BECOMING VISIBLE: THOMAS MORE IN 16TH CENTURY PORTRAIT BOOKS

. While in England the memory of Thomas More had been erased from public life after his execution (6 June 1535), English Catholics exiled in the Spanish Netherlands preserved his figure and legacy. Furthermore, the inclusion of More’s engraving in 16th-century portrait books of distinguished personalities–the so-called viri illustres genre–, contributed to the promotion of the famous English humanist in continental Europe. Soon, More’s integrity and wisdom were extolled not only in works printed in Catholic countries but also in other territories that no longer accepted Rome’s authority. This paper analyses the depiction (both image and text) of the English humanist in all these works. The visual and textual rhetoric of these engravings shows their mutual dependence.


INTRODUCTION
After the execution of Thomas More for high treason on July 6, 1535, the memory of Henry VIII's second chancellor disappeared from public life in England.Accounts of his death travelled throughout Europe, but for the general public he remained obscured.It was during the settlement of English Catholic exiles in the Spanish Netherlands after Elizabeth I's coronation in 1558 that the reputation of the late Chancellor became "an ever-widening influence" throughout the 16th century (Southern 17).The printing press was the vehicle used to spread More's reputation.Over one hundred Catholic works were published in English in Leuven and Antwerp before 1600 (Soetaert 537), catering to readers in both England and the Netherlands.Among these publications, several works by Thomas More were printed.The Latin works were issued in Leuven (1565). 1 John Fowler (1537-1579), a famous exiled English printer and "ardent admirer of More" (Schrickx 8), published in the same city the Doctissima D. Thomae Mori (1568), containing More's response to Lutheran advocate Johann Bugenhagen.Five years later, back in Antwerp Fowler reedited More's A dialogue of cumfort against tribulation.These two works by the English Publisher are relevant for this paper since both included the first portrait of Thomas More to be printed on the continent (Figures 1 and 1.1).The source of this woodcut image was Hans Holbein the Younger's famous portrait of Thomas More (Frick Collection in New York). 2 3 Figure 1.
English Catholic exiles had sought protection in the Spanish Netherlands, under Philip II's rule.These territories were a real powder keg, caught in the middle of the rising tension between Spain and Elizabeth I's England.After repressing the Dutch revolt (unofficially supported by the Tudor Queen), the Duke of Alba's army came closer to the British Isles than ever before.The prudent King might declare war on England, but Alba did not particularly favour this idea, conscious as he was of the importance that fluid commercial relations with England had for the Netherlands.Thomas More's printed image was also known to readers through a very popular Renaissance genre, the viri illustres, which saw an unprecedented proliferation in the 16th century: basically, these works included portraits of relevant personalities, accompanied by their biographies. 3The Virorum doctorum de disciplinis benemerentium effigies XLIIII (Antwerp, 1572) by the Dutch Publisher Philip Galle and the Spanish biblicist Benito Arias Montano was the first viri illustres volume featuring an image of the most famous English humanist. 4While my initial focus was on More's portrait in this work-as it established a link between the English humanist and the Spaniard-,5 it quickly became apparent that a broader analysis of his presence in other viri illustres volumes was a necessary prerequesite.This consequently led to a comprehensive literature review to identify existing research on Thomas More's artistic representations, their genesis and evolution.The present paper provides an exhaustive reckoning of the English humanist's apparitions in these hybrid works-i.e., combining portraits and biographies-, all published in the last quarter of the 16th century. 6ortunately, digital editions of all these 16th century works are available on the web.It is possible, therefore, to conduct a comparative analysis of Thomas More's entries in these viri illustres published in different European cities, one which shows not only a supranational net of contacts between engravers, writers and book printers, but also an aspect that might not have been anticipated.The Reformation and the Tridentine response were a defining influence in the production and reception of viri illustres.And yet, despite official religious differences between the countries that will appear in this paper, More's public image and legacy was consistently designed and perceived in a very favourable light.
These engravings of More were not intended for those who had personally known him and were still alive to celebrate his inclusion in these collections of exemplary men.Thus, none would complain if his facial features did not accurately represent the real man.Rather, the engravings served the purpose of encouraging readers to emulate More's exemplary life as an honest politician, a man of learning, or a committed Catholic.As such, only a few defining and identifiable traits would suffice; according to Morison, "[t]he paintings and engravings of the next 150 years show the chancellor, the scholar, the martyr; they are not designed to recall a face known to friends.It is not surprising, then, that they differ" (39).
The integration of visual elements in biographical collections has broader implications, as it contributed to the dissemination of information, the shaping of public opinion, and the emergence of early forms of mass communication.The persuasive power of visual representations to convey specific messages or ideas conforms to a practice of rhetorical strategies that is well beyond the written word.Nevertheless, the relationship between text and image, an assumedly harmonious dependence, was quite often problematic.

