used when water is the solvent. In laboratory practice all the common solvents are employed. With small quantities it may suffice to shake the substance with the solvent, the mixture being heated if necessary, filter and distil or otherwise remove the solvent from the distillate. For larger quantities continuous extraction is advisable. This may be carried out in many forms of apparatus; one of the most convenient is the Soxhlet extractor, in which the extract siphons into the flask containing the solvent, and so maintains the quantity of available solvent practically constant. Continuous extraction is generally the practice in technology. One of the most important applications is in the fat and gelatine industries.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Extenuating Circumstances

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​EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES. This expression is used in law with reference to crimes, to describe cases in which, though an offence has been committed without legal justification or excuse, its gravity, from the point of view of punishment or moral opprobrium, is mitigated or reduced by reason of the facts leading up to or attending the commission of the offence. According to English procedure, the jury has no power to determine the punishment to be awarded for an offence. The sentence, with certain exceptions in capital cases, is within the sole discretion of the judge, subject to the statutory prescriptions as to the kind and maximum of punishment. It is common practice for juries to add to their verdict, guilty or not guilty, a rider recommending the accused to mercy on the ground of grave provocation received, or other circumstances which in their view should mitigate the penalty. This form of rider is often added on a verdict of guilty of wilful murder, a crime as to which the judge has no discretion as to punishment, but the recommendation is sent to the Home Office for consideration in advising as to exercise of the prerogative of mercy. Quite independently of any recommendation by the jury, the judge is entitled to take into account matters proved during the trial, or laid before him after verdict, as a guide to him in determining the quantum of punishment.
Under the French law (Code d’instruction criminelle, art. 345), it is the sole right and the duty of a jury in a criminal case to pronounce whether or not the commission of the offence was attended by extenuating circumstances (circonstances atténuantes). They are not bound to say anything about the matter, but the whole or the majority may qualify the verdict by finding extenuation, and if they do, the powers of the court to impose the maximum punishment are taken away and the sentence to be pronounced is reduced in accordance with the scale laid down in art. 463 of the Code pénal. The most important result of this rule is to enable a jury to prevent the infliction of capital punishment for murder. In cases of what is termed “crime passionel,” French juries, when they do not acquit, almost invariably find extenuation; and a like verdict has become common even in the case of cold-blooded and sordid murders, owing to objections to capital punishment.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Expropriation

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​EXPROPRIATION, the taking away or depriving of property (Late Lat. expropriare, to take away, proprium, i.e. that which is one’s own). The term is particularly applied to the compulsory acquisition of private property by the state or other public authority.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fabriano

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​FABRIANO, a town of the Marches, Italy, in the province of Ancona, from which it is 44 m. S.W. by rail, 1066 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) town 9586, commune 22,996. It has been noted since the 13th century for its paper mills, which still produce the best paper in Italy. A school of painting arose here, one of the early masters of which is Allegretto Nuzi (1308–1385); and several of the churches contain works by him and other local masters. His pupil, Gentile da Fabriano (1370–1428), was a painter of considerably greater skill and wider knowledge; but there are no important works of his at Fabriano. The sacristy of S. Agostino also contains some good frescoes by Ottaviano Nelli of Gubbio. The municipal picture gallery contains a collection of pictures, and among them are some primitive frescoes, attributable to the 12th century, which still retain traces of Byzantine influence. The Archivio Comunale contains documents on watermarked paper of local manufacture going back to the 13th century. The Ponte dell’ Acra, a bridge of the 15th century, is noticeable for the ingenuity and strength of its construction. The hospital of S. Maria Buon Gesu is a fine work of 1456, attributed to Rossellino.
See A. Zonghi, Antiche Carte Fabrianesi. (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fabricius, Hieronymus

