Catalogue of the Dante Collection in the Library of University College London : with a note on the correspondence of Henry Clark Barlow.

  • Raymond Wilson Chambers
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Catalogue of the Dante Collection in the Library of University College London : with a note on the correspondence of Henry Clark Barlow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    NOTE ON THE COERESPONDENCE OF HENRY CLARK BARLOW Together with his library, Dr. Barlow bequeathed to University College, London, a collection of letters relating to Dante, which had been addressed to him by a number of Dante Scholars in England and abroad. The collection includes letters from G. J. Ferrazzi, Augustus de Morgan, P. Emiliani-Giudici, Seymour Kirkup, Sir Frederic Madden, Antonio Maschio, C. E. Norton, L. Scarabelli, F. Scolari, the duca di Sermoneta, Gregorio di Siena, Alessandro Torri, C. Voqel v. Voqelstein, and Carl WiTTE. The most voluminous of the Italian correspondents is Scarabelli, from whom there are more than forty letters dating from Oct. 1869 to Feb. 1875 ; of the English, Seymour Stocker [Baron] Kirkup, from whom there are about the same number dating between Nov. 1851 and March, 1870. The most interesting of Kirkup's letters describes how the Bargello portrait came to be discovered in 1840. This letter bears date Feb. 9, 1857, and an account of it was contributed by Barlow to the Athenaeum of July 4 ,1857. After much about the so-called House of Dante, Kirkup continues :— ' The history of the Bargello portrait is this : I had returned from S. Croce, where I had been seeking that portrait mentioned by Vasari, and which I found had been destroj'ed by him, and much besides, for his own baroque altars. My books were on my table, and I had a visit from a piedmontese refugee named Bezzi, who had brought me a letter from Eastlake. I told him of my disappointment, but added that there was one hope yet, the chapel of the pal. del podestii which had been whitewashed. He seemed so interested that I proposed our joining to get it recovered ; his joy made me ask him if he had ever heard of it, and said he had not. I showed him my authorities, Villani, Filelfo, Vassari, (sic) etc. The next day he called to ask if I had any objection to admit Mr. Wilde, an American friend of mine and his, to join us in the undertaking, and I agreed to it. The editor of Filelfo, the Abbate Moreni, had mentioned a Sig. Scotto who was willing to undertake the job. We found him too engaged and too old, and he recommended Sig. Marini, with whom we made an agreement for 240 scudi to clear the whitewash of the chapel, whether he found Dante or no. Bezzi drew up our petition (being an Italian) and it was granted after some hesitation, and Marini went to work. He made two holes in the wall to hold two beams for his scaffold. Luckily Dante was not there, or he would have been destroyed. I was obliged to threaten not to pay him if he made any more holes. He was impertinent, but made no more, and used trussels. After he had worked some weeks the government stopped