Jean-Martin de Prades
Jean-Martin de Prades was a French Catholic theologian. He became famous through a thesis he presented that was considered irreligious, Prades was born at Castelsarrasin, Tarn-et-Garonne. Having finished his studies, he went to Paris, where he lived in many seminaries. He very soon became acquainted with the publishers of the Encyclopédie. Prades wrote a very long thesis, which the examiners accepted without reading, the defence, which took place on 18 November, was very sharp, and scandal broke out. On 15 December following, the Faculty declared several propositions to be worthy of blame, on 15 January following, the censure was published. Voltaire gave an account of the events in his book Le tombeau de la Sorbonne. Prades found a refuge in Holland, where he published his Apology, upon the recommendation of Voltaire and of the Marquis of Argens, the Abbé became lector to Frederick of Prussia and went to Berlin. Frederick gave him a pension and two canonries, the one at Oppeln, the other at Glogau, from the year 1753, negotiations were entered upon between the Abbé de Prades and the Bishop of Breslau, Philip von Schaffgotsch, with a view to a recantation.
Frederick himself induced the Abbé to return to the bosom of the Church, benedict XIV and Cardinal Tencin wrote the formula of recantation which was signed by the Abbé. In 1754, the Faculty of Paris again inscribed the Abbé upon the list of bachelors, the Abbé de Prades became the archdeacon of the Chapter of Glogau, and died at Glogau in 1782. The Apology consists of two parts, a third part contained reflexions upon the Pastoral Letter of the bishop of Montauban, gabriel Brotier published the Survey of the Apology of the Abbé de Prades. The question is whether the Abbé de Prades is not the author of an Apology of the Abbé de Prades in verse, besides the works quoted, he left an Abrégé de lhistoire ecclésiastique de Fleury, tr. Berne, II vols. with a preface written by Frederick II. According to Quérard, he left in manuscript a complete translation of Tacitus, what has become of the manuscript is unknown. It is said that he worked, before leaving France, francisque Bouillier, Histoire de la philosophie cartésienne, v.2, Paris, C.
Delagrave et cie,1868, p. 632-637, ferdinand Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie générale, t. 40, Firmin-Didot,1862, p.963, joseph-François Michaud and Louis-Gabriel Michaud, Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, histoire par ordre alphabétique de la vie publique et privée de tous les hommes, Paris, L. -G
Virtual International Authority File
The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
Pierre Louis Maupertuis
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis was a French mathematician and man of letters. He became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Prussian Academy of Science, Maupertuis made an expedition to Lapland to determine the shape of the Earth. He is often credited with having invented the principle of least action and his work in natural history is interesting in relation to modern science, since he touched on aspects of heredity and the struggle for life. Maupertuis was born at Saint-Malo, France, to a wealthy family of merchant-corsairs. His father, Renė, had involved in a number of enterprises that were central to the monarchy so that he thrived socially and politically. The son was educated in mathematics by a tutor, Nicolas Guisnée. In 1723 he was admitted to the Académie des Sciences and his early mathematical work revolved around the vis viva controversy, for which Maupertuis developed and extended the work of Isaac Newton and argued against the waning Cartesian mechanics.
In the 1730s, the shape of the Earth became a flashpoint in the battle among rival systems of mechanics, based on his exposition of Newton predicted that the Earth should be oblate, while his rival Jacques Cassini measured it astronomically to be prolate. In 1736 Maupertuis acted as chief of the French Geodesic Mission sent by King Louis XV to Lapland to measure the length of a degree of arc of the meridian and his results, which he published in a book detailing his procedures, essentially settled the controversy in his favor. The book included a narrative of the expedition, and an account of the Käymäjärvi Inscriptions. On his return home he became a member of almost all the societies of Europe. He expanded into the realm, anonymously publishing a book that was part popular science, part philosophy. In 1740 Maupertuis went to Berlin at the invitation of Frederick II of Prussia, and took part in the Battle of Mollwitz, where he was taken prisoner by the Austrians. On his release he returned to Berlin, and thence to Paris, where he was elected director of the Academy of Sciences in 1742, and in the following year was admitted into the Académie française.
His position became extremely awkward with the outbreak of the Seven Years War between his country and his patrons, and his reputation suffered in both Paris and Berlin. Finding his health declining, he retired in 1757 to the south of France, but went in 1758 to Basel, Maupertuis difficult disposition involved him in constant quarrels, of which his controversies with Samuel König and Voltaire during the latter part of his life are examples. The brilliance of much of what he did was undermined by his tendency to leave work unfinished and it was the insight of genius that led him to least-action principle, but a lack of intellectual energy or rigour that prevented his giving it the mathematical foundation that Lagrange would provide. He reveals remarkable powers of perception in heredity, in understanding the mechanism by which developed, even in immunology
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization.
The city is the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V.
