Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/227

 i2S.x.MAMi,i*22.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 181 LONDON, MARCH 11. 1922. CONTENTS. No. 204. NOTES : ' The Assumption of the Virgin.' by Botticini (?). 181 Lambert Family, 182 Glass-painters of York. 184 Ancient Brass Engraving, 186r A Note on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 187 A Latin Saying A " London Welsh " Family : Williams of Islington. 188. QUERIES : Stroud Green. 188 John Planta's Spinning- wheel Sir Charles Cox. M.P. ' Othello ' Non-juring Clergy : Baptismal Registers The House of Husbandry Bernasconi William Milburn Sir T. Phillips, 189 " Gregor " of the Mosquito Coast William Meyler Richard Abbott Knaves Acre', Lambeth General Cyrus Trapaud : Reynolds Portrait Files of Old Newspapers wanted " Sorencys " Daniel Race Heather Family A Kensington Tapestry, 190 Jacobo d' Zsenaco Menardus Benjamin Havenc Sir Hans Fowler Burr-walnut Book-plate of D. Andrews de Swathling Henry Kendall Vine Tavern, Mile End Authors wanted German Books wanted, 191. REPLIES : Tercentenary Handlist of Newspapers, 191 Oxfordshire Masons, 194 The Cap of Maintenance Chalk in Kent and its Owners, 195 Blue Beard Adah Isaacs Menken, 196 Regimental Chaplains, 65th Regiment Pseudo-titles for " Dummy Books " A very Aldworth Eighteenth-century Poetry St. Michael's, Guernsey, 197 Arab (or Eastern) Horses " Once aboard the lugger " British Settlers in America Portraits of Coleridge and Dickens Land Measurement Terms, 198 Samuel Maunder Unidentified Arms Gezreel's Tower Author wanted, 199. NOTES ON BOOKS : ' The General Eyre ' ' A Volume of Oriental Studies.' Notices to Correspondents. JJotetf. ' THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN,' BY BOTTICINI (?). UNDER this title there is a large and beau- tiful picture at the National Gallery, numbered 1126 in the catalogue of 1921, originally on wood, afterwards transferred to canvas, about which I venture to make the following remarks. First as to the painter. Vasari mentions it as being by Sandro Botticelli, or, as the learned call him, Filipepi, and it is so described in Bryan's * Dictionary ' (1898), in the abridged National Gallery catalogue, 1901, and in the catalogue of 1906, where, however, we are told that it "is now attributed by critics of the modern school to Botticini, of whose life little is known." The compiler quotes from Uhlmann as follows : It may well be that Botticelli had had from Palmieri the Commission for the picture of ' the Assumption,' and have designed only the com- position and left the working out to Botticini, with whom, haying probably known him at some t'ornu-r time in Verocchio's studio, he worked in the year 1470. The great affinity of the art of Botticelli with that of Botticini speaks for a close relation between the two. In the National Gallery catalogue of 1921 we are given no choice, Botticini being named alone. Thus our cherished faith is shattered by the modern expert. To go back to the catalogue of 1906. It contains in a note a remarkable account of the painting, written, I think, originally by Sir Frederic Burton, director 1874-94, of which I will now give an abstract. * The Assumption '. was executed perhaps about 1472 for Matteo Palmieri, and placed in the family chapel in S. Pietro Maggiore, Florence. That distinguished man, who rendered important services to the Republic, was also a profound theologian and an earnest student of Dante's works, who composed a poem somewhat on the model of the * Divina Commedia.' After his death and honourable burial, in or after 1475, the poem, which had not previously been circulated, was thought by some in- vidious critics to contain unorthodox views as to the nature of angels. These were brought to the notice of the Church authori- ties, and pending inquisition, the picture, which was supposed to reflect in some way the surmised doctrine in the poem, was covered, and the chapel in which it stood closed to public worship. Finally, after some lapse of time, the book was declared innocuous and the chapel was re-opened. Meanwhile, however, the question of Pal- mieri's heresy had been so violently debated in Florence that the story spread through Europe, giving rise by degress to extravagant and inaccurate reports which were variously recounted by ecclesiastical writers, some of whom stated that Palmieri had been burnt alive for heresy, others that his dead body had been disinterred and burnt with his poem. Vasari says that the painter, no less than Palmieri, was included by the malevo- lent in the charge of heresy. The painting bears evidence of intentional injury, the face of the donor and that of his wife having been scored through ; an attempt to restore them was afterwards made. At some uncertain time it was removed to the Villa Palmieri (which had been bought by Matteo), near Florence. On the death of the last heir, within the nineteenth century, the picture fell into the hands of a Florentine dealer, and later became the property of the eleventh Duke of Hamilton. It was pur- chased from the Hamilton sale, June 24, 1882. The original draft of Palmieri's poem,