Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/124

ALE Collecting a considerable army, he plundered several provinces of the empire. He was assassinated in 1191.  ALEXIUS or ALEXIS DRAGO COMNENUS, a descendant of the imperial family of Comnenus, born at Pera in Constantinople about 1553. He was a general in the French service, and died at Paris in 1619.  ALEXIUS,, four governors of Trebizond bore this name · they are by some historians styled emperors.

I., assumed the title of Autocrator of Anatolia in 1204, having made himself master of an extensive tract of country along the shores of the Euxine, in opposition to the emperor of Constantinople. His dominions were the theatre of continual war, and he had to resist invasions of the Turks as well as the forces of the empire. Died in 1222.

II., was born in 1282. He succeeded his father John II. in 1297, and died in 1330.

III., son of Basilius II., succeeded Michael I. in 1349, and allied himself by marriage to the court of Constantinople. He carried on long wars with the Turks and the Genoese. Died about the year 1390.

IV., assassinated by his son, John the Handsome, the murderer also of his mother—succeeded Manuel III. in 1412. He died between 1445 and 1449.—J. S., G.  ALEYN,, an English poet, who lived during the reign of Charles I. His works are two poems on the battles of Poitiers and Crécy, published in 1631, and a historical piece on Henry VII., and the victory of Bosworth Field, published in 1638. He is said to have written also some commendatory verses prefixed to the earlier editions of Beaumont and Fletcher. He died in 1640.—F.  ALFANI, the name of two Italian painters of eminence, of Paris, who died in 1540, and his son, , who died in 1583. Some paintings by the former, preserved in the gallery of Florence, bear a striking resemblance to the earlier pictures of Raphael.—F.  ALFARABIUS or ALFARABI, an Arabian philosopher, born at Farab in Transoxiana, about the end of the ninth century. From his native place he derived this title, his real name being Mohammed. He was an excellent scholar, and thoroughly acquainted with the Greek and Arabian systems of philosophy. His works are numerous. He died. 950.—F.  ALFARAZDAK, an Arabian poet of the eighth century, whose writings are highly esteemed by his countrymen.  ALFARO Y GOMEZ,, a Spanish painter, born at Cordova in 1640. He was a pupil of Antonio del Castillo, whom he left to enter the school of Velasquez, at Madrid. His pride alienated all his friends and colleagues. He added literary learning to artistical skill, and wrote several works in connection with art. Died about 1680.—R. M. <section end="124H" /> <section begin="124I" />ALFEN,, a Danish miniature and enamel painter of the 18th century. His portraits were highly valued. He worked for some time at Vienna, and died in 1770. <section end="124I" /> <section begin="124J" />ALFENUS VARUS,, a Roman lawyer, a native of Cremona. By his genius and ability he raised himself from the humble occupation of a cobbler to the dignity of consul. He flourished about 754. <section end="124J" /> <section begin="124K" />ALFERGANUS or ALFRAGANUS, otherwise called or, an Arabian mathematician of the ninth century, flourished about 883. He wrote Elements of Astronomy in Arabic, which Golius has translated into Latin, and published at Amsterdam in 1669. He published also astronomical tables, which were translated into Hebrew, and published at Venice.—J. E. <section end="124K" /> <section begin="124L" />ALFIERI,, a historian of Asti, who lived in the latter half of the thirteenth century. He has written a chronicle of his native place in Latin, entitled "Chronicon Astense extractum e chronicis Astensibus." This extends as far as 1294, and has been continued to 1325 by Guglielmo Ventura. <section end="124L" /> <section begin="124M" />ALFIERI,, architect, born at Rome in 1700, uncle of the more celebrated poet Vittorio Alfieri. He exercised his art chiefly at Turin, where he enjoyed the patronage of Charles Emmanuel III. Several edifices in that city are after designs of Benedetto Alfieri's, more particularly the theatre of the Royal Opera, which is his principal work. The façade of St. Peter's at Geneva is also due to him. Died in 1767.