(Sanskrit: "store of consciousness"), key concept of the Vijnanavada ("Consciousness-affirming") school of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. Since that school maintains that no external reality exists, while retaining the position that knowledge, and therefore a knowable, exists, it assumes that knowledge ...
liturgical vestment worn in some services by Roman Catholic officiants, some Anglicans, and some Lutherans. A symbol of purity, it is a full-length, long-sleeved, usually white linen tunic secured at the waist by a cord or belt called a cincture. ...
a Provencal song of lament for lovers parting at dawn or of a watchman's warning to lovers at dawn. Albas were sung by the 11th- and 12th-century troubadours. Some sources consider the alba an early form of an aubade, though, ...
the kingdom formed by the union of the Picts and Scots under Kenneth I MacAlpin in 843. Their territory, ranging from modern Argyll and Bute to Caithness, across much of southern and central Scotland, was one of the few areas ...
town, Cuneo provincia, Piedmont regione, northwestern Italy. It lies along the Tanaro River southwest of Turin. It occupies the site of the Roman Alba Pompeia, which was probably founded by Pompeius Strabo (consul, 89 BC) when he constructed the road ...
judet (county), western Romania, occupying an area of 2,406 square miles (6,231 square km). The Western Carpathians rise above the settled areas in intermontane valleys. The county is drained westward by the Mures River and its tributaries. Neolithic artifacts have ...
in the music of the troubadours (q.v.), the 11th- and 12th-century poet-musicians of southern France, a song of lovers' parting at dawn or of a watchman's warning to lovers at dawn. It sometimes takes the form of a dialogue between ...
ancient fortified town at the foot of Mount Velino, Italy. It was originally a town of the ancient Marsi people but was occupied by a Latin colony about 303 BC. It was situated on a hill with three distinct summits, ...
city, capital of Alba judet (county), west-central Romania. It lies along the Mures River, 170 miles (270 km) northwest of Bucharest. One of the oldest settlements in Romania, the site was selected by the Romans for a military camp. The ...
ancient city of Latium, Italy, in the Alban Hills about 12 miles (19 km) southeast of Rome, near present Castel Gandolfo. Tradition attributes its founding (c. 1152 BC) to Ascanius, the son of the legendary Aeneas, thus making it, according ...
Spanish soldier and statesman famous for his conquest of Portugal (1580) and notorious for his tyranny as governor-general of the Netherlands (1567-73). In the Netherlands he instituted the Council of Troubles (nicknamed the Council of Blood), which set aside local ...
provincia in the comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community") of Castile-La Mancha, southeast-central Spain. It occupies the southeastern end of the Meseta Central (plateau). Albacete is the driest interior province of the Iberian Peninsula, with as little as 2 inches (50 mm) ...
capital of Albacete provincia, Castile-La Mancha comunidad autonoma ("autonomous community"), southeast-central Spain. Albacete is located in the historic La Mancha region, on the Don Juan River at its juncture with the Maria Cristina Canal. Of Moorish origin (Arabic: Al-Basit), it ...
Jewish philosopher who rendered a Hebrew translation of parts of the Maqasid al-falasifah ("Aims of the Philosophers"), a review of doctrines of earlier thinkers by the Arabic philosopher al-Ghazali, to which Albalag added his own views and comments. In defending ...
area of extinct volcanoes in the Lazio (Latium) regione of central Italy, southeast of Rome. The hills consist of an outer circle, 6-8 miles (10-13 km) in diameter, rising to 3,113 feet (949 m) at Mount Cavo, and an inner ...
Italian painter, one of the 17th-century Bolognese masters trained in the studio of the Carracci. He assisted Guido Reni in a number of major decorative cycles, including that of the Chapel of the Annunciation (1609-12) in the Quirinal Palace and ...
country located in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula on the Strait of Otranto, the southern entrance to the Adriatic Sea. It encompasses an area of 11,100 square miles (28,748 square kilometres), with a maximum length from north to ...
