C!r,mJfri?ai^rirbon.

-"k

24 HENRY SOTHERAN
458 JACKSON and Chatto's Treatise on
Wood BngkavinOi Historical and Practical ;
FIRST EDITION, itiith joo beautiful woodcuts, in
cluding' facsimiles from the -works of Albert Durer,
Bewick, &'c., with ths scarce plate at p. 712, large
thick royal 8vo. half morocco, top edge gilt, A nice
COPY, SCARCE, £i 3s 1839

ACKSON AND CHATTO'S
TREATISE ON WOOD EN
GRAVING. T^iicK roy. 8°, hf.
 mor., g. t. Lend., Chas.
Knight, 1839. "With upwards of SOOjJ-^
lustrations on wood. Scarce. \^
" Mrst Edition, with the scarce plate of Oving-
hani Parsonage, afterward canceled."

A TREATISE

WOOD ENGRAVING,

HISTORICAL AND PRACTICAL.

WITH UPWARDS OF THREE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS,
ENGRAVED ON WOOD,
BY, JOHN JACKSON,

LONDON:
CHARLES KNIGHT AND CO. LUDGATE STREET.
1839.

^3i C

LONDON :
PKINTBD BY SAMUHL BENTLKY,
liangoi' Uuuse, Shoe Lane,

PREFACE.

I FEEL it my duty to submit to the public a few remarks, intro
ductory to the Preface, which bears the signature of Mr. Chatto.
As my attention has been more readily directed to matters con
nected 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 better 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 consequence of their know
ing nothing of the practice. The farther I prosecuted the inquiry,
the more interesting it became ; every additional piece of infor
mation stfengthening my first opinion, that, "if the practice, as
a2

IV PREFACE.
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 deter
mined upon engraving at my leisure hours a fac-simile of any
thing 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 I stopped to consider
whether the information I had gleaned could not be applied to
some specific purpose. 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 natu
rally 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.
London, 15th December 1838. ^^^^ JACKSON,

PREFACE.

Though several English authors have, in modern times, written
on the origin and early history of wood engraving, yet no ohe
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 confidently he may have expressed his opinion on
the subject, appears to have thought it necessary to make him
self 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 from 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
conjectures might, in many instances, have been spared ; and
had they, in matters requiring research, taken the pains to ex
amine and judge for themselves, instead of adopting the opinions
of others, they would have discovered that a considerable por
tion 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
pf 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 be
ginning of the fifteenth century, was not so much an original

vi PREFACE.
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 exemphfied in the earhest 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
moveable types, and that in the other — supposed by Meerman
to be the earhest, and to afibrd 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 moveable types.
Foumier 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 moveable types, was un
questionably suggested by the earhest 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 the cuts of arms from the History of the
Virgin, given at pages 96 and 97, were engraved before the
writer had seen Koning's work on the Invention of Printino-

PREFACE. VU
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 famihes, both of Germany and the
Netherlands. The fourth chapter contains an account of wood engraving in
connexion with the press, from the establishment of typography to
the latter end of the fifteenth century. The fifth chapter compre
hends 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 dechne. In the seventh chapter the history of the
art is brought down from the commencement of the eighteenth
century 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 prac
tice of wood engraving has hitherto been published in England,
it is presumed that the information afforded by this part of the
Work will 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 un
questionably due to him.
W. A. CHATTO.
London, 5th December 1838.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONsS.

CHAPTER I.

ANTIQUITY OF ENGEAVruG, 1 — 51.

Initial letter A, — an ancient Greek scriving on a tablet of wood, drawn 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
Monogram of Theodoric, king ofthe Ostrogoths
Monogram of Charlemagne
Gothic marks and monograms
Characters on Gothic coins
Mark of an Italian notary, 1236 .
Marks of German notaries, 1345 — 1521 .
English Merchants'-marks ofthe fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
Tail-piece, illustrative of the antiquity of engraving, — Babylonian brick,
Roman earthen-ware, Roman stamp, and a roll with the mark of the German
Emperor Otho in the corner ......

5 7
9
10 1216 ir
1920 2021
22

51

CHAPTER II.
PEOGKBSS OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 52 — 144.
Initial letter F, from an old book containing an alphabet of similar letters,
engraved on wood, formerly belonging to Sir George Beaumont . . 52
St. Christopher, with the date 1423, from a cut in the possession of Earl
Spencer ....,.,., 60
The Annunciation, from a cut probably of the same period, in the possession
of Earl Spencer ,..,,,. 64
St. Bridget, frora an old cut in the possession of Earl Spencer , . 66
Shields from the Apocalypse, or History of St. John, an old block-book . 82
St, John preaching to the infidels, and baptising Drusiana, from the same
book .,,,..,.. 83
The death of the Two Witnesses, and the miracles of Antichrist, from the
same book ....,.,.. 85

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Group frora the History of the Virgin, an old block-book
Copy of a page of the sarae book ....
Figures and a shield of arms, from the same book
Shields of arms, from the sarae book ....
Copy ofthe first page ofthe Poor Preachers' Bible, an old block-book
Heads frora the same book ......
Christ tempted, a fac-simile of one of the compartments in the first page of
the sarae book ......,,
Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden fruit, from the same book ,
Esau selling his birth-right, ditto , . . . ,
Heads, ditto ........
First cut in the Speculum Salvationis, which has generally, but erroneously,
been described as a block-book, as the text in the first edition is printed vrith
types .........
Fall of Lucifer, a fac-simile of one of the compartments of the preceding
The Creation of Eve, a fac-simile of the second compartment of the same
Paper-mark in the Alphabet of large letters composed of figures, formerly
belonging to Sir George Beaumont
Letter K, from the same book
Letter L, ditto
Letter Z, ditto
Flowered ornament, ditto
Cut frora the Ars Memorandi, an old block-book
Tail-piece, illustrative of the progress of wood engraving, — old blocks of
religious subjects, cards, graver, dauber, roller, used in taking impressions
by means of friction, brushes and pot of colour used in colouring old cuts
by means of a stencil .......

PAGE
. 89
90 94
96,97 107 109

110
112 113114

119
120 121132
135 136137138
141

144

CHAPTER III.
THE INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY, 145-

-200.

Initial letter B, from a manuscript life of St. Birinus, of the twelfth century, 145
Tail-piece,— portraits of Gutemberg, Faust, and Scheffer . . 200

CHAPTER IV.
WOOD ENGRAVING IN CONNECTION WITH THE PKESS, 201  278.
Initial letter C, from Faust and Scheffer's Psalter
Apes, from a book of Fables printed at Bamburg by Albert Pfister, 1461
Heads, frora an edition of the Poor Preachers' Bible, printed by Pfister
Christ and his Disciples, frora the same , . . .
Joseph making himself known to his Brethren, from the sarae
The Prodigal Son's return, from the sarae
The Creation of Animals, from Meditationes Joannis de Turre-cremata
printed at Rome, 1467 • ¦ , , .
A bomb-shell and a man shooting from a kind of hand-gun, from Valfurius
de Re Militari, printed at Verona, 1472
A man shooting from a cross-bow, from the same

201209216
217 217218
226
229 230

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xi
PAGE
The Knight, from Caxton's Book of Chess, about 1476 , , ,235
The Bishop's pawn, from the same , , , , , 236
Two figures— Music, from Caxton's Mirrour ofthe World, 1480 , 238
Frontispiece to Breydenbach's Travels, printed at Mentz, 1486 , . 252
Syrian Christians, from the same . . , , , 254
Old Woraan with a basket of eggs on her head, frora the Hortus Sanitatis,
printed at Mentz, 1491 .,,,,,, 256
Head of Paris, from the. book usually called the Nuremberg Chronicle,
printed at Nuremberg, 1493 .,.,-. 258
Creation of Eve, from the same ...... 262
The same subject from the Poor Preachers' Bible . . . 263
The difficult Labour of Alcmena, from an Italian translation of Ovid's
Metamorphoses, 1497 . , . . , , , 264
Mai's, Venus, and Mercury, from Poliphili Hypnerotomachia, printed at
Venice, 1499 ,....,,. 269
Cupid brought by Mercury before Jove, frora the same , , . 269
Cupid and his Victims, from the sarae , , , . . 270
Bacchus, from the same ,,,,,.. 271
Cupid, from the same ,,.,,,, -271
A Vase, from the same ,,.,.,, 272
Cat and Mouse, from a supposed old wood-cut printed in Derschau's
Collection, 1808 — 1816 ,,..,., 275
Man in armour on horseback, from a wood-cut, forraerly used by Mr,
George Angus of Newcastle . . . . . ,277
Tail-piece — the press of Jodocus Badius Ascensianus, from the title-page
of a book printed by him about 1498 , . , . . 278
CHAPTER V,
WOOD ENGRAVING IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER, 279 — 388,
Intial letter M, from an edition of Ovid's Tristia, printed at Venice by J,
de Cireto, 1499 , . . . , ... 279
Peasants dancing and 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 ...,,,,,. 282
The woman clothed with the sun, from Albert Durer's illustrations of the
Apocalypse, 1498 ,.,,,,,. 291
The Virgin and Infant Christ, frora Albert Durer's illustrations of the
History ofthe Virgin, 1511 . . . , . ,295
The Birth of the Virgin, from the same work . , . , 296
St, Joseph at work as a carpenter, with the Virgin rocking the Infant
Christ in a cradle, frora the same .,,,., 298
Christ mocked, from Durer's illustrations of Christ's Passion, about 1511 299
The Last Supper, from the same , , , . , , 300
Christ bearing his Cross, from the same , , , , . 301
The Descent to Hades, from the same , , . . , 302
Caricature, probably of Luther . , , , . 324

Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, PACE
Albert Durer's Coat-of-arms .... ¦ 328
His portrait, frora a cut drawn by himself, 1527, the year preceding that of
his death  -329
Holy Family, from a cut designed by Lucas Cranach , . . 335
Samson and Delilah, from a cut designed by Hans Burgmair . . 337
Aristotle and his wife, from a cut designed by Hans Burgmair . . 338
Sir Theurdank killing a bear, from the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, 1517 343
The punishment of Sir Theurdank's enemies, from tjfe same work . 344
A figure on horseback from the Triumphs of Maximilian . . . 356
Another, frora the same work ...... 357
Ditto, ditto . . . . . .358
Ditto, ditto . . . . . .359
Ditto, ditto . . ..... 360
Ditto, ditto . . . , . . .361
Three knights with banners, frora the same work . . 363
Elephant and ludians, from the same . . . 364
Camp followers, probably designed by Albert Durer, from the same . 365
Horses and Car, from the same ...... 367
Jael and Sisera, from a cut designed by Lucas van Leyden , , 372
Cut printed at Antwerp by Willem de Figuersnider, probably copied from
a cut designed by Urse Graff . . . . . ,377
Three sraall cuts frora Sigismund Fanti's Triompho di Fortuna, printed at
Venice, 1527 , . . . . . . ,380
Fortuna di Africo, an emblem ofthe South wind, from the same work 381
Michael Angelo at work on a piece of sculpture, from the same , . 382
Head of Nero, from a work on Medals, printed at Strasbui^, 1525 385
Tail-piece, — a full-length of Maximilian I. Emperor of Germany, from his
Triumphs ......... 388
CHAPTER VI.
FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 389 — 528.
Initial letter T, from a book printed at Paris by Robert Stephens, 1537 389
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 . . 408
The Old Man, from the same work .... 4io
The Duchess, from the same . . .411
The Child, from the same . . .412
The Waggoner, frora the sarae . . . . .413
Child with a shield and dart, from the same . . 414
Children with the emblems of a triumph, from the same . . 4^5
Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, from a cut designed by Holbein in his
Bible-prints, Lyons, 1539 ....... 441
The Fool, from the same work ...... 442
Portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt, frora a cut designed by Holbein in Leland's
Nffiniae, 1542 ....... .454
Prayer, frora a cut designed by Holbein in Archbishop Cranmer's Cate
chism, 1548 ..¦•¦-,. 455

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XlU
PAGE
Christ casting out Devils, frora another cut by Holbein, in the sarae work 456
The Creation, from the same work ..... 457
. The Crucifixion, from the same .....; 457
Christ's Agony, from the same ...,., 457
Genealogical Tree, from an edition of the New Testament, printed at
Zurich by Froschover, 1554 ...... 458
St. Luke, from Tindale's Translation of the New Testament, 1534 . 459
St. James, from the same ....... 459
Death on the Pale Horse, from the same ..... 459
Cain killing Abel, from Coverdale's Translation of the Old and New
Testament, 1535 ........ 462
Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac from the sarae .... 462
The Two Spies, from the same ...... 463
St. Matthew, frora the same ...... 464
St. John the Baptist, from the sarae ..... 464
St. Paul writing, from the same . . .... 464
Frontispiece to Mareolini's Sorti, Venice, 1540, by Joseph Porta Garfag-
ninus, after a Study by Raffaele for the School of Athens . . . 466
Punitione, from the same work ...... 468
Matrimony, and cards, from the same ..... 469
Truth saved by Time, frora the same ..... 470
The Labour of Alcmena, frora Dolce's Transforraationi, Venice, 1553 . 471
Monograra from Palatino's Treatise on Writing, Rome, 1561 . . 473
Hieroglyphic Sonnet, from the same work .... 473
Portraits of Petrarch and Laura, from Petrarch's Sonetti, Lyons, 1547 , 478
Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise, from Quadrins Historiques de la
Bible, Lyons, 1550—1560 , . , . . . ,479
Christ tempted by Satan, from Figures du Nouveau Testament, Lyons,
1553—1570 ........ 480
Briefmaler, from a book of Trades and Professions, Frankfort, 1564
—1574 .,,...,,, 489
Formschneider, from the same ,,,,.. 490
The Goose Tree, from Sebastian Munster's Cosmography, Basle, 1550
—1554 ......... 494
William Tell about to shoot at the apple on his son's head, from the same 497
Portrait of Dr. William Cuningham, from his Cosmographical Glass,
London, 1559 .'...-... 506
Four initial letters, frora the same work . . . 507, 508, 509
Large initial letter, from Fox's Acts and Monuments, 1576 . . 510
Initial letter frora a work printed by Giolito at Venice, about 1550 '. 511
Two Cats from an edition of Dante, printed at Venice, 1578 . 512, 513
Emblem of Water, from a chiaro-scuro by Henry Goltzius, about 1590 514
Caricature of the Laocoon, after a cut designed by Titian . . 517
The Good Householder, frora a cut printed at London, 1607 . . 518
Virgin and Christ, frora a cut designed by Rubens, and engraved by Chris
topher Jegher ........ 520
The Infant Christ and John the Baptist, from a cut designed by Rubens,
and engraved by Christopher Jegher . . . . .521

XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE
Jael and Sisera, from a cut designed by Henry Goltzius, and engraved by
C. Van Sichem  522
Tail-piece, from an old cut on the title-page of the first known edition of
Robin Hood's Garland, 1670 . . . . . .528
CHAPTER VII.
REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 529 — 634.
Initial letter A, from a French book, 1698 .... 529
Fox and Goat, from a copper-plate by S. Le Clerc, about 1694 . . 534
The same subject from Croxall's iEsop's Fables, 1722 . . . 534
The same subject from Bewick's Fables, 1818 — 1823 . . . 535
English wood-cut with the mark F. H., London, 1724 . . . 537
Adam naming the animals, copy of a cut by Papillon, 1734 . . 545
The Poet's Fall, from Two Odes in ridicule of Gray and Mason, London,
1760 ,,.,.,... 557
Initial letters, T. and B., coraposed by J. Jackson from tail-pieces in
Bewick's History of British Birds ,,,.,. 559
The house in which Bewick was born, drawn by J, Jackson , , 559
The Parsonage at Ovingham, drawn by George Balmer , , . 560
Fac-simile of a diagram engraved by Bewick in Button's Mensuration,
1768-1770  563
The Old Hound, a fac-simile of a cut by Bewick, 1775 , , . 564
Cuts copied by Bewick from Der Weiss Kunig, and illustrations of Ovid's
Metamorphoses by Virgil Solis •.,,.. 572

Boys and Ass, after Bewick
Old Man and Horse, ditto
Child and young Horse, ditto
Ewe and Lamb, ditto
Old Man and young Wife, ditto
Partridge, ditto
Woodcock, ditto .
The drunken Miller, ditto
The Snow Man, ditto
Old Man and Cat, ditto .

. 574
. 576
. 576
. 577
. 577
. 585
. 586
. 590
. 590
, . . 591
The World turned upside down, ditto • . . . 596
Cuts coraraemorative of the decease of Bewick's father and mother, from
his Fables, 1818—1823 •¦¦,,. 590
Bewick's Workshop, drawn by George Balmer ... * gQ,
Portrait of Bewick • • • , , ' roo
View of Bewick's Burial-place . . . . " „_„
Funeral, View of Ovingham Church, draven by J. Jackson . ' 604
The Sad Historian, from a cut by John Bewick, in Poems by Goldsmith
and Parnell, 1795 •,.,..
Fac-simile of a cut by John Bewick, from Blossoms of Morality ' 609
Copy of a cut engraved by C. Nesbit, from a drawing by R. Johnson " 61 1
View of a monument erected to the memory of R. Johnson, against the
south wall of Ovingham Church . .

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV
PAGE
Copy of a view of St. Nicholas Church, engraved by C. Nesbit, from a
drawing by R. Johnson . . . . . , ,613
Copy of the cut for the Diploma of the Highland Society, engraved by L.
Clennell, from a drawing by Benjamin West, P, R, A, . , , 618
Bird and Flowers, engraved by L. Clennell, when insane . , 621
Cut from the Children in the Wood, drawn by W, Harvey, and engraved by
J. Thorapson .,....., 626
Cut from the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, drawn by W. Harvey, and
engraved by C. Nesbit ..,,,., 627
Copy of a part of the Cave of Despair engraved by R, Branston, from a
drawing by J, Thurston .,.,... 629
Bird, engraved by R. Branston ...... 630
Three cuts intended for an edition of Select Fables, engraved by R,
Branston ..... ... 631
Copy of one of the plates of Hogarth's Rake's Progress, engraved by J.
Thompson ......,., 633
Tail-piece, — ^Traveller in the Snow, engraved by Thomas Bewick , 634
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 635—736,
Initial letter P, showing a wood engraver at work, with his lamp and globe,
drawn by R. W. Buss ,.,.,,. 635
Diagram, showing a block warped , . , , . 642
Cut showing the appearance of a plug-hole in the engraving, drawn by J,
Jackson .,,,,,.,, 646
Diagrams illustrative of the mode of repairing a block by plugging , 647
Cut showing a plug re-engraved ...... 648
Diagram showing the mode of pulling the string over the corner of the
block ......... 649
The shade for the eyes, and screen for the mouth and nose . . 651
Engraver's lamp, glass, globe, and sand-bag .... 652
Graver ......... 653

Diagram of gravers
Diagrams of tint-tools, &c.
Diagrams of gouges, chisels, &c.
Gravers

 654
. 655
. 656
. 657
Cuts showing the manner of holding the graver .... 658
Examples of tints , . , , 659,660,661,662,663
Examples of curved lines and tints .... 664, 665
Cuts illustrative of the mode of cutting a white outline . . 667, 668
Outline engraving previous to its being blocked out — the monument to the
memory of two children in Lichfield Cathedral by Sir F. Chantrey . , 669
The same subject finished ..,.., 670
Outline engraving, after a design by Flaxman for a snuff-box for George IV, 670
Cut after a pen-and-ink sketch by Sir David Wilkie for his picture of the
Rabbit on the Wall ,..,,.. 671
Figures from a sketch by George Morland . . , , 672

682

xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE
Group frora Sir David Wilkie's Rent Day . • ¦ .674
Figure of a boy from Hogarth's Noon, one of the engravings of his Four
Parts of the Day . . , • • • • • ^"^^
A Hog, after an etching by Rembrandt , . , ¦ • 676
Dray-horse, drawn by James Ward, R,A. . . , • 677
Jacob blessing the Children of Joseph, after Rembrandt . . .678
Two cuts — View of a Road-side Inn — showing the advantage of cutting
the tint before the other paits of a subject are engraved , , • 679
Head, frora an etching by Rerabrandt , , . . , 680
Impression from a cast of part of the Death of Dentatus, engraved by W.
Harvey ........
Christ and the Woman at the Well, from an etching by Rembrandt . 684
The Flight into Egypt, from an etching by Rembrandt . . . 687
Sea-piece, drawn by George Balmer ..... 688
Sea-piece, moonlight, drawn by George Balmer .... 689
Landscape, evening, drawn by George Balmer .... 690
Impression from a cast of paft of the Death of Dentatus, engraved by W,
Harvey ....... .692
View of Rouen Cathedral, drawn by William Prior . , 693
Map of England and Wales, with the part of the names engraved on wood,
and part inserted in type ....... 695
Group from Sir David Wilkie's Village Festival .... 697
Natural 'Vignette, and an old ornamelited capital from a manuscript of the
thirteenth century ........ 699
Impressions from a surface with the figures in relief, — subject, the Crown-
piece of George IV. ....... 700
Impressions from a surface with the figures in intaglio — same subject . 701
Shepherd's Dog, drawn by W. Harvey ..... 703
Egret, drawn by W. Harvey ...... 704
Winter-piece, with an ass and her foal, drawn by J. Jackson . . 705
Salmon-Trout, with a view of Bywell-Lock, drawn by J. Jackson . 706
Boy and Pony, drawn by J. Jackson ..... 707
Heifer, drawn by W. Harvey ...... 708
Descent frora the Cross, after an etching by Rembrandt, — impression when
the block is merely lowered previous to engraving the subject . . 709
Descent from the Cross, — impression from the finished cut . . 710
Parsonage at Ovingham, engraved in chiaro-scuro, and printed in oil-
colours, by George Baxter, after a drawing by Edward Swiuburne, Esq. . 713
, A CafS in Constantinople, and a Design for a Pattern, two of" Mr. Knight's
Patent Illuminated Prints" •,..,.. 715
Copies of an ancient bust in the British Museum,— No. 1 printed from a
wood-cut, and No. 2 from a cast • • , , , 703
Horse and Ass, drawn by J. Jackson, — improperly printed . j-i^
Same subject, properly printed .... -^g
Landscape, drawn by George Balmer,— improperly printed . ' 728
Same, subject, properly printed ¦ • , . . 700
Tail-piece, drawn by C. Jacques .... -op

ON

WOOD ENGRAVING.

CHAPTER L

ANTIQUITY OF ENGRAVING.

Engraving— the word explained.— The Art defined.— Distinction between En
graving on Copper and on Wood. — Early practice of the Art of impressing
characters by means of Stamps instanced in Babylonian Bricks; Fragments
of Egyptian and Etruscan Earthenware ; Roman Lamps, Tiles, and Amphorae.
—The Cauterium or Brand.— Principle of Stencilling known to the Romans.
.^Royal Signatures thus afiixed.— Practice of Stamping Monograms on Docu
ments in the Middle Ages.— Notarial Stamps.— Merchants'-Marks.— Coins, Seals,
and Sepulchral Brasses. — Examination of Mr. Ottley's Opinions concerning
the Origin of the Art of Wood Engraving in Europe, and its early practice by
two wonderful children, the Cunio.

of its
wordlarly

S few persons know, even amongst those
who profess to be admirers of the art
of Wood Engraving, by what means its
effects, as seen in books and single im
pressions, are produced, and as a yet
smaller number understand in what
manner it specificaUy differs in its pro
cedure from the art of engraving on
copper or steel, it appears necessary,
before entering into any historic detail
progress, to premise a few observations explanatory of the
Engkaving in its general acceptation, and more particu-
descriptive of that branch of the art which several persons

2 ANTIQUITY OF
affect to call 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 the French "enyraver." 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 embedded in sand or mud so
that she cannot float. The French synonym of the English verb
"to engrave," is "graver;" and its root is to be found in the
Greek ypoupco, (yrapho, I cut,) which, with its compound eiriypeufoo,
according to Martorelli, 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 ypoifoo
came to be used in the sense oi^ " 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 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 ypcK^w, which in its primitive meaning signified " to cut,"
became expressive of vmting generally.
From ypct^io is derived the Latin scTilo,\ "I -write;" and it is
worthy of observation, that « to scrive," — most probably from scriho,
—signifies, in our own language, to cut numerals or other charac
ters 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 cop
per-plate engraving, wood engraving, gem engravuig, and carving,
• C, G. Von Murr, in his Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theii, S 253 re-
fernng to Martorelli, De Regia Theca Calamaria.
t If this etymology be correct, the English Scnvener and French Greffier tntiy
be related by descent as well as professionally ; both words being Uius referable to
the sarae origin, the Greek yp,^,,^. The modern Writer in the ScoUish courts
of law performs the duties both of Scrivener aud Greffier, with whose name his
own is synonymous.

ENGRAVING. 3
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 lildhauer, from bild, a statue, and hauen, to hew, indicat
ing the operation of cutting with a mallet and chisel; the cop
per-plate engraver is called a hupfer-stecher, from kupfer, copper,
and stechen, to cut vnth the point; and the wood engraver is a
holzschneider, from holz, wood, and schneiden, to cut with the edge.
It is to be observed, that though both the copper-plate engraver
and 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 metalhc substances,
or on wood, expressed by hnes and points produced by means of
corrosion, incision, or excision, for the purpose of their being im
pressed on paper by means of ink or other colouring matter."
The impressions obtained from engraved plates of metal or
from Hocks of wood are commonly called engravings, and some
times prints. Formerly the word cuts* was applied indiscrimi
nately to impressions, either from metal or wood; but at present
it is more strictly confined to the productions of the wood en
graver. 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 num
ber of indifferent woodcuts, as " a work embellished with a profu-
• Towards the close of the seventeenth centui-y we find books " adorned with
Sculptures by a curious hand ;" about 1730 we find them " ornamented with .
cuts ;" at present they are " illustrated with engravings''
B 2

4 ANTIQUITY OF
sion of the most charming plates on wood ;" thus affording to every
one who is in the least acquainted with the art at once a speci
men of their taste and their knowledge.
¦ Independent of the difference of the material on which copper
plate engraving and wood engraving are executed, the grand dis
tinction between the two arts is, that the engraver on copper cor
rodes by means of aqua^fortis, or cuts out with the burin or dry-
point, the hnes, stipplings, and hatchings from wliich his im
pression is to be produced; whUe, 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
Lproduce the impression prominent.
In printing from a copper or steel plate, which is previously
warmed by being placed above a charcoal fire, the ink or colour
ing matter is rubbed into the hnes or incisions by means of a
kind of ball formed of woollen cloth ; and when the lines are thus
sufficiently charged with ink, the surface of the plate is first wiped
with a piece of rag, and is then further cleaned and smoothed by
the fleshy part of the palm of the hand, sUghtly touched with
whitening, being once or twice passed rather quickly and lightly
over it. The plate thus prepared is covered with the paper in
tended to receive the engraving, and is subjected to the action of
the rolUng or copper-plate printer's press; and the impression is
obtained by the paper being pressed into the inked incisions.
As the Unes of an engraved block of wood are prominent or
in relief, while those of a copper-plate are, as has been previously
explained, intagliaie or hollowed, the mode of taking an impression
from the former is, so far as relates to the process of inking^
precisely the reverse of that which has just been described. The
usual mode of taking impressions from an engraved block of wood
is by means of the printing-press, either from the block sepa
rately, or wedged up in a chase with types. The block is inked by
being beat with the pressman's balls or roller, in the same manner
as type; and the paper being turned over upon it from the tympan,
it is then run in under the platten ; which being acted on by the
lever, presses the paper on to the raised lines of tiie block, and
thus produces the impression. Impressions from wood ai-e thus
obtained by the on-pression of the paper against the raised or

ENGRAVING. 5
prominent Unes; while impressions from copper-plates are ob
tained by the iro-pression of the paper into hollowed ones. In
consequence of this difference in the process, the inked Unes im
pressed on paper from a copper-plate appear prominent when
viewed direct; while the Unes communicated from an engraved
wood-block are indented in the front of the impression, and ap
pear raised at the back.

The above impressions — the one from a wood-block, and the other
from an etched copper-plate — will perhaps render what has been
already said, explanatory of the difference between copper-plate
printing from hollowed Unes, and surface printing by means of the
common press from prominent lines, still more intelligible. The
subject is a representation of the copper-plate or roUing press.

G ANTIQUITY OF
Both the above impressions are produced in the same manner by
means of the common printing-press. The upper one is from wood ;
the lower, where the white lines are seen on a black ground, is from
copper; — the hoUowed Unes, which in copper-plate printing yield
the impression, receiving no ink from the printer's balls or roUers ;
while the surface, which in copper-plate printing is wiped clean
after the Unes are fiUed vrith ink, is perfectly covered vrith it
It is, therefore, evident, that if this etching were printed in the
same manner as other copper-plates, the impression would be a
iac-simile of the upper one from wood. It has been judged
necessary to be thus minute in explaining the difference between
copper-plate and wood engraring, as the difference in the mode
of obtaining impressions does not appear to have been previously
pointed out vrith sufficient precision.
As it does not come within the scope of the present work to
inquire into the origin of sculpture generaUy, I shaU not here
venture to give an opinion whether the art was invented by Adam
or his good angel Raziel, or whether it was introduced at a
subsequent period by Tubal-Cain, Noah, Trismegistus, Zoro
aster, or Moses. Those who feel interested in such remote
speculations vriU find a jumble of " authorities" 'ia the second
chapter of Evelyn's "Sculptura;" an author who can be safely re
ferred to on such points only ; for on almost every other branch
of his subject, which admits of any degree of certainty, he is but
a bUnd guide. Where aU indeed is dark, a bUnd man is as Ukely
to find his way as one who has the use of his eyes; but, after
all, mere antiquarian gropings where there is no Ught, though
they may be interesting to the seeker, who is apt to mistake a
worthless pebble for a rough diamond, are seldom interesting to
any one else.
Without, therefore, inquiring when or by whom the art of
engraring for the purpose of producing impressions was invented,
I shall endeavour to show that such an art, however rude, was
known at a very early period ; and that it continued to be practised
in Europe, though to a very Umited extent, from an age anterior
to the birth of Christ, to the year 1400. In the fifteenth century,
its principle appears to have been more generally appUed; — first,
to the simple cutting of figures on wood for the purpose of being

ENGRAVING.

impressed on paper; next, to cutting figures and explanatory text
on the same block, and then entire pages of text vrithout figures,
till the " ARS GRAPHICA ET IMPRESSORIA " attained its perfection in
the discovery of printing by means of movable fusile types.*
At a very early period stamps of wood, having hieroglyphic
characters engraved on them, were used in Egypt for the purpose
of producing impressions on bricks, and on other articles made
of clay. This fact, which might have been inferred from the an
cient bricks and fragments of earthenware containing characters
eridently communicated by means of a stamp, has been estabUshed
by the discovery of several of those wooden stamps, of undoubted
antiquity, in the tombs at Thebes, Meroe, and other places. The
foUowing cuts represent the face and the back of one of the most
perfect of those stamps, which was found in a tomb at Thebes,
and has recently been brought to this country by Edward William
Lane, Esq.f

The original' stamp is made of the same kind of wood as the
mummy chests, and has an arched handle at the back, cut out of
the same piece of wood as the face. It is of an oblong figure,
vrith the ends rounded off; five inches long, two inches and a
• Astle on the Origin and Progress of Writing, p, 215, 2nd edit,
+ Author. of "An Account of the Manners and Custoras of the Modern
Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, 34, and 35,"

8 ANTIQUITY OF
quarter broad, and half an inch thick. The hieroglyphic characters
on its face are rudely cut in intaglio, so that their unpression on
clay would be in rehef; and if printed in the same manner as the
preceding copy, would present the same appearance,— that is, the
characters which are cut into the wood, would appear white on a
black ground. The phonetic power of the hieroglyphics on the
face of the stamp may be represented respectively by the letters,
A, M, N, F, T, P, T H, M ; and the vowels being supphed, as m
reading Hebrew -vrithout points, we have the words, " Amonophtep,
Thmei-mai,"— " Amonoph, beloved of truth."* The name is sup
posed to be that of Amonoph or Amenoph the First, the second
king of the eighteenth dynasty, who, according to the best autho
rities, was contemporary with Moses, and reigned in Egypt pre
vious to the departure of the Israehtes. There are two ancient
Egyptian bricks in the British Museum on which the impression
of a similar stamp is quite distinct; and there are also several
articles of bumt clay, of an elongated conical figure, and about
nine inches long, which have their broader extremities impressed
with hieroglyphics in a similar manner. There is also in the same
collection a wooden stamp, of a larger size than that belonging to
Mr. Lane, but not in so perfect a condition. Several ancient
Etruscan terra-cottas and fragments of earthenware have been dis
covered, on which there are alphabetic characters, eridently im
pressed from a stamp, which was probably of wood. In the time
of Pliny terra-cottas thus impressed were caUed Typi.
In the British Museum are several bricks which have been found
on the site of ancient Babylon. They are larger than our bricks,
and somewhat different in form, being about twelve inches square
and three inches thick. They appear to have been made of a
kind of muddy clay with which portions of chopped straw have
been mixed to cause it to bind; and their general appearance and
colour, which is like that of a common brick before it is burnt,
plainly enough indicate that they have not been hardened by fire,
• On a mummy in the royal collection at Paris, the six first characters of this
stamp occur, ChampoUion reads ihem, "Amenoftep," or " Amonaflep," He
supposes the name to be that of Amonoph the First; and says that it signifies
"approuvd par Ammon.''— Precis du Systiime Hidroglyphique, Planches et
Explication, p. 20, No. 161.

ENGRAVING. 9,
but by exposure to the sun. About the middle of their broadest
surface, they are impressed with certain characters which evidently
appear to have been indented when the brick was in a soft state,
and, probably, from an engraved block of wood. The characters
are indented, — ^that is, they are such as would be produced by press
ing a wood-block with raised Unes upon a mass of soft clay ; and
were such a block printed on paper in the usual manner of wood
cuts, the impression would be similar to the foUovring one, which
has been copied, on a reduced scale, from one of the bricks above
noticed. The characters have been variously described as cunei
form or wedge-shaped, arrow-headed, javeUn-headed, or nail-headed;
but their meaning has not hitherto been deciphered.

Amphorae, lamps, tiles, and various domestic utensils, formed
of clay, and of Roman workmanship, are found impressed with
letters, which in some cases are supposed to denote the potter's
name, and in others the contents of the vessel, or the name of
the owner. On the tiles, — of which there are specimens in the

10 ANTIQUITY OF
British Museum,— the letters are commonly inscribed in a circle,
and appear raised; thus showing that the stamp had been hoUowed,
or engraved in intagUo, in a manner similar to a wooden butter-
print. In a book entitled " Miia, Leelia, Crispis non nata resurgens,"
by C. C. Malvasia, 4to. Bologna, 1683, are several engrarings on
wood of such tiles, found in the neighbourhood of Rome, and com
municated to the author by Fabretti, who, in the seventh chapter
of his own work,* has given some account ofthe "figlinarum signa,"
— the stamps of the ancient potters and tUe-makers.
The stamp from which the foUowing cut has been copied is
preserved in the British Museum. It is of brass, and the letters
are in rehef and reversed ; so that if it were inked from a printer's
baU and stamped on paper, an impression would be produced
precisely the same as that which is here given.

It would be difficult now to ascertain why this stamp should be
marked vrith the word Lar, wliich signifies a household god, or the
image of the supposed tutelary genius of a house; but, without
much stretch of imagination, we may easily conceive how appro
priate such an inscription would be impressed on an amphora or
large vrine-vessel, sealed and set apart on the birth of an heir,
and to be kept sacred — ^inviolate as the household gods — tiU the
young Roman assumed the " toga ririUs," or arrived at years of
maturity. That vessels containing vrine were kept for many years,
we leam from Horace and Petronius;f and we may also infer
from the former author, that to remove one from its place of deposit,
* Inscriptionum Explicatio, foi, Romse, 1699,
t "O nata mecum consule Manliol" says Horace, addressing an amphora of
wine as old as himself; and Petronius mentions some choice Falernian which had
attained the ripe age of a hundred ; " Statim allatoe sunt amphoraj vitrese diligenter
gypsata, quarum in cervicibus pittacia erant affixa, cum hoc titulo : Falermun
Op'mianum annorum centum." Pittacia were small labels— schedulse breves  at
tached to the necks of wine-vessels, and on which were marked the name and age
of the wine.

ENGRAVING. 1 1
cost a servant-maid of that period no less an exertion of strength
than is required from one of the present day to draw a cork :
 Prome recouditum,
Lyde, strenua, Csecubum,
Munitaeque adhibe vim sapientise,*
Carmin. lib, iii. xxviii,
Mr. Ottley, in his " Inquiry into the Origin and Early History
of Engraring," 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 reUef— -and impression
where the characters are produced by colour; and requires evi
dence that the ancients ever used stamps "charged with ink or
some other tint, for the purpose of stamping paper, parchment,
or other substances, Uttle or not at all capable of indentation."
It certainly would be very difficult, if not impossible, to produce
a piece of paper, parchment, or cloth of the age of the Romans
impressed vrith. 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 smaUer size,^renders it very probable that they were used
for the purpose of marking cloth, paper, and similar substances,
with ink, as weU as for being impressed in wax or clay.
Von Murr, in an article in his Journal, on the Art of Wood
Engraring, 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 Romans had nearly arrived at the
arts of wood engraring and book printing. He adds : " Letters cut
on wood they certainly had, and very hkely grotesques and figures
also, the hint of which their artists might readily obtain from the
coloured stuffs which were frequently presented by Indian am
bassadors to the emperors.f
* The epithet munita — " walled up" — explains the reason why we frequently
see pieces of lime or plaster adhering to ancient amphorae. As they could not,
from the peculiarity of their shape, stand alone upon their end, it appears to
have been customary, when they were " stored," to build them up, as it were, with
lime or plaster. Hence, to remove one from Horace's select batch required the
active exertions of his female attendant,
t Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theii, S. 81, By grotesque — "Laubwerk"^
ornamental foliage is here meant; — grot-esq-ae, bower-work, — not caricatures.

12 ANTIQUITY OF
At page 90 of Singer's " Researches into the History of Playing-
Cards" are impressions copied from stamps similar to the preced
ing; 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 eridence of its having
been exercised by them; — unless we suppose that they were ac
quainted with it, and did not choose to adopt it from reasons of
state pohcy." It is just as extraordinary that the Greek who em
ployed the expansive force of steam in the ^Silopile to blow the
fire did not invent Newcomen's engine ; — unless, indeed, we suppose
that the construction of such an engine was perfectly kno-wn at
Syracuse, but that the government there did not choose to adopt
it from motives of " state pohcy." It was not, however, a reason
of " state pohcy" which caused the Roman 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 Roman antiquities in the
British Museum,

As the letters in the originals are hoUowed or cut into tiie
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

ENGRAVING. 13
stamps, further than that the first may be the dative case of a
proper name, Oririlhus, and indicate that property so marked be
longed to such a person, I leave them, as Francis Moore, phy
sician, leaves the hieroglyphic in his Almanack, — "to time and
the curious to construe."
Lambinet, in his "Recherches sur I'Origine de I'lmprimerie,"
gives 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 rillage 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 submitted, was of
opinion that they were a kind of matrices or hollow stamps, in
tended to be appUed to soft substances or such as were in a
state of fusion. He thought they were stamps for vessels con
taining 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 oint
ment-pot or a bottle, is of high antiquity. The letters
Q. JUN. TAURI. ANODY.
NUM. AD OMN. LIPP.
M. Dulaure explains thus: Quinti Junii Tauridi anodynum ad
omnes lippas ;* an inscription which is almost Uterally rendered by
the title of a specific still known in the neighbourhood of New-
castle-on-Tyne, " Dr. Dud's lotion, good fior 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 weU as criminals,
captives, and refractory or runaway slaves.
The Athenians, according to Suidas, marked their Samian cap
tives with the figure of an owl ; while Athenians captured by the
Samians were marked with the figure of a galley, and by the
* M, Dulaure's latinity is bad, " Lippas" certainly is not the word. His
translation is, " Remfede anodin de Quintus 'Junius Tauridus, pour tous les maux
d'yeux," Other stone staraps, supposed to have been used by oculists to mark the
vessels containing their medicaments, were discovered and explained long before
M. Dulaure published his interpretation. See "Walchii Antiquitates lyiedicse
Selectje, Jenae, 1772," Num, 1 and 2, referred to by Von Murr.

14 ANTIQUITY OF
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 leam that the operation was performed
by branding : " Continuoque notas et nomina gentis inurwnt."*
Such brands as those above noticed, commonly known by the name
of cauteria or stigmata, were also used for similar purposes during
the middle ages ; and the practice, which has not been very long ob
solete, 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 conricted
of loitering or idle wandering by the highway-side, or in the streets,
Uke a servant wanting a master, or a beggar, he or she was to
be marked vrith 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 conricted, was
to be marked on the forehead, or on the baU 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 Ehzabeth, cap. 4, being conricted 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 EngUsh shilling,
^ marked with a great Roman R [for Rogue] ; such branding upon
the shoulder to be so thoroughly burned and set upon the skin
and flesh, that the said letter R should be seen and remain for a
perpetual mark upon such rogue during the remainder of his life.+
' Hermannus Hugo, De prima Origine Scribendi, cap. xix, De Notis Ser-
vilibus, 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 Pionorius
De Servis.
t History of the Poor Laws, Svo. 1764, by Richard Burn, LL.D., who in his
observations on such punishments says : " It is aRecting to humanity to observe

ENGRAVING. 15
For the honour of our country, we may hope that such pains and
penalties, when incurred, were never generally enforced ; and there
is reason to beUeve that the enactments which prescribed such
severities were practically abrogated by the voice of Nature, speak
ing from the heart of the great body of the Enghsh people, long
before they were repealed by act of parUament.
From a passage in QuintiUan we learn that the Romans 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 upon Joining-hand, it wiU 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 wUl not thus be Uable to make sUps as on the wax [alone], for
he will be confined by the boundary of the letters, and neither
will he be able to deriate from his text. By thus more rapidly
and frequently foUowing a definite outline, his hand vriU become
set, vrithout his requiring any assistance from the master to guide
it." *
A thin stencil-plate . of copper haring the foUowing letters cut
out of it, DN CONSTAN
TIO AVG SEM
PER VICTORI
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
the various methods that have been invented for the punishment o{ vagTa.nts ; none
of all which wrought the desired effect  This part of our history looks
like the history of the savages in America. Almost all severities have been
exercised against vagrants, except scalping."
* " Quum puer jam ductus sequi coeperit, non inutile erit, litteras tabellse quam
optime insculpi, ut per illos, velut sulcos, ducatur stylus. Nam neque errabit,
quemadmodum in ceris, continebitur enim utrimque marginibus, neque extra
prsescriptum poterit egredi ; et celerius ac ssepius sequendo certa vestigia firma-
bit articulos, neque egebit adjutorio manura suam, manu superimposita, regentis.''
Quintiliani Instit. Orator,, lib, i. cap, 1 .

16 ANTIQUITY OF
thus formed, " ex nuUa materia,"* might be traced on paper by
means of a pen, or with a smaU brush, charged vrith body-colour,
as stenciUers 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 ware^
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 Empe
ror Justin I. made use of a tablet of wood pierced or cut in a siaii-
lar manner, through which he traced in red ink, the imperial
colour, his signature, consisting of the four first letters of his name.
It is also stated that Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, the con
temporary of Justin, used after the same manner to sign the first
four letters of his name through a plate of gold ;f and in Pering-
skiold's edition of the Life of Theodoric, the foUowing is given as

• 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 tnamiex, perci aujour, in vellum: "Liber Passionis Domini Nostri Jesu
Christi, 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 from Anton. Sanderi Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta, parte ii.
t "Rex Theodorecus inliteratus erat, et sic obroto sensu ut in decem annos
regni sui quatuor literas subscriptionis edicti sui discere nuUatenus potuisset.
De qua re laminam auream jussit interrasilem fieri quatuor literas regis habentem
unde ut si subscribere voluisset, posita lamina super chartam, per eam pennam'
duceretetsubscriptio ejus tantum videretur."-Vita Theodorici Regis Ostroeotho-
rum et Italia;, autore Joanne Cochlseo; cum additamenUs Joannis Perincskiold
4to. Slockholmiffi, 1699, p, 199. -""uinis i-eringsKiom,

ENGRAVING. 17
the monogram* of that monarch. The authenticity of this account
has, however, been questioned, as Cochlseus, who died in 1552,
cites no ancient authority for the fact.
It has been asserted by MabiUon, (Diplom. lib. u. 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,,
haring the characters in reUe^ in a manner similar to that in which
letters are now stamped at the Post-office.f 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 Rome in 774, and died in 795.
The foUowing monogram of Charlemagne has been copied from
Peringskiold, " Annotationes in Vitam Theodorici," p. 584 ; and it
is also given in Ducange's Glossary, and in the " Nouveau Trait©
de Diplomatique."

The monogram, either stenciUed or stamped, consisted of a
combination of the letters of the person's name, a fanciful cha
racter, or the figure of a cross,^ accompanied with a peculiar kind
* 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,
t Mabillon's opinion is founded on the following passage in the Life of Charle
magne, by his secretary Eginhard : " Ut scilicet hnperitiam ha-nc [scribendi] honesto,
ritu mppleret, monogrammatis usum loco proprii signi invexit."
J " Triplex cruces exarandi modus: 1, penna sive calamo ; 2, lamina interra-
sili; 3, stampilla sive typo anaglyptico, Lamiili£ interrasiles ex auro aliove
metallo, vei ex ebore etiam confectse sunt, atque ita perforatse, ut hiatus, pro re
nata, crucium cet, speciem prae se ferrent, per quos velut sulcos, calamus sive
penna ducebatur, Stampillae vero ita sculptse sunt, ut figurse superficiem emine-
rent, quse deinde atramento tinctse sunt, chartseque impressse." — Gatterer, Eleraenta
Artis Diplomatics, § 264, De Staurologia, C

18 ANTIQUITY OF
of flourish, called by French vniters on diplomatics j^aro/e or ruche.
This mode of signing appears to have been common in most na
tions of Europe during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries;
and it was practised by nobles and the higher orders of the clergy,
as weU as by kings. It continued to be used by the kings of
France to the time of PhiUp 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 WilUam the Conqueror, when Duke
of Normandy. We have had a recent instance of the use of the
stampilla, as it is caUed by diplomatists, in affixing the royal sig
nature. During the iUness of George IV. in 1830, a silver
stamp, containing a fac-simile of the king's sign-manual, was exe
cuted 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 VHI.
for the purpose of affixing the royal signature. The king's war
rant empowering commissioners to use the stamp may be seen in
Rymer's Foedera, vol. xv. p. 101, anno 1546. It is beUeved that
the warrant which sent the poet Surrey to the scaffold was signed
vrith this stamp, and not vrith Henry's ovm hand.
In Sempere's " History of the Cortes of Spain," several ex
amples are given of the use of fanciful monograms in that coun
try at an early period, and which were probably introduced
by its Gothic invaders. That such marks were stamped is al
most certain ; for the first, which is that of Gundisalvo TeUez, af
fixed 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 Ordofio, as
their "sign" to a charter of donation executed m 1018. The
fourth mark is a Runic cypher, copied from an ancient Icelandic
manuscript, and given by Peringskiold in liis « Annotations on the
Life of Theodoric :" it is not given here as being from a stencil

ENGRAVING.

19

or a stamp, but that it may be compared with the apparently
Gothic monograms used in Spain.

" In their inscriptions, and in the rubrics of their hooka," says
a writer in the Edinburgh Review,* " the Spanish Goths, Uke
the Romans of the Lower Empire, were fond of using combined
capitals — oi monogrammatising. This mode of writing is now com
mon 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 Gothic custom in
their writings. The Spanish Goth sometimes subscribed his name ;
or he drew a mtmogram Uke the Roman emperors, or the sign
of the cross like the Saxon; but not unfrequently he affixed
strange and fanciftd marks to the deed or charter, bearing a close
resemblance to the Ruhic or magical knots of whieh so many
have been engraved by Peringskiold, and other northern anti
quaries." To the tenth or the eleventh century are also to be referred
certain smaU sUver coins — "something between counters and
money," as is observed by Pinkerton — which are impressed, on one
side only, with a kind of Runic monogram. They are formed of
very thin pieces of silver ; and it has been supposed that the im
pression was produced from wooden dies. They are known to col
lectors as "nummi bracteati" — tinsel money; and Pinkerton, mis
taking the Runic 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 Den
mark?'! The four foUowing copies from the original coins in the
* No, Ixi. p, 108, where the preceding Gothic marks, with the explanation of
them, are given,
t Essay on Medals, pp, 144, 145, Edit. If84,
c2

20 ANTIQUITY OF
Brennerian coUection are given by Peringskiold, iri his "Anno
tations on the Life of Theodoric," preriously 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 repre
sent the name of Eric the Victorious. The characters on the
fourth he reads as eim, and appUes them to Emund Anriosus,
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 Runic characters were exchanged for
Roman.

The notaries of succeeding times, who on their admission were
required to use a distinctive sign or notarial mark in witnessing an
instrument, continued occasionaUy to employ the stencil in affixing
then: " sign ;" although thefr 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 sniaU space is left in order that it might afterwards be inserted
with a pen. The foUowing monogram was the official mark of an
ItaUan notary, Nicolaus Ferenterius, who Uved in 1236.*

Nicolaus Ferenterius, 1236.

The throe following cuts represent impressions of German nota
rial stamps. The first is that of Jacobus Arnaldus, 1845; tiie
• It is given by Gatterer in his " Eleraenta Artis Diplomatics," p. 166 : [410
Gottingae, 1765;] who refers to Muratori, Antiquit. Italic Medii Mvi, t. vi. p. 9.

ENGRAVING.

21

second that of Johannes Meynersen, 1435 ; and the third that
of Johannes Calris, 1521.*

Jacobus Arnaldus, 1345.

Johannes Meynersen, 1435.

(5

.PO>-(C

MJ^

D

Johannes Calvis, 1521.

* These stamps are copied from " D. E. Baringii Clavis Diplomatica," 4to.
Hanoverffi, 1754» There is a work expressly treating of the use of the Diplo
matic Stamp — J, C, C, Oelrichs de Stampilla Diplomatica, folio, Wismariae, 1762,
which I, have not been able to obtain a sight of..

22 ANTIQUITY OF
Many of the merchants'-marks of our own country, which so
frequently appear on stained glass vrindows, monumental brasses,
and tombstones in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries,
bear a considerable hkeness to the ancient Runic monograms,
from which it is not unUkely that they were originaUy derived.
The EngUsh 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 ;
or if a fish-curer, it was branded on the end of his casks. If
he built himseU a new house, his mark was frequently placed
between his initials over the principal door-way, or over the fire
place of the hall; if he made a gift to a church or a chapel,
his mark was emblazoned on the vrindows beside the knight's
or the nobleman's shield of arms ; and when he died, his mark was
cut upon his tomb. Of the foUowing merchants'-marks, the fitrst
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 * :!
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 vrindow of a Dominican convent :
" Wide windows y-wrought, y-written full thick,
Shining with shapen shields, to shewen about,
With marks of merchants, y-meddled between.
Mo than twenty and two, twice y-uumbered.f '
* The marks here given are copied from Mackarel's History of King's Lynn,
8vo. 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 seven
teenth. Perhaps no two counties in the kingdom alford so many examples of
merchants'-marks and monumental brasses as Norfolk and Sufiblk.
t « Y-meddled 'n mixed; the -marks of merchants are put in opposition to the

ENGRAVING. 23
Haring thus proved by a continuous chain of eridence that
the principle of producing impressions from raised hnes was known,
and practised, at a very early period ; and that it was apphed for
the purpose of impressing letters and other characters on paper,
though perhaps confined to signatures only, long prerious to
1423, — ^which is the earUest date that has been discovered on a
wood-cut, in the modem sense of the word, impressed on paper,
and accompanied with explanatory words cut on the same block ;
and haring shown that the principle of stenciUing, — the manner
in which the above-named cut is 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 engraring on brass, and afterwards to examine the
grounds of certain speculations on the introduction and early
practice of wood-engraring and block-printing in Europe.
Concerning the flrst 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.
"Learing 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 .^gina,
by Phidon king of Argos. His reign is fixed by the ArundeUan
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 bfrth
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 generaUy, for the spe
cimens which were then produced in that country remain unsur
passed by modern art. Under the Roman emperors the art never
seems to have attained so high a degree of perfection as it did in
' shapen shields,' because merchants had no coats of arras." — Specimens of the
Early English Poets, by George Ellis, Esq. vol. i. p. 163. Edit. 1811.
* 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 Memraingen,
in Suabia. It is of a folio size, and is coloured by raeans of stencils ; a practice
which appears to have been adopted at an early part of the fifteenth century
by the German Formschneiders and Briefmalers, literally, figure-cutters and card-
painters, to colour their cuts and their cards. The St. Christopher is now in
Earl Spencer's library.

24> ANTIQUITY OF
Greece ; though several of the coins of Hadrian, proba% executed
by Greek artists, display great beauty of design and execution.
The art of coining, with the rest of the omamental arts, decUned
with the empire ; and, on its final subversion in Italy, the coins
of its rulers were scarcely superior to those which were subse
quently minted in England, Germany, and France, during the
darkest period of the middle ages.
The art of coining money, however rude in design and im»
perfect 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 as
sumed or extorted the right of coining money as weU as the
king ; and in our own country the archbishops of Canterbury and
York, and the bishop of Durham, exercised the right of coinage tiU
the Reformation ; and local mints for coining the king's money were
occasionally fixed at Norvrich, Chester, York, St Edmundsbury,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, and other places. Independent of those esta-
bUshments for the coining of money, almost every abbey struck its
owa jettons or counters ; which were thin pieces of copper, commonly
impressed with a pious legend, and used in casting up accounts,
but which the general introduction of 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 Uttle 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 reUe^ thou^ not
separately, and most hkely from a mould of sand, was known to
the Romans, is erident from the names of the emperors Domi
tian and Hadrian on some pigs of lead in the British Museum;
and that it was practised during the middle and succeeding ages we
have ample testimony from the inscriptions on our ancient bells.*
• The small and thick brass coins, struck by Grecian cities under the Roman
emperors, and known to collectors as " colonial Greek," appear to have been
cast, and moulds for such a purpose liave been discovered in our own country.

ENGRAVING. 3,5
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 who
" came of gentle blood," vrith corporations, lay and clerical, aU had
seals. They were mostly of brass, for the art of engraving on pre
cious stones does not appear to have been at that time rerived, vrith
the letters and derice cut or cast in hollow — en creux — on the face
of the seal, in order that the impression might appear raised. The
workmanship of many of those seals, and more especially of some
of the conventual ones, where figures of saints and a riew of the
abbey are introduced^ displays no mean degree 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 earUest block-books should be so well ex
ecuted. The art of engraving on copper and other metals, though not
with the intention of taking impressions on paper, is of great
antiquity. In the late Mr. Salt's coUection of Egyptian antiquities
there was a smaU axe, probably a model, the head of which was
formed of sheet-copper, and was tied, or rather bandaged, to the
helve with sUps of cloth. There were certain characters engraved
upon the head in such a manner that if it were inked and sub
mitted to the action of the rolUng-press, impressions would be
obtained as from a modem copper-plate. The axe, with other
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 Romans were accustomed to engrave
on copper and other metals in a similar manner, is erident from
engraved paterae and other ornamental works executed by people of
those nations. Though no ancient writer makes mention of the
art of engraring being employed for the pm-pose of producing
impressions on paper, yet it has been conjectured by De Pauw,
from a passage in Phny,* that such an art was invented by Varro
* " Imaginum amore fiagrasse quondam testes sunt et Atticus ilie Ciceronis,
edito de his volumine, et Marcus Varro, henig-nissimo inve-nto, i-nsertis voluminum
suorum foecunditati, non iiorainibus tantum septingentorum illustrium sed et

26 ANTIQUITY OF
for the purpose of multiplying the portraits of eminent men. " No
Greek," says De Pauw, speaking of engraring, " has the least right
to claim this invention, which belongs exclusively to Varro, as is
expressed by Phny 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 appropriate colours and the shadows were afterwards added
with the pencil. A woman, originally of Cyzica, but then settled
in Italy, exceUed aU others in the talent of iUumining such kind
of prints, which were inserted by Varro in a large work of his
entitled ^Imagines' or ^ Hebdomades,' 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 tiU then
unknown."* The grounds, however, of this conjecture are ex
tremely shght, and wiU not without additional support sustain the
superstructure which De Pauw, — an "ingenious" guesser, but a
superficial 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 eridence of monumental brasses,
vrith large figures engraved on them, being fixed on tombs in this
country ; and it is not unUkely that they were known both here
and on the Continent at an earUer period. The best specimens
known in this country are such as were in aU probabiUty executed
prerious to 1400. In the succeeding century the figures and or
namental work generally appear to be designed in a worse taste
and more carelessly executed; and in the age of Queen EUzabeth
aliqw) modo imagi-nibus : non passus intercidere figures, aut vetustatein sevi contra
homines valere, inventor muneris etiam Diis invidiosi, quando immortalitatem non
solum dedit, verum etiam in qmnes terras misit, ut prssentes esse ubique el claudi
possent."— C. Plinii Secundi Historiae Naturalis, lib. xxxv. cap. 2.
• See De Pauw, Recherches Philosophiques sur les Grees, t. ii. p 100 The
subject is discussed in Meusel's "Neue Miscellaneen von artisUschen 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, Biittiger, one of the most learned and intelligent
of all German writers on the fine arts, and Fea, the editor of Winkleman's History
of Art, do not admit De Pauw's conjecture, but decide the question in the
negative.

ENGRAVING. 27
the art, such as it was, appears to have reached the lowest point
of degradation, the monumental brasses of that reign being gene
raUy 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 occasion
ally display a considerable degree of correct and elevated expres
sion. Many of the figures are of the size of Ufe, marked with a
bold outUne weU ploughed into the brass, and haring the features,
armour, and drapery indicated by single Unes of greater or less
strength as might be required. Attempts at shading are also occa
sionally to be met with; the effect being produced by means of
Unes obUquely crossing each other in the manner of cross-hatchr
ings. Whether impressions were ever taken or not from such early
brasses by the artists who executed them, it is perhaps now im
possible to ascertain; but that they might do so is beyond a
doubt, for two immense volumes of impressions taken from monu
mental brasses, for the late Craven Ord, Esq. are now preserved
in the print-room of the British Museum.
One of the finest monumental brasses known in this country is
that of Robert Braunche and his two vrives, in St. Margaret's Chureh,
Lynn, where it appears to have been placed about the year 1364.
Braunche, and his two vrives, one on each side of him, are re
presented standing, of the size of Ufe. Above the figures are
representations of five smaU niches surmounted by canopies in the
florid Gothic style. In the centre niche is the figure of the Deity
holding apparently the infant Christ in his arms. In each of the
niches adjoining the centre one is an angel swinging a censer;
and in the exterior niches are angels playing on musical instru
ments. 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 instruments, while a figure kneel
ing presents a peacock. The length of this brass is eight feet
eleven inches, and its breadth five feet two inches. It is supposed
to have been executed in Flanders, vrith which country at that
period the town of Lynn was closely connected in the way of trade.*
• An excellent representation of this celebrated monument is given in Cotraan's
" Engravings from the most remarkable Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk," folio, 1819.

28 ANTIQUITY OF
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 the art was practised in the reign of the renovraed emperor
Wu-Wang, who flourished 1120 years before the birth of Christ
As both these statements seem to rest on equal authorities, I
attach to each an equal degree of credibiUty; that is, by beUering
neither. As Mr. Ottley has expressed an opinion in favour of
the Chinese origin of the art, — though vrithout adopting the tale
of its being practised in the reign of Wu-Wang, which he shows
has been taken by the wrong end, — I shaU here take the Uberty
of examining the tenabiUty of his arguments. The opinions of
other persons who bUndly adopt what they find already vmtten,
and who have scarcely ^ven the subject a thought, it would be
folly to attempt to refute.
At page 8, in the first chapter of his work, Mr. Ottiey cautiously
says that the " art of printing from engraved blocks of wood ap
pears 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 Chris
tian 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 eridence of the
very high antiquity of printing in China; which in every other
part of his book he speaks of as a weU-established fact, and yet
refers to no other authority than Du Halde, who reUes on the
correctness of that Chinese chronology with the defence of wbich
Mr. Ottley vrill have nothing to do.
It is also worthy of remark, that in the same chapter he corrects
two writers, PapiUon and Jansen, for erroneously applying a pas
sage in Du Halde as proring 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 aUeged " by Du Halde to prove
the antiquity of printing amongst the Chinese, but solely in refer*
ence to their ink." The passage, as translated by Mr. Ottiey,
is as follows : « As the stone Me," (a word signifymg ink in the
Chinese language,) "which is used to blacken the engraved cha-

ENGRAVING. 29
racters, can never become white; so a heart blackened by rices
vrill always retain its blackness." The engraved characters were
not inked, it appears, for the purpose of taking impressions, 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 cha
racters were blackened vrith ink for the purpose of being printed,
if they were of wood ; or that, if cut in copper or other metal,
they were filled with a black composition which would harden or
sef in the Unes, — as an ingenious inquirer might infer from ink
being represented by the stone me; and thus it is possible that
something very Uke " niello," or the filling of letters on brass door-
plates with black wax, was known to the Chinese in the reign
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 iri the reign of Wu-Wang.
No ancient Chinese history appears to be known to Europeans
which is more authentic than the ancient history of Britain by
Geoflrey of Monmouth, an author whom a Chinese indeed might
cite in eridence of sundry curious events which happiened in this
country about the time that Wu-Wang reigried in China.f
Although so Uttle is positively known of the ancient history of
" the great out-lying empire of China," as it is caUed by Sir WilUam
• At page 7, Mr. Ottley, borrowing from Du Halde, hag erroneously stated that
the delicate nature of their paper would not pennit the use of a press. He must
have forgot, for he cannot but have known, that impressions on the finest India
paper had been frequently taken from wood-blocks by means of the common
printing-pres? many years previous to 1816, the date ofthe publication ofhis book,
I have never seen Chiiiese paper that would bear printing by hand, which would
not also bear the action ofthe press.
f It would appear that Chinese annalists themselves were not agreed as to the
period when printing by the hand from wood-blocks was first practised in that
country, " Nicholas Trigaltius, a member of our order," writes Herman Hugo,
•f who has recently retumed from China, gives the following information respecting
printing, which he professes to have carefully extracted from the annals of the

30 ANTIQUITY OF
Jones, yet it has been most confidently referred to as affording
authentic eridence of the high degree of the civiUzation and know
ledge of the Chinese at a period when Europe was dark vrith the
gloom of barbarism and ignorance. It was referred to by French
authors — most sceptical as to the tmth of the Christian revelation
and most credulous of every improbable tale that appeared Ukely to
controvert it — to show that the science of astronomy was cultivated
by the Chinese at a period anterior to the creation of the world
as related in Genesis ; and that the pure and self-denying moraUty
of Christ had been taught long before, and more comprehensively,
by Confucius. China was referred to as the great source of
science and of art; whose people were leamed in all knowledge,
moral and physical, and whose system of jurisprudence was a model
of perfection worthy of the imitation of all nations of the eartL
As opportunity, however, has been occasionaUy afforded of examin
ing the acquirements of this much-vaunted people, the accounts of
their exceUence in science, in morals, and in the fine and sodal
arts, are found to have been very much exaggerated. Their early
history has been generaUy found, when opportunity has been afford
ed of impartiaUy examining it, to be a mere tissue of absurd
legends ; compared to which, the history of the settlement of King
Brute in Britain is authentic. With astronomy as a science they
are scarcely acquainted ; and their specimens of the fine arts dis
play Uttle more than representations of objects executed not un
frequently with minute accuracy, but without a knowledge of the
most simple elements of correct design, and vrithout the slightest
pretensions to feeUng. "On approaching the Ught, which, when
seen through a misty medium, spread around such a halo, we find,
instead ofthe clear-burning lamp of science, a twinkling candle-end,"
One of the two Mahometan traveUers who risited China in the
ninth century, expressly states that the Chinese were unacquamted
with the sciences; and as neither of them takes any notice of
printing, the mariner's compass, or gunpowder, it seems but rea-
Chinese themselves, ' Ti/pograph^ is of somewhat earlier date in China than in
Europe, for it is certain t/uit it wns practised ia that countri/ about Jive centuries
ago.^ Others assert that it was practised in C/tina at a period prior to the Christian
era.'" _ Hermannus Hugo, De Prima Origine Scribeudi, p. 211. AntwerpiiE,

ENGRAVING. 31
sonable to conclude that the Chinese were unacquainted vrith those
inventions at that period.*
Mr. Ottley, at pages 51 and 52 of his work, gives a brief account
of the early commerce of Venice vrith 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 respect
able citizens, and largely proriding them with every requisite." He
cites an ItaUan author for this account, but he observes a prudent
silence as to the period when the Venetians first estabhshed a
direct trafific vrith China and Japan; though there is Uttl^ doubt
that BettineUi, the authority referred to, aUudes 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 ex
pedition to the court of the Tartar emperor Kublai-Khan, which
had been preriously risited by the two brothers at some period
between 1254 and 1269. After haring risited Tartary and China,
the two brothers and Marco retumed to Venice in 1295. Mr.
Ottley, however, does not refer to the travels of the Polos for the
purpose of shovring that Marco, who at a subsequent period viTote
an account of his travels, might introduce a knowledge of the
Chinese art of printing into Europe : he cites them that his rea
ders may suppose that a direct intercourse between Venice and
China had been estabUshed long before ;f and that the art of
engraring 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 traveUers in 1295.
It is necessary here to observe that the invention of the mariner's
* The pretensions of the Chinese to excellence in science are ably exposed by
the learned Abb^ Renaudot in a disquisition " Sur les sciences des Chinois,"
appended to his translation, from the Arabic, entitled " Anciennes Relations des
ludes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahometans, qui y allerent dans le
neuviferae siecle." — 8vo. Paris, 1718.
-f- According to this ingenious mode of i-nferring, we may, pari ratione, conclude,
where we have positive evidence of a country being visited by any traveller or
voyager, that such country has been frequently visited by former adventurers :
therefore, Vasquez de Gama was not the first Portuguese who doubled the Cape
of Good Hope, nor Lander the first Englishman who ascertained the course of
the Niger,

32 ANTIQUITY OF
compass, and of gunpowder and cannon, have been ascribed to the
Chinese as well as the invention of wood engraring and block-^
printing ; and it has been conjectured that very probably Marco
Polo communicated to his countrymen, and through 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 aUude
to gunpowder, cannon, or to the art of printing as being known in
China ;* nor does he once mention the compass as being used on
board of the Chinese vessel in which he sailed from the coast of
China to the Persian Gulf " Nothing is more common," says a
writer in the Quarterly Reriew, "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
Uttle 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-Khaii."f In a
manner vridely differing from this does Mr. Ottley reason, if it
be not a prostitution of the word to apply it to his paradoxical
conjectures respecting the cause of Marco Polo not haring men
tioned printing as an art practised by the Chinese. He accounts
for the traveller's silence as foUows : " 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
• 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 digniorem ponit statum, donatque illis aurea
et argentea vasa, tabulas, privilegia atque immunitatem, Et hsec quidem privilegia
tabulis vei bracteis per sculpturis imprimuntur," " Moneta magni Cham non fit
de auro vei argento, aut alio metallo, sed corticem accipiunt medium ab arbore
mori, et hune consolidant, atque in particulas varias et rotundas, ma^as 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 Ai-raenian, whose work was \vritteu
in 1307.
f An article on Marsden's " Translation of the Travels of Marco Polo," in Uie-
Quarterly Review, No, xli. May 1819, from p. 191 to 195, contains some'curious
particulars respecting the early use of the mariner's compass, and of gunpowder
and cannon, in Europe,

ENGRAVING, 33
in China. The answer to this objection is obrious: it was no
marvel; it had no novelty to recommend it; it was practised, as
we have seen, at Ravenna in 1285, and had perhaps been practised
a century earUer 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 " obrious"
answer, rather unfortunately, vrill 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 risit ?" Mr. Ottley's
rule gives the ready solution : " The use of cannon was no marvel ;
it had no novelty to recommend it; he preferred instructing his
countrymen in matters with which they were not hitherto ac
quainted." This mode of " reasoning," however, cannot be correct,
for it would "prove" that cannon were used in Italy and in China
at a period when they were unknown in both countries.
That the art of engraring wood-blocks and of taking impressions
from them was introduced into Europe from China, I can see no
reason to beUeve ; and to mere assertions, unsupported by anything
Uke credible eridence, I can attach no faith. Looking at the fre
quent 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
apphed on a larger scale. When I am once satisfied that a man
had built a small boat, I feel no surprise on leaming that his
grandson had built a larger ; and made in it a longer voyage than
his ancestor ever ventured on, who merely used his sUght 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 eertain old wood engrarings 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. was pope ; that is, at some
period between the years 1285 and 1287. This story has been
adopted by Mr. Ottley, and by Zani, an ItaUan, who give it the
• Inquiry into the Early History of Engraving, vol, i, p. 54. D

34 ANTIQUITY OF
benefit of their support, Mr, Singer, in his "Researches into
the History of Playing Cards," grants the tmth-Uke appearance
of PapiUon's tale ; and the writer of the article " Wood engraring"
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 engraring is
at least equal to that of the four writers preriously named. That
Mr. Singer knows comparatively nothing of the art of wood en
graring, of which he professes to give some account in his book,
is erident whenever he speaks his own sentiments; whatever he
has said worth notice on the early history of the art, is derived
from Breitkopf, from whose essays on Playing Cards, on Wood
Engraring, and on the Invention of Printing, three-fourths of
Mr. Singer's Researches are borrowed without acknowledgment
The appendix to the Researches, however, appears to be Mr.
Singer's own.
The manner in which PapiUon 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
engrarings, — 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 engraring, which was printed about 1737, but never
pubUshed. At length he accidentaUy found them, on AU-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 dis
covered, by means of a pope's name, an epoch of engraring figures
and letters on wood for the purpose of being printed, which was
certainly much earUer than any at that period known in Europe,
and at the same time a history relative to tliis subject equaUy
curious and interesting. He says that he had so completely forgotten
aU this,— though he had so often recoUected to search for his me
moranda,— that he did not deign to take the least notice of it in his

ENGRAVING, 35
preriously printed history of the art.* The foUowing is a faithful
abstract of Papillon's account of his discovery of those early specie
mens of wood engraring. The title-page, as given by him in
French from Monsieur De Greder's viva voce translation of the
original, — which was "en mauvais Latin ou ancien ItaUen Gothique,
avec beaucoup d'abreriations," — is translated without abridgment,
as are also his own description of the cuts.
" When young, being engaged vrith my father in going almost
every day to hang rooms with our papers, I was, some time in
1719 or 1720, at the riUage of Bagneux, near Mont Rouge, at
a Monsieur de Greder's, a Swiss captain, who had a pretty house
there. After I had papered a smaU room for him, he ordered
me to cover the shelves of his Ubrary 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,f that he might
examine them at his leisure. We talked about the figures which
they contained, and of the antiquity of wood engraring ; 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 cartov£h,X or frontispiece, — of fanciful and Gothic ornar-
ments, though pleasing enough, — nine inches wide, and six inches
high, haring at the top the arms, doubtless, of Cunio, the follow
ing words are coarsely engraved on the same block, in bad Latin,
or ancient Gothic Italian, with many abbreriations."
• Mr. Ottley, who does not seem to be aware of Papillon's previous essay,
translates, at p. 11, the passages, " Soit en ecrivant mon Traits, soit en faisant
iraprimerce qui en est fait;" and "je n'avois pas daign^ en dire la moindre chose
dans cette Histoire de mon art," as if Papillon was speaking of the work which
he was then writing, Papillon mentions his first essay at pp, xv, and xvi. of
the preface to the first volume of his Traiti Historique et Pratique, published
in 1766,
t A Monsieur Spirchtvel, as Papillon informs us, Tom, i. p, 92,
X Cartouch. " This word is used to denote those fantastic ornaments which were
formerly introduced in decorating the wainscots of rooms ; and frequently served the
purpose of frames, surrounding inscriptions, small paintings, 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 etched
many entire sets of small subjects ' surrounded by similar ornaments. From the
irregularity of their forms, the terms tablet, shield, or pannel, would be but ill
expressive of their character." — Ottlev's Inquiry, vol. i. p. 12,
D 2

36 ANTIQUITY OF
" ' The chivalrous deeds, in figures, of the great and magna
nimous 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 rehef
with a Uttle knife, on blocks of wood, joined and smoothed by
this leamed and beloved sister, continued and finished together
at Ravenna, 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.' "
Of this inscription Mr. Ottley's opinion is as foUows: "The
cramped style of this inscription in the French fiimishes, I
think, most satisfactory eridence that it was hona-fide and Ute
raUy translated from a Latin original." Mr. Ottley might have
gone one step further, and have added with equal probabiUty,
" and by a Swiss ;" thus completing two links in his chain of
"most satisfactory eridence." We may thus rest assured that the
original was not in "ancient Gothic ItaUan." — If, however, we
were to conclude generally, as Mr. Ottley does in this instance,
from the frequent specimens of cramped style in PapiUon's own
French, we might with equal probabiUty infer that no smaU por
tion of his book had been " bona-fide and hteraUy translated from
a Latin original,"
After haring given the translation of the title-page, PapiUon
thus continues the narrative in his own person : " This cartouch
[or ornamented title-page] is surrounded by a coarse hne, the
tenth of an inch broad, forming a square. A few shght Unes,
which are irregularly executed and witiiout 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 being passed frequentiy
over the paper laid upon the block, as card-makers are accustomed
to impress their addresses and the envelopes of their cards. The

ENGRAVING. 37
hollow parts of the block, not being sufficiently cut away in several
places, and haring received the ink, have smeared the paper, whieh
is rather brown; a circumstance which has caused the foUovring
words to be written in the margin underneath, that the fault- might
be remedied. They are in Gothic Italian, which M. de Grader
had considerable difficulty in making out, and certainly written
by the hand either of the ChevaUer Cunio or his sister, on this
first proof — eridently from a block — such as are here translated."
' " '/if is necessary' to cuf away the ground of the blocks more, that
the paper may nof touch it in faking impressions.'"
"Following this frontispiece, and of the same size, are the sub
jects of the eight pictures, engraved on wood, surrounded by a
similar Une forming a square, and also with the shadows formed
of shght Unes. At the foot of each of those engrarings, between
the border-Une 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 im
pression 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 graduaUy, to resume their vigour
in Italy. At the feet of the principal figures their names are engrav
ed, such as Alexander, PhiUp, Darius, Campaspe, and others."
" Subject 1. — Alexander mounted on Bucephalus, which he has
tamed. On a stone are these words : Isabel. Cunio pinx. Sf 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.''
" Subject 3. — Alexander cutting the Gordian knot. On the
pedestal of a column are these words : Alexan. Albe. Cunio Equ.
pinx. Sr scalp. This block is not so weU 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
Sf scalp." " Subject 5, — Alexander generously presents his mistress Cam-

38 ANTIQUITY OF
paspe 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. Sr scalp."
"Subject 6. — The famous battle of Arbela. Upon a smaU
hillock are these words : Alex. Alb. Equ. Sf Isabel, pictor. Sr xcalp.
For composition, design, and engraring, 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 and magnanimous air. On a stone near a bush
are engraved these words : Isabel. Cunio pinx. Sf scalp."
" Subject 8 and last. — The glory and grand triumph of Alex
ander on entering Babylon. This piece, which is weU enough com
posed, 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. ef Isabel. Cunio, pictor. Sf scalp.
At the top of this impression, a piece about three inches long and
one inch broad has been tom off."
However singular the above account of the works of those " ami
able twins" may seem, no less surprising is the history of their birth,
parentage, and education ; which, taken in conjunction with the early
developement 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 foUow
ing words, badly written in old Swiss characters, and scarcely legi
ble in consequence of their having been written with pale ink.
"Of course Papillon could not read Swiss," says Mr. Ottiey,
" Mr. de Greder, therefore, ti-anslated them for him into French."—
"This precious volume was given to my grandfatfier Jan. Jacq.
Turine, a native of Berne, by the iUustrious Count Cunio, chief
magistrate of Imola, who honoured him with his generous friend
ship. Above all my books I prize this tiie highest on account of
the quarter from whence it came into our family, and on account

ENGRAVING. 39
of the knowledge, the valour, the beauty, and the noble and gene
rous 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 myseUl" *
Though PapiUon's long-lost manuscript, containing the whole ac
count of the works of the Cunio and notices of other old books of
engrarings, consisted of only three sheets of letter-paper, yet the
history alone of the learned, beautiful, and amiable twins, which
Turine the grandson caused to be written out as he had heard it
from his father, occupies in PapiUon's book four long octavo pages
of thirty-eight hnes each, and which, if transcribed on modern post-
paper about as closely as Uterary men generally write for the
press, would fill three sheets. The rest of his account would at
least occupy three sheets more of manuscript ; from which we may
learn that Monsieur PapiUon wrote what Captain de Greder dic
tated to him either in a very small hand or on very large paper.
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 vahdity 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 troubUng myself to transcribe the whole of this choice
morsel of French romance conceming the history of the " amiable
twins" Cunio, — the surprising beauty, talents, and accomphshments
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, — which Mr. Ottley would have us
to beheve was true as Holy Writ, — I shall give a brief abstract
of some of the passages which seem most important to the present
inquiry.f • We might almost suspect, from the cramped style of this memorandum in
French, that it was " bona-fide and literally a translation from a Latin original," if
Papillon himself had not positively asserted that it was written " en vieux carac-
tferes Suisses,"
+ Readers of French romances will find the tale of the Cunio at p. 89, tom i.
of Papillon's " Traits de la Gravure en Bois," or at p, 17, vol, i, of Mr. Ottley's
" History of Engraving." It comprehends a clandestine marriage, a divorce ;

40 ANTIQUITY OF
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 foUovring 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, vrithout 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 vrith one of her aunts, under whose roof
she was brought to bed of tvrins. Though the elder Cunio had
compeUed his son to espouse another vtdfe, he yet aUowed him to
educate the twins, who were most affectionately received and
cherished by their father's new wife. The chUdren made astonish
ing progress in the sciences, more especially the girl Isabella, who
at thirteen years of age was regarded as a prodigy; for she un
derstood, and wrote with correctness, the Latin language; she
composed exceUent verses, understood geometry, was acquainted
with music, could play on several instruments, and had begun to
design and to paint vrith correctness, taste, and dehcacy. Her
brother Alberic, of a beauty as rarishing 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
aU other exercises befitting a young man of quahty. He also
understood Latin, and could paint weU.
The troubles in Italy haring 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 m
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 himseU clear witiiout
any .further injury than a wound in his left arm. His fatiier,
who had hastened to his succour, found him returning witii tiie
enemy's banner, which he had wrapped about his wound. Dehght-
youthful heroism, and love; three cases of death from a broken heart,— raU.er loo
large a proportion in so short a uarralivc,— and one from cold iron.

ENGRAVING. 41
ed at the valour displayed by his son, the Count Cunio knighted
him on the spot. ITie young man then asked permission to risit
his mother, which was readily granted by the count, who was
pleased to have this opportunity of testifying the love and esteem
he stiU retained towards that noble and afflicted lady, who continued
to reside with her aunt ; of which he certainly would have given
her more conrincing 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 cherish the wife whom he had been
compeUed to marry, and who had now borne him a large family.
After Alexander Alberic had visited his mother, he retumed
home,, and shortly after began, together with his sister Isabella,
to design and work upori the pictures of the achievements of Alex
ander. He then made a second campaign with his father, after
which he continued to employ himself on the pictures in con
junction with IsabeUa, who attempted to reduce them and engrave
them on wood. After the engrarings were flnished, and copies
had been printed and given to Pope Honorius, and their relations
and friends, Alexander Alberic proceeded again to join the army,
accompanied by. Pandulphio, a young 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 ^as 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 foUowed 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 foUovring 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 grandeur of soul
that saved him from falhng 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 written. The binding,
according 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

42 ANTIQUITY OF
of thin tablets of wood, covered vrith leather, and ornamented with
flowered comparfments, which appear simply stamped and marked
with an iron a little warmed, witliouf any gilding." It is remarkable
that this singular volume should afford not only specimens of
wood engraring, earUer by upwards of a hundred and thirty years
than any which are hitherto known, but that the binding, of the
same period as the engrarings, should also be such as is rarely,
if ever, to be met vrith tiU upwards of one hundred and fifty years
after the wonderful twins were dead.
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 Ubraries of Italy, nor the least trace
of one ever haring been there, the eridence of its ever having
existed rests solely on the account given of it by PapiUon. Before
saying a word respecting the credit to be attached to this vritness,
or the props with which Zani and Ottley endeavour to sup
port his testimony, I shaU attempt to show that the account af
fords internal eridence of its own falsehood. Should I succeed
in this, I shaU leave some other writer to speculate as to the
motives of the party committing the forgery, and to guess whether
Papillon himself committed it ignorantly or knowingly, or whether
he was merely the instrument of propagating the fictions of another
person. Before noticing the description of the subjects, I shaU state
a few objections to the account of the tvrins as written out by
order of the youngest Turine, the grandson of Jan. Jacq. Turine,
who received the volume from Count Cunio himself, the fether
of the twins, a few years after their deatb, which could not weU
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 surrived 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, m 1300,
and that the grandson of the latter caused the history of the twins
to be written out eighty years afterwards, — and we cannot feirly
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

ENGRAVING. 43
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, PapiUon's ad
vocates carefuUy 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 considerable a
portion of the account? Of the young knight Cunio he knows
every movement ; he is acquainted vrith his risit 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 re
covery of Count Cunio's vrife, 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
Rome 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 dissolring 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-estabhshing his marriage vrith his first vrife
and of pubUcly espousing her ; and that he should make such a
communication to her through the medium of her son, who, as weU
as his sister, must have been declared iUegitimate 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 vrife 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 vrith the sacrament of marriage the church said " no."
Taking these circumstances into consideration, I can come to no
other conclusion than that, on this point, 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 sUghtest bearing on the point at issue, is
equally, if not more, improbable.

44 ANTIQUITY OF
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 leamed
and accomplished 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 engrarings of the actions of Alex
ander 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 com-
pUoation ofhis designs, — that it would seem he had copied this very
print. Something hke 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, iUustrating the actions of Alexander in
the manner described by PapiUon, would be a rarity indeed even
if not engraved on wood ; but that a series of wood engravings,
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 mira
culous. The twins must have been weU read in Quintus Curtius.
Though we are informed that both were skiUedin the Latin language,
yet it plainly appears on two occasions, when we might suppose
that they would be least hable to trip, that their Latinity is ques
tionable. The sixth and the eighth subjects, which were accom
pUshed by thefr joint efforts, are 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
engraring in Italy point out to thefr readers that these two children
were the first who ever affixed the words pinx. ef scalp, to a wood
cut ? I chaUenge any beUever in Papillon to point out a wood en-
¦• Of Le Brun's five subjects illustrative of the actions of Alexander the Great,
four of thera 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; 3, the re
ception of Porus by Alexander; 4. Alexander's triuraphant entry into Babylon,
There certainly has been some copying here ; but it is more likely Uiat Papillon or
his informant had seen Le Brun's paintings, than that Le Brun had seen die original
wood engravings executed by the Cunio.

ENGRAVING. 45
graving 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 itseK 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 credibiUty of PapiUon, the sole eridence
upon which the history of the wonderful twins rests, I shall have
occasion to say very few words. That he was ignorant and credu
lous, and withal excessively vain of what he considered his dis
coveries in the history of wood engraving, is admitted by those
who profess to beUeve 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 ne
cessary to convey him to a mad-house, where by copious bleed
ing he soon recovered his senses.* To those interested in the
controversy I leave to decide how far the unsupported testimony of
such a person, and in such a case, ought to be rehed 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 even
allowing him. to be sincere in the behef bf what he related, he
was a person very Ukely to. occasionally deceive both himself and
others.-f- Papillon's insanity had been preriously adverted to by Heineken ;
and this writer's remarks have produced the foUowing correction
from Mr. Ottley, who thus affords a fair specimen of his proneness
to leap to conclusions, not from the evidence of facts, but from the
mere suggestions of his own fancy : " Heineken takes some pains
* 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 fairiy lost his senses. See Papillon, Traits de la
Gravure en Bois, 8vo, 1766, Preface, p. xi. ; & p. 335, tom. i, et Suppleraent, p. 39.
t 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 produce 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.

46 ANTIQUITY OF
to show that poor Papillon was not in his right mind ; and, amongst
his other arguments, quotes a passage from his book, t. i, p. 335,
in which he says, ^Par un accident et unefatalite commune a plusieurs
graveurs, aussi bien qiia moi, Le Fevre est devenu aliene ^esprit:'
as if a little pleasantry of expression, such as the French writers,
especiaUy, have ever felt themselves at full Uberty to indulge in,
could reaUy constitute fit grounds for a statute of limacy."* Had
Mr. Ottley, instead of confidently correcting Heineken when the
latter had stated nothing but the fact, turned to the dted page
of PapiUon's volume, he would there have found that PapiUon was
indulging in no " Uttle pleasantry of expression,"! but was seriously
relating a melancholy fact of two brother artists losing thefr senses
about the same time as himself; and had he everreaxi the supple
ment, or third volume, of PapiUon's work, he would have seen, at
p. 39, the account which PapiUon himseK gives of his own insanity.
Ottley and Singer, insisting upon PapiUon's honesty, treat him
as K he were a very siUy personage notwithstanding, for they
commonly speak of him in a tone of condescending pity: "Poor
Papillon" is their usual phrase. The latter in particular rings
the changes most frequently upon PapiUon's integrity and sim
plicity ; and vrith reference to the period when he pretends to
have seen the engrarings executed by the twins, Mr. Singer speaks
of him as an " unsuspicious young man," as if his statement Had
been pubhshed at that age, whereas he must have been at least
sixty, according to his ovm account, before he was aware of the
" early epoch " of wood engraring which Captain de Greder's in
formation estabhshed ; and this " zealous and unsuspecting youth "
was at least sixty-eight when he gave his wonderful discovery
to the world. I remember once being asked charity in Westmore-
• Inquiry into the Early History of Engraving, vol, i, p. 23.
t « Poor Papillon," as Mr. Ottley calls him, rarely indulges in that pleasantry
of expression which appears to be peculiar to his countrymen. The following is
almost the only thing of the kind in his volumes. He is speaking of a certain
history of early engraving which is -not that of the Cunio : " Que cette Histoire,
rapportfe sans preuve dans un certain Mdmoire sur I'origine de I'lmprimerie,
comme si fut-l& I'epoque de I'invention des premiferes Estampes imprim6es, est
une fable des plus notoires, qui, en mon particulier, me fait rire de la criduliti ou
la temiriti de celui qui I'a voulu faire passer pour une vcrite constante." Tom i. p, 80,

ENGRAVING, 47
land, by an old female beggar, in the foUovring terms : " Please
to gi'e me a ha'-penny; I'm not varra reet i'my head, and I'm
seventy year auld, and ha'e nowther fayther nor mouther." I never
see " poor PapiUon" in Ottley's or Singer's pages without think
ing of the old beggar of Musgrave.
What some one has said of George Fox, the quaker, — " C'etoit
un jeune homme de moeurs irreprochables, et saintement fou," — is
a tolerably correct description of Papillon's character, — excepting
perhaps the sanctity of his foUy, — such as Mr. Singer supposes it
to have been when Captain de Greder explained to him the history
of the Cunio,— written circa 1380, in " ancient Swiss characters," —
and the engraved cartouch or ornamental title-page to the wood
cuts, which the amiable twins pictor. Sf scalp. The stoutest cham
pions forthe truth of his tale agree in speaking of him as if he were
an honest, conceited simpleton, who believed what had been told
him, .and who appears to have possessed the gift of converting a
most suspicious tale into sterUng truth, merely by impressing it
with the broad mark of his own creduhty, and circulating it bona-^
fide again. " Poor PapiUon, honest Papillon," took it for sterUng,
and how can we refuse to receive it of him ? If he had the ears
of Midas, he seems also to have been endowed with his golden
touch. •Haring disposed of the story as told by Papillon, it remains
now to notice " the learning and deep research " — it is impossible
to add " sense " — with which it has been supported by Zani, and
some of the arguments which have been aUeged 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 Ravenna at the very period
mentioned in the title-page to the cuts by the Cunio, and in the
history written in old Swiss characters. Upon this, and other similar
pieces of eridence, Mr. Ottley remarks as follows : " Now both
these cities [Ravenna and Imola] are in the ricinity of Faenza,
where the family, or a branch of it, is spoken of by vrriters of
undoubted credit in the tweKth, the thirteenth, and the fourteenth
centuries. These cfrcumstances, therefore, far from furnishing any

48 ANTIQUITY OF
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 PapiUon's statement can
never break through." "Argal," Rowley's poems are genuine, be
cause such a person as " Maistre William Canynge" Uved at Bristol
at the period when he is mentioned by the pseudo Rowley. Zani,
however, unfortunately for his own argument, let us know that
the names and residence of the family of the Cunio might be
obtained from " Toriduzzi's History of Faenza," printed in 1675.
Whether this book appeared in French, or not, prerious to the
pubhcation of Papillon's work, I have not been able to learn; but
a Swiss captain, who could read "old Gothic ItaUan," would cer
tainly find little difficulty in picking a couple of names out of a
modem Italian volume.
The reasoning faculties of Signor Zani appear to have been very
imperfectly developed, for he cites the foUowing as a case in point ;
and Mr. Ottley, who gives it in his text, seems to concur in its appUr
cabiUty. He is noticing the objections which have been made to
Papillon's account, on the ground of no prerious author mentioning
the existence of such a work, and that no person subsequenfly had
ever seen a copy. Zani's argument, as given by Mr. Ottiey,* is as
foUows : " 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, according to the testimony of credible
authors, have become a prey to the flames, or have perished during
the anarchy of revolutions, or the distresses occasioned by wars.
The learned part of my readers will not requfre examples. Never
theless, let him who wants such conriction search throughout
all the Ubraries of Europe for the work entitled 'Meditationes
Reverendissimi patris Domini Johannis de Turre-cremata,' printed
at Rome by Ulric Han, in 1467, and he wiU presently be informed
by the leamed Ubrarians, that of that edition there exists but one
copy, which is preserved in the library of Nuremberg. This book
is, therefore, unique. 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 argu
ment in support of the truth of Papillon's tale ! The comment,
• History of Engraving, vol. i. p. 28.

ENGRAVING. 49
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 Rome in 1468 and subse
quent years is proved by many copies of works which proceeded
from his press: and the existence of the identical " unique"* copy,
referred to by Zani, is vouched for by upwards of fifty leamed 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
himseK by the eridence of his own senses. But who, except Pa
piUon, has ever seen the engravings of the Cunio, executed upwards
of a hundred and thirty years prior to the earUest authentic speci
men of the art, and who has ever mentioned the place where they
were to be seen ? Had any person of equal credibiUty with Papillon
described a volume printed at Rome in 1285, the date of the pre
tended wood-cuts of the Cunio, the case would then have been in
point, and the decision of every person in the sUghtest degree ac
quainted with the subject, and not rendered bUnd to simple truth by
the ririd brightness of his own speculations, would be ineritably the
same ; that is, the evidence in both cases would not be reUed on.
" It is possible," says Zani, " that at this moment I may be bUnd-
ed by partiaUty to my own nation ; but I would almost assert, tbat
to deny the testimony of the French writer, would be like denying fhe
existence of light on a fine sun^shiny day." His. mental optics must
have been of a pecuhar 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 aU authorities, not merely respecting the particular work of the
Cunio, but of the frequent practice of such an art, and the fact of no
contemporary specimens being known, he writes as follows : " We
* There are, however, known to be three copies of this volume which Zani
supposed to be unique. E

50 ANTIQUITY OF
cannot safely argue from the silence of contemporaneous authorities,
th9,t 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 re
cords 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 hfe, that rule of eridence is a good one which
declares " de rum apparentihus et non-existentibus eodem est ratio ;"
and until it shaU be a maxim in logic that "we ought readily to
beUeve that to be true which we cannot prove to have been im
possible," Mr. Ottley's solution of the difficulty does not seem likely
to obtain general credence.
By a similar process of reasoning to that by which he concluded
that Marco Polo did not mention block-printing as being used in
China, because it was afready known to his countrymen, Mr. Ottley
decides that Papillon's narrative is not false, because it contains
prima facie grounds of suspicion. That the engravings in question
should be ascribed to two persons of noble family, and they so young,
is, it seems, " strong evidence that PapUlon's narrative is no for
gery ;" and " this apparent objection, therefore, to the truth of the
story becomes, upon due consideration, a powerful argument in its
favour."* " The stronger the Ught, the darker the shadow," has
become a proverb ; but Mr. Ottley is the first who has maintained
that the appearance of falsehood in a story is to be considered as
confirmatory of its truth.
At page 41, speaking of the probabiUty of wood engraving, for
the purpose of taking impressions, being practised at an earher
period than has been generaUy supposed, Mr. Ottley expresses him
self 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 early times are not now to be found. Tliey 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
aU probable. They were the toys of the day; and, after haring
served the temporary purpose for which they were manufactured,
•• Ottley's History of Engraving, vol. i, p. 43.

ENGRAVING.

51

were, no doubt, swept away to make room for others of newer
fashion." He thus requires those who entertain an opinion con
trary to his own to prove a negative ; while he assumes the point
in dispute as most clearly estabUshed in his own favour.
If such wood engrarings — "the toys of the day" — ^had been
known in the thfrteenth, or even the fourteenth century, is it not
Ukely that some mention would be made of them in the writings
of some one of the minstrels of the period to whom we are indebted
for so many minute particulars iUustrative of the state of society
at the period referred to ? Not the sUghtest allusion to anything
of the kind has hitherto been noticed in their writings. Respecting
such "toys" Boccacio is silent, and our countryman Chaucer says
not a word. Of wood-cuts not the least mention is made in Pe
trarch ; and Richard de Bury, bishop of Durham, who Uved 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 iUustrations of
devotional or historical subjects. Upon this question, affirmed by
PapUlon, and maintained as true by Zani and Ottley, contemporary
authorities are silent; and not one sohtary fact bearing distinctly
upon the point has been aUeged in support of Papillon's narrative.
Of trifling conjecture, and paradoxical assertion, the supply has
been more than the occasion seemed to require.

52

PROGRESS OF

CHAPTER IL

PROGRESS OF WOOD ENOBAVIIiG.

Playing-cards printed frora Wood-blocks.— Early Gennan Wood-engravers at
Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Ulm. — Card-makers and Wood-engravers in Venice
in 1441, — Figures of Saints engraved on wood, — The St, Christopher, the An
nunciation, and the St, Bridget in the coUection of Earl Spencer, with other
old wood-cuts, described. — Block-books. — ^The Apocalypse, the History of the
Virgin, ai*d the work called Biblia Pauperum. Speculum Salvationis. Figured
alphabet formeriy belonging to Sir George Beaumont. Ars Memorandi, and
other smaller block-books.

ROM 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 im
pressions on paper or parchment, with
ink,' from prominent lines, — ^was known
and practised in attesting documents in the
thfrteenth and fourteenth centuries. To
wards the end of the fourteenth, or about
the beginning of the fifteenth century,
there seems reason to beUeve that this principle was adopted by the
German card-makers for the purpose of marking the outlines of the
figures on their cards, which they afterwards coloured by means of a
stencil.* 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. BuUet
has claimed the invention for the French, and Heineken for the

• A stencil is a piece of pasteboard, or a thin plate of metal, pierced with lines
and figures, whioh are communicated to paper, parchment, or linen, by passing
a brush charged with ink or colour over the stencil.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 53
Germans ; while other writers have maintained that the game was
known in Italy earUer than in any other part of Europe, and that it
was introduced from the East*
From a passage discovered by M.Van Praet, in an old manu
script copy of the romance of Renard le Contrefaif, it appears that
cards were knovra in France about 1340, although Bullet was of
opinion that they 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 1397, 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, vmtten pre
rious to 1380, it would appear that the game of cards at that
period was in disrepute. 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 im
propriety of their behariour ; such as playing at dice and cards,
keeping bad company, and haunting taverns and cabaretSjf 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 leamed Jesuit Menestrier,
who was not aware of cards being mentioned by any earUer writer,
* Mr. Singer gives the following reason in support ofthe latter opinion : " As
it is acknowledged that we are indebted to them [the Arabians] for the dawn of
science and letters, and certainly for the game of chess, why may we not also have
derived from them our knowledge of playing-cards," — -Researches, p. 9. " Why
not" is a Novum Organum of tremendous power in speculation, but of litde use in
reality. f Bullet, Recherches Historiques sur les Cartes fl jouer,p, 18 aud p. 40, Mr,
Ottley, citing, erroneously, the words of the squire from Zani, says that they " are
supposed to be spoken by the king to his attendants.''

54 PROGRESS OF
concluded that they were then invented by Gringonneur to amuse
the king, who, in consequence of a coup de soleil, had been
attacked with dehrium, which had subsided into an almost con
tinual 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 prerious to 1380, it appears
likely that the game was but httle played until after that period*
Whether the figures on the cards supphed for the king's amuse
ment were drawn and coloured by the hand, or whether the out
lines were impressed from wood-blocks, and coloured by means of
a stencil, it is impossible to ascertain ; though it has been conjec
tured that, from the smallness of the sum paid for them, fhey were
of the latter description. That cards were cheap in 1397, however
they might be manufactured, may be presumed from the feet of
their then being in the hands of the working people.
To whatever 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 Nuremberg, under the year 1433, we find
" EU. Karfenmacherin ;" that is, EU. — probably for Elizabeth — ^the
card-maker. In the same book, under the year 1435, the name
of "Eliz. Karfenmacherin," probably the same person, is to be
found; and in 1438 there occurs the name "Margret Karten-
malerin" — Margaret the card-painter. It thus appears that the
earhest card-makers who are mentioned as Uving at Nuremberg
were females ; and it is worthy of note that the Germans seem to
have caUed cards " Karfen" 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 unvrilUng to admit that the name should be
borrowed either from Italy or France. He has not, however,
produced anything Uke proof in support of his opimon, which is
contradicted by the negative evidence of history.*
* Cards— Cort«7j— 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 burgers might
indulge themselves, provided they ventured only small sums. "Awzgenommen
rennen mit Pferder, Schiessen mit Armbrusten, Carten, Schofzagel, Pretspil, und

WOOD ENGRAVING. 55
The name Briefe, which the Germans give to cards, also signifies
letters [epistolae], as we are informed by Heineken. The meaning
of the word, however, is rather more general than the French term
lettres, or the Latin epistolce, which he gives as its synonyms, for
it is also apphed in the sense in which we sometimes use the word
" paper." For instance, " ein Brief Sfecknadeln, ein Brief Tabak,"
are Uterally translated by the words " a paper of pins, a paper of
tobacco ;" in which sense the word " Brief" would, in Latin, be
more correctly rendered by the term charta than epistola. As it
is in a similar sense — cognate with " paper," as used in the two pre
ceding examples — that " Briefe " is appUed to cards, I am incUned to
consider it as a translation of the Latin chartce, the ItaUan carfe,
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 na
tion, and after some time to have given them a name in their own
language. In the tovra-books of Nuremberg, the term Formschneider — ^figure-
cutter, — the name appropriated to engravers on wood, first occurs
in 1449 ;* 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 earUer, the business of the wood-en
graver proper, and that of the card-maker, were distinct The
primary meaning of the word form or forma is almost precisely the
same in most of the European languages. It has erroneously been
explained, in its relation to wood engraring, as signifying a mould,
whereas it simply means a shape or figure. The model of wood
which the carpenter makes for the metal-founder is properly a, firm,
and from it the latter prepares his mould in the sand. The word
firm, however, in course of time decUned from its primary significa-
Kugeln, umb einen pfenink zwen zu vier poten." That is : " Always excepting
horse-racing, shooting with cross-bows, cards, shovel-board, tric-trac, and bowls, at
which a man may bet from two-pence to a groat," — C, G, Von Murr, Journal zur
Kunstgesch, 2 Theii, S, 99.
• In the town-books of Nuremberg a Hans Formansneider occurs so early as
1397, which De Murr says is not ineant for " wood engraver," but is to be read
thus : Hans Forman, Schrieider ; that is, " Ihon Forman, maister-fashionere," or, in
modem 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
Murr, Journal, 2 Theii, S, 99.

56 PROGRESS OF
tiori, aild came to be used as expressive both of a model and a
mould. The term Formschneider, which appears to have been ori
ginaUy 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 Briefdruehers — card-
printers ; and, though there eridently appears to have been a distinc
tion between the two professions, yet we find that between 1470
and 1500 the Briefmalers aot only engraved figures occasionaUy, but
also printed books. The Formschneiders and the BriefinaJers, how
ever, continued to form but one guild or feUowship tiU long afiter
the art of wood engraving had made rapid strides towards perfec
tion, under the superintendence of such masters as Durer, Burg
mair, and Holbein, in the same manner as the barbers and surgeons
in our ovra country continued to form but one company, though the
"chirurgeon" had long ceased to trim beards and cut hafr, and the
barber had given up bleeding and purging to devote himseK more
exclusively to the omamental branch of his original profession.
" Kartenmacher and Kartenmaler," says Von Murr, " or Briefmaler,
as they were afterwards caUed, [1473,] were known in Grermany
eighty years previous to the invention of book-printing. The Kar
tenmacher was originaUy a Formschneider, though, after the prac
tice of cutting figures of saints and of sacred subjects was intro
duced, a distinction began to be estabUshed between the two pro
fessions." The German card-makers of Augsburg, Nuremberg, and Ulm,
appear to have 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 forfeit
ing such articles, and of being fined xxx Uv, xn soldi. This order
appears to have been made in consequence of a petition present
ed by the Venetian painters, wherein they set forth that " the art
and mystery of card-making and of printing figures, which were
practised in Venice, had faUen into total decay through the great
quantity of foreign playing-cards and coloured printed figures,

WOOD ENGRAVING. 57
which were brought into the city."* It is hence erident that the
art both of the German Karfenmacher and of the Formschneider was
practised in Venice in 1441 ; and, as it is then mentioned as being
in decay, it probably was known and practised there several years
before. Heineken, in his " Neue Nachrichten," gives an extract from a
MS. chronicle of the city of Uhn, completed in 1474, to the
foUovring effect: "Playirig-cards were seiit barrelvrise [that is, in
smaU casks] into Italy, Sicily, and also over sea, and bartered for
spices and other wares. From this we may judge of the number
of card-makers that resided here." The preceding paissage occurs
in the index, under the head, " Business of card-making." Heine
ken also gives the passage in his "Idee Generale," p. 245; but
from the French translation, which he there gives, it appears that
he had misunderstood the word "leglenweiss" — barrelwise — which
he renders " en baUots." In his " Neue Nachrichten," however, he
inserts the explanation between parentheses, ("das ist, in kleinen
Fassern") — i. e. in small casks ; which Mr. 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 Ger
many, but its diminutive, "legUn," — as if "lagelen" — is. still used
in Scotland for the riame of the ewe-milker's kif.
Some writers have been of opinion that the art of wood engrav
ing was derived from the practice of the ancient calligraphists and
illuminators 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 httle doubt; and it has been supposed that sten
cils and stamps were used aoi. only for the formation of capital
letters, but also for the impression of a whole volume. Ihre, in a
* " Conscioscia ehe I'arte e mestier delle carte & figure starapide, ehe se fano in
Venesia fe vegnudo a total defiaclion, e questo sia per la gran quantity de carte
a zugar, e fegure depente stampide, le qual vien fate de fuora de Venezia."
The curious docuraent in which the above passage occurs was discovered by
Temanza, an Italian architect, in an old book of rules and orders belonging to the
corapany of Venetian painters. His discovery, communicated in a letter to Count
Algarotti, appeared ih the Lettere Pittoriche, torn. v. p. 320, et sequent, and has
since been quoted by every writer who has written upon the subject.

58 PROGRESS OF
dissertation on the Gospels of UlphUas,* 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 healed
iron stamps. This, however, is denied by the leamed compUers of
the "Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique," who had seen other
volumes of a similar kind, the sUver letters of which eridently ap
peared to have been formed vrith a pen. A modem Italian author,
D. Vincenzo Requeno, has pubUshed a tract* to prove that many
supposed manuscripts from the tenth to the fourteenth century,
instead of being written vrith a pen were actuaUy impressed by
means of stamps. It is, however, extremely probable that he is
mistaken ; for if his pretended discoveries were true, this art of
stamping must have been very generaUy practised; and if so, it
surely would have been mentioned by some contemporary vmters.
Signor Requeno's examination, I am inclined to suspect, has not
been sufficiently precise ; for he seems to have been too vriUing to
find what he sought. In ahnost every coUection that he examined,
a pair of fine compasses being the test which he employed, he
discovered voluminous works on veUum, hitherto supposed to be
manuscript, but which according to his measurement were cer
tainly executed by means of a stamp.
It has been conjectured that the art of wood-engraving was em
ployed on sacred subjects, such as the figures of saints and holy per
sons, before it was appUed to the multipUcation of those "books of
Satan," playing-cards. It however seems not unlikely that it was
first employed in the manufacture of cards; and that the monks,
avaihng themselves of the same principle, shortly afterwards em
ployed the art of wood-engraring for the purpose of cfrculating 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 appear to have been known to the
common people of Suabia, and the adjacent districts, by the name
of Helgen or Helglein, a corruption of Heihgen, saints ; — a word
which in course of time they used to signify prints — estampes — ^gene-
* This celebrated version, in the Moeso-Gothic language, is preserved in the
library of Upsal in Sweden.
t Osservazioni suUa Chirotipografia, ossia Antica Arte di Stampare a mano.
Opera di D. Vincenzo Requeno, Roma 1810, 8vo.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 59
rally.* In France the same kind of cuts, probably stencil-coloured,
were called " dominos," — the affinity of which ;name with the German
Helgen is obrious. The word " domino" was subsequently used as
a name for coloured or marbled paper generaUy, and the makers of
such paper, as well as the engravers and colourers of wood-cuts,
were caUed *' dominotiers."f
As might, a priori, be concluded, supposing the Germans to have
been the first who appUed wood-engraving to card-making, the
earliest wood-cuts have been discovered, and in the greatest abun
dance, in that district where we first hear of the business of a
card-maker and a wood-engraver. From a convent, situated within
fifty miles of the city of Augsburg, where, in 1418, the first mention
of a Kartenmacher occurs, has been obtained the earUest wood
cut known, — the St. Christopher, now in the possession of Earl
Spencer, vrith 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 knovra, to not one of them, upon anything
hke probable grounds, can a higher degree of antiquity be assigned.
From 1423, therefore, as from a known epoch, the practice of wood
engraring, as appUed to pictorial representations, may be dated.
The first person who pubhshed an account of this most interesting
wood-cut waa Heineken, who appears to have inspected a greater
number of old wood-cuts and block-books than any other person, and
whose unwearied perseverance in searching after, and general ac
curacy in describing such early specimens of the art of wood-en
graring, are beyond aU praise. He observed 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 manu
script, entitled Laus Vikginis,:^ and finished in 1417, was left
• Fuseli, at p, 85 of Ottley's Inquiry; and Breitkopf, Versuch derUrsprung der
Spielkarten, 2 Theii, S. 175.
¦f Foumier, Dissertation sur I'Origine et les Progres de I'Art de Graver en
Bois, p, 79; and Papillon, Traits de la Gravure en Bois, tom, i, p. 20, and
Supplement, p. 80.
X " Liber iste, Laus Virginis intitulatus, cpntinet Lectiones Matutinales accom-
modatas Officio B. V. Marise per singulos anni dies," &c. At the beginning
ofthe volume is the following memorandum : " Istum librum legavit domna Anna
filia domni Stephani baronis de Gundelfingen, canonica in Biichow Aule bte.
Marie v'ginis in Buchshaim ord'is Cartusien. prope Memingen Augusten. dyoc." —
Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theii, S. 104—105.

60

PROGRESS OF

to the convent by Anna, canoness of Buchaw, who was living in
1427 ; but who probably died prerious to 1435. The foUowing
reduced copy will afford a tolerably correct idea of the composi
tion and style of engraring of the original cut, which is of a foho
size, being eleven and a quarter inches high, and eight and one-
eighth inches wide.*

anftofonftaftn ?iif m^mtts xAm^-y (fnUefhno rra*

The original affords a specimen of the combined talents of
the Formschneider or wood-engraver, and the Briefimaler or card-
• A fac-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 a
wretched imitation, engraved on copper, iu Jansen's Essai sur I'Origine de la
Gravure, tom. i.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 61
colourer. The engraved portions, such as are here represented, have
been taken off in dark colouring matter similar to printer's ink,
aftet which the impression appears to have been coloured by means
of a stencil. As the back of the cut cannot be seen, in consequence
of its being pasted on the cover of the volume, it cannot be as
certained 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 generaUty of those
which we find in books typographically executed from 1462, the
date of the Bamberg Fables, to 1493, when the often-cited Nu
remberg Chroriicle was printed. Amongst the heaps of rub
bish which "iUustrate" the latter, and which are announced in
the book itseK* as having been "got up" under the superintend
ence of Michael Wolgemuth, Albert Durer's master, and William
Pleydenwurf, both " most skilful in the art of painting," I cannot
find a single subject which either for spirit or feeUng can be com
pared 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 himseK.
To the left of the engraring the artist has introduced, with a noble
disregard of perspective,f what Bewick would have called a " bit of
Nature." In th^ foreground a figure is seen driving an ass loaded
with a sack towards a water-mill ; while 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 beU over the entrance to his dwelling — hold-
* The following announcement appears in the colophon of the Nuremberg
Chronicle. " Ad intuitum autem et preces providorura civium Sebaldi Schreyer
et Sebastiani Roraerraaister hune librura Anthonius Koberger Nurembergiae im
pressit. Adhibitis tamen viris matheraaticis pingendique arte peritissimis, Michaele
Wolgeraut et Wilhelrao Pleydenwurff', quorum solerti accuratissimaque aniraadver-
sione tum civitatum tum illustriVim virorum figurae insertse sunt. Consummatum
autera duodecima raensis Julii. Anno Saiutis lire 1493."
"t" As great a neglect of the rules of perspective may be seen in several of the
cuts in the famed edition of Theurdank, Nuremberg, 1517, which are supposed to
have been designed by Hans Burgmair, and engraved by Hans Schaufflein.

62 PROGRESS OF
ing a large lantern to direct St Christopher as he crosses the
stream. The two verses at the foot of the cut,
Cristofori faciem die quacunque 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 forra of death shall majce an end of thee.
They aUude to a popular superstition, common at that period in aU
CathoUc countries, which induced people to beUeve that the day on
which they should see a figure or image of St Christopher, they
should not meet with a riolent death, nor die without confession. To
this popular superstition Erasmus aUudes in his " Praise of FoUy ;"
and it is not unlikely, that to his faith in this article of beUel^ the
squfre, in Chaucer's " Canterbury Tales," wore
" A Cristofire on his brest, of silver shene."
The date " Millesimo cccd" xx^ fercio" — 1423 — which is seen at the
right-hand comer, at the foot of the impression, most undoubtedly
designates the year in which the engraring was made.
The engraring, though coarse, is yet 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 ex
pressed by means of few lines, is not executed in the very simplest
style of the art In the draperies a diminution and a thickening
of the Unes, where necessary to the effect, may be observed; and the
shades are indicated by means of paraUel lines both perpendicular,
obUque, and curved, as may be seen in the sainf s robe and mantie.
In many of the wood-cuts executed between 1462 and 1500, the
figures are expressed, and the drapery indicated, by simple lines
of one underiating degree of thickness, without the sUghtest at
tempt at shading by means of paraUel Unes running in a direc
tion different to those marking the folds of the drapery or the
outUnes of the figure. If mere rudeness of design, and simpU
city in the mode of execution, were to be considered as the sole
tests of antiquity in wood-engrarings, upwards of a hundred, posi
tively known to have been executed between 1470 and 1500,
might be produced as affording intrinsic evidence of their

WOOD ENGRAVING. 63
haring heen executed at a period antecedent to the date of the
St Christopher.,
In the Royal Library at Paris there is an impression of St.
Christopher vrith the youthful Christ, which was supposed to be
a dupUcate of that in the possession of Earl Spencer. On com
paring them, however, " it was quite erident," 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? Undoubt
edly it was that of Lord Spencer." At first Dr. Dibdin seems
to have 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 incUne to the supposition that
the Paris impression is a proof- — of one of the cheats of De Murr."*
On the inside of the first cover or " board " of the Laus Vfrginis,
the volume which contains the St. Christopher, there is also pasted a
wood engraring of the Annunciation, of a similar size to the above-
named cut, and impressed on the same kirid of paper. As they are
both worked off in the same kind of dark-coloured ink, and as they
evidently appear to have been coloured in the same manner, by
means of a stencil, there can be Uttle doubt of their being executed
about the same time. From the left-hand comer of the Annuncia
tion the figure of the Almighty has been tom out, possibly by
some person who considered that its introduction there was neither
consistent vrith the subject nor with good taste. The Holy Ghost,
• Bibliographical and Picturesque Tour, by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, D.D. p. 58,
vol. ii. second edition, 1829. The De Murr to whora Dr. Dibdin alludes, is C. G.
Von Murr, editor of the Journal of Arts and General Literature, published at Nu
remberg in 1775 and subsequent years. Von Murr was the first who published, in
the second volume ofhis journal, a facsimile, engraved on wood by Sebast. Roland,
of the Buxheim St. Christopher, from a tracing sent to hira by P. Krismer the
librarian of the convent. Von Murr, in his Memorabilia of the City of Nurem
berg, mentions that Breitkopf had seen a duplicate impression of the Buxheim
St, Christopher in the possession of M. De Birkenstock at Vienna.

64

PROGRESS OF

who appears descending from the Father upon the Virgin in the
material form of a dove, could not well be tom out without greatly
disfiguring the cut. An idea may be formed of the original from
the foUovring reduced copy.

Respecting these cuts, which in all probabiUty were engraved by
some one of the Formschneiders of Augsburg, Ulm, or Nurem
berg,* P. Krismer, who was librarian of the convent of Buxheim,
¦• Von Murr says of the St. Christopher " Man hat alle Ursachen von der Welt,
zu vermuthen, dass dieser Holzschnit entweder in Niimberg oder Augsburg verfer-
tiget worden," — There is every reason to suppose that this wood-cut was executed

WOOD ENGRAVING. 65
and who showed the volume in which they are pasted to Heine
ken, vmtes to Von Murr to the foUowing effect : " It wiU not be
superfluous if I here point out a mark, by which, inf my opinion,
old wood-engrarings 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, learing them to be afterwards filled up by the card
colourer [Briefinaler]. In the St. Christopher 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 re
presents the salutation of the Virgin by the angel Gabriel, or, as it
is also caUed, the Annunciation; and, from the omission of the
colours, the upper part of the body of the kneeUng 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 hUl, we see with sur
prise that the saint, together vrith the instruments of penance,
which are lying near him, and a whole forest beside, are suspend
ed in the air vrithout anything to support them, as the whole
of the ground had been left to be inserted with the penciL No
thing of this kind is to be seen in more recent wood-cuts when
the art had made greater progress. What the early wood engravers
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 an
other 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 every person who can read the
either in Nurembeg 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 hundred and fifteen frora Nuremberg. Von Murr does not notice the pre
tensions of Ulm, which on his own grounds are stronger than those of his native
city, Nuremberg.
• Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theii, S. 105, 106. F

66

PROGRESS OF

German inscription above the figure, and who is not rendered in
sensible to the force of truth by his attachment to theory, would
reasonably infer. Before making any remarks on this engraring,
I shaU first lay before the reader a reduced copy.

The figure writing is that of St Bridget of Sweden, who was bom
in 1302 and died in 1373. From the figure of the Vfrgin witii the
infant Christ in her arms we may suppose that the artist intended
to represent the pious widow writing an account of her risions or
revelations, in which she was frequently favoured with the appearance

WOOD ENGRAVING, 67
of the blessed Virgin. The pilgrim's hat, staff, and scrip probably
allude to her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which she was induced to
make in consequence of a rision. The letters S. P. Q. R. in a
shield, may perhaps be intended to denote the place, Rome, where
she saw the rision, and where she died. The Uon, the arms of
Sweden, and the crown at her feet, are most hkely 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, " O Brigifa bif Gof fur uns I" " O Bridget,
pray to God for us !" At the foot of the desk at which St Bridget
is writing are certain letters which I cannot very well make out.
They are meant perhaps for M, I, Chri, and intended to denote
the name of the Virgin and of Christ*
From the appearance of the back of this cut, as K it had been
rubbed smooth with a burnisher or rubber, there can be Uttle doubt
, of the impression haring been taken by means of friction. The
colouring matter of the engraring is much hghter than in the St.
Christopher and the Annunciation, and seems Uke distemper or
water-colour ; while that of the latter cuts appears, as has been al
ready observed, raore Uke printer's ink. It is coarsely coloured, and
apparently by the hand, unassisted with the stencil. The face and
hands are of a flesh colour. Her gown, as weU as the pilgrim's
hat and scrip, are of a dark grey ; her veil, which she wears hood-
wise, is partly black and partly white ; and the wimple which she
wears round her neck is also white. The bench and desk, the
pilgrim's staff, the letters S. P. Q. R,, the hon, the crown, and the
nimbus 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 compeUed, for consistency's sake,
in the subsequent portion of his work, when speaking of early
wood engrarings such as the above, to consider them, not as the
* St, Bridget was a favourite saint in Germany, where many religious establish
ments 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 offenbarung der Heiligen wittiben Birgitte von dera Kunigreich
Sweden,"
f2

68 PROGRESS OF
earliest known specimens of the art, but merely as wood-engrarings
such as were produced upwards of a hundred and thfrty years after
the amiable and accomphshed Cunio, a mere boy and a girl, had
in Italy produced a set of wood engrarings, one of which was so
well composed that Le Brun might be suspected of haring borrow
ed from it the design of one of his most compUcated 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 repubhc?'
His principal reasons for the preceding conjecture, are the
aneient 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 ItaUan schools. Now, vrith respect to the first of these
reasons, it is founded on the assumption that both those impres
sions 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
shaU have been examined, and the mark of the burnisher or
rubber found wanting, no person's mere opinion, however confi
dently 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 sfampare, with its cognates
in the different languages of Europe, was used at that period to
denote impression generaUy. 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 thefr being ItaUan would gain nothing,
unless we assume that the foreign printed cards and figures, which
were forbid to be imported into Venice, were produced either within
the territory of that state or in Italy ; for tiie word stampide —
"printed," is appUed to them as weU as those manufactured within
the city. Now we know that the German card-makers used to
send great quantities of cai-ds to Venice about the period when the
decree was made, while we have no evidence of any Itahan cities
manufacturing cards for exportation in 1441 ; it is therefore most

WOOD ENGRAVING. 69
likely that K the Venetians were acquainted with the use of the press
in taking impressions from wood-blocks, the Germans 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 Vene
tian wood-engravers were acquainted with the use of the press in
taking impressions while the Germans were not, it is very unhkely
that the latter would be able to undersell the Venetians in their
own city. Until something like a probable reason shall be given
for supposing the cuts in question to be productions " of Venice, or
some other district of the territory then under the dominion of that
repubhc," I shaU continue to believe that they were executed in the
district in which they were discovered, and which has suppUed to
the coUections of amateurs so many old wood-engravings of a similar
kind. No wood-engrarings executed in Italy, are known of a date
earher than those contained in the " Meditationes Johannis de
Turre-cremata," printed at Rome 1467, — and printed, be it observed,
by a German, Ulric Hahn. The circular wood-engravings in the
British Museum,* which Mr. Ottley says are indisputably Itahan,
and of the old dry taste of the fifteenth century, can scarcely be
referred to an earher period than 1500, and my own 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 exe
cuted between 1500 and 1520.
With respect to the resemblance which the Annunciation
bears to the style of the early ItaUan school, — I beg to ob
serve that it equaUy resembles many of the productions of
contemporary "schools" of England and France, as displayed
in many of the drawings contained in old illuminated manu
scripts. It would be no difficult matter to point out in many old
German engrarings attitudes at least as graceful as the Virgin's ;
and as to her drapery, which is said to be " whoUy unUke the an
gular sharpness, the stifihess and the flutter of the ancient Ger-
* Those cuts consist of illustrations of the New Testament. There are ten of
thera, apparently a portion of a larger series, in the British Museum ; and they are
marked in small letters, a. b, c, d, e, f. g. h. i. k. n. That which is raarked g. also
contains the words " Opus Jacobi." In this cut a specimen of cross-hatching raay
be observed, which was certainly very little practised — if at all — in Italy, before
1500.

70 PROGRESS OF
man school," I beg to observe that those pecuUarities are not of so
frequent occurrence in the works of German artists, whether sculp
tors, painters, or wood engravers, who lived before 1450, as in
the works of those who lived after that period. Angular sharpness
and flutter in the draperies are not so characteristic of early German
art generally, as of German art towards the end of the fifteenth,
and in the early part of the sixteenth century.
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 inchned to give to an
artist of the Low Countries; and he kindly directs the attention
of Coster's partisans to the shield of arms — ^probably intended for
those of Sweden — at the right-hand comer of the cut. Meerman
had discovered a seal, having in the centre a shield charged with
a Uon rampant — the bearing of the noble famUy of Brederode — a
label of three points, and the mark of illegitimacy- — a bend sinister,
and surrounded by the inscription, " S[igiUum] Lowrens Janssoen,"
which with him was sufficient eridence of its being the identical
seal of Laurence, the Coster or church- warden 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 probabiUty that a very considerable number of early
wood engravings — whether printed in books or separately — ^hitherto
beheved to be German, were really executed in Italy.
An old wood-engraring of the martyrdom of St Sebastian, of
a quarto size, with a short prayer underneath, and the date 1437,
apparently from the same block, was preserved in the monastery of
* 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 every eff'ect of linear perspective, as was
evidently Jlie case with the author of the performance before us." — Inquiry, p. 87.
Offences, however, scarcely less gross against tlie niles of linear perspective, are
to be found in the wood-cuts in the Adventures of Sir Tlieurdank, 1517, 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 con
temporaries, although in other respects the figures may be correctly drawn, and
tl)o general composition good.
t An engraving of tills seal is given in the first volume of Meerman's Origines
Typographic^.

Wood engraving. 71
St. Blaze, in the Black Forest on the confines of Suabia;* 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 Dunkelspu,l\
Sermonum Partem Hyemalem." It is of quarto size, being seven
and a half inches high, and five and a quarter wide, and is
inclosed within a border of a single hne. 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 Uke that
of no other wood-cut which I have ever seen. The cut itself re
presents three different subjects, the upper part of it being dirided
into two compartments, 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 youth
ful Christ presenting flowers to her, of which she has her lap
fuU. 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. :j:
Between these compartments there appears in manuscript the date
" anno dni 1443." Both the ink and the characters correspond with
those of the volume. This date indicates the time when the vreiter
had flnished 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 Matzenberger, of the order of the Holy Ghost,
and curate [plebanus] of the church of the Virgin Mary in Memmin-
• Heineken, Neue Nachrichten von Kiinstlern und Kunstsachen. iJresden und
Leipzig, 1786, S, 143.
t In the Table des Matiferes to Jansen's Essai sur I'Origine de la Gravure, Paris,
1808, we find " DUnkelspiil (Nicolas) graveur Allemand en 1443." After this
specimen of accuracy, it is rather surprising that we do not find St. Alexius referred
to also as "un graveur Allemand."
X St. Alexius returning unknown to his father's house, as a poor pilgrira, was
treated with great indignity by the servants.

72 PROGRESS OF
gen. The whole of the lower part of the cut is occupied with
Christ bearing his cross, at the moment that he meets vrith his
mother, whom one of the executioners appears to be driring a^ay.
Simon of Cyrene is seen assisting Christ to carry the cross. The
engraring is executed in a very coarse manner."*
In the Royal Library at Paris there is an ancient wood-cut of St
Bemardin, who is represented on a terrace, the pavement of which
consists of alternate squares of yellow, red, and green. In his right
hand the saint holds something resembUng 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 scroU 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 yeUow letters, " Sartcf Ber
nard'." The cut is surrounded by a border of foUage, vrith the
emblems of the four Evangehsts at the four comers, and at the
foot are the five foUovring Unes, with the date, impressed from
prominent lines : —
O . splendor . pudicitie . zelator . paupertatis . a
mator . innocentie . cultor . virginitatis lustra.
cors . apientie. protector , veritatis . thro
num .fulgidum . eterne . tnajestatis . para
nobis . additum . divine . pietatts . amen .(1454)
This rare cut was communicated to Jansen by M. Vanpraet, the
weU-knovra bibUographer and keeper of the Royal Library .f
" Haring risited 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 Ubraries 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 distributed and lost
among the laity, were in part preserved by the monks, who pasted
« Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theii, S. 113—115.
t 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,
lie is a mere compiler, who scarcely appears to have been able to distinguish a
wood-cut from a copper-plate engraving.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 73
them in the earUest printed books with which they furnished their
libraries." *
^ great many wood-cuts of devotional subjects, of a period
probably anterior to the invention of book-printing by Gutenberg,
have been discovered in Germany. They are all executed in a
rude style, and a considerable number of them are coloured. It is
not unUkely 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 itseK of the aid of wood engraring 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 risit them, is not yet extinct on the Continent In
Belgium it is stiU continued, and, I beUeve, 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 now lying before me.
It was given to a gentleman who risited 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.f
The next step in the progress of wood engraring, subsequent to
the production of single cuts, such as the St. Christopher, the An
nunciation, and the St. Bridget, in* each of which letters are spar
ingly introduced, appears to have been the apphcation of the ai't
to the production of those works which are known to bibUogra-
phers by the name of block-books : the most celebrated of which
are the Apocalypsis, seu Historia Sancti Johannis; the Historia
* Idde Gendrale, p. 251. Hartman Schedel, the compiler ofthe Nuremberg
Chronicle, was accustomed to paste both old wood-cuts and copper-plate engravings
within the covers ofhis books, many of which were preserved in the Library ofthe
Elector of Bavaria at Munich. — Idee Gen. p. 287 ; andVon Murr, Journal, 2 Theii,
S, 115,
f Heineken thus speaks of those old devotional cuts : " On trouve dans la Bi
bliotheque de Wolfenbuttel de cessortes d'estampes, qui reprfesentent diff'drens sujets
de I'histoire sainte et de devotion, avec du texte vis a vis de la figure, tout grav€
en bois, Ces pieces sont de la raerae grandeur que nos cartes a jouer : elles por
tent 3 pouces de hauteur sur 2 pouces 6 lignes de largeur," — Idee Generale, p, 249,

74 PROGRESS OF
Virginis ex Cantico Canticorum ; 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 o^ the
church, but chiefly from the book of Revelations. 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 re
presenting some of the most important passages in the Old and
New Testament, vrith texts either explaining the subject, or en
forcing the example of duty which it may afford. With the above,
the Speculum Humanse Salvationis is usuaUy, though improperly,
classed, as the whole of the text, in that which is most certamly
the flrst edition, is printed from moveable 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 Meerman and other
Dutch writers for thefr countryman, Laurence Coster: and al
though 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 hght 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 caUed
the Bibha Pauperum, appeared in 1432 ; the History of the Vfrgin
in 1433 ; the Apocalypse in 1434 ; and the Speculum in 1439.
For such assertions, however, he has not the sUghtest ground.
That the three first might appear at some period between 1430
and 1450, is not unhkely ;f but that the Speculum — the text of which
• A copy of the Speculum belonging to the city of Harlem had at the commence
ment, " Ex Officina Laurentii Joannis Costeri. An-no 1440." But this inscription
had been inserted bya modern hand. — Id^e G6n6rale, p, 449.
f In the catalogue of Dr. Kloss's Library, No, 2024, is a " Historia et Apocalypsis
Johannis 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 1417 to 1431. This appears to accord with the edition described by Heine
ken at page 360, excepting in the double a. No. 3 and 4," If the note referred to
were genuine, 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 redacteur's power of ascertaining who were the writers of ancient MS. notes
appears little short of miraculous.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 75
in fhe first edition was printed fiom mefal types — should be printed
before 1 460, is in the highest degree improbable.
Upon extremely shght grounds it has been conjectured that the
Bibha Pauperum, the Apocalypse, and the Ars Moriendi, — another
block-book, — were engraved before the year 1430. The Rev. T. H.
Horne, " a gentleman long and weU known for his famihar acquaint
ance 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 foUovring words were stamped: Hie Uber
relegatus fuit per Plebanum ecclesie" — with the date, according to
the best of the Rev. Mr. Home's recollection, 142(8). As he had
broken up the volume, and had parted with the conterits, he gave
the above information on the strength of his memory alone. He
was, however, confident that "the biriding was the ancient legi
timate one, and that the treatises had not been subsequently in
troduced into it, and that the date was 142 odd; but positively
anterior to 1430." *
In such a case as this, however, mere recoUection 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 engraring haring been practised by the Cunio and
others in the fourteenth century, refers to a print which a Monsieur
Thierry professed to have seen at Lyons, inscribed " Schoting of
Nuremberg," with the date 1384; and at p. 256 he aUudes to
it again in the foUovring 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 pubUshed 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, pubUshed 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 Bibha Pau
perum, in which it was probably intended to give the explanations
* Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 4, cited in Ottley's Inquiry, vol. i. p. 99.

