]22 



One other Hand-book of Portraits must be mentioned, 

 namely, that which was edited by Theo. De Bry, at Frankfort, 

 in the years 1597 and 1598, the portraits being drawn (many 

 from the life) by his learned friend Boissard, who also fur- 

 nished for each of them a biographical memoir in Latin, with a 

 couple of verses in the same language. In a preface this 

 excellent engraver acquaints his readers that he was born to 

 high expectations, but had been stripped by ill fortune and 

 roguery of all his property, except the skill which he had 

 acquired in the art of engraving. He lived to complete only 

 two parts, containing together ninety-seven portraits finely en- 

 graven on copper; and after his death, his two sons, John 

 Theodore and John Israel, who had assisted their father, pub- 

 lished two more parts in 1598 and 1631 — the Latin biogra- 

 phies and distiches being composed by their young friend 

 John Annseus Lonicerus, an advocate. A fifth part was added 

 in 1632, consisting of twenty portraits, chiefly of English 

 protestant divines; but in the two last parts a considerable 

 falling off in the execution is observable. Indeed those given 

 in the fifth part are hard and brassy. 



From this valuable collection we may take the following 



" PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. 

 " Enthroned on Helicon thy glories shine ! 

 Who knows not thee — knows not the sacred Nine."* 



Mori sed absit ilia posse dixerira 



Quse vivere jubent mortiios. 

 Immo iuterire Ibrsan ilia si queant 



Subireque tumuli specum, 

 Tu-tu ilia doctis, tu piis, tu caiulidis 



Et non mori certissimis 

 Tenaci ab ipsa raorte chartis asseras # 



Ipso approbante Nuniine. 

 Foedns be'atum ! mortuum ilia te excitant ; 



Et tu mori ilia non sinis. 

 At hunc, amici, cur fleamus mortuum 



Qui vixit aliis et sibi ? " 



* " Qui non te norit, Musas quoque nesciat esse 



In summo sedem namque Helicone tenes." 



Although the Moria Encomium of Erasmus is frequently classed by booksellers 



amongst Books of Emblems (as having been illustrated by the engravings of Holbein 



and others), it cannot strictly be included within the definition, nor is it so named by its 



celebrated author, whose varied and arduous labours allowed him little leisure for works 



of 



