PORTRAITS OF LUTHER, ERASMUS, AND ULRIC VON HUTTEN.
I am very much indebted to "S.W.S." for the information which he has supplied (No. 15. p. 232.) relative to ancient wood-cut representations of Luther and Erasmus. As he has mentioned Ulric von Hutten also (for whom I have an especial veneration, on account of his having published Valla's famous Declamatio so early as 1517), perhaps he would have the kindness to state which is supposed to be the best wood-cut likeness of this resolute ("Jacta est alea") man. "S.W.S." speaks of a portrait of him which belongs to the year 1523. I have before me another, which forms the title-page of the Huttenica, issued "ex Ebernburgo," in 1521. This was, I believe, his place of refuge from the consequences which resulted from his annexation of marginal notes to Pope Leo's Bull of the preceding year. In the remarkable wood-cut with which "[Greek: OYTIS, NEMO]" commences, the object of which is not immediately apparent, it would seem that "VL." implied a play upon the initial letters of Ulysses and Ulricus. This syllable is put over the head of a person whose neck looks as if it were already the worse from unfortunate proximity to the terrible rock wielded by Polyphemus. I should be glad that "S.W.S." could see some manuscript verses in German, whcih are at the end of my copy of De Hutten's Conquestio ad Germanos. They appear to have been written by the author in 1520; and at the conclusion, he has added, "Vale ingrata patria."
R.G.
QUESTIONS CONCERNING CHAUCER.
Lollius.—Who was the Lollius spoken of by Chaucer in the following passages?
"As write mine authour Lolius."
Troilus and Cresseide, b. i.
"The Whichecote as telleth Lollius."