THOMAS MORE IN THE VIRI ILLUSTRES
According to Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, "the theme of uomini famosi"-viri illustres-may be considered "perhaps the most significant form of monumental secular art of the Renaissance" (97).Its origins were rooted in Classical literature and it consisted basically of a compilation of biographical accounts of prominent men.The Renaissance revival of this genre was triggered by Petrarch's De viris illustribus (ca.1330), or Boccaccio's De casibus virorum illustrium (ca.1373-4).This interest in commemorating the deeds of illustrious and memorable individuals was later on echoed by Giorgio Vasari's biographies of Italian artists (Vite de'piu eccelenti pittori, scultori ed architettori; Florence, 1550) or Paolo Giovio's Elogia (1546), a collection of laudatory verses on famous scholars.Originally published without illustrations, these two works were milestones soon to be followed in Italy and northern Europe by volumes containing portraits to illustrate the biographies (Sellink 41).Librarian and scholar Fulvio Orsini's Imagines et elogia virorum illustrium (Roma, 1570) was especially popular.

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The rhetorical device of fortune causing the fall of men (often used to account for the ominous destiny of warriors and military men) was also applied by Giovio to learned men who held political responsibilities: "Le pouvoir déterminant de la Fortune sur la destinée de Thomas More éclate dans la disgrâce qui succède aux faveurs dont l'avait comblé Henri VIII" (Eichel-Lojkine 70).And so More fell victim to Henry VIII's unexpected madness.The primary responsibility for the former Chancellor's death lied mainly with the King, a man who has exchanged reason for madness, thus becoming a wild beast ("mutatus in feram").Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's mistress ("pellicem"), played a crucial role as the catalyst (or the ultimate cause) in arousing the King's lust.As will be shown, this anti-feminist discourse with biblical echoes will often be repeated in later accounts of More's life in other viri illustres volumes.A reference to happiness and justice in Utopia, the literary creation of More's mind, closes the narration and provides a sombre image of England at the time of the Tudor king.
Three epitaphs, published in the Elogia for the first time (Marc'Hadour, "Janus" 104), follow More's biography.The Italian priest and theologian Giano Vitale (Ianus Vitalis, 1485-1560) was the author of the first one:

IANI VITALIS. Dum Morus immeritae submittit colla securi
Et flent occasum pignora cara suum, Immo ait infandi vitam deflete tyranni, Non moritur, facinus qui graue morte fugit. 10(Elogia veris 56v) The Christ-like description of the innocent victim is further confirmed by More's words to his loved ones attending the execution; as in Luke 23, 28: "But Jesus turning had been an enthusiastic admirer of More's spotless virtue, had raised him to highest honors, only that presently, changed into a wild beast (it must have been by an attack of some fatal frenzy) he might fiercely hurl him headlong from them, because, being a man perfect in all points of religion and justice and most holy, he had refused to flatter the tyrant's impious lust.For when Henry was bent on divorcing his wife, taking a paramour, and outrageously disowning his daughter, More, his secretary, the victim of his own piety and integrity, was made to plead his cause in court and, by a decision that would have been impious had not terror of the king's anger and cruelty deprived all the jurors alike of their senses, he was condemned to die like a highwayman by a shameful death and his kinsmen were forbidden to give his mangled limbs due burial.But Henry, who by this one crime made himself the rival of Phalaris, could not prevent More's unwavering courage from enjoying immortal glory in his Utopia, which will keep alive forever the memory of that monstrous villainy.For in that country of blessed people he described most perfectly a prosperous and peaceful state founded on ideal laws, while he expressed his scorn of the accursed morals of his own degenerate age,-thus pointing out in a work of most delightful fancy the straightest way to a good and happy life" (Giovio, An Italian 127). 10 "When More bowed his head to an undeserved axe / and his dear ones cried for his end, / 'Come', he said, 'weep over the life of the monstrous tyrant./ He does not die who by death avoids the weight of a crime'".Unless otherwise stated, all translations are mine.

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to them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children".The tyrannical king (l.3), who would die in January the following year, would certainly not be pleased-if Vitale's epitaph ever came to his attention.
An obscure Spanish author, Jacobus Exerichus, 11 comes next.He is even more explicit than the Italian, pointing at Henry himself as the nefarious executioner.As in the previous epitaph, the paradox of dying to live is also developed.I have only located this quatrain in the successive editions of the Elogia:

IACOBI EXERICHI HISPANI. Henricus Morum gladio iugulauit iniquo
Tam dignum uita, quam fuit ipse nece: Mortuus ille tamen uiuet per saecula cuncta, Post mortem uirtus uiuere sola facit. 12(Elogia veris 56v) Finally, there is a longer poem in the form of dialogue, whose authorship Giovio could (or would) not identify at this point. 13The image of the detached head and the profusion of blood called for the final punishment of the impious killer.A pagan scenario is recreated for this dialogue, thus creating a sort of Classical tragic pathos.

