OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Larivey, Pierre

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​LARIVEY, PIERRE (c. 1550–1612), French dramatist, of Italian origin, was the son of one of the Giunta, the famous printers of Florence and Venice. The family was established at Troyes and had taken the name of Larivey or L’Arrivey, by way of translation from giunto. Pierre Larivey appears to have cast horoscopes, and to have acted as clerk to the chapter of the church of St Étienne, of which he eventually became a canon. He has no claim to be the originator of French comedy. The Corrivaux of Jean de la Taille dates from 1562, but Larivey naturalized the Italian comedy of intrigue in France. He adapted, rather than translated, twelve Italian comedies into French prose. The first volume of the Comédies facétieuses appeared in 1579, and the second in 1611. Only nine in all were printed. The licence of the manners depicted in these plays is matched by the coarseness of the expression. Larivey’s merit lies in the use of popular language in dialogue, which often rises to real excellence, and was not without influence on Molière and Regnard. Molière’s L’Avare owes something to the scene in Larivey’s masterpiece, Les Esprits, where Séverin laments the loss of his purse, and the opening scene of the piece seems to have suggested Regnard’s Retour imprévu. It is uncertain whether Larivey’s plays were represented, though they were evidently written for the stage. In any case prose comedy gained very little ground in popular favour before the time of Molière. Larivey was the author of many translations, varying in subject from the Facétieuses nuits (1573) of Straparola to the Humanité de Jésus-Christ (1604) from Pietro Aretino.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Largus, Scribonius

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​LARGUS, SCRIBONIUS, court physician to the emperor Claudius. About A.D. 47, at the request of Gaius Julius Callistus, the emperor’s freedman, he drew up a list of 271 prescriptions (Compositiones), most of them his own, although he acknowledged his indebtedness to his tutors, to friends and to the writings of eminent physicians. Certain old wives’ remedies are also included. The work has no pretensions to style, and contains many colloquialisms. The greater part of it was transferred without acknowledgment to the work of Marcellus Empiricus (c. 410), De Medicamentis Empiricis, Physicis, et Rationabilibus, which is of great value for the correction of the text of Largus.
See the edition of the Compositiones by G. Helmreich (Teubner series, 1887).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Largillière, Nicolas

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​LARGILLIÈRE, NICOLAS (1656–1746), French painter, was born at Paris on the 20th of October 1656. His father, a merchant, took him to Antwerp at the age of three, and while a lad he spent nearly two years in London. The attempt to turn his attention to business having failed, he entered, some time after his return to Antwerp, the studio of Goubeau, quitting this at the age of eighteen to seek his fortune in England, where he was befriended by Lely, who employed him for four years at Windsor. His skill attracted the notice of Charles II., who wished to retain him in his service, but the fury aroused against Roman Catholics by the Rye House Plot alarmed Largillière, and he went to Paris, where he was well received by Le Brun and Van der Meulen. In spite of his Flemish training, his reputation, especially as a portrait-painter, was soon established; his brilliant colour and lively touch attracted all the celebrities of the day—actresses, public men and popular preachers flocking to his studio. Huet, bishop of Avranches, Cardinal de Noailles, the Duclos and President Lambert, with his beautiful wife and daughter, are amongst his most noted subjects. It is said that James II. recalled Largillière to England on his accession to the throne in 1685, that he declined the office of keeper of the royal collections, but that, during a short stay in London, he painted portraits of the king, the queen and the prince of Wales. This last is impossible, as the birth of the prince did not take place till 1688; the three portraits, therefore, painted by Largillière of the prince in his youth must all have been executed in Paris, to which city he returned some time before March 1686, when he was received by the Academy as a member, and presented as his diploma picture the fine portrait of Le Brun, now in the Louvre. He was received as an historical painter; but, although he occasionally produced works of that class (“Crucifixion,” engraved by Roettiers), and also treated subjects of still life, it was in historical portraits that he excelled. Horace Walpole states that he left in London those of Pierre van der Meulen and of Sybrecht. Several of his works are at Versailles. The church of St Étienne du Mont at Paris contains the finest example of Largillière’s work when dealing with large groups of figures; it is an ex voto offered by the city to St Geneviève, painted in 1694, and containing portraits of all the leading officers of the municipality. Largillière passed through every post of honour in the Academy, until in 1743 he was made chancellor. He died on the 20th of March 1746. Jean Baptiste Oudry was the most distinguished of his pupils. Largillière’s work found skilful interpreters in Van Schuppen, Edelinck, Desplaces, Drevet, Pitou and other engravers.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Larino

