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

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​HÓDMEZÖ-VÁSÁRHELY, a town of Hungary, in the county of Csongrád, 135 m. S.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 60,824 of which about two-thirds are Protestants. The town, situated on Lake Hód, not far from the right bank of the Tisza, has a modern aspect. The soil of the surrounding country, of which 383 sq. m. belong to the municipality, is exceedingly fertile, the chief products being wheat, mangcorn, barley, oats, millet, maize and various descriptions of fruit, especially melons. Extensive vineyards, yielding large quantities of both white and ​red grapes, skirt the town, and the horned cattle and horses of Hódmezö-Vásárhely have a good reputation; sheep and pigs are also extensively reared. The commune is protected from inundations of the Tisza by an enormous dike, but the town, nevertheless, sometimes suffers considerable damage during the spring floods.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lascaris, Joannes

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​LASCARIS, JOANNES [John], or Janus (c. 1445–1535), Greek scholar, probably the younger brother of Constantine Lascaris, surnamed Rhyndacenus from the river Rhyndacus in Bithynia, his native province. After the fall of Constantinople he was taken to the Peloponnese, thence to Crete, and ultimately found refuge in Florence at the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici, whose intermediary he was with the sultan Bayezid II. in the purchase of Greek MSS. for the Medicean library. On the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, at the invitation of Charles VIII. of France, Lascaris removed to Paris (1495), where he gave public instruction in Greek. By Louis XII. he was several times employed on public missions, amongst others to Venice (1503–1508), and in 1515 he appears to have accepted the invitation of Leo X. to take charge of the Greek college he had founded at Rome. We afterwards (1518) find Lascaris employed along with Budaeus (Budé) by Francis I. in the formation of the royal library at Fontainebleau, and also again sent in the service of the French crown to Venice. He died at Rome, whither he had been summoned by Pope Paul III., in 1535. Among his pupils was Musurus.
Amongst other works, Lascaris edited or wrote: Anthologia epigrammatum Graecorum (1494), in which he ascribed the collection of the Anthology to Agathias, not to Planudes; Didymi Alexandrini scholia in Iliadem (1517); Porphyrius of Tyre’s Homericarum quaestionum liber (1518); De veris Graecarum litterarum formis ac causis apud antiquos (Paris, 1556). See H. Hody, De Graecis illustribus (London, 1742); W. Roscoe, Life of Leo X. ii. (1846); C. F. Börner, De doctis hominibus Graecis (Leipzig, 1750); A. Horawitz in Ersch & Gruber’s Allgemeine Encyclopädie; J. E. Sandys, Hist. Class. Schol., ed. 2, vols. ii. (1908), p. 78.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Las Vegas

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​LAS VEGAS, a city and the county-seat of San Miguel county, New Mexico, U.S.A., in the north central part of New Mexico, on the Gallinas river, and 83 m. by rail E. of Santa Fé. Though usually designated as a single municipality, Las Vegas consists of two distinct corporations, the old town on the W. bank of the river and the city proper on the E. bank. Pop. of the city (1890) 2385; (1900) 3552 (340 being foreign-born and 116 negroes); (1910) 3755. According to local estimates, the combined population of the city and the old town in 1908 was 10,000. Las Vegas is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé railway, and is its division headquarters in New Mexico. The city lies in a valley at the foot of the main range of the Rocky Mountains, and is about 6400 ft. above the sea. There are high peaks to the W. and within a short distance of the city much beautiful mountain scenery, especially along the “Scenic Route,” a highway from Las Vegas to Santa Fé, traversing the Las Vegas canyon and the Pecos Valley forest reserve. The country E. of the city consists of level plains. The small amount of rainfall, the great elevation and the southern latitude give the region a dry and rarified air, and Las Vegas is a noted health resort. Six miles distant, and connected with the city by rail, are the Las Vegas Hot Springs. The old town on the W. bank of the Gallinas river retains many features of a Mexican village, with low adobe houses facing narrow and crooked streets. Its inhabitants are largely of Spanish-American descent. The part on the E. bank or city proper is thoroughly modern, with well-graded streets, many of them bordered with trees. The most important public institutions are the New Mexico insane asylum, the New Mexico normal university (chartered 1893, opened 1898), the county court house (in the old town), the academy of the Immaculate Conception, conducted by the Sisters of Loretto, Saint Anthony’s ​sanatorium, maintained by the Sisters of Charity, La Salle institute, conducted by the Christian Brothers, a Presbyterian mission school and a Methodist manual training and commercial school. There are railway machine-shops, and various manufactories. Las Vegas lies in the centre of an extensive grazing region, has large stockyards and annually ships great quantities of wool. Three of the local newspapers are published in Spanish. Las Vegas was founded in 1835, under the government of the Mexican Republic. On the 15th of August 1846, during the war between Mexico and the United States, Gen. Stephen W. Kearny entered the town, and its alcalde took the oath of allegiance to the United States. There was but little progress or development until the arrival of the railway in 1879. In 1888 the part east of the river was incorporated as a town under the name of East Las Vegas, and in 1896 it was chartered as the city of Las Vegas. The old Las Vegas, west of the river, was incorporated as a town in 1903.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lasalle, Antoine Chevalier Louis Collinet, Count