This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
National Library of the Czech Republic
The National Library of the Czech Republic is the central library of the Czech Republic. It is directed by the Ministry of Culture, the librarys main building is located in the historical Clementinum building in Prague, where approximately half of its books are kept. The other half of the collection is stored in the district of Hostivař, the National Library is the biggest library in the Czech Republic, in its funds there are around 6 million documents. The library has around 60,000 registered readers, as well as Czech texts, the library stores older material from Turkey and India. The library houses books for Charles University in Prague, the library won international recognition in 2005 as it received the inaugural Jikji Prize from UNESCO via the Memory of the World Programme for its efforts in digitising old texts. The project, which commenced in 1992, involved the digitisation of 1,700 documents in its first 13 years, the most precious medieval manuscripts preserved in the National Library are the Codex Vyssegradensis and the Passional of Abbes Kunigunde.
In 2006 the Czech parliament approved funding for the construction of a new building on Letna plain. In March 2007, following a request for tender, Czech architect Jan Kaplický was selected by a jury to undertake the project, in 2007 the project was delayed following objections regarding its proposed location from government officials including Prague Mayor Pavel Bém and President Václav Klaus. Later in 2008, Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička announced the end of the project, the library was affected by the 2002 European floods, with some documents moved to upper levels to avoid the excess water. Over 4,000 books were removed from the library in July 2011 following flooding in parts of the main building, there was a fire at the library in December 2012, but nobody was injured in the event. List of national and state libraries Official website
National Library of Latvia
The National Library of Latvia is a national cultural institution under the supervision of the Latvian Ministry of Culture. The National Library of Latvia was formed in 1919 after the independent Republic of Latvia was proclaimed in 1918, the first supervisor of the Library was Jānis Misiņš, a librarian and the founder of the Latvian scientific bibliography. Today the Library plays an important role in the development of Latvias information society, providing Internet access to residents and supporting research and lifelong education. One of the cornerstones of the NLL, which characterizes every national library, is the formation of the collection of national literature, its eternal storage. The NLL is a centre of research and practical analyses of the activities of Latvian libraries. Since the very outset, its main concern has been the national bibliography, the massive union catalogue Ancient Prints in Latvian 1525 -1855, received Spīdola Prize in 2000 and was awarded The Beautiful Book of the Year 99.
The NLL includes several collections of posters, digitising collections at the NLL started in 1999. At present the Latvian National Digital Library Letonica, which was formed in 2006, holds digitized collections of newspapers, maps, sheet-music, in 2008 NLL launched two major digital projects. Periodika. lv is the NLLs collection of digitized historical periodicals in Latvian with the possibility to read full texts, Latvia has a tradition of Song and Dance Festivals organized every four years. The historical materials from the first Song Festival in 1864 till the Latgale Song Festival in 1940 can be explored in another collection of the National Library of Latvia. One of the architects is Gunārs Birkerts. It opened its doors to visitors in 2014, today the NLL building is a dominant landmark on the Riga cityscape. It is used for a variety of purposes and hosted a debate chaired by the BBCs Jonathan Dimbleby on 14 March 2016
Leonhard Euler
He introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. He is known for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, astronomy, Euler was one of the most eminent mathematicians of the 18th century, and is held to be one of the greatest in history. He is considered to be the most prolific mathematician of all time. His collected works fill 60 to 80 quarto volumes, more than anybody in the field and he spent most of his adult life in Saint Petersburg, and in Berlin, the capital of Prussia. A statement attributed to Pierre-Simon Laplace expresses Eulers influence on mathematics, Read Euler, read Euler, Leonhard Euler was born on 15 April 1707, in Basel, Switzerland to Paul III Euler, a pastor of the Reformed Church, and Marguerite née Brucker, a pastors daughter. He had two sisters, Anna Maria and Maria Magdalena, and a younger brother Johann Heinrich. Soon after the birth of Leonhard, the Eulers moved from Basel to the town of Riehen, Paul Euler was a friend of the Bernoulli family, Johann Bernoulli was regarded as Europes foremost mathematician, and would eventually be the most important influence on young Leonhard.
Eulers formal education started in Basel, where he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother. In 1720, aged thirteen, he enrolled at the University of Basel, during that time, he was receiving Saturday afternoon lessons from Johann Bernoulli, who quickly discovered his new pupils incredible talent for mathematics. In 1726, Euler completed a dissertation on the propagation of sound with the title De Sono, at that time, he was unsuccessfully attempting to obtain a position at the University of Basel. In 1727, he first entered the Paris Academy Prize Problem competition, Pierre Bouguer, who became known as the father of naval architecture and Euler took second place. Euler won this annual prize twelve times, around this time Johann Bernoullis two sons and Nicolaus, were working at the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. In November 1726 Euler eagerly accepted the offer, but delayed making the trip to Saint Petersburg while he applied for a physics professorship at the University of Basel.
