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

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​ASHREF, a town of Persia in the province of Mazandaran, about 50 m. W. of Astarabad and 5 m. inland from the Caspian Sea, in 36° 42′ N. and 53° 32′ E. The population is about 6000, comprising descendants of some Georgians introduced by Shah Abbas I. (1587–1629) and a number of Gudars, a peculiar pariah race, probably of Indian origin. The place was without importance until 1612, when Shah Abbas began building and laying out the palaces and gardens in the neighbourhood now collectively known as Bagh i Shah (the garden of the shah). The palaces, completed in 1627, are now in ruins, but the gardens with their luxuriant vegetation and gigantic cypress and orange trees ate well worth a visit. There were originally six separate gardens, all contained within one large wall but separated one from another by high walls. The principal palace was the Chehel Situn (forty pillars), destroyed by the Afghans in 1723, and, although rebuilt by Nadir Shah in 1731, already in ruins in 1743. About ¾ m. north of the town is the Safi-abad garden, with a palace built by Shah Safi (1629–1642) for his daughter. It is situated on a lovely wooded hill, and was repaired and in part renovated about 1870 by Náṣiru’d-Din Shah.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ashmole, Elias

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​ASHMOLE, ELIAS (1617–1692), English antiquarian, and founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, was born at Lichfield on the 23rd of May 1617, the son of a saddler. In 1638 he became a solicitor, and in 1644 was appointed commissioner of excise. At Oxford, whither this brought him when the Royalist Parliament was sitting there, he made friends with Captain (afterwards Sir) George Wharton, through whose influence he obtained the king’s commission as captain of horse and comptroller of the ordnance. In 1646 he was initiated as a Freemason—the first gentleman, or amateur, to be “accepted.” In 1649 he married Lady Mainwaring, some twenty years his senior and a relative of his first wife who had died eight years before. This marriage placed him in a position of affluence that enabled him to devote his whole time to his favourite studies. His interest in astrology, aroused by Wharton, and by William Lilly,—whom with other astrologers he met in London in 1646,—seems, in the following years, to have subsided in favour of heraldry and antiquarian research. In 1657 his wife petitioned for a separation, but failing to gain her case returned to live with him. Between this crisis in his domestic life and the time of her death in 1668, Ashmole was in high favour at court. He was made successively Windsor herald, commissioner, comptroller and accountant-general of excise, commissioner for Surinam and comptroller of the White Office. He afterwards refused the office of Garter king-at-arms in favour of Sir William Dugdale, whose daughter he had married in 1668. In 1672 he published his Institutions, Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter, a work which was practically exhaustive, and is an example of his diligence and years of patient antiquarian research. Five years later he presented the Ashmolean Museum, the first public museum of curiosities in the kingdom, the larger part of which he had inherited from a friend, John Tradescant, to the university of Oxford. He made it a condition that a suitable building should be erected for its reception, and the collection was not finally installed until 1683. Subsequently he made the further gift to the university of his library. He died on the 18th of May 1692.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ashton-in-Makerfield

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​ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, an urban district in the Newton parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, 4 m. S. of Wigan, on the Great Central railway. Pop. (1901) 18,687. The district is rich in minerals, and has large collieries, and a colliery company’s institute; iron goods are manufactured.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ashton-under-Lyne

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​ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE, a market-town and municipal and parliamentary borough of Lancashire, England, on the river Tame, a tributary of the Mersey, 185 m. N. W. by N. from London and 61/2 E. from Manchester. Area, 1346 acres. Pop. (1891) 40,486; (1901) 43,890. It is served by the London & North-Western and the Lancashire & Yorkshire railways (Charlestown station), and by the Great Central (Park Parade station). ​The church of St Michael is Perpendicular, but almost wholly rebuilt. In the vicinity are barracks. The Old Hall, or manor house of the Asshetons, remains in an altered form, with an ancient prison adjoining, and the name of Gallows Meadow, still preserved, recalls the summary execution of justice by the lords of the manor. In the vicinity of Ashton a few picturesque old houses remain among the numerous modern residences. Stamford Park, presented by Lord Stamford, is shared by the towns of Ashton and Stalybridge, which extends across the Tame into Cheshire. A technical school, school of art and free library, and several hospitals are maintained. Chief among industries are cotton-spinning, hat-making and iron-founding and machinery works; and there are large collieries in the neighbourhood. The parliamentary borough, which returns one member, extends into Cheshire. The corporation consists of a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors.
The derivation from the Saxon æsc (ash) and tun (an enclosed place) accounts for the earliest orthography Estun. The addition subtus lineam is found in ancient deeds and is due to the position of the place below the line or boundary of Cheshire, which once formed the frontier between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia. The manor was granted to Roger de Poictou by William I., but before the end of his reign came to the Greslets as part of the barony of Manchester. It was held by the Asshetons from 1335 to 1515, when it passed by marriage to the Booths of Dunham Massey, and is now held by the earl of Stamford, the representative of that family. The lord of the manor still holds the ancient court-leet and court-baron half-yearly in May and November, in which cognizance is taken of breaches of agreement among the tenants, especially concerning the repair of roads and cultivation of lands. The place had long enjoyed the name of borough, but it was not till 1847 that a charter of incorporation was granted. Under the Reform Act (1832) it returns one member. One of the markets dates back to 1436. The ancient industry was woollen, but soon after the invention of the spinning frame the cotton trade was introduced, and as early as 1769 the weaving of ginghams, nankeens and calicoes was carried on, and the weaving of cotton yarn by machinery soon became the staple industry. A chapel or church existed here as early as 1261–1262.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ashley, William James

