OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Schröder-Devrient, Wilhelmine

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​SCHRÖDER-DEVRIENT, WILHELMINE (1804–1860), German operatic singer, was born on the 6th of December 1804, in Hamburg, being the daughter of the actress, Sophie Schröder (1781–1868). Her first impersonation was at the age of fifteen as Aricia in Schiller’s translation of Racine’s Phèdre, and in 1821 she was received with so much enthusiasm as Pamina in Mozart’s Zauberflöte that her future career in opera was assured. In 1823 she married Karl Devrient, but was separated from him in 1828, afterwards making two other marriages. Meanwhile she had maintained her popularity at Dresden and elsewhere. She made her first Paris appearance in 1830, and she sang in London in 1833 and 1837. As a singer she combined a rare quality of tone with dramatic intensity of expression, which was as remarkable on the concert platform as in opera. She died in Coburg on the 26th of January 1860.
See E. von Glümer, Erinnerungen an Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient (Leipzig, 1862); and A. von Wolzogen, Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient (Leipzig, 1863).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Schreyer, Adolf

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​SCHREYER, ADOLF (1828–1899), German painter, was born at Frankfort-on-Main, and studied art first at the Staedel Institute in his native town, and then at Stuttgart, Munich, and Düsseldorf; but he formed his style in Paris, whilst he found his favourite subjects in his travels in the East. He first accompanied Prince Thurn and Taxis through Hungary, Wallachia, Russia and Turkey; then, in 1854, he followed the Austrian army across the Wallachian frontier. In 1856 he went to Egypt and Syria, and in 1861 to Algiers. In 1862 he settled in Paris, but returned to Germany in 1870; and settled at Cronberg near Frankfort, where he died in 1899. Schreyer was, and is still, especially esteemed as a painter of horses, of peasant life in Wallachia and Moldavia, and of battle incidents. His work is remarkable for its excellent equine draughtsmanship, and for the artist’s power of observation and forceful statement; and has found particular favour among French and American collectors. Of his battle-pictures there are two at the Schwerin Gallery, and others in the collection of Count Mensdorff-Pouilly and in the Ravené Gallery, Berlin. His painting of a “Charge of Artillery of Imperial Guard” was formerly at the Luxembourg Museum. The Metropolitan Museum, New York, owns three of Schreyer’s oriental paintings: “Abandoned,” “Arabs on the March” and “Arabs making a detour”; and many of his best pictures are in the Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, J. J. Astor, W. Astor, A. Belmont, and W. Walters collections. At the Kunsthalle in Hamburg is his “Wallachian Transport Train,” and at the Staedel Institute, Frankfort, are two of his Wallachian scenes.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pales

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​PALES, an old Italian goddess of flocks and shepherds. The festival called Parilia (less correctly Palilia) was celebrated in her honour at Rome and in the country on the 21st of April. In this festival Pales was invoked to grant protection and increase to flocks and herds; the shepherds entreated forgiveness for any unintentional profanation of holy places of which their flocks might have been guilty, and leaped three times across bonfires of hay and straw (Ovid, Fasti iv. 731–805). The Parilia was not only a herdsmen’s festival, but was regarded as the birthday celebration of Rome, which was supposed to have been founded on the same day. Pales plays a very subordinate part in the religion of Rome, even the sex of the divinity being uncertain. A male Pales was sometimes spoken of, corresponding in some respects to Pan; the female Pales was associated with Vesta and Anna Perenna.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Paley, Frederick Apthorp

