OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Isserles, Moses Ben Israel

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​ISSERLES, MOSES BEN ISRAEL (c. 1520–1572), known as Remā, was born at Cracow and died there in 1572. He wrote commentaries on the Zohar, the “Bible of the Kabbalists,” but is best known as the critic and expander of the Shulḥan Aruch of Joseph Qaro (Caro) (q.v.). His chief halakhic (legal) works were Darke Moshē and Mappāh. Qaro, a Sephardic (Spanish) Jew, in his Code neglected Ashkenazic (German) customs. These deficiencies Isserles supplied, and the notes of Remā are now included in all editions of Qaro’s Code.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Isserlein, Israel

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​ISSERLEIN, ISRAEL (d. 1460), German Talmudist. His fame attracted many students to Neustadt, and his profound learning did much to revive the study of the original Rabbinic authorities. After the publication of the Code of Joseph Qaro (q.v.) the decisions of Isserlein in legal matters were added in notes to that code by Moses Isserles. His chief works were Terumath ha-Deshēn (354 decisions) and Peasqim u-kethaḥim (267 decisions) largely on points of the marriage law.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Israel

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​ISRAEL (Hebrew for “God strives” or “rules”; see Gen. xxxii. 28; and the allusion in Hosea xii. 4), the national designation of the Jews. Israel was a name borne by their ancestor Jacob the father of the twelve tribes. For some centuries the term was applied to the northern kingdom, as distinct from Judah, although the feeling of national unity extended it so as to include both. It emphasizes more particularly the position of the Hebrews as a religious community, bound together by common aims and by their covenant-relation with the national God, Yahweh.
See further Jacob, Hebrew Language, Hebrew Religion, Jews: History and Palestine.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Issedones

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​ISSEDONES, an ancient people of Central Asia at the end of the trade route leading north-east from Scythia (q.v.), described by Herodotus (iv. 26). The position of their country is fixed as the Tarym basin by the more precise indications of Ptolemy, who tells how a Syrian merchant penetrated as far as Issedon. They had their wives in common and were accustomed to slay the old people, eat their flesh and make cups of their skulls. Such usages survived among Tibetan tribes and make it likely that the Issedones were of Tibetan race. Some of the Issedones seem to have invaded the country of the Massagetae to the west, and similar customs are assigned to a section of these.  (E. H. M.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Portadown

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​PORTADOWN, a market town of county Armagh, Ireland, on the river Bann and the Great Northern railway 25 m. W.S.W. of Belfast. Pop. (1901), 10,002. It is a junction of ​lines from Dublin, Clones and Omagh. The Bann, which is connected with the Newry Canal and falls into Lough Neagh 5 m. north of the town, is navigable for vessels of 90 tons burden. It is crossed at Portadown by a stone bridge of seven arches, originally built in 1764, but since then re-erected. The manufacture of linen and cotton is carried on, and there is a considerable trade in pork, grain and farm produce. In the reign of Charles I. the manor was bestowed on John Obyns, who erected a mansion and a few houses, which were the beginning of the town. A grain-market was established in 1780. The town is governed by an urban district council.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Portalegre

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​PORTALEGRE, an episcopal city, capital of the district of Portalegre, Portugal; 8 m. N. of Portalegre station, on the Lisbon-Badajoz-Madrid railway. Pop. (1900), 11,820. Portalegre is the Roman Amaea or Ammaia, and numerous Roman and prehistoric remains have been discovered in the neighbourhood. The principal buildings are the cathedral, the ruined Moorish citadel and two more modern forts. The administrative district of Portalegre, in which the rearing of swine, the production of grain, wine and oil, and the manufacture of woollen and cotton goods and corks are the principal industries, coincides with the northern part of the ancient province of Alemtejo (q.v.). Pop. (1900), 124,443, area, 2405 sq. m.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Portas

