Yale University Library 39002005050969 iri' ««f I'.fi' Ji M K &:sjv> .«;..'': 4^^. ->i?i~ J J- '. ;- -''"'-.¦'t, . ^fr.yt; YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY WiLLiAJi Blake. DEATH'S DOOR. \N . J. LiN'ruN. A TREATISE WOOD ENGRAVING '§miaxxml anir ||rartkal BY WILLIAM ANDREW CHATTO WITH UPWARDS OF FOUR HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY JOHN JACKSON A NEW EDITION, WITH AN ADDITIONAL CHAPTER BY HENRY G. BOHN CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The former edition of this History of Wood Engraving having become extremely scarce and commercially valuable, the publisher was glad to obtain the copyright and wood-blocks from Mr. Mason Jackson son of the late Mr. Jackson, original proprietor of the work, with the view of reprinting it. It will be seen by the two distinct prefaces which accompanied the former edition, and are here reprinted, that there was some existing schism between the joint producers at the time of first publication. Mr. Jackson, the engraver, paymaster, and proprietor, conceived that he had a right to do what he liked with his own ; while Mr. Chatto, his literary coadjutor, very naturally felt that he was entitled to some recognition on the title-page of what he had so successfully performed. On the book making its appearance without Mr. Chatto's name on the title-page, and with certain suppressions in his preface to which he had not given consent, a virulent controversy ensued, which was embodied in a pamphlet termed "a third preface," and afterwards carried on in the AiherKeum of August and September, 1839. As this preface has nothing in it but the outpourings of a quarrel which can now interest no one, I do not republish any part of it ; and looking back on the controversy after the lapse of twenty years, I cannot help feeling that Mr. Chatto had reasonable ground for complaining that his name was omitted, although I think Mr. Jackson had full right to determine what the book should be called, seeing that it was his own exclusive speculation. It is not for me to change a title now so firmly established, but I will do Mr. Chatto the civility to introduce his name on it, without concerning myself with the question of what he did or did not do, or what Mr. Jackson contributed beyond his practical remarks and anxious superintendence. Although I have the pleasure' of a personal acquaintance with Mr. Chatto, and communicated to him my intention of republishing NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION. the work, I declined letting him see it through the press ; resolving to stand wholly responsible for any alterations or improvements I might choose to make. On the other hand, I have been quite as chary of letting even the shade of Mr. Jaclcsou raise a new commo tion — I say the shade, because, having his own copy full of manuscript remarks, it was at my option to use them ; but I have adopted nothing from this source save a few palpable amendments. What additions have been made are entirely my own, and have arisen from a desire to increase the number of illustrations where I thought them previously deficient and had the means of supplying them. With the insertion of these additional illustrations, which it appears amount to seventy-five, it became necessary to describe them, and this has occasioned the introduction of perhaps a hundred or two lines, which are distributed in the form of notes or paragraphs throughout the volume. For the chief of these additions the critical examiner is referred to the following pages : 321, 322, 340, 352, 374, 428, 468, 477, 480, 493, 530, 531, 532, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543, 545, 546, 547, 548, 617, 639. The chapter on the artists of the present day is entirely new, and was not contemplated, as may be gathered from the remarks at pages 549 and 597, untH the book was on the eve of publication. It contains upwards of seventy high class wood engravings, and gives a fair specimen of the talents of some of our most distinguished artists. Getting that supplementary matter together and into shape, was not so light and sudden a task as I meant it to be ; but now it is done I feel that it was right to do it, and I can only hope that my unpretending labours wUl be deemed a step in the right direction. Should I retain my health, strength, and means, I purpose, at no very distant period, to follow up the present volume with one perhaps as large, gi^ino- a more complete series of Examples of the artists of the day, as well those of France and Germany as of England. In conclusion, I think it due to IMr. Clay to acknowledc^e the attention and skill which he has exercised in "bringing up" the numerous and somewliat difficult cuts to the agreeable face they now present. A good engraving without good printing is Like a diamond without its polish. HENEY G. BOHN. January Uh, 1861. MK. JACKSON'S PEEFACE. I FEEL it my duty to submit to the public a few remarks, introductory to the Preface, which bears the signature of Mr. Chatto. As my attention has been more readily directed to matters connected with my own profession than any other, it is not surprising that I should find almost a total absence of practical knowledge in all English authors who have written the early history of wood engraving. From the first occasion on which my attention was directed to the subject, to the present time, I have had frequent occasion to regret, that the early history and practice of the art were not to be found in any book in the English language. In the most expensive works of this description the process itself is not even correctly described, so that the reader — supposing him to be unacquainted with the subject — is obliged to follow the author in comparative darkness. It has not been without reason I have come to the conclusion, that, if the practice, as well as the history of wood engraving, were tetter understood, we should not have so many speculative opinions put forth by almost all writers on the subject, taking on trust what has been previously written, without giving themselves the trouble to examine and form an opinion of their own. Both with a view to amuse and improve myself as a wood engraver, I had long been in the habit of studying such productions of the old masters as came within my reach, and could not help noting the simple mistakes that many authors made in consequejice of their knowing nothing of the practice. The farther I prosecuted the inquiry, the more interesting it became ; every additional piece of information strengthening my first opinion, that, "if the practice, as well as the history of wood engraving, were hetter understood," we should not have so many erroneous statements respecting both the history and capabilities of the art. At length, I determined upon engraving at my leisure hours a fac-simile of anything I thought worth preserving. For some time I continued to pursue this course, reading such English authors as have written on the origin and early history of wood engraving, and making memoranda, without proposing to myself any particular plan. It was not until I had proceeded thus far that- 1 stopped to consider whether the information I had gleaned could not be applied to some specific purpose. VI MR. Jackson's preface. My plan, at this time, was to give a short introductory history to precede the practice of the art, which I proposed should form the principal feature in the Work. At this period, I was fortunate in procuring the able assistance of Mr. W. A. Chatto, with whom I have examined every work that called for the exercise of practical knowledge. This naturally anticipated much that had been reserved for the practice, 'and has, in some degree, extended the historical portion beyond what I had originally contemplated ; although, I trust, the reader will have no occasion to regret such a deviation from the original plan, or that it has not been written by myself. The number and variety of the subjects it has been found necessary to introduce, rendered it a task of some difficulty to preserve the characteristics of each individual master, varying as they do in the style of execution. It only remains for me to add, that, although I had the hardihood to venture upon such an undertaking, it was not without a hope that the history of the art, with an account of the practice, illustrated with numerous wood engravings, would be looked upon with indulgence from one who only professed to give a fac-simile of whatever appeared worthy of notice, with opinions founded on a practical knowledge of the art. JOHN JACKSON. London, December 15th, 1838. MR. CHATTO'S PREFACE, Though several English authors have, in modern times, written on the origin and early history of wood engraving, yet no one has hitherto given, in a distinct work, a connected account of its progress from the earliest period to the present time ; and no one, however confidentlv he may have expressed his opinion on the subject, appears to have thought it necessary to make himself acquainted with the practice of the art. The antiquity and early history of wood engraving appear to have been considered as themes which allowed of great scope for speculation, and required no practical knowledge of the art. It is fi'om this cause that we find so many erroneous statements in almost every modern dissertation on wood engraving. Had the writers ever thought of appealing to a person practically acquainted with the art, whose early productions they professed to give some account of, their con jectures might, in many instances, have been spared ; and had they ME. CHATTO S PEEFACE. -^11 in matters requiring research, taken the pains to examine and judge for themselves, instead of adopting the opinions of others, they would have discovered that a considerable portion of what they thus took on trust, was not in accordance with facts. As the antiquity and early history of wood engraving form a considerable portion of two expensive works which profess to give some account of the art, it has been thought that such a work as the present, combining the history with the practice of the art, and with numerous cuts illustrative of its progress, decline, and revival, might not be unfavourably received. In the first chapter an attempt is made to trace the principle of wood engraving from the earliest authentic period ; and to prove, by a continuous series of facts, that the art, when first applied to the impression of pictorial subjects on paper, about the beginning of the fifteenth century, was not so much an original invention, as the extension of a principle which had long been known and practically applied. The second chapter contains an account of the progress of the art as exemplified in the earliest known single cuts, and in the block-books which preceded the invention of typography. In this chapter there is also an account of the Speculum Salvationis, which has been ascribed to Laurence Coster by Hadrian Junius, Scriverius, Meerman, and others, and which has frequently been described as an early block-book executed previous to 1440. A close examination of two Latin editions of the book has, however, convinced me, that in the earliest the text is entirely printed from movable types, and that in the other — supposed by Meerman to be the earliest, and to afford proofs of the progress of Coster's invention — those portions of the text which are printed from wood-blocks have been copied from the corresponding portions of the earlier edition with the text printed entirely from movable types. Fournier was the first who discovered that one of the Latin editions was printed partly from types, and partly from wood-blocks ; and the credit of showing, from certain imperfections in the cuts, that this edition was subsequent to the other with the text printed entirely from types, is due to the late Mr. Ottley. As typography, or printing from movable types, was unquestionably suggested by the earliest block-books with the text engraved on wood, the third chapter is devoted to an examination of the claims of Gutemberg and Coster to the honour of this invention. In the investigation of the evidence which has been produced in the behalf of each, the writer has endeavoured to divest his mind of all bias, and to decide according to facts, without reference to the opinions of either party. He has had no theory to support ; and has neither a partiality for Mentz, nor a dislike to Harlem. It perhaps may not be unnecessary to mention here, that VLU MR. CHATTOS PREFACE. the cuts of arms from the History of the Virgin, given at pages 75, 76, and 77, were engraved before the writer had seen Koning's work on the Invention of Printing, Harlem, 1816, where they are also copied, and several of them assigned to Hannau, Burgundy, Brabant, Utrecht, ^ and Leyden, and to certain Flemish noblemen, whose names are not mentioned. It is not improbable that. Like the two rash Knights in the fable, we may have seen the shields on opposite sides ;— the bearings may be common to states and families, both of Germany and the Netherlands. The fourth chapter contains an account of wood engraving in con nexion with the press, from the establishment of typography to the latter end of the fifteenth century. The fifth chapter comprehends the period in which Albert Durer flourished, — that is, from about 1498 to 1528. The sixth contains a notice of the principal wood-cuts designed by Holbein, with an account of the extension and improvement of the art in the sixteenth century, and of its subsequent decline. In the seventh chapter the history of the art is brought down from the commencement of the eighteenth centuiy to the present time. The eighth chapter contains an account of the practice of the art, with remarks on metallic relief engraving, and the best mode of printing wood-cuts. As no detailed account of the practice of wood engraving has hitherto been published in England, it is presumed that the infor mation afforded by this part of the Work wiU not only be interesting to amateurs of the art, but useful to those who are professionally connected with it. It is but justice to Mr. Jackson to add, that the Work was commenced by him at his sole risk ; that most of the subjects are of his selection; and that nearly all of them were engraved, and that a great part of the Work was written, before he thought of applying to a publisher. The credit of commencing the Work, and of illustrating it so profusely, regardless of expense, is unquestionably due to him. W. A. CHATTO. LuNEON, December 5th. ] S38. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. CHAPTER I. AUTIQUITT OF ENGEiVIKQ, 1—39. PAGE 1 Initial letter A, — an ancient Greek scriving on a tablet of wood, dra"wn by "W. Harvey View of a rolling-press, on wood and on copper, showing the difference between a wood cut and a copper-plate engraving when both are printed in the same manner . . Back and front view of an ancient Egyptian brick-stamp Copy of an impression on a Babylonian brick ..... . . Roman stamp, in relief ........... Roman stamps, in intaglio , . . .... ..50 Monogram of ,Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths . .... .13 Monogram of .Charlemagne . . . .14 Gothic marks and monograms , . . . . .15 Characters on Gothic coins ...... . . ¦ . 16 Mark of an' Italian notary, 1236. . . ... . . 16 Marks of German notaries, 1345 — 1521 .... . ... 17 English Merchants'-marks of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries . 18 Tail-piece, illustrative of the antiquity of engraving, — Babylonian brick, Roman earthen ware, Eoman stamp, and a roU with the mark of the German Emperor Otho in the CHAPTER II. PEOGEESS OE WOOD ENGBAVINH, 40 — 117. Initial letter F, from an old book containing an alphabet of similar letters, engraved on wood, formerly belonging to Sir George Beaumont . , . ... . 40 St. Christopher, with the date 1423,'fr6m'a cut in the possession of Earl Spencer . 46 The Annunciation, from a, out probably of the same period, in the possession of Earl Spencer ... . . . . ' ... . . .50 St. Bridget, from an old cut in the possession of Earl Spencer . . 52 Shields froin the Apocalypse, or History of St. John, an old block-book . . . 65 St. John preaching to the infidels, and baptizing Drusiana, from the same book . . 66 The death of the Two Witnesses, and the miracles of Antichrist, from the same book . 67 Group from the History of the Virgin, an old block-book . . . ... 71 Copy of a page of the same book . . . . . . .72 Figures and a shield of arms, from the same book . . 75 Shields of arms, from the same book ... . 76 — 78 Copy of the first page of the Poor Preachers' Bible, an old block-book . 86 Heads from the same book ... .... 88 Christ tempted, a fao-simile of one of the compartments in the first page of the same book ¦.'....¦.'.. ... . .89 Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden fruit, from the same book . . 90 Esau selling his birthright, ditto ... . ... . ... .91 Heads ditto .... . • ... 92 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PACE First out in the Speeulnm Salvationis, which has generally, but erroneously, been described as a block-book, as the text in the first edition is printed with types. . 96 Fall of Lucifer, a fac-simile of one of the compartments of the preceding 97 The Creation of Eve, a fac-simile of the second compartment of the same .... 98 Paper-mark in the Alphabet of large letters composed of figures, formerly belonging to Sir George Beaumont ... . . ¦ • 167 Letter K, from the saujo book 1C9 Letter L, ditto 110 Letter Z, ditto HI Flowered ornament, ditto . 112 Cuts from the Ars Memorandi, an old block-book ... ... . . 115 CHAPTER III. THE INVENTION OF TTP06BAPHT, 118 163. Initial letter B, from a manuscript life of St. Birinus, of the twelth century ... 118 Tail-piece — portraits of Gutemberg, Faust, and SchefFer .... ... 153 CHAPTER IV. WOOD ENGKAVING IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEES8, 164 229. Initial letter C, from Faust and Scheffer's Psalter . . IGl Apes, from a book of Fables printed at Bamberg by Albert Pfister, 1461 . . 171 Heads, from an edition of the Poor Preachers' Bible, printed by Pfister . 177 Chi-ist and his Disciples, from the same .... . . . . . 177 Joseph making himself known to his Brethren, from the same ... . . 1 7 > The Prodigal Son's return, from the same . . . . . . . . . 17,^. The Creation of Animals, from Meditationes Joannis de Turrecremata, printed at Rome, 1467 .... Ij5 A bomb-shell and a man shooting from a, kind of hand-gun, from Valturius de Re MiUtari, printed at Verona, 1472 .... . ISS A man shooting from a cross-bow, from the same . . ... . 1S9 The Knight, from Caxton'a Book of Chess, about 1476 . . . . 193 The Bishop's pawn, from the same ...... . 19^ Two figures — Music, from Caxton's Mirrour of the World, 14S0 . . 196 Frontispiece to Breydenbach's Travels, printed at Mentz, 1486 . . . 207 Syrian Christians, from the same .... Old Woman with a basket of eggs on her head, from the Hortus SanitatLs printed at Mentz, 1491 Head of Paris, from the book usually called the Nuremberg Chronicle, printed at Nuremberg, 1493 . Creation of Eve, from the same The same subject from the Poor Preachers' Bible The difBcult Labour of Alomena, from an Italian translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses,' Mars, Venus, and Mercury, from PoliphiU Hypnerotomaohia, printed at Venice" Ung' Cupid brought by Mercury before Jove, from the same . Cupid and his Victims, from the same ' ' Bacchus, from the same Cupid, from the same . . ' * ' A Vase, from the same ' * ' Cat and Mouse, from a supposed old wood-.ut printed in Derschau's CoUection ISOS-' lolb * * Man in armour on horseback, from a woo.l-out,' formerlv used bv Mr.' O.x.rw An>n.s of Newcastle . ' o o TaU-piccc-the press of Jodocus Radius .\»,v„si„'nns, fron', the title-puro of . book "'^ printed by him alidut i 4li,s " ... .JO,-, 209211 212 215 216217 221 .¦>.i.i .-).-».,2-'3 224224 •2!'H LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xi CHAPTER V. WOOD ENGEAVING IN THE TIME OE ALBEET DUEEE, 230 — 323. p^^j. Initial letter M, from an edition of Ovid's Tristia, printed at Venice by J. de Cireto, 1499 230 Peasants dancing a:nd regaling, from Heures a I'Usaige de Chartres, printed at Paris by Simon Vostre about 1502. The first of these cuts occurs in a similar work — Heures a I'Usaige de Rome — printed by Simon Vostre in 1497 233 The woman clothed with the sun, from Albert Durer's illustrations of the Apocalypse, 1198 240 The Virgin and Infant Christ, from Albert Durer's illustrations of the History of the Virgin, 1511 243 The Birth of the Virgin, from the same work ... . . 244 St. Joseph at work as a carpenter, with the Virgin rocking the Infant Christ in a cradle, from the same . 246 Christ mocked, from Durer's illustrations of Christ's Passion, about 1511 . . . 247 The Last Supper, from the same . . . . . . . 248 249250 268271272 277 279 280 284 285 Christ bearing his Cross, from the same ... ... The Descent to Hades, from the same . . Caricature, probably of Luther . . . Albert Durer's Coat-of-arms . . . His portrait, from a cut drawn by himself, 1527, the year preceding that of his death Holy Family, from a cut designed by Lucas Cranaoh Samson and Delilah, from a cut designed by Hans Burgmair . . .... Aristotle and his wife, from a cut designed by Hans Burgmair . ... Sir Theurdank killing a bear, from the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, 1517 . . The punishment of Sir Theurdank's enemies, from the same work . . . A figure on horseback, from the Triumphs of Maximilian . . . 294 Another, from the same work • . . . . . . . . 295 Ditto, ditto . . ... ... ... . . 296 Ditto, ditto . . . / ... .... ... i97 Ditto, ditto . . . . .......... 298 Ditto, ditto . . .... . . . 299 Three knights with banners, from tne same worK . . . 301 Elephant and Indians, from the same . . . .... 302 Camp followers, probably designed by Albert Durer, from the same . . . 303 Horses and Car, from the same .... ... 305 Jael and Sisera, from a out designed by Lucas van Leyden . . 309 Cut printed at Antwerp by Willem de Figm-snider, probably copied from a cut designed by tirse Graff ... 312 Three small cuts from Sigismund Fanti's Triompho di Fortuna, printed at Venice 1527 316 Fortuna di Africo, an emblem of the South wind, from the same work 316 Michael Angelo at work on a piece of sculpture, from the same . 317 Head of Nero, from a work on Medals, printed at Strasburg, 1525 ... . . 320 Cut of Saint Bridget, about 1600, from Dr. Dibdin's BibKomania . 321 Ditto of her Revelations 322 Tail-piece — a full length of Maximilian I. Emperor of Germany, from his Triumphs . 323 CHAPTER VI. JtTRTHBE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF WOOD ENGKaVTITG, 324 — 445. Initial letter T, from a book printed at Paris by Robert Stephens, 1537 . ... 324 Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, from a cut designed by Hans Holbein in the Dance of Death, first printed at Lyons in 1538 .... 839 Death's Coat of Arms, from the same Work ... 340 The Old Man, from the same . . .... .... 341 The Duchess, from the same . . . . .... . . . 342 The Child, from the same 343 Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE The Waggoner, from Holbein's Dance of Death ... ¦ 2^* Child with a shield and dart, from the same ... • • °^^ Children with the emblems of a triumph, from the same °^° Holbein's Alphabet of the Dance of Death . . ^^^ Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, from a cut designed by Holbein in his Bible-prints, Lyons, 1539 • ^^^369 The Fool, from the same work . ... .... The sheath of a dagger, intended as a design for a chaiei ... . • ^'^ Portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt, from a cut designed by Holbein in Leland's NaeniaB, 1542 379 Prayer, from a cut designed by Holbein in Archbishop Cranmer's Catechism, 1548 . 380 Christ casting out Devils, from another cut by Holbein, in the same work. 381 The Creation, from the same work . • • • " 382 Christ's Agony, from the same The Crucifixion, from the same Christ's Agony, from the same Genealogical Tree, from an edition of the New Testament, printed at Zurich by Froschover, 1554 . . ..... St. Luke, from Tindale's Translation of the New Testament, 1534 . . 3S4 St. James, from the same . . • * "" Death on the Pale Horse, from the same ... • ¦ "'- Cain killing Abel, from Coverdale's Translation of the Old and New Testament, 1535 . 3^6 Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, from the same . . . ¦ • • "' - ' The Two Spies, from the same. . . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ "'-' St. Matthew, from the same . ¦ ^ - ° St. John the Baptist, from the same . . • °°° St. Paul writing, from the same . . • • • ^°° Frontispiece to Marcolini's Sorti, Venice, 1540, by Joseph Porta Garfagninus, afterv a Study by Eaffaele for the School of Athens . . . . . .390 Punitione, from the same work . • ""''- Matrimony, from the same . , 392 Cards, from the same . . . 393 Truth saved by Time, from the same ... . . . 393 The Labour of Alcmena, from Dolce's Transformationi, Venice, 1553 . . . 394 Monogram, from Palatine's Treatise on Writing, Rome, 1561 . 396 Hieroglyphic Sonnet, from the same work . .... .396 Portraits of Petrarch and Laura, from Petrarch's Sonetti, Lyons, 1547 . 400 Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise, from Quadrins Historiques de la Bible, Lyons, 1650—1560 .... . . . . 401 Christ tempted by Satan, from Figures du Nouveau Testament, Lyons, 1553 — 1570 402 Briefmaler, from a book of Trades and Professions, Frankfort, 1564 — 1574 . 410 Formschneider, from the same ... 411 The Goose Tree, from Sebastian Munster's Cosmography, Basle, 1550 — 1554 . . 414 William Tell about to shoot at the apple on his son's head, from the same . . 416 Portrait of Dr. William Cuningham, from his Cosmogi-aphical Glass, London, 1559 . 424 Four initial letters, from the same work . . 425, 426. 427 Portrait of Queen Elizabeth, from the Booke of Christian Prayers printed by John Daye, 1569 . . 42S Large initial letter, from Fox's Acts and Monuments, 1576 ... . 429 Initial letter, from a work printed by Giolito at Venice, about 1550 . . . 430 Two Cats, from an edition of Daute, printed at Venice, 157S . . 431 Emblem of Water, from a chiaro-souro by Henry Goltzius, about 1590 . . 433 Caricature of the Laocoon, after a cut designed by Titian . . 435 The Good Householder, from a cut printed at London, 1607 . . . 437 Virgin and Christ, from a cut designed by Rubens, and engraved by Christopher Jegher . 438 The Infant Chi'ist and John the Baptist, from a cut designed by Eubons, and engraved by Christopher Jegher ... . . ... . , . 439 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xiii PAGE Jael and Sisera, from a cut designed by Henry Goltzius, and engraved by C. Van Sichem 440 Tail-piece, from an old out on the title-page of the first known edition of Robin Hood's Garland, 1670 .... ... . 445 CHAPTER VII. EEVIVAL OE WOOD ENGEAVING, 446 — 548. Initial letter A, from a French book, 1698 ... . . . 446 Fox and Goat, from a copper-plate by S. Le Clerc, about 1694 450 The same subject from Croxall's jEsop's Fables, 1722 . . . 45o The same subject from Bewick's Fables, 1818 — 1823 . . 461 English wood-cut with the mark F. H., London, 1724 ... ... . . 453 Adam naming the animals, copy of a cut by PapiQon, 1734 . . , .... 460 The Pedagogue, from the Ship of Fools, Pynson, 1509 . .... 468 The Poet's Fall, from Two Odes in ridicule of Gray and Mason, London, 1760 . 470 Initial letters, T. and B., composed by J. Jackson from tail-pieces in Bewick's History of British Birds .... . . 471 The house in which Bewick was born, drawn by J. Jackson 472 The Parsonage at Ovingham, drawn by George Balmer ... .... 473 Fac-simUe of a diagram engraved by Bewick in Hutton's Mensuration, 1768 — 1770 . 475 The Old Hound, a fao-simile of a cut by Bewick, 1775 . . . 476 Original cut of the Old Hound . . . .477 Cuts copied by Bewick from Der Weiss Kunig, and Illustratiens of Ovid's Metamor phoses by Virgilium Solis . . ... 483 Boys and Ass, after Bewick . .485 Old Man and Horse, ditto . 486 Child and young Horse, ditto . . . 487 Ewe and Lamb . . . . 488 Old Man and young Wife, ditto . . '488 Common Duck, ditto . . . ... 493 Partridge, ditto ... . . . . . 495 Woodcock, ditto ... . .... 496 The drunken MiUer, ditto .... . . 499 The Snow Man, ditto . . ... 499 Old Man and Cat, ditto . .... . . 500 Crow and Lamb, Bewick's original out to the Fable of the Eagle ... . . 503 The World turned upside down, after Bewick 604 Cuts oommemors.tive of the decease of Bewick's father and mother, from his Fables, 1818—1823 . . . 606 Bewick's Workshop, drawn by George Balmer . . . . 508 Portrait of Bewick . . ... . 510 View of Bewick's Burial-place ....... .. . . 611 Funeral, View of Ovingham Church, drawn by J. Jackson 612 The sad Historian, from a cut by John Bewick, in Poems by Goldsmith and Pamell, 1795 515 Fao-simile of a cut by John Bewick, from Blossoms of Morality . . . 516 Copy of a cut engraved by C. Nesbit, from a drawing by R. Johnson . .... 518 View of a monument erected to the memory of R. Johnson, against the south wall of Ovingham Church . . . . 518 Copy of a view of St. Nicholas Church, engraved by C. Nesbit, from a drawing by R. Johnson . . . 519 Copy of the cut for the Diploma of the Highland Society, engraved by L. Clennell, from a drawing by Benjamin West ... . . . . 623 End and Flowers, engraved by L. Clennell, when insane . . . . . . . 526 Seven Engravings by Wflliam Harvey, from Dr. Henderson's History of Wiaes . . . 530 Milton, designed by W. Harvey, engraved by John Thompson .... . 531 Three Hlustrationa by W.. Harvey, engraved by S. Williams, Oirin Smith, and G. Gray 532 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. TAOE Cut from the Children in the Wood, drawn by W. Harvey, and engraved by J. Thompson 533 Cut from the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, drawn by W. Harvey, and engraved by C. Nesbit ; • ¦ ^34 Copy of a part of the Cave of Despair, engraved by R. Branston, from a drawing by J. Thurston ... ^35 Three cuts engraved by Robert Branston, after designs by Thurston, for an edition of Select Fables, in rivalry of Bewick . .... 537 Bird, engraved by Robert Branston . ... .... . . . 538 PistiU Cain, in North Wales, drawn and engraved by Hugh Hughes 539 Moel Famau, ditto, ditto ... . 539 Wrexham Church, ditto, ditto 540 PwU Carodoc, ditto, ditto 540 Salmon, Group of Fish, and Chub, engraved by John Thompson 541 Pike, by Robert Branston 542 Eel, by H. White 542 Illustration from Hudibras, engraved by John Thompson 543 Hogarth's Rake's Progress, engraved by John Thompson 544 The Temptation, engraved by John Jackson, after John Martin . . ... 545 The Judgment of Adam and Eve, engraved by F. W. Branston, after ditto . . 545 The Assuaging of the Waters, engraved by E. LandeUa, after ditto . . 546 The Deluge, engraved by W. H. Powis, after ditto . . 646 The Tower of Babel, engraved by Thomas Williams, after ditto 547 The Angel announcing the Nativity, engraved by W. T. Green, after ditto . . . 547 Tail-piece — Vignette, engraved by W. T. Green, after W. Harvey .... . . 548 CHAPTER VIII. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES ON WOOD OF THE PEESENT DAT, 549 — 660. The Sierra Morena, engraved by James Cooper, after Peroival Skeltou 650 The Banks of the Nith, engraved by ditto, after Birket Foster 551 The Twa Dogs, engraved ty ditto, after Harrison Weir 551 To Auld Mare Maggie, engraved by ditto, after ditto 550 The Poetry of Nature, engraved by J. Greenaway, after Harrison Weir 553 From Bloomfield's Parmer's Boy, engraved by W. Wright, after ditto 554 From Campbell's Pleasures of Hope, engraved by J. Greenaway, after ditto . 554 From the same, by the same ... . . . . 555 Wild Flowers, engraved by E. Evans, after Birket Foster ... From Lays of the Holy Land, engraved by W. J. Palmer, after Birket Foster From Longfellow's Evangeline, engraved by H. VizeteUy, after ditto From Moore's Lalla Rookh, engraved by Dalziel, after John Tenniel . . Death of Sforza, from Barry Cornwall, engraved by Dalziel, after ditto . Sforza, ditto, ditto . " ... ... . . . Antony and Cleopatra, engraved by Dalziel Brothers, after John Gilbert . The Florentine Party, from Barry Cornwall, engraved by Dalziel Brothers, after Thomas Dalziel . . .... . .... Prince Arthur and Hubert de Bourg, engraved by Kirohner, after John Gilbert . . . 563* From Maxwell's Life of the Duke of Wellington, designed by John Gilbert . . . 563» The Demon Lover, designed by John GUbert, engraved by W. A. Folkard . 504* From Longfellow's Hiawatha, engraved by W. L. Thomas, after G. H. Thomas 365* From the same, engraved by Horace Harral, after G. H. Thomas ... _ sgg* From the same, engraved by Dalziel Brothers, after ditto . .... 566* John Anderson my Jo, from Burns' Poems, engraved by E. Evans, after ditto . 567* Vignette from Hiawatha, engraved by E. Evans, after ditto 5p-« From Tennyson's Princess, engraved by W. Thomas, after D. Maolise 568* From Biirger's Leonora, engraved by J. Thompson, after Jlacliso . 569» l''rom Childe Harold, engraved by J. W. Whimper, after Pereival Skolton 569* 556 557558 559560 560 561*362* LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS. XV PAGE From Marryat's Poor Jack, engraved by H. VizeteUy, after Clarkson Stanfield . . 570* Christmas in the olden time, engraved by H. VizeteUy, after Birket Foster .... 571* Two iUustrations from Thomson's Seasons, designed and engraved by Sam Williams . 572* Eagles, Stags, and Wolves, engraved by George Pearson, after John Wolf 573* Hare Hawking, engraved by George Pearson, after John Wolf . 574* Falls of Niagara, engraved by George Pearson .... 674* From Sandford and Merton, engraved by Measom, after H. Auelay 576* From LongfeUow's Miles Standish, engraved by Thomas Bolton, after John Absolon . 676' Flaxman's ' Dehver us from Evil,' a specimen of Mr. Thomas Bolton's new process of photographing on wood . . 577* From Montalva's Fairy Tales, engraved by John Swain, after R. Doyle . . . . 578* From ' Brown, Jones, and Robinson,' engraved by John Swain, after Doyle . . . 579* From Uncle Tom's Cabin, engraved by Orrin Smith, after John Leech . . . . 680* From Mr. Leech's Tour in Ireland, engraved by John Swain, after John Leech . . . 681* From 'Moral Emblems of aU Ages,' engi-aved by H. Leighton, after John Leighton . 582* Two subjects from the lUustrated Southey's Life of Nelson, engraved by H. Harral, after E. Duncan ... .... . 683* North porch of St. Maria Maggiore, drawn and engraved by Orlando Jewitt . 684* Shrine in Bayeux Cathedral, by Orlando Jewitt . .... 585* Hearse of Margaret Countess of Warwick and other specimens from Regius Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament, by Orlando Jewitt . . . , , 586* Brick Tracery, St. Stephen's Church, Tangermunde, Prussia, by ditto . . 587* The Nut Brown Maid, engraved by J. Williams, after T. Creswick . . . . 588* Vignette from Bohn's Illustrated Edition of Walton's Angler, by M. Jackson, after T. Creswick 689* Paul preaching at Athens, engraved by W. J. Linton, after John Martin . . 590* Vignette from the Book of British Ballads, engraved by ditto, after R. Mclan . 590* From Milton's L' Allegro, engraved by ditto, after Stonehouse . . 591* From the same, engraved by ditto, after J. C. Horsley . . . . 591* Ancient Gambols, drawn and engraved by F. W. Fairholt . . . . 592* Vignette from the Illustrated Edition of Robin Hood, by ditto 692* Two iUustrations from Dr. Mantell's Works, engraved by James Lee, after Joseph Dinkel 593* From Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, engraved by H. Harral, after E. H. Wehnert . 594* Three illustrations drawn and engraved by George Cruikshank, from ' Three Courses and a Dessert ' , . 595* Two illustrations by ditto from the Universal Songster .... . . 696* Three illustrations from the Pictorial Grammar, by CrowquUl . . . 597* Vignette from the Book of British Ballads by Kenny Meadows . . . 597* CHAPTER IX. THE PEAOTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING, 561 — 662. Initial letter P, showing a wood engraver at work, with his lamp and globe, drawn by R. W. Buss . . 561 Diagram, showing a block warped 566 Cut showing the appearance of a plug-hole in the engraving, drawn by J. Jackson . 570 Diagrams illustrative of the mode of repairing a block by plugging . . . 570 Cut showing a plug re-engraved . . . . 671 Diagram showing the mode of pulling the string over the corner of the block . . 672 The shade for the eyes, and screen for the mouth and nose .... 674 Engraver's lamp, glass, globe, and sand-bag . . . 575 Graver . .576 Diagram of gravers . . . . ... . 576 Diagrams of tint-tools, &c. . . . . 577 Diagrams of gouges, chisels, &c . . . 678 xvi LIST OF II/LUSTRATIONS, PAGE Gravers . . .... .... 579 Cuts showing the manner of holding the graver 679, 580 Examples of tints 581, 582, 683, 584 Examples of curved lines and tints . ... 585, 586 Cuts illustrative of the mode of cutting a white outline 688 Outline engraving previous to its being blocked out — the monument to the memory of two children in Lichfield Cathedral by Sir F. Chantrey 689 The same subject finished 590 OutUne engraving, after a design by Flaxman for a snuff-box for George IV 590 Cut after a pen-and-ink sketch by Sir David WUkie for his picture of the Rabbit on theWaU 591 Figures from a sketch by George Morland . . . . . 592 Group from Sir David Wilkie's Rent Day 593 Figure of a boy from Hogarth's Noon, one of tho engravings of his Four Parts of the Day . . . . . 594 A Hog, after an etching by Rembrandt ...... 595 Dray-horse, drawn by James Ward, R.A. . . ... . . . . 596 Jacob blessing the ChUdren of Joseph, after Rembrandt 597 Two cuts — View of a Road-side Inn — showing the advantage of cutting the tint before the other parts of a subject are engraved . . ... 598 Head, from an etching by Rembrandt . . ... . 599 Impression from a cast of part of the Death of Dentatus, engraved by W. Harvey . 601 Christ and the Woman at the WeU, from an etching by Rembrandt . 602 The Flight into Egypt, from an etching by Rembrandt . . 605 Sea-piece, drawn by George Balmer . . ... 606 Sea-piece, moonlight, drawn by George Balmer . . . . 606 Landscape, evening, drawn by George Balmer . . . 607 Impression from a cast of part of the Death of Dentatus, engraved by W. Harvey . 609 View of Rouen Cathedral, drawn by William Prior . . ... . . . 611 Map of England and Wales, with the part of the names engraved on wood, and part inserted in type ... . . . 612 Group from Sir David Wilkie's Village Festival ... 614 Natural Vignette, and an old ornamented capital from a manuscript of the thirteenth century 616 Specimens of ornamental capitals, chiefly taken from Shaw's Alphabets . ... 617 Impressions frorn a surface with the figures in relief — subject, the Crown-piece of George IV 618 Impressions from a surface with the figures in intaglio — same subject . . 619 Shepherd's Dog, dravra by W. Harvey . ... 620 Egret, drawn by W. Harvey .... . . . 621 Winter-piece, with an ass and her foal, drawn by J. Jackson . . . 622 Sahnon-Trout, with a view of ByweU-Lock, drawn by J. Jackson ... . 623 Boy and Pony, drawn by J. Jackson . . ... . 624 Heifer, drawn by W. Harvey .... . _ ... 624 Descent from the Cross, after an etching by Rembrandt — impression when the block is merely lowered previous to engraving the subject . . . . . . 626 Descent from the Cross — impression from the finished cut .... 627 Copies of an ancient bust in the British Museum — No. 1 printed from a wood-cut, and No. 2 from a cast .... . . . . . 637 Block reduced from a Lithograph by the new Electro-printing Block process . . 639 Horse and Ass, drawn by J. Jaclison — improperly printed ... . . 641 Same subject, properly printed (-^2 Landscape, drawn by George Balmer — improperly printed .... . . 644 Same subject, properly printed . g^^ TaU-piece, drawn by C. Jacques gg9 ON WOOD ENGKAVING. CHAPTEE 1. ANTIQUITY OF ENGRAVING. Engraving — the word explained — the art defined — distinction between engeaving on copper and on wood — eaelt practice of the aet of impeessing chaeactees by means of stamps instanced in babylonian ebioks ; fragments of egyptian and eteuscan earthenware; roman lamps, tiles, and ampeorj: — the cauteeium oe brand — fein- ciple of stencilling known to the romans — eoyal signateres thus affixed — peaotice of stamping monograms on documents in the middle ages — notakial stamps — mee- CHANTS'-MARKS — COINS, SEALS, AND SEPULCHRAL EEASSES — EXAMINATrON OP MR. OTTLEY's OPINIONS CONCERNING THE OEIQIN OF THE ART OP WOOD ENGEAVING IN EUROPE, AND ITS EARLY PRACTICE BY TWO WONDERFUL CHILDREN, THE C0NIO. S few persons know, even amongst those who profess to be admirers of the art of Wood En graving, by what means its effects, as seen in books and single impressions, are produced, and as a yet smaller number understand in what manner it specifically differs in its pro cedure from the art of engraving on copper or steel, it appears necessary, before entering into any historic detail of its progress, to pre mise a few obseivations explanatory of the word Engraving in its general acceptation, and more particularly de scriptive of that branch of the art which several persons caU Xylography ; but which is as clearly expressed, and much more generally understood, by the term Wood Engraving. The primary meaning of the verb "to engrave" is defined by Dr. Johnson, " to picture by incisions in any matter ;" and he derives it from B 2 ANTIQUITY OF the French " engraver" The great lexicographer is not, however, quite correct in his derivation ; for the French do not use the verb " engraver" in the sense of "to engrave," but to signify a ship or a boat being em bedded in sand or mud so that she cannot float. The French synonym of the Enghsh verb "to engrave," is "graver ;" and its root is to be found in the Greek rypdcfxa {grapho, I cut), which, with its compound i7nypd(f>ca, according to MartoreUi, as cited by Von Murr,* is always used by Homer to express cutting, incision, or wounding ; but never to express writing by the superficial tracing of characters with a reed or pen. From the circumstance of laws, in the early ages of Grecian history, being cut or engraved on wood, the word 7pa^&) came to be used in the sense of, " I sanction, or I pass a law ; " and when, in the progress of society and the improvement of art, letters, instead of being cut on wood, were indented by means of a skewer-shaped instrument (stylus) on wax spread on tablets of wood or ivory, or written by means of a pen or reed on papyrus or on parchment, the word 'ypa,(f)a), which in its primitive meaning signi fied " to cut," became expressive of writing generally. From jpdcfxo is derived the Latin scribo,f "I write ;" and it is worthy of observation, that "to scrive," — most probably from scribe, — signifies, in our own language, to cut numerals or other characters on timber with a tool called a scrive : the word thus passing, as it were, through a circle of various meanings and in different languages, and at last returning to its original signification. Under the general term Sculpture — the root of which is to be found in the Latin verb sculpo, "I cut" — have been classed coppeiyplate en graving, wood engraving, gem engraving, and carving, as well as the art of the statuary or figure-cutter in marble, to which art the word sculpture is now more strictly applied, each of those arts requiring in its process the act of cutting of one kind or other. In the German language, which seldom borrows its terms of art from other languages, the various modes of cutting in sculpture, in copper-plate engraving, and in engraving on wood, are indicated in the name expressive of the operator or artist. The sculptor is named a Bildhauer, from BiJd, a statue, and hapten, to hew, indicating the operation of cutting with a mallet and chisel ; the copper plate engraver is called a Kupfer-stecher, from Kitpfir, copper, and stechen, to dig or cut with the point ; and the wood engraver is a Hohschneider, from Hols, wood, and schneiden, to cut with the edo-e. It is to be observed, that though both the copper-plate engraver and * C. G. Von Murr, in his Journal zur Kunstgescliichte, 2 Theil, S. 263, refeniiig to Uai- torelli, De Regia Theca Calamaria. t If this etymology be correct, the English Scrircncr and French Greffitr may be related by descent as well as professionally ; both words being thus referable to the same origin, the Greek ypiw. The modem Writer in the .Scottish courts of Law performs the duties^both of Scrivener and Greffier, with whose name his own is synoilymous. engraving. 3 the wood engraver may be said to cut in a certain sense, as well as the sculptor and the carver, they have to execute their work reversed, — that is, contrary to the manner in which impressions from their plates or blocks are seen ; and that in copying a painting or a drawing, it requires to be reversely transferred,— a disadvantage under which the sculptor and the carver do not labour, as they copy their models or subjects direct. Engraving, as the word is at the present time popularly used, and considered in its relation to the pictorial art, may be defined to be — " The art of representing objects on metallic substances, or on wood, expressed by lines and points produced by means of corrosion, incision, or excision, for the purpose of their being impressed on paper by means of ink or other colouring matter." The impressions obtained from engraved ^Zafes of metal or from blocks of wood are commonly called engravings, and sometimes prints. Formerly the word cuts* was applied indiscriminately to impressions, either from metal or wood ; but at present it is more strictly confined to the pro ductions of the wood engraver. Impressions from copper-plates only are properly called plates; though it is not unusual for persons who profess to review productions of art, to speak of a book containing, perhaps, a number of indifferent woodcuts, as " a work embellished with a profusion of the most charming plates on wood ; '' thus affording to every one who is in the least acquainted with the art at once a specimen of their taste and their knowledge. Independent of the difference of the material on wliich copper-plate engraving and wood engraving are executed, the grand distinction between the two arts isj that the engraver on copper corrodes by means of aqua-fortis, or cuts out with the burin or dry-point, the lines, stipplings, and hatchings from which his impression is to be produced ; while, on the contrary, the wood engraver effects his purpose by cutting away those parts which are to appear white or colourless, thus leaving the lines which produce the impression prominent. In printing from a copper or steel plate, which is previously warmed by being placed above a charcoal fire, diligenter gj^sato, quarmn in cervicibus pittMa erant aftxa, cum hoc titulo : FaUm.u,n Opimian um annorum ccntvn^" Pittaeia were sma 1 labels-sohedulM breves-attached to the necks of winc-vcssols, and on which were marked the nam'e and ago of the wine. LAH ENGRAVING. Prome reconditum, Lyde, strenua, Caecubum, Munitseque adhibe vim sapientise. Inolinare meridiem Sentis : ac veluti stet volucris dies, Parcis deripere horreo Cessantem Bibuli Consulis amphoram. Oarmin. lib. III. xxviii. " Quickly produce, Lyde, the hoarded Oaecuban, and make an attack upon wisdom, ever on her guard. You perceive the noontide is on its decline ; and yet, a,s if the fleeting day stood still, you delay to bring out of the store-house the loitering cask, (that bears its date, from the Consul Bibulus." — Smart's Translation. Mr. Ottley, in his " Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving," pages 57 and 58, makes a distinction between impression where the characters impressed are produced by " a change of form " — meaning where they are either indented in the substance impressed, or raised upon it in relief — and impression where the characters are produced by colour ; and requires evidence that the ancients ever used stamps " charged with ink or some other tint, for the purpose of stamping paper, parchment, or other substances, little or not at all capable of indentation." It certainly would be very difficulty if not impossible, to produce a piece of paper, parchment, or cloth of the age of the Eomans im pressed with letters in ink or other colouring matter ; but the existence of such stamps as the preceding, — and there are others in the British Museum of the same kind, containing more letters and of a smaller size, — renders it very probable that they were used for the purpose of marking cloth, paper, and similar substances, with ink, as well as for being impressed in wax or clay. Von Murr, in an article in his Journal, on the Art of Wood Engraving, gives a copy from a similar bronze stamp, in Praun's Museum, with the inscription " Galliani," which he considers as most distinctly proving that the Eomans had nearly arrived at the arts of wood engraving and book printing. He adds : " Letters cut on wood they certainly had, and very likely grotesques and figures also, the hint of which their artists might readily obtain from the coloured stuffs which were frequently presented by Indian ambassadors to the emperors." * At page 90 of Singer's "Eesearches into the History of Playing- Cards " are impressions copied from stamps similar to the preceding ; * Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theil, S. 81. By grotesque—" Laubwerk "—orna mental foliage is here meant ; — grot-esqae, bower-work, — not caricatures. 10 ANTIQUITY OF which stamps the author considers as affording "examples of such a near approach to the art of printing as first practised, that it is truly extraordinary there is no remaining evidence of its having been exercised by them ; — unless we suppose that they were acquainted with it, and did not choose to adopt it from reasons of state policy." It is just as extraordinary that the Greek who employed the expansive force of steam in the iElopile to blow the fire did not invent New- comen's engine ; — unless, indeed, we suppose that the construction of such an engine was perfectly known at Syracuse, but that the government there did not choose to adopt it from motives of "state poHey." It was not, however, a reason of "state policy" which caused the Eoman cavalry to ride without stirrups, or the windows of the palace of Augustus to remain unglazed. The following impressions are also copied from two other brass stamps, preserved in the collection of Eoman antiquities in the British Museum. flScMDO As the letters m the originals are hollowed or cut into the metal. they would, if impressed on clay or soft wax, appear raised or in relief ; and if inked and impressed on paper or on white cloth, they would present the same appearance that they do here— white on a black ground. Not being able to explain the letters on these stamps further than that the first may be the dative case of a proper name Ovirillms, and indicate that property so marked belonged to such a person, I leave them, as Francis Moore, physician, leaves the hieroglyphic in his Almanack, -" to time and the curious to construe " ENGEAVING. ] | Lambinet, in his '' Eecherches sur I'Origine de I'lmprimerie," crives an account of two stone stamps of the form of small tablets, the letters of which were cut in intaglio and reverse, similar to the two of which impressions are above given. They were found in 1808, near the villao-e of Nais, in the department of the Meuse ; and as the letters, being in reverse, could not be made out, the owner of the tablets sent them to the Celtic Society of Paris, where M. Dulaure, to whose examination they were subndtted, was of opinion that they were a kind of matrices or hollow stamps, intended to be applied to soft substances or such as were in a state of fusion. He thought they were stamps for vessels containing medical compositions ; and if his reading of one of the inscriptions be correct, the practice of stamping the name of a quack and the nature of his remedy, in relief on the side of an ointment-pot or a bottle, is of high antiquity. The letters Q. .lUN. TAUEI. ANODY. ¦ NUM. AD OMN. LIPP, M. Dulaure explains thus : Quinti Junii Tauridi anodynum ad omnes lippas ;* an inscription which is almost literally rendered by the title of a specific still known in the neighbourhood of l^ewcastle-on-Tyne, "Dr. Dud^s lotion, good for sore eyes." Besides such stamps as have already been described, the ancients used brands, both figured and lettered, with which, when heated, they marked their horses, sheep, and cattle, as well as criminals, captives, and refractory or runaway slaves. The Athenians, according to Suidas, marked their Samian captives with the figure of an owl ; while Athenians captured by the Samians were marked with the figure of a galley, and by the Syracusans with the figure of a horse. The husbandman at his leisure time, as we are informed by Virgil, in the first book of the Georgics, " Aut pecori signa, aut numeros impressit acervis ;" and from the third book we learn that the operation was performed by " Oontinuoque notas et nomina gentis inunmt."f branding : * M. Dulaure's latinity is bad. "Lippas'' certainly is not the word. His translation is, " RemMe anodin ,de Quintus Junius Tauridus, pour tons les maux d'yeux." Other stone stamps, supposed to have been used by oculists to mark the vessels containing their medica ments, were discovered and explained long before M. Dulaure published his interpretation. ¦See " Walchii Antiquitates Medicse Selects, Jenss, 1772," Num. 1 and 2, referred to by Von Murr. t Hermannus Hugo, De prima Origine Scribendi, cap. xix. De Notis ServUibus, et cap. XX. De "Notis pecudum. A further account of the ancient stigmata, and of the manner in which slaves were marked, is to be found in Pignoeius, De Servis. 12 ANTIQUITY OF Such brands as th(3se above noticed, commonly known by the name of cauteria or stigmata, were also used for simUar purposes during the middle ages ; and the practice, which has not been very long obsolete, of burning homicides in the hand, and vagabonds and "sturdy beggars" on the breast, face, or shoulder, affords an example of the employment of the brand in the criminal jurisprudence of our own country. By the 1st Edward VI. cap. 3, it was enacted, that whosoever, man or woman, not being lame or impotent, nor so aged or diseased that he or .she could not work, should be convicted of loitering or idle wandering by the highway- side, or in the streets, like a servant wanting a master, or a beggar, he or she was to be marked with a hot iron on the breast with the letter V [for Vagabond], and adjudged to the person bringing him or her before a justice to be his slave for two years ; and if such adjudged slave should run away, he or she, upon being taken and convicted, was to be marked on the forehead, or on the ball of the cheek, with the letter S [for Slave], and adjudged to be the said master's slave for ever. By the 1st of James I. cap. 7, it was also enacted, that such as were to be deemed "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars" by the 39th of Elizabeth, cap. 4, being convicted at the sessions and found to be incorrigible, were to be branded in the left shoulder with a hot iron, of the breadth of an English shilling, marked with a great Eoman E [for Eogue] ; such branding upon the shoulder to be so thoroughly burned and set upon the skin and flesh, that the said letter E should be seen and remain for a perpetual mark upon such rogue during the remainder of his life.* From a passage in Quintilian we learn that the E.omans were acquainted with the method of tracing letters, by means of a piece of thin wood in which the characters were pierced or cut through, on a principle similar to that on which the present art of stencilling is founded. He is speaking of teaching boys to write, and the passage referred to may be thus translated : "When the boy shall have entered m'^ojx joining-hand, it will be useful for him to have a copy-head of wood in which the letters are well cut, that through its furrows, as it were, he may trace the characters with his style. He will not thus be liable to make slips as on the wax [alone], for he will be confined by the bound.iry of the letters, and neither will he be able to deviate from his text. By thus more rapidly and frequently following a definite outline, his hand will become set, without his requiring any assistance from the master to guide it." + * History of the Poor Laws, 8vo. 1764, by Richard Burn, LL.D., who in his observations on such punishments says : " It is affecting to humanity to observe tho various methods that have been invented for the punishmmt of vagi-ants ; none of all which wroiisht the desired "sfleot This part of our history looks like the history of the savages in America. Almost all severities have been exercised against vagrants, except scalpmg." t " Quum puer jam ductus sequi coeperit, non inutile erit, litteras tabellre quam optime insculpi, ut per illos, vehit sulcos, ducatur stylus. Nam noque ernibit, quemadniodum in ENGRAVING. 13 A thin stencil-plate of copper, having the following letters cut out of it, DN CONSTAN TIO AVG SEM PEE VICTOEI was received, together with some rare coins, from Italy by Tristan, author of " Commentaires Historiques, Paris, 1657," who gave a copy of it at page 68 of the third volume of that work. The letters thus formed, " ex nulla materia,"* might be traced on paper by means of a pen, or with a small brush, charged with body-colour, as stencillers slap-dash rooms through their pasteboard patterns, or dipped in ink in the same manner as many shopkeepers now, through similar thin copper-plates, mark the prices of their wares, or their own name and address on the paper in which such wares are wrapped. In the sixth century it appears, from Procopius, that the Emperor Justin I. made use of a tablet of wood pierced or cut in a similar manner, through which he traced in red ink, the imperial colour, his signature, consisting of the first four letters of his name. It is also stated that Theo- f^ doric. King of the Ostrogoths, the contem- jC porary of Justin, used after the same manner to sign the first four letters of his name through a plate of gold ;-f- and in Peringskiold's edition of the Life of Theo- doric, the annexed is given as the mono gram | of that monarch. The authenticity of this account has, however, been ques tioned, as Cochlaeus, who died in 1552, cites no ancient authority for the fact. "^X^ ceris, continebitur enim utrimque marginibus, neque extra praescriptum poterit egredi ; et celerius ac ssepius sequendo certa vestigia firmabit articulos, neque egebit adjutorio manum suam, manu superimposita, regentis." QuintUiani Instit. Orator., lib. i. cap. I. * Prosper Marchand, at page 9 of his " Histoire de I'lmprimerie," gives the following title of a book in 8vo. which was wholly, both text and figures, executed in this manner, perce av, jour, in vellum : " Liber Passionis Domini Nostri Jesu Ohristi, cum figuris et characteribus ex nulla materia compositis." He states that in 1640 it was in the collection of Albert Henry, Prince de Ligne, and quotes a description of it fi-om Anton. Sanderi Biblio- theca Belgica Manuscripta, parte ii. p. 1. + "Rex Theodoricus inliteratus erat, et sic obruto sensu ut in decern annos regni sui quatuor literas subscriptionis edicti sui discere nuUafenus potuisset. De qua re laminam auream jussit interrasUem fieri quatuor literas regis habentem, unde ut si subscribere voluisset, posita lamina super chartam, per eam pennam duceret et subscriptio ejus tantum videretur." — Vita Theodorici Regis Ostrogothomm et Itahge, autore Joanne Cochlseo ; cum additamentis Joannis Peringskiold, 4to. Stockholmise, 1699, p. 199. t A monogram, properly, consists of all, or the principal letters of a name, combined in such a manner that the whole appear but as one character ; a portion of one letter being understood to represent another, two being united to form a third, and so on. It. ANTIQUITY OP It has been asserted by Mabillon, (Diplom. Kb. ii. cap. 10,) that Charlemagne first introduced the practice of signing documents with a monogram, either traced with a pen by means of a thin tablet of gold, ivory, or wood, or impressed with an inked stamp, having the characters in relief, in a manner similar to that in which letters are stamped at the Post-office.* Ducange, however, states that this mode of signing documents is of greater antiquity, and he gives a copy of the monogram of the Pope Adrian I. who was elected to the see of Eome in 774, and died in 795. The annexed monogram of Charlemagne has been copied from Perings kiold, " Annotationes in Vitam Theodorici," p. 584 ; it is also given in Ducange's Glossary, and in the " Nouveau Traits de Diplomatique." The monogram, either stencilled or stamped, consisted of a combi nation of the letters of the person's name, a fanciful character, or the figure of a cross, f accompanied with a peculiar kind of flourish, called by French writers on diplomatics parafe or ruche. This mode of signing appears to have been common in most nations of Europe during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries ; and it was practised by nobles and the higher orders of the clergy, as well as by kings. It continued to be used by the kings of France to the time of Philip III. and by the Spanish monarchs to a much later period. It also appears to have been adopted by some of the Saxon kings of England ; and the authors of the "Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique" say that they had seen similar marks produced by a stamp of WiUiam the Conqueror, when Duke of Normandy. We have had a recent instance of the use of the stampilla, as it is called by diplomatists, in affixing the royal signature. During the illness of George TV. in 1830, a silver stamp, containing a fac-simile of the king's sign-manual, was executed by Wyon, which was stamped on documents requiring the royal signature, by commissioners, in his Majesty's presence. A similar stamp was used during the last illness of Henry VIII. for the purpose of affbcing the royal signature. The king's warrant empowering commissioners to use the stamp may be seen in Eymer's Foedera, vol. xv. p. 101, anno 1546. It is believed that the * Mabillon's opmion is founded on the following passage in the Life of Chtulemague, by his secretary Eginhard : " Ut scilicet imperitiam hanc [scribtmU] hmesto ritu suppleret, niouo- grammatis uswrn loco proprii signi invcxit." t " Triplex craces exarandi modus : I. penna sive c^ilamo ; -2. kimina interi-asili ; :i. stampilla sive typo anaglyptico. Laminas interrasiles ex aiuti aliove metallo, vel ex ebore etiam confectas sunt, atque ita perforatie, ut hiatus, pro re nata, crucium cet. spcciem pne se ferrent, per quos velut sulcos, calamus sive penna ducebatm-. Stampillie voro ita sculptse sunt, ut figuraa superficiem eniinerent, quse deinde atramento tincta; sunt, cbart^vque impressEe."— Gatterer, Elementa Artis Diplomatics, § 'IM, Pc Stiiurolofia. ENGEAVING. 15 warrant which sent the poet Surrey to the scaffold was signed with this stamp, and not with Henry's own hand. In Sempte's " History of the Cortes of Spain," several examples are given of the use of fanciful monograms in that country at an early period, and which were probably introduced by its Gothic invaders. That such marks were stamped is almost certain ; for the first, which is that of Gundisalvo Tellez, affixed to a charter of the date of 840, is the same as the " sign" which was affixed by his widow, Flamula, when she granted certain property to the abbot and monks of Cardena for the good of her deceased husband's soul. The second, which is of the date of 886, was used both by the abbot Ovecus, and Peter his nephew ; and the third was used by all the four children of one Ordono, as their " sign" to a charter of donation executed in 1018. The fourth mark is a Eunic cypher, copied from an ancient Icelandic manuscript, and given by Peringskiold in his "Annotations on the Life of Theodoric:" it is not given here as being from a stencil or a stamp, but that it may be compared with the apparently Gothic monograms used in Spain. ^ ^ ( ) 5 ^1- " In their inscriptions, and in the rubrics of their books," says a writer in the Edinburgh Eeview,* " the Spanish Goths, like the Eomans of the Lower Empire, were fond of using combined capitals — of monogram- matising. This mode of writing is now common in Spain, on the sign boards and on the shop-fronts, where it has retained its place in defiance of the canons of the council [of Leon]. The Goths, however, retained a truly G-othic custom in their writings. The Spanish Goth sometimes subscribed his name ; or he drew a monogram like the Eoman emperors, or the sign of the cross like the Saxon ; but not unfrequently he affixed strange and fanciful marks to the deed or charter, bearing a close resem blance to the Eunic or magical knots of which so many have been engraved by Peringskiold, and other northern antiquaries." To the tenth or the eleventh century are also to be referred certain small silver coins — •" something between counters and money," as is observed by Pinkerton — which are impressed, on one side only, with a kind of Eunic monogram. They are formed of very thin pieces of No. Ixi. p. 108, where the preceding Gothic marks, with the explanation of them, are given. 16 ANTIQUITY OF silver ; and it has been supposed that the impression was produced from wooden dies. They are known to collectors as " nummi bracteati" — tinsel money ; and Pinkerton, rnistakinf^ the Eunic character for the Christian cross, says that " most of them are ecclesiastic." He is perhaps nearer the truth when he adds that they " belong to the tenth century, and are commonly found in Germany, and the northern kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark."* The four following copies from the original coins in the Brennerian collection are given by Peringskiold, in his "Annotations on the Life of Theodoric," previously referred to. The characters on the three first he reads as the letters eir, oir, and air, respectively, and considers them to be intended to represent the name of Eric the Victorious. The characters on the fourth he reads as eim, and applies them to Emund Annosus, the nephew of Eric the Victorious, who succeeded to the Sueo-Gothic throne in 1051 ; about which time, through the influence of the monks, the ancient Eunic characters were exchanged for Eoman. The notaries of succeeding times, who on their admission were required to use a distinctive sign or notarial mark in witnessing an instrument, continued occasionally to employ the stencil in affixing their "sign;" although their use of the stamp for that purpose appears to have been more general In some of those marks or stamps the name of the notary does not appear, and in others a small space is left in order that it might afterwards be inserted with a pen. The annexed monogram KicoiAus FEEENTERins, 1236. ^as thc officlal mark of an Italian notarv, Xico- laus Ferenterius, who lived in l:2:>6.-t- The three following cuts represent impressions of German notarial stamps. The first is that of Jacobus Arnaldus, 1345; the second that of Johannes Meynersen, 1435 ; and the third that of Johannes Calvis, 1521.+ * Essay on Medals, pp. 144, 145. Edit 17S4 t It is given by Gatterer in his " Elementa Artis Diplomatu-a-," p. 166 ; L4to. Gottinc,v, 1765 ;] who refers to Muratori, Antiquit. Italia^ Mcdii .E, i t vi p 9 X These stamps are copied from "D. E. Baringii Clavi; Diplomatics," 4to. Hanovei^e, obt sight o7'' ' ""' '°'"' ''""'"'™' '""-• "¦^'^¦'' ' ''-^ -* ''^^'^We to 'ENGRAVING. 17 JACOBUS AKNALBrS, 1345. I -»'TQ^ (Miti (uS'^ I JOHANNES MEYNERSEN, 1435. JOHANNES CALVIS, 1521. Many of the merchants'-marks of our own country, which so frequently appear on stained glass windows, monumental brasses, and tombstones in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, bear a considerable likeness to the ancient Eunic monograms, from which it is not unlikely that they were originally derived. The English trader was accustomed to place his mark as his " sign " in his shop-front in the same manner as the Spaniard did his monogram : if he was a wool- ,_stapler, he stamped it on his packs f~or if a fish-curer, it was branded on the end of his casks. If he built himself a new house his mttrk c 18 ANTIQUITY OF was frequently placed between his initials over the principal door-way or over the fireplace of the hall ; if he made a gift to a church or a chapel, his mark was emblazoned on the windows beside the knight's or the nobleman's shield of arms ; and when he died, his mark was cut upon Ills tomb. Of the following merchants'-marks, the first is that of Adam de Walsokne, who died in 1349; the second that of Edmund Pepyr, who died in 1483; those two marks are from their tombs in St. Margaret's, Lynn; and the third is from a window in the same church.* a ¥^ s ^ 3 In Pierce Ploughman's Creed, written after the death of Wickliffe, which happened in 1384, and consequently more modem than many of Chaucer's poems, merchants'-marks are thus mentioned in the description of a window of a Dominican convent : " Wide windows y-wrought, y-written fuU thick, Shining with shapen shields, to shewen about. With marks of merchants, y-meddled between, Mo than twenty and two, twice y-numbered.t" Having thus endeavoured to prove by a continuous chain of evidence that the principle of producing impressions from raised lines was known, and practised, at a very early period ; and that it was applied for the purpose of impressing letters and other characters on paper, though perhaps confined to signatures only, long previous to 1 4'23. — which is the earliest date that has been discovered on a wood-cut. in the modem sense of the word, impressed on paper, and accompanied with expla natory words cut on the same block ;| and having shown that the principle of stencilling — the manner in which the above-named cut is * The marks here given are copied from Mackarcl's History of King's L™n. '^vo. 1737. In the same book there are upwards of thirty more of a similar kind, from the middle of the fourteenth century to the latter end of the seventeenth. Perhaps no two counties in the kingdom aff'ord so many examples of merchants'-marks and monumental bmsses as Norfolk and Sufi'olk. + " y-meddled is mixed ; the mtirks of merchants are put in opposition to the 'shapen shields,' because merchants hail no coats of arms."- Specimens of the Early English Poets. by George Ellis, Esq. vol i. p. 163. Edit. Isi i. t " Till lately this was the eariiest dated evidence of block printing known ; but there has iiiat been discovered at Malines, and now deposited at Brussels, a woodcut of similar character, but assumed to be Dutch or Flemish, dated mccccxvui. ; and though there seems no reason ti doubt the genuineness of the cut, it is cuiTcntly assorted that the date beai-s evidence of having been tampe.red with." -ExtiMct from Rohn's LoctnTC on Printin<'. ENGEAVING. 1 9 coloured * — ^was also known in the middle ages ; it appears requisite, next to briefly notice the contemporary existence of the cognate arts of die-sinking, seal-cutting, and engraving on brass, and afterwards to examine the grounds of certain speculations on the introduction and early practice of wood-engraving and block-printing in Europe. Concerning the first invention of stamping letters and figures upon coins, and the name of the inventor, it is fruitless to inquire, as the origin of the art is lost in the remoteness of antiquity. " Leaving these uncertainties," says Pinkerton, in his Essay on Medals, " we know from respectable authorities that the first money coined in Greece was that struck in the island of iEgina, by Phidon king of Argos. His reign is fixed by the Arundelian marbles to an era correspondent to the 885th year before Christ ; but whether he derived this art from Lydia or any other source we are not told." About three hundred years before the birth of Christ, the art of coining, so far as relates to the beauty of the heads impressed, appears to have attained its perfection in Greece ; — we may indeed say its perfection generally, for the specimens which were then produced in that country remain unsurpassed by modern art. Under the Eoman emperors the art never seems to have attained so high a degree of perfection as it did in Greece ; though several of the coins of Hadrian, probably executed by Greek artists, display great beauty of design and execution. The art of coining, with the rest of the orna mental arts, declined with the empire ; and, on its final subversion in Italy, the coins of its rulers were scarcely superior to those which were subsequently minted in England, Germany, and France, during the darkest period of the middle ages. The art of coining money, however rude in design and imperfect in its mode of stamping the impression, which was by repeated blows with a hammer, was practised from the twelfth to the sixteenth century in a greater number of places than at present ; for many of the more powerful bishops and nobles assumed or extorted the right of coining money as well as the king ; and in our own country the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the bishop of Durham, exercised the right of coinage till the Eeformation ; and local mints for coining the king's money were occasionally fixed at Norwich, Chester, York, St. Edmundsbury, New- castle-on-Tyne, and other places. Independent of those establishments for the coining of money, almost every abbey struck its own jettoros or * The woodcut referred to is that of St. Christopher, discovered by Heineken, pasted within the cover of a book in the Monastery of Buxheim, near Memmingen, in Suabia. It is of a folio size, and is coloured by means of stencils ; a practice which appears to have been adopted at an early part of the fifteenth century by the German Formschneiders and Briefmalers, hterally, figure-cutters and cardpainters, to colour their cuts and their cards. The St. Christopher is now in Earl Spencer's library. (See a reduced copy of it at p. 46). 20 ANTIQUITY OF counters ; fl-hich were thin j^ieces of copper, commonly impressed with a pious legend, and used in casting up accounts, but which the general introduction oi' the numerals now in use, and an improved system of arithmetic, have rendered unnecessary. As such mints were at least as numerous in France and Germany as in our own country, Scheffer, the partner of Faust, when he conceived the idea of casting letters from matrices formed by punches, would have little difficulty in finding a workman to assist him in carrying his plans into execution " The art of impressing legends on coins," says Astle in his Account of the Origin and Progress of writing, " is nothing more than the art of printing on medals." That the art of casting letters in relief though not separately, and most likely from a mould of sand, was known to the Eomans, is evident from the names of the emperors Domitian and Hadrian on some pigs of lead in the British IMuseum ; and that it was practised during the middle and succeeding ages, we have ample testimony from the inscriptions on our ancient bells.* In the century immediately preceding 1423, the date of the wood-cut of St Christopher, the use of seals, for the purpose of authenticating documents by their impression on wax, was general throughout Europe ; kings, nobles, bishops, abbots, and all v/ho '' came of gentle blood," with corporations, lay and clerical, all had seals. They were mostly of brass. for the art of engraving on precious stones does not appear to have been at that time revived, with the letters and device cut or cast in hollow — en creux — on the face of the seal, in order that the impression miglit appear raised. The workmanship of many of those seals, and more especially of some of the conventional ones, where figures of saints and a view of the abbey are introduced, displays no mean degi-ee of skill. Looking on such specimens of the graver's art, and bearing in mind the character of many of the drawings which are to be seen in the missals and other manuscripts of the fourteenth century and of the early part of the fifteenth, we need no longer be surprised that the cuts of the earliest block-books should be so well executed. The art of engraving on copper and other metals, though not with the intention of taking impressions on paper, is of great autiquitv. In the late Mr. Salt's collection of Egyptian antitiuitios there was a" small axe, probably a model, the head of which was formed of sheet-copper, and was tied, or rather bandaged, to the helve with slips of cloth There were certain characters cngraA'cd U])nn tho head in such a manner that if it were inked and submittea to tiie action of the rolling-press impressions would be obtained as from a moden, coppor-plalo. The axe. with other * The small and thick Ijniss coins .;tin,.i- i.,. n ¦ and known to collectors as .¦ c ,,;";!: ,;'V'7 ''''T "'¦'^" ^'" ^"™" ™>^'=™^' -• pn,,ose have been discovered ^l;::^lj:^' ''' '"^'^ ^^^¦' ^¦^>^*' ""^> '-•^"^ ^^ -" engraving. 21 models of a carpenter's tools, also of copper, was found in a tomb in Egypt, where it must have been deposited at a very early period. That the ancient Greeks and Eomans were accustomed to engrave on copper and other metals in a similar manner, is evident from engraved paterte and other ornamental works executed by people of those nations. Though no ancient writer makes mention of the art of engraving being employed for the purpose of producing impressions on paper, yet it has been conjectured by De Pauw, from a passage in Pliny,* that such an art was invented by Varro for the purpose of multiplying the portraits of eminent men. "No Greek," says De Pauw, speaking of engraving, "has the least right to claim this invention, which belongs exclusively to Varro, as is expressed by Pliny in no equivocal terms, when he calls this method inventum Varronis. Engraved plates were employed which gave the profile and the principal traits of the figures, to which the appro priate colours and the shadows were afterwards added with the pencil. A woman, originally of Cyzica, but then settled in Italy, excelled all others in the talent of illumining such kind of prints, which were inserted by Varro in a large work of his entitled ' Imagines ' or ' Hebdo- mades,' which was enriched with seven hundred portraits of distinguished men, copied from their statues and busts. The necessity of exactly repeating each portrait or figure in every copy of the work suggested the idea of multiplying them without much cost, and thus gave birth to an art till then unknown." -f- The grounds, however, of this conjecture are extremely slight, and will not without additional support sustain the superstructure which De Pauw — an " ingenious " guesser, but a super ficial inquirer — has so plausibly raised. A prop for this theory has been sought for by men of greater research than the original propounder, but hitherto without success. About the year 1300 we have evidence of monumental brasses, with large figures engraved on them, being fixed on tombs in this country ; and it is not unlikely that they were known both here and on the * " That a strong passion for portraits formerly existed, is attested both by Atticus, the friend of Cicero, who wrote a work on this subject, and by M. Varro, who conceived the very liberal idea of inserting by some means or other, in his numerous volumes, the portraits of seven hundred individuals ; as he could not bear the idea that all traces of their features should be lost, or that the lapse of centuries should get the better of mankind."— Pliny's Natural History, Book xxxv. chap. 2.— (Bolm's Ed. vol. vi. p. 226. M. Deville is of opinion that these portraits were made in relief upon plates of metal, perhaps bronze, and coloured with minium, a red tint much esteemed by the Bomans). t See De Pauw, Eecherches Philosofphiques sur les Grecs, t. ii. p. 100. The subject is discussed in Meusel's " Neue Miscellaneen von artistischen Inhalts," part xii. p. 380—387, in an article, "Sind wirklich die Romer die Erfinder der Kupferstecherkunst ?— Were the Romans truly the inventors of copper-plate engraving % " — by A. Rode. Bottiger, one of the most learned and intelligent of all German writers on the fine arts, and Pea, the editor of Winkleman's History of Art, do not admit De Pauw's conjecture, but decide the question in the negative. 22 ANTIQUITY OF Continent at an earlier period. The best specimens known in this country are such as were in all probability executed previous to 1 400. In the succeeding century 'the figures and -ornamental work generally appear to be designed in a worse taste and more carelessly executed ; and in the age of Queen Elizabeth the art, such as it was, appears to have reached the lowest point of degradation, the monumental brasses of that reign being generally the worst which are to be met with. The figures on several of the more ancient brasses are well drawn, and the folds of the drapery in the dresses of the females are, as a painter would say, "well cast;" and the faces occasionally display a considerable degree of correct and elevated expression Many of the* figures are of the size of life, marked with a bold outline well ploughed into the brass, and having the features, armour, and drapery indicated by single lines of greater or less strength as might be required. Attempts at shading are also occasionally to be met with; the effect being produced by means of Hnes obliquely crossing each other in the manner of cross-hatchings. Whether impressions were ever taken or not from such early brasses by the artists who executed them, it is perhaps now impossible to ascertain; but that they might do so is beyond a doubt, for it is now a common practice, and two immense volumes of impressions taken from monumental brasses, for the late Craven Ord, Esq., are preserved in the print-room of the British Museum. One of the finest monumental brasses known in this country is that of Eobert Braunche and his two wives, in St. Margaret's Church, Lynn, where it appears to have been placed about the year 1364. Braunche, and his two wives, one on each side of him, are represented standing, of the size of life. Above the figures are representations of five small niches surmounted by canopies in the florid Gothic styla In the centie niche is the figure of the Deity holding apparently the infant Christ in his arms. In each of the niches adjoinin? the centi-e one is an angel swinging a censer ; and in the exterior niches are angels playing on musical instruments. At the sides are figures of saints and at the foot there is a representation of a feast, where persons are 'seen seated at table, others playing on musical insti:uments, wliile a ficnire kneeling presents a peacock. The length of tliis brass is ei^-ht 'feet eleven inches, and its breadth five feet two inches. It is supposed to have been executed in Flanders, with which countrv at that period the town of Lynn was closely connected in the way of trade* It has frequently been asserted that the art of wood engraving in Europe was derived from the Chinese ; by whom, it is also said, that%he • An excellent representation of this celebrated monnmpnt;c„;, ¦ n. ings from the most remarkable Sepulchral Brakes iTm '^o L is°t. r "kv'L'^^': considerable additions in 2 vols, folio, 1839). ^^""olK, toho, IS19 (republished with ENGRAVING, 23 art was practised in the reign of the renowned emperor WuWang, who flourished 1120 years before the birth of Christ. As both these state ments seem to rest on equal authorities, I attach to each an equal degree of credibility ; that is, by believing neither. As Mr. Ottley has expressed an opinion in favour of the Chinese origin of the art, — though without adopting the tale of its being practised in the reign of Wu-Wang, which he shows has been taken by the wrong end, — I shall here take the liberty of examining the tenabUity of his arguments. At page 8, in the first chapter of his work, Mr. Ottley cautiously says that the " art of printing from engraved blocks of wood appears to be of very high antiquity amongst the Chinese ;" and at page 9, after citing Du Halde, as informing us that the art of printing was not discovered until about fifty years before the Christian era, he rather inconsistently observes : " So says Father Du Halde, whose authority I give without any comment, as the defence of Chinese chronology makes no part of the present undertaking." Unless Mr. Ottley is satisfied of the correctness of the chronology, he can by no means cite Du Halde's account as evidence of the very high antiquity of printing in China ; which in every other part of his book he speaks of as a well-established fact, and yet refers to no other authority than Du Halde, who relies on the correctness of that Chinese chronology with the defence of which Mr. Ottley will have nothing to do. It is also worthy of remark, that in the same chapter he corrects two writers, Papillon and Jansen, for erroneously applying a passage in Du Halde as proving that the art of printing was known in the reign of Wu-Wang, — he who flourished Ante Christum 1120 ; whereas the said passage was not alleged " by Du Halde to prove the antiquity ot printing amongst the Chinese, but solely in reference to their ink." Tho passage, as translated by Mr. Ottley, is as follows : " As the stone Me " (a word signifying ink in the Chinese language), " which is used to blacken the engraved characters, can never become white ; so a heart blackened by vices will always retain its blackness." The engraved characters were not inked, it appears, for the purpose of taking impres sions, as Messrs. Papillon and Jansen have erroneously inferred. " It is possible," according to Mr. Ottley, " that the ink might be used by the Chinese at a very early period to blacken, and thereby render more easily legible, the characters of engraved inscriptions."* The possibility of this may be granted certainly ; but at the same time we must admit that it is equally possible that the engraved characters were blackened with ink for the purpose of being printed, if they were of wood ; or that, if * At page 7, Mr. Ottley, borrowing from Du Halde, has erroneously stated that the deli cate nature of their paper would not permit the use of a press. He must have forgot, for he cannot bnt have known, that impressions on the finest India paper had been frequently taken 24 ANTIQUITY OF cut in copper or other metal, they wore filled with a black composition which would harden or set in the lines, — as an ingenious inquirer might infer from ink being represented by the stone me ; and thus it is possible that something very like " niello," or the filling of letters on brass doorplates with black wax, was known to the Chinese in the reigm of Wu-Wang, who flourished in the year before our Lord, 1120. The one conjecture is as good as the other, and both good for nothing, until we have better assurance than is afforded by Du Halde, that engraved characters blackened with ink — for whatever purpose — were known by the Chinese in the reign of Wu-Wang.* Although so little is positively known of the ancient history of "the great out-lying empire of China," as it is called by Sir WiUiam Jones, yet it has been most confidently referred to as affording authentic evidence of the high degree of the civilization and knowledge of the Chinese at a period when Europe was dark with the gloom of barbarism and ignorance. Their early history has been generally found, when opportunity has been afforded of impartially examining it, to be a mere tissue of absurd legends ; compared to which, the history of the settle ment of King Brute in Britain is authentic. With astronomy as a science they a,re scarcely acquainted ; and their specimens of the fine arts display little more than representations of objects executed not unfrequently with minute accuracy, but without a knowledge of the most simple elements of correct design, and without the slightest pre tensions to art, according to our standard. One of the two Mahometan travellers who visited China in the ninth century, expressly states that the Chinese were unacquainted with the sciences ; and as neither of them takes any notice of printing, the ma riner's compass, or gunpowder, it seems but reasonable to conclude that the Chinese were unacquainted with those inventions at that period. -f- Mr. Ottley, at pages 51 and 52 of his work, gives a brief account of from wood-blocks by means of the common printing-press many years preuous to lsl6, the date of the publication of his book. I have never seen Chinese pai^er that would liear printing by hand, which would not also bear the action of the press, if printed without l^eins wet in the same manner as common paper. * It would appear that Chinese annalists themselves were not agi-eed as to the period when printing by the hand from wood-blocks was first pi-actised m that country. '• Nicholas Trigaltius, a member of our order," wiites Herman Hugo, " who has recently" returned from China, gives the following information respecting printing, which he professes to have care fully extracted from the annals of the Chinese themselves. ' Ti/pograph,, is o/somachat „irlia- date in China than in Europe, for it is cert.nn that it was practisal in that comiln/ about lire centm-icH ago. Others assert that it was practi.v.d in China at ,t period prior to t/ie Christian era.' "—Hermannus Hugo, De Prima Origine Scriliendi, p. 'JI 1. .\ntwen>ia^ 1617. t Tho pretensions of the Chinese to exicllencc in science are al.lv exposed liy the learned Alil.6 Renaudot in a disquisition " Sur les sciences des fhinois," appended to his translation from the Arabic, entitled "Ancicnncs Relations di's Indcs et de la. Chine, de deux Vovageu-s Mahometans, qui yal%cnt dans le neiui^nie si^lc." S\o, Paris, 171s. ' '^ ENGEAVING. 25 the early commerce of Venice with the East, for the purpose of showing in what manner a knowledge of the art of printing in China might be obtained by the Venetians. He says : " They succeeded, likewise, in establishing a direct traffic with Persia, Tartary, China, and Japan ; sending, for that purpose, several of their most respectable citizens, and largely providing them with every requisite." Me cites an Italian author for this account, but he observes a prudent sUenee as to the period when the Venetians first established a direct traffic with China and Japan ; though there is little doubt that Bettinelli, the authority referred to, alludes to the expedition of the two brothers Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, and of Marco Polo, the son of Niccolo, who in 1271 or 1272 left Venice on an expedition to the court of the Tartar emperor Kublai-Khan, which had been previously visited by the two brothers at some period between 1254 and 1269.* After having visited Tartary and China, the two brothers and Marco returned to Venice in 1295. Mr. Ottley, however, does not refer to the travels of the Polos for the purpose of showing that Marco, who at a subsequent period wrote an account of his travels, might introduce a knowledge of the Chinese art of printing into Europe : he cites them that his readers may suppose that a direct intercourse between Venice and China had been established long before ; and that the art of engraving wood-blocks, and taking impressions from them, had been thus derived from the latter country, and had been practised in Venice long before the return of the travellers in 1295. It is necessary here to observe that the invention of the mariner's compass, and of gunpowder and cannon, have been ascribed to the Chinese as well as the invention of wood engraving and block-printing ; and it has been conjectured that very probably Marco Polo communicated to his countrymen, and throtigh them to the rest of Europe, a knowledge of those arts. Marco Polo, however, does not in the account which he wrote of his travels once allude to gunpowder, cannon, or to the art of printing as being known in China ;-f- nor does he once mention the compass as being used on board of the Chuiese vessel in which he sailed from the coast of China to the Persian Gulf " Nothing is more common," * See the Travels of Marco Polo. (In Bohn's Antiq. Library). t It has been conjectured that the following passages in the travels of Marco Polo might suggest the idea of block-printing, and consequently wood engraving : " Gradatim reliquos belli duces in digiuorem ponit statum, donatque illis aurea et argentea vasa, tabulas, privi- legia atque immunitatem. Et hseo quidem privUegia tabulis vel bracteis per sculpturas imprimuntur." "Moneta magni Cham non fit de auro vel argento, aut alio metallo, sed corticem aocipiunt medium ab arbore mori, et huno consoUdant, atque in partioulas yarias et rotundas, magnas et parvas, scindunt, atque regale imprimunt signum." — M. Pauli Veneti Itiner. lib. ii. capp. vii. & xxi. The mention of paper money impressed with the royal stamp also occurs in the Eastern History of Haython. an Armenian, whose work was written in ,1307, in Latin, and has been printed several times, of which the last edition is by And. MuUer, Colon. 1671, 4to. 26 ANTIQUITY OF says a writer in the Quarterly Eeview, " than to find it repeated from book to book, that gunpowder and the mariner's compass were first brought from China by Marco Polo, though there can be very little doubt that both were known in Europe some time before his return." — "That Marco Polo," says the same writer, "would have mentioned the mariner's compass, if it had been in use in China, we think highly probable ; and his silence respecting gunpowder may be considered as at least a negative proof that this also was unknown to the Chinese in the time of Kublai- Khan."* In a manner widely different from this does Mr. Ottley reason, respecting the cause of Marco Polo not having mentioned printing as an art practised by the Chinese. He accounts for the trav(iller's silence as follows : " Marco Polo, it may be said, did not notice this art [of engraving on wood and block-printing] in the account which he left us of the marvels he had witnessed in China. The answer to this objection is obvious : it was no marvel ; it had no novelty to recommend it ; it was practised, as we have seen, at Eavenna, in 1285, and had perhaps been practised a century earlier in Venice. His mention of it, therefore, was not called for, and he preferred instructing his countrymen in matters with which they were not hitherto acquainted." This " oliviou»" answer, rather unfortunately, will equally apply to the question, " Why did not Marco Polo mention cannon as being used by the Chinese, who, as we are informed, had discovered such formidable engines of war long before the period of his visit ? " That the art of engraving wood-blocks and of taking impressions from them was introduced into Europe from China, I can see bo sufficient reason to believe. Looking at the frequent practice in Europe, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, of impressing inked stamps on paper, I can perceive nothing in the earliest specimens of wood engraving but the same principles applied on a larger scale. When I am once satisfied that a man had built a small boat, I feel no sui-prise on learning that his grandson had built a larger; and made in it a longer voyage' than his ancestor ever ventured on, who merely used his slight skiff to ferry himself across a river. In the first volume of Papillon's " Traite de la Gravure en Bois." there is an account of certain old wood engravings which he professes to have seen, and which, according to their engraved explanatory title, were executed by two notable young people, Alexander Alberic Cunio, knight, and Isabella Cunio, his twin sister, and finished by them when they were only sixteen years old, at the time when Honorius IV. \\-as pope; that is, at some period between the years 1285 and 1-^87. This * An article on Marsdcn's " Translation of the Travels of Marco Polo," in the Quarteriy Review, No. xli. May, 1819, from p. 191 to lil.'i, contains some curious iiarticulars resjiecting the eariy use of the mariner's compass, and of gunpowder and cannon in Europe, ENGEAVING. 27 story has been adopted by Mr. Ottley, and by Zani, an Italian, who give it the benefit of their support. Mr. Singer, in his "Eesearches into the History of Playing Cards," grants the truth-like appearance of Papillon's tale ; and the writer of the article " Wood-engraving " in the Encyclopedia Metropolitana considers it as authentic. It is, however, treated with contempt by Heineken, Huber, and Bartsch, whose knowledge of the origin and progress of engraving is at least equal to that of the four writers previously named. The manner in which Papillon recovered his memoranda of the works of the Cunio is remarkable. In consequence of those curious notes being mislaid for upwards of thirty-five years, the sole record of the productions of those "ingenious and amiable twins" was very nearly lost to the world. The three sheets of letter-paper on which he had written an account of certain old volumes of wood engravings, — that containing the cuts executed by the Cunio being one of the number, — he had lost for upwards of thirty-five years. For long he had only a confused idea of those sheets, though he had often searched for them in vain, when he was writing his first essay on wood engraving, which was printed about 1737, but never published. At length he accidentally found them, on All-Saints' Day, 1758, rolled up in a bundle of specimens of paper-hangings which had been executed by his father. The finding of those three sheets afforded him the greater pleasure, as from them he discovered, by means of a pope's name, an epoch of engraving figures and letters on wood for the purpose of being printed, which was certainly much earlier than any at that period known in Europe, and at the same time a history relative to this subject equally curious and interesting. He says that he had so completely forgotten all this, — though he had so often recollected to search for his memoranda, — ^that he did not deign to take the least notice of it in his previously printed history of the art. The following is a faithful abstract of Papillon's account of his discovery of those early specimens of wood engraving. The title-page, as given by him in French from Monsieur De Greder's vivd voce translation of the original, — which was " en mauvais Latin ou ancien Italien Gothique, avec beaucoup d'abrdviations,'' — is translated without abridgment, as are also his o^vn descriptions of the cuts. " When young, being engaged with my father in going almost every day to hang rooms with our papers, I was, some time in 1719 or 1720, at the village of Bagneux, hear Mont Eouge, at a Monsieur De Greder's, a Swiss captain, who had a pretty house there. After I had papered a small room for him, he ordered me to cover the shelves of his library with paper in imitation of mosaic. One day after dinner he surprised me reading a book, which occasioned him to show me some very old ones which he had borrowed of one of his friends, a Swiss officer,* that * A Monsieur Spirchtvel, as Papillon informs us. Tom. i. p. 92. 28 ANTIQUITY OF Ik; might examine th(;ni at his lei.sure. We talked about the figures which they contained, and of the antiquity of wood engraving; and what follows is a description of those ancient books as I wrote it before him, and as he was so kind as to explain and dictate to me," " In a cartouch,* or frontispiece, — of fanciful and Gothic ornaments, though pleasing enough, — nine inches wide, and six inches high, having at the top the amis, doubtless, of Cunio, the following words are coarsely engraved on the same block, in bad Latin, or ancient Gothic Italian with many abbreviations. " ' The chivaleous deeds, in figures, of the great and magnanimous Macedonian king, the courageous and valiant Alexander, dedicated, presented, and humbly offered to the most holy father, Pope Honorius IV. the glory and stay of the Church, and to our illustrious and generous father and mother, by us Alexander Alberic Cunio, knight, and Isabella Cunio, twin brother and sister ; first reduced, imagined, and attempted to be executed in relief with a little knife, on blocks of wood, joined and smoothed by this learned and lieloved sister, continued and finished together at Eavenna, after eight pictures of our designing, painted six times the size here represented ; cut, explained in verse, and thus marked on paper to multiply the number, and to enable us to present them as a token of friendship and affection to our relations and friends. This was done and finished, the age of each being only sixteen years complete.' " After having given the translation of the title-page, Papillon thus continues the narrative in his own person: " This cartouch [or ornamented title-page] is surrounded by a coarse line, the tenth of an inch broad, forming a square. A few slight hnes, which are irregularly executed and without precision, form the shading of the ornaments. The impression, in the same manner as the rest of the cuts, has been taken in Indian blue, rather pale, and in distemper, apparently by the hand beinu passed frequently over the paper laid upon the block, as card-makers are accustomed to impress their addresses and the en-\-elopes of their cards, Tlie hollow parts of the block, not being sufficiently cut awav in several places, and having received the ink, have smeared the paper, winch is rather brown ; a circumstance A\'hich has caused the followiiio- words to be written in the margin underneath, that the fault might be remedied. • Cartouch. "This word is used to denote those fantastic ornaments wliich were foi-merly introduced in decorating the wainscots of rooms ; and frequently ser\ ed the pui-pose of frames, surrounding inscriptions, small iiaintings, or other devices. These cartouches were much in vogue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the frontispieces of books of prints ; and indeed Callot and Delia Bella cti bed maiiv entire sets of small subjects siu-- rounded by similar ornaments. Prom the irregularity of their forms, the terms tablet shield, or panel, would be but ill expressive of their character."-Ottley's Innuirv vol i p, 12. 1 . . ¦ ¦ engeaving. 29 They are in Gothic Italian, which M. de Greder had considerable difficulty in making out, and certainly written by the hand either of the Chevalier Cunio or his sister, on this first proof — evidently from a block — such as are here translated." " ' It is necessary to cut away the ground of the blocks more, that the paper m,ay not touch it in taking impressions! " "Following this frontispiece, and of the same size, are the subjects of the eight pictures, engraved on wood, surrounded by a similar line forming a square, and also with the shadows formed of slight Knes. At the foot of each of those engravings, between the border-line and another, about a finger's breadth distant, are four Latin verses engraved on the block, poetically explaining the subject, the title of which is placed at the head. In all, the impression is similar to that of the frontispiece, and rather grey or cloudy, as if the paper had not been moistened. The figures, tolerably designed, though in a semi-gothic taste, are well enough characterized and draped ; and we may perceive from them that the arts of design were then beginning gradually to resume their vigour in Italy. At the feet of the principal figures their names are engraved, such as Alexander, Philip, Darius, Campaspe, and others." "Subject 1. — ^Alexander mounted on Bucephalus, which he has tamed. On a stone are these words : Isabel. Cunio pinx. & scalp." "Subject 2. — Passage of the Granicus. Near the trunk of a tree these words are engraved : Alex. Alb. Cunio Equ. pinx. Isabel Cunio scalp." " Su:bject 3. — Alexander cutting the Gordian knot. On the pedestal of a column are these words : Alexan. Albe. Cunio Equ. pinx. & scalp. This block is not so well engraved as the two preceding." "Subject 4. — Alexander in the tent of Darius. This subject is one of the best composed and engraved of the whole set. Upon the end of a piece of cloth are these words : Isabel. Cunio pinxit & scalp." " Subject 5. — Alexander generously presents his mistress Campaspe to Apelles who was painting her. The figure of this beauty is very agreeable. The painter seems transported with joy at his good fortune. On the floor, on a kind of antique tablet, are these words : Alex. Alb. Cunio Eques, pinx. & scalp." "Subject 6. — The famous battle of Arbela. Upon a small hillock are these words : Alex. Alb. Equ. & Isabel, pictor. and scalp. For com position, design, and engraving, this subject is also one of the best." " Subject 7. — Porus, vanquished, is brought before Alexander. This subject is so much the more beautiful and remarkable, as it is composed nearly in the same manner as that of the famous Le Brun ; it would seem that he had copied this print. Both Alexander and Porus have a grand 30 antiquity of and magnanimous air. On a stone near a bush are engraved these words : Isabel. Cunio pinx. & scalp!' " Subject 8 and last. — The glory and grand triumph of Alexander on entering Babylon. _ This piece, which is well enough composed, has been executed, as well as the sixth, by the brother and sister conjointly, as is testified by these characters engraved at the bottom of a wall : Alex. Alb. Equ. et Isabel. Cunio, pictor. & scalp. At the top of this impression, a piece about three inches long and one inch broad has been torn off" However singular the above account of the works of those " amiable twins" may seem, no less surprising is the history of their birth, parentage, and education ; which, taken in conjunction with the early development of their talents as displayed in such an art, in the choice of such a subject, and at such a period, is scarcely to be surpassed in interest by any narrative which gives piquancy to the pages of the Wonderful Magazine. Upon the blank leaf adjoining the last engraving were the following words, badly written in old Swiss characters, and scarcely legible in consequence of their having been written with pale ink. " Of course Papillon could not read Swiss," says Mr. Ottley, "]\I. de Greder, therefore, translated them for him into French." — " This precious volume was given to my grandfather Jan. Jacq. Turine, a native of Berne, by the illustrious Count Cunio, chief magistrate of Imola, who honoured him with his generous friendship. Above all my books I prize this the highest on account of the quarter from whence it came into our family, and on account of the knowledge, the valour, the beauty, and the noble and generous desire which those amiable twins Cunio had to gratify their relations and friends. Here ensues their singular and curious history as I have heard it many a time from my venerable father, and which I have caused to be more correctly written than I could do it myself" Though Papillon's long-lost manuscript, containing the whole account of the works of the Cunio and notices of other old books of enoTavino-s. consisted of only three sheets of letter-paper, yet the history alone °of the learned, beautiful, and amiable twins, which Tuiine the grandson caused to be written out as he had heard it from his father, occupies in Papillon's book four long octavo pages of thirty-eight Unes each. To assume that his long-lost manuscript consisted of brief notes which he afterwards wrote out at length from memory, would at once destroy any validity that his account might be supposed to possess ; for he states that he had lost those papers for upwards of thirty five years, and had entirely forgotten their contents. Without troubling myself to transcribe the vN-hole of this choice morsel of French Eomance concerning tiie history of the "amiable engeaving. ^i twins " Cunio, — the surprising beauty, talents, and accomplishments of the maiden, — the early death of herself and her lover, — ^the heroism of the youthful knight, Alexander Alberic Cunio, displayed when only fourteen years old, — I shaU give a brief abstract of some of the passages which seem most important to the present inquiry.* From this narrative, — which Papillon informs us was written in a much better hand, though also in Swiss characters, and with much blacker ink than Turine the grandson's own memorandum, — we obtain the following particulars : The Count de Cunio, father of the twins, was married to their mother, a noble maiden of Verona and a relation of Pope Honorius IV. without the knowledge of their parents, who, on discovering what had happened, caused the marriage to be annulled, and the priest by whom it was celebrated to be banished. The divorced wife, dreading the anger of her own father, sought an asylum with one of her aunts, under whose roof she was brought to bed of twins. Though the elder Cunio had compelled his son to espouse another wife, he yet allowed him to educate the twins, who were most affectionately received and cherished by their father's new wife. The children made astonishing progress in the sciences, more especially the girl Isabella, who at thirteen years of age was regarded as a prodigy ; for she understood, and wrote with correctness, the Latin language ; she composed excellent verses, rmderstood geometry, was acquainted with music, could play on several instiuments, and had begun to design and to paint with correctness, taste, and delicacy. Her brother Alberic, of a beauty as ravishing as his sister's, and one of the most charming youths in Italy, at the age of fourteen could manage the great horse, and understood the practice of arms and all other exercises befitting a young man of quality. He also understood Latin, and could paint weU. The troubles in Italy having caused the Count Cunio to take up arms, his son, young Alexander Alberic, accompanied him to the field to make his first campaign. Though not more than fourteen years old, he was entrusted with the command of a squadron of twenty-five horse, -with which, as his first essay in .war, he attacked and put to flight near two hundred of the enemy. His courage having carried him too far, he was surrounded by the fugitives, from whom, however, he fought himself clear without any further injury than a wound in his left arm. His father, who had hastened to his succour, found him returning with the enemy's banner, which he had wrapped about his wound. Delighted at the valour displayed by his son, the Count Cunio knighted him on the spot. The young man then asked permission to visit his mother, which * Readers of French romances will find the tale of the Cunio at p. 89, tom i. of Papil lon's "Traite de la Gravure en Bois," or at p. 17, vol. i. of Mr. Ottley's "History of Engraving." 32 ANTIQUITY OF was readily granted by the count, ^^¦ho was pleased to have this oppor tunity of testifying the love and esteem he still retained towards that noble and afflicted lady, who continued to reside with her aunt ; of which he certainly would have given her more convincing proofs, now that his father was dead, by re-establishing their marriage and pubhcly espousing her, if he had not been in duty bound to clierish the wife whom he had been compelled to many, and who had now borne him a large family. After Alexander Alberic had visited his mother, he returned home, and shortiy after began, together with his sister Isaljella, to design and work upon the pictures of the achievements of Alexander. He then made a second campaign with his father, after which he continued to employ himself on the pictures in conjunction with Isabella, who attempted to reduce them and engrave them on wood. After the engravings were finished, and copies had been printed and given to Pope Honorius, and their relations and friends, Alexander Alberic proceeded again to join the army, accompanied l;iy Pandulphio, a yotmg nobleman, who was in love with the charming Isabella. This was his last campaign, for he was killed in the presence of his friend, who was dangerously wounded in defending him. He was slain when not more than nineteen ; and his sister was so affected by his death that she resolved never to marry, and died when she was scarcely twenty. The death of this lovely and learned young lady was followed by that of her lover, who had fondly hoped that she would make him happy. The mother of those amiable twins was not long in follo'wing them to the grave, being unable to survive the loss of her children. The Countess de Cunio took seriously ill at the loss of Isabella, but fortunately recovered ; and it was only the count's gTandeur of soul that saved him from falling sick also. Some years after this. Count Cunio gave the copy of the achieve ments of Alexander, in its present binding, to the grandfather of the person who caused this account to be ^\•ritten. The binding, accoi-ding to Papillon's description of it, was, for the period, little less remarkable than the contents. " This ancient and Gothic binding,'' as PapiUon's note is translated by Mr. Ottley, " is made of thin tablets of wood, covered with leather, and ornamented uuth flowered compartments, which appear simply stamped and marked with an iron a little irarined, without any gilding." It is remarkable that this singular volume should aftbrd not only specimens of wood engra^-ing, earlier b.y upwards of a hundred and thirty years than any which are hitherto knoM-n, but that the binding, of the same period as the engravings, shoidil also bo such as is rarely, if ever, to bo met -w ith till upwards of one hundred and fifty years after the wonilerful twins were dead. ENGEAVING, 33 As this volume is no longer to be found, as no mention is made of such a work by any old writer, and as another copy has not been discovered in any of the libraries of Italy, nor the least trace of one ever having been there, the evidence of its ever having existed rests solely on the account given of it by Papillon. Before saying a word respecting the credit to be attached to this witness, or the props with which Zani and Ottley endeavour to support his testimony, I shall attempt to show that the account affords internal evidence of its own falsehood. Before noticing the description of the subjects, I shall state a few objections to the account of the twins as written out by order of the youngest Turine, the grandson of Jan. Jacq. Turine, who received the volume from Count Cunio himself, the father of the twins, a few years after their death, which could not well happen later than 1291 ; as Pope Honorius, to whom their work was dedicated when they were sixteen years old, died in 1287, and Isabella Cunio, who survived her brother, died when she was not more than twenty. Supposing that Count Cunio gave the volume to his friend, J. J. Turine, a native of Berne, in 1300, and that the grandson of the latter caused the history of the twins to be written out eighty years afterwards, — and we cannot fairly assume that it was written later, if indeed so late, — we have thus 1380 as the date of the account written " in old Swiss characters, in a better hand, and with much blacker ink,'' than the owner's own memorandum of the manner in which the volume came into his family, and his reasons for prizing it so highly. The probable date of the pretended Swiss history of the Cunio, Papillon's advocates carefully keep out of sight ; for what impartial person could believe that a Swiss of the fourteenth century could give utterance to the sentimental fustian which forms so con siderable a portion of the account ? Of the young knight Cunio he knows every movement ; he is acquainted with his visit to his repudiated mother ; he knows in which arm he was wounded ; the number of men that he lost, when with only five-and-twenty he routed two hundred ; the name of Isabella's lover ; the illness and happy recovery of Count Cunio's wife, and can tell the cause why the count himself did not faU sick. To any person who reflects on the doctrine of the church of Eome in the article of marriage, it certainly must appear strange that the parents of the Count Cunio and his first wife, the mother of the twins, should have had the power of dissolving the marriage and of banishing the priest by whom it was solemnized ; and still more singular it is that the Count Cunio, whom we must suppose to have been a good Cathohc, should speak, after his father's death, of re-establishing his marriage with his first wife and of publicly espousing her ; and that he should make such a communication to her through the medium of her son, who, D G 34 ANTIQUITY OF as well as his sister, must have been declared illegitimate by the very fact of their mother's divorce. It is also strange that this piece of family history should come to the knowledge of the grandson of Jan. Jacq. Turine. The Count Cunio's second marriage surely must have been canonicaUy legal, if the first were not ; and if so, it would not be a sense of duty alone to his second wife that would prevent him divorcing her and re-marrying the first. On such subjects the church was to be consulted ; and to such playing fast-and-loose with the sacrament of marriage the church said "no." Taking these circum stances into consideration, I can come to no other conclusion than that, on this poiat, the writer of the history of the Cunio did not speak truth ; and that the paper containing such history, even if it could be produced, is not genuine, as every other part of it which has the slightest bearing on the point at issue, is equally, if not more, improbable. With respect to the cuts pretended to be executed by the twins themselves, I shall waive any objections which might be urged on the ground of it being unlikely that they should be executed by a boy and a girl so young. Supposing that the twins were as learned and accom plished as they are represented, still it would be a very surprising circumstance that, in the thirteenth century, they should have executed a series of wood engravings of the actions of Alexander the Great as an appropriate present to the pope ; and that the composition of one of those subjects, No. 7, should so closely resemble one of Le Brun's — an artist remarkable for the complication of his designs — that it would seem he had copied this very print. Something like the reverse of this is more probable ; that the description of the pretended work of the Cunio was suggested by the designs of Le Brun* The execution of a set of designs, in the thirteenth century, illustrating the actions of Alexander in the manner described by Papillon, would be a rarity indeed even if not engraved on wood ; but that a series of wood encrravinirs, and not a saint in one of them, should be executed by a boy and a girl, and presented to a pope, in 1286, is scarcely short of miraculous. The twins must have been well read in Quintus Curtius. Though we Eire informed that both were skilled in the Latin language, yet it plainly appears on two occasions, when we might suppose that thev would be least liable to trip, that their Latinity is questionable. The sixth and the eighth subjects, which were accomplished by their joint eftbrts, are * Of Le Brim's five subjects illustrative of the actions of Alexander the Great, four of them are precisely the same as four of those said to be executed by the Cunio : 1. Alexander passing the Granicus ; 2. the battle of Arbela ; W. the reception of Porus by .Alexander ; i. Alexander's triumphant entry into Babylon. There certainly has been some copying here ; but it is more likely that Papillon or his informant had seen Le Brun's paintings, than that Le Brun had seen the original wood engravings exec\ited by the Cunio. ENGEAVING. 35 described as being marked : Alex. Alb. Equ. et Isabel. Cunio pictor. et scalp. " Thus painters did not write their names at Co." Why do not the advocates of those early specimens of wood engraving in Italy point out to then- readers that these two children were the first who ever affixed the words pinx. et scalp, to a woodcut ? I challenge any believer in Papillon to point out a wood engTaving on which the words pinxit and scalpsit, the first after the painter's name, and the second after the engraver's, appear previous to 1580. This apparent copying — and by a person ignorant of Latin too — of the formula of a later period, is of itself sufficient to excite a suspicion of forgery ; and, coupled with the improbable circumstances above related, it irresistibly compels me to conclude that the whole account is a mere fiction. With respect to the credibility of Papillon, the sole evidence upon which the history of the wonderful twins rests, I shall have occasion to say very few words. That he was credulous, and excessively vain of what he considered his discoveries in the history of wood engraving, is admitted by those who profess to believe him. He appears also from an early age to have been subject to mental hallucination ; and in 1759, the year after he found his papers containing the account of the Cunio, he had a fit of decided insanity which rendered it necessary to convey him to a mad-house, where by copious bleeding he soon recovered his senses.* To those interested in the controversy I leave to decide how far the un supported testimony of such a person, and in such a case, ought to be relied on. How easily he might be deceived on a subject relating to the early history of his art, it is not difficult to comprehend ; and eve nallowing him to be sincere in the belief of what he related, he was a person very likely to occasionally deceive both himself and others.+ Papillon's insanity had been previously adverted to by Heineken ; and this writer's remarks have proauced the following correction from Mr. Ottley : " Heineken takes some pains to show that poor Papillon was not in his right mind ; and, amongst his other arguments, quotes a pas- * From the age of sixteen, cruel and secret annoyances interrupted his studies ; shortly after his marriage, in 1723, his absent manner was a source of uneasiness to his wife ; and in 1759 he fairly lost his senses. See Papillon, Traite de la Gravure en Bois, Svo. 1766, Preface, p. xi. ; & p. .33.5, tom. i. et Supplement,-p. 39. f It is worthy of remark that Papillon, when questioned by Heineken, who called on him in Paris after the publication of his work, respecting the account of the Cunio, did not pro duce his three sheets of original memoranda. He might thus have afforded a proof of his own good faith, by producing the manuscript written by him in 1720 from the dictation of Captain de Greder. D 2 36 ANTIQUITY OF sage from his book, t. i p. 335, in which he says, ' Par un accident et une fatalite commune h plusieurs graveurs, aussi bien quh moi, Le Fevre est devenu aliine d'esprit:' as if a little pleasantry of expression, such as the French writers, especially, have ever felt themselves at full liberty to indulge in, could really constitute fit grounds for a statute of lunacy."* Had Mr. Ottley, instead of confidently correcting Heineken when the latter had stated nothing but the fact, turned to the cited page of Papillon's volume, he would there have found that Papillon was in dulging in no " httle pleasantry of expression," but was seriously relating a melancholy fact of two brother artists losing their senses about the same time as himself ; and had he ever read the supplement, or third volume, of Papillon's work, he would have seen, at p. 39, the account which Papillon himself gives of his own insanity. Having disposed of the story as told by Papillon, it remains now to notice " the learning and deep research " with which it has been sup ported by Zani, and some of the arguments which have been alleged in its favour by Mr. Ottley. In the first place, Zani has discovered that a family of the name of Cunio, in which the name of Alberico more than once occurs, actually resided in the neighbourhood of Eavenna at the very period mentioned in the title-page to the cuts by the Cunio, and in the histor}' written in old Swiss characters. Upon this, and other similar pieces of e\'idence, Mr. Ottley remarks as follows : " Now both these cities [Eavenna and Imola] are in the vicinity of Faenza, where the family, or a branch of it, is spoken of by writers of undoubted credit in the twelfth, the thirteenth, and the fourteenth centuries. These circumstances, therefore, far from furnishing any just motive of additional doubt, form together such a phalanx of corroborative evidence in support of the story, as, in my opinion, those who would impeach the truth of Papillon's statement can never break through." " Argal," Eowley's poems are genuine, because such a person as "Maistre WiUiam Canynge" lived at Bristol at the period when he is mentioned by the pseudo Eowle}-. Zani, however, un- fortu.nately for his own argument, let us know that the names and resi dence of the family of the Cunio might be obtained from " Tonduzzi's History of Faenza," printed in 1675. Whether this book appeared in French, or not, previous to the pubUcation of PapUlon's works, I have not been able to learn ; but a Swiss captain, who could read " old Gothic Itahan," would certainly find littie difficulty in pickmg a couple of names out of a modern Italian volume. The reasonmg faculties of Signer Zani appear to have been very imperfectiy developed, for he cites the folloN\ing as a case in pomt ; and * Inquiiy into tho Early History of Eugra\ing, vol. i. p. -J:; ENGEAVING. 37 Mr. Ottley, who gives it in his text, seems to concur in its applicability. He is noticing the objections which have been made to Papillon's account, on the ground of no previous author mentioning the existence of such a work, and that no person subsequently had ever seen a copy. Zani's argument, as given by Mr. Ottley,* is as follows : " He, however, who should reason in this manner, might, upon the same grounds, deny the loss of many manuscripts, and even of printed books, which, accord ing to the testimony of credible authors, have becoine a prey to the flames, or have perished during the anarchy of revolutions, or the dis tresses occasioned by wars. The learned part of my readers will not require examples. Nevertheless, let him who wants such conviction search throughout all the libraries of Europe for the work entitled ' Medi tationes Eeverendissimi patris Domini Johannis de Turre-cremata,' printed at Eome by Ulrich Hahn, in 1467, and he will presently be informed by the learned librarians, that of that edition there exists but one copy, which is preserved in the library of Nuremberg. This book is, therefore, unique. -f- Now let us suppose that, by some accident, this book should perish ; could our descendants on that account deny that it ever had existed ? " And this is a corroborative argument in support of the truth of Papillon's tale ! The comment, however, is worthy of the text. It is to be observed that Ulrich Hahn's edition of Turre-cremata appeared ten years after Faust and Scheffer's Psalter, of the date 1457, was printed ; and that the existence of several hundred volumes printed before 1467 proves that the art of printing was then practised to a considerable extent. That Ulrich Hahn was a printer at Eome in 1468 and subse quent years is proved by many copies of works which proceeded from his press ; and the existence of the identical " unicj[ue " copy, referred to by Zani, is vouched for by upwards of fifty learned men who have seen it ; and, what is more, mentioned the place where it was preserved, so that, if a person were sceptical, he might satisfy himself by the evidence of his own senses. But who, except Papillon, has ever seen the engravings of the Cunio, executed upwards of a hundred and thirty years prior to the earliest authentic specimen of the art, and who has ever mentioned the place where they were to be seen ? Ha,d any person of equal credibility with Papillon described a volume printed at Eome in 1285 the date of the pretended wood-cuts of the Cunio, the case would then have been in point, and the decision of every person in the slightest degree acquainted with the subject, and not rendered blind to simple truth by the vivid brightness of his own speculations, would be * History of Engraving, vol. i. p. 28. t Three copies of this supposed unique book have long been known to bibliographers ; one in the public library of Nuremberg, another in the Imperial library of Vienna, and the third in Lord Spenser's library. 38 ANTIQUITY OF inevitably the same ; that is, the evidence in both cases would not be, relied on. " It is possible," say Zani, "that at this moment I may be blinded by partiality to my own nation ; but I would almost assert, that to deny the testimony of the French writer, would be like denying the existence of light on a fine sun-shiny day!' His mental optics must have been of a pecu liar character, and it can be no longer doubtful that he " Had lights where better eyes are blind, As pigs are said to see the wind." Mr. Ottley's own arguments in support of Papillon's story are scarcely of a higher character than those which he has adopted from Zani At page 40, in answer to an objection founded on the silence of all authori ties, not merely respecting the particular work of the Cunio, but of the frequent practice of such an art, and the fact of no contemporary' speci mens being known, he writes as follows : " We cannot safely argue from the silence of contemporaneous authorities, that the art of engraving on wood was not practised in Europe in those early times ; however, such silence may be an argument that it was not an art in high repute. Nor is our ignorance of such records a sufficient proof of their non-existence." The proof of such a negative would be certainly difficult ; but, according to this mode of argument, there is no modern invention which might not also be mentioned in " certain ancient undiscovered records." In the general business of life, that rule of evidence is a good one which declares " de non-apparentibus et non-existentibus eadem est ratio : " and until it shall be a maxim in logic that " we ought readily to believe that to be true which we cannot prove to have been impossible," !Mr. Ottley's solution of the difficulty does not seem likely to obtain general credence. At page 41, speaking of the probability of wood-engraving, for the purpose of taking impressions, being practised at an earlier period than has been generally supposed, Mr. Ottley expresses himself as follows ; " Nor is it any proof or strong argument against the antiquity of such a practice, that authentic specimens of wood-engraving of those earlv times are not now to be found. They were, it may be supposed, for the most part, detached pieces, whose merits, as works of art, were not such as to render their preservation at all probable. The}' were the toys of the day ; and, after having sewed tho temporary purpose for which they were manufactured, were, no doubt, swept awa)- to make room for others of newer fashion." He thus re([uires tiiose who entertain an opinion contrary to his own to prove a negative ; while he assumes the point in dispute as most clearly established in his own favour. If such wood engravings— "the toys of the day —had been known ENGEAVING. 39 in the thirteenth, or even the fourteenth century, is it not likely that some mention would be made of them in the writings of some one of the minstrels of the period to whbm we are indebted for so many minute particulars illustrative of the state of society at the period referred to ? Not the slightest allusion to anything of the kind has hitherto been noticed in their writings. Eespecting such "toys " Boccaccio is silent, and our countryman Chaucer says not a word. Of wood-cuts not the least mention is made in Petrarch ; and Eichard de Bury, bishop of Durham, who lived in the reign of Edward III., in his curious Essay on the Love of Books, says not a syllable of wood-cuts, either as toys, or as illustra tions of devotional or historical subjects. Upon this question, affirmed by Papillon, and maintained as true by Zani and Ottley, contemporary authorities are silent ; and not one solitary fact bearing distinctly upon the point has been alleged in support of Papillon's narrative. iai 40 PEOGEESS OF CHAPTEE II. PEOGEESS OF WOOD ENGEAVJNC. I'LAYING-OAnnS PalNTED FROM WOOD-BLOOKS— EAELY GERMAN WOOD-ENGRAVERS AT AUGS BURG, NUREMBERG, AND ULM— CARD-MAKERS AND WOOD-ENGRAVERS IN VENICE IN lUl— FIGURES OF SAINTS ENGRAVED OH WOOD-THE ST. CHRISTOPHER, THE ANNCNCIATION, AND THE ST. BRIDGET IN THE COLLECTION OF EARL SPENCER, WITH OTHER OLD WOOD-CtH DESCRIBED— BLOCK-BOOKS— THE APOCALYPSE, THE HISTORY OF THE VIEGIS, AND THE WORK CALLED BIBLIA PAUPERUM— SPECULUM SALVATIONIS — FIGURED ALPHABET FORMEBLY BELONi^ ING TO SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT— ARS MEMORANDI, AND OTHER SMALLER BLOCK-BOOKS. EOM the facts which have been produced in the preceding chapter, there cannot be a doubt that the principle on which wood engraving is founded, — that of taking impressions on paper or parchment, with ink, from prominent lines, — was known and practised m attesting docu ments in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen turies. Towards the end of the fourteenth, or about the beginning of the thteeuth centur}% there is reason to believe that this prmciple was adopted by the German card-makers for the purpose of marking the outlines of the figures on theu- cards, which they afterwards coloured by means of a stencd.* The period at which the game of cards was first known in Europe, as well as the people by whom they were invented, has been very learnedly, though not very satisfactorily discussed. Bullet has claimed the invention for the French, and Heineken for the Germans ; while other writers have maintained that the game ^\•as known in Italy earlier than in aiiv other part of Europe, and that it was introduced from the East. From a passage discovered by ]\1, Van Pruct, in an old manuscript copy of the romance of lunard le Cvntnfait, it aiipears that cards were known in France about 1340, although ISullet was of opinion that tlioy * A stencil is a ])ieccof pastclioanl, or a thin plate of motal, pierced Hith lines and lignrcs, which are communicated to paper, parchment, or linen, by passing a brush charged with ink or colour over the stencil. WOOD ENGEAVING. 41 were invented in that country about 1376. At whatever period the game was introduced, it appears to have been commonly known in France and Spain towards the latter part of the fourteenth century. John I., King of Castile, by an edict issued in 1387,, prohibited the game of cards ; and in 1 397, the Provost of Paris, by an ordonnance, forbid all working people to play at tennis, bowls, dice, cards, or nine-pins, on working days. From a passage in the Chronicle of Petit-Jehan de Saintre, written previous to 1 380, it would appear that the game of cards at that period was in disre pute. Saintre had been one of the pages of Charles V. of France ; and on his being appointed, on account of his good conduct, to the situation of carver to the king, the squire who had charge of the pages, lectured some of them on the impropriety of their behaviour ; such as playing at dice and cards, keeping bad company, and haunting taverns and cabarets, those not being the courses by which they might hope to arrive at the honourable post of " ecuyer tranchant," to which their companion, Saintre, had been raised. In an account>-book of Charles Poupart, treasurer to Charles VI. of France, there is an entry, made about 1393, of "fifty-six sols of Paris, given to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards, gilt and coloured, and of different sorts, for the diversion of his majesty." From this passage the learned Jesuit Menestrier, who was not aware of cards being mentioned by any earlier writer, concluded that they were then invented by Gringonneur to amuse the king, who, in consequence of a coup de soleil, had been attacked with delirium, which had subsided into an almost continual depression of spirits. There, however, can be no doubt that cards were known in France at least fifty years before ; though, from their being so seldom noticed previous to 1380, it appears likely that the game was but little played until after that period. Whether the figures on the cards supplied for the king's amusement were drawn and coloured by the hand, or whether the outlines were impressed from wood-blocks, and coloured by means of a stencil, it is impossible to ascertain ; though it has been conjectured that, from the smallness of the sum paid for them, they were of the latter description. That cards were cheap in 1397, however they might be manufactured, may be presumed from the fact of their being then in the hands of the working people. To wdiatever nation the invention of cards is owing, it appears that the Germans were the first who practised card-making as a trade. In 1418 the name of a " Kartenmacher " — card-maker — occurs in the burgess-book of the city of Augsburg ; and in an old rate-book of the city of Nuremburg, under the year 1433, we find "Ell. Kartenmacherin;" that is, Ell.— probably for Elizabeth— the card-maker. In tiie same book, under the year 1435, the name of "EUz. Kartenmacherin!' probably 42 PEOGEESS OF the same person, is to be found ; and in 1438 there occurs the name "Margret Kartenmalerin "—Margaret the card-painter. It thus appears that the earliest card-makers who are mentioned as living at Nuremberg were females ; and it is worthy of note that the Germans seem to have called cards '"Zartere" before they gave them the name of "Briefe!' Heineken, however, considers that they were first known in Germany by the latter 'name ; for, as he claimed the invention for his countrymen, he was unwilling to admit that the name should be borrowed either from Italy or France. He has not, however; produced anythmg like proof in support of his opinion, which is contradicted by the negative evidence of history.* The name Briefe, which the Germans give to cards, also signifies letters [epistola;]. The meaning of the word, however, is rather more general than the French term lettres, or the Latin epistola which he gives as its synonyms, for it is also applied in the sense in which we sometimes use the word " paper." For instance, " ein Brief Stecknadeln, ein Brief Tabak," are literally translated by the words " a, ^yaper of plus, a, paper of tobacco;" in which sense the word "5w/" would, in Latin, be more correctly rendered by the term charta than epistola. As it is in a sunUar sense— cognate with " paper," as used in the two preceding examples — that " Briefe " is applied to cards, I am inclined to consider it as a trans lation of the Latin chartce, the Italian carte, or the French cartes, and hence to conclude that the invention of cards does not belong to the people of Germany, who appear to have received cards, both " name and thing," from another nation, and after some time to have given them a name in their own language. In the town-books of Nuremberg, the term Formschneider — figure- cutter, — the name appropriated to engravers on wood, fii-st occurs in 1449 ;i" and as it is found in subsequent years mentioned in the same page with " Kartenmaler," it seems reasonable to conclude that in 1449, and probably earlier, the business of the wood-engraver proper, and that of the card-maker, were distinct. The primary meaning of the word/o7-7K or forma is almost precisely the same in most of the European languages. * Cards — Garten — are mentioned in a book of bye-laws of Nuremberg, between 1380 and 1384. They are included in a list of games at which the burgbei-s might indulge themselves, provided they ventured only small sums. " Awzgenomnien rennen mit Pferder, Schiessen mit Armbrusten, Carten, Schofzagel, Pretspil, und Kugeln, umb einen pfenink zwen zu ^^er poten." That is : always excepting horse-racing, shooting with cross-bows, cards, shovel-boai\i, tric-trao, and bowls, at which a man may bet from twopence to a givat." — C. G. 'N'on JIurr, Journal zur Kunstsgesch. 2 Theil, S. 99. t In the town-books of Nuremberg a Hans Formansncidcr occure so early as 1397, which De Murr says is not meant for "wood engraver," but is to be read thus : Hatis Forman, Schneider; that is, " Ihon Forman, maister-fashioncre," or, in modern phrase, " tailor." The word "Karter" also occurs in the same year, but it is meant for a carder, or wool-comber, and not for a card-maker.- C. G. Von Jlurr, Journal, 2 Theil, tf, 99. WOOD ENGEAVING. 43 It has eiToneously been explained, in its relation to wood engravino, as signifying a mould, wherea,s it simply means a shape or figure. The model of wood which the carpenter makes for the metal-founder is properly a. form, and from it the latter prepares his mould in the sand. The word form, however, in course of time declined from its primary signification, and came to be used as expressive both of a model and a mould. The term Fornschneider, which was originally used to distinguish the professed engraver of figures from the mere engraver and colourer of cards, is still used in Germany to denote what we term a wood-engraver. About the time that the term Formschneider first occurs we find Briefmalers mentioned, and at a later period Brief druckers — card-printers ; and, though there evidently was a distinction between the two professions, yet we find that between 1470 and 1500 the Briefmalers not only engraved figures occasionally, but also printed books. The Formschneiders and the Briefmalers, however, continued to form but one guild or fellow ship till long after the art of wood-engraving had made rapid strides towards perfection, under the superintendence of such masters as Durer, Burgmair, and Holbein, in the same manner as the barbers and surgeons in our own country continued to form but one company, though the " chirurgeon had long ceased to trim beards and cut hair, and the barber had given up bleeding and purging to devote himself more exclusively to the ornamental branch of his original profession." "Kartenmacher and Kartenmaler',' says Von Murr, " or Briefmaler, as they were afterwards called [1473], were known in Germany eighty years previous to the invention of book-printing. The Kartenmacher was originally a Form schneider, though, after the practice of cutting figures of saints and of sacred subjects was introduced, a distinction began to be established between the two professions." The German card-makers of Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Ulm, it is stated, sent large quantities of cards into Italy ; and it was probably against those foreign manufacturers that the fellowship of painters at Venice obtained an order in 1441, from the magistracy, declaring that no foreign manufactured cards, or printed coloured figures, should be brought into the city, under the penalty of forfeiting such articles, and of being fined XXX liv. xii soldi This order was made in consequence of a petition presented by the Venetian painters, wherein they set forth that " the art and mystery of card-making and of prmting figures, which were practised in Venice, had fallen into total decay through the great quantity of foreign playing-cards and coloured printed figures, which were brought into the city."* It is hence evident that the art both of the German * " Consciosoia che I'arte e mestier delle carte & iigure stampide, che se fano in Venesia fi vegnudo a total deffaetion, e questo sia per la gran quantita de carte a zugar, e fegure depeute stampide, le qual vien fate de fuora de Venezia " The curious document in which 4.4 PEOGEESS OF Ka rtenmacher axiA oi the Formschneider was practised in Venice in 1441 ; and, as it is then mentioned as being in decay, it no doubt was practised there some time previously. Heineken, in his " Neue Nachrichten," gives an extract from a MS. chronicle of the city of Uhn, completed in 1474, to the following effect : " Playing-cards were sent barrelwise [that is, in small casks] into Italy, Sicily, and also over sea, and exchanged for spices and other wares. From this we may judge of the number of card-makers who resided here." The preceding passage occurs in the index, under the head, " Business of card-making." Heineken also gives the passage in his " Id^e G&^rale," p. 245 ; but from the French translation, which he there gives, it appears that he had misunderstood the word " leglenwei^.i " — bar relwise — which he renders "en ballots." In his "Neue Nachrichten," however, he inserts the explanation between parentheses, ("das ist, in kleinen Fassern ") — i e. in small casks ; wliich ]\Ir. Singer renders " hogs heads," and Mr. Ottley, though he gives the original in a note, " large bales." The word "lagel," a barrel, is obsolete in Germany, but its diminutive, " leglin," — a§ if " lagelen '' — is still used in Scotland for the name of the ewe-milker's kit. Some writers have been of opinion that the art of wood-engraving was derived from the practice of the ancient cahgraphists and illumi nators of manuscripts, who sometimes formed their large capital letters by means of a stencil or of a wooden stamp. That large capitals were formed in such a manner previous to the year 1400 there can be little doubt ; and it has been thought that stencils and stamps were used not- only for the formaliion of capital letters, but also for the impression of a whole volume. Ihre, in a dissertation on the .Gospels of Ilphilas,* which are supposed to be as old as the fifth century, has asserted that the silver letters of the text on a purple ground were impressed by means of heated hon stamps. This, however, is denied by the learned compilers of the " Nouveau Traits de Diplomatique," who had seen other volumes of a similar kind, the silver letters of which were evidently formed with a pen. A modern Italian author, D. Vincenzo Eequeno, has published a tractf to prove that many supposed manuscripts from the tenth to the fourteenth century, instead of being written with a pen, were actually impressed by means of stamps. It is, however, extremelv the above passage occurs was discovered by Tumanza, an Italian architect, in an old book of rules and orders belonging to the company of Venetian painters. His discovery, communi cated in a letter to Count Algarotti, appeared in tho Lottere Pittoriclie. tom. v. p. ;V20, et sequent, and has since been quoted by every writer who has written upon tlic subject. * This celebrated version, in the I\l(cso-Gothie language, is prcserwxl in tlie library of Upsal in Sweden. + Osservazioni siilla Cliirotipografin, ossia .Vnlica Arte di Stampare a mano. Opera di ]). Vincenzo Itcqueno. Roma LSIO, Svo. WOOD ENGEAVING. 45 probable that he is mistaken ; for if his pretended discoveries were true, this art of stamping must have been very generally practised ; and if so, it surely would have been mentioned by some contemporary writers. Signer Eequeno's examination, I am inclined to suspect, has not been sufficiently precise ; for he seems to have been too willing to find what he sought. In almost every collection that he examined, a pair of fine compasses being the test which he employed, he discovered voluminous works on vellum, hitherto supposed to be manuscript, but which accord ing to his measurement were certainly executed by means of a stamp. It has been conjectured that the art of wood-engraving was employed on sacred subjects, such as the figures of saints and holy persons, before it was applied to the multiplication of those " books of Satan," playing- cards. It however is not unlikely that it was first employed in the manufacture of cards ; and that the monks, availing themselves of the same principle, shortly afterwards employed the art of wood-engraving for the purpose of circulating the figures of saints ; thus endeavouring to supply a remedy for the evil, and extracting from the serpent a cure for his bite. Wood-cuts of sacred subjects were known to the common people of Suabia, and the adjacent districts, by the name of Helgen or Helglein, a corruption of Heiligeu, saints ; — a word wliich in course of time they used to signify prints — estampes — generally.* In France the same kind of cuts, probably stencil-coloured, were called " dominos," — the affinity of which name with the German Helgen is obvious. The word " domino " was subsequently used as a name for coloured or marbled paper gene rally, and the makers of such paper, as well as the engravers and colourers of wood-cuts, were called " dominotiers." f As might, a priori, be concluded, supposing the Germans to have been the first who applied wood-engraving to card-making, the earliest wood-cuts have been discovered, and in the greatest abundance, in that district where we first hear of the business of a card-maker and a wood- enoraver. From a convent, situated within fifty miles of the city of Augsberg, where, in 1418, the first mention of a Kartenmacher occurs, has been obtained the earliest wood-cut known, — the St. Christopher, now in the possession of Earl Spencer, with the date 1423. That this was the first cut of the kind we have no reason to suppose ; but though others executed in a similar manner are known, to not one of them, upon anything like probable grounds, can a higlier degree of antiquity be * Fuseli, at p. 85 of Ottley's Inquuy ; and Breitkopf, Versuoh d. Ursprungs der Spieftarten Zuerforschen, 2 Theil, S. 175. . t Fournier, Dissertation sur I'Origine et les Progres de I'Art de Graver en Hois, p. 79 ; and Papillon, Traite de la Gravure en Bois, tom. i. p. 20, and Supplement, p. 80. 46 PEOGEESS OF assigned. From 1423, therefore, as from a known epoch, the practice of wood engraving, as apphed to pictorial representations, may be dated. The first person who published an account of this most interesting wood-cut was Heineken, who had inspected a greater number of old wood-cuts and block-books than any other person, and whose unwearied perseverance in searching after, and general accuracy in describing such early specimens of the art of wood-engraving, are beyond aU pi-aise. He found it pasted on the inside of the right-hand cover of a manuscript volume in the library of the convent of Buxheim, near Memmingen in Suabia. The manuscript, entitled Laus Vikginis,* and finished in 1417, * " Liber iste, La.us Virginis intitulatus, continet Lectiones Matutinales accommodatas Otficio B. V. Manse per singulos aimi dies," cVc. At tho beginning of the volume is the tollowmg memorandum : " Istum librum legavit domna .Uma filia domni Stophani baronis WOOD ENGEAVING. 47 was left to the convent by Anna, canoness of Buchaw, who was living in 1427; but who probably died previous to 1435. The above reduced copy conveys a pretty good idea of the composition and style of engrav ing of the original cut, which is of a folio size, being eleven and a quarter inches high, and eight inches and one-eighth wide.* The original affords a specimen of the combined talents of the Form schneider or' wood-engraver, and the Briefmaler or card-colourer. The engraved portions, such as are here represented, have been taken off in dark coloj|C ^^^^ itter similar to printers' ink, after which the impression appears j^g bee;--' l^een coloured by means of a stencil. As the back of the cu^jg(j ^ .ot be seen, in consequence of its being pasted on the cover of the volume, it cannot be ascertained with any degree of certainty whether the impression has been taken by means of a press, or rubbed off from the block by means of a burnisher or rubber, in a manner similar to that in which wood-engravers of the present day take their proofs. This cut is much better designed than the generality of those which we find in books typographically executed from 1462, the date of the Bamberg Fables, to 1493, when the often-cited Nuremberg Chronicle was printed. Amongst the many coarse cuts which " illustrate " the latter, and which are announced in the book itself-|- as having been " got up " under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth, Albert Durer's master, and William Pleydenwuiff, both "most skilful in the art of painting," I cannot find a single subject which either for spirit or feeling can be compared to the St. Christopher In fact, the figure of the saint, and that of the youthful Christ whom he bears on his shoulders, are, with the exception of the extremities, designed in such a style, that they would scarcely discredit Albert Durer himself To the left of the engraving the artist has introduced, with a noble disregard of perspective,! what Bewick would have called a "bit of Nature." In the foreground a figure is seen driving an ass loaded with de Gundelfingen, canonica in Biiohow Aule bte. Marie v'ginis in Buchshaim ord'is Gartusiefi prope Memingen Augusten. dyoo." — Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theil, S. 104 — 105. * A ±ac-simile, of the size of the original, is given in Von Murr's Journal, vol. ii. p. 104, and in Ottley's Inquiry, vol. i. p. 90, both engraved on wood. There is an imitation engraved on copper, in .Jansen's Essai sur I'Origine de la Gravure, tom. i. + The following announcement appears in the colophon of the Nuremberg Chronicle. " Ad intuitum autem et preces providorum civium Sebaldi Schreyer et Sebastian! Romer- maister hunc librum Anthonius Koberger Nurembergias impressit. Adhibitis tamen viris mathematicis pingendique arte peritissimis, Michaele Wolgemut et Wilhelmo Pleydenwurff, quorum solerti accuratissimaque animadversione turn civitatum tum illustrium viromm figure insertse sunt. Oonsummatum autem duodecima mensis Julii. Anno Salutis fire 1493." t As great a neglect of the rules of perspective may be seen in several of the cuts in the famed edition of Theurdanok, Nuremberg, 1517, which are supposed to have been designed by Hans Burgmair, and engraved by Hans Schaufflein. |.f^ PEOGEESS 01' a sack towards a water-mill ; \\'liile by a steep path a figure, perhaps intended for the miller, is seen carrying a full sack from the back-door of the mill towards a cottage. To the right is seen a hermit— known by the bell over tiie entrance of his dwelling— holding a large lantern to direct St. Christopher as he crosses the stream. The two verses at the foot of the cut, Cristofori faciem die qua«mque tueris. Ilia nempe die morte mala non morieris, may be translated as follows : Each day that thou the likeness of St. Christopher shalt see. That day no frightful form of death shall make an end of thee. They allude to a popular superstition, common at that period m all Catholic countries, which induced people to believe that the day on which they should see a figure or image of St. Christopher, they should not meet with a violent death, nor die without confession* To this popular superstition Erasmus alludes in his " Praise of FoUy ;" and it is not unlikely, that to his faith in this article of behef, the squire, in Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales," wore " A Christofre on his brest, of silver shene.'' The date " Millesimo cccc xx° tercio" — 1423— which is seen at the right-hand corner, at the foot of the impression, most undoubtedly designates the year in which the engraving was made. The engraving, though coarse, is executed in a bold and free manner ; and the folds of the drapery are marked in a .style which would do credit to a proficient. ' The whole subject, though expressed by means of few lines, is not executed in the very simplest style of art. In the draperies a diminution and a thickening of the lines, where necessary to the effect, may be observed ; and the shades are indicated by means of parallel lines both perpendicular, oblique, and curved, as may be seen in the saint's robe and mantle. In many of the wood-cuts executed between 1462 and 1500, the figures are expressed, and the drapery indicated, by simple lines of one undeviating degree of thickness, without the slightest attempt at shading by means of parallel lines running in a direction different to those marking the folds of the di'apcry or the out lines of the figure. If mere rudeness of design, and simplicity in the mode of execution, were to be considered as the sole tests of antiquity in wood-engravings, upwards of a hundred, positivels' known to ha^c been executed between 1470 and 1500, might be produced as affording intrinsic evidence of their having boon execuled at a period antecedent to tiie date of the St. Christopher. * See Brand's Popnbir Antiquities, vol. i. pp. :i-.9 -:liU.— Bohn's edition. WOOD ENGEAVING. 40 In the Eoyal Library at Paris there is an impression of St. Christopher with the youthful Christ, which was supposed to be a duphcate of that in the possession of Earl Spencer. On comparing them, however, " it was quite evident," says Dr. Dibdin, " at the first glance, as M. Du Chesne admitted, that they were impressions taken from different blocks. The question therefore was, after a good deal of pertinacious argument on both sides — which of the two impressions was the more ancient ? Undoubtedly it was that of Lord Spencer." At first Dr. Dibdin thought that the French impression was a copy of Earl Spencer's, and that it might be as old as the year 1460 ; but, from a note added in the second edition of his tour, he seems to have received a new light. He there says : " The reasons upon which this conclusion [that the French cut was a copy of a later date] was founded, are stated at length in the preceding edition of this work : since which, I very strongly incline to the supposition that the Paris impression is a proof— oi one of the cheats of De Muee." * On the inside of the first cover or " board " of the Laus Virginis, the volume which contains the St. Christopher, there is also pasted a wood engraving of the Annunciation, of a similar size to the above-named cut, and impressed on the same kind of paper. As they are both worked off in the same kind of dark-coloured ink, and as they evidently have been coloured in the same mariner, by means of a stencil, there can be little doubt of their being executed about the same time. From the left-hand corner of the Annunciation the figure of the Almighty has been torn out. The Holy Ghost, who appears descending from the Father upon the Virgin in the material form of a dove, could not well be torn out without greatly disfiguring the cut. An idea may be formed of the original from the following reduced copy. Eespecting these cuts, which in all probability were engraved by some one of the Formschneiders of Augsburg, Ulm, or Nuremberg.^ * Bibliographical and Picturesque Tour, by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, D.D. p. 58, vol. ii. second edition, 1829. The De Murr to whom Dr. Dibdin alludes, is C. G. Von Murr, editor of the Journal of Arts and General Literature, published at Nuremberg in 1775 and subsequent years. Von Murr was the first who published, in the second volume of his journal, a fac simile, engraved on wood by Sebast. Roland, of the Buxheim St. Christopher, from a tracing sent to him by P. Krismer, the librarian of the convent. Von Murr, in his Memorabilia of the City of Nuremlierg, mentions that Breitkopf had seen a duplicate impression of the Buxheim St. Christopher in the possession of M. De Burkenstock at Vienna. t There is every reason in the world to suppose that this wood-cut was executed either in Nuremberg or Augsburg. Buxheim is situated almost in the very heart of Suabia, the circle in which we find the earliest wood engravers established. Buxheim is about thirty English , miles from Ulm, forty-four from Augsburg, and one liundred and fifteen from Nuremberg. Von Murr does not notice the pretensions of Ulm, which on his own grounds are stronger than those of his native city, Nuremberg. R PEOGEESS OP P. Krismer, who was librarian of the convent of Buxheim, and who showed the volume in which they are pasted to Heineken, writes to Von Murr to the following effect ; '' It will not be superfluous if I here point out a mark, by which, in my opinion, old wood engi-avings may with certainty be distinguished from those of a later period It is this : In the oldest wood-cuts only do we perceive that the engraver [Formschneider] has frequently omitted certain parts, leaving them to be afterwards filled up by the card-colourer [Briefmaler]. In the St. Cliristopher there is no such deficiency, although there is in the other cut which is pasted on the inside of the fore covering of the same volume, and which, I doubt not, was executed at the same time as the former. It represents the salu tation of the Virgin by tho angel Gabriel, or, as it is also called, the Annunciation; and, from the omission of the colours, the upper part Wood engraving. 51 of the body of the kneeling Virgin appears naked, except where it is covered with her mantle. Her inner dress had been left to be added by the pencil of the card-colourer. In another wood-cut of the same kind, representing St. Jerome doing penance before a small crucifix placed on a hill, we see with surprise that the saint, together with the instruments of penance, which are lying near him, and a whole forest beside, are suspended in the air without anything to support them, as the whole of the ground had been left to be inserted with the pencil. Nothing of this kind is to be seen in more recent wood-cuts, when the art had made greater progi-ess. What the early wood-engraA^ers could not readily effect with the graver, they performed with the pencil, — for the most part in a very coarse and careless manner, — as they were at the same time both wood- engravers and card-colourers."* Besides the St. Christopher and the Annunciation, there is another old wood-cut in the collection of Earl Spencer which appears to belong to the same period, and which has in all probability been engraved by a German artist, as all who can read the German inscription above the figure would reasonably infer. Before making any remarks on this engraving, I shall first lay before the reader a reduced copy. The figure writing is that of St. Bridget of Sweden, who was born in 1302 and died in 1373. From the representation of the Virgin with the infant Christ in her arms we may suppose that the artist intended to show the pious widow writing an account of her visions or revelations, in which she was often favoured with the blessed Virgin's appearance. The pilgrim's hat, staff, and scrip may allude to her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which she was induced to make in consequence of a vision. The letters S. P. Q. E. in a shield, are no doubt intended to denote the place, Eome, where she saw the vision, and where she died. The lion, the arms of Sweden, and the crown at her feet, are most likely intended to denote that she was a princess of the blood royal of that kingdom. The words above the figure of the saint are a brief invocation in the German language, "0 Brigita bit Got filr uns !" "0 Bridget, pray to God for us ! " At the foot of the desk at which St. Bridget is writing are the letters M. I. Ches., an abbreviation probably of Mater Jesu Christi, or if German, Mutter lesus Christus.f From the appearance of the back of this cut, as if it had been rubbed * Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theil, S. 105, 106. t St. Bridget was a favourite saint in Germany, where many religious establishments of the rule of St. Saviour, introduced by her, were founded. A folio volume, containing the life, revelations, and legends of St. Bridget, was published by A. Koberger, Nuremberg, 1502, with the following title : " Das puch der Himlischen offenbanmg der Heiligen wittiheu Birgitte von dem Kutiigreich Schweden." E 2 52 PEOGEESS OF smooth with a burnisher or rubber, there can be httle doubt of the impression having been taken by means of friction. The colouring matter of the engraving is much lighter than in the St. Christopher and the Annunciation, and is like distemper or water-colour ; while that of the latter cuts appears, as has been already observed, more like printer's ink It IS coarsely coloured, and a],pareiitly by the hand, unassisted with he stencil. The face and hands aiv of a flesh colour. Her c^own as well as the pilgrim's hat and scrip, are of a dark mw ¦ her veil which she wears hoodwis,., is partly black an.l partly white ; and the wimple which she wears louml luu- nock is also while. The bench and desk the pilgrims stall, the Inters S, P Q. i;,, the lion, the crown, and the nimbus WOOD ENGEAVING. 