University of Virginia Library

Although the Germ does not contain a declarative statement of the Pre-Raphaelites' creed, many critics have argued that "Hand and Soul" is Dante Rossetti's Pre-Raphaelite manifesto. Even William Michael Rossetti believed his brother's short story contained the creed for the movement. In his introduction to the 1901 edition of the Germ, William Michael Rossetti wrote:

Though the form of this tale is that of romantic metaphor, its substance is a very serious manifesto of art dogma. It amounts to saying, the only satisfactory works of art are those which exhibit the very soul of the artist. To work for fame or self-display is a failure; but to paint that which your own perceptions and emotions urge you to paint promises to be a success for yourself, and hence a benefit to a mass of beholders. This was the core of the 'Pre-Raphaelite' creed; with the adjunct ... that the artist cannot attain adequate self-expression save through a stern study and realization of natural appearances. [Link to citation in appendix — as soon as we have it up?(p18-19)]

"Hand and Soul" not only offers its readers insight into the artistic intentions of Rossetti and the PRB, but as many critics have argued, the story is significant for research into many areas of study. "Hand and Soul" can be read as autobiography and self-prophecy, as an important turning-point in nineteenth century short fiction, and as a pre-cursor to Pater, Wilde, the Aesthetic movement and Decadence. D.M.R. Bentley has argued that the changes Rossetti made to the story for later publication provide "evidence... of Rossetti's youthful fascination with Catholicism and... of his later tendency to de-Catholicize the atmosphere of his early work" ("Rossetti's 'Hand and Soul.'" English Studies in Canada III, 4, Winter 1977,447). Changes made to later publications of the story have been noted to aid the reader in coming to his or her own conclusions in this matter.

"urbiciani""Rivolsimi in quel lato/ Lande venia la voce./ E parvemi una luce/Che lucea quanto stella:/La mia mente era quella." Bonaggiunta Urbiciani, (1250.)
The quote is from the third stanza of Urbiciani's Canzonetta, which DGR translated in his The Early Italian Poets. The translation is loose—the literal lines are 27-32, but the meaning exceeds them.

This translation is taken from DGR, The Early Italian Poets. Ed. Sally Purcell. Los Angeles: U California P, 1981.

keen, grave

Omitted from the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

with
Changed to "a" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

crucifixes and addolorate
Changed to "labours" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

Ciambue
Giovani Cimabue (1240?-1302) was a Florentine painter of Da Vinci's era. His most famous work, Madonna and Child with Angels, and others still in existence, is painted in a traditional style, based on the medieval art of the Byzantine Empire. His faces and figures are formalized and there is little realism in his work.

the voices which prepared his way in the wilderness
An allusion to John 1:23. "He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias."

Chiaro di Messer Bello dell' Erma Dr. Aemmster
Chiaro, Dr. Aemmster, and many of the other seemingly historical figures in the story are fictitious. As William Michael Rossetti explained in his introduction to the 1901 facsimile of The Germ: "All about Chiaro dell' Erma himself, Dresden and Dr. Aemmster, D'Agincourt, pictures at the Pitti Gallery, the author's visit to Florence in 1847, etc., are pure inventions or 'mystifications'; but so realistically put that they have in various instances been relied upon and cited as truths." (19)

Pfordresher describes "Chiaro" and other names in the story as a "quasi-allegorical . . . playing on Italian roots." He explains that "'Chiaro' means clear, bright, transparent (in reference to color), and serves as a punning allusion to the brightness and clarity of Pre-Raphaelite pictures. Erma comes from 'Ermies'/ Hermes Mercury, messenger from the gods, with a probable play on 'ermetico' —airtight, the artist sealed off from light" (115). According to Pfordresher, "Dr. Aemmster" also puns. "In German an 'Amme' is a wet nurse or (if one wishes to reach for an extreme meaning) an asexual orgasm" (115).

gallery
Changed to "Pitti gallery" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review 14 (1870) 692-702 and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

as it were
Omitted from the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

Giunta Pisano
Another fictitious artist. Pfordresher notes the etymological pun on the name, "His teacher's name, Giunta, means an extra piece, a surplus — i.e. an expendable artist, and 'giunta' sounds like the verb 'guintare' — to cheat or trick, characteristic of a bad teacher" (115).

and shewn into the study of the famous artist

Changed to "soon stood among the works of the famous artist" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

Bonaventura
Another fictitious artist. Pfordresher explains the pun, saying "Chiaro's rival Bonaventura is lucky, 'buono' — good and 'per avventura' by chance or good fortune" (115).

and made him giddy

[addition]
The reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti added "And, being again within his room, he wrote up over the door the name of Bonaventura, that it might stop him when he would go out."

