Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/97

ALB ALBERTOLLI,, a distinguished Italian architect and decorator of our days, nephew and pupil of Giocondo Albertolli, and also a native of Canton Ticino. He succeeded his uncle when this latter retired from the professorship at the academy of Milan. Designed and executed some of the finest palaces of this city, in a style full of purity and harmony. Died in 1846.—R. M.  ALBERTRANDY,, a Polish bishop and historian, of Italian origin, was born at Warsaw in 1731. He entered the Society of Jesuits at sixteen years of age, and from 1760 held successively the offices of librarian to the bishop of Zaluski, and preceptor to the nephew of the primate. While employed in this latter capacity, he was taken notice of by King Stanislas Augustus, who commanded him to transcribe into the library of the Vatican whatever was of importance in the public records of the kingdom, and this trust he executed in 110 volumes, written with his own hand. He was afterwards named royal librarian and bishop of Zenopolis. Besides numerous dissertations on the history of his own country, he published two volumes of Roman antiquities. Died in 1808.—J. S., G.  ALBERTUS MAGNUS; :—without question the most distinguished and prolific inquirer of the middle ages: of the family of the counts of Ballstadt, The date of his birth is doubtful; some place it in the year 1193, others in 1205. A student at the school of Padua, he became rapidly famous for the extent of his acquirements—the consequence of untiring industry. About 1222 he joined the Dominicans, and was raised by them to the chair of Theology. He taught with prodigious success in many cities, such as Friburg, Ratisbon, Strasburg, Cologne, &c.; afterwards residing for three years in Paris, accompanied by his great disciple, Thomas Aquinas. In 1260, after having travelled again through Germany, he accepted the bishopric of Ratisbon; but finding that the duties of the episcopate interfered too much with his studies, and were therefore unsuitable to his tastes, he resigned the see into the hands of Pope Urban IV., and retired to a convent at Cologne. The exigencies of public affairs soon drew him from his cherished privacy. We find him in 1270 preaching the Crusade in Austria and Bohemia, and, three years later, he proceeded to Paris to defend Aquinas. Albert died in 1280.—The labours of this extraordinary person extend over the whole domain of the sciences; his learning was encyclopædiacal. No other man represents so fully or so well the state of the physical sciences in the middle ages; and he ranged, besides, through every department of philosophy and theology. At that time the foundations of Chemistry were being laid, by those researches to which the term Alchemy has been applied. Doubtless, such researches were, in the hands of many men, confined to the quest of the philosopher's stone, and made instruments of imposture; but, with inquirers like Albert, the aim was loftier and sounder, being really the search of all true chemical science—the search, viz., after the simple elements of which bodies are composed. Even the greatest of the Alchemists are undoubtedly chargeable with an error common to pioneers in all the sciences—that of generalizing prematurely; but no impartial historian can withhold the acknowledgment that they manifested quite as much sagacity as could be expected from men of great power; that they were gradually arising to a right idea, or at least to a right practice of the inductive method of research; and that we farther owe them many important special discoveries. Albert, for instance, had realized the processes of distilling and sublimating; he was acquainted with some of the modes of purifying metals; and he had become familiar with many substances and products, not often found, by themselves, in nature. But the place occupied by Albertus in history, is mainly due to his services in another region of thought. The true representative of Peripateticism, the honour belongs to him of having diffused, far and wide, a knowledge of Aristotle, and asserted and secured his dominion. All the leading monuments of the philosophy of the Lycæum were familiar to him; and he had carefully studied the commentaries of the Arabians, as is proved by the mass of his citations from Avicenna, Al-Gazali, Alfarabi, Tofaïl, and Averrhoès. The conclusions to which his researches led him, bear throughout the impress of Aristotle, freed from that influence of Platonism which had affected the Stagyrite through means of the later Alexandrian school. Faithful to the church, he stood unwaveringly by the supremacy