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​PORTAS, or Portuary, a breviary (q.v.) of such convenient size that it could be carried on the person, whence its Latin name portiforium (portare, to carry, foris, out of doors, abroad). The English word was adapted from the Old French portehors, and took a large number of forms, e.g. porthors, porteous, portes, &c. In Scots law, the “ porteous-roll ” was the name given formerly to a list of criminals drawn up by the justice-clerk on information given by the local authorities, together with the names of witnesses, and charges made.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Portage

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​PORTAGE, a city and the county-seat of Columbia county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on the Wisconsin river, about 85 m. N.W. of Milwaukee. Pop. (1890) 5143; (1900) 5459, of whom 1184 were foreign-born; (1910 U.S. census) 5440. It is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Minneapolis, St Paul & Sault Ste Marie railways. The city is situated at the west end of the government ship canal connecting the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and river steamboats ply during the open season between Portage and Green Bay and intermediate points in the Fox River Valley, Portage being the head of navigation on the Fox. Portage is in the midst of a fertile farming region, and has a trade in farm and dairy products and tobacco. Its manufactures include brick, tile, lumber, flour, pickles, knit goods, steel tanks and marine engines and launches, and there are several tobacco warehouses and grain elevators. As the Fox and Wisconsin rivers are here only 2 m. apart, these rivers were the early means of communication between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi river. The first Europeans known to have visited the site of the city were Radisson and Groseilliers, who crossed the portage in 1655. The portage was used by Marquette and Joliet on their way to the Mississippi in 1673, and a red granite monument commemorates their passage. About 1712 the Fox Indians disputed the passage of the portage, precipitating hostilities which continued intermittently until 1743. The first settler was Lawrence Barth, who engaged in the carrying trade here in 1793. Jacques Vieau established a trading post here in 1797, and by 1820 it was a thriving depot of the fur trade. During the Red Bird uprising (1827) a temporary military post was established by Major William Whistler of the U.S. army. Fort Winnebago was begun in the following year, was remodelled and completed by Lieut. Jefferson Davis in 1832, and was subsequently abandoned. It was from there in the same year that the final and successful campaign against Black Hawk was begun. After several failures the Fox-Wisconsin canal was completed in 1856, and in June of that year the “ Aquila,” a stern-wheeler, passed through the canal on its way from Pittsburg to Green Bay. The shifting channel of the Wisconsin has retarded navigation, and the canal has never been as important commercially as was expected.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Portarlington

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​PORTARLINGTON, a market town situated partly in King's county but chiefly in Queen's county, Ireland, on both banks of the river Barrow, here the county boundary. Pop, (1901), 1943. The railway station, a mile south of the town, is an important junction, 42 m. west by south from Dublin, of the Great Southern & Western system, where the branch line to Athlone leaves the main line. Monthly fairs are held, and there is considerable local trade. After the revocation of the edict of Nantes a colony of French refugees was established here in the reign of William III., and the beautiful church of St Paul (rebuilt in 1857) was devoted to their use, services being conducted in the French language, for which reason the church is still spoken of as the “ French Church.” The former name of the town was Cooltetoodera, but on the property passing into the hands of Lord Arlington in the reign of Charles II. the name was changed. Emo Park, 5 m. south of the town, is the fine demesne of the earls of Portarlington, a title granted to the family of Dawson in 1785. An obelisk on Spire Hill near the town is one of the many famine relief works in Ireland. On the river, close to the town, there are picturesque remains of Lea Castle, originally built c. 1260. Portarlington was incorporated in 1667, and was a parliamentary borough both before the Union and after, its representation in the imperial parliament (by one member) being merged in that of the county by the Redistribution Act of 1885.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Portative Organ

