2013 Annual Report - Jesus College - University of Cambridge

A JESUS COLLECTOR I Jesus College Annual Report 2013 53
(William Petty was 15th on the list of retainers
who accompanied them, the list also
included Thomas Coke, who had been agent
for the Earl Arundel in Italy 1605-1613, and
Inigo Jones). The Earl and Countess went on
from Heidelberg to Venice, Padua, Florence,
Siena, Rome, and Naples, and it is likely that
Petty went with them at least for part of the
way. In Rome Arundel conducted
excavations, with official permission, and
found several Roman portrait statues which
may have been ‘planted’ for his benefit and so
his sculpture collection began to be formed.
On 10 September 1624 Arundel wrote to
the Ambassador at Constantinople, Sir
Thomas Roe “I recommende to you one Mr
William Pettye, a man of very good learning
who has been longe in my House, and is
ledde wth a great desire to see Turkye. My
earnest requeste is unto yr Lop. To give him
all ye favour and direction ye may, to see what
antiquities, eyther of books, medalls or stone,
wch may be founde: and that where he shall
desire to travel, yr Lop. Will direct him for
safetye as much as maybe, for he doth not
only love antiquitie extremely, but
understands them very wel..” (Hervey 1921
268). Sir Thomas Roe also received a letter of
recommendation from Mr Michael
Branthwaite who had been left in charge of
the Embassy in Venice when the Ambassador,
Sir Henry Wootton, returned to England in
1624: “I make bolde to throwe in my mite:
and rather because he is my countryman, and
longe acquaintance. His name is Pettie: his
calling a devine, wherein he hath worthily
proceeded a bachelor, a man that is sound
enough, and hath more in him than he makes
show of.”
Even before Petty arrived in Constantinople
Sir Thomas Roe had written to the
Archbishop of Canterbury in December 1624:
“I heare your Grace hath written byone Mr
Petty, that is arrived in Smirna, ymployed by
my Lord of Arundell to buy books and
antiquities. Hee will find that barborisme
hath worne out all footsteps of civility and
learning; yet manuscripts are plenty, old
Greeke books, that are little worth: they have
been cerned over by many of good
judgement, and I think the gleanings are very
poore…”. Petty’s journey on to
Constantinople was fraught with danger: the
January storms caused many shipwrecks and
much loss of life, but he eventually arrived
safely.
He set to work immediately looking for
suitable antiquities to ship back to England
for the Earl of Arundel. He first lit on a series
of marble reliefs with which Theodosius II
had decorated the propylon of the Porta
Aurea, a triumphal arch erected by the
emperor Constantine to celebrate the victory
of Theodosius I over Maximus in AD388,
which was later incorporated into the Turkish
castle of Yedikule (seven towers) in
Constantinople. After long negotiations it
became clear that these were not going to be
made available, and so Petty decided to look
elsewhere. At the end of October 1625 Sir
Thomas Roe reported to Arundel “Mr Petty
hath this while visited Pergamo, Samos,
Ephesus and some other places where he
hath made your Lordship greate provisions
. . . Mr Petty hath advised me, that retorning
from Samos, where he had gotten many
things, going to Ephesus by sea, hee made
shippwrack in a great storme upon the coast
Reconstruction of the Pergamon Altar in Berlin