common fault among the doctors of this period." Voss. de Scient. Math. Bayle. Moreri. Dupin, cent. xiii. Brucker, Hist. Ph. lib. vii. c. 3. § 2. Hutton's Math. Dict.-E. ALBERT, of Aix, or ALBERTUS AQUENSIS, a canon of Aix-la-Chapelle, in the twelfth century, travelled to the Holy Land, and wrote, in Latin, "A History of the Expedition to Jerusalem under Godfrey of Bulloign, and other Leaders." The history, which is esteemed accurate, comprehends a period of twenty-four years, and terminates in the year 1120. It was printed by Reineccius in 1662. Vofs. de Hist. Lat. lib. iii. c. 6. Moreri.-E. sounds resembling the human voice, or to produce, as modern chemists have done, artificial resemblances of flowers and fruits. There is no proof that he was, as some have said, the inventor of fire-arms. His experiments in natural philosophy were, probably, chiefly confined to the search after the philosopher's stone, the common ignis fatuus" of the age. It is probable that he practised the superstitious and deceitful art of astrology. A book entitled "The Mirror of Astrology," and another treatise, "On wonderful Things," full of idle superstition, are ascribed to him; though some have questioned whether these, as well as several other pieces that bear his name, were not writ- ALBERT, ERASMUS, born near Frankfort, ten by other hands. The works which are in- was a German divine of the sixteenth century. disputably his are exceedingly numerous, and From a book entitled "The Harmony between treat on various subjects; logic, ethics, meta- Jesus Christ and St. Francis," which the Franphysics, theology, and physics. The whole ciscans valued as much as the Turks value the mass of the works genuine and spurious, which Koran, he collected many absurdities, and comhave appeared under his name, was published posed a work which he entitled "The Alcoran by father Jammi, at Lyons, in 1651, in twenty- of the Cordeliers." Luther, of whom this Alone volumes folio. If some things which de- bert was a disciple, honoured the compilation serve to be rescued from oblivion might be with a preface. This singular piece was first found by a diligent search through this immense published in German, without the name of pile of words, few persons will, we fancy, have the place, or printer, in 1531; then in Latin, patience to undertake the task, especially if they at Wittemberg, in 4to. 1542; and since, in respect the judgment of cardinal Fleury, whose French, at Geneva, in 1560; and at Amsterstricture upon the writings of Albert we shall dam, in 12mo. 1734. The author wrote other copy. (Nouv. Dict. Hist.) "I leave it to those works in Latin and German: he died in the who have read this author more carefully, to year 1551. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-E. inform us how he merited the title of The Great. The few following remarks I have made upon his writings: in his three volumes of physics, he always cites Aristotle, and his Arabian commentators. He pays attention to those natural philosophers whom Aristotle combats, whose writings are lost, and whose opinions are forgotten; he always supposes the four elements, and the four qualities of hot, cold, dry, and moist; he frequently lays down, as principles, propositions which are neither selfevident, nor proved elsewhere. In treating of the heavens he discovers little knowledge of astronomy: he supposes the influence of the stars, and speaks of astrology as a true science, without condemning it; he even mixes it with politics in treating on the subject of meteors. He betrays great ignorance of geography, and places Byzantium with Tarentum in Italy. Speaking of minerals, he attributes to precious stones virtues similar to those of the load-stone, relying upon experiments which he had never tried; and he endeavours, afterwards, to assign the causes of these virtues. He often gives absurd etymologies, and attempts to explain Greek names without understanding the language, a ALBERT, KRANTZ, an historian, professor of divinity in Hamburgh, flourished at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He wrote a work entitled "Metropolis," [A History of the Churches established or restored in the Reign of Charlemagne] also, a "History of Saxony;" "A History of the Vandals ;" and " A Chroni cle of the Affairs of the North from the Time of Charlemagne to the Year 1504." He died in the year 1517. He is spoken of by several writers as an historian, who collected facts with diligence and related them with fidelity and freedom. Voss. de Hist. Lat. lib. iii. c. 10.-E. ALBERT of Stade, an historian, was a Benedictine monk, who flourished about the middle of the thirteenth century. He wrote a "Chronicle," comprehending the whole period from the beginning of the world to the year 1256. The work was published by Reineccius, with notes, in 1587. Voss. de Hist. Lat. lib. ii. c. 59.-E. ALBERT, of Strasburg, or ALBERTUS ARGENTINENSIS, who flourished in the fourteenth century, published, in Latin, “An History or Chronicle of Affairs from the Reign of Rodolphus I. in the Year 1270, to the Death of Charles IV. in the Year 1378." The work is faithfully written, and contains many things not to be found elsewhere. It was edited by Ursticius, in a collection of authors who wrote on the affairs of Germany. Voss. de Hist. Lat. lib. iii. c. 3.