Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/362

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii e. xn. NOV. 6, 1915.

drawn their facts from " a contemporary writer," there are remarkable differences between the two in their presentation of them which deserve mention. Thus Baring- Gould places the birthplace of this saint at Bozzanello, while Butler (vol. iv. p. 299, ed. 1798) says it was at Montaegradi. But it is in the localizing of her relics that their discrepancies are widest. Says Butler :

" Her body was found entire in 1580, and is kept with great respect in St. Frigidian's Church, richly enshrined ; her face and hands are exposed naked to view through a crystal glass." Baring-Gould, more up-to-date than his rival, observes :

" Some of her relics are preserved in her chapel on Monte Motrone, near Lucca ; others at Genoa; others at Parma. A toe was given by the Bishop of Lucca to Sir William Langston, Who built a chapel at Ely to her honour, in 1456. Other relics are in Portugal."

Plumptre seems less well - informed than Baring-Gould, simply stating that " on the festa of the saint her mummy is exposed." Zita (a maidservant) seems to be, in default of her real name, a coined one, adapted from, or denoting, her station or occupation, such as Maccarius and Veronica. An office in honour of St. Zita was approved by Leo. X. ; and her cult as a saint allowed in 1696 by Innocent XII.

3. Line 48 :

Qui non ha luogo il Santo Volto. This allusion of Dante to a well-known shrine of his day seems to call for more than a passing notice, seeing that he deemed it imperative for his purpose and that it has some connexion with our own land. Some writers of commentaries on the * D. C.' are singularly nebulous as to its matter and form, and all exceedingly chary of informa- tion thereon. Thus Scartazzini calls it an " antichissima statua del Kedentore scolpita in legno, bella di nob ill fattezze, lavoro a quanto credesi bizantino. Secondo la leggenda il volto fu scolpito da mano celeste, mentre Nicodemo, lo scolpitore della statua, dormiva." Prof. Tomlinson refers to it as "a much revered portrait of our Lord in the Cathedral of Lucca." Bianchi writes of it as " 1'effigie " and " un'immagine." Mr. Tozer states that " the ' Holy Face ' of Lucca was an ancient crucifix, and the Lucchesi used to invoke it in time of need " ; and Dean Plumptre, quoting Ampere and Hare, says of it : " The a wooden crucifix."
 * Holy Face ' was the head of the Christ on

. Here we have a confusing variety of description : statue, portrait, effigy, image, and crucifix. Which was it ? The editor of Buskin's ' Fors Clavigera ' (vol. i. p. 313,

letter 18 June, 1872, ed. 1907) clears away all ambiguity :

" The Volto Santo, which is preserved in a chapel built by Matteo Civitali, is a cedar-wood crucifix about 13 ft. in length. It is said to have- been carved by Nicodemus, and While he slept an angel carved the face. In 782 it was discovered to a pilgrim bishop from Piedmont, Gualfredo by name, who, instructed by an angel, put it on board an empty bark at Joppa. The bark was guided to Luni, where, at the time of its arrival, was Giovanni, Bishop of Lucca. It was agreed that the crucifix should be placed on a cart drawn by two white oxen, and that, wherever they Went, it should remain. The oxen went straight to Lucca, and ' there it has ever since remained, working great wonders, and drawing to this day vast crowds of pilgrims from all corners of the Catholic world.' It is exposed to view on the Festivals of the Holy Cross, May 3 and September 14 ; and on the anniversary of the curation of a plague, in December. Mediaeval Englishmen had a great devotion to the Volto Santo. William of Malmesbury records that the Bed King habitually swore ' per Sanctum Vultum de Luca,' and in an old London church of St. Thomas there was an effigy of the Volto Santo, the cult of which Was cared for by the Lucchese colony. See Canon Almerico Guerra's ' Notizie Storiche del Volto Santo di Lucca ' (Lucca, 1881 ), and Montgomery Carmichael's ' In Tuscany,' 1901, Where, at p. 154, is a reproduction from a drawing of the upper portion of the crucifix. A lamp of gold was offered by the people of Lucca at the outbreak of cholera in 1836."

What Buskin himself thought of the Santo Volto is characteristically expressed in the letter to which the editor appended the note above, and is worthy of transcrip- tion here :

" When in Chaucer's * Pardonere's Tale r Death puts himself into the daintiest dress he can, it is into a heap of ' floreines faire and bright.' He has chosen another form at Lucca ; and when I had folded up my two bits of refuse tinder, I walked into the Cathedral to look at the golden lamp which hangs before the Sacred Face twenty pounds of pure gold in the lamp : Face of wood, the oath of kings, since William Bufus' days ; carved eighteen hundred years ago, if one would believe, and very full of pardon to faithful Lucchese ; yet, to some, helpless."

J. B. MCGOVERN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

HELL-FIRE CLUBS. (See references ante, p. 97.)

LONDON.

Consult * Clubs and Club Life in London * (Timbs), 1898, p. 38.

MEDMENHAM ABBEY.

Hogarth was the guest of Sir Francis Dashwood, and painted his portrait in the club costume (' Hogarth,' by Austin Dobson, 1890, p. 62.)