the French frontier, and from Saragossa to Bilbao, cross the
province. The capital is Vitoria (pop. 1900, 30,701),
which is the only town with more than 3500 inhabitants.
For a fuller account of the history, people and customs of
Alava, see BASQUES and BASQUE PROVINCE, with the works there
cited. A very elaborate bibliograohy is given in the Catalogo
de las obras referentes a las provincias de Alava y Navarra,
by A. A. Salazar (Madrid, 1887.) The following books by i.
I. Landazuri y Romarate contain much material for a provincial
history:--Historia ecclesiastica, &c. (Pamplona, 1797);
Historia civil, &c. (Vitodes, 1798); Compendios historicos
de la ciudad y villas de . . . Alava, &c. (Pamplona,
1798); Suplemento a' los cuatro libros de la historia de
. . . Alava (Vitoria, 1799); and Los varones illustres
Alavenses Vitoria, 1798). See also M. Risco in vol. 33 of
Hispania Sagiada, by H. Florez, &c. (Madrid, 1754-1879).
ALB (Lat. alba, from albus, white), a liturgical vestment
of the Catholic Church. It is a sack-like tunic of white
linen, with narrow sleeves and a hole for the head to pass
through, and when gathered up round the waist by the girdle
(cingulum) just clears the ground. Albs were originally
quite plain, but about the 10th century the custom arose of
ornamenting the borders and the cuffs of the sleeves with
strips of embroidery, and this became common in the 12th
century. These at first encircled the whole border; but soon
it became customary to substitute for them square patches of
embroidery or precious fabrics. These ``parures'' ``apparels''
or ``orphreys'' (Lat. parun'ae, grammala, aurifeisia,
&c.), were usually four in number, one being sewn on the
back and another on the front of the vestment just above
the lower hem, and one on each cuff. When, as occasionally
happened, a fifth was added, this was placed on the breast
just below the neck opening. These ``apparelled albs''
(albae paratae) continued in general use in the Western
Church till the 16th century, when a tendency to dispense
with the parures began, Rome itself setting the example.
The growth of the lace industry in the 17th century hastened
the process by leading to the substitution of broad bands of
lace as decoration; occasionally, as in a magnificent specimen
preserved at South Kensington, nearly half the vestment is
thus composed of lace. At the present time, so far as the
Roman Catholic Church is concerned, apparelled albs are only
in regular use at Milan (Ambrosian Rite), and, partially, in
certain churches in Spain. The decree of the Congregation
of Rites (May 18, 1819) says nothing about apparels, but
only lays down that the alb must be of white linen or hemp
cloth. There is no definite rule as to the material or
character of the ornamentation, and attempts have been made,
especially in England, to revive the use of the apparelled alb.
In the Roman Church the alb is now reckoned as one of the vestments
proper to the sacrifice of the Mass. It is worn by bishops,
priests, deacons and subdeacons under the other eucharistic
vestments, either at Mass or at functions connected with
it. It is sometimes also worn by clerics in minor orders,
whose proper vestment is, however, the surplice--itself a
modification of the alb (see SURPLICE.) The alb is supposed
to be symbolical of purity, and the priest, when putting it
on, prays: ``Make me white and purify my heart, O Lord,''
&c. In the middle ages the parures, which originally had
no mystic intention whatever, were taken to symbolize the
wounds of Christ; whence probably is derived the custom
surviving at the cathedral of Toledo, of the singers of
the Passion on Good Friday being vested in apparelled albs.
In England at the Reformation the alb went out of use with
the other ``Mass vestments,'' and remained out of use in the
Church of England until the ritual revival of the 19th century.
It is now worn in a considerable number of churches not only
by the clergy but by acolytes and servers at the Communion.
Where the ritual, as in most cases, is a revival of pre-Reformation
uses and not modelled on that of modern Rome, these albs are frequently
apparelled. For the question of its legality see VESTMENTS.
Both the alb and its name are derived ultimately from the
tunica alba, the white tunic, which formed part of the
ordinary dress of Roman citizens under the Empire. As such it
was worn both in and out of church, the few notices remaining
which suggest a special tunic for ministers at the Eucharist
merely implying that it was not fitting to use for so sacred
a function a garment soiled by everyday wear. The date of its
definite adoption as a liturgical vestment is uncertain; at
Rome--- where until the 13th century it was known as the linea
or camisia (cf. the modern Italian camice for alb)---it
seems to have been thus used as early as the 5th century. But
as late as the 9th and 10th centuries the alba is still an
everyday as well as a liturgical garment, and we find bishops
and synods forbidding priests to sing mass in the alba worn
by them in ordinary life (see Braun, p. 62). Throughout the
middle ages, moreover, the word alba was somewhat loosely
used. In the medieval inventories are sometimes found albae,
described as red, blue or black; which has led to the belief
that albs were sometimes not only made of stuffs other than
linen, but were coloured. It is clear, however, from the
descriptions of these vestments that in some cases they were
actually tunicles, the confusion of terms arising from the
similarity of shape (see DALMATIC); in other cases the colour
applied to the parures, not to the albs as a whole. Silk
albs appear in the inventories, but only very exceptionally.
