see Apuntes historicos acerca de las fiestas que
celebra cada ano la ciudad de Alcoy a su patron San
Jorge, by J. A. Llobet y Vallosera (Alcoy, 1853).
ALCUIN (ALCHUINE), a celebrated ecclesiastic and man of
learning in the 8th century, who liked to be called by the
Latin name of ALBINUS, and at the Academy of the palace
took the surname of FLACCUS, was born at Eboracum (York)
in 735. He was related to Willibrord, the first bishop of
Utrecht, whose biography he afterwards wrote. He was
educated at the cathedral school of York, under the celebrated
master AElbert, with whom he also went to Rome in search of
manuscripts. When AElbert was appointed archbishop of York in
766, Alcuin succeeded him in the headship of the episcopal
school. He again went to Rome in 780, to fetch the pallium
for Archbishop Eanbald, and at Parma met Charlemagne, who
persuaded him to come to his court, and gave him the possession
of the great abbeys of Ferrieres and of Saint-Loup at
Troyes. The king counted on him to accomplish the great
work which was his dream, namely, to make the Franks familiar
with the rules of the Latin language, to create schools
and to revive learning. From 781 to 790 Alcuin was his
sovereign's principal helper in this enterprise. He had
as pupils the king of the Franks, the members of his family
and the young clerics attached to the palace chapel; he was
the life and soul of the Academy of the palace, and we have
still, in the Dialogue of Pepin (son of Charlemagne) and
Alcuin, a sample of the intellectual exercises in which they
indulged. It was under his inspiration that Charles wrote his
famous letter de litteris colendis (Boretius, Capitularia,
i. p. 78), and it was he who founded a fine library in the
palace. In 790 Alcuin returned to his own country, to which he
had always been greatly attached, and stayed there some time;
but Charlemagne needed him to combat the Adoptianist heresy,
which was at that time making great progress in the marches of
Spain. At the council of Frankfort in 794 Alcuin upheld the
orthodox doctrine, and obtained the condemnation of the heresiarch
Felix of Urgel. After this victory he again returned to his
own land, but on account of the disturbances which broke out
there, and which led to the death of King AEthelred (796),
he bade farewell to it for ever. Charlemagne had just given
him the great abbey of St Martin at Tours, and there, far
from the disturbed life of the court, he passed his last
years. He made the abbey school into a model of excellence,
and many students flocked to it; he had numerous manuscripts
copied, the calligraphy of which is of extraordinary beauty
(v. Leopold Delisle in the Memoires de l'Academie des
Inscriptions, vol. xxxii., 1st part, 1885) . He wrote
numerous letters to his friends in England, to Arno, bishop
of Salzburg, and above all to Charlemagne. These letters,
of which 311 are extant, are filled chiefly with pious
meditations, but they further form a mine of information as
to the literary and social conditions of the time, and are
the most reliable authority for the history of humanism in
the Carolingian age. He also trained the numerous monks of
the abbey in piety, and it was in the midst of these pursuits
that he was struck down by death on the 19th of May 804.
Alcuin is the most prominent figure of the Carolingian Renaissance,
in which have been distinguished three main periods: in the
first of these, up to the arrival of Alcuin at the court, the
Italians occupy the chief place; in the second, Alcuin and
the Anglo-Saxons are dominant; in the third, which begins in
804, the influence of the Goth Theodulf is preponderant.
Alcuin transmitted to the ignorant Franks the knowledge of
Latin culture which had existed in England since the time of
Bede. We still have a number of his works. His letters have
already been mentioned; his poetry is equally interesting.
Besides some graceful epistles in the style of Fortunatus, he
wrote some long poems, and notably a whole history in verse
of the church at York: Versus de patribus, regibus et sanctis
Eboracensis ecclesiae. We owe to him, too, some manuals used
in his educational work; a grammar and works on rhetoric and
dialectics. They are written in the form of dialogues,
and in the two last the interlocutors are King Charles and
Alcuin. He wrote, finally, several theological treatises:
a treatise de Fide Trinitatis, commentaries on the Bible,
&c. The complete works of Alcuin have been edited by Froben:
Alcuini opera, 1 vol. in 4 parts (Regensburg, 1777); this
edition is reproduced in Migne's Patrolog. lat. vols. c. and
ci. The letters have been published by Jaffe and Dummler in
Jaffe's Bibliotheca rerum germonicarum, vol. vi. pp. 132-897
(1873). E. Dummler has also published an authoritative
edition, Epistolae aevi Carolini, vol. ii. pp. 1-481, in the
Monumenta Germaniae, and has edited the poems in the same
collection: Poetae latini aevi Carolini, vol. i. pp. 169-341.
AUTHORITIES.--Monnier, Alcuin et Charlemagne (Paris,
1863); K. Werner, Alkuin und sein Jahrhundert (Paderborn,
1876); J. Bass Mullinger, The Schools of Charles the Great
and the Restoration of Education in the 9th Century
(London, 1877); Aug. Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de
France, vol. i. p. 191; G, Monod, Etudes critiques sur les
sources de l'histoire carolingienne, part i. (Paris, (1898);
C. J. B. Gaskoin, Alcuin: His Life and his Work (London,
1903). See further U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources,
&c., biobibliographie, s.v. Alcuin; Wattenbach, Deutschlands
Geschichtsquellen (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1904), i, p. 186. (C. PF.)