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​LARINO (anc. Larinum) a town and episcopal see of the Molise (province of Campobasso), Italy, 32 m. N.E. of Campobasso by rail (20 m. direct), 984 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 7044. The cathedral, completed in 1319, has a good Gothic façade; the interior has to some extent been spoilt by later restoration. The campanile rests upon a Gothic arch erected in 1451. The Palazzo Comunale has a courtyard of the 16th century. That the ancient town (which is close to the modern) existed before the Roman supremacy had extended so far is proved by the coins. It lay in the 2nd Augustan region (Apulia), but the people belonged to the Frentani by race. Its strong position gave ​it importance in the military history of Italy from the Hannibalic wars onwards. The town was a municipium, situated on the main road to the S.E., which left the coast at Histonium (Vasto) and ran from Larinum E. to Sipontum. From Larinum a branch road ran to Bovianum Vetus. Remains of its city walls, of its amphitheatre and also of baths, &c., exist, and it did not cease to be inhabited until after the earthquake of 1300, when the modern city was established. Cluentius, the client of Cicero, who delivered a speech in his favour, was a native of Larinum, his father having been praetor of the allied forces in the Social War.  (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Largentière

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​LARGENTIÈRE, a town of south-eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Ardèche, in the narrow valley of the Ligne, 29 m. S.W. of Privas by road. Pop. (1906) 1690. A church of the 12th, 13th and 15th centuries and the old castle of the bishops of Viviers, lords of Largentière, now used as a hospital, are the chief buildings. The town is the seat of a sub-prefect and of a tribunal of first instance; and has silk-mills, and carries on silk-spinning, wine-growing and trade in fruit and silk. It owes its name to silver-mines worked in the vicinity in the middle ages.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Laredo

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​LAREDO, a city and the county-seat of Webb county, Texas, U.S.A., and a sub-port of entry, on the Rio Grande opposite Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and 150 m. S. of San Antonio. Pop. (1900) 13,429, of whom 6882 were foreign-born (mostly Mexicans) and 82 negroes; (1910 census) 14,855. It is served by the International & Great Northern, the National of Mexico, the Texas Mexican and the Rio Grande & Eagle Pass railways, and is connected by bridges with Nuevo Laredo. Among the principal buildings are the U.S. Government Building, the City Hall and the County Court House; and the city’s institutions include the Laredo Seminary (1882) for boys and girls, the Mercy Hospital, the National Railroad of Mexico Hospital and an Ursuline Convent. Loma Vista Park (65 acres) is a pleasure resort, and immediately W. of Laredo on the Rio Grande is Fort McIntosh (formerly Camp Crawford), a United States military post. Laredo is a jobbing centre for trade between the United States and Mexico, and is a sub-port of entry in the Corpus Christi Customs District. It is situated in a good farming and cattle-raising region, irrigated by water from the Rio Grande. The principal crop is Bermuda onions; in 1909 it was estimated that 1500 acres in the vicinity were devoted to this crop, the average yield per acre being about 20,000 ℔. There are coal mines about 25 m. above Laredo on the Rio Grande, and natural gas was discovered about 28 m. E. in 1908. The manufacture of bricks is an important industry. Laredo was named from the seaport in Spain, and was founded in 1767 as a Mexican town; it originally included what is now Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and was long the only Mexican town on the left bank of the river. It was captured in 1846 by a force of Texas Rangers, and in 1847 was occupied by U.S. troops under General Lamar. In 1852 it was chartered as a city of Texas.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Largs

