freelye to their owne vses, as
they shall fall vnto them. In wittnes whereof wee haue sett our hande,
this Eight daye of July, in the Tenth year of our Reigne, 1634."

The individual employed by Charles in this negotiation is the same who
collected antiquities in Greece for the Earl of Arundel. He was Vicar of
Thorley, in the Isle of Wight, and is believed to have been the uncle of
the celebrated Sir William Petty, ancestor of the Marquis of Lansdowne. It
would be curious to learn the particulars of the "bargayne" made by him,
and how the pictures were disposed of after their arrival in England. Were
the Warrant and Privy Seal books of the period (still remaining among the
Exchequer records) easily accessible, no doubt some information on these
points might be gained. That this collection of Bartolomeo della Nave was a
celebrated one, we have the testimony of Simon Vouet, in a letter to
Ferrante Carlo, written from Venice, August 14, 1627, in which he speaks of
it as a "studio di bellissime pitture" (Bottari, _Lettere Pittoriche_, vol.
i. p. 335.: Milano, 1822): and that it came over to England, is asserted
repeatedly by Ridolfi, in his _Vite degli illustri Pittori Veneti_, the
first edition of which appeared at Venice in 1648. He mentions in this work
several paintings which were in Della Nave's collection, and which it may
be interesting to refer to here, in case they are still to be traced in
England. In vol. i. p. 107. (I quote the Padua edition of 1835) is noticed
a painting by Vincenzio Catena, representing Judith carrying the head of
Holofernes in one hand, and a sword in the other. In the same volume, p.
182., a portrait of Zattina by Palma il Vecchio, holding in her hand "una
zampina dorata;" and at p. 263. several sacred subjects by Titian among
which is specified one of the Virgin surrounded by Saints, and another of
the woman taken in adultery, with "multi ritratti" by the same. Again, at
p. 288., a head of a lady, supposed to be the mother of the artist Nadelino
da Murano, one of the most talented pupils of Titian; and at p. 328. a
painting by Andrea Schiavone, and some designs of Parmigiano. In vol. ii.
p. 123. are mentioned two paintings by Battista Zelotti from Ovid's Fables;
and at p. 141. a picture of the good Samaritan, by Jacopo da Ponte of
Bassano. For these references to Bottari and Ridolfi, I own myself indebted
to Mr. William Carpenter, the keeper of the department of engravings in the
Brit