[420] It was a common practice to represent ecclesiastics leaning on or holding a book; sometimes inscribed to show it was the Bible or other work connected with religion.
[421] It resumes normal proportions when viewed downwards from the right-hand side of the picture.
[422] “Some Account of the Life and Works of Hans Holbein.” By Ralph Nicholson Wornum, London, 1867, p. 180.
[424] And not, as Dr. Woltmann, with singular absence of imagination, suggests, Holbein and his wife! (“Holbein und seine Zeit,” 2nd German edition, vol. i., p. 278.)
[425] Woltmann, “Holbein,” vol. i., p. 279.
[429] At the British Museum, Paris, Berlin, etc. See Woltmann, “Holbein,” vol. i., chap. xii., and vol. ii., pp. 174-179.
[430] Mrs. Bury Palliser, “Historic Devices, Badges, and War-cries,” page 4.
[431] The credit of having pointed this out belongs to Mr. C. L. Eastlake, late Keeper of the National Gallery. Mr. Eastlake thought he could discern the letters ASCU, or ASQU, preceded by a doubtful H. The writer confesses to inability to decipher these letters; but fully appreciates the value of the suggestion that some inscription was intended. An alternative reading to that suggested in the text would be that the lettering represents the name or initials of the goldsmith who wrought the sheath (supposing the design to have been actually executed). It was not unusual for armourers to sign any fine piece of work. In this case the letters might possibly be brought into relation with Hans von Antwerpen, a goldsmith residing in London, who had sat to Holbein in 1532, and is known to have executed some of his designs.
[432] Dr. Daniel Burckhardt, director of the Museum, has no doubt that this drawing, though not an original, is copied from one by Holbein, of whose style it indeed bears every mark. The writer is indebted to Dr. Burckhardt’s kindness for all the facts connected with this design. It is not the original of the dagger in the “Ambassadors,” as a glance at the illustration on the opposite page will show; but it furnishes an interesting point of comparison with the one in question.
[433] In 1560, François II., shortly before his death, bestowed the Order of St. Michael simultaneously on eighteen gentlemen, at the instigation of the House of Guise. Down to the death of Henri II., the royal order had always been held in very great esteem, the statutes limiting the number of knights to thirty-six. Continuing the precedent of François II., Charles IX. admitted so many to the order that it became despised and neglected. (See “Mémoires de Castelnau,” with the additions by Le Laboureur, vol. i., pages 11 and 355.) It was not till 1578 that Henri III. founded the Order of the Holy Ghost in consequence of the deterioration of that of St. Michael. The members nominated to the new order were received knights of St. Michael on the eve of their installation as knights of the Holy Ghost. Hence they were called “Chevaliers des Ordres du Roi.” (Lalanne, “Dict. Hist. de la France.”)
[434] Francis I. slightly altered the original arrangement of the connecting chain to make it simulate the rope of the Cordeliers, in allusion to his patron, St. Francis.
[435] “Excepting under arms, when it will suffice to wear only the said image of St. Michael suspended from a small gold chain or silk lace, whoever pleases to do so. And similarly when the said sovereign or one of the said knights shall be travelling, or at their houses in private, or hunting, or in other places where there is no company or considerable assembly, they shall not be obliged to wear the said Grand Collar, but only the said image of the Order, in the manner appointed.”
[436] “Statuts de l’Ordre de St. Michel,” Imprimerie Royale, 1725, article iii. This edition of the statutes was drawn up, as the preface informs us, by collation of all copies then available, whether printed or manuscript. Excepting in one or two trifling verbal details, these statutes are identical, as the writer has proved by comparison, with those contained in the “Livre des Ordonnances des chevaliers de l’ordre du treschrestien roy de france Loys XIᵉ a l’honneur de sainct Michel,” printed at Paris, in 1512, by Guillaume Eustace. The later edition has been quoted in the text only for the sake of the more modern orthography.
[437] Brantôme, “Hommes Illustres français,” Discours lxxxii., art. v., M. de Tavannes.—“Statuts de l’Ordre de St. Michel,” art. iv.
[438] No. 126. It is No. 109 in the Catalogue of the Louvre by M. Frédéric Villot (1880).
[439] Alfonso I. died in 1534; the portrait cannot therefore have been substantially later in date than the “Ambassadors.” He was the father of Ercole d’Este, who in 1527 married Renée of France.
[440] There are two interesting sketches by Holbein, for the Order of St. Michael, in the Basle Museum. They show far more freedom and spirit than the St. Michael of the “Ambassadors.” Possibly the latter was more or less a copy from the actual medallion worn by Dinteville; or it was put in by an assistant.
[442] Compare illustrations, page 214. The gores found by Mr. Stevens are reproduced here by kind permission of Messrs. Henry Stevens, Son and Stiles.
