92 



ALDERMAN -ALDINE EDITIONS. 



Europe awl Asia, and the United States of Ameri- 

 ca. There are few means of better employing 

 swampy and morassy grounds, Uian by planting them 

 with alders ; for, although the growth of these trees 

 is not rapid, the uses to which they are applicable 

 are such as amply to compensate for tlie slowness 

 with which they come to perfection. The wood of 

 the alder, which is in great demand for machinery, is 

 frequently wrought into cogs for mill-wheels, as it is 

 peculiarly adapted for all kinds of work which are to 

 I).- kepi constantly in water. It is consequently used for 

 pumps, sluices, pipes, drains, and conduits of ditn-r- 

 ent descriptions, and for the foundation of buildings 

 situated in swamps. For these purposes, it has 

 In * 11 much cultivated in Flanders and Holland. 

 It is commonly used for bobbins, women's shoe- 

 hci Is, ploughmen's clogs, and numerous articles of 

 turnery ware. This wood also serves for many 

 domestic and rural uses, for spinning-wheels, troughs, 

 the handles of tools, ladders, cartwheels, &c. The 

 roots and knots furnish a beautifully-veined wood, 

 nearly of tlie colour of mahogany, and well adapted 

 for cabinet-work. The bark may be advantageously 

 used in the operations of tanning and leather-dressing, 

 and by fishermen for staining their nets. This and the 

 young twigs are sometimes employed in dyeing, and 

 yield different sliades of yellow and red. The Lap- 

 landers chew the bark of the alder, and dye their 

 leather garments red with the saliva thus produced. 

 With tlie addition of copperas, it yields a black dye, 

 used to a considerable extent in colouring cotton. 

 In the Highlands of Scotland, we are informed thai 

 young branches of the alder, cut down in the sum- 

 mer, spread over the fields, and left during the win- 

 ter to decay, are found to answer the purpose ol 

 manure. The fresh-gathered leaves, being coverec 

 with a glutinous moisture, are said to be sometimes 

 strewed upon floors to destroy fleas, which become 

 entangled in it, as birds are with bird-lime. 



ALDERMAN (celdor, elder, and man) ; among the 

 ancient Saxons, the second order of nobility. It was 

 synonymous with the Latin comet, the eorla or jar 

 of the Danes (which after the Danish times super- 

 seded it), and the senior and major of the Franks 

 The aldermen were at first governors of counties 

 and were admitted into the wittenag-emot, or grea 1 

 council of the nation ; gave their consent to the pub- 

 lic statutes ; kept order among the freeholders at 

 the county courts ; in times of war, appeared at the 

 head of the military forces of their shires, and weri 

 called dukes, or heretogen, (the Germ, herzog) 

 They were at first appointed by the king, and were 

 afterwards elected by the freeholders or the shire 

 at first the office was during good behaviour, bu 

 finally l>ecame hereditary. Aldermen, at present 

 are officers associated with the mayor of a city, fo 

 the administration of the municipal government 

 Ixith in England and the United States. In some 

 places, they act as judges in certain civil and crimi 

 nal cases. In London, there are twenty-six alder 

 men, who preside over tlie twenty-six wards of tht 

 city, and from whose number the mayor is electee 

 annually. 



ALDHELM. See Adhelm. 

 ALDERNEY ; an island on the coast of Normandy 

 alx>ut eight miles in circumference. Though withii 

 seven miles of cape la Hogue, it is subject to th 

 crown of Great Britain. With Guernsey, Jersey 

 and Sark, it forms the only part of the possessions o 

 William the Conqueror that now remain under th 

 government of England. A. is about thirty mile* 

 from tlie nearest part of the English coast, andabou 

 eighteen from Guernsey. The race of A. is a nam 

 given Ui the strait running between the coast o 

 France and this bland. The town of this name 



bout two miles from tlie harbour, is but poorly 

 uilt, and contains alxmt 1000 inhabitants. In 

 tormy weather, the whole coast is dangerous, parti- 

 ularly from a ridge of rocks, called the (\mkets, 

 which form numerous cildies that have often proved 

 ital to mariners. The air is salubrious, tlie soil 

 iTtilcand much cultivated ; hut the custom of gavel- 

 kind di\ iiling the lands inln small pails, keeps the 

 icoplc in a Mate of poverty. They send grain to 

 England. In 1119, Henry, duke of Normandy, 

 son of king Henry I., with many nobles, \\as lost 

 near this island ; and in 1711, the Victory, of 116 

 runs, admiral Sir John Balchcn, with 1 1<X) marine? 

 nid sailors, was lost near the coast of A. 



ALDINE EDITIONS; the name given to the works 

 which proceeded from the press <>f the family of 

 Aldus Manutius. (See Munulins.) Recommended 

 yj their intrinsic value, as well as by a splendid 

 exterior, they have gained the respect of scholars, 

 ind the attention of Look-collectors. Many of them 

 are the first editions of Greek and Roman <!:- 

 and some have not been printed again ; as ll/n-dtri-a 

 Graci, Alexander Aphrodisiensis. The text of the 

 modem classical authors printed by them, as I'ctrarca, 

 Dante, Boccaccio, and others, was critically revised 

 from manuscripts. Generally speaking, their edi- 

 tions are distinguished for correctness, though their 

 Greek classics are interior, in this respect, to their 

 Latin and Italian. These editions, especially those 

 of Aldus Manutius, the father, are of importance in 

 the history of printing. Aldus deserves much credit 

 for his beautiful types. He liad nine kinds of 

 Greek types, and no one before him printed so 

 much and so beautifully in this language. Of the 

 Latin character he procured fourteen kinds of type. 

 Among the latter is the antii/na, with which linnlms 

 de /Etna, 1495, 4to, is printed; a very beautiful 

 character. The Italic characters, invented and cut 

 by Francesco of Bologna, and brought into use by 

 Aldus, who employed them for the collection of 

 editions of ancient and modern classics, in -Svo, fthe 

 first of which, Virgil, appeared in 1501,) are less 

 handsome; they are too stiff and angular, and 

 faulty in a technical respect, on account of the 

 many letters connected together. He had even 

 three kinds of Hebrew types. He was no friend ta 

 ornaments of the capitals, roses, vignettes, and tlie 

 like. The Hyvnerotomachia Poliphili, 1499, fol., is 

 his only work furnished with ornaments of that kind, 

 and wood-cuts. His paper is invariably strong and 

 white. He introduced the custom of striking off 

 some copies of an edition on better, finer, and whiter 

 paper than the rest ; first, in the Epistolce Greecee, 

 1499. He also first published single copies on large 

 paper, in the edition of Philostratus, 1501. He 

 printed also the first impressions on blue paper, be- 

 ginning with some copies of the Libri de Re Rustica 

 and Quintilian, both in 1514. His impressions on 

 parchment were eminently beautiful. His ink is of 

 excellent quality. At the same time, his prices 

 were fair. His Aristotle, five vols. fol., cost only 

 eleven ducats. The press sank in reputation under 

 the care of his son Paul, and his grandson Aldus. 

 When it was broken up, in 1597, after a duration of 

 100 years, and after producing 908 editions, it was 

 distinguished in nothing from other presses in the 

 country. The Aldine editions, especially those of 

 the father, were early sought for. The printers in 

 Lyons, and the Giunti in Florence, in 1502, found 

 it advantageous to publish inferior and spurious re- 

 prints. In modern times, they have been highly 

 prized by scientific collectors. The Horee b. Mar. 

 yirg., of 1497 (lately sold for 100 ducats), the Virgil 

 of 1501, and the Rhetores Greed, not to mention the 

 very rare editions between 1494 and 1497, are par- 



