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

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​OLOPAN, Olopuen or Olopen (probably a Chinese form of the Syriac Rabban, i.e. monk: fl. A.D. 635), the first Christian missionary in China (setting aside vague stories of St Thomas, St Bartholomew, &c.), and founder of the Nestorian Church in the Far East. According to the Si-ngan-fu inscription, our sole authority, Olopan came to China from Ta T’sin (the Roman empire) in the ninth year of the emperor T’ai-Tsung (A.D. 635), bringing sacred books and images. He was received with favour; his teaching was examined and approved; his Scriptures were translated for the imperial library; and in 638 an imperial edict declared Christianity a tolerated religion. T’ai-Tsung’s successor, Kao-Tsung (650–683), was still more friendly, and Olopan now became a “guardian of the empire” and “lord of the great law.” After this followed (c. 683–744) a time of disfavour and oppression for Chinese Christians, followed by a revival dating from the arrival of a fresh missionary, Kiho, from the Roman empire.
The Si-ngan-fu inscription, which alone records these facts, was erected in 781, and rediscovered in 1625 by workmen digging in the Chang-ngan suburb of Si-ngan-fu city. It consists of 1789 Chinese characters, giving a history of the Christian mission down to 781, together with a sketch of Nestorian doctrine, the decree of T’ai-Tsung in favour of Christianity, the date of erection, and names of various persons connected with the church in China when the monument was put up. Additional notes in Syriac (Estrangelo characters) repeat the date and record the names of the reigning Nestorian patriarch, the Nestorian bishop in China, and a number of the Nestorian clergy.
See Kircher, China Illustrata; G. Pauthier, De l’authenticité de l’inscription nestorienne de Si-ngan-fou (Paris, 1857) and L’inscription syro-chinoise de Si-ngan-fou (Paris, 1858); Henry Yule, Cathay, Preliminary Essay, xcii.-xciv. clxxxi.-clx.xxiii. (London, Hakluyt Soc., 1866): F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, 323, &c.; Father Henri Havret, La stèle chrétienne de Si-ngan-fou, two parts (text and history) published out of three (Shanghai, 1895 and 1897); Dr James Legge’s edition and translation of the text, The Nestorian Monument of Hsî-an-Fu (London, 1888); Yule and Cordier, Marco Polo, ii. 27-29 (London, 1903); C. R. Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, i. 215-218.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oloron-Sainte-Marie

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​OLORON-SAINTE-MARIE, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Basses-Pyrenees, 21 m. S.W. of Pau on a branch of the Southern railway. It lies at the confluence of the mountain torrents (locally known as gaves) Aspe and Ossau, which, after dividing it into three parts, unite to form the Oloron, a tributary of the Pau. The united population of the old feudal town of Sainte-Croix or Oloron proper, which is situated on an eminence between the two rivers, of Sainte-Marie on the left bank of the Aspe, and of the new quarters on the right bank of the Ossau, is 7715. Oloron has remains of old ramparts and pleasant promenades with beautiful views, and there are several old houses of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, one of which is occupied by the hôtel de ville. The church of Sainte-Croix, the building of most interest, belongs mainly to the 11th century; the chief feature of the exterior is the central Byzantine cupola; in the interior there is a large altar of gilded wood, constructed in the Spanish style of the 17th century. The church of Sainte-Marie, which formerly served as the cathedral of Oloron, is in the old ecclesiastical quarter of Sainte-Marie. It is a medley of various styles from the 11th to the 14th century. A square tower at the west end shelters a fine Romanesque portal. In the new quarter there is the modern church of Notre-Dame. Remains of a castle of the 14th century are also still to be seen. Oloron is the seat of a sub-prefect, and its public institutions include tribunals of first instance and of commerce, and a chamber of arts and manufactures. It is the most important commercial centre of its department after Bayonne, and carries on a thriving trade with Spain by way of the passes of Somport and Anso.
A Celtiberian and then a Gallo-Roman town, known as Iluro, occupied the hill on which Sainte-Croix now stands. Devastated by the Vascones in the 6th and by the Saracens in the 8th century, it was abandoned, and it was not until the 11th century that the quarter of Sainte-Marie was re-established by the bishops. In 1080 the viscount of Béarm took possession of the old town. The two quarters remained distinct till the union of Béarm with the crown at the accession of Henry IV. At the Reformation the place became a centre of Catholic reaction. In the 17th century it carried on a considerable trade with Aragon, until the Spaniards, jealous of its prosperity, pillaged the establishments of the Oloron merchants at Saragossa in 1694—a disaster from which it only slowly recovered. The bishopric was suppressed in 1790.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oltenitza

