FLORENTINE SCHOOLS OF ENGRAVING. 353 



tented ; neither would lie take any pleasure in reading, writ- 

 ing, or accounts, insomuch that the father, disturbed by the 

 eccentric habits of his son, turned him over in despair to a 

 gossip of his, called Botticello, who was a goldsmith, and con- 

 sidered a very competent master of his art, to the intent that 

 the boy might learn the same." 



" He took no pleasure in reading, writing, nor accounts " ! 

 You will find the same thing recorded of Cimabue ; but it 

 is more curious when stated of a man whom I cite to you as 

 typically a gentleman and a scholar. But remember, in those 

 days, though there were not so many entirely correct books 

 issued by the Religious Tract Society for boys to read, there 

 were a great many more pretty things in the world for boys 

 to see. The Val d'Arno was Pater-noster Row to purpose ; 

 their Father's Row, with books of His writing on the moun- 

 tain shelves. And the lad takes to looking at things, and 

 thinking about them, instead of reading about them, which 

 I commend to you, also, as much the more scholarly practice 

 of the two. To the end, though he knows all about the ce- 

 lestial hierarchies, he is not strong in his letters, nor in his 

 dialect. I asked Mr. Tyrrwhitt to help me through with a 

 bit of his Italian the other day. Mr. Tyrrwhitt could only help 

 me by suggesting that it was " Botticelli for so-and-so." And 

 one of the minor reasons which induce me so boldly to attrib- 

 ute these sibyls to him, instead of Bandini, is that the letter- 

 ing is so ill done. The engraver would assuredly have had 

 his lettering all right, or at least neat. Botticelli blunders 

 through it, scratches impatiently out when he goes wrong ; 

 and as I told you there's no repentance in the engraver's trade 

 leaves all the blunders visible. 



7. I may add one fact bearing on this question lately com- 

 municated to me.* In the autumn of 1872 I possessed my- 

 self of an Italian book of pen drawings, some, I have no 

 doubt, by Mantegna in his youth, others by Sandro himself. 

 In examining these, I was continually struck by the com- 

 paratively feeble and blundering way in which the titles were 



* I insert supplementary notes, when of importance, in the text of 

 the lecture, for the convenience of the general reader. 



