ALB 



A T. B 



prints m?.v be cotifidcred as very extraordinaiy efforts of a 

 great genius ; wliilll the art was at a confulL'rable diilancc 

 trom perfedion. The number of plates engraved by Al- 

 bert!, amounts to nearly i8o; of whieh 75 are from his 

 pu'ii compofitions, and the rell from Michael Angelo, 

 Buoanaroti, Raphael, Polidoro, Andrea del Sarto, ixe. 

 Of thefe we (hall eniimerate'the following, viz. — A large 

 nativity; a dead Chrill, iupported by an angel ; St. Jcrom 

 featcd in a landfeape, meditating upon the erofs ; the re- 

 funx'Aion of our Saviour; a holy familv ; crtation of 

 Adam and Eve, their expuUiou from paradife, their fub- 

 jeftion to labour ; and the miracle of St. Philip Beui//o, 

 where the men, who defpifed the exhortations of the faint, 

 are ftruo'v dead with lightning, whieh is elleemed one of 

 the moil excellent prints of this mailer. Pilkingtoi^ and 

 Strutt. 



A1.BERTI, DoMKNico, a Venetian tlihttajite, gifted 

 with genius and an exquilite talle. He was of tlie corps 

 diplaniJlique, and fecretavy to the Venetian ambalfador at 

 Madrid. At a time when there was little melody in harp- 

 (iehord IclTons, he brought about a revolution in the ilyle 

 of playing th.at inllruinent, by giving a tinging treble to a 

 rapid bafe, compoled of chords broken into groups of 

 femiquavers, which it was fo eafy to imitate, that compofers 

 and players foon grew tired and afhamcd of it. Jerig at 

 Paris, and Vento in I>ondon, glutted the public with 

 whole volumes of Icfions upon Alberti's bafe, bat none 

 ever compoled fuch elegant treble parts for keyed inllru- 

 ments ; the melody of which ihll Hands its ground, through 

 all the vicifTitudes of 60 years : — a prodigious longevity 

 for a mufical produftion in point of tafte ! There is a little 

 hiftory, belonging to the publication of Alberti's leiTons in 

 England, worth recording, as a beacon to plagiarids. 

 The liril time thefe lefTons were heard in London, was at 

 Hickford's room, when they were admirably performed by 

 Jozzi, the fecqnd linger at the Opera, at his own benefit ; 

 who, not only pafTed them off for his own compofitions, 

 ■but printed them, and had the courage to affix his name to 

 the title-page, and the confcience to fell riiem for a guinea 

 a book, equal at leaft to two guineas now. Unluckily for 

 the author of this fraud, but not before many copies were 

 fold, a gentleman, juil returned from Venice, being pof- 

 feifed of a MS. copy of thefe fonatas in Alberti's own 

 hand-writing, made Wahh, the mufic-feller, a prefent of 

 the book, on purpofe to expofe the tranfaftion. Wallh 

 having obtained the MS. upon fuch eafy terms, fold the 

 eight charming fdnatas for fix (hillings a book. The ilyle 

 being new, and fo much more within the power of gen- 

 tlemen and ladies to execute, than the rich and complicated 

 pieces of Handel, and wild and original legerdemain of 

 ■Scarlatti, iiad a prodigious fale, and foon obliged Jozzi 

 to make a precipitate retreat to Holland, wliere he prac- 

 tifed the fame trick, but not with equal profit. 



Alberti, Durante, fiourifhed in 1590, and died at 

 Rome in 11^13, at the age of 75. He, and liis two brothers, 

 Cofmio and Giorgio, who were painters and engravers, were 

 natives of Borgo S. Sepulrhro. The two firll engraved 

 upon copper and wood ; the lafl upon copper only, and 

 died young in 1597. They are not fuppofed to have been 

 artiits of any great note. The fon of this artifl, ivc. 

 Pietro Franccfco y\lberti, was born in 15S4, and died in 

 163S. He was an hiiloilcal painter, and we have a print, 

 called the " Academia de Pitori," and containing many 

 figures flightly etched, but with fpirit and in a ftyle that 

 indicates much of the mailer. 



