342
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. m. JUN-E, 1917.
t3t. Barbara from the noble army of martyrs
as an unreal person.
In 1614 F. Morrell printed at Paris an incomplete poem in honour of St. Barbara, written by an unknown person in Greek iambics, with a Latin metrical translation by himself. He had found this interesting fragment in the Paris Royal Library, and to it he added some Latin hymns composed in honour of this saint by Mark Antony Muretus, and an epigram by Jacques de Maussac of Toulouse, to all which he supplied Greek translation. One of the Dukes of Gonzaga had built a church at Mantua dedicated to St. Barbara :
Qui virides Minci ad ripas tibi, Diva, sacra vit Teraplum , augustum, ingens, cura quod et ipse tuetur Pervigili,
.says Muretus. This rare booklet of 24 pp.
- should be examined by any one who under-
takes to write a monograph of the saint.
I have a copy of J. M. Horstius's ' Septem ' Tubse Orbis Christiani,' printed at Cologne, 1635, 4to, and bound in old brown leather, stamped in the German style with the date 1642. This is embellished in the centre of . each cover with a deeply sunk and beauti- fully cut medallion in gold, that on the front representing St. Bruno, the founder of the
Carthusian Order, that on the back St. Barbara, each with appropriate symbols.*
' The Carthusian house at Cologne was under -the patronage of St. Barbara. This fact I ': learnt from the prefaces to two volumes of the
works of Dionysius Carthusianus, one of \which is dedicated by its vicar, Theodoric
Loer a Stratis, to King Henry VIII. of '. England in 1532. It is a fair inference that
Horstius's work mentioned above was
specially bound for the Cologne house of
- Carthusians.
Ancient churches dedicated to St. Bar- bara.' Richard Pococke, LL.D., F.R.S., in his ' Description of the East,' 1743, i. 27, says that in Old Cairo there were about twelve Coptic churches : "In the church of St. Barbara they say they have her head . and some other relics." Close by was the . church of St. George of the Greeks. At Sydonaia, in Syria, north-west of Damascus, the same traveller found a famous Greek nunnery, and near it seven or eight ruined churches and chapels :
" Those of St. John, St. Saba, and St. Barbara
have three naves, with an altar at the end of each
. after the Syrian style ; and I saw in them several
- The chalice is in a niche at the bottom of the
tower, and the streamers borne in the left hand and falling over the shoulder are probably in-
- tended for feathers.
Doric capitals, and remains of fresco paintings "
(ii. 134).
When Pococke reached Nicomedia he found the tomb of St. Pantaleon, but failed to get any information about SS. Adrian and Barbara (iii. 96). ^.
Bell. Cardinal Angelo Roccha, in his commentary on ' Bells ' (' Opp.,' Romse, 1745, i. 173), says that in his time the great bell in the Jesuits' Church at Rome, " quae ex Anglia delata fuit," bore the inscription :
PACTA FUIT ANNO DOMINI 1400. DEE VI.
MENSIS SEPTEMBRIS. SANCTA BARBARA ORA PRO NOBIS.
It would be interesting to know something more about this bell.
Pictures. In a ' Notice des Tableaux exposes dans la Galerie Napoleon,' Paris, 1813, No. 325 is a triptych by Hans Hem- melinck, 1480, Flemish school. On the spectator's left is St. William, protector of the donor and his sons ; in the centre St. Christopher, with the infant Christ in his arms, with SS. Benedict and Giles ; on the right St. Barbara, protectress of the donor and his daughters. No. 791, by Michel Angelo Anselmi (1491-1554), School of Sienna, represents the Blessed Virgin, the infant Jesus, St. Joseph, and St. Barbara. The tower is supported by an angel. These pictures may be now in the Louvre.
Window. Franciscus Swertius printed at Cologne in 1623 his ' Epitaphia Joco-Seria.' The collection is dedicated to the two brothers Ludovicus and Rogerius Clarisse of Antwerp, and among other reasons for selecting them for this honour the author says that they had done a very generous act not long since in embellishing the church of the Blessed Virgin at Antwerp with a window to the honour " Divse Barbarse virtutis invictse Virginis."
Miscellaneous. I have an Italian manu- script, undated, but circa 1730, as I should judge, the first part of which treats of the diseases of horses and their remedies ; the second gives illustrations of the marks branded on horses owned by the princes and private owners of Razze de Cavalli, in the kingdom of Naples. Eighty-six illustrations are given, of which No. 38 is thus described:
" Mercho della Razza della Sta. Barbai'a la. Razza e In Puglia Appresso santo-Angelo nel Regno di Napoli, sono belli et buoni cavalli."
The badge is the letters SB surmounted by a plain cross.
I have a book of controversial Reforma- tion theology with the imprint : " PAPJSIIS Apud Guillelmum Guillard et Thomam Belot sub D. Barbarce signo, via Jacobcea. M.D.LXV.'
