Salamanca
Salamanca names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Salamanca a city of Spain
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Spain; on and between three low hills beside the river Tormes, 110 miles N. W. of Madrid. From the middle of the 13th to the close of the 17th century it was the seat of one of the most celebrated universities in Europe. In Salamanca's palmy days her population reached 50,000. The library, founded in 1254, contains over 70,500 volumes and 870 MSS. The city is still surrounded with walls, pierced by 10 gates, and preserves very much of its mediæval appearance, its houses, convents, and churches, its streets and squares having altered but little since the university began to decline. The river is crossed by a bridge of 27 arches, in part of Roman construction. The great square is the largest perhaps in Spain; it is surrounded by an arcade, and has on one side the municipal buildings. It was used for bull fights, and can hold 20,000 spectators. The city possesses two cathedrals; the old Vol 8 cathedral, cruciform in shape, late Romanesque in style, and dating from the 12th century, is richly decorated with paintings and monuments; the new cathe-cies, with the tail nearly twice the length dral (1513-1734) is a florid Gothic pile, also richly decorated. Among the remaining noteworthy buildings are the Jesuit College (1614), Renaissance in style; the Old College, now the governor's palace; the convents of the Dominicans and the Augustinians, the churches of which are both elaborately ornamented. In the Middle Ages Salamanca was famous for its leather work; at the present day it has not much industry save a little manufacture of cloth, linen, leather, and pottery. The town was captured by Hannibal in 222 b. c. The Moors were expelled from its walls in 1055. During the Peninsular War it was taken by the French (1812), who committed great destruction in one of its quarters, and in the vicinity Wellington defeated Marmont on July 22, 1812. Pop. about 35,000.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city of Spain. It lies on the banks of the Tormes, 172 miles northwest of Madrid by rail. An old Roman bridge, 500 feet in length, crosses the river here by means of twenty-six arches. The city was captured by Hannibal 222 B. C. It was taken from the Romans by the Goths and from the Goths by the Moors. It passed into the hands of the Spanish about 1055. The University of Salamanca was at one time the most important educational institution in Europe. In the thirteenth century it was attended, it is said, by 14,000 students. The library of 80,000 volumes is still in existence. There are two cathedrals of considerable note. In 1486, at the command of King Ferdinand, Columbus laid his projects before a learned council here. His plan for a voyage of discovery was rejected. The convent in which Columbus lodged still stands. The present population of Salamanca is about 25,000.
Salamanca UNIVERSITY OF, famous Spanish university
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
UNIVERSITY OF, famous Spanish university. It was established about 1230 by Alfonso IX. of Leon and attained its greatest influence during the period from the 15th to the 17th century. While it embraced all the chief studies of the time, students particularly and sought there instruction in canon civil law. The Spanish monarchs aided particularly Ferdinand of Castile and Alfonso the Astronomer. Its financial condition was, however, not always flourishing and the Popes repeatedly came its aid. In the 16th and 17th century it shared almost the supremacy in Europe enjoyed by Paris in an earlier age. It has since been reorganized and its students now number about 1,500.
Salamanca a village of New York
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a village of New York, in Cattaraugus co. It is on the Allegheny river and on the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh, and the Western New York and Pennsylvania railroads. It is the center of an important lumber region and has railroad repair shops, manufactures of furniture, lumber, leather, etc. Pop. (1910) 5,792; (1920) 9,276.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's put Salamanca's population at about 35,000 in 1921 and Aiton's at 25,000 in 1910, calling the city a place whose streets had "altered but little" since its university declined; the modern city has roughly 145,000 people, and its old quarter, with the two cathedrals and the great arcaded square, was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. The university, which Collier's described as reorganized and down to about 1,500 students, now teaches tens of thousands and marked its 800th anniversary in 2018, its foundation dated to Alfonso IX's charter of 1218 rather than the 1230 Collier's gives. The city was Franco's headquarters in the first months of the Civil War, and in 2002 it served as a European Capital of Culture. Salamanca in New York moved the other way: it became a city, its railroad shops closed, and its population has fallen back to about 5,000 — and it remains the rare American city built almost entirely on leased land of the Seneca Nation's Allegany Reservation, with the leases renegotiated in a federal settlement in 1990.
Written for this edition, 2026.