Tristia multa bonis, et bona multa malis. Quae circu[m]sistunt Diuae lugubre cadauer?
Hospes.Diua tenax ueri, sancta fides, Nemesis, Ciuis Harum prima odii causa, et fuit altera mortis, 11 He is probably Jacobo Exerico, from the Spanish city of Caspe, and mentioned by Gallego Barnés (167) as a disciple of the Spanish humanist Juan Lorenzo Palmireno (1524-1579).He is better known by Hispanists as Jaime Exerich/Ejerich (+1552), a priest who graduated from the University of Zaragoza and became an Archpriest in the said city.In 1551, the ecclesiastical province of Tarragona commissioned him to the Council of Trent.
12 "With an unfair blade Henry cut the throat of More, / who was as worthy of life as the king to die./ Yet dead, he will live through the centuries / as only virtue survives death". 13As acknowledged in later editions of the Elogia, this epitaph was by the Dutch poet Joannes Everardi, best known as Jean Second (Janus/Johannes Secundus, 1511-1536).This is one of the three works that the poet had composed about More's death (Stillman 329-30, n. 17).As Vocht argued, "these poems […] express such violent indignation that the poet [Second] feared some trouble either for himself or for his brothers (the also poets Adrian Marius and Nicolas Grudius), and let them circulate anonymously" (196).Shortly after the death of Second, the two brothers prepared an edition of these compositions about More's death which was published by Servatius Zassenus in December 1536.

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Vltrix iniustae tertia caedis erit. 14(Elogia veris 57r) Gradually-and due to the successful triple structure of Emblem books (a motto, an image or pictura, and an explanatory text)-authors decided to illustrate their viri illustres with portraits. 15is fashion arrived in the Netherlands, due to its introduction by publishers Hyeronimus Cock (1510-1570) and the Flemish humanist Dominicus Lampsonius (Dominique Lampsone, 1532-1599), as suggested by Gómez Canseco and Navarro Antolín (26).The former's widow, Volcxken Diericx (1525-1600), published Pictorum Aliquot Celebrium Germaniae Inferioris Effigies (Antwerp, 1572), a collection of portraits of 23 dead artists from the Netherlands, each with a Latin epigram.Also in 1572 Galle and Arias Montano published the Virorum doctorum.Cock's and Lampsonius' volume is widely recognized as the first collection of viri illustres to be printed in the Netherlands.However, the Virorum doctorum deserves credit for pioneering the inclusion of Thomas More (Galle and Arias Montano A8) in a work of this kind, not only in the Netherlands but also Europe.
The French aristocrat and bibliographer Antoine du Verdier published La prosopographie (Lyon, 1573), an ambitious chronicle of the world bringing together patriarchs, gods, kings, popes, and other illustrious characters.Some of these names were accompanied by medallion portraits.In the initial salutation to the reader, du Verdier stated that the main purpose of writing history was to bring forth the honourable deeds of great men so that readers felt encouraged to imitate them; this target was more easily achieved "when what is written there is proposed to us and expressed in painting, engraving, carving or otherwise". 16e fourth book (Verdier, Prosopographie 4100 [sic; 500]) presented a woodcut of Thomas More and a biographical account.The circular miniature portrays a young More with long hair, looking to his left, wearing his fur-collared cape and magistrate's cap (Figure 2).He holds something in his right hand (a paper?), as a mark of his scholarly status.In these details, the image follows the Holbeinian 14 "Stranger: Who lies in the mound, whose head was cut off by a sword, / and his grey hair swims in the foul blood?/ Citizen: This is that Thomas More; thus fate repays./ Much sadness to the good and much good to the wicked./ Stranger: What goddesses surround the mournful corpse?/ Citizen: The obstinate goddess of truth, holy faith, Vengeance./ Of these, the first was the cause for hatred, and the second for death; / the third will be the avenger of an unjust death". 15Zafra Molina makes a strong case in favour of viewing these books of icones as a subtype of emblem works.They have the typical triplex structure-motto, pictura and subscriptio-to present an illustrious character (130). 16"que le principal but d'escrire histoire, est de mettre en icelle devant ses yeux comme en lieu eminent & haut, les exemples des actes des hommes.[…] Veu donq que l'histoire a tant d'efficace, qu'elle peut esmouvoir les esprits des hommes à bien faire, les peut mieux inciter quand ce qui y est escrit nous est proposé et exprimé en painture, graveure, taille esleuee en bosse ou autrement" (Verdier, Prosopographie *4R/8-10 & /25-29).
