OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pomponius, Lucius

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​POMPONIUS, LUCIUS, called Bononiensis from his birthplace Bononia, Latin comic poet, flourished about 90 B.C. (or earlier). He was the first to give an artistic form to the Atellanae Fabulae by arranging beforehand the details of the plot which had hitherto been left to improvisation, and providing a written text. The fragments show fondness for alliteration and playing upon words, skill in the use of rustic and farcical language, and a considerable amount of obscenity.
Fragments in O. Ribbeck, Scenicae romanorum poesis fragmenta (1897–1898); see Mommsen, Hist. of Rome (Eng. tr.), bk. iv. ch. 13; Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. tr.), § 151.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pomposa

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​POMPOSA, an abbey of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Ferrara, 2 m. from Codigoro, which is 30 m. E. of Ferrara in the delta of the Po. The fine church, a work of the 10th (?) century, with interesting sculptures on the façade and a splendid Romanesque campanile, contains a good mosaic pavement, and interesting frescoes of the 14th century—a “Last Judgment” of the school of Giotto and others; and there are also paintings in the refectory. It was abandoned in 1550 on account of malaria.
See G. Agnelli, Ferrara e Pomposa (Bergamo, 1902).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ponani

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​PONANI, a seaport on the west coast of India, in Malabar district, Madras, at a mouth of a river of the same name. Pop. (1901), 10,562. .It is the headquarters of the Moplah or Mappilla community of Mahommedans, with a religious college and many mosques, one of which is said to date from 1510. There is a large export of coco-nut products.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ponca

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​PONCA, a tribe of North-American Indians of Siouan stock. They were originally part of the Omaha tribe, with whom they lived near the Red River of the North. They were driven westward by the Dakotas, and halted on the Ponca river, Dakota. After a succession of treaties and removals they were placed on a reservation at the mouth of the Niobrara, where they were prospering, when their lands were forcibly taken from them, and they were removed to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). During the march thither and in their new quarters, the tribe's health suffered, so that in 1878 they revolted and made their way back to the Omahas. They were recaptured, but public attention having been drawn to their hard case they were liberated in 1880, after a long trial, which resulted in their being declared United States citizens. They number some 700, mostly in Oklahoma.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ponce

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PONCE, a seaport and the second largest city of Porto Rico, the seat of government of the Department of Ponce, on the south coast, about 50 m. (84 m. by the military road) S.W. of San Juan. Pop. (1899), 27,952, of whom 2554 were negroes and 9942 of mixed races; (1910), 35,027. It is served by the American Railroad of Porto Rico, by a railway to Guayama (1910), and by steamboats from numerous ports; an old military road connects it with San Juan. Ponce consists of two parts: Ponce, or the city proper, and Ponce Playa, or the seaport; they are separated by the Portuguese River and are connected by an electric street railway. Ponce Playa is on a spacious bay and is accessible to vessels drawing 25 ft. of water; Ponce is 2 m. inland at the interior margin of a beautiful plain, with hills in the rear rising to a height of 1000 to 2000 ft. The city is supplied with water by an aqueduct about 2 m. long. There are two attractive public squares in the heart of the city: Plaza Principal and Plaza de las Delicias. Among prominent public buildings are the city hall, the custom-house, the Pearl theatre, several churches Roman Catholic (including a finely decorated cathedral) and Protestant; St Luke's hospital and insane asylum, an asylum
for the blind, a ladies' asylum, a home for the indigent and aged, and a military barracks. At the Quintana Baths near the city are thermal springs with medicinal properties. The surrounding country is devoted chiefly to the cultivation of sugar cane, tobacco, oranges and cacao, and to the grazing of cattle. Among the manufactures are sugar, molasses, rum, and ice, and prepared coffee for the market. Ponce, named in honour of Ponce de Leon, was founded in 1752 upon the site of a settlement which had been established in the preceding century, was incorporated as a town in 1848, and was made a city in 1878.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pomptine Marshes

