The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 21

ALSA'TIA, Whitefriars, London, which at one time enjoyed the privilege of a debtors' sanctuary, and had, till abolished in 1697, become a haunt of all kinds of nefarious characters.

ALSEN (25), a Danish island adjacent to Sleswig, one of the finest in the Baltic, now ceded to Germany.

AL-SIRAT, the hair-narrow h.e.l.l-bridge of the Moslem, which every Mohammedan must pa.s.s to enter Paradise.

ALSTEN, an island off the coast of Northland, Norway, with seven snow-capped hills, called the Seven Sisters.

ALTAI' MOUNTAINS, in Central Asia, stretching W. from the Desert of Gobi, and forming the S. boundary of Asiatic Russia, abounding, to the profit of Russia, in silver and copper, as well as other metals.

ALTDOR'FER, ALBRECHT, a German painter and engraver, a distinguished pupil of Albert Durer, and as a painter, inspired with his spirit; his "Battle of Arbela" adorns the Munich Picture Gallery (1488-1538).

AL'TEN, KARL AUGUST, a distinguished officer, native of Hanover, who entered the British service, bore arms under Sir John Moore, was chief of a division, under Wellington, in the Peninsular war, and closed his military career at the battle of Waterloo (1763-1840).

AL'TENBURG (33), capital of Saxe-Altenburg, and 4 m. S. of Leipsic; its castle is the scene of the famous "PRINZENRAUB" (q. v.), related by Carlyle in his "Miscellanies."

ALTHEN, a Persian refugee, who introduced into France the cultivation of madder, which became one of the most important products of the S. of France.

ALTON LOCKE, a novel, by Charles Kingsley, written in sympathy with the Chartist movement, in which Carlyle is introduced as one of the personages.

ALTO'NA (148), a town and seaport of Sleswig-Holstein, now belonging to Germany, close to Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe, and healthier, and as good as forming one city with it.

ALTO-RELIEVO, figures carved out of a tablet so as to project at least one half from its surface.

AL'TORF, an old town in the canton Uri, at the S. end of the Lake of Lucerne; a.s.sociated with the story of William Tell; a place of transit trade.

ALTRUISM, a Comtist doctrine which inculcates sacrifice of self for the good of others as the rule of human action.

ALUMBRA'DO, a member of a Spanish sect that laid claim to perfect enlightenment.

ALURED OF BEVERLEY, an English chronicler of the 12th century; his annals comprise the history of the Britons, Saxons, and Normans up to his own time; _d_. 1129.

ALVA, DUKE OF, a general of the armies of Charles V. and Philip of Spain; his career as a general was uniformly successful, but as a governor his cruelty was merciless, especially as the viceroy of Philip in the Low Countries, "very busy cutting off high heads in Brabant, and stirring up the Dutch to such fury as was needful for exploding Spain and him" (1508-1582).

ALVARA'DO, PEDRO DE, one of the Spanish conquerors of Mexico, and comrade of Cortez; was appointed Governor of Guatemala by Charles V. as a reward for his valiant services in the interest of Spain; was a generous man as well as a brave.

ALVAREZ, FRANCESCO, a Portuguese who, in the 15th century, visited Abyssinia and wrote an account of it.

ALVAREZ, DON JOSe, the most distinguished of Spanish sculptors, born near Cordova, and patronised by Napoleon, who presented him with a gold medal, but to whom, for his treatment of his country, he conceived so great an aversion, that he would never model a bust of him (1768-1827).

ALVIANO, an eminent Venetian general, distinguished himself in the defence of the republic against the Emperor Maximilian (1455-1515).

AMADEUS, LAKE, a lake in the centre of Australia, subject to an almost total drying-up at times.

AMADE'US V., count of Savoy, surnamed the Great from his wisdom and success as a ruler (1249-1323).

AMADEUS VIII., 1st duke of Savoy, increased his dominions, and retired into a monastery on the death of his wife; he was elected Pope as Felix V., but was not acknowledged by the Church (1383-1451).

AMADEUS I., of Spain, 2nd son of Victor Emmanuel of Italy, elected king of Spain in 1870, but abdicated in 1873 (1845-1890).

AM'ADIS DE GAUL, a celebrated romance in prose, written partly in Spanish and partly in French by different romancers of the 15th century; the first four books were regarded by Cervantes as a masterpiece. The hero of the book, Amadis, surnamed the Knight of the Lion, stands for a type of a constant and deferential lover, as well as a model knight-errant, of whom Don Quixote is the caricature.

AMADOU, a spongy substance, consisting of slices of certain fungi beaten together, used as a styptic, and, after being steeped in saltpetre, used as tinder.

AMAIMON, a devil who could he restrained from working evil from the third hour till noon and from the ninth till evening.

AMALARIC, king of the Visigoths, married a daughter of Clovis; _d_.

581.

AMALEKITES, a warlike race of the Sinaitic peninsula, which gave much trouble to the Israelites in the wilderness; were as good as annihilated by King David.

AMAL'FI, a port on the N. of the Gulf of Salerno, 24 m. SE. of Naples; of great importance in the Middle Ages, and governed by Doges of its own.

AMALFIAN LAWS, a code of maritime law compiled at Amalfi.

AMA'LIA, ANNA, the d.u.c.h.ess of Weimar, the mother of the grand-duke; collected about her court the most ill.u.s.trious literary men of the time, headed by Goethe, who was much attached to her (1739-1807).