53 surrounding the head of St. Bridget and that of the Virgin, are yellow. The ground is green, and the whole cut is surrounded with a border of a shining mulberry or lake colour. Mr. Ottley, having at the very outset of his Inquiry adopted Papillon's story of the Cunio, is compelled, for consistency's sake, in the subsequent portion of his work, when speaking of early wood engravings such as the above, to consider them, not as the earliest known specimens of the art, but merely as wood engravings such as were produced upwards of a hundred and tiiirty years after the amiable and accomplished Cunio, a mere boy and a girl, had in Italy produced a set of wood engravings, one of which was so well composed that Le Brun might be suspected of having borrowed from it the design of one of his most complicated pictures. In his desire, in support of his theory, to refer the oldest wood-cuts to Italy, Mr. Ottley asks : " What if these two prints [the St. Christopher and the Annunciation] should prove to be, not the productions of Germany, but rather of Venice, or of some district of the territory then under the dominion of that republic ?" His principal reasons for the preceding conjecture, are the ancient use of the word stampide — "printed" — in the Venetian decree against the introduction of foreign playing-cards in 1441 ; and the resemblance which the Annunciation bears to the style of the early Italian schools. Now, with respect to the first of these reasons, it is founded on the assumption that both those impressions have been obtained by means of a press of some kind or other, — a fact which remains yet to be proved ; for until the backs of both shall have been examined, and the mark of the burnisher or rubber found wanting, no person's mere opinion, how ever confidently declared, can be decisive of the question. It also remains to be proved that the word stampide, which occurs in the Venetian decree, was employed there to signify "printed with a press." For it is certain that the low Latin word stampare, with its cognates in the different languages of Europe, was used at that period to denote impression generally. But' even supposing that '¦^stampide" signifies " printed " in the modern acceptation of the word, and that the two impressions in question were obtained by means of a press ; the argument in favour of their being Italian would gain nothing, unless we assume that the foreign printed cards and figures, which w;ere forbid to be im ported into Venice, were produced either within the territory of that state or in Italy; for the word stampide — " printrd" is apphed to them as well as those manufactured within the city. Now we know that the German card-makers used to send great quantities of cards to Venice about the period when the decree was made, while we have no evidence of any Italian cities manufacturing cards for exportation in 1441 ; it is therefore most likely that if the Venetians were acquainted with- the use 34 PEOGEESS OF of the press in taking impressions from wood-blocks, the Gennans were so too, and for these more probable reasons, admitting the cuts in question to have been printed by means of a press ; — First, the fact of those wood cuts being discovered in Germany in the very district where we first hear of wood-engravers ; and secondly, that if the A^'enetian wood- engravers were acquainted with the use of the press in taking im pressions while the Germans were not, it is \cvy unlikely that the latter would be able to undersell the Venetians in their own citv. Until something like a probable reason shall be gi\'en for supposing the cuts in question to bo productions " of Venice, or some other district of the territory then under the dominion (jf that republic," I shall continue to believe that they were executed in the district in which they were discovered, and which has supplied to the collections of amateurs so many old wood engravings of a similar kind. No wood engraA-ings executed in Italy, are known of a date earlier than those contained in the "Meditationes Johannis de Turre-cremata," printed at Eome 1467, — and printed, be it observed, by a German, Ulrick Hahn. The circular wood engravings in the British Museum,* wdiich ^Ir. Ottley says are indis putably Italian, and of the old dry taste of the fifteenth centuiy, can scarcely be referred to an earlier period than 1500, and my ovm opinion is that they are not older than 1510. The manner in which they are engraved is that which we find prevalent in Italian wood-cuts executed between 1500 and 1520. With respect to the resemblance which the Annimciation bears to the style of the early Italian school, — I beg to obseive that it equally resembles many of the productions of contemporary "schools" of England and France, as displayed in many of the drawings contained in old illuminated manuscripts. It would be no difficult matter to point out in many old German engravings attitudes at least as graceful as the Virgin's ; and as to her drapery, which is said to be " wholly unlike the angular sharpness, the stiffness and the flutter of the ancient German school," I beg to obsel•^'e that those peculiarities are not of su frequent occurrence in the works of German artists, whether sculptors, painters. or wood-engravers, who lived before 1450, as hi the works of those who lived after that period. Angular sharpness and flutter in the draperies are not so characteristic of early German art general h', as of German art towards the end of the fifteeiitii, and in the early part of the sixteenth century. * Those cuts consist of illustrations of the New Testament. There are ten of them, apparently a portion of a larger series, in the British Museum ; and they aau mai-ked in small letters, a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. k. n. That which is marked g. also contains the words " Opus Jacobi." In this cut a specimen of cross-hatching may be obseived, which Wi\s certainly verv little practised -if at all— in Italy, before lodo. WOOD ENGEAVING. 55 Even the St. Bridget, which he considers to be of a date not later than the close of the fourteenth century,* Mr. Ottley, with a German inscription before his eyes, is inclined to give to an artist of the Low Countries ; and he kindly directs the attention of Costers partisans to the shield of arms— probably intended for those of Sweden — at the right- hand corner of the cut. Meerman had discovered a seal, having in the centre a shield charged with a lion rampant — ^tlie bearing of the noble family of Brederode — a label of three points, and the mark of illegitimacy — a bend sinister, and surrounded by the inscription, "S[igillum] Lowrens Janssoen," which with him was sufficient evidence of its being the identical seal of Laurence, the Coster or churchwarden of Harlem .f We thus perceive on what grounds the right of Germany to three of the oldest wood-cuts known is questioned ; and upon what traits of resemblance they are ascribed to Italy and the Low Countries. By adopting Mr. Ottley's mode of reasoning, it might be shown with equal probability that a very considerable number of early wood engravings — whether printed in books or separately — hitherto believed to be German, were really executed in Italy. An old wood engraving of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, of a quarto size, with a short prayer underneath, and the date 1487, apparently from the same block, was preserved in the monastery of St. Blaze, in the Black Forest on the confines of Suabia ; j and another, with the date 1443 inserted in manuscript, was pasted in a volume belonging to the library of the monastery of Buxheim. The latter is thus described by Von Murr : " Through the kindness of the celebrated librarian, Krismer, whom I have so often mentioned, I am enabled to give an account of an illuminated wood-cut, which at the latest must have been engraved in 1443. It is pasted on the inside of the cover of a volume which contains ' Nicolai Dunkelspul§ Sermonum Partem Hyemalem.' It is of quarto * Mr. Ottley's reason for considering this cut to be so old is, that " after that period [1400] an artist, who was capable of designing so good a figure, could scarcely have been so grossly ignorant of eveiy effect of linear perspective, as was evidently the case with the author of the performance before us." — Inquiry, p. 87. Offences, however, scarcely less gross against the rules of linear perspective, are to be found in the wood-cuts in the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, I5I7, many of which contain figures superior to that of St. Bridget. Errors in perspective are indeed frequent in the designs of many of the most eminent of Albert Durer's contemporaries, although in other respects the figures may be correctly drawn, and the general composition good. t An engi-aving of this seal is given in the first volume of Meerman's Origines Typographicas. J Heineken, Neue Naehriohten von Kiinstleru und Kunstsachen. Dresden und Leipzig, 1783, S. 143. § In the Table des Mati^res to Jansen's Essai sur FOrigme de la Gravure, Paris, ISCS, we find " Diinkelspul (Nicolas) graveur Allemand en 1443." After this siiecimen of accuracy, it 56 PEOGEESS OF size, being seven and a half inches high, and five and a quarter wide, and is inclosed within a border of a single line. It is much soiled, as we perceive in the figures on cards which have been impressed by means of a rubber. The style in which it is executed is like that of no other wood-cut which I have ever seen. The cut itself represents three different subjects, the upper part of it being divided into two com partments, each three inches square, and separated from each other by means of a broad perpendicular line. In that to the right is seen St. Dorothy sitting in a garden, with the youthful Christ presenting flowers to her, of which she has her lap full. Before her stands a small hand- basket, — also full of flowers, — such as the ladies of Franconia and Suabia were accustomed to carry in former times. In the left compartment is seen St. Alexius, lying at the foot of a flight of steps, upon which a man is standing and emptying the contents of a pot upon the saint.* Between these compartments there appears in manuscript the date ^ anno d'ni 1443.' Both the ink and the characters correspond with those of the volume. This date indicates the time when the writer had finished the book and got it bound, as is more clearly proved by a memorandum at the conclusion. In the year 1483, before it came into the possession of the monastery of Buxheim, it belonged to Brother Jacobus Matzen- berger, of the order of the Holy Ghost, and curate of the church of the Virgin Mary in Memmingen. The whole of the lower part of the cut is occupied with Christ bearing his cross, at the moment that he meets with his mother, whom one of the executioners appears to be driving away. Simon of Cyrene is seen assisting Christ to carry the cross. The engraving is executed in a very coarse manner." -f- In the Eoyal Library at Paris there is an ancient wood-cut of St. Bernardin, who is represented on a terrace, the pavement of which consists of alternate squares of yellow, red, and green. In his ri^^ht hand the saint holds something resembling the consecrated wafer or host, in the midst of which is inscribed the name of Christ ; and in his left a kind of oblong casket, on which are the words " Vide, lege, dulce nomen." Upon a scroll above the head of the saint is engraved the sentence, " Ihesus semper sit in ore meo!' and behind him, on a black label, is his name in yellow letters. '' Sancf Bernard'." The cut is surrounded by a border of foliage, with the emblems of the four Evangelists at the four corners ajid is rather surprising that we do not find St. Alexius referred to also as " un craveur Allemand." ° * St. Alexius returning unknown to his father's house, as a poor pilgiim, was treated with great indignity by the servants. + Von Murr, Jom'nal, 2 Theil, 8. 113— 115. WOOD ENGEAVING. 57 at the foot are the five following lines, with the date, imuressed from prominent lines : — 0 . splendor . pudicitie . zelator . paupertatis . a mator . innocentie . cultor . virginitatis . lustra cars . apientie . protector . veritatis . thro num . fulgidum . eteme . majestatis . para nobis . additum . divine . pietatis . amen . (1454) This rare cut was communicated to Jansen by M. Vanpraet, the v/ell-known bibliographer and keeper of the Eoyal Library.* " Having visited in my last tour," says Heineken, after describing the St. Christopher, " a great many convents in Franconia, Suabia, Bavaria, and in the Austrian states, I everywhere discovered in their libraries many of those kinds of figures, engraved on wood, and pasted either at the beginning or the end of old volumes of the fifteenth century. I have indeed obtained several of them. These facts, taken altogether, have confirmed me in my opinion that the next step of the engraver in wood, after playing-cards, was to engrave figures of saints, which, being dis tributed and lost among the laity, were in part preserved by the monks, who pasted them in the earliest printed books with which thej^ furnished their libraries." -f A great many wood-cuts of devotional subjects, of a period probably anterior to the invention of book-printing by Gutenberg, have been dis covered in Germany. They are all executed in a rude style, and many of them are coloured. It is not undikely that the most of these wood cuts were executed at the instance of the monks for distribution among the common people as helps to devotion ; and that each monastery, which might thus avail itself of the aid of wood engraving in the work of piety, would cause to be engraved the figure of its patron saint. The practice, in fact, of distributing such figures at monasteries and shrines to those who visit them, is not yet extinct on the Continent. In Belgium it is still continued, and, I beheve, also in Germany, France, and Italy. The figures, however, are not generally impressions from wood-blocks, but are for the most part wholly executed by means of stencils. One of the latter class, representing the shrine of " Notre Dame de Hal," — coloured in the most wretched taste with brick-dust red and shining green, — is * Jansen, Essai sur I'Origine de la Gravure, tom. i. p. 237. Jansen's own authority on subjects connected with wood engraving is undeserving of attention. He is a mere compiler, who scarcely appears to have been able to distinguish a wood-cut from a copper-plate engraving. t Id^e G^ntole, p. 251. Hartman Schedel, the compiler of the Nuremberg Chronicle, was accustomed to paste both old wood-cuts and copper-plate engravings within the covers of his books, many of which were preserved in the Library of the Elector of Bavaria at Munich. — Idee Gen. p. 287;- and Von Miur, Journal, 2 Theil, S, 115. 58 PEOGEESS OF now lying before me. It was given to a gentleman who visited Halle, near Brussels, in 1829. It is nearly of the same size as many of the old devotional wood-cuts of Germany, being about four inches high, by two and three-quarters wide.* The iie.Nit step in the progress of wood engraving, subsequent to the production of single cuts, such as the St. Christopher, the Annunciation, and the St. Bridget, in each of Avliich letters are sparingly introduced, was the application of the art to tho production of these works which are known t(j bibliographers by the name of block-books : the most cele brated of \\diich are the Apocalypsis, sen Historia Sancti Johannis ; the Historia Virginis ex Cantico Canticoruni ; and the Biblia Pauperum. The first is a history, pictorial and literal, of the life and revelations of St. John the Evangelist, derived in part from the traditions of the church, but chiefly from the book of Eevelatioiis. The second is a similar history of the Virgin, as it is supposed to be typified in the Songs of Solomon ; and the third consists of subjects representing some of the most important passages in the Old and New Testament, with texts either explaining the subject, or enforcing the example of duty which it may afford. With the above, the Speculum Humanfe Salvationis is usuallj-, though improperly, classed, as the whole of the text, in that which is most certainly the first edition, is printed from movable metal types. In the others the explanatory matter is engraved on wood, on the same block with the subject to which it refers. All the above books have been claimed by Meermau and other Dutch writers for their countryman, Laurence Coster : and although no date, either impressed or manuscript, has been discovered in any one copy from which the period of its execution might be ascertained,^ yet such appears to have been the clearness of the intuitive light which guided those authors, that they have assigned to each work the precise year in which it appeared. According to Seiz, the History of the Old and New Testament, otherwise called the Biblia Pauperum, appeared in 1432 ; the History of the A'irgin in 1433; the Apocalypse in 1434; and the Speculum in 1439. For such assertions, howe^•er, he has not the slightest ground. That the three first might appear at some period between 1430 and 1450, is not unlikely ;i but that the Speculum — the tc.vt of which * Heineken thus speaks of those old devotional cuts : " On tronve dans la Biblioth^ue de Wolfenbiittel de ces sortes d'estampes, qui repri^senteut diffcSreiis sujets de I'histoire sjunte et de devotion, avec du texte vis ii vis de la figure, tout grave en bois. Cos pieces sent de la m^me grandeur que nos cartes h, jouer : elles portent 3 poua's dc hauteur sm- 2 pouces 6 lignes de largeur." — Idt'e Qdndralo, p. 2411. t A copy of the Speculum belonging to the city of Harlem had at the aimmencement, " /.'j: Officina Laurentii Joannis Costeri. Anno 1440." But this inscription had been inserted by a modem hand — Id6e Gdndrale, p. 449. t In the catalogue of Dr. Kloss's Library Ko, 2024, is a " Historia et Apocalypsis Johannis WOOD ENGEAVING. 59 in the first edition was printed from meted types — should be printed before 1460, is in the highest degree improbable. Upon extremely slight gTounds it has been conjectured that the Biblia Pauperum, the Apocalypse, and the Ars Moriendi, — another block-book, — were engraved before the year 1430. The Eev. T. H. Home, "a gentle man long and well known for his familiar acquaintance with books printed abroad," says Dr. Dibdin, " had a copy of each of the three books above mentioned, bound in one volume, upon the cover of which the following words were stamped : Hie liber relegatus fuit per Plebanum ecclesie " — with the date, according to the best of the Eev. Mr. Home's recollection, 142(8). As he had broken up the volume, and had parted with the contents, he gave the above information on the strength of his memory alone. He was, however, confident that " the binding was the ancient legitimate one, and that the treatises had not been subsequently introduced into it, and that the date was 142 odd ; but positively anterior to 1430." « In such a case as this, however, mere recollection cannot be admitted as decisive of the fact, more especially when we know the many instances in which mistakes have , been committed in reading the numerals in ancient dates. At page 88 of his Inquiry, Mr. Ottley, catching at every straw that may help to support his theory of wood engi'aviug having been practised by the Cunio and others in the fourt(.'enth century, refers to a print which a Monsieur Thierry professed to \\&\& seen at Lyons, inscribed "SCHOTING OP NuEEMBEEG," with the date 1384; and at p. 256 he alludes to it again in the following words : "The date 1384 on the wood cut preserved at Lyons, said to have been executed at Nuremberg, appears, I know not why, to have been suspected." It has been more than suspected ; for, on examination, it has been found to be 1584. Paul Von Stettin published an account of a Biblia Pauperum, the date of which he .supposed to be 1414 ; but which, when closely examined, was found to be 1474 : and Baron Von Hupsch, of Cologne, published in 1787 an account of some wood-cuts which he supposed to have been executed in 1420 ; but which, in the opinion of Breitkopf, were part of the cuts of a Biblia Pauperum, in which it was probably intended to give the Evangelistse," imperfect, printed from wooden blocks. The following are the observations of the editor or compiler of the catalogue: "At the end of the volume is a short note, written by Pope Martin V., who occupied the papal chair from I4I7 to 1431. This appears to accord with the edition described by Heineken at page 360, excepting in the double a. No. 3 and 4." If the note referred towere genuuie, and actually written in the book, a certain date would be at once established. The information, however, comes in a questionable shape, as the English r^dacteur's power of ascertaming who were the writers of ancient MS. notes appears little short of miracubus. * Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 4, cited in Ottley's Inquiry, vol. i. p. 90. (50 PllOGUESS OF explanations in moveable types underneath the cuts, and probably of a later date than 1470.* It is surprising that the Eev. Mr. Home, who is no incurious observer of books, but an author who has written largely on Bibliography, should not have carefully copied so remarkable a date, or communicated it to a friend, when it might have been confirmed by a careful examination of the binding ; and still more surprising is it that such binding .should have been destroyed. From the very fact of his not having paid more parti cular attention to this most important date, and from his having permitted the evidence of it to be destroyed, the Eev. Mr. Home seems to be an incompetent witness. Who would think of calling a person to prove from recollection the date of an old and important deed, who, when he had it in his possession, was so little aware of its value as to throw it away ? The three books in question, when covered by such a binding, would surely be much greater than when bound in any other manner. Such a volume must have been unique ; and, if the date on the binding were correct, it must have been admitted as decisive of a fact interesting to every bibliographer in Europe. It is not even mentioned in what kind of numerals the date was expressed, whether in Eoman or Arabic. If the numerals had been Arabic, we might very reasonably suppose that the Eev. Mr. Home had mistaken a seven for a two, and that, instead of " 142 odd," the correct date was " 147 odd." In Arabic numerals, such as were used about the middle of the fifteenth century, the seven may very easily be mistaken for a two. The earliest ancient binding known, on which a date is impressed, is, I beheve, that described by Laire.f It is that of a copy of " Sancti Hieronymi Epistolee ;" and the words, in the same manner as that of the binding of which the Eev. Mr. Home had so accurate a recollection, were " stamped at the extremity of the binding, towards the edge of the squares." It is only necessary to cite the words impressed on one of the boards, which were as follows : " Ilhgatus est Anno Domini 1469 Per me Johannem Richenbach Capellanum In Gyshngen." J The numerals of the date it is to be observed were Arabic. In the library of Dr. Kloss of Franldort, sold in London by Sotheby and Son in 1835, were two volumes, "St. Augustini de Civitat. Dei, Libri xxii • Singer's Researches into the History of Playing-cards, p. 107. f Index lAbrorum ab inventa Typographia ad annum 1500, No. 37^ t Mr. Bo&i is in possession of a, similaily bound volume, namelv, " Astoxani de Ast, Scrutinium Scripturai-um," printed by Mentelin, without date, but about I46S, on the pigskin covers of which is printed in bold black letter, Per me likh-m-back iUi„at„s in Oi,ssliugen°U70. WOOD ENGEAVING. 61 1469," and " St. Augustini Confessiones " of the same date ; both of which were bound by "Johannes Capellanus in Gyslingen," and who in the same manner had impressed his name on the covers with the date 1470. Both volumes had belonged to "Dominus Georgius Euch de Gamundia."* That the volume formerly in the Eev. Mr. Home's possession was bound by the curate of Geisslingen I by no means pretend to say, though I am firmly of opinion that it was bound subsequent to 1470, and that the character which he supposed to be a two was in reality a different figure. It is worthy of remark that it appears to have been bound by the " Plebanus " of some church, a word which is nearly synonymous with " Capellanus." f As it does not come within the plan of the present volume to give a catalogue of all the subjects contained in the block-books to which it may be necessary to refer as illustrating the progress of wood engraving, I shall confine myself to a general notice of the manner in which the cuts are executed, with occasional observations on the designs, and such remarks as may be likely to explain any peculiarity of appearance, or to enable the reader to form a distinct idea of the subject referred to. At whatever period the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and the Biblia Pauperum may have been executed, the former has the appearance of being the earliest ; and in the absence of everything like proof upon the point, and as the style in which it is engraved is certainly more simple than that of the other two, it seems entitled to be first noticed in tracing the progress of the art. Of the Apocalypse, — or " Historia Sancti Johannis Evangelistse ejusque Visiones Apocalypticse," as it is mostly termed by bibliographers, for the book itself has no title, — Heineken mentions no less than six editions, the earhest of which he considers to be that described by him at page 367 of his " Id^e G^ndrale d'une Collection complete d'Estampes." He, however, declares that the marks by which he has assigned to each edition its comparative antiquity are not infallible. It is indeed very evident that the marks which he assumed as characteristic of the relative order of the different editions were merely arbitrary, and could by no means be admitted as of the slightest consequence in enabling any * " Catalogue of the Library of Dr. Kloss of Frankfort," Nos. 460 and 468. Geisslingen is about fifteen miles north-west of Ulm in Suabia, and Gemund about twelve miles north ward of Geisslingen. t Mr. Singer, at page lOI of his Researches into the History of Playing-cards, speaks of " one Plebanus of Augsburg," as if Plebanus were a proper name. It has nearly the same meaning as our own word " Curate." " Plebanus, Parcecus, Curio, Sacerdos, qui plebi praeest ; Italis, Piovano ; GaUo-Belgis, Pleban. Balbus in Catliolico : ' Plebanus, dominus plebis, Presbyter, qui plebem regit.'— Plebanum vero maxime vocant in ecclesiis cathedralibus sen coUegiatis canonicum, cui plebis earum jurisdictioni subditse oura committitur." — Du Cange, Glossarium, iii verbo " Plebanus." 62 PEOGEESS OF person to form a correct opinion on the subject. He notices two editions as the first and second, and immediately after he mentions a circum stance which might almost entitle the third to take precedence of them both ; and that which he saw last he thinks the oldest of all. The designs of the second edition described by him, he says, are by another master than those of the first, although the artist has adhered to the same subjects and the same ideas. The third, according to his observa tions, differs from the first and second, both in the subjects and the descriptive text. The fourth edition is from the same blocks as the third ; the only difference between them being, that the fourth is \vithout the letters in alphabetical order which indicate the succession of the cuts. Tlie fifth differed from the third or fourth only in the text and the directing letters, as the designs were the same ; the only variations that could be observed being extremely trifling. After having descrilicd five editions of the book, he decides that a sixth, which he saw after the others, ought to be considered the earliest of all.* In all the copies which he had seen, the impressions had been taken by means of a rubber, in such a manner that each leaf contained only one engraving ; the other side, which commonly bore the marks of the rubber, being without a cut. The impressions when collected into a volume faced each other, so that the first and last pages were blank. The edition of the Apocalypse to which I shall now refer is that described by Heineken, at page 364, as the fifth ; and the copy is that mentioned by him, at page 367, as then being in the collection of ^I. de Gaignat, and as wanting two cuts, Nos. 36 and 37, It is at present in the King's Library at the British Museum. It is a thin folio in modern red morocco binding, and has, when perfect, consisted of fifty wood engravings, with their explanatory text also cut in wood, generally within an oblong border of a single line, within the field of the engraving, and not added underneath, as in the Speculum Salvationis, nor in detached compartments, both above and below, as in the BiWia Pauperum. The paper, which is someMdiat of a cream colour, is stout, with rather a, coarse surface, and such as we find the most ancient books printed on. As each leaf has been pasted down on anotlier of modern paper, in order to preserve it. the marks of the rabber at the back of each impression, as di'scribcd by Heineken, cannot be seen. The annexed outiine is a reducinl copy of a paper-mark, which may be perceived on some of the leaves. It is verv like that numbered "vii." at p. 224, vol. i. of :\lr. Ottieys Inquiry, and which he says occurs in the edition called tiie first Latin of the Speculum Salvationis. It is ncatiy the same as that which is to be seen in Earl S]ieiicer's " Histona Virginis ;" and Santandev * Idi5c GiaiiE6tft ijifittptiogaf;ria?lttTOiHrfi'ofeSnt^.yinJft command of the beast which ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, and which is Antichrist. He is seen issuing his commands for the execution of the witnesses ; and the face of the executioner who has just used his sword, and who is looking towards him with an expression of bratal exultation, might have served Albert Durer for that of the mocker in his cut of Christ crowned with thorns. F 2 O-S PEOGEESS OF The inscription to the right, is the 7th verse of the Xith chapter, with the names of Enoch and Helyas inserted as those of the two witnesses : " Cum finierunt Enoch et Helyas testimonium suum, bestia quce ascendit de abissofaciet contra eos bellum, et vincet eos et occidet illos." In our transla tion the verse is rendered thus : " And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them." The tablet to the left contains the following inscription : " Et jacebunt corpora em-um inplateis, et non sinent poni in monumentis." It is formed of two passages, in the 8th and 9th verses of the xith chapter of Eeve lations, which are thus rendered in our version of the Bible : " And their dead bodies shall lie in the street, . . . and they of the people . . . shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves." In the lower compartment Antichrist is seen working his miracles, uprooting the two ohve trees, typical of the two witnesses whom he had caused to be slain.* Two of his followers are seen kneeling as if wor shipping him, while more to the left are the supporters of the true faith dehvered into the hands of executioners. The design is illustrative of the xmth chapter of Eevelations. The following is the inscription above the figure of Antichrist : — " ILic facit Antichristus miracula sua, et cr&- dentes in ipsum honorat, et incredentes variis interficit pcenis!' — " Here Antichrist is performing his miracles, honouring those who believe in him, and putting the incredulous to death by various punishments." The leaves of the trees which Antichrist has miraculously uprooted are extremely like those of the tree of life engraved in one of the cuts of the Biblia Pauperum, and of which a copy will be found in a subsequent page. In several of the cuts, the typical expressions wliich occur in the texts are explained. Thus, in cut eighth, we are informed that " Stolce alba? animarum gloriam designant." — " The white vestments denote the glory of departed souls." In the lower compartment of the same cut, the " colli recessio " — " the opening of the heavens " — is explained to be the communication of the Bible to the Gentiles. In the lower compart ment of the ninth cut, " much incense " is said to signify the precepts of the Gospel ; the " censers," the hearts of the Apostles ; and the " golden altar," the Church. The next block-book which demands notice is that named " Historia sen Providentia Virgin^ Marias, ex Cantico Cauticorum : " that is, " The History or Prefigurat1o;i of the Virgin ]\lary, from the Song of Songs." It is of small-foho size, and consists of sixteen lea\-es, printed on one side only by means of friction; and the ink is of a dark brown, approaching nearly to black. Each impressed page contains two sub- ' Revelations, chap. xi. \ort,cs 3d and 4th. WOOD ENGEAVING. 69 jects, one above the other ; the total number of subjects in the book is, consequently, thirty-two. Of this book, according to the observations of Heineken, there are two editions ; which, from variations noticed by him in the explanatory text, are evidently from different blocks ; but, as the designs are pre cisely the same, it is certain that the one has been copied from the other.* That which he considers to be the first edition, has, in his opinion, been engraved in Germany ; the other, he thinks, was a copy of the origuial, executed by some engraver in HoUand. The principal ground on which he determines the priority of the editions is, that in the one the text is much more correctly given than in the other ; and he thence concludes that the most correct would be the second. In this opinion I concur ; not that his rule -will universally hold good, but that in this case the conclusion which he has drawn seems the most probable. The designs, it is admitted, are precisely the same ; and as the cuts of the one would in all probability be engraved from tracings or transfers of the other, it is not likely that we should find such a difference in the text of the two editions if that of the first were correct. A wood-engraver — on this point I speak from experience — would be much more likely to commit literal errors in copying manuscript, than to deviate in cutting a fac-simile from a correct impression. Had the text of the first edition been correct, — considering that the designs of the one edition are exact copies of those of the other, — it is probable that the text of both would have been more nearly ahke. But as there are several errors in the text of the first edition, it is most likely that many of them would be discovered and corrected by the person at whose instance the designs were copied for the second. Diametrically op posite to this conclusion is that of Mr. Ottley, who argues as follows : -f- " Heineken endeavours to draw another argument in favour of the originality of the edition possessed by Pertusati, Verdussen, and the Bodleian library, from the various errors, in that edition, in the Latin inscriptions on the scrolls ; which, he says, are corrected in the other edition. But it is evident that this circumstance makes in favour of an opposite conclusion. The artist who origuially invented the work must have been well acquainted with Latin, since it is, in fact, no other than an union of many of the most beautiful verses of the Book of Canticles, with a series of designs illustrative of the divine mysteries supposed to be revealed in that sacred poem; and, consequently, we have reason to consider that edition the original in which the inscrip tions are given with the most correctness ; and to ascribe the gross blunders in the other to the ignorance of some ordinary wood-engraver by whom the work was copied." Even granting the assumption that the * Idge Generate, p. 37G. t Inquiry, vol. i. p. 140. PEOGEESS OF engraver of the edition, supposed by Mr. Ottley to be the first, was well acquainted with Latm, and that he who engraved the presumed second did not understand a word of that language, yet it by no means follows that the latter could not make a correct tracing of the engTaved text lyino- before him. Because a draughtsman is unacquainted with a lan guage, it would certainly be most erroneous to infer that he would be incapable of copying the characters correctiy. Besides, though it does not benefit his argument a whit, it is surely assuming too much to assert that the artist who made the designs also selected the texts, and that he must have been well acquainted with Latin ; and that he who executed Mr. Ottley's presumed second echtion was some ignorant ordinary wood-engraver. Did the artists who executed the fac-similes in Mr. Ottley's work, or in Dr. Dibdin's "Bibliotheca Spenceriana," understand the abbreviated Latin which in many instances they had to engrave ; and did they in consequence of their ignorance of that language copy incorrectly the original texts and sentences which were before them ? In a copy which Heineken considers to be of the second edition, belonging to the city of Harlem, that writer observed the following in scription, from a wood block, impressed, as I understand him, at the top of the first cut. *' Wit ts Ut boersmicftf it ba iWarit iex moH . cioiieg . en is g£l)Ete in latj^ . Cdti." This inscription — which Heineken says is " en langue Flamande, ou pliitot en Plat-Alemand " — may be expressed in English as follows : " This is the prefiguration of ilary the mother of God, and is in Latin named the Canticles." Heineken expresses no doubt of this inscription being genuine, though he makes use of it as an argument in support of his opinion, that the copy in which it occurs was one of later edition; "for it is well known," he observes, "that the earliest editions of printed books are without titles, and more especially those of block-books." As this inscription, however, has been found in the Harlem copy only, I am inclined to agree with !sh\ Ottley in con sidering it as a silly fraud devised by some of the compatriots of Coster for the purpose of establishing a fact which it is, in reality, much better calculated to overthrow." * Heineken, who appears to have had more knowledge than taste on the subject of art, declares the History of the Virgin to bo "the most Gothic of aU the block-books ; that it is different from them both in the style of the designs and of the engraving ; and that the figures are very like the ancient sculptures in the churches of Germany." If by the term " Gothic " he means rude and tasteless, I dilVcr with him entirely ; for, though there be great sameness in the subjects, yet the figures, generally, are more gracefully designed than those of any other block- * Inquiry, ji. 140. WOOD ENGEAVING. 71 book that I have seen. Compared with them, those of the Bibha Pauperum and the Speculum might be termed " Gothic '' indeed. The above group, — from that which Heineken considers the first edition, — in which the figures are of the size of the originals, is taken from the seventh subject in Mr. Ottley's enumeration ; * that is, from the upper portion of the fourth cut. The text is the 14th verse of the ist chapter of the Song of Solomon : " Botrus cipri dilectus meus inter vineas enngadi ; " which in our Bible is translated : " My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vine yards of En-gedi." In every cut the female figures are almost precisely the same, and the diapery and the expression scarcely vary. From the easy and graceful attitudes of his female figures, as well as from the * Inquiry, p. 144, vol. i. 72 PEOGEESS OF manner in which they are clothed, the artist may be considered as the Stothard of his day. The two preceding subjects are impressed on the second leaf, in the order in which they are here represented, forming Nos. 3 and 4 in Mr. Ottley's enumeration. They are reduced copies from the originals in the first edition, and afford a correct idea of a complete page.* On the scroU to the left, in the upper subject, tho words are intended for — " Trahe me, post te curremus in odore vngucntorum tuorum!' They are to be found in the 4th and 3rd verses of the Ist chapter of the Song of Solomon. In our Bible the phrases arc translated as follows ; "Draw me, we will run after thee, . . [in] the sa\^our of tiiy good ointments," * The copy from which the jireceding specimens arc given was formerly the property of the Rev. C. jM. Giachcrode, by whom it w:is Idt, with tlio rest of his valuable collection of books, to the British Museum. WOOD ENGEAVING. 73 In the scroll to the right, the inscription is from the 14th verse of tiie II nd chapter : " Sonet vox fua in auribus meis, vox enim tua dulcis et fades tua decora:" which is thus rendered in our Bible: "Let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." On the scroll to the left, in the lower compartment, is the following inscription, from verse 10th, chapter lind : "En dilectus meus loquitur mihi. Surge, proper a, arnica mea:" in our Bible translated thus: "My beloved spake, and said unto me. Else up, my love, my fair one, and come away." The inscription on the scroll to the right is from 1st verse of chapter ivth : " Quam pulchra es arnica mea, quam pulchra es ! Ocidi tui columbarum, absque eo quod intrinsecus latet!' The translation of this passage in our Bible does not correspond with that of the Vulgate in the last clause : "Behold thou art fair, my love ; behold thou art fair ; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks." The style in which the cuts of the History of the Virgin are engraved indicates a more advanced state of art than those in the Apocalypse. The field of each cut is altogether better fUled, and the subjects contain more of what an engraver would term "work ;" and shadowing, which is represented by courses of single lines, is also introduced. ¦ The back- gTounds are better put in, and throughout the whole book may be ob served several indications of a perception of natural beauty ; such as the occasional introduction of trees, flowers, and animals. A vine-stock, with its trellis, is happily and tastefully introduced at folio 4 and folio 10 ; and at folio 12 a goat and two sheep, drawn and engraved with considerable abihty, are perceived in the background. Several other instances of a similar kind might be pointed out as proofs that the artist, whoever he might be, was no unworthy precursor of Albert Durer. From a fancied delicacy in the engTaving of the cuts of the History of the Virgin, Dr. Dibdin was led to conjecture that they were the " pro duction of some metallic substance, and not struck off from wooden blocks." * This speculation is the result of a total ignorance of the prac tical part of wood engraving, and of the capabihties of the art ; and the very process which is suggested involves a greater difficulty than that which is sought to be removed. But, in fact, so far from the engravings being executed with a delicacy unattainable on wood, there is nothing in them — so far as the mere cutting of fancied dehcate hnes is concerned — which a mere apprentice of the present day, using very ordinary tools, would not execute as well, either on pear-tree, apple-tree, or beech, the kinds of wood on which the earliest engravings are supposed to have been made. Working on box, there is scarcely a hne in all the series which a skilful wood-engraver could not split. In a similar manner ]\£r. John * Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 36. Mr. Ottley cites the passage at p. 139, vol i. ci his Inquiry, for the purpose of expressing his dissent from the theory. PEOGEESS OP 74 Landseer conjectured from the frequent occurrence of cross-hatching in ¦the wood engravings of tiie sixteenth century, that they, instead of being cut on wood, had in reality been executed on type-metal ; although, as' is known to every wood-engraver, the execution of such hatchings on type-metal would be more difficult than on wood. When, in refutation of his opinion, he was shown impressions from such presumed blocks or plates of type-metal, which from certain marks m the impressions had been evidently worm-eaten, he— in the genuine style of an " ingenious disputant " who could " Confute the exciseman and puzzle the vicar,— abandoned type-metal, and fortified his " stubborn opinion behind vegetahh putties or pastes that are capable of being hardened— or any substance that is capable of being worm-eaten!' * Such " commenta opinionum "— the mere figments of conjecture — only deserve notice in consequence of their extravagance. The History of the Virgin, in the same manner as every other ancient block-book, has been claimed for Coster by those who ascribe to him the invention both of wood engraving and printuig with moveable types ; but if even the churchwarden of St. Bavon's in Harlem ever had handled a graver, or made a design, or if he was even the cause of wood-cuts being engraved by others, — every one of which assertions I very much doubt, — I should yet feel strongly inclined to beheve that the work in question was the production of an artist residing either in Suabia or Alsace. Scarcely any person who has had an opportunity of examining the works of Martin Schon, or Schongauer, — one of the earliest German copper-plate engravers, — ^who is said to have died in 1486, can fail, on looking over the designs in the History of the Virgin, to notice the resem blance which many of his female figures hear to those in the above-named work. The similarity is too striking to have been accidental I am in clined to believe that Martin Schon must have studied — and diligently too — the subjects contained in the History, or that he had received Ins professional education in a school which might possibly be fomided by the artist who designed and engraved the wood-cuts in question, or under a master who had thoroughly adopted their style, Martin Schon was a native of Colmar in Alsace, where he was bom about 1453, but was a descendant of a family, probably of artists, which originally belonged to Augsburg. Heineken and Von ^lurr both bear testimony,f though indirectly, to the resemblance which his works bear to the designs in the History of the Virgin. The former states that the figures in the History are very like the ancient sculptures in the churches * Landseer's Lectures on the .Vrfc of Engra\ing, pp. -^Ol— -JO,"!, S\o. London, 1S07. t Heineken, Idee Geni5rale, ji, 374. Von .Miut, Jourmrl, -2 Tlioil, S. 4:!. WOOD ENGEAVING. Vo of Germany, and Von Murr asserts that such sculptures were probably Martm Schdn's models. In two or three of the designs in the History of the Virgin several shields of arms are introduced, either borne by figures, or suspended from a wall. As the heraldic emblems on such shields were not likely to be entirely suggested by the mere fancy of the artist, I think that most of them win be found to belong to Germany rather than to Holland ; and the charge on one of them, — two fish back to back, which is rather re markable, and by no means common, is one of the quarterings of the former Counts of Wirtemberg, the very district in which I am inclined to think the work was executed. I moreover fancy that in one of the cuts I can perceive an allusion to the Council of Basle, which in 1439 elected Amadous of Savoy as Pope, under the title of Felix V, in oppo sition to Eugene IV. In order to afford those who are better acquainted with the subject an opportunity of judging for themselves, and of making further discoveries which may support my opinions if well-founded, or which may correct them if erroneous, I shall give copies of all the shields of arms which occur in the book. The following cut of four figures — a pope, two carchnals, and a bishop — occurs in the upper compartment of the nineteenth folio. The shield charged with a black eagle also occurs in the same compartment. The preceding figures are seen looking over the battlements of a house in which the Virgin, typical of the Church, is seen in bed. On a scroll is inscribed the following sentence, from the Song of Solomon, chap. iii. V. 2 : " Surgam et circumibo civitatem ; per vicos et plateas queram quern diligit anima mea:" which is thus translated in our Bible : " I wiU rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth." In the same design, the Virgin, with her three attendants, are seen in a street, where two men on horseback 76 PEOGIIESS OF appear taking away her mantle. One of the men bears upon his shield the figure of a black eagle, the same as that which appears underneath the wood-cut above given. Upon a scroll is this inscription, from Solo mon's Song, chapter v. verse 7 : " Percusserunt et vulneraverunt me, tulerunt pallium meum custodes murorum!' In our Bible the entire verse is thus translated : " The watchmen that went about the city found me ; they smote me, they wounded me : the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me." As the incidents in the life of the Virgin, described in the Canticles, were assumed by commentators to be typical of the history of the Church, I am inclined to think that the above cut may contain an allusion to the disputes between Pope Eugene IV. and the Council assembled at Basle in 1439. The passage m the first inscription, " I will seek him whom my soul loveth," might be very appropriately apphed to a council which professed to represent the Church, and which had chosen for itself a new head. The second inscription would be equally descriptive of the treats ment which, in the opinion of the same council, the Church had received from Eugene IV, whom they declared to be deposed, because " he was a disturber of the peace and union of the Church ; a schismatic and a heretic ; guilty of simony ; perjured and incorrigible." On the shield borne by the figure of a pope wearing a triple crown, is a fleur-de-lis ; not whether or no this flower formed part of the armorial distinctions of ximadeus Duke of Savoy, whom the council chose for their new pope, I have not been able to ascertain. The hon borne by the second figure, a cardinal, is too general a cognizance to be assigned to any particular state or city. The charge on the shield borne by the third figure, also a cardinal, I cannot make out. The cross-keys on the bishop's shield axe the arms of the city of Eatisbon. The following shields are borne by angels, who appear above the battlements of a wall in the lower compartment of foho 4, forming the eighth subject in Mr. Ottley's enumeration. On these I have nothing to remark futher than that the double-headed eagle is the arms of the German empire. The other three I leave to be deciphered by others. The second, with an indented chief and somethmg like a rose in the field, will be found, I am inclined to think, to be the arms of some town or city in Wirtemberg or Alsaco. I give' the three inscriptions here, not that they are likely to throw any light on the sub ject, but bccau.se the third has not hitherto been deciphered. They are WOOD ENGEAVING. I I aU from the ivth chapter of the Song of Solomon. The first is from verse 12 : " Ortus conclusus est soror, mea sposa ; ortus conclusus,fons signatus .•" in our translation of the Bible : " A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse ; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed." The second is from verse 15: "Fans ortorum, puteus aquarum vivencium quce fiuunt impetu de Lybano :" in our Bible : "A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon." The third is from verse 16 : "Surge Aquilo ; veniAuster, perfia ortum etfluant aromata illius:" in our Bible : "Awake, 0 north wind ; and come, thou south ; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." In the upper division of folio 15, which is the twenty-ninth subject in Mr. Ottley's enumeration, the above shields occur. They are sus pended on the walls of a tower, which is represented by an inscription as " the armoury whereon hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men." * On the first four I shall make no remark beyond calling the attention of those skilled in German heraldry to the remarkable charge in the first shield, which appears something hke a cray-fish. The sixth, " two fronts hauriant and addorsed," is one of the quarterings of the house of Wirtem berg as lords of Mompelgard. The seventh is charged with three crowns, the arms of the city of Cologne. The charge of the eighth I take to be three cinquefoils, which are one of the puarterings of the family of Arem- berg. The cross-keys in the ninth are the arms of the city of Eatisbon. The four foUoAving shields occur in the lower division of folio 15. They are borne by men in armour standing by the side of a bed. On a scroll is the following inscription, from the 7th and 8th verses of the third chapter of Solomon's Song. "En lectulum Salomonis sexaginta fortes ambiunt, omnes tenentes gladios : " in our Bible : " Behold his bed, which is Solomon's ; three score vahant men are about it they all hold swords." Tlie first three of the shields on the following page I shall leave to be * Song of Solomon, chap. iv. verse 4. PEOGEESS OF assigned by others. The fourth, which is charged with a rose, was the arms of Hagenau, a town in Alsace. As so httle is known respecting the country where, and the precise time when, the principal block-books appeared, — of which the History of the Virgin is one, — I think every particular, however trifling, which may be likely to afford even a gleam of light, deserving of notice. It is for this reason that I have given the different shields contained in this and the preceding pages ; not in the belief that I have made any importan discovery, or estabhshed any considerable facts ; but with the desire of directing to this subject the attention of others, whose further inquiries and comparisons may perhaps establish such a perfect identity between the arms of a particular district, and those contained in the volume, as may determine the probable locality of the place where it was executed. The coincidences which I have noticed were not sought for. Happening to be turning over Sebastian Mrmster's Cosmogiaphy when a copy of the History of the Virgin was before me, I observed that the two fish in the arms of the Counts of Wirtemberg,* and those in the loth folio of the History, were the same. The other instances of correspondence were also discovered without search, from having occasionally, in tracing the pro gress of wood engraving, to refer to Merian's Topographia. Considering the thickness of the paper on which the block-books are printed, — if I may apply this term to them, — and the thin-bodied ink which has been used, I am at a loss to conceive how the early wood- engravers have contrived to take off then? impressions so correctly ; for in all the block-books which I have seen, where friction has evidentiy been the means employed to obtain the impression, I have only noticed two subjects in which the hnes appeared double m consequence of the shifting of the paper. From the want of body in the ink, which ap pears in the Apocalypse to have been littie more than water-colour, it is not likely the paper could be used in a damp state, otherwise the mk would run or sprea I ; and, even if this difliculty did not exist, the paper in a damp state could not have borne the excessive rubbing which it appears to have received in order to obtain the impression.f Even witli * Those arms are to be seen in Sobastiana Munsteri Cosmographia, cap. De Regione Wirtenbergensi, p. 592. Polio, Basilia^ apud llcm-iclmm Petri, I5.H t The backs of many of the ..Id ,vood-cuts which bine been taken by mean., of friction. WOOD ENGEAVING. 7<) such printer's ink as is used in the present day, — which being tenacious, renders the paper in taking an impression by means of friction much less liable to slip or shift,^it would be difficult to obtain clear impressions on thick paper from blocks the size of those which form each page of the Apocalypse, or the History of the Virgin. Mr. Ottley, however, states that no less than two pages of the History of the Virgin have been engraved on the same block. His observations on this subject are as follows : " Upon first viewing this work, I was of opinion that each of the designs contained in it was engraved upon a separate block of wood : but, >upon a more careful examination, I have discovered that the contents of each two pages — that is, four subjects — were engraved on the same block. The number of wooden blocks, there fore, from which the whole was printed, was only eight. This is proved in the first two pages of the copy before me ;* where, near the bottom of the two upper subjects, the block appears to have been broken in two, in a horizontal direction, — after it was engraved, — and joined together again ; although not with such exactness but that the traces of the operation clearly show themselves. The traces of a similar accident are still more apparent in the last block, containing the Nos. 29, 30, 31, 32. The whole work was, therefore, printed on eight sheets of paper from the same number of engraved blocks, the first four subjects being printed from the same block upon the same sheet, — and so on with the rest ; and, indeed, iu Lord Spencer's copy, each sheet, being mounted upon a guard, distinctly shows itself entire." -f- The appearance of a corresponding fracture in two adjacent pages would certainly render it likely that both were engraved on the same block ; though I should like to have an opportunity of satisfying myself by inspection whether such appearances are really occasioned by a fracture or not ; for it is rather singular that such appearances should be observable on the first and the last blocks only. I always reluctantly speculate, except on something like sufficient grounds ; but as I have not seen a copy of the edition to which Mr. Ottley refers, I beg to ask if the traces of supposed fracture in the last two pages do not correspond with those in the first two ? and if so, would it not be equally reasonable to infer that eight subjects instead of four were engraved on the same block 1 A block containing only two pages would be about seventeen inches by ten, allowing for inner margins ; and to obtain clear impressions from it by means of friction, on dry thick paper, and with mere water- still appear bright in consequence of the rubbing which the paper has sustained in order to obtain the impression. They would not have this appearance if the paper had been used in a damp state. * This must have been a copy of that which Heineken calls tho second edition ; no such appearances of a fracture or joining are to be seen in the first. t Inquiry, p. 142. 80 PEOGEESS OF colon r ink, would be a task of such difficulty that I cannot conceive how it could be performed. No traces of points by which the paper might be kept steady on the block are perceptible ; and I unhesitatingly assert that no wood-engraver of the present day could by means of friction take clear impressions from such a block on equally thick paper, and using mere distemper instead of printer's ink. As the impressions in the History of the Virgin have unquestionably been taken by means of friction, it is evident to me that if the blocks were of the size that Mr. Ottley supposes, the old wood-engravers, who did not use a press, must have resorted to some contrivance to keep the paper steady, with vi'hich we are now unacquainted. Heineken describes an edition of the Apocalypse consisting of fort)-- eight leaves, with cuts on one side only, which, when bound, form a volume of three "gatherings!' or collections, each containing sixteen leaves. Each of these gatherings is formed by eight folio sheets folded in the middle, and placed one within the other, so that the cuts are worked off in the following manner : On the outer sheet of the gathering, forming the first and the sixteenth leaf, the first and the sixteenth cuts are impressed, so that when the sheet is folded they face each other, and the first and the last pages are left blank. In a similar manner the 2nd and loth ; the 3d and 14th ; the 4th and 13th ; the 5th and 12th ; the 6th and 11th ; the 7th and 10th, and the 8th and 9th, are, each pair respectively, impressed on the same side of the same sheet. These sheets when folded for binding are then placed in such a manner that the first is opposite the second ; the third opposite the fourth, and so on through out the whole sixteen. Being arranged in this manner, two cuts and two blank pages occur alternately. The reason for this mode of arrangement was, that the blank pages might be pasted together, and the cuts thus appear as if one were impressed on the back of another. A famihar illustration of this mode of folding, adopted by the early wood-engravere before they were accustomed to impress then- cuts on both sides of a leaf, is afforded by forming a sheet of paper into a little book of sixteen leaves, and numbering the second and third pages 1 and 2, lea^-iag two pages blanli ; then numbering the fifth and sixth 3 and 4, and so to No. 16, which will stand opposite to No. 15, and ha^•o its back, forming the outer page of the gathering, unimpressed. Of all the block-books, that which is now commonly called " Biblia Paupeeum,"— tiie Bible of the Poor,— is most frequently referred to as a specimen of that kind of printing from wood-blocks which preceded typography, or printing by means of moveable characters or types. This titie, however, has given rise to an error \\\\\c\\ certain learned bibho- graphcrs have without the least examination adopted, and have after wards given to the public considerably enlarged, at least, if not WOOD ENGEAVING. gj corrected.* It has been gravely stated that this book, whose text is in abbreviated Latin, was printed for the use of the poor in an age when even the rich could scarcely read their own language. Manuscripts of the Bible were certaiidy at that period both scarce and costly, and not many individuals even of high rank were possessed of a copy ; but to conclude that the first editions of the so-called " Biblia Pauperum '' were engraved and printed for the use of the poor, appears to be about as legitimate an inference as to conclude that, in the present day, the reprints of the Eoxbiu-ghe club were published for the benefit of the poor who could not afford to purchase the original editions. That a merchant or a wealthy trader might occasionally become the purchaser of " Biblia Pauperum," I am willing to admit, — though I am of opinion that the book was never expressly intended for the laity ; — but that it should be printed for the use of the poor, I cannot bring myself to believe. If the poor of Germany in the fifteenth century had the means of purchasing such books, and were capable of reading them, I can only say that they must have had more money to spare than their descendants, and have been more learned than most of the rich people throughout Europe in the present day. If the accounts which we have of the state of knowledge about 1450 be correct, the monk or friar who could read and expound such a work must have been esteemed as a person of considerable literary attainments. The name " Biblia Pauperum " was unknown to Schelhorn and Schoepflin, and was not adopted by Meerman. Schelhorn, who was the first that published a fac-simile of one of the pages engraved on wood, gives it no distinctive name ; but merely describes it as " a book which contained in text and figures certain histories and prophecies of the Old Testament, which, in the author's judgment, were figurative of Christ, and of the works performed by him for the salvation of man- kind."t Schoepflin calls it, " Vaticinia Veteris Testamenti de Christo;"J — "Prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Christ;" but neither this title, nor the description of Schelhorn, is sufficiently comprehensive; for the book contains not only prophecies and typical figures from the Old Testament, but also passages and subjects selected from the New. * " It is a manual or kind of Catechism of the Bible," says the Rev. T. H. Home, " for the use of young persons and of the common people, whence it derives its name £iblia Pauperum, — the Bible of the Poor, — who were thus enabled to acquire, at a comparatively low price, an imperfect knowledge of some of the events recorded in the Scripture." — Introduction to the Critical Study of the Scriptures, vol. ii. p. 224—5. The young and the poor must have been comparatively learned at that period to be able to read cramped Latin, when many a priest could scarcely spell his breviary. + J. G. Schelhorn, Amceuitates Literarise, tom. iv. p. 297. Svo. Prancofurt. & Lips. 1730. Lichtenberger, Initia Typographica, p. 4, says erroneously, that Schelhorn's fac-simile was engraved on copper. It is on wood, as Schelhorn hirnseH states at p. 296. t 3. D. Schoepfiin, Vindiciae Typographicse, p. 7, 4to. Argentorati, 1760. 82 PEOGEESS OP The title which Meerman gives to it is more accurately desciiptive of the contents : " Figure typicas Veteris atque antitypic^ Novi Testamenti, seu Historia Jesu Christi in figuris ;" that is, " Typical fignires of the Old Testament and antitypical of the New, or the Histoiy of Jesus Christ pictorially represented."* Heineken appears to have been the first who gave to this book the name " Biblia Pauperum," as it was in his opinion the most appropriate ; " the figures being executed for the purpose of giving a knowledge of the Bible to those who could not afford to purchase a manuscript copy of the Scriptures." t This reason for the name is not, however, a good one ; for, according to his own statement, the only copy which he ever saw with the title or inscription " Biblia Pauperum," was a manuscript on vellum of the fourteenth century, in which the figures were drawn and coloured by hand.J Meerman, however, though without adopting the title, had previously noticed the same manuscript, which in his opinion was as old as the twelfth or thirteenth century. As the word " Pauperum " formed part of the title of the book long before presumed cheap copies were printed from wood-blocks for the use of the poor, it could not be peculiarly appropriate as the title of an illumined manuscript on vellum, which the poor could as httle afford to purchase as they could a manuscript copy of the Bible. In whatever manner the term "poor" became connected with the book, it is clear that the name *' Bibha Pauperum " was not given to it in consequence of its being printed at a cheap rate for circulation among poor people. It is not indeed likely that its ancient title ever was "Bibha Pau perum ; " while, on the contrary, there seems every reason to beheve that Heineken had copied an abridged title and thus given currency to an error. Heineken says that he observed the inscription, "Incipit Bibha Pauperum," in a manuscript in the library at Wolfenbuttel, written on vellum in a Gothic character, which appeared to be of the fourteenth century. The figures, which were badl}' designed, were coloured in distemper, and the explanatory text was in Latin rhyme. It is surprising that neither Heineken nor any other bibliographer should have suspected that a word was wanting in the above supposed title, more especially as the word wanting might have been so readily suggested b}' another work so much resembling the protended "Biblia Pauperum" that the one has * Ger. Meerman, Origines Typographicc-e, P. 1, p. 'Jll. 4to. Hag-:v Coniit. I7(i">. t Id6e Generate, p. 292, note. t Camus, speaking of one of those nianuscriiits compai'cd with the block-book, obsei'ves : " Ce dernier abrege inoritoitbien le nom de Biblia Pauperum, par compiuison aux tableaux complets do la Bible que je vieus d'uidiquei'. Des ouvragcs tels que les tableaux complets ne ponvoient 6tre que Bielia Divitdm."— Notice d'un Line imprim6 a Bamberg en 1462, p. 12, note. 4to. Paris, 1800. WOOD ENGEAVING. 83 frequently been confounded with the other.* In the proemium of this other work, which is no other than the "Speculum Salvationis," the writer expressly states that he has compiled it "propter pauperes predicatores," — for poor preachers. IPieDictu* ji'Seiniu' Jujus litri tit conte'fis eompilabi, ffit p'pter jauji'es j'Bicafores Ijoc apjionere curabt; \\\\\\\\^,\^\^\^\^^^Y The following cut, a copy of that which is the lowest in the page, represents the two prophets or inspired penmen, to whom reference is made on the two scroUs whose ends may be perceived towards the lower comers of each arch. The words underneath the figures are a portion of the last rhyming verse quoted at page 87. It is from a difference in the triangular ornament, above the pihar separating the two figures, though not in this identical page, that Heineken chiefly decides on three of the editions of this book ; though nothing could be more easy than to 92 PEOGEESS OF introduce another ornament of a similar kind, in the event of the original either being damaged in printing or intentionally effaced. In some of the earliest wood-blocks which remain undestroyed by the rough handling of time there are evident traces of several letters having been broken away, and of the injury being afterwards remedied by the introduction of a new piece of wood, on which the letters wanting were re-engraved. u t^uiv farijacT w m fojaiw The ink with which the cuts in the " Poor Preachers' Bible " have been printed, is evidently a kind of distemper of the colour of bistie, lighter than in the History of the Virgin, and darker than in the Apocalypse. In many of the cuts certain portions of the lines appear surcharged with ink, — sometimes giving to the whole page rather a blotched appearance, — ^while other portions seem scarcely to have received any.* This appearance is undoubtedly in consequence of the light-bodied ink having, from its want of tenacity, accumulated on the block where the line was thickest, or where two hnes met, lea^dng the thinner portions adjacent with scarce any colouring at all The block must, in my opinion, have been charged with such ink by means of something like a brush, and not by means of a ball. In some parts of the cuts — more especially where there is the greatest portion of text — * Schelhorn has noticed a similar appearance in the old block-book entitled "Ars Memo randi:" "Videos hie nonnunquam literas atramento confluenti deformatas, ventremque illarum, alias album et vacuum, atramentaria macula repletum." Amomitat. Liter, tom. i. p. 7. WOOD ENGEAVING. 93 small white spaces may be perceived, as if a graver had been run through the lines. On first noticing this appearance, I was inclined to think that it was owing to the spreading of the hairs of the brush in inking, whereby certain parts might have been left untouched. The same kind of break in the lines may be observed, however, in some of the impres sions of the old wood-cuts pubhshed by Becker and Derschau,* and which are worked off by means of a press, and with common printer's ink. In these it is certainly owing to minute furrows in the grain of the wood ; and I am now of opinion that the same cause has occasioned a similar appearance in the cuts of the " Biblia Pauperum Predicatorum." Mr. Ottley, speaking of the impressions in Earl Spencer's copy, makes the following remarks : " In many instances they have a sort of hori zontally striped and confused appearance, which leads me to suppose that they were taken from engravings executed on some kind of wood of a coarse grain." -f- This correspondence between Earl Spencer's copy and that in the King's Library at the British Museum tends to confirm my opinion that there are not so many editions of the book as Heineken, — from certain accidental variations,- — ^has been induced to suppose. The manner in which the cuts are engraved, and the attempts at something like effect in the shading and composition, induce me to think that this book is not so old as either the Apocalpyse or the History of the Virgin. That it appeared before 1428, as has been inferred from the date which the Eev. Mr. Home fancied that he had seen on the ancient binding, I cannot induce myself to believe. It is more likely to have been executed at some time between 1440 and 1460 ; and I am inclined to think that it is the production of a Dutch or Flemish, rather than a German artist. A work, from which the engraved " Bibha Pauperum Predicatorum " is little more than an abstract, appears to have been known in France and Germany long before block-printing was introduced. Of such a work there were two manuscript copies in the National Library at Paris ; the one complete, and the other — which, with a few exceptions, had been copied from the first — imperfect. The work consisted of a brief summary of the Bible, arranged in the following manner. One or two phrases in Latin and in French formed, as it were, the text ; and each text was foUowed by a moral reflection, also in Latin and in French. Each * This collection of wood engravings from old blocks was published in three parts, large folio, at Gotha in 1808, 1810, and 1816, under the following title: " Holzschnitte alter Deutscher Meister in den Original-Platten gesammelt von Hans Albrecht Von Derschau : Als ein Beytrag zur Kunstgeschichte herausgegeben, und mit einer Abhandlung iiber die Holzschneidekunst und deren Schicksale begleitet von Rudolph Zacharias Becker." The collector has frequently mistaken rudeness of design, and coarseness of execution, for proofs of antiquity. t Inquiry, vol. i. p. 130. 94 PEOGEESS OF article, \Ahich thus consisted of two parts, was illustrated by two draw ings, one of which related to the historical fact, and the other to the moral deduced from it. The perfect copy consisted of four hundred and twenty-two pages, on each of which there were eight drawings, so that the number contained in the whole volume was upwards of five thousand. In some of the single drawings, which were about two and one-third inches wide, by three and one-third inches high, Camus counted not less than thirty heads."" In a copy of the " Biblia Pauperum PrecUcatorum " from wood-blocks, Heineken observed written: "S. Ansgaeius est autor hujus hbri" — St. Ansgarius is the author of this book. St. Ansgarius, who was a native of France, and a monk of the celebrated Abbey of Corbey, was sent into Lower Saxony, and other places in the north, for the purpose of reclaiming the people from paganism. He was appointed the first bishop of Hamburg in 831, and in 844 Bishop of Bremen, where he died in 864.-f From a passage cited by Heineken from Omhiehn's Ecclesiastical History of Sweden and Gothland, it appears that Ansgarius was reputed to have compiled a similar book ; :|: and Heineken observes that it might be from this passage that the "Biblia Pauperum Predicatorum" was ascribed to the Bishop of Hamburg. In the cloisters of the cathedral at Bremen, Heineken saw two bas- reliefs sculptured on stone, of which the figures, of a moderate size, were precisely the same as those in two of the pages — the first and eighth — of the German " Biblia Pauperum Predicatorum." The inscriptions, which were in Latin, were the same as in block-book. He thinks it very probable that the other arches of the cloisters were formerly ornamented in the same manner with the remainder of the subjects, but that the sculptures had been destroyed in the disturbances which had occurred in Bremen. Though he by no means pretends that the cuts were engraved in the time of Ansgarius, he thinks it not impossible that the sculptures might be executed at that period according to the bishop's directions. This last passage is one of the most silly that occurs in Heineken's book.§ It is just about as likely that the cuts in the " Biblia Pauperum Predica torum '' were engraved in the time of Ansgarius, as that the bas-reUefs in the cloisters of the cathedral of Bremen should have been sculptured under his direction. * Notice d'un Livre, &c. p. 11. f Heineken, Idco Gonci-.ilc, p. 319. J Ornhielm's book was printed in 4to. at Stockholm, ICS9. The passage referred to is as follows : " Quos per numeros et signa conscripsisse eum [Ansgarium] libros Kcmbertus memo- rat indigitatos pigmentorum vocabulo, cos continuisse, palam est, quasdam aut e divinarum literarum, aut pie doctonim patrum scriptis, pericopas et sentcntias." § " Ces conjectures sont foibles ; elles ont etc attaquccs par Erasme Nyerup dans un ecrit publifia Copenhaguecn 17H4 Nyerup donne a pcnser que Heinecke a reconnu lui-m6me, dans la suite, la foiblesse de ses conjectures."— 0;unus, Notice d'un Livre, i:c. p. 9. WOOD ENGEAVING. 95 ^ The book usually called the " Speculum Humanas Salvationis," "—the Mirror of Human Salvation,— which is ascribed by Hadrian Junius to Lawrence Coster, has been more frequentiy the subject of discussion among bibliographers and writers who have treated of tiie origin of printuig, than any other work. A great proportion, howe\'er, of what has been written on the subject consists of groundless speculation ; and the facts elicited, compared with the conjectures propounded, are as "two grains of wheat to a bushel of chaff." It would be a waste of time to recite at length the various opinions that have been entertained with respect to the date of this book, the manner in which the text was printed, and the printer's name. The statements and the theories put forth by Junius and Meerman in Coster's favour, so far as the execution of the Speculum is concerned, are decidedly contradicted by the book itself Without, therefore, recapitulating argnments which are contradicted by established facts, I shall endeavour to give a correct account of the work, leaving those who choose to compare it, and reconcile it if they can, with the following assertions made by Coster's advocates : 1. that the Speculum was first printed by him in Dutch with wooden types ; 2. that while engraving a Latin edition on blocks of wood he discovered the art of printing with moveable letters ; 3. that the Latin edition, in which the text is partly from moveable types and partly from wood-blocks, was printed by Coster's heirs and successors, their moveable types having been stolen by John Gutemberg before the whole of the text was set up. The Speculum which has been the subject of so much discussion is of a small folio size, and without date or printer's name. There are four editions of it known to bibliographers, all containing the same cuts ; two of those editions are in Latin, and two in Dutch. In the Latin editions the work consists of sixty-three leaves, five of which are occupied by an introduction or prologue, and on the other fifty-eight are printed the cuts and explanatory text. The Dutch editions, though containing the same number of cuts as the Latin, consist of only sixty-two leaves each, as the preface occupies only four. In all those editions the leaves are printed on one side only. Besides the four editions above noticed, which have been ascribed to Coster and have excited so much controversy, there are two or three others in which the cuts are more coarsely engraved, and probably executed, at a later period, in Germany. There is also a quarto edition of the Speculum, printed in 1483, at Culemburg, by John Vel dener, and ornamented with the identical cuts of the folio editions ascribed to Coster and his heirs. The four controverted editions of the Speculum may be considered as holding a middle place between block-books, — which are wholly executed, * It is sometimes named " Speculum Piguratum ; " and Junius in his account of Coster's invention calls it " Speculum Nostrse Salutis." 96 PEOGEESS OF both text and cuts, by the wood-engraver, — and books printed with moveable types : for in three of the editions the cuts are printed by means of friction with a rubber or burnisher, in the manner of the History of the Virgin, and other block-books, while the text, set in moveable type, has been worked off by means of a press ; and in a fourth edition, in which the cuts are taken in the same manner as in the former, twenty pages of the text are printed from wood-blocks by means of friction, while the remainder are printed in the same manner as the whole of the text in the three other editions ; that is, from moveable metal types, and by means of a press. There are fifty-eight cuts in the Speculum, each of which is divided into two compartments by a slender column in the middle. In all the editions the cuts are placed as head-pieces at the top of each page, having underneath them, in two columns, the explanatory text. Under each compartment the title of the subject, in Latin, is engraved on the block. The following reduced copy of the first cut will give an idea of their form, as every subject has pillars at the side, and is surmounted by an arch in the same style. The style of engraving in those cuts is similar to those of the Poor Preachers' Bible. The former are, however, on the whole executed with greater dehcacy, and contain more work. The shadows and folds of the drapery in the first forty-eight cuts are indicated by short parallel lines, which are mostly horizontal. In the forty-ninth and subsequent cuts, as has been noticed by Mr. Ottley, a change in the mode of indicating the shades and the folds in the draperies is perceptible ; for the short parallel hnes, instead of being horizontal as in the former, are mostly slanting. Heineken observes, that to the forty-eighth cut inclusive, the chapters in the printed work are conformable with the old Latm naanuscripts ; and WOOD ENGEAVING. 97 as a perceptible change in the execution commences with the forty-ninth, it is not unlikely that the cuts were engraved by two different persons. The two following cuts are fac-similes of the compartments of the first, of which a reduced copy has been previously given. In the above cut, its title, " Casus Luciferi," — the Fall of Lucifer, — is engraved at the bottom ; and the subject represented is Satan and the rebelhous angels driven out of heaven, as typical of man's disobedience and fall. The following are the first two, lines of the column of text underneath the cut in the Latin editions : .^ncljoatur speculum Suiiianae Baltactonis 3n quo patet casus fiomittts et inaHus rcpacttonis. Which may be translated into English thus : In the Mirror of Salvation here is represented plaui The fall of man, and by what means he made his peace again. The following is the right-hand compartment of the same cut. The H 98 PEOGEESS OF title of this subject, as in all the others, is engraved at the bottom ; the contracted words when written in full are, " Deus creavit hominem ad ymaginem et similitudinem suam," — God created man after his own image and likeness. The fii'st two lines of the tc.Nt in the column underneath this cut are, iCtiilier autem in paratitgo est formato USe costis biri ttarmtriitt est parata. That is, in English rhyme of .'Similar measure The woman was in Paradise for man an help meet made. From /Sdam'rt rib created as be asleep was laid. The cuts in all the editions are printed iu light brown or sopia colour Which has been mixed with water, and readily yields to moisture. The impressions have evidently been taken by means of friction, as the back of the paper iiniiicdiately behind is smooth and shining from the action of the, nibbiT or bitrnishor, Avhile on the lowerpiirt of tho page at the back WOOD ENGEAVING. 99 of the text, which has been printed with moveable types, there is no such appearance. In the second Latin edition, in which the explanatory text to twenty of the cuts * has been printed from engraved wood-blocks by means of friction, the reverse of those twenty pages presents the same smooth appearance as the reverse of the cuts. In those twenty pages of text from engraved wood-blocks the ink is lighter-coloured than in the remainder of the book which is printed from moveable types, though much darker than that of the cuts. It is, therefore, evident that the two impressions,— the one from the block containing the cut, and the other from the block containing the text, — have been taken separately. In the pages printed from moveable types, the ink, which has evidently been compounded with oil, is full-bodied, and of a dark brown colour, approaching nearly to black. In the other three editions, one Latin and two Dutch, in which the text is entirely from moveable types, the ink is also full-bodied and nearly jet black, forming a strong contrast with the faint colour of the cuts. The plan of the Speculum is almost the same as that of the Poor Preachers' Bible, and is equally as well entitled as the latter to be called " A History typical and anti-typical of the Old and New Testament.'' Several of the subjects in the two books are treated nearly in the same manner, though in no single instance, so far as my observation goes, is the design precisely the same in both. In several of the cuts of the Speculum, in the same manner as in the Poor Preachers' Bible, one com partment contains the supposed type or prefiguration, and the other its fulfilment ; for instance : at No. 17 the appearance of the Lord to Moses in the burning bush is typical of the Annunciation ; at No. 23 the brazen bath in the temple of Solomon is typical of baptism ; at No. 31 the manna provided for the children of Israel in the Desert is typical of the Lord's Supper ; at No. 45 the Crucifixion is represented in one compartment, and in the other is Tubal-Cain, the inventor of iron-work, and conse quently of the nails with which Christ was fixed to the cross ; and at No. 53 the descent of Christ to Hades, and the liberation of the patriarchs and fathers, is typified by the escape of the children of Israel from Egypt. Though most of the subjects are from the Bible or the Apocrypha, yet there are two or three which the designer has borrowed from profane history : such as Semiramis contemplating the hanging gardens of Baby lon; the Sibyl and Augustus; and Codrus king of Athens incurring death in order to secure victory to his people. The Speculum Salvationis, as printed in the editions previously noticed, is only a portion of a larger work with the same title, and * The cuts which have the text printed from wood-blocks are Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, II, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 22, 26, 27, 46, and 55.— Heineken, Idte Gfoerale, p. 444. H 2 1(10 PEOGEESS OF ornamented with similar designs, which had been known long before in manuscript. Heineken says, at page 478 of his Id& G^ndrale, that the oldest copy he ever saw was in the Imperial Library at Vienna ; and, at page 468, he observes that it appeared to belong to the twelfth century. The manuscript work, when complete, consisted of forty-five chapters in rhyming Latin, to which was prefixed an introduction containing a list of them. Each of the first forty-two chapters contained four subjects, the first of which was the principal, and the other three illustrative of it. To each of these chapters were two drawings, every one of which, as in the printed copies of the work, consisted of two compartments. The last three chapters contained each eight subjects, and each subject was ornamented with a design.* The whole number of separate illustrations in the work was thus one hundred and ninety-two. The printed foho editions contain only fifty-eight cuts, or one hundred and sixteen separate illustrations. Though the Speculum from the time of the publication of Junius's work t had been confidently claimed for Coster, yet no writer, either for or against him, appears to have particularly directed his attention to the manner in which the work was executed before Fournier, who in 1758, in a dissertation on the Origin and Progress of the Art of Wood- engraving,! first published some particulars respecting the work in question, which induced Meerman and Heineken to speculate on the priority of the different editions. Mr. Ottley, however, has proved, in a manner which carries with it the certainty of mathematical demon stration, that the conjectures of both the latter writers respecting the priority of the editions of the Speculum are absolutely erroneous. To ehcit the truth does not, with respect to this work, seem to have been the object of those two writers. Both had espoused theories on its origin without much inquiry with respect to facts, and each presumed that edition to be the first which seemed most likely to support his own speculations. Heineken, who assumed that the work was of German origin, insisted that the first edition was that in which the text is printed partly from moveable types and partly from letters engraved on wood-blocks, and that the Dutch editions were executed subsequently in the Low Countries. The Latin edition with the text entirely printed from moveable types he is pleased to denominate the second, and to assert, contrary to the evidence which the work itself affords, that the type resembles that of Faust and * Heineken, Id^e G6n6rale, p. 474. + The " Batavia" of Junius, in wliich the name of Lawrence Coster first appears as a printer, was published in 1688. t Dissertation sur I'Origino et les I'rogrfes de I'Art de Graver en Bois. Par M. Fournier Ic Jeune, Svo. Paris, 1758. W(JOD ENGEAVING. 101 Scheffer, and that the cuts in this second Latin edition, as he erroneously caUs it, are coarser and not so sharp as those in the Latin edition which he supposes to be the first. Fournier's discoveries with respect to the execution of the Speculum seem to have produced a complete change as to its origin in the opinions of Meerman; who, in 1757, the year before Fournier's dissertation was printed, had expressed his belief, in a letter to his friend Wagenaar, that what was alleged in favour of Coster being the inventor of printing was mere gratuitous assertion ; that the text of the Speculum was probably printed after the cuts, and subsequent to 1470 ; that there was not a single document, nor an iota of evidence, to show that Coster ever used moveable types ; and lastly, that the Latin was prior to the Dutch edition of the Speculum, as was apparent from the Latin names engraved at the foot of the cuts, which certainly would have been in Dutch had the cuts been originally destined for a Dutch edition.* In the teeth of his own previous opinions, having apparently gained a new light from Fournier's discoveries, Meerman, in his Origines Typographicae, printed in 1765, endeavours to prove that the Dutch edition was the first, and that it was printed with moveable wooden types by Coster. The Latin edition in which the text is printed partly from moveable types and partly from wood-blocks he supposes to have been printed by Coster's heirs after his decease, thus endeavouring to give credibility to the story of Coster having died of grief on account of his types being stolen, and to encourage the supposition that his heirs in this edition supplied the loss by having engraved on blocks of wood those pages which were not already printed. Fournier's discoveries relative to the manner in which the Speculum was executed were : 1st, that the cuts and the text had been printed at separate times, and that the former had been printed by means of friction ; 2d, that a portion of the text in one of the Latin editions had been printed from engraved wood-blocks.+ Fournier, who was a type founder and wood-engraver, imagined that the moveable types with which the Speculum was printed were of wood. He also asserted that Faust and Scheffer's Psalter and an early edition of the Bible were printed with moveable wooden types. Such assertions are best * A French translation of Meerman's letter, which was originally written in Dutch, is given by Santander in his Dictionnaire Bibliographique, tom. i. pp. 14 — 18, Svo. Bruxelles, 1805. + Dissertation, pp. 29—32. The many mistakes wliich Fournier commits in his Dissertation, excite a suspicion that he was either superficially acquainted with his subject, or extremely careless. He pubhshed two or three other small works on the subject of engraving and printing,— after the manner of " Supplements to an Appendix,"— the principal of which is entitled " De rOrigine et des Productions de I'lmprimerie primitive en taille de bois ; avec une refutation des prejuges plus ou moins accredit^s sirr cet art ; pour servir de suite b, la Dissertation sur I'Origine de I'Art de graver en bois. .^Paris, 17-59." 102 PEOGEESS OF answered by a simple negative, leaving the person who puts them forth to make out a probable case. The fact having been established that in one of the editions of the Speculum a part of the text was printed from wood-blocks, while the whole of the text in the other three was printed from moveable types, Heineken, without dihgently comparing the editions with each other in order to obtain further evidence, decides in favour of that edition being the first in which part of the text is printed from wood-blocks. His reasons for supposing this to be the first edition, though specious in appearance, are at variance with the facts which have since been incon- trovertibly established by Mr. Ottley, whose scrutinizing examination of the different editions has clearly shown the futility of all former specu lations respecting their priority. The argument of Heineken is to this effect : " It is improbable that a printer who had printed an edition wholly with moveable types should afterwards have recourse to an engraver to cut for him on blocks of wood a portion of the text for a second edition ; and it is equally improbable that a wood-engraver who had discovered the art of printing with moveable types, and had used them to print the entire text of the first edition, should, to a certain extent, abandon his invention in a second by printing a portion of the text from engraved blocks of wood." The following is the order in which he arranges the different editions : 1. The Latin edition in which part of the text is printed from wood blocks. 2. The Latin edition in which the text is entirely printed from moveable types. 3. The Dutch edition with the text printed wholly from moveable types, supposed by Meerman to be the first edition of aU. * 4. The Dutch edition with the text printed wholly from moveable types, and which differs only from the preceding one in ha^^ng the two pages of text under cuts No. 45 and 56 printed in a tjqie different from the rest of the book. The preceding arrangement — including jMeernian's opinion respecting the priority of the Dutch edition — rests entirely on conjecture, and is almost diametrically contradicted in every instance bv the CAddence afforded by the books themselves ; for through the comparisons and investigations of Mr. Ottiey it is proved, to an absolute certainty, that the Latin edition supposed by Heineken to be the second is the earliest of all; that tiio edition No. 4, called the second L')utch, is the next in order to tiie actual first Latin ; and that the two editions. No. 1 and No. 3, respectively proclaimed by Heineken and ]\lcerman as the earliest, * Heineken seems inclined to consider this as the second Dutch edition ; and he only mentions it as tho first Dutch edition because it is called so iiy Mccrmaii - Idee G6u pp. 453, 454. WOOD ENGEAVING. 103 have been printed subsequently to the other two.* Which of the pre tended first editions was in reality the last, has not been satisfactorily determined ; though there seems reason to believe that it was the Latin one which has part of the text printed from wood-blocks. It is well known to every person acquainted with the practice of wood-engraving, that portions of single lines in such cuts as those of the Speculum are often broken out of the block in the process of printing. If two books, therefore, containing the same wood-cuts, but evidently printed at different times, though without a date, should be submitted to the examination of a person acquainted with the above fact and bearing it in mind, he would doubtless declare that the copy in which the cuts were most perfect was first printed, and that the other in which parts of the cuts appeared broken away was of a later date. If, on comparing other copies of the same editions he should find the same variations, the impression on his mind as to the priority of the editions would amount to absolute certainty. The identity of the cuts in all the four editions of the Speculum being unquestionable, and as certain minute fractures in the Hnes of some of them, as if small portions of the block had been broken out in printing, had been previously noticed by Fournier and Heineken, Mr. Ottley conceived the idea of comparing the respective cuts in the different editions, with a view of ascertaining the order in which they were printed. He first compared two copies of the edition called the first Latin with a copy of that called the second Dutch, and finding, that, in several of the cuts of the former, parts of lines were wanting which in the latter were perfect, he concluded that the miscalled second Dutch edition was in fact of an earlier date than the pretended first Latin edition of Heineken. In further comparing the above editions with the supposed secowrigine tie I'lmprimerie, p. 115. 122 INVENTION OF images of saints ; and it would seem that typographers were not admitted members of the society ; for of all the early typographers of Antwerp the name of one only, Mathias Van der Goes, appears in the books of the fellowship of St. Luke ; and he perhaps may have been admitted as a wood-engraver, on account of the cuts in an herbal printed with his types, without date, but probably between 1485 and 1490. Ghesquiere, who successfully refuted the opinion of Desroches that typography was known at Antwerp in 1442, was liimself induced to suppose that it was practised at Bruges in 1445, and that printed books ^^'ere then neither very scarce nor very dear in that city." In an old manuscript journal or memorandum book of Jean-le-Eobert, abbot of St. Aubert in the diocese of Cambray, he obsen^ed an entry stating that tiie said abbot had purchased at Bruges, in January 144G, a " Doctrincde gette en mole " for the use of his nephew. The words " gette en mole " he conceives to mean, " printed in type ; " and he thinks that the Doctrinale mentioned was the work which was subsequently printed at Geneva, in 1478, under the title of Le Doctrinal de Sapience, and at Westminster by Caxton, in 1489, under the title of The Doctrinal of Sapyence. The Abbe Mercier de St. Leger, who wrote a reply to the observations of Ghesquiere, with gi-eater probability- supposes that the book was printed from engraved wood-blocks, and that it was the " Doctrinale Alexandri Galli," a short grammatical treatise in monkish rhyme, which at that period was almost as popular as the " Donatus," and of which odd leaves, printed on both sides, are still to be seen in libraries which are rich in early specimens of printing. Although there is every reason to believe that the early Printers of Antwerp and Bruges were not acquainted with the use of moveable types, yet the mention of such persons at so early a period, and the notice of the makers "of cards and printed figures" at "\'enice in 1441, suf&ciently declare that, though wood engraving might be first estabhshed as a profession in Suabia, it was known, and practised to a considerable extent, in other countries previous to 1450. The Cologne Chronicle, which was printed in 1499, has been most unfairly quoted by the advocates of Coster in support of their assertions ; and the passage which appeared most to favour their argument they have ascribed to Ulric Zell, the first person who established a press at Cologne A shrewd frerman,"!- however, has most clearly shown, from the same chronicle, that the actual testimony of Ulric Zell is directly in opposition * Reflexions sur deux pikes rclati\cs ii I'Hist. de I'lmprimerie. Nivelles, 1780.— Lambinet, Recherches, p. 394. + Friedrich Lehne, Einige Bemcrkungcn iiber das Untcrncbmen der geleluten GeseUschaft zu Harlem, ihrcr Stadt die Elirc dor Ertinilung der Huchdvuckerkunst zu crtrotzen, S. 24—26. Zwcite Ausgahe, Mainz. Ivf'J.'i. TYPOGEAPHY ] 23 to the claims advanced l:)y the advocates of Coster. The passage on which tiiey rely is to the following effect : " Item : although the art [of printing] as it is now commonly practised, was discovered at Mentz, yet the first conception of it was discovered in Holland from the Donatuses, which before that time were printed there." This we are given to understand by Meerman and Koning is the statement of Ulric Zell. A littie further on, however, the Chronicler, who in the above passage appears to have been speaking in his own person from popular report, thus proceeds : " But the first inventor of printing was a citizen of Mentz, though born at Strasburg,* named John Gutemberg : Item : from Mentz the above-named art first came to Cologne, afterwards to Strasburg, and then to Venice. This account of the commencement and progress of the said art was communicated to me by word of mouth by that worthy person Master Ulric Zell of Hanau, at the present time [1499] a printer in Cologne, through whom the said art was brought to Cologne." At this point the advocates of Coster stop, as the very next sentence deprives them of any advantage which they might hope to gain from the " impartial testimony of the Cologne Chronicle," the compiler of which proceeds as foUows : " Item : there are certain fanciful people who say that books were printed before ; but this is not true ; foe in no country are books to be found printed before that time."t That "Donatuses" and other small elementary books for the use of schools were printed from wood-blocks previous to the invention of typography there can be little doubt ; and it is by no means unlikely that they might be first printed in Holland or in Flanders. At any rate an opinion seems to have been prevalent at an early period that the idea of printing with moveable types was first derived from a " Donatus, "J printed from wood-blocks. In the petition of Conrad Sweinheim and Arnold Pannartz, two Germans, who first estabhshed * This is a mistake into which the compiler of the chronicle printed at Rome, 1474, by Philippus de Lignamine, has also fallen. Gutemberg was not a native of Strasburg, but of Mentz. t Mallinkrot appears to have been the first who gave a translation of the entire passage in the Cologne Chronicle which relates to the invention of printing. His version of the last sentence is as follows : " Reperiuntur Scioli aliquot qui dioant, dudum ante haec tempera typomm ope libros excuses esse, qui tamen et se et alios decipiunt ; nuUibi enim terraram libri eo tempore impress! reperiuntur." — De Ortu et Progressu Artis Typographiose, p. 38. Colon. Agrippinse, 1640. J Angelus Rocca mentions having seen a " Donatus " on parchment, at the commence ment of which was written in the hand of Mariangelus Accursius, who flourished about 1.530 : "Impressus est autem hie Donatus et Confessionalia primiim omnium anno Mocooi. Admonitus certfe fuit ex Donato HoUandiae, prius impresso in tabula incisa." — Bibhotheca Vaticana commentario illustrata, I59I, cited by Prosper Marchand in his Hist, de I'lmprimerie, 2nde Partie, p. 3.5. It is likely that Accursius derived his information about a Donatus being printed in Holland from the Cologne Chronicle. 124 INVENTION OF a press at home, addre.ssed to Pope Sixtus IV. in 1472, stating the expense which they had incurred in printing books, and praying for assistance, they mention amongst other works printed by them, " Donati pro puerulis, unde impeimendi INITIUM sumpsimus ; " that is : " Dona tuses for boys, whence we have taken the beginning of printing." If this passage is to be understood as referring to the origin of typography, and not to the first proofs of their own press, it is the earhest and the best evidence on the point which has been adduced ; for it is very likely that both these printers had acquired a knowledge of their art at Mentz in the veiy office where it was first brought to perfection About the year 1400, Henne, or John Gaensfleisch de Sulgeloch, called also John Gutemberg ziim Jungen, appears to have been born at Mentz. He had two brothers ; Conrad who died in 1424, and Friele who was living in 1459. He had also two sisters, Bertha and Hebele, who were both nuns of St. Clare at Mentz. Gutemberg had an uncle by his father's side, named Friele, who had three sons, named John, Friele, and Pederman, who were aU living in 1459. Gutemberg was descended of an honourable family, and he himself is said to have been by birth a knight.* It would appear that the family had been possessed of considerable property. Thej^ had one house in Mentz called zum Gaensfleisch, and another called zum Gudenberg, or Gutenberg, which Wimpheling translates, " Domum boni mentis." The local name of Sulgeloch, or Sorgenloch, was derived from the name of a village where the family of Gaensfleisch had resided previous to their removing to Mentz. It seems probalile that the house zum Jungen at Mentz came into the Gutembergs' possession by inheritance. It was in this house, according to the account of Tiithemius, that the printing business was carried on during his partnership with Faust.t When Gutemberg called himself der Junge, or junior, it was doubt less to distinguish himself from Gaensfleisch der Eltcr, or senior, a name which frequently occurs in the documents printed by Koehler. Meerman has fixed upon the latter name for the purpose of giving to Gutemberg a brother of the same christian name, and of making him the thief who' stole Coster's types. He also avails himself of an error committed by Wimpheling and others, who had supposed John Gutemberg and John Gaensfleisch to be two dift'erent persons. In two deeds of sale, however, of the date 1441 and 1442, entered in the Salic book of the church of * Schwartz observes that in the instrument drawn up by the notju-y Ulric Helmasperger, Gutemberg is styled " Juiicl-er," an honourable aildition which wis at that period ex pressive of nobility.— Prini.aria qrnvdam Documenta, do Origine Tx-pogi-aphic-e, p. 20, 4to. Altorfii, 1710, t " Morabatur autem jira'dictus .loannes Gutonberg Mogimtiie in domo rum Jungen, quffi domus usque in pra'.scntcni diem [\~)VX\ iUius ncivir .Vrtis nomhie noscitnr insignita."— Trithcmii Chronicnm Spanbemiense, ad annum l-l,'.(i. TYPOGEAPHY. ] 25 St. Thomas at Strasburg, he is thus expressly named : " Joannes dictus Gensfieisch alias nuncupatus Gutenberg de Moguncia, Argentines commo- rans;" that is, "John Gaensfleisch, otherwise named Gutemberg, of Mentz, residing at Strasburg." * Anthony k Wood, in his History of the University of Oxford, calls him Tossanus ; and Chevillier, in his Origine de I'lmprimerie de Paris, Toussaints. Seizt is within an ace of makino- him a knight of the Golden Fleece. That he was a man of property is proved by various documents ; and those writers who have described him as a person of mean origin, or as so poor as to be obliged to labour as a common workman, are certainly wrong. From a letter written by Gutemberg in 1424 to his sister Bertha it appears that he was then residing at Strasburg; and it is also certain that in 1430 he was not living at Mentz ; for in an act of accommodation between the nobility and burghers of that city, passed in that year with the authority of the archbishop Conrad III., Gutemberg is mentioned among the nobles " die ytzund, nit inlendig sint" — " who are not at present in the country." In 1434 there is positive evidence of his residing at Strasburg ; for in that year he caused the town-clerk of Mentz to be arrested for a sum of three hundred florins due to him from the latter city, and he agreed to his release at the instance of the magistrates of Strasburg within whose jurisdiction the arrest took place J In 1436 he entered into partnership with Andrew Drytzehn and others ; and there is every reason to believe that at this period he was engaged in making experiments on the practicability of printing with moveable types, and that the chief object of his engaging with those persons was to obtain funds to enable him to perfect his invention. From 1436 to 1444 the name of Gutemberg appears among the " Constafiers" or civic nobility of Strasburg. In 1437 he was summoned before the ecclesiastical judge of that city at the suit of Anne of Iron- Door,§ for breacli of promise of marriage. It would seem that he after wards fulfilled his promise, for in a tax-book of the city of Strasburg, Anne Gutemberg is mentioned, after Gutemberg had returned to Mentz, as paying the toll levied on wine. Andrew Drytzehn, one of Gutemberg's partners, having died in 1438, his brothers George and Nicholas instituted a process against Gutemberg to compel him either to refund the money advanced by their brother, or to admit them to take his place in the partnership. From the depositions * In the release which he grants to the town-clerk of Mentz, iu 1434, he describes liimself as, " Johann Gensefleisch der Junge, genant Gutemberg." t In " Het derde Jubeljaer der uitgevondene Boekdrakkonst door Laurens Jansz Koster," p. 71. Harlem, 1740. — Oberlin, Essai d' Annates. t The release is given in Schoepflin's Vindicite Tyijographicse, Docmnentum L § " Bnnelin zu der Jserin Thitre." She was then living at Strasburg, and was of an honourable family, originally of Alsace.— Schcepflm, Vind, Typ. p 17. 126 INVENTION OF of the witnesses in this cause, which, togethiir with the decision of the judges, are given at length by Schoepflin, there can be little doubt that one of the inventions which Gutemberg agreed to communicate to his partners was an improvement in the art of printing, such as it was at that period. The following particulars concerning the partnership of Gutemberg with Andrew Drj'tzehn and others are derived from the recital of the case contained in tho decision of the judges. Some years before his death, Andrew Drytzehn expressed a desire to learn one of Gutemberg's arts, for he appears to have been fond of trying new experiments, and the latter acceding to his request taught him a method of pohshing stones, by which he gained considerable profit. Some time afterwards, Gutemberg, in company with a person named John Eiff, began to exercise a certain art whose productions were in demand at the fair of Aix-la- Chapelle. Andrew Drytzehn, hearing of this, begged that the new art might be explained to him, promising at the same time to give whatever premium shoidd be required. Anthony Heihnan also made a similar request for his brother Andrew Heihnan.* To both these apphcations Gutemberg assented, agreeing to teach them the art ; it being stipulated that the two new partners were to receive a fourth part of the profits between them ; that HiE was to have another fourth ; and that the remaining half should be received by the inventor. It was also agreed that Gutemberg should receive from each of the new partners the sum of eighty florins of gold payable by a certain day, as a premium for communicating to them his art. The great fair of Aix-la-ChapeUe being deferred to another year, Gutemberg's two new partners requested that he would communicate to them without reserve all his wonderful and rare inventions ; to which he assented on condition that to the former sum of one hundred and sixty florins they should jointly advance two hundred and fifty more, of which one hundred were to he paid imme diately, and the then remaining seventy -five florins due by each were to be paid at three instalments. Of the hundred florins stipulated to be paid in ready money, Andrew Iloilman paid fifty, according to his engagement, while Andrew Drytzehn only paid fortv, leaving ten due. The term of the partnership fi>r carrying on the " wonderful art ' was fixed at five years ; and it A\-as also agreed that if any of the pai'tners should die within that period, his hiierest in tho utensils and stock should become vested in the suvviAing partners, who at the completion of the term were to pa,y to the heirs of the deceased the sum of one * A\'hen Andrew Ilcilman was projioscd as n partner, Gutemberg observed that his friends wonld perhMjis Uv.it the business into which be ^vas about to embark as mere jugglery Igiickel werckl, and olijcct to bis luiving anything to do with it.— Scha>pflin, Vmd. Typ. l>ocument. p, 10. TYPOGEAPHY. 1 OJ hundred florins. AndrcM' Drytzehn having died within the period, and when there remained a sum of eighty-five fiorins unpaid by him, Gutem berg met the claim of his brothers by referring to the articles of partner ship, and insisted that from the sum of one hundred florins which the surviving partners were bound to pay, the eighty-five remaining unpaid by the deceased should be deducted. The balance of fifteen florins thus remaining due from the partnership he expressed his willingness to pay, although according to the terms of the agreement it was not payable until the five years were expired, and would thus not be strictly due for some years to come. The claim of George Drytzehn to be admitted a partner, as the heir of his brother, he opposed, on the ground of his being unacquainted with the obligations of the partnership ; and he also denied that Andrew Drytzehn had ever become security for the payment of any sum for lead or other things purchased on account of the business, except to Fridelin von Seckingen, and that this sum (which was owing for lead) Gutemberg himself paid. The judges having heard the allega tions of both parties, and having examined the agreement between Gutemberg and Andrew Drytzehn, decided that the eighty-five florins which remained unpaid by the latter should be deducted from the hundred which were to be repaid in the event of any one of the partners dying ; and that Gutemberg should pay the balance of fifteen florins to George and Nicholas Drytzehn, and that when this sum should be paid they should have no further claim on the partnership.* From the depositions of some of the witnesses in this process, there can scarcely be a doubt that the "wonderful art" which Gutemberg was attem.pting to perfect was typography or printing with moveable types. Fournier t thinks that Gutemberg's attempts at printing, as may be gathered from the evidence in this cause, were confined to printing from wood-blocks ; but such expressions of the witnesses as appear to relate to printing do not favour this opinion. As Gutemberg Uved near the monastery of St. Arbogast, which was without the walls of the city, it appears that the attempts to perfect his invention were carried on in the house of his partner Andrew Drytzehn. Upon the death of the latter, Gutemberg appears to have been particularly anxious that "four pieces" which were in a "press" should be "distributed," — making use of the very word which is yet used in Germany to express the distribution or separation of a form of types — so that no person should know what they were. Hans Schultheis, a dealer in wood, and Ann his wife, depose to the foUowing effect: After the death of Andrew Drytzehn, Gutemberg's * This decision is dated " On the Eve of St. Lucia and St. Otilia, [12th Decemlier,] 1439." t Traite de I'origine et des productions de I'lmprimerie primitive en taille de bois, Paris, 1758 ; et Remarques sur un Ouvrage, &o. pour servir de suite au Traits, Paris, 1762. 128 INVENTION OF servant, Lawi'ence Beildeck, came to their house, and thus addressed their relation Nicholas Drytzehn : " Your deceased brother Andrew had four "pieces" placed under a press, and John Gutemberg requests that you will take them out and lay them separately [or apart from each other] upon the press so that no one may see what it is." Conrad Saspach states that one day Andrew Heilman, a partner of Gutemberg's, came to him in the Merchants' Walk and said to him, ' Conrad, as Andrew Drytzehn is dead, and as you made the prress and know all about it, go and take H^npiieces t out of the press and separate [zeiiege] them so that no person may know what they are." This witness intended to do as he was requested, but on making inquiry the day after St. Stephen's Day J he found that the work was removed. Lawrence Beildeck, Gutemberg's servant, deposes that after Andrew Drytzehn's death he was sent by his master to Nicholas Drytzehn to teU him not to show the press which he had in his house to any person Beildeck also adds that he was desired by Gutemberg to go to the presses, and to open [or undo] the press which was fastened with two screws, so that the "pieces" [which were in it] should fall asunder. The said " pieces " he was then to place in or upon the press, so that no person might see or understand them. Anthony Heilman, the brother of one of Gutemberg's partners, states that he knew of Gutemberg having sent his servant shortly before Clirist- mas both to Andrew Heilman and Andrew Drytzehn to bring away all the " forms " [formen] that they might be separated in his presence, as he found several things in them of which he disapproved. § The same witness also states that he was well aware of many people being wishful * " Andres Dritzehn uwer bruder seUge hat iiij stiicke undenan inn einer prcssen ligen, da hat uch Hanns Gutemberg gebetten das ir die darusz nement iind uff die presse legent von einander so kan man nit geselien was das ist."— Schoepflin, Vind. Typ. Document, p. 6. t " JSiym die stiicke usz der pressen und zerlege su von einander so weis nyemand was es ist :" literally : " Take the pieces out of the press and distribute [or separate] them, so that no man may know what it is."— Schoepflin, Vind. Typ. Document, p. 6. " The word zerlegai," says Lichtenberger, Initia Typograph. p. II, " is used at the present day by printers to denote the distribution of the types which the compositor has set up." The original word " stiicke " —pieces— is always translated " paginse "—pages— by Schelhorn. Dr. Dibdin calls them "forms kept together by ttco screws or press-sptndZcs."- Life of Caxton, in his edition of Ames's and Herbert's Typ. Antiq. p.lxxxvii. note. t St. Stephen's Day is on 26th December. Andrew Drytzehn, being \ery iU, confessed himself to Peter Eckhart on Christmas-day, I-i:!S, and it would seem that he died on the 27th. § " Dirre gez,uge hat ouch geseit das or wol wisse das Gutenberg unlange vor W'ihnahten sinen kneht sante zu den beden Androscn, alle fonnm zu holcn, und wiii-dent zur lessen das er ess sehe, un jn joch ottlicbe formen ruwete."— Scbivpflin, Vind. Typ. Document, p. 12. The separate letters, which are now called " tyjics," were frequently called " formje " by the eariy printers and writers of the fifteenth century. They are tims named hy Joh. and Vindelin de Spire in 1469 ; by Franciscus Philclpbus in 1470 ; by Ludovicus Carbo in 1471 ; and by PhiL de Lignamine in 1471.— Lichtenberger, Init. Typ. p. 11. TYPOGEAPHY. 1 29 to see the press, and that Gutemberg had desired that they should send some person to prevent its being seen. Hans Diinne, a goldsmith, deposed that about three years before, he had done work for Gutemberg on account of printing alone to the amount of a hundred florins.* As Gutemberg evidently had kept his art as secret as possible, it is not surprising that the notice of it by the preceding witnesses should not be more exphcit. Though it may be a matter of doubt whether his invention was merely an improvement on block-printing, or an attempt to print with moveable types, yet, bearing in mind that express mention is made of a press and oi printing, and taking into consideration his sub sequent partnership with Faust, it is morally certain that Gutemberg's attention had been occupied with some new discovery relative to printing at least three years previous 'to December 1439. If Gutemberg's attempts when in partnership with Andrew Drytzehn and others did not extend beyond block-printing, and if the four "pieces" which were in the press are assumed to have been four engraved blocks, it is evident that the mere unscrewing them from the " chase " or frame in which they might be enclosed, would not in the least prevent persons from knowing what they were ; and it is difficult to conceive how the undoing of the two screws would cause " the pieces " to fall asunder. If, however, we suppose the four " pieces " to have been so many pages of moveable types screwed together in a frame, it is easy to conceive the effect of undoing the two screws which held it together. On this hypo thesis, Gutemberg's instructions to his servant, and Anthony Heilman's request to Conrad Saspach, the maker of the press, that he would take out the " pieces " and distribute them, are at once intelligible. If Gutem berg's attempts were confined to block-printing, he could certainly have no claim to the discovery of a new art, unless indeed we are to suppose that his invention consisted in the introduction of the press for the pur pose of taking impressions ; but it is apparent that his anxiety was not so much to prevent people seeing the press as to keep them ignorant of the purpose for which it was employed, and to conceal what was in it. The evidence of Hans Dunne the goldsmith, though very brief, is in favour of the opinion that Gutemberg's essays in printing were made with moveable types of metal ; and it also is corroborated by the fact of lead being one of the articles purchased on account of the partnership. It is certain that goldsmiths were accustomed to engrave letters and figures upon silver and other metals long before the art of copper-plate printing was introduced ; and Fournier not attending to the distinction * " Hanns Diinne der goltsmyt hat gesait, das er vor dryen jaren oder daby Gutemberg by den hundert guldin verdienet babe, alleine das zu dem trudcen gehoret." — Schoepflin, Vind. Typ. Document, p. 13. K 130 invention of between simple engraving on metal and engraving on a plate for the pur pose of taking impressions on paper, has made a futile objection to the argument of Bar,* who very naturally supposes that the hundred florins which Hans Dtinne received from Gutemberg for work done on account of printing alone, might be on account of his having cut the types, the formation of which by means of punches and matrices was a subsequent improvement of Peter Scheffer. It is indeed difficult to conceive in what manner a goldsmith could earn a hundred florins for work done on account of printing, except in his capacity as an engraver ; and as I can see no reason to suppose that Hans Diinne was an engraver on wood, I am inclined to think that he was employed by Gutemberg to cut the letters on separate pieces of metal. There is no evidence to show that Gutemberg .succeeded in printing any books at Strasburg with moveable types- : and the most hkely con clusion seems to be that he did not. As the process between him and the Drytzehns must have given a certain degree of pnbhcity to his invention, it might be expected that some notice would have been taken of its first-fruits had he succeeded in making it available in Strasburg. On the contrary, all the early writers in the least entitled to credit, who have spoken of the invention of printing with moveable types, agree in ascribing the honour to Mentz, after Gutemberg had returned to that city and entered into partnership with Faust. Two writers, however, whose learning and research are entitled to the highest respect, are of a different opinion. "It has been doubted," says Professor Oberhn, "that Gutem berg ever printed books at Strasburg. It is, nevertheless, probable that he. did ; for he had a press there in 1439, and continued to reside in that city for five years afterwards. He might print several of those smaU tracts without date, in which the inequahty of the letters and rudeness of the workmanship indicate the infancy of the art. Schoepflin thinks that he can identify some of them ; and the passages cited by him clearly show that printing had been carried on there." t It is, however, to be remarked that the passages cited by Schoepflin, and refeiTcd to by Oberlin, ' The words of Bar, who was almoner of the Swedish chapel at Paris in I76I, are these: "Tout le monde salt que dans ce temps les orffevrea exer^oient aussi I'art de la gravftre ; et nous concluons de-lsl que Guttemberg a commence par des caractferes de bois, que de-1^ il a pass6 aux caractferes de plomb." On this passage Fournier makes the following observations : " Tout le monde salt au contraire que dans ce temps il n'y avoit pas un seul graveur dans le genre dont vous parlez, et cela par une raison bien simple : c'est que cet art de la gravftre n'a ete invents que vingt-trois ana aprfes ce quo vous citez, c'est-Jl-dire en 1460, par Masso Piniguera." — Remarques, &0. p. 20. Biir mentioned no particular kind of engrarag ; and the name of the Italian goldsmith who is supposed to have been the first who discovered the art of taking impressions from a plate on paper, was Finiguerra, not Piniguera, as Fournier, with his usual inaccuracy, spells it. t Essai d'Annales de la Vic do .lean Gutenberg, par ,Ter. J. Obeiiin. Svo. Strasbourg, An Lx. [1802.] TYPOGEAPHY. 1 31 by no means show that the art of printing had been practised at Stras burg by Gutemberg ; nor do they clearly prove that it had been con tinuously carried on there by his partners or others to the time of Mentelin, who probably established himself there as a printer in 1466. It has been stated that Gutemberg's first essays in typography were made with wooden types ; and Daniel Specklin, an architect of Strasburg, who died in 1589, professed to have seen some of them. According to his account there was a hole pierced in each letter, and they were arranged in lines by a string being passed through them. The hnes thus formed hke a string of beads were afterwards collected into pages, and submitted to the press. Particles and syllables of frequent occurrence were not formed of separate letters, but were cut on single pieces of wood. We are left to conjecture the size of those letters ; but if they were suffi ciently large to allow of a hole being bored through them, and to after wards sustain the action of the press, they could not well be less than the missal types with which Faust and Scheffer's Psalter is printed. It is however likely that Speckhn had been mistaken ; and that he had sup posed some old initial letters, large enough to admit of a hole being bored through them without injury, to have been such as were generaUy used in the infancy of the art. In 1441 and 1442, Gutemberg, who appears to have been always in want of money, executed deeds of sale to the dean and chapter of the collegiate church of St. Thomas at Strasburg, whereby he assigned to them certain rents and profits in Mentz which he inherited from his uncle John Leheymer, who had been a judge in that city. In 1443 and 1444 Gutemberg's name still appears in the rate or tax book of Strasburg ; but after the latter year it is no longer to be found. About 1445, it is probable that he returned to Mentz, his native city, having apparently been unsuccessful in his speculations at Strasburg. From this period to 1450 it is likely that he continued to employ himself in attempts to per fect his invention of typography. In 1450 he entered into partnership with John Faust, a goldsmith and native of Mentz, and it is from this year that Trithemius dates the invention. In his Annales Hirsaugienses, under the year 1450, he gives the following account of the first establish ment and early progress of the art. "About this time [1450], in the city of Mentz upon the Ehine, in Germany, and not in Italy as some have falsely stated, this wonderful and hitherto unheard of art of printing was conceived and invented by John Gutemberg, a citizen of Mentz. He had expended nearly aU his substance on the invention ; and being greatly pressed for want of means, was about to abandon it in despair, when, through the advice and with the money furnished by John Faust, also a citizen of Mentz, he completed his undertaking. At first they printed the vocabulary called the Catholicon, from letters cut on blocks of wood, k2 132 INVENTION OF These letters however could not be used to print anything else, as they were not separately moveable, but were cut on the blocks as above stated. To this invention succeeded others more subtle, and they afterwards invented a method of casting the shapes, named by them matrices, of all the letters of the Eoman al])habet, from which they again cast letters of copper or tin, sufficient to bear any pressure to which they might be sub jected, and which they had formerly cut by hand. As I have heard, nearly thirty ¦ years ago, from I'eter Scheffer, of Gemsheim, citizen of Mentz, who was son-in-law of the first inventor, great difficulties attended the first establishment of this art ; for when they had commenced printing a Bible they found that upwards of four thousand florins had been ex pended before they had finished the third quaternion [or quire of four sheets]. Peter Scheffer, an ingenious and prudent man, at first the servant, and afterwards, as has been already said, the son-in-law of John Faust, the first inventor, discovered the more ready mode of casting the types, and perfected the art as it is at present exercised. These three for some time kept their method of printing a secret, till at length it was divulged by some workmen whose assistance they could not do without. It first passed to Strasburg, and graduahy to other nations." * As Trithemius finished the work which contains the preceding account in 1514, Marchand concludes that he must have received his mformation from Scheffer about 1484, which would he within thirty-five years of Gutemberg's entering into a partnership with Faust. Although Trithemius had his information from so excellent an authority, yet the account which he has thus left is far from satisfactory. Schcepflin, amongst other objections to its accuracy, remarks that Trithemius is -wrong in stating that the invention of moveable types was subsequent to Gutemberg's connexion with Faust, seeing that the former had previously employed them at Strasburg ; and he also observes that in the learned abbot's account there is no distinct mention made of moveable letters cut by hand, but that we are led to infer that the improvement of casting types from matrices immediately followed the printing of the Catholicon from wood-blocks. The words of Trithemius on this point are as follows : "Post haec, inventis successerunt subtiliora, inveneruntque modum fan- deiidi formas omnium Latini alphabet! litterarum, quas ipsi matrices nominabant, ex quibus rursum aeneos sive stanneos characteres fundebant ad omnem pressuram sufficientes quos prius manibus sculpebant." From this passage it might be objected in oiiposition to the opinion of Schcep flin : t 1. That the "subliliora," — more subtle contrivances, mentioned before the invention of casting moveable letters, may relate to the cutting • Trithcmii Annales Ilirsaugicnscs, tom. ii. ad annum I4,")0. The original passage is printed in Prosper Marchand's Histoire do I'lmprimerie, 2ndc Pm-tie, p, 7. -H Vindiciaj Typ(iRr,-i|'!iic:\>, jip. 77, 78. TYPOGEAPHY. 13;^ of such letters by hand. 2. That the word " quos " is to be referred to the antecedent " aeneos sive stanneos characteres," — letters of copper or tin, — and not to the " characteres in tabulis ligneis scripti," — letters engraved on wood-blocks, — which are mentioned in a preceding sentence. The inconsistency of Trithemius in ascribing the origin of the art to Gutem berg, and twice immediately afterwards calhng Scheffer the son-in-law of " the first inventor," Faust, is noticed by Schoepflin, and has been pointed out by several other writers. In 1455 the partnership between Gutemberg and Faust was dissolved at the instance of the latter, who preferred a suit against his partner for the recovery, -with interest, of certain sums of money which he had advanced. There is no mention of the time when the partnership com menced in the sentence or award of the judge ; but Schwartz infers, from the sum claimed on account of interest, that it must have been in August 1449. Tt is probable that his conclusion is very near the truth ; for most of the early writers who have mentioned the invention of printing at Mentz by Gutemberg and Faust, agree in assigning the year 1450 as that in which they began to practise the new art. It is conjectured by San tander that Faust, who seems to have been a selfish character,* sought an opportunity of quarrelling with Gutemberg as soon as Scheifer had communicated to him his great improvement of forming the letters by means of punches and matrices. The document containing the decision of the judges was drawn up by Ulric Helmasperger, a notary, on 6th November, 1455, in the presence of Peter Gernsheim [Scheffer], James Faust, the brother of John, Henry Kefi'er, and others.t From the statement of Faust, as recited in this instrument, it appears that he had first advanced to Gutemberg eight hundred florins at the annual interest of six per cent., and afterwards eight hundred florins more. Gutemberg having neglected to pay the interest, there was owing by him a sum of two hundred and fifty florins on account of the first eight hundred ; and a further sum of one hundred and forty on account of the second. In consequence of Gutemberg's * In the first work which issued from Faust and Scheffer's press, witn a date and the printer's names, — the Psalter of 1457,— and in several others, Scheffer appears on an equal footing with Faust. In the colophon of an edition of Cicero de Otficiis, 1465, Faust has inserted the following degrading words : " Presens opus Joh. Fust Moguntinus civis . . . arte quadam perpulcra Petri manu pwri mei feliciter effeci." His partner, to whose ingenuity he is chiefly indebted for his fame, is here represented in the character of a menial. Peter Scheffer, of Gemsheim, clerk, who perfected the art of printing, is now degraded to " Peter, my boy!' by whose hand — not by his ingenuity— John Faust exercises a certain beautiful art. t Henry Kefi'er was employed in Gutemberg and Faust's printing-ofiice. He afterwards went to Nuremberg, where his name appears as a printer, in 1473, in conjunction with John Sensenschmid.— Primaria quoedam Documenta de origine TypograpbicC, edcnte C. G Schwartzio. 8i'o. Altorfii, 174y. 134 INVENTION OF neglecting to pay the interest, Faust states that he had incuiTcd a further expense of thirty-six florins from having to borrow money both of Christians and Jews. For the capital advanced by him, and arrears of interest, he claimed on the whole two thousand and twenty florins.* In answer to these allegations Gutemberg rephed : that the first eight hundred florins which he received of Faust were advanced in order to purchase utensils for printing, which were assigned to Faust as a security for his money. It was agreed between them that Faust should contribute three hundred florins annually for workmen's wages and house-rent, and for the purchase of parchment, paper, ink, and other things.f It was also stipulated that in the event of any disagreement arising between them, the printing materials assigned to Faust as a security should become the property of Gutemberg on his repaying the sum of eight hundred florins. This sum, however, which was advanced for the completion of the work, Gutemberg did not think himself bound to expend on book-work alone ; and although it was expressed in their agreement that he should pay six florins in the hundred for an annual interest, yet Faust assured him that he would not accept of it, as the eight hundred florins were not ]iaid down at once, as by their agreement they ought to have been. For the second sum of eight hundred florins he was ready to render Faust an account. For interest or usury he considered that he was not liable. J The judges, having heard the statements of both parties, decided that Gutemberg should repay Faust so much of the capital as had not been expended in the business ; and that on Faust's producing witnesses, or swearing that he had borrowed upon interest the sums advanced, Gutem berg should pay him interest also, according to their agreement. Faust having made oath that he had borrowed 1550 florins, which he paid over to Gutemberg, to be employed by him for their common benefit, and that he had paid yearly interest, and was stiU hable on account of the same, the notary, Ulric Helmasperger, signed his attestation of the awai'd on * " Er [Johan Fust] denselben solt furter under Christen und ludden hab miissen ussne- men, und davor sess und dreyssig Gulden ungevarlich zu guter Rechnung zu Gesuch geben, das sich also zusamen mit dem Hauptgeld ungevarlich trifit an zwytusend und z^Tsnzig Gulden." Schwartz in an observation upon this passage conceives the sum of 2,020 florins to be thus made up : capital advanced, in two sums of 800 each, 1,600 florins : interest 390 ; on account of compound interest, incurred by Faust, 36 ; making in all 2,026. He tliinks that 2,020 florins only were claimed as a round sum ; and that the second sum of SOO florins was advanced in October 1452. — Primaria quredam Documenta, pp. 9 — 14. + " . . . . und das Johannes [Fust] ym ierlichen 300 Gulden vor Kosten geben, und auch Qesinde Lone, Huss Zinss, Vemiet, Papier, Tinte, &c, vei'legen solte." Primaria quadam Doc. p. 10. i " . . . . von den uhrigen 800 Gulden vvcgcn begert er ym ein rechnung zu thuu, so gestett er auch ym keins Soldes nooh 'Wuchers, und hofft ym im rechten danim nit pflichtigk sin." Primaria quwdain Doc. p. 11. TYPOGEAPHY. 135 6th November, 1455.* It would appear that Gutemberg not being able to repay the money was obhged to relinquish the printing materials to Faust. Salmuth, who alludes to the above document in his annotations upon PanciroUus, has most singularly perverted its meaning, by representing Gutemberg as the person who advanced the money, and Faust as the ingenious inventor who was sued by his rich partner. " From this it e-vddently appears," says he, after making Gutemberg and Faust exchange characters, " that Gutemberg was not the first who invented and practised typography ; but that some years after its invention he was admitted a partner by John Faust, to whom he advanced money." If for " Gutem berg" we read "Faust," and vice versd, the account is correct. "Whether Faust, who might be an engraver as well as a goldsmith, assisted Gutemberg or not by engraving the types, does not appear. It is stated that Gutemberg's earliest productions at Mentz were an alphabet cut on wood, and a Donatus executed in the same manner. Trithemius mentions a " Catholicon" engraved on blocks of wood as one of the first books printed by Gutemberg and Faust, and this Heineken thinks was the same as the Donatus.f "Whatever may have been the book which Trithemius describes as a " Catholicon," it certainly was not the " Catho licon Joannis Januensis',' a large folio which appeared in 1460 without the name or residence of the printer, but which is supposed to have been printed by Gutemberg after the dissolution of his partnership with Faust. It has been stated that pre-vious to the introduction of metal types Gutemberg and Faust used moveable tjrpes of wood ; and Schoepflin speaks confidently of such being used at Strasburg by Mentehn long after Scheffer had introduced the improved method of forming metal types by means of punches and matrices. On this subject, however, Schcepflin's opinion is of very httle weight, for on whatever relates to the practice of typography or wood engraving he was very slightly informed. He fancies that all the books printed at Strasburg previous to the appearance of Vincentii Bellovacensis Speculum Historiale in 1473, were printed with moveable types of wood. It is, however, doubtful if ever a single book was printed in this manner. * Mercier, who is frequently referred to as an authority on subjects connected with Biblio graphy, has, in his supplement to Prosper Marchand's Histoire de I'lmprimerie, confounded this document -ivith that containing an account of the process between the Drytzehns and Gutemberg at Strasburg in 1439 ; and Heineken, at p. 255 of his Id6e G6nerale, has committed the same mistake. i -ir u- t " Je crois, que ces tables [deux planches de bois autrefois chez le Duo de Ja VaUiere] sont du livre que le Chroniquem- de' Cologne appelle un Do4at et que Trithem nomme un Catholicon, (livre imiversel,) ce qu'on a confondu, ensuite avec le grand ouvrage mtitule Catholicon, Jcwiwensis."— Idfe Genft'ale, p. 258. 136 INVENTION OP "Willett in his Essay on Printing, pubhshed in the eleventh volume of the Archaeologia, not only says that no entire book was ever printed with wooden types, but adds, " I venture to pronounce it impossible." He has pronounced rashly. Although it certainly would be a work of considerable labour to cut a set of moveable letters of the size of what is called Donatus type, and sufficient to print such a book, yet it is by no means impossible. That such books as " Eyn Manung der Cristenheit widder die durken," of which a fac-simile is given by Aretin, and the first and second Donatuses, of wliich specimens are given by Fischer, might be printed from wooden types I am perfectly satisfied, though I am decidedly of opinion that they were not. Marchand has doubted the possibility of printing with wooden types, which he observes would be apt to warp when wet for the purpose of cleaning ; but it is to be observed that they would not require to be cleaned before they were used. Fournier, who was a letter-founder, and who occasionally practised wood engra-ving, speaks positively of the Psalter first printed by Faust and Scheffer in 1457, and again in 1459, being printed -with wooden types ; and he expresses his conviction of the practicabihty of cutting and printing -with such types, provided that they were not of a smaller size than Great Primer Eoman. Meerman shows the possibility of using such types ; and Camus caused two lines of the Bible, supposed to have been printed hy Gutemberg, to be cut in separate letters on wood, and which sustained the action of the press.* Lambinet says, it is certain that Gutemberg cut moveable letters of wood, but he gives no authority for the assertion ; and I am of opinion that no unexceptionable testimony on this point can be produced. The statements of Serarius and Paidus Pater,f who profess to have seen such ancient wooden tvj^es at ^Mentz, are entitled to as little credit as Daniel Specklin, who asserted that he had seen such at Strasburg. They may have seen large initial letters of wood with holes bored through, but scarcely any lower-case letters which were ever used in printing any book. That experiments might be made by Gutemberg with wooden types I can believe, though I have not been able to find any sufficient authority for the fact. Of the possibility of cuttmg moveable types of a certain size in wood, and of printing a book with them, I am convinced ft-om experiment ; and could convince others, were it worth the expense, by ' Oberiin, Essai d'Annales de la Vie de Gutenberg. t " ligneos typos, ex buxi frutice, perforates in medio, ut zona colligari una jungique commode possint, ex Fausti officina reliquos, Mogunti.r aliquando me conspexisse memini." — Paulus Pater, in Diasertatione de Typis Litcnu-um, &c. p. 10. 4to. Lipsia^, 1710. Heineken, at p. 254 of his Id6e Gen., declares himself to be convinced that Gutembei^ had cut separate letters on wood, but he thiidcs tliat no person would be able to cut a quantity sufficient to print whole sheets, and, still loss, large volumes as many pretend. TYPOGEAPHY. 137 printing a fac-simile, from wooden types, of any page of any book which is of an earher date than 1462. But, though convinced of the possibility of printing smaE works in letters of a certain size, with wooden types, I have never seen any early specimens of typography which contained positive and indisputable indications of having been printed in that manner. It was, until of late, confidently asserted by persons who pre tended to have a competent knowledge of the subject, that the text of the celebrated Adventures of Theurdank, printed in 1517, had been engraved on wood-blocks, and their statement was generally believed. There can not, however, now be a doubt in the mind of any person who examines the book, and who has the slightest knowledge of wood engraving and printing, of the text being printed with metal types. During the partnership of Gutemberg and Faust it is likely that they printed some works, though there is scarcely one which can be assigned to them with any degree of certainty. One of the supposed earliest productions of typography is a letter of indulgence conceded on the 12th of August, 1451, by Pope Nicholas V, to Paulin Zappe, coun sellor and ambassador of John, King of Cyprus. It was to be in force for three years from the 1st of May, 1452, and it granted indulgence to all persons who within that period should contribute towards the defence of Cyprus against the Turks. Four copies of this indulgence are known, printed on vellum in the manner of a patent or brief The characters are of a larger size than those of the "Durandi,Eationale," 1459, or of the Latin Bible printed by Faust and Scheffer in 1462. The following date appears at the conclusion of one of the copies : " Datum Erffurdie sub anno Domini mccccliiij, die vero quinta decima mensis novembris!' The words which are here printed in Italic, are in the original -written with a pen. A copy of the same indulgence discovered by Professor Gebhardi is more complete. It has at the end, a " Forma plenissimos, dbso- lutionis et remissionis in vita "t in mortis articulo" — a form of plenary absolution and remission in life and at the point of death. At the con clusion is the following date, the words in Italics being inserted with a pen : " Datum in Luneborch anno Domini m cccc 1 quinto, die vero vicesima sexta mensis Januarii." Heineken, who saw this copy in the possession of Breitkopf, has observed that in the original date, m cccc liiij, the last four characters had been effaced and the word quinto written with a pen ; but yet in such a manner that the numerals iiij might still be perceived. In two copies of this indulgence in the possession of Earl Spencer, described by Dr. Dibdin in the Bibhotheca Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 44, the final units (iiij) have not had the word "quinto" over-written, but have been formed with a pen into the numeral "V. In the catalogue of Dr. Kloss's library. No. 1 287, it is stated that a fragment of a " Dona tus" there described, consisting of two leaves of parchment, is printed 138 INVENTION or ¦with the same type as the Mazarine Bible ; and it is added, on the authority of George Appleyard, Esq., Earl Spencer's hbrarian, that the "Littera Indulgentiae" of Pope Nicholas V, in his lordship's -possession, contains two lines printed with the same type. Breitkopf had some doubts respecting this instrument ; but a writer in the Jena Literary Gazette is certainly -wrong in supposing that it had been ante-dated ten years. It was only to be in force for three years ; and Pope Nicholas V, by whom it was granted, died on the 24th March, 1455.* Two words, UNIVEESIS and paulinus, which are printed in capitals in the first two lines, are said to be of the same type as those of a Bible of which Schel horn has given a specimen in his " Dissertation on an early Edition of the Bible," Ulm, 1760. The next earhest specimen of typography with a date is the tract antitled "Eyn Manung der Cristenheit widder die durken," — An Appeal to Christendom against the Turks, — which has been alluded to at page 136. A lithographic fac-simile of the whole of this tract, which consists of nine printed pages of a quarto size, is given by Aretin at the end of his " Essay on the earliest historical results of the invention of Printing," pubhshed at Munich in 1808. This " Appeal " is in German rhyme, and it consists of exhortations, arranged under every month in the manner of a calendar, addressed to the pope, the emperor, to kings, princes, bishops, and free states, encouraging them to take up arms and resist the Turks. The exhortation for January is addressed to Pope Nicholas V, who died, as has been observed, in March 1455. Towards the conclusion of the prologue is the date "Als man zelet noch din geburt offenbar m.cccc.h: tar sieben wochen und Hit do by von nativitatis bis esto michU' At the con clusion of the exhortation for December are the folio-wing words . " Eyn gut selig nuwe Jar : " A happy new year ! From these circumstances Aretin is of opinion that the tract was printed towards the end of 1454. M. Bernhart, however, one of the superintendents of the Eoyal Library at Munich, of which Aretin was the principal director, has questioned the accuracy of this date ; and from certain allusions in the exhortation for December, has endeavoured to show that the correct date ought to be 1472.t Fischer in looking over some old papers discovered a calendar of a foho size, and printed on one side only, for 1457. The letters, according to his description, resemble those of a Donatus, of which he has given a specimen in the third part of his Typographic Earities, and he supposes that both the Donatus and the Calendar were printed by Gutemberg. \ " Oberlin, Essai d'Annales de la Vie do Gutenberg. ¦[ Dr. Dibdin, Bibliog. Tom-, vol. iii. p. 135, second edition. % Gotthelf Fischer, Notice du premier livre imprime avec date. 4to. 3Iayencc, An xL Typographisch, Selienlieit. fite. Tiicfcrung, S. 26. Svo. Niii'uberg, IS04. When Fischer TYPOGEAPHY. 1 39 It is, however, certain that the Donatus which he ascribed to Gutemberg was printed by Peter Scheffer, and in aU probability after Faust's death ; and from the similarity of the type it is likely that the Calendar was printed at the same office. Fischer, having observed that the large ornamental capitals of this Donatus were the same as those in the Psalter printed by Faust and Scheffer in 1457, was led most erroneously to conclude that the large ornamental letters of the Psalter, which were most likely of wood, had been cut by Gutemberg. The discovery of a Donatus -with Peter Scheffer's imprint has completely destroyed his con jectures, and invalidated the arguments advanced by him in favour of the Mazarine Bible being printed by Gutemberg alone. As Trithemius and the compiler of the Cologne Chronicle have mentioned a Bible as one of the first books printed by Gutemberg and Faust, it has been a fertile subject of discussion among bibhographers to ascertain the identical edition to which the honour was to be awarded. It seems, however, to be now generally admitted that the edition called the Mazarine * is the best entitled to that distinction. In 1789 Mau- gerard produced a copy of this edition to the Academy of Metz, con taining memoranda which seem clearly to prove that it was printed at least as early as August 1456. As the partnership between Gutemberg and Faust was only dissolved in November 1455, it is almost impossible that such could have been printed by either of them separately in the space of eight months ; and as there seems no reason to beheve that any other typographical establishment existed at that period, it is most likely that this was the identical edition alluded to by Trithemius as having cost 4,000 florins before the partners, Gutemberg and Faust, had finished the third quaternion, or quire of four sheets. The copy produced by Maugerard is printed on paper, and is now in the Eoyal Library at Paris. It is bound in two volumes ; and every complete page consists of two columns, each containing forty -two lines. At the conclusion of the first volume the person by whom it was rubri cated t and bound has written the fohowing memorandum : " Et sic est finis prime partis biblie. Scr. Veteris testamenti. Illuminata seu rubricata et illuTninata p' henricum Albeh alius Cremer anno dn'i 7n.cccc.lm f esto Barthohmei apli — Deo gratias — alleluja." At the end of the second published his account of the Calendar, Aretin had not discovered the tract entitled " Eyn Mamumg der Cristenheit widder die d/urTcen." * It is called the Mazarine Bible in consequence of the first known copy being discovered in the library formed by Cardmal Mazarine. Dr. Dibdin, in his Bibliographical Tour, vol. ii. p. 191, mentions having seen not fewer than ten or twelve copies of this edition, which he says must not be designated as " of the very first degree of rarity." An edition of the Bible, supposed to have been printed at Bamberg by Albert Pfister about I46I, is much more scarce. t In most of the early printed books the capitals were left to be inserted in red ink by the pen or pencil of the " rubricator." 140 INVENTION OF volume the same person has written the date in words at length : " Iste liber illuminatus, ligatus & completus est p' henricum Cremer vicariu ecclesie collegati Sancti Stephani maguntini sub anno D'ni millesimo quadringentesiino quinquagesimo sexto festo assumptionis gloriose virginis Marie. Deo gracias alleluja."* Fischer t says that this last memo randum assigns " einen spatern tag " — a later day — to the end of the rubricator's work. In this he is mistaken ; for the feast of the Assump tion of the Virgin, when the second volume was finished, is on the 15th of August : while the feast of St. Bartholomew, the day on which he finished the first, falls on August 24th. Lambinet, | who doubts the genuineness of those inscriptions, makes the circumstance of the second volume being finished nine days before the first, a ground of objection. This seeming inconsistency however can by no means be admitted as a proof of the inscriptions being spurious. It is indeed more likely that the rubricator might actually finish the second volume before the first, than that a modern forger, intent to deceive, should not have been aware of the objection. The genuineness of the inscriptions is, however, confirmed by other evidence which no mere conjecture can invaUdate. On the last leaf of this Bible there is a memorandum -written by Berthold de Steyna, -vicar of the parochial church of " Vdle-Ostein," § to the sacrist of which the Bible belonged. The sum of this memorandum is that on St. George's day [23d April] 1457 there was chaunted, for the first time by the said Berthold, the mass of the holy sacrament. In the Carthusian monastery without the walls of Mentz, Schwartz || says that he saw a copy of this edition, the last leaves of which were torn out ; but that in au old catalogue he perceived an entry stating that this Bible was presented to the monastery by Gutemberg and Faust. If the memorandum in the catalogue could be relied on as genuine, it would appear that this Bible had been completed before the dissolution of Gutemberg and Faust's partnership in November 1455. Although not a single work has been discovered with Gutemberg's imprint, yet there cannot be a doubt of his having established a press of his own, and printed books at Mentz after the partnership between him. and Faust had been dissolved. In the chronicle printed by Phihp de Lignamine at Eome in 1474, it is expressly stated, under the year 1458, * There are fac-simile tracings of those memorandums, on separate slips of paper, in the copy of the Mazarine Bible in the King's Libnu-y .at the British JIuscum ; and fiio-simile engravings of them are given in the M'Carthy Catalogue. t Typograph. Seltenheit. S. 20, 3te. Licferung. t Recherches sur I'Origine de rimprimerie, p. 13.->. § Oberiin says that " Villc-Ostein" lies near Erl'urth, and is in the diocese of JMentz. II Index lihi-orum sub incunabula typograph. impressoruni. 173!) ; cited by Fischer, Typo graph. Soltenlicit S. -21, 3tc. Licrcning. TYPOGEAPHY. 1 41 that there were then two printers at Mentz skilful in printing on parch ment with metal types. The name of one was Gutemberg, and the other Faust ; and it was known that each of them could print three hundred sheets in a day.* On St. Margaret's day, 20th July, 1459, Gutemberg, in conjunction with his brother Friele and his cousins John, Friele, and Pederman, executed a deed in favour of the convent of St. Clara at Mentz, in which his sister Hebele was a nun. In this document, which is pre served among the archives of the university of Mentz, there occurs a passage, "which makes it as clear," says Fischer, who gives the deed entire, " as the finest May-day noon, that Gutemberg had not only printed books at that time, but that he intended to print more." The passage alluded to is to the following effect : " And with respect to the books which I, the above-named John, have given the library of the said convent, they shall remain for ever in the said library ; and I, the above- named John, wiD. furthermore give to the library of the said convent all such books required for pious uses and the service of God, — whether for reading or singing, or for use according to the rules of the order, — as I, the above-named John, have printed or shall hereafter print." ")" That Gutemberg had a press of his o-wn is further confirmed by a bond or deed of obligation executed by Dr. Conrad Homery on the Friday after St. Matthias' day, 1468, wherein he acknowledges having received " certain forms, letters, utensils, materials, and other things belonging to printing," left by John Gutemberg deceased ; and he binds himself to the archbishop Adolphus not to use them beyond the territory of Mentz, and in the event of his selling them to give a preference to a person belonging to that city. The words translated " certain forms, letters, utensils, materials, and other things belonging to printing," in the preceding paragraph, are in the original enumerated as : " etliche formen, buchstaben, instrument, gezuge und anders zu truckwerck gehoerende." As there is a distinction made between "formen" and "buchstaben," — literally, "forms" and "letters," — Schwartz is inclined to think that by " formen " engraved wood-blocks might be meant, and he adduces in favour of his opinion the word " formen-schneider," the old German name for a wood-engraver. One or more pages of type when wedged into a rectangular iron frame called a " chase,'' and ready for the press, is termed a " form " both by English and German printers ; but Schwartz thinks that such were not the " forms " * Philippi de Lignamine Chronica Summorum Pontificum Imperatonimque, anno 1474, Romse impressa. A second edition of this chronicle was printed at Rome in 1476 by " Schurener de Bopardia." In both editions Gutemberg is called " Jacobus," — James, and is said to be a native of Strasburg. Under the same year John Mentelin is mentioned as a printer at Strasburg. t Fischer, Typograph. Seltenheit. S. 44, Iste. Lieferung. In this instrument Gutemberg describes himself as " Henne Genssfleisch von Sulgeloch, genennt Gudinberg." 142 INVENTION OF mentioned in the document. As there appears to be a distinction also between "instrument" and "gezuge!' — translated utensils and materials, — he supposes that the latter word may be used to signify the metal of which the types were formed. He observes that German printers cah their old worn-out types " der Zeug " — hteraUy, " stuff," and that the mixed metal of which types are composed is also known as " der Zeug, oder MetaU." * It is to be remembered that the earhest printers were also their own letter-founders. The work called the Catholicon, compiled by Johannes de Balbis, Januensis, a Dominican, which appeared in 1460 without the printer's name, has been ascribed to Gutemberg's press by some of the most eminent German bibliographers. It is a Latin dictionary and intro duction to grammar, and consists of three hundred and seventy-three leaves of large foho size. Fischer and others are of opinion that a Vocabulary, printed at Elfeld, — in Latin, Altavilla, — near Mentz, on 6th November, 1467, was executed -with the same types. At the end of this work, which is a quarto of one hundred and sixty-five leaves, it is stated to have been begun by Henry Bechtermuntze, and finished by his brother Nicholas, and "Wigand Spyess de Orthenberg.t A second edition of the same work, printed by Nicholas Bechtermuntze, appeared in 1469. The folio-wing extract from a letter -written by Fischer to Professor Zapf in 1 803, contains an account of his researches respecting the Cathohcon and Vocabulary : " The frankness with which you retracted your former opinions respecting the printer of the Cathohcon of 1460, and agreed with me in assigning it to Gutemberg, demands the respect of every unbiassed inquirer. I beg now merely to mention to you a discoveiv that I have made which no longer leaves it difficult to conceive how the Cathohcon types should have come into the hands of Bechtermuntze. From a monument which stands before the high altar of the church of EKeld it is e-ddent that the family of Sorgenloch, of which that of Gutemberg or Gaensfleisch was a branch, was connected with the family of Bechtermuntze by marriage. The types used by Bechtermuntze were not only similar to those formerly belonging to Gutemberg, but were the very same, as I always maintained, appealing to the principles of the type-founder's art. They had come mto the possession of Bechtermuntze by inheritance, on the death of Gutemberg, and hence Dr. Homeiys reclamation." | * Primaria quajdam Document, pp. 20—34. t " per henricum bechtermunoze pie memorie in altavilla est inolioatum. et demil sub anno dfli m.cooolxii. ipo die Leonardi confessoris qui fuit quarta die mensis novembris p. nycolaum bechtermaczo fratrem dioti Henrici et Wyganda Spye.ss de orthenbeig e consmu- mata." There is a copy of this edition in the Royal Library at Paris. X Typographifioh. Seltenheit. S. 101, 5ta Licferung. TYPOGEAPHY. 143 Zapf, to whom Fischer's letter is addressed, had previously com municated to Oberlin his opinion that the types of the Cathohcon were the same as those of an Augustinus de Vita Christiana, 4to, without date or printer's name, but having at the end the arms of Faust and Scheffer. In his account, printed at Nuremberg, 1803, of an early edition of " Joannis de Turre-cremata explanatio in Psalterium," he acknowledged that he was mistaken ; thus agreeing -with Schwartz, Meerman, Panzer, and Fischer, that no book known to be printed by Faust and Scheffer is printed -with the same types as the Catholicon and the Vocabulary. Although there can be little doubt of the Catholicon and the Elfeld Vocabulary being printed with the same types, and of the former being printed by Gutemberg, yet it is far from certain that Bechtermuntze inherited Gutemberg's printing materials, even though he might be a relation. It is as likely that Gutemberg might sell to the brothers a portion of his materials and still retain enough for himself If they came into their possession by inheritance, which is not hkely, Gutemberg must have died some months previous to 4th November, 1467, the day on which Nicholas Bechtermuntze and Wygand Spyess finished the printing of the Vocabulary. If the materials had been purchased by Bechtermuntze in Gutemberg's lifetime, which seems to be the most reasonable supposition, Conrad Homery could have no claim upon them on account of money advanced to Gutemberg, and consequently the types and printing materials which after his death came into Homery's possession, could not be those employed by the brothers Bechtermuntze in their estabhshment at Elfeld.* By letters patent, dated at Elfeld on St. Anthony's day, 1465, Adol phus, archbishop and elector of Mentz, appointed Gutemberg one of his courtiers, -with the same aUowance of clothing as the rest of the nobleg attending his court, with other privileges and exemptions. From this period Fischer thinks that Gutemberg no longer occupied himself -with business as a printer, and that he transferred his printing materials to Henry Bechtermuntze. " If "Wimpheling's account be true," says Fischer, "that Gutemberg became bhnd in his old age, we need no longer be surprised that during his hfetime his types and utensils should come into •* The two foUo-ffing works, -without date or printer's name, are printed with the same types as the Catholicon, and it is doubtfiil whether they were printed by Gutemberg, or by other persons witb his types. 1. Matthei de Cracovia tractatus, seu dialogus racionis et consciencie de sumpcione pabuli salutiferi corporis domini nostri ihesu christi. 4to. foliis 22. 2. Thome de Aquino summa de artioulis fidei et ecclesie sacramentis. 4to. foliis 13. A declaration of Thierry von Isenburg, archbishop of Mayence, offering to resign in favour of his opponent, Adolphus of Nassau, printed in German and Latin in 1462, is ascribed to Gutemberg : it is of quarto size and consists of four leaves.— Oberlin, Annales de la Vie de Gutenberg. I 4^4 INVENTION OF the possession of Bechtermuntze." The exact period of Gutemberg's decease has not been ascertained, but in the bond or deed of obhgation executed by Doctor Conrad Homery the Friday after St. Matthias's day,* 1468, he is mentioned as being then dead. He was interred at Mentz in the church of the EecoUets, and the following epitaph was composed by his relation, Adam Gelthaus : t " D. 0. M. s. " Joanni Genszfleisch, artis impressorise repertori, de omni natione et lingua optime merito, in nominis sui memoriam immortalem Adam Gelthaus posuit. Ossa ejus in ecclesia D. Francisci Moguntina fehciter cubant." From the last sentence it is probable that this epitaph was not placed in the church wherein Gutemberg was interred. The foUowing inscrip tion was composed by Ivo Wittich, professor of law and member of the imperial chamber at Mentz : " Jo. Guttenbergensi, Moguntino, qui primus omnium Uteras aere imprimendas invenit, hac arte de orbe toto bene merenti Ivo "Witigisis hoc saxum pro monimento posuit M.D.vii." This inscription, according to Serarius, who professes to have seen it, and who died in 1609, was placed in front of the school of law at Mentz. This house had formerly belonged to Gutemberg, and was supposed to be the same in which he first commenced printing at Mentz in conjunction with Faust. | From the documentary e-vidence cited in the preceding account of the hfe of Gutemberg, it wUl be perceived that the art of printing with moveable types was not perfected as soon as conceived, but that it was a work of time. It is highly probable that Gutemberg was occupied -with his invention in 1436 ; and from the obscure manner in which his " admirable discovery " is alluded to in the process between him and the Drytzehns in 1439, it does not seem likely that he had then proceeded beyond making experiments. In 1449 or 1450, when the sum of 800 florins was advanced by Faust, it appears not unreasonable to suppose that he had so far improved his invention, as to render it practicaUy available without reference to Scheffer's great improvement in casting the types from matrices formed by punches, which was most likely dis covered between 1452 and ]455.§ About fourteen years must have * St. Matthias's day is on 24th Feliruary. + In the instrument dated 1434, wherein Gutemberg agrees to release the town-clerk of Mentz, whom he had aiTested, mention is made of a relation of his, Ort Geltlius, living at Oppenheim. SclKcpflin, mistaking the wonl, has printed in his Documenta, p. 4, ' Artgeki huss," which he translates " Artgeld domo," the house of .\rtgcld. t Serarii Historia Mogunt. lib. 1. cap. xxxvii. p. ton. Heineken, Nachrichten von Kunstlem und Kunst-Sachon, 2tc. Tbcil, S, '2;iil. § In the colophon to " Tritliemii Bnniarnun bisloriarani dc origine Regum et Gentis TYPOGEAPHY. 