VERSIÓN ACEPTADA PARA PUBLICACIÓN model, but it does not include the Tudor Rose hanging from the collar of esses. 17orison adds that the block with the portrait was suppressed in later editions of La prosopographie "as too poor a likeness" (48).As a matter of fact, the name of the artist is nowhere recorded.It is safe to say that du Verdier would not expect his readers to think that his picture was accurate stricto sensu.Some resemblance with the real man was enough.It was the text that followed that was important; as Gaylard claims, portrait books illustrated the tension existing between the need for a genuine likeness of the portrait with the real person and the exemplarity that his/her features should transmit (161-63). 18More's face in the picture might not be accurate, but it was natural enough to provide visual support to introduce the narration of his exemplary life.Nothing in More's face or attire disrupted the necessary harmony that should exist between his exemplarity and his physical appearance-as prescribed by the generally accepted conventions of physiognomy.The bust was subordinated to the text below: a biography which includes a (rather inaccurate) list of More's works, followed by an account of his misfortune.Du Verdier refrains from disqualifying the Tudor monarch or Lady Boleyn.Henry is undoubtedly responsible for More's death, an event situated in the wider scenario of England's rupture with Rome, but he is not depicted as a lustful animal.Fischer is also included in the account, sharing with More his opposition to the King's religious policy.Both men's role as staunch 17 In 1965 A.H. Ormerod published a paper with the title "The SS Collar" (The Catholic Lawyer 2 (2): 123-130) in which he dealt with the origins of this ornament and the meaning of the SS.He also clariffied who-and why Thomas More in particular-could wear the collar. 18For further information on this tension and Early Modern debates on the issue, see Gaylard  (163-166).
Biographical encyclopaedias (eventually developed from portrait books) would finally exclude the images (Gaylard 162).As Schoeck puts it, La prosopographie was "in effect an early attempt at a biographie universelle together with a running account [...] of main currents of universal history" (67).Verdier's words, if less 19 "Thomas More, English, Chancellor of Henry the eighth of that name, King of England, wrote Epigrammata.Comaedias.Dialogos Familiares.Declamationes.Pro Erasmo aduersus fratre[m] progymnasmata graeca.Dialogum pro missa contra Fryth.Contra Germanum Brixium.Vtopiam, vel de republica vtopica.De justificatione operum lib.i. Apologiam ad Tyndale lib.i. De ecclesia contra Barnes lib.i.In Martinum Dorpium lib.i.He translated some dialogues by Lucian.He was decapitated with John Fisher Bishop, by command of the king of England, because he did not want to please him or approve the divorce he had with his wife, Queen Catherine; and even less to yield consent to that decree which suppressed the authority and made the king head of all the Church of England.For having Henry repudiated Catherine, and the Pope having rendered a sentence in favor of his first wife, in his hatred for this the said King-declaring himself head of the Church of England after Jesus Christ-ordered on pain of life that no one in his kingdom should attribute this sovereign power to the Pope, expressly forbidding to pay him henceforth the tribute which he used to get every year.Two great personalities, More and Fischer, deemed this to be wrong, and, remaining steadfast in their opposing opinion to the king's judgment and malicious intent, endured a cruel death.They had written several books against Luther".Du Verdier had a copy of More's Utopia in his library: "THOMAS MORVS.Republique d'Vtopie.Voyez" (Verdier,  Bibliothèque 1180).La prosopographie included a translation of Thomas More's epigrams (43  & 47) as one single composition that du Verdier introduced as "cest epigramme imité du Latin de Thomas More" (80); for further information on this translation, see Schoeck (1982).
VERSIÓN ACEPTADA PARA PUBLICACIÓN rhetorical and dramatic than Giovio's, offer more revealing details about the fall and execution of Henry VIII's former Chancellor.No biography of More was available at the time and, even though different accounts of his death circulated Europe, these types of works had a wider impact-especially if written in the vernacular-and played a relevant role in the promotion of the English humanist.Vitale's epitaph from Giovio's Elogia finishes out the entry (Prosopographie 4101[sic; 501]). 20er three decades after its editio princeps, Paolo Giovio's Elogia was finally published with illustrations in three volumes (Basel, 1575-1577).The Italian had died in 1552 without accomplishing his initial purpose to include copies from the portraits of his museum; major financial problems and technical challenges had frustrated his intentions.Pietro Perna, a Luchese based in Basel, 21 sent the Swiss artist Tobias Stimmer (1539-1584) to Como.He was to copy the remnants of the images at the Museum of Giovio's villa (Gaylard 211).Stimmer prepared the xylographies (printings from wood carvings).
Presented in a richly ornate frame, the portrait (Figure 3) showcases More with the already characteristic Holbeinesque attributes (but without the SS collar).However, it is not a good likeness-according to Morison (61).Below the engraving, the 1546 Latin prose text follows (Giovio, Elogia virorun 166-67).Gaylard opines that Stimmer had read the biographies in Govio's 1546 Elogia and created "interpretative copies of actual portraits".Again, Stimmer's images subordinated "true likeness" to textual biography (Gaylard 211-12), and presented a lively and familiar image, but surely not the humanist's facial features.
