for a short time during Edward VI.’s reign, and was commissioned by Cranmer to make a Latin version of the First Prayer-Book (1549) for the information of Bucer, whose opinion was desired. He died at Leipzig on the 17th of March 1565.
Alesius was the author of a large number of exegetical, dogmatic and polemical works, of which over twenty are mentioned by Bale in his List of English Writers. (See also the British Museum catalogue.) In his controversial works he upholds the synergistic views of the Scottish theologian John Major. He displayed his interest in his native land by the publication of a Cohortatio ad Concordiam Pietatis, missa in Patriam suam (1544), which had the express approval of Luther, and a Cohortatio ad Pietatis Concordiam ineundam (1559).
The best early account of Alesius is the Oratio de Alexandro Alesio of Jacob Thomasius (April 1661), printed in the latter’s Orationes (No. XIV., Leipzig, 1683): the best modern account is by Dr A. W. Ward in the Dictionary of National Biography. See also A. F. Mitchell’s introduction to Gau’s Richt Vay (Scottish Text Society, 1888).
ALESIA, the ancient name for a hill in central France, now Alise-Ste-Reine (department Côte d’Or), where in 52 B.C. Caesar besieged the Gaulish national leader Vercingetorix within enormous entrenchments, forced him to surrender, and thus practically ended his conquest of Gaul. The siege-works have been excavated by Napoleon III. and others, down to the present day. The site seems to have been inhabited also during the Roman empire, but its importance is limited to Caesar’s siege.
ALESSANDRI, ALESSANDRO (Alexander ab Alexandro) (1461–1523), Italian jurist, was born at Naples about the year 1461. He studied law at Naples and Rome, and afterwards practised for a time as advocate in both cities. He is said to have been royal proto-notary at Naples in 1490. Dissatisfied, according to his own account, with the corrupt administration of justice, he at length quitted the bar and devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits, especially to the study of philology and antiquities. A sinecure appointment, which he owed to the favour of the pope, enabled him to lead a life of learned leisure at Rome, where he died on the 2nd of October 1523. His work entitled Dies Geniales appeared at Rome in 1522, and was constructed after the model of the Noctes Atticae of Aulus Gellius, and the Saturnalia of Macrobius. It consists of a confused mass of heterogeneous materials relating to philology, antiquities, law, dreams, spectres, &c., and is characterized by considerable credulity.
ALESSANDRIA, a city and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, capital of a province which bears its name, situated on the river Tanaro, 57 m. E. by S. of Turin by rail. Pop. (1901) 71,298, of which about half reside in the actual town: the rest are distributed over the suburbs. Alessandria was founded in 1168 by the inhabitants of the district in order to defend themselves against the marquis of Monferrato and the town of Pavia, at whose request it was besieged in 1174 by Frederick Barbarossa for six months, but without success. The Lombard League now included it among the allied cities and named it Alessandria, after Pope Alexander III. The traditional account of its foundation by the Lombard League has been disproved by F. Graf, Die Gründung Alessandrias: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Lombardenbundes (1888). After falling into various hands, it was ceded to Savoy by the peace of Utrecht in 1713, and its citadel was begun in 1728. During the French occupation (1800–1814), which began after the battle of Marengo, it was still more strongly fortified; the works were entirely destroyed by the Austrians in 1815, but were afterwards reconstructed, and Alessandria is still an important fortress and the headquarters of the second army corps. The citadel is on the left bank of the Tanaro, the town being on the right bank. It is regularly built and contains few buildings of architectural interest, but is a flourishing and important commercial town, not merely owing to its own manufactures (which are miscellaneous) but for the products of the district, and one of the greatest railway centres in Italy. Lines diverge from it to Turin via Asti, to Valenza (and thence to Vercelli, Mortara—for Novara or Milan—and Pavia), to Tortona, to Novi, to Acqui and to Brà.