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​POMPTINE MARSHES, a low tract of land in the province of Rome, Italy, varying in breadth between the Volscian mountains and the sea from 10 to 16 m., and extending N.W. to S.E. from ​Velletri to Terracina (40 m.). In ancient days this low tract was fertile and well-cultivated, and contained several prosperous cities (Suessa Pometia, Ulubrae—perhaps the mod. Cisterna—&c.), but, owing to the dying out of the small proprietors, it had already become unhealthy at the end of the Republican period. Attempts to drain the marshes were made by Appius Claudius in 312 B.C., when he constructed the Via Appia through them (the road having previously followed a devious course at the foot of the Volscian mountains), and at various times during the Roman period. A canal ran through them parallel to the road, and for some reason that is not altogether clear it was used in preference to the road during the Augustan period. Trajan repaired the road, and Theodoric did the same some four hundred years later. But in the middle ages it had fallen into disrepair. Popes Boniface VIII., Martin V., Sixtus V., and Pius VI. all attempted to solve the problem, the last-named reconstructing the road admirably. The difficulty arises from the lack of fall in the soil, some parts no less than 10 m. from the coast being barely above sea-level, while they are separated from the sea by a series of sand-hills now covered with forest, which rise at some points over 100 ft. above sea-level. Springs also rise in the district, and the problem is further complicated by the flood-water and solid matter brought down by the mountain torrents, which choke up the channels made. By a law passed in 1899, the proprietors are bound to arrange for the safe outlet of the water from the mountains, keep the existing canals open, and reclaim the district exposed to inundation, within a period of twenty-four years. The sum of £280,000 has been granted towards the expense by the government.
See T. Berti, Paludi pontine (Rome, 1884); R. de la Blanchère, Un Chapitre d'histoire pontine (Paris, 1889). (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Poncelet, Jean Victor

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​PONCELET, JEAN VICTOR (1788–1867), French mathematician and engineer, was born at Metz on the 1st of July 1788. From 1808 to 1810 he attended the École polytechnique, and afterwards, till 1812, the École d'application at Metz. He then became lieutenant of engineers, and took part in the Russian campaign, during which he was taken prisoner and was confined at Saratov on the Volga. It was during his imprisonment here that, “ privé de toute espèce de livres et de secours, surtout distrait par les malheurs de ma patrie et les miens propres,” as he himself puts it, he began his researches on projective geometry which led to his great treatise on that subject. This work, the Traité des propriétés projectives des figures, which was published in 1822 (2d ed., 2 vols. 1865–1866), is occupied with the investigation of the projective properties of figures (see Geometry). This work entitles Poncelet to rank as one of the greatest of those who took part in the development of the modern geometry of which G. Monge was the founder. From 1815 to 1825 he was occupied with military engineering at Metz; and from 1825 to 1835 he was professor of mechanics at the École d'application there. In 1826, in his Mémoire sur les roues hydrauliques à aubes courbes, he brought forward improvements in the construction of water-wheels, which more than doubled their efficiency. In 1834 he became a member of the Académie; from 1838 to 1848 he was professor to the faculty of sciences at Paris, and from 1848 to 1850 commandant of the École polytechnique. At the London International Exhibition of 1851 he had charge of the department of machinery, and wrote a report on the machinery and tools on view at that exhibition. He died at Paris on the 23rd of December 1867.
See J. Bertrand, Éloge historique de Poncelet (Paris, 1875).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ponchielli, Amilcare