145 elapsed before Gutemberg was enabled to bring his invention into prac tice. The difficulties which must have attended the first establishment of typography could only have been surmounted by great ingenuity and mechanical knowledge combined -with unwearied perseverance. After the mind had conceived the idea of using moveable types, those types, whatever might be the material employed, were yet to be formed, and when completed they were to be arranged in pages, divided by proper spaces, and bound together in some manner which the ingenuity of the inventor was to devise. Nor was his invention complete until he had contiived a Peess, by means of which numerous impressions from his types might be perfectly and rapidly obtained. Mr. Ottley, at page 285 of the first volume of his Eesearches, informs us that " almost aU great discoveries have been made by accident ;" and at page 196 of the same volume, when speaking of printing as the inven tion of La-wrence Coster, he mentions it as an " art which had been at first taken up as the amusement of a leisure hour, became improved, and was practised by him as a profitable trade." Let any unbiassed person enter a printing-office ; let him look at the single letters, let him observe them formed into pages, and the pages wedged up in forms ; let him see a sheet printed from one of those forms by means of the press ; and when he has seen and considered aU this, let him ask himself if ever, since the world began, the amusement of an old man practised in his hours of leisure was attended with such a result ? " Very few great discoveries," says Lord Brougham, " have been . made by chance and by ignorant persons, much fewer than is generaUy supposed. — They are generally made by persons of competent knowledge, and who are in search of them." * Having now given some account of the grounds on which Gutem berg's claims to the invention of typography are founded, it appears necessary to give a brief summary, from the earliest authorities, of the pretensions of La-wrence Coster not only to the same honour, but to something more ; for if the earhest account which we have of him be true, he was not only the inventor of typography, but of block-printing also. The first mention of HoUand in connexion with the invention of typography occurs in the Cologne Chronicle, printed by John Kcelhoff in 1499, wherein it is said that the first idea of the art was suggested by the Donatuses printed in HoUand ; it being however expressly stated in Francorum," printed at Mentz in 1515 by John Scheffer, son of Peter Scheffer and Christina, the daughter of Faust, it is stated that the art of printing was perfected in 1452, through the labour and ingenious contrivances of Peter Scheffer of Gemsheim, and that Faust gave him his daughter Christina in marriage as a reward. * On the Pleasures and Advantages of Science, p. 160. Edit. I83I. L 146 INVENTION OF the same work that the art of printing as then practised was invented at Mentz. In a memorandum, which has been referred to at page 123, ¦written by Mariangelus Accursius, who flourished about 1 530, the inven tion of printing with metal types is erroneously ascribed to Faust; and it is further added, that he derived the idea from a Donatus printed in Holland from a wood-block. That a Donatus might be printed there from a wood-block pre-vious to the invention of typography is neither im possible nor improbable ; although I esteem the testimony of Accursius of very little value. He was bom and resided in Italy, and it is not unlikely, as has been previously observed, that he might derive his information from the Cologne Chronicle. John Van Zuyren, who died in 1594, is said to have -written a book to prove that typography was invented at Harlem; but it never was printed, and the knowledge that we have of it is from certain fragments of it preserved by Scriverius, a -writer whose o-wn uncorroborated testi mony on this subject is not entitled to the shghtest credit. The sub stance of Zuyren's account is almost the same as that of Junius, except that he does not mention the inventor's name. The art according to him was invented at Harlem, but that whUe yet in a rude and imperfect state it was carried by a stranger to Mentz, and there brought to perfection Theodore Coomhert, in the dedication of his Dutch translation of TuUy's Offices to the magistrates of Harlem, printed in 1561, says that he had frequently heard from respectable people that the art of printing was invented at Harlem, and that the house where the inventor hved was pointed out to him. He proceeds to relate that by the dishonesty of a workman the art was carried to Mentz and there perfected. Though he says that he was informed by certain respectable old men both of the inventor's name and family, yet, for some reason or other, he is careful not to mention them. 'When he was informing the magistrates of Harlem of their city being the nurse of so famous a discovery, it is rather strange that he should not mention the parent's name. From the conclusion of his dedication we may guess why he should be led to mention Harlem as the place where typography was invented. It appears that he and certain friends of his, being inflamed with a patriotic spirit, designed to establish a new printing-office at Harlem, " in honour of their native city, for the profit of others, and for their own accommodation, and yet without detriment to any person." His claiming the invention of printing for Harlem was a good advertisement for the speculation. The next -writer who mentions Haidem as the place where printing Was invented is Guicciardini, who in his Description of the Low Coun tries, first printed at Antwerp in 1567, gives the report, without vouching for its truth, as follows : " In this place, it appears, not only from the general opinion of the inhabitants and other HoUanders, but from the TYPOGEAPHY. 147 testimony of several writers and from other memoirs, that the art of printing and impressing letters on paper such as is now practised, was invented. The inventor dying before the art was perfected or had come into repute, his servant, as they say, went to live at Mentz, where makmg this new art kno-wn, he was joyfully received; and applying himself dihgently to so important a business, he brought it to perfection and into general repute. Hence the report has spread abroad and gained credit that the art of printing was first practised at Mentz. "What truth there may be in this relation, I am not able, nor do I wish, to decide ; con tenting myself with mentioning the subject in a few words, that I might not prejudice [by my sUence the claims of] this district." * It is evident that the above account is given from mere report. "What other -writers had pre-viously noticed the claims of Harlem, except Coorn- hert and Zuyren, remain yet to be discovered. They appear to have been unkno-wn to Guicciardini's contemporary, Junius, who was the first to give a name to the Harlem inyentor; a "local habitation" had already been pro-^ided for him by Coornhert. The sole authority for one La-wrence Coster having invented wood- engra-Ying, block-printing, and typography, is Hadrian Junius, who was born at Horn in North Holland, in 1511. He took up his abode at Harlem in 1560. During his residence in that city he commenced his Batavia, — the work in which the account of Coster first appeared, — which, from the preface, would seem to have been finished in January, 1575. He died the 16th June in the same year, and his book was not pub hshed until 1588, twelve ye^rs after his decease.t In this work, which is a topographical and historical account of HoUand, or more properly of the country included -within the limits of ancient Batavia, we find the first account of Lawrence Coster as the inventor of typography. Almost every succeeding advocate of Coster's pretensions has taken the liberty of * Ludovico Quicciardim, Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi : folio, Anversa, I58I. The original passage is given by Meerman. The original words altre memorie — translated in the above extract " other memoirs " — are rendered by Mr. Ottley " other records." This may pass ; but it scarcely can be believed that Guicciardini consiilted or personally knew of the existence of any such records. Mr. Ottley also, to match his " records," refers to the relations of Coomhert, Zuyren, Guicciardini, and Junius as " documents ' t Junius was a physician, and unquestionably a learned man. He is the author of a nomenclator in Latin, Greek, Dutch, and French. An edition, -with the English synonyms, by John Higins and Abraham Fleming, was printed at London in 1585. The following passage concerning Junius occurs in Southey's Biographical Sketch of the Earl of Surrey in the "Select Works of the British Poets fi:om Chaucer to Jonson:" " Surrey is next found distinguishing himself at the siege of Landrecy. At that siege Boimer, who was afterwards so eminently infamous, invited Hadrian Junius to England. "When that distinguished scholar arrived, Bonner wanted either the means, or more probably the heart, to assist him ; but Surrey took him into his family in the capacity of physician, and gave him a pension of fifty angels." l2 148 INVENTION OF altering, amplifying, or contradicting the account of Junius according as it might suit his own line of argument ; but not one of them has been able to produce a single solitary fact in confirmation of it. Scriverius, Seiz, Meerman, and Koning are fertUe in their conjectures about the thief that stole Coster's types, but they are miserably barren in their proofs of his having had types to be stolen. " If the variety of opinions," observes Naude, speaking of Coster's invention, "may be taken as an indication of the falsehood of any theory, it is impossible that this should be true." Since Naude's time the number of Coster's advocates has been increased by Seiz, Meerman, and Koning ; * who, if they have not been able to produce any e-vidence of the existence of La-wrence Coster as a printer, have at least been fertUe in conjectures respecting the thief They have not strengthened but weakened the Costerian triumphal arch raised by Junius, for they have all more or less knocked a piece of it away; and even where they have pretended to make repairs, it has merely been " one nail dri-ving another out." Junius's account of Coster is supposed to have been -written about 1568 ; and in order to do justice to the claims of Harlem I shaU here give a faithful translation of the " document," — according to Mr. Ottley, ¦ — upon which they are founded. After aUuding, in a preliminary rhe torical flourish, to Truth being the daughter of Time, and to her being concealed in a weU, Junius thus proceeds to draw her out. " If he is the best witness, as Plutarch says, who, bound by no favour and led by no partiaUty, freely and fearlessly speaks what he thinks, my testimony may deservedly claim attention. I have no connexion through kindred with the deceased, his heirs, or his posterity, and I expect on this account neither favour nor reward. Wha.t I have done is performed through a regard to the memory of the dead. I shaU therefore relate what I have heard from old and respectable persons who have held offices in the city, and who seriously affirmed that they had heard what they told from their elders, whose authority ought justly to entitle them to credit." "About a hundred and twenty-eight years ago,t La-wrence John, called the churchwarden or keeper,^ from the profitable and honour able office which his famUy held by hereditary right, dwelt in a lai-ge house, which is yet standing entire, opposite the Eoyal Palaca This is • Koning's Dissertation on the Invention of Printing, which was crowned by the Society of Sciences of Harlem, was first printed at ILu-lem in the Dutch liuiguage in I8I6. It was afterwards abridged and translated into French with the approbation, and under the revision, of the author. In 1817 be published a (irst supplement ; and a second appeared in 1820. -H Reckoning from l.')(js, the period referred to would be 1440. t "iEdituus Custosvo." The word " Koster" in modern Dutch is synonymous with the English "Sexton." TYPOGEAPHY. 149 the person who now on the most sacred ground of right puts forth his claims to the honour of having invented typography, an honour so nefa riously obtained and possessed by others. "Walking in a neighbourino- wood, as citizens are accustomed to do after dinner and on hohdays, he began to cut letters of beech-bark, with which for amusement, the letters being inverted as on a seal, he impressed short sentences on paper for the chUdren of his son-in-law. Having succeeded so well in this, he began to think of more important undertakings, for he was a shrewd and ingenious man ; and, in conjunction -with his son-in-law Thomas Peter, he discovered a more glutinous and tenacious kind of ink, as he found from experience that the ink in common use occasioned blots. This Thomas Peter left four sons, all of whom were magistrates ; and I mention this that all may know that the art derived its origin from a respectable and not from a mean famUy. He then printed whole figured pages -with the text added. Of this kind I have seen specimens executed in the infancy of the art, being printed only on one side. This was a book com posed in our native language by an anonymous author, and entitled Speculum NostrcB Salutis. In this we may observe that in the first pro ductions of the art — for no invention is immediately perfected — the blank pages were pasted together, so that they might not appear as a defect. He afterwards exchanged his beech types for leaden ones, ajid subsequently he formed his types of tin, as being less flexible and of greater durabUity. Of the remains of these types certain old wine-vessels were cast, which are still preserved in the house formerly the residence of La-wrence, which, as I have said, looks into the market-place, and which was afterwards inhabited by his gTcat-grandson Gerard Thomas, a citizen of repute, who died an old man a few years ago. " The new invention being well received, and a new and unheard-of commodity finding on all sides purchasers, to the great profit of the inventor, he became more devoted to the art, his business was increased, and new workmen — ^the first cause of his misfortune — were employed. Among them was one caUed John ; but whether, as is suspected, he bore the ominous surname of Faust, — infaustus"^ and unfaithful to his master — or whether it were some other John, I shall not labour to prove, as I do not wish to disturb the dead already enduring the pangs of conscience for what they had done when living.t This person, who was admitted under an oath to assist in printing, as soon as he thought he had attained * "Sive is (ut fert suspicio) Faustus fuerit ominoso cognomine, hero sue infidus et infaustus." The author here indulges in an ominous pun. The Latinised name " Faustus," signifies lucky; the word "infaustus; unlucky. The German name Fiist maybe literally translated " Fist." A clenched hand is the crest of the family of Faust. + This is an admirable instance of candour. A charge is insinuated, and presumed to be a fact, and yet the writer kindly forbears to bring forward proof, that he may not disturb the dead. History has long smce given the he to the insinuation of the thief having been Faust. 150 INVENTION OF the art of joining the letters, a knowledge of the fusUe types, and other matters connected -with the business, embracing the convenient oppor tunity of Christmas Eve, when all persons are accustomed to attend to their devotions, stole aU the types and conveyed away aU the utensUs which his master had contrived by his own skUl ; and then leaving home with the thief, first went to Amsterdam, then to Cologne, and lastly to Mentz, as his altar of refuge, where being safely settled, beyond bowshot as they say, he might commence business, and thence derive a rich profit from the things which he had stolen. "Within the space of a year from Christmas, 1442, it is certain Mat there appeared printed -with the types which La-wrence had used at Harlem 'Alexandri Galli Doctrinale! a grammar then in frequent use, -with ' Petri Hispani Tractatus! " The above is nearly what I have heard from old men worthy ot credit who had received the tiadition as a shining torch transferred from hand to hand, and I have heard the same related and affirmed by others. I remember being told by Nicholas Gahus, the instructor of my youth, ¦ — a man of iron memory, and venerable from his long white hair, — that when a boy he bad often heard one CorneUus, a bookbinder, not less than eighty years old (who had been an assistant in the same office), relate with such excited feehngs the whole transaction, — ^the occasion of the invention, its progress, and perfection, as he had heard of them from his master, — that as often as he came to the story of the robbery he would burst into tears ; and then the old man's anger would be so roused on account of the honour that had been lost through the theft, that he appeared as if he could have hanged the thief had he been ahve ; and then again he would vow perdition on his sacrUegious head, and curse the nights that he had slept in the same bed with him, for the old man had been his bedfeUow for some months. This does not differ from the words of Quirinus Talesius, who admitted to me that he had formerly received nearly the same account from the mouth of the same bookseUer."* As Junius died upwards of twelve years before his book was pub lished, it is doubtful whether the above account was actually 'written by him or not. It may have been an interpolation of an editor or a book seller anxious for the honour of Harlem, and who might thus expect to gain currency for the story by giving it to the world under the sanction of Juiuus's name. There was also another advantao-e attending tliis mode of pubUcation ; for as the reputed writer was dead, he could not be called on to answer the many objections which remain yet unexplained. The manner in which Coster, according to the preceding account, first discovered the principle of obtaining impressions from separate * Iladriani Junii Batavia, p. '2r>,'!, ot sequent. Edit. Ludg, Batavor. I5SS. TYPOGEAPHY. 151 letters fomied of the bark of the beech-tree requires no remark.* There are, however, other parts of this narrative which more especiaUy force themselves on the attention as being at variance with reason as weU as fact. Coster, we are informed, Uved in a large house, and, at the time of his engaging the workman who robbed him, he had brought the art to such perfection that he derived from it a great profit ; and in con sequence of the demand for the new commodity, which was eagerly sought after by purchasers, he was obliged to increase his estabhshment and engage assistants. It is therefore evident that the existence of such an art must have been weU kno-wn, although its details might be kept secret. Coster, we are also informed, was of a respectable famUy ; his grand-chUdren were men of authority in the city, and a great-grandson of his died only a few years before Junius -wrote, and yet not one of his friends or descendants made any complaint of the loss which Coster had sustained both in property and fame. Their apathy, however, was compensated by the ardour of old CorneUus, who used to shed involun tary tears whenever the theft was mentioned ; and used to heap bitter curses on the head of the thief as often as he thought of the glory of which Coster and Harlem had been so -viUanously deprived. It is certainly very singular that a person of respectabUity and authority should be robbed of his materials and deprived of the honour of the invention, and yet neither himself nor any one of his kindred publicly denounce the thief; more especiaUy as the place where he had esta bhshed himself was kno-wn, and where in conjunction -with others he had the frontless audacity to claim the honour of the invention. Of Lawrence Coster, his invention, and his loss, the world knew nothing until he had been nearly a hundred and fifty years in his grave. The presumed -writer of the account which had to do justice to his memory had been also twelve years dead when- his book was pubUshed. His information, which he received when he was a boy, was derived from an old man who when a boy had heard it from another old man who hved with Coster at the time of the robbery, and who had heard the account of the invention from his master. Such is the Ust of the Harlem witnesses. If Junius had produced any evidence on the autho- * Scriverius— whose hook was printed in 1628— thinking that there might be some objection raised to the letters of beech-bark, thus, according to his own fancy, amends the account of Comelius as given by Junius : " Coster walking in the wood picked up a sniall bough of a beech, or rather of an oak-tree blown off by the wind ; and after amusing himself with cutting some letters on it, wrapped it up in paper, and afterwards laid himself down to sleep. When he awoke, he perceived that the paper, by a shower of rain or some accident having got moist, had received an impression firom these letters ; which induced him to pursue the accidental discovery." This is more imaginative than the account of Cornelius, but scarcely more proTsable. 152 INVENTION OF rity of Coster's great-grandson that any of his predecessors — his father or his grandfather — had carried on the business of a printer at Harlem, this might in part have corroborated the narrative of Comehus ; but, though subsequent advocates of the claims of Harlem have asserted that Coster's grand-chUdren continued the printing business, no book or document has been discovered to establish the fact. The account of Comelius involves a contradiction which cannot be easUy explained away. If the thief stole the whole or greater part of Coster's printing materials, — types and press and all, as the narrative seems to imply, — it is difficult to conceiye how he could do so -without- being discovered, even though the time chosen were Christmas Eve ; for on an occasion when aU or most people were engaged at their devotions, the fact of two persons being employed would in itself be a suspicious circumstance : a tenant with a smaU stock of furniture who ¦wished to make a "moonlight flitting" would most Ukely be stopped if he attempted to remove his goods on a Sunday night. As the dishonest workman had an assistant, who is rather unacoountably caUed "the thief," it is e-vident from this circumstance, as weU as from the express words of the narrative,* that the quantity of materials stolen must have been considerable. If, on the contrary, the thief only carried away a portion of the types and matrices, ¦with a few other instruments, — "aU that could be moved ¦without manifest danger of immediate detection," to use the words of Mr. Ottley, — what was there to prevent Coster from continuing the business of printing ? Did he give up the lucrative trade which he had estabhshed, and disappoiat his numerous customers, because a dishonest workman had stolen a few of his types ? But even if every letter and matrice had been stolen, — though how hkely this is to be true I shaU leave every one conversant with typography to decide, — was the loss irreparable, and could this " shrewd and ingenious man" not reconstruct the types and other printing materials which he had originally contrived ? If the business of Coster was continued uninterruptedly, and after his death carried on by his grand-chUdren, we might natui-aUy expect that some of the works which they printed could be produced, and that some record of their having practised such an art at Harlem would be in existence. The records of Harlem are however sUent on the subject ; no mention is made by any contemporary author, nor in any contemporary document, of Coster or his descendants as printers in that city; and no book printed by them has been discovered except by persons who decide upon the subject as if they were endowed with the faculty of intuitive discrimination. If Coster's business had been * " Choragium omne typonim involat, instrtimentorum herilium ei artificio comparatorum suppelectilem convasat, deinde cumfure domo se proripit." — H. Junii Batavia, p. 255. TYPOGEAPHY. 153 suspended in consequence of the robbery, his customers, from aU parts, who eagerly purchased the "new commodity," must have been aware of the circumstance ; and to suppose that it should not have been men tioned by some old writer, and that the claims of Coster should have lain dormant for a century and a half, exceeds my powers of behef "Where pretended truth can only be , perceived by closing the eyes of reason I am content to remain ignorant ; nor do I wish to trust myself to the unsafe bridge of conjecture — a rotten plank without a hand-rail, — " O'er which lame faith leads understanding bhnd." If all Coster's types had been stolen and he had not supplied himself with new ones, it woidd be difficidt to account for the wine vessels which were cast from the old types ; and if he or his heirs continued to print subsequent to the robbery, aU that his advocates had to com plain of was the theft. For since it must have been weU known that he had discovered and practised the art, at least ten years previous to its known estabhshment at Mentz, and seventeen years before a book appeared with the name of the printers claiming the honour of the invention, the greatest injury which he received must have been from his fellow citizens ; who perversely and wUfuUy woidd not recoUect his pre^vious discovery and do justice to his claims. Even supposing that a thief had stolen the whole of Coster's printing-materials, types, chases, and presses, it by no means foUows that he deprived of their memory not only all the citizens of Harlem, but aU Coster's customers who came from other places* to purchase the "new commodity" which his press suppUed. Such however must have been the consequences of the robbery, if the narrative of Comehus -frere true ; for except himself no person seems to have remembered Coster's invention, or that either he or his immediate descendants had ever printed a single book. Notwithstanding the internal e-vidence of the improbability of Cornelius's account of Coster and his invention, its claims to credibility are stUl further weakened by those persons who have shown themselves most wishful to establish its truth. Lawrence Janszoon, whom Meerman and others suppose to have been the person described by Cornelius as the inventor of printing, appears to have been custos of the church of St. Bavon at Harlem in the years 1423, 1426, 1432 and 1433. His death is placed by Meerman in 1440 ; and as, according to the narrative of CorneUus, the types- and other printing msiterials were stolen on Christmas eve 1441, the inventor of typography must have been in his grave at the time the robbery was committed. Cornelius must have known of his master's death, and yet in his account of the robbery he * " quum nova raerx, nimquam antea visa, emptores undique exciret cum huber rimo questu." — Junii Batavia. 154 INVENTION OF makes no mention of Coster being dead at the time, nor of the business being carried on by his descendants after his decease. It was at one time supposed that Coster died of grief on the loss of his types, and on account of the thief claiming the honour of the invention. But this it seems is a mistake ; he was dead according to Meerman at the time of the robbery, and the business was carried on by his grand children. Koning has discovered that Cornelius the bookbinder died in 1522, aged at least ninety years. AUo-wing him to have been ninety-two, this assistant in Coster's printing estabhshment, and who learnt the account of the invention and improvement of the art from Coster himself, must have been just ten years old when his master died ; and yet upon the improbable and uncorroborated testimony of this person are the claims of Coster founded. Lehne, in his " Chronology of the Harlem fiction," * thus remarks on the authorities, Galius, and Talesius, referred to by Junius as evidences of its truth. As CorneUus was upwards of eighty when he related the story to Nicholas Galius, who was then a boy, this must have happened about 1510. The boy Gahus we -wUl suppose to have been at that time about fifteen years old : Junius was born in 1511, and we -wiU suppose that he was under the care of Nicholas Grahus, the instructor of his youth, untU he was fifteen ; that is, until 1526. In this year Galius, the man venerable from his grey hairs, would he only thirty-six years old, an age at which grey hairs are premature. Grey hairs are only venerable in old age, and it is not usual to praise a young man's faculty of recoUection in the style in which Junius lauds the "iron memory" of his teacher. Talesius, as Konmg states, was born in 1505, and consequently six years older than Junius; and on the death of Cornehus, m 1522, he would be seventeen, and Junius eleven years old. Junius might m his eleventh year have heard the whole account from Cornelius himself in the same manner as the latter when only ten must have heard it from Coster ; and it is remarkable that Galius who was so weU acquahated mth Cornelius did not afford his pupU the opportunity. "We thus perceive that in the whole of this affair children and old men play the principal parts, and both ages are proverbiaUy addicted to narratives which savour of the marveUous. Meerman, writing to his correspondent Wagenaar in 1757, expresses his utter disbelief in the story of Coster being the inventor of typo graphy, which, he observes, was daily losing credit : whatever historical evidence Seiz had brought forward iu favour of Coster was gratuitously * In " Emigo Bemerkungon iiber das Unternehmen der gelehrten GeseUschaft zu Harlem," &c. S. 31. TYPOGEAPHY. ] 55 assumed; in short, the whole story of the invention was a fiction.* After the pubUcation of SchoepiUn's VindiciEe Typographiose in 1760, gi-vLng proofs of Gutemberg having been engaged in 1438 with some invention relating to printing, and in which a press was employed, Meerman appears to have received a new Ught ; for in 1765 he pubUshed his own work in support of the very story which he had pre-viously declared to be undeserving of credit. The mere change, however, of a -writer's opinions caimot alter the immutable character of truth ; and the guesses and assumptions -with which he may endeavour to gloss a fiction can never give to it the soUdity of fact. "What he has said of the work of Seiz in support of Coster's claims may with equal truth be apphed to his own arguments in the same cause : " "Whatever historical evidence he has brought forward in favour of Coster has been gratuitously assumed." Meerman's work, like the story which it was written to support, " is daUy losing credit." It is a dangerous book for an advocate of Coster to quote ; for he has scarcely advanced an argument in favour of Coster, and in proof of his stolen types being the foundation of typography at Mentz, but what is contradicted by a positive fact. In order to make the documentary evidence produced by Schoepfiin in favour of ' Gutemberg in some degree correspond -with the story of CorneUus, Junius's authority, he has assumed that Gutemberg had an elder brother also caUed John ; and that he was kno-wn as Gaensfleisch the elder, whUe his younger brother was caUed by way of distinction Gutemberg. In support of this assumption he refers to 'Wimphehng,t * Santander has published a French translation of this letter in his Dictionnaire Bibliographique, tom. i. pp. 14 — 18. + Wimphehng, who was bom at Sletstadt in 1451, thus addresses the inventor of printing, — ^whose name, Gaensfleisch, he Latinises " Ansicams," — in an epigram printed at the end of "Memoriae Marsilii ab Inghen," 4to. 1499. " Felix Andcare, per te Germania feUx Omnibus in terris praemia laudis habet. TJrbe Moguntina, divine fulte Joannes Ingenio, primus imprimis aere notas. Multum RelHgio, multum tibi Graeca sophia, Bt multum debet lingua Latina.'' In his "Epitome Rerum Germanicarum," 1502, he says that the art of printing was discovered at Strasburg in 1440 by a native of that city, who afterwards removmg to Mentz there perfected the art. In his " Episcoporum Argentinensium Catalogus," 1508, he says that printing was invented by a native of Strasburg, and that when the inventor had joined some other persons engaged on the same invention at Mentz, the art was there perfected by one John Gaensfleisch, who was blind through age, in the house called Gutemberg, in which, in 1508, the CoUege of Justice held its sittings. Wunpheling does not seem to have known that Gaensfleisch was also called Gutemberg, and that his first attempts at printmg were made in Strasburg. 156 INVENTION OF who in one place has called the inventor Gcensfleisch, and in another Gutemberg; and he also supposes that the two epitaphs which have been given at page 144, relate to two different persons. The first, inscribed by Adam Gelthaus to the memory of John Gcensfleisch, he concludes to have been intended for the elder brother. The second, inscribed by Ivo "Wittich to the memory of John Gutemberg, he supposes to relate to the younger brother, and to have been erected from a feeling of envy. The fact of Gutemberg being also named Gaensfleisch in several contemporary documents, is not aUowed to stand in the way of Meerman's hypothesis of the two " brother Johns," which has been supposed to be corroborated by the fact of a John Gaensfleisch the Elder being actuaUy the contemporary of John Gaensfleisch caUed also Gutemberg. Having thus provided Gutemberg with an elder brother also named John, Meerman proceeds to find him employment ; for at the period of his writing much light had been thrown on the early history of printing, and no person in the least acquainted with the subject could beheve that Faust was the thief who stole Coster's types, as had been insinuated by Junius and affirmed by Boxhorn and Scriverius. Gaensfleisch the Elder is accordingly sent by Meerman to Harlem, and there engaged as a workman in Lawrence Coster's printing office. It is needless to ask if there be any proof of this : Meerman having introduced a new character into the Harlem farce may claim the right of employing him as he pleases. As there is evidence of Gutemberg, or Gaensfleisch the Younger, being engaged at Strasburg about 1436 in some experiments connected with printing, and mention being made in the same documents of the fair of Aix-la-ChapeUe, Meerman sends him there in 1435. From Aix-la-ChapeUe, as the distance is not very great, Meerman makes him pay a visit to his elder brother, then working as a printer in Coster's office at Harlem. He thus has an opportunity of seeing Coster's printing estabhshment, and of gaining some information respect ing the art, and hence his attempts at printing at Strasburg in 1436. In 1441 he supposes that John Gaensfleisch the Elder stole his master's types, and printed with them, at ]\Ientz, in 1442, "Alexandri GaUi Doctrinale," and "Petri Hispani Tractatus," as related by Junius. As this trumpery story rests solely on the conjecture of the writer, it might be briefly dismissed for reconsideration when the proofs should be produced ; but as Heineken * has afforded the means of showing its utter falsity, it may perhaps be worth A\'hile to notice some of the facts produced by him respecting the family and proceedings of Gutemberg. John Gajnsfleisch the Elder, whom Meermim makes Gutemberg's elder brother, was descended from a branch of the numerous famUy of " Nachrichten von Kunstlcrn und Kunst-Sachon, Ite. TheU, S. 286—293. TYPOGEAPHY. 157 Gaensfleisch, which was also known by the local names of zum Jungen, Gutenberg or Gutemberg, and Sorgenloch. This person, whom Meerman engages as a workman with Coster, was a man of property ; and at the time that we are given to understand he was residing at Harlem, we have e-vidence of his being married and having children born to him at Mentz. This objection, however, could easily be answered by the in genuity of a Dutch commentator, who, as he has made the husband a thief, would find no difficulty in providing him with a suitable wife. He would also be very likely to bring forward the presumed misconduct of the wife in support of his hypothesis of the husband being a thief John Gaensfleisch the Elder was married to Ketgin, daughter of Nicholas Jostenhofer of Schenkenberg, on the Thursday after St. Agnes's day, 1437. In 1439 his wife bore him a son named Michael ; and in 1442 another son, who died in infancy. In 1441 we have evidence of his residing at Mentz ; for in that year his relation Eudiger zum Landeck appeared before a judge to give Gaensfleisch an acknowledgment of his ha-ving properly discharged his duties as trustee, and of his having delivered up to the said Eudiger the property left to him by his father and mother. That John Gaensfleisch the Elder printed "Alexandri GaUi Doctrinale," and " Petri Hispani Tractatus," at Mentz in 1442 with the types which he had stolen from Coster, is as improbable as every other part of the story. There is, in fact, not the slightest reason to believe that the works in question were printed at Mentz in 1442, or that any book was printed there with types until nearly eight years after that period. In opposition, however, to a host of historical evidence we have the assertion of Cor nelius, who told the tale to Galius, who told it to Junius, who told it to the world. Meerman's web of sophistry and fiction having been brushed away by Heineken, a modern advocate of Coster's undertook to spin another, which has also been swept down by a German critic. Jacobus Koning,* town-clerk of Amsterdam, having learnt from a document printed by Fischer, that Gutemberg had a brother named Friele, sends him to Harlem to work -with Coster, and makes him the thief who stole the types ; thus copying Meerman's plot, and merely substituting Gutemberg's known brother for John Gaensfleisch the Elder. On this attempt of Koning's to make the old sieve hold water by plastering it with his own mud, Lehne t makes the foUo-wing remarks : — "He gives up the name of John, — although it might be supposed that old Cornelius would have known the name of his bedfellow better ' In a Memoir on the Invention of Printing, which was crowned by the Academy of Sciences at Harlem in I8I6. t Einige Bemerkungen, &c. S. 18, 1 9. 158 INVENTION OF than Koning,— and without hesitation charges Gutemberg's brother with tiie theft. In order to flatter the vain-glory of the Harlemers, poor Friele, after he had been nearly four hundred years in his grave, is pubhcly accused of robbery on no other ground than that Mynheer Koning had occasion for a thief It is, however, rather unfortunate for the credit of the story that this Friele should have been the founder of one of the first famUies in Mentz, of the order of knighthood, and possessed of great property both in the city and the neighbourhood. Is it hkely that this person should have been engaged as a workman in the employment of the Harlem churchwarden, and that he should have robbed him of his types in order to convey them to his brother, who then Uved at Strasburg, and who had been engaged in his own invention at least three years before, as is proved by the process between him and the Drytzehns published by Schcepffin ? From this specimen of insiUting and unjust accusation on a subject of Uterary inquiry, we may congratulate the city of Amsterdam that Mynheer Koning is but a law--writer and not a judge, should he be not more just as a man than as an author." In a book of old accounts belonging to the city of Harlem, and extending from April 1439 to AprU 1440, Koning ha-ving discovered at least nine entries of expenses incurred on account of messengers despatched to the Justice-Court of Amsterdam, he concludes that there must have been some conference between the judges of Harlem and Amsterdam on the subject of Coster's robbery. There is not a word mentioned in the entiles on what account the messengers were despatched, but he decides that it must have been on some business connected -with this robbery, for the first messenger was despatched on the last day of the Christmas hohdays ; - and the thief, according to the account of Junius, made choice of Christmas-eve as the most hkely opportunity for effecting his purpose. To this most logical conclusion there happens to be an objection, which however Mynheer Koning readily disposes of The first messenger was despatched on the last day of the Christmas hoUdays 1439, and the accounts terminate in AprU 1440 ; but according to the narrative of Cornehus the robbery was committed on Christmas- eve 1441. This tiifling discrepancy is however easUy accounted for by the fact of the Dutch at that period reckoning the commencement of the year from Easter, and by supposing, — as the date is printed in numerals, — ^that Junius might have written 1442, instead of 1441, as the time when the two books appeared at Mentz printed with the stolen types, and within a year after the robbery. Notwithstanding this satisfactory explanation there stUl remains a trifling error to be rectified, and it -wdl doubtless give the clear-headed advocate of Coster very little trouble. Admitting that the accounts are for the year commencing at Easter 1440 TYPOGEAPHY. 159 and ending at Easter 1441, it is rather difficult to comprehend how they should contain any notice of an event which happened at the Christmas foUo^wing. The Harlem scribe possibly might have the gift of seeing into futurity as clearly as Mynheer Koning has the gift of seeing into the past. The arguments derived from paper-marks which Koning has advanced in favour of Coster are not worthy of serious notice. He has found, as Meerman did before him, that one Lawrence Janszoon was Hving in Harlem between 1420 and 1436, and that his name occurs within that period as custos or warden of St. Bavon's church. As he is never caUed " Coster," a name acquired by the family, according to Junius, in consequence of the office which they enjoyed by hereditary right, the identity of Lawrence Janszoon and Lawrence Coster is by no means clearly established ; and even if it were, the sole evidence of his ha^ving been a printer rests on the testimony of CorneUus, who was scarcely ten years old when Lawrence Janszoon died. The correctness of Cornelius's narrative is questioned both by Meerman and Koning whenever his statements do not accord with their theory, and yet they require others to beheve the most incredible of his assertions. They themselves throw doubts on the evidence of their o-wn witness, and yet require their opponents to receive as true his deposition on the most important point in dispute^that Coster invented typography pre-Yious to 1441, — a point on which he is positively con tradicted by more than twenty authors who wrote pre^Yious to 1500 ; and negatively by the sUence of Coster's contemporaries. Supposing that the account of CorneUus had been published in 1488 instead of 1588, it would be of very httle weight unless corroborated by the testimony of others who must have been as weU aware of Coster's invention as himself; for the sUence of contemporary ¦writers on the subject of an .important invention or memorable event, wiU always be of greater negative authority than the unsupported assertion of an indi-vidual who when an old man professes to relate what he had heard and seen when a boy. If therefore the uncorroborated testimony of Cornelius woidd be so Uttle worth, even if pubUshed in 1488, of what value can it be printed in 1588, in the name of a person who was then dead, and who could not be caUed on to explain the discrepancies of his part of the narrative? 'Whatever ipight be the original value of CorneUus's testi mony, it is deteriorated by the channel through which it descends to us. He told it to a boy, who, when an old man, told it to another boy, who when nearly sixty years old inserts it in a book which he is -writing, but which is not printed untU twelve years after his death. It is singular how Mr. Ottley, who contends for the truth of PapiUon's story of the Cunio, and who maintains that the art of 160 INVENTION OF engraving figures and text upon wood was well known and practised previous to 1285, should believe the account given by Cornelius of the origin of Coster's invention. If he does not beheve this part of the account, with what consistency can he require other people to give credit to the rest ? "With respect to the origdn and progress of the invention, Comehus was as likely to be correctly informed as he was -with regard to the theft and the establishment of printing at Mentz ; if therefore Coster's advocates themselves estabhsh the incorrectness of his testunony in the first part of the story, they destroy the general credibUity of his evidence. "With respect to the fragments of " Alexandri GaUi Doctrinale " and " Catonis Disticha " which have been discovered, printed with the same, or similar types as the Speculum Salvationis, no good argument can be founded on them in support of Coster's claims, although the facts which they estabUsh are decisive of the faUacy of Meerman's assumptions. In order to suit his own theory, he was pleased to assert that the first edition of the Speculum was the only one of that book printed by Coster, and that it was printed with wooden types, ilr. Ottley has, however, sho-wn that the edition which Meerman and others supposed to be the first was in reahty the second ; and that the presumed second was unquestionably the first, and that the text was throughout printed with metal types by means of a press. It is thus the fate of aU Coster's advocates that the last should always produce some fact directly con tradicting his predecessors' speculations, but not one confirmatory of the truth of the story on which aU their arguments are based. Meerman questions the accuracy of Cornelius as reported by Junius ; Meerman's arguments are rejected by Koning ; and Mr. Ottley, who espouses the same cause, has from his diligent collation of two different editions of the Speculum afforded a con-Yincing proof that on a most material point aU his predecessors are wrong. His inquhies have estabhshed beyond a doubt, that the text of the first edition of the Speculum was printed wholly with metal types ; and that in the second the text was printed partly from metal types by means of a press, and partly from wood-blocks by means of friction. The assertion that Coster printed the first edition with wooden types, and that his grandsons and successors printed the second edition with f\-pes of metal, is thus most clearly refuted. As no printer's name has been discovered in any of the fragments referred to, it is uncertain where or when they were printed. It however seems more likely that they were printed in Holland or the Low Countries than in Germany. The presumption of their antiquity in consequence of their rarity is not a good ground of argument. Of an edition of a "Donatus," printed by Sweinheim TYPOGEAPHY. 16] and Pannartz, between 1465 and 1470, and consisting of three himdred copies, not one is known to exist. From sundry fragments of a "Donatus," embellished with the same ornamented small capitals as are used in Faust and Scheffer's Psalter, Fischer was pleased to con jecture that the book had been printed by Gutemberg and Faust pre-vious to 1455. A copy, however, has been discovered bearing the imprint of Scheffer, and printed, in all probabUity, subsequent to 1467, as it is in this year that Scheffer's name first appears alone. The "Historia Alexandri Magni," pretendedly printed with wooden types, and ascribed by Meerman to Coster, was printed by Ketelar and Leempt, who first established a printing-office at Utrecht in 1473. John Enschedius, a letter-founder and printer of Harlem, and a strenuous assertor of Coster's pretensions, discovered a very curious specimen of typography which he and others have supposed to be the identical " short sentences " mentioned by Junius as ha^ving been printed by Coster for the instruction of his grand-children. This unique specimen of typography consists of eight small pages, each being about one inch and six-eighths high, by one and five-eighths wide, printed on parchment and on both sides. The contents are an alphabet ; the Lord's Prayer ; the Creed ; the Ave Mary ; and two short prayers, all in Latin. Meerman has given a fac-simile of all the eight pages in the second volume of his " Origines Typographicae ;"* and if this be correct, I am strongly inclined to suspect that this singular " Horarium " is a modem forgery. The letters are rudely formed, and the shape of some of the pages is irregular ; but the whole appears to me rather as an imitation of rudeness and a studied irregularity, than as the first essay of an inventor. There are very few contractions in the words; and though the letters are rudely formed, and there are no points, yet I have seen no early specimen of typography which is so easy to read. It is apparent that the printer, whoever he might be, did not forget that the little manual was intended for children. The letters I am positive could not be thus printed with types formed of beech-bark; and I am further of opinion that they were not, and could not be, printed with moveable types cif wood. I am also certain that, whatever might be the material of which the types were formed, those letters could only be printed on * Enachedius published a fao-simile himself, with the following title : "Afbeelding van 't A. B. C. 't Pater Noster, Ave Maria, 't Credo, en Ave Salus Mundi, door Laurens Janszoon, te Haarlem, ten behoeven van zyne dochters Kinderen, met beweegbaare Letteren gedrakt, en tefifens aangeweesen de groote der Stukjes pergament, zekerlyk 't oudste overblyfsel der eerste Boekdrukkery, 't welk als zulk een eersteling der Konst bewaard word en berust in de Boekery van Joanmes EnschedJ, Lettergieter en Boekdrukker te Haarlem, 1768. — A. J. PolaJc sculps, ex originnXV M 162 INVENTION OF parchment on both sides by means of a press. The most strenuous of Coster's advocates have not ventured to assert that he was acquainted with the use of metal types in 1423, the pretended date of his first printing short sentences for the use of his grand-chUdren, nor have any of them suggested that he used a press for the purpose of obtaining impressions from his letters of beech-bark ; how then can it be pretended with any degree of consistency that this "Horarium" agrees exactly with the description of Cornehus ? It is said that Enschedius discovered this singular specimen of typography pasted in the cover of an old book. It is certainly such a one as he was most -wishful to find, and which he in his capacity of type-founder and printer would find Uttle difficulty in producing. I am firmly convinced that it is neither printed with wooden types nor a specimen of early typography ; on the contrary, I suspect it to be a Dutch typographic essay on popular creduUty. Of all the works which have been claimed for Coster, his advocates have not succeeded in making out his title to a single one ; and the best evidence ot the faUacy of his claims is to be found in the -writings of those persons by whom they have been most confidently asserted. Having no theory of my own to support, and ha-ving no predUection in favour of Gutemberg, I was long inclined to think that there might be some rational foundation for the claims which have been so confidently advanced in favour of Harlem. An examination, however, of the pre sumed proofs and arguments adduced by Coster's advocates has con- -vinced me that the claims put forward on his behaU, as the inventor of typography, are untenable. They have certainly discovered that a person of the name of Lawrence Janszoon was li-sdng at Harlem between the years 1420 and 1440, but they have not been able to show anything in proof of this person ever havmg printed any book either from wood-blocks or with moveable types. There is indeed reason to beUeve that at the period referred to there were three persons of the name of La-wrence Janszoon, — or Fitz-John, as the surname may be rendered ; — but to which of them the pretended invention is to he ascribed is a matter of doubt. At one time we find the mventor described as an Ulegitimate scion of the noble family of Brederode, which was descended from the ancient sovereigns of HoUand ; at , another he is said to have been called Coster in consequence of the office of custos or warden of St. Bavon's church being hereditary m his family ; and in a third account we find La-wrence Janszoon figuring as a promoter of sedition and one of the leaders of a body of rioters. The advocates for the claims of Harlem ha^'e brought forward every Lawrence that they could find at that period whose father's name was John ; as if the more they could produce the more conclusive would be TYPOGEAPHY. 163 HsiQ proof of one of them at least being the inventor of printing. As the books which are ascribed to Coster furnish positive evidence of the incorrectness of the story of Cornehus and of the comments of Meerman ; and as records, which are now matters of history, prove that neither Gutemberg nor Faust stole any types from Coster or his descendants, the next supporter of the claims of Harlem wiU have to begin de novo ; and lest the pahn should be awarded to the -wrong Lawrence Janszoon, he ought first to ascertain which of them is reaUy the hero of the old book binder's tale. m2 164 WOOD ENGEAVING CHAPTEE IV. WOOD ENGEAVING IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. TAUST AND SOHEFFEB'S PSALTER OF 1457— PRINTING AT BAMBERG IN 1461 — BOOKS CON- TAIKINQ WOOD-OUTS PRINTED THERE BT ALBERT PFISTER OPPOSITION OP THE WOOD ENGRAVERS OP AUGSBURG TO THE EARLIEST PRINTERS ESTABLISHED IN THAT CrTT— TRAVELLING PRINTERS — WOOD-OUTS IN " MEDITATIONES JOHANNIS BE TCEBE-CREMAIA," EOME, 1497 ; AND IN " VALTURIUS DE EB MILITARI," VERONA, 1472 — WOOD-CUTS FREQUENT IN BOOKS PRINTED AT AUGSBURG BETWEEN 1474 AND 1480 - WOOD-CUTS IN BOOKS PRINTED BY CAXTON — MAPS ENGEATED ON WOOD, 1482 — PROGRESS OF MAP ENGRAVING — CROSS-HATCHING — FLOWERED BORDERS — HORTUS SANITATIS — NUEEJIBERG CHRONICLE —WOOD ENGRAVING IN ITALY — POLIPHILI HYPNESOTOILACHIA — DECLINE OF BLOC ii-PRIKTING ^OLD WOOD-OUTS IB DEBBCHAU's COLLECTION. C^'^^X.t OOIW ^^K-J ONSIDEEING Gutemberg as the mventor of printing with moveable types ; that his first attempts were made at Strasburg about 1436 ; and that -with Faust's money and Scheffer's ingenuity the art was perfected at ]\Ientz about 1452, I shall now proceed to trace the progress of wood engraving in its connexion with the press. In the first book which appeared -with a date and the printers' names — ^the Psalter printed by Faust and Scheffer, at Mentz, in 1457 — the large initial letters, engi-aved on wood and printed in red and blue ink, are the most beautiful specimens of tiiis kind of ornament which the united efforts of the wood-engraver and the pressman have produced. They have been imitated in modern times, but not exceUed As they are the first letters, in point of time, printed with two colours. so are they likely to continue the first in point of excellence. Only seven copies of the Psalter of 1457 are known, and they are all printed on vellum. Although they have all tho same colophon, containing the printers' names and the date, jet no two copies exactly correspond. A similar want of agreement is said to ha-\-e been observed in different copies of the ]\lazarino Bible, but which are, notwithstand ing, of one and the same edition. As such works would in the infancy of the art bo a long time in printing -more especially the Psalter, as, IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 165 in consequence of the large capitals being printed in two colours, each side of many of the sheets would have to be printed thrice — it can be a matter of no surprise that alterations and amendments should be made in the text whUe the work was going through the press. In the Mazarine Bible, the entire Book of Psalms, which contains a considerable number of red letters, would have to pass four times through the press, includino- what printers call the "reiteration."* The largest of the ornamented capitals in the Psalter of 1457 is the letter B, which stands at the commencement of the first psalm, " Beatus vir." The letters which are next in size are an A, a C, a D, an E, and a P ; and there are also others of a smaUer size, similarly ornamented, and printed in two colours in the same manner as the larger ones. Although only two colours are used to each letter, yet when the same letter is repeated a variety is introduced by alternating the colours : for instance, the shape of the letter is in one page printed red, with the ornamental portions blue ; and in another the shape of the letter is blue, and the ornamental portions red. It has been erroneously stated by PapiUon that the large letters at the beginning of each psalm are printed in three colours, red, blue, and purple ; and Lambinet has copied the mistake. A second edition of this Psalter appeared in 1459 ; a third in 1490 ; and a fourth in 1502, aU in foUo, like the first, and with the same ornamented capitals. Heineken observes that in the edition of 1490 the large letters are printed in red and green instead of red and blue. In consequence of those large letters being printed in two colours, two blocks would necessarUy be required for each ; one for that portion of the letter which is red, and another for that wliich is blue. In the body, or shape, of the largest letter, the B at the beginning of the first psalm, the mass of colour is relieved by certain figures being cut out in the block, which appear white in the impression. On the stem of the letter a dog like a greyhound is seen chasing a bird ; and flowers and ears of corn are represented on the curved portions. These figures being white, or the colour of the vellum, give additional brightness to the fuU- bodied red by which they are surrounded, and materiaUy add to the beauty and effect of the whole letter. In consequence of two blocks being required for each letter, the * By the common press only one side of a sheet can he printed at once. The reiteration is the second printing of the same sheet on the blank side. Thus in the Psalter of 1457 every sheet containing letters of two colours on each side would have to pass six times through the press. It was probably in consequence of printing so much in red and black that the early printers used to employ so many presses. Melchior de Stamham, abbot of St. Ulric and St. Afra at Augsburg, and who established a printing-office within that monastery, about 1472, bought five presses of John Schiissler ; a considerable number for what may be considered an amateur establishment. He also had two others made by Sixtus Saurloch. — Zapf, Annales Typographicse Augustanse, p. xxiv. 166 WOOD ENGEAVING means were afforded of printing any of them twice in the same sheet or the same page with alternate colours ; for whUe the body of the first was printed in red from one block, the ornamental portion of the second might be printed red at the same time from the other block. In the second printmg, with the blue colour, it would only be necessary to transpose the blocks, and thus the two letters would be completed, identical in shape and ornament, and differing only from the correspond ing portions being in the one letter ]-jrinted red and in the other hhie. In the edition of 1459 the same ornamented letter is to be found repeated on the same page; but of this I have only noticed one instance ; though there are several examples of the same letter being printed twice in the same sheet. Although the engraving of the most highly ornamented and largest of those letters cannot be considered as an extraordinary instance of skUl, even at that period, for many wood-cuts of an earher date afford proof of greater exceUence, yet the artist by whom the blocks were engraved must have had considerable practice. The whole of the ornamental part, which would be the most difficult to execute, is clearly and evenly cut, and in some places -with great neatness and deUcacy. " This letter," says Heineken, " is an authentic testimony that the artists employed on such a work were persons trained up and exercised in their profession. The art of wood engra-vLng was no longer in its cradle." The name of the artist by whom those letters were engraved is nnknown. In Sebastian Munster's Cosmography, book in. chapter 159, John Meydenbach is mentioned as being one of Gutemberg's assistants ; and an anonymous -writer in Serarius states the same fact. Heineken in noticing these two passages -writes to the foUo-wing effect. "This Meydenbach is doubtless the same person who proceeded %^dth Gutem berg from Strasbm-g to Mentz in 1444.* It is probable that he was a wood engraver or an Uluminator, but this is not certain ; and it is stUl more uncertain that this person engraved the cuts in a book entitled Apocalipsis cum figuris, printed at Strasburg in 1502, because these are copied from the cuts in the Apocalypse engraved and printed by Albert Durer at Nuremberg. Whether this copyist was the Jacobus Meydenbach who printed books at Mentz in 149],t or he was some other engraver, I have not been able to determine. "J * Heineken in his Nachrichten, T. I. S. 108, also states that Meydenbach came from Strasburg with Gutemberg. Oberlin however observes, " Je ne sais oil de Heinecke a trouv^ que ce Meydenbach est venu en 1444 avec Qutenbei-g ;i IMayouce." Heineken says, " In der Naohricht von Strassburg findet man dass ein gewisser iMcydenbach 1444 nach Mayiiz gezogen," and refers to Fournier, p. 40. Dissert. s\ir I'Orig. dc I'lmprimerie primitive. t Am editi(jii of the Hortus Sanitatis with wood-cuts was printed at Mentz, by Jacobus Meydenbach, in Hid. t ld6e Generate, p. '28ti. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 167 Although so uttle is positively known respecting John Meydenbach, Gutemberg's assistant, yet Von Murr thinks that there is reason to suppose that he was the artist who engraved the large initial letters for the Psalter of 1457. Fischer, who declares that there is no sufficient grounds for this conjecture, confidently assumes, from false premises, that those letters were engraved by Gutemberg, " a person experienced in such work," adds he, " as we are taught by his residence at Strasburg." From the account that we have of his residence and pursuits at Strasburg, however, we are taught no such thing. We only learn from it he was engaged in some invention which related to printing. We learn that Conrad Saspach made him a press, and it is conjectured that the gold smith Hanns Dunne was employed to engrave his letters ; but there is not a word of his being an experienced wood engraver, nor is there a well authenticated passage in any account of his Ufe from which it might be concluded that he ever engraved a single letter. Fischer's reasons for supposing that Gutemberg engraved the large letters in Faust and Scheffer's Psalter are, however, contradicted by facts. Having seen a few leaves of a Donatus ornamented with the same initial letters as the Psalter, he directly concluded that the former was printed by Gutemberg and Faust prior to the dissolution of their partnership ; and not satisfied with this leap he takes another, and arrives at the conclusion that they were engraved by Gutemberg, as " his modesty only could aUow such works to appear without his name." Although we have no information respecting the artist by whom those letters were engraved, yet it is not unlikely that they were suggested, if not actuaUy drawn by Scheffer, who, from, his profession of a scribe or -writer* previous to his connexion with Faust, may be supposed to have been weU acquainted -with the various kinds of flowered and ornamented capitals with which manuscripts of that and preceding centuries were embeUished. It is not unusual to find manuscripts of the early part of the fifteenth century embellished with capitals of two colours, red and blue, in the same taste as in the Psalter ; and there is now lying before me a capital P, drawn on veUum in red and blue ink, in a manuscript apparently of the date of 1430, which is so like the same letter in the Psalter that the one might be supposed to have suggested the other. It was an object with Faust and Scheffer to recommend their Psalter * Scheffer previous to his connexion with Faust was a " clericus,"— not a clerh as distinguished from a layman, but a writer or scribe. A specimen of his " set-hand," written at Paris in 1449, is given by Schcepflin in his Vindioi» Typographicae. Se-veral of the earliest printers were writers or illuminators; among whom may be mentioned John Mentelin of Strasburg, John Baemler of Angsburg, Ulric Zell of Cologne, and Colard Mansion of Bruges. 168 WOOD ENGEAVING —probably the first work printed by them after Gutemberg had been obhged to withdraw from the partnership— by the beauty of its capitals and the sufficiency and distinctness of its " rubrications ; " * and it is evident that they did not fad in the attempt. The Psalter of 1457 is, with respect to ornamental printing, their greatest work ; for in no subsequent production of their press does the typographic art appear to have reached a higher degree of exceUence. It may with truth be said that the art of printing— be the inventor who he may — was perfected by Faust and Scheffer ; for the earliest known production of their press remams to the present day unsurpassed as a specimen of skUl in omamental printing. A fac-simUe of the .large B at the commencement of the Psalter, printed in colours the same as the original, is given in the first volume of Dibdin's Bibliotheca Spenceriana, and in Savage's Hints on Decorative Printing ; but in neither of those works has the exceUence of the original letter been attained. In the Bibhotheca Spenceriana, although the volume has been printed little more than twenty years, the red colour in which the body of the letter is printed has assumed a coppery hue, while in the original, executed nearly four hundred years ago, the freshness and purity of the colours remain unimpaired. In Savage's work, though the letter and its ornaments are faithfuUy copied t and tolerably weU printed, yet the colours are not equal to those of the original. In the modern copy the blue is too faint ; and the red, which in the original is Uke weU impasted paint, has not sufficient body, but appears like a wash, through which in many places the white paper may be seen. The whole letter compared -with the original seems like a water- colour copy compared with a painting in oU. Although it has been generaUy supposed that the art of printing was first carried from Mentz in 1462 when Faust and Scheffer's swom workmen were dispersed J on the capture of that city by the archbishop * This is intimated in the colophon, which, with the contracted words written at length, is as follows : " Presens Spalmorum codex venustate capitalium decoratus Rubricationibusque sufficienter distinctus . Adinventione artiticiosa imprimendi ac caracterizandi absque calami ulla exaracione sic efligiatus . Et ad eusebiam dei Industrie est consummatus . Per Johannem Fust, Civem magimtinum . Et Petrum Schoifer de Gernzheim, Anno domini Millesimo . cax; Ivii . In vigilia Assumpcionis." In the second edition the mis-spelling, "Spalmorum" for " Psalmorum," is corrected. + It is to be observed that in Savage's copy the perpendicular flourishes are given horizontally, above and below the letter, in order to save room. In a copy of the edition of 1459, in the King's Library, part of the lower flourish has not been inked, as it would have interfered with the letter Q at the commencement of the second psalm " Quare frcmuerunt gentes." Traces of the flourish where not coloured may lie obsened impressed in the vellum. t The following passage occurs in the colophon of two works printed by John Scheffer at Mentz in l.'ilS and 1516 ; the one beingthe " Trithemii Breviarium Historisi Francoi-um," and the other "Breviarium Kcclesia- Mindeusis:" " Retinuerunt autem hi duo jampKB- noininati, Johannes Fust d Peirus Scheffer, liaiic artem in secrcto, (omnibus ministris et IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. > 169 Adolphus of Nassau, yet there can be no doubt that it was practised at Bamberg before that period ; for a book of fables printed at the latter place by Albert Pfister is expressly dated on St. Valentine's day, 1461 ; and a history of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther was also printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1462, " ^it lang nacl^ iSanU toalpurgcn tas,"— not long after St. Walburg's day.* It is therefore certain that the art was practised beyond Mentz previous to the capture of that city, which was not taken untU the eve of St. Simon and St. Jude ; that is, on the 28th of October in 1462. As it is very probable that Pfister would have to superintend the formation of his own types and the construction of his own presses, — for none of his types are of the same fount as those used by Gutemberg or by Faust and Scheffer, — ^we may presume that he would be occupied for some considerable time in preparing his materials and utensUs before he could begin to print. As his first known work with a date, containing a hundred and one wood-cuts, was firnshed on the 14th of February 1461, it is not unlikely that he might have begun to make preparations three or four years before. Upon these grounds it seems but reasonable to conclude with Aretin, that the art was carried from Mentz by some of Gutemberg and Faust's workmen on the dissolution of their partnership in 1455 ; and that the date of the capture of Mentz — when for a time aU the male inhabitants capable of bearing arms were compelled to leave the city by the captors — marks the period of its more general diffusion. The occasion of the disaster to which Mentz was exposed for nearly three years was a contest for the succession to the archbishopric. Theodoric von Erpach having died in May 1459, a majority of the chapter chose Thierry von Isenburg to succeed him, while another party supported the pretensions of Adolphus of Nassau. An appeal having been made to Eome, the election of Thierry was annulled, and Adolphus was declared by the Pope to be the lawful archbishop of Mentz. Thierry, being in possession and supported by the citizens, refused to resign, until his rival, assisted by the forces of his adherents and relations, succeeded in obtaining possession of the city.t familiaribus eorum, ne illam quoquo mode manifestarent, jure jurando adstrictis :) quae tandem anno Domini m.occo.lxii. per eosdem familiares in diversas terrarum provincias divulgata, hand parvum sumpsit inorementiun." * St. Walburg's day is on the 25th of February ; though her feast is also held both on the 1st of May and on the 12th of October. The eve of her feast on the Ist of May is more particularly celebrated ; and it is then that the -witches and warlocks of Germany hold their annual meeting on the Brocken. St. Walburg, though bom of royal parents in Saxony, was yet educated in England, at the convent of Wimbom in Dorsetshire, of which she became afterwards abbess, and where she died in 779. + A mournful account of the expulsion of the inhabitants and the plundering of the city is given by Trithemius at page 30 of his " Res Gestae Frederioi Palatini," published with notes by Marquard Freher, at Heidelberg, 4to. 1603. 170 ., WOOD ENGEAVING UntU the discovery of Pfister's book containing the four histories, most bibliographers supposed that the date 1461, in the fables, related to the composition of the work or the completion of the manuscript, and not to the printing of the book. Saubert, who was the first to notice it, in 1643, describes it as being prmted, both text and figures, from wood-blocks ; and Meerman has adopted the same erroneous opinion. Hemeken was the first to describe it traly, as having the text printed with moveable types, though he expresses hnnself doubtfuUy as to the date, 1461, being that of the impression. As the discovery of Pfister's tracts has thro-wn considerable Ught on the progress of typography and wood engra-ving, I shaU give an account of the most important of them, as connected -with those subjects ; with a brief notice of a few circumstances relative to the early connexion of wood engraving with the press, and to the dispersion of the printers on the capture of Mentz in 1462. The discovery of the history of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther, with the date 1462, printed at Bamberg by Pfister, has established the fact that the dates refer to the years in which the books were printed, and not to the period when the works were composed or tianscribed. An account of the history above named, -written by M. J. Steiner, pastor of the church of St. Ulric at Augsburg, was first printed in Meusel's Historical and Literary Magazine in 1792 ; and a more ample description of this and other tracts printed by Pfister was pubUshed by Camus in 1800,* when the volume containing them, which was the identical one that had been previously seen by Steiner, was deposited in the National Library at Paris. The book of fables t printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1461 is a small folio consisting of twenty-eight leaves, and containing eighty-five fables in rhyme in the old German language. As those fables, which are ascribed to one " Boner, dictus der Edelstein," are known to ha^.-e been -written previous to 1330, the words at the end of the volume, — "Zu Bamberg dies Buchlein geendet ist," — At Bamberg this book is finished, — most certainly relate to the time when it was printed, and not when it was written. It is therefore the earliest book printed with moveable types which is Ulustrated with wood-cuts containing figures. Xot having an opportunity of seeing this extremely rare book, — of which oidy one perfect copy is kno-wn, — I am unable to speak from personal examination of the style in which its hundred and one cuts are engraved. Heineken, * Under the title of " Notice d'un iiivre imprimfi it Bamberg en ciooocolxii. lue a rinslitut National, par Camus." 4to. Paris, An vii. [ISOO.] t The copy of those fablos belonging to tho Wolfenbuttel Librju-y, imd wliich is the only one known, was taken away by the French and placed in the National Library at Paris, but was restored on the surrender of Paris in 1815. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 171 however, has given a fac-simUe of the first, and he says that the others are of a similar kind. The foUowing is a reduced copy of the fac-simUe given by Heineken, and which forms the head-piece to the first fable. On the manner in which it is engraved I shall make no remark, unti: I shall have produced some specimens of the cuts contained in a " Biblia Pauperum Predicatorum," also printed by Pfister, and having the text in the German language. The volume described by Camus contains three different works ; and although Pfister's name, with the date 1462, appears in only one of them, the " Four Histories," yet, as the type is the same in aU, there can be no doubt of the other two being printed by the same person and about the same period. The foUowing particulars respecting its contents are derived from the " Notice " of Camus. It is a small folio consisting altogether of a hundred and one leaves of paper of good quality, moderately thick and white, and in which the water-mark is an ox's head. The text is printed in a large type, caUed missal-type ; and though the characters are larger, and there is a trifling variation in three or four of the capitals, yet they evidently appear to have been copied from those of the Mazarine Bible. The first work is that which Heineken caUs " une AlMgorie sur la Mort ;"* but this title does not give a just idea of its contents. It is in fact a coUection of accusations preferred against Death, with his answers to them. The object is to show that such complaints are unavaiUng, and that, instead of making them, people ought rather to employ themselves in endeavouring to live weU. In this tract, which • Idee Gfoerale, p. 276. Dr. Dibdin in his Bibliographical Tour says that this work " is entitled by Camus the Allegory of Death." This is a mistake ; for Camus, who objects to this title,— which was given to it by Heineken,— always refers to the book under the title of "Les Plaintes contre la Mort." 172 WOOD ENGEAVING consists of twenty-four leaves, there are five wood-cuts, each occupying an entire page. The first represents Death seated on a throne. Before him there is a man with a chUd, who appears to accuse Death of ha-ving deprived him of his ¦wife, who is seen on a tomb wrapped in a ¦winding- sheet. — In the second cut, Death is also seen seated on a throne, with the same person apparently complaining against him, whUe a number of persons appear approaching sad and slow, to lay down the ensigns of their dignity at his feet. — In the third cut there are two figures of Death ; one on foot mows down youths and maidens with a scythe, whUe another, mounted, is seen chasing a number of figures on horse back, at whom he at the same time discharges his arrows. — The fourth cut consists of two parts, the one above the other. In the upper part. Death appears seated on a throne, with a person before him in the act of complaining, as in the first and second cuts. In the lower part, to the left of the cut, is seen a convent, at the gate of which there are two persons in religious habits ; to the right a garden is represented, in which are perceived a tree laden with fruit, a woman crowning an infant, and another woman conversing with a young man In the space between the convent and the garden certain signs are engraved, which Camus thinks are intended to represent various branches of learning and science, — none of which can afford protection against death, — as they are treated of in the chapter which precedes the cut. In the fifth cut. Death and the Complainant are seen before Christ, who is seated on a throne ¦with an angel on each side of him, under a canopy ornamented with stars. Although neither Heineken nor Camus give specimens of those cuts, nor speak of the style in which they are executed, it may be presumed that they are not superior either in design or engra^ving to those contained in the other tracts. The text of the work is divided into thirty-four chapters, each of which, except the first, is preceded by a summary ; and their numbei-s are printed in Eoman characters. The initial letter of each chapter is red, and appears to have been formed by means of a stencU. The first chapter, which has neither title nor numeral, commences ¦with the Complainant's recital of his injuries ; in the second. Death defends himself ; in the third the Complainant resumes, in the fourth Death rephes ; and in this manner the work proceeds, the Complainant and Death speaking alternately through thirty-two chapters. In the tlm-ty- third, God decides between the parties ; and after a few common-place reflections and observations on the readiness of people to complain on aU occasions, sentence is pronounced in these words : " The Complainant is condemned, and Death has gained the cause. Of right, the Life of every man is due to Death ; to Earth his Body, and to Us his Soul." In the thirty-finirth chapter, the Coiii]dainant, perceiving that he has lost his IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 173 suit, proceeds to pray to God on behalf of his deceased ¦wife. In the summary prefixed to the chapter the reader is informed that he is now about to peruse a model of a prayer ; and that the name of the Com plainant is expressed by the large red letters which are to be found in the chapter. Accordingly, in the course of the chapter, six red letters, besides the initial at the beginning, occur at the commencement of so many different sentences. They are formed by means of a stencil, while the letters at the commencement of other similar sentences are printed black. Those red letters, including the initial at the beginning of the chapter, occur in the foUowing order, IHESANW. Whether the name is expressed by them as they stand, or whether they are to be combined in some other manner, Camus wiU not venture to decide.'^ From the prayer it appears that the name of the Complainant's deceased wife was Margaret. In this singTilar composition, which in the summary is declared to be a model, the author, not forgetting the court language of his native country, calls the Almighty " the Elector who determines the choice of aU Electors," " Hoffmeister " of the court of Heaven,, and "Herzog" of the Heavenly host. The text is in the German language, such as was spoken and written in the fifteenth century. The German words " Hoffmeister " and " Herzog " appear extremely ridiculous in Camus's French translation, — "le Ma.itre-d'h6tel de la cour celeste," and " le Grand-due de Tarm^e celeste." But this is clothing ancient and dignified German in modern French frippery. The word " Hoffmeister " — literaUy, "court-master or governor " — is used in modern German in nearly the same sense as the Enghsh word " steward ; " and the governor or tutor of a young prince or nobleman is caUed by the same name. The word " Herzog "¦ — the " Grand-due " of Camus — in its original signification means the leader of a host or army. It is a German title of honour which defines its original meaning, and is in modern language synonymous with the English title "Duke.'' The ancient German " Herzog " was a leader of hosts ; the modem French "Grand-due" is a clean-shaved gentleman in a court-dress, redolent of eau-de-Cologne, and bedizened with stars and strings. The two words are characteristic of the two languages. The second work in the volume is the Histories of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther. It has no general frontispiece nor title ; but each separate history commences with the words : " Here begins the histoi-y * " Outre la lettre initiate, on remarque, dans le cours du chapitre, six lettres rouges non imprimees, mais peintes k la plaque, qui commencent six phrases diverses. Les lettres initiates des autres phrases du memo chapitre sont imprimees en noir. Les lettres rouges sont IHESANW. Doit-on les assembler dans I'ordre ou elles sont placees, ou bien doivent- elles reoevoir un autre arrangement ? Je ne prends pas sur moi de le decider."— Camus, Notice, p. G. 174 WOOD ENGEAVING of . . . ." in German. Each history forms a separate gathering, and the whole four are contained in sixty leaves, of which two, about the middle, are blank, although there is no appearance of any deficiency in the history. The text is accompanied with wood-cuts which are much less than those in the " Complaints against Death," each occupying only the space of eleven lines in a page, which when fuU contains twenty-eight. The number of the cuts is sixty-one ; but there are only fifty-five different subjects, four of them having been printed twice, and one thrice. Camus gives a specimen of one of the cuts, which represents the Jews of Bethuhah rejoicing and offering sacrifice on the return of Judith after she had cut off the head of Holofemes. It is certainly a very indifferent performance, both with respect to design and engraving ; and from Camus's remarks on the artist's ignorance and want of taste it would appear that the others are no better. In one of them Haman is decorated with the collar of an order from which a cross is suspended ; and in another Jacob is seen travelling to Egypt in a carriage'* dra-wn by two horses, which are harnessed according to the manner of the fifteenth century, and driven by a postilion seated on a sadcUe, and -with his feet in stirrups. All the cuts in the "Four Histories" are coarsely coloured. It is this work which Camus, in his title-page, professes to give an account of, although in his tract he describes the other two contained in the same volume with no less minuteness. He especiaUy announced a notice of this work as " a book printed at Bamberg in 1462," in con sequence of its being the most important in the volume ; for it contains not only the date and place, but also the printer's name. In the book of Fables, printed with the same tjrpes at Bamberg in 1461, Pfister's name does not appear. The text of the "Four Histories" ends at the fourth hne on the recto of the sixtieth leaf; and after a blank space equal to that of a hne, thirteen lines succeed, forming the colophon, and containing the place, date, and printer's name. Although those hnes run continuously on. occupying the full width of the page as in prose, yet they consist of couplets in German rhyme. The end of each verse is marked -with a point, and the first word of the succeeding one begins with a capital. * Camus calls it a " voiture," but I question if s\ich a carriage was known in 14H'2 ; and am inclined to think that he has converted a kind of light waggon into a modem " voitm-e." A hght sort of waggon, called by Stow a " Wherlicoto," was used in England by the mother of Richard the Second in the manner of a modern coach. I have noticed in an old wood-cut a light travelling waggon, drawn by what is called a " unicorn team" of three horses ; that is, one as a " leader," and two " wheelers," with the driver riding on the " neai- side" wheeler. This cut is in the Bagford collection in the Britisli Museum, and is one of a series of ninety suljjects from the Old and New Testaiiient wliicli have been cut out of a book. A manu script note in German states that they are by Micliacl \\'olgenmth, and printed in 1491. In no wuod-cut executed previous to 1500 have T seen a \eliiclo like a modern French voitwe. IN CONNEXION 'WITH THE PEESS. 175 Camus has given a fac-simUe of those lines, that he might at once present his readers ¦with a specimen of the type and a copy of this colophon, so interesting to bibliographers as establishing the important fact in the history of printing, namely, that the art was practised beyond Mentz prior to 1462. The foUowing copy, though not a fac-simUe, is printed Une for line from Camus. ffitn tttltc^ mmici) ban l^trjen gtrt . IBasi tv ion bieiss unit h3ol gtltct . ^n meister un' dci)xiU Uas ntt mag itin . S>o feun' fotr all aucl) ntt lattin . 33arauff l^an ici^ ein teil get(aci)t . i!BLnl( bur i)fetorit zu Samm pra* ci)t . Soiiepi) Kanttl un' auci) jtttJiti) . ISintl '^e6Ux auc^ mit gutem iiH). "Bit bin i)et got in gtimv i)ut . ^U tv not!) pe W guten tljut . ©ar Uurcl) totr ptJiiiern unSer ItW . ©e' puci)lem iSt inn tntle gebt' . %\u bamietqk in tin Selbe' Stat . 9ai albreciit pfister gettrucfeet l^at So ma' zalt tauSent un' bterl^u'ttert lar . tn ziad unK Seti)3tgSte' Has tSt Inar . jStt lang nacl^ SanU faalpur* gen tag . Sit unS tool gnat) erierben mag . dfriJi un' Has etotg lebe' . 3@aS toolle unS got alle' gelie' . ^mc'. The foUowing is a translation of the above, in English couplets of simUar rhythm and measure as the original : With heart's desire each man doth seek That he were wise and learned eke : But books and teacher he doth need. And all men cannot Latin read. As on this subject oft I thought. These hist'ries four I therefore ¦wrote ; Of Joseph, Daniel, Judith too. And Esther eke, -with purpose true ; These four did God -with bhss requite, As he doth aU who act upright. That men may learn their lives to mend This book at Bamberg here I end. In the same city, as I've hinted, It was hy Albert Pfister printed. In th' year of grace, I tell you true, A thousand four himdred and sixty-two ', Soon after good St. Walburg's day, Who well may aid us on our way. And help us to eternal bhss I God, of his mercy, grant us this. Ameh. -The third work contained in the volume described by Camus is an edition of the "Poor Preachers' Bible," ¦with the text in German, and 176 WOOD ENGEAVING printed on both sides. The number of the leaves is eighteen, of which only seventeen are printed ; and as there is a " history'' on each page, the total number in the work is thirty-four, each of which is Ulustrated with five cuts. The subjects of those cuts and their arrangement on the page is not precisely the same as in the earlier Latin editions ; and as in the latter there are forty " histories," six are wanting in the Bamberg edition, namely : 1. Christ in the garden ; 2. The soldiers alarmed at the sepulchre ; 3. The Last Judgment ; 4. HeU ; 5. The eternal Father receiving the righteous into his bosom ; and 6. The cro^wning of the Saints. As the cuts Ulustrative of these subjects are the last in the Latin editions, it is possible that the Bamberg copy described by Camus might be defective ; he, however, observes that there is no appearance of any leaves being wanting.* In each page of the Bamberg edition the text is in two columns below the cuts, which are arranged in the foUowing manner in the upper part of the page : Christ appearing to the Apostles. 4 Joseph making himself known to bis brethren. 5 The Prodigal Son's return to his father. The following cuts are fac-similes of those given by Camus ; and the numbers underneath each relate to their position in the preceding " The copy of the Bamberg edition in the Wolfenbuttel Librar>', seen and described by Heineken, Id6e Q6n6i-ale, pp. 327 — 329, contained only twenty-six " histories," or general subjects. IN CONNEXION ^WITH THE PEESS. 177 example of their arrangement. In No. 1 the heads are intended for David and the author of the Book of Wisdom ; in No. 2, for Isaiah and Ezekiel. No. 1. No. 2. The subject represented in the foUowing cut. No. 3, forming the centre piece at the top in the arrangement of the original page,''is Christ appearing to his disciples after his resurrection. The figure on the right of Christ is intended for St, Peter, and that on his left for St. John. I beUeve that in no wood-cut, ancient or modern, is Christ represented with so uncomely an aspect and so clumsy a figure. No. 3. The subject of No. 4 is Joseph making himself known to his brethren ; from Genesis, chapter XLV. N 178 WOOD ENGEAVING No, 4. In No. .5 the subject represented is the Prodigal Son received by his father ; from St. Luke, chapter xv. Camus says that the cuts given by him were engraved on wood by Duplaa mth the greatest exactitude from tracings of the originals by Dubrena. Supposing that all the cuts in the four works, printed by Pfister and described in the preceding pages, were designed in a sinular taste and executed in a .^.iiiiilar manner to those of which specimens are given, the persons by whom they were ellgra^¦L¦d — for it is not likely that they were IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 179 aU engraved by one man — must have had very little knowledge of the art. Looking merely at the manner in which they are engraved, without reference to the wretched drawing of the figures and want of " feeling " displayed in the general treatment of the subjects, a moderately apt lad, at the present day, generally wUl cut as well by the time that he has had a month or two's practice. If those cuts were to be considered as fair specimens of wood engraving in Germany in 1462, it would be e'vident that the art was then declining ; for none of the specimens that I have seen of the cuts printed by Pfister can bear a comparison with those contained in the early block-books, such as the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, or the early editions of the Poor Preachers' Bible. To the cuts contained in the latter works they are decidedly inferior, both ¦with respect to design and engraving. Even the earliest wood-cuts which are known, — for instance, the St. Christopher, the St. Bridget, and the Annunciation, in Earl Spencer's coUection, — are executed in a superior manner. It would, however, be unfair to conclude that the cuts which appear in Pfister's works were the best that were executed at that period. On the contrary, it is probable that they are the productions of persons who in their own age would be esteemed only as inferior artists. As the progress of typography was regarded with jealousy by the early wood engravers and block printers, who were apprehensive that it would ruin their trade, and as previous to the establishment of printing they were already formed into companies or feUowships, which were extremely sensitive on the subject of their exclusive rights, it is not unlikely that the earUest type-printers who adorned their books with wood-cuts would be obhged to have them executed by a person who was not professionaUy a wood engraver. It is only upon this supposition that we can account for the fact of the wood-cuts in the earhest books printed with type being so very inferior to those in the earUest block-books. This supposition is corroborated by the account which we have of the proceedings of the wood , engravers of Augsburg shortly after type- printing was first established in that city. In 1471 they opposed Gunther Zainer's* admission to the privileges of a burgess, and en deavoured to prevent him printing wood engra-vings in his books. * Gunther Zainer was a native of Beutlingen, in Wirtemberg, and was the first printer in Germany who used Roman characters,— in an edition of " Isidori Episcopi Hispalensis Etymologia," printed by him in 1472. He first began to print at Augsburg in 1468. In 1472 he printed a German translation of the book entitled " Belial," with wood-cuts. A Latin edition of this book was printed by Schussler in the same year. Von Murr says that Schussler printed another edition of " BeUal " in 1477 ; but this would seem to he a mistake, for Veith asserts in his " Diatribe de Origine et Incrementis Artis Typographicge in urbe Augusta Vmdehca," prefixed to Zapf's " Annates," that Schussler only printed in the years 1470, 1471, and 1472. N 2 180 WOOD ENGEAVING Melchior Stamham, however, abbot of St. Ulric and Afra, a warm promoter of typography, interested himself on behalf of Zainer, and obtained an order from the magistracy that he and John Schussler — another printer whom the wood engravers had also objected to — should be allowed to follow without interraption their art of printing. They were, however, forbid to print initial letters from wood-blocks or to insert wood-cuts in their books, as this would be an infringement on the pri^vUeges of the feUowship of wood engravers. Subsequently the wood engravers came to an understanding with Zainer, and agreed that he should print as many initial letters and wood-cuts as he pleased, provided that they engraved them.'* Whether Schussler came to the same agreement or not is uncertain, as there is no book kno'wn to be printed by him of a later date than 1472. It is probable that he is the person, — named John Schussler in the memorandum printed by Zapf — of whom Melchior de Stamham in that year bought five presses for the printing-office which he established in his convent of St. Ulric and St. Afra. To John Biimler, who at the same time carried on the business of a printer at Augsburg, no objection appears to have been made. As he was originally a " caUigraphus '' or omamental ¦writer, it is probable that he was a member of the wood engravers' guUd, and thus entitled to engrave and print his own works ¦without interruption. As it is probable that the wood-cuts which appear in books printed within the first thirty years from the estabhshment of typography at Mentz were intended to be coloured, this may in some degree account for the coarseness with which they are engraved ; but as the wood-cuts in the earher block-books were also intended to be coloured in a sinular manner, the inferiority of the former can only be accounted for by supposing that the best wood engravers declined to assist in promoting what they would consider to be a rival art, and that the earher printers would generally be obliged to have their cuts engraved by persons connected with their own estabUshments, and who had not by a regulai course of apprenticeship acquired a knowledge of the ai-t. About seventy or eighty years ago, and untU a more recent period, many country printers in England used themselves to engrave such rude wood-cuts as they might occasionaUy want. A most extensive assort ment of such wood-cuts belonged to the. printing-office of the late Mr. George Angus of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who used them as head pieces and general Ulustrations to ballads and chap-books. A con siderable number of them were cut with a penknife, on pear-tree wood, by an apprentice named Eandell, who died about forty years ago. * Von Mui-r, Journal, 2 Theil, S. 141.— Zapf, Buchdiuckergeschichte von Augsbmg, I Band. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. ]81 Persons who are fond of a "rough harvest" of such modern-antiques are referi'ed to the " Historical Delights,'' the '' History of Pdpon," and other works published by Thomas Gent at York about 1733. Notwithstanding the rudeness with which the cuts are engraved in the four works printed by Pfister, yet from their number a considerable portion of time must have been occupied in their execution. In the " Four Histories" there are sixty-one cuts, which have been printed from fifty-five blocks. In the "Fables" there are one hundred and one cuts ; in the " Complaints against Death," five ; and in the " Poor Preachers' Bible," one hundred and seventy, reckoning each subject separately. Supposing each cut in the three last works was printed from a separate block, the total number of blocks required for the four ¦would be three hundred and thirty-one.* Supposing that each cut on an average con tained as much work as that whicb is numbered 4 in the preceding specimens — Joseph making himself Icnown to his brethren — and sup posing that the artist drew the subjects himself, the execution of those three hundred and thirty-one cuts would occupy one person for about two years and a half allowing him to work three hundred days in each year. It is true that a modern wood engraver might finish more than three of such cuts in a week, yet I question if any one of the profession would complete the whole number, with his own hands, in less time than I have specified. From the sinularity between Pfister's types and those with which a Bible without place or date is printed, several bibhographers have ascribed the latter work to his press. This Bible, which in the Eoyal Library at Paris is bound in three volumes foho, is the rarest of aU editions of the Scriptures printed in Latin. Schelhorn, who -wrote a dissertation on this edition, endeavoured to show that it was the first of the Bibles printed at Mentz, and that it was partly printed by Gutem berg and Faust previous to their separation, and finished by Faust and Scheffer in 1456.t Lichtenberger, without expressly assenting to Schelhorn's opinion, is inclined to think that it was printed at Mentz. and hy Gutemberg. The reasons which he assigns, however, are not such as are likely to gain assent without a pre-vious willingness to believe. He admits that Pfister's types are simUar to those of the Bible, though he says that the former are somewhat ruder. * Lichtenberger, in his Initia Typographica, referring to Sprenger's History of Printing at Bamberg, says that, besides those four, five other tracts are printed -with Pfister's types, of which three contain wood-cuts. One of those three, however, a " Poor Preachers' Bible," with the text m Latin, has the same cuts as the " Poor Preachers' Bible" with the text in German. Only one of those other five works contains the place and date. t De Antiquissima Latinorum Bibhorum editione Jo. Georgii Schelhorn Diatribe. iTlmae, 4to. 1760. 182 WOOD ENGEAVING Camus considers that the tracts unquestionably printed by Pfister throw considerable light on the question as to whom this Bible is to be ascribed. There are two specimens of this Bible, the one given by ]\Iasch in his Bibliotheca Sacra, and the other by Schelhorn, in a dissertation prefixed to Quirini's account of the principal works printed at Eome. Camus, on comparing these specimens with the text of Pfister's tracts, immediately perceived the most perfect resemblance between the cha racters ; and on applying a tracing of the last thirteen lines of the " Four Histories" to the corresponding letters in Schelhorn's specimen, he found that the characters exactly coiTCsponded. This perfect identity induced him to believe that the Bible described by Schelhorn was printed with Pfister's types. A correspondent in Meusel's Magazine, No. VII. 1794, had pre-viously advanced the same opinion ; and he moreover thought that the Bible had been printed previous to the Fables dated 1461, because the characters of the Bible are cleaner, and appear as if they had been impressed from newer types than those of the Fables.* In support of this opinion an extract is given, in the same magazine, from a curious manuscript of the date of 14.39, and preserved in the Ubrary of Cracow. This manuscript is a kind of dictionary of arts and sciences, composed by Paul of Prague, doctor of medicine and phUosophy, who, in his definition of the word "Libripagus," gives a curious piece of information to the following effect. The barbarous Latin of the original passage, to which I shaU have occasion to refer, wUl be found in the sub joined note.t " He is an artist who dexterously cuts figures, letters, and whatever he pleases on plates of copper, of iron, of sohd blocks of wood, and other materials, that he may print upon paper, on a waU, or on a clean board. He cuts whatever he pleases ; and he proceeds in this manner with respect to pictures. In my time somebody of Bamberg cut the entire Bible upon plates ; in four weeks he impressed the whole Bible, thus sculptured, upon thin parchment." Although I am of opinion that the weight of evidence is in favom' of Pfister being the printer of the Bible in question, yet I cannot think that the arguments which have been adduced in his finom- derive any additional support from this passage. The writer, like many other dictionary makers, both in ancient and modern times, has found it a more difficult matter to give a clear account of a thing than to find the * Dr. Dibdin says that a copy of this Bible, which formerly belonged to the Earl of Oxford, and is now in the Royal Library at Paris, contains " an undoubted coeval MS. date, in red ink, of I4C1." — Bibliog. Tour, vol. ii. p. 108. Second edition. t "Libripag-iis est lutife.x .sculpens subtilitcr in laminibus a^eis, fen-eis, ac ligneis sohdi ligni, atque aliis, imagines, scriiituram et omnc (piodlibet, ut prius iniprimat papyi'o aut parieti aut assert muiido. Sciiidit omne (|U(5d cupit, ct est homo faciens talia cum picturis ; et tempore moi Bambcrga! quidam sculpsit integram bibliam super lamellas, ct in quatuor si'ptimanis totain bibliam in pergamoiio subtili pra'sigiiavitsculpliir.am.'' IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 183 synonym of a word. But, notwithstanding his confused account, I think that I can perceive in it the "disjecta membra" of an ancient Form schneider and a Briefmaler, but no indication of a typographer. In a jargon worthy of the '' Epistolse obscurorum virorum " he describes an artist, or rather an artizan, "sculpens subtiliter in laminibus* [laminis] sereis, ferreis, ac ligneis solidi ligni, atque aliis, imagines, scrip- turam et omne quodhbet." In this passage the business of the " Form schneider " may be clearly enough distinguished : he cuts figures and animals in plates of copper and iron ; — but not in the manner of a modern copper-plate engraver ; but in the manner in which a stenciUer pierces his patterns. That this is the true meaning of the writer is evident from the context, wherem he informs us of the artist's object in cutting such letters and figures, namely, " ut prius imprimat papyro aut parieti aut asseri mundo," — ^that he may print upon paper, on a wall, or on a clean board. This is evidently descriptive of the practice of stencUling, and proves, if the manuscript be authentic, that the old " Briefmalers " were accustomed to " slapdash '' walls as well as to engrave and colour cards. In the distinction which is made of the " laminibus ligneis ligni solidi," it is probable that the writer meant to specify the difference between cutting out letters and figures on thin plates of metal, and cutting upon blocks of solid wood. When he speaks of a Bible being cut, at Bamberg, " super lameUas," he most Ukely means a "Poor Preachers' Bible," engraved on- blocks of wood. An impression of a hundred or more copies of such a work might easily enough be taken in a month when the blocks were all ready engraved ; but we cannot suppose that the Bible ascribed to Pfister could be worked off in so short a time. This Bible consists of eight hundred and seventy leaves ; and to print an edition of three hundred copies at the rate of three hundred sheets a day would require four hundred and fifty days. About three hundred copies of each work appears to have been the usual number which Sweinheim and Pannartz and UUic Hahn printed, on the estabhshment of the art in Italy ; and PhUip de Lignamine in his chronicle mentions, under the year 1458, that Gutemberg and Faust, at Mentz, and Mentelin at Strasburg, printed three hundred sheets in a day.t Of Pfister nothing more is positively known than what the tracts printed by him afford ; namely, that he dwelt at Bamberg, and exercised the business of a printer there in 1 461 and 1462. He might indeed print there both before and after those years, but of this we have no direct ¦• In 1793, a learned doctor of divinity of Cambridge is said in a like manner to have broken Prisoian's head -with "paginibus." An epigram on this " blunderStis " is to be found in the " Gradus ad Cantabrigiam." t Lichtenberger, Initia Typographica, p. 51. 184 WOOD ENGEAVING evidence. From 1462 to 1481 no book is known to have been printed at Bamberg. In the latter year, a press was estabhshed there by John Sensenschmidt of Egra, who had previously, that is from 1470, printed several works at Nuremberg. Panzer, alluding to Pfister as the printer only of the Fables and of the tracts contained in the volume described by Camus, says that he can scarcely beUeve that he had a fixed residence at Bamberg ; and that those tracts most likely proceeded from the press of a traveUing printer.* Several of the early printers, who commenced on their own account, on the dispersion of Faust and Scheffer's workmen in 1462, were accustomed to travel -with their smaU stock of materials from one place to another ; sometimes finding employment in a monastery, and sometimes taking up their temporary abode in a small to^wn ; remo^ving to another as soon as pubhc curiosity was satisfied, and the demand for the productions of their press began to dechne. As they seldom put their names, or that of the place, to the works which they printed, it is extremely difficult to decide on the locahty or the date of many old books printed in Germany. It is very likely that they were their own letter-founders, and that they them selves engraved such wood-cuts as they might require. As their object was to gain money, it is not unlikely that they might occasionaUy seU a portion of their types to each other ; t or to a no-vdce who -wished to begin the business, or to a learned abbot who might be desirous of esta- bhshing an amateur press within the precinct of his monastery, where copies of the Facetise of Poggius might be multipUed as weU as the works of St. Augustine. Although it has been asserted the monks regarded with jealousy the progress of printing, as if it were Ukely to make knowledge too cheap, and to interfere -with a part of then business as transcribers of books, such does not appear to have been the fact. In every country in Europe we find them to have been the first to encourage and promote the new art ; and the annals of typography most clearly show that the greater part of the books printed -within the first thirty years from the time of Gutemberg and Faust's partnership were chiefly for the use of the monks and the secular clergy. From 1462 to 1467 there appears to have been no book printed con taining wood-cuts. In the latter year Ulric Hahn, a German, prmted at Rome a book entitled " Meditationes Johannis de Turrecremata," i which - " Opuscula quse typis mandavit tyijographus hie, liactenus ignotus, ad litteratuiam Teutonicam pertinent. Imprimis Pfisterum huno Bambergse fixam'habuisse sedem vix cre- diderim. Videntur potius hi libri Teutonic! momunenta transcimtis typographi."— Annal. Typogr. tom. i. p. 142, cited by Camus. + Breitkopf, Ueber Bibliographic, S. 25. 4to. Leipzig, 17;1;?. t The following is the title at length as it is printed, in red letters, underneath the first cut : " Meditationes Revoredissimi patris dni Johannis de turre cromata .sacrosce Romaiie IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 185 contains wood-cuts engraved in simple outline in a coarse manner. The work is in foho, and consists of thirty-four leaves of stout paper, on which the water-mark is a hunter's horn. The number of cuts is also thirty-four ; and the foUowine — the creation of animals — is a reduced copy of the first. The remainder of the cuts are executed in a similar style ; and though designed with more spirit than those contained in Pfister's tracts, yet it can scarcely be said that they are better engraved. The foUo-wing is an enumeration of the subjects. 1. The Creation, as above represented. 2. The Almighty speaking to Adam. 3. Eve taking the apple. (From No. 3 the rest of the cuts are Ulustrative of the New Testament or of Eccle siastical History.) 4. The Annunciation. 5. The Nativity. 6. Circum cision of Christ. 7. Adoration of the Magi. 8. Simeon's Benediction. 9. The Flight into Egypt. 10. Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple. 11. Christ baptized. 12. The Temptation in the WUderness. 13. The keys given to Peter. 14. The Transfiguration. 15. Christ washing the Apostles' feet. 16. The Last Supper. 17. Christ betrayed by Judas. 18. Christ led before the High Priest. 19. The Crucifixion. 20. Mater Dolorosa. 21. The Descent into HeU. 22. The Eesurrection. 23. Christ appearing to his Disciples. 24. The Ascension. 25. The feast of Pentecost. 26. The Host borne by a bishop. 27. The mystery of the Trinity ; Abraham sees three and adores one. 28. St. Dominic extended like the " Stam-Herr" or first ancestor in a pedigree, and sending forth eccl'ie cardinalis posite & deplete de ipsius raadato I eccl'ie ambitu Marie de Minerva. Rome." The book is described in Von Murr's Memorabilia Bibliothecar. PubUcar. Norimbergensium and in Dibdin's .(Edes Althorpianse, vol. ii. p. 273, with specimens of the cuts. 186 WOOD ENGEAVING numerous branches as Popes, Cardinals, and Saints. 29. Christ appearing to St. Sixtus. 30. The Assumption of the Virgin. 31. Christ seated amidst a choir of Angels. 32. Christ seated at tiie Virgin's right hand in the assembly of Saints. 33. The Office of Mass for the Dead. 34. The Last Judgment. Zani says that those cuts were engraved by an Italian artist, but beyond his assertion there is no authority for the fact. It is most Ukely that they were cut by one of Hahn's workmen, who could occasionally " turn his hand " to wood-engraving and type-founding, as well as com pose and work at press ; and it is most probable that Hahn's workmen when he first established a press in Eome were Germans, and not Itahans. The second book printed in Italy -with wood-cuts is the "Editio Princeps " of the treatise of E. Valturius de Ee MiUtari, which appeared at Verona from the press of " Johannes de Verona,' son of Nicholas the surgeon, and master of the art of printing.'* This work is dedicated by the author to Sigismund Malatesta, lord of Eimini, who is styled in pompous phrase, " Splendidissimum Arminensium Eegem ac Imperatorem semper invictum." The work, however, must have been -written several years before it was printed, for Baluze transcribed from a MS. dated 1463 a letter written .in the name of Malatesta, and sent by the author with a copy of his work to the Sultan Mahomet II. The bearer of this letter was the painter Matteo Pa-sti, a friend of the author, who visited Constantinople at the Sultan's request in order that he might paint his portrait. It is said that the cuts in this work were designed by Pasti ; and it is very probable that he might make the dra-wings in Malatesta's own copy, from which it is likely that the book was printed. As Valturius has mentioned Pasti as being eminently skilful in the arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving,^ Maffei has conjectured, — and Mr. Ottley adds, "with some appearance of probabUity," — that the cuts in question were executed by his hand. If such were the fact, it only could be regretted that an artist so eminent should have mis-spent his time in a manner so unworthy of his reputation ; for, aUowing that a con siderable degree of talent is displayed in many of the designs, there is nothing in the engraving, as they are mere outhnes, but what might be cut by a novice. There is not, however, the slightest reasonable ground to suppose that those engravings were cut by Matteo Pasti, for I believe that he died before printing was introduced into Italy ; and it surely woidd be * The following is a copy of the colophon : " Johannes ex verona oriundus : Nicolai cyrurgie medici filius : Artis impressorie magister : hunc de re militai-i librum elegantissimum : Utteris et figuratis signis sua in patria primus impressit An. mcooclxxii." t " Valtm-ius speaks of Pasti in one of his letters as being eminently skilful in the arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving."- Ottley, Inquiry, p. •iiu. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 187 presuming beyond the verge of probabihty to assert that they might be engraved in anticipation of the art being introduced, and of the book being printed at some time or other, when the blocks would be all ready engraved, in a simple style of art indeed, but with a master's hand. A master-sculptor's hand, however, is not very easily distinguished in the mere rough-dressing of a block of sandstone, which any country mason's apprentice might do as weU. It is very questionable if Matteo Pasti was an engraver in the present sense of the word ; the engraving meant by Valturius was probably that of gold and silver vessels and ornaments ; but not the engraving of plates of copper or other metal for the purpose of being printed. Several of those cuts occupy an entire folio page, though the greater number are of smaUer size. They chiefly represent warlike engines, which display considerable mechanical skill on the part of the contriver ; modes of attack and defence both by land and water, with various con trivances for passing a river which is not fordable, by means of rafts, inflated bladders, and floating bridges. In some of them inventions may be noticed which are generally ascribed to a later period : such as a boat ¦with paddle-wheels, which are put in motion by a kind of crank ; a gun with a stock, fired from the shoulder ; and a bomb-sheU. It has fre quently been asserted that hand-guns were first introduced about the beginning of the sixteenth century, yet the figure of one in the work of Valturius makes it evident that they were known some time before. It is also likely that the drawing was made and the description written at least ten years before the book was printed. It has also been generaUy asserted that bomb-shells were first used by Charles VIII. of France when besieging Naples in 1495. Valturius, however, in treating of cannon, ascribes the invention to Malatesta.* Gibbon, in chapter Ixviii. of his History of the Dechne and Fall of the Eoman Empire, notices this cut "of a bomb-sheU. His reference is to the second edition of the work, in Italian, printed also at Verona by Benin de Bononis in 1483, with the same cuts as the first edition in Latin.t The two following cuts are fac-simUes of the bomb-shell and the hand-gun, as represented in the edition of 1472. The figure armed with the gun,— a portion of a * " Inventum est quoque alteram machu.se hujusce tuum Sigismonde Panpulfe [Malatesta] : qua prise xnex tormentarii pulveris plense cum fungi aridi fomite urientis emittuntur." — We hence learn that the first bomb-sheUs were made of copper, and that the fuzee was a piece of a dried fimgus. As the first edition has neither numerals nor signatures, I cannot refer to the page in which the above passage is to be found. It is, however, opposite to the cut in which the bomb-shell appears, and that is about the middle of the volume. t " Robert Valturio pubUshed at Verona, in 1483, his twelve books de Re MiUtari, m which he first mentions the use of bombs. By his patron Sigismond Malatesri, Prince of Rimini, it had been addressed with a Latin epistle to Mahomet II."— Dechne and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. Ixviu., note. 188 WOOD ENGEAVING large cut, — is firing from a kind of floating battery ; and in the original two figures armed with simUar weapons are stationed immediately above him. IE=30 The following fac-sinule of a cut representing a man shooting -with a cross-bow is the best in the book. The dra-wing of the figure is good, and the attitude graceful and natural The figure, indeed, is not only the best in the work of Valturius, but is one of the best, so far as respects the drawing, that is to be met with in any book printed in the fifteenth century. The practice of introducing wood-cuts into printed books seems to have been first generally adopted at Augsburg, where Gunther Zainer, in 1471, printed a German translation of the " Legenda Sanctorum" with figures of the saints coarsely engraved on wood. This, I beheve, is the first book, after Pfister's tracts, printed in Germany -^vith wood cuts and containing a date. In 1472 he printed a second volume of the same work, and an edition of the book entitled " BeUal,"*both containing wood-cuts. Several other works printed by him bet^\-eeii 1471 and 1475 are iUustrated in a similar manner. Zaincrs example was followed at Augsburg by his contemporaries John Biimler and John Schussler; * Von Murr says that the person who engraved the cuts for this book also engi-aved the cuts in a German edition of the Speculum without date, but printed at Augsburg, and dedicated to John [von Giltingen] abbot of the monastery of St. Ulric and St. Afi-a, who was chosen to that office in 1482. Heineken supposed that the pereon to whom the book was dedicated was John von Ilohenstein, but he resigned the office of abbot in 11')!! ; and the book was certainly nut printed at that period. — See Heineken, Id6e Gen. p. 4(JG ; tmd Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theil, S. 14.^. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 189 and by them, and Anthony Sorg, who first began to print there about 1475, more books with wood-cuts were printed in that city previous to 1480 than at any other place within the same period. In 1477 the first German Bible with wood-cuts was printed by Sorg, who printed another edition with the same cuts and initial letters in 1480. In 1483 he printed an account of the CouncU of Constance held in 1431, with upwards of a thousand wood-cuts of. figures and of the arms of the principal persons both lay and spiritual who attended the council. Upon this work Gebhard, in his Genealogical History of the Heritable States of the German Empire, makes the foUo-wing observations : — " The first printed collection of arms is that of 1483 in the History of the CouncU of Constance written by Ulrich Eeichenthal. To this council we are indebted accidentaUy for the coUection. From the thirteenth century it was customary to hang up the shields of noble and honour able persons deceased in churches ; and subsequently the practice was introduced of painting them upon the waUs, or of placing them in the windows in stained glass. A similar custom prevaUed at the CouncU of Constance ; for every person of consideration who attended 190 Wood engeaving liad his arms painted an the wall in front of his chamber ; and thus Eeichenthal, who caused those arms to be copied and engraved on wood, was enabled to give in his history the first general collection of coat- armour which had appeared ; as eminent persons from all the Catholic states of Europe attended this council."* The practice of introducing wood-cuts became in a few years general throughout Germany. In 1478, John Zainer of Eeutlingen, who is said to have been the brother of Gunther, printed an edition of Boccacio's work "De mulieribus claris," with wood-cuts, at Ulm. In 1474 the first edition of Werner Ttolewinck de Laer's chronicle, entitled " Fasciculus Temporum,'' was printed with wood-cuts by Arnold Ther-Hoemen at Cologne ; and in 1476 an edition of the same work, also -with wood-cuts, was printed at Louvain by John Veldener, who previously had been a printer at Cologne. In another edition of the same work printed by Veldener at Utrecht in 1480, the first page is surrounded with a border of foliage and flowers cut on wood ; and another page, about the middle of the volume, is ornamented in a sinular manner. These are the earliest instances of ornamental borders from wood-blocks which I have observed. About the beginning of the sixteenth century title-pages surrounded with ornamental borders are frequent. From the name of those borders, Rahmen, the German wood engravers of that period are sometimes called Rahmenschneiders. Prosper Marchand, in liis " Diction naire Historique," tom. ii. p. 156, has stated that Erhard Eatdolt, a native of Augsburg, who began to print at Venice about 1475, was the first printer who introduced flowered initial letters, and vignettes— meaning by the latter term wood-cuts ; but his information is scarcely correct. Wood-cuts- — without reference to Pfister's tracts, which were not kno-wn when Marchand wrote — were introduced at Augsburg six years before Eatdolt and his partners t printed at Venice in 1476 the "Calendarium Joannis Eegiomontani," the work to which ilarchand aUudes. It may be true that he introduced a new kind of initial letters ornamented with flowers in this work, but much more beautiful initial lettei-s had appeared long before m the Psalter, in the "Durandi Eationale," and the "Donatus" printed by Faust and Scheffer. The first person who mentions Eatdolt as the inventor of " florentes littera?," so named from the flowers with which they are intermixed, is IMaittaire, in his Annales Typographici, tom. i. part i. p. 53. * L. A. Gebhard, Genealogische Geschichte, I Theil, Vorrede, S. 1 1. Cited by Veith in his " Diatribe," prefixed to Zapf's " Annales Typographiie Augustanaj." t The following colophon to ah edition of Appian informs us that his partners were Bernard the painter and Peter Loslein, who also acted as corrector of the press i " Impressum est hoc opus Venetiis per Befhardfl pictorem & Erhal-dum ratdolt de Augusta una cUm Petro Loslein de Langenzeu correctoro ac socio. Laus Deo. mooOclxxvii." IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 191 In 1483 Veldener,* as has been previously observed at page 106, printed at Culemburg an edition in small quarto of the Speculum Salvationis, with the same blocks as had been used in the earlier folio editions, which are so confidently ascribed to Lawrence Coster. In Veldener's edition each of the large blocks, consisting of two compart ments, is sa-sm in two in order to adapt them to a smaller page. A German translation of the Speculum, with wood-cuts, was printed at Basle, in folio, in 1476 ; and Jansen says that the first book printed in France with wood-cuts was an edition of the Speculum, at Lyons, in 1478 ; and that the second was a translation of the book named " Belial," printed at the same place in 1482. The first printed book in the English language that contains wood cuts is the second edition of Caxton's " Game and Playe of the Chesse," a small folio, without date or place, but generally supposed to have been printed about 1476.t The first edition of the same work, -without cuts, was printed in 1474. On the blank leaves at the end of a copy of the first edition in the King's Library, at the British Museum, there is ^nitten in a contemporary hand a list of the bannerets and knights J made at the battle of " Stooke by syde newerke apon trent the xvi day of June the ii''* yer of harry the -vii." that is, in 1487. In this battle Martin Swart was killed. He commanded the Flemings, who were sent by the Duchess of Burgundy to assist Lambert Simnel. It was at the request of the duchess, who -was Edward the Fourth's sister, that Caxton trans lated the " EecuyeU of the Historyes of Troye," the first book printed in the Enghsh language, and which appeared at Cologne in 1471 or 1472. In Dr. Dibdin's edition of Ames's Tjrpographical Antiquities there is a " Description of the Pieces and Pawns " in the second edition of Caxton's Chess ; which description is said to be iUustrated with fac- * Veldener at the conclusion of a book printed by him in 1476, containing " Epistolarcs quasdam formulas," thus informs the reader of his name and qualifications : " Accipito huic artifici nomen esse magistro Johanni Veldener, cui quidem certa manu insoulpendi, celandi, intorculandi, caracterandi adsit industria ; adds et figurandi et eflBgiendi." That is, his name was John Veldener ; he could engrave, could work both at press and case, and m.ore- over he knew something of sculpture, and could paint a Uttle. t Heineken, Idee G&r. p. 207, erroneously states that the first book with wood-cuts printed in England was the Golden Legend, by Caxton, in 1483. It is probable that the second edition of the Game of Chess preceded it by seven years, and it certainly was printed after the Mirror of the World. X The foUowing are some of the names as they are written : " S gilbert talbott . S John cheiny . S -wUlia stoner . Theis iij wer made byfore the bataile, and after the bataUe were made the same day '. %'. John of Artmdell . Thomas Cooksey . John forteskew . Edmond benyngfeld . James blount . ric . of Crotfte . Geofrey Stanley . ric . delaber . John mortymer . wUUa troutbeke. ' The above appear to have been created Banmrets, for after them foUows a Ust of " Km/ghtee made at the same bataile." It is likely that the owner of the volume was at the battle, and that the names frete -written immediately after. 192 WOOD ENGEAVING simile wood-cuts. There are indeed fac-simUes of some of the figures given, but not of the wood-cuts generally ; for in almost every cut given by Dr. Dibdin the back-ground of the original is omitted. In the de scription of the first fac-simile there is also an error : it is said to be " the first cut in the work," while in fact it is the second. The foUo-wing T believe to be a correct list of these first fruits of English wood-engra-Ying. 1. An executioner with an axe cutting to pieces, on a block, the Umbs of a man. On the head, which is lying on the ground, there is a crown. Birds are seen seizing and flying away with portions of the Umbs. There are buUdings in the distance, and three figures, one of whom is a king -with a crown and sceptre, appear looking on. 2. A figure sitting at a table, with a chess-board before him, and holding one of the chess-men in his hand. This is the cut which Dr. Dibdin says is the first in the book. 3. A king and another person playing at chess. 4. The king at chess, seated on a throne. 5. The king and queen. 6. The " alphyns," now caUed " bishops" in the game of chess, " in the maner of judges sittyng." 7. The knight. 8. The " rook," or castle, a figure on horse back wearing a hood and holding a staff' in his hand. From No. 9 to No. 15 inclusive, the pawns are thus represented. 9. Labourers and workmen, the principal figure representing the first paAvn, -with a spade in his right hand and a cart- whip in his left. 10. The second pa^wn, a smith with his buttriss in the string of his apron, and a hammer in his right hand. 11. The third pawn, represented as a derk, that is a -writer or transcriber, in the same sense as Peter Scheffer and Ulric ZeU are styled clerici, with his case of -writing materials at his girdle, a pair of shears in one hand, and a large knife in the other. The knife, which has a large curved blade, appears more fit for a butcher's chopper than to make or mend pens. 12. The fourth pawn, a man with a pair of scales, and having a purse at his girdle, representing " marchauntes or chaungers." 13. The fifth pawn, a figure seated on a chair, having in his right hand a book, and in his left a sort of casket or box of ointments, representing a physician, spicer, or apothecary. 14. The sixth pawn, an innkeeper. receiving a guest. 15. The seventh pa^wn, a figure with a yard measm-e in his right hand, a bunch of keys in his left, and an open purse at his girdle, representing " customers and toUe gaderers." 16. The eighth pawn, a figure with a sort of badge on his breast near to his right shoulder, after the manner of a nobleman's retainer, and holding a pair of dice in his left hand, representing dice-players, messengers, and " currours," that is " couriers." In old authors the numerous idle retainers of the nobUityare frequently represented as gamblei-s, swash bucklers, and tavern-haunters. Although there are twenty- four impressions in the volume, yet there are only sixteen subj(!cts, as di'scribed above ; the remaining eight being IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 193 repetitions of the cuts numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10, with two impres sions of the cut No. 2, besides that towards the commencement. The above cut is a reduced copy of the knight. No. 7 ; and his character is thus described : " The knyght ought to be maad al armed upon an hors in suche ¦wise that he have an helme on his heed and a spere in his right hond, and coverid -with his shelde, a swerde and a mace on his left syde . clad with an halberke and plates tofore his breste . legge hamoys on his legges . spores on his heelis, on hys handes hys gauntelettes . hys hors wel broken and taught and apte to bataylle and coveryd with hys armes. When the Knyghtes been maad they ben bayned or bathed . That is the signe that they sholde lede a newe lyf and newe manors . also they wake aUe the nyght in prayers and orisons unto god that he -wU geve hem grace that they may gete that thyng that they may not gete by nature. The kyng or prynce gyrdeth a boute them a swerde in signe that they shold abyde and kepen hym of whom they taken their dispences and dignyte." The foUowing cut of the sixth or bishop's pawn, No. 14, " whiche is lykened to taverners and -yytayUers," is thus described in Caxton's own words : " The sixte pawn whiche stondeth before the alphyn on the lyfte syde is made in this forme . ffor hit is a man that hath the right hond stretched out for to caUe men, and holdeth in his left honde a loof of breed and a cuppe of "wyn . and on his gurdel hangyng a bondel of keyes, and this resemblith the taverners hostelers and sellars of vytayl . and 0 194 WOOD ENGEAVING these ought properly to be sette to fore the alphyn as to fore a juge, for there sourdeth oft tymes amonge hem contencion noyse and stryf, which behoveth to be determyned and trayted by the alphyn which is juge of the kynge." The next book containing wood-cuts printed by Caxton is the " Mirrour of the World, or thymage of the same," as he entitles it at the head of the table of contents. It is a thin foho consisting of one hundred leaves ; and, in the Prologue, Caxton informs the reader that it " conteyneth in all Ixvii chapitres and xxvu figures, -without which it may not lightly be understade." He also says that he translated it from the French at the " request, desire, coste. and dispense of the honourable and worshipful man Hugh Bryce, alderman cyteze}"n of London," who intended to present the same to WiUiam, Lord Hastings, chamberlain to Edward TV, and Ueutenant of the same for the town of Calais and the marches there. On the last page he again mentions Hugh Bryce and Lord Hastings, and says of his translation: "Whiche book I begun first to traslate the second day of Janjiier the yere of our lord M.cccc.lxxx. And fynysshed the -vdii day of ^larche the same yere, and the xxi yere of the reign of the most crysten k^Tige, Kynge Edward the fourthe."* * Edward IV. began to reign 4th March 1461 ; the twenty-first year of his reign would consequently commence on 4th March 1481 ; Caxton's dates therefore do not agree, unless we suppose that he reckoned tho commencement of the year from 2Ist March. If so, his date viii M.arch 1480, and the xxi year of the reign of Edwai'd IV, would agree ; and the year of Christ, according to our present mode of reckoning, would bo 1481. Dr. Dibdin assigns to the MiiTor the date 1481,— Typ. Ant. i. p. 100. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 196 The " xicvii figures " mentioned by Caxton, without which the work might not be easily understood, are chiefly diagrams explanatory of the principles of astronomy and dialUng ; but besides those twenty-seven cuts the book contains eleven more, which may be considered as iUustrative rather than explanatory. The following is a Ust of those eleven cuts in the order in which they occur. They are less than the cuts in the " Game of Chess ; " the most of them not exceeding three 1 inches and a half by three.* 1. A school-master or "doctor," gowned, and seated on a high-backed chair, teaching four youths who are on their knees. 2. A person seated on a low-backed chair, holding in his hand a kind of globe ; astro nomical instruments on a table before him. 3. Christ, or the Godhead, holding in his hand a baU and cross. 4. The creation of Eve, who appears coming out of Adam's side. — The next cuts are figurative of the " seven arts hberal." 5. Grammar. A teacher with a large birch-rod Seated on a chair, his four pupUs before him on their knees. 6. Logic. Figure bare-headed seated on a chair, and having before him a book on a kind of reading-stand, which he appears expounding to his pupils who are kneeling. 7. Ehetoric. An upright figure in a gown, to whom another, kneeling, presents a paper, from which a seal is seen depending. 8. Arithmetic. A figure seated, and having before him a tablet inscribed with numerical characters. 9. Geometry. A figure standing, with a pair of compasses in his hand, with which he seems to be drawing diagrams on a table. 10. Music. A female figure with a sheet of music in her hand, singing, and a man playing on the Enghsh flute. 11. Astronomy. Figure -vrith a kind of quadrant in his hand, who seems to be taking an observation. — An idea may be formed of the manner in which those cuts are engraved from the fac-simile on the next page of No. 10, " Music." There are wood-cuts in the Golden Legend, 1483 ; the Fables of Esop, 1484 ; Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and other books printed by Caxton ; but it is unnecessary either to enumerate them or to give specimens, as they are aU executed in the same rude manner as the cuts in the Book of Chess and the Mirror of the World. In the Book of Hunting and Hawking printed at St. Albans, 1486, there are rude wood-cuts ; as also in a second and enlarged edition of the same book printed by Wynkyn de Worde, Caxton's successor, at Westminster in 1496. The most considerable wood-cut printed in England previous to 1500 is, so far as regards the design, a representation of the Crucifixion at the end of the Golden Legend printed by Wynkyn dc Worde in * Eao-sitmles of six of those cuts are given in Dr. Dibdih's edition of Ames's Typo* graphical Antiquities, vol. i. p. 110—112. 02 196 WOOD ENGEAVING 1493.* In this cut, neither of the thieves on each side of Christ appears to be naUed to the cross. The arms of the thief on the right of Christ hang behind, and are bound to the transverse piece of the cross, which passes underneath his shoulders. His feet are neither bound nor naUed to the cross. The feet of the thief to the left of Christ are tied to the upright piece of the cross, to which his hands are also bound, his shoulders resting upon the top, and his face turned upward towards the sky. To the left is seen the Virgin, — who has faUen down, — supported by St. John. In the back-ground to the right, the artist, like several others of that period, has represented Christ bearing his cross. Dr. Dibdin, at page 8 of the "Disquisition on the Early State of Engraving and Ornamental Printing m Great Britam," prefixed to Ames's and Herbert's Typographical Antiquities, makes the foUowing observations on this cut : " The ' Crucifixion ' at the end of the ' Golden Legend' of 1493, which Wynkyn de Worde has so frequentiy subjomed to his rehgious pieces, is, unquestionably, the effort of some ingenious foreign artist. It is not very improbable that Eubens had a recoUection of one of the thieves, twisted, from convulsive agony, round the top of the cross, when he executed his celebrated picture of the same subjecf't * A large flowered letter, a T, cut on wood, occm-s on the same page as the Crucifixion. t In a note upon this passage Dr. Dibdin gives the following extract from Sir Joshua Reynolds. " To give animation to this subject, Rubens has chosen tho point of time when an executioner is piercing tho side of Christ, while another with a bar of iron is breaking the IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 197 In De Worde's cut, however, it is to be remarked that the contorted attitude of both the thieves results rather from the manner in which they are bound to the cross, than from the convulsions of agony. At page 7 of the same Disquisition it is said that the figures in the Game of Chess, the Mirror of the World, and other works printed by Caxton "are, in all probability, not the genuine productions of this country ; and may be traced to books of an earlier date printed abroad, from which they were often borrowed without acknowledgment or the least regard to the work in which they again appeared. Caxton, how ever, has judiciously taken one of the prints from the ' Bibha Pauperum ' to introduce in his ' Life of Christ.' The cuts for his second edition of ' Chaucer's Canterbury Tales ' may perhaps safely be considered as the genuine invention and execution of a British artist." Although I am well aware that the printers of the fifteenth century were accustomed to copy without acknowledgment the cuts which appeared in each other's books, and though I think it Ukely that Caxton might occasionally resort to the same practice, yet I am decidedly of opinion that the cuts in the " Game of Chess " and the " Mirror of the World " were designed and engraved in this country. Caxton's Game of Chess is certainly the first book of the kind which appeared with wood cuts in any country ; and I am further of opinion that in no book printed previous to 1481 wUl the presumed originals of the eleven principal cuts in the Mirror of the World be found. Before we are required to beUeve that the cuts in those two books were copied from similar designs by some foreign artist, we ought to be informed in what work such originals are to be found. If there be any merit in a first design, however rude, it is but just to assign it to him who first employs the unknown artist and makes his productions known. Caxton's claims to the merit of " Ulustrating " the Game of Chess and the Mirror of the World with wood-cuts from original designs, I conceive to be indisputable. Dr. Dibdin, in a long note at pages 33, 34, and 35 of the Typo graphical Antiquities, gives a confused account of the earliest editions of books on chess. He mentions as the first, a Latin edition — supposed by Santander to be the work of Jacobus de Cessolis — in folio, printed about the year 1473, by Ketelaer and Leempt. In this edition, however, there are no cuts, and the date is only conjectural. He says that two editions of the work of Jacobus de Cessolis on the MoraUty of Chess, in German and ItaUan, -with wood-cuts, were printed, without date, in the fifteenth century, and he adds : " Whether Caxton borrowed the Umbs of one of the malefactors, who in his convulsive agony, which his body admtobly expresses, has tom one of his feet from the tree to which it was nailed. The expression in the action of the figure is wonderful." 198 WOOD ENGEAVING cuts in his second edition from those in the Svo. German edition without date, or from this latter Italian one, I am not able to ascertain, ha^Ying seen neither." He seems satisfied that Caxton had borrowed the cuts in his book of chess, though he is at a loss to discover the party who might have them to lend. Had he even seen the two editions which he mentions, he could not have known whether Caxton had borrowed his cuts from them or not untU he had ascertained that they were printed pre^viously to the English edition. There is a German edition of Jacobus de Cessolis, in foho, ¦with wood-cuts supposed to be printed in 1477, at Augsburg, by Gunther Zainer, but both date and printer's name are conjectural. The first German edition of this work ¦with wood cuts, and ha"Ying a positive date, I beUeve to be that printed at Strasburg by Henry Knoblochzer in 1483. UntU a work on chess shaU be produced of an earlier date than that ascribed to Caxton's, and containing simUar wood-cuts, I shall continue to believe that the wood-cuts in the second EngUsh edition of the " Game and Playe of the Chesse " were both designed and executed by an English artist ; and I protest against bibhographers going a-begging ¦with wood-cuts found in old English books, and ascribing them to foreign artists, before they have taken the slightest pains to ascertain whether such cuts were executed in England or not. The wood-cuts in the Game of Chess and the Mirror of the World are equally as good as the wood-cuts which are to be found in books printed abroad about the same period. They are even decidedly better than those in Anthony Sorg's German Bible, Augsburg, 1480, or those in Veldener's edition of the Fasciculus Temporum, printed at Utrecht in the same year. It has been supposed that most of the wood-cuts which appear in books printed by Caxton and De Worde were executed abroad ; on the presumption that there were at that period no professed wood engravers in England. Although I am inclined to beUeve that within the fifteenth century there were no persons in this countiy who practised wood engraving as a distinct profession, yet it by no means foUows from such an admission that Caxton's and De Worde's cuts must have been engraved by foreign artists. The manner in which they are executed is so coarse that they might be cut by any pei-son who could handle a graver. Looking at them merely as specimens of wood engraving, they are not generally superior to the practice-blocks cut by a modern wood-engraver's apprentice within the first month of his noviciate. I conceive that there would be no greater difficulty in find ing a person capable of engraving them than there would be in finding the pieces of wood on which they ¦were to be executed. Persons who have noticed the embellishments in manuscripts, the ciu-ving, the IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 199 monuments, and the stained glass in churches, executed in England about the time of Caxton, wUl scarcely suppose that there were no artists in this country capable of making the designs for those cuts. There is in fact reason to believe that in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the walls of apartmentS; more especially in taverns and hostelries, frequently contained paintings, most probably in dis temper, of subjects both from sacred and general history. That paintings of sacred subjects were not unusual in churches at those periods is weU known. In most of the cuts which are to be found in books printed by Caxton, the effect is produced by the simplest means. The outline of the figures is coarse and hard, and the shades and folds of the draperies are indicated by short paraUel Unes. Cross-hatchings occur in none of them, though in one or two I have noticed a few angular dots picked out of the black part of a cut in order that it might not appear Uke a mere blot. The foUage of the trees is generaUy represented in a manner similar to those in the background of the cut of the knight, of which a copy is given at page 193. The oak leaves in a wood-cut* at the commencement of the preface to the Golden Legend, 1483, are an exception to the general style of Caxton's foliage ; and represent what they are intended for with tolerable accuracy. Having thus noticed some of the earUest books with wood-engravings printed in England, I shaU now resume my account of the progress of the art on the Continent. In an edition of Ptolemy's Cosmography, printed at Ulm in 1482 by Leonard HoU, we have the first instance of maps engraved on wood. The work is in folio, and the number of the maps is twenty-seven. In a general map of the world the engraver has thus inserted his' name at the top : " Insculptum est per Johanne Schnitzer de Armss- heini."t At the corners of this map the ¦winds are represented by heads •with puffed-out cheeks, very indifferently engraved. The work also contains ornamental initial letters engraved on wood. In a large one, the letter at the beginning of the volume, the translator is represented offering his book to Pope Paul IL who occupied the see of Eome from 1464 to 1471. Each map occupies two foho pages, and is printed on the verso of one page and the recto of the next, in such a manner that when the book is open the adjacent pages seem as if printed from one block. What may be considered as the skeleton of each map, — such as * A copy of this cut is given at p. 186, vol. i. of Dr. Dibdin's edition of the Typographical Antiquities. t Amsheim, which is j)robably the place intended, is about twenty miles to the south west of Mentz. 200 WOOD ENGEAVING indications of rivers and mountains, — is coarsely cut ; but as the names of the places are also engraved on wood, the execution of those thirty-seven maps must have been a work of considerable labour. In 1486 another edition with the same cuts was printed at Ulm by John Eegen at the cost of Justus de Albano of Venice. The idea of Leonard HoU's Ptolemy was most likely suggested by an edition of the same work printed at Eome in 1478 by Arnold Bukinck, the successor of Conrad Sweinheim. In this edition the maps are printed from plates of copper ; and from the perfect sinularity of the letters, as may be observed in the names of places, there can be no doubt of their having been stamped upon the plate by means of a punch in a manner simUar to that in which a bookbinder impresses the titles at the back of a volume. It is absolutely impossible that such perfect uniformity in the form of the letters could have been obtained, had they been separately engraved on the plate by hand. Each single letter is as perfectly like another of the same character, — the capital M for instance, — as types cast by a letter-founder from the same mould. The names of the places are aU in capitals, but different sizes are used for the names of countries and cities. The capitals at the margins referring to the degrees of latitude are of very beautiful shape, and as delicate as the capitals in modefn hair-type. At the back of some of the maps in the copy in the King's Library at the British Museum, the paper appears as if it had received, when in a damp state, an impression from hnen cloth. As this appearance of threads crossing each other does not proceed from the texture of the paper, but is evidently the result of pressure, I am inchned to think that it has been occasioned by a piece of hnen being placed between the paper and the roUer when the impressions were taken. In the dedication of the work to the Pope it is stated that this edition was prepared by Domitius Calderinus of Verona, who promised to coUate the Latin version with an ancient Greek manuscript; and that Conrad Sweinheim, who was one of the lirst who introduced the art of printing at Eome, undertook, with the assistance of "certain mathematical men," whom he taught, to " impress" the maps upon plates of copper. Sweinheim, after having spent three years in preparing these plates, died before they were finished; and Arnold Bukmck, a learned German printer, completed the work, "that the emendations of Calderinus,— who also died before the book was prmted,— and the results of Sweinheim's most ingenious mechanical contrivances might not be lost to the learned world."* * "Magister vero Conradus Suueynlicyn, Germanus, a quo formandorum Romce Ubrorum ars primum profccta est, occasione bine sumjita posteritati consulens animum ad hano IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 201 An edition of Ptolemy in folio, with the maps engraved on copper, was printed at Bologna by Dominico de Lapis with the erroneous date M.cccc.Lxn. This date is certainly ¦wrong, for no work from the press of this printer is known of an earlier date than 1477 ; and the editor of this edition, PhUip Beroaldus the elder, was only born in 1450, if not in 1453. Supposing him to have been born in the former year, he would only be twelve years old in 1462. Eaidel, who in 1737 published a dissertation on this edition, thinks that two numerals — xx — had acci dentaUy been omitted, and that the date ought to be 1482. Breitkopf thinks that one X might be accidentaUy omitted in a date and pass uncorrected, but not two. He rather thinks that the compositor had placed an i instead of an L, and that the correct date ought to stand thus: mcccclxli — 1491. I am however of opinion that no instance of the Eoman numerals, lxli, being thus combined to express 91, can be produced. It seems most probable that the date 1482 assigned by Eaidel is correct ; although his opinion respecting the numerals — xx — ^being accidentaUy omitted may be ¦wrong. It is extremely difficult to account for the erroneous dates of many books printed previous to 1500. Several of those dates may have been accidentaUy wrong set by the compositor, and overlooked by the corrector ; but others are so ob^vious that it is Ukely they were designedly introduced. The bibhographer who should undertake to enquire what the printers' reasons might be for falsifying the dates of their books, would be as likely to arrive at the truth, as he would be in an enquiry into the reason of their sometimes adding their name, and sometimes omitting it. The execution of the maps in the edition of De Lapis is much inferior to that of the maps begun by Sweinheim, and finished by Bukinck in 1478. Bukinck's edition of Ptolemy, 1478, is the second book which con tains impressions from copper-plates. Heineken, at page 233, refers to the "Missale Herbipolense," foho, 1481, as the first book printed in Germany containing a specimen of copper-plate engraving. Dr. Dibdin, however, in the 3rd volume of his Tour, page 306, mentions the same work as having the date of 1479 in the prefatory admonition, and says that the plate of a shield of arms — the only one in the volume — is noticed by Bartsch in his " Peintre-Graveur," vol. x. p. 57. The printer doctrinam capessendam appUciut. Subinde mathematicis adhibitis -viris quemadmodum tabuUs eneis imprimerentur edocuit, trieimioque in hac crura consumpto diem obut. In cujus vigUarum laborumque pai-tem non inferiori ingenio ac studio Amoldus Buckinck e Germania vir apprime eruditus ad Imperfeotum opus succedens, ne Domitii Conradique obitu eorum yigUiae emendationesque sine testimonio perirent neve virorum eruditorum censvuam fugerent immensas subtilitatis machinimenta, examussim ad unum perfecit" — Dedication to the Pope, of Ptolemy's Cosmography, Rome, 1478. 202 WOOD ENGEA^VING of the edition of 1481 appears from Heineken to have been George Eeyser. In the " Modus Orandi secundum chorum Herbipolensem," folio, printed by George Eeyser, "Herbipoh," [at Wurtzburg,] 1485, there is on folio ii. a copper-plate engraving of the arms of Eudolph de Scherenberg, bishop of that see. This plate is also described by Bartsch in his " Peintre-Graveur," vol. x. p. 156. The first book which appeared with copper-plate engravings is intitled "H Monte Sancto di Dio," written by Antonio Bettini, and printed at Florence in 1477 by Nicolo di Lorenzo deUa Magna. As this book is of extreme rarity, I shaU here give an account of the plates from Mercier, who first called the attention of bibliographers to it as being of an earlier date than the folio edition of Dante, with copper-plate engravings, printed also by Nicolo Lorenzo in 1481. This edition of Dante was generaUy supposed to be the first book containing copper-plate engravings untU Bettini's work was described by Mercier. The work caUed " II Monte Sancto di Dio " is in quarto, and according to Mercier there ought to be a quire or gathering of four leaves at the commencement, containing a summary of the work, which is divided into three parts, with a table of the chapters. On the reverse of the last of those four leaves is the first plate, which occupies the whole page, and " measures nine inches and seven-eighths in height, by seven inches in width."* This plate represents the Holy Mountain, on the top of which Christ is seen standing in the midst of adoring angels. A ladder is placed against this mountain, to which it is fastened -with iron chains, and on each step is engraved the name of a virtue, for instance. Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and others. A figure clothed in a long robe, and who appears to be a monk, is seen mounting the ladder. His eyes are directed towards a large crucifix placed half way up the hill to the right of the ladder, and from his mouth there proceeds a label inscribed with these words : " lirami doppo ti!'—" Draw me up after thee." Another figure is seen standing at the foot of the mountain, looking towards the top, and uttering these words: " Levari ocuhs nuos in montes',' &c. The second plate occurs at signature Ivt after the 115tli chapter. It also represents Christ in his glory, surrounded by angels. It is only four inches and five lines high, by six inches wide, French measure. The third plate, which is the same size as the second, occurs at signature Pvij, and represents a \-iew of Hell according to the description of Dante. Those plates, which for the period tue well enough designed and executed, especially the second, were most likely engraved * This is Mr. Ottley's measurement, taken within the black Une which bounds the subject. The width as given by Mercier does not accord with the above. He s;iys that the plate " a neuf pouces et demi do haut sur six de large." + Mr. Ottley says, "on the reverse of signature N viij." IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 203 on copper ; and they seem to be by the same hand as those in the edition of Dante of 1481, from the press of Nicolo di Lorenzo, who also printed the work of Bettini* A copy of " II Monte Sancto di Dio '' is in Earl Spencer's Library; and a description and specimens of the cuts are given by Dr. Dibdin in the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. iv. p. 30 ; and by Mr. Ottiey in the Inquiry into the Origin and Eariy History of Engraving, vol. i pp. 375 — 377. In the execution of the maps, the copper-plate engraver possesses a decided advantage over the engraver on wood, owing to the greater facUity and clearness with which letters can be cut in copper than on wood. In the engraving of letters on copper, the artist cuts the form of the letter into the plate, the character being thus in intaglio ; whUe in engra-ving on a block, the wood surrounding has to be cut away, and the letter left in relief. On copper, using only the graver, — for etching was not known in the fifteenth century, — as many letters might be cut in one day as could be cut on wood in three. Notwithstanding the disadvantage under which the ancient wood engravers laboured in the execution of maps, they for many years contended -with the copper-plate printers for a share of this branch of business; and the printers, at whose presses maps engraved on wood only coiild be printed, were weU inclined to support the 'wood engravers. In a folio edition of Ptolemy, printed at Venice in 1511, by Jacobus Pentius de Leucho, the outlines of the maps, with the indications of the mountains and rivers, are cut on wood, and the names of the places are printed in type, of different sizes, and -with red and black ink. For instance, in the map of Britain, which is more correct than any which had previously appeared, the word " ALBION " is printed in large capitals, and the word " gadini " in small capitals, and both with red ink. The words " Curia " and " Bremenium " are printed in smaU Eoman characters, and with black ink. The names of the rivers are also in smaU Eoman, and in black ink. Such of those maps as contain many names, are almost fuU of type. The double borders surrounding them, within which the degrees of latitude ai'e marked, appear to have been formed of separate pieces of metal, in the manner of wide double rules. At the head of several of the maps there are figures of animals emblematic of the country. In the first map of Africa there are two parrots ; in the second an animal like a jackal, and a non-descript ; in the third, containing Egypt, a crocodUe, and a monstrous kind of fish like a dragon ; and in the * "Lettres de M. I'Abb^ de St. L***, [St. Leger, autrefois le pere Le Mercier, ancien BibUothecaure de St. Genevieve] k M. le Baron de H*** sur differentes Editions rares du S:V^ Steele," p. 4^-5. Svo. Paris, 1783. A short biographic sketch of the Abb6 Mercier St L6ger, one of the most eminent French Bibliographers of the last century, wUl be found in Dr. Dibdin's Tour, vol. ii. p. ISO. 204 WOOD engraving fourth, two parrots. In the last, the "curious observer" wUl note a specimen of decorative printing from two blocks of wood ; for the beak, ¦wing, and tail of one of the parrots is printed in red. In the last map,— of Lorame,— in an edition of Ptolemy, in foho, printed at Strasburg in 1513, by John Schott, the attempt to pruit in colours, in the manner of chiaro^scuro wood engra^vings, is carried yet further. The hUls and woods are printed green ; the indications of towns and cities, and the names of the most considerable places, are red ; while the names of the smaller places are black. For this map, executed in three colours, green, red, and black, there would be required two wood engra-vings and two forms of type, each of which woidd have to be separately printed. The arms which form a border to the map are printed in their proper heraldic colours.* The only other specimen of armorial bearings printed in colours from wood-blocks, that I am aware of, is Earl Spencer's arms in the first part of Savage's Hints on Decorative Printing, which was pubUshed in 1818, upwards of three hundred years after the first essay. At a later period a new method was adopted by which the wood engraver was spared the trouble of cutting the letters, whUe the printer was enabled to obtain a perfect copy of each map by a single impression The mode in which this was effected was as foUows. The indications of mountains, rivers, cities, and viUages were engraved on the wood as before, and blank spaces were left for the names. Those spaces were afterwards cut out by means of a chisel or drill, piercing quite through the block : and the names of the places being inserted in type, the whole constituted only one " form," from which an impression both of the cut and the letters could be obtained by its being passed once through the press. Sebastian Munster's Cosmography, foho, printed at Basle in 1554, by Henry Petri, affords several examples of maps executed in this manner. This may be considered as one of the last efforts of the old wood engravers and printers to secure to themselves a share of the business of map- engraving. Their endeavours, however, were unavaUing ; for ¦within twenty years of that date, this branch of art was almost exclusively in the hands of the copper-plate engravers. From the date of the maps of- Ortehus, Antwerp, 1570, engraved on copper by .^gidius Diest, maps engraved on wood are rarely to be seen. The practice of engra\-ing the outlines and rivers on wood, and then piercing the block and inserting the names of the places in type has, however, lately been revived ; and where publishers are obliged either to print maps with the t}-pe or to * I regret that I have not had an opportunity of pereonally examining this map. There is a copy of Schott's edition in the British IMuseum ; but aU the maps, except one of the sphere, are taken out. The above account of the map of Loi-aine is from Breitkopf's interesting essay " Keber den Druck der Qeographischen Charton," S. 7. 4to. Leipzig, 1777. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 205 give none at aU, this mode may answer very weU, more especiaUy when the object is to give the relative position of a few of the principal places, rather than a crowded Ust of names. Most of the larger maps in the Penny Cyclopaedia are executed in this manner. The holes in the blocks are pierced with the greatest rapidity by gouges of different sizes acting verticaUy, and put in motion by machinery contrived by Mr. Edward Co-wper, to whose great mechanical skUl the art of steam- printing chiefly owes its perfection. Having thus noticed consecutively the progress of map engraving, it may not here be out of place to give a brief account of Breitkopf's experiment to print a map with separate pieces of metal in the manner of type.* Previous to 1776 some attempts had been made by a person named Preusch, of Carlsruhe, to print maps by a process which he named typometric, and who published an account of his plan, printed at the press of Haass the Younger, of BasU. In 1776 Breitkopf sent a communication to Buschiag's Journal, containing some remarks on the invention of Preusch, and stating that he had conceived a simUar plan upwards of twenty years previously, and that he had actuaUy set up a specimen and printed off a few copies, which he had given to his friends. The veracity of this account ha-ving been questioned by an Uliberal critic, Breitkopf, in 1777, prefixed to his Essay on the Printing of Maps a specimen composed of moveable pieces of metal in the manner of types. He expressly declares that he considered his experiment a faUure ; and that he only produced his specimen — a quarto map of the country round Leipsic — in testimony of the truth of what he had previously asserted, and to show that two persons might, independently of each other, conceive an idea of the same invention, although they might differ considerably in their mode of carrying it into effect. He was first led to think on the practicabUity of printing maps with moveable pieces of metal by considering that when the letters are omitted there remain but hUls, rivers, and the indications of places ; and for these he was con-vinced that representations consisting of moveable pieces of metal might be contrived. Having, however, made the experiment, he felt satisfied that the appearance of such a map was unpleasing to the eye, and that the invention was not likely to be practicaUy useful. Had it not been for the publication of Preusch, he says that he never would have thought of mentioning his invention, except as a mechanical experiment ; and to show that the execution of maps in such a manner was -within the compass of the printer's art. In the specimen which he gives, rivers are represented by minute paraUel lines, which are shorter or longer as the river contracts or ¦* The followmg particulars respecting Breitkopf's invention are derived from his essay " Ueber den Druck der Geographisohen Charten," previously referred to. 206 WOOD ENGEAVING expands ; and the junction of the separate pieces may be distinctly perceived. For hiUs and trees there are distinct characters representing those objects. Towns and large vUlages are distinguished by a smaU church, and smaU vUlages by a small circle. Eoads are mdicated by dotted paraUel Ihies. For the titie of the map large capitals are used. The name of the city of leipsic is in small capftals. The names of towns and vUlages are in Italic ; and of woods, rivers, and hiUs, in Eoman type. The general appearance of the map is unpleasing to the eye. Breitkopf has displayed his ingenuity by producing such a typogi-aphic curiosity, and his good sense in abandoning his invention when he found that he could not render it useful. Mr. Ottley, at page 755 of the second volume of his Inquiry, makes the foUowing remarks on the subject of cross-hatching in wood engravings : — " It appears anciently to have been the practice of those masters who furnished designs for the wood engravers to work from, carefully to avoid all cross-hatchings, which, it is probable, were con sidered beyond the power of the Xylographist to represent. Wolgemuth perceived that, though difficult, this was not impossible ; and in the cuts of the Nuremberg Chronicle, the execution of which, (besides furnishing the designs,) he doubtless superintended, a successful attempt was first made to imitate the bold hatchings of a pen-drawing, crossing each other, as occasion prompted the designer, in various dfrections : to him belongs the praise of ha-ving been the first who duly appreciated the powers of this art." Although it is true that cross-hatchings are not to be found in the earliest wood engra^vings, yet Mr. Ottley is ¦wrong in assigning this material improvement in the art to Michael Wolgemuth ; for cross- hatching is introduced in the beautiful cut forming the frontispiece to the Latin edition of Breydenbach's Travels, foUo, first printed at Mentz. by Erhard Eeuwich, in I486,* seven years before the Nuremberg Chronicle appeared. The cut in the foUo-wing page is a reduced but accurate copy of Breydenbach's frontispiece, which is not only the finest wood engra-ving which had appeared up to that date, 1486, but is in point of design and execution as superior to the best cuts in the Nuremberg Chronicle, as the designs of Albert Durer are to the cuts in the oldest editions of the " Poor Preachers' Bible." In this cut, cross-hatching may be observod hi the drapery of the female figure, in the upper part of the two shields on each side of her, hi the border at the top of the cut, and in other places. Whether the female figure be Intended as a personification of the city of Mentz, as is • An edition of this Work in German, With the same cuts, was prmted by Reuwich m 148"^. Within ten years, at least six different editions of this work were printed in Germany. It was also translated into Low Dutch, and printed in HoUand. