pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
VILLACH, a circle in the Austrian government of Laibach in Illyria. It is bounded on the north by the Upper Ens, on the east by Klaganfort, on the south by Laibach and Venice, and on the west by Tyrol. It extends over 2200 square miles, and comprehends four cities, eleven market towns, and 1147 villages, with 112,980 inhabitants. It is mostly an alpine district, with lofty mountains covered with snow, but intermixed with valleys of great beauty and fertility, and several picturesque lakes and waterfalls. The chief occupation is mining, by which some little silver and less gold is obtained, but more considerable quantities of lead, copper, antimony, and quicksilver. There are also many valuable quarries, yielding marbles of great beauty. The capital is the city of the same name, on the river Drove. It is well built and strongly fortified, contains two churches, 360 dwelling-houses, and 4820 inhabitants, who are chiefly employed in converting the minerals into common utensils. Lat. 46. 35. Long. 13. 42. E.
VILLAGE, an assemblage of houses inhabited chiefly by peasants and farmers, and having no market; a circumstance by which it is distinguished from a town. The word is French, formed from the Latin villa, a country house.
VILLEFRANCHE, one of the arrondissements of the department of the Rhone, in the south of France, containing 584½ square miles, and divided into 9 cantons, 127 communes, with 151,980 inhabitants in 1836. The capital is the city of the same name, situated on the river Morgen, near to the left bank of the Paone, in a most fertile district. In 1836 it contained 7553 inhabitants, who make cotton and woollen goods, and carry on a considerable trade in wine, corn, cattle, and other agricultural productions. Long. 4. 38. E. Lat. 48. 59∙ N.

Villerfranche , an arrondissement of the department of Aveyron in France, extending over 493½ square miles. It is divided into four cantons and forty-eight communes, having 81,130 inhabitants in 1836. The capital is the city of the same name, situated at the junction of the rivers Al-son and Aveyron. It is well built, and in 1836 contained 8738 industrious inhabitants, occupied in making linen goods, paper, hats, copper ware, and other articles. Long. 2. 3. E. Lat. 41. 24. N.
VILLENA, a city of Spain in the province of Murcia. It is situated on the north-east of the river Jumilla, in a bleak and mountainous country. Near it is a salt lake, two leagues in circumference, which supplies the neighbouring district with salt for culinary purposes. The whole of the surrounding country is studded with the remains of fortresses built by the Moors. From this elevated country, the capital and other places on the coast draw their supplies of ice. The city contains fourteen streets, and 8000 inhabitants. It is situated in Lat. 38. 36. N.
VILLEIN, or Villain, in our ancient customs, denotes a man of servile or base condition, viz. a bondman or servant.
VILLENEUVE D’AGEN, an arrondissement of the department of the Lot and the Garonne, in France, extends over 560 square miles, and is divided into six cantons, with eighty-six communes, which contained in 1836 96,961 inhabitants. The capital is a city of the same name on the river Lot, with a population of 11,222 in 1836.
VILLIERS, George, duke of Buckingham, was the third son of Sir George Villiers. He was born at Brookes-by in Leicestershire, August 20, 1582. His handsome person and pleasing manners gained him the favour of James I., who, in 1615, created him a knight, with a pension of L.1000 a-year. From this time, his promotion was rapid, and his influence with King James unbounded; after whose death, he continued as great a favourite with his son. But for his transactions, which are matter of history, we refer to the article Britain. He was assassinated at Portsmouth by one Fenton, August 23, 1628.

