OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Langton, John

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​LANGTON, JOHN (d. 1337), chancellor of England and bishop of Chichester, was a clerk in the royal chancery, and became chancellor in 1292. He obtained several ecclesiastical appointments, but owing to the resistance of Pope Boniface VIII. he failed to secure the bishopric of Ely in 1298, although he was supported by Edward I. and visited Rome to attain his end. Resigning his office as chancellor in 1302, he was chosen bishop of Chichester in 1305, and again became chancellor shortly after the accession of Edward II. in 1307. Langton was one of the “ordainers” elected in 1310, and it was probably his connexion with this body that led to his losing the office of chancellor about this time. He continued, however, to take part in public affairs; mediating between the king and Earl Thomas of Lancaster in 1318, and attempting to do so between Edward and his rebellious barons in 1321. He died in June or July 1337. Langton built the chapterhouse at Chichester, and was a benefactor of the university of Oxford.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Langlois, Hippolyte

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​LANGLOIS, HIPPOLYTE (1839– ), French general, was born at Besançon in 1839, and, after passing through the École Polytechnique, was appointed to the artillery as sub-lieutenant in 1858, attaining the rank of captain in 1866. He served in the army of Metz in the war of 1870. Eight years later he became major, in 1887 lieutenant-colonel and in 1888 colonel. At this time he was appointed professor of artillery at the École de Guerre, and in this post he devoted himself to working out the tactical principles of the employment of field artillery under the new conditions of armament of which he foresaw the advent. The public result of his work was the great treatise L’Artillerie de campagne (1891–1892), which may still be regarded as the classic of the arm. In 1894 he became general of brigade, and in 1898 general of division. For two years after this he was the commandant of the École de Guerre at the time that the modern French strategical and tactical “doctrine” was being developed and taught. He was, however, regarded as a leader as well as a theorist, and in 1901 he was selected to command the XX. Army Corps on the German frontier, popularly called the “iron” corps. In 1902 he became a member of the Conseil supérieur de la Guerre, consisting of senior generals marked out for the higher commands in war. He retired from the active list in 1904 on reaching the age limit, and devoted himself with the greatest energy to critical military literature. In 1907 he began the publication of a monthly journal of military art and history, the Revue militaire générale. The most important of his other works are Enseignements de deux guerres récentes and Conséquences tactiques du progrès de l’armement.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Langport

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​LANGPORT, a market town in the eastern parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, 131/2 m. E. of Taunton by the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 890. It lies on the right (east) bank of the river Parret, near the point where that river debouches from the hills on to the plain through which it flows to the Bristol Channel. The main street leads up a slope from the river to the fine Perpendicular church of All Saints. Close to this an archway crosses the road, bearing a Perpendicular building known as the hanging chapel. After serving this purpose it housed first the grammar-school (founded 1675), then the Quekett museum, named after John Thomas Quekett (1815–1861) the histologist, a native of the town, whose father was master of the school. The hanging chapel afterwards became a masonic hall. Not far distant is the church of Huish Episcopi, with one of the finest of the Perpendicular towers for which Somersetshire is noted. Langport has a considerable general and agricultural trade.
Langport (Llongborth, Langeberga, Langeport) owed its origin to its defensible position on a hill, and its growth to its facilities for trade on the chief river of Somerset. It occupies the site of the British town of Llongborth, and was important during the Roman occupation. It was a royal borough in Saxon times, and in 1086 had 34 resident burgesses. The first charter, given by Elizabeth in 1562, recognized that Langport was a borough of great antiquity, which had enjoyed considerable privileges, being governed by a portreve. It was incorporated by James I. in 1617, but the corporation was abolished in 1883. Langport was represented in parliament in 1304 and 1306. The charter of 1562 granted three annual fairs to Langport, on the 28th of June, the 11th of November and the second Monday in Lent. One fair only is now held, on the 3rd of September, which is a horse and cattle fair. A Saturday market was held under the grant of 1562, but in the 19th century the market day was changed to Tuesday.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Langtoft, Peter

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​LANGTOFT, PETER (d. c. 1307), English chronicler, took his name from the village of Langtoft in Yorkshire, and was a canon of the Augustinian priory in Bridlington. His name is also given as Langetoft and Langetost. He wrote in French verse a Chronicle dealing with the history of England from the earliest times to the death of Edward I. in 1307. It consists of three parts and contains about 9000 rhyming verses. The earlier part of the Chronicle is taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth and other writers; for the period dealing with the reign of Edward I. Langtoft is a contemporary and valuable authority, especially for affairs in the north of England and in Scotland. Langtoft’s Chronicle seems to have enjoyed considerable popularity in the north, and the latter part of it was translated into English by Robert Mannyng, sometimes called Robert of Brunne, about 1330. It has been edited for the Rolls Series by T. Wright (1866–1868).
See Wright’s preface, and also O. Preussner, Robert Mannyng of Brunne’s Übersetzung von Pierre de Langtofts Chronicle und ihr Verhältniss zum Originale (Breslau, 1891).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Langreo