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​PALEY, FREDERICK APTHORP (1815–1888), English classical scholar, was born at Easingwold in Yorkshire on the 14th of January 1815. He was the grandson of William Paley, and was educated at Shrewsbury school and St John’s College, Cambridge (B.A. 1838). His conversion to Roman Catholicism forced him to leave Cambridge in 1846, but he returned in 1860 and resumed his work as “coach,” until in 1874 he was appointed professor of classical literature at the newly founded Roman Catholic University at Kensington. This institution was closed in 1877 for lack of funds, and Paley removed to Boscombe, where he died on the 8th of December 1888. His most important editions are: Aeschylus, with Latin notes (1844–1847), the work by which he first attracted attention; Aeschylus (4th ed., 1879), Euripides (2nd ed., 1872), Hesiod (2nd ed., 1883), Homer’s Iliad (2nd ed., 1884), Sophocles, Philoctetes, Electra, Trachiniae, Ajax (1880)—all with English commentary and forming part of the Bibliotheca classica; select private orations of Demosthenes (3rd ed., 1896–1898); Theocritus (2nd ed., 1869), with brief Latin notes, one of the best of his minor works. He possessed considerable knowledge of architecture, and published a Manual of Gothic Architecture (1846) and Manual of Gothic Mouldings (6th ed., 1902).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Palencia (city)

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​PALENCIA, an episcopal city, and the capital of the Spanish province of Palencia; on the left bank of the river Carrion, on the Canal de Castilla, at the junction of railways from Leon and Santander, and 7 m. N. by W. of Venta de Baños on the Madrid-Irun line. Pop. (1900), 15,940. Palencia is built in the midst of the level plains called the Tierra de Campos, 2690 ft. above sea-level. Three bridges across the Carrion afford access to the modern suburbs on the right bank. The older and by far the more important part of the city is protected on the west by the river; on the other sides the old machicolated walls, 36 ft. high by 9 ft. in thickness, are in fairly good preservation, and beautified by alamedas or promenades, which were laid out in 1778. The cathedral was begun in 1321, finished in 1504, and dedicated to St Antolin; it is a large building in the later and florid Gothic style of Spain. The site was previously occupied by a church erected by Sancho III. of Navarre and Castile (1026–1035) over the cave of St Antolin, which is still shown. The cathedral contains some valuable paintings, old Flemish tapestry, and beautiful carved woodwork and stonework. The church of San Miguel is a good and fairly well-preserved example of 13th-century work; that of San Francisco, of the same date, is inferior and has suffered more from modernization. The ​hospital of San Lazaro is said to date in part from the time of the Cid (q.v.), who here married Ximena in 1074.
Much has been done for education. Palencia has also hospitals, a foundling refuge, barracks and a bull-ring. Local industries include iron-founding, and the making of rugs, alcohol, leather, soap, porcelain, linen, cotton, wool, machinery and matches.
Palencia, the Pallantia of Strabo and Ptolemy, was the chief town of the Vaccaei. Its history during the Gothic and Moorish periods is obscure; but it was a Castilian town of some importance in the 12th and 13th centuries. The university founded here in 1208 by Alphonso IX. was removed in 1239 to Salamanca.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Palencia (province)

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​PALENCIA, an inland province of Spain, one of the eight into which Old Castile was divided in 1833; bounded on the N. by Santander, E. by Burgos, S. by Valladolid, and W. by Valladolid and Leon. Pop. (1900), 192,472; area, 3256 sq. m. The surface of the province slopes gradually S. to the Duero (Douro) valley. The principal rivers are the Pisuerga and the Carrion, which unite at Dueñas and flow into the Duero at Valladolid. The chief tributaries of the Pisuerga within the province are the Arlanzon, the Burejo, the Cioza, and the united streams of the Buedo and Abanades; the Carrion is joined on the right by the Cueza. The north is traversed by the Cantabrian Mountains, the highest summit being the culminating point of the Sierra del Brezo (6355 ft.). There are extensive forests in this region and the valleys afford good pasturage. The remainder of Palencia, the “Tierra de Campos,” belongs to the great Castilian table-land. In the south is a marsh or lake, known as La Laguna de la Nava. The mountainous district abounds in minerals, but only coal and small quantities of copper are worked. The province is crossed in the south-east by the trunk railway connecting Madrid with France via Irun, while the line to Santander traverses it throughout from north to south; there are also railways from the city of Palencia to Leon, and across the north from Mataporquera in Santander to La Robla in Leon. A branch of the Santander line gives access to the Orbo coal-fields. The main highways are good; the other roads often bad. The Canal de Castilla, begun in 1753, and completed in 1832, connects Alar del Rey with Valladolid. Wheat and other cereals, vegetables, hemp and flax are extensively grown, except in the mountainous districts. Flour and wine are made in large quantities, and there are manufactures of linen and woollen stuffs, oil, porcelain, leather, paper and rugs. Palencia rugs are in great demand throughout Spain. The only town with more than 5000 inhabitants is Palencia (q.v.).
For the history, inhabitants, &c., see Castile.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Palette

