OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Burnand, Sir Francis Cowley

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​BURNAND, SIR FRANCIS COWLEY (1836–), English humorist, was born in London on the 29th of November 1836. His father was a London stockbroker, of French-Swiss origin; his mother Emma Cowley, a direct descendant of Hannah Cowley (1743–1809), the English poet and dramatist. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and originally studied first for the Anglican, then for the Roman Catholic Church; but eventually took to the law and was called to the bar. From his earliest days, however, the stage had attracted him—he founded the Amateur Dramatic Club at Cambridge,—and finally he abandoned the church and the law, first for the stage and subsequently for dramatic authorship. His first great dramatic success was made with the burlesque Black-Eyed Susan, and he wrote a large number of other burlesques, comedies and farces. One of his early burlesques came under the favourable notice of Mark Lemon, then editor of Punch, and Burnand, who was already writing for the comic paper Fun, became in 1862 a regular contributor to Punch. In 1880 he was appointed editor of Punch, and only retired from that position in 1906. In 1902 he was knighted. His literary reputation as a humorist depends, apart from his long association with Punch, on his well-known book Happy Thoughts, originally published in Punch in 1863–1864 and frequently reprinted.
See Recollections and Reminiscences, by Sir F. C. Burnand (London, 1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Caslon

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​CASLON, the name of a famous family of English typefounders. William Caslon (1692–1766), the first of the name, was born at Cradley, Worcestershire, and in 1716 started business in London as an engraver of gun locks and barrels, and as a bookbinder’s tool-cutter. Being thus brought into contact with printers, he was induced to fit up a type foundry, largely through the encouragement of William Bowyer. The distinction and legibility of his type secured him the patronage of the leading printers of the day in England and on the continent. The use of Caslon types, discontinued about the beginning of the 19th century, was revived about 1845 at the suggestion of Sir Henry Cole, and used for printing the Diary of Lady Willoughby (a pseudo-17th-century story) by the Chiswick Press. The headline on this page is “Caslon Old Face.” He died on the 23rd of January 1766. His son, William Caslon (1720–1778), who had been partner with his father for some years, continued the business.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Caspari, Karl Paul

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​CASPARI, KARL PAUL (1814–1892), German Lutheran theologian and orientalist, was born of Jewish parents at Dessau, Anhalt, on the 8th of February 1814. He studied at Leipzig and Berlin, became a Christian in 1838, and in 1857 was appointed professor of theology at Christiania, having declined invitations to Rostock and Erlangen. He died at Christiania on the 11th of April 1892. Caspari is best known as the author of an Arabic grammar (Grammatica Arabica, 2 vols., 1844–1848; new edition, Arabische Grammatik, edited by A. Müller; 5th ed. 1887). He also wrote commentaries on the prophetical books of the Old Testament, dogmatic and historical works on baptism, and from 1857 helped to edit the Theologisk Tidskrift for den evangelisk-lutherske Kirke i Norge. His writings include: Beiträge zur Einleitung in Jesaja (1848), and Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel (1879).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cassander, George

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​CASSANDER (or Cassant), GEORGE (1513–1566), Flemish theologian, born at Pitthem near Bruges, went at an early age to Louvain and was teaching theology and literature in 1541 at Bruges and shortly afterwards at Ghent. About 1549 he removed to Cologne, where, after a profound study of the points of difference between the Catholic and reformed churches, he devoted himself to the project of reunion, thus anticipating the efforts of Leibnitz. In 1561 he published anonymously De Officiis pii ac publicae tranquillitatis vere amantis viri in hoc dissidio religionis (Basel), in which, while holding that no one, on account of abuses, has a right utterly to subvert the Church, he does not disguise his dislike of those who exaggerated the papal claims. He takes his standpoint on Scripture explained by tradition and the fathers of the first six centuries. At a time when controversy drowned the voice of reason, such a book pleased neither party; but as some of the German princes thought that he could heal the breach, the emperor Ferdinand asked him to publish his Consultatio de Articulis Fidei inter Catholicos et Protestantes Controversis (1565), in which, like Newman at a later date, he tried to put a Catholic interpretation upon Protestant formularies. While never attacking dogma, and even favouring the Roman church on the ground of authority, he criticizes the papal power and makes reflections on practices. The work, attacked violently by the Louvain theologians on one side, and by Calvin and Beza on the other, was put on the Roman Index in 1617. He died at Cologne on the 3rd of February 1566. The collected edition of his works was published in 1616 at Paris. (E. Tn.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cassandra