[443] See the writer’s letter to the “Academy,” February 6th, 1892. The Stevens globe is now the property of Mr. Kalbfleisch of New York.
[444] “Johann Schöner. A reproduction of his globe of 1523, long lost.... By Henry Stevens of Vermont.... Edited by C. H. Coote. London, 1888.” Schöner was a distinguished mathematician, astronomer, and geographer. Born in 1477 at Carlstadt, his name is chiefly associated with Nuremberg, where, at various intervals, he spent long periods of his life. He corresponded with Copernicus; and Melanchthon contributed prefaces to several of his books. The latter, which are mainly concerned with astronomy and mathematics, and the then kindred subjects of astrology and medicine, also include treatises on the various celestial and terrestrial globes of which he was the author. Four of Schöner’s earth-globes, if we include that under consideration, have come down to the present day. A specimen of the earliest, dated 1515, is preserved at Frankfort; of the second (1520) in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg; the gores found by Mr. Stevens are supposed to represent the third (1523); and the fourth (1534) may be seen in the Grand-Ducal Library at Weimar. Schöner died in 1547. Further information may be found, if desired, in the interesting book named above.
[445] See Mr. Coote’s article on Maximilianus Transylvanus, “Athenæum,” July 16th, 1892.
[446] The late Mr. C. H. Coote, British Museum.
[447] In the illustrations, p. 214, to facilitate comparison with the Stevens’ globe, Holbein’s copy has been placed in the same position as the original gores. To see Holbein’s globe as it is placed in the picture and described above, this book must be turned round, so as to present the globe handle downwards.
[448] Pritann. (Britannia), Norma..ia., Avern., Burgund., Languedoc.
[449] Paris, Leon, Baion, Polisy. The rivers Seine and Rhone are also laid down by Holbein, but left unnamed, probably through lack of space.
[450] Castil., Aragon., Navar., Grana.
[451] Roma, Genua.
[452] See page 52, note 2.
[455] The S in Polisy is partially effaced.
[456] See Appendix B.
[459] They are there respectively numbered II. and XIX. In both cases the words in the form given are due to Luther: the first hymn being his translation of the ancient “Veni Creator,” the second his paraphrase of the Ten Commandments. The latter first received the title given to it by him, “Die zehen Gebot kürtzer gefasst” (“A shortened Version of the Ten Commandments”), in the Wittemberg “Gesangbuch” of 1529. In Walther’s “Gesangbuch” it is simply numbered “XIX.”
[460] Brightness, brilliancy.
[461] The first strophe of the “Veni Creator” was, in fact, used as an antiphon in the Roman Catholic Church. (Antiphon: “A short piece of plain song introduced before a psalm or canticle, to the tone of which it corresponds, while the words are selected so as specially to illustrate and enforce the evangelical or prophetic meaning of the text.”—Grove’s “Dictionary of Music and Musicians.”) The suggestion that an antiphon was intended in the picture gains some force from the fact that while a faint “D...” is seen beneath the second hymn (“Mensch wiltu”), pointing to the commencement of the second verse (“Dein Gott allein und Herr bin ich,” representing the First Commandment), no second verse is indicated in the case of “Kom Heiliger Geyst,” which is limited to one strophe. The opening of the “Veni Creator” was actually printed as an antiphon in the “Baseler Plenarium” of the year 1514, beneath a woodcut, by Hans Scheuffelin, representing the Descent of the Holy Ghost. (Winterfeld, “Dr. Martin Luther’s deutsche Geistliche Lieder,” Leipzig, 1840.)
[462] The words between brackets, where the surface of the panel has been injured, are supplied from Winterfeld, “Dr. Martin Luther’s deutsche geistliche Lieder” (Leipzig, 1840), where Walther’s hymns are reproduced. The only exception is in the last line of the second hymn, where the repetition of the word “Gott” is obviously intended. In Walther’s “Gesangbuch,” in place of the repetitions seen above, “Halleluia” is twice sung at the end of “Kom Heiliger Geyst,” and “Kyrioleis” once at the conclusion of the first verse of “Mensch wiltu.” (A stroke over a letter implies a suppressed consonant. Thus, for “gleubgē” read “gleubgen”; for “brūstig,” “brunstig”; for “un̄,” “und,” and so on.) For an English rendering of the first hymn the reader is referred to the numerous translations of the “Veni Creator,” all of which give the sense generally, not literally. The second hymn is a paraphrase of the Ten Commandments, opening with an admonition to obey the behests they contain.
[463] Winterfeld, “Dr. Martin Luther’s Geistliche Lieder.”
[464] See Mr. Barclay Squires’ letter to the “Times,” November 14, 1891. The information there given is based upon Dr. Kade’s reprint of Walther’s “Gesangbuch.”