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​PORTATIVE ORGAN, a small medieval organ carried by the performer, who manipulated the bellows with one hand and fingered the keys with the other. This small instrument was necessarily made as simple as possible. On a small rectangular wind chest or reservoir, fed by means of a single bellows placed at the back, in front, or at the right side, were arranged the pipes — one, two or three to a note — supported by more or less ornamental uprights and an oblique bar. The most primitive style of keyboard consisted merely of sliders pushed in to make the note sound and restored to their normal position by a horn spring; the reverse action was also in use, the keys being furnished with knobs or handles.
Towards the middle of the 13th century the portatives represented in the miniatures of illuminated MSS. first show signs of a real keyboard with balanced keys, as in the 13th century Spanish MS., known as the Cantigas de Santa Maria, containing four full pages of miniatures of instrumentalists, fifty-one in number. From the position of the performer's thumb it is evident that the keys are pressed down to make the notes sound. There are nine pipes and the same number of keys, sufficient for the diatonic octave of C major with the B flat added. The pipes put into these small organs were flue pipes, their intonation must have been very unstable owing to the irregularity of the wind supply fed by a single bellows, the pressure being at the mercy of the performer's hand. Increased pressure in pipes with fixed mouthpieces, such as organ pipes, produces a rise in pitch. These medieval portative organs, so extensively used during the 14th and 15th centuries, were revivals of those used by the Romans, of which a specimen excavated at Pompeii in 1876 is preserved in the Museum at Naples. The case measures 14½ in. by 9⅓ in. and contains nine pipes, of which the longest measures but 9¾ in.; six of the pipes have oblong holes at a short distance from the top similar to those made in gamba pipes of modern organs to give them their reedy quality, and also to those cut in the bamboo pipes of the Chinese Cheng, which is a primitive organ furnished with free reeds. From the description of these remains by C. F. Abdy Williams, it would seem that a bronze plate 11½ in. by 2¾ in. having 18 rectangular slits arranged in three rows to form vandykes was found inside the case, with three little plates of bronze just wide enough to pass through the slits lying by it; this plate possibly formed part of the mechanism for the sliders of the keys. The small instrument often taken for a syrinx on a contorniate of Sallust in the Cabinet Impérial de France in Paris may be meant for a miniature portative.
(K. S.)
* ↑ For a reproduction see J. F. Riaño, Studies of Early Spanish Music, pp. 110-127 (London, 1887).
* ↑ Quarterly Musical Review (August, 1893).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Port au Prince

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​Port au Prince (originally L'Hôpital, and for brief periods Port Henri and Port Républicain), the capital of the republic of Haiti, West Indies, situated at the apex of the triangular bay which strikes inland for about 100 m. between the two great peninsulas of the west coast, with its upper recesses protected by the beautiful island of Gonaives (30 m. long by 2 broad). The city is admirably situated on ground that soon begins to rise rapidly towards the hills, It was originally laid out by the French on a regular plan with streets of good width running north and south and intersected by others at right angles. Everything has been allowed to fall into disorder and disrepair, and to this its public buildings form no exception. Every few years whole quarters of the town are burned down, but the people go on building the same slight wooden houses, with only here and there a more substantial warehouse in brick. In spite of the old French aqueduct the water-supply is defective. From June to September the heat is excessive, reaching 95° to 99° F. in the shade. The population, mostly negroes and mulattoes, is estimated at 61,000. Port au Prince was first laid out by M. de la Cuza in 1749. In 1751, and again in 1770, it was destroyed by earthquakes.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Portaels, Jean François