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​OLTENITZA (Oltenita), a town of Rumania, on the left bank of the river Argesh, 33 m. from its outflow into the Danube, and at a terminus of a branch railway from Bucharest. Pop. (1900) 5801. The principal trade is in grain, timber (floated down the Argesh) and fish. Lake Greca, famous for its carp, lies 10 m. E. and has an area of about 45 sq. m. Its waters reach the Danube through a network of streams, marshes and meres. Oltenitza is the ancient Constantiola, which was the seat of the first bishopric established in Dacia. In the Crimean War the Turks forced the river at this point and inflicted heavy losses on the Russians.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Olympiad

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​OLYMPIAD, in Greek chronology, a period of four years, used as a method of dating for literary purposes, but never adopted in every-day life. The four years were reckoned from one celebration of the Olympian games to another, the first Olympiad beginning with 776 B.C., the year of Coroebus, the first victor in the games after their suspension for 86 years, the last with A.D. 394, when they were finally abolished during the reign of Theodosius the Great. The system was first regularly used by the Sicilian historian Timaeus (352–256 B.C.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Olshausen, Hermann

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​OLSHAUSEN, HERMANN (1796–1839), German theologian, was born at Oldeslohe in Holstein on the 21st of August 1796, and was educated at the universities of Kiel (1814) and Berlin (1816), where he was influenced by Schleiermacher and Neander. In 1820 he became Privatdozent and in 1821 professor extraordinarius at Berlin; in 1827 professor at Königsberg, in 1834 at Erlangen. He died on the 4th of September 1839. Olshausen’s department was New Testament exegesis; his Commentary (completed and revised by Ebrard and Wiesinger) began to appear at Konigsberg in 1830, and was translated into English in 4 vols. (Edinburgh, 1847–1849). He had prepared for it by his other works. Die Ächtheit d. vier Kanon. Evangelien (1823), Ein Wort über tieferen Schriftsinn (1824) and Die biblische Schriftauslegung (1825).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Olustee

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​OLUSTEE, a village of Baker county, Florida, U.S.A., in the precinct of Olustee, about 46 m. W. by S. of Jacksonville. Pop. of the precinct (1905) 397. The village is served by the Seaboard Air Line. The battle of Olustee, or Ocean Pond (the name of a small body of water in the vicinity), one of the most sanguinary engagements of the Civil War in proportion to the numbers engaged, was fought on the 20th of February 1864, about 2 m. east of Olustee, between about 5500 Federal troops, under General Truman Seymour (1824–1891), and about 5400 Confederates, under General Joseph Finegan, the Federal forces being decisively defeated, with a loss, in killed and wounded, of about one-third of their number, including several officers. The Confederate losses, in killed and wounded, were about 940.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Olybrius

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​OLYBRIUS, Roman emperor of the West from the 11th of July to the 23rd of October 472, was a member of a noble family and a native of Rome. After the sack of the city by Genseric ​(Geiseric) in 455, he fled to Constantinople, where in 464 he was made consul, and about the same time married Placidia, daughter of Valentinian III. and Eudoxia. This afforded Genseric, whose son Hunneric had married Eudocia, the elder sister of Placidia, the opportunity of claiming the empire of the West for Olybrius. In 472 Olybrius was sent to Italy by the emperor Leo to assist the emperor Anthemius against his son-in-law Ricimer, but, having entered into negotiations with the latter, was himself proclaimed emperor against his will, and on the murder of his rival ascended the throne unopposed. His reign was as uneventful as it was brief.
See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xxxvi.; J. B. Bury, Later Roman Empire.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mieres