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​CASSANDRA, in Greek legend, daughter of Priam and Hecuba. She was beloved of Apollo, who promised to bestow on her the spirit of prophecy if she would comply with his desires. Cassandra accepted the proposal; but no sooner had she obtained the gift than she laughed at the tempter, and refused to fulfil her promise. Apollo revenged himself by ordaining that her predictions should be discredited (Apollodorus iii. 12. 5); and hence it was in vain that on the arrival of Helen she prophesied the ruin of Troy. On the capture of that city she was ravished by Ajax, the son of Oïleus, in the temple of Minerva (Strabo vi. p. 264). In the distribution of the booty, Cassandra fell to the lot of Agamemnon; but again her foresight was useless, for he would not believe her prediction that he should perish in his own country. The prophecy was fulfilled, for both were slain through the intrigues of Clytaemnestra (Odyssey, xi. 421 ff.). It is to be noticed that there is no mention in Homer of her prophetic gifts. Together with Apollo, she was worshipped under the name of Alexandra.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cassagnac, Bernard Adolphe Granier de

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​CASSAGNAC, BERNARD ADOLPHE GRANIER DE (1806–1880), French journalist, was born at Avéron-Bergelle in the department of Gers on the 11th of August 1806. In 1832 he began his career as a Parisian journalist, contributing ardent defences of Romanticism and Conservatism to the Revue de Paris, the Journal des Débats, and to La Presse. Then he founded a political journal, L’Époque (1845–1848), in which his violent polemics in support of Guizot brought him notoriety and not a few duels. In 1851, in the Constitutionnel, he declared himself openly an imperialist; and in 1852 was elected as “official candidate” by the department of Gers. As journalist and deputy he actively supported an absolutist policy. He demanded the restoration of religion, opposed the laws in favour of the press, and was a member of the club of the rue de l’Arcade. In March 1868 he accused the Liberal deputies of having received money from the king of Prussia for opposing the emperor, and when called upon for proof, submitted only false or trivial documents. After the proclamation of the republic (4th of September 1870) he fled to Belgium. He returned to France for the elections of 1876, and was elected deputy. He continued to combat all the republican reforms, but with no advantage to his party. He died on the 31st of January 1880. In addition to his journalistic articles he published various historical works, now unimportant.
His son, Paul Adolphe Marie Prosper Granier de Cassagnac (1843–1904), while still young was associated with his father in both politics and journalism. In 1866 he became editor of the Conservative paper Le Pays, and figured in a long series of political duels. On the declaration of war in 1870 he volunteered for service and was taken prisoner at Sédan. On his return from prison in a fortress in Silesia he continued to defend the Bonapartist cause in Le Pays, against both Republicans and Royalists. Elected deputy for the department of Gers in 1876, he adopted in the chamber a policy of obstruction “to discredit the republican régime.” In 1877 he openly encouraged MacMahon to attempt a Bonapartist coup d’état, but the marshal’s refusal and the death of the prince imperial foiled his hopes. He now played but a secondary rôle in the chamber, and occupied himself mostly with the direction of the journal L’Autorité, which he had founded. He was not re-elected in 1902, and died in November 1904. His sons took over L’Autorité and the belligerent traditions of the family.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cassana, Niccolò

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​CASSANA, NICCOLÒ (1659–1714), often called Nicoletto, Italian painter, was born at Venice, and became a disciple of his father, Giovanni Francesco Cassana, a Genoese, who had been taught the art of painting by Bernardino Strozzi (“il Prete Genovese”). Having painted portraits of the Florentine court, and also of some of the English nobility, Nicoletto was invited to England, and introduced to Queen Anne, who sat to him for her likeness, and conferred on him many marks of favour. He died in London in 1714, having given way to drinking in his later years. Cassana was a man of the most vehement temper, and would wallow on the ground if provoked with his work. One of his principal paintings is the “Conspiracy of Catiline,” now in Florence.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cassander

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​CASSANDER (c. 350–297 B.C.), king of Macedonia, eldest son of Antipater, first appears at the court of Alexander at Babylon, where he defended his father against the accusations of his enemies. Having been passed over by his father in favour of Polyperchon as his successor in the regency of Macedonia, Cassander allied himself with Ptolemy Soter and Antigonus, and declared war against the regent. Most of the Greek states went over to him, and Athens also surrendered. He further effected an alliance with Eurydice, the ambitious wife of King Philip Arrhidaeus of Macedon. Both she and her husband, however, together with Cassander’s brother, Nicanor, were soon after slain by Olympias. Cassander at once marched against Olympias, and, having forced her to surrender in Pydna, put her to death (316). In 310 or 309 he also murdered Roxana and Alexander, the wife and son of Alexander the Great, whose natural son Heracles he bribed Polyperchon to poison. He had already connected himself with the royal family by marriage with Thessalonica, Alexander the Great’s half-sister, and, having formed an alliance with Seleucus, Ptolemy and Lysimachus, against Antigonus, he became, on the defeat and death of Antigonus in 301, undisputed sovereign of Macedonia. He died of dropsy in 297. Cassander was a man of literary taste, but violent and ambitious. He restored Thebes after its destruction by Alexander the Great, transformed Therma into Thessalonica, and built the new city of Cassandreia upon the ruins of Potidaea.
See Diod. Sic. xviii., xix., xx.; Plutarch, Demetrius, 18. 31, Phocion, 31; also Macedonian Empire.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cassaba