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​LARGS, a police burgh and watering place of Ayrshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 3246. It is situated 43 m. W. by S. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Its fine beach and dry, bracing climate have attracted many wealthy residents, and the number of summer visitors is also large. The public buildings include the Clark hospital, the Victoria infirmary convalescent home and the Stevenson institute and mechanics’ library. Skelmorlie Aisle, the sole relic of the old parish church of St Columba, was converted into a mausoleum in 1636. Near it a mound covers remains, possibly those of the Norwegians who fell in the battle (1263) between Alexander III. and Haco, king of Norway. The harbour is used mainly by Clyde passenger steamers and yachtsmen. From the quay a broad esplanade has been constructed northwards round the bay, and there is an excellent golf course. Kelburne Castle, 2 m. S., a seat of the earl of Glasgow, stands in romantic scenery. Fairlie, 3 m. S., another seaside resort, with a station on the Glasgow & South-Western railway, is the connecting-point for Millport on Great Cumbrae. Once a fishing village, it has acquired a great reputation for its yachts.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lardner, Nathaniel

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​LARDNER, NATHANIEL (1684–1768), English theologian, was born at Hawkhurst, Kent. After studying for the Presbyterian ministry in London, and also at Utrecht and Leiden, he took licence as a preacher in 1709, but was not successful. In 1713 he entered the family of a lady of rank as tutor and domestic chaplain, where he remained until 1721. In 1724 he was appointed to deliver the Tuesday evening lecture in the Presbyterian chapel, Old Jewry, London, and in 1729 he became assistant minister to the Presbyterian congregation in Crutched Friars. He was given the degree of D.D. by Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1745. He died at Hawkhurst on the 24th of July 1768.
An anonymous volume of Memoirs appeared in 1769; and a life by Andrew Kippis is prefixed to the edition of the Works of Lardner, published in 11 vols., 8vo in 1788, in 4 vols. 4to in 1817, and 10 vols. 8vo in 1827. The full title of his principal work—a work which, though now out of date, entitles its author to be regarded as the founder of modern critical research in the field of early Christian literature—is The Credibility of the Gospel History; or the Principal Facts of the New Testament confirmed by Passages of Ancient Authors, ​who were contemporary with our Saviour or his Apostles, or lived near their time. Part i., in 2 vols. 8vo, appeared in 1727; the publication of part ii., in 12 vols. 8vo, began in 1733 and ended in 1755. In 1730 there was a second edition of part i., and the Additions and Alterations were also published separately. A Supplement, otherwise entitled A History of the Apostles and Evangelists, Writers of the New Testament, was added in 3 vols. (1756–1757), and reprinted in 1760. Other works by Lardner are A Large Collection of Ancient Jewish and Heathen Testimonies to the Truth of the Christian Revelation, with Notes and Observations (4 vols., 4to, 1764–1767); The History of the Heretics of the two first Centuries after Christ, published posthumously in 1780 and a considerable number of occasional sermons.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Omelette

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​OMELETTE, sometimes Anglicized as “omelet,” a French word of which the history is an example of the curious changes a word may undergo. The ultimate origin is Lat. lamella, diminutive of lamina, plate; this became in French lamelle, and a wrong division of la lamelle gave alamelle, alemelle, or alumelle; thence alemette, metathesized to amelette and aumelete, the form in which the word appears in the 15th and 16th centuries. The ​original meaning seems to be a pancake of a thin flat shape. Omelettes are made with eggs, beaten up lightly, with the addition of milk, flour, herbs, cheese, mushrooms, &c., according to the requirement, and cooked quickly in a buttered pan.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Omsk