ALESSI, GALEAZZO (1512–1572), Italian architect, was born at Perugia, and was probably a pupil of Caporali. He was an enthusiastic student of ancient architecture, and his style gained for him a European reputation. Genoa is indebted to him for a number of its most magnificent palaces, and specimens of his skill may be seen in the churches of San Paolo and Santa Vittoria at Milan, in certain parts of the Escurial, and in numerous churches and palaces throughout Sicily, Flanders and Germany.
See Rossi, Di Galeazzo Alessi memorie (Perugia, 1873).
ALETHIOLOGY (from the Gr. ἀλήθεια, truth), an uncommon expression for the doctrine of truth, used by Sir William Hamilton in his philosophic writings when treating of the rules for the discrimination of truth and error.
ALETRIUM (mod. Alatri), a town of the Hernici, about 6 m. due N. of Frusino, Italy, mentioned in 306 B.C. for its fidelity to Rome. In Cicero’s time it was a municipium, and continued in this position throughout the imperial period. It is chiefly remarkable for its finely preserved fortifications constructed of tetrahedral and polygonal blocks of local limestone well jointed, with maximum dimensions of about 3 by 112 ft.; the outer circuit of the city wall measures about 212 m. It is almost entirely an embanking wall, as is the rule in the cities of this part of Italy, with a maximum height, probably, of about 30 ft. Two of the gates (of which there were perhaps five) are still to some extent preserved, and three posterns are to be found. In the centre of the city rises a hill (1647 ft.) which was adopted as the citadel. Remains of the fortifications of three successive periods can be traced, of which the last, perhaps a little more recent than that of the city wall, is the best preserved. In the first two periods the construction is rough, while in the third the blocks are very well and finely jointed, and the faces smoothed; they are mostly polygonal in form and are much larger (the maximum about 10 by 6 ft.) than those of the city wall. A flat surface was formed partly by smoothing off the rock and partly by the erection of huge terrace walls which rise to a height of over 50 ft., enclosing a roughly rectangular area of 235 by 115 yds. Two approaches to the citadel were constructed, both passing through the wall; the openings of both are rectangular. The architrave of the larger, known as Porta di Civita, measures about 17 ft. in length, 5 ft. in height, 6 ft. in thickness; while that of the smaller is decorated with three phalli in relief. Later, though probably in ancient times, a ramp was added on the northern side. In the centre of the arx was a building on the site of the present cathedral, of which only a small portion is preserved. Remains of a high-pressure aqueduct, which supplied the town with water and was constructed with other public buildings (Corp. Inscr. Lat. x., Berlin, 1883, p. 5807) by L. Betilienus Varus, may still be traced. A temple was excavated in 1889 about 12 m. to the north of the town, and many fragments of the painted terra-cottas with which it was decorated were found. A reconstruction of it has been erected in the Museo di Villa Giulia at Rome. The present town (pop. in 1901, 15,322) has a picturesque aspect, and contains many buildings in the Gothic style.
See R. Bassel, Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung, 1881, 121, p. 134; H. Winnefeld, Römische Mitteilungen, 1889, 126; G. Fiorelli in Notizie degli Scavi, 1882, 417. (T. As.)
ALEURITES (Gr. ἀλευρίτης, pertaining to ἄλευρον, ground meal, from ἀλεῖν, to grind), a genus of trees belonging to the natural order Euphorbiaceae. Aleurites moluccana, or triloba, is widely cultivated throughout the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world for its fruit, which is about the size of a walnut, and contains several seeds which are rich in oil. The oil is extracted and used for food and light; it is known in India as kekuna, and the tree as the “candle-nut.” In the Sandwich Islands the nuts are strung upon strips of wood and used as torches. The oil is exported to Europe for candle-making. A. cordata flourishes in China, where it is known as the varnish-tree, on account of the lac contained in its seeds.
ALEUTIAN ISLANDS (possibly from Chukchi aliat, “island”), a chain of small islands situated in the Northern Pacific Ocean, and extending about 1200 m. westward from the extremity of
