Antwerp
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Antwerp. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an important commercial city of Belgium. It is situated on the "lazy Scheldt," sixty miles from the North Sea . It is at least a thousand years old. At the time of the discovery of America, Antwerp was the leading commercial city of western Europe, far surpassing London. It has not had fair treatment at the hands of jealous rivals. Just to realize how unfair nations can be, it is well to know that by the Treaty of Westphalia, 1648, it was agreed to forbid merchant ships from entering the Scheldt, nor was Antwerp permitted to engage again in commerce until the French opened the Scheldt in 1794. Napoleon spent $10,000,000 in the construction of docks. He declared Antwerp to be a "loaded pistol which I hold at the throat of England." Antwerp had its full share of the miseries of the warfare which from time to time rolled over the Netherlands. It suffered from the "Spanish Fury" of 1576 and the "French Fury" of 1583. In the days of its commercial supremacy Antwerp possessed wealth and was noted as an artistic city. The Cathedral of Antwerp is the most celebrated church edifice in the Low Countries. It is 471 feet long and 384 feet wide. The exterior is noted for a graceful north tower, and for a spire rising 402 feet above the west front. The roof is one of the most peculiar known. The windows are very large, and are richly colored. The interior has seven aisles. The vaulting rises to a height of 130 feet. The cathedral contains Rubens' masterpieces, The Descent from the Cross, The Elevation of the Cross, and The Assumption. The modern city of Antwerp is prosperous and does a large business in coal, linen, woolen, and cotton goods, grain, sugar, chemicals, dyes, diamonds, rubber, glassware, and iron products. The steamers of the Red Star line ply between Antwerp and New York . In 1905 Belgium began the expenditure of $50,000,000 to deepen and enlarge the port of Antwerp. Population, 1907, 310,903. See Hanseatic League; Belgium ; Amsterdam ; Scheldt ; Vandyck; Rubens The city was so ancient that its genealogists, with ridiculous gravity, ascended to a period two centuries before the Trojan war, and discovered a giant, rejoicing in the classic name of Antigonus, established on the Scheld. This patriarch exacted one-half the merchandise of all navigators who passed his castle, and was accustomed to amputate and cast into the river the right hands of those who infringed this simple tariff. Thus "Hand-werpen," hand-throwing, became Antwerp, and hence, two hands, in the escutcheon of the city, were ever held up in heraldic attestation of the truth. The giant was, in his turn, thrown into the Scheld by a hero, named Brabo, from whose exploits Brabant derived its name. . . . But for these antiquarian researches, a simpler derivation of the name would seem "an t' werf," "on the wharf." It had now (in the first half of the 16th century) become the principal entrepot and exchange of Europe . . . the commercial capital of the world. . . . Venice, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Bruges, were sinking; but Antwerp, with its deep and convenient river, stretched its arm to the ocean and caught the golden prize as it fell from its sister cities' grasp. . . . No city, except Paris, surpassed it in population, none approached it in commercial splendor.--Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. 2026 Editor's Note: Antwerp recovered spectacularly: its port, freed when the Scheldt was finally reopened, is now the second-largest in Europe , and the city cuts and trades the great majority of the world's diamonds. The 'unfair treatment' the entry laments is long past — it is again one of the continent's commercial powerhouses, and the city of Rubens. (Ed: BR 2026-06-03)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the chief port of Belgium, and the capital of a province of the same name on the Scheldt, about 50 miles from the open sea. being completely surrounded on the land It is strongly fortified, side by a semi-circular inner line of fortifications, the defenses being completed by an outer line of forts and outworks. The cathedral, with a spire 400 feet high, one of the largest and most beautiful specimens of Gothic architecture in Belgium, contains Rubens' celebrated masterpieces, the " Descent from the Cross," the "Elevation of the Cross," and "The Assumption." churches of note are St. James', St. An- The other drew's, and St. Paul's , all enriched with paintings by Rubens, Vandyke, and other masters. Among the other edifices of note are the exchange, the town hall, the palace, theater, academy of the fine arts, picture and sculpture galleries, etc. The harbor accommodation is extensive and excellent. Antwerp's commerce before the World War was one of the THE CATHEDRAL AT ANTWERP, BELGIUM largest in Europe, though much of it annually. Antwerp is mentioned as early was transit. It exceeded $ 1,200,000,000 as the 8th century, and in the 11th and 12th it had attained a high degree of erlands and Spain greatly injured its prosperity. The wars between the Nethforces defeated the Belgian and British commerce. In August, 1914, the German it until the last of October, 1918. See troops defending the city and occupied WORLD WAR. Pop. about 400,000. The square miles in area; pop. about 1,000,province consists of a fertile plain 1,093 000. batrachians which lose the tail when they