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​PORTAELS, JEAN FRANÇOIS (1818–1895), Belgian painter, was born at Vilvorde (Brabant), in Belgium, on the 30th of April 1818. His father, a rich brewer, sent him to study in the Brussels Academy, and the director, Francois Navez, ere long received him as a pupil in his own studio. About 1841 Portaels went to Paris, where he was kindly received by Paul Delaroche. Having returned to Belgium, he carried off the Grand Prix de Rome in 1842. He then travelled through Italy, Greece, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, the Lebanon, Judaea, Spain, Hungary and Norway. On his return to Belgium in 1847 Portaels succeeded H. Vanderhaert as director of the academy at Ghent. In 1849 he married the daughter of his first master, Navez, and in 1850 settled at Brussels; but as he failed in obtaining the post of director of the academy there, and wished, nevertheless, to carry on the educational work begun by his father-in-law, he opened a private studio-school, which became of great importance in the development of Belgian art. He again made several journeys, spending some time in Morocco; he came back to Brussels in 1874, and in 1878 obtained the directorship of the academy which had so long been the object of his ambition. Portaels executed a vast number of works. Decorative paintings in the church of St Jacques-sur-Caudenberg; biblical scenes, such as “The Daughter of Sion Reviled” (in the Brussels Gallery), “ The Death of Judas,” “ The Magi travelling to Bethlehem,” “ Judith's Prayer,” and “ The Drought in Judaea ”; genre pictures, among' which are “ A Box in the Theatre at Budapest ” (Brussels Gallery), portraits of officials and of the fashionable world, Oriental scenes and, above all, pictures of fancy female figures and of exotic life. “ His works are in general full of a facile grace, of which he is perhaps too lavish,” wrote Théophile Gautier. Yet his pleasing and abundant productions as a painter do not constitute Portaels's crowning merit. The high place his name will fill in the history of contemporary Belgian art is due to his influence as a learned and clear-sighted instructor, who formed, among many others, the painters E. Wauters and E. Agneesens, the sculptor Ch. van der Stappen, and the architect Licot. He died at Brussels on the 8th of February 1895.
See E. L. de Taeye, Peintres belges contemporains; J. du Jardin, L’Art flamand. (F. K.*)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Portage la Prairie

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​PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, a port of entry and the chief town of Portage la Prairie county, Manitoba, Canada, situated 50 m. W. of Winnipeg, on the Canadian Pacific and Canadian Northern railways, at an altitude of 854 ft. above the sea. Pop. (1901), 3901. It is in the midst of a fine agricultural district, into which several branch railways extend, and carries on a large export trade in grain and other farm produce.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Portalis, Jean Étienne Marie

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​PORTALIS, JEAN ETIENNE MARIE (1746–1807), French jurist, came of a bourgeois family, and was born at Bausset in Provence on the 1st of April 1746. He was educated by the Oratorians at their schools in Toulon and Marseilles, and then went to the university of Aix; While a student there he published his first two works, 'Observations sm' Emile in 1763 and Des Préjugés in 1764. In 1765 he became an avacat at the parlement of Aix, and soon obtained so great a reputation that he was instructed by the duc de Choiseul in 1770 to draw up the decree authorizing the marriage of Protestants. From 1778 to 1781 he was one of the four assessors or administrators of Provence. In November 1793, after the republic had been proclaimed, he came to Paris and was thrown into prison, being the brother in-law of Joseph Jérome Siméon, the leader of the Federalists in Provence. He was soon removed through the influence of B. de V. Barére to a maison de santé, where he remained till the fall of Robespierre. On being released he practised as a lawyer in Paris; and in 1795 he was elected by the capital to the Conseil des Anciens, becoming a leader of the moderate party opposed to the directory. As a leader of the moderates he was proscribed at the coup d'état of Fructidor, but, unlike General Charles Pichegru and the marquis de Barbé-Marbois, he managed to escape to Switzerland, and did not return till Bonaparte became First Consul. Bonaparte made him a conseiller d'état in 1800, and then charged him, with F. D. Tronchet, Bigot de Préameneu, and Jacques de Maleville, to draw up the Code Civil. Of this commission he was the most industrious member, and many of the most important titles, notably those on marriage and heirship, are his work. In 1801 he was placed in charge of the department of cultes or public worship, and in that capacity had the chief share in drawing up the provisions of the Concordat. In 1803 he became a member of the Institute, in 1804 minister of public worship, and in 1805 a knight grand cross of the Legion of Honour. He soon after became totally ​blind; and after an operation he died at Paris on the 25th of August 1807.
The work of Portalis appears in the Code Napoléon, but see also Frederick Portalis's Documents, rapports, et travaux inédits sur le Code Civil (1844) and Sur le Concordat (1845); for his life, see the biography in the edition of his Oeuvres by F. Portalis (1823) and René Lavolée Portalis sa vie et see oeuvres (Paris 1869).
His son, Joseph Marie Portals (1778–1858), entered the diplomatic service, and obtaining the favour of Louis XVIII. filled many important offices. He was under-secretary of state for the ministry of justice, first president of the court of cassation, minister for foreign affairs, and in 1851 a member of the senate.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Odylic Force

