Replies.
LIBER CONFORMITATUM.
(Vol. iii., p. 321.)
Bartholomæo degli Albizzi, or Bartholomew of Pisa, who wrote the famous BOOK OF CONFORMITIES, was born at Rivano in Tuscany, and died in 1401. Mr. Rose's admirable Biographical Dict. (12 vols. 8vo. 1850) contains the following passage relative to this work, under the name Albizzi:—
"The LIBER CONFORMITATUM was first printed at Venice, folio, without date or printer's name; 2nd edition, folio, black letter, Milan, 1510; 3rd, Milan, 1513. In 1590, Father Bucchi (a Franciscan) published another edition at Bologna, but with considerable curtailment; and as it did not sell, it was republished in 1620 with the first two leaves changed, in order to disguise it.
"The approbation of the Chapter of the Order is found in this edition, bearing date Aug. 2, 1399. Tiraboschi (i. 181.), who is very angry with MARCHAND for occupying SIXTEEN COLUMNS OF THE DICT. HIST. WITH AN ENUMERATION OF THE EDITIONS OF THIS WORK AND ANSWERS TO IT, should have remembered that after such an approbation, it is no longer the mere work of an individual.
"In 1632, it was published at Cologne with a new title; and in 1658 at Liege, but very much altered. Wading (Bibl. Ord. Min.) has given a catalogue of Albizzi's other works, which has been copied by Casimir, Oudin, and Fabricius."
A Venice edition, then, it would appear according to this writer, is the original edition; and that of Milan, 1510, is but the second. Will any one give me some accurate information on this point? Brunet and the publishers of the various editions of "L'Alcoran," seem quite ignorant of the existence of any edition previous to that of Milan, 1510.
DR. ERASMUS ALBER, the compiler of the Alcoranus Franciscorum, was "a warm friend and violent partizan of Luther; his chief characteristic is severe, but broad, coarse satire."
The Amsterdam edition of 1734 commences the 1st vol. with a preface in French, by Conrad Badius, which is succeeded by one from Luther in Latin: at the end of the same vol. occurs another and longer Præfatio Martini Lutheri, Germanico libello præfixa utcumque translata; then follow Typographus Lectori, and Ex Epistola Erasmi Alberi, qui hunc libellum ex detestando illo Conformitatum volumine contexuit.
To any one who is acquainted with the Book of Conformities, which has been justly denominated THESAURUS BLASPHEMIÆ, the propriety and aptness of the title of THE FRANCISCAN KORAN is very obvious. Luther (and there seems no reason to doubt the genuineness of these prefaces), after commenting on the expressions used in this book with reference to our Blessed Lord, and the great exemplar of the "minors" and "minims," observes:
"Hinc sequitur quod Christus veluti figura Francisci, nihil fit amplius: id QUOD TURCI SENTIUNT. At figuratus ille Franciscus, omnia est in omnibus. Ex quo jam altera hæresis manat, quod Franciscum, ut verum Messiam, Mediatorem, Advocatum ac Patronum invocunt, et vitam æternam ab ipso petunt."
ALBER, after quoting some of the Conformities, adds—
"Et, ut paucis dicam, Christus nihil fecit quod non item Franciscus fecerit, et longe plura etiam. Itaque et in Alcorano Franciscanorum sæpe reperitur, Franciscum Christo esse SIMILEM. Nam quod sit SUPRA CHRISTUM, perquam vellent quidem dicere, sed diabolis metuit ne nimium se prodat et agnosci possit."
The mere facts of this monstrous book having been written, approved by the highest authority, and for a century and a half receiving universal applause (with the exception perhaps of a few jealous Dominicans), nay, the mere toleration of such a book, would have been amply sufficient to show the corruption of the Western Church, and call loudly for reformation. This—
"Abominationem [says Luther] quam non ipsi solum exercuerunt ac in summo pretio habuerunt, sed ipse etiam Sanctissimus eam confirmavit, commendavit, privilegiis ornavit, ac omnibus Christe fidelibus pro focis et aris defendendam mandavit."