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 207 sometimes seenm old books of the sixteenth century, or for St. Catherine, whose shrine on Mount Sinai was visfted by Breydenbach in his travels, I shaU not pretend to determine. The arms on her right are Breydenbach's own ; on her left are the arms of John, Count of Solms and Lord of Mintzenberg, and at the bottom of the cut those of PhUip de Bicken, knight, who were Breydenbach's companions to the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem and the shrine of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. St. Catherine, it may be observed, was esteemed the patroness of learned men, and her figure was frequently placed in hbraries in Catholic countries, in the same manner as the bust of Minerva in the libraries of ancient Greece and Eome. The name of the artist by whom the frontispiece to Breydenbach's travels was executed is unknown ; but I have no hesitation in declaring him to be one of the best wood engravers of the period. As this is the earUest wood-cut in which I have noticed 208 WOOD ENGEAVING. cross-hatching, I shall venture to ascribe the merit of the invention to the unknown artist, whoever he may have been ; and shall consider the date 1486 as marking the period when a new style of wood engraving was introduced. Wolgemuth, as associated with wood engra^ving, has too long been decked out with borrowed plumes ; and persons who knew little or nothing either of the history or practice of the art, and who are misled by writers on whose authority they rely, beheve that Michael Wolgemuth was not only one of the best wood engravers of his day, but that he was the first who introduced a material improvement into the practice of the art. This error becomes more firmly rooted when such persons come to be informed that he was the master of Albert Durer, who is generally, but erroneously, supposed to have been the best wood engraver of his day. Albert Durer studied under Michael Wolgemuth as a painter, and not as a wood engraver ; and I consider it as extremely questionable if either of them ever engraved a single block. There are many e^vidences in Germany of Wolgemuth ha^ving been a tolerably good painter for the age and country in which he Uved ; but there is not one of his ha^ving engraved on wood. In the Nuremberg Chronicle he is represented as having, in conjunction ¦with WiUiam Pleydenwnrf, superintended the execution of the wood-cuts contained in that book. Those cuts, which are frequently referred to as exceUent specimens of old wood engraving, are in fact the most tasteless and worthless things that are to be found in any book, ancient or modem. It is a book, however, that is easy to be obtained; and it serves as a land-mark to superficial enquirers who are perpetuaUy referring to it as containing wood-cuts designed, if not engraved, by Albert Durer's master, — and such, they conclude, must necessarUy possess a very high degree of exceUence. Breydenbach was a canon of the cathedral church of Mentz, and he dedicates the account of his pUgrimage to the Holy Land and ¦visit to Mount Sinai to Berthold, archbishop of that see. The frontispiece, although most deser^ving of attention as a specimen of wood engra^ving, is not the only cut in the book which is worthy of notice. Views ai-e given, engraved on wood, of the most remarkable places which he visfted ; — and those of Venice, Corfu, Modon, and the country round Jerusalem, which are of great length, are inserted in the book as " folding plates." Each of the above views is too large to have been engraved on one block. For that of Venice, which is about five feet long, and ten inches high, several blocks must have been required, from each of which impressions would have to be taken singly, and afterwards pasted together, as is at present done in such views as are too wide to be contained on one sheet. Those views, with respect to the manner in which they are executed, are supt'rior to c^'el¦ything of the same kind which had previously appeared. The work also contains smaUer cuts IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 209 printed with the type, which are not generaUy remarkable for their execution, although some of them are drawn and engraved in a free and spirited manner. The foUowing cut is a reduced copy of that which is prefixed to a chapter intitled "De Surianis qui lerosolimis et locis illis manentes etiam se asserunt esse Christianos :" — In a cut of animals there is a figure of a giraffe,* named by Breydenbach " seraffa," of a unicorn, a salamander, a camel, and an animal something Ulce an oran-outang, except that it has a taU. Of the last the traveller observes, " non constat de nomine." Some account of this book, with fac-simUes of the cuts, will be found in Dibdin's Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. iii. pp. 216 — 228. In the copy there described, belonging to Earl Spencer, the beautiful frontispiece was wanting. Although a flowered border surrounding a whole page may be observed as occurring twice in Veldener's edition of the Fasciculus Temporum, printed at Utrecht in 1480, yet I am inclined to think that the practice of surrounding every page with an ornamental flowered border cut in wood, was first introduced by the Parisian printers at a period somewhat later. In 1488, an edition of the " Horae in Laudem beatissimse virginis Marise," in octavo, was printed at Paris by Anthony Verard, the text of which is surrounded with ornamental borders. The practice thus introduced was subsequently adopted by the printers of * This is probably the first figi-ire of the girafte that was communicated to the " reading public" of Europe. Its existence was afterwards denied by several naturalists ; and it is only within a comparatively recent period that the existence of such an animal was cleariy e.stablished. 210 WOOD ENGEAVING Germany and HoUand, more especiaUy in the decoration of devotional works, such as Horae, Bre-viaries, and Psalters. Verard appears to have chiefly printed works of devotion and love, for a greater number of Horae and Eomances proceeded from his press than that of any other printer of his age. Most of them contain wood-cuts, some of which, in books printed by him about the beginning of the sixteenth century, are designed -with considerable taste and weU engraved ; whUe others, those for instance in " La Fleur des BattaUes," 4to, 1505, are not superior to those in Caxton's Chess : it is, however, not unhkely that the cuts ia " La Fleur des BattaUes " of this date had been used for an earher edition* The "Hortus Sanitatis," foho, printed at Mentz in 1491 by Jacobus Meydenbach, is frequently referred to by bibhographers ; not so much on account of the many wood-cuts which it contains, but as being supposed in some degree to confirm a statement in Sebastian Munster's Cosmography, and in Serrarius, De Eebus Moguntinis, where a John Meydenbach is mentioned as being a partner -with Gutemberg and Faust. Von Murr, as has been pre-viously noticed, supposed that this person was a wood engraver ; and Prosper Marchand,t though -without any authority, caUs Jacobus Meydenbach his son or his relation This work, wliich is a kind of Natural History, explaining the uses and -virtues of herbs, fowls, fish, quadrupeds, minerals, drugs, and spices, contains a number of wood-cuts, many of which are curious, as containing representations of natural objects, but none of which are remarkable for thefr execution as wood engravings. On the opposite page is a fac-simUe of the cut which forms the head-piece to the chapter "De O-vis." The figure, wliich possesses considerable merit, represents an old woman going to market with her basket of eggs. This is a fair specimen of the manner in which the cuts in the Hortus Sanitatis are designed and executed. Among the most curious and best designed are : the interior of an apothecary's shop, on the reverse of the first leaf; a monkey seated on the top of a fountain, in the chapter on water ; a butcher cutting up meat ; a man seUing cheese at a staU ; a woman milking a cow ; and figures of the male and female mandrake. At chapter 119, "De Pediculo," a woman is represented brushing the head of a boy with a peculiar kind of brush, which answers the purpose of a small-toothed comb ; and she appears • A good specimen of early French wood engraving may be seen in the large cut forming a kind of frontispiece to the " Roman du Roy Aitus," foho, printed at Rouen in 1488 by Jehan de Bourgeois. This cut, which occupies the whole page, represents King Arthur and his knights dining off the round table. A smaller one occurs at the beginning of the second part, and both are surrounded by ornamental borders. t Hist, de I'lmprimerie, p. 49, IN coNNEx;ioN With the peess. 211 to bestow her labour on no infertile field, for each of her " sweepings," which are seen lying on the floor, would scarcely slip through the teeth of a garden rake. Meydenbach's edition has been supposed to be the first ; and Linnaeus, in the Bibliotheca Botanica, has ascribed the work to one John Cuba, a physician of Mentz ; but other -writers have doubted if this person were reaUy the author. The first edition of this work, under the title of " Herbarus," with a hundred and fifty wood-cuts, was printed at Mentz by Peter Scheffer in 1484 ; and in 1485 he printed att enlarged edition in German, containing three hundred and eighty cuts, under the title of " Ortus Sanitatis^ oder Garten . der Gesundheit." Of the work printed by Scheffer, Breydenbach is said to have been one of the compUers. Several editions of the Horcus Sanitatis were subsequently printed, not only in Germany, but in France HoUand, and S-witzerland. Having previously expressed my opinion respecting the wood-cuts in the Nuremberg Chronicle, there wUl be less occasion to give a detaUed account of the book and the rubbish ft contams here : in speaking thus it may perhaps be necessary to say that this character is meant to apply to the wood-cuts and not to the Uterary portion of the work, which Thomas Hearne, of black-letter memory, pronounces to be extaremely "pleasant, useful, and curious." With the wood-cuts the Eev. Dr. Dibdin appears to have been equally charmed. p 2 212 WOOD ENGEAVIN(f The work called the " Nuremberg Chronicle " is a folio, compUed by Hartman Schedel, a physician of Nuremberg, and printed in that city by Anthony Koburger in 1493. In the colophon it is stated that the -views of cities, and figures of eminent characters, were executed under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth and WUliam Pleyden-wurff, "mathematical men"* and skUled in the art of painting. The total 'number of impressions contained in the work exceeds two thousand, but several of the cuts are repeated eight or ten times. The foUowing fac-simile wUl afford an idea of the style in which the portraits of Ulustrious men contained in this often-cited chronicle are executed. The above head, which the owner appears to be sci-atching with so much earnestness, first occurs as that of Paris the lover of Helen ; and it is afterwards repeated as that of Thales, Anastasius, Odofredus, and the poet Dante. In a Uke manner the economical printer has a stock- head for kings and emperors ; another for popes ; a third for bishops ; a fourth for saints, and so on. Several cuts representing what might be supposed to be particular events are in tiie same manner pressed into the general service of the chronicler. The peculiarity of the cuts in the Nuremberg Chronicle is that they generally contain more of what engravers term " colour" than any which • The expression "adhibitis tamen viris mathematicis" in the Nuremberg Chronicle, is evidently borrowed from that,-" subinde mathematicis adhibitis viris,"-in the dedication of Bukinck's Ptolemy, 1478, to the I'npe. « J\Iathematio;il men," in the pi-esent sense of the term, might bo required to construct the maps in the edition of Ptolemy, but scarcely to design or engrave tho vulgar figures and worthless views in the Nuremberg Chronicle. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 213 had previously appeared. Before proceeding, however, to make any further observations on these cuts, I shall endeavour to explain what engravers mean by the term " colour," as applied to an impression taken with black ink from a copper-plate or a wood-block. Though there is no "colour," strictly speaking, in an engraving consisting merely of black and white Unes, yet the term is often conventionaUy appUed to an engraving which is supposed, from the varied character of its lines and the contrast of light and shade, to convey the idea of varied local colour as seen in a painting or a water- colour dra-wing. For instance, an engraving is said to contain much " colour " which appears clearly to indicate not only a variety of colour, but also its different degrees of intensity in the several objects, and which at the same time presents an effective combination of Ught and shade. An engraver cannot certainly express the difference between green and yeUow, or red and orange, yet in engraAdng a figure, say that of a cavalier by Vandyke, with brown leather boots, buff-coloured wooUen hose, doublet of red sUk, and blue velvet cloak, a master of his art wiU not only express a difference in the texture, but will also convey an idea of the different parts of the dress being of different colours. The Eent Day, engraved by Eaimbach from a painting by WUkie, and Chelsea Pensioners hearing the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo read, engraved by Burnet from a picture by the same artist, may be instanced as copper plate engravings which contain much " colour." Mr. Landseer, at pages 175, 176, of his Lectures on Engraving, makes the foUowing remarks on the term "colour," as conventionaUy applied by engravers in speaking of impressions from plates or from wood-blocks : — " It is not uncommon among print-publishers, nor even amongst engravers themselves, to hear the word colotje mistakenly employed to signify shade ; so that if they think an engraving too dark, they say it has too much colour, too little colour if too Ught — and so forth. The same ignorance which has hitherto reigned over the pursuits of this Art, has here imposed its authority, and with the same unfortunate success : I cannot however yield to it the same submission, since it is not only a palpable misuse of a word, but would lead to endless confusion when I come to explain to you my ideas of the means the Art of engra-ving possesses of rendering local colour in the abstract. Wherefore, whenever I may use the term colour, I mean it in no other than its ordinary acceptation." " By MEDDLE TINT, I understand and mean, ' the medium between strong light and strong shade.' — These are Mr. GUpin's words; and he adds, with a propriety that confers value on the definition — 'the phrase is not at all expressive of colour.' " Whether we owe the term " colour," as apphed to engravings, to the 214 WOOD ENGEAVING ignorance of printseUers or not, I shall not inquire ; I only know that a number of terms equaUy objectionable, if primitive meaning be considered, are used in speaking of the arts of painting and engraving by persons who are certainly not ignorant. We have the words high and deep, which strictly relate to objects of hneal altitude or profundity, apphed to denote intensity of colour ; and the very word intensity, when thus applied, is only relative ; the speaker being unable to find a word directly expressive of his meaning, explains himseK by referring to some object or thing previously kno-wn, as, in this instance, by reference to the tension of a string or cord. The word tone, which is so frequently used in speaking of pictures, is derived from the sister art of music. I presuihe that none of these terms were introduced into the nomencla ture of painting and engra-ving by ignorant persons, but that they were adopted from a necessity originating from the very constitution of the human mind. It is weU known to every person who has paid any attention to the construction of languages, that almost every abstiact terin is referable to, and derived from, the name of some material object. The very word to "think," implying the exercise of our mental faculties, is probably an offset from the substantive "thing." It is also to be observed, that Mr. Landseer speaks as if the term colour was used by ignorant printseUers, and of course ignorant engravers, to signify shade only. It is, however, used by them to signify that there is a considerable proportion of dark lines and hatchings in an engra-^-ing, although such lines and hatchings are not expressive of shade, but merely indicative of deep colours. Dark brown, red, and purple, for instance, even when receiving direct rays of hght, would naturaUy contain much conventional " colour " in an engra-ving ; and so would a bay horse, a coal barge, or the trunk of an old oak tree, when receiving the light in a similar manner ; aU would be represented as comparatively dark, when contrasted with lighter coloured objects, — for instance, -with a blue sky, grass, or light green fohage, — although not in shade. An engraving that appears too Ught, compared -with the painting from which it is copied, is said to want " colour," and the copper-plate engraver remedies the defect by thickening the dark lines, or by adding cross lines and hatchings. As a copper-plate engraver can always obtain more " colour," he generally keeps his work hght in the first stage of a plate ; on the contrary, a wood engraver keeps his first proof dark, as he cannot afterwards introduce more " coloiu, " or give to an object a greater depth of shade. A wood engraver can make his lines thinner if they be too thick, and thus cause his subject to appear lighter ; but if he has made them too fine at first, and more colour be wanted, it is not in his power to remedy the defect. What Mr. Landseer's ideas may be of the "means [which] the art IN CONNEXION ¦WITH THE PEESS. 215 of engraving possesses of rendering local colour in the abstract," I cannot very weU comprehend. I am aware of the lines used conven tionally by engravers to indicate heraldic colours in coat-armour ; but I can see no natural relation between perpendicular lines in an engra-ving and the red colour of a soldier's coat. I beUeve that no person could teU the colour of the draperies in Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper from an inspection of Eaphael Morghen's engraving of it. When Mr. Landseer says that he -wUl use the term " colour " in its " ordinary acceptation," he ought to have explained what the ordinary acceptation of the word meant when apphed to impressions from copper-plates which consist of nothing but Unes and interstices of black and white. In the second paragraph Mr. Landseer displays great inconsistency in praising Mr. GUpin for his definition of the word " tint," which, when applied to engra^vings, is as objectionable as the term "colour." It appears that Mr. Gilpin may employ a conventional term with " singular propriety," while printseUers and engravers who should use the same liberty would be charged ¦with ignorance. Is there such a thing as a tint in nature which is of no colour? Mr. GUpin's lauded definition involves a contradiction even when the word is apphed to engra-vings, in which every "tint" is indicative of positive colour. That "medium 216 WOOD ENGEAVING between strong Ught and strong shade," and which is yet ol no coloui', remains to be discovered. Mr. Gilpin has supphed us with the " word," but it appears that no definite idea is necessary to be attached to it. Having thus endeavoured to give a Uttle brightness to the "colour" of "ignorant printseUers and engravers," I shall resume my observations on the cuts in the Nuremberg Chronicle, to the " colour " of which the preceding digression is to be ascribed. The preceding cut, representing the Creation of Eve, is copied from one of the best in the Nuremberg Chronicle, both -with respect to design and engraving. In this, compared -with most other cuts pre-viously executed, much more colour wiU be perceived, which results from the closeness of the single Unes, as in the dark parts of the rock immediately behind the figure of Eve ; from the introduction of dark lines crossing each other, — caUed " cross-hatching," — as may be seen in the drapery of the Divinity ; and from the contrast of the shade thus produced -svith the lighter parts of the cut. The subjoined cut, of the same subject, copied from the Poor Preachers' Bible,* -wUl, by comparison with the preceding, Ulustrate more clearly than any verbal explanation the difference with respect to colour between the wood-cuts in the old block-books and in most others printed between 1462 and 1493, and those contained in the Nuremberg * In the original, this cut, with one of Christ's side pierced by a soldier, and another of Moses striking the rock, are intended to Ulustrate the mystery of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supiier. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 21'; Chronicle. In this cut there is no indication of colour ; the shades in the drapery which are expressed by hard parallel lines are all of equal strength, or rather weakness ; and the hair of Adam's head and the foUage of the tree are expressed nearly in the same manner. This manner of representing the creation of Eve appears to have been general amongst the wood engravers of the fifteenth century, for the same subject frequently occurs in old cuts executed previous to 1500. It is frequently represented in the same manner in iUumniated missals ; and in Flaxman's Lectures on Sculpture a Uthographic print is given, copied from an ancient piece of sculpture in Wells Cathedral, where Eve is seen thus proceeding from the side of Adam. In a picture by Eaffaele the creation of Eve is also represented in the same manner. In the wood-cuts which occur in Italian books printed previous to 1500 the engravers have seldom attempted anything beyond a simple outhne with occasionally an indication of shade, or of colour, by means of short paraUel Unes. The foUowing is a fac-simile of a cut in Bonsignore's ItaUan prose translation of O^vid's Metamorphoses, folio, printed at Venice by the brothers De Lignano in 1497. It may serve at once as a specimen of the other cuts contained in the work and of the general style of engraving on wood in Italy for about ten years preceding that period. The subject iUustrated is the difficult labour of Alcmena through the malign influence of Lucina, as related by Ovid in the ixth book of the Metamorphoses, from verse 295 to 314. This would appear to have been rather a favourite subject with designers, for it is again selected for iUustration in Ludo-vico Dolce's Transformationi, a kind of paraphrase of the Metamorphoses, 4to, printed at Venice by Gabriel Giolito in 1557 ; and it is also represented in the illustrations to the Metamorphoses G 218 WOOD ENGRAVING designed by VirgU Solis, and printed at Frankfort, in oblong 4to, by George Corvinus and Sigismund Feyrabent, in 1569.* Of aU the wood-cuts executed in Italy ¦within the fifteenth century there are none that can bear a comparison for elegance of design ¦with those contained in an Itahan work entitled "Hypnerotomachia PoUphUi," a foUo without printer's name or place, but certainly printed at Venice by Aldus m. 1499. This " Contest between Imagination and Love, by a general Lover," — ^for such seems to be the import of the title, — ^is an obscure medley of fable, history, antiquities, mathematics, and various other matters, highly seasoned with erotic sketches t suggested by the prarient imagination of a monk, — for such the author was, — ^who, like many others of his fraternity, in aU ages, appears to have had " a law not to marry, and a custom not to live chaste." The language in which this chaos of absurdities is composed is almost as varied as the subjects. The ground-work is ItaUan, on which the author engrafts at wUl whole phrases of Latin, ¦with a number of words borrowed from the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldee. " Certain persons," says Tiraboschi, " who admire a work the more the less they understand it, have fancied that they could perceive in the Hypnerotomachia a complete summary of human knowledge." % The name of the author was Francis Colonna, who was bom at Venice, and at an early age became a monk of the order of St. Dominic. In 1467 he professed Grammar and Classical Literature in the convent of his order at Trevisa ; and he afterwards became Professor of Theology at Padua, where he commenced Doctor in 1473, a degree which, according to the rule of his order, he could not assume until he was forty. At the time of his death, wliich happened in 1527, he could not thus be less than ninety-four years old. The tine name of this amorous dreaming monk, and the fictitious one of the woman ¦with whom he was in love, are thus expressed by combining, in the order in which they foUow each other, the initial letters of the several chapters : " Poliam Fratee Feanciscus Coltjmna peeama^vit."§ If any rehance can be placed on * Mr. Ottley in speaking of an edition of the Metamorphoses printed at Venice in 1509, with wood-cuts, mentions one of them as representing the " Birth of Hercules," which is probably treated in a manner similar to those above noticed. Mr. Ottley also states that he had discovered the artist to be Benedetto Montagna, who also engraved on copper. — Inqiury, vol ii. p. 576. t Bibliographers and bookseUers in their catalogues specify ¦with deUght such copies as contain " la figura rappresentante il Sacrifizio Ji Priapo bene conservata," for in some copies this choice subject is wanting, and m others partially defaced. X Some account of the Hypnerotomachia and its author is to be foimd in Prosper DIarchaud's Dictionnaire Historique. § In the life of Colonna in the Biographie Universelle, the last woi-d is said to be " adamavit," which is a mistake. The word formed by the initial letters of the nine hist chapters is " peramavit," as above. IN connexion -with THE PEESS. 219 the text and the cuts as narrating and representing real incidents, we may gather that the stream of love had not mn smooth with father Francis any more than with simple laymen. With respect to the tme name of the mistress of father Francis, biographers are not agreed. One says that her name was Lucretia Maura; and another that her name was IppoUta, and that she belonged to the noble family of Poll, of Trevisa, and that she was a nun in that city. From the name Ippohta some authors thus derive the fictitious name Polia : IppoUta- Pohta- PoUa. A second edition, also from the Aldine press, appeared in 1545 ; and in the foUowing year a French translation was printed at Paris under the foUo^wing title : " Le Tableau des riches inventions couvertes du voUe des feintes amourouses qui sont representees dans le Songe de PoliphUe, devoUdes des ombres du Songe, et subtUment expos^es." Of this translation several editions were pubhshed ; and in 1804 J. G. Legrand, an architect of some repute in Paris, printed a kind of paraphrase of the work, in two volumes 12mo, which, however, was not published untU after his death in 1807. In 1811 Bodoni reprinted the original work at Parma in an elegant quarto volume. In the original work the wood-cuts with respect to design may rank among the best that have appeared in Italy. The whole number in the volume is one hundred and ninety-two ; of which eighty-six relate to mythology and ancient history; fifty-four represent processions and emblematic figures ; there are thirty-six architectural and omamental subjects ; and sixteen vases and statues. Several -writers have asserted that those cuts were designed by Eaffaele,* while others with equal confidence, though on no better grounds, have ascribed them to Andrea Mantegna. Except from the resemblance which they are supposed to bear to the acknowledged works of those artists, I am not aware that there is any reason to suppose that they were designed by either of them. As Eaffaele, who was born in 1483, was only sixteen when the Hypnerotomachia was printed, it is not likely that all, or even any of hose cuts were designed by him; as it is highly probable that aUthe drawings would be finished at least twelve months before, and many of them cbntaui internal evidence of their not being the productions of a youth of fifteen. That Andrea Mantegna might design them is possible ; but this certainly cannot be a sufficient reason for positively asserting that he actually did. Mr. Ottley, at page 576, vol. ii, of his Inquiry, asserts that they were designed by Benedetto Montagna, an ¦* Heineken, in his catalogue of Ratfaele's works, mentions the cuts in the Hypneroto machia, but he says that it is questionable whether he designed them aU or only the eighty- six mythological and historical sutgects.— Nachrichten von Kiinstleru und Kunst-Sachen, 2er TheU, S. 360. Svo. Leipzig, 1769. 220 WOOD engeaving artist who flourished about the year 1500, and who is chiefly known as an engraver on copper. The grounds on which Mr. Ottley forms his opinion are not very clear, but if I understand him correctly they are as foUows : In the coUection of the late Mr. Douce there were sixteen wood engravings which had been cut out of a foUo edition of Ovid's Metamor phoses, printed at Venice in 1509. -AH those engravings, except two, were marked with the letters (a, which according to Mr. Ottley are the initials of the engraver, loanne Andrea di Vavassori. Between some ot the cuts from the Ovid, and certain engravings executed by Montagna, it seems that Mr. Ottiey discovered a resemblance ; and as he thought that he perceived a perfect simUarity between the sixteen cuts from the Ovid and those contained in the Hypnerotomachia, he considers that Benedetto Montagna is thus proved to have been the designer of the cuts in the latter work. Not ha-ving seen the cuts in the edition of the Metamorphoses of 1509, I caimot speak, from my own examination, of the resemblance between them and those in the Hypnerotomachia; it, however, seems that Mr. Douce had noticed the simUarity as weU as Mr. Ottley: but even admitting that there is a perfect identity of style in the cuts of the above two works, yet it by no means foUows that, because a few of the cuts in the 0-vid resemble some copper-plate engra-vings executed by Benedetto Montagna, he must have designed the cuts in the Hypnerotomachia. As the cuts in the 0-vid may, as Mr. Ottley himself remarks, have been used in an earher edition than that of 1509, it is not unlikely that they might appear before Montagna's copper-plates; and that the latter might copy the designs of a greater artist than himself, and thus by his very plagiarism acquire, according to Mr. Ottley's train of reasoning, the merit which may be justly due to another. If Benedetto Montagna be really the designer of the cuts in the Hypnerotomachia, he has certainly exceUed himself, for they certainly display talent of a much higher order than is to be perceived in his copper-plate engravings. Besides the striking difference ¦with respect to drawing between the wood-cuts in PohphUo* and the engra^vings of Benedetto Montagna, two of the cuts in the former work have a mark which never appears in any of that artist's known productions, which generally have either his name at length or the letters B. M. In the third cut of PoliphUo, the designer's or engraver's mark, a small b, may bfe perceived at the foot, to the right; and the same mark is repeated in a cut at signature C. * The author thus names his hero in his Italian title : " PoliphUo mcomincia la sua hypnerotomachia ad descrivere et I'hora et il tempo qnando gU appar- ve in somno, &c." IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 22! A London bookseUer in his catalogue published in 1834, probably speaking on Mr. Ottley's hint that the cuts in the Ovid of 1509 might; . have appeared in an earlier edition, thus describes Bonsignore's Ovid, a work in which the wood-cuts are of a very inferior description, and of which a specimen is given in a preceding page : " Ovidii Metamorphoseos Vulgare, con le AUegorie, [Venezia, 1497,] with numerous beautiful wood-cuts, apparently by the artist who executed the Pohphilo, printed by Aldus in 1499." The wood-cuts in the Ovid of 1497 are as inferior to those in PohphUo as the commonest cuts in children's school-books are inferior to the beautiful wood-cuts in Eogers's Pleasures of Memory, printed in 1812, which were designed by Stothard and engraved by Clennell. It is but fair to add, that the cuts used in the Ovid of 1 497, printed by the brothers De Lignano, cannot be the same as those in the Ovid of 1509 referred to by Mr. Ottley ; for though the subjects may be nearly the same, the cuts in the latter edition are larger than those in the former, and have besides an engraver's mark which is not to be seen in any of the cuts in the edition of 1497. The five foUo^wing cuts are fac-simUes traced line for Une from the originals in PohphUo. In the first. Mercury is seen interfering to save Cupid from the anger of Venus, who has been punishing him and ^^ ^SJ^f^ ^M y l)i^A\ Vl \ K^ffll/ ** ^.^ tI^^^^MvT^^^^-^ — 1 .ILjcS t^^i=«>=' i > ^ LS . plucking the feathers from his wings. The cause of her anger is explained by the figure of Mars behind the net in which he and Venus had been inclosed by Vulcan. Love had been the cause of his mothers misfortune. 222 WOOD ENGEAVING In the following cut Cupid is represented as brought by Mercury before Jove, who in the text, "in Athica lingua," addresses the God of Love, as « STMOIFATRTS KAI HIKPOS"— "at once sweet and bitter." In the inscription in the cut, " AAAA " is substituted for "KAL" SYjyioirAr .,;^ KYSAAAA "^g^ PIKPO [m ^^rWi n ^^p ^^M^^ In the next cut Cupid appears piercing the sky "with a dart, and thus causing a shower of gold to faU. The figures represent persons of all conditions whom he has wounded, looking on -with amazement. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 223 The three preceding cuts, in the original work, appear as compart ments from left to right on one block. They are here given separate for the convenience of printing, as the page is not wide enough to aUow of thefr being placed as in the original folio. The subjoined cut is intended to represent Autumn, according to a description of the figure in the' text, where the author is speaking of an altar to be erected to the four seasons. On one of the sides he proposes that the foUo^wing figure should be represented "¦with a joUy countenance, cro^wned -with ¦vine leaves, holding in one hand a bunch of grapes, and in the other a cornucopia, ¦with an inscription: ' MuSTULENTO AuTUMNO S.' "* The face of joUy Autumn is indeed Uke that of one who loved new ¦wine, and his body seems hke an ample skin to keep the Uquor^in;— Sfr John Falstaff playmg Bacchus ete he had grown old and inordinately fat. * The epithets applied to the difierent seasons as represented on this votive altar are singularly beaUtiflil and appropriate : " Florido Veri ; Plavse Messi ; Mustulento Autunmo ; Hyemi .ffioUae, Sacrum.' 224 WOOD ENGEAVING The following figure of Cupid is copied from the top of a fanciful military standard described by the author; and on a kind of banner beneath the figure is inscribed the word "AOPIKTHTOI"— "Gained in war." The following is a specimen of one of the orna^ mental vases contained in the work. It is not, Uke the five preceding cuts, of the same size as the original, but is copied on a reduced scale. The simple style in which the cuts in the Hypne rotomachia are engraved, continued to prevaU, with certain modifications, in Italy for many years after the method of cross-hatching became general in Germany ; and from 1500 to about 1530 the characteristic of most Italian wood-cuts is the simple manner in which they are executed compared with the more laboured productions of the German wood engravers. While the German proceeds ¦with considerable labour to obtain " co lour," or shade, by means of cross-hatching, the Italian in the early part of the sixteenth century endeavours to attain his object by easier means, such as leaving his lines thicker in certain parts, and in others, indicating shade by means of short slanting parallel lines. In the execution of flowered or ornamented initial letters a decided difference may frequently be noticed between the work of an Italian and a German artist. The German mostly, with considerable trouble, cuts his flourishes, figures, and flowers in relief, according to the general practice of wood engravers ; the ItaUan, on the contiary, often cuts them, with much greater ease, in intaglio ; and thus the form of the letter, and its ornaments, appear, when printed, white upon a black ground.* The letter C at the commencement of the present chapter is an example of the German style, with the ornamental parts in relief; the letter M at the commencement of chapter V. is a specimen of the manner frequently adopted by old Italian wood engravers, the form of the letter and the ornamental fohage being cut in intaglio. At a subsequent period a more elaborate manner of engraving beo-an to prevail in Italy, and cross-hatching was almost as generally employed to obtain depth of colour and shade as in Germany. The wood-cuts which appear in works printed at Venice between 1550 and 1570 are generally as good as most German wood-cuts of the same period ; and * The letter M at the commencement of the next chapter aflbrds an example of this style of engraving. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS, 225 many of them, more especially those in books printed by the GioUtos, are executed with a clearness and delicacy which have seldom been surpassed. Before concluding the present chapter, which is more especially devoted to the consideration of wood engraving in the first period of its connexion with typography, it may not be improper to take a brief glance at the state of the art as practised by the Briefmalers and Formschneiders of Germany, who were the first to introduce the practice of block-printing, and who continued to exercise this branch of their art for many years after typography had been generally established throughout Europe. That the ancient wood engravers continued to practise the art of block-printing tUl towards the close of the fifteenth century, there can be Uttle doubt. There is an edition of the Poor Preachers' Bible, with the date 1470, printed from wood-blocks, -without place or engraver's name, but having at the end, as a mark, two shields, on one of which is a squirrel, and on the other something like two pilgrim's staves crossed. Another edition of the same work, though not from the same blocks, appeared in 1471. In this the engraver's mark is two shields, on one of which is a spur, probably a rebus for the name of "Sporer;'' in the same manner that a pair of folding-doors represented the name " Thurer," or " Durer." An engraver of the name of Hans Sporer printed an edition of the Ars Moriendi from wood-blocks in 1473 ; and in the preceding year Young Hans, Brief maler, of Nuremberg, printed an edition of the Antichrist in the same manner.-* It is probable that most of the single sheets and short tracts, printed from wood-blocks, preserved in the libraries of Germany, were printed between 1440 and 1480. Books consisting of two or more sheets printed from wood-blocks are of rare occurrence with a date subsequent to 1480. Although about that period the wood engravers appear to have resigned the printing of books entirely to typographers, yet for several years afterwards they continued to print broadsides from blocks of wood ; and until about 1500 they continued to compete with the press for the printing of "Wand-Kalendars," or sheet Almanacks to be hung up against a waU. Several copies of such Almanacks, engraved between 1470 and 1500, are preserved in libraries on the Continent that are rich in specimens of early block-printing. But even this branch of their business the wood engravers were at length obliged to abandon ; and at the end of the fifteenth centuiy the practice of printing pages of text from engraved wood-blocks may be considered as almost extinct in Germany. It probably began with a single sheet, and with a * Von MuiT says that " Young Hans'' was unquestionably the son of " Hans Form schneider," whose name appears hi the town-books of Nuremberg from 1449 to 1490. He also thinks that he might be the same person as Hans Sporer.— Journal, 2 TheU, S. 140, III. Q 226 WOOD ENGEAVING single sheet it ended ; and its origin, perfection, decUne, and extinc tion are comprised withm a century. 1430 may mark its origin ; 1450 its perfection ; 1460 the commencement of its decUne ; and 1500 its faU. In an assemblage of wood engravings printed at Gotha between 1808 and 1816,* from old blocks collected by the Baron Von Derschau, there are several to which the editor, Zacharias Becker, assigns an earher date than the year 1500. It is not unlikely that two or three of those in his oldest class. A, may have been executed previous to that period ; but there are others in which bad drawing and rude engraving have been mistaken for indubitable proofs of antiquity. There are also two or three in the same class which I strongly suspect to be modem forgeries. It would appear from a circumstance mentioned in Dr. Dibdin's BihUo- graphical Tour,t and referred to at page 236 of the present work, that the Baron was a person from whose coUection copper-plate engra-vings of questionable date had proceeded as weU as wood-blocks. The foUo-wing is a reduced copy of one of those suspicious blocks, but which the editor considers to be of an earher date than the St. Christopher in the collection of Earl Spencer. I am however of opinion that it is of comparatively modem manufacture. The inscription, intended for old German, at the bottom of the cut, is literally as follows : " Hiet uch, vor den Katczcn dy voi-n Iccken unde * The title of this work is : " Holzschnitte alter Deutscher Meister in den Original-Platten gesammelt von Hans Albrecht Von Derschau. Als ein Beytr.ig zur Kimstgescbichte heraus gegeben, und mit einer Abhandlung uber die Holzschneidekunst begleitet, von Rudolph Zacharias Becker." It is in large foho, with the text in German and French. The first part was published at Gotha in 1808 ; the second in 1810 ; and tho thii-d in 1816. t Vol iii. p. 445, edit. 1829. IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 227 hinden kraiczen " — that is : " Beware of the cats that Uck before and scratch behind." It is rather singular that the editor — who describes the subject as a cat which appears to teach her kitten "le Jeu de Souris " — should not have informed his readers that more was meant by this inscription than met the eye, and that it was in fact part of a German proverb descriptive of a class of females who are particularly dangerous to simple young men.* Among the cuts supposed to have been engraved- pre-vious to the year 1500, another is given which I suspect also of being a forgery, and by the same person that engraved the cat. The cut aUuded to represents a woman sitting beside a young man, whose purse she is seen picking while she appears to fondle him. A hawk is seen behind the woman, and an ape behind the man. At one side is a lUy, above which are the words " left fciart." At the top of the cut is an inscription, — which seems, like that in the cut of the cat, to be in affectedly old German, — describing the young man as a prey for hawks and a fool, and the woman as a flatterer, who wUl fawn upon him untU she has emptied his pouch. The subjects of those two cuts, though not apparently, are, in reality, connected. In the first we are presented with the warning, and in the latter with the example. Von Murr — whom Dr. Dibdin suspects to have forged the French St. Christopher — describes in his Journal impressions from those blocks as old wood-cuts in the coUection of Dr. Silberrad;t and it is certainly very singular that the identical blocks from which Dr. SUberrad's scarce old wood engravings were taken should afterwards happen to be dis covered and come into the possession of the Baron Von Derschau. In the same work there is a rude wood-cut of St. Catharine and three other saints ; and at the back of the block there is also engraved the figure of a soldier. At the bottom of the cut of St. Catharine, the name of the engraver, " ^I'^-S ©lotfefltlJon," appears in old German characters. As " Glockendon " or " Glockenton " was the name of a famUy of artists who appear to have been settled at Nuremberg early in the fifteenth century, Becker concludes that the cut in question was engraved prior to 1482, and that this " Jorg Glockendon" was "the first wood engraver known by name, and not John Schnitzer of Arnsheim, — who engraved the maps in Leonard HoU's Ptolemy, printed in the above year,— as Heineken and others pretend." That the cut was engraved previous to 1482 rests merely on Becker's conjecture ; and a person who would assert that it was engraved ten or fifteen years later, would perhaps be nearer the truth. John Schnitzer, however, is not the first wood engraver known by name. The name of Hans Sporer appears m the Ars Moriendi of 1473 ; and ft is not probable that Hartheb's * "ifenrett sinJ) Jose itatftn Sie hornen lecften unU flinlen feratfen." + Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2er Theil, S. 125, 126. 228 WOOD ENGEA-VING Chiromantia, in which we find the name " ^jorg ^tftapff ?u glugspurg," was engraved subsequent to 1480. It would appear that Becker did not consider " Hans Briefmaler," who occurs as a wood engraver between 1470 and 1480, as a person "known by name," though it is probable that he had no other surname than that which was derived from his profession. Although Derschau's collection contains a number of old cuts which are well worth preserving, more especially among those executed in the sixteenth century ; yet it also contains a large portion of worthless cuts, which are neither interesting from their subjects nor their antiquity, and which throw no hght on the progress of the art. There are also not a few modem antiques which are only iUustiative of the creduhty of the coUector, who mistakes rudeness of execution for a certain test of antiquity. According to tlus test the foUowing cut ought to be ascribed to the age of Caxton, and published with a long commentary as an undoubted specimen of early English wood engra-ving. It is however nothing more than an impression from a block engraved with a pen-knife by a printer's apprentice between 1770 and 1780. It was one of the numerous cuts of a similar kind belonging to the late Jlr. George Angus of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who used them as head-pieces tochap-books and broadside histories and baUads. Besides the smaUer block-books, almanacks, and broadsides of text, executed by wood engravers between 1460 and 1500, tiiey also executed a number of single cuts, some accompanied with a few sentences of IN CONNEXION WITH THE PEESS. 229 text also cut in wood, and others containing only figures. Many of the sacred subjects were probably executed for convents in honour of a favourite saint ; whUe others were engraved by them on their own account for sale among the poorer classes of the people, who had neither the means to purchase, nor the ability to read, a large " picture-book '' which contained a considerable portion of explanatory text. In almost every one of the works executed by the Briefmalers and Formschneiders subsequent to the invention of typography, there is scarcely a single cut to be found that possesses the least merit either in design or execution. They appear generally to have been mere workmen, who could draw and engrave figures on wood in a rude style, but who had not the shghtest pretensions to a knowledge of art. Ha^ving now brought the history of wood engraving to the end of the fifteenth century, I shall here conclude the present chapter, without expressly noticing such works of Albert Durer as were certainly engraved on wood previous to the year 1500. The designs of this great promoter of wood engraving mark an epoch in the progress of the art ; and wiU, with others of the same school, more appropriately form the subject of the next chapter. 230 WOOD ENGEAVING CHAPTEE V. WOOD ENGEAVING IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. OHIARO-SCUBO ENGRAVING ON WOOD — A COPPEH-PLATE BY MAIR MISTAKEN FOE THE FIRST OHIAEO-SCUBO — DOTTED BACKQEOUNDS IN OLD WOOD-OUTS — ALBEET DnEEE PROBABLY NOT A WOOD-ENGEAVEB — BIS BIETH — A PUPIL OF MICHAEL WOLGEMUTH — HIS TRAVELS CUTS OP THE APOCALYPSE DESIGNED BY HIM — HIS VISIT TO VENICE IN 1506 THE HISTOET OP THE VIRGIN AND CHRIST'S PASSION ENGRAVED ON WOOD FROM HIS DESIGNS — HIS TEIUMPHAL OAR AND TRIUMPHAL ARCH OP THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN — HIS INVENTION OP ETCHLNG HIS CARVING VISIT TO THE NETHERLANDS — HIS DEATH — WOOD-OUTS DESIGNED BY L. CEANACH, H. BURGMAIR, AND H. SCHiEFFLEIN— THE ADVENTURES OF SIR THEURDANK — THE WISE KING THE TRIUMPHS OF MAXIMILIAN — UGO DA CARPI — LUCAS VAN LEYDEN "WILLIAM DE FIGUEB- SNIDEE — URSGBAFP — CUTS DESIGNED BY UNKNOWN ARTISTS BETWEEN 1500 AND 1528. GST authors who have -written on the history of engra-ving have incidentaUy noticed the art of chiaro-scuro engra ving on wood, which began to be practised early in the sixteenth century.* The honour of the invention has been claimed for Italy by Vasari and other Italian writers, who seem to think that no improvement in the arts of design and engraving can originate on this side of the Alps. According to their account, chiaro-scuro engraving on wood was first introduced by Ugo da Carpi, who executed several pieces in that manner from the designs of Eaffaele. But, though confident in their assertions, they are weak in their proofs ; for they can produce no chiaro-scuros by Ugo da Carpi, or by any other Itahan engraver, of an earlier date than 1518. The engra-vings of Italian artists in this style • Chiaro-scuros are executed by means of two or more blocks, in imitation ot a drawing in sepia, India ink, or any other colour of two or more shades. The older chiaro-scuros are seldom executed with mine than three lilocks ; on the fii'st of which the genei-al outUne of the subject and the stronger shailes were engraved and printed in the usual manner; from the second the lighter shades were comraunicated ; and from the third a genei-al tint was printed over the impressions of the other two. M 1 IN THE TIME OE ALBEET DUEEE. 231 are not numerous, previous to 1530, and we can scarcely suppose that the earUest of them was executed before 1515. That the art was known and practised in Germany several years before this period there can be no doubt ; for a chiaro-scuro wood engraving, a Eepose in Egypt, by Lucas Cranach, is dated 1509; two others by Hans Baldung Griin are dated 1509 and 1510 ; and a portrait, in the same style, by Hans Burgmair, is dated 1512. Some German ¦writers, not satisfied with these proofs of the art being practised in Germany before it was known in Italy, refer to an engraving, dated 1499, by a German artist of the name of Mair, as one of the earhest executed in this manner. This engraving, which is from a copper-plate, cannot fairly be produced as e^vidence on the point in dispute ; for though it bears the appearance of a chiaro-scuro engraving, yet it is not so in reality ; for on a narrow inspection we may perceive that the light touches have neither been preserved, nor afterwards communicated by means of a block or a plate, but have been added with a fine pencU after the impression was taken. It is, in fact, nothing more than a copper-plate printed on dark-coloured paper, and afterwards heightened with a kind of white and yeUow body-colour. It is very likely, however, that the subject was engraved and printed on a dark ground with the express intention of the lights being subsequently added by means of a pencU. The artist had questionless wished to produce an imitation of a chiaro-scuro dra^wing ; but he certainly did not effect his purpose in the same manner as L. Cranach, H. Burgmair, or Ugo da Carpi, whose chiaro-scuro engravings had the lights preserved, and required no subsequent touching with the pencil to give to them that character. The subject of this engra^ving is the Nativity, and there is an impression of it in the Print Eoom of the British Museum.* In the foreground, about the middle of the print, is the Virgin seated with the infant Jesus in her lap. At her feet is a cradle of wicker-work, and to the left is an angel kneeling in adoration. On the same side, but further distant, is Joseph leaning over a haU door, holding a candle in one hand and shading it with the other. In the background is the stable, in which an ox and an ass are seen ; and the directing star appears shining in the * This print is one of the valuable collection left to the Museum by the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, and the following remark in that gentleman's -writing is inserted on the opposite page of the folio in which it is preserved : " The Presepe is a plain proof that printing in chiaro-scuro was kno-wn before the time of Ugo da Carpi, who is erroneously reputed the inventor of this art at the beginning of the sixteenth century." The print in question is certamly not a proof of the art of engraving in chiaro-scuro ; and Mr. Ottley has added the foUowing correction in pencU : " But the white here is put on with a pencU, and not left in printing, as it would have been if the tint had been added by a wooden block after the copper-plate had been printed." 232 WOOD ENGEAVING sky. The print is eight inches high, and five inches and three-eighths wide ; at the top is the date 1499, and at the bottom the engraver's name, Maie. It is printed in black ink on paper wluch previous to receiving the impression had been tinted or stained a brownish-green colour. The lights have neither been preserved in the plate nor communicated by means of a second impression, but have been laid on by the hand with a fine pencil. The rays of the star, and the circles of light surrounding the head of the Virgin, and also that of the infant, are of a pale yellow, and the colour from its chalky appearance seems very like the touches of a crayon. The Ughts in the draperies and in the architectural parts of the subject have been laid on -with a fine pencU guided by a steady hand. That the engraver intended his work to be finished in this manner there can be Uttle doubt ; and the impression referred to affords a proof of it ; for Joseph's candle, though he shades it with his left hand, in reahty gives no hght. The engraver had evidently intended that the light should be added in positive body colour ; but the person— perhaps the engraver himself — whose business it was to add the finishing touches to the impression, has neglected to Ught Joseph's candle.* Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century,t a practice was introduced by the German wood engravers of dotting the dark parts of their subjects with white, more especiaUy in cuts where the figures were intended to appear hght upon a dark ground ; and about the beginning of the sixteenth, this mode of " killing the black," as it is technicaUy termed, was very generaUy prevalent among the French wood engravers, who, as well as the Germans and Dutch, continued to practise it tUl about 1520, when it was almost wholly superseded by cross-hatching; a mode of producing shade which had been much practised by the German engravers who worked from the dra-wings of Durer, Cranach, and Burgmair, and which about that time seems to have been generaUy adopted in all countries where the art had made any progress. The tn o foUowing cuts, which are from an edition of " Heures k lUsaige de Chartres," printed at Paris by Simon Vostre, about 1502, are examples of this mode of diminishing the effects of a gi-ound which would otherwise be entirely black. Books printed in France between 1500 and 1520 afford the most numerous instances of dark backgrounds dotted with white. In many cuts executed about the latter period the dots ai-e of lai-ger size and more numerous in proportion to the black, and they evidently have been • Bartsch describes this print in his Peintre-Graveur, tom. vi. p. 364, No. 4 ; but he takes no notice of Joseph holding a candle, nor of its wanting a Ught. + Some single cuts executed m this maimer ai'e supposed to be at least as old as the year 1450. The earliest that I have noticed m a book occur in a Life of Christ printed at Cologne about 1485. IN THE TIME GP ALBEET DUEEE. 233 produced by means of a lozenge-pointed tool, in imitation of cross- hatching. The greatest promoter of the. art of wood engraving, towards the close of the fifteenth and in the early part of the sixteenth century, was unquestionably Albert Durer ; not however, as is generaUy supposed, from having himself engraved the numerous wood-cuts which bear his mark, but from his having thought so weU of the art as to have most of his greatest works engraved on wood from drawings made on the block by himself UntU within the last thirty years, most writers who have -written on the subject of art, have spoken of Albert Durer as a wood engraver ; and before proceeding to give any account of his life, or specimens of some of the principal wood engra-vings which bear his mark, it appears necessary to examine the grounds of this opinion. There are about two hundred subjects engraved on wood which are marked with the initials of Albert Durer's name ; and the greater part of them, though evidently designed by the hand of a master, are engraved in a manner which certainly denotes no very great exceUence. Of the remainder, which are better engraved, it would be difficult to point out one which displays execution so decidedly superior as to enable any person to say positively that it must have been cut by Albert Durer himself. The earhest engravings on wood with Durer's mark are sixteen cuts Ulustrative of the Apocalypse, first published in 1498 ; and between that period and 1528, the year of his death, it is Ukely that nearly aU the others were executed. The cuts of the Apocalypse generaUy are much superior to aU wood engravings that had previously appeared, both in design and execution ; but if they be carefully examined by any person conversant with the practice of the art, it will be perceived that their 234 WOOD ENGEAVING superiority is not owing to any delicacy in the lines which would render them difficult to engrave, but from the abUity of the person by whom they were drawn, and from his knowledge of the capabihties of the art. Looking at the state of wood engraving at the period when those cuts were pubUshed, I cannot think that the artist who made the drawings would experience any difficulty in finding persons capable of engraving them. In most of the wood-cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer we find cross-hatching freely introduced ; the readiest mode of producing effect to an artist drawing on wood -with a pen or a black- lead pencil, but which to the wood engraver is attended with considerable labour. Had Albert Durer engraved his own designs, I am inclined to think that he would not have introduced cross-hatching so frequently, but would have endeavoured to attain his object by means which were easier of execution. What is termed " cross-hatching" in wood engra-ving is nothing more than black hnes crossing each other, for the most part diagonaUy ; and in drawing on wood it is easier to produce a shade by this means, than by thickening the lines ; but in engraving on wood it is precisely the reverse ; for it is easier to leave a thick line than to cut out the interstices of lines crossing each other. Nothing is more common than for perso&s who know little of the history of wood engra-^dng, and still less of the practice, to refer to the frequent cross-hatching in the cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer as a proof of their excellence : as if the talent of the artist were chiefly displayed in such parts of the cuts as are in reality least worthy of him, and which a mere workman might execute as weU. In opposition to this vidgar error I venture to assert, that there is not a wood engraver in London of the least repute who cannot produce apprentices to cut fac-simUes of any cross- hatching that is to be found, not only in the wood engra-vings supposed to have been excuted by Albert Durer, Imt in those of any other master. The execution of cross-hatching requires time, but very little talent ; and a moderately clever lad, with a steady hand and a lozenge-pointed tool, will cut in a year a square yard of such cross-hatching as is generaUy found in the largest of the cuts supposed to have been engraved \>j Albert Durer. In the works of Bewick, scarcely more than one trifling instance of cross-hatching is to be found ; and in th.e productions of all other modern wood engravers who have made their own dra-\\-iiigs, we find cross-hatching sparingly introduced ; while in almost every one of the cuts designed by Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, and others who are known to have been painters of eminence in their day, it is of frequent occur rence. Had these masters engraved their own designs on wood, as has been very generally supposed, they probably would have introduced much less cross-hatching into their subjects ; but as there is e^•ery reason to believe that they only made the drawing on the wood, the engravings IN THE TIME OF AiBEET DUEEE. 235 which are ascribed to them abound in Unes which are readUy made with a pen or a pencU, but which require considerable time to cut with a graver. At the period that Durer published his Ulustrations of the Apo calypse, few wood-cuts of much merit either in design or execution had appeared in printed books ; and the wood engravers of that age seem generaUy to have been mere workmen, who only understood the me chanical branch of their art, but who were utterly devoid of all knowledge of composition or correct drawing ; and there is also reason to believe that wood-cuts at that period, and even for some time after, were not unfrequently engraved by women.-* As the names of those persons were probably not kno-wn beyond the town in which they resided, it cannot be a matter of surprise that neither their marks nor initials should be found on the cuts which they engraved from the drawings of such artists as Albert Durer. It perhaps may be objected, that as Albert Durer's copper-plate engravings contain only his mark, in the same manner as the wood engravings, it might with equal reason be questioned if they were reaUy executed by himself Notwithstanding the identity of the marks, there is, however, a wide difference between the two cases. In the age of Albert Durer most of the artists who engraved on copper were also painters ; and most of the copper-plate engravings which bear his mark are such as none but an artist of great talent could execute. It would require the abUities of a first-rate copper-plate engraver of the present day to produce a fac-simUe of his best copper-plates ; while a wood engraver of but moderate skill would be able to cut a fac-simile of one of his best wood engravings after the subject was drawn for him on the block. The best of Albert Durer's copper-plates could only have been engraved by a master ; while the best of his wood-cuts might be engraved by a working Formschneider who had acquired a practical knowledge of his art by engraving, under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth and William Pleyden-wurff, the wood-cuts for the Nuremberg Chronicle. Von Murr, who was of opinion that Albert Durer engraved his own designs on wood, gives a letter of Durer's in the ninth volume of his Journal which he thinks is decisive of the fact. The letter, which relates to a wood engraving of a shield of arms, was written in 1511, and is to the foUowing effect : " Dear Michael Beheim, I return you * In a folio ol Albert Durer's drawings in the Print Room at the British Museum there is a portrait of " Fronica, Formschneiderin," with the date 1525. In 1433 we find a woman at Nuremberg described as a card-maker : " Ml. Kartenmacherin." It is scarcely necessary to remmd the reader that the earUest Gei-man wood engravers were card-makers.— See chapter ii. p. 41. 236 WOOD ENGEA^VING the arms, and beg that you will let it remain as it is. No one ¦wiU make it better, as I have done it according to art and with great care, as those who see it and understand the matter wUl teU you. If the labels were thrown back above the helmet, the volet would be covered.'"-' This letter, however, is by no means decisive, for it is impossible to determine whether the " arms " which the artist returned were a finished engra^ving or merely a drawing on wood.t From one or two expressions it seems most likely to have been a drawing only ; for in a finished cut alterations cannot very well be introduced ; and it seems most probable that Michael Beheim's objections would be made to the dra^wing of the arms before they were engraved, and not to the finished cut. But even supposing it to have been the engraved block which Durer returned, this is by no means a proof of his having engraved it himself, for he might have engravers employed in his house in order that the designs which he drew on the blocks might be executed under his own superintendence. The Baron Derschau indeed told Dr. Dibdin that he was once in possession of the journal or day-book of Albert Durer, from which "it appeared that he was in the habit of dra^wing upon the blocks, and that his men performed the remaining operation of cutting away the •wood."| This information, had it been communi cated by a person whose veracity might be depended on, would be decisive of the question ; but the book unfortunately " perished in the flames of a house in the neighbourhood of one of the battles fought between Bonaparte and the Prussians ; " and from a little anecdote recorded by Dr. Dibdin the Baron appears to have been a person whose word was not to be implicitly relied on.§ Neudorffer, who in 1546 coUected some particulars relative to the * The foUowing is Bartsch's French version of this letter, which is given in the original German in Von Murr's Journal, 9^' TheU, S. 53. " Cher Michel Beheim. Je vous envoie les armomes, en vous priant de les laisser comme elles sont. Personne d'ajlleurs ne les corrigeroit en mieux, car je les ai faites exprfes et avec art ; c'est pourquoi ceux qui s'y connoissent et qui les verront vous en rendront bonne raison. Si Ton haussoit les lam brequins du heaume. Us couvriroient le volet." — Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. p. 27. t In Durer's Journal of his visit to the Netherlands in 1520 there is the foUowuig passage : " Item hab dem von Rogendorii' sein Wappen auf Holz gerissen, dafiir hat er mir geschenckt vU. Ein Sammet."— " Also I have dr-awn for Von Rogendorff his arms on wood, for which he has presented me with seven yards of velvet."— Von Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 7™ TheU, S. 76. t BibUographical Tour, vol. iii. p. 442, second edition. § The Baron was the coUector of the wood-cuts pubUshed with Becker's explanations, referred to at page 226, chapter iv. The anecdote alluded to wiU be foimd in Dr. Dibdin's Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii pp. 445, 446. The Baron sold a rare specimen of copper plate engraving with the date m. oocc. xxx. to the Doctor, and it seems tlrat he also sold another impression from the same pl.ate to Mr. John Fayne. There is no doubt of their being gross forgeries ; and it is not unlikely that tlio plate was in the Baixin's possession. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 237 history of the artists of Nuremberg, says that Jerome Eesch, or Eosch, engraved most of the cuts designed by Albert Durer. He also says that Eesch was one of the most skUful wood engravers of his day, and that he particularly exceUed in engra^ving letters on wood. This artist also used to engrave dies for coining money, and had a printing establishment of his o^wn. He dwelt in the Broad Way at Nuremberg, with a back entrance in Petticoat Lane ; * and when he was employed in engraving the Triumphal Car drawn by Albert Durer for the Emperor Maximilian, the Emperor used to call almost every day to see the progress of the work; and as he entered at Petticoat Lane, it became a by-word with the common people : " The Emperor still often drives to Petticoat Lane."t Although it is by no means unlikely that Albert Durer might engrave two or three wood-cuts of his own desigiung, yet, after a careful examination of most of those that bear his mark, I cannot find one which is so decidedly superior to the rest as to induce an opinion of its being engraved by himself ; and I cannot for a moment believe that an artist of his great talents, and who painted so many pictures, engraved so many copper-plates, and made so many designs, could find time to engrave even a small part of the many wood-cuts which have been supposed to be executed by him, and which a common wood engraver might execute as well. " If Durer himself had engraved on wood," says Bartsch in the seventh volume of his Peintre-Graveur, " it is most likely that among the many particular accounts which we have of his different pursuits, and of the various kind of works which he has left, the fact of his having applied himself to wood engra^ving would certainly have been transmitted in a manner no less explicit ; but, far from finding the least trace of it, everything that relates to this subject proves that he had never employed himself in tlus kind of work. He is always described as a painter, a designer, or an editor of works engraved on wood, but never as a wood engraver." J I also further agree with Bartsch, who thinks that the wood-cuts which contain the marks of Lucas Cranach, Hans Burgmair, and others who are known to * " Dieser Hieronymus hat allhier im breiten Gassen gewohnt, dessen Wohnung hinton ins Frauengasslein ging." f Neudorffer, quoted in Von Murr's Journal, 2ter TheU, S. 158, 159. J At the end of the fii'st edition of the cuts Ulustrative of the Apocalypse, 1498, we find the words : Gedruht durch Albrecht Durer, ilfaZcr,"— Printed by Albert Durer, painter ; and the same m Latin in the second edition, printed about 1510. The passion of Christ and the History of tlie Virgin are respectively said to have been "effigiata" and "per figwras digesta "—" drawn " and " pictorially represented " by Albert Dm-er ; and the cuts of the Triumphal Car of the Emperor Maximilian are described as being " erfunden und ifcorrf«e« "—" invented and arranged" by him.— Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. p. 28. 238 WOOD ENGEAVING have been painters of considerable reputation in their day, were not engraved by those artists, but only designed or drawn by them on the block. Albert Durer was born at Nuremberg, on 20th May 1471. His father, whose name was also Albert, was a goldsmith, and a native of Cola in Hungary. His mother was a daughter of Jerome HaUer, who was also a goldsmith, and the master under whom the elder Durer had acquired a knowledge of his art. Albert continued -with his father tUl his sixteenth year, and had, as he himself says, learned to execute beautiful works in the goldsmith's art, when he felt a great desire to become a painter. His father on hearing of his wish to change his profession was much displeased, as he considered that the time he had already spent in endeavouring to acquire a knowledge of the art of a goldsmith was entirely lost. He, however, assented to his son's earnest request, and placed him, on St. Andrew's day, 1486, as a pupU under Michael Wolgemuth for the term of three years, to learn the art of painting. On the expiration of his "lehr-jahre," or apprentice ship, in 1490, he left his master, and, according to the custom of German artists of that period, proceeded to travel for the purpose of gaining a further knowledge of his profession. In what manner or in what places he was chiefly employed during his "wander-jahre"'* is not very well known ; but it is probable that his travels did not extend beyond Germany. In the course of his peregrinations he -visited Colmar, in 1492, where he was kindly received by Caspar, Paul, and Louis, the brothers of Martin Schongauer ; but he did not see, either then or at any other period, that celebrated engraver himseltt He returned to Naremberg in the spring of 1494 ; and shortly afterwards married Agnes, the daughter of John Frey, a mechanist of considerable reputation of that city. This match, which is said to have been made for him by his parents, proved to be an unhappy one ; for, though his wife possessed considerable personal charms, she was a woman of a most wretched temper ; and her incessant urging him to continued exertion * The time that a German artist spends in travel from the expiration of his apprentice ship to the period of his settling as a master is caUed his wander-jahre," — his traveUing years. It is customary with many trades in Germany for the young men to travel for a certain time on the termination of their apprenticeship before they are admitted to the full privUeges of the company or feUowship. + It has been stated, though erroneously, that Albert Durer was a pupU of Martin Schongauer, or Schon, as the surname was speUed by some ivritera, one of the most eminent painters and copper-plate engravers of his day. It has liecii generaUy supposed that he died in I486 ; but, if an old memorandum at the baclv of his portrait in the coUection of Count de Fries can be depended on, his death did not take place tUl the •2d of February 1499. Ah account of this memorandum will be found in Ottley's Incpiiry into the Origin and Eal'ly History of Engraving, vol. ii. p. (i lo. IN THE TIME OE ALBEET DUEEE. 239 , in order that she might obtain money, is said to have embittered the life of the artist and eventually to have hastened his death. ''¦ It has not been ascertained from whom Albert Durer learnt the art of engraving on copper ; for there seems but httle reason to believe that his master Michael Wolgemuth ever practised that branch of art, though several copper-plates, marked with a W, have been ascribed to him by some authors.t As most of the early copper-plate engravers were also goldsmiths, it is probable that Durer might acquire some knowledge of the former art during the time that he continued with his father ; and, as he was endowed with a versatile genius, it is not unlikely that he owed his future improvement entirely to himself The earhest date that is to be found on his copper-plates is 1494. The subject in which this date occurs represents a group of four naked women with a globe suspended above them, in the manner of a lamp, on which are inscribed the letters 0. G. H. which have been supposed to signify the words " 0 Gott helf ! " — Help, 0 Lord ! — as if the spectator on beholding the naked beauties were exceedingly Uable to fall into temptation.^ The earliest wood engravings that contain Albert Durer's mark are sixteen subjects, of foho size, illustrative of the Apocalypse, which were printed at Nuremberg, 1498. On the first leaf is the title in German : " Die heimUche Offenbarung Johannes "— " The Eevelation of John ; " — and on the back of the last cut but one is the imprint : " Gedrticket zu Numbergk durch Albrecht Durer, maler, nach Christi geburt M. cccc. und darnach im xcviij. iar" — "Printed at Nuremberg by Albert Durer, painter, in the year after the birth of Christ 1498." The date of those cuts marks an important epoch in the history of wood engraving. From this time the boundaries of the art became enlarged ; and wood engravers, instead - of being almost wholly occupied in executing designs of the very lowest character, drawn without feeling, taste, or knowledge, were now to be engaged in engraving subjects of general interest, drawn, expressly for the purpose of being thus executed, by some of the most celebrated artists of the age. Though several cuts of the Apocalypse are faulty in drawing and extravagant in design, they are on the whole * On a passage, in which Durer alludes to his wife, in one of his letters from Venice, 1506, to his friend BUibald Pirkheimer, Von Murr makes the foUowing remark: "This Xantippe must even at that time have vexed him much ; and he was obliged to drag on his Ufe with her for twenty-two years longer, tiU she fairly plagued him to death." — Journal, lOer TheU, S. 32. + Bartsch is decidedly of opinion that Michael Wolgemuth was not an engraver ; and he ascribes aU the plates marked with a W, which others have supposed to be Wolgemuth's, to Wenceslaus of Olmutz, an artist of whom nothing is positively known. J This subject has also been engraved by Israel Von Meo,;en, and by an artist supposed to be Wenceslaus of Olmutz. It is probable that those artists have copied Durer's engraving. On the globe in .Israel Von Mecken's plate the letters are 0. Q. B. 240 WOOD ENGEAVING much superior to any series of wood engravings that preceded them ; and their execution, though coarse, is free and bold. They are not equal, in point of well-contrasted light and shade, to some of Durer's later designs on wood ; but considering them as his first essays in dra-wing on wood, they are not unworthy of his reputation. They appear as if they had been drawn on the block with a pen and ink ; and though cross- hatching is to be found in all of them, this mode of incUcating a shade, or obtaining " colour," is much less frequently employed than in some of his later productions. The foUowing is a reduced copy of one of the cuts. No. 11, which is iUustrative of the twelfth chapter of Eevelations, verses 1 — 4 : " And there appeared a great wonder in heaven ; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. A'lid there appeared another -n^onder in heaven ; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his taU drew the third part of IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DUEEE. 241 the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth ; and the drao;on stood before the woman." In 1502 a pirated edition of those cuts was pubUshed at Strasburg by Jerome Greff, who describes himself as a painter of Frankfort. In 1511 Durer published a second edition of the originals ; and on the back of the last cut but one is a caution addressed to the plagiary, informing him of the Emperor's order, prohibiting any one to copy the cuts or to seU the spmious impressions within the Umits of the German empire, under the penalty of the confiscation of goods, and at the peril of further punishment.'"" Though no other wood engravings with Durer's mark are found with a date till 1504, yet it is highly probable that several subjects of his desigrung were engraved between 1498, the date of the Apocalypse, and the above year ; and it is also Ukely that he engraved several copper plates within this period ; although, with the exception of that of the four naked women, there are only four known which contain a date earlier than 1505. About the commencement of 1506 Durer visited A''enice, where he remained tUl October in the same year. Eight letters which he addressed to BUibald Pirkheimer from Venice, are printed in the tenth volume of Von Murr's Journal. In the first letter, which is dated on the day of the Three Kings of Cologne, 1506, he informs his friend that he was employed to paint a picture for the German church at Venice, for which he was to receive a hundred and ten Ehenish guilders,t and that he expects to have it ready to place above the altar a month after Easter. He expresses a hope that he wiU be enabled to repay out of this money what he had borrowed of Pirkheimer. From this letter it seems evident that Durer's circumstances wpre not then in a very fiourishing state, and that he had to depend on his exertions for the means of hving. The comparatively trifling sums which he mentions as having sent to his mother and his wife sufficiently declare that he had not left a considerable sum at home. He also says, that should his wife want more money, her father must assist her, and that he wUl honourably repay him on his return. * This caution is in the original expressed in the foUowing indignant terms : " Heus, tu insidiator, ac aUeni laboris et ingenii sun'eptor, ne manus temerarias his nostris operibus inicias cave. Solas enim a gloriosissimo Romanomm imperatore MaximUiano nobis concessum esse ne quis suppositious formis has imagines imprimere seu impresses per imperii limites vendere audeat : q' per contemptum seu avaricise crimen secus feceris, post bonorum confiscationem tibi maximum periculum subeundum esse certissime scias." t Von Murr says that the subject of this picture was the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, the saint to whom the chm-ch was dedicated ; and that the painting afterwards came into the possession of the Emperor Rudolf II. and was placed in his gaUery at Prague. It seems that Durer had taken some pictures -with him to Venice ; for in his fifth letter he says that he has sold two for twenty-four ducats, and exchanged three others for three rings, valued also at twenty-four ducats, E 242 WOOD ENGEA-VtNG In the second letter, after teUing Pirkheimer that he has no other friend but him on earth, he expresses a wish that he were in Venice to enjoy the pleasant company that he has met with there. The foUowing passage, which occurs in this letter, is, perhaps, the most interestmg in the collection : " I have many good friends among the Italians, who warn me not to eat or drink wftli their painters, of whom several are my enemies, and copy my picture in tiie church and others of mine, wherever they can find them ; and yet they blame them, and say they are not according to ancient art, and therefore not good. Giovanni BeUini* however has praised me highly to several gentlemen, and wishes to have somethmg of my doing. He caUed on me himself, and requested that I would paint a picture for him, for which he said he -\vould pay me weU. People are all surprised that I should be so much thought of by a person of his reputation. He is very old, but is stUl the best painter of them all. The things which pleased me eleven years ago, please me no longer. If I had not seen it myself I could not have beheved it. You must also know that there are many better painters within this city than Master Jacob is without, although Anthony Kolb swears that there is not on earth a better painter than Jacob.t The others laugh, and say if he were good for anything he would live in Venice." The greater part of the other six letters are chiefly occupied -with accounts of his success in executing sundry little commissions -with which he had been entrusted by his friends, such as the purchase of a finger-ring and two pieces of tapestry ; to enqtdre after such Greek books as had been recently pubhshed ; and to get him some crane feathers. The sixth and seventh letters are -written in a vein of humour which at the present tirae would be caUed gross. Von jMuit Ulustiates one passage by a quotation from Swift which is not remarkable for its delicacy ; and he also says that Durer's eighth letter is ^vritten in the humorous style of that writer. Those letters show that chastity was not one of BUibald Pirkheimer's virtues ; and that the learned counseUor of the imperial city of Nuremberg was devoted " tarn Veneri quam Mercuric"! In the fourth letter Durer says that the painters were much opposed * In the Venetian dialect of that period Giovanni Bellini was caUed Zan Belin ; and Durer speUs the name " Sambelliuus." He was the master of Titian, and died in I5I4, at the age of ninety. — Von Murr, Journal, lOer Theil, S. .'^. t Von Murr says that he cannot diseo\er what Jacob is here meant. It would not be Jacob Walsch, as he died in 1500. Tho person albuled to was certainly not an ItirUan. + BUibald Pirkheimer was a learned man, and a person of great authority ui the city of Nuremberg. He was also a member of the Imperial Council, and was frequently emjiloyed in negociations with neighbouring states. He pnblished se\eral works ; and among otheis a humorous essay entitled " Laus Podagra?" — The Praise of tho Gout. His memory is stiU held in great respect ui Germany as the friend ut .VUicrt Durer and Uh'ich Hutten, two of tlie most e.xtraordinary men tliat Germany has in'odnocd. He died in 1530, aged 60. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 243 to him ; that they had thrice compelled him to go before the magistracy ; and that they had obhged him to give four florins to their society. In the seventh letter, he writes as foUows about the picture which he had painted for the German church : "I have through it received great praise, but little profit. I might well have gained two hundred ducats in the same time, and aU the while I laboured most dUigently in order that I might get home again. I have given aU the painters a rubbing down who said that I could engrave* well, but that in painting I knew not how to manage my colours. Everybody here says they never saw colours more beautiful" In his last letter, which is dated, " at Venice, I know not what day of the month, but about the fourteenth day after Michaelmas, 1506," he says that he wUl be ready to leave that city in about ten days; that he intends to proceed to Bologna, and after staying there about eio-ht or ten days for the sake of learning some secrets in perspective, to return home by way of Venice. He -visited Bologna as he intended ; and was treated with great respect by the painters of that city. After a brief stay at Bologna, he returned to Nuremberg ; and there is no evidence of his ever having -visited Italy again. In 1511, the second of Durer's large works engraved on wood appeared at Nuremberg. It is generally entitled the History of the Virgin, and consists of nine teen large cuts, each about eleven inches and three quarters high, by eight inches and a quarter -wide, with a ¦vignette of smaller size which ornaments the title-page. -f Impressions are to be found without any accompanying text, but the greater num ber have explanatory verses printed from type at the back. The cut here represented is a reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page. The Virgin ¦" The kind of engraving meant was copper-plate engraving. Durer's words are : " Ich hab awch dy Moler all gesthrilt dy do sagten, Im Stechen wer ich gut, aber im molen west ich nit mit farben um zu gen." The word " Stechen " applies to engraving on copper ; " Schneiden" to engraving on wood. — Von Muit, Journal, lOer TheU, S. 28. t The title at length is as follows : " Epitome in Divse Parthenices Marie Historiam ab Alberto Durero Norico per figuras digestam, cum versibus annexis CheUdonU." Chelidonius, who was a Benedictine monk of Nuremberg, also fui'nished the descriptive text to the series of twelve cuts Ulustrative of Christ's Passion, of which specimens wiU be found between page 246 and page 250. e2 24 1. WOOD ENGEAVING is seen seated on a crescent, giving suck to the infant Christ ; and her figure and that of the child are drawn with great feeUng. Of all Durer's Madonnas, whether engraved on wood or copper, this, perhaps, is one of the best. Her attitude is easy and natural, and happUy expressive of the character in which she is represented — that of a nursing mother. The light and shade are well contrasted ; and the folds of her ample drapery, which Durer was fond of intioducing whenever he coiUd, are arranged in a manner which materiaUy contributes to the effect of the engra-ving. The foUowing cuts are reduced copies of two of the larger subjects of the same work. That which is here given represents the birth of the Virgin ; and were it not for the angel who is seen swinging a censer at the top of the room, it might be taken for the accouchement of a German burgomaster's wife in the ycur 1510. The interior is apparently that of a house in Nurcnibcvg of 1 hirer's own time, and the figures introduced IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 245 are doubtless faithfiU copies, both in costume and character, of such females as were generally to be found in the house of- a German tradesman on such an occasion. From the number of cups and flagons that are seen, we may be certain that the gossips did not want liquor ; and that in Durer's age the female friends and attendants on a groaning woman were accustomed to enjoy themselves on the birth of a child ovei a cheerful cup. In the fore-ground an elderly female is perceived taking a draught, -without measure, from a flagon ; whUe another, more in the distance and farther to the right, appears to be drinking, from a cup, health to the infant which a woman Uke a nurse holds in her arms. An elderly female, sitting by the side of the bed, has dropped into a doze ; but whether from the effects of the liquor or long watching it would not be easy to divine. On the opposite side of the bed a female figure presents a candle, -with a spoon in it, to St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin, whUe another is seen fiUing a goblet of wine. At the bottom of the cut is Durer's mark on a tablet. The original cut is not remarkable for the excellence of its engraving, but it affords a striking example of the httle attention which Durer, in common with most other German painters of that period, paid to propriety of costume in the treatment of such subjects. The piece is Hebrew, of the age of Herod the Great ; but the scenery, dresses, and decorations are German, of the time of MaximiUan L The second specimen of the large cuts of Durer's Life of the Virgin, given on the next page, represents the Sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt. In the fore-ground St. Joseph is seen working at his business as a carpenter ; whUe a number of little figures, like so many Cupids, are busily employed in collecting the chips which he makes and in putting them into a basket. Two little winged figures, of the same famUy as the chip-coUectors, are seen running hand-in-hand, a little more in the distance to the left, and one of them holds in his hand a plaything like those which are called "windmUls" in England, and are cried about as " toys for girls and boys," and sold for a halfpenny each, or exchanged for old pewter spoons, doctors' bottles, or broken flint- glass. To the right the Virgin, a matronly-looking figure, is seen sitting spinning, and at the same time rocking with her foot the cradle in which the infant Christ is asleep. Near the Virgin are St. Elizabeth and her young son, the future Baptist. At the head of the cradle is an angel bending as if in the act of adoration ; while another, immediately behind St. Elizabeth, holds a pot containing flowers. In the sky there- is a representation of the Deity, with the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove. The artist has not thought it necessary to mark the locality of the scene by the introduction of pyramids and temples in the back-ground, for the architectural parts of his subject, as well 246 WOOD ENGEAVING as the human figures, have evidently been suppUed by his o-wn country Durer's mark is at the bottom of the eut on the right. Christ's Passion, consisting of a series of eleven large wood-cuts and a vignette, designed by Albert Durer, appeared about the same time as his History of the Virgin.'* The descriptive matter was compiled by Chelidonius ; ami, in the same manner ns in the History of the Virgin, a certain number of impressions were printed without any explanatory text.t The large subjects are about fifteen inches and a * The cuts of these two works appear to have been in the hands of the engraver at the same time. Of those in the Hi,story of the Virgin one is dated 1509 ; and two bear the date 1510 ; and in the Passion of Christ four are dated I.^IO. t The Latin title of the work is as follows : " Passio Domini nostri Jesu, ex Hieronymo Paduann, Dominico Mancino, Sedulio, ct Baptista iMantuaiia, per fratrem CheUdonium coUecta, cum figuris Alberti Diireri Norici Pictoris " IN THE TIME OP ALBEET DUEEE. 247 half high, by eleven inches and an eighth -wide. The following cut is a reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page. The subject is Christ mocked ; but the artist has at the same time wished to express in the figure of Christ the variety of his sufferings : the Saviour prays as if in his agony on the mount ; near him Ues the instrument of his flageUation ; his hands and feet bear the marks of the nails, and he appears seated on the covering of his sepulchre. The soldier is kneeling and offering a reed as a sceptre to Christ, whom he hails in derision as King of the Jews. The three foUowing cuts are reduced copies of the same number in the Passion of Christ. In the cut of the Last Supper, in the next page, cross-hatching is freely introduced, though without contributing much to the improvement of the engraving ; and the same effect in the wall to the right, in the groins of the roof, and in the floor under the table, might be produced by much simpler means. No artist, I am persuaded, would introduce such work in a design if he had to engrave it himself The same " colou.r" might be produced by single lines which could be executed in a third of the time required to cut out the interstices of the cross-hatchings. Durer's mark is at the bottom of the cut, and the date 1510 is perceived above it, on the frame of the table. The cut on page 249, from the Passion, Christ bearing his Cross, is highly characteristic of Durer's style ; and the original is one of the best of all the wood engravings which bear his mark. The characters intro- duced are such as he was fondest of drawing ; and most of the heads and figures may be recognised in several other engravings either executed by himself on copper or by others on wood from his designs. The figure which is seen holding a kind of halbert in his right hand is a favourite with Durer, and is introduced, with trifling variations, in at 248 WOOD ENGEAVING least half a dozen of his subjects ; and the horseman with a kind of turban on his head and a lance in his left hand occurs no less frequently. St. Veronica, who is seen holding the " sudarium," or holy handkerchief in the fore-ground to the left, is a type of his female figures ; the head of the executioner, who is seen urging Christ forward, is nearly the same as that of the mocker in the preceding vignette ; and Simon the Cyrenian. -__-- r-^s^ ^%^f " BS=%= who assists to bear the cross, appears to be the twin-brother of St. Joseph in the Sojourn in Egypt. The figure of Christ, bowed down with the v/eight of the cross, is well drawn, and his face is strongly expressive of sorrow. Behind Simon the Cyrenian are the ^'irgin and St. .John ; and under the gateway a man with a haggard ^'is;lge is perceived carrying a ladder with his head bi'twceii \\w steps. The artist's mark is at the bottom of the cut. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 249 The subject of the cut on page 250, from Christ's Passion, represents the descent into hell and the liberation of the ancestors. The massive gates of the abode of sin and death have been burst open, and the banner of the cross waves triumphant. Among those who have already been liberated from the pft of darkness are Eve, who has her back turned towards the spectator, and Adam, who in his right hand holds an apple. the symbol of his fall, and with his left supports a cross, the emblem of his redemption. In the front is Christ aiding others of the ancestors to ascend from the pit, to the great dismay of the demons whose realm is invaded. A horrid monster, with a head like that of a boar surmounted with a horn, aims a blow at the Eedeemer with a kind of rude lance ; while another, a hideous compound of things that swim, and walk, and fly, sounds a note of alarm to arouse his kindred fiends. On a stone, 250 WOOD ENGEAVJNG above the entrance to the pit, is the date 1510 ; and Durer's mark is perceived on another stone immediately before the figure of Christ- This cut, with the exception of the frequent cross-hatching, is designed more in the style and spirit of the artist's illustrations of the Apocalypse, than in the manner of the rest of the series to which it belongs. The preceding specimens of -\\ood-cuts from Durer's thi'ce great works, the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and Christ's Passion, afford not only an idea of the style of his drawing, on wood, but also of the progress made by the art of wood engraving from the time of his first availing himself of its capabilities. In Durer's designs on wood we perceive not only more correct drawing and a greater knowledge of composition, but also a much iiioro olTective combination of light and shade, than are to bo found in any wood-cuts executed before the date of his earliest work, the A])()('.alypso, which appeared in 1498. One of the IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 251 pecuhar advantages of wood engraving is the effect with which strong shades can be represented ; and of this Durer has generaUy avaUed himself with the greatest skUl. On comparing his works engraved on wood -with aU those previously executed in the same manner, we shaU find that his figures are not only much better drawn and more skilfully grouped, but that instead of sticking, in hard outline, against the back ground, they stand out with the natural appearance of rotundity. The rules of perspective are more attentively observed ; the back-grounds better fUled ; and a number of subordinate objects introduced — such as trees, herbage, flowers, animals, and chUdren — which at once give a pleasing variety to the subject and impart to it the stamp of truth. Though the figures in many of his designs may not indeed be correct in point of costume, — for though he diligently stddied Nature, it was only in her German dress, — yet their character and expression are generally appropriate and natural. Though incapable of imparting to sacred subjects the elevated character which is given to them by Eaffaele, his representations are perhaps no less like the originals than those of the great Italian master. It is indeed highly probable that Albert Durer's German representatives of saints and apostles are more like the originals than the more dignified ideal portraits of Eaffaele. The latter, from his knowledge of the antique, has frequently given to his Jews a character and a costume bori'owed from Grecian art of the age of Phidias ; whUe Albert Durer has given to them the features and invested them in the costume of Germans of his own age. Shortly after the appearance of the large cuts iUustrative of Christ's Passion, Durer published a series of thirty-seven of a smaller size, also engraved on wood, which Mr. Ottley caUs " The FaU of Man and his Eedemption through Christ," but which Durer himself refers to under the title of " The Little Passion."''* All the cuts of the Little Passion, as well as seventeen of those of the Life of the Virgin and several other pieces of Durer's, were imitated on copper by Marc Antonio Eaimondi, the celebrated Italian engraver, who is said to have sold his copies as the originals. Vasari, in his Life of Marc Antonio, says that when Durer was informed of this imitation of his works, he was highly incensed and * The Latin title of this work is " Passio Christi," and the explanatory verses are from the pen of Chelidonius. Durer, in the Journal of his Visit to the Netherlands, twice mentions it as " die Kleine Passion," and each time with a distinction which proves that he did not mean the Passion engraved by him on copper and probably pubUshed in 1512. " Item Sebaldt Fischer hat mir zu Antorff [Antwerp] abkauift 16 Meiner Passion, pro 4 fl. Mehr 32 grosser Bucher pro 8fl. Mehr 6 gestochne Pas.sion pro 3 fl."— "Darnach die drey Biicher unser Frauen Leben, Apocalypsin, und den grossen Passion, darnach den Mein Passion, und den Passion in Kupffer."— Albrecht Diirers Reisejoumal, in Von Murr, 7er Theil, S. 60 and 67. The size of the cuts of the Little Passion is five inches high by three and seven-eighths wide. Four impressions from the original blocks are given in Ottley's Inquiry, vol. u. between page 730 and page 731. 252 WOOD ENGEAVING he set out directly for Venice, and that on his arrival there ne complained of Marc Antonio's proceedings to the government ; but could obtain no further redress than that in future Marc Antonio should not put Durer's mark to his engravings. Though it is by no means unlikely that Durer might apply to the Venetian government to prevent the sale of spurious copies of his works within the bounds of their jurisdiction, yet Vasari's account of his personaUy visiting that city for the purpose of making a complaint against Marc Antonio, and of the government having forbid the latter to affix Durer's mark to his engravings in future, is certainly incorrect. The History of the Virgin, the earhest of the two works which were almost entirely copied by Marc Antonio, was not pubUshed before 1510, and there is not the shghtest evidence of Durer having re-visited Venice after his return to Nuremberg about the latter end of 1506. Bartsch thinks that Vasari's account of Durer's complaining to the Venetian government against Marc Antonio is wholly unfounded : not only from the fact of Durer not having visited Venice subsequent to 1506, but from the improbability of his applying to a foreign state to prohibit a stranger from copying his works. Mr. Ottley, however, — after observing that Marc Antonio had affixed Durer's mark to his copies of the seventeen cuts of the Life of the Virgin and of some other single subjects, but had omitted it in his copies of the cuts of the Little Passion,— thus expresses his opinion with respect to the correctness of this part of Vasari's account : " That Durer, who enjoyed the especial protection of the Emperor Maximilian, might be enabled through the imperial ambassador at Venice to lay his complaints before the govern ment, and to obtain the prohibition before stated, may I think readUj' be imagined ; and it cannot be denied, that the circumstance of Marc Antonio's having omitted to afiix the mark of Albert to the copies wluch he afterwards made of the series of the 'Life of Christ' is strongly corroborative of the general truth of the story."* As two of the cuts in the Little Passion, which Mr. Ottley here calls the " Life of Christ," are dated 1510, and as, according to Mr. Ottley, Marc Antonio arrived at Eome in the course of that year, it is difficult to conceive how the government of Venice could have the power to prohibit a native of Bologna, living in a state beyond their jurisdiction, from affixing Albert Durer's mark to such engravings as he might please to copy from the works of that master. * Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving, vol ii. p. 7S'2. Tl>e objections tu the general truth of Vasari's story appear to be much stronger than the presumptions iu its favour. 1 . The improbabUity of Albert Durer having visited ^'enice subsequent to 1506 ; 'J. Tho fact of Marc Antonio's copies of the cuts of the Little Passion not contiuning Albert Durer's mark; and:i. The probability of JMark Antonio residing beyond the jurisdiction of ttie Venetian government at the time of bis engraving them. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEK. . 2.53 Among the more remarkable single subjects engraved on wood from Durer's designs, the foUowing are most frequently referred to : God the Father bearing up into heaven the dead body of Christ, with the date 1511 ; a Ehinoceros, with the date 1515 ; a portrait of Ulrich Varnbuler, with the date 1522 ; a large head of Christ crowned with thorns, without date ; and the Siege of a fortified town, with the date 1527. In the first of the above-named cuts, God the Father wears a kind of tiara hke that of the Pope, and above the principal figure the Holy Ghost is seen hovering in the form of a dove. On each side of the Deity and the dead Christ are angels holding the cross, the pUlar to which Christ was bound when he was scourged, the crown of thorns, the sponge dipped in vinegar, and other emblems of the Passion. At the foot are heads with puffed-out cheeks intended to represent the winds. This cut is engraved in a clearer and more dehcate style than most of the other subjects designed by Durer on wood. There are impressions of the Ehinoceros, and the portrait of Varnbuler, printed in chiaro-scuro from three blocks ; and there are also other wood-cuts designed by Durer executed in the same manner. The large head of Christ, which is engraved in a coarse though spirited and effective manner, is placed by Bartsch among the doubtful pieces ascribed to Durer ; but Mr. Ottley says, " I am unwiUing to deny to Durer the credit of this admirable and boldly executed production."* The cut representing the siege of a fortified town is twenty-eight inches and three-eighths wide, by eight inches and seven eighths high. It has been engraved on two blocks, and afterwards pasted together, A number of small figures are introduced, and a great extent of country is shown in this cut, which is, however, deficient in effect ; and the little figures, though drawn with great spirit, want reUef, which causes many of them to appear as if they were riding or walking in the air. The most solid-like part of the subject is the sky; there is no ground for most of the figures to stand on ; and those which are in the distance are of the same size as those which are apparently a mUe or two nearer the spectator. There is nothing remarkable in the execution, and the design adds nothing to Durer's reputation. The great patron of wood engraving in the earlier part of the sixteenth century was the Emperor Maximilian I, who, — besides originating the three works, known by the titles of Sir Theurdank, the * There is a copy of this head, also engraved on wood, of the size of the original, but without Durer's, or any other mark. Underneath an impression of the copy, in the Print Room of the British Museum, there is written in a hand which appears to be at least as old as the year 1560, "Dieser hat ^ehaini gerissen"— " H. S. Behain: drew this." Hans Sebald Behaim, a painter and designer on wood, was born at Nuremberg in 1500, and was the pupil of his uncle, also named Behaim, a painter and engraver of that city. The younger Behaim abandoned the arts to become a tavern-keeper at Frankfoi-t, where he died in 1550. 254 WOOD ENGRAVING Wise King, and the Triumphs of Maximihan, which he caused to be illustrated with numerous wood engravings, chiefly from the designs of Hans Burgmair and Hans Schaufflein, — employed Albert Durer to make the designs for two other series of wood engravings, a Triumphal Car and a Triumphal Arch. The Triumphal Car, engraved by Jerome Eesch from Durer's drawings on wood, is frequently confounded with the larger work caUed the Triumphs of Maximilian, most of the designs of which were made by Hans Burgmair. It is indeed generally asserted that aU the designs for the latter work were made by Hans Burgmair ; but I think I shaU be able to show, in a subsequent notice of that work, that some of the cuts contained in the edition pubUshed at Vienna and London in 1796 were, in all probability, designed by Albert Durer. The Triumphal Car consists of eight separate pieces, which, when joined together, form a continuous subject seven feet four inches long ; the height of the highest cut — that containing the car — is eighteen inches from the base line to the upper part of the canopy above the Emperor's head. The Emperor is seen seated in a highly ornamented car, attended by female figures, representing Justice, Truth, ' Clemency, and other -virtues, who hold towards him triumphal wreaths. One of the two wheels which are seen is inscribed " Magnificentia," and the other " Dignitas ; " the driver of the car is Eeason, — " Eatio," — and one of the reins is marked " Nobilitas," and the other " Potentia." The car is dra-wn by six pair of horses splendidly harnessed, and each horse is attended by a female figure. The names of the females at the head of the first pair from the car are " Providentia" and "Moderatio ;" of the second, " Alacritas" and " Opportunitas ; " of the third, " Velocitas ' and " Firmitudo ; " of the fourth, "Aerimonia" and "Virilitas;" of the fifth, "Audacia" and "Mag- nanimitas ; " and the attendants on the leaders are " Experientia " and " Solertia." Above each pair of horses there is a portion of explanatory matter printed in letter-press ; and in that above the leading pair is a mandate from the Emperor Maximihan, dated Inspruck, 1518, addressed to BUibald Pirkhehner, who appears to have suggested the subject ; and in the same place is the name of the inventor and designer, Albert Durer.'* Tlie first edition of those cuts appeared at Nuremberg in 1522 ; and in some copies the text is in German, and in others in Latin. A second edition, -with the text in Latin only, was printed at the same place in the following year. A third edition, from the same blocks, was • In the edition with Latin inscriptions, ^r^2:i, are the words, " Exccigitatus et de- jiictus est currus iste Nuremberga^ impressus vero per Albertum Durer Anno mdxxih. The Latin words "excogitatus et depictus" ai'e expi'essed by "gefuuden und geoi'dnet " in the German inscriptions in the edition of 15'2'2. A sketch by Durer, for the Triumphal Car, is preserved in the Print Room hi the British Museum. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 255 printed at Venice in 1588 ; and a fourth at Amsterdam in 1609. The execution of this subject is not particularly good, but the action of the horses is generally well represented, and the drawing of some ot the female figures attending them is extremely spirited. Guide seems to have avaUed himself of some of the figures in Durer's Triumphal Car in his celebrated fresco of the Car of ApoUo, preceded by Aurora, and accompanied by the Hours. It is said that the same subject painted by Durer himself is stUl to be seen on the walls of the Town-hall of Nureipiberg ; but how far this is correct I am unable to positively say ; for I know of no account of the painting -wi'itten by a person who appears to have been acquainted -with the subject engraved on wood. Dr. Dibdin, who visited the Town- hall of Nuremberg in 1818, speaks of what he saw there in a most vague and unsatisfactory manner, as if he did not know the Triumphal Car designed by Durer from the larger work entitled the Triumphs of Maxi- mUian. The notice of the learned bibliographer, who professes to be a great admirer of the works of Albert Durer, is as follows : " The great boast of the coUection [in the Town-hall of Nuremberg] are the Triumphs of MaximiUan executed by Albert Durer, — which, however, have by no means escaped injury."* It is from such careless observations as the preceding that erroneous opinions respecting the Triumphal Car and the Triumphs of Maximilian are continued and propagated, and that most persons confound the two works ; which is indeed not surprising, seeing that Dr. Dibdin himself, who is considered to be an authority on such matters, has afforded proof that he does not know one from the other. In the same volume that contains the notice of the " Triumphs of MaximUian " in the Town-hall of Nuremberg, Dr. Dibdin says that he saw the " oeiginal paintings " from which the large wood blocks were taken for the weU-known work entitled the " Triumphs o the Emperor Maximilian!' in large folio, in the Imperial Library at Vienna.t Such observations are very much in the style of the countryman's, who had seen two genuine skuUs of Oliver Cromwell, — one at Oxford, and another in the British Museum. Though I have not been able to ascertain satisfactorily the subject of Durer's painting in the Town-haU of Nurem berg, I am inclined to think that it is the Triumphal Car of Maximilian. In a memorandum in the hand-writing of Nollekins, preserved with his copies of Durer's Triumphal Car and Triumphal Arch of Maximihan, in the Print Eoom of the British Museum, it is said, though erroneously, that the former is painted in the Town-haU of Augsburg with the figures as large as life. The Triumphal Arch of the Emperor Maximilian, engraved on wood from Durer's designs, consists of ninety -two separate pieces, which, when '- Bibliograplrical Tom, vol. iii. p. 438. Edit. Ib29. t Ibid. p. 330. 256 WOOD engeaving joined together, form one large composition about ten feet and a half high by nine and a half wide, exclusive of the margins and five folio sheets of explanatory matter by the projector of the design, John Stabius, who styles himself the historiographer and poet of the Emperor, and who says, at the commencement of his description, that this arch was drawn " after the manner of those erected in honour of the Eoman emperors at Eome, some of which are destroyed and others stUl to be seen." In the arch of Maximilian are three gates or entrances ; that m the centre is named the Gate of Honour and Power ; that to the left the Gate of Fame ; and that to the right the Gate of NobUity.* Above the middle entrance is what Stabius calls the " grand tower," surmounted with the imperial crown, and containing an inscription in German to the memory of ilaximUian. Above and on each side of the gates or entrances, which are of very small dimensions, are portraits of the Eoman emperors from the time of Juhus Ctesar to that of MaximUian himself ; there are also portiaits of his ancestors, and of kings and princes with whom he was aUied either by friendship or marriage ; shields of arms iUustrative of his descent or of the extent of his sovereignty ; with representations of his most memorable actions, among which his adventures in the Tyrolean Alps, when hunting the chamois, are not forgotten. Underneath each subject iUustrative of his own history are explanatory verses, in the German language, engi-aved on wood ; and the names of the kings and emperors, as weU as tliL- inscriptions explanatory of other parts of the subject, are also executed in the same manner. The whole subject is, in fact, a kind of pictorial epitome of the history of the German empire ; representing the suc cession of the Eoman emperors, and the more remarkable events of MaximUian's own reign ; -with iUustrations of his descent, possessions, and alliances. At the time of Maximilian's death, which happened in 1519, this great work was not finished ; and it is said that Durer himseK did not live to see it completed, as one smaU block remained to be engraved at the period of his death, in 1528. At whatever time the Mork might be finished, it certainly was commenced at least four j'ears before the Emperor's death, for the date 1515 occurs in two places at the foot of the subject. Though Durer's mark is not to be found on any one of the cuts, there can be little doubt of his having furnished the designs for the whole. In the ninth volume of Von Murr's Journal it is stated that Durer received a hundred guilders a year from the Emperor, — probably on account of this large work ; and in the same volume there is a letter * The two last names are, in the first edition, pasted over others which appear to have been " The Gate of Honour" and " The Gate of Relationship, Friendship, and AUiance." 'I'be last name alludes to the emperor's possessions as acipiired by descent or marriage, and ti) his power as strengthened liy his fncndly alliances witli neighbouring states. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 257 of Durer's addressed to a friend, requesting him to apply to the emperor on account of arrears due to him. In this letter he says that he has made many drawings besides the " Tryumps"* for the emperor ; and as he also thrice mentions Stabius, the inventor of the Triumphal Arch, there can be little doubt but that this was the work to which he aUudes. As a work of art the best single subjects of the Triumphal Arch wUl not bear a comparison -with the best cuts in Durer's Apocal3^se, the History of the Virgin, or Christ's Passion ; and there are several in which no tiace of his effective style of dra-wing on wood is to be found. Most of the subjects iUustrative of the emperor's battles and adventures are in particular meagre in point of dra-wing, and deficient in effect. The whole composition indeed appears Uke the result of continued appUcation without much display of talent. The powers of Durer had been evidently oonstrained to work out the conceptions of the historiographer and poet, Stabius ; and as the subjects were not the suggestions of the artist's own feelings, it cannot be a matter of surprise that we should find in them so few traces of his genius. The engraving of the cuts is clear, but not generaUy effective ; and the execution of the whole, both figures and letters, would occupy a single wood engraver not less than four years ; even aUo-wing him to engrave more rapidly on pear-tree than a modem wood engraver does on box ; and supposing him to be a master of his profession. From his varied talents and the exceUence which he displayed in every branch of art that he attempted, Albert Durer is entitled to rank with the most extraordinary men of his age. As a painter he may be considered as the father of the German school ; whUe for his fidehty in copying nature and the beauty of his colours he may bear a comparison with most of the Italian artists of his own age. As an engraver on copper he greatly exceUed all who preceded him ; and it is highly questionable if any artist since his time, except Eembrandt, has painted so many good pictures and engraved so manj^ good copper-plates. But besides exceUing as an engraver on copper after the manner in which the art had been pre-viously practised, giving to his subjects a breadth of light and a depth of shade which is not to be found in the productions of the earlier masters, he further improved the art by the invention of * " Item -wist auch das Ich K. Mt. ausserhalb des Tryumps sonst viel mancherley Fisyrung gemaoht hab." — " You must also know that I have made many other drawings for the emperor besides those of the Triumph." The date of this letter is not given, but Durer informs his friend that he had been already three years employed for the emperor, and that if he had not exerted himself the beautiful " work" would not have been so soon completed. If this is to be understood of the Triumphal Arch, it would seem that the designs at least were aU finished before the emperor's death. — Von Murr, Journal, 9er Theil, S. 4. S 258 WOOD ENGfeAViNG etching,* which enables the artist to work with greater freedom and to. give a variety and an effect to his subjects, more especiaUy landscapes, which are utterly unattainable by means of the graver alone. There are two subjects by Albert Durer, dated 1512, which Bartsch thmks were etched upon plates of iron, but which Mr. Ottley considers to have been executed upon plates of a softer metal than copper, -with the dry-point. There are, however, two undoubted etchings by Durer -with the date 1515 ; two others executed in the same manner are dated 1516 ; and a fifth, a landscape with a large cannon in the fore-ground to the left, is dated 1518. There is another undoubted etchmg by Durer, represent ing naked figures in a bath ; but ft contains neither his mark nor a date. The three pieces which Mr. Ottley thmks were not etched, but executed on some soft kind of metal with the dry-pomt, are : 1. The figure of Christ, seen in front, standing, clothed -with a mantle, having his hands tied together, and on his head a crown of thoms ; date 1512. 2. St. Jerome seated amongst rocks, praying to a cmcifix, -with a book open before him, and a lion below to the left ; date 1512. 3. The Virgin, seated with the infant Christ in her lap, and seen in front, with St. Joseph behind her on the left, and on the right three other figures; %vithout mark or date. — One of the more common of Durer's undoubted etchings is that of a man mounted on a unicorn, and carrying off a naked woman, with the date 1516. Albert purer not only exceUed as a painter, an engraver on copper, and a designer on wood, but he also executed several pieces of sculpture -with surprising deUcacy and natural expression of character. An ad mirable specimen of his skUl in this department of art is preseiwed in the British Museum, to which institution it was bequeathed by the late * In the process of etching the plate is first covered with a resinous composition — caUed etching ground — on which the lines intended to be etched, or bit into the plate, are drawn through to the surface of the metal by means of a small pointed tool caUed a.T etching needle, or an etching point. When the drawing of the subject upon the etching ground is finished, the plate is surrounded with a slightly raised border, or " waU," as it is technicaUy termeil, formed of rosin, bee's-wax, and lard ; and, a corrosive Uquid being poured upon the plate, the lines are " bit" into the copper or steel. When the engraver thinks that the Imes are corroded to a sufficient depth, he pours off the liquid, cleans the plate by means of turpentine, and proceeds to finish his work with the graver and diy-point According to the practice of modem engravers, where several tints are required, as is most frequently the case, the process of " biting-in" is repeated ; the con-osive liquid being again poured on the plate to corrode deeper the stronger lines, while the more delicate are " stopped out," — that is, covei-ed with a kind of varnish that soon hardens, to preseive them from further corrosion. Most of our best engravers now use a diamond point in etching. Nitrous acid is used for " biting-in" on copper in the proportion of one part acid to four parts water, and the mixture is considered to be better after it has been once or twice used. Before using the aeid it is advisable to take the stopper out of the bottle for twenty-four houra in order to allow a portion of the strength to evaporate. During the process of biting-in a large copper-plate the fumes which arise are BO powerfiil as frequently to cause an unpleasant stricture in the throat, and sometimes to IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 259 E. Payne Knight, Esq., by whom it was purchased at Brussels for five hundred guineas upwards of forty years ago. This most exquisite piece of sculpture is of smaU dimensions, being only seven and three quarter inches high, by five and a half wide. It is executed in hone-stone, of a cream colour, and is all of one piece, with the exception of a dog and one or two books in front. The subject is the naming of John the Baptist* In front, to the right, is an old man with a tablet inscribed with Hebrew characters ; another old man is seen immediately behind him, further to the right ; and a younger man, — said to be intended by the artist for a portrait of himself, — appears entering the door of the apartment. An old woman -with the child in her arms is seated near the figure with the tablet ; St. Elizabeth is perceived lying in bed, on the more distant side of which a female attendant is standing, and on the other, nearer to the spectator, an elderly man is seen kneeling. It is supposed that the latter figure is intended for Zacharias, and that the artist had represented him in the act of making signs to EUzabeth with his hands. The figures in the fore-ground are executed in high relief, and the character and expression of the heads have perhaps never been surpassed in any work of sculpture executed on the same scale. Durer's mark is perceived on a tablet at the foot of the bed, with the date 1510. This curious specimen of Durer's talents as a sciUptor is carefully preserved in a frame with a glass before it, and is in most perfect condition, with the exception of the hands of Zacharias and of Elizabeth, some of the fingers of which are broken off. Shortly after Whitsuntide, 1520, Durer set out from Nuremberg, accompanied by his -wife and her servant Susanna, on a visit to the Netherlands ; and as he took -with him several copies of his principal works, engravings on copper as weU as on wood, and painted and drew a bring on a spitting of blood when they have been incautiously inhaled by the engraver. At such tunes it is usual for the engraver to have near him some powerful essence, generaUy hartshorn, in order to counteract the efifects of the noxious vapour. For biting-in on steel nitric acid is used in the proportion of thirty drops to half a pint of distiUed water ; and the mixture is never used for more than one plate. — When a cooper-plate is sufSciently bit-in, it is only necessary to wash it -with a Uttle water pre-vious to removing the etching ground -with turpentine ; but, besides this, -with a steel plate it is further necessary to set it on one of its edges against a waU or other support, and to blow it with a pair of small bellows till every particle of moisture in the lines is perfectly evaporated. The plate is then rubbed with oil, otherwise the lines would rust from the action of the atmosphere and the plate be conse quently spoUed. Previous to a steel plate being laid aside for any length of time it ought to be warmed, and the engraved surface rubbed carefully over -with -virgin wax so that it may be completely covered, and every Une fiUed. A piece of thick paper the size of the plate, laid over the wax whUe it is yet adhesive, -wiU prove an additional safeguard. For this infoi-ma- tion respecting the process of biting-in, the -writer is indebted to an eminent engraver, Mr, J. T. Wilmore. * The accoimt of the naming of John the Baptist wUl be found in St Luke's Gospel, chap. i. verse ."59 — R4. s2 260 WOOD ENGEAVING number of portraits during his residence there, the journey appears to have been taken as much -with a view to business as pleasure. He kept a journal from the time of his leaving Nuremberg tUl the period of his reaching Cologne on his return, and from this curious record of the artist's travels the foUo-wing particulars of his visit to the Netherlands have been obtained.'* Durer proceeded foom Nuremberg direct to Bamberg, where he presented to the bishop a painting of the Virgin, with a copy of the Apocalypse and the Lffe of the Virgin engraved on wood. The bishop in-vited Durer to his table, and gave him a letter exempting his goods from toll, with three others which were, most likely, letters of recom mendation to persons of influence in the Netherlands.t From Bamberg, Durer proceeded by way of Eltman, Sweinfurth, and Frankfort- to Mentz, and from the latter city down the Ehine to Cologne. In this part of his journey he seems to have met -with Uttle which he deemed worthy of remark : at Sweinfurth Dr. Eebart made him a present of some -wine ; at Mentz, Peter Goldsmith's landlady presented him -with two flasks of the same Uquor ; and when Veit Vambider in-vited him to dinner there, the tavern-keeper would not receive any payment, but insisted on being Durer's host himself. At Lohnstein, on the Ehine, between Boppart and Coblentz, the toU-coUector, who was weU acquainted -with Durer's -wife, presented him with a can of wine, and expressed himself extremely glad to see him. From Cologne, Durer proceeded direct to Antwerp, where he took up his abode in the house of " Jobst Planckfelt ;" and on the evening of his arrival^ he was invited to a splendid supper by Bernard Stecher, an * Durer's Journal of his Travels is given by Von Murr, 7er TheU, S. 55 — 9S. The title which the Editor has prefixed to it is, " Reisejoumal Albrecht Diirer's von seiner Niederlan- dischen Reise, 1520 und 1521. E. Bibhotheca Ebneriana.'' In the same volume. Von Murr gives some specimens of Durer's poetry. The first couplet which he made in 1509 is as follows : "Du aUer Engel Spiegel und Erloser der Welt, Deine grosse Marter sey fiir mein Siind ein Widergelt" Thou mirror of aU Angels and Redeemer of mankind. Through thy martyrdom, for aU my sins may I a ransom find. This couplet being ridiculed by BUibald Pirkheimer, who said that rhjmiiug verses ought not to consist of more than eight syllables, Durer wrote se\-cral others in a shorter measure, but with no better success ; for he says at the conclusion, that they did not please the learned counsellor. With Durer's rhymes there is an epistle in verse from his friend Lazarus Sprengel, -written to dissuade him from attempting to become a poet. Durer's verses -want "the right butter-woman's trot to market," and ai-e sadly deficient in rhythm when compared with the more regular clink of his friend's. t Subsequently, Durer mentions having delivered to the INIargrave John, at Brussels, a letter of recommendation [Fiirderbrief] from the Bishop of Bamberg. X As Durer was at Cologne about the 'ifith July, it is probable that he would arrive at Antwci-]! about the last dnynf that mnntli. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 261 agent of the Fuggers, the celebrated fanuly of merchants of Nuremberg, and the most wealthy in Germany. On St. Oswald's day, Sunday, 5th August, the Painters' Company of Antwerp in-vited Durer, with his "wife and her maid,* to a grand entertainment in their haU, which was ornamented in a splendid manner, and aU the vessels on the table were of silver. The wives of the painters were also present ; and when Durer was conducted to his seat at the table " aU the company stood up on each side, as if some great lord had been making his entrance." Several honourable persons, who had also been in-vited, bowed to him ; and aU expressed their respect and their wishes to afford bim pleasure. While he was at table the messenger of the magistrates of Antwerp made his appearance, and presented him in their name with four flaggons of -wine, saying, that the magistrates thus testified their respect and their good-wUl towards him. Durer, as in duty bound, returned thanks, and tendered to the magisterial body his humble service. After this Uttle affair was despatched, entered Peter the city carpenter in propria persona, and presented Durer -with two more flaggons of wine, and compUmented him with the offer of his services. After the party had enjoyed them selves cheerfuUy tUl late in the night, they attended Durer to his lodgings -with torches in a most honourable manner, expressing their good--wiU towards him, and their readiness to assist him in whatever manner he might choose. — Shortly after this grand FeUowship-feast, .Durer was entertained by Quintin Matsys, — frequently caUed the Blacksmith of Antwerp, — whose celebrated picture of the Misers is now in the Eoyal CoUection at "Windsor. On the Sunday after the Assumption,t Durer -witnessed a grand procession in honour of the Virgin, and the account which he has given of it presents so curious a picture of the old rehgious pageantries that it appears worthy of being tianslated without abridgement. " On the Sunday after the Assumption of our Lady," says the artist, " I saw the grand procession from our Lady's church at Antwerp, where all the inhabitants of the city assembled, gentry as weU as trades-people, each, according to his rank, gayly dressed. Every class and feUowship was distinguished by its proper badge ; and large and valuable crosses were borne before several of the crafts. There were also sUver trumpets of the old Prankish fashion ; -with German drums and fifes playing loudly. I also saw in the street, marching after each other in rank, at a certain * The maid, Susanna, seems to have been rather a "humble friend " than a menial servant ; for she is mentioned in another part of the Journal as being entertained with Durer's wife at the house of "Tomasin Elorianus," whom Durer describes as '' Romanus von Luca biirtig." t The Assumption of the Virgin is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church on the loth August. 262 WOOD ENGEAVING distance, the Goldsmiths, the Painters, the Masons, the Embroiderers, the Statuaries, the Cabinet-makers, the Carpenters, the SaUors, the Fisher men, the Butchers, the Curriers, the Weavers, the Bakers, the TaUors, the Shoemakers, and all kinds of craftsmen with labourers engaged in producing the necessaries of life. In the same manner came the Shop keepers find Merchants with their assistants. After these came the Shooters, with firelocks, bows, and cross-bows, some on horseback and some on foot ; and after them came the City Guard. These were foUowed by persons of the higher classes and the magistrates, all dressed in their proper habits ; and after them came a gaUant troop arrayed in a noble and splendid manner. In this procession were a number of females of a religious order who subsist by means of their labour, all clothed in white from head to foot, and forming a very pleasing sight. After them came a number of gaUant persons and the canons of our Lady's church, -with all the clergy and scholars, followed by a grand display of characters. Twenty men carried the Virgin and Christ, most richly adorned, to the honour of God. In this part of the procession were a number of deUghtful things, represented in a splendid manner. There were several waggons in which were representations of ships and fortifications. Then came a troop of characters from the Prophets in regular order, foUowed by others from the New Testament, such as the Annunciation, the Wise Men of the East, riding on great camels and other wonderful animals, and the Flight into Egypt, all very skilfully appointed. Then came a great dragon, and St. Margaret, with the image of the Virgin at her girdle, exceedingly beautU'ul ; and last St. George and his squire. In this troop rode a number of boys and girls very handsomely'arrayed in various costumes, representing so many saints. This procession, from beginning to end, was upwards of two hours in passing our house ; and there were so many things to be seen, that I could never describe them all even in a book.'^* Though Durer chiefly resided at Antwerp duiing his stay in the Netherlands, he did not entirely confine himself to that city, but occasionaUy visfted other places. On the 2nd of September 1520, he left Antwerp for Brussels, proceeding by way of ^laUnes and VUvorde. When at Brussels, he saw a number of A-aluable curiosities which had been sent to the Emperor from Mexico, among which he enumerates a golden sun, a fathom broad, and a silver moon of the same size, with weapons, armour, and dresses, and various other admirable things of great beauty and cost. He says that their value was estimated at a hundred thousand guUders ; and that he never saw any thing that pleased him so much in his life. Durer was evidently fond of seeing sights ; he speaks with delight of the fountains, the labp-inths, and the parks in the . • Albrecht Diirer's Reisejoumal, in Von Murr, 7er Theil, S. c:?— 65. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 268 neighbourhood of the Eoyal Palace, which he says were like Paradise ; and among the wonders which he saw at Brussels, he notices a large fish bone which was almost a fathom in circumference and weighed fifteen " centner ; " * a great bed that would hold fifty men ; and a stone which feU from the sky in a thunder-storm in presence of the Count of Nassau. He also mentions having seen at Antwerp the bones of a giant who had been eighteen feet high. Durer and his wife seem to have had a taste for zoology : Herr Lazarus Von Eavenspurg complimented him with a monkey ; and " Signer Eoderigo," a Portuguese, presented his ill-tempered spouse with a green parrot. When at Brussels, Durer painted the portrait of the celebrated Eras mus, from whom, pre-vious to leaving Antwerp, he had received as a present a Spanish mantle and three portraits. He remained about a week at Brussels, during which time he drew or painted seven portraits ; and in his Journal he makes the foUowing memorandum : " Item, six persons whose likenesses I have taken at Brussels, have not given me anything." Among those portraits was that of Bernard Van Orley, an eminent Flemish painter who had studied under Eaffaele, and who at that time held the office of painter to the Archduchess Margaret, regent of the Netherlands, and aunt of the Emperor Charles V. When at Brassels, Durer bought for a stiver t two copies of the " Eulenspiegel," a celebrated engra-ving by Lucas Van Leyden, now of very great rarity. After remaining at Antwerp tUl the latter end of September, Durer proceeded to Aix-la-ChapeUe, where, on the 2Srd of October, he wit nessed the coronation of the Emperor Charles V. He afterwards proceeded to Cologne, where, on the Sunday after All Saints' day, he saw a grand banquet and dance given by the emperor, from whom, on the Monday after Martinmas day, he received the appointment of court- painter to his Imperial Majesty. When at Cologne, Durer bought a copy of the " Condemnation of that good man, Martin Luther, for a white-penny." This Condemnation was probably a copy of the bull of excommunication issued against Luther by Pope Leo X. on 20th June, * This " gross Fischpein " was probably part of the back-bone ol a whale. t The stiver was the twenty-fourth part of a guUder or florin of gold, which was equal to about nine shillings English money of the present time ; the stiver would therefore be equal to about four pence half-penny. About the same time, Durer sold a copy of his Christ's Passion, probably the largie one, for twelve stivers, and an impression of his copper-plate of Adam and Eve for four stivers. Shortly after his first arrival at Antwerp, he sold sixteen copies of the Little Passion for four guUders or florins ; and thirty-two copies of his larger works,— probably the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and the Great Passion, -for eight florins, being at the rate of sixteen stivers for each copy. He also sold six copies of the Passion engraved on copper at the same price. He gave to his host a painting of the Virgin on canvass to seU for two Rhenish florms. The sum that he received for each portrait in pencil [the German is mit Kohlen, which is literally charcoal], when the parties did pay, appears to have been a florin. 264 WOOD ENGEAVING 1520. In a day or two after receiving his appointment, Durer left Cologne and proceeded down the Ehine, and visited Nimeguen He then went to Bois-le-duc, where he was entertained by Arnold de Beer, a painter of considerable reputation in his day, and treated with great respect by the goldsmiths of the place. On the Thursday after the Presentation of the Virgin,*— 21st November,— Durer again arrived at Antwerp. "In the seven weeks and upwards that I was absent," he ¦writes in his Journal, " my wife and her maid spent seven gold cro-wns. The first had her pocket cut off in St. Mary's church on St. Mary's day ; there were two guUders in it." On the 3rd of December, Durer left Antwerp on a short journey through Zealand, proceechng by way of Bergen-op-Zoom. In the Abbey at Middleburg he saw the great picture of the Descent from the Cross by Mabeuse; of which he remarks that "it is better painted than drawn." When he was about to land at Armuyden, a smaU to-wn on the island of Walcheren, the rope broke, and a -violent -wind arising, the boat which he was in was driven out to sea. Some persons, however, at length came to their assistance, and brought aU the passengers safely a^ore. On the Friday after St. Lucia's day he again returned to Antwerp, after having been absent about twelve days. On Shrove Tuesday, 1521, the company of goldsmiths invited Durer and his wife to a dinner, at which he was treated -with great honour ; and as this was an early meal, he was enabled at night to attend a grand banquet to which he was in-vited by one of the chief magistrates of Antwerp. On the Monday after his entertainment by the goldsmiths he was invited to another grand banquet which lasted two hours, and where he won, at some kind of game, two guUders of Bernard of Castile. Both at this and at the magistrates' banquet there was masquerading. At another entertainment given by Master Peter the Secretary, Durer and Erasmus were present. He was not idle at this period of festivitj'-, but drew several portraits in pencU. He also made a dra'wing for "Tomasin," and a painting of St. Jerome for Eoderigo of' Portugal, who appears to have been one of the most liberal of aU Durer's Antwerp friends. Besides the little green parrot which he gave his -wife, he also presented Durer with one for himself ; he also gave him a smaU cask of comfits, with various other sweetmeats, and specimens of the sugar cane. He also made him a present of cocoa-nuts and of several other things ; and shortly before the painting was finished. Signer Eoderigo * In Von Murr the words are " Am Donnnerstage nach JIarien HimmeUahrt," — On the Thursday after the Assumption of the Virgin. But this is e-vidently incorrect, the feast of the Assumption being kept on Lfith August. The " Marien Opferung"— the Presentation of the Virgin — which is commemorated on 21st November, is e^'idently meant, IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 265 gave him two large pieces of Portuguese gold coin, each of which was worth ten ducats. On the Saturday after Easter, Durer visited Bruges, where he saw in St. James's church some beautiful paintings by Hubert Van Eyck and Hugo Vander Goes ; and in the Painters' chapel, and in other churches, he saw several hy John Van Eyck ; he also mentions having seen, in St. Mary's church, an image of the Virgin in alabaster by Michael Angelo. The guUd of painters in-vited him to a grand banquet in their halL Two of the magistrates, Jacob and Peter Mostaert, presented him with twelve flaggons of wine ; and on the conclusion of the entertainment, aU the company, amounting to sixty persons, accompanied him with torches to his lodgings. He next visited Ghent, where the company of painters also treated him -with great respect. He there saw, in St. John's church, the celebrated picture of the Elders worshipping the Lamb, from the Eevelations. painted by John Van Eyck for Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Durer thus expresses his opinion of it : " This is a weU conceived and capital picture ; the figures of Eve, the Virgin, and God the Father, are, in particular, extremely good." After being about a week absent, he again returned to Antwerp, where he was shortly after seized -with an intermitting fever, which was accompanied with a violent head-ache and great sense of weariness. This illness, however, does not seem to have lasted very long ; his fever commenced in the third week after Easter, and on Eogation Sunday he attended the marriage feast of "Meister Joachim," — ^probably Joachim Patenier, a landscape painter whom Durer mentions in an earUer part of his Journal. Durer was a man of strong rehgious feelings ; and when Luther began to preach in opposition to the church of Eome, he warmly espoused his cause. The foUowing passages from his Journal sufficiently demonstrate the interest which he felt in the success of the great champion of the Eeformation. Luther on his return from Worms, where he had attended the Diet under a safe-conduct granted by the Emperor Charles V, was waylaid, on 4th May 1521, by a party of armed men, who caused him to descend from the Ught waggon in which he was traveUing, and to follow them into an adjacent wood. His brother James, who was in the waggon with him, made his escape on the first appearance of the horsemen. Luther ha-ving been secured, the driver and others who were in the waggon were aUowed to pursue their journey without further hindrance. This secret apprehension of Luther was, in reality, contiived by his friend and supporter, Frederick, Elector of Saxony,* in order to -withdraw him -* Luther's safe-conduct from Worms to Wittenberg was Umited to twenty-one days, at the expkation of which he was declared to be under the ban of the empire, or, in other words, an outlaw, to whom no prince or free city of Germany was to afford a refuge. Luther, previous 266 WOOD ENGEAVING for a time from the apprehended violence of his enemies, whose hatred towards him had been more than ever inflamed by the bold and undis guised statement of his opinions at Worms. Luther's friends, being totally ignorant of the elector's design, generally supposed that the safe- conduct had been disregarded by those whose duty it was to respect it, and that he had been betrayed and delivered into the hands of his enemies. Durer, on hearing of Luther's apprehension, -writes in his Journal as foUows. " On the Friday after Whitsuntide, 1521, 1 heard a report at Antwerp, that Martin Luther had been treacherously seized ; for the herald of the Emperor Charles, who attended him with .a safe-conduct, and to whose protection he was committed, on arriving at a lonely place near Eisenach, said he durst proceed no further, and rode away. Immediately ten horsemen made their appearance, and carried off the godly man thus be trayed into their hands. He was indeed a man enUghtened by the Holy Ghost, and a follower of the true Christian faith. '\\Tiether he be yet li-ving, or whether his enemies have put him to death, I know not ; yet certainly what he has suffered has been for the sake of truth, and because he has reprehended the abuses of unchristian papacy, which strives to fetter Christian liberty with the incumbrance of human ordinances, that we may be robbed of the price of our blood and sweat, and shamefuUy plundered by idlers, whUe the sick and needy perish through hunger. Above aU, it is especially distressing to me to think that God may yet allow us to remain under the blind doctrine which those men caUed ' the fathers ' have imagined and set forth, whereby the precious word is either in many places falsely expounded or not at aU observed." * After indulging in sundry pious invocations and reflections to the extent of two or three pages, Durer thus proceeds to lament the supposed death of Luther, and to invoke Erasmus to put his hand to the work from which he beheved that Luther had been removed. " And is Luther dead ? Who henceforth wUl so clearly explain to us the Gospel ? Alas I what might he not have -written for us in ten or twenty years ? Aid me, to leaving Worms, was informed of the elector's intention of secretly apprehcndmg him on the road and conveying him to a place of safety. After gettmg mto the wood, Luther was mounted on horseback, and conveyed to Wartburg, a castle belonging to the elector, where he continued to Uve disguised as a knights Junker Jorge— tUl March 1522. Luther was accustomed to call the castle of Wartburg his Patmos. * Durer, though an advocate of Luther, does not seem to have withdrawn himself from the communion of the Church of Rome. In his Journal, in Um, he enters a sum of ten stivers given to his confessor, and, subsequently, eight stivers given to a monk who visited his wife when she was sick. The passage in which the last item occui-s is curious, and seems to prove that female practitioners were then accustomed both to dispense and administer medical preparations at Antwerp. " Meine Fran ward krank, — der Apothekerinn fur Klysttren gegeben 14 StUber ; dem Monch, der sic besucbtc, 8 Stiiber." -Von M\m, Journal, 7er TheU, S. 93. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 267 aU pious Christians, to bewaU this man of heavenly mind, and to pray that God may send us another as divinely enlightened. Where, 0 Erasmus, wilt thou remain? Behold, now, how the tyranny of might and the power of darkness prevaU. Hear, thou champion of Christ ! Eide forward, defend the truth, and deserve the martyr's crown, for thou art already an old man.* I have heard from thy own mouth that thou hast aUotted to thyself two years yet of labour in which thou mightst stUl be able to produce something good ; employ these weU for the benefit of the Gospel and the true Christian faith : let then thy voice be heard, and so shaU not the see of Eome, the gates of Hell, as Christ saith, prevaU against thee. And though, like thy master, thou shouldst bear the scorn of the liars, and even die a short time earlier than thou otherwise mightst, yet -wilt thou therefore pass earlier from death unto eternal life and be glorified through Christ. If thou drinkest of the cup of which he drank, so wUt thou reign with him and pronounce judgment on those who have acted unrighteously. "t About this time a large wood-cut, of which the following is a reduced copy, was published ; and though the satire which it contains wUl apply equaUy to any monk who may be supposed to be an instrument of the devil, it was probably directed against Luther in particular, as a teacher of false doctri'ne through the inspiration of the father of Ues. In the cut the arch-enemy, as a bag-piper, is seen blowing into the ear of a monk, whose head forms the " bag," and by skUful fingering causing the nose, elongated in the form of a " chanter," to discourse sweet music. The preaching friars of former times were no less celebrated for their nasal melody than the "saints'' in the days of CromweU. A serious * This inducement for Erasmus to stand forth as a candidate for the honour of martyrdom is, in the original, as simple in expression as it is novel in conception : " Du hist doch sonst ein altes Menniken." LiteraUy: For thou art afready an old mamjiiim. Erasmus, however, was not a spirit to be charmed to enter such a circle by such an invocation. As he said of himself, " his gift did not lie that way," and he had as little taste for martyi'dom as he had for fish. — In one or two other passages in Durer's Journal there is an allusion to the dimi nutive stature of Erasmus. t Von Murr, Journal, 7er TheU, S. 88—93. In volume X, p. 41, Von Muit gives from Peucer, the son-in-law of Melancthon, the foUowing anecdote : " Melancthon, when at Nuremberg, on church and university affairs, was much in the society of Pirkheimer ; and Albert Durer, the painter, an inteUigent man, whose least merit, as Melancthon used to say, was his art, was frequently one of the party. Between Pirkheimer and Durer there were frequent disputes respecting the recent [religious] contest, in which Durer, as he was a man of strong mind, vigorously opposed Pirkheimer, and refuted his arguments as if he had come prepared for the discussion. Pirkheimer growing warm, for he was very irritable and much plagued -with the gout, would sometimes exclaim " Not so : — these things cannot be painted." — " And the arguments which you allege," Durer would reply, " can neither be correctly expressed nor comprehended."— Whatever might have been the particular points in dispute between the two friends, Purkheimer, as well as Durer, was a supporter of the doctrines of Luther. 268 WOOD ENGEAVING portrait of Luther, probably engraved or drawn on wood by Hans Baldung Gi'un, a pupU of Durer, was also pubhshed in 1521. It is printed in a quarto tract, entitled, " Acta et Ees gestae D. Martini Lutheri in ComitUs Principum Vuormaciae, Anno MDXXi," and also in a tract, 'written by Luther himself in answer to Jerome Emser, -without date, but probably printed at Wittenberg about 1523. In this portrait, which bears considerable resemblance to the head forming the bag of Satan's pipe, Luther appears as if meditating on a passage that he has just read in a volume which he holds open ; his head is surrounded with rays of glory ; and the Holy Ghost, in the form of a dove, appears as if about to settle on his shaven crown. In an impression now before me, some one, apparently a contemporary, who thought that Luther's inspiration was derived from another source, has with pen and ink transformed the dove into one of those unclean things between bat and serpent, which are IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 269 supposed to be appropriate to the regions of darkness, and which are generally to be seen in paintings and engravings of the temptation of St. Anthony. A week after Corpus Christi day* Durer left Antwerp for Malines, where the Archduchess Margaret, the aunt of the emperor Charles V, was then residing. He took up his lodgings with Henry de Bles, a painter of considerable reputation, caUed Civetta by the Italians, from the owl which he painted as a mark in most of his pictures ; and the painters and statuaries, as at Antwerp and other places, in-vited him to an entertainment and treated him with great respect. He waited on the archduchess and showed her his portrait of the emperor, and would have presented it to her, but she would by no means accept of it ; — probably because she could not well receive such a gift -without making the artist a suitable return, for it appears, from a subsequent passage in Durer's Journal, that she had no particular objection to receive other works of art when they cost her nothing. In the course of a few days Durer returned to Antwerp, where he shortly afterwards saw Lucas Van Leyden, the celebrated painter and engraver, whose plates at that time were by many considered nearly equal to his o-wn. Durer's brief notice of his talented contemporary is as foUows : " Eeceived an invitation from Master Lucas, who engraves on copper. He is a Uttle man, and a native of Leyden in Holland." Subsequently he mentions ha-ving drawn Lucas's portrait in crayons ; and having exchanged some of his own works to the value of eight florins for a complete set of Lucas's engravings. Durer in this part of his Journal, after enumerating the portraits he had taken and the exchanges he had made since his return from Malines to Antwerp, thus speaks of the manner in which he was rewarded : " In aU my transactions in the Netherlands — for my paintings, drawings, and in disposing of my works — both -with high and low I have had the dis advantage. The Lady Margaret, especiaUy, for aU that I have given her and done for her, has not made me the least recompense." Durer now began to make preparations for his return home. He engaged a waggoner to take him and his wife to Cologne ; he exchanged a portrait of the emperor for some white English cloth ; and, on 1st July, he borrowed of Alexander ^mhoff a hundred gold guUders to be repaid at Nuremberg ; another proof that Durer, though treated with great distinction in the Low Countries, had not derived much pecuniary advantage during the period of his residence there. On the 2nd July, when he was about to leave Antwerp, the King of Denmark, Christian II, who had recently arrived in Flanders, sent for him to take his * Corpus Christi day is a moveable festival, and is celebrated on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday. 270 Wood engeaving portrait. He first drew his majesty with black chalk — mit der Kohlen — and afterwards went with him to Brussels, where he appears to have painted his portrait in oU colom-s, and for which he received thirty florins. At Brassels, on the Sunday before St. Margaret's Day,* the King of Denmark gave a grand banquet to the Emperor and the Arch duchess Margaret, to which Durer had the honour of being in'vited, and faded not to attend. On the foUowing Friday he left Brassels to return to Nuremberg, proceeding by way of Aix-la-ChapeUe to Cologne. Out of a variety of other matters which Durer has mentioned in his Journal, the foUowing — which could not be conveniently given in chro nological order in the preceding abstract; — may not, perhaps, be whoUy uninteresting. He painted a portrait of one Nicholas, an astronomer, who was in the service of the King of England, and who was of great service to Durer on several occasions.t He gave one florin and eight stivers for wood, but whether for drawing on, or for fuel, is uncertain. He only mentions having made two drawings on wood during his residence in the Low Countries, and both were of the arms of Von Eogendorff, noticed at page 236. In one of those instances, he distinctly says that he made the drawing, "das man's schneiden mag" — that it may be engraved. The word " man's " clearly shows that it was to be engraved by another person. — He mentions that since Eaffaele's death his works are dispersed — "verzogen," — and that one of that master's pupils, by name " Thomas Polonier," had caUed on him and made him a present of an antique ring. In a subsequent passage he caUs this person " Thomas Polonius,'' and says that he had given bim a set of his works to be sent to Eome and exchanged for " Raphaelische Sache ' — things by Eaffaele. It has been said, tiiough 'without sufficient authority, that Durer^ weary of a home where he was made miserable by his bad-tempered, avaricious wife, left Nuremberg, and 'visited the Low Countries alone for the purpose of avoiding her constant annoyance. There is, however, no evidence of Durer's -visiting the Low Countries previous to 1520, when he was accompanied by his wife ; nor is there any authentic record of his ever again visiting Flanders subsequent to the latter end of August 1521, when he left Brussels to return to Nuremberg. In 1522, Durer published the first edition of the Triumphal Car of the Emperor Maximilian, the designs for which had probably been made five or six years before. One of the best portraits drawn by Durer on wood also bears the date 1522. It is that of his friend Ulrich Varnbuler,! — mentioned at page 253, — and is of large size, being about * St. Margaret's day is the 20th July. t Durer says that this astronomer was a German, and a native of MunicU. X Ulrich Varnbuler was subsequently the chanceUor of the Emperor Ferdinand I. Diu'er mentions him in a letter addressed to " Henm Frey in Zurich," and dated from Nuremberg IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 271 seventeen inches high by twelve and three-fourths wide. The head is fuU of character, and the engraving is admirably executed. From 1522 to 1528, the year of Durer's death, he seems to have almost entirely given up the practice of drawing on wood, as there are only three cuts -with his mark which contain a date between those years ; they are his o-wn arms dated 1523 ; his own portrait dated 1527 ; and the siege of a fortified city previously noticed at page 253, also dated 1527. The foUowing is a reduced copy of the cut of Durer's arms. The pair of doors on the shield — in German Durer or Thurer — is a rebus of the artist's name ; after the manner of the Lucys of our own country, who bore three luces,* or pikes — fish, not weapons — argent, in their coat of arms. on the Sunday after St. Andrew's day, 1523. With this letter Durer sent to his correspondent a humorous sketch, in pen and ink, of apes dancing, which in 1776 was still preserved in the PubUc Library of Basle. The date of this letter proves the incorrectness of Mr. Ottley's statement, in page 723 of his Inquiry, where he says that Durer did not return to Nuremberg from the Low Coimtries " untU the middle of the year 1524." Mr. Ottley is not more correct when he says, at page 735, that the portrait of Varnbuler is the " size of nature." ¦* It is supposed that Shakspeare, in aUuding to the " dozen white luces " in Master ShaUow's coat of arms,— Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I,— intended to ridicule Sfr Thomas Lucy of Charlecotte, Wiltshire, before whom he is said to have Keen brought in his youth on a charge of deer-stealing. 272 WOOD ENGKAVING The last of Durer's engra-vings on copper is a portrait of Melancthon, dated 1526, the year in which the meek and learned reformer visited Nuremberg. The foUo-wing is a reduced copy of his own portrait, perhaps the last drawing that he made on wood. It is probably a good likeness of the artist ; at any rate ft bears a great resemblance to the portraft said to be intended for Durer's own in his carvuig of the nanung of St. John, of which some account is given at page 259. The size of the original is eleven inches and three-eighths high by ten inches wide. According to Bartsch, the earUest impressions have not the arms and mark, and are inscribed above the border at the top ; " Albrecht Durer's Conterfeyt " — Albert Durer's portrait. It would seem that the block had been preserved for many years subsequent to the date, for I have now before me an impression, on comparatively modern paper, from which it is evident that at the time of its being taken, the block had been much corroded by worms. It is probable that between 1522 and 1528 the treatises of which Durer is the author -were chiefly composed. Their Titles are An Essay on the Fortification of Towns and Villages ; Instructions for Measuring IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 273 with the Eule and Compass ; and On the Proportions of the Human Body.-* They were all published at Nuremberg with iUustrative wood cuts ; the first in 1527, and the other two in 1528. It is to the latter work that Hogarth aUudes, in his Analysis of Beauty, when he speaks of Albert Durer, Lamozzo, and others, having "puzzled mankind with a heap of minute unnecessary di-visions " in their rules for correctly drawing the human figure. After a life of unremitted application, — as is sufficiently proved by the number of his works as a painter, an engraver, and a designer on wood, — Albert Durer died at Nuremberg on 6th AprU 1528, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. His wife's wretched temper had un questionably rendered the latter years of his life very unhappy, and in her eagerness to obtain money she appears to have urged her husband to what seems more like the heartless toil of a slave than an artist's exercise of his profession. It is said that her sitting-room was under her husband's studio, and that she was accustomed to give an admoiutory knock against the ceding whenever she suspected that he was "not getting forward -with his work." The foUo-wing extracts from a letter, •written by BUibald Pirkheimer shortly after Durer's death, wiU show that common fame has not greatly behed this heartless, selfish woman, in ascribing, in a great measure, her husband's death to the daUy vexation which she caused him, and to her urging him to continual application in order that a greater sum might be secured to her on his decease. The passages relating to Durer in Pirkheimer's letter are to the foUowing effect.t " I have indeed lost in Albert one of the best friends I had on earth ; and nothing pains me more than the thought of his death having been so melancholy, which, next to the wiU of Providence, I can ascribe to no one but his wife, for she fretted him so much and tasked him so hard that he departed sooner than he otherwise would. He was dried up like a bundle of straw ; durst never enjoy himself nor enter into company. This bad woman, moreover, was anxious about that for which she had no occasion to take heed, — she urged him to labour day and night solely that he might earn money, even at the cost of his life, and leave it to her ; she was content to live despised, as she does still, pro-vided Albert might leave her six thousand guUders. But she cannot * EtUche Ilnderrioht zu Befestigung der Stett, Schloss, und Flecken ; Underweysung der Messung mit der Zirckel und Richtscheyt ; Bucher von MenschUcher Proportion. AU in foUo. Those treatises were subsequently translated into Latin and several times reprinted. The treatise on the Proportions of the Human Body was also translated into French and printed at Paris in 1557. A coUection of Durer's -writings was published by J. Jansen. 1604. t This letter is addressed to " Johann Tscherte," an architect residing at Vienna, the mutual friend of Pirkheimer and .Durer. — Von Murr, Journal, lOer Theil, S. 3G. 274 WOOD ENGEAVING enjoy them : the sum of the matter is, she alone has been the cause of his death. I have often expostulated with her about her fretful, jealous conduct, and warned her what the consequences would be; but have only met with reproach. To the friends and sincere well--wishers of Albert she was sure to be the enemy ; whUe such conduct was to him a cause of exceeding grief and contributed to bring him to the grave. I have not seen her since his death ; she wiU have nothing to say to me, although I have on many occasions rendered her great service. Whoever con tradicts her, or gives not way to her in aU thing.s, is sure to incur her enmity ; I am, therefore, better pleased that she should keep herseff away. She and her sister are not indeed women of loose character ; but, on the contrary, are, as I beheve, of honest reputation and religious ; one would, however, rather have one of the other kind who otherwise conducts herself in a pleasant manner, than a fretful, jealous, scolding wife — however devout she may be — with whom a man can have no peace either day or night. We must, however, leave the matter to the -wUl of God, who wUl be gracious and merciful to Albert, for his Ufe was that of a pious and righteous man. As he died like a good Christian, we may have Uttle doubt of his salvation. God grant us grace, and that in his own good time we may happUy follow Albert." The popular error, — as I beUeve it to be, — that Albert Durer was an engraver on wood, has not tended, in England, where his works as a painter are but Uttle kno-wn, to increase his reputation. Many persons on looking over the wood engravings which bear his mark have thought but meanly of their execution ; and have concluded that his abUities as an artist were much over-rated, on the supposition that his fame chiefly rested on the presumed fact of his being the engraver of those works. Certain writers, too, speaking of him as a painter and an engraver on copper, have formed rather an unfavourable estimate of his talents, by comparing his pictures with those of his great Itahan contemporaries, — Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Eaffaele, — and by judging of his engravings with reference to the productions of modern art, in which the freedom and effect of etching are combined with the precision and clear ness of lines produced by the burin. This, however, is judging the artist by an unfair standard. Though he has not attained, nor indeed attempted, that sublimity which seems to have been principally the aim of the three great Italian masters above mentioned, he has produced much that is beautiful, natural, and interesting ; and which, though it may not stand so high in the scale of art as the grand compositions of his three great contemporaries, is no less necessary to its completion The field which he cultivated, though not yielding productions so noble or splendid as theirs, was of greater extent and afforded gi-eater variety. If they have left us more sublime conceptions of past and future events. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 275 Durer has transmitted to us more faithftil pictures of the characters, manners, and customs of his own times. Let those who are inclined to depreciate his engravings on copper, as dry and meagre when compared with the productions of modern engravers, consider the state in which he found the art ; and let them also recoUect that he was not a mere translator of another person's ideas, but that he engraved his own designs. Setting aside his merits as a painter, I am of opinion that no artist of the present day has produced, from his own designs, three such en gra-vings as Durer's Adam and Eve, St. Jerome seated in his chamber writing, and the subject entitled Melancolia.'