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​LASALLE, ANTOINE CHEVALIER LOUIS COLLINET, Count (1775–1809), French soldier, belonged to a noble family in Lorraine. His grandfather was Abraham Fabert, marshal of France. Entering the French army at the age of eleven, he had reached the rank of lieutenant when the Revolution broke out. As an aristocrat, he lost his commission, but he enlisted in the ranks, where his desperate bravery and innate power of command soon distinguished him. By 1795 he had won back his grade, and was serving as a staff-officer in the army of Italy. On one occasion, at Vicenza, he rivalled Seydlitz’s feat of leaping his horse over the parapet of a bridge to avoid capture, and, later, in Egypt, he saved Davout’s life in action. By 1800 he had become colonel, and in one combat in that year he had two horses killed under him, and broke seven swords. Five years later, having attained the rank of general of brigade, he was present with his brigade of light cavalry at Austerlitz. In the pursuit after Jena in 1806, though he had but 600 hussars and not one piece of artillery with him, he terrified the commandant of the strong fortress of Stettin into surrender, a feat rarely equalled save by that of Cromwell on Bletchingdon House. Made general of division for this exploit, he was next in the Polish campaign, and at Heilsberg saved the life of Murat, grand duke of Berg. When the Peninsular War began, Lasalle was sent out with one of the cavalry divisions, and at Medina de Rio Seco, Gamonal and Medellin broke every body of troops which he charged. A year later, at the head of one of the cavalry divisions of the Grande Armée he took part in the Austrian war. At Wagram he was killed at the head of his men. With the possible exception of Curély, who was in 1809 still unknown, Napoleon never possessed a better leader of light horse. Wild and irregular in his private life, Lasalle was far more than a beau sabreur. To talent and experience he added that power of feeling the pulse of the battle which is the true gift of a great leader. A statue of him was erected in Lunéville in 1893. His remains were brought from Austria to the Invalides in 1891.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lasaulx, Arnold Constantin Peter Franz von

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​LASAULX, ARNOLD CONSTANTIN PETER FRANZ VON (1839–1886), German mineralogist and petrographer, was born at Castellaun near Coblenz on the 14th of June 1839. He was educated at Berlin, where he took his Ph. D. in 1868. In 1875 he became professor of mineralogy at Breslau, and in 1880 professor of mineralogy and geology at Bonn. He was distinguished for his researches on minerals and on crystallography, and he was one of the earlier workers on microscopic petrography. He described in 1878 the eruptive rocks of the district of Saar and Moselle. In 1880 he edited Der Aetna from the MSS. of Dr W. Sartorius von Waltershausen, the results of observations made between the years 1834–1869. He was author of Elemente der Petrographie (1875), Einführung in die Gesteinslehre (1885), and Précis de pétrographie (1887). He died at Bonn on the 25th of January 1886.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lascar

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​LASCAR, the name in common use for all oriental, and especially Indian, sailors, which has been adopted in England into the Merchant Shipping Acts, though without any definition. It is derived from the Persian lashkar = army, or camp, in which sense it is still used in India, e.g. Lashkar, originally the camp, now the permanent capital, of Sindhia at Gwalior. It would seem to have been applied by the Portuguese, first to an inferior class of men in military service (cf. “gun-lascars”), and then to sailors as early as the 17th century. The form askari on the east coast of Africa, equivalent to “sepoy,” comes from the Arabic ‘askar = army, which is believed to be itself taken from the Persian.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lascaris, Constantine

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​LASCARIS, CONSTANTINE (d. 1493 or 1500), Greek scholar and grammarian, one of the promoters of the revival of Greek learning in Italy, was born at Constantinople. He was a member of the noble Bithynian family, which had furnished three emperors of Nicaea during the 13th century. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, he took refuge first in Corfu and then in Italy, where Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, appointed him Greek tutor to his daughter. Here was published his Grammatica Graeca, sive compendium octo orationis partium, remarkable as being the first book entirely in Greek issued from the printing press. After leaving Milan, Lascaris taught in Rome under the patronage of Cardinal Bessarion, and in Naples, whither he had been summoned by Ferdinand I. to deliver a course of lectures on Greece. Ultimately, on the invitation of the inhabitants, he settled in Messina, Sicily, where he continued to teach publicly until his death. Among his numerous pupils here was Pietro Bembo. Lascaris bequeathed his library of valuable MSS. to the senate of Messina; the collection was afterwards carried to Spain and lodged in the Escurial.
The Grammatica, which has often been reprinted, is the only work of value produced by Lascaris. Some of his letters are given by J. Iriarte in the Regiae Bibliothecae Matritensis codices Graeci manuscripti, i. (Madrid, 1769). His name is known to modern readers in the romance of A. F. Villemain, Lascaris, ou les Grecs du quinzième siècle (1825). See also J. E. Sandys, Hist. Class. Schol., ed. 2, vol. ii. (1908), pp. 76 foll.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Las Palmas