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​OMSK, a town of Russia, capital of the province of Akmolinsk, capital of western Siberia from 1839 to 1882, and now capital of the general-governorship of the Steppes. Pop. (1881) 31,000, (1900) 53,050. It is the seat of administration of the Siberian Cossacks, and the see of the bishop of Omsk. Situated on the right bank of the Irtysh, at its confluence with the Om, at an altitude of 285 ft., and on the Siberian railway, 1862 m. via Chelyabinsk from Moscow, and 586 m. W.S.W. of Tomsk, it is the meeting-place of the highways to middle Russia, Orenburg and Turkestan. Steamers ply down the Irtysh and the Ob, and up the former to the Altai towns and Lake Zaisan. The climate is dry and relatively temperate, but marked by violent snow-storms and sand-storms. The average temperatures are, for the year, 31° F.; for January, 5°; for July, 68°; the annual rainfall is 12·4 in. The town is poorly built. Apart from the railway workshops, its industries are unimportant (steam sawmill, tanneries); but the trade, especially since the construction of the railway, is growing. There are two yearly fairs. Omsk has a society for education, which organizes schools, kindergartens, libraries and lectures for the people. There are a corps of cadets, medical, dramatic and musical societies, and the west Siberian section of the Russian Geographical Society, with a museum.
The “fort” of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the blockhouses on the Russian frontier, along the Ishim and the Irtysh. In consequence of the frequent incursions of the Kirghiz about the end of the 18th century, stronger earthworks were erected on the right bank of the Om; but these have now almost entirely disappeared.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Omar

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​OMAR (c. 581–644), in full ʽOmar ibn al-Khaṭṭab, the second of the Mahommedan caliphs (see Caliphate, A, §§ 1 and 2). Originally opposed to Mahomet, he became later one of the ablest advisers both of him and of the first caliph, Abu Bekr. His own reign (634–644) saw Islam’s transformation from a religious sect to an imperial power. The chief events were the defeat of the Persians at Kadisiya (637) and the conquest of Syria and Palestine. The conquest of Egypt followed (see Egypt and Amr ibn el-Ass) and the final rout of the Persians at Nehāwend (641) brought Iran under Arab rule. Omar was assassinated by a Persian slave in 644, and though he lingered several days after the attack, he appointed no successor, but only a body of six Muhajirun who should select a new caliph. Omar was a wise and far-sighted ruler and rendered great service to Islam. He is said to have built the so-called “Mosque of Omar” (“the Dome of the Rock”) in Jerusalem, which contains the rock regarded by Mahommedans as the scene of Mahomet’s ascent to heaven, and by the Jews as that of the proposed sacrifice of Isaac.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Omdurman

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​OMDURMAN, a town of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, on the west bank of the Nile, immediately north of the junction of the White and Blue Niles in 15° 38′ N., 32° 29′ E., 2 m. N. by W. of Khartum. Pop. (1909 census) 42,779, of whom 541 were Europeans. The town covers a large area, being over 5 m. long and 2 broad. It consists for the most part of mud huts, but there are some houses built of sun-dried bricks. Save for two or three wide streets which traverse it from end to end the town is a network of narrow lanes. In the centre facing an open space are the ruins of the tomb of the Mahdi and behind is the house in which he lived. The Khalifa’s house (a two-storeyed building), the mosque, the Beit el Amana (arsenal) and other houses famed in the history of the town also face the central square. A high wall runs behind these buildings parallel with the Nile. Omdurman is the headquarters of the native traders in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the chief articles of commerce being ivory, ostrich feathers and gum arabic from Darfur and Kordofan. There is also an important camel and cattle market. Nearly every tribe in the Sudan is represented in the population of the city. Among the native artificers the metal workers and leather dressers are noted. The government maintains elementary and technical schools. Mission work is undertaken by various Protestant and Roman Catholic societies.
Omdurman, then an insignificant village, was chosen in 1884 by the Mahdi Mahommed Ahmed as his capital and so continued after the fall of Khartum in Khartum in January 1885. Its growth was rapid, the Khalifa (who succeeded the Mahdi) compelling large numbers of disaffected tribesmen to live in the town under the eye of his soldiery. Here also were imprisoned the European captives of the Mahdists—notably Slatin Pasha and Father Ohrwalder. On the 2nd of September 1898 the Anglo-Egyptian army under Lord Kitchener totally defeated the forces of the Khalifa at Kerreri, 7 m. N. of the town. A marble obelisk marks the spot where the 21st Lancers made a charge. Within the enclosure of the Khalifa’s house is the tomb of Hubert Howard, son of the 9th earl of Carlisle, who was killed in the house at the capture of the city by a splinter of a shell fired at the Mahdi’s tomb. (See Sudan: Anglo-Egyptian.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Omnibus