[465] It will be recollected that this hymn still forms part of the services of the Church of England for the Ordering of Priests and for the Consecration of Bishops.
[466] Spangenberg’s “Kirchengesenge,” Magdeburg, 1545; quoted by Winterfeld, “Der Evangelische Kirchengesang,” p. 306.
[467] “Je receuz ces jours passez voz lettres du premier mars.... J’ay aussy eu le pacquet de celles que m’escripvoit Monsʳ l’Archevesque de Cantorberi auxquelles je faiz response.”—Claude Dodieu, Sieur de Vély, French ambassador with the Emperor, to the Bailly of Troyes. From Paris, 2nd May, 1533. (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Coll. Dupuy, vol. 263, f. 96.)—Throughout the period of Henry VIII.’s divorce and re-marriage with Anne Boleyn Cranmer had probably much to do with the Frenchmen. It will be remembered that in the procession for Anne Boleyn’s coronation he and Dinteville rode side by side. (See ante, page 85.)
[468] Cranmer’s second wife, whom he married in Germany in 1532, the year before he became Archbishop of Canterbury, was the daughter of Osiander, the Reformer.
[469] See illustration, page 224, for a comparison of the page painted by Holbein with the corresponding page of the original book.
[470] Peter Apian, or Bienewitz (of which name Apian is the Latinized form), born 1495 at Leisnig in Saxony, became Professor of Mathematics (which included astronomy, etc.) at Ingoldstadt in Bavaria, where he died in 1552. It appears probable enough that he may have been a friend and correspondent of Kratzer, who was himself a native of Munich.—George Apian, mentioned in the colophon, was evidently a member of the same family, and a printer.
[471] The facts given above are taken from a letter to the “Athenæum,” July 30th, 1892, in which the late Mr. C. H. Coote announced his very interesting discovery of a copy of this book in the British Museum, and the identification of the very page seen in the picture.
[472] Now in the Louvre.
[473] See Mr. W. Fred. Dickes in the “Magazine of Art,” November, 1891.
[474] It was formerly of much greater extent than at present, but a portion was removed, and other portions damaged, when “the new altar” was erected early in the eighteenth century. See Dart, “Westmonasterum, or History and Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St. Peter’s, Westminster,” 2 vols. fol., 1724.
[475] Sir G. G. Scott, “Gleanings from Westminster Abbey,” second edition, 1863.
[476] The Hymn-book and Book of Arithmetic.
[477] Published by Steyner at Augsburg in 1531, and reprinted by him in the same year, as well as in 1532, 1533, and 1534. Mr. Henry Green, in his authoritative treatise on “Andrea Alciati and his Book of Emblems” (London, 1872), has shown that in all probability the so-called first edition of Milan, 1522, existed only in manuscript.
[478] Mr. W. Fred. Dickes was the first to point out the probable connection between the lute in Holbein’s picture and this emblem (“Magazine of Art,” November, 1891). The plausibility of the suggestion is happily not invalidated by the fact that Mr. Dickes unfortunately failed to notice the broken string—a circumstance which, on Alciati’s own showing (see the poem cited in the text), exactly reverses the significance of the symbol. This oversight naturally led Mr. Dickes to a wholly fallacious interpretation of the emblem. Had that gentleman read Alciati’s explanation of the device in question, he could not have been so misled.
[479] Mr. Dickes says “a lute and two books” (“Magazine of Art,” November, 1891), which of course brings the emblem much closer to Holbein’s representation. Whether the manuscript collection of Alciati’s “Emblems” of 1522 (see above, note 1) contained “two books,” and whether that collection came under the notice of Holbein and his sitters, it is impossible to say; no copy of it being known to exist. But had Mr. Dickes carefully consulted the only version of Alciati’s “Emblems” which had been published up to 1533—namely, that issued by Steyner—he would have seen that the device there consists of a lute only. The two books first appear many years after the picture was painted.
[480] Green, “Andrea Alciati and his Book of Emblems” (London, 1872), pp. 12, 43-45. In later editions of Alciati’s “Emblems,” “Fœdera Italorum” was inscribed “Ad Maximilian Mediolani Ducem.” If it was indeed sent to Maximilian, it must have been composed many years earlier than here suggested, as Maximilian was dethroned on the conquest of the Duchy of Milan by the French, in 1515. It is noteworthy, however, that the name of Maximilian is only appended to this emblem at a considerably later date, when it may have been printed in error for Francesco, who was the reigning duke in 1526. Mr. Green, indeed, appears so satisfied that the League of Cognac gave birth to this emblem, that he excludes it from the possible list of emblems comprised in the Milan collection of 1522, as having been composed at a later date. Internal evidence proves that it was addressed to one of these two Dukes of Milan; to which of them is not very important. The same fair hopes of peace in Italy, which were evoked by the accession of Maximilian, were revived by the League of Cognac, under Francesco. The argument remains the same.
