ALBERONI, Giulio, cardinal and statesman, was born near Piacenza, probably at the village of Fiorenzuola, on the 31st May 1664. His father was a gardener, and he himself became first connected with the church in the humble position of verger in the cathedral of Piacenza. Having gained the favour of Bishop Barni, he took priest’s orders, and afterwards accompanied the son of his patron to Rome. During the war of the Spanish succession Alberoni laid the foundation of his political success by the services he rendered to the duke of Vendome, commander of the French forces in Italy; and when these forces were recalled in 1706, he accompanied the duke to Paris, where he was favourably received by Louis XIV. In 1711 he followed Vendome into Spain as his secretary. Two years later, the duke having died in the interval, Alberoni was appointed consular agent for Parma at the court of Philip V. of Spain, being raised at the same time to the dignity of count. On his arrival at Madrid he found the Princess des Ursins all but omnipotent with the king, and for a time he judged it expedient to use her influence in carrying out his plans. In concert with her he arranged the king’s marriage with Elizabeth Farnese of Parma, whom he represented to be of such a facile disposition that the princess’s power over Philip would be in no degree impaired by the union. Alberoni was already in Parma to conclude the negotiation ere the Princess des Ursins discovered that he had entirely deceived her as to the character of Elizabeth. A messenger was at once despatched to prevent, if possible, the ratification of the engagement; but he arrived too late. On reaching Spain Elizabeth’s first act, prompted doubtless by Alberoni, was to demand the instant dismissal of the outwitted favourite, who ...

ALBERT (Albrecht) I., Duke of Austria, aud afterwards King of Germany, born in 1248, was the son of Rudolph of Habsburg, the founder of the imperial Austrian dynasty. Rudolph having acquired the duchy of Austria by conquest, vested it in his son, with consent of the electors, in 1282, and thus founded the dynasty which still reigns. He also endeavoured to secure for Albert the succession to the throne of Germany, but was unsuccessful. On the death of his father in 1291, Albert seized the insignia of sovereignty, and with characteristic presumption declared himself king of Germany, without regard to the decision of the electors. Their choice fell (1292) upon Adolphus of Nassau, and Albert, who was called to suppress a revolt among his subjects in Switzerland, found it necessary to acknowledge the superior claims of his rival. The government of Adolphus having become displeasing to the electors, they formally deposed him in 1298, and named Albert his successor. As, however, the former refused to recognise their verdict, the matter had to be referred to the arbitrament of the sword. The forces of the rival kings met at Gölheim, near Worms, where the army of Adolphus was defeated, and he himself slain by Albert’s own hand. Upon this, Albert, wishing probably to show his moderation, resigned his claim to the throne; but he was re-elected, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 24th August 1298. Pope Boniface VIIL, however, denied the right of the electors, and refused to confirm their choice, alleging that the empire belonged to him alone to hold or bestow at his pleasure. In league with Philip the Fair of France, Albert at first openly resisted the pope; but soon finding it advisable to change his policy, he deserted his ally, admitted the papal jurisdiction, and was ...

ALBERT I., margrave of Brandenburg, surnamed “The Bear,” from the heraldic emblem he assumed, born in 1106, was the son of Otto the Rich, count of Ballenstädt, by his marriage with Eilica, eldest daughter of the duke of Saxony. In 1121 he received from the Emperor Lothario the marquisate of Lusatia, to be held in fief, and he served the empire faithfully in the war with Bohemia in 1126. In the following year, from some unknown motive, the emperor conferred the duchy of Saxony, to which Albert, as son of the eldest daughter of Magnus, had the best claim, upon Henry of Bavaria, son of a younger daughter; and in 1131 Albert was deprived of Lusatia. He still remained, however, loyal to the empire, and received as a reward the margravate of Brandenburg in 1134. In 1136-7 he made incursions into the territory of the Wends, his troublesome neighbours on the north, and succeeded in strengthening his position. In 1138 the Emperor Conrad III. conferred upon him the duchy of Saxony; but finding himself unable to maintain his rights against Henry the Lion, he betook himself in 1142 to the emperor, who restored Saxony to his rival, and allotted Swabia to him in compensation. A few years later Albert again attacked the Wends, and secured by conquest large accessions of territory, which he held as a fief of the empire. On the extinction of the house of Staden in 1150, Albert was raised to the dignity of an elector. A third expedition against the Wends, undertaken in 1157, ended in their almost total extinction, and Albert caused the depopulated territory to be colonised by industrious agriculturists from the Rhine and the Netherlands, who greatly improved the face of the country. In 1158 Albert went on a crusade to the Holy Land, in company with his wife, returning the following ...

