ALB, or Albe, a vestment of white linen, hanging down to the feet, worn by priests at all the more solemn services of the church. It corresponds to the surplice of the English clergy, the difference being that the alb is closer in the sleeves, and bound at the waist by a girdle. In the ancient church it was customary for the neophytes who were baptized on Easter-day to wear an alb for the eight days following, and hence the Sunday after Easter was called Dominica in Albis.

ALBA, the ancient Alba Pompeia, a town of Italy, in the province of Cuneo, situated on the Tanaro, 30 miles S.E. of Turin. It is the seat of a bishop, and contains a cathedral, founded in 1486, as well as other churches and religious establishments. It has a large trade in cattle, and the surrounding district is very fertile, producing silk, wine, oil, grain, and fruits, and also marble and rock-salt. Population of the commune (1865), 9687.

ALBA LONGA, the most ancient town in Latium, was situated 15 miles S.E. from Rome, on a ridge between the mountain and the lake that were both called from it Albanus. It derived its name probably from its elevated or Alpine situation, the story of the white sow discovered by Aeneas on landing (Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 390- 392) being of course mythical. Little beyond the bare fact of its existence for a considerable period as the foremost town in Latium can be accepted as strictly historical. According to the legendary accounts, it was founded by Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, 300, or, as a later version has it, 360 years before the foundation of Rome. Fourteen kings, whose names are all preserved, are said to have reigned over it in succession. The names, however, are evidently an invention, having probably this substratum of historic truth, that the ruling family belonged to the Silvian gens. The city was destroyed by the Romans under Tullus Hostilius, and its inhabitants removed to Rome. Several of the patrician families, such as the Julii, Curiatii, Servilii, Tullii, Quintii, ascribed their origin to these immigrants from Alba.

ALBACETE, one of the new provinces of Spain, was formed in 1833 out of districts taken from Murcia and New Castile. It is bounded on the N. by Cuença, on the E. by Valencia and Alicant, on the S. by Murcia, and on the W. by Ciudad Real and Jaen. The area is 5971 square miles. The province is generally hilly, some of the peaks of the sierras rising to a height of 5000 feet; but it contains rich plains and many fertile valleys. The principal rivers are the Mundo in the southern and the Jucar in the northern part of the province; and there are numerous smaller streams. Some parts of the country have a bare appearance, being destitute of wood, but the neighbourhood of Alcarez is covered with fruit trees, and presents the aspect of a garden. Agriculture is in a tolerably prosperous state, more advanced than in the centre of Castile, but less so than in the rich districts of Murcia and Valencia. Cereals, pulse, and fruits of all kinds are produced, as well as wine of fair quality, and excellent honey. Saffron also is produced in large quantities, and some attention is given to the keeping of silk-worms. Many of the inhabitants devote themselves to the rearing of cattle, sheep, and goats. The bulls of Albacete are in request for bull-fights; there is a good breed of mules, and the horses of the province have long mounted the Spanish cavalry. Manufactures are confined to the spinning of hemp, and the making of coarse cloths, porcelain, earthenware, and cutlery. There are several distilleries, and a considerable trade in wood. The district is rich in minerals, including silver, iron, copper, zinc, sulphur, gypsum, and coal; but, excepting stones and marble for building purposes, they are little wrought. In addition to agricultural produce, small quantities of zinc, iron, and ...

ALBAN, St, usually styled the protomartyr of Britain, was born at Verulamium, and flourished towards the end of the third century. In his youth he took a journey to Rome in company with Amphibalus, a monk of Caerleon, and served seven years as a soldier under the Emperor Diocletian. On his return home he settled at Verulamium, and, influenced by the example and instructions of Amphibalus, renounced the errors of paganism, in which he had been educated, and became a convert to the Christian religion. It is generally agreed that Alban suffered martyrdom during the great persecution in the reign of Diocletian; but authors differ as to the precise date. Bede, who gives a full account of the event, fixes it in 286; some refer it to the year 296; while Usher reckons it amongst the events of 303. Between 400 and 500 years after St Alban’s death, Offa, king of the Mercians, built a large and stately monastery near Verulamium to his memory, and around it the present town of St Albans was gradually erected.

