Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/513

 10*8. 1. MAY 28, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

421

LONDON, SATUEDAY, MAY SS, 190l>.

CONTENTS. -No. 22.

JIOTES -.The Certosa of Pavia, 421 The Fleetwoods and Milton's Cottage, 422 Shakespeariaua, 424 "Pearl " .Sherlock Crucifixion Folk-lore, 426.

QUERIES : The First Wife of Warren Hastings, 426 Documents in Secret Drawers Madame du Tencin Wyrley's Derbyshire Church Notes Consumption not Hereditary Murray Baronetcy A Phrase : What is It ? Baxter's Oil Painting Masonic Portrait of Lord Chatham, 427 The Western Rebels and the Rev. John Moreman Authors Wanted Gaboriau's ' Marquis d'Angival' Name Jesus Thomas Farmer Blin Bellinger ' The Yong Souldier,' 428.

HEPLIES :" Ashes to ashes," 429 Birth -Marks, 430 Dickens Queries "Sal et saliva," 431 "As the crow flies " Stoyle Ainoo and Baskish, 432 Admiral Greig " I expect to pass through " Authors of Quotations Pamela, 433 William Peck ' Recommended to Mercy' Potts Family' Ancient Orders of Gray's Inn ' " Barrar," 434 Dryden Portraits The Sun and its Orbit Football on Shrove Tuesday, 435 Printing in the Channel Islands " Tugs," Wykehamical Notion ' The Creevey Papers' The Syer-Cuming Collection The Armstrong Gun "The run of his teeth" The Cope, 436 Battlefield Say- ingsBass Rock Music Latin Quotations Last of the War Bow, 437.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Hakluyt's 'Principal Navigations' Alry's 'Charles II.' 'Great Masters ' ' England's Elizabeth' 'The Cattle-Raid of Cualnge ' Macray's ' Register of St. Mary Magdalen ' ' The Reliquary ' The Rutland Magazine.'

Notices to Correspondents.

THE CERTOSA OF PAVIA.

THE little museum near the old pharmacy of the Certosa of Pavia has been lately enriched by a large and faithful copy (executed by Carlo Cam pi, of Milan) of the original altar which belonged to that church about the end of the fourteenth century, and the existence of which, together with that of the four columns of its pyx, was only discovered in 1894 in the parish church of Carpiano, a small village lying between Locate and Melegnano. It was removed there by the Carthusian monks themselves in 1567, and I am rdeaaed to place before readers of ' N. & Q.' some notices relating to such an important masterpiece, and supplementing the sketch by the late Eugene Miintz in the Chronique des Arts of 15 December, 1899, and the 'Cicerone' of Burckhardt, eighth edition, i. 400d.

This altar, a fine sculptured work of the fourteenth century, in the style of Giovanni da Campione, which has been at Carpiano since 1567, I was led to recognize in March, 1894, as the original high altar of the Certosa of Pavia on account of its dimensions and its extraordinary artistic importance, and

especially on account of the sculptured figures in honour of the Virgin, taken from the apocryphal Gospels figures agreeing perfectly in style with those in the ivory triptych which stood upon the said altar, and remained in the possession of the Certosa. The four wreathed columns in Gandoglia marble, which belonged to the destroyed pyx of the altar, are now to be seen in the pronaos of the church of Carpiano. A portrait of Caterina Visconti, foundress of the famous monastery, has been sculptured in one of the bas-reliefs.

The prebend of the parish of Carpiano was given by Leo X., by his letter of 20 April, 1518, to the Carthusians of the Certosa of Pavia, who owned property at Carpiano, with the obligation of maintaining the regular or secular priest, and of providing the humble church of the borough, dedicated to S. Martino, with the things necessary for divine service.

That duty was fulfilled by the monks in 1567, on the occasion of a complete restora- tion executed by the care of the fourth Carthusian priest, Giovan Battista Verano, who removed to Carpiano the high altar of the mother church, together with other pieces of marble, as appears on the little grave- stone which was discovered on 1 October, 1896, in the interior of the altar, with the name of the above-mentioned priest and the date 1567.

The sculptures, admirable for their in- genuousness and exquisite sentiment, appear to be of the Campionese school, and they have already begun to be studied by the aid of some notes made in 1396 in the ledger of the Carthusian monastery at Pavia.

But what is most imposing is the monu- ment itself, which possesses much artistic interest ; and though this remarkable work was begun about 1396, at the same period as the ivory triptych, it was not consecrated with the church till the year 1497 by the Cardinal Carvajal, on account of the long interruptions in the work of building. The ceremony included the deposition in the altar of seven relics for worship.

The fact that the removal of this altar to Carpiano took place in 1567 confirms what has been recently ascertained namely, that the richer high altar, which is now to be seen at the end of the central apse, was begun only in that year, and not earlier, as was at first supposed, and that during its consecra- tion performed nine years after (1576) by Don Angelo Peruzzi, Bishop of Cesarea the seven relics of the primitive altar of 1396 (now to be seen at Carpiano) were placed