tazzi, whom she married in November 1829. She appeared first as a concert singer in England, then went to Italy, and, after a further course of training under Professor Celli, was engaged in 1832 for leading contralto parts at La Scala, in Milan. She sang next at Madrid, Paris, and London, where she made her operatic début in ‘La Cenerentola,' 19 April 1837. In the following year she sang with great success in an English version of ‘La Gazza Ladra,' produced at Drury Lane; but her voice, prematurely developed, soon after began to fail, and she ultimately fell into consumption, of which she died at St. John's Wood, 27 Sept. 1847. She left five children utterly destitute, for whom a subscription was raised. Her personal gifts were marred on the stage by total dramatic inefficiency, and her voice, a contralto of unusual compass, heard to greatest advantage in the florid music of Rossini, was ineffective in oratorio.
[The Musical World, 1837, p. 103; the Annual Register, 1847. The article in Fétis' Dictionary, closely followed in Grove's, differs materially from the authorities quoted as to the facts of her life.]
ALBERTI, GEORGE WILLIAM (1723–1758), essayist, was born at Osterode am Harz in 1723, and studied philosophy and theology under Heumann and Oporin at Göttingen, where he graduated in 1745. He spent some years in England, where, besides the connection between Hanover and England, he may have had ancestral ties. (There was a George Alberti of Wadham College, M.A., 1631.) He became minister of Tundern in Hanover, and died there on 3 Sept. 1758. He published: 1. ‘Diss. de Pseudothaumaturgis Pharaonis,' 1744. 2. ‘De Imputabilitate Somni' (graduation thesis), 1745. 3. ‘Some Thoughts on the Essay on Natural Religion as opposed to Divine Revelation, said to be written by the celebrated Dryden, which is pretended to be the most formidable piece that has ever yet appeared against Revelation. Reprinted and answered by Alethophilus Gottingensis,' London, 1747 (this is dedicated to the Princess Augusta, with the initials G. W. A. M. A.; the piece to which it replies is certainly not by Dryden, though of his date; it is perhaps worth remarking, in correction of l'Abbé Glaire and others, that it has nothing whatever to do with Hume; it was first printed at the end of ‘A Summary Account of the Deists Religion: in a letter to . . . the late Dr. Thomas Sydenham,' 1745; the editor says ‘he is credibly informed by a gentleman of great learning and integrity ' that it was Dryden's work; it was replied to also in ‘An Essay on Atheism and Deism,' 1749). 4. ‘Aufr. Nachricht von der Rel. . . . der Quäker,' Hanover, 1750. 5. ‘Briefe betreffend den allerneuesten Zustand der Rel. und der Wissenschaften in Gross-Britannien,' Hanover, 1752–4.
[Allgem. Deutsche Biographie; Leland's Deistical Writers; tracts in Brit. Mus., catalogued under Deism; the pseudo-Dryden tract, with Alberti's reply, is reprinted in Saintsbury's new edition of Dryden.]
ALBIN, ELEAZAR (fl. 1713–1759), naturalist and water-colour painter, tells us himself (vide preface to Natural History of Insects) that he was a teacher of water-colour drawing by profession, and that he was first attracted to the study of natural history by observing the beautiful colours of flowers and insects. He calls attention at the same time to the length of his family and the relative shortness of his subscribers' list.
Füssli discovers in a catalogue under Albin the three names, Eleazar, Elizabeth, and Fortin, and speculates upon the relationship of the first and the two last. Elizabeth Albin was his daughter. In his preface to vol. i. of the ‘Natural History of Birds' he explains that he has taught his daughter to ‘draw and paint after the life,' and the illustrations are stated upon the title-page to have been ‘carefully coloured by his daughter and himself.' Many of the plates are signed ‘Elizabeth Albin.' Of Fortin there is no mention. For the better accomplishment of his designs on the lower creation he solicits presents of curious birds, which should be sent to him at his house in the comfortable vicinage of the ‘Dog and Duck.' In vol. ii. of the same work he reviews his labour with pardonable complaisance, and gravely announces a new publication, ‘An History of an hundred and eighty different Spiders in their proper Colours.' This appeared in 1736. It was made the basis of a more comprehensive work by Mr. T. Martin in 1793, who says of Albin: ‘His information in general is loose, miscellaneous, and unmethodical, though sometimes it is amusing and often instructive; but he principally excels in the fidelity and correctness with which his subjects are delineated, both as to their size and distinctive marks.' Albin is interesting as having anticipated by so long a period the still less systematic publications of Bewick, and as having been, at so early a date as 1720, a teacher of water-colour painting. The dates of his birth and death are not known. His bibliography is a little complicated. A list of his publications is subjoined :—