76 PROGRESS OF
in moveable types undemeath the cuts, and probably of a later date
than 1470.*
It is surprising that the Rev. Mr. Home, who is no incurious ob
server of books, but an author who has written largely on Bib-
Uography, should not have carefully copied so remarkable a date,
or communicated it to a friend, when it might have been con
firmed by a careful examination of the binding; and stiU more
surprising is it that such binding should have been destroyed.
From the very fact of his not having paid more particular at
tention to this most important date, and from his having per
mitted the eridence of it to be destroyed, the Rev. Mr. Home
seems to be an incompetent witness. Who would think of
calUng a person to prove from recoUection the date of an old and
important deed, who, when he had it in his possession, was so
Uttle 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, K the date on the binding
were correct, it must have been adinitted as decisive of a fact
interesting to every bibUographer in Europe. It is not even men
tioned in what kind of numerals the date was expressed, whether in
Roman or Arabic. If the numerals had been Arabic, we might very
reasonably suppose that the Rev. 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 ofthe
fifteenth century, the seven may very easily be mistaken for a two.
The earUest ancient binding known, on which a date is impressed,
is, I beUeve, that described by Lafre.f It is that of a copy of " Sancti
Hieronymi Epistolae;" and the words, in the same manner as that
of the binding of which the Rev. Mr. Horne had so accurate a re
coUection, 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 foUows :
" Illigatus est Anno Domini 1469
Per me Johannem
Richenbach Capellanum
In Gyelingen,"
• Singer's Researches into the History of Playing-cards, p. 107.
f Index Librorum ab inventa Typographia ad annum 1500, No, 37,

WOOD ENGRAVING, 77
The numerals of the date it is to be observed were Arabic. In the
library of Dr. Kloss of Frankfort, sold in London by Sotheby and
Son in 1835, were two volumes, " St Augustini de Civitat Dei, Libri
xxu. 1469," and " St Augustini Confessiones" of the same date;
both of which were bound by " Johannes Capelianus in GysUngen,"
and who in the same manner had impressed his name on the covers
with the date 1470. Both volumes had belonged to " Dominus
Georgius Ruch de Gamundia."* That the volume formerly in
the Rev. Mr. Home's possession was bound by the curate of
GeissUngen I by no means pretend to say, though I am firmly of
opinion that it was bound subsequent to 1470, and that the cha
racter which he supposed to be a two was in reaUty 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 " CapeUanus."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 appear necessary to refer as illustrating the pro
gress of wood engraring, I shall confine myseK to a general notice
of the manner in which the cuts are executed, with occasional ob
servations on the designs, and such remarks as may be likely to
explain any pecuharity 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 Bibha Pauperum may have been executed, the former has
the appearance of being the earUest ; and in the absence of every
thing hke 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
* "Catalogue of the Library of Dr, Kloss of Frankfort," Nos, 460 and 468,
GeissUngen is about fifteen miles north-west of Ulm in Suabia, and Gemund about
twelve miles northward of GeissUngen,
-f Mr, Singer, at page 101 of his Researches into the History of Playing-
cards, speaks of " one Plebanus of Augsburg," as if Plebanus were a proper narae.
It has nearly the same meaning as our own word " Curate." " Plebanus, Par-
oecus. Curio, Sacerdos, qui plebi praeest; Italis, PiouaMo; CJallo-Belgis, Pleban.
Balbus in Catholico : ' Plebanus, dominus plebis. Presbyter, qui plebera regit.'
— Plebanura vero raaxirae vocant in ecclesiis cathedralibus seu coUegiatis canoni-
cum, cui plebis earum jurisdictioni subditoe cura committitur," — Du Cange, Glos-
sarium, in verbo " Plebanus,"

78 PROGRESS OF
Of the Apocalypse, — or " Historia Sancti Johannis Evangehstse
ejusque Visiones Apocalypticse," as it is mostly termed by bibhogra-
phers, for the book itself has no title, — Heineken mentions no less
than six editions, the earUest of which he considers to be that
described by him at page 367 of his " Idee Generale d'une Collec
tion complette d'Estampes." He, however, declares that the marks
by which he has assigned to each edition its comparative antiquity
are not infalhble. It is indeed very erident 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 sUghtest consequence in enabling any person to form a
correct opinion on the subject He notices two editions as the
first and second, and immediately after he mentions a cfrcumstance
which might almost entitle the thfrd to take precedence of them
both ; and that which he appears to have seen 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 observations, differs from the first and second,
both in the subjects and the descriptive text The fourth edition
is from the same blocks as the thfrd ; the only difference between
them being, that the fourth is without the letters in alphabetical
order which indicate the succession of the cuts. The fifth differed
from the third and fourth only in the text and the dfrecting letters,
as the designs were the same ; the only variations that could be
observed being extremely trifling. After haring described five
editions of the book, he decides that a sixth, which he saw after the
others, ought to be considered the earUest of alL* In aU 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
engraring ; the other side, which commonly bore the marks of the
rubber, being without a cut. The impressions when coUected into a
volume faced each other, so that the first and the last pages were
blank. The edition of the Apocalypse to which I shall refer in the
following remarks is that described by Heineken, at page 364, as
the fifth ; and the copy is that mentioned by hun, at page 367, as
• Id^e Gdn6rale, p. 334 — 370.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 79
then being in the coUection of M. 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 foho in modern red morocco binding, and has, when
perfect, consisted of fifty wood-engrarings, vrith 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 Bibha Pauperum. The paper, which
is somewhat 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 another of modern paper, in order to pre
serve it, the marks ofthe rubber at the back of each cut, as described
by Heineken, cannot be seen. The annexed cut is a reduced copy
of a paper-mark, which may be perceived on some of the .
leaves. It is very hke that numbered " rii." at p. 224, vol. i. f^*^
of Mr. Ottley's Inquiry, and which he says occurs in the
edition caUed the first Latin of the Speculum Salvationis.
It is nearly the same as that which is to be seen in Earl
Spencer's "Historia Virginis;" and Santander states that he has
noticed a similar mark in books printed at Cologne by Ufric Zell,
and Bart de Unkel ; at Louvain, by John Veldener and Conrad
Braen; and in books printed at Utrecht by Nic. Ketelaer and
Gerard de Leempt*
The size of the largest cuts, as defined by the plain lines which
form the border, is about ten and five-eighths inches high, by seven
and six-eighths inches wide ; of the smallest, ten and two-eighths
inches high, by seven and three-eighths wide.f The order in which
they are to be placed in binding is indicated by a letter of the
alphabet, — ^which serves the same purpose as our modern signatures,
— engraved in a conspicuous part of the cut For instance, the
* Ottley's Inquiry, vol, i. p. 225.
\ In the copy of the Biblia Pauperum in the British Museum,
Inches. Inches.
The largest cut is lOJ high, and 7| wide.
The smallest — IOJ — — 7J —
In the Historia Virginis, also in the British Museum,
The largest cut is 10| high, and 7| wide.
The smallest — 9| — — 6' —

80 PROGRESS OF
first two, which, as well as the others, might either face each other
or be pasted back to back, are each marked with the letter a ; the
two next vrith the letter bj and so on through the alphabet As
the alphabet — which has the i the same as the j, the v the same as
the u, and has not the w — ^became exhausted at the forty-sixth cut,
the forty-seventh and forty-eighth are marked with a character
which was used to represent the words "et cetera;" and the forty-
ninth and fiftieth, with a terminal abbreriation of the letters " us."
In the copy described by Heineken, he observed that the dfrecting
letters m and n were wanting in the twenty-fourth and twenty-
sixth cuts, and in the copy under consideration they are also
omitted. The m, however, appears to have been engraved, though
for some reason or other not to have been inked in taking an
impression ; for on a careful examination of this cut, — without being
aware at the time of Heineken haring noticed the omission, — I
thought that I could very plainly discern the indention of the
letter above one of the angels in the upper compartment of the
print Of the forty-eight cuts* contained in the Museum copy, the
greater number are dirided by a horizontal line, nearly in the
middle, and thus each consists of two compartments; of the remain
der, each is occupied by a single subject, which fills the whole page.
In some, the explanatory text consists only of two or three lines ;
and in others it occupies so large a space, that if it were set up
in moderately sized type, it would be sufficient to fiU a duodecimo
page. The characters are different from those in the History of
the Virgin and the Bibha Pauperum, and are smaUer than those of
the former, and generaUy larger and more distinctly cut than those
of the latter ; and although, as weU as in the two last-named books,
the words are much abbreriated, yet they are more easy to be
made out than the text of either of the others. The impressions
on the whole are better taken than those of the BibUa Pauperum,
• The two which are wanting are those numbered 36 and 37 — that is, the
second S, and the first t — in Heineken's collation. Although there is a memoran
dum at the commencement of the book that those cuts are wanting, yet the person
who has put in the numbers, in manuscript, at the foot of each, has not noticed the
omission, but has continued the numbers consecutively, marking that 36 which in a
perfect copy is 38, and so on to the rest. A reference to Heineken from those ma
nuscript nurabers subsequent to the thirty-fiftli cut would lead to error.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 81
tiiough in hghter-coloured ink, something Uke a greyish sepia, and
apparently of a thinner body. It does not appear to have contained
any oil, and is more hke distemper or water-colour than printer's
ink. From the manner in which the Unes are indented in the
paper, in several of the cuts, it is evident that they must either
have been subjected to a considerable degree of pressure or have
been very hard rubbed.
Although some of the figures bear a considerable degree of like
ness to others of the same kind in the Bibha Pauperum, I cannot
think that the designs for both books were made by the same per
son. The figures in the different works which most resemble each
other are those of saints and angels, whose form and expression
appear to have been represented according to a conventional staur
dard, to which most of the artists of the period conformed, in the
same manner as in representing the Almighty and Christ, whether
they were painters, glass-stainers, carvers, or wood engravers. In
many of the figures the drapery is broken into easy and natural
folds by means of single Unes; and if this were admitted as a
ground for assigning the cut of the Annunciation to Italy, vrith
"much greater reason might the Apocalypse be ascribed to the same
country. Without venturing to give an opinion whether the cuts were
engraved in Germany, HoUand, or in the Low Countries, the drawr
ing of many of the figures appears to correspond vrith the idea
that I have formed of the style of Greek art, such as it was in the
early part of the fifteenth century. St. John was the favourite
apostle of the Greeks, as St Peter was of the church of Rome ;
and as the Revelations were more especially addressed to the
churches of Greece, they were more generally read in that country
than in Western Europe. Artists mostly copy, in the heads which
they draw, the general expression of the country* to which they
belong, and where they have received their first impressions ; and
in the Apocalypse the character of several of the heads appears to
be decidedly Grecian. The general representation too of several
of risions would seem to have been suggested by a Greek who was
famiUar with that portion of the New Testament which was so
• Witness Rembrandt, who never gets rid of the Dutch character, no matter how
.elevated his subject may be. G

82 PROGRESS OF
generaUy jlerused in his native land, and whose annunciations and
figurative prophecies were, in the early part of the fifteenth century,
commonly supposed by his countrymen to relate to the Turks, who
at that time were triumphing over the cross. With them Mahomet
was the Antichrist of the Revelations, and his followers the people
bearing the mark of the beast, who were to persecute, and for a
time to hold in bondage, the members of the church of Christ. As
many Greeks, both artists and scholars, were driven from thefr
country by the oppression of the Turks several years before the
taking of Constantinople in 1453, I am induced to think that
to a Greek we owe the designs of this edition of the Apocalypse.
In the lower dirision of the twenty-thfrd cut, ill, representing the
fight of Michael and his angels with the dragon, the foUowing
shields are borne by two of the heavenly host.

The crescent, as is weU known, was one of the badges of Con
stantinople long prerious to its capture by the Turks. The sort
of cross in the other shield is very like that in the arms of the
knights of St. Constantine, a mihtary order which is said to have
been founded at Constantinople by the Emperor Isaac Angelus
Comnenus, in 1190. The above coincidences, though trifling, tend
to support the opinion that the designs were made by a Greek
artist. It is, however, possible that the badges on the shields may
have been suggested by the mere fancy of the designer, and that
they may equally resemble the heraldic bearings of some order or
of some indiriduals of Western Europe.
Though some of the designs are very indifferent, yet there are
others which display considerable abiUty, and several of the single
figures are decidedly superior to any that are contained in the other
block-books. They are drawn with greater rigour and feeling ; and
though the designs of the Biblia Pauperum show a greater know
ledge of the mechanism of art, yet the best of them, in point of

WOOD ENGRAVING.

83

expression and emphatic marking of character, are inferior to the
best in the Apocalypse.
With respect to the engraving, the cuts are executed in the
simplest manner, as there is not the least attempt at shading, by
means of cross Unes or hatchings, to be perceived in any one of
the designs. The most difficult part of the engraver's task, sup
posing the drawings to have been made by another person, would
be the cutting of the letters, which in several of the subjects must
have occupied a considerable portion of time, and have required no
smaU degree of care. The following is a reduced copy of the first
cut

^tsjotpuesbtphffltiB

t^<M<:6ftahp e/plowfeefraf?

In the upper portion of the cut, St John is seen addressing four
persons, three men and a woman ; and the text at the top informs
g2

84 PROGRESS OF
us of the success of his ministry : " Conversi ab idolis, p^r prediea-
tionem beafi Johannis, Drusiana et ceteri." — " By the preaching of St.
John, Drusiana and others are vrithdravra from their idols." The
letter a, a httle above the saint's out-stretched hand, indicates that
the cut is the first of the series. In the lower compartment St John
is seen baptizing Drusiana, who, as she stands naked in the font, is
of very small size compared with the saint. ITie situation in which
Drusiana is placed might be alleged in support of thefr pecuUar
tenets, either by the Baptists, who advocate immersion as the proper
mode of administering the rite, or by those who consider sprinkling
as sufficient ; but in each case with a difficulty which it would
not be easy to explain : for if Drusiana were to be baptized by
immersion, the font is too smaU to aUow her to be dipped overhead;
and if the rite were to be administered by mere sprinkling, why
is she standing naked in the font? To the right of the cut are
several figures, two of whom are prorided with axes, who seem
wishful to break open the door of the chapel in which St John and
his proselyte are seen. The inscription above thefr heads lets us
know that they are — " Culfores ydohrum explorantes facta ejus ;"
— " Worshippers of idols watching the saint's proceedings."
The cut on the opposite page is a copy of the eighteenth of tiie
Apocalypse, which is iUustrative of the xith and xiiitii chapters of
Revelations. The upper portion represents the execution of the
two witnesses of the Lord, who are in the tablet named Enoch and
Helyas, by the command of the beast which ascendeth out of the
bottomless pit, and which is Antichrist He is seen issuing his com
mands for the execution of the vritnesses ; and the face of the execu
tioner who has just used his sword, and who is looking towards him
with an expression of brutal exultation, might have served Albert
Durer for that of the mocker in his cut of Christ crowned with thorns.
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 : " Cumfinierunt Enoch et Helyas testimonium suum, bestia
quee ascendit de abisso fiaciet contra eos beUum, et vincef eos et occidef
illos." In our translation 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 shaU
overcome them and kill them,"

WOOD ENGRAVING.

85

The- tablet to the left contains the following inscription : " Et
jacebunt corpora eorum in plafeis, ef non sinent poni in monumentis."
It is formed of two passages, in the 8 th and 9 th verses of the
xith chapter of Revelations, 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."

yw Iftff W «t tl nx fiurut
tfimmi'tnoxtumeatis

iii ftjiettiu «M c^ J IjBllj a$ teftibnw fvaim
4iro?teo82cmri?h[(oe i <^— ^ 

In the lower compartment Antichrist is seen working his miracles,.
uprooting the two' oUve trees, typical of the two vritnesses whom he
had caused to be slain.* Two of his foUowers are seen kneeling
as if worshipping him, while more to the left are the supporters of the
true faith dehvered. into the hands of executioners. The design is
* Revelations, chap. xi. verses 3rd and 4th.

86 PROGRESS OF
illustrative of the xiiith chapter of Revelations. The foUovring is
the inscription above the figure of Antichrist: " Hie facit Anti-
christus miracula sua, et credentes in ipsum honorat, et incredentes
variis inferfkif poenis." — " Here Antichrist is performing his mira
cles, honouring those who believe in him, and putting the incredu
lous to death by various punishments." The leaves of the trees
which Antichrist has miraculously uprooted are extremely Uke
those of the tree of Ufe engraved in one of the cuts of the Biblia
Pauperum, and of which a copy wiU be found in a subsequent page.
In several of the cuts, the typical expressions which occur in the
texts are explained. Thus, in cut eighth, we are informed that "Stoke
albte animarum gloriam designanf." — " The white vestments denote
the glory of departed souls." In the lower compartment of the same
cut, the " coeli recessio" — "the opening of the heavens" — ^is explained
to be the communication of the Bible to the Gentiles. In the
lower compartment ofthe ninth cut, "much incense" is said to sig
nify the precepts of the Gospel ; the " censers," the hearts of the
Apostles; and the "golden altar," the Church. Of these and
various other similar expositions, Emanuel Swedenborg might have
availed himseK with advantage in his " Apocalypse Revealed."
The next block-book which demands notice is that named " His
toria seu Proridentia Virginis Mariae, ex Cantico Canticorum:"
that is, " The History or Prefiguration of the Vfrgin Mary, from the
Song of Songs." It is of small-foUo size, and consists of sixteen
leaves, 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 subjects, 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 precisely 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 original, executed by some engraver
in Holland. The principal ground on which he determines the
priority of the editions is, that in the one the text is much more
• lA6e Gfndrale, p. 376.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 87
correctly given than in the other; and he thence concludes that
the most correct would be the second. In this opinion I am
incUned to concur ; not that his rule will universaUy hold good, but
that in this case the conclusion which he has dravra seems the
most probable. The designs, it is admitted, are precisely the same ;
and as the cuts of the one would in aU probabihty be engraved
from tracings of the other, it is not hkely 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 ex
perience — 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 cor
rect, — 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 aUke. But as there are several errors
in the text of the first edition, it is most Ukely that many of them
would be discovered and corrected by the person at whose instance
the designs were copied for the second. DiametricaUy opposite
to this conclusion is that of Mr. Ottley, who argues as follows :*
" Heineken endeavours to draw another argument in favour of the
originaUty of the edition possessed by Pertusati, Verdussen, and
the Bodleian library, from the various errors, in that edition, in the
Latin inscriptions on the scroUs; 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 originally
invented the work must have been well acquainted vrith Latui,
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 inscriptions 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 en
graver of the edition, supposed by Mr. Ottley to be the first, was
well acquainted with Latin, and that he who engraved the pre
sumed second did not understand a word of that language, yet it
* Inquiry, vol, i, p, 140.

88 PROGRESS OF
by no means follows that the latter could not make a correct
tracing of the engraved text lying before him. Because a draughts
man is unacquainted with a language, it would certainly be most
erroneous to infer that he would be incapable of copying the cha
racters correctly. Besides, though it does not benefit his argu
ment a whit, it is surely assuming too much to assert that the
artist who made the designs also selected the texts, and that he
mu,sf have been well acquainted with Latin; and that he who
executed Mr. Ottley's presumed second edition was some ignorant
ordinary wood engraver. Did the artists who executed the feuv
similes in Mr. Ottley's work, or in Dr. Dibdin's " BibUotheca Spen
ceriana," understand the abbreriated Latin which in many instances
they had to engrave ; and did they in consequence of thefr 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 foUowing
inscription, from a wood block, impressed, as I understand him,
at the top of the first cut " liit 10 "Hit 'ootv^init^tit ba l^arte
Iter mtiti . 0OaC9 . en 10 qtXiett in latt) . Cati." This mscrip-
tion — which Heineken says is " en langue Flamande, ou pliitot en
Plat-Alemand" — ^may be expressed in EngUsh as foUows: "This
is the prefiguration of Mary the mother of God, and is in Latin
named the Canticles." Heineken expresses no doubt of this in
scription 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 espe
cially those of block-books." As this inscription, however, has been
found in the Harlem copy only, I am incUned to agree with Mr.
Ottley in considering it as " a siUy fraud, derised by some of the
compatriots of Coster for the purpose of estabUshing 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 be " the
most Gothic of all the block-books ; that it is different from them
both in the style of the designs and of the engraring; and that
the figures are very hke the ancient sculptures in the churches
* Inquiry, p. 140.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 89
of Germany." If by the term "Gothic" he means rude and taste
less, I beg to differ with him entirely ; for, though there be great
sameness in the subjects, yet the figures, generally, are more grace-
fuUy designed than those of any other block-book that I have seen.
Compared with them, those of the Bibha Pauperum and the Spe
culum might be termed « Gothic" indeed.

The above group, — from that which Heineken considers the first
editioii,— in which the figures are of the size of the originals, is
taken from the seventh subject in Mr. Ottley's enumeration;*
that isj, from the upper portion of the fourth cut.
* Inquiry, p. 144, vol. i.

90 PROGRESS OF
The text is the 14th verse of the ist chapter of the Song
of Solomon: " Bofrus cipri dilectus mens inter vineas enngadif
which in our Bible is translated : " My beloved is unto me as a
cluster of camphire in the rineyards of En-gedi." In every cut the
female figures are almost precisely the same, and the drapery and
the expression scarcely vary. From the easy and graceful attitudes
of his female figures, as well as from the manner in wliich they
are clothed, the artist may be considered as the Stoihard 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. Ottiey's enumeration. They are reduced copies from the

WOOD ENGRAVING. 91
originals in the first edition, and afford a correct idea of a complete
page.* On the scroll to the left, in the upper subject, the words are
intended for — " Trahe me, post fe curremus in odore unguenforum
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 are translated as follows : " Draw me, we vrill run after
thee, . . . [in] the savour of thy good ointments." In the scroll
to the right, the inscription is from the 14th verse of the nnd chap
ter: " Sonef vox fua in auribus meis, vox enim fua 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 foUow
ing inscription, from verse 10th, chapter nnd : " En dilectus meus
loquitur mihi, surge, propera, arnica mea :" in our Bible translated
thus : " My beloved spake, and said unto me. Rise 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 ! Oculi tui columbarum, absque eo quod
intrinsecus Mfet." The translation of this passage in our Bible does
not correspond vrith that of the Vulgate in the last clause : " Be
hold 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 Vfrgin are en
graved indicates a more advanced state of art than those in the
Apocalypse. The field of each cut is altogether better filled, 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-grounds are better put in, and throughout
the whole book may be observed several indications of a perception
of natural beauty; such as the occasional introduction of trees,
flowers, and animals. A rine-stock, with its ti-elhs, is happily and
tastefully introduced at folio 4 and foUo 10 ; and at foUo 12 a goat
and two sheep, dravm and engraved with considerable abiUty, are
perceived in the back-ground. Several other instances of a similar
kind might be pointed out as proofs that the artist, whoever he might
* The copy from which the preceding specimens are given was formerly the
property of the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, by whom it was lel't, with the rest ofhis
valuable collection of books, to the British Museum,

92 PROGRESS OF
be, was no unworthy precursor of Albert Durer ; and one whose
productions are as superior to the contemptible designs in the
Nuremberg Chronicle, as the wood-cuts designed by Stothard, in the
first editions of Rogers's poems, are superior to the head-pieces
which adorn the ballads printed in St. Giles's.
From a fancied deUcacy in the engraving of the cuts of the His
tory of the Virgin, Dr. Dibdin was led to conjecture that they were
the "production of some metalUc substance, and not struck off
from wooden blocks."* This speculation is the result of a total
ignorance of the practical part of wood engraving, and of the capa
biUties ofthe 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 engrarings being executed vrith a deUcacy
unattainable on wood, there is nothing in them — so far as the mere
cutting of fancied deUcate Unes is concerned — which a mere appren
tice 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 earhest engrarings are supposed to have been made.
Working on box, there is scarcely a hne in aU the series which
a skilful wood engraver could not spUt In a similar manner Mr.
John Landseer, — ^who knew very httle of the history of wood engrav
ing, and StiU less of the practice — conjectured from tiie frequent
occurrence of cross-hatching in the wood engravings of the six
teenth century, that they, instead of being cut on wood, had in
reaUty been executed on type-metal; although, as is known to
every wood engraver, the execution of such hatchings on type-
metal would be no less difficult than on wood. When, in refutation
of his opinion, he was shown impressions from such presumed blocks
or plates of t5rpe-metal, which, from certain marks in the impres
sions, had been eridently 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
vegetable putties or pastes that are capable of being hardened — or
any substance that is capable of being icorm-eaten."-\ Such " com-
• Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol, i. p. 36. Mr. Ottley cites.the passage at p. 139,
vol. i. of his Inquiry, for the purpose of expressing his dissent from the theory.
t Landseer's Lectures on the Art of Engraving, p. 201 — 205, Svo. London, 1807.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 93
menta opinionum" — the mere figments of conjecture— only deserve
notice in consequence of their extravagance. "The moon maybe
a grindstone," suggests a clever debater. — "No," repUes his oppo
nent, " that cannot be, for she is worm-eaten." — " Then she must
be a green-cheese, or something else that worms can eat" — To all
speculators who hke to suggest a difficulty that they may display
thefr ingenuity in solring it, I beg to offer a piece of adrice, which
is nothing the worse for being a baUad translation of a precept in
Horace : Should there e'er be a knot in your line.
First patiently try to unloose it ;
And draw not your whittle so fine.
Unless there 's occasion to use it.
The History of the Vfrgin, in the same manner as every other
ancient block-book, has been claimed for Coster by those who
ridiculously ascribe to him the invention both of wood engraring
and printing with moveable types; but if even the church^
warden of St. Bavon's in Harlem ever had handled a graver, or
made a design, or K he was even the cause of wood-cuts being
engraved by others, — ^every one of which assertions Ivery much
doubt, — I should yet feel strongly incUned to beUeve 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 Schcingauer, — one of the earhest German
copper-plate engravers, — who is said to have died in 1486, can fail,
on looking over the designs in the History of the Vfrgin, to notice
the resemblance which many of his female figures bear to those in
the above-named work. The similarity is too striking to have been
accidental. I am incUned to believe that Martin Schon must have
studied— and diUgently too — the subjects contained in the History, or
that he had received his professional education in a school which
might possibly be founded 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 Murr

94 PROGRESS OF
both bear testimony,* 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 Uke the
ancient sculptures in the churches of Germany, and Von Murr
asserts that such sculptures were probably Martm Schiin's models.
In two or three of the designs in the History of the Vfr^
several shields of arms are introduced, either home 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 will be found to belong to Ger
many rather than to HoUand ; and the charge on one of them,— two
fish back to back, — which is rather remarkable, and by no means
common, is one of the quarterings of the former Counts of Wirtem
berg, 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
Amadeus of Savoy as Pope, under the title of FeUx V, in oppo
sition to Eugene IV. In order to afford those who are better
acquainted vrith the subject an opportunity of judging for them
selves, 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 aU the shields of arms which occur in the book.
The foUowing cut of four figures, — a pope, two cardinals, and a
bishop, — occurs in the upper compartment of the nineteenth foUo.
The shield charged vrith a black eagle also occurs in the same
compartment.

* Heineken, Id^e Generale, p. 374. Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theii, S. 43.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 95
The preceding figures are seen looking over the battlements of a
house in which the Virgin, typical ofthe Church, is seen in bed. On a
scroU is inscribed the foUovring sentence, from the Song of Solomon,
chap. iii. v. 2 : " Surgam et circumibo civitafem ; per vicos ef plateas
queram quem diligit anima mea :" which is thus translated in our
Bible : " I will 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, vrith her three attendants, are seen in a
street, where two men on horseback 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 undemeath the wood-cut above
given. Upon a scroll is this inscription, from Solomon'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 Ufe of the Virgin, described in the
Canticles, were assumed by commentators to be typical of the
history of the Church, I am inchned to think that the above
cut may contain an aUusion to the disputes between Pope Eu
gene IV. and the Council assembled at Basle in 1439. The pas
sage in the first inscription, " I vriU 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 treatment 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; per
jured and incorrigible." On the shield borne by the figure of a
pope wearing a, triple crown, is a fleur-de-hs ; but whether or no
this flower formed part of the armorial distinctions of Amadeus
Duke of Savoy, whom the council chose for their new pope, I have
not been able to ascertain. The hon borne by the second flgure,
a cardinal, is too general a cognizance to be assigned to any par
ticular 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 are the arms of the city of Ratisbon.

96 PROGRESS OF
The foUovring shields are home 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 further than that the double-
headed eagle is the arms of the German empfre. The other three
I leave to be deciphered by others. The second, with an indented
chief, and something Uke a rose in the field, wiU be found, I am
incUned to think, to be the arms of some town or city in Wirtem
berg or Alsace. I give the three inscriptions here, not that they are
Ukely to throw any hght on the subject, but because the thfrd
has not hitherto been deciphered. They are aU frota the ivth
chapter of the Song of Solomon. The first is from verse 12:
" Orfus conclusus est soror, mea sposa ; ortus con£lusus,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: " Fon,s orforum, puteus aquarum vivencium qua
fluunt impetu de Lybano :" in our Bible : " A foimtain of gardens,
a weU of Uving waters, and streams from Lebanon." The thfrd is
from verse 16 : ".Surge Aquilo ; veni Auster, per/la ortum et fiuant
aromafa illius :" in our Bible : « Awake, O north wind ; and come,
thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow
out."

In the upper dirision of foUo 15, which is the twenty-nintii
subject in Mr. Ottley's enumeration, tiie above shields occur.
They are suspended on the waUs of a tower, which is represented

WOOD ENGRAVING. 97
by an inscription as "the armoury whereon hang a thousand buck
lers, aU shields of mighty men." *
On the first four I shaU make no remark beyond calling the
attention of those skiUed in German heraldry to the remarkable
charge in the first shield, which appears something hke a cray-fish.
The sixth, " two trouts hauriant and addorsed," is one of the
quarterings of the house of Wirtemberg as lords of Mompelgard.
The seventh is charged with three crovras, the arms of the city of
Cologne. The charge of the eighth I take to be three cinquefoils,
which are one of the quarterings of the family of Aremberg. The
eross-keys in the ninth are the arms of the city of Ratisbon.
The four foUovring shields occur in the lower dirision of foho
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 thfrd chapter of Solomon's Song. " En lecfulum
Salomonis sexaginfa fiorfes ambiunt, omnes tenenfes gladios ;" in our
Bible : " Behold his bed, which is Solomon's ; three score valiant
men are about it  they aU hold swords."

. The first three of these shields I shall leave to be assigned by
others. The fourth, which is charged with a rose, was the arms of
Hagenaui a tovra. in Alsace.
As. so httle is knovvn 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 hkely to afford even a gleam of
Ught, deserring of notice. It is for this reason that I have given
the different shields contained in this and the preceding pages ;
not in the behef that I have made any important discovery, or
estabUshed any considerable facts ; but with the desire of directing
to this subject the attention of others, whose further inquiries and
comparisons may perhaps estabUsh such a perfect identity between
• Song of Solomon, chap, iv. verse 4, H

98 PROGRESS OF
the arms of a particular district, and those contained in the volume,
as may determine the probable locaUty of the place where it was
executed. The coincidences which I have noticed were not sought
for. Happening to be tuming over Sebastian Munster's Cosmo
graphy 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 Wfrtem-
berg,* and those in the 15th foho of the History, were the same.
The other instances of correspondence were also discovered vrithout
search, from haring occasionally, in tracmg the progress of wood
engraring, 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 thefr
impressions so correctly ; for in aU the block-books which I have
seen, where friction has eridently been the means employed to
obtain the impression, I have only noticed two subjects in which
the Unes appeared double in consequence of the shifting of the
paper. From the want of body in the ink, which appears in the
Apocalypse to have been Uttle more than water-colour, it is not
likely the paper could be used in a damp state, otherwise the ink
would run or spread ; and, even if this difficulty 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 impres-
sion,f Even with such printer's ink as is used in the present day,
— which, being tenacious, renders the paper in taking an impress
sion by means of friction much less Uable to sUp 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 ofthe
History of the Virgin have been engraved on the same block. His
observations on this subject are as follows : " Upon first rievring
* Those arms are to be seen in Sebastiani Munsteri Cosmographia, cap, De
Regione Wirtenbergensi, p, 592. Folio, Basilise, apud Henrichum Petri, 1554,
t The backs of many of the old wood-cuts which have been taken by means of
friction, 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.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 99
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, therefore, 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 stiU 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 vrith the rest ; and, indeed, in Lord Spen
cer's copy, each sheet, being mounted upon a guard, distinctly shows
itseK entfre." f
The appearance of a corresponding fracture in two adjacent
pages would certainly render it Ukely that both were engraved
on the same block ; though I should Uke to have an opportunity
of satisfying myseK by inspection whether such appearances are
reaUy occasioned by a fracture or not; for it is rather singular
that such appearances should be observable on ^e first and the
last blocks only. I always reluctantly speculate, except on some
thing 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 equaUy reasonable
to infer that eight subjects instead of four were engraved on the
same block ? A block containing only two pages would be about
seventeen inches by ten, aUowing for inner margins ; and to obtain
clear impressions from it by means of friction, on dry thick paper,
and vrith mere water-colour ink, would be a task of such difficulty
that I cannot conceive how it could be performed. No traces of
* This must have been a copy of that which Heineken calls the second edition ;
no such appearances of a fracture or joining are to be seen in the first,
t Inquiry, p. 1-42,
H 2

100 PROGRESS 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, vrith
which we are now unacquainted.
Heineken describes an edition of the Apocalypse consisting of
forty-eight leaves, with cuts on one side only, which, when-bound,
form a volume of three "gatherings," or coUections, each containing
sixteen leaves. Each of these gatherings is formed by eight foUo
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 15th; the
3rd and 14th; the 4th and 13th; the 5th and 12th; the 6th and
llth; the 7th and 10th; and the 8th and 9th, are, each pafr
respectively, impressed on the same side of the same sheet These
sheets when folded for binding are then placed in such a man
ner that the first is opposite the second; the thfrd opposite the
fourth, and so on throughout 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 famUiar iUustration of this mode
of folding, adopted by the early wood engravers before they were
accustomed to impress thefr cuts on both sides of a leaf, is afforded
by forming a sheet of paper into a Uttle book of sixteen leaves, and
numbering the second and third pages 1 and 2, learing two pages
blank ; then numbering the fifth and sixth 3 and 4, and so to No.
16, which wiU stand opposite to No. 15, and have its back, forming
the outer page of the gathering, unimpressed.
Of aU the block-books, that which is now commonly called

WOOD ENGRAVING. 101
" BIBLIA PAUPERUM," — the 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 cha
racters or types. This title, however, has given rise to an error
which certain learned bibUographers have without the least exami
nation adopted, and have afterwards given to the public considerably
enlarged, at least, if not corrected.* It has been gravely stated
that this book, whose text is in abbreriated Latin, was printed
for the use of the poor in an age when even the rich could scarcely
read their ovra language. Manuscripts of the Bible were certainly
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 " BibUa 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 Roxburghe 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 "Bibha Pauperum," I am wilUng 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 myseK to beUeve. 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 Uterary attainments.
The name " Bibha Pauperum" was unknown to Schelhorn and
* " It is a manual or kind of Catechism of the Bible," says the Rev, T, H,
Horne, "for the use of young persons and ofthe common people, whence it
derives its name Biblia 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 oom..
paratively leamed at that period to be able to read cramped Latin, when many a
priest could scarcely spell his breviary, ;

102 PROGRESS OF
Schcepflin, and was not adopted by Meerman. Schelhom, who was
the first that pubUshed 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 mankind,"* Schcepflin caUs it, " Vaticinia Veteris
Testamenti de Christo;"f — "Prophecies of the Old Testament
conceming Christ :" but neither this title, nor the description of
Schelhom, 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. The title
which Meerman gives to it is more accurately descriptive of the
contents : " Figurae typicae Veteris atque antitypicae Nori Testa
menti, seu Historia Jesu Christi in figuris;" that is, "Typical
figures of the Old Testament and antitypical of the New, or the
History of Jesus Christ pictoriaUy represented.''^
Heineken appears to have been the first who gave to this book
the name " BibUa 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." § 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 veUum of the fourteenth century,
in which the figures were drawn and coloured by hand. || Meerman,
however, though without adopting the titie, had preriously noticed
• J. G, Schelhorn, Amoenitates Literaris, Tom. iv. p. 297. 8vo, Francofurt.
& Lips, 1730. Lichtenberger, Initia Typographica, p. 4, says erroneously, that
Schelhorn's fac-simile was engraved on copper. It is on wood, as Schelhom him
self states at p, 296,
t J, D, Schcepflin, Vindicise Typographies, p. 7, 4to, Argentorati, 1760.
X Ger. Meerman, Origines Typographies, P. 1, p. 241. 4to, Hagse Comit,
1765, § Idee Generale, p, 292, note.
II Camus, speaking of one of those manuscripts corapared with the block-book,
observes : " Ce dernier abrfeg^ m&ritoit bien le nom de Biblia Pauperum,
pa comparison aux tableaux complets de la Bible que je viens d'indiquer, Des
ouvrages tels que les tableaux complets ne pouvoient 6tre que Biblia Divitom."
—Notice d'un Livre imprim^ k Bamberg en 1462, p, 12, note. 4to, Paris, 1800,

WOOD ENGRAVING. 103
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 manu
script on veUum, which the poor could as Uttle afford to pur
chase 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 " BibUa 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 Ukely that its ancient title
ever was " BibUa Pauperum ;" while, on the contrary, there seems
every reason to beUeve that Heineken had copied an abridged title
and thus ^ven currency to an error.
Heineken says that he observed the inscription, " Incipit Bibha
Pauperum," in a manuscript in the Ubrary at WoKenbuttel, written
on veUum in a Gothic character, which appeared to be of the
fourteenth century. The figures, which were badly designed, were
coloured in distemper, and the explanatory text was in Latin
rhyme. It is surprising that neither Heineken nor any other
bibUographer should have suspected that a word was wanting in
the above supposed title, more especiaUy as the word wanting
might have been so readily suggested by another work, so much
resembUng the pretended " Biblia Pauperum" that the one has
frequently been confounded vrith the other.* In the proemium of
this other work, which is no other than the " Speculum Salva
tionis," the writer expressly states that he has compiled it " propter
pauperes predicatores," — iox poor preachers.
jprelricttt' p'Jemtu' Jujtis liJri Ire conte'tis compilabt,
<St ii'pter ])au$'es p'tricatares pc apyonere curat) t;
(Sut et fotte neitutcru't totum Ittiruni sibt co'p'atc,
^ossu't CI ipso p'icmio, si eciu't p'tricarc.
This preface of contents, stating what this book's about.
For the sake of all poor -preachers I have fairly written out ;
If the purchase ofthe book entire should be above their reach.
This preface yet may serve them, if they know but how to preach.
* " Entre ces abr^g^s [de la Bible] on remarque le Specclvm Humanse Salva
tionis et le Biblia Pauperum, Ces deux ouvrages ont beaucoup d'afiinitd

104 PROGRESS OF
That the other book might be caUed " BibUa Pauperum Predi-
catorum," in consequence of its general use by mendicant preachers,
I can readily beUeve; and I am persuaded that the omission of
the word " predicatorum" in the inscription copied by Heineken
has given rise to the popular error, that the pretended "Bibha
Pauperum" was a kind of cheap pictorial Bible,' especially intended
for the use of the poor. It is, in fact, a series of " skeleton ser
mons" ornamented with wood-cuts to warm the preacher's imagkia''
tion, and stored with texts to assist his memory. In speaking of
this book in. future, I shaU always refer to it as the "Biblia Paupe
rum Predicatorum," — " the Poor Preachers' Bible ;" for the con
tinuance of its former title only tends, in my opinion, to dissemi
nate an error,
Nyerup, who in 1784 pubhshed an "Account of such books as
were read in schools in Denmark prior to the Reformation,"* ob
jected to the title " Bibha Pauperum," as he had seen portions of a
manuscript copy in which the drawings were richly coloured. The
title which he preferred was Biblia Typico-Harmonica. In this
objection, however, Camus does not concur : " It is not from the
embelhshments of a single copy," he observes, "that we ought
to judge of the current price of a book; and, besides, we must
not forget to take into consideration the other motives which
might suggest the title, ' Bible of the Poor,' for we have proofe
that other abridgements of greater extent were caUed ' Poor men's
books.' Such is the 'Bibha Pauperum' of St Bonaventure, con
sisting of extracts for the use of preaches, and the 'Dictionarius
Pauperum.' Of the last the title is explamed in the book itseK:
' Incipit summula omnibus verbi divini seminatoribus pemecessaria-' "
It is surprising that Camus did not perceive that the very tities
which he cites miUtate against the opinion of the " BibUa" bemg
intended for the use of poor men. St Bonaventure's work, and
the Dictionary, which he refers to as instances of "Poor men's
books," both bear on the very face of them a refutation of his
entre eux pour le volume, le choix des histoires. les morality, la composition
des tableaux. lis existent en manuscrits dans plusieurs bibliothfeques."— Camus,
Notice d'un Livre, &c. p. 12.
• " Librorum qui ante Reformationem in scholis Daniae legebantur, Notitia.
Ilafniae, 1784;" referred to by Camus, Notice d'un Livre, &c. p. 10.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 105
opinion, for in the works themselves it is distinctly stated that they
were compiled, not " ad usum pauperum hominum ;" but " ad usum
¦^aM^ettxm predicatorum, et verbi divini seminaforum ;" not for the use
of " poor men," but for " poor preachers and teachers of the divine
ward." Camus has unwittingly supphed a club to batter his own
argument to pieces.
Of the " BibUa Pauperum Predicatorum," there are, according
to Heineken, five different editions vrith the text in Latin. Four of
them contain each forty leaves, printed on one side only from wood
blocks by means of friction, and which differ from each other in
so trifling a degree, that it is not unhkely that three of them are
from the same set of blocks. The other edition, — the fifth describ
ed by Heineken — contains fifty leaves, printed in a similar manner,
but apparently with the figures designed by a different artist. Be
sides the above, there are two different editions, also from wood
blocks, with the text in German : one vrith the date 1470 ; and the
other, 1471 or 1475, for the last numeral appears as Uke a 1
as a 5. There are also two editions, one Latin, and the other
German, with the text printed from moveable types by Albert
Pfister, at Bamberg, about 1462.
Without pretending to decide on the priority of the first five edi
tions, — as I have not been able to perceive any sufficient marks from
which the order in which they were pubUshed might be ascertained,
— I shall here give a brief account of a copy of that edition which
Heineken ranks as the third. It is in the King's Library at the
British Museum, and was formerly in the coUection of Monsieur
Gaignat, at whose sale it was bought for George III.
It is a small foUo of forty leaves, impressed on one side only, in
order that the blank pages niight be pasted together, so that two
of. the printed sides would thus form only one leaf. The order of
the first twenty pages is indicated by the letters of the alphabet,
from a, to b» and of the second twenty by the same letters, haring
as a distinguishing mark a point both before and after them, thus :
. af . In that which Heineken considers the first edition, the letters
It, 0, V, 0, of the second alphabet, making pages 33, 34, 37, and 38,
want those two distinguishing points, which, according to him, are to
be found in each of the other three Latin editions of forty pages each.
Mr. Ottley has, however, observed that Earl Spencer's copy wants

106 PROGRESS OF
the points, — on each side of the letters tt, Ot V, % of the second
alphabet, — thus agreeing vrith that which Heineken calls the first
edition, while in all other respects it answers the description which
that writer gives of the presumed second. Mr. Ottley says, that
Heineken errs in asserting that the want of those points on each
side of the said letters is a distmction exclusively belonging to
the first edition, since the edition called by him the second is hke-
vrise without them.* In fact, the variations noticed by Heineken
are not only insufficient to enable a person to judge of the prior
ity of the editions, but they are such as might with the greatest
ease be introduced into a block after a certain number of copies
had been taken off. Those which he considers as distinguishing
marks might easily be broken away by the burnisher or mbber,
and replaced by the insertion of other pieces, differing in a slight
degree. From the trifling variations noticed by Heineken f in
the first three editions, it is not unlikely that they were aU taken
from the same blocks. Each of the triangular ornaments in which
he has observed a difference, might easUy be re-inserted in the
event of its being injured in taking an impression. The tiara of
Moses, in page 35, letter . )| . would be pecuUarly liable to ao-
eident in taking an impression by friction, and I am disposed to
think that a part of it has been broken off, and that in repafr
ing it a trifling alteration has been made in the ornament on its
top. Heineken, noticing the alteration, has considered it as a
criterion of two different editions, whUe in aU probabiUty it only
marks a trifling variety in copies taken from the same blocks.
On each page are four portraits, — ^two at the top, and two at
the bottom, — intended for the prophets, and other holy men, whose
writings are cited in the text The middle part of the page be
tween each pair of portraits consists of three compartments, each
of which is occupied vrith a subject from the Old or the New Testa
ment In the 14th page, however, letter 0, two of the compart
ments — that in the centre, and the adjoining one to the right — are
both occupied by the same subject, Christ's entry into Jerusalem.
The greatest portion of the explanatory text is at the top on each
side of the uppermost portraits ; and on each side of those below
• Inquiry, vol, i, p, 129, t Id^e G^n^rale, p. 307, 308.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

107

there is a Leonine, or rhyming Latin, verse. A similar verse
undemeath those portraits forms the concluding line of each page.
Texts of Scripture, and moral or explanatory sentences, haring
reference to the subjects in the three compartments, also appear
on scrolls. The foUovring cut, which is a reduced copy of the
14th page, letter ft, vriU afford a better idea of the arrangement of
the subjects, and of the explanatory texts, than any lengthened
description.

The whole of this subject — both text and figures — appears intend
ed to inculcate the necessity of restraining appetite. The inscription
to the right, at the top, contains a reference to the 3rd chapter of
Genesis, wherein there is to be found an account of the tempta-

108 PROGRESS OF
tion and faU of Adam and Eve, who were induced by the Serpent to
taste the forbidden fruit This temptation of our first parents
through the medium of the palate, was, as may be gathered from
the same inscription, figurative of the temptation of Christ after his
fasting forty days in the wildemess, when the Deril came to him
and said, " If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones
be made bread."
In the inscription to the left, reference is made to the 25th
chapter of Genesis, as containing an account of Esau, who, in con
sequence of his unrestrained appetite, sold his birth-right for a mess
of pottage.
In the compartments in the middle of the page, are three iUus
trations of the preceding text In the centre is seen the pattern
to imitate, — Christ resisting the temptation of the Deril ; and on
each side the examples to deter, — Adam and Eve with the for
bidden fruit ; and hungry Esau receiving the mess of pottage from
Jacob. Undemeath the two half-length figures at the top, is inscribed
"David 34," and " Ysaie xxix."* The numerals are probably intend
ed to indicate the chapters in the Psalms, and in the Prophecies of
Isaiah, where the inscriptions on the adjacent scrolls are to be found.
On similar scrolls, towards the bottom of the page, are references to
the 7th chapter of the 2nd book of Kings, and to the 16th chapter
of Job. The two haK-length figures are most likely intended for
the writers of those sacred books. The hkenesses of the prophets
and holy persons, thus introduced at the top and bottom of each
page, are, as Schelhorn has observed,-]- purely imaginary ; for the
same character is seldom seen twice with the same face. As most
of the supposed figurative descriptions of Christ and his ministry
are to be found in the Psalms, and in the Prophecies of Isaiah, the
portraits of Darid and the last-named prophet are those which
most frequently occur; and the designer seems to have been
• The passages referred to are probably the Sth, 9th, and lOth verses of the
xxxivth Psalm ; and the Sth verse of the xxixth chapter of Isaiah.
f " Has autem icones ex sola sculptoris imaginatione et arbitrio fluxisse vei
inde liquet, quod idem scriptor sacer in diversis foliis diversa plerumque et alia
facie delineatus sistatur, sicuti, v. g, Esaias ac David, soepius obvii, Protei instar,
varias induerunt in hoc opere forraas." — Amoenitates Liteiuris, Tom. iv. p. 297.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

109

determined that neither the king nor the prophet should ever
appear tvrice with the same hkeness.
The rhyming verses are as foUows. That to the right, under
neath the subject of Adam and Eve :
Serpens vicit, Adam vetitam sibi sugerat escam.
The other, on the opposite side, undemeath Jacob and Esau :
Lentis ob ardorem proprium male perdit honorem.
And the third, at the bottom of the page, underneath the two
portraits : Christum teraptavit Sathanas ut eura superaret.
The foUowing cuts are fac-similes, the size of the originals, of
each of the compartments of the page referred to, and of which a
reduced copy has been afready given.

y\\\\\\\\\\\\^^\\\/////Ar^A^^////.///^

'' The first contains the representation of Darid and Isaiah, and
the characters which follow the name of the former I consider to
be intended for 34. They are the only instances in the volume of

110 PROGRESS OF
the use of Arabic, or rather Spanish numerals. The letter ft, at
the foot, is the " signature," as a printer would term it, indicating
the order of the page. On each side of it are portions of scrolls
containing inscriptions, of which some of the letters are seen.
The next cut represents Satan tempting Christ by offering him
stones to be converted into bread.

In the distance are seen the high mountain, to the top of
which Christ was taken up by the Devil, and the temple from
whose pinnacle Christ was tempted to cast himseK down. The
figure of Christ in this compartment is not devoid of sober

WOOD ENGRAVING. Ill
dignity : nor is Satan deficient in diaboUcal ugUness ; but, though
clawed and horned proper, he wants the usual appendage of a
tail. The deficiency is, however, in some degree compensated
by giring to his hip the likeness of a fiendish face. In two or
three other old wood engravings I have noticed a repulsive face
indicated in a similar manner on the hip of the Deril. A
person well acquainted with the superstitions of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries may perhaps be able to give a reason for
this. It may be intended to show that Satan, who is ever going
about seeking whom he may devour, can see both before and
behind. The cut on the foUowing page, which forms the compartment to
the right, represents Adam and Eve, each vrith an apple ; and the
state in which Eve appears to be, is in accordance vrith an opinion
maintained by several of the schoolmen of the tweKth and thir
teenth centuries. The tree of knowledge is without fruit, and the
serpent, with a human face, is seen tvrined round its stem. The
form of the tree and the shape of the leaves are almost precisely
the same as those of the oUve-trees in the Apocalypse, up
rooted by Antichrist. The character of the designs, however,
in the two books is almost as different as the manner of the
engraring. In the Apocalypse there is no attempt at shading,
while in the book under consideration it is introduced in every
page, though merely by courses of single Unes, as may be per
ceived in the drapery of Christ in the preceding cut, and in the
trunk of the tree, and in the serpent in the cut subjoined. In
this cut the figure of Adam cannot be considered as a specimen of
manly beauty; his face is that of a man who is past his prime,
and his attitude is very like that of one of the splay-footed boors
of Teniers. In point of personal beauty Eve appears to be a
partner worthy of her husband ; and though from her action she
seems conscious that she is naked, yet her expression and figure
are extremely unUke the graceful timidity and bieautiful propor
tions of the Medicean Venus. The face of the serpent displays
neither maUgnity nor fiendish cunning; but, on the contrary, is
marked with an expression not unhke that of a Bavarian broom-
girL This manner of representing the temptation of our first
parents appears to have been conventional among the early Ger+

112

PROGRESS OF

man Formschneiders ; for I have seen several old wood-cuts of
this subject, in which the figures were almost precisely the same.
Notwithstanding the bad drawing and the coarse engraring of the
following cut, many of the same subject, executed in Germany
between 1470 and 1510, are yet worse.

In the next cut, which forms the compartment to the left, Esau,
who is distinguished by his bow and quiver, is seen receiving a bowl
of pottage from his brother Jacob. At the' far side of the apart
ment is seen a " kail-pot," suspended from a " crook," with some-

WOOD ENGRAVING.

113

thing Uke a ham and a gammon of bacon hanging against the waU.
This subject is treated in a style which is thoroughly Dutch.
Isaac's family appear to have been lodged in a tolerably com
fortable house, with a stock of provisions near the chimney nook ;
and his two sons are very Uke some of the figures in the pictures
of. Teniers, more especially»about the legs.

The foUovring 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 maybe perceived towards the

114

PROGRESS OF

lower corners of each arch. The words undemeath the figures are
a portion of the last rhyming verse quoted at page 108. It is from
a difference in the triangular ornament, above the piUar 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 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 earUest wood-blocks which
remain undestroyed by the rough handUng of time there are erident
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.

if fvytouti fattaci W eu fojatW

The ink with which the cuts in the " Poor Preachers' Bible"
have been printed, is evidently a kind of distemper of the colour of
bistre, Ughter 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 giring to the whole page
rather a blotched appearance, — while other portions seem scarcely
to have received any,* This appearance is undoubtedly in con-
• Schelhorn has noticed a similar appearance in the old block-book entitled " Ars
Memorandi :'' " Videas hie nonnunquam literas atramento confluent! deformatas,
vcntremque illarum, alias album et vacuum, atramentaria macula repletum."
Amoeiiitat. Liter, tom. i. p. 7.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 115
sequence of the Ught-bodied ink haring, from its want of tenacity,
accumulated on the block where the line was thickest, or~ where two
Unes met, learing the thinner portions adjacent with scarce any co
louring at all. The block must, in my opinion, have been charged
with such ink by means of something Uke 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 — small white spaces may be
perceived, as if a graver had been run through the Unes. On first
noticing this appearance, I was inchned 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 Unes may be observed, however, in some of the impressions of
the old wood-cuts pubUshed 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 Paupe-
mm Predicatorum." Mr. Ottley, speaking of the impressions in
Earl Spencer's copy, makes the following remarks : " In many in
stances they have a sort of horizontaUy striped and confused ap
pearance, which leads me to suppose that they were taken from
engrarings executed on some kind of wood of a coarse grain." f
This correspondence between Earl Spencer's copy and that in the
Bong'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 Uke effect in the shading and composition, induce me to
think that this book is not so old as either the Apocalypse or the
History of the Vfrgin. That it appeared before 1428, as has been
inferred from the date which the Rev. Mr. Horne fancied that he had
* This collection of wood engravings frbm 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 herausgeben,
imd mit einer Abhandlung uber die Holzschneidekunst und deren Schicksale be-
gleitet von Rudolph Zacharias Becker," The collector has frequently mistaken
rudeness of design, and coarseness of execution, for proofs of antiquity.
f Inquiry, vol, i. p. 130, I 2

116 PROGRESS OF
seen on the ancient binding, I cannot induce myseK to beUeve. It
is more Ukely to have been executed at some time between 1440
and 1460 ; aind 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 " BibUa Pauperum Predicato
rum" 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 article, which
thus consisted of two parts, was illustrated by two drawings, one
of which related to the historical fact, and the other to the moral
deduced from it. The perfect copy consisted of four himdred and
twenty-two pages, on each of which there were eight dravrings, so that
the number contained in the whole volume was upwards of five thou
sand. In some of the single drawings, which were about two and
one-third inches vride, by three and one-thfrd inches high, Camus
counted not less than thirty heads.*
In a copy of the " Bibha Pauperum Predicatorum " from wood
blocks, Heineken observed written : " S. Ansgarius est autor
hujus libri," — St Ansgarius is the author of this book. St Ans
garius, 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 pagan
ism. He was appointed the first bishop of Hamburg in 831, and m
844 Bishop of Bremen, where he died in 864.f From a passage
cited by Heineken from Ornhielm's Ecclesiastical History of Sweden
and Gothland, it appears that Ansgarius was reputed to have com
piled a simUar book;:]: and Heineken observes that it might be
• Notice d'un Livre, &c, p. 11. f Heineken, Idfee G^ii^rale, p, 319,
X Ornhielm's book was printed in 4to. at Stockholm, 1689, The passage re
ferred to is as follows : " Quos per numeros ct signa conscripsisse eura [Ansgariuiu]
libros Rembeitus memorat indigitatos pigmentorum vocabulo, eos continuisse', palam
est, quasdam aut e divinarum literarum, aut pie doctorum palrum scriptis, perico-
pas et sententias."

WOOD ENGRAVING. HT
from this passage that the " BibUa Pauperum Predicatorum " was
ascribed to the Bishop of Hamburg.
In the cloisters of the cathedral at Bremen, Heineken saw two
bas-reUefe 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 Predicato
rum." 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 destroy
ed 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 dfrections.
This last passage is one of the most siUy that occurs in Heine-
ken's book.* It is just about as likely that the cuts in the " BibUa
Pauperum Predicatorum" were engraved in the time of Ansgarius,
as that the bas-reliefe in the cloisters of the cathedral of Bremen
should have been sculptured under his dfrection.
The book usuaUy called the " Speculum Humanae Salvationis," f
¦ — ^the Mirror of Human Salvation, — which is ascribed by Hadrian
Junius to Lawrence Coster, has been more frequently the subject
of discussion among bibUographers and vmters who have treated of
the origin of printing, than any other work. A great proportion,
however, of what has been written on the subject consists of
groundless speculation ; and the facts ehcited, 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
• " Ces conjectures sont foibles; elles ont ^te attaqu^es par Erasme Nyerup dans
un iait publie k Copenhague en 1784, , , , Nyerup donne a penser que Hei
necke a reconnu lui-meme, dans la suite, la foiblesse de ses conjectures," — Camus,
Notice d'un Livre, &c. p. 9.
t It is sometimes named " Speculum Figuratum ;" and Junius in his account
of Coster's invention calls it " Speculum Nostrae Saiutis."

118 PROGRESS OF
of the Speculum is concerned, are decidedly contradicted by the
book itself. Without, therefore, recapitulating arguments which
are contradicted by established facts, I shaU endeavour to ^ve
a correct account of the work, leaving those who choose to com
pare it, and reconcile it K they can, with the foUowing asser
tions made by Coster's advocates : 1. that the Speculum was first
printed by him in Dutch with wooden types; 2. that while en
graring 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 tjrpes and partly from wood
blocks, was printed by Coster's heirs and successors, thefr moveable
t)rpes haring 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 smaU foUo size, and without date or printer's name. There
are four editions of it known to bibUographers, aU 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 pre
face occupies only four. In aU 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 Veldener, and ornamented with the identi
cal 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 whoUy
executed, 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

WOOD ENGRAVING.

119

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 aU the editions the cuts are placed as head-pieces at the top
of each page, haring underneath them, in two columns, the ex
planatory text Under each compartment the title of the subject,
in Latin, is engraved on the block.
The foUowing reduced copy of the first cut will give an idea
of their form, as every subject has piUars at the side, arid is sur
mounted by an arch in the same style.

«i(T»9 InnfMi

j Si »mtboiBa6v'>^*W*6<^™^^f^^ -

The style of engraring in those cuts is similar to those of the
Poor Preachers' Bible. The former are, however, on the whole
executed vrith greater delicacy and contain more work. The
shadows and folds of the drapery in the first forty-eight cuts are
indicated by short pairaUel 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 paraUel Unes, 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 vrith the old Latin manuscripts;

120

PROGRESS OF

and 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 foUowing cuts are fac-simUes of the
compartments of the first, of which a reduced copy has been pre
viously given.

In the above cut, its titie, "Casus Luciferi,"— the Fall of Ludfer,
— is engraved at the bottom ; and the subject represented is Satan
and the rebelUous angels driven out of heaven, as typical of man's
disobedience and fall. The following are the first two Unes of the
column of text underneath the cut in the Latin editions :
Inctoatut: speculum Sumanac Balbacionis
III nuo patct casus Jomiiiis ct inoHus rcpartionis.
Which may be translated into EngUsh thus :
In the Mirror of Salvation here is represented plain
Tlie fall of man, and by what means he made his peace again.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

121

' The following is the right-hand compartment of the same cut.
The title of this subject, as in all the others, is engraved at the
bottom ; the contracted words when written in fuU are " Deus
creavit hominem ad ymaginem et simiUtudinem suam," — God
created man after his own image and hkeness.

The first two Unes of thp text in the column underneath this
cut are, ^. ^ , ,
fWuIicr autem in paraJiso est formata
JBe costts biri Hotmientis est parata.
That is, in EngUsh rhyme of similar measure,
The woman was in Paradise for man an help meet made.
From Adam's rib created as he asleep was laid.
The cuts in aU the editions are printed in Ught brown or sepia
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 immediately behind is smooth and

122 PROGRESS OF
shining from the action of the rubber or burnisher, while on the lower
part of the page at the back 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 en
graved wood-blocks the ink is hghter-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, erident that the two
impressions, — the one from the block containing the cut, and the
other from the block containing the text, — ^have been taken sepa
rately. In the pages printed from moveable types, the ink, which
has eridently been compounded vrith oU, is fuU-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 entfrely from moveable types, the ink is also fuU-bodied and
nearly jet black, forming a strong contrast vrith the faint colour
of the cuts.
The plan of the Speculum is almost the same as that of the
Poor Preachers' Bible, and is equaUy as well entitled as the latter
to be caUed " 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 compartment contains the
supposed type or prefiguration, and the other its fiilfilment; for
instance : at No. 17 the appearance of the Lord to Moses m 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 consequently of the nails with which Christ was
fixed to the cross; and at No. 53 the descent of Christ to Hades,
* The cuts which have the text printed from wood-blocks are Nos, 1, 2, 4,
5. 6. 7. 8. 9, 10, 11. 13. 14. 16, 17. 21, 22, 26, 27, 46. and 55,— Heineken, Uie
G^n^rale, p. 444.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 123
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 Apocry
pha, yet there are two or three which the designer has borrowed
from profane history : such as Semiramis contemplating the hanging
gardens of Babylon ; the Sibyl and Augustus ; and Codrus king of
Athens incurring death in order to secure rietory to his people.
The Speculum Salvationis as printed in the editions preriously
noticed is only a portion of a larger work with the same title and
ornamented with similar designs, which had been known long
before in manuscript. Heineken says, at page 478 of his Idee
Generale, that the oldest copy that he ever saw was in the Imperial
Library at Vienna ; and, at page 468, he observes that it appeared
to belong to the tweKth century.
The manuscript work, when complete, consisted of forty-five
chapters in rhyming Latin, to which was prefixed an introduction
containing a Ust of them. Each of the first forty-two chapters
contained four subjects, the first of which was the principal, and
the other three iUustrative of it. To each of these chapters were
two dravrings, 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
vrith 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 iUustrations.
Though the Speculum from the time of the pubhcation of
Junius's workf 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 exe
cuted before Foumier, who in 1758, in a dissertation on the
Origin and Progress of the Art of Wood-engraving,:j: first pub
hshed 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
• Heineken, Id^e G^n^rale, p, 474.
f The "Batavia" of Junius, in which the name of Lawrence Coster first ap
pears as a printer, was published in 1588.
X Dissertation sur I'Origine et les Progrfes de I'Art de Graver en Bois, Par
M. Fournier le Jeune, 8vo. Paris, 1758.

124 PROGRESS OF
manner which carries with it the certainty of matheinatical demon
stration, that the conjectures of both the latter vmters respecting
the priority of the editions of the Speculum are absolutely erro
neous. To ehcit the truth does not, vrith respect to this work,
seem to have been the object of those two writers. Both had
espoused theories on its origin without much enquiry vrith respect
to facts, and each presumed that edition to be the first which
seemed most Ukely to support his own speculations.
Heineken, who assumed that the work was of German origin,
insisted that ^e 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 subse
quently 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 eridence which the work
itseK affords, that the type resembles that of Faust and Scheffer,
and that the cuts in this second Latin edition, as he erroneously
calls it, are coarser and not so sharp as those in the Latin edition
which he supposes to be the first.
Foumier's discoveries vrith respect to the execution of the Specu
lum seem to have produced a complete change as to its origin
in the opinions of Meerman; who, in 1757, the year before Four-
nier's dissertation was printed, had expressed his beUef, in a letter to
his friend Wagenaar, that what was aUeged 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 sub
sequent 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, haring apparentiy gained a
new Ught 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 move-
" A French translation of Meermau's letter, which was originally written in
Dutch, is given by Santander in his Dictionnaire Bibliographique, tom. i, pp. 14 —
18, 8vo. Bruxelles, 1805.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 125
able 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 credibihty to the story
of Coster haring died of grief on account of his types being
stolen, and to encourage the supposition that his heirs in this
pdition supplied the loss by having engraved on blocks of wood
those pages which were not already printed.
Foiirnier's discoveries relative to the manner in which the Specu
lum 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; 2nd, that a portion of the text in one of
the Latin editions had been printed from engraved wood-blocks.*
Foumier, who was a type-founder and wood-engraver, imagined
that the moveable types vrith 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 answered by a simple ne
gative, learing the person who puts them forth to make out a
probable case.
The fact haring been estabhshed 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 diUgently comparing the edi
tions with each other in order to obtain further eridence, 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 incontrovertibly estabhshed by
Mr. Ottley, whose scrutinizing examination of the different editions
has clearly shown the futiUty of all former speculations respecting
their priority. The argument of Heineken is to this effect : " It is
* Dissertation, pp. 29 — 32. The many mistakes which Fournier comraits inhis
Dissertation, excite a suspicion that he was either superficially acquainted with his
subject, or extremely careless. He published two or three other small works on the
subject of engraving and printing, — after the manner of " Supplements to an Ap
pendix," — the principal of which is entitled " De I'Origine et des Productions de
I'lmprimerie primitive en taille de bois ; avec une refutation des pr^juges plus ou
moins accredit^s sur cet art ; pour servir de suite k la Dissertation sur I'Origine de
I'Art de graver en bois. Paris, 1759."

126 PROGRESS OF
improbable that a printer who had printed an edition whoUy vrith
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 foUow
ing 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 entfrely printed from
moveable types.
3. The Dutch edition with the text printed whoUy from move
able t3rpes, supposed by Meerman to be the first editum of
aU.*
4. The Dutch edition with the text printed whoUy from move
able types, and which differs only from the preceding one in
haring the two pages of text under cuts No. 45 and 56 print€d
in a type different from the rest of the book.
The preceding arrangement — including Meerman's opinion re
specting the priority of the Dutch edition — rests entirely on
conjecture, and is almost diametricaUy contradicted in every
instance by the eridence 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 aU; that the
edition No. 4, caUed the second Dutch, is the next in order to
the actual first Latin; and that the two editions. No. 1 and No.
3, respectively proclaimed by Heineken and Meerman as the
earUest, have been printed subsequently to the other two.f Which
* Heineken seems inclined to consider this as the second Dutch edition; and
he only mentions it as the first Dutch edition because it is called so by Meerman.
— Id^e G6n. pp. 453, 454.
f Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving, pp. 205—217.
Though differing from Mr. Ottley in the conclusions which he draws from the facts
elicited by him respecting the priority of the editions of the Speculum, I bear a
willing testimony to the value of his discoveries on tliis subject, which may rank
among the most interesting that have resulted from bibliographical research.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 127
of the pretended 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 weU known to every person acquainted with the practice
of wood-engraring, that portions of single Unes 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 ac
quainted with the above fact and bearing it in mind, he would
doubtless declare that the copy in which the cuts were most per
fect was first printed, and that the other in which parts of the
cuts appeared broken away was of a later date. If, on compar
ing 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 ideptity of the
cuts in all the four editions of the Speculum being unquestion
able, and as certain minute fractures in the Unes of some of them,
as if small portions of the block had been broken out in printing,
had been preriously noticed by Foumier and Heineken, Mr.
Ottley conceived the idea of comparing the respective cuts in the
different editions, vrith a riew of ascertaining the order in which
they were printed. He first compared two copies of the edition
caUed the first Latin with a copy of that 6aUed the second Dufcli,
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 miscaUed second Dutch edition was in fact of an earUer date than
the pretended _/??-s# Lafin edition of Heineken. In further com
paring the above editions vrith the supposed second Lafin edition
of Heineken and the supposed first Dutch edition of Meerman,
he found that the cuts in the miscaUed second Latin edition were the
most perfect of aU ; and that the cuts in Heineken's first Latin and
Meerman's first Dutch editions contained more broken Unes than
the edition named by those authors the second Dutch. The conclu
sion which he arrived at from those facts was irresistible, namely,
that the earhest edition of all was that called by Heineken the
second Latin ; and that the edition called the second Dutjch was the

128 PROGRESS OF
next in order. As the cuts in the copies examined of the pre
tended first Latin and Dutch editions contained similar fractures,
it could not be determined vrith certainty which was actuaUy the
last. As it is undoubted that the cuts of all the editions have been
printed separately from the text, it has been objected that Mr.
Ottley's examination has only ascertained the order in which the
cuts have been printed, but by no means decided the priority of
the editions of the entire book. All the cuts, it has been objected,
might have been taken by the engraver before the text was printed
in a single edition, and it might thus happen that the book first
printed with text might contain the last, and consequently the
most imperfect cuts. This exception, which is founded on a very
improbable presumption, will be best answered by the foUowing
facts estabUshed on a comparison of the two Latin, and which,
I beUeve, have not been preriously noticed : — On closely comparing
those pages which are printed with moveable types in the true
second edition with the corresponding pages in that edition which
is properly the first, it was erident from the different spelling of
many of the words, and the different length of the hues, that they
had been printed at different times; but on comparing, however, those
pages which are printed in the second edition from engraved wood
blocks with the corresponding pages, from moveable type, in the
first edition, I found the spelUng and the length of the Unes to
be the same. The page printed from the wood-block was, in short,
a fac-simile of the corresponding page printed from moveable types.
So completely did they correspond, that I have no doubt that
an impression of the page printed from moveable types had been
" transferred," * as engravers say, to the block. In the last cutf
of the first edition I noticed a scroU which was quite black, as
* Wood-engravers of the present day are accustomed to transfer an old impres
sion from a cut or a page of letter-press to a block in the following manner. They
first moisten the back of the paper on which the cut or letter-press is printed with
a mixture of concentrated pot-ash and essence of lavender in equal quantities,
which causes the ink to separate readily from the paper; next, when the paper
is nearly dry, the cut or page is placed above a prepared block, and by moderate
pressure the ink comes off from the paper, and leaves an impression upon the
wood. t The subject is Daniel explaining to Belshazzar tlie writing on the wall.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 129
if meant to contain an inscription which the artist had neglected
to engrave ; and in the second edition I perceived that the black
was cut away, thus leaving the part intended for the inscription
white. Another proof, in addition to those adduced by Mr. Ottley
of that Latin edition being truly the first in which the whole of
the text is printed from moveable types.
Though there can no longer be a doubt in the mind of any
impartial person of that Latin edition, in which part of the text
is printed from engraved wood-blocks, and the rest from moveable
types, being later than the other ; yet the estabhshment of this fact
suggests a question, as to the cause of part of the text of this
second Latin edition being printed from wood-blocks, which cannot
perhaps be very satisfactorily answered. AU writers previous to
Mr. Ottley who had noticed that the text was printed partly from
moveable types and partly from wood-blocks, decided, without
hesitation, that this edition was the first; and each, accordingly
as he espoused the cause of Gutemberg or Coster, proceeded to
theorise on this assumed fact. As their arguments were founded
in error, it cannot be a matter of surprise that their conclusions
should be inconsistent vrith truth. The fact of this edition being
subsequent to that in which the text is printed wholly from
moveable types has been questioned on two grounds : 1st. The
improbabiUty that the person who had printed the text of a for
mer edition entirely from moveable types should in a later edi
tion have recourse to the more tedious operation of engraving
part of the text on wood-blocks. 2nd. Supposing that the owner
of the cuts had determined in a later edition to engrave the text
on blocks of wood, it is difficult to conceive what could be his
reason for abandoning his plan, after twenty pages of the text were
engraved, and printing the remainder with moveable types.
Before attempting to answer those objections, I think it necessary
to observe that the existence of a positive fact can never be affect
ed by any arguments which are grounded on the difficulty of ac
counting for it. Objections, however specious, can never alter the
immutable character of truth, though they may affect opinions, and
excite doubts in the minds of persons who have not an opportunity
of examining and judging for themselves.
With respect to the first objection, it is to be remembered that

130 PROGRESS OF
in all the editions, the text, whether from wood-blocks or moveable
types, has been printed separately from the cuts ; consequently the
cuts of the first edition might be printed by a wood engraver, and
the text set up and printed by another person who possessed move
able types. The engraver of the cuts might not be possessed of
any moveable types when the text of the first edition was printed ;
and, as it is a weU known fact that wood engravers continued to
execute entire pages of text for upwards of thirty years after the
establishment of printing with moveable types, it is not unlikely
that he might attempt to engrave the text of a second edition and
print the book solely for his own advantage. This supposition is
to a certain extent corroborated by the fact of the twenty pages
of engraved text in the s6cond Latin edition being fEic-simUes of the
twenty corresponding pages of text from moveable types in the first
To the second objection every day's experience suggests a ready
answer ; for scarcely anything is more conimon than for a person
to attempt a work which he finds it difficult to complete, and, after
making some progress in it, to requfre the aid of a kindred art, and
abandon his original plan.
As the first edition of the Speculum was printed subsequent to
the discovery of the art of printing vrith moveable types, and as
it was probably printed in the Low Countries, where the typogra
phic art was first introduced about 1472, I can discover no reason
for beUering that the work was executed before that period. Sant
ander, who was so weU acquainted with the progress of typography
in Belgium and Holland, is of opinion that the Speculum is not
of an earUer date than 1480. In 1483 John Veldener printed at
Culemburg a quarto edition of the Speculum, in which the cuts
are the same as in the earUer foUos. In order to adapt the cuts
to this smaUer edition Veldener had sawn each block ui two,
through the centre pillar which forms a separation between the
two compartments in each of the original engravings. Veldener's
quarto edition, which has the text printed on both sides of the
paper from moveable types, contains twelve more cuts than tiie
older editions, but designed and executed in the same style.* If
• Heineken gives an account of those twelve additional cuts at page 463 of
his Id^e Gdndrale. It appears that Veldener also published in the same year
another edition of the Speculum, also in quarto, containing the same cuts as the
older folios, but without the twelve above mentioned.

WOOD ENGRAVING, 131
Lawrence Coster had been the inventor of printing with moveable
types, and if any one foho edition of the Speculum had been
executed by him, we cannot suppose that Veldener, who was him
self a wood engraver, as well as a printer, would have been igno
rant of those facts. He, however, printed two editions of the
Fasciculus Temporum, — one at Louvain in 1476, and the other at
Utrecht in 1480, — a work which contains a short notice of the art
of printing being discovered at Mentz, but not a syUable concern
ing its discovery at Harlem by Lawrence Coster. The researches
of Coster's advocates have clearly estabhshed one important fact,
though an unfortunate one for their argument; namely, that the
Custos or Warden of St. Bavon's was not known as a printer
to one of his contemporaries. The citizens of Harlem, however,
have still something to console themselves with : though Coster may
not be the inventor of printing, there can be little doubt of Junius,
or his editor, being the discoverer of Coster, —
" Est quoddam prodire tenus, si non datur ultra."
There is in the Print Room of the British Museum a small
volume of wood-cuts, which has not hitherto been described by any
bibliographer, nor by any writer who has treated on the origin and
progress of wood engraring. It appears to have been unknown
to Heineken, Breitkopf Von Murr, and Meerman ; and it is not
mentioned, that I am aware of, either by Dr. Dibdin or Mr.
Douce, although it certainly was submitted to the inspection of
the latter. It formerly belonged to the late Sir George Beaumont,
by whom it was bequeathed to the Museum; but where he ob
tained it I have not been able to leam. It consists of an alphabet
of large capital letters, formed of figures arranged in various at-
titndes ; and from the general character of the designs, the style of
the engraring, and the kind of paper on which the impressions
have been taken, it eridently belongs to the same period as the
Poor Preachers' Bible. There is only one cut on each leaf, the
back being left blank as in most of the block-books, and the im
pressions have been taken by means of friction. The paper at
the back of each cut has a shining appearance when held towards
the Ught, in consequence of the rubbing which it has received;
and in some it appears as if it had been blacked with charcoal,
k2

132 PROGRESS OF
in the same manner that some parts of the cartoons were blacked
which have been pricked through by the tapestry worker. The
ink is merely a distemper or water-colour, which wiU partly wash
out by the application of hot water, and its colour is a kind of
sepia. Each leaf, which is about six inches high, by three and six-
eighths wide, consists of a separate piece of paper, and is pasted,
at the inner margin, on to a slip either of paper or parchment,
through which the stitching of the cover passes. Whether the
paper has been cut in this manner before or after that the im
pressions were taken, I am unable to determine.*
The greater part of the letter A is tom out, and in that which re
mains there are pin-marks, as if it had been traced by being pricked
through. The letters S, T, and V are also wanting. The foUowing
is a brief description of the letters which remain. The letter B is
composed of five figures, one with a pipe and tabor, another who sup
ports him, a dwarf, an old man kneeUng, and an old woman with
a staff. C, a youthful figure rending open the jaws of a hon, with
two grotesque heads hke those of satyrs. D, a man on horseback,
and a monk astride on a fiendish-looking monster. E, two gro
tesque heads, a figure holding the hom of one of them, and
another figure stretching out a piece of cloth. _F, a taU figure
blowing a trumpet, and a youth beating a tabor, with an animal
like a dog at their feetf G, Darid with GoUah's head, and a
figure stooping, who appears to kiss a flageUum. H, a figure
opening the jaws of a dragon. I, a tall man embracing a woman.
K, a female with a wreath, a youth kneeUng, an old man on his
knees, and a young man with his heels uppermost [Engraved as a
specimen at page 135.] L, a man with a long sword, as K about
to pierce a figure recUning. [Engraved as a specimen at page

dh

• The following is a reduced copy ofthe paper-mark, which appears to be a kind
of anchor with a small cross springing from a ball or knob at the junction of the
arms with the shank. It bears a considerable degree of resemblance
to the mark given at page 79, from an edition of the Apocalypse.
An anchor is to be found as a paper-mark in editions of the Apoca'
lypse, and of tlie Poor Preachers' Bible. According to Santander,
a similar paper-mark is tu be found in books printed at Cologne,
Louvain, and Utrecht, from about 1470 to 1480. '^
t The initial F, at the coramencement of tliis chapter, is a reduced copy of the
letter here de.icribed.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 133
136.] M, two figures, each mounted on a kind of monster; be
tween them, an old man. N, a man with a sword, another
mounted on the tail of a fish. O, formed of four grotesque heads.
P, two figures with clubs. Q, formed of three grotesque heads,
similar to those in O. R, a tall, upright figure, another with
something like a club in his hand ; a third, with his heels up, blow
ing a horn. X, composed of four figures, one of which has two
beUs, and another has one ; on the shoulder of the upper figure to
the right a squirrel may be perceived. Y, a figure with something
like a hairy skin on his shoulder ; another thrusting a sword through
the head of an animal. Z, three figures; an old man about to
draw a dagger, a youth lying down, and another who appears as if
flying. [Engraved as a specimen at page 137,] The last cut is the
ornamental flower, of which a copy is given at page 1 38,
In the same case with those interesting, and probably unique
specimens of early wood engraring, there is a letter relating to
them, dated 27th May 1819, from Mr. Samuel Lysons to Sir
George Beaumont, from which the following is an extract : " I
return herewith your curious volume of ancient cuts. I showed
it yesterday to Mr. Douce, who agrees vrith me that it is a great
curiosity. He thinks that the blocks were executed at Harlem,
and are some of the earUest productions of that place. He has
in his possession most of the letters executed in copper, but very
inferior to the original cuts. Before you return from the Con
tinent I shall probably be able to ascertain something further
respecting them." What might be Mr. Douce's reasons for sup
posing that those cuts were executed at Harlem I cannot tell;
though I am inclined to think that he had no better foundation for
his opinion than his faith in Junius, Meerman, and other ad
vocates of Lawrence Coster, who unhesitatingly ascribe every early
block-book to the spurious " Officina Laurentiana."
, In the manuscript catalogue in the Print Room of the British
Museum the volume is thus described by Mr. Ottley : " Alphabet
of initial letters composed of grotesque figures, wood engravings
of the middle of the fifteenth century, apparently the work of a
Dutch or Flemish artist ; the impressions taken off by friction in
the manner of the early block-books  I perceive the word
'¦London' in small characters written upon the blade of a sword in

134 PROGRESS OF
one of the cuts, [the letter L,] and I suspect they were engraved in
England." As to whether these cuts were engraved in England or no I
shall not venture to give an opinion. I am, however, satisfied that
they were neither designed nor engraved by the artists who de
signed and engraved the cuts in the Apocalypse, the History of
the Virgin, and the Poor Preachers' Bible, With respect to
drawing, expression, and engraring, the cuts of the Alphabet are
decidedly superior to those of every block-book, and generally to
aW wood engrarings executed prerious to 1500, with the excep
tion of such as are by Albert Durer, and those contained in the
Hypnerotomachia, an ItaUan rhapsody, with wood-cuts supposed
to have been designed by Raffaele or Andrea Mantegna, and print
ed by Aldus at Venice, 1499. Although the cuts of the Alphabet
may not have been engrayed in England, it is, however, certain
that the volume had been at rather an early period in the pos
session of an EngUshman. The cover consists of a double fold of
thick parchment, on the inside of which, between the folds, there
is written in large old Enghsh characters what I take to be the
name " Edwardus Lowes." On the blank side of the last leaf there
is a sketch of a letter commencing " Right reverent and wer-
shipfuU masters and frynds ; In the moste loweUste maner that I
canne or may, I here recomende me, duely glade to her of yor
good prosperitye and welth." The writing, as I have been inform
ed, is of the period of Henry VIII ; and on the sUps of paper
and parchment to which the inner margins of the leaves are past
ed are portions of EngUsh manuscripts, which are probably of the
same date. There can, however, be Uttle doubt that the leaves
have been mounted, and the volume covered, about a hundred
years subsequent to the engraving of the cuts.
I agree vrith Mr. Ottley in thinking that those cuts were en
graved about the middle of the fifteenth century, but I can per
ceive nothing in them to induce me to suppose they were the
work of a Dutch artist ; and I am as Uttle incUned to ascribe them
to a German. The style of the drawing is not unlike what we
see in iUuminated French manuscripts of the middle of the fifteenth
century ; and as the only two engi-aved words which occiu- in the
volume are French, I am rather inchned to suppose that the artist

WOOD ENGRAVING.

135

who made the dravrings was a native of France. The costume
of the female to whom the words are addressed appears to be
French; and the action of the lover kneeling seems almost charac
teristic of that nation. No Dutchman certainly ever addressed
his mistress vrith such an air. He holds what appears to be a

ring as gracefuUy as a modern Frenchman holds a snuff-box, and
upon the scroll before him are engraved a heart, and the words
which he may be supposed to utter, " Mon Ame." The above is a
fao-simile of-the cut referred to, the letter K, of the size of the
original, and printed in the same kind of colour.

136

PROGRESS OF

Upon the sword-blade in the original cut of the foUowing letter,
L, there is vn-itten in small characters, as Mr. Ottley has ob*
served, the word " London ;" and in the white space on the right,
or upper side, of the figure lying down, there appears written in
the same hand the name " Befhemsfed." In this name the letter B

is not unhke a W; and I have heard it conjectured that the name
niight be that of John Wethamstede, abbot of St Alban's, who
was a great lover of books, and who died in 1440. This con
jecture, however, wiU not hold good, for the letter is certainly
intended for a B ; and in the cut of the letter B there is written

WOOD ENGRAVING.

137

" B. Befhs." which is in all probabiUty intended for an abbrevia
tion of the name, " Befhemsfed," which occurs in another part of
the book. The ink with which these names are written is nearly
of the same colour as that of the cuts. The characters appear to
be of an earUer date than those on the reverse of the last leaf

The above cut is that of the letter Z, which stands the wrong
way in consequence of its not haring been drawn reversed upon the
block. The subject might at first sight be supposed to represent
the angel staying Abraham when about to sacrifice Isaac ; but on
examining the cut more closely it wiU be perceived that the figure

138

PROGRESS OF

which might be mistaken for an angel is vrithout wings, and appears
to be in the act of suppUcating the old man, who vrith his left
hand holds him by the hair.
The next cut, which is the last in the book, is an omamental
flower designed vrith great freedom and spirit, and surpassmg
everything of the kind executed on wood in the fifteenth century.

I speak not of the style of engraring, which, though effective, is
coarse ; but of the taste displayed in the dravring. The colour of
the above and the preceding cuts from the late Sfr G«orge Beau
mont's book vrill give the reader, who has not had an opportunity of
examining the originals, some idea of the colour in which the cuts
of the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, the Poor Preacher's

WOOD ENGRAVING. 139
Bible, and the Speculum, are printed ; which in all of them is a kind
of sepia, in some incUning more to a yellow, and in others more to
a brown. In the volume under consideration we may clearly perceive
that the art of wood engraring had made considerable progress
at the time the cuts were executed. Although there are no at
tempts at cross-hatching, which was introduced about 1486, yet
the shadows are generally well indicated, either by thickening the
Une, or by courses of short parallel Unes, marking the folds of the
drapery, or giring the appearance of rotundity to the figures. The
expression of the heads displays considerable talent, and the wood
engraver who at the present time could design and execute such
a series of figures, would be entitled to no small degree of com
mendation. Comparing those cuts with such as are to be seen
in books typographically executed between 1461* and 1490, it
is surprising that the art of wood engraring should have so ma
teriaUy decUned when employed by printers for the iUustration
of thefr books. The best of the cuts printed vrith letter-press
in the period referred to are decidedly inferior to the best of the
early block-books.
As it would occupy too much space, and would be beyond the
scope of the present treatise to enter into a detail of the contents
of aU the block-books noticed by Heineken, I shall give a brief
description of that named "Ars Memorandi," and conclude the
chapter vrith a Ust of such others as are chiefly referred to by
bibUographers. The "Aks Memorandi" is considered by Schelhorn f and by
Dr. Dibdin as one of the earUest block-books, and in their opinion
I concur. Heineken, however, — who states that the style is almost
the same as in the figures of the Apocalypse, — thinks that it is of
later date than the Poor Preachers' Bible and the History of the
Virgin. It is of a quarto size, and consists of fifteen cuts, with
the same number of separate pages of text also cut on wood,
* The first book with moveable types and wood-cuts both printed by means
of the press is the Fables printed at Bamberg, by Albert Pfister, " Ara Sant Valenti-
nus tag," 1461,
f " Nostrum vero libellum, cujus gratia hac prsefati sumus, intrepide, si non
primum artis inventse fcetum, eerte inter primes fuisse asseveramus." — Amoenitates
Literariffi, tom. i. p, 4,

140 PROGRESS OF
and printed on one side of each leaf only by means of friction.*
At the foot of each page of text is a letter of the alphabet, com
mencing vrith a, indicating the order in which they are to follow
each other. In every cut an animal is represented, — an eagle,
an angel, an ox, or a Uon, — emblematic of the EvangeUst whose
Gospel is to be impressed on the memory. Each of the animals
is represented standing upright, and marked with various signs
expressive of the contents of the different chapters. To the Gospel
of St. John, with which the book commences, three cuts vrith as
many pages of text are allotted. St. Matthew has five cuts, and
five pages of text St Mark three cuts and three pages of text;
and St Luke four cuts and four pages of textf
"It is worthy of observation," says J. C. Von Aretin, in his
Essay on the earUest Results of the Invention of Printing, " that
this book, which the most intelligent bibUographers consider to
be one of the earUest of its kind, should be devoted to the im
provement of the memory, which, though divested of much of
its former importance by the invention of writing, was to be ren
dered of stiU less consequence by the introduction of printing.''^
The first cut is intended to express figuratively the first six
chapters of St. John's GospeL The upright eagle is the em
blem of the saint, and the numerals are the references to the
chapters. The contents of the first chapter are represented by
the dove perched on the eagle's head, and the two faces, — one of
an old, the other of a young man, — probably intended for those
of Moses and Christ § The lute on the breast of the eagle,
with something hke three beUs || suspended from it, indicate the
contents of the second chapter, and are supposed by Schelhom to
• Heineken had seen two editions of this book, and he gives fac-similes of their
titles, which are evidently frora different blocks. The title at full length is as
follows : Ars memorandi notabilis per figuras Ewangelistarum hie expost descriplam
quam diligens lector diligenter legat et practiset per signa tocalia ut in practica ex-
peritur." — "En horridura et incoratum dicendi genus, Priscianumque misere
vapulanteml" exclaims Schelliorn,
-\- Heineken, Idee G^n^rale, p, 394,
X Uber die friihesten universalhistorischen Folgen der Erfindung der Buch-
druckerkunst, von J, Christ, Freyherrn Von Aretin, S, 18, 4to. Munich, 1808,
§ " For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth carae by Jesus Christ"
— St. John's Gospel, chap. i. v. 17,
II " Forte tamen ea, quoe tintinnabulis haud videntur dissimilia, nummulariorum
loculos et pecuiiiaj receptacula refeiunt."— Schelhorn, Amoenit. Liter, lom. i, p. 10.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

141

refer to the marriage of Cana. The numeral 3, in Schelhorn's
opinion, relates to "nonnihil apertum et prosectum circa ven-
trem," which he thinks may be intended as a reference to the words
of Nicodemus : " Nunquid homo senex potest in ventrem matris
suae iterum introire et renasci ?" Between the feet of the eagle
is a water-bucket surmounted by a sort of coronet or crown, intend
ed to represent the principal events narrated in the 4th chapter,
which are Christ's talking with the woman of Samaria at the well,
and his heahng the son of a nobleman at Capernaum. The 5th
chapter is indicated by a fish above the eagle's right wing, which
is intended to bring to mind the pool of Bethesda. The principal
event related in the 6th chapter, Christ feeding the multitude, is
indicated by the two fishes and five small loaves above the eagle's
left wing. The cross within a circle, above the fishes, is emblematic
of the consecrated wafer in the Lord's supper, as celebrated by the
church of Rome.*

^^^

yC7\

V V
In
Vl I-
r *¦

S

M^

9Hii!
LP
vill
^r^l
W^ VI
iri/ ml \
wJwl
m-mM
umm
s
The above reduced copy of the cut will afford some idea of
the manner in which the memory is to be assisted in recollecting
* The following are the contents ofthe first page, descriptive ofthe wit: " Evan-
gelium Johannis habetviginti unum cappitula. Primum, In principio erat verbum
de eternitate verbi et de trinitate. Secundum oapittulum. Nupcie facte sunt in
142 PROGRESS OF
the first six chapters of St John. Those who wish to know more
respecting this curious book are referred to Schelhom's Amoenitates
Literariee, tom. i. p. 1—17 ; Heineken, Idee Generale, p. 394—395;
and to Dr. Dibdin's BibUotheca Spenceriana, voL i. p. 4, where a
copy is given of the first cut relating to the Gospel of St Matthew.
Block-books containing both text and figures were executed
long after the introduction of typography, or printing by means of
moveable types ; but the cuts in such works are decidedly inferior
to those executed at an earUer period. The book entitled " Die
Kunst Cyromantia," * which consists chiefly of text, is printed from
wood-blocks on both sides of each leaf, by means of a press. At
the conclusion of the title is the date 1448 ; but this is generaUy
considered to refer to the period when the book was written, and
not the time when it was engraved. On the last page is the name :
" jorg W^avft JU aug^purg." if this George Schapff was a
wood engraver of Augsburg, the style of the cuts in the book suffi
ciently declares tbat he must have been one of the very lowest
class. More vrretched cuts were never chiselled out by a printer's
apprentice as a head-piece to a half-penny ballad.
Of the block-book entitled "Ars Moriendi," Heineken enu
merates no less than seven editions, of which one is printed on
both sides of the leaves and by means of a press. Besides these
he mentions another edition, impressed on one side of the paper
only, in which appear the foUowing name and date: "f^ait0
^or^r, 1473, j^at 11100 pucfj vvuftsmoUv."i
Ghana Galilee et qualiter Christus subvertit mensas nummulariorum. Tertium capit-
tulura, Erat autem homo ex Phariseis Nycodemus nomine. Quartum capittulum.
Qualiter Ihesus peciit a muliere Samaritana bibeie circum puteum Jacob et de
regulo. Quintum capittulum. De probatica piscina ubi dixit Ihesus infirmo Tolle
grabatum tuum & vade. Sextum capittulum. De refectione ex quinque panibus
& duobus piscibus Et de ewkaristia." — Schelhom, Amcenit. Lit. tom.i. p. 9.
* This work on Palmistry was composed in German by a Doctor Hartlieb, as
is expressed at the beginning : " Das nachgeschriben buch von der hand hatt zu
teutsch gemacht Doctor Hartlieb." Specimens of the first and the last pages, and of
one of the cuts, are given in Heineken's Id^e G^n^rale, plates 27 and 28.
t I am of opinion that this is the same person who executed the cuts for a
German edition of the Poor Preachers' Bible in 1475. His name does not appear ;
but on a sliield of arras there is a spur, which may be intended as a rebus of the
name ; in the same manner as Albert Durer's surname appears in his coat of arms,
a pair of doors, — Durer, or, as his father's name was sometimes spelled, Thurer.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 143
Of the book named m German « BtV ^tttftt(0t"— Antichrist-
printed from wood-blocks, Heineken mentions two editions. In
that which he considers the first, containing thirty-nine cuts, each
leaf is printed on one side only by means of friction ; in the other,
which contains thirty-eight cuts, is the " brief-maler's " or wood
engraver's name : « Bevjmig i)an00 pVitttnaltV tfHt t>M J)U^
|tt nuvenbevs, 1472."
At Nuremberg, in the coUection of a physician of the name
of Treu, Heineken noticed a small volume in quarto, consisting
of thirty-two wood-cuts of Bible subjects, undemeath each of which
were fifteen verses in German, engraved on the same block. Each
leaf was printed on one side only, and the impressions, which were
in pale ink, had been taken by means of friction.
The early wood engravers, besides books of cuts, executed others
consisting of text only, of which several portions are preserved in
pubhc Ubraries in Germany,* France, and Holland ; and although
it is certain that block-books continued to be engraved and printed
several years after the invention of typography, there can be httle'
doubt that editions of the grammatical primer called the "Donatus,"
from the name of its supposed compiler, were printed from wood
blocks prerious to the earUest essays of Gutemberg to print with
moveable types. It is indeed asserted that Gutemberg himseK
engraved, or caused to be engraved on wood, a "Donatus" before
his grand invention was perfected.
In the Royal Library at Paris are preserved the two old blocks
of a "Donatus" which are mentioned by Heineken at page 257 of
his Idee Generale. They are both of a quarto form ; but as the
one contains twenty Unes and the other only sixteen, and as there
is a perceptible difference in the size of the letters, it is probable
that they were engraved for different editions, f Those blocks
were purchased in Germany by a Monsieur Faucault, and after
passing through the hands of three other book-coUectors they came
• Aretin says that in the Royal Library at Munich there are about forty books
and about a hundred single leaves printed from engraved wood-blocks. — Uber die
Folgen, &c. S. 6.
+ Meerman had an old block of a Donatus, which was obtained from the
collection of a M. Hubert of Basle, and which appeared to belong to 'the same
edition as that containing sixteen lines in the Royal Library at Paris.— Heine
ken, Idee G6n6rale, p. 258.

144 PROGRESS OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
into the possession of the Duke de la Valhere, at whose sale they
were sold for two hundred and thfrty Uvres. In De Bure's cata
logue of the La Valliere Ubrary, impressions are given from the
original blocks. The letters in both those blocks, though differing
in size, are of the same proportions and form ; and Heineken and
Fischer consider that they bear a great resemblance to the charac
ters of Faust and Scheffer's Psalter, printed with moveable types in
1457, although the latter are considerably larger.
The art of wood engraring, haring advanced from a single figure
vrith merely a name cut undemeath it, to the impression of entire
pages of text, was now to undergo a change. Moveable letters
formed of metal, and wedged together within an iron frame, were
to supersede the engraved page ; and impressions, instead of being
taken by the slow and tedious process of friction, were now to be
obtained by the speedy and powerful action of the press. If the art
of wood engraring suffered a temporary decline for a few years after
the general introduction of typography, it was only to rerive again
under the protecting influence of the press ; by means of which
its productions were to be multipUed a hundred fold, and, instead
of being confined to a few towns, were to be disseminated through
out every part of Europe.

INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY.

145

CHAPTER III.

INVENTION OF TyPOGRAPHY.

The discdvery of Desroches. — The stamping of Lodewyc Van Vaelbeke. — Early
"Prenters" of Antwerp and Bruges not typographers, — Cologne Chronicle.
— Donatuses printed in Holland. — Gutemberg's birth and family — Progress of
his invention — His law-suit with the Drytzehns at- Strasburg — His retum to
Mentz, and partnership with Faust — Partnership dissolved. — Possibility of
printing with wooden types examined. — Supposed early productions of Gutem
berg and Faust's press. — Proofs of Gutemberg having a press of his own. — The
Vocabulary printed at Elfeld.— Gutemberg's death and epitaphs. — Invention of
Printing claimed for Lawrence Coster. — The account given by Junius — Con-
, tradicted, altered, and amended at will by Meerman, Koning, and others. —
Works pretended to be printed with Coster's types. — ^The Horarium discovered
by Enschedius.

EFORE proceeding to trace the progress
of wood engraring in connection with
typography, it appears necessary to give
some account of the invention of the lat
ter art In the foUowing brief narrative
of Gutemberg's Ufe, I shall adhere to po
sitive facts; and until evidence equally
good shall be produced in support of
another's claim to the invention, I shall
consider him as the father of typography.
I shall also give Hadrian Junius's ac
count of the invention of wood-engraving, block-printing, and
typography by Lawrence Coster, with a few remarks on its credi
biUty. Some of the conjectures and assertions of Meerman, Ko
ning, and other advocates of Coster, vrill be briefly noticed, and
their inconsistency pointed out To attempt to refute at length
the gratuitous assumptions of Coster's advocates, and to enter into
a detail of aU their groundless arguments, would be like proving a

146 INVENTION OF
medal to be a forgery by a long dissertation, when the modern
fabricator has plainly put his name in the legend. The best proof
of the faUacy of Coster's claims to the honour of having discovered
the art of printing with moveable types is to be found in the argu
ments of those by whom they have been supported.
Meerman, with all his research, has not been able to produce
a single fact to prove that Lawrence Coster, or Lawrence Jans-
zoon as he calls him, ever printed a single book; and it is by no
means certain that his hero is the identical Lawrence Coster
mentioned by Junius. In order to suit his ovra theory he has
questioned the accuracy of the statements of Junius, and has thus
weakened the very foundation of Coster's claims. The titie of
the custos of St. Bavon's to the honour of being the inventor of
typography must rest upon the authenticity of the account given
by Junius; and how far this corresponds vrith estabUshed fects
in the history of wood engraring and typography I leave others to
decide for themselves.
Among the many fancied discoveries of the real inventor of the
art of printing, that of Monsieur Desroches, a member of the
Imperial Academy of Sciences and BeUes Lettres at Brussels,
seems to requfre an especial notice. In a paper printed in the
transactions of that society,* he endeavoured to prove, that the
art of printing books was practised in Flanders about the begin
ning of the fourteenth century ; and one of the principal grounds
of his opinion was contained in an old chronicle of Brabant,
written, as is supposed, by one Nicholas le Clerk, [Clericus,]
secretary to the city of Antwerp. The chronicler, after having
described several remarkable events which happened during the
government of John II. Duke of Brabant, who died in 1312, adds
the following Unes : In dieser tyt sterf menschelyc
Die goede vedelare Lodewyc ;
Die de beste was die voor dien
In de werelt ye was ghesien
Van makene ende metterhant;
Van Vaelbeke in Brabant
* NouveUes Recherches sur I'origine de I'lmprimerie, dans lesquelles on fait voir
que la premiere id^e est due aux Braban^ons. Par M, Desroches. Lu tl la stance
du 8 Janvier, 1777, — Mfemoires de I'Academie Imp^riale des Sciences et Belles
Lettres, tom. i. p. 523—547. Edit, 1780.

TYPOGRAPHY. 147
Alsoe was hy ghenant.
Hy was d'erste die vant
Van Stampien diemanieren
Dieraen noch hoert antieren.
This curious record, which Monsieur Desroches considered as so
plain a proof of "die goede vedelare Lodewyc" being the inventor of
printing, may be translated into English as foUows :
This year the way of all flesh went
Ludwig, the fidler most excellent ;
For handy-work a man of name ;
From Vaelbeke in Brabant he came.
He was the first who did find out
The art of beating time, no doubt,
(Displaying thus his meikle skill,)
And fidlers all practise it stiU.*
The laughable mistake of Monsieur Desroches in supposing that
fidler Ludwig's invention, of beating time by stamping with the
foot, related to the discovery of printing by means of the press was
pointed out in 1779 by Monsieur Ghesquiere, in a letter printed in
the Esprit des Jouraaux.f In this letter Monsieur Ghesquiere
shows that the Flemish word " Stampien," used by the chronicler in
his account of the invention of the " good fidler Ludwig," had not
a meaning similar to that of the word "stampus" explained by
Ducange, but that it properly signified " met de voet kleppen," — to
stamp or beat vrith the feet.
In support of his opinion of the antiquity of printing. Monsieur
Desroches refers to a manuscript in his possession, consisting of
* The following is the French translation of Monsieur Desroches : " En ces
temps mourat de la mort commune k tous les hommes, Louis cet excellent faiseur
d'instrumens de musique, le meilleur artist qu'on eut vu jusques-lsl dans I'univers, en
fait d'ouvrages mechaniques, II etoit de Vaelbeke en Brabant, et il en porta le
nom. II fut le premier qui inventa la manifere d'imprimer, qui est presenteraeiit
en usage." The reason of Monsieur Desroches for his periphrasis of the simple
word " vedelare " — fidler — is as follows : " J'ai rendu Vedelare ' par faiseur d'instru
mens de musique.' Le mot radical est vedel, violin : par consequent, Vedelare doit
signifier celui qui en joue, ou qui en fait. Je me suis deterraine pour le dernier
k cause des vers suivans, oil il n'est point question de jouer mais de faire. Si
I'on pr^f^re le premier, je ne m'y opposerai pas ; rien emp^che que ce habile
homme n'ait H6 musicien." — Mem. de I'Acad. de Brux. tom. i. p. 536,
t Lettre de M. J, G[hesquiere] a M. l'Abb6 Turberville Needham, directeur de
I'Academie Imp^riale et Royale de Bruxelles,— Printed in I'Esprit des Journaux for
June 1779, p. 232—260.
L 2

148 INVENTION OF
lives of the saints and a chronicle vmtten in the fourteenth century.
At the end of this manuscript was a catalogue of the books be
longing to the monastery of Wiblingen, the writing of which was
much abbreviated, and which appeared to him to be of the fol
lowing century. Among other entries in the catalogue was this:
" (It) doicaU ipvo lib" ftinp'" i bappiro n5 scrpo." On supplying the
letters wanting Monsieur Desroches says that we shaU have the
foUowing words : " Item. DominicaUa in parvo Ubro stampato in
bappiro [papyro,] non scripto ;" that is, " Item, Dominicals [a form
of prayer or portion of church serrice] in a small book printed [or
stamped] on paper, not written." In the abbreriated word ftmp*»,
he says that the letter m could not very well be distinguished ;
but the doubt which might thus arise he considers to be completely
resolved by the words " non scripfo" and by the foUowing memoran
dum which occurs, in the same hand-writings at the foot of the
page : " Anno Diii 1340 riguit q fet stapa Dnatos," — " In 1340 he
flourished who caused Donatuses to be printed.'' If the catalogue
were really of the period supposed by Monsieur Desroches, the
preceding extracts would certainly prove that the art of printing or
stamping books, though not from moveable types, was practised in
the fourteenth century ; but, as the date has not been ascertained,
its contents cannot be admitted as eridence on the point in dispute.
Monsieur Ghesquiere is incUned to think that the catalogue was
not written before 1470 ; and, as the compiler was eridently an
ignorant person, he thinks that in the note, "Anno Domini 1340
riguit qui fecit stampare Donates," he might have written 1340
instead of 1440.
Although it has been asserted that the wood-cut of St Chris
topher with the date 1423, and the wood-cut of the Annunciation —
probably of the same period — were printed by means of a press,
yet I consider it. exceedingly doubtful if the press were employed
to take impressions from wood-blocks before Gutemberg used it
in his earUest recorded attempts to print with moveable types. I
beUeve that in every one of the early block-books, where oppor
tunity has been afforded of examining the back of each cut, un
questionable evidence has been discovered of their haring been
printed, if I may here use the term, by means of friction. Although
there is no mention of a press which might be used to take im-

TYPOGRAPHY. 149
pressions before the process between Gutemberg and the heirs
of one of his partners, in 1439, yet " Prenters" were certainly
known in Antwerp before his invention of printing with moveable
types was brought to perfection. Desroches in his Essay on the
Invention of Printing gives an extract from an order of the magis
tracy of Antwerp, in the year 1442, in favour of the fellowship
or guild of St Luke, caUed alse the Company of Painters, which
consisted of Painters, Statuaries, Stone-cutters, Glass-makers, Illu
minators, and "Prenters." This fellowship was doubtless similar
to that of Venice, in whose favour a decree was made by the magis
tracy of that city in 1441, and of which some account has been
given, at page 56, in the preceding chapter. There is eridence of a
similar fellowship existing at Bruges in 1454 ; and John Mentehn,
who afterwards estabUshed himseK at Strasburg as a typographer
or printer proper, was admitted a member of the Painters' Company
of that city as a " Chrysographus" or illuminator in 1447.*
Whether the " Prenters" of Antwerp in 1442 were acquainted
with the use of the press, or not, is uncertain ; but there can be
little doubt of their not being Printers, as the word is now gene
raUy understood ; that is, persons who printed books vrith moveable
types. They were most likely block-printers, and such as engraved
and printed cards and 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 feUowship
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 successfuUy refuted the opinion of Desroches
that typography was known at Antwerp in 1442, was himself
induced to suppose that it was practised at Bruges in 1445, and
that printed books were then neither very scarce nor very dear
in that city.f In an old manuscript journal or memorandum book
of Jean-le-Robert, abbot of St Aubert in the diocese of Cambray,
• Lichtenberger, Initia Typographica, § De Prenteris ante inventam Typogra-
phiara, p. 140. — Lambinet, Recherches sur I'Origine de I'lmprimerie, p. 115.
t Reflexions sur deux pifeces relatives k I'Hist. de I'lmprimerie, Nivelles, 1780,
—Lambinet, Recherches, p, 394.

150 INVENTION OF
he observed an entry stating that the said abbot had purchased at
Bruges, in January 1446, a "Docfrinale 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 ob
servations of Ghesquiere, vrith greater probabiUty supposes that the
book was printed from engraved wood-blocks, and that it was the
"Doctrinale Alexandri GalU," a short grammatical treatise in monk
ish rhyme, which at that period was almost as popular as the
" Donatus," and of which odd leaves, printed on both sides, are stjU
to be seen in Ubraries which are rich in early specimens of printing.
Although there is every reason to beheve that the early "Prenters"
of Antwerp and Bruges were not acquainted with the use of move
able types, yet the mention of such persons at so early a period,
and the notice of the makers " of cards and printed figures" at
Venice in 1441, sufficiently 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 prerious
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 Ufric ZeU, the first person
who estabUshed a press in Cologne. A shrewd German,* how
ever, has most clearly shown, from the same chronicle, that the
actual testimony of Ulric ZeU is directly in opposition to the claims
advanced by the advocates of Coster. The passage on which they
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 HoUand
from the Donatuses, which before that time were printed there."
This we are given to understand by Meerman aud Koning is the
* Friedrich Lehne, Einige Bemerkungen iiber das Unternehmen der gelebrten
Gesellschaft zu Harlem, ihrer Stadt die Ehre der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst
zu ertrotzen, S. 24—26. Zweite Ausgabe, Mainz. 1825.

TYPOGRAPHY, 151
statement of Ulric Zell. A little further on however the Chro
nicler, who in the above passage appears to have been speaking in
his ovra 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 Chro
nicle," the compiler of which proceeds as foUows : " Item : there
are certahifiancifiil people who say that books were printed before ;
but this is not true; for in no country are books to be found
printed before that time."f
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 un
Ukely 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 de
rived from a " Donatus,":|: printed from wood-blocks. In the
petition of Conrad Sweinheim and Arnold Pannartz, two Germans,
* This is a raistake 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.
f 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 dicant,
dudum ante hsec tempora typorum ope libros excuses esse, qui tamen et se et
alios decipiunt ; nullibi enim terrarum libri eo tempore impressi reperiuntur." —
De Ortu et Progressu Artis Typographicse, p. 38. Colon. Agrippinae, 1640.
X Angelus Rocca mentions having seen a "Donatus" on parchment, at the
commencement of which was written in the hand of Mariangelus Accursius, who
flourished about 1530 : " Impressus est autem hic Donatus et Confessionalia
primim omnium anno mccccl. Admonitus certfe fuit ex Donato HoUandiae,
prius impresso in tabula incisa." — Bibliotheca Vaticana comraentario illustrata,
1591, cited by Prosper Marchand in his Hist, de I'lmprimerie, 2nde Partie, p. 35.
It is likely that Accursius derived his information about a Donatus being printed
in HoUand from the Cologne Chronicle.

152 INVENTION OF
who first estabUshed a press at Rome, addressed 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 im-
PRiMENDi iNiTiUM sumpsimus ;" that is : " Donatuses for boys,
whence we have taken the beginning of printing." If this pas
sage is to be understood as referring to the origin of typo
graphy, and not to the first fruits of their own press, it is the
earliest and the best eridence on the point which has been ad
duced ; for it is very hkely that both those printers had acquired
a knowledge of their art at Mentz in the very office where it was
first brought to perfection.
About the year 1400, Henne, or John Gsensfleisch de Sulgeloch,
called also John Gutemberg zum Jungen, appears to have been
bom at Mentz. He had two brothers ; Conrad who died in 1424»
and Friele who was Uving 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
liring in 1459.
Gutemberg was descended of an honourable famUy, and he him
seK is said to have been by birth a knight* It would appear that
the family had been possessed of considerable property. They had
one house in Mentz called zumGaensfleisch, and another caUed zum
Gudenberg, or Gutenberg, which Wimpheling translates, "Domum
boni mentis." The local name of Sulgeloch, or Sorgenloch, was
derived from the name of a rillage where the famUy of Gaensfleisch
had resided previous to thefr removing to Mentz. It seems proba
ble that the house zum Jungen at Mentz came into the Gutem-
bergs' possession by inheritance. It was in this house, according to
the account of Trithemius, that the printing business was carried on
during his partnership with Faust.f
* Schwartz observes that in the instrument drawn up by the notary Ulric Helm-
asperger, Gutemberg is styled" Juncker," an honourable addition which was at that
period expressive of nobility. — Primaria quaedam Documenta de Origine Typogra
phic, p. 20, 4to. Altorfii, 1740,
f " Morabatur autem praedictus Joannes Gutenberg Moguntiae in domo xum
Jangen, quae domus usque in prsesentem diem [1513] illius nova; Artis nomine
noscitur insignita." — Trithemii Chronicura Spanhemiense, ad annum 1450,

TYPOGRAPHY. 153
When Gutemberg called himself der Junge, or junior, it was
doubtless to distinguish himseK from a Gaensfleisch der Elfer, or
senior, a name which frequently occurs in the documents printed
by Koehler. Meerman has fixed upon the latter name for the
purpose of giring to Gutemberg a brother of the same christian
name, and of making him the thief who stole Coster's types. He
also avails himseK of an error committed by Wimphehng and others,
who had supposed John Gutemberg and John Gaensfleisch to be
two different persons. In two deeds of sale, however, of the date
1441 and 1442, entered in the SaUc book of the church of St
Thomas at Strasburg, he is thus expressly named : " Joannes dicfus
Gensfieisch alias nuncupatus Gutenberg de Mogunda, Argenfince com-
morans ;" that is, " John Gaensfleisch, otherwise named Gutemberg,
of Mentz, residing at Strasburg." * Anthony a Wood in his History
of the University of Oxford caUs him Tossanus ; and Cherilher, in
his Origine de I'lmprimerie de Paris, Toussaints. Seizf is vrithin
an ace of making 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 obUged 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 Uring at Mentz; for in an act
of -accommodation between the nobiUty 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
inlmdig sint" — "who are not at present in the country." In 1434
there is positive eridence 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 enter-
* In the release which he grants to the town-clerk of Mentz, in 1434, he de
scribes himself as, " Johann Gensefleisch der Junge, genant Gutemberg."
f In " Het derde Jubeljaer der uitgevondene Boekdrukkonst door Laurens
Jansz Koster," p. 71, Hariem, 1740. — Oberiin, Essai d'Annales.
X The release is given in Schoepflin's Vindiciae Typographicae, Documentum I.

154 INVENTION OF
ed into partnership vrith Andrew Drytzehn and others ; and there
is every reason to believe that at this period he was engaged in
making experiments on the practicabiUty 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 " Constaflers " or ciric nobihty of Strasburg. In 1437 he was
summoned before the ecclesiastical judge of that city at the suit
of Anne of Iron -Door,* for breach of promise of marriage. It
would seem that he afterwards 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 toU leried on
vrine. 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 thefr brother, or to adinit them to take his place in
the partnership. From the depositions of the witnesses in this
cause, which, together with the decision of the judges, are given
at length by Schcepflin, there can be Uttle 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 foUovring particulars conceming the partnership of Gutem
berg with Andrew Drytzehn and others are derived from the
recital of the case contained in the decision of the judges. Some
years before his death, Andrew Drytzehn expressed a desfre to leam
one of Gutemberg's arts, for he appears to have been fond of try
ing new experiments, and the latter acceding to his request taught
him a method of pohshing stones, by which he gained consider
able profit. Some time afterwards, Gutemberg, in company vrith a
person named John Riff, began to exercise a certain art whose
productions were in demand at the fair of Aix-la-ChapeUe. Andrew
Drytzehn, hearing of this, begged that the new art might be
explained to him, promising at the same time to give whatever pre
mium should be required. Anthony Heihnan also made a similar
• " Ennelin zu der Iserin Thure." She was then living at Strasburg, and was of
an honourable family, originally of Alsace. — Schcepflin, Vind, Typ. p. 17,

TYPOGRAPHY. 155
request for his brother Andrew Heihnan.* To both these appli
cations 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 Riff 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/-Chapelle being deferred to another
year, Gutemberg's two new partners requested that he would com
municate to them vrithout reserve all. his wonderful and rare in
ventions ; 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 be paid
immediately, 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 Heilman paid fifty,
according to his engagement, while Andrew Drytzehn only paid
forty, learing ten due. The term of the partnership for carrying
on the " wonderful art " was fixed at five years ; and it was also
agreed that if any of the partners should die within that period,
his interest in the utensils and stock should become vested in
the surriring partners, who at the completion of the term were
to pay to the hefrs of the deceased the sum of one hundred florins.
Andrew Drytzehn haring died within the period, and when there
remained a sum of eighty-five florins unpaid by him, Gutemberg
met the claim of his brothers by referring to the articles of part
nership, and insisted that from the sum of one hundred florins which
the surriring partners were bound to pay, the eighty-five remain
ing 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 untU the five years were
expired, and would thus not be strictly due for some years to come.
* When Andrew Heilman was proposed as a partner, Gutemberg observed that
his friends would perhaps treat the business into which he was about to embark as
mere jugglery [gockel werck], and object to his having anything to do with it, —
Schcepflin, Vind, Typ, Document, p. 10.

156 INVENTION OF
The claim of George Drytzehn to be admitted a partner, as the
heir of his brother, he opposed, on the ground of his being unac
quainted with the obUgations 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 ac
count of the business, except to FrideUn von Seckingen, and that
this sum (which was owing for lead) Gutemberg himseK paid. The
judges having heard the allegations of both parties, and haring ex
amined 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 vritnesses in this process,
there can scarcely be a doubt that the "wonderful art" which
Gutemberg was attempting to perfect was typography or printing
with moveable types. Foumierf thinks that Gutemberg's attempts
at printing, as may be gathered from the eridence 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 at
tempts 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 wKe, depose to
the following effect : After the death of Andrew Drytzehn, Gutem-
• This decision is dated " On the Eve of St, Lucia and St, Otilia, [12th Decem
ber,] 1439,'^
f Traitd de I'origine et des productions de I'lraprimerie primitive en taille de
bois, Paris 1758; et Remarques sur un Ouvrage, &c, pour servir de suite au
Traitd, Paris 1762.

TYPOGRAPHY. 157
berg's servant, Lawrence Beildeck, came to their house, and thus
addressed their relation Nicholas Drytzehn : " Your deceased bro
ther 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 hkn in the Merchants' Walk and said to
him, " Conrad, as Andrew Drytzehn is dead, and as you made the
press and know all about it, go and take the pieces\ out of
the press and separate [zerlege] them so that no person may know
what they are." This witness intended to do as he was requested,
but on making enquiry the day after St Stephen's Dayf he found
that the work was removed.
Lawrence Beildeck, Gutemberg's servant, deposes that after An
drew Drytzehn's death he was sent by his master to Nicholas
Drytzehn to tell 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
* " Andres Dritzehn uwer bruder selige hat iiij stucke undenan inn einer
pressen ligen, da hat uch Hanns Gutemberg gebetten das ir die darusz neraent
iind ufi" die presse legent von einander so kan man nit gesehen was das ist." —
Schcepflin, Vind, Typ, Document, p, 6.
¦\ " Nym die stucke usz der pressen und zerlege sii von einander so weis nye-
mand was es ist :" literally : " Take the pieces out of the press and distribute
[or separate] them, so that no raan may know what it is." — Schcepflin, Vind. Typ.
Document, p. 6. "The word zerhgen" says Lichtenberger, Initia Typograph.
p. 11, "is used at the present day by printers to denote the distribution of the
types which the compositor has set up." The original word " stUcke" — pieces
— is always translated " paginae" — pages — by Schelhom. Dr. Dibdin calls thera
"forms kept together by two screws or "press-spindles." — Life of Caxton, in his
edition of Ames's and Herbert's Typ. Antiq. p. Ixxxvii. note.
X St. Stephen's Day is on 26th December. Andrew Drytzehn, being very
ill, confessed himself to Peter Eckhart on Christmas-day 1438, and it would seem
that he died on the 27th.

158 INVENTION OF
before Christmas both to Andrew Heilman and Andrew Drytzehn
to bring away aU the "forms" [formen] that they might be sepa
rated in his presence, as he found several things in them of which
he disapproved.* The same witness also states that he was weU
aware of many people being wishful to see the press, and that
Gutemberg had desired that they should send some person to pre
vent its being seen.
Hans Dunne, 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.f
As Gutemberg eridently 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 explicit. Though it may be a matter of doubt
whether his invention was merely an improvement on block-print
ing, 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 subsequent partnership with
Faust, it is moraUy certain that Gutemberg's attention had been
occupied vrith some new discovery relative to printing at least three
years prerious to December 1439.
If Gutemberg's attempts when in partnership vrith Andrew Dryt
zehn and others did not extend beyond block-printing, and K the
four " pieces" which were in the press are assumed to have been
four engraved blocks, it is erident 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
• " Dlrre gezuge hat ouch geseit das er wol wisse das Gutenberg unlauge vor
Wihnahten sinen kneht sante zu den beden Andresen, alle^rmen zu holen, und
wtirdent zur lessen das er ess sehe, und jn joch ettUche formen ruwete." — Schcep
flin, Vind. Typ. Document, p. 12. The separate letters, which are now called
"types," were frequently called "formae" by the early printers and writers of
the fifteenth century. They are thus named by Joh. and Vindelin de Spire in
1469 ; by Franciscus Philelphus in 1470 ; by Ludovicus Carbo in 1471 ; and
by Phil, de Lignamine in 1474. — Lichtenberger, Init, Typ. p, 11,
t " Hanns Dunne der goltsmyt hat geseit, das er vor dryen joren oder doby
Gutemberg by den hundert guldin abe verdienet habe aUeine das zu dem trucken
gehijret,"— Schcepflin, Vind. Typ, Document, p. 13.

TYPOGRAPHY. 159
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 Heil-
man's request to Conrad Saspach, the maker of the press, that
he would take out the "pieces" and distribute them, are at once
intelUgible. If Gutemberg's attempts were confined to block-print
ing, 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 purpose of taking impres
sions ; 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 eridence of Hanns Diinne 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 cor
roborated 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 intro
duced; and Fournier not attending to the distinction between
simple engraring 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 Hanns Diinne received from Gutemberg for
work done on account of printing alone, might be on account
of his haring cut the types, the formation of which by means of
• The words of Bar, who was alraoner ofthe Swedish chapel at Paris in 1761,
are these : " Tout le monde sait que dans ce temps les orffevres exerp oient aussi
I'art de la graviire; et nous concluons de-1^ que Guttemberg a commence par
des caractferes de bois, que Ae-\k il a pass6 aux caractferes de plomb." On
this passage Fournier makes the foUowing observations : " Tout le monde sait
au contraire que dans ce temps U 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
gravure n'a et6 invent^ que vingt-trois ans aprfes ce que vous citez, c'est-a-dire
en 1460, par Masso Pmiguero."— Remarques, &c. p. 20. Bar raentioned no parti
cular kind of engraving; 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 Finigueira, not Piniguera, as Fournier, with his usual inaccuracy,
spells it.

160 INVENTION OF
punches and matrices was a subsequent improvement of Peter
Scheffer. It is indeed difficult to conceive in what manner a gold
smith could eam 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 Hanns Dunne was an engraver
on wood, I am incUned to think that he was employed by Gutem
berg to cut the letters on separate pieces of metaL
There is no eridence to show that Gutemberg succeeded in
printing any books at Strasburg with moveable types; and the
most Ukely conclusion seems to be that he did not As the process
between him and the Drytzehns must have given a certain degree
of pubUcity 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, aU the early
writers in the least entitled to credit, who have spoken of the in
vention of printing with moveable types, agree in ascribing the
honour to Mentz, after Gutemberg had retumed to that city
and entered into partnership with Faust Two writers, however,
whose leaming and research are entitled to the highest respect,
are of a different opinion. " It has been doubted," says Professor
OberUn, "that Gutemberg 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 after
wards. He might print several of those smaU tracts without date,
in which the inequaUty of the letters and rudeness of the work
manship indicate the infancy of the art Schcepflin thinks that
he can identify some of them; and the passages cited by him
clearly show that printing had been carried on there."* It is,
however, to be remarked that the passages cited by Schcepflin,
and referred to by Oberiin, by no means show that the art of
printing had been practised at Strasburg by Gutemberg ; nor do
they clearly prove that it had been continuously carried on there
by his partners or others to the time of Mentelin, who proba
bly estabUshed himseK there as a printer in 1466.
It has been stated that Gutemberg's first essays in tj'pography
were made with wooden types, and Daniel Speckhn, an architect
• Essai d'Annales de la Vie de Jean Gutenbei-g, par Jer. J. Oberiin. Bvo.
Strasbourg, An ix. [1802.]

TYPOGRAPHY. 161
of Strasburg, who died in 1589, professed to have seen some of
them. According to his account there was a hole pierced in eaeh
letter, and they were arranged in Unes by a string being passed
through them. The Unes thus formed Uke a string of beads
were afterwards coUected 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 aUow of a hole being bored through them, and
to afterwards 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 Ukely that Speckhn had been
mistaken ; and that he had supposed some old initial letters, large
enough to admit of a hole being bored through them without injury,
to have been such as were generally 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 coUegiate 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 return
ed to Mentz, his native city, haring apparently been unsuccess
ful m his speculations at Strasburg. From this period to 1450 it
is Ukely that he continued to employ himself in attempts to perfect
his invention of typography. In 1450 he entered into partner
ship vrith 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 foUow
ing account of the first estabUshment and early progress of the
art " About this time [1450], in the city of Mentz upon the
Rhine, in Germany, and not in Italy as some have falsely stated,
this wonderful and hitherto unheard of art of printing was con
ceived 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
M

162 INVENTION OF
John Faust, also a citizen of Mentz, he completed his undertaking.
At first they printed the vocabulary called the Cafholicon from
letters cut on blocks of wood. These letters however could not
be used to print anything else, as they were not separately move
able, but were cut on the blocks as above stated. To this inven
tion succeeded others more subtle, and they afterwards invented
a method of casting the shapes, named by them matrices, oi aU
the letters of the Roman alphabet, from which they again cast
letters of copper or tin, sufficient to bear any pressure to which
they might be subjected, and which they had formerly cut by
hand. As I have heard, nearly thirty years ago, from Peter
Scheffer, of Gemsheim, citizen of Mentz, who was son-in-law
of the first inventor, great difficulties attended the first estab
Ushment of this art; for when they had commenced printing a
Bible they found that upwards of four thousand florins had been
expended before they had finished the third quaternion [or qufre
of four sheets]. Peter Scheffer, an ingenious and prudent man,
at first the servant, and afterwards, as has been afready 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 thefr
method of printing a secret, tiU at length it was divulged by
some workmen whose assistance they could not do without It
first passed to Strasburg, and graduaUy to other nations."*
As Trithemius finished the work which contains the preced
ing account in 1514, Marchand concludes that he must have
received his information from Scheffer about 1484, which would
be within thirty-five years of Gutemberg's entering into a part
nership 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
connection with Faust, seeing that the former had previously em
ployed them at Strasburg; and he also observes that in the
• Trithemii Annales Hirsaugienses, tom, ii, ad annura 1450, The original
passage is printed in Prosper Marchand's Histoire de I'lmprimerie, 2ude Partie,
p, 7.