Euler arrived in Saint Petersburg on 17 May 1727 and he was promoted from his junior post in the medical department of the academy to a position in the mathematics department. He lodged with Daniel Bernoulli with whom he worked in close collaboration. Euler mastered Russian and settled life in Saint Petersburg. He took on a job as a medic in the Russian Navy. The Academy at Saint Petersburg, established by Peter the Great, was intended to improve education in Russia, as a result, it was made especially attractive to foreign scholars like Euler
National Diet Library
The National Diet Library is the only national library in Japan. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the National Diet of Japan in researching matters of public policy, the library is similar in purpose and scope to the United States Library of Congress. The National Diet Library consists of two facilities in Tokyo and Kyoto, and several other branch libraries throughout Japan. The Diets power in prewar Japan was limited, and its need for information was correspondingly small, the original Diet libraries never developed either the collections or the services which might have made them vital adjuncts of genuinely responsible legislative activity. Until Japans defeat, the executive had controlled all political documents, depriving the people and the Diet of access to vital information. The U. S. occupation forces under General Douglas MacArthur deemed reform of the Diet library system to be an important part of the democratization of Japan after its defeat in World War II.
In 1946, each house of the Diet formed its own National Diet Library Standing Committee, hani Gorō, a Marxist historian who had been imprisoned during the war for thought crimes and had been elected to the House of Councillors after the war, spearheaded the reform efforts. Hani envisioned the new body as both a citadel of popular sovereignty, and the means of realizing a peaceful revolution, the National Diet Library opened in June 1948 in the present-day State Guest-House with an initial collection of 100,000 volumes. The first Librarian of the Diet Library was the politician Tokujirō Kanamori, the philosopher Masakazu Nakai served as the first Vice Librarian. In 1949, the NDL merged with the National Library and became the national library in Japan. At this time the collection gained a million volumes previously housed in the former National Library in Ueno. In 1961, the NDL opened at its present location in Nagatachō, in 1986, the NDLs Annex was completed to accommodate a combined total of 12 million books and periodicals.
The Kansai-kan, which opened in October 2002 in the Kansai Science City, has a collection of 6 million items, in May 2002, the NDL opened a new branch, the International Library of Childrens Literature, in the former building of the Imperial Library in Ueno. This branch contains some 400,000 items of literature from around the world. Though the NDLs original mandate was to be a library for the National Diet. In the fiscal year ending March 2004, for example, the library reported more than 250,000 reference inquiries, in contrast, as Japans national library, the NDL collects copies of all publications published in Japan. The NDL has an extensive collection of some 30 million pages of documents relating to the Occupation of Japan after World War II. This collection include the documents prepared by General Headquarters and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the Far Eastern Commission, the NDL maintains a collection of some 530,000 books and booklets and 2 million microform titles relating to the sciences
Berlin
Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries include IT, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions.
The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod.
In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie, is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century. As was not uncommon at the time, depending on circumstances, used more or less fictitious names and he often signed his works Jacques Casanova de Seingalt after he began writing in French following his second exile from Venice. He has become so famous for his complicated and elaborate affairs with women that his name is now synonymous with womanizer. He associated with European royalty and cardinals, along with such as Voltaire, Goethe. He spent his last years in Bohemia as a librarian in Count Waldsteins household, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was born in Venice in 1725 to actress Zanetta Farussi, wife of actor and dancer Gaetano Casanova. Giacomo was the first of six children, being followed by Francesco Giuseppe, Giovanni Battista, Faustina Maddalena, Maria Maddalena Antonia Stella, and Gaetano Alvise.
At the time of Casanovas birth, the city of Venice thrived as the capital of Europe, ruled by political and religious conservatives who tolerated social vices. It was a stop on the Grand Tour, traveled by young men coming of age. The famed Carnival, gambling houses, and beautiful courtesans were powerful drawing cards and this was the milieu that bred Casanova and made him its most famous and representative citizen. Casanova was cared for by his grandmother Marzia Baldissera while his mother toured about Europe in the theater and his father died when he was eight. Though the unguent applied was ineffective, Casanova was fascinated by the incantation, Perhaps to remedy the nosebleeds, Casanova, on his ninth birthday, was sent to a boarding house on the mainland in Padua. For Casanova, the neglect by his parents was a bitter memory, so they got rid of me, he proclaimed. Conditions at the house were appalling, so he appealed to be placed under the care of Abbé Gozzi, his primary instructor. Casanova moved in with the priest and his family and lived there through most of his teenage years and it was in the Gozzi household that Casanova first came into contact with the opposite sex, when Gozzis younger sister Bettina fondled him at the age of eleven.
Bettina was pretty, and a reader of romances. The girl pleased me at once, though I had no idea why and it was she who little by little kindled in my heart the first sparks of a feeling which became my ruling passion. Although she subsequently married, Casanova maintained an attachment to Bettina
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Argens, Jean Baptiste de Boyer". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
