ALBERGOTTI, AGOSTINO. - Bishop of Arezzo, born there on 25 Nov. 1755 and died on 6 May 1825. He completed his sacred studies in Rome and was ordained priest in 1779. He took part in the struggle against Jansenism and the religious encroachments of Grand Duke Leopold I, supporting Monsignor A. Martini.
After the latter’s death, he was appointed bishop of Arezzo by the chapter and confirmed in this office by the metropolitan of Ravenna. The election was ratified the following year by the new pope, Martin V.
He was bishop of Florence, of which he was vicar general for fourteen years. He assisted French and Italian priests who had taken refuge in Tuscany. He paid devout homage to Pius VI (1798) when the latter passed through Florence as a prisoner of the French. Arrested by the French in 1799 and taken to Livorno, he managed to escape. Elected bishop of Arezzo in 1801, during the twenty-four years of his episcopate he restored the diocese and was a model of apostolic life. He wrote: *La via della santità nello spirito e nella pratica della vera devozione al S. Cuore* (2nd ed., Lucca 1797; new revised ed. by P. Severi, Milan 1931); *Dal Cenacolo al Calvario* (new ed. edited by P. Severi, Milan 1936).
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ALBERI, EUGENIO. - Historian, born in Padua on 1 Oct. 1807, died in Vichy in June 1878. He studied law in Bologna, but his natural inclination was towards literature and history.
His first works in this field were *Quadro strategico delle guerre d'Italia del principe Eugenio di Savoia* (1830) and *Vita di Caterina de' Medici* (1838). He then began the two works that still constitute an invaluable and indispensable aid to the historian: *Le Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato* (1839-63, 15 vols.) and the edition of Galileo’s works published between 1842 and 1856.
After the election of Pius IX to the papal throne, Alberi published a pamphlet *Del Papato e dell'Italia* in which he expressed his faith in reforms, asserting that «the papacy has not only been incapable of maintaining the division of Italy, but that no one has contributed more effectively than it to save her from total servitude».
He volunteered in the war of 1848 in the forces of General Durando and was present at the defence of Vicenza, negotiating the capitulation with the Austrians and securing equitable and honourable terms from the victor through his shrewdness. After 1859 he opposed the Piedmontese policy of unification and, attached to the old order, it was rumoured—as Tommaseo writes—that he was subsidised by the former Grand Duke of Tuscany. He remained always obedient to Catholicism, accepting without reservation the Syllabus and the Decrees of the Vatican Council.