TYPOGRAPHY. 163
learned abbot's account there is no distinct mention made of move
able^ letters cut by hand, but that we are led to infer that the
improvement of casting types from matrices immediately follow
ed the printing of the CathoUcon from wood-blocks. The words
of Trithemius on this point are as follows : " Post haec, inventis
successerunt subtiUora, inveneruntque modum fundendi formas
omnium Latini alphabet! Utterarum, quas ipsi matrices nominabant,
ex quibus rursum seneos sive stanneos characteres fundebant ad
omnem pressuram sufficientes quos prius manibus sculpebant"
From this passage it might be objected in opposition to the opinion
of Schcepflin:* 1. That the "subtiUora," — more subtle contrivances,
mentioned before the invention of casting moveable letters, may relate
to the cutting of such letters by hand. 2. That the word "quos"
is to be referred to the antecedent "seneos sive stanneos charac
teres," — ^letters of copper or tin, — and not to the " characteres in
tabuhs Ugneis 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 Gutemberg, and
twice immediately afterwards caUing Scheffer the son-in-law of
" the first inventor," Faust, is noticed by SchoepfUn, 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 commenced 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. It 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 Gutem
berg and Faust, agree in assigning the year 1450 as that in which
they began to practise the new art. It is conjectured by Santander
that Faust, who seems to have been a selfish character,! sought
» Vindiciae Typographicae, pp. 77, 78.
+ In the first work which issued frora Faust and Schefier's press, with a date and
the printers' names, — the Psalter of 1457, — and in several others, Schefier appears.
on an equal footing with Faust. In the colophon of an edition of Cicero de
Officiis, 1465, Faust has inserted the following degrading words : " Presens opus
M 2

164 INVENTION OF
an opportunity of quarrelling with Gutemberg as soon as Scheffer
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 Ufric Helmasperger, a notary, on 6th November 1455, in the
presence of Peter Gemsheim [Scheffer], James Faust, the brother
of John, Henry Keffer, and others.* 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 ac
count of the second. In consequence of Gutemberg's neglecting
to pay the interest, Faust states that he had incurred a further
expense of thirty-six florins from haring 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.f
In answer to those allegations Gutemberg repUed : that the first
eight hundred florins which he received of Faust were advanced
in order to purchase utensUs for printing, which were assigned
Job. Fust Moguntinus civis .... arte quadam perpulcra Petri manu pueri met
feliciter efieci." His partner, to whose ingenuity he is chiefly indebted for his
fame, is here represented in the character of a menial. Peter Scheffer, of Gems
heim, clerk, who perfected the art of printing, is now degraded to " Peter, my hot/,"
by whose hand — not by his ingenuity — John Faust exercises a certain beautifiil
art. • Henry Keffer was employed in Gutemberg and Faust's priuting-o£Bce. He
afterwards went to Nuremberg, where his name appears as a printer, in 1473, in
conjunction with John Sensenschraid. — Primaria quaedam Documenta de origine
Typographiae, edente C.G, Schwartzio. 8vo. Altorfii, 1740,
t " Er [Johan Fust] denselben soit furter under Christen und ludden hab mtissen
ussnemen, und davor sess und dreyssig Gulden ungevarlich zu guter Rechnung zu
Gesuch gehen, das sich also zusamen mit dem Heuptgeld ungevailich tr'iBt an
zvvytusend und zvvenzig Gulden." Schwartz in an observation upon this passage
conceives the sum of 2020 florins to be thus made up : capital advanced, in two
sums of 800 each, 1600 florins ; interest 390 ; on account of compound interest,
incurred by Faust 36 ; making in all 2026, He thinks that 2020 florins only
were claimed as a round sum ; and that the second sum of 800 florins was ad
vanced in October 1452. — Primaria quaedam Documenta, pp, 9  14.

TYPOGRAPHY. 165
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.* 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 himseK 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 paid 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 hable. f
The judges, haring 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
vritnesses, or swearing that he had borrowed upon interest the
sums advanced, Gutemberg should pay him interest also, according
to their agreement Faust haring 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 Uable on account of the same, the notary, Ufric
Hehnasperger, signed his attestation of the award on 6th Novem
ber 1455. 1 It would appear that Gutemberg not being able to
* "... und das Johannes [Fust] ym ieriichen 300 Gulden vor Kosten geben,
und auch Gesinde Lone, Huss Zinss, Verraet, Papier, Tinte, &c. veriegen solte."
Primaria quaedam Doc. p. 10.
t " . . , . von den ubrigen 800 Gulden vvegen begert er ym ein rechnung zu
thun, so gestett er auch ym keins Soldes noch Wuchers, und hofft yra im rechten
darum nit pflichtigk sin," Primaria quaedam Doc. p. 11.
X Mercier, who is frequently referred to as au authority on subjects connected
with Bibliography, has, in his supplement to Prosper Marchand's Histoire de
I'lmprimerie, confounded this document with that containing an account of the
process between the Drytzehns and Gutemberg at Strasburg in 1439; and Heine
ken, at p, 255 of his Id^e Generale, has committed the same raislake.

166 INVENTION OF
repay the money was obhged to rehnquish the printing materials to
Faust Salmuth, who aUudes 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 evidently 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 "Gutemberg" we
read " Faust," and vice versa, the account is correct.
Whether Faust, who might be an engraver as weU as a gold
smith, assisted Gutemberg or not by engraving the types, does not
appear. It is stated that Gutemberg's earUest productions at
Mentz were an alphabet cut on wood, and a Donatus executed
in the same manner. Trithemius mentions a " Cafholicon" en
graved 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.* Whatever may have been the book which Tri
themius describes as a " CathoUcon," it certainly was not the
"Cafholicon Joannis Januensis," a large foho 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 prerious to the introduction of metal
types Gutemberg and Faust used moveable types of wood; and
Schcepflin 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, SchcBpflin's opinion is of very httie 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
• " Je crois, que ces tables [deux planches de bois autrefois chez le Due de
la Valliere] sont du livre que le Chroniqueur de Cologne appelle un Donat
et que Trithem nomme un CathoUcon, (livre universel,) ce qu'on a confondu
ensuite avec le grand ouvrage intituld CathoUcon Januensis." — Id^e G^ndrale,
p. 258.

TYPOGRAPHY. 167
Vincenfii Bellovacensis Speculum Hisf oriole in 1473 were printed
vrith moveable types of wood. It is, however, doubtful if ever a
single book was printed in this manner.
Willett in his Essay on Printing, published in the eleventh volume
of thfe Archseologia, 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 Cristenheif widder die durken,"
of which a fac-simile is given by Aretin, and the first and second
Donatuses, of which 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 possibiUty 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 prac
tised wood engraring, 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 prac
ticabiUty of cutting and printing with such types, prorided that
they were not of a smaUer size than Great Primer Roman.
Meerman shows the possibihty of using such types; and Camus
caused two lines of the Bible, supposed to have been printed by
Gutemberg, to be cut in separate letters on wood, and which
sustauied 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 unex
ceptionable testimony on this point can be produced. The state
ments of Serarius and Paulus Pater,t who profess to have seen
» Oberiin, Essai d'Annales de la Vie de Gutenberg.
f "... ligneos typos, ex buxi frutice, perforates in medio, ut zona colUgari
una jungique commode possint, ex Fausti oflicina reliquos, Moguntiae aliquando
me conspexisse memini."— Paulus Pater, in Dissertatione de Typis Literarum,
&c. p. 10. 4to. Lipsiffi, 1710, Heineken, at p. 254 of his Id6e Gdn. declares

168 INVENTION OF
such ancient wooden types at Mentz, are entitled to as Uttle credit
as Daniel SpeckUn, who asserted that he had seen such at Stras
burg. They may have seen large initial letters of wood vrith
holes bored through, but scarcely any lower-case letters- which were
ever used in printing any book.
That experiments might be made by Gutemberg vrith wooden
types I can beUeve, though I have not been able to find any suffi
cient authority for the fact. Of the possibiUty of cutting moveable
types of a certain size in wood, and of printing a book with them,
I am convinced from experiment ; and could conrince others, were
it worth the expense, by printing a fac-simile, from wooden types,
of any page of any book which is of an earher date than 1462.
But, though conrinced of the possibihty of printing smaU 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 haring been printed in that manner.
It was, until of late, confidently asserted by persons who pretended
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 thefr statement was generaUy be
lieved. There cannot, however, now be a doubt in the mind of
any person who examines the book, and who has the sUghtest
knowledge of wood engraring and printing, of the text being print
ed 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 vrith any degree of certainty. One of the
supposed earhest productions of typography is a letter of indul
gence conceded on the 12th of August 1451, by Pope Nicholas
V, to PauUn Zappe, counsellor 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 aU persons who within
that period should contribute towards the defence of Cyprus against
the Turks. Four copies of this indulgence ai-e known, printed on
veUum in the manner of a patent or brief The characters are of a
himself to be convinced that Gutemberg had cut separate letters on wood, but
he thinks that no person would be able to cut a quantity sufiScient to print whole
sheets, and, still less, large volumes as many pretend.

TYPOGRAPHY. 169
larger size than those of the " Durandi Rationale," 1459, or of the
Latin Bible printed by Faust and Scheffer in 1462. The foUowing
date appears at the conclusion of one of the copies: "Datum
Erffurdie sub anno Domini m cccc Uiij, die vero quinta decima mensis
novembris," The words which are here printed in Itahc, are in the
original written with a pen. A copy of the same indulgence dis
covered by Professor Gebhardi is more complete. It has at the
end, a " Forma plenissimceabsolufionis ef remissionis invita ef in mortis
arficulo" — a form of plenary absolution and remission in Ufe and
at the point of death. At the conclusion is the following date, the
words in ItaUcs being inserted vrith a pen : " Datum in Luneborch
anno Domini tacccclquinfo, die vero vicesima sexfa mensis Januariir
Heineken, who saw this copy in the possession of Breitkopf, has ob
served that in the original date, m cccc liUj, the last four characters
had been effaced and the word quinto written with a pen ; but yet
in such a manner that the numerals iuj might still be perceived.
In two copies of this indulgence in the possession of Earl Spencer,
described by Dr. Dibdin in the Bibhotheca Spenceriai,na, vol. i, p. 44,
the final units (Uij) have not had the word "quinto" overwritten,
but have been formed with a pen into the numeral V. In the ca
talogue of Dr. Kloss's Ubrary, No. 1287, it is stated that a fragment
of a "Donafus" there described, consisting of two leaves of parch
ment, is printed with the same type as the Mazarine Bible ; and it
is added, on the authority of George Appleyard, Esq., Earl Spen
cer's Ubrarian, that the "Littera Indulgentiae" of Pope Mcholas V,
in his lordship's possession, contains two Unes printed with the same
type, Breitkopf had some doubts respecting this instrament; but a
writer in the Jena Literary Gazette is certainly wrong in suppos
ing that it had been ante-dated ten years. It was only to be in
force for three years ; and Pope Nicholas V, by whom itwas granted,
died on the 24th March 1455.* Two words, univeksis and pau-
LiNUs, 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 Schelhorn
has given a specimen in his " Dissertation on an early edition of the
Bible," Uhn, 1760.
The next earUest specimen of typography vrith a date is the
tract entitled "Eyn manung der Cristenheif widder die durken" —
• Oberiin, Essai d'Annales de la Vie de Gutenberg.

170 INVENTION OF
an Appeal to Christendom against the Turks, — which has been
alluded to at page 167. 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 earhest
historical results of the invention of Printing," pubUshed at
Munich in 1808. This "Appeal" is in German rhyme, and it
consists of exhortations, arranged under every month in the man
ner 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 diri geburf offenbar m.cccclv. iar sieben wochen und iiii do by
von nativifatis bis esfo michi. At the conclusion of the exhortation
for December are the foUowing words : " Eyn gut selig nuwe Jar :"
A happy new year ! From these circumstances Aretin is of opimon
that the tract was printed towards the end of 1454. M. Bemhart,
however, one of the superintendents of the Royal Library at Munich,
of which Aretin was the principal dfrector, 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.*
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 thfrd part of his Typographic
Rarities, and he supposes that both the Donatus and the Calendar
were printed by Gutemberg.f It is, however, certain that the
Donatus which he ascribed to Gutemberg was printed by Peter
Scheffer, and in all probabiUty after Faust's death ; and from the
similarity of the type it is Ukely that the Calendar was printed at
the same office. Fischer, haring 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
* Dr. Dibdiu, Bibliog. Tour, vol. iii, p. 135, second edition,
f Gotthelf Fischer, Notice du premier livre imprira^ avec date. 4to. Mayence,
An xi. Typographisch. Seltenheit. 6te. Lieferung, S. 25. Svo, Niimberg, 1804,
When Fischer published his account of the Calendar, Aretin had not discovered
the tract entitled " Eyn Manung der Cristcnheit tvidder die durken."

TYPOGRAPHY. 171
to conclude that the large ornamental letters of the Psalter, which
were most Ukely of wood, had been cut by Gutemberg. The dis
covery of a Donatus with Peter Scheffer's imprint has completely
destroyed his conjectures, and invahdated the arguments advanced
by him in favour of the Mazarine Bible being printed by Gutem
berg 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 biblio
graphers 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 Maugerard produced a copy of this edition to
the Academy of Metz, containing 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 Ukely
that this was the identical edition alluded to by Trithemius as
haring 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 Royal Library at Paris. It is bound in two volumes ;
and every complete page consists of two columns, each containing
forty-two Unes. At the conclusion of the first volume the person
by whom it was rubricated! and bound has written the foUowing
memorandum : " Ef sic est finis prime partis biblie. Ser. Veteris testa-
Tnenti. Uluminata seu rubricata et illuminata p' henricum Albeh
alius Cremer anno diii m.cccc.lvi fiesfo Barfholomei apli — Deo grafias
* It is called the Mazarine Bible in consequence of the first known copy being
discovered in the library formed by Cardinal Mazarine. Dr. Dibdin, in his Biblio
graphical 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 " ofthe very first
degree of rarity," An edition of the Bible, supposed to have been printed at Bam
berg by Albert Pfister about 1461, is rauch more scarce.
f In most of the early printed books the capitals were left to be inserted in
red ink by the pen or pencil ofthe " rubricator."

172 INVENTION OF
— alleluja." At the end of the second volume the same person
has written the date in words at length: "Iste liber illuminatus,
ligafus Sr completus esf p' henricum Cremer ¦vicariu ecclesie collegat^
Sancfi Sfephani magunfini sub anno Dni millesimo quadringentedmo
quinquagedmo sexfo fiesfo assumpfionis ghriose virginis Marie. Deo
gradas alleluja."* Fischerf says that this last memorandum as
signs " einen spatem tag" — a later day — to the end of the rubri-
cator's work.- In this he is mistaken; for the feast of the As
sumption 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, faUs on August 24th. Lam-
binetj, 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 how
ever can by no means be admitted as a proof of the inscriptions
being spurious. It is indeed more Ukely that the rubricator might
actuaUy finish the second volume before the first, than that a
modem forger, intent to deceive, should not have been aware
of the objection.
The genuineness ofthe 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, ricar of the parochial church of "Ville-Ostein,"§ to the
sacrist of which the Bible belonged. The sum of this memorandum
is that on St. George's day [23rd April] 1457 there was chaunted,
for the first time by the said Berthold, the mass of the holy sacra
ment. In the Carthusian monastery without the walls of Mentz,
Schwarz 11 says that he saw a copy of this edition, the last leaves of
which were torn out; but that in an old catalogue he perceived an
• There are fac-simile tracings of those memorandums, on separate slips of
paper, in the copy of the Mazarine Bible in the King's Library at the British
Museum ; and fac-siraile engravings of thera are given in the M'Carthy Cata
logue, f Typograph, Seltenheit, S. 20, 3te Lieferung,
X Recherches sur I'Origine de I'Irapriraerie, p, 135,
§ Oberiin says that " Ville-Ostein" lies near Erfurth, and is in the diocese
of Mentz,
H Index librorum sub incunabula typograph. impressorum. 1739; cited by
Fischer, Typograph. Seltenheit. S, 21, Ste Leiferung,

TYPOGRAPHY. 173
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 Gutem
berg's imprint, yet there cannot be a doubt of his haring esta
bUshed 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 Philip de Lignamine at Rome in 1474 it
is expressly stated, under the year 1458, that there were then two
printers at Mentz skilful in printing on parchment with metal
types. The name of one was Cufemberg, 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 ahd 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 preserved 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
aUuded to is to the foUowing effect: "And with respect to the
books which I, the above-named John, have given the Ubrary of
the said convent, they shall remain for ever in the said hbrary;
and I, the above-named John, vrill furthermore give to the Ubrary
of the said convent all such books required for pious uses and
the serrice of God, — whether for reading or singing, or for use
according to the rules of the order, — as I, the 3,bove-named John,
have printed or shall hereafter print"f
• PhiHppi Ae Lignamine Chronica Summorum Pontificum Iraperatorumque,
anno 1474, Roraae irapressa. 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
sarae 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."

174 INVENTION OF
That Gutemberg had a press of his own is further confirmed
by a bond or deed of obhgation executed by Doctor Conrad
Homery on the Friday after St, Matthias' day, 1468, wherein he
acknowledges having received "certain forms, letters, utensUs,
materials, and other things belon^ng to printing," left by John
Gutemberg deceased; and he binds himseK to the archbishop
Adolphus not to use them beyond the territory of Mentz, and
in the event of his selUng them to give a preference to a person
belonging to that city.
The words translated " certain forms, letters, utensUs, materials,
and other things belonging to printing," in the preceding para
graph, are in the original enumerated as : " etliche formen, buch-
sfaben, instrument, gezuge und anders zu fruckwerck gehoerender
As there is a distinction made between "formen" and "buchsta-
ben," — UteraUy, "forms," and "letters," — Schwarz is inclined to
think that by "formen" engraved wood-blocks might be meant,
and he adduces in favour of his opinion the word " formen-schnei-
der," the old German name for a wood engraver. One or more
pages of type when wedged into a rectangular iron frame caUed
a "chase" and ready for the press, is termed a "form" both by
English and German printers; but Schwarz thinks that such
were not the "forms" 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 caU thefr old
worn-out types "der Zeug" — Uterally, "stuff," — and that the mixed
metal of which tj^es are composed is also known as " der Zeug,
oder MetaU."* It is to be remembered that the earUest printers
were also their own letter-founders.
The work caUed the CathoUcon, 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 bibUographers. It is a Latin dic
tionary and introduction 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,
• Primaria quaedam Document, pp. 26 — 34,

TYPOGRAPHY. 175
AltariUa, — near Mentz, on 6th November 1467, was executed vrith
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.* A second edition of the
same work, printed by Nicholas Bechtermuntze, appeared in 1469.
The following extract from a letter written by Fischer to Professor
Zapf in 1803, contains an account of his researches respecting
the CathoUcon and the Vocabulary : " The frankness with which
you retracted your former opinions respecting the printer of the
CathoUcon of 1460, and agreed with me in assigning it to Gutem
berg, demands the respect of every unbiassed enquirer. I beg
now merely to mention to you a discovery that I have made which
no longer leaves it difficult to conceive how the CathoUcon 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 erident 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 Bech
termuntze 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 into the possession of Bechtermuntze by inheritance, on the
death of Gutemberg,'and hence Dr. Homery's reclamation."f
Zapf, to whom Fischer's letter is addressed, had previously com
municated to OberUn his opinion that the types of the CathoUcon
were the same as those of an Augustinus de Vifa Christiana, 4to.
vrithout 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 Psalte
rium," he acknowledged that he was mistaken ; thus agreeing with
Schwarz, Meerman, Panzer, and Fischer, that no book known to be
* "  per henricum bechtermuncze pie meraorie in altavilla est inchoatum-
et demu sub anno dni m.cccclxii, ipo die Leonardi confessoris qui fuit quarta
die mensis novembris p, nycolaum bechterraucze fratrera dicti Henrici et Wygandu
Spyess de orthenberg e consuramatu." There is a copy of this edition in the
Royal Library at Paris,
t Typographisch. Seltenheit. S. 101, 5te, Lieferung

176 INVENTION OF
printed by Faust and Scheffer is printed vrith the same types as the
CathoUcon and the Vocabulary.
Although there can be Uttle doubt of the CathoUcon and the
EKeld 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 seU to the brothers a portion of his materials and stiU retain
enough for himself. If they came into their possession by inherit
ance, which is not likely, Gutemberg must have died some months
prerious to 4th November 1467, the day on which Nicholas Bech
termuntze and Wygand Spyess finished the printing of the Vocabu
lary. If the materials had been purchased by Bechtermuntze in
Gutemberg's Ufetime, which seems to be the most reasonable sup
position, 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 estabUshment at EKeld.*
By letters patent, dated at EKeld on St Anthony's day 1465,
Adolphus, archbishop and elector of Mentz, appointed Gutemberg
one of his courtiers, vrith the same aUowance of clothing as the rest
of the nobles attending his court, with other pririleges and exemp
tions. From this period Fischer thinks that Gutemberg no longer
occupied himseK 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 blind in
his old age, we need no longer be surprised that during his hfetime
his types aud utensUs should come into the possession of Bechter-
* The two following works, without date or printer's name, are printed with the
same types as the Catholicon, and it is doubtful whether they were printed by
Gutemberg or by other persons with his types.
1 . Matthei de Cracovia tractatus, seu dialogus racionis et consciencie de sump-
cione pabuli salutiferi corporis domini nostri ihesu christi. 4to. foliis 22.
2. Thome de Aquino sumraade articulis fidei et ecclesie sacramentis. 4to. foliis 13.
A declaration of Thierry von Isenburg, archbishop of Mayence, offering to re
sign in favour ofhis opponent, Adolphus of Nassau, printed in Gerraan and Latin
in 1462, is ascribed to Gutemberg : it is of quarto size and consists of four leaves.
— Oberiin, Annales de la Vie de Gutenberg.

TYPOGRAPHY. 177
muntze." The exact period of Gutemberg's decease has not been
ascertained, but in the bond or deed of obUgation executed by Doc
tor 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 RecoUets, and the following epitaph was com
posed by his relation Adam Gelthaus : f
" D. o. M. s.
" Joanni Genszfleisch, artis impressoriae repertori, de omni natione
et hngua optime merito, in nominis sui memoriam immortalem
Adam Gelthaus posuit Ossa ejus in ecclesia D. Francisci Mogun-
tina feliciter cubant"
From the last sentence it is probable that this epitaph was not
placed in the church wherein Gutemberg was interred. The fol
lowing inscription was composed by Ivo Wittich, professor of law
and member of the imperial chamber at Mentz :
" Jo. Guttenbergensi, Moguntino, qui primus omnium literas sere
imprimendas invenit, hac arte de orbe toto bene merenti Ivo Witi-
gisis 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 Gutem
berg, and was supposed to be the same in which he first com
menced printing at Mentz in conjunction with Faust. J
From the documentary eridence cited in tbe preceding account
of the Ufe of Gutemberg, it will be perceived that the art of
printing vrith moveable types was not perfected as soon as con
ceived, 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 aUuded to
in the process between him and the Drytzehns in 1439, it does
not seem Ukely that he had then proceeded beyond making experi-
* St. Matthias's day is on 24th February.
t In the instrument dated 1434, wherein Gutemberg agrees to release the town-
clerk of Mentz whom he had arrested, mention is made of a relation of his, Ort
Gelthus, living at Oppenheim. Schcepflin mistaking the word has printed in his
Documenta, p. 4, " Artgeld huss," which he translates " Artgeld domo," the house
of Artgeld.
X Serarii Historia Mogunt. lib. 1, cap. xxxvu, p. 159. Heineken, Nachrichten
von Kunstlern und Kunst-Sachen, 2te. Theii, S. 299, N

178 INVENTION OF
ments. In 1449 or 1450, when the sum of 800 florins was ad
vanced by Faust, it appears not unreasonable to suppose that he
had so far improved his invention as to render it practicaUy avail
able without reference to Scheffer's great improvement in casting
the types from matrices formed by punches, which was most
Ukely discovered between 1452 and 1455.* About fourteen years
must have elapsed before Gutemberg was enabled to bring his in
vention into practice. The difficulties which must have attended
the flrst estabhshment of typography could only have been sur
mounted 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, dirided by proper spaces, and
bound together in some manner which the ingenuity of the inventor
was to derise. Nor was his invention complete until he had con
trived a Press, 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 Researches, in
forms us that "almost all great discoveries have been made by
accident;" and at page 196 of the same volume, when speaking of
printing as the invention of Lawrence 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 prmting-
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 hun ask himseK 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 sup-
• In the colophon to " Trithemii Breviarium historiarum de origine Regum et
Gentis Francorura," printed at Mentz in 1515 by John Scheffer, son of Peter
Scheff'er 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.

TYPOGRAPHY. 179
posed. — They are generally made by persons of competent know
ledge, and who are in search of them." *
Having now given some account of the grounds on which
Gutemberg's claims to the invention of typography are founded, it
appears necessary to give a brief summary, from the earhest autho
rities, of the pretensions of Lawrence Coster not only to the same
honour, but to something more ; for if the earUest 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
Koelhoff 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 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 151, vmtten by Mariangelus Accursius
who flourished about 1530, the invention 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 HoUand from
a wood-rblock. That a Donatus might be printed there from
a wood-block prerious to the invention of typography is neither
impossible nor improbable; although I esteem the testimony of
Accursius of very Uttle value. He was bom and resided in
Italy, and it is not unlikely, as has been preriously observed,
that he might derive his information from the Cologne Chro
nicle. 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
own uncorroborated testimony on this subject is not entitled to
the sUghtest credit The substance of Zuyren's account is ahnost
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 while yet in a rude and imperfect state it
was carried by a stranger to Mentz and there brought to per
fection. * On the Pleasures and Advantages of Science, p, 160. Edit. 1831.
N 2

180 INVENTION OF
Theodore Coornhert in the dedication of his Dutch transla
tion of TuU/s Offices, to the magista-ates 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 lived was pomted 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 in
ventor's name and family, yet, for some reason or other, he is care
ful 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 specula
tion. The next writer who mentions Harlem as the place where print
ing was invented is Guicciardini, who in his Description of the
Low Countries, first printed at Antwerp in 1567, gives the report,
without vouching for its truth, as follows : " In this place, it ap
pears, not only from the general opinion of the inhabitants and
other Hollanders, but from the 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 Uve at Mentz, where making this
new art known, he was joyfully received; and applying himseK
diligently 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 ; contenting myself with mentioning the

TYPOGRAPHY. 181
subject in a few words that I might not prejudice [by my sUence
the claims of] this district."*
It is erident that the above account is given from mere report
What other writers had previously noticed the claims of Harlemj
except Coornhert and Zuyren, remain yet to be discovered. They
appear to have been unknown to Guicciardini's contemporary,
Junius, who was the first to give a name to the Harlem inventor : a
" local habitation" had afready been prorided for him by Coornhert
The sole authority for one Lawrence Coster haring invented
wood-engraring, block-printing, and typography, is Hadrian Junius,
who was bom 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 fimshed in January 1575. He died the 16th June in
the same year, and his book was not pubUshed until 1588, twelve
years after his decease.f In this work, which is a topographical
and historical account of Holland, or more properly of the country
included within the Umits of ancient Batavia, we find the first
account of Lawrence Coster as the inventor of typography. Al
most every succeeding advocate of Coster's pretensions has taken
the Uberty of altering, ampUfying, or contradicting the account
* Ludovico Guicciardini, Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi : folio, Anversa, 1581.
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
consulted or personally knew of the existence of any such records. Mr. Ottley
also, to match his "records," refers to the relations of Coornhert, Zuyren, Guic
ciardini, and Junius as "docuraents,"
-f- 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 Lon
don in 1585, The following passage concerning Junius occurs in Southey 's Bio
graphical Sketch of the Eari of Surrey in the " Select Works of the British Poets
from Chaucer to Jonson :" " Surrey is next found distinguishing himself at the
siege of Landrecy, At that siege Bonner, who was afterwards so eminently infa
mous, 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,"

182 INVENTION OF
of Junius according as it might suit his own Une of argument ; but
not one of them has been able to produce a smgle soUtary fact
in confirmation of it, Scriverius, Seiz, Meerman, and Koning
are fertile in their conjectures about the thief that stole Coster's
types, but they are miserably barren in their proofs of his haring
had types to be stolen. "If the variety of opinions," observes
Naude, speaking of Coster's invention, " may be taken as an in
dication 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 eridence of
the existence of Lawrence Coster as a printer, have at least
been fertile 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 repafrs, it has
merely been " one nail driving 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 shall here give a faithful translation of the "document," — ac
cording to Mr. Ottley, — upon which they are founded. After
aUuding, in a preliminary rhetorical flourish, to Truth being the
daughter of Time, and to her being concealed in a well, 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 connection through kindred vrith the deceased, his heirs, or
his posterity, and I expect on this account neither favour nor
reward. What 1 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
• Koning's Dissertation on the Invention of Printing, which was crowned by the
Society of Sciences of Hariem, was first printed at Hariem in the Dutch language in
1816, It was afterwards abridged and translated into French with the approbation,
and under the revision, of the author. In 1817 he published a first supplement;
and a second appeared in 1820.

TYPOGRAPHY. 183
told from their elders, whose authority ought justly to entitle them
to credit."
" About a hundred and twenty-eight years ago,* Lawrence John,
caUed the churchwarden or keeper,f from the profitable and honour
able office which his family held by hereditary right, dwelt in a
large house, which is yet standing entire, opposite the Royal
Palace. This is the person who now on the most sacred ground
of right puts forth his claims to the honour of haring invented
typography, an honour so nefariously obtained and possessed by
others. Walking in a neighbouring wood, as citizens are accus
tomed to do after dinner and on hoUdays, he began to cut letters
of beech-bark, vrith which for amusement, the letters being inverted
as on a seal, he impressed short sentences on paper for the children
of his son-in-law. Haring 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 occa
sioned blots. This Thomas Peter left four sons, aU of whom
were magistrates; and I mention this that aU may know that
the art derived its origin frora a respectable and not from a
mean family. 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 composed in our native language by an anonymous author,
and entitled Speculum Nostra Saiutis. In this we may observe
that in the first productions of the art — for no invention is im
mediately 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, and subsequently he formed his
types of tin, as being less flexible and of greater durabiUty. pf
the remains of these types certain old wine vessels were cast, which
are stiU preserved in the house formerly the residence of Lawrence,
which, as I have said, looks into the market-place, and which was
afterwards inhabited by his great-grandson Gerard Thomas, a citi
zen of repute, who died an old man a few years ago."
* Reckoning from 1568, the period referred to would be 1440.
t " iEdituus Custosve," The word " Koster" in modern Dutch is synonymous
with the EngUsh " Sexton,"

184 INVENTION OF
"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 called 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.f This person, who was admitted under an oath to
assist in printing, as soon as he thought he had attained the art
of joining the letters, a knowledge of the fusile types, and other
matters connected with the business, embracing the convenient
opportunity of Christmas eve, when all persons are accustomed
to attend to their devotions, stole aU the types and conveyed away
all the utensils which his master had contrived by his own skiU ;
and then learing home with the thiei, first went to Amsterdam,
then to Cologne, and lastly to Mentz, as his altar of refiige, where
being safely settled, beyond bowshot as they say, he might com
mence 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 that there appeared printed with the types which
Lawrence 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
of credit who had received the tradition as a shining torch trans
ferred from hand to hand, and I have heard the same related and
affirmed by others. I remember being told by Nicholas GaUus,
the instructor of my youth, — a man of fron memory, and venerable
from his long white hafr, — that when a boy he had often heard
* " Sive is (ut fert suspicio) Faustus fuerit ominoso cognomine, hero suo
infidiis et infaustus." The author here indulges in an ominous pun. The Latinised
name " Faustus," signifies lucky ; the word " infaustus," unlucky. The German
name Fiist may be literally translated " Fist," A clenched hand is the crest of the
faraily of Faust,
f 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 raay not disturb the dead. History has long since given the Ue to the
insinuation of the thief having been Faust,

TYYOGRAPHY, 185
one CorneUus, a bookbinder, not less than eighty years old, (who
had been an assistant in the same office,) relate vrith such excited
feeUngs 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 gf 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
alive ; and then again he would vow perdition on his sacrilegious
head, and curse the nights that he had slept in the same bed with
him, for the old man had been his bed-fellow for some months.
This does not differ from the words of Quirinus Talesius, who ad
mitted to me that he had formerly received nearly the same account
from the mouth of the same bookseller."*
As Junius died upwards of twelve years before his book was
pubUshed, 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 bookseller 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 Junius's name. There was also
another advantage attending this mode of publication; for as
the reputed writer was dead, he could not be caUed on to answer
the many objections which remain yet unexplained.
The manner in which Coster, according to the preceding ac
count, first discovered the principle of obtaining impressions from
separate letters formed of the bark of the beech-tree requires no
remarLf There are, however, other parts of this narrative which
more especially force themselves on the attention as being at va
riance with reason as well as fact.
• Hadriani Junii Batavia, p. 253, et sequent. Edit. Ludg. Batavor. 1588.
f Scriverius — whose book 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 CorneUus as given by Junius : " Coster walking in the wood
picked up a sraall bough of a beech, or rather of an oak-tree blown off by the wind ;
and after amusing himself with cutting sorae 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 im
pression from these letters ; which induced him to pursue the accidental discovery."
This is more imaginative than the account of Cornelius, but scarcely more probable.

186 INVENTION OF
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
consequence of the demand for the new commodity, which was
eagerly sought after by purchasers, he was obUged to increase his
estabUshment and engage assistants. It is therefore erident that
the existence of such an art must have been well known, although
its details might be kept secret. Coster, we are also informed,
was of a respectable family ; his grand-chUdren were men of autho
rity 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 ComeUus, who used to shed involuntary 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 riUainously deprived. It is cer
tainly 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 himseK nor any one of his kindred
pubUcly denounce the thief; more especiaUy as the place where
he had estabUshed himseK was known, and where in conjunction
vrith 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 Uved 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 authority of Coster's great-
grandson that any ofhis predecessors — his father or his grandfather
— had carried on the business of a printer in Harlem, this might
in part have corroborated the narrative of CorneUus ; but, though
subsequent advocates of the claims of Harlem have asserted that

TYPOGRAPHY. 187
Coster's grand-children continued the printing business, no book
or document has been discovered to estabUsh the fact.
The account of ComeUus involves a contradiction which cannot
be easily 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 tb conceive how he
could do so without being discovered, even though the time chosen
were Christmas eve ; for on an occasion when all or most people
were engaged at their devotions, the fact of two persons being
employed would in itself be a suspicious circumstance : a tenant
vrith a small stock of furniture who wished to make a " moon
Ught 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 unaccountably called "the thief,"
it is evident from this circumstance, as well 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 in
struments, — "aU that could be moved vrithout manKest 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 estab
Ushed, and disappoint his numerous customers because a dishonest
workman had stolen a few of his types ? But even K every letter
and matrice had been stolen, — though how Ukely 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-children, we might naturally
expect that some of the works which they printed could be pro
duced, and that some record of thefr haring practised such an
art at Harlem would be in existence. The records of Harlem are
however silent on the subject ; no mention is made by any con-
• " Choragium omne typorura involat, instrumentorum herUium ei artificio
coraparatorum suppelectilem convasat, deinde cum fure domo se proripit."— H,
Junii Batavia, p. 255.

188 INVENTION OF
temporary 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 vrith the faculty of intuitive
discrimination. If Coster's business had been suspended in con
sequence of the robbery, his customers, from aU parts, who eager
ly 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 haK, exceeds my powers
of behef Where pretended truth can only be perceived by clos
ing the eyes of reason I am content to remain ignorant ; nor do
I wish to trust myself to the unsafe bridge of conjecture — a rot
ten plank without a hand-rail, —
" O'er which lame faith leads understanding blind."
If all Coster's types had been stolen and he had not suppUed
himseK with new ones, it would be difficult 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 complain of was the theft. For since
it must have been well known that he had discovered and prac
tised the art, at least ten years prerious to its known estabUsh
ment 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
feUow citizens; who perversely and wilfuUy would not recoUect
his prerious discovery and do justice to his claims. Even suppos
ing 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 supphed. Such however must have
been the consequences of the robbery, if the narrative of CorneUus
were true ; for except himseK no person seems to have remembered
* "  quum nova merx, nunquam antea visa, emptores undique exciret cum
huberrimo questu." — Junii Batavia.

TYPOGRAPHY. 189
Coster's invention, or that either he or his immediate descendants
had ever printed a single book.
Notwithstanding the internal eridence of the improbabihty of
ComeUus's account of Coster and his invention, its claims to cre
dibiUty are still further weakened by those persons who have shown
themselves most wishful to estabUsh its truth. Lawrence Janszoon,
whom Meerman and others suppose to have been the person de
scribed 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 Comelius, the types and
other printing materials were stolen on Christmas eve 1441, the
inventor of typography must have been in his grave at the time the
robbery was committed. CorneUus must have known of his mas
ter's death, and yet in his account of the robbery he 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 Coriiehus the bookbinder died in
1522, aged at least ninety years. Allowing him to have been
ninety-two, this assistant in Coster's printing establishment, 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 tes
timony of this person are the claims of Coster founded.
Lehne, in his " Chronology of the Harlem fiction," * thus remarks
on the authorities, GaUus and Talesius, referred to by Junius as
evidences of its truth. As Cornelius was upwards of eighty when he
related the story to Mcholas GaUus, who was then a boy, this must
have happened about 1510. The boy GaUus we will suppose to have
been at that time about fifteen years old: Junius was bom in 1511,
and we vriU suppose that he was under the care of Nicholas GaUus,
• In " Einige Bemerkungen iiber das Unternehmen der gelehrten GeseUschaft zu
Hariem," &c. S. 31.

190 INVENTION OF
the instructor of his youth, untU he was fifteen ; that is, until 1526.
In this year GaUus, the man venerable from his grey hafrs, would
be only thirty-six years old, an age at which grey hafrs are pre
mature. 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
Koning states, was bom in 1505, and consequently six years older
than Junius ; and on the death of ComeUus, in 1522, he would be
seventeen, and Junius eleven years old. Junius might in his eleventh
year have heard the whole account from Comelius himseK in the
same manner as the latter when only ten must have heard it from
Coster ; and it is remarkable that GaUus who was so weU acquainted
with CorneUus 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 nar
ratives which savour of the marvellous.
Meerman, writing to his correspondent Wagenaar in 1757, ex
presses his utter disbeUef in the story of Coster being the inventor
of typography, which, he observes, was daUy losing credit : what
ever historical eridence Seiz had brought forward in favour of
Coster was gratuitously assumed ; in short, the whole story of the
invention was a fiction.* After the pubhcation of Schoepflin's
Vindiciae Typographicae in 1760, giring proofs of Gutemberg
haring 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 preriously de
clared to be undeserring of credit. The mere change, however,
of a viriter's opinions cannot alter the immutable character of
truth; and the guesses and assumptions with which he may en
deavour 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 vrith equal truth be apphed to his own arguments in the same
cause : " Whatever historical eridence 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 daily losing
• Santauder has published a French translation of this letter in his Dictionnaire
Bibliographique, tom. i. p. 14 — 18,

TYPOGRAPHY. 191
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 eridence produced by Schcep
flin in favour of Gutemberg in some degree correspond with the
story of CorneUus, Junius's authority, he has assumed that Gutem
berg had an elder brother also called John ; and that he was known
as Gaensfleisch the elder, while his younger brother was called by
way of distinction Gutemberg. In support of this assumption he
refers to Wimpheling,* who in one place has caUed the inventor
Gsenfleisch, and in another Gutemberg ; and he also supposes that
the two epitaphs which have been given at page 177, relate to two
different persons. The first, inscribed by Adam Gelthaus to the
memory of John Gaensfleisch, 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 feeUng of envy. The
fact of Gutemberg being also named Gaensfleisch in several contem
porary documents, is not allowed to stand in the way of Meerman's
hypothesis of the two "brother Johns," which has been supposed
* Wimpheling, who was born at Sletstadt in 1451, thus addresses the inventor
of printing, — whose name, Gaensfleisch, he Latinises " Ansicarus," — in an epigram
printed at the end of " Memoriae Marsilii ab Inghen," 4to, 1499,
" FeUx Ansicare, per te Germania felix
Omnibus in terris praeraialaudis liabet,
Urbe Moguntina, divino fulte Joannes
Ingenio, primus iraprirais aere notas.
Multum Relligio, raultum tibi Graeca sophia,
Et multura 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
reraoving to Mentz there perfected the art, Inhis " 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 housecaUed Gutemberg, in which, in 1508, the CoUege of
Justice held its sittings. Wimpheling does not seem to have known that Gsens
fleisch was also called Gutemberg, and that his first attempts at printing were made
in Strasburg.

192 INVENTION OF
to be corroborated by the fact of a John Gaensfleisch the Elder
being actually the contemporary of John Gaensfleisch called also
Gutemberg, Haring thus provided Gutemberg with an elder brother also nam
ed John, Meerman proceeds to find him employment ; for at the
period of his writing mueh 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 Boxhom 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 K there be any proof of this :
Meerman haring introduced a new character into the Harlem farce
may claim the right of employing him as he pleases. As there is
eridence of Gutemberg, or Gaensfleisch the younger, being engaged
at Strasburg about 1436 in some experiments connected with print
ing, and mention being made in the same documents of the fafr 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 respecting
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 vrith them, at Mentz, in 1442, " Alex
andri GalU Doctrinale," and " Petri Hispani Tractatus," as related
by Junius. As this trumpery story rests solely on the conjec
ture of the writer, it might be briefly dismissed for reconsideration
when the proofs should be produced; but as Heineken* has afford
ed the means of showing its utter falsity, it may perhaps be worth
while to notice some of the facts produced by him respecting
the. family and proceedings of Gutemberg.
John Gaensfleisch the Elder, whom Meerman makes Gutem
berg's elder brother, was descended from a branch of the numerous
family of 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
• Nachrichten von Kunstlern und Kunst-Sachen, Ite. Theii, S. 286 — 293,

TYPOGRAPHY. 193
perty ; and at the time that we are given to understand he was
residing at Harlem, we have eridence of his being married and
haring children born to him at Mentz. This objection, however,
could easily be answered by the ingenuity of a Dutch commentator,
who, as he had made the husband a thief, would find no difficulty
in providing him with a suitable vrife. He would also be very
Ukely to bring forward the presumed misconduct of the wKe in
support of his hypothesis of the husband being a thief John
Gaensfleisch the Elder was married to Ketgin, daughter of Nicho
las 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 eri
dence of his residing at Mentz ; for in that year his relation
Rudiger zum Landeck appeared before a judge to give Gaensfleisch
an acknowledginent of his having properly discharged his duties as
trustee, and of his having deUvered up to the said Rudiger the
property left to him by his father and mother.
That John Gaensfleisch the Elder printed "Alexandri Galli
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
sUghtest reason to beUeve that the works in question were printed
at Mentz in 1442, or that any book was printed there vrith types
until nearly eight years after that period. In opposition, however,
to a host of historical evidence we have the assertion of CorneUus,
who told the tale to GaUus, who told it to Junius, who told it to
the world.
Meerman's web of sophistry and fiction haring been brushed
away by Heineken, a modem 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
* In a Memoir on the Invention of Printing, which was crowned by the
Academy of Sciences at Harlem in 1816.

194 INVENTION OF
the old sieve hold water by plastering it with his own mud, Lehne*
makes the foUowing remarks :
« He gives up the name of John,— although it might be supposed
that old CorneUus would have known the name of his bedfellow
better than Koning, — and without hesitation charges Gutemberg's
brother with the 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 pubUcly accused of robbery on no other ground
than that Mynheer Koning had occasion for a thief It is, how
ever, rather unfortunate for the credit of the story that this Friele
should have been the founder of one of the first famiUes in Mentz,
of the order of knighthood, and possessed of great ptoperty both
in the city and the neighbourhood. Is it likely 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 pubUshed by Schcepflin ? From this specimen of in
sulting and unjust accusation on a subject of hterary inqufry, 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 April 1440,'Koning haring 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 entries on what account the messen
gers 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 inost Ukely 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
• Einige Bemerkungen, &c. S, 18, 19,

TYPOGRAPHY. 195
was despatched on the last day of the Christmas hoUdays 1439,
and the accounts terminate in April 1440; but according to the
narrative of CorneUus the robbery was committed on Christmas-
eve 1441. This trifling discrepancy is however easily accounted
for by the fact of the Dutch at that period reckoning the com
mencement 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 vrith the stolen types, and within a year after the
robbery. Notwithstanding this satisfactory explanation there still
remains a trifling error to be rectified, and it vrill doubtless give
the clear-headed advocate of Coster very Uttle trouble. Admitting
that the accounts are for the year commencing at Easter 1440
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 foUowing. 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 Uring 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 called " Coster," a name
acqufred 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
estabUshed ; and even if it were, the sole eridence of his haring
been a printer rests on the testimony of Cornelius, 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 wdth their theory, and yet
they require others to beUeve the most incredible of his asser
tions. They themselves throw doubts on the eridence of their
ovra vritness, and yet require their opponents to receive as true
his deposition on the most important point in dispute — ^that Coster
invented typography prerious to 1441, — a point on which he is
positively contradicted by more than twenty authors who wrote
o2

196 INVENTION OF
previous to 1500; and negatively bythe silence of Coster's con
temporaries. Supposing that the account of Comelius had been
published in 1488 instead of 1588, it would be of very Uttle
weight unless corroborated by the testimony of others who must
have been as well aware of Coster's invention as himseK; for the
silence of contemporary writers on the subject of an important
invention or memorable event, will always be of greater negative
authority than the unsupported assertion of an indiridual who
when an old man professes to relate what he had heard and seen
when a boy. If therefore the uncorroborated testimony of Cor
neUus would 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 discre
pancies of his part of the narrative ? Whatever might be the
original value of Comehus's testimony, 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 until twelve years after his death.
It is singular how Mr. Ottley, who contends for the truth of
Papillon's story of the Cunio, and who maintains that the art of
engraring figures and text upon wood was weU known and prac
tised prerious to 1285, should beUeve the account given by Cor-
nehus of the origin of Coster's invention. If he does not beUeve
this part of the account, with what consistency can he requfre
other people to give credit to the rest ? With respect to the
origin and progress of the invention, CorneUus was as Ukely to be
correctly informed as he was with regard to the theft and the
establishment of printing at Mentz; if therefore Coster's advo
cates themselves "istablish the incorrectness of his testimony in
the first part of the story, they destroy the general credibiUty of
his eridence.
With respect to the fragments of "Alexandri Galh 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 fallacy
of Meerman's assumptions. In order to suit his own theory, he

TYPOGRAPHY. 197
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. Mr. Ottley has, however, shown that the
edition which Meerman and others supposed to be the first was
in reahty the second; and that the presumed second was un
questionably the first, and that the text was throughout printed
with metal types by means of a press. It is thus the fate of
all Coster's advocates that the last should always produce some
fact directly contradicting his predecessors' speculations, but not
one confirmatory of the truth of the story on which all their
arguments are based. Meerman questions the accuracy of Cor
neUus 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 convincing proof that on a most material point all his
predecessors are wrong. His enquiries have estabUshed 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 types 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 hkely 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
and Pannartz, between 1465 and 1470, and consisting of three
hundred copies, not one is known to exist From sundry frag
ments of a "Donatus," embelUshed with the same ornamented small
capitals as are used in Faust and Scheffer's Psalter, Fischer was
pleased to conjecture that the book had been printed by Gutem
berg and Faust prerious to 1455. A copy, however, has been
discovered bearing the imprint of Scheffer, and printed, in all
probabiUty, subsequent to 1467, as it is in this year that Scheffer's
name first appears alone. The " Historia Alexandri Magni," pre-

198 INVENTION OF
tendedly 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
stienuous assertor of Coster's pretensions, discovered a very curi
ous specimen of typography which he and others have supposed
to be the identical "short sentences" mentioned by Junius as
having 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 K this be correct, I am
strongly incUned to suspect that this singular "Horarium" is a
modern 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 Uttle 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 of
wood. I am also certain that, whatever might be the material of
which the types were formed, those letters could only be printed on
parchment on both sides by means of a press. The most strenuous
of Coster's advocates have not ventured to assert that he was ac-
* Enschedius published a fac-siraUe hiraself, with the following title : " Afbeeld-
iiig van 't A. B. C, 't Pater Noster, Ave Maria, 't Credo, en Ave Salus Mundi,
door Laurens Janszoon, te Haarlera, ten behoeven van zyne dochters Kinderen,
met beweegbaare Letteren gedrukt, en teffens aangeweesen de groote der Stukjes
pergaraent, zekeriyk 't oudste overblyfsel der eerste Boekdrukkery, 't welk als
zulk een eersteling der Konst bewaard word en berust in de Boekery van
Joannes Enschedi, Lettergieter en Boekdrukker te Haarlem, 1768. — A. J. Polak
sculps, ex originali."

TYPOGRAPHY. 199
quainted vrith the use of metal types in 1423, the pretended date
of his first printing short sentences for the use of his grand
children, 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 vrith any degree of consistency
that this " Horarium" agrees exactly vrith the description of Cor
neUus ? It is said that Enschedius discovered this singular speci
men 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 little
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 aU 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 of the fallacy of his claims is to be
found in the writings of those persons by whom • they have been
most confidently asserted. Haring no theory of my own to
support, and having no predilection in favour of Gutemberg, I
was long incUned 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 presumed
proofs and arguments adduced by Coster's advocates has con
rinced me that the claims put forward on his behaK, as the in
ventor of typography, are untenable. They have certainly dis
covered that a person of the name of Lawrence Janszoon was
Uring at Harlem between the years 1420 and 1440, but they have
not been able to show anything in proof of this person ever
having printed any book either frora wood-blocks or with move
able types. There is indeed reason to believe that at the period
referred to there were three persons of the name of Lawrence
Janszoon, — or Fitz-John, as the surname may be rendered ; — but
to which of them the pretended invention is to be ascribed is
a matter of doubt At one time we find the inventor described
as an iUegitimate scion of the noble family of Brederode, which
was descended from the ancient sovereigns of HoUand ; at another
he is said to have been caUed Coster in consequence of the office

200

INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY.

of custos or warden of St. Bavon's church being hereditary in his
family ; and in a third account we find Lawrence"'Janszoon figuring
as a promoter of sedition and one of the leaders of a body of
rioters. The advocates for the claims of Harlem have 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 the proof oi one of them at least being
the inventor of printing. As the books which are ascribed to
Coster furnish positive eridence of the incorrectness of the story
of Cornelius 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 will have to begin de novo ;
and lest the palm should be awarded to the wrong Lawrence
Janszoon, he ought first to ascertain which of them is reaUy the
hero of the old bookbinder's tale.

WOOD ENGRAVING IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 201

I

CHAPTER IV.
WOOD ENGRAVING IN CONNECTION WITH THE PEESS,
Faust and Scheffer's Psalter of 1457.— Printing at Bamberg in 1461,— Book^ con
taining Wood-cuts printed there by Albert Pfister. — Opposition of the. Wood
Engravers of Augsburg to the eariiest Printers established in that city. —
TravelUng Printers.— Wood-cuts in " Meditationes Johannis de Turre-cremata,"
Rome, 1467; and in " Valturius de Re MiUtari," Verona, 1472.— Wood-cuts
frequent in books printed at Augsburg between 1474 and 1480. — Wood-cuts in
books printed by Caxton.— Maps engraved on Wood, 1482.— Progress of Map-
engraving. — Cross-hatching.— Flowered Borders.— Hortus Sanitatis. — Nurem
berg Chronicle. — Wood Engraving in Italy, — PoliphUi Hypnerotomachia,—
DecUne of Block-printing,— Old Wood-cuts in Derschau's collection.
ONSIDERING Gutemberg as the in
ventor 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 Mentz about
1452, I shall now proceed to trace the
progress of wood engraring in its connec
tion vrith 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, engraved on
wood and printed in red and blue ink, are the most beautiful speci
mens of this kind of ornament which the united efforts of the wood
engraver and the pressman have produced. They have been imi
tated in modem times, but not excelled. As they are the first
letters, in point of time, printed vrith 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 the same
colophon, containing the printers' names and the date, yet no two
copies exactly correspond. A similar want of agreement is said

202 WOOD ENGRAVING
to have been observed in different copies of the Mazarine Bible,
but which are, notwithstanding, of one and the same edition. As
such works would in the infancy of the art be a long time in print
ing — more especially the Psalter, as 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 while 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, including what printers call the "re
iteration." *
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 vfr." 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 omamental por
tions 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, Uke
the first, and with the same ornamented capitals. Heineken ob-
• By the common press only one side of a sheet can be 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 tiraes through the press. It was probably in consequence of
printing so much in red aud black that the early printers used to employ so many
presses, Melchior de Staraham, 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 Typographicae Augustanae, p, xxiv.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 203
serves 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 necessarily be required for each ; one for that
portion of the letter which is red, and another for that which is
blue. In the body, or shape, of the largest letter, the B at the
beginning of the first psahn, the mass of colour is reUeved by certain
figures being cut out in the block, which appear white in the
impression. On the stem of the letter a dog Uke a greyhound
is seen chasing a bird; and flowers and ears of com are repre
sented on the curved portions. These figures being white, or the
colour of the vellum, give additional brightness to the full-bodied
red by which they are surrounded, and materially add to the beauty
and effect of the whole letter.
In consequence of two blocks being required for each letter, the
means were afforded of printing any of them twice iri the same
sheet or the same page vrith alternate colours ; for while 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 printing, vrith 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 corresponding portions being in the
one letter printed red and in the other blue. In the edition of
1459 the same ornamented letter is to be found repeated on the
same page; but of this lhave only noticed one instance; though
there are several examples of the same letter being printed twice in
the same sheet.
Although the engraring of the most highly ornamented and
largest of those letters cannot be considered as an extraordinary
instance of skill, even at that period, for many wood-cuts of an earher
date afford proof of greater excellence, 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 delicacy. "This letter," says Heineken, "is an
authentic testimony that the artists employed on such a work

204 WOOD ENGRAVING'
were persons trained up and exercised in their profession. The
art of wood engraving was no longer in its cradle."
The name of the artist by whora those letters were engraved
is unknown. In Sebastian Munster's Cosmography, book UL chap
ter 159, John Meydenbach is mentioned as being one of Gutem
berg's assistants; and an anonymous writer in Serarius states the
same fact Heineken in noticing these two passages writes to the
following effect. " This Meydenbach is doubtless the same person
who proceeded with Gutemberg from Strasburg to Mentz in 1444.*
It is probable that he was a wood engraver or an illuminator, but
this is not certain ; and it is stiU 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 Nurem
berg. Whether this copyist was the Jacobus Meydenbach who
printed books at Mentz in 149 l,f or he was some other engraver,
I have not been able to determine."^
Although so Uttle is positively known respecting John Meyden
bach, 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
bf his residence and pursiuts 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 leam that Conrad Saspach
made him a press, and it is conjectured that the goldsmith Hanns
Dunne was employed to engrave his letters ; but there is not a
* Heineken in his Nachrichten, T. I. S. 108, also states that Meydenbach came
from Strasburg with Gutemberg. Oberiin however observes, " Je ne sais o\t de
Heinecke a trouvfe que ce Meydenbach est venu en 1444 avec Gutenberg &
Mayence," Heineken says, " In der Nachricht von Strassburg findet man dass ein
gewisser Meydenbach 1444 nach Maynz gezogen," and refers to Foumier, p, 40.
Dissert, sur I'Orig, de I'lmprimerie primitive.
t An edition of the Hortus Sanitatis with wood-cuts was printed at Mentz, by
Jacobus Meydenbach, in 1491,
X Id^e Gdn&ale, p. 286.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 205
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 Gutem
berg, as " his modesty only could aUow such works to appear with
out 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 actually drawn by Scheffer, who, from his pro
fession of a scribe or writer * prerious to his connection with
Faust, may be supposed to have been well acquainted with the
various kinds of flowered and ornamented capitals with which manu
scripts 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 vellum in red and blue ink, in a manu
script apparently of the date of 1430, which is so Uke 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 recomraend their
Psalter — probably the first work printed by them after Gutemberg
had been obUged to withdraw from the partnership— by the beauty
of its capitals and the sufficiency and distinctness of its "rubrica-
tions;"f and it is erident that they did not fail in the attempt.
* Scheffer previous to his connection with Faust was a " clericus," — not a clerk as
distinguished from a layman, but a writer or scribe, A specimen ofhis " set-hand,"
written at Paris in 1449, is given by Schcepflin in his Vindiciae Typographicae,
Several of the earliest printers were writers or illuminators ; among whom may be
raentioned John Mentelin of Strasburg, John Baemler of Augsburg, Ulric Zell of
i Cologne, and Colard Mansion of Bruges.
t This is intimated in the colophon, which, with the contracted words written at
length, is as follows : " Presens Spalmorura codex venustate capitalium decoratus

206 WOOD ENGRAVING
The Psalter of 1457 is, with respect to omamental 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 earUest known production of their press remains to the
present day unsurpassed as a spedmen of skiU in ornamental
printing. A fac-simile of the large B at the coraraenceraent of the Psalter,
printed in colours the same as the original, is given in the first
volume of Dibdin's Bibhotheca Spenceriana, and in Savage's Hints
on Decorative Printing; but in neither of those works has the
excellence of the original letter been attained. In the BibUotheca
Spenceriana, although the volume has been printed httle more
than twenty years, the red colour in which the body of the letter
is printed has assumed a coppery hue, whUe in the original,
executed nearly four hundred years ago, the freshness and purify
of the colours remain unimpaired. In Savage's work, though
the letter and its ornaments are faithfuUy copied* and tolerably
well 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 well impasted paint, has not sufficient body,
but appears Uke a wash, through which in raany places the white
paper may be seen. The whole letter compared with the original
seems Uke a water-colour copy compared with a painting in oiL
Although it has been generaUy supposed that the art of printing
was first carried from Mentz in 1462 when Faust and Scheffer's
Rubricationibusque sufficienter distinctus , Adinventione artificiosa imprimendi
ac caracterizandi absque calami ulla exaracione sic effigiatus , Et ad eusebiam dei
Industrie est consummatus , Per Johannem Fust, Civem maguntinum , Et Petrum
Schofier de Gernszheim, Anno domini MiUesimo, cccc, Ivii , In vigilia Assump-
cionis," In the second edition the mis-spelling, "Spalmorum" for " Psalmo-
rura," 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 fremuerunt gentes." Traces of the flourish where not
coloured may be observed impressed in the vellum.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 207
swom workmen were dispersed* on the capture of that city by
the archbishop 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 Saint Valentine's day 1461 ; and a history of Joseph,
Daniel, Judith, and Esther was also printed by Pfister at Bamberg
in 1462, "^it lang nad^ 6mti toalpurgm tag," — not long after
St. Walburg's day. f It is therefore certain that the art was
practised beyond Mentz previous to the capture of that city,
which was not taken until 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 suppose that he would be occupied for
a considerable time in preparing his materials and utensils before
he could begin to print. As his first known work with a datoj
containing a hundred and one wood-cuts, was finished on the
14th of February 1461, it is not unhkely 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 workraen on the dissolution of their partnership in 1455 ;
and that the date of the capture of Mentz — when for a time
* The following passage occurs in the colophon of two works printed by
John Schefier at Mentz in 1515 and 1516; the one being the "Trithemii Bre
viarium Historiae Francorura," and the other " Breviarium Ecclesiae Mindensis :"
" Retinuerunt autera hi duo jara praenominati, Johannes Fust et Petrus Scieffer,
banc artem in secreto, (omnibus ministris et familiaribus eorum, ne illara quoquo
modo manifestarent, jure jurando adstrictis :) quae tandem anno Domini m.cccc.
LXII. per eosdem familiares in diversas terrarura provincias divulgata, haud parvum
sumpsit iucrementum."
+ 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 1st of May is raore particularly celebrated ; and it is then that the witches and
warlocks of Gerraany 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 Wimborn in Dorsetshire, of which she became afterwards abbess, and
where she died in 779.

208 WOOD ENGRAVING
all the raale inhabitants capable of bearing arras 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 succes
sion to the archbishopric. Theodoric von Erpach having died
in May 1459, a majority of the chapter chose Thierry von Isen
burg to succeed hira, while another party supported the preten
sions of Adolphus of Nassau. An appeal haring been made to
Rome, the election of Thieriy was annuUed, 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.*
Until the discovery of Pfister's book containing the four histories,
most bibhographers 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 printed,
both text and figures, from wood-blocks ; and Meerman has adopted
the same erroneous opinion. Heineken was the first to describe
it truly, as having the text printed with moveable types, though
he expresses himseK doubtfuUy as to the date, 1461, being that of
the impression.
As the discovery of Pfister's tracts has thrown considerable Ught
on the progress of typography and wood engraring, I shaU give an
account of the raost iraportant of them, as connected with those
subjects; vrith a brief notice of a few cfrcumstances relative to
the early connection of wood engraring vrith 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
estabUshed the fact that the dates refer to the years in which the
books were printed, and not to the period when the works were
coraposed or transcribed. An account of the history above named,
vmtten by M. J. Steiner, pastor of the church of St Ufric at
• A raournful account of the expulsion of the inhabitants and the plundering
of the city is given by Trithemius at page 30 of his " Res Gestae Frederici
Palatini," pubUshed with notes by Marquard Freher, at Heidelberg, 4to, 1603,

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS,

209

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 published by Camus in 1800,* when the
volume containing them, which was the identical one that had been
preriously seen by Steiner, was deposited in the National Library
at Paris.
The book of fables f printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1461 is
a smaU foUo consisting of twenty-eight leaves, and containing
eighty-five fables in rhyrae in the old Gerraan language. As those
fables, which are ascribed to one " Boner, dictus der Edelstein,"
are knovm to have been written prerious to 1330, the words at
the end of the volume, — " Zu Bamberg dies Biichlein geendet
ist," — At Bamberg this book is finished, — raost certainly relate
to the time when it was printed, and not when it was written.
It is therefore the earUest book printed with moveable types which
is iUustrated with wood-cuts containing figures. Not haring an
opportunity of seeing this extremely rare book, — of which only one
perfect copy is known, — I ara unable to speak frora personal exa^-
mination of the style in which its hundred and one cuts are
engraved. Heineken, however, has given a fac-simile of the first,
and he says that the others are of a sirailar kind. The following
is a reduced copy of the fac-simile given by Heineken, and which

* Under the title of " Notice d'un Livre imprim^ a Bamberg en ciocccclxii.
lue k rinsfitut National, par Camus." 4to. Paris, An vn. [1800.]
t The copy of those fables belonging to the Wolfenbuttel Library, and which is
the only one known, was taken away by the French and placed in the National
Library at Paris, but was restored ou the surrender of Paris in 1815.

210 WOOD ENGRAVING
forms the head-piece to the first fable. On the manner in which
it is engraved I shaU make no remark, until I shall have produced
some specimens of the cuts contained in a " Biblia Pauperum Pre
dicatorum," 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 following par
ticulars 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
frora those of the Mazarine Bible.
The first work is that which Heineken calls " une AUegorie sur
la Mort;"* but this title does not give a just idea of its contents.
It is in fact a collection of accusations preferred against Death,
with his answers to thera. The object is to show that such
complaints are unavaiUng, and that, instead of raaking them, people
ought rather to employ theraselves in endeavouring to Uve weU.
In this tract, which 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 raan with a
child, who appears to accuse Death of haring deprived bim
of his wife, who is seen on a torab 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, while 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
• Idr^e Gfin^rale, 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."

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS, 211
maidens with a scythe, while another, mounted, is seen chasing
a number of figures on horseback, 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 raan.
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 engraring to those contained in the other tracts.
The text of the work is dirided into thirty-four chapters, each
of which, except the first, is preceded by a summary; and their
numbers are printed in Roman characters. The initial letter of
each chapter is red, and appears to have been formed by means
of a stencil. The first chapter, which has neither title nor nume
ral, coraraences with the Complainant's recital of his injuries; in
the second. Death defends himseK; in the third the Complainant
resumes, in the fourth Death repUes; and in this manner the
work proceeds, the Complainant and Death speaking alternately
through ^thirty-two chapters. In the thirty-third, God decides
between the parties; and after a few common-place reflections
and observations on the readiness of people to complain on all
occasions, sentence is pronounced in these words : " The Com
plainant 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-fourth chapter, the Complain
ant, perceiring that he has lost his suit, proceeds to pray to God
p2

212 WOOD ENGRAVING
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 Complainant 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 raeans of
a stencil, while the letters at the coraraenceraent 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 vrill not venture to decide.* From the prayer it appears
that the name of the Complainant's deceased wKe was Margaret
In this singular 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 deter
mines the choice of aU Electors," " Hofiineister" of the court of
Heaven, and " Herzog" of the Heavenly host. The text is in
the German language, such as was spoken and vmtten in the
fifteenth century.
The German words " Hoffmeisfer" and "Herzog" appear ex
treraely ridiculous in Caraus's French translation, — "le Maitie-
d'hotel de la cour celeste," and " le Grand-due de I'armee celeste."
But this is clothing ancient and dignified German in modern French
frippery. The word " Hofiineister" — Uterally, " court-raaster or
govemor" — is useid in modern German iu nearly the same sense
as the EngUsh word " steward ;" and the governor or tutor of
a young prince or nobleman is called 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
modem language synonymous with the EngUsh title "Duke."
• " Outre la lettre initiate, on remarque, dans le cours du chapitre, si.x lettres
rouges non imprimees, mais peintes a la plaque, qui commencent six phrases
diverses. Les lettres iuitiales des autres phrases du mCme chapitre sont imprimfes
en noir, Les lettres rouges sont IHESANW, Doit-ou les assembler dans I'ordre
oil elles sont placees, ou bien doivent-elles reeevoir un autre arrangement ? Je
ne prends pas sur moi de le decider," — Camus, Notice, p. 6.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 213
The ancient German "Herzog" was a leader of hosts; the modern
French " Grand-due" is a clean-shaved gentleman in a courfc-
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 history 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 vrith 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 full contains twenty-eight
The nuraber of the cuts is sixty-one ; but there are only fifty-five
different subjects, four of them haring been printed twice, and one
thrice. Camus gives a specimen of one of the cuts, which represents
the Jews Of BethuUah rejoicing and offering sacrifice on the re
turn of Judith after she had cut off the head of Holofernes. It
is certainly a very indifferent perforraance, 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 thera Haraan 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* drawn by two horses,
which are harnessed according to the manner of the fifteenth
century, and driven by a postilUon seated on a saddle, and with
his feet in stirrups. All the cuts in the "Four Histories" are
coarsely coloured.
* Camus calls it a " voiture," but I question if such a carriage was known in
1462; and am inclined to think that he has converted a kind of Ught waggon
into a modern " voiture." Alight sort of waggon, called by Stow a " Wherlicote,"
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 Ught 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 " near side" wheeler.
This cut is in the Bagford collection in the British Museum, and is one of a series
of ninety subjects from the Old and New Testament which have been cut out of
a book. A manuscript note in Gerraan states that they are by Michael Wolge
muth, and printed in 1491. In no wood-cut executed previous to 1500 have
I seen a vehicle like a modern French voiture.

214 WOOD ENGRAVING
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 es
pecially announced a notice of this work as "a book printed at
Bamberg in 1462," in consequence of its being the most iraportant
in the voluirie ; for it contains not only the date and place, but
also the printer's name. In the book of Fables, printed with the
same types at Bamberg in 1461, Pfister's name does not appear.
The text of the " Four Histories " ends at the fourth Une on
the recto of the sixtieth leaf; and after a blank space equal to that
of a Une, thirteen Unes succeed, forming the colophon, and contain
ing the place, date, and printer's name. Although those lines run
continuously on, occupying the fuU width of the page as in prose,
yet they consist of couplets in German rhyme. The end of each
verse is marked vrith a point, and the first word of the succeeding
one begins with a capital. Camus has given a fac-simile of those
Unes, that he might at once present his readers with a specimen
of the type and a copy of this colophon, so interesting to bibUo
graphers as estabUshing the important fact in the history of print
ing, namely, that the art was practised beyond Mentz prior to
1462. The foUowing copy, though not a fac-simile, is printed line
for line from Camus.
(Ein ittltti) mmjici) fion ]^er|m gjrt . ^as sv iott iani<i
unU tuol geltrt . Sn mjtiSter un' 6ci)viit Has ntt mag
&sin . So hvm' futr all anti) ntt latetn . I9arauff |)an
it^ titi tril gjtra£i)t . 2Snt( bin I)\&toxii zu Samra pra»
d)t . StoSJpl) timid uti' attd) )u'ai^ . ^tin |)c;Sttr aucj
mit guttm iStt]^, Bte 6wr l)tt got tn itittzt |)ut , 315 tr
nocl^ ge Be' guten ti^ut , 39ar Burcl) fair pefiiSem unser
lebe' , =©c' pucijlein x6t ititi enBe gebe' , 'lE,\u fiainbtrg^
in Ber iSelbe' jitat , JBaS albret^t pfi'iSter geBrucfeet l&at
300 ma' «alt taufient un' bierl;u'Beit tar - 5m zfaei uiiB
itci^zi^itt' Basi iit toar , JJit lang narf( lianB faalpuv*
gen tag , ffite unS tool gnaB erberben mag , jFiiB un'
Bas efatg Icbe' , 3@aS faolle uns got alle' gebe' . 9me'.
The foUowing is a translation of the above, in EngUsh couplets
of similar rhythm and measure as the original :

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 213
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 bliss requite.
As he doth all who act upright.
That men may learn their lives to raend
This book at Bamberg here I end.
In the same city, as I 've hinted.
It was by Albert Pfister printed.
In th' year of grace, I tell you true,
A thousand four hundred and sixty-two ;
Soon after good St, Walburg's day.
Who well may aid us on our way.
And help us to eternal bliss :
God, ofhis mercy, grant us this. Amen,
The third work contained in the volume described by Camus
is an edition of the "Poor Preachers' Bible," vrith the text in
German and 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 illustrated 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 alarraed at the
sepulchre; 3. The Last Judgraent; 4. HeU; 5. The eternal
Father receiving the righteous into his bosora; and 6. The
crowning of the Saints. As the cuts illustrative of these sub
jects are the last in the Latin editions, it is possible that the
Bamberg copy described by Camus might be defective ; he, how
ever, observes that there is no appearance of any leaves being
wanting.* In each page of the Bamberg edition the text is in
* The copy of the Bamberg edition in the Wolfenbuttel Library, seen and
described by Heineken, Idee Gendrale, pp. 327 — 329, contained only twenty-six
" histories," or general subjects.

216

WOOD ENGRAVING

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 hiraself knovm to
his brethren.

5
The Prodigal Son's retum 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 preced
ing exaraple of their arrangement. In No. 1 the heads axe intended
for Darid and the author of the Book of Wisdom; in No. 2, for
Isaiah and Ezekiel.

No. 1,

No, 2,

The subject represented in the foUovring 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

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS,

217

on his left for St. John. I believe that in no wood-cut, ancient
or modern, is Christ represented vrith so uncomely an aspect, and
so clumsy a figure. -I

No, 3,

The subject of No. 4 is Joseph raaking himself known to his •
brethren ; from Genesis, chapter xlv.

L

WfB

i

i

m

ty_ SrrA

W^

%^

^

^^m^

w

M

1

11

Jr%
P^
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
218

WOOD ENGRAVING

cuts given by him were engraved on wood by Duplaa with the
greatest exactitude from tracings of the originals by Dubrena.

No. 5.

Supposing that all the cuts in the four works, printed by Pfister
and described in the preceding pages, were designed in a similar
taste and executed in a similar manner to those of which speci
mens are given, the persons by whom they were engraved —
for it is not Ukely that they were all engraved by one man— raust
have had very Uttle knowledge of the art Looking merely at
the raanner in which they are engraved, without reference to the
wretched drawing of the figures and want of " feeUng " displayed
in the general treatment of the subjects, a moderately apt lad, at
the present day, generally will cut as well by the tirae that he has
had a raonth or two's practice. If those cuts were to be considered
as fair specimens of wood-engraving in Germany in 1462, it would
be evident that the art was then dechning ; for none of the speci
mens 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, —

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 219
for instance, the St, Christopher, the St. Bridget, and the Annun
ciation, 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 agOTVould be esteemed
only as inferior artists. As the progress of typography was re
garded with jealousy by the early wood engravers and block
printers, who were apprehensive that it would ruin their trade,
and as prerious to the estabhshment of printing they were already
formed into companies or feUowships, which were extreraely sen
sitive on the subject of their exclusive rights, it is not unhkely
that the earliest type-printers who adorned their books with wood
cuts would be obliged 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 earUest 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 esta
bhshed in that city. In 1471 they opposed Gunther Zainer's*
admission to the pririleges of a burgess, and endeavoured to pre
vent him printing wood engrarings in his books. Melchior Stara
ham, however, abbot of St Ulric and Afra, a warm promoter
of typography^ interested himseK on behalf of Zainer, and ob
tained an order from the raagistracy that he and John Schussler
— another printer whom the wood engravers had also objected to —
should be allowed to follow without interruption their art of print-
* Gunther Zainer was a native of Reutlingen, in Wirtemberg, and was the first
printer in Germany who used Roman characters, — in an edition of " Isidori Epis-
copi Hispalensis Etymologia," printed by hira in 1472, He first began to print
at Augsburg in 1468, In 1472 he printed a Gerraan 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 "Belial" in 1477; but this would seem to be a mistake, for Veith
asserts in his " Diatribe de Origine et Increraentis Artis Typographicse in urbe
Augusta Vindelica," prefixed to Zapf's " Annales," that Schussler only printed in
the years 1470, 1471, and 1472,

220 WOOD ENGRAVING
ing. They were, however, forbid to print initial letters frora wood
blocks or to insert wood-cuts in their books, as this would be an
infringeraent on the privileges of the fellowship 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 carae to the sarae agreement or not is un
certain, as there is no book known to be printed by him of a
later date than 1472. It is probable that he is the person, —
naraed John Schissler in the meraorandura printed by Zap^ — of
whom Melchior de Staraham in that year bought five presses
for the printing-office which he established in his convent of St
Ulric and St. Afra. To John Bamler, who at the same time
carried on the business of a printer at Augsburg, no objection
appears to have been made. As he was originaUy a "calligraphus"
or ornamental writer, it is probable that he was a raeraber of the
wood engravers' guild, and thus entitled to engrave and print his
own cuts without interruption.
As it is probable that the wood-cuts which appear in books
printed vrithin the first thirty years from the estabUshment of typo
graphy 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 earlier block-books were also intended
to be coloured in a similar manner, the inferiority of the forraer can
only be accounted for by supposing that the best wood engravers
decUned to assist in proraoting what they would consider to be a
rival art, and that the earUer printers would generaUy be obUged
to have their cuts engraved by persons connected with thefr own
estabUshments, and who had not by a regular course of apprentice
ship acquired a knowledge of the art About seventy or eighty
years ago, and until a more recent period, many coimtry printers
in England used themselves to engrave such rude wood-cuts as they
might occasionally want. A most extensive assortment 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 gene
ral illustrations to ballads and chap-books. A considerable nuraber
• Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theii, S. 144. — Zapf, Buchdruckeigeschichte von
Augsburg, 1 Band.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 221
of them were cut with a penknife, on pear-tree wood, by an appren
tice named Randell, who died about forty years ago. Persons who
are fond of a "rough harvest" of such modern-antiques are referred
to the " Historical Delights," the " History of Ripon," and other
works pubhshed 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 tirae raust have been occupied in their
execution. In the "Four Histories" there are sixty-one cuts
which have been printed frora fifty-five blocks. Inthe "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 fhree 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
contained as much work as that which is nurabered 4 in the pre
ceding speciraens — Joseph raaking hiraseK known to his brethren
— and supposing that the artist drew the subjects hiraseK, the execu
tion of those three hundred and thirty-one cuts would occupy one
person for about two years and a half, aUowing hira 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
K any one of the profession would complete the whole number, with
his own hands, in less time than I have specified.
From the similarity between Pfister's types and those vrith which
a Bible without place or date, is printed, several bibliographers
have ascribed the latter work to his press. This Bible, which in
the Royal Library at Paris is bound in three volumes foho, is the
rarest of all 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
• 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, how
ever, a " Poor Preachers' Bible " with the text in 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.

222 WOOD ENGRAVING
partly printed by Gutemberg and Faust prerious to their sepa
ration, and finished by Faust and Scheffer in 1456.* Lichtenber
ger, without expressly assenting to Schelhorn's opinion, is inchned
to think that it was printed at Mentz, and by Gutemberg. The
reasons which he assigns, however^ are not such as are likely to
gain assent without a prerious willingness to beUeve. He admits
that Pfister's types are similar to those of the Bible, though he
says that the former are somewhat ruder.
Camus considers that the tracts unquestionably printed by Pfister
throw considerable hght on the question as to whom this Bible
is to be ascribed. There are two specimens of this Bible, the
one given by Masch in his BibUotheca Sacra, and the other by
Schelhom, in a dissertation prefixed to Quirini's account of the
principal works printed at Rome. Camus, on comparing these
specimens with the text of Pfister's tracts, immediately perceived
the most perfect reserablance between the characters; and on
applying a tracing of the last thirteen Unes of the " Four Histories"
to the corresponding letters in Schelhorn's specimen, he found that
the characters exactly corresponded. This perfect identity induced
him to beUeve that the Bible described by Schelhom was printed
with Pfister's types. A correspondent in Meusel's Magazine, No. VII,
1794, had preriously advanced the same opinion; and he more
over thought that the Bible had been printed prerious to the
Fables dated 1461, because the characters of the Bible are cleaner,
and appear as K they had been impressed frora newer types than
those of the Fables.f In support of this opinion an extract is
given, in the same magazine, from a curious manuscript of the
date of 1459, and preserved in the library of Cracow. This ma
nuscript is a kind of dictionary of arts and sciences, composed by
Paul of Prague, doctor of medicine and philosophy, who, in his
definition of the word "Libripagus," gives a curious piece of in
formation to the foUowing effect. The barbarous Latin of the

• De Antiquissima Latinorum Bibliorum editione .... Jo. Georgii Schelhorn
Diatribe. Ulmse, 4to. 1760.
¦f 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 1461." — Bibliog, Tour, vol, ii, p. 108. Second
edition.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS.
original passage, to which I shall have occasion to refer, will be
found in the subjoined note.* " He is an artist who dexterously
cuts figures, letters, and whatever he pleases on plates of copper,
of fron, of sohd wood, and other raaterials, 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 vrith respect to pictures. In my
tirae a person cut the entire Bible upon plates ; in four weeks he
irapressed the whole Bible, thus sculptured, upon thin parchraent"
Although I ara of opinion that the weight of evidence is in
favour of Pfister being the printer of the Bible in question, yet
I cannot think that the arguments which have been adduced in
his favour derive any additional support from this passage. The
writer, Uke many other dictionary makers, both in ancient and
modem times, has found it a raore difficult matter to give a clear
account of a thing than to find the synonym of a word. But,
notwithstanding his confused account, I think that I can perceive
in it the "disjecta membra" of an ancient Formschneider and
Briefmaler, but no indication of a typographer.
In a jargon worthy of the "Epistolae obscurorum virorum" he
describes an artist, or rather an artizan, "sculpens subtihter in
laminibusf [larainis] sereis, ferreis, ac Ugneis soUdi ligni, atque
alUs, imagines, scripturam et orane quodUbet" In this passage-
the business of the " Forraschneider" raay be clearly enough dis
tinguished: he cuts figures and aniraals in plates of copper and
iron; — ^but not in the raanner of a modern copper-plate en
graver; but in the manner in which a stenciller pierces his pat
terns. That this is the true meaning of the writer is evident
from the context, wherein he informs us of the artist's object in
cutting such letters and figures, naraely, "ut prius imprimat pa
pyro aut parieti aut asseri mundo," — that he may print upori
• '/ Libripagus est artifex sculpens subtiliter in laminibus sereis, ferreis, ac Ugneis
solidi ligni, atque aliis, imagines, scripturam et omne quodlibet, ut prius imprimat
papyro aut parieti aut asseri mundo. Scindit omne quod cupit, et est homo faciens
talia cum picturis ; et tempore mei Bambergae quidam sculpsit integrara bibliara
super lamellas, et in quatuor septiraanis totam bibliara in pergameno subtUi prsesig-
navit sculpturara,"
t In 1793, a learned doctor of divinity of Carabridge is said in a like manner
to have broken Priscian's head with "paginibus." An epigram on this "blunder-
bus" is to be found in the " Gradus ad Cantabrigiam,"

224 WOOD ENGRAVING
paper, on a waU, or on a clean board. This is eridently descrip
tive of the practice of stenciUing, and proves, K the manuscript be
authentic, that the old "Briefinalers" were accustomed to "slap
dash" walls as weU as to engrave and colour cards. In the
distinction which is made of the "laminibus Ugneis ligni solidi,"
it is probable that the writer meant to specify the difference be
tween cutting out letters and figures on thin plates of metal, and
cutting upon blocks of soUd wood. When he speaks of a Bible being
cut, at Bamberg, " super lamellas," he most Ukely means a " Poor
Preachers' Bible," engraved on blocks of wood. An impression
of a hundred or raore copies of such a work raight easUy enough
be taken in a month when the blocks were aU 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 co
pies of each work appears to have been the usual nuraber which
Sweinheim and Pannartz and Ufric Hahn printed, on the estab
lishment of the art in Italy ; and PhiUp de Lignamine in his chro
nicle mentions, under the year 1458, that Guteraberg and Faust,
at Mentz, and Mentehn, at Strasburg, printed three hundred sheets
in a day.*
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 1461 and 1462. He
might indeed print there both before and after those years, but
of this we have no direct evidence. From 1462 to 1481 no book
is known to have been printed at Bamberg. In the latter year,
a press was established there by John Sensenschmidt of Egra,
who had preriously, that is from 1470, printed several works at
Nuremberg. Panzer, aUuding 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 Ukely proceeded from
* Lichtenbei-ger, Initia Typographica, p, 51.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 225
the press of a travelhng printer.* Several of the early printers,
who comraenced on their own, account, on the dispersion of Faust
and Scheffer's workmen in 1462, were accustomed to travel with
their small stock of materials from one place to another; some
tiraes finding eraployraent in a monastery, and sometimes taking
up thefr temporary abode in a sraall town; reraoving to another
as soon as public curiosity was satisfied, and the demand for the
productions of thefr press began to decUne. As they seldom
put their naraes, or that of the place, to the works which they
printed, it is extreraely difficult to decide on the locality or the
date of many old books printed in Germany. It is very likely
that they were their own letter-founders, and that they themselves
engraved such wood-cuts as they might require. As their object
was to gain money, it is not unhkely that they might occasion
ally sell a portion of their types to each other ;f or to a norice
who wished to begin the business, or to a learned abbot who might
be desirous of estabUshing an amateur press within the precinct
of his monastery, where copies of the Facetiae 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 vrith a part of their 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 tirae 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
containing wood-cuts. In the latter year Ulric Hahn, a German,
printed at Rome a book entitled " Meditationes Johannis de Turre-
cremata,":]: which contains wood-cuts engraved iri siraple outUne in
* " Opuscula quee typis mandavit typographus hic, hactenus ignotus, ad littera-
turam Teutonicam pertinent. Imprimis Pfisterura hune Bambergae fixam habuisse
sedera vix crediderira. Videntur potius hi libri Teutonici monumenta transeuntis
typographi.'^ — Annal, Typogr. tom. i. p. 142, cited by Camus,
t Breitkopf, Ueber Bibliographie, S. 25, 4to. Leipzig, 1793.
X The following is the title at length as it is printed, in red letters, underneath
the first cut : " Meditationes Reveredissimi patris dni Johannis- de turre creraata

226 WOOD ENGRAVING
a coarse manner. The work is in foUo, and consists of thirty-four
leaves of stout paper, on which the water-mark is a hunter's hora.
The number of cuts is also thfrty-four; and the foUovring— 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 foUowing is an enumeration of the subjects. 1. The Creation,
as above represented. 2. The Alraighty speaking to Adam. 3.
Eve taking the apple. (From No. 3 the rest of the cuts are
illustrative of the New Testament or of Ecclesiastical History.) 4.
The Annunciation. 5. The Natirity. 6. Cfrcumcision of Christ
7. Adoration of the Magi. 8. Simeon's benediction. 9. The FUght
into Egypt. 10. Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple.
11. Christ baptised. 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
sacrosce Romane eccl'ie cardinalis posite & deplete de ipsius madato i eccl'ie ambitu
Marie de Minerva. Rome." The book is described in Von Murr's MemorabUia
Bibljothecar. Publicar. Norimbergensium ; and in Dibdin's Mies Althorpianoe,
vol. ii. p, 273, with specimens of the cuts.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 227
into HeU. 22. The Resurrection. 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 numerous branches as Popes, Cardinals, and Saints. 29.
Christ appearing to St Sixtus. 30. The Assumption of the Virgin.
31. Christ seated amidst a chofr of Angels. 32. Christ seated at
the 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-engraring and
type-founding, as well as compose and work at press ; and it is
most probable that Hahn's workraen when he first estabUshed a
press in Rome were Germans, and not ItaUans.
The second book printed in Italy with wood-cuts is the " Editio
Princeps" of the treatise of R. Valturius de Re MiUtari, which
appeared at Verona frora 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
Rimini, who is styled in pompous phrase, " Splendidissimum
Arrainensium Regem ac Imperatorem semper inrictum." 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 Pasti, a friend of the author,
who risited 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 drawings in Malatesta's ovm copy, from which it is likely that
the book was printed. As Valturius has mentioned Pasti as being
* The following is a copy of the colophon : " Johannes ex verona oriundus :
Nicolai cyrurgie medici filius : Artis impressorie magister : hune de re militari
librum elegantissimum : litteris et figuratis signis sua in patria primus impressit.
An, MCCCCLxxii,"
q2

228 WOOD ENGRAVING
eminently skilful in the arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving,*
Maffei has conjectured, — and Mr. Ottley adds, " with some appear
ance of probabiUty," — 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 outUnes, but
what might be cut by a norice. There is not, however, the sUght
est reasonable grounds to suppose that those engrarings were cut
by Matteo Pasti, for I beheve that he died before printing was in
troduced into Italy ; and it surely would be presuming beyond the
verge of probabihty to assert that they might be engraved in an
ticipation of the art being introduced, and of the book being print
ed at some time or other, when the blocks would be aU ready
engraved, in a siraple style of art indeed, but with a master's
hand. A master-sculptor's hand, however, is not very easily dis
tinguished in the mere rough-dressing of a block of sandstone,
which any country mason's apprentice might do as welL It is very
questionable if Matteo Pasti was an engraver in the present sense
of the word ; the engraring meant by Valturius was probably that
of gold and silver vessels and ornaments ; but not the engraring of
plates of copper or other metal for the purpose of being printed.
Several of those cuts occupy an entire foho page, though the
greater number are of smaller size. They chiefly represent war
hke engines, which display considerable raechanical skill on the part
of the contriver ; modes of attack and defence both by land and water,
with various contrivances 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 generaUy 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 borab-sheU, It has frequently 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
• " Valturius speaks of Pasti in one of his letters as being eminently skilful
in the arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving." — Ottley, Inquiry, p. 257.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS,

229

is also hkely that the drawing was made and the description
viritten at least ten years before the book was printed. It has
also been generally asserted that bomb-sheUs were first used by
""harles VIII. of France when besieging Naples in 1495. Valtu
rius, however, in treating of cannon, ascribes the invention to
Malatesta.* Gibbon, in chapter IxviU. of his History of the De
cUne and FaU of the Roman Empire, notices this cut of a bomb
shell. 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.f The two following cuts
are fac-similes of the bomb-sheU and the hand-gun, as represented
in the edition of 1472. The figure armed with the gun,— a portion
of a large cut, — is firing from a kind of floating battery ; and in the
original two figures armed with similar weapons are stationed im
mediately above him.

* "Inventum est quoque alterum machinae hujusce tuura Sigisironde Pan-
pulfe [Malatesta] : qua pilse aeneas tormentarii pulveris plenae cum fungi aridi
foraite urientis eraittuntur," — We hence learn that the first bomb-sheUs were made
of copper, and that the fuzee was a piece of a dried fungus. As the first edition
has neither nuraerals 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 volurae.
f " Robert Valturio published at Verona, in 1483, his twelve books de Re
Militari, in which he first mentions the use of bombs. By his patron Sigismond
Malatesti, Prince of Rimini, it had been addressed with a Latin epistle to Maho
met II,"— Decline and FaU ofthe Roman Empire, chap. Ixviii., note.

230

WOOD ENGRAVING

The following fac-simile of a cut representing a man shooting
with a cross-bow is the best in the book. The drawing 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 vrith 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 Gerraan translation of the "Legenda
Sanctorum" with figures of the saints coarsely engraved on wood.
This, I beUeve, is the first book, after Pfister's tracts, printed
in Germany with wood-cuts and containing a date. In 1472
he printed a second volume of the same work, and an edition
of the book entitled " Belial,"* both containing wood-cuts.
• Von Murr says that the person who engraved the cuts for this book also
engraved the cuts in a German edition of the Speculum without date, but printed

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 231
Several other works printed by hira between 1471 and 1475 are
illustrated in a sirailar manner. Zainer's exaraple was followed
at Augsburg by his contemporaries John Bamler and John Schuss
ler; and by them, and Anthony Sorg, who first began to print
there about 1475, more books with wood-cuts were printed in
that city prerious 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
Council 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 spfritual who attended the council. Upon this work Geb-
hard, in his Genealogical History of the Heritable States of the
Gerraan Erapire, makes the foUowing observations. " The first
printed coUection of arms is that of 1483 in the History of the
CouncU of Constance written by Ufrich Reichenthal. To this
council we are indebted accidentally for the collection. Frora the
thirteenth century it was custoraary to hang up the shields of
noble and honourable persons deceased in churches ; and subse
quently the practice was introduced of painting thera upon the
waUs, or of placing them in the vrindows in stained glass. A simi
lar custora prevailed at the Council of Constance ; for every person
of consideration who attended had his arras painted on the waU in
front of his chamber ; and thus Reichenthal, who caused those arms
to be copied and engraved on wood, was enabled to give in his
history the first general coUection of coai^arraour which had a,p-
peared ; as eminent persons frora all the CathoUc states of Europe
attended this counciL" *
The practice of introducing wood-cuts became in a few years
general throughout Germany. In 1473, John Zainer of ReutUngen,
who is said to have been the brother of Gunther, printed an edition
at Augsburg, and dedicated to Johu [von GUtingen] abbot of the monastery of
St, Ulric and St. Afra, who was chosen to that office in 1482. Heineken sup
posed that the person to whora the book was dedicated was John von Hohenstein,
but he resigned the office of abbot in 1459 ; and the book was certainly not printed
at that period,— See Heineken, Idfee G^n. p, 466; and Von Murr, Journal,
2 Theii, S, 145.
* L, A, Gebhard, Genealogische Geschichte, 1 Theii, Vorrede, S. 11, Cited by
Veith in his " Diatribe," prefixed to Zapf's " Annales Typographiae Augustanae,"

232- WOOD ENGRAVING
of Boccacio's work " De muUeribus Claris," with wood-cuts, at Ulm.
In 1474 the first edition of Werner Rolewinck de Laer's chronicle,
entitled " Fasciculus Temporum," was printed with wood-cuts, by
Arnold Ther-Hoernen at Cologne; and in 1476 an edition of the same
work, also with wood-cuts, was printed at Louvain by John Veldener,
who preriously 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 vrith a border of foUage and flowers cut on
wood ; and ariother page, about the middle of the volume, is orna
mented in a similar manner. These are the earUest instances of or
namental 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 Rahmenschndders. Prosper Marchand, in his " Dictionnaire
Historique," tom. ii. p. 156, has stated that Erhard Ratdolt, 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 informa
tion is scarcely correct Wood-cuts — without reference to Pfister's
tracts, which were not knovra when Marchand virote — were intro
duced at Augsburg six years before Ratdolt and his partners* print
ed at Venice in 1476 the " Calendarium Joannis Regiomontani,"
the work to which Marchand alludes. It may be true that he
introduced a new kind of initial letters ornamented with flowers
in this work, but much more beautiful initial letters had appeared
long before in the Psalter, in the "Durandi Rationale," and the
"Donatus" printed by Faust and Scheffer. The first person who
mentions Ratdolt as the inventor of " florentes Utterae," so named
from the flowers with which they are intermixed, is Maittaire, in
his Annales Typographici, tom. i. part i. p. 53.
In 1483 Veldener,f as has been previously observed at page 130,
" The following colophon to an edition of Appian informs us that his partners
were Bernard the painter and Peter Loslein, who also acted as corrector of the
press : " Impressum est hoc opus Venetiis per Bernardu pictorem & Erhardum
ratdolt de Augusta una cum Petro Loslein de Langenzen correctore ac socio.
Laus. Deo. mcccclxxvii.''
t Veldener at the conclusion of a book printed by him in 1476, containing
" Epistolares quasdam formulas," thus informs the reader of his name and qualifica-

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 233
printed at Culemburg an edition in smaU quarto of the Speculum
Salvationis, with the sarae blocks as had been used in the earUer
foUo editions, which are so confidently ascribed to Lawrence Coster.
In Veldener's edition each of the large blocks, consisting of two
compartments, are sawn in two in order to adapt them to a smaUer
page. A German translation of the Speculum, vrith wood-cuts, was
printed at Basle, in foUo, in 1476 ; and Jansen says that the first
hook printed in France with wood-cuts was an edition of the
Speculum, at Lyons, in 1478 ; and that the second was a trans
lation of the book named " Belial," printed at the sarae 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 ofthe
Chesse," a smaU foUo, without date or place, but generally supposed
to have been printed about 1476.* The first edition of the sarae
work, without cuts, was printed in 1474. On the blank leaves at the
end of a copy ofthe first edition in the King's Library, at the British
Museum, there is written in a contemporary hand a Ust of the
bannerets and knights f made at the battle of " Stooke by syde
newerke apon trent the %\i day of June the U^' yer of harry the riL"
that is, in 1487. In this battle Martin Swart was kUled. He
commanded the Flemings, who were sent by the Duchess of Bur-
gimdy to assist Lambert SiraneL It was at the request of the
duchess, who was Edward the Fourth's sister, that Caxton trans-
tions : " Accipito huic artifici nomen esse magistro Johanni Veldener, cui quidem
certa manu insculpendi, celandi, intorculandi, caracterandi adsit industria; adde
et figurandi et effigiendi." That is, his name was John Veldener ; he could en
grave, could work both at press and case, and moreover he knew something of
sculpture, and could paint a little.
• Heineken, Idie Gen. p. 207, erroneously states that the first book with wood
cuts printed in England was the Golden Legend, by Caxton, in 1483. It is proba
ble that tbe second edition of the Game of Chess preceded it by seven years, and
it certainly was printed after the Mirror of the World.
f The following are some of the names as they are written : " S gilbert talbott .
Sjohn cheiny . S willia stoner . Theis iij wer made byfore the bataile, and after
the bataile were made the same day: Sr. john of Arundell .Thomas Cooksey.
John forteskew . Edmond benyngfeld . james blount . ric . of Croffte . Geofrey Stan
ley . ric , delaber . John mortymer , willia troutbeke," The above appear to bave
been created Bannerets, for after them follows a list of " Knyghtes made at the
sarae bataUe," It is likely that the owner of the volume was at the battle, and
that the names were written immediately after.

234 WOOD ENGRAVING
lated the "RecuyeU 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 Typographical 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-simile wood-cuts. There are indeed fac-smiiles of some of
the figures given, but not of the wood-cuts generaUy ; for in almost
every cut given by Dr. Dibdin the back-ground of the original is
omitted. In the description of the first fac-siraUe there is also
an error : it is said to be " the first cut in the work," whUe in fact it
is the second. The foUovring I beUeve to be a correct list of these
first fruits of EngUsh wood-engraring.
1. An executioner with an axe cutting to pieces, on a block,
the Urabs of a raan. On the head, which is lying on the ground,
there is a crown. Birds are seen seizing and flying away with
portions of the hrabs. There are buUdings in the distance, and
three figures, one of whora 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. ITie "rook," or castle, a figure
on horseback wearing a hood and holding a staff in his hand. From
No. 9 to No. 15 inclusive, the pavms are thus represented. 9. La
bourers and workmen, the principal figure representing the first
pavra, vrith a spade in his right hand and a cart-whip in his left.
10. ITie second pawn, 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 clerk, that is a writer or transcriber, in
the same sense as Peter Scheffer and Ufric ZeU are styled
clerici, with his case of writing raaterials at his gfrdle, a pair
of shears in one hand, and a large kuKe 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

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS.

235

girdle, representing "marchauntes or chaungers.'' 13. The fifth
pavra, a figure seated on a chafr, haring in his right hand a
book, and in his left a sort of casket or box of ointments, re
presenting a physician, spicer, or apothecary. 14. The sixth pawn,
an innkeeper receiring a guest. 15. The seventh pawn, a figure
with a yard-measure in his right hand, a bunch of keys in his
left, and an open purse at his girdle, representing "customers
and tolle gaderers." 16. The eighth pawn, a figure vrith a sort of
badge on his breast near to his right shoulder, after the manner of
a nobleman's retainer, and holding a pafr of dice in his left hand,
representing dice-players, messengers, and "currours," that is
" couriers." In old authors the numerous idle retainers of the nobi
Uty are frequently represented as gamblers, swash-bucklers, and
tavern-haunters. Although there are twenty-four impressions in the volume, yet
there are only sixteen subjects, as described above ; the remaining
eight being repetitions of the cuts nurabered 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10,
with two impressions of the cut No. 2, besides that towards the
commencement.

T5\5

^

B

c-~  ^vll^c
^^^
*— .1)111)' ~r-^
5=-_^xafflS^
^««
..^^njiprrrm^ 
^
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
236

WOOD ENGRAVING

armed upon an hors in suche wise that he have an helme on his
heed and a spere in his right bond, 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 bro
ken 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 alle the nyght in prayers and orisons unto god
that he wil geve hem grace that they may gete that thyng that they
may not gete by nature. The kyngor prynce gyrdeth a houte 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 pavra. No. 14, " whiche
is lykened to taverners and vytayllers," is thus described in Caxton's

own words : " The sixte pawn whiche stondeth before the alphjm
on the lyfte syde is made in this forme . ffor hit is a man that hath
the right bond 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 hang-
yng a bondel of keyes, and this resembUth the taverners hostelers
and sellars of vytayl . and these ought properly to be sette to fore

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 237
the alphyn as to fore a juge, for there sourdeth oft tymes amonge
hem contencion noyse and stryf, which behoveth to be determyned
and tray ted 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 folio consist
ing of one hundred leaves ; and, in the Prologue, Caxton informs
the reader that it " conteyneth in aU Ixrii 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, alder
man cytezeyn of London," who intended to present the same to
WilUam, Lord Hastings, chamberlain to Edward IV, and lieute
nant of the sarae for the tovra of Calais and the raarches there.
On the last page he again mentions Hugh Bryce and Lord Hastings,
and says of his translation : " Whiche book I begun first to tras-
late the second day of Janyuer the yere of our lord M.cccc.lxxx.
And fynysshed the viii day of Marche the same yere, and the xxi
yere of the reign of the most crysten kynge, Kynge Edward the
fourthe."* The " xxvU figures " mentioned by Caxton, without which the
work might not be easily understood, are chiefly diagrams explana
tory of the principles of astronomy and dialhng ; 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 raost of them
not exceeding three inches and a half by three.f
1. A school-master or "doctor," gowned, and seated on a high-
backed chair, teaching four youths who are on their knees. 2.
* Edward IV. began to reign 4tli March 1461 ; the twenty-first year of his reign
would consequently comraence on 4th March 1481 ; Caxton's dates therefore do
not agree, unless we suppose that he reckoned the commencement of the year frora
21st March, If so, his date viii March 1480, and the xxi year of the reign of
Edward IV, would agree ; and the year of Christ, according to our present mode
of reckoning, would be 1481. Dr, Dibdin assigns to the Mirror the date 1481.—
Typ. Ant. i. p. 100.
t Fac-similes of six of those cuts are given in Dr. Dibdin's edition of Ames s
Typographical Antiquities, vol, i, p, 110 — 112.

WOOD ENGRAVING

A person seated on a low-backed chair, holding in his hand a kind
of globe; astronomical instruments on a table before him. &.
Christ, or the Godhead, holding in his hand a ball and cross. 4.
The creation of Eve, who appears coming out of Adam's side. — The
next cuts are figurative of the " seven arts Uberal." 5. Grammar.
A teacher with a large birch-rod seated on a chafr, his four pupils
before him on their knees. 6. Logic. Figure bare-headed seated
on a chair, and haring before him a book on a kind of reading-
stand, which he appears expounding to his pupUs who are kneel
ing. 7. Rhetoric. An upright figure in a gown, to whom another,
- kneeUng, 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 pafr 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 raan playing
on the EngUsh flute. 11. Astronomy. Figure with a kind of
quadrant in his hand, who seems to be taking an observation. — An
idea may be forraed of the raanner in which those cuts are engraved
from the following fac-simile 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

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 239
by Caxton ; but it is unnecessary either to enumerate them or to
give specimens, as they are all 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 Le
gend printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1493.* In this cut,
neither of the thieves on each side of Christ appears to be
nailed 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 undemeath his shoulders. His feet are nei
ther bound nor nailed 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
Vfrgin, — ^who has fallen down, — supported by St John. In the
back-ground to the right, the artist, Uke several others of that
period, has represented Christ bearing his cross.
Dr. Dibdin, at page 8 of the " Disquisition on the Early State of
Engraring and Omamental Printing in Great Britain," 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
frequently subjoined to his religious pieces, is, unquestionably, the
effort of sorae ingenious foreign artist. It is not very iraprobable
that Rubens had a recollection of one of the thieves, twisted, from
convulsive agony, round the top of the cross, when he executed his
celebrated picture of the same subject"! ^^ ^^ Worde's cut, how-
• A large flowered letter, a T, cut on wood, occurs on the same page as the Cru
cifixion. f 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 the point
of tirae when an executioner is piercing the side of Christ, while another with a bar
of iron is breaking the limbs of one ofthe malefactors, who in his convulsive agony,
which his body admirably expresses, has torn one of his feet from the tree to which
it was nailed. The expression in the action of the figure is wonderful."

240 WOOD ENGRAVING
ever, it is to be reraarked that the contorted attitude of both the
thieves results rather from the manner in which they are bound
to the cross, than frora the convulsions of agony.
At page 7 of the sarae Disquisition it is said that the figiires
in the Garae of Chess, the Mirror of the World, and other works
printed by Caxton "are, in all probability, not the genuine pro
ductions of this country ; and may be traced to books of an earUer
date printed abroad, frora which they were often borrowed without
acknowledgment or the least regard to the work in which they
again appeared. Caxton, however, has judiciously taken one of
the prints from the 'Biblia Pauperum' to introduce in his 'LKe
of Christ' The cuts for his second edition of ' Chaucer's Canter
bury Tales ' may perhaps safely be considered as the genuine in
vention and execution of a British artist"
Although I am weU aware that the printers of the fifteenth cen
tury were accustomed to copy vrithout acknowledgment the cuts
which appeared in each other's books, and though I think it likely
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 prerious to 1481 wiU
the presumed originals of the eleven principal cuts in the Mirror
of the World be found. Before we are requfred to beheve 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 origi
nals 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 knovra. Caxton's
claims to the merit of "illustrating" the Game of Chess and the
Mirror of the World vrith wood-cuts from original designs, I con
ceive 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 earUest
editions of books on chess. He mentions as the first, a Latin
edition — supposed by Santander to be the work of Jacobus de
CessoUs— in foUo, printed about the year 1473, by Ketelaer and

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 241
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 CessoUs on the Morahty of Chess, in Gerraan and ItaUan,
vrith wood-cuts, were printed, without date, in the fifteenth century,
and he adds : " Whether Caxton borrowed the cuts in his second
edition from those in the 8vo. German edition without date, or
from this latter Italian one, I am not able to ascertain, haring
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 until he had
ascertained that they were printed preriously to the EngUsh edi
tion. There is a German edition of Jacobus de CessoUs, in foUo,
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 haring
a positive date, I beheve to be that printed at Strasburg by Henry
Knoblochzer in 1483. Until a work on chess shall be produced of
an earUer date than that ascribed to Caxton's, and containing similar
wood-cuts, I shall continue to beUeve 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 bibliographers going a-begging with wood-cuts found
in old English books, and ascribing thera to foreign artists, before
they have taken the shghtest pains to ascertain whether such cuts
were executed in England or not.
The wood-cuts in the Garae 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 sarae period. They are even decided
ly 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 sarae year.
It has been supposed that raost 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 believe
that within the fifteenth century there were no persons in this
R

242 WOOD ENGRAVING
country who practised wood engraving as a distinct profession,
yet it by po means follows 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 person who could handle a graver. Looking at them
merely as . specimens of wood engraring, they are not generaUy
superior to the practice-blocks cut by a modem wood-engraver's
apprentice within the first month of his noriciate. I conceive
that there would be no greater difficulty in finding a person capable
of engraving thera than there would be in finding the pieces of wood
on which they were to be executed. Persons who have noticed
the embelUshraents in raanuscripts, the carving, the raonuraents,
and the stained glass in churches, executed in England about the
tirae of Caxton, will scarcely suppose that there were no artists in
this country capable of raaking the designs for those cuts. There is
in fact reason to beUeve that in England in the fifteenth and six
teenth centuries the waUs of apartments, more especiaUy in taverns
and hostelries, frequently contained paintings, most probably in dis-
teraper, of subjects both frora sacred and general history. That
paintings of sacred subjects were not unusual in churches at those
periods is weU known.
In raost of the cuts which are to be found in books printed by
Caxton the effect is produced by the simplest means. The outhne
of the figures is coarse and hard, and the shades and folds of the
draperies are indicated by short paraUel lines. 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
generally represented in a manner similar to those in the back
ground of the cut of the knight, of which a copy is given at page
235. The oak leaves in a wood-cut* at the commencement of the
preface to the Golden Legend, 1483, are an exception to the gene
ral style of Caxton's fohage ; and represent what they are intended
for with tolerable accuracy. Having thus noticed some of the earU
est books with wood-engravings printed in England, I shaU now
resume my account of the progress of the ai-t on the Continent
• A copy of this cut is given at p. 186, vol. i. of Dr. Dibdin's edition of the
Typographical Antiquities.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. MS
In an edition of Ptolemy's Cosmography, printed at Ulm in 1482
by Leonard Holl, we have, the first instance of maps engraved
on wood. The work is in foho, and the number of the raaps is
twenty-seven. In a general raap of the world the engraver has
thus inserted his narae at the top ; " Insculptura est per Johanne
Schnitzer de Arrassheira." * At the comers of this map the vrinds
are represented by heads with puffed-out cheeks, very indifferently
. engraved. The work also contains omamental initial letters engrav
ed on wood. In a large one, the letter at the beginning of the
volume, the translator is represented offering his book to Pope
Paul II. who occupied the see of Rome frora 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 seera as if printed from one
block. What may be considered as the skeleton of each map, — such
as indications of rivers and mountains, — is coarsely cut; but as the
names of the places are also engraved on wood, the execution
of those thfrty-seven maps raust have been a work of consider
able labour. In 1486 another edition with the same cuts was
printed at Ulm by John Regen at the cost of Justus de Albano
of Venice.
The idea of Leonard HoU's Ptolemy was most Ukely suggested by
an edition of the same work printed at Rome in 1478 by Arnold
Bukinck, the successor of Conrad Sweinheira. In this edition
the raaps are printed from plates of copper; and from the perfect
similarity of the letters, as raay be observed in the naraes of places,
there can be no doubt of their having been staraped upon the
plate by raeans of a punch in a manner similar to that in which
a book-binder 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 separate
ly engraved on the plate by hand. Each single .letter is as per
fectly Uke another of the same character, — the capital M for in
stance, — as types cast by a letter-founder from the same mould.
The naraes of the places are all in capitals, but different sizes
* Arnsheim, which is probably the place intended, is about twenty miles to the
south-west of Mentz.
r2

244 WOOD ENGRAVING
are used for the naraes of countries and cities. The capitals at
the margins referring to the degrees of latitude are of very beauti
ful shape, and as deUcate as the capitals in modem hafr-type.
At the back of some of the maps in the copy in the Kmg's
Library at the British Museum, the paper appears as if it had
received, when in a damp state, an irapression frora linen cloth.
As this appearance of threads crossing each other does not proceed
frora the texture of the paper, but is evidently the result of pressure,
I ara incUned to think that it has been occasioned by a piece of
linen being placed between the paper and the roUer when the im
pressions 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 pro
mised to collate the Latin version with an ancient Greek manu
script ; and that Conrad Sweinheim, who was one of the first who
introduced the art of printing at Rorae, undertook, with the assist
ance of " certain raathematical men," whom he taught, to "impress"
the maps upon plates of copper. Sweinheira, after having spent three
years in preparing these plates, died before they were finished; and
Arnold Bukinck, a learned Gerraan printer, completed the work,
" that the emendations of Calderinus, — who also died before the
book was printed, — and the results of Sweinheim's raost ingenious
mechanical contrivances might not be lost to the leamed world."*
An edition of Ptolemy in foho, with the raaps engraved on cop
per, was printed at Bologna by Dorainico de Lapis with the errone
ous date M.CCCCLXII. This date is certainly wrong, for no work
from the press of this printer is knovra of an earUer date than 1477;
and the editor of this edition, PhiUp Beroaldus the elder, was only
born in 1450, if not in 1453. Supposing hira to have been bom in
* " Magister vero Conradus Suueynheyn, Gerraanus, a quo formandorum Romse
librorum ars primum profecta est, occasione hinc sumpta posteritati consulens ani
mum ad hanc doctrinam capessendara applicuit. Subinde matheraaticis adhibitis
viris quemadmodum tabulis eneis imprimerentur edocuit, triennioque in hac cura
consumpto diera obiit. In cujus vigilarum laborumque partem non iuferiori in
genio ac studio Arnoldus Buckinck e Germania vir apprirae eruditus ad imperfec-
tum opus succedens, ne Domitii Conradique obitu eorum vigilite emendationesque
sine testiraonio perirent neve virorum eruditorum censuram fugerent irainensae sub-
tilitatis machinimenta, examussim ad unum perfecit." — Dedication to the Pope, of
Ptolemy's Cosmography, Rome, 1478.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 245
the former year, he would only be twelve years old in 1462. Raidel,
who in 1737 pubUshed a dissertation on this edition, thinks that
two numerals — xx — ^had accidentaUy been omitted, and that the date
ought to be 1482. Breitkopf thinks that one x raight be acciden
tally oraitted 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: m cccc l xli — 1491.
I am however of opinion that no instance of the Roman numerals,
LXLi, being thus corabined to express 91, can be produced. It
seems most probable that the date 1482 assigned by Raidel is cor
rect; although his opinion respecting the numerals — xx — ^being
accidentally oraitted raay be wrong. It is extremely difficult to
account for the erroneous dates of many books printed prerious to
1500. Several of those dates may have been accidentally wrong
set by the compositor, and overlooked by the corrector ; but others
are so obvious that it is Ukely they were designedly introduced.
The bibliographer who should undertake to enquire what the
printers' reasons might be for falsifying the dates of their books,
would be as Ukely to arrive at the truth, as he would be in an
enquiry into the reason of their sometimes adding their name, and
soraetiraes eraitting it. The execution of the raaps in the edition
of De Lapis is rauch inferior to that of the maps begun by Swein
heim, and finished by Bukinck in 1478.
Bukinck's edition of Ptolemy, 1478, is the second book which
contains impressions from copper-plates. Heineken, at page 233
refers to the " Missale Herbipolense," folio, 1481, as the first book
printed in Germany containing a specimen of copper- plate engrav
ing. Dr. Dibdin, however, in the 3rd volume of his Tour, page 306,
mentions the sarae work as having the date 1479 in the prefatory
adraonition, 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 of the edition of 1481 appears frora
Heineken to have been George Reyser. In the " Modus Orandi
secundum chorum Herbipolensera," folio, printed by George Reyser,
" HerbipoU," [at Wurtzburg,] 1485, there is on foho ii. a copper
plate engraring of the arras of Rudolph 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

246 WOOD ENGRAVING
copper-plate engravings is intitled « II Monte Sancto di Dio," writ
ten by Antonio Bettini, and printed at Florence in 1477 by Nicolo
di Lorenzo della Magna. As this book is of extreme rarity, I shaU
here give an account of the plates from Mercier, who first caUed
the attention of bibUographers to it as being of an earUer date than
the foho edition of Dante, with copper-plate engravings, printed
also by Nicolo Lorenzo in 1481. This edition of Dante was
generally supposed to be the first book containing copper-plate
engravings until Bettini's work was described by Mercier.
The work called " 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, vrith 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 moun
tain, to which it is fastened vrith iron chains, and on each step is
engraved the name of a rirtue, 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 haK way up the hiU to the
right of the ladder, and from his mouth there proceeds a label
inscribed with these words: " Tirami 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: "Levavi oculos
meos in montes," &c. The second plate occurs at signature I v f
after the 115th chapter. It also represents Christ in his glory, sur
rounded 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 P rij, and represents a riew
of Hell according to the description of Dante. Those plates, which
for the period are well enough designed and executed, especiaUy
* This is Mr. Ottley's measurement, taken within the black line which bounds
the subject. The width as given by Mercier does not accord with the above. He
says that the plate " a neuf pouces et demi de haut sur six de large,"
f Mr, Ottley says,." on the reverse of signature N viij."

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 247
the second, were most Ukely engraved 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 Bet
tini. * A copy of " II Monte Sancto di Dio" is in Eari 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 Inqufry into the Origin and Early History of
Engraring, vol. i. p. 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
facility and clearness with which letters can be cut in copper than
on wood. In the engraring of letters on copper, the artist cuts the
form of the letter info the plate, the character being thus in intaglio;
while in engraving 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 let
ters 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 vrith the copper-plate printers for a share of this
branch of business; and the printers, at whose presses maps en
graved on wood only could be printed, were well incUned to support
the wood engravers. In a foho edition of Ptolemy, printed at Venice
in 1511, by Jacobus Pentius de Leucho,' the outhnes 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 preriously appeared, —
the word " ALBION" is printed in large capitals, and the word
"GADiNi" in smaU capitals, and both with red ink. The words
" Curia" and " Breraenium" are printed in small Roman charac
ters, and with black ink. The names of the rivers are also in
small Roman, and in black ink. Such of those maps as contain
* " Lettres de M. 1' Abb€ de St, L***, [St, Leger, autrefois le pere Le Mercier,
ancien Bibliothecaire de St, Genevieve] k M. le Baron de H*** sur diffdrentes
Editions rares du XV«. Sidcle," p, 4 — 5, Svo, Paris, 1783, A short biographic
sketch of the Abb^ Mercier St. Ldger, one of the most eminent French BibUographers
of the last century, will be found in Dr, Dibdin's Tour, vol, ii, p, 180,

248 WOOD ENGRAVING
many names, are almost full of type. The double borders sur
rounding them, within which the degrees of latitude are marked,
appear to have been formed of separate pieces of raetal, in the
manner of wide double rules. At the head of several of the maps
there are figures of animals erableraatic 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 crocodile, and a monstrous kind of fish hke a dragon; and in
the fourth, two parrots. In the last, the " curious observer" wiU
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 raap, — of Loraine, — in an edition of Ptolemy, in folio,
printed at Strasburg in 1513, by John Schott, the attempt to print
in colours, in the manner of chiaro-scuro wood engrarings, is car
ried yet further. The hills and woods are printed green ; the indi
cations of towns and cities, and the names of the most considerable
places, are red; while the names of the sraaUer places are black.
For this map, executed in three colours, green, red, and black,
there would be required two wood engrarings and two forms of
type, each of which would have to be separately printed. The arms
which forra a border to the map are printed in thefr proper heraldic
colours.* The only other specimen of armorial bearings printed in
colours frora wood-blocks, that I am aware of, is Earl Spencer's arras
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 raethod 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 follows. The indications of mountains, rivers, cities, and
villages were engraved on the wood as before, and blank spaces
were left for the names. Those spaces were afterwards cut out
• I regret that I have not had an opportunity of personally examining this map.
There is a copy of Schott's edition in th6 British Museum, but all the maps, except
one of the sphere, are taken out. The above account of the map of Loraine is
from Breitkopf's interesting essay "Ueber den Druck der Geograph ischen
Cliarten," S. 7. 4to, Leipzig, 1777,

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 249
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 " forra," 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, folio,
printed at Basle in 1554, by Henry Petri, affords several examples
of raaps executed in this raanner. 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 unavaiUng, 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
OrteUus, Antwerp, 1570, engraved on copper by .iEgidius Diest,
maps engraved on wood are rarely to be seen. The practice of
engraring the outUnes 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 pubUshers are obliged either to
print maps vrith the type or to give none at all, this mode may
answer very well, more especially when the object is to give the
relative position of a few of the principal places, rather than a
crowded list of names. Most of the larger raaps in the Penny
Cyclopaedia are executed in this raanner. The holes in the
blocks are pierced with the greatest rapidity by gouges of different
sizes acting vertically, and put in motion by machinery contrived
by Mr. Edward Cowper, to whose great mechanical skill the art of
steara-printing chiefly owes its perfection.
Haring thus noticed consecutively the progress of map engraring,
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
raetal in the manner of type.* Previous to 1776 some attempts
had been raade by a person named Preusch, of Carlsruhe, to
print raaps by a process which he named typometric, and who
published an account of his plan, printed at the press of Haass
the Younger, of Basil. In 1776 Breitkopf sent a communication
* The foUowing particulars respecting Breitkopfs invention are derived from
his essay " Ueber den Druck der Geographischen Charten," previously re
ferred to.

250 WOOD ENGRAVING
to Busching's Journal, containing some remarks on. the invention
of Preusch, and stating that he had conceived a similar plan
upwards of twenty years previously, and that he had actually set
up a specimen and printed off a few copies, which he had given
to his friends. The veracity of this account having been question
ed by an illiberal 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 failure ; and that he only pro
duced his specimen — a quarto map of the country round Leipsic —
in testimony of the truth of what he had preriously asserted, and
to show that two persons raight, independently of each other, con
ceive an idea of the sarae invention, although they might differ
considerably in their mode of carrying it into effect
He was first led to think on the practicabiUty of printing maps
with moveable pieces of metal by considering that when the letters
are omitted there reraain but hills, rivers, and the indications of
places ; and for these he was convinced that representations con
sisting of raoveable pieces of metal might be contrived. Having
however, made the experiraent, he felt satisfied that the appearance
of such a raap was unpleasing to the eye, and that the invention
was not hkely to be practically usefuL Had it not been for the
pubUcation of Preusch, he says that he never would have thought
of raentioning 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 parallel Unes, which are shorter or longer as the river
contracts or 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 viUages
are distinguished by a small church, and small vUlages by a smaU
circle. Roads are indicated by dotted paraUel Unes. For the
title of the map large capitals are used. The name of the city of
LEIPSIC is in small capitals. The names of towns and viUages are
in Italic; and of woods, rivers, and hUls, in Roman type. The
general appearance of the map is unpleasing to the eye. Breit
kopf has displayed his ingenuity by producing such a typographic

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 251
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 engrarings: — "It appears anciently to have been the prac
tice of those masters who furnished designs for the wood engravers
to work frora, carefuUy to avoid all cross-hatchings, which, it is
probable, were considered beyond the power of the Xylographist to
represent. Wolgerauth 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 directions: to him belongs the
praise of haring 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 earhest wood engrarings, 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 fron
tispiece to the Latin edition of Breydenbach's Travels, folio, first
printed at Mentz, by Erhard Reuvrich, in I486,* seven years
before the Nuremberg Chronicle appeared. The cut in the fol
lowing page is a reduced but accurate copy of Breydenbach's fron
tispiece, which is not only the finest wood engraring which had
appeared up to that date, 1486, but is in point of design and exe
cution as superior to the best cuts in the Nureraberg 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 observed in the drapery
of the female figure, in the upper part of the two shields on
each side of her, in 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 sometiraes seen in old books of the six-
* An edition of this work in German, with the same cuts, was printed by Reu-
wich in 1488, Within ten years, at least six different editions of this work were
printed in Gerraany. It was also translated into Low Dutch, and printed in
HoUand,

252 WOOD ENGRAVING^
teenth century, or for St Catherine, whose shrine on Mount Sinai
was visited 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 Sohns and Lord of Mintzenberg,

and at the bottom of the cut those of Philip 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 Ubraries in
CathoUc countries, in the same raanner as the bust of Minerva in
the libraries of ancient Greece and Rome. The name of the artist

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 253
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 cross-hatching, I shall venture to
ascribe the merit of the invention to the unknown artist, whoever
he raay have been; and shaU consider the date 1486 as raarking the
period when a new style of wood engraving was introduced. Wol
gerauth, as associated with wood engraving, has too long been
decked out vrith 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, believe that Michael
Wolgemuth was not only one of the best wood engravers of his day,
but that he was the first who introduced a raaterial improvement
into the practice of the art This error becomes more firmly rooted
when such persons corae 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 Wolgerauth as a painter, and not as a wood engra
ver; and I consider it as extremely questionable if either of them
ever engraved a single block. There are raany evidences in Ger
many of Wolgemuth having been a tolerably good painter for the
age and country in which he lived; but there is not one of his
haring engraved on wood. In the Nureraberg Chronicle he is
represented as haring, in conjunction with William Pleydenwurf,
superintended the execution of the wood-cuts contained in that
book. Those cuts, which are frequently referred to as excellent
specimens of old wood engraring, are in fact the raost tasteless and
worthless things that are to be found in any book, ancient or modern.
It is a book, however, that is easy to be obtained ; and it serves as
a land-mark to superficial enquirers who are perpetually referring
to it as containing wood-cuts designed, K not engraved, by Albert
Durer's master,: — and such, they conclude, must necessarily possess
a very high degree of excellence.
Breydenbach was a canon of the cathedral church of Mentz, and
he dedicates the account of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and
risit to Mount Sinai to Berthold archbishop of that see. The fron
tispiece, although most deserring of attention as a specimen of wood
engraving, is not the only cut in the book which is worthy of notice.

254

WOOD ENGRAVING

Views are given, engraved on wood, of the most remarkable places
which he visited;— 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 riews 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 riews,
with respect to the manner in which they are executed, are superior
to every thing of the sarae kind which had preriously appeared.
The work also contains sraaUer cuts printed vrith the type, which
are not generally reraarkable 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 lerosoUmis et locis Ulis manentes
etiam se asserunt esse Christianos": —

In a cut of animals there is a figure of a giraffe,* naraed by
Breydenbach "seraffa," of a unicorn, a salamander, a camel, and
an animal something like an oran-outang, except that it has a tail. ,
* This is probably the first figure of the giraffe that was communicated to the
" reading public" of Europe. Its existence was afterwards denied by several na
turalists ; and it is only within a comparatively recent period that the existence of
such an animal was clearly estabUshed.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 255
Of the last the traveUer observes, " non constat de nomine." Some
account of this book, with fac-similes of the cuts, wiU be found in
Dibdin's BibUotheca Spenceriana, vol. iii. pp. 216 — 228. In the
copy there described, belonging to Earl Spencer, the beautiful fron
tispiece was wanting.
Although a flowered border surrounding a whole page may be
observed as occurring twice in Veldener's edition of the Fasciculus
Temporura, printed at Utrecht in 1480, yet I ara inchned 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 soraewhat later. In 1488, an edition of the " Horse in
Laudem beatissiraae virginis Mariae," in octavo, was printed at Paris
by Anthony Verard, the text of which is surrounded vrith omamen
tal borders. The practice thus introduced was subsequently
adopted by the printers of Germany and Holland, more especially
in the decoration of devotional works, such as Horae, Breviaries,
and Psalters. Verard appears to have chiefly printed works of
devotion and love, for a greater number of Horae and Romances
proceeded from his press than that of any other printer of his age.
Most of thera contain wood-cuts, some of which, in books printed
by hira about the beginning of the sixteenth century, are designed
vrith considerable taste and well engraved ; while others, those for
instance in " La Fleur des Battailes," 4to, 1505, are not superior
to those in Caxton's Chess : it is, however, not unlikely that the
cuts in " La Fleur des Battailes" of this date had been used for an
earUer edition.*
The "Hortus Sanitatis," foho, printed at Mentz in 1491 by
Jacobus Meydenbach, is freqiiently referred to by bibUographers ;
not so much on account of the raany wood-cuts which it contains,
but as being supposed in sorae degree to confirra a stateraent in
Sebastian Munster's Cosmography, and in Serrarius, De Rebus
Mogtmtinis, where a John Meydenbach is mentioned as being a
* 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 Artus," folio, 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.

256

WOOD ENGRAVING

partner with Gutemberg and Faust. Von Murr, as has been pre
viously noticed, supposed that this person was a wood engraver ;
and Prosper Marchand,* though without any authority, calls Jaco
bus Meydenbach his son or his relation.
This work, which is a kind of Natural History, explaining the
uses and rirtues 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
which are remarkable for their execution as wood engravings.
The following is a fac-simile of the cut which forms the head

piece to the chapter " De Ovis." The figure, which possesses con
siderable merit, represents an old woman going to market with her
basket of eggs.
The above 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 apothecar/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 raeat ;
• Hist, de I'lmprimerie, p. 49.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESB. 257
a man selling cheese at a staU ; a woman milking a cow ; and figures
ofthe male and female raandrake. At chapter 119, " De Pediculo,"
a woman is represented brushing the head of a boy with a pecuUar ,
kind of brush, which answers the purpose of a smaU-toothed corab;
and she appears to bestow her labour on no infertile field, for each
of her " sweepings," which are seen lying on the floor, would scarcely
shp through the teeth of a garden rake. Meydenbach's edition has
been supposed to be the first; and Linnaeus, in the BibUotheca
Botanica, has ascribed the work to one John Cuba, a physician of
Mentz ; but other writers have doubted if this person were really
the author. The first edition of this work, under the title of " Her-
barus," with a hundred and fifty wood-cuts, was printed at Mentz by
Peter Scheffer in 1484; and in 1485 he printed an enlarged edition
in German, containing three hundred and eighty cuts, under the
title of " Ortus Sanitatis oder Gart der Gesundheit." Of the work
printed by Scheffer, Breydenbach is said to have been one of the
compilers. Several editions of the Hortus Sanitatis were subse
quently printed, not only in Germany, but in France, Holland, and
Switzerland. Haring preriously expressed my opinion respecting the wood-cuts
in the Nuremberg Chronicle, there wUl be less occasion to give a
detailed account of the book and the rubbish it contains here:
in speaking thus it raay perhaps be necessary to say that this
character is meant to apply to the wood-cuts and not to the hte
rary portion of the work, which Thomas Heame, of black-letter
memory, pronounces to be extreraely "pleasant, useful, and curi
ous." With the wood-cuts the Rev. Dr. Dibdin appears to have
been equally charmed.
The work called the " Nuremberg Chronicle" is a foho, com
piled by Hartman Schedel, a physician of Nureraberg, and printed
in that city by Anthony Koburger in 1493. In the colophon it
is stated that the views of cities, and figures of erainent characters,
were executed under the superintendence of Michael Wolgerauth
and Wilhara Pleydenwurff, "mathematical men"* and skiUed in the
* The expression " adhibitis tamen viris mathematicis" in the Nuremberg
Chronicle, is evidently borrowed frora that, — " subinde mathematicis adhibitis
viris," — in the dedication of Bukinck's Ptolemy, 1478, to the Pope. " Mathe
matical men," in the present sense of the term, might be required to construct the
s

258 WOOD ENGRAVING
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 following fac-simile vrill afford an idea
of the style in which the portraits of illustrious men contained in
this often-cited chronicle are executed.

