Note 116 — XXIII TOLEDO AND EL GRECO

Señor Cossío published his well-known work, “El Greco,” 2 tom. Madrid, in 1908. The second volume consists of illustrations of El Greco’s pictures; most of the reproductions are, however, unfortunately somewhat indistinct. The reproductions from photographs in a little book, “El Greco,” by A. F. Calvert and C. Gasquoine Hartley. London: John Lane, 1909, are much clearer. The illustrations are excellent in “Le Greco.” Par Maurice Barrès et Paul Lafond. Paris: Floury, as also those of pictures by El Greco in Herr Meier Graefe’s “Spanische Reise,” Berlin, 1910. In October, 1910, appeared a short scholarly study, “El Greco en Toledo.” Por Francisco de Borja de San Román y Fernández. Madrid: Suárez. It contains eighty-eight original documents of great interest, especially the inventory of El Greco’s possessions (vienes), drawn up by his son, Jorge Manuel, on April 12, 1614, five days after El Greco’s death, the discovery and publication of which will, as the author says, give intense pleasure to all lovers of El Greco. This contains over 100 pictures by El Greco (some unfinished), 200 prints, 150 drawings, 15 sketches, 20 plaster models, 30 models in clay and wax, etc. Among the Greek books are Josephus, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Isocrates, Homer, Aristotle’s Politics and Physics, the Old and New Testaments, Lucian, Plutarch (bite di Plutarco), Æsop, Euripides. The Italian include Petrarca and Ariosto, but fifty more Italian books, with seventeen in romance and nineteen on architecture, are uncatalogued. The commonest articles receive a quaint dignity in the old ringing Castilian, as “quatro pares de escarpines” (four pair of socks), “un cajón grande de pino con cinco gabetas” (a large chest of pine with five drawers), “una alacena de madera grande” (a large wooden cupboard), “una espada y una daga con tiros y pretina” (a sword and dagger with their belts).