Southey says:
"I believe the Franciscans designed to follow the example of the Moslem, and supersede Jesus Christ. At one time they attempted to leave off the vulgar æra, and actually dated from the infliction of the Five Wounds."
In the Romish calendar, the 17th of September is dedicated to "Impressio Stigm. S. Francis." Of the Geneva editions of the Cordelier Alcoran, Brunet (last edition) mentions 1556, 1560, and 1578. In Leslie's Catalogue for 1852, under the heading "Luther," the Geneva edition of 1556 occurs; the title is worth giving:
"L'Alcoran des Cordeliers, tant en Latin qu'en François; c'est à dire, la mer des blasphèmes et mensonges de cest idole stigmatizé qu'on appelle S. François, recueilli par le Docteur M. Luther, du livre des Conformitez de ce beau S. François, imprimé à Milan l'an 1510, et nouvellement traduit, 12mo. Geneve, 1556."
The same Catalogue advertises a fine copy of Father Bucchi's Liber Aureus, 1590.
Brunet refers to the following work in reference to the Alcoranus:
"La Guerre Séraphique, ou histoire des périls qu'a courus la barbe des Capucins contre les violentes attaques des Cordeliers. La Haye, 1740, in 12.—Ce volume se joint à l'Alcoran des Cordeliers."
He also speaks of a work by a certain Spaniard, named Father PIERRE DE ALVA, which, for the vast number of points of conformity between our Lord and St. Francis adduced, and the amazing fecundity of invention and fertility of imagination displayed, completely throws BARTHOLOMEW OF PISA into the shade; it is entitled—
"Naturæ prodigium et gratiæ portentum hoc est Seraphici P. Francisci vitæ acta ad Christi Domini vitam et mortem regulata et coaptata a P. Petro de Alva et Astorga. Matriti, 1651, folio."
To conclude with a Query: Is the book called "FIORETTI" an Italian translation of the "BOOK OF CONFORMITIES?" The title would lead one to suppose it.
"FIORETTI. Opera gentilissima et utilissima a tutti li fideli Christiani laqual se chiama LI FIORETTI de Misser Santo Francesco asemiliativa a la vita et alla passion de JESU CHRISTO e tutte le soe sancti vertige. Lunardo Longo rector de la giesia de Sancto Paulo de Vincenza, curendo lano. M.CCCCLXXVI. in 4."
The second edition bears date, Venexia in caxa di Nicolo Girardengo M.CCCCLXXX. 4to.; the third, Perouse, 1481, 4to.
MARICONDA.
Feb. 11. 1852.
TRADITIONS OF REMOTE PERIODS.—GEORGE III.'S GARTER.
(Vol. v., pp. 77. 135.)
There is clearly some inaccuracy in the details of my statement, which I am obliged to LORD BRAYBROOKE and to G. for pointing out, and which, perhaps, they may help to clear up. The main fact is admitted: that "two Knights of the Garter covered the period from 1684 to 1820;" and George IV.'s assertion, that "he had given away a Garter that had been given but once since the reign of Charles II.," I myself heard, though I unluckily did not make a "Note" of it. This could apply to nothing but the cases of the Duke of Somerset and George III. Whether George IV. was misinformed as to the details on which he founded his assertion, I know not; but it is unlikely: and that after a lapse of about thirty years I may have confounded the Regency with the Accession, and Lord Moira with the Duke of Buckingham, I will not deny; for it seems that I have done one or the other, though without any effect on the main point. As to G.'s objection, that of several Garters disposed of on the same day in 1745. The Duke of Somerset's did not fall to Prince George. I have not Beltz to refer to; but it strikes me as possible this may admit of explanation: because, although Prince George was nominated first in the batch, it happened that he was invested the last; indeed not till the day after all the others: so that he might have received the badge of the Duke of Somerset. Your readers are aware that the badges are not the private property of the knights, but are always returned into the hands of the sovereign, and that the same badge is delivered to successive knights; so that it is probable that George III., on becoming sovereign, kept in his own possession the badge he had originally received, and that this identical badge George IV. disposed of as he stated, whether to the Duke of Buckingham, or, as the impression on my memory still is, Lord Moira.
