ALBERT NYAN`ZA, a lake in Equatorial Africa, in the Nile basin, discovered by Sir Samuel Baker in 1864, 150 m. long by 40 broad, and 2500 feet above sea-level.

ALBER`TA (26), a fertile region with large forests in British America, on the E. slope of the Rocky Mountains, the south abounding in cattle ranches, and the mountainous districts in minerals.

ALBERTI, an illustrious Florentine family, rivals of the Medicis and the Albrizzi.

ALBER`TUS MAGNUS, one of the greatest of the scholastic philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages, teacher of Thomas Aquinas, supreme in knowledge of the arts and sciences of the time, and regarded by his contemporaries in consequence as a sorcerer (1190-1280).

ALBI, a town of some antiquity and note in S. of France, 22 m.  NE. of Toulouse.

ALBIGEN`SES, a religious sect, odious, as heretical, to the Church, which sprung up about Albi, in the S. of France, in the 12th century, against which Pope Innocent III. proclaimed a crusade, which was carried on by Simon de Montfort in the 13th century, and by the Inquisition afterwards, to their utter annihilation.

ALBINOS, persons or animals with preternaturally pale skin and fair hair, also with pupils of a red or pink colour, and eyes too weak to bear full light.

ALBINUS, an able professor of anatomy and therapeutics at Leyden (1696-1770).

ALBION, a white cliff, the ancient name of Great Britain.

ALBOIN, king of the Lombards in the 6th century, from 561 to 573; invaded Italy as far as the Tiber, and set up his capital in Pavia; incurred the resentment of his wife, who had him assassinated for forcing her to drink wine out of the skull of her father.

ALBORAK, a wonderful horse of Mahomet, an impersonation of the lightning as his steed.

ALBOR`NOZ, a Spanish statesman, archbishop of Toledo, a bold defender of the faith against the Moor and a plain-spoken man in the interest of Christianity (1310-1367).

ALBRECHT.  See ALBERT.

ALBRIZZI, a powerful Florentine family, rivals of the Medicis and the Alberti.

ALBUE`RA, a Spanish village 12 m.  SE. of Badajoz, scene of a victory (May 16, 1811) of General Beresford over Marshal Soult.

ALBUFE`RA, a lake on the coast of Spain, 7 m.  S. of Valencia, near which Marshal Suchet gained a victory over the English in 1811.

AL`BULA, Swiss mountain pass in the canton of Grisons, 7595 ft. high.

ALBUMEN, a glairy substance a constituent of plants and animals, and found nearly pure in the white of an egg or in the serum of the blood.

ALBUQUERQUE`, ALFONSO D’, a celebrated Portuguese patriot and navigator, the founder of the Portuguese power in India, who, after securing a footing in India for Portugal that he sought for, settled in Goa, where his recall at the instance of jealous rivals at home gave him such a shock that he died of a broken heart just as he was leaving.  The Indians long remembered his benign rule, and used to visit his tomb to pray him to deliver them from the oppression of his successors (1453-1513).