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​ASHLEY, WILLIAM JAMES (1860– ), English economist, was born in London on the 25th of February 1860. He was educated at St Olave’s grammar school and Balliol College, Oxford, and became a fellow of Lincoln College. In 1888 he was appointed professor of political economy and constitutional history in Toronto University, a post which he resigned in 1892, in order to become professor of economic history at Harvard University. In 1901 he was appointed professor of commerce and finance in Birmingham University and in 1902 dean of the faculty of commerce. Professor Ashley became well known for his work on the early history of English industry, and for his prominence among those English economists who supported Mr Chamberlain’s tariff reform movement. His most important works are Early History of the English Woollen Industry (1887); Introduction to English Economic History and Theory (2 parts, 1888–1893); Surveys, Historic and Economic (1900); Adjustment of Wages (1903); the Tariff Problem (2nd ed. 1904); Progress of the German Working Classes (1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Asia (province)

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​ASIA, in a restricted sense, the name of the first Roman province east of the Aegean, formed (133 B.C.) out of the kingdom left to the Romans by the will of Attalus III. Philometor, king of Pergamum. It included Mysia, Lydia, Caria and Phrygia, and therefore, of course, Aeolis, Ionia and the Troad. In 84 B.C., on the close of the Mithradatic War, Sulla reorganized the province, forming 40 regiones for fiscal purposes, and it was later divided into conventus. From 80 to 50 B.C. the upper Maeander valley and all Phrygia, except the extreme north, were detached and added to Cilicia. In 27 B.C. Asia was made a senatorial province under a pro-consul. As the wealthiest of Roman provinces it had most to gain by the pax Romana, and therefore welcomed the empire, and established and maintained the most devout cult of Augustus by means of the organization known as the Koinon or Commune, a representative council, meeting in the various metropoleis. In this cult the emperor came to be associated with the common worship of the Ephesian Artemis. By the reorganization of Diocletian, A.D. 297, Asia was broken up into several small provinces, and one of these, ​of which the capital was Ephesus, retained the name of the original province (see Asia Minor).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ashtabula

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​ASHTABULA, a city of Ashtabula county, Ohio, U.S.A., in Ashtabula township, on the Ashtabula river and Lake Erie, and 54 m. N.E. of Cleveland. Pop. (1890) 8338; (1900) 12,949, of whom 3688 were foreign-born; (1910, census) 18,266. There is a large Finnish-born population in the city and in Ashtabula county, and the Amerikan Sanomat, established here in 1897, is one of the most widely read Finnish weeklies in the country. Ashtabula is served by the Pennsylvania, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and the New York, Chicago & St Louis railways, and by inter-urban electric lines. The city is built on the high bank of the river about 75 ft. above the lake, and commands good views of diversified scenery. There is a public library. Ashtabula has an excellent harbour, to and from which large quantities of iron ore and coal are shipped. More iron ore is received at this port annually than at any other port in the country, or, probably, in the world; the ore is shipped thence by rail to Pittsburg, Youngstown and other iron manufacturing centres. In 1907 the port received 7,542,149 gross tons of iron ore, and shipped 2,632,027 net tons of soft coal. Among the city’s manufactures are leather, worsted goods, agricultural implements, and foundry and machine shop products; in 1905 the total value of the factory product was $1,895,454, an increase of 114.3% in five years. There are large green-houses in and near Ashtabula, and quantities of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes are raised under glass and shipped to Pittsburg and other large cities. The first settlement here was made about 1801. Ashtabula township was created in 1808, and from it the townships of Kingsville, Plymouth and Sheffield have subsequently been formed. The village of Ashtabula was incorporated in 1831, and received a city charter in 1891. The name Ashtabula is an Indian word first applied to the river and said to mean “fish river.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ashwell, Lena