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​PONCHIELLI, AMILCARE (1834-1886), Italian, musical composer, was born near Cremona on the 1st of September 1834. He studied at the Milan Conservatoire. His first dramatic work, written in collaboration with two other composers, was Il Sindaco Babbeo (1851). After completing his studies at Milan he returned to Cremona, where his opera I Promessi sposi was produced in 1856. This was followed by La Savojarda (1861, produced in a revised version as Lina in 1877), Roderigo, ré dei Goli (1864), and La Stella del monle (1867), A revised version of I Promessi sposi, which was produced, at, Milan in 1872, was his first. genuine success. After this came a ballet, Le Due Gemelle (1873), and an opera, I Lituanfi (1874, produced in a revised version as Alduna in 1884). Ponchielli reached the zenith of his fame with La Gioconda (1876), Written to a fibretto founded by Arrigo Boito upon Victor Hugo's tragedy, Angelo, Tyran de Padoue. La Giocohda was. followed hygll Figliuol prodigo (1880) and Marion Delorme (1885). Among his less ​important works are Il Parlatore eterno, a musical farce (1873), and a ballet, Clarina (1873). In 1881 Ponchielli was made maestro di cappella of Piacenza Cathedral. His music shows the influence of Verdi, but at its best it has a distinct value of its own, and an inexhaustible flow of typically Italian melody. His fondness for fanciful figures in his accompaniments has been slavishly imitated by Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and many of their contemporaries. Ponchielli died at Milan on the 17th of January 1886.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Knights of Columbus

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KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS. — The American order of Knights of Columbus is a fraternal beneficiary society of Roman Catholics, founded by Rev. Michael Joseph McGivney in New Haven, Conn., on Feb. 2 1882, and organized under a charter granted by the state of Connecticut (March 29 1882). Beginning with 11 members the society grew rapidly; branches or councils were established throughout the state, then in other states, and finally in adjacent countries. In 1921 there were 2,200 councils, with a membership of over 800,000, found in every state of the United States, in Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, the Canal Zone, and Panama. From its beginning the order maintained a system of insurance, in which originally all members were required to participate; but after 1893 non-insurance members were enrolled as associates. On Jan. 1 1919 there were 128,935 insured members of an average age of 35 years; the Mortuary Reserve and Death
Benefit funds amounted to $8,740,000. The society is not a “secret” one, and no oaths are administered. Much attention is given to educational work. A chair of American history was founded by the society at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and 50 scholarships endowed at the same institution. The Knights of Columbus endeavour to combat socialism and radicalism by public lectures and publications. Beginning with the Spanish-American War (1898) they engaged in humanitarian relief. When America entered the World War (1917) about $1,000,000 was at once raised among the members, and work was undertaken at the various training camps in the United States. Further public appeals were made, and in recognition of their excellent service $40,000,000 in all was raised for war relief work. In America 350 buildings were maintained in the camps, and recreation was provided for enlisted men. Similar service was undertaken overseas and 250 recreation centres established. Comforts were provided on board transports and at piers. After the Armistice the Knights established employment bureaus and assisted ex-service men in finding work.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kropotkin, Peter Alexeivich, Prince

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​KROPOTKIN, PETER ALEXEIVICH, Prince (1842–1921), Russian geographer, author and revolutionary (see 15.928), returned to Russia in June 1917, after the revolution, expressing in a farewell letter to The Times his gratitude for the hospitality which he had received in England. His short period of residence in Russia was full of disappointment, as his criticisms of the Bolshevist regime caused him to be regarded with suspicion by the extremists. After various contradictory reports of his death had been received it was ascertained that he had died at Moscow after a long illness Feb. 8 1921.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kun, Bela

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​KUN, BELA (1886–), Hungarian Communist leader, was born in 1886 of a Jewish family in Transylvania, and became a journalist and an official in the Workmen’s Insurance Office in Kolozsvar. Enrolled in the Hungarian army during the World War, he was a prisoner of war in Russia, when he was instructed by Lenin for the purposes of Communist propaganda, and after the collapse of the Central Powers he was sent back to Hungary with a commission to set up a Soviet Republic. From March 21 to Aug. 1 1919 he was People’s Commissary for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet Republic, and after its fall he found refuge in Austria (see Hungary). In July 1920 he succeeded in escaping to Russia, where he was employed by the Soviet Government.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kluck, Alexander von