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​LAS PALMAS, the capital of the Spanish island of Grand Canary, in the Canary archipelago, and of an administrative district which also comprises the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura; on the east coast, in 28° 7′ N. and 5° 24′ W. Pop. (1900) 44,517. Las Palmas is the largest city in the Canary Islands, of which it was the capital until 1833. It is the seat of a court of appeal, of a brigadier, who commands the military forces in the district, of a civil lieutenant-governor, who is independent of the governor-general except in connexion with elections and municipal administration, and of a bishop, who is subordinate to the archbishop of Seville. The palms from which the city derives its name are still characteristic of the fertile valley which it occupies. Las Palmas is built on both banks of a small river, and although parts of it date from the 16th century, it is on the whole a clean and modern city, well drained, and supplied with pure water, conveyed by an aqueduct from the highlands of the interior. Its principal buildings include a handsome cathedral, founded in the 16th century but only completed in the 19th, a theatre, a museum, an academy of art, and several hospitals and good schools. The modern development of Las Palmas is largely due to the foreign merchants, and especially to the British who control the greater portion of the local commerce. La Luz, the port, is connected with Las Palmas by a railway 4 m. long; it is a free port and harbour of refuge, officially considered the third in importance of Spanish ports, but actually the first in the matter of tonnage. It is strongly fortified. The harbour, protected by the promontory of La Isleta, which is connected with the mainland by a narrow bar of sand, can accommodate the largest ships, and affords secure anchorage in all weathers. Ships can discharge at the breakwater (1257 yds. long) or at the Santa Catalina mole, constructed in 1883–1902. The minimum depth of water alongside the quays is 41/2 ft. There are floating water-tanks, numerous lighters, titan and other cranes, repairing workshops, and very large supplies of coal afloat and ashore. La Luz is one of the principal Atlantic coaling stations, and the coal-trade is entirely in British hands. Other important industries are shipbuilding, fishing, and the manufacture of glass, leather and hats. The chief exports are fruit, vegetables, sugar, wine and cochineal; coal, iron, cement, timber, petroleum, manure, textiles and provisions are the chief imports. (See also Canary Islands.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fish

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​FISH (O. Eng. fisc, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dutch visch, Ger. Fisch, Goth. fisks, cognate with the Lat. piscis), the common name of that class of vertebrate animals which lives exclusively in water, breathes through gills, and whose limbs take the form of fins (see Ichthyology). The article Fisheries deals with the subject from the economic and commercial point of view, and Angling with the catching of fish as a sport. The constellation and sign of the zodiac known as “the fishes” is treated under Pisces.
The fish was an early symbol of Christ in primitive and medieval Christian art. The origin is to be found in the initial letters of the names and titles of Jesus in Greek, viz. Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Ὑιός, Σώτηρ, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, which together spell the Greek word for “fish,” ἰχθύς. The fish is also said to be represented in the oval-shaped figure, pointed at both ends, and formed by the intersection of two circles. This figure, also known as the vesica piscis, is common in ecclesiastical seals and as a glory or aureole in paintings of sculpture, surrounding figures of the Trinity, saints, &c. The figure is, however, sometimes referred to the almond, as typifying virginity; the French name for the symbol is Amande mystique.
The word “fish” is used in many technical senses. Thus it is used of the purchase used in raising the flukes of an anchor to the bill-board; of a piece of wood or metal used to strengthen a sprung mast or yard; and of a plate of metal used, as in railway construction, for the strengthening of the meeting-place of two rails. This word is of doubtful origin, but it is probably an adaptation of the Fr. fiche, that which “fixes,” a peg. This word also appears in the English form “fish,” in the metal, pearl or bone counters, sometimes made in the form of fish, used for scoring points, &c., in many games.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Firth, Mark

