Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/680

Rh 642 A L T A L T and Schwartz, appeared at Rottenburg ; while for France, the Abbe* Thiers Dissertation on the subject is full of curious information, like all his works. Drawings of mediaeval altars which have been preserved will be found in many works on architecture. Parker s Glossary gives the most noticeable preserved in England ; but the Dic- tionnaire de F Architecture of Viollet le Due is much superior, and, with its beautiful illustrations and careful descriptions, has nearly exhausted the subject so far as regards French examples, to which it is almost exclusively confined. (G. H. F.) ALTDORF, or ALTORF, a town in Switzerland, capital of the canton of Uri, situated at the northern end of the pass of St Gotthard, near the lake of Lucerne. It contains the oldest Capuchin monastery in Switzerland, but is otherwise of little interest, except as the place pointed out by tradition where William Tell shot the apple from his son s head. The lime tree, tinder which it is alleged the boy stood, has disappeared, but a fountain still marks the spot. There is also an old tower, with rude frescoes commemorating the feat. Biirglen, a village in the neigh bourhood, is Tell s reputed birthplace. Population, 2724. ALTDORFER, ALBRECHT, a painter and engraver of the early German school, was born at Regensburg, not later than 1480, and died in 1538. His paintings are remarkable for minute and careful finish, and for close study of nature. The most important of them are to be found in the Pinakothek at Munich. A representation of the battle of Arbela, included in that collection, is usually considered his chief work. His engi avings on wood and copper are very numerous, and rank next to those of Albert Diirer. ALTENBURG, a town in Germany, capital of the duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, situated near the river Pleisse, about 24 miles south of Leipsic. The town, from its hilly position, is irregularly built ; but many of its streets are wide, and contain a number of large and beautiful biiild- ings. Its ancient castle is picturesquely situated on a lofty rock, and is memorable as the place from which, in 1455, Kunz von Kaufungen carried off the young princes Albert and Ernest, the founders of the present royal and ducal families of Saxony. Altenburg is the seat of the higher courts of the duchy, and possesses a cathedral and several churches, a gymnasium, a library, a gallery of pictures and a school of art, several elementary schools, an infirmary, and various learned societies. There is considerable traffic in grain and cattle brought from the surrounding district ; twice a year there are large horse fairs ; and the book trade is extensive. Cigars, woollen goods, gloves, hats, and porcelain are among the chief manufactures. Popula tion (1871), 19,966. ALTEN&quot; GETTING, or ALTOETTING, a small market town in Upper Bavaria, situated on the Morn, not far from its junction with the Inn. It has long been famous as a place of pilgrimage to which Roman Catholics resort in very large numbers, especially from Austria, Bavaria, and Swabia, on account of a celebrated image of the Virgin Mary in one of the churches. Another church contains the tomb of Tilly. Population, 1500. ALTENSTEIN, a castle upon a rocky mountain in Saxe-Meiningen, on the south-western slope of the Thiir- inger Wald, not far from Eisenach. It is the summer residence of the dukes of Meiningen, and is surrounded by a noble park, which contains, among other objects of interest, a remarkable underground cavern, 500 feet long, through which flows a large and rapid stream. Boniface, the apostle of the Germans, lived and preached at Alten- stein in 724 ; and near the castle is the place from which, in 1521, Luther was seized, to be carried off to the Wart- burg. There used to be an old beech called &quot;Luther s tree,&quot; which association connected with the Reformer, but it was blown down in 1841, and a small monument now stands in its place. ALTIN, a lake of Siberia, which gives rise to the Bija, one of the head streams of the Obi, is situated among the Altai mountains, 320 miles south of the city of Tomsk. It is about 80 miles long, and its greatest breadth is about 50 miles ; but the large quantities of melted snow which flow down from the surrounding mountains make it larger in summer than in winter. It is remarkable that in winter the northern part is frozen so hard as to be passable on sledges, while the southern is never covered with ice. ALTING, HEINRICH, a German divine, was born at Embden in 1583. His father, Menso Alting, was minister of Embden, and early destined his son to the same pro fession. He studied with great assiduity and success at the universities of Herborn and Groningen. In 1608 he was appointed tutor of Frederick, afterwards elector-palatine, at Heidelberg, and in 1612 accompanied him to England. Returning in 1613 to Heidelberg after the marriage of the elector with the Princess Elizabeth of England, he was appointed professor of theology, and in 1616, director of the Collegium Sapient ice. In 1618, along with Scultetus. he represented the university in the synod of Dort. When Count Tilly took the city of Heidelberg, and handed it over to plunder, Alting found great difficulty in escaping the fury of the soldiers. He first retired to Schorndorf ; but in 1623 he removed with his family to Embden, and afterwards followed to the Hague his late pupil, the Elector Frederick, who had been compelled to flee from his new kingdom of Bohemia. Such was the regard this prince had for Alting that he made him preceptor to his eldest son, and prevented him from accepting the charge of the church at Embden, and likewise a professorship in the university of Franeker. In 1627, Alting, with some difficulty, obtained leave from his patron to remove to Groningen, where he was appointed to the chair of divinity; and there he continued to lecture, with increasing reputa tion, until his death, which took place in 1644. Alting was a man of great ability and extensive learning. Among the productions of his pen care: Notce in Decadem Pro- blematum Jacobi BeJim, Heidelberg, 1618; Scripta Thcolo- gica Ileidelbergensia, Amst. 1662; Exegesis Auqustancs Confessionis, Amst. 1647. ALTING, JACOB, son of the preceding, was born at Heidelberg in 1618. He studied theology and the Oriental languages at Groningen, and in 1638 he put himself under the tuition of a Jewish rabbi at Embden. In 1640 he went to England, and was admitted to clerical orders by Dr Prideaux, bishop of Worcester; but an offer of the Hebrew professorship in the university of Groningen induced him to return to Holland in 1643. In 1667 he was appointed professor of theology in the university. In this office he gave great offence to his colleague, Samuel Desmarets, by his disuse of the scholastic method of teaching. Desmarets preferred a charge of heresy against him; but the divines at Leyden pronounced that Alting was not guilty of any thing more serious than imprudent fondness for innovation. Alting died of a fever in 1679. The fondness which he showed for rabbinical learning gave birth to the general re port that he was inclined to become a Jew. His opinions, which seem to have excited more general attention than they deserve, may be seen in his writings, which were collected a few years after his death, and published in five volumes folio, by his pupil, the well-known Balthasar Bekker. ALTON, a town of Hampshire, on the Wey, 17 miles E. of Winchester, and 47 S.W. of London by road; by the London and South-Western Railway it is 60 miles from London. Large markets and fairs are held for corn, hops,