Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/263

 u s. vi. SEPT. 14, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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CHAINED BOOKS (11 S. vi. 69, 136). To those mentioned may be added one in my possession, Foxe's ' Acts and Monu- ments. ... 1562-3,' an imperfect copy of the first edition of the well-known ' Book of Martyrs,' bound in wooden boards, covered with calf. Attached is the original chain, and also the metal protective bosses and frame pieces. WILLIAM JAGGAKD.

A little-known contemporary notice of the practice of chaining books in churches occurs in the Latin will of Richard Lovett, Vicar of Ruddington, Notts, dated 1 April, 1491, as translated in the ' Nottingham Graveyard Guide.' After bequeathing - to the neighbouring College jof Clifton " the common gloss on Matthew and [John] of Genoa on the Gospel," Richard Lovett thus thoughtfully provided for the future spiritual and moral edification of his own flock :

" I bequeath Hugoccio of Paris upon the Gospels, and the Epistles upon Vices, Virtues, and the divisions of his work, to be held and bound with an iron chain, in a seat in the chapel of the Blessed Mary of Ruddington."

A. S.

FlTZ WILLIAM AND GRIMALDI ARMS (11 S.

vi. 144). Your correspondent L. M. R. de- duces from the fact that the Fitzwilliam and Grimaldi families bore similar arms that they had a common ancestor. The difficulties in the way of this assumption are too great to be surmounted.

Your correspondent dates the origin of the Fitzwilliam family from the era of Domesday. Nothing is more certain than that at that period hereditary family coats of arms were not in existence, either in England or Italy. No common ancestor of either the Fitzwilliams or the Grimaldi, who, ex hypothesi, must have lived before Domesday, could have borne a coat of arms which descended to both those families.

As a matter of fact, the earliest known ancestor of the Grimaldi did not " flourish " till fully a century after the date of Domes- day. The whole subject of the descent of the princes of Monaco has been carefully worked out by the late M. Gustave Saige in his book ' Monaco : ses Origines et son Histoire,' 1897. M. Saige was the archivist and librarian of the prince, and had of course full access to the State records. He found that the earliest known ancestor of the family was Otto Canella, who was Consul of Genoa in 1133, and died in 1143. Grimaldo, his youngest son, was three times Consul of Genoa, and was ambassador to the Emperor

Frederic Barbarossa, to the Sultan of Moroceo, and the Emperor of the East. Ha had a son Oberto, who, according to the usual practice on the Ligurian coast, was called in Latin documents Obertus Grimaldi, that is, the son of Grimaldus or Grimaldi. From him and his four sons, of whom the eldest was also called Grimaldo, the family assumed the name under which they ruled at Monaco from about 1340 to 1731, when Louise Hippolyte Grimaldi, daughter of the last prince, Antoine, died, and the principality devolved on her husband, Jacques de Matignon, Due de Valentinois, the ancestor of the reigning prince of to-day.

There were, of course, other families of the name of Grimaldi who were unconnected, except by name, with that which ruled over Monaco. To one of these belonged Ghibel- lino Grimaldi, who took the lead in driving the Saracens out of Provence. But, as I have before pointed out, Grimaldi, with all its varieties of spelling, is merely the Teu- tonic Grimbald or Grimwald, and there ara as many families calling themselves by that name as there are Williamses and Robertses in England. There was a Grimoald who was Prince of Beneventum between A.D. 787 and 806.

I cannot see anything peculiar in the fact of an English family bearing the same coat of arms as a Genoese. Some one may be able to state when the blazon, " Lozengy argent and gules," first became hereditary in the Fitzwilliam family. So far as the Grimaldi family of Genoa and Monaco is concerned, it first appears, I believe, on the seal of Rainier Grimaldi, who was the great-great-great-grandson of Otto Canella, and was born about the year 1267, and died in 1314. He was one of the most distin- guished members of the family, and was Admiral-General of France.

I think we can come to no other conclusion than that there is absolutely no connexion between the English family of Fitzwilliam and the Genoan family of Grimaldi.

W. F. PBIDEAUX.

As one who has followed with interest and amusement the various attacks upon and defences of the Fitzwilliam pedigree and scarf, may I ask L. M. R. where we can find proof that the Fitzwilliams are descended from the Conqueror's Marshal or the person whose name is abbreviated to God: in Domesday ? I understood that all attempts to carry the pedigree beyond Godric, the father of William, late in the twelfth century,