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​ASHWELL, LENA (1872– ), English actress, was the daughter of Commander Pocock, R.N. In 1896 she married the actor Arthur Playfair, whom she divorced in 1908; later in the latter year she married Dr Simson. In 1895 she played Elaine in Sir Henry Irving’s production of King Arthur at the Lyceum, and again acted with him in 1903 in Dante. She made her first striking success, however, on the London stage in Mrs Dane’s Defence with Sir Charles Wyndham in 1900, and a few years later her acting in Leah Kleschna confirmed her position as one of the leading actresses in London. In 1907 she started under her own management at the Kingsway theatre.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Delfico, Melchiorre

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​DELFICO, MELCHIORRE (1744–1835), Italian economist, was born at Teramo in the Abruzzi on the 1st of August 1744, and was educated at Naples. He devoted himself specially to the study of jurisprudence and political economy, and his numerous publications exercised great practical influence in the correction and extinction of many abuses. Under Joseph Bonaparte Delfico was made a councillor of state, an office which he held until the restoration of Ferdinand IV., when he was appointed president of the commission of archives, from which he retired in 1825. He died at Teramo on the 21st of June 1835. His more important works were: Saggio filosofico sul matrimonio (1774); Memoria sul Tribunale della Grascia e sulle leggi economiche nelle provincie confinanti del regno (1785), which led to the abolition in Naples of the most vexatious and absurd restrictions on the sale and exportation of agricultural produce; Riflessioni su la vendita dei feudi (1790) and Lettera a Sua Ecc. il sig. Duca di Cantalupo (1795), which brought about the abolition of feudal rights over landed property and their sale; Ricerche sul vero carattere della giurisprudenza Romana e dei suoi cultori (1791); Pensieri su la storia e su l’ incertezza ed inutilità della medesima (1806), both on the early history of Rome.
See F. Mozzetti, Degli studii, delle opere e delle virtù di Melchiorre Delfico; Tipaldo’s Biographia degli Italiani illustri (vol. ii.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Delibes, Clément Philibert Léo

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​DELIBES, CLÉMENT PHILIBERT LÉO (1836–1891), French composer, was born at Saint Germain du Val on the 21st of February 1836. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Adolphe Charles Adam, through whose influence he became accompanist at the Théâtre Lyrique. His first essay in dramatic composition was his Deux sous de charbon (1853), and during several years he produced a number of operettas. His cantata Alger was heard at the Paris opera in 1865. Having become second chorus master at the Grand Opéra, he wrote the music of a ballet entitled La Source for this theatre, in collaboration with Minkous, a Polish composer. La Source was produced with great success in 1866. The composer returned to the operetta style with Malbrouk s’en va-t-en guerre,—written in collaboration with Georges Bizet, Émile Jonas and Legouix, and given at the Théâtre de l’Athénée in 1867. Two years later came L’Écossais de Chatou, a one-act piece, and La Cour du roi Pétaud, a three-act opera-bouffe. The ballet Coppélia was produced at the Grand Opéra on the 25th of May 1870 with enormous success.
Delibes gave up his post as second chorus master at the Grand Opéra in 1872 when he married the daughter of Mademoiselle Denain, formerly an actress at the Comédie Française. In this year he published a collection of graceful melodies including Myrto, Les Filles de Cadiz, Bonjour, Suzon and others. His first important dramatic work was Le Roi l’a dit, a charming comic opera, produced on the 24th of May 1873 at the Opéra Comique. Three years later, on the 14th of June 1876, Sylvia, a ballet in three acts, one of the composer’s most delightful works, was produced at the Grand Opéra. This was followed by La Mort d’Orphée, a grand scena produced at the Trocadéro concerts in 1878; by Jean de Nivelle, a three-act opera brought out at the Opéra Comique on the 8th of March 1880; and by Lakmé, an opera in three acts produced at the same theatre on the 14th of April 1883. Lakmé has remained his most popular opera. The composer died in Paris on the 16th of January 1891, leaving Kassya, a four-act opera, in an unfinished state. This work was completed by E. Guiraud, and produced at the Opéra Comique on the 21st of March 1893. In 1877 Delibes became a chevalier of the Legion of Honour; in 1881 he became a professor of advanced composition at the Conservatoire; in 1884 he took the place of Victor Massé at the Institut de France.
Leo Delibes was a typically French composer. His music is light, graceful and refined. He excelled in ballet music, and Sylvia may well be considered a masterpiece. His operas are constructed on a conventional pattern. The harmonic texture, however, is modern, and the melodic invention abundant, while the orchestral treatment is invariably excellent.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Delilah

