Baldwin, Theodore, and Charles (Various Artists)

In which Hamey Junior is slightly unhelpful.

Well done, Balduinus Hamey M.D. Socio et Benefactore Collegii Medicorum Londinensis. But a shorter title might have sufficed.

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As we know well, in past centuries, it was common practice for erudite and scholarly British individuals to write in dead languages. They intended to demonstrate their sophistication and mastery of Greco-Roman culture, not just to confound modern researchers, despite how it may seem. Baldwin Hamey Junior, that great fan of Aristophanes and Virgil, is the usual culprit, especially when grappling with his hefty tome “Bustorum aliquot Reliquae,” an index of sentimental eulogies in immaculate Latin. Which is very ironic, considering my own background in the classics, but I think Hamey’s got me beat.

Fortunately, as per my previous post, I’ve developed a simple and straightforward way around the Latin problem that doesn’t involve wasting hours on text that doesn’t even contain the information you need. (Speaking from experience here.) In fact, this post was supposed to be the how-to guide. But then I really got going on the explanation of Hamey’s obituaries, and analyzing paintings of Theodore Mayerne the physician, and then I realized I’d rendered my own simple instruction manual thoroughly useless, like one of those recipe websites that specializes in dramatic short stories. So now that’s two different posts, for the sake of your sanity and mine.

The absurdly-named “Bustorum” is a series of glowingly complimentary writings by Baldwin Hamey Junior about his deceased colleagues, friends, and family. It exists only in Latin; some sections have been translated into English by various researchers, but never in full. The copy that the Royal College of Physicians generously shared with me includes “only” the 54 (!) biographies of other doctors. 

Hamey must’ve had a lot of friends.

412 pages is an unpleasantly daunting proposition, and this version doesn’t even include the dozens more civilians that Hamey saw fit to immortalize. However, by scrolling to the final page, we can find a handy index. (The inclusion of “Hamey” by Hamey isn’t a prophecy about his eventual demise, nor a conveniently pre-written eulogy. It’s his touching ode to his father, which I will discuss at another time.)  

In this case, I’m looking for the text of Hamey’s obituary to Dr. Theodore de Mayerne (1573-1655), another particularly interesting physician. Mayerne was first mentioned to me by Dr. William Birken, the author of various incredibly helpful Hamey-related publications and papers on 1600s British doctors. I’ve been discussing my research with him at extensive length, and received many great suggestions. In light of my research into the 1633 Baldwin Hamey Senior portrait, he told me: 

One of the greatest physicians in England was Sir Theodore de Mayerne. His wealth would have purchased any painter. Look at his portrait, c1630, which has been attributed to Rubens or after Rubens. Dr. Mayerne was a French Huguenot, born in Geneva. Another portrait was by John Hoskins. One of Mayerne’s great interests was paint and painting. Get the book, Europe’s physician, by Hugh Trevor-Roper. Was in contact with many foreign painters in London.

The Rubens (rather, “After Rubens”) portrait is very nice, as all Rubens-related paintings tend to be. However, the solidly competent but less lifelike John Hoskins portrait is an interesting oddity, making it the more potentially relevant of the two. In this picture, Mayerne fondly holds a bust of Hippocrates — just like Snelling’s Hamey, which I’ve already addressed in my previous entry in the seemingly infinite Hamey series. 

Mayerne and Hippocrates are comrades in their judgmental stares and prodigious beards.

Other than Hippocrates’ disembodied head, there are some other curiously specific elements in common between Snelling’s Hamey and Hoskins’s Mayerne. ArtUK’s description reveals that Hoskins was a miniaturist who only rarely applied his talents to large-scale portraiture. Just like Snelling the miniaturist who painted Hamey at full size, the Mayerne portrait is an unusual departure from the artist’s standard form. ArtUK goes on to explain:

Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne was a Swiss physician and writer, who in 1600 was appointed royal physician to Henry IV of France. In 1611 he moved to London where he became principal physician to James I and later Charles I. He was interested in technical aspects of painting, conducting experiments involving pigments. He took advice from Anthony van Dyck and developed a friendship with Peter Paul Rubens (in London from June 1629 to March 1630). John Hoskins was a noted painter of miniatures. Larger portraits like this are exceedingly uncommon. This painting belonged to Hugh Trevor Roper, (Lord Dacre), a leading authority on Theodore Turquet de Mayerne.

Intrigued by the layered mysteries, I got hold of the Mayerne book Bill had recommended, written by that very same expert that ArtUK cites for provenance, Hugh Trevor-Roper. Not only was Mayerne the king’s physician (more than once!), but he had an auspicious history in the art world due to his strong interest in paints, materials, and techniques. (He even developed a friendship with none other than Anthony Van Dyck — a name that keeps persistently popping up, intimately connected to the concept of good paintings in the 1630s.) I also discovered in Trevor-Roper’s book that there’s a historical connection between Mayerne and Paul van Somer — aka Van Soamer (sic) as incorrectly inscribed on the 1633 Hamey by some hapless would-be art historian. Turns out Mayerne and van Somer were neighbors! 

Maybe that court-painter connection went further. Bill had also remarked, “My hunch would be that Senior would have had that strong Royal crush that Junior had.” While I haven’t yet found anything to solidly confirm the former, there’s certainly more than enough evidence of the latter. Hamey’s collection of Stuart memorabilia included some expensive and sophisticated pieces, such as an embroidered portrait of King Charles I, which sports a prodigious provenance.

Connoisseur Magazine 1905 cites it as “reminiscent of more than one of Vandyck’s portraits of Charles I.” Debatable.

It’s definitely not a Van Dyck, but it does look like it’s supposed to be Charles I. That’s the important part.

Speaking of Van Dyck, I mused further whether it would be worth trying to check through Hamey Junior’s “Bustorum” entries, where he immortalized Van Dyck in an obituary, to see if Baldwin also addressed Mayerne’s artistic interests. Bill mentioned in response: 

I would love to get a translation of Hamey’s Bustorum aliquot reliquiae, despite his display of Ciceronian flourishes. It is difficult to get Latin into English translation. What does it entail?

As mentioned, I have an easy way of processing Latin — which is especially useful in the total absence of a decent “Bustorum” translation, or at the bare minimum, a summary of what’s contained in it. It’s from the 17th century! You’d think someone would’ve gotten around to it by now! So, I decided to give it a shot. Anything that could lend insight into the Hameys’ connection to the art world (either Senior or Junior) would be a valuable data point.

Off I went, eager to deploy my methods, and found Mayerne’s entry… 

That clear and legible text is from someone else’s later copy. True to doctor form, Hamey’s own handwriting was awful. 

In a disappointingly minor plot twist, I discovered that, in all 16 pages, there was not one single mention of Mayerne’s artistic interests. No trace of the lead that I’d hoped for, drawing a connection between Hamey and Mayerne’s circle of painter friends. Instead, it’s pages upon pages of this sort of thing: 

Thus, it was apparent in consultations (where his medical virtue shone brightly) that he always offered himself with admiration: for indeed, he would immediately gather what needed to be known and done about the illness, and he suggested it with his remarkable acumen…

With all due respect to Hamey, I didn’t need to process all that Latin to find out that Mayerne was a highly competent man. Wikipedia (and every other source) describes Mayerne’s long list of medical and intellectual accomplishments, including his writings on the subject of art: 

Well, that certainly makes me feel better about how long it takes to write a blog post. 

See you next time.