* Let it also not be forgotten that to Albert Durer we owe the discovery of etching ; a branch of the art which gives to modern engravers, more especiaUy in landscape, so great an advantage over the original inventor. Looking impartiaUy at the various works of Durer, and considering the period and the country in which he lived, few, I think, will venture to deny that he was one of the greatest artists of his age. The best proof indeed of the solidity of his fame is afforded by the esteem in which his works have been held for three centuries by nearly aU persons who have had opportunities of seeing them, except such as have, upon narrow principles, formed an exclusive theory -with respect to exceUence in art. With such autho rities nothing can be beautiful or interesting that is not grand; every country parish church should be built in the style of a Grecian temple ; our woods should grow nothing but oaks ; a country gentleman's dove cot should be a fac-simUe of the lantern of Demosthenes ; the sign of the Angel at a country inn should be painted by a Guide ; and a picture representing the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science should be in the style of Eaffaele's School of Athens. Lucas Cranach, a painter of great repute in his day, like his con temporary Durer has also been supposed to be the engraver of the wood cuts which bear his mark, but which, in aU probabUity, were only drawn by him on the block and executed by professional wood engravers. The family name of this artist was Sunder, and he is also sometimes called Muller or Maler — Painter— from his profession. He acquired the name Cranach, or Von Cranach, from Cranach, a town in the territory of Bamberg, where he was born in 1470. He enjoyed the patronage of the electoral princes of Saxony, and one of the most frequent of his marks is a shield of the arms of that family. Another of his marks is a shield with two swords crossed ; a third is a kind of dragon ; and a fourth is * Those three engravings are respectively numbered I, 60, and 67 in Bartsch's list of Durer's works in his Peintre-Graveur, tom. vu. The Adam and Eve is nine inches and three-fourths high by seven inches and a half wide,— date 1504 ; St. Jerome, nine inches and five-eighths high by seven inches and three-eighths wide, — date 1514 ; Melanooha, i\ine inches and three-eighths high by seven inches and one fourth wide,— date 1514. t2 276 WOOD ENGEAVING the initial letters of his name, L. C. Sometimes two or three of those marks are to be found in one cut. There are four engra-vings on copper with the mark If ^ which are generaUy ascribed to this artist. That they are from 73 his designs is very Ukely, but whether they were engraved by v himself or not is uncertain One of them bears the date 1492, and it is probable that they were aU executed about the same period. Two of those pieces were in the possession of Mr. Ottley, who says, " Perhaps the two last characters of the mark may be intended for Cr!" It seems, however, more Ukely that the last character is intended for the letter which it most resembles — a Z, and that it denotes the German word zeichnet — that is " drew ;" in the same manner as later artists occasionaUy subjoined the letter P or F to their names for Pinxit or Fecit, respectively as they might have painted the picture or engraved the plate. One of the earhest chiaro-scuros, as has before been observed, printed from three blocks, is from a design of Lucas Cranach. It is dated 1509, nine years before the earliest chiaro-scuro ¦with a date executed by Ugo da Carpi, to whom Vasari and others have erroneously ascribed the invention of this mode of imitating a dra-wing by impressions from two or more wood-blocks. The subject, like that of the foUo-wing specimen, is a Eepose in Egypt, but is treated in a different manner, — ^the Virgia being represented gi-ving suck to the infant Christ. The wood engravings that contain Cranach's mark are not so numerous as those which contain the mark of Albert Durer, and they are also generaUy inferior to the latter both in effect and design. The foUo-wing reduced copy of a cut which contains three of Cranach's four marks wiU afford some idea of the style of his designs on wood. As a specimen of his ability in this branch of art it is perhaps superior to the greater part of his designs executed in the same manner. The subject is described by Bartsch as a Eepose in Egypt. The action of the youthful angels who are dancing round the Virgin and the infant Christ is certainly truly juvenUe if not graceful. The two children seen up the tree robbing an eagle's nest are perhaps emblematic of the promised peace of Christ's kingdom and of the destruction of the power of Satan : " No lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shaU not be found there ; but the redeemed shall walk there "* In the rio-ht- hand corner at the top is the shield of the arms of Saxony ; and to the left, also at the top, is another of Cranach's marks — a slueld with two swords crossed ; in the right-hand corner at the bottom is a tlurd mark, — the figure of a kind of dragon witii a ring in its moutii. The size of the original cut is thirteen inches and one-fourth high by nine inches and one-fourth wide. * Isaiah, chapter xxxv. vei-se 9, IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 277 Cranach was much esteemed in his own country as a painter, and several of his pictures are stUl regarded with admiration. He was in great favour -with John Frederick, Elector of Saxony,* and at one period of his hfe was one of the magistrates of Wittenberg. He died at Weimar, on 16th October 1553, aged eighty-three. Another eminent painter who has been classed with Durer and Cranach as a wood engraver is Hans Burgmair, who was born at Augsburg about 1473. The mark of this artist is to be found on a * One of the largest wood-cuts designed by Cranach is a subject representing the baptism of some saint ; and having on one side a portrait of Frederick, Elector of Saxony, and on the other a portrait of Luther. The block has consisted of three pieces, and from the impressions it seems as if the parts containing the portraits of the elector and Luther had been added after the central part had been finished. The piece altogether is comparatively worthless in design, and is very indiflferently engraved. 278 WOOD ENGEAVING great number of wood engravings, but beyond this fact there is not the least reason to suppose that he ever engraved a single block. To those who have described Burgmair as a wood engraver from this circumstance only, a most satisfactory answer is afforded by the fact that several of the original blocks of the Triumphs of MaximUian, which contain Burgmair's mark, have at the back the names of the different engravers by whom they were executed. As we have here positive evidence of cuts with Burgmair's mark being engraved by other persons, we cannot certainly conclude that any cut, from the mere fact of its containing his mark, was actuaUy engraved by himseK. Next to Albert Durer he was one of the best designers on wood of his age ; and as one of the early masters of the German school of painting he is generaUy considered as entitled to rank next to the great painter of Nuremberg. It has indeed been supposed that Burgmair was a pupU of Durer ; but for this opinion there seems to be no sufficient ground. It is certain that he made many of the designs for the wood-cuts pubUshed imder the title of The Triumphs of MaximUian ; and it is also probable that he drew nearly all the cuts in the book entitled Der Weiss Kuuig — The Wise King, another work iUustrative of the learning, -vidsdom, and adventures of the Emperor MaximUian.'* Before proceeding, however, to give any account of those works, it seems ad-visable to give two specimens from a different series of wood-cuts of his designing, and to briefly notice two or three of the more remarkable single cuts that bear his mark. The cut on the opposite page is a reduced copy from a series designed by Burgmair. The subject is Samson and Dehlah, and is treated according to the old German fashion, without the least regard to propriety of costume. Samson is represented like a grisly old German baron of Burgmair's own time, with Umbs certainly not indicating extraordinary strength ; and Dehlah seems veiy deliberately engaged in cutting off his hair. The wine flagon and fowl, to the left, would seem to indicate the danger of yielding to sensual indulgence. The original cut is surrounded by an omamental border, and is four inches and five-eighths high by three inches and five-eighths wide. Burgmair's mark H. B. is at the bottom of the cut, to the right. The cut on page 280 is also a reduced copy from one of the same series, and is a proof that those who caU the whole by the general title of "Bible Prints" are not exactly correct in their nomenclature. The somewhat humorous-looking personage, whom a lady is using as her pad, is thus described in an inscription underneath the cut : " Aristotle, * Burgmair also made the designs for a series of saints, male and female, of the famUy of the emperor, which are also engraved on wood. The original blocks, with the names of the engravers written at the back, are stUl preserved, and are at present in the Imperial Library at Vienna. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUBEE. 279 a Greek, the son of Nicomachus. A disciple of Plato, and the master of Alexander the Great." Though Aristotie is said to have been extremely fond of his wife Pythais, and to have paid her divine honours after her death, there is no record, I believe, of her having amused herself with riding on her husband's back. The subject is probably intended to Ulustrate the power of the fair sex over even the wisest of mortals, and to show that phUosophers themselves when under such influence occasionaUy forget their character as teachers of men, and exhibit them selves in situations which scarcely an ass might envy. The original is surrounded by a border, and is four inches and five-eighths high by three inches and five-eighths wide. There are several chiaro-scuros from wood-blocks with Burgmair's mark. One of the earliest is a portrait of " Joannes Paungartner," from two blocks, with the date 1512 ; another of St. George on horseback, from two blocks, engraved by Jost or Josse de Negher, -without date ; a third representing a young woman flying from Death, who is seen kiUing 280 WOOD ENGEAVING a young man, — from three blocks, without date ; and a fourth of the Emperor MaximUian on horseback, from two blocks, with the date 1518. The best cuts of Burgmair's designmg, though drawn with great spirft and freedom, are decidedly inferior to the best of the wood-cuts designed by Albert Durer. Errors in perspective are frequent in the cuts which bear his mark ; his figures are not so varied nor theft characters so weU indicated as Durer's and in theft arrangement, or grouping, he is also inferior to Durer, as well as in the art of giving effect to his subjects by the skUful distribution of light and shade. The cuts in the Wise King, nearly aU of which are said to have been designed by him, are, for the most part, very inferior productions both with respect to engraving and design. His merits as a designer on wood are perhaps shown to greater advantage in the Triumphs of MaximUian than in any other of his works executed in this manner. —Some 'wiiters have asserted that Burgmair died in 1517, but this is certainly- incorrect ; for there is a IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 281 portrait of him, with that of his vi^ife on the same pannel, painted by himseK in 1529, when he was fifty-six years old. Underneath this painting was a couplet to the foUowing effect : Our likeness such as here you view ; — The glass itself was not more true.* Burgmair, like Cranach, Uved till he was upwards of eighty ; but it would seem that he had given up drawing on wood for many years previous to his death, for I am not aware of there being any wood-cuts designed by him with a date subsequent to 1530. He died in 15-59, aged eighty-six. Hans Schauffiein is another of those old German painters who are generaUy supposed to have been also engravers on wood. Bartsch, however, thinks that, like Durer, Cranach, and Burgmair, he only made the designs for the wood-cuts which are ascribed to him, and that they were engraved by other persons. Schauffiein was born at Nuremberg in 1483 ; and it is said that he was a pupU of Albert Durer. Subsequently he removed to NordUngen, a town in Suabia, about sixty mUes to the south-westward of Nuremberg, where he died in 1550. The wood-cuts in connexion -with which Schauffiein's name is most frequently mentioned are the iUustrations of the work usuaUy caUed the Adventures of Sir Theurdank,t an aUegorical poem, in folio, which is ¦* " Solche Gestalt unser balder was, Im Spigel aber nix dan das !" A smaU engraving in a slight manner appears to have been made of the portraits of Burgmair and his wife by George Christopher KUian, an artist of Augsburg, about 1774 — Von Murr, Journal, 4er Theil, S. 22. t The original title of the work is : " Die gevarUchkeiten und ems teUs der Qesohichten des lobUchen streytparen und hochberiimbten Helds und Ritters Tewrdanckhs." That is : The adventurous deeds and part of the Mstoiy of the famous, vaUant, and highly-reno-ivned hero Sir Theurdank. The name, Theurdank, in the language of the period, would seem to imply a person whose thoughts were only employed on noble and elevated subjects. Goethe, who in his youth was fond of looking over old books Ulustrated with wood-cuts, aUudes to Sir Theurdank in his admirable play of Gotz von BerUchingen : " Geht ! Geht !" says Adelheid to Weislingen, " Erzahit das Madchen die den Teurdanck lesen, und sich so einen Mann wiinsohen." — " Go ! Go ! TeU that to a ghl who reads Sir Theurdank, and -wishes that she may have such a husband." In Sir Walter Scott's faulty translation of this play — under the name of William Scott, I7fl9,— -the passage is rendered as foUows : " Go ! Go ! Talk of that to some forsaken damsel whose Coiydon has proved forsworn." In another passage where Goethe makes Adelheid aUude to the popular " Marchen," or tale, of Number-Nip, the point is completely lost in the translation : " Entbinden nicht unsre Gesetze solchen Schwiiren ?^— Macht das Kindem weiss die den Riibezahl glauben." Literally, " Do not our laws release you from such oaths 1 — TeU that to chUdren who beUeve Number-Nip." In Sir "Walter Scott's translation the passage is thus most incorrectly rendered : " Such agreement is no more binding than an imjust extorted oath. Every chUd knows what faith is to be kept with robbers." The name Riibezahl is hterally translated by Nvmber-Neep ; Eiibe is the German name for a tmmip,— Scoticfe, a neep. The story is as weU known hi Germany as that of Jack the Giant-KiUer in England. 282 WOOD ENGEAVING said to have been the joint composition of the Emperor MaximiUan and his private secretary Melchior Pfintzing, provost of the church of St. Sebald at Nuremberg. Though Kohler, a German author, in an Essay on Sir Theurdank, — De inclyto Ubro poetico Theurdank, — ^has highly praised the poetical beauties of the work, they are certainly not such as are likely to interest an EngUsh reader. " The versified aUegory of Sir Theurdank," says Kiittner,* " is deficient in true Epic beauty ; it has also nothing, as a poem, of the romantic descriptions of the thirteenth century, — nothing of the dehcate gallantry of the age of chivalry and the troubadours. The machinery which sets aU in action are certain personifications of Eii-vy, restless Curiosity, and Daring ; these induce the hero to undertake many perilous adventures, from which he always escapes through Understanding and Virtue. Such is the groundwork of the fable which Pfintzing constracts in order to extol, under aUegorical representations, the perils, adventures, and heroic deeds of the emperor. Everything is described so figuratively as to amount to a riddle ; and the story proceeds with little connexion and without animation. There are no striking descriptive passages, no Homeric simUes, and no episodes to allow the reader occasionaUy to rest ; in fact, nothing admirable, spirit-stirring, or great. The poem is indeed rather moral than epic ; Lucan's Pharsaha partakes more of the epic character than Pfintzing's Theurdank. Pfintzing, however, surpasses the Cychc poets alluded to by Horace." t The first edition of Sft Theurdank was printed by Hans Schonsperger the elder, at Nuremburg in 1517 ; and in 1519 two editions appeared at Augsburg from the press of the same printer. As Schonsperger's estabhshed printing-office was at the latter city and not at Nuremberg, Panzer has supposed that the imprint of Nuremberg in the first edition might have been introduced as a compUment to the nominal author, Melchior Pfintzing, who then resided in that city. Two or three other editions of Sir Theurdank, with the same cuts, appeared between 1519 and 1602 ; but Kiittner, in his Characters of German poets and prose- writers, says that in all those editions alterations have been made in the text. The character in which Sft Theurdank is printed is of great beauty ' Charaktere Teutscher Dichter und Prosaisten, S. 71. Berlin, 1781. f Neo sic incipies, ut scriptor cyclicus olim : " Fortunam Priami cantabo, et nobUe bellum : " Quid dignum tanto feret hie promissor hiatu ? Parturiunt montes ; nascetm: ridiculus mus. Ars Poetica, v. 136—139. In a Greek epigram tho Cyclic poets are thus noticed : Tods KvK\lovs Toiirovs Toits ojJt^p ^iTftra K^yovras Miffu Kunoifiras dh^orplwv iniwv. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 283 and much ornamented with flourishes. Several writers, and among others Fournier, who was a type-founder and wood-engraver, have erroneously described the text as having been engraved on blocks of wood. This very superficial and incorrect writer also states that the cuts contained in the volume are " chefs-d'ceuvres de la gra-vure en bois."* His opinion with respect to the cuts is about as correct as his judgment respecting the type ; the most of them are in fact very ordinary productions, and are neither remarkable for execution nor design. He also informs his readers that he has discovered on some of those cuts an H and an S, accompanied with a Uttle shovel, and that they are the monogram of Hans Sebalde, or Hans Schaufflein. By Han.s Sehalde he perhaps means Hans Sebald Behaim, an artist born at Nuremberg in 1500, and who never used the letters H and S, accompanied 'vrith a little shovel, as a monogram. Fournier did not know that this mark is used exclusively by Hans Schaufflein; and that the Uttle shovel, or baker's peel, — caUed in old German, Schaufflein, or Scheuflfleine, — is a rebus of his surname. The careful examination of writers more deserving of credit has completely proved that the text of the three earliest editions — those only in which it was asserted to be from engraved wood blocks — ^is printed from moveable types of metal. Breitkopft has observed, that in the edition of 1517 the letter i, in the word shickhet, in the second line foUowing the eighty-fourth cut, is inverted; and Panzer and Brunner have noticed several variations in the orthography of the second and third editions when compared with the first. There are a hundred and eighteen wood-cuts in the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, which are aU supposed to have been designed, K not engraved, by Hans Schaufflein, though his mark, cx._ u , occurs on not more than five or sis. From the general simUarity of style I have, however^ no doubt that the designs were all made by the same person, and I think it more likely that Schaufflein was the designer than the engraver. The cut on page 284 is a reduced copy of that numbered 14 in the first edition. The original is six inches and one-fourth high by five inches and a half -wide. In this cut. Sir Theurdank is seen, in the dress of a hunter, encountering a huge bear ; whUe to the right is perceived one of his tempters, Filrwittig — restless Curiosity, — and to the left, on * Dissertation sur I'Origtne et les Progres de I'Art de Graver en Bois, p. 74. Paris, 1758. + The kind of character in which the text of Sir Theurdank is printed is caUed " Fractur " by German printers. " The first work," says Breitkopf, " which afforded an example of a perfectly-shaped Fractw for printing, was unquestionably the Theurdank, printed at Nurem berg, 1517."— Ueber BibUographie imd BihUophUe, S. 8. 1793. — Neudorffer, a contemporary, who lived at Nuremberg at the time when Sir Theurdank was first pubUshed, says that the specimens for the types were -written by Vincent Rockner, the emperor's court-secretary. — Von Murr, Journal, 2er Theil, S. 159 ; and Lichtenberger, Initia Typographica, p. 194. 284 WOOD ENGEAVING horseback, Theurdank's squire, Ernhold. The titie of the chapter, or fytte, to which this cut is prefixed is to the foUowing effect : " Ho-w Filrwittig led Sft Theurdank into a perilous encounter with a she-bear." The subject of the thirteenth chapter is his perUous encounter with a stag, and in the fifteenth we are entertaftied with the narration of one of his adventures when hunting the chamois. The opposite cut is a reduced copy of No. Ill in the Adventures of Sft Theurdank. The title of the chapter to which this cut is prefixed is : " How Unfalo [one of Theurdank's tempters] was hung." A monk at the foot of the gaUows appears to pray for the culprit just turned off ; whUe Ernold seems to be explaining to a group of spectators to the left the reason of the execution. The cut Ulustrative of the 110th chapter represents the beheading of "Fiir-wittig ;" and in the 112th, " NeydeUiart," the basest of Theurdank's enemies, is seen receiving the reward of his perfidy by being thro-wn into a moat. The two original cuts which have been selected as specimens of the wood engravings in the ^Vdventures of Sir Theurdank, though not the best, are perhaps, iu point of design and execution, rather superjor to two-thirds of those contained in the work. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 285 The copies, though less in size, afford a tolerably correct idea of the style of the originals, which no one who is acquainted with the best wood-cuts engraved after the designs of Durer and Burgmair wUl assert to be " chefs-d'oeu-vres " of the art of wood engraving. There are a number of wood-cuts which contain Hans Schauffiein's mark, though somewhat different from that which occurs in the Adventures of Sir Theurdank ; the S being linked with one of the upright lines of the H, instead of being placed between them. When the letters are combined in this manner, there are frequently two Uttle shovels crossed, " in saltire," as a herald would say, instead of a single one as in Sft Theurdank. The foUowing mark, (3> ¦¦, occurs on a series of wood-cuts Ulustiative of Christ's Passion, printed at Frankfort by C. EgenoK, 1542 ; on the cuts in a German almanack, Mentz, 1545, and 1547 ; and on several single subjects executed about that period. This mark, it is said, distinguishes the designs of Hans Schaufflein the younger. Bartsch, however, observes, that " what Strutt has said about there being two persons of this name, an elder and a younger, seems to be a mere conjecture." 286 WOOD ENGRAVmo The book entitled Der Weiss Kunig — the Wise King — is another of the works projected by the Emperor Maximihan in order to inform the world of sundry matters concerning his father Frederick III, his own education, warlike and perUous deeds, government, wooing, and wedding. This work is in prose ; and though Marx Treitzsaurwein, the emperor's secretary, is put forth as the author, there is little doubt of its ha-ving been chiefly composed by Maximilian himseK. About 1512 it appears that the materials for this work were prepared by the emperor, and that about 1514 they were entrusted to his secretary, Treitzsaurwein, to be put in order. It would appear that before the work was ready for the press MaximiUan had died ; and Charles V. was too much occupied with other matters to pay much attention to the pubUcation of an enigmatical work, whose chief object was to celebrate the accomplish ments, knowledge, and adventures of his grandfather. The obscurity of many passages in the emperor's manuscript seems to have, in a great measure, retarded the completion of the work. There is now in the Imperial Library at Vienna a manuscript volume of queries respecting the doubtfiU passages in the Weiss Kunig ; and as each had ultimately to be referred to the emperor, it would seem that, from the pressure of more important business and his increased age, he had wanted leisure and spirits to give the necessary explanations. In the sixteenth century, Eichard Strein, an eminent phUologer, began a sort of commentary or exposition of the more difficult passages in the Wise King ; and subsequently his remarks came into the hands of George Christopher von Schallenberg, who, in 1631, had the good fortune to obtain at Vienna impressions of most of the cuts which were intended by the emperor to Ulustrate the work, together with several of the original drawings. Treitzsaurwein's manuscript, which for many years had been preserved at Ambras in the Tyrol, having been transferred to the Imperial Library at Vienna, and the original blocks ha-ving been discovered in the Jesuits' CoUege at Gratz in Stftia, the text and cuts were printed together, for the first time, in a folio volume, at Vienna in 1775.* It is probable that the greater part, ft not aU the cuts, were finished previous to the emperor's death ; and impressions of them, very hkely taken shortly after the blocks were finished, were known to collectors long before the publication of the book. The late Mr. Ottley had seventy-seven of the series, apparently taken as proofs by means of a * The title of the volume ia "Der Weiss Kunig. Eine ErzeUung von den Thaten Kaiser MaximUian des Ersten. Von Marx Treitzsaurwein auf dessen Angeben zusammen getragen, nebst von Hannsen Burgmau: dazu verfertigten Holzschnitten. Herausgeben ana dem Manuscripte der Kaiserl. KSnigl. Hofbibliothek. Wien, auf Kosten Joseph KurzbSckens, 1775." IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 287 press. The paper on which these cuts are impressed appears to have consisted of fragments, on one side of which there had previously been printed certain state papers of the Emperor MaximiUan, dated 1514. They were sold at the sale of the late Mr. Ottley's engravings in 1 838, and are now in the Print Eoom of the British Museum. In the volume printed at Vienna in 1775, there are two htmdred and thirty-seven* large cuts, of which number ninety-two contain Burgmair's mark, H. B ; one contains Schauffiein's mark ; another the mark of Hans Springinklee ; and a third, a modern cut, is marked " F. F. S. V. 1775." Besides the large cuts, all of which are old except the last noticed, there are a few worthless taU-pieces of modern execution, one of which, a nondescript bftd, has been copied by Be-wick, and is to be found at page 144 of the first edition of his Quadrupeds, 1790. The cuts in the Weiss Kunig, -with respect to the style in which they are designed, bear considerable resemblance to those in Sft Theurdank ; and from their execution it is evident that they have been cut by different engravers ; some of them being executed in a very superior manner, and others affording proofs of their either being cut by a novice or a very indifferent workman. It has been said that aU those which contain the mark of Hans Burgmair show a decided superiority in point of engraving; but this assertion is not correct, for several of them may be classed with the worst executed in the volume. The unequal manner in which the cuts -with Burgmair's mark are executed is with me an additional reason for believing that he only furiushed the designs for professional wood engravers to execute, and never engraved on wood himseK. It seems unnecessary to give any specimens of the cuts in the Weiss Kunig, as an idea of their style may be formed from those given at pages 284 and 285 from Sir Theurdank ; and as other specimens of Burgmair's talents as a designer on wood wiU be given subsequently from the Triumphs of Maximilian. The foUowing abstract of the titles of a few of the chapters may perhaps afford some idea of the work, whUe they prove that the education of the emperor embraced a wide circle, forming almost a perfect Cyclopaedia. The first fifteen chapters give an account of the marriage of the Old Wise King, Frederick III, the father of Maximihan, with Elenora, daughter of Alphonso V, King of Portugal ; his journey to Eome and his coronation * In the Imperial Library at Vienna there is a series of old impressions of cuts intended for " Der Weiss Kunig," consisting of two hundred and fifty pieces ; it would therefore appear, supposing this set to be perfect, that there are fourteen of the original blocks lost. Why a single modem cut has been admitted into the book, and thirteen of the old impressions not re-engraved, it perhaps would be difficult to give a satisfactory reason. 288 WOOD ENGEAVING there by the pope ; with the birth, and christening of MaximiUan, the Young Wise King. About thirty-five chapters, from xv. to L, are chiefly occupied -with an account of MaximUian's education. After learning to write, he is instructed in the Uberal arts ; and after some time devoted to " PoUtik," or King-craft, he proceeds to the study of the black-art, a branch of knowledge which the emperor subsequently held to be vain and ungodly. He then commences the study of history, devotes some attention to medicine and law, and learns the ItaUan and Bohenuan languages. He then learns to paint; studies the principles of archi tecture, and tries his hand at carpentry. He next takes lessons in music ; and about the same time acquires a practical knowledge of the art of cookery : — the Wise King, we are informed, was a person of nice taste in kitchen affairs, and had a proper relish for savoury and weU- cooked -viands. To the accompUshment of dancing he adds a knowledge of numismatics ; and, after making himself acquainted -with the mode of working mines, he learns to shoot -with the hand-gun and the cross bow. The chase, falconry, angling, and fowhng next occupy his attention ; and about the same time he learns to fence, to tUt, and to manage the great horse. His course of education appears to have been wound up with practical lessons in the art of making armour, in gunnery, and in fortification. From the fiftieth chapter to the con clusion, the book is chiefly flUed -with accounts of the wars and adventures of MaximiUan, which are for the most part aUegoricaUy detaUed, and require the reader to be weU versed in the true history of the emperor to be able to unriddle them. Kiittner says that, not- -withstanding its aUegories and enigmatical allusions, the Weiss Kunig is a work which displays much mind in the conception and execution, and considerable force and elegance of language ; and that it chiefly wants a more orderly arrangement of the events. "Throughout the whole," he adds, " there are e-vidences of a searching genius, improved by science and a knowledge of the affafts of the world."'* The series of wood-cuts caUed the Triumphs of MaximiUan are, both with respect to design and engraving, the best of aU the works thus executed by command of the emperor to convey to posterity a pictorial representation of the splendour of his court, his victories, and the extent of his possessions. This work appears to have been commenced about the same time as the Weiss Kunig ; and from the subject, a triumphal procession, it was probably intended to be the last of the series of wood-cuts by which he was desirous of dissemi nating an opinion of his power and his fame. Of those works he only lived to see one published, — the Adventures of Sir Theurdank ; the Wise King, the Triumphal Car, the Ti-iumphal Arch, and tlie * Charaktere Teutscher Dichter und Prosaisten, S. 70. IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DUEEE. 289 I'riumphal Procession, a.ppear to have been all unfinished at the time of his decease in 1519. The total number of cuts contained in the latter work, pubUshed under the title of the Triumphs of Maximilian, in 1796, is one hundred and thirty-five ; but had the series been finished according to the original drawings, now preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna, the whole number of the cuts would have been about two hundred and eighteen. Of the hundred and thirty-five published there are about sixteen designed in a style so different from the rest, that it is doubtful if they belong to the same series ; and this suspicion receives further confirmation from the fact that the subjects of those sixteen doubtful cuts are not to be found among the original designs. It would therefore seem, that, unless some of the blocks have been lost or destroyed, little more than one-half of the cuts intended for the Triumphal Procession were finished when the emperor's death put a stop to the further progress of the work. It is almost certain, that none of the cuts were engraved after the emperor's death ; for the date, commencing with 1516, is written at the back of several of the original blocks, and on no one is it later than 1519. The plan of the Triumphal Procession, — consisting of a description of the characters to be introduced, the order in which they are to foUow each other, their arms, dress, and appointments, — appears to have been dictated by the emperor to his secretary Treitzsaurwein, the nominal author of the Weiss Kunig, in 1512. In this manuscript the subjects for the rhyming inscriptions intended for the different banners and tablets are also noted in prose. Another manuscript, in the hand writing of Treitzsaurwein, and interlined by the emperor himself, con tains the inscriptions for the banners and tablets in verse ; and a third manuscript, 'written after the dra-wings were finished, contains a descrip tion of the subjects, — though not so much in detaU as the first, and in some particulars shghtly differing, — ^with aU the inscriptions in verse except eight... From those manuscripts, which are preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna, the descriptions in the edition of 1796 have been transcribed. Most of the descriptions and verses were previously given by Von Murr, in 1775, in the ninth volume of his Journal. The edition of the Triumphal Procession pubhshed in 1796 also contains a French translation of the descriptions, with numbers referring to those printed at the right-hand corner of the cuts. The numbers, however, of the description and the cut in very many instances do not agree ; and it would almost seem, from the manner in which the text is printed, that the pubhshers did not wish to faciUtate a comparison between the description and the cut which they have numbered as corresponding with it. The gross negligence of the publishers, or their editor, in this respect materially detracts from the interest of the work. To compare 290 WOOD ENGEAVING the descriptions with the cuts is not only a work of some trouble, but it is also labour thrown away. Von Mun-'s volume, from its convenient size, is of much greater use in comparing the cuts with the description than the text printed in the edition of 1796 ; and though it contains no numbers for reference, — as no complete collection of the cuts had then been printed, — it contains no misdirections : and it is better to have no guide-posts than such as only lead the traveller wrong. The original drawings for the Triumphal Procession, — or as the work is usuaUy called, the Triumphs of Maximihan, — are preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna. They are painted in water colours, on a hundred and lune sheets of vellum, each thirty-four inches long by twenty inches high, and containing two of the engraved subjects. Dr. Dibdin, who saw the drawings in 1818, says that they are rather gaudily executed, and that he prefers the engravings to the original paintings.-* Whether those paintings are the work of Hans Burgmaft, or not, appear? to be uncertain. From the foUowing extract from the preface to the Triumphs of Maximilian, published in 1796, it is e-vident that the writer did not think that the original drawings were executed by that artist. " The engravings of this Triumph, far from being ser\-ile copies of the paintings in miniature, differ from them entirely, so far as regards the manner in ^vllich they are designed, ilost all the groups have a different form, and almost every figure a different attitude; con.sequi ntly HiiHs Burgmair appears in his work in the character of author [original designer^ and so much the luure, as he has in many points surpassed his model. But whatever may be the difference between the engravings and the drawings on vellum, the subjects still so far correspond that they may be recognised without the least difficulty. It is, however, necessary to except eighteen of the engravings, in which this corre spondence would be sought for in vain. Those engravings are, the twelve from No. 89 to 100, and the six from 130 to 135." As the cuts appear to have been intentionally wrong numbered, it is not easv to determine from this reference which are actually the first t\\-oh-c alluded to, for in most of the copies whieli 1 lia\-e seen, the numerals 91, 92. and 93 occur twice, — though the subjects of the cuts are different. In the copy now before me, I have to observe that there are si.vteen-r cuts designed in a style so different from those which contain Burgmair's mark, that 1 am convinced they have not been diawu bv that artist. " Bibliographical Tour, vol. iu. p. 330. t Tho subjects of those sixteen cuts are chiefly the stntues of the emperor's ancestors, -with representations of himself, and of his liiiudy alliani-o.<:. Several of the carnages are propeUed by mechanical contrivances, which for laborious ingenuity may ^io with the machine for uncorking bottles in one of the subjects of Hogarth's Marriage il la ]\tode. In the copy before me tbn.se ciigraviugs ;ire luiinbercd ,S!1, !)o, Ol, fll, !l-J, ll-J, il:!, k\, !)4 |)."i, !1|! !17 99 101, 111-2, 103. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 291 Without enquiring whether the subjects are to be found in the paintings or not, I am satisfied that a considerable number of the engravinffs besides those sixteen, were not drawn on the wood by Hans Burgmair. Both Breitkopf and Von Murr* have asserted that the drawings for the Triumphs of MaximUian were made by Albert Durer, but they do not say whether they mean the drawings on veUum, or the drawings on the blocks. This assertion is, however, made without any authority ; and, whether they meant the drawings on vellum or the drawings on the block, it is unquestionably incorrect. The drawings on vellum are not by Durer, and of the whole hundred and thirty-five cuts there are not more than five or six that can be supposed with any degree of proba bihty to have been of his designing. Forty of the blocks from which the Triumphs of MaximUian are printed were obtained from Ambras in the Tyrol, where they had probably been preserved since the time of the emperor's death ; and the other ninety-five were discovered in the Jesuits' CoUege at Gratz in Stftia. The whole were brought to Vienna and deposited in the Imperial Library in 1779. A few proofs had probably been taken when the blocks were engraved ; there are ninety of those old impressions in the Imperial Library ; Monsieur Mariette had ninety-seven ; and Sandrart had seen a hundred. The latter, in speaking of those impressions, expresses a suspicion of the original blocks having been destroyed in a fire at Augsburg ; their subsequent discovery, however, at Ambras and Gratz, shows that his suspicion was not well founded. On the discovery of those blocks it was supposed that the remainder of the series, as described in the manuscript, might also be still in existence ; but after a diligent search no more have been found. It is indeed highly probable that the further progress of the work had been interrupted by MaximUian's death, and that if any more of the series were finished, the number must have been few. About 1775, a few impressions were taken from the blocks preserved at Ambras, and also from those at Gratz ; but no coUection of the whole accompanied with text was ever printed until 1796, when an edition in large folio was printed at Vienna by permission of the Austrian government, and with the name of J. Edwards, then a bookseller in Pali-Mall, on the title-page, as the London pubUsher. It is much to be regretted that greater pains were not taken to afford the reader every information that could be obtained with respect to the * Breitkopf, Ueber BibUographie und BibliophUe, S. 4. Leipzig, 1793. Von Murr, Journal, 9er Theil, S. I. At page 255 I have said : " Though I have not been able to ascertain satisfactorily the subject of Durer's painting in the Town-haU of Nuremberg, I am inclined to think that it is the Triumphal Car of MaximUian." Since the sheet containing the above passage was printed olF I have ascertained that the subject is the Triumphal Car ; and that it is described in Von Murr's Niimbergischen Merkwiirdigkeiten, S. 395. U2 292 WOOD ENGEAVING cuts ; and it says very littie for the EngUsh pubUsher's patriotism that the translation of the original German descriptions should be in French ; — ^but perhaps there might be a reason for this, for, where no precise meaning is to be conveyed, French is certainly much better than English. From the fact of several of the subjects not being contained in the original drawings, and from the great difference in the style of many of the cuts, it is by no means certain that they were all intended for the same work. There can, however, be httle doubt of their all having been designed for a triumphal procession intended to celebrate the fame of Maximilian. The original blocks, now preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna, are all of pear-tree, and several of them are partiaUy worm- eaten. At the back of those blocks are -wi'itten or engraved seventeen names and initials, which are supposed, with great probabihty, to be those of the engravers by whom they were executed. At the back of No. 18, which represents five musicians in a car, there is -written, "Der kert an die EUand, — hat Wilhelm geschnitten : " that is, " This foUows the Elks. — Engraved by William." In the preceding cut, No. 17, are the two elks which draw .the car, and on one of the traces is Hans Burgmaft's mark. At the back of No. 20 is written, "Jobst putavit, 14 Apr His 1517. Die gehert an die bifel, und die bifel hatt Jos geschnitten."* This inscription Mr. Ottley, at page 756, volume U. of his Inquiry, expounds as follows : " Josse putavit (perhaps for punctavit), the 14th of April, 1517. This block joins to that which represents the Buffaloes." This translation is substantiaUy correct ; but it is exceedingly doubtful if putavit was written in mistake ioT punctavit. The proposed substitution indeed seems very like explaining an ignotum per ignotius. Tlie verb punctare is never, that I am aware of, used by any -wi'iter, either classical or modern, to express the idea of engraving on wood. A German, however, who was but imperfectly acquainted with Latin, would not be unhkely to translate the German verb schneiden, which signifies to. cut generally, by the Latin putare, which is specially appUed to the loppint^ or praning of trees. I have heard it conjectured that jmtarit might have been used in the sense of imaginarit, as if Jobst were the designer ; but there can be little doubt of its being here intended to express the cutting of the wood-engraver ; for Burgmair's mark is to be found both on this cut and on the preceding one of the two buffaloes. No. 19 ; and it cannot for a moment be supposed that he was a mere work man employed to execute the designs of another person. Were such * Jobst and Jos, in this inscription, are probably intended for tlie name of the same person. For the name Jobst, Jost, Josse, or Jos— for it is thus -variously spelled— we have no equi valent iu English. It is not unusual in Germany as a baptismal name— it can scarcely be called Christian— ani is Latinized, I believe, under the more lengthy form of Jodocm. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 293 a supposition granted, it would follow that the wood-engraver of that period — at least so far as regards the work in question — was considered as a much superior person to him who drew the designs ; that the workman, in fact, was to be commemorated, but the artist forgotten ; a conclusion which is diametricaUy opposed to fact, for so little were the mere wood-engravers of that period esteemed, that we only incidentally become acqu-ainted with theft names ; and from their not putting their marks or initials to the cuts which they engraved has arisen the popular error that Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, and others, who are kno-wn to have been painters of great repute in their day, were wood-engravers and executed themselves the wood-cuts which bear their marks. The foUowing are the names and initial letters at the back of the blocks. 1. Jerome Andr^ caUed also Jerome Eesch, or Edsch, the engraver of the Triumphal Arch designed by Albert Durer. 2. Jan de Bonn. 3. Cornelius. 4. Hans Frank. 5. Saint German. 6. Wilhelm. 7. CorneUle Liefrink. 8. WUhelm Liefrink. 9. Alexis Lindt. 10. Josse de Negker. On several of the blocks Negker is styled, "engraver on wood, at Augsburg." 11. Vincent Pfarkecher. 12. Jaques Eupp. 13. Hans Schaufflein. 14. Jan Taberith. 15. F. P. 16. H. F. 17. W. E. It is not unlikely that " Cornelius," No. 3, may be the same as CorneUle Liefrink, No. 7 ; and that "WUhelm," No. 6, and Wilhehn Liefrink, No. 8, may also be the same person. At the back of the block which corresponds with the description numbered 120, Hans Schaufflein's name is found coupled with that of Cornelius Liefrink; and at the back of the cut which corresponds with the description numbered 121 Schaufflein's name occurs alone.'* The occurrence of Schaufflein's name at the back of the cuts would certainly seem to indicate that he was one of the engravers ; but his name also appearing at the back of that described under No. 120, in conjunction with the name of Cornelius Liefrink, who was certainly a wood-engraYer,t makes me ' The printed numbers on those two cuts are 105 and 106, though the descriptions are numbered 120 and 121 in the text. The subjects are. No. 105, two ranks, of five men each, on foot, carrying long lances ; and No. 106, two ranks, of five men each, on foot, carrying large two-handed swords on their shoulders. — Perhaps it may not be out of place to correct here the foUowing passage which occurs at page 285 of this volume : " Bartsch, however, observes, that ' what Strutt has said about there being two persons of this name [Hans Schaufflein], an elder and a younger, seems to be a mere conjecture.' " Since the sheet containing this passage was printed off, I have learnt from a paper, in Meusel's Neue MisceUaneen, 5tes. Stiick, S. 210, that Hans Schaufflein had a son of the same name who was also a pamter, and that the^elder Schaufflein died at NordUngen, in 1539. At page 281, his death, on the authority of Bartsch, is erroneously placed in 1550. t The name of Comelius Liefrink occm-s at the back of some of the wood-cuts representing the saints of the famUy of Maximilian, designed by Burgmair, mentioned at pagj 278, note. 294 WOOD ENGEAVING inchned to suppose that he might only have made the drawing on the block and not have engraved the cut ; and this supposftion seems to be partly confirmed by the fact that the cuts which are numbered 104, 105, and 106, corresponding with the descriptions Nos. 119, 120, and 121, have not Hans Burgmair's mark, and are much more Uke the undoubted designs of Hans Schaufflefti than those of that artist. That the cuts pubhshed under the titie of the Triumphs of MaxftnUian were not all drawn on the block by the same person wUl, I think, appear probable to any one who even cursorUy examuies them ; and whoever carefuUy compares them can scarcely have a doubt on the subject. ___ jyis^^-^.::^ i'rom No. l.j. With Burgiuaii-'s mark. Almost every one of the cuts that contains Burgmair's mark, iu the Triumphal Procession, is designed with great spirit, and has evidently been drawn by an artist who had a thorough command of his pencil. His horses are generaUy strong and heavy, and the men on theft backs of a stout and muscular form. The action of the horses seems natural ; and the indications of the joints and the drawing of the hoofs — which are mostly low and broad — evidently show that the artist had paid some attention to the structure of the animal. There are, however, a considerable number of cuts where both men and horses appear remarkable for their leanness ; and in which the hoofs of the horses are most incorrectly drawn, and tho action of the animals represented in a manner which is by no means natural. Though it is not unlikely IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUftEE. 295 that Hans Burgmaft was capable of drawing both a stout, heavy horse, and a long-backed, thin-quartered, lean one, I cannot persuade myself that he would, in almost every instance, draw the hoofs and legs of the one correctly, and those of the other with great inaccuracy. The cut on the opposite page and the five next following, of single figures, copied on a reduced scale from the Triumphs, wiU exempUfy the preceding observations. The numbers are those printed on the cuts, and they all, except one, appear to correspond with the French descriptions in the text. The preceding cut is from that marked No. 15. The mark of Hans Burgmair is on the ornamental breast-plate, as an EngUsh saddler would call it, that passes across the horse's chest. This figure, in the original cut, carries a tablet suspended from a staff, of which the From No. 65. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair. lower part only is perceived in the copy, as it has not been thought necessary to give the tablet and a large scroU which were intended to contain inscriptions.* The description of the subject is to the following effect : " After the chase, comes a figure on horseback, bearing a tablet, on which shall be written the five charges of the court, — ¦* In aU the blocks, the tablets and scroUs, and the upper part of banners intended to receive verses and inscriptions, were left unengraved. In order that the appearance of the cuts might not be injured, the black ground, intended for the letters, was cut away ia most of the tablets and scroUs, in the edition of 1796. 296 WOOD ENGEAVING that is, of the butler, the cook, the barber, the taUor, and the shoemaker ; and Eberbach shaU be the under-marshal of the household, and carry the tablet." The cut on page 295 is a reduced copy of a figure, the last, in No. 65, which is without Burgmair's mark. In the original the horseman bears a banner, having on it the arms of the state or city which he represents ; and at the top of the banner a black space whereon a name or motto ought to have been engraved. The original cut contains three figures ; and, if the description can be reUed on, the banners which they bear are those of Fribourg, Bregentz, and Saulgau. Tho From No. 33. Willi Biu'gmair's mark. other two horsemen and their steeds in No. 65 are stiU more unhke those in the cuts which contain Burgmair's mark. The above cut is a reduced copy of a figure on horeeback in No. 33. Burgmair's mark, an II and a B, may be perceived on the trappings of the horse. This figure, in the original, bears a large tablet, and he is followed by five men on foot carrying flaUs, the swingels ¦' of which are. of leather. The description of the cut,— which * That part of the flail which coiucs iu contact with the com is, iu the North of England, termed a swingcl. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 297 forms the first of seven representing the dresses and arms of combatants on foot,— is as foUows : " Then shaU come a person mounted and properly habited Uke a master of arms, and he shall carry the tablet containing the rhyme. Item, Hans HoUywars shaU be the master of arms, and his rhyme shaU be this effect : that he has professed the noble practice of arms at the court, according to the method devised by the emperor."* The following is a reduced copy of a figure in the cut erroneously numbered 83, but which corresponds with the description that refers From No. 83. Apparently not dra-wn by Burgmair. to 84. This figure is the last of the three, who, in the original, are represented bearing banners containing the arms of Mahnes, Salins and Antwerp. * The substance of almost every rhyme and inscription is, that the person who bears the rhyme-tablet or scroU has derived great improvement in his art or profession from the instructions or suggestions of the emperor. Huntsmen, falconers, tmmpeters, organists, fencing-masters, ballet-masters, toumiers, and jousters, all acknowledge their obligations in this respect to MaximUian. For the wit and humour of the jesters and the natural fools, the emperor, with great forbearance, takes to himself no credit ; and Anthony von Dornstett, .the leader of the drummers and fifers, is one nf the few whose art he has not improved. m 'WOdD ENGEAVING The following figure, who is given with his rhyme-tablet in fuU, is copied from the cut numbered 27. This jo-vial-looking personage, as we Prom No. 27. With Burgmair's mai-k. learn from the description, is the WUl Somers of MaximUian's court, and he figures as the leader of the professed jesters and the natural fools, who IN THE TIMl! OF ALBEET DUEEE. 299 appear in all ages to have been the subjects of "pleasant mirth." The instructions to the painter are as follows : " Then shall come one on horseback habited like a jester, and carrying a rhyme-tablet for the jesters and natural fools ; and he shall be Conrad von der Eosen." The No. 74. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair. fool's cap with the beU at the peak, denotftig his profession, is perceived hangftig on his left shoulder; and on the breast-plate, crossing the chest of the horse, is Burgmair's mark. 300 WOOD ENGEAVING The figure on page 299 of a horseman, bearing the banner of Bur gundy, is from the cut numbered 74. The drawing both of rider and horse is extremely unlike the style of Burgmair as displayed in those cuts which contain his mark. Burgmair's men are generally stout, and their attitudes free ; and they all appear to sit well on horseback. The present lean, lanky figure, who rides a horse that seems admirably suited to him, cannot have been designed by Burgmair, unless he was accustomed to design in two styles wliich were the very opposites of each other; the one distinguished by the freedom and the boldness of the drawing, the stoutness of the men, and the bulky form of the horses intioduced ; and the other remarkable for laboured and stiff drawing, gaunt and meagre men, and leggy, starved-like cattle. The whole of the cuts from No. 57 to No. 88, inclusive, — representing, except three,'* men on horseback bearing the banners of the kingdoms and states either possessed or claimed by the emperor, — are designed in the latter style. Not only are the men and horses represented according to a different standard, but even the very ground is indicated in a different manner ; it seems to abound in fragments of stones almost Uke a ilacadamized road after a shower of rain. There is indeed no lack of stones on Burgmair's ground, but they appear more like rounded pebbles, and are not scattered about with so liberal a hand as in the cuts aUuded to. In not one of those cuts which are so unhke Burgmair's is the mark of that artist to be found ; and their general appearance is so unhke that of the cuts undoubtedly designed by him, that any person iu the least acquainted with works of ¦ art will, even on a cursory examination, perceive the strongly marked difference. The foUowing cut is a reduced copy of that numbered 57 : and which is the first of those representing horsemen bearing the banners of the several kingdoms, states, and cities subject to the house of Austiia or to which Maximilian laid claim. It is one of the most gorgeous of the series ; but, from the manner in which the horses and theft riders are represented, I feel convinced that it has not been drawn by Bui-gmaft. The subject is thus described in the emperor's directions prefixed to the volume : " One on horseback bearing the banner of the arms of Austria ; another on horseback bearing the old Austrian arms ; another also ou horseback bearing the arms of Stiria." On the parts which are left black in the banners it had b(;eii intended to insert inscriptions. The instruc- t;ions to the painter for this part of the procession are to the foUowhiL; eft'ect : " One on horseback bearing on a lance a rhyme-tablet. Then the arms of tho hereditary dominions of the house of Austria on bannei-s, with their shields, helms, and cit'sts, borne by horsemen ; and the * Those three ai'e the numbers 77, 78, 79, rciiresciiting niusiciiuis on hoi-seliack. The same person who dre\v the standaril-lioarors lias evidently drawn those tliivc cuts als i. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 301 banners of those countries in which the emperor has carried on war shall be borne by riders in armour ; and the painter shall vary the armour The banners of those countries in which according to the old manner. No. 57. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair. the emperor has not carried on war shall be borne by horsemen -without armour, but all splendidly clothed, each according to the costume of the country he represents. Every one shall wear a laurel -wreath.'' The cut on the next page is copied from that numbered 107, but which accords -with the description of No. 122. The subject is described by the emperor as follows: "Then shall come riding a man of Calicut, naked, escept his loins covered with a girdle, bearing a rhyme-tablet, on which shaU be inscribed these words, ' These people are the subjects of the famous crowns and houses heretofore named.' " In this cut the mark of Burgmair is perceived on the harness on the breast of the elephant. There are two other cuts of Indians belonging to the same part of the procession, each of which also contains Burgmair's mark. The cuts which were to follow the Indians and close the procession were the baggage-waggons and camp-followers of the army. Of those there are five cuts in the work published in 1796, and it is evident that some are wanting, for the two which may be considered as the no2 WOOD ENGEAVING first and last of those five, respectively requfte a precedftig and a foUowftig cut to render them complete ; and there are also one or two cuts wanting to complete the intermediate subjects. Those cuts^are referred to in the French description under Nos. 125 to 129, but they are numbered 129, 128, 110, 111, 125. The last three, as parts of a large subject, foUow each other as the numbers are here placed ; and though the right side of No. 110 accords with the left of No. 128, inasmuch as they each contain the half of a taee which appears^ complete when they are joined together, yet there are no horses in No. 128 to No. 107. \\ ith Burgmair's mark. draw the waggon which is seen in No. 110. The order of Xos. IU), 111, and 125, is easUy ascertained ; a horse at the left of No. 110 wants a tail which is to be found in No. Ill ; and the outline of a mountain in the left of No. Ill is continued in the right of No. 12.). From the back-grounds, trees, and figures in those cuts I am very much inclined to think that they have been engraved from designs by Albert Durer, if he did not actually draw them on the block himself There is no mark- to be found on any of th(Mu ; and they are extremely unhke any cuts which iire undoubtedly of Burgmair's designing, and they are IN THE TIME OF AlBEET DUEEE. 303 decidedly superior to any that are usuaUy ascribed to Hans Schaufdeim The foUowing, which is a reduced copy of that numbered 110, wUl perhaps afford some idea of those cuts, and enable persons who are acquainted with Durer's works to judge for themselves -with respect to the pro babUity of theft having been engraved from his designs. One or two of the other four contain stUl more striking resemblances of Durer's style. Besides the twelve cuts which, in the French preface to the Triumphal Procession of Maximilian, are said not to correspond with No. 110. Probably drawn by Albert Durer. the original drawings, there are also six others which the editor says are not to be found in the original designs, and which he considers to have been addftions made to the work wliUe it was in the course of engraving. Those six cuts are described in an appendix, where their numbers are said to be from 130 to 135. In No. 130 the principal fig-ures are a king and queen, on horseback, supposed to be intended for Philip the Faft, son of the Emperor Maximihan, and his -wife Joanna of CastUe. This cut is very indifferentiy executed, and has evidently been designed by the artist who made the drawings for the 304 WOOD ENGEAVING questionable cuts containing the complicated locomotive carriages, men tioned at page 290. No. 131, a princess on horseback, accompanied by two female attendants also on horseback, and guards on foot, has e-^idently been designed by the same artist as No. 1 30. These two, I am inclined to think, belong to some other work. Nos. 132, 133, and 134, are from the designs of Hans Burgmair, whose mark is to be found on each ; and there can be little doubt of their having been intended for Maximilian's Triumphal Procession. They form one continuous subject, which represents twelve men, habited in various costume, leading the same number of horses splendidly caparisoned. A figure on horseback bearing a rhyme-tablet leads this part of the procession ; and above the horses are large scroUs probably intended to contain their names, with those of the countries to which they belong. The cut on the opposite page is a reduced copy of the last, numbered 135, which is thus described in the appendix : " The fore part of a triumphal car, drawn by four horses yoked abreast, and managed by a -winged female figure who holds in her left hand a wreath of laurel" There is no mark on the original cut ; but from the manner in which the horses are drawn it seems Uke one of- Burgmair's designing. That the cuts of the Triumphal Procession of Maximilian were engraved by different persons is certain from the names at theft backs ; and I think the difference that is to be perceived in the style of dra-wing renders it in the highest degree probable that the subjects were designed, or at least drawn on the wood, by different artists. I am inclined to think that Burgmair drew very few besides those that contain his mark ; the cuts of the banner-bearers I am persuaded are not of his drawing ; a third artist, of inferior talent, seems to have made the dra-wings of the fanciful cars containing the emperor and his famUy ; and the five cuts of the baggage-waggons and camp foUowers, appear, as I have afteady said, extremely like the designs of Albert Durer. The best engraved cuts are to be found among those which contain Burgmaft's mark. Some of the banner-bearers are also very ably executed, though not in so free or bold a manner ; which I conceive to be owing to the more laboured style in which the subject has been drawn on the block. The mechanical subjects, -with their accompanying figures, are the worst engraved as well as the worst drawn of the whole. The five cuts which I suppose to have been designed by Albert Durer are engraved with great spirit, but not so well as the best of those which contain the mark of Burgmair. Though there are stUl in existence upwards of a hundred of the original blocks designed by Albert Durer, and upwards of three hundi-ed designed by the most eminent of his contemporaries, yet a person who professes to be an instructor of the public on subjects of art made the followiii'f statomont bcftire the Select Committee of the House of IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 305 Commons on Arts and theft Connexion with Manufactures, appointed in 1835. He is asked, " Do you consider that the progress of the arts in this country is impeded by the want of protection for new inventions of importance ? " and he proceeds to enUghten the committee as foUows. " Very much impeded. Inventions connected with the arts of design, of new instruments, or new processes, for example, are, from the ease with which they can be pirated, more difficult of protection than any other inventions whatever. Such protection as the existing laws afford is quite inadequate. I cannot better illustrate my meaning, than by mentioning the case of engraving in metallic relief, an art which is supposed to have existed three or four centuries ago ; and the re discovery of which has long been a desideratum among artists. Albert Durer, who was both a painter and engraver, certainly possessed this art. No. 135. Apparently by Burgmair. that is to say, the art of tiansferring his designs, after they had been sketched on paper, immediately into metallic relief, so that they might be printed along with letter-press. At present, the only sort of engravings you can print along with letter-press are wood engravings, or stereotype casts from wood engra-Yings ; and then those engra-vings are but copies, and often very rude copies, of theft originals ; whUe, in the case of Albert Durer, it is quite CLEAE that it was his own identical designs that were transferred into the metallic relief. Wood engravings, too, are limited in point of size, because they can only be executed on box-wood, the vridth of which is very smaU ; in fact, we have no wood engravings on a single block of a larger size than octavo : when the engraving is larger, two or three blocks are joined together ; but this is attended with so much difficulty and inconvenience, that it is seldom done. From the 306 WOOD ENGEAVING specimens of metallic relief engraving, left us by Albert Durer, there is every reason to infer that he was under no such limitation ; that he could produce plates of any size."'* This statement abounds in errors, and may justify a suspicion that the person who made it had never seen the cuts designed by Albert Durer which he pretends were executed in " metallic relief" At the commencement he says that the art of engraving in metallic relief is supposed to have existed three or four centuries ago ; and immediately afterwards he asserts that AUiert Durer "certainly possessed this art;" as if by his mere word he could convert a groundless fiction into a positive fact. When he made this confident assertion he seems not to have been aware that many of the original pear-tree blocks of the cuts pretendedly executed in metaUic reUef are •stUl in existence ; and when, speaking of the difficulty of getting blocks of a larger size than an octavo, he says, " From the specimens of metaUic relief engraving, left us by Albert Durer, there is every reason to infer that he was under no such limitation, — that he could produce plates of any size," he affords a positive proof that he knows nothing of the subject on which he has spoken so confidently. Had he ever examined the large cuts engraved from Durer's designs, he would have seen, in several, undeniable marks of the junction of the blocks, pro-ving directly the reverse of what he asserts on this point. What he says -with respect to the modern practice of the art is as incorrect as his assertions about Albert Durer's engra-ving in metaUic reUef Though it is true that there are few modern engra-vings on box-wood of a larger size than octavo, it is not true that the forming of a large block of two or more pieces is attended with much difficulty, and is seldom done. The making of such blocks is now a regular trade ; they are formed without the least difficulty, and hundreds of cuts on such blocks are engraved in London every year.t When he says that wood engravings "can only be made on box-wood," he gives another proof of his ignorance of the subject. Most of the earlier wood engi-avings were executed on blocks of pear- tree or crab ; and even at the present time box-wood is seldom used for the large cuts on posting-bills. In short, every statement that this person has made on the subject of wood and pretended metallic reUef engraving is incorrect ; and it is rather surprising that none of the * Minutes of Evidence before the Sek\t Committee ou Arts and Jlaiiufactures, p. 130. Ordered to be printed, 16th August 1836. t Among the principal modem wood-outs engraved on blocks consisting of se\eral pieces the following may be mentioned : The Chilliiigham Bull, by Thomas Bewick, 17Sft ; A view of St. Nicholas' Church, Newcastle-on-Tyne, by Charlton Nesbit, from a drawmg by R. Johnson, 1798 ; The Diploma of the Highland Society, by Luke Olemiell, from a design by B. West, P.R.A. 1808 ; The Death of Dentatus, by William lliu-vcy, from a painting by B. R. Haydon, 1821 ; and The Old Horse waiting for Death, left imflnished, by T. Bewick, and published in 1832. IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. S'.)7 members of the committee should have exposed his ignorance. When such persons put themselves forward as the instructors of mechanics on the subject of art, it cannot be a matter of surprise that in the arts as appUed to manufactures we should be inferior to our continental neigh bours. The art of imitating drawings — caUed chiaro-scuro — by means of impressions from two or more blocks, was cultivated with great success in Italy by Ugo da Carpi about 1518. The invention of this art, as has been previously remarked, is ascribed to him by some writers, but without any sufficient grounds ; for not even the shghtest e-vidence has been produced by them to show that he, or any other Italian artist, had executed a single cut in this manner previous to 1509, the date of a chiaro-scuro wood engraving from a design by Lucas Cranach. Though it is highly probable that Ugo da Carpi was not the inventor of this art, it is certain that he greatly improved it. The chiaro-scuros executed by him are not only superior to those of the German artists, who most likely preceded him in this department of wood engraving, but to the present time they remain unsurpassed. In the present day Mr. George Baxter has attempted to extend the boundaries of this art by caUing in the aid of aquatint for his outlines and first ground, and by copying the positive colours of an oil or water-colour painting. Most of Ugo da Carpi's chiaro-scuros are from Eaffaele's designs, and it is said that the great painter himself drew some of the subjects on the blocks. Independent of the exceUence of the designs, the characteristics of Da Carpi's chiaro scuros are their effect and the simpUcity of their execution ; for aU of them, except one or two, appear to have been produced from not more than three blocks. The foUowing may be mentioned as the principal of Da Carpi's works in this style. A Sibyl reading with a boy holding a torch, from two blocks, said by Vasari to be the aitist's first attempt in this style ; Jacob's Dream ; David cutting off the head of Goliah ; the Death of Ananias ; Gi-ving the Keys to Peter ; the mftaculous Draught of Fishes ; the Descent from the Cross ; the Eesurrection ; and ./Eneas carrying away his father Anchises on his shoulders from the fire of Troy ; * aU the preceding from the designs of Eaffaele. Among the subjects designed by other masters are St. Peter preaching, after PoUdoro ; and Diogenes showing the plucked cock in ridicule of Plato's definition of man, "a two-legged animal -without feathers," after Par- •* At the foot of this cut, to the right, after the name of the designer, — " Raphael Uebjnas,"— is the foUowing privUege, granted by Pope Leo X. and the Doge of Venice, prohibiting aU persons from pirating the work. " Quisquis has tabellas invito autobe IMPKIMET EX Divi Leonis X. ET III Prinoipis Venbtiabum deobetis bxoomi- NicATioNis sentejjtiam ET ALIAS PENAS iNouEBET." Below this inscription is the engraver's name with the date : " Romse apud Ugum de Carpi impressum. mdxviii." X2 308 WOOD ENGEAVING megiano. The latter, which is remarkably bold and spirited, is from four blocks ; and Vasari says that it is the best of aU Da Carpis chiaro scuros. Many of Da Carpi's productions in this style were copied by Andrea Andreani of MUan, about 1580. That of ^neas carrying his father on his shoulders was copied by Edward Kftkall, an English engraver in 1722. EUrkaU's copy is not entftely from wood-blocks, like the original ; the outlines and the greater part of the shadows are from a copper-plate engraved in mezzotint, in a manner sinular to that which has more recently been adopted by Mr. Baxter in his picture-printing. Lucas Dammetz, generaUy caUed Lucas van Leyden, from the place of his bftth, was an exceUent engraver on copper, and. in this branch of art more nearly approached Durer than any other of his German or Flemish contemporaries. He is said to have been bom at Leyden in ] 496 ; and, if this date be correct, he at a very early age gave decided proofs of his talents as an engraver on copper. One of his earUest prints, the monk Sergius killed by Mahomet, is dated 1 508, when he was only fourteen years of age ; and at the age of twelve he is said to have painted, in distemper, a picture of St. Hubert which excited the admiration of all the artists of the time. Of his numerous copper-plate engravings there are no less than twenty-one which, though they contain no date, are supposed to have been executed previously to 1508. As several of those plates are of very considerable merit, it would appear that Lucas whUe yet a boy exceUed, as a copper-plate engraver, most of his German and Dutch contemporaries. From 1508 to 1533, the year of his death, he appears to have engraved not less than two hundred copper-plates ; and, as if these were not sufficient to occupy his time, he in the same period painted several pictures, some of which were of large size. He is also said to have exceUed as a painter on glass ; and Uke Durer, Cranach, and Burgmaft, he is ranked among the wood engravers of that period. The wood-cuts which contain the mark of Lucas van Leyden, or which are usually ascribed to him, are not numerous ; and, even admitting them to have been engraved by himseK, the fact would contribute but little to his fame, for I have not seen one which might not have been executed by a professional "formschneider" of very moderate abUities. The total of the wood-cuts supposed to have been engraved by him does not exceed twenty. The foUo'wing is a reduced copy of a wood-cut ascribed to Lucas van Leyden, in the Print Eoom of the British Museum, but which is not in Bartsch's Catalogue, nor in the list of Lucas van Leyden's engravings in Meusel's Neue MisceUaneen. Though I very much question if the original cut were engraved by Lucas himself, I have no doubt of its being from his design. It represents the death of Sisera ; and, with a noble contempt of the unity of time, Jael is seen giving Sisera a drftik of milk, driving the nail into his head, and IN THE TIME OF ALBEET DUEEE. 309 then showing the body, — ^with herseK in the act of driving the naU, — to Barak and his followers : the absurdity of this threefold action has perhaps never been surpassed in any cut ancient or modern. Sir Boyle Eoach said that it was impossible for &nj person, except a bird or a fish, to be in two places at once ; but here we have a pictorial representation of a female being in no less than three ; and in one of the localities actuaUy pointing out to certain persons how she was then employed iu another. Heineken, in his account of engravers of the Flemish school, has either committed an egregious mistake, or expressed himself with intentional ambiguity with respect to a wood-cut printed at Antwerp, and which he saw in the collections of the Abbe de Marches. His notice of this cut is as foUows : " I found fti the coUections of the Abb^ de MaroUes, in the cabinet of the King of France, a detached 310 WOOD ENGEAVING piece, which, in my opinion, is the most ancient of the wood engravings executed in the Low Countries which bear the name of the artist. This cut is marked, Gheprint t'Antwerpen by my PhiUery de figur snider — ¦ Printed at Antwerp, by me PhiUery, the engraver of figures. It serves as a proof that the engravers of moulds were, at Antwerp, in that ancient time, also printers."* In this vague and ambiguous account, the -writer gives us no idea of the period to which he refers in the words " cet ancien tems." If he means the time between the pretended invention of Coster, and the period when typography was probably first practised in the Low Countries, — that is, from about 1430 to 1472, — he is -wrong, and his statement would afford ground for a presumption that he had either examined the cut very carelessly, or that he was so superficially acquainted -with the progressive improvement of the art of wood engra-ving as to mistake a cut abounding in cross-hatching, and cer tainly executed subsequent to 1524, for one that had been executed about seventy years previously, when cross-hatching was never at tempted, and when the costume was as different from that of the figures represented in the cut as the costume of Vandyke's portiaits is dissimilar to Hogarth's. The words "graveurs de moules," I have translated UteraUy " engravers of moulds,'' for I cannot conceive what else Heineken can mean ; but this expression is scarcely warranted by the word " figuersnider " on the cut, which is almost the same as the German " formschneider ; " and whatever might be the original meaning of the word, it was certainly used to express merely a wood engraver. CompUers of Histories of Art, and Dictionaries of Painters and En gravers, who usuaUy follow their leader, even in his shps, as regularly as a flock of sheep foUow the beU-wether through a gap, have dis seminated Heineken's mistake, and the antiquity of " PhiUery' s " wood-engraving is about as firmly estabhshed as La-wrence Coster's invention of typography. One of those " straightforward " people has indeed gone rather beyond his authority ; for in a " Dictionary of the Fine Arts," published in 1826, we are expressly informed that " PhiUery, who lived near the end of the fourteenth century, was the first engraver on wood who practised in the Net!herlands!'-i It is thus that • " J'ai trouv6 dans les ReceueUs de l'Abb6 de Mai-oUes, au Cabmet du Roi de France, une piece detach6e, qui, suivant mon sentiment, est la plus ancienne de ceUes, qui sont grav6es en bois dans les Pais-Bas, et qui portent le nom de I'artiste. Oette estampe est marquee : Qheprimt t'Antwerpen by my PhiUery de figursnidcr— ImprimC d Anvers, chez moi PhiUery, le graveur de figures. EUe sort de preuve, que les graveurs de moiUes fitoient aussi, dans cet ancien tems, imprimeurs Si Anvers." — Idde G6n4rale d'une CoUection complette seen on the bed-frame in the original, is omitted. All the alterations are for the worse ; some of the figures seem Uke caricatures of the originals ; and the cuts generaUy are, in point of execution, very inferior to those in the Lyons editions. The name of the artist to whom the mark j£ belongs is unknown. In the preface to the Emblems of MortaUty, page xx, the -writer says it is "that of SiLVius Antonianus, an artist of considerable merit." This, however, is merely one of the blunders of PapUlon, who, according to Mr. Douce, has converted the owner of this mark into a cardinal PapUlon, it would seem, had observed it on the cuts of an edition of Faerno's Fables — printed at Antwerp, 1567, and dedicated to Cardinal Borromeo by Silvio Antoniano, professor of Belles Lettres at Eome, afterwards a cardinal himself — and without hesitation he concluded that the editor was the engraver.* The last of the editions pubhshed in the sixteenth century with wood-cuts copied from the Lyons -work, appeared at Wittemberg in 1590. Various editions of the Dance of Death, with copper-plate engravings generally copied from the work published at Lyons, are enumerated by Mr. Douce, but only one of them seems to require notice here. Between 1647 and 1651 HoUar etched thirty subjects from the Dance of Death, introducing occasionally a few alterations. From a careful examination of those etchings, I am inclined to think that most of them were copied not from the cuts in any of the Lyons editions, but from those in the edition published by the heirs of Birkman at Cologne. The original copper-plates of Hollar's thirty etchings having come into the possession of Mr. James Edwards, formerly a bookseller in Pail-Mall, he published an edition in duodecimo, without date, but about 1794,t with preliminary observations on the Dance of Death, written by the late Mr. F. Douce. Those prehminarj'- observations are the germ of Mr. Douce's beautftul and more complete volume, published by W. Pickering in 1833 (and re published with additions by Mr. Bohn in 1858). As Petrarch's amatory sonnets and poems have been called " a labour of Love," with equal * Mr. Douce gives another amusing instance of PapiUon's sagacity in assigning marks and names to their proper o-wners. "He (PapUlon) had seen an edition of the Emblems of Sambucus with cuts, bearing the mark ^, in which there is a fine portrait of the author with his favourite dog, and under the latter the word Bombo, which PapiUon gravely states to be the name of the engraver ; and finding the same word on another of the emblems, w hich has also the dog, he concludes that aU the cuts which have not the fj^ were engraved by the same Bombo." — Dance of Death, p. 114, 1833. Those blunders of PapUlon are to be found in his Traite Historic[ue et Pratique de la Gravure en Bois, tom. i. pp. 238 et 525. f Mr. Douce himself says, " about 1794." A copy in the British Museum, formerly belonging to the late Reverend C. M. Cracherode, has, however, that gentleman's usual mark, and the date 1793. 338 I'UETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF propriety may Mr. Douce's last work be intitled "a labour of Death."- Scarcely a cut or an engraving that contains even a death's head and cross-bones appears to have escaped his notice. Incorporated is a Catalogue raisonni which contains an enumeration of aU the tomb stones in England and Wales that are ornamented with those standard "Emblems of Mortality," — skull, thigh-bones in saltire, and hour-glass. In his last " Opus Magnum Mortis," the notices of the several Dances of Death in various parts of Europe are very much enlarged, but he has not been able to adduce any further arguments or evidences beyond what appeared in his first essay, to show that the cuts in the original edition of the Dance of Death, published at Lyons, were not designed by Holbein. Throughout the work there are undeniable proofs of the dUigence of the collector ; but no evidences of a mind that could make them avaUable to a useful end. He is at once sceptical and credulous ; he denies that any poet of the name of Macaber ever lived ; and yet he heUeves, on the sole authority of one T. Nieuhofi' Picard, whose existence is as doubtful as Macaber's, that Holbein painted a Dance of Death as large as hfe, in fresco, in the old palace at WTiitehaU. Having now given a list of all the authentic ecUtions of the Dance of Death and of the principal copies of it, I shaU next, before saying any thing about the supposed designer or engraver, lay before the reader a few specimens of the original cuts. Mr. Douce observes, of the forty-nine cuts given in his Dance of Death, 1833, that " they may be very justly regarded as scarcely distinguishable from theft fine originals." Now, without any intention of depreciating these clever copies, I must pro nounce them inferior to the originals, especially in the heads and hands. In this respect the wood-cuts of the first Lyons edition of the Dance of Death are unrivalled by any other productions of the art of wood engraving, either in past or present times. In the present day, when mere delicacy of cutting in the modern French taste is often mistaken for good engraving, there are doubtless many admirers of the art who fancy that there would be no difliculty in finding a wood engraver who might be fully competent to accurately copy the originals in the first edition of the Dance of Death. The experftnent, however, would pro bably convince the undertaker of such a task, whoever he might be, that he had in this instance over-rated his abilities. Let the heads in the Lyons cuts, and those of any copies of them, old or recent, be examined with a magnifying glass, and the excellence of the former wUl appear still more decidedly than when vie^^'ed with the naked eye. The following cut is a co]-)y of \\ie same size as the original, which is the secoiiil of the Dance of Death, of the edition of 1538. The subject is Adiuu and Eve eating of the hirbidden fruit ; and in the series of early iinprcssious, formerly Mr. Ottley's, but now in the Print Room of WOOD ENGEAVING. 339 the British Museum, it is intitled "Adam Eva im Paradyss " — Adam and Eve in Paradise. The serpent, as in many other old engra'vings, as well as in paintings, is represented -with a human face. In order to convey an idea of the original page, this cut is accompanied with its explanatory text and verses printed in sftnUar type. Quia audifti vocem vxoris tuse, & comedifti de ligno ex quo preceperam tibi ne come= deres &c.. GENESIS III A D A M fut par E V E deceu Et contre D I E V mangea la pomm Dont tous deux ont la Mort receu, Et depuis fut mortel tout homme. C In the two first cuts, which represent the Creation oi Eve, and Adam taking the forbidden fruit, the figure of Death is not seen. In the third, Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise, Death, playing on a kind of lyre, is seen preceding them ; and in the fourth, Adam cultivating the earth. Death is perceived assisting him in his labour. In the fifth, intitled Gebeyn aller menschen — Skeletons of all men — in the early impressions of the cuts, formerly belonging to Mr. Ottley, but now in the British Museum, aU the figures are skeletons ; one of them is seen beating a pair of kettle drums, while others are sounding trumpets, as if rejoicing z2 340 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF in the pov/er which had been given to Death in consequence of the fall of man. The texts above this cut are, " Vte vae vse habitantibus in terra. Apocalypsis viii ; " and " Cuncta in quibus spiraculum vitae est, mortua sunt. Genesis vii." In the sixth cut there are two figures of Death, — one grinning at the pope as he bestows the crown on a kneeling emperor, and the other, wearing a cardinal's hat, as a witness of the ceremony. In the thirty-sixth cut, the Duchess, there are two figures of Death introduced, and there are also two in the thirty-seventh, the Pedlar ; but in all the others of this edition, from the seventh to the thirty-ninth, inclusive, there is only a single figure of Death, and in every instance his action and expression are highly comic, most distinctly evincing that man's destruction is his sport. In the fortieth cut there is no figure of Death ; the Deity seated on a rainbow, with his feet resting on the globe, is seen pronouncing final judgment on the human race. The forty-first, and last cut of the original edition, represents Death's coat-of- arms — Die ivapen des Thots. On an escutcheon, which is rent in several places, is a deatiis-head, with something like a large worm proceeding from the mouth ; above the escutcheon, a barred helmet, seen in front Uke that of a sovereign prince, is probably intended to represent the power of Death ; the crest is a pair of fleshless arms holding something Uke a large stone immediately above an hour-glass ; on the dexter side of the escutcheon stands a gentleman, who seems to be calling the attention of the spectator to this memento of Death, and on the opposite side is a lady ; in the distance are Alpine mountains, the top of the hio-hest partly shaded by a cloud. The apjiropriate text is, "Memorare no^^s• WOOD ENGEAYTXG. 341 sima, et in aeternum non peccabis. the verses underneath : Eccle. vii ; " and the foUowing are " Si tu veulx vi-vre sans peche Voy eeste imaige a tous propos, Et point ne seras empesche Quand tu t'en iras en repos." The total number of cuts of the first edition in which Death is seen attending on men and women of aU ranks and conditions, mocking them, seizing them, slaying them, or merrUy leading them to their end, is thirty-seven. Spiritus meus attenuabitur, dies mihi bre= viabuntur, & folum mihi fupereft fepul= chrum. I O B XVII Mes efperitz font attendriz, Et ma uie fen ua tout beau. Las mes longz iours font amoindriz Plus ne me refte qu'un tombeau. The above cut is a copy of the thirty-third, the Old Man — Der Alt man — whom Death leads in confiding imbecility to the grave, whUe lia 342 PtJETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF pretends to support hftn and to amuse him with the music of a dulcimer. The text and verses are given as they stand in the original The foUowing cut is a copy of the thirty-sixth, the Duchess — Die Hertzoginn. In this cut, as has been previously observed, there are two figures of Death ; one rouses her from the bed — where she appears to have been indulging in an afternoon nap — ^by pulling off the coverlet. De lectulo fuper quem afcendi fti non defcendes, fed morte morieris. Till REG Du Hot fus lequel as monte Ne defcendras a ton plaifir. Car Mort t'aura tantoft dompte, Et en brief te uiendra faifir. while the other treats her to a tune on the \'iolin. On the frame of the bed, or couch, to the left, near the bottom of the cut, is seen the mark IL' which has not a little increased the difficulty of arriving at any clear and unquestionable conclusion with respect to the designer or engraver of those cuts. The text and the verses are given literaUy, as in the two preceding specimens. WOOD ENGEAVING. 34^ The foUowing cut, the Child — Das lung Kint— is a copy of the thirty-ninth, and the last but two in the original edition. Death ha-ving been represented in the preceding cuts as beguUing men and women in court and councU-chamber, in bed-room and haU, in street and field, by sea and by land, is here represented as visiting the dUapidated cottage of the poor, and, while the mother is engaged in cooking, seizing her youngest chUd. Homo natus de muliere, brevi vivens tempore repletur multis miferiis, qui quafi flos egre* ditur, & conteritur, & fugit velut umbra. I o B X I I I I Tout homme de la femme yffant Remply de mifere, & d'encombre, Ainfi que fleur toft finiffant, Sort & puis fuyt comme faict I'umbre. The cut of the Waggon overturned, from which the following is copied, first appeared with ten others in the edition of 1547. From an inspection of this cut, which most probably is that mentioned as being left unfinished, in the prefatory address to Madame Jehanne de Touszele in the first edition, 1538, it will be perceived that the description which is there given of it is not correct, and hence arises 344 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF a doubt if the writer had actuaUy seen it. He describes the driver as knocked down, and lying bruised under his broken waggon, and he says that the figure of Death is perceived roguishly sucking the -wine out of a broken cask by means of a reed.* In the cut itself, however, the waggoner is seen standing, -wringing his hands as if in despair on account of the accident, and a figure of Death, — for there are two in this cut, — instead of sucking the wine, appears to be II cheat en son chariot I. R o I S IX. _J"~~^ ^^d§k F — —-f^ ^^^^^fes ^^gv ^jl^^ 'T^^^^s^'H^S^^ ^^l^r^^n ^^^^(\^\^s\Q ^^kh^^m^i^^ r^^^^lV' 1 ^^i^^j^^P W^^^Mi \^m S^^^^j^^^Sf£ Si^B il^^^s '•-^^iMm^v. |^*&^^| IIMIMw^^^^^^^^sP'^ ^-Jfcr^^^^l j^^M^^^^^y^vl '3l^^n^^^3n\Vm^//^ ^^MvX/" sff^^^.£ 'TttVl^^ i^^^m ^W^^J^! ^^^Bi ^^^^^^ ^^tf ^l^^S ^^^^™"l|]iit\l)^j|Mtim fe,^'*''llll^V^«l ®?— -^^"'^ ^MS ^^^^^ Au passage de MORT perverse Raison, Chartier tout esperdu, Du corps le char, & chevaux verse, Le vin (sang de vie) esperdu. engaged in undoing the rope or chain by which the cask is secured to the waggon. A second figure of Death is perceived carrying off one of the waggon-wheels. In this cut the subject is not so weU * Mr. Douce, when correcting the mistake of the writer of the addi-ess, commits an error him.self He says that " Death is in the act of untwistmg the fastening to one of tlie hoops." Now, it is very evident that he is undoing the rope or chain that steadies the cask and confines it to the waggon. He has hold of the stake or piece of wood, which serves as a twitch to tighten the rope or chain, in the manner in which large timber is secured to the waggon in the present day. WOOD ENGEAVING. 345 treated as in most of those in the edition of 1538 ; and it is also not so weU engraved. — The text and verses annexed are from the edition of 1562. Of the eleven additional cuts inserted in the edition of 1547, there are four of chUdren, which, as has already been observed in page 334, have not the slightest connexion with the Dance of Death. The following is a copy of one of them. The editor seems to have found no difficulty II sera perc^ de sagettes. E x o D. x T X. L'eage du sens, du sang I'ardeur Est legier dard, & foible escu Contre MORT, qui un tel dardeur De son propre dard rend vaincu. in providing the subject with a text ; and it serves as a peg to hang a quatrain on as well as the others which contain personifications of Death. In the edition of 1562 five more cuts are inserted ; but two of them only— the Bridegroom and the Bride — have relation to the Dance of Death; the other three are of a simUar character to the four cuts of children first inserted in the edition of 1547. AU the seven cuts of 346 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF children have been evidentiy designed by the same person. They are well engraved, but not in so masterly a style as the forty-one cuts of the original edition. The following is a copy of one of the three which were inserted in the edition of 1562. Having now given what, perhaps, may be considered a sufficiently ample account of the Lyons Dance of Death, ft next appears necessary to make some enquiries respecting the designer of the cuts. UntU the publication of Mr. Douce's observations, prefixed to the edition of II partira les despoilles avec les puissans. s A I E L I I 1 Pour les victoires triumphees Sur les plus forts des humaiiis coeurs, Les despoilles dresse en trophees La MORT vaincresse des vainqueurs. Hollar's etchings from those cuts, by Edwards, about 1794, scarcely any writer who mentions them seems to entertain a doubt of their having been designed by Holbein ; and Papillon, in his usual manner, claims him as a wood engraver, and unhesitatingl}- declares that not only the cuts of the Lyons Dance of Death, but all the other cuts which are generaUy supposed to have been of his designing, were engraved by himself Mr. Douce's arguments are almost entirely negative, — for he produces no satisfactory evidence to show that those cuts were certainly WOOD ENGEAVING. 347 designed by some other artist, — and they are chiefly founded on the ¦ passage in the first Lyons edition, where the writer speaks of the death of the person " qui nous en a icy imaging si elegantes figures." The sum of Mr. Douce's objections to Holbein being the designer of the cuts in question is as follows. " The singularity of this curious and interesting dedication is deserving of the utmost attention. It seems very strongly, if not decisively, to point out the edition to which it is prefixed, as the first ; and what is of still more importance, to deprive Holbein of any claim to the invention of the work. It most certainly uses such terms of art as can scarcely be mistaken as conveying any other sense than that of originahty of design. There cannot be words of plainer import than those which describe the painter, as he is expressly caUed, delineating the subjects and leaving several of them unfinished : and whoever the artist might have been, it clearly appears that he was not living in 1538. Now, it is well known that Holbein's death did not take place before the year 1554, during the plague which ravaged London at that time. If then the expressions used in this dedication signify anything, it may surely be asked what becomes of any claim on the part of Holbein to the designs of the work in question, or does it not at least remain in a situation of doubt and difficulty ? " * With respect to the true import of the passage referred to, my opinion is almost directly the reverse of that expressed by Mr. Douce. What the -writer of the address to Madame Jehanne de Touszele, in the Lyons edition of 1538, says respecting the unfinished cuts, taken all together, seems to relate more properly to the engraver than the designer ; more especiaUy when we find that a cut — that of the Waggoner, — expressly noticed by him as being then unfinished, was given -with others of a simUar character in a subsequent edition. From the incorrect manner in which the cut of the Waggoner is described, I am very much inclined to think that the writer had neither seen the original nor the other subjects already traced — the "plusieurs aultres figures jh par luy trassies " — of whose " bold dra-wing, per spectives, and shadows," he speaks in such terms of admiration. If the ¦writer knew little of the process of wood engraving, he would be very likely to commit the mistake of supposing that the engraver was also the designer of the cuts. Though I consider it by no means unlikely that the engraver might have been dead before the publication of the first edition, yet I am very much inclined to believe that the passage in which the cuts are mentioned is purposely involved in obscurity : the writer, whUe he speaks of the deceased artist in terms of the highest commendation, at the same time carefuUy conceals his name. If the account in the preface be admitted as correct, it would * Dance of Death, p. 88. Edit. 1833. (Bohn's edit. 1858, p. 77.) 348 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF appear that the cuts were both designed and engraved by the same person, and that those already drawn on the block * remained unfinished in consequence of his decease ; for if he were not the engraver, what prevented the execution of the other subjects already tiaced, and of which the bold drawing, perspective, and shadows, aU so gracefully delineated, are distinctly mentioned ? The engraver, whoever he might be, was certainly not only the best of his age, but continues unsurpassed to the present day, and I am satisfied that such precision of line as is seen in the heads could only be acquired by great practice. The designs are so excellent in drawing and composition, and so admirably are the different characters represented, — with such spirit, humour, and appro priate expression, — that to have produced them would confer adcUtional honour on even the greatest painters of that or any other period. Are we then to suppose that those excellencies of design and of engra-ving were combined in an obscure individual whose name is not to be found in the roll of fame, who lived comparatively unknown, and whose death is only incidentaUy noticed in an ambiguous preface written by a name less pedant, and professedly addressed to an abbess whose very existence is questionable?! Such a supposition I conceive to be in the highest degree improbable ; and, on the contrary, I am perfectly satisfied that the cuts in question were not designed and engraved by the same person. Furthermore, admitting the address to Madame Jehanne de Touszele to be written in good faith, I am firmly of opinion that the person whose death is there mentioned, was the engraver, and not the designer of the cuts of the first edition. The mark [L, in the cut of the Duchess, is certainly not Holbein's ; and Mr. Douce says, " that it was intended to express the name of the designer, cannot be supported by evidence of any Idnd." That it is not the mark of the designer, I agree with Mr. Douce, but my conclusion is drawn from premises directly the reverse of his ; for had I not found evidence elsewhere to convince me that this mark can only be that of the engraver, I should most certainly have concluded that it was intended for the mark of the designer. In direct opposition to what Mr. Douce here says, up to the time of the publication of the Lyons * The words "jd, par luy trassies" wiU apply more properly to drawings already made on the block, but unengraved, than to untuiished drawings on paper. It is indeed almost cer tain that the writer meant the former, for their " audacicux traictz, perspectires, et umbrages" are mentioned ; they were moreover "gracicusement delinices." These e.'cpressions will apply correctly to a finished, though unengi'aved design on the block, but scarcely to an unfinished drawing on paper. 1 1 am very much inclined to think that Madame Jehanne de Touszele is a fictitious ch,aracter. I have had no opportunities of learning if such a pei'soii were really abbess of tho Convent of St. Peter at Lyons iu 1538, and must therefore leave this point to be decided by some other enquirer. WOOD ENGKAVING. 349 Dance of Death, the mark on wood-cuts is most frequently that of the designer, and whenever that of the engraver appears, it is as an exception to the general custom. It is, in fact, upon the evidence of the mark alone that the greater part of the wood-cut designs of Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, Behaim, Baldung, Griin, and other old masters, are respectively ascribed to them. The cuts of the Triumphal Procession of Maximilian with Hans Burgmair's mark in front, and the names of the engravers written at the back of the blocks, may serve as an illustration of the general practice, which is directly the reverse of Mr. Douce's opinion. If the weight of probability be not on the opposite side, the mark in question ought certainly, according to the usual practice of the period, to be considered as that of the designer. In a subsequent page of the same chapter, Mr. Douce most incon sistently says, " There is an unfortunate ambiguity connected with the marks that are found on ancient engravings on wood, and it has been a very great error on the part of all the writers who treat on such engravings, in referring the marks that accompany them to the block-cutters, or as the Germans properly denominate them the form schneiders, whilst, perhaps, the greatest part of them reaUy belong to the designers." He commits in the early part of the chapter the very error which he ascribes to others. According to his own principles, as expressed in the last extract, he was bound to allow the mark JL ^^ 1*6 that of the designer until he could show on probable grounds that it was not. But though Mr. Douce might deny that Holbein were the designer of those cuts, it seems that he durst not venture to follow up the line of his argument, and declare that Hans Lutzelburger was the designer, which .he certaiidy might have done with at least as much reason as has led him to decide that Holbein was not. But he prudently abstained from venturing on such an affirmation, the improbability of which, notwith standing the mark, might have led his readers to inquire, how it happened that so talented an artist should have remained so long undiscovered, and that even his contemporaries should not have known him as the designer of those subjects. Though I am satisfied that the mark JJ^ is that of the engraver of the cuts in the first edition of the Lyons Dance of Death, I by no means pretend to account for- its appearing alone — thus forming an exception to the general rule — ^without the mark of the designer, and without any mention of his name either in the title or preface to the book. We have no knowledge of the connexion in the way of business between the working wood engravers and the designers of that period ; but there seems reason to believe that the former sometimes got drawings made at their own expense and risk, and, when engraved, either published them on their own account, or disposed of them to bookseUers and printers. It is 350 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF also to be observed that about the time of the publication of the first Lyons edition of the Dance of Death, or, a few years before, wood engravers began to occasionally introduce their name or mark into the cut, in addition to that of the designer. A cut, in a German translation of Cicero de Officiis, Frankfort, 1538, contains two marks ; one of them being that of Hans Sebald Behaim, and the other, the letters H. W., which I take to be that of the engraver. At a later period this practice became more frequent, and a considerable number of wood-cuts executed between 1540 and 1580 contain two marks; one of the designer, and the other of the engraver : in wood-cuts designed by VirgU Solis in particular, double marks are of frequent occurrence. As it seems evident that the publishers of the Lyons Dance of Death were desirous of concealing the name of the designer, and as it appears likely that they had purchased the cuts ready engraved from a Swiss or a German, — for the designs are certainly not French, — it surely cannot be surprising that he should wish to affix his mark to those most admftable specimens of art. Moreover, if those cuts were not executed under the personal superintendence of the designer, but when he was chiefly resident in a distant country, the engraver would thus have the uncontioUed Uberty of inserting his own mark ; and more especially, ft those cuts were a private speculation of his o-wn, and not executed for a pubUsher who had employed an artist to make the designs. Another reason, perhaps equally as good as any of the foregoing, might be suggested ; as those cuts are decidedly the best executed of any of that period, the designer — even if he had opportunities of seeing the proofs — might have permitted the mark of the engraver to appear on one of them, in approbation of his talent. This mark, y^,, was first assigned to a wood engraver named Hans Lutzelburger, by M. Christian von Mechel, a celebrated engraver of Basle, who in 1780 pubhshed forty-five copper-plate engra-vings of a Dance of Death from drawings said to be by Holbein, and which almost in every respect agree with the corresponding cuts in the Lyons work, though of greater size.* M. Mechel's conjecture respecting the * Mechel's work is in folio, with four subjects on each fuU page, and is entitled " Oeun-e de Jean Holbein, ou ReceuU de Gravores d'aprSs ses plus beau.x ouvrages, &c. Premiere Partie La Triomphe de Mort." It is dedicated to George III, and the presentation copy is in the King's Library at the British Museum. The fia-st pai-t coiit:iuis, besides fortj'-five subjects of the Dance of Death, the design for the sheath of a dagger from a drawing ascribed to Holbein, which has been re-engraved in the work of Mr. Douce. It is extremely doubtfril if the drawings of the Dauce, from which Jlechel's engraving's are copied, lie really by IliiUiein. They were purchased by i\I. Flcischmann of Stnisburg, at Croziit's sale at Paris in 1741. It was stated in the catalogue that they had formed part of the .Vruudelian collection, and that tliey had aftii-\>ards come into the possession of Jan Bocklioi-st, coiumoiUy called Lang .Ian, u, contemporary of Vamlyko. This piece of iuforniation, bo\vo\cr, can only be received as an auctioneer's puff. M. JUwhel himself, according to Mr. Douce, had not WOOD ENGEAVING. 351 .engraver of those cuts appears to have been first published in the sixteenth volume of Von Murr's Journal ; but though I am inclined to think that he is correct, it has not been satisfactorily shown that Hans Lutzelburger ever used the mark J^ . He, however, Uved at that period, and it is almost certain that he executed an alphabet of small initial letters representing a Dance of Death, which appear to have been first used at Basle by the printers Bebelius and Cratander about 1530. We give (on the following page) the entire series. He is also supposed to have engraved two other alphabets of ornamental initial letters, one representing a dance of peasants, " intermixed," says Mr. Douce, " with other subjects, some of which are not of the most delicate nature ; " the other representing groups of chUdren in various playful attitudes. AU those three alphabets are generally described by German and Swiss writers on art as having been designed by Holbein ; and few impartial persons I conceive can have much doubt on the subject, if almost perfect identity between most of the figures and those in his known productions be aUowed to have any weight. There is a set of proofs of the alphabet of the Dance of Death, printed on one sheet, preserved in the Public Library at Basle, and underneath is printed in moveable letters the name HSlnnS ILiititlliurgcr formtcl)iuB£r, genannt jFranrfe, — that is, " Hanns Lutzelburger, wood engraver, named Franck." The first H is an ornamented Eoman capital ; the other letters of the name are in the German character. The size of the cuts in this alphabet of the Dance of Death is one inch by seven- eighths. The reason for supposing that Hans Lutzelburger was the engraver of the cuts in the first edition of the Lyons Dance of Death are : 1. The simUarity of style between the latter and those of the Basle alphabet of the same subject ; and 2. The correspondence of the mark in the cut of the Duchess with the initial letters of the name H[ans] L[utzelburger], and the fact of his being a wood engraver of that period. Mr. Douce, in the seventh chapter of his work, professes to been able to trace those dravrings previously to their falUng into the hands of Monsieur Crozat. They were purchased of M. Fleischmarm by Prince Gallitzin, a Russian nobleman, by whom they were lent to M. Mechel. They are now in the Imperial Library at Petersburg. According to Mr. Coxe, .who saw them when in M. Mechel's possession, they were drawn with a pen, and shghtly shaded with Indian ink. Hegner, in his Life of Holbein, speaks slightingly of Mechel's engravings, which he says were executed by one of his workmen from copies of the pretended original drawings made by an artist named Rudolph ScheUenburg of Winterthur. Those copper-plates certainly appear feeble when compared with the wood-cut in the Lyons work, and Hegner's criticism on the figure of Eve seems just, though Mr. Douce does not approve of it. Hegner says, " Let any one compare the figure of Eve under the tree in Mechel's second plate -with the second wood-out ; in the former she is sitting in as elegant an attitude as if she belonged to a French famUy by Boucher." — Boucher, a, French pamter, who died m 1770, was famous in his time for the pretty women introduced into his 352 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF 1 Bl s ^^M^ 'erf ^^ ^ eafH^iD^ iij^Elt^i^^ i H lf£'"!*^^^j^ B i.^^^^1 ^"^fm pv i^ffiii <^^ g^^ ^- -/rfl i m WOOD ENGEAVING. 353 examine the " claim of Hans Lutzelburger as to the design or execution of the Lyons engravings of the Dance of Death," but his investigations seem very unsatisfactory ; and his chapter is one of those " in which," as Fielding says, "nothing is concluded." He gives no opinion as to whether Lutzelburger was the designer of the Lyons cuts or not, though this is one of the professed topics of his investigation ; and even his opinion, for the time being, as to the engraver, only appears in the heading of the foUowing chapter, where it is thus announced : " List of several editions of the Lyons work on the Dance of Death, with the mark of Lutzenburger!'* His mind, however, does not appear to have been finally made up on this point ; for in a subsequent page, 215, speaking of the mark [L ii^ t^® cut of the Duchess, which he had previously mentioned as that of Hans Lutzelburger, he says, " but to whomsoever this mark may turn out to belong, certain it is that Holbein never made use of it." His only unalterable decision appears to be that Holbein did not design the cuts of the Lyons Dance of Death, and in support of it he puts forth sundry arguments which are at once absurd and incon sistent ; rejects unquestionable evidence which makes for the contrary opinion ; and admits the most improbable that seems to favour his own. Mr. Douce, in his seventh chapter, also gives a list of cuts, which he says were executed hy Hans Lutzelburger ; but out of the seven single cuts and three alphabets which he enumerates, I am inclined to think that Lutzelburger's name is only to be found attached to one single cut and to one alphabet, — the latter being that of the initial letters represent ing a Dance of Death. The single cut to which I allude — and which, I believe, is the only one of the kind that has his name underneath it, — represents a combat in a wood between some naked men and a body of peasants. Within the cut, to the left, is the mark, probably of the designer, on a reversed tablet, thus ; and underneath is the following inscription, from a /^a:^^/ separate block : Hanns . Leuczellbuegee . FuEMSCHNiDEE ^-^ X 1.5.2.2. An impres sion of this cut is preserved in the Public Library at Basle ; and an alphabet of Eoman capitals, engraved on wood, is printed on the same folio, below Lutzelburger's name. In not one of the other single cuts does this engraver's name occur, nor in fact any mark that can be fairly ascribed to him. The seventh cut, described by Mr. Douce, — a copy of Albert Durer's Decollation of John the Baptist, — is ascribed to Lutzel burger on the authority of Zani. According to this -writer, — for I have not seen the cut myself any more than Mr. Douce, — it has " the mark H. L. reversed," which perhaps may prove to be L. H. " In the index of names," says Mr. Douce, " he (Zani) finds his name thus written, Hans * Mr. Douce in every instance speUs the name thus. In the proofs of the alphabet of the Dance of Death it is Liitzelhwrger, and below the cut with the date 1522, Leuczellburger. A A 354 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF Lutzblbuegee Foemschnidee genant (chiamato) Feanck, and caUs hftn the true prince of engravers on wood." In what index Zani found the reversed mark thus expounded does not appear; I, however, am decidedly of opinion that there is no wood-cut in existence -with the mark H. L which can be ascribed -with anything like certainty to Lutzelburger ; and his name is only to be found at length under the cut of the Fight above mentioned, and printed in moveable characters on the sheet containing the proofs of the alphabet of the Dance of Death.* The title of " true prince of engravers on wood," given by Zani to Lutzelburger, can only be admitted on the supposition of his being the engraver of the cuts in the first edition of the Lyons Dance of Death ; but it yet remains to be proved that he ever used the mark fL or the separate letters H L. on any previous or subsequent cut. Though, from his name appearing on the page containing the alphabet of the Dance of Death, and from the correspondence of his initials -with the mark in the cut of the Duchess in the Lyons Dance of Death, I am inclined to think that he was the engraver of the cuts in the latter work, yet I have thought it necessary to enter thus fuUy into the grounds of his pretensions to the execution of those, and other wood engra-Yings, in order that the reader may judge for himself. Hegner, in his Life of Holbein, treats the claims that have been advanced on behaU' of Lutzelburger too Ughtly. He not only denies that he was tiie engraver of the cuts in the fftst edition of the Lyons work, but also that he executed the cuts of the alphabet of the Dance of Death, although his name with the addition of " wood engraver''— _^m- schnidei — be printed on the sheet of proofs. If we cannot admit the inscription in question as eYidence of Lutzelburger being the engraver of this alphabet, we may with equal reason question ft any wood engraver actuaUy executed the cut or cuts under which his name only appears printed in type, or which may be ascribed to him in the titie of a book. Mr. Douce, speaking of the three alphabets, — of peasants, boys, and a Dance of Death, — all of which he supposes to have been engraved by Lutzelburger, says that the proofs " may have been deposited by bim in his native city," meaiung Basle. Hegner, however, says that there is no trace of him to be found either in registers of baptism or burger-hsts of Basle He further adds, though I by no means concur -with him in this opinion, " It is indeed likely that, as a travelling dealer in works of art — who, according to the custom of that period, took up theft temporary residence sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, — he had obtained possession of those blocks, [of the alphabet of Death's Dance, and the Fight, with his name,] and that he sold impressions from them in ¦• There are proofs of this alphabet in the Royal Collection at Doesden, as weU as in the Public Library at Basle. wood engeaving, 355 the way of trade."* Mr. Douce says that it may admit of a doubt whether the alphabets ascribed to Lutzelburger were cut on metal or on wood. It may admit of a doubt, certainly, with one who knows very little of the practice of wood engraving, but none with a person who is accustomed to see cuts executed in a much more delicate style by wood engravers of very moderate abUities. To engrave them on wood, would be comparatively easy, so far as relates to the mere dehcacy of the lines ; but it would be a task of great difficulty to engrave them in relief in any metal which should be much harder than that of which types are composed. To suppose that they might have been executed in type- metal, on account of the deUcacy of the hnes, would involve a contradic tion ; for not only can finer lines be cut on box-wood than on type-metal, but also with much greater facUity. It perhaps may not be unnecessary to give here two instances of the many vague and absurd conjectures which have been propounded respecting the designer or the engraver of the cuts in the Lyons editions of the Dance of Death. In a copy of this work of the edition 1545 now in the British Museum, but formerly belonging to the Eeverend C. M. Cracherode, a portrait of a painter or engraver named Hans Ladens- pelder is inserted opposite to the cut of the Duchess, as 'ft in support of the conjecture that he might be the designer of those cuts, merely from the cftcumstance of the initial letters of his name corresponding with the mark H... The portrait is a small oval engraved on copper, with an ornamental border, round which is the foUo-wing inscription : " Imago Joannis Ladenspelder, Essendiensis, Anno ffitatis suas xxvfti 1540." t The mark Jj is perceived on this portrait, and underneath is written the foUo-wing MS. note, referring to the mark in the cut of the Duchess : "fl_i the mark of the designer of these designs of Death's Dance, not H. Holbein. By several persons that have seen Holbein's Death Dance at BasU, it is not like these, nor in the same manner." This note, so far as relates to the impUed conjecture about Ladenspelder, may be aUowed to pass -without remark for what it is worth ; but it seems necessary to remind the reader that the painting of the Dance of Death at Basle, here e-vidently aUuded to, was not the work of Holbein, and to observe that this note is not in the handwriting of Mr. Cracherode, but that it has apparently been -written by a former owner of the volume. In a copy of the first edition, now lying before me a former owner has -written on the fly-leaf the foUowing verses from page 158 of the N'ugee — Lyons, 1640, — of Nicholas Borbonius, a French poet : * Hans Holbein der Jiingere, S. 332. t Hans Ladenspelder was a native of EsseU, a frontier town in the duchy of Berg. The toUo-iring mark is to be found on his engravmgs ^7*^ • which Bartsch thinks may be intended for the single letters I. L. V. E. S., — ^representing the words Joawnes Ladenspelder Von Essen Sculpsit. aa2 35f? FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF " Videre qui vult Parrhasium cum Zeuxide, Accersat a Britannia Hansum Ulbium, et Georgium Beperdium Lugduno ab urbe Gallise." The meaning of these verses may be thus expressed in Enghsh : Whoever -wishes to behold. Painters like to those of old. To England straightway let him send. And summon Holbein to attend ; Reperdius,* too, from Lyons bring, A city of the Gallic King. To the extract from Borbonius, — or Bourbon, as he is more frequently caUed, without the Latin termination, — the -writer has added a note : " An Reperdius harum Iconum sculptor fuerit ? ' That is : " Query, if Eeperdius were the engraver of these cuts ? " — meaning the cuts contained in the Lyons Dance of Death. Mr. Douce also cites the preceding verses from Nicholas Bourbon ; and upon so sUght and unstable a foundation he, more solito, raises a ponderous superstructure. He, in fact, says, that " it is extremely probable that he might have begim the work in question [the designs for the Dance of Death], and have died before he could complete it, and that the Lyons pubhshers might have afterwards employed Holbein to finish what was left undone, as well as to make designs for additional subjects which appeared in the subsequent editions. Thus would Holbein be so connected with the work as to obtain in future such notice as would constitute him by general report the real inventor of it." Perhaps in the whole of the discussion on this subject a more tortuous piece of argument is not to be found. It strikingly exempUfies Mr. Douce's eagerness to avail himseft of the most trifling cftcumstance which seemed to favour his own -views ; and his manner of t-nisting and twining it is sufficient to excite a suspicion even in the mind of the most careless inquirer, that the chain of argument which consists of a series of such links must be little better than a rope of sand. IMr. Douce must have had singular notions of probabUity, Avhen, upon the mere mention of the name of Eeperdius, by Bourbon, as a painter then residing at Lyons, he asserts that it is extremely probable that he, Eeperdius, might have begun the work : it is e-vident that he does not employ the term in its usual and proper sense. If for "extremely probable" the words " barely possible" be substituted, the passage will be unobjectionable ; and will then fairly represent the value of the conjecture of Eeperdius having designed any of the cuts in question. If it be extremely probable * Of this George Reperdius, or his works, nothing, I believe, is known beyond the brief mention of his name in coryunotion with that of Holbein in the verses of Bourbon. WOOD ENGEAVING. 357 that the cuts of the first edition of the Lyons Dance of Death were designed by Eeperdius, from the mere occurrence of his name in Bourbon, the evidence in favour of their being designed by Holbein ought with equal reason to be considered as plusquam-perfect ; for the voices of his contemporaries are expressly in his favour, the cuts themselves bear a strong general resemblance to those which are kno-wn to be of his designing, and some of the figures and details in the cuts of the Dance of Death correspond so nearly with others in the Bible-cuts designed by Holbein, and also printed at Lyons by the brothers Trechsel, and in the same year, that there cannot be a doubt in the mind of any impartial inqufter who shaU compare them, that either both series must have been designed by the same person, or that Holbein had servUely copied the works of an unknown artist greater than himself Upon one of the horns of this dilemma, Mr. Douce, and all who assert that the cuts of the Lyons Dance of Death were not designed by Holbein, must inevitably be fixed. One of the earliest evidences in favour of Holbein being the designer of the cuts in the Lyons Dance of Death is Nicholas Bourbon, the author of the epigram previously cited. In an edition of his Nugae, pubhshed at Basle in 1540, are the foUowing verses :* De morte picta d Seunso pictore nobili. Dum mortis Hansus pictor imaginem exprimit, Tanta arte mortem retuUt ut mors vivere Videatur ipsa : et ipse se immortalibus Parem Dus fecerit operis hujus gloria. Now, — after premising that the term picta was appUed to designs engraved on wood, as weU as to paintings in oil or water-colours,+ — ^it may be asked to what work of Holbein's do these Unes refer? The painting in the church-court at Basle was not executed by Holbein ; neither was it ascribed to hftn by his contemporaries ; for the popular error which assigns it to hftn appears to have originated with certain traveUers who visited Basle upwards of a hundred years after Holbein's decease. It indeed may be answered that Bourbon might allude to the alphabet of the Dance of Death which has been ascribed to Holbein. A mere supposition of this kind, however, would be untenable in this instance ; for there is no direct evidence to show that Holbein was the designer of this alphabet, and the principal reason for supposing it to * Neither these verses, nor those previously cited, occur in the first edition of the Nugae, Paris, 1533. t At that period a wood-cut, as well as a painting, was termed pictmra. — On the title-page of an edition of the New Testament, with wood-cuts, Zurich, 1554, by Froschover, we find the foUowing : " Novi Testamenti Editio postrema per Des. Erasmum Roterodamum. Omnia picturis illustrata." 358 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF have been designed by him rests upon the previous assumption of his being the designer of the cuts of the Lyons Dance of Death. Deny him the honour of this work, and assert that the last quoted verses of Bourbon must relate to some other, and the difliculty of showing by anything like credible evidence, that he was the designer of any other series of cuts, or even of a single cut, or painting, of the same subject, becomes increased tenfold. Mr. Douce, with the gross inconsistency that distinguishes the whole of his arguments on this subject, ascribes the alphabet of the Dance of Peasants to Holbein, and yet cautionsly avoids mentioning him as the designer of the alphabet of the Dance of Death, though the reasons for this conclusion are precisely the same as those on which he rests the former assertion. Nay, so confused and contradictory are his opinions on this point, that in another part of his book he actuaUy describes both alphabets as being the work of the same designer and the same engraver. " Some of the writers on engra-ving," says Mr. Douce, " have mani fested their usual inaccuracy on the subject of Holbein's Dance of Peasants There is, however, no doubt that his beautiful pencU was employed on this subject in various ways, of which the foUowing specimens are worthy of being recorded. In a set of initial letters frequently used in books printed at Basle and elsewhere," &c. After thus having unhesitatingly ascribed the Dance of Peasants to Holbein, Mr. Douce, in a subsequent page, — when gi-ving a list of cuts which he ascribes to Hans Lutzelburger, — writes as follows : " 8. An alphabet with a Dance of Death, the subjects of which, with a few exceptions, are the same as those in the other Dance ; the designs, however, occasionaUv vary," &c. On concluding his description of this alphabet, he thus notices the alphabet of the Dance of Peasants, having apparently forgot that he had previously ascribed the latter to Holbefti. "9. Another alphabet by the same artists. It is a Dance of Peasants, intermixed with other subjects, some of which are not of the most dehcate nature" * It is, however, uncertain ft Mr. Douce really did beUeve Holbein to be the designer of the alphabet of the Dance of Death, though from the preceding extracts it is plainly, though indirectly asserted, that he icas. In his wish to claim the engraving of the Dance of Peasants for Lutzelburger, Mr. Douce does not seem to have been aware that from the words "by the same artists," coupled with his previous assertion, of Holbein being the designer of that alphabet, it foUowed as a direct consequence that he was also the designer of the alphabet of the Dance of Death. Putting this charitable construction ou Idr. Douce's words, it follows that his assertion of Lutzelburger being the engra-^-er of the Dance of Peasants is purely gratuitous. If Mr. Douce really beheved * Douce's Dance of lic;i(li, |ip. .'iO, 100, and 101. WOOD ENGEAVING. 359 that Holbein was the designer of the alphabet of the Dance of Death, he ought in faftness to have expressly declared his opinion ; although such declaration would have caused his arguments, against Holbein being the designer of the cuts in the Lyons Dance of Death, to appear more paradoxical and absurd than they are when unconnected with such an opinion ; for what person, with the slightest pretensions to rationality, could assert that Holbein was the designer of the alphabet of the Dance of Death executed in 1530, the subjects, with few exceptions, the same as those in the Dance of Death published at Lyons in 1538, and yet in dftect opposition to contemporary testimony, and the internal e-vidence of the subjects themselves, deny that he was the designer of the cuts in the latter work, on the sole authority of the nameless writer of a preface which only appeared in the first edition of the book, and which, there seems reason to suspect, was addressed to an imaginary personage ? Was Madame Jehanne de Touszele likely to feel herseft highly complimented by having dedicated to her a work which contains undeniable evidences of the artist's having been no friend to popery ? In one cut a couple of fiends appear to be ridiculing his " Holiness " the pope ; and in another is a young gallant -with a guitar, entertaining a nun in her bed-chamber. If a pious abbess of St. Peter's, Lyons, in 1538, should have considered that such cuts "' tended to edification," she must have been an extremely liberal woman for her age. It is exceedingly amusing, in looking over the cuts of the Lyons Dance of Death, to contrast the droUery and satire of the designer -with the endeavours of the textuary and versifier to give them a devout and spiritual tum. As it is certain from the verses of Bourbon, in praise of Holbein as the painter or designer of a subject, or a series of subjects, representing "Death as ft he were alive," — ut mors vivere videatur, — that this celebrated artist had designed a Dance of Death, Mr. Douce, being unable to deny the evidence thus afforded, paradoxicaUy proceeds to fit those verses to his own theory ; and after quoting them, at page 139, proceeds as foUows: "It has already been demonstrated that these lines could not refer to the old painting of the Macaber Dance at the Dominican convent, whUst from the important dedication to the edition of the wood-cuts first pubhshed at Lyons in 1538, it is next to impossible that that work could then have been in Borbonius's contemplation. It appears from several places in his Nugse that he was in England in 1535, at which time Holbein drew his portrait in such a manner as to excite his gratitude and admiration in another copy of verses . . . . He returned to Lyons in 1536, and it is known that he was there in 1538, when he probably -wrote the complimentary lines in Holbein's BibUcal designs a short time before theft pubhcation, either out of friendship to the painter, or at the instance of the Lyons publisher, with whom he was 360 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF certainly connected. — Now, ft Borbonius, during his residence at Lyons. had been assured that the designs in the wood-cuts of the Dance of Death were the production of Holbein, would not his before-mentioned lines on that subject have been likewise introduced into the Lyons edition of it, or at least into some subsequent editions, in none of which is any mention whatever made of Holbein, although the work was continued even after the death of that artist ? The application, therefore, of Borbonius's lines must be sought for elsewhere ; but it is greatly to be regretted that he has not adverted to the place where the painting,* as he seems to caU it, was made." Mr. Douce next proceeds in his search after the " painting," and he is not long in finding what he wishes for. According to his statement, " very soon after the calamitous fire at Whitehall, 1697, which consumed nearly the whole of that palace, a person, calUng himself T. Nieuhoff Piccard, probably belonging to the household of WUUam III, and a man who appears to have been an amateur artist," made etchings after nineteen of the cuts in the Lyons Dance of Death. Impressions of those etchings, accompanied with manuscript dedications, appear to have been presented by this T. Nieuhoff Piccard to his friends or patrons, and among others to a Mynheer Heymans, and to " the high, noble, and weU- born Lord WUUam Benting, Lord of Ehoon, Pendraght," &c. The address to Mynheer Heymans contains the foUowing important piece of information respecting a work of Holbein's, which appears most singularly to have escaped the notice of every other -writer, whether English or foreign. " Sir, — The costly palace of WhitehaU, erected hy Cardinal Wolsey, and the residence of King Henry VIII, contains, among other performances of art, a Dance of Death, painted by Holbein, in its gaUeries, which, through an unfortunate conflagration, has been reduced to ashes."+ In the dedication to the " high, noble, and weU-born Lord WiUiam Benting," the information respecting this curious work of art, — all memory of which would have perished had it not been for the said T. Nieuhoff Piccard, — is rather more precise. " Sft, [not My Lord,] — In the course of my constant love and pursuit of works of art, it has been my good fortune to meet with that scarce Uttle work of Hans Holbein, neatly engraved on wood, and which he himself had painted as large as life, in fresco, on the waUs of WhitehaU." Who Mynheer Heymans was wiU probably never be discovered, but he seems to have been a person of some consequence in his day, though unfortunately never mentioned in any history or memoirs of the period, for it appears that the court thought proper, in consideration of his singular deserts, to * Mr. Douce here seems to lay some weight on the word picta, which, as has been previously observed, was applied equally to -wood engravings and paintings. t Douce, Dance of Death, p. 141. WOOD ENGEAVING. 361 cause a dwelling to be built for him at WhitehaU. My Lord WUUam Benting,* — ^though from his name and titles he might be mistaken for a member of the Bentinck family, — appears to have been actually born in the palace. It is, however, very unfortunate that his name does not occur in the peerage of that time ; and as neither Ehoon nor Pendraght are to be ound in Flanders or Holland, it is not unUkely that these may be the names of two of his lordship's castles in Spain. T. Nieuhoff Piccard's express testimony of Holbein having painted a Dance of Death in fresco, at WhitehaU, is, in Mr. Douce's opinion, further corroborated by the foUowing circumstances : 1. "In one of Vanderdort's manuscript catalogues of the pictures and rarities trans ported from St. James's to Whitehall, and placed there in the newly erected cabinet room of Charles I, and in which several works by Holbein are mentioned, there is the following article : ' A little piece, where Death with a green garland about his head, stretching both his arms to appre hend a Pilate in the habit of one of the spiritual Prince-Electors of Germany. Copied by Isaac Oliver from Holbein.' There cannot be a doubt that this refers to the subject of the Elector as painted by Holbein in the Dance of Death at WhitehaU, proving at the same time the identity of the painting with the wood-cuts, whatever may be the inference. 2. Sandrart, after noticing a remarkable portrait of Henry VIII. at WhitehaU, states ' that there yet remains at that palace another work, by Holbein, that constitutes him the Apelles of his time.' This is certainly very like an allusion to a Dance of Death. 3. It is by no means improbable that Matthew Prior may have alluded to Holbein's painting at Whitehall, as it is not likely that he would be acquainted with any other. ' Our term of life depends not on our deed, Before our birth our funeral was decreed ; Nor aw'd by foresight, nor misled by chance, Imperious Death directs the ebon lanee. Peoples great Henry's tombs, and leads up Holbein's Dance.' Prim; Ode to the Memory of George Villiers." t Mr. Douce having previously proved that Holbein was not the designer of the cuts in the Lyons Dance of Death, thus, in a manner equally * " The identification of WiUiam Benting," says Mr. Douce with exquisite bon-hommie, " must be left to the sagacity of others. He could not have been the Earl of Portland created in 1689, or he would have been addressed accordingly. He is, moreover, described as a youth bom at WhitehaU, and then residing there, and whose dweUing consisted of nearly the whole of the palace that remained after the fire." — Dance of Death, p. 244. It appears that these addresses of Piccard were -written in a foreign language, though, whether Dutch, French, German, or Latin, Mr. Douce most unaccountably neglects to say : he merely mentions that his extracts are translated. t Douce's Dance of Death, pp. 144, 145. 362 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF satisfactory, accounts for the verses of Bourbon, by showing, on the unexceptionable evidence of "a person, calling himseft T. Nieuhoff Piccard, probably belonging to the household of William III," that the great work of Holbein — ^by the fame of which he had made himself equal with the immortal gods — was painted as large as Ufe, in fresco, on the walls of Whitehall. The ingenuity displayed in depriving Holbein of the honour of the Lyons cuts is no less exemplified in proving him to be the painter of a similar subject in WhitehaU. The key-stone is worthy of the arch. Though the facts and arguments put forth by Mr. Douce, in proof of Holbein having painted a Dance of Death on the walls of the old palace of Whitehall, and of this having been the identical Dance of Death alluded to by Bourbon, might be summarily dismissed as being of that kind which no objection could render more absurd, yet it seems necessary to direct the especial attention of the reader to one or two points ; and first to the assertion that " it is next to impossible that the Lyons Dance of Death of 1538 could then have been in Borbonius's con templation." Now, in direct opposition to what is here said, it appears to me highly probable that this was the very work on account of which he addressed his epigram to Holbein ; and it is moreover e-vident that Bourbon expresses in Latin verse almost precisely the same ideas as those which had previously been expressed in French by the -writer of the address to Madame Jehanne de Touszele, when speaking of the merits of the nameless artist who is there aUuded to as the designer or engra-^'er of the cuts. * As Holbein is not certainly known to be the painter or designer of any other Dance of Death which might merit the high praise conveyed in Bourbon's verses, to what other work of his wUl they apply ? Even supposing, as I do, that the alphabet of the Dance of Death was designed by Holbein, I conceive it " next to impossible," to use the words of Mr. Douce, that Bourbon should have described Holbein as ha-ving attained immortality through the fame of those twenty-four smaU letters, a perfect set of which I believe is not to be found in any single volume. * That the reader may judge for himself of the simUarity of thought in the passages referred to, they are here given in juxta-position. "Car ses histohes funebres, avec leurs descriptions severement rithm6es, aux advisans donnent teUe admiration, qu'Uz en jugent les mortz y apparoistre tresrivanait, et les -vifs tresmortement representor. Qui me faict penser, que la Jlort a-aignant que ce exceUent painctre ne la paignist tant vifve qu'elle ne fiit plus crainte pour Mort, et que pour celd luy mc.ime n'en demnt immortel, que a ceste cause," &c. — Epistre des Faces de la ^forl. " Dum mortis Hansus pictor imaginem exprimit, Tanta arte mortem retulit, ut mors vi\ore Videatur ipsa : et ipse se immortalibus Parem Diis fecerit, operis hujus gloria." Borbonius. WOOD ENGEAVING. 363 That Bourbon did know who was the designer of the cuts of the Lyons Dance of Death there can scarcely be the shadow of a doubt ; he was at Lyons in the year in which the work was published ; he was connected with the printers ; and another work, the Icones Historiarum Veteris Testamenti, also pubhshed by them in 1538, has at the commencement a copy of verses written by Bourbon, from which alone we learn that Holbein was the designer of the cuts, — the first four of which cuts, be it observed, being from the same blocks as the first four in the Dance of Death, published by the same printers, in the same year. What might be the motives of the printers for not inserting Bourbon's epigram in praise of Holbein in the subsequent editions of the Dance of Death, supposing him to be the designer of the cuts, I cannot tell, nor will I venture to guess. They certainly must have had some reason for concealing the designer's name, for the writer of the prefatory address to Madame Jehanne de Touszele takes care not to mention it even when speaking in so laudatory a style of the excellence of the designs Among the other unaccountable things connected with this work, I may mention the fact of the French prefatory address to the abbess of St. Peter's appearing only in the first, and being omitted in every subsequent edition. With respect to T. Nieuhoff Piccard, whose manuscript addresses to " Mynheer Heymans" and " Lord WiUiam Benting" are cited to prove that Boiu-bon's verses must relate to a painting of the Dance of Death by Holbein in the old palace of "Whitehall, nothing whatever is known ; and there is not the slightest reason to believe that a Lord WiUiam Benting, born in the old palace of WhitehaU, " Lord of Ehoon, Pendraght," &c. ever existed. I am of opinion that the addresses of the person caUing himself T. Nieuhoff Piccard are a clumsy attempt at imposition.* Though Mr. Douce had seen both those addresses, and also another of the same kind, he does not appear to have made any attempt to trace theft former owners, nor does he mention the names of the parties in whose possession they were at the time that he saw them. He had seen the address to " Lord William Benting" previous to the publication of his ¦* Hegner, in his Life of Holbein, speaking of the Nieuhoff' discovery, says : " Of this fable no notice would have been taken here had not Mr. Douce ascribed undeserved authority to it, and had not his superficial investigations found undeserved credit with English and other compUers." Hans Holbein der Jiingere, S. 338. Mr. Douce, at page 240 of his Dance of Death, complains of Hegner's want of urbanity and politeness ; and in return calls his accoimt of Holbein's works superficial, and moreover says that " his arguments, if worthy of the name, are, generally speaking, of a most weak and flimsy texture." He also gives him a sharp rebuff by aUuding to him as the " above gentleman," the last word, to give it point, being printed in ItaUcs. Mr. Douce, when he was thus pelting Hegner, does not seem to have been aware that his own anti- Holbenian superstructure was a house of glass. "Cedimus, inque vicem dedimus crura sagittis." 364 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF observations on the Dance of Death in 1794, when, if he had felt inchned, he might have ascertained from whom the then possessor had received it, and thus obtained a clue to guide him in his inquiries respecting the personal identity of the Loid of Ehoon and Pendraght. But this would not have suited his purpose ; for he seems to have been conscious that any inquiry respecting such a person would only have tended to confirm the doubts respecting the paper addressed to him by Piccard. It is also uncertain at what time those pretended addresses were written, but there are impressions of the etchings which accom panied them with the date 1720 ; and I am inchned to think that ft the paper and handwriting were closely examined, it would be found that those pretended presentation addresses were manufactured about the same, or perhaps at a later period. Whoever the person caUing himself T. Nieuhoff Piccard may have been, or at whatever time the addresses to Mynheer Heymans and others may have been written, the only e-vidence of there having been a painting of the Dance by Holbein at WhitehaU rests on his unsupported statement. Such a painting is not mentioned by any foreign traveller who had visited this country, nor is it noticed by any Enghsh -wi'iter prior to 1697 ; it is not alluded to in any tragedy, comedy, farce, or masque, in which we might expect that such a painting would have been incidentally mentioned had it ever existed- Evelyn, who must have frequently been in the old palace of Whitehall, says not a word of such a painting, though he mentions the Lyons Dance of Death under the title of Mortis Imago, and ascribes the cuts to Holbein;* and not the shghtest notice of it is to be found in Vertue or Walpole. The learned Conrad Gesner, who was born at Zurich in 1516, and died there in 1565, expressly ascribes the Lyons Dance of Death to Holbefti;t and, notwithstanding the contradictory statement in the preface to the * Evelyn is only referred to here on account of his silence with respect to the pretended painting at WhitehaU. What he says of Holbein cannot be reUed on, as wUl be seen from the foUowing passage, which is a fair specimen of his general knowledge and accuracy. " Wc have seen some few things cut in wood by the incomparable Hans Holbem the Dane, but they are rare and exceedingly difficult to come by ; as his LicerUiousneas of the Friars and Nums ; Erasmus ; The Dance Maochabre ; the Mortis Imago, which he painted in great in the Church of BasU, and afterwards graved with no less ai-t." — Evelyn's Sculptura, p. 69. Edition 1769. t " Imagines Mortis expressse ab optimo pictore Johanne Holbein cum epigrammatibus Georgii jEmylii, excussa Francofurti et Lugduni apud FreUonios, quorum editio plures habet picturas. Vidi etiam cum metris Galliois et Germanicis, si bene memini." Mr. Douce cites this passage from Gesner's Pandectaj, " a supplemental volume of gi'eat rarity to his weU- . known Bibliotheca." The correct title of the volume in which it occurs is " Partitiones TheologiciB, Pandectarum Universalium Gonradi Gesneri Liber Ultimus." Foho, printed by Christopher Froschuver, Zuricli (Tiguri) l."ilfl. The notice of the Dance of Drr.th is in folio 86, «.. WOOD ENGEAVING. 365 first edition of this work, such appears to have been the general behef of all the artist's contemporaries. Van Mander, who was born in 1548, and who died in 1606, appears to have been the first person who gave any account of the life of Holbein. His work, entitled Het Schilder Boek, consisting of biographical notices of painters, chiefly Germans and Flemings, was first published in 1604 ; and, when speaking of Holbein. he mentions the Lyons Dance of Death among his other works. Sandrart. in common with every other writer on art of the period, also ascribes the Lyons work to Holbein, and he gives the following account of a conver sation that he had with Eubens respecting those cuts : " I remember that in the year 1627, when the celebrated Eubens was proceeding to Utrecht to visit Honthorst, I accompanied him as far as Amsterdam ; and during our passage in the boat I looked into Holbein's little book of the Dance of Death, the cuts of which Eubens highly praised, recom mending me, as I was a young man, to copy them, observing, that he had copied them himself in his youth." Sandrart, who seems to have been one of the earliest writers who supposed that Durer, Cranach, and others engraved their own designs, without any just grounds describes Holbein as a wood engraver. Patin, in his edition of the " Stultitise Laus " of Erasmus, 1676, repeats the same story ; and PapUlon in his decisive manner clenches it by asserting that " most of the delicate wood-cuts and omamental letters which are to be found in books printed at Basle, Zurich, and towns in Switzerland, at Lyons, London, &c. from 1520 to about 1540, were engraved by Holbein himseft." Papillon also says that it is believed — on croit — that Holbein began to engrave in 1511, when he was about sixteen. "What is extraordinary in this painter," he further adds, "is, that he painted and engraved with the left hand, so that he consequently engraved the lines on the wood from right to left, instead of, as with us, engra-ving from left to right."* Jansen, and a host of other compilers, without inquiry, repeat the story of Holbein having been a wood engraver, and that the cuts of the Lyons Dance of Death were engraved by himseft'. That he was the designer of those cuts I am thoroughly convinced, though I consider it " next to impossible " that he should have been also the engraver. Holbein's Bible Cuts, as they are usually called, were first published at Lyons, in 1538, the same year, and by the same printers, as the Dance of Death. The book is a smaU quarto, and the title is as follows : " Historiarum Veteris Testamenti Icones ad vivum expressse. Una cum brevi, sed quoad fieri potuit, dilucida earundem et Latina et GaUica • Traite de la Gravure en Bois, tom. i. p. 165. Van Mander asserts that Holbein painted with, his left hand ; but Horace Walpole, however, in opposition to this, refers to a portrait of Holbein, formeriy in the ArundeUan coUection, where he appears holding the pencil in his right hand. 366 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF expositione. Lugduni sub scuto Coloniensi. m.d.xxxviii."* On the title-page is an emblematic cut, with the motto Usus me genuit, simUar to that on the title-page in the first edition of the Dance of Death, but not precisely the same ; and at the end is the imprint of the brothers Melchior and Gaspar Trechsel within an omamental border, as in the latter work. I am greatly inclined to think that the brothers were only the printers of the first editions of the Dance of Death and the Bible cuts, and that the real proprietors were John and Francis FreUon, whose names appear as the publishers in subsequent editions. This opinion seems to be corroborated by the fact of there being an address from " Franciscus Frellaeus " to the Christian Eeader in the Bible cuts of 1538 and 1539, which in subsequent editions is altered to " Franciscus Frellonius!' That the same person is designated by those names, I think there can be httle doubt, as the addresses are UteraUy the same. From adopting the form " Frellaeus," however, in the editions of 1538 and 1539, it would seem that the writer was not wish ful to discover his name. When the work becomes popular he writes it Frellonius ; and in the second edition of the Dance of Death, when the character of this work is also established, and there seems no longer reason to apprehend the censures of the church of Eome, we find the names of John and Francis FreUon on the title-page under the " shield of Cologne." Whatever might be theft motives, it seems certain that the first pubhshers of the Dance of Death were wishful to -withhold their names ; and it is likely that the designer of the cuts might have equally good reasons for concealment. Had the Eoman Cathohc party considered the cuts of the Pope, the Nun, and two or three others as the covert satfte of a reformed painter, the publishers and the designer would have been as likely to incur danger as to reap profit or fame. The address of Franciscus FreUaeus is foUowed by a copy of Latin verses by Nicholas Bourbon, in which Holbein is mentioned as the designer ; and immediately preceding the cuts is an address " aux lecteurs," in French verse, by GUles Corrozet, who, perhaps, might be the poet that supphed the French expositions of those cuts, and the " descriptions severement rithmees " of the Dance of Death. The following is an extract from Bourbon's prefatory verses, the whole of which it appears unnecessary to give, * A copy of this edition ia preserved in the Public Library at Basle, .and there is another copy in the Royal CoUection at Dresden. Another edition, in every respect shnUiu- to the first, was also printed by the brothers Trechsel in 1539. Hegner, in his life of Holbein, does not seem to have known of this edition ; spealiing of that of 1538, he says, " It is I)robably the same as that to wliich PapiUon gives the date 1539." There is a copy of the edition of 15:i!t in the British Museum. WOOD ENGEAVING. 367 " Nuper in Elysio cum fortd erraret ApeUes Una aderat Zeuxis, Parrhasiusque comes. Hi duo multa satis fundebant verba ; sed Ule Interea mcerens et taciturnus erat. Mirantur comites, farique hortantur et urgent : Suspirans imo peotore, Ootis ait : 0 famse ignari, superis quse nuper ab oris (Vana utinam !) Stygias venit ad usque domes : SciUcet, esse hodie quendam ex mortalibus unum Ostendat qui me vosque fuisse nihU : Qui nos declaret pictores nomine tantum, Picturseque omneis ante fuisse rudes. Holbius est homini nomen, qui nomina nostra Obscura ex claris ac prope nuUa facit. Talis apud manes querimonia fertur : et Ulos Sic equidem merito oenseo posse queri, Nam tabulam siquis videat, quam pinxerit Hansus Holbius, ille artis gloria prima suae, Protinus exclamet, Potuit Deus edere monstrum Quod video ? humanse non potuere manus. Icones h» sacrse tanti sunt, optime lector, Artificis, dignum quod venereris opus." Besides those verses there is also a Greek distich by Bourbon, to which the foUowing translation " pene ad verbum " is appended : " Cemere vis, hospes, simulacra similUma -vivis t Hoc opus Holbinse nobUe ceme manus." When Mr Douce stated that it was " extremely probable that the anony mous painter or designer of the Dance might have been employed also by the Frellons to execute a set of subjects for the Bible pre-viously to his death, and that Holbein was afterwards employed to complete the work," he seems to have forgot that such a testimony of Holbein being the designer was prefixed to the Bible cuts. In answer to Mr. Douce it may be asked, in his own style, ft the Frellons knew that another artist was the designer of the cuts of the Dance of Death, and ft he also had been originally employed to design the Bible cuts, how does it happen that they should allow Bourbon to give aU the honour of the latter to Holbein, who, ft the Dance of Death be not his, was certainly much inferior as a designer to the nameless artist whose unfmished work he was employed to complete ? The total number of the Bible cuts in the first edition of the work is ninety, the first four of which are the same as the first four of the Dance of Death ; the other eighty-six are of a different form to the first four, as -wUl be perceived from the specimens, which are of the same size as the originals. Those eighty-six cuts are generally much inferior in design to those of the Dance of Death, and the style in which they are engraved is very unequal, some of them being executed with considerable ;168 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF neatness and dehcacy, and others in a much coarser manner. The foUowing cut, Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, Genesis xxii, is one of those which are the best engraved ; but even these, so far as regards the expression of the features and the delicate markftig of the hands, are generally much inferior to the cuts of the Dance of Death. Though most of the Bible cuts are inferior both in design and execution to those of the Dance of Death, and though several of them are rudely drawn and badly engraved, yet many of them afford points of such perfect identity with those of the Dance of Death, that it seems impossible to come to any other conclusion than that either the cuts of both works have been designed by the same person, or that the designer of the one series has servUely copied from the designer of the other, and, what is most singular, in many trifling detaUs which seem the least likely to be imitated, and which usually constitute indi-vidual pecuUarities of style. For instance, the smaU shrubby tree in the preceding cut is pre cisely of the same species as that seen in the cut of the Old Woman in the Dance of Death ; and the angel about to stay Abraham's hand bears a strong general resemblance to the angel in Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise. The cut on the opposite page — the Fool, Psalm uii — is copied from one of those executed in a coarser style than the preceding. The chUdren in this cut are evidently of the same famUy as those of the Dance of Death. In the first cut, the Creation, a crack is perceived running nearly down the middle from top to bottom, in the edition of the Dance of Death of 1545. It is also perceptible in nil the subsequent Lyons editions of this work and of the Bible cuts. It is, however, less obvious in the Bible cuts of the edition 1549 than in some of the preceding, WOOD ENGEAVING. 369 probably in consequence of the block having been cramped to remedy the defect. Mr. Douce speaks, at page 105, as if the crack were not discernible in the Bible cuts of 1549 ; it is, however, quite perceptible in every copy that has come under my notice. Some of the latter editions of this work contain four additional cuts, which are all coarsely executed. In the edition of 1547 they form the Ulustrations to Ezekiel xl ; Ezekiel XLm ; Jonah i, ii, and iii ; and Habakkuk. The Bible cuts were also printed with explanations in English. The title of a copy now before me is as foUows: "The Images of the Old Testament, lately expressed, set forthe in YngUshe and Frenche vuith a playn and brief exposition. Printed at Lyons by Johan Frellon, the yere of our Lord God, 1549," 4to. In the latter editions there are wood-cuts of the four EvangeUsts, each within an oval border, on the last leaf They bear no tokens of Holbein's style. Among the many instances of resemblance which are to be perceived on comparing the Dance of Death with the Bible cuts, the following may be enumerated as the most remarkable. The peculiar manner in which fire with smoke, and the waves of the sea, are represented in the Dance of Death can scarcely faU to strike the most heedless observer ; for, instance, the fire in the cut of Death seizing the ohUd, and the waves in the cut of the Seaman. In the Bible cuts we perceive the same pecu- harity ; there is the same kind of fire in Moses directing the manner of burnt offerings, Leviticus i ; in the burning of Nadab and Abihu, Le-viticus X ; and in every other one of those cuts where fire is seen. In the destruction of Pharaoh and his host. Exodus xiv, are the same kind of ending waves. Except in the Dance of Death and the Bible cuts, 1 B E 370 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF have never seen an instance of fire or water represented in such a manner. If those cuts were designed by two different artists, it is certainly sin gular that in this respect they should display so perfect a coincidence of idea. The sheep in the cut of the Bishop in the Dance of Death are the same as those in the Bible cut of Moses seeing God in the burning bush. Exodus III ; and the female figure in the cut of the Elector in the former work is perceived in the Bible cut of the captive Midianites, Numbers XXXI. The children introduced in both works are almost perfectly identical, as will be perceived on comparing the cut of Little ChUdren mocking EUjah, chapter ii. Kings II, with those of the Elector, and Death seizing the chUd, in the Dance of DeatL The face of the Duchess in the latter work is the same as that of Esther in the Bible cut, Esther, chapter ii ; and in this cut ornaments on the tapestry, Uke fleurs-de-lis, behind the throne of Ahasuerus, are the same as those on the tapestry behind the King in the Dance of Death. The latter coincidence has been noticed by Mr. Douce, who, in direct opposition to the evidence of the German or Swiss costume of the li-ving characters of the Dance of Death, considers it as contributing to demonstrate that both the series of those cuts are of GaUic origin.* It is needless to enumerate more instances of almost complete identity of figures and detaUs in the cuts of the Dance of Death and those of the Bible iUusteations ; they are too frequent to have originated from a conventional mode of representing certain objects and persons ; and they are most striking in minor detaUs, where one artist would be least likely to imitate another, but where the same individual designer would be most Ukely to repeat himseft. " As to the designs of these truly elegant prints," says ^Mr. Douce, speaking of the cuts of the Dance of Death, " no one who is at aU skUled in the knowledge of Holbein's style and manner of grouping his figures would hesitate imiaediately to ascribe them to that artist." t As this opinion is corroborated by a comparison of the Dance of Death with the Bible cuts, and as the internal e-vidence of the cuts of the * " A comparison of the 8th subject of the Simulachres," says Mr. Douce, " -with that of the Bible for Esther i, ii, where the canopy ornamented -with fleurs-de-hs is the same in both, wUl contribute to strengthen the above conjecture, as wiU both the cuts to demonstrate then GaUic origui. It is most certain that the King sitting at table in the Simulachres is intended for Francis I, which if any one should doubt, let him look upon the mtniiiture of that king, copied at p. 214, hi Clarke's 'Repertorium Bibhographicum.' " The "above conjecture" referred to in this extract is that previously cited at page 367, where Mr. Douce conjectures that Holbein might have been employed to complete the Bible cuts wliich might have been left unfinished in consequence of the death of Mr. Douce's "great unknown" designer of the Dance of Death. — Dance of Death, p. 96. Mr. Douce, not being able to deny the similarity of many of the cuts, says it is highly probable that Holbein -was merely employed to finish the Bible cuts, witliout c\cr considering that it is primd facie much more probable that Holbein was the designer of the cuts in both works. t Dance of Death, p, 82. WOOD ENGEAVING. 371 Dance of Death in favour of Holbein is confirmed by the testimonv of his contemporaries, the reader can decide for himseft how far Holbein's positive claims to the honour of this work ought to be affected by the passage in the -anonymous address to Madame Jehanne de Touszele, which forms the groundwork of Mr. Douce's theory. Ha-ving now examined the principal arguments which have been aUeged to show that Holbein was not the designer of the Dance of Death, and having endeavoured to justify his claims to that honour by producing the evidences on which they rest, I shall now take leave of this subject, feeling thoroughly assured that Holbein was the designee OF the CUTS OF THE FIEST EDITION OF THE LYONS DANCE OF DEATH ; and trusting, though with no overweening confidence, that the preceding investigation wUl render it necessary for the next questioner of his title to produce stronger objections than the solitary ambiguous passage in the preface to the first edition of the work, and to support them with more forcible and consistent arguments than have been put forth by Mr. Douce. M. T. Nieuhoff Piccard, I am inclined to think, wUl never again be caUed as a witness in this cause ; and before the passage in the preface can be aUowed to have any weight, it must be sho-wn that such a personage as Madame Jehanne de Touszele was prioress of the convent of St. Peter at Lyons at the time of the fftst pubUcation of the work : and even should such a fact be estabhshed, the ambiguity of the passage — whether the pretendedly deceased artist were the engraver or designer, or both, — and the obvious desfte to conceal his name, remain to be explained. In 1538, the year in which the Dance of Death and the Bible cuts were first published at Lyons, Holbein was residing in England under the patronage of Henry VIII ; though it is also certain that about the beginning of September in that year he returned to Basle and he remained there a few weeks.* As the productions of this distinguished painter occupy so large a portion of this chapter, it perhaps may not be unnecessary to give here a few particulars of his life, chiefly derived from Hegner's work, previous to his coming to England. Hans Holbein, the Younger, as he is often called by German -writers to distinguish him from his father, was the son of Hans Holbein, a painter of considerable reputation. The year and place of his birth have not been positively ascertained, but there seems reason to believe that he was bom in 1498, at Augsburg, ¦* " Venit nuper Basileam ex Angha loannes Holbein, adeo felicem ejus regni statum praedicans, qui aliquot septimanis exactis rursum eo migraturus est." From a letter written by Rudolph Gnalter to Henry BulUnger, of Zurich, about the middle of September 1538.— Quoted by Hegner, S. 246. t Dr. Dibdin, in his Bibliographical Tour vol. hi. pp. 80, 81, Edit. 1829, mentions two paintings at Augsburg by the elder Holbein, one dated 1499 and the other 1601. The elder bb2 372 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF of which city his father was a burgher, and from whence he appears to have removed with his family to Basle, about the end of the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century. Young Holbein was brought up to his father's profession, and at an early age dis played the germ of his future excellence. There is a portrait in oU by young Holbein of the date of 1513, which, according to Hegner, though rather weak in colour and somewhat hard in outline, is yet clearly and delicately painted. From the exceUence of his early productions, Patin, in his Life of Holbein, prefixed to an edition of the Laus Stultitiee of Erasmus ¦•' thinks that he must have been born in 1495. That he was bom in 1498 there can, however, be little doubt, for Hegner mentions a portrait of him, at Basle, when in the forty-fifth year of his age, with the date 1543. Several anecdotes are told of Holbein as a joUy fellow, and of his t-wice or thrice discharging his account at a tavern by painting a Dance of Peasants. Though there seems reason to beheve that Holbein was a free Uver, and that he did paint such a subject in a house at Basle, the stories of his thus setthng for his liquor are highly improbable. He appears to have married young, for in a painting of his wife and two chftdren, executed before he left Basle for England in 1526, the eldest chftd, a boy, appears to be between four and five years old.t The name of Holbein's wfte is unknown ; but it is said that, Uke Durer's, she was of an unhappy temper, and that he enjoyed no peace with her. It is not, however, unlikely that his own unsettled disposi tion and straitened circumstances also contributed to render his home uncomfortable. Like most other artists of that period, he appeal's to have frequently traveUed ; but his journeys do not seem to have extended beyond Switzerland and Suabia, and they were for the most part confined to the former country. He seems to have traveUed rather in search of employment than to improve himself by studying the works Holbein had a brother named Sigismund, who was also a painter, .and who appears to have estabUshed himself at Berne. PapiUon, in his usual manner, makes Sigismund Holbein a wood engraver. By his wiU, dated 1540, he appoints his nephew Hans the heir of aU his property in Berne. * Patin's edition of this work was pubUshed in octavo, at Basle, in 1676. It contains eighty-three copper-plate engravings, from pen-and-ink sketches, drawn by Holbein, in the margin of a copy of an edition printed by Frobenius, in 1514, and stUl preserved (I860) in the Public Library at Basle. It is said that Erasmus, when looking over those sketches, exclaimed, when he came to that intended for himself, " Oho, if Ei-asmus were now as he appears here, he would certainly take a wife." Above another of the sketches, representing a man with one of his arms about a woman's neck, and at the same time di-inking out of a bottle, Erasmus is said to have -written the name " JJollitiu." In an edition of the Laus Stultitia, edited by Q. Q. Booker, Basle, 1780, Svo. those sketches are engraved (very indifferently) on wood. t Hegner, Hans Holbein der Jiingere, S. 110. tVOOD ENGEAVING. 