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​MIERES, a town of northern Spain, in the province of Oviedo, 12 m. by rail S.E. of Oviedo, on the river Caudal, a tributary of the Nalon. Pop. (1900), 18,083. Mieres is the chief town of a mountainous, fertile and well-wooded region in which coal, iron, and copper are extensively mined and sulphur and cinnabar are obtained in smaller quantities. The town contains large iron foundries and chemical works, and has an active trade in fruit, cider, timber and live stock.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mignard, Pierre

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​MIGNARD, PIERRE (1610–1695), called—to distinguish him from his brother Nicholas—Le Romain, French painter, was born at Troyes in 1610, and came of a family of artists. In 1630 he left the studio of Simon Vouet for Italy, where he spent twenty-two years, and made a reputation which brought him a summons to Paris. Successful with his portrait of the king, and in favour with the court, Mignard pitted himself against Le Brun, declined to enter the Academy of which he was the head, and made himself the centre of opposition to its authority. The history of this struggle is most important, because it was identical, as long as it lasted, with that between the old gilds of France and the new body which Colbert, for political reasons, was determined to support. Shut out, in spite of the deserved success of his decorations of the cupola of Val de Grace (1664), from any great share in those public works the control of which was the attribute of the new Academy, Mignard was chiefly active in portraiture. Turenne, Moliére, Bossuet, Maintenon (Louvre), La Valliére, Sévigné, Montespan, Descartes (Castle Howard), all the beauties and celebrities of his day, sat to him. His readiness and skill, his happy instinct for grace of arrangement, atoned for want of originality and real power. With the death of Le Brun (1690) the situation changed; Mignard deserted his allies, and succeeded to all the posts held by his opponent. These late honours he did not long enjoy; in 1695 he died whilst about to commence work on the cupola of the Invalides. His best compositions have been engraved by Audran, Edelinck, Masson, Poilly and others.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Midsomer Norton

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​MIDSOMER NORTON, an urban district in the northern parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, 12 1/2 m. S.S.W. of Bath. on the Somerset & Dorset and the Great Western railways. Pop. (1901), 5809. The town is pleasantly situated in a hilly district, between two branches of the small river Somer. The church of St John the Baptist, principally Perpendicular, has in its tower three bells presented by Charles II. Both this town and the adjacent urban district of Radstock (pop. 3355) have a considerable trade in coal, which is mined in the vicinity. The coalfield extends northwestward towards Bristol, and is of great importance to the manufactures of that city.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Migne, Jacques Paul

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​MIGNE, JACQUES PAUL (1800–1875), French priest and publisher, was born at St Flour, Cantal, on the 25th of October 1800. He studied theology at Orleans, was ordained priest in 1824 and placed in charge of the parish of Puiseaux, in the diocese of Orleans. In 1833 he went to Paris, and started L’Univers religieux, which afterwards became Louis Veuillot’s ultramontane organ. On severing his connexion with the paper three years later, he opened at Petit Montrouge, near Paris, the great publishing house which brought out in rapid succession numerous religious works at popular prices. The best known of these are: Scripturae sacrae cursus completus, and Theologiae cursus (each in 28 vols., 1840–1845); Collection des auteurs sacrés (100 vols., 1846–1848); Encyclopédie théologique (171 vols., 1844–1866); Patrologiae cursus completus, Latin series in 221 vols. (1844–1855; 2nd edition, 1878 seq.); Greek series, first published in Latin (85 vols., 1856–1861); with Greek text and Latin translation (165 vols., 1857–1866). Unfortunately these editions, brought out in great haste and often edited by superficial scholars, do not come up to the requirements of modern criticism. By far the most noteworthy is the Patrology, which was superintended by the learned Benedictine J. B. Pitra. Its vast scope leaves it still unique and valuable, where other editions of special works do not exist. The indices in 3 vols. are arranged so that one may easily find any reference in the patristic writings. In February 1868 a great fire destroyed the whole of Migne’s printing premises, but he established a new house in Paris, which was purchased in 1876 by the publishers Garnier Frères, who still own all the works brought out by Migne. He died in Paris on the 25th of October 1875.
For a more complete account of Migne’s life, see the article in the Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1906 seq.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mignon, Abraham