-E. ALBERTI, JOHN, a learned German lawyer, born at Widmanstadt, flourished in the sixteenth century. He was well skilled in the oriental languages, and wrote "An Abridgement of the Koran," with notes, published at Nuremberg in the year 1543. In 1556 he published, in 4to. at Vienna, at the expense of the emperor Ferdinand I. a New Testament in the Syriac character and language, for the use of the Jacobite sect. In this book, the Second Epistle of Peter, the Second and Third of John, the Epistle of Jude, and the Book of Revelation were omitted. Only a thousand copies of this edition of the New Testament were printed, of which the emperor kept five hundred; the rest were sent into the east. Alberti also wrote a Syriac grammar, with a very curious preface, in which is described the progress of the Oriental languages among the Latins. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-E. ALBERTI, LEANDER, of Bologna, an Ita lian historian, a Dominican, was born in 1479. He is a writer of some celebrity; his works are, in Latin, "A History of illustrious Men of his Order," printed in folio in 1517; in Italian, "A History of Bologna ;" and "A Description of Italy," printed in 1550. This last work abounds with curious information, but mixed with the superstitious tales of Annius of Viterbo: it was translated into Latin by Kiriander. Vossius ae Hist. Lat. lib. iii. c. 2. Moreri. Landi, Hist. Lit. Ital. lib. xii.-E. ALBERTI, LEONI-BAPTISTA, an eminent Italian architect, and universal scholar, was born in 1398 at Florence, where his family was noble. He pursued the general studies of literature with such success, that, when at the university of Bologna, in his twentieth year, he composed a Latin comedy, entitled "Philodoxeos," under the name of Lepidus the comic writer, which passed for antique with the learned Aldus Manutius. Other pieces of his have been collected in a volume, under the title of "Quæstiones Camaldulenses." At Bologna he took At Bologna he took the degree of doctor of laws, and was ordained priest. Applying himself particularly to the arts of design, he made several journeys for the purpose of measuring ancient edifices. At Rome he obtained the confidence of pope Nicholas V. who employed him, together with Bernardo Ro sellini, in several works of architecture. At Mantua, Rimini, and Florence, he planned some considerable buildings, which show a great knowledge of the principles of the art, though he is said to have wanted taste, and to have better understood the theory than the practice. He was also a painter; but his other occupations prevented his leaving any considerable performance in that branch. He was a good mechanic, and invented an instrument to assist the practice of perspective. But it is chiefly as a writer that his memory has been preserved. In 1481 a work of his was printed, "On the Art of Architecture," in ten books, written in good Latin. This was the first of modern works of the kind, and was in high esteem in that age and the next. It was translated into Italian by Bartoli in 1546, and soon afterwards into French. It comprehends almost every branch of the building art. He also wrote, in Latin, a work upon sculpture and painting, in three books, which was translated by Domenichi. translated by Domenichi. Alberti lived to an advanced age, and is thought to have died about 1480, but Tiraboschi places his death, at Rome, in 1472. Angelo Poliziano pronounced his funeral 'oration, and he was celebrated by the contemporary Italian poets. Vies des Fameux Architectes par M. d'Argenville. Tirabofchi. -A. ALBERTI, DOMENICO, a Venetian gentleman celebrated for musical talents, in the eighteenth century, was the disciple of Biffi and Lotti. He accompanied the ambassador of his country to Spain in quality of page or secretary, and was even then distinguished for extraordinary vocal powers. He afterwards went to Rome, where he cultivated singing, and playing upon the harpsichord. On this instrument he invented a new and expressive style of playing, which was long imitated and admired, with a continual division bass, and a treble part, in. which the melody is still truly vocal. His lessons were justly admired for their elegance and facility, when Handel and Scarlatti were unrivalled for learning and original genius. In 1737 he set to music Metastasio's "Endimione,' and some time after, his "Galatea." The vocal compositions of Alberti are regarded by Dr. Burney as the most exquisite of the time in which they were produced. Burney, Hist. Mus. iv. and his private information.