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​PALETTE (the Fr. diminutive of pale, spade, blade of an oar, from Lat. pala, spade, baker’s shovel or peel; cf. pandere, to spread), a term applied to many objects which are flat and thin, and specifically to a thin tablet made of wood, porcelain, or other material on which artists place their colours. The term is also used of the shallow box, with partitions for the different coloured tesserae, used by mosaic workers. By transference the colours which an individual artist employs are known as his “palette.” The “palette-knife” is a thin flexible knife used for arranging the colours on the palette, &c., and also for the application of colour on the canvas in large masses.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Palestine (Texas)

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​PALESTINE, a city and the county-seat of Anderson county, Texas, U.S.A., about 90 m. E. by N. of Waco. Pop. (1910 census) 10,482. It is served by two lines of the International & Great Northern railway, and by the Texas State railway. Palestine is the trade centre of a district which produces cotton, timber, fruit (especially peaches), an excellent grade of wrapper tobacco, petroleum, iron-ore and salt. It has various manufactures, including cotton gins, cotton-seed oil, cigars, lumber and brick. Its factory products were valued at $735,162 in 1905. About 2 m. south-west of Palestine a settlement (the first in the present Anderson county) was made in 1837, and there Fort Houston, a stockade fort, was built to protect the settlers from the Indians. Palestine was laid out and was ​made the county-seat in 1846; it was chartered as a city in 1875, and rechartered in 1905. In 1909 it adopted a commission government.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Muzaffarnagar

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​MUZAFFARNAGAR, a town and district of British India, in the Meerut division of the United Provinces. The town is 790 ft. above the sea, and has a station on the North-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 23,444. It is an important trading centre and has a manufacture of blankets. It was founded about 1633 by the son of Muzaffar Khan, Khan-i-Jahan, one of the famous Sayid family who rose to power under the emperor Shah Jahan.
The District of Muzaffarnagar has an area of 1666 sq. m. It lies near the northern extremity of the Doab or great alluvial plain between the Ganges and the Jumna, and shares to a large extent in the general monotony of that level region. A great portion is sandy and unfertile; but under irrigation the soil is rapidly improving, and in many places the villagers have succeeded in introducing a high state of cultivation. Before the opening of the canals Muzaffarnagar was liable to famines caused by drought; but the danger from this has been minimized by the spread of irrigation. It is traversed by four main canals, the Ganges, Anupshahr, Deoband and Eastern Jumna. Its trade is confined to the raw materials it produces. The ​climate of the district is comparatively cool, owing to the proximity of the hills; and the average annual rainfall is 33 in. The population in 1901 was 877,188, showing an increase of 13·5% in the decade, which was a period of unexampled prosperity. The principal crops are wheat, pulse, cotton and sugar-cane. The district is crossed by the North-Western railway from Delhi to Saharanpur.
Hindu tradition represents Muzaffarnagar as having formed a portion of the Pandava kingdom of the Mahābhārata; authentic history, however, dates from the time of the Moslem conquests in the 13th century, from which time it remained a dependency of the various Mahommedan dynasties which ruled at Delhi until the practical downfall of the Mogul Empire in the middle of the 18th century. In 1788 the district fell into the hands of the Mahrattas. After the fall of Aligarh, the whole Doab as far north as the Siwalik hills passed into the hands of the British without a blow, and Muzaffarnagar became part of Saharanpur. It was created a separate jurisdiction in 1824. During the Mutiny there was some disorder, chiefly occasioned by official weakness, but no severe fighting.
See Muzaffarnagar District Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1903).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mweru

