Albrecht Pfister

Albrecht Pfister, a German printer of the 15th century, born about 1420, died about 1470. He was a card painter in Bamberg, but about 1455 began to print with movable types. The types of Pfister, although similar to Gutenberg's, are peculiar. He began with the printing of school and prayer books, and fragments of Latin grammars of his work have lasted to our time. Among his productions were indulgences printed with metal types of the years 1454 and 1455, an almanac of 1457, and a Biblia Pauperum. His great work is the Latin 36-line Bible in 3 vols, folio, and consisting of 881 leaves.

Alden Bradford

Alden Bradford, an American author, born at Duxbury, Mass., in 1765, died in Boston, Oct. 26, 1843. He was descended from Gov. Bradford, graduated at Harvard college in 1786, and was settled as pastor of a Congregational church at Wiscasset, Maine, for eight years. He afterward engaged in the book trade in Boston, and from 1812 to 1824 was secretary of state of Massachusetts. He published a history of Massachusetts from 1764 to 1820, a " History of the Federal Government," and many miscellaneous pieces at different times.

Aldert Van Everdingen

Aldert Van Everdingen, a Dutch marine and landscape painter, born in Alkmaar in 1621, died there in 1675. He excelled in painting wild and rugged scenery. Having been shipwrecked on the coast of Norway during a voyage to the Baltic, he employed the time while the vessel was repairing in making sketches of rocks, waterfalls, and other prominent features of a mountainous country. His sea pieces, particularly those in which storms are represented, are very effective, being painted with a broad, free pencil, and carefully colored. He also etched upward of 100 prints of Norwegian scenery, besides 56 illustrations to the fable of "Reynard the Fox."

Aldrick Isidore Ferdinand Caumont

Aldrick Isidore Ferdinand Caumont, a French jurist and author, born at Saint Vincent-Oramesnil, May 15,1825. Despite his poverty he studied law in Paris, and acquired eminence at Havre as a marine lawyer and professor of mercantile jurisprudence. His Etude sur la vie et les travaux de Hugo Grotius, ou le droit naturel et le droit international (1802), was crowned by the academy of Toulon. His principal work, consisting of over 50 separate essays, is the Dictionnaire universel de droit commercial maritime (1855-'69). He published in 1807 Langue universelle de l'humanite, ou telegraplic parlee par le nombre, reduisant a l'unite tous les idiomes du globe.

Alessandro Bonvicino

Alessandro Bonvicino, called II Moretto da Brescia, an Italian painter, born in Brescia early in the 16th century, died about 1560. Being a pupil of Titian and a careful student of the works of Raphael, he succeeded to a remarkable degree in combining the excellences of the two. He painted several historical pictures of celebrity, but excelled mainly in portraits.

Alessandro Torlonia

Alessandro Torlonia, prince of Civitella Oesi, Musignano, Canino, and Farnese, marquis of Roma Vecchia and Torrita, an Italian capitalist, born in Rome, June 1, 1800. He is the youngest and most enterprising son of Giovanni Torlonia (born in Siena in 1754, died in Rome, Feb. 25,1829), who was originally a small shopkeeper, and became a banker of great wealth and influence, and duke of Bracciano. Alessandro increased his patrimony by taking long leases of the salt and tobacco monopolies in the Papal and Neapolitan states, and by other profitable transactions. He became the principal holder of real estate in the city and province of Rome, filled his palaco and villa with fine works of art, and rendered many important services to the pope. He has made extensive excavations, and his collection of antiquities is said to rank next to that of the Vatican. The most remarkable of his public enterprises is the draining of Lake Fucino.