As to Sir Christopher Hatton, I would refer ANTIQUARIUS, and all other whom it may concern, to Sir Harris Nicolas's ably written Memoirs of the "Dancing Chancellor", published in 1846. Hatton had amble means for the building of Holdenby, as he was appointed one of the Gentlemen Pensioners in 1564, and between that time and his appointment as Vice-Chamberlain in 1577 (five years prior to the period referred to by ANTIQUARIUS), he received numerous other gifts and offices.
JOSEPH BURTT.
ADVERSARIA
Printers' Couplets.
It may not perhaps be generally known that the early printers were accustomed to place devices or verses along with their names at the end of the books which they gave to the public. Vigneul-Marville, in his Mélanges d'Histoire et de Littérature, relates that he found the two following lines at the end of the "Decrees of Basle and Bourges," published under the title of "Pragmatic Sanction," with a Commentary by Côme Guymier,—Andre Brocard's Paris edition, 1507:—
"Stet liber hic, donec fluctus formica marinos
Ebibat et totum testudo perambulet orbem."
The printers, it would appear, not only introduced their own names into these verses, but also the names of the correctors of the press, as may be seen in the work entitled, Commentariis Andreæ de Ysernia super constitutionibus Siciliæ, printed by Sixtus Riffingerus at Naples in 1472:—
"Sixtus hoc impressit: sed bis tamen ante revisit