on the cut of the duchess sitting up in bed, with the two Deaths, one of whom is fiddling, whilst the other pulls at the clothes, is retained, but this could not be with a view to pass these engravings as originals, after what is stated in the dedication. An artist’s eye will easily perceive the difference in spirit and decision of drawing. In the ensuing year 1546, Valgrisi republished this book in Latin, but without the dedication, and there are impressions of them on single sheets, one of which has at the bottom, “In Venetia, MDLXVIII. Fra. Valerio Faenzi Inquis. Apreso Luca Bertelli.” So that they required a license from the Inquisition.
II. In the absence of any other Italian editions of the “Simolachri,” it is necessary to mention that twenty-four of the last-mentioned cuts were introduced in a work of extreme rarity, and which has escaped the notice of bibliographers, intitled “Discorsi Morali dell’ eccell. Sig. Fabio Glissenti contra il dispiacer del morire. Detto Athanatophilia Venetia, 1609.” 4to. These twenty-four were probably all that then remained; and five others of subjects belonging also to the “Simolachri,” are inserted in this work, but very badly imitated, and two of them reversed. In the subject of the Pope there is in the original a brace of grotesque devils, one of which is completely erased in Glissenti, and a plug inserted where the other had been scooped out. A similar rasure of a devil occurs in the subject of the two rich men in conversation, the demon blowing with a bellows into his ear, whilst a poor beggar in vain touches him to be heard. Besides these cuts, Glissenti’s work is ornamented with a great number of others, connected in some way or other with the subject of Death, which the author discusses in almost every possible variety of manner. He appears to have been a physician, and an exceedingly pious man. His portrait is prefixed to every division of the work, which consists of five dialogues.
III. In an anonymous work, intitled “Tromba sonora per richiamar i morti viventi dalla tomba della colpa alla vita della gratia. In Venetia, 1670.” 8vo. Of which there had already been three editions; there are six of the prints from the originals, as in the “Simolachri,” &c. No. I. and a few others, the same as the additional ones to Glissenti’s work.
In another volume, intitled “Il non plus ultra di tutte le scienze ricchezze honori, e diletti del mondo, &c. In Venetia, 1677.” 24mo. There are twenty-five of the cuts as in the Simolachri, and several others from those added to Glissenti.
IV. A set of cuts which do not seem to have belonged to any work. They are very close copies of the originals. On the subject of the Duchess in bed, the letter S appears on the base of one of the pillars or posts, instead of the original
, and it is also seen on the cut of the soldier pierced by the lance of Death. Two have the date 1546. In that of the monk, whom, in the original, Death seizes by the cowl or hood, the artist has made a whimsical alteration, by converting the hood into a fool’s cap with bells and asses’ ears, and the monk’s wallet into a fool’s bauble. It is probable that he was of the reformed religion.
V. “Imagines Mortis, his accesserunt epigrammata è Gallico idiomate à Georgio Æmylio in Latinum translata, &c. Coloniæ apud hæredes Arnoldi Birckmanni, anno 1555. 12mo.” With fifty-three cuts. This may be regarded as a surreptitious edition of No. IV. of the originals by
p. 106. The cuts are by the artist mentioned in No. IX. of those originals, whose mark is