94 MORE POT-POURRI 



Church of the Catacombs, was the accepted symbol of 

 Christ, because the letters of the Greek ichthus = &sh, 

 give the initials for the Greek words, 'Jesus Christ, Son 

 of God, the Saviour.' Mrs. Jameson, in 'Sacred and 

 Legendary Art,' gives the Latin name, vesica piscis , for 

 the oblong glory surrounding the whole person. She 

 says that it is 'confined to figures of Christ and the 

 Virgin, or Saints who are in the act of ascending into 

 heaven.' It is, therefore, in ignorance that this German 

 of the early days of the seventeenth century surrounds 

 the Almighty with this almond-shaped glory instead of 

 a glory round the head. The book is called 'Hortus 

 Eystettensis,' and was brought out in 1613 by Basil 

 Besler, an apothecary. On each side of the columns are 

 two draped male figures, representing Solomon and 

 Cyrus. The whole page is coloured (highly rather than 

 beautifully) by hand ; and the large first volume must 

 contain over three hundred pages, with designs of all 

 kinds of flowers and fruit beautifully drawn and 

 coloured. I believe the book with only outline represen- 

 tations of the flowers is not very uncommon, but coloured 

 copies are exceedingly rare. In fact, Herr Baer told 

 me he had never seen another. Whether the colouring 

 dates from the time of printing or not it is difficult to 

 say. The paper is beautiful, the whole in excellent 

 condition, and it is a treasure, from a collector's point of 

 view. Binders were careless in those days, as one sheet 

 is bound upside down. The second volume is not quite 

 so thick, but the plates are of even greater beauty. It 

 contains a curious copyright, given by Louis XIII., 

 King of France and Navarre. The date of the book 

 being 1613, the young king was only twelve years old 

 when he granted this protection to his good servant, 

 Basil Besler, who had been put to such great expense 

 in producing his book. 