873 of other masters. Perhaps of all the eminent painters of that period there is no one whose style is more original than Holbein's, nor one who owes less to the study of the works of his contemporaries or predecessors Though there can be no doubt of his talents being highly appreciated by his fellow-townsmen, yet his profession during his residence at Basle appears to have afforded him but a scanty income. The number of works executed by him between 1517 and 1526 sufficiently testify that he was not deficient in industry, and the exercise of his art seems to have been sufficiently varied : — he painted portraits and historical subjects ; decorated the interior walls of houses, according to the fashion of that period, with fanciful and historical compositions ; and made designs for goldsmiths, and wood-engravers. It is said that so early as 1520, the Earl of Arundel,'"' an English nobleman, having seen some of his works in passing through Basle, ad-vised him to try his fortune in England. If such advice were given to Holbein at that period, it is certain that it was not adopted until several years after, for he did not visit this country tUl 1526. Before he left Basle he had painted two or three portraits of Erasmus, and there is a large wood-cut of that distinguished scholar which is said not only to have been painted, but also engraved by Holbein. This cut is of folio size, and the figure of Erasmus is a whole length.. His right arm rests upon a terminus, and from a richly ornamented arch is suspended a tablet, with the inscription, Ee. Eot, Some old impressions have two verses printed underneath, which merely praise the likeness without alluding to the painter, while others have four which contain a compliment to the genius of Erasmus and to the art of Holbein.f The original block is stiU preserved in the Public Library at Basle ; but there is not the shghtest reason for believing that it was engraved by Holbein. In 1526 Holbein left Basle for England: Patin says, because he could no longer bear to live with his imperious wife. Though this might not be the chief cause, it is easy to conceive that a person of Holbein's character would feel but little regret at parting from such a helpmate. Van Mander says that he took with him a portrait which he had painted of Erasmus, with a letter of recommendation from the latter to Sir Thomas More, wherein it was observed that this portrait ' was * It is conjectured by Walpole that this might be Henry Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel. t The verses underneath the impressions which are supposed to be the earliest, are as foUows ; " Corporis effigiem si quis non -vidit Erasmi, Huno scite ad vi-vum picta tabeUa dabit." 5he others I ' PaUas Apelteam nuper mirata tabellam, Hano, ait, aeternum Bibliotheca colat Dsedaleam monstrat musis Holbeimuus artem, Et summi ingenii Magnus Erasmus opes." 374 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF THE SHEATH OE A DAGOER, INTENDED AS A DESIGN I'OR A CHASER.-* much more like him than any of Albert Durer's.' Hegner, however, thinks that what Van Mander says about the contents of this letter is not * It is impossible to exceed the beauty and skill that are manifested m this fine piece of art. Tho figures are, a king, queen, and a warrior ; a young woman, a monk, and an infant ; all of whom most unwiUingly accompany Death in the Dance. The despair of the king, the objection of tho queen, accompanied by her little dog, the terror of the soldier who hears the WOOD ENGEAVING. 375 correct, as no such passage is to be found in the pubUshed correspondence of Erasmus with Sir Thomas More. Erasmus had already sent two portraits of himself to England ;* and as Sir Thomas More was personally acquainted -with him, Hegner is of opinion that it would be unnecessary to mention that the portrait was a better hkeness than any of those painted by Albert Durer. It is, however, by no means unhkely that Erasmus in speaking of a portrait of himseft by Holbein — whether forwarded by the latter or not — might give his own opinion of it in comparison with one from the pencil of Durer. It woiUd appear that in 1525 Erasmus had already mentioned Holbein's desire of trying his fortune in England to Sir Thomas More, for i'n a letter written by Sir Thomas to Erasmus, dated from the court at Greenwich, 18th of December 1525, there is a passage to the following effect : " Your painter, dear Erasmus, is an exceUent artist, but I am apprehensive that he wiU not find England so, fruitful and fertUe as he may expect. I -wUl, however, do aU that I can in order that he may not find it entirely barren." t From a letter, dated 29th of August 1526, written by Erasmus to his friend Petrus Aegidius at Antwerp, it seems reasonable to conclude that Holbein left Basle for England about the beginning of September. Though Holbein's name is not expressly mentioned in this letter, there cannot be a doubt of his being the artist who is thus intioduced to Aegidius : " The bearer of this is he who painted my portrait. I wiU not annoy you with his praises, although he is indeed an exceUent artist. Should he wish to see Quintin, and you not have leisure to go with him, you can let a servant show him the house. The arts perish here ; he proceeds to England to gain a few angels ; ft you -wish to write [to England] you can send your letters by him."i In this extract we discover a trait of the usual prudence of Erasmus, who, in introducing his humbler friends to persons of power or influence, seems to have been particularly careful not to give annoyance drum of Death, the struggling of the female, the reluctance of the monk, and the sorrow of the poor infant, are depicted -with equal spirit and veracity. The original drawing is in the public Ubrary at Basle, and ascribed 'to Holbein. " Erasmus, -writing to BUibald Pirkheimer, in 1524, says, " Rursus nuper misi in Angliam Erasmum bis pictum ab artifice satis eleganti." Hegner thinks that this artist was Holbein. In 1517 a portrait of Erasmus, with that of his friend Petrus Aegidius, was painted at Antwerp by Quintin JVIatsys. It was intended by Erasmus as a present to Sir Thomas More. This painting came subsequently into the possession of Dr. Mead, at whose sale it was purchased, as the production of Holbem, by Lord Radnor, for £110. t " Pictor tuns, Erasme carissime, mirus est artifex, sed vereor ne non sensums sit Angliam tarn foecundam ac fertilem quam sperarat. Quanquam ne reperiat omnino sterUem, quoad per me fieri potest, efficiam. Ex aula Grenwici. IB Deo. 1525." X " Qui has reddit, est is qui me pinxit. Ejus commendatione te non gravabo, quanquam est insignis artifex. ' Si cupiet visere Quintinum, nee tibi vacabit hominem adducere, poteris per famulum commonstrare domum. Hie fiigent artes : petit Angliam ut corradat aliquot angelatos ; per-eum poteris quK voles scribere."— Erasmi Epist. 376 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF from the warmth of his recommendations. How gently, yet significantly, does he hint to Aegidius that the poor painter who brings the letter is a person about whom he need give himself no trouble : ft he has not leisure to introduce him personaUy to Quintin — that is, Quintin Matsys — he can send a servant to show him his house. The suggestion of the servant was a hint from Erasmus that he did not expect the master to go with Holbein himseft. Holbein on his arrival in England appears to have been weU received by Sir Thomas More ; and it is certain that he resided for some time with the learned and witty chanceUor in his house at Chelsea. It is indeed said that he continued -with him for three years, but Walpole thinks that this is very unlikely. 'Whether he may have resided during the whole of the intermediate time with Sir Thomas More or not, there seems reason to believe that Holbein entered the service of Henry VIII. in 1528. About the autumn of 1529,* he paid a short visit to Basle, probably to see his family, which he had left in but indifferent cftcumstances, and to obtain permission from the magistracy for a further extension of his leave of absence, for no burgher of the city of Basle was aUowed to enter into the service of a foreign prince without their sanction. Patin, in his Life of Holbein, says that during his visit he spent most of his time -with his old tavern companions, and that he treated the more respectable burghers, who wished to cultivate his friendship, -with great disrespect. Hegner, however, considers all those accounts which represent Holbein as a man of intemperate habits and dissolute character, as unworthy of credit ; in his opinion it seems impossible that he who was a favourite of Henry VIII, and so long an inmate of Sir Thomas More's house, should have been a dissolute person. M. Hegner throughout his work shows a praiseworthy regard for Holbein's moral character, but his presumption in this instance is not sufficient to counterbalance the unfavourable reports in the opposite scale. About the latter end of 1532, or the beginning of 1533, Holbein again visited Basle ; and his return appears to have been chiefly * Erasmus, in a letter to Sir Thomas More, written from Freybm'g in Brisgau, 5th September, 1529, aUudes to a picture of More and his family which had been brought over by Holbein ; and Margaret Roper, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More, writing to Erasmus in the foUowing November, says, that she is pleased to hear of the painter's arrival with the family picture, — " utriusque mei parentis nostrumque omnium etfigiem depittam." Hegner thinks that those portraits of Sir Thomas More and his tiimily was only a drawing in pen-and-ink, which is now in the Public Library at Basle. The figures in this drawing are : Sir Thomas and his wife, liis father, his son, and a young lady, three daughters, a servant, and Sir Thomas's jester. Over and under the figures ai-e written the name and age of each. The drawing is free and light ; and the faces and bauds are very distinctly expressed. — Hans Holbein der Jiingere, S. '2(r2 235 — 237. The di-awing in the Public Library at Basle was probably a sketch of Holbein's large picture of the fiunUy of Sir 'Thomas More. WOOD ENGEAVING. 377 influenced by an order of the magistracy, which was to the foUowing effect: "To M. Hans Holbein, painter, now in England. We Jacob Meier, burgomaster and councftlor, herewith salute you our beloved Hans Holbein, feUow-burgher, and give you to understand that it is our desire that you return home forthwith. In order that you may live easier at home, and provide for your wife and child,* we are pleased to aUow you the yearly sum of thirty guUders, until we can obtain for you something better. That you may make your arrangements accordingly, we acquaint you with this resolution. Given, Monday, 2nd September 1532." t It is uncertain how long Holbein remained at Basle on his second visit, but it was probably of short duration. Though he obeyed the summons of the magistracy to return, he seems to have had sufficient interest to obtain a further extension of his leave of absence. For the third and last time he revisited Basle in 1538 ; and from a Ucence, signed by the burgomaster Jacob Meier, dated 1 6th November in that year, it appears that he obtained permission to return to England and remain there for two years longer. In this licence fifty guilders per annum are promised to Holbein on his return to Basle, and till then the magistrates further agree to aUow his wife forty guUders per annum to be paid quarterly, and the first quarter's payment to commence on the eve of St. Lucia next ensuing, — that is, on the 12th of December. As the mention of the aUowance to Holbein's wife would seem to imply that she was not very well provided for by her husband, Hegner attempts to excuse his apparent neglect by suggesting " that the great sometimes forget to pay, and will not bear dunning ; " and in Ulustration of this he refers to the passage in Albert Durer's Journal which has been previously given at page 269. Holbein's three visits to Basle have been here especially noticed in order that the reader might judge for himself as to the probabUity of his making the drawings for the Lyons Dance of Death on any of those occasions. As this work was published in 1538, and as Holbein on his last -visit appears to have arrived at Basle about the beginning of September in that year, it is impossible that he should have made the drawings then ; for if the forty-one cuts were executed by one person * Holbein's wife and child only, not children, are mentioned in this Ucence. It is not known what became of Holbein's chUdren, as there are no traces of his descendants to be found at Basle. Merian, a clergyman of Basle, in a letter to Mechel on this subject, in 1779, -writes to this etfeot : " According to a pedigree of the Merian family, printed at Regensburg in 1727, Ohristma Syf, daughter of Rodolph Syf and Judith Weissin, and grand-daughter of Hans Holbein the unequaUed painter, (born 1597,) was married on the 17th of November I6I6 to Frederick Merian." Perhaps it is meant that Judith Weissin was Holbein's grand daughter : there is evidently an error in the pedigree ; and if it be wrong in this respect, it is not entitled to much credit in another. t Hegner, S. 242. 378 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF — as from the similarity and exceUence of the style there seems every reason to believe — it would require at the least half a year to engrave them, supposing that the artist worked as expeditiously as a wood engraver of modern times. As it is highly probable that Holbein both made designs and painted on his former -visits, in 1529, and in 1532 or 1533, I think it most likely that they were made on the latter occasion, --that is, supposing them to have been designed on one of those visits. It is, however, just as probable that the designs were made in England, and forwarded to a wood engraver at Basle. Of the various paintings executed by Holbein during his residence in England it is not necessary to give any account here ; those whe wish for information on this point are referred to Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting.* Of his hfe in England there are few particulars. " In some household accounts of Henry VIII," says Mr. Douce, "there are payments to him in 1538, 1539, 1540, and 1541, on account of his salary, which appears to have been thirty pounds per annum. From this time Uttle more is recorded of him tUl 1553, when he painted Queen Mary's portrait, and shortly afterwards died of the plague in 1554." Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, the great patron of artists, in the time of Charles I, was desftous of erecting a monument to the memory of Holbein, but gave up the intention as he was unable to discover the place of the artist's interment. As Holbein seems to have left no -will, and as his death appears to have excited no notice, it is likely that he died poor, and in comparative obscurity. If his satftical dra-wings t of Christ's Passion, ridiculing the Pope and the popish clergy, were kno-wn to Mary, or any of her spiritual advisers, it coiUd not be expected that he should find favour at her court. 'Wood engraving in England during the time of Holbein's residence in this country appears to have been but little cultivated ; but though there cannot be a doubt that tlie art was then practised here by native wood * See DaUaway's edition, revised by R. N. Womum. London, Bohn, 1849, 3 vols. Svo. Vol. i. pp. 66 et seq. t Those designs were engraved on sixteen sm.ill plates by HoUar, but -without his name. The enemies of Christ are represented in the dress of monks and friars, and instead of weapons they bear croziers, large candlesticks, and other chm-eh ornaments ; Judas appears as a capucin, Annas as a cardinal, and Caiaphas as a bishop. In the subject of Christ's Descent to Hades, the gates are hung with papal buUs and dispensations ; above them are the Pope's arms, and the devU as keeper of the gate weal's a triple ciMwn. Underneath this engraving are the foUowing verses, which are certainly not of tlie period of Holbein : " Lo ! the Pope's kitchin, where his soles ai'e fried, Called Purgatorie ; see bis pardons tied On strings ; his triple crown the Divell weares, And o'er the door the Pope's own ai'ins he beares." In the subject of Christ before Caiaphas is tho follnving inscription m Geiinan : " Wer wider die Rbmischen, der mil si erbru," —that is, " He who is against the Romans shaU die." WOOD ENGEAVING. 379 engravers, yet I very much question if it were practised by any person in England as a distinct profession. It is not unlikely that many of the wood-cuts which appear in books printed in this country about that period were engraved by the printers themselves. It has indeed been supposed that most of the wood-cuts in EngUsh books printed at that period were engraved on the continent ; but this opinion seems highly improbable — there could be no occasion to send abroad to have wood cuts so rudely executed. Perhaps the difficulty, or rather the impos- sibUity of finding a wood engraver in England capable of doing justice to his designs might be one reason why Holbein made so few for the bookseUers of this country during his long residence here. The following portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the poet, who died in 1541, was probably dra-wn on the block by Holbein. It is given on the reverse of the title of a smaU work in quarto, printed at London, 1542, and entitled "Ngeniae in mortem Thomae Viati equitis incomparabUis. Joanne Lelando anti- quario autore." The verses, which are printed underneath the cut, seem decisive of the drawing having been made by Holbein. There is a dra-wing of Sir Thomas Wyatt by Holbein, in the Eoyal CoUection, which is engraved in Chamberlain's work, entitled "Imitations of Original Drawings by Hans Holbein," foho, 1792. There is little similarity between the drawing and the cut, though on comparison it is evident that both are intended for the same person. In etfigiem Thomae Viati. Holbenus nitida pingendi maximus arte Efligiem expressit graphic^ : sed nuUus Apelles Exprimet ingenium felix animumque Viati. It has been supposed that the original cut, of which the preceding is a fac-simile, was engraved by Holbein himself : if this were true, and the cut itseft taken as a specimen of his abilities in this department 380 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OP of art, there could not be a doubt of his having been a very indifferent wood engraver, for though there be considerable expression of character in the drawing of the head, the cut is executed in a very inferior style of art. The cuts in Cranmer's Catechism, a smaU octavo, printed in 1548,'* have been ascribed to Holbein ; but out of the whole number, twenty- nine, including the cut on the reverse of the title, there are only two which contain his mark. In the others the manner of pencUling is so unlike that of these two, and the drawing and composition bear so Uttle resemblance to Holbein's usual style, that I do not beheve them to have been of his designing. In the cut on the reverse of the title, the subject is Cranmer presenting the Bible to Edward VI. ; the others, twenty-eight in number, bat containing only twenty-six different subjects, — as two of them are repeated, —are Ulustrative of different passages of Scripture cited in the work. The following cut is one of those designed by Holbein. It occurs at foho CL as an Ulustration of " the fyrst sermon. A declaration of the fyrst peticion " [of the Lord's Prayer]. Holbein's initials, H. H. — though the cross stioke of the first H is broken away — are perceived on the edge of what seems to be a book, to the left of the figure praying. The other cut, designed by Holbefti, and which contains his name at * The following is the title of this scarce little volume. " Catechismus, that is to say, a shorte instruction into Christian reUgion for the singuler coramoditie and profyte of chUdiS and yong people. Set forth by the mooste reverende father in God, Thomas Arcbbvshop of Canterbury, primate of aU Englande and MetropoUtane. — Gnalterus Lynne excudebat, 1548." At the end of the book, under a cut of Christ with a cliild before him, is the colophon: " Imprynted at London, in S. Jhones Streete, by Nycolas HyU, for Gwalter Lynne dweUyng on Somers kaye, by Bylljfnges gate" Mr. DoUce, at page 96, mentions a cut with the name Hams Holbein, at the bottom, as occurring in the title-page of " A lytle treatise after the manner of an Epystle wryten by the famous clerk Doctor Urbanus Regiua," &c. also pubUshed by Walter Lynne, 1548. WOOD ENGEAVING. 381 full length,* occurs at foho cci. The subject is Christ casting out De-vils, in Ulustration of the seventh petition of the Lord's Prayer, — "Deliver us from evil." The following is a fac-simUe. ^¦" i ^7^^ ~ JjljO^nd m^^k.^^M 1 ^^^m 7vNffl|rTS)\3 (g P ^^WWk J^^qM ^ 111/^ — ff l3Sft& (f^M [rWfl/ Ua f\S[u jlt'l jmWlmXi i 1 'I¥«iiC^3r^ ^S 311 ^jv^^ ^^-_*\ 1 ^ »vns.hoibeh: ^ ^^J For the purpose of showing the difference of style between those two cuts and the others contained in the same work, the three given on the following page have been selected. The first, illustrating the Creation, occurs at the folio erroneously numbered cxcv, properly Cix, ISTo. 1 ; the second, Ulustrating the sermon of our redemption, at folio CXXI, No. 2 ; and the third, illustrating the third petition of the Lord's Prayer, — " Thy wUl be done," — at folio CLXViii, No. 3. The following are the intro ductory remarks to the explanation of what the archbishop calls the third petition : " Ye have herde how in the former petycions, we require of our Lorde God to gyve us al thinges that perteyne to his glorye and to the kyngdom of heaven, whereof he hath gyven us commaundemente in the three preceptes written in the first table. Nowe folowethe the thirde peticyon, wherein we praye God to graiite us that we may fulfyll the other seven commaiidementes also, the whiche intreat of matiers concerning this worldly kingdome and transitorye lyfe, that is to saye, to honoure our parentes and gouernours, to kyl no man, to committe none adulterye, to absteyne from thefte and lyinge, and to behave our seftes in all thinges obedientlye, honestlye, peaceably, and godly." * Mr. Douce, in his observations prefixed to Hollar's etchings of the Dance of Death, pubhshed by Edwards iu 1794, says, " A set of cuts with the latter mark [Bans Bolben] occurs in Archbishop Cranmer's Catechism, printed by Walter Lyne, in I54S ;'' and in the same page he commits another mistake by describing the mark on the cut of the Duchess in the Lyons Dance of Death as J]g, instead of fl . It has been considered necessary to notice these errors, as it is probable that many persons who possess the work in which they occur, but who never may have seen a copy of the Lyons Dance of Death, nor of Cranmer's Catechism, may have been misled in those matters by unplicitly relying on Mr. Douce's authority. A certam class of compilers are also extremely liable to transmit such mistakes, and, to borrow an expression of Hegner's, to give currency to them, as if they stood ready for use " in stereotype." 382 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF The feebleness of the drawing and the want of distinctness in these three cuts, are totally unlike the more vigorous dehneation of No. I. No. 2. No. 3. Holbein, as exemplified, though but imperfectiy, in the two which are doubtlessly of his designing. None of them have the shghtest WOOD ENGEAVING. 383 pretensions to delicacy or excellence of engraving, though they may be considered as the best that had been executed in this countiy up to that time. Those which, in my opinion, were not designed by Holbein have the appearance of having been . engraved on a frushy kind of wood, of comparatively coarse grain. It is not, however, unlikely that this appearance might result from the feebleness of the dra-wing, conjoined with want of skUl on the part of the engraver. The foUowing cut -wiU not perhaps form an inappropriate termination to the notice of the principal wood engravings which have been ascribed to Holbein. It occurs as an iUustration of the generation of Christ, Matthew, chapter i, in an edition of the New Testament, printed at Zurich, by Froschover, in 1554,* the year of Holbein's death. Though there be no name to this cut, yet from the great resemblance which it hears to Holbein's style, I have little doubt of the design being his. The three following specimens of the cuts in Tindale's Translation of the New Testament, printed at Antwerp in 1534,t ought, in strict ¦• The title-page of this book — which has previously been referred to at page 357, in illustration of the word picta — is as follows : " Novi Testamenti Editio postrema per Des. Erasmum Roterodamum. Omnia picturis Ulustrata. Accessemnt Capitum argumenta Elegiaco carmine, Rudolpho Gualtero authore, conscripta. Tiguri, in Officina Proschoviana. Aimo M.D.Liiii." 8vo. t The volume is of octavo size, and the titie is as foUows : " The Newe Testament. Imprinted at Antwerp by Marten Emperour. Anno m.d.xxxiiii." The letters on the wood-cut of the printer's device, seen in the copies on paper, are m. k. The first edition of Tindale's Translation was printed in 1526. WUli.am Tindale, otherwise Hitchins, was bom 384 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF chronological order, to have preceded those of the Dance of Death ; but as Holbein holds the same rank in this chapter as Durer in the No. I. No. 2. No. 3. preceding, it seemed preferable to give first a connected account of the principal wood-cuts which are generally ascribed to him, and which on the bordei-s of Wales, but was of a Northumberland family, being descended fi»in Adam de Tindale of Langlcy, near Haydon Bridge, iu that county. He was strangled, and his body was afterwards burnt as that of a heretic by the popisli jiarty, at VUvorde, near Brussels, in 1536. WOOD ENGEAVING. 385 there is the strongest reason to beheve were actually of his designing. The celebrity of Tindale's translation, as the earliest English version of the New Testament which appeared in print, and the place which his name occupies in the earher part of the history of the Eeformation in England, wUl give an interest to those cuts to which they could have no pretensions as mere works of art. It is probable that they were executed at Antwerp, where the book was printed ; and the drawing and engra-ving wUl afford some idea of the style of most of the smaU cuts which are to be found in works printed in HoUand and Flanders about that period. The first of the preceding cuts represents St. Luke employed in painting a figure of the Vftgin, and it occurs at the commencement of the Gospel of that EvangeUst. The second, which occurs at the commencement of the General Epistle of James, represents that Saint in the character of a pUgrftn. The thftd. Death on the Pale Horse, is an Ulustration of the sixth chapter of Eevelations. There is a beautiful copy, printed on veUum, of this edition of Tindale's Translation of the New Testament in the Library of the British Museum. It appears to have formerly belonged to Queen Anne Boleyn, and was probably a presentation copy from the translator. The title-page is beautifuUy Uluminated ; the whole of the ornamental border, which is seen in the copies on paper, is covered vrith gUding and colour, and the wood-cut of the printer's mark is covered with the blazoning of the royal arms. On the edges, which are gilt, there is inscribed, in red letters, Anna Eegina Angli.^. This beautiful volume formerly belonged to the Eeverend C. M. Cracherode, by whom it was bequeathed to the Museum. The first complete ngUsh translation of the Old and New Testaments was that of MUes Coverdale, which appeared in foUo, 1535,* Yvithout the name or residence of the printer, but supposed to have been printed at ¦• The title of this edition is as follows : " Bielia. The Bible, that is, the holy Scripture of the Olde and Newe Testaments, faithfuUy translated out of Douche and Latyn in to Englishe m.d.xxxv." This title is surrounded with an omamental wood-cut border of ten compartments : I. Adam and Eve. 2. The name of Jehovah in Hebrew characters in the centre at the top. 3. Christ with the banner of the cross trampling on the serpent, sin, and death. 4. Moses receiving the tables of the law. 5. Je-wish High Priest, — Esdras. 6. Christ sending his disciples to preach the Gospel. 7. Paul preaching. 8. David playing on the harp. 9. In the centre at the bottom. King Henry VIIL on his throne giving a book- probably intended for the Bible — to certain abbots and bishops. 10. St. Paul with a sword. The day of the month mentioned in the colophon was probably the date of the last sheet being sent to press : " Prynted in the yeare of our Lorde m.d.xxxv, and fynished the fourth daye of October." Copies of this edition with the title-page are extremely rare. Some copies have a modem lithographed title prefixed, which is not exactly correct, though professedly a fac-simile : in one of the scroUs it has " telius meus " for " tUius meus." In the corresponding scroll in a copy in the British Museum the words are in English : " This is my deare Son in whom I delyte, heare him," — above the figure of Christ with the banner of the cross. I harve not the least doubt of this title-page ha-ving been designed by Holbein. C C 386 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OP Zurich by Christopher Froschover. The dedication is addressed to Henry VIII, by "his Graces humble subjecte and daylie oratour, Myles Coverdale ; " and in the copy in the British Museum the commencement is as foUows : " Unto the most victorious Prynce and our most gracyous soveraigne Lorde, kynge Henry the eyght, kynge of Englonde and of Fraunce, lorde of Monde, &c. Defendour of the Fayth, and under God the chefe and supreme heade of the churche of Englonde. ^[^^^ lyght and just administracyon of the laws that God gave unto Moses and unto Josua : the testimonye of faythfulnes that God gave of Da-vid : the plenteous abundance of wysdome that God gave unto Salomon: the lucky and prosperous age with the multiplicacyon of sede which God gave unto Abraham and Sara his wyfe, be geve unto you most Gracyous Prynce, with your dearest just -wyfe and most virtuous Pryncesse, Queue Anne. Amen." In most copies, however, " Queue Jane " is substituted for " Queue Anne," which proves that the original dedication had been cancelled after the disgrace and execution of Anne Boleyn, and that, though the colophon is dated 4th October 1535, the work had not been generaUy circulated untU subsequent to 20th May 1536, the date of Henry's marriage with Jane Seymour. This edition contains a number of wood-cuts, aU rather coarsely engraved, though some of them are designed -with such spirit as to be not unworthy of Holbein himseft, as wUl be apparent from two or three of the foUo-wing specimens. In the first, Cain killing Abel, the attitude of Abel, and the action of Cain, sufficiently indicate that the original designer understood the human figure weU, and could draw it -with gre.at force in a position which it is most difficult to represent. No. 1. The figure of Abraham in No. 2 bears in some parts considerable resemblance to that of the same subject given as a specimen of Holbein's WOOD ENGEAVING. 387 Bible cuts at page 368 ; but there are several others in the work which are much more like his style ; and which, perhaps, might be copied from No. 2. earher cuts of his designing. The two preceding may be considered as specimens of the best designed cuts in the Old Testament ; and the folio-wing, the return of the Two Spies, is given as one of the more ordinary. No. 3. The three next cuts are from the New Testament. The first forms the head-piece to the Gospel of St. Matthew ; the second, which occurs on the title-page, and displays great power of drawing in the figure, is "John the Baptist; and the third represents St. Paul writing, with his sword before him, and a weaver's loom to his left : the last incident, GC2 388 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF which is frequently introduced in old wood-cuts of this Saint, is probably intended to designate his business as a tentmaker, and also to No. 1. No. 2. No. a indicate that, though zealously engaged in disseminating the doctrines of Christ, he had not ceased to " work with his hands." WOOD ENGEAVING. 389 Many of the cuts in this work are copied in a subsequent edition, also in foUo, printed in 1537 ; and some of the copies are so extremely like the originals — every line being retained — as to induce a suspicion that the impressions of the latter had been transferred to the blocks by means of what is technically termed " rubbing down." About 1530 the art of chiaro-scuro engraving on wood, which appears to have been first introduced into Italy by Ugo da Carpi, was practised by Antonio Fantuzzi, called also Antonio da Trente. Most of this engraver's chiaro-scuros are from the designs of Parmegiano. It is said that Fantuzzi was employed by Parmegiano for the express purpose of executing chiaro-scuro engravings from his drawings, and that, when residing with his employer at Bologna, he took an opportunity of robbing him of aU his blocks, impressions, and designs. Between 1530 and 1540 Joseph Nicholas Viacentini da Trente engraved several chiaro scuros, most of which, Uke those executed by Fantuzzi, are from the designs of Parmegiano. From the number of chiaro-scuros engraved after drawings by this artist, I think it highly probable that the most of them were executed under his o-wn superintendence and pubhshed for his own benefit. Baldazzar Peruzzi and Domenico Beccafumi, both painters of repute at that period, are said to have engraved in chiaro scuro ; but the prints in this style usually ascribed to them are not numerous, and I consider it doubtful ft they were actually of their own engraving. From about 1530, the art of wood engra-ving, in the usual manner, began to make considerable progress in Italy, and many of the cuts executed in that country between 1540 and 1580 may -vie -with the best wood engravings of the same period executed in Germany. Instead of the plain and simple style, which is in general characteristic of Italian wood-cuts previous to 1530, the wood engravers of that country began to execute their subjects in a more deUcate and elaborate manner. In the period under consideration, we find cross-hatching frequently intro duced with great effect ; there is a greater variety of tint in the cuts ; the texture of different substances is indicated more correctly ; the foUage of trees is more natural ; and the fur and feathers of animals are discriminated with considerable abUity. The foUowing cut wiU afford perhaps some idea of the best Italian wood-cuts of the period under consideration. It is a reduced copy of the frontispiece to Marcolini's Sorti,* folio, printed at Venice in 1540. * The foUowing is the title of this curious and scarce work : " Le Sorti di Francesco Marcolini da ForU, intitolate Giai'dino di Pensieri." Dedicated, "Alio lUustrissimo Signore Hercole Estense, Duca di Ferrara." At the conclusion is the colophon : " In Venetia per Francesco MarcoUni da ForU, ne gli anni del Signore mdxxxx. Del mese di Ottobre." In a proemio, or preface, the author explains the manner of applying his 390 FUETHEE PEiOGEESS AND DECLINE OF There is an impression of this cut on paper of a greenish tint in the Print Eoom of the British Museum, and from this circumstance it is placed, though improperly, in a volume, marked I. W. 4, and lettered " Italian chiaro-scuros." Underneath this impression the late Mr. Ottley has -written, " Not in Bartsch ; " and from his omitting to mention the work for which it was engraved, I am incUned to think that he himself was not aware of its fornnng the frontispiece to IMarcolinis Sorti PapUlon, speaking of the supposed engraver, Joseph Porta Garfagnuius, whose name is seen on a tablet near the bottom towards the right, says, " J'ai de lui une fort belle Acad(5mie des Sciences," * but seems not to have known of the work to winch it belonged. This cut is merely a copy, reversed, of a study by Eaffaele for his celebrated fresco, usuaUy ' piacevole imvmtione," which is nothing more than a mode of resolving questions by cards, and was probably suggested by Fanti's Triompho di Fortuna, of which some account is given at yiagc 315. * PapUlon, Trait<5 de la Qraviuc en Bois, tom. i. p. 137. WOOD ENGEAVING. 391 called the School of Athens, in the Vatican. It is engraved in a work entitled "Vies et Oeuvres des Peintres les plus c^lfebres," 4to. Paris, 1813 ; and in the Table des Planches at the commencement of the volume in which it occurs, the subject is thus described : " PL ccccv. Etude pour le tableau de I'Ecole d'Athfenes. Ces differens episodes ne se retrouvant pas dans le tableau qui a it6 ex^cut^ des mains de Eaphael, ne doivent gtre consid^r^es que comme des essais ou premieres pensi^es. Grav. M. Ravignano!" From this description it appears that the same subject had been previously engraved on copper by Marco da Eavenna, who flourished about the year 1530. Though I have never seen an impression of Marco's engraving of this subject, and though it is not mentioned in Heineken's catalogue of the engraved works of Eaffaele,* I have Uttle doubt that Porta's wood-cut is copied from it. Joseph Porta, frequently called Joseph SaMati by Itahan authors, was a painter, and he took the surname of Salviati from that of his master, Francesco Salviatit There are a few other wood-cuts which contain his name ; but whether he was the designer, or the engraver only, is extremely uncertain. Marcolini's work contains nearly a hundred wood-cuts besides the frontispiece, but, though several of them are designed with great spftit, no one is so well engraved. + The following is a fac-simUe of one which occurs at page 35. The relentless-looking old woman is a personification of Punitione — Punishment — holding in her right hand a tremendous scourge for the chastisement of evU-doers. Though this cut be but coarsely engraved, the domestic Nemesis, who here appears to wield the retributive scourge, is designed with such spirit that if the figure were executed in marble it might almost pass for one of Michael * This catalogue is printed in the second volume of Heineken's Nachrichten von Kiinstlem und Kunst-Sachen, 8vo. Leipzig, 1768-1769. This work, which appeared two years before his Idee Generale d'une Collection complette d'Estampes, contains much information on the early history of art, which is not to be found in the latter. AU the fac similes of old engra'vings in the Id6e Generale originally appeared in the Nachrichten. Heineken, in the first volume of this work, p. 340, mentions Porta's cut, but says nothing of its being copied from a design by Raffaele. + Heineken, in his Nachrichten, ler. Theil, S. 340, says that Joseph Porta " was a pupil ot Cecchino Salviati, who is not to be confounded with Framcesco Salviati ; " and yet in his Idee Generale, pubUshed subsequently, page 13.4, we find "Francesco del Salviati, autrement Rossi, de Florence, et son disciple Giuseppe Porta, appeUe commun6nierit Giuseppe Salviati." Heineken, in his first work, committed the ruistake of supposing that Francesco SaMati's io-name was the Christian name of another person. In Huber's Notice Generate des Graveurs et Peintres, Francis Salviati appears as " Franf ois Cecohini, dit Salviati. " X The first forty-six cuts are the best, generaUy, both in design and execution. The others, commencing at page 108, are Ulustrative of the sayings and doctrines of ancient phUosophers and moralists, and one or two of the cuts are repeated. In this portion of the work, each page, except what is occupied by the cut, is fUled -with explanatory or Ulustrative verses arranged in triplets. 392 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF Angelo's. The drapery is adnurably cast ; the figure is good ; and the action and expression are at once simple and severe. The preceding cut, also a fac-simUe, occurs at page 81 as an Ulus tration of Matrimony. The young man, with his legs already tied, WOOD ENGEAVING. 393 seems to he deliberating on the prudence of making a contract which may possibly add a yoke to his shoulders. The ring which he holds in his hand appears to have given rise to his cogitations. The following smaU cuts of cards — "II Ee, Fante, CavaUo, e Sette di denari " — are copied from the instructions in the preface ; * and V the beautftul design of Truth rescued by Time — Veeitas Filia Tempoeis — occurs as a taU-piece on the last page of the work. This cut occurs not unfrequently in works published by Giolito, by whom I beUeve the Sorti was printed ; and two or three of the other cuts contained in the volume are to be found in a humorous work of Donis, entitled " I Marmi," printed by Giolito in 1552. The wood engravers of Venice about the middle of the sixteenth century appear to have exceUed all other ItaUan wood engravers, and for the delicacy of their execution they rivaUed those of Lyons, who at that period were chiefly distinguished for the neat and delicate manner of their engraving small subjects. In the pftated edition of the Lyons Dance of Death, pUbUshed at Venice in 1545 by V. Vaugris, the cuts are more correctly copied and more delicately engraved than » * The first hundred and seven pages of the work are chiefly fiUed with similar figures of cards variously combined, -with short references. How MarcoUni's pleasant invention ia to be applied to discover the secrets of Fate, I have not been able to comprehend. 394 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF those in the edition first pubhshed at Cologne by the hefts of Ai-nold Birkman in 1555. In fact, the wood engravings in books printed at Lyons and Venice from about 1540 to 1580 are fti general more delicately engraved than those executed in Germany and the' Low Countries during the same period. Among aU the Venetian printers of that age, Gabriel Giolito is entitled to precedence from the number and comparative excellence of the wood-cuts contained in the numerous iUustrated works which issued from his press. In several of the works printed by him every cut is surrounded by an ornamental border ; and this border, not being engraved on the same block as the cut, but separately as a kind of frame, is frequently repeated : sixteen different borders, when the book is of octavo size and there is a cut on every page, would suffice for the whole work, however extensive it might be. The practice of ornamenting cuts in this manner was very prevalent about the period under consideration, and at the present time some pubhshers seem inchned to revive it. I should, however, be sorry to See it again become prevalent, for though to some subjects, designed in a particular manner, an ornamental border may be appropriate, yet I consider the practice of thus fi-aming a series of cuts as indicative of bad taste, and as likely to check the improvement of the art. Highly ornamented borders have, in a certain degree, the effect ot reducing a series of cuts, however different their execution, to a Standard of tnediocrity ; for they frequently conceal the beauty of a weU-engraved subject, and serve as a screen to a bad one. In Ludovico Dolce's Transformationi — a translation, or rather paraphrase of Ovid's Metamorphoses — first printed by Giolito iu 1553, and again WOOD ENGEAVING. 395 in 1557, the cuts, instead of having a border aU round, have only ornaments at the two vertical sides. The preceding is a fac-simUe of one of those cuts, divested of its ornaments, from the edition of 1557. The subject is the difficult labour of Alcmena, — a favourite -with ItaUan artists. This is the cut previously aUuded to at page 217. A curious book, of which an edition, in quarto, was printed at Eome in 1561, seems deserving of notice here, not on account of any merit in the wood-cuts which it contains, but on account of the singularity of four of them, which are given as a specimen of a " Sonetto figurato," in the manner of the cuts in a little work entitled "A curious Hieroglyphick Bible," first printed in London, in duo decimo, about 1782. The Itahan work in question was written by "Messer Giovam Battista Palatino, Oittadino Eomano," and from the date of the Pope's grant to the author of the pri-vUege of exclusively printing it for ten years, it seems Ukely that the first edition was published about 1540. The work is a treatise on penmanship ; and the title-page of the edition of 1561 — which is embellished with a portrait of the author — may be translated as foUows : " The Book of M. Giovam Battista Palatino, citizen of Eome, in which is taught the manner of writing aU kinds of characters, ancient and modern, of whatever nation, with Eules, Proportions, and Examples. Together with a short and useful Discourse on Cyphers. Newly revised and corrected by the Author. With the addition of fifteen beautiful cuts."* In Astle's Origin and Progress of Writing, page 227, second edition. Palatine's work is thus noticed : " In 1561, Valerius Doricus printed at Eome a curious book on all kinds of writing, ancient and modem. This book contains specimens of a great variety of -writing practised in different ages and countries ; some of these specimens are printed from types to imitate -writing, and others from carved wood-blocks. This book also contains a treatise on the art of writing in cipher, and is a most curious specimen of early typography." After his specimens of " Lettere Citrate," Palatino devotes a couple of pages to " Gifre quadrate, et Sonetti figurati," two modes of riddle- -writing which, it appears, are solely employed for amusement. The * The following is a literal copy of the title : " Libro di M. Giovam Battista Palatino, Oittadino Romano, Nelqual s'insegna ^ Scriver ogni sorte lettera, Antica & Modema, di qualunque natione, con le sue regole, & misure, & essempi : Et con un breve, et utU Discorso de le Cifre : Riveduto novamente, & corretto dal propri' Autore. Con la giunta di quindici tavole beUissrme." At the end of the work is the imprint : " In Roma per Valerio Dorico alia Chiavica de Santa Lucia. Ad Instantia de'M. Giovan delta Oatta. L'Anno m.d.lxi." 4to. PapiUon says that the work first appeared m 1540, and was reprmted in 1545, 1547, 1548, 1550, 1553, and 1556. An edition was also published at Venice iii 1588. 396 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF "Cftro quadrate" is nothing more, than a monogram, formed of a cluster of interwoven capitals, but in which every one of the letters of the name is to be found. In the following specimen the name thus ingeniously disguised is Lavinia. The foUowing is a shghtly reduced copy of the first four lines of the " Sonetto figurato ; '' the other ten Unes are expressed by figures in a simUar manner. " As to figured sonnets," says the author, " no better rule can be given, than merely to observe that the figm-es shoiUd clearly and distinctly correspond with the matter, and that there shoidd be as few supplementary letters as possible. Of course, orthography and pure WOOD ENGEAVING. 397 Italian are not to be looked for in such exercises ; and it is no objection that the same figure be used for the beginning of one word, the middle of another, or the end of a third. It is the chief exceUence of such compositions that there should be few letters to be supplied." The " interpretatio " of the preceding figured text is as follows : " Dove son gU occhi, et la serena forma Del santo alegro et amoroso aspetto ? Dov' h la man ebuma ov' e '1 bel petto Ch' appensarvi hor" in fonte mi transforma 1 " This figured sonnet is a curious specimen of hieroglyphic and " phonetic " writing combined. For those who do not understand Italian, it seems necessary to give the following explanation of the words, and point out their phonetic relation to the things. Dove, where, is com posed of D, and ove, eggs, as seen at the commencement of the fijst line. Son, are, is represented by a man's head and a trumpet, making a sound, son. The preceding figures are examples of what is called " phonetic " writing, by modern expounders of Egyptian antiquities, — ^that is, the figures of things are not placed as representatives of the things themselves, but that theft names when pronounced may form a word or part of a word, which has generally not the least relation to the thing by which it is phonetically, that is, vocally, expressed. Occhi, eyes, is an instance of hieroglyphic writing ; the figure and the idea to be repre sented agree. La, the, is represented by the musical note la; serena, placid, by a Siren, — Sirena, — orthography, as the author says, is not to be expected in figured sonnets ; and forma, shape, by a shoemaker's last, which is calied forma in Italian. In the second line, Sanlo, holy, is represented by a Saint, Santo; allegro, cheerfulness, by a paft of wings, ale, and grue, a crane, the superfluous e forming, with the T foUowing, the conjunction et, and. The words amoroso aspetto are formed of amo, a hook, rosa, a rose, and petto, the breast, -with a supplementary s between the rose and the breast. In the third Une we have ove, eggs, and the musical la again ; man, the hand, is expressed by its proper figure ; ebuma, ivory-like, is composed of the letters eb and an urn, urna ; and in the latter part of the line the eggs, ov', and the breast, petto, are repeated. At the commencement of the fourth line, a couple of cloaks, cappe, stand for ch' appe in the compound word ch' appensarvi ; hor, now, is represented by an hour-glass, hora, UteraUy, an hour ; fonte, a fountain, is expressed by its proper figure ; and the words mi transforma, are phoneticaUy expressed by a mitre, mitra, the supplementary letters ns, and the shoemaker's last, forma. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a taste for inventing devices in this manner seems to have been fashionable among professed wits ; and the 398 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF practice of expressing a name by a rebus was not unfrequent in an earlier age. It is probable that the old sign of the Bolt-in-Tun in Fleet Street derives its origin from Bolton, a prior of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield, who gave a bird-6oZ^ in the bung-hole of a tun as the rebus of his name. The peculiarities of the Italian figured sonnet are not unaptly Ulusteated in Camden's Eemains, in the chapter entitled "Rebus,* or^ Name-Devises :" " Did not that amorous youth mystically expresse his love to Rose Hill, whom he courted, when in a border of his painted cloth he caused to be painted as rudely as he devised grossely, a rose, a hUl, an eye, a loafe, and a well, — that is, if you will speU it, Sose Sill I love welVf Among the wood engravers of Lyons who flourished about the middle of the sixteenth century, the only one whose name has come do-wn to modern times is Bernard Solomon ; and ft he were actuaUy the engraver of the numerous cuts which are ascribed to him, he must have been extremely industrious. I am not, however, aware of any cut which contains his mark ; and it is by no means certain whether he were reaUy a wood engraver, or whether he only made the designs for wood engravers to execute. PapiUon, who has been bhndly foUowed by most persons who have either incidentaUy or expressly -written on wood engra-ving, unhesitatingly claims him as a wood engraver ; but looking at the inequahty in the execution of the cuts ascribed to him, and regarding the sameness of character in the designs, I am inclined to think that he was not an engraver, but that he merely made the drawings on the wood. Sir E. L. Bulwer has committed a mistake of this kind in his England and the English : " This country," says he in his second volume, page 205, edition 1833, "may boast of ha-ving, in Bewick of Newcastle, brought wood engraving to perfection ; his pupU, Harvey, continues the profession with reputation.' The -writer here e-vidently speaks of that which he knows very little about, for at the time that his book was published, Harvey, though originally a wood engraver, and a pupil of * There is a curious allusion to a Rebus in Horace, Satyr. Lib. L Sat. V., Vers. .S8, which has escaped the notice of all his commentators : " Quatuor hinc rapimur -viginti et millia rhedis, Mansuri oppidulo, quod veisu dicere non est, Signis perfacile est." The place which he did not think proper to name was undoubtedly Asculum whose situation exactly corresponds with the distance from Trivicum, where he rested the preceding night. From the manner in whicli Horace alludes to the signa — as and cuZum of- which the name is composed, it seems likely that a certain vulgar Jjenison was not unknown at Rome iu the age of Augustus. t Remaines concerning Britaine, with additions by John "Philpot, Soraersbt Herald p. 164. Kdit, 1636. ' WOOD ENGEAVING. 399 Bewick, had abandoned the profession for about eight years, and had devoted hiniself entirely to painting and drawing for copper-plate and wood engravers. Indeed I very much question ft Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer ever saw a cut — except, perhaps, that of Dentatus, — which was actuaUy engraved by Harvey. With about equal propriety, a -writer, speaking of wood engraving in England twenty years ago, might have described the late John Thurston as '' continuing the profession with reputation," merely because he was one of the principal designers of wood engravings at that period. Bernard Solomon, whether a designer or engraver on wood, is justly entitled to be ranked among the " Uttle masters" in this branch of art. AU the cuts ascribed to him which have come under my notice are of smaU size, and most of them are executed in a dehcate manner ; they are, however, generaUy deficient in effect,* and may readUy be distin guished by the taU sUm figures which he introduces. He e-vidently had not understood the "capabUities" of his art, for in none of his pro ductions do we find the weU-contrasted " black-and-white," which, when weU managed, materiaUy contributes to the exceUence of a well-engraved wood-cut. The production of a good black is, indeed, one of the great advantages, in point of conventional colour, which wood possesses over copper ; and the wood engraver who neglects this advantage, and laboms perhaps for a whole day to cut with mechanical precision a number of delicate but unmeaning Unes, which a copper-plate engraver would execute with faciUty in an hour, affords a tolerably con-vincing proof of his not thoroughly understanding the principles of his art. In Bernard's cuts, and in most of those executed at Lyons about the same period, we find much of this ineffective labour; we perceive in them many evidences of the pains-taking workman, but few traits of the talented artist. From the time that a taste for those little and laboriously executed, but spftitless cuts, began to prevail, the dechne of wood engra-ving may be dated. Instead of confining themselves within the legitimate boundaries of their own art, wood engravers seem to have been desirous of emulating the delicacy of copper-plate engra-ving, and, as might naturaUy be expected by any one who under stands the distinctive peculiarities of the two arts, they faded. The book- buyers of the period having become sickened -with the glut of tasteless •* PapiUon, who speaks highly of the execution of the cuts ascribed to Bernard Solomon, admits that they want efiect. " La gra-vure," says he, speaking of the cuts contained in ' Quadrins Historiques de la Bible,' " est fort heUe, excepte qu'elle manque de clair obscur, parce que les taUles sont presque routes de la mSme teinte, ce qui fait que les lointains ne fuyent pas assez. C'est le seiU defaut des gravures de Bernard Salomon ; ce qui lui a ete commun avec plus de quarante autres graveurs en bois de son temps " — Traite de la Gravure en Bois, tom. i. p. 209, •t'OO FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF and ineffective trifles, wood engraving began to decline : large weU- engraved wood-cuts executed between 1580 and 1600 are comparatively scarce. Bernard Solomon, or, as he is frequently caUed, Little Solomon, from the smallness of his works, is said to have been bom in 1512, and the most of the cuts which are ascribed to him appeared in works printed at Lyons between 1545 and 1580. Perhaps more books containing small wood-cuts were printed at Lyons between those years than in any other city or town in Europe during the corresponding period. It appears to have been the grand mart for Scripture cut5, emblems, and devices ; but out of the many hundreds which appear to have been engraved there in the period referred to, it would be difficult to select twenty that can be considered really exceUent both in execution and design. One of the principal pub lishers of Lyons at that time was Jean de Toumes ; many of the works which issued from his press display great typographic excel lence, and in almost aU the cuts are engraved -with great neatness. The foUo-wing cut is a fac-simile of one which appears in the title- page of an edition of Petrarch's Sonnetti, Canzoni, e Trionfi, published by him in a small octodecimo volume, 1 545. The design of the cut displays something of the taste for emblem and device* which was then so prevalent, and which became so generally diffused by the frequent editions of Alciat's Emblems, the first of which was printed about 1531. The portraits of Petrarch and Laura, looking not unlike " Philip and Mary on a shilling," are * Several editions of Alciat's Emblems and Claude Paradin's Devises Heroiques were pubUshed at Lyons in the sixteenth century. The first edition of the latter work was printed there by Joan de Toumes, in 1557, Svo. WOOD ENGEAVING. 401 seen enclosed within a heart which Cupid has pierced to the very core with one of his arrows. The volume contains seven other small cuts, designed and engraved in a style which very much resembles that of the cuts ascribed to Bernard Solomon ; and as there is no mark by which his productions are to be ascertained, I think they are as Ukely to be of his designing as three-fourths of those which are generally supposed to be of his engraving. The work entitled "Quadrins Historiques de la Bible," with wood-cuts, ascribed to Bernard Solomon, and printed at Lyons by Jean de Toumes, was undoubtedly suggested by the "Historiarum Veteris Testamenti Icones" — Holbein's Bible-cuts— first pubUshed by the brothers FreUon in 1538. The first edition of the Quadrins Historiques was pubUshed in octavo about 1550, and was several times reprinted within the succeeding twenty years. The total number of cuts in the edition of 1560 is two hundred and twenty-nine, of which no less than one hundred and seventy are devoted to the illustration of Exodus and Genesis. At the top of each is printed the reference to the chapter to which it relates, and at the bottom is a " Quadrin poetique, tft^ de la Bible, pour graver en la table des affeccions Tamour des sacrees Histories." Those "Quadrins'' appear to have been ¦written by Claude Paradin. The composition of several of the cuts is good, and nearly aU display great neatness of execu tion. The foUowing is a fac-simUe of the seventh, Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise. It is, however, necessary to observe that this is by no means one of the best cuts either in point of design or execution. D D 402 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF A simUar work, entitled "Figures du Nouveau Testament,' with cuts, evidently designed by the person who had made the dra-wings for those in the " Quadrins Historiques de la Bible," was also pubUshed by Jean de Tournes about 1553, and several editions were subsequently printed. The cuts are rather less in size than those of the Quadrftis, and are, on the whole, rather better engraved. The total number is a hundred and four, and under each are six explanatory verses, composed by Charles Fonteine, who, in a short poetical address at the commencement, dedicates the work "A Tres-Ulustre et Treshaute Princesse, Madame Marguerite de France, Duchesse de Berri" The foUowing, Christ tempted by Satan, is a copy of the sixteenth cut, but like that of the expulsion of Adam and Eve, it is not one of the best in the work. Old engravings and paintings Ulustrative of manners or of costume are generally interesting ; and on this account a set of large wood-cuts designed by Peter Coeck of Alost, in Flanders, is deserving of notice. The subjects of those cuts are the manners and costumes of the Turks ; and the drawings were made on the spot by Coeck himseft, who visited Turkey in 1533. It is said that he brought from the east an important secret relative to the art of dyeing silk and wool for the fabrication of tapestries, a branch of manufacture with which he appears to have been connected, and for which he made a number of designs. He was also an architect and an author ; and published several treatises on sculpture, geometry, perspective, and architecture. The cuts Ulus trative of the manners and costume of the Turks were not pubUshed untU 1 553, three years after his decease, as we leam from an inscription WOOD ENGEAVING. -1.03 on the last.-* They are oblong, of folio size ; and the seven of which the set consists are intended to be joined together, and thus to form one continuous subject. The figures, both on foot and horseback, are designed -with great spirit, but they want relief, and the engraving is coarse. One of the customs which he has iUustrated in the cut No. 3 is singular; and though this orientalism has been noticed by a Scottish judge^ — Maclaurin of Dreghorn — Peter Coeck appears to be the only traveUer who has graphicaUy represented " quo modo Turci mingunt!' i. e. sedentes. Succeeding artists have availed themselves liberally of those cuts. As the Turks in the sixteenth century were much more formidable as a nation than at present, and their manners and customs objects of greater curiosity, wood engravings illustrative of theft costume and mode of living appear to have been in considerable demand at that period, for both in books and as single cuts they are comparatively numerous. Though chiaro-scuro engraving on wood was, in aU probabUity, first practised in Germany, yet the art does not appear to have been so much cultivated nor so highly prized in that country as in Italy. Between 1530 and 1550, when Antonio Fantuzzi, J. N. Vincentini, and other Italians, were engaged in executing numerous chiaro-scuros after the designs of such masters as Eaffaele, Corregio, Parmegiano, Pohdoro, Beccafumi, and F. Sal-viati, the art appears to have been comparatively abandoned by the wood engravers of Germany. The chiaro-scuros executed in the latter country cannot generaUy for a moment bear a comparison, either in point of design or execution, with those executed in Italy during the same period. I have, however, seen one German cut executed in this style, -with the date 1543, which, for the number of the blocks from which it is printed, and the delicacy of the im pression in certain parts, is, ft genuine, one of the most remarkable of that period. As the paper, however, seems comparatively modern, I am induced to suspect that the date may be that of the painting or drawing, and that this picture-print — for, though executed by the same process, it would be improper to - caU it a chiaro-scuro — may have been the work of Ungher, a German wood engraver, who executed some chiaro-scuros at Berlin about seventy years ago. Whatever may be the date, however, or whoever may have been the artist, it is one of the best executed specimens of coloured block printing that I have ever seen. * The foUowing explanatory title occurs on the first cut : " Ces moeurs et fachons de faire de Turcz aveoq' les Regions y appartenantes, ont este au vif contrefactez par Pierre Coeck d' Alost, luy estant en Turquie, I'an de Jesu Christ m.d. 33. Lequel assy de sa mam propre a pourtraict ces figures duysantes k I'impression d'yceUes." From another of the cuts we thus learn the tune of his death : " Marie Verhulst vefiie du diet Pierre d' Alost, trespasse en I'anne mbl. a faict imprimer les diets figures soubz Grace et Privilege de rimperiaUe Maiestie. En I'Ann moccoomii." DD 2 4^04 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF This curious picture-print, including the border, is ten inches and three quarters high by six. inches and three quarters -wide. The subject is a figure of Christ ; in his left hand he holds an orb emblematic of his power, while the right is elevated as in the act of pronouncing a benediction. His robe is blue, with the folds indicated by a darker tint, and the border and lighter parts impressed -with at least two Ughter colours. Above this robe there is a large red mantle, fastened in front with what appears to be a jewel of three different colours, ruby, yeUow, and blue ; the folds are of a darker colour ; and the Ughts are expressed by a kind of yeUow, which has evidently been either impressed, or laid on the paper -vrith a brush, before the red colour of the mantle, and which, from its glistening, seems to have been compounded -with some metallic substance Uke fiLne gold-du^t. The border of the print consists of a simUar yeUow, between plain black lines. The face is printed in flesh colour of three tints, and the head is surrounded -with rays of glory, which appear like gUding. The engra-ving of the face, and of the haft of the head and beard, is extremely well executed, and much superior to anything that I have seen in wood-cuts containing Ungher's mark. The globe is blue, with the hghts preserved, intersected by Ught red and yellow lines ; and the smaU cross at the top is also yeUow, like the light on the red mantle. The hands and feet are expressed in theft proper colours ; the ground on which the Eedeemer stands is some thing between a lake and a fawn colour ; and the ground of the print, upwards from about an inch above the bottom, is of a Ughter blue than the robe. To the right, near the bottom, are the date and mark, thus: »j 5.43. The figure like a winged serpent resembles a mark which was frequently used by Lucas Cranach, except that the serpent or dragon of the latter appears less crooked, and usually has a ring in its mouth. The letter underneath also appears rather more like an I than an L. The dra-wing of the figure of Christ, however, is veiy much in the style of Lucas Cranach, and I am strongly incUned to think that the original painting or drawing was executed by him, whoever may have been the engraver. There must have been at least ten blocks required for this curious print, which, foi clearness and distinctness in the colours, and for deUcacy of impression, more especially in the face, may chaUenge a comparison not only with the finest chiaro-scuros of former times, but also with the best specimens of coloured block-printing of the present day,* * This interesting specimen of the combined arts of wood engraving and printing formerly belonged to the late Mr. Robert Branston, wood engraver, who executed several of the cbiaro-scm'os, and imitations of coloured drawings, in Savage's work on Decorative Printing. It is now in tlie possession of his son, Mr Frederick Branston, who is of the same profession as his father. WOOD ENGEAVING. 405 In 1557, Hubert Goltzius, a painter, but better known as an author than as an artist, published at Antwerp, in folio, a work containing portraits, executed in chiaro-scuro, of the Eoman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Ferdinand I.* Descamps, in his work entitled "La Vie des Peintres Flamands, AUemands et HoUandois," says that those portraits, which are aU copied from medals, were " engraved on wood by a painter of Courtrai, named Joseph Gietleughen ; " t and PapUlon, who had examined the work more closely, but not closely enough, says that the outlines are etched, and that the two rentrees — the subsequent impres sions which give to the whole the appearance of a chiaro-scuro drawing — are from blocks of wood engraved in intaglio. What PapUlon says about the outUnes being etched is true ; but a close inspection of those portraits wUl afford any person acquainted with the process ample proof of the " rentrfes " being also printed from plates of metal in the same manner as from engraved wood-blocks. Each of those portraits appears like an enlarged copy of a medal, and is the result of three separate impressions ; the first, containing the outlines of the head, the ornaments, and the name, has been printed from an etched plate of copper or some othet metal, by means of a copper plate printing-press ; and the two other impressions, over the first, have also been from plates of metal, niounted on blocks of wood, and printed by means of the common typographic printing-press. The outlines of the head and of the letters forming the legend are black ; the field of the medal is a muddy kind of sepia ; and the head and the border, printed from the same surface and at the same time, are of a lighter shade. The lights to be preserved have been cut in intaglio in the plates for the two " rentr&s " in the same manner as on blocks of wood for printing in chiaro-scuro. The marks of the pins by which the two plates for the "rentrfes" have been fastened to blocks of wood, to raise them to a proper height, are very perceptible ; in the field of the medal they appear like circular points, generaUy in Jairs ; whUe round the outer margin they are mostly of a square form. It is difficult to conceive what advantage Goltzius might expect to derive by printing the " renti&s " from metal plates ; for aU that he has thus produced could have been more simply effected by means of wood-blocks, as practised up to that time by all other chiaro-scuro engravers. Though those portraits possess but little merit as chiaro-scuros, they are yet highly interesting in the history of art, as affording the first instances of * The title-page of this work is printed in three colours,— black, sepia, and green. The black omamental outUnes are fi:om an etched plate ; the sepia and green colours aie printed from wood-blocks. An edition of this work, enlarged by Gevartius, with portraits m two colours, and entirely engraved on wood, was printed at Antwerp in 1645. t Tom. i.p. 129. Paris, 1753. 406 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF etching being employed for the outlines of a chiaro-scuro, and of the substitution, in surface-printing, of a plate of metal for a wood-block. Goltzius's manner of etching the outlines of a chiaro-scuro print was frequently practised both by French and English artists about the middle of the last century ; and about 1722, Edward Kftkall engraved the principal parts of his chiaro-scuros in mezzo-tint, and afterwards printed a tint from a metal plate mounted on wood. In the present day Mr. George Baxter has successfuUy applied the principle of engra-ving the ground and the outlines of his subjects in aqua^tint ; and, as in the case of Hubert Goltzius and Kirkall, he sometimes uses a metal-plate instead of a wood-block in surface-printing. In the picture-prints executed by Mr. Baxter for the Pictorial Album, 1837, the tint of the paper on which each imitative painting appears to be mounted, is communicated from a smooth plate of copper, which receives the colour, and is printed in the same manner as a wood-block. Among the German artists who made designs for wood engravers from the time of Durer to about 1590, Erhard Schon, VftgU Solis, Melchior Lorich, and Jost Amman may be considered as the principal They are all frequently described as wood engravers from the cft cumstance of their marks being found on the cuts which they undoubtedly designed, but most certainly did not engrave. Erhard Schon chiefly resided at Nuremberg ; and some of the earliest cuts of his designing are dated 1528. In 1538 he pubhshed at Nuremberg a smaU treatise, in oblong (|uarto, (.m the proportions of the human figure, for the use of students and young persons.* This work contains several wood-cuts, all coarsely engraved, Ulustrative of the writer's precepts ; two or three of them — where the heads and bodies are represented by squares and rhomboidal figures — are extremely curious, though apparently not very weU adapted to improve a learner in the art of design. Another of the cuts, where the proportions are iUustraised by means of a figure inscribed within a circle, is very like one of the illustrations contained in Flaxman's Lectures on Sculpture. Some cuts of playing-cards, designed by Schon, are in greater request than any of his other works engraved on wood, which, Ibr the most part, have but little to recommend them. He died about 1550. VirgU Sohs, a painter, copper-plate engraver, and designer on wood, was born at Nuremberg about 1514. The cuts which contain his mark are extremely numerous ; and, from theft- being mostly of sniall size, he is ranked by Heineken with the " Little Masters." Se\-oral of his cuts * The followmg is a copy of the title : " Underweisung der Proportzion und Stclhmg der Posson, licgent und stohent ; abgcstoehen wio man das vor augon sielit, in dem puchlem durch Erbart Sihim von Norrenberg ; fur die Jungen gescUeii \nid Jungen zu unlenK-htuug die zu der Kunst lieb tragen. In deii ilruck gepracht, I53>," WOOD ENGEAVING. 407 display great fertUity of invention ; but though his figures are frequently spirited and the attitudes good, yet his drawing is generally careless and incorrect. As a considerable number of his cuts are of the same kind as those of Bernard Solomon, it seems as if there had been a competition at that time between the booksellers of Nuremberg and those of Lyons for supplying the European market with illustrations of two works of -widely different character, to wit, the Bible, and Ovid's Metamorphoses, — VftgU Solis being retained for the German, and Bernard Solomon for the French pubhshers. He designed the cuts in a German edition of the Bible, printed in 1560 ; most of the portraits of the Kings of France in a work pubUshed at Nuremberg in 1566 ; a series of cuts for Esop's fables ; and the iUustrations of an edition of Eeusner's Emblems. Several cuts with the mark of VftgU SoUs are to be found in the first edition of Archbishop Parker's Bible, printed by Eichard Jugge, foho, London, 1568. In the second edition, 1572, there are two ornamented initial letters, apparently of his designing, which seem to show that his sacred and profane subjects were liable to be confounded, and that cuts originally designed for an edition of Ovid might by some singular oversight be used in an edition of the Bible, although printed under the especial superintendence of a Eight Eeverend Archbishop. In the letter G, which forms the commencement of the first chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, the subject represented by the artist is Leda caressed by Jupiter in the form of a swan ; and in the letter T at the commencement of the first chapter of the Epistle General of St. John, the subject is Venus before Jove, with Cupid, Juno, Mars, Neptune, and other Heathen deities in attendance.* A series of wood-cuts designed by VirgU Solis, iUustrative of Ovid's Metamorphoses, was pubUshed at Frankfort, in oblong quarto, by George Cor-vinus, Sigismund Feyerabend, and the heirs of Wigand GaUus, in 1569. Each cut is surrounded by a heavy ornamental border ; above each are four verses in Latin, and underneath four in German, composed by Johannes Posthius, descriptive of the subject. In the title-page,t which is both in Latin and in German, it is stated that they are designed — gerissen — ^by VftgU SoUs for the use and benefit of painters, goldsmiths, and statuaries. It is thus evident that they were not engraved by him ; and in corroboration of this opinion it may be observed that several * This last letter contains the mark ^/^ , which is to be found on some of the cuts in the editions of the Dance of Death printed at Cologne, 15,55 — 1572. t The title is as foUows : " Johan. Posthii GermershemU Tetrasticha in Ovidu Metam. Lib. XV. Quibus accessemnt VergUii Solis figurse elegantissimae, primum in lucem editae.— Schone Figuren, auss dem fiirtretBichen Poeten Ovidio, aUen Malem, Goldtschmiden, und BUdthauem, zu nutz und gutem mit fleiss gerissen durch VergUium Solis, und mit Teut^ schen Reimen kiirtzUch erklaret, dergleichem vormals im Dmok nie aussgangen, Durch Johan. Posthium von Germerssheim. m.d.lxix." 408 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF of them, in addition to his mark, V , also contain another, ^ , which is doubtless that of the wood engraver. The latter mark occurs frequently in the cuts designed by Virgil Solis, in the first edition of Archbishop Parker's Bible. Evelyn, in his Sculptura, has the foUowing notice of this artist: " Virgilius Solis graved also in wood The story of the Bible and The mechanic arts in little ; but for imitating those vUe postures of Aretine had his eyes put out by the sentence of the magistrate." There is scarcely a page of this writer's works on art which does not contain simUar inaccuracies, and yet he is frequently quoted and referred to as an authority. The "mechanic arts" to which Evelyn aUudes were probably the series of cuts designed by Jost Amman, and first pubUshed in quarto, at Frankfort, in 1564 ; and the improbable story of VftgU Solis ha-ving had his eyes put out for copying JuUo Eomano's obscene designs, engraved by Marc Antonio, and Ulustiated -with sonnets by the scurrUous ribald, Pietro Aretine, is utterly devoid of foundation No such copies have ever been mentioned by any weU-informed writer on art, and there is not the slightest evidence of VftgU SoUs ever having been punished in any manner by the magistrates of his native city, Nuremberg, where he died in 1570. Wood-cuts with the mark of Melchior Lorich are comparatively scarce. He was a native of Flensburg in Holstein, and was born in 1527. He obtained a knowledge of painting and copper-plate engra-ving at Leipsic, and afterwards travelled -with his master through some of the northern countries of Europe. He afterwards -visited Vienna, and subsequently entered into the service of the Palsgrave Otho, in whose suite he visited Holland, France, and Italy. In 1558 he went -with the Imperial ambassador to Constantinople, where he remained three years. His principal works engraved on wood consist of a series of iUustrations of the manners and customs of the Turks, pubUshed about 1570. There is a very clever cut, a Lady splendidly dressed, -with his mark and the date 1551; it is printed on what is caUed a "broadside," and underneath is a copy of verses by Hans Sachs, the celebrated shoe maker and meistersanger of Nuremberg,* entitled " Ecr und Lob einer schon wolgezierten Frawen" — The Honour and Praise of a beautiftU well-dressed woman. A large cut of the Deluge, in two sheets, is * Hans Sachs, whose poetical works might vie ui quantity -with those of Lope Vega, was bom at Nuremberg in 1494. Notwithstanding the immense number of verses which he composed, he did not trost to his profession of Meistersanger for the means of living, but continued to carry on his business as a shoemaker tiU his death, which happened in 1576. His verses were much admired by his contemporaries; and between 1570 and 1579, a collection of his works was pubhshed iu five volumes foho. Several short pieces by him were originally printed as " broadsides," with an ornamental or illusti-ative cut at the top. WOOD ENGEAVING. 409 considered one of the best of his designing. Among the copper plates engraved by Melchior Lorich, a portrait of Albert Durer, and two others, of the Grand Signior and his favourite Sultana, are among the most scarce. The time of his death is uncertain, but Bartsch thinks that he was stUl U-ving in 1583, as there are wood-cuts with his mark of that date. Jost Amman, one of the best designers on wood of the period in which he Uved, was born at Zurich in 1539, but removed to Nuremberg about 1560.* His designs are more bold, and display more of the vigour of the older German masters, than those of his contemporary VftgU Sohs. A series of cuts designed by him, Ulustrative of profes sions and trades, was pubUshed in, 1564, quarto, -with the title "Hans Sachse eigentliche Beschreibung aUer Stande auf Erden — aUer Ktinste und Handwerker," &c. — that is, Hans Sachs's correct Description of aU Eanks, Arts, and Trades ; and another edition in duodecimo, with the descriptions in Latin, appeared in the same year.t For the correctness of the date of those editions I am obliged to rely on Heineken, as I have never seen a copy of either ; the earhest edition with Hans Sachs's descriptions that has come under my notice is dated 1574. In a duodecimo edition, 1568, and another of the same size, 1574, the descriptions, by Hartman Schopper, are in Latin verse. J This is perhaps the most curious and interesting series of cuts, exhibiting the various ranks and employments of men, that ever was pubhshed. Among the higher orders, constituting what the Germans call the " Lehre und Wehr Stande" — teachers and warriors — are the Pope, Emperor, King, Princes, Nobles, Priests, and Lawyers ; whUe almost every branch of labour or of trade then known in Germany, from agri culture to pin-making, has its representative. There are also not a few which it would be difficult to reduce to any distinct class, as they are neither trades nor honest professions. Of those heteroclytes is the "Meretricum procurator — der Hurenweibel "• — or, as Captain Dugald Dalgetty says, "the captain of the Queans." The subject of the foUowing cut, which is of the same size as the ¦* PapUlon, who appears to have been extremely -wishftil to sweU his catalogue of wood engravers, describes Jost Amman of Zurich and Jost Amman of Nuremberg as two ditferent persons. t Heineken, Idee Generale, p. 244. X The following is the title of the edition of 1568 ; — that of 1574 is somewhat different. "nANOOAlA omnium lUiberaUum mechanicarum aut sedentariamm artium, continens quotquot unquam vel a veteribus, aut nostri etiam seculi celebritate excogitari potuerant, breviter et dUucide confecta: carminum liber primus, tum mira varietate rerum vocabu- lorumque novo more excogitatorum copia perquam utUis, lectuque jucundus. Accessemnt etiam venustissimse Imagines omnes omnium artifioum negooiantes ad vivum lectori representantes, antehac nee -visse nee unquam asditae : per Hartman Schopperam, Novo- forens. Noricum. — Frankofurti ad Moenum, cum privelegio Csesario, M.n.XiXViii." 410 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF original, is a Briefmaler, — literally, a card-painter, the name by which the German wood engravers were known before they adopted the more appropriate one of Formschneider. It is e-vident, that, at the time when the cut was engraved, the two professions were distinct : '* we here perceive the Briefmaler employed, not in engraving cuts, but engaged in colouring certain figures by means of a stencil, — that is, a card or thin plate of metal, out of which the intended figure is cut. A brush charged with colour being drawn over the pierced card, as is seen in the cut, the figure is communicated to the paper placed underneath. The little shaUow vessels perceived on the top of the large box in front are the saucers which contain his coloui-s. Near the window, immediately to his right, is a pile of sheets which, from the figure of a man on horseback seen impressed upon them, appear to be already finished. The subject of the following cut, from the same work, is a Formschneidkr, or wood engraver proper. He is apparently at work on a block which he has before him ; but the kind of tool which he employs is not exactly like those used by English wood engravers • The Briefmalers, though at that time evidently distmct from the Formschntidcrs, stiU continued to jmnt wood-cuts. On several large wood-cuts with the dates 1 55:> and 1554 we find the words, " Qednikt zu Niirnberg durch Ilauiis Gliisor, Bricffmaler." WOOD ENGEAVING. 411 of the present day. It seems to resemble a smaU long-handled desk-knife ; whUe the tool of the modern wood engraver has a handle which is rounded at the top in order to accommodate it to the pahn of the hand. It is also never held vertically, as it appears in the hand of the Formschneider. It is, however, certain, from other wood cuts, which wiU be subsequently noticed, that the wood engravers of that period were accustomed to use a tool with a handle rounded at the top, similar to the graver used in the present day.* The verses descriptive of the annexed cut are translated from Hans Sachs. I am a wood-engraver good. And all designs on blocks of wood I -mtb my graver cut so neat. That when they're printed on a sheet Of paper -ivhite, you plainly view The very forms the artist drew : His drawing, whether coarse or fine. Is truly copied line for line. Jost Amman died in 1591, and from the time of his setthng at Nuremberg to that of his decease he seems to have been chiefly employed in making designs on wood for the booksellers of Nurem berg and Frankfort. He also furnished designs for goldsmiths ; and * See the mark G. S. at page 413. 412 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF ft is said that he exceUed as a painter on glass. The works which afford the best specimens of his talents as a designer on wood are those iUustrative of the costume of the period, first pubUshed between 1580 and 1585 by S. Feyerabend at Frankfort. One of those works contaftis the costumes of men of all ranks, except the clergy, uiter- spersed with the armorial bearings of the principal famihes in Germany ; another contains the ccstume of the different orders of the priesthood of the church of Eome ; and a third, entitied Gynajceum sive Theatrum Mulierum, is Ulustrative of the costume of women of aU ranks in Europe. A work on hunting and fowUng, edited by J. A. Lonicems, and printed in 1582, contains about forty exceUent cuts of his designing. A separate volume, consisting of cuts selected from the four preceding works, and of a number of other cuts chiefly iUustrative of mythological subjects and of the costume of Turkey, was published by Feyerabend about 1590. In a subsequent edition of this work, printed in 1599, it is stated that the coUection is pubUshed for the especial benefit of painters and amateurs."' Among the numerous other cuts designed by him, the foUo-wing may be mentioned: Ulus trations for a Bible published at Frankfort 1565 ; a series of subjects from Eoman History, entitled Icones Livianse, 1572 ; and the cuts in an edition of Eeynard the Fox. The works of Jost Amman have proved a mine for succeeding artists ; his figures were frequentiy copied by wood engravers in France, Italy and Flanders ; and even some modern English paintings contain e-vidences of the artist having borrowed something more than a hint from the figures of Jost Amman Jost Amman was undoubtedly one of the best professional designers on wood of his time ; and his style bears considerable resemblance to that of Hans Burgmair as exemplified in the Triumphs of Maximilian. Many of his figures are well drawn ; but even in the best of his subjects the attitudes are somewhat affected and generally too -sdolent ; and this, with an overstrained expression, makes his characters appear more like actors in a theatre than Uke real personages. In the cuts of the horse in the " Kunstbiichlein " the action of the animal is fre quently represented with great spirit: but in points of detail the * This work is entitled " Kunstbiichlein," and consists entirely of cuts without any explanatory letter-press. The first cut consists of a group of heads, drawn and engraved with great spirit. On what appears something Uke a slab of stone or wood — most un meaningly and awkwardly introduced — are Jost Amman's mitials, I. A., towards the top, and lower down the mark, J^^f which is doubtless that of the engraver. This mark, ¦with a figure of a graver undemeath, oiciu-s on several of the other cuts. The three following marks, with a graver underneath each, also occur : L. F. C. S. Q. H. These facts are sutficient to prove that Jost Auunan was not the engraver of the cuts wliich he designed. In the edition of 1599 the cuts are said to have been draicn by " the late most exceUent and celebrated artist, Jost Amman of Nuremberg" WOOD ENGEAVING 413 artist is as frequently incorrect. Some of his very best designs are to be found among his equestrian subjects. His men generally have a good " seat," and his ladies seem to manage theft hea-vy long-taUed steeds with great ease and grace. Several of the views of cities, in Sebastian Munster's Cosmo graphy — first pubUshed in folio, at Basle, 1550 — contain two marks, one of the designer, and the other of the person by whom the subject was engraved, the latter being frequently accompanied by a graver, thus : H'H ; or with two gravers of different kinds, thus : • d ? S • This last mark, which also occurs in Jost Amman's Kunst- "^S^ biichlein, is said to be that of Christopher Stimmer, a brother of Tobias Stimmer, a Swiss artist, who is generaUy described as a designer and engraver on wood. The cuts with the former mark have been ascribed to Hans Holbein, but they bear not the least resemblance to his style of design, and they have been assigned to bim solely on account of the letters corresponding with the initials of his name. Professor Christ's Dic tionary of Monograms, and Papillon's Treatise on Wood-engraving, afford numerous instances of marks being assigned to persons on no better grounds. A writer, in discussing the question, "Were Albert Durer, Lucas Cranach, Hans Burgmair, and other old German artists, the engravers or only the designers of the cuts which bear their mark ? " has been pleas 3d to assert that the mark of the actual engraver is usually distinguished by the graver with which it is accompanied. This statement has been adopted and further disseminated by others ; and many persons who have not an opportunity of judging for themselves, and who receive with impUcit credit whatever they find asserted in a Dictionary of Engravers, suppose that from the time of Albert Durer, or even earUer, the figure of a graver generaUy distinguishes the mark of the formschneider or engraver on wood. So far, however, from this being a general rule, I am not aware of any wood-cut which contains a graver in addition to a mark of an earlier date than those in Munster's Cosmo graphy, and the practice which appears to have been first introduced about that time never became generally prevalent. When the graver is thus introduced there can be no doubt that it is intended to distinguish the mark of the engraver ; but as at least ninety-nine out of every hundred marks on cuts executed between 1550 and 1600 are unaccom panied with a graver, it is exceedingly doubtful in most cases whether the mark be that of the engraver or the designer. The wood-cuts in Munster's Cosmography are generaUy poor in design and coarse in execution. One of the best is that representing an encounter of two armed men on horseback with the mark ^' , which also occurs in some of the cuts in Gesner's History of Animals, printed 414 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF at Zurich, 1551 — 1558. This cut, as weU as several others, is repeated in another part of the book, in the manner of the Nuremberg Chronicle, where the same portrait or the same -view is used to represent several different persons or places. The cuts are not precisely the same in every edition of Munster's work, which was several times reprinted between 1550 and 1570. Those which are substituted in the later editions are rather more neatly engraved. The present cut is copied from one at page 49 of the first edition, where it is given as an iUustration of a wonderful kind of tree said to be found in Scotland, and from the fruit of which it was beheved that geese were produced. Munster's account of this wonderful tree and its fruit is as foUows : " In Scotland are found tiees, the fruit of which appears like a baU of leaves. This fruit, falling at its proper time into the -water below, becomes animated, and turns to a bird which they csdl the tree goose. This tree also grows in the island of Pomona [the largest of the Orkneys], not far distant from Scotland towards the north. As old cosmographers — especiaUy Saxo Granunaticus — mention this free, it is not to be considered as a fiction of modem authors. Aeneas Sylvius also notices this tree as foUows : ' We have heard that there was a tree formerly in Scotland, which, growing by the margin of a stieam, produced fruit of the shape of ducks ; that such fruit, when nearly ripe, feU, some into the water and some on land. Such as feU on land decayed, but such as feU into the water quicldy became animated, swimming below, and then flying into the aft with feathers and wings. WOOD ENGEAVING. 415 When in Scotland, having made dUigent inquiry concerning this matter of King James, a square-buUt man, and very fat,* we found that miracles always kept receding ; — this wonderful tree is not found in Scotland, but in the Orcades.' " The bird said to be the produce of this tree is the " Bernacle Goose, Clakis, or Tree Goose " of Be-wick ; and the pretended tree from which it was supposed to be produced was undoubtecUy a testaceous insect, a species of which, frequently found adhering to ships' bottoms, is described under the name of " Lepas Anatifera " by Linnseus, who thus commemorates in the tri-vial name the old opinion respecting its winged and feathered fruit. WiUiam Turner, a native of Morpeth in Northum berland, one of the earhest writers on British Ornithology, notices the story of the Bernacle Goose being produced from "something like a fungus proceeding from old wood lying in the sea." He says it is mentioned by Gftaldus Cambrensis in his description of Ireland, and that the account of its being generated in this wonderful manner is generally beheved by the people inhabiting the sea^coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. " But," says Turner, " as it seemed not safe to trust to popular report, and as, on account of the singularity of the thing, I could not give entfte credit to Giraldus, I, when thinking of the subject of which I now -write, asked a certain clergyman, named Octavianus, by hftth an Irishman, whom I knew to be worthy of credit, ft he thought the account of Giraldus was to he beheved. He, swearing by the Gospel, declared that what Giraldus had -written about the generation of this bird was most true; that he himseft had seen and handled the young unformed bftds, and that ft I should remain in London a month or two, he would bring me some of the brood." t In Lobel and Pena's Stirpium Adversaria Nova, foho, London, 1570, there is a cut of the " BritaniUca Concha Anatftera," growing on a stalk from a rock, -with figures of ducks or geese in the water below. In the text the popxdar behef of a kind of goose being produced from the sheU of this insect is noticed, but the writer declines pronouncing any opinion tUl he shall have had an opportunity of -visiting Scotland and judging for himseft. Gerard, in his Herbal, London, 1597, has an article on the Goose-tree ; and he says that its native soU is a small island, caUed the PUe of Fouidres, half a mUe from the main land of Lancashire. Ferrer ¦* It is uncertaiu if James I. or James II. be meant. According to Su: Walter Scott, Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II, visited Scotland in 1448, when James IL— if Chalmers be correct, Caledonia, vol. L p. 831,— was scarcely nineteen, and when his appearance was not Ukely to correspond -with the teamed prelate's description,— " hominem quadratum et multa pinguedine gravem." t "Avium prsecipuamm, quamm apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, brevis et succmcta historia. Per Dn. Gulielmum Turneram artium et medicinse doctorem," Svo. Colonise, m.d.xliiii, fol. 9 b. 416 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF de Valcebro, a Spanish writer, in a work entitled " El Gobiemo general hallado en las Aves," with coarse wood-cuts, quarto, printed about 1680, repeats, -with sundry additions, the story of the Bemacle, or, as he calls it, the Barliata, being produced from a tree; and he seems rather displeased that his countrymen are not disposed to yield much faith to such singularities, merely because they do not occur in their own country. There are two portraits of Erasmus in the first edition of Munster's Cosmography, one at page 130, and the other, with the mark mM), at page 407. The latter, as the author especiaUy informs the reader, was engraved after a portrait by Holbein in the possession of Bonftacius Amerbach. The present is a reduced copy of a cut at page 361 of Henry Petris edition, 1554. On a stone, near the bottom, towards the left, is seen a mark * — probably that of the artist who made the drawing on the block — consisting of the same letters as the double mark just noticed as occurring in the portrait of Erasmus, H.E. M.D. A cut ? In Professor Christ's Dictionary of Monograms this mark is ascribed, though doubt fully, to " Manuel Deutsch." It is certainly not the mark of Nicholas Emanuel Deutsch of Bem, for he died several years before 1548, the date on sevei-al of the cuts with the mark H. R. M. D. in Munster's Cosmography, and which date evidently relates to the year in which tho artist made the drawing. There can be no doubt that those four letters belong to a single name, for some of tho cuts in which they oooir also contain the mark of an engraver. WOOD ENGEAVING. 417 of the same subject, William Tell about to shoot at the apple on his son's head, was given in the first edition, but the design is somewhat different and the execution more coarse. The cut from which the preceding is copied may be ranked among the best in the work. Though Sebastian Munster, in a letter, probably written in 1538, addressed to Joachim Vadianus, alludes to an improvement which he and his printer had made in the mode of printing maps, and to a project for casting complete words, yet the maps which appear in his Cosmo graphy, with the outlines, rivers, and mountains engraved on wood, and the names inserted in type, are certainly not superior to the generaUty of other maps executed wholly on wood about the same period.* Joachim Vadianus, to whom Munster writes, and of whose assistance he wished to avail himself in a projected edition of Ptolemy, was an eminent scholar of that period, and had pubhshed an edition, in 1522, of Pomponius Mela, with a commentary and notes. The passage in Munster's letter, wherein maps are mentioned, is to the following effect : " I would have sent you an impression of one of the Swiss maps which I have had printed here, ft Froschover had not informed me of his having sent you one from Zurich. If this mode of printing should succeed tolerably weU, and when we shall have acquired a certain art of casting whole words, Henri Petri, Michael Isengrin, and I have thought of printing Ptolemy's Cosmography ; not of so great a size as it has hitherto been frequently printed, but in the form in which your Anno tations on Pomponius appear. In the maps we shall insert only the names of the principal cities, and give the others alphabeticaUy in some blank space, — for instance, in the margin or any adjoining space beyond the limits of the map."t The art of casting whole words, alluded to in this passage, appears to have been something like an attempt at what has been called " logographic printing ; "\ though it is not unlikely that * A map of Russia, engraved whoUy on wood, in a work entitled " Commentari deUa Moscovia e parimente deUa Russia," &o. translated from the Latin of Sigmund, Baron von Herberstein, printed at Venice, 4to. 1550, is much superior in point of appearance to the best in the work of Munster. This map, which is of foUo size, appears to have been con- stracted by "Giacomo Gastaldo, Piamontese, Cosmographo in Venetia." The work also contains six wood-cuts, which afford some curious specimens of Russian and Tartar arms and costume. t Philologicamm Bpistolamm Centuria una, ex Bibliotheca M. H. Goldasti, p. 165. Svo Francofiirti, 1610. X According to this method, certain words, together with radices and terminations of frequent occurrence, were cast entire, and not in separate letters, and placed in cases in such an order that the compositor could as "readily possess himself of the Type of a word as of the Type of a smgle letter." This method, for which a patent was obtained, is explained in a pamphlet entitied " An Introduction to Logography : or the Art of Arranging and Composing for Printing with Words entire, their Radices and Terminations, instead of single Letters. By Henry Johnson : London, printed Logographically, and sold by J. Walter, bookseller, Charing Cross, and J. Sewell, ComliUl, blboclxxxiii." Several works were E E 418 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF those " whole words " might be the names of countries and places intended to be inserted in a space cut out of the block on which the map was engraved. By thus inserting the names, either cast as complete words, or composed of separate letters, the tedious process of engraving a number of letters on wood was avoided, and the pressman enabled to print the maps at one impression. In some of the earUer maps where the names are printed from types, the letters were not inserted in spaces cut out of the block, but were printed from a separate form by means of a "re-iteration" or second impression.* In iUustiation of what Munster says about a certain art of casting whole words, — " artem aliquo/m fundendarum integrarum dictionum," — the foUo-wing extiact is given from Dr. Dibdin's BibUographical Tour, volume Ui page 102, second edition. " What think you of undoubted proofe of steeeotype FEINTING in the middle of the sixteenth century ? It is even so. What adds to the whimsical puzzle is, that these pieces of metal, of which the surface is composed of types, fixed and immovable, are some times inserted in wooden blocks, and introduced as titles, mottoes, or descriptions of the subjects cut upon the blocks. Professor May [of Augsburg] begged my acceptance of a specimen or two of the types thus fixed upon plates of the same metal. They rarely exceeded the height of four or five lines of text, by about four or five inches in lengtL I carried away, with his permission, two proofs (not long ago puUed) of the same block containing this intermixture of stereotype and wood block printing." As the engraving of the letters in maps executed on wood — or indeed on any other material — is, when the names of many places are given, by far the most tedious and costly part of the process, the plan of inserting them in type by means of holes pierced in the block, as adopted printed in this manner, and among others an edition of Anderson's History of Commerce, 4 vols. 4to. 1787 — 1789, by John Walter, at the Logographic Press, Piinting-House- Square, Blackfriars. Logography has long been abandoned. The foUowing account of this art is given in H. G. Bolm's Lecture on Printing, pp. 88, 89. " Something akin to stereo typing is another mode of printing called Logography, invented by the late Mr. Walter, of the Times, in 1783, and for which he took out a patent This means a system of prmting from type cast in words instead of single letters, which it was thought would save time and corrections when appUed to newspapers, but it was not found to .answer. A joke of the time was a supposed order to the typefounder for some words of frequent occurrence, which ran thus : — ' Please send me a hundred-weight, sorted, of miu'der, fire, dreadful robbery, atrocious outrage, fearful calamity, alarming explosion, melancholy accident ; an assortment of honour able member, whig, tory, hot, cold, wet, dry ; half-a-hundred weight, made up in pounds, of butter, cheese, beef, mutton, tripe, mustard, soap, rain, &c. ; ;md a few devUs, angels, women, groans, hisses, &c.' This method of printmg did not succeed : for if twenty-four letters wiU give six hundi'od sextillions of combinations, no printing office coidd keep a sutficient assortment of even popular words." * See an edition of Ptolemy, printed at Venice by Jacobus Pentius de Leucho, m 1511, previously noticed at page 208. WOOD ENGEAVING. 419 in Munster's Cosmography, was certainly a- great saving of labour ; yet on comparing the maps in this work -with those in Ptolemy's Cosmography, printed by Leonard HoU, at Ulm, 1482, and with others engraved in the early part of the sixteenth century, it is impossible not to perceive that the art of wood engraving, as apphed to the execution of such works, had undergone no improvement : -with the exception of the letters, the maps in HoU's Ptolemy — the earUest that were engraved on wood — are, in point of appearance, equal to those in the work of Munster, pubhshed about eighty years later. Considering that the earliest printed maps — those in an edition of Ptolemy, printed by Arnold Bukinck, at Eome, 1478* — are from copper-plates, it seems rather surprising that, untU about 1570, no further attempt should have been made to apply the art of engraving on copper to this purpose. In the latter year a collec tion of maps, engraved on copper,t was pubhshed at Antwerp under the superintendence of Abraham Ortelius ; and so great was their excellence when compared with former maps executed on wood, that the business of map engraving was -within a few years transferred almost exclusively to engravers on copper. In 1572 a map engraved on copper was printed in England, in the second edition of Archbishop Parker's Bible. It is of foho size, and the country represented is the Holy Land. Within an ornamented tablet is the foUowing inscription : " Graven hi Humfray Cole, goldsmith, an English man born in y" north, and pertayning to y' mint in the Tower. 1572." In Walpole's Catalogue of Engravers the portraits engraved on copper of Queen Elizabeth, the Earl of Leicester, and Lord Burleigh, which appear in the first edition of Archbishop Parker's Bible, 1568, J are ascribed to Humphrey Cole, apparently on no better ground than that his name appears as the engraver of the map, which is given in the second. If Cole were reaUy the engraver of those portraits, he was certainly entitled to a more favourable notice § than he * Some account of this work is given at page 200. t At page 204 it is stated, on the authority of Breitkopf, that those maps were engraved by jEgidius Diest. OrteUus himself says in the preface that they were engraved by "Francis Hogenberg, Ferdinand and Ambrose Arsens, and others." X The portrait of Queen EUzabeth appears on the title ; the Earl of Leicester's is pre fixed to the Book of Joshua ; and Lord Burleigh's is given, -with a large initial B, at the begmning of the first psalm. In the second edition, 1572, the portrait of Lord Burleigh is omitted, and the impressions of the other two are much inferior to those in the first edition in consequence of the plates being worn. Many of the cuts in the second edition are quite different from those m the first, and generaUy inferior to the cuts for which they are substituted. § " Humphrey Cole, as he says hlmgelf, was bom m the North of England, a.ni pertayned to the mint in the Tower, 1572. I suppose he was one of the engravers that pertayned to Archbishop Parker, for this edition was caUed Matthew Parker's Bible. I hope the flatteiy of the favourites was the incense of the engraver !" Catalogue of Engravers, p. 16. Edit. 1794_WaJpole does not appear to have paid the least attention to the engraver's merits— E E 2 420 FUETHEK PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF receives from the fastidious compUer of the " Catalogue of Engravers who have been bom or resided in England ;" for, considering when and where they were executed, the engraver is entitled to rank at least as high as George Vertue. In fact, the portraft of Leicester, considered merely as a specimen of engraving, without regard to the time and place of its execution, wUl bear a comparison with more than one of the portiaits engraved by Vertue upwards of a hundred and fifty years later. The advantages of copper-plate engraving for the purpose of executing maps, as exemphfied in the work of Ortehus, appear to have been immediately appreciated in England, and this country is one of the first that can boast of a coUection of provincial or county maps engraved on copper. A series of maps of aU the counties of England and Wales, and of the adjacent islands, were engraved, under the superintendence of Christopher Saxton, between 1573 and 1579, and published at London, in a folio volume, in the latter year. Though the greater number of those maps were the work of Flemish engravers, eight, at least, were engraved by two Englishmen, Augustine Eyther and Nicholas Eeynolds.* They appear to have been aU dra-wn by Christopher Saxton, who lived at Tingley, near Leeds, Walpole says, that " he was servant to Thomas Sekeford, Esq. Master of the Court of Wards," the gentleman at whose expense they were engraved. He also states that many of them were engraved by Saxton himseft ; but this I consider to be extremely doubtful. In his account of early EngUsh copper-plate engravers, Walpole is frequently incorrect : he mentions Humphrey Lhuyd — an author who wrote a short description of Britain, printed at Cologne in 1572+ — as the engraver of the map of England in the coUection of OrteUus ; and he includes Dr. WUliam Cuningham, a physician of Norwich, in his catalogue of engravers, -without the slightest reason beyond the mere fact, that a book entitled " The Cosmographical supposing, as he does, the portraits to have been executed by him : — ^he sneers at him because he had engraved certain portraits for a Bible, and because he was supposed to have been patronised by a bishop. A more Uberal -writer on art would have praised Parker, although he were an archbishop, for his patronage of a native engraver. • " Augustinus Ryther, Anglus," occurs on the maps of Cumberland and Westmorland, Gloucester, and Yorkshire. Ryther afterwards kept a bookseUer's shop in LieadenhaU-stieet. He engraved some maps and charts, which were pubUshed about 15SS. Onthe map of the county of Hertford, Reynolds's name occurs thus : " Nicholas Reynoldus, Londinensis, sculpsit." Several of those maps were engraved by Bemigius Hogenberg, one of the engravers who are said to have been employed by Archbishop Parker in his palace at Lambctli. + This little work, entitled " CommciitarioU Britaunicie Dcscriptionis Fragmentum," was sent by the author to OrteUus, and the prefatory addi-ess is dated Denbigh, in North Wales, .lOth August I5(is. A translation of it, under the title of a " Breviary of Britain," was printed at London in 157,'?.— Lhuyd had only furnished Ortelius with materials for the constmction of the map of England. WOOD ENGEAVING. 421 Glasse,'' written by the Doctor, and printed in 1559, contains several wood-cuts. He might, with equal justice, have placed Archbishop Parker in his catalogue, and asserted that some of the plates in the Bible were " engraved by his own hand." In connexion with the preceding account of the earliest maps executed in England on copper, it perhaps may not be unnecessary to briefly notice here the introduction of copper-plate engraving into this country. According to Herbert, in his edition of Ames's Typographical Antiquities, the frontispiece of a small work entitled " Galenus de Temperamentis," printed at Cambridge, 1521, is the earUest specimen of copper-plate engraving that is to be found in any book printed in England. The art, however, supposing that the plate was really engraved and printed in this country, appears to have received no encouragement on its first introduction, for after this first essay it seems to have lain dormant for nearly twenty years. The next earliest specimens appear in the first edition of a work usuaUy called " Eaynalde's Birth of Mankind," printed at London in 1540. * This work, which is a treatise on the obstetric art, contains, when perfect, three plates, illustrative of the subject. Not ha-ving had an opportunity of seeing any one of these three plates nor the frontispiece to " Galenus de Temperamentis," I am obliged to trust to Herbert for the fact of their being engraved on copper. In the third volume of his edition of Ames, page 1411, there is a fac-simile of the frontispiece to the Cambridge book ; and in the Preliminary Disquisition on Early Engraving and Ornamental Printing, prefixed to Dr. Dibdin's edition of the Typographical Antiquities, wUl be found a fac-simUe, engraved on wood, of one of the plates in Eaynalde's Birth of Mankind. In an edition of the latter work, printed in 1565, the "byrthe figures" are not engraved on copper, but on wood. A work printed in London by John Hereford, 1 545, contains several unquestionable specimens of copper-plate engraving. It is of foUo size, and the title is as follows : " Compendiosa totius Anatomise delineatio tere exarata, per Thomam Geminum." The ornamental title-page, with the arms of Henry VIII. towards the centre, is engraved on copper, and several anatomical subjects are executed in the same manner. * The name of " Thomas Raynalde, Physition,'' is not to be found in the edition of 1540. The title of the work is, " The byrth of Mankynd, newly translated out of Latin into Englysshe. In the which is entreated of all suche thynges the which chaunce to women in theyr labor," &o. At folio vi. there is an address from Richard Jonas, " Unto the most gracious, and in aU goodnesse most exceUent vertuous Lady Quene Katheryne, wyfe and most derely belovyd spouse unto the moste myghty sapient Christen prynce, Kynge Henry the VIII."— This " most exceUent vertuous lady" was Catherine Howard. The imprint at the end of the work is as foUows : " Imprynted at London, by T. R. Anno Domini, m.ccooo.xl." Raynalde's name first appears in the second edition, 1545. Between 1540 and 1600 there were at least eight editions of this work printed in London. 422 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF Gemini, who is believed to have been the engraver of those plates, was not a native of this country.* In a dedication to Henry VIII, he says that in his work he had foUowed Andrew VesaUus of Brassels; and he further mentions that in the year before he had received orders from the King to have the plates printed off [eaxiudendas]. A second edition, dedicated to Edward VI, appeared in 1553 ; and a third, dedicated to Queen Ehzabeth, in 1559.+ In the last edition the Eoyal Arms on the title-page are effaced, and the portrait of Queen Ehzabeth engraved in their stead. Traces of the former subject are, however, stiU. visible, and the motto, "Dieu et mon Droit," has been aUowed to remain. One of the engra-vings in this work affords a curious instance of the original plate of copper having been either mended or enlarged by joining another piece to it. Even in the first edition, the zigzag hne where the two pieces are joined, and the forms of the httle cramps which hold them together, are visible, and in the last they are distinctly apparent. The earUest portiait engraved on copper, printed singly, in this country, and not as an Ulustration of a book, is that of Archbishop Parker engraved by Eemigius Hogenberg. It is a small print four and a half inches high by three and a haft -wide. At the corners are the arms of Canterbury, impaled -with those of Parker ; the archbishop's arms separately ; a plain shield, with a cross and the letters | ; and the arms of Archbishop Cranmer. The portrait is engraved in an oval, round the border of which is the foUo-wing inscription : " Miidus transit, et cupiscetia ejus. Anno Domini 1572, setatis suas Anno 69. Die mensis Augusti sexto." In an impression, now before me, from the original plate, the date and the archbishop's age are altered to 1573 and 70, but the marks of the ciphers erased are quite perceptible. The portiait of the archbishop is a half-length ; he is seated at a table, on which are a beU, a smaU coffer, and what appears to be a stamp. A Bible is lying open before him, and on one of the pages is inscribed in very smaU letters the foUo-wing passage from the vl chapter of iMicah, verse 8 : " Indicabo tibi, o homo, quid sit bonum, et quid Deus requirat a te, utique facere judicium, et dUigere misericordiam, et soUcitum ambulare cum Deo tuo." The engraver's name, " R. Berg /.," appears at the bottom of the print to the right : a cross line from the E to the B indicates the abbreviation of the surname, which, -written at length, was * At the end of the dedication to Henry VIIL he signs himself " Thomas Geminus, Lysiensis." + In the edition of 1559 there is a largo wood-cut — " Interioram corporis humani partium viva delineatio " — with the mark K. S. and a graver underneath. In this cut the ulterior parts of the body are impressed on separate slips, which .ore pasted, by one edge, at the side of the figure. Those slips on being raised show the different parts .-ks they occur on dissection. WOOD ENGEAVING. 423 Hogenberg. Caulfield, speaking of this engraving in his Calcographiana, page 4, 1814, says, — "The only impression supposed to be extant is in the library at Lambeth Palace ; but within the last two years, Mr. Woodburn, of St. Martin's Lane, purchased a magnificent coUection of portraits, among which was a very fine one of Parker." The number of books, containing copper-plate engravings, pubUshed in England between 1559 and 1600, is extremely Umited; and the foUo-wing Ust -wiU perhaps be found to contain one or two more than have been mentioned by preceding -writers: 1. Pena and Lobels Stirpium Adversaria Nova, foUo, 1570, — ornamented title-page, with the arms of England at the top, and a smaU map towards the bottom : — ^the ornaments surrounding the map are very beautftuUy engraved. 2. Archbishop Parker's Bible, 1568 — 1572, with the portraits, previously noticed at page 419. 3. Saxton's Maps, with the portiait of Queen EUzabeth on the title, 1579. 4. Broughton's Concent of Scripture, 1591, ^engraved title, and four other plates. 5. Translation of Ariosto by Sft John Harrington, 1591, — engraved title-page, containing portraits of the author and translator, and forty-six other plates. 6. E. Haydock's Translation of Lomazzo's Treatise on Painting and Architecture, Oxford, 1598,^engraved title-page, containing portraits of Lomazzo and Hay- dock, and several very indifferent plates, chiefly of architecture and figures in outUne. Walpole mentions a plate of the arms of Sir Christopher Hatton on the title-page of the second part of Wagenar's Mariner's Mftrour, printed in 1588, and the plates in a work entitled "A True Eeport of the New foundland of Virginia,'' all engraved by Theodore de Bry. The first of these works I have not been able to obtain a sight of;* and the second cannot properly be included in a Ust of works containing copper plates pubUshed in England previous to 1600 ;t for though it appeared in 1591, it was printed at Frankfort. In the reigns of James and Charles I, copper-plate engraving was warmly patronised in England, and several foreign engravers, as in the reign of EUzabeth, were induced to take up their abode in this country. In the first edition of Cha,mbers' Cyclopedia, it is stated that the art of copper-plate engraving was brought " In Herbert's edition of the Typographical Antiquities, vol. Ui. p. I68I, both parts of this work are said to have engraved titles, and the arms of Sir C. Hatton are said to occur at the back of the title to the first part. The work contams twenty-two maps and charts, probably copied from the original Dutch edition of Wagenar, who was a native of Enchuysen. There is no printer's name in the Enghsh edition. t Walpole erroneously states that " Broughton's book was not prmted tUl 1600," and he says that "the c%ts were probably engraved by an EngUsh artist named William Rogers." The mark ^^ is to be found on some of the plates of the edition of 1600, but it is to be observed that they are not the same as those in the edition of 1591. The first edition of the work was printed in 1588. 424 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DECLINE OF to this country from Antwerp by Speed the historian, — an error which is poftited out by Walpole : the -writer it seems had not been aware of any earher copper-plates printed in England than Speed's maps, which were chiefly executed by Flemish engravers. WOOD ENGEAVING. 425 Dr. William Cuningham, whom Walpole describes as an engraver, was a physician practising at Norwich ; and his book, entitled The Cosmographical Glasse,* some of the plates of which are said to have been " engraved by the doctor's own hand," was printed at London by John Day ia 1559. It contains no plates, properly speaking, for the engravings are all from wood-blocks. At the foot of the ornamental title-page, and in a large bird's-eye view of Norwich, is the mark I. B. F, which, from something like a tool for engraving, between the B. and F in the original, is most likely that of the engraver. The principal cut is a portrait of the author, a fac-simile of which is given in the opposite page. It is much more Ukely that some of those cuts were engraved by the printer of the book, John Day, than by the author. Dr. Cuningham ; for the initials I. D. appear on a cut at the end of the book, — a skeleton extended on a tomb, with a tree growing out of it — and also on two or three of the large ornamental letters. John Day, in a book printed • The foUowing is the title of this work : " The Cosmographical Glasse, conteinyng the pleasant Principles of Cosmographie, Geographie, Hydrographie or Navigation. CompUed by WUliam Cuningham, Doctor in Physioke. Excussum Londini in officina Joan. Daii, Anno 1559. In this Glasse, if you wiU beholde The starry skie and yearth so wide. The seas also, with the windes so colde. Yea, and thy selfe aU these to guide : What this Type mean first learne a right. So shaU the gayne thy travaiU quight." The " Type" mentioned m these verses relates to the various allegorical and other figmes in the engraved title-page. 426 FUETHEE PEOGEESS AND DBCLLNE OF by hftn in 1567, says that the Saxon characters used in it were cut by himseft. The cut on page 425 and the three foUowing are specimens of some of the large ornamental letters which occur in the Cosmographical Glasse. The first, the letter D, inclosing the arms of Lord Eobert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, to whom the work is dedicated. The second, the letter A, Sftenus on an ass, accompanied by satyrs ; the mark, a C ¦with a smaU i -within the curve, is perceived near the bottom, to the right* The thftd, the letter I, with a mUitary commander taking the angles between three churches ; and the mark I. D. at the bottom to the left. * This mark, which occurs in two other cuts of large leitera in the Cosmographical Glasse, is aUo to be found on a large ornamented letter in Robert Rerord's Ca.iigi'a%'ing ; and in the same year he engraved a chiaro-scuro of ("iliiist tiUven dnwn from the cross, from a Tiait6 de la Gravure en Bois, tom. i. pp. 327, 32S. EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 455 painting by Eembrandt,* in the possession of Joseph Smith, Esq. the British consul at Venice, a weU-known collector of pictures and other works of art. Between 1738 and 1742, when residing at Venice, he also engraved twenty-seven large chiaro-scuros, — chiefly after pictures by Titian, G. Bassano, Tintoret, and P. Veronese, — which were published in a large foUo volume in the latter year. They are very unequal in point of merit ; some of them appearing harsh and crude, and others flat and spiritless, when compared with similar productions of the old Italian wood engravers. One of the best is the Martyi'dom of St. Peter Dominicanus, after Titian, with the date 1739 ; the manner in which the fohage of the trees is represented is particularly good. On his return to England he seems to have totaUy abandoned the practice of wood engraving in the ordinary manner for the purpose of iUustrating or ornamenting books ; for I have not been able to discover any English wood- cut of the period that either contains his mark, or seems, from its comparative exceUence, to have been of his engraving. Finding no demand in this country for wood-cuts, he appears to have tried to render his knowledge of engra-ving in chiaro-scuro avaUable for the purposii of printing paper-hangings. In an '' Essay on the Invention of Engraving and Priating in Chiaro Oscuro,"t published in his name in 1754, we learn that he was then engaged in a manufacture of this kind at Battersea. The account given in this essay of, the origin and progress of chiaro-scuro engra-ving is frequently incorrect ; and from several of the statements which it contains, it would seem that the -writer was very imperfectly acquainted with the works of his predecessors and con temporaries in the same department of wood engraving. From the foUo-wing passage, which is to be found in the fifth page, it is evident that the -writer was either ignorant of what had been done in the six teenth and seventeenth centuries, and even in his own age, or that he was wishful to enhance the merit of Mr. Jackson's process by concealing what had recently been done in the same manner by others. " After haviag said aU this, it may seem highly improper to give to Mr. Jackson ,the merit of inventing this art ; but let me be permitted to say, that an art recovered is less little than an art invented. The works of the former artists remain indeed ; but the manner in which they were done is entirely lost : the inventing then the manner is reaUy due to this latter undertaker, since no writings, or other remains, are to be found by * This painting, which is whoUy in chiaro-scuro, is now m the National GaUery, to which it was presented by the late Sir George Beaumont. t The title at length is as foUows : " An Essay on the Invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaro Oscuro, as practised by Albert Durer, Hugo di Carpi, &c., and the AppUcation of it to the making Paper Hangings of taste, duration, and elegance, by Mr. Jackson of Battersea. Illustrated with Prints in proper colours." 4to. London, 1754. 456 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. which the method of former artists can be discovered, or in what manner they executed their works ; nor, in truth, has the ItaUan method since the beginning of the sixteenth century been attempted by any one except Mr. Jackson." What is here caUed the " ItaUan method," that is, the method of executing chiaro-scuros entirely on wood, was practised in France at the end of the seventeenth century : and Mcholas Le Sueur had engraved several cuts in this manner about 1730, the very time when Jackson was living in Paris. The principles of the art had also been apphed in France to the execution of paper-hangings upwards of fifty years before Jackson attempted to estabhsh the same kind of manufacture ia England. Not a word is said of the chiaro-scuros of KirkaU,* from whom it is likely that Jackson first acquired his knowledge of chiaro-scuro engra-Ying : with the exception of the outlines and some other parts in these chiaro-souros being executed in mezzotint, the printing of the rest from wood-blocks is precisely the same as in the Itahan method. The Essay contains eight prints iUustrative of Mr. Jackson's method ; four are chiaro-scuros, and four are printed in " proper colours," as is expressed in the title, in imitation of dra-wings. They are very poorly executed, and are very much inferior to the chiaro-scuros engraved by Jackson when residing at Venice. The priats in " proper colours" are egregious faUures. The following notices respecting Mr. Jackson are extracted from the Essay in question. " Certainly Mr. Jackson, the person of whom we speak, has not spent less time and pains, apphed less assiduity, or traveUed to fewer distant countries in search of perfecting his art, than other men ; ha-ving passed twenty years in France and Italy to complete himseft in drawing after the best masters in the best schools, and to see what antiquity had most worthy the attention of a student in his particular pursuits. After all this time spent in perfecting himself in his discoveries, Uke a true lover of his native country, he is returned -with a design to communicate aU the means which his endeavours can contribute to enrich the land where he drew his first breath, by adding to its commerce, and emploAdng its inhabitants ; and yet, hke a citizen of it, he would wUUngly enjoy some Uttle share of those advantages before he leaves this world, which he must leave behind him to his countrymen when he shaU be no more." " During his residence at Venice, where he made himself perfect * There can be no doubt that the mention of Ku'kall's name is purposely avoided. The "attempts" of Count Caylus, who executed several chiaro-scuros by means of copper-plates and wood-blocks subsequent to Ku-kaU, are noticed ; but the name of Nicholas Le Sueur, who assisted the Count and engraved the wood-blocks, is never mentioned. It is also stated in the Essay, page 6, that some of the subjects begim by Count Caylus were finished by Mr. Jackson, and "approved by the lovers and promotei's of that ai't in Paris." EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 467 in the art which he professes, he finished many works weU known to the nobUity and gentry who travelled to that city whUst he Uved in it. — ¦ Mr. Frederick, Mr. LethuiUier, and Mr. Smith, the English consul at Venice, encouraged Mr. Jackson to undertake to engrave in chiaro- oscuro, blocks after the most capital pictures of Titian, Tintoret, Giacomo Bassano, and Paul Veronese, which are to be found in Veiuce, and to this end procured him a subscription. In this work may be seen what engra-ving on wood wUl effectuate, and how truly the spftit and genius of every one of those celebrated masters are preserved in the prints. "During his executing this work he was honoured with the encouragement of the Eight Honourable the Marquis of Hartington, Sft Eoger Newdigate, Sft Bouchier Wrey, and other English gentlemen on their travels at Venice, who saw Mr. Jackson drawing on the blocks for the print after the famous picture of the Crucifixion painted by Tintoret in the albergo of St. Eoche. Those prints may now be seen at his house at Battersea. — Not content with ha-ving brought his works in chiaro-oscuro to such perfection, he attempted to print landscapes in aU their original colours ; not only to give to the world all the outline light and shade, which is to be found in the paintings of the best masters, but in a great degree their very manner and taste of colouring. With this intent he published six landscapes,* which are his first attempt in this nature, in imitation of painting in aquarillo or water-colours ; which work was taken notice of by the Earl of Holdemess, then ambassador extraordinary to the republic of Venice ; and his exceUency was pleased to permit the dedication of those prints to him, and to encourage this new attempt of printing pictures with a very particular and very favourable regard, and to express his approba tion of the merit of the inventor." John Michael PapiUon, one of the best French wood engravers of his age, was born in 1698. His grandfather and his lather, as has been previously observed, were both wood engravers. In 1706, when only eight years old, he secretly made his first essay in wood engraving ; and when only nine, his father, who had become aware of his amusing himself in this manner, gave hftn a large block to engrave, which he appears to have executed to his father's satisfaction, though he had pre-viously received no instructions in the art.t The block was intended * I have only seen one of these landscapes ; and fi-om it I form no very high opinion of the others. It is scarcely superior in point of execution to the prints in "proper colours" contained in the Essay. + PapiUon, in the Supplement to his " Traits de la Gravure en Bois," page 6, gives a small cut — a copy of a figure in a copper-plate by Callot — engraved by himself when nme years old. If the cut be genuine, the engraver had improved but Uttle as he grew older. 458 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. for printing paper-hangings, the manufacture of which was his father's principal business. Though until the time of his father's death, which happened in 1723, PapUlon appears to have been chiefiy employed in such works, and in hanging the papers which he had pre-viously engraved, he yet executed several vignettes and ornaments for the bookseUers, and sedulously endeavoured to improve himself in this higher department of his business. Shortly after the death of his father he married ; and, ha-ving given up the business of engraving paper-hangings, he laboured so hard to perfect himself in the art of designing and engra-Ying vignettes and ornaments for books, that his head became affected ; and he some times displayed such absence of mind that his -wife liecame alarmed, fancying that "he no longer loved her." On his assuring her that his behaviour was the result of his anxiety to improve himseft in drawing and engraving on wood, and to -write something about the art, she encouraged him in his purpose, and aided him with her advice, for, as she was the daughter of a clever man, IM. Chaveau, a sculptor, and had herself made many pretty drawings on fans, she had some knowledge of design. Papillon's fits of absence, however, though they may have been proximately induced by close apphcation and anxiety about his success in the line to which he intended to apply himself in future, appear to have originated in a tendency to insanity, which at a later period displayed itself in a more decided manner. In 1759, in consequence of a determination of blood to the head, as he says, through excessive joy at seeing his only daughter, who had lived from the age of four years -with her uncle, combined with a recollection of his former sorrows, his mind became so much disordered that it was necessary to send him to an hospital, where, through repeated bleedings and other remedies, he seems to have speedily recovered. He mentions that in the same year, four other engravers were attacked by the same malady, and that only one of them regained his senses.* Papillon's endeavours to improve himseft were not unsuccessful ; the cuts which he engraved about 1724, though mostly smaU, possess * Traite de la Gravure en Bois, Supplement, tom. ui. p. 3!1. In the first volume, page 335, he alludes to the disorder as " un accident et une fatalite commune k plusieurs graveurs, aussi bien que moi." Has the practice of engraving on wood or on copper a tendency to induce insanity 1 Three distinguished -engravers, aU fi'om the aime town, have in I'ecent times lost their reason ; and several others, from various pai'ts of the countiy, have been afilioted with the same distressmg malady. These facts deserve the consideration of parents who design to send their sons as pupUs to engravei-s. When there is the least reason to suspect a hereditary taint of insanity in the constitution of the youth, it perhaps would be safest to put him to some other business or profession where close attention to minute objects is less required. BEVIVAIi OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 459 considerable merit ; they are not only designed with much more feehng than the generality of those executed by other French en gravers of the period, but are also much more effective, displaying a variety of tint and a contrast of Ught and shade which are not to be found in the works of his contemporaries. In 1726, in order to divert his anxiety and to bring his cuts into notice, he projected Le petit Almanack de Paris, which subsequently was generaUy known as " Le Papillon." The first that he published was for the year 1727 ; and the wood-cuts which it contained equally attracted the attention of the public and of connoisseurs. Monsieur Colombat, the editor of the Court Calendar, spoke highly of the cut for the month of January ; the cross-hatchings, he said, were executed in the first style of wood engra-ving, and he kindly predicted to Papillon that he would one day excel in his art. From this time he seems to have no longer had any doubt of his own abilities, but, on the contrary, to have entertained a very high opinion of them. He appears to have considered wood engra-ving as the highest of aU the graphic arts, and himself as the greatest of all its professors, either ancient or modern. From this, to him, memorable epoch, — the pubhcation of " Le petit Almanach de Paris," with cuts by Papillon, — he appears to have been seldom without employment, for in the Supplement to the "Traite de la Gra-vure en Bois," he mentions that in 1768, the " Collection of the Works of the PapUlons," presented by him to the Eoyal Library, contained upwards of five thousand pieces of his o-wn engraving. This " EecueU des PapiUons," which he seems to have considered as a family monument " sere perennius," is perpetuaUy referred to in the course of his work. It consisted of four large foho volumes containing specimens of wood engravings executed by the different members of the PapiUon family for three genera tions — his grandfather, his father, his uncle, his brother, and himself Papillon was employed not only by the bookseUers of his own country, but also by those of Holland. A book, entitled " Historische School en Huis-Bybel," printed at Amsterdam in 1743, contains two hundred and seventeen cuts, aU of which appear to have been either engraved by Papillon himseft, or under his superintendence. His name appears on several of them, and they are all . engraved in the same style. From a passage in the dedication, it seems likely that they had appeared in a simUar work printed at the same place a few years previously. They are generally executed in a coarser manner than those contained in Papillon's own work, but the style of engraving and general effect are the same. The cut on the next page is a copy of the first, which is one of the best in the work. To the left is 460 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. Papillon's name, engraved, as was customary with him, in very small letters, with the date, 1734. PapUlon's History of Wood Engra-ving, pubhshed in 1766, in two octavo volumes, with a Supplement,* under the title of "Traite Historique et Pratique de la Gravure en Bois," is said to have been projected, and partly written, upwards of thftty years before it was given to the pubhc. Shortly after his being admitted a member of the Society of Arts, in 1733, he read, at one of the meetings, a paper on the history and practice of wood engraving ; and in 1735 the Society signified their approbation that a work -written by him on the subject should be printed. It appears that the first volume of such a. work was actuaUy printed between 1736 and 1738, but never published. He does not explain why the work was not proceeded with at that time ; and it would be useless to speculate on the possible causes of the interruption. He mentions that a copy of this volume was preserved in the Eoyal Library ; and he charges Fournier the younger, who between 1758 and 1761 published three tracts on the invention of wood engraving and printing, -with havftig avaUed himseft of a portion of the historical information contained in this volume. The pubhc, however, according to his own statement, gained by the delSy ; as he grew older he gained more knowledge of the history of the art, and "invented" several important improvements in his practice, all of which are embodied in his later work. In 1758 he also discovered the memoranda which he had made at Monf'eur De Greder's, in 1719 or 1720, relative to the interesting twins, * The Supplement, or " Tome troisii^me," as it is also called, though dated 1766, was not printed until 1768, as is evident from a " Discoms Nuptial," at p;ige 97, pronoimced on I3th June 1768. Two of tho cuts also contain the date 1768. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 461 Alexander Alberic Cunio and his sister Isabella, who, about 1284, between the fourteenth and sixteenth years of their age, executed a series of wood engravings iUustrative of the history of Alexander the Great* However the reader may be delighted or amused by the romantic narrative of the Cunio, PapUlon's reputation as the historian of his art would most likely have stood a little higher had he never discovered those memoranda. They have very much the character of ill-contrived forgeries ; and even supposing that he believed them, and printed them in good faith, his judgment must be sacrificed to save his honesty. The first volume of PapiUon's work contains the history of the art ; it is divided into two parts, the first treating of wood engraving for the purpose of printing in the usual manner from a single block, and the second treating of chiaro-scuro. He does not trace the pro gress of the art by pointing out the improvements introduced at different periods ; he enumerates all the principal cuts that he had seen, without reference to theft execution as compared with those of an earlier date ; and, from his desire to enhance the importance of his art, he claims almost every eminent painter whose name or mark is to be found on a cut, as a wood engraver. He is in this respect so extremely credulous as to assert that Mary de Medici, Queen of Henry IV. of France, had occasionally amused herself with engraving on wood ; and in order to place the fact beyond doubt he refers to a cut repre senting the bust of a female, with the foUowing inscription : " Maria Medici. F. m.d.lxxxvii." " The engraving," he observes, with his usual bonhomie, " is rather better than what might be reasonably expected from ,a person of such quality ; it contains many cross- hatchings, somewhat unequal indeed, and occasionally imperfect, but, not-withstanding, sufficiently well engraved to show that she had executed several wood-cuts before she had attempted this. I know more than one wood engraver — or at least caUing himself such — who is incapable of doing the like!' In 1587, the date of this cut, Mary de Medici was only fourteen years old ; and since its execution, according to PapUlon, shows that she was then no novice in the art, she must have acquired her practical knowledge of wood engraving at rather an early age, — at least for a princess. PapiUon never seems to have considered that F is the first letter of "Filia" as well ae of " Fecit," nor to have suspected that the cut was simply a portrait of Mary de Medici, and not a specimen of her engraving. From the following passage in the preface, he seems to have been * PapiUon's account of the Cunio, with an examination of its credibility, will be found in chapter i. pp. 26;— 39. 462 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. aware that his including the names of many emuient painters in his list of wood engravers would be objected to. " Some persons, who entertain a preconceived opinion that many painters whom I mention have not engraved on wood, may perhaps dispute the works which I ascribe to them. Of such persons I have to request that they -will not condemn me before they have acquainted themselves -with my researches and examined my proofs, and that they -wUl judge of them -without prejudice or partiality." The " researches " to which he alludes, appear to have consisted in searching out the names and marks of eminent painters in old wood-cuts, and his " proofs " are of the same kind as that which he alleges in support of his assertion that Mary de Medici had engraved on wood, — a fact which, as he remarks, "was unkno-wn to Eubens." The historical portion of PapiUon's work is indeed Uttle more than a confused catalogue of aU the wood-cuts which had come under his observation ; it abounds in errors, and almost every page affords an instance of his credulity. In the second volume, which is occupied with detaUs relative to the practice of the art, PapiUon gives his instructions and enumerates his "inventions" in a style of complacent self-conceit. The most trifling remarks are accompanied by a reference to the " EecueU des PapUlons ; " and the most obvious means of effecting certain objects,— such means as had been regularly adopted by wood engravers for upwards of two hundred years pre-viously, and such as in succeeding times have suggested themselves to persons who never received any instructions in the art, — are spoken of as important discoveries, and credit taken for them accordingly. One of his fancied discoveries is that of lowering the surface of a block towards the edges in order that the engraved Unes in those parts may be less subject to the action of the plattin in printing, and consequently lighter in the impression. The Lyons Dance of Death. 1538, affords several iastances of blocks lowered in this manner, not only towards the edges, but also in the middle of the cut, whenever it was necessary that certain deftcately engraved lines should be Ughtly printed, and thus have the appearance of gradually diminishing tUl theft- extremities should scarcely be distinguishable fr-om the paper on which they are impressed. Numerous instances of this practice are frequent in wood-cuts executed from 1640 to the decline of the art in the seven teenth century. Lowering was also practised by the engraver of the cuts in CroxaU's J5sop ; by Thomas Bewick, who acquft-ed a knowledge of wood engraving without a master ; and by the self-taught artist who executed the cuts in Alexander's Expedition down the Hydaspes, a poem by Dr. Thomas Beddoes, printed in 1792, but never published.* As the * This poem was privately printed and never pubUshed. It was written expressly in imitation of Dr. Darwin, some of whoso friends had contended that his style was inimitable, EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 463 same practice has recently been claimed as an "invention," it would seem that some wood engravers are either apt to ascribe much importance to little things, or are singularly ignorant of what has been done by their predecessors. Such an " invention," though unquestionably useful, surely does not requfte any particular ingenuity for its discovery ; such " dis coveries " every man makes for himseft as soon as he feels the want of that which the so-caUed invention -wiU supply. The man who pares the cork of a quart bottle in order to make it fit a smaUer one is, with equal justice, entitled to the name of an inventor, provided he was not aware of the thing having been done before : such an " adaptation of means to the end " cannot, however, be considered as an effort of genius deserving of public commendation. In Papillon's time it was not customary with French engravers on wood to have the subject perfectly drawn on the block, with aU the lines and hatchings pencUled in, and the effect and the different tints iadicated either in pencU or in Indian ink, as is the usual practice in the present day. The design was first drawn on paper ; from this, by means of tracing paper, the engraver made an outline copy on the block ; and, -without pencUling in all the Unes or washing in the tints, he proceeded to "translate" the original, to which he constantly referred in the progress of his work, in the same manner as a copper-plate engraver does to the dra-wing or painting before him. Papillon perceived the disadvantages which resulted from this mode of proceeding ; and though he stUl continued to make his first dra-wing on paper, he copied it more carefuUy and distinctly on the block than was usual with his contem poraries. He was thus enabled to proceed with greater certainty in his engra-ving ; what he had to effect was immediately before him, and it was no longer necessary to refer so frequently to the original To the circumstance of the drawings being perfectly made on the block, PapiUon ascribes in a great measure the excellence of the old wood engravings of the time of Durer and Holbein. PapiUon, although always inclined to magnify little things connected with wood engra-ving, and to take great credit to himself for trifling " inventions," was yet thoroughly acquainted with the practice of his art The mode of thickening the hnes in certain parts of a cut, after it has but were deceived into a belief that this poem was -(Pritten by him, untU the real author avowed himself In the Advertisement prefixed to it Dr. Beddoes speaks thus of the engraver of the cuts : " The engravings in the following pages -wUl be praised or excused when it is known that they are the performance of an uneducated and uninstructed artist, if such an appUcation be not a profanation of the term, in a remote village. AU the assist ance he received was from the example of Mr. Bewick's most masterly engravings on wood." The name of this self-taught artist was Edward Dyas, who was parish-clerk at Madeley, Shropshire, where the book was printed. The compositor, as is stated in the same Advertise ment, was a young woman. — See Bibliotheca Parriama, p. 513. 464 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. been engraved, by scraping them down, was frequently practised by him, and he explains the manner of proceeding, and gives a cut of the tools requfted in the operation* As PapUlon, pre-vious to the pubUcation of his book, had contributed several papers on the subject of wood engraving to the famed Encyclopedic, he avaUs himself of the second volume of the Traits to propose several additions and corrections to those articles. The foUo-wing definition proposed to be inserted in the Encyclopedic, after the article Geatuit, wUl afford some idea of the manner in which he is accustomed to speak of his "inventions." The term which he explains is "Geattuee ou Geattage," UteraUy, " SCEAPING," the practice just alluded to. " This is, according to the new manner of engra-ving on wood, the operation of skilfully and carefully scraping down parts in an engraved block which are not sufficiently dark, in order to give them, as may be requfted, greater strength, and to render the shades more effective. This admftable plan, utterly unknown before, was accidentaUy discovered in 1731 by M. PapiUon, by whom the art of wood engra-ving is advanced to a state tending to perfection, and approaching more and more towards the beauty of engra-ving on copper." The tools used by PapiUon to scrape down the lines of an engraved block, and thus render them thicker and, consequently, the impression darker, differ considerably in shape from those used for the same purpose by modern wood engravers in England. The tool now principaUy used is something like a copper-plate engraver's burnisher, and occasionaUy a fine and sharp file is employed. In Papillon's time the French wood engravers appear to have held the graver in the manner of a pen, and in forming a line to have cut towards them as in forming a dowm-stroke in writing, and to have engraved on the longitudinal, and not the cross section of the wood. Modern Enghsh wood engravers, ha-ving the rounded handle of the graver supported against the hoUow of the hand, and dftecting the blade by means of the fore-finger and thumb, cut the Ime from them ; and always engrave on the cross section of the wood. PapiUon mentions box, pear- tree, apple-tree, and the wood of the service-tree, as the best for the purposes of engraving : box was generally used for the smaUer and finer cuts intended for the Ulustration or ornament of books ; the lai't^er cuts, in which delicacy was not required, were mostly engraved on pear-tree wood. Apple-tree wood was principaUy used by the wood eno-ravers of Normandy. Next to box, Papillon prefers the -wood of the service-tree. The box brought from Turkey, though of larger size, he considers uiferior to that of Provence, Italy, or Spain * " Mariifcre de Grattor les tallies dfijil gravies pour los rendi-e plus fortes afiu de les faire ombrcr davaiitayc." — Supplement du Tiaito de la Qravm-e en Bois, p. 50. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 465 Although Papillon's modus operandi differs considerably from that of English wood engravers of the present day, I am not aware of any supposed discovery in the modern practice of the art that was not known to him. The methods of lowering a block in certain parts before drawing the subject on it, and of thickening the lines, and thus getting more colour, by scraping the surface of the cut when engraved, were, as has been observed, known to him ; he occasionaUy introduced cross-hatchings in his cuts ;* and in one of his chapters he gives instructions how to insert a, plug in a block, in order to replace a part which had either been spoiled in the course of engraving or subsequently damaged. One of the improvements which he suggested, but did not put in practice, was a plan for engraving the same subject on two, three, or four blocks, in order to obtain cross-hatchings and a variety of tints with less trouble than if the subject were entirely engraved on the same block. Such cuts were not to be printed as chiaro-scuros, but in the usual manner, with printer's ink. It is worthy of observation that Bewick in the latter part of his life had formed a similar opinion of the advantages of engraving a subject on two or more blocks, and thus obtaining with comparative ease such cross-lines and varied tints as could only be executed with great difficulty on a single block. He, however, proceeded -further than PapiUon, for he began to engrave a large cut which he intended to finish in this manner ; and he was so satisfied that the experiment would be successful, that when the pressman handed to him a proof of the first block, he exclaimed, " I wish I was but twenty years younger ! " PapUlon, in his account of the practice of the art, explains the manner of engi-aving and printing chiaro-scuros; and in illustration of the process he gives a cut executed in this style, together with separate impressions from each of the four blocks from which it is printed. There is also another cut of the same kind prefixed to the second part of the first volume, containing the history of engraving in chiaro-scuro. Scarcely anything connected with the practice of wood engraving appears to have escaped his notice. He mentions the effect of the breath in cold weather as rendering the block damp and the drawing less distinct ; and he gives in one of his cuts the figure of a " mentonniere," — that is to say, a piece of quUted linen, like the pad used by women to keep their bonnets cocked up, — which, being placed * Several cuts in which cross-hatching is introduced occur in the "Traite de la Gravure en Bois ;" and the author refers to several others in the " Recueil des PapUlons" as dis playuig the same kind of work. He considers the execution of such hatchings as the test of excellence in wood engraving ; " for," he observes, " when a person has learnt to execute them he may boast of having mastered one of the most difficult parts of the art, and may justly assume the name of a wood engraver." — Tom. ii. p. 90. II H 466 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. before the mouth and nostrils, and kept in its place by strings tied behind the head, screened the block from the direct action of the engraver's breath. He frequently complains of the careless manner in which wood-cuts were printed;* but from the following passage we leam that the inferiority of the printed cuts when compared with the engraver's proofs did not always proceed from the negUgence of the printer. " Some wood engravers have the art of fabricating proofs of theft cuts much more exceUent and delicate than they fairly ought to be ; and the foUowing is the manner in which they contrive to obtain tolerably decent proofs from very indifferent engravings. They first take two or three impressions, and then, to obtain one to theft Uking, and -with which they may deceive their employers, they only ink the block on those places which ought to be dark, lea-ving the distances and Ughter parts -without any ink, except what remained after taking the pre-vious impressions. The proof which they now obtain appears extremely dehcate in those parts which were not properly inked ; but when they come to be printed in a page with type, the impression is quite different from the proof which the engraver delivers -with the blocks ; there is no variety of tint, all is hard, and the distance is sometimes darker than objects in the fore-ground. I run no great risk in saying that aU the three Le Sueurs have been accustomed to practise this deception" t AU the cuts in PapiUon's work, except the portrait prefixed to the first volume.J are his own engra-ving, and, for the most part, from his own designs. The most of the blocks were lent to the author by the different persons for whom he had engraved them long pre-vious to the appearance of his work.§ They are introduced as ornaments at the beginning and end of the chapters ; but though they may enable the reader to judge of PapiUon's abUities as a designer and engraver on wood, beyond this they do not in the least Ulustrate the progress of the art. * He complains in another part of the work that many printers, both compositors and pressmen, by pretending to engrave on wood, had brought the art into disrepute. They not only spoUed the work of regular engravers, but dared to engrave wood-cuts themselves. t Traits de la Gra-vure en Bois, tom. ii. p. 365. X The portrait was engraved " in venerationis testimonium!' and presented to PapiUon by Nicholas Caron, a bookseUer and wood engraver of Besan9on. The foUowing comphmentary verses are engraved below the portrait : " Tu vols ici les traits d'un Artiste fameux Dont la savante main enfanta des merveilles ; Par ses travaux et par ses veiUes II resuscita I'Art qui le trace k tes yeux." PapiUon speaks favourably of Caron as a wood engi-aver ; he says that " he is much superior to Nioul, Jaekson, Contat, Lefevre, and others hia contempoi-aries, and would at least have equaUed the Le Sueurs had he applied himself to drawing the figura" § From several of those blocks not less than sixty thousand impressions had been previously taken, and from one of them four bundled and fifty-six thousand had been printed. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 467 The execution of some of the best is extremely neat ; and almost aU of them display an effect — a contrast of black and white — which is not to be found in any other wood-cuts of the period. A few of the designs possess considerable merit, but in by far the greater number simphcity and truth are sacrificed to ornament and French taste. Whatever may be PapiUon's faults as a historian of the art, he deserves great credit for the diligence with which he pursued it under unfavourable circum stances, and for his endeavours to bring it into notice at a time when it was greatly neglected. His labours in this respect were, however, attended with no immediate fruit. He died in 1776, and his immediate successors do not appear to have profited by his instructions. The wood cuts executed in France between 1776 and 1815 are generaUy much inferior to those of PapiUon ; and the recent progress which wood engra-ving has made in that country seems rather to have been influenced by EngUsh example than by his precepts. Nicholas Le Sueur — ^born 1691, died 1764, — was, next to PapiUon, the best French wood engraver of his time. His chiaro-scuros, printed entirely from wood-blocks, are executed with great boldness and spirit, and partake more of the character of the earlier Italian chiaro-scuros than any other works of the same kind engraved by his contemporaries.* He chiefly exceUed in the execution of chiaro-scuros and large cuts ; his smaU cuts are of very ordinary character ; they are generally engraved in a hard and meagre style, want variety of tint, and are deficient in effect. P. S. Fournier, the younger, a letter-founder of considerable reputa tion, — born at Paris 1712, died 1768, — occasionaUy engraved on wood. Papillon says that he was self-taught ; and that he certainly would have made greater progress in the art had he not devoted himself almost exclusively to the business of type-founding. Monsieur Fournier is, however, better known as a writer on the history of the art than as a practical wood engraver. Between 1758 and 1761 he published three tracts relating to the origin and progress of wood engraving, and the invention of typography, t From these works it is evident that, though * In the chiaro-scuros from original drawings in the collection of Monsieur Crozat, -with the figures etched by Count Caylus, the wood-blocks from which the sepia-coloured tints were printed were engraved by Nicholas Le Sueur. — About the same period Arthur Pond and George Knapton in England, and Count M. A. Zanetti in Italy, executed in the same manner several chiaro-scuros in imitation of dra-wings and sketches by eminent painters. The taste for chiaro-scuros seems to have been revived in France by the Regent-Duke of Orleans, Who declared that Ugo da Carpi's chiaro-scuros afforded him more pleasure than any other kind of prints. t The following are the titles of those tracts, which are rather scarce. They are aU of small octavo size, and printed by J. Barbou. I. Dissertation sur I'Origine et les Progrfes de I'Art de Graver en Bois, pour eclaircir quelques traits de I'Histoire de I'lmprimerie, et prouver que Guttemberg n'en est pas I'lnventeur. Par Mr. Fournier le Jeune, Graveur et Fondeur de CaraetSres d'Imprimerie, 1758. 2. De TOrigine et des productions de HH 2 468 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. he takes no small credit to himself for his practical knowledge of wood engraving and printing, he was very imperfectly acquainted with his subject. They abound in errors which it is impossible that any person possessing the knowledge he boasts of should commit, unless he had very superficiaUy examined the books and cuts on which he pronounces an opinion. He seems indeed to have thought that, from the circum stance of his being a wood engi'uver and letter-founder, his decisions on all doubtful matters in the early history of wood engraving and printing should be received with imphcit faith. Looking at the comparatively smaU size of his works, no writer, not even PapiUon himself has committed so many mistakes ; and his decisions are generaUy. most peremptory when utterly groundless or e-vidently -wrong. He asserts that Faust and Scheffer's Psalter, 1457-1459, is printed from moveable types of wood, and that the most of the earliest specimens of typography are printed from the same kind of types ; and in the fulness of his knowledge he also declares that the text of the Theurdank is printed not from types, but from engraved wood-blocks. Like PapUlon, he seems to have possessed a marveUous sagacity in ferreting out old wood engravers. He says that Andrea Mantegna engraved on wood a grand triumph in 1486 ; that Sebastian Brandt engraved in 1490 the wood-cuts in the Ship of Fools,* after the designs of J. Locher ; and that Parmegiano I'lmprimerie primitive en taUle en Bois, 1759. 3. Remarques sur un Ouvrage intitulfi. Lettre sur I'Origine de I'lmprimerie, &c. 1761. Tliis last was an answer to a letter ivritteii by M. Bilr, almoner of the Swedish chapel in Pai-is, in whicb the two former tracts of Fournier were severely criticised.