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​LANGREO, a town of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo, in very hilly country, on the left bank of the river Nalon, and on a branch railway from Oviedo to Labiana. Pop. (1900) 18,714. In the neighbourhood large quantities of wheat, hemp, fruit and cider are produced; and there are important coal and iron mines, foundries, and factories for the manufacture of coarse cloth.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Langiewicz, Maryan

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​LANGIEWICZ, MARYAN (1827–1887), Polish patriot, was born at Krotoszyn, in the province of Posen, on the 5th of August 1827, his father being the local doctor. Langiewicz was educated at Posen, Breslau and Prague, and was compelled to earn his daily bread by giving lectures. He subsequently entered the Prussian Landwehr and served for a year in the royal guard. In 1860 he migrated to Paris and was for a time professor in the high school founded there by Mieroslawski. The same year he took part in Garibaldi’s Neapolitan campaign, and was then a professor in the military school at Cuneo till the establishment was closed. In 1862 he entered into communication with the central Polish committee at Warsaw, and on the outbreak of the insurrection of the 22nd of January 1863, took the command of the armed bands. He defeated the Russians at Wachock and Slupia (February), capturing 1000 muskets and 8 cannon. This victory drew hundreds of young recruits to his standard, till at last he had 12,000 men at his disposal. On the 23rd of February he again defeated the Russians, at Malogoszcza, and captured 500 muskets and 2 cannon. On the 10th of March he proclaimed himself dictator and attempted to form a regular government; but either he had insufficient organizing talent, or had not time enough to carry out his plans, and after a fresh series of engagements his army was almost annihilated at Zagosc (18th of March), whereupon he took refuge in Austrian territory and was interned at Tarnow. He was subsequently transferred to the fortress of Josephstadt, from which he was released in 1865. He then lived at Solothurn as a citizen of the Swiss Republic, and subsequently entered the Turkish service as Langie Bey. He died at Constantinople on the 11th of May 1887.
See Boleslaw Limanowski, The National Insurrection of 1863–64 (Pol.) (Lemberg, 1900); Paolo Mazzoleni, I Bergamaschi in Polonia nel 1863 (Bergamo, 1893); W. H. Bavink, De Poolsche opstand 1863, &c. (Haarlem, 1864).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rudra

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​RUDRA (probably from the root rud, “to howl,” hence “the howler”), in Hindu Vedic mythology, a storm god, and father of the Maruts who are frequently called Rudriyas. He shoots tempests at the earth, but is not essentially a malevolent deity, being invoked as a protector of cattle. In the Atharvaveda he is lord of life and death, and in later Hinduism one of the Hindu trinity, the god Siva.
See A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (Strassburg, 1897); Sir William Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, iv. 299–420.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rue

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​RUE (Fr. rue, Lat. ruta, from Gr. ῥυτή, the Peloponnesian word for the plant known as πήγανον), the name of a woody or bushy herb, belonging to the genus Ruta, especially Ruta graveolens, the “common rue,” a plant with bluish green spotted leaves and greenish yellow flowers. It has a strong pungent smell and the leaves have a bitter taste. The plant was much used in medieval and later medicine as a stimulative and irritant drug. It was commonly supposed to be much used by witches. From its association with “rue,” sorrow, repentance (O. Eng. hréow, from hréowan, to be sorry for, cf. Ger. reuen), the plant was also known as “herb of grace,” and was taken as the symbol of repentance.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rueda, Lope de