ALBERT NYANZA, a large lake in East Central Africa, extending from 2° 45' N. lat. at least as far as 2° S. Its surface is 2720 feet above the level of the sea: on its western coast are the Blue Mountains, rising 7000 feet higher; and on the east a ridge of steep cliffs, with elevations varying from 1500 to 5000 feet. The White Nile, flowing in a north-westerly direction from Lake Victoria Nyanza, enters Lake Albert Nyanza about 2° 15' N. lat., and issues from it near its northern extremity. Messrs Speke and Grant were informed of the existence of this lake by the natives, but Sir Samuel (then Mr) Baker and his wife were the first Europeans who explored it in 1864. (See Africa and Nile, and also Sir S. W. Baker’s The Albert Nyanza, the Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources, 2 vols., London, 1866).

ALBERTI, Leon Battista, distinguished as a painter, poet, philosopher, musician, and especially as an architect, was descended from the noble family of the Alberti of Florence. The place and date of his birth are variously given, but it is most probable that he was born at Venice about the year 1404. He was so skilled in Latin verse that a comedy he wrote in his twentieth year, entitled Philodoxius, deceived the younger Aldus, who edited and published it as the genuine work of Lepidus. In music he was reputed one of the first organists of the age. He held the appointment of canon in the metropolitan church of Florence, and thus had leisure to devote himself to his favourite art. He is generally regarded as one of the restorers of the ancient style of architecture, and has been called by some writers the Florentine Vitruvius. At Rome he was employed by Pope Nicholas V. in the restoration of the papal palace and of the fountain of Acqua Vergine, and in the ornamentation of the fountain of the Piazza de Trevi. At Rimini he designed the celebrated church of San Francesco, which is generally esteemed his finest work. On a commission from Rucellai, he designed the principal facade of the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, as well as the family palace in the Via della Scala, now known as the Palazzo Strozzi. In Mantua he was employed by the Marchese Ludovico Gonzaga to design several buildings, the most important being the church of Sant’ Andrea. Alberti wrote works on sculpture, Della Statua, and on painting, De Pictura, which are highly esteemed; but his most celebrated treatise is that on architecture, De Be Aedificatoria, which has been translated into Italian, French, Spanish, and English. A splendid edition of this work in English and Italian, by Leoni, was ...

ALBERTRANDY, Jan Chrzciciel, or John Christian, historian, was born at Warsaw in 1731, his father being an Italian. Educated in the public school of the Jesuits, he joined their order in his fifteenth year, and gave such proof of his ability that, at the early age of nineteen, he was appointed professor at the college of Pultusk. After having successively filled similar positions in Plock, Nieswiez, and Wilna, he became, in 1766, librarian to Bishop Zaluski, who designed to make his extensive collection of books available to the public. A detailed catalogue of the 200,000 volumes which it contained was accordingly prepared by Albertrandy. In 1764 he was chosen by the primate Lubienski tutor to his grandson, Count Felix Lubienski, afterwards minister of justice. In this capacity he visited Italy in 1770 with his pupil, residing first at Siena and then at Rome. The preference Lubienski showed for numismatics induced Albertrandy to devote himself while in Italy to the special study of that science, and he was soon recognised as an authority on the subject. When he returned to his native country, King Stanislaus Augustus appointed him, at the request of Lubienski, keeper of his medals, and afterwards his reader and librarian. The representations he made to the king as to the extent and value of the materials for Polish history that were scattered throughout the libraries of Rome, induced Stanislaus to send him on a second visit to Italy, in order that he might collect these materials. He arrived at Rome in 1782, and devoted three years to the task. The Excerpta, all written with his own hand, filled 110 volumes of manuscript. To complete the collection, he subsequently visited Sweden, where the difficulty of the work was greatly increased by his being forbidden to copy any ...

ALBERTUS MAGNUS, a celebrated scholastic philosopher, was born of the noble family Von Bollstädt at Lauingen in Suabia. The date of his birth is most probably 1193. He was educated principally at Padua, where he received particular instruction in Aristotle’s writings. In 1223 he became a member of the Dominican order, and studied theology under its rules at Bologna and elsewhere. Selected to fill the position of lecturer at Cologne, where the order had a house, he taught for several years there, at Regensburg, Freiburg, Strasburg, and Hildesheim. In 1245 he repaired to Paris and received his doctorate, teaching for some time, in accordance with the regulations, and with great success. In 1254 he was made provincial of his order, and fulfilled the arduous duties of the office with great care and effectiveness. During the time he held this office he publicly defended the Dominicans against the university of Paris, commented on St John, and answered the errors of the Arabian philosopher, Averroes. In 1259 the pope made him bishop of Regensburg, which office he resigned after three years. The remainder of his life he spent partly in preaching throughout Bavaria and the adjoining districts, partly in retirement in the various houses of his order; almost the last of his labours was the defence of the orthodoxy of his former pupil, Thomas Aquinas. He died in 1280, aged 87. Albert’s works, published in twenty-one folios by the Dominican Peter Jammy in 1651, sufficiently attest his great activity. He was the most widely read and most learned man of his time. The whole of Aristotle’s works, presented in the Latin translations and notes of the Arabian commentators, were by him digested, interpreted, and systematised in accordance with church doctrine. Albert’s activity, ...