— Fournier was also the author of a work in two small volumes, entitled "Manuel Typographique, utile aux Gens de lettres, et il ceux qui exerceut !es differentes parties de I'Art de I'lmprimerie." * The cut here introduced is the first in the Stultifera Nari.i, or " Ship of Foots,"' and is copied from Pyason's edition of 1509. The following lines accompany it : " — — this is my mynde, this one pleasoure have I, Of bokes to have great plenty and aparayle. I take no wysdome by them ; nor yet avayle Nor them perceyve not : And then I them despyso. Thus am I a foole and all that serve that guyse." EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 469 executed several wood-cuts after designs by Eaffaele. He decides positively that Albert Durer, Lucas Cranach, Titian, and Holbein were wood engravers, and, like PapUlon, he includes Mary de Medici in the list Papillon appears to have had good reason to complain that Fournier had availed himseft of his volume printed in 1738. His taste appears to have been scarcely superior to his knowledge and judgment : he mentions a large and coarsely engraved cut of the head of Christ as one of the best specimens of Albert Durer's engraving ; and he says that PapUlon's cuts are for exceUence of design and execution equal to those of the greatest masters ! From a passage in one of Fournier's tracts — Eemarques Typogra- phiques, 1761, — it is evident that wood engraving was then greatly neglected in Germany. It relates to the foUowing observation of M. Bar's, almoner of the Swedish chapel at Paris, on the length of time necessary to engrave a number of wooden types sufficient to print such a work as Faust and Scheffer's Psalter : "M. Schoepflin declares that, by the general admission of all experienced persons, it would require upwards of six years to complete such a work in so perfect a manner." The foUo-wing is Fournier's rejoinder : " To understand the value of this-j remark, it ought to be kno-wn that, so far from there being many ex perienced wood engravers to choose from, M. Schoepflin would most likely experience some difficulty in finding one to consult." The wood-cuts which occur in German books printed between 1700 and 1760 are certainly of the mcst -wretched kind ; contemptible alike in design and execution. Some of the best which I have seen — and they are very bad — are to be found in a thin foho entitled " Orbis Literatus Germanico-Europaeus," printed at Frankfort in 1737. They are cuts of the seals of all the principal colleges and academical foundations in Gerinany. The art in Italy about the same period was almost equaUj- neglected. An Italian wood engraver, named Lucchesini, executed several cuts between 1760 and 1770. Most of the head-pieces and ornaments in the Popes' Decretals, printed at Eome at this period, were engraved by him ; and he also engraved the cuts in a Spanish book entitled " Letania Lauretana de la Virgen Santissima," printed at Valencia in 1768. It is scarcely necessary to say that these cuts are of the humblest character. Though wood engraving did not make any progress in England from 1722 to the time of Thomas Bewick, yet the art was certainly never lost in this country ; the old stock stUl continued to put forth a branch— ^on deficit alter — although not a golden one. Two wood-cuts tolerably weU executed, and which show that the engraver was acquainted with the practice of "lowering," occur in a thin quarto, London, printed for H. Payne, 1760. The book and the cuts are thus notieed in Southey's Life 470 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. of Cowper, volume i. page 50. The writer is speaking of the Nonsense Club, of which Co-wper was a member. " At those meetings of Jest and youthful JoUity, Sport that vninkled Care derides. And Laughter holding both his sides, there can be little doubt that the two odes to Obscurity and Oblivion originated, joint compositions of Lloyd and Colman, in ridicule of Gray and Mason. They were published in a quarto pamphlet, -with a -vignette, in the title-page, of an ancient poet safely seated and playing on his harp ; and at the end a taU-piece representing a modern poet in huge boots, flung from a mountaia by his Pegasus into the sea, and losing his tie--wig in the fall." The foUowing is a fac-sftnUe of the cut representing the poet's faU. He seems to have been tolerably confident of himseft, for, though the winged steed has no bridle, he is pro-vided with a pair of formidable spurs. The cuts in a collection of humorous pieces in \-i'i-se, entitled " 'The Oxford Sausage," 1764, are evidently by the same engraver, and almost every one of them affords an instance of " lowering."" At the foot of one of them, at page 89, the luiiiie " Lister " is seen ; the subject is a bacchanalian figure niDuutod on a winged horse, which has undoubtedly been drawn from the same model as the Pegasus in Colman and Lloyd's burlesque odes. In an eiUtion of the EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING 471 Sausage, printed in 1772, the name of "T. Lister" occurs on the title- page as one of the pubhshers, and as residing at Oxford. Although those cuts are generaUy deficient in effect, theft execution is scarcely inferior to many of those in the work of PapiUon ; the portrait ftideed of " Mrs. Dorothy Spreadbury, Inventress of the Oxford Sausage," forming the frontispiece to the edition of 1772, is better executed than Monsieur Nicholas Caron's votive portrait of Papillon, "the restorer of the art of wood engra-ving." In 1763, a person named S. Watts engraved two or three large wood-cuts in outhne, sUghtly shaded, after drawings by Luca Cambiaso. Impressions of those cuts are most frequently printed in a yeUo-wish kiad of ink. About the same time Watts also engraved, in a bold and free style, several small circular portraits of painters. In Sir John Hawkins's History of Music, pubUshed in 1776, there are four wood-cuts ; and at the bottom of the largest — Palestrini presenting his work on Music to the Pope — is the name of the engraver thus : T. Hodgson. Sculp. Dr. Dibdin, in noticing this cut, in his Pre liminary Disquisition on Early Engraving and Omamental Printing, prefixed to his edition of the Typographical Antiquities, says that it was "done by Hodgson, the master of the celebrated Be-wick."* If by this it is meant that Bewick was the apprentice of Hodgson, or that he obtained from Hodgson his knowledge of wood engraving, the assertion is incorrect It is, however, almost certain that Bewick, when in London in 1776, was employed by Hodgson, as -wiU be shown in its proper place. Having now given some account of wood engra-ving in its lan guishing state — occasionally showing symptoms of returning -vigour, and then almost immediately sinking into its former state of de pression — we at length arrive at an epoch from which its revival and progressive improvement may be safely dated. The person whose productions recaUed public attention to the neglected art of wood engraving was HOMAS EWICK. * Dr. Dibdin adds ; " Mr. Douce informs me that Su: John Hawkins told him of the artist's obtaining the prize for it from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts." 472 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. This distinguished wood engraver, whose works will be admired as long as truth and nature shall continue to charm, was born on the 10th or 11th of August, 1753, at Cherry-bum, in the county of Northumberland, but on the south side of the Tyne, about twelve mUes westward of Newcastle. THE HOUSE IN WHICH BEWICK WAS BORN. His father rented a small land-sale coUiery at Micklej'-bank, in the neighbourhood of his dwelling, and it is said that when a boy the futilre wood engraver sometimes worked in the pit. At a proper age he was sent as a day-scholar to a school kept by the Eev. Christopher Gregson at Ovingham, on the opposite side of the Tyne. The Par sonage House, in which Mr. Gregson lived, is pleasantly situated on the edge of a sloping bank immediately above the river : and many reminiscences of the place are to be found in Bewick's cuts ; the gate at the entrance is introduced, with trifling variations, in three or four different subjects ; and a person acquainted with the neigh bourhood wUl easily recognise in his tail-pieces several other Uttle local sketches of a similar kind. In the time of the Eev. James Birkett, Mr. Gregson's successor, Ovingham school had the character of being one of the best private schools in the county ; and several gentlemen, whose talents reflect credit on their teacher, received their education there. In the following cut, representing. a view of Ovingham from the south--westward, the Pai'sonage House, with its garden sloping down to the Tyne, is perceived immediately to the right of the clump of large trees. The bank on M'hich those trees grow is known as the EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 473 crow-tree hank. The following lines, descriptive of a view from the Parsonage House, are from " The School Boy," a poem, by Thomas Maude, A.M., who received his early education at Ovingham under Mr. Birkett r.A.KSON.A.GE AT OVI.VOHAM. " But can I sing thy simpler pleasures fiown, Loved Ovingham ! and leave the chief unknown, — Thy annual Fair, of every joy the mart. That drained my pocket, ay, and took my chUdish heart ? Blest mom ! how lightly from my bed I sprung, When in the blushing east thy beams were young ; While every blithe co-tenant of the room Rose at a caU, with cheeks of liveliest bloom. Then from each well-packed drawer our vests we drew, Each gay-friUed shirt, and jacket smartly new. Brief toUet ours ! yet, on a mom hke this, Five extra minutes were not deemed amiss. Fling back the casement ! — Sun, propitious shine ! How sweet your beams gUd the clear-flowing Tyne, That -winds beneath our master's garden-brae, With broad bright mazes o'er its pebbly way. See Prudhoe ! lovely in the moming beam : — ) Mark, mark, the ferry-boat, with twinkling gleam, V Wafting fair-going folks across the stream. \ Look out ! a bed of sweetness breathes below. Where many a rocket points its spire of snow ; And from the Crow-tree Bank the cawing sound Of sable troops incessant poured around ! WeU may each little bosom throb with joy ! On such a mom, who woiUd not be a boy 1" Bewick's school acquirements probably did not extend beyond English reading, -writing, and arithmetic ; for, though he knew a Uttle 474 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. Latin, he does not appear to have ever received any instructions in that language. In a letter dated 18th AprU, 1803, addressed to Mr. Christopher Gregson,* London, a son of his old master, introducing an artist of the name of Murphy, who had painted his portrait, Bewick humorously aUudes to his beauty when a boy, and to the state of his coat-sleeve, in consequence of his using it instead of a pocket-handker chief Be-wick, it is to be observed, was very hard-featured, and much marked with the smaU-pox. After meationing Mr. Murphy as " a man of worth, and a first-rate artist in the miniature hne," he thus proceeds : " I do not imagine, at your time of Ufe, my dear friend, that ycu wUl be solicitous about forming new acquaintances ; but it may not, perhaps, be putting you much out of the way to show any Uttle civiUties to Mr. Murphy during his stay in London. He has, on his own account, taken my portrait, and I dare say -wiU be desft-ous to show you it the first opportunity : when you see it, you wUl no doubt conclude that T. B. is turning bonny er and bonny eri in his old days ; but indeed you cannot help knowing this, and also that there were great indications of its turning out so long since. But if you have forgot our earhest youth," perhaps your brother P.J may help you to remember what a great beauty I was at that time, when the grey coat-sleeve was glazed from the cuff towards the elbows." The words printed in Itahcs are those that are underlined by Bewick himseft. Bewick, ha-ving shown a taste for drawing, was placed by his father as an apprentice with Mr. Ealph BeUby, an engraver, li-ving in Newcastle, to whom on the 1st of October 1767 he was bound for a term of seven years. Mr. BeUby was not a wood engraver ; and his business in the copper-plate line was of a kind which did not aUow of much scope for the display of artistic talent He engraved copper-plates for books, when any by chance were offered to him ; and he also executed brass-plates for doors, with the names of the owners handsomely fiUed up, after the manner of the old " niellos," -with black seahng-wax He engraved crests and initials on steel and sUver watch-seals ; also on tea-spoons, sugar-tongs, and other articles of plate ; and the engraAdng of numerals and ornaments, with the name of the maker, on clock- faces, — which were not then enameUed, — seems to have formed one of the chief branches of his very general business. § * Mr. Christopher Gregson, who was an apothecary, lived in Blackfriars. He died about the year I8I3. As long as he Uved, Bewick maintained a friendly correspondence with him. + Prettier and prettier. X Philip. § " WhUe with Bbilby he was employed in engraving clock-faces, which, I have heard him say, made his hands as hard as a blacksmith's, and almost disgusted him with engraving."- -Sketch of the Life and Works of the late Thomas Bewick, by George C. Atkin son. Printed in the Transactions of the Natural History Society, Newcastle, 1S30. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 475 Bewiclc's attention appears to have been first directed to wood engraving in consequence of his master having been employed by the late Dr. Charles Hutton, then a schoolmaster iu Newcastle, to engrave on wood the diagrams for his Treatise on Mensuration. The printing of this work was commenced in 1768, and was completed in 1770. The engraving of the diagrams was committed to Bewick, who is said to have invented a graver with a fine groove at the point, which enabled him to cut the outlines by a single operation. The above is a fac-simile of one of the earhest productions of Bewick in the art of wood engraving. The church is intended for that of St. Nicholas, Newcastle. Subsequently, and whUe he was still an apprentice, Be-wick un doubtedly endeavoured to improve himself in wood engraving ; but his progress does not appear to have been great, and his master had certainly very little work of this kind for him to do. He appears to have engraved a few bUl-heads on wood ; and it is not unlikely that the cuts in a little book entitled "Youth's Instructive and Entertaining Story TeUer," first published by T. Saint, Newcastle, 1774, were executed by him before the expftation of his apprenticeship. Bewick, at one period during his apprenticeship, paid ninepence a week for his lodgings in Newcastle, and usuaUy received a brown loaf every week from Cherry-burn. " During his ser-vitude,'' says Mr. Atkinson, "he paid weekly visits to Cherry-burn, except when the river was so much swollen as to prevent his passage of it at Eltringham, when he vociferated his inquiries across the stream, and then returned to Newcastle." This account of his being accustomed to shout his enqufties 476 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. across the Tyne first appeared in a Memoir prefixed to the Select Fables, pubhshed by E. Chamley, 1 820. Mr. William Bedhngton, an old friend of Be-wick, once asked him if it were true ? " Babbles and nonsense I" was the reply. " It never happened but once, and that was when the river had suddenly swelled before I could reach the top of the allers,* and yet folks are made to believe that I was in the habit of doing it" On the expiration of his apprenticeship he returned to his father's house at Cherry-burn, but still continued to work for Mr. BeUby. About this time he seems to have formed the resolution of applying himself exclusively in future to wood engraving, and with this -view to have executed several cuts as specimens of his ability. In 1775 he received a premium of seven guineas from the Society of Arts for a cut of the Huntsman and the Old Hound, which he probably engraved when Uving at Cherry-burn after leaving Mr. BeUby. t The folio-wing is a fac-simile of this cut, which was first printed ui an edition of Gays Fables, published by T. Saint, Newcastle, 1779. INIr. Henry Bohn, the publisher of the present edition, happening to be in possession of the original cut, it is annexed on the opposite page. In 1776, when on a visit to some of his relations in Cumberland.^ he availed himself of the opportunity of visiting the Lakes ; and in after- * Alders — the name of a smaU plantation above Ovingham, which Bewick had to pass through on his way to Eltringham terry-boat. t The Reverend WUliam Turner, of Newcastle, in a letter printed in the Monthly Magazine for June I80I, says that Bewick obtained this premium " during his apprentice ship," This must be a mistake ; as his apprenticeship expired in October 1774, and he obtained the premium in 1775. It is possible, however, that the eugi-a\-ing may have been executed during that period. X Bewick's mother, Jane Wilson, was a daughter of Thomas WUson of Ainstable in Cumberland, about five niUes north-north-west of Kirk-Oswald EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 477 life he used frequently to speak in terms of admiration of the beauty of the scenery, and of the neat appearance of the white-washed, slate- covered cottages on the banks of some of the lakes. His tour was made on foot, with a stick in his hand and a wallet at his back ; and it has been supposed that in a taU-piece, to be found at page 177 of the first volume of his British Birds, first edition, 1797, he has introduced a sketch of himseft in his traveUing costume, drinking out of what he himself would have called the fiipe of his hat ' The figure has been copied in our ornamental letter T at page 471. In the same year, 1776, he went to London, where he arrived on the 1st of October. He certainly did not remain, more than a twelvemonth in London,* for in 1777 he returned to Newcastle, and entered into partnership with his former master, Mr. Ealph BeUby. Bewick — who does not appear to have been wi.sbful to undeceive those who fancied that he was the person who rediscovered the "long-lost art of engraving on wood"t- — would never inform any of the good-natured friends, who fished for intelligence with the view of writing his life, of the works on which he was employed when in London. The faith of a believer in the story of Bewick's re-discovering " the long-lost art" would have received too great a shock had he been told by Bewick himself that ¦* Bewick, in London, in 1828, observed to one of his former pupUs, that it was then fifty-one years since he left London, on his first visit, to return to Newca.stle. t Mr. Atkinson talks about wood engravmg having taken a nap for a century or two " after the time of Durer and Holbein," and of Bewick being the restorer of the " long-lost art;" and yet, with singular inconsistency, in another part of his Sketch, he refers to PapiUon, whose work, containing a minute account of the art as then practised, was published about two years before Bewick began to engra-ve on wood. — The Reverend WUliam Turner, who ought to have known better, also speaks of the "long-lost art," in his Memoir of Thomas Bewick. 478 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. on his arrival in London he found professors of the "long-lost art" regularly exercising their calling, and that with one of them he found employment. There is every reason to believe that Bewick, when in London, was chiefly employed by T. Hodgson, most likely the person who engraved the four cuts in Sir John Hawkins's History of Music. It is at any rate certain that several cuts engraved by Bewick appeared in a Uttle work entitled " A curious Hieroglyphick Bible," prftited by and for T. Hodgson, in George's Court, St. John's Lane, ClerkenweU.* Proofs of three of the principal cuts are now lying before me. The subjects are : Adam and Eve, with the Deity seen in the clouds, forming the frontispiece ; the Eesurrection ; and a cut representing a gentleman seated in an arm-chaft, with four boys beside him : the border of this cut is of the same kind as that of the large cut of the ChUlingham BuU engraved by Bewick in 1789. These proofs appear to have been presented by Bewick to an eroinent painter, now dead, with whom either then, or at a subsequent period, he had become acquainted. Not one of Be-wick's biographers mentions those cuts, nor seenis to have been aware of their existence. The two memoirs of Bewick, -written by his "friends" G. C. Atkinson and John F. M. Dovaston,t sufficiently demonstrate that neither of them had enjoyed his confidence in matters relative to his progress in the art of wood engraving. Mr. Atkinson, in his Sketch of the Lfte and Works of Bewick, says that when in London he worked -with a person of the name of Cole. Of this person, as a wood engraver, I have not been able to discover any trace. Bewick did not Uke London ; and he always advised his former pupUs and north-country friends to leave the " province covered with houses " as soon as they could, and return to the country to there enjoy the beauties of Nature, fresh aft, and * I have not been able to discover the date of the first edition of this work. The tliird edition is dated 1785. f " Some Account of the Life, Genius, and Personal Habits of the late Thomas Bewick, the celebrated Artist and Engraver on Wood. By his Friend John F. M. Dovaston, Esq. A.M.," was published ia Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, I829-I830. Mr. Dovaston seems to have caught a knowledge of Bewick's personal habits at a glance ; and a considerable number of his observations on other matters appear to have been the restUt of a pecuhar quickness of apprehension. What he says about the church of Ovingham not being " parted into proud pews," when Bewick was a boy, is incorrect. It had, in fact, been pewed from an early period ; for, on the 2nd of September, 1763, Dr. Sharp, Archdeacon of Northumberland, on visiting the church, notices the pews as being "very bad and irregular ;" and on a board over the vestry-door is the following inscription : " This Church was new pewed, A. D. 1766." No boards from this church containing specimeUs of Bewick's early drawing were ever in the possession of the Duke of Northumberland. Mr. Dovaston is frequently imaginative, but seldorf correct. His pel'sonal sketch of Bewick is a ridiculous caricature, EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 479 content In the letter to his old schoolfeUow, Mr. Christopher Gregson, previously quoted, he thus expresses his opinion of London hfe. "Ever since you paid your last visit to the north, I have often been thinking upon you, and wishing that you would lap up, and leave the metropoUs, to enjoy the fruits of your hard-earned industry on the banks of the Tyne, where you are so much respected, both on your own account and on that of those who are gone. Indeed, I wonder how you can thirik of turmoiling yourself to the end of the chapter, and let the opportunity slip of contemplating at your ease the beauties of Nature, so bountifully spread out to enUghten, to captivate, and to cheer the heart of man. For my part, I am stUl of the same mind that I was in when in London, and that is, T would rather be herding sheep on Mickley bank top than remain in London, although for doing so I was to be made the premier of England." Bewick was truly a country man ; he felt that it was better " to hear the lark sing than the mouse cheep ; " for, though no person was capable of closer application to his art when within doors, he loved to spend his hours of relaxation in the open air, studying the character of beasts and birds in their natural state ; and diligently noting those little incidents and traits of country lfte which give so great an interest to many of his taU-pieces. When a young man, he was fond of angling ; and, like Eoger Ascham, he " dearly loved a main of cocks." When annoyed by street-walkers in London, he used to assume the air of a stupid countryman, and, in reply to their importunity, would ask, with an expression of stolid gravity, if they knew " Tommy Hummel o' Prudhoe, WiUy Eltringham o' Hall- Yards, or Auld Laird Newton o' Mickley ?"* He thus, without losing his temper, or showing any feeling of annoyance, soon got quit of those who wished to engage his - attention, though sometimes not until he had received a hearty malediction for his stupidity. In 1777, on his return to Newcastle, he entered into partnership with Mr. BeUby ; and his younger brother, John Bewick, who was then about seventeen years old, became their apprentice. From this time Bewick, though he continued to assist his partner in the other branches of their business,t applied himseft chiefly to engraving on * Humble, Eltringham, and Newton were the names of three of his country acquaint ances ; Pradhoe, Hall- Yards, and Mickley are places near Ovingham. t Bewick could engrave on copper, but did not excel in this branch of engraving. The following are the principal copper-plates which are known to be of his engraving. Plates in Consett's Tour through Sweden, Swedish Lapland, Finland, and Denmark, 4to. Stockton, 1789 ; The Whitley large Ox, 1789 ; and the remarkable Kyloe Ox, bred in the MuU, Argyleshire, 1790 — A set of sUver buttons, containing sporting devices, engraved by Be-wick for the late H. U. Reay, Esq. of KUUngworth, which passed into the possession of Mr. Beay's Bon-in-law, Matthew BeU, Esq. of Wolsingham. 480 KISVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. wood. The cuts in an edition of Gay's Fables, 1779,* and in an edition of Select Fables, 1784, both printed by T. Saint, Newcastle, were engraved by Bewick, who was probably assisted by his brother. Several of those cuts are weU engraved, though by no means to be compared to his later works, executed when he had acqufted greater knowledge of the art, and more confidence in his own powers. He evidently improved as his talents were exercised ; for the cuts in the Select Fables, 1784, are generally much superior to those in Gay's Fables, 1779 ; the animals are better drawn and engraved ; the sketches of landscape in the back-grounds are more natural ; and the engraving of the fohage of the trees and bushes is, not unfrequently, scarce inferior to that of his later productions. Such an attention to nature in this respect is not to be found in any wood-cuts of an earlier date. The following impressions from two of the original cuts ^h in the Select Fables are fair specimens ; one is interesting, as being Bewick's first idea of a favourite -vignette in his British Land * Mr. Atkinson says that " about the same time he cxccutetl the cuts [sixtv-two iu number] for a smaU chUd's book, entitled • A pretty Book of Pictures for little Masters and Misses, or Tommy Trip's History of Beasts and Birds.' "—An edition of the Select Fables, with very bad wood-outs, was printed by .Mr. Saint in I77R. The pei-son by whom they were engraved is unknowu. Bewick alwnys denied that any of them were of his engraviug. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 481 Birds ; the other as his first treatment of the lion and the four buUs, afterwards repeated in his Quadrupeds. In- the best cuts of the time of Durer and Holbein the foliage is generaUy neglected ; the artists of that period merely give general forms of trees, without ever attending to that which contributes so much to their beauty. The merit of introducing this great improvement in wood engraving, and of depicting quadrupeds and birds in their natural forms, and with their characteristic expression, is undoubtedly due to Bewick. Though he was not the discoverer of the art of wood engra-ving, he certainly was the first who appUed it with success to the dehneation of animals, and to the natural representation of landscape and wood land scenery. He found for himself a path which no pre-vious wood engraver had trodden, and in which none of his successors have gone beyond him. For several, of the cuts in the Select Fables, Be-wick was paid only nine shUlings each. In 1789 he drew and engraved his large cut of the ChUUngham Bull,* which many persons suppose to be his master-piece ; but though it is certainly weU engraved, and the character of the animal is weU expressed, yet as a wood engraving it -wiU not bear a comparison with several of the cuts in his History of British Birds. The grass and the foUage of the trees are most beautifully expressed ; but there is a want of variety in the more distant trees, and the bark of that in the fore ground to the left is too rough. This exaggeration of the roughness of the bark of trees is also to be perceived in many of his other cuts. The style in which the buU is engraved is admirably adapted to express the texture of the short white hair of the animal ; the dewlap, how ever, is not weU represented, it appears to be stiff instead of flaccid and pendulous ; and the Unes intended for the haft's on its margin are too wiry. On a stone in the fore-ground he has introduced a bit of cross-hatching, but not with good effect, for it causes the stone to look very much like an old scrubbing-brush. Bewick was not partial to cross-hatching, and it is seldom to be found in cuts of his engraving. He seems to have introduced it in this cut rather to show to those who knew anything of the matter that he could engrave such lines, than from an opinion that they were necessary, or in the shghtest degree improved the cut This is almost the only instance in which Bewick has introduced black lines crossing each other, and thus forming what is usuaUy caUed " cross-hatchings." From the commencement of his career as a wood engraver, he adopted a much more simple method of obtaining colour. He very justly considered, that, as impressions of wood-cuts are printed from Unes engraved in relief, the unengraved * This cut was executed for Marmaduke Tunstall, Esq. of Wycliffe, near Greta Bridge, in Yorkshire, I I 482 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. surface of the block already represented the darkest colour that could be produced ; and consequently, instead of labouring to produce colour in the same manner as the old wood engravers, he commenced upon colour or black, and proceeded from dark to light by means of lines cut in intaglio, and appearing white when in the impression, untU his subject was completed. This great simplification of the old process was the result of his having to engrave his own dra-wings ; for in drawing his subject on the wood he avoided aU combinations of lines which to the designer are easy, but to the engraver difficult. In almost every one of his cuts the effect is produced by the simplest means. The colour which the old wood engravers obtauied by means of cross-hatchings, Bewick obtained with m.uch greater facUity by means of single lines, and masses of black sUghtly intersected or broken with white. When only a few impressions of the Chillingham BuU had been taken, and before he had added his name, the block spht. The press men, it is said, got tipsy over their work, and left the block lying on the window-sill exposed to the rays of the sun, which caused it to warp and split.* About six impressions were taken on thin veUum before the accident occurred. Mr. Atkinson says that one of those impressions, which had formerly belonged to Mr. BeUby, Be-wick's partner, was sold in London for twenty pounds ; A. Stothard, E.A., had one, as had also Mr. C. Nesbft. Towards the latter end of 1785 Bewick began to engrave the cuts for his General History of Quadrupeds, which was first printed in 1790.t The descriptions were -written by his partner, ^Ir. BeUby, and the cuts were all drawn and engraved by himseft. The comparative exceUence of those cuts, which, for the correct delineation of the animals and the natural character of the incidents, and the back-grounds, are greatly superior to anything of the kind that had previously appeared, insiued a rapid sale for the work ; a second edition was pubUshed in 1791, and a thftd fti 1792.^ The great merit of those cuts consists not so much in theft execution as in the spirited and natural manner in which they are dra^vn. Some of the animals, indeed, which he had not had an opportunity of seeing, and for which he had to depend on the previous engra-vings of others, are not correctly drawn. Among tlie most incorrect are the Bison, the * The block remained in several pieces until I8I7, when they wei-e firmly united by means of cramps, and a number of impressions printed off'. These impressions are without the border, which distinguishes the eai'Uer ones. The border, wluch was engraved on sepai'ate pieces, enclosed the principal cut in the manner of a frame. + A Prospectus containing specimens of the cuts was prmted in 1 787. X The first edition consisted of fifteen hundred copies in demy octavo at &., and one hundred royal at 128. The jiricc of tho demy copies of the eighth edition, published in 1825, was £1 Is. A proof of the estimation in which the work continued to be held. REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 483 Zebu, the Buffalo, the Many-horned Sheep, the Gnu, and the Giraffe or Cameleopard.* Even in some of our domestic quadrupeds he was not successful ; the Horses are not weft represented ; and the very indifferent execution of the Common Bull and Cow, at page 19, edition 1790, is only redeemed by the interest of the back-grounds. In that of the Common Bull, the action of the bull seen chasing a man is most exceUent ; and in that of the Cow, the woman, with a skeel on her head, and her petticoats tucked up behind, returning from milking, is e-vidently a sketch from nature. The Goats and the Dogs are the best of those cuts both in design and execution ; and perhaps the very best of all the cuts in the first edition is that of the Cur Fox at page 270. The tail of the animal, which is too long, and is also incorrectly marked with black near the white tip, was subse quently altered. In the first edition the characteristic tail-pieces are comparatively few ; and several of those which are merely ornamental, displaying neither imagination nor feeUng, are copies of cuts which are frequent in books printed at Leipsic between 1770 and 1780, and which were probably engraved by Ungher, a German wood engraver of that period. Examples of such tasteless trifles are to be found at pages 9, 12, 18, 65, 110, 140, 201, 223, and 401. Ornaments of the same character occur in Heineken's " Idfe G4n(^rale d'une Collection complette d'Estampes," Leipsic and Vienna, 1771. Bewick was unquestionably better acquainted -with the history and progress of wood engraving than those who talk about the "long-lost art " were aware of The first of the two foUowing cuts is a fac-simile of a taU-piece which occurs in an edition of "Der Weiss Kunig," t printed at Vienna, 1775, and which Bewick has copied at page 144 of the first edition of the * The cut of the Ghaflfe in the edition of 1824 is not the origmal one engraved by Bewick. In the later out, which was chiefly engraved by W. W. Temple, one of Bewick's pupUs, the marks on the body of the animal appear Uke so many white-coloured lines crossing each other, and enclosing large irregular spots. + Some account of this work is previously given at page 287. II 2 484 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. Qaadrapeds, 1790. The second, from one of the cuts iUustrative of Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1569, designed by VirgU SoUs,* is copied in a tail-piece in the first volume of Bewick's Birds, page 330, edition 1797. The foUowing may be mentioned as the best of the taU-pieces in the first edition of the Quadrupeds, and as those which most decidedly display Bewick's talent in depicting, without exaggeration, natural and humorous incidents. In this respect he has been exceUed by no other artist either of past or present times. The Elephant, fore-shortened, at page 162 ; the Dog and Cat, 195 ; the Old Man crossing a ford, mounted on an old horse, which canies, in addition, two heavy sacks, 244 ; the Bear-ward, with his wfte and companion, leading Bruin, and accompanied by his dancing-dogs, — a gallows seen in the distance, 256 ; a Fox, -with Magpies flying after hftn, indicating his course to his pursuers, 265 ; Two unfeeUng feUows enjoying the pleasure of hanging a dog, — a gibbet, seen in the distance, to denote that those who could thus qiuetly enjoy the dying struggles of a dog would not be unUkely to murder a man, 274 ; a Man eating his dinner with his dog sitting beside him, expecting his share, 285 ; Old Blind Man led by a dog, crossing a bridge of a single plank, and -with the raft broken, in a storm of -wind and rain, 320 ; a Mad Dog pursued by three men, — a feeble old woman directly in the dog's way, 324 ; a Man -with a bundle at his back, crossing a stream on stUts, 337; a winter piece, — a Man traveUing in the snow, 339 ; a grftn-visaged Old Man, accompanied by a cur- dog, driving an old sow, 371 ; Two Boys and an Ass on a common, 375 ; a Man leaping, by means of a pole, a stream, across which he has previously thrown his stick and bag, 391 ; a Man carrying a bundle of faggots on the ice, 395 ; a Woft falling into a trap, 430 ; and Two Blind Fiddlers and a Boy, the last in the book, at 456. In this cut Bewick has represented the two bUnd fiddlers earnestly scraping away, although there is no one to listen to theft strains ; the bare-legged tatty-hesided boy who leads them, and the half-starved melancholy-looking dog at their heels, are in admft-able keeping -with the principal characters. On the next page is a copy of the cut of the Two Boys and the Ass, previously mentioned as occurring at page 375. Tlus cut, beyond any other of the taU-pieces in the first edition of the Quach'upeds, perhaps affords the best specimen of Bewick's peculiar talent of depict ing such subjects; he faithfuUy represents Nature, and at the same time conveys a moral, which gives additional interest to the sketch. Though the ass remains immoveable, in spite of the application of * This work is noticed at page 407. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 485 a branch of furze to his hiad quarters, the young graceless who is mounted e-vidently enjoys his seat. The pleasure of the twain con sists as much in having caught an ass as in the prospect of a ride To such characters the stubborn ass frequently affords more amusement than a wUUng goer ; they Uke to flog and thump a thing well, though it be but a gate-post The gaUows in the distance — a favourite in terror em object with Bewick — suggests theft ultimate destiny ; and the cut, in the first edition, derives additional point from its situation among the animals found in New South Wales, — the first shipment of con-victs to Botany Bay ha-ving taken place about two years previous to the pubUcation of the work. This cut, as well as many others in the book, affords an instance of lowering,^ — the light appearance of the distance is entftely effected by that process. The subsequent editions of the Quadrupeds were enlarged by the addition of new matter and the insertion of several new cuts. Of these, with the exception of the Kyloe Ox,* the tail-pieces are by far the best The foUowing are the principal cuts of animals that have been added since the first publication of the work ; the pages annexed refer to the echtion of 1824, the last that was pubUshed in Bewick's Ifte-time : the Arabian Horse, page 4, — the staUion, seen in the back ground, has suffered a dismemberment since its first appearance ; t the Old EngUsh Eoad Horse, 9 ; the Improved Cart Horse, 14 ; the Kyloe Ox, 36 ; the Musk BuU, 49 ; the Black-faced, or Heath Eam, 56 ; Heath Eam of the Improved Breed, 57 ; The Cheviot Eam, 58 ; Tees- water Eam of the Old Breed, 60 ; Tees-water Eam, Improved Breed, 61 ; the American Elk, 125 ; Sow of the Improved Breed, 164 ; Sow * The Kyloe Ox, which occurs at page 36 of the edition of 1824, the last that was published in Bewick's life-time, is one of the very best cuts of a quadruped that he ever engraved. The drawing is exceUent, and the characteristic form and general appearance of the animal are represented in a maimer that has never been exceUed. t The Lancashire Bull, of the first edition, by a simUar process has been converted into the Lancashire Ox. 486 EEYlVAI. OF WOOD KNiilt.WlHG. of the Chinese Breed, KU! ; llen.d ol' a I lippopotin.mus, (oiigravcd by W. W. Temple,) 1S5; Indian Hear, 2f»3 ; Polar, or Great White Hoar, substituted for nnotlier cut of tho same animal, 295 ; the Spotted Hyena, substituted liir another cut of tho siiiiie animal, 301 ; tlio Ban-dog, 338; tho Irish (li'i'yliouiul, 310; the llarricr, .¦M'7 ; Spotted Bavy, substituted lor unotluu' cut of the sanu^ animal, 379; the (iicy Squirrel, 387; the Long-tailed Siiuirrcl, 3!)(! ; Ihc .bu-boil, substituted for aiiothor cut of the sa,iiie miiiiiiil, 3!)7 ; the iMustiiiusii, or Musk ilcavci', tl(!; tho Mouse, siibstittilcd for uiiollirr cut of the suiiui auiiual, 421'; the Sliort-i^ari'd Hut, 513; the, l.oiig-carcd B(ft, 515; tho Tcniiate Bat, 518 ; tlu^ Wombach, 523 ; and tlic Oruitliorhynchus I'liradoxiciiH, 525. The luit of tho anftnal culled the lliit-k-iiosi'd Tapiir, ut page 139 oC tho first i'dition, is traasjiosrd to page 381 of the last iHlitiini, and tlioro described uiulci' tlie name of the t;u])iliiii'a : it is probably iiitiuidcd for the (^oypu rat, a H]ic('iMi('ii of wliich is al prosi'iit in the Gardiuis of tho Zoological Society, Kcgcnt'.s Park. Bewick was a regular visitor of all the wild-beast shows tliiit caiiic to Newca,stl(\ and ii.viiilod hiiiiself of (wery opportunity to obtain draw ings rroiii living iiiiimals. Tho tiiil-|iicr,iis introduced in Kiilise([iu'nt (ulitioiis of tho (.Quadrupeds giuierally display more humour and not less talent in rcpri'sciitiiig natural objects than those (Mintaincd in tho lirst. In the annexed cut of a sour-visagcd old I' exemplification of cruc How going with corn In the mill, wc have au :y not unwortliy of Ihigartli.* The ovcr-ladcn, * Tho originals of this and tho throe follinviug cuts oi-cni' resiHvlively at pages l.'l, 15, 69, and 520 of tho (edition of IH'2'I. Tho other principal tail-pieces in this edition are: Greyhound-coursing, (nriginaUy engraved on a silver cup for a persnu at Northallerton,) drawn by Bewick on the block, but engraved by W. W. Temple, page x, at tho end of tho Index; tho Old Coachman and tho Young Squii'o, 12; Tinkor'R Children in a poir of REVIVAL III'' W'llllli I'lNlMIAVINt! I-'S7 lia.lf-sla.i'ved old horse, — bnikcn-knccil, grcusy-liccled, and cvidcntlv tri'iiuMcd with tho striiig-liall-, as is imlicated by IIk^ action of the off hind-leg, — licsitalcM lo ilcscciul tho lu-ac, at ilio foot of which ihcvo is a stream, and the old hnitc on his back urges him -forward by n^orh-inq him, ns jockeys say, with the lialtcr, and beating him with bis stick. Ill the distance, jicwick, lus is usual with him when he, gives a sketch of criulty or knavery, lias'introducod a gallows. The miserable apjicaraiicc of the ]iooi' aiiininl is not a. little increased by the nakcilncss of his hind quarters ; his stump ot a tail is so short that it Avill not even serve as a vatcli for the cnippin' or ta'il-lmnd. In till' cut of the child, unconscious ot its danger, ])iilliiig at the loiig tail of a young unbroken colt, the slory is most ndniirahl}' told. The nurse, who is seen engaged with luu' swi'ctlicurt by tlii^ side of the hedge, has It'll the child to waiuler at will, and thus expose ilscll' to destruction ; while the niollu'i', who has uccidcntall)' perceived the danger of her darling, is sih'ii luuslcning o\iu' the stilo, regardless of the stops, in an agony >.''[ fear. I'hc backward glance o[ tho horse's eye, and the heel raised ready to slrikc, most torcilily suggest the danger to which the unlhinking iiifnut is exposed. Though the subject o{ the Ibllowing cut be simple, yet the senfiment which it displays is the genuine offspring of inu' genius. Near to a ruini'il cottage, wliilo all around is covered with snow, a lean and Inincrv owe is soiui nibbling at un old broom, while her young and I'lUiiui'i's on tlio back of an .Vss, -21 ; a Cow drinking, '.'S ; ^\¦intor .';i'cne, .'il ; Two Men digging, (engraved by 11. WInto, who also engraNeil the cut of tho Musk Bull at piige -l!l,1 ;!7 ; Peg worrying a Sheep. ti'J ; Old Soldier travelling in tlio niin, 117 ; Smelliiii;-, tjiil-pica' to tho Genet, a strong bit, •-'(;!> ; Drunken IMan making bis Dam, iSTs ; mul Seals on a large pii'co of floatiuif ice, 61U. 488 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. weakly lamb is sucking her milkless teats. Such a picture of animal want — conceived with so much feeUng, and so weU expressed, — has perhaps never been represented by any artist except Be-wick. The original of the foUowing cut forms the tail-piece to the last page of the edition of 1824. An old man, wearing a parson's cast-off beaver and wig, is seen carrying his young wife and child across a stream. The complacent look of the cock-nosed wife shows that she enjoys the treat, whUe the old drudge patiently bears his burden, and with his right hand keeps a firm grip of the nether end of his better part. This cut is an excellent satire on those old men who marry yoimg -wives and become dotingly uxorious in the decline of lfte ; submitting to every indignity to please their youthful spouses and reconcUe them to theft state. It is a new reading of January and May, — he an old traveUing beggar, and she a young slut with her heels peeping, or rather staring, through her stockings. Mr. Solomon Hodgson, the printer of the first four editions of the Quadrupeds, had an interest in the work ; be died in 1800 ; and in consequence of a misunderstanding between his widow and Bewick, the EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 489 latter had the subsequent editions printed at the ofhce of Mr. Edward Walker. Mrs. Hodgson having asserted, in a letter printed in the Monthly Magazine for July 1805, that Bewick was neither the author nor the projector of the History of Quadrupeds, but "was employed merely as the engraver or wood-cutter," he, in justification of his own claims, gave the following account of the origin of the work.* " From my first reading, when a boy at school, a sixpenny History of Birds and Beasts, and a then -wretched composition called the History of Three Hundred Animals, to the time I became acquainted -with works on Natural History written for the perusal of men, I never was without the design of attempting something of this kind myself ; but my principal object was (and stUl is) directed to the mental pleasure and improvement of youth ; to engage theft attention, to direct their steps aright, and to lead them on tUl they become enamoured of this innocent and deUghtful pursuit Some time after my partnership with Mr. BeUby commenced, I communicated my wishes to him, who, after many conversations, came into my plan of pubUshing a History of Quadrupeds, and I then imme diately began to draw the animals, to design the vignettes, and to cut them on wood, and this, to avoid interruption, frequently till very late in the night ; my partner at the same time undertaking to compUe and draw up the descriptions and history at his leisure hours and evenings at home. With the accounts of the foreign animals I did not much interfere ; the sources whence I had drawn the Uttle knowledge I possessed were open to my coadjutor, and he used them ; but to those of the animals of our own country, as my partner before this time had paid Uttle attention to natural history, I lent a helping hand. This help was given in daUy conversations, and in occasional notes and memoranda, which were used in their proper places. As the cuts were engraved, we employed the late Mr. Thomas Angus, of this to-wn, printer, to take off a certain number of impressions of each, many of which are stUl in my possession. At Mr. Angus's death the charge for this business was not made in his books, and at the request of his widow and ourselves, the late Mr. Solomon Hodgson fixed the price ; and yet the widow and executrix of Mr. Hodgson asserts in your Magazine, that I was ' merely employed as the engraver or wood-cutter,' (I suppose) by her husband ! Had this been the case, is it probable that Mr. Hodgson would have had the cuts printed in any other ofhce than his own? The fact is the reverse of Mrs. Hodgson's statement ; and although I have never, either ' insidiously ' or otherwise, used any means to cause the re-viewers, cr others, to hold me up as the ' first and sole mover of the concern,' I am now dragged forth by her to declare that I am the man. * This account is extracted from a letter written by Bewick, and printed in the Monthly Magazine for November 1805. -i!90 ¦ EEVlVAE Oi? WOOD ENGEAVING. " But to return to my story : — while we were in the progress of our work, prudence suggested that it might be necessary to inquire how our labours were to be ushered to the world, and, as we were unacquainted -with the printing and publishing of books, what mode was the most likely to insure success. Upon this subject Mr. Hodgson was consulted, and made fully acquainted with our plan. He entered into the under taking with uncommon ardour, and urged us strenuously not to retain our first humble notions of ' making it like a school-book,' but pressed us to let it ' assume a more respectable fomi.' From this warmth of our friend we had no hesitation in offering him a share in the work, and a copartnership deed was entered into between us, for that purpose, on the 10th of April 1790. What Mr. Hodgson did in correcting the press, beyond what faUs to the duty of every printer, I know not ; 'out I am certain that he was extremely desirous that it should have justice done it. In this weaving of words I did not interfere, as I beheved it to be in hands much fitter than my own, only I took the liberty of blotting out whatever I knew not to be truth." The favourable manner in which the History of Quadrupeds was received determined Bewick to commence without delay his History of British Birds. He began to draw and engrave the cuts in 1791, and in 1797 the first volume of the work, containing the Land Bftds, was published.* The letter-press, as in the Quadrupeds, was -written by his partner, Mr. BeUby, who certainly deserves great jiraise for the manner in which he has performed his task. The descriptions generaUy have the great merit of being simple, intelUgible, and correct. There are no trifling detaUs about system, no confused arguments about classification, which more frequently bewilder than inform the reader who is unini tiated in the piebald jargon of what is called " Systematic nomenclature." He describes the quadruped or bird in a manner which enables even the most unlearned to recognize it when he sees it ; and, like one who is rather wishful to inform his readers than to display his o-wn acquaiatance with the scientific vocabulary, he carefully avoids the use of aU terms which are not generaUy understood. Mr. BeUby, though in a different manner and in a less degree, is fairly entitled to share with Be-wick in the honour of ha-ving rendered popular in this coimtry the study of the most interesting and useful branches of Zoology — Quadrupeds and Birds — by givftig the descriptions in simple and intelUgible language, and presenting to the eye the very form and character of the Uving animals. As a copper-plate engraver, Mr. Beilby has certainly no just pretensions * Of this edition, 1,874 copies were printed,— one thousand demy octavo, at I0«. 6d. ; eight hundred and fifty thin and thick royal, at ISs., and I.5». ; and twenty-four imperial at £\ Is. The first edition of the second volume, 1804, consisted of the same number of copies as the first, but the prices wore respectively I2»., 15s., 18,'i, and ,£1 4s. feteVlVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 491 to fame ; but as a compUer, and as an able coadjutor of Bewick in simpUfying the study of Natural History, and rendering its most interesting portions easy of attainment to the young, and to those unacquainted with the " science," he deserves higher praise than he has hitherto generally received. Eoger Thornton's Monument, and the Flan of Newcastle, in the Eeverend John Brand's History of that town, were engraved by Mr. Beilby. Mr. Brand's book-plate was also engraved by him. It is to be found in most of the books that formerly belonged to that celebrated antiquary, who is weU known to aU coUectors from the extent of his purchases at staUs, and the number of curious old books which he thus occasionaUy obtained. — The Eeverend WiUiam Turner, of Newcastle, in a letter printed in the Monthly Magazine for June 1801, vindicates the character of Mr. BeUby from what he considers the detractions of Dr. Gleig, in an article on Wood-cuts in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Mr. BeUby was a native of the city of Durham, and was brought up as a silversmith and seal-engraver under his father. He died at Newcastle on the 4th of January 1817, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. The partnership between Beilby and Bewick ha-ving been dissolved in 1797, shortly after the publication of the first volume of the Birds, the descriptions in the second, which did not appear tUl 1804, were written by Bewick himself, but revised by the Eeverend Henry Cotes, vicar of Bedhngton. The publication of this volume formed the key stone of Bewick's fame as a designer and engraver on wood ; for though the cuts are not superior to those of the first, they are not exceUed, nor indeed equalled, by any that he afterwards executed. The subsequent additions, whether as cuts of birds or taU-pieces, are not so exceUent as numerous — in this respect the reverse of the additions to the Quad rupeds. Though aU the birds were designed, and nearly all of them engraved by Bewick himseft, there are yet li-ving witnesses who can testify that both in the drawing and the engraving of the taU-pieces he received very considerable assistance from his pupUs, more especially from Eobert Johnson as a draftsman, and Luke Clennell as a wood engraver.* Before saying anything further on this subject, it seems * Pinkerton having stated in his Scottish GaUery, on the authority of Messrs. Morison, printers, of Perth, that Bewick, " observing the uncommon genius of his late apprentice, " Bobert Johnson, employed him to trace the figures on the wood in the History of Quad rupeds," Bewick, in his letter, printed in the Monthly Magazine for November 1805, previously quoted, thus denies the assertion : " It is only necessary for me to declare, and this -wUl be attested by my partner Mr. BeUby, who compUed the History of Quadrupeds, and was a proprietor of the work, that neither Bobert Johnson, nor any person but myself, made the drawings, or traced or cut them on the wood."— Eobert Johnson was employed by Messrs. Morison to copy for the Scottish GaUery several portraits at Taymouth Castle, the seat of the Eari of Breadalbane. Bewick in this letter carefuUy avoids pleading to that 492 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. necessary to give the following passage from Mr. Atkinson's Sketch of the Life and Works of Bewick. "With regard to the circumstance that the British Birds, with very few exceptions, were finished by his own hand, I have it in my power to pledge myself I had been a good deal surprised one day by hearing a gentleman assert that very few of them were his own work, all the easy parts being executed by his pupUs. I saw him the same day, and, talking of his art, inquired if he permitted the assistance of his apprentices in many cases ? He said, ' No ; it had seldom happened, and then they had injured the cuts very much.' I inqufted if he could remember any of them in which he had received assistance ? He said, ' Aye : I can soon teU you them ; ' and, after a few minutes' consideration, he made out, -with his daughter's assistance, the Whimbrel, Tufted Duck, and Lesser Tern :* he tried to recoUect more, and turning to his daughter, said, 'Jane, honey, dast thou remember any more?' She considered a httle, and said, 'No: she did not ; but that certainly there were not half a dozen in all :' those we both pressed him to do over again. ' He intended it,' he said ; but, alas ! this intention was prevented. In some cases, I am informed, he made his pupils block out for him ; that is, furnished them -with an outline, and let them cut away the edges of the block to that luie ; but as, in this case, the assistance rendered is much the same as that afforded by a turner's apprentice when he rounds off the heavy mass of wood in readiness for a more experienced hand, but not a line of whose performance remains in the beautftul toy it becomes, it does not materiaUy shake the authen ticity of the work in question." Though it is e-vident that Bewick meant here simply to assert that aU the figures of the birds, except the few which he mentions, were entirely engraved by himself, yet his biographer always speaks as ft every one of the cuts in the work — both bftds and taU-pieces — ^were exclusively engraved by Bewick himself; and in consequence of this erroneous opinion he refers to seven cutst as affording favourable ¦with which he was not charged ; he does not deny that several of the drawings of the taU- pieces in the History of British Bhds were made by Robert Johnson. A pupU of Bewick's, now Uving, saw many of Johnson's dra-wings for these cuts, and sat beside ClenneU when he was engraving them. * These three cuts were engraved by one of Bewick's pupUs, named Henry Hole. Neither Be-wick's memory nor his daughter's had been accurate on this occasion ; but not one of the other cuts which they faUed to recollect can be compared with those engraved by Bewick hun- self. In addition to those three, the following, not engraved by Bewick himself, had appeared at the time the above conversation took place— some time between I8'25 and 1826 :— the Brent Goose, the Lesser Imber, and the Cormorant, engi-aved by L. Clennell ; the Velvet Duck, the Red-breasted Merganser, and the Crested Cormorant, by H. Hole ; the Rough-legged Falcon, the Pigmy Sand-piper, the Red Sand-piper, and the Eared Grebe, by W. W. Temple. ¦|- " He never could, he said, please himself in his representations of water m a state of motion, and a horse galloping : his taste must have been fastidious indeed, if that beautiful EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 493 instances of Bewick's manner of representing water, although not one of them was engraved by him, but by Luke Clennell, from drawings by himself or by Eobert Johnson. Mr. Atkinson, in his admiration of Be-wick, and in his desire to exaggerate his fame, entirely overlooks the merits of those by whom he was assisted. Charlton Nesbit and Luke Clennell rendered him more assistance, though not in the cuts of birds, than such as that "afforded by a turner's apprentice when he rounds off the heavy mass of wood ;" and Eobert Johnson, who designed many of the best of the tail-pieces, drew the human figure more correctly than Be-wick himself, and in landscape-drawing was at least his equal These observations are not intended in the least to detract from Be-wick's just and deservedly great reputation, but to correct the erroneous opinions which have been promulgated on this subject by persons who knew nothing of the very considerable assist ance which he received from his pupUs in the drawing and engra-ving of the taU-pieces in his history of British Bftds. Though three of the best specimens of Bewick's talents as a designer and engraver on wood — the Bittern, the Wood-cock, and the Common Duck* — are to be found in the second volume, containing the water- birds, yet the land-birds in the first volume, from his being more famiUar -with theft habits, and in consequence of theft aUo-wing more scope for the display of Be-wick's exceUence in the representation of moonUght scene at sea, page 120, voL ii. [edition I8I6] ; the river scene at page 126 ; the sea breaking among the rocks at page 168, or 1.77, or 200, or 216 ; or the rippHng of the water as it leaves the feet of the old fisherman, at page 95, did not satisfy him." In scarcely one of the cuts engraved by Bewick himself is water in a state of motion weU represented. He knew his own deficiency in this respect ; though Mr. Atkinson, not being able to distinguish the cuts engraved by Bewick himseK from those engraved by his pupils, cannot perceive it. * The cut here given is engraved by Bewick at a somewhat earlier date, for a once popular work entitled the History of Three Hundred Animals, since mcorporated in Mrs. Loudon's " Entertaining Naturalist." 494 UEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. foliage, are, on the whole, superior both in design and execution to the others ; their characteristic attitude and expression are represented with the greatest truth, while, from the propriety of the back-grounds, and the beauty of the trees and foliage, almost every cut forms a perfect Uttle picture. Bewick's talent in pourtraying the form and character of birds is seen to great advantage in the hawks and the owls ; but his exceUence, both as a designer and engraver on wood, is yet more strikingly dis played in several of the other cuts contained in the same volume, and among these the following are perhaps the best. The numbers refer to the pages of the first edition of the Land Birds, 1797. The Field-fare, page 98 ; the Yellow Bunting, a most exquisite cut, and considered by Bewick as the best that he ever engraved, 143 ; the Goldfinch, 165 ; the Skylark, 178 ; the Woodlark, 183 ; the Lesser and the Whiter Fauvette, 212, 213 ; the WUlow Wren, 222 ; the Wren, 227 ; the Whfte-rump, 229 ; the Cole Titmouse, 241 ; the Night-Jar, 262 ; the Domestic Cock, 276 ; the Turkey, 286 ; the Pintado, 293 ; the Pied Grouse, 301 ; the Partridge, 305 ; the QuaU, 308 ; and the Corncrake, 311. — Among the Birds in the second volume, first edition, 1804, the following may be instanced as the most exceUent. The Water Crake, page 10; the Water Eail, 13; the Bittern, 47; the Woodcock, 60; the Common Snipe, 68 ; the Judcock, or Jack Snipe, 73 ; the Dunlin, 117 ; the Dun Diver, 257 ; the Grey Lag Goose, 292 ; and the Common Duck, 333. Nothing of the same kind that wood engra-ving has produced since the time of Bewick can for a moment bear a comparison ^vith these cuts. They are not to be equalled tiU a designer and engraver shall arise possessed of Bewick's knowledge of nature, and endowed with his happy talent of expressing it Be-wick has in this respect effected more hy himself than has been produced by one of our best wood engravers when working from drawings made by a professional designer, but who knows nothing of birds, of theft habits, or the places which they frequent ; and has not the shghtest feeUng for natural incident or picturesque beauty. — No mere fac-simUe engraver of a dra-wing ready made to his hand, should venture to speak slightingly of Bewick's talents until he has both draivn and engraved a cut which may justly chaUenge a comparison with the Kyloe Ox, the Yellow-hammer, the Partridge, the Wood-cock, or the Tame Duck. Bewick's style of engraving, as displayed in the Birds, is exclusively his own. He adopts no conventional mode of representing texture or producing an effect, but skilfully uvaUs himself of the most simple and effective means which his art affords of faithfuUy and efficiently repre senting his subject. He never wastes his tune in laborious trifling to display his skill in execution ; — he works with a higher aim, to represent EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 495 nature ; and, consequently, he ncY'er bestows his pains except to express a meaning. The manner in which he has represented the feathers in many of his birds, is as admirable as it is perfectly original. His feeling for his subject, and his knowledge of his art, suggest the best means of effecting his end, and the manner in which he has employed them entitle him to rank as a wood engraver^without reference to his merits as a designer — among the very best that have practised the art. Our copy of his cut of the Partridge, though not equal to the original, will perhaps to a certain extent serve to exemplify his practice. Every line that is to be perceived in this bird is the best that could have been devised to express the engraver's perfect idea of his subject. The soft downy plumage of the breast is represented by delicate black lines crossed horizontaUy by white ones, and in order that they may appear comparatively light in the impression, the block has in this part been lowered. The texture of the skin of the legs, and the marks of the toes, are expressed -with the greatest accuracy; and the varied tints of the plumage of the rump, back, -vrings, and head, are indicated with no less fidelity. — Such a cut as this Bewick would execute in less time than a modern French wood engraver would require to cut the delicate cross-hatchings necessary, according to French taste, to denote the grey colour of a soldier's great coat The cut of the Wood-cock, of which that on the next page is a copy, is another instance of the able manner in which Bewick has avaUed himseft of the capabUities of his art. He has here produced the most perfect likeness of the bftd that ever was engraved, and at the same time given to his subject an effect, by the skUful management of light and shade, which it is impossible to obtain by means of copper-plate engrav ing. Bewick thoroughly understood the advantages of his art in this 406 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. respect, and no wood engraver or designer, either ancient or modern, has employed them with greater success, without sacrificing nature to mere effect m^u. k Among the very best of Bewick's cuts, as a specimen of wood engraving, is, as we have already said, the Common Duck. The round, fuU form of the bird, is represented -with the greatest fideUty ; the plumage in all its downy, smooth, and glossy variety, — on the sides, the nimp, the back, the wings, and the head, — is singularly tme to nature ; whUe the legs and toes, and even the webs between the toes, are engraved in a manner which proves the great attention that Bewick, when necessary, paid to the minutest points of detaU. The effect of the whole is exceUent, and the back-ground, both in character and execu tion, is worthy of this master-piece of Be-wick as a designer and engraver on wood. The taU-pieces in the first editions of the Bftds are, taken aU together, the best that are to be found in any of Be-wick's works ; but, though it is not unhkely that he suggested the subjects, there is reason to beUeve that many of them were drawn by Eobert Johnson, and there cannot be a doubt that the greater number of those contained in the second volume were engraved by Luke ClenneU. Before saying anything more about them, it seems necessary to give a list of those which were either not drawn or not engraved by Bewick himself ; it has been furnished by one of his early pupils who saw most of Johnson's drawings, and worked in the same room with Clennell when he was engraving those which are here ascribed to him. The pages show where those cuts are to be found in the edition of 1797 and in that of 1821. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 497 VOLUME L 797 1821 PAGE PAGE I 1 vi 26 xxviU 6S 146 159 140 162 160 Boughs and Bird's-nest, drawn and engraved by Charlton Nesbit, preface . . Sportsman and Old Shepherd, drawn by Robert Johnson, engraved by Bewick, preface (transferred to Vol. ii. preface, page vi. in the edition of 1821) . . . Old Man breaking stones, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick .... Horse running away -with boys in the cart, dra-wn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick Fox and Bird, dra-wn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick . . , Winter piece, the geldard, drawn by B. Johnson, engraved by Bewick .... EDITIONS VOLUME IL 1804 1821 PAGE PAGE Two Old Soldiers, "the Honours of War," drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick, introduction ... v -vii Man creeping along the branch of a tree to cross a stream, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell 3 63 Old Fisherman, with a leister, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. ClenneU . 23 38 The Broken Branch, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 31 41 Old Man watching his fishing-lines in the rain, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 41 48 Man angling, liis coat-skirts pinned up, engraved by L. Clennell -46 57 Old Angler fettling his hooks, engraved by L. ClenneU 50 97 Partridge shooting, drawn by B. Johnson, engraved by L. ClenneU . . . . 82 105 Woman hanging out clothes, engraved by L. ClenneU (transferred to vol. i. page 164, edition of 1821) 106 — Man faUen into the water, engraved by L. ClenneU 94 262 River scene, engraved by L. Clennell 107 132 Coast scene, engraved by H. Hole 123 124 Coast scene, moonUght, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell . 125 122 Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by H. Hole 144 142 Beggar and Mastiff, engraved L. ClenneU 160 207 Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 161 151 Buiying-ground, drawn and engraved by L. ClenneU 166 237 Man and Cow, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick 173 161 Tinker and his Wife, windy day, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by H. Hole . 176 148 Winter piece, skating, drawn by R. Johnson engraved by Bewick . . . 180 202 Man on a rock, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. ClenneU 182 177 Icebergs, Ship frozen up, dra-wn and engraved by L. ClenneU 188 156 Sea piece, moonUght, engraved by L. Clennell 194 190 Tired Sportsman, engraved by L. ClenneU 202 245 The Glutton, engraved by L. ClenneU 211 195 Sea piece, engraved by L. ClenneU 215 197 Runic PUlar, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by John Johnson 220 342 Esquimaux and Canoe, dra-wn and engraved by L. ClenneU 230 211 Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. ClenneU 238 306 Coast scene, dra-wn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. ClenneU .....¦¦ 240 218 Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Be-wick 245 220 Man and Dog, engraved by H. Hole 251 228 Geese going home, engraved by L. ClenneU 271 260 Boys sailing a Ship, engraved by L. Clennell 282 268 Old Man and a Horse, going to market with two sacks fuU of geese .... 286 247 Boys riding on gravestones, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. ClenneU . . 304 323 K K EDITIONS 1804 1821 PAGE PAGE 337 303 348 304 359 314 366 242 380 — 498 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. Man smoking, engraved by L. Clennell Pumping water on a weak leg, engraved by L. ClenneU ... Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. ClenneU . . ... Sea piece, dra-wn and engraved by L. ClenneU Sea piece, dra-wn and engraved by L. ClenneU (in Supplement to vol. ii. p. 20) This Ust might be considerably increased by inserting many other taU-pieces engraved by ClenneU ; but this does not appear necessary, as a suf&cient number has been enumerated to show that both in the designing and in the engraving of those cuts Be-wick received very considerable assistance from his pupUs. In the additional taU-pieces to be found in subsequent editions the greater number are not engraved by Be-wick himself In the last edition, published in 1832, there are at least thirty engraved by his pupils subsequent to the time of ClenneU. The head-piece at the commencement of the introduction, volume L page -vii drawn and engraved by Bewick himseft, presents an exceUent view of a farm-yard. Everything is true to nature ; the bftds assembled near the woman seen winnowing corn are, though on a smaU scale, represented with the greatest fidehty ; even among the smaUest the wagtail can be distinguished from the sparrow. The dog, feeUng no interest in the business, is seen quietly resting on the dunghiU ; but the chuckling of the hens, announcing that something hke eating is going forward, has evidently excited the attention of the old sow, and brought her and her litter into the yard in the expectation of getting a share. The season, the latter end of autumn, is indicated by the flight of field fares, and the comparatively naked appearance of the ti-ees ; and we perceive that it is a clear, bright day from the strong shadow of the ladder projected against the waU, and on the thatched roof of the out house. A heron, a crow, and a magpie are perceived naUed against the gable end of the. barn ; and a couple of pigeons are seen flying above the house. The cut forms at once an interesting picture of countiy lfte, and a graphic summary of the contents of the work. Among the tail-pieces drawn and engraved by Bewick himseft, in the 'first edition of the Birds, the foUo-wing appear most deser-ving of notice. In volume I. : A traveller drinking, — supposed to represent a sketch of his own costume when making a tour of the Lakes in 1776, — ^introduced twice, at the end of the contents, page xxx. and again at page 177. A man watering, in a different sense to the preceding, a very natiual, though not a very delicate subject, at page 42. At page 62, an old miller, lying asleep behind some bushes ; ho has evidently been tipsy, and from tho date on ii slone to the left, we are led to suppose that EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 499 he had been indulging too freely on the the Eing's birth-day, 4th June. The foUo-wing is a copy of the cut Two cows standing in a pool, under ^^!^ the shade of a dyke-back, on a warm day, page 74. In this cut Bewick has intioduced a sketch of a magpie chased by a hawk, but saved from the talons of its pursuer by the timely interference of a couple of crows. Winter scene, of which the following is a copy, at page 78. Some boys have made a large snow man, which excites the special wonderment of a horse ; and Bewick, to give the subject a moral application, has added "Esto perpetua ! " at the bottom of the cut : the great work of the little men, however they may admfte it, and -wish for its endurance, wUl be dissolved on the first thaw. At page 97 the appearance of mist and rafti is well expressed ; and in the cut of a poacher tracking a hare, the snow is no less naturaUy represented. At page 157, a man riding with a howdy — a mid-wife — behind him, part of the cut appears covered with a leaf Bewick once being asked the meaning of this, said that " it was done to uidicate that the scene which was to follow required to be concealed." At page 194 we perceive a fuU-fed old churl hangftig his cat ; at page 226, a hen attacking a dog ; and at page 281, two cocks fighting, — aU three exceUent of their kind. KK 2 500 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. Bewick's humour occasionally verges on positive grossness, and a glaring instance of his want of delicacy presents itself in the tail piece at page 285. After the work was printed off Bewick became aware that the nakedness of a prominent part of his subject requfted to be covered, and one of his apprentices was employed to blacken it over with ink. In the next edition a plug was inserted in the block, and the representation of two bars of wood engraved upon it to hide the offensive part The cut, however, even thus amended, is stUl extremely indeUcate.* The following is a copy of the head-piece at the commencement of the advertisement to the second volume. It represents an old man saying grace with closed eyes, whUe his cat avails herseft of the opportunity of making free -with his porridge. The Eeverend Henry Cotes, vicar of Bedhngton, happening to call on Bes\'ick when he was finishing this cut, expressed his disapprobation of the subject, as ha^dng a tendency to ridicule the practice of an act of devotion ; but Be-wick denied that he had any such intention, and would not consent to oioit the cut He drew a distinction between the act and the performer ; and though he might approve of saying grace before meat, he could not help laughing at one of the over-righteous, who, whUe craving a blessing with hypocritical grimace, and with eyes closed to outward things, loses a present good. The head-piece to the contents presents an excellent sketch of an old man going to market on a -windy and rainy day. The old horse on which he is mounted has become restiN-e, and the rider has both broken his stick and lost his hat. The horse seems deternuned not to move till it suits his own pleasure ; and it is evident that the old man dare not get down to recover his hat, for, should he do so, encumbered as * The subject of this cut is thus explained in Brockott's Glossaiy of North Country Words : " Neddy, Netty, a certain place tliat will not bear a written explanation ; but which is depicted to the very life m a tail-piece iu the fii-st edition of Bewick's Land Birds, p. 2M5. In the second eilitiou a bar is placed against tho oflbuding part of this broad display of native humour." EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 501 he is with a hea-vy basket over his left arm and an egg-pannier slung over his shoulder, he will not be able to remount. The following are the principal tail-pieces drawn and engraved by Bewick himself in the first edition of the second volume of the Birds, 1804. A shooter with a gnn at his back crossing a stream on long stilts, page 5. An old wooden-legged beggar gnawing a bone near the entrance to a gentleman's house, and a dog beside him eagerly watching for the reversion, page 27. A dog with a kettle tied to his tail, pursued by boys, — a great hulking fellow, evidently a blacksmith, standing with folded arms enjoying the sport, page 56. A man crossing a frozen stream, with a branch of a tree between his legs, to support him should the ice happen to break, page 85. A monkey basting a goose that is seen roasting, page 263. An old woman with a pitcher, driving away some geese from a well, page 291. An old beggar-woman assaUed by a gander, page 313. One of the best of the tail-pieces subsequently inserted is that which occurs at the end of the description of the Moor-buzzard, volume i. in the editions of 1816 and 1821, and at page 31 in the edition of 1832. It represents two dyers carrying a tub between them by means of a cowl-staff; and the figures, Mr. Atkinson says, are portraits of two old men belonging to Ovingham, — " the one on the right being ' auld Tommy Dobson of the Bleach Green,' and the other 'Mat. Carr.' "¦* The action of the men is exceUent, and their expression is in perfect accordance -with the business in which they are engaged — to wit, carrying their tub fuU of chemmerly — chamber-lye — to the dye-house. The olfactory organs of both are e-vidently affected by the pungent odour of their load. It may be necessary to observe that the dyers of Ovingham had at that time a general reservoir in the village, to which most of the cottagers were contributors ; but as each famUy had the privilege of supplying themselves from it with as much as they required for scouring and washing, it sometimes happened that the dyers found their trough empty, and were consequently obUged to solicit a supply from such persons as kept a private stock of their own. As they were both irritable old men, the phrase, "He's like a raised [enraged] dyer begging chemmerly," became proverbial in Ovingham to denote a person in a passion. This cut, as I am informed by one of Bewick's old pupUs, was copied on the block and engraved by Luke Clennell from a water-colour dra-wing by Eobert Johnson. When the second volume of the Histoi7 of Brftish Birds was pub- * " Mr. Atkinson must have- misunderstood Bewick, as the old man's name was George, not Matthew, Carr. He was grandfather to Edward WiUis, one of Bewick's pupils, and to George Stephenson, the celebrated engineer. Matthew Carr was a tailor, who lived and died at Righton, in Durham." — Jno. Jackson. ;,{)0 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEA-VING. lished, in 1804, Bewick had reached his fiftieth year ; but though his powers as a wood engraver continued for long afterwards unimpafted, yet he subsequently produced nothing to extend his fame. The retouching of the blocks for the repeated editions of the Quadrupeds and the Bftds, and the engraving of new cuts for the latter work, occupied a consider able part of his time. He also engraved, by himseft and pupUs, several cuts for different works, but they are generaUy such as add nothing to his reputation. Bewick never engraved -with pleasure from another person's drawing ; in large cuts, consisting chiefly of human figures, he did not excel. His exceUence consisted in the representation of animals and in landscape. The Fables, which had been projected pre-vious to 1795, also occasionally occupied his attention. This work, which first appeared in 1818, was by no means so favourably received as the Quad rupeds and the Birds ; and several of Be-wick's greatest admirers, who had been led to expect something better, openly expressed theft disap pointment. Dr. Dibdin, speaking of the Fables, says, "It would be a species of scandalum magnatum to depreciate any production connected with the name of Be-wick ; but I -wiU fearlessly and honestly aver that his .JSsop disappointed me ; the more so, as his Bftds and Beasts are volumes perfectly classical of their kind." The disappointment, how ever, that was felt -with respect to this work resulted perhaps rather from people expecting too much than from any deficiency in the cuts as illus trations of Fables. There is a great difference between representing bftds and beasts in their natural character, and representing them as actors in imaginary scenes. We do not regard the cock and the fox holding an imaginary conversation, however ably represented, -with the interest with which we look upon each when faithfuUy depicted in its proper character. The taU-piece of the bitch seeing her drowned puppies, at page 364 of the Quadrupeds, edition 1824, is far more interesting than any cut iUus trative of a fable in .^sop ; — we at once feel its ti-uth, and admfte it, because it is natural Bftds and beasts represented as performing human characters can never interest so much as when naturaUy depicted in theft own. Such cuts may display great fancy and much skill on the part of the artist, but they never can excite true feeUng. The martyr Cock Eobin, kUled by that mahcious archer the Sparrow, is not so interesting as plain Eobin Eedbreast picking up crumbs at a cottage-door in the snow : — " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." Whatever may be the merits or defects of the cuts in those Fables, Bewick most certainly had very little to do with them ; for by far the greater number were designed by Eobert Johnson, and engraved by W. W. Temple and WUUam Haiwey, whUe yet in their apprenticeship. In EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 503 the whole volume there are not more than three of the largest cuts engraved by Bewick himself."' The taU-pieces in this work wUl not bear a comparison with those in the Birds ; the subjects are often both trite and tamely treated ; the devil and the gaUows — Bewick's two stock- pieces — occur rather too frequently, considering that the book is chiefiy intended for the improvement of young minds ; and in many instances nature has been sacrificed in order that the moral might be obvious. THE CROW AND THE LAMB. The letter-press was entirely selected and arranged by Bewick himself, and one or two of the fables were of his own -writing. Though an excel lent Ulustrator of ISTatural History, Bewick is but an indifferent fabulistt Though the work is professedly intended for the instruction of the young, there are certainly a few taU-pieces introduced for the entertainment of the more advanced in years ; and of this kind is the old beggar and his trull lying asleep, and a buU looking over a raU at them. The explanation of this subject would certainly have little tendency to improve young minds. Bewick, though very fond of introducing the devU in his cuts to frighten the wicked, does not appear to have been wUUng that a ranting preacher should in his discourses avaU himself of the same character, though to effect the same purpose, as we learn from the foUowing anecdote related by Mr. Atkinson. " Cant and hypocrisy he (Bewick) very much disliked, A ranter took up his abode near Cherry-burn, and used daUy to horrify the country people with very familiar detaUs of ultra-stygian proceedings. Be-wick went to hear him, and after Ustening patiently for some time to * The cuts engraved by Bewick himself are : a taU-piece (a Cow standing under some bushes) to " The Two Progs," page 200. The fable of " The Deer and the Lion," page 315 " Waiting for Death," page 338. He also engi-aved the figure oi the Lion in the fable of " The Lion and the four BuUs," page 89 (see cut at our page 480). The Man, Crow, and Sheep in the fable of the " Eagle and the Crow," of which we give the original cut. The Man and two Birds in the fable of " The Husbandman and the Stork." t The fable of the Ship Dog is one of those written bv Be-wick. 504 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. a blasphemous recital of such horrors, at which the poor people were gaping with affright, he got behind the holder-forth, and pinching his elbow, addressed him when he turned round with great solemnity : ' ISTow then thou seems to know a great deal about the de-vU, and has been frightening us a long whUe about hftn : can thou teU me whether he wears his own hair or a wig?'" — This is a bad joke ; — the query might have been retorted with effect. The engraver, it seems, might introduce his Satanic majesty ad libitum in his cuts ; but when a ranting preacher takes the same liberty in his discourses, he is caUed upon to give proof of personal acquaintance. Bewick's morality was rather rigid than cheerful ; and he was but too prone to think uncharitably of others, whose conduct and motives, when weighed in the scales of impartial justice, were perhaps as correct and as pure as his own. His good men are often represented as somewhat cold, selfish individuals, with little sympathy for the more unfortunate of theft species, whose errors are as often the result of ignorance as of a positively -vicious character. As a moralist, he was accustomed to look at the dark rather than the bright side of human nature, and hence his tendency to brand those with whom he might differ in opinion as fools and knaves. One of the fables, written by himself, was objected to by the printer, the late Mr. E. Walker, and at his request it was omitted. We give a copy of the cut intended for it. The world is reprasented as ha-ving ^ \ lost its balance, and legions of his fa\'oin-ite devils are seen hurled about in a confused vortex. The fable, it is said, was intended as a satire on EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 505 the ministerial politics of the time. A thumb-mark is seen at the upper end of what is intended to represent a piece of paper forming part of the page of a Bible pasted across the cut A simUar mark is to be found at page 175 of the Land Birds, first edition, 1797, and in the bill and receipt prefixed to the Fables, 1818-1823. In a novel, entitled " Such is the World," there is the following erro neous account of Bewick's reason for affixing his thumb-mark to this bill."' " Having completed his task to the entire satisfaction of his own mind, Mr. Bewick bethought him of engraving a frontispiece. But haviag some suspicion that the said frontispiece might be pirated by some of those corsairs who infest the ocean of literature, he resolved to put a mark on it, whereby all men might distinguish it as readily as a fisher man distinguishes a haddockf from a cod-fish. Accordingly, he touched with his thumb the little black baU with which he was wont to ink his cuts, in order to take off proof impressions of his work : he then A^ery dehberately pressed his thumb on the frontispiece which he was at that moment engraving, and cut the most beautiful image of the original, wluch he designated by the appropriate words ' John Bewick, his mark.' " Had the writer looked at the " frontispiece," as he caUs it, he would have found " Thomas!' and not "John.'' The conclusion of this account is a fair sample of its general accuracy. In a preliminary observation the author, -with equal correctness, informs his readers that the work in which this "frontispiece" appeared was "a superb edition of Gays Fables." Bewick's mark is, in fact, added to this bill merely as a jest ; the mode which he took to authenticate the copies that were actually issued by himseft, and not pilfered by any of the workmen employed about the printing-office,^ was to print at his own work-shop, in red ink from a copper-plate, a representation of a piece of sea-weed lying above the wood-cut which had pre-viously been printed off at a printing-office. This mode of printing a copper-plate over a wood-cut was a part of * Mr. Atkinson says that this account determined Bewick to write a life of himself It appears that he actuaUy completed such a work, but that his famUy at present decline to pubUsh it. [Mr. Jackson adds, " I engraved two portraits for it : one was a portrait of the Rev. Wm. Turner, of Newcastie, the other that of an engineer or mUlwright, at Morpeth, named Rastaek, or Baistick.] + " There is a tradition that the two black marks on the opposite sides of the haddock were occasioned by St. Peter's thumb and fore-finger when he took tiie piece of money out of the fish's mouth to give it as a tribute to Ciesar." X Bewick's suspicions in this respect were not altogether groundless. Happening to go into a bookbinder's shop in Newcastle in I8I8, he found a copy of his Fables, which had been sent there to bind before the work had been issued to the public. He claimed the book as his property, and carried it away ; but the name of tiie owner who had purchased it, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained, was not publicly divulged. 506 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. one of the plans which he had devised to prevem; the forgery of bank-notes.* The first of the two following cuts, copied from his Fables, records the decease of Bewick's mother, who died on the 20th of February 1785, aged 58 ; and the second that of his father, who died on the 15th of November in the same year, aged 70. The last event also marks the day on which he began to engrave the first cut intended for the Quadrupeds. This cut was the Arabian Camel, or Dromedary, and he had made very Uttle progress with it when a messenger arrived from Cherry-bum to inform him of his father's death. Several years pre-vious to his decease Be-wick had devised an improve ment, which consisted in printing a subject from two or more blocks, — not in the manner of chiaro-scuros, but in order to obtain a greater varietj- of tint, and a better effect than could be obtained, without great labour, in a cut printed in black ink from a single block. This improvement, which had been suggested by PapiUon in 1768, Be-wick proceeded to carry into effect. The subject which he made choice of to exemphfy what he con sidered his original discovery, was an old horse waiting for death.+ He accordingly made the dra-wing on a large block consisting of four different pieces, and forthwith proceeded to engrave it He however did not Uve to complete his intention ; for even this block, which he meant merely for the first impression— the subject ha-ving to be completed by a second — remained unfinished at his decease.J He had, however, firnshed it all * About 1799 Bewick frequently corresponded with Mr. Abraham Newland, cashier of the Bank of England, respecting a plan which he had de-vised to prevent the forgery of bank notes. He was offered a situation in the Bank to superintend the engi-aving and pi-inting of the notes, but he refused to leave Newcastle. The notes of Ridley and Co.'s bank were for many years engraved and printed under the superintendence of Bewick, who, after Mr Beilby's retirement, stUl continued the business of copper-plate engraving and printing, and for this purpose always kept presses of his own. + A smaU cut of the same subject, though with a different biick-gi-ound, occiuB as a taU- piece in the Fables, I8I8-I823. X The last bird that Bewick engraved was the Cream-coloui-ed Plover, at page 383, vol. i. of the Birds, in the edition of 1832. Several years previous to his death he had projected a History of British Pishes, but very Uttle progress was made in the work. A few cuts of fishes were enL;raved, chiefly by his pupUs ; that of the John Doiy, an impression of which is EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 507 With the exception of part of the horse's head, and when in this state he had four impressions taken about a week before his death. It was on this occasion that he exclaimed, when the pressman handed bim the proof, " I wish I was but twenty years younger ! " This cut, -with the head said to have been finished by another person, was pubUshed by Bewick's son, Mr. Eobert ElUott Bewick, in 1832. It is the largest cut that Bewick ever engraved,* but having been left by him in an unfinished state, it would be impossible to say what he might have effected had he Uved to work out his ideas, and unfair to judge of it as ft it were a finished performance. It is, however, but just to remark, that the miserable appearance of the poor, worn-out, neglected animal, is represented -with great feeling and truth,- — excepting the head, which is disproportionately large and hea-vy, — and that the landscape displays Bewick's usual fidehty in copying nature. Be-wick's life affords a useful lesson to aU who wish to attain distinction in art, and at the same time to preserve their independence. He dUigently cultivated his talents, and never trusted to bookseUers or designers for employment He did not work according to the directions of others, but struck out a path for himseft ; and by dUigently pursuing it according to the bent of his own feelings, he acquired both a competence with respect to worldly means and an ample reward of fame. The success of his works did not render him inattentive to business ; and he was never tempted by the prospect of increasing wealth to indulge in expensive pleasures, nor to Uve in a maimer which his cftcumstances did not warrant What he had honestly earned he frugaUy husbanded ; and, hke a prudent man, made a provision for his old age. " The hand of the dUigent," says Solomon, " maketh rich." This Be-wick felt, and his lfte may be cited in the exemplification of the truth of the proverb. He acqufted not ftideed great wealth, but he attained a competence, and was grateful and contented. No favoured worshipper of Mammon, though possessed of milUons obtained by "watching the turn of the market," could say more. He was extremely regular and methodical in his habits of business : untU -within a few years of his death he used to come to his shop in Newcastle from his house in Gateshead at a certain hour in the morning, returning to his dftmer at a certain time, and, as he used to say, lapping said to have been sold for a considerable sum, is one of those not engraved by Bewick him self As a work of art the value of an India paper impression of the John Dory may be about twopence. This cut is an early performance of Mr. Jackson's, who also engraved, in 1823, about twenty of the additional taU-pieces in the last edition of the Birds, 1832. * This cut is eleven mches and five-eighths -wide by eight inches and three-fourths high. It is entitled, " Waitmg for Death : Bewick's last work, left unfinished, and intended to have been completed by a series of impressions from separate blocks printed over eaoh other." 508 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. up at night, as if he were a workman employed by the day, and subject to a loss by beftig absent a single hour. When any of his works were in the press, the first thing he did each morning, after calling at his own shop, was to proceed to the printer's to see what progress they were making, and to give directions to the pressmen about printing the cuts.* It is indeed owing to his attention in this respect that the cuts in aU the editions of his works published during his life-time are so weU printed. The edition of the Birds, pubUshed in 1832, displays numerous instances of the want of Bewick's own superintendence : either through the careless ness or ignorance of the pressmen, many of the cuts are quite spoUed. The following cut represents a view of Bewick's workshop in St. Nicholas' Churchyard, Newcastle. The upper room, the two windows of whi-cli are seen in the roof, was that in which he worked in the latter years of his life. In this shop he engraved the cuts which wiU perpetuate his name ; and there for upwards of fifty years was he accustomed to sit, steadily and cheerfully pursuing the labour that ho loved. He used always to work with his hat on ; and when any gentleman or nobleman * When Bewick removed the printing of his works from Mr. Ilodgsoii's ofiice to that of Mr. E. Walker, a pressman, named Barlow, was brought from Lumlon for the purpose of printing the cuts in tlie second volume of the Birds iu a proper manner. Bewick's favourite ]iretiniiiaii at Mr. lloiii^'sim's was John Simpson. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 509 called upon him, he only removed it for a moment on his first entering. He used frequently to whistle when at work, and he was seldom without a large quid of tobacco in his mouth. The prominence occasioned by the quid, which he kept between his under lip and his teeth, and not in his cheek, is indicated in most of his portraits. A stick, which had been his brother John's, was a great favourite with him, and he generaUy carried it in his -walks, always carefuUy putting it in a certain place when he entered his workroom. He used to be very partial to a draught of water in the afternoon, immediately before lea-ving work. The water was brought fresh by one of the apprentices from the pant at the head of the Side, in an earthenware jug, and the glass which Bewick used to drink the water out of, was, as soon as done with, carefuUy locked up in his book-case. One of his apprentices once happening to break the jug, Bewick scolded him well for his carelessness, and made him pay twopence towards buying another. Bewick was a man of athletic make, being nearly six feet high, and proportionably stout. He possessed great personal courage, and in his younger days was not slow to repay an insult with personal chastisement. On one occasion being assaulted by two pitmen on returning from a visit to Cherry-burn, he resolutely turned upon the aggressors, and, as he said, "paid them both weU." Though hard-featured, and much marked with the smaU-pox, the expression of Bewick's countenance was manly and open, and his dark eyes sparkled with intelligence. There is a good bust of him by BaUey in the Library of the Literary and PhUosophical Society of Newcastle, and the best engraved portrait is perhaps that of Burnet, after a painting by Eamsey.* The portrait on page 510, engraved on wood, is another attempt to perpetuate the likeness of one to whom the art owes so much. In the summer of 1828 Bewick visited London ; but he was then evidently in a declining state of health, and he had lost much of his former energy of mind. Scarcely anything that he saw interested him, and he longed no less than in his younger years to return to the banks of * The foUowing is a Ust of the principal engraved portraits of Bewick : on copper; by J. A. Kidd, from a painting by Miss Kirkley, 1798. On copper, by Thomas Ranson, after a painting by WiUiam Nicholson, 1816. On copper, by L Summerfield, fi:om a mmiature by Mmphy— that aUuded to in Bewick's letter to Mr. C. Gregson, previously quoted— 1816. On copper, by John Burnet, fi:om a painting by James Ramsey, I8I7. Copies of aU those portraits, engraved on wood, are given in Chamley's edition of Select Fables, 1820 ; and there is also prefixed to the work a portrait excellently engraved on wood by Charlton Nesbit, one of Bewick's earliest pupUs, firom a drawing made onthe block by WUliam Nicholson.— In the Memohr of Thomas Bewick, prefixed to the Natural History of Parrots, Naturalist's Library, vol vi., it is mcorrectly stated that Ranson, the engraver of one of the above portraits, was a pupU of Bewick's. He was a pupU of J. A. Kidd, copper-plate engraver, Newcastle. 510 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. the Tyne. He had ceased to feel an interest ia objects which formerly afforded him great pleasure ; for when his old friend, the late Mr. WUliam Bulmer, drove hftn round the Eegent's Fark, he dechned to alight for the purpose of -visiting the collection of animals in the Gardens of the Zoological Society. THOMAS BEWICK. On his return to Newcastle he appeared for a short time to enjoy his usual health and spirits. On the Saturday preceding his death he took the block of the Old Horse waiting for Death to the printer's, and had it proved ; on the foUowing Monday he became unwell, and after a few days' illness he ceased to exist He died at his house on the WindmUl- hiUs, Gateshead, on the 8th of November, 1 828, aged seventy-five. He was buried at Ovingham, and the following cut represents a -view of the EBVrVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 511 place of his interment, near the west end of the church. The tablets seen in the waU are those erected to the memory of himself and his brother John. The following are the inscriptions on the tablets : In Memory of JOHN BEWICK, Engraver, Who died December, 5, 1795, Aged 35 years. His Ingenuity as an Artist was exceUed only by his Conduct as a Man. The Burial Place of THOMAS BEWICK, Engraver, Newcastle. Isabella, his Wife, Died Ist February, 1826, Aged 72 years. THOMAS BEWICK, Died 8th of November, 1828, Aged 75 years. In an excellent notice of the works of Bewick — apparently -written by one of his townsmen (said to be Mr. T. Doubleday) — in Blackwood's Magazine for July, 1825, it is stated that the final taU-piece to Bewick's Fables, 1818-1823, is "A View of Ovingham Churchyard ;" and in the Eeverend WiUiam Turner's Memoir of Thomas Bewick, in the sixth volume of the Naturahst's Library, the same statement is repeated. It is, however, erroneous ; as both the writers might have known had they thought it worth their while to pay a -visit to Ovingham, and take a look 512 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. at the chiu'ch. The following cut, in which is introduced an imaginary representation of Bewick's funeral, presents a correct view of the place. The foUowing popular saying, which is well known in Northumberland, suggested the introduction of the rain-bow : " Happy is the bride that the sun shines on. And happy is the corjise that the rain rains on, — " meaning that sunshine at a wedding is a sign of happiness in the marriage state to the bride, and that rain at a funeral is a sign of future happiness to the person whose remains are about to be interred. The foUowing eloquent tribute to the merits of Bewick is from an article on Wilson's Illustrations of Zoology in Blackwood's ilagazine for June, 1828. " Have we forgotten, in our hurried and imperfect enumeration of wise worthies, — have we forgotten ' The Genius that dweUs ou the banks of the Tyne,' * the Matchless, Inimitable Bewick ? No. His books lie on our parlour, bed-room, dining-room, drawing-room, study table, and are never out of * This hue is adapted from Wordsworth, who, at the commencement of his verses entitled "The Two Tliieves, or The Last Stage of Avarice," thus cxpi-esses his liigh opinion of the talents of Bewick ; "0 now that the genius of Bewick were mine, And the skiU which ho learned on the banks of the Tyne ! Then the Muses might deal with me just as they diosc, For I'd take my la,st leave both of verse and of prose." Lyrical Ballads, vol. ii. p. 199. Edition 1805. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 513 place or time. Happy old man ! The delight of chUdhood, manhood, decaying age ! — A moral in every taU-piece-^a sermon in every vignette. Not as if from one fountain flows the stream of his inspfted spirit, gurgUng from the Crawley Spring so many thousand gaUons of the element every minute, and feeding but one city, our own Edinburgh. But it rather oozes out from unnumbered springs. Here from one scarcely perceptible but in the -vivid green of the lonesome sward, from which it trickles away into a little mountain riU — here leaping into sudden Ufe, as from the rock — here bubbling from a sUver pool, overshadowed by a bftch-tree — here Uke a weU asleep in a moss-grown ceU, buUt by some thoughtful recluse in the old monastic day, with a few words from Scripture, or some rude engra-vftig, rehgious as Scripture, Omne bonum desupee — Opbea Dei mieifica." John Be-wick, a younger brother of Thomas, was born at Cherry- burn in 1760, and in 1777 was apprenticed as a wood engraver to his brother and Mr. BeUby. He undoubtedly assisted his brother in the execution of the cuts for the two editions of Fables, printed by Mr. Saint in 1779 and 1784 ; but in those early productions it would be impossible, judging merely from the style of the engraving, to dis tinguish the work of the two brothers. Among the earUest cuts kno-wn to have been engraved by John Bewick, on the expftation of his apprenticeship, are those contained in a work entitled "Emblems of Mortahty," printed in 1789 for T. Hodgson, the pubhsher of the Hieroglyphic Bible, mentioned at page 478. Those cuts, which are very indifferently executed, are copies, occasionaUy altered for the worse, of the cuts in Holbein's Dance of Death. Whether he engraved them in London, or not, I have been unable to ascertain ; but it is certain that he was Uving in London in the foUowing year, and that he resided there tiU 1795. When residing in the metropoUs he drew and engraved the cuts for " The Progress of Man and Society," compUed by Dr. Trasler, and published in 1791 ; the cuts for " The Looking Glass of the Mind," 1796 ; and also those contained in a simUar work entitled "Blossoms of Moraftty," pubhshed about the same time. Though several of those cuts display considerable talent, yet the best specimens of his abiUties as a designer and engraver on wood are to be found in Poems by Goldsmith and PameU, 1795, and ia SomervUe's Chase, 1796, both printed in quarto, to display the exceUence of modern printing, type- foundftig, wood-engra-ving, and paper-making. Mr. Buhner, who sug gested those editions, beftig himseft a Northumbrian, had been intimately acquainted with both Thomas and John Bewick. In the preface to the Poems by Goldsmith and PameU, he is careful to commemorate the paper -maker, type-founder, and the engravers ; but he omits to men tion the name of Eobert Johnson, who designed three of the principal L L 514 EEVIVAL OF wood ENGEAVING. cuts.* The merits of this highly-talented young man appear to have been singularly overlooked by those whose more especial duty it was to notice them. In the whole of Bewick's works he is not once mentioned. Mr. Bulmer also says, that aU the cuts were engraved by Thomas and John Bewick ; but though he unquestionably believed so himseft, the statement is not strictly correct ; for the four vignette head and tail-pieces to the TraveUer and the Deserted VUlage were engraved by C. Nesbit The vignettes on the title-pages, the large cut of the old woman gathering water-cresses, and the tail-piece at the end of the volume, were drawn and engraved by John Bewick; the remainder were engraved by Thomas. The cuts in this book are generaUy executed in a free and effecti-\'e style, but are not remarkable as specimens of wood engra-ving, unless we take into consideration the time when they were published. The best in point of execution are, The Hermit at his morning devotion, and The Angel, Hermit, and Guide, both engraved by Thomas Bewick; the manner in which the engraver has executed the fohage in these two cuts is extremely beautiful and natural. It is said that George III. thought so highly of the cuts in this book that he could not beheve that they were engraved on wood ; and that his bookseUer, Mr. George Nicol, obtained for his Majesty a sight of the blocks in order that he might be convinced of the fact by his own inspection. This anecdote is sometimes produced as a proof of the great exceUence of the cuts, though it might with greater truth be cited as a proof of his Majesty being totally unacquainted with the process of wood engraving, and of his not being able to distinguish a wood-cut from a copper-plate. If Bewick's reputation as a wood engraver rested on those cuts, it certainly would not stand very high. Much better things of the same kind have been executed since that time by persons who are generally considered as having smaU claims to distinction as wood engravers. The cuts in the Chase were aU, except one, designed by John Bewick ; but in consequence of the declining state of his health he was not able to engrave them. Soon after he had finished the drawings on the block he left London for the north, in the hope of deriving benefit from his native air. His disorder, however, continued to increase ; and, within a few weeks from the time of his return, he died at Ovingham, on the 5th of December, 1795, aged thirty-five. The cuts in the Chase, which were aU, except one, engraved by Thomas Bewick, are, on the whole, superior in poftit of execution to those in the Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell. Though boldly designed, some of them display great defects in composition, and among the most objectionable in this respect are the Huntsman and three Hounds, at * The cut of the Hermit at his morning devotion was drawn by John Johnson, a cousm of Hubert, and also one of Bewick's pupils. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 515 page 5 ; the conclusion of the Chase, page 31; and. George III. stag- hunting,, page 93. Among the best, both as respects design and execution, are : Morning, vignette on title-page, remarkably spirited ; Hounds, page 25 ; a Stag driaking, page 27; Fox-hunting, page 63 ; and Otter-hunting, page 99. The final taU-piece, which has been spoUed in the engraving, was executed by one of Bewick's pupils. John Be-wick, as a designer and engraver on wood, is much inferior to his. brother. Though several of his cuts possess considerable merit -with respect to design, by far the greater number are executed in a dry, harsh manner. His best cuts may be readily distinguished from his brother's by the greater contrast of black and white in the cuts engraved by John, and by the dry and withered appearance of the fohage of the trees. The above is a reduced copy of a cut entitled the "Sad Historian," drawn and engraved by John Bewick, in the Poem^ by Goldsmith and PameU. The most of John Bewick's cuts are much better conceived than engraved ; and this perhaps may in a great measure have arisen from LL 2 516 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. their having been chiefly executed for chUdren's books, in which excel lence of engra-ving was not required. His style of engraving is not good ; for though some of his cuts are extremely effective from the contrast of Ught and shade, yet the Unes in almost every one are coarse and harsh, and "laid in," to use a technical expression, in a hard and tasteless manner. Dry, stiff, paraUel Unes, scarcely ever deviating into a pleasing curve, are the general characteristic of most of his smaU cuts. As he reached the age of thftty-five without having produced any cut which displays much ability in the execution, it is not likely that he would have excelled as a wood engraver had his Ufe been prolonged. The foUowing is a fac-simUe of one of the best of his cuts in the Blossoms of MoraUty, pubUshed about 1796. It exemplifies his manner of strongly contrasting positive black -with pure white ; and the natural attitudes of the women afford a tolerably faft specimen of his talents as a designer. Eobert Johnson, though not a wood engraver, has a claim to a brief notice here on account of the exceUence of several of the taU-pieces designed by him in Bewick's Birds, and from his having made the drawings for most of the wood-cuts in Bewick's Fables. He was born in 1770, at Shotley, a -vUlage in Northumberland, about six mUes to the south-west of Ovingham ; and in 1778 was placed by his father, who at that time resided in Gateshead, as an apprentice to BeUby and Be-wick to be instructed in copper-plate engraving. The plates which are gene rally supposed to have been executed by hftn during his apprenticeship possess very Uttle merit, nor does he appear to have been desirous to excel as an engraver. His great delight consisted in sketching from nature and in paintiag in water-colours ; and in this branch of art, while yet an apprentice, he displayed talents of very high order.* He * Johnson's water-colour drawings for most of the cuts in Bewick's Fables, are extremely beautiful. They are the size of the cuts ; and as a set are perhaps the finest small drawings of the kind that were ever made. Their finish and accuracy of drawing are admu:able— they EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 517 was frequently employed by his master in drawing and making designs, and at his leisure hours he took every opportunity of improving himself in his favourite art The Earl of Bute happening to caU at BeUby and Bewick's shop on one occasion when passing through Newcastle, a port foUo of Johnson's drawings, made at his leisure hours, was shown to his lordship, who was so much pleased with them that he selected as many as amounted to forty pounds. This sum BeUby and Bewick appropriated to themselves, on the ground that, as he was their apprentice, those dra-wings, as weU as any others that he might make, were legaUy their property. Johnson's friends, however, thinking differently, instituted legal proceedings for the recovery of the money, and obtained a decision in their favour. One of the pleas set up by BeUby and Bewick was, that the drawings properly belonged to them, as they taught hftn the art, and that the making of such drawings was part of his business. This plea, however, failed ; it was eUcited on the examination of one of their o-wn apprentices, Charlton Nesbit, that neither he nor any other of his feUow apprentices was taught the art of drawing in water-colours by their masters, and that it formed no part of their necessary instruction as engravers. On the expiration of his apprenticeship Johnson gave up, in a great measure, the practice of copper-plate engraving, and applied himself almost exclusively to drawing. In 1796 he was engaged by Messrs. Morison, bookseUers and publishers of Perth, to draw from the original paintings the portraits intended to be engraved in " the Scottish GaUery," a work edited by Pinkerton, and published about 1799. When at Tay mouth Castle, the seat of the Earl of Breadalbane, copying some portraits painted by Jameson, the Scottish Vandyke, he caught a severe cold, which, being neglected, increased to a fever. In the -violence of the disorder he became delirious, and, from the ignorance of those who attended him, the unfortunate young artist, far from home and without a friend to console him, was bound and treated Uke a madman. A physician having been called in, by his order bUsters were applied, and a different course of treatment adopted. Johnson recovered his senses, but it was only for a brief period ; being of a delicate constitution, he sank under the disorder. He died at Kenmore on the 29th October, 1796, in the twenty-sixth year of his age." look like miniature Paul Potters. It is known to only a few persons that they were dra-wn by Johnson during his apprenticeship. Most of them were copied on the block by WiUiam Harvey, and the rest chiefly by Bewick himself * John Johnson, a cousin of Robert, was also an apprentice of BeUby and Bewick. He was a wood engraver, and executed a few of the taU-pieces in the Histoiy of British Birds. Like Robert, he possessed a taste for drawing ; and the cut of the Hermit at his morning devotion, engraved by T. Bewick, in Poems*by Goldsmith and PameU; was designed by him. He died at Newea,stle about 1797, shortly after the expiration of his apprenticeship. 51fc. EEVIVAI. (JJ- Wl.iUlj LKG11AVD4G. The foUoWing is a copy of a cut — from a design by Johnson himself — which was drawn on the wood, and engraved by Charlton Nesbit, as a tribute of his regard for the memory of his friend and fellow-pupil The next cut represents a view of a monument on the south side of Ovingham church, erected to the memory of Eobert Johnson by a few friends who admired his talents, and respected him on account of his amiable privati- nliarucler. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 519 Charlton Nesbit, who is justly entitled to be ranked with the best wood engravers of his time, was born in 1775 at Swalwell, ia the county of Durham, about five mUes westward of Gateshead, and when about fourteen years of age was apprenticed to Beilby and Bewick to learn the art of wood engraving. During his apprenticeship he engraved a few of the tail-pieces in the first volume of the History of British Birds, and all the head and taU-pieces, except two, in the Poems by Goldsmith and Pamell, printed by Bulmer in 1795. Shortly after the expiration of his apprenticeship he began to engrave a large cut, containing a view of St Nicholas Church, Newcastle-on-Tyne, from .a drawing by his fellow- pupil, Eobert Johnson. We here present a reduced copy of this cut, which is one of the largest ever engraved in England.* The original was engraved on a block consisting of twelve different pieces of box, firmly cramped together, and mounted on a plate of cast iron to prevent their warping. For this cut, which was first published about 1799, Mr. Nesbit received a medal from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures. About 1799 Mr. Nesbit came to London, where he continued to reside tiU 1815. During his residence there he engraved a number of cuts for various works, chiefly from the designs of the late Mr. John Thurston, t * The original cut, including the border, is fifteen inches wide by about twelve inches high. + Mr. Thurston was a native of Scarborough, and originaUy a copper-plate engraver. He engraved, under the late Mr. James Heath, parts of the two celebrated plates of the death of Major Peirson and the Dead Soldier. He was one of the best designers on wood of his time. He drew very beautifully, but his designs are too flrequently deficient in natural character and feelmg. He died in I82I. 520 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. who at that time was the principal, and indeed almost the only artist of any talent in London, who made drawings on the block for wood engravers. Some of the best of his cuts executed during this period are to be found in a History of England printed for E. Scholey, and in a work entitled Eeligious Emblems, published by E. Ackermann and Co. in 1808. The cuts in the latter work were engraved by Nesbit, ClenneU, Branston, and Hole, from drawings by Thurston ; and they are unques tionably the best of theft kind which up to that time had appeared in England. ClenneU's are the most artist-like in their execution and effect, whUe Nesbit's are engraved Yidth greater care. Branston, except in one cut, — Eescued from the Floods, — does not appear to such advantage in this work as his northern rivals. There is only one cut — ¦ Seed sown — engraved by Hole. The foUo-wing may be mentioned as the best of Nesbit's cuts in this work: — The World Weighed, The Daughters of Jerusalem, Sinners hiding in the Grave, and Wounded in the Mental Eye. The best of ClenneU's are : — CaU to YigUance, the World made Captive, and Fainting for the Li-ving Waters. These are perhaps the three best cuts of their kind that ClenneU ever engraved. In 1815 Mr. Nesbit returned to his native place, where he continued to reside until 1830. WhUe li-viag in the country, though he did not abandon the art, yet the cuts executed by him during this period are comparatively few. In 1818, when residing in the North, he engraved a large cut of Einaldo and Armida for Savage's Hints on Decorative> Printing : this cut and another, the Cave of Despaft, in the same work and of the same size, engraved by the late Eobert Branston, were expressly given to display the perfection to which modern wood engrav ing had been brought. The foUage, the trees, and the drapery in Nesbit's cut are admirably engraved ; but the lines in the bodies of the figures are too much broken and " chopped up." This, however, was not the fault of the engraver, but of the designer, Mr. J. Thurston The lines, which now have a dotted appearance, were originally continuous and distinct ; but Mr. Thurston objecting to them as being too dark, Nesbit went over his work again, and with immense labour reduced the strength of his Unes, and gave them theft present dotted appearance. As a specimen of the engraver's abihties, the first proof submitted to the designer was superior to the last. In order to give a fictitious value to Mr. Savage's book, most of the cuts, as soon as a certain number of impressions were taken, were sawn across, but not through, in several places, and impressions of them Avhen thus defaced were given in the work.* Nesbit's cut was, however, * The practice of thus giving a fictitious value to works of limited circiUation, and which are not likely to reach a second edition during the hfetime of their authors, is less frequent now than it was a few years ago. It is little more than atiick to enhance the price of the EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 521 carefuUy repaired, and the back part of Armida's head having been altered, the impressions from the block thus amended were actually given in the work itseft as the best, instead of those which were taken before it was defaced. This re-integration of the block was the work of the late Mr. G. W. Bonner, Mr. Branston's nephew. The transverse pieces are so skUfuUy inserted, and engraved so much in the style of the adjacent parts, that it is difficult to discover where the defacing saw had passed. In 1830 Mr. Nesbit returned to London, where he continued to reside untU his death, which took place at Queen's Elms, the 11th of November 1838, aged 63. Some of the best of his cuts are contained in the second series of Northcote's Fables ; and the foUowing, of his execution, may be ranked among the finest productions of the art of wood engraving in modem times : — The Eobin and the Sparrow, page 1 ; The Hare and the Bramble, page 127 ; The Peach and the Potatoe, page 129 ; and The Cock, the Dog, and the Fox, page 238. Nesbit is unques tionably the best wood engraver that has proceeded from the great northern hive of the art — ^the workshop of Thomas Bewick. Luke ClenneU, one of the most distinguished of Bewick's pupUs as a designer and painter, as well as an engraver on wood, was born at Ulgham, a viUage near Morpeth, in Northumberland, on the 8th of AprU, 1781. At an early age he was placed with a relation, a grocer in Morpeth, and continued with him, assisting in the shop as an apprentice, untU he was sixteen. Some drawings which he made when at Morpeth having attracted attention, and he himself sho-wing a decided predUection for the art, his friends were induced to place him as a wood engraver with Be-wick, to whom he was bound apprentice for seven years on the 8th of AprU, 1797. He in a short time made great proficiency in wood engraving ; and as he drew with great correctness and power, Bewick employed him to copy, on the block, several of Eobert Johnson's dra-wings, and to engrave them as tail-pieces for the second volume of the History of British Birds. Clennell for a few months aftSr the expi ration of his apprenticeship continued to work for Bewick, who chiefly employed him in engraving some of the cuts for a History of England, pubUshed by WaUis and Scholey, 46, Paternoster Eow. ClenneU, who was paid only two guineas apiece for each of those cuts, having learnt that Bewick received five, sent to the publisher a proof of one of them — Aft'red in the Danish Camp — stating that it was of his own engraving. In the course of a few days ClenneU received an answer from the publisher, inviting him to come to London, and offering him employment book to subscribers, by giying them an assurance that no second edition can appear with the same embeUishments. In three cases out of four where the plates and cuts of a work have been intentionally destroyed, there was little prospect of such work reaching a second edition during the writer's life. 522 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. untU all the cuts intended for the work should be finished. He accepted the offer, and shortly afterwards set out for London, where he arrived about the end of autumn, 1804.* Most of ClenneU's cuts are distinguished by their free and artist-like execution and by their exceUent eft'ect ; but though generaUy spirited, they are sometimes rather coarsely engraved. He was accustomed to improve Thurston's designs by occasionaUy heightening the effect, f To such alterations Thurston at first objected ; but perceiving that the cuts when engraved were thus very much improved, he afterwards aUowed ClenneU to increase the lights and deepen the shadows according to his own judgment. An admftable specimen of ClenneU's engraving is to be found in an octavo edition of Falconer's Shipwreck, printed for CadeU and Davies, 1808. It occurs as a vignette to the second canto at p. 43, and the subject is a ship running before the wind in a gale. The motion of the waves, and the gloomy appearance of the sky, are repre sented with admftable truth and feeling. The dark shadow on the waters to the right gives wonderful effect to the white crest of the wave in front ; and the whole appearance of the cut is indicative of a gloomy and tempestuous day, and of an increasing storm. Perhaps no engra-^dng of the same kind, either on copper or wood, conveys the idea of a storm at sea with greater fidelity. % The drawing was made on the block by Thurston ; but the spirit and effect, — the lights and shadows, the apparent seething of the waves, and the troubled appearance of the sky, — were introduced by ClenneU. AU the other cuts in this edition of the Ship-wreck are of his engra-ving ; but though well executed, they do not require any especial notice. Two of them, which were pre-viou,?ly designed for another work, are certainly not illustrations of Falconer's Shipwreck. ClenneU's largest cut is that which he engraved for the diploma of the Highland Society, from a design by Benjamin West, President of the * Between the expiration of his apprenticeship and his departure for London he appears to have engraved several exceUent cuts for a school-book entitled " The Hive of Ancient and Modern Literature," printed by S. Hodgson, Newcastle.— ClenneU's feUow-pupils were Henry Hole and Edward WUlis. Mr. Hole engraved the cuts in M'Creery's ftess, 1803, and in Poems by FeUcia Dorothea Browne, (aftei-wards Mrs. Hemans) 1808. Mr. Hole gave up wood engraving several years ago on succeeding to a large estate in Derbyshire. Mr. WiUis. who was a cousin of Mr. George Stephenson, the celebi-ated engineer, died in London, the lOth of February, 1842, aged 58 ; but had for some time previously entirely abandoned the art. f He also invariably corrected the outUne of Thuraton's animals ; " Painting for the Living Waters" in the ReUgious Emblems, and a littie subject in an edition of Beattie's Minstrel, pubUshed at Alnwick, representing a shepherd and dog on the brow of a hiU, were thus improved by Clennell. X Mr. Jackson was iu possession of the first proof of this pretty wood engraving, inscribed Twickenham, September 10, 1807, where Clennell was residing at the time. EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 523 ftoyal Academy ; and for this he received fifty guineas. The origftial drawing was made on paper, and ClenneU gave Thurston fifteen pounds, for copying on the block the figures withui the circle : the supporters, a Highland soldier and a fisherman, he copied himseft. The block on which he first began to engrave this cut consisted of several pieces of box veneered upon beech ; and after he had been employed upon ft for about two months, ft one afternoon suddenly spht when he was at tea. Clennell, hearing it crack, immediately suspected the cause ; and on finding it rent in such a manner that there was no chance of repairing it, he, in a passion that the labour already bestowed on it should be lost. threw aU the tea-things into the fire. In the course of a few days however, he got a new block made, consisting of solid pieces of box firmly screwed and cramped together ; and having paid Thurston fifteen pounds more for re-dra-wing the figures within the circle, and having again copied the supporters, he proceeded with renewed spirit to com plete his work. For engraving this cut he received a hundred and fifty guineas— he paying Thurston himself for the drawing on the block ; and the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures presented him with their gold medal. May 30, 1809. This cut is characteristic of ClenneU's style of engraving — the lines are in some places coarse, and fti 524 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. others the execution is careless ; the more important parts are, however, engraved with great spirit ; and the cut, as a whole, is bold and effective. Cross-hatchings are freely introduced, not so much, perhaps, because they were necessary, as to show that the engraver could execute such kind of work, — the vulgar error that cross-hatchings could not be executed on wood having been at that time extremely prevalent among persons who had little knowledge of the art, and who yet vented their absurd notions on the subject as if they were undeniable truths. The preceding is a reduced copy of this cut* The original block, when only a very Umited number of impressions had been printed off, was burnt in the fire at Mr. Bensley's printing-ofiice. The subject was afterwards re-engraved on a block of the same size by John Thompson. The Ulustrations to an edition of Eogers's Poems, 1812, engraved from pen-and-ink drawings by Thomas Stothard, RA., may be fairly ranked among the best of the wood-cuts engraved by ClenneU. They are executed with the feeling of an artist, and are admirable representations of the original drawings.t Stothard himseft was much pleased with them ; but he thought that when wood engravers attempted to express more than a copy of a pen-and-ink drawing, and introduced a varietj' of tints in the manner of copper-plate engravings, they exceeded the legitimate boundaries of the art A hundred wood-cuts by Bewick, Nesbit, Clennell, and Thompson might, however, be produced to show that this opinion was not well founded. ClenneU, who drew beautftuUy in water-colours, made many of the drawings for the Border Antiquities ; and the encouragement which he received as a designer and painter made hftn resolve to entftely abandon wood engraving. With this view he laboured diUgentlv to improve himself in painting, and in a short time made such progress that his pictures attracted the attention of the Directors of the British Institution. In 1814, the Earl of Bridgewater employed him to paint a large picture of the entertainment given to the AUied Sovereigns in the GuUdhaU by the city of London. He experienced great diflficulty in obtaining sketches of the numerous distinguished persons whose portraits it was necessary to give in the picture ; and he lost much time, and suffered considerable anxiety, in procuring those preliminary materials for his work. Having at length completed his sketches, he began the picture, and had made considerable progress in it when, in AprU 1817, he suddenly became insane, and the work was interrupted.^ It has * The original cut is about ten inches and a half high, measured from the line below the iUscription, by about thirteen inches and a half wide, nieasnred acrcss the centre. + Several additional cuts of the same kind, engraved witli no less ability by J. Thompson, were inserted in a subsequent edition. X This painting was afterwards finished by E. Bird, R.A., who also became insane. - EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 525 been said that his malady arose from intense application, and from anxiety respecting the success of his work. This, however, can scarcely be correct ; he had surmounted his greatest difficulties, and was pro ceeding regularly and steadily -with the painting, when he suddenly became deprived of his reason. One of his feUow-pupils when he was with Bewick, who was intimate with him, and was accustomed to see him frequently, never observed any pre-vious symptom of insanity in his beha-viour, and never heard him express any particular anxiety about the work on which he was engaged. Within a short time after ClenneU had lost his reason, his wife also became insane ; * and the malady being accompanied by a fever, she after a short illness expfted, leaving three young chUdren to deplore the death of one parent and the confirmed insanity of the other. These most distressing circumstances excited the sympathy of several noblemen and gentlemen ; and a committee ha-ving been appointed to consider of the best means of raising a fund for the support of ClenneU's family, it was determined to pubUsh by subscription an engraving from one of his pictures. The subject made choice of was the Decisive Charge of the Life Guards at Waterloo, for which Clennell had received a reward from the British Institution. It was engraved by Mr. W. Bromley, and pubUshed in 1821. The sum thus raised was, after paying for the engraving, vested in trustees for the benefit of ClenneU's chUdren, and for the purpose of providing a small annuity for himseft. ClenneU, after having been confined for three or four years in a lunatic asylum in London, so far recovered that it was no longer necessary to keep him in a state of restraint He was accordftigly sent down to the North, and lived for several years in a state of harmless insanity with a relation in the neighbourhood of Newcastle ; amusing himself with making drawings, engraving Uttle wood-cuts, and occasionally -writing poetry. Upwards of sixty of those dra-wings are now lying before me, displajring at once so much of his former genius and of his present imbeciUty that it is not possible to regard them, knowing whose they are, without a deep feeUng of commiseration for his fate. He used occasionaUy to caU on Bewick, and he once asked for a block to engrave. Bewick, to humour him, gave him a piece of wood, and left him to choose his own subject ; and ClenneU, on his next visit, brought with him the cut finished : it was like the attempt of a boy when first beginning to engrave, but he thought it one of the most successful of his productions in the art. The foUo'wing specimens of his cuts and of his poetry were respectively engraved and written in 1828. * ClenneU's wife was a daughter of the late C. Warren, one of the best copper-plate engravers of his time. 526 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. SONG. Good morning to you, Mary, It glads me much to see thee once again ; What joy, since thee I've heard ! Heaven such beauty ever deign, Mary of the vineyard ! THE EVENING STAR. Look ! what is it, -with twinkling Ught, That brings such joy, serenely bright, That turns the dusk again to Ught ?— 'Tis the Evening Star ! What is it -with purest ray. That brings such peace at close of day. That lights the traveller on his way ?— 'Tis the Evening Star ! What is it, of purest holy ray. That brings to man the promised day. And peace 1 — • 'Tis the Evening Star ! COMPENDIUM POETICA. A drop of heaven's treasure, on an angel's wing, Such heaven alone can bring ; — The painted hues upon the rose, In heaven's shower reposing. Is an earthly treasure of such measure. The butterfly, in his speU, Upon the rosy prism doth dweU, And as he doth fly, in his tour From flower to flower. Is seen for a whUe Every care to beguile. And so doth wing his little way. A Uttle fairy of the day ! EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 527 A FLOWERET. Where lengthened ray , GUdeth the bark upon her way ; Where vision is lost in space, To trace. As resting on a stile. In ascent of half a mile — It is when the birds do sing. In the evening of the spring. The broad shadow from the tree, Falling upon the slope. You may see. O'er flowery mead. Where doth a pathway lead To the topmost ope — The yeUow butter-cup And pm-ple crow-foot, The waving grass up, St. Peter's, August 1828. Rounding upon the but — The spreading daisy In the clover maze, The wild rose upon the hedge-row, And the honey-suckle blow For village girl To dress her chaplet — Or some youth, mayhap, let — Or bind the linky trinket For some earl — Or trim up in plaits her hair With much seeming care. As fancy may think it — Or with spittle moisten. Or half wink it, Or to music inclined. Or to sleep in the soft wind. L. C. About 1831, ClenneU ha-ving become much worse, his friends were again compeUed to place him under restraint. He was accordingly con^ veyed to a lunatic asylum near Newcastle, where he is still living. UntU within this last year or two, he continued to amuse himself with drawing and -writing poetry, and perhaps may do so still. It is to be hoped that, though his condition appear miserable to us, he is not miserable himself ; that though deprived of the light of reason, he may yet enjoy imaginary pleasures of which we can form no conception ; and that his confinement occasions to him " Small feeUng of privation, none of pain." * WUUam Harvey, another distinguished pupU of Bewick, and one whose earlier engravings are only surpassed by his more recent produc tions as a designer on wood, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 13th of July 1796. Ha-ving from an early age shown great fondness for drawing, he was at the age of fourteen apprenticed to Thomas Bewick to learn the art of engraving on wood.t In conjunction with his fellow-pupU, W. W. Temple, he engraved most of the cuts in Bewick's Fables, 1818 ; and as he exceUed in drawing as well as in eng^raving, he was generaUy entrusted by Bewick to make the drawings on the block after Eobert * ClenneU died in the Lunatic Asylum, Feb. 9, 1840, in his fifty-ninth year. + Isaac Nicholson, now established as a wood engraver at Newcastle, was the apprentice immediately preceding Harvey. W. W. Temple, who abandoned the business on the expira tion of his apprenticeship for that of a draper and sUk-mercer, came to Be-wick shortly after Harvey ; and the younger apprentice was John Armstrong. 528 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. Johnson's designs. One of the best cuts engraved by Haiwey during his apprenticeship was a vignette for the title-page of a smaU work entitled "Cheviot: a Poetical Fragment," printed at Newcastle in 1817. This cut, which was also drawn by himself, is extremely beautiful both in design and execution ; the trees and the foUage are in particular excel lently represented ; and as a small picturesque subject it is one of the best he ever engraved. Harvey was a great favourite of Bewick, who presented him with a copy of the History of British Birds as a new year's gftt on the 1st of January 1815, and at the same time addressed to him the foUowing admonitory letter. Mr. Harvey is a distinguished artist, a kind son, an affectionate husband, a loving father, and in every relation of Ufe a most amiable man : he has not, however, been exposed to any plots or conspiracies, nor been persecuted by en-vy and maUce, as his master anticipated ; but, on the contrary, his talents and his amiable character have procured for him public reputation and private esteem. " Gateshead, Ist January, 181.5. " Deae William, " I sent you last night the History of British Bftds, which I beg your acceptance of as a new year's gift, and also as a token of my respect Don't trouble yourself about thanking me for them; but, instead of doing so, let those books put you in mind of the duties you have to perform through lfte. Look at them (as long as they last) on every new year's day, and at the same time resolve, -vrith the help of the aU--wise but unknowable God, to conduct yourseft on every occasion as becomes a good man. — Be a good son, a good brother, (and when the time comes) a good husband, a good father, and a good member of society. Peace of mind wiU then follow you like a shadow ; and when your mind grows rich in integrity, you wUl fear the frowns of no man, and only smUe at the plots and conspiracies which it is probable wUl be laid against you by en-vy, hatred, and maUce. " To WiUiam Harvey, jun. Westgate. ry^ ^-o In September, 1817. Mr. Harvey came to London ; and shortiy after wards, with a view of obtaining a correct knowledge of the principles of drawftig, he became a pupU of Mr. B. E. Haydon, and he certaftUy could not have had a better master. WhUe impro-ving himself under Mr. Haydon, he drew and engraved from a picture by that eminent artist his large cut of the Death of Dentatus, which -was pubUshed in 1821.* * This cut is about fifteen inches high by about eleven inches and one quarter wide. It was engraved on a block consisting of seven different pieces, the joinmgs of which are apparent in impressions that have not been subsequently touched with Indian ink EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 529 As a large subject, this is unquestionably one of the most elaborately engraved wood-cuts that has ever appeared. It scarcely, however, can be considered a successful specimen of the art ; for though the execution in many parts be superior to anything of the kind, either of earlier or more recent times, the cut, as a whole, is rather an attempt to rival copper-plate engraving than a perfect specimen of engraving on wood, displaying the pecuUar advantages and exceUences of the art within its own legitimate bounds. More has been attempted than can be efficiently represented by means of wood engraving. The figure of Dentatus is indeed one of the finest specimens of the art that has ever been executed, and the other figures in the fore-ground display no less talent ; but the rocks are of too unftorm a tone, and some of the more distant figures appear to stick to each other. These defects, however, result from the very nature of the art, not from inability in the engraver ; for aU that wood engraving admits of he has effected. It is unnecessary to say more of this cut hero : some observations relating to the detaUs, iUustrated with specimens of the best engraved parts, will be found in the next chapter; About 1824 Mr. Harvey entftely gave up the. practice of engraving, and has since exclusively devoted himseK to designing for copper-plate and wood engravers. His designs engraved on copper are, however, few when compared with the immense number engraved on wood. The copper-plate engravings consist principally of the iUustrations in a col lected edition of Miss Edgeworth's Works, 1832 ; in Southey's edition of Co-wper's Works, first pubhehed in 1836, and since by Mr. Bohn in his Standard Library ; and in the small edition of Dr. Lingard's History of England. The beautiful vignettes and taU-pieces in Dr. Henderson's History of Ancient and Modern Wines, 1824, drawn and engraved by Mr. Harvey, may be considered the ground-work of his reputation as a designer, and by the kindness of Dr. Henderson we are enabled (in this second edition) to present impressions of seven of them. The cuts in the first and second series of Northcote's Fables, 1828, 1833 ;* in the Tower Menagerie, * What may be consideredthe sketches for the principal cuts were supplied by Northcote himself. The foUo-wing account of the manner in which he composed them is extracted from a Sketch of his Life, prefixed to the second series of his Fables, 1833 : — " It was by a curious process that Mr. Northcote reaUy made the designs for these Fables the amusement of his old age, for his talent as a draftsman, exceUing as he did in animals, was rarely required by this undertaking. His general practice was to coUect great numbers of prints of animals, and to cut them out ; he then moved such as he selected about upon the surface of a piece of paper untU he had iUustrated the fable by placmg them to his satisfaction, and had thus composed his subject ; then fixing the different figures with paste to the paper, a few pen or pencil touches rendered this singular composition complete enough to place in the hands of Mr. Harvey, by whom it was adapted or freely translated on the blocks for the M M 530 EEVrVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 1828 ; in the Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society, 1831 ; and in Latrobe's Solace of Song, 1837, were all drawn by him. SPECIMENS OF MR. HARVEY 8 WOOD-ENGRAVI.Vr; FEO.VI DR. HENDERSON S niSTORT OF ANCIENT AND MODETIN WINES. engravers."— Mr. Harvey's work was somethmg more than free translation. He completed that which Northcote merely suggested. The tail-piwes and letters are aU of Mr. Harvey's own invention and drawing. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING 531 Among the smaUer works iUustrated with wood-cuts, and published about the same time as the preceding, the foUowiag may be mentioned as containing beautftul specimens of his talents as a designer on wood — The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green ; The ChUdren in the Wood A Story without an End, translated from the German by Mrs. Austin and especiaUy his one hundred and twenty beautftul designs for the Paradise Lost, and other poems of MUton, and his designs for Thomson's Seasons, from which two works we select four examples with the view of exhibiting at the same time the talents of the distinguished engravers, viz., John Thompson and Charles Gray. For various other m M 2 532 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. works he has also furnished, in all, between three and four thousand desigas. As a designer on wood, he is decidedly superior to the (An*/M6-»fli/ EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 533 majority of artists of the present day; and to his exceUence in this respect, wood engra'ving is chiefly indebted for the very great encourage ment which it has of late received in this country. The two cuts on pages 533 and 534 are also from drawings by Mr. Harvey; and both are printed from casts. The first is one of the iUustrations of the Children in the Wood, published by Jennings and * L Chaphn, 1831; and the subject is the uncle bargaining with the two ruffians for the murder of the chUdren. This cut is freely and effectively executed, without any display of useless labour. The second is one of the iUustrations of the Bhnd Beggar of Bethnal Green, published by Jennings and Chaphn, in 1832. The subject represents the beggar's daughter and her four suitors, namely, — the 534 IIEVIV.VL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. gentleman of good degree, the gaUant young knight in disguise, the merchant of London, and her master's son This cut, though well engraved, is scarcely equal to the preceding. It is, however, necessary to observe that these cuts are not given as specimens of the engravers' talents, but merely as two subjects designed by Mr. Harvey. What has been called the "London School" of wood engraving produced nothing that would bear a comparison with the works of Bewick and his pupils untU the late Eobert Branston began to engi-ave on wood. About 1796, the best of the London engravers was J. Lee. He engraved the cuts for the " Cheap Eepository," a collection of religious and moral tracts, printed between 1794 and 1798, and sold by J. Marshall, London, and S. Hazard, Bath. Those cuts, though coarsely executed, as might be expected, considering the work for which they were intended, frequently display considerable merit in the design ; and EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 535 in this respect several of them are scarcely inferior to the cuts diawn and engraved by John Bewick in Dr. Trusler's Progress of Man and Society. Mr. Lee died in March, 1804 ; and on his decease, his apprentice, Henry White, went to Newcastle, and served out the re mainder of his time with Thomas Bewick. James Lee, a son of Mr. J. Lee, the elder, is also a wood engraver ; he executed the portraits in Hansard's Typographia, 1825. lioh. Branston Eobert Branston, Uke Bewick, acquired his knowledge of wood engraving without the instructions of a master. He was bom at Lynn, fti Norfolk, in 1778, and died in London in 1827. He served his apprenticeship to his father, a general copper-plate engraver and heraldic painter, who seems to have carried on the same kind of mis- ceUaneous business as Mr. Beilby, the master of Bewick. About 1802 Mr. Branston came to London, and finding that wood engra-ving was 536 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. much encouraged, he determined to apply himseft to that art. Some of his first productions were cuts for lottery bUls ; but as he improved in the practice of engraving on wood, he began to engrave cuts for the iUustration of books. His style of engraving is peculiarly his own, and perfectly distftict from that of Bewick. He engraved human figures and in-door scenes with great clearness and precision ; whUe Be-wick's chief exceUence consisted in the natural representation of quadrupeds, bftds, landscapes, and road-side incidents. In the representation of trees and of natural scenery, Branston has almost unftomUy faUed. Some of the best of his earlier productions are to be found in the History of England, pubUshed by Scholey, 1804—1810 ; in Bloomfield's WUd Flowers, 1806 ; and in a quarto volume entitled " Epistles in Verse," and other poems by George MarshaU, 1812. The best specimen of Mr. Branston's talents as a wood engraver is a large cut of the Cave of Despair, in Savage's Hints on Decorative Printing. It was executed in rivalry -with Nesbit, who engraved the cut of Einaldo and Armida for the same work, and it would be difficult to decide which is the best. Both are good specimens of the styles of their respective schools ; and the subjects are weU adapted to display the peculiar exceUence of the engravers. Had they exchanged subjects, neither of the cuts would have been so weU executed ; but in this case there can be little doubt that Nesbit would have engraved the figure and the rocks in the Cave of Despair better than Branston would have engraved the trees and the foUage in the cut of Einaldo and Armida. The cut on the previous page is a reduced copy of a portion of that of Mr. Branston. Mr. Branston, hke many others, did not think highly of the cuts ia Bewick's Fables ; and feeling persuaded that he could produce something better, he employed Mr. Thurston to make several designs, -with the intention of pubUshing a sftnUar work. After a few of them had been engraved, he gave up the thought of proceeding further with the work, from a doubt of its success. Be-wick's work was already in the market ; and it was questionable ft another of the same kind, appearing shortly after, would meet with a sale adequate to defray the expense. The three cuts in the opposite page were engraved by Mr. Branston for the proposed work. The two first are respectively iUustrations of the fables of Industry and Sloth, and of the Two Crabs ; the third was intended as a tail-piece. The cut of Industry and Sloth is certainly superior to that of the same subject in Bewick's Fables ; but that of the Two Crabs, though more deUcately engraved, is not equal to the cut of the same subject in Bevrick. Mr. Branston also thought that Bewick's Birds were estimated too highly ; and he engraved two or three cuts to show that he could do the EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 53"; INDUSTRY AND SLOTH. — Rohcrt Branstoiu THE TWO CRABS. — Robert Branston, TAir.-PlECE TO THE TWO CRABS. — Rohert Broii'^ion. 538 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. same things as weU, or better. In this respect, however, he certaftUy formed a -wrong estimate of his abilities ; for, it is extremely doubtful if — even with the aid of the best designer he could find — he could have executed twenty cuts of bftds which, for natural character, would bear a comparison with twenty of the worst engraved by Bewick himseft. The great North-country man was an artist as weU as a wood engraver ; and in tins respect his pruicipal pupils have also been distinguished. The cut on our present page is one of those engraved by Mr. Branston to show his superiority over Bewick. The bird represented is probably the Grey Phalarope, or ScaUop-toed Sand-piper, and it is unquestionably executed with considerable ability ; but though Bewick's cut of the same bird be one of his worst, it is superior to that engraved by Mr. Branston in every essential point. Between twenty and thirty years ago, a wood engraver named Austin executed several cuts, but did nothing to promote the art. WiUiam Hughes, a native of Liverpool, who died in February 1825, at the early age of thirty-two, produced a number of wood engravings of very con siderable merit. He chiefly exceUed in architectural subjects. One of his best productions is a dedication cut in the first volume of Johnson's Typographia, 1824, showing the interior of a chapel, surrounded by the arms of the members of the Eoxburgh Club. Another artist of the same period, named Hugh Hughes, of whom scarcely anything is now known, executed a whole volume of singularly beautftul wood engravings, entitled " The Beauties of Cambria, consisting of Sixty A''iews in North and South Wales," London, 1823. The work was published by subscrip tion at one guinea, or on India paper at two guineas, and was beautifully printed by the same Johu Johnson who printed William Hughes' cuts in the " Typographia,'' and who, a few years previously, had conducted the Lee Priory Press. The annexed four examples will give an idea of the high finish and perfection of this elegant series. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 589 Hugh Iliighes, del. et sc. PISTILL CAIN. Huj/i Hugnes, dei. et sc. MOEL FAMAU. 540 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. Hugh Hughes, del. et sc. WREXHAM CHURCH. H tgh Hughes, de/. e" sc PWLI. CARAIJOI', EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 541 John Thompson,*' one of the best EngUsh wood engravers of the present day, was a pupU of Mr. Branston. He not only excels, like his SALMON.—/. Thompson. GROUP OF FISH. — J. Thompsoti. CHUB. — J. Thompson. * Charles Thompson, the brother of John, is aho a wood engraver. He resides at Paris, and his cuts are better known in France than in this country. Miss Ehza Thompson, a daughter of John Thompson, also engraves on wood. 642 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. master, in the engraving of human figures, but displays equal talent in the execution of all kiads of subjects. Among the very many exceUent cuts which have been engraved in England within the last twenty years. PIKE. — R. Branston. those executed by John Thompson rank foremost. As he is rarely unequal to himseft, it is rather difficult to poiat out any which are very EEL. — H. inutt. much superior to the others of his execution. The foUowing, however, may be referred to as specimens of the general exceUence of his cuts : — The title-page to Puckle's Club, 1817, and the cuts of Moroso, News monger, Swearer, Wiseman, and Xantippe in the same work ; the Trout, the Tench, the Salmon, the Chub, and a group of smaU fish,-* consisting • The Salmon, Chub, and group of small fish ai-e given on the preceding page from the actual cuts referred to. EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 543 of the Minnow, the Loach, the Bull-head, and the Stickle-back, in Major's edition of Wafton's Angler;* many of the cuts in Butler's Hudibras, pubhshed by Baldwyn in 1819, and reprinted by Bohn, in ] 859, of which we annex an example ; the portraft of Butler, prefixed Joh*i Thnmi-sfK to an edition of his Eemains, pubUshed in 1827 ; and The Two Swine, The Mole become a Connoisseur, Love and Friendship, and the portrait of Northcote, in the second series of Northcote's Fables. One of his latest cuts is the beautifully executed portrait of MUton and his daughters, after a design by Mr. Harvey, already given at page 531. The foUo-wing cut — a reduced copy of one of the plates in the Pake's Progress — by Mr. Thompson, engraved a few years ago for a projected edition of Hogarth's Graphic Works, of which only about a dozen cuts were completed, is one of the best specimens of the art that has been executed in modern times. In the engraving of small * Bewick was accustomed to speak highly of the cuts of fish in this beautiftil work (several of which are given on the pre-vious pages) : the Salmon, engraved by J. Thompson, and the Eel, by H. White, he especially admired. Among others scarcely less excellent are the Pike, by R. Branston ; and the Carp, the Grayhng, and the Buffe, by H. White. Major, in his second edition, went to great expense in substituting other engra-vings for most of these, with the intention of surpassing all that, by the aid of artists, he had done before — in which he to some extent succeeded. In this second edition, the Salmon is engraved by John Jackson. AU Mr. Major's wood-cuts, as well as many of Bewick's, having passed into the hands of Henry G. Bohn (the present pubUsher), his edition of Walton's Anglei is extensively enriched by them. 544 EEVIVAL OP WOOD ENGEAVING. cuts of this kind Mr. Thompson has never been surpassed ; and it is beyond the power of the art to effect more than what has here been accomplished. The EngUsh wood engravers, who next to Charlton Nesbit and John Thompson seem best entitled to honourable mention, are : — Samuel WiUiams ; * Thomas WiUiams ; Ebenezer LandeUs ; John Orrin Smith ; * George Baxter ; Eobert Branston ; Frederick W. Branston ; Henry White, senior, and Henry White, junior ; Thomas Mosses ; * Charles Gorway ; Samuel Slader ; * W. T. Green ; W. J. Linton ; John Martin; J. W. Whimper; John Wright; W. A. Folkard; Charles Gray ; * George Vasey ; John Byfield ; * John Jackson ; * Daniel Dodd, and John Dodd, brothers. — WUUam Henry Powis, who died in 1836, aged 28, was one of the best wood engravers of his time. Several beautiful cuts executed by him are to be found in Martfti and WestaU's Pictorial IUustrations of the Bible, 1833, and in an edition of Scott's Bible, 1834 ; both works now pubUshed by Mr. Bohn. The foUo-wing examples, principaUy taken from Martin and WestaU's Illustrations, wUl exemplify the talents of a few of the distinguished artists above mentioned. It would swell the boolc beyond its limits to give more, otherwise we might select from the same work, which contains one hundred and forty engravings, by aU the principal wood engravers of the day. All the engravers to whose names an asterisk is added arc no« deceased. 'J-rJ^ EEVIVAL OF AYOOD ENGEAVING. ¦7,Vr> JOHN MAE The above cut was engraved by Mr. John Jackson in 1833. Abundant evidences of the versatility of his xylographic talent, are scattered throughout the present volume, of which, though not the author in a literary sense, he was at least the conductor and proprietor. Among the subjects pointed o-ut by Mr. Chatto as engraved by Mr. Jackson, those on pages 473, 495, 496, 512, 605, 614, deserA^e to be mentioned. Mr. F. W. Branston, brother of Mr. Eobert Branston, has long been known as one of our best engravers, as the annexed Specimen wUl shew. N N 546 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. Z. LUfDELLB Me., Ebbnezee Landells, the engraver of this beautiful cut, has quite recently been lost to us. He was projector, and for a long time proprietor, of The Ladies' lUustrated Newspaper, and has engraved an immense number of subjects of aU classes. JOHN SIARTIN The talented engraver of the present subject has already been named, with commendation, at page 544. We learn that the sum paid him for engraving it was fifteen guineas, being three guineas more than the average price. Mr. Wm. Bagg, now a successful draftsman of anatomical subjects, made this and all the other drawings on the blocks at the rate of five guineas each, and Mr. John j\Iartin had ten guineas each for the designs. As the volume contains 144 subjects it must have cost EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 547 the projectors, Messrs. Bull and Churton, upwards of four thousand guineas : it may now be bought for a dozen shUlings. JOHN ^ UT N Me. Thomas Williams ranks high as an engraver on wood, and the Ulustrated works of the last twenty years teem with his performances. Some of the engravings in the Merrie Days of England, 1859, are by him. JOHN MARTm w. T. cncuN The only other IUustration which we shall take from Martin and WestaU's Bible Prints is the above, engraved by Mr. W. T. Green, who continues to exercise his burin with great skill, and has recently engraved one of the plates in Merrie Days of England, and Favourite English Poems, and several of Maclise's designs for Tennyson's Princess. 548 EEVIVAL OF WOOD ENGEAVING. To this is added, as a vignette finish to the chapter, an engraving recently executed by him for an iUustrated edition of Milton's Paradise Lost, now published in Bohn's Library, and already mentioned at page 531. One of the principal wood engravers in Germany, about the time that Bewick began to practise the art in England, was linger. In 1779 he published a tract, containing five cuts of his own engra-viag, discussing the question whether Albert Durer actuaUy engraved on wood : his decision is in the negative. In the same year, his son also published a dissertation, iUustrated with wood-cuts, on the progress of wood engraving in Brandenburg, with an account of the principal books containing Y'ood-cuts printed in that part of Prussia. They jointly executed some chiaro-scuros, and a number of trifling book-Ulustrations such as are to be found in Heineken's Idee Generale d'une CoUection complette d'Estampes. These cuts are of a very inferior character. Gubitz, a German wood engraA^er, who flourished about thftty years ago, executed several cuts which are much superior to any I have seen by the lingers. Several of those engraved by Gubitz, bear con siderable resemblance to the cuts of Bewick. The principal French wood engravers in the eighteenth century, subsequent to PapiUon, were Gritner and Beugnet ; but neither of them produced anything superior to the worst of the cuts to be found in the work of PapUlon With them wood engraving in France rather dechned than advanced. Of late years the art has made great progress both in Germany and France ; and should the taste for wood-cuts contiaue to increase in those countries, their engravers may regain for the art that popidarity which it enjoyed in former times, when Nuremberg and Lyons were the great marts for works iUustrated \Yith wood engravings. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 549 CHAPTEE VIII. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES ON WOOD OP THE PEESENT DAY. The present chapter, which is additional to the former edition, had not been contemplated until the previous pages were printed off. But it was then suggested to the publisher, by one who was able and wiUing to co-operate in the object, that although the book was intended to be merely an improved reprint of what had been given before, a short chapter might advantageously be added respecting those Artists of the present day who were omitted by Jackson, or have risen to eminence since his time. Applications in the form of a circular were accordingly issued, and have resulted in the Specimens now presented. They must speak for themselves, it not being within the province of the publisher to pro nounce as to their respective merits. Besides which, the art of Avood- engraving, OAving to the enormous impulse given to it during the last twenty years, has attained such a pitch of excellence, that it would be somewhat difficult to determine who, if sufficiently stimulated, could produce the most perfect Avork. Artists in Wood, like Artists in Oil, have their specialties, and excel relatively in Landscape, Cattle, or Figure drawing ; Architecture, Natural History, Diagrams, or Humour. But though each may acquire distinction in the department Avhich choice or accident has assigned him, some can undertake all departments equally well. In saying this we refer to engraving rather than designing, for Harrison Weir would hardly undertake Architecture ; Orlando Jewitt, Animals ; or George Cruikshank, Mathematical Diagrams. When, with the age of Bewick, wood-engraving began to reassume its importance for book Ulustration, both designing and engraving were generally performed by the same hand ; but, in the present day, the professions are becoming too important to be joined, and those who, like WiUiam Harvey, Samuel Williams, and others, commenced by practising both, now, recognising the modern policy of a division of labour, confine themselves with few exceptions to one. Our business here, so far as designs are concerned, is almost limited to those draughtsmen who habituaUy draw on Avood, for it is unnecessary to say that every drawing or painting may be transferred to wood by the practical operator. The following Specimens are given in accidental order rather than with any notion of precedence or classification. 550 AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. VKBCIVAL SILBLTOW jA:tiK6 coopsa THE SIERRA MORENA. The present and foUowing specimens are engraved by James Coopee. The first one is from Mr. Murray's illustrated edition of ChUde Harold, pubUshed in 1859, which contains eighty engravings, aU designed by Mr. Percival Skelton ; the others from the Select Poems and Songs of Eobert Burns, published by Kent & Co. in 1858. Mt. Cooper is favour ably known to the artistic A\'orld by his engravings in Ehymes and Eoundelayes, a volume to which Ave shall presently refer again ; Poetiy and Pictures from Thomas Moore, Longmans, 1858 ; The IMerrie Days of England, 1859; Favourite English Poems, 18.'>S ; and Bloomfield's Farmer's Boy, 1858 — mostly after designs by Birket Foster, and aU produced under the supcriiitendeiicc of IMr. Joseph Cundall. \ETISTS AND ENGBAVEKS OF THE PRESENT DAY. 551 BANKS OF THE NITH. BURNS* POEMS HARRISON VE P AS Eh 00 R THE TWA DOGS. burns' poems 5.52 AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OP THE PEESENT DAY. UAIUIUO.'^ »i:iH ^MLS L-OOfLiV TO AULD MARE MAGGIE. BURKS' POEMS. This and the preceding three specimens complete Avhat we have to adduce of Mr. Cooper's engraving : the designers wUl be spoken of in subsequent pages, AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 553 UARmSON WEIR J. GRE£.>'A11 AY THE POETRY OF NATURE. Me. Haeeison Weie is distinguished for his spirited drawings of animals aiid rural landscapes, as wUl be seen ia the annexed examples, which are engraved by W. Wright (formerly Avith VizeteUy) and John Greenaway. He has contributed to most of the popular works of recent date, in which animals form a feature. Among them may be named : The Poetry of the Year ; Poems and Songs by Eobert Burns ; Poetry and Pictures from Thomas Moore ; Favourite English Poems ; Barry CornwaU's Dramatic Scenes and Poems ; Fable Book for Children ; James Montgomery's Poems, 1 860, and Wood's Natural History. 0 0 * ,554 AETISTS AND ENGEAATEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. UAKRI80K WEIB BLOOMFIELD'S FARMER'S BOY. CAMPliKLL'a i'LKAabUUiCi Ol' ilOl'E. ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 555 HAaaiSOM Y/V.IR 3. GAEHMAW& Both this and the specimen on the preceding page are from the Ulastrated edition of Campbell's Pleasures of Hope, of which aU the plates are engraved by Me. John Geeenaway. Mr. Greenaway has contributed to many other of the iUustrated pubUcations of the present day, and among them to the Poetry of Nature, edited by Mr. J. Cundall, with thirty-six cuts all designed by Han-ison Weir. Low and Son, 1860. Bloomfield's Farmer's Boy, 1858 ; Favourite Enghsh BaUads, 1859. 