Alicante (Map: Spain, E 3), and is one of the most busy and prosperous of Spanish towns. It is picturesquely placed on the slope of the Sierra Mariola, whose streams afford an abundance of water-power. The public buildings include a consistory, town hall, poorhouse, and public granary. The city is the great centre of paper manufacture, and the mills are of considerable antiquity. Their production is large. The cigarette paper of Alcoy is known to every Spanish smoker, but sugar-plums, peladillas de Alcoy, woolen cloth, linen and cotton goods, as well as hardware, also form important branches of manufacture. Pop., 1900, 31,578. The prosperity of the place was interrupted for a time in 1873 by an insurrection of the Spanish Internationals.
ALCUDIA, al-koo'De-a, Manuel de Godoy.
See Godoy, Manuel, Duke of Alcudia.
ALCUIN, al'kwin, or Flaccus Albinus
(c. 735-804), The most distinguished scholar of
the eighth century, the confidant and adviser of
Charlemagne. He was born at York, was edu-
cated under the care of Archbishop Eebert, and
his relative, Ælbert, and succeeded the latter
as master of the school of York. Charlemagne
became acquainted with him at Parma, as he
was returning from Rome, whither he had gone
to bring home the pallium for a friend. He
invited Alcuin to his court, and had his assistance in his endeavors to civilize his subjects. As a result of this association, Alcuin became the preceptor of the Emperor, whom he instructed in various subjects, especially rhetoric and dialectics. To render his instruction more available, Charlemagne established at his court a school called Schola Palatina, the superintendence of which, as well as of several monasteries, was committed to Alcuin. In the learned society of the court, Alcuin went by the name of Flaccus Albinus. Many of the schools in France were either founded or improved by him. He retired to the abbey of St. Martin, in Tours, in 796, and taking as his model the school of York, taught at Tours. While there he wrote frequently to the Emperor. He died May 19, 804. He left, besides numerous theological writings, a number of works on philosophy, mathematics, rhetoric, and philology, as well as poems and a great number of letters. His letters, while they betray the uncultivated character of the age generally, show Alcuin to have been the most accomplished man of his time. He understood Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Editions of his works appeared in 1617 (Paris), 1777 (Ratisbon), and in Migne's Patrologia. Consult: Monnier, Alcuin et Charlemagne (Paris, 1864); Mullinger, Schools of Charles the Great (London, 1877), and West,
Alcuin and the Rise of Christian Schools (New York, 1892).
AL'CYONA'RIA (From Gk. ἀλκυόν[ε]ιον, alkyon[e]ion, bastard-sponge). A subclass of the Anthozoa, comprising a group of coral-polyps, characterized by the presence of eight tentacles around the mouth and the division of the gastrovascular cavity into eight chambers. Typical forms, like the precious red corals, fall into the subordinate group Alcyonacea: the sea-fans constitute the group Gorgonacea; and the sea-pens the group Pennatulacea. See Coral.
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ALCYONARIA.
ALCY'ONE, or HALCYONE (Gk. Ἀλκυόνη, Alkyonē,). In later Greek legend, the daughter of Æolus and wife of Ceyx. Inconsolable on the death of her husband, she threw herself into the sea, whereupon she and her husband were changed into kingfishers as a reward of their mutual devotion. Alcyone is originally a sea divinity, and appears in the legends of Bœotia, Argos, and elsewhere. The myth has been perpetuated in zoölogy by the name of a genus (Alcyone) of kingfishers; and these birds are frequently called halcyons in poetic literature.
ALCYONE (Gk. Ἀλκυόνη, Alkyonē, Alkyone). The most brilliant of the "seven stars" or Pleiades. This is the star which was supposed by Mädler to be the central sun, in reference to which our sun with its planets and all other known systems are moving, perhaps revolving within some almost incomprehensible period of time. It has been shown, however, that any central sun hypothesis is, as yet, far too daring, considering the insufficient state of our knowledge of sidereal systems and their motions. See Pleiades.
AL'DABEL'LA. (1) In Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (q.v.), the wife of Orlando, daughter of
Monodantes and sister of Oliviero. In French and Spanish versions of the Orlando legends she appears as Alda and Auda, (2) In Dean Milman's tragedy of Fazio (q.v.), a fascinating but wicked woman, of whom Bianca, Fazio's wife, has cause for jealousy, and who is finally condemned to a nunnery.
ALDAN, al-diin'. An affluent of the Lena,
rising in the Siberian territory of Y'akutsk,
near the mountain ridge of Yablonov, in lat. 56°
31' N., and long. 123° 51' E. (Map: Asia, M 3).
After flowing in a generally northerly direction
for 1320 miles it empties into the Lena, 111 miles below Yakutsk. It is navigable for a distance of over 600 miles. It abounds in sturgeon and sterlet.
ALDAN, al-dan'. A mountain range on the
left shore of the river that gives it its name,
between 55° and 61° N. lat. (Map: Asia, M 3).
It is a branch of the Stanovoi, about 400 miles
long, with an average altitude of 4000 feet.
ALDBOROUGH, iiWbilr'6, or, colloquially,
a'bro (A. S. aid, old). An ancient village in the
West Riding of Yorkshire, 16 miles west
northwest of York (Map: England, E 2). It is chiefly remarkable for its ancient ruins. It was the Isurium of the Romans, and after York (Eboracum) the most considerable Roman camp north of the Humber. Remains of aqueducts, buildings, tessellated pavements, implements,