and the rights of Theology; but he claimed for Reason, the power to raise men, by itself, to Truth. His analysis of the Reason is elaborate, occupying many treatises. He has discoursed much and acutely on Logic—espousing the cause of Realism. In Metaphysics he occupied himself mainly with the idea of absolute substance, or Being in itself,—discussing the ideas of matter, form, accident, eternity, duration, and time. His Psychology had one signal merit, he somewhat rescued its researches from the domain of mere dialectic,—recalling inquirers to the necessity of studying its facts. As to Theodicy, his aim was simply to determine the bases, the extent, and certainty of our knowledge of God. He excludes all positive dogmas—among others, that of the Trinity; insisting that the mind cannot know truths of which it has no image within itself: but he considers that the Being of God is demonstrable in many ways. All his views in morals are excellent: opposing Aristotle, in this case, he insists powerfully that Conscience is the supreme law, which commands us to do or not to do, and which judges concerning the right or the wrong in actions.—The student will gather from these few remarks how extensive the field over which this remarkable person ranged and speculated. If, indeed, his genius had equalled his learning, the history of philosophy would have contained few names superior to his. But those days were mostly the days of commentaries; patience and toil, rather than originality, were in request—knowledge rather than invention. One desiderates in the writings of Albert even that vigorous intellect which makes the opinions of others really its own: instead of a vast system with its parts firmly knit, he has left accordingly only a collection of various essays or treatises, in each of which something of value may be found. His works are enormous in volume, consisting of twenty-one large folios; six of which are devoted to commentaries on Aristotle; five on the Scriptures; two on Dionysius the Areopagite; three contain an explanation of the Book of Sentences of Peter Lombard; two are occupied with a Summa Theologiæ; one with the Summa de Creaturis; one is a treatise on the Virgin; and the last contains his Opuscula, one of which is on Alchemy.—Fuller information will be found in the great dictionary of Bayle, in the Histoire Literaire de France, and the Dictionnaire de Sciences. Albertus is of course mentioned and estimated by every historian of Philosophy.—J. P. N.  ALBERUS. See.  ALBI,, a learned French jesuit, successively rector of the colleges of Avignon, Grenoble, Lyons, and Aries, and author of several ecclesiastical works, was born at Bolene in 1590; died at Arles in 1659.  ALBICUS,, archbishop of Prague, and afterwards of Cesarée in the reign of Wenceslas IV. of Bohemia. He was suspected of a leaning to the doctrines of Huss and Wickliff, and during the persecutions of the Hussites retired to Hungary, where he died in 1427.  ALBIGNAC,, a lieutenant-general in the army of the French Republic, was born in 1739. He was appointed to command a department, and to suppress some royalist risings. He served under Marshal Richelieu at the taking of Minorca in 1791, and died in 1820.  ALBIN, an Irishman, who flourished in the eighth century, and was conspicuous for his learning, wisdom, and piety. In company with his friend and countryman Clement, he repaired to Paris, to the court of Charles the Great, who was a zealous promoter of learning, and a patron of learned men Notker Balbulus, a contemporary French writer, quoted by Ware, mentions that they arrived in France in the company of some British merchants, and observing the people crowd around the merchants to buy their wares, Albin and Clement cried out, "If anybody wants wisdom, let him come to us and receive it, for we have it to sell." Persisting in this strange conduct, the people thought they were deranged, and carried an account of their proceedings to the king, who without delay sent for them, and when they were conducted into his presence, they repeated their assertion, demanding for payment only, "ingenuous souls, convenient apartments, with food and raiment." Charles received them hospitably, and after some time he dismissed Albin to Italy, for the purpose of educating the people, assigning to him the monastery of St. Augustine, near to the city of Ticinum, now Pavia, "that as many as pleased might resort thither to him for instruction." Albin continued there till his death. Some of his epistles are still extant. He is sometimes confounded with an Englishman of the name of Alcuin.—(Wills.)—J. F. W. <section end="97Hnop" />