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​MIGNON, ABRAHAM (1640–1697), Dutch painter, was born at Frankfort. His father, a merchant, placed him under the still-life painter Jacob Merrel, by whom he was taken to Holland about 1660. He then worked under de Heem at Utrecht, where in 1675 he married the daughter of the painter Cornelis Willaerts. Sibylle Merian (1647–1717), daughter of the engraver Matthew Merian, became his pupil and achieved distinction as a flower painter. He died at. Wetzlar. Mignon devoted himself almost exclusively to flowers, fruit, birds and other “still life,” though at times he also attempted portraiture. His flower pieces are marked by careful finish and delicate handling. His favourite scheme was to introduce red or White roses in the centre of the canvas and to set the whole group of flowers against a dark background. Nowhere can his work be seen to better advantage than at the Dresden Gallery, which contains fifteen of his paintings, twelve of which are signed. Six of his pictures are at the Louvre, four at the Hermitage, and other examples are to be found at the museums of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Brussels, Munich, Karlsruhe, Brunswick, Cassel, Schwerin, Copenhagen and Turin.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mierevelt, Michiel Jansz van

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​MIEREVELT (Mierveld, or Mireveldt), MICHIEL JANSZ VAN (1567–1641), Dutch painter, was born at Delft, the son of a goldsmith, who apprenticed him to the copperplate engraver J. Wierix. He subsequently became a pupil of Willem Willemz and Augusteyn of Delft, until Anthonie van Montfoort (Blocklandt), who had seen and admired two of Mierevelt’s early engravings, “Christ and the Samaritan” and “Judith and Holofernes,” invited him to enter his school at Utrecht. Devoting himself first to still life, he eventually took up portraiture, in which he achieved such success that the many commissions entrusted to him necessitated the employment of numerous assistants, by whom hundreds of portraits were turned out in factory fashion. The works that can with certainty be ascribed to his own brush are remarkable for their sincerity, severe drawing and harmonious colour, but comparatively few of the two thousand or more portraits that bear ​his name are wholly his own handiwork. He settled down in his native town, but went frequently to The Hague, where he entered the gild of St Luke in 1625. So great was his reputation that he was patronized by royalty in many countries and acquired great wealth. The king of Sweden and the count palatine of Neuburg presented him with golden chains, Archduke Albrecht gave him a pension, and Charles I. vainly endeavoured to induce him to visit the English court. Though Mierevelt is chiefly known as a portrait painter, he also executed some mythological pieces of minor importance. Many of his portraits have been reproduced in line by the leading Dutch engravers of his time. He died at Delft on the 27th of June 1641.
The Ryks Museum in Amsterdam has the richest collection of Mierevelt’s works, chief of them being the portraits of William, Philip William, Maurice, and Frederick Henry of Orange, and of the count palatine Frederick V. At The Hague Museum are the portraits of four princes of the house of Orange, of Frederick V., king of Bohemia, and of Louise de Coligny as a widow. Other portraits by him are at nearly all the leading continental galleries, notably at Brunswick (3), Gotha (2), Schwerin (3), Munich (2), Paris (Louvre, 3), Dresden (4), Berlin (2), and Darmstadt (3). The town hall of Delft also has numerous examples of his work.
Many of his pupils and assistants rose to fame. The most gifted of them were Paulus Moreelse and Jan van Ravesteyn. His sons Pieter (1596–1623) and Jan (d. 1633), and his son-in-law Willem Jacobz Delff, probably painted many of the pictures which go under his name. His portrait was painted by Van Dyck and engraved by Delff.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Naden, Constance Caroline Woodhill

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​NADEN, CONSTANCE CAROLINE WOODHILL (1858–1889), English author, was born at Edgbaston, on the 24th of January 1858, her father being an architect. Her mother died just after the child’s birth, and Constance was brought up in the home of her grandfather. In 1881 she began to study physical science at Mason College, Birmingham. In 1881 she published Songs and Sonnets of Springtime; in 1887, A Modern Apostle, and other Poems. Her poems made such an impression on W. E. Gladstone that he included her, in an article in the Speaker, among the foremost English poetesses of the day. After her grandfather’s death Miss Naden found herself rich, and she travelled in the East and then (1888) settled in London. She died on the 23rd of December 1889. After 1876 she had paid increasing attention to philosophy, with her friend Dr Robert Lewins, and the two had formulated a system of their own, which they called “Hylo-Idealism.” Her main ideas on the subject are contained in a posthumous volume of her essays (Induction and Deduction, 1890), edited by Dr Lewins.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nadīm