C.
Traditions from Remote Periods.—From time to time notices have appeared in "N. & Q." of "remote events brought down to our own times through few links:" to these, if you should think it merits insertion, I beg to contribute the following Note from Chambers's Life and Works of Burns, vol. iii. p. 205. In the address to Mr. Maxwell, of Terraughty, on his birthday (p. 204.), Burns says, 7th line:
"This day[4] thou metes threescore eleven,"
and Mr. Chambers remarks:
"The person addressed in these verses, John Maxwell, Esq., of Terraughty and Munches, was a leading public man in the county of Dumfries. He was on several accounts very remarkable, but particularly for his birth, and the proximity into which his family history brings us with events comparatively remote; for Mr. Maxwell was grandson's grandson, and no more, to the gallant and faithful Lord Herries, who on bended knees entreated Queen Mary to prosecute Bothwell as the murderer of her husband, and who subsequently fought for her at Langside. One cannot learn without a pleasing kind of surprise, that a relation in the fifth degree of one who was Warden of the West Marches in 1545, should have lived to the close of the French Revolution wars, which was the case of Mr. Maxwell, for he died in January 1814."
[4] Middle of December, 1791.
C. D. LAMONT.
Greenock.
There is now living in the village of Headley, Hants, a man whose father was born in the time (though not in the reign) of James II.; viz. 1697. As a curious instance of the space of time included in the lives of a father and son (although there is nothing wonderful in the number of years attained by either separately), I have thought it worth recording in "N. & Q." I may add that the age of the man now living at Headley is eighty-three, and he was born when his father was seventy-two years old.
L. G.
TWENTY-SEVEN CHILDREN, AND MORE, OF ONE MOTHER.
(Vol. v., p. 126.)
Happening to have made notes from time to time of several such instances, I beg to present them to the readers of "N. & Q.":—
Sixty-two Children:—
"A weaver in Scotland had by one woman 62 children, all living till they were baptized, of wch ther wer but fower daughters onely who lived till they were women, and 46 sonns, all attaining to man's estate. During the time of this fruitfullnes in the woman, the husband, at her importunity, absented himself from her for the space of 5 years together, serving as a soldier under the command of Captaine Selby in the Low Countries. After his return home his wife was againe delivered of three children at a birth, and so in due time continued in such births till, through bearing, she became impotent. The certainty of this relation I had from John Delavall of Northumb', Esq., who, ann. 1630, rid about 30 miles beyond Edenburrough to see this fruitfull couple, who were both then living. Ther statures and features he described to me then more fully. Ther was not any of the children then abiding with ther parents. Sir John Bowes & 3 other men of qualitie have taken at severall times ten of ther children apeece from them, and brought them up. The rest wer disposed of by the other English & Scottish gents, amongst wch 3 or 4 out of them are now alive & abiding at Newcastle, 1630."
Collectanea Topog. et Geneal. vol. iv. p. 53. from MS. Harl. 980. f. 74.
Thirty-nine Children:—
"In the year 1698, when Thomas Greenhill, surgeon to Henry Duke of Norfolk (son of William Greenhill of Greenhill in Middx. by Elizabeth, daughter of John Jones of London) petitioned the Earl Marshal as follows: 'That in consideration of your petitioner being the 7th son & 39th child of one father & mother, your Grace would be pleased to signalise it by some particular remark or augmentation in his coat of Arms, to transmit to posterity so uncommon a thing.' The confirmation of the arms contains no reference to the fact."
Collectanea Topogr. et Genealogica, vol. iv. p. 53.
Thirty-five Children:—
"A woman in Vere Street of the 35th child by one husband."—Gentleman's Magazine, 1736, p. 683.
Thirty Children.—In the Gentleman's Magazine for Feb. 1743, is recorded the death of Mrs. Agnes Milbourne, who was aged 106, and had thirty children.
Twenty-nine Children.—In that for 1738:—
"Nov. 15. Mr. Thomas Rogers, a 'Change-Broker, who had by his wife 29 children, born and christen'd."