ALBANI, or Albano, Francesco (1578-1660), a celebrated Italian painter, was born at Bologna. His father was a silk merchant, and intended to bring up his son to the same occupation; but Albani was already, at the age of twelve, filled with so strong an inclination for painting, that on the death of his father he devoted himself entirely to art. His first master was Denis Calvart, with whom Guido Reni was at the same time a pupil. He was soon left by Calvart entirely to the care of Guido, and contracted with him a close friendship. He followed Guido to the school of the Caracci; but after this, owing to mutual rivalry, their friendship began gradually to cool. They kept up for a long time a keen competition, and their mutual emulation called forth some of their best productions. Notwithstanding this rivalry, they still spoke of each other with the highest esteem. Albani, after having greatly improved himself in the school of the Caracci, went to Rome, where he opened an academy and resided for many years. Here he painted, after the designs of Annibal Caracci, the whole of the frescoes in the chapel of St Diego in the church of San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli. His best frescoes are those on mythological subjects, of which there is a large number in the Verospi Palace, now Torlonia. On the death of his wife he returned to Bologna, where he married a second time, and resided till his death in the enjoyment of much domestic happiness and general esteem. His wife and children were very beautiful, and served him for models. But while thus studying from nature, his love of artificial refinement and conventional expression was so great, that even his best works are deficient in breadth and vigour, as well as in unaffected grace and natural feeling. The learning displayed in the ...

ALBANIA, a country of considerable extent, which though frequently ruled by turbulent and nearly independent chiefs, ranks as one of the provinces of the Turkish empire. The tract of land to which this name is now applied extends from 39° to 43° N. lat., and from 18° 24' to 21° 48' E. long.; from the Gulf of Cattaro in the north to the Gulf of Arta in the south, and from the coast of the Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea on the west to an irregular ill-defined line inland towards the east, roughly indicated in its northern part by the Tchar Dagh, the ancient Scardus, a part of the Haemus or Balkan range, and southwards by the Pindus chain, or rather the portions of it now called the mountains of Sagori, Metzovo, and Suh. Within these limits is included the ancient Epirus, corresponding to the southern part of the country now comprehended under the general name of Albania, and divided from Albania, properly so called, by the river Voyutza or Viosa, which enters the Adriatic a few miles north of Avlona. Albania, therefore, is bounded on the N. by Dalmatia, Montenegro (from which it is separated by the river Moroka), and Bosnia; on the E. by Servia and the Turkish province of Rum-ih, in which Macedonia, or the greater part of it, is included; and on the S. by Hellas or Northern Greece, which was the Turkish province of Livadia before Greece regained its independence, and from which it is separated by the river Garla or Suli. The superficial area of Albania is estimated at about 18,944 square miles, and it has a coast-line of about 280 miles from north to south, without reckoning indentations, &c. It nowhere extends more than 100 miles from the sea, and in the southern part not more than 30 miles....

ALBANO, a town and lake in the Campagna di Roma, Italy, about 14 miles S.E. of Rome. The town is much admired for the picturesque scenery around it. It is well built, and the Roman aqueduct and other monuments of antiquity are in tolerable preservation. It contains a cathedral, and there are many handsome villas of the Roman nobles in the vicinity. Population, 6400. The lake of Albano, lying to the N.E. of the town, occupies the crater of an extinct volcano, and is of a beautiful oval form, surrounded with high wooded banks, and about 7 miles in circumference. It has long been an object of attraction to the painter and the traveller. In the fourth century of ancient Rome, during the siege of Veii, there was an extraordinary rise of the waters of this lake, and the oracle declared that there was no hope of success against Veii while the Alban lake was allowed thus to swell. This prompted the Romans to drain it by a tunnel cut through the rock, a mile and a half in length, 4 feet wide, and 6 high, which is still perfect. This outlet keeps the surface of the lake at the height of 920 feet above the level of the sea. Monte Cavo, the ancient Albanus, rises on the eastern side of the lake to a height of 3000 feet, and commands a magnificent prospect. On its summit stood the famous temple of Jupiter Latialis.