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​RUEDA, LOPE DE (1510?–1565?), Spanish dramatist, was born early in the 16th century at Seville, where, according to Cervantes, he worked as a metal-beater. His name first occurs in 1554 as acting at Benavente, and between 1558 and 1561 he was manager of a strolling company which visited Segovia, Seville, Toledo, Madrid, Valencia and Córdova. In the last-named city Rueda fell ill, and on the 21st of March 1565 made a will which he was too exhausted to sign; he probably died shortly afterwards, and is said by Cervantes to have been buried in Córdova cathedral. He was twice married; first to a disreputable actress named Mariana, who became the mistress of the duke de Medinaceli; and second to Rafaela Angela, who bore him a daughter. His works were issued posthumously in 1567 by Timoneda, who toned down certain passages in the texts. Rueda’s more ambitious plays are mostly adapted from the Italian; in Eufemia he draws on Boccaccio, in Medora he utilizes Giancarli’s Zingara, in Armelina he combines Raineri’s Attilia with Cecchi’s Servigiale, and in Los Engañados he uses Gl’Ingannati, a comedy produced by the Intronati, a literary society at Siena. These follow the original so closely that they give no idea of Rueda’s talent; but in his pasos or prose interludes he displays an abundance of riotous humour, great knowledge of low life, and a most happy gift of dialogue. His predecessors mostly Wrote for courtly audiences or for the study; Rueda with his strollers created a taste for the drama which he was able to gratify, and he is admitted both by Cervantes and Lope de Vega to be the true founder of the national theatre.
His works have been reprinted by the marquis de la Fuensanta del Valle in the Colección de libros raros ó curiosos, vols. xxiii. and xxiv.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rufiji

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​RUFIJI, a large river of German East Africa, entering the sea by a considerable delta, between 7° 45′ and 8° 13′ S. Its upper basin, which extends from N. to S. through over 300 m., is drained by three main branches, which unite to form the lower Rufiji. Of the three upper branches, the two southern, the Luvegu and the Ulanga, though shorter than the northernmost (the Ruaha), carry a greater volume of water, as they come from a more rainy region, and by their junction in 8° 35′ S., 37° 25′ E., the Rufiji proper may be said to be formed.
The Luvegu rises 10° 50′ S., 35° 50′ E., and flows N.E. in a wooded valley, generally narrow, and bordered by a broken country in great part uninhabited and covered with thin forest. In its lower course it is a large stream—100 to 150 yds. wide.
The Ulanga is formed by a number of streams descending from the outer escarpment of the high plateau which runs N..E. from the head of Lake Nyasa and in Uhehe becomes broken up .in ranges of mountains. The most important head-stream, the Ruhudye, rises in about 9° 30′ S., 34° 40′ E. As a whole, the Ulanga valley is broad, level and swampy, the river running in a very winding course and sending off many diverging arms. It is navigable throughout the greater part of its course, having even in the dry season a general depth of 3 to 12 ft., with a width of 40 to 120 yds. In April and May nearly all the streams overflow their banks and cover a great part of the plain.
Just below the junction of the Luvegu and Ulanga, the Rufiji flows through a narrow pass by the Shuguli falls, and continues N.E. in a fairly straight course to the junction of the Ruaha, in 7° 55′ S., 37° 52′ E. The most remote branches of the Ruaha rise N. of Lake Nyasa in the Livingstone mountains. The united stream makes a wide sweep to the N. of the Uhehe mountains, from which it receives various tributaries, finally flowing S.E. and E. to the Rufiji. A little below the junction the Rufiji is broken by the Pangani falls, but is thence navigable by small steamers to its delta. In this part of its course the river receives no large tributaries but sends out divergent channels. The country on either side is a generally level plain, inundated, on the south, in the rains, and the river varies in width from 100 to 400 yds., with an average current of 3 m. an hour. The main mouth of the river is that known as Simba Uranga, the bar of which can be crossed by ocean vessels at high water, but all the branches are very shallow as the apex of the delta is approached. Much of the delta is suited for rice-growing.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rufus, Gaius Valgius

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​RUFUS, GAIUS VALGIUS, Lain poet, friend of Horace and Maecenas, and consul in 12 B.C. He was known as a writer of elegies and epigrams, and his contemporaries believed him capable of great things in epic. The author of the panegyric on Messalla declares Rufus to be the only poet fitted to be the great man's Homer. Rufus did not, however, confine himself to poetry. He discussed grammatical questions by correspondence, translated the rhetorical manual of his teacher Apollodorus of Pergamum, and began a treatise on medicinal plants, dedicated to Augustus. Horace addressed to him the ninth ode of the second book.
Fragments in R. Weichert, Poetarum Latinorum Vitae et Carminum Reliquiae (1830); R. Unger, De C. Valgii Rufi Poematis (1848); O. Ribbeck, Geschichte der römischen Dichtung (1889), ii.; M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur (1899), ii. I; Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans., 1900), 241.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rueil