-A. ALBERTINUS, MUSSATUS, an Italian historian and poet, a native of Padua, flourished in the ninth century. He wrote concerning the reign of the emperor Henry VII; twelve books on the Affairs of Italy after Henry VII. and a third part, on the history of Lewis of Bavaria., He is a judicious, à faithful, and, for the time in which he lived, an elegant historian. He also wrote a tragedy founded on the tyranny of Acciolini, which, with several other poetical productions, procured him distinguished honours in the university of Padua. Petrarch mentions him with respect, as a most industrious and accurate inquirer into facts. He died in the year 829. Voss. de Hist. Lat. lib. ii. c. 64. E. ALBINUS, BERNARD, properly called Weiss [White], was born, in 1653, at Dessau, where his father was burgomaster. He studied physic with great reputation at Leyden, where he graduated; and after spending some time in his travels, he returned to Germany, and was made professor of medicine at Frankfort on the Oder in 1680. Some time afterwards Frederic-William, elector of Brandenburg, invited him to his court, and made him his physician. After the death of that prince, in 1688, Albinus resumed his office at Frankfort. He received an invitation from the university of Groningen, but the elector Frederic, in order to keep him in his dominions, augmented his salary, and in 1697 called him to Berlin in quality of his physician. He also gave him a canonry of Magdeburg, which office Albinus, with his permission, sold to another. At length he accepted, with the elector's consent, of an invitation to the medical chair in Leyden, which he filled with great distinc tion from 1702 to the time of his death in 1721. He wrote various treatises on different subjects, practical and physiological, but they are at present little known, except to collectors. Two of his sons were medical professors. Moreri.-A. ALBINUS, BERNARD SIEGFRIED, son of the former, one of the most celebrated anatomists of his time, at the age of twenty had raised such a promise of himself, that by the interest of Boerhaave he was elected to the anatomical professorship at Leyden, which office he held for fifty years, with no avocation to divert him from his favourite studies. He was a most laborious dissector, skilful in the art of injection and making preparations, and assiduous in obtaining the aid of the best painters; so that he surpassed all other anatomists in the description of the bones and muscles, and added a great number of observations to anatomical science in general. His inaugural oration, on the subject of comparative anatomy, was printed in 1719; and thenceforward he continued, at no long intervals, to publish the works which have made his name so well known among anatomists. His first work, on the muscles, entitled "Historia Musculorum Hominis," 4to. appeared in 1734. In composing this he had taken vast pains at leisure hours to measure and describe all the insertions of the muscles in the bones, and to mark them in with aqua fortis, which he afterwards caused to be drawn by an excellent artist. In 1737 he gave some coloured plates of the arteries and veins of the intestines, and some inimitably elegant figures of the bones of the foetus. An anatomical explanation of Eustachius's plates, with a new edition of the plates themselves, in folio, came from his hand in 1743, afterwards republished with improvements in 1761. His own large tables of the skeleton and muscles, a work of extraordinary beauty, appeared in 1747; and about the same time, seven tables of the gravid uterus. His great tables of the bones came out in 1753, and again, in an improved state, in 1762. These are admirable performances. Eight volumes 4to. of "Anatomical Annotations," replete with curious matter, appeared successively from 1754 to 1768. Too much of these are occupied with angry controversy against rivals and antagonists, especially the illustrious Haller, once his domestic pupil, who had the misfortune to offend him respecting a claim to a discovery belonging to Wachendorf. Albinus died in 1771. Haller's Biblioth. Anat.—A. ALBINUS, DECIMUS CLODIUS, was born at Adrumetum in Africa. His father was Ceionius Posthumus, a man of small fortune, but of an illustrious descent. His own name of Albinus was given him in consequence of his uncommon fairness of complexion when an infant. He was liberally educated; and proceeded so far in letters, as to be the author of a work on agriculture, and a collection of Milesian tales; but his decided taste was to a military life; and he was used to repeat with rapture that verse in the Eneid, book ii. Arma amens capio, nec sat rationis in armis: He entered into this career under the Antonines, whose esteem he acquired; and he commanded the troops of Bithynia at the time of the revolt of Avidius Cassius against Marcus Aurelius. His fidelity on this occasion was of great use to the emperor, and he is said to have been rewarded by the consulship, though his name does not appear about that period in the Fasti. In the reign of Commodus he gained advantages over the barbarians on the Rhine and Danube ; and was at length appointed to the supreme command in Britain. Here, according to Capitolinus, he had permission granted him by an express letter from the emperor, to assume the title of Cæsar, which, however, he declined: but the relation is discredited by the best judges. On the accession