He was raised to the purple by Pius V. in 1570. He is the author of several works on canonical jurisprudence.
Albani, Alessandro, Cardinal, was born at Urbino on the 15th of October, 1692, and died on the 11th December, 1779. Himself thoroughly versed in classical learning, he was a patron of literature and art. Winckelmann has described in his "History of Art," many of the ancient remains with which he adorned his country house, the Villa Albani, which, however, was despoiled by the French of numbers of its most beautiful antiques.
Albani, Annibale, Cardinal-camerlingo of the church of Rome, born 1682; died 1750. He wrote "Historical Memoirs of the City of Urbino," and other works.
Albani, Giovanni-Francesco, Cardinal, brother of Annibale; born in 1720, died in 1809. While yet a mere youth, he was made bishop of Ostium and Velletri, and was only twenty-seven when he attained the purple. Gifted with a handsome person, he was courted for his wit and learning, and passed the early part of his life chiefly in pleasure. He owed his influence in political and ecclesiastical affairs to the jesuits, on whom his family had conferred favours. During the wars of the French Revolution, he was at first a decided opponent of its principles, and a warm partisan of Austria. The French invasion compelled him to flee from Rome, and subsequently from Naples. He then took refuge in Venice, where he aided in procuring the election of Pope Pius VII. Not long after, when the new pope took the side of France, Albani returned to Rome, where he died as president of the Sacred College.
Albani, Giuseppe, Cardinal, nephew of the preceding; born at Rome in 1750; died on the 3rd December, 1834. He became a member of the Sacred College in 1801. Like the rest of his family, he attached himself to the Austrian interest, and in 1796 was sent to Vienna in behalf of the Papal See. Here the French occupation of Rome forced him to remain for a long time, and meanwhile his property was confiscated. He did not return till 1814. Under Pius VIII., Joseph Albani became secretary of state, and Gregory XVI. made him apostolic commissary for establishing order in the Four Legations. He is accused of violence and cruelty in discharging this office. He died at Pesaro, at the age of 84.—A. M.
ALBANI, Francesco, commonly called L'Albano, was born in 1578 at Bologna, where he died in 1660. He justly deserved to be called the Anacreon of art, and the painter of Graces and Cupids. His skill in treating idyllic subjects, combining figures and landscapes, stands as yet unparalleled. His having been a pupil of Denis Calvart, the Flemish painter, and then of Annibale Caracci, coupled with his long connection with Guido Reni, and Domenichino, and the subsequent rivality with the first of these artists, resulted in giving to his style a peculiar cast, rich with the individualities of the others, and enhanced by his own geniality, which produced the most charming harmony. Numerous are the works of this great master that now embellish the galleries of the world, the product of an active and successful life, embittered only by the excessive spirit of emulation which deprived him of many early friends, surrounding him with the most stinging troubles during the last years of his life. Many good artists sprang from his school, amongst whom Sacchi and Cignani stand foremost. L'Albano recorded his views upon art in some writings on the principles of painting.—R. M.
ALBANS, John of Saint, known also as Johannes Ægidius, an English theologian and physician, flourished in the beginning of the thirteenth century. He studied at Oxford, became principal physician to Philip II. of France, and taught at the schools of Paris and Montpelier.
ALBANS, Saint, Duchess of, Harriet Mellon, originally an actress, was married to the wealthy banker, Coutts, and on his death, to William, the ninth duke of St. Albans. Died in 1837.
ALBA´NUS MO´NACHUS, a Benedictine of Saint Albans monastery, author of a book called "Versus Vaticinales," and of a book of "Prophetiæ." He laid claim to the gift of prophecy.
ALBANY, Louisa Maria Caroline, Countess of, a cousin of the last reigning prince of Stolberg-Geldern, was born in 1753, and died in 1824. She married Prince Charles Edward Stuart, from whom she was afterwards separated, and spent the remainder of her life at Florence, in the society of the poet Alfieri.
ALBARELLI or ALBERELLI, Jacopo, an Italian historical painter and sculptor at the beginning of the seventeenth century. He was of the school of the younger Palma, and has left several good works in Venice, his native city.—R. M.