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​RUEIL, a town of N. France, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, at the W. foot of Mt Valérien, 6 m. W. of Paris by tramway. Pop. (1906) 10,439. Rueil has a church rebuilt under Napoleon III. in exact imitation of a previous church in the Renaissance style, and containing the tombs of the Empress Josephine and her daughter Hortense de Beauharnais. In the 17th century Richelieu built a chateau which no longer exists. Rueil has important photographic works and manufactures of lime and cement, &c. Close to the town is the château of Malmaison, a building of the 18th century famous as the residence of the empress Josephine. It was afterwards occupied by Maria Christina, queen of Spain, and by the empress Eugénie. In 1900 the owner, Daniel Osiris, presented it and the park to the nation; the apartments have been as far as possible restored to the condition in which they were when inhabited by Josephine and Napoleon.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ruffian

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​RUFFIAN (Fr. rufian, It. ruffiano), a brutal, violent person, a swaggering, low bully. The etymology is obscure, but the word has been connected with “ruffler,” a bully, swaggerer, one who “ruffles” (M. Du. roffeln, to pander). An early derivation, quoted in Du Cange, derives it from Lat. rufus, red, as the hair of the meretrices, with whom the ruffiani were generally associated, was red or gold, as contrasted with the black hair of sober matrons.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Urn

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​URN (Lat. urna, either from root of urere, to burn, being made of burnt clay, or connected with urceus, Gr. ὔρχα, jar), a vessel or vase, particularly one with an oviform body and a foot. The Roman term urna was used primarily of a jar for carrying or drawing water, but was also specifically applied to the vessel in which the voting-tablets (tabellae) and lots (sortes) were cast, whence its ngurative use for the urn of fate from which are drawn the varying lots of man's destiny. The ashes of the cremated dead were deposited in cinerary urns, a custom perpetuated by the marble or other urns placed upon funeral monuments. The Roman urna was also a liquid measure containing half an amphora, or about 3½ gallons. Modern usage has given the name to large silver or copper vessels containing tea or coffee with a tap for drawing off the liquids and heated either by a spirit lamp or, as in the older forms, by the insertion of a hot iron in a special receptacle placed in the body of the vessel.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Uric Acid

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​URIC ACID, C$_5$H$_4$N$_4$O$_3$, in organic chemistry, an acid which is one of the penultimate products of the tissue waste in the human body. While the bulk of the nitrogen of the albuminoids passes off through the bladder as urea, a small portion of it stops at the uric acid stage. Human urine contains only a fraction of a per cent. of the acid, chiefly as sodium salt; abundance of uric acid is met with in the excrement of serpents and birds, with whom it is the principal nitrogenous product of tissue waste. For its preparation guano is boiled repeatedly with a solution of borax in 120 parts of water. The filtered solution is acidified with hydrochloric acid, when impure uric acid separates out as a brown precipitate, which is washed with cold water; it is then dissolved in hot dilute caustic potash or soda, the solution filtered, and the filtrate saturated with carbon dioxide. An almost insoluble urate is precipitated, which is filtered, washed and decomposed by hot dilute hydrochloric acid. Uric acid separates as a white precipitate, which is filtered off, washed and dried, to be repurified by a repetition of the alkali process or otherwise. Pure uric acid forms a snow-white ​micro-crystalline powder, devoid of smell or taste, soluble in 1800 parts of boiling and in 14,000 parts of cold water, but insoluble in alcohol and in ether. For its detection in urine, the urine is mixed with excess of hydrochloric acid, and allowed to stand, when the uric acid separates out, generally coloured reddish by impurities. The precipitate is dissolved in a few drops of nitric acid and the solution cautiously evaporated to dryness. The residue when exposed to ammonia gas assumes the intense purple colour of murexide.
The acid, which was discovered by C. Scheele in 1776 in urinary calculi, was afterwards investigated by Liebig and Wöhler. The determination of its constitution, and its relation to other vegetable and animal products, followed from the researches of A. von Baeyer and E. Fischer (see Purin).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Uriconium

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​URICONIUM (more correctly Viroconium), a large Romano-British country town, chef-lieu of the Cornovii, now Wroxeter on the Severn, 5 m. E. of Shrewsbury. At first perhaps (A.D. 45–55) a Roman legionary fortress, held by Legio XIV. Gemina against the Welsh hill tribes, its garrison soon removed and it became a flourishing town with stately town hall, baths and other appurtenances of a thoroughly civilized and Romanized city. It was larger and probably richer than—for example—Silchester. The lines of its walls can still be traced, enclosing an area of 170 acres, and parts of the town hall and baths have been uncovered. Its originally Celtic name seems to have survive in the names of Wroxeter and the neighbouring hill, Wrekin.
See Victoria History of Shropshire, i. 215–56.