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​NADĪM [Abulfaraj Maḥommed ibn Isḥāq ibn abī Yaʽqūb un-Nadīm] (d. 995), of Bagdad, the author of one of the most interesting works in Arabic literature, the Fihrist ul-ʽUlūm (“list of the books of all nations that were to be found in Arabic”) with notices of the authors and other particulars, carried down to the year 988. A note in the Leiden MS. places the death of the author eight years later. Of his life we know nothing. His work gives us a complete picture of the most active intellectual period of the Arabian empire. He traces the rise and growth of philology and belles-lettres, of theology, orthodox and heretical, of law and history, of mathematics and astronomy, of medicine and alchemy; he does not despise the histories of knights errant, the fables of Kalila and Dimna, the facetiae of the “boon companions,” the works of magic and divination. But to us no part of his work is more interesting than his account of the beliefs of sects and peoples beyond Islam. Here, fortunately, still more than in other parts of his work, he goes beyond the functions of the mere cataloguer; he tells what he learned of China from a Christian missionary of Nejrān, of India from a description of its religion compiled for the Barmecide Yaḥya; his full accounts of the Sabians of Harran and of the doctrines of Mani are of the first importance for the historian of Asiatic religions.
Imperfect manuscripts of the Fihrist exist in Paris, Leiden and Vienna. The text was prepared for publication by G. Flügel, and edited after his death by J. Rodiger and A. Müller (2 vols., Leipzig, 1871–1872). Flügel had already given a full analysis of the work in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, vol. xiii. (1859), pp. 559-650; cf. E. G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia (London, 1902), pp. 383-387. T. Houtsma supplied a lacuna in Flügel’s edition in the Vienna Oriental Journal, vol. iv. pp. 217 sqq.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nachtigal, Gustav

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​NACHTIGAL, GUSTAV (1834–1885), German explorer in Central Africa, son of a Lutheran pastor, was born at Eichstedt in the Mark of Brandenburg, on the 23rd of February 1834. After medical study at the universities of Halle, Würzburg and Greifswald, he practised for a few years as a military surgeon. Finding the climate of his native country injurious to his health, he went to Algiers and Tunis, and took part, as a surgeon, in several expeditions into the interior. Commissioned by the king of Prussia to carry gifts to the sultan of Bornu in acknowledgment of kindness shown to German travellers, he set out in 1869 from Tripoli, and succeeded after two years’ journeyings in accomplishing his mission. During this period he visited Tibesti and Borku, regions of the central Sahara not previously known to Europeans. From Bornu he went to Bagirmi, and, proceeding by way of Wadai and Kordofan, emerged from darkest Africa, after having been given up for lost, at Khartum in the winter of 1874. His journey, graphically described in his Sahara und Sudan (3 vols., 1879–1889), placed the intrepid explorer in the front rank of discoverers. On the establishment of a protectorate over Tunisia by France, Nachtigal was sent thither as consul-general for the German empire, and remained there until 1884, when he was despatched by Prince Bismarck to West Africa as special commissioner, ostensibly to inquire into the condition of German commerce, but really to annex territories to the German flag. As the result of his mission Togoland and Cameroon were added to the German empire. On his return voyage he died at sea off Cape Palmas on the 20th of April 1885, and was buried at Grand Bassam.
Nachtigal’s travels are summarized in Gustav Nachtigal’s Reisen in der Sahara und im Sudan, by Dr Albert Frankel (Leipzig, 1887). A French translation, by J. van Vollenhoven, of that part of his work concerning Wadai, appeared in the Bull. du comité de l’Afriq. française for 1903 under the title of “Le Voyage de Nachtigal au Ouadai.” Nachtigal died before transcribing his notes on Wadai, and they were edited in the German edition by E. Groddeck.