of Severus, while that artful prince was preparing to resist his competitor Niger, he soothed the ambition of Albinus by creating him Cæsar, lavishing honours and flatteries on him, and giving him the expectation of participating in the imperial sway. Albinus, who was of an unsuspecting temper, was deluded by this false show of friendship, and gave Severus full opportunity to destroy his rival. He was consul together with the emperor in 194. After the death of Niger, however, Severus began to consider how he could rid himself of one who was too great for a subject, and whose character for mildness, contrasted with his own cruel disposition, induced the senate to wish for him as a master rather than himself. Severus is directly charged by Herodian and Capitolinus with sending assassins to murder Albinus, who were detected before they could execute their purpose. However this were, it is certain that Severus gave the first cause of offence by depriving Albinus of the title and prerogatives of Cæsar. This opened his eyes: he assumed the rank of Augustus; engaged Gaul and Spain in his interests; and declared his intention of contending for the empire. Severus, in return, proclaimed him a public enemy; and the two rivals advanced towards each other, at the head of their respective forces. They met in the plain between Lyons and Trevoux with nearly equal armies, each consisting of about one hundred and fifty thousand men. The battle which ensued was long disputed with great bloodshed; at length Severus was victorious, and Albinus fled with the relics of his army, first to Lyons, then to a house on the banks of the Rhone. Here, seeing all lost, he fell on his sword, and was yet breathing, when a party of the enemy arrived, and cutting off his head, carried it to Severus. This event happened on Feb. 19, 197. The character of Albinus has been differently represented. Capitolinus paints him in very dark colours; stern, reserved, unsocial, severe, to cruelty, in discipline, gluttonous and brutal. It is certain, however, that his soldiers were much attached to him, and that the senate highly revered his justice and humanity. He seems to He seems to have been a plain downright soldier, in whom the good qualities preponderated the bad. Univers. Hist. Crevier.-A. ALBINUS, A. POSTHUMIUS, a Roman historian, who, in the year 151 before Christ, was consul with Licinius Lucullus, wrote in Greek a "History of the Affairs of Rome." Con cerning him, Cicero, in his "Brutus," says: “A. Albinus, he who wrote history in Greek, who was consul with L. Lucullus, was a man of learning and eloquence." Aulus Gellius also mentions him as colleague with Lucullus in the consulship, and speaks of his having written a Roman history in the Greek language. He moreover relates, that Albinus entreated pardon for defects and improprieties of expression of a work written in a language so different from that of his own country: upon which, Cato facetiously asked, "Why did you choose rather to entreat pardon for a fault than not to have committed it?" Or, according to Plutarch, in Catone, "You certainly ought to be pardoned if you wrote by the command of the Amphictyons. "Without such a command, Albinus might be entitled to pardon; for the history of Rome would be more extensively read in the Greek than in the Latin language; the former, as Cicero acknowledges, (Orat. pro Archia), being known to almost all nations, while the latter was almost wholly confined to the Roman territory. Voss. de Hist. Græc. lib. i. c. 20.—E. ALBIZI, or BARTHELEMI of Pisa, a Fran ciscan of the fourteenth century, in honour of his order, wrote a singular treatise under the title, "The Conformities of St. Francis with Jesus Christ," the object of which was to raise St. Francis above all the saints, to an equality with Christ. This curious book, which has been much sought after, first appeared in print at Venice without a date; the second and third. editions were published in the Gothic character at Milan in 1510 and 1513. It was printed with omissions at Bologna in 1590; and at Cologne in 1632, with alterations, under the title of "Antiquitates Franciscana." The edition of Maræus at Liege, in 4to, 1658, though it omits some of the extravagances of the original work, contains much matter of amusement. See the article ALBERT ERASMUS. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-E. ALBOIN, king of the Lombards, and conqueror of Italy, was the son of Audoin who reigned in Pannonia. While serving under his father, he slew in battle a son of Turisund, king of the Gepida. It was then the custom that a prince should not be permitted to sit down at table with his father, till he had been solemnly invested with arms by a foreign sovereign. In search of this honour, Alboin ventured to visit the court of Turisund himself, accompanied by forty companions; and there, notwithstanding the feelings of the king towards one who had deprived him of a son, he was honourably treated, and received the military decoration he requested in the bloody arms of the very youth he had killed. On his succession to