The above head, which the owner appears to be scratching 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 hke 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 the same raanner pressed into the general serrice 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 had preriously appeared. Before proceeding, how
ever, to make any further observations on these cuts, I shaU
endeavour to explain what engravers mfean by the term " colour,"
as applied to an impression taken with black ink from a copper
plate or a wood-block.
maps in the edition of Ptolemy, but scarcely to design or engrave the vulgar
figures and worthless views in the Nuremberg Chronicle.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 259
Though there is no " colour," strictly speaking, in an engraring
consisting merely of black and white lines, yet the term is often
conventionaUy appUed to an engraving which is supposed, from
the varied character of its Unes and the contrast of light and shade,
to convey the idea of varied local colour as seen in a painting or
a water-colour drawing. For instance, an engraring 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 sarae time presents an effective
combination of Ught and shade. An engraver cannot certainly ex
press the difference between green and yellow, or red and orange,
yet in engraring a figure, say that of a cavaUer by Vandyke, with
brown leather boots, buff-coloured woollen hose, doublet of red
silk, and blue velvet cloak, a raaster of his art wiU not only ex
press a difference in the texture, but will also convey an idea
of the different parts of the dress being of different colours. The
Rent Day, engraved by Rairabach from a painting by Wilkie, and
Chelsea Pensioners hearing the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo
read, engraved by Bumet from a picture by the same artist, raay 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
appUed by engravers in speaking of impressions from plates or frora
wood-blocks : — " It is not uncoramon araong print-pubUshers, nor
even amongst engravers themselves, to hear the word colour
mistakenly employed to signify shade; so that if they think an
engraring 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 autho
rity, 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 engraring
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 MIDDLE TINT, I Understand and mean, « the medium between
.strong light and strong shade.' — These are Mr. Gilpin's words; and
s2

260 WOOD ENGRAVING
he adds, with a propriety that confers value on the definition—' the
phrase is nof af all expressive of colour.' "
Whether we owe the terra " colour," as appUed to engrarings, to
the ignorance of printsellers or not, I shall not enquire; I only
know that a number of terras equally objectionable, if thefr prirai-
tive 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
lineal altitude or profundity, apphed to denote intensity of colour ;
and the very word intensify, 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
preriously known, 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 pre?
sume that none of these terms were introduced into tiie noraencla-
ture of painting and engraving by ignorant persons, but that they
were adopted frora a necessity originating from the very constitution
of the human mind. It is well known to every person who ias paid
any attention to the construction of languages, that almost every
absti'act term is referable to, and derived from, the name of some
material object The very word to "think," implying the exer
cise of our mental faculties, is probably an offset from the substan
tive " thing."
It is also to be observed, that Mr. Landseer speaks as K 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 hnes and hatch
ings in an engraring, 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 receiring direct rays
of hght, would naturally contain rauch conventional "colour" in
an engraring ; and so would a bay horse, a coal barge, or the trunk
of an old oak tree, when receiving the Ught in a similar manner ; all
would be represented as comparatively dark, when contrasted vrith
lighter coloured objects, — for instance, with a blue sky, grass, or
light green foliage, — although not in shade. An engraring that ap
pears too light, compared with the painting from which it is copied.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRPSS. 261
is said to want " colour," and the copper-plate engraver remedies
the defect by thickening the dark Unes, or by adding cross Unes and
hatchings. As a copper-plate engraver can always obtain raore
" colour," he generally keeps his work Ught in the first stage of
a plate; on the contrary, a wood engraver keeps his first proof
dark, as he cannot afterwards introduce more " colour," 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 ap
pear 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 " raeans [which] the Art
of engraving possesses of rendering local colour in the abstract," I
cannot very well coraprehend. I am aware of the Unes used conven
tionally by engravers to indicate heraldic colours in coat-armour;
but I can see no natural relation between perpendicular hnes in
an engraving and the red colour of a soldier's coat. I believe that
no person could tell the colour of the draperies in Leonardo da
Vinci's Last Supper from an inspection of Raphael Morghen's en
graving of it When Mr. Landseer says that he wiU use the term
" colour" in its " ordinary acceptation," he ought to have explained
what the ordinary acceptation of the word meant when appUed to
impressions from copper-plates which consist of nothing but lines
and interstices of black and white.
In the second paragraph Mr. Landseer displays great inconsistency
in praising Mr. Gilpin for his definition of the word " tint," which,
when appUed to engravings, is as objectionable as the term "colour."
It appears that Mr. Gilpin may employ a conventional term with
" singular propriety," while printsellers and engravers who should
use the same liberty would be charged with ignorance. Is there
such a thing as a fint in nature which is of no colour? Mr.
Gilpin's lauded definition involves a contradiction even when the
word is apphed to engravings, fri which every "tint" is indica
tive of positive colour. That " medium between strong Ught and
strong shade," and which is yet of no colomr, remains to be dis
covered. Mr. Gilpin has supplied us with the " word," but it ap
pears that no definite idea is necessary to be attached to it Hav
ing thus endeavoured to give a Uttle brightness to the ««colour" of
" ignorant printseUers and engravers," I shaU resume my observa-

262

WOOD ENGRAVING

tions on the cuts in the Nuremberg Chronicle, to the "colour" of
which the preceding digression is to be ascribed.
The following cut, representing the Creation of Eve, is copied
frora one of the best in the Nureraberg Chronicle, both with respect
to design and engraving. In this, compared with most other cuts
preriously 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 Unes crossing each other, — caUed " cross-
hatching," — as may be seen in the drapery of the Dirinity ; and
from the contrast of the shade thus produced vrith the lighter parts
of the cut

The subjoined cut, of the same subject, copied fttim the Poor
Preachers' Bible,* will, by comparison with the preceding, illus-
• 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 illustrate the mystery of the
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 263
trate 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 con
tained in the Nuremberg Chronicle. In this cut there is no in
dication of colour; the shades in the drapery which are expressed
by hard paraUel Unes are aU of equal strength, or rather weakness ;
and the hair of Adam's head and the foUage of the tree are ex
pressed nearly in the same manner.

The above manner of representing the creation of Eve appears
to have been general amongst the wood engravers of the fifteenth
century, for the sarae subject frequently occurs in old cuts
executed prerious to 1500. It is frequently represented in the
same manner in illuminated 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 Raffaele the
creation of Eve is also represented in the sarae raanner.
In the wood-cuts which occur in Italian books printed prerious
to 1500 the engravers have seldora attempted anything beyond a
siraple outUne with occasionally an indication of shade, or of
colour, by means pf short parallel lines. The following is a fac
simile of a cut in Bonsignore's Italian prose translation of Ovid's

26i

WOOD ENGRAVING

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 illustrated is the difficult labour of Alcmena through
the malign influence of Lucina, as related by Orid 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 Ludorico Dolce's Trans
forraationi, a kind of paraphrase of the Metamorphoses, 4to. printed
at Venice by Gabriel GioUto in 1557 ; and it is also represented
in the illustrations to the Metamorphoses designed by VirgU
SoUs, 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 cen
tury there are none that can bear a comparison for elegance of
design with those contained in an Italian work entitled " Hypnero
tomachia PoUphih," a foho without printer's narae or place, but

* 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. — Inquiry, vol. ii. p. 576.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 267
certainly printed at Venice by Aldus in 1499. This " Contest be
tween 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* suggested by the prurient imagination of a
raonk, — for such the author was, — who, Uke many others of his
fraternity, in aU ages, appears to have had " a law not to marry,
and a custom not to Uve chaste." The language in which this
chaos of absurdities is coraposed is ahnost as varied as the subjects^
The ground-work is ItaUan, on which the author engrafts at vriU
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 un
derstand it, have fancied that they could perceive in the Hypnero-
toraachia a complete summary of human knowledge."!
The narae 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 Trerisa; 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,
which happened in 1527, he could not thus be less than ninety-
four years old. The true name of this amorous dreaming monk,
and the fictitious one of the woraan with whora he was in love,
are thus expressied by combining, in the order in which they follow
each other, the initial letters of the several chapters : " Poliam
Frater Franciscus Columna PERAMAviT.":f If any reliance can
be placed on the text and the cuts as narrating and representing
real incidents, we may gather that the stream of love had not run
• Bibliographers and booksellers in their catalogues specify with delight such
copies as contain, " la figura rappresentante il Sacrifizio k Priapo bene con-
servata," for in some copies this choice subject is wanting, and in others partially-
defaced. f Some account of the Hypnerotomachia and its author is to be found in
Prosper Marchand's Dictionnaire Historique.
X In the life of Colonna in the Biographie Universelle, the last word is said
to be " adamavit," which is a mistake. The word formed by the initial letters of
the nine last chapters is "peramavit," as above.

266 WOOD ENGRAVING
smooth with father Francis any more than vrith simple laymen.
With respect to the true name of the mistress of father Francis,
biographers are not agreed. One says that her name was Lucretia
Maura; and another that her narae was IppoUta, and that she
belonged to the noble family of Poli, of Trerisa, and that she
was a nun in that city.' From the name IppoUta sorae authors
thus derive the fictitious name Polia : IppoUta ; PoUta ; Polia.
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 foUowing title: "Le Tableau des riches inventions
couvertes du voile des feintes amourouses qui sont representees
dans le Songe de PoUphUe, devoUees des ombres du Songe, et
subtilment exposees." Of this translation several editions were
pubUshed; 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., wbich, 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 vrith respect to design may
rank among the best that have appeared in Italy. The whole
nuraber in the volume is one hundred and ninety-two ; of whidi
eighty-six relate to mythology and ancient history; fifty-four re
present 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 de
signed by Raffaele,* whUe others vrith equal confidence, though on
no better grounds, have ascribed them to Andrea Mantegna. Ex
cept frora the reserablance which they are supposed to bear to the
acknowledged works of those artists, I ara not aware that there is
any reason to suppose that they were designed by either of them.
As Raffaele, who was born in 1483, was only sixteen when the
Hypnerotomachia was printed, it is not hkely that aU, or even
any of those cuts were designed by hira ; as it is highly probable
that aU the dravrings would be finished at least twelve months
• Heineken, in his catalogue of Raffaele's works, mentions the cuts in the
Hypnerotomachia, but he says that it is questionable whether he designed them
all or only the eighty-six mythological and historical subjects, — Nachrichten von
Kiinstleru und Kunst-Sachen, 2er Theii, S, 360. Svo. Leipzig 1769.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 267
before, and many of them contain intemal eridence of their not
being the productions of a youth of fifteen. That Andrea Man
tegna might design thera is possible ; but this certainly cannot be
a sufficient reason for positively asserting that he actuaUy did. Mr.
Ottiey, at page 576, vol U. of his Inquiry, asserts that they were
designed by Benedetto Montagna, an artist who flourished about
the year 1500, and who is chiefly known as an engraver on
copper. The grounds on which Mr. Ottley forras his opinion
are not very clear, but if I understand hira correctly they are as
follows :
In the coUection of the late Mr. Douce there were sixteen wood-
engrarings which had been cut out of a foUo edition of Grid's
Metamorphoses, printed at Venice in 1509. All those engrarings,
except two, were marked vrith the letters ia, which according to
Mr. Ottley are the initials of the engraver, loanne Andrea di
Vavassori. Between some of the cuts from the Orid, and certain
engrarings executed by Montagna, it seems that Mr. Ottley
discovered a reserablance; and as he thought that he perceived
a perfect sirailarity between the sixteen cuts from the Orid and
those contained in the Hypnerotomachia, he considers that Bene
detto Montagna is thus proved to have been the designer of the
cuts in the latter work.
Not having seen the cuts in the edition of the Metamorphoses
of 1509, 1 cannot speak, from ray own exaraination, of the resem
blance between thera and those in the Hypnerotoraachia ; it, how
ever, seems that Mr. Douce had noticed the similarity 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 Orid resemble sorae
copper-plate engrarings executed by Benedetto Montagna, that
he must have designed the cuts in the Hypnerotomachia. As the
cuts m the Orid may, as Mr. Ottiey himseK remarks, have been used
in an earUer edition than that of 1509, it is not unUkely 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

268 WOOD ENGRAVING
Hypnerotomachia, he has certainly excelled himseK, for they cer
tainly 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 PoUphUo* and
the engravings 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 generaUy have either his name
at length or the letters B. M. In the third cut of PoUphiloj
the designer's or engraver's mark, a small b, may be perceived at
the foot, to the right ; and the sarae raark is repeated in a cut at
signature C.
A London bookseller in his catalogue published in 1834,
probably speaking on Mr. Ottley's hint that the cuts in the
Orid of 1509 might have appeared in an earUer edition, thus
describes Bonsignore's Ovid, a work in which the wood-cuts are of
a very inferioir description, and of which a specimen is given in a
preceding page : " Ovidii Metamorphoseos Vulgare, con le AUe
gorie, [Venezia, 1497,] vrith numerous beautiful wood-cuts, appa
rently by the artist who executed the PoUphilo, printed by Aldus
in 1499." Thei wood-cuts ih the Ovid of 1497 are as inferior to
those in PoUphilo as the commonest cuts in chUdren's school-
books are inferior to the beautiful wood-cuts in Rogers's Pleasures
of Memory, printed in 1812, which were designed by Stothard and
engraved by ClenneU. It is but fafr to add, that the cuts used in
the Ovid of 1497, printed by the brothers De Lignano, cannot be
the same as those in the Orid of 1509 referred to by Mr. Ottley;
for though the subjects may be nearly the same, the cuts in tbe
latter edition are larger than those in the forraer, and have be
sides an engraver's mark which is not to be seen in any of the
cuts in the edition of 1497.
The five following cuts are fac-similes traced Une for Une fi-om
the originals in Poliphilo. In the first, Mercury is seen inter
fering to save Cupid from the anger of Venus, who has been
punishing him and plucking the feathers frora his vrings. The
cause of her anger is explained by the figure of Mars behind the
• The author thus names his hero in his Italian title : " PoUphilo incomincia
la sua hypnerotomachia ad descrivere et I'hora et il tempo quando gii appar
ve in sorano, &c."

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS.

269

net in which he and Venus had been inclosed by Vulcan. Love
had been the cause of his raother's raisfortune.

In the following cut Cupid is represented as brought by Mer
cury before Jove, who in the text, " in Athica lingua," addresses
the God of Love, as "STMOIFATKOS KAI niKRO^"- "at

SY:Moir.Ar KYSAAAA PIKPO 2

once sweet and bitter." In the inscription in the cut, "AAAA"
is substituted for « KAI."

270 WOOD ENGRAVING
In the next cut Cupid appears piercing the sky with a dart, and
thus causing a shower of gold to fall. The figures represent per
sons of all conditions whom he has wounded, looking on with
amazement

The three preceding cuts, in the original work, appear as com
partments 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 their being placed as in the original foho.
The subjoined cut is intended to represent Autumn, accord
ing 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 foUowing figure should be represented
"vrith a jolly countenance, crowned with vine leaves, holduig in
one hand a bunch of grapes, and in the other a cornucopia, vrith
an inscription ; ' Mustulento Autumno S.' "* The face of joUy
Autumn is indeed like that of one who loved new vrine, and his body
seems Uke an ample skin to keep the hquor in ; — Sfr John Falstaff
playing Bacchus ere he had grown old and inordinately fat
• The epithets applied to the different seasons as represented on this votive
altar are singularly beautiful and appropriate : " Florido Veri ; Elavte Messi ;
Mustulento Autumno ; Hyemi iEoliae, Sacrum."

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS.

271

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 words
« AOPIKTHTOI" — " Gained in war."

272 WOOD ENGRAVING
The following is a specimen of one of the omamental 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 Hypnerotomachia are
engraved continued to prevaU, with certain modifications, in Italy
for many years after the method of cross-hatching becarae general
in Germany ; and from 1500 to about 1530 the characteristic of raost
Itahan wood-cuts is the simple manner in which they are executed
corapared with the more laboured productions of the German wood
engravers. While the German proceeds vrith considerable labour
to obtain "colour," or shade, by means of cross-hatching, the
Itahan in the early part of the sixteenth century, endeavours to at
tain his object by easier raeans, such as learing his lines thicker
in certain parts, and in others, indicating shade by means of short
slanting parallel Unes. In the execution of flowered or ornamented
initial letters a decided difference may frequently be noticed be
tween the work of an Italian and a German artist The German
mostly, vrith considerable trouble, cuts his flourishes, figures, and
flowers in relief, according to the general practice of wood en
gravers ; the ItaUan, on the contrary, often cuts them, with rauch
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
• The letter M at the commencement of the next chapter affords an example
of this style of engraving.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 273
example of the German style, vrith the omamental parts in relief; the
letter M at the coraraenceraent of chapter v. is a specimen of the
manner frequently adopted by old ItaUan wood engravers, the forra
of the letter and the ornamental foUage being cut in intaglio. At a
subsequent period a more elaborate manner of engraving began to
prevail in Italy, and cross-hatching was almost as generaUy 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 generaUy as good as most Gerraan wood-cuts of the same
period ; and raany of them, more especially those in books printed
by the Giolitos, are executed with a clearness and deUcacy which
have seldora been surpassed.
Before concluding the present chapter, which is more especially
devoted to the consideration of wood engraving in the first period of
its connection with typography, it may not be improper to take a
brief glance at the state of the art as practised by the Briefinalers
and Formschneiders of Gerraany, 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 gene
raUy estabUshed throughout Europe. That the ancient wood en
gravers continued to practise the art of block-printing tiU towards ,
the close of the sixteenth century, there can be Uttle doubt. There
is an edition of the Poor Preachers' Bible, with the date 1470,
printed from wood-blocks, vrithout place or engraver's name, but
haring at the end, as a raark, two shields, on one of which is a
squirrel, and on the other soraething hke two pilgrira'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, Briefmaler, of Nuremberg,
printed an edition of the Antichrist in the sarae raanner.*
* Von Murr says that," Young Hans'' was unquestionably the son of "Hans
Formschneider," whose narae appears in the town-books of Nureraberg from 1449
to 1490. He also thinks that he might be the same person as Hans Sporer. —
Journal, 2 TheU, S. 140, 141, T

274 WOOD ENGRAVING.
It is probable that raost of the single sheets and short tracts,
printed frora wood-blocks, preserved in the libraries of Gerraany, 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 typograph
ers, yet for several years afterwards they continued to print broad
sides from blocks of wood; and until about 1500 they continued to
compete vrith the press for the printing of " Wand-Kalendars," or
sheet Almanacks to be hung up against a walk 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
century the practice of printing pages of text from engraved wood
blocks may be considered as almost extinct in Gerraany. It pro
bably began with a single sheet, and with a single sheet it ended;
and its origin, perfection, dechne, and extinction, are coraprised
within a century. 1430 may raark its origin; 1450 its perfection;
1460 the commencement of its decline; and 1500 its faU.
In an assemblage of wood engrarings printed at Gotha between
1808 and 1816,* from old blocks coUected by the Baron Von Der
schau, there are several to which the editor, Zacharias Becker,
assigns an earUer date than the year 1500. It is not unUkely 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 BibUographical Tour,f and
referred to at page 286 of the present work, that the Baron was a
person from whose collection copper-plate engravings of question-
• The title of this work is : " Holzschnitte alter Deutscher Meister in den Origi
nal-Platten gesammelt von Haps Albrecht Von Derschau. Als ein Beytrag zur
Kunstgeschichte herausgeben, und mit einer Abhandlung uber die Holzschneide
kunst begleitet, von Rudolph Zacharias Becker." It is in lai'ge folio, with the text
in Gerraan and French. The first part was published at Gotha in 1808 ; the second
in 1810; and the third in 1816,
t Vol. iU.p, 445, edit. 1829.

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS.

275

able date had proceeded as well as wood-blocks. The foUowing is a
reduced copy of one of those suspicious blocks, but which the editor
considers to be of an earUer date than the St. Christopher in the
collection of Earl Spencer. I ara hovvever of opinion that it is of
comparatively modern manufacture.

The inscription, intended for old German, at the bottom of the
cut, is Uterally as foUows : "Hiet uch, vor den Katczen dy vom lecken
unde hinden kraiczen" — that is: "Beware of the cats that Uck be
fore 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 raeant by this inscription than raet the eye, and that it was in
fact part of a Gerraan proverb descriptive of a class of feraales
who are particularly dangerous to siraple young men.* Among
the cuts supposed to have been engraved prerious to the year
1500, another is given which I suspect also ofieing a forgery,
and by the same person that engraved the cat. The cut alluded to
represents a woman sitting beside a young man, whose pm-se she is
seen picking while she appears to fondle hira. A hawk is seen
behind the woraan, and an ape behind the man. At one side is a
Uly, above which are the words " Jef) Ivart." At the top of the
cut is an inscription, — which seeras, like that in the cut of the cat,
to be in affectedly old German,— describing the young man as a
* " |l|uren sinUiioBe ftstfen Irie l)orn«n Uftften untr tiinten feratteti,"
t2

276 WOOD ENGRAVING
prey for hawks and a fool, and the woraan as a flatterer, who wiU
fawn upon him until she has emptied his pouch. The subjects of
those two cuts, though not apparently, are, in reaUty, 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 Joumal im
pressions from those blocks as old wood-cuts in the coUection of
Dr. Silberrad;* and it is certainly very singular that the identical
blocks from which Dr. Silberrad's scarce old wood engrarings were
taken should afterwards happen to be discovered 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 en
graved the figure of a soldier. At the bottom of the cut of St
Catharine, the name of the engraver, " SJotff ©lOCfeetlJlOn," ap
pears in old German characters. As " Glockendon" or " Glocken-
ton" was the name of a family of artists who appear to have been
settled at Nuremberg early in the fifteenth century, Becker con
cludes that the cut in question was engraved prior to 1482, and
that this " Jorg Glockendon " was " the first wood engraver known
by narae, and not John Schnitzer of Arnsheira, — who engraved the
raaps in Leonard HoU's Ptoleray, printed in the above year, — as
Heineken and others pretend." That the cut was engraved preri
ous to 1482 rests raerely 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 in the Ars Moriendi of 1473 ; and it is not probable that
Hartlieb's Chiromantia, in which we find the narae " ^Otflf .^Ctl^pff
JU ^llffSpurg," was engraved subsequent to 1480. It would ap
pear that Becker did not consider " Hans Briefinaler,'' who occurs
as a wood engraver between 1470 and 1480, as a person " known by
narae," though it is probable that he had no other surnfune than
that which was derived frora his profession.
Although Derschau's collection contains a number of old cuts
which are weU worth preserving, more especiaUy among those exe-
* Joumal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2er Theii, S. 125, 126,

IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS. 277
cuted 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 Ught on the' progress of the art.
There are also not a few modern antiques which are only illustrative
of the credulity ofthe collector, who raistakes rudeness of execution
for a certain test of antiquity. According to this test the following
cut ought to be ascribed to the age of Caxton, and pubUshed with
a long commentary as an undoubted specimen of early English wood
engraring. 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 Mr. George Angus of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
who used them as head-pieces to chap-books and broad-side histories
and ballads.

Besides the smaUer block-books, almanacks, and broadsides of
text, executed by wood engravers between 1460 and 1500, they
also executed a number of single cuts, some accompanied with
a few sentences of text also cut in wood, and others containing
only figures. Many of the sacred subjects were probably exe
cuted for convents in honour of a favourite saint; whUe others
were engraved by them on their own account for sale araong the
poorer classes of the people, who had neither the means to pur-

278 WOOD ENGRAVING IN CONNECTION WITH THE PRESS.
chase, nor the abihty to read, a large " picture-book " which con
tained a considerable portion of explanatory text. In almost every
one of the works executed by the Briefinalers 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 generaUy to have been mere workmen,
who could draw and engrave figures on wood in a rude style, but
who had not the slightest pretensions to a knowledge of art.
Having now brought down the history of wood engraring to the
end of the fifteenth century, I shaU here conclude the present chap
ter, without expressly noticing such works of Albert Durer as were
certainly engraved on wood prerious to the year 1500. The de
signs of this great promoter of wood engraring mark an epoch in
the progress of the art ; and will, with others of the same school,
more appropriately form the subject of the next chapter.

WOOD ENGRAVING IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 279

CHAPTER V.

WOOD ENGRAVING IN THE TIME OF ALBEllT DURER.
Chiaro-scuro Engraving on Wood. — A Copper-plate by Mair mistaken for the first
Chiaro-scuro.^-Dotted backgrounds in old Wood-cuts. — Albert Durer probably
not a Wood-engraver, — His birth. — A pupil of MichaelWolgemuth. — His travels.
— Cuts of the Apocalypse designed by hira. — His visit to Venice in 1506. — ^The
History of the Virgin and Christ's Passion engraved on wood frora his designs, —
His Triuraphal Car and Triuraphal Arch of the Emperor Maximilian, — His inven
tion of etching. — His carving. — Visit to the Netherlands, — His death. — Wood-cuts
designed by L. Cranach, H. Burgmair, and H, Schaufflein. — The Adventures of
Sir Theurdank, — ^The Wise King. — The Triumphs of Maximilian. — Ugo da Carpi.
— Lucas Van Leyden. — William de Figuersnider. — Ursgraff. — Cuts designed by
unknown artists between 1500 and 1528.

osT authors who have written on
the history of engraring have inci
dentally noticed the art of chiaro
scuro engraving 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
iraprovement in the arts of design
and engraring 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
* Chiaro-scuros are executed by means of two or more blocks, in imitation of
a drawing in sepia, India ink, or any other colour of two or more shades. The
older chiaro-scuros are seldom executed with more than three blocks ; on the first
of which the general outline of the subject and the stronger shades were engraved
and printed in the usual manner ; from the second the lighter shades were corarauni
cated ; and frora the third a general tint was printed over the impressions of the
other two.

M

1

280 , WOOD ENGRAVING
pieces in that manner from the designs of Raffaele. 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 ItaUan
engraver, of an earlier date than 1518. The engrarings of ItaUan
artists in this style 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 Repose in Egypt, by Lucas Cranach, is dated 1509;
two others by Hans Baldung Grun are dated 1509 and 1510;
and a portrait, in the same style, by Hans Burgmair, is dated 1512.
Some German vvTiters, not satisfied with these proofe of the art
being practised in Gerraany before it was known in Italy, refer
to an engraving, dated 1499, by a Gerraan artist of the name of
Mair, as one of the earliest executed in this manner. This en
graving, which is from a copper-plate, cannot fairly be produced as
evidence on the point in dispute ; for though it bears the appear
ance of a chiaro-scuro engraving, yet it is not so in reaUty ; for on
a narrow inspection we raay perceive that the Ught touches have
neither been preserved, nor afterwards coraraunicated by raeans of
a block or a plate, but have been added vrith 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 print
ed on a dark ground with the express intention of the hghts
being subsequently added by raeans of a pencil. The artist had
questionless wished to produce an iraitation of a chiaro-scuro
dravring ; 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 hghts preserved, and required no
subsequent touching with the pencil to give to thera that character.
The subject of this engraring is the Nativity, and there is an
impression of it in the Print Room of the British Museum.* In
* This print is one of the valuable collection left to the Museum by the Rev,
C. M. Cracherode, and the following remark in that genUeman's writing is in
serted on the opposite page of the folio in which it is preserved : " The Presepe
is a plain proof that printing in chiaro-scuro was known before the time of Ugo

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 281
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
sarae side, but further distant, is Joseph leaning over a haK 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 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 engrar
ver's name, Mair. It is printed in black ink on paper which
prerious to receiving the irapression had been tinted or stained
a brownish-green colour. The Ughts have neither been pre
served in the plate nor coraraunicated by raeans of a second im
pression, but have been laid on by the hand with a fine pencil.
The rays of the star, and the circles of Ught 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 Uke the
touches of a crayon. The lights in the draperies and in the
architectural parts of the subject have been laid on with a fine
pencil 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 reality gives no Ught.
The engravei*had eridently intended that the light should be added
in positive body colour; but the person — perhaps the engraver
himseK — 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,f a practice was
introduced by the German wood engravers of dotting the dark parts
da Carpi, who is erroneously reputed the inventor of this art at the beginning of
the sixteenth century." The print in question is certainly not a proof of the art
of engraving in chiaro-scuro ; and Mr. Ottley has added the following correction
in pencil : " But the white here is put on with a pencil , 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,"
• 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 light.
f Some single cuts executed in this manner are supposed to be at least as old
as the year 1450. The earliest that I have noticed in a book occur in a Life of
Christ printed at Cologne about 1485,

282

WOOD ENGRAVING

of their subjects vrith white, more especiaUy in cuts where the
figures were intended to appear Ught upon a dark ground; and
about the beginning of the sixteenth, this mode of " kUUng the
black," as it is technically termed, was very generally prevalent
araong the French wood engravers, who, as well as the Germans
and Dutch, continued to practise it tiU 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 drawings of Durer, Cranach, and Burgmafr,
and which about that tirae seeras to have been generaUy adopted in
aU countries where the art had made any progress. The two fol
lowing cuts, which are from an edition of " Heures a I'Usaige de
Chartres," printed at Paris by Siraon Vostre, about 1502, are ex-
araples of this raode of dirainishing the effects of a ground which
would otherwise be entirely black. Books printed in France be

tween 1500 and 1520 afford the raost numerous instances of dark
backgrounds dotted vrith white. In many cuts executed about the
latter period the dots are of larger size and more numerous in pro
portion to the black, and they evidently have been 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 generally
supposed, from having hiraself engraved the numerous wood-cuts
which bear his mark, but from his having thought so well of the art

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 283
as to have most of his greatest works engraved on wood from draw
ings made on the block by himseK. UntU within the las^ 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 Ufe, or specimens of some of the principal
wood engravings which bear his mark, it appears necessary to ex
araine the grounds of this opinion.
There are about two hundred subjects engraved on wood which
are marked vrith the initials of Albert Durer's name; and the greater
part of them, though eridently designed by the hand of a master, are
engraved in a manner which certainly denotes no very great excel
lence. Of the remainder, which are better engraved, it would be diflS
cult to point out one which displays execution so decidedly superior
as to enable any person to say positively that it raust have been cut by
Albert Durer himseK. The earUest engrarings on wood with Durer's
raark are sixteen cuts iUustrative of the Apocalypse, first pubUshed
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 all wood engrarings that
had preriously 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 superiority is not owing to any
deUcacy in the lines which would render them diflicult to engrave,
but from the abihty of the person by whom they were drawn, and
frora his knowledge of the capabilities of the art. Looking at the
state of wood engraring at the period when those cuts were pub
Ushed, I cannot think that the artist who raade the drawings would
experience any diflSculty in finding persons capable of engraring
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 inchned 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 engraving is nothing more than black
lines crossing each other, for the most part diagonally; and in draw-

284 WOOD ENGRAVING
iny on wood it is easier to produce a shade by this raeans, 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. Nothmg is raore common
than for persons who know Uttle of the history of wood engraring,
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 exceUence : as if the talent of the artist were chiefly
displayed in such parts of the cuts as are in reaUty least worthy of
him, and which a mere workman might execute as welL In opposi
tion to this vulgar error I venture to assert, that there is not a wood
engraver in London of the least repute who cannot produce appren
tices to cut fac-similes of any cross-hatching that is to be found, not
only in the wood engrarings supposed to have been executed by
Albert Durer, but in those of any other master. The execution of
cross-hatching requires time, but very Uttle talent; and a raoderately
clever lad, vrith a steady hand and a lozenge-pointed tool, wUl 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 by Albert
Durer. In the works of Bewick, scarcely more than one trifling in
stance of cross-hatching is to be found; and in the productions of aU
other modem wood engravers who have made thefr own dravrings,
we find cross-hatching sparingly introduced ; whUe in almost every
one of the cuts designed by Durer, Cranach, Burgmafr, and others
who are known to have been painters of eminence in thefr day, it is
of frequent occurrence. Had these masters engraved thefr own de
signs on wood, as has been very generally supposed, they probably
would have introduced much less cross-hatching into thefr subjects ;
but as there is every reason to beUeve that they only made the
drawing on the wood, the engravings which are ascribed to thera
abound in Unes which are readily made with a pen or a pencil, but
which require considerable time to cut with a graver.
At the period that Durer pubUshed his illustrations of the
Apocalypse, few wood-cuts of rauch merit either in design or exe
cution had appeared in printed books; and the wood engravers
of that age seera generally to have been raere workraen, who
only understood the mechanical branch of their art, but who
were utterly devoid of all knowledge of composition or correct

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 285
dravring; and there is also reason to beUeve 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 pro
bably not known beyond the town in which they resided, it cannot
he 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
engrarings contain only his mark, in the same manner as the
wood engravings, it raight vrith equal reason be questioned if they
were really executed by himseK. Notwithstanding the identity of
the marks, there is, however, a vride difference between the two
cases. In the age of Albert Durer most of the artists who en
graved on copper were also painters ; and raost of the copper-plate
engrarings which bear his mark are such as none but an artist
of great talent could execute. It would require the abihties of
a first-rate copper-plate engraver of the present day to produce
a fac-simile 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 engrarings 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 superin
tendence of Michael Wolgemuth and Wilham Pleydenwurff, 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 Joumal 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 following effect: "Dear Michael
Beheim, I return you the arms, and beg that you will let it
remain as it is. No one wiU make it better, as I have done it
* In a folio of Albert Durer's drawings iu the Print Room at the British
Museum there is a portrait of "Fronica, Formschneiderin," vi'ith the date 1525,
In 1433 we find a woman at Nuremberg described as a card-maker : "Ell. Karten-
macherin." It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that the earliest German
wood engravers were card-makers. — See chapter ii. p. 54.

286 WOOD ENGRAVING
according to art and vrith great care, as those who see it and
understand the matter will tell you. If the labels were thrown back
above the helmet, the volet would be covered."* This letter, how
ever, is by no raeans decisive, for it is impossible to determine whe
ther the "arms" which the artist retumed were a finished engraring
or raerely a drawing on wood.f From one or two expressions it
seeras most Ukely to have been a dravring only ; for in a finished
cut alterations cannot very well be introduced ; and it seeras most
probable that Michael Beheira's objections would be made to the
drawing 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 hav
ing 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 joumal or day-book of Albert Durer, from which "it ap
peared that he was in the habit of drawing upon the blocks, and
that his men performed the remaining operation of cutting away
the wood."f This inforraation, had it been communicated by a
person whose veracity might be depended on, would be decisive of
tbe question ; but the book unfortunately " perished in the fiames
of a house in the neighbourhood of one of the battles fought
between Bonaparte and the Prussians ;" and frora a Uttie anecdote
recorded by Dr. Dibdin the Baron appears to have been a person
whose word was not to be iraplicitly rehed on.§
» The following is Bartsch's French version of this letter, which is given in the
original Gerraan in Von Murr's Journal, 9?* Theii, S. 53. " Cher Michel Beheim.
Je vous envoie les armoiries, en vous priant de les laisser comme elles sont.
Personne d'ailleurs ne les corrigeroit en raieux, 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 I'on haussoit les lambrequins du heaume, ils couvriroient le
volet." — Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. p. 27.
f In Durer's Journal ofhis visit to the Netherlands in 1520 there is the follow
ing passage : " Item hab dem von Rogendorff sein Wappen auf Holz gerissen,
dafiir hat er mir geschenckt vii. Ein Sammet." — "Also I have drawn for Von
Rogendorff his arras on wood, for which he has presented rae with seven yards of
velvet." — Von Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, T? TheU, S. 76.
I Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. p. 442, second edition.
§ The Baron was the coUector of the wood-cuts published with Becker's ex
planations, referred to at page 274, chapter iv. The anecdote alluded to will

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 287
Neudiirffer, who in 1546 collected some particulars relative to
the history of the artists of Nuremberg, says that Jerome Resch,
or Rosch, engraved most of the cuts designed by Albert Durer.
He also says that Resch was one of the raost skilful wood en
gravers of his day, and that he particularly excelled in engraving
letters on wood. This artist also used to engrave dies for coining
money, and had a printing establishraent of his own. He dwelt
in the Broad Way at Nureraberg, near 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 came
by way of Petticoat Lane, it became a by-word with the common
people : " The Emperor stiU often drives to Petticoat Lane."f
Although it is by no means unUkely that Albert Durer might
engrave two or three wood-cuts of his own designing, yet, after
a careful exaraination of most of those that bear his mark, I can
not find one which is so decidedly superior to the rest as to in
duce 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 raany pictures, engraved so many copper-plates,
and made so many designs, could find time to engrave even a
smaU part of the many wood-cuts which have been supposed to
be executed by him, and which a common wood engraver raight
execute as well. " If Durer himseK had engraved on wood," says
Bartsch in the seventh volume of his Peintre-Graveur, " it is most
Ukely that among the raany 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 appUed himself to wood engraring
would certainly have been transmitted in a manner no less ex
pUcit; but, far from finding the least trace of it, everything that
relates to this subject proves that he had never employed himself
be found in Dr. Dibdin's Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. pp. 445, 446. The Baron
sold a rare speciraen of copper-plate engraving with the date m. cccc. xxx. to the
Doctor, and it seeras that he also sold another impression from the same plate to
Mr. John'Payne. There is no doubt of their being gross forgeries ; and it is not
unlikely that the plate was in the Baron's possession.
• "Dieser Hieronymus hat allhier in der breiten Gassen gewohnt, dessen
Wohnung hinten ins Frauengasslein gangen."
t Neiidiirffer, quoted in Von Murr's Journal, 2te Theii, S. 158, 159.

288 WOOD ENGRAVING
in this 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."* 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 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 bom 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 acqufred a knowledge of his art
Albert continued with his father till his sixteenth year, and had,
as he himseK says, leamed to execute beautiful works in the gold
smith's art, when he felt a great desire to become a painter. His
father on hearing of his vrish to change his profession was much
displeased, as he considered that the time he had afready spent
in endeavouring to acquire a knowledge of the art of a goldsmith
was entirely lost. He, however, assented to his son's earnest re
quest, and placed him, on St. Andrew's day, 1486, as a pupU
under Michael Wolgemuth for the terra of three years, to leam
the art of painting. On the expiration of his "lehr-jahre," or
apprenticeship, in 1490, he left his master, and, according to the
custom of German artists of tbat 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"f is not very weU known; but it is probable that
• At the end of the first edition of the cuts illustrative of the Apocalypse, 1498,
we find the words : " Gedrukt durch Albrecht Durer, Maler," — Printed by Albert
Durer, painter ; and the same in Latin in the second edition, printed about 1510.
The Passion of Christ and the History of the Vii-gin are respectively said to have
been " effigiata" and "perjiguras digesta " — " drawn " and " pictoriaUy represented "
by Albert Durer ; and the cuts of the Triumphal Car of the Emperor Maximilian
are described as being "erfunden und geordnet" — "invented and arranged" by
him. — Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, tora. vii. p, 28,
f The time that a German artist spends in travel from the expiration of his
apprenticeship to the period of his settling as a raaster is called 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 appren
ticeship before they are admitted to the full privileges of the company or fellow
ship.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 289
his travels did not extend beyond Gerraany. In the course of his
peregrinations he risited Colraar, in 1492, where he was kindly re
ceived by Caspar, Paul, and Louis, the brothers of Martin Schon-
gauer ; but he did not see, either then or at any other period, that
celebrated engraver himself.* He retumed to Nureraberg in the
spring of 1494 ; and shortly afterwards married Agnes, the daugh
ter of John Frey, a mechanist of considerable reputation of that
city. This match, which is said to have been made for hira by his
parents, proved to be an unhappy one ; for, though his wife pos
sessed considerable personal charras, she was a woman of a most
wretched temper; and her incessant urging him to continued ex
ertion in order that she might obtain raoney, is said to have
erabittered the Ufe of the artist and eventually to have hastened
his death, f
It has not been ascertained from whom Albert Durer learnt the
art of engraving on copper; for there seems but Uttle reason to
believe that his raaster Michael Wolgemuth ever practised that
branch of art, though several copper-plates, raarked with a W, have
been ascribed to him by some authors.^ As most of the early cop
per-plate engravers were also goldsmiths, it is probable that Durer
might acquire some knowledge of the forraer art during the time
that he continued with his father ; and, as he was endowed with a
versatUe genius, it is not unUkely that he owed his future improve
ment entfrely to himself The earUest date that is to be found on
* It has been stated, though erroneously, that Albert Durer was a pupil of
Martin Schongauer, or Schon, as the surname was spelled by some writers, one of
the most eminent painters and copper-plate engravers of his day. It has been
generally supposed that he died in 1486 ; but, if an old memorandum at the
back of his portrait in the collection of Count de Fries can be depended on, his
death did not take place till the 2nd of Febmary 1499. An account of this me
morandum will be found in Ottley's Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of
Engraving, vol. ii. p, 640.
•f On a passage, in which Durer alludes to his wife, in one of his letters from
Venice, 1506, to his friend Bilibald Pirkheimer, Von Murr makes the following
remark : " This Xantippe must even at that tirae have vexed him much ; and he
was obliged to drag on his life with her for twenty-two years longer, till she fairly
plagued him to death."— Journal, lOer Theii, S, 32,
X Bartsch is decidedly of opinion that Michael Wolgemuth was not an engraver ;
and he ascribes all 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, U

290 WOOD ENGRAVING
his copper-plates is 1494. The subject in which this date occurs
represents a group of four naked woraen with a globe suspended
above them, in the manner of a lamp, on which are inscribed the
letters O. G. H. which have been supposed to signify the words
"O Gott heK!" — Help, O Lord! — as if the spectator on behold
ing the naked beauties were exceedingly Uable to faU into temp
tation.* The earliest wood engrarings that contain Albert Durer's mark
are sixteen subjects, of foho size, iUustrative of the Apocalypse,
which were printed at Nureraberg, 1498. On the first leaf is the
title in German : " Die heiraliche Offenbarung Johannes" — " The
Revelation of John;" — and on the back of the last cut but one is
the iraprint : " Gedriicket zu Numbergk durch Albrecht Durer,
maler, nach Christi geburt m. cccc. und damach im xcriij. iar" —
" Printed at Nureraberg by Albert Durer, painter, in the year after
the birth of Christ 1498," The date of those cuts marks an impor
tant epoch in the history of wood engraring. 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 engraring 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 dravring and extravagant in design,
they are on the whole much superior to any series of wood en
grarings that preceded them ; and thefr execution, though coarse,
is free and bold. They are not equal, in point of weU-contrasted
Ught and shade, to sorae of Durer's later designs on wood ; but
considering them as his first essays in drawing 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-hatch
ing is to be found in all of thera, this mode of indicating a shade,
or obtaining "colour," is rauch less frequently employed than in
some of his later productions. The foUovring is a reduced copy of
• This subject has also been engraved by Israel Von Mecken, and by an artist
supposed to be Wenceslaus of Olmutz. It is probable that those arUsts have copied
Durer's engraving. On the globe in Israel Von Mecken's plate the letters are
O. G. B.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

291

one of the cuts. No. 11, which is illustrative of the twelfth chapter
of Revelations, verses 1 — 4 : " And there appeared a great wonder

in heaven ; a woraan clothed vrith the sun, and the moon under her
feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars,  And there
appeared another wonder in heaven ; and behold a great red dragon,
having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast
thera to the earth ; and the dragon stood before the woraan,"
In 1502 a pirated edition of those cuts was published at Stras
burg by Jerorae Greff, who describes himself as a painter of Frank
fort In 1511 Durer published a second edition of the originals;
u 2

^292 WOOD ENGRAVING
and on the back of the last cut but one is a caution addressed to the
plagiary, inforraing him of the Emperor's order, prohibiting any one
to copy the cuts or to seU the spurious impressions withm the Unuts
of the German erapire, under the penalty of the confiscation of
goods, and at the peril of further punishraent*
Though no other wood engravings with Durer's raark are found
with a date tiU 1504, yet it is highly probable that several subjects
of his designing were engraved between 1498, the date of the Apo
calypse, and the above year ; and it is also Ukely that he engraved
several copper-plates within this period ; although, with the excep
tion of that of the four naked woraen, there are only four known
which contain a date earUer than 1505. About the coraraenceraent
of 1506 Durer visited Venice, where he remained tiU October in the
sarae year. Eight letters which he addressed to Bihbald Pirkheiraer
from Venice, are printed in the tenth volurae of Von Murr's Jour
nal. 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 Rhenish guUders,"!- and that he
expects to have it ready to place above the altar a month after
Easter. He expresses a hope that he will be enabled to repay out
of this money what he had borrowed of Pirkheimer. From this
letter it seems erident that Durer's circumstances were not then in
a very flourishing state, and that he had to depend on his exertions
for the means of living. The comparatively trifling sums which
he mentions as haring sent to his raother and his wKe suflficientiy
declare that he had not left a considerable sura at home. He also
* This caution is in the original expressed in the following indignant terms:
" Heus, tu insidiator, ac alieni laboris et ingenii surreptor, ne manus temerarias his
nostris operibns inicias cave, Scias enim a gloriosissimo Roraanorura imperatore
Maxirailiano nobis concessum esse ne quis suppositiciis formis has imagines impri-
mere seu impressas per imperii limites vendere audeat: q' per contemptum seu
avaricise crimen secus feceris, post bonorum confiscationem tibi maximum periculum
subeundum esse certissime scias,''
f Von Murr says that the subject of this picture was the martyrdom of St, Bar
tholomew, the saint to whom the church was dedicated ; and that the painting after
wards came into the possession of the Emperor Rudolf II. and was placed in his
gallery 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 ex
changed three others for three rings, valued also at twenty-four ducats.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 293
says, that should his wife want more money, her father must assist
her, and that he wiU honourably repay him on his return.
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 corapany that he has raet with there. The
foUovring passage, which occurs in this letter, is, perhaps, the most
interesting in the coUection : "I have many good friends araong
the ItaUans, who wam me not to eat or drink with their painters,
of whora several are my enemies, and copy ray picture in the
church and others of mine, wherever they can find them; and
yet they blarae thera, 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 something of my
doing. He caUed on me himseK, and requested that I would paint
a picture for hira, for which he said he would pay me well. People
are aU surprised that I should be so much thought of by a person of
his reputation. He is very old, but is still 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 believed it.
You must also know that there are many better painters vrithin this
city than Master Jacob is without, although Anthony Kolb swears
that there is not on earth a better painter than Jacob.f The
others laugh, and say if he were good for anything he would Uve in
Venice." The greater part of the other six letters are chiefly occupied with
accounts of his success in executing sundry httle commissions with
which he had been entrusted by his friend, such as the purchase
of a finger-ring and two pieces of tapestry ; to enquire after such
Greek books as had been recently pubUshed ; and to get him some
crane feathers. The sixth and seventh letters are written in a vein
of humour which at the present time would be called gross. Von
Murr illustrates one passage by a quotation from SwKt which is not
" In the Venetian dialect of that period Giovanni Bellini was called Zan Belin ;
and Durer speUs the name " Sarabellinus." He was the master of Titian, and died
in 1514, at the age of ninety. — Von Murr, Journal, lOer TheU, S. 8.
f Von Murr says that he cannot discover what Jacob is here meant. It would
not be Jacob Walsch, as he died in 1500, The person alluded to was certainly not
an Italian,

294 WOOD ENGRAVING
remarkable for its deUcacy ; and he also says that Durer's eighth
letter is written in the humorous style of that writer. Those
letters show that chastity was not one of Bihbald Pfrkheimer's rir
tues ; and that the learned counsellor of the imperial city of Nurem
berg was devoted " tam Veneri quam Mercurio."*
In the fourth letter Durer says that the painters were rauch
opposed to hira ; that they had thrice corapeUed 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 Gerraan church : " I have
through it received great praise, but little profit I raight well have
gained two hundred ducats in the same tirae, and aU the whUe I
laboured raost dihgently in order that I raight get horae again. I
have given aU the painters a rubbing down who said that I could
engrave f weU, but that in painting I knew not how to manage my
colours. Everybody here says they never saw colours more beauti
ful." In his last letter, which is dated, " at Venice, I know not what
day of the month, but about the fourteenth day after Michaelraas,
1506," he says that he will be ready to leave that city in about ten
days ; that he intends to proceed to Bologna, and after staying there
about eight or ten days for the sake of leaming sorae secrets in per
spective, to retum home by way of Venice. He risited Bologna as
he intended; and was treated with great respect by the painters of
that city. After a brief stay at Bologna, he retumed to Nurem
berg ; and there is no eridence of his ever haring visited Italy again.
In 1511, the second of Durer's large works engraved on wood
appeared at Nureraberg. It is generaUy entitled the History of the
Virgin, and consists of nineteen large cuts, each about eleven
• Bilibald Pirkheimer was a learned man, and a person of great authority in the
city of Nuremberg. He was also a member of the Imperial Council, and was fre
quently employed in negociations with» neighbouring states. He published several
works; and among others a humorous essay entitled " Laus Podagrae" — The Praise
of the Gout. His memory is still held in great respect in Germany as the friend of
Albert Durer and Ulrich Hutten, two of the most extraordinary men that Germany
has produced. He died in 1530, aged 60.
+ The kind of engraving meant was copper-plate engraving. Durer's words aie :
" Ich hab awch dy Moler all gesthrilt dy do sagten, Im Stechen wer ich gut, aber
im moien west ich nitmitfarben um zu gen." The word " S<ec/ien " applies to
engraving on copper; "Schneiden" to engraving on wood. — Von Murr, Journal,
lOer Theii, S. 28.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

295

inches and three quarters high, by eight inches and a quarter vride,
with a rignette of smaller size which ornaments the title-page.*
Impressions are to be found without any accompanying text, but
the greater number have explanatory verses printed frora type at
the back. The foUovring cut is a reduced copy of the rignette on
the title-page. The Virgin is seen seated on a crescent, giring

suck to the infant Christ; and her figure and that of the child are
drawn with great feeUng. Of all Durer's Madonnas, whether en
graved on wood or copper, this, perhaps, is one of the best. Her
attitude is easy and natural, and happily expressive of the character'
in which she is represented — that of a nursing mother. The light
and shade are weU contrasted ; and the folds of her ample drapery,
which Durer was fond of introducing whenever he could, are
arranged in a raanner which materiaUy contributes to the effect of
the engraving.
The following cuts are reduced copies of two of the larger
subjects of the same work. That which is here given represents

• The title at length is as follows : " Epitome in Divse Parthenices Marie His-
toriam ab Alberto Durero Norico per figuras digestam, cum versibus annexis
Chelidonii." Chelidonius, who was a Benedictine monk of Nuremberg, also fur
nished the descriptive text to the series of twelve cuts illustrative of Christ's
Passion, of which specimens wiU be found between page 298 and page 303.

296 WOOD ENGRAVING
the bfrth 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 year 1510.
llie interior is apparently that of a house in Nureraberg of Durer's
own time, and the figures introduced are doubtless faithful copies.

both in costume and character, of such females as were generaUy
to be found in the house of a Gerraan 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 hquor ; and that
in Durer's Age the female friends and attendants on a groaning

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 297
woman were accustomed to enjoy themselves on the birth of a
child over a cheerful cup. In the fore-ground an elderly female is
perceived taking a draught, vrithout measure, from a flagon ; while
another, more in the distance and farther to the right, appears
to be drinking, from a cup, health to the infant which a woraan
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 Uquor or long watching it would not be easy
to dirine. On the opposite side of the bed a female figure pre
sents a caudle, with a spoon in it, to St. Anne, the mother of
the Virgin, while another is seen filling 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 engraring, but it affords
a striking example of the Uttle attention which Durer, in cora
mon with most other German painters of that period, paid to pro
priety of costume in the treatraent of such subjects. The piece
is Hebrew, of the age of Herod tiie Great; but the scenery, dresses,
and decorations are German, of the time of MaximiUan I.
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 ; while a number of little figures, Uke
so many Cupids, are busily employed in coUetting the chips which
he makes and in putting them into a basket. Two Uttle winged
figures, of the same family as the chip-collectors, are seen running
hand-in-hand, a httle more in the distance to the left, and one of
thera holds in his hand a plaything Uke those which are called
" windmills" 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 sarae tirae rocking with her foot the cradle
in which the infant Christ is asleep. Near the Virgin are St
EUzabeth 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, imraediately behind St Ehzabeth, holds a pot con
taining 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

298

WOOD ENGRAVING

thought it necessary to mark the locaUty of the scene by the
introduction of pyramids and temples in the back-ground, for the
architectural parts of his subject, as well as the human figures, have
eridently been supplied by his own country. Durer's mark is
at the bottom of the cut 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
• The cuts of these two works appear to have been in the hands of the engraver
at the same tirae. Of those in the History of the Virgin one is dated 1509 ; and
two bear the date 1510 ; and in the Passion of Christ four are dated 1510.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 299
was compiled by CheUdonius ; and, in the same raanner as in the
History of the Virgin, a certain nuraber of irapressions were printed
without any explanatory text.* The large subjects are about
fifteen inches and a half high, by eleven inches and an eighth
wide. The foUowing cut is a reduced copy of the vignette on
the title-page.

_^— ^— ^IIIS^^i^S=* ^ "^^^^ss-VW \-

|(ff .• i[ fl^^i> \

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 suffer
ings : the Sariour prays as if in his agony on the mount ; near him
Ues the instrument of his flagellation ; 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 scep
tre to Christ, whora he hails in derision as King of the Jews.
The three following 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 con
tributing 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 fioor 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 himseK. The same "colour"
* The Latin title of the work is as follows : " Passio Domini nostri Jesu,
ex Hieronymo Paduano, Dorainico Mancino, Sedulio, et Baptista Mantuana, per
fratrem Chelidoniura coUecta, cum figuris Alberti Dureri Norici Pictoris."

300 WOOD ENGRAVING
might be produced by single Unes 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 fiame of the table.

The next cut frora the Passion, Christ bearing his Cross, is
highly characteristic of Durer's style; and the original is one of
the best of aU the wood engravings which bear his mark. The
characters introduced are such as he was fondest of drawmg ; and
most of the heads and figures raay be recognised in several other
engravings either executed by himseK on copper or by others on
wood from his designs.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 301
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 least haK a dozen of his subjects ; and the horse
man vrith 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 rignette ; and Simon the Cyrenian, 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

302

WOOD ENGRAVING

dovm vrith the weight of the cross, is weU drawn, and his face
is strongly expressive of sorrow. Behind Simon the Cyrenian
are the Virgin and St John; and under the gateway a man with
a haggard risage is perceived carrying a ladder vrith his head be
tween the steps. The artisf s mark is at the bottom of the cut
The subject of the following cut from Christ's Passion represents
the descent into heU and the Uberation of the ancestors. The

massive gates of the abode of sin and death have been burst open,
and the banner of the cross waves triuraphant Araong those who
have already been Uberated frora the pit 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 sup-

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 303
ports 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 deraons whose realm is invaded. A horrid monster,
with a head Uke that of a boar surmounted with a horn, aims a blow
at the Redeemer vrith a kind of rude lance ; while another, a hide
ous compound of things that swim, and walk, and fly, sounds a note
of alarm to arouse his kindred flends. On a stone, above the en
trance 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 iUustrations of the Apocalypse,
than in the manner of the rest of the series to which it belongs.
The preceding specimens of wood-cuts from Durer's three 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 avaihng himself of its capabilities. In
Durer's designs on wood we perceive not only raore correct draw
ing and a greater knowledge of coraposition, but also a much more
effective combination of Ught and shade, than are to be found in
any wood-cuts executed before the date of his earhest work, the
Apocalypse, which appeared in 1498. One of the pecuUar ad
vantages of wood engraring is the effect with which strong shades
can be represented ; and of this Durer has generally avaUed him
seK vrith the greatest skill. On comparing his works engraved on
wood with all those preriously executed in the same manner,
we shall find that his figures are not only much better drawn and
more skiKuUy grouped, but that instead of sticking, in hard out
Une, against the back-ground, they stand out vrith the natural
appearance of rotundity. The rules of perspective are more
attentively observed ; the back-grounds better filled ; and a num-
of subordinate objects introduced — such as trees, herbage, flowers,
animals, and children — 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 studied Nature, it was only in
her German dress, — yet their character and expression are gene
raUy appropriate and natural. Though incapable of imparting

304 WOOD ENGRAVING
to sacred subjects the elevated character which is given to them by
Raffaele, his representations are perhaps no less Uke the originals
than those of the great ItaUan master. It is indeed highly pro
bable that Albert Durer's German representatives of saints and
apostles are more Uke the originals than the more dignified ideal
portraits of Raffaele. The latter, from his knowledge of the an
tique, has frequently given to his Jews a character and a costume
borrowed from Grecian art of the age of Phidias; while 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 pubUshed a series of thirty-seven of a
smaller size, also engraved on wood, which Mr. Ottley caUs " The
Fall of Man and his Redemption through Christ," but which
Durer himseK refers to under the title of " The Little Passion."*
All the cuts of the Little Passion, as weU as seventeen of those
of the LKe of the Vfrgin and several other pieces of Durer's,
were imitated on copper by Marc Antonio Raimondi, the cele
brated Italian engraver, who is said to have sold his copies as
the originals. Vasari, in his LKe of Marc Antonio, says that
when Durer was informed of this imitation of his works, he was
highly incensed and he set out directly for Venice, and that on
his arrival there he 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 en
grarings. Though it is by no means unUkely that Durer might apply
to the Venetian government to prevent the sale of spurious copies
* The Latin title of this work is " Passio Christi," and the explanatory verses
are from the pen of Chelidonius. Durer, in the Joumal of his Visit to the
Netherlands, twice menUons 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 published in 1512. " Itera Sebaldt Fischer hat mir zu Antorff
[Antwerp] abkaufft 16 kleiner Passion, pro 4 fl, Mehr 32 grosser Biicher pro
8 fl, Mehr 6 gestochne Passion pro 3 fl,"— " Darnach die drey Bucher unser
Frauen Leben, Apocalypsin, und den grossen Passion, darnach den klein Passion,
und den Passion in Kupffer,"— Albrecht Diirers Reisejournal, in Von Murr,
7er Theii, 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 OtUey's Inquiry, vol. ii. between page 730 aud page 731.

IIJ THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 305
of his works within the bounds of their jurisdiction, yet Vasari's
account of his personally visiting that city for the purpose of
raaking a complaint against Marc Antonio, and of the governraent
having forbid the latter to affix Durer's raark to his engravings in
future, is certainly incorrect. The History of the Virgin, the earli
est of the two works which were alraost entirely copied by Marc
Antonio, was not published before 1510, and there is n^t the
sUghtest eridence of Durer haring re-risited Venice after his
return to Nuremberg about the latter end, of 1506. Bartsch
thinks that Vasari's account of Durer's complaining to the Vene
tian government against Marc Antonio is wholly unfounded ; not
only from the fact of Durer not haring risited Venice subsequent
to 1506, but frora the iraprobabiUty of his applying to a foreign
state to prohibit a stranger from copying his works. Mr. Ottley,
however, — after obserring that Marc Antonio had affixed Durer's
mark to his copies of the seventeen cuts of the Life of the Vir
gin and of sorae other single subjects, but had oraitted 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 MaximiUan, might be enabled through the imperial
ambassador at Venice to lay his complaints before the governraent,
and to obtain the prohibition before stated, may I think readily
be imagined; and it cannot be denied, that the circumstance of
Marc Antonio's haring omitted to affix the raark of Albert to
the copies which 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 Rome 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, Uving in
* Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving, vol. ii. p. 782. The
objections to the general truth of Vasari's story appear to be much stronger than
the presumptions in its favour. 1. The improbability of Albert Durer having visited
Venice subsequent to 1506 ; 2. The fact of Marc Antonio's copies of the cuts of
the Little Passion not containing Albert Durer's mark; and 3. The probability of
Marc Antonio residing beyond the jurisdiction of the Venetian government at the
time of his engraving them, X

306 WOOD ENGRAVING
a state beyond thefr jurisdiction, from affixing Albert Durer's mark
to such engrarings as he might please to copy frem the works of
that master.
Among the more remarkable single subjects engraved on wood
from Durer's designs, the following are most frequently referred to :
God the Father bearing up into heaven the dead body of Christ,
with the date 1511; a Rhinoceros, with the date 1515; a portrait
of Ulrich Varnbuler, with the date 1522 ; a large head of Christ
crowned with thoms, vrithout date ; and the Siege of a fortified town,
vrith the date 1527. In the first of the above naraed cuts, God the
Father wears a kind of tiara like 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 piUar *to which Christ was bound when he
was scourged, the crown of thoms, the sponge dipped in rinegar,
and other embleras of the Passion. At the foot are heads with
puffed-out cheeks intended to represent the wfrids. This cut is
engraved in a clearer and more dehcate style than most of the
other subjects designed by Durer on wood. There are irapressions
of the Rhinoceros, and the portrait of Varnbuler, printed in chiaro
scuro frora three blocks; and there are also other wood-cuts de
signed by Durer executed in the same manner. The large head
of Christ, which is engraved in a coarse though spirited and effec
tive raanner, is placed by Bartsch among the doubtful pieces
ascribed to Durer ; but Mr. Ottley says, " I ara unwUling to deny
to Durer the credit of this admirable and boldly executed produc
tion."* 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 after
wards pasted together. A number of smaU figures are introduced,
and a great extent of country is shown in this cut, which is, however,
* There is a copy of this head, also engraved on wood, of the size of the original,
but without Durer's, or any other raark. 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 1550, " Dieser hat BBehaim gerissen " — " H. S,
Behaim drew this." Hans Sebald Behaim, a painter and designer on wood, was
born at Nureraberg in 1500, and was the pupil of his uncle, also named Behaira, a
painter and engraver of that city. The younger Behaim abandoned the arts to be
corae a tavern-keeper at Frankfort, where he died in 1550.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 307
deficient in effect; and the Uttle figures, though drawn with great
spirit, want rehef, which causes many of them to appear as if they
were ritUng or walking in the air. The most soUd-Uke part of the
subject is the sky ; there is no ground for raost of the figures to stand
on; and those which are in the distance are of the sarae size as
those which are apparently a raile or two nearer the spectator. There
is nothing reraarkable in the execution, and the design adds nothing
to Durer's reputation.
The great patron of wood engraring in the earlier part of the
sixteenth century was the Emperor MaximiUan I, who, — besides
originating the three works, known by the titles of Sir Theurdank,
the Wise King, and the Triuinphs of MaximiUan, 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 engrav
ings, a Triuraphal Car and a "Triuraphal Arch.
The Triumphal Car, engraved by Jerome Resch frora Durer's
drawings on wood, is frequently confounded with the larger work
called the Triuraphs of Maxirailian, raost of the designs of which
were made by Hans Burgmair. It is indeed generally asserted that
all the designs for the latter work were raade by Hans Burgraair ;
but I think I shall be able to show, in a subsequent notice of that
work, that sorae of the cuts contained in the edition published at
Vienna and London in 1796 were, in all probabiUty, 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 Une 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 hira triuraphal wreaths. One of the two wheels which
are seen is inscribed " Magnificentia," and the other "Dignitas;"
the driver of the car is Reason, — " Ratio," — and one of the reins
is marked "Nobilitas," and the other "Potentia." The car is
drawn 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;"
x 2

308 WOOD ENGRAVING
of the second, " Alacritas" and " Opportunitas ;" of the third, « Ve-
locitas" and "Firmitudo;" of the fourth, « Acrimonia" and "Viri-
htas;" of the fifth, "Audacia" and « Magnanimitas;" and the
attendants on the leaders are "Experientia" and « Solertia." Above
each pafr of horses there is a portion of explanatory raatter printed
in letter-press ; and in that above the leading pair is a raandate frora
the Emperor MaxuuiUan, dated Inspruck, 1518, addressed to BUi-
bald Pfrkheuner, who appears to have suggested the subject; and
in the same place is the name of the inventor and designer, Albert
Durer.* The 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, vrith the text in Latin only, was printed at
the same place in the foUovring year. A thfrd edition, from the
same blocks, was printed at Venice in 1588 ; and a fourth at Am
sterdam in 1609. The execution of this subject is not particularly
good, but the action of the horses is generally weU represented,
and the drawing of some of the female figures attending them is
extremely spirited. Guido seems to have avaUed himseK 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 sarae subject painted by Durer himself is stiU
to be seen on the walls of the Tovra-haU of Nureraberg ; but how
far this is correct I am unable to positively say ; for I know of no
account of the painting written by a person who appears to have
been acquainted with the subject engraved on wood. Dr. Dibdin,
who visited the Town-haU of Nuremberg in 1818, speaks of what
he saw there in a most vague and unsatisfiictory manner, as K he
did not know the Triumphal Car designed by Durer from the larger
work entitled the Triuraphs of MaximiUan. The notice of the
leamed bibliographer, who professes to be a great adinfrer of the works
of Albert Durer, is as foUows : " The great boast of the coUection
* In the edition with Latin inscriptions, 1523, are the words, " Excogitatus
et depictus est currus iste Nurembergae, impressus vero per Albertum Durer. Anno
MDxxiii, The Latin words "excogitatus et depictus" are expressed by "oe-
funden und geordnet" in the German inscriptions in the edition of 1522. A sketch
by Durer, for the Triumphal Car, is preserved in the Print Room in the British
Museum.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER, 309
[in the Town-haU 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 pre
ceding that erroneous opinions respecting the Triumphal Car and
the Triumphs of MaximiUan are continued and propagated, and
that raost persons confound the two works;, which is indeed not
surprising, seeing that Dr. Dibdin hiraseK, 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 Maximihan" in the Town-hall of Nurera
berg, Dr. Dibdin says that he saw the "original paintings" from
which the large wood blocks were taken for the well-known work
entitled the " Triumphs qf fhe Emperor Maximilian," in large folio,
in the Imperial Library at Vienna.f Such observations are very
much in the style of the countryman's, who had seen two genuine
skuUs of OUver Cromwell, — one at Oxford, and another in the Bri
tish Museum. Though I have not been able to ascertain satisfac
torily the subject of Durer's painting in the Town-hall of Nurem
berg, I am inclined to think that it is the Triumphal Car of
Maxirailian. In a memorandum in the hand-writing of Nollekins,
preserved with his copies of Durer's Triuraphal Car and Triumphal
Arch of Maximilian, in the Print Room of the British Museum, it
is said, though erroneously, that the former is painted in the Town-
hall 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 joined together, forra one large composition about
ten feet and a haK high by nine and a half wide, exclusive of
the margins and five folio sheets of explanatory raatter by the
projector of the design, John Stabius, who styles himseK the
historiographer and poet of the emperor, and who says, at the
coraraenceraent of his description, that this arch was drawn " after
the raanner of those erected in honour of the Roraan eraperors
at Rorae, some of which are destroyed and others still to be
seen." In the Arch of MaximiUan are three gates or entrances ;
that in 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
• Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii.p, 438. Edit, 1829. f Ibid. p. 330.

310 WOOD ENGRAVING
of Nobility.* Above the middle entrance is what Stabius caUs the
" grand tower," surmounted vrith the unperial crown, and contain
ing an inscription in German to the raemory of MaximiUan. Above
and on each side of the gates or entrances, which are of very small
diraensions, are portraits of the Roman eraperors from the time of
Julius Caesar to that of MaximiUan himseK; there are also portraits
of his ancestors, and of kings and princes with whom he was allied
either by friendship or marriage ; shields of arms Ulustrative of his
descent or of the extent of his sovereignty ; with representations of
his most raeraorable actions, araong which his adventures in the
Tyrolean Alps, when hunting the chamois, are not forgotten. Un
derneath each subject iUustrative of his own history are expla
natory verses, in the German language, engraved on wood; and
the names of the kings and emperors, as weU as the inscriptions
explanatory of other parts of the subject, are also executed in
the sarae raanner. The whole subject is, in fact, a kind of pictorial
epitome of the history of the German erapire ; representing the suc
cession of the Roraan eraperors, and the raore reraarkable events
of Maximilian's own reign ; with illustrations of his descent, pos
sessions, and alUances.
At the time of MaximiUan's death, which happened in 1519,
this great work was not finished ; and it is said that Durer hira
seK did not Uve to see it corapleted, as one smaU block remained
to be engraved at the period of his death, in 1528. At whatever
tirae the work raight be finished, it certainly was commenced at
least four years before the emperor's death, for the date^l515
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
Uttle 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 of Durer's addressed to a friend, requesting him to apply
* The two last naraes 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," The last narae alludes to the eraperor's possessions as acquired
by descent or marriage, and to his power as strengthened by his friendly aUiances
with neighbouring states.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER, 311
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 Uttle doubt but
that this was the work to which he alludes.
As a work of art the best single subjects of the Triumphal
Arch vrill not bear a comparison with the best cuts in Durer's
Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, or Christ's Passion ; and
there are several in which no trace of his effective style of draw
ing on wood is to be found. Most of the subjects illustrative
of the emperor's battles and adventures are in particular raeagre
in point of drawing, and deficient in effect The whole com
position indeed appears like the result of continued application
without much display of talent The powers of Durer had been
evidently constrained to work out the conceptions of the histo
riographer and poet, Stabius; and as the subjects were not the
suggestions of the artist's own feeUngs, it cannot be a matter
of surprise that we should find in them so few traces of his
genius. The engraring of the cuts is clear, but not generally
effective ; and the execution of the whole, both figures and letters,
would occupy a single wood engraver not less than four years;
even aUovring him to engrave more rapidly on pear-tree than a
modern wood engraver does on box ; and supposing him to be a
master of his profession.
From his varied talents and the excellence which he displayed
in every branch of art that he atterapted, 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 ; while
for his fidelity 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 excelled all who
* " Item wist auch das Ich K. Mt. ausserhalb des Tryumps sonst viel mancher-
ley Fisyrung gemacht 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 inforras his friend that he had been already three years
employed for the emperor, and that if he had not exerted hiraself the beautiful
"work" would not have been so soon completed. If this is to be understood
of the Triumphal Arch, it would seera that the designs at least were all finished
before the emperor's death. — Von Murr, Journal, 9er Theii, S. 4.

312 WOOD ENGRAVING
preceded him; and it is highly questionable if any artist since
his tirae, except Rembrandt, has painted so many good pictures
and engraved so many good copper-plates. But besides exceUing
as an engraver on copper after the manner in which the art had
been preriously practised, giring to his subjects a breadth of light
and a depth of shade which is not to be found in the productions
of the earUer masters, he further improved the art by the inven
tion of etching,* which enables the artist to work with greater free
dom and to give a variety and an effect to his subjects, more espe
cially landscapes, which are utterly unattainable by means of the
graver alone.
There are two subjects by Albert Durer, dated 1512, which
Bartsch thinks 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 vrith 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 etching by Durer, re
presenting naked figures in a bath; but it contains neither his
mark nor a date. The three pieces which Mr. Ottiey thinks were
not etched, but executed on some soft kind of metal with the dry-

^ • In the process of etching the plate is first covered vrith a resinous com
position — called etching ground — on which the Unes intended to be etched, or bit
into the plate, are drawn through to the surface of the metal by raeans of a smaU
pointed tool called an etching needle, or an etching point. When the drawing of
tbe subject upon the etching ground is finished, the plate is surrounded with a
slightly raised border, or " wall," as it is technically termed, formed of rosin, bee's-
wax, and lard ; and, a corrosive liquid being poured upon the plate, the lines are
" bit" into the copper or steel. When the engraver thinks that the lines 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 dry-point.
According to the practice of modern engi-avers, where several tints are required, as
is most frequently the case, the process of "biting-in" is repeated ; the corrosive
Uquid being again poured on the plate to corrode deeper the sti-onger lines, while
the more delicate are " stopped out,"— that is, covered with a kind of varnish that
soon hardens, to preserve them from further corrosion. Most of our best engravers
now use a diamond point in etching. .ATiVroi/s 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 acid
it is advisable to take the stopper out of the bottle for twenty-four houi-s in order to

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 313
point, are : 1. The figure of Christ, seen in front, standing, clothed
vrith a mantle, haring his hands tied together, and on his head a
crown of thorns; date 1512. 2. St. Jerome seated araongst rocks,
praying to a crucifix, 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 ; without mark or date. —
One of the more coraraon of Durer's undoubted etchings is that of a
raan raounted on a unicorn, and carrying off a naked woman, with
the date 1516.
Albert Durer not only excelled as a painter, an engraver on cop
per, and a designer on wood, but he also executed several pieces of
sculpture with surprising deUcacy and natural expression of charac
ter. An admirable specimen of his skill in this department of art is
preserved in the British Museum, to which institution it was be
queathed by the late R. Payne Knight, Esq. by whora it was pur
chased at Brussels for five hundred guineas upwards of forty years
ago. This most exquisite piece of sculpture is of small dimensions,
being only seven and three quarter inches high, by five and a half
wide. It is executed in hone-stone, of a creara colour, and is all of
one piece, vrith the exception of a dog and one or two books in
allow a portion of the strength to evaporate. During the process of biting-in a
large copper-plate the fumes which arise are so powerful as frequently to cause an
unpleasant stricture in the throat, and sometimes to bring on a spitting of blood
when they have been incautiously inhaled by the engraver. At such tiraes it is
usual for the engraver to have near him some powerful essence, generaUy hartshorn,
in order to counteract the effects of the noxious vapour. For biting-in on steel,
nitric acid is used in the proportion of thirty drops to half a pint of distilled
water ; and the mixture is never used for more than one plate, — When a copper-
plate is sufliciently bit-in, it is ouly necessary to wash it with a little water previous
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 wall or other
support, and to blow it with a pair of small bellows tiU 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 spoiled. Previous to a steel plate being laid aside for any length of tirae
it ought to be warmed, and the engraved surface rubbed carefully over with virgin
wax so that it may be completely covered, and every line filled, A piece of thick
paper the size of the plate, laid over the wax while it is yet adhesive, will prove an
additional safeguard. For this information "respecting the process of biting-in, the
writer is indebted to an eminent engraver, Mr, J. T, WUmore,

314 WOOD ENGRAVING
front. The subject is the naming of John the Baptist* In front,
to the right, is an old raan with a tablet inscribed vrith Hebrew cha
racters ; another old raan is seen imraediately 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 EUzabeth 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 exe
cuted in high rehef, and the character and expression of the heads
have perhaps never been surpassed in any work of sculpture exe
cuted on the same scale. Durer's mark is perceived on a tablet at
the foot ofthe bed, with the date 1510. This curious specimen of
Durer's talents as a sculptor is carefully preserved in a frame vrith
a glass before it, and is in most perfect condition, vrith the excep
tion of the hands of Zacharias and of Ehzabeth, some of the fingers
of which are broken off.
Shortly after Whitsuntide, 1520, Durer set out frora Nuremberg,
accompanied by his wife and her servant Susanna, on a risit to the
Netherlands ; and as he took with hira several copies of his princi
pal works, engravings on copper as well as on wood, and painted
and drew a number of portraits during his residence there, the jour
ney appears to have been taken as much vrith a riew to business as
pleasure. He kept a joumal frora the time of his learing Nurem
berg till the period of his reaching Cologne on his return, and from
this curious record of the artist's travels the following partictUars of
his risit to the Netherlands have been obtained.f
Durer proceeded frora Nuremberg direct to Bamberg, where he
presented to the bishop a painting of the Virgin, with a copy of the
* The account of the naming of John the Baptist will be found in St, Luke's
Gospel, chap. i. verse 59 — 64.
¦)¦ Durer's Journal of his Travels is given by Von Murr, 7er Theii, S. 55 — 98.
The title which the Editor has prefixed to it is, " Reisejournal Albrecht Diirers von
seiner niederlandischen Reise, 1520 und 1521, E Bibliotheca 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

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 315
Apocalypse and the Life of the Virgin engraved on wood. The
bishop invited Durer to his table, and gave him a letter exempting
his goods frora toll, with three others which were, raost Ukely,
letters of recommendation to persons of influence in the Nether
lands.* From Bamberg, Durer proceeded by wayof Eltraan, Swein-
furth, and Frankfort to Mentz, and from the latter city down the
Rhine to Cologne. In this part of his journey he seems to have
met vrith little which he deemed worthy of remark : at Sweinfurth
Dr. Rebart made hira a present of some wine; at Mentz, Peter
Goldsmith's landlady presented him with two flasks of the sarae
Uquor ; and when Veit Varnbuler invited him to dinner there, the
tavern-keeper would not receive any payment, but insisted on being
Durer's host himseK. At Lohnstein, on the Rhine, between Bop-
part and Coblentz, the toll-coUector, who was well acquainted with
Durer's wife, presented him with a can of wine, and expressed hira
seK extremely glad to see him.
Frora Cologne, Durer proceeded direct to Antwerp, where he
took up his abode in the house of " Jobst Planckfelt;" and on the
evening of his arrivalf he was invited to a splendid supper by Ber
nard Stecher, an agent of the Fuggers, the celebrated faraily of,
merchants of Nuremberg, and the raost wealthy in Germany. On
St. Oswald's day, Sunday, 5th August, the Painters' Corapany of
Antwerp invited Durer, with his wKe and her raaid,J to a grand
" Du aller Engel Spiegel und Erlosser der Welt,
Deine grosse Marter sey fiir mein Siind ein Widergelt,"
Thou mirror for all Angels and Redeemer of raankind.
Through thy martyrdom, for all my sins may I a ransora find.
This couplet being ridiculed by Bilibald Pirkheimer, who said that rhyming verses
ought not to consist of more than eight syllables, Durer wrote several others in a
shorter raeasure, but with no better success ; for he says at the conclusion, that
they did not please the learned counsellor. With Durer's rhyraes there is an
epistle in verse from his friend Lazarus Sprengel, written to dissuade hira frora
attempting to become a poet, Durer's verses want " the right butter-woman's trot
to market," and are sadly deficient in rhythm when corapared with the more regu
lar clink of his friend's,
• Subsequently, Durer mentions having delivered to the Margrave John, at
Brussels, a letter of recomraendation [Fiirderbrief] frora the bishop of Bamberg,
f As Durer was at Cologne about 26th July, it is probable that he would arrive
at Antwerp about the last day of that month.
t The maid, Susanna, seems to have been rather a " hurable friend " than a
menial servant; for she is mentioned in another part ofthe Journal as being enter-

316 WOOD ENGRAVING
entertainment in their hall, which was ornamented in a splendid
manner, and all 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 " all the company stood up on each side, as
if some great lord had been making his entrance." Several honour
able persons, who had also been invited, bowed to hira; and all
expressed their respect and their vnshes to afford hira 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 thefr
respect and their good-will towards him. Durer, as in duty bound,
retumed 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 compliraented hira with the offer of his
services. After the party had enjoyed theraselves cheerfully tiU late
in the night, they attended Durer to his lodgings with torches in a
most honourable manner, expressing their good-vriU towards him, and
their readiness to assist hira in whatever manner he might choose. —
Shortiy after this grand FeUowship-feast, Durer was entertained
by Quintin Matsys, — frequently caUed the Blacksraith of Antwerp,
— whose celebrated picture of the Misers is now in the Royal Col
lection at Windsor.
On the Sunday after the Assuraption,* 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 religious pa
geantries that it appears worthy of being translated without abridge-
raent. " 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
well as trades-people, each, according to his rank, gayly dressed.
Every class and fellowship was distinguished by its proper badge ;
and large and valuable crosses were borne before several of the
crafts. There were also silver trumpets of the old Prankish .
tained with Durer's wife at the house of " Tomasin Florianus," whora Durer de
scribes as " Romanus, von Luca biirtig."
** The Assumption of the Virgin is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church on
15th August.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 317
fashion ; with German drums and fifes playing loudly. I also saw
in the street, marching after each other in rank, at a certain dis
tance, the Goldsmiths, the Painters, the Masons, the Embroiderers,
the Statuaries, the Cabinet-makers, the Carpenters, the Sailors,
the Fishermen, the Butchers, the Curriers, the Weavers, the
Bakers, the Tailors, the Shoemakers, and all kinds of craftsmen
vrith labourers engaged in producing the necessaries of Ufe. In
the same manner came the Shopkeepers and 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 carae the City Guard. These were followed by persons of
the higher classes and the raagistrates, all dressed in their proper
habits; and after them came a gallan^ 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,
aU clothed in white from head to foot, and forming a very pleasing
sight. After them came a number of gallant persons and the
canons of our Lady's church, with all the clergy and scholars, fol
lowed 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 delightful things, repre
sented in a splendid manner. There were several waggons in
which were representations of ships and fortifications. Then carae
a troop of characters frora the Prophets in regular order, followed
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 Fhght into Egypt, all very skiKuUy appointed.
Then carae a great dragon, and St. Margaret, with the image of the
Vfrgin at her girdle, exceedingly beautiful; 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 thera all even in a book." *
Though Durer chiefly resided at Antwerp during his stay in the
Netherlands, he did not entirely confine hiraself to that city, but
occasionally visited other places. On the 2nd of Septeraber 1520,
* Albrecht Durers Reisejournal, in Von Murr, 7er TheU, S, 63—65^

318 WOOD ENGRAVING
he left Antwerp for Brussels, proceeding by way of Malines and
Vilvorde. When at Brussels, he saw a number of valuable curiosi
ties 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 sarae size, with weapons, armour, and dresses, and various other
admirable things of great beauty and cost He says that thefr
value was estimated at a hundred thousand guilders ; and that he
never saw any thing that pleased him so much ui his IKe. Durer
was evidently fond of seeing sights : he speaks with deUght of the
fountains, the labyrinths, and the parks in the neighbourhood of the
Royal Palace, which he says were Uke 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 " cent
ner ;"* a great bed that would hold fifty raen ; and a stone which
fell 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 Ravenspurg
compliraented him with a monkey; and " Signor Roderigo," a Por
tuguese, presented his ill-tempered spouse with a green parrot
When at Brussels, Durer painted the portrait of the celebrated
Erasmus, from whom, previous to leaving Antwerp, he had received
as a present a Spanish raantle and three portraits. He reraained
about a week at Brussels, during which tirae he drew or painted
seven portraits ; and in his Journal he raakes the following raerao-
randura : " Itera, six persons whose hkenesses 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 Raffaele, 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 Brussels, Durer
bought for a stiver f two copies of the " Eulenspiegel," a cele-
• "This gross Fischpein" was probably part ofthe back-bone of a whale,
t The stiver was the twenty-fourth part of a guilder or florin of gold, which was
equal to about nine shillings English raoney 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 large 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 LitUe Passion for four

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 319
brated engraring by Lucas Van Leyden, now of very great
rarity. After reraaining at Antwerp till the latter end of September,
Durer proceeded to Aix-la-Chapelle, where, on the 23rd of October,
he witnessed the coronation of the Emperor Charles V. He after
wards proceeded to Cologne, where, on the Sunday after All Saints'
day, he saw a grand banquet and dance given by the emperor, from
whora, on the Monday after Martinmas day, he received the appoint
ment of court-painter to his Imperial majesty. When at Cologne,
Durer bought a copy of the " Condemnation of that good man, Mar
tin 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 1520. In a day or two after receiring his
appointment, Durer left Cologne and proceeded down the Rhine,
and risited Nimeguen. He then went to Bois-le-duc, where he
was entertained by Arnold de Beer, a painter of considerable repu
tation in his day, and treated with great respect by the goldsmiths
of the place. On the Thursday after the Presentation of the Vir
gin,* — 21st Noveraber, — Durer again arrived at Antwerp. "In
the seven weeks and upwards that I was absent," he writes in
his Joumal, " my wife and her maid spent seven gold crowns. The
first had her pocket cut off in St. Mary's church on St. Mary's
day ; there were two guilders in it."
On the 3rd of December, Durer left Antwerp on a short journey
through Zealand, proceeding by way of Bergen-op-Zoora. In the
Abbey at Middleburg he saw the great picture of the Descent frora
the Cross by Mabeuse ; of which he reraarks that "it is better, paint
ed than drawn." When he was about to land at Armuyden, a sraall
guilders or florins; and thirty-two copies ofhis larger works, — probably the Apoca
lypse, the History ofthe 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 sarae price. He gave to his host a painting of the
Virgin on canvass to sell for two Rhenish florins. The sum that lie received for
each portrait in pencil, [mit Kohln] when the parties did pay, appears to have been
a florin, * In Von Murr the words are " Ara Donnerstage nach Marien Himmelfahrt,"
— On the Thursday after the Assumption of the Virgin. But this is evidently incor
rect, the feast of the Assumption being kept on 15th August, The " Marien Opfe-
rung" — the Presentation of the Virgin — which is commemorated on 21st No-
vembei', is evidently raeant.

320 WOOD ENGRAVING
town 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 thefr assistance, and
brought all the passengers safely ashore. On the Friday after St
Lucia's day he again returned to Antwerp, after haring been absent
about twelve days.
On Shrove Tuesday, 1521, the company of goldsmiths invited
Durer and his vrife 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 invited 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 giulders 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 festivity, but drew several portraits in penciL
He also made a drawing for " Tomasin," and a painting of St. Jerome
for Roderigo of Portugal, who appears to have been one of the most
Uberal of all Durer's Antwerp friends. Besides the Uttle green
parrot which he gave his vrife, he also presented Durer with one for
hiraself; he also gave hira a sraall cask of corafits, with various
other sweetmeats, and specimens of the sugar-cane. He also raade
hira. a present of cocoa-nuts and of several other things ; and shortly
before the painting was finished, Signor Roderigo gave him two
large pieces of Portuguese gold coin, each of which was worth ten
ducats. On the Saturday after Easter, Durer risited 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 by John Van Eyck ; he also men
tions having seen, in St Mary's church, an image of the Virgin in
alabaster by Michael Angelo. The guild of painters invited 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, all 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

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 321
with great respect He there saw, in St John's church, the cele
brated picture of the Elders worshipping the Lamb, from the
Revelations, painted by John Van Eyck for PhiUp the Good, Duke
of Burgundy. Durer thus expresses his opinion of it : " This is a
well 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 accom
panied with a riolent head-ache and great sense of weariness. This
illness, however, does not seem to have lasted very long ; his fe
ver comraenced in the third week after Easter, and on Rogation
Sunday he attended the marriage feast of " Meister Joachim," —
probably Joachim Patenier, a landscape painter whora Durer men
tions in an earUer part of his Journal.
Durer was a man of strong religious feeUngs ; and when Luther
began to preach in opposition to the church of Rorae, he warmly es
poused his cause. The following passages from his Journal sufficient
ly demonstrate the interest which he felt in the success of the great
champion of the Reformation. 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
arraed raen, who caused hira to descend frora the light waggon in
which he was travelhng, and to follow thera into an adjacent wood.
His brother Jaraes, who was in the waggon with hira, made his es
cape on the first appearance of the horsemen. Luther having been
secured, the driver and others who were in the waggon were
allowed to pursue their joumey without further hindrance. This
secret apprehension of Luther was, in reahty, contrived by his
friend and supporter Frederick, Elector of Saxony,* in order to
withdraw hira for a tirae from the apprehended riolence of his
* Luther's safe-conduct from Worms to Wittenberg was liraited to twenty-one
days, at the expiration 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 to leaving Worms, was inforraed of the
elector's intention of secretly apprehending him on the road aud conveying hira
to a place of safety. After getting into the wood, Luther was mounted on horse
back, and conveyed to Wartburg, a castle belonging to the elector, where he con
tinued to live disguised as a knight — Junker Jorge — tUl March 1522, Luther was
accustomed to call the castle of Wartburg his Patmos. Y

322 WOOD ENGRAVING
eneraies, whose hatred towards hira had been more than ever
inflamed by the bold and undisguised 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 dis
regarded by those whose duty it was to respect it, and that he
had been betrayed and dehvered into the hands of his eneraies.
Durer, on hearing of Luther's apprehension, writes in his Joumal
as follows.
" On the Friday after Whitsuntide, 1521, I heard a report at
Antwerp, that Martin Luther had been treacherously seized ; for
the herald of the Eraperor Charles, who attended him vrith d, safe-
conduct, and to whose protection he was committed, on arriring
at a lonely place near Eisenach, said he durst proceed no further,
and rode away. Iramediately ten horseraen made thefr appear
ance, and carried off the godly man thus betrayed into thefr hands.
He was indeed a man enUghtened by the Holy Ghost, and a
follower of the true Christian faith. Whether he be yet Uring,
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 Uberty vrith the incumbrance of
human ordinances, that we may be robbed of the price of our
blood and sweat, and shamefully plundered by idlers, whUe the
sick and needy perish through hunger. Above aU, it is especiaUy
distressing to me to think that God may yet allow us to remain
under the blind doctrine which those raen called ' 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
* Durer, though an advocate of Luther, does not seera to have withdrawn him
self frora the communion of the Church of Rome. In his Journal, in 1521, he
enters a sura 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 occurs is curious, and seems to prove that female practitioners were
then accustomed both to dispense and administer medical preparations at Antwerp,
" Meine Frau ward krank, — der Apothekerinn fiir Klystiren gegeben 14 Stiiber;
dem Monch, der sie besuchte, 8 Stiiber." — Von Murr, Journal, 7er Theii, S. 93,

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 323
the work frora which he beUeved that Luther had been removed.
" And is Luther dead ? Who henceforward wiU so clearly ex
plain to us the Gospel ? Alas ! what might he not have written
for us in ten or twenty years? Aid me, all pious Christians, to
bewail this man of heavenly raind, and to pray that God may send
us another as divinely enhghtened. Where, O Erasmus, wilt thou
remain ? Behold, now, how the tyranny of might and the power
of darkness prevail. Hear, thou champion of Christ ! Ride for
ward, defend the truth, and deserve the martyr's crown, for thou
art already an old raan,* I have heard frora thy own mouth that
thou hast aUotted to thyseK two years yet of labour in which
thou mightst still be able to produce something good : employ
these well, for the benefit of the Gospel and the true Christian
faith : let then thy voice be heard, and so shall not the see of
Rome, the gates of Hell, as Christ saith, prevail against thee.
And though, Uke thy master, thou shouldst bear the scorn of the
Uars, and even die a short time earUer than thou otherwise
mightst, yet wilt thou therefore pass earlier from death unto
eternal hfe and be glorified through Christ. If thou drinkest of
the cup of which he drank, so wilt thou reign with him and
pronounce judgment on those who have acted unrighteously."f
• 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 bist doch sonst ein altes Menniken," Literally : For thou art already an old
mannikin. 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 Ue that
way," and he had as little taste for martyrdom as he had for fish. — In one or
two other passages in Durer's Joumal there is an allusion to the diminutive stature
of Erasraus.
t Von Murr, Journal, 7er Theii, S. 88—93. In volurae X, p. 41 , Von Murr
gives from Peucer, the son-in-law of Melancthon, the foUowing anecdote : " Me-
lancthon, when at Nureraberg, on church and university affairs, was much in the
society of Pirkheiraer ; and Albert Durer, the painter, an intelligent man, whose
least merit, as Melancthon used to say, was his art, was frequently orie of the
party. Between Pirkheiraer and Durer there were frequent disputes respecting
the recent [religious] contest, in which Durer, as he was a man of strong mind, vigo
rously opposed Pirkheimer, and refuted his arguments as if he had corae 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 coraprehended." — Whatever might have been
Y 2

324 WOOD ENGRAVING
About this time a large wood-cut, of which the foUovring is
a reduced copy, was published; and though the satire which
it contains will apply equally 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 doctrine through the
inspiration of the father of lies. 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 skilful fingering causing the nose,
elongated in the form of a « chanter," to discourse sweet music
The preaching friars of former tiraes were no less celebrated
for their nasal melody than the "saints" in the days of Cromwell.
the particular points in dispute between the two friends, Pirkheimer, as well as
Durer, was a supporter of the doctrines of Luther.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 325
A serious portrait of Luther, probably engraved or drawn on wood
by Hans Baldung Griin, a pupil of Durer, was also published in
1521. It is printed in a quarto tract, entitled, "Acta et Res
gestae D. Martini Lutheri in ComitUs Principum Vuorraaciae,
Anno MDXxi," and also in a tract, written by Luther hiraself in
answer to Jerome Eraser, without date, but probably printed at
Wittenberg about 1523. In this portrait, which bears consider
able reserablance to the head forraing the bag of Satan's pipe,
Luther appears as K 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 forra of a dove,
appears as if about to settle on his shaven crown. In an im
pression now before rae, sorae one, apparently a conteraporary, 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 supposed to
be appropriate to the regions of darkness, and which are generally
to be seen in paintings and engravings of the teraptation of St.
Anthony. A week after Corpus Christi day* Durer left Antwerp for
MaUnes, 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, called
Civetta by the Italians from the owl which he painted as a raark
in most of his pictures; and the painters and statuaries, a's at
Antwerp and other places, invited hira to an entertainment and
treated hira with great respect He waited on the archduchess and
showed her his portrait of the eraperor, 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
• Corpus Christi day is a moveable festival, and is celebrated on the first
Thursday after Trinity Sunday.

326 WOOD ENGRAVING
nearly equal to his own. Durer's brief notice of his talented con
temporary is as follows : " Received an invitation from Master
Lucas, who engraves on copper. He is a little man, and a
native of Leyden in Holland." Subsequently he mentions haring
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
raade since his retum from Malines to Antwerp, thus speaks of the
manner in which he was rewarded : " In aU my transactions in the
Netherlands — for my paintings, dravrings, and in disposing of my
works — both with high and low I have had the disadvantage.
The Lady Margaret, especiaUy, for all that I have given her and
done for her, has not made me the least recompense."
Durer now began to make preparations for his retum horae. He
engaged a waggoner to take hira and his wife to Cologne ; he
exchanged a portrait of the emperor for some white EngUsh cloth ;
and, on 1st July, he borrowed of Alexander Imhoff a hundred gold
guilders 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 resi
dence there. On the 2nd July, when he was about to leave An
twerp, the King of Denmark, Christian II, who had recently arrived
in Flanders, sent for him to take his portrait He first drew his
majesty with black chalk — mit der Kohln — and afterwards went
with him to Brussels, where he appears to have painted his portrait
in oil colours, and for which he received thirty florins. At Brussels,
on the Sunday before St. Margaret's Day,* the King of Denmark
gave a grand banquet to the Emperor and the Archduchess Marga
ret, to which Durer had the honour of being inrited, and failed not
to attend. On the following Friday he left Brussels to return to
Nureraberg, proceeding by way of Aix-la-Chapelle to Cologne.
Out of a variety of other matters which Durer has mentioned
in his Joumal, the following — which could not be conveniently
given in chronological order in the preceding abstract — may not,
perhaps, be wholly uninteresting. He painted a portrait of one
Nicholas, an astronomer, who was in the service of the King of
• St. Margaret's day is the 20th July.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 327
England, and who was of great service to Durer on several occa
sions.* He gave one florin and eight stivers for wood, but
whether for dravring on, or for fuel, is uncertain. He only men
tions haring raade two drawings on wood during his residence in
the Low Countries, and both were of the arraa of Von Rogendorff,
noticed at page 286. In one of those instances, he distinctly says
that he raade the drawing, " das mans schneiden mag" — that it may
be engraved. The word "mans" clearly shows that it was to
be engraved by another person. — He mentions that sinee Raffaele's
death his works are dispersed — "verzogen," — and that one of that
master's pupils, by name " Thomas Polonier," had called on him
and made him a present of an antique ring. In a subsequent
passage he calls this person " Thomas Polonius," and says that
he had given him a set of his works to be sent to Rome and
exchanged for " Raphaelische Sache" — things by Raffaele.
It has been said, though without sufficient authority, that
Durer, weary of a home where he was made miserable by his bad-
tempered, avaricious wife, left Nuremberg, and risited the Low
Countries alone for the purpose of avoiding her constant annoyance.
There is, however, ho evidence of Durer's risiting the Low Coun
tries previous to 1520, when he was accompanied by his wife; nor
is there any authentic record of his ever again risiting Flanders sub
sequent to the latter end of August 1521, when he left Brussels
to return to Nureipberg. In 1522, Durer published the first
edition of the Triumphal Car of the Emperor MaximiUan, 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 ofhis friend Ulrich Varnbuler, f — mentioned
at page 306, — and is of large size, being about seventeen inches
• Durer says that this astronomer was a German, and a native of Munich.
f Ulrich Varnbuler was subsequenUy the chancellor of the Emperor Ferdinand
I. Durer mentions him in a letter addressed to " Hernn Frey in Zurich,'' and
dated frora Nuremberg 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 stUl preserved in the Public 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
Countries "until 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,"

328

WOOD ENGRAVING

high by twelve and three-fourths wide. The head is fuU of cha
racter, and the engraving is adrairably executed. Frora 1522 to
1528, the year of Durer's death, he seems to have alraost en
tirely 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 own arms dated 1523 ; his own portrait dated
1527 ; and the siege of a fortified city, previously noticed at page
306, also dated 1527. The following 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 man
ner of the Lucys of our own country, who bore three luces,* or pikes
— fish, not weapons — argent, in their coat of arms.
The last of Durer's engravings on copper is a portrait of Me-

* It is supposed that Shakspeare, in alluding to the " dozen white luces" in
Master Shallow's coat of arms, — Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I, — intended to
ridicule Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, Wiltshire, before whom he is said to have
been brought in his youth on a charge of deer-stealing.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.
lancthon, dated 1526, the year in which the meek and learned refor
mer visited Nuremberg. The following 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 it bears a
great resemblance to the portrait said to be intended for Durer's
own in his carving of the naming of St John, of which some account
is given at page 313. 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 Durers Coiderfeyt" — Albert
Durer's portrait. It would seem that the block had been pre
served for many years subsequent to the date, for I have now
before rae an irapression, on coraparatively modern paper, from
which it is evident that at the time of its being taken, the block
— or according to Mr. John Landseer, the vegetable puffy, for it

330 WOOD ENGRAVING
contains a good deal of cross-hatching — 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 with the Rule and Compass ; and On the Proportions
of the Human Body.* They were all published at Nuremberg
with illustrative wood-cuts ; the first in 1527, and the other two
in 1528. It is to the latter work that Hogarth aUudes, in his Ana
lysis of Beauty, when he speaks of Albert Durer, Lamozzo, and
others, having " puzzled mankind with a heap of minute unneces
sary divisions" in their rules for correctly drawing the human
figure. After a Ufe 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 April 1528, in the
fifty-seventh year of his age. His wife's wretched temper had un
questionably rendered the latter years of his hfe very unhappy, and
in her eagerness to obtain money she appears to have urged her
husband to what seems raore Uke 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 admonitory knock against the ceiling whenever she
suspected that he was " not getting forward with his work." The
following extracts from a letter, written by Bilibald Pfrkheimer
shortly after Durer's death, will show that coraraon farae has not
greatly beUed this heartless, selfish woman, in ascribing, in a great
measure, her husband's death to the daily vexation wbich 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
* Etliche Underricht zu Befestigung der Stett, Schloss, und Flecken ; Under-
weysung der Messung mit der Zirckel und Richtscheyt; Bucher von Menschlicher
Proportion. All in folio. 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 collection of
Durer's writings was published by J. Jansen, 1604. Though Durer, as an author,
seeras to have a better right to a place in Jocher's AUgemeines Gelehrten Lexicon
than many whose names are to be found there, yet he i^ neither noticed in that
work nor in Adelung's Supplement.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 331
passages relating to Durer in Pirkheimer's letter are to the follow
ing effect*
" I have indeed lost in Albert one of the best friends I had on
earth; and nothing pains rae raore than the thought of his death
haring been so melancholy, which, next to the will of Proridence,
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, raoreover, 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 Ufe, and leave it to her ; she was
content to live despised, as she does still, provided Albert might
leave her six thousand guilders. But she cannot 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 con
duct, and warned her what the consequences would be, but have
only met vrith reproach. To the friends and sincere well-vrishers
of Albert she was sure to be the enemy ; while such conduct was
to him a cause of exceeding grief, and contributed to bring hira to,
the grave. I have not seen her since his death; she will have
nothing to say to me, although I have on many occasions rendered
her great service. Whoever contradicts her, or gives not way to
her in all things, is sure to incur her enmity ; I am, therefore, better
pleased that she should keep herself away. She and her sister are
not indeed woraen of loose character ; but, on the contrary, are, as
I believe, of honest reputation and religious ; one would, however,
rather have one of the other kind who otherwise conducts herself
in a pleasant raanner, 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 vriU be gracious and merciful to Albert, for his life was
that of a pious and righteous man. As he died Uke a good Chris
tian, we raay have Uttle doubt of his salvation. God grant us grace,
and that in his own good tirae we may happily follow Albert."
* This letter is addressed to "Johann Tscherte," an architect residing at Vienna,
the mutual friend of Pirkheimer and Durer, — Von Murr, Journal, lOer Tlieil,
S. 36,

332 WOOD ENGRAVING
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 little known, to increase his reputation.
Many persons on looking over the wood engrarings which bear his
mark have thought but meanly of their execution ; and have con
cluded that his abihties 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 Viaci,
Michael Angelo, and Raffaele, — and by judging of his engrarings
with reference to the productions of modem art, in which the free
dom and effect of etching are combined vrith 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 prin
cipally the aim of the three great ItaUan masters above-mentioned,
he has produced rauch that is beautiful, natural, and interesting ;
and which, though it raay not stand so high in the scale of art as
the grand corapositions 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 thefrs, was of
greater extent and afforded greater variety. If they have left, us
more sublime conceptions of past and future events, Durer has
transmitted to us more faithful pictures of the characters, man
ners, and costume of his own times. Let those who are inclined to
depreciate his engravings on copper, as dry and meagre when com
pared with the productions of modem 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 engravings as Durer's Adam and Eve, St Jerome seated
in his chamber writing, and the subject entitled Melancoha.* Let
• Those three engravings are respectively numbered 1, 60, and 67 in Bartsch's
list of Durer's works in his Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. The Adam and Eve is
nine inches and three-fourths high by seven inches and a half wide, — date 1504 ;

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 333
it also not be forgotten that to Albert Durer we owe the discovery
of etching ; a branch of the art which gives to raodern engravers,
raore especially in landscape, so great an advantage over the origi
nal inventor. Looking impartially 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 farae is
afforded by the esteera in which his works have been held for three
centuries by nearly all persons who have had opportunities of see
ing them, except such as have, upon narrow principles, formed an
exclusive theory with respect to excellence in art With such
authorities 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 gen
tleman's dove-cot should be a fac-siraile of the lantern of Deraos-
thenes ; the sign of the Angel at a country inn should be painted
by a Guido ; and a picture representing the meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science should be in the style
of Raffaele'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 all probabiUty, were
only drawn by hira on the block and executed by professional wood
engravers. The family name of this artist was Sunder, and he is
also soraetiraes called Muller or Maler — -Painter — frora his profes
sion. He acquired the narae Cranach, or Von Cranach, from Cra
nach a town in the territory of Bamberg, where he was bom 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 arras
of that faraily. Another of his marks is a shield with two swords
crossed ; a thfrd is a kind of dragon ; and a fourth is the initial
letters of his narae, L. C. Sometimes two or three of those marks
are to be found in one cut. There are four engravings on copper
with the markjf /I. which are generally ascribed to this artist
St. Jerome, nine inches and five-eighths high by seven inches and three-eighths
wide, — date 1514; Melancolia, nine inches and three-eighths high by seven inches
and one-fourth wide, — date 1514,

334 WOOD ENGRAVING
That they are from his designs is very Ukely, but whether they
were engraved by himself or not is uncertain. One of them bears
the date 1492, and it is probable that they were aU executed about
the sarae 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, raore Ukely
that the last character is intended for the letter which it most
resembles — a Z, and that it denotes the German word zdchnet —
that is, " drew ;" in the same raanner as later artists occasionally
subjoined the letter P or F to their names for Pinxit or Fedt, re
spectively as they might have painted the picture or engraved the
plate. One of the earliest 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 draw
ing by impressions from two or more wood-blocks. The subject,
Uke that of the foUovring specimen, is a Repose in Egypt, but
is treated in a different manner, — the Vfrgin being represented
giving suck to the infant Christ.
The wood engravings that contain Cranach's mark are not so
numerous as those which contain the raark of Albert Durer,
and they are also generally inferior to the latter both in effect
and design. The following reduced copy of a eut which con
tains three of Cranach's four raarks wiU afford sorae idea of the
style of his designs on wood. As a speciraen of his abiUty in
this branch of art it is perhaps superior to the greater part
of his designs executed in the sarae manner. The subject is
described by Bartsch as a Repose in Egypt. The action of the
youthful angels who are dancing round the Virgin and the
infant Christ is certainly truly juvenile K not gracefuL The
two children seen up the tree robbing an eagle's nest are per
haps emblematic of the promised peace of Christ's kingdora and
of the destruction of the power of Satan : " No hon shall be
there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not
be found there ; but the redeemed shaU walk there."* In the
• Isaiah, chapter xxxv, verse 9,

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

335

right-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 shield with two swords crossed ; in the right-hand corner at the
bottora is a third mark, — the" figure of a kind of dragon with a
ring in its mouth. The size of the original cut is thirteen inches
and one-fourth high by nine inches and one-fourth wide.

Cranach was rauch esteemed in his own country as a painter
and several of his pictures are still regarded with admiration. He
was in great favour with John Frederick, Elector of Saxony,* and

* 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

336 WOOD ENGRAVING
at one period of his life 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 bom at
Augsburg about 1473. The mark of this artist is to be found
on a great nuraber 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 en
graver from this circurastance only, a most satisfactory answer
is afforded by the fact that several of the original blocks of the
Triuraphs of MaximiUan, which contain Burgraair's raark, have at
the back the names of the different engravers by whom they were
executed. As we have here positive eridence of cuts with Burg
raair's mark being engraved by other persons, we cannot certainly
conclude tbat any cut, from the raere fact of its containing his mark,
was actually 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 Gerraan school of painting he is generally 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 under the title of The Triumphs of Maximihan ; and it
is also probable that he drew nearly all the cuts in the book
entitled Der Weiss Kunig — The Wise King, another work illustra
tive of the learning, wisdora, and adventures of the Eraperor Maxi
mihan.* Before proceeding, however, to give any account of those
works, it seems adrisable to give two specimens frora 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.
of Saxony, and on the other a portrait of Luther, The block has consisted of three
pieces, and from the impressions it seeras 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 coraparatively worthless in design, and is very indifferently
engraved, • Burgraair also made the designs for a series of saints, male and female, of the
family of the emperor, which are also engraved on wood. The original blocks,
with the names of the engravers written at the back, are still preserved, and are at
present in the Imperial Library at Vienna.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

337

The following cut is a reduced copy frora a series designed by
Burgraair. The subject is Sarason and Delilah, and is treated
according to the old German fashion, without the least regard to
propriety of costume. Sarason is represented like a grisly old Ger
raan baron of Burgraair's own time, with limbs certainly not indi
cating extraordinary strength ; and Delilah seeras very deliberately
engaged in cutting off his hair. The wine flaggon and fowl, to the
left, would seera to indicate the danger of yielding to sensual in
dulgence. The original cut is surrounded by an ornaraental bor
der, and is four inches and five-eighths high by three inches
and five-eighths wide. Burgraair's mark H. B. is at the bottom of
the cut, to the right.

The following cut is also a reduced copy frora one of the same
series, and is a proof that those who call the whole by the
general title of "Bible Prints" are not exactiy correct in their

338

WOOD ENGRAVING

nomenclature. The somewhat humorous-looking personage, whom
a lady is using as her pad, is thus described in an inscription
underneath the cut: « Aristotie, a Greek, the son of Nicoraachus.
A disciple of Plato, and the raaster of Alexander the Great"
Though Aristotle 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 herseK vrith riding
on her husband's back. The subject is probably intended to
illustrate the power of the fair sex over even the vrisest of mortals.

and to show that philosophers themselves when under such influ
ence occasionally forget their character as teachers of men, and
exhibit themselves 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.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 339
There are several chiaro-scuros frora wood-blocks with Burg
raair's mark. One of the earliest is a portrait of " Joannes Paun-
gartner," frora two blocks, with the date 1512; another of St.
George on horseback, frora two blocks, engraved by Jost or Josse de
Negher, without date ; a third representing a young woman fiying
from Death, who is seen killing a young man, — from three blocks,
without date ; and a fourth of the Emperor Maximilian on horse
back, frora two blocks, vrith the date 1518.
The best cuts of Burgraair's designing, though drawn with great
spirit 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
their characters so well indicated as Durer's ; and in their arrange
ment, or grouping, he is also inferior to Durer, as well as in the art
of giving effect to his subjects by the skilful distribution of light and
shade. The cuts in the Wise King, nearly all of which are said to
have been designed by him, are, for the raost 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 Maximilian than in any other of his works exe
cuted in this raanner, — Sorae writers have asserted that Burgmair
died in 1517, but this is certainly incorrect; for there is a portrait
of hira, with that of his wife on the sarae pannel, painted by hira
self in 1529, when he was fifty-six years old. Underneath this
painting was a couplet to the following effect :
Our likeness such as here you view ; —
The glass itself was not more true,*
Burgraair, Uke Cranach, lived till he was upwards of eighty;
but it would seera that he had given up drawing on wood for raany
years prerious to his death, for I am not aware of there being any
wood-cuts designed by him vrith a date subsequent to 1530. He
died in 1559, aged eighty-six.
Hans Schaufflein is another of those old German painters who
* " Solche Gestalt unser balder was,
Im Spigel aber nix dan das !"
A small engraving in a slight raanner appears to have been made of the portraits
of Burgmair and his wife by George Christopher KUian, an artist of Augsburg,
about 1774,— Von Mun-, Journal, 4er Theii, S. 22.
Z 2

340 . WOOD ENGRAVING
are generally supposed to have been also engravers on wood.
Bartsch, however, thinks that, Uke Durer, Cranach, and Burgmair,
he only made the designs for the wood-cuts which are ascribed to
hira, and that they were engraved by other persons. Schaufflein
was born at Nureraberg in 1483 ; and it is said that he was a pupU
of Albert Durer. Subsequentiy he reraoved to Nordlingen, a town
in Suabia, about sixty railes to the south-westward of Nuremberg,
where he died in 1550.
The wood-cuts in connection with which Schaufflein's narae is
raost frequently raentioned are the illustrations of the work usuaUy
called the Adventures of Sir Theurdank,* an allegorical poem, m
foUo, which is said to have been the joint composition of the Emperor
Maximilian and his private secretary Melchior Pfintzing, provost of
the church of St Sebald at Nuremberg. Though Kcihler, 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
* The original title of the work is : " Die gevarlichkeiten und eins teUs der
Geschichten des loblichen streytparen und hochberiirabten Helds und Ritters
Tewrdanckhs." That is : The adventurous deeds and part of the history of the
famous, valiant, and highly-renowned hero Sir Theurdank. The name, Theurdank,
in the language of the period, would seem to imply a person whose thoughts were
only eraployed on noble and elevated subjects. Goethe; who in his youth was
fond of looking over old books iUustrated with wood-cuts, alludes to Sir Theur
dank in his admirable play of Gbtz von Berlichingen : " Geht ! Geht !" says
Adelheid to Weislingen, " Erzahlt das Madchen die den Teurdank lesen, und
sich so einen Mann wiinschen." — " Go ! go ! Tell that to a girl 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, 1 799, — the passage
is rendered as follows : " Go ! Go ! Talk of that to sorae forsaken damsel whose
Corydon has proved forsworn." In another passage where Goethe makes Adelheid
allude to the popular " M'archen," or tale, of Number-Nip, the point is completely
lost in the translation: " Entbinden nicht unsre Gesetze solchen Schwiiren? —
Macht das Kindern weiss die den Rubezahl glauben." Literally, " Do not our
laws release you from such oaths? — Teach that to children who believe Number-
Nip." In Sir Walter Scott's translation the passage is thus most incorrectly
rendered : " Such agreement is no more binding than an unjust extorted oath.
Every child knows what faith is to be kept with robbers." The name Rubezahl is
literaUy translated by Number-Neep ; Riibe is the German name for a turnip, —
Scoticfe, a neep. The story is as well known in Germany as that of Jack tlie Giant-
KUIer in England.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 341
reader. " The versified allegory of Sir Theurdank," says Kiitt-
ner,* "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 all in action are certain
personifications of Envy, restless Curiosity, and Daring ; these in
duce 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 constructs in order to extol,
under allegorical representations, the perils, adventures, and heroic
deeds of the emperor. Every thing is described so figuratively
as to amount to a riddle ; and the story proceeds with Uttle con
nection and without animation. There are no striking descriptive
passages, no Homeric similes, and no episodes to allow the reader
occasionally to rest; in fact, nothing admirable, spirit-stirring, or
great. The poem is indeed rather raoral than epic ; Lucan's
Pharsalia partakes raore of the epic .character than Pfintzing's
Theurdank. Pfintzing, however, surpasses the CycUc poets al
luded to by Horace."!
The first edition of Sir Theurdank was printed by Hans
Schiinsperger the elder, at Nuremberg in 1517 ; and in 1519
two editions appeared at Augsburg from the press of the same
printer. As Schcinsperger's established printing-office was at the
latter city and not at Nuremberg, Panzer has supposed that
the imprint of Nuremberg in the first edition raight have been
introduced as a compliment 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 Kuttner, in his Characters of German poets
* Charaktere Teutscher Dichter und Prosaisten, S. 71, Berlin, 1781.
f Nee sic incipies, ut scriptor cyclicus olim :
" Fortunam Priami cantabo, et nobile bellum :"
Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu ?
Parturiunt montes ; nascetur ridiculus mus.
Ars Poetica, v. 136 — 139.
In a Greek epigram the Cyclic poets are thus noticed :
Tovs KviiKiovs TorvTovs Tovs avTap eireiTa Xe-yovras
i/lisa "KwTtoSvTas dKKorpiav emav.

342 WOOD ENGRAVING
and prose-writers, says that in aU those editions alterations have
been made in the text.
The character in which Sfr Theurdank is printed is of great
beauty and much ornamented with flourishes. Several writers,
and araong others Fournier, who was a type-founder and wood-
engraver, have erroneously described the text as haring been
engraved on blocks of wood. This very superficial and incorrect
writer also states that the cuts contained in the volume are
" chefs-d'oeuvres de la gravure en bois."* His opinion with re
spect 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 monograra of Hans Sebalde, or Hans Schaufflein. By Hans
Sebalde he perhaps means Hans Sebald Behaim, an artist bom
at Nuremberg in 1500, and who never used the letters H and
S, accorapanied with a Uttle shovel, as a raonograra. Foumier
did not know that this raark is used exclusively by Hans Schauff
lein ; and that the little shovel, or baker's peel, — caUed in old
German, Schaufflein, or Scheuffleine, — is a rebus of his surname.
The careful examination of writers more deserving of credit has
completely proved that the text of the three earUest editions —
those only in which it was asserted to be from engraved wood
blocks — is printed from moveable types of metal. Breitkopf f
has observed, that in the edition of 1517 the letter i, in the
word shickhet, in the second hne following the eighty-fourth cut,
is inverted ; and Panzer and Brunner have noticed several varia-

• Dissertation sur I'Origine et les Progres de I'Art de Graver en Bois, p. 74.
Paris, 1758.
t The kind of character in which the text of Sir Theurdank is printed is called
"Fractur" by German printers. "The first work," says Breitkopf, "which
afforded an example of a perfectly-shaped Fractur for printing, was unquestionably
the Theurdank, printed at Nuremberg, 1517," — Ueber Bibliographie und Biblio
phile, S. 8. 1793. — Neudbrffer, a contemporary, who lived at Nuremberg at the
time when Sir Theurdank was first published, says that the speciraens for the
types were written by Vincent Rockner, the emperor's court-secretary. —Von
Murr, Journal, 2er Theii, S. 159; and Lichtenbei-ger, Inida Typographica,
p, 194,

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

343

tions 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 all supposed to have been designed,
if not engraved, by Hans Schaufflein, though his mark, ct=o M ,
occurs on not more than five or six. From the general sirailarity
of style I have, however, no doubt that the designs were all made
by the sarae person, and I think it raore Ukely that Schaufflein
was the designer than the engraver. The following cut is a

reduced copy of that nurabered 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; while to the right is per
ceived one of his tempters, Filrwittig — restless Curiosity, — and
to the left, on horseback, Theurdank's squire, Ernhold. The
title of the chapter, or fytte, to which this cut is prefixed is to

344

WOOD ENGRAVING

the following effect : " How Furwittig led Sfr Theurdank into a
perilous encounter with a she-bear." The subject of the thirteenth
chapter is his perilous encounter with a stag, and in the fifteenth
ve are entertained with the narration of one of his adventures
when hunting the chamois.
The foUowing cut is a reduced copy of No. Ill in the Adven
tures of Sir Theurdank. The title of the chapter to which this
cut is prefixed is : " How Unfalo [one of Theurdank's terapters]

was hung." A monk at the foot of the gallows appears to pray
for the culprit just turned off; while Ernhold seems to be ex
plaining to a group of spectators to the left the reason of the
execution. The cut illustrative of the 110th chapter represents
the beheading of « Fiirwittig ;" and in the 112th, « Neydelhart,"
the basest of Theurdank's enemies, is seen receiring the reward
of his perfidy by being throvm into a moat. The two original cuts
which have been selected as specimens of the wood engravings

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 345
in the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, though not the best, are
perhaps, in point of design and execution, rather superior to two-
thirds of those contained in the work. 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 Burgraair will assert to be " chefs-
d'oeuvres". of the art of wood engraving.
There are a number of wood-cuts which contain Hans Schauff
lein's mark, though somewhat different frora 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 saltfre," as a herald
would say, instead of a single one as in Sir Theurdank. The
following mark, (3>  , occurs on a series of wood-cuts illus
trative of Christ's Passion, printed at Frankfort by C. Ege-
nolf, 1542 ; on the cuts in a German alraanack, 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."
, The book entitled Der Weiss Kunig — The Wise King — is
another of the works projected by the Emperor MaximiUan in
order to inform the world of sundry raatters conceming his
father Frederick III, his own education, warhke and perilous
deeds, governraent, wooing, and wedding. This work is in prose ;
and though Marx Treitzsaurwein, the eraperor's secretary, is put
forth as the author, there is Uttle doubt of its having been chiefly
coraposed by Maxiraihan himseK. About 1512 it appears that
the materials for this work were prepared by the eraperor, and
that about 1514 they were entrusted to his secretary, Treitzsaur
wein, to be put in order. It would appear that before the work
was ready for the press Maxirailian 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 accompUshments, knowledge, and adventures of his
grandfather. The obscurity of many passages in the eraperor's

346 WOOD ENGRAVING
manuscript seems to have, in a great measure, retarded the com
pletion of the work. There is now in the Imperial Library at
Vienna a manuscript volume of queries respecting the doubtful
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 iraportant business and his increased age, he had wanted
leisure and spirits to give the necessary explanations. In the
sixteenth century, Richard Strein, an erainent philologer, began a
sort of coraraentary or exposition of the more difficult passages in
the Wise King; and subsequently his remarks carae into the hands
of George Christopher von SchaUenberg, who, in 1631, had the
good fortune to obtain at Vienna irapressions of most of the cuts
which were intended by the emperor to iUustrate the work, to
gether vrith several of the original drawings. Treitzsaurwein's
manuscript, which for many years had been preserved at Ambras
in the Tyrol, haring been transferred to the Imperial Library at
Vienna, and the original blocks haring been discovered in the
Jesuits' College at Gratz in Stiria, the text and cuts were printed
together, for the first time, in a foho volume, at Vienna in
1775.* It is probable that the greater part, K not aU the cuts, were
finished previous to the eraperor's death ; and irapressions of
thera, very Ukely taken shortly after the blocks were finished,
were known to collectors long before the pubUcation of the book.
The late Mr. Ottley had seventy-seven of the series, apparently
taken as proofs by means of a 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 MaxiraUian, dated 1514. They were sold at the
sale of the late Mr. Ottley's engrarings last year, and are now in
the Print Room of the British Museum. In the volume pruited at
Vienna in 1775, there are two hundred and thirty-sevenf large cuts,
* The title of the volume is " Der Weiss Kunig, Eine Erzehlung von den
Thaten Kaiser Maximilian des Ersten, Von Marx Treitzsaurwein auf dessen
Angeben zusammen getragen, nebst von Hannseu Burgmair dazu verfertigten
Holzschnitten, Herausgeben aus dem Manuscripte der Kaiseri, Konigl. Hofbi-
bliothek. Wien, auf Kosten Joseph Kurabbckens, 1775."
t 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

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 347
of which number ninety-two contain Burgraair's raark, H. B ; one
contains Schaufflein's raark; another the mark of Hans Sprin-
ginklee ; and a third, a modern cut, is raarked " F. F. S. V. 1775."
Besides the large cuts, all of which are old except the last noticed,
there are a few worthless tail-pieces of raodern execution, one
of which, a nondescript bird, has been copied by Bewick, 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 reserablance to those in Sir
Theurdank; and frora their execution it is erident that they have
been cut by different engravers; sorae of them being executed
in a very superior raanner, and others affording proofs of their
either being cut by a norice or a very indifferent workraan. It
has been said that all those which contain the mark of Hans
Burgraair show a decided superiority in point of engraring ; but
this assertion is not correct, for several of thera may be classed
vrith the worst executed in the volume. The unequal manner
in which the cuts vrith Burgraair's mark are executed is vrith
me an additional reason for beUeving that he only furnished 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 343 and 344 from Sir Theurdank ; and as other
specimens of Burgraair's talents as a designer on wood will be
given subsequently from the Triumphs of MaximiUan. The
foUowing abstract of the titles of a few of the chapters may
perhaps afford sorae idea of the work, while they prove that the
education of the emperor embraced a wide circle, forming almost
a perfect Cyclopaedia. The first fifteen chapters give an ac
count of the marriage of the Old Wise King, Frederick III,
the father of Maximilian, vrith Elenora, daughter of Alphonso
V, King of Portugal ; his journey to . Rorae and his corona
tion there by the pope ; vrith the bfrth, and christening of Maxi-
would therefore appear, supposing this set to be perfect, that there are fourteen
ofthe original blocks lost. Why a single modern 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.

348 WOOD ENGRAVING
miUan, the Young Wise King. About thirty-five chapters, from
XV. to L, are chiefly occupied with an account of MaximiUan's edu
cation. After leaming to write, he is instmcted in the liberal
arts; and after some time devoted to "PoUtik," or King-craft,
he proceeds to the study of the black-art, a branch of know
ledge which the eraperor subsequently held to be vain and un
godly. He then commences the study of history, devotes some
attention to medicine and law, and learns the ItaUan and Bohe
mian languages. He then learns to paint ; studies the principles
of architecture, and tries his hand at carpentry. He next takes
lessons in music; and about the same time acqufres 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
rehsh for savoury and well-cooked viands. To the accompUshraent
of dancing he adds a knowledge of nuraismatics ; and, after raaking
hiraseK acquainted with the raode of working raines, he learns to
shoot with the hand-gun and the cross-bow. The chase, falconry,
angUng, and fowUng next occupy his attention ; and about the
same time he learns to fence, to tilt, 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 conclusion,
the book is chiefly filled with accounts of the wars and adventures
of Maxirailian, which are for the most part aUegoricaUy detaUed,
and require the reader to be well versed in the true history of
the eraperor to be able to unriddle thera. Kuttner says that,
notwithstanding its allegories and enigmatical aUusions, the Weiss
Kunig is a work vhich displays much mind in the conception
and execution, and considerable force and elegance of language ;
and that it chiefly wants a more orderly arrangeraent of the
events. " Throughout the whole," he adds, " there are evidences
of a searching genius, iraproved by science and a knowledge of the
affairs of the world."*
The series of wood-cuts called the Triuraphs 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,
• Charaktere Teutscher Dichter und Prosaisten, S. 70,

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 349
his victories, and the extent of his possessions. This work appears
to have been coramenced about the same time as the Weiss Kunig ;
and frora the subject, a triuraphal procession, it was probably in
tended to be the last of the series of wood-cuts by which he was
desirous of disserainating 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 Trium
phal Arch, and the Triumphal Procession, appear to have been all
unfinished at the time of his decease in 1519. The total nuraber of
cuts contained in the latter work, pubhshed under the title of the
Triuraphs of Maximihan, 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 pubhshed 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 doubtr
ful cuts are not to be found araong the original designs. It would
therefore seem, that, unless some of the blocks have been lost or
destroyed, Uttle raore than one-haK of the cuts intended for the
Triuraphal Procession were finished when the emperor's death put a
stop to thp further progress of the work. It is almost certain that
none of the cuts were engraved after the eraperor's death ; for the
date, coraraencing 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 Triuraphal Procession, — consisting of a description
of the characters to be introduced, the order in which they are to
follow each other, their arras, dress, and appointraents, — appears to
have been dictated by the emperor to his secretary Treitzsaurwein,
the nominal author of the Weiss Kunig, in 1512. In this manu
script the subjects for the rhyming inscriptions intended for the
different banners and tablets are also noted in prose. Another raa-
nuscript, in the handwriting of Treitzsaurwein, and interlined by the
eraperor hiraself, contains the inscriptions for the banners and tablets
in verse ; and a third manuscript, written after the drawings were
finished, contains a description of the subjects, — though not so
rauch in detail as the first, and in sorae particulars slightly differ-

350 WOOD ENGRAVING
ing, — with aU the inscriptions m verse except eight Frora those
manuscripts, which are preserved in the Imperial Library at
Vienna, the descriptions in the edition of 1796 have been tran
scribed. Most of the descriptions and verses were preriously
given by Von Murr, in 1775, in the ninth volume of his JoumaL
The edition of the Triumphal Procession pubUshed in 1796
also contains a French translation of the descriptions, vrith num
bers referrmg to those printed at the right-hand comer 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 pubUshers
did not wish to faciUtate a comparison between the description
and the cut which they have nurabered as corresponding with
it The gross neghgence of the pubUshers, or thefr editor, in
this respect raaterially detracts frora the interest of the work.
To corapare the descriptions with the cuts is not only a work
of some trouble, but it is also labour thrown away. Von Murr's
volume, frora its convenient size, is of much greater use in cora-
paring the cuts with the description than the text printed in
the edition of 1796 ; and though it contains no nurabers for
reference, — as no complete coUection of the cuts had then been
printed, — ^it contains no misdirections : and it is better to have
no gtude-posts than such as only lead the traveUer wrong.
The original drawings for the Triuraphal Procession, — or, as the
work is usually caUed, the Triuraphs of Maximihan, — are pre
served in the- Imperial Library at Vienna. They are painted in
water colours, on a hundred and nine sheets of veUura, each
thfrty-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 engrarings to the original paintings.* Whether those
paintings are the work of Hans Burgmair, or not, appears to be
uncertain. From the foUowing extract from the preface to the
Triuraphs of Maxiraihan, pubhshed in 1796, it is evident that
the writer did not think that the original dravrings were executed
by that artist " The engravings of this Triumph, far from being
servUe copies of the paintings in miniature, differ fi-om them
• Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. p, 330.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 351
entirely, so far as regards the manner in which they are designed.
Most all the groups have a different form, and almost every figure
a different attitude; consequently Hans Burgmair appears in his
work in the character of author [original designer'], and so much
the more, as he has in many points surpassed his model. But
whatever may be the difference between the engravings and the
dravrings 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
correspondence 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 intentionaUy wrong nurabered,
it is not easy to determine from this reference which are actually
the first twelve aUuded to, for in most of the copies which I have
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 sixteen* cuts designed in a
style so different from those which contain Burgraair's mark, that
I am convinced they have not been dravra by that artist.
Without enquiring whether the subjects are to be found in the
paintings or not, I am satisfied that a considerable nuraber of the
engrarings, besides those sixteen, were not dravra on the wood by
Hans Burgmair. Both Breitkopf and Von Murr * have asserted that
the drawings for the Triumphs of MaxiraUian were raade by Albert
Durer, but they do not say whether they mean the dravrings on
vellum, or the drawings on the blocks. This assertion is, however,
made without any authority ; and, whether they meant the dravrings
* The subjects of those sixteen cuts are chiefly the statues of the emperor's
ancestors, with representations of himself, and of his family alliances. Several of
the carriages are propelled by mechanical contrivances, which for laborious inge
nuity may vie with the machine for uncorking bottles in one of the subjects of
Hogarth's Marriage k la Mode, In the copy before me those engravings cU-e
numbered 89, 90, 91, 91, 92, 92, 93, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 101, 102, 103.
t Breitkopf, Ueber Bibliographie und Bibliophile, S. 4. Leipzig, 1793. Von
Murr, Joumal, 9er TheU, S. 1. At page 309 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 Maxi
raUian." Since the sheet containing the above passage was printed off I have
ascertained that the subject is the Triumphal Car ; and that it is described in Von
Murr's Niirnbergischen Merkwurdigkeiten, S. 395.

