CONDE  , the name of some twenty villages in

France and of two towns of some importance . Of the villages, Conde-en-Brie (Lat . Condetum) is a place of great antiquity and was in the middle ages the seat of a principality, a sub-fief of that of Montmirail; Conde-stir-Aisne (Condatus) was given in 87o by Charles the Bald to the abbey of St Ouen at Rouen, gave its name to a seigniory during the middle ages, and possessed a priory of which the church and a 12th-century chapel remain; Conde-sur-Marne (Condate), once a place of some importance, preserves one of its parish churches, with a fine Romanesque tower . The two towns are: I . CONDE-SUR-L'ESCAUT, in the department of Nord, at the junction of the canals of the Scheldt and of Conde-Mons . Pop . (1906) town, 2701; commune, 5310 . It lies 7 M . N. by E. of Valenciennes and 2 M. from the Belgian frontier . It has a church dating from the middle of the 18th century . Trade is in coal and cattle . The industries include brewing, rope-making and boat-building, and there is a communal college .

Conde (Condate) is of considerable antiquity, dating at least from the later

Roman period . Taken in 1676 by Louis XIV., it definitely passed into the possession of France by the treaty of Nijmwegen two years later, and was afterwards fortified by Vauban . During the revolutionary war it was besieged and taken by the Austrians (1793); and in 1815 it again fell to the allies . It was from this place that the princes of Conde (q.v.) took their title . See Perron-Gelineau, Conde ancien et moderne (Nantes, 1887) . 2 . CONDE-SUR-NOIREAU, in the department of Calvados, at the confluence of the Noireau and the Drouance, 33 M . S.S.W. of Caen on the Ouest-Etat railway . Pop . (1906) 5709 . The town is the seat of a tribunal of commerce, a board of trade-arbitration and a chamber of arts and manufactures, and has a communal college . It is important for its cotton-spinning and weaving, and carries on dyeing, printing and machine-construction; there are numerous nursery-gardens in the vicinity .

Important fairsare held in the town . The church of St

Martin has a choir of the 12th and 15th centuries, and a stained-glass window (15th century) representing the Crucifixion . There is a statue to Dumont d'Urville, the navigator (b . 1790), a native of the town . Throughout the middle ages Conde (Condatum, Condetum) was the seat of an important castellany, which was held by a long succession of powerful nobles and kings, including Robert, count of Mortain, Henry II. and John of England, Philip Augustus of France, Charles II . (the Bad) and Charles III. of Navarre . The place was held by the English from 1417 to 1449 . Of the castle some ruins of the keep survive . See L . Huet, Hist. de Conde-sur-Noireau, ses seigneurs, son industrie, £9°c . (Caen, 1883) . CONDE; JOSE ANTONIO (1766-182o), Spanish Orientalist, was born at Peraleja (Cuenca) on the 28th of October 1766, and was educated at the university of Alcala ..

His

translation of Anacreon (1791) obtained him a post in the royal library in 1795, and in 1796–1797 he published paraphrases from Theocritus, Bion, Moschus, Sappho and Meleager . These were followed by a mediocre edition of the Arabic text of Edrisi's Description of Spain (1799), with notes and a translation . Conde became a member of the Spanish Academy in 1802 and of the Academy of History in 1804, but his appointment as interpreter to Joseph Bonaparte led to his expulsion from both bodies in 1814 . He escaped to France in February 1813, and returned to Spain in 1814, but was not allowed to reside at Madrid till 1816 . Two years later he was re-elected by both academies; he died in poverty on the 12th of June 1820 . His Historia de la DominaciOn de los Arabes en Espana was published in 1820–1821 . Only the first volume was corrected by the author, the other two being compiled from his manuscript by Juan Tineo . This work was translated into German (1824–1825), French (1825) and English (1854) . Conde's pretensions to scholarship have been severely criticized by Dozy, and his history is now discredited . It had, however, the merit of stimulating abler workers in the same field .