ALGARDI, Alessandro, one of the most celebrated sculptors of Italy, was born at Bologna in 1602, and died in 1654. While he was attending the school of the Caracci his preference for the plastic art became evident, and he placed himself under the instruction of the sculptor Conventi. At the age of twenty he was brought under the notice of Duke Ferdinand of Mantua, who gave him several commissions. He was also much employed about the same period by jewellers and others in modelling in gold, silver, and ivory. After a short residence in Venice, he went to Rome in 1625 with an introduction from the Duke of Mantua to the pope’s nephew, Cardinal Ludovisi, who employed him for a time in the restoration of ancient statues. The death of the Duke of Mantua left him to his own resources, and for several years he earned a precarious maintenance from these restorations and the commissions of goldsmiths and jewellers. In 1640 he executed for Pietro Buoncompagni his first work in marble, a colossal statue of San Filippo Neri, with kneeling angels. Immediately after, he produced a similar group, representing the execution of St Paul, for the church of the Barnabite Fathers in Bologna. These works, displaying great technical skill, though with considerable exaggeration of expression and attitude, at once established Algardi’s reputation, and other commissions followed in rapid succession. The turning-point in Algardi’s fortune was the accession of Innocent X., of the Bolognese house of Panfili, to the papal throne in 1644. He was employed by Camillo Panfili, nephew of the pontiff, to design the Villa Doria Panfili outside the San Pancrazio gate. The most important of Algardi’s other works were the monument of Leo XI., a bronze statue of Innocent X. for the Capitol, and, above ...

ALGAROTTI, Francesco, Count, was born at Venice on the 11th December 1712. He went abroad in his youth, and in 1733 visited Paris, where he issued his Newtonian Philosophy for the Ladies, in the work entitled The Plurality of Worlds. He was much honoured by Frederick the Great, who, when crowned at Königsberg in 1740, created him a count of Prussia. He died at Pisa on the 23d of May 1764, and, by his own direction, the following inscription was placed upon his tomb :— Hic jacet Algarottus, sed non omnis. He is allowed to have been a great connoisseur in painting, sculpture, and architecture; arid he contributed much to the reformation of the Italian opera. His works (6 vols., Leghorn, 1764; 17 vols., Venice, 1791-4) are numerous, and on a variety of subjects, abounding with vivacity, elegance, and wit.

ALGARVE, the most southerly province of Portugal, is bounded on the E. by the Spanish province of Seville, from which it is separated by the river Guadiana; on the N. by Alemtejo; and on the W. and S. by the Atlantic Ocean. Its length from east to west is 85 miles, the average width is 22 miles, and the area, according to the most recent measurement, 1865 square miles. In 1868 the population was 177,342, giving the small proportion of 95 to the square mile....

ALGAU, or Allgau, the name now given to a comparatively small district forming the south-western corner of Bavaria, and belonging to the province of Swabia and Neuburg, but formerly applied to a much larger territory, which extended as far as the Danube on the north, the Inn on the south, and the Lech on the west. The Algau Alps contain several lofty peaks, the highest of which is Mädele-Gabel, 8611 feet above the sea. The district is celebrated for the cattle, milk, butter, and cheese that it produces.