352 WOOD ENGRAVING
on vellum or the drawings on the block, it is unquestionably
incorrect The dravrings 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 probabiUty to
have been of his designing.
Forty of the blocks from which the Triumphs of Maximilian
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' College
at Gratz in Stiria. 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 haring been destroyed in a fire at Augsburg ;
thefr 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, raight also be stiU in existence;
but after a diligent search no raore have been found. It is
indeed highly probable that the further progress of the work had
been interrupted by Maximihan's death, and that if any raore
of the series were finished, the number must have been few.
About 1775, a few impressions were taken frora the blocks
preserved at Arabras, and also frora those at Gratz ; but no
collection of the whole accorapanied 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 PaU-MaU, on the titie-
page, as the London pubhsher. It is rauch to be regretted that
greater pains were not taken to afford the reader every information
that could be obtained with respect to the cuts ; and it says very
Uttle for the English publisher'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
raeaning is to be conveyed, French is certainly much better than
English. From the fact of several of the subjects not being

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER, 353
contained in the original dravrings, and frora 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 thera are partially
worra-eaten. At the back of those blocks are written or engraved
seventeen names and initials, which are supposed, with great
probability, to be those of the engravers by whom they were
executed. At the back of No. 18, which represents five rausicians
in a car, there is written, "Der kert an die Elland, — hat Wilhelm
gesehnitten:" that is, "This follows the Elks. — Engraved by
Wilhara." In the preceding cut. No. 17, are the two elks which
draw the car, and on one of the traces is Hans Burgraair's
raark. At the back of No. 20 is written, " Jobst putavit, 14 Aprilis
1517. Die gehert an die bifiel, und die bifiel hatt Jos gesehnitten."*
This inscription Mr. Ottley, at page 756, volume ii. of his Inquiry,
expounds as foUows : " Josse putavit (perhaps for punctavif), the
14th of April, 1517. This block joins to that which represents
the Buffaloes." This translation is substantially correct ; but it
is exceeding doubtful if putavif was written in mistake for punc
tavif. The proposed substitution indeed seems very like explaining
an ignotum per Ignatius. The verb punctare is never, that I am
awaire of, used by any writer, either classical or modem, to express
the idea of engraring on wood. A Gerraan, however, who was but
imperfectly acquainted with Latin, would not be unlikely to trans
late the German verb schneiden, which signifies fo cuf generaUy, by
the Latin pufare, which is specifically apphed to the lojiping or
pruning of trees. I have heard it conjectured that putavit might
have been used in the sense of imaginavit, 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 Burgraair's raark
" Johst and Jos, in this inscription, are probably intended for the name of the
same person. For the name Jobst, Jost, Josse, or Jos, for it is thus variously
spelled, we have no equivalent in English. It is not unusual in Germany as
a baptismal name — it can scarcely be called Christian — and is Latinized, I beUeve,
under the raore lengthy form of Jodocus. 2 A

354 WOOD ENGRAVING
is to be found both on this cut and on the preceding one of the
two buffaloes. No. 19 ; and it cannot for a raoraent be supposed
that he was a raere workraan eraployed to execute the designs
of another person. Were such 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 work-man,
in fact, was to be coraraemorated, but the artist forgotten ; a con
clusion which is diametrically opposed to fact, for so Uttle were
the mere wood-engravers of that period esteemed, that we only
incidently become acquainted vrith thefr naraes; 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 known to have been painters of great repute in
their day, were wood-engravers and executed themselves the wood
cuts which bear their marks.
The following are the names and initial letters at the back of
the blocks. 1. Jerome Andre, called also Jerome Resch, or Rosch,
the engraver of the Triumphal Arch designed by Albert Durer.
2. Jan de Bonn. 3. CorneUus. 4. Hans Frank. 5. Saint German.
6. Wilhelm. 7. ComeUle Liefiink. 8. WiUiehn Liefiink. 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 Rupp. 13. Hans Schaufflein. 14. Jan Taberith. 15.
F. P. 16. H. F. 17. W. R. It is not unhkely that " Comelius,"
No. 3, may be the same as Corneille Liefrink, No. 7 ; and that
" WiUielm," No. 6, and Wilhelm Liefiink, No. 8, may also be the
same person. At the back of the block which corresponds with
the description nurabered 120, Hans Schaufflein's narae is found
coupled with that of Cornehus Liefrink ; and at the back of the
cut which corresponds with the description nurabered 121,
Schaufflein's name occurs alone.* The occurrence of Schaufflein's

• The printed numbers on those two cuts are 105 and 106, though the descrip
tions 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 following passage which occurs at
page 345 of this volume : " Bartsch, however, observes, that ' what Strutt has said

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 355
name at the back of the cuts would certainly seera to indicate
that he was one of the engravers ; but his narae also appearing at
the back of that described under No. 120, in conjunction with the
name of ComeUus Liefrink, who was certainly a wood-engraver, *
makes me inchned to suppose that he might only have made the
drawing on the block and not have engraved the cut ; and this
supposition seeras to be partly confirraed 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 Burgraair's
mark, and are rauch raore like the undoubted designs of Hans
Schaufflein than those of that artist That the cuts pubUshed under
the title of the Triuraphs of Maximihan were not all drawn on the
block by the same person will, I think, appear probable to any one
who even cursorily examines them; and whoever carefully com
pares them can scarcely have a doubt on the subject.
Almost every one of the cuts that contains Burgraafr's raark,
in 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 generally strong and
heavy, and the raen on their backs of a stout and muscular form.
The action of the horses seems natural ; and the indications of the
joints and the dravring 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
nuraber of cuts where both men and horses appear reraarkable
for their leanness ; and in which the hoofs of the horses are raost
incorrectly drawn, and the action of the aniraals represented in
a raanner which is by no means natural. Though it is not
unlikely that Hans Burgmair was capable of drawing both a
stout, heavy horse, and a long-backed, thin-quartered, lean one,
about there being two persons of this name [Hans Schaufl[lein], an elder and a
younger, seeras to be a mere conjecture,' " Since the sheet containing this passage
was printed off, I have learnt frora a paper, in Meusel's Neue Miscellaneen, Stes,
Stuck, S, 210, that Hans Schaufilein had a son of the same name who was also a
painter, and that the elder Schaufflein died at Nordlingen, in 1539. At page 340,
his death, on the authority of Bartsch, is erroneously placed in 1550.
• The name of Cornelius Liefrink occurs at the back of some of the wood-cuts
representing the saints of the faraily of MaxiraUian, designed by Burgmair, men
tioned at page 336, note.
2 A 2

356

WOOD ENGRAVING

I cannot persuade myself that he would, in alraost every instance,
draw the hoofs and legs of the one correctly and those of the
other with great inaccuracy. The six cuts next foUovring, of
single figures, copied on a reduced scale frora 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 foUowing cut is
from that marked No. 15. The mark of Hans Burgmafr is on
the ornamental breast^plate, as an English saddler would caU
it, that passes across the horse's chest This figure, in the

From No. 15. With Burgraair's mark.
original cut, carries a tablet suspended frora a staff, of which
the 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
* In all the blocks, the tablets and scrolls, 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 in most of the tablets and scrolls, in the ediUon
of 1796.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

357

of the subject is to the following effect : « After the chase, coraes
a figure on horseback, bearing a tablet, on which shall be written
the five charges of the court, — that is, of the butler, the cook,
the barber, the tailor, and the shoeraaker ; and Eberbach shall
be the under- raarshal of the household and carry the tablet"
The, next cut is a reduced copy of a figure, the last, in No.
65, which is without Burgraair's mark. In the original the horse
man bears a banner, having on it the arras 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

From No. 65. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair.
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. The other two horsemen and their steeds
in No. 65 are still more unlike those in the cuts which contain
Burgraair's mark.
The following cut is a reduced copy of a figure on horseback
in No. 33. Burgraair's mark, an H and a B, may be perceived
on the trappings of the horse. This figure, in the original, bears

358

WOOD ENGRAVING

a large tablet, and he is followed by five raen on fdbt carrying
flails, the swingels* of which are of leather. The description of
the cut, — ^which forras the first of seven representing the dresses
and arms of combatants on foot, — is as follows : " Then shaU
corae a person raounted and properly habited Uke a master of
arras, and he shall carry the tablet containing the rhyme. Item,
Hans HoUywars shall be the raaster of arras, and his rhyme
shall be this effect: that he has professed the noble practice of
arras at the court, according to the raethod derised by the
eraperor."f

From No. 33. With Burgraair's mark.
• That part of the flaU which comes in contact wiUi the corn is, in the North
of England, termed a swingel.
t The substance of almost every rhyme and inscription is, that the person who
bears the rhyme-tablet or scioU has derived great improvement iu his art or
profession from the instructions or suggestions of the emperor. Huntemen,
falconers, trumpeters, organists, fencing-masters, ballet-masters, toumiers, and
jousters, all acknowledge their obUgations in this respect to Maxirailian. For the
wit and humour of the jesters and the natural fools, the emperor, with great for-

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER,

359

The following is a reduced copy of a figure in the cut erro
neously numbered 83, but which corresponds with the description
that refers to 84. This figure is the last of the three, who, in
the original, are represented bearing banners containing the arms
of Malines, Salins, and Antwerp.

fa«s?

^a^4^

From No. 83. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair.
The foUowing figure, who is given with his rhyme-tablet in
fiill, is copied frora the cut numbered 27. This jorial-looking
personage, as we learn frora the description, is the WiU Soraers
of Maximilian's court, and he figures as the leader of the pro
fessed jesters and the natural fools, \vho 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
bearance, takes to himself no credit ; and Anthony von Dornstett, the leader of the
drummers and fifers, is one ofthe few whose art he has not improved.

360

WOOD ENGRAVING

habited like a jester, and carrying a rhyrae-tablet for the jesters
and natural fools ; and he shall be Conrad von der Rosen." The

From No. 27. With Burgraair's mark.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

361

fool's cap with the bell at the peak, denoting his profession, is
perceived hanging on his left shoulder ; and on the breast-plate,
crossing the chest of the horse, is Burgraair's raark.
The following figure of a horseman, bearing the banner of

No. 74. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair.

362 WOOD ENGRAVING
Burgundy, is frora the cut numbered 74. The drawing both
of rider and horse is extremely unlike the style of Burgraair
as displayed in those cuts which contain his mark. Burgraair's
men are generally stout, and their attitudes free; and they aU
appear to sit weU on horseback. The present lean, lanky figure,
who rides a horse that seems adrairably suited to hira, cannot
have been designed by Burgmair, unless he was accustomed to
design in two styles which 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 intro
duced ; and the other remarkable for laboured and stiff drawing,
gaunt and meagre men, and leggy, starved-like cattle. The whole
of the cuts froni 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 raen 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 like a Macadamized road after a shower of rain.
There is indeed no lack of stones on Burgraair's ground, but they
appear more like rounded pebbles, and are not scattered about with
so liberal a hand as in the cuts alluded to. In not one of those
cuts which are so unlike Burgraair's is the raark of that artist
to be found ; and their general appearance is so tmlike that of the
cuts undoubtedly designed by hira, that any person in the least
acquainted with works of art will, even on a cursory examination,
perceive the strongly marked difference.
The following 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 Austria or to which Maximihan laid claim. It is one of
the most gorgeous of the series ; but, from the manner in which
the horses and their riders are represented, I feel convinced that
it has not been drawn by Burgmair. The subject is thus described
in the emperor's directions prefixed to the volume : " One on horse
back bearing the banner of the arms of Austria ; another on horse-
• Those three are the numbers 77, 78, 79, representing musicians on horseback.
The same person who drew the standard-bearers has evidenUy drawn those three
cuts also.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

363

back bearing the old Austrian arms ; another also on horsebj-ck
bearing the arms of Stiria." On the parts which are left black
in the banners it had been intended to insert inscriptions. The
instructions to the painter for this part of the procession are to
the following effect : " One on horseback bearing on a lance a
rhyme-tablet Then the arras of the hereditary dominions of the
house of Austria on banners, vrith their shields, helms, and crests,
borne by horsemen ; and the banners of those countries in which

No. 57. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair.
the emperor has carried on war shall be borne by riders in armour ;
and the painter shall vary the armour accordmg to the old manner.
The banners of those countries in which 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 foUowing cut is copied from that nurabered 107, but
which accords vrith the description of No. 122. The subject is

364

WOOD ENGRAVING

described by the emperor as follows : " Then shaU come riding a
man of Calicut, naked, except 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 Burgraair's mark.

No, 107. With Burgraair's mark.
The cuts which were to follow the Indians and close the proces
sion were the baggage-waggons and camp-foUowers 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 con
sidered as the first and last of those five, respectively require a pre
ceding and a following cut to render them complete ; and there
are also one or two cuts wanting to complete the intermediate sub
jects. Those cuts are referred to in the French description under
Nos. 125 to 129, but they are numbered 129, 128, 110, 111, 125.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER.

365

The last three, as parts of a large subject, follow each other as the
numbers are here placed; and though the right side of No. 110 ac
cords with the left of No. 128, inasrauch as they each contain the
haK of a tree which appears coraplete when they are joined toge
ther, yet there are no horses in No. 128 to draw the waggon which
is seen in No. 110. The order of Nos. 110, 111, and 125,
is easily ascertained ; a horse at the left of No. 110 wants a tail
which is to be found in No. Ill; and the outUne of a mountain
in the left of No. Ill is continued in the right of No. 125. From

No. 110. Probably drawn by Albert Durer,
the back-grounds, trees, and figures in those cuts I am very rauch
inclined to think that they have been engraved frora designs by
Albert Durer, if he did not actually draw thera on the block hiraseK.
There is no raark to be found on any of them; and they are
extremely unlike any cuts which are undoubtedly of Burgraair's
designing, and they are decidedly superior to any that are usually
ascribed to Hans Schaufflein. The above, which is a reduced
copy of that nurabered 110, will perhaps afford sorae idea of

366 WOOD ENGRAVING
those cuts, and enable persons who are acquainted vrith Durer's
works to judge for theraselves with respect to the probabiUty of thefr
having been engraved from his designs. One or two of the other
four contain stiU more striking reserablances of Durer's style.
Besides the twelve cuts which, in the French preface to the
Triuraphal Procession of Maxirailian, are said not to correspond
with the original dravrings, 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 additions raade to the work whUe it
was in the course of engraring. Those six cuts are described in
an appendix where thefr nurabers are said to be frora 130 to 135.
In No. 130 the principal figures are a king and queen, on horse
back, supposed to be intended for PhiUp the Fafr, son of the
Emperor MaxiraUian, and his wife Joanna of Castile. This cut is
very indifferently executed, and has evidently been designed by the
artist who raade the drawings for the questionable cuts containing
the comphcated loco-motive carriages, mentioned at page 351.
No. 131, a princess on horseback, accompanied by two female
attendants also on horseback, and guards on foot, has eridently
been designed by the sarae artist as No. 130. These two, I am
inchned to think, belong to some other work. Nos. 132, 133,
and 134, are from the designs of Hans Burgraair, whose raark
is to be found on each ; and there can be Uttle doubt of thefr
having been intended for Maximihan'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 thefr 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 trium
phal car, drawn by four horses yoked abreast, and managed by
a winged feraale 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 hke one of
Burgraair's designing.
That the cuts of the Triumphal Procession of MaximiUan were

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 367
engraved by different persons is certain from the names at their
backs ; and I think the difference that is to be perceived in the
style of dravring renders it in the highest degree probable that
the subjects were designed, or at least drawn on the wood, by
different artists. I ara inclined to think that Burgraair 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 raade the drawings of the fanci
ful cars containing the emperor and his family ; and the five
cuts of the baggage-waggons and carap-foUowers, appear, as I
have afready said, extreraely like the designs of Albert Durer.
The best engraved cuts are to be found araong those which con-

¦^9

!i-^i/-_r^:^.^

A 1-

No. 135. Apparently designed by Burgmair.
tain Burgraair's raark. Sorae of the banner-bearers are also very
ably executed, though not in so free or bold a raanner ; which
I conceive to be owing to the raore laboured style in which the sub
ject has been drawn on the block. The raechanical subjects with
their accorapanying 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 raark
of Burgraair.
Though there are still in existence upwards of a hundred of
the original blocks designed by Albert Durer, and upwards of
three hundred designed by the raost erainent of his contemporaries.

368 WOOD ENGRAVING
yet a person who professes to be an instructor of the pubhc
on subjects of art made the following stateraent before the Select
Coraraittee of the House of Coraraons on Arts and their Connexion
with Manufactures, appointed in 1835. He is asked, "Do you
consider that the progress of the arts in this country is unpeded
by the want of protection for new inventions of iraportance ?'
and he proceeds to enlighten the coraraittee as follows. " Very
rauch irapeded. 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, raore difficult of pro
tection than any other inventions whatever. Such protection as
the existing laws afford is quite inadequate. I cannot better
illustrate my raeaning, 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 araong artists. Albert Durer, who was
both a painter and engraver, certainly possessed this art, that is
to say, the att of transferring his designs, after they had been
sketched on paper, immediately into metallic relief, so that they
raight 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 engrarings;
and then those engravings are but copies, and often very rude
copies, of their originals ; while, in the case of Albert Durer,
it is QUITE CLEAR that it was his own identical designs that were
transferred into the metallic relief. Wood engravings, too, are hmited
in point of size, because they can only be executed on box wood,
the width of which is very small; 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 incon
venience, that it is seldom done. Frora the speciraens of metallic
relief engraving, left us by Albert Durer, there is every reason
to infer that he was under no such hmitation ; that he could pro
duce plates of any size."* This stateraent abounds in errors, and
* Minutes of Evidence before the Select Coraraittee on Arts and Manufactures,
p. 130. Ordered to be printed, 16lh August 1836.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 369
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 " metalUc reUef." At the coramencement he says
that the art of engraving in metalhc relief is supposed to have
existed three or four centuries ago; and imraediately afterwards
he asserts that Albert Durer « certainly possessed this art ;" as if
by his mere word he could convert a groundless fiction into a posi
tive 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 metalhc relief are still in exist
ence ; and when, speaking of the difficulty of getting blocks of a
larger size than an octavo, he says, " From the specimens of
metalUc relief engraving, left us by Albert Durer, there is every
reason to infer that he was under no such liraitation, — 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 exarained the large cuts engraved
frora Durer's designs, he would have seen, in several, unde
niable marks of the junction of the blocks, proving 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 engraving in raetalUc relief
Though it is true that there are few raodern engravings on box
wood of a larger size than octavo, it is not true that the forming
of a large block of two or raore pieces is attended with much
difficulty, and is seldom done. The making of such blocks is
now a regular trade ; they are forraed vrithout the least difficulty,
and hundreds of cuts on such blocks are engraved in London
every year.* When he says that wood engrarings " can only be
raade on box-wood," he gives another proof of his ignorance of
the subject. Most of the earlier wood engrarings were executed
* Among the principal raodern wood-cuts engraved on blocks consisting of
several pieces the following may be raentioned : The Chillingham Bull, by
Thomas Bewick, 1789 ; A view of St. Nicholas' Church, Newcastle-on-Tyne, by
Charlton Nesbit, from a drawing by R. Johnson, 1798; The Diploma ofthe
Highland Society, by Luke ClenneU, frora a design by B, West, P, R, A. 1808 ;
The Death of Dentatus, by William Harvey, from a painting by B. R, Haydon,
1821 ; and The Old Horse waiting for Death, left unfinished, by T. Bewick, and
published in 1832,
2 B

370 WOOD ENGRAVING
on blocks of pear-tree or crab ; and even at the present time
box-wood is seldom used for the large cuts on posting-biUs. In
short, every statement that this person has made on the subject
of wood and pretended metallic reUef engraring is incorrect ; and
it is rather surprising that none of the members of the cora
raittee should have exposed his ignorance. When such persons
put theraselves forward as the instructors of mechanics on the
subject of art, it cannot be a matter of surprise that in the arts
as apphed to manufactures we should be inferior to our con
tinental neighbours.
The art of imitating drawings — called chiaro-scuro — by means
of irapressions frora two or raore blocks, was cultivated with great
success in Italy by Ugo da Carpi about 1518. The invention
of this art, as has been preriously reraarked, is ascribed to hira
by some writers, but without any sufficient grounds ; for not even
the slightest evidence 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 en
graving 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. llie chiaro-scuros exe
cuted by him are not only superior to those of the German artists,
who most hkely preceded him in this department of wood en
graring, but to the present tirae they reraain unsurpassed. In
the present day Mr. George Baxter has atterapted 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 Raffaele's designs, and it is said that the
great painter himself drew sorae of the subjects on the blocks.
Independent of the excellence of the designs, the characteristics
of Da Carpi's chiaro-scuros are their effect and the siraphcity of
their execution ; for all of them, except one or two, appear to have
been produced from not raore than three blocks. The following
raay 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 artist's first attempt in this
style ; Jacob's Dream ; David cutting off the head of GoUah ; the

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 371
Death of Ananias ; Giving the Keys to Peter ; the miraculous
Draught of Fishes ; the Descent frora the Cross ; the Resurrec
tion; and JEneas carrying away his father Anchises on his shoul
ders from the fire of Troy;* aU the preceding from the designs
of Raffaele. Among the subjects designed by other masters are
St Peter preaching, after Polidoro; and Diogenes showing the
plucked cock in ridicule of Plato's definition of man, " a two-
legged animal without feathers," after Parmegiano. The latter,
which is remarkably bold and spirited, is from four blocks ; and
Vasari says that it is the best of all Da Carpi's chiaro-scuros.
Many of Da Carpi's productions in this style were copied by
Andrea Andreani of Milan, about 1580. That of ^neas carry
ing his father on his shoulders was copied by Edward Kirkall,
an English engraver in 1722. Kirkall's copy is not entirely 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 raanner siraUar to that which has raore recently been adopted
by Mr. Baxter in his picture-printing.
Lucas Damraetz, generally called Lucas van Leyden, frora the
place of his birth, was an excellent engraver on copper, and in this
branch of art raore nearly approached Durer than any other of his
Gerraan or Flemish conteraporaries. He is said to have been born
at Leyden in 1496; 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 earliest prints, the raonk Sergius killed by Mahomet,
is dated 1508, 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 adrairation of all the artists of the
tirae. 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
* At the foot of this cut, to the right, after the name of the designer, —
"Raphael Ubbinas," — is the following privUege, granted by Pope Leo X.
and the Doge of Venice, prohibiting all persons from pirating the work, " Quis-
QUIS HAS TABELLAS INVITO AUTORE IMPHIMET EX DiVI LeONIS X. ET ITl
PbINCIPIS VeNETIAHTJM DECKETIS EXCOMINICATIONIS SENTENTIAM ET ALIAS
PENAS iNcuEEET." Below this inscription is the engraver's narae with the date :
" Roma apud Ugum de Carpi impressum, mdxvui."
2 B 2

372

WOOD ENGRAVING

while yet a boy excelled, 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 hun
dred copper-plates ; and, as if these were not sufficient to occupy
his time, he in the same period painted several pictures, sorae of
which were of large size. He is also said to have excelled as a
painter on glass ; and like Durer, Cranach, and Burgraair, 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 hira, are not numerous ; and, even
admitting them to have been engraved by himself, the fact would

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 373
contribute but little to his fame, for I have not seen one which
might not have been executed by a professional "forraschneider"
of very raoderate abilities. The total of the wood-cuts supposed
to have been engraved by him does not exceed twenty. The pre
ceding is a reduced copy of a wood-cut ascribed to Lucas van
Leyden, in the Print Room of the British Museum, but which is
not in Bartsch's Catalogue, nor in the Ust of Lucas van Leyden's
engravings in Meusel's Neue Miscellaneen. 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 drink of milk, driving the nail into '
his head, and then showing the body, — with herseK in the act of
driving the nail, — to Barak and his followers : the absurdity of
this threefold action has perhaps never been surpassed in any
cut ancient or raodern. Sir Boyle Roach said that it was ira
possible for any person, except a bird or a fish, to be in two
places at once; but here we have a pictorial representation of
a feraale being in no less than three ; and in one of the localities
actually pointing out to certain persons how she was then employed
in another. Heineken, in his account of engravers of the Flemish school, has
either comraitted an egregious mistake, or expressed himself with
intentional ambiguity with respect to a wood-cut printed at Ant
werp, and which he saw in the collections of the Abbe de Marolles.
His notice of this cut is as follows: "I found in the collections
of the Abbe de Marolles, in the cabinet of the King of France, a
detached 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 raarked, Gheprinf fAnfwerpen
by my Phillery de figursnider — Printed at Antwerp, by me Phil-
lery, the engraver of figures. It serves as a proof that the
engravers of moulds were, at Antwerp, in that ancient tirae, also
printers."* * " J' ai trouv^ dans les ReceueUs de I'Abb^ de Marolles, au Cabinet du Roi
de France, une piece detachee, qui, suivant mon sentiment, est la plus ancienne
de celles, qui sont gravies en bois dans les Pais-Bas, et qui portent le nora de
I'artiste, Cette estampe est raarqu^e : Gheprint t'Antwerpen by my Phillery de

374 WOOD ENGRAVING
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, frora about 1430 to 1472, — ^he is wrong, and his
statement would afford ground for a presumption that he had either
exarained the cut very carelessly, or that he was so superficiaUy
acquainted with the progressive iraprovement of the art of wood
engraving as to mistake a cut abounding in cross-hatching, and
certainly executed subsequent to 1524, for one that had been
executed about seventy years preriously, when cross-hatching was
never attempted, and when the costume was as different from that
of the figures represented in the cut as the costume of Vandyke's
portraits is dissimilar to Hogarth's. The words "graveurs de
moules," I have translated Uterally "engravers of moulds," for I
cannot conceive what else Heineken can mean ; but this expression
is scarcely warranted by the word "figursnider" on the cut, which
is almost the sarae as the Gerraan " forraschneider ;" and whatever
might be the original meaning of the word, it was certainly used to
express merely a wood engraver. Corapilers of Histories of Art, and
Dictionaries of Painters and Engravers, who usuaUy foUow their
leader, even in his sUps, as regularly as a flock of sheep follow the
bell-wether through a gap, have disserainated Heineken's mistake,
and the antiquity of " PhiUerfs" wood-engraring is about as firmly
established as Lawrence 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 "Phillery, who Uved near the
end of the fourteenth century, was the first engraver on wood who
practised in fhe Netherlands."* It is thus that error on the subject
of art, and indeed on every other subject, is propagated : a writer
of reputation makes an incorrect or an arabiguous stateraent ; other
figursnider — Imprimi d, .^nvers, chez moi Phillery, le graveur de figures. EUe sert
de preuve, que les graveurs de moules €toient aussi, dans cet ancien tems, impri-
raeurs k Anvers." — Id^e G6n§rale d'une Collection coraplette d'Estampes,
p. 197.
• In a work of a similar kind, and of equal authority, published in 1834, we
are informed that Ugo da Carpi was a historical painter, and that he died in
1500. He was only born in 1486.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER, 375
writers adopt it without exaraination, and not unfrequently one of
that class whose confidence in deciding on a question is in the
inverse ratio of their knowledge of the subject, proceeds beyond
his original authority, and declares that to be certain which
previously had only been doubtfully, or obscurely expressed. In
Heineken's notice of this cut there is an irapUed qualification
under which he might screen himself frora a charge of incorrectness
with respect to the time of its execution, though not frora a charge
of arabiguity. He says that, in his opinion, it is " the most ancient
of the wood engravings executed in the Low Countries which bear
the name ofthe artist ;" and with this limitation his opinion may be
correct, although the cut were only engraved in 1525 or 1526 ; for
I am not aware of any wood engraving of an earlier date, executed
in the Low Countries, that contains the name of the artist, though
there are several which contain the artist's mark. It also may be
argued that the words "cet ancien tems" raight be about as correctly
applied to designate the year 1525 as 1470 : if, however, he meant
the first of those dates, he has expressed himseK in an equi
vocal manner, for he is generally understood to refer the cut to
a considerably earUer period. It has been indeed conjectured that
Heineken, in speaking of this cut, might intentionally express him
self obscurely, in order that he raight not give offence to his friend
Monsieur Mariette, who is said to have considered it to be one
of the earliest specimens of wood engravings executed in the Low
Countries. This is, however, without any sufficient reason, merely
shifting the charge of ignorance, with respect to the difference of
style in wood engravings of different periods, from Heineken to
Monsieur Mariette. As there is no evidence to show that the
latter ever expressed any such opinion as that ascribed to hira
respecting the antiquity of the cut in question, Heineken alone is
answerable for the account contained in his book. Impressions of
the cut by "Phillery" are not of very great rarity; there are two
in the Print Room at the British Museura, and from one of them
the reduced copy in the following page has been carefully made.
Any person, however, slightly acquainted with the progress of
wood engraring could scarcely fail to pronounce that the original
of this cut raust have been executed subsequent to 1500, and in
aU probabiUty subsequent to the cuts of the Triumphal Procession

376

WOOD ENGRAVING

of Maximilian, to the general style of which, so far as relates
to the manner of engraving, it bears considerable resemblance.
The costume of the figures, too, also proves that it does not belong
to the fifteenth century ; and on carefully examining the inscription,
a person accustomed to the old German or Dutch characters

would be more likely to read "Willem" than " Phillery" as the
name of the artist. To one of the impressions in the British
Museum a former owner, after extracting Heineken's account, has
appended the following remark : " This is the print above described.
There seems to be an inconsiderable mistake in the name, which I

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 377
take to be D'villery." It is to be observed that in the original,
as in the preceding copy, the inscription is engraved on wood, and
not set up in type ; and that consequently the first character of the
doubtful name is rather indistinct It is however most probably
a W; and the last is certainly an m, with a flourish at its tail.
The intermediate letters ilie are plain enough, and if the first
be supposed to be a W, and the last an m, we have the name
Willem, — a very probable prenoraen for a Dutch wood engraver
of the sixteenth century. The inscription when carefiiUy exarained
is literally as follows : " Gheprint Tantwerpen By my Willem de
Figuersnider." Heineken's raistake of Phillery for Willem, or
William, and thus giving a heretofore unheard-of name to the hst
of artists, is not unlike that of ScopoU the naturalist, who, in one
of his works, has commeraorated " Horace Head" as a London
bookseller.* Though the cut which bears the name of the supposed " Phil
lery" contains internal evidence of its not having been engraved in
the fifteenth century, there is yet further reason to beUeve that it is
merely a copy of part of a cut of the sarae size by a Swiss artist of
the narae of Urse Graff, which is dated 1524. There is an irapres
sion of Urse Grafias cutf in the Print Room of the British Museura ;
in the fore-ground are the figures which have obviously been copied
by Willem de Figuersnider, alias Phillery, and immediately behind
the middle figure, who holds in his right-hand a large Swiss espa-
don, is a leafless tree with a figure of Death clinging to the upper
part of the trunk, and pointing to a hour-glass which he
holds in his left hand. A bird, probably intended for
a raven, is perched above the hour-glass; and on the
trunk of the tree, near to the figure of Death, is Urse
Grafl's mark with the date as is here given. The
back-ground presents a view of a lake, with buildings
and mountains on the left. The general character of Urse Grafl's
• The sign of Mr. Benjamin White, formeriy a bookseller in Fleet Street, was
Horace's Head. In Scopoli's Deliciae, Flora, et Fauna Insubriae, plate 24 is thus
inscribed : " Auspiciis Benjamini White et Horatii Head, Bibliopol. Londinen-
sium." The learned naturalist had mistaken Mr. White's sign for his partner in
the business.
t This cut of Urse Graff is described in Bartsch's Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii.
p. 465, No. 16,

378 WOOD ENGRAVING
subject is Swiss, both in the scenery and figures ; and the perfect
identity of the latter with those in the cut " printed at Antwerp by
Williara the figure-cutter" proves, beyond the possibiUty of a doubt,
that one of those two artists has copied the work of the other.
Urse GrafPs subject, however, is coraplete, and corresponds both in
the landscape and in the costurae of the figures with tKe country of
the artist; while the cut of William of Antwerp represents merely an
unreUeved group of figures in the costume of Switzerland. Urse
Graff was an artist of reputation in his time ; of " WiUem," who
was probably only an engraver of the designs of others, nothing
more is known beyond what is afforded by the single cut in ques
tion. From these circumstances, though it cannot be positively
decided which of those cuts is the original, it is almost raoraUy
certain that the Flemish figure-cutter has copied the work of the
Swiss artist-^Urse Graff resided at Basle, of which city he was pro
bably a native. In one of his engravings with the date 1523, he
describes himseK as a goldsmith and die-sinker. Wood-cuts con
taining his raark are not very coraraon, and the raost of thera appear
to have been executed between 1515 and 1528. A series of
wood-cuts of the Passion of Christ, designed in a very inferior
raanner, and printed at Strasburg in 1509, are soraetiraes as
cribed to hira on account of their being raarked vrith the letters
V. G,, which some writers have supposed to be the mark of an
artist naraed Von Garaperlin. Professor Christ, in his Diction
ary of Monograms, says that he can find nothing to determine
him in favour of the narae GamperUn ; and that he is rather
inclined to think that those letters are intended for the name Von
Gear, which he believes that he has deciphered on an engraving
containing this raark. The raark of Urse Graff, a V and a G
interlaced, occurs in the omaraented border of the title-page of
several books printed at Basle, and araongst others on the title
of a quarto edition of Ulrich Hutten's Nerao, printed there by
Frobenius in 1519. At the end of this edition there is a beau
tifully-designed cut of the printer's device, which is probably the
work of the sarae artist.*
* The device of Frobenius at the end of an edition of the same work, printed by
hira in 1518, is much inferior to that in the edition of 1519. In both, the orna
raental border of the title-page is the same.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 379
A painter, named Nicholas Emanuel Deutsch, a contem
porary of Urse Graff, and who resided at Bern, is said, by
Sandrart, to have been of a noble English family, and the sarae
writer adds that he left his own country on account of his religion.
The latter statement, however, is not likely to be correct, for there
are wood-cuts, with this artisf s mark, dated " Bern, 1518 ;"
which was before the persecution in England on account of the
doctrines of Luther had comraenced. In J. R. Fussli's Dictionary
of Artists it is stated that he was of a French faraily, of the name
of Cholard, but that he was bom at Bern in 1484, and died there
in 1530. He was a poet as well as a painter, and held one of the
highest offices in the magistracy of Bern.
Within the first thirty years of the sixteenth century the prac
tice of illustrating books with wood-cuts seems to have been raore
general than at any other period, scarcely excepting the present ;
for, though within the last eight or ten years an immense nuraber
of wood-cuts have been executed in England and France, yet wood
engravings at the tirae referred to were introduced into a greater
variety of books, and the art was raore generally practised through
out Europe. In raodern German and Dutch works wood engrav
ings are sparingly introduced; and in works printed in Switzer
land and Italy they are still raore rarely to be found. In the
forraer period the art seems to have been very generally practised
throughout Europe, though to a greater extent, and vrith greater
skill, in Germany than in any other country. The wood-cuts which
are to be found in ItaUan books printed between 1500 and 1530 are
mostly meagre in design and very indifferently engraved ; and for
many years after the Gerraan wood engravers had begun to give
variety of colour and richness of effect to their cuts by means of
cross-hatchings, their Italian contemporaries continued to adhere to
the old method of engraving their figures, chiefly in outUne, with
the shadows and the folds of the draperies indicated by paraUel Unes.
These observations relate only to the ordinary wood engravings of
the period, printed in the sarae page with type, or printed separately
in the usual raanner of surface printing at one impression. The
admirable chiaro-scuros of Ugo da Carpi, printed from two or more
blocks, are for effect and general excellence the most admirable
speciraens of this branch of the art that ever have been executed ;

380

WOOD ENGRAVING

they are as superior to the chiaro-scuros of Gerraan artists as
the usual wood engravings of the latter excel those executed in
Italy during the sarae period.
• In point of drawing, some of the best wood-cuts executed in
Italy in the time of Albert Durer are to be found in a foUo work
entitled Triompho di Fortuna, written by Sigismond Fanti, and
printed at Venice in 1527.* The subject of this work, which was
licensed by Pope Clement VII, is the art of fortune-telUng, or
of answering all kinds of questions relative to future events. The
volume contains a considerable number of wood-cuts; some de
signed and executed in the very humblest style of wood engraving,
and others, which appear to have been drawn on the block vrith
pen-and-ink, designed with great spirit. The smaUest and most
inferior cuts serve as illustrations to the questions, and an
idea may be formed of them from the three here given, which

occur under the question : " Qual fede o legge sia di queste
tre la buona, o la Christiana, I'Hebrea, o quelle di Mahuraeto ?'f

* The title of this book is, in red letters, " Triompho di Fortuna, di Sigismondo
Fanti, Ferrarese." The title-page is also ornamented with a wood-cut, representing
the Pope, with Virtue on one side, and Vice on the other, seated above the globe,
which is supported by Atlas, and provided with an axis, having a handle at each
side, like a winch. At one of the handles is a devil, and at the other an angel;
to the left is a naked figure holding a die, and near to him is an astronomer
taking an observation. At the foot of the cut is the mark I. M. or T. M., for I
cannot positively decide whether the first letter be intended for an I or a T. The
following is the colophon : " Impresso in la inclita citta di Venegia per Agostin da
Portese. Nel anno dil virgineo parto md.xxvii. Nel mese di Genaro, ad
instatia di Jacomo Giunta Mercatate Florentine. Con il PrivUegio di Clemente
Papa VII, et del Senato Veneto a requisitione di I'Autore." In the Catalogue of
the British Museum this book is erroneously entered as printed at Rome, 1526.
The compiler had mistaken the date of the Pope's licence for the time when the
book was printed. This trifling mistake is noticed here, as from similar oversights
bibliographers have sometimes described books as having been twice or thrice
printed, when, in fact, there had been only one edition,
t The following questions, selected from a number of others, will perhaps afford
some idea of this " Opera utilissima et jocosa," as it is called by the author.

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 381
In English : " Which of these three religions is the best, the
Christian, the Jewish, or the Mahometan?" Several larger cuts
are executed in a dry, hard style, and evidently drawn by a person
very inferior to the artist who designed the cuts executed in the
manner of pen-and-ink drawings. The following is a fac-simile of
one of the latter. It is intitled " Fortuna de Africo," in a series
of twelve, intended for representations of the winds.

The foUowing cut, which appears in folio 38, is intitled
« Michael Fiorentino," — Michael Angelo ; and it certainly con
veys no bad idea of the energetic manner in which that great
artist is said to have used his mallet and chisel when engaged
on works of sculpture. This cut however, is made to represent
several other sculptors besides the great Florentine ; it is repeat
ed seven tiraes in the subsequent pages, and on each occasion
" Se glie bene a pigliar beUa, o bruta donna ; se'l servo sara fidele al suo signore ;
se quest' anno sara carestia o abundantia ; quanti mariti havera la donna ; se glie
bene a far viaggio et a ehe tempo ; se'l parto della donna sara maschio o femina ;
se'l sotmo fatto sara vero ; se'l fin del huomo sara buono," The three small illus
trations of the last query are of evU omen ; in one, is seen a gallows ; in another,
a man praying; and in the third, the quarters of a human body hung up in
. terrorera.

382

WOOD ENGRAVING

we find underneath it a different narae. The late T. Stothard,
R. A. was of opinion that wood engraving was best adapted to
express pen-and-ink drawing, and that the wood engraver gene
rally faUed when he attempted more. His illustrations of Rogers's
poeras, engraved on wood by Clennell and Thorapson, are executed
in a sirailar style to that of the following speciraen, though with
greater delicacy.

Certain wood-cuts with the raark A. G., executed towards the
conclusion of the fifteenth century, have been ascribed to an artist
naraed Albert Glockenton. Bartsch, however, says that the narae
of the artist is unknown ; and he seeras to consider that Sandrart
had raerely conjectured that those letters raight represent the name
Albert Glockenton. For no better reason the letters I. V. on a
tablet, with two pilgrim's-staffs crossed between them, which are
to be found on several old chiaro-scuro wood engravings, have been
supposed to represent the name, John Ulric Pilgrim. This narae
appears to be a pure invention of some ingenious expounder of
monograms, for there is not the slightest evidence, that I am

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 383
aware of, to show that any artist of this narae ever lived. The
chiaro-scuros with this mark were probably executed in the time
of Durer, but none of them contains a date to establish the fact
Heineken considers them to have been the productions of a Ger
raan artist; and he refers to thera in proof of the art of chiaro
scuro having been practised in Gerraany long before the tirae of
Ugo da Carpi.' It is, however, highly questionable if they are
of an earUer date than 1518 ; and it is by no raeans certain that
the artist was a German. By some persons he has been supposed
to have been the inventor of chiaro-scuro engraving, on no better
grounds, it would seem, than that his pieces are without a date.
Next to the Germans, in the time of Albert Durer, the Dutch
and Flemings seem to have excelled in the art of wood engraving ;
but the cuts executed in Holland and Flanders are generally much
inferior to those designed and engraved by German artists. In
a considerable number of Dutch wood engravings, of the period
under review, I have observed an atterapt to corabine soraething
like the effect of cross-hatching and of the dotted manner men
tioned at page 282 as haring been frequently practised by
French wood engravers in the early part of the sixteenth century.
In a series of cuts from a Dutch prayer-book, apparently printed
between 1520 and 1530, this style of engraring is frequently intro
duced. Where a Gerraan artist would have introduced Unes cross
ing each other with great regularity, the Dutch wood engraver has
endeavoured to attain his object by irregularly picking out portions
of the wood with the point of his graver ; the effect, however, is
not good. In the border surrounding those cuts, a Dance of
Death is represented, consisting of several raore characters than
are to be found in the celebrated work ascribed to Holbein, but
far inferior in point of design and execution.
An artist, named John Walter van Assen, is usually mentioned
as one of the best Dutch wood-engravers or designers of this
period. Nothing further is known of him than that he lived at
Arasterdara about 1517. The mark supposed to be Van Assen's
is often ascribed by expounders of monograras to another artist,
whora they call Werner or Waer van Assanen.
A considerable nuraber of French works, printed in the tirae
of Albert Durer, contain wood engravings, but few of them possess

384 WOOD ENGRAVING
much merit when compared with the raore highly finished and
correctly drawn productions of the Gerraan school of the same
period. The ornamental borders, however, of many missals and
prayer-books, which then issued in great numbers from the
Parisian press, frequently display great beauty. The taste for
surrounding each page with an ornamental border engraved on wood
was very generally prevalent in Germany, France, and Flanders
at that period, raore especially in devotional works; and in the
forraer country, and in Switzerland, scarcely a tract was printed
— and the Lutheran controversy gave rise to raany hundreds — with
out an ornaraental border surrounding the title. In Gerraany such
wood engravers as were chiefly employed in executing cuts of this
kind were called Rahmenschndders — border-cutters, — as has been
previously observed at page 232. In England during the same
period wood engraving made but little progress ; and there seems
to have been a lack of good designers and competent engravers
in this country. The best cuts printed in England in the tirae
of Durer are contained in a raanual of prayers, of a sraall
duodecimo size. The volume in my possession is imperfect,
having neither title-page nor colophon, but on a tablet in the
border of one of the cuts — the FUght into Egypt* — I perceive the
date 1523. The total number of cuts in the volume is about a
hundred ; and under each of the largest are four verses in EngUsh.
Several of the smaller cuts, representing figures of saints, and
preceding the prayers for thefr respective days, have evidently been
designed by an artist of considerable talent As most of the wood
cuts which constitute the ornaments or the iUustrations of books
printed at this period are without any name or mark, it is impossi
ble to ascertain the names of the persons by whom they were
designed or engraved.
The manner of wood engraving in intaglio so that the figures
appear white on a black ground, so frequently adopted by early
Italian wood engravers, was soraetiraes practised in Germany; and
• The following lines descriptive of this cut are printed underneath it :
Soto ifflare airtt .?0Bep5 toitj iesu toere tant •
5n to «f8»Pte (or sorour to «e,
SMljati tje InnorentPB (or (lis salt* tort slajiiie ,
Be comtBBgon o( l^tttiOzi cnieltie ,

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER. 385
in one of the earliest works containing portraits of the Roraan era
perors,* copied from ancient medals, printed in the latter country,
the cuts are executed in this style. The subject of the work is the
lives of the Roman emperors, written by Joannes Huttichius, and
the portraits with which it is illustrated are copied from medals in a
collection which had been formed by the Emperor Maximilian, the
great promoter of wood engraring in Germany. The first edition,
in Latin, was printed by Wolff Kopffel, at Strasburg, in 1525; and
a second edition, in German, was published at the sarae place in
the succeeding year. The following cut, of the head of Nero, will
afford an idea of the style in which the portraits are executed, and
of the fidelity with which the artist has in general represented the
likeness impressed on the original medals.

Besides Durer, Burgmair, Cranach, and Schaufflein, there are
several other German painters of the same period who are also said
to have engraved on wood, and among the most celebrated of this
secondary class the foUowing raay be raentioned: Hans Sebald
Behaim, preriously noticed at page 306 ; Albert Altdorffer ; Hans
Springinklee ; and Hans Baldung Grun. The raarks of all those
* In a folio work entitled " Epitome Thesauri Antiquitatum, hoc est Impp. Rora,
Orientalium et Occidentalium Iconum, ex Antiquis Numismatibus quam fide-
Ussime delineatarum. Ex Musseo Jacobi de Strada Mantuani Antiquarii,"
Lyons, 1553, it is stated that the first work containing portraits of the Roman
eraperors engraved frora their coins was that entitled " Illustrium Imagines,"
written by Cardinal Sadolet, and printed at Rome by Jacobus Mazochius. — In
Strada's work the portraits are executed in the same manner as in that of
Huttichius, The wood-cut containing the printer's device, on the tiUe-page of
Strada's work, is admirably engraved.
2c

386 WOOD ENGRAVING
artists are to be found on wood-cuts executed in the time of Durer ;
but I am extremely doubtful if those cuts were actually engraved by
themselves. If they were, I can only say that, though they might
be good painters and designers, they were very indifferent wood
engravers ; and that their time in executing the subjects ascribed
to them must have been very badly employed. The common work
ing formschneider who could not execute them as well, must have
been a very ordinary -wood-cutter, not to say ^ood-engraver, — by the
latter term meaning one who excels in his profession, and not a
mere cutter of lines, without skill or taste, on box or pear-tree.
Albert Altdorffer was bom at Ratisbon in 1480, and afterwards
becarae a magistrate of his native city. The engrarings on wood
and copper containing his mark are mostly of a sraall size, and
he is generaUy known as one of the little masters of the Gerraan
school of engraving.* Hans Springinklee was a painter of sorae
erainence, and according to Doppelmayer, as referred to by Bartsch,
was a pupil of Durer's. His raark is to be found on several
wood-cuts ; and it occurs in one of the illustrations in the Wise
King. Hans Baldung Grun was born at Geraund in Suabia, and
studied at Nuremberg under Albert Durer. He excelled as a
painter; and the wood-cuts which contain his raark are raostly
designed with great spirit. The earUest wood engraving that con
tains his mark is a frontispiece to a volume of sermons with the
date 1508 ; and the latest is a group of horses, engraved in a hard,
stiff raanner, with the name " Baldung" and the date 1534.f He

• Heineken ranks the following in the class of Uttle masters : Henry Aldgrever,
Albert Altdorffer, Bartholomew Behaim, Hans Sebald Behaim, Hans Binck, Henry
Goerting, George Peuez, and Virgil Solis, Most of them were engravers on
copper. t The foUowing curious testimony respecting a lock of Albert Durer's hair,
which had forraerly been in the possession of Hans Baldung Griin, is translated
frora an article in Meusel's Neue Miscellaneen, 1799, The lock of hair and the
document were then in the possession of Herr H, S. Husgen of Frankfort on the
Mayn : " Herein is the hair which was cut fi-om the head of that ingenious and
celebrated painter Albert Durer, after his death at Nuremberg, Sth April 1528, as a
token of remembrance. It afterwards came into the possession of that skUful painter
Hans Baldung, burger of this city, Strasburg; and after his death, in 1545, my
late brother-in-law, Nicholas Kramer, painter, of this city, having bought sundry of
his works and other things, among them found this lock of hair, in an old letter,
wherein was written an account of what it contained. On the death of my brother-

IN THE TIME OF ALBERT DURER, 387
chiefly resided at Strasburg, where he died in 1545. He is
mentioned by Durer, in his Journal, by the name of "Griin
Hannsen." It cannot be reasonably doubted that Durer and several other
German painters of his tirae were accustomed to engrave their own
designs on copper ; for in many instances we have the express
testimony of their contemporaries, and not unfrequently their own,
to the fact. Copper-plate engraving for about sixty years frora the
tirae of its invention was generally practised by persons who were
also painters, and who usuaUy engraved their own designs. Wood
engraving, on the contrary, from an early period was practised as
a distinct profession by persons who are never heard of as painters.
That some of the early German painters — of a period when "artists
were more of workraen, and workraen raore of artists"* than in
the present day — might engrave some of the wood-cuts which bear
their marks, is certainly not impossible ; but it is highly im
probable that all the wood-cuts which are ascribed to thera
should have been executed by theraselves. If any wood-cuts were
actually engraved by Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, and other painters
of reputation, I conceive that such cuts are not to be distinguished
by their superior execution frora those engraved by the professional
formschneiders and brief-malers of the day. The best copper-plates
engraved by Albert Durer can scarcely be surpassed by the best
copper-plate engraver of the present day, — that is, supposing hira
to execute his work by the same means ; while the best of the
wood-cuts which he is supposed to have engraved hiraself might be
readily executed by a score of modem wood engravers if the sub
ject were drawn for them on the block. In the age of Durer the
best wood-cuts are of coraparatively large size, and are distin
guished more from the boldness and freedom of their design than
frora any pecuhar excellence of engraving : they display, in fact,
rather the talent of the artist than the skill of the workman.
in-law in 1550, it was presented to me by my sister Dorothy, aud I now enclose it
in this letter for a memorial. 1559. Sebold Buhelee.'' To this testimony are
subjoined two or three others of subsequent date, showing in whose possession
the valued relic had been before it came into the hands of Herr Husgen.
• Evidence of Dr. G. F. Waagen of Berlin before the Select Committee of the
House of Commons on Arts and their Connection with Manufactures, 1835.
2c 2

388

WOOD ENGRAVING.

Though wood engraring had very greatly improved from about the
end of the fifteenth century to the tirae of Durer's decease, yet it
certainly did not attain its perfection within that period. In later
years, indeed, the workraan has displayed greater excellence; but
at no tirae does the art appear to have been raore flourishing or
raore highly esteeraed than in the reign of its great patron, the
Emperor Maxirailian.

PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 389

CHAPTER VL
fuether peogress and decline of wood engeaving.
The Dance of Death — Painted in several old churches — Two paintings of this
subject at Basle, — Old editions of La Danse Macabre, with wood-cuts, — Les
Simulachres et Histori^es Faces de la Mort, usually called the Dance of Death,
printed at Lyons, 1538 — Various editions and copies of this work. — Icones
Historiarum Veteris Testamenti, or Bible cuts, designed by Hans Holbein — Simi
larity between these cuts and those ofthe Lyons Dance of Death. — Cuts of both
works, probably designed by the same person. — Portrait of Sir T. Wyatt. — Cuts
in Cranmer's Catechism — and in other old English works. — Wood-engraving in
Italy — Chiaro-scuro. — Mareolini's Sorti. — S. Munster's Cosraography. — Maps. —
VirgU Solis. — Bernard Solomon. — Jost Ammon. — Andrea Andreani. — Henry
Goltzius. — English wood-cuts. — Cuts by Christopher Jegher from the designs
of Rubens. — General decline of the art in the seventeenth century.

HE best of the wood-cuts of
the tirae of Albert Durer, more
especially those executed by Ger
raan engravers, are for the raost
part of rather large size; the
best of those, however, which ap
peared within forty years of his
decease are generally small. The
art of wood engraring, both as
regards design and execution, ap
pears to have attained its highest
perfection within about ten years of the time of Durer's decease ;
for the cuts which, in my opinion, display the greatest excellence of
the art as practised in former tiraes, were published in 1538. The
cuts to which I allude are those of the celebrated Dance of Deatb,
which were first pubUshed in that year at Lyons. So adrairably are
those cuts executed, — with so much feeling and with so perfect a
knowledge of the capabihties of the art, — that I do not think any

390 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
wood engraver of the present time is capable of surpassing thera.
The raanner in which they are engraved is coraparatively simple ;
there is no laboured and unnecessary cross-hatching where the
sarae effect might be obtained by simpler means ; no display of
fine work merely to show the artist's talent in cutting delicate
lines. Every line is expressive ; and the end is always obtained
by the simplest means. In this the talent and feeling of the
engraver are chiefly displayed. He wastes not his time in mere
mechanical execution — which in the present day is often mistaken
for excellence; — he endeavours to give to each character its ap
propriate expression; and in this he appears to have succeeded
better, considering the small size of the cuts, than any other wood
engraver, either of tiraes past or present.
Though two or three of the cuts which wiU subsequently be
given raay be of rather earlier date than those of the Dance of
Death, it seeras preferable to give first some account of this cele
brated work ; and to introduce the cuts alluded to, though not in
strict chronological order, — which is the less necessary as they
do not illustrate the progress of the art, — with others executed
in a similar style.
Long before the publication of the work now so generally known
as " The Dance of Death," a series of paintings representing, in a
similar raanner, Death seizing on persons of all ranks and ages,
had appeared on the walls of several churches. A Dance of Death
was painted in the cloisters of the Church of the Innocents at
Paris, in the cloisters of St. Paul's, London, and in the portico
of St. Mary's, Lubec. The painting in St Paul's is said to have
been executed at the cost of one Jenkin Carpenter, who lived in
the reign ef Henry VI, and who was one of the executors of that
famous " lord-mayor of London," Richard Whittington ; and
Dugdale, in his History of St Paul's Cathedral, says that it was
in imitation of that in the cloisters of the Church of the Innocents
at Paris.* This subject seems to have been usually known in
' Besides those above-mentioned, there is said to have been a "Death's Dance"
at the foUowing places ; in Hungeiford's Chapel, Salisbury Cathedral ; Hexham
Church; at Fescarap in Normandy, carved in stone; at Dresden; Leipsic;
Annaberg; and Berne in Switzeriand. The last, painted on tlie walls of the
cloisters of the Dominican friars, was the work of Nicholas, Emanuel Deutsch,

WOOD ENGRAVING, 391
former tiraes by the name of " The Dance of Machabre," from a
French or German poet — for this point is not settled by the
learned — of the name of Macaber or Macabre, who is said to
have written a poem on this subject* The Dance of Death, how
ever, which as a painting has attained greater celebrity and given
rise to much more discussion than any other, is that which was
painted on the wall of a kind of court-house attached to the Church
of the Dominicans at Basle. This painting has frequently been
ascribed to Holbein ; but it certainly was executed before he was
born ; and there is not the slightest reason to believe that he ever
touched it in any of the repairs which it underwent in subsequent
years. The following particulars respecting this painting are such
as seera best authenticated.
It is said to owe its origin to a plague which ravaged the city
of Basle in 1439, during the tirae of the great council, which com
menced in 1431, and did not terminate till 1448. A number of
persons of almost all ranks, whora the council had brought to this
city, having fallen victiras to the plague, it is said that the paint-
previously mentioned at page 379. So early as 1560 this painting was destroyed
in consequence of the cloisters being pulled down to widen a street. There are
two copies of it in water-colours preserved at Berne. From one of them a series
of lithographic engravings has been made. An ample list of old paintings of this
subject will be found in Mr. Douce's Dance of Death, chapters iii. and iv, pub
lished by Pickering, 1833.
* Mr. Douce says, " Macaber was not a German or any other poet, but a non
entity." He supposes that the name Macaber is only a slight and obvious corrup
tion of Macarius, a Saint who lived as a hermit in Egypt, and of whom there is
a story of his showing to three kings or noblemen an emblem of mortality in the
shape of three skeletons. " The word Macabre," observes Mr. Douce, " is found
only in French authorities ; and the Saint's narae, which in the raodern orthography
is Macaire, would in raany ancient manuscripts, be written Macabre instead of
Macaure, the letter b being substituted for that of u from the caprice, ignorance,
or carelessness of transcribers.'' Mr. Douce's conjecture would have been more
feasible had he produced a single instance from any ancient manuscript of the
name having been written Macabre instead of Macaure or Macarius. By a sirailar
process of reasoning, it would not be difficult to prove a hundred old writers and
poets non-entities. In the eariiest French editions, the work is intitled " La Danse
Macabre ;" and in a Parisian edition, " Per Magistrura Guidonera Mercatorem pro
Godefrido de Marnef," folio, 1490, the title is as foUows : " Chorea ab eximio
Macabro versibus Alemauicis edita, et k Petro Desrey emendata." This
seems to prove that Peter Desrey knew something of a person named Macaber
who had written a description of the Dance in Gerraan verse, although Mr. Douce
raight not.

392 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
ing was executed in reraembrance of the event, and as a raeraento
of the uncertainty of life. Though it raay be true that the great
mortaUty at Basle in 1439 might have been the occasion of such
a picture in the church-court — Kirchhofe, as it is called by Hegner
in his Life of Holbein — of the Dorainicans in that city, it is ahnost
certain that the subject must have been suggested by one of much
earlier date painted on the walls of an old building which had
formerly been the cloisters of a nunnery which stood in that part
of Basle which is called the Little City. This convent was founded
in 1275; and the painting appears to have been executed in 1312,
according to the foUowing date, which was to be seen above one of
the figures, that of the Count, who was also one of the characters in
the painting in the church-court of the Dominicans : " 29U!$0fltt
jor trtflUntcrt unil Xii ¦' in English : One thousand three hun
dred and twelve. Several of the figures in this old painting were
almost the same as in that of the church-court of the Dominicans,
though executed in a coarser manner ; and, like the latter, were
accompanied with explanatory inscriptions in verse. This curious
old work^appears'to have reraained unnoticed till 1766, when one
Eraanuel Buchel,* of Basle, by trade a baker, but an admirer of
art, and an industrious draughtsman, had his attention directed
to it. He made a careful copy in colours of aU that then re
mained of it, and his drawings are now in the public Ubrary
of Basle. " This oldest Dance of Death," says Hegner, vmting in
1827, "is alraost entirely effaced, and becoraes daily raore so, as
well on account of age as from the cloisters of the old nunnery
having been for many years used as a warehouse for salt^f
It is supposed that the Dance of Death in the church-court
of the Dominicans at Basle was originally painted vafiesco or
distemper. The nuraber of characters, each accompanied by a
figure of Death, was originally forty;:): but in 1568, a pamter,
• Mr. Douce, at page 43, erroneously calls this person Ruchel,
t Hans Holbein der Jungere. Von Ulrich Hegner, S. 309, Berlin, 1827.
X AU the persons introduced were of the size of life. Death, in only one
instance, was'represented as a perfect skeleton, and that was in the subject of the
Doctor, whom he was supposed to address as follows :
" Wtt Doctot- b'BcQato Iti'e ^natoincj;
an ntir, ob Bie recjt fi'matllt sefi." That is

WOOD ENGRAVING, 393
naraed Hans Hugo Klauber, who was eraployed by the raagistrates
to repair the old painting, introduced a figure of the reforraer
Oecolarapadius as if preaching to the characters coraposing the
Dance, vrith ' portraits of hiraself, his wife, and their httle son, at
the end. It is probable that he painted over the old figures in
oil-colour, and introduced sundry alterations, suggested by other
paintings and engravings of the same subject. It appears likely
that, at the same time, many of the old inscriptions were
changed for others more in accordance with the doctrines of the
Reformation, which then prevailed at Basle. The verses above
the figure of the Pope were certainly not such as would have been
tolerated at the period when the subject is supposed to have been
first painted.* In 1616 the painting was again repaired; but,
though a Latin inscription was then added containing the names
of the magistrates who had thus taken care to preserve it, there
is no raention raade of any artist by whora the subject had been
originally painted or subsequently retouched. Had there been
any record of Holbein haring been at any tirae eraployed on the
work, such a circurastance would most likely have been noticed;
as his memory was then held in the highest estimation, and Basle
prided herself on haring had so eminent an artist enrolled among
the number of her citizens. In 1658 the painting was again
renewed : and there seems reason to beUeve that further altera-
That is : " Doctor, take of me a sight, —
Say if the skeleton be right."
It has been said that the Pope, the Emperor, and the King, were intended respec
tively for portraits of Pope FeUx V, the Emperor Sigismund, and Albert II, his
successor, as King of the Romans, This, however, is merely a conjecture, and not
a very probable one. Sigisraund died before the commencement of the plague
which is said to have been the occasion of the painting.
• Those verses, as they appeared in later times, are as follows :
" ^eilig toaB icf) au(( «Brli jenant
©tn ®ott Her JbttiBt Ciijrt icID tatin BtanU,
3ier ailass tjet mir ffar tool lo^nen
ilocS toill tier tolr tnein niejt berBcSonen,"
Their meaning may be thus expressed in English :
" His Holiness, on earth my name ;
Frora God my power never came ;
Although by pardons wealth I got.
Death, alas, will pardon not !"

394 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
tions were then introduced both in the costurae and the colouring.
It was retouched in 1 703 ; but from that time, as the paint began
to peel off frora the decaying waUs, all attempts for its further
preservation appear to have been considered hopeless. It would
indeed seem to have becorae in a great measure disregarded by
the magistrates, for a rope-maker used to exercise his trade under
the roof that protected it from the weather. As the old wall stood
much in the way of new buildings, it is not unlikely that they
might be rather wishful to have it removed. In 1805 the magis
trates pronounced sentence against the Dance of Death, and the
wall on which it was painted was by their orders pulled down,
though not without considerable opposition on the part of raany
of the citizens, more especially those of the suburb of St John,
within which the old church-court of the Dominicans stood.
Several pieces of the painting were collected, and are stiU pre
served at Basle as memorials of the old " Todten-tanz," which
was forraerly an object of curiosity with all strangers who risited
the city, and which has been so frequently the subject of discussion
in the history of art.
Mr. Douce has given a Ust of raany books containing the figures
of a Dance of Death printed before the celebrated Simulachres
et Histori^es Faces de la Mort of Lyons, 1538 ; and among the
principal the following may be here enumerated.* — A German
edition, intitled " Der Dodtendanz mit figuren. Clage und Antwort
schon von aUen staten der Welt" This work, which is small foho,
is raentioned in Braun's Notitia Ubrorura in BibUotheca ad SS.
Udalricum et Afram Augustse, vol. U. p. 62. It is without date,
but Braun supposes that it may have been printed between
1480 and 1500. It consists of twenty-two leaves, with wood-cuts of
the Pope, Cardinal, Bishop, Abbot, &c. &c. accompanied by figures
of Death. The descriptions are in Gerraan verse, and printed in
double colurans. — The earliest printed book on this subject with
a date is intitled "La Danse Macabre imprimee par ung norarae
Guy Marchand," &c. Paris, 1485, smaU folio. In 1486 Guy
Marchand,— or Guyot Marchant, as he is also called,— printed an
other edition, "La Danse Macabre nouvelle," with several addi-
•• Mr. Douce's list is chiefly extracted from M. Peignot's " Recherches histo
riques et litteraires sur les Danses des Morts," Paris et Dijon, 1826, Svo.

, WOOD ENGRAVING. 395
tional cuts ; and in the same year he printed " La Danse Macabre
des Ferames," a small foUo of fifteen leaves. This is the first
edition of the Macaber Dance of females. Thirty-two subjects
are described, but there are only cuts of two, the Queen and the
Duchess. In 1490 an edition appeared with the following title:
" Chorea ab eximio Macabro versibus Alemanicis edita, et a
Petro Desrey eraendata. Parisiis, per raagistrura Guidonera Merca
torem [Guy Marchand] pro Godefrido de Marnef." In the same
year Marchand printed another edition of " La nouvelle Danse
Macabre des Hommes ;" and in the year following there appeared
frora his press a second edition of " La Danse Macabre des
Ferames," with cuts of all the characters and other additions. A
Dance of Death, according to Von der Hagen, in his Deutsche
Poesie, p. 459, was printed at Leipsic in 1496 ; and in 1499 a
" Grande Danse Macabre des Hommes et Ferames" was printed in
foho at Lyons. The latter is supposed to be the earUest that
contains cuts of both men and women. About 1500, Ant. Verard
printed an edition, in folio, of the Danse Macabre at Paris ; and in
various years between 1500 and 1530 a work with the same title
and similar cuts was printed at Paris, Troyes, Rouen, Lyons, and
Geneva. Besides those works, characters frora the Dance of Death
were frequently introduced as incidental illustrations in books of
devotion, raore especially in those usually denominated Horse or
Hours of the Virgin, and printed in France.*
* Several characters are to be found in those Dances of Death which do not
occur in the Simulachres et Historiees Faces de la Mort of Lyons, 1538. In the
preface to the Emblems of Mortality, — with wood-cuts by John Bewick, 1789, —
written by John Sidney Hawkins, Esq. the foUowing list is given of tbe cuts in
an edition of " La grande Danse de Macabre des Homraes et Ferames," 4to.
printed at Troyes for John Garnier, but without a date. " The Pope, Emperor,
Cardinal, King, Legate, Duke, Patriarch, Constable, Archbishop, Knight, Bishop,
Squire, Abbot, Bailiff, Astrologer, Burgess, Canon, Merchant, Schoolmaster, Man
of Arras, Chartreux, Serjeant, Monk, Usurer, Physician, Lover, Advocate, Minstrel,
Curate, Labourer, Proctor, Gaoler, Pilgrim, Shepherd, Cordelier, Child, Clerk,
Hermit, Adventurer, Fool. The women are the Queen, Duchess, Regent's Wife,
Knight's Wife, Abbess, Squire's Wife, Shepherdess, Cripple, Burgess's Wife,
Widow, Merchant's Wife, Bailiifs Wife, Young Wife, Dainty Dame, Female
Philosopher, New-married Wife, Woman with Child, Old Maid, Feraale Cordelier,
Chambermaid, Intelligence-Woman, Hostess, Nurse, Prioress, Damsel, Country
Giri, Old Chambermaid, Huckstress, Strumpet, Nurse for Lying-in Woman, Young
Giri, Religious, Sorceress, Bigot, Fool." Nearly the sarae characters occur in

396 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
The celebrated « Dance of Death," the cuts of which have been
so generally ascribed to Hans Holbein as the engraver as well as
designer, was first published at Lyons, in 1538. It is of small
quarto size, and the title is as follows : " Les simulachres &
Historiees faces de la Mort, autant elegammet pourtraictes, que
artificiallement imaginees. A Lyon, Soubz I'escu de Coloigne.
M.D.XXXVIII." On the title-page is an emblematic wood-cut, very
indifferently executed, representing three heads joined together,
with a wreath above them ; the middle one a full face, and those
on each side in profile. Instead of shoulders, the heads, or busts,
are provided with a pair of wings of peacock's feathers ; they rest
on a kind of pedestal, on which is also an open book inscribed with
the maxira, " rNoei seayton." A large serpent is seen confined by
the raiddle in a hole which must be supposed to pass through the
pedestal; and to it (the pedestal) are chained two globes, — one
surmounted by a sraall cross, like the erablem of imperial authority,
and the other haring two wings. This erableraatic cut, which is
certainly not "I'escu de Coloigne," is accompanied with the motto
" Usus me Genuit."* At the conclusion of the book is the imprint,
within an ornaraental wood-cut border : " excvdebant lvgdvbi
MELCHIOR ET GASPAR TRECHSEL FRATRES. 1538." The title is
succeeded by a preface, of six pages, which is followed by seven
pages more, descriptive of " diverses tables de Mort, non painctes,
mais extraictes de Tescripture saincte, colorees par Docteurs Eccle-
siastiques, et umbragees par Philosophes." After those verbal
sketches of Death corae the cuts, one on each page; and they are
succeeded by a series of descriptions of death and reflections on
raortality, the general title to which, coraraencing at signature H,
is, " Figures de la Mort raoralement descriptes, & depeinctes selon
I'authorite de I'scripture, & des sainctz Peres."
By far the most important passage in the book, at least so far

borders ofthe old Dutch Prayer Book mentioned at page 383, though in the latter
they are yet more numerous ; among the men there is a fowler — vogelaer — and
among the women, the beauty — scone — and the old woman — aide vrou — which do
not occur in the preceding Ust.
• It has been thought necessary to be thus particular in describing tlie title-
page of this rare edition, as it is incorrectly described by Mr. Douce. In the copy
ill the British Museura the title-page is wanting.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 397
as relates to the designer or engraver of the cuts, occurs in the
preface, which is written rauch in the style of a pedantic father-
confessor to a nunnery who felt a pleasure in ornaraenting his
Christian discourses and exhortations vrith the flowers of Pagan
eloquence. The preface is addressed, " A moult reverende Abbesse
du religieux convent S. Pierre de Lyon, Madame Jehanne de Tous-
zele, Salut dun vray Zele,"* and the passage above raentioned is to
the following effect. " But to return to our figured representations
of Death, we have greatly to regret the death of hira who has
imagined such elegant figures as are herein contained, as much
excelUng all those heretofore printed,! ^^ t^^ pictures of Apelles or
of Zeuxis surpass those of modern times ; for, his funereal histories,
with their gravely versified descriptions, excite such admiration in
beholders, that the figures of Death appear to thera most Ufe-Uke,
while those of the Uving are the very pictures of mortaUty. It
therefore seems to me that Death, fearing that this excellent
painter would paint him in a manner so Uvely, that he should
be no longer feared as Death, and, apprehensive that the artist
would thus become iraraortal, deterrained to shorten his days, and
thus prevent him finishing other subjects which he had already
drawn. Araong these is one of a waggoner, knocked down and
crushed under his broken waggon, the wheels and horses of which
appear so frightfully shattered and maimed that it is as fearful
to see their overthrow as it is amusing to behold the liquorishness
of a figure of Death, who is perceived roguishly sucking the wine
out of a broken cask, by means of a reed. To such imperfect
* This " vray Zele " having said in the first page of the preface that the name
and surname of the revered abbess had the same sound as his own, with the
exception of the letter T, the editor of the Erablems conjectures " that his name
was Jean, or, as it was anciently written, Jehan de Ouszell, or Ozell as it is
now usually spelt."
f In the original, " avancantes autat les patronies jusques ici." The word
patronies, I conceive to refer to cuts printed from wood-blocks. The editor of
the Embleras, 1988, who is foUowed by Mr. OtUey, translated the passage, "ex
ceeding all the examples hitherto.'' Works executed by means of a stencil were in
old French said to be patronies, and the word also appears to have been appUed to
impressions printed from wood-blocks. The verb patroner is thus explained in
Noel and Chapsal's Nouveau Dictionnaire de la Langue Fraufaise, Paris, 1828 :
" Terme de cartier : enduire de couleur, au raoyen du patron 6vidd, les endroits ou
cette couleur doit paraitre."

398 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
subjects, as to the inimitable heavenly bow named Iris,* no one has
ventured to put the last hand, on account of the bold drawing,
perspectives, and shadows contained in this inimitable chef d'oeuvre,
there so gracefuUy delineated, that from it we raay derive a pleasing
sadness and a raelancholy pleasure, as in a thing mournfully
delightful." The cut of the waggoner, described by the French
euphuist, was, however, afterwards finished, and, with others,
inserted in a subsequent edition of the work.
The number of cuts in the first edition, now under exaraination,
is forty-one ; above each is a text of Scripture, in Latin ; and below
are four verses in French — the " descriptions severeraent rithraees,"
raentioned in the preface — containing some raoral or reflection ger-
raane to the subject. A few sets of irapressions of aU those cuts,
except one, appear to have been taken before the work appeared at
Lyons. They have been printed by means of a press, — not taken
by friction in the raanner in which wood engravers usuaUy take
their proofs, — and at the top of each cut is the narae in the Ger
man language, but in Italic type. " Why those Gerraan naraes,"
says Hegner, "in a work which, so far as we know, was first
pubUshed at Lyons ? They appear to confirra the opinion of the
cuts having been actuaUy engraved at Basle ; and the descriptions
correspond with the dialect of that city." The late Mr. Ottley had
impressions of forty of those original cuts, and six of those which
were inserted in a later edition. In the Inqufry into the Origin
and Early History of Engraving, Mr. Ottley, speaking of the Dance
of Death, says : " It is certain that the cuts had been preriously
printed at Basle ; and, indeed, some writers assert that the work
was pubUshed in that city, with texts of Scripture, in the Gerraan
language, above the cuts, and verses, in the sarae language, under
neath, as early as 1530 ; although, hitherto, I have been unable to
meet with or hear of any person who had seen a copy of such an
edition." In a note upon this passage, Jansen, the compUer of an
Essay on the Origin of Engraving, and the anonymous author of
a work entitled Notices sur les Graveurs, Besancon, 1807, are
cited as mentioning such an edition. To give every one his due,
• Mr. Douce supposes that the rainbow here alluded to was tliat which appears
in the cut of the Last Judgraent, the last but one in the first edition. The writer
evidently raeans the natural rainbow which is raostly seeu imperfect.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 399
however, and to show the original authority for the existence of
such an edition, I beg here to give an extract from Papillon, who
never felt any difficulty in supposing a date, and whose con
jectures such writers as Jansen have felt as little hesitation in
converting into certainties. The substance of Papillon's observa
tions on this point is as follows : " But to return to Holbein's
Dance of Death, which is unquestionably a master-piece of wood
engraving. There are several editions; the first of which, so far as
may be judged, ought to be about 1530, as has been already said,*
and was printed at Basle or Zurich, with a title to each cut, and,
I believe, verses underneath, all in the Gerraan language." What
Papillon puts forth as a raatter of conjecture and opinion, Von
Murr, Jansen, and the author of the Notices sur les Graveurs,
promulgate as facts, and Mr. Ottley refers to the two latter writers
as if he were well inclined to give credit to their assertions.
From the following passage it would appear that Mr, Ottley had
also been wilUng to beUeve that those irapressions raight have been
accorapanied with explanatory verses and texts of Scripture. " I
have only to add, upon the subject of this celebrated work, that
I am myself the fortunate possessor of forty pieces, (the coraplete
series of the first edition, excepting one,) which are printed with
the greatest clearness and briUiancy of effect, on one side of the
paper only ; each cut having over it its title, printed in the Ger
raan language with raoveable type. It is possible that they raay
originally have had verses underneath, and texts of Scripture above,
in addition to the tities just mentioned : but as the margins are
cUpped on the sides and at bottora, it is now irapossible to ascertain
the fact"!
» Traits de la Gravure en Bois, tora, i, p, 168. PapiUon in a preceding page
had observed : " These cuts raust have been engraved about 1530, for we find the
four first araong the little figures ofthe Old Testaraent printed in 1539, from which
it is easy to perceive that many thousand irapressions had already been taken frora
the blocks." — Those four cuts in the first edition of the Dance of Death, have not
the slightest appearance of having been from blocks that had already furnished
many thousand impressions. In the copy now before me, I cannot perceive a
break or an imperfection in the most delicate lines. The first edition of the
" Historiarum Veteris Testamenti Icones," to which PapiUon alludes, first appeared
in the same year as the Simulachres, 1538, and from the office of the sarae pub
lishers, the brothers Melchior and Gaspar Trechsel.
t Inquiiy into the Origin and Early History of Engraving, vol. ii. p, 762.

400

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

Had the forty impressions in question been accompanied with
verses and texts of Scripture, they certainly raight be consi
dered as having belonged to an earlier edition of the work than
that of 1538, and for the existence of which Mr. Ottley has referred
to the testiraony of Jansen and the editor of the Notices sur les
Graveurs, printed at Besancon. There is, however, a set of those
cuts preserved in the public library at Basle, which seems clearly
to prove that they had only been taken as specimens without any
further accorapaniraent than the titles. They are printed on four
foho leaves, on only one side of the paper, and there are ten cuts
on each page; the title, in the Gerraan language, and in Itahc
type, like Mr. Ottley's, is printed ahove each; and the sarae cut
— that of the astrologer — is also wanting. Frora these circura
stances there can scarcely be a doubt that the set forraerly be
longing to Mr. Ottley * had been printed in the same manner, and
that each impression had subsequently been cut out, perhaps for
the purpose of mounting thera singly. The foUowing are the
titles given to those cuts, and to each is subjoined a Uteral trans
lation. They are nurabered as they follow each other in Les
Simulachres et Historiees Faces de la Mort, 1538, which
perhaps raay not be incorrectly expressed by the English title,
" Pictorial and Historical Portraits of Death."

1. Die fchopfung aller ding —
The creation of all things.
2. Adam Eua im Paradyfs —
Adam and Eve in Para
dise.
3. Vestribung Ade Eue — The
driving out of Adam and
Eve.

4. Adam bawgt die erden —
Adam cultivates the
earth.
5. Gebeyn aller menschen, —
Skeletons of all men.
6. Der Bapst — The Pope.
7. Der Keyser — The Emperor.
8. Der Kunig — The King.

• Those cuts, with that of the astrologer and five others, supplied from a later
edition, were bought, at the sale of Mr. Ottley's prints, in 1837, for the British
Museum, for £37, 10«. In the catalogue, which, I understand, was chiefly drawn
up from his own memoranda, they are thus described, under the head " Hans
Holbein," No. 458: "The celebuated Dance of Death, first impressions,
printed (probably at Basle, about 1530,) upon one side only, with Gerraan titles
at the top in type; supposed to be unique." That they were printed in 1530 is
highly improbable, and they certainly are not unique.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

401

9. Der Cardinal — The Cardi-
nal.
10. Die Keyserinn — The Era-
press.
11. DieKUniginn — The Queen.
12. Der Bischoff— The Bishop.
13. Der Hertzog— The Duke.
14. Der Apt— The Abbot
15. DieAptissinn — The Abbess.
16. Der Edelman— The Noble-
raan.
17. DerThiimherr — The Canon,
18. Der Richter — The Judge.
19. Der Filrsprdch — The Ad
vocate.
20. Der Ratfsherr — The Magis
trate.
21. DerPredicant — The Preach
ing Friar.
22. DerPfarrherr — The Parish-
priest
23. Der Munch— The Monk.
24. Die Nunne — The Nun.
25. Dass Altweyb— The Old
Woraan.

26. Der Artzet— The Doctor.
27. (Wanting in the speciraens.)
The Astrologer.
28. Der Rychman — The Rich
Man.
29. Der Kauffman— The Mer
chant.
30, Der Schifiman — The Sailor.
31. Der Ritter— The Knight
32. Der Groff— The Count
33. Der Alt man — The Old
Man.
34. Die Greffinn —The Coun
tess.
35. Die Edelfraw — The Lady.
36. Die Hertzoginn — The
Duchess.
37. Der Kramer — The Pedlar.
38. Der Ackerman — The Farraer.
39. Das lung Kint — The
Young Child.
40. Z)as lUngst gericht — The
Last Judgraent.
41, Die wapen des Thotfs —
Death's coatof-arms.

In 1542 a second edition of the Dance of Death, with the same
cuts as the first, was pubUshed at Lyons, " Soubz Tescu de Co
loigne," by John and Francis Frellon, who appear to have suc
ceeded to the business of the brothers Trechsel, — if, indeed, the
latter were not raerely the printers of the first edition. In a third
etUtion, with the title Imagines Mortis, 1545, the verses underneath
each cut are in Latin.* A cut of a lame beggar, which has no
relation to the Dance of Death, is introduced as a tail-piece to

• The French verses were translated into Latin by George .Simylius, " an
eminent German divine of Mansfelt," says Mr, Douce, " and the author of many
pious works." 2 D

W2 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
one of the discourses on death — Cypriani Serrao de MortaUtate
— at the end of the volume ; but it is neither designed nor exe
cuted in the same style as the others.
In a fourth edition, with the title "Imagines Mortis,"* 1547,
eleven additional cuts are introduced ; naraely : 1. Death fighting
with a soldier in Svriss costurae ; 2. Garablers, with a figure of
Death, and another of the Devil; 3. Drunkards, with a figure
of Death ; 4. The Fool, with a figure of Death playing on the bag
pipes ; 5, The Robber seized by Death ; 6. The BUnd Man and
Death ; 7. The Waggoner and Death ; 8. Children, one of whom is
borne on the shoulders of the others as a conqueror triuraphing ;
9. A child with a shield and dart; 10. Three children; one riding
on an arrow, another on a bow, as on a hobby-horse, the third carry
ing a hare over his shoulder, suspended from a hunting pole ;
11. Children as Bacchanahans. The last four subjects have no
relation to a Dance of Death, but have eridently been introduced
merely to increase the number of the cuts ; they are, however,
beautifully designed and well engraved. This edition contains
twelve more cuts, reckoning the tail-piece of the Lame Beggar,
than the first Another edition, forraing the fifth, was also pub
lished in 1547 under the title of " Les Images de la Mort" with
French verses, as in the edition of 1538. The number of cuts is
the sarae as in the edition of 1547 with Latin verses, and the title
" Iraagines Mortis," or " Icones Mortis."
In 1549, a sixth edition, with the same nuraber of cuts as the
last, was pubUshed, under the title of " Sunolachri, Historic, e
Figure de la Morte," vrith the letter-press in ItaUan, vrith the ex
ception of the texts of Scripture, which were in Latin, as in the
others. In the preface, John Frellon — whose name appears alone
in the edition of 1547, and in those of subsequent years —
complains of a piracy of the book, which was printed at Venice
in 1545, with fac-simUes of the cuts of the first edition. « Frellon,
by way of revenge," says Mr. Douce, " and to save the trouble
of making a new translation of the articles that compose the
• Some copies have the title " Icones Mortis ;" and though they correspond in
every other respect with those of the same year, intiUed Imagines Mortis, Mr-
Douce seeras to consider that this trifling variation is a sufiicient ground for
describing thera as diff'erent editions.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 403
volume, made use of that of his Italian competitor."* A seventh
edition, vrith the title " Icones Mortis," and containing fifty-three
cuts, appeared, without any printer's name, in 1554.
In an eighth edition, 1562, with the title " Les Images de la Mort,
auxquelles sont adjoustees dix-sept figures," five additional cuts
are introduced, thus making seventeen more than are contained in
the first. The total number of cuts in the edition of 1562 is fifty-
eight ; and that of the Larae Beggar, which first appeared as a tail
piece in the edition of 1545, has now a place among the others in the
body of the book. The subjects of the five new cuts are : 1. The
Husband, with a figure of Death ; 2. The Wife, — Death leading a
young woman by the hand, preceded by a young man playing on
a kind of giutar ; 3. Children as part of a triumph, one of them
as a warrior on horseback ; 4. Three children ; one with a trophy
of arraour, another carrying a vase and a shield, the third seated
naked on the ground ; 5. Children with rausical instruments. The
subjects of children are designed and executed in the same style as
those first introduced in the edition of 1547. The last pf those
five new cuts does not appear in regular order with the other fifty-
seven ; but is given as a tail-piece at the end of a preface to a devo
tional tract — La Medicine de I' Ame — in the latter part of the book.
Mr. Douce mentions another edition with the date 1574. He, how
ever, observes in a note : " This edition is given on the authority
of Peignotjf page 62, but has not been seen by the author of this
work. In the year 1547 there were three editions, and it is not
improbable that by the transposition of the two last figures, one
of these might have been intended." As one of Mr. Douce's three
editions of 1547 differs only from another of the same date by
haring " Icones" instead of " Imagines" in the title-page, he might
as consistently have clairaed a fourth for the same year on the
ground of a probable transposition of 74 for 47. All the authentic
editions of the " Dance of Death," preriously noticed, were pub
lished at Lyons. The first, as has been already observed, was in
* Dance of Death, p, 107, Edit. 1833. It is stated in the Italian piracy
that it was printed " Con gratia e privilegio de I'lllustriss. Senato Vinitiano, per
anni died, ^ppresso Vincenzo Vaugris, al Segno d'Erasmo. mdxlv,''
t Author ofthe work intitled, "Recherches sur les Danses des Morts." Dijon
et Paris, 1826.
2 D 2

4-04 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
small quarto ; the others are described by Mr. Douce as being in
duodecimo ; but in this point he is incorrect, for if the signatures
be referred to, it will be found that the forra is octavo. In a
Dutch Dance of Death, intitled " De Doodt verraaskert met
swerelts ydelheit" duodecimo, Antwerp, 1654, fourteen ofthe cuts,
according to Mr. Douce, were from the original blocks which had
been used in the Lyons editions.
It seems probable that the earhest copies of the cuts in " Les
Simulachres et Historiees Faces de la Mort," or Dance of Death,
as the work is raore frequently caUed, appeared in a small folio,
intitled " Todtentantz," printed at Augsburg in 1544, by " Jobst
Denecker, Formschneyder." As I have never seen a copy of this
edition, I take the liberty of extracting the following notice of it
from Mr. Douce : " This edition is not only valuable from its
extreme rarity, but for the very accurate and spirited manner in
which the fine original cuts are copied. It contains aU the subjects
that were then pubUshed, but not arranged as those had been.
It has the addition of one singular print, intitled ' Der Eebrecher,'
i. e. the Adulterer, representing a man discovering the adulterer
in bed with his wife, and plunging his sword through both of them.
Death guiding his hands. On the opposite page to each en
graving there is a dialogue between Death and the party, and at
bottora a Latin hexaraeter. The subject of the Pleader has the
unknown raark 9V| ; and on that of the Duchess in bed, there
is the date 1542."* Mr. Douce is of opinion that the "Jobst
Denecker, Formschneyder" who appears as the printer, was the same
person as Jobst or Jost de Negker, the wood engraver whose name
is at the back of one of the cuts of the Triumphal Procession
of MaxiraUian. — The next copy of the work is that intitled
" Simolachri, Historic, e Figure de la Morte," Venice, 1545, the
piracy coraplained of by Frellon in his Italian edition of 1549.
It contains forty-one cuts, as in the first Lyons edition of 1538.
There is no variation in the figures ; but the expression of the
faces is frequently lost, and the general execution of the whole
is greatiy inferior to that of the originals. Another edition, in
Latin, was pubUshed in 1546 ; and Mr. Douce says that there
are impressions of the cuts on single sheets, at the bottom of
• Dance of Death, p, 118. Edit. 1833.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 405
one of which is the date 1568. — In 1555, an edition with the title
" Iraagines Mortis," with fifty-three cuts, similar to those in the
* Lyons edition of 1547, was published at Cologne by the heirs of
Arnold Birkman, Cologne, 1555; and there are four other editions
of the sarae work, respectively dated 1557, 1566, 1567, and 1572.
Alterations are raade in some of those cuts; in five of them the
raark ^ is introduced ; and in the cut of the Duchess the raark
[L, seen on the bed-frame in the original, is omitted. All the
alterations are for the worse; sorae of the figures seera like cari
catures of the originals; and the cuts generally are, in point of
execution, very inferior to those in the Lyons editions. The
narae of the artist to whora the mark j£ belongs is unknown.
In the preface to the Emblems of Mortality, 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 Papillon,
who, according to Mr. Douce, has converted the owner of this
mark into a cardinal. Papillon, it would seem, had observed it on
the cuts of an edition of Faemo's Fables — printed at Antwerp,
1567, and dedicated to Cardinal Borromeo by Silvio Antoniano,
professor of Belles Lettres at Rome, afterwards a cardinal him
self — and without hesitation he concluded that the editor was the
engraver.* The last of the editions published in the sixteenth
century with wood-cuts copied frora the Lyons work, appeared at
Wittemberg in 1590.
Various editions of the Dance of Death, with copper-plate en
grarings, generally copied frora the work published at Lyons, are
enuraerated by Mr. Douce, but only one of thera seeras to re
quire notice here. Between 1647 and 1651 HoUar etched thirty
subjects from the Dance of Death, introducing occasionally a
few alterations. From a careful exaraination of those etchings,
• Mr. Douce gives another amusing instance of Papillon's sagacity in assign
ing marks and names to their proper owners. " He (Papillon) had seen an edition
of the Emblems of Sambucus with cuts, bearing the mark j£, 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 erablems, which has also the dog, he concludes
that all the cuts which have not the ^f^ were engraved by the same Bombo." —
Dance of Death, p. 114, 1833. Those blunders of PapiUon are to be found in his
Traite Historique et Pratique de la Gravure en Bois, tom. i. pp. 238 et 525.

406 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
I ara incUned 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 HoUar's thirty etchings haring corae into
the possession of Mr. James Edwards, formerly a bookseller in
PaU-Mall, he published an edition in duodecimo, vrithout date, but
about 1794,* with prehminary observations on the Dance of Death,
written by the late Mr, F. Douce. Those prelimmary observations
are the germ of Mr. Douce's beautiful and more bulky volurae, pub
hshed by W. Pickering in 1833. As Petrarch's amatory sonnets
and poems have been called " a labour of Love," with equal pro
priety 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. A considerable
portion of the work, however, is scarcely raore interesting than a
catalogue raisonne which should contain an enuraeration of all the
tombstones in England and Wales that are ornamented with those
standard " Embleras of Mortality," — skull, thigh-bones in saltfre,
and hour-glass. In his last " Opus Magnura 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 diUgence of the coUector
of little things ; but no eridences of a mind that could make them
available to a useful end. He is at once sceptical and credulous ;
he denies that any poet of the name of Macaber ever Uved ; and yet
he believes, on the sole authority of one T. Nieuhoff Piccard, whose
existence is as doubtful as Macaber's, that Holbein painted a Dance
of Death as large as Ufe, in fresco, in the old palace at Whitehall.
Having now given a Ust of all the authentic editions of the Dance
of Death and of the principal copies of it, I shall next, before saying
anything about the supposed designer or engraver, lay before the
reader a few specimens of the original cuts. It is, however, neces-
• 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.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 407
sary to say that the copies are very much inferior to the originals,
and that they afford rather an idea of the character of the design
than of the excellence of the engraving. 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 their fine
originals." Now, without any intention of depreciating the abilities
of the engravers by whom the cuts in Mr. Douce's work were exe
cuted, I most positively pronounce thera to be very much inferior
to the originals, and more especiaUy in the heads and hands, with
the execution of which they will not for a moment bear a com
parison. The wonderfully fine and natural expression of the faces,
which constitutes the chief excellence of the original cuts, is often
entirely lost ; and in every one of the copies is iraitated in a very
inferior style. In this respect the wood-cuts of the first Lyons
edition of the Dance of Death are unrivalled by any other produc
tions of the art of wood engraving, either in past or present tiraes.
In the present day, when mere delicacy of cutting in the modern
French taste is often raistaken for good engraring, there are doubt
less raany professed adrairers of the art who fancy that there would
be no difficulty in finding a wood engraver who might be fully
corapetent to accurately copy the originals in the first edition
of the Dance of Death. The experiraent, 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 exceUence
of the former will appear stiU more decidedly than when riewed
with the naked eye.
The foUovring cut is a copy of the same size as the original,
which is the second of the Dance of Death, of the edition of 1538.
The subject is Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden fruit ; and
in the series of early irapressions, forraerly Mr. Ottley's, but now
in the Print Roora of the British Museura, it is intitled " Adam
Eva im Paradyss" — Adam and Eve in Paradise. The serpent,
as in many other old engrarings, as weU 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 similar type.

408

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

Quia audifti vocem vxoris tuae,& comedifti
de ligno ex quo preceperam tibi ne come=
deres &c.

GENESIS

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A D A M fut par E V E deceu
Et contre D I E V mangea la potnm
Dont tous deux ont la Mort receu,
Et depuis fut mortel tout homme, C
WOOD ENGRAVING. 409
In the two first cuts, which represent the Creation of 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 belong
ing to Mr. Ottley, but now in the British Museura, all the figures
are skeletons ; one of thera is seen beating a pair of kettle
drums, while others are sounding trumpets, as if rejoicing in the
power which had been given to Death in consequence of the fall
of man. The text above this cut are, " Vae vse vse habitantibus in
terra. Apocalypsis viii ;" and " Cuncta in quibus spiraculum vitse
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 eraperor, 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 wapen des Thofss. On an escutcheon,
which is rent in several places, is a death's-head, with something
like a large worm proceeding from the mouth ; above the
escutcheon, a barred helmet, seen in front like that of a sove
reign prince, is probably intended to represent the power of
Death; the crest is a pair of fleshless arras holding something
hke a large stone imraediately above an hour-glass ; on the dexter
side of the escutcheon stands a gentleman, who seems to be caUing
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 highest partly shaded by a cloud. The appropriate
text is, "Memorare novissima, et in aeternura non peccabis. Eccle.
VII ;" and the following are the verses underneath :

410 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
" Si tu veulx vivre sans pech^
Voy ceste imaige a tous propos,
Et point ne seras empesch^
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 all ranks and conditions,
mocking them, seizing them, slaying them, or merrily leading them
to their end, is thirty-seven.

Spiritus meus attenuabitur, dies mihi bre^
viabuntur, & folum mihi fupereft fepuU
chrum.

IGB

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 thfrty-third, the Old Man—
Der Alt mun — whom Death leads in confiding imbeciUty to the
grave, while he pretends to support him and to amuse him with
the music of a dulcimer. The text and verses are given as they
stand in the original.

WOOD ENGRAVING, 411
The following 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 puUing off the coverlet, while the other treats her to a tune on
the violin. On the frame of the bed, or couch, to the left, near
De lectulo fuper quem afcendis
fti non defcendes, fed morte
morieris,
IIII REG, I

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Du lict fus lequel as mont6
Ne defcendras a ton plaifir.
Car Mort t'aura tantoft dompt^,
Et en brief te uiendra faifir.
the bottom of the cut, is seen the mark fL* which has not a little
increased the difficulty of arriving at any clear and unquestionable
conclusion vrith respect to the designer or engraver of those cuts.
The text and the verses are given literally, as in the two preceding
specimens. The following cut, the Child — Das lung Kint — ^is a copy of the

412 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
thirty-ninth, and the last but two in the original edition. Death
having been represented in the preceding cuts as beguiling men
and women in court and council-chamber, in bed-room and hall,
in street and field, by sea and by land, is here represented as
visiting the dilapidated cottage of the poor, and, while the mother
is engaged in cooking, seizing her youngest child.
Homo natus de muliere, brevi vivens tempore
repletur multis miferiis, qui quafi Acs eg;re=
ditur, & conteritur, & fugit velut umbra.
JOB X I I I I

Tout homme de la femme yffant
Remply de mifere, & d'encornbre,
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 men
tioned as being left unfinished, in the prefatory address to Madame
Jehanne de Touszele in the first edition, 1538, it wUl be per
ceived that the description which is there given of it is not

WOOD ENGRAVING.

413

correct, and hence arises a doubt if the writer had actually 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
raeans of a reed.* In the cut itself, however, the waggoner is seen
standing, wringing his hands as if in despair on account of the
II cheut en son chariot.
I. ROIS IX.

Au passage de MORT perverse
Raison, Chartier tout esperdu,
Du corps le char, & chevaux verse,
Le vin (sang de vie) esperdu.

accident, and a figure of Death,— for there are two in this cut,
— instead of sucking the wine, appears to be engaged in un-
* Mr, Douce, vfhen correcting the raistake of the writer of the address, commits
an error himself. He says that " Death is in the act of untwisting the fastening
to one of the 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.

414 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
doing 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
treated as in most of those in the edition of 1538 ; and it is also
not so well engraved. — The text and verses annexed are from the
edition of 1562. II sera perce de sagettes.
EXOD, XIX.

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.
Of the eleven additional cuts inserted in the edition of 1547,
there are four of children, which, as has afready been observed
in page 402, have not the sUghtest connection with the Dance
of Death. The above is a copy of one of them. The editor
seems to have found no difficulty in providing the subject with

WOOD ENGRAVING.

415

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 raore 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 similar character
to the four cuts of children first inserted in the edition of 1547.
II partira les despoilles avec les puissans.
ISAIE LIII,

Pour les victoires triumph^es
Sur les plus forts des humains cceurs,
Les despoilles dresse en trophies
La MORT vaincresse des vainqueurs.

All the seven cuts of children have been eridently 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 above is a copy of one of the three which were inserted
in the edition of 1562.

416 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
Having now given what, perhaps, may be considered a suffi
ciently ample account of the Lyons Dance of Death, it next
appears necessary to make some enquiries respecting the designer
of the cuts. UntU the pubUcation of Mr. Douce's observations,
prefixed to the edition of Hollar's etchings frora those cuts, by
Edwards, about 1794, scarcely any writer who mentions them
seeras to entertain a doubt of their having been designed by
Holbein ; and Papillon, in his usual raanner, claims him as a
wood engraver, and unhesitatingly declares that not only the cuts
of the Lyons Dance of Death, but all the other cuts which are
generally 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 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
iraagine si elegantes figures."
The sura of Mr. Douce's objections to Holbein being the de
signer 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 fo which it is prefixed, as the first ; and what is of stiU
more importance, to deprive Holbein of any claim to the invention
of the work. It raost certainly uses such terras of art as can
scarcely be raistaken as conveying any other sense than that of
originaUty of design. There cannot be words of plainer import

* In Bryan's Dictionary of Painters, in the article Hans Holbein, is the follow
ing notice of that artist as a wood engraver ; it is scarcely necessary to say that
there is no foundation for believing that Holbein engraved the cuts of the Dance of
Death, or indeed any others. The notice is a tissue of figments and blunders.
" As an engraver on wood, Holbein deserves particular notice. He is said to have
begun to practise that art as early as 1511, when he was thirteen years of age, and,
before his departure from Switzerland, had executed a great number of wooden
cuts. In these he was employed by the most celebrated publishers of his time, at
Basle, Zuric, Lyons, and at Leyden. Of his productions as an engraver, the raost
remarkable are the following: A set oi wooden cuts, known by the name of Death's
Dance, engraved from his own designs ; when complete, it consists of fifty-three
prints, though it is seldom to be met with above forty-six. They are small upright
prints surrounded by a border."

WOOD ENGRAVING, 417
than those which describe the painter, as he is expressly called,
delineating the subjects and leaving several of thera 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 tirae. 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 af least remain in a situation of doubt
and difficulty ?"* With respect to the true import of the passage
referred to, ray opinion is alraost directly the reverse of that ex
pressed 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; raore especially when we find that a cut — that
of the Waggoner, — expressly noticed by hira as being then un
finished, was given with others of a sirailar character in a sub
sequent edition.
From the incorrect manner in which the cut of the Waggoner
is described, I ara very rauch inclined to think that the writer
had neither seen the original nor the other subjects already traced
— the "plusieurs aultres figures ja par luy fra^sees" — of whose " bold
drawing, perspectives, 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
raight have been dead before the publication of the first edition,
yet 1 am very much inclined to believe that the passage in which
the cuts are raentioned is purposely involved in obscurity : the
writer, while he speaks of the deceased artist in terras of the
highest coraraendation, at the same time carefully conceals his
name. If the account in the preface be adraitted as correct, it
would appear that the cuts were both designed and engraved
by the sarae person, and that those already drawn on the
• Dance of Death, p, 88. Edit. 1833,
2e

418 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
block* remained unfinished in consequence of his decease ; for if he
were nof the engraver, what prevented the execution of the other
subjects already traced, and of which the bold drawing, perspec
tive, and shadows, all so gracefully deUneated, are distinctly men
tioned ? 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, I
speak more especiaUy of the cuts in the first edition, are so excellent
in drawing and composition, and so admirably are the different
characters represented, — with such spirit, humour, and appropriate
expression, — that to have produced them would confer additional
honour on even the greatest painters of that or any other period-
Are we then to suppose that those excellences of design and
of engraving were combined in an obscure individual whose name
is not to be found in the roll of fame, who Uved comparatively
unknown, and whose death is only incidentaUy noticed in an am
biguous preface, written by a nameless pedant, and professedly ad
dressed to an abbess whose very existence is questionable ?f 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 nof designed and engraved by the same person.
Furthermore, admitting the address to Madame Jehanne de Tous
zele 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 JL, 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
* The words "ja pur luy trassies " will apply raore properly to drawings already
made on the block, but unengraved, than to unfinished drawings on paper. It is
indeed almost certain that the writer meant the former, for their " audacieux traictz,
perspectives, et umbrages " are raentioned ; they were moreover " gracifusement
del'miies." These expressions will apply correctly to a finished, tiiough unengraved,
design on the block, but scarcely to an unfinished drawing on paper.
t I am very much inclined to thiuk that Madame Jehanne de Touszele is a
fictitious character. I have had no oppoituiiities of learning if such a person were
really abbess of the Convent of St. Peter at Lyons in 1538, and must therefore
leave this point to be decided by some other enquirer.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 419
kind."* That it is not the mark of the designer, I agree with
Mr. Douce, but ray conclusion is drawn frora preraises directly the
reverse of his ; for, had I not found evidence elsewhere to con
vince rae that this raark can only be that of the engraver, I
should raost certainly have concluded that it was intended for
the raark of the designer. In direct opposition to what Mr.
Douce here says, up to the time of the publication of the Lyons
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 custora. It is, in fact, upon
the evidence of the raark alone that the greater part of the
wood-cut designs of Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, Behaim, Baldung,
Grun, and other old masters, are respectively ascribed to them.
The cuts of the Triumphal Procession of Maximilian with Hans
Burgraair'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
inconsistently 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
thera the formschneiders, whilst, perhaps, the greatest part of them
really belong to the designers." He comraits 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 £L t° ^^ that of the designer
until he could show on probable grounds that it was not. But
though Mr. Douce raight deny that Holbein were the designer
of those cuts, it seeras that he durst not venture to follow up
the line of his arguraent, and declare that Hans Lutzelburger
was the designer, which he certainly raight have done with at
least as much reason as has led him to decide that Holbein was
* Dance of Death, p. 98.
2 E 2

420 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
not But he prudentiy abstained frora venturing on such an
affirmation, the improbability of which, notwithstanding the mark,
might have led his readers to inquire, how it happened that so
talented an artist should have reraained 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 JL ^^ t^** ^f 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 raark
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
connection 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 soraetiraes got drawings made at thefr
own expense and risk, and, when engraved, either published them
on their own account, or disposed of them to bookseUers and
printers. It is 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 narae or raark into the cut, in addition to that of the designer.
A cut, in a German translation of Cicero de OfficUs, 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 becarae raore frequent,
and a considerable nuraber 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 Vfrgil SoUs 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 admirable specimens of art. Moreover, if those cuts
were not executed under the personal superintendence of the
designer, but when he was chiefiy resident in a distant country,
the engraver would thus have the uncontrolled liberty of inserting

WOOD ENGRAVING. 421
his own mark ; and more especially, if those cuts were a private
speculation of his own, and not executed for a publisher who had
eraployed an artist to make the designs. Another reason, per
haps 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 thera, in approbation of his talent.
This mark, JJ , was first assigned to a wood engraver naraed
Hans Lutzelburger, by M. Cbristian von Mechel, a celebrated
engraver of Basle, who in 1780 published forty-five copper-plate
engravings of a Dance of Death frora drawings said to be by
Holbein, and which almost in every respect agree with the corre
sponding cuts in the Lyons work, though of greater size.* M.
Meehel's conjecture respecting the engraver of those cuts appears
* Mechel's work is in folio, with four subjects on each full page, and is
entitled "Oeuvre de Jean Holbein, ou Receuil de Gravures d'aprfes ses plus
beaux ouvrages, &c. Premibre 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 first part contains, besides forty-five subjects of the Dance of
Death, the design for the sheath of a dagger frora a drawing ascribed to Hol
bein, which has been re-engraved in the work of Mr, Douce, It is extremely
doubtful if the drawings of the Dance, frora which Mechel's engravings are
copied, be really by Holbein. They were purchased by M. Fleischmann of
Strasburg, at Crozat's sale at Paris in 1741, It was stated in the catalogue that
they had formed part of the Arundelian collection, and that they had afterwards
come into the possession of Jan Bockhorst, coraraonly called Lang Jan, a con
temporary of Vandyke, This piece of information, however, can only be received
as an auctioneer's puff, M. Mechel himself, according to Mr, Douce, had not been
able to trace those drawings previously to their falling into the hands of Monsieur
Crozat. They were purchased of M. Fleischmann 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 thera when in M,
Mechel's possession, they were drawn with a pen, and slightly 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 raade by an artist named Rudolph Schellenburg of Winterthur.
Those copper-plates certainly appear feeble when compared with the wood-cuts 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-cut ; in the
forraer she is sitting in as elegant an attitude as if she belonged to a French
faraily by Boucher." — Boucher, a French painter, who died in 1770, was famous
in his time for the pretty women introduced into his landscapes.

422 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
to have been first pubUshed in the sixteenth volume of Von Murr's
Journal; but, though I ara incUned to think that he is correct,
it has not been satisfactorily shown that Hans Lutzelburger ever
used the raark [L- He, however, lived at that period, and it
is almost certain that he executed an alphabet of smaU initial
letters representing a Dance of Death, which appear to have been
first used at Basle by the printers BebeUus and Cratander about
1530, He is also supposed to have engraved two other alphabets
of ornaraental initial letters, one representing a dance of peasants,
" interraixed," says Mr. Douce, " with other subjects, some of
which are not of the most delicate nature;" the other repre
senting groups of children in various playful attitudes. All those
three alphabets are generally described by Gerraan 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 raost of the figures and those
in his known productions be allowed 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 Pubhc Library
at Basle, and underneath is printed in moveable letters the name
Hann;S iltit^elburgjr lormtcijmlfcr, graannt JVantfe, — that is, " Hanns
Lutzelburger, wood engraver, named Franck." Tbe first H is
an ornamented Roraan capital; the other letters of the name are
in the Gerraan character. The size of the cuts in this alphabet
of the Dance of Death is one inch by seven-eighths. The
reasons for supposing that Hans Lutzelburger was the engraver
of the cuts in the first edition of the Lyons Dance of Death are :
1. The sirailarity 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 examine the "claim of Hans Lutzel
burger as to the design or execution of tbe Lyons engrarings
of the Dance of Death," but his investigations seem very un
satisfactory ; and his chapter is one of those " in whicli," as
Fielding says, "nothing is concluded," He gives no opinion as
to whether Lutzelburger was the designer of the Lyons cuts or

WOOD ENGRAVING. 423
not, though this is one of the professed topics of his investiga
tion ; and even his opinion, for the time being, as to the engraver,
only appears in the heading of the following 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, how
ever, does not appear to have been finally made up on this point ;
for in a subsequent page, 215, speaking of the mark JL in the
cut of the Duchess, which he had previously raentioned as that
of Hans Lutzelburger, he says, " buf to whomsoever this mark may
tum ouf fo behng, 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 inconsistent; rejects unquestionable evidence wbich makes for
the contrary opinion ; and admits the most iraprobable that seems
to favour his own.
Mr. Douce, in his seventh chapter, also gives a list of cuts,
which he says were executed by 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 representing a Dance
of Death. The single cut to which I allude — and which, I
beUeve, is the only one of the kind that has his narae under
neath 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
/ry- 7y^ /'¦> s^'id underneath is the foUovring inscription, from a
separate block : Hanns , Leuczellburger . Furm-
scHNiDER X 1.5.2.2. An irapression of this cut is preserved in the
Public Library at Basle ; and an alphabet of Roraan capitals, en
graved on wood, is printed on the same folio, below Lutzelburger's
name. In not one of the other single cuts does this engraver's
narae occur, nor in fact any mark that can be fairly ascribed to him.
The seventh cut, described by Mr. Douce, — a copy of Albert
• Mr, Douce in every instance spells the name thus. In the proofs of the
alphabet ofthe Dance of Death it is iMtzelburger, and below the cut with the date
1522, Leuczellburger.

424 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
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 raore than Mr. Douce, — it has
" the mark H. L. reversed," which perhaps may prove to be L. H.
" In the index of naraes," says Mr. Douce, " he (Zani) finds his
name thus written Hans Lutzelburger Formschnider genant
(chiaraato) Franck, and calls hira the true prince of engravers on
wood." In what index Zani found the reversed raark thus ex
pounded does not appear; I, however, am decidedly of opinion
that there is no wood-cut in existence vrith 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 raoveable 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 edi
tion of the Lyons Dance of Death ; but it yet remains to be proved
that he ever used the mark J£j or the separate letters H. L. on any
prerious or subsequent cut. Though, frora his narae appearing
on the page containing the alphabet of the Dance of Death, and
frora the correspondence of his initials with the raark 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 fully into the groimds
of his pretensions to the execution of those, and other wood en
gravings, in order that the reader may judge for hiraself.
Hegner, in his Life of Holbein, treats the claims that have
been advanced on behalf of Lutzelburger too lightly. He not
only denies that he was the engraver of the cuts in the first
edition of the Lyons work, but also that he executed the cuts
of the alphabet of the Dance of Death, although his name with
tbe addition of "wood engraver" — formschnider — be printed on
the sheet of proofs. If we cannot adrait the inscription in question
as evidence of Lutzelburger being the engraver of this alphabet,
we may with equal reason question if any wood engraver actually
* There are proofs of this alphabet in the Royal Collection at Dresden, as well
as in the Public Library at Basle,

WOOD ENGRAVING. 425
executed the cut or cuts under which his narae only appears
printed in type, or which may be ascribed to bim in the title
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 hira in his native city," meaning
Basle. Hegner, however, says that there is no trace of him to
be found either in registers of baptism or burger-Usts of Basle.
He further adds, though I by no means concur with him in this
opinion, " It is indeed likely that, as a travelhng dealer in works
of art — who, according to the custora of that period, took up their
temporary residence soraetiraes in one place, soraetiraes 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 the way of trade."* Mr. Douce says that
it may admit of a doubt whether the alphabets ascribed to Lutzel
burger were cut on metal or on wood. It raay adrait of a doubt,
certainly, with one who knows very little of the practice of
wood engraving, but none with a person who is accustoraed to see
cuts executed in a rauch raore delicate style by wood engravers
of very moderate abiUties. To engrave thera on wood, would be
comparatively easy, so far as relates to the mere delicacy of the
lines ; but it would be a task of great difficulty to engrave thera
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 tbe delicacy of the
lines, would involve a contradiction ; for not only can finer lines
be cut on box-wood than on type-metal, but also with much
greater facility.
It perhaps may not be unnecessary to give here two instances
of the many vague and absurd conjectures which have been pro
pounded 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 Museura, but
forraerly belonging to the Reverend C. M. Cracherode, a por
trait of a painter or engraver naraed Hans Ladenspelder is
inserted opposite to the cut of the Duchess, as if in support of
* Hans Holbein der Jiingere, S. 332.

426 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
the conjecture that he might be the designer of those cuts, merely
from the circumstance of the initial letters of his name correspond
ing with the mark JL- The portrait is a small oval engraved
on copper, with an omamental border, round which is the follow
ing inscription : " Imago Joannis Ladenspelder, Essendiensis,
Anno cetatis suae xxviu. 1540."* The mark L is perceived on
this portrait, and undemeath is written the following MS. note,
referring to the mark in the cut of the Duchess : " 'Q^ 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
Basil, it is not Uke these, nor in the same manner." This note,
so far as relates to the iraplied conjecture about Ladenspelder,
may be allowed 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 evidently 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 apparentiy been
written by a former owner of the volurae.
In a copy of the first edition, now lying before me, a former
owner has written on the fly-leaf the following verses from page
158 of the Nugae — Lyons, 1540, — of Nicholas Borbonius, a
French poet : " Videre qui vnlt Parrhasium cum Zeuxide,
Accersat a Britannia
Hansum Ulbium, et Georgium Reperdium
Lugduno ab urbe Galliae.''
The meaning of these verses may be thus expressed in EngUsh :
Whoever wishes to behold.
Painters like to those of old.
To England straightway let him send.
And summon Holbein to attend ;
Reperdius,t too, from Lyons bring,
A city of the Gallic King,
• Hans Ladenspelder was a native of Essen, a frontier town in the duchy of
Berg. The following mark is to be found on his engravings v4» , which Bartsch
thinks may be intended for the single letters I. L, V, E, S,,— representing the
words Joannes Ladenspelder Von Essen Sculpsit.
t Of this George Reperdius, or his works, nothing, I believe, is known beyond
the brief mention of his name in conjunction with that of Holbein in the verses
of Bourbon.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 427
To the extract frora Borbonius, — or Bourbon, as be is raore
frequently called, without the Latin terraination, — the writer has
added a note : " An Reperdius harum Iconum sculptor fuerit ?"
That is : " Query, if Reperdius were the engraver of these cuts ?"
— meaning the cuts contained in the Lyons Dance of Death. Mr.
Douce, at page 93 of his Dance, edition 1833, also cites the pre
ceding verses from Nicholas Bourbon; and upon so slight and
unstable a foundation he, more solito, raises a ponderous super
structure. He, in fact, says, that " it is extremely probable that
he raight have begun the work in question [the designs for the
Dance of Death], and have died before he could coraplete it, and
that the Lyons publishers might have afterwards employed Holbein
to finish what was left undone, as well as to raake designs for addi
tional 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 hira 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
exemplifies Mr. Douce's eagerness to avail hiraself of the raost
trifling circurastance which seemed to favour his own riews ;
and his raanner of twisting and twining it is sufficient to excite
a suspicion even in the raind of the raost careless inquirer,
that the chain of argument which consists of a series of such
Unks must be little better than a rope of sand. Mr. Douce
raust have had singular notions of probability, when, upon the
mere mention of the name of Reperdius, by Bourbon, as a painter
then residing at Lyons, he asserts that it is extremely probable that
he, Reperdius, raight have begun the work : it is evident that
he does not employ the term in its usual and proper sense.
If for " extremely probable" the words " barely posdble" be substi
tuted, the passage will be unobjectionable ; and will then fairly
represent the value of the conjecture of Reperdius having designed
any of the cuts in question. If it be extremely probable that the
cuts of the first edition of the Lyons Dance of Death were designed
by Reperdius, from the mere occurrence of his name in Bourbon,
the evidence in favour of their being designed by Holbein ought
with e^ual reason to be considered as plusquxmi-perfecd; for the

428 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
voices of his contemporaries are expressly in his favour, the cuts
themselves bear a strong general resemblance to those which are
known 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 inquirer
who shall compare them, that either both series raust have been
designed by the sarae person, or that Holbein had serrilely copied
the works of an unknown artist greater than himself Upon one of
the horns of this dilemma, Mr. Douce, and all who assert tbat the
cuts of the Lyons Dance of Death were not designed by Holbdn,
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, pubUshed at Basle in 1540, are the following
verses :* De morte picta a Hanso pictore -nobili.
Dura raortis Hansus pictor imaginem exprirait,
Tanta arte raortera retulit ut mors vivere
Videatur ipsa : et ipse se immortalibus
Parem Diis fecerit operis hujus gloria.
Now, — after premising that the term picta was appUed to de
signs engraved on wood, as well as to paintings in oil or water-
coloursjf — it may be asked to what work of Holbein's do these
lines refer ? The painting in the church-court at Basle was not
executed by Holbein ; neither was it ascribed to hira by his con
temporaries ; for the popular error which assigns it to him appears
to have originated with certain travellers who risited Basle up
wards of a hundred years after Holbein's decease. It indeed raay
be answered that Bourbon might allude to the alphabet of the
• Neither these verses, nor those previously cited, occur in the first edition ofthe
Nugae, Paris, 1533.
t At that period a wood-cut, as well as a painting, was termed pictura. — On the
ritle-page of an edition of the New Testament, with wood-cuts, Zurich, 1554, by
Froschover, we find the following : " Novi Testamenti Editio postrema per Des.
Erasraum Roterodamum. Omnia pictoris illustrata.''

WOOD ENGRAVING. 429
Dance of Death which has been ascribed to Holbein. A mere
supposition of this kind, however, would be untenable in tbis
instance ; for there is no direct eridence to show that Holbein
was the designer of this alphabet, and the principal reason for sup
posing it to 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 sorae other,
and the difficulty 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 sarae 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 cautiously avoids men
tioning hira 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 actually describes both alphabets as being the
work of the same designer and the same engraver.
" Sorae ofthe writers on engraving," says Mr. Douce, "have raani-
fested their usual inaccuracy on the subject of Holbein's Dance
of Peasants  There is, however, no doubt that his beautiful
pencil was employed on this subject in various ways, of which
the following specimens are worthy of being recorded. In a set of
initial letters frequently used in books printed at Basle and else
where," &c. After thus having unhesitatingly ascribed the Dance
of Peasants to Holbein, Mr. Douce, in a subsequent page, — when
giring a Ust 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, occasionaUy 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 Holbein.
" 9. Another alphabet by the same artists. It is a Dance of Pea
sants, intermixed with other subjects, some of which are not of
the raost dehcate nature."*
* Douce's Dance of Death, pp. 80, 100, and 101.

430 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
It is, however, uncertain if Mr. Douce really did believe Holbein
to be the designer of the alphabet of the Dance of Death, though
frora the preceding extracts it is plainly, though indirectly asserted,
that he was. In his wish to claim the engraving of the Dance of
Peasants for Lutzelburger, Mr. Douce does not seera to have been
aware that from the words " by the same artists," coupled vrith his
previous assertion, of Holbein being the designer of that alphabet,
it followed as a direct consequence that he was also the designer
of the alphabet of the Dance of Death. Putting this charitable
construction on Mr. Douce's words, it follows that his assertion of
Lutzelburger being the engraver of the Dance of Peasants is purely
gratuitous. If Mr. Douce really believed that Holbein was the
designer of the alphabet of the Dance of Death, he ought in fafr-
ness to have expressly declared his opinion ; although such decla
ration would have caused his arguraents, 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 direct opposition to con
temporary testimony, and the internal evidence 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 Madarae Jehanne de Touszele likely to feel her
self highly coraplimented 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 ridicuUng his " Hohness " the pope ; and in another is a
young gaUant with a guitar, entertaining a nun in her bed-chara-
ber. 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 ot Death, to contrast the droUery and satire of the designer

WOOD ENGRAVING. 431
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 if 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 afford
ed, paradoxically proceeds to fit those verses to his own theory;
and after quoting them, at page 139, proceeds as follows: "It
has already been demonstrated that these lines could not refer to
the old painting of the Macaber Dance at the Dorainican con
vent, whilst from the important dedication to the edition of the
wood-cuts first published at Lyons in 1538, it is next to ira
possible that that work could then have been in Borbonius's
conteraplation. It appears frora several places in his Nugae that
he was in England in 1535, at which time Holbein drew his
portrait in such a ma;nner as to excite his gratitude and ad
miration 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 their publication, either out of friend
ship to the painter, or at the instance of the Lyons publisher, with
whom he was certainly connected. — Now, if 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
Ukewise introduced into the Lyons edition of it, or at least into
some subsequent editions, in none of whieh is any raention what
ever 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 call 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 afier the calamitous fire at Whitehall,
• 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.

432 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
1697, which consumed nearly the whole of that palace, a person,
caUing 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. Irapressions of those etchings, accora
panied with manuscript dedications, appear to have been presented
by this T. Nieuhoff Piccard to his friends or patrons, and among
others to a Mynheer Heyraans, and to " the high, noble, and well
born Lord William Benting, Lord of Rhoon, Pendraght," &c. The
address to Mynheer Heyraans contains the following important
piece of information respecting a work of Holbein's, which appears
raost singularly to have escaped the notice of every other writer,
whether English or foreign. " Sir, — The costly palace of White
hall, erected by Cardinal Wolsey, and the residence of King Henry
VIII, contains, araong other perforraances of art, a Dance of Death,
painted by Holbein, in its galleries, which, through an unfortunate
conflagration, has been reduced to ashes."* In the dedication to
the "high, noble, and well-born Lord William Benting," the infor
mation 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. " Sir, [not My Lord], — In the course of
my constant love and pursuit of works of art, it has been ray good
fortune to raeet with that scarce little work of Hans Holbein,
neatly engraved on wood, and which he himself had painted as large
as life, in fresco, on the walls of Whitehall." Who Mynheer
Heyraans was will probably never be discovered, but he seeras
to have been a person of some consequence in his day, though
unfortunately never mentioned in any history or meraoirs of the
period, for it appears that the court thought proper, in considera
tion of his singular deserts, to cause a dwelhng to be built for
him at Whitehall. My Lord WilUam Benting,f — though from his
• Douce, Dance of Death, p. 141.
f " The identification of William Benting," says Mr. Douce with exquisite
bon-hommie, " raust 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 born at Whitehall, and then residing there,
and whose dwelling consisted of nearly the whole ofthe 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

WOOD ENGRAVING. 433
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 Rhoon nor
Pendraght are to be found in Flanders or HoUand, it is not
unlikely that these may be the naraes of two of his lordship's
castles in Spain.
T. Nieuhoff Piccard's express testiraony of Holbein having
painted a Dance of Death in fresco, at Whitehall, is, in Mr, Douce's
opinion, further corroborated by the following circurastances: 1.
" In one of Vanderdort's raanuscript catalogues of the pictures and
rarities transported frora 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 apprehend a Pilate in the
habit of one of the spiritual Prince-Electors of 'Germany.
Copied by Isaac OUver 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 Whitehall, 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
Heniy VIII. at Whitehall, states ' that there yet reraains at that
palace another work, by Holbein, that constitutes hira the Apelles
of his tirae.' 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 lance.
Peoples great Henry's tombs, and leads up Holbein's Dance.
Prior, Ode to the Memory qf George Villiers."*
Mr. Douce having previously proved that Holbein was nof the
designer of the cuts in the Lyons Dance of Death, thus, in a
Latin, Mr. Douce raost unaccountably neglects to say : he merely mentions that his
extracts are translated.
* Douce's Dance of Death, pp. 144, 145.
2 E

434 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
raanner equally satisfactory, accounts for the verses of Bourbon, by
showing, on the unexceptionable evidence of " a person, calling him
self T. Nieuhoff Piccard, probably belonging to the household of
WilUam III," that the great work of Holbein — bythe fame of which
he had made himself equal with the immortal gods — was painted
as large as life, in fresco, on the walls of Whitehall. The ingenuity
displayed in depriring Holbein of the honour of the Lyons cuts is
no less exemplified in proving hira to be the painter of a siraUar
subject in WhitehaU. The key-stone is worthy of the arch.
Though the^cfo 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 'haring been the
identical Dance of Death alluded to by Bourbon, might be
sumraarily dismissed as being of that kind which no objection
could render raore absurd, yet it seeras necessary to dfrect the
especial attention of the reader to one or two points; and first
to the assertion that "it is next to irapossible that the Lyons
Dance of Death of 1538 could then have been' in Borbonius's
contemplation." 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 erident that Bourbon expresses in Latin verse almost
precisely the same ideas as those which had previously been ex
pressed in French by the writer of the address to Madarae Jehanne
de Touszele, when speaking of the raerits of the nameless artist who
is there alluded to as the designer or engraver of the cuts.* As
* That the reader may judge for himself of the similarity of thought in the
passages referred to, they are here given in juxta-position,
" Car ses histoires funebres, avec leurs descriptions severeraent rithm^es, aux
advisans donnent telle admiration, qu'ilz en jugent les mortzy apparoistre tresvive-
ment, et les vifs tresmortement representer. Qui me faict penser, que la Mort
craignant que ce excellent painctre ne la paignist tant vifve qu'elle ne fut plus
crainte pour Mort, et que pour celi, luy mesme n'en devint immortel, que a ceste
cause," kc.—Epistre des Faces de la Mort,
" Dura raortis Hansus pictor imaginem exprirait,
Tanta arte raortera retulit, ut mors vivere
Videatur ipsa ; et ipse se imraortalibus
Parem Diis fecerit, operis luijus gloria." Borbonius.

WOOD ENGRAVING, 435
Holbein is not certainly known to be tbe painter or designer of
any other Dance of Death which raight raerit the high praise
conveyed in Bourbon's verses, to what other work of his will they
apply ? Even supposing, as I do, that the alphabet of the Dance
of Death was designed by Holbein, I conceive it " next to im
possible," to use the words of Mr. Douce, that Bourbon should
have described Holbein as having attained immortality through
the fame of those twenty-four small letters, a perfect set of which
I beUeve is not to be found in any single volume. 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 con
nected with the printers; and another work, the Icones Histo-
riarura Veteris Testamenti, also published by them in 1538, has
at the coraraenceraent 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 epigrara in praise of Holbein
in the subsequent editions of the Dance of Death, supposing hira
to be the designer of the cuts, I cannot tell, nor wUl I venture
to guess. They certainly raust have had sorae reason for conceal
ing the designer's narae, for the writer of the prefatory address to
Madarae Jehanne de Touszele takes care not to raention 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 raanuscript ad
dresses to "Mynheer Heyraans" and "Lord WiUiam Benting"
are cited to prove that Bourbon's verses must relate to a painting
of the Dance of Death by Holbein in the old palace of WhitehaU,
nothing whatever is known ; and there is not the slightest reason
to believe that a Lord William Benting, bom in the old palace
of Whitehall, "Lord of Rhoon, Pendraght," &c. ever existed.
I am of opinion that the addresses of the person calUng himself
2 F 2

436 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
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 their 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 WilUam Benting" previous
to the publication of his observations on the Dance of Death in
1794, when, if he had felt inclined, he might have ascertained from
whom the then possessor had received it, and thus obtained a
clue to guide hira in his inquiries respecting the personal identity
of the Lord of Rhoon and Pendraght. But this would not have
suited his purpose ; for he seeras to have been conscious that
any inquiry respecting such a person would only have tended to
confirra the doubts respecting the paper addressed to him by
Piccard. It is also uncertain at what time those pretended ad
dresses were written, but there are irapressions of the etchings
which accorapanied thera with the date 1720 ; and I am inchned
to think that if 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. Who
ever the person calling himself T. Nieuhoff Piccard may have been,
or at whatever time the addresses to Mynheer Heyraans and others
may have been written, the only evidence of there having been
a painting of the Dance by Holbein at WhitehaU rests on his
unsupported statement. Such a painting is not raentioned by any
foreign traveller who had visited this country, nor is it noticed

• Hegner, in his life of Holbein, speaking of the Nieuhoff discovery, says :
" Of this fable no notice would have been taken here had not Douce ascribed
undeserved authority to it, and had not his superficial investigations found un
deserved credit with English and other compilers." Hans Holbein der Jungere,
S, 338.
Mr. Douce, at page 240 of his Dance of Death, 1833, complains of Hegner's
want of urbanity and politeness; and in return calls his account of Holbein's works
superficial, and raoreover 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 alluding to him as the " above gentleman," the last word, to give
it point, being printed in Italics. Mr. Douce, wheu he was thus pelting Hegner,
does not seem to have been aware that his own auti-Holbenian superstructure
was a house of glass. " Cedimus, inque vicem dedimus crura sagittis.''

WOOD ENGRAVING, 437
by any English writer prior to 1697; it is not aUuded to iu 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
Iraago, and ascribes the cuts to Holbein;* and not the slightest
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
Holbein ;f and, notwithstanding the contradictory statement in the
preface to the first edition of this work, such appears to have been
the general belief of all the artist's conteraporaries. 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, chiefiy Gerraans and Fleraings, was first
published in 1604; and, when speaking of Holbein, he raentions
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 conversation that he had with Rubens respecting
those cuts : " I remember that in the year 1627, when the cele
brated Rubens was proceeding to Utrecht to visit Honthorst, I
* Evelyn is only referred to here on account of his silence with respect to the
pretended painting at Whitehall. What he says of Holbein, or indeed any other
artist, can never be relied on, as will be seen from the following passage, which is
a fair specimen of his general knowledge and accuracy, " We have seen some few
things cut in wood by the incomparable Hans Holbein the Dane, but they are rare
and exceedingly difficult to come by ; as his Licentiousness ofthe Friars and Nuns 1
Erasmus; The Dance Macchabre ; the Mortis Imago, which he painted in great in
the Church of Basil, and afterwards graved with no less art." — Evelyn's Sculptura,
p, 69, Edition, 1769.
f " Imagines Mortis expressse ab optimo pictore Johanne Holbein cum epi-
grararaatibus Georgii JEmylii, excusse Francofurti et Lugduni apud Frellonios,
quorum editio plures habet picturas. Vidi etiam cura metris Gallicis et Ger-
manicis, si bene memini." Mr, Douce cites this passage from Gesner's Pandectse,
" a supplemental volurae of great rarity to his well-known Bibliotheca," The
correct title of the volume in which it occurs is " Paititiones Theologicse, Pandec-
tarura Universalium Conradi Gesneri Liber Ultimus.'' Folio, printed by Christo-
pher Froschover, Zurich (Tiguri) 1549. The notice of the Dance of Death is in
folio 86, a.

