510
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL JUNE 27, IMS.
is found to be the only proper rendering of
this name in Turkish ? Mohammed appears
to have its origin from the Arabic form,
where it first denoted a past participle, mean-
ing, like the corresponding Turkish Muham-
med, praise. See Devic's ' Dictionnaire de
tous les Mots d'Origine Orientale (Arabe,
He'breu, Persan, Turc...),' 1877. Which of
these two forms shall we adopt ? And how
about Mahomet ? INQUIRER.
REYNOLDS. I should be very grateful if any of your readers could give me informa- tion relating to Thomas Reynolds, of London, whose daughter Isabella married firstly -- Towerson, and then, in 1678, Christopher Richmond, of Highhead Castle, Cumber- land. Jackson, in his paper on 4 Highhead Castle,' read to the Cumberland and West- morland Antiquarian Society, says that this Thomas Reynolds may have possibly been an Irish dean. I should like to know what reason there is for such a supposition, and am especially anxious to discover the name of his wife. (Miss) MARY DRYDEN.
275, Upper Richmond Road, Putney, S.W.
MONMOUTHSHIRE GAOL FILES. I shall be most grateful to any one who will inform me in whose custody are the Gaol Files and Quarter Sessions Presentments for the county of Monmouth previous to the year 1830. They are not at the Record Office, nor with the clerk to the County Council, nor at the Mon- mouth Bhirehall.
JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. Monmouth.
DANTE PORTRAIT.
(9 th S. xi. 388.)
THE Bargello portrait by Giotto (discovered in 1841 in the Bargello at Florence) is gener- ally considered to be the most original por- trait of Dante in his youth. Two beautiful chromo-lithographic facsimiles of this por- trait, which had been first traced from Giotto's fresco by Seymour Kirkup, previously to its restoration in 1840, and were reproduced for the Arundel Society, are preserved among the treasures of Dante illustrations collected by the curators of the Taylor Institution at Oxford. For a copy of another and later portrait, reproduced from an anonymous painting in the Louvre, see the 'Twentieth Report of the American Dante Society' (Cambridge, Mass.), 1901, printed at Boston in 1902. H. K
Dr. A. de Noe Walker had a picture, 'The Adoration of the Magi,' by Simone Bolognese,
in which were figures which he identified as
those of Dante and Boccaccio. Dante was
depicted with a beard ; and Dr. Walker, whose
knowledge of Italian art and literature was
profound, told me that he knew of no other
portrait of Dante with a beard. He used to
quote a verse, I think from the ' Purgatorio,'
about Dante "bowing his bearded head with
shame." But see ' Purgatorio,' canto xxxi.
v. 67 et seq. :
Tal mi stav' io. Ed ella disse : Quando Per udir se' dolente, alza la barba, E prenderai piu doglia riguardando.
Dr. Walker's pictures were sold by auction after his death by Messrs. Christie & Manson on 10 December, 1900.
STEPHEN WHEELER. Oriental Club, Hanover Square.
In the interesting portrait in my copy of 'Dante,' by I. C. Wright, illustrated by Flax- man (London, H. G. Bonn, 1854), and in six of the twelve illustrations in Paget Toyn- bee's ' Dante Alighieri ' (London, Methuen & Co., 1900), the poet is represented as beard- less ; but, nevertheless, attention may be directed to the fact that we have Dante's own intimation of having at one time worn a "beard." I venture to quote the following from ' The Purgatorio,' xxxi. 67 to 75 : I stood ; and she resumed : Since but to hear Afflicts thee, raise thy beard, and let thine eyes Witness a cause of sorrow more severe.
Than lifted I my chin, as she directed ;
For when instead of " face " she said my "beard,"
I knew the venom that her speech infected.
I take permission to say that portraits of Dante in various frescoes and illuminated manuscripts are very numerous, and that many of them cannot be accepted as authentic representations of the poet. But in 'The Story of Florence,' one of the volumes of the charming " Mediaeval Towns " series (London, Dent & Co., 1900), it is recorded that "among the manuscripts in the BibliotecaRiccardiano is the most striking and plausible of all the existing portraits of Dante, and appears to have been painted about 1436 " (vide p. 288). In conclusion, it may not be out of place to remark that it is also mentioned in ' The Story of Florence,' at p. 292, " that there is not a single autograph manuscript nor a single scrap of Dante's handwriting extant at the present day."
HENRY GERALD HOPE. 119, Elms Road, Clapham, S.W.
SIR THOMAS CRAIG AND SIR THOMAS HOPE
(9 th S. xi. 406). There seems to be no doubt
that it was not Thomas Craig who defended