the crown, he asked in marriage the fair Rosamond, daughter of Cunimund, another son of Turisund; and meeting with a refusal, he endeavoured, at first unsuccessfully, to obtain her by force of arms. Afterwards, joining with the Avars, to whom he offered very advantageous conditions, he utterly destroyed the kingdom of the Gepida, with the slaughter of Cunimund, whose skull he caused to be fashioned into a drinking cup. This happened, A. D. 566. The Avars occupied the country of the dispossessed Gepida, the modern Walachia, Moldavia and Transylvania; and Rosamond fell into the hands of the victorious Alboin, who made her his wife. In the next year his ambitious spirit led him to undertake the conquest of Italy. Besides his own subjects, a number of tribes from Germany and Sarmatia flocked to his standard. The Lombards relinquished their lands to the Avars, on the condition of receiving them again, should the expedition prove unsuccessful. The famous Narses, disgusted by his contemptuous recal from Italy by the Byzantine court, is accused of having invited this storm of war on the Romans. He died before it discharged itself. Alboin crossed the Alps in 568; and, without a single battle, occupied all that fertile part of Italy extending from Trent as far as the gates of Rome and Ravenna. He met with resistance only at Pavia, before which his army lay three years; and when it yielded, he was prevented from fulfilling his vow of massacring all the inhabitants, by a superstitious regard to the omen of his horse's fall as he entered the gates. In this city he fixed his seat of empire, and it remained for some ages the capital of the Lombard kingdom. Alboin did not long enjoy his splendid acquisitions. At a feast which he gave his companions in the palace of Verona, he was led by intoxication and native brutality to send to his queen Rosamond the cup made of her father's skull, filled with wine. She touched the liquor with her lips, but resolved on a bloody vengeance. Having before held a criminal ́correspondence with Helmichis, the king's armourbearer, she engaged him to undertake the murder of his master; but he feared to attack so formidable a warrior without further aid. Peredeus, a youth of great strength and courage, was joined in the deed; and the prostitution of Rosamond herself was the means employed to determine him. Alboin, heavy with wine, had retired to repose, when the queen called in the conspirators. On the first alarm he flew to his sword, but Rosamond had fastened it in the scab bard. He defended himself some time with a stool, but was at length dispatched by the assassins. This was in the year 573. He left an only daughter by Rosamond; but his vacant throne was filled by election. Alboin joined to savage valour and military talents a proficience in the art of government. He is said to have been the inventor of various warlike weapons, long in use after his time. Univers. Hist. Gib bon.-A. ALBON, JAMES D', marquis of Fronsac, known in history by the title of marshal de St. André, was descended from an ancient family in the Lyonnois, and rose to great military eminence in the reigns of Henry II. and Charles IX. of France. The former, who became acquainted with him when dauphin, and was captivated with the engaging qualities of his person and character, made him a marshal of France in 1547, and first gentleman of his bed-chamber. He had before displayed his courage at the siege of Boulogne and the battle of Cerisolles. At the latter, the count d'Enguien, who nominally commanded, jealous of the praises given him on account of his spirited pursuit of the enemy, cried to his officers, "Either call him back, or let me follow." He was chosen to carry the collar of his order to Henry VIII.king of England, who decorated him with that of the garter. In 1552 and 1554 he commanded in Champagne, where he acquired great reputation. At the battle of St. Quintin, however, in 1557, he was made prisoner. He contributed greatly to the peace of Cateau Cambresis. After the death of Henry II. he was chosen one of the triumvirate who governed the kingdom four or five years in spite of Catharine of Medicis. It was intended that his only daughter should marry prince Henry of Guise, but the design was prevented by the assassination of that prince at Blois. The marshal St. André was at the battle of Dreux in 1562, where he was killed by a pis-tol-shot from a person named Aubigny or Bobi gay, whose confiscated estate he possessed. The huguenots, who did not love him, used to call him "The harquebuseer of the west." He had the qualities of a soldier and a courtier; was addicted to pleasure and luxury of all kinds, excelled in politeness and all the amiable talents, and on the day of battle equally signalised his courage and conduct. His daughter and heiress is said to have been poisoned by her own mother for her property. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-A. ALBORNOS, GILES ALVARES CARILLo, cardinal and archbishop of Toledo, was a celebrated statesman of the fourteenth century. He was born at Cuenza, of noble parentage, |