​DELILAH, in the Bible, the heroine of Samson’s last love-story and the cause of his downfall (Judg. xvi.). She was a Philistine of Sorek (mod. Sūrīk), west of Zorah, and when her countrymen offered her an enormous bribe to betray him, she set to work to find out the source of his strength. Thrice Samson scoffingly told her how he might be bound, and thrice he readily broke the bonds with which she had fettered him in his sleep; seven green bow-strings, new ropes, and even the braiding of his hair into the frame of the loom failed to secure him. At length he disclosed the secret of his power. Delilah put him to sleep upon her lap, called in a man to shave off his seven locks, and this time he was easily captured. See Samson.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Delia

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​DELIA, a festival of Apollo held every five years at the great panegyris in Delos (Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 147). It included athletic and musical contests, at which the prize was a branch of the sacred palm. This festival was said to have been established by Theseus on his way back from Crete. Its celebration gradually fell into abeyance and was not revived till 426 B.C., when the Athenians purified the island and took so prominent a part in the maintenance of the Delia that it came to be regarded almost as an Athenian festival (Thucydides iii. 104). Ceremonial embassies (θεωρίαι) from all the Greek cities were present.
See G. Gilbert, Deliaca (1869); J. A. Lebègue, Recherches sur Délos (1876); A. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen (1898); E. Pfuhl, De Atheniensium pompis sacris (1900); G. F. Schömann, Griechische Altertümer (4th ed., 1897–1902); P. Stengel, Die griechischen Kultusaltertümer (1898); T. Homolle in Daremberg and Saglio’s Dictionnaire des antiquités.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Delisle, Joseph Nicolas

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​DELISLE, JOSEPH NICOLAS (1688–1768), French astronomer, was born at Paris on the 4th of April 1688. Attracted to astronomy by the solar eclipse of the 12th of May 1706, he obtained permission in 1710 to lodge in the dome of the Luxembourg, procured some instruments, and there observed the total eclipse of the 22nd of May 1724. He proposed in 1715 the “diffraction-theory” of the sun’s corona, visited England and was received ​into the Royal Society in 1724, and left Paris for St Petersburg on a summons from the empress Catherine, towards the end of 1725. Having founded an observatory there, he returned to Paris in 1747, was appointed geographical astronomer to the naval department with a salary of 3000 livres, and installed an observatory in the Hôtel Cluny. Charles Messier and J. J. Lalande were among his pupils. He died of apoplexy at Paris on the 12th of September 1768. Delisle is chiefly remembered as the author of a method for observing the transits of Venus and Mercury by instants of contacts. First proposed by him in a letter to J. Cassini in 1743, it was afterwards perfected, and has been extensively employed. As a preliminary to the transit of Mercury in 1743, which he personally observed, he issued a map of the world showing the varied circumstances of its occurrence. Besides many papers communicated to the academy of sciences, of which he became a member in 1714, he published Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire et au progrès de l’astronomie (St Petersburg, 1738), in which he gave the first method for determining the heliocentric co-ordinates of sun-spots; Mémoire sur les nouvelles découvertes au nord de la mer du sud (Paris, 1752), &c.
See Mémoires de l’acad. des sciences (Paris, 1768), Histoire, p. 167 (G. de Fouchy); J. B. J. Delambre, Hist. de l’astronomie au XVIII$^e$ siècle, pp. 319, 533; Max. Marie, Hist. des sciences, vii. 254; Lalande, Bibl. astr. p. 385; and Le Nécrologe des hommes célèbres de France (1770). The records of Delisle’s observations at St Petersburg are preserved in manuscript at the Pulkowa observatory. A report upon them was presented to the St Petersburg academy of sciences by O. Struve in 1848, and those relating to occultations of the Pleiades were discussed by Carl Linsser in 1864. See also S. Newcomb, Washington Observations for 1875, app. ii. pp. 176-189. (A. M. C.)