Twenty-seven Children.—Mr. Richetts, father of the present Earl St. Vincent, was the twenty-third of twenty-seven children by the same mother.
J. G. N.
In the London Medical Journal, vol. x. for the year 1789, art. vi., "A remarkable case of numerous births, with observations by Maxwell Garthmore, M.D., F.R.S. & S.A.: in a Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., P.R.S.," Dr. G. mentions an account given formerly in the Journal des Sçavans, by M. Seignette, physician at Rochelle, of a woman of Saintonge who was at one birth delivered of nine well-formed children so far advanced that their sexes could be discovered.
In the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lii. p. 376., is a curious legend of a woman giving birth to 365 children at once: all the males were baptised and named John, and all the females Elizabeth. The mother and 365 children died the same day.
In the Morning Advertiser for Dec. 1, 1851, is an account of a woman at Ballygunge, near Calcutta, being delivered of twenty-one children at once, all boys.
Nov. 14th, 1736. A woman in Vere Street, of her thirty-fifth child, by one husband. (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. vi. p. 683.)
July 31st, 1781. At Kirton-le-Moor, in Cumberland, a man and his wife, and thirty children, the youngest of whom was between two and three years old, lately walked to church to the christening of the thirty-first child. (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. li. p. 388.)
Died at Grantham, Mrs. Lelly, a widow lady of that town. She was twice mother of twenty-two children. (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lii. p. 309.)
Eighty-seven children by two wives: sixty-nine by first, eighteen by second. (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. liii. p. 753.)
Seventy-two children by two wives, and a mother of thirty-two children. (Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lix. pp. 733-4.) To which is appended the following note by the editor:
"The following epitaph, commemorating an instance of remarkable fecundity, is inserted by Mr. Pennant in his Journey to Snowdon: 'Here lyeth the body of Nicholas Hookes, of Conway, Gent., who was the forty-first child of his father, William Hookes, Esq., by Alice his wife, and the father of twenty-seven children, who died the 20th day of March, 1637.'"
PANTAGRUEL.
PEDIGREE OF RICHARD EARL OF CHEPSTOW.
(Vol. v., p. 126.)
It seems there can be no doubt that Richard de Clare, second Earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow, was eldest son of Gilbert de Clare, first Earl of Pembroke: which last was second son of Gilbert de Tonebrugge. That Strongbow's father's name was Gilbert is proved from a charter in which he (the father) made a grant of the church of Everton to the priory of St. Neot, commencing "Gilbertus, filius G. Comes de Penbroc," &c. (See Dugdale.) And I find this confirmed by a valuable old pedigree in the possession of a member of my family (date cir. 1620), which was admitted as principal evidence, and examined, in a successful suit in the Court of Chancery, in the latter half of the last century; in which pedigree the De Clares are introduced among the "præclarissimæ affinitates." An extract would be needless, and occupy your valuable space to no purpose.
To account for the singularity mentioned by your correspondent in the charter of Strongbow, I can make but these two suggestions: either the reading is correct,—in which case the true name of the first Earl of Pembroke was Richard Gilbert, which, I need hardly say, is possible, notwithstanding the existence of his elder brother Richard; or, the reading is incorrect, in which case the mistake probably arose from the writer, notwithstanding he had written "Comes Ric'" previously, by a natural oversight inserting it again after "fil," intending to write, "Comes Ric' fil Gisleb'ti."
It may be an admission of ignorance on my part, but I am unable to find in any of the authorities I have at hand, that Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, was, as your correspondent states him to have been, also Earl of Chepstow. Will he be kind enough to give me a reference?
In the above-mentioned pedigree the arms of the De Clares are given down to Strongbow—or, three chevrons gules; while the bearing of the latter is or, five chevrons gules. Burke, in his Extinct Peerage, gives the arms of both the De Clares, Earls of Pembroke, or three chevrons gules, a lable of five points az.; while in another authority, Berry's Encycl., I find for the two De Clares, Earls of Pembroke, two widely different coats, viz. ar. on a chief az. three crosses pattée fitchée of the field; and or, three chevrons gules, a crescent az. Can any of your heraldic correspondents account for these various bearings?
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.