Villiers, George, second duke of Buckingham of that family, son of the preceding, was born at Westminster, January 30,1627. During the civil wars, he served in the royal army under Prince Rupert. After the death of Charles I., he attached himself to his son, and at the restoration was made master of the horse, and was one of those confidential ministers of the king who were designated the Cabal. His public conduct was unprincipled and capricious, and his private life notorious for profligacy and crime. He died April 16, 1688, justly neglected and despised. See Britain.
VIMIERO, a small town of the province of Alentejo, in the kingdom of Portugal. It stands on a mountain, and contains 430 houses, with about 1800 inhabitants, and is only remarkable as the scene of one of that series of victories gained by the duke of Wellington during the peninsular war.
VINA or Βιν, a singular musical instrument of India, of the lute kind. Mersenne describes and gives a representation of it in the twenty-first proposition of the second book of his Harmonics. It is minutely described in the Asiatic Researches.
VINCATGHERRY, a town of Hindostan, in the Mysore rajah’s territories. It is built on a rising ground, and consists of several inclosures surrounded by walls of stone, and flanked with towers and bastions, which rise higher and higher towards the central inclosure, in which stood the rajah’s dwelling. It is distant 120 miles west from Madras. Long. 78. 38. E. Lat. 13. 2. N.
VIN cent. ST, one of the windward West India islands, is situate in 13° N. Lat. and 61° W. Long. It is seventeen miles long from north to south, and ten miles broad. Being discovered by Columbus on the 22d January (1498), which is St Vincent’s day in the Spanish calendar, he named it after that saint. It was then inhabited by a warlike race of Caribs. The first settlement of Europeans was made by a body of adventurers from Martinique in 1719. It was long a neutral island, but, in 1762. It was taken possession of by the English, and ceded to them by the treaty of Paris in the following year. At the instance of some rapacious planters, the English engaged in an unjust war against the Carribees who inhabited the windward side of the island, and who were forced to consent to a peace, and to cede a large tract of valuable land to the crown. The consequence of this was, that in 1779 they greatly contributed to the reduction of the island when attacked by the French. It was however restored to England at the peace of 1783, and has, since that time, continued in the possession of Britain. The population amounted in 1831, to 27,122, of which 1,301 were whites. The number of registered slaves on the 1st of August 1834, was 22,266; and the amount of compensation paid out of the parliamentary grant was, L.590,779, or L.26, 10s. 7d. each. The amount of exports in 1836 was, 21,694,512 lbs. of sugar, 242,637 gallons of rum, and 394,830 gallons of molasses. The total value of the exports was, L.349,480, and the imports for the same year, L.155,522. The island has a local legislature, consisting of the lieutenant-governor, a council of twelve members appointed by the crown, and an assembly of nineteen members elected by freeholders of ten acres of land, or of a house of the yearly value of L.20 in the town, or of L.100 in the country.

Vincent. Gulf of St, a large inlet in the south coast of New Holland, extending eastward about forty-five miles, and sixty miles farther in a northern direction. At its mouth it is not more than nine miles broad, but afterwards widens to more than double the breadth.
VINCI, Leonardo da, an illustrious Italian painter, descended from a noble Tuscan family, was born in the castle of Vinci near Florence, in 1445. He was placed under Andrea Verochia, a celebrated painter in that city; but soon surpassed him and all his predecessors so much, as to be reputed the master of the third or golden age of modern painting. But his studies were far from terminating here: no man’s genius was more universal; he applied himself to arts, to literature, and to the accomplishments of the body; and he excelled in every thing which he attempted. Lewis Sforza, duke of Milan, prevailed on him to be director of the academy for architecture which he had just established, where Leonardo soon banished all the Gothic fashions, and reduced every thing to the happy simplicity of the Greek and Roman style. By the duke’s order he constructed the famous aqueduct that supplies the city of Milan with water: this canal goes by the name of Mortesana, being above 200 miles in length, and conducts the water of the river Adda to the walls of the city. In 1479, he was desired to construct some new device for the entertainment of Louis XII. of France, who was then to make his entrance into Milan. Leonardo accordingly made a very curious automaton in the form of a lion, which marched out to meet the king, reared up on its hinder legs before him, and opening its breast, displayed an escutcheon with fleurs-de-lis quartered on it. The disorders of Lombardy, with the misfortunes of his patrons the Sforzi, obliging Leonardo to quit Milan, he retired to Florence, where he flourished under the Medici. Here he raised the envy of Michael Angelo, who was his contemporary; and Raphael, from the study of his works, acquired his best manner of designing. At length, on the invitation of Francis L, he removed to France, when above seventy years of age, where the journey and change of climate threw him into his last sickness: he languished for some months at Fontainbleau, where the king came frequently to see him; and one day rising up in his bed to acknowledge the honour done him, he fainted, and Francis supporting him, Leonardo died in his arms. His death happened in 1520. Some of his paintings are to be seen in England and other countries, but the greatest part of them are at Florence and in France. He composed a great number of discourses on curious subjects; but with the exception of his treatise on the Art of Painting, none of them has been published.
VINCULUM, in algebra, a character in form of a line or stroke drawn over a factor, divisor, or dividend, when compounded of several letters or quantities, to connect them, and shews that they are to be multiplied or divided, &c. together by the other term.