However, it might be argued that Stimmer was reproducing More's likeness, just as it was depicted in Giovio's now-lost portrait of the English humanist.Evidence for this might be found elsewhere.There is an oil portrait of Thomas More at Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence), which may be safely attributed to the Italian artist Cristoforo (or Cristofano) dell 'Altissimo (1525-1605).This portrait is also said to be a reproduction of More's painting in Giovio's museum. 22 The comparison between Stimmer's and dell'Altissimo's works does not help us to recreate More's original portrait in Giovio's villa: leaving aside a common Holbenian source, the two works differ in significant aspects both from the former and between themselves. 23Gaylard 20 For the different variants and versions of this text, see Blanchard ("Jean Second" 22-25). 21A former Dominican, Perna fled to Basel in 1542 primarily due to his religious heterodoxy.Only 15 years later did he obtain his citizenship and set up a printing shop (Cavarzere). 22In 1552, Duke Cossimo I Medici sent dell'Altissimo to Giovio's villa to make copies of all the portraits available.The artist remained in Como until 1568 and completed about 280 reproductions (Müntz 268); back in Florence, he worked on this project until 1589 (Falciani  28).Two years later, dell'Altissimo's portraits were placed at the Uffizi Gallery and constitute the so-called "Giovian Series".A black and white copy of More's portrait is reproduced in Marc'hadour ("Likeness" 87). 23Germain Marc'hadour described dell'Altissimo's portrait: "Notice especially the fur tippet and the pointed hat.The stubble in Holbein has become a thin beard and moustache.The VERSIÓN ACEPTADA PARA PUBLICACIÓN has concluded that Stimmer was producing interpretative copies of Giovio's originals for the Elogia; writing at the beginning of the 20th century about these same engravings, Müntz stated that "the draftsman first, then the engraver, yielding to the temptation to 'dramatise' the characters, have more than once altered the documents to the point of making them unrecognisable". 24striped collar is new.The SS collar of gold with the rose-and-portcullis pendent has become an ordinary chain carrying a jewelled ornament" ("Likeness" 86-87).Müntz also takes for granted Holbein's influence, but "(the coat is more open; at the neck a chain with the Golden Fleece [instead of the SS collar])"; "(le manteau est plus ouvert; au cou une chaîne avec la Toison d'or)" (294).Müntz is especially harsh with dell'Altissimo: "It is impossible to make it any duller than dell'Altissimo did.The effigies of the 'Giovian Museum', copied by him, have lost all flavour, all accent, all sincerity"; "Il est impossible d'affadir plus que ne l'a fait l'Altissimo.Les effigies du 'Museeum Jovianum', copiées par lui, ont perdu toute saveur, tout accent, toute sincérité" (268). 24"le dessinateur d'abord, le graveur ensuite, cédant à la tentation de 'dramatiser' les personnages, ont plus d'une fois altéré les documents au point de les rendre méconnaissables" (Müntz 268).In any case, Müntz is even harsher in his assessment of the Elogia engravings: "For mediocre as they are, the copies by dell'Altissimo nevertheless offer an overwhelming superiority over the engravings attached to the Basel edition of the Elogia"; "Pour médiocres qu'elles soient, les copies de l'Altissimo n'en offrent pas moins une écrasante supériorité sur les gravures jointes à l'édition bàloise des Elogia" (268).

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The epitaphs by Giano Vitale and Jaime Exerich come next; the third one is attributed to Jean Second. 25As a novelty, one last epitaph is added, written by Jean Steenhouwer (Johannes Latomus Berganus, 1523-1578). 26The anger of this Belgian author is not aimed at any single person but goes against England (already under the rule of Elizabeth I), the unworthy motherland of such an excellent citizen.The main concern of Jean Second is to vindicate More's non-Englishness, taking for granted that he would rather consider himself a Utopian.In 1553, the French humanist printer Guillaume Roville published at Lyon his Promptuarii iconum insigniorum à seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis.It presented a collection of coinlike portraits of historical figures with short biographies in two parts (before and after Christ).There were several editions of this work (in different languages) during the 1550s and the 1560s.Finally, in the second edition printed in 1578, a woodcut medallion of Thomas More was included in the second part (Figure 4).The image of the English humanist "is a poor but recognizable adaptation of Galle" (Morison 50), i.e. the engraving in the Virorum doctorum (1572). 2825 As stated by Blanchard ("Poèmes" 95-96), the poem had been attributed to Jean Second already in the editions of Antwerp (1557) and Basle (1571). 26Blanchard presents Latomus as the author of a very large number of Eulogies dedicated to all the great names of his time (even to Henry VIII): "il est spécialiste de la louange, en somme" ("Poèmes" 95).Latomus was elected prior of the Augustinian monastery Marientroon near Grobbendonk (Belgium) in 1551.A wise and prudent administrator, he was also a poet and a meticulous historian (Juten 788). 27"What do you have to do with More, England, so unworthy of such a citizen?Why, oh foolish, do you persist in calling him yours?You pursue an innocent Cato with the sword, not with a simple death: and it is not allowed to be pious without risks.Be quiet then, for in order to remove this stain from you, he himself founded Utopia, a homeland for himself".Latomus' verses had already been added in the editions of Antwerp and Basle (Blanchard,  "Poèmes" 95). 28According to Morison, the woodcuts in the Promptuarii are typically attributed to Georges Réverdy, an artist from Lyon (50 n. 1).The following year anti-Catholic riots took place in Lyon and Rouille became a firm supporter of the Church of Rome.In the said work, the editor had praised the Tudor king as "inter paucos reges literarum & multarum rerum cognitione commendabilis" 29 "Thomas More, a learned and famous man, English by birth, Archbishop of Canterbury, was first condemned into exile by the king of England, and afterwards, he suffered capital punishment around the year 1535.Because he would not flatter the evil lust of the furious King Henry the Eighth (who a little before had raised him to the highest honours, as an admirer of extraordinary virtue).There is an epitaph about him by Giano Vitale which follows. . . .This man, famous by his knowledge of Greek and Latin literature, translated several Dialogues by Lucian.He composed Utopia and wrote many exceptional epigrams".Notice the initial confusion of Thomas Becket (Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry II) and Thomas More.Clearly, Roville was no historian.Nevertheless, it is easy to comprehend the logic behind this mistake: both Becket and More shared a name, nationality and-in simple terms-a death "ordered" by their kings.Roville inadvertently brought together these two men, a connection that Thomas Stapleton would later deliberately drew in his Tres Thomae (1588).