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​ODYLIC FORCE, a term once in vogue to explain the phenomenon of hypnotism (q.v.). In 1845 considerable attention was drawn to the announcement by Baron von Reichenbach of a so-called new “imponderable” or “influence” developed by certain crystals, magnets, the human body, associated with heat, chemical action, or electricity, and existing throughout ​the universe, to which he gave the name of odyl. Persons sensitive to odyl saw luminous phenomena near the poles of magnets, or even around the hands or heads of certain persons in whose bodies the force was supposed to be concentrated. In Britain an impetus was given to this view of the subject by the translation in 1850 of Reichenbach’s Researches on Magnetism, &c., in relation to Vital Force, by Dr Gregory, professor of chemistry in the university of Edinburgh. These Researches show many of the phenomena to be of the same nature as those described previously by F. A. Mesmer, and even long before Mesmer’s time by Swedenborg.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Odo, king of the Franks

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​ODO, or Eudes (d. 898), king of the Franks, was a son of Robert the Strong, count of Anjou (d. 866), and is sometimes referred to as duke of France and also as count of Paris. For his skill and bravery in resisting the attacks of the Normans ​Odo was chosen king by the western Franks when the emperor Charles the Fat was deposed in 887, and was crowned at Compiegne in February 888. He continued to battle against the Normans, whom he defeated at Montfaucon and elsewhere, but was soon involved in a struggle with some powerful nobles, who supported the claim of Charles, afterwards King Charles III., to the Frankish kingdom. To gain prestige and support Odo owned himself a vassal of the German king, Arnulf, but in 894 Arnulf declared for Charles. Eventually, after a struggle which lasted for three years, Odo was compelled to come to terms with his rival, and to surrender to him a district north of the Seine. He died at La Fere on the 1st of January 898.
See E. Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome ii. (Paris, 1903); and E. Favre, Eudes, comte de Paris et roi de France (Paris, 1893).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Odo of Bayeux

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​ODO OF BAYEUX (c. 1036–1097), Norman bishop and English earl, was a uterine brother of William the Conqueror, from whom he received, while still a youth, the see of Bayeux (1049). But his active career was that of a warrior and statesman. He found ships for the invasion of England and fought in person at Senlac; in 1067 he became earl of Kent, and for some years he was a trusted royal minister. At times he acted as viceroy in William’s absence; at times he led the royal forces to chastise rebellions. But in 1083 he was suddenly disgraced and imprisoned for having planned a military expedition to Italy. He was accused of desiring to make himself pope; more probably he thought of serving as a papal condottiere against the emperor Henry IV. The Conqueror, when on his death-bed, reluctantly permitted Odo’s release (1087). The bishop returned to his earldom and soon organized a rebellion with the object of handing over England to his eldest nephew, Duke Robert. William Rufus, to the disgust of his supporters, permitted Odo to leave the kingdom after the collapse of this design (1088), and thenceforward Odo was the right-hand man of Robert in Normandy. He took part in the agitation for the First Crusade, and started in the duke’s company for Palestine, but died on the way, at Palermo (February 1097). Little good is recorded of Odo. His vast wealth was gained by extortion and robbery. His ambitions were boundless and his morals lax. But he was a patron of learning and, like most prelates of his age, a great architect. He rebuilt the cathedral of his see, and may perhaps have commissioned the unknown artist of the celebrated Bayeux tapestry.
See the authorities cited for William I. and William II., the biographical sketch in Gallia Christiana, xi. 353-360; H. Wharton Anglia Sacra, i. 334-339 (1691); and F. R. Fowke, The Bayeux Tapestry (London, 1898). (H. W. C. D.)