Valentine
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Valentine. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a sweetheart or choice made on St. Valentine's day. According to the legend, St. Valentine was beheaded on Feb. 14, at Rome, under Claudius. The old notion was that birds began to couple on that day, and hence arose the custom of young persons of both sexes choosing each other as "Valentines" for the ensuing year by a species of lottery, and of sending love missives to each other. Also a letter or other missive sent by young persons of both sexes to each other on Valentine's day; a printed missive of an amatory or satirical nature, generally sent by post anonymously. Some valentines are highly ornamental and artistic, while others (commonly called "comic valentines") are caricatures, designed to reflect on the personal appearance, habits, character, etc., of the per sons to whom they are addressed. The practice of sending valentines by mail to be diminishing year by year, appears the later practice, confined almost exclusively to children, being to insert them under the door of the person to whom they are addressed, and then to knock or ring the door bell and hurry away. In the various cities of the United States many millions of hideous caricatures thus change hands each year. VALENTINIAN I., a Roman emperor (364-375); born of humble family in Cibalis, Pannonia, in A. D. 321. By his capacity and courage he rose rapidly in rank under Constantius and Julian, and on the death of Jovian was chosen as his successor (Feb. 26, 364). He resigned the East to his brother Valens, and himself governed the West with watchful care down to his sudden death at Bregetio, Nov. 17, 375, brought on by a fit of passion. By his first wife he had one son, Gratianus, and by the second, Justina, another son, Valentinian II., and three daughters, one of whom, Galla, became the wife of the Emperor Theodosius I. VALENTINIAN II., a Roman emperor; born A. D. 372; received from his elder brother, Gratianus, the provinces of Italy, Illyricum, and Africa, as his share of the Western Empire. During his long minority the Empress Justina administered the government; and about three years after her death Valentinian was murdered by Arbogastes, the commander-in-chief of his army (392). VALENTINIAN III., Emperor of the West; grand-nephew of the preceding, being the son of Constantius III. by Placidia, the daughter of Theodosius the Great and Galla; born about A. D. 419, and was seated on the throne of the West by Theodosius II., emperor of the East, in 425. Valentinian was a weak and never really and contemptible prince, ce, ruled during the 30 years that he sat disesteemed and unhonored on the imperial throne; his mother, Placidia, govarned till her death in 450, and was succeeded by the eunuch, Heraclius, one of those malignant fribbles who swarmed around the throne of the falling empire. His treatment of Bonifacius made the latter throw himself into the arms of GENSERIC (q. v.), chief of the Vandals, and thus lost Africa to the empire. Aëtius, the buttress of his empire, he stabbed to death in a fit of envious jealousy (454), but next year was himself slain by Maximus, whose wife he had ravished. VALERIAN (VALERIANUS, PUB- LIUS LUCINIUS), a Roman emperor; born about 190. He was proclaimed after the death of Gallus in 253. He was defeated in the East by Sapor, King of Persia, and is supposed to have been flayed alive in 260.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a missive sent by one person to another of the opposite sex on February fourteenth, Saint Valentine's Day. It is not customary to sign a valentine. A great diversity of taste prevails. Some valentines are beautifully embellished and bear choice sentiments, poetical quotations, and the like. Others are coarse prints, mere caricatures, unworthy of the sender. Saint Valentine was a bishop of the early church. He was put to death at Rome in the reign of Claudius, February 14, 270. He was canonized as a martyr by the Roman Church. The day of his death was set apart in his honor. During the old time Feast of the Lupercalia, celebrated in honor of Juno, it was customary for Roman youths to draw tablets from an urn. On each table was inscribed the name of a maiden to whom he was supposed to devote himself for a year. This festival was held near the anniversary of the martyr's death, and was finally merged with it to the extent that the practice of choosing sweethearts for the ensuing twelve months became a common one on St. Valentine's Day. As a matter of fact there were several saints by the name of Valentine. One German authority enumerates fifty-two. A pretty story connected with one of them runs to the effect that he was a charitable man visiting the sick and the needy. When bedridden with old age he continued to send kindly messages to those he could no longer go to see. The German peasants were wont to call on their St. Valentine for relief in case of epilepsy. An opinion was prevalent, among the English peasantry at least, that birds chose their mates at this season. Both Shakespeare and Chaucer speak of St. Valentine's Day as a time when every bird chooses his mate.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's reported in 1921 that mailing valentines "appears to be diminishing year by year," surviving mainly as children pushing "hideous caricatures" under doors; in fact the custom went industrial, and Valentine's Day is now one of the largest greeting-card occasions of the year, alongside flowers, chocolate and e-cards, while the insulting "comic valentine" has vanished almost entirely. The saint himself has faded: in the 1969 revision of the Roman calendar February 14 was assigned to Saints Cyril and Methodius, and St Valentine, whose life is too obscure to document, was dropped from the universal calendar though still recognised locally. Scholars have also grown sceptical of the derivation Aiton's gives from the Lupercalia; the influential modern argument, made by Jack Oruch in 1981, is that Chaucer and his circle invented the link between February 14 and the mating of birds, so the poets quoted as evidence may in fact be the source. The 270 date for the martyrdom, given confidently by Aiton's, is now treated as legend rather than record.
Written for this edition, 2026.