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​FABRICIUS, HIERONYMUS [Fabrizio, Geronimo] (1537–1619), Italian anatomist and embryologist, was surnamed Acquapendente from the episcopal city of that name, where he was born in 1537. At Padua, after a course of philosophy, he studied medicine under G. Fallopius, whose successor as teacher of anatomy and surgery he became in 1562. From the senators of Venice he received numerous honours, and an anatomical theatre was built by them for his accommodation. He died at Venice on the 21st of May 1619. His works include De visione, voce et auditu (1600), De formato foetu (1600), De venarum ostiolis (1603), De formatione ovi et pulli (1621). His collected works were published at Leipzig in 1687 as Opera omnia Anatomica et Physiologica, but the Leiden edition, published by Albinus in 1738, is preferred as containing a life of the author and the prefaces of his treatises. (See Anatomy; Embryology.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fabrizi, Nicola

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​FABRIZI, NICOLA (1804–1885), Italian patriot, was born at Modena on the 4th of April 1804. He took part in the Modena insurrection of 1831, and attempted to succour Ancona, but was arrested at sea and taken to Toulon, whence he proceeded to Marseilles. Afterwards he organized with Mazzini the ill-fated Savoy expedition. Taking refuge in Spain, he fought against the Carlists, and was decorated for valour on the battlefield (18th July 1837). At the end of the Carlist War he established a ​centre of conspiracy at Malta, endeavoured to dissuade Mazzini from the Bandiera enterprise, but aided Crispi in organizing the Sicilian revolution of 1848. With a company of volunteers he distinguished himself in the defence of Venice, afterwards proceeding to Rome, where he took part in the defence of San Pancrazio. Upon the fall of Rome he returned to Malta, accumulating arms and stores; which he conveyed to Sicily; after having, in 1859, worked with Crispi to prepare the Sicilian revolution of 1860. While Garibaldi was sailing from Genoa towards Marsala Fabrizi landed at Pizzolo, and, after severe fighting, joined Garibaldi at Palermo. Under the Garibaldian Dictatorship he was appointed governor of Messina and minister of war. Returning to Malta after the Neapolitan plebiscite, which he had vainly endeavoured to postpone, he was recalled to aid Cialdini in suppressing brigandage. While on his way to Sicily in 1862, to induce Garibaldi to give up the Aspromonte enterprise, he was arrested at Naples by Lamarmora. During the war of 1866 he became Garibaldi’s chief of staff, and in 1867 fought at Mentana. In parliament he endeavoured to promote agreement between the chiefs of the Left, and from 1878 onwards worked to secure the return of Crispi to power, but died on the 31st of March 1885, two years before the realization of his object. His whole life was characterized by ardent patriotism and unimpeachable integrity.  (H. W. S.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fabricius, Georg

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​FABRICIUS, GEORG (1516–1571), German poet, historian and archaeologist, was born at Chemnitz in upper Saxony on the 23rd of April 1516, and educated at Leipzig. Travelling in Italy with one of his pupils, he made an exhaustive study of the antiquities of Rome. He published the results in his Roma (1550), in which the correspondence between every discoverable relic of the old city and the references to them in ancient literature was traced in detail. In 1546 he was appointed rector of the college of Meissen, where he died on the 17th of July 1571. In his sacred poems he affected to avoid every word with the slightest savour of paganism; and he blamed the poets for their allusions to pagan divinities.
Principal works: editions of Terence (1548) and Virgil (1551); Poëmatum sacrorum libri xxv. (1560); Poëtarum veterum ecclesiasticorum opera Christiana (1562); De Re Poëtica libri septem (1565); Rerum Misnicarum libri septem (1569); (posthumous) Originum illustrissimae stirpis Saxonicae libri septem (1597); Rerum Germaniae magnae et Saxoniae universae memorabilium mirabiliumque volumina duo (1609). A life of Georg Fabricius was published in 1839 by D. C. W. Baumgarten-Crusius, who in 1845 also issued an edition of Fabricius’s Epistolae ad W. Meurerum et alios aequales, with a short sketch De Vita Ge. Fabricii et de gente Fabriciorum; see also F. Wachter in Ersch and Gruber’s Allgemeine Encyclopädie.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Facciolati, Jacopo