ALBANY, a city of the United States, capital of the state of New York and of the county of Albany, picturesquely situated in a beautiful and fertile country on the western bank of the Hudson, 145 miles from New York. It is, for an American city, irregularly laid out, and much of its architecture is poor, although it contains several very fine buildings, and many of its more recently made streets are broad and handsome. The Capitol, a brown stone edifice, 115 feet by 90, built in 1807, faces a square called Capitol Park; and opposite it, on the eastern side of the square, are the State Hall and City Hall, both constructed of white marble. There are several beautiful churches, including a large Roman Catholic cathedral. Among the literary and scientific institutions of Albany may be mentioned the university, incorporated in 1852, giving instruction in most branches of education, especially practical science and law; a medical college; an academy, and other schools of various grades; a large observatory; the state library, with about 90,000 volumes; and the Albany Institute for the collection and diffusion of scientific information. Albany is an important centre of trade, being situated at the point where the united Erie and Champlain canals join the Hudson, and possessing good railway communication with most cities of the United States. The chief articles of commerce are timber, wheat, barley, wool, and tobacco, enormous quantities of which, especially of the first-mentioned, pass through the city annually. Besides its transit trade, its numerous foundries, its breweries, carriage and hat manufactories, and tanneries are of importance. In 1873, 536 vessels (83 sailing and 352 unrigged vessels and 101 steamers), of 68,682 tons, belonged to the port. Albany was founded by ...

ALBATEGNI, an Arabian astronomer, whose proper name is Mohammed Ibn Jábir Ibn Senán Abú Abdillah, derived this appellation from Batan in Mesopotamia, his native town, of which he is said to have been chief. His astronomical observations extended from 877 a.d. to his death in 929, and were principally conducted at Rakkah or Aracta, on the Euphrates, and at Antioch in Syria. His principal work, Zidje Sabi, the original MS. of which is in the Vatican, was published in a Latin translation by Plato Tiburtinus at Nuremberg in 1537, under the title De Scientia Stellarum, and reprinted at Bologna in 1645. Among the unpublished works of Albategni are commentaries on the Almagest and Makalat of Ptolemy, and a Treatise on Astronomy and Geography. Instead of the tables of Ptolemy, which were imperfect, he computed new ones; these were adapted to the meridian of Rakkah, and were long used as the best among the Arabs. Albategni gives the motion of the sun’s apogee since Ptolemy’s time, as well as the motion of the stars, which he estimated at 1° in 70 years. He makes the obliquity of the ecliptic 23° 35'. His determination of the length of the tropical year is more exact than that of Ptolemy, being only 2m. 26s. short. Upon his observations were founded the Al-phonsine tables of the moon’s motion. He first substituted sines for chords, and also introduced into trigonometry the use of tangents and versed sines. On account of his discoveries, the chief of which is the motion of the sun’s apogee, he has been called the Arabian Ptolemy, and has been placed by some at the head of Arabian astronomers.

ALBATROSS, a genus of aquatic birds {Diomedea), closely allied to the Petrels and Gulls, belonging to the family of Longipennatoe, or long-winged birds, in the order Natatores. In the name Diomedea, assigned to them by Linnaeus, there is a reference to the mythical metamorphosis of the companions of the Greek warrior Diomedes into birds. They have the beak large, strong, and sharp-edged, the upper mandible terminating in a large hook; the wings are narrow and very long; the feet have no hind toe, and the three anterior toes are completely webbed. Of the three species that the genus includes the best known is the Common or Wandering Albatross {D. exulans), which occurs in all parts of the Southern Ocean, and in the seas that wash the coast of Asia to the south of Behring Strait. It is the largest and strongest of all sea-birds. The length of the body is stated at 4 feet, and the weight at from 15 to 25 lb. It sometimes measures as much as 17 feet between the tips of the extended wings, averaging probably from 10 to 12 feet. Its strength of wing is very great. It often accompanies a ship for days—not merely following it, but wheeling in wide circles round it—without ever being observed to alight on the water, and continues its flight, apparently untired, in tempestuous as well as in moderate weather. It has even been said to sleep on the wing, and Moore alludes to this fanciful “cloud-rocked slumbering” in his Fire Worshippers. It feeds on small fish and on the animal refuse that floats on the sea, eating to such excess at times that it is unable to fly, and rests helplessly on the water. The colour of the bird is a dusky white, the back being streaked transversely with black or brown bands, and the wings darker than the rest of the body. The flesh, though hard, ...

ALBAY, a town of Luzon, the chief of the Philippine Islands, in 13° 22' N. lat. and 123° 52' E. long. It is the capital of the fertile province of the same name, and the residence of the governor, and has an active trade. Close to the town is an active volcano by which it has been frequently devastated. Population, 13,115.