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​CASSABA, a town of Asia Minor, in the sanjak of Manisa, 63 m. E. of Smyrna, with which it is connected by rail. Pop. estimated at 23,000, of which two-thirds are Mussulman; but the estimate is probably excessive. It has considerable local trade, and exports the products of the surrounding district. Cotton is the most important article, and there are ginning factories in the town; the silkworm is largely raised and exported; and the “melons of Cassaba” are sent not only to Smyrna but to Constantinople. There are fragments of marbles built into the houses, but the modern town does not seem to occupy any ancient site of importance.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dechen, Ernst Heinrich Karl von

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​DECHEN, ERNST HEINRICH KARL VON (1800–1889), German geologist, was born in Berlin on the 25th of March 1800, and was educated in the university in that city. He subsequently studied mining in Bochum and Essen, and was in 1820 placed in the mining department of the Prussian state, serving on the staff until 1864, and becoming director in 1841 when he was stationed at Bonn. In early years he made journeys to study the mining systems of other countries, and with this object he visited England and Scotland in company with Karl von Oeynhausen (1797–1865). In the course of his work he paid special attention to the coal-formation of Westphalia and northern Europe generally, and he greatly furthered the progress made in mining and metallurgical works in Rhenish Prussia. He made numerous contributions to geological literature; notably the following:—Geognostische Umrisse der Rheinländer zwischen Basel und Mainz mit besonderer Rücksicht auf das Vorkommen des Steinsalzes (with von Oeynhausen and La Roche), 2 vols. (Berlin, 1825); Geognostische Führer in das Siebengebirge am Rhein (Bonn, 1861); Die nutzbaren Mineralien und Gebirgsarten im deutschen Reiche (1873). But his main work was a geological map of Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia in 35 sheets on the scale of 1 : 80,000, issued with two volumes of explanatory text (1855–1882). He published also a small geological map of Germany (1869). He died at Bonn on the 15th of February 1889. (H. B. W.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Decius, Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus

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​DECIUS, GAIUS MESSIUS QUINTUS TRAJANUS (201–251), Roman emperor, the first of the long succession of distinguished men from the Illyrian provinces, was born at Budalia near Sirmium in lower Pannonia in A.D. 201. About 245 the emperor Philip the Arabian entrusted him with an important command on the Danube, and in 249 (or end of 248), having been sent to put down a revolt of the troops in Moesia and Pannonia, he was forced to assume the imperial dignity. He still protested his loyalty to Philip, but the latter advanced against him and was slain near Verona. During his brief reign Decius was engaged in important operations against the Goths, who crossed the Danube and overran the districts of Moesia and Thrace. The details are obscure, and there is considerable doubt as to the part taken in the campaign by Decius and his son (of the same name) respectively. The Goths were surprised by the emperor while besieging Nicopolis on the Danube; at his approach they crossed the Balkans, and attacked Philippopolis. Decius followed them, but a severe defeat near Beroë made it impossible to save Philippopolis, which fell into the hands of the Goths, who treated the conquered with frightful cruelty. Its commander, Priscus, declared himself emperor under Gothic protection. The siege of Philippopolis had so exhausted the numbers and resources of the Goths, that they offered to surrender their booty and prisoners on condition of being allowed to retire unmolested. But Decius, who had succeeded in surrounding them and hoped to cut off their retreat, refused to entertain their proposals. The final engagement, in which the Goths fought with the courage of despair, took place on swampy ground in the Dobrudja near Abritum (Abrittus) or Forum Trebonii and ended in the defeat and death of Decius and his son. Decius was an excellent soldier, a man of amiable disposition, and a capable administrator, worthy of being classed with the best Romans of the ancient type. The chief blot on his reign was the systematic and authorized persecution of the Christians, which had for its object the restoration of the religion and institutions of ancient Rome. Either as a concession to the senate, or perhaps with the idea of improving public morality, Decius endeavoured to revive the separate office and authority of the censor. The choice was left to the senate, who unanimously selected Valerian (afterwards emperor). But Valerian, well aware of the dangers and difficulties attaching to the office at such a time, declined the responsibility. The invasion of the Goths and the death of Decius put an end to the abortive attempt.
See Aurelius Victor, De Caesaribus, 29, Epit. 29; Jordanes, De rebus Geticis, 18; fragments of Dexippus, in C. W. Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iii. (1849); Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 10; H. Schiller, Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, i. (pt. 2), 1883.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Decize