ALCYONE, or HALCYONE, in Greek mythology, daughter of
Aeolus and wife of Ceyx. For their presumption in calling
themselves Zeus and Hera they were changed into birds--Alcyone
into a diver, Ceyx into a kingfisher. According to another
story, Ceyx was drowned and his body cast on the shore.
His wife found the body, and the gods, out of compassion,
changed both her and her husband into kingfishers. By command
of Zeus (or Aeolus) the winds ceased to blow during their
brooding-time, for seven days before and after the shortest
day, that their eggs might not be carried away by the
sea. Hence the expression ``halcyon days,'' used in ancient
and modern times to denote a period of calm and tranquillity.
Apollonius Rhodius i. 1087; Ovid, Metam.
xi. 410 et seq.; Hyginus, Fabulae, 65.
ALDABRA, the collective name of a group of islands in
the Indian Ocean, forming part of the British colony of
Seychelles. They lie in 9 deg. 30' S., 46 deg. E., are 265 m.
N.W. of the northern point of Madagascar and 690 m. S.W. of
Mahe, the principal island of the Seychelles archipelago. The
Comoro Islands lie 220 m. S. by W. of Aldabra. The Aldabra
Islands constitute an atoll consisting of an oval ring of
land, some 40 m. in circumference and about 1 1/2 m. broad,
enclosing a shallow lagoon. Channels divide the ring into four
islands. Grande Terre or South Island forms three-fifths of the
circumference. The other islands are West Island or Ile
Picard, Polymnie and Middle Island. There are in addition
several islets in the lagoon, the most important being Ile
Michel. The total land area is estimated at about 60 sq. m., the
lagoon, 16 m. long and 4 m. wide, covering a somewhat larger
area. Pop. (1906) 127. The islands rise from 20 to 80 ft.
above the sea, and consist of rugged coral rock and limestone,
there being very little soil. The sea-face is generally
overhanging cliff, but in a few places are sandy beaches
and low sandhills. Dense scrub covers most of the land, but
the inner (lagoon) shore is everywhere bounded by mangrove
swamps. The flora and fauna of the islands present features
of unusual interest. They are chiefly noted as the habitat
of the gigantic land tortoise (Testudo elephantina), now
carefully preserved, and of several rare and peculiar birds,
including a rail (Dryolimnas aldabranus), an ibis (Ibis
abbottii) and a dove (Alectroenas sganzini.) Crustacea are
abundant. They include oysters, crabs of great size, and a
small mussel, found in enormous numbers. The flora includes
mangroves, Rubiaceae, Sapotaceae and other forms requiring
more than pure coralline material for their growth. Writing
of the fauna and flora generally, Mr R. Dupont, curator of the
Botanic station at Mahe, who visited Aldabra in 1906. says:
``The specimens represented, besides being partly peculiar,
mostly belong to the Mascarenes, Madagascar and Comoros
species. Many species are also common to East Africa and to
India. . . . The predominant species are Madagascar plants and
birds, which are carried by the currents and the winds. . . .
There are comparatively few (10) species of plants which are
endemic as far as the flora has been investigated, and it is
probable that most of them are also existing in the Comoros,
where the flora is not well known. . . . Endemic inferior
animals and mammals are practically non-existent, except two
bats and one scorpion, which are allied to Madagascar species
or introduced. The reptiles (tortoises) are also nearly
allied to the Mascarenes and Madagascar species which once
existed. With regard to birds and land shells the relation is
much closer to the Comoros species, and the latter, of which
I have collected seven species besides Rachis aldabrae, may
serve to point out more than the birds the land connexion of
Aldabra with the neighbouring countries.'' Aldabra, however,
although situated in that region of the Indian Ocean which
forms part of the site of the Indo-Madagascar continent
of the Secondary period, is not a peak of the submerged
land. It has been built up from the sunken remains of the
old continent by a deposit, in the opinion of Professor A.
Voeltzkow, of foraminiferal remains (mostly coccoliths and
rhabdoliths). In any case, however Aldabra was formed,
there can be no suggestion of its ever having been joined
to any other land (Stanley Gardiner). Dupont states that
at Aldabra the coral foundation is totally above water.
The coral limestone of the atoll has a peculiar vitrified
appearance and gives out a ringing sound when struck or
simply walked on. The coral is generally reddish, but
the colouring ranges from light yellow to chocolate-brown.
Aldabra was visited by Portuguese navigators in 1511. The
islands were already known to the Arabs, from whom they get
their name. They became in the middle of the 18th century
dependencies of the French establishments at Bourbon (Reunion),
whence expeditions were made for the capture of the giant
tortoises. In 1810 with Mauritius, Bourbon, the Seychelles
and other islands, Aldabra passed into the possession of
Great Britain. The inhabitants are emigrants from the
Seychelles. Goats are bred and coco-nuts cultivated,
but fishing is the chief industry. With other outlying
islands Aldabra is held under lease from the Seychelles
government, the lessees having exclusive trading privileges.
See R. Dupont, Report on a Visit of Investigation to . . .
the Aldabra Group of the Seychelles Islands (Seychelles,
1907); Dr Abbott in Proceedings, United States National Museum
(Washington, 1894); A. Voeltzkow in Abh. der Senckenbergischen
Naturferschenden Ges. vol. xxvi. part iv. (1901); J. S.
Gardiner, ``The Indian Ocean,'' Geo. Journ. Oct. 1906.
ALDBOROUGH, a village in the Ripon parliamentary division
of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 16 m. W.N.W. of
York, and 1 m. E. of the market town of Boroughbridge, which
has a station on a branch of the North-Eastern railway.
