ALBERTI-ARISTOTILE.

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to the distance of 35 paces. In the town of Cento he righted that of the church of St. Blaise, which was got five feet and a half out of its perpendicular. Being invited to Hungary, he rebuilt several bridges on the Danube, and constructed many other works, with which the reigning sovereign was so highly satisfied, that he created him a chevalier, and allowed him to coin money with the impress of his own bust. He was likewise employed by Ivan Vassillievitch, grand duke of Russia, in the construction of several churches. '

1

ALBERTI (CHERUBINO, BORGHEGIANO), a painter of some distinction, but whose reputation is chiefly established by his engravings, was born in 1552 at Borgo S. Sepolchro, from which he derived one of his names. From his father, Michele Alberti, he learned the first rudiments of historical painting, in which art he made very considerable progress. His greatest works are in fresco at Rome; and he also painted in oil, and combined some thought with much practice. From whose instructions he became an engraver is uncertain, but his best style of execution seems evidently to have been founded on the prints of C. Cort and Agostino Caracci, though in his friezes and other slighter plates he owed much to the works of Francesco Villemena. The engravings of Alberti are never very highly finished, or powerful in effect. The lights are scattered and left untinted, as well upon the distances, as upon the principal figures of the fore-ground, which destroys the harmony, and prevents the proper gradation of the objects. The drawing of the naked parts of the figure, in the works of this artist, is rarely incorrect: the extremities are well marked, and the characters of the heads generally very expressive: but his draperies are apt to be rather stiff and hard. His prints may be considered as very extraordinary efforts of a great. genius, whilst the art was as yet at some considerable distance from perfection. The number of plates, great and small, engraved by this artist, amounts to nearly one hundred and eighty, of which seventy-five are from his own compositions, the rest from Michael Angelo Buonaroti, Raphael, Polidoro, Andrea del Sarto, &c. The "Miracle of St. Philip Benizzo" is one of the most excellent. Alberti died in 1615.2

ALBERTI (GIOVANNI), brother of the above, was born near Florence in 1558, and received his early instruction

1 Biog. Universelle.-Dict. Hist. 2 Strutt and Pilkington's Dictionaries,

from his father, but afterwards went to Rome, where he studied geometry, and also the works of Buonaroti, and other great masters. He devoted his principal attention to perspective, in which branch he arrived at eminence, and gave a demonstrative proof of his great abilities in one of the pope's palaces, having painted a design in that style which procured him much fame. The chief nobility at Rome were solicitous to employ him, and he worked in many of the chapels and convents with general approbation, for he recommended himself to all persons of taste by the elegance of his composition, the firmness and delicacy of his pencil, the grandeur of his thoughts, the judicious distribution of the parts, and by the spirit visible throughout the whole.'

ALBERTI (GEORGE WILLIAM), a preacher at Tundern in Hanover, was born in 1725, and having finished his education, spent some years in England, where, after he had acquired the language, he wrote "Thoughts on Hume's Essays on Natural Religion," and on this occasion disguised himself under the name of Alethophilus Gottingensis. On his return to Germany, he published "Letters on the state of Religion and the Sciences in Great Britain," Hanover, 1752-54, and “An Essay on the religion, worship, manners and customs of the Quakers," 1750. He · died in 1758.2

ALBERTI (JOHN), a German lawyer of the 16th century, born at Widmanstadt, deeply learned in the Oriental languages, gave an abridgment of the Koran, with critical notes, 1543, 4to; a work which procured him the title of chancellor of Austria, and chevalier of St. James. He published in 4to, in 1556, a New Testament in Syriac, from the manuscript used by the Jacobites, at the expence of the emperor Ferdinand I. It contains neither the second epistle of Peter, nor the second and third of John, nor that of Jude, nor the Apocalypse. Only 1000 copies were printed, of which five hundred remained in Germany, and the rest were sent to the Levant. It is impossible for any thing to be more elegant, or better proportioned, says pere Simon, than the characters of this edition. Some copies have the date of 1562. He also composed a Syriac grammar, to which is prefixed a very curious preface. He died in 1559.3

1 Pilkington's Dict.

3 Moreri.Biog. Universelle,

* Biog. Universelle.

ALBERTI (JOHN), professor of Divinity in the university of Leyden, was born 1698, at Asse in Holland. After the example of Elsner, Raphelius, and the celebrated Lambert Bos, who had been his tutors at the university of Franeker, and of some other divines who have been called sacred philologians, he collected from prophane authors all the parallel passages in favour of the Greek phrases in the New Testament, with a view to defend the style of the evangelists and apostles against those critics. who maintain that it is barbarous and full of Hebraisms. The result of his labours he published in 1725, under the title of "Observationes Philologicæ in sacros Novi Fœderis libros," 8vo, Leyden; and encouraged by the reputation he derived from this work, he next published "Periculum criticum in quo loca quædam cum V. ac N. T. tum Hesychii et aliorum, illustrantur, vindicantur, emendantur," Leyden, 1727, 8vo. In this he displayed an uncommon acquaintance with the Greek lexicographers and grammarians, and some years after conceived a design of a new edition of Hesychius. While making collections for this undertaking, Fabricius sent him an unpublished glossary of the words of the New Testament, which he thought worthy of publication by itself, with a comment and some critical pieces. It appeared accordingly in 1735, under the title "Glossarium Græcum in sacros N. T. libros. Accedunt miscellanea critica in glossas nomicas, Suidam, Hesychium, et index auctorum ex Photii lexico inedito," Leyden, 8vo. Ten years after, in 1746, the first volume of his edition of Hesychius made its appearance, and fully gratified the expectations of the learned world. He had arrived at the letter K in the second volume, when he was attacked by the cholic of Poitou, and although restored in some measure by the waters of Aix-la-Chapelle, he was obliged to desist from his labours for about three years. He then resumed them, but the manuscript was left unfinished at his death, which was occasioned by the erysipelas, Aug. 13, 1762. The Hesychius was afterwards completed by Rhunkenius, Leyden, 1766. This is the best edition, and is thought by some critics to be one of the best edited books the learned world can boast. 1