—A. M. <section end="124M" /> <section begin="124Zcontin" />ALFIERI,, a distinguished Italian poet, was born in Asti, a city of Piedmont, upon the 17th of January, 1749. His father, Antonio Alfieri, was of a noble family and affluent circumstances. In his fifty-fifth year he married Monica Maillard, a lady of Turin, and widow of the marquis of Cucherano, of which union Vittorio was the second child. When he was three years old, his father died, and his mother again married. From that period till his ninth year he was educated at home by a priest, Don Invaldi, who taught him but little; and in 1758 his paternal uncle and guardian, Pellegrino Alfieri, placed him in the academy of Turin. Here he continued till near the end of the year 1762, passing successively through the classes of humanity, rhetoric, and philosophy, without being much the better of any of them. The natural bent of his genius first displayed itself while there (1759), in consequence of the works of Ariosto having accidentally fallen into his hands. After this he was sent to the university, where, though he studied philosophy, physics, and ethics, he does not appear to have made any proficiency in them; but, while hating the sciences, his taste for poetry showed itself in the composition of his first sonnet, on the occasion of his visiting his uncle in 1762 at Cuneo, of which place he was governor. The latter was paying his addresses to a lady, who also found favour in the sight of the lad, who addressed to her the sonnet, which, he assures us, though extremely bad, was pronounced by her to be the best she ever heard. The uncle, however, being a matter-of-fact soldier, and caring not a whit for poetry, badgered him so unmercifully, that he did not venture on another rhyme till he was past his 25th year. At the end of the year 1762, he studied the civil and canon law, but with as little success as had attended his efforts in the other sciences. Indeed, his weak health contributed not a little to all his failures, and he was shortly after attacked with such severe illness that his life was endangered. His French master gave him some novels and romances, which he devoured with avidity. He also made a little proficiency in music. His uncle died when Alfieri was in his fourteenth year, upon reaching which age he became, by the laws of Piedmont, his own master. His great passion was riding, which, heretofore, had been interdicted. This he now freely indulged in, and became an expert horseman. "To this delightful and noble exercise," he says, "I was indebted for health, growth, and a robust appearance, and I entered, as it were, into a new existence." He now abandoned the study of the law, and spent the following years in idleness and horse-riding, having procured a commission in the militia of his native city; and in 1766, having obtained the king's permission, he set out on his first travels, in company with two others, and attended by a faithful servant, who had accompanied his uncle over a great part of Europe. He first went to Milan, and thence, by Piacenza, Parma, Modena, and Bologna, to Florence. Here he began to learn English, instead, as he afterwards reproaches himself, of learning the pure Italian, for as yet he could only speak what he calls a horrible patois. Lucca, Pisa, and Leghorn were next visited, and thence, by way of Sienna, he went to Rome, and afterwards to Naples, where he was introduced at court, returning again to Rome, where he was presented to Clement XIII. He next visited Venice, and went thence to France by way of Genoa, landing at Marseilles, and going by Lyons to Paris, of which capital he speaks in no very favourable terms. He landed at Dover in January, 1768, and proceeded to London. The whole aspect of England pleased him extremely, and the impressions then made were confirmed by subsequent visits, that "that happy and free country differs from the rest of Europe, in the diffusion of public happiness resulting from being better governed." In the summer he went to Holland, which would have pleased him even more had he not first seen England. Upon his return home he read some French literature, especially Voltaire and Montesquieu, and became imbued with an admiration for the heroes of Greece, from reading a translation of Plutarch. In May, 1769, Alfieri set out on his second tour, and went to Innspruck, and thence to Vienna, where he passed the summer. He was a constant guest at the Sardinian minister's, the Count di Conole, where all the poets and literati of the city were accustomed to meet in the evening; and Alfieri mentions that he declined being introduced to Metastasio, because he had seen the poet, in the gardens at Schönbrun, make the customary obeisance to Maria Teresa, "con una faccia sì servilmente lieta e adulatoria." He subsequently visited Prague, Dresden, and Berlin, where he was presented to Frederick. "The king," he says, "addressed four formal words to me. I observed him with profound attention, fixing my eyes respectfully on his, and <section end="124Zcontin" />