486 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 295. 



is a short abstract of the life of Erasmus of Rotter- 

 dam, prefacing one or two remarkable letters of 

 his. In this compendium there occurs a passage, 

 Tvhich the editor, in a marginal note, declares himself 

 not able to understand, the meaning of which ap- 

 pears to me perfectly plain. Erasmus went at nine 

 years of age to a school at "Daventria" (Da- 

 venter ?), thus described : 



" Ea schola tunc adhuc erat barbara. Pralegebatur 

 pater meus : exigebatur tempora : prielegebatur Ebrardus 

 et Joannes de Garlandia." — P. 188. 



Upon this passage the learned editor gives this 

 note referring to the words " Pater meus " : 



" Sic omnibus litteris est in Autograplio : qjiid sit, non- 

 dum capio. An a Patre Erasnii quid rudimentorum scrip- 

 turn ; quum is Graece Latineque, pulchre calluerit, Vir istoc 

 avo litteratissimus? " 



I imagine the words which thus perplex the com- 

 mentator to have been a common expression at 

 tliat time for mere rudimentary instruction, being 

 probably the grammatical examplar of the first 

 concord of adjective and substantive, and that 

 boys were thus said to learn their " pater meus ! " 

 as we now speak of their being taught their " hie 

 ha2c hoc ! " If this conjecture be correct, the 

 sentence would mean that the school was but an 

 indifferent one, in which the boys were merely in- 

 structed in the rudiments, questioned in the tenses, 

 and advanced in the works (obviously in no great 

 repute) of Ebrardus et Johannes de Garlandia. 

 Perhaps some one conversant with the " illustrious 

 obscure of literature" could tell us something of 

 these worthies thus commemorated in this short 

 autobiography of Erasmus : for such the note 

 would indicate it to be, though written in the third 

 person singular. A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



P.S. My copy of the work to which I refer 

 "wants tlie title-page ; It consists of thirty-two 

 pieces, being either biographies or funeral pane- 

 gyrics on various celebrated men, commencing 

 with Henry Chichele, and ending with Archbishop 

 Usher. Probably some reader of "N". & Q." 

 may be able to give the name of the editor. 



[This work was edited by William Bates, an eminent 

 Nonconformist divine. It is entitled, Vitce selectorutn ali- 

 quot Virorum qui doctrind, dignitate, aut pietate inclaruere, 

 Londini, 1681. Following the title-page is " Epistola 

 dedicatoria," signed " Gulielmus Batesius."] 



Peerage Cases : Private Acts. — I think all 

 agents of the claimants of peerages should be 

 obliged to deposit a copy of the printed case which 

 they lay before the House of Lords, in the British 

 Museum, the libraries of the three Universities, 

 and of the Advocates of Edinburgh. And I would 

 venture farther to suggest, that they should be 

 compelled to add an index of persons, and another 

 of places, either in manuscript or printed : it is 

 incredible the vast amount of learning that is to 



be found in those cases. If the House of Lords 

 were to make a standing order to that effect, it 

 would confer a great boon on antiquaries. 



Where are the Private Acts of Edw. VI. to be 

 seen ? They are not in the British Museum, in- 

 credible to relate ! Mossom Meekins» 



Temple. 



Picture at Louvain, ^'c, — 



" Art is degraded by the representation of mere bodily 

 suffering, as is too often done by the Spanish masters. 

 The Spaniards seem to have communicated this tendency 

 to the nations which have been under their rule, and the 

 Dutch and Flemings have added their minuteness of 

 detail to the Spanish atrocitj' of conception. This may 

 be seen in the Polemngraphim NapoviccB, and a duodecimo 

 volume, published about the end of the last century, de- 

 tailing the cruelties of Protestants to Catholics. The 

 most shocking perversion of art, however, is in the plate* 

 to a Dutch tragedy on the death of the De Witts ; which, 

 must have been written for the illustrations, as it could 

 not have been acted. In the Town Hall at Louvain is a 

 picture of a great square, in which some Protestants are 

 being flogged. They express suffering very seriously; 

 but the market-people are attending to their customers, 

 and those who have none look on as if amused. Below is 

 an inscription in Spanish from Lopez de Vega, to the 

 effect that a blow to a heretic sounds up to heaven, and 

 will be echoed to the benefit of the giver on the day of 

 judgment." — A Letter to the Royal Academicians by John 

 Wills, M.A., p. 10. : London, 178G. 



Is the picture now at Louvain ? Any inform- 

 ation as to the above-cited books, or even their 

 titles, more precisely given, to assist me in search- 

 ing for them, will be thankfully received by L. C» 



^^ Marriages are made in Heaven^'' — What is- 

 the origin of the beautiful proverb, " Marriages 

 are made in Heaven?" J. E, 



Newbiggin, Morpeth. 



Monmouth. — Was Monmouth ever included in 

 Wales ? and if so, when did it cease to be so ? I* 

 there any truth in the story that a county is de- 

 tached from the Principality every forty years ? 



A Constant Reader, 

 Bath. 



Carlo Dolcis " Romana." — Can any of your 

 correspondents give me any information regarding 

 the origin of a picture by Carlo Dolci, which be- 

 longed to the late Sir W. Erskine of Torrie, Fife ; 

 and is now, I believe, among the pictures be- 

 queathed by that gentleman to the town of Edin- 

 burgh. It represents a woman, keeping between 

 her hands a bloody heart ; and is entitled " Romana 

 qui presse le cceur de son amant." Wiio was 

 Romana, and to what historical or fictitious inci- 

 dent does the picture relate ? M. E. W. 

 Fifeshire. 



" Adagia Scotica." — In a catalogue of books 

 sold by Nat. Brooks, 1672, is Adagia Scoticay 

 Scotch Proverbs. I meet elsewhere with Adagia 