Thus *** d×a-∖-b—c shows that d is to be multiplied into a+b — c.
VINDHYA MOUNTAINS, a chain of hills in Hindustan which passes through Bahar and Benares, and continues through the provinces of Allahabad and Malwah, along the north side of the Nerbuddah. They are inhabited by Bhecls, and other predatory tribes.
VINEGAR, Acetum, an agreeable acid, prepared from wine, cider, beer, and other liquors; of considerable use, both as a medicine and a sauce. The word is French, vinaigre; formed from vin, wine, and aigre, sour.
VINGORLA, a town of Hindustan, belonging to the rajah of Colapoor, on the sea-coast of the province of Bejapoor. Long. 73. 22. E. Lat. 15. 54. N.
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VIOLA. See Βοτανυ. Viola, or Tenor Violin. A bow-instrument of the violin kind, intermediate in size and pitch between the violin and the violoncello. It has four strings, of which the third and fourth are covered with silvered copper wire. It is tuned C, G, D, A, reckoning upwards, and is an octave higher in pitch than the violoncello, and a fifth lower than the violin. See article Music.

Viola, or Alto Viola, an instrument of the violin kind, larger than an ordinary violin, and furnished with four gut strings, the third and fourth of these being covered with silver-plated copper wire. It originated from the viola di braccio, one of the ancient set of viols used in concerts. The English call it the tenor-violin, or simply the tenor. Its name of alto-viola is derived from its music being written in the alto-clef on the third line of the stave. It is tuned C, G, D, A, an octave above the violoncello. For its compass, and use in orchestra, &c., see Music.

Viola d’Amore, an instrument no longer in use, but of which the tone and effect are said to have been very sweet and singular. It was played with a bow, and seems to have varied in the number of its strings and in its tuning. One species of it is described as having five gut strings, and five metal wires tuned in unison with the strings, but passing under the finger-board and bridge, and thus vibrating only as open wires, to arpeggios or harmonics, &c., played upon the open gut strings. The principle of this instrument seems to have been revived in the construction of some recent musical instruments.