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(Roville, Regis Angliae bb1/12-13). 30Of course he knew about More's execution, as explicitly narrated in the "Praefatio" to the Assertio: Tum vero Rex erga pontificem ira commotus, & furiosa libidinis rabie in Annam exardescens, a Romana Apostolica sede defecit: seque ipsum supremum caput ecclesia Anglicana constituit.Cum autem optimi & doctssimi viri Ioha[n]nes Ficherius episcopus Roffensis, & Thomas Morus regni supremus cancellarius, dissuasissent divortium illud regi, aliquandiu captiui detenti sunt, & tandem eodem anno cum neque diuortium, neque defectionem regis, qua ab obedientia Romani Pontificis, & vnitate ecclesiae defecisset aprobarent, ambo capite truncati & vltimo supplicio publice affecti sunt. 31(lxxx/20-28 -lxxxi/1-2) There is a clear similarity between Roville's "Quod furentis regis Henrici octaui (qui eu[m] paulo ante ad summos honores extulerat, tamquam virtutis eximiae admirator) nefariae libidini, adulari noluisse" (Promptuarii 221), and Giovio's "quem Rex, paulo ante praeclarus eximiae uirtutis admirator, ad summos honores extulerat, ut inde eum fatali scilicet oborta insania, mutatus in feram, crudeli mox impetu praecipitem daret, quod ipsius furentis tyranni, nefariae libidini, uir omnibus religionis atq[ue] iustitiae numeris longe optimus, atq[ue] sanctissimus adulari noluisset" (Elogia veris 56r-56v).In both cases, the Tudor king is presented as having fallen from a previous state of rationality and common sense into a sudden madness, due to his infatuation for Anne Boleyn.This had been Roville's rationale already in his 1561 edition of the Assertio, one in which Henry VIII came to join the list of famous kings who had been ruined by women: "Ita regi pro mulierium blanditiis implicito, quod & Salomoni accidit, nempe deprauatum est cor eius per mulieres, ut sequeretur deos alienos, nec fuit deinceps cor eius perfectum cum domino deo suo: sed simul cum vxore sua legitima, & cum sponsa Christi ecclesia, fecit diuortium, sui certe ipsius oblitus, & eorum, quae tam pie & religiose ante id tempus scripserat" (Roville, Regis Angliae lxxxi/8-15). 3230 "Admirable among those few kings with a knowledge of literature and many things".It is not possible to know if Roville was aware of the role Thomas More had played in the composition of Henry VIII's Assertio. 31"But then the King, moved by his anger towards the Pontiff, and burning with furious rage of lust for Anna, defected from the Roman Apostolic see, and he established himself as the supreme head of the Church of England.Moreover, since the best and most learned men, John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and Thomas More, the Great Chancellor of the kingdom, had advised the king against that divorce, they were kept captive for some time.And then in the same year, as they approved neither the divorce nor the defection of the king-by which he had defected from obedience to the Roman Pontiff and the unity of the Church-, both were beheaded and publicly subjected to the last punishment". 32"Thus the King was entangled by the flattery of women, which also happened to Solomon, that is, his heart was corrupted by women, so that he followed strange gods, and his heart was not afterwards perfect with the Lord his God.At the same time he made a divorce with

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No new collection of viri illustres included Thomas More until 1584, 33 when the Franciscan priest and cosmographer André Thevet (1502-1590) published in French the Vies des Hommes Illustres (Paris), a collection of over 230 biographies, most of them accompanied by a copperplate engraved portrait. 34Thomas More (Figure 5) appears in chapter 106, Book VI (Thevet 540r).
