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 wrote little. His most important prose work is the Consideraçöes sobre a philosophia da historia literaria Portugueza, but he earned fame by his pamphlets on the Coimbra question, Bom senso e bom gosto, a letter to Castilho, and A dignidade das lettras e litteraturas officiaes.

QUÉRARD, JOSEPH MARIE (1797–1865), French bibliographer, was born at Rennes on the 25th of December 1797. He was apprenticed to a bookseller in his native town, and was sent abroad on business. He remained in Vienna from 1819 to 1824, and there drew up the first volumes of his great work, La France littéraire, ou Dictionnaire bibliographique des savants, historiens, et gens de lettres de la France, &c. (10 vols., 1826–1842), dealing especially with the 18th and early 19th centuries, which he was enabled to complete by a government subsidy granted by Guizot in 1830, and by the help of the Russian bibliophile Serge Poltoratzky. The firm of Didot, who were his publishers, took out of his hands the Littérature française contemporaine with which he had intended to complete his Work, and placed it with Ch. Louandre and F. Bourquelot. Quérard avenged himself by pointing out the errors of his successors. In spite of his claims Quérard was unable to secure a position in any of the public libraries. He died in Paris on the 3rd of December 1865.

 QUERCITRON, a yellow dyestuff obtained from the bark of the quercitron oak, Quercus tinctoria, a fine forest tree indigenous in North America. The name is a shortened form of “quercicitron,” from Lat. quercus, oak, and “citron,” and was invented by Dr Edward Bancroft (1744–1821), who by act of parliament in 1785 was granted special privileges in regard to the importation and use of the substance. The dyestuff is prepared by grinding the bark in mills after it has been freed from its black epidermal layer, and sifting the product to separate the fibrous matter, the fine yellow powder which remains forming the quercitron of commerce. The ruddy-orange decoction of quercitron contains quercitannic acid, whence its use in tanning, and an active dyeing principle, quercitrin, C21H22O12. The latter substance is a glucoside, and in aqueous solution under the influence of mineral acids it yields quercetin, C15H40O7, which is precipitated, and the pentoside rhamnose. Quercetin is a crystalline powder of a brilliant citron yellow colour, entirely insoluble in cold and dissolving only sparingly in hot water, but quite soluble in alcohol. Either by itself or in some form of its glucoside quercitrin, quercetin is found in several vegetable substances, among others in cutch, in Persian berries (Rhamnus catharticus), buckwheat leaves (Polygonum Fagopyrum), Zante fustic wood (Rhus Cotinus), and in rose petals, &c. Quercitron was first introduced as a yellow dye in 1775, but it is principally used in the form of fiavin, which is the precipitate thrown down from a boiling decoction of quercitron by sulphuric acid. Chemically, quercetin is a member of a fairly extensive class of natural colouring matters derived from β phenyl benzo-γ-pyrone or flavone, the constitution of which followed on the researches of St von Kostanecki, A. G. Perkin, Herzig, Goldschmidt and others. Among the related colouring matters are: chrysin from poplar buds, apigenin from parsley, luteolin from weld and dyers' broom, fisetin from young fustic and yellow cedar, galangin from galanga root, and myricetin from Myrica Nagi.

 QUERCY (Lat. pagus Caturcinus, Fr. Cahorsin), a county in France before the Revolution. The name is taken from that of a Gallic tribe, the Cadurci, and was applied to a small district watered by the Dordogne, the Lot and the Tarn. It was bordered by Limousin, Rouergue, Armagnac, Périgord and Agenais. In the middle ages it was divided into upper, or black, Quercy, and lower, or white, Quercy, the capital of the former being Cahors and of the latter Montauban. Its two other chief towns were Figeac and Moissac. Ecclesiastically it was included almost entirely in the diocese of Cahors until 1317, when a bishopric for lower Quercy was established at Montauban. Iudicially it was under the authority of-the parlement of Bordeaux; for financial purposes it was part of the généralité of Montauban. The estates of the county had the bishop of Cahors for president; other members were the bishop of Montauban and other ecclesiastics, four viscounts, four barons and some other lords and representatives of eighteen towns.

Under the Romans Quercy was part of Aquitania prima, and Christianity was introduced therein during the 4th century. Early in the 6th century it passed under the authority of the Franks, and in the 9th century was part of the Frankish kingdom of Aquitaine. At the end of the 10th century its rulers were the powerful counts of Toulouse. During the wars between England and France in the reign of Henry II., the English placed garrisons in the county, and by the treaty of Paris in 1259 lower Quercy was ceded to England. Both the king of England and the king of France confirmed and added to the privileges of the towns and the district, each thus hoping to attach the inhabitants to his own interest. In 1360, by the treaty of Brétigny, the whole county passed to England, but in 1440 the English were finally expelled. In the 16th century Quercy was a stronghold of the Protestants, and the scene of a savage religious warfare. The civil wars of the reign of Louis XIII. centred around Montauban. Quercy was early an industrial district. It gave its name to cadurcum, a kind of light linen, and the bankers of Cahors were famous.

 QUERÉTARO, a city of Mexico, capital of the state of Querétaro-Arteaga, 152 m. by rail N.W. of the national capital. Pop. (1900) 33,152, including a large Indian element. Querétaro is served by the Mexican Central railway. The city stands on a plain at the foot of the Cerro de las Campanas, 6168 ft. above sea-level. Among the important buildings are the Cathedral (said to have been built originally about 1535, and subsequently restored at various times), the Iturbide theatre (in which occurred the trial of Maximilian), the government offices, the federal palace and the churches of Santa Rosa, Santa Clara and San Augustin. The federal palace and the church of Santa Rosa are examples of the work of the celebrated Mexican architect, Francisco Eduardo de Tresguerras (1765–1833), who restored the church of Santa Clara also. The gilded wood carvings of Santa Clara are noteworthy; and in the courtyard of the federal palace there are other specimens of the same work. The water-supply is brought over a fine aqueduct 5 m. long, dating from 18th century. Among manufactures are cottons, woollens, pottery and iron wares. Querétaro has one of the oldest and largest cotton factories in Mexico, employing about 2000 operatives, and maintaining a small private military force for protection. It was built in the days when brigandage held the whole country in terror, and was strongly fortified and provided with artillery and garrison. The latter was also used to escort pack trains of goods and supplies before the building of the railway. This old factory has also played its part in the civil wars of the country since 1840, becoming a fortress whenever Querétaro became involved in military operations.

Querétaro occupies the site of an Otomie Indian town dating from about 1400. It was captured by the Spaniards in 1531 and was raised to the rank of a city in 1655. It was the scene of a revolutionary outbreak against Spain in 1810. In 1848 a Mexican congress met here to ratify the treaty of peace with the United States, and in 1867 Querétaro was the scene of Maximilian's last stand against the republicans'(under Escobedo), which resulted in his capture and subsequent execution on the Cerro de las Campanas just N. of the city.