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​OMNIBUS (Lat. “for all”), a large closed public conveyance with seats for passengers inside and out (see Carriage). The name, colloquially shortened to “bus,” was, in the form voiture omnibus, first used for such conveyances in Paris in 1828, and was taken by Shillibeer for the vehicle he ran on the Paddington road in 1829. The word is also applied to a box at the opera which is shared by several subscribers, to a bill or act of parliament dealing with a variety of subjects, and in electrical engineering to the bar to which the terminals of the generators are attached and from which the current is taken off by the wires supplying the various consumers.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Omichund

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​OMICHUND (d. 1767), an Indian whose name is indelibly associated with the treaty negotiated by Clive before the battle of Plassey in 1757. His real name was Amir Chand; and he was not a Bengali, as stated by Macaulay, but a Sikh from the Punjab. It is impossible now to unravel the intrigues in which he may have engaged, but some facts about his career can be stated. He had long been resident at Calcutta, where he had acquired a large fortune by providing the “investment” for the Company, and also by acting as intermediary between the English and the native court at Murshidabad. In a letter of Mr Watts of later date he is represented as saying to the nawab (Suraj-ud-daula): “He had lived under the English protection these forty years; that he never knew them once to break their agreement, to the truth of which he took his oath by touching a Brahman’s foot; and that if a lie could be proved in England upon any one, they were spit upon and never trusted.” Several houses owned by him in Calcutta are mentioned in connexion with the fighting that preceded the tragedy of the Black Hole in 1756, and it is on record that he suffered heavy losses at that time. He had been arrested by the English on suspicion of treachery, but afterwards he was forward in giving help to the fugitives and also valuable advice. On the recapture of Calcutta he was sent by Clive to accompany Mr Watts as agent at Murshidabad. It seems to have been through his influence that the nawab gave reluctant consent to Clive’s attack on Chandernagore. Later, when the treaty with Mir Jafar was being negotiated, he put in a claim for 5% on all the treasure to be recovered, under threat of disclosing the plot. To defeat him, two copies of the treaty were drawn up: the one, the true treaty, omitting his claim; the other containing it, to be shown to him, which Admiral Watson refused to sign, but Clive directed the admiral’s signature to be appended. When the truth was revealed to Omichund after Plassey, Macaulay states (following Orme) that he sank gradually into idiocy, languished a few months, and then died. As a matter of fact, he survived for ten years, till 1767; and by his will he bequeathed £2000 to the Foundling Hospital (where his name may be seen in the list of benefactors as “a black merchant of Calcutta”) and also to the Magdalen Hospital in London.  (J. S. Co.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Omri

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​OMRI, in the Bible, the first great king of Israel after the separation of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, who flourished in the early part of the 9th century B.C. The dynasty of Jeroboam had been exterminated by Baasha (see Asa) at a revolt when the army was besieging the Philistines at Gibbethon, an unidentified Danite site. A quarter of a century later, Baasha’s son Elah, after a reign of two years, was slain by Zimri, captain of the chariots, in a drinking bout, and again the royal family were put to the sword. Meanwhile, the general Omri, who was at Gibbethon, was promptly elected king by the army, and Zimri himself in a short while met his death in the royal city of Tirzah. However, fresh disturbance was caused by Tibni ben Ginath (perhaps of Naphtali), and Israel was divided into rival factions. Ultimately Tibni and his brother Joram (1 Kings xvi. 22, LXX.) were overcome, and Omri remained in sole possession of the throne. The compiler of the biblical narratives takes little interest in Omri’s work (1 Kings xvi. 15-28), and records briefly his purchase of Samaria, which became the capital of his dynasty (see Samaria). The inscription of Mesha throws welcome light upon his conquest of Moab (q.v.); the position of Israel during the reign of Omri’s son Ahab (q.v.) bears testimony to the success of the father; and the fact that the land continued to be known to the Assyrians down to the time of Sargon as “house of Omri” indicates the reputation which this little-known king enjoyed.  (S. A. C.)