Jean Adhémar and Jean Baudry concluded that Thevet's efforts to provide authentic portraits were successful in general (quoted in Schlesinger xxix).In the case of More this cannot be said; rather, the portrait is a copy of Galle's More (from the Virorum doctorum), "though"-as Morison puts it (50)-"freer in its treatment of detail … The features are exaggerated to give a quite unfamiliar aspect of severity his lawful wife, and with the bride of Christ, the Church, he certainly forgot of himself and of those things which he had written so piously and religiously before that time". 33Also in 1584 the priest and librarian Johannes Krosel (Ioannes Croeselius) published Elogia.This work contained no illustrations.The second part was devoted to scholars and academics.Thomas More is included, with a short encomium, followed by the epitaphs by Arias Montano, Giovani Vitale, Jaime Exerich, Jean Second and Latomus (359-360). 34For a general description of this work and some bibliographic information about VERSIÓN ACEPTADA PARA PUBLICACIÓN and austerity".This grim-faced More introduced an extended biography (Thevet 540r-541v)-the longest in the works here reviewed-,with a rather misleading reference to his written production: "plusieurs doctes et excellens liures, entre autres des Epigrammes, Comedies, Dialogues familiers et declamations, contre Erasme, contre les Allemans, contre vn nommé Fryth, et plusieurs autres" (Thevet 541v/2-5).To conclude his entry on More, Thevet singled out Jean Second's already quoted epitaph (541v) without naming the author.
The increasing size of the biographical information about More in these portrait books suggests a growing demand among readers to learn more about the life of the English humanist.In 1588 the first biography of Thomas More was published in Douai, as part of a major work which also contained the life accounts of both the apostle Thomas and Thomas Becket: Tres Thomae seu… Thomas Stapleton was the author and-in the words of Reynolds: [This] book recorded the reputation of Thomas More within half a century of his death; some of the stories here told may seem like folk-tales, [...] That such tales should be told is itself an important historic fact; it emphasizes the remarkable place Thomas More had won in the popular mind before any written account of his life was available" (xiii).
It is quite likely that the popularity of these portrait books and their biographic narrations contributed to the diffusion of More's fame, especially if written by wellknown authors.Stapleton himself felt obliged to include the testimony of famous men of learning outside England that had passed judgement on the former Chancellor.Among these, some that have been included here are mentioned by Stapleton-mainly in the last chapter (Caput 21).For instance, Paolo Giovio's words of praise in his Elogia are reproduced verbatim. 35Jean Second and his elegy of More's death are also mentioned, even though Stapleton claimed he had not seen the said work. 36However, in a kind of appendix added at the end-"Seqvvntur varia doctorum virorum Epigrammata in laudem Thomae Mori" (Stapleton 364-375)-,the epigram was finally included (367); the epitaphs by Giovani Vitali, Jaime Excerich, and Latomus were also added (1588: 367-368), among others.All these authors came from different countries (Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, etc.), thus proving that More already had an international appeal.Obviously, Stapleton's deliberate choice to write the former's biography in Latin would undoubtedly enhance this. 35Giovio's full account of Thomas More's life comes in two different sections: in chapter 4, Stapleton quotes the final reference to Utopia (46/16-21); the rest of the text is included in chapter 24 (355/28-32 -356/1-16).Isolated words from Giovio's biography are also cited by Stapleton (83/24-25 and 326/17-19). 36"Iohannes Secundus Hagiensis naeniam scripsit de morte Tho[mae] Mori, qu[a]e ad manos meas no[n] peruenit" (Stapleton 357/20-22).As stated by Reynolds (30, n 6), Stapleton could have used the 1571 edition of the Elogia.I would say, however, that he used the Antwerp 1557 edition, one which already attributed the epitaph to Jean Second and included Latomus'.

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The Protestant Silesian jurist and scholar Nikolaus von Reusner (Nicolaus Reusnerus Leorinus, 1545-1602) published his Icones sive Imagines viuae in 1589.This work was so successful that later in the same year a sort of appendix (Icones aliquot clarorum virorum) also came out in Basel, authored by the physician Theodor Zwinger (1533-1588), a Swiss Protestant.It contained a wood engraving portrait of Thomas More (Figure 6; Zwinger D2).As in the case of Roville, Giovio's text is echoed by Zwinger, especially in his references to Henry VIII's former sensibility and sudden madness as a consequence of his lust.The epitaphs by Arias Montano, Jean Second and Latomus completed the 38 "Thomas More, an Englishman excelling by his exceptional learning, virtue and doctrine: Great Chancellor and Supreme Judge of the Kingdom, whose breast was whiter than any snow: a talent as none ever had, or will have, in any case, England is not the mother of the most unfortunate talents: Whom King Henry VIII, an eminent admirer of extraordinary virtue, had raised a little before to the highest honours: in a fatal outbreak of madness, eventually he became the cruellest tyrant: when to flatter his impious lust, he scorned a man perfect in all points of religion and justice and most holy.Guilty of his piety and innocence: He was forced to take the case to the Tribunal: Showing in his trial and execution no less steadfastness than Socrates, when condemned by the most unjust decree of the Athenian Senate.Sadly he was decapitated on 6 July, 1535".