The equivalent of the alb in the ancient Churches of the
East is the sticharion (sticharion) of the Orthodox Church
(Armenian shapik, Syrian Kutina, Coptic stoicharion
or tuniah.) It is worn girdled by bishops and priests
in all rites, by subdeacons in the Greek and Coptic
rites. By deacons and lectors it is worn ungirdled in all
the rites. The colour of the vestment is usually white
for bishops and priests (this is the rule in the Coptic
Church); for the other orders there is no rule, and all
colours, except black, may be used. Its material may be
linen, wool, cotton or silk; but silk only is the rule for
deacons. In the Armenian and Coptic rites the vestment is
often elaborately embroidered; in the other rites the only
ornament is a cross high in the middle of the back, save in
the case of bishops of the Orthodox Church, whose sticharia
are ornamented with two vertical red stripes (potamoi,
``rivers''). In the East as in the West the vestment is
specially associated with the ritual of the Eucharist.
The whole subject is exhaustively treated by Father Joseph
Braun in Die liturgische Gewandung (Freiburg im Breisgau,
1907). See also Bibliography to the article VESTMENTS.
ALBA, a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, on the
river Tanaro, in the province of Cuneo. From the town of
the same name it is 33 m. N.E. direct; it is 42 m. S.S.E.
of Turin by rail. Pop. (1901) 13,900. It contains a fine
cathedral, with a Gothic facade, reconstructed in 1486, and
is an important commercial centre. It occupies the site of
the ancient Alba Pompeia, probably founded by Pompeius Strabo
(consul 89 B.C.) when he constructed the road from Aquae
Statiellae (Acqui) to Augusta Taurinorum (Turin). Probably
this was the road taken by Decimus Brutus when he succeeded,
after the raising of the siege of AIutina in 43 B.C., in
occupying Pollentia just before Mark Antony's cavalry came in
sight. Alba was the birthplace of the emperor Pertinax. It
became an episcopal see dependent on Milan in the 4th century.
A small museum of local antiquities was established in 1897.
See F. Eusebio in Atti del Congresso Internazionale
di Scienze Storiche (Rome, 1904), vol. v. p. 485.
ALBACETE, an inland province of south-eastern Spain, formed
in 1833 out of the northern half of Murcia, and bounded on the
N. by Cuenca, E. by Valencia and Alicante, S. by Murcia, and
W. by Granada and Jaen. Pop. (1900) 237,877; area 5737 sq.
m. The northern part of Albacete belongs to the high plains
of New Castile, the southern is generally mountainous,
traversed by low ranges or isolated groups of hills, which
culminate in the Sierra de Alcaraz on the borders of Granada,
where several summits reach 5000 ft. Besides many smaller
streams, two large rivers water the province, the Segura in
the south-west, and the Jficar in the north-east; both rising
beyond the borders of Albacete, and ultimately flowing into the
Mediterranean. The fertile glens of the Alcaraz district
are richly wooded, and often, from their multitude of fruit
trees, resemble the huertas or gardens of Alicante; but broad
tracts of land are destitute of trees, and suitable only for
pasture. These barren regions are thinly peopled; and for the
whole of Albacete the density of population (41.3 per sq. m. in
1900) is lower than in any other Spanish province, except Soria.
The climate is generally mild and healthy, although, among
the higher mountains, the snow lies for several months. Wheat
and other cereals are cultivated, with fruits of many kinds,
olives, and vines which yield a wine of fair quality; while
saffron is largely produced, and some attention is given to
thekeeping of bees and silkworms. Stock-farming, for which
the wide plains afford excellent opportunities, employs
many of the peasantry; the bulls of Albacete are in demand
for bullfighting, and the horses for mounting the Spanish
cavalry. There is also a good breed of mules. Sulphurous
and other mineral springs, both hot and cold, exist in several
districts, and deposits of silver, iron, copper, sulphur, coal
and other minerals have been discovered; but the exploitation
of these is retarded by lack of communications, and, apart
from building materials, sulphur and salt, the actual output is
insignificant. Manufactures are almost confined to the
spinning of hemp, and the making of coarse cloth, porcelain,
earthenware and cutlery. Brandy distilleries are numerous, and
there is some trade in wood; but no local industry can rival
agriculture and stock-breeding, which furnish the bulk of the
exports. Albacete (pop. 1900, 21,512), the capital, and
the other important towns of Almansa (11,180) and Hellin
(12,558), are described under separate headings. Alcaraz,
which gives its name to the mountain range already mentioned,
is a picturesque old town with the ruins of a Moorish castle,
and a fine Roman aqueduct; pop. (1900) 4501. Caudete (5913),
Chinchilla, or Chinchilla de Monte-Aragon (6680), La Roda
(7066), Tobarra (7787), Villarrobledo (10,125) and Yeste
(6591) are important markets for the sale of agricultural
produce. The railway from Madrid to Albacete passes
south-westward to Chinchilla, where it bifurcates, one line
going to Murcia, and the other to Alicante. A large part of
the province is only accessible by road, and even the main
highways maintained by the state are ill kept. Education
is very backward even in the towns; many of the inhabitants
carry arms; and crimes of violence are not infrequent.
ALBACETE, the capital of the above province, on the MadridAlicante
railway, and at the confluence of the river Balazote with the
canal of Maria Christina, which flows into the river Jficar, 16
m. N. Pop. (1900) 21,512. Albacete comprises the picturesque
old upper town and the new or lower town, with iawCourts,
