ALES, or Aless (Alesius), Alexander, a celebrated divine of the school of Augsburg, was born at Edinburgh on the 23d April 1500 (died 1565). His name was originally Alane, and that by which he is more generally known (derived from α λ εε ί vω ) was assumed by him when he went into exile. He studied at St Andrews in the newly-founded college of St Leonards, where he graduated in 1515. Some time afterwards he was appointed a canon of the collegiate church, and in this office he at first contended vigorously for the scholastic theology as against the doctrines of the Reformers. His views were entirely changed, however, on the occasion of the execution of Patrick Hamilton in 1528. He had been chosen to meet Hamilton in controversy, with a view to convincing him of his errors, but the arguments of the Scottish proto-martyr, and above all the spectacle of his intrepid conduct at the stake, impressed Alesius so powerfully that he was entirely won over to the cause of the Reformers, though for a time he did not make the fact known. A sermon which he preached against the dissoluteness of the clergy gave great offence to Prior Hepburn, who cast him into prison, and might have carried his resentment to the extremest limit had not Alesius contrived to escape to the Continent in 1531. After travelling in various countries of northern Europe, he settled down at Wittenberg, where he made the acquaintance of Melancthon, and signed the Augsburg confession. Meanwhile he was tried in Scotland for heresy, and condemned without a hearing. In 1533 a decree of the Scottish clergy, prohibiting the reading of the New Testament by the laity, drew from Alesius an ably-argued defence of the right of the people, in the form of a letter to James V. A reply to this by John Coch-laeus, also ...

ALESSANDRI, Alessandro(Alexander ab Alexandro), a learned jurisconsult, born at Naples about the year 1461 (died 1523). He studied at Naples and Rome, and afterwards practised for a time as advocate in both cities. At Naples he is said to have been royal proto-notary in 1490. Dissatisfied, according to his own account, with the corrupt administration of justice, he at length quitted the bar, and devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits, especially to the study of philology and antiquities. A sinecure appointment, which he owed to the favour of the pope, enabled him to lead a life of learned leisure at Rome, where he died on the 2d October 1523. What is known of his biography has been gathered chiefly from detached statements in his work entitled Dies Geniales, which appeared at Rome in 1522, and is constructed after the model of the Noctes Atticoe of Aulus Gellius, and the Saturnalia of Macrobius. The work consists of a confused mass of heterogeneous materials relating to philology, antiquities, law, dreams, spectres, &c., and shows great credulity and want of judgment on the part of its author.

ALESSANDRIA, a province of Italy, in the former duchy of Piedmont, bounded on the N. by Novara, on the E. by Pavia, on the S. by Genoa, and on the W. by Turin; with an area of 1951 square miles. There are no hills of much elevation in the province, and the surface generally is flat. The chief rivers are the Po, the Tanaro, the Belbo, the Orba, and the Bormida. The soil is fertile, the chief products being wheat, maize, wine, silk, madder, hemp, flax, and fruit. The capital is Alessandria; population of the province in 1871, 683,361....

ALESSI, Galeazzo (1500-72), a distinguished architect, born at Perugia, was a pupil of Caporali and a friend of Michael Angelo. He was an enthusiastic student of ancient architecture, and his style gained for him a European reputation. Genoa is indebted to him for a number of its most magnificent palaces, and specimens of his skill may be seen in the churches of San-Paolo and San-Vittoria at Milan, in certain parts of the Escurial, and in numerous churches and palaces throughout Sicily, Flanders, and Germany.