438 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
accorapanied him as far as Amsterdara ; and during our passage
in the boat I looked into Holbein's Uttie book of the Dance of
Death, the cuts of which Rubens highly praised, recoraraending
me, as I was a young raan, to copy thera, observing, that he had
copied them himself in his youth," Sandrart, who seeras 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
" Stultitiae Laus" of Erasraus, 1676, repeats the same story; and
Papillon in his decisive manner clenches it by asserting that
" most of the delicate wood-cuts and ornamental 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 himself." Papillon also says that it
is believed — on croif — 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 frora right to left, instead of, as with us, engraving 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
hiraself. 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 caUed, were first
published at Lyons, in 1538, the same year, and by the same
printers, as the Dance of Death. The book is a sraall quarto,
and the title is as follows : " Historiarura Veteris Testamenti
Icones ad vivum expressse. Una cum brevi, sed quoad fieri potuit,
dilucida earundera et Latina et Gallica expositione. Lugduni sub
scuto Coloniensi. M.D.xxxviii."f On the title-page is an erable-
* TraitiS 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 Arundelian collection, where
he appears holding the pencil in his right hand.
t A copy of this edition is preserved in the Public Library at Basle, and there
is another copy in the Royal collection at Dresden. Another edition, in every
respect similar 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;

WOOD ENGRAVING. 439
raatic cut, with the motto Usus me genuit, sirailar to that on the
title-page in the first edition of the Dance of Death, but not
precisely the sarae ; 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 Frellon, whose names appear as the publishers in sub
sequent editions.
This opinion seeras to be corroborated by the fact of there
being an address frora "Franciscus Frellaeus" to the Christian
Reader in the Bible cuts of 1538 and 1539, which in subsequent
editions is altered to " Franciscus Frellonius." That the sarae
person is designated by those names, I think there can be little
doubt, as the addresses are Uterally the same. From adopting
the form " Frellaeus," however, in the editions of 1538 and 1539, it
would seem that the writer was not wishful to discover his narae.
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 Rome, we find the names
of John and Francis Frellon on the title-page under the " shield
of Cologne." Whatever might be their motives, it seems certain
that the first publishers 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
Roraan CathoUc party considered the cuts of the Pope, the Nun,
and two or three others, as the covert satire of a reformed
painter, the publishers and the designer would have been as
likely to incur danger as to reap profit or farae.
The address of Franciscus Frellaeus is followed by a copy of
Latin verses by Nicholas Bourbon, in which Holbein is raentioned
as the designer ; and immediately preceding the cuts is an address
"aux lecteurs," in French verse, by Gilles Corrozet, who, per
haps, raight be the poet that supphed the French expositions of
those cuts, and the "descriptions severeraent rithraees "of the Dance
speaking of that of 1538, he says, " It is probably the same as that to whioh
Papillon gives the date 1539," There is a copy of the edition of 1539 in the
British Museum.

410 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
of Death. The foUowing is an extract from Bourbon's prefatory
verses, the whole of which it appears unnecessary to give.
" Nuper in Elysio cum fortfe erraret Apelles
Una aderat Zeusis, Parrhasiusque comes.
Hi duo multa satis fundebant verba ; sed ilie
Interea moerens et taciturnus erat,
Mirantur comites, farique hortantur ct urgent :
Suspirans imo pectore Cous, ait :
O famee ignari, superis qute nuper ab oris
(Vana utinara !) Stygias venit ad usque domos :
Scilicet, esse bodie quendam ex raortalibus unum
Ostendat qui me vosque fuisse nihil :
Qui nos declaret pictores nomine tantum,
Picturaeque omneis ante fuisse rudes.
Holbius est homini nomen, qui nomina nostra
Obscura ex claris ac prope nulla facit.
Talis apud manes querimonia fertur : et illos
Sic equidem merito censeo posse queri,
Nam tabulam siquis videat, quam pinxerit Hansus
Holbius, ilie artis gloria prima suse,
Protinus exclamet, Potuit Deus edere monstrum
Quod video ? humause non potuere manus.
Icones hse sacrae tanti sunt, optime lector,
Artificis, dignum quod venereris opus,"
Besides those verses there is also a Greek distich by Bourbon, to
which the following translation " pene ad verbum " is appended :
" Cemere vis, hospes, simulacra simillima vivis ?
, Hoc opus Holbinae nobile ceme manus,"
When Mr. Douce stated that it was " extremely probable that the
anonymous painter or designer of the Dance might have been
employed also by the Frellons to execute a set of subjects for
the Bible previously to his death, and that Holbein was afterwards
eraployed 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, if the Frellons knew that another artist was the designer
of the cuts of the Dance of Deatb, and if he also had been
originally employed to design the Bible cuts, how does it happen
that they should allow Bourbon to give all the honour of the
latter to Holbein, who, if the Dance of Death be not his, was
certainly much inferior as a designer to the naraeless artist whose
unfinished work he was eraployed to complete ?

WOOD ENGRAVING.

441

The total nuraber 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 will be perceived from the speciraens,
which are of the same size as the originals. Those eighty-six
cuts are generally rauch inferior in design to those of the Dance
of Death, and the style in which they are engraved is very
unequal, sorae of them being executed with considerable neatness
and delicacy, and others in a much coarser manner. The following
cut, Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, Genesis xxn, is one of those
which are the best engraved ; but even these, so far as regards the
expression of the features and the delicate raarking of the hands,
are generally much inferior to the cuts of the Dance of Death.

Though most of the Bible cuts are greatly 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 raany
of them afford points of such perfect identity with those of the
Dance of Death, that it seeras irapossible to corae to any other con
clusion than that either the cuts of both works have been designed
by the sarae person, or that the designer of the one series has
serrilely copied frora the designer of the other, and, what is most
singular, in raany trifling details which seem the least hkely to
be imitated, and which usually constitute individual peculiarities
of style. For instance, the small shrubby tree in the preceding

442

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

cut is precisely of the sarae species as that seen in the cut of
the Old Woraan 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 following cut — the Fool, Psalm liii — is copied from one
of those executed in a coarser style than the preceding. The
children in this cut are evidently of the same family 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 aU
the subsequent Lyons editions of this work and of the Bible
cuts. It is, however, less obvious in the Bible cuts of the edi
tion 1549 than in some of the preceding, probably in conse
quence of the block having been craraped to remedy the defect.
Mr. Douce speaks, at page 105, as U" the crack were not discernible
in the Bible cuts of 1549 ; it is, however, quite perceptible in
every copy that has come under ray notice. Sorae of the latter
editions of this work contain four additional cuts, which are all
coarsely executed. In the edition of 1547 they form the illus
trations to Ezekiel xl ; Ezekiel xliii ; Jonah i, n, and in ;
and Habakkuk. The Bible cuts were also printed with expla-

WOOD ENGRAVING. 443
nations in English. The title of a copy now before me is as
follows : " The Images of the Old Testaraent, 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 Evangelists, each within an oval border, on the last leaf.
They bear no tokens of Holbein's style.
Araong the raany instances of reserablance which are to be
perceived on coraparing the Dance of Death with the Bible cuts
the foUowing raay be enumerated as the most reraarkable. The
peculiar raanner in which fire with sraoke, and the waves of the
sea, are represented in the Dance of Death, can scarcely fail to
strike the most heedless observer ; for instance, the fire in the cut
of Death seizing the child, and the waves in the cut of the Seaman.
In the Bible cuts we perceive the same peculiarity; there is the
sarae kind of fire in Moses directing the raanner of burnt offerings,
Leviticus i ; in the burning of Nadab and Abihu, Leviticus x ; and
in every other one of those cuts where fire is seen. In the de
struction of Pharaoh and his host. Exodus xiv, are the same kind of
curling waves. Except in the Dance of Death and the Bible cuts,
I 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 singular 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 in ; 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 per
fectly identical, as will be perceived on coraparing the cut of
Little Children mocking Elijah, chapter ii. Kings ii, with those of
the Elector, and Death seizing the child, in the Dance of Death.
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, like fieurs~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

444 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
German or Swiss costume of the living characters of the Dance
of Death, considers it as contributing to demonstrate that both the
series of those cuts are of Gallic origin.* It is needless to enume
rate more instances of almost complete identity of figures and details
in the cuts of the Dance of Death and those of the Bible illustra
tions ; they are too frequent to have originated from a conventional
mode of representing certain objects and persons ; and they are
most striking in minor details, where one artist would be least
likely to imitate another, but where the same individual designer
would be most likely to repeat himself. " 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 skiUed in the know
ledge of Holbein's style and manner of grouping his figures would
hesitate immediately to ascribe them to that artist."f As this
opinion is corroborated by a comparison of the Dance of Death with
the Bible cuts, and as the internal evidence of the cuts of the Dance
of Death in favour of Holbein is confirraed by the testiraony of his
conteraporaries, the reader can decide for hiraseK how far Holbein's
positive clairas to the honour of this work ought to be affected
by the passage in tbe anonymous address to Madarae Jehanne
de Touszele, which forras the groundwork of Mr. Douce's theory.
Having now exarained the principal arguments which have been
alleged to show that Holbein was not the designer of the Dance of
Death, and having endeavoured to justify his clairas to that honour
by producing the evidences on which they rest, I shall now take
* " A comparison of the 8th subject of the Simulachres," says Mr. Douce, " with
that ofthe Bible for. Esther i, ii, where the canopy ornamented with fleurs-de-lis is
the 'same in both, will contribute to strengthen the above conjecture, as will both
the cuts to demonstrate their Gallic origin. 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 miniature of that king, copied at p, 214, in Clarke's
' Repertoriura Bibliographicum.'" The "above conjecture" referred to in this
extract is that previously cited at page 440, where Mr. Douce conjectures tliat
Holbein might have been employed to complete the Bible cuts which might have
been left unfinished in consequence ofthe 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 raerely eraployed to finish the Bible cuts, without ever considering
that it is prima facie much more probable that Holbein was the designer of the
cuts in both works.
t Dance of Death, p. 82,

WOOD ENGRAVING. 445
leave of this subject, feeling thoroughly assured that Holbein was
THE designer OF THE CUTS OF THE FIRST EDITION OF THE LyONS
Dance of Death ; and trusting, though with no overweening con
fidence, that the preceding investigation will render it necessary for
the next questioner of his title to produce stronger objections than
the solitary arabiguous passage in the preface to the first edition of
the work, and to support them with more forcible and consistent
arguraents than have been put forth by Mr. Douce. M. T. Nieuhoff
Piccard, I ara inclined to think, will never again be called as a
witness in this cause ; and before the passage in the preface can be
allowed to have any weight, it must be shown that such a per
sonage as Madame Jehanne de Touszele was prioress of the con
vent of St. Peter at Lyons at the tirae of the first pubUcation of
the work : and even should such a fact be estabUshed, the ara
biguity of the passage — whether the pretendedly deceased artist
were the engraver or designer, or both, — and the obvious desire to
conceal his narae, reraain 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 Septeraber 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 froni Hegner's
work, previous to his coming to England. Hans Holbein, the
Younger, as he is often called by Gerraan 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 b^n positively ascertained, but there seems reason to believe
that he was born in 1498, at Augsburg,f of which city his father
* " Venit nuper Basileara ex Anglia loannes Holbein, adeo felicera ejus regni
stalum praedican8,qui aliquot septimanis exactis rursum eo migraturus est." From
a letter written by lludolph Gualter to Henry BuUinger, of Zurich, about the
middle of Septeraber 1538,— Quoted by Hegner, S. 246.
t Dr. Dibdin, in his Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. pp. 80, 81, Edit. 1829,
mentions two paintings at Augsburg by the elder Holbein, one dated 1499 and
the other 1501. The elder Holbein had a brother named Sigismund, who was
also a painter, and who appears to have estabUshed hiraself at Berne. Papillon,

446 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
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 displayed 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 outUne, is yet clearly and
deUcately painted. From the excellence of his early productions,
Patin, in his Life of Holbein, prefixed to an edition of the Laus
Stultitiae of Erasmus,* thinks that he must have been bom 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 twice or thrice dis
charging his account at a tavern by painting a Dance of Peasants.
Though there seeras reason to beUeve that Holbein was a free
liver, and that he did paint such a subject in a house at Basle,
the stories of his thus settling for his liquor are highly improbable.
He appears to have married young, for in a painting of his wife
and two children, executed before he left Basle for England in
1526, the eldest child, a boy, appears to be between four and
five years old.f
The narae of Holbein's wife is unknown; but it is said that,
like Durer's, she was of an unhappy teraper, and that he enjoyed
no peace with her. It is not, however, unhkely that his own un-
in his usual manner, makes Sigismund Holbein a wood engraver. By his
will, dated 1540, he appoints his nephew Hans the heir of all his property in
Berne. • Patin's edition of this work was published 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
preserved 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 Erasmus were now as he appears here, he would certainly take a wife." Above
another of the sketches, representing a mau with one of his arms about a woman's
neck, and at the same time drinking out of a bottle, Erasmus is said to have
written the narae " Holbein." In an edition of the Laus Stultitiae, edited by G.
G, Becker, Basle, 1780, Svo. those sketches are engraved on wood,
t Hegner, Hans Holbein der Jiingere, S. 110,

WOOD ENGRAVING, 447
settled disposition and straitened circumstances also contributed to
render his horae uncomfortable. Like most other artists of that
period, he appears to have frequently travelled ; but his journeys do
npt seera to have extended beyond Switzerland and Suabia, and
they were for the most part confined to the former country. He
seems to have travelled rather in search of eraployment than to
iraprove himself by studying the works of other masters. Perhaps of
all the erainent painters of that period there is no one whose style
is raore 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 por
traits 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 goldsraiths and wood-engra
vers. It is said that so early as 1520, the Earl of Arundel,* an
Enghsh nobleraan, haring seen sorae of his works in passing through
Basle, advised hira 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 risit this country
tiU 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 foho size, and the figure of
Erasmus is a whole length. His right arm rests upon a termi
nus, and frora a richly ornaraented arch is suspended a tablet, with
the inscription, Ek. Rot. 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 compUment to the genius of Erasraus and to the art of
* It is conjectured by Walpole that this might be Henry Fitz-Alan, Earl of
Arundel,

448 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
Holbein,* The original block is stiU preserved in the Pubhc
Library at Basle ; but there is not the slightest 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 iraperious 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 hira a portrait which he had painted of
Erasraus, with a letter of recoraraendation from the latter to Sfr
Thoraas More, wherein it was observed that this portrait 'was
much raore like him than any of Albert Durer's.' Hegner, how
ever, thinks that what Van Mander says about the contents of this
letter is not correct, as no such passage is to be found in the
published correspondence of Erasmus with Sir Thomas More.
Erasraus had already sent two portraits of hiraself to England ;f
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 likeness than any of those painted
by Albert Durer. It is, however, by no means unhkely that
Erasmus in speaking of a portrait of himself by Holbein — whether
forwarded by the latter or not — might give his own opinion of it in
comparison with one frora the pencil of Durer.
It would appear that in 1525 Erasraus bad afready mentioned
Holbein's desire of trying his fortune in England to Sir Thoraas
• The verses underneath the impressions which are supposed to be the earliest,
are as follows : " Corporis effigiem si quis non vidit Erasmi,
Hune scite ad vivum picta tabella dabit."
The others : " Pallas Apellaeam nuper mirata tabellam,
Hanc, ait, aeternura Bibliotheca colat.
Dsedaleam monstrat musis Holbeinnius artem,
Et summi ingenii Magnus Erasmus opes,"
t Erasraus, writing to Bilibald Pirkheiraer, in 1524, says, " Rursus nuper misi
in Angliam Erasraura 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 Matsys, It was intended by
Erasmus as a present to Sir Thoraas More. This painting came subsequently into
the possession of Dr. Mead, at whose sale it was afterwards purchased, as the pro
duction of Holbein, by Lord Radnor, for £110,

WOOD ENGRAVING. 449
More, for in a letter written by Sir Thomas to Erasmus, dated
from the court at Greenwich, 18th of Deceraber 1525, there is
a passage to the following effect : " Your painter, dear Erasmus ,
is an exceUent artist, but I am apprehensive that he vrill not find
England so fruitful and fertile as he raay expect. I will, however,
do all that I can in order that he may not find it entirely barren."*
Frora a letter, dated 29th of August 1526, written by Erasraus to
his friend Petrus Aegidius at Antwerp, it seems reasonable to con
clude that Holbein left Basle for England about the beginning of
Septeraber. Though Holbein's narae is not expressly mentioned
in this letter, there cannot be a doubt of his being the artist who
is thus introduced to Aegidius : " The bearer of this is he who
painted my portrait. I will not annoy you with his praises,
although he is indeed an excellent artist. Should he wish to
see Quintin, and you not have leisure to go with him, you can
let a servant show hira the house. The arts perish here ; he
proceeds to England to gain a few angels ; if you wish to write
[to England] you can send your letters by hira."f 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 from
the warmth of his recomraendations. How gently, yet significantly,
does he hint to Aegidius that the poor painter who brings the letter
is a person about whora he need give himself no trouble : if he has
not leisure to introduce him personally 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 raaster to go with Holbein himself
Holbein on his arrival in England appears to have been well
received by Sir Thoraas More ; and it is certain that he resided
* " Pictor tuns, Erasme carissime, mirus est artifex, sed vereor ne non sensurus
sit Angliam tam foecundam ac fertilem quam sperarat. Quanquam ne reperiat
oranino sterilem, quoad per me fieri potest, efficiam. Ex aula Grenwici. 18 Dec.
1525." f " Qui has reddit, est is qui me pinxit. Ejus coramendatione te non gravabo,
quanquam est insignis artifex. Si cupiet visere Quintinura, nee tibi vacabit
horainem adducere, poteris per faraulum commonstrare domum. Hic frigent
artes : petit Angliam ut corradat aliquot angelatos : per eura poteris quae voles
scribere." — Erasmi Epist.
2g

450 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
for some time with the learned and witty chanceUor in his house
at Chelsea. It is indeed said that he continued vrith him for
three years, but Walpole thinks that this is very unlikely. Whe
ther he may have resided during the whole of the intermediate
tirae with Sir Thomas More or not, there seems reason to beUeve
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 cfrcumstances,
and to obtain permission from the magistracy for a further exten
sion of his leave of absence, for no burgher of the city of Basle was
allowed to enter into the service of a foreign prince without their
sanction. Patin, in his Life of Holbein, says that during his risit
he spent raost of his time with his old tavern companions, and that
he treated the raore respectable burghers, who vrished to cultivate
his friendship, with great disrespect. Hegner, however, considers
all those accounts which represent Holbein as a raan of intem
perate habits and dissolute character, as unworthy of credit ;
in his opinion it seems impossible that he who was a favourite
of Henry Vlll, and so long an inmate of Sfr Thomas More's
house, should have been a dissolute person. M. Hegner through
out 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 risited Basle ; and his return appears to have been chiefly
influenced by an order of the magistracy, which was to the foUow-

* Erasmus, in a letter to Sir Thomas More, written from Freyburg in Brisgau,
5th September, 1529, alludes 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 following November, says, that she is pleased
to hear of the painter's arrival with the family picture, — " utriusque mei parentis
nostruraque omnium effigiem depictam." Hegner thinks that those portraits of
Sir Thomas More and his family 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, his father, his son, and a young lady, three daughters, a servant, and Sir
Thomas's jester. Over and under the figures are written the name and age of
each. The drawing is free and light; and the faces and hands are very distinctly
expressed.— Hans Holbein der Jiingere, S. 202—235—237, The drawing in the
Public Library at Basle was probably a sketch of Holbein's large picture of the
family of Sir Thomas More.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 451
ing effect : " To M. Hans Holbein, painter, now in England.
We Jacob Meier, burgomaster and councillor, herewith salute you
our beloved Hans Holbein, fellow-burgher, and give you to under
stand that it is our desire that*pou return horae forthwith. In
order that you may Uve easier at home, and provide for your wife
and child,* we are pleased to allow you the yearly sum of thirty
guilders, until we can obtain for you something better. That you
raay make your arrangements accordingly, we acquaint you with this
resolution. Given, Monday, 2nd September 1532."f It is un
certain how long Holbein reraained at Basle on his second risit,
but it was probably of short duration. Though he obeyed the
sumraons of the magistracy to retum, he seeras to have had
sufficient interest to obtain a further extension of his leave
of absence. For the third and last time he rerisited Basle in
1538; and from a licence, signed by the burgomaster Jacob Meier,
dated 16th Noveraber 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 raagistrates
further agree to allow his wife forty guilders per annum, to be
paid quarterly, and the first quarter's payment to coramence on the
eve of St. Lucia next ensuing, — that is, on the 12th of December.
As the raention of the allowance to Holbein's wife would seera to
imply that she was not very well provided for by her husband, Heg
ner attempts to excuse his apparent neglect by suggesting " that the
great sometimes forget to pay, and will not bear dunning ;" and in
illustration of this he refers to the passage in Albert Durer's
Journal which has been previously given at page 326.
* Holbein's wife and child only, not children, are mentioned in this licence.
It is not known what became of Holbein's children, 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 effect : " According to a pedigree
of the Merian faraily, printed at Regensburg in 1727, Christina Syf, daughter of
Rodolph Syf and Judith Weissin, and grand-daughter of Hans Holbein the un
equalled painter, (born 1597,) was raarried on the 17th of November 1616 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,
2 g2

452 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
Holbein's three visits to Basle have been here especially noticed
in order that the reader might judge for himself as to the pro
babUity of his making the drawings for the Lyons Dance of
Death on any of those occasioriS As this work was pubUshed in
1538, and as Holbein on his last visit appears to have arrived at
Basle about the beginning of Septeraber in that year, it is im
possible that he should have made the drawings then ; for if the
forty-one cuts were executed by one person — as from the similarity
and excellence of the style there seeras 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 tiraes. As it is highly probable that Holbein both
made designs and painted on his forraer visits, in 1529, and in
1532 or 1533, I think it raost Ukely 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 resi
dence in England it is not necessary to give any account here;
those who wish for information on this point are referred to Wal
pole's Anecdotes of Painting. Of his life in England there are
few particulars. " In some household accounts of Henry VIII,"
says Mr. Douce, "there are payments to hira in 1538, 1539,
1540, and 1541, on account of his salary, which appears to have
been thirty pounds per annura. Frora this time Uttle more is
recorded of him till 1553, when he painted Queen Mary's por
trait, 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 desirous of erecting a monuraent to the memory
of Holbein, but gave up the intention as he was unable to discover
the place of the artisfs interment. As Holbein seems to have
left no will, and as his death appears to have excited no notice,
it is Ukely that he died poor, and in comparative obscurity. If
his satirical drawings* of Christ's Passion, ridicuhng the Pope
• Those designs were engraved on sixteen small plates by Hollar, but without
his narae. The enemies of Christ are represented in the dress of monks and friars,
and instead of weapons they bear croziers, large candlesticks, and other church orna-

WOOD ENGRAVING, 453
and the popish clergy, were known to Mary, or any of her spiri
tual advisers, it could not be expected that he should find favour
at her court.
Wood engraving in England during the tirae of Holbein''s resi
dence in this country appears to have been but Uttle cultivated ;
but though there cannot be a doubt that the art was then prac
tised here by native wood engravers, yet I very much question if
it were practised by any person in England as a distinct pro
fession. 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 Enghsh 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 impossibility of finding a wood engraver in England capable
of doing justice to his designs raight be one reason why Holbein
made so few for the booksellers of this country during his long
residence here. The foUovring portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the
poet, who died in 1541, was probably drawn on the block by
Holbein. It is given on the reverse of the title of a small work
in quarto, printed at London, 1542, and entitled " Naeniae in
mortem Thomae Viati equitis incomparabilis. Joanne Lelando
antiquario autore." The verses, which are printed underneath
the cut, seera decisive of the drawing having been raade by
Holbein. There is a drawing of Sir Thomas Wyatt by Holbein,
in the Royal collection, which is engraved in Chamberlain's work,
entitled "Imitations of Original Drawings by Hans Holbein,"
ments ; 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 bulls and
dispensations ; above them are the Pope's arras, and the devil as keeper of the gate
wears a triple crown. Underneath this engraving are the following verses, which
are certainly not of the period of Holbein :
" Lo ! the Pope's kitchin, where his soles are fried.
Called Purgatorie ; see his pardons tied
On strings ; his triple crown the Divell weares.
And o'er the door the Pope's own arms he beares,"
In the subject of Christ before Caiaphas is the following inscription in German :
" Wer wider die R'omischen, der soil sterben," — that is, " He who is against the
Romans shall die."

454 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
folio, 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 effigiem Thomae Viati,
Holbenus nitida pingendi maximus arte
Effigiem expressit graphic^ : sed nuUus Apelles
Expriraet ingenium felix animumque Viati,
It has been supposed that the original cut, of which tbe pre
ceding is a fac-simile, was engraved by Holbein himself: if this
were true, and the cut itself taken as a specimen of his abiUties
in this department 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
preceding fac-simile, which, so far as regards mere mechanical
execution, is at least equal to the original, was engraved by a
boy who had just entered on the second year of his noviciate.
The cuts in Cranmer's Catechism, a small octavo, printed in
1548,* have been ascribed to Holbein ; but out of the whole
• The following is the title of this scarce little volume, " Catechismus, that
is to say, a shorte instruction into Christian religion for the singuler commoditie
and profyte of childre and yong people. Set forth by the mooste reverende father
in God, Thomas Archbyshop of Canterbury, primate of all Englande and Metro-
politane.— Gualterus Lynne excudebat, 1548." At the end of the book, under
a cut of Christ with a child before him, is the colophon : " Imprynted at London,
in S, Jhones Streete, by Nycolas Hyll, for Gwalter Lynne dwellyng on Somers
kaye, by Byllynges gate," Mr, Douce, at page 96, raentions a cut with

WOOD ENGRAVING.

455

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 pencilUng is so unUke that of these two, and the
drawing and composition bear so little resemblance to Holbein's
usual style, that I do not believe 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, but containing only twenty-six different
subjects, — as two of them are repeated, — are illustrative of different
passages of Scripture cited in the work. The following cut is
one of those designed by Holbein. It occurs at folio ci. as an
illustration of " the fyrst serraon. A declaration of the fyrst
peticion" [of the Lord's Prayer]. Holbein's initials, H. H. —
though the cross stroke of the first H is broken away — are per
ceived on the edge of what seems to be a book, to the left of
the figure praying.

The other cut, designed by Holbein, and which contains his
name at full length,* occurs at folio cci. The subject is Christ
casting out Devils, in illustration of the seventh petition of the

the narae Hans Holbein at the bottom, as occurring in the title-page of " A lytle
treatise after the manner of an Epystle wryten by the faraous clerk Doctor Urbanus
Regius," &c, also published by Walter Lynne, 1548.
* Mr. Douce, in his observations prefixed to Hollar's etchings of the Dance
of Death, published by Edwards in 1794, says, "A sef of cuts with the latter
mark [Hans Holben"] occurs in Archbishop Cranmer's Catechism, printed by
Walter Lyne, in 1548;" and in the sarae page he commits another mistake by
describing the mark on the cut of the Duchess in the Lyons Dance of Death as
JB' instead of fL- I* ^^^ ^^^^ considered necessary to notice these errors,

456

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

Lord's Prayer,— " DeUver us from evU." The foUowing is a
fac-simile.

W Jst^^^S^ J tllMf' Iff
III i l¥«lC2ri KANSaOIBtS

\

m

For the purpose of showing the diflerence of style between
those two cuts and the others contained in the same work, the
three following have been selected. The first, illustrating the
Creation, occurs at the folio erroneously numbered cxcv, pro
perly CIX, No. 1 ; the second, illustrating the serraon of our re-
deraption, at foho cxxi. No. 2 ; and the third, illustrating the thfrd
petition of the Lord's Prayer, — "Thy will be done," — at foho
CLXviii, No. 3. The following are the introductory reraarks to
the explanation of what the archbishop calls the thfrd petition :
" Ye have herde how in the former petycions, we requfre 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 commaunde-
mente in the three preceptes written in the first table. Nowe
folowethe the thirde peticyon, wherein we praye God to graute
us that we may fulfyll the other seven commaudementes 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 comraitte none adulterye, to
absteyne frora thefte and lyinge, and to behave our selfes in
all thinges obedientlye, honestlye, peaceably, and godly."
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 raatters by iraplicitly relying on Mr.
Douce's authority. A certain class of compilei-s are also extremely liable to trans
mit such raistakes, and, to borrow an expression of Hegner's, to give currency to
them, as ifthey stood feady for use " in stereotype.'

WOOD ENGRAVING.

457

No, 1,

No. 2.

No. 3,

458

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

The feebleness of the drawing and the want of distinctness in
the three last cuts, are totally unUke the raore vigorous delineation
of Holbein, as exeraplified, though but iraperfectly, in the two
which are doubtlessly of his designing. None of thera have the
slightest pretensions to delicacy or excellence of engraving, though
they raay be considered as the best that had been executed in
this country up to that tirae. 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, unUkely that this appearance might result from
the feebleness of the drawing, conjoined with want of skiU on the
part of the engraver.
The following 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 title-page of this book — which has previously been referred to at page
428, in illustration of the word picta— is as follows: " Novi Testamenti Editio
postrema per Des, Erasraura Roterodamum. Omnia picturis illustrate, Ac-
cesserunt Capitura argumenta Elegiaco carmine, Rudolpho Gualtero authore, con-
scripta. Tiguri, in Officina Froschoviana. Anno, m,d.i,hii." 8vo.

WOOD ENGRAVir^G.

459

the year of Holbein's death. Though there be no name to this
cut, yet frora the great resemblance which it bears to Holbein's
style, I have little doubt of the design being his.

No. 1,

No. 2,

No, 3,

The three preceding specimens of the cuts in Tindale's Trans?
lation of the New Testament, printed at Antwerp in 1534,* ought,
* The volume is of octavo size, and the title is as follows : " The Newe Testa
ment, Imprinted at Antwerp by Marten Emperour. Anno, m.d.xxxiiii," The

460 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
in strict 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 preceding, it seemed preferable to give first a
connected account of the principal wood-cuts which are generally
ascribed to hira, and which there is the strongest reason to beheve
were actually of his designing. The celebrity of Tindale's trans
lation, as the earliest EngUsh 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 Reforraation in England, wiU
give an interest to those cuts to which they could have no pre
tensions as mere works of art. It is probable that they were
executed at Antwerp, where the book was printed ; and the
drawing and engraving will afford some idea of the style of raost
of the small cuts which are to be found in works printed in
Holland and Flanders about that period. The first of the preced
ing cuts represents St. Luke employed in painting a figure of
the Virgin, and it occurs at the coraraenceraent of the Gospel of
that Evangelist. The second, which occurs at the coraraenceraent
of the General Epistle of James, represents that Saint in the
character of a pilgrim. The third. Death on the Pale Horse, is
an illustration of the sixth chapter of Revelations.
There is a beautiful copy, printed on veUura, of this edition
of Tindale's Translation of the New Testament in the Ubrary
of the British Museum, It appears to have forraerly belonged to
Queen Anne Boleyn, and was probably a presentation copy frora
the translator. The title-page is beautifully iUurainated; the
whole of the ornamental border, which is seen in the copies on
paper, is covered with gilding 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 gUt, there is inscribed, in red letters,
Anna Regina ANGLi.a;. This beautiful volume forraerly belonged
to the Reverend C. M. Cracherode, by whora it was bequeathed to
the Museum.
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.
William Tindale, otherwise Hitchins, was born on the borders of Wales, but
was of a Northumberland faraily, being descended from Adam de Tindale of
Langley, near Haydon Bridge, m that county. He was strangled, and his body
was afterwards burnt as that of a heretic by the popish party, at Vilvorde, near
Brussels, in 1536.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 461
The first complete Enghsh translation of the Old and New
Testaments was that of Miles Coverdale, which appeared in
folio, 1535,* without the name or residence of the printer, but
supposed to have been printed at Zurich by Christopher Fros
chover. 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 coraraenceraent is
as follows : " Unto the raost victorious Prynce and our most
gracyous soveraigne Lorde, kynge Henry the eyght, kynge of
Englonde and of Fraunce, lorde of Irlonde, &c. Defendour of the
Fayth, and under God the chefe and supreme heade of the churche
of Englonde. fThe ryght and just administracyon of the laws that
God gave unto Moses and unto Josua : the testiraonye of faythful-
nes that God gave of David : the plenteous abundance of wysdorae
that God gave unto Saloraon : the lucky and prosperous age with
the raultiplicacyon of sede which God gave unto Abrahara and
Sara his wyfe, be geve unto you raost Gracyous Prynce, with
your dearest just wyfe and most virtuous Pryncesse, Queue Anne.
Amen." In most copies, however, " Queue Jane" is substituted
for " Quene Anne," which proves that the original dedication had
been cancelled after the disgrace and execution of Anne Boleyn, and
• The title of this edition is as follows : " Bibha. The Bible, that is, the
holy Scripture of the Olde and Newe Testaments, faithfully translated out of
Douche and Latyn in to Englishe. m.d.xxxv." This title is surrounded with an
ornamental wood-cut border of ten corapartments : 1. 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. Jewish High Priest, — Esdras. 6. Christ
sending his disciples to preach the Gospel, 7, Paul preaching, 8, David play
ing on the harp, 9, In the centre at the bottom. King Henry VIII, 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 pro
fessedly a fac-siraile : in one of the scrolls it has " telius meus" for " filius 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 have not the least doubt of this title-page
having been designed by Holbein.

462

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

that, though the colophon is dated 4th October 1535, the work
had not been generaUy circulated until subsequent to 20th May
1536, the date of Henry's marriage with Jane Seymour.
This edition contains a number of wood-cuts all rather coarsely
engraved, though some of them are designed with such spirit as
to be not unworthy of Holbein himseU^ as will be apparent frora
two or three of the following specimens. In the first, Cain killing

No. 1.

Abel, the attitude of Abel, and the action of Cain, sufficiently
indicate that the original designer understood the huraan figure weU,
and could draw it with great force in a position which it is most
difficult to represent.

No. 2.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

463

The figure of Abraham in No. 2 bears in sorae parts consider
able reserablance to that of the same subject given as a specimen
of Holbein's Bible cuts at page 441 ; but there are several others
in the work which are much more Uke his style ; and which, per
haps, raight be copied frora earlier cuts of his designing. The two
preceding may be considered as specimens of the best designed cuts
in the Old Testament ; and the following, the retum of the Two
Spies, is given as one of the more ordinary.

No. 3.
The three next cuts are frora the New Testaraent. The first
forras the head-piece to the Gospel of St. Matthew ; the second,
which occurs on the title-page, and displays great power of draw
ing in the figure, is John the Baptist; and the third represents
St. Paul writing, with his sword before hira, and a weaver's loom
to his left : the last incident, which is frequently introduced in old
wood-cuts of this Saint, is probably intended to designate his
business as a tent-maker, and also to indicate that, though zeal
ously engaged in disseminating the doctrines of Christ, he had not
ceased to " work with his hands."
Many of the cuts in this work are copied in a subsequent
edition, also in folio, printed in 1537 ; and sorae of the copies
are so extreraely like the originals — every line being retained —
as to induce a suspicion that the irapressions of the latter had
been transferred to the blocks by means of what is technicaUy
termed "rubbing down."

464 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

No. 1.

No 2.

No. 3.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 465
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, caUed 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 Parrae-
giano 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 all his blocks,
impressions, and designs. Between 1530 and 1540 Joseph Nicho
las Vincentini da Trente engraved several chiaro-scuros, raost of
which, like those executed by Fantuzzi, are frora 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 own superintendence and published
for his own benefit. Baldazzar Peruzzi and Domenico Beccafurai,
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 if they were actuaUy
of their own engraving.
From about 1530, the art of wood-engraving, in the usual raan
ner, began to make considerable progress in Italy, and raany of the
cuts executed in that country between 1540 and 1580 raay rie Arith
the best wood engrarings of the sarae period executed in Gerraany.
Instead of the plain and siraple style, which is in general charac
teristic of Italian wood-cuts previous to 1530, the wood engravers
of that country began to execute their subjects in a more delicate
and elaborate raanner. In the period under consideration, we find
cross-hatching frequently introduced with great effect ; there is a
greater variety of tint in the cuts ; the texture of different substances
is indicated raore correctly ; the foliage of trees is more natural ; and
the fur ahd feathers of aniraals are discrirainated with considerable
abiUty, The following cut will afford perhaps some idea of the best
Italian wood-cuts of the period under consideration. It is a
reduced copy of the frontispiece to Mareolini's Sorti,* folio, printed
• The following is the title of this curious and scarce work: "Le Sorti di
Francesco Marcolini da Forli, intitolate Giardino di Pensieri." Dedicated, "Alio
lUustrissimo Signore Hercole Estense, Duca di Ferrara." At the conclusion is the
2 H

466

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

at Venice in 1540. There is an irapression of this cut on paper of
a greenish tint in the Print Room of the British Museum, and
from this circurastance it is placed, though iraproperly, ui a volume,
marked I. W. 4, and lettered " ItaUan chiaro-scuros." Under
neath 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 inchned to think that he hiraself was not aware
of its forraing the frontispiece to MarcoUni's SortL PapiUon,
speaking of the supposed engraver, Joseph Porta Garfagninus, whose
name is seen on a tablet near the bottora towards the right, says.

colophon : " In Venetia per Francesco Marcolini da Forli, ne gii anni del Signore
MDXxxx. Del mese di Ottobre." Iu a proemio, or preface, the author explains
the raanner of applying his "piacevole inventione," 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 page 380.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 467
"J'ai de lui une fort belle Academic des Sciences,"* but seems not
to have known of the work to which it belonged. This cut is
merely a copy, reversed, of a study by Raffaele for his celebrated
fresco, usually called the School of Athens, in the Vatican. It is
engraved in a work entitled " Vies et Oeuvres des Peintres les plus
celebres," 4to. Paris, 1813 ; and in the Table des Planches at the
coraraenceraent of the volume in which it occurs, the subject is
thus described : " PI. ccccv. Etude pour le tableau de I'Ecole
d'Athenes. Ces differens episodes ne se retrouvant pas dans le
tableau qui a ete execute des mains de Raphael, ne doivent etre
considerees que comrae des essais ou premieres pensees. Grav.
M. Ravignmio" From this description it appears that the same
subject had been previously engraved on copper by Marco da
Ravenna, who fiourished about the year 1530, Though I have
never seen an impression of Marco's engraring of this subject, and
though it is not mentioned in Heineken's catalogue of the engraved
works of Raffaele,f I have Uttle doubt that Porta's wood-cut is
copied frora it.
Joseph Porta, frequently called Joseph Salriati by Italian
authors, was a painter, and he took the surname of Salviati
from that of his master, Francesco Salviati, J There are a few
other wood-cuts which contain his name ; but whether he was the
designer, or the engraver only, is extremely uncertain.
* Papillon, Traits de la Gravure en Bois, tom, i. p. 137,
f This catalogue is printed in the second volume of Heineken's Nachrichten von
Kunstlern und Kunst-Sachen, 8vo. Leipzig, 1768-1 769. This work, which appeared
two years before his Idee G6n€rale d'une Collection complette d'Estampes, con
tains much information on the early history of art, which is not to be found in
the latter. All the fac-similes of old engravings in the Idde G^n^rale 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, X Heineken, in his Nachrichten, ler, Theii, S, 340, says that Joseph Porta " was
^ pupil of Cecchino Salviati, who is not to be confounded with Francesco Salviati ;"
and yet in his Id^e G^n^rale, published subsequently, page 1 34, we find " Francesco
del Salviati, autrement Rossi, de Florence, et son disciple Giuseppe Porta, appelld
commun^ment Giuseppe Salviati," Heineken, in his first work, committed the
mistake of supposing that Francesco Salviati's to-name was the Christian narae
of another person. In Huber's Notices G^n^rales des Graveurs et Peintres,
Francis Salviati appears as " Franpois Cecchini, dit Salviati,"
2 H 2

468

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

Mareolini's work contains nearly a hundred wood-cuts besides the
frontispiece, but, though several of thera are designed with great
spirit, no one is so well engraved.* The following is a fac-simUe of
one which occurs at page 35. The relentless-looking old woraan is
a personification of PMWiViowe — Punishraent — holding in her right
hand a treraendous scourge for the chastisement of evU-doers.
Though this cut be but coarsely engraved, the doraestic Nemesis,
who here appears to wield the retributive scourge, is designed with
such spirit that if the figure were executed in marble it raight
almost pass for one of Michael Angelo's. The drapery is admi

rably cast; the figure is good; and the action and expression are
at once simple and severe.
The following cut, also a fac-simUe, occurs at page 81 as an
illustration of Matrimony. The young man, with his legs afready
• The first forty-six cuts are the best, generally, both in design and execution.
The others, coraraencing at page 108, are illustrative of the sayings and doctrines of
ancient philosophers 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 filled
with explanatory or illustrative verses arranged in triplets.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

469

tied, seeras to be deliberating on the prudence of raaking a contract
which raay 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 Re, Fante, Cavallo, e
Sette, di denari" — are copied frora the instructions in the preface ;*

and the beautiful design of Truth rescued by Time — Veritas
Filia Temporis — occurs as a tail-piece on the last page of the
work. This cut occurs not unfrequently in works published by
GioUto, by whora I beheve the Sorti was printed ; and two or three
of the other cuts contained in the volurae are to be found in

• The first hundred and seven pages of the work are chiefly filled with similar'
figures of cards variously combined, with short references. How Mareolini's
pleasant invention is to be applied to discover the secrets of Fate, I have not been
able to comprehend.

470 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
a huraorous work of Doni's, entitied « I Marrai," printed by
GioUto in 1552.

The wood engravers of Venice about the middle of the sixteenth
century appear to have excelled all other ItaUan wood engravers,
and for the deUcacy of their execution they rivalled those of Lyons,
who at that period were chiefly distinguished for the neat and
delicate manner of their engi-aving small subjects. In the pfrated
edition of the Lyons Dance of Death, pubhshed at Venice in 1545
by V. Vaugris, the cuts are more correctly copied and more deU
cately engraved than those in the edition first pubUshed at Cologne
by the heirs of Arnold Birkman in 1555. In fact, the wood
engravings in books printed at Lyons and Venice from about 1540
to 1580 are in general more delicately engraved than those executed
in Germany and the Low Countries during the same period.
Among all the Venetian printers of that age, Gabriel Giohto
is entitled to precedence from the nuraber and comparative ex
ceUence of the wood-cuts contained in the numerous illustrated
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 frarae, 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

WOOD ENGRAVING.

471

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 sorae publishers seera inclined to revive
it. I should, however, be sorry to see it again become preva
lent, for though to some subjects, designed in a particular manner,
an ornamental border raay be appropriate, yet I consider the prac
tice of thus framing a series of cuts as indicative of bad taste, and
as likely to check the iraproveraent of the art. Highly ornaraented
borders have, in a certain degree, the effect of reducing a series
of cuts, however different their execution, to a standard of raedi-
ocrity ; for they frequently conceal the beauty of a well-engraved
subject, and serve as a screen to a bad one. In Ludovico Dolce's
Transforraationi — a translation, or rather paraphrase of Ovid's
Metaraorphoses — first printed by Giolito in 1553, and again in
1557, the cuts, instead of haring a border all round, have only
ornaments at the two vertical sides. The foUowing is a fac-simile
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 preriously alluded to
at page 264.
A curious book, of which an edition, in quarto, was printed at
Rome in 1561, seems deserring of notice here, not on account

472 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
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 raanner of the cuts in a little work
entitled « A curious Hieroglyphiek Bible," first printed in London,
in duodecirao, about 1782. The Italian work in question was
written by " Messer Giovam Battista Palatine, Cittadino Romano,"
and from the date of the Pope's grant to the author of the priri
lege of exclusively printing it for ten years, it seems likely 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 — raay be translated as
follows : " The Book of M. Giovam Battista Palatine, citizen of
Rome, in which is taught the raanner of writing aU kinds of
characters, ancient and modern, of whatever nation, with Rules,
Proportions, and Examples. Together with a short and usefiil
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, Palatino's work
is thus noticed: " In 1561, Valerius Doricus printed at Rome a
curious book on all kinds of vwiting, ancient and modem. This
book contains specimens of a great variety of writing practised in
different ages and countries ; some of these speciraens are printed
frora types to iraitate writing, and others frora carved wood-blocks.
This book also contains a treatise on the art of writing in cipher,
and is a raost curious specimen of early typography."
After his specimens of "Lettere Cifrate," Palatino devotes a
couple of pages to "Cifre quadrate, et Sonetti figurati," two
modes of riddle-writing which, it appears, are solely eraployed for
arauseraent. The " Cifro quadrate" is nothing more than a mono
gram, formed of a cluster of interwoven capitals, but in which every
• The following is a literal copy of the title : « Libro di M. Giovam Battiste
Palatino, Cittadino Romano, Nelqual s'insegna k Scriver ogni sorte letteia, Antica
& Moderna, di qualunque natione, con le sue regole, & misure, & essempi : Et
con un breve, et util Discorso de le Cifre : Riveduto novamente, & corretto dal
proprio Autore. Con la giunta di quindici tavole bellissime." At the end of the
work is the imprint: "In Roma per Valerio Dorico alia Chiavica de Sante Lucia.
Ad. Instantia de M, Giovan della Galta, L'Anno m,d,lxi," 4to, Papillon says
that the work first appeared in 1540, and was reprinted in 1545, 1547, 1548, 1550,
1553, and 1556, An edition was also published at Venice in 1588,

WOOD ENGRAVING.

473

one of the letters of the name is to be found. In the following
specimen the name thus ingeniously disguised is Lavinia.

The following is a slightly reduced copy of the first four lines of
the " Sonetto figurato ;" the other ten lines are expressed by

figures in a similar manner. " As to figured sonnets," says the
author, "no better rule can be given, than merely to observe that

474 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
the figures should clearly and distinctly correspond with the matter,
and that there should be as few supplementary letters as possible.
Of course, orthography and pure ItaUan are not to be looked for
in such exercises ; and it is no objection that the sarae figure be
used for the beginning of one word, the middle of another, or the
end of a third. It is the chief excellence of such compositions that
there should be few letters to be supplied."
The "interpretatio" of the preceding figured text is as foUows :
" Dove son gii occhi, et la serena forma
Del santo alegro et amoroso aspetto ?
Dov' fe la man eburna ov' e '1 bei petto
Ch' appensarvi hor' in fonte mi transforma ?"
This figured sonnet is a curious specimen of hieroglyphic and
"phonetic" writing combined. For those who do not under
stand ItaUan, it seems necessary to give the foUowing explanation
of the words, and point out their phonetic relation to the things.
Dove, where, is composed of D, and ove, eggs, as seen at the
commencement of the first Une. Son, aie, 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 their 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 represented 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^nwo,
shape, by a shoemaker's last, which is called _/or?Ka in ItaUan.
In the second line, Santo, holy, is represented by a Saint, Santo ;
allegro, cheerfulness, by a pair of wings, ale, and grue, a crane, the
superfluous e forming, with the t following, the conjunction ef, and.
The words amoroso aspetto are formed of amo, a hook, rosa, a rose,
and petto, the breast, with a suppleraentary s between the rose and
the breast.
In the third line we have ove, eggs, and the musical la again;
man, the hand, is expressed by its proper figure ; eburna, ivory-like,

WOOD ENGRAVING. 475
is composed of the letters eb and an urn, uma; 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 cK opjoensarvi ; Ao?-',
now, is represented by an hour-glass, hora, literally, an hour; fonte,
a fountain, is expressed by its proper figure; and the words mi
transforma, are phonetically expressed by a mitre, mitra, the supple
mentary letters ns, and the shoemaker's last, forma.
In the reign of Queen EUzabeth, a taste for inventing devices
in this manner seeras to have been fashionable araong professed
wits ; and the practice of expressing a narae 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 frora Bolton, a
prior of St. Bartholoraew's in Smithfield, who gave a hird-bolt in
the bung-hole of a tun as the rebus of his narae. The peculiarities
of the Italian figtired sonnet are not unaptly iUustrated in Camden's
Remains, 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 derised grossely, a rose, a hill,
an eye, a loafe, and a well, — that is, if you will spell it,
. Rose Hill I love well."^\
Among the wood engravers of Lyons who flourished about the
middle of the sixteenth century, the only one whose name has corae
down to modern times is Bernard Solomon ; and if he were actually
* There is a curious allusion to a Rebus in Horace, Satyrar, Lib, I, Sat, V.,
Vers, 88, which has escaped the notice of all his commentators :
" Quatuor hinc rapiraur viginti et millia rhedis,
Mansuri oppidulo, quod versu dicere non est,
Signis perfacile est."
The place which he did not think proper to name was undoubtedly Asculura,
whose situation exactly corresponds with the distance frora Trivicum, where he
rested the preceding night, Frora the manner in which Horace alludes to the signa
— as and culum — of which the narae is composed, it seems likely that a certain
vulgar benison was not unknown at Rome in the age of Augustus,
t Remaines concerning Britaine, with additions by John Philpot, Somerset
Herald, p, 164, Edit, 1636,

476 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
the engraver of the nuraerous cuts which are ascribed to him, he
must have been extremely industrious. I ara not, however, aware
of any cut which contains his mark ; and it is by no raeans certain
whether he were really a wood engraver, or whether he only made
the designs for wood engravers to execute. Papillon, who has been
blindly followed by most persons who have either incidentally or ex
pressly written on wood engraring, unhesitatingly clairas hira as a
wood engraver ; but looking at the inequaUty in the execution of
the cuts ascribed to hira, and regarding the saraeness of charac
ter in the designs, I ara inclined to think that he was not an
engraver, but that he merely made the drawings on the wood. Sfr
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 haring, in Bewick of New
castle, brought wood engraving to perfection ; his pupil, Harvey,
continues the profession with reputation." The writer here eri
dently speaks of that which he knows very little about, for at the
time that his book was published, Harvey, though originaUy a
wood engraver, and a pupil of Bewick, had abandoned the pro
fession for about eight years, and had devoted himself entfrely to
painting and drawing for copper-plate and wood engravers. Indeed
I very much question if 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, raight have described
the late John Thurston as " continuing the profession with reputa
tion," 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 "little raasters" in this
branch of art. All the cuts ascribed to hira which have corae under
my notice are of small size, and most of them are executed in a
delicate, though ineffective raanner; they are, however, generally
deficient in effect,* and may readily be distinguished by the tall slim
" PapiUon, who speaks highly of the execution of the cuts ascribed to Bernard
Solomon, admits that they want effect, " La gravure," says he, speaking of the
cuts contained in < Quadrins Historiques de la Bible,' " est fort belle, excepts
qu'elle manque de clair obscur, parce que les tallies sont presque toutes de la

WOOD ENGRAVING. 477
figures which he introduces. He evidently had not understood the
"capabilities" of his art, for in none of his productions do we find
the weU-contrasted " black-and-white," which, when well managed,
materially contributes to the excellence of a well-engraved wood-cut.
The production of a good black is, indeed, one of the great advan
tages, in point of conventional colour, which wood possesses over
copper ; and the. wood engraver who neglects this advantage, and
labours perhaps for a whole day to cut with mechanical precision
a number of delicate but unmeaning lines, which a copper-plate
engraver would execute with facility in an hour, affords a tolerably
convincing proof of his not thoroughly understanding the principles
of his art In Bernard's cuts, and in raost of those executed at
Lyons about the sarae period, we find much of this ineffective
labour; we perceive in thera raany evidences of the pains-taking
workraan, but few traits of the talented artist. From the time that
a taste for those little and laboriously executed, but spiritless cuts,
began to prevail, the decline of wood engraving may be dated.
Instead of confining themselves within the legitiraate boundaries
of their own art, wood engravers seera to have been desirous of
emulating the deUcacy of copper-plate engraving, and, as raight
naturally be expected by any one who understands the distinctive
peculiarities of the two arts, they failed. The book-buyers of
the period having become sickened with the glut of tasteless and
ineffective trifles, wood engraring began to decline : large well-
engraved wood-cuts executed between 1580 and 1600 are compara
tively scarce.
Bernard Solomon, or as he is frequently called Little Solomon,
from the sraallness ofhis works, is said to have been bom in 1512,
and the raost of the cuts which are ascribed to hira 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 raart for
Scripture cuts, erablems, and devices ; but out of the many hundreds
mfeme teinte, ce qui fait que les lointains ne fuyent pas assez. C'est le seul
defaut des gravures de Bernard Salomon ; ce qui lui a iii coramun avec plus de
quarante autres graveurs en bois de son temps." — ^Trait^ de la Gravure en Bois,
tom, i, p, 209.

478 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
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 tirae was Jean de Toumes ; many of the
works which issued from his press display great typographic excel
lence, and in almost all the cuts are engraved with great neatness.
The following 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, 1545.

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 shilhng,"
are 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 likely to be of his designing as three-fourths of
those which are generally supposed to be of his engraring.
• Several editions of Alciat's Emblems and Claude Paradin's Devises Heroi'ques
were published at Lyons in the sixteenth century. The first edition of the latter
work was printed there by Jean de Toumes, in 1557, 8vo.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

479

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 publish
ed by the brothers Frellon in 1538. The first edition of the Quad
rins Historiques was published in octavo about 1550, and was
several times reprinted within the succeeding twenty years. The
total nuraber of cuts in the edition of 1560, from which the follow
ing specimen is taken, 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, tire de la Bible, pour graver en la table des affeccions
I'amour des sacrees Histories." Those " Quadrins" appear to have
been written by Claude Paradin. The composition of several of
the cuts is good, and nearly all display great neatness of execu
tion. The following is a fac-siraile 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.
A similar work, entitled "Figures du Nouveau Testament,"
with cuts, evidently designed by the person who had made the
drawings for those in the " Quadrins Historiques de la Bible," was

480

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

also published by Jean de Toumes about 1553, and several editions
were subsequently printed. The cuts are rather less in size than
those of the Quadrins, and are, on the whole, rather better en
graved. The total number is a hundred and four, and under each
are six explanatory verses, composed by Charles Fonteine, who, m
a short poetical address at the coramencement, dedicates the work
" A Tres-iUustre et Treshaute Princesse, Madame Marguerite
de France, Duchesse de Berri." The foUowing, Christ tempted by
Satan, is a copy of the sixteenth cut, but hke that of the expulsion
of Adam and Eve, it is not one of the best in the work.

Old engrarings and paintings illustrative of raanners or of
costume are generally interesting; and on this account a set of
large wood-cuts designed by Peter Coeck of Alost, fri Flanders,
is deserving of notice. The subjects of those cuts are the raanners
and costumes of the Turks ; and the drawings were raade on the
spot by Coeck himself, who visited Turkey in 1533. It is said
that he brought from the east an important secret relative to the
art of dying 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 archi-
tect and an author ; and published several treatises on sculpture,
geometry, perspective, and architecture. The cuts illustrative of the
manners and costume of the Turks were not pubUshed until 1553,

WOOD ENGRAVING. 481
three years after his decease, as we learn from an inscription on the
last.* They are oblong, of foho size ; and the seven of which the
set consists are intended to be joined together, and thus to forra one
continuous subject. The figures, both on foot and horseback, are
designed with great spirit, but they want rehef, and the engraving
is coarse. One of the custoras which he has illustrated 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 traveller who has graphically represented " quo modo
Turd mingunt," i. e. sedenfes. Succeeding artists have availed
themselves liberally of those cuts. As the Turks in the six
teenth century were much more forraidable as a nation than at
present, and their manners and customs objects of greater curiosity,
wood engravings illustrative of their costurae and mode of living
appear to have been in considerable demand at that period, for both
in books and as single cuts they are coraparatively nuraerous.
Though chiaro-scuro engraving on wood was, in all probability,
first practised in Gerraany, 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 nume
rous chiaro-scuros after the designs of such raasters as Raffa
ele, Corregio, Parmegiano, Polidoro, Beccafurai, and F. Salviati,
the art appears to have been coraparatively abandoned by the wood
engravers of Gerraany. The chiaro-scuros executed in the latter
country cannot generally 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 Gerraan 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 impres
sion in certain parts, is, if genuine, one of the most remarkable of
* The following explanatory title occurs on the first cut : " Ces moeurs et
fachons de faire de Turcz avecq' les Regions y appartenantes, ont este au vif
contrefactez par Pierre Coeck d' Alost, luy estent en Turquie, I'an de Jesu Christ
M. D. 33. Lequel assy de sa raain propre a pourtraict ces figures duysantes k
I'irapression d'ycelles." From another of the cuts we thus learn the tirae of his
death : " Marie Verhulst vefue du diet Pierre d'Alost, trespasse en Taniie mdl,
a faict imprimer les diets figures soubz Grace et Privilege de I'lmpgrialle Maiestie.
En I'Ann mcccccliii."
2i

482 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE 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 Gerraan 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.
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
erableraatic of his power, while the right is elevated as in tbe act
of pronouncing a benediction. His robe is blue, with the folds indi
cated by a darker tint, and the border and Ughter parts impressed
with at least two lighter 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, yellow, and blue ; the folds are of
a darker colour ; and the lights are expressed by a kind of yellow,
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 vrith some
metallic substance like fine gold-dust. The border of the print
consists of a similar yellow, between plain black Unes. The face
is printed in fiesh colour of three tints, and the head is surroimded
with rays of glory, which appear hke gilding. The engraring of
the face, and of the hair of the head and beard, is extremely weU
executed, and rauch superior to anything that I have seen in wood
cuts containing Ungher's raark. The globe is blue, with the hghts
preserved, intersected by light red and yeUow lines ; and the small
cross at the top is also yellow, Uke the light on the red mantie.
The hands and feet are expressed in their proper colours ; the
ground on which the Redeemer stands is something between a
lake and a fawn colour ; and the ground of the print, upwards
from about an inch above the bottom, is of a hghter blue than the
robe. To the'/ 5 • 4 3 "right, near the bottora, are the date
and raark, thus: /^^ The figure hke a winged serpent
reserables a tJ^ mark which was frequently used by

WOOD ENGRAVING. 483
Lucas Cranach, except that the serpent or dragon of the latter
appears less crooked, and usually has a ring in its raouth. The
letter underneath also appears rather raore like an I than an L.
The drawing of the figure of Christ, however, is very rauch in the
style of Lucas Cranach, and I ara strongly inclined to think that
the original painting or drawing was executed by hira, whoever may
have been the engraver. There must have been at least ten blocks
required for this curious print, which, for clearness and distinctness
in the colours, and for delicacy of impression, more especiaUy in the
face, may challenge 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.*
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 Roman
eraperors frora Julius Csesar to Ferdinand l.f Descaraps, in his
work entitled "La Vie des Peintres Flaraands, Allemands et
HoUandois," says that those portraits, which are all copied from
medals, were " engraved on wood by a painter of Courtrai, named
Joseph Gietleughen;"J and Papillon, who had exarained the work
raore closely, but not closely enough, says that the outlines are
etched, and that the two renfrees — the subsequent irapressions
which give to the whole the appearance of a chiaro-scuro drawing
— are frora blocks of wood engraved in intaglio. What Papillon
says about the outlines being etched is true ; but a close inspection
of those portraits will afford any person acquainted with the process
araple proof of the "rentrees" being also printed frora plates of
raetal in the sarae raanner as frora engraved wood-blocks.

* This interesting speciraen of the combined arts of wood engraving and printing
forraerly belonged to the late Mr. Robert Branston, wood engraver, who executed
several of the chiaro-scuros, and imitations of coloured drawings, in Savage's work
on Decorative Printing. It is now in the possession of his son, Mr. Frederick
Branston, who is of the same profession as his father.
t The title-page of this work is printed in three colours, — black, sepia, and
green. The black ornamental outlines are frora an etched plate ; the sepia and
green colours are printed frora wood-blocks. An edition of this work, enlarged
by Gevartius, with portraits in two colours, and entirely engraved on wood, was
printed at Antwerp in 1645.
t Tom. i. p. 129. Paris, 1753. 2 I 2

484 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
Each of those portraits appears Uke an enlarged copy of a raedal,
and is the result of three separate irapressions ; the first containing
the outlines of the head, the ornaraents, and the narae, has been
printed from an etched plate of copper or sorae other raetal, by
raeans of a copper-plate printing-press ; and the two other irapres
sions, over the first, have also been from plates of metal, mounted
on blocks of wood, and printed by means of the coraraon typogra
phic printing-press. The outUnes 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 frora the sarae
surface and at the sarae time, are of a Ughter shade. The lights to
be preserved have been cut in intaglio in the plates for the two
" rentrees," 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 "rentrees" 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 pairs;
while round the outer margin they are raostly of a square form.
It is difficult to conceive what advantage Goltzius raight expect to
derive by printing the "rentrees" from metal plates; for aU that
he has thus produced could have been raore siraply effected by
means of wood-blocks, as practised up to that time by aU other
chiaro-scuro engravers. Though those portraits possess but Uttie
merit as chiaro-scuros, they are yet highly interesting in the history
of art, as affording the first instances of etching being employed for
the outUnes of a chiaro-scuro, and of the substitution, in surfece-
printing, of a plate of metal for a wood-block. Goltzius's raanner
of etching, the outlines of a chiaro-scuro print was frequentiy
practised both by French and EngUsh artists about the middle of
the last century ; and about 1722, Edward KirkaU engraved the
outUnes of his chiaro-scuros in aqua-tint In the present day
Mr. George Baxter has successfully appUed the principle of
engraving the ground and the outlines of his subjects in aqua
tint ; and, in the same manner as in the work of Hubert Golt
zius, he sometiraes uses a metal-plate instead of a wood-block
in surface-printing : in the picture-prints, executed by Mr. Baxter,
in the Pictorial Album, 1837, the tint of the paper on which each
imitative painting appears to be mounted, is communicated from a

WOOD ENGRAVING. 485
smooth plate of copper, which receives the colour, and is printed in
the same manner as a wood-block.
Among the German artists who raade designs for wood en
gravers frora the tirae of Durer to about 1590, Erhard Schon,
Virgil Solis, Melchior Lorich, and Jost Araraan may be considered
as the principal. They are all frequently described as wood
engravers from the cfrcurastance of their raarks being found on
the cuts which they undoubtedly designed, but raost certainly did
not engrave. Erhard Schon chiefly resided at Nuremberg; and
some ofthe earliest cuts ofhis designing are dated 1528. In 1538
he published at Nuremberg a small treatise, in oblong quarto, on
the proportions of the huraan figure, for the use of students and
young, persons.* This work contains several wood-cuts, aU coarsely
engraved, illustrative of the writer's precepts ; two or three of them
— where the heads and bodies are represented by squares and rhom-
boidal figures — are extreraely curious, though apparently not very
well adapted to iraprove a learner in the art of design. Another of
the cuts, where the proportions are illustrated by means of a figure
inscribed within a circle, is very hke one of the illustrations con
tained 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, for the raost part, have but
Uttle to recoraraend thera. He died about 1550.
Virgil Solis, a painter, copper-plate engraver, and designer
on wood, was born at Nuremberg about 1514. The cuts which
contain his mark are extremely nuraerous ; and, frora their being
raostly of sraall size, he is ranked by Heineken with the " Little
Masters." Several of his cuts display great fertihty of invention ;
but though his figures are frequently spirited and the attitudes
good, yet his drawing is generally careless and incorrect. As a
considerable nuraber of his cuts are of the sarae kind as those of
Bernard Sobraon, it seems as if there had been a competition at
that tirae between the booksellers of Nuremberg and those of

* The following is a literal copy of the title : " Unnderweissung der proportzion
unnd stellung der possen, liegent und stehent ab gestolen wie man das vor augen
sicht in dempuchlein durch Erhart fchon vonn Norrenberg fur die Jungenn
gesellenn unnd Jungen zu unntherrichtung die zu der Kunst lieb thragenn und
in denn truck gepracht, 1538."

486 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
Lyons for supplying the European market with illustrations of
two works of widely different character, to wit, the Bible, and Grid's
Metamorphoses, — Virgil Solis being retained for the German,
and Bernard Soloraon for the French publishers. He designed
the cuts in a Gerraan edition of the Bible, printed in 1560; raost
of the portraits of the Kings of France in a work pubhshed at
Nureraberg in 1566; a series of cuts for Esop's fables; and the
illustrations of an edition of Reusner's Erablems. Several cuts
with the raark of Virgil SoUs are to be found in the first edition
of Archbishop Parker's Bible, printed by Richard Jugge, foho, Lon
don, 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 Orid might by
sorae singular oversight be used in an edition of the Bible, although
printed under the especial superintendence of a Right Reverend
Archbishop. In the letter G, which forras the coraraenceraent 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 forra of
a swan; and in the letter T at the coraraenceraent 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 Virgil Solis, iUustiative of
Ovid's Metamorphoses, was published at Frankfort, in oblong
quarto, by George Corvinus, Sigismund Feyrabent, and the hefrs
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,f which is both in
• This last letter contains the mark ^, which is to be found on some of the
cuts in the editions ofthe Dance of Death printed at Cologne, 1555—1572.
t The title is as follows : " Johan. Posthii Germersheraii Tetrasticha in Ovidii
Metam. Lib. xv. Quibus accesserunt Vergilii Solis figurae elegantiss. et jam pri-
raura in lucera editse.— Schone Figuren, auss dera fiirUefflichen Poeten Ovidio,
alien Malern, Goldtschmiden, und Bildthauren, zu nutz und gutem mit fleiss
gerissen durch Vergilium Solis, unnd mit Teutschen Reimen kiirtzlich erklaret,
dergleichein vormals im Druck nie aussgangen, Durch Johan. Posthium von Ger-
merssheim, m.d.lxix."

WOOD ENGRAVING. 487
Latin and in Gerraan, it is stated that they are designed — gerissen
— by Virgil Sohs 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 of them, in addition to his mark, 'V8P', also contain
another, ^ , which is doubtless that of the wood engraver.
The latter mark occurs frequently in the cuts designed by Virgil
SoUs, in the first edition of Archbishop Parker's Bible.
Evelyn, in his Sculptura, has the following 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 vile 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 similar inaccuracies, and yet he is frequently quoted
and referred to as an authority. The " mechanic arts" to which
Evelyn alludes were probably the series of cuts designed by Jost
Amman, and first published in quarto, at Frankfort, in 1564; and
the improbable story of Virgil Solis having had his eyes put out
for copying Julio Romano's obscene designs, engraved by Marc
Antonio, and illustrated with sonnets by the scurrilous ribald, Pietro
Aretine, is utterly devoid of foundation. No such copies have ever
been mentioned by any well-informed writer on art, and there is
not the sUghtest evidence of Virgil Solis ever having been punished
in any manner by the magistrates of his native city, Nureraberg,
where he died in 1570.
Wood-cuts with the raark 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
engraving 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 Con
stantinople, where he remained three years. His principal works
engraved on wood consist of a series of illustrations of the manners
and custoras of the Turks, published about 1570, There is a
very clever cut, a Lady splendidly dressed, with his raark and
the date 1551 ; it is printed on what is called a " broadside," and

488 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
undemeath is a copy of verses by Hans Sachs, the celebrated
shoeraaker and mjeisfersanger of Nureraberg,* entitied "Eer und
Lob einer schim wolgezierfen Frawen"— The Honour and Praise of a
beautiful well-dressed woman. A large cut of the Deluge, in two
sheets, is considered one of the best of his designing. Araong 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 still living 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 lived, was born at Zurich in 1539, but removed to
Nureraberg about 1560. f His designs are raore bold, and display
more of the vigour of the older German masters, than those of his
conteraporary Virgil Solis. A series of cuts designed by hira,
illustrative of professions and trades, was published in 1564,
quarto, with the title " Hans Sachse eigenthche Beschreibimg
aller Stande auf Erden — aller Kunste und Handwerker," &c —
that is, Hans Sachs's correct Description of all Ranks, Arts, and
Trades ; and another edition in duodecirao, with the descriptions in
Latin, appeared in the sarae year.:): For the correctness of the date
of those editions I ara obUged to rely on Heineken, as I have never
seen a copy of either ; the earliest edition with Hans Sachs's
descriptions that has corae under ray notice is dated 1574.
In a duodecirao edition, 1568, and another of the sarae size,
1574, the descriptions, by Hartraan Schopper, are in Latin verse. §
* Hans Sachs, whose poetical works might vie in quantity with those of Lope
Vega, was born at Nuremberg in 1494. Notwithstanding the immense number of
verses which he coraposed, he did not trust to his profession of Meistersanger for
the means of living, but continued to carry ou his business as a shoemaker till his
death, which happened in 1576, His verses were much admired by his contem
poraries; and between 1570 aud 1579 a collection of his works was published in
five volumes folio. Several short pieces by hira were originally printed as "broad
sides," with an ornaraental or illustrative cut at the top,
f Papillon, who appears to have been extremely wishful to swell his catalogue
of wood engravers, describes Jost Amman of Zurich and Jost Amraan of Nurem
berg as two different persons,
X Heineken, Id^e Generale, p. 244.
§ The following is the title of the edition of 1568; — that of 1574 is somewhat
different. " nANOIIAIA omnium Illiberalium meclianicarum aut sedentariarum

WOOD ENGRAVING.

489

This is perhaps the most curious and interesting series of cuts,
exhibiting the various ranks and employments of raen, that ever
was pubUshed. Among the higher orders, constituting what the
Gerraans call the "Lehre und Wehr Stande"— teachers and warriors
— are the Pope, Eraperor, King, Princes, Nobles, Priests, and
Lawyers; while alraost every branch of labour or of trade then
known in Germany, from agriculture to pin-making, has its re
presentative. There are also not a few which it would be diffi
cult to reduce to any distinct class, as they are neither trades nor
honest professions. Of those heteroclytes is the "Meretricura
procurator — der Hurenweibel" — or, as Captain Dugald Dalgetty
says, " the captain of the Queans."
The subject of the following cut, whieh is of the same size
as the original, is a Briefmaler, — literally, a card-painter, the name

artium, continens quotquot unquam vei a veteribus, aut nostri etiam seculi cele-
britate excogiteri potuerunt, breviter et dilucide confecte : carrainum liber primus,
tura mira varietate rerum vocabuloruraque novo raore excogitatorum copia perquam
utilis, lectuque jucundus. Accesserunt etiam venustissimae Imagines omnes om
nium artificum negociantes ad vivum lectori representantes, antehac nee visae nee
unquam aeditoe : per Hartman Schopperum, Novoforens, Noricum, — Frankofurti ad
Moenura, cum privelegio Caesario, m.d.lxviii,"

490

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

by which the Gerraan wood engravers were known before they
adopted the raore appropriate one of Formschneider. It is evident,
that, at tbe 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 shallow vessels perceived on the top of the large box
in front aro the saucers which contain his colours. Near the
window, iramediately to his right, is a pile of sheets which,
from the figure of a raan on horseback seen irapressed upon
thera, appear to be already finished.
The subject of the following cut, frora the sarae work, is a
Formschneider, or wood engraver proper. He is apparently at work

* The 'Briefmalers, though at that time evidently distinct from the Formschneiders,
still continued to print wood-cuts. On several large wood-cuts with the dates
1553 and 1554 we find the words, " Gedrukt zu Niimberg durch Hanns Glaser,
Brieffmaler."

WOOD ENGRAVING. 491
on a block which he has before hira ; but the kind of tool which
he eraploys is not exactly like those used by English wood en
gravers of the present day. It seems to resemble a small long-
handled desk-knife ; while the tool of the modern wood engraver
has a handle which is rounded at the top in order to accomraodate
it to the palm 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 will 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 following is a translation of Hans Sachs's German
verses descriptive of the preceding cut.
I ara a wood-engraver good,
And all designs on blocks of wood
I with ray graver cut so neat.
That when they're printed on a sheet
Of paper white, you plainly view
The very forms the artist drew :
His drawing, whether coarse or fine.
Is truly copied line for line.
Jost Amraan died in 1591, and frora the tirae of his settUng 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 goldsraiths;
and it is said that he excelled as a painter on glass. The works
which afford the best speciraens of his talents as a designer on
wood are those illustrative of the costume of the period, first
pubUshed between 1580 and 1585 by S. Feyerabent at Frankfort.
One of those works contains the costumes of men of all ranks,
except the clergy, interspersed with the armorial bearings of the
principal families in Germany ; another contains the costume of the
different orders of the priesthood of the church of Rorae; and
a third, entitled Gynseceura sive Theatrura Mulierura, is illustrative
of the costume of women of all ranks in Europe. A work on
hunting and fowling, edited by J. A. Lonicerus, and printed in
1582, contains about forty excellent cuts of his designing. A
separate volurae, consisting of cuts selected from the four pre
ceding works, and of a nuraber of other cuts chiefiy illustrative
* See the mark C. S. at page 493.

492 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
of mythological subjects and of the costurae of Turkey, was
pubhshed by Feyerabent about 1590. In a subsequent edition of
this work, printed in 1599, it is stated that the collection is pub
Ushed for the especial benefit of painters and araateurs.* Araong
the numerous other cuts designed by him, the foUowing may be
mentioned : illustrations for a Bible pubUshed at Frankfort 1565 ;
a series of subjects from Roman History, entitled Icones Lirianse,
1572 ; and the cuts in an edition of Reynard the Fox. The
works of Jost Amraan have proved a mine for succeeding artists ;
his figures were frequently copied by wood engravers in France
Italy, and Flanders ; and even some raodern Enghsh paintings con
tain eridences of the artist having boiTOwed something more than
a hint from the figures of Jost Araraan.
Jost Araraan was undoubtedly one of the best professional
designers on wood of his tirae ; and his style bears considerable
reserablance to that of Hans Burgraair as exeraplified in the
Triuraphs of Maximilian. Many of his figures are weU drawn;
but even in the best of his subjects the attitudes are somewhat
affected and generaUy too violent ; and this, with an overstrained
expression, makes his characters appear raore like actors in a
theatre than Uke real personages. In the cuts of the horse in the
" Kunstbuchhn" the action of the aniraal is frequently represented
with great spirit ; but in points of detaU the artist is as fre
quently incorrect. Sorae of his veiy best designs are to be found
among his equestrian subjects. His men generally have a good
"seat," and his ladies seem to manage their heavy long-taUed
steeds with great ease and grace.
Several of the views of cities, in Sebastian Munster's Cosmogra-

" This work is entitled " Kunstbiichlin," 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 like a slab of stone or
wood — most unmeaningly and awkwardly introduced — are Jost Amman's initials,
I. A., towards the top, and lower down the mark J^T", which is doubtless that of
the engraver. This mark, with a figure of a graver underneath, occurs on several
of the other cuts. The three following marks, with a graver underneath each,
also occur: L. F. C.S. G. H. These facts are sufficient to prove that Jost Amman
was not the engraver of the cuts which he designed. In the edition of 1599 the
cuts are said to have been drawn by " the late raost excellent and celebrated artist,
Jost Araraan of Nuremberg."

WOOD ENGRAVING. 493
phy — first pubUshed in folio, at Basle, 1550 — contain two raarks,
one of the designer, and the other of the person by whom the
subject was engraved, the latter being frequently accorapanied by a
graver, thus : Hjj ; or with two gravers of different kinds, thus :
? C ? S ? "^^^^ ^^^* mark, which also occurs in Jost Amman's
'^S^Kunstbuchlein, is said to be that of Christopher Stiramer,
a brother of Tobias Stimraer, a Swiss artist, who is generally
described as a designer and engraver on wood. The cuts with the
forraer raark have been ascribed to Hans Holbein, but they
bear not the least resemblance to his style of design, and they
have been assigned to him solely on account of the letters corre
sponding with the initials of his name. Professor Christ's Dic
tionary of Monograms, and PapUlon'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 Burgraair, and other old Gerraan artists,
the engravers or only the designers of the cuts which bear their
mark ?" has been pleased to assert that the mark of the actual
engraver is usually distinguished by the graver with which it is
accorapanied. This statement has been adopted and further dis
seminated by others ; and raany persons who have not an opportu
nity of judging for theraselves, and who receive with iraplicit credit
whatever they find asserted in a Dictionary of Engravers, suppose
that from the tirae of Albert Durer, or even earlier, the figure
of a graver generally distinguishes the raark of the formschneider
or engraver on wood. So far, however, frora this being a gene
ral 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
Cosmography, and the practice which appears to have been first
introduced about that time never becarae 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 unaccompanied with a graver, it is
exceedingly doubtful in raost cases whether the raark be that of
the engraver or the designer.
The wood-cuts in Munster's Cosmography are generally poor in

494

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

design and coarse in execution. One of the best is that repre
senting an encounter of two arraed men on horseback, with the
mark •^•, wbich also occurs in some of the cuts in Gesner's
History of Aniraals, printed at Zurich, 1551 — 1558. This cut,
as well as several others, is repeated in another part of the book,
in the raanner of the Nureraberg Chronicle, where the sarae por
trait or the same view is used to represent several different persons
or places. The cuts are not precisely the sarae 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 raore neatly engraved.
The following cut is copied frora one at page 49 of the first
edition, where it is given as an illustration of a wonderful kind

of tree, said to be found in Scotland, and frora the friut of which
it was beUeved that geese were produced. Munster's account of this
wonderful tree and its fruit is as foUows : " In Scotland are found
trees, 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 call the tree goose. This tree also
grows in the island of Pomona [the largest of the Orkneys], not far
distant from Scotiand towards the north. As old cosmographers

WOOD ENGRAVING. 495
— especially Saxo Grammaticus — raention this tree, it is not
to be considered as a fiction of raodern authors. Aeneas Sylvius
also notices this tree as follows : ' We have heard that there was
a tree formerly in Scotland, which, growing by the margin of a
stream, produced fruit of the shape of ducks ; that such fruit, when
nearly ripe, fell, some into the water and some on land. Such as
fell on land decayed, but such as fell into the water quickly
became animated, swiraraing below, and then flying into the air
with feathers and wings. When in Scotland, having raade diligent
inquiry concerning this matter of King James, a square-built man,
and very fat,* we found that rairacles always keep 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 Bewick; and the pretended tree
frora which it was supposed to be produced was undoubtedly
a testaceous insect, a species of which, frequently found ad
hering to ships' bottoras, is described under the narae of " Lepas
Anatifera" by Linnaeus, who thus coraraeraorates in the trivial
name the old opinion respecting its winged and feathered fruit.
William Turner, a native of Morpeth in Northumberland, one of
the earliest writers on British Ornithology, notices the story of the
Bernacle Goose being produced frora " soraething like a fungus
proceeding frora old wood lying in the sea." He says it is raen
tioned by Giraldus Carabrensis in his description of Ireland, and
that the account of its being generated in this wonderful manner
is generally believed by the people inhabiting the sea-coasts of
England, Scotland, and Ireland. " But," says Tumer, " as it
seemed not safe to trust to popular report, and as, on account of
the singularity of the thing, I could not give entire credit to Giral
dus, I, when thinking of the subject of which I now write, asked
a certain clergyraan, named Octavianus, by birth an Irishman,
whom I knew to be worthy of credit, if he thought the account of
Giraldus was to be believed. He, swearing by the Gospel, de-
* It is uncertain if James I. or Jaraes II. be meant. According to Sir Walter
Scott, Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II, visited Scotland in 1448, when
James II, — if Chalmers be correct, Caledonia, vol. i, p, 831,— was scarcely nine
teen, and when his appearance was not likely to correspond with the learned pre
late's description,—" hominem quadratum et multa pinguedine gravem.''

496 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
clared that what Giraldus had written about the generation of this
bird was raost true ; that he hiraself had seen and handled the
young unformed birds, and that if I should remain in London a
month or two, he would bring me sorae of the brood."* In Lobel
and Pena's Stirpium Adversaria Nova, folio, London, 1570, there
is a cut of the " Britannica Concha Anatifera," growing on a
stalk from a rock, with figures of ducks or geese in the water
below. In the text the popular behef of a kind of goose being
produced from the sheU of this insect is noticed, but the writer
declines pronouncing any opinion tiU he shaU have had an oppor
tunity of visiting Scotiand and judging for himself Gerard, in his
Herbal, London, 1597, has an article on the Goose-free; and he
says that its native soU is a smaU island, called the Pile of Fouldres,
half a mile frora the raain land of Lancashire. Ferrer 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 Bernacle, or, as he
calls it, the Barliata, being produced frora a tree ; and he seeras
rather displeased that his countryraen 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 HSJO, at page 407. The latter, as the author especially
informs the reader, was engraved after a portrait by Holbein in the
possession of Bonifacius Amerbach. The foUovring is a reduced
copy of a cut at page 361 of Henry Petri's edition, 1554. On a
stone, near the bottom, towards the left, is seeu a raark f — ^pro
bably that of the artist who raade the drawing on the block —
* " Avium praecipuarum, quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, brevis
et succincta historia. Per Dn. Gulielmum Turnerum, artium et mediciute docto-
rem," 8vo. Coloniae, m.d.xliiii, foi. 9 b.
t In Professor Christ's Dictionary of Monograras this raark is ascribed, though
doubtfully, to " Manuel Deutsch." It is certainly not the mark of Nicholas
Emanuel Deutsch of Bern, for he died several years before 1548, the date on
several of the cuts with the mark H, R. M. D, in Munster's Cosmography, and
which date evidently relates to the year in vvhich the artist made the drawing.
There can be no doubt that those four letters belong to a single name, for some of
the cuts in which they occur also contain the mark of an engraver.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

491

consisting of the same letters as the double mark just noticed'
as occurring in the portrait of Erasraus, H.R. M^D. A cut of
the sarae subject, WUUam Tell about to shoot at the apple on his
son's head, was given in the first edition, but the design is some
what different and the execution raore coarse. The cut from
which the following is copied may be ranked araong the best in
the work.

Though Sebastian Munster, in a letter, probably written in 1538,
addressed to Joachira Vadianus, aUudes to an improvement which he
and his printer had raade in the mode of printing maps, and to a.
project for casting coraplete words, yet the maps which appear in his
Cosmography, with the outlines, rivers, and mountains engraved
on wood, and the naraes inserted in type, are certainly not superior
to the generality of other maps executed wholly on wood about the
sarae period.* Joachim Vadianus, to whom Munster writes, and
* A map of Russia, engraved wholly on wood, in a work entitled " Commentari
della Moscovia e parimente della Russia," &c, 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
2 K

498 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
of whose assistance he wished to avail himself in a projected edi
tion of Ptolemy, was an eminent scholar of that period, and had
pubUshed an edition, in 1522, of Pomponius Mela, with a commen
tary and notes. The passage in Munster's letter, wherein maps are
mentioned, is to the foUowing effect : " I would have sent you an
impression of one of the Swiss raaps which I have had printed here,
if Froschover had not inforraed rae of his haring sent you one frora
Zurich. If this raode of printing should succeed tolerably well, and
when we shall have acquired a certain art of casting whole words,
Henri Petri, Michael Isengrin, and I have thought of printing
Ptoleray's Cosraography ; not of so great a size as it has hitherto
been frequently printed, but in the forra in which your Annotations
on Poraponius appear. In the maps we shaU insert only the names
of the principal cities, and give the others alphabetically in some
blank space, — for instance, in the margin or any adjoining space
beyond the limits of the map."* The art of casting whole words,
alluded to in this passage, appears to have been something hke an
attempt at what has been called "logograpbic printing ;"f though it
is not unhkely tbat 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 engraring a number of letters on
folio size, appears to have been constructed by " Giacomo G^staldo, Piamontese,
Cosmographo in Venetia." The work also contains six wood-cuts, which afford
sorae curious specimens of Russian and Tarter arms and costume.
* Philologicarum Epistolanim Centuria una, ex Bibliotheca M, H, Goldasti,
p. 165, 8vo, Francofurti, 1610,
t According to this method, certein words, together with radices and termina
tions 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 single letter." This method, for which a
patent was obtained, is explained in a pamphlet entitled "An Introduction to
Logogi-aphy : or the Art of Arranging and Composing for Printing with Words
entire, their Radices and Terminations, instead of Single Letters, By Henry John
son : London, printed Logographically, and sold by J.Walter, bookseller. Charing
Cross, and J, Sewell, Cornhill, m,dcc.lxxxiii." Several works were 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, Printing-
House-Square, Blackfriars, Logography has long been abandoned, and stereotype
printing has now taken its place.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 499
wood was avoided, and the pressman enabled to print the map
at one irapression. In sorae of the earlier maps where the naraes
are printed frora types, the letters were not inserted in spaces cut
out of the block, but were printed from a separate form by raeans
of a " re-iteration" or second irapression.* In illustration of what
Munster says about a certain art of casting whole words, —
" artem aliquam fundendarum integrarum dictionum," — the follow
ing extract is given frora Dr. Dibdin's Bibliographical Tour,
volurae iii. page 102, second edition. "What think you of un
doubted proofs of stereotype printing in the raiddle of the six
teenth century? It is even so. What adds to the whimsical
puzzle is, that these pieces of metal, of which the surface is cora
posed of types, fixed and iraraovable, are soraetiraes 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 length. I carried away, with his permission, two proofs (not
long ago pulled) of the same block containing this intermixture
of stereotype and wood-block printing."
As the engraving of the letters in raaps 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 in Munster's Cosraography, was certainly a great
saring of labour ; yet on coraparing the maps in this work with
those in Ptolemy's Cosmography, printed by Leonard Holl, at Ulm,
1482, and with others engraved in the early part of the sixteenth
century, it is irapossible not to perceive that the art of wood
engraving, as applied to the execution of such works, had under
gone no iraprovement : 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,
published about eighty years later. Considering that the earliest
printed maps — those in an edition Of Ptolemy, printed by Arnold
* See an edition of Ptolemy, printed at Venice by Jacobus Pentius de Leucho,
in 1511, previously noticed at page 217,
2 K 2

500 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
Bukinck, at Rorae, 1478* — are from copper-plates, it seems rather
surprising that, until about 1570, no further atterapt should have
been made to apply the art of engraring on copper to this pur
pose. In the latter year a collection of maps, engraved on
copper, f was pubUshed at Antwerp under the superintendence of
Abrahara Ortelius ; and so great was their excellence when com
pared with forraer raaps 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 folio size, and the country represented is the Holy
Land. Within an ornamented tablet is the following inscription:
"Graven bi Hurafray Cole, goldsraith, an EngUsh man bom 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,^
are ascribed to Huraphrey Cole, apparently on no better ground
than that his narae 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 raore favourable notice §
• Some account of this work is given at page 243.
+ At page 249 it is stated, on the authority of Breitkopf, that those maps were
engraved by iEgidius Diest. Ortelius himself says in the preface that they were
engraved by " Francis Hogenberg, Ferdinand and Ambrose Arseus, and others."
X The portrait of Queen Elizabeth appears on the title ; the Earl of Leicester's
is prefixed to the Book of Joshua ; and Lord Burleigh's is given, with a large
initial B, at the beginning 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 in the first,
and generally inferior to the cuts for which they are substituted.
§ " Humphrey Cole, as he says himself, was born in the North of England, and
pertayned to the mint in the Tower, 1572. I suppose he was one ofthe engravers
that pertayned to Archbishop Parker, for this edition was called Matthew Parker's
Bible. I hope the flattery of the favourites was the incense of the engraver !"
Catalogue of Engravers, p. 16. Edit. 1794.— Walpole does not appear to have
paid the least attention to the engraver's merits — 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 liberal writer on art would have praised Parker,
although he were an archbishop, for his patronage of a native engraver.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 501
than he receives fi-ora the fastidious corapiler of the " Catalogue of
Engravers who have been born or resided in England ;" for, con
sidering when and where they were executed, the engraver is enti
tled to rank at least as high as George Vertue. In fact, the
portrait of Leicester, considered raerely as a speciraen of engraving,
without regard to the tirae and place of its execution, will bear
a comparison with more than one of the portraits engraved by
Vertue upwards of a hundred and fifty years later.
The advantages of copper-plate engraving for the purpose of
executing maps, as exempUfied in the work of Ortelius, appear to
have been immediately appreciated in England, and this country is
one of the first that can boast of a collection of provincial or
county raaps engraved on copper. A series of raaps of all the
counties of England and Wales, and of the adjacent islands, were
engraved, under the superintendence of Christopher Saxton, be
tween 1573 and 1579, and published a,t London, in a folio volurae,
in the latter year. Though the greater nuraber of those raaps were
the work of Flemish engravers, eight, at least, were engraved by
two EngUshmen, Augustine Ryther and Nicholas Reynolds.* They
appear to have been all drawn by Christopher Saxton, who lived at
Tingley, near Leeds. Walpole says, that "he was servant to
Thoraas Sekeford, Esq. Master of the Court of Wards," the gen
tleman at whose expense they were engraved. He also states
that many of them were engraved by Saxton himself; but this
I consider to be extremely doubtful. In his account of early
EngUsh copper-plate engravers, Walpole is frequently incorrect:
he mentions Huraphrey Lhuyd — an author who wrote a short
description of Britain, printed at Cologne in 1572f — as the en-
* "Augustinus Ryther, Anglus," occurs on the maps of Cumberiand and West-
morlaiid, Gloucester, and Yorkshire. ' Ryther afterwards kept a bookseller's shop
in Leadenhall-street. He engraved some maps and charts, which were published
about 1588. On the map of the county of Hertford, Reynolds's name occurs
thus : " Nicholas Reynoldus, Londinensis, sculpsit." Several of those maps were
engraved by Remigius Hogenberg, one of the engravers who are said to have been
employed by Archbishop Parker in his palace at Lambeth.
-j- This little work, entitled " Comraentarioli Britannicje Descriptionis Fragraen-
tum," was sent by the author to Ortelius, and the prefatory address is dated
Penbigh, in North Wales, 30th August 1568. A translation of it, under the title
of a "Breviary of Britain,'' was printed at London in 1573. — Lhuyd had only
furnished .Ortelius with materials for the construction of the raap of England.

502 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
graver of the map of England in the collection of Ortelius ; and
he includes Dr. WilUam Cuningham, a physician of Norvrich, in his
catalogue of engravers, without the slightest reason beyond the
raere fact, that a book entitled « The Cosmographical 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 seme of the plates in the Bible
were " engraved by his own hand."
In connection with the preceding account of the earliest maps
executed in England on copper, it perhaps raay not be unnecessary
to briefly notice here the introduction of copper-plate engraving
into this country. According to Herbert, in his edition of Araes's
Typographical Antiquities, the frontispiece of a smaU work en
titled " Galenus de Temperaraentis," printed at Cambridge^ 1521,
is the earUest specimen of copper-plate engraring that is to be
found in any book printed in England. The art, however, sup
posing that the plate was reaUy 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 dorraant
for nearly twenty years. The next earUest specimens appear in
the first edition of a work usually called " Raynalde'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 haring had an opportunity of
seeing any one of these three plates nor the frontispiece to " Gale
nus de Temperaraentis," I am obUged 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 frontis
piece to the Cambridge book ; and in the Preliminary Disquisition
• The name of "Thoraas Rayualde, 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 woraen in theyr labor," &c. At folio vi. there is an
address from Richard Jonas, " Unto the most gracious, and in all goodnesse
most excellent vertuous Lady Quene Katheryne, wyfe and raost derely belovyd
spouse unto the moste myghty sapient Christen prynce, Kynge Henry the VIII,"—
This "most excellent vertuous lady" was Catherine Howard. The imprint at the
end of the work is as follows : " Imprynted at London, by T, R, Anno Domini,
M,ccccc,xL." Raynald's narae first appears in the second edition, 1545, Between
1540 and 1600 there were at least eight editions of this work printed in London.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 503
on Early Engraving and Ornamental Printing, prefixed to Dr. Dib
din's edition of the Typographical Antiquities, will be found a fac
simile, engraved on wood, of one of the plates in Raynalde'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, 1545, contains seve
ral unquestionable specimens of copper-plate engraving. It is of
folio size, and the title is as follows : "Corapendiosa totius Anatoraiae
delineatio sere exarata, per Thoraara Gerainura." The ornamental
title-page, with the arms of Henry VIII. towards the centre, is
engraved on copper, and several anatoraical subjects are executed
in the sarae raanner. Gemini, who is beUeved to have been the en
graver of those plates, was not a native of this country.* In a dedi
cation to Henry VIII, he says that in his work he had followed
Andrew Vesalius of Brussels ; and he further raentions that in the
year before he had received orders frora the King to have the plates
printed off lexcudendas']. A second edition, dedicated to Edward
VI, appeared in 1553 ; and a third, dedicated to Queen EUzabeth,
in 1559.f In the last edition the Royal Arms on the title-page are
effaced, and the portrait of Queen Elizabeth engraved in their
stead. Traces of the former subject are, however, still visible, and
the motto, "Dieu et mon Droit," ha$ been allowed to remain. One
of the engravings 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 zig
zag line where the two pieces are joined, and the forms of the little
cramps which hold them together, are visible, and in the last they
are distinctly apparent.
The earUest portrait engraved on copper, printed singly, in this
country, and not as an illustration of a book, is that of Archbishop
Parker engraved by Remigius Hogenberg. It is a sraall print four
and a half inches high by three and a half wide. At the corners
* At the end of the dedication to Henry VIII. he signs hiraself " Thomas
Geminus, Lysiensis,"
f In the edition of 1559 there is a large wood-cut — "Interiorum corporis
huraani partium viva delineatio" — with the mark R, S, and a graver underneath.
In this cut the interior parts of the body are impressed on separate slips, which
are pasted, by one edge, at the side of the figure. Those slips on being raised
show the different parts as they occur on dissection.

504 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
are the arms ofCanterbury, impaled with those of Parker; the arch
bishop's arms separately ; a plain shield, with a cross and the letters
i ; and the arms of Archbishop Cranraer. The portrait is engraved
in an oval, round the border of which is the foUowing inscription :
" Mudus transit, et cupiscetia ejus. Anno Doraini 1572, aetatis
suae Anno 69. Die raensis 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 ofthe ciphers erased are
quite perceptible. The portrait of the archbishop is a half-length ;
he is seated at a table, on which are a bell, a sraall 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 foUowing
passage from the vi. chapter of Micah, verse 8 : " Indicabo tibi,
o homo, quid sit bonum, et quid Deus requirat a te, utique facere
judicium, et diligere misericordiara, et soUcitum ambulare cum Deo
tuo." The engraver's narae, "R. Berg f." appears at the bottom of
the print to the right : a cross line frora the R to the B indicates
the abbreviation of the surname, which, written at length, was
Hogenberg. Caulfield, speaking of this engraring in his Calcogra-
phiana, page 4, 1814, says, — " The only impression supposed to be
extant is in the hbrary at Lambeth Palace ; but within the last
two years, Mr. Woodburn, of St. Martin's Lane, purchased a magni
ficent collection of portraits, among which was a very fine one
of Parker."
The number of books, containing copper-plate engravings, pub
lished in England between 1559 and 1600, is extremely hraited ;
and the following Ust will perhaps be found to contain one or two
more than have been mentioned by preceding writers : 1. Pena and
Lobel's Stirpium Adversaria Nova, folio, 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 beauti
fully engraved. 2. Archbishop Parker's Bible, 1568—1572, with
the portraits, preriously noticed at page 500. 3. Saxton's Maps,
with the portrait of Queen Ehzabeth on the title, 1579. 4.
Broughton's Concent of Scripture, 1591, — engraved title, and four
other plates. 5. Translation of Ariosto by Sir John Harrmgton,
1591, — engraved title-page, containing portraits of the author and
translator, and forty-six other plates. 6. R. Haydock's Translation

WOOD ENGRAVING. 505
of Loraazzo's Treatise on Painting and Architecture, Oxford, 1598,
— engraved title-page, containing portraits of Loraazzo and Hay-
dock, and several very indifferent plates, chiefly of architecture and
figures in outline.
Walpole raentions a plate of the arras of Sir Christopher Hatton
on the title-page of the second part of Wagenar's Mariner's
Mirrour, printed in 1588, and the plates in awork entitled "A
True Report of the Newfoundland of Virginia," aU 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 list of works containing copper-plates pubUshed in England
previous to 1600 ;f for though it appeared in 1591, it was printed
at Frankfort. In the reigns of James and Charles I. copper-plate
engraring 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 Charabers'
Cyclopedia, it is stated that the art of copper-plate engraving was
brought to this country from Antwerp by Speed the historian, —
an error which is pointed out by Walpole : the writer it seems had
not been aware of any earlier copper-plates printed in England than
Speed's maps, which were chiefly executed by Flemish engravers.
Dr. WilUam Cuningham, whora Walpole describes as an en
graver, was a physician practising at Norwich ; and his book,
entitled The Cosmographical Glasse,:}: some of the plates of which
* In Herbert's edition of the Typographical Antiquities, vol. iii, p. 1681, 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 contains
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 narae in the
English edition.
f Walpole erroneously states that "Broughton's book was not printed till
1600," and he says that " the cuts were probably engraved by an English artist
naraed 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 ofthe work was printed in 1588.
X The following is the title of this work ; " The Cosmographical Glasse, con-
teinyng the pleasant Principles of Cosraographie, Geographic, Hydrographic or
Navigation, Corapiled by William Cuningham, Doctor in Physicke, Excussura
Londini in officina Joan, Daii, Anno 1559, .
In this Glasse, if you will beholde
The starry skie and yearth so wide. The

506 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

WOOD ENGRAVING.

507

are said to have been " engraved by the doctor's own hand," was
printed at London by John Day in 1559, It contains no plates,
properly speaking, for the engravings are all frora wood-blocks.
At the foot of the omamental title-page, and in a large bird's-
eye yiev! of Norwich, is the mark I. B. F, which, frora something
Uke a tool for engraving, between the B and F in the original, is
most Ukely 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 hkely that sorae 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 torab, with a tree growing
out of it — and also on two or three of the large ornaraental letters.
John Day, in a book printed by hira in 1567, says that the Saxon
characters used in it were cut by himselt The following are speci
mens of sorae of the large ornaraental letters which occur in the
Cosraographical Glasse. The first, the letter D, inclosing the arras
of Lord Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, to whom

The seas also, with the windes so colde.
Yea, and thy selfe all these to guide :
What this Type mean first learne a right.
So shall the gayne thy travaill quight."
The " Type" mentioned In these verses relates to the various allegorical and
other figures in the engraved title-page.

508

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

the work is dedicated. The second, the letter A, Silenus on an
ass, accorapanied by satyrs ; the mark, a C with a small i within
the curve, is perceived near the bottom, to the right.*

The third, the letter I, with a military coraraander taking the
angles between three churches ; and the mark 1. D. at the bottom

' This mark, which occurs in two other cuts of large letters in the Cosmogra
phical Glasse, is also to be found on a large ornamented letter in Robert Record's
Castle of Knowledge, folio, printed at London, by Reginald Wolfe, 1556, This

WOOD ENGRAVING.

509

to the left. The fourth, the letter T, a ship with a naked figure
as pUot, preceded by Neptune on a dolphin. A mark, H, is per
ceived in the right-hand corner, at the bottom.

Of all the books printed in England in the reigns of Queen Mary
and Queen Elizabeth, those frora the press of John Day generally
contain the best executed wood-cuts ; and even though he might not
be the engraver of the cuts that contain his initials, yet it cannot
be doubted that he possessed a much better taste in such matters
than any other English printer of his age. Some of the large
ornaraental letters in works printed by hira are much superior to
anything of the kind that had previously appeared in England.

work, like that of Cuningham, is a treatise on Geography, A mark, I, C, with
a graver between the letters, occurs frequently in cuts which ornament the margins
of a work entitled " A Book of Christian Prayers," &c, 4to, first printed by John
Day in 1569, It is usually called " Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book,'' In Her
bert's edition of the Typographical Antiquities it is erroneously stated that such of
the cuts as relate to the History of Christ are " after Albert Durer and his wife,
Agnes Frey" They are not copied from any cuts designed by Albert Durer, and
his wife most certainly neither drew nor engraved on wood. It is also incorrectly
stated " that a Dance of Death, in the same work, is after Hans Holbein." — The
cuts in this work are very unequal in point of execution. The best are those ofthe
Senses — without any raark — Sight, Hearing, Taste, Sraelling, and Touch. A
mark not unlike that in the letter A, from Cuningham's Cosmographical Glass^
occurs on several of the smaller cuts.

510

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

The following is a copy, slightly reduced, of a large letter, C, at
the commencement of the dedication of Fox's Acts and Monuments
to Queen Elizabeth, in the edition printed by Day in 1576. The
Queen, appearing more juvenile than she is usually represented,
is seen seated on a throne, attended by three persons, supposed to
be intended for one of her council, John Day, the printer, and John
Fox, the author of the work. A cherub, with an immense cornu
copia over his shoulder, holds a rose and a lily in one hand, and
with the other supports the arras of England ; while undemeath a
representation of the Pope is introduced, holding in his hands the
broken keys.*

Though it be beyond the plan of the present work to trace the
progress of the various kinds of large ornamental letters engraved
on wood that have been from time to tirae introduced by the

• This work contains a considerable nuraber of wood-cuts, all undoubtedly
designed and engraved in England, Two of the best are Henry VIII, attended
by his council, giving his sanction to the publication of the Bible in English,
with the mark I, F, ; and a view of Windsor Castle, with the mark M, D, Both
these cuts are in the second volume of the edition of 1576.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

511

principal German, French, Italian, and EngUsh printers from the
invention of typography, it raay not be unnecessary to say a few
words on this subject. In the earliest works of the German
printers, as the type was a close imitation of the handwriting
of the period, as used in Bibles and Missals, the large omamental
letters occasionaUy introduced are distinguished by their flourishes
and grotesque work extending on the margin both above and below
the body of the letter, as is frequently seen in illumined manuscripts
of the period. Large initial letters of this kind are not unfi-equeiit
in early French works ; but are coraparatively scarce in books
printed in England, where a letter, engraved on a square block,
appearing, with the omaments, white on a black ground, was
adopted shortly after the introduction of printing by Caxton.*
As the capitals of the Roman character used in Italy did not
admit of the flourishes which accorded so well with the curves of
Gothic or German capitals, the printers of that country, towards
the end ofthe fifteenth century, began to introduce flowers, figures
of raen, birds, and quadrupeds, as back-grounds to their large
initial letters. Between 1520 and 1530 this mode of ornaraenting
their large Roman letters was in great repute with the printers
of Basle, Geneva, and Zurich, and to tbis taste we owe the
small alphabet of the Dance of Death. Subsequently the ItaUan
wood engravers, employed bythe printers, carried this style of orna
ment a step further by introducing landscapes as well as figures to
form a back-ground to the letter. The foUowing specimen of
letter thus omaraented is from a work printed by Giolito at
Venice about 1550. The large capitals, in Cuningham's Cosrao-

* Dr, Dibdin, in his Preliminary Disquisition on Early Engraving and Orna
mental Printing, in his edition of Ames and Herbert's Typographical Antiquities;
has given several curious specimens of large ornamented capitals.

512

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

graphical Glasse, were doubtless suggested by ItaUan letters in the
sarae taste.
The borders which appear in the title-pages of Italian books
of this period, and more especially in those printed at Venice,
frequently display considerable excellence both in design and
execution. They are generally much lighter and more varied in
design than the borders in German books; and cross-hatching,
which is seldom seen in Italian wood-cuts executed prerious to 1520,
is so frequently introduced that it would seem that this raode of
producing a certain effect — which might often have been accom
plished by simpler means — was then considered as a proof of the
engraver's talent. Sorae of the Italian printers' marks and derices,
on the title-page, or at the end of a work, are drawn and en
graved with great spirit. The following devices occur in a foUo
edition of Dante — known to bibUographers as the cat edition — •
pubUshed by the brothers Sessa, at Venice, in 1578. The smaller
cut — with ornamental work on each side, occupying nearly the width
of a page, but oraitted in the copy — is several tiraes repeated; the
larger — where Griraalkin " sits like an eastem raonarch upon his
throne"*^ forras the tailpiece at the end of the volume.

• Bibliographical Decameron, vol. i. p. 289.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 513

In the latter part of the sixteenth and the beginning of the
seventeenth century, an Italian artist named Andrea Andreani
executed a considerable number of chiaro-scuros on wood. He
was bom at Mantua in 1540, and one of his earUest and largest
works in this style is dated 1586. The subject is the History of
Abraham, from the pavement of the cathedral of Siena ;* the first
compartment consists of twelve pieces, printed in three colours,
forming, when joined together, a large composition about five feet
six inches wide by about two feet six inches high. The second
compartment, Moses breaking the Tables of the Law, is not pro
perly a chiaro-scuro, but a large wood-cut, consisting of several
pieces, printed in ink in the usual manner. It is about six feet
wide by about four feet high. Another large work of Andreani's
is the Triuraphs of Julius Caesar, frora the designs of Andrea
Mantegna, dedicated to Vincentius Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and
pubUshed in a folio volume in 1598. Andreani having obtained
the blocks of several of the chiaro-scuros executed by Ugo da
Carpi, Antonio da Trente, Nicholas da Vincenza, and others,
reprinted thera with the addition of his own raark ; and from this
circumstance he frequently obtains the credit of having engraved
* "The pavement of this cathedral is the work of a succession of artists from
Duccio down to Meccarino, who have produced the effect of the richest mosaic,
merely by inserting grey marble into white, and hatching both with black mastic.
The grandest composition is the History of Abraham, a figure which is unfortu
nately multiplied in the same compartments ; but, when grasping the knife, the
patriarch is truly sublime. These works lay exposed at least for a hundred years
to the general tread, and have been rather improved than defaced by the attrition ;
for one female figure which had never been trodden looks harsher than the rest.
Those of the choir were opportunely covered two centuries ago." — Forsyth's Italy,.
p. 102, 2nd Edit. 2l

514

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

many pieces which were really executed by his predecessors and
superiors in the art. The chiaro-scuros which he reprinted are
generally superior to those pieces which were engraved by himself
from original designs, and in the execution of which he had to
depend on his own judgment and taste. He continued to engrave in
this raanner till he was upwards of seventy years old, for there are
one or two subjects by him dated 1612. Bartsch says that he died
in 1623, but observes that some writers place his death in 1626.

Henry Goltzius, a painter and engraver, bom in 1558, neai-
Venloo, in Flanders, executed several chiaro-scuros, chiefly from
his ovm designs. The most of them are from three blocks ; and
araong the best executed are Hercules and Cacus, and four sepa-
rate pieces representing the four elements. Like most of the
other productions of this artist, whether paintings or copper-plate

WOOD ENGRAVING. 515
engrarings, his chiaro-scuros are designed with great spirit, though
the action of the figures is frequently extravagant. He imitated
Michael Angelo, but not with success ; he too frequently mistakes
riolence of action for the expression of intellectual grandeur, and
displays the " contortions of the pythoness without her inspiration."
The cut in the opposite page is a reduced copy of the subject
intended to represent the element of water. In the original the
impression is from four blocks; one with the outhnes and shaded
parts black, as in the copy here given ; the other three communi
cating different tints of sepia. Henry Goltzius died in 1617. His
mark, an H corabined with a G, is seen at the bottora of the cut.
The cuts contained in a work on ancient and modern costume,
printed at Venice in 1590,* are frequently described as having been
drawn by Titian and engraved by his brother, Cesare Vecellio.
That this person raight have been a relation of Titian, whose
family name was Vecelli, is not unlikely, but it is highly impro
bable that he was his brother ; for Titian died in 1576, aged
ninety-nine, and the dedication of the work to Pietro Montalbano
by Cesare Vecelho is dated October, 1589. In the title it is stated
that the costuraes in question were " done" — fafti — by Vecellio
himself ; but whether this word relates to the drawing or the en
graring, or to both, it would be exceedingly difficult to ascertain.
Those cuts have the appearance of having been drawn on the
block with pen-and-ink; and some of the best display so rauch
"character" that they look Uke portraits of individuals freely
sketched by the hand of a master. It was first stated in an
edition of the work, printed in 1664, that the cuts were drawn
by Titian and engraved by Cesare Vecellio, his brother. The
improbable assertion was raerely a bookseller's trick to attract
purchasers. It has also been frequently asserted, that the cuts
in Vesalius's Anatoray, printed at Basle in 1548, were drawn by
Titian. The Abbe MorelU has, however, shovra that they were
* The following is the title of this work, which is a large octavo : " De gii
Habiti Antichi et Moderni di diverse Parti del Mondo Libri due, fatti da Caesare
Vecellio, & con Discorsi da lui dichiriati. In Venetia, md.xc." This work is
thus mentioned in the notes to Rogers's Italy : "Araong the Habiti Antichi, in that
admirable book of wood-cuts ascribed to Titian, (A.D. 1590,) there is one entitled
Sposa Venetiana eI Castello. It was taken from an old painting in the Scuola di
S, Giovanni Evangelista, and by the writer is believed to represent one of the
brides here described,"— Itaty, p. 257, note. Edit, 1830,
2l2

516 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
not drawn by him, but by John Calcar, a Flemish painter, who
had been one of his pupUs.
PapUlon, wbo in his desire to dignify his art claims almost
every eminent painter as a wood engraver, pretends that Titian
executed several large cuts from his own designs. He says that
Titian began to engrave on wood when he was twenty-five years
old [in 1502], and he mentions a cut of the Virgin and the infant
Christ, with other figures, — probably intended to represent the
raarriage of St, Catherine, — as one of the earUest specimens of
his talents as a wood engraver. Papillon also informs us that
Titian engraved a large cut of the Triuraph of Christ, or of
Faith, in 1508 ; and in another part of his work he describes
several others as engraved by Titian himself
Several of the cuts after designs by Titian, but which were cer
tainly not of his engraving, are of large size, and executed in a
free, coarse manner, as if they were rather intended to paste against
a wall than to be inserted in a portfoUo. One of the largest is
the Destruction of Pharaoh and his host; it consists of several
pieces, which, when united, forra a coraplete subject about four
and a half feet wide by about three feet high. A dog, which
the painter has introduced in a pecuhar attitude,* gives to the
whole the air of burlesque. The person by whom it was engraved
styles hiraself " depintore," a word perhaps intended to imply that
he was a brother of the guild, or society of painter-stainers, sten
ciUers, and wood engravers.f His name, with the date, is engraved
thus at the bottora of the cut, which is one of those which PapiUon
says were executed by Titian himself : " In Venetia p. dominico
dalle greche depintore venetiano. m.dxlix."
The following is a reduced copy of a cut designed by Titian,
and said to have been intended by him to ridicule those painters
who, not being able to succeed in colouring, recommended ancient
sculptures, on account of the correctness of the forms, as raost
deserring of a painter's diligent study. The subject is a carica
ture of the Laocoon ; and the professed adrairers of antiquity,
*• A dog performing the sarae act occurs as a tail-piece in the first edition of
Bewick's Quadrupeds, 1790, page 310,
t I have seen a large head, which at first sight might be raistaken for an impres
sion from a wood-block, executed by means of a stencil after a design of Corregio.
It was unquestionably old, and was about three feet high by two and a half wide.

WOOD ENGRAVING.

517

who, above all, insisted on correct drawing,- and thought slightly
of colouring, are represented by the old ape wanting a tail, seen
in the distance, attended by three of her young ones. The ori
ginal cut is fifteen inches and seven-eighths wide by ten inches
and a haK high. It is coarsely engraved, and contains neither
narae nor date.* There are several chiaro-scuros after designs by
Titian, engraved by Boldrini, Andreani, and others.

Wood engraving in Gerraany at the close of the sixteenth century
appears to have greatly declined ; the old race of artists who fur
nished designs for the wood engraver had becorae extinct, and their
places, were not supplied by others. The raore expensive works
were now illustrated with copper-plates ; and the wood-cuts which
appeared in the coramoner kinds of books were in general very
indifferent both in design and execution. As Germany was the
country in which wood engraving was first encouraged and fostered,
so was it also the country in which the art earhest declined and
subsequently becarae raost thoroughly neglected. In France and
Italy, wood engraving had also by this time experienced a con
siderable decline, but not to such an extent as in Gerraany.
* The following is Papillon's description of this cut: "Une Estampe que
je possede, et que Ton regarde assez indiff^rement, est le Laocoon grav^ en bois
par le Titien, reprfesent^ sous la figure d'un singe et ses deux petits entour^s
de serpens. II fit ce raorceau pour railler les Peintres de son teraps qui €tudoieut
cette figure et les Statues antiques ; et il prgtendit' d^montrer par cette EstaiApe
qu'ils resserabloient aux singes, lesquels ne font qu'imiterce qu'ils voyent, sans
rien inventer d'eux memes," — Traits de la Gravure en Bois, tom, i, p, 160,

518

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

Between 1590 and 1610, when the art was rapidly declining
in other countries, the wood-cuts which are to be raet with in
EngUsh books are generally better executed than at any preceding
period. Engraved title-pages were then frequent, and several of
thera are executed with considerable skiU. A large wood-cut,
with the date 1607, in particular displays great raerit both m design
and engraving. The foUowing is a reduced copy of an impres
sion preserved in the Print Room of the British Museum.* The
original, exclusive of the verses, and the omaments at each side
of them, is about fourteen inches high by about fourteen and a
half wide.

The gDodHbwf-holcter, that his Havie luaiyrhoU,
ficUliailiils itonthcKock.not onthe Sand.
Then,vjthaivuieheacl &nd <Jianehaiid
Praoiiles(inl5nne)ferHungCTand&rCoHi
Not daiTiti&Fare atidParniture ofGold,
But han Jfom-hoifom (ds-whh Health dootliftanl)'
Not for the Rich that can as much camnmand
ButbhepoorStrongerftlJOi'&iiei.tlie Old,
r..'IlJii11— .«« w«ni,BU „
A.Ri.1 .iPnn^ ilini|«llftiil«.,(
H.I ^ni"i rm.!*. i,«iiinKi..Kil«.

Am.((nni)to.(l'Mli',(l'ii,.hn(i,uil< B.'ra»nill'fi^i.nn>l/fJ.T- '

rjUMTeCAiiLM,- DON IN.'!.—
JtLACKG WIEBS.

* There is also in the Print Room of the British Museura a curious wood-cut,
of large size, engraved on several blocks, apparently of the time of James I. The

WOOD ENGRAVING. 519
The following are the six concluding lines of the sonnet under
neath the cut : in the original they are printed in smaller type than
the others, and in a double column. In the copy they are raerely
indicated to show the relative size of the type to that of the first
eight Unes. And (thus) to these to stand still open wide.
He neither wrings with Wrongs nor racks his Rents ;
But saves the charge of wanton Waste & Pride :
For, Thrift 's right Fuel of Magnificence :
As Protean Fashions of new Prodigalitie
Have quight worn out all ancient Hospitalitie,
The flowers at each side of the verses are, in the original, very
coarsely executed. They are merely printers' ornaments, engraved
on separate pieces of wood, and not on the sarae block as the cut
above them.
From one or two worm-holes, which have been in the block
when it was printed in 1607, and which are apparent in the
impression, it seems probable that this cut had been engraved
some time previous to the date which appears at the bottom.
As it is, however, very likely that the block was of pear-tree,
which is extremely liable to the attacks of the worm, it is possible
that it might have been injured in this manner within a year
or two of its being finished. The bold, cleanly cut Unes of
the original are very much Uke the work of Christopher Jegher,
one of the best wood engravers of that period. He resided at
Antwerp, but he is said to have been born in Germany in 1578.
His best works are several large cuts which he engraved for
title at the top, in Latin and English, is as follows : " Humanje viia; imago olim
AB Apelle in tabula QUADAM DEPicTA, The Image of the lyfe of man that
was painted in a table by Apelles," The subject, however, is not so much a
general representation of the life of raan in its several stages, as an allegorical
representation of the evils attendant on sensual indulgence. Several of the figures
are designed with great spirit, and the explanations underneath the principal are
engraved on the same block, in Latin and English, It seems likely that this cut
was engraved for the purpose of being pasted or hung against a wall. It is about
five feet four inches wide by about three feet high. Sorae of the figures are en
graved with considerable spirit, but the groups want that well-contrasted light and
shade which give such effect to the large cuts of Durer and Burgmair. It is likely
that large cuts of this kind were intended to be pasted on the walls of rooms, to
serve at once for instruction and ornament, like " King Charles's Golden Rules
and the Royal Game of Goose " in later times.

520 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
Rubens, from drawings made on the block by Rubens himself,
who appears to have originally published them on his own ac
count. From the manner in which the great painter's name is
introduced at the bottom of each — " P. P. Rub. delin. 4r excud."
— it would appear that they were both designed and printed by
hira. Irapressions of those cuts sometimes occur vrith a tint
printed over them, in sepia, from a second block, in the manner
of chiaro-scuros. The following is a reduced copy of one of the
largest,*

As profit could not have been Rubens's motive for haring these
cuts engraved, it is not unlikely that his object was to compare his
designs when executed in this raanner with those „ of the older
German masters— Durer, Burgmair, and Cranach. The best, how
ever, differ considerably in the manner of their execution from the
best old German wood-cuts, for the Unes are too uniform and dis
play too much of art ; in looking at those which consist chiefly of
figures, attention is first called to the means by which an effect is
produced, rather than to the effect itseK in connection with the
entire subject. This objection appUes most forcibly to the cut
which represents the Virgin crowned by the Almighty and Jesus
Christ. The design displays much of Rubens's grandeur, with not
• The original cut is twenty-three inches and a half wide by eighteen inches high.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 521
less of his extravagance in the attitude of the figures ; but he seems
to have studied less the effect of the whole, than to have endea
voured to express certain parts by a peculiar arrangeraent of lines
and hatchings. The subject does not produce that feeUng, which
it is the great object of art to excite, in consequence of the atten
tion being diverted frora the conteraplation of the whole to the
means by which it is executed. In such impressions, however,
as have a tint of sepia printed over thera frora a second block,
the hardness of the Unes and heaviness in the hatchings are less
apparent. The following is a reduced copy of another of those
cuts, which, for the beautiful simplicity of the design, is perhaps
the most pleasing of the whole. The execution of the original
is, however, coarse, a defect which is not so apparent in the copy
in consequence of the sraall scale on which it is engraved.*

(7VMPJEUVII.BGIIS. cr,gL..,ji„ip.

ComeUus van Sichera,f a contemporary of Christopher Jegher,
appears to have been one of the most industrious wood engravers
of his time. He was a native of Holland, and is supposed to
• The original is eighteen inches wide by thirteen inches and a half high,
including the margin with the inscription " Cum privilegiis," which is engraved
on the sarae block,
t Papillon, tom. i, p. 274 — 276, calls this engraver C. S. Vichem ; and charges
Professor Christ with confounding three Sichems with three Vichems. The name
at the bottom of the cut, in the following page, is most certainly intended for C, V,
Sichem,

522

FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF

have resided at Amsterdara. One of his best cuts is a large
head, engraved from a drawing by Henry Goltzius, vrith the date
1607. This and several other large cuts, which he probably
engraved about the same time, are so much superior to the
smaller cuts, with his mark, which appear in books, that I
am inclined to think that most of the latter must have been

engraved by his pupils ; they are indeed so numerous that it
seems almost impossible that he should have engraved them all
hiraseK. He seeras at first to have worked for farae, and after
wards to have turned a manufacturer of wood-cuts for money.
The cuts with his mark contained in a quarto book entitled
" Bibels Tresoor," printed at Amsterdam in 1646, by no means

WOOD ENGRAVING. 523
afford an idea of his abiUty as a wood engraver ; many of them
are wretched copies of old wood-cuts designed by Albert Durer
and other old masters, discreditable alike to the engraver and
to the originals. The preceding is a slightly reduced copy of a
cut, engraved by Van Sichem, from a design by Henry Goltzius.
The original, which was probably engraved about 1607, may be
considered as an average specimen of the engraver's talents ;
it is not so well executed as some of his best large cuts, while
it is much superior to the greater number of the small cuts
which contain his mark. The subject is Judith with the head
of Holofernes.
About 1625 a French wood engraver of the name of Businck
executed several chiaro-scuros chiefly from designs by Lalleman
and Bloeraart; and between 1630 and 1647, Bartoloraeo Coriolano,
who sometiraes styles hiraself " Romanus Eques," practised the
same art at Bologna with great reputation.* In an edition of
Hubert Goltzius's Lives of the Roraan Eraperors, enlarged by
Casper Gevartius, folio, printed at Antwerp in 1645, the portraits,
in the manner of chiaro-scuros, from two blocks, are executed with
great spirit The narae of the engraver is not raentioned, but from
the mark I. C. I. on a tail-piece at the end of the work, I am
incUned to think that he was the sarae person who engraved the
cuts in a little book of devotion, first printed in Latin, French,
Spanish, and Flemish, at Antwerp, about 1646.f The number of
cuts in this little work is forty, and most of them contain the mark
of the designer, ^, as well as that of the engraver. From
the drawing of these cuts it would seera that the designer was
either a pupil of Rubens, or had closely copied his raanner.
In Professor Christ's Dictionary of Monograras the raark ^
* The twelfth volume of Bartsch's Peintre-Graveur contains an araple list of
Italian chiaro-scuros, together with the naraes of the painters and engravers.
t The only perfect copy which I have seen of this little work is in Spanish.
The title is as follows : " La Perpetua Cruz, o Passion de Jesu Christo Nuestro
Seiior, desde el principio de su encarnacion hasta su muerte. Representada en
quarenta estarapas que se reparten de balde, y explicada con differentes razones
y oraciones de devocion. En Araberes, en la eraprenta de Cornelio Woons, 1650,"
The cuts were engraved at the instance of the Archbishop of Malines, Before the
Spanish edition appeared, thirty thousand copies of the work in Flemish and Latin
had already been circulated.

524 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
is ascribed to Andrea Salmincio, " an engraver and pupil of
Valesius." PapUlon, Traite de la Gravure en Bois, tora. i. p. 274,
adopting Professor Christ's explanation of the mark, mentions
" Andrea Salmincio" as the designer of those cuts ; but in page
461 of the same volume, he says, referring to his former statement^
that he had since been inforraed by M. Eisen, a painter, and a
native of Valenciennes, that they were designed by " a famous
Flemish painter and engraver on wood, naraed Sallarte, a con
teraporary of Rubens, and who is supposed to have assisted the
latter in some of his great works." Those cuts may perhaps be
considered as the last series that were expressly designed by an
artist of talent in the seventeenth century, for the purpose of being
engraved on wood. The style in which they are executed is not
worthy of the designs, though, considering the period, they are not
without merit. The engraver appears to have been extremely
partial to a kind of cross-hatching, in which the interstices are
more like squares than acute-angled lozenges, thus giving to the
figures and draperies a hard and unphable appearance.
Though several EngUsh wood engravings of the reigns of
James I. and Charles I. have eridently been executed by pro
fessed wood engravers, yet a great proportion of those contained
in EngUsh books and pamphlets printed in this country during
the seventeenth century appear to have been the work of per
sons who had not learnt and did not regularly practise the art
The cuts of those occasional wood engravers, who were most
likely printers, are as rude in design as they are coarse in
execution, frequently displaying something like the fac-siraile of
a boy's drawing in his first atterapts to sketch " the human
form dirine." Such cuts, eridently executed on the spur of the
moment, are of frequent occurrence in tracts and pamphlets
published during the time of the war between Charles I. and the
ParUament Evelyn, in the first edition of his Sculptura, pubhshed
in 1662, thus mentions Switzer as a wood engraver of that period :
" We have likewise Switzer for cutting in wood, the son of a
father* who sufficiently discovered his dexterity in the Herbals
* In Walpole's Catalogue of Engravers there is the following notice of the elde
Switzer : " In the Harleian Library was a set of wooden cuts, representing the
broad seals of England from the conquest to James I, inclusive, neatly executed.

WOOD ENGRAVING. 525
set forth by Mr. Parkinson, Lobel, and divers other works." The
cuts of plants in the work, usually called Lobel's Botany, were
most certainly not engraved by the elder Switzer ; they are much
superior to the cuts of the sarae kind which are undoubtedly of
his engraving, and the work in which they first appeared was
printed in London in 1571. He engraved the cuts in Speed's
History of Britain, folio, 1611 ; and, though the author calls hira
" the raost exquisite and curious hand of that age," they abundantly
testify that he was a very ordinary workraan. They are exe
cuted in a meagre, spiritless manner; the best are those which
represent the portraitures of the ancient Britons. The cuts in
Parkinson's Paradisus Terrestris, folio, 1629, were also undoubtedly
engraved by him ; his name, " A. Switzer," with a graver under-
neath, occurs at the bottom of the very indifferent cut which forms
the title-page. The portrait of the author is scarcely superior to
the title-page ; and the cuts of plants are the most worthless that
are to be found in any work of the kind. It is not unlikely that
the cuts in Topsell's History of Four-footed Beasts, 1607, and in
Moffef s Theatre of Insects, 1634, were also engraved by the elder
Switzer. The taste for wood-cuts must have been low indeed
when such an engraver was considered one of the best of his age.
Of the younger Switzer's abilities I have had no raeans of judging,
never having seen a single cut which was known to be of his
engraving. Between 1650 and 1700 wood engraring, as a means of multi
plying the designs of eminent artists, either as illustrations of
books or as separate cuts, may be considered as having reached
its lowest ebb. A few tolerably well executed cuts of ornaraents
are occasionally to be found in Italian, French, and Dutch books
Vertue says this was the sole impression he had seen, and believed that they
were cut by Chr, Switzer, and that these plates were copied by Hollar for Sandford.
Switzer also cut the coins and seals in Speed's History of Britain, 1614 [1611],
frora the originals in the Cottonian Collection. Speed calls him the most exquisite
and curious hand of that age. He probably engraved the botanic figures for Lobel's
Observations, and the plates [cuts] for Parkinson's Paradisus Terrestris, 1629.
Chr. Switzer's works have sometiraes "been confounded with his son's, who was
of both his names."— Catalogue of Engravers, p, 18, note. Edit, 1794, It is
doubtful if the elder Switzer's christian name were Christopher, The initial in
Parkinson's Paradisus Terrestris is au A. It is, however, possible that this letter
raay be intended for a Latin preposition, and not for the first letter of the engraver's
christian name.