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​MWERU, a large lake of Eastern Central Africa, traversed by the Luapula or upper Congo. It lies about 3000 ft. above the sea; measures about 76 m. in length by some 25 in breadth, and is roughly rectangular, the axis running from S.S.W. to N.N.E. It is cut a little south of its centre by 9° S. and through its N.E. corner passes 29° E. At the south end a shallow bay extends to 9° 31′ S. East of this, and some miles further north, the Luapula enters from a vast marsh inundated at high water; it leaves the lake at the north-west corner, making a sharp bend to the west before assuming a northerly direction. Besides the Luapula, the principal influent is the Kalungwizi, from the east. Near the south end of the lake lies the island of Kilwa, about 8 m. in length, rising into plateaus 600 ft. above the lake. Here the air is cool and balmy, the soil dry, with short turf and clumps of shady trees, affording every requirement for a sanatorium. Mweru was reached by David Livingstone in 1867, but its western shore was first explored in 1890 by Sir Alfred Sharpe, who two years later effected its circumnavigation. The eastern shores from the Luapula entrance to its exit, together with the Kilwa Island, belong to British Central Africa; the western to the Belgian Congo.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Muzaffarpur

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​MUZAFFARPUR, a town and district of British India, in the Patna division of Bengal. The town is on the right bank of the Little Gandak river, and has a railway station. Pop. (1901), 45,617. The town is well laid out, and is an important centre of trade, being on the direct route from Patna to Nepal. It is the headquarters of the Behar Light Horse volunteer corps and has a college established in 1899.
The District of Muzaffarpur has an area of 3035 sq. m. It was formed in January 1875 out of the great district of Tirhoot, which up to that time was the largest and most populous district of Lower Bengal. The district is an alluvial plain between the Ganges and the Great Gandak, the Baghmat and Little Gandak being the principal rivers within it. South of the Little Gandak the land is somewhat elevated, with depressions containing lakes toward the south-east. North of the Baghmat the land is lower and marshy, but is traversed by elevated dry ridges. The tract between the two rivers is lowest of all and liable to floods; Pop. (1901), 2,754,790, showing an increase of 1·5% in the decade. Average density, 914 per sq. m., being exceeded in all India only by the neighbouring district of Saran. Indigo (superseded to some extent, owing to the fall in price, by sugar) and opium are largely grown. Rice is the chief grain crop, and cloth, carpets and pottery are manufactured. The district is traversed in several directions by the Tirhoot system of the Bengal and North-Western railway. It suffered from drought in 1873–1874, and again in 1897–1898.
See Muzaffarpur District Gazetteer (Calcutta, 1907).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mutule

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​MUTULE (Lat. mutulus, a stay or bracket), in architecture the rectangular block under the soffit of the cornice of the Greek Doric temple, which is studded with guttae. It is supposed to represent the piece of timber through which the wooden pegs were driven in order to hold the rafter in position, and it follows the rake of the roof. In the Roman Doric order the mutule was horizontal, with sometimes a crowning fillet, so that it virtually fulfilled the purpose of the modillion in the Corinthian cornice.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Muzzioli, Giovanni