VERSIÓN ACEPTADA PARA PUBLICACIÓN entry (Zwinger Dd2).39 Second's epitaph was recurrent, as shown, but this was the first time Arias Montano's lines from the Virorum doctorum were reproduced in a portrait book; the same happened with Latomus' praise. 40Reusner and Zwinger were both cradle Protestants and yet they had no problem in including Thomas Morewho had so violently written against Luther-among the over 100 famous authors selected; their open-mindedness is further proved by the two other figures that follow the humanist: John Fisher and Reginald Pole. 41conclude this revision with the Icones quinquaginta virorum illustrium (1597) by the French Neo-Latin poet Jean-Jacques Boissard (1528-1602).This work was extremely popular due to its convenient format (Coppens and Sacré 98).Théodor de Bry (1528-1598) was the author of the engravings and the publisher of the work.It came out in Frankfurt, where de Bry had finally settled after fleeing from the Spanish Netherlands.He had embraced Protestantism, and so had Boissard.The second part of the Icones quinquaginta (1598) included the English humanist (Figure 7): "Thomas Morvs Cancellarivs Angliae".In his "Praefatio", de Bry claims that Boissard had sent him the pictures upon which he should fabricate de plates; these had been drawn from the real characters themselves-"ad viuum ipse delinearit" (Boissard A3r).However, that was not the case with Thomas More: his portrait was again a copy of Galle's; as Morison stated, this plate was made by Jean-Jacques' brother, Robert Boissard (1570-1601), as indicated by his monogram (50) at the right side of the head.42 Coppens and Sacré stated that Robert Boissard had prepared the block (ca.1587) after a drawing by Jean-Jacques (96); again they pointed at Galle's portrait in the Virorum doctorum as the source (96).The block was adorned and crowned with an architectural arch.The humanist was behind a table, on which there was an open book and a tablet with More's nationality (Nascitur Angliae) and the date of his execution (Obtruncatur 7. [?] / Jullii [sic] Anno 1536 [?]).A distich-mediocre and probably by Jean-Jacques Broissard (Coppens and Sacré 97)-completes the emblem-like structure and Thomas More's Opera (Leuven), Stapleton's biography of the English humanist was published in Douai (1588).The engravings of More in works printed in France further confirm his significance among Catholics.Interestingly, these engravings were also issued in Protestant areas, starting with the publication of the illustrated version of Giovio's Elogia in Basel (1575 and 1577).This Swiss city played a pivotal role in the development of the Reformation in Germany, France, and Switzerland.Perna's beliefs did not align with Catholic orthodoxy: his edition was dedicated to Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a German aristocrat who had embraced Protestantism.Similarly, the authors of the last two works revised here-Reusner, Zwinger and Boissard-were brought up as Protestants.Thomas More (who had so vehemently opposed Lutherans) was welcomed in works edited by heretics,46 who did not hesitate to include all or some of the available epitaphs authored by papists.Galle and Arias Montano had shown a similar disposition to include non-Catholic names in their Virorum Doctorum (1572), but perhaps it all started with Giovio, whose Elogia, as argued, was interconfessional.This might seem paradoxical, especially in a war-torn Europe, where religious differences played a significant role in escalating confrontation.
Reusner, Zwinger and Boissard had not been the first non-Catholics to echo the exemplarity of Thomas More's life.As Stapleton proudly reported (357/22-23 -358/1-3), others before had praised him: the German astrologer and court historian, Johannes Carion (1499-1537/8); Johannes Sleidanus (Johannes Philippi; 1506-1556), a German historian of the Lutheran Reformation; and, especially, Johann Rivius. 47 According to Stapleton, this German Lutheran had expressed better than any English Catholic the truth about More's innocence and Henry VIII's shameful cruelty (358-59).Reusner, Zwinger and Boissard were never involved in theological disputes.They used anything at hand to present Thomas More-in his own words, hereticis molestus (grievous for heretics), as recorded in the epitaph published by Boissardas an honest and intelligent man who opposed the whims of a tyrant.After all, these men were not polemicists, but they made a living selling their books: the more people that bought them (either Catholics or Protestants) the better.
Among the vast array of published portraits, More's image was gradually gaining visibility in different parts of Western Europe.Readers were getting increasing information about this man while becoming more familiar with his features.Traditionally, the cult of saints had relied on these two pillars; imagery and textual representation.Interestingly, still in our 21st-century world, this dynamic remains relevant, as shown in the promotion of icons within popular culture and the representation of individual identity in social media.