[481] The writer is indebted for this translation to the kindness of Lord Francis Hervey.
[482] See, for an account of all the circumstances, Part II., pp. 90-93. The picture had of course been begun earlier in the year, but it must have taken a considerable time to think out all the elaborate accessories, and still longer to execute them.
[483] This edition was subsequently translated into French by Jean Le Fèvre, a native of Dijon and Canon of Langres (in which diocese Polisy was situated), and was dedicated to the friend of the Dinteville family, Philippe de Chabot, Admiral de Brion.
[484] Andrea Alciati was born in the Milanese in 1492. He studied at Pavia and Bologna, and took his degree as Doctor of Laws in the twenty-second year of his age. In 1518 he was appointed to the Chair of Jurisprudence at Avignon. Returning to Italy in 1521, he remained at Milan till 1529, when he returned to France; this time to lecture on law at Bourges, where he stayed till 1534. He now resided at various Italian centres until his death, which took place in 1550. Erasmus and Paul Jovius were among his friends, and his society was sought on all hands. Charles V. and Francis I. alike protected him. The “Emblems,” which he composed as a recreation from his deeper studies, had extraordinary celebrity, and were printed and reprinted in innumerable editions and languages throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One such was given to the world by the printer Gryphius at Lyons in 1548. It is curious that the motto of the Dinteville family, “Virtuti Fortuna Comes,” which, it has been seen, was also that of Gryphius in slightly altered form, was used by Alciati as early as 1522, in conjunction with the spread wings and other symbols of Hermes.
[486] Hagen, “Deutschlands literarische und religiöse Verhältnisse im Reformations-Zeitalter,” vol. i., chap. vi.
[487] Decrue de Stoutz, “La Cour de France au XVIᵉ̀ᵐᵉ siècle,” page 159. Renée of France also cultivated these sciences at the Court of Ferrara. (Bart. Fontana, “Renata di Francia, Duchessa di Ferrara,” vol. iii., page 360.)
[488] It is a curious thing that Agrippa, whose name has descended to posterity as the incarnation of black magic, enjoyed for a time a European reputation for learning of the highest kind. Ecclesiastics such as the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal La Marck, and Cardinal Campeggio, were his special protectors. The freedom with which he expressed his opinion of the monks seems first to have drawn from his enraged enemies those accusations of meddling with black art which afterwards sullied his fame. His talents were universal. Secretary, soldier, knight, doctor of law, physic, and divinity, equally at home in France, Germany, England, and Italy, his life was as varied as the professions he undertook to exercise. But by some fault of tact or temper on his part his career always broke off just when apparently about to prosper, and ended in bitterness and disappointment. Agrippa died at Grenoble in 1535.
[489] As opposed to the black magic which was considered to emanate from the Evil One, and, as such, prohibited with the utmost rigour.
[490] Bayle’s “Dictionary,” ed. 1735, Art. Agrippa. The letters from which these passages are quoted were probably not published until a later date, but their purport appears to have formed the substance of that “Key” which Agrippa was in the habit of explaining to favoured persons.
[491] Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., vol. vi. (1533), No. 1170. Thomas Houth to the Earl of Kildare. In the index to the volume in question Gyes is erroneously identified with one Gee, an altogether different individual, as can be verified by reference to the letters, in the same volume, which refer to the latter person.—The Alderman at this time was probably Barthold Beckman, of Hamburg. (Lappenberg, “Urkundliche Geschichte des Hansischen Stahlhofes zu London,” p. 157.)
[492] In this second form perhaps equivalent to “Gijze.” The “z” would have a hissing sound similar to “ss.”
[493] Lappenberg, “Urkundliche Geschichte,” etc. Urkunden (No. clii., Aus dem Archive zu Cöln), p. 173. Sir Thomas More was one of the representatives of England on this occasion.
[494] Ibid., part i., p. 80, No. 11.
[495] Ibid., p. 81, Nos. 11 and 57, and part ii. (Urkunden), p. 173. Dr. Lappenberg adds a fourth version, which he brings under the same head: “Hans van der Biesen,” which stands, in his opinion, for “Hans van der Giesen.” (Ibid., p. 81, Nos. 39 and 40.)
[496] The entry occurs as “Albert Gissen Kammer” (Albert Gisse’s or Albert Gissen Room). If we may assume “Gissen” to be here in the genitive case, the nominative “Gisse” would show perfect identity with one of Holbein’s versions of the name.
[497] “The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian,” newly translated and edited, with notes, by Colonel Henry Yule, C.B., vol. i., p. 205, note 3.
[498] “Life and Reign of Henry VIII.” (1532-33, “Ambassador sent to the Pope from the King of Ethiopia”).
[500] Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., vol. vi. (1533), No. 156.