1775 Raspe and Horace Walpole 1 3 i 



be small, and the sums to be paid him for them by the 

 enterprising booksellers would be in proportion. 



During the years which he passed in London he devoted 

 some time to an enquiry into the history of oil-painting, 

 and visited various places in England where the earliest 

 paintings in the country were preserved, among others the 

 collection of the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton House and 

 that of Mrs. Gordon at Rochester. He in April 1779 con- 

 sulted the libraries at Cambridge, and while there he dis- 

 covered a manuscript of Theophilus, a German monk who 

 probably wrote in the tenth century. He learnt that 

 Horace Walpole had written on the history of painting, 

 and as the MS. contained matter on this subject which 

 could not but interest that dilettante, he found means to 

 obtain an introduction to him. Writing in January 1780 

 to his friend Mason, Walpole referred to the manuscript, 

 written, he says, " in infernal Latin," but containing 

 statements which strongly supported opinions which he 

 himself had publicly expressed; "there is a Dutch 

 sgavant come over, who is author of several pieces so 

 learned that I do not know even their titles ; but he has 

 made a discovery in my way, which you may be sure I 

 believe, for it proves what I had suspected and hinted in 

 my Anecdotes of Painting, that the use of oil-colours was 

 known long before Van Eyck. Mr. Raspe, the discoverer, 

 is poor, and I shall try to get subscriptions to enable him 

 to print his work, which is sensible, clear and unpretending." 

 Three months later he wrote to the same correspondent : 

 " I had begun to gather subscriptions, but poor Raspe is 

 arrested by his tailor. I have sent him a little money and 

 he hopes to recover his liberty, but I question whether 

 he will be able to struggle on here." x In the end the 

 idea of subscriptions was given up and the work was pub- 

 lished at Walpole's own expense. It appeared in London 

 in the year 1781 as a single quarto, containing not only the 

 author's own essay but the text of two MSS. probably of 



1 Mrs.Toynbee's Edition of Walpole's Letters, xi. pp. 107, 151, 336, 363, 

 381, 433- 



