The Life Correspondence Collections of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel - "Father of Vertu in England" #233512

In addition to private sources, the unpublished papers, English and Foreign, of the Public Record Office, the mss. Of the British Museum, the College of Heralds, the Bodleian Library, and many other collections have been freely utilized so far as they appeared likely to serve the present purpose. Much new light has thus, it is hoped, been thrown upon the life of Thomas, Earl of Arundel; though, in the immense wealth of documentary resources, research cannot pretend to be exhaustive. These copious fountains of information dry up, or become poor and meagre, after the final departure of Lord and Lady Arundel from England in 1642. Dutch Archives, which I have caused to be examined, have yielded little or no result. Yet even so, through Evelyn's Diary and other channels, an occasional light, full of interest, is flashed through the shadows of these declining years. In this sense, no contribution to our knowledge is of greater value than the inventory drawn up at Amsterdam in 1655 of the Arundel pictures, which was discovered some years ago by Miss Mary Cox, at the Record Office, and published, with an introduction by Dr Lionel Cust, in the Burlington Magazine for August and Sep tember, 1911. The usefulness to students of this interesting find was, however, much impaired by the total absence of method in its arrangement. It had apparently been hurriedly copied, probably for purposes of litigation, from an inventory in Italian, or from several such inventories rolled into one, by some person imperfectly acquainted with the language. The artists' names are often placed not opposite their works; in many cases they are wanting altogether.