Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/460

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vm. DEC. e, wia.

would imply that the Hudson's Bay trapper must risk his skin that is, must incur danger and hardship for the sake of hides ; -and this the servants of the Company cer- tainly did, and very likely still do. But Juvenal, in " pro cute pellem," uses cutis in its primary meaning. B. B.

The motto is the converse of the words in a passage in Juvenal, Sat. x. 191-3, relating to the evils attending extreme old .age in human life :

Deformem et tetrum ante omnia vultum Dissimilernque sui, deformem pro cute pellem Pendentesque genas et tales adspice rugas cutis meaning here the smooth skin of youth as compared with pellis, the wrinkled, withered skin of advanced age. It seems rather obscure, but I take the motto to imply metaphorically the continued renewal from old age of the youthful vitality of the Hudson's Bay Company.

WM. E. BROWNING.

The interpretation suggested seems far- fetched. May not the meaning be that the hunter risks his own skin in pursuit of furs ? Somehow one is reminded of Job ii. 4. It might be of help to know when the motto was chosen. EDWARD BENSLY.

ANDREAS GISALBERTUS (11 S. viii. 409). In L. Grillet's work on ' Les Ancetres du Violon et du Violoncelle, les Luthiers et les fabricants d'archet,' Paris, 1901, there is a reference, in the chapter on ' Les Luthiers italiens.' to Andreas Gisulberti in vol. ii.

E. 196. There is also a reproduction of his ibel. The latter runs as follows :

Andreas Gisulberti fecit Parmae Anno salutis 1721.

It is quite possible that about 1714 Gisulberti was a pupil of Giuseppe " del Gesu " (1683-1745) at Cremona, and later set up for himself at Parma. I cannot, however, trace anything definite with regard to the latter supposition. The work men- tioned above may be consulted at the Patent Office Library. S. METZ.

Patent Office Library.

In * Joseph Guarnerius, his Work and his Master, 'by Horace Petherick, 1906 (crown 8vo, 5s.), -will be found a very complete account of this maker, and I think it is the first English work to identify him with" Joseph del Jesu " as his master, although this matter has been known to liutaros in Italy for many years.

Von LutgendorfT, in ' Die Geigen und Lautenmacher vom Mittelalter bis zur

Gegenwart ' (Frankfurt - am - Main, 1904), notes Gisalberti, and gives a facsimile of his ticket dating from Parma, 1721.

With regard to this particular instrument three points should be noted : ( 1 ) Is the instrument genuine ? (2) Is the ticket genuine ? (3) Does the ticket belong to this instrument ? I could probably tell DR. BRAD LEY'S friend if I saw it. But the shameless way in which many dealers transpose tickets, even going so far as to invent entirely fictitious names for violin- makers and inserting them in instruments, has so falsified history that it is extremely difficult to arrive at definite conclusions.

I have, however, seen some twelve genuine Gisalbertis, and they were all remarkable for tone so much so that he must have been a formidable rival to Stradivari, with whom he was contemporary.

The h', of course, has nothing to do with IHS, which sign Joseph used on his tickets at a much later date than when he signed himself as the pupil of Gisalberti, but is a misreading for in.

The date of the violin, if genuine, would be about 1714, which tallies with the descrip- tion. P. A. ROBSON.

St. Stephen's House, Victoria Embankment.

FIRE AND XEW-BIRTH (11 S. viii. 325, 376, 418). Last summer I noticed many clumps of fireweed in some recently thinned woodland, where great piles of brushwood had been burnt. I do not remember ever having seen more than one or two stray specimens of this plant in this part of the country before. In the Southern States it is a well-known fact that where a forest of pines is cut down, a forest of scrub oaks springs up spontaneously in its place.

LYDIA S. M. ROBINSON.

Pennsyh 7 ania.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION WANTED (11 S. viii. 409). JOHN COPLEY, admitted to Westminster School 1726, cet. 12, may well be the same as John, second son of Robert Copley of Nether Hall, Doncaster, by Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Robert Shaw of Ardsley, who died 16 April, 1731, aged 16 (see Foster's ' Yorkshire Pedigrees, West Riding,' s.v. ' Copley of Batley ').

JOHN COTTINGHAM may be the son of Charles Cottingham, of Little Keston, co. Cest., by Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh Bennett of Willaston, and brother of Charles Cottingham, who graduated M.A. of Dublin University in 1719 (see Ormerdd's ' Cheshire,' ii. 541). O. R. Y. R.