526 FURTHER PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF
of this period ; but though they sufficiently attest that the race of
workmen was not wholly extinct, they also afford araple proof that
artisfs Uke those of forraer tiraes had ceased to fumish designs
for the wood-engraver. The art of design was then, however,
in a languishing condition throughout Europe ; and 6ven supposing
that wood engraving had been as much in fashion as copper
plate printing then was for the purpose of Ulustrating books,
it would be vain to expect in wood-cuts that excellence of com
position and drawing which is not to be found in the works of
the best painters of the time. Wood engrarings to please must
possess senile merit in the design — must show some trait of feeUng
for his subject on the part of the designer. Deficiency in this
respect can never be compensated by dexterity of execution: in
anything that approaches to fine art, raere workmanship, the
result of laborious appUcation, can never atone for want of mind.
The raan who drew a portrait of Queen Ann with a pen, and
wrote the Psalras in the lines of the face, and in the curls of
the hair, in characters so sraall that it required a glass to read
them, does not rank vrith a Vandyke or a Reynolds, nor even with
a Lely or a Kneller. At the period of the greatest decline of
wood engraving, the want that was felt was not of working en
gravers to execute cuts, but of talented artists to design them.
The principal French wood engravers about the end of the seven
teenth century were : Peter Le Sueur, — bom in 1636, died 1716 ;
his two sons, Peter and Vincent; John Papillon the elder — who
died in 1710 ; and his son, of the same name, who was bom in
1661, and died in 1723. Though John Michael PapiUon, son
of John Papillon the younger, and author of the Traiti de la
Gravure en Bois, speaks highly of the talents of the aforesaid raera
bers of the families of Le Sueur and PapUlon as wood engravers,
yet, from his account of thefr productions, it would seem that
they were chiefly employed in engraring subjects which scarcely
allowed of any display of excellence either in design or execution.
Their fine works were ornamental letters, flowered rignettes, and
tail-pieces for the booksellers ; while their staple productions
appear to have been blocks for card-makers and paper-stainers,
with patterns for embroiderers, lace-workers, and ribbon-manu
facturers. In the succeeding century, J. M. Papillon, grandson of
the first John Papillon, and Nicholas Le Sueur, grandson of the

WOOD ENGRAVING. .527
elder Peter Le Sueur, fully supported the character of their respec
tive farailies as wood engravers. Some account of their works will
be given in the proper place.
The tail-piece at the conclusion of this chapter will afford sorae
idea of the priraitive style of the wood-cuts previously mentioned
as occurring in tracts and pamphlets printed in England during the
civil war. It is a fac-simile of a cut which originally appeared on
the title-page to the first known edition of Robin Hood's Garland,
printed in 1670.* The original block is now in the possession
of Mr. WiUiam Garret of Newcastle on Tyne, and was frequently
used by the late Mr. George Angus of that town, as it had also
been by his predecessors in the same business, to decorate the title-
pages of the penny histories and garlands, which they suppUed
in such abundance for the winter-evenings' entertainment of the
good folks of Northuraberland and the " Bishoprick." Mr. Douce,
in the second volurae of his Illustrations of Shakspeare, also gives
a fac-simile of this cut; and the foUowing is his explanation of
the subject.
" Mr. Ritson has taken notice of an old wooden cut ' preserved
on the title-page of a penny history (Adam Bell, %c.), printed at
Newcastle in 1772,' and which represents, in his opinion, a
morris dance, consisting of the following personages : 1. A bishop.
2. Robin Hood. 3. The potter or beggar. 4. Little John. 5.
Friar Tuck. 6. Maid Marian. He remarks that the whole is
too rude to merit a copy, a position that is not raeant to be
controverted ; but it is necessary to introduce the cut in this place
for the purpose of correcting an error into which the above inge
nious writer has fallen. It is proper to raention that it originally
appeared on the title-page to the first known edition of Robin
Hood's Garland, printed in 1670, 18rao. Now, this cut is certainly
not the representation of a raorris dance, but merely of the princi
pal characters belonging to the Garland. These are Robin Hood,
Little John, Queen Catherine, the bishop, the curtal frier, (not
Tuck,) and the beggar. Even though it were admitted that Maid
Marian and Friar Tuck were intended to be given, it could not
* The cuts in an edition of "The most Delightful History of Reynard the Fox,"
4to, London, printed for Thoraas Passinger, 1681, are scarcely superior to this
cut in point of execution, though it must be confessed that the figures are gene
rally in better " keeping,"

528 PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
be maintained that either the bishop or the beggar made part
of a morris."
To give more specimens of wood engraring when in its lowest
state of declension has not been thought necessary; for even at
this period it would not be difficult to produce cuts which in point
of mere execution are superior to many which appeared when the
art was at its height. It is sufficient to have stated that, towards
the end of the seventeenth century, wood engraring for the higher
purposes of the art had sunk into utter neglect ; that the best pro
ductions of the regular wood engravers of the period raostly consist
of unraeaning ornaraents which neither excite feeUng nor suggest a
thought; and that the wood-cuts which appear to have been en
graved by persons not instructed in the business partake generally
of the character of the following tail-piece. Having now brought
down the history of the art of wood engraring to the end pf the
seventeenth century, its rerival in the eighteenth, vrith some
account of the works of Thoraas Bewick and the principal English
wood engravers of his time, will form the subject of the next
chapter.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

529

CHAPTER VII.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

English Wood-cuts in 1712. — Howel's Medulla Historiae Anglicanae, — Maittaire's
Classics, 1713, — E. Kirkall — His Chiaro-scuros, — Cuts in Croxall's .S^sop,
1722. — J, B, Jackson — Chiaro-scuros engraved by him at Venice, 1738-1742,
— French Wood Engravers, 1710-1768 ; J. M, Papillon, N. Le Sueur, and
P. S. Foumier,— English Wood-cuts, 1760-1772,— Cuts in Sir John Haw
kins's History of Music, 1776  Thoraas Bewick — His first Wood-cuts, in
Hutton's Mensuration, 1768-1770 — Cuts by hira in a Hieroglyphic Bible — In
Fables, 1779-1784 — His Cut of the Chillingham Bull— His Quadrupeds,
British Birds, and Fables, — John Bewick — Cuts by him in Emblems of Mor
tality, and other books — Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell — Somervile's Chase,
— Robert Johnson, designer of several of the Tail-pieces in Bewick's Birds. —
Charlton Nesbit. — Luke Clennell. — Williara Harvey, — Robert Branston, — John
Thompson, and others.

LTHOUGH wood engraring
had fallen into almost utter
neglect by the end of the
seventeenth century, and con
tinued in a languishing state
for many years afterward, yet
the art was never lost, as many
persons have supposed ; for both
in England and in France a re
gular succession of wood en
gravers can be traced fi'ora 1700
to the time of Thoraas Bewick. The cuts which appear in books
printed in Germany, Holland, and Italy during the same period,
though of very inferior execution, sufficiently prove that the art
continued to be practised in those countries.
The first EngUsh book of this period which requires notice
is an edition of Howel's Medulla Historiae Anglicanae, octavo,
2 M

^

530 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
printed at London in 1712.* There are upwards of sixty wood
cuts in this work, and the manner in which they are executed
sufficiently indicates that the engraver must have either been seK-
taught or had been a pupil of a master who did not understand
the art The blocks have, for the most part, been engraved in the
manner of copper-plates ; most of the lines, which a regular wood
engraver would have left in relief, are cut in intaglio, and hence
in the impression they appear white where they ought to be
black. The bookseller, in an address to the reader, thus pro
ceeds to show the advantages of those cuts, and to answer any
objection that raight be urged against them on account of thefr
being engraved on wood. "The cuts added in this edition are
intended more for use than show. The utUity consists in these
two particulars. 1. To make the better irapression on the raemory.
2. To show more readily when the notable passages in our
history were transacted ; which, without the knowledge of the
names of the persons, are not to be found out, by even the
best indexes. As for exaraple : In what reign was it that a
rebellious rout, headed by a rile fellow, raade great ravage, and
appearing in the King's presence with insolence, thefr captain
was stabbed upon the spot by the Lord-Mayor ? Here, without
knowing the naraes of sorae of the parties, which a world of people
are ignorant of, the story is not to be found by an index ; but
by the help of the cut, which catches the eye, is soon discovered.
We all have heard of the piety of one of our queens who sucked
the poison out of her husband's wound, but very few remeraber
which of thera it was, which the cut presently shows. The sarae
is to be said of all the rest, since we have chosen only such
things as are notabilia in the history to describe in our sciUp-
* Small wood-cuts appear to have been frequently used about this time in
newspapers, for what the Araericans c^U a "caption" to advertisements. "The
great art in writing advertisements is the finding out a proper method to catch the
reader's eye, without which many a good thing may pass over unobserved, or be lost ¦
araong comraissions of bankrupts. Asterisks and hands were formerly of great use
for this purpose. Of late years the N.B. has been much in fashion, as also little
cuts and figures, the invention of which we must ascribe to the author of spring
trusses," — Tatler, No. 224, 14th September 1710, The practice is not yet obsolete.
Cuts of this kind are still to be found in country newspapers prefixed to advertise
ments of quack medicines, horse-races, coach and steam-boat departures, sales of
ships, and the services olequi admissorii.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 531
tures. — And if it be objected that the graving is in wood, and
not in copper, which would be raore beautiful ; we answer, that
such would be much more expensive too. And we were wilhng , to
save the buyer's purse; especially since even the best engraving
would not better serve the purposes above-said."
Though no raark is to be found on any of those cuts, I am
inclined to think that they were executed by Edward Kirkall, whose
name appears as the engraver of the copper-plate frontispiece
to the book. The accounts which we have of Kirkall are ex
treraely unsatisfactory. Strutt says that he was born at Sheffield in
1695; and that, visiting London in search of iraproveraent, he was
for sorae time employed in graring arras, staraps, and ornaments
for books. It is, however, likely that he was bom prerious to
1695 ; for the frontispiece to Howel's Medulla is dated 1712,
when, if Strutt be correct, Kirkall would be only seventeen.
That he engraved on wood, as well as on copper, is unquestion
able ; and I am inclined to think that he either occasionally en
graved smaU ornaraents and head-pieces on type-raetal for the
use of printers, or that casts in this kind of metal were taken from
sorae of his sraall cuts.*
The head-pieces and ornaraents in Maittaire's Latin Classics,
duodecimo, published by Tonson and Watts, 1713, were probably
engraved on wood by Kirkall, as his initials, E. K., are to be
found on one of the tail-pieces. Papillon speaks rather favourably
of those small duts, though he objects to the uniformity of the
tint and the want of precision in the more delicate parts of the
figures, such as the faces and hands. "He notices the tail-piece
with the mark E. K. as one of the best executed ; and he suspects
that these letters were intended for the narae of an EngUsh painter
— called Ekwits, to the best ofhis recollection, — who "taught the
arts of painting and of engraving on wood to J. B. Jackson, so well
known to the printers of Paris about 1730 from his having suppUed
them vrith so large a stock of indifferent cuts."f
* Some ofthe cuts in an edition of Dryden's plays, 6 vols, 12mo. published by
Torison and Watts in 1717, have evidently been either engraved on sorae kind of
soft raetal or been casts from a wood-block. In the corner of such cuts, the marks
of the pins, which have fastened the engraved raetal-plate to a piece of wood
below, are quite apparent.
+ Papillon, Traite de la Gravure en Bois, tora. i. p. 323,
2m2

532 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
The cuts in Croxall's edition of Esop's Fables, first published
by J. and R. Tonson and J. Watts, in 1722, were, in aU proba
biUty, executed by the same person who engraved the head-pieces
and other ornaments in Mattaire's Latin Classics, printed for the
same publishers about nine years before ; and there is reason to
beheve that this person, as has been previously observed, was
E. KirkaU. Bewick, in the introduction prefixed to his " Fables
of iEsop and others," first printed in 1818, says that the cuts in
Croxall's edition were " on metal, in the manner of wood." He,
however, gives no reason for this opinion, and I very much question
its correctness. After a careful inspection I have not been able to
discover any peculiar mark which should induce rae to suppose
that they had been engraved on metal; and without some such
mark indicating that the engraved surface had been fastened to the
block to raise it to the height of the type, I consider it irapossible
for any person to decide raerely frora the appearance of the ira
pressions that those cuts were printed from a metaUic surface.
The difference, in point of impression, between a wood-cut and an
engraving on type-raetal in the same manner; or a cast in type-
metal frora a.wood-cut, is not to be distinguished. A wood engra
ver of the present day, when casts frora wood-cuts are so frequently
used instead of the original engraved block, decides that a certain
irapression has been fi'om a cast, not in consequence of any pecu
harity in its appearance denoting that it is printed frora a raetalhc
surface, but from certain marks — httle flaws in the lines and minute
"picks" — which he knows are characteristic of a "cast" When
a cast, however, has been well taken, and afterwards carefuUy
cleared out with the graver, it is frequently impossible to decide
that the impression has been taken from it, unless the examiner
have also before him an impression from the original block
with which it may be compared ; and even then, a person not
very well acquainted with the practice of wood engraving and the
method of taking casts from engraved wood-blocks, wHl be ex
treraely liable to decide erroneously.
Though it is by no means improbable that a person Uke Kirk
all, who had been accustomed to engrave on copper, might
attempt to engrave on type-metal in the same manner as on wood,
and that he raight thus execute a few small head-pieces and
flowered ornaments, yet I consider it very unUkely that he should

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 533
continue to prefer metal for the purpose of relief engraring after
he had raade a few experiraents. The advantages of wood over
type-metal are indeed so great, both as regards clearness of Une
and facility of execution, that it seems incredible that any person
who had tried both materials should hesitate to give the preference
to wood. If, however, the cuts in Croxall's ^sop were really
engraved on raetal in the manner of wood, they are, as a series,
the most extraordinary specimens of relief engraving, for the purpose
of printing, that have ever been executed. When Bewick stated
that those cuts were engraved on raetal, I ara inclined to think
that he founded his opinion rather on popular report than on close
and irapartial exaraination of the cuts themselves ; and it is further
to be observed that Thomas Bewick, with all bis raerits as a wood
engraver, was not without his weaknesses as a raan ; he w"as not
unwilling that people should believe that the art of wood engraving
was lost in this country, and that the honour of its re-discovery, as
well as of its subsequent advanceraent, was due to hira. Though
he was no doubt sincere in the opinion which he gave, yet those
who know hira are well aware that he would not have felt any plea
sure in calling the attention of bis readers to a series of wood-cuts
executed in England upwards of thirty years before he was born,
and which are not rauch inferior — except as regards the aniraals —
to the cuts of fables engraved by hiraself and his brother previous
to 1780.* The cuts in Croxall's .^sop not only display great ira
provement in the engraver, supposing him to be the same person
that executed the head-pieces and ornaments in Maittaire's Latin
Classics printed in 1713, but are very rauch superior to any cuts
contained in works of the same kind printed in France between
1700 and 1760,t
• "The Fables of Mr. John Gay," with cuts by Thomas and John Bewick, was
published in 1779. " Select Fables, a new edition improved," with cuts by the
sarae, appeared in 1784; both in duodecimo, printed by T, Saint, Newcastle-on-
Tyne. The cuts in the latter work are considerably better than those in the former.
Several of the'cuts which originally appeared in those two works are to be found
in " Select Fables ; with cuts designed and engraved by Thomas and John Bewick,
and others," octavo, printed for Emerson Chamly, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1820.
t The cuts in two different editions of 5isop's Fables, published at Paris,^the
one by Charies Le Clerc in 1731, and the other by J. Barbou in 1758,— are most
wretchedly executed. The mark of Vincent Le Sueur appears on the frontispiece
to Le Clerc's edition.

534

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

Many of the cuts in Croxall are raerely reversed copies of
engravings on copper by S. Le Clerc, illustrative of a French
edition of iEsop's Fables published about 1694. The first of the
following cuts is a fac-simile of one of Le Clerc's engravings ; and
the second is a copy of the same subject as it appears in Croxall.
The fable to which they both relate is the Fox and the Goat

FROM A COPPEB-VLATE BY S. LE OLEEC.

PROM A WOOD-CUT IN CKOXALL'S jESOP.

The above cut is by no means one of the best in Croxall : it has
not been selected as a speciraen of the raanner in which those cuts
are executed, but as an instance of the closeness with which the
English wood-cuts have been copied frora the French copper-plates.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

535

In several of the cuts in Bewick's Fables of .^sop and others, the
arrangement and composition appear to have been suggested by
cuts in Croxall ; but in every instance of this kind the modern artist
has made the subject his own by the superior manner in which it
is treated : he restores to the animals their proper forms, represents
them acting their parts as described in the fable, and frequently
introduces an incident or sketch of landscape which gives to the
whole subject a natural character. The following copy of the Fox
and Goat, in the Fables of .^sop and others, 1818 — 1823, will serve
to show how little the raodern artist has borrowed in such instances
from the cuts in Croxall, and how much has been supplied by
himseK.

Between 1722 and 1724, Kirkall published by subscription
twelve chiaro-scuros engraved by hiraseK, chiefly after designs by
old Italian raasters. In those chiaro-scuros the outlines and the
darker parts of the figures are printed from copper-plates, and the
sepia-coloured tints afterwards irapressed from wood-blocks;
though they possess considerable merit, they are deficient in
spirit, and will not bear a comparison with the chiaro-scuros
executed by Ugo da Carpi and other early Itahan wood engra-
Most of thera are too smooth, and want the bold outiine

vers.

and vigorous character which distinguish the old chiaro-scuros :
what KirkaU gained in deUcacy and precision by the introduction
of mezzotino, he lost through the inefficient engraving of the wood-

536 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
blocks. One of the largest of those chiaro-scuros is a copy of
one of Ugo da Carpi's — Mneas carrying. his father on his shoulders
— after a design by Raffaele, In Walpole's Catalogue of Engravers,
a notice of Kirkall's " new method of printing, composed of etch
ing, mezzotinto, and wooden stamps," concludes with the foUovring
passage : " He performed several prints in this manner, and did
great jiistice to the drawing and expression of the masters he
imitated. This invention, fox one raay call it so, had rauch
success, much applause, no imitators. — I suppose it is too labo
rious and too tedious. In an opulent country where there is great
facility of getting money, it is seldom got by merit. Our artists
are in too much hurry to gain it, or deserve it."
About 1724 Kirkall published seventeen riews of shipping, from
designs by W. Vandevelde, which he also called " prints in chiaro
scuro." They have, however, no just pretensions to -the name
as it is usually understood when applied to prints, for they are
merely tinted engravings worked off in a greenish-blue ink. These
so called chiaro-scuros are decided failures.
Kirkall engraved, on copper, tbe plates in Rowe's translation of
Lucan's Pharsalia, folio, published by Tonson, 1718 ; the plates
for an edition of Inigo Jones's Stonehenge, 1725; and a frontis
piece to the works of Mrs. Eliza Haywood, which is thus aUuded
to in the Dunciad :
" See in the circle next Eliza placed.
Two babes of love close clinging to her waist ;
Fair as before her works she stands c.onfest.
In flowers and pearls by bounteous Kirkall drest."
A considerable number of rude and tasteless omaments and
head-pieces, with the mark F. H., engraved on wood, are to be
found in English books printed between 1720 and 1740., Several
of them have been cast in type-metal,* as is evident from the
marks of the pins, in the impressions, by wbich they have been
fastened to the blocks ; the same head-piece or ornament is also
frequently found in books printed in the sarae year by different
printers. Some of the best headings and tail-pieces of this period
occur in a volume of " Miscellaneous Poems, original and trans-
* It is not unlikely that the frequency of such casts has induced many persons
to suppose that most of the cuts of this period were " engraved on metal in the
manner of wood."

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

537

lated, by several hands. PubUshed by Mr. Concanen," London,
printed for J. Peele, octavo, 1724. The subjects are, ApoUo with ,
a lyre ; Minerva with a spear and shield ; two men sKting corn ;
Hercules destroying the hydra ; and a raan with, a large lantern.
They are rauch superior to any cuts of the sarae kind with the
mark F. H. ; and from the raanner in vvhich they are executed, I
ara inclined to think that they are the work of the person who
engraved the cuts in Croxall's .^sop. The following is a fac-simile
of one of the best of the cuts that I have ever seen with the mark
F. H. It occurs as a tail-piece at the end of the preface to
" Strephon's Revenge : A Satire on the Oxford Toasts," octavo,
London, 1724.*

John Baptist Jackson, an English wood engraver, was, according
to Papillon, a pupil of the person who engraved the small head
pieces and omaments in Maittaire's Latin Classics, published by
Tonson and Watts in 1713 ; and as tbe cuts in Croxall's .^sop were
probably engraved by the same person, as has been previously ob
served, it is not unlikely that Jackson, as his apprentice, might
have some share in their execution. Though these cuts were much
superior to'any that had appeared in England for about a hundred
years previously, wood engraring seeras to have received but little
encouragement. Probably from want of eraployment in his own
* Two cuts, with the same mark, are to be found in Thoresby's Vicaiia Leo-
dinensis, Svo. London, 1724 ; one at the commencement of the preface, and the
other at the end of the work.

538 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
country, Jackson proceeded to Paris, where he remained several
years, chiefly employed in engraving head-pieces and omaments for
the booksellers. Papillon, who seems to have home no good-will
towards Jackson, thus speaks of him in the first volume of his
" Traite de la Gravure en Bois."
" J. Jackson, an Englishman, who resided several years in Paris,
might have perfected himself in wood engraring, which he had
leamt of an English painter, as I have previously raentioned, if
he had been willing to follow the advice which it was ui my
power to have given him. Having called on me, as soon as he
arrived in Paris, to ask for work, I for several months gave
hira a few things to execute in order to afford hira the means
of subsistence. He, however, repaid me with ingratitude ; he
made a dupUcate of a flowered ornament of my dravring, which
he offered, before deUvering to me the block, to the person for
whora it was to be engraved. Frora the reproaches that I re
ceived, on the raatter being discovered, I naturaUy declined to
eraploy hira any longer. He then went the round of the print
ing-offices in Paris, and was obUged to engrave his cuts vrithout
order, and to offer thera for alraost nothing ; and many of the
printers, profiting by his distress, supplied themselves amply vrith
his cuts. He had acquired a certain insipid taste which was not
above the little mosaics on snuff-boxes ; and with ornaraents of this
kind, after the raanner of several other inferior engravers, he
surcharged his works. His mosaics, however delicately engraved,
are always deficient in effect, and display the engraver's patience
rather than his talent ; for the other parts of the cut, consisting
of delicate lines without tints or a gradation of light and shade,
want that force which is necessary to render the whole striking.
Such wood engravings, however deficient in this respect, are yet
admired by printers of vulgar taste, who foolishly pretend that
they raost resemble copper-plates, and that they print better than
cuts of a picturesque character, and containing a 'variety of
tints. ,
" Jackson, being obhged, through destitution, to leave Paris,
where he could get nothing raore to do, travelled in France ; and
afterwards, being disgusted with his profession, he accorapanied a
painter to Rome, from whence he went to Venice, where, as I

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 539
ara inforraed, he raarried, and subsequently retumed to England,
his native country."*
Though Papillon speaks disparagingly of Jackson, the latter was
al least as good an engraver as hiraseK. Jackson appears to have
visited Paris not later than 1726, for Papillon raentions a vignette
and a large letter engraved by hira in that year for a Latin and
French dictionary, printed in 1727 by the brothers Barbou ; and it
is likely that he reraained there till about 1731. When he arrived
at Venice, I have not been able to ascertain. In an Itahan transla^
tion of the Lives of the Twelve Caesars, printed there in quarto
1738, there is a large ornaraental title-page of his engraving ;
and in the same year .he engraved a chiaro-scuro of Christ taken
down from the Cross, frora a painting by Rembrandt, f in the
possession of Joseph Smith, Esq. the British consul at Venice,
a well-known collector of pictures and other works of art Be
tween 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 foho volume in the latter year. They are very unequal in
point of raerit ; sorae 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 Martyrdom of
St Peter Dorainicanus, after Titian, with the date 1739 ; the raan
ner in which the foliage of the trees is represented is particularly
good. On his return to England he seems to have totally aban
doned the practice of wood engraring in the ordinary manner for
the purpose of illustrating or ornaraenting books ; for I have not
been able to discover any English wood-cut of the period that
either contains his raark, or seems, from its comparative excellence,
to have been of his engraving. Finding no deraand in this country
for wood-cuts, he appears to have tried to render his knowledge of
engraving in chiaro-scuro available for the purpose of printing
paper-hangings. In an " Essay on the Invention of Engraving and
Printing in Chiaro Oscuro,"J pubhshed in his name in 1754, we
• Traitd de la Gravure en Bois, tom. i. pp, 327, 328,
t This painting, which is wholly in chiaro-scuro, is now in the National Gallery,
to which it was presented by the late Sir George Beaumont,
X The title at length is as follows : " An Essay on the Invention of Engraving

540 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
leam that he was then engaged in a raanufacture of this kind at
Battersea. The account given in this essay of the origin and pro
gress of chiaro-scuro engraving is frequently incorrect ; and from
several of the statements which it contains, it would seera that the
writer was very imperfectly acquainted with the works of his pre
decessors and contemporaries in the same department of wood
engraving. From the following 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 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and
even in his own age, or tbat he was wishful to enhance the raerit of
Mr. Jackson's process by concealing what had recently been done
in the sarae manner by others. " After haring said all 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 really due to this
latter undertaker, since no writings, or other reraains, are to be
found by which the raethod of former artists can be discovered,
or in what manner they executed their works ; nor, in truth, has
the Italian raethod since the beginning of the sixteenth century
been attempted by any one except Mr, Jackson." What is here
called the "Italian method," that is, the method of executing
chiaro-scuros entirely on wood, was practised in France at the
end of the seventeenth century ; and Nicholas Le Sueur had
engraved several cuts in this manner about 1730, the very time
when Jackson was liring in Paris. The principles of the art had
also been applied in France to the execution of paper-hangings
upwards of fifty years before Jackson attempted to establish the
same kind of manufacture in England. Not a word is said of the
chiaro-scuros of Kirkall,* frora whom it is likely that Jackson first
and Printing in Chiaro Oscuro, as practised by Albert Durer, Hugo di Carpi, &c.,
and the Application 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.
* There can be no doubt 'that the mention of Kirkall's name is purposely
avoided. The "atterapts" of Count Caylus, who executed several chiaro-scuros
by raeans of copper-plates and wood-blocks subsequent to Kirkall, are noticed;
but the narae of Nicholas Le Sueur, who assisted the Count and engraved the

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 541
acquired his knowledge of chiaro-scuro engraring : with the excep
tion of the outUnes and some other parts in these chiaro-scuros
being executed in mezzotint, the printing of the rest from wood
blocks is precisely the sarae as in the Italian method.
The Essay contains eight prints illustrative of Mr. Jackson's
method ; four are chiaro-scuros, and four are printed in " proper
colours," as is expressed in the title, in iraitation of drawings.
They are very poorly executed, and are very much inferior to
the chiaro-scuros engraved by Jackson when residing at Venice.
The prints in " proper colours " are egregious failures. The
following notices respecting Mr. Jackson are extracted from the
Essay in question.
" Certainly Mr. Jackson, the person of whora we speak, has not
spent less time and pains, applied less assiduity, or traveUed to
fewer distant countries in search of perfecting his art, than other.
men ; having passed twenty years in France and Italy to cora
plete hiraself in drawing after the best raasters 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, like a true lover of his native
country, he is returned with a design to communicate all the means
which his endeavours can contribute to enrich the land where he
drew his first breath, by adding to its commerce, and employing its
inhabitants ; and yet, like a citizen of it, he would willingly enjoy
some Uttle share of those advantages before he leaves this world,
which he must leave behind hira to his countrymen when he shall
be no raore."
" During his residence at Venice, where he made himself perfect
in the art which he professes, he finished raany works well known,
to the nobility and gentry who travelled to that city whilst he lived
in it.-^ — Mr. Frederick, Mr. Lethuillier, and Mr. Smith, the EngUsh
consul at Venice, encouraged Mr. Jackson to undertake to engrave
in chiaro-oscuro, blocks after the raost capital pictures of Titian,
Tintoret, Giacorao Bassano, and Paul Veronese, which are to be
found in Venice, and to this end procured him a subscription. In
wood-blocks, is never raentioned. It is also stated in the Essay, page 6, that some
of the subjects begun by Count Caylus were finished by Mr. Jackson, and
" approved by the lovers and promoters of that art in Paris."

542 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
this work may be seen what engraving on wood will effectuate, and
how truly the spirit 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 Right Honourable the Marquis of Harting-
ton. Sir Roger Newdigate, Sir Bouchier Wrey, and other English
gentlemen on their travels at Venice, who saw Mr. Jackson draw
ing on the blocks for the print after the famous picture of the
Crucifixion painted by Tintoret in the albergo of St Roche. Those
prints may now be seen at his house at Battersea. — Not content
with having brought his works in chiaro-oscuro to such perfec
tion, he attempted to print landscapes in all their original colours ;
not only to give to the world all the outhne 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 aquariUo or water-colours ;
which work was taken notice of by the Earl of Holdemess, then
ambassador extraordinary to the repubUc of Venice ; and his ex
cellency 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
approbation of the merit of the inventor."
John Michael Papillon, one of the best French wood engravers
of his age, was born in 1698. His grandfather and his father, as
has been previously observed, were both wood engravers. In 1706,
when only eight years old, he secretly made his first essay in wood
engraring ; and when only nine, his father, who had become
aware of his amusing himself in this manner, gave hira a large
block to engrave, which he appears to have executed to his
father's satisfaction, though he had preriously received no instruc
tions in the artf The block was intended for printing paper-
• I have only seen one of these landscapes; and from it I form no very high'
opinion ofthe others. It is scarcely superior in point of execution to the prints in
"proper colours" contained in the Essay.
t Papillon, in the Supplement to his " Traite 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 nine years old. If the cut be genuine, the engraver had improved
but liule as he grew older.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 543
hangings, the manufacture of which was his father's principal
business. Though untU the time of his father's death, which
happened in 1723, Papillon appears to have been chiefly em
ployed in such works, and in hanging the papers which he had
previously engraved, he yet executed several vignettes and orna
ments for the booksellers, and sedulously endeavoured to iraprove
hiraself in this higher department of his business.
Shortly after the death of his father he married ; and, having
given up the business of engraving paper-hangings, he laboured
so hard to perfect himself in the art of designing and engraving
vignettes and ornaraents for books, that his head became affected ;
and he sometimes displayed such absence of mind that his wife
became alarraed, fancying that " he no longer loved her." On his
assuring her that his behaviour was the result of his anxiety to
iraprove hiraseK in drawing and engraving on wood, and to write
soraething 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, M. Chaveau, a sculptor, and had herseK raade raany 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 application and anxiety about his success in the
Une to which he intended to apply hiraseK in future, appear to have
originated in a tendency to insanity, which at a later period dis
played itseK in a raore decided raanner. In 1759, in consequence
of a determination of blood to the head, as he says, through ex
cessive joy at seeing his only daughter, who had lived from the age
of four years with her uncle, combined with a recoUection of his
forraer sorrows, his mind became so rauch disordered that it was
necessary to send hira to an hospital, where, through repeated
bleedings and other reraedies,- he seems to have speedily recovered.
He mentions that in the same year four other engravers were
attacked by the sarae malady, and that only one of them regained
his senses.*
* Traite de la Gravure en Bois, Supplement, tora. iii. p. 39. In the first volume,
page 335, he alludes to the disorder as " un accident et une fatality commune k
plusieurs graveurs, aussi bien que raoi." Has the practice of engraving on wood or
on copper a tendency to induce insanity ? Three distinguished engravers, all from
the same town, have in recent tiraes lost their reason; and several others frora various

544 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
PapiUon's endeavours to improve himself were not unsuccessful ;
the cuts which he engraved about 1724, though raostly small, possess
considerable merit; they are not only designed vrith much raore
feeling than the generality of those executed by other French en
gravers of the period, but are also much raore effective, displaying
a variety of tint and a contrast of light and shade which are not to
be found in the works ofhis conteraporaries. In 1726, in order to
divert his anxiety and to bring his cuts into notice, he projected Le
petit Almanach de Paris, which subsequently was generally known
as "Le Papillon." The first that he pubUshed was for the year
1727 ; and the wood-cuts which it contained equaUy 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 engraving, and he kindly predicted to PapiUon
that he would one day excel in his art. From this tirae he seeras
to have no longer had any doubt of his own abilities, but, on the
contrary, to have entertained a very high opinion of his own talents.
He appears to have considered wood engraving as the highest of
all the graphic arts, and himself as the greatest of aU its professors,
either ancient or raodern.
From this, to him, meraorable epoch, — the pubUcation of " Le
petit Alraanach de Paris," with cuts by Papillon, — he appears to
have been seldom without employment, for in the Supplement to
the " Traite de la Gravure en Bois," he mentions that in 1768, the
"Collection of the Works of the Papillons," presented by him to the
Royal Library, contained upwards oifive thousand pieces of his own
engraving. This " Recueil des PapiUon," which he seems to have^
considered as a faraily raonuraent " sere perennius," is perpetuaUy
referred to it in the course of bis work. It consisted of four large
folio voluraes containing specimens of wood engravings executed by
the different raerabers of the Papillon faraily for three generations
— his grandfather, his father, his uncle, his brother, and hiraseK.
parts ofthe country, have been afilicted with the sarae distressing raalady. These
facts deserve the consideration of parents who design to send their sons as pupils to
engravers. 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 re
quired.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

545

Papillon seems to have been employed not only by the book
sellers of his own country, but also by those of Holland. A book,
entitied " Historische School en Huis-Bybel," printed at Amster
dam in 1743, contains two hundred and seventeen cuts, all of
which appear to have been either engraved by Papillon himself,
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 seeras likely that they had appeared
in a sirailar work printed at the same place a few years previously.
They are generally executed in a coarser raanner than those con
tained in Papillon's own work, but the style of engraving and
general effect are the sarae. The following is a copy of the first,
which is one of the best in the work. To the left is PapiUon's
narae, engraved, as was custoraary with hira, in very sraall letters,
with the date, 1734.

Papillon's History of Wood Engraving, published in 1766, in
two octavo volumes, with a Supplement,* under the title of "Traits
Historique et Pratique de la Gravure en Bois," appears to have
been projected, and partly written, upwards of thirty years before
it was given to the public. Shortly after his being admitted a
member of the Society of Arts, in 1733, he appears to have read,

»• The Supplement, or "Torae troijierae," as it is also called, though dated 1766,
was not printed until 1768, as is evident frora a "Discours Nuptial," at page 97,
pronounced on 13th June 1768, Two ofthe cuts also contain the date 1768.
2 N

546 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
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 actually printed
between 1736 and 1738, but never pubUshed. He does not ex
plain why the work was not proceeded with at that time ; and it
would be useless to speculate on the possible causes of the inter
ruption. He mentions that a copy of this volume was preserved
in the Royal Library ; and he charges Fournier the younger, who
between 1758 and 1761 published three tracts on the invention of
wood engraring and printing, with haring availed himseK of a
portion of the historical inforraation contained in this volume. The
public, however, according to his own statement, gained by the
delay ; as he grew older he gained more knowledge of the history
of the art, and "invented" several iraportant 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
Monsieur De Greder's, in 1719 or 1720, relative to the interesting
twins, 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 illustrative of the history
of Alexander the Great* However the reader may be dehghted
or amused by the roraantic narrative of the Cunio, Papillon's re
putation as the historian of his art would most Ukely 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 judgraent raust be sacrificed to save his honesty.
The first volume of Papillon's work contains the history of the
art; it is divided into two parts, the first treating of wood en
graring for the purpose of printing in the usual raanner from
a single block, and the second treating of chiaro-scuro. He
does not trace the progress of the art by pointing out the im
proveraents introduced at different periods ; he enumerates all
the principal cuts that he had seen, without reference to their
execution as compared with those of an earlier date ; and, from
his desire to enhance the importance of his art, he claims almost
* PapiUon's account ofthe Cunio, with an exaraination of ils credibility, will be
found in chapter i. p. 33 — 51.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 547
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 credu
lous as to assert that Mary de Medici, Queen of Henry IV. of
France, had occasionaUy araused herself with engraving on wood ;
and in order to place the fact beyond doubt he refers to a cut
representing the bust of a feraale, with the following inscription :
" Maria Medici. F. m.d.lxxxvii." " The engraring," he ol>
serves, with his usual bonhomie, " is rather better than what raight
be reasonably expected from a person of such quality ; it contains
many cross-hatchings, somewhat unequal indeed, and occasionally
iraperfect, but notwithstanding, sufficiently well engraved to show
that she had executed several wood-cuts before she had atterapted
this. I know more than one wood engraver — or at least calling
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 Papillon, shows that she was then
no novice in the art, she raust have acquired her practical know
ledge of wood engraring at rather an early age, — at least for a
princess. Papillon never seems to have considered that F is the
first letter of " Filia" as well as of " Fecit," nor to have suspected
that the cut was simply a portrait of Mary de Medici, and not a
speciraen of her engraring.
From the foUovring passage in the preface, he seeras to have
been aware that his including the names of many eminent painters
in his Ust of wood engravers would be objected to. " Some
persons, who entertain a preconceived opinion that many painters
whom I raention have not engraved on wood, raay perhaps
dispute the works which I ascribe to thera. Of such persons
I have to request that they wiU not conderan rae before they have
acqiiainted theraselves with my researches and examined my proofs,
and that they will judge of thera without prejudice or partiality."
The " researches," to which he alludes, appear to have consisted
in searching out the naraes and raarks of erainent painters in old
wood-cuts, and his "proofs" are ofthe 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 unknown
to Rubens." The historical portion of Papillon's work is indeed
little more than a confused catalogue of all the wood-cuts which
2 N 2

548 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
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, Papillon gives his instructions and enurae-
rates his "inventions" in a style of complacent seK-conceit The
most trifling reraarks are accorapanied by a reference to the
" Recueil des Papillon ;" and the raost obvious raeans of effecting
certain objects, — such raeans as had been regularly adopted by
wood engravers for upwards of two hundred years preriously, and
such as in succeeding tiraes 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 Ughter in the impression. The Lyons
Dance of Death, 1538, affords several instances 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 dehcately engraved
lines should be lightly printed, and thus have the appearance of
gradually ditninishing till their extremities should scarcely be dis
tinguishable frora the paper on which they are irapressed. Nurae
rous instances of this practice are frequent in wood- cuts executed
from 1540 to the decline of the art in the seventeenth century.
Lowering was also practised by the engraver of the cuts in CroxaU's
jEsop ; by Thomas Bewick, who acquired a knowledge of wood
engraring without a master; and by the seK-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 same practice has recently been claimed as
* This poem was, I believe, never published. In the Advertisement prefixed
to it Dr. Beddoes speaks thus of the engraver of the cuts : " The engravings in the
following pages will be praised or excused when it is known that they are the
performance of an uueducated and uninstructed artist, if such an application be not
a profanation of the term, in a reraote village. All the assistance he received was
from the exaraple of Mr. Bewick's most raasterly engravings on wood." The narae
of this self-taught artist was Edward Dyas, and he lived in the neighbourhood of
Madeley, Shropshire, where the book was printed. The compositor, as is stated in
the same Advertisement, was a young woman.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 549
an "invention," it would seera that sonie 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 require
any particular ingenuity for its discovery ; such " discoveries"
every raan raakes for hiraself as soon as he feels the want of
that which the so-called inventiqn will supply. The man who
pares the cork of a quart bottle in order to make it fit a .smaller
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" cannol^ however,
be considered as an effort of genius deserving of public com^
raendation. In Papillon's time it does not appear to have been customary.
with French engravers on wood to have the subject perfectly drawn
on the block, with all the lines and hatchings pencUled in, and the
effect and the different tints indicated either in pencil or in Indian
ink, as is the usual practice in the present day. The design
was first drawn on paper ; from this, by raeans of tracing paper,
the engraver raade an outline copy on the block; and, without
pencilling 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 drawing or painting before hira. Papillon
perceived the disadvantages which resulted frora this mode of
proceeding ; and though he still continued to make his first draw
ing on paper, he copied it more carefully and distinctly on the
block than was usual with his contemporaries. He was thus
enabled to proceed with greater certainty in his engraving ; what
he had to effect was immediately before hira, and it was no longer
necessary to refer so frequently to the original. To the circura
stance of the drawings being perfectly raade on the block, Papillon
ascribes in a great measure the excellence of the old wood en
gravings of the time of Durer and Holbein.
Papillon, although always inchned to magnify little things con-
nected with wood engraving, and to take great credit to hira
self for trifling " inventions," was yet thoroughly acquainted with
the practice of his art The mode of thickening the lines in certain

550 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
parts of a cut, after it has 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 required in the operation.*
As PapUlon, previous to the publication of his book, had con
tributed several papers on the subject of wood engraving to the
faraed Encyclopedic, he avails hiraself of the second volume of
the Traite to propose several additions and corrections to those
articles. The following definition proposed to be inserted in the
Encyclopedic, after the article Gratuit, wiU afford sorae idea of the
manner in which he is accustomed to speak of his " inventions."
The term which he explains is "Gratture ou Grattage," literaUy,
" Scraping," the practice just alluded to. " This is, according to
the new manner of engraving on wood, the operation of skUfuUy and
carefully scraping down parts in an engraved block which are not
sufficiently dark, in order to give them, as may be requfred, greater
strength, and to render the shades more effective. This admirable
plan, utterly unknown before, was accidentally discovered in 1731
by M. Papillon, by whom the art of wood engraving is advanced to
a state tending to perfection, and approaching more and raore
towards the beauty of engraving on copper." The tools used by
Papillon to scrape down the Unes of an engraved block, and thus
render them thicker and, consequently, the irapression darker, differ
considerably in shape frora those used for the sarae purpose by
modem wood engravers in England. The tool now principaUy
used is something like a copper-plate engraver's burnisher, and
occasionally 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 Une
to have cut towards them as in forming a down-stroke in writing,
and to have engraved on the longitudinal, and not the cross
section of the wood. Modem English wood engravers, having the
rounded handle of the graver supported against the hollow of
the hand, and directing the blade by means of the fore-finger and
thumb, cut the hne from them ; and always engrave on the cross
section of the wood. Papillon mentions box, pear-tree, apple-tree,
and the wood of the service-tree, as the best for the purposes
* " Manifere de Gratter les tallies di^jjl gravies pour les rendre plus fortes, afin
de les faire ombrer davantage." — Supplement du Traitd de la Gravure eu
Bois, p. 50.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 551
of engraving : box was generally used for the smaUer and finer
cuts intended for the illustration or ornament of books ; the
larger cuts, in which dehcacy was not required, were mostly
engraved on pear-tree wood. Apple-tree wood was principally
used by the wood engravers of Normandy. Next to box, Papillon
prefers the wood of the service-tree. The box brought from Tur
key, though of larger size, he considers inferior to that of Provence,
Italy, or Spain.
Although Papillon's modus operandi differs considerably from
that of EngUsh wood engravers of the present day, I am not aware
of any supposed discovery in the modem 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 Unes, and thus getting more colour, by scraping the surface of
the cut when engraved, were, as has been observed, known to hira ;
he occasionally 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 improveraents which he suggested, but did not put in
practice, was a plan for engraving the sarae 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 forraed
a sirailar 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
Papillon, for he began to engrave a large cut which he intended
to finish in this manner; and he was so satisfied that the ex-
* Several cuts in which cross-hatching is introduced occur in the " Traits de
la Gravure en Bois ;" and the author refers to several others in the " Recueil
des Papillon" as displaying the same kind of work. He considers the execution
ofsuch hatchings as the test of excellence in wood engraving; "for," he observes,
" when a person has leamt to execute them he raay boast of having mastered one
of the raost diflScult parts of the art, and may justly assurae the name of a wood
engraver." — Tora. ii. p. 90.

552 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
periment would be successful, that when the pressman handed to
him a proof of the first block, he exclairaed, " I wish 1 was but
twenty years younger !"
PapUlon, in his account of the practice of the art, explains
the raanner of engraving and printing chiaro-scuros ; and in illus
tration 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
ofhis cuts the figure of a " mentonni^re," — that is to say, a piece
of quilted linen, like the pad used by women to keep their
bonnets cocked up, — which, being placed 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 raanner in which
wood-cuts were printed ; * but frora the following passage we leam
•that the inferiority of the printed cuts when corapared with the
engraver's proofs did not always proceed frora the negligence of
the printer. " Sorae wood engravers have the art of fabricating
proofs of their cuts much more excellent and delicate than they
fairly ought to be ; and the following 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,
V/'^ to obtain one to their liking, and with which they raay deceive their
eraployers, they only ink the block on those places which ought to
be dark, leaving the distances and lighter parts without any ink,
except what remained after taking the previous impressions. The
proof which they now obtain appears extremely deUcate in those
parts which were not properly inked ; but when they come to be
• He complains in another part of the work that many printers, both composi
tors and pressmen, by pretending to engrave on wood, had brought the art into
disrepute. They not only spoiled the work of regular engravers, but dared to
engrave wood-cuts theraselves.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 553
printed in a page with type, the irapression is quite different frora
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 all the three Le Sueurs have been accustoraed to prac
tise this deception."*
All the cuts in Papillon's work, except the portrait prefixed to
the first volurae,f appear to have been of his own engraving,
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 thera long previous to the appearance of his
work.J They are introduced as ornaraents at the beginning and
end of the chapters ; but though they may enable the reader to judge
of Papillon's abilities as a designer and engraver on wood, beyond
this they do not in the least iUustrate the progress of the art The
execution of sorae of the best is extreraely neat; and alraost all of
thera 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 raerit, but in by far the greater nuraber
simplicity and truth are sacrificed to ornament and French taste.
Whatever may be Papillon's faults as a historian of the art, he
deserves great credit for the diligence with which he pursued it
under unfavourable circumstances, 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

" Traits de la Gravure en Bois, tora. ii, p. 365,
f The portrait was engraved " in venerationis testimonium," and presented to
Papillon by Nicholas Caron, a bookseller and wood engraver of Besanf on. The
following complimentary 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 veilles
II resuscita I'Art qui le trace k tes yeux,"
Papillon speaks favourably of Caron as a wood engraver ; he says that " he is
tnuch superior to Nioul, Jackson, Contat, Lefevre, and others his contemporaries,
and would at least have equalled the Le Sueurs had he applied himself to drawing
the figure,
X From several of those blocks not less than sixty thousand impressions had been
previously taken, and from one of them four hundred and fifty-six thousand had
been printed.

554 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
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 generally much inferior to
those of Papillon ; and the recent progress which wood engraving
has made in that country seems rather to have been influenced
by EngUsh example than by his precepts.
Nicholas Le Sueur — bom 1691, died 1764, — was, next to
Papillon, the best French wood engraver of his time. His chiaro
scuros, printed entirely frora wood-blocks, are executed vrith great
boldness and spirit, and partake raore of the character of the earlier
Italian chiaro-scuros than any other works of the sarae kind en
graved by his conteraporaries.* He chiefly excelled in the execu
tion of chiaro-scuros and large cuts ; his sraall cuts are of very
ordinary character; they are generally engraved in a hard and
raeagre style, want variety of tint, and are deficient in effect.
P. S. Fournier, the younger, a letter-founder of considerable
reputation, — bom at Paris 1712, died 1768, — occasionally engraved
on wood. Papillon says that he was seK-taught ; and that he
certainly would have made greater progress in the art had he
not devoted hiraself alraost exclusively to the business of type-
founding. Monsieur Fournier is, however, better knovra as a
writer on the history of the art than as a practical wood engraver.
Between 1758 and 1761 he pubUshed three tracts relating to the
origin and progress of wood engraving, and the invention of typo-
graphy.f From these works it is erident that, though he takes no
* 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 sarae manner several chiaro-scuros in imitation
of drawings 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, f The following are the titles of those tracts, which are rather scarce. They are
all of small octavo size, and printed by J, Barbou. 1, Dissertation sur I'Origine et
les Progrfes de I'Art de Graver en Bois, pour ^claircir 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 Caractbres d'lmprimerie, 1758, 2, De
I'Origine et des productions de I'lmprimerie priraitive en taille en Bois, 1759.
3. Remarques sur un Ouvrage intitule, Lettre sur I'Origine de I'lmprimerie, &c.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 555
small credit to hiraseK for his practical knowledge of wood engrav
ing and printing, he was very iraperfectly acquainted with his
subject They abound in errors which it is irapossible that any
person possessing the knowledge he boasts of should cornrait, unless
he had very superficially exarained the books and cuts on which he
pronounces an opinion. He seeras indeed to have thought that,
frora the circurastance of his being a wood engraver and letter-
founder, his decisions on all doubtful raatters in the early history
of wood engraving and printing should be received with iraplicit
faith. Looking at the coraparatively small size of his works, no
writer, not even Papillon himself, has comraitted so many mistakes ;
and his decisions are generally most peremptory when utterly ground
less or evidently wrong. He asserts that Faust and Scheffer's
Psalter, 1457 — 1459, is printed frora raoveable types of wood, and
that the raost of the earliest speciraens of typography are printed
from the sarae kind of types ; and in the fulness of his knowledge
he also declares that the text of the Theurdank is printed not frora
types, but frora engraved wood-blocks. Like Papillon, he seems to
have possessed a marvellous 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. Loeher ;
and that Parmegiano executed several wood-cuts after designs by
Raffaele. He decides positively that Albert Durer, L. Cranach,
Titian, and Holbein were wood engravers, and, like Papillon, he
includes Mary de Medici in the list Papillon appears to have had
good reason to complain that Fournier had availed hiraseK of his
volurae printed in 1738. His taste appears to have been scarcely
superior to his knowledge and judgment : he raentions 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 Papillon's
cuts are for excellence of design and execution equal to those of the
greatest masters !
1761, This last was an answer to a letter written by M, Bar, almoner of the Swedish
chapel in Paris, in which the two former tracts of Fournier were severely criticised,
— Foumier was also the author of a work in two small volumes, entitled " Manuel
Typographique, utile aux Gens de lettres, et k ceux qui exercent les differentes
parties de I'Art de I'lmprimerie,"

556 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
From a passage in one of Foumier's tracts — Remarques Typo-
graphiques, 1761, — it is evident that wood engraving was then
greatly neglected in Germany. It relates to the foUowing observa
tion 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. Schcepflin declares that, by the general admission of all
experienced persons, it would require upwards of six years to
coraplete such a work in so perfect a manner." The following is
Foumier's rejoinder : " To understand the value of this remark, it
ought to be known that, so far frora there beuig many experienced
wood engravers to choose from, M. Schcepflin would most likely
experience sorae difficulty in finding one to consult" The wood
cuts which occur in Gerraan books printed between 1700 and 1760
are certainly of the raost wretched kind; contemptible ahke 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 Germany. The art in Italy about the
sarae period was alraost equally neglected. An ItaUan wood
engraver, named Lucchesini, executed several cuts between 1760
and 1770. Most of the head-pieces and ornaraents in the Popes'
Decretals, printed at Rorae 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 hurablest
character. Though wood engraving did not raake any progress in England
frora 1722 to the tirae of Thomas Bewick, yet the art was cer
tainly never lost in this country ; the old stock still continued to
put forth a branch — non deficit alter — although not a golden one.
Two wood-cuts tolerably well 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. Tbe book
and the cuts are thus noticed in Southey's Life of Cowper,
volume I. page 50. The writer is speaking of the Nonsense Club,
of which Cowper was a member.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 557
" At those meetings of
Jest and youthful Jollity,
Sport that wrinkled 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 tail
piece representing a modern poet in huge boots, flung from a
mountain by his Pegasus into the sea, and losing his tie-wig in
the faU." The following is a fac-simile of the cut representing the
poet's fall. He seems to have been tolerably confident of himseK,
for, though the winged steed has no bridle, he is provided with a
pair of formidable spurs.

The cuts in a coUection of humorous pieces in verse, 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 name " Lister" is seen ;
the subject is a bacchanaUan figure mounted on a winged horse.

558 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
which has undoubtedly been drawn from the same model as the
Pegasus in Colman and Lloyd's burlesque odes. In an edition
of the Sausage, printed in 1772, the name of "T. Lister" occurs
on the title-page as one of the publishers, and as residing at
Oxford. Although those cuts are generally deficient in effect,
thefr execution is scarcely inferior to many of those in the work
of Papillon ; the portrait indeed 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 PapiUon, "the restorer of the art of wood
engraving." In 1763, a person named S. Watts engraved two or three large
wood-cuts in outUne, slightly shaded, after drawings by Luca
Cambiaso. Irapressions of those cuts are raost frequently printed
in a yellowish kind of ink. About the sarae time Watts also
engraved, in a bold and free style, several sraall circular portraits
of painters. In Sir John Hawkins's History of Music, published
in 1776, there are four wood-cuts ; and at the bottora of the
largest — Palestrini presenting his work on Music to the Pope —
is the narae of the engraver thus : T. Hodgson. Sculp. Dr. Dib
din, in noticing this cut, in his Preliminary Disquisition on Early
Engraving and Ornamental Printing, prefixed to his edition of
the Typographical Antiquities, says that it was " done by Hodg
son, the master of the celebrated Bevrick."* 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 will be
shown in its proper place.
Having now given some account of wood engraring in its
languishing state — occasionally showing symptoras of return
ing vigour, and then alraost immediately sinking into its
forraer state of depression — we at length arrive at an epoch
from which its revival and progressive' iraproveraent raay be
* Dr, Dibdin adds : " Mr. Douce informs me that Sir John Hawkins told hira
of the artist's obtaining the prize for it from the Society for the Encouragement
of Arts,"

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

559

safely dated. The person whose productions recaUed public
attention to the neglected art of wood engraving was

'^TEvSj^w*''

HOMAS

EWICK.

This distinguished wood engraver, whose works will be admired
as long as truth and nature shall continue to charra, was bora
on the 10th or llth of August, 1753, at Cherry-burn, in the
county of Northuraberland, but on the south side of the Tyne,
about twelve railes westward of Newcastle.

THE HOUSE IN WHICH BEWICK WAS BOEN.

His father rented a smaU land-sale coUiery at Mickley-bank, in
the neighbourhood of his dwelUng, and it is said that when a boy
the future wood engraver soraetiraes worked in the pit At a proper
age he was sent as a day-scholar to a school kept by the Rev.

5G0

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

Christopher Gregson at Ovingham, on the opposite side of the Tyne.
The Parsonage 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 ac
quainted with the neighbourhood wUl easily recognize in his tail
pieces several other little local sketches of a similar kind. In the
time of the Rev. James Birkett, Mr. Gregson's successor, Oringham
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 foUowing
cut representing a view of Oringham from the south-westward,
the Parsonage House, with its garden sloping down to the Tyne,
is perceived immediately to the right of the clump of large trees.

PARSONAGE AT OVINGHAM.

The bank on which those trees grow is known as the crow-tree
bank. The following lines, descriptive of a view from the Parsoiir
age House, are from "The School Boy," a poem, by Thomas
Maude, A.M,, who received his early education at Ovingham
under Mr. Birkett,

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 561
" But can I sing thy simpler pleasures flown.
Loved Ovingham ! and leave the cAie/'unknown, —
Thy annual Fair, of every joy the mart.
That drained my pocket, ay, and took my childisli heart?
Blest morn ! how lightly from ray bed I sprung.
When in the blushing east thy bearas were young ;
While every blithe co-tenant of the roora
Rose at a call, with cheeks of liveliest bloora.
Then from each well-packed drawer our vests we drew.
Each gay-frilled shirt, and jacket smartly new.
Brief toilet ours ! yet, on a raorn like this.
Five extra minutes were not deemed amiss.
Fling back the casement ! — Sun, propitious shine !
How sweet your bearas gild the clear-flowing Tyne,
That winds beneath our master's gardeu-brae.
With broad bright mazes o'er its pebbly way.
See Prudhoe ! lovely in the morning beam : — )
Mark, mark, the ferry-boat, with twinkling gleam, >
Wafting fair-going folks across the stream, j
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 1
Well raay each little bosora throb with joy !
On such a morn, who would not be a boy ?"
Bewick's school acquireraents probably did not extend beyond
English reading, writing, and arithraetic ; for, though be knew
a Uttle of Latin, he does not appear to have ever received any
instructions in that language. In a letter dated 18th April, 1803,
addressed to Mr. Christopher Gregson,* London, a son of his
old raaster, introducing an artist of the narae of Murphy, who
had painted his portrait, Bewick huraorously alludes to his beauty
when a boy, and to the state of his coat-sleeve, in consequence
of his using it instead of a pocket-handkerchief Bewick, it is
to be observed, was very hard-featured, and rauch raarked with the
sraall-pox. After raentioning Mr. Murphy as " a man of worth,
and a first-rate artist in the miniature line," he thus proceeds :
" I do not iraagine, at your time of life, my dear friend, that you
will be solicitous about forming new acquaintances ; but it raay
* Mr, Christopher Gregson, who was an apothecary, lived in Blackfriars, He
died about the year 1813, As long as he lived, Bewick maintained a friendly
correspondence with hira,
2 O

562 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
not, perhaps, be putting you much out of the way to show any
little civilities to Mr, Murphy during his stay in London. He has,
on his ovra account taken my portrait, and I dare say will be
desirous to show you it the first opportunity: when you see it,
you will no doubt conclude that T. B. is turning bonnyer and
bonnyer* in his old days ; but indeed you cannot help knowing this,
and also that there were great indications of its tuming out so
long since. But if you have forgot our earUest youth, perhaps
your brother P.f raay help you to reraeraber what a great beauty
I was at that tirae, when the grey coat-sleeve was glazed from
the cuff towards the elbows." The words printed in Itahcs are
those that are under-Uned by Bewick himseK.
Bewick, having shown a taste for drawing, was placed by his
father as an apprentice with Mr. Ralph Beilby, an engraver,
living in Newcastie, to whora on the 1st of October 1767 he was
bound for a term of seven years. Mr. Beilby was not a wood
engraver; and his business in the copper-plate line was of a kind
which did not allow 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, vrith
the naraes of the owners handsoraely filled up, after the raanner of
the old " niellos," with black sealing-wax. He engraved crests and
initials on steel and silver watch-seals ; also on tea-spoons, sugar-
tongs, and other articles of plate ; and the engraring of nuraerals
and ornaraents, with the narae of the raaker, on clock-faces, — ^which
were not then enaraelled, — seeras to have forraed one of the chief
branches of his very general business.|
Bewick's attention appears to have been first directed to wood
engraving in consequence of his raaster having been eraployed by
the late Dr. Charles Hutton, then a schoolraaster in Newcastle, to
engrave on wood the diagraras for his Treatise on Mensuration. The
printing of this work was coramenced in 1768, and was completed
* Prettier and prettier. f Philip,
X "While with Beilby he was employed in engraving clock-feces, which. I
have heard him say, made his hands as hard as a blacksmith's, and almost dis
gusted him with engraving," — Sketch of the Life and Works of the late Thomas
Bewick, by George C, Atkinson, Printed in the Transactions of the Natural
History Society, Newcastle, 1830.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 563
in 1770. The engraving of the diagraras was coraraitted to Bewick,
who is said to have invented a graver with a fine groove at the
point, which enabled hira to cut the outlines by a single operation.

The above is a fac-siraile of one of the earliest productions of
Bewick in the art of wood engraving. The church is intended for
that of St Nicholas, Newcastle.
Subsequently, and while he was still an apprentice, Bewick
undoubtedly endeavoured to iraprove himseK in wood engraving ;
but his progress does not appear to have been great, and his
raaster had certainly very little work of this kind for him to do.
He appears to have engraved a few bill-heads on wood ; and it
is not unlikely that the cuts in a little book entitled "Youth's
Instructive and Entertaining Story Teller," first published by
T. Saint Newcastle, 1774, were executed by him before the expi
ration of his apprenticeship.
Bewick, during his apprenticeship, paid ninepence a week for
his lodgings in Newcastle, and usually received a brown loaf every
week from Cherry-bum. " During his servitude," says Mr. Atkin
son, " he paid weekly visits to Cherry-bum, except when the river
was so rauch swollen as to prevent his passage of it at Eltringhara,
when he vociferated his inquiries across the streara, and then re
turned to Newcastle." This account of his being accustomed to
2 o 2

564 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
shout his enquiries across the Tyne first appeared in a Memoir
prefixed to the Select Fables, pubhshed by E. Chamley, 1820.
Mr. William Bedlington, an old friend of Bewick, once asked him
if it were true ? " Babbles and nonsense !" 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 aUers,* and
yet folks are raade to believe that I was in the habit of doing it"
On the expiration of his apprenticeship he retumed to his
father's bouse at Cherry-bum, but still continued to work for
Mr, Beilby. About this tirae he seeras to have formed the
resolution of applying himself exclusively in fiiture to wood
engraving, and vrith this view to have executed several cuts as
speciraens of his ability. In 1775 he received a preraium from
the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures
for a cut of the Huntsman and the Old Hound, which he probably
engraved when hving at Cherry-burn after learing Mr. Beilby. f
The following is a fac-siraile of this cut, which was first printed
in an edition of Gay's Fables, pubhshed by T. Ssunt New
castle, 1779.

* Alders — the name of a small plantation above Ovingham, which Bewick had
to pass through on his way to Eltringham ferry-boat,
t The Reverend William Turner, of Newcastle, in a letter printed in the
Monthly Magazine for June 1801, says that Bewick obtained this premium
" during his apprenticeship." This, however, is a mistake : his apprenticeship
expired in October, 1774 ; and he obtained the premium in 1775,

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 565
In 1776, when on a visit to sorae of his relations in Curaber
land,* he availed hiraseK of the opportunity of visiting the Lakes ;
and in after-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 tail-piece,
to be found at page 177 of the first volume of his British Birds,
first edition, 1797, he has introduced a sketch of himseK in his
travelling costurae, drinking out of what he hiraself would have
called the flipe of his hat. The figure has been copied in the
omamental letter T at page 559.
In the same year, 1776, he went to London, where he arrived
on the 1st of October. He certainly did not remain raore than
a twelveraonth in London, f for in 1777 he returned to Newcastle,
and entered into partnership with his former master, Mr. Ralph
Beilby. Bewick — who does not appear to have been wishful
to undeceive those who fancied that he was the person who re
discovered the "long-lost art of engraving on wood "J — would
never inform any of the good-natured friends, who fished for
intelligence with the riew of writing his Ufe, 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 him
self that on his arrival in London he found professors of the
"long-lost art" regularly exercising their calling, and that with
one of thera he found eraployraent
There is every reason to believe that Bewick, when in London,
was chiefly eraployed by T. Hodgson, most hkely the person who
• Bewick's mother, Jane Wilson, was a daughter of Thoraas Wilson of Ain-
stable in Cumberland, about five miles north-north-west of Kirk-Oswald,
t Bewick, in London, in 1828, observed to one ofhis former pupils, that it was
then fifty-one years since he left London, on his first visit, to return to Newcastle,
X Mr, Atkinson talks about wood engraving having taken a nap for a century
or two " after the tirae 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 Papillon, whose work, containing a minute accouut of the art
as then practised, was published about two years before Bewick began to engrave
on wood. — ^The Reverend William Turner, who ought to have known better, also
speaks ofthe " long-lost art," in his Memoir of Thomas Bewick,

566 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
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 little work entitled " A curious Hieroglyphiek
Bible," printed by and for T. Hodgson, in George's Court St
John's Lane, Clerkenwell.* 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, forraing the frontispiece ; the
Resurrection; and a cut representing a gentleraan seated in an
arra-chair, with four boys beside hira : the border of this cut is
of the same kind as that of the large cut of the Chilhngham Bull
engraved by Bewick in 1789. These proofs appear to have been
presented by Bewick to an erainent painter, now dead, with whom
either then, or at a subsequent period, he had become acquainted.
Not one of Bewick's biographers raentions those cuts, nor seems to
have been aware of their existence. The two memoirs of Bewick,
written byhis "friends" G. C. Atkinson and John F. M. Dovaston,f
sufficiently demonstrate that neither of thera had enjoyed his con
fidence in matters relative to his progress in the art of wood
engraving. Mr. Atkinson, in his Sketch of the Life 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. Bevrick did not like London ; and he always
advised his forraer pupils and north-country friends to leave the
• I have not been able to discover the date of the first edition of this work.
The third edition is dated 1785,
•}¦ " 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 in Loudon's Magazine of Natural
History, 1829 — 1830, Mr. Dovaston seeras to have caught a knowledge of
Bewick's personal habits at a glance ; and a considerable number of his obser
vations ou other matters appear to have been the result of a peculiar quickness
of apprehension. What he says, in a pseudo-liberal spirit, about the church of
Ovingham not being " parted into proud pews,'' when Bewick was a boy, is
grossly incorrect. It had, in fact, been pewed from an early period ; for, on the
2nd of September, 1763, Dr, Sharp, Archdeacon of Northuraberland, 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 specimens of Bewick's early draw
ing were ever in the possession of the Duke of Northuraberland. Mr. Dovaston is
frequently imaginative, but seldom correct. His personal sketch of Bewick is a
ridiculous caricature.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 567
"province covered with houses" as soon as they could, and return
to the country to there enjoy the beauties of Nature, fresh air,
and content. In the letter to his old schoolfellow, Mr. Christopher
Gregson, previously quoted, he thus expresses his opinion of Lon
don life. " Ever since you paid your last risit to the north, I have
often been thinking upon you, and wishing that you would lap up,
and leave the metropolis, to enjoy the fruits of your hard-earned
industry on the banks of the Tyne, where you are so much re
spected, both on your own account and on that of those who are
gone. Indeed, I wonder how you can think of turmoiling yourself
to the end of the chapter, and let the opportunity slip of contem
plating at your ease the beauties of Nature, so bountifully spread
out to enlighten, to captivate, and to cheer the heart of raan. For
my part, I am still of the same mind that I was in when in London,
and that is, I would rather be herding sheep on Mickley bank fop
than remain in London, although fior doing so I was to be made fhe
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 life which give so great an interest to raany of his tail
pieces. When a young man, he was fond of angling ; and, like
Roger Aschara, 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 "Tomray
Humrael o' Prudhoe, Willy Eltringhara 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 soraetiraes not until he
had received a hearty raalediction for his stupidity.
In 1777, on his return to Newcastle, he entered into partnership
with Mr. Beilby ; and his younger brother, John Bewick, who was
then about seventeen years old, became their apprentice. From
* Humble, Eltringham, and Newton were the names of three of his country
acquaintances; Prudhoe, Hall- Yards, and Mickley are places near Ovingham.

568 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
this time Bewick, though he continued to assist his partner in the
other branches of their business,* appUed himself chiefly to engrav
ing on wood. The cuts in an edition of Gay's Fables, 1779,t and
in an edition of Select Fables, 1784, both printed by T. Saint,
Newcastie, were engraved by Bewick, who was probably assisted
by his brother. Several of those cuts are well engraved, though
by no means to be compared to his later works, executed when
he had acquired greater knowledge of the art and raore 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 engraring of the foUage
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 earUer
date. In the best cuts of the tirae of Durer and Holbein, the
foliage is generally neglected ; the artists of that period merely give
general forms of trees, without ever attending to that which con
tributes so rauch to their beauty. The merit of introducing this
great improvement in wood engraving, and of depicting quadru
peds and birds in their natural forras, and with their characteristic
expression, is undoubtedly due to Bewick. Though he was not
the discoverer of the " long-lost art" of wood engraving, he cer
tainly was the first who applied it with success to the dehneation of
aniraals, and to the natural representation of landscape and wood-
• 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 Mull, Ai-gyleshire, 1790 — ^A set of silver
buttons, containing sporting devices, engraved by Bewick for the late H. U.
Reay, Esq. of Killingworth, are now in the possession of Mr, Reay's son-in-law,
Matthew Bell, Esq, of Wolsingham, M,P. for the Southern Division of Nor
thumberland. f Mr. Atkinson says that " about the sarae time he executed the cuts [sixty-two
in number] for a small child'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-cuts, was printed by Mr. Saint in
1776. The person by whom they were engraved is unknown. Bewick always
denied that any of them was of his engraving.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 509
land scenery. He found for himself a path which uo prerious
wood engraver had trodden, and in which none of his successors
have gone beyond him. For several of the cuts in the Select
Fables, Bewick was paid only nine shillings each.
In 1789 he drew and engraved his large cut of the Chilhngham
Bull,* which many persons suppose to be his master-piece; but
though it is certainly well engraved, and the character of the
aniraal is well expressed, yet as a wood engraring it will not bear
a eoraparison with several of the cuts in his History of British
Birds. The grass and the fohage of the trees are raost beautifully
expressed ; but there is a want of variety in the raore 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 raany of his other cuts. The style in which the
bull is engraved is adrairably adapted to express the texture of
the short white hair of the aniraal; the dewlap, however, is not
well represented, it appears to be stiff instead of flaccid and pendu
lous; and the lines intended for the hairs on its raargin are too
wiry. On a stone in the fore-ground he has introduced a bit of
cross-hatching, but not vrith good effect for it causes the stone
to look very rauch 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 frora an opinion that they were
necessary, or in the slightest 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 usually called
"cross-hatchings." From the commencement of his career as
a wood engraver, he seems to have adopted a rauch raore siraple
raethod of obtaining colour. He very justly considered, that, as
impressions of wood-cuts are printed from lines engraved in relief,
the unengraved surface of the block afready represented the
darkest colour that could be produced ; and consequently, instead
of labouring to get colour in the same manner as the old wood
engravers, he coramenced upon colour or black, and proceeded
* This cut was executed for Marmaduke Tunstall, Esq. of Wyclifie, near Greta
Bridge, in Yorkshire.

570 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
frora dark to light by raeans of Unes cut in intaglio, and appearing
white when in the irapression, until his subject was completed. This
great simplification of the old process was the result of his haring
to engrave his own drawings; for in drawing his subject on the
wood he avoided all combinations of lines which to the designer
are easy, but to the engraver difficult In alraost every one of his
cuts the effect is produced by the siraplest means. The colour
which the old wood engravers obtained by means of cross-hatchings,
Bewick obtained with much greater facility by means of single
lines, and masses of black slightly intersected or broken with white.
When only a few impressions of the ChiUingham Bull had been
taken, and before he had added his name, the block split The
pressmen, 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 vellum before the accident occurred. Mr. Atkinson
says that one of those impressions, which had formerly belonged to
Mr. Beilby, Bewick's partner, was sold in London for twenty
pounds. Towards the latter end of 1785 Bewick began to engrave the
cuts for his General History of Quadrupeds, which was first
printed in 1790.f The descriptions were written by his partner,
Mr. Beilby, and the cuts were all drawn and engraved by himseK.
The comparative excellence of those cuts, which, for the correct
delineation of the aniraals and the natural character of the ind-
denfs, and the back-grounds, are greatly superior to anything of
the kind that had previously appeared, insured a rapid sale for
the work; a second edition was published in 1791, and a thfrd
in 1792.t

* The block remained in several pieces until 1817, when they were firmly
united by raeans of cramps, and a number of irapressions printed o£F. These
impressions are without the border, which distinguishes the earlier ones. The
border, which was engraved on separate pieces, enclosed the principal cut iu the
manner of a frame.
f A Prospectus containing specimens ofthe cuts was printed in 1787.
X The first edition consisted of fifteen hundred copies in demy-octavo at 8s.,
and one hundred royal at 12s. The price of the demy copies of the eighth edition,
published in 1825, was £1. Is. A proof of the estimation iu which the work con
tinued lo be held.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 571
The great merit of those cuts consists not so rauch in their
execution as in the spirited and natural raanner in which they are
drawn. Sorae of the aniraals, indeed, which he had not had an
opportunity of seeing, and for which he had to depend on the
prerious engrarings of others, are not correctly drawn. Araong
the most incorrect are the Bison, the Zebu, the Buffalo, the Many-
homed Sheep, the Gnu, and the Giraffe or Caraeleopard.* Even
in some of our doraestic quadrupeds he was not successfiil ; the
Horses are not well represented ; and the very indifferent execution
of the Coramon 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
raost excellent ; and in that of the Cow, the woraan, with a
skeel on her head, and her petticoats tucked up bebind, returning
frora milking, is eridently 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 aniraal,
which is too long, and is also incorrectly marked with black near
the white tip, was subsequently altered.
In the first edition the characteristic tail-pieces are compara
tively few ; and several of those which are raerely ornaraental,
displaying neither iraagination nor feeling, 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 trifies 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 "Idee
Generale 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
following cuts is a fac-simile of a tail-piece which occurs in an
* The cut of the Giraffe in the' edition of 1824 is not the original one en
graved by Bewick. In the later cut, which was chiefly engraved by W. W.
Temple, one of Bewick's pupils, the marks on the body of the animal appear
like so many white-coloured lines crossing each other, and enclosing large irre
gular spots.

572

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

edition of « Der Weiss Kunig,"* printed at Vienna, 1775, and which
Bewick has copied at page 144 of the first edition of the Quadru

peds, 1790. The second from one of the cuts Ulustrative of
Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1569, designed by Virgil Soh8,f is copied
in a tail-piece in the first volume of Bewick's Birds, page 330,
edition 1797.

cr^

The following raay be raentioned as the best of the taU-pieces
in the first edition of the Quadrupeds, and as those which raost
decidedly display Bewick's talent in depicting, without exaggera
tion, natural and huraorous incidents. In this respect he has been
excelled 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
carries, in addition, two heavy sacks, 244 ; the Bear-ward, with his
wife and companion, leading Bruin, and accompanied by his dancing-
dogs, — a gallows seen in the distance, 256 ; a Fox, with Magpies
flying after him, indicating his course to his pursuers, 265; Two
unfeehng fellows enjoying the pleasure of hanging a dog, — a
* Some account of this work is previously given at page 347.
t This work is noticed at page 486.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 573
gibbet, seen in the distance, to denote that those who could thus
quietly enjoy the dying struggles of a dog would not be unlikely to
murder a man, 274 ; a Man eating his dinner with his dog sitting
beside hira, expecting his share, 285; Old Blind Man led by
a dog, crossing a bridge of a single plank, and with the rail
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
stilts, 337 ; a winter piece, — a Man travelling in the snow, 339 ;
a grim-visaged Old Man, accompanied by a cur-dog, driving an
old sow, 371 ; Two Boys and an Ass on a coraraon, 375 ; a Man
leaping, by raeans of a pole, a streara, across which he has
previously thrown his stick and bag, 391 ; a Man carrying a
bundle of faggots on the ice, 395; a Wolf 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 blind fiddlers
earnestly scraping away, although there is no one to listen to
their strains: the bare-legged fatty-headed boy who leads them,
and the haK-starved melancholy-looking dog at their heels, are
in admirable keeping with the principal characters.
The following is a copy of the cut of the Two Boys and the Ass,
preriously raentioned as occurring at page 375. This cut, beyond
any other of the tail-pieces in the first edition of the Quadrupeds,
perhaps affords the best specimen of Bewick's peculiar talent of
depicting such subjects ; he faithfully represents Nature, and at
the same tirae conveys a moral, which gives additional interest to
the sketch. Though the ass remains immoveable, in spite of the
appUcation of a branch of furze to his hind quarters, the young
graceless who is raounted evidently enjoys his seat. The pleasure
of the twain consists as much in having caught an ass as in the
prospect of a ride. To such characters the stubborn ass fre
quently affords more amusement than a willing goer ; they Uke to
flog and thump a thing well, though it be but a gate-post The
gallows in the distance — a favourite in ferrorem object with Bewick
— suggests their ultimate destiny ; and the cut, in the first edi
tion, derives additional point frora its situation among the animals
found in New South Wales, — the first shipraent of conricts to
Botany Bay having taken place about two years prerious to the

574 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING,
pubUcation of the work. This cut, as well as raany others in the
book, affords an instance of lowering, — the Ught appearance of the
distance is entirely effected by that process.

The subsequent editions of the Quadrupeds were enlarged by the
addition of new raatter 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 following are the principal cuts of aniraals
that have been added since the first pubUcation of the work ;
the pages annexed refer to the edition of 1824, the last that
was published in Bewick's life-tirae : the Arabian Horse, page 4, —
the stallion, seen in the back-ground, has suffered a disraeraber-
ment since its first appearance ;f the Old EngUsh Road Horse, 9 ;
the Improved Cart Horse, 14 ; the Kyloe Ox, 36 ; the Musk
Bull, 49 ; the Black-faced, or Heath Ram, 56 ; Heath Ram of
the Improved Breed, 57 ; the Cheviot Ram, 58 ; Tees-water Ram
of the Old Breed, 60 ; Tees- water Ram, Improved Breed, 61 ;
the American Elk, 125; Sow of the Improved Breed, 164; Sow
of the Chinese Breed, 166 ; Head of a Hippopotamus, (engraved
by W. W. Temple,) 185 ; Indian Bear, 293 ; Polar, or Great White
Bear, substituted for another cut of the sarae aniraal, 295 ; the
Spotted Hyena, substituted for another cut of the sarae animal, 301 ;
• 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 excellent, and the characteristic form and
general appearance of the animal are represented in a manner that has never
been excelled,
t The Lancashire Bull, of the first edition, by a similar process has been con
verted into the Lancasiiire Ox.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 575
the Ban^dog, 338 ; the Irish Greyhound, 340 ; the Harrier, 347 ;
Spotted Cavy, substituted for another cut of the same aniraal, 379 ;
the Grey Squirrel, 387 ; the Long-tailed Squirrel, 396 ; the Jer
boa, substituted for another cut of the sarae animal, 397 ; the
Musquash, or Musk Beaver, 416 ; the Mouse, substituted for
another cut of the same animal, 424; the Short-eared Bat, 513;
the Long-eared Bat, 515 ; the Temate Bat, 518 ; the Wom-
bach, 523; and the Omithorhynchus Paradoxicus, 525. The cut
of the animal called the Thick-nosed Tapiir, at page 139 of the
first edition, is transposed to page 381 ofthe last edition, and there
described under the narae of the Capibara : it is probably intended
for the Coypu rat, a speciraen of which is at present in the Gardens
of the Zoological Society, Regent's Park. Bewick was a regular
risitor of all the wild-beast shows that came to Newcastle, and
availed himself of every opportunity to obtain drawings from living
animals. The tail-pieces introduced in subsequent editions of the Quad
rupeds generally display more huraour and not less talent in repre
senting natural objects than those contained in the first. In the
following cut of a sour-visaged old fellow going with corn to
the mill, we have an exempUfication of cruelty not unworthy of
Hogarth.* The over-laden, half-starved old horse, — broken-kneed,
greasy-heeled, and evidently troubled with the string-halt, as is
indicated by the action of the off hind-leg, — hesitates to descend
the brae, at the foot of which there is a stream, and the old
brute on his back urges him forward by working him, as jockeys
say, with the halter, and beating him with his stick. In the dis
tance, Bewick, as is usual with him when he gives a sketch of

• The originals of this and the three following cuts occur respectively at pages
13, 15, 69, and 526 of the edition of 1824. The other principal tail-pieces in this
edition are : Greyhound-cpursing, (originally engraved on a silver-cup for a
person at Northallerton,) drawn by Bewick on the block, but engraved by W. W.
Temple, page x, at the end of the Index ; the Old Coachman and the Young
Squire, 12 ; Tinker's Children in a pair of panniers on the back of an Ass, 21;
a Cow drinking, 28 ; Winter scene, 34 ; Two Men digging, (engraved by H.
White, who also engraved the cut of the Musk Bull at page 49,) 37 ; Dog worrying
a Sheep, 62; Old Soldier travelling in the rain, 117; Smelling, tail-piece to the
Genet, a strong bit, 269; Drunken Man making his Dara, 378; and Seals on
a large piece of floating ice, 510.

576

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

cruelty or knavery, has introduced a gallows. The miserable
appearance of the poor animal is not a Uttle increased by the
nakedness of his hind quarters ; his stump of a tail is so short
that it will not even serve as a catch for the crupper or tail-band.

In the cut of the child, unconscious of its danger, puUing at
the long tail of a young unbroken colt, the story is most ad
mirably told. The nurse, who is seen engaged vrith her sweet

heart by the side of the hedge, has left the child to wander at
will, and thus expose itself to destruction ; while the raother, who
has accidentally perceived the danger of her darUng, is seen hasten
ing over the style, regardless of the steps, in an agony of fear.
The backward glance of the horse's eye, and the heel raised ready
to strike, most forcibly suggest the danger to which the unthinking
infant is exposed.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

577

Though the subject of the following cut be siraple, yet the
sentiment which it displays is the genuine offspring of true genius.
Near to a ruined cottage, while all around is covered with snow,
a lean and hungry ewe is seen nibbling at an old broom, while
her young and weakly lamb is sucking her railkless teats. Such
a picture of animal want — conceived with so much feeling, and

so well expressed, — has perhaps never been represented by any
artist except Bew:ick.
The original of the following cut forras 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 wKe and child
across a streara. The coraplacent look of the cock-nosed wife

shows that she enjoys the treat while 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
2p

578 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
on those old men who marry young wives and become dotingly
uxorious in the decline of life ; submitting to every indignity to
please their youthful spouses and reconcile thera to their state.
It is a new reading of January and May, — he an old travelling
beggar, and she a young slut with her heels peeping, or rather
staring, through her stockings.
Mr. Soloraon Hodgson, the printer of the first four editions
of the Quadrupeds, had an interest in the work ; he died in 1800 ;
and in consequence of a raisunderstanding between his widow and
Bewick, the latter had the subsequent editions printed at the office
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 eraployed merely as the engraver or wood-cutter," he,
in justification of his own clairas, gave the following account of the
origin of the work.* "From ray first reading, when a boy at school,
a sixpenny History of Birds and Beasts, and a then wretched cora
position called the History of Three Hundred Aniraals, to the
tirae I becarae 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
still is) directed to the raental pleasure and iraproveraent of youth ;
to engage their attention, to direct their steps aright and to lead
thera on till they become enamoured of this innocent and deUghtful
pursuit. Sorae time after my partnership with Mr. Beilby cora
menced, I coraraunicated ray wishes to hira, who, after raany con
versations, carae into ray plan of publishing a History of Quadru
peds, and I then immediately began to draw the aniraals, to design the
vignettes, and to cut thera on wood, and this, to avoid interruption,
frequently till very late in the night ; my partner at the sarae time
undertaking to compile 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 rauch interfere; the sources whence I
had drawn the little 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
* This account is extracted from a letter written by Bewick, and printed in the
Monthly Magazine for Noveraber 1805.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 579
attention to natural history, I lent a helping hand. This help was
given in daily conversations, and in occasional notes and memo
randa, which were used in their proper places. As the cuts
were engraved, we eraployed the late Mr. Thoraas Angus, of this
town, printer, to take off a certain number of impressions of each,
many of which are still 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. Soloraon
Hodgson fixed the price; and yet the widow and executrix of
Mr. Hodgson asserts in your Magazine, that I was 'merely era
ployed 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 office
than his own ? The fact is the reverse of Mrs. Hodgson's state
raent; and although I have never, either 'insidiously' or other
wise, used any raeans to cause the reviewers, or others, to hold me
up as the ' first and sole mover of the concern,' I ara now dragged
forth by her to declare that I am the man.
" 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 ensure success. Upon this subject Mr.
Hodgson was consulted, and raade fully acquainted with our plan.
He entered into the undertaking with uncoraraon ardour, and urged
us strenuously not to retain our first hurable notions of ' making
it Uke a school-book,' but pressed us to let it ' assume a more
respectable form.' From this warrath 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 falls to the duty of every printer, I know not ; but
I am certain that he was extreraely desirous that it should have
justice done it. In this weaving qf words I did not interfere, as
I believed 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 comraence without delay his
2p2

580 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
History of British Birds. He began to draw and engrave the cuts
in 1791, and in 1797 the first volurae of the work, containing the
Land Birds, was pubhshed,* The letter-press, as in the Quadru
peds, was written by his partner, Mr, Beilby, who certainly
deserves great praise for the raanner in which he has perforraed his
task. The descriptions generally have the great raerit of being
siraple, intelligible, and correct There is no trifling details about
system, no confused arguments about classification, which more
frequently bewilder than inform the reader who is uninitiated in the
piebald jargon of what is called " Systematic nomenclature."
He describes the quadruped or bird in a raanner 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 own acquaintance with the scientific vocabulary, he carefiUly
avoids the use of all terms which are not generally understood.
Mr. Beilby, though in a different manner and in a less degree,
is fairly entitled to share with Bewick in the honour of having
rendered popular in this country the study of the most interesting
and useful branches of Zoology — Quadrupeds and Birds — by
giving the descriptions in simple and intelligible language, and
presenting to the eye the very form and character of the Uving ani
mals. As a copper-plate engraver Mr. Beilby has certainly no just
pretensions to fame ; but as a corapiler, and as an able coadjutor
of Bewick in siraplifying the study of Natural History, and render
ing its most interesting portions easy of attainraent to the young,
and to those unacquainted with the " science," he deserves higher
praise than he has hitherto generally received. Roger Thornton's
Monuraent, and the Plan of Newcastle, in the Reverend John
Brand's History of that town, were engraved by Mr. Beilby.
Mr. Brand's book-plate was also engraved by hira. It is to be
found in raost of the books that formerly belonged to that cele
brated antiquary, who is well known to all collectors from the extent
of his purchases at stalls, and the unique copies of old books which
* Of this edition, 1 874 copies were printed, — one thousand demy octavo, at
10s. 6d,; eight hundred and fifty thin and thick royal, at 13s., and 15s,; and twenty-
four imperial, at £1, Is. The first edition of the second volume, 1804, consisted of
the sarae number of copies as the first, hut the prices were respectively 12s,, 15s,,
18*., and £1, 4s.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 581
he thus occasionally obtained. — The Reverend Williara Turner,
of Newcastle, in a letter printed in the Monthly Magazine for
June 1801, vindicates the character of Mr. Beilby frora what he
considers the detractions of Dr. Gleig, in an article on Wood-cuts
in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Mr, Beilby
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 17th January 1817, in the seventy-fourth year of
his age.
The partnership between Beilby and Bewick having been dis
solved in 1797, shortly after the publication of the first volume
of the Birds, the descriptions in the second, which did not
appear till 1804, were written by Bewick himself, but revised
by the Reverend Henry Cotes, vicar of Bedlington, The publica
tion 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 excelled, nor indeed
equalled, by any that he afterwards executed. The subsequent
additions, whether as cuts of birds or tail- pieces, are not so ex
cellent as numerous — in this respect the reverse of the additions
to the Quadrupeds. Though all the birds were designed, and
nearly all of thera engraved by Bewick hiraself, there are yet
living witnesses who can testify that both in the drawing and
the engraving of the tail-pieces he received very considerable
assistance frora his pupils, raore especially frora Robert Johnson
as a draftsman, and Luke Clennell as a wood engraver.* Before

* Pinkerton, having stated in his Scottish Gallery, on the authority of Messrs,
Morison, printers, of Perth, that Bewick, " observing the uncoraraon genius of his
late apprentice, Robert Johnson, employed him to trace the figures on the wood in
the History of Quadrupeds," Bewick, in his letter, printed in the Monthly Magazine
for Noveraber 1805, previously quoted, thus denies the assertion : " It is only
necessary for rae to declare, and this will be attested by my partner Mr, Beilby,
who compiled the History of Quadrupeds, and was a proprietor of the work, that
neither Robert Johnson, nor any person but myself, made the drawings, or traced or
cut them on the wood," — Robert Johnson was employed by Messrs. Morison to copy
for the Scottish Gallery several portraits at Taymouth Castle, the seat of the Eari of
Breadalbane. Bewick in this letter carefully avoids pleading to that with which he
was not charged ; he does not deny that several of the drawings of the tail-pieces
in the History of British Birds were made by Robert Johnson, A pupil of Bewick's,

582 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
saying anything further on this subject, it seems necessary to give
the following passage frora Mr. Atkinson's Sketch of the Life and
Works of Bewick. " With regard to the circurastance that tbe
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 gentleraan assert that
very few of thera were his own work, all the easy parts being
executed by his pupils. I saw hira the sarae day, and, talking
of his art, inquired if he permitted the assistance of bis appren
tices in many cases ? He said, ' No ; it had seldom happened,
and then they had injured the cuts very much.' I inqufred K he
could remember any of them in which he had received assistance ?
He said, ' Aye : I can soon tell you them ;' and, after a few
minutes' consideration, he made out with his daughter's assist
ance, the Whi-mbrel, Tufted Duck, and Lesser Tem :* he tried
to recollect raore, and turning to his daughter, said, ' Jane,
honey, dost thou reraeraber any raore ?' 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 hira to do over again.
' He intended it' he said ; but, alas ! this intention was prevented-
In sorae cases, I ara inforraed, he raade his pupils block out for
him ; that is, furnished thera with an outUne, and let them cut
away the edges of the block to that line ; 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 Une of whose performance
remains in the beautiful toy it becomes, it does not materially shake
the authenticity of the work in question."
now living, saw many of Johnson's drawings for these cuts, and sat beside Clennell
when he was engraving thera,
* These three cuts were engraved by one of Bewick's pupils, named Henry Hole.
Neither Bewick's memory nor his daughter's had been accurate on this occasion;
but not one of the other cuts which they failed to recollect can be compared with
those engraved by Bewick hiraself. In addition to those three, the following, not
engraved by Bewick hiraself, had appeared at the tirae the above conversation took
place — sorae tirae between 1825 and 1826 : — the Brent Goose, the Lesser Imber,
and the Cormorant, engraved 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,

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 583
Though it is evident that Bewick meant here siraply to assert
that aU the figures oi the birds, except the few which he raentions,
were entirely engraved by himseK, yet his biographer always speaks
as if every one of the cuts in the work — both birds and tail-pieces —
were exclusively engraved by Bewick himself; and in consequence
of this erroneous opinion he refers to seven cuts* as affording
favourable instances of Bewick's raanner of representing water,
although nof one of them was engraved by him, but by Luke
ClenneU, from drawings by himself or by Robert Johnson. Mr.
Atkinson, in his admiration of Bewick, and in his desire to ex
aggerate his farae, entirely overlooks the raerits of those by whora
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 Robert Johnson, who designed raany of
the best of the tail-pieces, drew the human figure more correctly
than Bewick hiraseK, and in landscape-drawing was at least his
equal. These observations are not intended in the least to detract
frora Bewick's just and deservedly great reputation, but to correct
the erroneous opinions which have been proraulgated on this sub
ject by persons who knew nothing of the very considerable assist
ance which he received from his pupils in the drawing and engrav
ing of the tail-pieces in his history of British Birds.
Though three of the very 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, frora his
being more familiar with their habits, and in consequence of their
aUovring more scope for the display of Bewick's excellence in the
representation of foliage, are, on the whole, superior both in design
and execution to the others ; their characteristic attitude and ex-
* "He never could, he said, please himself in his representations of water in a
state of motion, and a horse galloping : his taste must have been fastidious indeed,
if that beautiful moonlight scene at sea, page 120, vol, ii, [edition 1816] ; the river
scene at page 126; the sea breaking among the rocks at page 1 68, or 1 77, or 200, or
216 ; or the rippling ofthe water as it leaves the feet of the old fisherman, at page
95, did not satisfy hira." In scarcely one ofthe cuts engraved by Bewick himself
is water in a state of motion well represented. He knew his own deficiency in
this respect ; though Mr, Atkinson, not being able to distinguish the cuts engraved
by Bewick himself from those engraved by his pupils, cannot perceive it.

584 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
pression are represented with the greatest truth, while, from the pro
priety of the back-grounds, and the beauty of the trees and foliage,
almost every cut forras a perfect little picture. Bewick's talent in
pourtraying the forra and character of birds is seen to great ad
vantage in the hawks and the owls ; but his excellence, both as a
designer and engraver on wood, is yet more strikingly displayed in
several of the other cuts contained in the same volume, and among
these the foUowing are perhaps the best The nurabers refer to the
pages of the first edition ofthe Land Birds, 1797. The Field-fere,
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
Winter Fauvette, 212, 213 ; the Willow Wren, 222 ; the Wren, 227 ;
the White-rump, 229 ; the Cole Titmouse, 241 ; the Night- Jar, 262 ;
the Domestic Cock, 276 ; the Turkey, 286 ; the Pintado, 293 ;
the Red Grouse, 301; the Partridge, 305; the Quail, 308; and
the Corncrake, 311. — Among the Birds in the second volume, first
edition, 1804, the following may be instanced as the raost ex
ceUent The Water Crake, page 10; the Water Rail, 13; the
Bittern, 47 ; the Woodcock, 60 ; the Coraraon 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 sarae kind that wood engraring has produced
since the tirae of Bewick can for a raoraent bear a eoraparison
with these cuts. They are not to be equaUed till a designer and
engraver shaU arise possessed of Bewick's knowledge of nature,
and endowed with his happy talent of expressing it Bevrick has
in this respect effected raore by hiraself than has been produced
by one of our best wood engravers when working frora drawings
raade by a professional designer, but who knows nothing of birds,
of their habits, or the places which they frequent ; and has not
the slightest feeling for natural incident or picturesque beauty. —
No mere fac-siraile engraver of a drawing ready made to his hand,
should venture to speak sUghtingly of Bewick's talents until he
has both drawn and engraved a cut which may justly challenge
a comparison with the Kyloe Ox, the Yellow-hammer, the Par
tridge, the Wood-cock, or the Tame Duck.
Bewick's style of engraving, as displayed in the Birds, is ex-

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

.585

clusively his own. He adopts no conventional mode of repre
senting texture or producing an effect, but skilfully avails himseK
of the most simple and effective means which his art affords of
faithfuUy and efficiently representing his subject He never wastes
his time in laborious trifling to display his skill in execution; — he
works vrith a higher aim, to represent nature ; and, consequently,
he never bestows his pains except to express a meaning. The
manner in which he has represented the feathers in raany of his
birds, is as admirable as it is perfectly original His feeUng 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 prac
tised the art.
The following 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 en
graver's perfect idea of his subject. The soft downy plumage

of the breast is represented by delicate black Unes crossed hori
zontally by white ones, and in order that they raay appear
coraparatively Ught in the irapression, the block has in this part
been lowered. The texture of the skin of the legs, and tbe marks
of the toes, are expressed with the greatest accuracy ; and the

586

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

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 modem French wood engraver
would require to cut the delicate cross-hatchings necessary, accord
ing to French taste, to denote the grey colour of a soldier's
great coat.
The cut of the Wood-cock, of which the foUovring is a copy,
is another instance of the able manner in which Bevrick has
availed himself of the capabiUties of his art. He has here pro
duced the most perfect likeness of the bird that ever was engraved.

and at the sarae tirae given to his subject an effect, by the skilfiil
manageraent of light and shade, which it is irapossible to obtain
by means of copper-plate engraving. Bewick thoroughly under
stood the advantages of his art in this respect and no wood
engraver or designer, either ancient or modern, has employed
them with greater success, without sacrificing nature to mere
effect. Perhaps the very best of Bewick's cuts, as a specimen of wood
engraving, is the Common Duck. The round, full form of the
bird, is represented with the greatest fidelity ; the plumage in all
its downy, smooth, and glossy variety, — on the sides, the rump, the

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 587
back, the wings, and the head, — is singularly true to nature;
whUe the legs and toes, and even the webs between the toes,
are engraved in a raanner which proves the great attention that
Bewick, when necessary, paid to the minutest points of detail.
The effect of the whole is excellent, and the back-ground, both
in character and execution, is worthy of this master-piece of
Bewick as a designer and engraver on wood.
The tail-pieces in the first editions of the Birds are, taken all
together, the best that are to be found in any of Bewick's works ;
but, though it is not unlikely that he suggested the subjects,
there is reason to believe that raany of thera were drawn by
Robert Johnson, and there cannot be a doubt that the greater
nuraber of those contained in the second volurae were engraved
by Luke Clennell. Before saying anything raore about thera,
it seeras necessary to give a list of those which were either
not drawn or not engraved by Bevrick himself; it has been
furnished by one of his early pupils who saw most of Johnson's
drawings, and worked in the sarae roora 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. VOLUME I, EDITIONS
1797 1821
PAGE PAGE
Boughs and Bird's-nest, drawn and engraved by Charlton Nesbit,
preface ,...,,, i i
Sportsman and Old Shepherd, drawn by Robert Johnson, engraved
by Bewick, preface (transferred to Vol, ii, preface, page vi, in the
edition of 1821) .,,,., vi —
Old Man breaking stones, drawn by R, Johnson, engraved by Bewick 26 xxviii
Horse running away vvith boys in the cart, drawn by R, Johnson,
engraved by Bewick , , , , . 82 146
Fox and Bird, drawn by R, Johnson, engraved by Bewick . 159 140
Winter piece, the geldard, drawn by R, Johnson, engraved by Bewick 162 160

VOLUME II,

EDITIONS
1804 1821

PAGE PAGE
Two Old Soldiers, "the Honours of War," dravm 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

588

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING,

EDITIONS
1804 1821
PAGE PAGE

Old Fisherman, with a leister, drawn by R, Johnson, engraved by
L, Clennell  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, his coat-skirts pinned up, engraved by L, Clennell 46 57
Old Angler fettling his hooks, engraved by L. Clennell . 50 97
Partridge shooting, drawn by R, Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell 82 105
Woraan hanging out clothes, engraved by L, Clennell (transfeixed to
vol, i, page 164, edition of 1821) , . , . 106 —
Man fallen into the water, engraved by L. Clennell , . 94 262
River scene, engraved by L. Clennell . . . 107 132
Coast scene, engraved by H, Hole . , , , 123 124
Coast scene, moonlight, drawn by R, Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell 1 25 1 22
Coast scene, drawn by R, Johnson, engraved by H. Hole . 144 142
Beggar and Mastiff, engraved by L. Clennell . . 160 207
Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick . 161 151
Burying-ground, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell . 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, Clennell 182 177
Icebergs, Ship frozen up, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell 188 156
Sea piece, moonlight, engraved by L. Clennell . . 194 190
Tired Sportsman, engraved by L. ClennfeU . . 202 245
The Glutton, engraved by L. Clennell . . . 211 195
Sea piece, engraved by L, Clennell . . . . 215 197
Runic Pillar, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by John Johnson 220 342
Esquimaux and Canoe, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell . 230 21 1
Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell . . 238 306
Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by L. Clennell 240 218
Coast scene, drawn by R. Johnson, engraved by Bewick . 245 220
Man and Dog, engraved by H. Hole . . . 251 228
Geese going home, engraved by L. Clennell . . 271 260
Boys sailing a Ship, engraved by L. Clennell . . 282 268
Old Man and a Horse, going to market with two sacks full of geese 286 247
Boys riding on gravestones, drawn by R, Johnson, engi-aved by
L, Clennell , . • . . . . 304 323
Man smoking, engraved by L. Clennell ... - 337 303
Pumping water on a weak leg, engraved by L, Clennell . 348 304
Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell . . 359 314
Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell , , 366 242
Sea piece, drawn and engraved by L. Clennell (in Supplement to
vol. ii. p. 20) . . . . . . 380 —

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 589
This list might be considerably increased by inserting many
other tail-pieces engraved by Clennell ; but this does not appear
necessary, as a sufficient number has been enuraerated to
show that both in the designing and in the engraving of
those cuts Bewick received very considerable assistance frora his
pupils. In the additional tail-pieces to be found in subsequent
editions the greater nuraber are not engraved by Bewick hiraself.
In the last edition, published in 1832, there are at least thirty
engraved by his pupils subsequent to the tirae'of Clennell.
The head-piece at the commencement of the introduction,
volume I. page vii. drawn and engraved by Bewick himseK, pre
sents an excellent view of a farm-yard. Everything is true to
nature ; the birds assembled near the woman seen winnowing corn
are, though on a small scale, represented with the greatest fidelity ;
even araong the sraallest the wagtail can be distinguished from the
sparrow. The dog, feeling no interest in the business, is seen
quietly resting on the dunghill ; but the chuckling of the hens,
announcing that something like 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 trees ; and we perceive that it is a clear, bright day from the
strong shadow of the ladder projected against the wall, and on the
thatched roof of the oul>house. A heron, a crow, and a raagpie
are perceived nailed against the gable end of the bam ; and a
couple of pigeons are seen flying above the house. The cut
forras at once an interesting picture of country life, and a graphic
suraraary of the contents of the work.
Among the tail-pieces drawn and engraved by Bewick himseK,
in the first edition of the Birds, the foUowing appear most de
serving 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 raan watering,
in a different sense to the preceding, a very natural, though not
a very dehcate subject, at page 42. At page 62, an old railler,
lying asleep behind sorae bushes ; he has evidently been tipsy.

590

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

and from the date on a stone to the left, we are led to suppose
that he had been indulging too freely on the King's birth-day, 4th
June. The following is a copy of the cut Two cows standing

in a pool, under the shade of a dyke-ba£k, on a warm day,
page 74. In this cut Bewick has introduced 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 foUowing is a copy, at page 78. Sorae

boys have made a large snow man, which excites the special
wonderment of a horse; and Bewick, to give tiie subject a moral
application, has added "Esto perpetual" at the bottom of the
cut : the great work of the Uttie men, however they may admire
it, and wish for its endurance, wiU be dissolved on the first
thaw. At page 97 the appearance of mist and rain is weU

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 691
expressed ; and in the cut of a poacher tracking a hare, the snow
is no less naturally represented. At page 157, a raan riding
with a howdy — a midwife — 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 indicate that the scene which was
to follow required to be concealed." At page 194 we perceive
a full-fed old churl hanging his cat ; at page 226, a hen attacking
a dog; and at page 281, two cocks fighting, — all three excellent
of their kind.
Bewick's huraour 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 becarae
aware that the nakedness of a prominent part of his subject
required 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 still extremely indelicate.*
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 vrith closed eyes, while his cat avails herseK

* The subject of this cut is thus explained in Brockett's Glossary of North
Country Words : " Neddy, Netty, a certain place that will not bear a written
explanation ; but which is depicted to the very life in a tail-piece in the first
edition of Bewick's Land Birds, p. 285. In the second edition a bar is placed
against the offending part of this broad display of native humour."

592 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
of the opportunity of making free with his porridge. The Reverend
Henry Cotes, vicar of Bedlington, happening to call on Bewick
when he was finishing this cut expressed his disapprobation of
the subject, as having a tendency to ridicule the practice of an
act of devotion ; but Bewick denied that he had any such inten
tion, and would not consent to omit the cut He drew a dis
tinction 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, while craving a blessing vrith
hypocritical griraace, and with eyes closed to outward things, loses
a present good. The head-piece to the contents presents an
excellent sketch of an old raan going to raarket on a windy and
rainy day. The old horse on which he is raounted has becorae
restive, and the rider has both broken his stick and lost his hat
The horse seeras deterrained not to raove tiU it stuts his own
pleasure; and it is evident that the old raan dare not get down
to recover his hat, for, should he do so, encurabered as he is with
a heavy basket over his left arra and an egg-pannier slimg over
his shoulder, he will not be able to reraount
The following are the principal tail-pieces drawn and engraved
by Bewick hiraself in the first edition of the second volume of
the Birds, 1804. A shooter with a gun at his back crossing a
stream on long stilts, page 5. An old wooden-legged beggar gnaw
ing 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 blacksraith, standing with folded arras enjoying
the sport, page 56. A raan crossing a frozen stream, vrith 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 woraan with a pitcher, driring
away some geese from a well, page 291. An old beggar-woman
assailed 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 raeans of a cowl-staff; and the figures, Mr.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 593
Atkinson says, are portraits of two old men belonging to Oving
ham,— "the one on the right being 'auld Tommy Dobson of
the Bleach Green,' and the other 'Mat Carr.'" The action
of the men is excellent, and their expression is in perfect
accordance with the business in which they are engaged — to
wit, carrying their tub fuU of chemmerly — charaber-lye — to the
dye-house. The olfactory organs of both are evidently affected
by the pungent odour of their load. It raay be necessary to
observe that the dyers of Ovingham had at that time a general
reservoir in the village, to which raost of the cottagers were con
tributors ; but as each faraily had the privilege of supplying
themselves frora it with as much as they required for scouring
and washing, it soraetiraes happened that the dyers found their
trough erapty, and were consequendy obUged to soUcit a supply
frora such persons as kept a private stock of tbeir own. As
they were both irritable old men, the phrase, " He 's like a raised
[infuriated] dyer begging chemmerly," became proverbial in Oving
ham to denote a person in a passion. This cut as I am informed
by one of Bewick's old pupils, was copied on the block and
engraved by Luke ClenneU frora a water-colour drawing by
Robert Johnson.
When the second volurae of the History of British Birds was
pubUshed, in 1804, Bewick had reached his fiftieth year ; but
though his powers as a wood engraver continued for long after
wards unimpaired, yet he subsequently produced nothing to ex
tend his fame. The retouching of the blocks for the repeated
editions of the Quadrupeds and the Birds, and the engraving of
new cuts for the latter work, occupied a considerable part of his
time. He also engraved, by hiraseK and pupils, several cuts for
different works, but they are generally 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 excellence consisted in the representation
of aniraals and in landscape. The Fables, which bad been pro
jected previous to 1795, also occasionally occupied his attention.
This work, which first appeared in 1818, was by no means so
favourably received as the Quadrupeds and the Birds ; and several
of Bewick's greatest adrairers, who had been led to expect sorae-
2q

594 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
thing better, openly expressed their disappointraent Dr. Dibdin,
speaking of the Fables, says, " It would be a species of scandalum
magnatum to depreciate any production connected with the narae of
Bewick ; but I wiU fearlessly and honestly aver that his .^sop dis
appointed rae ; the raore so, as his Birds and Beasts are volumes
perfectly classical of their kind." The disappointment, however,
that was felt with respect to this work resulted perhaps rather from
people expecting too much than from any deficiency in the cuts
as illustrations of Fables. There is a great difference between re
presenting birds and beasts in their natural character, and repre
senting thera as actors in imaginary scenes. We do not regard
the cock and the fox holding an imaginary conversation, how
ever ably represented, with the interest with which we look upon
each when faithfully depicted in its proper character. The tail
piece of the bitch seeing her drowned puppies, at page 364 of
the Quadrupeds, edition 1824, is far raore interesting than any
cut illustrative of a fable in .ffisop; — we at once feel its truth,
and admire it, because it is natural. Birds and beasts repre
sented as performing huraan characters can never interest so
rauch as when naturally depicted in their own. Such cuts raay
display great fancy and rauch skill on the part of the artist, but
they never can excite true feeling. The martyr Cock Robin,
killed by that malicious archer the Sparrow, is not so interest
ing as plain Robin Redbreast picking up crumbs at a cottage-
door in the snow : —
" One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
Whatever may be the raerits or defects of the cuts in those
Fables, Bewick raost certainly had very little to do witb them ;
for by far the greater number were designed by Robert Johnson,
and engi-aved by W. W. Temple and WUUam Harvey. In the
whole volume there are not raore than three of the largest cuts
engraved by Bewick himself* The tail-pieces in this work wiU
• The cuts engraved by Bewick hiraself are : a tail-piece (a Cow standing under
some bushes) to " The Two Frogs," page 200. The fable of " The Deer and the
Lion," page 315. " Waiting for Death," page 338. He also engraved the figure
of the Lion in the fable of " The Lion and the four Bulls," page 89. The Man,
Dog, and Sheep in the fable of the "Eagle and the Crow," page 301. The
Man and two Birds in the fable of « The Husbandman and the Stork," page
354, Edition of 1823.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 595
not bear a comparison with those in the Birds ; the subjects are
often both trite and tamely treated ; the devil and the gallows —
Bewick's two stock-pieces — occur rather too frequently, consider
ing that the book is chiefly intended for the iraproveraent of
young rainds ; and in many instances nature has been sacrificed
in order that the moral might be obvious.
The letter-press was entirely selected and arranged by Bewick
hiraseK, and one or two of the fables were of his own writing.
Though an excellent illustrator of Natural History, Bewick is but
an indifferent fabulist* Though the work is professedly intended
for the instruction of the young, there are certainly a few tail-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 bull looking over a rail at them. The explanation of this sub
ject would certainly have little tendency to improve young minds.
Bewick, though very fond of introducing the devil in his cuts to
frighten the wicked, does not appear to have been willing that a
ranting preacher should in his discourses avail himself of the
same character, though to effect the sarae purpose, as we learn
frora the following anecdote related by Mr. Atkinson. " Cant
and hypocrisy he (Bewick) very rauch disliked. A ranter took up
his abode near Cherry-burn, and used daily to horrify the country
people with very farailiar details of ultra-stygian proceedings.
Bewick went to hear him, and after listening patiently for sorae
tirae to a blaspheraous recital of such horrors, at which the poor
people were gaping with afiright, he got behind the holder-forth,
and pinching his elbow, addressed hira when he turned round with
great soleranity : ' Now then thou seems to know a great deal
about the deril, and has been frightening us a long while about
him : can thou tell 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
raajesty ad libitum in his cuts ; but when a ranting preacher
takes the sarae liberty in his discourses, he is called upon to
give proof of personal acquaintance.
Bewick's moraUty was rather rigid than cheerful ; and he was
but too prone to think uncharitably of others, whose conduct and
• The fable ofthe Ship Dog is one of those written by Bewick.
2q2

596

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

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, vrith little
syrapathy for the raore unfortunate of their species, whose errors
are as often the result of ignorance as of a positively ricious
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, viritten by hiraself, was objected to by
the printer, the late Mr. E. Walker, and at his request it was
omitted. The following is a copy of the cut intended for it The

world is represented as having lost its balance, and legions of his
favourite devils are seen hurled about in a confused vortex. The
fable, it is said, was intended as a satire on the ministerial poUtics
of the tirae. A thurab-raark 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 similar mark is to be found
at page 175 of the Land Birds, first edition, 1797, and in the
biU and receipt prefixed to the Fables, 1818-1823.
In a novel, entitied " Such is the World," there is the foUowing
erroneous account of Bewick's reason for affixing his thumb-mark

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 597
to this bill.* " Having completed his task to the entire satisfaction
of his own mind, Mr. Bewick bethought him of engraving a
frontispiece. But haring sorae suspicion that the said frontispiece
raight be pirated by sorae of those corsairs who infest the ocean
of literature, he resolved to put a raark on it, whereby all raen
raight distinguish it as readily as a fisherraan distinguishes a
haddock f frora a cod-fish. Accordingly, he touched with his
thumb the little black ball with which he was wont to ink his
cuts, in order to take off proof impressions of his work : he then
very deliberately pressed his thurab on the frontispiece which he
was at that raoraent engraving, and cut the most beautiful image
of the original, which he designated by the appropriate words
' John Bewick, his mark.' " Had the writer looked at the " frontis
piece," as he calls it, he would have found "Thomas," and not
"John." The conclusion of this account is a fair sample of its
general accuracy. In a preUminary observation the author, with
equal correctness, informs his readers that the work in which this
" frontispiece" appeared was " a superb edition of Gajfs Fables."
Bewick's mark is, in fact, added to this bill merely as a jest ; the
raode which he took to authenticate the copies that were actually
issued by himself, and not pilfered by any of the workmen eraployed
about the printing-office,:}; was to print at his own work-shop, in
red ink frora a copper-plate, a representation of a piece of sea
weed lying above the wood-cut which had preriously been printed
off at a printing-office. This raode of printing a copper-plate over
a wood-cut was a part of one of the plans which he had devised
to prevent the forgery of bank-notes. §
* Mr. Atkinson says that this account determined Bewick to write a life of
himself. It appears that he actually completed such a work, but that his family
at present decline to publish it,
f "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 the
piece of money out of the fish's raouth to give it as a tribute to Caesar."
X Bewick's suspicions in this respect were not altogether groundless. Happen
ing to go into a bookbinder's shop in Newcastle in 1818, 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 narae
of the owner who had purchased it, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained,
was not publicly divulged,
§ About 1799 Bewick frequently corresponded with Mr. Abraham Newland,

598

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

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 httie pro
gress with it when a messenger arrived from Cherry-bum to inform
him of his father's death.

Several years previous to his decease Bewick had derised an
improvement, 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 variety of tint, and a better effect than could
be obtained, without great labour, in a cut printed in black ink
frora a single block. This iraproveraent, which had been suggested
by Papillon in 1768, Bewick proceeded to carry into effect The
subject which he raade choice of to exemplify what he considered
his original discovery, was an old horse waiting for death.* He
accordingly made the drawing on a large block consisting of four
different pieces, and forthwith proceeded to engrave it He how
ever did not live to complete his intention ; for even this block,

cashier of the Bank of England, respecting a plan which he had devised to prevent
the forgery of bank notes. He was offered a' situation in the Bank to superintend
the engraving and printing 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, still continued
the business of copper-plate engraving and printing, and for this purpose always
kept presses ofhis own.
* A small cut of the same subject, though with a different back-ground, occurs
as a tail-piece in the Fables, 1818-1823.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 599
which he meant raerely for the first impression — the subject having
to be completed by a second — remained unfinished at his decease.*
He had, however, finished it all with the exception of part of the
horse's head, and when in this state he had four irapressions taken
about a week before his death. It was on this occasion that he ex
clairaed, when the pressraan handed him the proof, " I wish I was
but twenty years younger !"
This cut, with the head said to have been finished by another
person, was published by Bewick's son, Mr. Robert Elliott Bewick,
in 1832. It is the largest cut that Bewick ever engraved, f but
having been left by hira in an unfinished state, it would be irapos
sible to say what he raight have effected had he lived to work out
"¦ his ideas, and unfair to judge of it as if it were a finished
perforraance. It is, however, but just to reraark, that the mise
rable appearance of the poor, worn-out neglected animal, is repre
sented with great feeling and truth, — excepting the head, which is
disproportionately large and heavy, — and that the landscape dis
plays Bewick's usual fidelity in copying nature.
Bewick's life affords a useful lesson to all who wish to attain
distinction in art, and at the same time to preserve their inde
pendence. He diligently cultivated his talents, and never trusted
to booksellers or designers for eraployraent He did not work
according to the directions of others, but struck out a path for
hiraself ; and by diligently pursuing it according to the bent of
his own feelings, he acquired both a corapetence with respect to
worldly raeans and an ample reward of fame. The success of
his works did not render hira inattentive to business; and he was
* The last bird that Bewick engraved was the Cream-coloured 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 Fishes, but very little progress was made in the
work. A few cuts of fishes were engraved, chiefly by his pupils ; that of the John
Dory, an impression of which is said to have been sold for a considerable sum, is
one of those not engraved by Bewick hiraself. 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 tail-pieces in the last edition ofthe Birds, 1832,
f This cut is eleven inches and five-eighths wide by eight inches and three-
fourths high. It is entitled, " Waiting for Death : Bewick's last work, left un
finished, and intended to have been completed by a series of impressions from
separate blocks printed over each other."

600 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
never tempted by the prospect of increasing wealth to indulge in
expensive pleasures, nor to live in a manner which his circum
stances did not warrant What he had honestly eamed he frugally
husbanded ; and, Uke a prudent man, made a provision for his old
age. "The hand of the diligent," says Solomon, "maketh rich."
This Bewick felt and his life may be cited in exempUfication of the
truth of the proverb. He acquired not indeed great wealth, but
he attained a competence, and was grateful and contented. No
favoured worshipper of Mammon, though possessed of railhons
obtained by " watching the tum of the raarket," could say raore.
He was extremely regular and methodical in his habits of busi
ness : until within a few years of his death he used to corae to
his shop in Newcastle frora his house in Gateshead at a certain
hour in the morning, returning to his dinner at a certain time,
and, as he used to say, lapping up at night, as if he were a
workman eraployed by the day, and subject to a loss by being
absent a single hour. When any of his works were in the press,
the first thing he did each raorning, after calUng at his own
shop, was to proceed to the printer's to see what progress they were
raaking, and to give directions to the pressraen about printing the
cuts.* It is indeed owing to bis attention in this respect that the
cuts in all the editions of his works published during his Ufe-time
are so well printed. The edition of the Birds, published in 1832,
displays nuraerous instances of the want of Bewick's own super
intendence : either through the carelessness or ignorance of the
pressmen, many of the cuts are quite spoiled.
The following cut represents a view of Bewick's workshop in St
Nicholas' Churchyard, Newcastle. The upper room, the two
windows of which 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 will perpetuate his name ; and there for upwards of fifty
years was he accustomed to sit, steadily and cheerfuUy pursuing the
labour that he loved. He used always to work with his hat on ;
and when apy gentleman or nobleman called upon hira, he only
* When Bewick removed the printing of his works from Mr. Hodgson's office to
that of Mr. E. Walker, a pressraan, naraed Barlow, was brought from London for the
purpose of printing the cuts in the second volume of the Birds in a proper manner.
Bewick's favourite pressraan at Mrs. Hodgson's was John Simpson.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

601

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 raouth. The prorainence occasioned by the quid,
which he kept between his under lip and his teeth, and not in his
cheek, is indicated in raost of his portraits.

A stick, which had been his brother John's, was a great favou
rite with him, and he generaUy carried it in his walks, always
carefully putting it in a certain place when he entered his work
room. He used to be very partial to a draught of water in the
afternoon, imraediately before leaving work. The water was
brought fresh by one of the apprentices frora 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,
carefully 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.

602 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
Bewick was a raan of athletic raake, 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 chastiseraent On one occasion being assaulted by two
pitraen on returning frora a visit to Cherry-burn, be resolutely
turned upon the aggressors, and, as he said, "paid thera both
welL" Though hard-featured, and much raarked with the sraall-
pox, the expression of Bewick's countenance was raanly and open,
and his dark eyes sparkled with intelligence. There is a good
bust of him by Bailey in the Library of the Literary and Philo
sophical Society of Newcastle, and the best engraved portrait is
perhaps that of Burnet, after a painting by Ramsey.* The
portrait opposite, engraved on wood, is another attempt to perpe
tuate the likeness of one to whora the art owes so much.
In the sumraer of 1828 Bewick visited London; but he was
then evidently in a declining state of health, and he had lost rauch
of his former energy of raind. Scarcely anything that he saw
interested him, and he longed no less than in his younger years
to return to the banks of the Tyne. He had ceased to feel an
interest in objects which forraerly afforded him great pleasure ; for
when his old fiiend, the late Mr. Wilham Bulmer, drove him to the
Regent's Park, he declined to aUght for the purpose of visiting
the collection of animals in the Gardens of the Zoological
Society. 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 blofk of the Old Horse waiting for Death
• The following is a list of the principal engraved portraits of Bewick : on
copper, by J. A, Kidd, from a painting by Miss Kirkley, 1798, On copper, by
Thoraas Ranson, after a painting by William Nicholson, 1816, On copper, by
I. Suraraerfield, from a miniature by Murphy — that alluded to in Bewick's letter
to Mr. C. Gregson, previously quoted — 1816. On copper, by John Bumet, from
a painting by James Ramsey, 1817. Copies of all those portraits, engraved on
wood, are given in Charnley'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 pupils, from a drawing made on the block by William
Nicholson — In the Memoir of Thoraas Bewick, prefixed to the Natural History of
Parrots, Naturalist's Library, vol. vi., it is incorrectly stated that Ranson, the
engraver of one of the above portraits, was a pupil of Bewick's. He was a pupil
ofj. A. Kidd, copper-plate engraver, Newcastle,

THOMAS BEWICK.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

603

to the printer's, and had it proved ; on the following Monday he
became unwell, and after a few days' illness he ceased to exist.
He died at his house on the Windmill-hills, Gateshead, on the
8th of November, 1828, aged seventy-five. He was buried at
Ovingham, and the following cut represents a view of the place

of his interment, near the west end of the church. The tablets
seen in the wall are those erected to the meraory of hiraself 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 excelled only by
his Conduct as a
Man.

The
Burial Place
of
THOMAS BEWICK,
Engraver,
Newcastle,
Isabella, his Wife,
Died 1st February, 1826,
Aged 72 years,
THOMAS BEWICK,
Died Sth of November, 1828,
Aged 75 years.

In an excellent notice of the works of Bewick — apparently
written by one of his townsmen — in Blackwood's Magazine

604

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

for July, 1825, it is stated that the final tail-piece to Bewick's
Fables, 1818-1823, is "A View of Ovinghara Churchyard;" and
in the Reverend William Turner's Memoir of Thoraas Bewick,
in the sixth volume of the Naturalist's Library, the sarae state
ment 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 at the
church. The following cut, in which is introduced an imagi
nary representation of Bewick's funeral, presents a correct view
of the place. The following popular saying, which is weU
known in Northumberland, suggested the introduction of the
rain-bow :

" Happy is the bride that the sun shines on.
And happy is the corpse 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 following eloquent tribute to the merits of Bewick is from
an article on Wilson's Illustrations of Zoology in Blackwood's
Magazine for June, 1828. That it is vsritten -by Professor
Wilson there can scarcely be a doubt

\

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 605
" Have we forgotten, in our hurried and imperfect enumeration
of wise worthies, — have we forgotten
' The Genius that dwells on the banks of the Tyne,'*
the Matchless, Inimitable Bewick ? No. His books Ue on our
parlour, bed-room, dining-room, drawing-room, study table, and are
never out of place or time. Happy old man ! The delight of
childhood, manhood, decaying age ! — A moral in every tail-piece —
a sermon in every rignette. Not as if frora one fountain flows the
streara of his inspired spirit gurgling from the Crawley Spring so
many thousand gallons of the eleraent every minute, and feeding
but one city, our own Edinburgh. But it rather oozes out fi'ora un
numbered springs. Here frora one scarcely perceptible but in the
virid green of the lonesome sward, from which it trickles away into
a little mountain rill — here leaping into sudden life, as from the
rock — here bubbling frora a silver pool, overshadowed by a birch-
tree — here like a well asleep in a moss-grown cell, built by some
thoughtful recluse in the old raonastic day, with a few words frora
Scripture, or sorae rude engraving, reUgious as Scripture, Omne
BONUM DESUPER  OpERA DeI MIRIFICA."
John Bewick, 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. Beilby. He undoubtedly assist
ed 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 distinguish the work of the two
brothers. Among the earliest cuts known to have been engraved
by John Bewick, on the expiration of his apprenticeship, are those
contained in a work entitled "Erablems of Mortality," printed
in 1789 for T. Hodgson, the publisher of the Hieroglyphic Bible,
* This line is adapted from Wordsworth, who, at the commencement of his
verses entitled " The Two Thieves, or the The Last Stage of Avarice," thus ex
presses his high opinion of the talents of Bewick :
" O now that the genius of Bewick were mine,
And the skill which he learned on the banks of the Tyne !
Then the Muses might deal with me just as they chose.
For I 'd take my last leave both of verse and of prose,"
Lyrical Ballads, vol, ii. p, 199, Edition 1805,

606 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
raentioned at page 556. Those cuts, which are very indifferently
executed, are copies, occasionally altered for the worse, of
the cuts in Holbein's Dance of Death. Whether he engraved
thera in London, or not, I have not been able to ascertain ; but
it is certain that he was living in London in the following 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," corapiled by Dr. Trusler, and pubUshed
in 1791 ; the cuts for "The Looking Glass of the Mind," 1796 ;
and also those contained in a similar work entitled "Blossoms
of Morality," published about the sarae time. Though several
of those cuts display considerable talent yet the best speciraens
of his abilities as a designer and engraver on wood are to be found
in Poeras by Goldsraith and Parnell, 1795, and in Somerrile's
Chase, 1796, both printed in quarto, to display the exceUence of
jnodern printing, type-founding, wood-engraring, and paper-making.
Mr. Bulmer, who suggested those editions, had been intimately
acquainted with both Thoraas and John Bewick. In the preface
to the Poeras by Goldsmith and Parnell, he is careful to cora-
meraorate the paper-raaker, type-founder, and the engravers ; but
he omits to mention the name of Robert Johnson, who designed
three of the principal cuts.* The merits of this highly-talented
young man appear to have been singularly overlooked by those
whose raore especial duty it was to notice thera. In the whole
of Bewick's works he is not once raentioned. Mr. Bulraer also
says, that all the cuts were engraved by Thoraas and John Bewick ;
but though he unquestionably believed so hiraself, the stateraent
is not strictly correct ; for the four vignette head and tail-pieces
to the Traveller and the Deserted Village were engraved by C.
Nesbit The vignettes on the title-pages, the large cut of the old
woraan gathering water-cresses, and the tail-piece at the end of the
volurae, were drawn and engraved by John Bewick ; the reraainder
were engraved by Thoraas.
The cuts in this book are generally executed in a free and
effective style, but are not remarkable as specimens of wood
engraving, unless we take into consideration the time when they
• The cut of the Hermit at his morning devotion was drawn by John Johnson
a cousin of Robert, and also one of Bewick's pupils.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 607
were pubUshed. The best in point of execution are. The Hermit
at his morning devotion, and The Angel, Herrait, and Guide, both
engraved by Thoraas Bewick ; the manner in which the engraver
has executed the foliage in these two cuts is extreraely beautiful
and natural. It is said that George III. thought so highly of the
cuts in this book that he could not believe that they were engraved
on wood ; and that his bookseller, Mr. George Nicol, obtained for
his Majesty a sight of the blocks in order that he raight be con
rinced of tbe fact by his own inspection. This anecdote is sorae
tiraes produced as a proof of the great excellence of the cuts,
though it raight 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 frora
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
tirae by persons who are generally considered as having small
claims to distinction as wood engravers.
"The cuts in the Chase were all, except one, designed by John
Bewick; but in consequence of the decUning 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, how
ever, continued to increase ; and, within a few weeks frora the
tirae of his retum, he died at Ovinghara, on the Sth of December,
1795, aged thirty-five.
The cuts in the Chase, which were all, except one, engraved by
Thomas Bewick, are, on the whole, superior in point of execution
to those in the Poems of Goldsraith and Parnell. Though boldly
designed, some of them display great defects in coraposition, and
araong the raost objectionable in this respect are the Huntsraan
and three Hounds, at 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 drinking,
page 27 ; Fox-hunting, page 63 ; and Otter-hunting, page 99.
The final tail-piece, which has been spoiled in the engraving, was
executed by one of Bewick's pupils.

608

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

John Bewick, as a designer and engraver on wood, is rauch
inferior to his brother. Though several of his cuts possess con
siderable raerit with respect to design, by far the greater number
are executed in a dry, harsh manner. His best cuts raay be
readily distinguished frora 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 foliage of the trees. The following is
a reduced copy of a cut entitled the " Sad Historian," drawn and
engraved by John Bewick, in the Poems by Goldsmith and
Parnell.

The most of John Bewick's cuts are rauch better conceived
than engraved; and this perhaps raay in a great measure have
arisen from their having been chiefly executed for children's books,
in which exceUence of engraving was not required. His style of

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 609
engraving is not good ; for though sorae of his cuts are extremely
effective from the contrast of Ught and shade, yet the lines in
almost every one are coarse and harsh, and "laid in," to use a
technical expression, in a hard and tasteless manner. Dry, stiff,
parallel lines, scarcely ever deriating into a pleasing curve, are the
general characteristic of raost of his sraall cuts. As he reached
the age of thirty-five without having produced any cut which dis
plays rauch ability in the execution, it is not likely that he would
have excelled as a wood engraver had his life been prolonged.
The following is a fac-simile of one of the best of his cuts in
the Blossoms of Morality, 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 fair speci
men of his talents as a designer.