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​MUZZIOLI, GIOVANNI (1854–1894), Italian painter, was born in Modena, whither his family had removed from Castelvetro, on the 10th of February 1854. From the time that he began to attend the local academy at the age of thirteen he was recognized as a prodigy, and four years later, by the unanimous vote of the judges, he gained the Poletti scholarship entitling him to four years’ residence in Rome and Florence. After his return to Modena, Muzzioli visited the Paris Exhibition, and there came under the influence of Sir L. Alma Tadema. His first important picture was “In the Temple of Bacchus” (1881); and his masterpiece, “The Funeral of Britannicus,” was one of the chief successes of the Bologna Exhibition of 1888. From 1878 to his death (August 5, 1894) Muzzioli lived in Florence, where he painted the altar-piece for the church of Castelvetro.
See History of Modern Italian Art, by A. R. Willard (London, 1898).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Muḳaddasi

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​MUḲADDASI [the appellation of Shams ad Din Abu Abdallah Mahommed ibn Aḥmad] (fl. 967–985), Arabian traveller, author of a Description of the Lands of Islam which is the most original and among the most important of Arabic geographies of the middle ages. His family name was Al Bashari. His paternal grandfather was an architect who constructed many public works in Palestine, especially at Acre, and his mother's family was opulent. His maternal grandfather, a man of artistic and literary tastes, migrated to Jerusalem from Jurjan province in Persia, near the frontier of Khorasan. His descriptions rest on extensive travels through a long series of years. His first pilgrimage was made at the age of twenty (in A.H. 356＝A.D. 967), but his book was not published till A.H. 375 (A.D. 985–986), when he was forty years old.
The two MSS. (at Berlin and Constantinople) represent a later recension (A.H. 378). The book became known in Europe through the copy brought from India by Sprenger, and was edited by Professor M. J. de Goeje as the third part of his Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum (Leiden, 1877). See also the English translation (unfinished) by G. S. A. Ranking and R. F. Azoo, in Bibliotheca Indica, New Series, Nos. 899, 952, 1001 (Bengal Asiatic Society, 1897–1901); Muķaddasi’s Syrian chapter has been separately translated and edited in English by Guy le Strange (London, Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, 1886); in German by J. Gildemeister in Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins, vol. vii. (1884).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Myaungmya

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​MYAUNGMYA, a district in the Irrawaddy division of lower Burma, formed in 1893 out of a portion of Bassein district, and reconstituted in 1903. It has an area of 2663 sq. m., and a population (1901) of 278,119, showing an increase of 49% in the decade and a density of 104 inhabitants to the square mile. Among the population were about 12,800 Christians, mostly Karens. The district is a deltaic tract, bordering south on the sea and traversed by many tidal creeks. Rice cultivation and fishing occupy practically all the inhabitants of the district. The town of Myaungmya had 4711 inhabitants in 1901.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Muzaffargarh

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​MUZAFFARGARH, a town and district of British India, in the Multan division of the Punjab. The town is near the right bank of the river Chenab, and has a railway station. Pop. (1901), 4018. Its fort and a mosque were built by Nawab Muzaffar Khan in 1794–1796.
The District of Muzaffargarh occupies the lower end of the Sind-Sagar Doab. Area, 3635 sq. m. In the northern half of the district is the wild thal or central desert, an arid elevated tract with a width of 40 m. in the extreme north, which gradually contracts until it disappears about 10 m. south of Muzaffargarh town. Although apparently a table-land, it is really composed of separate sandhills, with intermediate valleys lying at a lower level than that of the Indus, and at times flooded. The towns stand on high sites or are protected by embankments; but the villages scattered over the lowlands are exposed to annual inundations, during which the people abandon their grass-built huts, and take refuge on wooden platforms attached to each house. Throughout the cold weather large herds of camels, belonging chiefly to the Povindah merchants of Afghanistan, graze upon the sandy waste.
The district possesses hardly any distinct annals of its own, having always formed part of Multan (q.v.). The population in 1901 was 405,656, showing an increase of 6·4% in the decade, due to the extension of irrigation. The principal crops are wheat, pulse, rice and indigo. The most important domestic animal is the camel. The district is crossed by the North-Western railway, and the boundary rivers are navigable, besides furnishing numerous irrigation channels, originally constructed under native rule.