Indo-European language spoken in Albania and by smaller numbers of ethnic Albanians in other parts of the southern Balkans, along the east coast of Italy and in Sicily, in southern Greece, and in Germany, Sweden, the United States, Ukraine, and ...
first Albanian nationalist organization. Formed at Prizren, Serbia, on July 1, 1878, the league, initially supported by the Turks, tried to influence the Congress of Berlin, which was formulating a peace settlement following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 and which ...
crater lake in the Alban Hills (Colli Albani), southeast of Rome. Elliptical in shape, formed by the fusion of two ancient volcanic craters, it lies 961 feet (293 m) above sea level and has an area of 2 square miles ...
southernmost town and seaport of Western Australia. It lies on the northern shore of Princess Royal Harbour, King George Sound. The naturally broad, deep, sheltered harbour was visited and charted by George Vancouver in 1791. In 1826 the first European ...
county, east-central New York state, U.S., bordered by the Mohawk River to the northeast and the Hudson River to the east. The terrain rises from the Hudson valley lowlands in the east to the Helderberg Mountains in the centre of ...
city, seat (1853) of Dougherty county, southwestern Georgia, U.S. It lies along the Flint River at the head of navigation, about 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Columbus. Founded in 1836 by Colonel Nelson Tift, it was named for Albany, ...
city, capital (1797) of the state of New York, U.S., and seat (1683) of Albany county. It lies along the Hudson River, 143 miles (230 km) north of New York City. The heart of a metropolitan area that includes Troy ...
city, seat (1851) of Linn county, western Oregon, U.S., in the Willamette Valley, at the juncture of the Willamette and Calapooia rivers, 26 miles (42 km) south of Salem. Established in 1848 by Walter and Thomas Monteith and named for ...
conference in U.S. colonial history (June 19-July 11, 1754) at Albany, N.Y., which advocated a union of the British colonies in North America for their security and defense against the French, foreshadowing their later unification. The conference was convened by ...
river, north central Ontario, Canada, rising in Lake St. Joseph at an elevation of 1,218 ft (371 m) and flowing generally eastward into James Bay. For 250 mi (400 km) of its 610-mi course, the river is navigable, and it ...
second son of James II of Scotland, created duke of Albany in or before 1458. Both he and John, earl of Mar, quarrelled with their brother James III, who imprisoned them in 1479. Mar died, but Albany escaped to carry ...
regent of Scotland during the reign of James V and advocate of close ties between France and Scotland. His father, Alexander Stewart (c. 1454-85), the 1st duke of Albany of the second creation, died when he was scarcely more than ...
wife of the Young Pretender, Prince Charles Edward, unsuccessful Stuart claimant to the English throne. Later she became the mistress of the Italian poet and dramatist Vittorio Alfieri.
regent of Scotland who virtually ruled Scotland from 1388 to 1420, throughout the reign of his weak brother Robert III and during part of the reign of James I, who had been imprisoned in London.
pottery jar for apothecaries' ointments and dry drugs made in the Near East and in Spain and produced in Italy from the 15th through the 18th century in the form known as majolica (q.v.), or tin-glazed earthenware. Since the jar ...
any of more than a dozen species of large seabirds that collectively make up the family Diomedeidae (order Procellariiformes). Because of their tameness on land, many albatrosses are known by the common names mollymawk (from the Dutch for "foolish gull") ...
fraction of light that is reflected by a body or surface. It is commonly used in astronomy to describe the reflective properties of planets, satellites, and asteroids.
American dramatist and theatrical producer best-known for his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), which displays slashing insight and witty dialogue in its gruesome portrayal of married life.
theatrical manager who, as the general manager of the Keith-Albee theatre circuit, was the most influential person in vaudeville in the United States. A circus ticket seller when he joined Benjamin Franklin Keith in 1885 to establish the Boston Bijou ...
one of the 30 soil groups in the classification system of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Albeluvisols are characterized by a subsurface layer of brownish clay into which "tongues" of bleached material project from an overlying layer extensively leached ...
shallow coastal inlet of northeastern North Carolina, U.S. Protected from the Atlantic Ocean by the Outer Banks, it extends (east-west) for about 50 miles (80 km) and varies in width from 5 to 14 miles (8 to 23 km); nowhere ...
statesman who as de facto premier of Spain (1716-19) played a major role in the revival of that nation after the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14).
king of Saxony from Oct. 29, 1873, Catholic king of a Protestant country who was nonetheless popular with his subjects. He also was a capable soldier who fought well in the Seven Weeks' War of 1866 and in the Franco-German ...
margrave of Brandenburg, cardinal, and elector of Mainz, a liberal patron of the arts known chiefly as the object of the reformer Martin Luther's attacks concerning the sale of indulgences.
antipope in 1102. He was cardinal bishop of Sabina when elected in February or March 1102 as successor to the antipope Theodoric of Santa Ruffina, who had been set up against the legitimate pope, Paschal II, by an imperial faction ...
last grand master of the Teutonic Knights from 1510 to 1525, first duke of Prussia (from 1525), a Protestant German ruler known chiefly for ending the Teutonic Knights' government of East Prussia and founding a hereditary dukedom in its place.