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KLUCK, ALEXANDER VON (1846-), Prussian general, was born May 20 1846 at Münster in Westphalia. He took part in the campaigns of 1866 and 1870, and was twice wounded at the battle of Colombey-Neuilly. In 1906 he was promoted to the rank of general of infantry, and at the outbreak of the World War was Generaloberst and Inspector-General of the VIII. Army Inspection. He was placed in chief command of the I. Army of the West, which he led in the battles of Maubeuge and St. Quentin, and the advance upon the Marne. He claimed to have repelled the outflanking movement of the French in the battle of the Marne, but he was nevertheless compelled, in consequence of the faulty disposition of the German forces in the line of battle and the success of the Allied offensive, to withdraw his army before what he described as overwhelming odds to the Aisne positions. In March 1915 he was wounded while visiting the front trenches, and was placed on the retired list in Oct. 1916. He published Führung und Taten der I. Armee (1920).
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kossuth, Francis

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KOSSUTH, FRANCIS (1841-1914), Hungarian statesman (see 15.916). As Minister of Commerce in the Wekerle Cabinet, Kossuth had many opportunities of turning to account his technical and economic experience. At the critical period of the Coalition he showed throughout solid ability, in contrast to Justh, who in 1909 brought about the break-up of the Independence party, which split into the Kossuth and the Justh wings. In consequence of increasing ill-health Kossuth withdrew more and more from active politics, and only appeared in Parliament on special occasions. When in the summer of 1913 the two wings of the Independence party were again united Count Michael Karolyi undertook their actual leadership. In articles published in the Budapest Kossuth continued to express his views. He made his last appearance in Parliament on Oct. 30 1913. From his bed of sickness, to which he was confined from the autumn of 1913 onwards, he declined any participation with Count Michael Karolyi against the Triple Alliance policy of the Dual Monarchy. He died May 25 1914. (E. v. W.)
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Krümmel, Otto

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​KRÜMMEL, OTTO (1854–1912), German geographer, was born at Exin, near Bromberg, July 8 1854. He was educated principally in the university of Göttingen, and approached the subject of geography at first through the study of classics, and by the historical road. But in 1883 he succeeded to the chair of geography at Kiel, and in that seaport found the connexion of his subject with marine investigations which directed his subsequent career. He retained his chair at Kiel until 1911, and during his tenure of it he introduced the science of oceanography to public interest through his handbook Der Ozean (1886), completed Boguslavsky’s work on oceanography in Ratzel’s series of geographical handbooks (1887), joined, and published an account of, the “Plankton expedition” on board the “National” in the North Atlantic Ocean (1889), served on the International Council for the Study of the Sea (1900–9), and finally produced the great work of his life, the Handbuch der Ozeanographie, in 1907–11. In 1911 Krümmel quitted Kiel to take up the professorship of geography at Marburg. He died at Cologne Oct. 12 1912.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Korbay, Francis

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KORBAY, FRANCIS (1846-1913), Hungarian musician, was born at Budapest in 1846. He was a godson of Liszt, of whose music he became a well-known interpreter. He had many
successful European tours, and was also extremely popular in England. Korbay wrote many pianoforte pieces and songs, but he is best known by his collections of Magyar folk-songs, which have attained a very wide popularity. He died in London, which for many years was his home, March 9 1913.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Krobatin, Alexander, Freiherr von

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​KROBATIN, ALEXANDER, Freiherr von (1849–), Austro-Hungarian field-marshal, was born at Olmütz in 1849. Krobatin was recognized as a sound technical expert in munitions; he did successful work as head of a department and as chief of a section in the War Ministry. From Dec. 1912 to April 1917 he was War Minister, and during the war supported the army in the field by bold and comprehensive measures. After his resignation from the Ministry of War he commanded the X. Army operating against Italy on the Carinthian and Tirolese fronts.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Malus, Étienne Louis

