Albert National Park See Virunga National Park Albert the Great, Saint See Saint Albertus Magnus
"Join, or Die," the first known Ameri¬ can cartoon, published by Benjamin Franklin in his Pennsylvania Gazette ,
1754, to support his plan for colonial union presented at the Albany Con¬ gress
THE GRANGER COLLECTION, NEW YORK
Josef Albers, photograph by Arnold Newman, 1948.
©ARNOLD NEWMAN
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Alberta ► Albuquerque I 39
Alberta Province (pop., 2001: 2,974,807), Canada, westernmost of three Prairie Provinces. With an area of 255,287 sq mi (661,190 sq km), Alberta is bordered by Saskatchewan, British Columbia, the Northwest Territo¬ ries, and the U.S. Its capital is Edmonton. Long inhabited by various Indian peoples, the area was explored by Europeans in the 1750s. It even¬ tually came under the rule of the Hudson's Bay Co., which transferred it to the Dominion of Canada in 1870. It was made part of the Northwest Territories in 1882. Its population grew with the coming of the railroads and the expansion of wheat farming. Alberta was made a province in 1905. Once dependent on agriculture, it underwent economic growth with the discovery of oil in 1947 and the ensuing discovery of other major oil and gas deposits.
Alberta, University of Canadian public university in Edmonton. Opened in 1908, it is one of Canada’s five largest research universities. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs in liberal arts, agriculture and forestry, science and engineering, business, law, education, and the health professions. Special programs include the School of Native Stud¬ ies and the Faculte Saint-Jean, which conducts all study in French and also offers a bilingual Bachelor of Commerce degree.
Alberti, Leon Battista (b. Feb. 14, 1404, Genoa—d. April 25, 1472, Rome) Italian architect, art theorist, and humanist. After pursuing a lit¬ erary career as papal secretary, in 1438 Alberti was encouraged to direct his talents toward the field of architecture. His designs for the Palazzo Rucellai (c. 1445-51) and the facade of Santa Maria Novella (1456-70), both in Florence, are noted for their harmonic proportions. His central- plan church of Sant’Andrea, Mantua (begun 1472), with its triumphal- arch motif, is an early Renaissance masterpiece. Alberti was one of the foremost theorists on Renaissance architecture and art, known for codi¬ fying the principles of linear perspective (in On Painting, 1436). A pro¬ totype of the Renaissance man, he also made contributions to moral philosophy, cartography, and cryptography.
Albertus Magnus, Saint (b. c. 1200, Lauingen on the Danube, near Ulm, Bavaria—d. Nov. 15, 1280,
Cologne; canonized Dec. 16, 1931; feast day November 15) German cleric, theologian, and philosopher.
Son of a wealthy German lord, he studied at Padua, where he joined the Dominican order (1223). At the Uni¬ versity of Paris he was introduced to the works of Aristotle and to Aver- roes’ commentaries and decided to present to his contemporaries the entire body of human knowledge as seen by Aristotle and his commenta¬ tors. For 20 years he worked on his Physica, which encompassed natural science, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, ethics, economics, poli¬ tics, and metaphysics. He believed that many points of Christian doc¬ trine were recognizable both by faith and by reason. In 1248 he organized the first Dominican studium generale (“general house of studies,” a pre¬ cursor to the university) in Germany, at Cologne. Thomas Aquinas, who had been with Albertus in Paris and joined him in Cologne, was his chief disciple at this time. His works represented the entire body of European knowledge of his time, and he contributed greatly to the development of natural science.
Albigensian X.al-bo-'jen-shonV Crusade (1209-29) Crusade called by Pope Innocent III against the heretical Cathari of southern France. The war pitted the nobility of northern France against that of southern France, and it eventually involved the king of France who established his authority over the south. The Crusade ended with the Treaty of Paris (1229), which took away the independence of the southern princes and largely destroyed the culture of Provence. The Crusade caused much devastation and injus¬ tice, which Innocent came to regret, but did not bring about the extirpa¬ tion of the Albigensian heresy (named for its center in the town of Albi, France). The heresy lingered on into the 13th—14th centuries and became the object of the Inquisition.
Albigensians See Cathari
albinism Val-bo-.ni-zom, al-'bl-.ni-zoirA Absence of the pigment mela¬ nin in the eyes, skin, hair, scales, or feathers. It arises from a genetic defect and occurs in humans and other vertebrates. Because they lack the pig¬ ments that normally provide protective coloration and screen against the sun’s ultraviolet rays, albino animals rarely survive in the wild. Humans have long intentionally bred certain albino animals (e.g., rabbits) for their appearance. In humans with generalized, or total, albinism, the affected person has milk-white skin and hair; the iris of the eye appears pink, the pupil red. Vision abnormalities such as astigmatism, nystagmus (rapid involuntary oscillation of the eye), and photophobia (extreme sensitivity to light) are common. Generalized albinism occurs throughout the world in about one in 20,000 persons.
Albinoni \,al-b3-'no-ne\, Tomaso (Giovanni) (b. June 8/14, 1671, Venice—d. Jan. 17, 1751, Venice) Italian composer. Born to a wealthy Venetian family, he was not obliged to work for a living and became a highly prolific composer. He had more than 50 operas successfully pro¬ duced between 1694 and 1741, though few survive. His approximately 60 concertos became popular; he also wrote more than 80 sonatas for vari¬ ous instrumental combinations and many solo cantatas. These works are distinguished above all by their melodic charm.
Albinus \al-'be-n3s\, Bernard Siegfried (b. Feb. 24, 1697, Frank¬ furt an der Oder, Brandenburg—d. Sept. 9, 1770, Leiden, Neth.) German- bom Dutch anatomist. A professor at the University of Leiden, he is best known for the excellent engravings in his Tables of the Skeleton and Muscles of the Human Body (1747). He was the first to show the con¬ nection of the vascular systems of mother and fetus. With Hermann Boer- haave, he edited the works of Andreas Vesauus and William Harvey.
albite Common feldspar mineral, a sodium aluminosilicate (NaAlSi 3 0 8 ) that occurs most widely in pegmatites and acid igneous rocks such as gran¬ ites. It may also be found in low-grade metamorphic rocks (those formed under relatively low temperature and pressure conditions) and in certain sedimentary rocks. Albite usually forms brittle, glassy crystals that may be colourless, white, yellow, pink, green, or black. It is used in the manu¬ facture of glass and ceramics, but its primary geologic importance is as a rock-forming mineral.
Albright, Ivan (Le Lorraine) (b. Feb. 20, 1897, North Harvey, Ill., U.S.—d. Nov. 18, 1983, Woodstock, Vt.) U.S. painter. He was the son of a painter. Independently wealthy, he studied at various institutions, devel¬ oping a meticulously detailed style and often spending several years of painstaking work on a single painting. With pinpoint exactness and hal¬ lucinatory hyperclarity, he repeatedly depicted decay, corruption, and the wreckage of age, often with great emotional intensity. Among his impor¬ tant works is That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (1931-41). He gained fame with his portrait (1943-44) of the title character in the film The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), depicting the final stage of Gray’s dissolute life.
albumin Val-'byti-monX Any of a diverse class of proteins historically defined by their ability to dissolve in water and in a half-saturated (see saturation) solution of ammonium sulfate. They are readily coagulated by heating. Examples include serum albumin, a major component of plasma; a-lactalbumin, found in milk; ovalbumin, which makes up about half the proteins of egg white; and conalbumin, another egg-white protein. Oval¬ bumin is used commercially in the food, wine, adhesives, paper coatings, pharmaceutical, and other industries and in research.