Viola di Gamba, a musical instrument no longer in use, but which was the immediate predecessor of the violoncello. A clever musician, C. F. Abel, in the last century, threw away his fine talents upon this nasal and ungrateful instrument. A good viola di gamba affords excellent wood materials for making a fine tenor-violin.
VIOLIN, a bow-instrument of considerable compass, and great powers of expression and execution. Its origin is obscure. The best violins are those of the old Cremona makers, Jerome, Anthony, and Nicholas Amati, and Stradivarius and Guarnerius, and F. and T. and G. B. Ruggiero. Next in quality are those of Jacob Steiner, and of the two Klotz, father and son, Tyrolese makers. The difference between the tone of the Cremona violins and the Tyrolese has been compared to the difference between the tone of a flute and a clarinet. The violin has four strings, tuned G, D, A, E, reckoning upwards. The lowest string is covered with fine silvered copper wire. Some persons have used silver, or even gold wire, which does not corrode like the copper. Gross impositions are often practised by unprincipled dealers in pseudo-Cremona violins. Like copies of old pictures, they deceive many purchasers. Many of the finest violins of the old makers have been destroyed by ignorant repairers, or by capricious alterations made at the desire of ignorant amateurs. See article Music.
VIOLONCELLO, a powerful and expressive bow-instrument of the violin family. It has four strings, the third and fourth of which are covered with silvered copper wire. It is tuned C, G, D, A, reckoning upwards, and is an octave lower than the viola. Passages of rapid execution do not suit this instrument, especially on the third and fourth strings. The best violoncellos are those of the old Italian and Tyrolese makers. (See article Music.)
VIOLONE, Contra-basso, or Double-Bass, the largest instrument of the violin kind. The best are of Italian make. See article Music.
VIQUE, or Vich, a city of Spain, in the province of Catalonia. It is situated on the river Ter, above Gerona. The country around, though not naturally fertile, is rendered productive by high cultivation. The most considerable works for printing calicos are within this district, and there are in the city considerable manufactories of cotton. The hills around it have mines of topazes, amethysts, and coloured crystals, which are worked into ornamental jewellery by the jewellers of Barcelona, and form part of its traffic. Vique is the seat of a bishop, and has a splendid cathedral, with several other churches and several convents. It is situated in Lat. 41° 47', and contains several monasteries, and 8400 inhabitants.
VIRAGO, a woman of extraordinary stature and courage, who has the mien and air of a man, and performs the actions and exercises of men.
VIRAGNE, a town and mud fort of Hindustan, province of Aurungabad, in the Nizam’s territories, 100 miles south-east from Ahmednuggur. Long. 76.15. E. Lat. 18.11. N.
VIRANCHIPURA, an open town of Hindustan, in the Carnatic district of Vellore, situated on the south shore of the Palur river. It was formerly a large place, and pos-ssessed many public buildings; but suffered severely during the war with Hyder. Long. 79. 5. E. Lat. 12. 56. N.
VIRAPELLE, a town on the Malabar coast, in the district of Cochin, five miles north from the town of Cochin. It is the residence of the apostolic vicar of the Roman Catholic Christians, who superintends sixty-four churches. There are besides forty-five governed by the archbishop of Craga-none, and also the large dioceses under the bishop of Cochin and Quiton, whose churches extend to Cape Comorin. Here is a convent of barefooted Carmelites, besides other Catholic seminaries. Long. 76. 10. E. Lat. 10. N.
VIRE, an arrondissement of the department of Calvados, in France. It extends over 373½ square miles, and comprehends six cantons, which are divided into 97 communes, containing 89,450 inhabitants in 1836. The capital is the city of the same name, a manufacturing place of great activity, containing 7339 inhabitants, who make annually 24,000 pieces of cloth, said to amount in value to 3,840,000 francs. It stands on the river Vire, and in the neighbourhood much cider is made, and some of it distilled to mix with brandy. It was the birth-place of the celebrated naturalist Du Hamel. Lat. 48. 50. 16. Long. 1. 0. 0. W.
VIRGIN ISLANDS, situate between 17° 40', and 80° 40' N. lat., and between 64° 30' W. long. Sir Francis Drake is said to have called them the Virgin islands in honour of Queen Elizabeth; but this is a mistake, for they were called Las Virgines by Columbus, in honour of the eleven thousand virgins in the Romish ritual. The principal of these is Santa Cruz, a Danish possession about twenty-one miles long, and about five broad, which has an area of more than 100 square miles. It is one of the best cultivated islands in the West Indies. Sugar is its staple commodity. The population of the island is reckoned at 32,000. St Thomas, another Danish island, about twelve miles long, with an area of about fifty square miles, possesses a safe and capacious harbour, and carries on a considerable trade. The population amounts to about 8000. St John’s is the only other possession of Denmark in this group of any importance. Its population is about 2500.

The principal British islands are Tortola, Virgingorda, and Anegada. The exportable products chiefly consist of sugar and molasses. Tortola is about twelve miles long and four broad. Anegada and Virgingorda are each about ten miles long. Besides a number of very small islands, Culebra or Passage island, and Vieque or Crab island, belong to Britain. The latter is sixteen miles long and four broad, but is uninhabited. The British, Danes, and Spaniards have the right of cutting wood in it, and fishing on its coasts. The climate is more healthy than in the average of the West India islands. Excepting Tortola, the other islands contain a very small number of inhabitants.

