Part 16 (1/2)

AL'DERSHOT, a permanent camp, established in 1855, for instruction in military manoeuvres, on a moorland 35 m. SW. of London.

ALDINE EDITIONS, editions, chiefly of the cla.s.sics, issued from the press of Aldus Manutius in Venice in the 16th century, and remarkable for the correctness of the text and the beauty and clearness of the printing.

ALDINGAR, SIR, legendary character, the steward of Eleanor, wife of Henry II., who accused her of infidelity, and offered to substantiate the charge by combat, when an angel in the form of a child appeared and certified her innocence.

ALDOBRANDINI, a Florentine jurisconsult (1500-1558).

AL'DRED, bishop of Worcester in the reign of Edward the Confessor, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, became archbishop of York, and crowned the last of the Saxon and the first of the Norman kings of England; _d_.

1063.

AL'DRICH, dean of Oxford, an accomplished ecclesiastic; was a skilful musician, and composed many services for the Church; wrote a system of logic, long in use in Oxford University (1647-1710).

ALDROVAN'DI, ULYSSES, a famous Italian naturalist of Bologna, who collected an immense body of interesting facts in natural history, published partly in his lifetime and partly after his death (1522-1607).

ALDUS MANUTIUS, or ALDO MANUZIO, an Italian printer, born at Ba.s.sano, established a printing-office in Venice in 1488, issued the celebrated Aldine Editions of the cla.s.sics, and invented the italic type, for the exclusive use of which for many years he obtained a patent, though the honour of the invention is more probably due to his typefounder, Franciso de Bologna, than to him (1447-1515).

ALEC'TO, one of the three Eumenides or Furies.

ALEMAN', a Spanish novelist, author of the celebrated romance _Guzman de Alfarache_, which in 6 years ran through 26 editions, was translated several times into French; died in Mexico in 1610.

ALEMAN'NI, a confederacy of tribes which appeared on the banks of the Rhine in the 3rd cent., and for long gave no small trouble to Rome, but whose incursions were arrested, first by Maximinus, and finally by Clovis in 496, who made them subject to the Franks, hence the modern names in French for Germany and the Germans.

ALEMTE'JO (369), a southern province of Portugal; soil fertile to the east.

ALENcON (17), a town in the dep. of Orne, 105 m. W. of Paris, once famous for its lace.

ALENcON, COUNTS AND DUKES OF, a t.i.tle borne by several members of the house of Valois--e. g. CHARLES OF VALOIS, who fell at Crecy (1346); JEAN IV., who fell at Agincourt (1415).

ALEP'PO (130), a city in Northern Syria, one of the finest in the East, once one of the greatest trading centres in the world.

ALE'SIA, a strong place in the E. of Gaul, which, as situated on a hill and garrisoned by 80,000 Gauls, cost Caesar no small trouble to take.

ALESIUS, or ALANE, a noted Reformer, born in Edinburgh, converted to Protestantism by Patrick Hamilton; was driven first from Scotland and then from England, till he settled as a theological professor in Germany, and took an active part in the Reformation there (1500-1563).