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​MALUS, ÉTIENNE LOUIS (1775–1812), French physicist, was born at Paris on the 23rd of June 1775. He entered the military engineering school at Mezières; but, being regarded as a suspected person, he was dismissed without receiving a commission, and obliged to enter the army as a private soldier. Being employed upon the fortifications of Dunkirk, he attracted the notice of the director of the works, and was selected as a member of the École polytechnique then to be established under G. Monge. After three years at the École he was admitted into the corps of engineers, and served in the army of the Sambre and Meuse; he was present at the passage of the Rhine in 1797, and at the affairs of Ukratz and Altenkirch. In 1798 he joined the Egyptian expedition and remained in the East till 1801. On his return he held official posts successively at Antwerp, Strassburg and Paris, and devoted himself to optical research. A paper published in 1809 (“Sur une propriété de la lumière réfléchie par les corps diaphanes”) contained the discovery of the polarization of light by reflection, which is specially associated with his name, and in the following year he won a prize from the Institute with his memoir, “Théorie de la double refraction de la lumière dans les substances cristallines.” He died of phthisis in Paris on the 23rd of February 1812.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Malte-Brun, Conrad

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​MALTE-BRUN, CONRAD (1755–1826), French geographer, was born on the 12th of August 1755 at Thisted in Denmark, and died at Paris on the 14th of December 1826. His original name was Malte Conrad Bruun. While a student at Copenhagen he made himself famous partly by his verses, but more by the violence of his political pamphleteering; and at length, in 1800, the legal actions which the government authorities had from time to time instituted against him culminated in a sentence of banishment. The principles which he had advocated were those of the French Revolution, and after first seeking asylum in Sweden he found his way to Paris. There he looked forward to a political career; but, when Napoleon’s personal ambition began to unfold itself, Malte-Brun was bold enough to protest, and to turn elsewhere for employment and advancement. He was associated with Edme Mentelle (1730–1815) in the compilation of the Géographie mathématique . . . de toutes les parties du monde (Paris, 1803–1807, 16 vols.), and he became recognized as one of the best geographers of France. He is remembered, not only as the author of six volumes of the learned Précis de la géographie universelle (Paris, 1810–1829), continued by other hands after his death, but also as the originator of the Annales des voyages (1808), and one of the founders of the Geographical Society of Paris. His second son, Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun (1816–1889), followed his father’s career of geographer, and was a voluminous author.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maltzan, Heinrich von

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​MALTZAN, HEINRICH VON, Baron zu Wartenburg und Penzlin (1826–1874), German traveller, was born on the 6th of September 1826 near Dresden. He studied law at Heidelberg, but on account of ill health spent much of his time from 1850 in travel. Succeeding to his father’s property in 1852, he extended the range of his journeys to Morocco and other parts of Barbary, and before his return home in 1854 had also visited Egypt, Palestine and other countries of the Levant. In 1856–1857 he was again in Algeria; in 1858 he reached the city of Morocco; and in 1860 he succeeded in performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, which he afterwards described in Meine Wallfahrt nach Mecca (Leipzig, 1865), but had to flee for his life to Jidda without visiting Medina. He then visited Aden and Bombay, and after some two years of study in Europe again began to wander through the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, repeatedly visiting Algeria. His first book of travel, Drei Jahre im Nordwesten von Afrika (Leipzig), appeared in 1863, and was followed by a variety of works and essays, popular and scientific. Maltzan’s last book, Reise nach Südarabien (Brunswick, 1873), is chiefly valuable as a digest of much information about little-known parts of south Arabia collected from natives during a residence at Aden in 1870–1871. Among his other services to science must be noticed his collection of Punic inscriptions (Reise in Tunis und Tripolis, Leipzig, 1870), and the editing of Adolph von Wrede’s remarkable journey in Hadramut (Reise in Hadramaut, &c., Brunswick, 1870). After long suffering from neuralgia, Maltzan died by his own hand at Pisa on the 23rd of February 1874.