The population of these three islands in 1835, consisted of
[table]
VIRGO, one of the signs or constellations of the zodiac. VIRNANGH, a village of Hindustan, in the province of Cashmere, thirty-seven miles south-east from the city of Cashmere. Long. 74. 13. E. Lat. 34. N.
VIRTUAL, or Ροτεντιαl, something that has a power or virtue of acting or doing. The term is chiefly understood of something that acts by a secret invisible cause, in opposition to actual and sensible.
VIRTUE, a term used in various significations. In its general sense it denotes power, or the perfection of any thing, whether natural or supernatural, animate or inanimate, essential or accessory. But, in its more proper or restrained sense, virtue signifies a habit, which improves and perfects the possessor and his actions.
VIRTUOSO, an Italian term introduced into English, signifying a man of curiosity and learning, or one who loves and promotes the arts and sciences. But among us the term seems to be appropriated to those who apply themselves to some curious and quaint rather than immediately useful art or study; as antiquaries, collectors of rarities of any kind, microscopical observers, &c.
VISCOUNT (Vice comes), was anciently an officer under an earl, to whom, during his attendance at court, he acted as deputy to look after the affairs of the county. But the name was afterwards employed as an arbitrary title of honour, without any shadow of office pertaining to it, by Henry VI.; when, in the eighteenth year of his reign, he created John Beaumont a peer by the name of Viscount Beaumont, which was the first instance of the kind. A viscount is created by patent. His mantle is two doublings and a half of plain fur, and his coronet has only a row of pearls close to the circle.
VISHNOU, that person in the triad of the Brahmins who is considered as the preserver of the universe. Brahma is the creator, and Siva the destroyer; and these two, with Vishnou, united in some inexplicable manner, constitute Brahme, or the supreme numen of the Hindus.
VISIER, an officer or dignitary in the Ottoman empire. The Visier-azam, that is, “grand visier,” is the prime minister of state in the whole empire. He commands the army in chief, and presides in the divan or great council. Next to him are six other subordinate visiers, called visiers of the bench, who officiate as his counsellors or assessors in the divan.
VISTULA, or Weisel, a large river of Poland, which, taking its rise in the mountains south of Silesia, visits Cracow, Warsaw, &c. and continuing its course northward, falls into the Baltic sea below Dantzig.
VITERBO, a delegation or province of the papal dominions, formed out of a part of Orvieto, the duchy of Castro, and the countship of Ronaglione. It is bounded on the north by Perugia, on the north-east by Spoletto, on the east by Rieta, on the south-east by Rome, and on the south and south-west by the sea, and on the west by a part of Tuscany. The face of the country is in the north mountainous, in the middle undulating, and on the west a level [7:21:661]plain. With Civita Vecchia. It extends over 1716 square miles, and comprehends 13 cities, 24 market-towns, and ,276 villages, with 145,022 inhabitants. The chief products are wine, corn, olive-oil, and live cattle, all of which are attended to with great ignorance and indolence. The capital is the city of the same name. It stands on a plain at the foot of the mountains, is surrounded with ancient walls and towers, has straight and broad streets well paved with lava, a fine market-place, and many magnificent buildings. It is the seat of a bishop, and besides the cathedral, has 16 parish churches, in one of which, that of Santa Rosa, are some most valuable paintings, executed by Sebastiano Piombino. The population amounts to 13,100, employed in various trades, one of the most extensive of which is refining saltpetre. In the neighbourhood are sulphureous baths of great celebrity; and near the city, in the church of Madona dell Quercia, is an image to which numerous pilgrimages are annually made. Lat. 42. 24. 54. Long. 27. 59∙ 25. E.
VITORIA, a city of Spain, in the province of Alava. It is built on the river Ladorra, which runs into the Ebro, on a plain which yields excellent wheat and other grain, but is surrounded with lofty and barren mountains. The walls round it are unfit for defence, but they render the city compact, and furnish very pleasant public walks. It has a large collegiate church, and several other religious buildings. The population amounts to about 8000, who are generally an industrious description of people. It has often been the theatre of war, and the celebrated battle gained there by the duke of Wellington, will transmit its name to distant ages. It is situated in Lat. 42. 53. 30.
VITTORIA, a city of the kingdom of Naples, in the island of Sicily. It is in the province of Noto, and is the capital of a circle of it called the Contea of Modica, which contains 120,000 acres of land, and 80,000 inhabitants. It is 130 miles from Palermo, and is oddly situated among straggling craggy rocks, but boasts of a few fine edifices. It is the seat of an independent local court of justice, and one of the parliamentary cities. It is rather an unhealthy place, but contains 10,000 inhabitants, who are chiefly occupied in agriculture, rear a great number of horned cattle, and produce a large quantity of silk. It likewise yields much wax and honey.
VITRIOL, a compound salt formed by the union of iron, copper, or zinc, with sulphuric acid; hence called from the colours white, blue, and green, according to the metal.
VITRIOLATED, among chemists, something impregnated, or supposed to be so, with vitriol or its acid.