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​FACCIOLATI, JACOPO (1682–1769), Italian philologist, was born at Torriglia, in the province of Padua, in 1682. He owed his admission to the seminary of Padua to Cardinal Barberigo, who had formed a high opinion of the boy’s talents. As professor of logic, and regent of the schools, Facciolati was the ornament of the Paduan university during a period of forty-five years. He published improved editions of several philological works, such as the Thesaurus Ciceronianus of Nizolius, and the polyglot vocabulary known under the name of Calepino. The latter work, in which he was assisted by his pupil Egidio Forcellini, he completed in four years—1715 to 1719. It was written in seven languages, and suggested to the editor the idea of his opus magnum, the Totius Latinitatis Lexicon, which was ultimately published at Cardinal Priole’s expense, 4 vols. fol., Padua, 1771 (revised ed. by de Vit, 1858–1887). In the compilation of this work the chief burden seems to have been borne by Facciolati’s pupil Forcellini, to whom, however, the lexicographer allows a very scanty measure of justice. Perhaps the best testimony to the learning and industry of the compiler is the well-known observation that the whole body of Latinity, if it were to perish, might be restored from this lexicon. Facciolati’s mastery of Latin style, as displayed in his epistles, has been very much admired for its purity and grace. In or about 1739 Facciolati undertook the continuation of Papadopoli’s history of the university of Padua, carrying it on to his own day. Facciolati was known over all Europe as one of the most enlightened and zealous teachers of the time; and among the many flattering invitations which he received, but always declined, was one from the king of Portugal, to accept the directorship of a college at ​Lisbon for the young nobility. He died in 1769. His history of the university was published in 1757, under the name Fasti Gymnasii Patavini. In 1808 a volume containing nine of his Epistles, never before published, was issued at Padua.
See J. E. Sandys, Hist. Class. Schol. ii. (1908).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fabricius, Gaius Luscinus

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​FABRICIUS, GAIUS LUSCINUS (i.e. “the one-eyed”), Roman general, was the first member of the Fabrician gens who settled in Rome. He migrated to Rome from Aletrium (Livy ix. 43), one of the Hernican towns which was allowed to retain its independence as a reward for not having revolted. In 285 he was one of the ambassadors sent to the Tarentines to dissuade them from making war on the Romans. In 282 (when consul) he defeated the Bruttians and Lucanians, who had besieged ​Thurii (Livy, Epit. 12). After the defeat of the Romans by Pyrrhus at Heraclea (280), Fabricius was sent to treat for the ransom and exchange of the prisoners. All attempts to bribe him were unsuccessful, and Pyrrhus is said to have been so impressed that he released the prisoners without ransom (Plutarch, Pyrrhus, 18). The story that Pyrrhus attempted to frighten Fabricius by the sight of an elephant is probably a fiction. In 278 Fabricius was elected consul for the second time, and was successful in negotiating terms of peace with Pyrrhus, who sailed away to Sicily. Fabricius afterwards gained a series of victories over the Samnites, the Lucanians and the Bruttians, and on his return to Rome received the honour of a triumph. Notwithstanding the offices he had filled he died poor, and provision had to be made for his daughter out of the funds of the state (Val. Max. iv. 4, 10). Fabricius was regarded by the Romans of later times as a model of ancient simplicity and incorruptible integrity.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fabrot, Charles Annibal

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​FABROT, CHARLES ANNIBAL (1580–1659), French jurisconsult, was born at Aix in Provence on the 15th of September 1580. At an early age he made great progress in the ancient languages and in the civil and the canon law; and in 1602 he received the degree of doctor of law, and was made avocat to the parlement of Aix. In 1609 he obtained a professorship in the university of his native town. He is best known by his translation of the Basilica, which may be said to have formed the code of the Eastern empire till its destruction. This work was published at Paris in 1647 in 7 vols. fol., and obtained for its author a considerable pension from the chancellor, Pierre Seguier, to whom it was dedicated. Fabrot likewise rendered great service to the science of jurisprudence by his edition of Cujas, which comprised several treatises of that great jurist previously unpublished. He also edited the works of several Byzantine historians, and was besides the author of various antiquarian and legal treatises. He died at Paris on the 16th of January 1659.