_Borrow's Danish Ballads._--The title of the work is--
"Romantic Ballads, translated from the Danish, and Miscellaneous
Pieces; by George Borrow. 8vo. Printed by S. Wilkin, Norwich; and
published at London by John Taylor, 1826."
In the preface it is stated that the ballads are translated from
Oehlensloeger, and from the _Kiaempe Viser_, the old Norse book referred to
in _Lavengro_.
[mu].
_Head of the Saviour_ (Vol. iii., p. 168.).--The correspondent who inquires
about the "true likeness" of the Saviour exposed in some of the London
print-shops, is not perhaps aware that there is preserved in the church of
St. Peter's at Rome a much more precious and genuine portrait than the one
to which he alludes--a likeness described by its possessors as "far more
sublime and venerable than any other, since it was neither painted by the
hands of men nor angels, but by the divinity himself who makes both men and
angels." It is not delineated upon wood or canvass, ivory, glass, or
stucco, but upon "a pocket handkerchief lent him by a holy woman named
Veronica, to wipe his face upon at the crucifixion" (Aringhi, _Roma
Subterran._, vol. ii. p. 543.). When the handkerchief was returned it had
this genuine portrait imprinted on its surface. It is now one of the
holiest of relics preserved in the Vatican basilica, where there is
likewise a magnificent altar constructed by Urban VIII., with an
inscription commemorating the fact, a mosaic above, illustrative of the
event, and a statue of the holy female who received the gift, and who is
very properly inscribed in the Roman catalogue of saints under the title of
ST. VERONICA. All this is supported by "pious tradition," and attested by
authorities of equal value to those which establish the identity of St.
Peter's chair. The only difficulty in the matter lies in this, that the
woman Veronica never had any corporeal existence, being no other than the
name by which the picture itself was once designated, viz., the VERA ICON,
or "True Image" (Mabillon, _Iter. Ital._, p. 88.). This narrative will
probably relieve your correspondent from the trouble of further inquiries
by enabling him to judge for himself whether "there is any truth" about the
other true image.
A. R., Jun.
In your 70th Number I perceived that some correspondent asked, "What is the
truth respecting a legend attached to the head of our Saviour for some time
past in the print-shops?" I ask the same question. True or false, I found
in a work entitled _The Antiquarian Repertory_, by Grose, Astle, and
others, vol. iii., an effigy of our Saviour, much inferior in all respects
to the above, with the following attached:--
"This present figure is the similitude of our Lord [=IHV], oure Saviour
imprinted in amirvld by the predecessors of the greate turke, and sent
to the Pope Innosent the 8. at the cost of the greate turke for a token
for this cawse, to redeme his brother that was taken presonor."
This was painted on board. The Rev. Thomas Thurlow, of Baynard's Park,
Guildford, has another painted on board with a like inscription, to the
best of my recollection: his has a date on it, I think.
Pope Innocent VIII. was created Pope in 1484, and died in 1492.
The variation in the three effigies is an argument against the truth of the
story, or the two on board must have been ill-executed. That in the shops
is very beautiful.
The same gentleman possesses a Bible, printed by Robert Barker, and by the
assignees of John Bill, 1633; and on a slip of paper is, "Holy Bible
curiously bound in tapestry by the nuns of Little Gidding, 12mo., Barker."
In a former Number a person replies that a Bible, bound by the nuns of
Gidding for Charles I., now belongs to the Marquis of Salisbury. Query the
_size of that_?