ALBATEGNIUS; Albateni; Mohammed ben Geber ben Senan abu Abdallah al-Batani: probably the greatest of Arabian astronomers; flourished about the year 880 of our era. The signal industry of Sedillot has recently obliged us to correct our estimate of the class of observers of whom Albategnius is the ornament. Injustice has been done them mainly because of the difficulty of reaching their original works; the Arabic MSS. lying untouched in forbidding masses in chests in our public libraries, and known in Europe only through wretched translations. These remarkable men were not mere commentators or slavish copyists. Taking advantage of the writings of Ptolemy, they yet did so critically, and were not disposed to be misled by his imperfections and errors. Even to professed copyists like Abderrahman-Suphi, we are indebted for the most authentic reproduction of the precious catalogue of Ptolemy. The specific services of Al-Batani, who was the Arabian Ptolemy, may be summed up as follows:—First, he approached much nearer than Ptolemy to the determination of the true precession of the equinoxes: Secondly, he also approximated more nearly to the eccentricity of the solar (the terrestrial) orbit: Thirdly, he determined the length of the solar year to within two and a half minutes of its real length; and, as Halley remarks, he committed this error through too great reliance on some of the dicta of Ptolemy: Fourthly, he discovered the motions of the sun's apogee, the position of which was previously considered fixed,—disentangling it from the motion of precession: Fifthly, he established errors or incompetency in the theory of Ptolemy, as applied to the moon and planets;—these errors he could not wholly correct, but he advanced theory a great step by surmising that these bodies also have a motion in apogee: Sixthly, he constructed new stellar tables, which, because of their greater accuracy, supplanted those of Ptolemy, and long continued the standard tables of the East. The labours of this astronomer are exposed in his treatise "De scientia stellarum." The native city of Albategnius was Batan in Mesopotamia, whence his surname. He was commandant of the caliphs in Syria: he observed at Antioch, the seat of his government, and at Aracta (Ractia) in Mesopotamia. It is singular that Albategnius was not a Mahommedan, but a Sabean,—a worshipper of the stars: singular that he enjoyed credit with caliphs, as a Sabean is held in abhorrence by every true Mussulman. Albategnius died in the year 928.—J. P. N.
ALBEDYHLL, Gustavus, Baron of, was a Swedish diplomatist. He has written a "Collection of Memoirs relative to the affairs of Europe, and particularly those of the North, during the latter part of the 18th century." (Stockholm, 1798-1811, 2 vols. 8vo.) He died on 11th August, 1819. His wife wrote a poem called "Gefion," in four cantos (Upsal, 1814), which has enjoyed some reputation.—A. M.
ALBELADORY, Aboul-Abbas-Ahmed, was an Arabian historian, and Imaum of Bagdad. He was tutor to one of the sons of the Caliph Almotavakkel. He wrote a work on the Mahommedan conquests, in which he gives detailed accounts of the state of the countries which come under notice. Rainaud, in the "Fragments Arabes et Persans inédits sur l'Inde," translates the chapter of Albeladory on the occupation of the valley of the Indus by the Mussulmans. He died a.d. 895.—A. M.
ALBELDA, Moses, a Greek rabbi, chief of the synagogue at Saloniki (Thessalonica), in the latter half of the 16th century. He wrote "Commentaries on the Pentateuch."
ALBEMARLE, Duke of. See Monk.
ALBEMARLE, Earl of. See Keppel.
ALBENAS, Jean Poldo d', a French antiquary, born at Nismes in 1512; died in 1563. He studied law, and became in 1552 councillor in the presidial court of his native town. He wrote a history of Nismes, and also a work with the title, "Prognosticorum, sive de origine mortis humanæ, de futuro sæculo, et de futuræ vitæ contemplatione."
ALBER, Erasmus, generally known under the Latinized form of his name, Alberus, was born towards the close of the fifteenth century, and died on the 5th May, 1553. Alber, who was a zealous partisan of the Reformation, and one of the most learned and genial men of his time, had studied at Wittenberg under Luther, and continued the intimate friend of the great reformer. He preached the doctrines of the Reformation in various parts of Germany, but generally with so much satirical vehemence as to prevent his remaining in a permanent benefice. He was for some time chaplain to Joachim II., elector of Brandenburg, and subsequently was preacher in Magdeburg. Alber died at Neubran-
