Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Note

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of corrections is found at the end of the text. Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been maintained. A list of these words is found at the end of the text.

Text surrounded with = was printed in a black-letter typeface in the original.

_From an Allegorical Engraving by Albert Dürer._]

RAMBLES OF AN ARCHÆOLOGIST
AMONG OLD BOOKS AND IN OLD PLACES:

BEING

=Papers on Art,=

IN RELATION TO

ARCHÆOLOGY, PAINTING, ART-DECORATION, AND ART-MANUFACTURE.

BY FREDERICK WILLIAM FAIRHOLT, F.S.A.,
AUTHOR OF "DICTIONARY OF TERMS IN ART," ETC.

=Illustrated with Two Hundred and Fifty-nine Wood Engravings.=

LONDON:
VIRTUE AND CO., 26, IVY LANE,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1871.

EDITORIAL NOTE.

The following Papers originally appeared in the _Art-Journal_, for which they were specially written. They are from the pen of that painstaking and accurate archæologist, the late F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A. The illustrations also were engraved from original sketches by the Author. It has been suggested that the results of so much labour and research should be still further utilised; and that the merit and value of these Essays entitle them to a more lasting form than is afforded by the pages of a magazine. The Editor confidently believes that the popular style in which these articles are written, and the fund of anecdote and curious information they contain, will render them acceptable to a large number of general readers.

A second series of Art-papers, by the same Author, is in the press, and will shortly be published, under the title of “Homes, Haunts, and Works of Rubens, Vandyke, Rembrandt, and Cuyp; and of the Dutch Genre-Painters.”

_January, 1871._

CONTENTS.

RAMBLES OF AN ARCHÆOLOGIST AMONG OLD BOOKS AND IN OLD PLACES.

Ancient art--Mediæval art--The Renaissance--Heraldry--Enamelling-- Mosaic--Glass-painting--Gothic metal work--Raffaelle ware--Wood panelling--Decorative furniture--Book illumination--Engraved book ornaments--Metal-workers--Ancient jewellery--Decorative art in the sixteenth century--The Renaissance style--Italian art--The Gothic 1-44

GROTESQUE DESIGN, AS EXHIBITED IN ORNAMENTAL AND INDUSTRIAL ART.

Origin of the term _grotesque_--Egyptian boxes and spoons--Roman knives and lamps--Mediæval grotesque--Misereres, bosses, and capitals--Domestic utensils--The _Ars Memorandi_--Decorative plate--The Italian, German, and French goldsmiths--Book illustrations--Grotesque pottery 45-70

FACTS ABOUT FINGER-RINGS.

_Antique rings_:--Egyptian rings--Legend concerning the ring of Polycrates--Assyrian, Etruscan, and Greek rings--Roman rings-- Inscriptions and devices--Key rings--Gaelic, Celtic, and Saxon rings. _Mediæval rings_:--Episcopal rings--Thumb rings--Religious rings--Charm rings--The crapaudine, or toad-stone--The “Kings of Cologne”--Mottoes, or “reasons”--“Tower” rings--Martin Luther’s wedding-ring. _Modern rings_:--Signet rings--Story connected with the ring of the Earl of Essex--Shakespere’s ring--“Gimmal” rings-- Wedding-rings and their “poesies”--Poison rings--Modern versions of the Eastern tale of “The Fish and the Ring”--Memorial and relic rings--Death’s-head rings--“Giardinetti” rings--Indian and Moorish rings--“Harlequin-rings”--“Regard-rings”--“Fisherman’s ring” of the Pope 71-157

ANCIENT BROOCHES AND DRESS FASTENINGS.

Greek and Roman fibulæ--Roman enamelled brooches--Bow or harp-shaped fibulæ--Bust of the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus--Early grotesque brooches--Circular fibulæ--Anglo-Saxon pins--Irish and Scotch brooches and pins 159-183

ALBERT DÜRER: HIS WORKS, HIS COMPATRIOTS, AND HIS TIMES.

Nürnberg--Birth of Dürer--His early youth--Michael Wohlgemuth--Dürer’s early works--He settles at Nürnberg--His house--Martin Kötzel--Nürnberg Castle--Dürer’s paintings, woodcuts, and engravings--Melchior Pfintzing--Pirkheimer--Peter Vischer--Shrine of St. Sebald--Adam Krafft--Veit Stoss--Hans Sachs, “the cobbler-bard”--Albert Kügler--Death of Dürer--The Cemetery of St. John, Nürnberg--Grave of Dürer 185-259

RAMBLES OF AN ARCHÆOLOGIST AMONG OLD BOOKS AND IN OLD PLACES.

RAMBLES OF AN ARCHÆOLOGIST AMONG OLD BOOKS AND IN OLD PLACES.