Alberti, Giovanni, a painter of perfpeftive and hillory, 

 brother of Cherubino, was born at Florcn«e in 1558, and 



died m t6oi. After receiving early infliuclion from his 

 father, he went to Rome, when: hi iludied geoi-netry, and 

 the works of I'nionaroli and other great mailers. His prin- 

 cipal attention was devoted to ptrlpeCtive, in v.-hieh lie ar- 

 rived at great eminence. He was diflinguifhed by the ele- 

 gance of his conipofition, the firnmel";. and delicacy of his 

 pencil, the grandeur of his ihoiiglus, the judicious dilhi- 

 bution of the parts, and the fpirit viiibic through the whole. 

 Pilkington. 



Ai.iihRTi, John, a learned German lawyer, was born at 

 Widmanlladt, and Houriflied in the i(A\\ century. He was 

 well acquainted with the oriental languages, and wrote 

 " An Abridgment of the Koran," with notes, publiihed at 

 Nuremberg m IJ4_3. In 1 J56, he publiihed in 410., at 

 Vienna, at the expence of the emperor Ferdinand I. u New 

 Teilament in the Syriac charafttr and language, for the ule 

 of the Jacobite iViiit, in which book aie omitted the" i'econd 

 epiille of Peter, the fecond and third of John, the epiftle of 

 Jude, and the Revelation. Alberti alio wrote a Syriac 

 grammar, with a preface, tracing the i)iogrefs of the oriental 

 languages among the Latins. Nouv Diil. Hill. Gen. Biog. 



Alberti, Leander, of I'ologna, a Dominican, and an 

 Italian hillorian of fome celebrity, v.as born in 1479. His 

 works are in I^atin, " A Hillory of illuiliimis Men of his 

 Ordej-," fol. 1527 ; in Italian, " A Hillory of Bologna ;" 

 and " A Defcription of Italy," printed iji 1550, and tranf- 

 lated into Latin h\ Kiriander, which abouiuis with curiou* 

 information. Voifius. Hiil. Lat. Gen. Biog. 



ALBERTi,LFONi-BAPTisTA,an eminent architcftofllalv, 

 was born of a noble family -At Florence in 1398, and purfued 

 his iludies at the Univeriity of Bologna with fuch fuccefs, 

 that at the age of 20 he compofed a Latin comedy, intitled 

 " Philodexaos," under the name of I^epidus, which Aldus 

 Manutius conceived to be antique. Here he took the degree 

 of doftor of laws, and was ordained priell. However he 

 chiefly devoted himfelf to the iludy of deiign, and to the 

 examination of ancient edilices ; and at Rome he was em- 

 ployed by pope Nicholas V. in feveral works of architec- 

 ture. He alfo planned feveral coiifiderable buildings at 

 Mantua, Rimini, and Florence. Alberti was a painter, and 

 a good mechanic ; and invented an inllrumeiit for the praot 

 tiee of perfpeftive ; but he is princip-ally known as a writer. 

 His Latin work " On the Art of ArchiteClure," in 10 

 books, was printed in 1481, much efteemed, and tranflated 

 by Bartoli, into Italian, in 1546, and afterwards into French. 

 He alio wrote, in Latin, a work upon ieulpture and painting, 

 in three books, which was tranilated by Domenichi. He 

 lived to an advanced age, and died at Rome in 1480, ns 

 fome fay, but according to I'iraboiehi, in 11472. His 

 funeral oration was pronounced by Angelo Poli/.iano, and 

 he was celebrated by the contemporai^ Italian poets. 

 Gen. Biog. 



Alberti, Michel, profcfTor of medicine at Hall, in 

 Saxony, and member of the Royal Academy at Berlin, a 

 ilrenuous dttender of the principles of Stahl, agaiiill the 

 mcchauical phylieians, particularly againll Hcifter, was born 

 at Fribourg, November I3tli, 16^2: he publiihed ''Epiilola 

 qua Thermarum et Acidularum idolum inedicum dcilruit," 

 Halx 1 7 14, 4to. " Introduclio in Univeriam Medici- 

 nam," ibid. 1718, 1719, I721, 3 vols. 4ty., containing 

 a multitude of thtfes on difTeient parts of medicine. 

 For the titles of theie, fee Haller's Bibliotheca Medicinse 

 PraiSlics, vol. iv. p. 386, &c. " Syllema jurifprudentiue 

 mediciE Schneeberg," 4to. 1725. Hallcr gives a jiarti- 

 cular account of this work, which he highly commends. 

 See as abo\e ; alfo for accounts of the remaining works 

 of the author, who died at Hall, May i-tli, 1757. 



3X2 ' ALBERTINI, 



