The Dance of Death. 209

* Dictionnaire des Artistes," Paris, 1776, 8vo. not onlymakes him the painter of the old Macaber Dance, butplaces it in the town-house at Basle.

Mr. Walpole, or rather Vertue, in the "Anecdotes ofPainting in England," corrects the error of those who givethe old Macaber Dance to Holbein, but inadvertentlymakes that which is usually ascribed to him to have beenborrowed from the other.

Messrs. Huber and Rost make Holbein the engraver ofthe Lyons wood-cuts, and suppose the original drawings tobe preserved in the public library at Basle. They pro-bably allude to the problematical drawings that wereused by M. de Mechel, and which are now in Russia." Manuel des curieux et des amateurs de 1'art." Tom. i.

P- 155-

In the "Notices sur les Graveurs," Besancon, 1807, 8vo.a work that has, by some writers, been given to M. Malpe,and by others to the Abbe Baverel, Papillon is followedwith respect to the supposed edition of 1530, and itsGerman verses.

Mr. Janssen is more inaccurate than any of his prede-cessors, some of whom have occasionally misled him. Hemakes Albert Diirer the inventor of the designs, the greaterpart of which, he says, are from the Dance of Death atBerne. He adopts the edition of 1530, and the Germanverses. He condemns the title-page of the edition of 1562for stating an addition of seventeen plates, whereas, sayshe, there are but five : but the editor meant only that therewere seventeen more cuts than in the original, which hadonly forty-one.

Miscellaneous Writers. —Charles Patin, a libeller 01the English nation, has made Holbein the engraver on woodof a Dance of Death, which, he says, is " not much unlikethat in the churchyard of the Predicants at Basle, painted,as some say, from the life, by Holbein." He ought to haveknown that this work was executed near a century beforeHolbein was born. " Erasmi stultitiae laus." Basilese, 1676,8vo. at the end of the list of Holbein's works.

Martiniere, in his "Geographical Dictionary," makesHolbein the inventor of the Macaber Dance at Basle.

Goujet, in his very useful " Bibliotheque Francoise," torn.P