San Rocco
Changed to "San Petronio" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti. In his introduction to the 1901 edition of The Germ, William Michael Rossetti claimed that this was the "only change of the least importance introduced into the reprint" (19).

During the offices, as he sat at work, he could hear the music of the organ and the long murmur that the chanting left; and if his window were open, sometimes, at those parts of the mass where there is silence through out the church, his ear caught faintly the single voice of the priest. Beside the matters of his art and a very few books, almost the only object to be noticed in Chiaro's room was a small consecrated image of St. Mary Virgin wrought out of silver, before which stood always, in summer-time, a glass containing a lily and a rose.
This passage was omitted from the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti. and the next paragraph, beginning "It was here," was joined with this paragraph. Bentley and Rose have noted the similarity between Rossetti's description of Chiaro's room and the room he depicted in his 1849 study for "The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice." Both contain an image of a female saint, a rose, and books.

Chiaro
Changed to "he" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

paintings in fresco
Changed to "wall-paintings" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

fresco
Changed to "picture" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

girded up his loins
Probably an allusion to Job 38:3 "Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me."

There was earth, indeed, upon the hem of his raiment; but this was of the heaven, heavenly.
An allusion to I Corinthians 15:48. "As is the earthy, such are they also that are heavenly."

(now hardly in her ninth year, but whose solemn smile at meeting had already lighted on his soul like the dove of the Trinity)
An allusion to Dante Alighieri's Vita Nuova, which Dante Gabriel Rossetti translated and published in his The Early Italian Poets from Ciulli d'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300) in the Original Metres together with Dante's Vita Nuova (1861).

and holy
Omitted from the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

with her virginal bosom, and her unfathomable eyes, and the thread of sunlight round her brows
Omitted from the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

impress
Changed to "influence" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

in doing this, he did not choose for his medium the action and passion of human life, but cold symbolism and abstract impersonation.
Changed to "to this end, he multiplied abstractions, and forgot the beauty and passion of the world" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

[addition]
The reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti added "wrought for the sake of the life he saw in the faces that he loved."

as they must certainly have done
Omitted from the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

as it were

San Rocco
Changed to "San Petronio" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti. In his introduction to the 1901 edition of The Germ, William Michael Rossetti claimed that this was the "only change of the least importance introduced into the reprint" (19).

Gherghiotti
Pfordresher explains that "The Gherghiotti come from 'ghiotto' greedy, gluttonous" (115)

Marotoli
The Marotoli, notes Pfordresher, die in the sea, the "mare," for which they are named (115).

frescoes
Changed to "pictures" in the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

so
Omitted from the reprint in both The Fortnightly Review (1870) and in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

For God is no morbid exactor
Changed to "For with God is no lust of Godhead" in the reprint in The Fortnightly Review (1870)

Give thou to God no more than he asketh of thee; but to man also, that which is man's.
An allusion to Christ's reply to the Pharisees after they had asked him whether or not one should pay taxes. It appears in Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 12:13-17, and Luke 20:20-26. The verse from Matthew is "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."

heats
Changed to "heat" in the reprint in The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) edited by William Michael Rossetti.

1847
Changed to "18—" in the reprint in The Fortnightly Review (1870)

Manus Animum pinxit
"The hand painted the soul" (translation from Welland, 203).

"Schizzo d'autore incerto"
"Sketch by an unknown author" (translation from Welland, 203).

"Che so?"
"How do I know?" (translation from Welland, 203).

"roba"
mistica: 'st' Inglesi son matti sul misticismo: somiglia alle nebbie di la. Li fa pensare alla patria, "E intenerisce il core Lo di ch' han detto ai dolci amici adio."
"La notte, vuoi dire,"

"mystic stuff. These English are mad about mysticism—it's like those fogs they have over there. It makes them think of their country: and melts their heart in sighs
the day they have said farewell to their sweet friends."
[a third student replies] "The night, you mean." (The translation of this dialogue is from Welland, 203. Welland uses Laurence Binyon's translation of Dante's Purgatorio—the quotation is from the opening lines of Canto VIII).

'Et toi done?"
"And you?" (translation from Welland, 203).

"que dis-tu de ce genre-la?" "What do you think of this kind of painting?" (translation from Welland, 203).

"Je dis, mon cher, que c'est une specialite dont je me liche pas mal. Je tiens que quand on ne comprend pas une chose, c'est qu'elle ne signifie rein."
"Me? I, my dear fellow, say that it's a specialty with which I cannot be bothered. I hold that when one can't understand a thing it's therefore of no importance." (translation from Welland, 203).