Several poems are said to have been written on this subject. One of them in Italian stanzas, utterly worthless, by one Fra Giovanni Padovano, was printed so late as 1690, at Padua, and is in the British Museum. Federici (_Tipografia Trevigiana_, p. 91) mentions four tracts printed by Celerio in 1480, on the martyrdom of Simon, but none written by Prati. He moreover mentions two (p. 52) printed by Gherard de Lysa, one of which would seem to be precisely like that which I now offer to you, if we were to judge from the title only, but the particulars into which he enters show, 1st, that Federici never saw even the book which he describes; 2nd, that whatever that book be, it is a different one from this.
As you possess the very rare edition of Dante, published by Tuppo at Naples, in the colophon of which Tuppo alludes to the murder of Simon “non sono molti anni,” and as the fact is said to have happened in 1475, according to all authorities, it may be of some interest to you to possess an uncommonly rare book, which may be of use in fixing at about 1480 the date of your Dante, the very year when Tuppo began to print separately from Reussinger.
Immediately after Mr. Grenville’s death, a portrait of him by an Italian artist (C. Manzini,) was offered for sale. It is painted on ivory, representing him at the age of 85, wearing a close-buttoned black coat, and a plain white neckcloth. Panizzi was anxious that this work of art should not fall into strange hands; and consequently, together with other friends of the venerable book-collector, started a raffle, the tickets being sold only amongst a selected few. Samuel Rogers was named as one of them, and this originated the following correspondence:—
When I recover what I have lost, I mean to subscribe to everything and to everybody. But now, alas, I have nothing to spare—I cannot even afford to give you a mutton chop—and having poor enough of my own to support, I cannot contribute to other people’s.
I shall be happy, however, to contribute my mite in this instance, though not to raffle for the portrait, for to tell you the truth, the portrait I do not care for; I had rather trust to my recollections.
I am very sorry that I have expressed myself so ill in the note which I took the liberty of addressing to you to contribute to the support of other people’s poor, you having, as you say, and as it is well known, poor enough of your own to support. I never would have taken the liberty of writing for that purpose; and whatever mite you may contribute to any charity, it must be from the impulse of your own kind, benevolent heart, and not at my request, as I should never presume to make it.