When Pictro Aretino moved into the Palazzo Bollani facing onto the Grand Canal, and within sight of the Rialto Bridge in 1529, he was sure he had found in Venice a haven from the political uncertainty of the rest of Italy, and in the house, a spiritual inspiration for his literary activities. His letter to his landlord, Domenico Bollani, of October 27, 1537, is an eloquent panegyric of the scenic beauties offered by the position of the house on that ‘più bella strada del mondo.’

When dealing with artists active during periods of crises and turmoil, it is not only desirable, but advantageous for art historians to examine their works within the given historical context. There arc few artists to whom this approach can be applied more beneficially than to Peter Bruegel, the Elder.

Living his last years (d. 1569) in Brussels during a period of intense conflict between Netherlandish Protestants and the forces of Catholic Spain, during a period when religious motives and nationalist interests were barely discernible from each other, it would be surprising indeed if so acute an observer of his surroundings as Bruegel did not give specific visual expression to the events of his time.

Since 1963, when I published in Renaissance News (XVI,4, 298-307) a supplement to my Catalogue of Italian Plays, 1500-1700 in the University of Toronto Library (University of Toronto Press, 1961), the collection has been enriched by some fifty plays. Particularly interesting are the first Italian translation of Aristophanes; a group of the musical plays whose vogue grew steadily during the seventeenth century; and a couple of examples, Italian and Latin, of the other new musico-dramatic form of the period, the oratorio. Noteworthy also is Benetti's Scherno di Giove, a curious blending of mythology and commedia dell'arte which survived in the ‘classical’ burlesques of the Victorian theatre.

Among the numerous men of letters patronized by James I, few held a place so close to the king during the early years of his reign as the Scottish-French Neo-Latinist John Barclay. Yet none of the biographical studies of Barclay to date have attempted to collect with any thoroughness the pertinent information regarding the author's ten years (1605-15) at the British court. It seems worthwhile then to present here such information about Barclay's period of service to the king as can be gleaned from the few records available.