236 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 74. 



CHARLES THE FIRST AND BARTOLOMEO DEi.LA 



nave's COLLECTION OF PICTURES. 



Among some miscellaneous papers in a volume 

 of the Birch ]\1SS. in the British Museum (Add. 

 4293. fol. 5.) is preserved a curious doeunieut illus- 

 trative of the love of Charles I. for the tine arts, 

 and his anxiety to increase his collection of paint- 

 ings, which, as it has esca|)ed the notice of VVal- 

 pole and his annotators, I transcrilie below. 



•' Charles R. 



" Whereas wee vndeistand that an excolient 

 Collection of paintings are to be solde in Venice, 

 whiche are knoweii by the name of Barlolomeo (lella 

 Nave his Collection, Wee are desirous that our beloved 

 servant Mr. William Pettye, should goe thither to 

 make the bargayne for them. Wee our selues beinge 

 resolved to goe a t'ourthe share in the buyinge of them 

 (soe it exceed not the some of Eight hundred powndes 

 sterlinge), but that our Name be concealed in it. 

 And if it shall please God that the same Collection be 

 bought and come safelye hither, Then wee doe promise 

 in the word <pf a Kmge, that they shall be divyded 

 with all equallitye in this maner, vid'. That, they 

 shall be equallie divyded into fower partes by some 

 men skillfull in paintinge, and then everie one inte- 

 rested in the shares, or some for them, shall throwe the 

 Dice severallye, and whoes;)ever throwes nioste, shall 

 choose his sh^re first, and soe in order everye one shall 

 choiise after first, as he castes most, and shall take their 

 shares freelye to their owne vses, as they shall fall vnto 

 them. In wittnes whereof wee bane sett our hande, 

 this Eight daye of July, in the Tenth year of our 

 Ueigne, 1634." 



The individual employed by Charles in this 

 negotiation is the same who collected anti(}uitlcs 

 in Greece for the Earl of Arundel. He was Vicar 

 of Thorley, in the Isle of Wight, and is believed 

 to have been the uncle of the celebrated Sir 

 William Petty, ancestor of the Marquis of Lans- 

 downe. It would be curious to learn the par- 

 ticulars of the " bargayne" made by him, and how 

 the jjictures were disposed of after their arrival in 

 England. Were the Warrant and Privy Seal books 

 of the period (slill remaining among the Exchequer 

 records) easily accessible, no doubt some informa- 

 tion on these points might be gained. Tiiat this 

 collection of IJartolomeo della Nave was a cele- 

 brated one, we have the testimony of Simon 

 Vouet, in a letter to Ferrante Carlo, written from 

 Venice, August 14, i6"27, in which he speaks of it 

 as a 'studio di bellissime pitture" (Boitan, Lettere 

 PUloriche, vol. i. p. 335.: Milano, 182-2): and that 

 it came over to England, is asserted repeatedly 

 by Uidolfi, in his Vite dcgli illustri Piltori Veneti, 

 the first edition of which appeared at Venice in 

 1648. He mentions in this work several paintings 

 which were in Delia Nave's collection, and which 

 it may be interesting to refer to here, in case they 

 are still to be traced in England. In vol. i. p. 107. 

 (I quote the Padiui edition of 1835) is noticed a 

 painting by Vincenzio Catena, representing Judith 



carrying the head of Ilolofernes in one hand, and 

 a sword in the other. In the same volume, p 182., 

 a portrait of Zattina by Palnia il Vecchio, lidding 

 in her haml "una zamj)ina dorata;" and at p. 263. 

 several sacred subjects by Titian, among wliirh is 

 specified one of tiie Virgin surrounded by Saints, 

 and another of the woman taken in adultery, 

 with " nuilti ritratti " by the same. Again, at 

 p. 288., a head of a lady, supjiosed to be the 

 mother of the artist Nadelino da Murano, one of 

 the most talented pupils of Titian ; and at p. 328. a 

 j)ainting by Antlrea Scliiavone, and some designs 

 of Parmigiano. In vol. ii. j). 123. are mentioned 

 two paintings by Battista Zelotti from Ovid's 

 Fables; and at p. 141. a picture f>f the good Sa- 

 maritan, by Jaco[io da Ponte of Bassano, For 

 these references to Bottari and Uidolfi, I own my- 

 self indebted to Mr. William Carpenter, the keeper 

 of the depaitment of engravings in the British 

 JMuseum; and, ])robably, some of your readers may 

 contribute further illustrations of Bartolomeo della 

 Nave's collection of pictures, and of the ])urchase 

 of them by Charles I. I do not find this purchase 

 noticed in Vanderdort's list of Charles's pictures, 

 published by Walpole in 1757. F. Madden. 



Nonsuch Palace. — Oin* antiquarian friends may 

 not be aware that traces of this old residence of 

 Elizabeth are still to be seen near Ewell. Tradi- 

 tions of it exist in the neighbourhood and Hanse- 

 town, and Ii)lizabetlian coins are fre<iuently dug 

 uj) near the foundations of the " Bancjuetting 

 House," now inclosed in a cherry orchard not far 

 from the avenue that joins Ewell to Cheain. In a 

 field at some distance is an old elm, which the 

 villagers say once stood in the court-yard of the 

 kitchen. Near this is a deep trench, now tilled with 

 water, and hedged by bushes, which is called 

 " Diana's Dyke," now in the midst of a broad 

 ploughed field, but Ibrmerly the site of a statue 

 of the Grecian goddess, which served as a fountain 

 in an age when water-works were found in every 

 palace-garden, evincing in their subjects proofs of 

 the revival of classical learning. The elm above- 

 meutionetl measures thirty feet in the gii'lh, iuuue- 

 diately below the ])arting of the branches. Its age 

 is " frosty but kindly ;" some two or three hundred 

 summers have passed over its old head, which, as 

 yet, is unscathed by heaven's fire, and unriveu 

 by its bolt. The ground here swells unequally 

 and artificially, and in an adjoining field, hmg 

 called, no one knew why, " the Conduit Field," 

 pipes that brought the water to the palace have 

 lately been found, and may be seen intersected by 

 the embankments of the Epsom railway. 



The avenue itself is one of the old approaches 

 to the palace, and was the scene of a skirmish 

 during the civil wars. 



