Albani
Albani names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Albani a powerful family of Rome
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a powerful family of Rome, has which supplied the Roman Catholic Church with several cardinals. Two of them are well known as patrons of the fine arts: (1) ALBANI, ALESSANDRO, born in 1692; died in 1779; he was a great virtuoso, and possessed a collection of drawings and engravings which, at his death, was purchased by George III. for 14,000 crowns. (2) ALBANI, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO, nephew of the former, born 1720; a great friend to the Jesuits, but in other respects liberal and enlightened. His palace was plundered by the French in 1798, when he made his escape to Naples, stripped of all his possessions. Died in 1803.
Albani FRANCESCO, a famous Italian painter
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
FRANCESCO, a famous Italian painter, born at Bologna, 1578; was a scholar of Guido. He was fond of representing the fair sex, and his compositions, in love subjects, are held in high esteem. The most celebrated of the productions are: "The Sleeping Venus," "Diana in the Bath," "Danae Reclining," "Galathea on the Sea," and "Europa on the Bull." He has been called the Anacreon of painters. It is said that his second wife, who was very beautiful, and his children, served as models for his Venuses and Cupids. Died in 1660. His brother and disciple, GIOVANNI BATTISTA, was a distinguished historical and landscape painter. Died in 1668.
Albani MARIE EMMA (LAJEU- NESSE)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
MARIE EMMA (LAJEU- NESSE), a dramatic soprano and opera singer, born in 1852, at Chambly, near Montreal, Canada. After studying with Lamperti, at Milan, she made her début at Messina (1870), )), in "La Sonnambula," under the name Albani, in compliment to the city of Albany, where her public career began.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote of Emma Albani in 1921 as a living singer, and so she was: she had retired from the stage in 1911, published her memoir "Forty Years of Song" that same year, was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1925, and died in London in 1930. She is now treated as a national figure in Canada, commemorated on a postage stamp and in her birthplace of Chambly, Quebec. Alessandro Albani's drawings, bought by George III as Collier's notes, remain in the Royal Collection at Windsor, while his Villa Albani in Rome, whose antiquities were catalogued by his librarian Winckelmann, is still privately held by the Torlonia family and almost never open to the public. Only the painter Francesco Albani has slipped: praised here as "the Anacreon of painters" and a pupil of Guido Reni, he is now a decidedly secondary name in the Bolognese school.
Written for this edition, 2026.