Minor Queries with Answers.
Illustrated Bible of 1527.—Can you inform me whether there is any Bible published in 1527 at Lyons, with Hans Holbein's cuts in it, and what engraver used this monogram, as I have a Bible of that date, the plates of which are almost fac-similes (some of them) of Holbein's cuts, which were published by Pickering? The date of the Bible is 1527.
"Impressa autem Lugduni per Jacobum Mareschall feliciter explicat, anno nostri Salutis 1527."
L. S. C.
[Several editions of the Bible were printed in the early part of the sixteenth century at Lyons, some of them ornamented with cuts from designs similar to those of Holbein. Two or three from the press of Mareschall are in the British Museum. We believe there were no Bibles printed at Lyons in which it was acknowledged that the cuts were designed by Holbein. The following notice of the monogram occurs in Dictionnaire des Monogrammes, par F. Bruilliot, part i. p. 421., No. 3208.: "Cette marque, dont on ne connait pas la signification, se trouve sur une copie d'une gravure en bois de Jean Springinklee, représentant l'enfant Jésus couché à terre, entouré de trois anges, et adoré par St. Joseph et par la Ste. Vierge. A droite au travers d'une fenêtre près d'une colonne on remarque le bœuf et l'âne, et au milieu du fond deux bergers dont l'un ôte son chapeau. La marque est au bas à gauche près de l'habit de St. Joseph. Bartsch décrit l'original, P. Gr. t. vii. p. 328., No. 51.">[
Heraldic Query.—Can you help me towards ascertaining the date and meaning of the following device, which I find upon an old picture-frame, the portrait once inclosed in which has long since been destroyed?
On a disk, of about six inches in diameter, are engraved the royal arms of Great Britain, without the harp, but with the Scots lion. You will at once perceive the peculiarity of this bearing, the harp and the lion having been added at the same time by James I. The leopards occupy the first quarter, the ground of which is seméed with hearts; the Scots lion the second, his feet resting upon a quaint band, which seems to occupy the place of the usual bordure. The three fleurs-de-lis, very much broadened, and taking almost the shape of crowns, occupy the places of the third and fourth quarters.
The only instance I can find of a single lion or leopard appearing upon a coin without the harp, is a coin (a half-florin) of Edward III., on the obverse of which appears a leopard crowned, with a banner of the arms of England fastened to his neck, and flowing back upon his shoulder.
Ruding.
Oxford and Cambridge Club.
[Our correspondent has wasted his ingenuity: the bearings are, first quarter, Denmark, Or, semée of hearts gules, three lions passant guardant. Second quarter, Norway, a lion crowned, or holding a Danish battle-axe. In base Azure, three crowns, or two and one, Sweden. Surmounted by the royal crown. See Souverains du Monde, t. iii. p. 430.]
Richard de Sancto Victorie.—In Anthony Mundy's Successe of the Times, under the head "Scotland," he says,—
"In this King Alexander's reign (1110) lived also the holy man, Richard de Sancto Victorie, being a Scot borne, but lyving the more part of his time at Paris, in Fraunce, where he died, and lieth buried in the Abbey of S. Victorie, he being a brother of the same house."
Can you furnish any particulars of my countryman Richard?
Perthensis.
[Richard, Abbot of St. Victor, was born in the reign of David I. After such education as Scotland afforded, in polite literature, the sacred Scriptures, and mathematics, the principal objects of his early studies, he went over to Paris. Here the fame of Hugh, Abbot of St. Victor, induced him to settle in that monastery, to pursue his theological studies. In 1164, upon the death of Hugh, he was chosen prior, which office he filled for nine years with great wisdom and prudence. He died March 10, 1173, and was buried in that monastery. He was the author of several treatises on subjects of practical divinity, and on scripture criticism, particularly on the description of Solomon's temple, Ezekiel's temple, and on the apparent contradictions in the books of Kings and Chronicles. They were all published at Paris in 1518 and 1540 in
two vols. folio, at Venice in 1692, at Cologne in 1621, and at Rouen in 1650, which is reckoned the best edition. A summary account of his works is given in Mackenzie's Lives and Characters of Writers of the Scots Nation, vol i. p. 147., edit. 1708.]
St. Blase.—In Norwich, every fifty years, the festival of Bishop Blase is observed with great ceremony. What connexion had he with that city?
W. P. E.
[Norwich formerly abounded with woolcombers, who still esteem Bishop Blase as their patron saint, probably from the