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​DECIZE, a town of central France, in the department of Nièvre, on an island in the Loire, 24 m. S.E. of Nevers by the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906) 3813. The most important of its buildings is the church of Saint Aré, which dates in part from the 11th and 12th centuries; there are also ruins of a castle of the counts of Nevers. The town has a statue of Guy Coquille, the lawyer and historian, who was born there in 1523. Decize is situated at the starting-point of the Nivernais canal. The coal mine of La Machine, which belongs to the Schneider Company of Le Creusot, lies four miles to the north. The industries of Decize and its suburbs on both banks of the Loire include the working of gypsum and lime, and the manufacture of ceramic products and glass. Trade is in horses from the Morvan, cattle, coal, iron, wood and stone.
Under the name of Decetia the place is mentioned by Julius Caesar as a stronghold of the Aedui, and in 52 B.C. was the scene of a meeting of the senate held by him to settle the leadership of the tribe and to reply to his demand for aid against Vercingetorix. In later times it belonged to the counts of Nevers, from whom it obtained a charter of franchise in 1226.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Decker, Sir Matthew

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​DECKER, SIR MATTHEW, Bart. (1679–1749), English merchant and writer on trade, was born in Amsterdam in 1679. He came to London in 1702 and established himself there as a merchant. He was remarkably successful in his business life, gaining great wealth and having many honours conferred upon him. He was a director of the East India Company, sat in parliament for four years as member for Bishops Castle, and was high sheriff of Surrey in 1729. He was created a baronet by George I. in 1716. Decker’s fame as a writer on trade rests on two tracts. The first, Serious considerations on the several high duties which the Nation in general, as well as Trade in particular, labours under, with a proposal for preventing the removal of goods, discharging the trader from any search, and raising all the Publick Supplies by one single Tax (1743; name affixed to 7th edition, 1756), proposed to do away with customs duties and substitute a tax upon houses. He also suggested taking the duty off tea and putting instead a licence duty on households wishing to consume it. The second, an Essay on the Causes of the Decline of the Foreign Trade, consequently of the value of the lands in Britain, and on the means to restore both (1744), has been attributed to W. Richardson, but internal evidence is strongly in favour of Decker’s authorship. He advocates the licence plan in an extended form; urges the repeal of import duties and the abolition of bounties, and, in general, shows himself such a strong supporter of the doctrine of free trade as to rank as one of the most important forerunners of Adam Smith. Decker died on the 18th of March 1749.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Decker, Pierre de

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​DECKER, PIERRE DE (1812–1891), Belgian statesman and author, was educated at a Jesuit school, studied law at Paris, and became a journalist on the staff of the Revue de Bruxelles. In 1839 he was elected to the Belgian lower chamber, where he gained a great reputation for oratory. In 1855 he became minister of the interior and prime minister, and attempted, by a combination of the moderate elements of the Catholic and Liberal parties, the impossible task of effecting a settlement of the educational and other questions by which Belgium was distracted. In 1866 he retired from politics and went into business, with disastrous results. He became involved in financial speculations which lost him his good name as well as the greater part of his fortune; and, though he was never proved to have been more than the victim of clever operators, when in 1871 he was appointed by the Catholic cabinet governor of Limburg, the outcry was so great that he resigned the appointment and retired definitively into private life. He died on the 4th of January 1891. Decker, who was a member of the Belgian academy, wrote several historical and other works of value, of which the most notable are Études historiques et critiques sur les monts-de-piété en Belgique (Brussels, 1844); De l’influence du libre arbitre de l’homme sur les faits sociaux (1848); L’Esprit de parti et l’esprit national (1852); Étude politique sur le vicomte Ch. Vilain XIIII (1879); Épisodes de l’hist. de l’art en Belgique (1883); Biographie de H. Conscience (1885).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Deciduous

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​DECIDUOUS (from Lat. decidere, to fall down), a botanical and zoological term for “falling in season,” as of petals after flowering, leaves in autumn, the teeth or horns of animals, or the wings of insects.