556 AETISTS AND ENGEAVEIiS OF THE PEESENT DAY. BIRKET FOSTBB WILD FLOWERS. £DMUMD ETaJ«S Engraved by Edbihnd Evans from a design by Birket Foster for Ehymes and Eoundelayes, pubUshed by ;Mr. Bogue in 18.57, and since by Messrs. Eoutledge. Mr. Evans has likcAvise engra\'ed the Landscapes in CoAvper's Task, after designs by the same artist, Herbert's Poetical Works, and Graham's Sabbath, aU published by Nisbet & Co.; the' Landscapes in Scott's Lay of the Last IMiastrel, and Maruuon, pubhshed by Adam Black & Co. ; many of the subjects in I'oems and Songs by Itobert Burns, from which Ave have given several specimens. The Merrie Days of England, &c.; and all the iUustrations in Goldsmith's Poetical Works, which are printed in Colours by himself AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY 001 LAYS OP THE HOLY LAND, Engraved by W. J. Palmee, after a design by Birket Foster, for Lays of the Holy Land, pubhshed by Nisbet & Co. .Mr. Palmer has also con tributed to the lUustrated edition of Thomson's Seasons, The Merchant of Yenice, Gray's Poems, pubUshed by Low and Son ; The Merrie Days of England, Kent & Co., and other pictorial works, chiefiy after the designs of Birket Foster, and under the superintendence of Mr. Cundall. 558 AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OP THE PEESENT DAY. Although several specimens have already been given of Bii-ket Foster's powers of design, in speaking of the engravers, we give another, one of his earliest, that we may have occasion to say something of himself H. VIZETELLl Me. Bieket Fostee was a pupU of Mr. Landells, who, discerning his artistic talent, employed him from an early age in the superior depart ment of his profession. After he commenced on his OAvn account, his first important iUustrations were for Longfellow's Poetical Works, of which the above is a specimen. He has since partly or wholly iUustrated, besides those works already mentioned under the name of the engraver, Adams's AUegories, published by Messrs. Eivington ; The Book of FaA'ourite Modern BaUads, Poets of the Nineteenth Century, Christmas A\dth the Poets, Favourite Enghsh Poems, Home Affections, The Merrie Days of England, Barry Cornwall's Dramatic Scenes and Poems, Southey's Lfte of Nelson, Gosse's Elvers of the Bible, and many other of the best works of the period. In 1859 he Avas elected a member of the Old Water Colour Society, and has since then devoted himseft almost ex clusively, and with great success, to painting in Water Colours. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 5.59 jOhh &±:aNN1£L Me. John Tenniel is a successful illustrator of Historical subjects, and BaUad poetry, and has produced many fine examples of his pencU. His most recent work is a series of sixty-nine designs for the iUustrated edition of Moore's LaUa Eookh, engraved by the Messrs. Dalziel, which the "Times" of Nov. 1, 1860, calls the "greatest illustrative achieve ment of any single hand," and of which we here present an example. He is now engaged in illustrating Shirley Brooks' story called The Silver Cord, in " Once a Week ; " and in 1857 he contributed a number of spirited designs to the iUustrated edition of Barry Cornwall's Poetical Works. Among Mr. Tenniel's earUer works are several in the Book of British Ballads, edited by Samuel Carter Hall, in 1843 ; and among his popular designs, sketched with a free pencil, are his large cuts in " Punch," and his small ones in Punch's Pocket Book. 560 AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OP THE PEESENT DAY. x JOUM TEAMLi DEATH OF SFORZA. Both these examples are from Barry Cornwall's dramatic sketch, entitled Ludovico Sforza, published in the illustrated edition of his Poems. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 561' DALZIEL BKUTHEILb ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. Engraved by Messes. Dalziel, Beothees, after the designs of Me. John Gilbeet. These highly appreciated Artists appear together in a considerable number of the iUustrated publications of the present day. Messrs. Dalziel are among the most extensive of our wood-engravers, and have taken part in all the iUustrated works of importance which have been produced during the last twenty years. Among the recent ones are : — Staunton's lUustrated Shakspeare, from which the above specimen is taken, and LongfeUow's Poems, Eoutledge, 1859 ; Barry CornwaU's Dramatic Scenes and Poems, with fifty-seven wood-engravings, published by Chapman and Hall in 1857, now republished by Henry G. Bohn; and Tennyson's Princess, after drawings by Maclise. These artists are at present engaged in engraving Millais' Designs in the " CornhiU Magazine." pp* 562* AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. ----• — k^^^-O'c TUOMAS DAL: UtLZIEI., BSOTHLKB THE FLORENTINE PARTY. The present engraving, executed by the Brothei-s Dalziel, for Barry Cornwall's Poems, gives a pleasing example of Mr. Thomas Dalziel's drawing. The next two are early designs by Mr. Jolin Gilbert. The first is from the Percy Tales of the Eings of England, originaUy pubUshed in 1840, by Mr. Cundall, and since by Henry G. Bohn; the other from Maxwell's Life of the Duke of Wellington, in which there are upwards of one hundred similar vignettes, originally pubUshed in 1840, by Messrs. Baily, Brothers. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OP THE PEESENT DAY. 563 PRINCE ARTHUR AND HUBERT DE BOUEG. FEOM PERCY TALES Of THE KINGS OF ENGLAND. ( . >_ M JOHN GILBEB'I 564'* AETISTS AND ENGEAV|.:i,'S OF THE PEESENT DAY. . A. FOLK AH b. We have here, engraved by Me. W. A. FoLKAED, another of the early designs of Me. John Gilbeet. It is one of the iUustrations to the Book of English BaUads, edited by S. C. Hall, in 1843, which contains up- Avards of four hundred Avood-engrav- ings, and was the first work of any consequence that presented a com bination of the best artists of the time. Indeed, it Avas the leader in what may be called the IUustrated Christmas Books of the present day. Since this period, ]\Ir. Gilbert has probably produced more draAvLngs on Avood than any other artist, and has contributed to almost every illustrated book of any importance. He is a member of the Old Water Colour Society, and has sent many fine drawings to the Exhibition. JOHN OJI.UEllT. ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 5e5* FROM HIA-WATHA. William L. Thomas deserves to rank among the foremost of our wood- engravers, as AviU be seen by the present specimen. He engraved most of the subjects to Hiawatha, all of which Were drawn by his brother George H. Thomas, and are now included in Bohn's lUustrated edition of LongfeUoAY's Works ; many of Mr. Maclise's masterly designs for Tennyson's Princess, and aU the subjects for the Boys' Book of BaUads, from drawings by John GUbert. They have also contributed, separately or together, to the Book of Favourite Modern BaUads, Poetry and Pictures from Thomas Moore, Burns' Poems, The Merrie Days of England, Favourite English Poems, and many other Ulustrated works. 566* artists and eis-gravees of tfte present day. GEUnoU H. XlJOATAb HUJi^CL Hi, BB.I HIAWATHA. Engraved by Hoeace Haeeal (a pupU of the late John Orrin Smith), after a design by George Thomas, for the iUustrated edition of LongfeUow's Poems, formerly published in detached portions by Kent & Co., and now completely by H. G. Bohn. These artists have also con tributed to the iUus trated editions of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Burns' Poems, CampbeU's Pleasures of Hope, the Merchant of Venice, and The Merrie Days of Eng- "'-'., ' 'vW:.- ."¦ land; also to the '¦' -^. ¦"""" Poetry and Pictures from Thomas Moore. Mr. George Thomas, who has long ranked as one of our best draughtsmen of figure subjects, has of late turned his attention almost exclusively to painting in oils, and is a successful exhibitor. ?Pf-->;*-' AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OP THE PEESENT DAY. 567 7* a. B. 1'hu.UaM JOHN ANDERSON MY JO. burns' POEMS. ¦ r-- ^?S^--.- These pleasing specimens conclude our examples of the drawing of Mr. George Hemy Thomas. Of Mr. Evans the engraver we have. already spoken 568* ARTISTS AND ENGEAVERS OF THE PEESENT DAY. W. THOMAS PROM TENNYSON'S PRINCESS The iUustrated volume from AA'hich this is taken has tAventy-six Ulustrations, engraved by W. Thomas, W. T. Green, E. WUhams, and Dalziel, Brothers. Miss E. Wilhams is a daughter of the late talented Samuel Williams. ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. ')69^ „. >iAi,u5i, ii.A. LEOXORA. ¦'¦ ''"'"¦'¦~« i Here is another Design by Me. D. Maclise, E.A., who in his oAvn peculiar manner has furnished draAvings on wood for several finely illustrated publications, among which may be enumerated Longman's edition of the Poems and Songs of Thomas Moore, and especially Tennyson's Princess, of which we have given an example on a previous page. The present is the smallest of a series of designs engraved by Mr. John Thompson, for that stirring Ballad, Burger's Leonora. f nf^VALSKEL U CHILDE HAPOLD Me. Peecival Skelton has been mentioned incidentally on a pre vious page, and we should have given in addition a fine example of his pencU from the Book of Favourite Modern Ballads, but the plate is too large. This present small specimen is to introduce the name of Me. J. W. Whympee, who has been concerned in many of the illustrated publications of the last thirty years, and especially those published by the Christian Knowledge Society. Q Q* 570* AETISTS AND ENGEAVERS OF THE PRESENT DAY. CLABKSoy BTA^F1 U. VtZJCTELLT ANDERSON BEADIN(i THE BIBLE TO JACX. Me. Heney Vizetelly has been so indefatigable for the last twenty years in producing illustrated Avorks in every department, that examples of his wood engraving are extensively distributed. He is besides a printer, well skUled in bringing up wood-cuts, Avhicli is a most dehcate and artistic process. All the engravings in ^Miller's Boy's Country Year Book, and the Book of Wonderful Inventions, are engraved by liini, or under his direction, as are also most of the charming series of designs made by Claekson Stanfield, U.A. for ]Marryat's Poor Jack, of Avhich the annexed is a specimen ; man)' of the plates in Bohn's illustrated AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 571* edition of LongfelloAv's Poems; and the entire series of Christmas with the Poets, fifty-three subjects, printed in tints by himseft. » r *V>. BIILKET FOSTER CHRISTMAS IN THE OLDEN TIME. H VIZETELL-V, We here present a specimen of a series of engravings executed by Mr. Vizetelly, for a work projected by the late Mt. Bogue, and yet unpublished. ^72* AETISTS AND ENGEAVERS OF THE PEESENT DAY. Samuel Williams (recently deceased) deserves a conspicuous niche in the Walhalla of Artists for his forty-eight beautifiU illustrations of Thomson's Seasons, all drawn and engraved by himseft. The annexed specimens selected from that volume (now about to be published by Mr. Bohn in his Illustrated Library) will give a fair example of his peculiar taste in the miniature treatment of rural subjects. ARTISTS AND ENGEAVERS OF THE PEESENT DAY. 57S* L-.-re-.M JOH.N WJLF EAGLES, STAGS AND WOLVES. This and the following engraving were executed by Me. Geoege Peaeson, a rising artist, after drawings made by John Wolf, for the iUustrations of T. W. Atkinson's Travels in the Eegion of the Upper and Lower Amoor (in Eastern Asia). Mr. Wolf, like IMr. Harrison Weir, has a preference for animal drawing, and excels in it. :i74* ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. JUUii WULh •=. -EKRSOV HARE HAWKING. This well-executed cut of Hare Hawking is from Messrs. Freeman and Salvin's Work on Falconry, recently published by Messrs. Longman. Mr. Pearson has lately been engaged in engraving Icthyological sub jects for Hartwig's Sea and its Living Wonders, and some other works of Natural History, a department which he is cultivating by preference. FALLS OF NIAGARA. The Vignette by the same engraver is one of the Illustrations of Bohn's Pictorial Hand-book of Geography just published. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 575* FROM SANDFORD AND MERTON. Me. H. Anelay is well known to the public as a draughtsman on wood, especiaUy in the departments of portrait and figure draAving. The present example, taken from Bohn's Illustrated edition of Sandford and Merton, is engraved by Me. Measom, whose practice is extensive and of long standing. Several of the figure subjects in Merrie Days of England, recently published by Kent and Co., and in Favourite English Poems, published by Low and Co. are by him. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY ¦,r '/ir d'Vtil^ JOHN A.BSOLt MILES STANDISn. TBuMAS BOLTor Me. j. Aesolon has for many years been an Ulustrator of popular story books and poems, most of which have been pubhshed or edited by Mr. Cundall. Among them may be named, FaA'ourite English Poems, published by Low and Co., in 1859 ; Ehymes and Eoundelayes, Eoutledge, 1858; Goldsmith's Poetical Works; and Lockhart's Spanish Ballads, published by Murray. The present specimen is from Bohn's Illustrated edition of Longfellow's Poems, in which the jMiles Standish is chiefly iUustrated by the designs of Mr. Absolon, and entftely engraved by Me. Thomas Bolton, an artist of considerable repute, whose name appears in many of the books quoted in these pages, and among others, in the Poems and Songs of Eobert Burns. Mr. Bolton has just invented a process by Avhich the powers of photography may be applied direct to the production of subjects from nature or art on wood, and from Avliich the engraving can be made with out the intervention of drawing. We annex his first specimen ; others a.re about to appear in the illustrated edition of ¦Miss Winkworth's Lyra Germanica. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT D.VY. 57 f .'-,'77* TH(iMA9 BOLTON This specimen of Me. Bolton's ucav process is taken from the weU-known relief of Flaxman, "Deliver us from evil!' It is one of the first successful photographs on Avood, and was printed and engraved by Me. Thomas Bolton, from Mr. Leighton's negative. R R ¦ 578* ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. JOHN sw.m MONTALYA'S FAIRY TALES. Me. Eichaed Doyle's manner of draAving is fairly exemplified in the present engraving, executed by him for ]Montalva's Fairy Tales of all Nations, published by Chapman & Hall in 1859. Mr. Doyle has illustrated a considerable number of books of a popular character, among which may be named : The Scouring of the White Horse ; The New- comes ; The Continental Tour of Brown, Jones, and Robinson, of Avhich we give an example on the next page ; ^Manners and Customs of the English ; and Pips' Diary. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 579* ULH.\11U UUIL BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON IN VENICE. Mr. Doyle's " Foreign Toui' of BroAvii, Jones, and Eobinson, what they saw and did in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy," pub lished in 1855, has acquired great popularity among the lovers of comic literature, and by the kindness of the p.ublishers, Messrs. Brad bury and Evans, we are enabled to give a specimei;. 580* AETIST.S AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 1 j-f- X. '1^1^^^''''^ :^> JuU» l-LKCH ORILIII s'llB FROM UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, Mr. John Leech is so avcU knoAvn to every reader of ' Punch," that Ave need hardly do more here than merely mention his name as one of the best and most extensive of our graphic humorists. i\mong the many books to which he has contributed ai-e : The Comic History of England; Comic llistovv of Ediiie ; Comic Aspects of English Social Life ; Tour in Ireland ; Soapy Sponge's Sporting Tour ; Young Troublesome ; IMr. Jorrocks' Hunt ; Punch's Almanack ; and several (editions of Uncle Tom's Cabin, from one of Avhich (our own) the al]()\c siicciiiien is tiikeii, drawn, as wc have reason to believe, in the <'(iui'se ol two 111' three lioiii's. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PRESENT DAY. 5S! v;-' ,.i^-'':>:-.«Ar JUHN LEECH JOH^ &».ll,N PEASANTRY ON THEIR WAY TO AN IRISH FAIR. TOUR IN IRELAND. Another specimen of jMr. Leech's comic humour, taken from his Tour in Ireland, published at the Punch Office. 58: AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. r LEIUUTO.N ENr:^ Ltci: HASTEN AT LEISURE. We here present a specimen of that curious work, " Moral Emblems of all Ages and Nations,'' published by JMessrs. Longman & Co. The whole book has been drawn after the origiuals and superintended throughout by IMi;. John Leighton, who is well known under his pseudouyme of " Luke Limner." The engruving is b}- Heney Leighton. AETISTS AND ENGRAVERf, 07 THE PEESENT DAY. 583* THE BLOWING UP OF iS^ffl J L'ORIENT. 'C HUaAUI^ HAliRAl. Edwaed Duncan, a member of the Old Water Colour Society, often draws on wood, especially Landscapes and Naval subjects. He has contributed to the Book of Favourite Modem Ballads, Favourite English Poems, Ehymes and Eoundelayes, Poetry and Pictures from Thomas Moore, the Soldier's Dream, and Lays of the Holy Land. E. DUHCAN These two examples of his style are engraved by Horace Harral for Bohn's Illustrated edition of Southey's Life of Nelson. 584* ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. NORTH PORCH OF STA. MARIA MAGGIORE. BERGAMO. The wood-engravings in the present and foUowing pages are by Mr. Orlanoo Jewitt, who devotes himself almost exclusively to Gothic Arcliitecture and Ornament, in which ho is pre-eminent. He is one of tin.- \'('vy fcAV who continue to combine designing and drawing ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PRESENT DAY. 585* with engraving. The first specimen here presented is from Street's Brick and Marble Architecture of Italy in the Middle Ages, 8vo., pub lished by Mr. Murray in 1855. la B a El ,a h m a g a ig a a B .ajs a -K.«.g..M.!a..H-.a i^.jumx! .53 ¦i2.H-a.a.i3.3.H I 4> JM SHRINE IN BAYEUX CATHEDKAL. Our second specimen, and two of those on the next page, are from Mr. Pugin's splendid Avork, the " Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament," published by Henry G. Bohn in 1846. s s * 58G* ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. HEARSE OF MARGARET, COUNTESS OF WARWICK. O.JLWlTl.iit"''^'*'" UAPITAL 0/ THji yKaaU/TKBY, LINCOLK 0ATUK1)IIAL. LETTER N SPECIMENS OF KN^IUAVING BV OULJINDO JEWrlT. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 587^ o. jtwiTT, del. et sc. BRICK TRACERY, ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH, TANGERMUNDE, PRUSSIA. Unpublished. Among the many works to which Mr. Jewitt has contributed, besides those already mentioned, are Bloxam's first principles of Gothic Architecture ; the Glossary of Architecture published by Mr. Parker, of Oxford ; Eickman's Gothic Architecture, fifth edition ; and the Baptismal Fonts, published by Mr. Van Voorst. He is now engaged in drawing and engraving Murray's Handbook of English Cathedrals. 588* ARTISTS AND ENGEAVERS OF THE PEESENT DAY. '¦!^f '¦'*¦'".¦. I J ,'¦¦''[}'",. ¦ '¦-;. Me. Ceeswick, Pi.A. the distinguished painter, has occasionally drawn on wood, but more as a favour than part of his mitier. The present specimen, one of a series contiibuted to the Book of British BaUads, is so lughly praised by Mr. Euskin, and at the same time so elaborately criticised, that Ave think it in place to quote his \vords. After compai'ing lum advan tageously with Poussin, he proceeds to say, " AVho with one thought ~ ¦• lA"' or menioiy of nature in his heart could look at the two landscapes, and receive Poussin's Avith ordinary patience? Take Creswick in black and Avhite, Avhere he is unem barrassed by his fondness for pea-green, the illustrations, for instance, to the Nut-Brown Maid, in the Book of English BaUads. Look at the intricacy and fulness of the dark oak foliage, A\-here it bends OA^er the brook ; see hoAv you can go through it, and into it, and come out behind it, to the quiet bit of sky. Obscr\'e the grey aerial transparency of the AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OP THE PRESENT DAY. 589* stunted copse on the left, and the entangling of the boughs where the light near foliage detaches itseft. Above all, note the forms of the masses of light. Not things like scales or shells, sharp at the edge, and flat in the middle, but irregular and rounded, stealing in and out accidentaUy from the shadow, and presenting in general outline, as the masses of all trees do, a resemblance to the specific forms of the leaves of Avhich they are composed. Turn over the page, and look into the Aveaving of the fohage and sprays against the dark-night-sky, how near they are, yet how untraceable ; see how the moonlight creeps up under neath them, trembhng and shivering on the silver boughs above ; note also, the descending bit of ivy, on the left, of Avhich only a few leaves are made out, and the rest is confusion, or tells only in the moonlight like faint flakes of snow " But nature observes another principle in her foliage, more important even than its intricacy. She always secures an exceeding harmony and repose. She is so intricate that her minuteness of parts becomes to the eye, at a little, one united veil or cloud of leaves, to destroy the evenness of Avhicli is perhaps a greater fault than to destroy its trans parency. Look at Creswick's oak again, in its dark parts. Intricate as it is, all is blended into a cloud-like harmony of shade, which becomes fainter and fainter as it retires, Avitli the most delicate flat ness and unity of tone. And it is by this kind of vaporescence, so to speak, by this flat misty unison of parts, that nature and her faithful followers are enabled to keep the eye in perfect repose in the midst of profusion, and to display beauty of form Avherever they choose, to the greatest possible advantage, by throwing it across some quiet visionary passage of dimness and rest." Mr. Creswick has recently contributed several vignettes to Tennyson's Poems. The foUoAving, engraved by jMason Jackson, is from Bohn's Illustrated edition of Walton's Angler, to which Mr. Creswick has contributed several others 590* artists and ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. JOHN UART Me. W. j. Linton has for many years had extensive practice both as a draughtsman and an engraver on Avood, and still continues to combine both professions. The specimens on the present page shew his early work ; the first is after a drawing by Johu Martin from the series of Bible Prints before quoted ; the second, a vignette after ^IcIan, from the Book of British BaUads. l^. J I.INT^I^ ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 591-^ His later Avork is beautifully exemplified on the opposite page by the subject caUed Death's Door, after a drawing by that remarkable man William Blake, of whom some account will be found at p. 632. It was published in the Art Union Volume of 1859, and is by the kindness of the CouncU of that Society inserted here. To complete this page we annex two other of Mr. Linton's late works. They are taken from Milton's L' Allegro, published by Low & Co. STOKUUL£,£ ¦* SHALLOW BROOKS AND RIVERS WIDE. Many of the iUustrated books of the last twenty years exhibit the talents of Mr. Linton. We may name, besides the Book of BaUads, The Pictorial Tour of the Thames, The Memo Days of England, 1859, Burns' Po3ins and Songs, Favourite English Poems, 1859, Shakspere's Birthplace, and the Illustrated edition of Milton's Poetical Works for merly published by Kent & Co. and noAv in Bohn's Illustrated Library. J. C. ilORSLLI, A.B.A. 'SUCH A,S TIIK JIELTIKG SOUL MAY PIERCE. 592* ARTISTS AND ENGRAVERS OF THE PEESENT DAY. F. W. tAlIlUoLT Me. F. W. Faieholt is distinguished for his knowledge of Costume and Mediaeval art, which he has exemplified in a considerable number of shaded outhnes, mostly drawn and engraved by himseft. The wood- engraving at the head of this page is from the Archaeological Album published in 1845, under the auspices of the British Archaeological Association, to Avhose journal Mr. Fairholt has contributed largely. Ten of the subjects in the Book of British BaUads, iUustrative of the Story of Sft Andrew Barton, are designed by him and give a favourable specimen of his drawing. They are cleverly engraved by T. Armstiong. The Vignette is from the illustrated edition of Eobin Hood, edited by Mr. J. M. Gutch in 1847. Mr. Fairholt has also edited and Ulus trated a volume on the Costume of England; a History of Tobacco, published by Messrs. Chapman & Hall ; and the Translation of Labarte's Arts of the Middle Ages, published by Mr. Murray. H^ i\ }rP. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 593* Me. Joseph Dinkel is a very accurate draughtsman of subjects of Natural History, especially of FossU remains ; -but though he has most practice in this department, he also undertakes Architectural and Engineering drawings. The present specimens are skUfuUy engraved by Me. James Lee. Nearly all the drawings of the great work of JAMES I^C JOSEPH DINKEL SHELL- LIMESTONE FROM THE MOUTH OF THE THAMES. Prom Dr. Mantell's Geological Work, Medals of Creation. JOSEFH DINKEL JAMES LEE MOSASAURUS HOFMANNl From Dr. Mantell's Petrifactions and their Teachings. Professor Agassiz, 'Poissons FossUes,' pubUshed at Neuchatel, from 1833 to 1843, were executed by Mr. Dinkel ; and he drew almost e.x- clusively for the late Dr. ManteU. He is noAV much employed by Professor Owen ; Thomas BeU, Esq. President of the linnaean Society ; and the Eoyal, Geological, and Palffiontological Societies. 594^ ARTISTS AND ENGEAVERS OF THK PEESENT DAY. U. IVLHNtUT HDIt.VCE HA.K&A[. FROM COLBEIDGE'S ANCIENT MARINER Edwaed H. Wbhneet, a member of the Ncav Society of Painters in Water Colours, frequently draws upon wood. He Ulustrated Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Grimm's Tales, Eve of St. Agnes, and contributed designs to Bohn's edition of LongfelloAv's Poems and to many other popular works of poetry and fiction. His style is essentiaUy German. He has recently contributed thirty-four subjects to the Favourite Enghsh Poems and completed a number of drawings for Andersen's Tales, the electrotypes of which are produced by a new process by ^Ir. W. J. Linton. AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PRESENT DAY. 595* V r Geoege Ceuikshanic is especiaUy celebrated for the felicitous hu mour which he throws into every subject that comes under his pencil or burin. His works are legion and all highly prized, but his designs on wood are much less numerous than his etchings on copper." Mr. Eusldn, in his 'Modern Painters,' has lately expatiated as enthusiasticaUy on the artistic merits of Mr. Cruikshank as he has done on those of Mr. CresAvick, quoted by. us in a previous page. He concludes by saying: "Taken aU in all, the works of Cruik shank have the most sterling value of any belonging to this class produced in England." The present examples, taken from his 'Three Courses and a Dessert,' published in Bohn's lUustrated Libr.ary, wUl afford some idea of his pecuhar talent. On the following page we give examples of his early work, being iUustrations contributed to the ' Universal Song ster,' a once poprdar work to which other artists including his .'^^ late brother Eobert 596* ARTISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. (.EOnGJi CIlLlKSUA,\'i THE OLD COMMODORE. Cruikshank also contributed The engraver, rather a coarse hand, was J E. MarshaU. a:;caoE cauiKsiiiNR JILES SOROGQINS AND MOLLY DROWN. AETISTS* AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 597' jiLVnED CROWUL'ILL ALFRED CBOWQUILL THE MAN WHO WISHED TO CE TALLER. THE W0M.\.N WHO WISHED TO BE YOUNGER. AT.EUEQ CROWQUILL DRINKING IS A VICE THAT LOWERS A MAN. Our last page of Ulus trations is devoted to hu mour. Three of the subjects are from the Pictorial Gram mar, by Alpeed Ceowquill {i,.e. A Forester), the fourth, a design by Kenny Mea dows (from the Book of British BaUads), one of his early productions, but unsur passed by anything he has since done. These artists have in former years iUustrated a number of books. Among Crowquill's may be named eight subjects to the Book of British BaUads. His latest work is 'The Adventures of Gooroo Simple and his Five Disciples.' Among those by Kenny Meadows, we remember as his best an iUustrated edition of Shakespeare, in three vols. royal 8yo. originaUy pub lished by Mr. Tyas. London, 1843, kENNX ME&UU^^b 598* AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. The Publislier here concludes his additional chapter ; not for want of material, for he has more than enough to fill another volume, but for want of space. In endeavouring to give some indication of xylographic art^progress in England, he has made no attempt at completeness, and has said nothing whatever of foreign art, which has progressed quite as rapidly as our own. So much remains to be done in both domains, and so many fine examples are either lying before him, or placed at his disposal, which might advantageously have been adduced that he contemplates foUoAving the present volume, at no very distant period, Avith one that shaU supply what has now been necessarily omitted. Among the many skilful Artists whose names have not yet been mentioned are the foUoAving, arranged in three distftict alphabets. The first alphabet comprises those who are professionally painters in oft, but occasionaUy draw on wood ; the second, those who make drawing on wood their leading profession, although many of them also paint in oft ; the thftd, those who almost confine themselves to engraAdng the designs of others, although some of them are themselves good draughtsmen. One or more of the books to which they have contributed, are indicated. Painters who occasionally Dravy on Wood. Andeews. G. H. Figure subjects and Landscapes; IMinistering ChUdren. — -Ansdell, Eichard. Animals ; Ehymes and Eoundelayes. — Aemitagb, Edward. Figure subjects; Winkworth's LjTa Germanica. — Cope, Charles West, E.A. Figure subjects ; Book of Favourite ilodern BaUads, Adams' Allegories, Excelsior BaUads, Burns' Poems, Poetry of Thomas Moore. — Goebould, E. H. Figure subjects and Architecture ; Merrie Days of England, Book of Favourite Modern BaUads, Bums' Poems, Poetry of Thomas Moore, Barry CornwaU's Poems. — Ceopsey, Jasper. Landscapes ; Poetry of Thomas Moore, Poe's Poems. — ^Dodgson, G. Landscape ; Lays of the Holy Land. — Feith, WUUam PoweU, R a. Figure subjects; Book of British BaUads. — GoODALL, Edward. Land scapes ; Ehymes and Eoundelayes. — Geant, AY. J. Figure subjects : Favourite Modern Ballads, Bloomfield's Farmer's Boy. — HiCES, G. E. Figure subjects; Favourite Modern Ballads. — Hoesley, John Calcott, A. E.A. Figure subjects; Poetry of Thomas ]\Ioore, Burns' Poems, Tennyson's Poems, Favourfte Enghsh Poems, Favourite Modern BaUads. —Hunt, W. Holman. Figure subjects ; Tennyson's Poems, ^Irs. Gatty"s Parables, Once a Week. — Le Jeune, H. Figtire subjed.'^ .- Poeti'v of Thomas Moore, Lays of the Holy Land, Ministering Cluldren. — JNIillais, John Everett, A.E.A. Figure subjects ; Tennyson's rooms. Lays of the Holy Land, Once a Week. Mr, Millais is noAV engaged in iUustratin" a volume of Parables to be engraved by tho Dalziols. Muleeady AETISTS AND ENGEAVEES OF THE PEESENT DAY. 599* WiUiam, e.a. Figure subjects ; Tennyson's Poems, Vicar of Wakefield, (engraved by Mr. John Thompson). — Nash, Joseph. Figures and Archi tecture; Merrie Days of England. — Pickeesgill, F. Eichard, e.a. Figure subjects ; Poetry of Thomas Moore, Book of British BaUads, Lays of the Holy Land. — Eedgeavb, Eichard, e.a. Figure subjects ; Favourite English Poems, Book of British Ballads. — ^Eobeets, David, e.a. Architectural Landscapes; Lockhart's Spanish BaUads. — Selous, H. C. Figure subjects ; Poems and Pictures, Book of British BaUads. — Solomon, A. Figure subjects ; Book of Favourite Modern BaUads. — Waeebn, H. Figure subjects and Architecture ; Book of British BaUads, Lockhart's Spanish BaUads, Poetry of Thomas Moore, Lays of the Holy Land. — Webstee, Thomas, e.a. Infantine subjects ; Favourite English Poems, Book of Brftish BaUads. — Wybued, F. Figure subjects ; Poetry and Pictures of Thomas Moore. Professional Draughtsmen on Wood. Aechee, j. W. Antiquarian and Architectural; Vestiges of Old London.— Aechee, J. E.S.A. Figure subjects ; Burns' Poems. — Bennett, Charles. Humorous subjects ; Poets' Wit and Humour, Quarles' Emblems, 1860, Proverbs in Pictures. — Beandling, H Figure subjects and Archi tecture ; Merchant of Yenice. — Clayton, J. E. Figure subjects; Barry Cornwall's Poems, Lays of the Holy Land — Coleman, Wm. Landscape and Figure subjects; Mary Hewitt's Tales. — Daeley, Felix. Figure .subjects; Poe's Poetical Works, Poets of the West — Dickes, William. Figures and Landscape ; most oi the subjects in Masterman Eeady. Mr. Dickes' attention is now turned to Colour-printing. — Edmonston, S. Figure subjects ; Burns' Poems. — Feanklin, John. Figure subjects ; Book of British Ballads, Mrs. S. C. Hall's Midsummer Eve, Seven Champions of Christendom, Poets of the West. — Goodall, Walter. Figure subjects ; Ehymes and Eoundelayes, Ministering ChUdren. — HuLME, F. W. Landscapes; Ehymes and Eoundelayes. — Humpheeys, NoeL Ornamental Vignettes ; Ehymes and Eoundelayes. — Jones, Owen. Moresque Ornaments and Architecture; Lockhart's Spanish Ballads. — Keene, Charles. Figure subjects ; Punch, Once a Week, Voyage of the Constance. — Laaylbss, M. J. Figure subjects; Once a Week, Punch. — Macquoid, Thomas. Ornamental Letters and Borders; Ehymes and Eoundelayes, Burns' Poems, Favourite EngUsh Poems, &c. — MOEGAN, Matthew S. Figures and Landscape ; Miles Standish. — Phiz (Hablot K. Browne). Humour ; Bleak House, Martin Chuzzlewit, The Pickwick Series, Wits and Beaux of Society, Lever's St. Patrick's Eve, &c. He has executed more etchings on steel than drawings on GOO* artists and engravers of the present day. wood. — Peout, j. S. Landscapes and Architecture ; Ehymes and Eoundelayes. — Ebad, Samuel. Landscapes and Architecture; Ehymes and Eoundelayes, contributes to the London News. — Eogees, Harry. Ornamental Letters and Vignettes; Quarles' Emblems, Poe's Poetical Works.^ — Scott, T. D. Figure subjects and Landscapes ; able reducer and copyist of Pictures on Wood ; Book of British BaUads. — Shaw, Henry. Architectural Ornaments, Letters, Furniture, dsc; has designed extensively on wood, chiefiy for his own works.— Stephenson, James. Figure subjects ; Clever Boys, Wide Wide World (Bohn's Edition), &c. A skilful engraver on steel. — Stocks, Liimb, A.E.A. Figure subjects; Ministering Children, Ministiy of Life, English Yeomen, &c. Mr. Stocks has considerable reputation as an engraver on steel. — SuLMAJ!f, T. Jun. Ornamental Borders and Vignettes ; LaUa Eookh. — Topham, F. W. Irish Character ; Poetry of Thomas Moore, Mrs. S. C. HaU's Mid summer Eve, Burns' Poems. — ^Watson, J. D. Figure sheets; PU- grim's Progress, 110 designs, Eliza Cook's Poems. — Z-weckee, John B. Animals ; mostly engraved by the Dalziels ; AYood's Natural History, &c. !Entgravers on Wood not before mentioned. Aemsteong, Wm. Don Quixote, 1841, lUustrated News, Clever Boys 1860.^ — Goeway, C. has successfully engraved many of John GUbert's designs. — Hammond, J. Poems and Songs of Eobert Burns. — Jackson, Mason, son of the Projector of the present volume, iu which some of the subjects are engraved by hftn ; also Wafton's Angler (Bohn's Edition), Ministering Children. — LoUDON, J. engraves for the lUustrated Times. — Smyth, F. G. Figure subjects ; lUustrated News. — Swain, Joseph. Figure subjects; Lyra Germanica. — WiMPBElS, E. Merrie Days of England. — Woods, H. N. Ornamental Borders and Vignettes; Moore's Lalla Eookh. TftE PEAOTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 561 CHAPTEE IX. THE PRACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. EBBONEOUS OPIJSrrONS ABOUT OEOSS-HATOHINO— THE CHOICE AND PKEPARATION OF THE WOOD — MODE or INSERTING A PLUG MAGNIFYING GLASSES AND ENGRAVER'S LAMP — DIFFERENT KINDS OF TOOLS — CUTTING TINTS— ENGRAVING IN OUTLINE — CUTS REPRESENTING COLOUR AND TEXTURE — MAPS ENGRAVED ON WOOD — THE ADVANTAGES OF LO-WEBING A BLOCK TBEVIOUS TO ENGRAVING THE SUBJECT — CHIARO-SCURO ENGRAVING ON WOOD, AND PRINTING IN COLOURS FEOM -WOOD-BLOCKS — METALLIC BELIEF EHGRATING, BY BLAKE, BEWICK, BRANSTON, AND LIZAES — MR. C. HANCOCK'S PATENT — MB. WOONE'S PATENT — CASTS FROM WOOD-CUTS —PRINTING WOOD-CDTS — CONCLUSION. EEHAPS no art exercised in this country is less known to the public than that of wood engraving ; and hence it arises that most persons who have incidentaUy or even expressly written on the subject have com mitted so many mistakes respecting the practice. It is from a want of practical knowledge that we have had so many absurd speculations respecting the manner in which the old wood engravers executed their cross- hatchings, and so many notions about vege table putties and metaUic reUef engraving. Even in a Memoir of Bewick, printed in 1836, we find the foUowing passage, which certainly would not have appeared had the writer paid any attention to the numerous wood-cuts, containing cross-hatchings of the most delicate kind, published in England between 1820 and 1834 : — " The principal characteristic of the ancient masters is the crossing of the black lines, to produce or deepen the shade, commonly called cross- hatching. Whether this was done by employing different blocks, one after another, as in caUco-printing and paper-staining, it may be difficult to say ; but to produce them on the same block is so dftficult and unnatural, that though Nesbit, one of Bewick's early pupUs, attempted it on a few occasions, and the splendid print of Dentatus by Harvey shows that it is not impossible even on a large scale,' yet the Araste 0 o 562 THE PEAOTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. of time and labour is scarcely worth the effect produced." * Xoay, the difficulty of saying whether the old cross-hatchings were executed on a single block, or produced by impressions from two or more, proceeds entirely from the writer not being acquainted with the subject ; had he known that hundreds of old blocks containing cross-hatchings are stiU in existence, and had he been in the habit of seeing similar cross-hatchiags executed almost daily by veiy indifferent wood engravers, the difficulty which he felt would have vanished. "Unnatural" is certainly an improper term for a philosopher to apply to a process of art, merely because he does not understand it : with equal reason he might have called every other process, both of copper-plate and wood engraving, " unnatural ;" nay, in this sense there is no process in arts or manufactures to which the term " unnatural " might not in the same manner be apphed. In giving some account of the practice of wood engraving, it seems most proper to begin with the ground-work — the wood. As it is generaUy understood that box is best adapted for the purposes of engraving, and that it is generaUy used for cuts intended for the iUus tration of books, there seems no occasion to enter into a detaU of aU the kinds of wood that might be used for the more ordinary purposes of large coarse cuts for posting-biUs, and others of a simUar character. Mr. Savage, in his Hints on Decorative Printing, has copied the principal part of what PapiUon has said on the subject of wood, intending that it should be received as information from a practical wood engraver ; but he has omitted to notice that much of what PapiUon says about the choice of wood, can be of little service in guiding the modern English wood engraver, who executes his subject on the cross-section of the wood, whUe PapiUon and his contemporaries were accustomed to engraAc upon the side, or the long-way of the wood. " There is no difiSculty," says Papillon, as translated by Mr. Savage, "in distinguishing that which is good, as we have only need of taking a splinter of the box we wish to try, and break it between the fingers ; if it break short, Avithout bending, it will not be of any value ; whereas, if there be great difficulty in breaking it, it is well adapted to our purpose." Now, it is quite evident from this direction — independent of the fact being otherwise knoAvn — that the thin sphnter hx which the qualit\^ of the wood was to be tested was to be cut the long A\-ay of the wood : a .simUar cutting taken from the cross-section woiUd break short, howeA'er excellent the wood might be for the purpose of engraving. PapiUon's direction is therefore calculated to mislead, unless accompanied Avith an explanation of the manner in which the splinter is to be taken ; and it • Memoir of Thomas Bewick, by the Reverend William Turner, prefixed to volume sixth of the Naturalist's Library, page 18. THE PEAOTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 563 is also utterly useless as a test of box that is intended to be engraved on the cross-section, or end-way of the wood. For the purposes of engraving no other kind of wood hitherto tried is equal to box. For fine and smaU cuts the smallest logs are to be preferred, as the smallest wood is almost invariably the best. American and Turkey box is the largest ; but aU large wood of this kind is generaUy of inferior quality, and most liable to split ; it is also frequently of a red colour, which is a certain characteristic of its softness, and consequent unfitness for deUcate engraving. From my own experience, English box is superior to all others ; for though smaU, it is generally so clear and firm in the grain that it never crumbles under the graver ; it resists evenly to the edge of the tool, and gives not a particle beyond what is actuaUy cut out. The large red wood, on the contrary, besides being soft, is Uable to crumble and to cut short ; that is, small particles AvDl sometimes break away from the sides of the hne cut by the graver, and thus cause imperfections in the work. Box of large and com paratively quick grovrth, is also extremely Uable to shrink unevenly between the rings, so that after the surface has been planed perfectly level, and engraved, it is frequently difficult to print the cut in a proper manner, in consequence of the inequahty of the surface. As even the largest logs of box are of comparatively smaU diameter, it is extiemely difficult to obtain a perfect block of a single piece equal to the size of an octavo page. In order to obtain pieces as large as possible, some dealers are accustomed to saw the log in a slanting direction — in the manner of an obUque section of a cyUnder — so that the surface of a piece cut off shall resemble an oval rather than a circle. Blocks saAYn in this manner ought never to be used ; for, in consequence of the obliquity of the grain, there is no preventing small particles tearing out when cutting a line. Large red wood containing white spots or streaks is utterly unfit for the purposes of the engraver ; for in cutting a Iftie across, adjacent to these spots or streaks, sometimes the entire piece thus marked wUl be removed, and the cut consequently spoUed. A clear yellow colour, and as equal as possible over the whole surface, is generally the best criterion of box-wood. When a block is not of a clear yellow colour throughout, but only in the centre, gradually becoming lighter towards the edges, it ought not to be used for delicate work; the white, in addition to its not cutting so " sweetly," being of a softer nature, absorbs more ink than the yeUow, and also retains it more tenaciously, so that unpressions from a block of this kind sometimes display a perceptible inequahty of colour ;— from the yellow parts allowing the ink to leave them freely, whUe the white parts partially retain it, the printed cut has the appearance of having received either too much ink in one place, or too 0 o 2 564 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. little in another. Besides this, the ink remaining on the white parts becomes so adhesive, that, should the sheet be rather too damp (as wUl frequently happen Avhen much paper is wetted at one time), it will sometimes stick to the paper ; a smaU spot of white will hence appear in the impression, while a minute piece of paper avUI remain adhering to the block, to be mixed up with the ink on the baUs, and transferred as a black speck to another part of the cut in a subsequent impression. But this is not aU : should the piece of paper remain unnoticed for some time it wiU make a smaU indention in the block, and occasion a white or grey speck in the unpressions printed after its removal. Soft red and white box, more especially the latter, being more porous than clear yeUow, blocks of those kinds of Avood are most Uable to be injured by the liquids used to clean them after printing. Should the printer wash them with either lees or spirits of turpentme, these fluids wUl enter the wood more freely than if it were yeUow, and cause it to expand in proportion to the quantity used, and sometimes to such an extent as to distort the drawing. If a block of any kind of box, whether red, white, or yeUow, be wetted or exposed to dampth, it wiii expand considerably ; * but with care it wUl return to its former dimensions, should it haA^e been sufficiently seasoned before being printed. When, however, the expansion has been caused by lees or spftits of turpentine, the block ayUI never again contract to its original size.t As publishers frequently provide the drawings which are to be engraved, perhaps a knowledge of the different qualities of box is as necessary to them as to wood engravers themselves. In reply to this it may be said, why not require the engraA'er who is to execute the cuts to supply proper wood himseft ? Where only one engraver is employed ' to execute aU the cuts for a work, the choice of the wood may indeed be very properly left to himself But where several are employed, and each required to send his own wood to the designer, very few are particular what kind they send ; for when the designer receives the different pieces he generaUy consigns them to a drawer untU Avanted, and when he has finished a design, he not unfrequently sends it to an engraver who did -• The following is an instance of the effect of dampth upon box-wood. I placed one evening a block, ' composed of several pieces of box glued to a thick piece of mahogany, against the waif of arather damp room, and on ex.-unining it the next morning I found that the hox had expanded so much' that the edges projected beyond the maliogany upwards of the eighth of an inch. t Some of the blocks engraved for the Penny Magazine, measuring originally eight inches and a half by six inches, have, after undergoing the process of stereotyping and the subsequent washing, increased not less than two inches iu their perimeter or exterior lineal dimension, as has been proved by comparing the measurciuent of a block in its present state -with a first proof taken on India paper, wliich paper, being di-y when the impression was taken, has not suffered any contraction. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 565 not supply the identical piece of wood on which it is drawn. Hence scarcely any engraver pays much attention to the kind of wood he sends ; for where many are employed in the execution of a series of cuts for the same work, it is very unlikely that each wiU receive the drawings on the wood supplied by himself. Even when the designer is particular in making the drawings of the subjects which he thinks best suited to each engraver's talents on the wood which such engraver has supplied, it not unfrequently happens that the person who employs the engravers wiU not give the blocks to those for whom the artist intended them. Pubhshers have a much greater interest in this matter than they seem to suspect. If soft wood be supplied, the finer lines wiU soon be bruised down in printing, and the cut will appear like an old one before haft the number of impressions required have been priated ; ft red- ringed, the surface is extremely Uable to become uneven, and also to warp and split. As box can seldom be obtained of more than five or six inches diameter, and as wood of this size is rarely sound throughout, blocks for cuts exceeding five inches square are usuaUy formed of two or more pieces firmly united by means of iron pins and scrcAvs. Should the block, however, be wetted or exposed to dampth, the joints are certain to open, and sometimes to such an extent as to require a piece of wood to be inserted in the aperture.* Perhaps the best way to guard against a large block opening at the joining of the pieces would be to enclose it with an iron hoop or frame ; such hoop or frame being fixed when nearly red-hot in the same manner as a tire is applied to a coach or cart wheel. If the iron fit perfectly tight when forced on to the block in the manner of a tire, it wiU be the more likely, by its contracting in cold and damp weather, to resist the expansive force of the wood at such times. Besides the hardness and toughness of box, which allows of clear raised Unes, capable of bearing the action of the press, being cut on its surface, this wood, from its not being subject to the attacks of the worm, has a great advantage over apple, pear-tree, beech,t and other kinds of wood, formerly used for the purposes of engraving. Its preservation in this respect is probably owing to its poisonous nature, for other kinds of wood of greater hardness and durability are frequently pierced through and through by worms. The chips of box, when chewed, are certainly unwholesome to human beings. A feUow-pupil, who had acquired a habit of chewing the smaU pieces which he cut out with his graver, * Sometimes a piece of metal— such as part of a thin rule— is inserted in the chink by printers, when the part injured is dark and the work not fine. Such a temporary remedy is sure to increase the opening in a short time, and make the block worse. t One of the original blocks of Weever's Funeral Monuments, I63I, preserved in the Print Room of the British Museum, is of beech. 566 THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. became unwell, and was frequently attacked with siokness. On men tioning the subject to his medical adviser, he was ordered to refrain from chewing the pieces of box ; he accordingly took the doctor's advice, gave up his bad habit, and in a short time recovered his usual health.* Box when kept long in a dry place becomes unfit for the purpose of engraving. I have at this time in my possession a drawing which has been made on the block about ten years, but the wood has become so dry and brittle that it would now be impossible to engrave the subject in a proper manner. When the wood does not cut clear, but crumbles as ft it were too dry, the defect may sometimes be remedied by putting the block into a deep earthenware jug or pan, and placing such jug or pan in a cool place for ten or twelve hours. When the wood is too hard and dry to be softened in the above manner, I would recommend that the back of the block should be placed in water — in a plate or large dish — ^to the depth of the sixteenth part of an inch, for about an hour. H aUowed to remain longer there is a risk of the block afterwards sphtting. Box, of whatever kind, when not weU seasoned, is extiemely Uable to warp and bend ; but a little care ayIU frequently prevent many of the accidents to which drawings on unseasoned wood are exposed by neglect. For instance, when a block is received by the engraver from the designer or publisher, it ought, if not directly put in hand, to be placed on one of its edges, and not, as is customary with many, laid doAvn flat, with the surface on which the drawing is made upwards. If a block of unsea soned wood be permitted to he in this manner for p° n a week or two, it is almost certain to turn up at the edges, the upper surface becoming concave, and the lower convex, as is shown in the annexed cut, representing the section of such a block. The same thftig will occur in the process of engraving, though to a small extent, should the engraver's hands be warm and moist ; and also when working by lamp-light without a globe filled with water between the lamp and the block. Such slight warping in the courae of engraving is, however, easUy remedied by laying the block with its face — that is, the surface on which the drawing is made — doAvnward on the desk or table at all times when the engraver is not actuaUy employed on the * A few years ago I allowed a rabbit to have the run of a small gnirden, where it soon eat up everything except a small bush of box. Happening to leave home for two days without making any provision for the rabbit, I found it in a dying state, and all the leaves nibbled off the box. The rabbit died in the coui-se of a few houi-s, mid on opening it the cause of its death was apparent— the stomach waa fUll of the leaves of the box.— See Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. ii. page 265 (Bohn's edit.), for an account of yefr poisoning two cow."). THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. ^567 subject. The block so placed, provided that it be not of very dry Wood, in a short time recovers its former level. When a block of very dry wood becomes dished, or concave, on its upper surface, as shown in the preceding cut, there is Uttle chance of its ever again becoming suffi ciently flat to alloAY of its being weU printed. 'V\Tien the deviation from a perfect level at the bottom is not so great as to attract the notice of the pressman previous to taking an impression, the block not unfre quently yields to the action of the platten, and splits. The fracture remains perhaps unobserved for a short time, and when it is at length noticed, the block is probably spoiled beyond remedy. AVhen box is very dry it is extremely difficult to cut a clear line upon it, as it crumbles, and smaU pieces fly out at the sides of the line traced by the graver. The smaU white spots so frequently seen in the deUcate Unes of the sky in wood-cuts are occasioned by particles flying •out in this manner. If a block consist partly of yellow wood and partly of wood with red rings, the yellow will cut clear, while in the red it wUl be almost impossible to cut a perfect line. "Wlien the same piece of wood is yeUow and red alternately it is extremely difficult to produce an even tint upon it. Wood of this kind ought always to be rejected, both from the difficulty of engraving upon it with clearness, and from the uncertainty of the surface continuing perfectly flat, as the red rings are more Uable to shrink in drying than the other parts, and, from their thus not receiving a sufficient quantity of ink, to appear like so many rain bows in the impression. The spaces between those rings are greater or less, accordingly as the seasons have been favourable or unfavourable to the growth of the tree. Besides the injurious effect which those red rings a,re apt to produce in an impression, wood of this kind is very unpleasant and uncertain to engrave on ; for as the yeUow parts cut pleasant and clear, the engraver, unless particularly on his guard, is betrayed to trust to the whole piece as being of the same uniform tenacity, and before he is aware of its inequahty in this respect, or can check the progress of his graver, its point has entered one of those soft red rings, and, to the injury of his Avork, has either caused a smaU piece to fly out, or carried the line further than he intended. Wood of this kind is unfit for anything except very common work, and ought never to be used for delicate engraving. There is no certain means of forming a judgment of box wood until it be cut into slices or trencher-like pieces from the log ; for many logs which externally appear sound and of a good colour, prove very faulty and cracked in the centre when sawn up. Turkey box is in particular so defective in this respect that a large shoe can seldom be procured Avithout a crack. This, probably, is occasioned by the maimer in which the 'tree is felled. Previous to their beginning to cut down 568. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. a tree the Turkish wood-cutters fasten a rope to the top, by means of Avhich they break the tree down when the bole is Uttle more than half cut through. The consequence is that a shiver frequently extends through the most valuable portion of the log. Many artists, who are not accustomed to make drawings on wood, erroneously suppose that the block requires some peculiar preparation. Nothing more is required than to rub the previously planed and smoothed surface with a little powdered Bath-brick, sUghtly mixed with water : as Uttle water as possible is, however, to be used, as otherwise the block wUl absorb too much, and be afterwards extremely liable to split. When this thin coating is perfectly dry, it is to be removed by rubbing the block with the palm of the hand. No part of the light powder ought to remain, for, otherwise, the pencU coming in contact with it AriU make a coarse and comparatively thick hne, which, besides being a blemish in the drawing, is very Uable to be rubbed off. The object of using the powdered Bath-brick is to render the surface less slippery, and thus capable of affording a better hold to thepoint of the black-lead pencil When the principal parts of the draAving are first washed in upon the block in Indian ink, it is of great advantage to gently rub the surface of the block, when drj^, with a Uttle dry and finely powdered Bath-brick, before the drawing is completed with the black-lead pencil By this means the hard edges of the Indian-ink wash wUl be softened, the different tints deftcately blended, and the subsequent touches of the pencU be more distinctly seen. Some artists, previous to beginning to draw on the block, are in the habit of Avashing over the surface Arith a mixture of flake-white and gum-water.* This practice is, howcAer, by no means a good one. The drawing indeed may appear very bright and showy when first made on such a Avhite surface, but in the progress of engraving a thin fUm of the preparation wUl occasionaUy rise up before the graver and carry with it a portion of the unengraved work, which the engraver is left to restore according to his abiUty and recoUec tion. This white ground also mixes with the ink in taking a fiii-st proof, and fills up the finer parts of the cut. If a white Avash be used A\ithout gum, the drawing is very liable to be partially effaced in the progress of engraving, and the engraver left to finish his Avork as he can. The risk of this inconvenience ought to be especially avoided in making drawings on a block, as the wood engraver has not the opportunity of referring to another drawing or to an original painting in the manner of an engraver on copper. * Instead of gum-water, French .artists, who are accustomed to make dra-wings on wood, use water in which parcliment shavings have been boiled. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. g69 The less that is done to change the original colour of the wood — by white or any other preparation — so much the better for the engraver ; a piece of clear box is sufficiently light to allow of the most deUcate lines being distinctly drawn upon it. When the surface of the block is whitened, another inconvenience arises besides those afteady noticed. It is this : Avhen the drawing is made upon a white ground, and the subject partially engraved, the effect of the whole becomes very confused and perplexing to the engraver in consequence of the parts afteady engraved appearing nearly of the original colour of the wood, whUe the ground of the parts not yet cut is white, as first drawn. The engraver's eye cannot correctly judge of the whole, and the inconvenience is increased by his neither having an original draAYing to refer to, nor a proof to guide him : untU the cut be completed he has no means of correctly ascer taining whether he has left too much colour or taken too much away. The engraver on copper or on steel can have an inapression of his etching as soon as it is bit in, and can take impressions of the plate at aU times in the course of his progress ; the wood engraver, on the contrary, enjoys no such advantages ; he is obliged to wait untU aU be completed ere he can obtain an impression of his work. If the wood engraver has kept his subject generaUy too dark, there is not much difficulty in reducing it ; but ft he has engraved it too light, there is no remedy. If a small part be badly engraved, or the block has sustained an injury, the defect may be repaired by inserting a smaU piece of wood and re-engraving it : this mode of repafting a block is technicaUy termed "plugging!"' When a block requires to be thus amended or repafted, it is first to be determined how much is necessary to be taken out that the restora tion may accord with the adjacent parts ; for sometimes, in order to render the insertion less perceptible, it may be requisite to take out rather more than the part imactuaUy perfect or injured. This being decided on, a hole is drUled in the block, as is represented in the next page, .of a size sufficient to admit " the plug!' The hole ought not to be drUled quite through the block, as the piece let in would, from the shaking and battering of the press, be very likely to become loosened. Should it receive more pressure at the top than bottom, it would sink a little below the engraved surface of the block, and thus appear lighter in the impression than the surrounding parts ; while should it be sUghtly forced up from below it, would appear darker, — in each case forming * This mode of repairing a block was practised hy the German wood engravers of the time of Albert Durer. The " plug " which they inserted was usually square, and not circular as at present. The French wood engravers of the time of Papillon continued to employ square plugs. There are two or three instances of cuts thus repaired, in the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, Nuremberg and Augshurg, I5I7-15I9. '570 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD. ENGEAVING. a positive blemish in the cut.* When the shape of the part to be restored is too large to be covered with one cftcular plug, it is better to THE PLTTO OUT. add one plug to another tUl the whole be covered, than to insert one of a different shape, and thus fiU the space at once. When a single plug is used the section appears thus ; the plug being driven in like a No. 1. illT No. 2. No. 4. ]) wedge, and having a vacant space around it at the bottom. If an oblong space of the form No. 1. is to be restored, it wUl be best effected by first inserting a plug at each end, as at No. 2, then adding two others, as at No. 3, and finaUy wedging them all fast by a central plug, as at No. 4, Uke the key-stone in an arch. When a ¦ plug is firmly fixed, the top is carefuUy cut down to the level of the block, and the part of the subject wanting re-drawn and engraved. When these operations are well performed no trace of the insertion can * In a taU-piece at page 52 of Bewick's Fables, edition 1823, a plug which has been inserted appears lighter than the adjacent parts, in consequence of its having sunk a little below the surface ; and in the cut to the fable of the Hart and the Vine, in the same work, two large plugs, at the top, are darker than the other parts in consequence of their ha-ving risen a little above the 'surface,' THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 571 be discovered, except by one who should know where to look for it. When a cast is taken from a block which requires the insertion of a plug, the best mode is to have the part intended to be renewed cast blank. In this case a hole of sufficient size is to be driUed in the block, and afterwards filled up Avith plaster to the level of the surface. A east being then taken, the part to be re-engraved remains blank, but of a piece with the rest of the metal, so that there is no possibUity of its rising up above or sinking below the surface, as some times happens when a plug is inserted in a wood-block. When the part remaining blank in the cast is engraved in accordance with the work of the surrounding parts, it is almost impossible to discover any trace of the insertion. The foUowing impression is from a cast of the block Ulustiating the " plug," with the part which appears white in the former cut restored and re-engraved in this manner. A white circular hne, near the handle of the pail, has been purposely cut to indicate the place of the plug. Before beginning to engrave any subject, it is necessary to observe whether the draAving be entirely, or only in part, made with a pencil. If it be what is usuaUy caUed a wash drawing, with little more than the outlines in pencU, it is not necessary to be so cautious in defending it from the action of the breath or the occasional touching of the hand ; 572 THE PEACTICE OF AYOOD ENGEAVING. but if it be entirely in pencil, too much care cannot be taken to protect it from both. Before proceeding to engrave a delicate pencU drawing the block ought to be covered with paper, with the exception of the part on which it is intended to begin. Soft paper ought not to be used for this purpose, as such is most likely to partially efface the drawing when the hand is pressed upon the block. Moderately stout post-paper with a glazed surface is the best ; though some engravers, in order to preserve their eyes, which become affected by white paper, cover the block with blue paper, which is usuaUy too soft, and thus expose the drawing to injury. The dingy, grey, and over-done appearance of several modem wood-cuts is doubtless owing, in a great measure, to the block when in course of engraving having been covered with soft paper, which has partiaUy effaced the drawing. The drawing, which originally may have been clear and touchy, loses its brightness, and becomes indistinct from its frequent contact with the soft pliable paper ; the spirited dark touches Avhich give it effect are rubbed down to a sober grey, and aU the other parts, from the same, cause, are comparatively weak. The cut, being engraved according to the appearance of the dra-wing, is tame, flat, and spiritless. Different engravers have different methods of fastening the paper to the block. Some fix it with' gum, or Avith wafers at the sides ; but this is not a good mode, for as often as it is necessary to take a A-iew of the whole block, in order to judge of the progress of the work, the paper must be torn off, and afterwards replaced by means of new wafers or fresh gum, so that before the cut is finished the sides of the block are covered with bits of paper in the manner of a waU or shop- front covered with fragments of posting-bills. The most convenient mode of fastening the paper is to first wrap a piece of stiff and stout thread three or four times round the edges of the block, and then after making the end fast to remove it. The paper is then to be closely fitted to the block, and the edges being brought oA^er the sides, the thread is to be re-placed above it. If the turns of the thread be too tight to pass over the last corner of the block. A, a piece of string, B, being passed within them and firmly pulled, in the manner here represented, avUI cause them to stretch a little and pass over on to the edge A^¦ithout difficulty. When this plan is adopted the paper forms a kiad of moveable cap, which can * French wood engravers are accustomed to rub the sides of the block with bees'-wax, which on being chafed with the thumb-nail becomes shghtly softened, and thus adheres to the paper. THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 573 be taken off at pleasure to view the progress of the work, and replaced without the least trouble. I have long been of opinion that many young persons, when begin ning to learn the art of wood engraving, have injured their sight by unnecessarUy using a magnifying glass. At the very commencement of theft pupilage boys will furnish themselves with a glass of tlus kind, as if it were as much a matter of course as a set of gravers ; they sometimes see men use a glass, and as at this period they are prone to ape theft elders in the profession, they must have one also ; and as they generaUy choose such as magnfty most, the result not unfrequently is that their sight is considerably impaired before they are capable of executing anything that reaUy requires much nicety of vision. I would recommend aU persons to avoid the use of glasses of any kind, whether single magnifiers or spectacles, untU impaired sight renders such aids necessary ; and even then to commence with such as are of smaU magnifying power. The habit of viewing minute objects alter nately with a magnftying glass and the naked eye — applying the glass every two or three minutes — is, I am satisfied, injurious to the sight. The magnifying glass used by wood engravers is similar to that used by watch-makers, and consists of a single lens, fitted into a short tube, which is rather wider at the end applied to the eye. As the glass seldom can be fixed so firmly to the eye as to entirely dispense Arith holding it, the engraver is thus frequently obliged to apply his left hand to keep it in its place ; as he cannot hold the block with the same hand at the same time, or move it as may be required, so as to enable him to execute his work with freedom, the consequence is, that the engraving of a person who is in the habit of using a magnifying glass has frequently a cramped appearance. There are also other disadvantages attendant on the habitual use of a magnifying glass. A person using such a glass must necessarUy hold his head aside, so that the eye on which the glass is fixed may be directly above the part on which he is at work. In order to attain this position, the eye itself is not unfrequently distorted ; and Avhen it is kept so for any length of time it becomes extremely painful. I never find my eyes so free from pain or aching as when looking at the work dftectly in front, without any twisting of the neck so as to bring one eye only immediately above the part in course of execution. I therefore conclude that the eyes are less likely to be injured when thus employed than when one is frequently distorted and pained in looking through a glass. I am here merely speaking from experience, and not professedly from any theoretic knowledge of optics ; but as I have hitherto done without the aid of any magnifying power, I am not without reason convinced that glasses of all kinds ought to be dispensed with until impaired vision renders their use absolutely 574 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING necessary. I am decidedly of opftuon that to use glasses to preserve the sight, is to meet half way the evU which is thus sought to be averted. A person who has his sense of hearing perfect never thinks of usftig a trumpet or acoustic instrument in order to preserve it. All wood engravers, whether their eyes be naturaUy weak or not, ought to wear a shade, simUar to that represented in the foUowing figure. No. 1, as ft both protects the eyes from too strong a light, and also serves to concentrate the view on the work Avhich the engraver is at the time engaged in executing. No. 1, When speaking on this subject, it may not be out of place to mention a kind of shade or screen for the nose and mouth, simUar to that in the preceding figure. No. 2. Such a shade or screen is caUed by Papillon a mentonniere,* and its object is to prevent the draAving on the block being injured by the breath in damp or frosty weather. Without such a precaution, a drawing made on the block Avith black-lead pencil would, m a great measure. be effaced by the breath of the engraver passing freely over it in such weather. Such a shade or screen is most conveniently made of a piece of thin pasteboard or stiff paper. There are various modes of protecting the eyes when working by lamp-light, but I am aware of only one which both protects the eyes from the light and the face from the heat of the lamp. This consists in filling a large transparent glass-globe Avith clear water, and placing it in such a manner between the lamp and the workman that the hght, after passing through the globe, may faU directly on the block, in the manner represented in the foUowing cut. The height of the lamp can be regulated according to the engraver's convenience, in consequence of its being moveable on the upright piece of iron or other metal which forms its support. The dotted line shows the direction of the light Avhen the lamp is elevated to the height here seen ; by lowering the lamp a * P.ipillon's description of a mentonnii^re is previously noticed at page -Ifi'"). THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. ,575 Uttle more, the dotted line would incline more to a horizontal direction, and enable the engraver to sit at a greater distance. By the use of those globes one lamp wUl suffice for three or four persons, and each person have a much clearer and cooler light than if he had a lamp without a globe solely to himself* SANDBAG AMI> BLOCK. It has been said, and with some appearance of truth, that " the best engravers use the fewest tools ;" but this, like many other sayings of a similar kind, does not generally hold good. He undoubtedly ought to be considered the best engraver who executes his work in the best mannei- with the fewest tools ; while it is no less certain that he is a bad engraver who executes his work badly, whether he use many or few. No wood engraver who understands his art wiU incumber his desk or table Arith a number of useless tools, though, from a regard to his own time, he Avdl take care that he has as many as are necessary. There are some who pride themselves upon executing a great variety of work with one * Papillon preferred a kind of bull's-eye \ma— loupe— oi about three and a half inches diameter, flat on one side and convex on the other, to a globe fUled with water — un bocal^^ for the purpose of bringing the light of the lamp to a focus. This bull's-eye he had enclosed in a kind of frame, which could be inclined to any angle, or turned in any direction by means of a ball-and-socket jomt. He gives a cut of it at page 75, vol. ii. of his Traite de la Gravure en Bois.— I have tried the bull's-eye lens, but though the light was equally good as that from the globe, I found that the heat affected the head in a most unpleasant manner-, ;. 576 THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. tool, and hence, firmly believing in the truth of the saying above quoted, fancy that they are first-rate engravers. Such would be better entitled to the name if they executed their work weU. A person who makes his tools his hobby-horse, and who bestows upon their ornaments — ebony or ivory handles, sUver hoops, &c. — that attention which ought rather to be devoted to his subject, rarely excels as an engraver. He who is vain of the beautiful appearance of his tools has not often just reason to be proud of his work. There are only four kinds of cutting tools'* necessary in wood engraving, namely :-^gravers ; tint-tools ; gouges or scoopers ; and fiat tools or chisels. Of each of these four kinds there are various sizes. The foUoAYing cut shoAYS the form of a graver that is principaUy used for outlining or separating one figure from another. A, is the back of the tool ; B, the face ; C, the point ; and D, what is technically caUed ^ the beUy. The horizontal dotted ^c ¦--^-°: Z line, 1, 2, shows the surface of the block, and the manner in which part of the handle is cut off after the blade is inserted.t This tool is very fine at the point, as the line which it cuts ought to be so thin as not to be distinctly perceptible when the cut is printed, as the intention is merely to form a termination or boundary to a series of lines running in another dftection. Though it is necessary that the point should be very fine, yet the blade ought not to be too thin, for then, instead of cutting out a piece of the wood, the tool wUl merely make a deUcate opening, which would be likely to close as soon as the block should be exposed to the action of the press. When the outline tool becomes too thin at the point the lower part should be rubbed on a hone, in order to reduce the extreme fineness. About eight or nine gravers of different sizes, beginning from the outUne tool, are generaUy sufficient. The blades differ Uttle in shape, when first made, from those used by copper-plate engravers ; but in order to render them fit for the purpose of wood engraving, it is necessary to give the points theft peculiar form by rubbing them on a Turkey stone. In this cut are shown the faces and part of the backs of nine gravers of different sizes ; the lower dotted line, A c, shoAvs the extent to which the points of such V • A sharp-edged scraper, in shape something like a copper-plate engi-aver's burnisher, is used in the process of lowering. t The handle, when received from the turaer's, is perfectly circular at the rounded end ; but after the blade is inserted, a segment is cut off at the lower part,, as seen in the above cut. THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. Oil "'-'¦'" r 1 B A tools are sometimes ground down by the engraver in order to render them broader. When thus ground down the points are slightly rounded, and do not remain straight as if cut off by the dotted Une A c. These tools are used for nearly aU kinds of work, except for series of parallel lines, technicaUy called " tints." The width of the line cut out, according to the thickness of the graver towards the point, is regulated by the pressure of the engraver's hand. Tint>-tools are chiefly used to cut paraUel lines forming an even and unftorm tint, such as is usually seen in the representation of a clear sky in wood-cuts. They are thinner at the back, but deeper in the side than gravers, and the angle of the face, at the point, is much more acute. About seven or eight, of different degrees of fineness, are generally sufficient. The following cut wUl afford an idea of the shape of the blades towards the point. The handle of the tint-tool is of the same form as that of a graver. The figure marked A presents a side view of the blade ; the others marked B show the faces. Some engravers never use a tint-tool, but cut aU their lines with a graver. There is, however, great uncertainty in cutting a series of paraUel lines in this manner, as the least incUnation of the hand to one side \riU cause the graver to increase the width of the white line cut out, and undercut the raised one left, more than if in the same circumstances a tint-tool were used. This will be rendered more evident by a comparison of. the points and faces of the two different tools : The tint-tool, being very little thicker at B than at the point A, wiU cause a very trifling difference in the width of a line in the , event of a wrong inclination, when com pared Avith the inequality occasioned by the unsteady direction of a graver, whose angle at the point is much greater than that of a proper tin1>-tool. Tint-tools ought to be sufficiently strong at the back to prevent their bending in the middle of the blade when used, for with a weak tool of this kind the engraver cannot properly guide the point, and hence freedom of execution is lost. Tint- tools that are rather thick in the back are to be preferred to such as are thin, not only from their aUoAving of great steadiness in cutting, but from their leaving the raised Unes thicker at the bottom, and conse quently more capable of sustaining the action of the press. A tint-tool that is of the same thickness, both at the back and the lower part, cuts out p p B 578 THE PEACTICE OF AVOOD ENGEAVING the lines in such manner that a section of them appears thus : the black or raised lines from which the impression is |Mjl|jijj obtained being no thicker at their base than at the surface ; while a section of the lines cut by a tool that is thicker at the back than at the loAver part appears thus. It is evident that lines of this kind, having a better support at the base, are much less liable than the former to be broken in printing. Gouges of different sizes, from A the smaUest to b the largest, as here represented, are used for scooping out the Avood toAvards the centre of the block ; while fiat tools or chisels, of various sizes, are chiefly employed in cutting away the wood toAvards the edges. Flat tools of the shape seen in figure c are sometimes offered for sale by tool-makers, but they ought never to be used ; for the projecting corners are very apt to cut under a line, and thus remove it entirely, causing great trouble to replace it by inserting new pieces of Avood. The face of both gravers and tint-tools ought to be kept rather long than short ; though ft the point be ground too fine, it AviU be very liable to break. When the face is long — or, strictly speaking, when the angle, formed by the plane of the face and the lower line of the blade, is comparatively acute — ^thus, a line is cut with much gTcater clearness than when the ^ face is comparatively obtuse, and the smaU shaving cut out turns gently over towards the hand. When, hoAV- ever, the face of the tool approaches to the shape seen fti the foUoAving cut, the reverse happens ; the small shaving is rather ploughed out than cleanly cut out ; and the force necessary to push the tool forward frequently causes small pieces to fly out at each side of the hollowed line, more especially if the wood be dry. The shaving also, instead of turning aside over the face of the tool, turns over before the point, thus, /^ , j- and hinders the engraver from seeftig that part — -¦'/'- ^ of the pencilled line which is directly under it. A short-faced tool of itself prevents the engi-aver from distinctly seeing the point. When the face of a tool has become obtuse, it ought to be ground to a proper form, for instance, from the shape of the figure A to that of r.. A . B THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 579 Gravers and tint-tools when first received from the maker are generaUy too hard, — a defect which is soon discovered by the point breaking off short as soon as it enters the wood. To remedy this, the blade of the tool ought to be placed Avith its flat side above a piece of iron — a poker will do very AveU — nearly red-hot. Dftectly it changes to a straw colour it is to be taken off the iron, and either dipped in sweet oU or allowed to cool graduaUy. If removed from the iron while it is still of a straw colour, it will have been softened no more than sufficient ; but should it have acquired a purple tinge, it will have been softened too much ; and instead of breaking at the point, as before, it wUl bend. A small grindstone is of great service in grinding down the faces of tools that have become obtuse. A Turkey stone, though the operation requires more time, is however a very good substitute, as, besides reducing the face, the tool receives a point at the same time. Though some engravers use only a Turkey stone for sharpening their tools, yet a hone in addition is of great advantage. A graver that has received a final poUsh on a hone cuts a clearer Une than one which has only been sharpened on a Turkey stone ; it also cuts more pleasantly, gUding smoothly through the wood, if it be of good quality, without stirring a particle on each side of the line. The gravers and tint-tools used for engraving on a plane surface are straight at the point, as is here represented ; but for engraving on a block rendered concave in certain parts by lowering, it is necessary that the point should have a slight inclina tion upwards, thus. The dotted lines show the direction of the point used for plane surface engraving. There is no difficulty in getting a tool to descend on one side of a part hoUowed out or lowered ; but unless the point be shghtly incUned upwards, as is here shown, it is extremely difficiUt to make it ascend on the side opposite, without getting too much liold, and thus producing a wider white line than was intended. As the proper manner of holding the graver is one of the first things that a young wood engraver is taught, it is necessary to say a few words on this subject. Engravers on copper and steel, who have much harder substances than wood to cut, hold the graver with the fore-finger extending on the blade beyond the thumb, thus, so that by its pressure the point may be pressed into the plate. As box-wood, however, is much softer than copper or steel, and as it is seldom of perfectly equal hardness pp2 580 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. throughout, it is necessary to hold the graver in a different manner, and employ the thumb at once as a stay or rest for the blade, and as a check upon the force exerted by the palm of the hand, the motion being chiefly directed by the fore-finger, as is shoAvn in the foUoAving cut. The thumb, with the end resting against the side of the block, in the manner above represented, allows the blade to move back and forward with a sUght degree of pressure against it, and in case of a shp it is ever ready to check the graver's progress. This mode of resting the thumb against the edge of the block is, however, only appftcable when the cuts are so small as to allow of the graver, when thus guided and controlled, to reach every part of the subject. When the cut is too large to admit of this, the thumb then rests upon the surface of the block, thus : still forming a stay to the blade of the graver, and a check to its slips, as before. THE PEAOTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 581 111 order to acquire steadiness of hand, the best thing for a pupU to begin with is the cutting of tints, — that is, parallel Unes ; and the first attempts ought to be made on a small block such as is represented in No. 1, which wUl aUow each entire line to be cut with the thumb resting against the edge. When lines of this length can be cut AYith tolerable precision, the pupU should ^o. i. proceed to blocks of the size of No. 2. He ought also to cut waved tints, which are not so difficult ; beginning, as in straight ones, with a small block, and gradually proceeding to blocks of greater No. 2. size. Should the wood not cut smoothly in the dftection in which he has begun, he should reverse the block, and cut his lines in the opposite direction ; for it not unfrequently happens that wood which cuts short and crumbles in one direction wiU cut clean and smooth the opposite way. It is here necessary to observe, that if a certain number of lines be 2ut in one direction, and another portion, by reversing the block, be cut the contrary way, the tint, although the same tool may have been used for aU, ayLU be of two different shades, notwithstanding the pains that may have been taken to keep the Unes of an even thickness throughout. This difference in the appearance of the two portions of lines cut from opposite sides is entirely owing to the wood cutting more smoothly in one direction than another, although the difference in the resistance which it makes to the tool may not be perceptible by the hand of the engraver. It is of great importance that a pupil should be able to cut tints well before he proceeds to any other kind of work. The practice will give him steadiness of hand, and he wUl thus acquire a habft of carefully executing such lines, which subsequently wUl be of the greatest service. Wood engravers who have not been well schooled in this elementary part of their profession often cut their tints carelessly in the first instance, and, when they perceive the defect in a prodf, return to their work, and, with great loss of tftne, keep thinning and dressing the lines, tiU they frequently make the tint appear worse than at first. 582 THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. When uniform tints, both of straight and Avaved lines, can be cut Avith facility, the learner should proceed to cut tints in which the lines are of unequal distance apart. To effect this, tools of different sizes are necessary ; for in tints of this kind the different distances between the black lines, are according to the width of the different tools used to cut them ; though in tints of a graduated tone of colour, the difference is sometimes entirely produced by increas ing the pressure of the graver. In the annexed cut. No. 3, the black lines are of equal thickness, but the width of the Avhite lines between them becomes graduaUy less from the top to the bottom. By comparing it with No. 4, the difference between a uniform tint, where the lines are of the same thickness and equally distant, and one where the distance between the lines is unequal, will be more readily understood. A straight-hne tint, either uniform, or AYith the lines becoming gradually closer without appearing darker, is generaUy adopted to represent a clear blue sky. In No. 3 the tint has been commenced with a comparatively broad-pointed tool ; and after cutting a few Unes, less pressure, thus allowing the black lines to come a Uttle closer together, has been used, till it became necessary to change the tool for one less broad in the face. In this manner a succession of tools, each finer than the preceding, has been employed tUl the tint Avas completed — To be able to prodace a tint of delicately graduated'to«<^ it is necessary that the engraver should be weU acquainted with the use of his tools, and also have a correct eye. The foUoAving is a specimen of a tint cut entirely with the same graver, the difference in the colour being produced by increasing the pressure in the lighter parts. Tints of this kind are obtained with greater facility and certainty by using a graver, and THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENdEAA'ING. 583 increasing the pressure, than by using several tint-tools. On comparing No. ;^ with No. 5, it will be perceived that the black lines in the latter decrease in thickness as they approach the bottom of the cut AvhUe in the former they are of a uniform thickness throuo-hout. If a clear sky is to be represented, there is no other mode of making that part near the horizon appear to recede except by means of fine black lines becoming gradually closer as they descend, as seen in the tint No. 3. As the black lines in this tint are closer at the bottom than at the top, it might naturally be supposed that the colour would be pro portionably stronger in that part. It is, however, known by experience that the unequal distance of the lines in such a tint docs not cause any perceptible difference in the colour ; as the upper lines, in con sequence of their being more apart, print thicker, and thus counter balance the effect of the greater closeness of the others. The two foUowing cuts are specimens of tints represented by means of waved lines : in No. 6 the lines are slightly undulated ; in No. 7 they have more of the appearance of zig-zag. Waved lines are generally introduced to represent clouds, as they not only form a contrast with the straight lines of the sky, but from their form suggest the idea of motion. It is necessary to observe, that if the alternate undulations in such lines be too much curved, the tint. 584 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. when printed, will appear as if intersected from top to bottom, Uke wicker-work with perpendicular stakes, in the manner shown in the following specimen. No. 8. This appearance is caused by the unequal No. 8. pressure of the tool in forming the smaU curves of which each hne is composed, thus making the black or raised Une rather thicker in some parts than in others, and the white interstices Avide or narrow in the same proportion. The appearance of such a tint is precisely the same whether eut by hand or by a machine.* In executing waved tints it is therefore necessary to be particularly careful not to get the undulations too much curved. As the choice of proper tints depends on taste, no specific rules can be laid down to guide a person in their selection The proper use of lines of various kinds as applied to the execution of wood-cuts, is a most important consideration to the engraver, as upon theft proper application aU indications of form, texture, and conventional colour entirely depend. Lines are not to be introduced merely as such, — to display the mechanical skUl of the engraver ; they ought to be the signs of an artistic meaning, and be judged of accordingly as they serve to express it with feeling and correctness. Some wood engravers are but too apt to pride themselves on the delicacy of theft lining, Avithout considering whether it be weU adapted to express their subject ; and to fancy that exceUence in the art consists chiefly in cutting Avith great labour a number of delicate unmeaning lines. To such an extent is this carried by some of this class that they spend more time in expressing the mere scratches of the designer's pencU in a shade than a BcAvick or a ClenneU would require to engrave a cut full of meaning and interest. Mere delicacy of lines wiU not, however, compensate for want of natural * The sky in many of the large wood engi-avings executed in London is now cut by means of a machine invented by Mr. John Parkhouse. In many steel engravings the sky is ruled in hy inuins of a machine by persons who do little else. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 585 expression, nor laborious trifling for that vigorous execution which is the resuft of feeUng. " Expression," says Flaxman, " engages the attention, and excites an interest which compensates for a multitude of defects —whilst the most admirable execution, without a just and Uvely expres sion, will be disregarded as laborious inanity, or contemned as an illusory endeavour to impose on the feeUngs and the understanding. Sentiment gives a sterling value, an ftresistible charm, to the rudest imagery or the most unpractised scrawl. By this quality a firm aUiance is formed with the affections in aU works of art."* Perpetrators of laborious inanities find, however, their admirers ; and an amateur of such deUcacies is in raptures with a specimen of "exquisitely fine hning," and when told that such wood-peckings are, as works of art, much inferior to the productions of BoAvick, he asks where his works are to be found ; and after he has examined them he pronounces them " coarse and tasteless, — the rude efforts of a country engraver," and not to be compared with certain delicate, but spiritless, wood engravings of the present day. With respect to the direction of lines, it ought at all times to be borne in mind by the wood engraver, — and more especially when the lines are not laid in by the designer, — that they should be disposed so as to denote the pecuUar form of the object they are intended to represent. For instance, in the Umb of a figure they ought not to run horizontally or verticaUy, — coiiveying the idea of either a flat surface or of a hard cylindrical form, — but with a gentle curvature suitable to the shape and the degree of rotundity required. A weU chosen Une makes a great difference in properly representing an object, when compared with one less appropriate, though more deUcate. The proper disposition of lines wUl not only express the form required, but also produce more colour as they approach each other in approximating curves, as in the foUowing example, and thus represent a variety of light and shade, Avithout the necessity of introducing other lines crossing them, which ought always to be avoided in smaU subjects : if, however, the figures be large, it is necessary to break the hard appearance of a series of such single lines by crossing them with others more delicate. In cutting curved lines, considerable difficulty is experienced by not commencing properly. For instance, if in executing a series of such Unes as are shown in the preceding cut, the engraver commences at A, and works towards B, the tool wiU always be apt to cut through the black line already formed ; whereas by colhmencing at B, and working toAvards A, the graver is always outside of the curve, and consequently * Lectures on Sculpture, pp. 172—193. 586 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. never touches the lines previou.sly cut.* This difference ought always to be borne in mind when engraving a series of curved lines, as, by com mencing properly, the work is executed with greater freedom and ease, while the inconvenience arising from shps is avoided. When such lines are introduced to represent the rotundify of a Umb, with a break of white in the middle expressive of its greatest prominence, as is shown in the following figure A, it is advisable that they should jiuJ be first laid in as if intended to be continuous, as is seen in figure B, and the part which appears white in A lowered out before beginning to cut them, as by this means aU risk of their disagreeing, as in G, ayUI be avoided. The rotundity of a column or simUar object is represented by means of paraUel Unes, which are comparatively open in the middle where light is required, but which are engraved closer and thicker Towards the sides to express shade. The effect of such lines will be rendered more evident by comparing the column in the an nexed cut with the square base, which is repre sented by a series of equidistant lines, each of the same thickness as those in the middle of ' l' the column. j Many more examples of tints and simple Unes might be given; but, as no real benefit would be derived from them, it is needless to increase the number, and make "much ado about nothing." Every new subject that the engraver commences presents something new for him to effect, and requires the exercise of his taste and judgment as to the best mode of executing it, so that the whole may have some claim to the character of a work of art. If a thousand examples were given, they Avould not enable an engraver to " As the drawing is the reverse of the impression, it is necessary to obser\'e that the motion of the graver in tliis case is from right to left on the block,— that is, the point B forms the beginning, and not the termination, of the fu-st Ime when the work is properly com menced. The lines are represented in the cut as they would appo:u- when drawn on a block to be engraved in the manner recommended. Ill I THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 587 execute a subject properly, unless he Avere endoAved with that indefin able feeling which at once suggests the best means of attaining his end. Such feeling may indeed be excited, but can never be perfectly commu nicated by rules and examples. In this respect every artist, whether a humble wood engraver, or a sculptor or a painter of the highest class, must be self-instructed ; the feeling displayed in his works must be the result of his own perceptions and ideas of beauty and propriety. It is the difference in feeling, rather than any greater or less degree of excellence in the mechanical execution, that distinguishes the paintings of Eaffaele from those of Le Brun, Flaxman's statues from those of EoubiUiac, and the cuts in the Lyons Dance of Death from many of the laborious inanities of the present day. Clear, unruffled water, and all bright and smooth paetallic substances, are best represented by single Unes ; for if cross-lines be introduced, except to indicate a- strong shadow, it gives to them the appearance of roughness, Avliich is not at all in accordance Avitli the ideas Avhich such substances naturaUy excite. Objects Avhich appear to reflect brUliant flashes of light ought to be carefuUy dealt Avith, leaying plenty of black as a ground-Avork, for in wood engravings such lights can only be effectiA^ely represented by contrast with deep colour. Eeflected Ughts are in general best represented by means of single lines running in the direction of the object, with a fcAv touches of white judiciously taken out. In this respect Clennell particularly exceUed as a wood engraver. Painting itself can scarcely represent reflected Ughts with greater effect than he- has expressed them in several of his cuts. In Harvey's large cut of the Death of Dentatus, after Haydon's noble picture, the shield of Dentatus affords an instance of reflected light most admirably represented. As my object is to point out to the uninitiated the method of cutting certain lines, rather than to engage in the fruitless task of shoAving how such lines are to be generally applied, I shall now proceed to offer a few observations on engraving in outline, a process Avith which the learner ought to be weU acquainted before he attempts subjects consisting of complicated lines. The M'ord outline in wood engraving has tAvo meanings : it is used, first, to denote the distinct boundaries of aU kinds of objects ; and secondly, to denote the delicate white line that is cut round any figure or object in order to form a boundary to the lines by which such figure or object is surrounded, and to thus allow of their easier liberation: it forms as it were a terminal furroAv into Avhich the Unes surrounding the figure run. In speaking of this second outline in future, ft will be distinguished as the white outline ; whUe the other, which properly defines the different figures and forms, will be caUed the true or proper outiine, or simply xS8 THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. the outhne, without any distinctive additional term. As tiie white outiine ought never to be distinctly visible in an impression, care ought to be taken, more especiaUy where the adjacent tint is dark, not to cut it too deep or too wide. In the first of the two foUowing cuts, \i' 'at"' the white outline, intentionaUy cut rather wider than is necessary, is distinctly seen from its contrast with the dark parts immediately in contact with it. In the second cut of the same subject, with a different back-ground, it is less visible in consequence of the parts adjacent being light. It is, however, stiU distinctly seen in the shadoAV of the feet ; but it is shown here purposely to point out an error which is sometimes committed by cutting a white outline where, as in these parts, it is not requfted. The white outline is here quite unnecessary, as the two blacks THE PEACTICE OF AYOOD ENGEAVING. 589 ought not to be separated in such a manner ; the proper intention of the white outline is not so much to define the form of the figure or object, but, as has been afteady explained, to make an incision in the wood as a boundary to other lines coming against it, and to allow of their being clearly Uberated without injury to the proper outline of the object : when a line is cut to such a boundary, the small shaving forced out by the graver becomes immediately released, without the point of the tool coining in contact with the true outUne. The old German wood engravers, who chiefly engraved large subjects on apple or pear tree, and on the side of the wood, were not in the habit of cutting a white outUne round their figures before they began to engrave them, and hence in their cuts objects frequently appear to stick to each other. The practice is now, however, so general, that in many modern wood cuts a white line is improperly seen surrounding every figure. In proceeding to engrave figures, it is advisable to commence with such as consist of little more than outline, and have no shades expressed by cross-lines. The first step in executing such a subject is to cut a white line on each side of the penciUed lines which are to remain in relief of the height of the plane surface of the block, and to form the impression when it is printed. A cut when thus engraved, and previous to the parts which are white, when printed, being cut away, or, in technical language, blocked out, would present the following appearance.* It is, however, necessary to observe that aU the parts Avhich require to be blocked away have been purposely retained in this cut in order to show more clearly the manner in which it is executed ; for the engraver usually cuts away as he proceeds all the black masses seen within the subject A wide margin of soUd wood round the edges of the cut is, * The subject of this cut is the beautiful monument to the memory of two children executed by Sir F. Chantrey, in Lichfield Cathedral. 590 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. however, generaUy aUowed to remain untU a proof be taken when the engraving is finished, as it affords a support to the paper, and prevents the exterior lines of the subject from appearing too hard. This margin, where room is allowed, is separated from the engraved parts by a moderately deep and wide furrow, and is covered with a piece of paper serving as a frisket in taking a proof impression by means of friction. In clearing away such of the black parts in the preceding cut as require to be removed, it is necessary to proceed with great care in order to avoid breaking down or cutting through the Unes which are to be left in relief When the cut is properly cleared out and blocked away, it is then finished, and when printed wUl appear thus : Sculptures and bas-reliefs of any kind are generaUy best represented by simple outlines, with dehcate parallel lines, running horizontaUy, to represent the ground. The foUowing cut is from a design by Flaxman for the front of a gold snuff-box made by EundeU and Bridge for George IV. about 1827. The subject of this design was intended to com memorate the General Peace concluded in 1814 -. to the left Agriculture is seen flourishing under the auspices of Peace ; AvhUe to the right a youthful figure is seen placing a Avreath above the helmet of a warrior ; the trophy indicates his services, and opposite to hftn is seated a figure of Victory. The three other sides, and the top and bottom, Avere also THE PEACTICE OF AYOOD ENGEAVING. 591 embellished Avith figures and ornaments in reUef designed by Flaxman. The whole of the dies were cut in steel by Henning and Son — so AveU known to admirers of art from their beautiful reduced copies and restorations of the sculptures of the Parthenon preserved in the British Museum — and from these dies the plates of gold composing the box were struck, so that the figures appear in slight reUef A blank space was left in the top of the box for an enamel portrait of the King, Avhich was afterwards inserted, surrounded with diamonds, and the margin of the lid Avas also ornamented in the same manner. Thi^ box is perhaps the most beautiful of the kind ever executed in any country : it may justly chaUenge a comparison with the drinking cups by Benvenuto CelUni, the dagger hafts designed by Durer, or the salts by Hans Holbein. The process of engraving in this style is extremely simple, as it is only necessary to leave the lines drawn in pencil untouched, and to cut away the wood on each side of them. An amateur may Avithout much trouble teach himseft to execute cuts in this manner, or to engrave fac-simUes of small pen-and-ink sketches such as the annexed.* Having now explained the mode of procedure in outline engraving, it seems necessary, before proceeding to speak of more complicated subjects, to say a few words respecting draAvings made on the block ; for, however weU the engraving inay be executed, the cut Avhich is a fac- simUe of a bad draAving can never be a good one. An artist's knowledge of drawing is put to the test when he begins to make designs on Avood ; he cannot resort, as in painting, to the trick of colour to conceal the defects of his outUnes. To be efficient in the engraving, his principal figures must be distinctly made out ; a drawing on the Avood admits of no scumbling ; black and white are the only means by Avhich the subject can be represented ; and if he be ignorant of the proper management of chiaro-scuro, and incorrect and feeble in his drawing, he wUl not be able * This small cut is a fac-simile, the size of the original, of Sir David WUkie's first ¦sketch for his pictm-e of the Babbit on the Wall. 392 THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. to produce a really good design for the wood engraver. Many persons can paint a tolerably good picture who are utterly incapable of making a passable drawing on wood. Their drawing wiU not stand the test of simple black and white ; they can indicate generaUties " indifferently weU " by means of positive colours, but they cannot deUneate individual forms correctly with the black-lead pencil. It is from this cause that we have so very few persons who professedly ihake designs for wood engravers ; and hence the sameness of character that is to be found in so many modern wood-cuts. It is not unu,sual for many second and thftd rate painters, when applied to for a draAving for a wood-cut, to speak slightingly of the art, and to decline to furnish the design requfted. This generaUy results rather from a consciousness of their oayu inca pacity than from any real contempt for the art. As greater painters than any now living have made designs for wood engravers in former times, a second or third rate painter of the present day surely could not be much degraded by doing the same. The true reason for the refusal, however, is generally to be found in such painter's incapacity. The two next cuts, both drawn from the same sketch,* but by different persons, will show how much depends upon having a good, No. 1. No. 2. artist-like drawing. The first is meagre ; the second, on the contrary, is remarkably spirited, and the additional hnes which are introduced not only give effect to the figure, but also in printing form a support to the more delicate parts of the outline. The original sketch, from which the figure was copied, is by Morland. THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVESG. 593 Though a learner in proceeding from one subject to another more complicated will doubtless meet Avitli difficulties which may occasionally damp his ardour, yet he will encounter none which wiU not yield to earnest perseA-erance. As it is not likely that any amateur practising the art merely for amusement would be inclined to test his patience by proceeding beyond outUne engraving, the succeeding remarks are more especially addressed to those who may wish to apply themselves to wood engraving as a profession. When beginning to engrave in OutUne, it is advisable that the subjects first attempted shoiUd be of the most simple kind,— simUar, for instance, to the preceding figure marked No. 1. When facility in executing cuts in this style is obtained, the learner may proceed to engrave such as are slightly shaded, and have a back -ground indicated as in No. 2. He may next proceed to subjects containing a greater variety of lines, and requiring greater neatness of execution, but should by no means endeavour to get on too fast by attempting to do much before he can do a Uttle well. Whatever kind of subject be chosen, particular attention ought to be paid to the causes of failure and success in the execution. By dUigently noting what produces a good effect in certain Subjects, he AvUl, under similar circumstances, be prepared to apply the same means ; and by attending to the faults in his work he will be the more careful to avoid them ' in future. The group of figures here, selected from Sft David WUkie's picture of the Eent Day, wUl serve as-'an example of a cut executed by comparatively simple means ; the subject is also Q Q 594 THE PEACTICK OF WOOD ENGEAVING. such a one as a pupil may attempt after he has made some progress in engraving slightly shaded figures. There are no complicated lines which are difficult to execute ; the hatchings are few, and of simple character ; and for the execution of the Avhole, as here represented, nothing is required but a feeling for the subject ; and a moderate degree of skiU in the use of the graver, combined with patient application. When the pupil is thus far advanced, he ought, in subjects of this kind, to avoid introducing more work, more especiaUy in the features, than he can execute with comparative facUity and precision ; for, by attempting to attain excellence before he has arrived at mediocrity, he will be very Ukely to faU, and instead of having reason to congratulate himself on his success, experience nothing but disappointment To make wood engraving an interesting, instead of an irksome study to young persons, I would recommend for their practice not only such subjects as are likely to engage their attention, but also such as they may be able to finisli before they become Aveary of their task. At this period every endeavour ought to be made to smooth the pupU's way hy giving him such subjects to execute as will rather serve to stimulate his exertions than exhaust his patience. Little characteristic figures, like the one here copied, from one of Hogarth's plates of the Four Parts of the Day, seem most suitable for this purpose A subject of this kind does not contain so much work as to render a young person tired of it before THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 595 it be finished ; whUe at the same time it serves to exercise him in the practice of the art and to engage his attention. When a pupU feels no interest in what he is employed on, he will seldom execute his work well ; and when he is kept too long in engraving subjects that merely try his patience, he is apt to lose all taste for the art, and become a mere mechanical cutter of Unes, without carhig for what they express. Such a cut as the following — copied from an etching by Eembrandt — wUl form a useful exercise to the pupil, after he has attained facility in the execution of outline subjects, while at the same time it will serve to display the excellent effect in wood engravings of weU con trasted light and shade. The hog — Vhich is here the principal object — immediately arrests the ey'e, whUe the figures in the back-ground, being introduced merely to aid the composition and form a medium between the dark colour of the animal and the white paper, consist of little more than outline, and are comparatively light. In engraving the hog, it is necessary to exercise a little judgment in representing the bristly hair, and in touching the detaUs effectively. When a learner has made some progress, he may attempt such a cut as that on the next page in order to exercise himseft in the appropriate representation of animal texture. The subject is a dray-horse, formerly belonging to Messrs. Meux and Co., and the drawing was made on the block by James Ward, E.A., one of the mo.st distinguished animal painters of the present time. Such a cut though executed by simple Q Q 2 596 THE PEACTICE OF AYOOD ENGEAVING. means, affords an exceUent test of a learner's skill and discrimination : the hide is smooth and glossy ; the mane is thick and tangled ; the long flowing hair of the taU has to be represented in a proper manner ; and the markings of the joints require the exercise of both judgment and skill. By attending to such distinctions at the commencement of his career, he will find less difficulty in representing objects by appro priate texture when he shaU have made greater progress, and avUI not be entirely dependent on a designer to lay in for him every line. An engraver Avho requires every line to be drawn, and Avho is only capable of executing a fac-simile of a design made for him on the block, can never excel. As enough perhaps has been said in explanation of the manner of cutting tints, and of figures chiefly represented by single Unes, I shall now give a cut — Jacob blessing the children of Joseph- — in Avhich single- lined figures and tint are combined. It is necessary to observe that this cut is not introduced as a good specimen of engraving, but as beftig weU adapted, from the simplicity of its execution, to illustrate Avhat I have to say. The figures are represented by single lines, Avhich require the exercise of no great degree of skiU ; and by the uitroduction of a A'aried tint as a back-ground the cut appears lUce a complete subject and not like a sketch, or a detached group. It is necessary to remark here, that Avhen comparatively light objects, such as the figures here seen, are to be relieved by a tint of any kind, Avhether darker or lighter, such objects are noAV generally separated from it by a black outline. The reason for leaving such an outline in parts Avliere the conjunction of the tint and the figures docs not render it absolutely necessary is this : as those parts in a cut A\-liicli appear Avhite THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 597 in the impression are to be cut aAvay — as has already been explained, — it frequently happens that when they are- cut away first, and the tint cut afterwards, the wood breaks away near the termination of the Une before the tool arrives at the blank or white. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to preserve a distinct outline in this manner, and hence a black conventional outline is introduced in those parts where properly there ought to be none, except such as is formed by the tint relieving against the white parts, as is seen in the back part of the head of Jacob in the present cut, where there is no other outline than that which is formed by the tint relieving against his white cap. Bewick used to execute all his subjects in this manner ; but he not unfrequently carried this principle too far, not only running the lines of his tints into the whfte on the light side of his figures,— that is, on the side on which the light falls, — but also on both sides of a Ught object. Before dismissing this part of the subject, ft is necessary to observe further, that when the white' parts are cut away before the tint is uitroduced, the conventional black outUne is very liable to be cut through by the tool slipping. This wiU be rendered more intelUgible by an inspection of the foUowing cut,* where the house is seen finished, * In this cut the white outline, mentioned at page 587, is distinctly seen at the top of the buildings and above the trees. 5.98 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. and the part where a tint is intended to be subsequently engraved appears black. Any person- in the least acquainted Avith the practice of wood engraving, wiU perceive, that should the tool happen to slip when near the finished parts, in coming directly towards them, it ayUI be very likely to cut the outline through, and to make a breach in proportion as such outline may be thin, and thus yield more readUy to the force of the tool. When the tint is cut first, instead of being left to be executed last as it would be in the preceding cut tfte mass of wood out of which the house is subsequently engraved serves as a kind of barrier to the tool in the event of its slipping, and allows of the tint being cut with less risk quite up to the white outline. By attending to such matters, and considering what part of a subject can be most safely executed first, a learner wiU both avoid the risk of cutting through his outUne, and be enabled to execute his work with comparative faciUty. The foUoAring cut is an example of the tint being cut first. For the information of those who are unacquainted Avith the process of Avood engraAdng, it is necessary to remark that the parts which appear positively black are those which remain untouched by the graver. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 599 The following subject, copied from one of Eembrandt's etchings, is chiefly represented by black lines crossing each other. Such lines, usually termed cross-hatchings, are executed with great facility in copper and steel, where they are cut into the metal ; but in wood engTaving, where they are left in relief, it requires considerable time and attention to execute them with delicacy and precision. In order to explain more clearly the difficulty of executing cross-hatchings, let it be conceived that this cut is a drawing made on a block, and that the engraver's object is to produce a fac-simile of it : now, as each black line is to be left in relief, it is evident that he cannot imitate the cross-hatchings seen in the arms, the neck, and other parts, by cutting the lines continuously as in engraving on copper, which puts black in by means of an incision, while in wood engraving a simUar line takes it out. As the wood engraver, then, can only obtain white by cutting out the parts that are to appear so in the impression, whUe the black is to be left in relief, the only manner in which he is enabled to represent cross -hatchings, or black lines crossing each other, is to cut out singly with his graver every one of the white interstices. Such an operation, as wiU be evident from an inspection of this cut, necessarUy requires not only patience, out also considerable skill to perform it in a proper manner, — that is, to cut each 600 THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. white space cleanly out, and to preserve the lines of a regular thickness. From the supposed impossibiUty of executing such cross lines, it has been conjectured that many of the old wood-cuts containing such work were engraved in metallic relief: this opinion, however, is sufficiently refuted, by the fact of hundreds of blocks containing cross-hatchings being stUl in existence, and by the much more deUcate and difficult work of the same kind displayed in modern wood engravings. Not only are cross-hatchings of the greatest delicacy now executed in England, but to stich a degree of refinement is the process occasionally carried, that small black touches — such as may be perceived in the preceding cut in the folds of the sleeve above the elbow of the right arm — are left in the Avhite interstices between the Unes. Cross-hatchings, where the inter stices are entirely white, are executed by means of a lozenge-pointed tool, and the piece of wood is removed at two cuts, each beginning at the opposite angles. Where a smaU black touch is left within the interstices, the operation becomes more difficult, and is performed by cutting round such minute touch of black with a finely pointed graver. The various conjectures that have been propounded respecting the mode in which cross-hatchings have been effected in old wood-cuts require no argument to refute them, as they are dftectly contiadicted both by undoubted historical facts, and by every day's experience. Vegetable putties, punches, and metaUic reUef are nothing but the trifling speculations of persons who are fonder of propounding theories to display their own ingenuity than wiUing to investigate facts in order to arrive at the truth. It has happened rather unfortunately, that most persons who have hitherto Avritten upon the subject haA'-e knoAvn A-ery little about the practice of wood engraving, and have not thought it worth their while to consult those who Avere able to giA'e them infor mation. There is, however, no fear now of a young wood engraA^er being deterred from attempting cross-hatchings on learning from certain here tofore authorities on the subject that such work could not be executed on wood. He now laughs at vegetable putties, square-pointed punches for indenting the block to produce cross-hatchings, and metallic relief: by means of his graver alone he produces a practical refutation of CA-en' baseless theory that has been propounded on the subject The right leg of Dentatus in Mr. Harvey's large wood engraving after Mr. Haydon's picture is perhaps the most beautftiU specimen of cross-hatching that ever was executed on \\ood ; and, in my opinion, it is the best engraved part of the Avhole subject. Through the kindness of Mr. Harvey, I have obtained a cast of this portion of the block, from Avhich the present impression is printed. The lines showing the muscular rotundity and action of the limb are as admirably laid in as they arc b(.'autifully ongraA'cd. In the Avider and stronger cross-hatchings THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 601 of the drapery above, the sniall black touches previously mentioned are perceived in the lozenge-shaped interstices. From an opinion that the excellence of an engraving consists chiefly in the difficiUty of its execution, we now frequently find cross-hatchings in several modern wood-cuts, more especiaUy in such as are manufac tured for the French market, Avhere a better effect would have been produced by simpler means. Cross-hatchings, properly introduced, undoubtedly improve a subject ; and some parts of large figures, such as the leg of Dentatus, cannot be weU expressed without their aid, as a series of curved Unes on a limb, when not crossed, generally cause ft to appear stiff and rigid. By crossing them, however, by other lines property laid in, the part assumes a most soft and natural appearance. 602 THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. As the greatest advantage which wood engraving possesses over copper is the effective manner in which strongly contrasted Ught and shade can be represented, Eembrandt's etchings, — which, Uke his paintings, are distinguished by the skilful management of the chiaro scuro—form exceUent studies for the engraver or designer on wood who should wish to become well acquainted Arith the capabihties of the art. A deUcate wood-cut, executed in imitation of a smooth steehengraving of "sober grey" tone, is sure to be tame and insipid; and whenever wood engravers attempt to give to their cuts the appearance of copper or steel-plates, and neglect the peculiar advantages of their own art, they are sure to faU, notwithstanding the pains they may bestow. Their work, instead of being commended as a successful appUcation of the peculiar means of the art, is in effect condemned by being regarded as " a clever imitation of a copper-plate." The above cut of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, copied from an etching by Eembrandt, wiU perhaps more forcibly illustrate what has been said with respect to wood engraAdng being excellently adapted to effectively express strong contrasts of hght and shade. The original etching— which has been faithfully copied — is a good example of THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 603 Eembrandt's consummate skUl in the management of chiaro-scuro ; everything that he has wished to forcibly express immediately arrests the eye, whUe in the whole design nothing appears abrupt The extremes of light and shade concentre in the principal figure, that of Christ, and to this everything else in the composition is either sub ordinate or accessory. The middle tint under the arched passage forms a medium between the darkness of Christ's robe and the shade under the curve of the nearest arch, and the Ught in the front of his figure is gradually carried off to the left through the medium of the woman and the distant buildings, which graduaUy approach to the colour of the paper. Were a tint, however delicate, introduced in this subject to represent the sky, the effect would be destroyed ; the parts which are now so effective would appear spotted and confused, and have a crude, unfinished appearance. By the injudicious introduction of a tinted sky many wood-cuts, which would otherwise be striking and effective, are qiute spoUed. It but too frequently happens when works are illustrated with wood cuts, that subjects are chosen which the art cannot successfuUy represent Whether the work to be iUustrated be matter of fact or fiction, the designer, unless he be acquainted both with the capabUities and defects of the art, seldom thinks of more than making a drawing according to his own fancy, and never takes into consideration the means by which it has to be executed. To this inattention may be traced many faUures in works Ulustrated Avith wood-cuts, and for which the engraver is censured, although he may have, vrith great care and skill, accompUshed aU that the art could effect. An artist who is desirous that his designs, when engraved on wood, should appear like impressions from over-done steel- plates, ought never to be employed to make drawings for wood engravers : he does not understand the peculiar advantages of the art, and his designs wiU only have a tendency to bring it into contempt, whUe those who execute them wiU be blamed for the defects which are the result of his want of knowledge. Delicate wood engravings which are made to look weU in a proof on India paper by rubbing the ink partially off the block in the lighter parts — in the manner described by PapUlon at page 466 — generaUy present a very different appearance when printed, either Arith or Arithout types in the same page. Lines which are cut too thin are very liable to turn down in printing from their want of support; and hence cuts consisting chiefly of such lines are seldom so durable as those which display more black, and are executed in a more bold and effective style. A designer who understands the pecuUarities of wood engraving wUl avoid introducing delicate Unes in parts where they receive no support from others of greater strength or closeness near to them,, but are exposed 004 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. to the unmitigated force of the press. Cuts in proportion to the quantity of colour which they display are so much the better enabled to bear the action of the press ; the deUcate lines which they contain, from their receiving support from the others, are not only less Uable to break down, but, from their contrast with the darker parts of the subject, appear to greater advantage than in a cut which is of a unftormly grey tone. I am not, however, the advocate of black, and httle else, in a wood-cut ; on the contrary, I am perfectly aware of the absurdity of introducing patches of black without either meaning or effect. What I wish to inculcate is, that a wood-cut to have a good effect must contain more of properly contrasted black and white than those who Avish their cuts to appear like imitations of steel or copper-plate engraAdngs are AviUing to aUow. As wood engraving is not weU adapted to represent subjects requfting great deUcacy of lines and variety of tints, such wUl be generaUy avoided by a designer who understands the art ; whUe, on the contrary, he wiU avaU himself of its advantages in representing weU contrasted Ught and shade in a manner superior to either copper-plate or steel engraving. Of aU modern engravers on wood, none understood the advantages of their art in this respect better than Bewick and ClenneU : the cuts of their engraving are generally the most effective that have ever been executed. Night-pieces, where the light is seen proceeding fi-om a lantern, a lamp, or any other luminous object, can be weU represented by means of wood engraving, although such subjects are very seldom attempted. An engraved wood-block, which contains a considerable pro-portion of positive black, prints much better than a copper-plate engraving of the same kind ; in the former the ink is distributed of an even thickness over the surface, and is evenly pressed upon the paper ; in the latter the ink forms a little pool in the hollowed parts, and, instead of being evenly taken up by the paper which is pressed into it, adheres only partiaUy, thus giving in the corresponding parts a blurred appearance to the impression. For the effective representation of such scenes as Meg Merrilies watching by a feeble hght the dying struggles of a smuggler, or Dirk Hatterick in the Cave, from Sir Walter Scott's Guy IMannering, wood engraving is peculiarly adapted, — that is, supposing the designer, in addition to possessing a knowledge of chiaro-scuro, to be also capable of draAving correctly, and of treating the subject with proper feeling. Some idea of the capabUity of the art in this respect may be formed from the following cut — the Flight into Egypt, — copied from an etching by Eembrandt. The mere work in this cut is of a very simple character ; there are no lines of difficult execution ; and the only parts that are lowered are those which represent the rays of light seen proceeding from the lantern. THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 005 As the wood engraver can ahvays get his subject lighter, but cannot reproduce the black which he has cut away, he ought to be careful not to get his subject too light before he has taken a proof; and even in reducing the colour according to the touchings of the designer on the proof, he ought to proceed with great circumspection ; and where his own judgment informs him that to take out all the black marked for excision would be to spoil the cut, the safest mode would be to take out only a part, and not remove aU at once ; for by strictly adhering to the directions of an artist who knows veiy Uttle of the teal advantages of wood engraving, it wUl not unfrequently happen that the cut so amended wUl to himself, when printed, appear worse than it did in its first state. In the following cut too much has been done in this respect ; it has been touched and retouched so often, in order to make it appear deUcate, that the spirit of the original drawing has been entirely lost. In this instance the fault Avas not that of the artist, but of the engraver, who " Avduld not let Avell alone ;" but, in order to improve his work, as he 606 THE PEACTICE OF AVOOD ENGEAVING. fancied, kept trimming the parts which gave effect to the whole tiU he made it what it now appears. So far as relates to the execution of the lines, the subject need not have been better ; but, from the engraver's having taken away too much colour in places where it Avas necessary, the whole has the appearance of middle tint, the exceUence of the origftial drawing is lost, and in its stead we have a dull, misty, spiritless wood engraving. In every cut there ought to be a principal object to first arrest the attention ; and ft this cannot be effected from Avaut of interest in such object considered singly, the designer ought to malce the general subject THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 607 pleasing to the eye by skilful composition or combination of forms, and the effective distribution of light and shade. The preceding cut— a moonlight scene— when compared with the previous one, wUl shoAv how much depends on an engraver having a proper feeling for his subject. So far as relates to the mere execution of the lines, this cut is decidedly inferior to the former ; but, viewed as a production of art, and as a spirfted representation of the original drawing, ft is very much superior : in the former we see Uttie more than mechanical dexterity ; whUe in the latter we perceive that the engraver has, from a greater knowledge of his art, produced a pleasing effect by comparatively sftnple means. The former cut displays more mechanical skUl ; the latter more artistic feeling. The one contains much delicate work, but is deficient in spirft ; the other, which has been produced wfth littie more than half the labour, is more effective because the subject has been better understood. The foUowing cut representing a landscape, with the effect of the setting sun, displays great deUcacy of execution ; but the labour here is not thrown away, as in the sea-piece just mentioned: manual dexterfty in the use of the graver is combined with the knowledge of an artist, and the result is a wood engraving at once delicate in execution and spirited in its general effect. A volume might be filled with examples and comments on them, and I might, like Papillon, instruct the reader in the practice of 'che art, by informing him how many times the graver would have to enter the Avood in order to produce a certain number of lines in rehef ; but I have no inclination to do either the one or the other : my object is to make 608 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. a few observations on some of the most important and least understood points in the practice of wood engraving, and to illustrate them with examples, rather than to enter into minute details, which would be uninteresting to the general reader, and useless to the learner who has made any progress in the art. The person who wishes to acquire a knowledge of wood engraving, with the view of practising it pro- lessionaUy, must generally be guided by his own judgment and feehng ; for he who requires the aid of rules and examples in every possible case AvUl never attain excellence. A learner ought not to put much trust in what is said about the beautiful wood-cuts — or plates, as some critics caU them^which appear in modern pubhcations. He ought to examine for himself, and not pin his faith to ephemeral commendations, which are often the customary acknowledgment for a presentation copy of the work. It is not unusual to fiild very ordinary wood-cuts praised as displaying the very perfection of the art, while others of much greater merit are entirely overlooked. The person who wishes to excel as a wood engraver,^that is, to display in his cuts the knowledge and feehng of an artist as weU as the mechanical dexterity of a workman, — ought always to bear in mind that those who rank highest in modern times, not only as engraA-ers, but also as designers on wood, have generaUy adopted the simplest means of effecting their purpose, and have never introduced unmeaning cross-hafchings, when working from theft own draArings, merely to display th^it skiU in execution. In representing a peasant supping his , porridge, they have not spent a day on the figure, and two in delicately engraving the bowl. It may almost be said that Bewick never employed cross-hatclungs ; for, in the two or three instances in which he introduced such hnes, it has been rather for the sake of experiment than to improve the appearance of the cut Though one of the finest specimens of this kind of work ever executed on wood is to be found in Mr. Harvey's cut of Dentatus, yet, on other occasions, when he engraved his own designs, he seldom introduced cross-hatchings when he could accomphsh the same object by simpler means. A wood engraving, viewed as a work of art, is not good in proportion as many of its parts have the appearance of fine lace. Bewick's birds and taU- pieces are not, in my opinion, less exceUent because they do not display so much work as a modern wood-cut which contains numerous cross- hatchings. Several of the best French designers on wood of the present day appear to have formed erroneous opinions on this subject ; and hence we find in many of their designs much of the engraA-er's time spent in the execution of parts Avhich are unimportant, A\diUe others, Avhere expression or feeling ought to be shown, are treated in a careless manner. Many of their designs seem to hme been made rather to test the patience THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 609 of the engraver as a workman than to display his abUity as an artist. The foUowing cut, from a cast of a part of the Death of Dentatus, is introduced to show in how simple and effective a manner Mr. Harvey has represented the shield of the hero. An inferior artist would be very likely to represent such an object by means of complicated lines, which, while they would be less effective, Avould require nearly a Aveek to engrave. Considering the number of wood engravings that are yearly executed in this country, it is rather surprising that there should hitherto liaA^e been so few persons capable of making a good drawing on Avood. Till within E E 610 THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. the last few years, it might be said that there was probably not more than one artist in the kingdom possessing a knowledge of design who professionally devoted himseft to making drawings on the block for wood engravers. Whenever a good original design is wanted, there are stUl but few persons to whom the English wood engraver can apply Avith the certainty of obtaining it ; for though some of our most distinguished painters have occasionally furnished designs to be engraved on wood, it has mostly been as a matter of especial favour to an individual who had an interest in the work in Avliich such designs were to appear. In this respect Ave are behind our French neighbours; the more common kind of French Avood-cuts containing figures are much superior to our OAvn of the same class ; the drawing is much more correct, more attention is paid to costume, and in the details Ave perceive the indications of much greater knoAvledge of art than is generaUy to be found in the productions of our second-rate occasional designers on wood. It cannot be said that this deficiency results from Avant of encouragement ; for a designer on Avood, of even moderate abUities, is better paid for his draAvings than a second-rate painter is for his pictures. The truth is, that a taste for correct drawing has hitherto not been sufficiently ciUti- A'ated in England : our artists are painters before they can draw ; and hence, comparatively foAV can make a good design on wood. Tliey require the aid of positive colours to deceive the eye, and prcA-ent it from resting upon the defects of their draAving. It is therefore of great importance that a Avood engraver should liaA'e some knowledge of draAving himself, in order that he may be able to correct many of the defects that are to be found in the commoner kind of subjects sent to him to be engi'aAred. In the execution of subjects Avhicli require considerable time, but little more than the exercise of mechanical skill, it is frequently advis able to adopt the principle of the dirision of labour, and have the Avork performed, ns it Avere, by instalments, allotting to each person tliat portion of the subject Avhich he is likely to execute best In this manner the annexed cut of Eouen Cathedral has been engraA'ed by four different persons ; and the result "of their joint labours is such a Avork as not even the best ungraA'cr of the four could lia\-e executed by himself. Each having to do but a little, and that of the kind of Avoik in A\liicli he excelled, has Avorked con amore, and finished his task before he became Aveary of it Though copper-plate engraving has a great ailvantage over Avood wlmn applied to the excciftiou of maps, in consequence of the greater delicacy that can be given to the difl'erent shades and lines, indicating hills, rivers, and the boundaries of districts, and also from the number of uaiiu'S that can be introduced, and from the comparative facility of THE PEACTICE OF AVOOD ENGEAVING. 611 executing them ; yet, as maps engraved on copper, however simple they may be, require to be printed separately, by means of a roUing-press P.017Ti:N CATIjEDUAL the unavoidable expense frequently renders it impossible to give such maps, even when necessary, in books published at a Ioav price. Under ee2 612 THE PEACTICE OF AYOOD ENGEAVING. such circumstances, where Uttle more than outUnes, with the course of rivers, and comparatively few names, are required, wood engraving possesses an advantage over copper, as such maps can be executed at a very moderate expense, and printed with the letter-press of the work for which they are intended. As the names in maps engraved on wood are the most difficult parts of the subject, the method of drifting holes in the block and inserting the names in type — as was adopted in the maps to Sebastian Munster's Cosmography, Basle, 1550,*— has recentiy been revived. The names in the outline maps contained in the Penny Oyclopffldia are inserted in this manner. Had those maps not been enn-raved on wood, it Avould have been impossible that any could have been given in the work, as the low price at which it is pubUshed would * Some account of the maps in Sebastian Munster's Oosmogi-aphy is previously given at page 204, and page 417. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 613 not have aUowed of their being engraved on copper, and, consequently, printed by means of a roUing-press at an additional expense. When, however, a map is of small dimensions, and several names vin letters of comparatively large size are required to be given, this method of piercing the block can scarcely be applied without great risk of its breaking to pieces under the press, in consequence of its being weakened in parts by the holes drUled through it being so near together.* This inconvenience, however, may be remedied by engraving the names in intaglio where they are most numerous, and afterwards cutting a tint over them, so that when printed they may appear white on a dark ground. Other names beyond the boundary of the map can be inserted, where necessary, in type. The preceding skeleton map of England and Wales, showing the divisions of the counties and the course of the principal rivers, has been executed in this manner : aU the names on the land, and the courses of the rivers, were first engraved on the smooth surface of the block in intaglio — in less than a third of the time Avhich would have been required to engrave them in reUef ; the tint was next cut; and lastly, the block was pierced, and aU the other names inserted in type, with the exception of the word " ENGLAND " in the title, which was engraved in the same manner as the names on the land. As what has been previously said about the practice of the art relates entirely to engraving where the lines are of the same height, or in the same plane, and when the impression is supposed to be obtained by the pressure of a flat surface, I shaft now proceed to explain the practice of lowering, by which operation the surface of the block is either scraped away from the centre towards the sides, or, as may be requfted, hoUowed out in other places. The object of thus lowering a block is, that the Unes in such places may be less exposed to pressure in printing, and thus appear lighter than ft they were of the same height as the others. This method, though it has been claimed as a modern invention, is of considerable antiquity, having been practised in 1538, as has been previously observed at page 462. Instances of lowering are very frequent in cuts engraved by Bewick ; but untU within the last five or six years the practice was not resorted to by south-country engravers. It is absolutely necessary that wood-cuts in tended to be printed by a steam-press should be lowered in such parts as are to appear Ught ; for, as the pressure on the cut proceeds from the even surface of a metal cylinder covered with a blanket, there is no means of helping a cut, as is generaUy done when printed by a hand- press, by means of overlays. Overlaying consists in pasting pieces of * When there is any danger of the block sphtting from this cause, it is best to have a cast taken from it, as by this means the whole is obtained of one solid piece. 614 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. paper either on the front or at the back of the outer tympan, immedi ately over such parts of the block as require to be printed dark ; and the effect of this is to increase the action of the platten on those parts, ¦and to diminish it on such as are not o\'erlaid. AMien lowered blocks arc printed at a coinniDn jjivss, it is iipcessary that a blanket .should be used iu the tympans, in order that the paper may bo pressed into the hollowed or lowered parts, and the lines thus brought up. The application of the steam-press t(i printing lowered wood-cuts may be s£r^^:^^-^ considered as an epoch in the history of Avood eiigra\ iiig. ^Vood-Guts were first printed by a sfvam-iinss at ]\lessis. Clowes and Sous' esta bhshment, ¦"' and since that time hnccriun has been more generallv practised than at any former period. * Tho first work coiitahiing lowoiod fu(s printed by a sti.-aiii-iire<< «as that on Cattle, published in numbers, under tho suiicriiitciulciicc, of the Society for the IMIl'usiou of Useful Knowledge, 18.')-. THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGRAVING. 615 By means of simply lowering the edges of a block, so that the surface shaft be convex instead of plane, the lines are made to diminish in strength as they recede from the centre until they become gradually blended Avith the Avhite paper on Avhich the cut is printed. This is the most simple mode of lowering, and is now frequently adopted in such cuts as are termed vignettes, — that is, such as are not bounded by definite lines surrounding them in the manner of a border. In the preceding cut, representing a group from Sir David Wilkie's painting of the Village Festival, in the National GaUery, the light appearance of the lines towards the edges has been produced in this manner. Mr. Landseer, in his Lectures on Engraving, observes that hard edges are incident to wood-cut vignettes. He was not aware of the means by Avhich this objectionable appearance could be remedied. The following are his observations on this subject : '' A principal beauty in most vignettes consists in the delicacy Avith Avhich they appear to relieve from the white paper on which they are printed. The objects of Avhich vignettes consist, themseh'es forming the boundary of the composition, their extremities should for the most part be tenderly blended — be almost melted, as it were, into the paper, or ground. Noav, in printing with the letter-press, the pressure is rather the strongest at the ex tremities of the engraving, Avhere we Avish it to be weakest and it is so from the unavoidable swelling of the damp paper on Avliich the im pressions are AYorked, and the softness of the blankets .in the tympans of the press. Hence, hard, instead of soft edges, are incident to vignettes engraven on Avood, which all the care of the printer, with all the modern accuracy of his machine, can rarely avoid." Mr. Landseer's objection to vignettes engraved on wood applies only to such as are engraved on a plane surface, since by lowering the block towards the edges, lines gradually blending Avith the white paper can be obtained with the greatest facUity. For the representation of such subjects, — supposing that their principal beauty consists in "the delicacy Avith which they appear to relieve from the white paper," — Avood engraving is as weU adapted as engraving on copper or steel. Though it is certainly desirable that the lines in a vignette should gradually become blended Avith the colour of tiie paper, yet something more is required in an engraving of this kind, Avhether on Avood or on metal. Much depends on its form harmonizing Avith the composition of the subject : a beautiful drawing reduced to an irregular shape, and having the edges merely softened, Avill not ahvays constitute a good vignette. Of this we have but too many instances in modern copper-plate engravings, as well as wood-cuts. Of all modern artists J. M. W. Turner, E. A., and W. Harvey appear to excel in giving to theft vignettes a form suitable to the composition. 616 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. Perhaps it may not be out of place to say a few words here on the original meaning of the word vignette, which is now generaUy used to signfty either a wood-cut or a copper-plate engraving which is not inclosed by definite Unes forming a border. The word is French, and is synonymous with the Latin viticula, which means a little vine, or a vine shoot, such as is here represented. \ l-^ C^f APiTAL letters in ancient manuscripts were caUed by old writers viticulce, or vignettes, in consequence of their* being frequently ornamented with flourishes in the manner of vine branches or shoots. The letter C, forming the commencement of this paragraph, is an example of an old vignette ; it is copied from a manuscript apparently of the thirteenth century, formerly belonging to the monastery of Durham, but now in the British Museum. Subse quently the word was used to signify any large ornament at the top of a page ; in the seventeenth century all kinds of printer's ornaments, such as flowers, head and taU-pieces, were generaUy termed vignettes ; and more recently the word has been used to express all kinds of wood-cuts or copper-plate engravings which, like the group from the ViUage Festival, are not inclosed Avithin g\ a definite border. Eabelais uses the word to denote certain ornaments of goldsmith's work on the scabbard of a sword ir countryman Lydgate thus employs it in his Tro] )/ THE PEACTICE OP AYOOD ENGEAVING. 617 Mm S^SJj^ vI'Ik V^l.m^j^'K^A 618 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. ' Book to denote the,, sculptured foliage and tracery at the sides of a Avindow : " And if I sliould rehearsen by and by The corve knots, by craft and masonry, The fresh embowing with virges right as lines. And the housing full of backewines, The rich coining, the lusty battlements, Vinettes running in casements." The additional specimens of ornamental capitals on the preceding page are chiefly taken from Shaw's Alphabets, in Avhich avUI be found a great variety of capitals of all ages. Before introducing any examples of concave loAvering in the midcUe of a cut, it seems necessary to give first a famUiar illustration of the principle, in order that Avhat is subsequently said upon this subject may be the more readily understood. — The croAvn-piece of George IV., Avliich every reader can refer to, will afford the necessary iUustrations. As the head of the King on the obverse, and the figures of St. George, the horse, and the dragon, on the rcA'erse, are in relief, — that is, higher than the field, — it is evident, that if the coin Avere printed, each side separately, by means of pressure from an cA'cn surface, Avhether plane or cylindrical, covered with a yielding material, such as a blanket or AvooUen cloth, so as to press the paper against the field or loAver parts, the impressions Avould a.ppear as foUoAvs, — that is, Avith the parts in relief darkest, and the loAver proportionably lighter from theft being less exposed to pressure. I.MPIIESSIONS I'-llCM A SUKFACE WITU THE riGniES IX RELIEF. If casts be taken of each side of the same coin, the parts which in the origftial are raised, or in relief Avill then be concave, or in intaglio;'^ and if such casts be printed in the manner of Avood-cuts, the impressions Avill appear as in the opposite page, — that is, the field * The casti are preeiscly tlic s.imc as tlic dies from which the coin is struck. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 619 being noAv highest will appear positively black, AvhUe the figures now in intaglio, or lowered, as I should say Avhen speaking of a wood-cut, wUl appear lighter in proportion to the concavity of the different parts. "••m, IMPRESSIONS FBOM a SUKFACE WITH THE FIGURES LOWERED, OR IN INTAGLIO. Upon a knowledge of the principle here exemplified the practice of lowering in wood engraving entirely depends. When a block is properly lowered, there is no occasion for overlays ; and when cuts are to be printed at a steam-press, — Avhere such means to increase the pressure in some parts and diminish it in others cannot be employed without great loss of time, — it becomes absolutely necessary that the blocks should be lowered in the parts where it is intended that the lines should appear light. In order that a cut should be printed properly Avithqut overlays, either at a common press Avith a blanket in the tympans, or at a steam-press Avhere the cylinder is covered with AvooUen cloth, it is necessary that the parts intended to appear light should be lowered before the lines seen upon them are engraA-ed ; and the mode of proceeding in this case is as follows : — The designer being aAvare of the manner in Avhich the cut is to be printed, and understanding the practice of loAYcring, first makes the draAving on the block in little more than outline,'''' and Avashes in with flake-white the parts Avhicli it is necessary to lower. The block is then sent to the engraver, Avho, with an instrument resembling a sharp-edged burnisher,, or Avitli a flat tool or chisel, scrapes or pares aAvay the Avood in the parts indicated. When the lowering is completed, the designer finishes the draAving, and the cut is engraved. It is necessary to observe, that unless the person Avho makes the drawing on the block perfectly understand the principle of lowering, and the purposes for Avhich it is intended, he wiU never be able to design properly a subject intended to be printed by a steam- press. * If the drawing were finished, the lines on the parts intended to be light would necessarily be effaced in lowering the block in such parts. 620 THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. When an object is to be represented dark upon a Ught ground, or upon middle tint, the first operation in beginning to lower the block is to cut a delicate white outline round the dark object, and proceed with a flat tool or a scraper, as may be most convenient, to take a thin shaving or paring off those parts on which the background or middle tint is to be engraved. The extent to which the block must be lowered wiU depend on the degree of Ughtness intended to be given to such parts. In Bewick's time, "when the pressmen used leather baUs to ink the cuts and types, it was only necessary to take a very thin shaving off the block in order to produce the desired effect ; as such baUs, from the want of elasticity in the leather, which was comparatively hard and unyielding, Avould only touch Ughtly such parts as were below the level M*^iKB^ '^^--ii....--^^^ of the other Unes and the face of the types : had the block been lowered to any considerable depth, such parts would not have received any ink, and consequently would not have shown the lines engraved on them in the impression. In the present day, when composition roUers are used. it is necessary to lower the parts intended to appear Ught to a much greater depth than formerly;'* as such rollers, in consequence of theft greater elasticity, are pressed, in the process of inking, to a considerably greater depth between the Unes of a cut than the old leather balls. The preceding cut — a Shepherd's Dog, drawn by W. Harvey, — is printed from • In cuts printed by a steam-press it not unfrequently happens that lowering to the depth of the sixteenth part of an inch scarcely produces a perceptible difference in the strength of the impression. In cuts inked with leather balls, and printed at the common press, the lines in parts lowered to this depth would not be visible. THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 621 a block ui which both the fore-ground and distance are lowered to give greater effect to the anftnal. If such a cut, printed in the same page with types, as ft appears here, were inked with leather baUs, a con siderable portion of the lowered parts would not be visible. This cut iUustrates the principle of printing from a surface— sueh as that of a coin — in which the head or figure is in rehef In the next cut an Egret, from a drawing by W. Harvey, the figure of the bird appears white on a dark ground, — the reverse of the cut of the Shepherd's Dog, — and is an example of lowering the block in the middle in the manner of a die with the figures in intaglio, or a cast from a coin in which the head- or figures are in relief In a cut of this kind the general form of the principal object required to be light is first lowered out and the drawing of the figure being next completed upon the hollowed part, the engraver proceeds to cut the lines, beginning with the back-ground and finishing the principal object last In cutting the lines in the hollowed part, the engraver uses such a tool, slightly curving upwards towards the point, as has been previously described at page 579. In lowering the principal object in a cut of this kind, the greatest attention is necessary in order that the hollowed parts may be gTadually concave, and also of a sufficient depth. In performing this operation, the engraver is solely guided by his own judgment ; and unless he have some practical knoAVfledge of the extent to which composition balls and rollers will 622 THE PEACTICE OF AYOOD ENGEAVING. penetrate in such hoUoAved parts, it is almost impossible that he should execute his work in a proper manner ; — should he succeed, it wiU only be by chance, like a person shooting at a mark blindfolded. In such cases, though no special rules can be given, it is necessary to observe that the part lowered will, in proportion to its area, be exposed to receive nearly the same quantity of ink, and the same degree of pressure, as the lines on a level with the types. The depth to Avhich such parts require to be lowered will consequently depend on their extent ; and the degree of lightness intended to be given to the lines engraved on them. This, hoAvever, avUI be best illustrated by the annexed diagram. If, for instance, the part to be lowered extend from A to B, it will be necessary to hollow the block to the depth indicated by the dotted line a c b. Should it extend from A to D, it avUI require to be lowered to the depth of the dotted line A e d in order to obtain the same degree of lightness in colour as in the loAvered part ace of less area, — that is, supposing the engraved lines in both cases to be of equal delicacy. As overlaying such delicately engraved cuts as require the greatest attention in printing occupies much time, and lays the press idle during the process, the additional sum charged per sheet for Avorks containing a number of such cuts has frequently operated to the disadvantage of .--ff>*£;Sr— " ;^-«i=- wood ehgraving, by causing its productions to be dispensed Avith fti many books Avhere they might have been introduced Avith great advantage, both as direct and incidental illustrations. It is, therefore, of great THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. 623 importance to adapt the art of Avood engraving to the execution of cuts of aU kftids, whether comparatively coarse or of the greatest dehcacy, so that they may be property printed at the least possible expense. The preceding cut, with the two following, which have all been lowered, ayouM, if printed at a steam-press, appear nearly as well as they do in the present work, where they have been printed by means of a common press wfth a blanket. But such a subject — a Avinter- piece, with an ass and her foal standing near an old outhouse,— cannot be properly represented without lowering the block ; for no overlaying would cause the lines indicating the thatch on the houses and the stacks as seen through the snow, to appear so soft as they noAV do. A # In this cut of a Salmon Trout, Avith a view of By well Lock, on the river Tyne, both the fore-ground and the distance are loAvered ; the objects Avhich appear comparatively dark in those parts are the least reduced, AvhUe those that appear lightest are such as are loAvered to the greatest extent The back of the fish, which appears dark in the impression, is in the block like a ridge, which is gradually lowered in a hollow curve towards the lower line. In such a cut as this, particular care ought to be taken not to loAver too much those parts Avhich come into immediate contact Avith a strong black outline, such as the back of the Salmon ; for where the loAvering in such parts is too abrupt, there is great risk of the lines engraved on them not being brought up, and thus causing the figure in relief to appear surrounded Avith a white hne, as in the impressions from the croAvn-piece at page 018. By means of loAvering, the black pony, on Avhich a boy is seen riding, in the following cut, is much more effectively represented, than if the 624 THE PEACTICE OP WOOD ENGEAVING. whole subject were engraved on a plane surface. The grey horse, and the light jacket of the rider, the ground, the garden waU, and the lightest of the trees, are all lowered in order to give greater effect to the pony. A cut which is properly lowered may not only be printed by a steam - press without overlays, but will also afford a much greater number of "t?^^i^^./^ good impressions than ohe of the same kind engraA-ed on a plane surface ; for the more delicate parts, being lower than those adjacent to them, are tlius saved from too much pressure, without the necessity of increasing it in other places. The preceding cut avUI serve to show THE PEACTICE OF WOOD ENGEAVING. 625 the advantages of lowering in this respect. It was originaUy engraved, from a drawing by WUUam Harvey, for the Treatise on Cattle, published under the direction of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know ledge. Though twelve thousand impressions have already been printed from it by means of Messrs. Clowes and Sons' steam-press, it has not sustained the slightest injury in any part ; and the present impression is scarcely inferior to the first proof. With the exception of clearing out the ink in two or three places, it has required no preparation or retouching to give it its present appearance. Had such a work as the Treatise on Cattle been printed at a common press without the blocks having been lowered, the cost of printing would have been at least double the sum charged by Messrs. Clowes ; and the engraving, after so great a number of impressions had been taken, would have been considerably injured, if not quite spoUed. In compUcated subjects, consisting of many figures, and in which the light and shade are much diversified, it becomes necessary to combine the two principles of lowering, which have been separately iUustrated by the Dog and the Egret, and to adapt them according to circumstances, forming some parts convex, and making others concave, respectively, as the objects engraved on them are to appear dark or light. In order to Ulustrate this process of combined lowering, I have chosen a subject from Eembrandt — the Descent from the Cross — in which several figures are introduced, and in which the Ughts and shades are so much varied — in some parts blended by a deUcate middle tint, and in others strongly contrasted — as to afford the greatest possible scope for the Ulustration of what is termed lowering in a wood engraAdng. The cut on the next page shows the appearance of an impression taken from the block before a single line had been engraved, except the white outline bounding the figures. All that is here seen has been effected by the flat tool and the scraper ; the lightest parts are those that are most concave, the darkest those that are most convex. The parts which have the appearance of a middle tint are such as are reduced to a medium between the strongest Ught and the darkest shade. The impression in its present state has very much the appearance of an unfinished mezzotint In order to render this example of complicated lowering more' intelligible to those who have little knowledge of the subject, it seems necessary to give a detaUed account of the process, even at the risk of repeating some previous explanations. In complicated as weU as in simple subjects intended to be lowered, the design is first drawn in outUne on the wood. In such a subject as that which is here given, the Descent from the Cross, it is necessary to cut a deUcate white outUne —such as is seen in the ladder — round aU those parts where the tme s s 626 THE PEACTICE OF AVOOD ENGEAVING. outline appears dark against light, previous to lowering out those light -parts which come into immediate contact Avith such as are dark. When a white outline has been cut Avhere required, a thin shaving is to be taken off ^hose parts which are intended to be a shade Ughter than the middle tint?, — for instance, in the rays of light falling upon the cross, and in the loAver part of the sky. After this, the light parts of the ground and the figures are to be lowered ; but, instead of taking a mere shaving off the latter, the depth to which they are to be hollowed out wUl depend on the form and size of tiie parts, and the strength of tiie light intended to appear on them; and Avhei-e a .series of delicate lines art! to run into pure ichife, great care must be taken that the AYOod be sufficiently bevelled or rounded off to all