ALBERTI (LEANDER), a dominican and provincial of his order, was born at Bologna in 1479, and died in 1552.

1 Biog. Universelle.-Rhunkenius Pref. Vol, II, of Lexicon.-Bibliographical Dictionary, Saxii Onomasticon.

He wrote in Italian, 1." Historie di Bologna, deca prima, e libro primo deca secunda sino all' anno 1253," Bologna, 1541, 4to. The second and third books were not published until long after his death, by F. Lucio Caccianemici, who added two supplements, 1590 and 1591, 4to. 2. “Cronica delle principali Famiglie Bolognesi, &c." Vincenza, 1592, 4to. 3. "Descrizione di tutta l'Italia," printed at Bologna in his life-time, fol. 1550, and reprinted, Venice, 1551 and 1553, 1561, 1581, and 1588. This work, so often published, is replete with curious facts, but the author has shewn less judgment in adopting the fables of Annius of Viterbo. 4. In Latin, "De Viris illustribus ordinis prædicatorum, libri sex in unum congesti," Bologna, 1517, fol. 5. "Diatriba de incrementis Domini Venetæ," and "De claris viris reipublicæ Veneta," which are printed in Contarini's Venetian Republic, ed. 2, Leiden, 1628.'

ALBERTI (LEON BAPTISTA), an eminent Italian artist, and one of the earliest scholars that appeared in the revival of letters, was of a noble and very ancient family at Florence, but was born at Venice in the end of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century. Various authors have given 1398, 1400, and 1404, as the date of his birth. In his youth he was remarkable for his agility, strength, and skill in bodily exercises, and an unquenchable thirst of knowledge possessed him from his earliest years. In the learned languages he made a speedy and uncommon proficiency. At the age of twenty, he first distinguished himself by his Latin comedy entitled "Philodoxius," copies of which he distributed among his friends, as the work of Lepidus, an ancient poet. The literati were completely deceived, and bestowed the highest applauses on a piece which they conceived to be a precious remnant of antiquity. It was written by him during the confinement of sickness, occasioned by too close an application to study, and appeared first about the year 1425, when the rage for ancient manuscripts was at its height, and Lepidus for a while took his rank with Plautus and Terence. Even in the following century, the younger Aldus Manutius having met with it in manuscript, and alike ignorant of its former appearance, and the purpose it was intended to serve, printed it at Lucca, 1588, as a precious remuant of antiquity.

1 Moreri-Biog. Universelle.--Vossius de Hist. Lat.Chaufepie.-Haym, Bibl. Italian. vol. I.

Alberti took orders afterwards in order to have leisure to prosecute his studies. In 1447 he was a canon of the metropolitan church of Florence, and abbé of St. Savino, or of St. Ermete of Pisa. Although he became known to the world as a scholar, a painter, a sculptor, and an architect, it is to his works of architecture that he owes his principal fame. He may be regarded as one of the restorers of that art, of which he understood both the theory and practice, and which he improved by his labours as well as his writings. Succeeding to Brunelleschi, he introduced more graceful forms in the art; but some consider him notwithstanding as inferior to that celebrated architect. Alberti studied very carefully the remains of ancient architecture, which he measured himself at Rome and other parts of Italy, and has left many excellent specimens of his talents. At Florence, he completed the Pitti palace, and built that of Ruccellai, and the chapel of the same family in the church of St. Pancras; the facade of the church of Santa Maria Novella, and the choir of the church of Nunziata. Being invited to Rome by Nicholas V. he was employed on the aqueduct of l'Aqua Vergine, and to raise the fountain of Trevi; but this having since been reconstructed by Clement XII. from the designs of Nicholas Salvi, no traces of Alberti's work remain. At Mantua, he constructed several buildings, by order of Louis of Gonzaga, of which the most distinguished are the churches of St. Sebastian, and that of St. Andrew: the latter, from the grandeur and beauty of its proportions, is esteemed a model for ecclesiastical structures. But his principal work is generally acknowledged to be the church of St. Francis at Rimini.

As a writer, Alberti was not less esteemed. He was well acquainted with philosophy, mathematics, antiquities, and poetry, and enjoyed the intimacy of Lorenzo de Medici. On one occasion this Mæcenas of his age, with a view to pass the sultry season more agreeably, assembled some of the most eminent literary men in the grove of Camaldoli, ámongst whom were Marsilio Ficino, Donato Acciajuoli, Alamanno Rinuccini, Christoforo Landino, and our Alberti. The subjects of their conversations, in which Alberti took a distinguished part, were published by Landino, in his "Disputationes Camaldulenses," and a short sketch has been given by Mr. Roscoe in his life of Lorenzo, Among the moral works of Alberti, written in Latin, are,

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