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​FIRTH, MARK (1819–1880), English steel manufacturer and philanthropist, was born at Sheffield on the 25th of April 1819, the son of a steel smelter. At the age of fourteen Mark, with his brother, left school to join their father in the foundry where he was employed, and ten years later the three together started a six-hole furnace of their own. The venture proved successful, and besides an extensive home business, they soon established a large American connexion. Their huge Norfolk works were erected at Sheffield in 1849, and still greater were afterwards acquired at Whittington in Derbyshire and others at Clay Wheels near Wadsley. The manufacture of steel blocks for ordnance was the principal feature of their business, and they produced also shot and heavy forgings. They also installed a plant for the production of steel cores for heavy guns, and for some time they supplied nearly all the metal used for gun making by the British government and a large proportion of that used by the French. On the death of his father in 1848 Mark Firth became the head of the firm. In 1869 he built and endowed “Mark Firth’s Almshouses” at Ranmoor near Sheffield, and in 1875, when mayor, he presented to his native place a freehold park of thirty-six acres. He founded and endowed Firth College, for lectures and classes in connexion with the extension of university education, which was opened in 1879. He died on the 28th of November 1880, and was accorded a public funeral.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Firūzabad

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​FIRŪZABAD, a town of Persia, in the province of Fars, 72 m. S. of Shiraz, in 28° 51′ N. Pop. about 3000. It is situated in a fertile plain, 15 m. long and 7 m. broad, well watered by the river Khoja which flows through it from north to south. The town is surrounded by a mud wall and ditch. Three or four miles north-west of the town are the ruins of the ancient city and of a large building popularly known as the fire-temple of Ardashir, and beyond them on the face of the rock in the gorge through which the river enters the plain are two Sassanian bas-reliefs.
The river leaves the plain by a narrow gorge at the southern end, and according to Persian history it was there that Alexander the Great, when unable to capture the ancient city, built a dike across the gorge, thus damming up the water of the river and turning the plain into a lake and submerging the city and villages. The lake remained until the beginning of the 3rd century, when Ardashir, the first Sassanian monarch, drained it by destroying the dike. He built a new city, called it Gūr, and made it the capital of one of the five great provinces or divisions of Fars. Firuz (or Peroz, q.v.), one of Ardashir’s successors, called the district after his name Firūzabad (“the abode of Firuz”), but the name of the city remained Gūr until Azud ed Dowleh (Adod addaula) (949–982) changed it to its present name. He did this because he frequently resided at Gūr, and the name meaning also “a grave” gave rise to unpleasant allusions, for instance, “People who go to Gūr (grave) never return alive; our king goes to Gūr (the town) several times a year and is not dead yet.”
The district has twenty villages and produces much wheat and rice. It is said that the rice of Firūzabad bears sixty-fold.  (A. H.-S.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Firūzkūh

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​FIRŪZKŪH, a small province of Persia, with a population of about 5000, paying a yearly revenue of about £500. Its chief place is a village of the same name picturesquely situated in a valley of the Elburz, about 90 m. east of Teheran, at an elevation of 6700 ft. and in 35° 46′ N. and 52° 48′ E. It has post and telegraph offices and a population of 2500. A precipitous cliff on the eastern side of the valley is surmounted by the ruins of an ancient fort popularly ascribed to Alexander the Great.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Firth, Charles Harding

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​FIRTH, CHARLES HARDING (1857–), British historian, was born at Sheffield on the 16th of March 1857, and was educated at Clifton College and at Balliol College, Oxford. At his university he took the Stanhope prize for an essay on the marquess Wellesley in 1877, became lecturer at Pembroke College in 1887, and fellow of All Souls College in 1901. He was Ford’s lecturer in English history in 1900, and became regius professor of modern history at Oxford in succession to F. York Powell in 1904. Firth’s historical work was almost entirely confined to English history during the time of the Great Civil War and the Commonwealth; and although he is somewhat overshadowed by S. R. Gardiner, a worker in the same field, his books are of great value to students of this period. The chief of them are: Life of the Duke of Newcastle (1886); Scotland and the Commonwealth (1895); Scotland and the Protectorate (1899); Narrative of General Venables (1900); Oliver Cromwell (1900); Cromwell’s Army (1902); and the standard edition of Ludlow’s Memoirs (1894). He also edited the Clarke Papers (1891–1901), and Mrs Hutchinson’s Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson (1885), and wrote an introduction to the Stuart Tracts (1903), besides contributions to the Dictionary of National Biography. In 1909 he published The Last Years of the Protectorate.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Fisher, Alvan

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​FISHER, ALVAN (1792–1863), American portrait-painter, was born at Needham, Massachusetts, on the 9th of August 1792. At the age of eighteen he was a clerk in a country shop, and subsequently was employed by the village house painter, but at the age of twenty-two he began to paint portrait heads, alternating with rural scenes and animals, for which he found patrons at modest prices. In ten years he had saved enough to go to Europe, studying at the Paris schools and copying in the galleries of the Louvre. Upon his return he became one of the recognized group of Massachusetts portrait-painters. Along with Doughty, Harding and Alexander, in 1831, he held an exhibition of his work in Boston—perhaps the first joint display by painters ever held in that city. Though he had considerable talent for landscape, a lack of patronage for such work caused him to confine himself to portraiture, in which he was moderately successful. He died at Dedham, Mass., on the 16th of February 1863.