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Old Master Engravings
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Dryden edition of Works of PUBLIUS VERGILIUS MARO
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(left) This Cassini image of Saturn's moon Dione shows a nice view of the crater Aeneas on the terminator.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Wenceslaus Hollar
(1607-1677) was an important Bohemian Old Master printmaker. His technical
mastery and meticulous rendering of detail distinguished him as one of the finest practitioners of his art in 17th century
Europe.
Although he had no formal training, his work won the praise of contemporaries and set a standard of excellence to which many
aspired. In a career that spanned half a century, he created nearly 3,000 drawings and prints.
If the King send me with
Lord Henry Howard, the Ambassador with whose grandfather I lived in like employment, and
allow me £100 towards fitting myself and leaving my house and family in good condition, then I will adventure my person and
time, and give an account of what is worthy to be observed in those parts, especially the city of Tangier, for although there
is a large map thereof done by me – but performed only upon tradition by word of mouth... I conceive if one should compare
the print with the thing itself, as I intend doing if I go there...I would examine all, and take designs, and give his Majesty
much better satisfaction.
A 1669 petition to King Charles II by His Majesty's
scenographer Wenceslaus Hollar
See more of Hollar's work
Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St.
Albans, (1670-1726) illegitimate son of King Charles II, the eldest of two sons
born to Nell Gwynn, English actress The title Duke of St. Albans was created in 1684 when Prince Charles was fourteen
years old.
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Read this edition of Virgil's Aeneid
Feilding, Basil, 2nd Earl of Denbigh, Viscount Feilding
(c.1608-75) was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was summoned to
the House of Lords as Baron Feilding in March 1629. After seeing military service in the Netherlands he was sent in 1634 by
King Charles I as ambassador to Venice, where he remained for five years. In 1643,
Basil, who had estates near Monks Kirby in Warwickshire was appointed Commander in Chief of the Midlands District and Sir
Henry Firebrace was chosen as Secretary to the Court and Council of War. It is believed he acted between Denbigh and the King
and he became a friend and confidant of the latter. In December of 1648 Cromwell exhorted the Council of Officers to
spare the life of the King if he would accept the terms offered by Earl Denbigh who was chosen to carry proposals from the
council to the King. His Majesty refuses to see the Earl of Denbigh, thus rejecting the last overture from the
Council of Officers. Denbigh refuses to take part in the trial. When the King was about to be executed and was on the scaffold, it is said that he gave Sir Henry Firebrace
a ring which contained a portrait of His Majesty in diamonds. Through marriage,
the Firebrace family became related to the Earl of Denbigh and that ring was passed down from the Firebrace side of the
family to the Denbighs, in whose possession it still remains. In 1664 the Earl was created Baron St Liz. Although married
four times, the Earl had no children and the titles passed to his nephew. The Earl of Denbigh was a performer in masques (Coelum Britannicum, 1634; Salmacida Spolia, 1640, both as Lord
Feilding). (Son of William Feilding; brother of Elizabeth Feilding Boyle, George Feilding, and Margaret Feilding Hamilton;
husband of Anne Weston Feilding; nephew of George Villiers and John Villiers; brother-in-law of James Hamilton (II).
Source: Biographical Index of English Drama Before 1660
Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678 - 1751) Lord Bolingbroke was an English
statesman and writer known for his eloquence. In 1712 he was created Viscount Bolingbroke and Baron St John of
Lydiard Tregoze. He was immortalized by his friend Johnathon Swift as the central character in the classic Gulliver's
Travels.
More on Lord Bolingbroke
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