io8 Painters in the Reign of Henry VII L 



Durer. * Holbein flopped for a fhort time 

 at Antwerp, having otl^er letters for P. 

 Aegidius, a common friend of Erafmus and 



* At lord Folkfton's at Longford in Wiltihire, are 

 the portraits of Erafmus and Aegidius, faid to be drawn 

 by Holbein ; they belonged to Dr. Meade, and while 

 in his collection had the following lines written on the 

 frames, and ftill remaining there : On that of Erafmus, 



E tenebris clarum dodlrinae attollere lumen 

 Qui felix potuit, primus Erafmus erat. 

 On Aegidius. 

 Aegidium mufis charum dile^dt Erafmus ; 

 Spirat ab Holbenio piclas uterque tuo. 

 The latter is far the better ; that of Erafmus, is ftifF and 

 flat. However this is believed to be the very picture 

 which Erafmus fent by Hoibein himfelf to Sir Thomas 

 More, and which was afterwards in the cabinet of An- 

 drew de Leo and from thence paffed into the Arunde- 

 lian colleflion. But I fnould rather think it is the 

 pidure which was in king Charles's (fee his catal. No. 

 13, p. 154.) where it is faid to have been painted by 

 George Spence of Nuremberg. Quintin Matfis too 

 painted Aegidius, with which Sir Thomas More was fo 

 pleafed, that he wrote a panegyric on the painter, be- 

 ginning, 



Quintine, o veteris novator artis, 

 Magno non minor artifex Apelle. 

 Aegidius held a letter in his hand from Sir Thomas, 

 with his hand-writing fo well imitated, that More 

 could not diftinguifh it himfelf Quintin too in the 

 year 1521 drew the piflure of the celebrated phyfician 

 I>T. Linacre. 



More. 