Robert Johnson, though not a wood engraver, has a claim to
a brief notice here on account of the excellence of several of the
tail-pieces designed by him in Bewick's Birds, and frora his having
made the drawings for most of the wood-cuts in Bewick's Fables.
He was bom in 1770 at Shotley, a village 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 Beilby and Bewick to be instructed in copper-plate
engraring. The plates which are generaUy supposed to have been
executed by him during his apprenticeship possess very little
merit, nor does he appear to have been desirous to excel as an
2 R

610 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
engraver. His great delight consisted in sketching from nature
and in painting in water-colours ; and in this branch of art while
yet an apprentice, he displayed talents of very high order.* He
was frequently employed by his master in drawing and making
designs, and at his leisure hours he took every opportunity of im
proving hiraself in his favourite art The Earl of Bute happening
to caU at Beilby and Bewick's shop on one occasion when passing
through Newcastle, a portfolio of Johnson's drawings, made at his
leisure hours, was shown to his lordship, who was so much pleased
with thera that he selected as raany as amounted to forty pounds.
This sum Beilby and Bewick appropriated to theraselves, on the
ground that, as he was their apprentice, those drawings, as weU as
any others that he might raake, were legally their property. John
son's friends, however, thinking differently, instituted legal pro
ceedings for the recovery of the raoney, and obtained a decision
in their favour. One of the pleas set up by BeUby and Bevrick
was, that the drawings properly belonged to them, as they taught
him 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 own apprentices, Charlton Nesbit
that neither he nor any other of his feUow apprentices was taught
the art of drawing in water-colours by their raasters, and that it
forraed no part of their necessary instruction as engravers.
On the expiration of his apprenticeship Johnson gave up, in a
great raeasure, the practice of copper-plate engraving, and applied
hiraseK alraost exclusively to drawing. In 1796 he was engaged
by Messrs. Morison, booksellers and publishers of Perth, to draw
frora tbe original paintings the portraits intended to be engraved
in " the Scottish Gallery," a work edited by Pinkerton, and pub
lished about 1799. When at Taymouth Castie, the seat of the
Earl of Breadalbane, copying some portraits painted by Jameson,
the Scottish Vandyke, he caught a severe cold, which, being
* 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 admirable — they look like miniature Paul Potters. It is known
to only a few persons that they were drawn by Johnson during his apprenticeship.
Most of them were copied on the block by William Harvey, and the rest chiefly
by Bewick himself.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

611

neglected, increased to a fever. In the violence of the disorder he
becarae deUrious, and, frora the ignorance of those who attended
hira, the unfortunate young artist, far frora horae and without a
friend to console hira, was bound and treated like a madman.
A physician having been called in, by his order blisters were
appUed, 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 Kenraore on the 29th October, 1796, in the twenty-sixth year
of his age.*

The above is a copy of a cut — frora a design by Johnson hira
self — 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 pupU.
* John Johnson, a cousin of Robert, was also an apprentice of Beilby and
Bewick. He was a wood engraver, and executed a few of the tail-pieces in the
History of British Birds. Like Robert, he possessed a taste for drawing ; and the cut
of the Hermit at his raorning devotion, engraved by T. Bewick, in Poems by Gold
smith and Parnell, was designed by hira. He died at Newcastle about 1797, shortly
after the expiration of his apprenticeship.
2 R 2

612

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

The following cut represents a view of a monuraent on the
south side of Ovinghara church, erected to the raemory of Robert
Johnson by a few friends who admired his talents, and respected
him on account of his amiable private character.

i\W-.Vf^^ <r- -^'-,-'i'-i;5^,^^~^

Charlton Nesbit who is justly entitled to be ranked vrith the
best wood engravers of his time, was born in 1775 at SwalweU,
in the county of Durham, about five miles westward of Gates
head, and when about fourteen years of age was apprenticed to
Beilby and Bewick to leam the art of wood engraring. 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 tail
pieces, except two, in the Poems by Goldsraith and Parnell, printed
by Bulmer in 1795. Shortly after the expiration ofhis apprentice
ship he began to engrave a large cut, containing a view of St
Nicholas Church, Newcastle on Tyne, from a drawing by his fellow-
pupil, Robert Johnson. The following is a 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,
* The original cut, including the border, is fifteen inches wide by about twelve
inches high.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

613

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 carae to London, where he continued
to reside till 1815. During his residence there he engraved a
number of cuts for various works, chiefly frora the designs of the
late Mr. John Thurston,* 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 R. Scholey, and in a work entitled
Religious Emblems, pubUshed by R. Ackermann and Co. in 1808.
The cuts in the latter work were engraved by Nesbit, Clennell,
Branston, and Hole, frora drawings by Thurston; and they are
unquestionably the best of their kind which up to that tirae had
* Mr. Thurston was a native of Scarborough, and originally a copper-plate en
graver. 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 tirae. He drew very beautifully, but his designs are
too frequently deficient in natural character and feeling. He died in 1821,

614 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
appeared in England.j Clennell's are the most artistUke in their
execution and effect, while Nesbit's are engraved with greater care.
Branston, except in one cut — Rescued from the Floods, — does not
appear to such advantage in this work as his northem rivals.
There is only one cut — Seed sown — engraved by Hole. The
following may be mentioned as the best of Nesbif 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 Clennell's are : — Call to Vigilance, The World made Captive, and
Fainting for the Living Waters. These are perhaps the three best
cuts of their kind that Clennell ever engraved.
In 1815 Mr. Nesbit returned to his native place, where he con
tinued to reside until 1830. WhUe hring in the country, though
he did not abandon the art yet the cuts executed by hira during
this period are coraparatively few. In 1818, when residing in the
North, he engraved a large cut of Rinaldo and Arraida for Savage's
Hints on Decorative Printing : this cut and another, the Cave of
Despair, in tbe sarae work, and of the sarae size, engraved by the
late Robert Branston, were expressly given to display the perfec
tion to which modem wood engraving had been brought* The
foliage, the trees, and the drapery in Nesbit's cut are admfrably
fengraved; but the lines in the bodies of the figures are too rauch
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 originaUy continuous and dis
tinct ; but Mr. Thurston objecting to thera as being too dark, Nesbit
went over his work again, and with iraraense labour reduced the
strength of his Unes, and gave them their present dotted appearance.
As a speciraen of the engraver's abilities, the first proof subnutted
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 ira
pressions of them when thus defaced were given in the work.f
* For this cut Mr. Nesbit never was paid, and I believe that Mr. Branston was
not in this respect more successful,
t The practice of thus giving a fictitious value to works of limited circulation,
and which are not likely to reach a second edition during the life-time of their

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 615
Nesbit's cut was, however, carefully repaired, and the back part of
Armida's head having been altered, the irapressions from the block
thus amended were actuaUy given in the work itself 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
skilfully inserted, and engraved so rauch in the style of the adjacent
parts, that it is difficult to discover where the defacing saw had
passed. In 1830 Mr. Nesbit retumed to London, where he has since
continued to reside. Sorae of the best of his recent cuts are con
tained in the second series of Northcote's Fables ; and the follow
ing, of his execution, may be ranked among the finest productions
of the art of wood engraving in modern times : — The Robin and the
Sparrow, page 1 ; The Hare and the Brarable, page 127 ; The
Peach and the Potatoe, page 129 ; and The Cock, the Dog, and the
Fox, page 238. Nesbit is unquestionably the best wood engraver
that has proceeded frora the great northern hive of the art — the
work-shop of Thomas Bewick.
' Luke Clennell, one of the most distinguished of Bewick's pupils
as a designer and painter, as well as an engraver on wood, was bom
at Ulghara, a village near Morpeth, in Northuraberland, on the
8th of April, 1781. At an early age he was placed vrith a relation,
a grocer in Morpeth, and continued with hira, assisting in the shop
as an apprentice, until he was sixteen. Sorae drawings which he
made when at Morpeth having attracted attention, and he himself
showing a decided predilection for the art, his friends were induced
to place hira as a wood engraver with Bewick, to whom he was
bound apprentice for seven years on the Sth of April, 1797. He
in a short time raade great proficiency in wood engraring ; and as
he drew vrith great correctness and power, Bewick eraployed hira
to copy, on the block, several of Robert Johnson's drawings, and to

authors, is less frequent now than it was a few years ago. It is little more than
a trick to enhance the price of the book to subscribers, by giving them an assur
ance that no second edition can appear with the same embellishments. 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.

616 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
engrave them as tailpieces for the second volume of the History of
British Birds. ClenneU for a few raonths after the expiration of
his apprenticeship continued to work for Bewick, who chiefly
eraployed hira in engraving sorae of the cuts for a History of
England, pubhshed by R, Scholey, 46, Patemoster Row. Clennell,
who was paid only two pounds a-piece for each of those cuts,
having learnt that Bewick received five, sent to the pubhsher
a proof of one of thera — Alfred in the Danish Camp — stating
that it was of his own engraving. In the course of a few days
Clennell received an answer from the pubhsher, inviting hira to
come to London, and offering him eraployraent until aU 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 auturan, 1804.*
Most of Clennell's cuts are distinguished by their free and artist-
like execution and by their excellent effect; but though generaUy
spirited they are sometiraes rather coarsely engraved. He was
accustomed to improve Thurston's designs by occasionaUy height
ening the effectf To such alterations Thurston at first objected ;
but perceiring that the cuts when engraved were thus very much
iraproved, he afterwards aUowed Clennell to increase the Ughts and
deepen the shadows according to his own judgraent Ajo. admi
rable specimen of Clennell's engraving is to be found in an
octavo edition of Falconer's Shipwreck, printed for CadeU and
Davies, 1808. It occurs as a rignette to the second canto at
page 43, and the subject is a ship running before the wind in
a gale. The motion of the waves, and the glooray appearance of
* Between the expiration of his apprenticeship and his departure for London he
appears to have engraved several excellent cuts for a school-book entitled " Tlie
Hive of Ancient and Modern Literature," printed by S. Hodgson, Newcastle. —
Clennell's fellow-pupils were Henry Hole and Edward Willis. Mr. Hole engraved
the cuts in M'Creery's Press, 1803, and in Poems by Felicia Dorothea Browne,
(afterwards Mrs. Hemans) 1808. Mr. Hole gave up wood engraving several years
ago on succeeding to a large estate iu Derbyshire, Mr, Willis, who is a cousin
of Mr, George Stephenson, the celebrated engineer, at present resides in London,
but has almost entirely abandoned the art.
t He also invariably corrected the outline of Thurston's aniraals ; « Fainting for
the Living Waters" in the Religious Erableras, and a little subject in an edition
of Beattie's Minstrel, published at Alnwick, representing a shepherd and dog on
the brow of a hill, were thus improved by Clennell.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 617
the sky, are represented with adrairable truth and feeUng. 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 storra. Perhaps no engraving of the same kind,
either on copper or wood, conveys the idea of a storm at sea
with greater fidehty. The drawing was made on the block by
Thurston ; but the spirit and effect, — the Ughts and shadows, the
apparent seething of the waves, and the troubled appearance of the
sky, — were introduced by Clennell. All the other cuts in this
edition of the Shipwreck are of his engraving; but though well
executed, they do not require any especial notice. Two of thera,
which were previously designed for another work, are certainly not
illustrations of Falconer's Shipwreck.
Clennell's largest cut is that which he engraved for the diploraa
of the Highland Society, frora a design by Benjarain West, Presi
dent of the Royal Academy. The original drawing was made on
paper, and Clennell gave Thurston fifteen pounds for copying on
the block the figures within the circle : the supporters, a Highland
soldier and a fisherman, he copied hiraseK. 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 eraployed upon
it for about two months, it one afternoon suddenly split 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 all 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-drawing the figures vrithin the circle, and having again
copied the supporters, he proceeded with renewed spirit to com
plete his work. For engraring this cut he received a hundred
pounds — he paying Thurston himseK for the drawing on the
block ; and the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and
Manufactures presented him with their gold medal. This cut is
characteristic of Clennell's style of engraving — the lines are in
some places coarse, and in others the execution is careless; the

618

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

more important parts are, however, engraved with great spint;
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
ofwork,— the vulgar error that cross-hatchings could not be exe
cuted on wood having been at that time extremely prevalent
among persons who had Uttle knowledge of the art, and who yet
vented tbeir absurd notions on the subject as if they were unde
niable truths. The foUowing is a reduced copy of this cut* The

original block, when only a very limited nuraber of impressions had
been printed off, was burnt in the fire at Mr. Bensley's printing-
office. The subject was afterwards re-engraved on a block of the
same size by John Thompson.
The illustrations to an edition of Rogers's Poems, 1812, en
graved from pen-and-ink drawings by Thomas Stothard, R. A.,
* The original cut is about ten inches and a half high, measured from the line
below the inscription, by about thirteen inches and a half wide, measured across the
centre.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 619
may be fairly ranked among the best of the wood-cuts engraved
by Clennell. They are executed with the feeling of an artist, and
are admirable representations of the original drawings.* Stothard
hiraseK 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 variety of tints in the manner
of copper-plate engravings, they exceeded the legitiraate boundaries
of the art A hundred wood-cuts by Bewick, Nesbit, Clennell,
and Thorapson mighty however, be produced to show that this
opinion was scarcely well founded.
Clennell, who drew beautifiilly in water-colours, made many of
the drawings for the Border Antiquities; and the encourage
ment which he received as a designer and painter raade him resolve
to entirely abandon wood engraving. With this view he laboured
diligently to improve hiraseK in painting, and in a short tirae made
such progress that his pictures attracted the attention of the
Directors of tho British Institution. In 1814, the Earl of Bridge-
water ejnployed him to paint a large picture of the entertainment
given to the AlUed Sovereigns in the Guildhall by the city of
London. He experienced great difficulty 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 raate
rials for his work. Having at length completed his sketches,
he began the picture, and had made considerable progress in
it when, in April 1817, he suddenly became insane, and the work
was interrupted.! It has 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 proceeding regularly and steadily
with the painting, when he suddenly becarae deprived of his reason.
One of his fellow-pupils when he was with Bewick, who was
intiraate with hira, and was accustoraed to see hira frequently,
never observed any previous symptom of insanity in his behaviour,
* Several additional cuts of the same kind, engraved with no less ability by
J, Thompson, were inserted in a subsequent edition.
t This painting was afterwards finished by E. Bird, R, A., who also became
insane.

620 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
and never heard him express any particular anxiety about the work
on which he was engaged.
Within a short time after Clennell had lost his reason, his vrife
also becarae insane f and the raalady being accorapanied by a fever,
she after a short iUness expired, learing three young children 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 haring been
appointed to consider of the best means of raising a fund for the
support of Clennell's family, it was determined to publish by sub
scription 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 Insti
tution. 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 Clennell's children, and for
the purpose of providing a sraall annuity for himself
Clennell, 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 hira in a state of restraint. He was accordingly
sent down to the North, and Uved for several years in a state
of harraless insanity with a relation in the neighbourhood of New
castle ; arausing hunseK with raaking drawings, engraring Uttle
wood-cuts, and occasionally writing poetry. Upwards of sixty of
those drawings are now lying before me, displaying at once so much
of his forraer genius and of his present imbecUity that it is
not possible to regard thera, knowing whose they are, without a
deep feeUng of coraraiseration for his fate. He used occasionally
to call on Bewick, and he once asked for a block to engrave.
Bevrick, to huraour him, gave him a piece of wood, and left
him to choose his own subject; and Clennell, on his next risit
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 following speci
mens of his cuts and of his poetry were respectively engraved and
written in 1828.
* Clennell's wife was a daughter of the late C. Warren, one of the best copper
plate engravers of his time.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

621

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 1 what is it, with twinkling light.
That brings such joy, serenely bright.
That turns the dusk again to light? —
'Tis the Evening Star 1
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 raan the promised day.
And peace? —
'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 spell.
Upon the rosy prism doth dwell.
And as he doth fly, in his tour
From flower to flower,
Is seen for a while
Every care to beguile,
And so doth wing his little way,
A little fairy of the day !

622

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

A FLOWERET.

Where lengthened ray
Gildeth 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 yellow butter-cup
And purple 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 raay think it —
Or with spittle raoisten.
Or half wink it.
Or to music inclined.
Or to sleep in the soft wind. L.C.

About 1831, Clennell having becorae rauch worse, his friends
were again corapeUed to place him under restraint. He was
accordingly conveyed to a lunatic asylum near Newcastle, where he
is still living. Until within this last year or two, he continued to
amuse hiraself with drawing and writing poetry, and perhaps may
do so still. It is to be hoped that, though his condition appear
raiserable to us, he is not raiserable 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 feeling of privation, none of pain."
William Harvey, another distinguished pupil of Bewick, and one
whose earlier engrarings are only surpassed by his more recent
productions as a designer on wood, was born at Newcastle on
Tyne, 13th of July, 1796. Having 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.* In

* Isaac Nicholson, now established as a wood engraver at Newcastle, was
the apprentice iramediately preceding Harvey, W, W. Teraple, who aban
doned the business on the expiration of his apprenticeship for that of a draper

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 623
conjunction vrith his fellow-pupil, W. W. Temple, he engraved
raost of the cuts in Bewick's Fables, 1818 ; and as he excelled
in drawing as well as in engraving, he was generally entrusted by
Bewick to make the drawings on the block after Robert John
son's designs. One of the best cuts engraved by Harvey during
his apprenticeship was a vignette for the title-page of a sraall
work entitled " Cheviot : a Poetical Fragment," printed at New
castle in 1817. This cut, wiiich was also drawn by himself,
is extreraely beautKul both in design and execution ; the trees
and the foliage are in particular excellently represented ; and as
a sraall picturesque subject it is perhaps the best that he ever
engraved. Harvey was a great favourite of Bevrick, who presented hira
with a copy of the History of British Birds as a new year's gift
on the 1st of January 1815, and at the same tirae addressed to
him the following admonitory letter. Mr. Harvey is a distin
guished artist, a kind son, an affectionate husband, a loving
father, and in every relation of life a raost amiable raan : he has
not, however, been exposed to any plots or conspiracies, nor
been persecuted by envy and raalice, as his raaster anticipated ;
but, on the contrary, his talents and his araiable character have
procured for hira public reputation and private esteera.
"Dear William, ^''"''''' ''' ^""^'^ '''''
" I sent you last night the History of British Birds, which
1 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 thera ; but, instead of doing so, let those books put you in
mind of the duties you have to perforra through Ufe. Look at
thera (as long as they last) on every new year's day, and at the
sarae tirae resolve, with the help of the all-wise but unknowable
God, to conduct yourself on every occasion as becoraes a good
raan. — Be a good son, a good brother, (and when the time coraes)
a good husband, a good father, and a good raeraber of society.
Peace of raind will then follow you like a shadow ; and when your
mind grows rich in integrity, you will fear the frowns of no man,
and silk-mercer, came to Bewick shortly after Harvey ; and the younger appren
tice was John Armstrong,

624 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
and only smile at the plots and conspiracies which it is probable
wiU be laid against you by envy, hatred, and mahce.
To William Harvey, jun, Westgate, ^^^ ^,
In Septeraber, 1817, Mr. Harvey came to London; and shortiy
afterwards, with a view of obtaining a correct knowledge of the
principles of drawing, he became a -pupil of Mr. B. R. Haydon, and
he certainly could not have had a better master. While improring
hiraseK under Mr. Haydon, he drew and engraved frora a picture
by that erainent artist his large cut of the Death of Dentatus,
which was published in 1821.* As a large subject, this is tm
questionably 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 raany
parts be superior to anything of the kind, either of earher or raore
recent tiraes, the cut, as a whole, is rather an attempt to rival
copper-plate engraring than a perfect specimen of engraring on
wood, displaying the pecuUar advantages and exceUences of the art
within its own legitimate bounds. More has been atterapted than
can be efficiently represented by means of wood engraring. The
figure of Dentatus is indeed one of the finest speciraens of tbe
art that has ever been executed, and the other figures in the
fore-ground display no less talent ; but the rocks are of too uniform
a tone, and some of the raore distant figures appear to stick to
each other. These defects, however, result frora the very nature
of the art, not frora inabiUty in the engraver; for all that wood
engraving adraits of he has effected. It is unnecessary to say more
of this cut here : sorae observations relating to the detaUs, illus
trated with speciraens of the best engraved parts, wiU be found in
the next chapter.
About 1824 Mr. Harvey entirely gave up the practice of en
graving, and has since exclusively devoted himseK to designing for
copper-plate and wood engravers. His designs engraved on copper
• This cut is about fifteen inches high by about eleven inches aud one quarter
wide. It was engraved on a block consisting of seven difierent pieces, the joinings
of which are apparent in impressions that have not been subsequently touched with
Indian ink.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 625
are, however, few when corapared with the iraraense nuraber
engraved on wood. The former consist principally of the illus
trations in a coUected edition of Miss Edgeworth's Works, 1832 ;
in Southey's edition of Cowper's Works, 1836 ; and in a sraall
edition of Dr. Lingard's History of England, now in course of
pubUcation. The beautiful vignettes and tail-pieces in Dr. Henderson's
History of Ancient and Modern Wines, 1824^ drawn, and mostly
engraved, by Mr. Harvey, may be considered as the ground-work
of his reputation as a designer ; and from that time to the pre
sent he has regularly continued to furnish the designs for the
principal wood-cuts that have been, engraved in England. The
cuts in the first and second series of Northcote's Fables, 1828,
1833;* in the Tower Menagerie, 1828; and in the Gardens and
Menagerie of the Zoological Society, 1831, were all drawn hy
hira. Araong the smaller works illustrated with wood-cuts, and
published about the same time as the preceding, the following
raay be raentioned as containing beautiful speciraens of his talents
as a designer on wood : — The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green ;
The Children in the Wood ; and a Story without an End, translated
frora the German by Mrs. Austin. For various other works he has
also furnished, in all, not less than three thousand designs. The
illustrations to Lane's Translation of the Arabian Nights, on which
Mr. Harvey is at present engaged, bid fair to extend his well-
earned reputation. 'As a designer on wood, he is decidedly superior
* What may be considered the sketches for the principal cuts were supplied by
Northcote hiraself. The following account of the manner in which he composed
thera 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 really raade the
designs for these Fables the arauseraent of his old age, for his talents as a drafts
man, excelling as he did in aniraals, was rarely required by this undertaking. His
general practice was to collect great nurabers 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
until he had illustrated the fable by placing 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 engravers." — Mr. Harvey's work was something raore than free
translation. He completed that which Northcote raerely suggested. The tail-pieces
and letters are all of Mr, Harvey's own invention and drawing.
2s

626

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

to every other English artist of the present day ; and to his ex
cellence in this respect wood engraring is chiefly indebted for the
very great encouragement which it has of late received in this
country. The two following cuts are from drawings by Mr.
Harvey; and both are printed from casts. The first is one of

the illustrations of the Children in the Wood, pubUshed by
Jennings and Chaplin, 1831 ; and the subject is the uncle
bargaining with the two ruffians for the murder of the children.
This cut is freely and effectively executed, without any display
of useless labour.
The second is one of the illustrations of the Blind Beggar of
Bethnal Green, also published by Jennings and Chaplin, in 1832.
The subject represents the beggar's daughter and her four suitors,
namely, — the gentleman of good degree, the gallant young knight

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

621

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 pupUs until the late Robert Branston began
to engrave on wood. About 1796 the best of the London en
gravers was J. Lee. He engraved the cuts for the " Cheap
Repository," 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,
2 S2

628 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
frequently display considerable raerit in the design ; and in this
respect several of thera are scarcely inferior to the cuts drawn
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 Newcastie, and served out the
remainder of his tirae 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.
Robert Branston, like Bewick, acquired his knowledge of wood
engraving without the instructions of a master. He was born at
Lynn, in Norfolk, in 1778, and died in London in 1827. He
served his apprenticeship to his father, a general copper-plate en
graver and heraldic painter, who seeras to have carried on the same
kind of misceUaneous business as Mr. Beilby, the raaster of Bewick,
About 1802, Mr, Branston carae to London, and finding that wood
engraving was rauch encouraged, he determined to apply himseK
to that art Some of his first productions were cuts for lottery
bills ; but as he improved in the practice of engraring on wood,
he began to engrave cuts for the illustration of books. His style
of engraving is peculiarly his own, and perfectly distinct frora
that of Bewick. He engraved huraan figures and in-door scenes
with great clearness and precision ; while Bewick's chief exceUence
consisted in the natural representation of quadrupeds, birds, land
scapes, and road-side incidents. In the representation of trees and
of natural scenery, Branston has almost unKormly failed. Some of
the best of his earlier productions are to be found in the History of
England, pubUshed by Scholey, 1804—1810; in Bloorafield's Wild
Flowers, 1806 ; and in a quarto volurae entitled " Episfles in
Verse," and other poems by George Marshall, 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 Deco
rative Printing. It was executed in rivalry with Nesbit, who
engraved the cut of Rinaldo and Armida for the same work, and
* Between twenty and thirty years ago a wood engraver of the name of Austin
executed several cuts, but did nothing to proraote the art, William Hughes, a
native of Liverpool, who died in February 1825, executed several cuts of con
siderable raerit. He chiefly excelled in architectural subjects. One of his best
productions is a cut in the first volume of Johnson's Typographia, 1824, show
ing the interior of a chapel, and the arms of the raerabers of the Roxburgh Club.
It is engraved in a very delicate and beautiful manner.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING,

629

it would be difficult to decide which is the best Both are good
specimens of the styles of their respective schools ; and the sub
jects are well adapted to display the peculiar excellence of the
engravers. Had they exchanged subjects neither of the cuts would
have been so well executed ; but in this case there can be Uttle
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 foliage in the cut of Rinaldo and Armida. The
following is a reduced copy of a portion of Mr. Branston's cut.

Mr. Branston, Uke raany others, did not think highly of the cuts
in Bewick's Fables ; and feeling persuaded that he could produce
soraething better, he employed Mr. Thurston to raake several
designs, with the intention of publishing a similar 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.

630 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
Bewick's work was already in the market ; and it was questionable
if another of the sarae 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 pro
posed work. The two first are respectively illustrations 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 sarae subject in Bewick's Fables;
but that of the Two Crabs, though raore delicately engraved, is not
equal to the cut of the same subject in Bewick.
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 same things as well, or better. In this respect,
however, he certainly formed a wrong estimate of his abiUties;
for, it is extreraely doubtful if — even with the aid of the best
designer he could find — he could have executed twenty cuts of
birds which, for natural character, would bear a comparison with
twenty of the worst engraved by Bewick himself The great
North-country-man was an artist as well as a wood engraver ; and
in this respect his principal pupils have also been distinguished.
The following is one of the cuts engraved by Mr. Branston to

show his superiority over Bewick. The bird represented is pro
bably the Grey Phalarope, or Scallop-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

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

631

INDUSTRY AND SLOTH.

THE TWO CRABS.

TAIL-PIEOE TO THE TWO CEABS.

632 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
John Thompson,* the best Enghsh wood engraver of the present
day, was a pupil of Mr. Branston. He does not only excel, Uke
his master, in the engraving of human figures, but displays equal
talent in the execution of all kinds of subjects. Among the very
many exceUent cuts which have been engraved in England vrithin
the last twenty years, those executed by J. Thompson are indis
putably the best ; and the wood engraver who may feel inclined to
contend with him for the palm of general excellence raust entertain
a very high opinion of his own abiUties. In alraost every recent
work, claiming attention on account of the excellence of the cuts
which it contains, specimens of Mr. Thompson's talents as a wood
engraver are to be found. As he is rarely unequal to himself it is
rather difficult to point out any which are very rauch superior to
the others of his execution. The following, however, raay be re
ferred to as speciraens of the general excellence of his cuts : —
The title-page to Puckle's Club, 1817, and the cuts of Morose,
Newsraonger, Swearer, Wiseman, and Xantippe in the same work ;
the Chub, the Trout, the Salmon, the Tench, and a group of sraall
fish, consisting of the Minnow, the Loach, the BuU-head, and the
Stickle-back, in Major's edition of Walton's Angler;f Title-page and
cuts in Butler's Hudibras, 1819 ; the portrait of Butler, prefixed to
the edition of his Reraains, pubhshed by Booker, 1827 ; and The
Two Swine; the Mole become a Connoisseur; Love and Friendship,
with various tail-pieces, and the portrait of Northcote, in the
second series of Northcote's Fables. The following cut — a re
duced copy of one of the plates in the Rake's Progress — by Mr.
Thompson, was engraved a few years ago for a projected edition
of Hogarth's Graphic Works. It is one of the best specimens
of the art that has been executed in raodern times. In the en
graving of small cuts of this kind Mr. Thompson has never had

* Charles Thompson, the brother of John, is also a wood engraver. He resides
at Paris, and his cuts are better known in France than in this country. Miss 'Eliza
Thompson, a daughter of John Thompson, also engraves on wood.
f Bewick was accustomed to speak highly of the cuts of fish in this beautiful
work : 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 Grayling, and the Rufle, by H. White.

REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

633

an equal ; and it is beyond the power of the art to effect more
than what has here been accomplished.

%'

•1 I

' -'I ..-/"^''^ «'i' 'Wr^^^

The English wood engravers now living, who next to Charlton
Nesbit and John Thompson seera best entitled to honourable
raention, are: — Sarauel WilUaras; Thomas Williams;* Ebenezer
Landells ; John Orrin Smith ; George Baxter ; Robert Branston ;
Frederick W. Branston ; Henry White, senior, and Henry White,
junior ; Thomas Mosses ; Charles Gorway ; Sarauel Slader ; W. T.
Green ; W. J. Linton ; J. Martin ; J. W. Whiraper ; John Wright ;
W. A. Folkard ; Charles Gray ; George Vasey ; John Byfield ;f
Daniel Dodd, and John Dodd, brothers. — WiUiam Henry Powis, who
died in 1 836, aged 28, was one of the best wood engravers of his
time. Several beautiful cuts executed by him are to be found
in Illustrations of the Bible, published by Churton, 1833 ; and in
an edition of Scott's Bible, published by Seeley, 1834.
* Thoraas Williams is the brother of Samuel. Miss Mary Anne Williams, their
sister, also engraves on wood : some of her cuts are very neatly executed. Both
S. and T. Williams occasionally raake the designs for the cuts which they
engrave. Sorae of the best of Mr. S. Williams's cuts, drawn as well as en
graved by himself, are to be found in an edition of Scott's Bible, published
by Seeley, Fleet Street, 1834.
t Mr. Byfield's sister. Miss Mary Byfield, and his nieces. Miss Mary and Miss
Elizabeth Clint, also engrave on wood:

634 REVIVAL OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
One of the principal wood engravers in Germany, about the
time that Bewick began to practise the art in England, was
Unger. In 1779 he published a tract containing five cuts of
his own engraving, discussing the question if Albert Durer
actually engraved on wood : his decision is in the negative. In
the same year his son, who was of the same profession, also
pubUshed a dissertation, illustrated with wood-cuts, on the pro
gress of wood engraving in Brandenburg, with an account of the
principal books containing wood-cuts printed in that part of
Prussia. They jointly executed some chiaro-scuros, and a nura
ber of trifling book-ornaments, such as are to be found in Heine-
kin's Idee Generale d'une Collection complette d'Estampes.
These cuts are of a very inferior character, both in design and
execution. Gubitz, a German wood engraver, who flourished
about thirty years ago, executed several cuts which are much
superior to any that I have seen by the Ungers. Several of
the cuts engraved by Gubitz, in point of effect, bear considerable
resemblance to the cuts of John Bewick. The principal French
wood engravers in the eighteenth century, subsequent to PapiUon,
were Gritner and Beugnet; but neither of them produced any
thing superior to the worst of the cuts to be fotmd in the work of
Papillon. With them the art of wood engraring in France rather
declined than advanced. Within the last ten or twelve years the
art has made great progress both in Gerraany and France ; and
should the taste for wood-cuts continue to increase in those coun
tries, perhaps their designers and wood engravers may regain for
the art the popularity which it enjoyed in former times, when
Nuremberg and Lyons were the great marts for works iUustrated
with wood engravings.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

635

CHAPTER VIIL

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGKAVING.

Erroneous opinions about Cross-hatching. — The choice and preparation of the
Wood. — Mode of inserting a Plug. — Magnifying glasses and engraver's lamp.
— Different kinds of tools. — Cutting tints. — Engraving in outline. — Cuts repre
senting colour and texture. — Maps engraved on Wood. — The advantages of
lowering a block previous to engraving the subject. — Chiaro-scuro engraving on
Wood, and printing in colours from wood-blocks. Metallic relief engraving,
— by Blake, Bewick, Branston, and Lizars, — Mr. C, Hancock's patent, —
Mr, Woone's patent. — Casts from Wood-cuts, — Printing Wood-cuts, — Con
clusion.

ERHAPS no art exercised in this
country is less known to the public
than that of wood engraring ; and
hence it arises that most persons who
have incidently or even expressly
written on the subject have comraitted
so raany raistakes respecting the prac
tice. It is frora a want of practical
knowledge that we have had so many
absurd speculations respecting the
manner in which the old wood engra
vers executed their cross-hatchings, and so many notions about
vegetable putties and metallic relief engraving. Even in a Memoir
of Bewick, printed in 1836, we find the following passage, which
certainly would not have appeared had the writer paid any
attention to the nuraerous wood-cuts, containing cross-hatchings
of the raost delicate kind, published' in England between 1820
and 1834 : — " The principal characteristic of the ancient masters

636 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
is the crossing of the black lines, to produce or deepen the
shade, coraraonly called cross-hatching. Whether this was done
by employing different blocks, one after another, as in caUco-
printing and paper-staining, if may be difficult to say; but to pro
duce thera on the same block is so difficult and unnatural, that
though Nesbit one of Bewick's early pupils, 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 waste of
time and labour is scarcely worth the effect produced."* Now,
the difficulty of saying whether the old cross-hatchings were exe
cuted on a single block, or produced by impressions frora two or
more, proceeds entirely from the writer not being acquainted vrith
the subject : had he known that hundreds of old blocks containing
cross-hatchings are still in existence, and had he been in tbe
habit of seeing sirailar cross-hatchings executed alraost daily by
very indifferent wood engravers, the difficulty which he felt would
have vanished. " Unnatural" is certainly an iraproper term for
a philosopher to apply to a process of art merely because he does
not understand it : with equal reason he raight have caUed every
other process, both of copper-plate and wood engraving, " un
natural;" nay, in this sense there is no process in arts or manu
factures to which the term "unnatural" raight not in the sarae
manner be applied.
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 generally understood that box is best adapted for the
purposes of engraving, and that it is generally used for cuts
intended for the illustration of books, there seeras no occasion
to enter into a detail of all the kinds of wood that might be
used for the more ordinary purposes of large coarse cuts for
posting-biUs, and others of a siraUar character. Mr. Savage, in
his Hints on Decorative Printing, has copied the principal part
of what Papillon has said on the subject of wood, intending tiiat
it should be received as information from a practical wood
engraver ; but he has oraitted to notice that much of what PapiUon
* Memoir of Thomas Bewick, by the Reverend William Turner, prefixed to
volurae sixth ofthe Naturalist's Library, page 18.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 637
says about the choice of wood, can be of little service in guiding
the raodern English wood engraver, who executes his subject on
the cross-section of the wood, while Papillon and his contera
poraries were accustomed to engrave upon the side, or the Irnig-
way of the wood. "There is no difficulty," 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, without 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 known — -that the thin splinter by which the
quality of the wood was to be tested was to be cut the long way
of the wood : a similar cutting taken frora the cross-section would
break short however excellent the wood raight be for the purpose
of engraving. Papillon's direction is therefore calculated to rais-
lead, unless accorapanied with an explanation of the manner in
which the splinter is to be taken ; and it 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 small cuts the smallest logs
are to be preferred, as the smallest wood is almost invariably the
best American and Turkey box is tbe largest ; but all large wood
of this kind is generaUy of inferior quaUty, and raost Uable to
split; it is also frequently of a red colour, which is a certain
characteristic of its softness, and consequent unfitness for delicate
engraving. Frora my own experience, English box is superior to
all others ; for though small, 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 actually cut out. The large red wood, on the contrary,
besides being soft, is liable to crumble and to cut short; that is,
small particles will sometimes break away frora the sides of the
line cut by the graver, and thus cause imperfections in the work.
Box of large and coraparatively quick growth, is also extreraely
liable to shrink unevenly between the rings, so that after the

638 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
surface has been planed perfectly level, and engraved, it is frequently
difficult to print the cut in a proper manner, in consequence of
the inequality of the surface.
As even the largest logs of box are of comparatively sraall
diaraeter, it is extreraely 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, sorae dealers are accustoraed
to saw the log in a slanting direction — in the manner of an obUque
section of a cylinder — so that the surface of a piece cut off shall
resemble an oval rather than a circle. Blocks sawn 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 whife spots or streaks is utterly unfit
for the purposes of the engraver ; for in cutting a line across,
adjacent to these spots or streaks, sometiraes the entire piece
thus marked will be reraoved, 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 becoraing Ughter 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 raore ink than
the yellow, and also retains it more tenaciously, so that irapressions
frora a block of this kind soraetiraes display a perceptible inequahty
of colour ; — frora the yellow parts allowing the ink to leave thera
freely, while the white parts partially retain it the printed cut has
the appearance of having received either too much ink in one place,
or too little in another. Besides this, the ink remaining on the
white parts becomes so adhesive, that, should the sheet be rather too
damp (as wiU frequently happen when much paper is wetted at one
time), it wiU sometiraes stick to the paper; a sraaU spot of white vriU
hence appear in the impression, while a minute piece of paper wiU
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 raake a sraall inden
tion in the block, and occasion a white or grey speck in the im-

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 639
pressions printed after its removal. Soft red and white box, more
especially the latter, being more porous than clear yellow, blocks
of those kinds of wood are most liable to be injured by the liquids
used to clean thera after printing. Should the printer wash thera
with either lees or spirits of turpentine, these fluids will enter the
wood raore freely than if it were yellow, 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 yellow, be wetted or exposed to dampth, it will expand
considerably;* but with care it will retum to its forraer diraen
sions, should it have been sufficiently seasoned before being printed.
When, however, the expansion has been caused by lees or spirits
of turpentine, the block will never again contract to its original
size.f 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 indeed be said, why not require the engraver
who is to execute the cuts to supply proper wood himself? Where
only one engraver is employed to execute all the cuts for a work,
the choice of the wood may indeed be very properly left to him
seK. 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
generally consigns them to a drawer until wanted, and when he
has finished a design, he not unfrequently sends it to an engraver
who did not supply the identical piece of wood on which it is

* The foUovring 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 wall of a rather damp room, and on examining
it the next morning I found that the box had expanded so much that the edges
projected beyond the mahogany upwards of the eighth of au 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 stereo
typing and the subsequent washing, increased not less than two inches in their
perimeter or exterior lineal dimension, as has been proved by comparing the
measureraent of a block in its present state with a first proof taken on India paper,
which paper, being dry wheu the impression was taken, has not suflTered any
contraction.

640 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
drawn. Hence scarcely any engraver pays much attention to the
kind of wood he sends; for where many are eraployed in the
execution of a series of cuts for the same work, it is very unlikely
that each will receive the drawings on the wood supplied by himseK.
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 unfrequentiy
happens that the person who employs the engravers wiU not give
the blocks to those for whora the artist intended them. PubUshers
have a much greater interest in this raatter than they seera 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 half the nuraber of irapressions required have been printed ;
if red-ringed, the surface is extremely liable to become uneven, and
also to warp and split.
As box can seldora be obtained of raore than five or six inches
diaraeter, 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 fron pins and screws.
Should the block, however, be wetted or exposed to dampth, the
joints are certain to open, and soraetiraes 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 will be the raore likely, by its contracting in eold
and darap weather, to resist the expansive force of the wood at
such times.
Besides the hardness and toughness of box, which allows of
clear raised lines, 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,
• Sometimes a piece of raetal — 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, aud raake tlie
block worse.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 641
beech,* and other kinds of wood, forraerly 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 durabiUty are frequently pierced through and through by
worms. The chips of box, when chewed, are certainly unwhole
some to huraan beings. A fellow-pupil, who had acquired a habit
of chewing the sraall pieces which he cut out with his graver,
became unwell, and was frequently attacked with sickness. On
raentioning the subject to his medical adviser, he was ordered to
refrain from chewing the pieces of box ; he accordingly took the
doctor's adrice, gave up his bad habit, and in a short time recovered
his usual health.f
Box when kept long in a dry place becomes unfit for the
purpose of engraving. I have at this time in my possession a
dravring which has been made on the block about ten years, but
the wood has becorae so dry and brittle that it would now be
impossible to engrave the subject in a proper raanner.
When the wood does not cut clear, but crumbles as if it were
too dry, the defect raay soraetiraes be reraedied 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
recoraraend that the back of the block should be placed in waters —
in a plate or large dish — to the depth of the sixteenth part of
an inch, for about an hour. If allowed to remain longer there
is a risk of the block afterwards splitting.
Box, of whatever kind, when not well seasoned, is extremely
liable to warp and bend ; but a little care wiU frequently prevent
raany 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 pubhsher, it ought, if not
* One of the original blocks of Weever's Funeral Monuraents, 1631, preserved
in the Print Roora ofthe British Museura, is of beech.
¦f A few years ago I allowed a rabbit to have the run of a sraall garden, where
it soon eat everything up except a small bush of box. Happening to leave home
for two days without making any provision for the rabbit, I found it on my return
in a dying state, and all the leaves nibbled off the box. The rabbit died in the
course of a few hours, and on opening it the cause of its death was apparent— the
stomach was full of the leaves of the box.
2 T

642 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
directly put in hand, to be placed on one of its edges, and not,
as is custoraary with many, laid down flat, with the surface on
which the drawing is made upwards. If a block of unseasoned
wood be permitted to lie in this manner for a week or two, it
is almost certain to turn up at the edges, the upper surface
becoraing concave, and the lower convex, as is shown in the follow
ing cut, representing the section of such a block.

n

The sarae thing will occur in the process of engraving, though
to a small extent, should the engraver's hand be warm and moist ;
and also when working by lamp-light without a globe filled with
water between the lamp and the block. Such sUght warping in
the course of engraring is, however, easily reraedied by laying the
block with its face — that is, the surface on which the drawing
is made — downward on the desk or table at all times when the
engraver is not actually employed on the 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 becoraes
dished, or concave, on its upper surface, as shown in the preceding
cut, there is little chance of its ever again becoming sufficiently
flat to allow of its being well printed. When the deriation from
a perfect level at the bottora is not so great as to attract the
notice of the pressman prerious to taking an impression, the
block not unfrequently 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.
When box is very dry it is extreraely difficult to cut a clear
hne upon it, as it crurables, and sraaU pieces fly out at the sides
of the Une traced by the graver. The smaU wbite spots so
frequently seen in the delicate hnes 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 wiU cut clear, while in the red it wiU be almost im-

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 643
possible to cut a perfect line. When the same piece of wood is
yellow and red alternately it is extremely difficult to produce an
even fint upon it. Wood of this kind ought always to be re
jected, both frora the difficulty of engraving upon it with clearness,
and from the uncertainty of the surface continuing perfectly flat
as the red rings are more liable to shrink in drying than the other
parts, and, frora their thus not receiving a sufficient quantity of ink,
to appear like so raany rainbows in the irapression.
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
are apt to produce in an impression, wood of this kind is very
unpleasant and uncertain to engrave on ; for as the yellow parts
cut pleasant and clear, the engraver, unless particularly on his
guard, is betrayed to trust to the whole piece as being of the
sarae uniforra tenacity, and before he is aware of its inequality
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 work, has either caused a small piece to fly out, or carried
the line further than he intended. Wood of this kind is unfit
for anything except very coraraon work, and ought never to be
used for deUcate engraving. There is no certain raeans of forraing
a judgment of box-wood until it be cut into slices or trencher-like
pieces from the log ; for raany 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 slice can seldora be procured without a crack.
This, probably, is occasioned by the manner in which the tree is
felled. Previous to their beginning to cut down a tree the Turkish
wood-cutters fasten a rope to the top, by means of which they
break the tree down when the bole is little raore than half cut
through. The consequence is that a shiver frequently extends
through the raost valuable portion of the log.
Many artists, who are not accustoraed to make drawings on
wood, erroneously suppose that the block requires sorae pecuUar
preparation. Nothing raore is required than to rub the previously
planed and smoothed surface with a Uttle powdered Bath-brick,
slightly mixed vrith water : as Uttle water as possible is, however,
2t2

644 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
to be used, as otherwise the block will absorb too rauch, and
be afterwards extremely hable to split When this thin coating
is perfectly dry, it is to be removed by rubbing the block with
the palra of the hand. No part of the hght powder ought to
remain, for, otherwise, the pencU coming in contact with it will
make a coarse and comparatively thick line, 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 sUppery, and thus capable of affording a better hold to the
point of the black-lead pencil.
When the principal parts of the drawing are first washed in
upon the block in Indian ink, it is of great advantage to gently
rub the surface of the block, when dry, with a little dry and
finely powdered Bath-brick, before the drawing is completed with
the black-lead pencil. By this raeans the hard edges of the Indian-
ink wash will be softened, the different tints dehcately blended,
and the subsequent touches of the pencil be more distinctly seen.
Some artists, previous to beginning to draw on the block, are in
the habit of washing over the surface vrith a mixture of flake-
white and gum-water.* This practice is, however, by no raeans
a good one. The drawing indeed may appear very bright and
showy when first made on such a white surface, but in the
progress of engraving a thin film of the preparation will occasion
ally 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 ability and recollection. This white ground also mixes with
the ink in taking a first proof, and fills up the finer parts of the
cut. If a white wash be used without gum, the drawing is very
liable to be partially effaced in the progress of engraving, and
the engraver left to finish his work 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.
The less that is done to change the original colour of the wood —
* Instead of gum-water, French artists, who are accustomed to make drawings
on wood, use water in which parchment shavings have been boiled.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 645
by white or any other preparation — so rauch the better for the
engraver ; a piece of clear box is sufficiently light to allow of the
most delicate Unes being distinctly dravra upon it. When the
surface of the block is whitened, another inconvenience arises
besides those already noticed. It is this : when the drawing is
made upon a white ground, and the subject partly engraved, the
effect of the whole becomes very confused and perplexing to the
engraver in consequence of the parts already engraved appearing
nearly of the original colour of the wood, while 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 drawing to refer to,
nor a proof to guide him : untU the cut be completed he has no
raeans of correctly ascertaining whether he has left too rauch colour
or taken too much away.
The engraver on copper or on steel can have an impression of
his etching as soon as it is bit in, and can take impressions of the
plate at all times in the course of his progress ; the wood engraver,
on the contrary, enjoys no such advantages ; he is obUged to wait
until all be completed ere he can obtain an impression of his work.
If the wood engraver has kept his subject generally too dark,
there is not rauch difficulty in reducing it ; but if he has engraved
it too light, there is no reraedy. If a sraall part be badly
engraved, or the block has sustained an injury, the defect may
be repaired by inserting a sraall piece of wood and re-engrav
ing it : this raode of repairing a block is technically termed
^^ plugging."* When a block requires to be thus amended or repaired, it is
first to be determined how much is necessary to be taken out
that the restoration may accord with the adjacent parts ; for some
times, in order to render the insertion less perceptible, it may

* This mode of repairing a block was practised by the Gerraan wood engravers
of the tirae of Albert Durer. The " plug" which they inserted was usually square,
and not circular as at present. The French wood engravers of the tirae of Pa
pillon continued to employ square plugs. There are two or three instances of cuts
thus repaired in the Adventures of Sir Theurdank, Nuremberg and Augsburg,
1517-1519.

646 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
be requisite to take out rather raore than the part actually
iraperfect or injured. This being decided on, a hole is driUed
in the block, as is here represented, of a size sufficient to adrait
"the plug." The hole ought not to be drilled qmte through

THE PLUG OUT.

the block, as the piece let in would, frora the shaking and
battering of the press, be very hkely to becorae loosened. Should
it receive more pressure at the top than bottom, it would sink
a littie below the engraved surface of the block, and thus appear
lighter in the irapression than the surrounding parts ; while should
it be sUghtly forced up frora below, it would appear darker, — in
each case forraing a positive bleraish in the cut* When the
shape of the part to be restored is too la:rge to be covered vrith

* In a tail-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 iu 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 otlier parts in
consequence of their having risen a little above the surface.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

647

one circular plug, it is better to add one plug to another till
the whole be covered, than to insert one of a different shape,
and thus fill the space at once. When a single plug is used
the section appears thus ;
the plug being driven in
like a wedge, and having

No. 1.

No. 3.

a vacant space around it at the bottom.
If an oblong space of the form. No. 1,
is to be restored, it vrill be best effected
by first inserting a plug at each end,
as at No. 2, then adding two others,
as at No. 3, and finally 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 care
fully 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 be discovered,
except by one who should know where no. 4.
to look fpr 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
drilled in the block, and afterwards filled up with plaster to the
level of the surface. A cast 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 possibility of its rising up above or
sinking below the surface, as sometiraes happens when a plug
is inserted in a wbod-block. When the part reraaining blank in
the cast is engraved in accordance with the work of the surround
ing parts, it is alraost impossible to discover any -trace of the inser
tion. The following impression is frora a cast of the block
illustrating the " plug," with the part which appears white in
the forraer cut restored and re-engraved in this manner. A white
circular line, near the handle of the pail, has been purposely cut to
indicate the place of the plug.

648 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

ajsiSit, sift-

Before beginning to engrave any subject, it is necessary to
observe whether the drawing be entirely, or only in part made
with a pencil. If it be what is usually called a wash dravring,
with little raore than the outhnes in pencU, it is not neces
sary to be so cautious in defending it frora the action of the
breath or the occasional touching of the hand ; but if it be
entirely in pencil, too much care cannot be taken to protect it
from both.
Before proceeding to engrave a delicate pencil drawing the
block ought to be covered with paper, vrith 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 Ukely to partiaUy
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
becorae 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 raodern
wood-cuts is doubtless owing, in a great raeasure, to the block
when in course of engraving having been covered with soft paper,

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 649
which has partially effaced the drawing. The drawing, which origi
nally may have been clear and touxdiy, loses its brightness, and
becomes indistinct from its frequent contact with the soft pUa-
ble paper ; the spirited dark touches which give it effect are
rubbed down to a sober grey, and all the other parts, from the
same cause, are comparatively weak. The cut, being engraved
according to the appearance of the drawing, is tame, flat, and
spiritless. Different engravers have different methods of fastening the
paper to the block. Some fix it with gum, or with wafers at the
sides ;* but this is not a good mode, for as often as it is neces
sary to take a view of the whole block, in order to judge of the
progress of the work, the paper must be tom off, and after
wards replaced by raeans of new wafers or fresh gura, so that
before the cut is finished the sides of the block are covered with
bits of paper in the manner of a wall or shop-front covered with
fragments of posting-biUs. The most convenient raode 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 over 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 firraly pulled, in the manner
here represented, will cause them to stretch a little and pass over
on to the edge without difficulty. When this plan is adopted the
paper forms a kind of moveable cap, which can 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
beginning to leam the art of wood engraving, have injured their
sight by unnecessarily using a magnifying glass. At the very
commencement of their pupilage boys vrill furnish themselves
* French wood engravers are accustoraed to rub the sides of the block with bees'-
wax, which on being chafed with the thumb-nail becomes slightly softened, and
thus adheres to the paper.

650 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
with a glass of this 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 their elders in the
profession, they must have one also ; and as they generally choose
such as magnify most, the result not unfrequently is that thefr
sight is considerably impaired before they are capable of executing
anything that really requires much nicety of rision.
I would recoraraend all persons to avoid the use of glasses of
any kind, whether single raagnifiers or spectacles, until impafred
sight renders such aids necessary; and even then to coramence
with such as are of smaU magnKying power. The habit of rievring
minute objects alternately with a magnifying 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 firraly to the eye as to entirely dispense vrith
holding it, the engraver is thus frequently obUged to apply his
left hand to keep it in its place ; as he cannot hold the block
with the sarae hand at the sarae tirae, or move it as may be
required, so as to enable hira to execute his work with free
dora, the consequence is, that the engraving of a person who
is in the habit of using a raagnifying glass has frequently a
craraped appearance. There are also other disadvantages attendant
on the habitual use of a raagnifying glass. A person using such
a glass must necessarily 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 itseK is
not unfrequently distorted ; and when 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 dfrectiy in
front, without any twisting of the neck so as to bring one eye
only immediately above the part in course of execution. I there
fore 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 ara here raerely speaking frora expe
rience, and not professedly from any theoretic knowledge of optics ;

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 651
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 necessary. I am decidedly of opinion that to use glasses
to preserve the sight, is to meet haK way the evU which is thus
sought to be averted. A person who has his sense of hearing
perfect never thinks of using a trumpet or acoustic instrument
in order to preserve it. All wood engravers, whether their eyes be
naturally weak or not, ought to wear a shade, similar to that
represented in the following figure, No. 1, as it both protects the
eyes from too strong a light, and also serves to concentrate the
view on the work which the engraver is at the time engaged in
executing.

No. 1, No. 2,
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,
sirailar to that in the preceding figure. No. 2. Such a shade
or screen is called by Papillon a mentonniere,* and its object is
to prevent the drawing on the block being injured by the breath
in darap or frosty weather. Without such a precaution, a drawing
made on the block with black-lead pencil would, in a great
measure, be effaced by the breath of the engraver passing freely
over it in such weather. Such a shade or screen is raost con
veniently 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 ara aware of only one which both protects the eyes
* PapiUon's description of a mentonnilre is previously noticed at page 552,

652

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

from the hght and the face frora the heat of the larap. This con
sists in filhng a krge transparent glass-globe with clear water, and
placing it in such a raanner between the lamp and the workman
that the light, after passing through the globe, may faU directly
on the block, in the manner represented in the following cut
The height of the lamp can be regulated according to the en
graver'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 when the lamp is
elevated to the height here seen ; by lowering the lamp a 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 vrill 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 hiraseK.*

SANDBAG AND BLOCK. GLOBE.

"• Papillon preferred a kind of bull's-eye \ens~loupe—o{ about three and a half
inches diameter, flat on one side and convex on the other, to a globe filled with
water- an bocal-hv 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

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 653
It has been said, and with some appearance of truth, that " the best
engravers use the fewest tools ;" but this, hke 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 manner 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
will incumber his desk or table with a number of useless tools,
though, from a regard to his own time, he will take care that
he has as many as are necessary. There are sorae who pride
theraselves upon executing a great variety of work with one 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 well. A person
who makes his tools his hobby-horse, and who bestows upon their
omaments — ebony or ivory handles, silver hoops, &c., — that atten
tion 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 flat tools or chisels. Of each of these four kinds there
are various sizes. The following cut shows the forra of a
graver that is principally used for outUning or separating one
figure frora another. A, is the back of the tool ; B, the face ;
C, the point ; and D, what is /r\
technically caUed the beUy. b^^ -^^-dTZ:!^] ) .
The horizontal dotted line, 1, <— ^'^= lb
2, shows the surface of the block, and the manner in which part
of the handle is cut off after the blade is inserted.f This tool is
angle, or turned in any direction by means of a ball-and-socket joint. He gives a
cut of it at page 75, vol. ii, of his Traits 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,
* A sharp-edged scraper, in shape something like a copper-plate engraver's
burnisher, is used in the process of lowering.
t The handle, when received frora the turner'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.

654

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

very fine at the point, as the hne 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 direction. 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 wiU merely make a deUcate opening, which would
be Ukely to close as soon as the block should be exposed to
the action ofthe press. When the outUne tool becoraes 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, be^nning from
the outline tool, are generally sufficient. The blades differ little
in shape, when first made, frora those used by copper-plate
engravers ; but in order to render thera fit for the purpose of
wood engraring, it is necessary to give the points thefr pecuhar
forra 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 Une, a c, shows the
extent to which the points
of such tools are sometimes
ground down by the engraver in order to render them broader.
When thus ground down the points are sUghtly rounded, and do
not remain straight as if cut off by the dotted Une a c. These tools
are used for nearly all kinds of work, except for series of paraUel
lines, technically 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 parallel lines forming an even
and uniform 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 will afford
an idea of the shape of the blades towards the point The handle

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

655

B
n A
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 all their lines with a
graver. There is, however, great uncertainty in cutting a series
of parallel lines in this raanner, as the least incUnation of the hand
to one side will cause the graver to increase the width of the
white line cut out, and undercut the raised one lefi, raore than if
in the sarae 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 :
TINT-TOOL.
The tint-tool, being very httle thicker at B than at the point A,
will cause a very trifling difference in the width of a line in the
event of a wrong inclination, when corapared with the inequahty
occasioned by the unsteady direction of a graver, whose angle at
the point is much greater than that of a proper tint-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. Tintr-tools that are rather
thick in the back are to be preferred to such as are thin, not
only from their allowing of great steadiness in cutting, but from
their leaving the raised hnes 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 the lines in such manner that a section of
them appears thus : the black or raised lines frora which |ii|,ii|ii|||
the impression is obtained being no thicker at their base ||gg|g
656

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

than at the surface ; while a section of the lines cut by a tool
that is thicker at the back than at the lower part appears
thus. It is evident that hnes of this kind, having a
better support at the base, are rauch less liable than
the former to be broken in printing. Gouges of different sizes,
frora A the smallest to b the largest, „_ ^
as here represented, are used for scooping
out the wood towards the centre of the
block ; while fiat tools or chisels, of vari
ous sizes, are chiefly employed in cutting QA CIZIB
away the wood towards the edges. Flat
tools of the shape seen in figure c are
sometimes offered for sale by tool-makers, chisels
but they ought never to be used ; for the projecting
comers are very apt to cut under a Une, and thus
remove it entirely, causing great trouble to replace it
by inserting new pieces of wood.
The face of both gravers and tint-tools ought to be kept rather
long than short ; though if the point be ground too fine, it wiU be
very Uable to break. When the face is long — or, strictly speak
ing, 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 rauch greater clear
ness than when the face is corapara
tively obtuse, and the sraall sharing
cut out turns gently over towards the hand. When, however,
the face of the tool approaches to tbe shape seen in the
following cut, the reverse happens ; the small shaving is rather
ploughed out than cleanly cut out ; and the force necessary
to push the tool forward frequentiy causes small pieces to fiy
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,
and hinders the engraver from seeing
that part of the pencilled line which is ^"^^Z ^
directly under it A short-faced tool
of itself prevents the engraver from distinctly seeing the point
When the face of a tool has become obtuse, it ought to be

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 657
ground to a proper form, for instance, frora the shape of the
figure A to that of B.

/ ^

Gravers and tint-tools when first received frora the maker are
generally 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 with its flat side above
a piece of iron — a poker will do very well — nearly red-hot
Directly it changes to a straw colour it is to be taken off the
iron, and either dipped in sweet oil or allowed to cool gra
duaUy. If reraoved frora the iron while it is still of a straw
colour, it will have been softened no raore than sufficient; but
should it have acquired a purple tinge, it will have been softened
too rauch ; and instead of breaking at the point, as before, it will
bend. A sraall grindstone is of great service in grinding down the
faces of tools that have becorae obtuse. A Turkey stone, though
the operation requires raore time, is however a very good sub
stitute, as, besides reducing the face, the tool receives a point
at the same tirae. Though sorae 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 polish on
a hone cuts a clearer line than one which has only been sharpened
on a Turkey stone ; it also cuts raore pleasantly, gliding sraoothly
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 engraring on a plane sur
face 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 inclination
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 slightly inclined upwards, as is here
2 u

6,58

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

shown, it is extremely difficult to make it ascend on the side oppo
site, without getting too much hold, 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 rauch harder substances than wood to cut, hold the graver with
the fore-finger extending on the blade beyond the thurab, thus,
so that by its pressure the
point raay 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 throughout, it is necessary
to hold the graver in a different manner, and eraploy the thurab
at once as a stay or rest for the blade, and as a check upon
the force exerted by the palra of the hand, the motion being
chiefiy directed by the fore-finger, as is shown in the foUow
ing cut.

The thumb, with the end resting against the side of the block, in
the manner above represented, aUows the blade to raove back
and forward with a shght degree of pressure against it and
in case of a shp it is ever ready to check the graver's progress.
This raode of resting the thurab against the edge of the block
is, however, only applicable when the cuts are so smaU as to allow
of the graver, when thus guided and controUed, to reach every

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

659

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.
In order to acquire steadiness of hand, the best thing for a
pupil to begin with is the cutting of tints, — that is, parallel hnes ;
and the first attempts ought to be made on a 
small block such as is represented in No, 1,
which will allow each entire line to be cut with
the thurab resting against the edge. When
lines of this length can be cut with tole
rable precision, the pupU should proceed to
blocks of the size of No. 2. He ought also to cut waved

No. 1.

No. 2.

tints, which are not so difficult; beginning, as in straight ones,
with a smaU block, and gradually proceeding to blocks of
2 u 2

660

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

greater size. Should the wood not cut smoothly in the direction
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 will cut clean
and smooth the opposite way. It is here necessary to observe,
that K a certain number of lines be cut in one direction, and an
other portion, by reversing the block, be cut the contrary way, the
tint, although the same tool may have been used for all, will be of
two different shades, notwithstanding the pains that raay 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 re
sistance which it makes to the tool raay not be perceptible by the
hand of the engraver. It is of great iraportance 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 will thus acquire a habit of carefully executing such hues, which
subsequently will be of the greatest serrice. 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 proof, retum
to their work, and, with great loss of time, keep thinning and
dressing the Unes, till they frequently make the tint appear worse
than at first.
When uniform tints, both of straight and waved hues, can be cut
with facility, the learner should proceed to cut tints in which the
Unes are of unequal distance apart. To effect this, tools of different
sizes are necessary; for in tints of
this kind the different distances be
tween 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 soraetiraes entirely pro
duced by increasing the pressure of
the graver. In the annexed cut No.
3, the black lines are of equal thick- j,.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 661
ness, but the width of the white lines
between them becomes gradually
less from the top to the bottom.
By coraparing it with No. 4, the
difference between a uniforra tint, ^^ ^
where the lines are of the sarae
thickness and equally distant, and one where the distance between
the lines is unequal, will be more readily understood.
A straight-line tint, either uniform, or with the lines becoming
gradually closer without appearing darker, is generally adopted
to represent a clear blue sky. In No. 3 the tint has been
commenced with a coraparatively broad-pointed tool ; and after
cutting a few lines, less pressure, thus aUowing the black lines
to corae a Uttle closer together, has been used, till it became
necessary to change the tool for one less broad in the face. In
this raanner a succession of tools, each finer than the preceding,
has been eraployed till the tint was corapleted. — To be able to
produce a tint of deUcately graduated tone, it is necessary that
the engraver should be well acquainted with the use of his
tools, and also have a correct eye. The following is a speciraen
of a tint cut entirely with the sarae graver, the difference in the
colour being produced by increasing the pressure in the lighter

No. 5.
parts. Tints of this kind are obtained with greater facility and
certainty by using a graver, and increasing the pressure, than by
using several tinHools. On comparing No. 3 with No. 5, it will
be perceived that the black lines in the latter decrease in thick
ness as they approach the bottom of the cut, while in the forraer
they are of a uniform thickness throughout If a clear sky is to
be represented, there is no other mode of making that part near

662 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
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 proportionably stronger in that part It is, however,
known by experience that the unequal distance of the lines in such
a tint does not cause any perceptible difference in the colour ; as
the upper lines, in consequence of their being more apart, print
thicker, and thus counterbalance the effect of the greater closeness
ofthe others.
The two following cuts are speciraens of tints represented by
means of waved lines : in No. 6 the hnes are sUghtly undukted ;
in No. 7 they bave more of the appearance of zig-zag.

No.7.
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 ob
serve, that if the alternate undulations in such lines be too much
curved, the tint, when printed, will appear as K intersected from
top to bottom, like wicker-work with perpendicular stakes, in the
manner shown in the foUowing specimen, No. 8. This appear-

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 663
ance is caused by the unequal pressure of the tool in forming
the small curves of which each line is coraposed, thus making
the black or raised line rather thicker in some parts than in others,

No. 8.
and the white interstices wide or narrow in the same proportion.
The appearance of such a tint is precisely the same whether cut
by hand or by a machine.* In executing waved tints it is there
fore necessary to be particularly careful not to get the undulations
too rauch 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
their proper appUcation all indications of form, texture, and con
ventional colour entirely depend. Lines are not to be introduced
merely as such, — to display the mechanical skill 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 correct
ness. Some wood engravers are but too apt to pride themselves
on the deUcacy of their lining, without considering whether it be
well adapted to express their subject ; and to fancy that excellence
in the art consists chiefly in cutting with great labour a number
of delicate unraeaning 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 pencil in a shade than a
Bewick or a ClenneU would require to engrave a cut fuU of
meaning and interest. Mere deUcacy of lines will not, however,
* The sky in many of the large wood engravings executed in London is now
cut by means of a raachine invented by Mr. John Parkhouse. In raany steel en
gravings the sky is ruled in by means of a machine by persons who do little else.

664 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
compensate for want of natural expression, nor kborious trifling
for that vigorous execution which is the result of feeling. " Ex
pression," says Flaxman, " engages the attention, and excites an
interest which compensates for a multitude of defects — whUst the
most admirable execution, without a just and Uvely expression,
will be disregarded as laborious inanity, or conteraned as an
illusory endeavour to impose on the feehngs and the understand
ing.  Sentiment gives a sterUng. value, an irresistible charm,
to the rudest iraagery or the most unpractised scrawL By this
quahty a firm alUance is formed with the affections in aU works
of art"* Perpetrators of kborious inanities find, however, thefr
adrairers ; and an amateur of such delicacies is in raptures with
a speciraen of " exquisitely fine Uning ;" and when told that such
wood-peckings are, as works of art much inferior to the productions
of Bewick, he asks where his works are to be found; and after he
has examined thera he pronounces thera " coarse and tasteless, —
the rude efforts of a country engraver," and not to be corapared with
certain delicate, but spiritless, wood engrarings of the present day.
With respect to the direction of Unes, it ought at all times
to be home in mind by the wood engraver, — and raore 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 limb of a
figure they ought not to run horizontaUy or vertically, — conveying
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 well chosen hne makes a great difference
in properly representing an object, when compared with one. less
appropriate, though more dehcate. The proper disposition of
lines will not only express the form required, but also produce
more colour as they approach each other in approximating curves,
as in the following example, and thus represent a variety of hght
and shade, without the necessity of introducing
other lines crossing them, which ought always to ^^^. A
be avoided in small subjects : if, however, the
figures be large, it is necessary to break the hard
appearance of a series of such single lines by cross
ing them with others raore deUcate.
* Lectures on Sculpture, p. 172 — 193.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 665
In cutting curved Unes, 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 will
always be apt to cut through the black line already formed ;
whereas by coraraencing at B, and working towards A, the graver
is always outside of the curve, and consequently never touches
the lines previously cut.* This difference ought always to be
home in mind when engraving a series of curved lines, as, by com
mencing properly, the work is executed with greater freedora and
ease, while the inconvenience arising frora slips is avoided. When
such lines are introduced to represent the rotundity of a lirab,
with a break of white in the raiddle expressive of its greatest pro
minence, as is shown in the following figure A, it is advisable

that they should 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 all
risk of their disagreeing, as in C, will be avoided.
The rotundity of a coluran or siraik" i
object is represented by raeans of parallel
lines, which are coraparatively open ii
the raiddle where light is required, bui \ '
which are engraved closer and thickei
towards the sides to express shade. Tht
effect of such lines will be rendered raort -,
evident by coraparing the coluran in the '
annexed cut with the square base, which is
represented by a series of equidistant lines,
each of the same thickness as those in the
middle of the column. _ 
* As the drawing is the reverse ofthe impression, it is necessary to observe that
the motion of the graver in this case is frora right to left on the block, — that is, the

666 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
Many raore examples of tints and siraple lines might be given ;
but, as no real benefit would be derived from thera, it is needless
to increase the number, and make "much ado about nothing."
Every new subject that the engraver coraraences presents sorae
thing 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 sorae claira to the character of a work
of art. If a thousand examples were given, they would not enable
an engraver to execute a subject properly, unless he were endowed
with that indefinable _/eeZm^ which at once suggests the best means
of attaining his end. Such feeling may indeed be excited, but
can never be perfectly communicated by rules and examples. In
this respect every artist, whether a hurable wood engraver, or
a sculptor or a painter of the highest class, raust be seK-in-
structed ; the feeling displayed in his works raust 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 ex
cellence in the mechanical execution, that distingtushes the paint
ings of Raffaele from those of Le Brun, Flaxman''s statues from
those of Roubilhac, and the cuts in the Lyons Dance of Death
from raany of the laborious inanities of the present day.
Clear, unruffled water, and all bright and sraooth metaUic sub
stances, are best represented by single lines ; for K cross-lines be
introduced, except to indicate a strong shadow, it gives to them
the appearance of roughness, which is not at aU in accordance vritii
the ideas which such substances naturally excite. Objects which
appear to reflect brilUant flashes of Ught ought to be carefuUy
dealt with, leaving plenty of black as a ground-work, for in wood
engravings such lights can only be effectively represented by con
trast with deep colour. Reflected lights are in general best repre
sented by means of single lines running in the direction of the
object with a few touches of white judiciously taken out In this
respect Clennell particularly excelled as a wood engraver. Paint
ing itself can scarcely represent reflected Ughts with greater effect
than he has expressed them in several of his cuts. In Harvey's
point B forms the beginning, and not the termination, of the first line when the
work is properly comraenced. The lines are represented in the cut as they would
appear wheu drawn on a block to be engraved in the manner recommended.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 667
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 hnes, rather than to engage in the fruit
less task of showing how such lines are to be generally
applied, I shall now proceed to offer a few observations on
engraving in outhne, a process with which the learner ought to
be well acquainted before he attempts subjects consisting of com
plicated lines. The word outline in wood engraving has two
meanings : it is used, first, to denote the distinct boundaries of
all kinds of objects ; and secondly, to denote the delicate white
Une that is cut round any figure or object in order to form a
boundary to the hnes by which such figure or object is sur
rounded, and to thus allow of their easier liberation : it forras
as it were a terminal furrow into which the lines surrounding the
figure run. In speaking of this second outline in future, it will
be distinguished as the whife outline ; while the other, which pro
perly defines the different figures and forms, will be called the
true or proper outline, or simply the outline, without any dis
tinctive additional term. As the white outline ought never to
be distinctly visible in an impression, care ought to be taken,
raore especially where the adjacent tint is dark, not to cut it
too deep or too wide. In the first of the two following cuts, the
white outline, intentionally cut rather wider than is necessary.

668 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
is distinctly seen from its contrast with the dark parts iramediately
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 distinctiy seen in the
shadow 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 required. The white outUne is

here quite unnecessary, as the two blacks ought not to be sepa
rated in such a manner ; the proper intention of the white outline
is not so rauch to define the forra of the figure or object, but
as has been already explained, to raake an incision in the wood
as a boundary to other lines coraing against it and to aUow of
their being clearly Uberated without injury to .the proper outUne
of the object : when a line is cut to such a boundary, the sraall
shaving forced out by the graver becoraes iraraediately released,
without the point of the tool coming in contact with the true
outline. The old Gerraan wood engravers, who chiefly engraved
large subjects on apple or pear-tree, and on the dde of the wood,
were not in the habit of cutting a white outline round their
figures before they began to engrave thera, and hence in thefr
cuts objects frequently appear fo stick to each other. The practice
is now, however, so general, that in raany raodern wood-cuts a
white line is improperly seen surrounding every figure.
In proceeding to engrave figures, it is advisable to comraence
with such as consist of little more than outhne, and have no

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 669
shades expressed by cross-Unes. The first step in executing
such a subject is to cut a white line on each side of the pen
cilled 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 prerious to the parts
which are white, when printed, being cut away, or, in technical
language, blocked ouf, would present the foUowing appearance.*

It is, however, necessary to observe that all the parts which
require to be blocked away bave 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
solid wood round the edges of the cut is, however, generally
allowed to reraain until 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 im
pression by raeans 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 break
ing down or cutting through the lines which are to be left in
* The subject of this cut is the beautiful monument to the memory of two
children, executed by Sir F, Chantrey, in Lichfield Cathedral,

670

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

relief. When the cut is properly cleared out and blocked away,
it is then finished, and when printed wiU- appear thus :

Sculptures and bas-reUefs of any kind are generally best
represented by siraple outlines, with dehcate paraUel Unes,
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 Rundell and Bridge for George IV. about 1827.
The subject of this design was intended to comraeraorate the
General Peace concluded in 1814 : to the left Agriculture is
seen flourishing under the auspices of Peace; while to the right
a youthful figure is seen placing a wreath above the helraet of
a warrior ; the trophy indicates his services, and opposite to hira
is seated a figure of Victory. The three other sides, and the

top and bottora, were also erabelhshed with figures and orna
raents in relief designed by Flaxraan. The whole of the dies
were cut in steel by Henning and Son — so well known to admirers
of art from their beautiful reduced copies and restorations of the
sculptures of the Parthenon preserved in the British Museura — and

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 671
from these dies the plates of gold composing the box were struck,
so that the figures appear in slight relief. A blank space was left
in the top of the box for an enarael portrait of the King, which
was afterwards inserted, surrounded with diamonds, and the margin
of the lid was also ornaraented in the same manner. This box is
perhaps the most beautiful of the kind ever executed in any
country : it may justly challenge a comparison with the drinking
cups by Benvenuto Celhni, 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 without much trouble teach him
seK to execute cuts in this manner, or to engrave fac-similes of
sraall pen-and-ink sketches such as the following.*

Having now explained the raode of procedure in outline en
graving, it seems necessary, before proceeding to speak of more
complicated subjects, to say a few words respecting drawings
made on the block ; for, however well an engraving may be exe
cuted, the cut which is a fac-simile of a bad drawing can never
be a good one. An artist's knowledge of drawing is put to the
test when he begins to make designs on wood ; he cannot resort
as in painting, to the trick of colour to conceal the defects of his
outlines. To be efficient in the engraving, his principal figures
must be distinctly made out ; a drawing on the wood admits
of no scumbling ; black and white are the only means by which
the subject can be represented ; and if he be ignorant of the
proper manageraent of chiaro-scuro, and incorrect and feeble in
• This small cut is a fac-siraile, the size of the original, of Sir David Wilkie's
first sketch for his picture of the Rabbit on the Wall,

672

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

his drawing, he will not be able 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 will not stand the test of simple black and
white ; they can indicate generalities " indifferently well" by means
of positive colours, but they cannot dehneate indiridual forms
correctly with the black-lead penciL It is from this cause that we
have so very few persons who professedly make designs for wood
engravers ; and hence the sameness of character that is to be found
in so many modern wood-cuts. It is not unusual for many second
and third-rate painters, when appUed to for a drawing for a wood
cut to speak slightingly of the art and to decline to fumish the
design required. This generally results rather from a conscious
ness of their own incapacity than frora any real contempt for the
art As greater painters than any now hving 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
sarae. The true reason for the refusal, however, is generaUy to be
found in such painter's incapacity.
The two following cuts, both drawn frora the sarae sketch,* but

No. 2.

• The original sketch, from which the figure was copied, is by Moriand,

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 673
by different persons, will show how rauch depends upon having a
good, artist-like drawing. The first is raeagre ; the second, on
the contrary, is reraarkably spirited, and the additional lines
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. Though a learner in proceeding frora one subject to another
more complicated will doubtless raeet with difficulties which raay
occasionally darap his ardour, yet he will encounter none which
will not yield to earnest perseverance. As it is not likely that
any araateur practising the art merely for amusement would be
incUned to test his patience by proceeding beyond outline en
graving, the succeeding remarks are raore especially addressed to
those who raay wish to apply theraselves to wood engraving as a
profession. When beginning to engrave in outline, it is advisable that the
subjects first atterapted should be of the most siraple kind, —
sirailar, for instance, to the preceding figure raarked No. 1. When
facihty in executing cuts in this style is obtained, the learner
raay proceed to engrave such as are slightly shaded, and have a
back-ground indicated as in No. 2. He may next proceed to sub
jects 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
little weU. Whatever kind of subject be chosen, particular atten
tion ought to be paid to the causes of failure and success in the
execution. By dihgently noting what produces a good effect in
certain subjects, he will, under similar circurastances, be prepared
to apply the same means ; and by attending to the faults in his
work he will be the raore careful to avoid thera in future. The
following group of figures, selected frora Sir David Wilkie's picture
of the Rent Day, will serve as an example of a cut executed by
comparatively simple means ; the subject is also such a one as a
pupil may atterapt after he has made some progress in engraving
sUghtly shaded figures. There are no coraplicated lines which are
difficult to execute; the hatchings are few, and of simple cha
racter ; and for the execution of the whole, as here represented,
nothing is required but a feeling for the subject ; and a moderate
2 X

674 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
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 especially in the
features, than he can execute with comparative facility and pre
cision ; for, by attempting to attain excellence before he has arrived
at mediocrity, he will be very likely to fail, and, instead of having
reason to congratulate hiraseK on his success, experience nothing
but disappointment. To raake wood engraring an interesting,
instead of an irksorae study to young persons, I would recommend
for their practice not only such subjects as are hkely to engage
their attention, but also such as they may be able to finish before
they become weary of their task. At this period every endeavour
ought to be raade to sraooth the pupil's way by giving him such
subjects to execute as will rather serve to stimulate his exertions
than exhaust his patience. Little characteristic figures — such as
the following, 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

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 675
person tired of it before it be finished ; while at the same time
it serves to exercise hira in the practice of the art, and to engage
his attention.

When a pupU feels no interest in what he is eraployed on, he
will seldom execute his work well ; and when he is kept too lon^
in engraving subjects that merely try his patience, he is apt to lose
all taste for the art and become a raere raechanical cutter of hnes,
without caring for what they express.
Such a cut as that at the top of the following page — copied frora
an etching by Rerabrandt — will forra 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 well contrasted Ught and shade. The hog —
which is here the principal object — immediately arrests the eye,
while the figures in the back-ground, being introduced merely to
aid the composition and form a raediura between the dark colour
of the aniraal 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 judgraent in representing the bristly
hair, and in tmudiin^ the details effectively.
2x2

676

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

When a learner has made some progress, he may attempt such
a cut as the following in order to exercise himseK in the
appropriate representation of aniraal 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, R. A., one
of the raost distinguished aniraal painters of the present tirae.
Such a cut, though executed by siraple raeans, 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 flovring hair of
the tail has to be represented in a proper raanner ; and the mark
ings of the joints require the exercise of both judgment and skiU.*
By attending to such distinctions at the commencement of his career,
he will find less difficulty in representing objects by appropriate
texture when he shall have made greater progress, and wiU not
be entirely dependent on a designer to lay in for him every
Une. An engraver who requires every line to be drawn, and who
is only capable of executing a fac-simile of a design raade for him
on the block, can never excel.
* This cut was originally engraved for the Treatise on the Horse, by Mr, Youatt,
published under the direction of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know
ledge.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

677

As enough perhaps has been said in explanation of the manner
of cutting tints, and of figures chiefly represented by single lines,
I shall now give a cut — Jacob blessing the children of Joseph —
in which single-lined figures and tint are combined. It is neces
sary to observe that this cut is not introduced as a good specimen
of engraving, but as being well adapted, frora the simplicity of
its execution, to illustrate what I have to say. The figures are
represented by single lines, which require the exercise of no great
degree of skill ; and by the introduction of a varied tint as a
back-ground the cut appears like a complete subject, and not
like a sketch, or a detached group.
It is necessary to reraark here, that when coraparatively Ught
objects, such as the figures here seen, are to be relieved by a tint
of any kind, whether darker or lighter, such objects are now gene
rally separated from it by a black outline. The reason for leaving
such an outline in parts where the conjunction of the tint and the
figures does not render it absolutely necessary is this : as those parts
in a cut which appear white in the impression are to be cut away
— as has already been explained, — it frequently happens that when
they are cut a^f a-y first, and the tint cut afterwards, the wood breaks
away near the termination of the line 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
outiine is introduced in those parts where properly there ought to

678

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

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 following 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 white on the light side of his figures,
— that is, on the side on which the Ught faUs, — but also on both
sides of a light object

Before dismissing this part of the subject, it is necessary to
observe further, that when the white parts are cut away before
the tint is introduced, the conventional black outline is very liable
to be cut through by the tool shpping. This will be rendered
more intelligible by an inspection of the following cut* where the
house is seen finished, and the part where a tint is intended to
be subsequently engraved appears black. Any person in the least
• In this cut the white outline, mentioned at page 667, is distinctly seen at the
top ofthe buildings aud above the trees.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

679

acquainted with the practice of wood engraving, will perceive, that
should the tool happen to slip when near the finished parts, in
coming directly towards them, it will be very likely to cut the
outline through, and to make a breach in proportion as such outhne
may be thin, and thus yield more readily to the force of the tool.

When the tint is cat first, instead of being left to be executed
last, as it would be in the preceding cut, the 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 attend
ing to such matters, and considering what part of a subject can be
raost safely executed first, a learner will both avoid the risk of
cutting through his outline, and be enabled to execute his work
with coraparative facUity. The foUowing cut is an exaraple of the
tint being cut first For the information of those who are un
acquainted with the process of wood engraving, it is necessary to
remark that the parts which appear positively black are those
which remain untouched by the graver.

j» «*-.-

680

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

The foUowing subject, copied frora one of Rerabrandt's etchings,
is chiefly represented by black Unes 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 engraving, where they are left in relief, it requires
considerable tirae and attention to execute thera with deUcacy and
precision. In order to explain raore clearly the difficulty of exe
cuting 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-siraile of it : now, as each black Une is to be left
in relief, it is evident that he cannot iraitate the cross-hatchings
seen in the arras, the neck, and other parts, by cutting the lines
continuously, as in engraving on copper, which puts black in by
raeans of an incision, while in wood engraring a simUar line takes
it out. As the wood engraver, then, can only obtain white by
cutting out the parts that arc to appear so in the impression, while

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 681
the black is to be left in rehef, 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 will be evident from an inspec
tion of this cut, necessarily requires not only patience, but also con
siderable skiU to perform it in a proper manner, — that is, to
cut each white space cleanly out, and to preserve the lines of a
regular thickness. Frora the supposed irapossibility of executing
such cross lines, it has been conjectured that many of the old
wood-cuts containing such work were engraved in metalUc relief:
this opinion, however, is sufficiently refuted, by the fact of hundreds
of blocks containing cross-hatchings being still in existence, and
by the much more deUcate and difficult work of the sarae kind
displayed in modern wood engravings. Not only are cross-hatch
ings of the greatest deUcacy now executed in England, but to such
a degree of refinement is the process occasionally carried, that
small black touches — such as raay be perceived in the preceding
cut in the folds of the sleeve above the elbow of the right arra —
are left in the white interstices between the lines. Cross-hatchings,
where the interstices 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 small
black touch is left within the interstices, the operation becoraes
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 arguraent to refute thera, as they are directly
contradicted both by undoubted historical facts, and by every day's
experience. Vegetable putties, punches, and raetalUc relief are
nothing but the trifiing speculations of persons who are fonder of
propounding theories to display their own ingenuity than willing to
investigate facts in order to arrive at the truth. It has happened
rather unfortunately, that most persons who have hitherto written
upon the subject have known very little about the practice of wood
engraving, and have not thought it worth their while to consult
those who were able to give thera information. There is, however,
no fear now of a young wood engraver being deterred from attempt-

682 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
ing cross-hatchings on leaming from certain heretofore 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 every base
less 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 beautiful speciraen
of cross-hatching that ever was executed on wood ; and, in my opi-

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 683
nion, it is the best engraved part of the whole subject Through
the kindness of Mr. Harvey, I have obtained a cast of this portion
of the block, and from it the preceding impression is printed. The
lines showing the muscular rotundity and action of the limb are as
admirably laid in as they are beautifully engraved. In the wider
and stronger cross-hatchings of the drapery above, the small black
touches previously mentioned are perceived in the lozenge-shaped
interstices. From an opinion that the excellence of an engraving consists
chiefly in the difficulty of its execution, we now frequently find cross-
hatchings in several modern wood-cuts, raore especially in such as
are raanufactured for the French raarket, where a better effect
would have been produced by sirapler means. Cross-hatchings,
properly introduced, undoubtedly iraprove a subject ; and some parts
of large figures, such as the leg of Dentatus, cannot be well ex
pressed without their aid, as a series of curved lines on a lirab,
when not crossed, generally cause it to appear stiff and rigid. By
crossing them, however, by other lines properly laid in, the part
assumes a most soft and natural appearance.
As the greatest advantage which wood engraving possesses over
copper is the effective manner in which strongly contrasted light
and shade can be represented, Rembrandt's etchings, — which, like
his paintings, are distinguished by the skilful manageraent of the
chiaro-scuro — forra excellent studies for the engraver or designer
on wood who should wish to becorae well acquainted with the
capabilities of the art. A delicate wood-cut, executed in iraita
tion of a smooth steel-engraring 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 fail, notwithstanding the pains they may bestow. Their work,
instead of being comraended as a successful application of the
peculiar raeans of the art, is in effect condemned by being re
garded as " a clever imitation of a copper-plate."
The following cut of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, copied
from an etching by Rembrandt, vrill perhaps raore forcibly illustrate
what has been said with respect to wood engraving being excellently
adapted to effectively express strong contrasts of Ught and shade.

684

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

The original etching — which has been faithfully copied — is a
good example of Rembrandt's consummate skill in the manage
ment of chiaro-scuro; everything that he has vrished to forcibly
express iramediately arrests the eye, while in the whole design
nothing appears abrupt. The extremes of light and shade con
centre in the principal figure, that of Christ, and to this everything
else in the composition is either subordinate or accessory. The
raiddle tint under tbe arched passage forras a medium between
the darkness of Christ's robe and the shade under the curve of
the nearest arch, and the light in the front of his figure is gradu
ally carried off to the left through the raediura of the woman and

the distant buUdings, which gradually approach to the colour of
the paper. Were a tint, however deUcate, introduced in this
subject to represent the sky, the effect would be destroyed ; the
parts which are now so effective would appear spotted and con-

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 685
fused, and have a crude, unfinished appearance. By the inju
dicious introduction of a tinted sky many wood-cuts, which would
otherwise be striking and effective, are quite spoiled.
It but too frequently happens when works are iUustrated vrith
wood-cuts, that subjects are chosen which the art cannot suc
cessfully represent Whether the work to be iUustrated be
matter of fact or fiction, the designer, unless he be acquainted
both with the' capabiUties and defects of the art, seldom thinks
of more than raaking a drawing according to his own fancy, and
never takes into consideration the raeans by which it has to be
executed. To this inattention may be traced many failures in
works illustrated with wood-cuts, and for which the engraver is
censured, although he raay have, with great care and skill, accom
pUshed all that the art could effect An artist who is desirous
that his designs when engraved on wood should appear hke im
pressions from over-done steel-plates ought never to be eraployed
to raake dravrings for wood engravers : he does not understand the
peculiar advantages . of the art, and his designs will only have a
tendency to bring it into conterapt, while those who execute thera
will be blamed for the defects which are the result of his want of
knowledge. DeUcate wood engrarings which are made to look well in a
proof on India paper by rubbing the ink partially off the block
in the lighter parts — in the raanner described by Papillon at
page 552 — generally present a very different appearance when
printed, either with or without types in the sarae page. Lines
which are cut too thin are very liable to turn down in print
ing from their want of support ; and hence cuts consisting chiefiy
of such lines are seldom so durable as those which display raore
black, and are executed in a raore bold and effective style. A
designer who understands the peculiarities of wood engraving
will avoid introducing delicate lines in parts where they receive
no support from others of greater strength or closeness near
to them, but are exposed 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 delicate lines which they contain, from their receiving
support from the others, are not only less Uable to break down,

686 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
but, from their contrast with the darker parts of the subject appear
to greater advantage than in a cut which is of a uniforraly grey
tone. I am not, however, the advocate of black, and little else,
in a wood-cut ; on the contrary, I ara perfectly aware of the ab
surdity of introducing patches of black without either raeaning
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 wish their cuts to appear like imitations
of steel or copper-plate engravings are willing to allow. As wood
engraving is not well adapted to represent subjects requiring great
deUcacy of lines and variety of tints, such will be generaUy avoided
by a designer who understands the art; while, on the contrary,
he will avail hiraself of its advantages in representing well con
trasted light and shade in a raanner superior to either copper
plate or steel engraving. Of all modem designers and engravers
on wood, none understood the advantages of their art in this
respect better than Bewick and Clennell : the cuts of thefr en
graving are generally the most effective that have ever been
executed. Night-pieces, where the light is seen proceeding from a lantern,
a larap, or any other lurainous object can be weU represented by
raeans of wood engraving, although such subjects are very seldom
atterapted. An engraved wood-block, which contains a consider
able proportion of positive black, prints rauch better than a copper
plate engraving of the sarae kind; in the forraer the ink is dis
tributed 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 MerriUes watch
ing by a feeble light the dying struggles of a smuggler, or Dfrk
Hatterick in the Cave, from Sir Walter Scott's Guy Mannering, wood
engraving is pecuharly adapted, — that is, supposing the designer, in
addition to possessing a knowledge of chiaro-scuro, to be also capa
ble of drawing correctly, and of treating the subject with proper
feeling. Some idea of the capability of the art in this respect may
be formed from the following cut — the FUght into Egypt, — copied

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 687
frora an etching by Rembrandt The mere work in this cut is of
a very siraple character ; there are no Unes of difficult execution ;
and the only parts that are lowered are those which represent
the rays of Ught seen proceeding frora the lantern.

As the wood engraver can always 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 circura
spection ; and where his own judgraent inforras 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

688

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

all at once ; for by strictly adhering to the directions of an artist
who knows very little of the real advantages of wood engraving,
it will not unfrequently happen that the cut so araended will to
himself, when printed, appear worse than it did in its first state.
In the foUowing cut too much has been done in this respect ;
it has been touched and retouched so often, in order to raake it
appear delicate, that the spirit of the original drawing has been
entirely lost In this instance the fault was not that of the artist
but of the engraver, who " would not let well alone ;" but, in
order to improve his work, as he fancied, kept trimming the parts
which gave effect to the whole till 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 was necessary, the whole has
the appearance of middle tint, the excellence of the original draw
ing 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 if this cannot be effected from want of interest
in such object considered singly, the designer ought to make the
general subject pleasing to the eye by skilful composition or

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

689

combination of forms, and the effective distribution of light and
shade. The following cut — a moonlight scene — when compared with the
preceding, will show how much depends on an engraver having a
proper feeling for his subject So far as relates to the mere exe
cution of the lines, this cut is decidedly inferior to the forraer ;
but viewed as a production of art, and as a spirited representa
tion of the original drawing, it is very rauch superior : in the
forraer we see little more than mechanical dexterity ; while in the
latter we perceive that the engraver has, frora a greater know
ledge of his art produced a pleasing effect by comparatively
simple nieans. The forraer cut displays more mechanical skill ;
the latter more artistic feeling. The one contains rauch delicate

work, but is deficient in spirit ; the other, which has been produced
with Uttie more than half the labour, is more effective because the
subject has been better understood.
The following cut representing a landscape, with the effect of
the setting sun, displays great delicacy of execution ; but the
labour here is not thrown away, as in the sea-piece at page
688 : manual dexterity in the use of the graver is combined
with the knowledge of an artist, and the result is a wood
2 Y

690 THF. PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING,

^ *, •'f

engraving at once delicate in execution and spirited in its general
effect A volume might be filled with examples and coraments on them,
and 1 might, like Papillon, instruct the reader in the practice
of the art by informing him how many tiraes the graver would
have to enter the wood in order to produce a certain nuraber of
lines in relief; but I have no inclination to do either the one or
the other : ray object is to make a few observations on sorae of the
most important and least understood points in the practice of wood
engraving, and to iUustrate 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 know
ledge of wood engraving, with the view of practising it pro
fessionally, must generally be guided by his own judgment and
feeling; for he who requires the aid of rules and examples in
every possible case will 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 call thera — which appear in
raodern publications. He ought to exaraine for hiraself, and not
pin his faith to ephemeral commendations, which are often the
customary acknowledgment for a presentation copy of the work.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 691
It is not unusual to find very ordinary wood-cuts praised as dis
playing the very perfection of the art, while others of rauch 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 feeling of an artist, as
well as the mechanical dexterity of a workraan, — ought always to
bear in mind that those who rank highest in modern times, not
only as engravers, but also as designers on wood, have generally
adopted the siraplest raeans of effecting their purpose, and have
never introduced unraeaning cross-hatchings, when working frora
their own drawings, raerely to display their skill 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-
hatchings; for, in the two or three instances in which he intro
duced such lines, it has been rather for the sake of experiment
than to iraprove the appearance of the cut. Though one of the
finest speciraens of this kind of work ever executed on wood is
to be found in Mr. Harvey's cut of Dentatus, yet on other occa
sions, when he engraved his own designs, he seldora introduced
cross-hatchings when he could accoraplish the sarae object by
simpler means. A wood engraving, viewed as a work of art, is not
good in proportion as raany of its parts have the appearance of
fine lace. Bevrick's birds and tail-pieces are not, in my opinion,
less excellent because they do not display so much work as a raodern
wood-cut which contains nuraerous cross-hatchings. Several of the
best French designers on wood of the present day appear to have
forraed erroneous opinions on this subject; and hence we find in
many of their designs much of the engraver's time spent in the
execution of parts which are unimportant, while others, where
expression or feeling ought to be shown, are treated in a careless
manner. Many of their designs seem to have been made rather
to test the patience of the engraver as a workman than to display
his ability as an artist. The following cut, from a cast of a part
of the Death of Dentatus, is introduced to show in how simple
and effective a raanner Mr. Harvey has represented the shield
of the hero. An inferior artist would be very Ukely to repre
sent such an object by raeans of compUcated lines, which, while
2 y2

692 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
they would be less effective, would require nearly a week to
engrave.

Considering the nuraber of wood engravings that are yearly
executed in this country, it is rather surprising that there should
be so few persons who are capable of making a good drawing on
wood. It may indeed be said that there is only one artist in
the kingdora possessing a knowledge of design who professionally

ROUEN CATHEDRAL.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 693
devotes hiraself to raaking drawings on the block for wood
engravers. Without the aid of his talents raodern EngUsh wood
engraving, so far as regards originality of design, would present
a woful blank. Whenever a good original design is wanted, there
is only one person to whora the English wood engraver can apply
with the certainty of obtaining it; for though sorae of our raost
distinguished painters have occasionally furnished designs to be
engraved on wood, it has raostly been as a raatter of especial
favour to an individual who had an interest in the work in which
such designs were to appear. In this respect we are far, very far,
behind our French neighbours ; the raore common kind of French
wood-cuts containing figures are mueh superior to our own of the
same class ; the drawing is much raore correct more attention is
paid to costurae, and in the details we perceive the indications of
much greater knowledge of art than is generally to be found in the
productions of our second-rate occasional designers on wood. It
cannot be said that this deficiency results from want of encourage
ment ; for a designer on wood, of even raoderate abilities, is better
paid for his drawings than a second-rate painter is for his pictures.
The truth is, that a taste for correct drawing is not sufficiently
cultivated in England : our artists will be painters before they can
draw; and hence, coraparatively few can raake a good design
on wood. They require the aid of positive colours to deceive
the eye, and prevent it frora resting upon the defects of their
drawing. It is therefore of great importance that a wood en
graver should have sorae knowledge of drawing hiraself, in order
that he raay be able to correct raany of the defects that are to
be found in the coraraoner kind of subjects sent to him to be
engraved. The superiority of French artists in all that relates
to design is as apparent in their hthographs as in their wood
engravings. In the execution of subjects which require considerable time,
but httle more than the exercise of mechanical skill, it is fre
quently adrisable to adopt the principle of the division of labour,
and have the work performed, as it were, by instalments, aUotting
to each person that portion of the subject which he is likely to
execute best In this manner the opposite cut representing a riew
of Rouen Cathedral, has been engraved by four different persons ;

694 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
and the result of their joint labours is such a work as not even
the best engraver of the four could have executed by himseK.
Each having to do but a little, and that of the kind of work in
which he excelled, has worked con amore, and finished his task
before he became weary of it
Though copper-plate engraving has a great advantage over wood
when applied to the execution of maps, in consequence of the
greater delicacy that can be given to the different shades and Unes,
indicating hills, rivers, and the boundaries of districts, and also
from the number of names that can be introduced, and from the
coraparative facility of executing thera ; yet, as raaps engraved on
copper, however siraple they may be, require to be printed sepa
rately, by means of a rolling-press, the unavoidable expense
frequently renders it impossible to give such maps, even when
necessary, in books published at a low price. Under such circum
stances, where little raore than outlines, with the course of rivers,
and coraparatively few naraes, are required, wood engraving
possesses an advantage over copper, as such maps can be exe
cuted at a very moderate expense, and printed vrith 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 drilling holes in the block and inserting the names in
type — as was adopted in the raaps to Sebastian Munster's Cosmo
graphy, Basle, 1550,* — has recently been revived. The naraes in
the outline raaps contained in the Penny Cyclopaedia are inserted
in this manner. Had those maps not been engraved on wood,
it would have been impossible that any could have been given
in the work, as the low price at which it is published would not
have allowed of their being engraved on copper, and, conse
quently, printed by means of a roUing-press at an additional
expense. When, however, a raap is of sraall diraensions, and several names
in letters of comparatively large size are required to be given, this
method of piercing the block can scarcely be apphed without great
risk of its breaking to pieces under the press, in consequence of its
being weakened in parts by the holes drilled through it being so
• Some account of the maps in Sebastian Munster's Cosmography is previously
given at page 249, and page 497,

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 695
near together.* This inconvenience, however, raay be remedied by
engraving tbe names in intaglio where they are most numerous, and
afterwards cutting a tint over thera, 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 foUowing 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 : all 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 which
would have been required to engrave them in relief; the tint was
* When there is any danger of the block splitting from tliis cause, it is best to
have a cast taken from it, as by this means the whole is obtained of one solid
piece.

696 TIIE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
next cut ; and lastly, the block was pierced, and all the other naraes
inserted in type, with the exception ofthe word "ENGLAND" in
the title, which was engraved in the sarae raanner as the naraes
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 sarae plane, and when the irapression is supposed
to be obtained by the pressure of a flat surface, I shall now pro
ceed to explain the practice of lowering, by which operation the
surface of the block is either scraped away frora the centre towards
the sides, or, as may be required, hollowed out in other pkces.
The object of thus lowering a block is, that the lines in such places
raay be less exposed to pressure in printing, and thus appear lighter
than if they were of the sarae height as the others. This raethod,
though it has been claimed as a modern invention, is of consider
able antiquity, having been practised in 1538, as has been preriously
observed at page 548. Instances of lowering are very frequent in
cuts engraved by Bewick ; but until within the last five or six
years the practice was not resorted to by south-country engravers.
It is absolutely necessary that wood-cuts intended to be printed by
a steam-press should be lowered in sueh parts as are to appear
light; 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 generally done when printed by a
hand-press, by means of overlays. Overlaying consists in pasting
pieces of paper either on the front or at the back of the outer
tympan, imraediately over such parts of the block as require to be
printed dark ; and the effect of this is to increase the action of
tbe platten on those parts, and to diminish it on such as are not
overlaid. When lowered blocks are printed at a coraraon press,
it is necessary that a blanket should be used in the tympans, in
order that the paper may be pressed into the hollowed or lowered
parts, and the lines thus brought up. The application of the steam-
press to printing lowered wood-cuts may be considered as an epoch
in the history of wood engraving. Wood-cuts were first printed by
a steam-press at Messrs. Clowes and Sons' about six years ago,*
• The first work containing lowered cuts printed by a steam-press was tliat on
Cattle, published in numbers, under the superintendence of the Society for the
Diffu.sion of Useful Knowledge, 1832.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD. ENGRAVING.

697

and since that time lowering has been more generally practised than
at any former period.
By means of simply lowering the edges of a block, so that the
surface shall be convex instead of plane, the lines are made to
dirainish in strength as they recede frora the centre until they
becorae gradually blended with the white paper on which 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 sur
rounding thera in the manner of a border. In the preceding cut
representing a group from Sir David Wilkie's painting of tbe

698 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
Village Festival, in the National Gallery, the hght 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 which this objectionable appearance could be reme
died. The following are his observations on this subject : " A
principal beauty in most vignettes consists in the deUcacy with
which they appear to relieve from the white paper on which they
are printed. The objects of which vignettes consist themselves
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. Now, in printing with tbe letter
press, the pressure is rather the strongest at the extremities of
the engraving, where we wish it to be weakest and it is so from
the unavoidable swelling of the damp paper on wbich the im
pressions are worked, and the softness of the blankets in the
tympans of the press. Hence, hard, instead of soft edges, are
incident to vignettes engraven on wood, 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 with the
white paper can be obtained with the greatest facility. For the
representation of such subjects, — supposing that their principal
beauty consists in " the deUcacy with which they appear to relieve
frora the white paper," — wood engraving is as well adapted as
engraving on copper or steel. Though it is certainly desirable
that the lines in a rignette should graduaUy become blended
with the colour of the paper, yet something more is required
in an engraving of this kind, whether on wood or on raetal.
Much depends on its form harmonizing with the composition of
the subject : a beautiful drawing reduced to an irregular shape,
and having the edges merely softened, wiU not always constitute
a good vignette. Of this we have but too many instances in
modern copper-plate engravings, as weU as wood-cuts. Of all
modern artists J. M. W. Turner, R. A,, and W, Harvey appear to
excel in giving to their vignettes a form suitable to tiie coraposition.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 699
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 gene
rally used to signify either a wood-cut or a copper-plate engraring
which is not enclosed by definite lines forming a border. The
word is French, and is synonyraous with the Latin viticula,
which means a Uttie vine, or a vine shoot such as is here
represented.

r

APiTAL letters in ancient manuscripts were called by
old writers viticula, or vignettes, in consequence of
their being frequently ornamented with flourishes in
the raanner of vine branches or shoots. The letter
C, forraing 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
raonastery of Durhara, but now in the British Museura. 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
omaments, such as flowers, head and tail-pieces, were generally
terraed rignettes ; and more recently the word has been used to
express all kinds of wood-cuts or copper-plate engrarings which,
like the group from the Village Festival, are not enclosed within g\
a definite border. Rabelais uses the word to denote certain
ornaments of goldsmith's work on the scabbard of a sword;
countryman Lydgate thus employs it in his Tro;

700 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
Book to denote the sculptured foliage and tracery at the sides
of a window : " And if I should 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,"
Before introducing any examples of concave lowering in the
raiddle of a cut, it seeras necessary to give first a faraihar illus
tration of the principle, in order that what is subsequently said
upon this subject raay be the raore readily understood. — The crown-
piece of George IV, which every reader can refer to, will afford the
necessary illustrations. As the head of the King on the obverse,
and the figures of St. George, the horse, and the dragon, on the
reverse, are in relief, — that is, higher than the field, — it is erident
that if the coin were printed, each side separately, by raeans of
pressure frora an even surface, whether plane or cyhndrical, covered
with a yielding raaterial, such as a blanket or woollen cloth, so as
to press the paper against the field or lower parts, the irapressions
would appear as follows, — that is, with the parts in rehef darkest
and the lower proportionably lighter frora their being less exposed
to pressure.

IMPRESSIONS FROM A SURFACE WITH THE FIGURES IN RELIEF.
If casts be taken of each side of the same coin, the parts which
in the original are raised, or in relief, will then be concave, or in
intaglio ;* and if such casts be printed in the manner of wood-cuts,
the impressions will appear as in the opposite page, — that is, the
• The casts are precisely the same as the dies from which the coin is struck.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING,

701

field being now highest wiU appear positively black, while the
figures now in intaglio, or lowered, as I should say when speaking
of a wood-cut, wiU appear lighter in proportion to the concavity
of the different parts.

IMPRESSIONS FROM A SURFACE WITH THE FIGURES LOWERED, OR IN INTAGLIO.
Upon a knowledge of the principle exemplified by the pre
ceding impressions of George IV. 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, — where such means to increase the pressure in
some parts and diminish it in others cannot be employed without
great loss of tirae, — 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 without overlays,
either at a common press with a blanket in the tympans, or
at a steam-press where the cylinder is covered with woollen cloth,
it is necessary that the parts intended to appear light should be
lowered before the lines seen upon thera are engraved; and the
raode of proceeding in this case is as follows : — The designer
being aware of the manner in which the cut is to be printed,
and understanding the practice of lowering, first makes the
drawing on the block in little raore than outline,* and washes in
with flake-white the parts which it is necessary to lower. The
block is then sent to the engraver, who, with an instrument re
sembling a sharp-edged burnisher, or with a flat tool or chisel,
* If the drawing were flnished, the lines on the parts intended to be light would
necessarily be effaced in lowering the block in such parts.

702 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
scrapes or pares away the wood in the parts indicated. When the
lowering is completed, the designer finishes the drawing, and the
cut is engraved. It is necessary to observe, that unless the person
who makes the drawing on the block perfectly understand the
principle of lowering, and the purposes for which it is intended,
he will never be able to design properly a subject intended to be
printed by a steam-press.
When an object is to be represented dark upon a Ught ground,
or upon raiddle tint the first operation in beginning to lower the
block is to cut a delicate white outhne round the dark object and
proceed with a flat tool or a scraper, as may be raost convenient, to
take a thin shaving or paring off those parts on which the back
ground or middle tint is to be engraved. The extent to which
the block must be lowered will depend on the degree of lightness
intended to be given to such parts. In Bewick's time, when the
pressraen used leather balls 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 balls, frora the want of
elasticity in the leather, which was coraparatively hard and un
yielding, would only touch Ughtly such parts as were below the
level of the other lines 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 hnes
engraved on them in the impression. In the present day, when
composition rollers are used, it is necessary to lower the parts
intended to appear light to a much greater depth than formerly ;*
as such roUers, in consequence of their greater elasticity, are pressed,
in the process of inking, to a considerably greater depth between
the hnes of a cut than the old leather baUs. The foUovring cut
— a Shepherd's Dog, drawn by W. Harvey, — is printed from a
block in which both the fore-ground and distance are lowered to
give greater effect to the animal. If such a cut, printed in the
same page with types, as it appears here, were inked with leather
baUs, a considerable portion of the lowered parts would not be
• 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 irapression. In cuts inked with leather balls, and printed
at the coramon press, the lines in parts lowered to this depth would not be
visible.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

703

visible. This cut illustrates the principle of printing from a surface
— such as that of a coin — in wbich the head or figure is in relief.
In the following cut of an Egret, from a drawing by W. Harvey,
the figure of the bird appears white on a dark ground, — the
reverse of the preceding cut of the Shepherd's Dog, — and is an
example of lowering the block in the raiddle in the manner of
a die with the figures in intaglio, or a cast frora a coin in which
the head or figures are in rehef
In a cut of this kind the general forra of the principal object
required to be light is first lowered out, and the drawing of
the figure being next corapleted upon the hollowed part, tbe
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 657. In lowering the principal object in a cut of this
kind, the greatest attention is necessary in order that the
hollowed parts raay be gradually 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

704 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

knowledge of the extent to which coraposition balls and roUers
will penetrate in such hollowed parts, it is almost impossible
that he should execute his work in a proper manner; — should
he succeed, it will 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 which 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, however, wiU be best Ulustrated by the

=-B-

preceding diagrara. If, for instance, the part to be lowered extend
from A to B, it wiU 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 will 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

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

705

as in the lowered part a c b of less area, — that is, supposing the
engraved lines in both cases to be of equal deUcacy.
As overlaying such delicately engraved cuts as require the
greatest attention in printing occupies rauch time, and lays the
press idle during the process, the additional sum charged per
sheet for works containing a number of such cuts has frequently
operated to the disadvantage of wood engraving, by causing its
productions to be dispensed with in raany books where they might
have been introduced with great advantage, both as direct and
incidental illustrations. It is, therefore, of great iraportance to
adapt the art of wood engraving to the execution of cuts of all
kinds, whether comparatively coarse or of the greatest deUcacy, so
that they may be properly printed at the least possible expense.
The three foUowing cuts, which have all been lowered, would,
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
coraraon press with a blanket Such a subject as the following —
a winter-piece, with an ass and her foal standing near an old out
house, — 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 do in this cut.

2 z

706

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

In the above cut of a Salmon Trout with a view of ByweU
Lock, on the river Tyne, both the fore-ground and the distance
are lowered ; the objects which appear coraparatively dark in those
parts are the least reduced, while those that appear Ughtest are
such as are lowered to the greatest extent. The back of the fish,
which appears dark in the irapression, is in the block hke 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 lower too much those parts which come into immediate
contact with a strong black outline, such as the back of the
Salmon ; for where the lowering in such parts is too abrupt there
is great risk of the lines engraved on thera not being brought
up, and thus causing the figure in rehef to appear surrounded
with a white line, as in the impressions frora the crown-piece at
page 700.
By means of lowering, the black pony on which a boy is seen
riding, in the following cut, is much more effectively represented,
than if the whole subject were engraved on a plane surface. The
grey horse, and the Ught jacket of the rider, the gi'ound, the
garden wall, and the lightest of the trees, are all lowered in order
to give greater effect to the pony.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGBAVING. 707

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 good irapressions than one of the sarae kind engraved
on a plane surface ; for the more delicate parts, being lower than
those adjacent to thera, are thus saved frora too rauch pressure,
without the necessity of increasing it in other places. The follow
ing cut will serve to show the advantages of lowering in this
respect. It was Originally engraved, from a drawing by William
Harvey, for the Treatise on Cattle, pubhshed under the direction
of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Though
twelve thousand impressions have already been printed from it
by raeans of Messrs. Clowes and Sons' steara-press, it has not
sustained the slightest injury in any part; and the present im
pression 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
coraraon 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 spoiled.
In complicated subjects, consisting of many figures, and in which
the light and shade are much diversified, it becomes necessary to
2 z 2

708

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

' "^^iMm^f.;?/:.

combine the two principles of lowering, which have been sepa
rately illustrated by the Dog and the Egret and to adapt them
according to circumstances, forraing sorae parts convex, and making
others concave, respectively, as the objects engraved on them are
to appear dark or Ught In order to illustrate this process of
combined lowering, I have chosen a subject from Rembrandt
— the Descent from the Cross — in which several figures are
introduced, and in which the lights and shades are so much
varied — in some parts blended by a delicate middle tint and
in others strongly contrasted — as to afford the greatest possible
scope for the illustration of what is termed lowering in a wood
engraving. The opposite cut shows the appearance of an impression taken
from the block before a single line has been engraved, except the
white outhne bounding the figures. All that is here seen has been
effected by the flat tool and the scraper ; the Ughtest parts are those
that are most concave, the darkest those that are most convex.

>v-?\ s^.^^ %;•'
¦y-^^WM % mc '^%\
4 1 , ;¦,
-^¦'-^ -•#?!
. ' ' '^
\'j ^-
•¦'¦ Ua^
'^ Js-:_^'^'"^
:-^^ . ->ij
**
<*. ,.- /.-;', ,4 ill
^
J'/.r^.;.
1
^#K 1"' ,"'- ¦
4^- ¦"',.¦ ¦.
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mt
-%^^>^*^y^*-
THE DESCENT PROM THE CROSS, AFTER REMBRANDT.
Impression from the lowered block before any Unes in relief are eng^raved.
THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 709
The parts which have the appearance of a raiddle tint are such
as are reduced to a raediura between the strongest Ught and the
darkest shade. The irapression in its present state has very rauch
the appearance of an unfinished raezzotint
In order to render this exaraple of coraplicated lowering raore
inteUigible to those who have little knowledge of the subject, it
seeras necessary to give a detaUed account of the process, even at
the risk of repeating sorae previous explanations. In corapUcated
as well as in siraple subjects intended to be lowered, the design is
first drawn in outline on the wood. In such a subject as that which
is here giveri, the Descent frora the Cross, it is necessary to cut
a delicate white outline — such as is seen in the ladder — round
all those parts where the true outUne appears dark against light
previous to lowering out those light parts which corae irito im
mediate contact with such as are dark. When a white outUne has
been cut where required, a thin shaving is to be taken off those
parts which are intended to be a shade lighter than the middle tints,
— for instance, in the rays of light falling upon the cross, and in
the lower 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 will depend on the form and size of the parts, and the strength
of the light intended to appear on them; and where a series of
delicate lines are to run into pure white, great care raust be taken
that the wood be sufficiently bevelled or rounded off to aUow of
their blending with the white, vrithout their extremities forming a
distinct line, raore especially where rotundity is to be represented.
In a block thus lowered, the parts intended to be Ughtest will
be the most concave, and those intended to be darkest the most
in relief; and, when printed, the irapressiori will appear as in
the opposite cut, in consequence of the lowered parts, in pro
portion to their depth, receiving both less ink and less pressure ;
while those that are to appear positively white are lowered to such
an extent as to be neither touched by the ink nor exposed to
the action of the platten or cylinder.
When the block has been thus prepared, the subject is drawn
upon it in detail, and the engraving of the lines proceeded with.
The sky, and the lighter and more distant objects, should be
3 a

710 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
engraved first: and care ought to be taken not to get the lines
too fine at the coraraenceraent for, should this happen, there is
no reraedy for the defect By keeping thera comparatively strong,
the darker objects can be executed in a corresponding degree of
boldness ; and, should the proof be generally too dark, the necessary
alterations can be easily made. The opposite cut of the Descent
from the Cross is printed from the finished block ; all the positive
lines here seen having been engraved subsequent to the process
of lowering.
It is necessary to observe that the process of engraring upon
an uneven surface — such as that of the lowered block of the
Descent from the Cross — is much more difficult than on a surface
which is perfectly plane ; for the graver in traversing such parts
as are lowered is apt to lose its hold, and to shp in descending,
while in ascending it is liable to take too much hold, and to
fear rather than to clearly cut out the wood in certain parts, thus
rendering the raised lines rough at the sides, and soraetiraes break
ing thera quite through. In order to reraedy in sorae degree such
inconveniences, it is necessary to use a graver sUghtly curring
upwards towards the point.
The process of lowering, as preriously explained, is pecuUarly
adapted to give the appearance of proper texture to objects of
Natural History, and in particular to birds, where it is often so
desirable to irapart a soft downy appearance to the plumage.
Such softness can never be well represented by lines engraved
on a perfectly level surface ; for, however thin and fine they raay
be, they will always appear too distinct, and want tbat softness
which can only be obtained by lowering the block, and printing
it with a blanket in the tyrapans at a coraraon press. Those
who in engraring birds on a plane surface are fond of imitating
the delicacy of copper-plate or steel engrarings, always fail in their
attempts to represent that soft appearance so peculiar to the plu
mage of birds, whatever may be its colom-. Bewick's Birds, in this
respect have never been equalled ; and the softness displayed in
the plumage has been chiefiy obtained by lowering, and thus pre
venting such parts receiving too mueh ink or too much pressure.
The characteristic expression of the bird, and the variety of texture
in the plumage, are not indeed entirely dependent on this process ;

THE DESCENT PROM THE CROSS, APTBR REMBRANDT.
Impression from the block when finished.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING, 711
but the appearance of softness, and the general effect of the cut
as a whole,— as exempUfied in the Birds of Bewick, — are not other
wise to be obtained. Any wood engraver who doubts this, should
attempt to copy, on an unlowered block, one of the best of Bewick's
birds ; on coraparing a printed irapression of his work with the
original, he wiU be hkely to discover that he has thought too highly
of his own practice, and too lightly of Bewick's.
Though chiaro-scuro drawings can be faithfully copied by means
of wood engraving ; yet the art as applied to the execution of
such works, has met with but little encouragement in this country,
and has consequently been little practised. Frora 1754 — the date
of J. B. Jackson's tract on the Invention of Engraving and Printing
in Chiaro-scuro — to 1819, when the first part of Mr. Savage's
Hints on Decorative Printing was published, the only chiaro-scuro
wood engravings which appear to have been published in England
were those executed about 1783, by an araateur of the name of
John Skippe. The chiaro-scuros engraved by Mr. Skippe do not
appear to have been nuraerous ; I have only seen three — St. John
the Evangelist, St. Paul, and Hebe, all after drawings by Parme
giano. The latter is printed from four blocks, and each of the
others from three. In point of execution, that of St. John is deci
dedly the best : it is much superior to any of the speciraens given
in J. B. Jackson's work, and will bear a eoraparison with sorae of
the best chiaro-scuros of Nicholas Le Sueur.
Savage's Hints on Decorative Printing, in two parts, 1819 — 1823,
contains several specimens, not only of chiaro-scuro wood engrav
ings, but also of subjects printed in positive colours from several
wood-blocks, in imitation of coloured drawings. Sorae of the chiaro
scuros, properly so called, are well executed, though they generally
seem too soft and woolly. The following are those which seera
raost worthy of notice : — A female Bacchante, from a bas-relief in
the British Museum; Theseus, from the statue in the Elgin
CoUection of Marbles, in the British Museum ; Copy of a bust
in marble in the British Museum ; Bridge and Landscape ;
Passage-boats; and a River Scene. For the representation of
such subjects as the preceding, when drawn in sepia, wood engrav
ing is peculiarly adapted.
The simplest manner of representing a chiaro-scuro drawing is by
3 a2

712 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
printing a tint, with the Ughts cut out from a second block, over
the impression of a cut engraved in the usual manner. Chiaro
scuros of this kind have the appearance of pen-and-ink draw
ings raade on tinted paper, and heightened with touches of white.
The Ulustrations to an edition of Puckle's Club, were thus printed
in 1820, — the year after they had appeared printed in the usual
raanner in a new edition of the work — but raany of thera are spoUed
by the badly-chosen " fancy " colour of the tint.
Frora the tirae of the publication of the second part of Savage's
Hints, and the tinted illustrations of Puckle's Club, no further
attempts appear to have been made to iraprove or extend the
practice of chiaro-scuro engraring and printing in colours tiU
Mr. George Baxter turned his attention to the subject. His first
attempts in chiaro-scuro engraving are to be found in a History
of Sussex, printed by his father at Lewes, in 1835. Mr. Baxter
tried various experiraents, and at length succeeded so rauch to
his satisfaction, that he took out a patent for printing in oil-colours.
The raanner in which he executes picture-prints in positive colours,
after drawings or paintings in oil, is nearly the sarae as that in
which Kirkall executed his chiaro-scuros. The ground, the out
Unes, and the raore minute details, are first printed in neutral
tint from a plate engraved in aquatint; and over this impression
the proper colours are printed from as many wood-blocks as there
are different tints. The best speciraens of Mr. Baxter's printing in
oil-colours, frora wood-blocks over an aquatint ground, are to be
found in the Pictorial Album, published by Chapman and HaU,
1837 ; and araong these the following appear to be raost deserring
of distinct enuraeration: — Interior of the Lady Chapel, Warwick;
Lugano; Verona; and Jeannie Deans's Interview with the Queen.
In sorae of the most elaborate subjects in this work, the colours
have been communicated by not less than twenty blocks, each
separately printed. So far as regards the landscapes, nothing of
the sarae kind previously done will bear to be corapared with them.
The opposite view of the Parsonage of Oringham has been exe
cuted by Mr. Baxter, entirely fiom wood-blocks, in imitation of a
drawing by Edward Swinburne, Esq. and is inserted here as a
speciraen of chiaro-scuro engraving. In this view the gable end
of the Parsonage is seen to the left of the trees; while between

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 713
thera Prudhoe Castle is perceived on the opposite side of the Tyne.
The road to the right, where an angler is seen with a rod over
his shoulder, is that which leads to the ferry between Ovingham
and Prudhoe.
Another recent invention is that of « Knight's Patent IUumi
nated Prints and Maps." In every instance hitherto of surface-
printing in colours, each colour, having a separate block, has had
to be worked separately. The labour thus occasioned has of
course rendered such productions extremely expensive. The
new process has one great advantage over aU its rivals, in its
cheapness, and the facihty with which it can multiply im
pressions. The general nature of the process will be best under
stood from a description of the mode of completing a coloured
print. In the first place, a subject is engraved upon wood in the
usual manner, and the impression is coloured by a skilful artist
We will suppose four principal colours are introduced, red, blue,
yellow, and brown. Separate and exact drawings of each colour
are then raade ; and four polished plates are prepared, each plate
carrying one colour. These four plates are then firraly fixed in
an ingeniously contrived frarae, or table, moving upon the table of
a common press, the motion being regulated by raachinery, which
ensures the most exact register, after it has once been obtained^
and affords the greatest facihty in obtaining it The colours are
then apphed to their respective plates in precisely the same man
ner as ink to type, by means of rollers ; and four sheets of paper
of the size intended for the print (or, for convenience, one large
sheet to be afterwards cut up) are then placed on the frisket,
which is then turned down on the plates, and the pull applied.
The table is then turned one quarter round, and the process is
repeated, till each colour has, in succession, been printed upon
the four, sheets. Six or seven colours are sometimes produced
by the same process, and from the sarae plates, by corabination ;
and the union of two colours to produce a third is effected per
fectly, in consequence of the rapidity of the process, which does
not allow the colours to dry and become hard. The bright whites
are, of course, formed by removing the surface in the requisite
parts from all the plates, and suffering the ground to appear.

714 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
Eight or indeed any number of colours, can be introduced by
using another press, or presses; in which case the frisket with
the sheet or sheets fixed, is passed from one press to the other.
The block of the drawing is always the last impressed.
Whether this invention will ever be adequate to the production
of coloured copies of works of the highest art, it would be unsafe
to predict in its present immature state ; but for all those purposes
to which, up to the present tirae, what is called hand-colauri-ng
was applied, its capabilities are certain. In raaps, the precision
and evenness of tone are quite deUghtful to the eye, accustomed
previously to wander round a large space, in order to trace out a
boundary line, which at last can frequently be brought but very
imperfectly into one view. It is true, some maps are coloured on
the same principle as in this invention, — namely, haring the whole
district, and not merely the boundary hne, coloured ; but thefr ex-
pensiveness places them beyond the reach of the masses. EquaUy
pleasant to the eye is the legibility of the naraes, printed in type ;
and the mountains showing themselves in white, instead of the
black scratching, which nearly obhterates all words in thefr
neighbourhood. In preparing the Illuminated Maps, the only
variation from the process already described is, that the outline
only is engraved on wood, and the names inserted in the block
in printing types, as in the map at page 695.
From its extreme exactitude this invention seems pecuharly
adapted for designs of patterns for shawls, ribbons, printed
cottons, carpets, and such manufactures as have hitherto appa
rently been left to the fancy of the Workman, or his employers
who in raatters of art have frequently quite as little taste as
the workraan.
But probably the raost favourable field for the display of the
perfections of this invention, would be in subjects where only light
and shade, or at most what are called neutral tints, are required,
such as architectural drawings and sculptures, either statues or
in relief For such purposes the depth of tone obtainable, the
delicate gradations of tints, and the sharpness of the hghts, seera
peculiarly adapted. I have, however, as yet seen no speciraen
of such subjects in this style, and only judge from the knowledge
I have attained of the process.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 715
By the kindness of the inventor I am enabled to present
the reader vrith two specimens of the art ; one an illuminated
print of a Cafe in Constantinople, and the other a design for a
pattern. What is termed metallic relief engraving consists in executing
subjects on plates of copper, or any other metal, in such a manner
that the Unes which form the impression shall be in relief, and thus
allow of such plates being inked and printed in the sarae raanner
as a wood-cut Since the rerival of wood engraving in this country
several atterapts have been raade to etch in metallic reUef, and thus
save the time necessarily required to cut out all the Unes in a wood
engraring. In etching upon copper, in order that the sul^ect raay
be represented by lines in relief, — the reverse of the usual proce
dure in copper-plate engraving, — and that the plate raay be printed
in the same manner as a wood-cut, there are several methods of
proceeding. In one, the subject is drawn upon the plate in Burr
gundy pitch, or any other substance which will resist the action of
aquafortis, in the sarae raanner as copper-plate engravers in the
ordinary process stop out the parts intended to ' be white. When
the substance in which the drawing is raade becomes set, or suffi
ciently hard, the plate is surrounded with a wall, as it is techni
cally termed, and aquafortis being poured upon it all the unpro
tected parts are corroded, and the drawing left in rehef
This was the method generally adopted by WilUam Blake, an
artist of great but eccentric genius, in the execution of his Songs
of Innocence, the Book of Thei,* the Gates of Paradise, Urizen,
and other works, pubUshed between 1789 and 1800. The following
account of the origin of this new mode of engraving or etching in
metalUc reUef, by corroding the parts intended to appear white
in the impression, is extracted from the Life of WUliam Blake in
AUan Cunningham's Lives of British Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects : —
" He had made the sixty-five designs of his Songs of Innocence,
and was meditating, he said, on the best means of multiplying their
reserablance in forra and in hue ; he felt sorely perplexed. At
last he was raade aware that the spirit of his favourite brother
* The Book of Thei, which, with the titles, consists of seven quarto pages of
verse and figures engraved in metallic relief, is dated 1789,

716 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
Robert was in the roora, and to this celestial visiter he applied for
counsel. The spirit advised hira at once : ' Write,' he said, ' the
poetry, and draw the designs upon the copper with a certain hquid,
(which he naraed, and which Blake ever kept a secret,) then cut
the plain parts of the plate down with aquafortis, and this will give
the whole, both poetry and figures, in the manner of stereotype.'
The plan recommended by this gracious spirit was adopted, the
plates were engraved, and the work printed off. The artist then
added a peculiar beauty of his own : he tinted both the figures and
tbe verse with a variety of colours, amongst which, while yeUow
prevails, the whole has a rich and lustrous beauty, to which I know
little that can be corapared. The size of these prints is four
and a half inches high by three inches wide. The original genius
of Blake was always confined, through poverty, to small diraen
sions. Sixty-five plates of copper were an object to him who had
little money."
Blake subsequently executed, in the sarae manner, the Gates of
Paradise, consisting of sixteen small designs ; and Urizen, consisting
of twenty-seven designs. The size of the latter is four inches by
six, and they are dated Lambeth 1794. In 1800 he also engraved
by a similar process, combined with the usual mode of etching
through a prepared ground laid over the plate, two subjects to
illustrate a song of his own writing, which was printed with them
also frora metallic relief The title of this song is " Litde Tom
the Sailor," and the date is October 5, 1800. It appears to have
been a charitable contribution of Blake's to the "Widow Spicer
of Folkstone," the mother of Little Tora ; and we leam from the
imprint at the bottom that it was printed for, and sold by her for
the benefit of her orphans.
Blake's raetalUc relief engravings were printed by hiraself by
raeans of a rolling or copper-plate press, though the impression
was obtained from the lines in rehef in the same raanner as from
a wood-cut The only difference in the printing consisted in the
different manner in which the pressure was applied. As it is
difficult, according to Blake's process, to corrode the lai-ge white
parts to a depth sufficient to prevent their being touched by the
dauber or ball in the process of inking, and thus presenting a
soiled appearance in tiie impression, he was accustomed to wipe the

PAC-SIMILE OP A PATTERN
prom the OREAT PRUSSIAN WORK OP PATTERNS FOR MANUFACTURES.

London : Published, as the Act directs, by Charies Kmght & Co. Ludgate Street ; May 1, 1839,

ELEVATED ROCKY PLAIN

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The sp:tce between Sciipu3 and the City, previously occupied liy
gardens and groves of trees, was levelled, by the command of Titus,
at Ihe commencement of the siege, by filling up the hollows, and
destroying the precipices. — Josephus, fFars, b. v, c. 2.

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MOUNT OF OLIVES,
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2 Kings, xxiii. 1.1.

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were erected bv Solomon, 1 Kga xi. 7. 2 Kgs. xxiv. 13.

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ANCIENT
JERUSALEM,
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SUItROVn'SIN'G' DISTRICT.
From an Original Drawing by W. Hdohbs,

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LONDON:
CHARLES KNIGHT & CO,, ia, LUDGATE STREET.

Tiie walls of JERUSALEM, aa rebailt by Nehemiah, included only the hiUa of Zion, Aera, and
Moriah ; the City gradually became e.tiended by the addition of Bezetha, the wall round which waa
built by Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great, a,d,42. In the wall round Zion there were
60 towers, amongst which were those of Hippicus, Pha^ffilus, and Mariamne, erected by Herod, —
that which inclosed Aera had 40, — and that round Beactha, 90, Josephus, Wars, book v, chap. 4.
The upper city secma to have contained most of the public buildings, aa the Armoury and Prison
CSeh.iii. 19, 25), Herod's Palace (Job. Wa.rs,h. i, c.2i). and the Royal and Pontifical residences in
general (ibid., h. ii, c. 17) Tbe Markets for Tiraber, Wool, Cloth, &c , were in the lower city Qbid.,
b. ii, c. 19, and b. v, c. 8). Tbe surrounding country was. in the time of Christ, cultivated and
laid out in gardens and groves of fig, olive, and palm trees. These were all cut down by the
Romans in the progress of the siege, and the city taken and totally demolished, a.d. 70.

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Scale of Jewish Furlongs,

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500

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1000 SOOO
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Tlie Church of the Holy Sepulchre, within modern Jerusnlem, haa, for
more than fifteen centuries, been considered to comprehend within its
walls the site of Calvary, and the sepulchre in which the hody of Chrift
wns laid. As, however, the Gospel narrative implies that these places
were without the City, which ia expressly stated in Heb, xiii. 12, it
seems probable that the knowledge of their true position has been lost.
See, on Ibis subject, Pictorial Bible, Heb. xiu,— A'ofe.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 717
ink out where it had touched in the hollows. As this occupied
more time than the mere inking of the plate, his progress in print
ing was necessarily slow.
In another mode of engraving in relief on a plate of copper, the
plate is first covered with an etching ground in the usual manner,
and to tbis ground an outline of the subject is transferred by pass
ing the plate with a pencil-drawing above it through a rolling-press.
The engraver then proceeds to remove with his etching-point, or
some other tool, as may be necessary, all such parts as are intend
ed to be white. When this process, which may be termed reverse
etching, is completed, the parts intended to be white are corroded
by pouring aquafortis upon the plate in the usual manner, while
the lines which represent the object remain in relief, in conse
quence of their being protected at the surface by the coating of
etching ground.
Several persons have made experiments in this mode of metallic
relief engraving. It was tried by Bewick, and also by the late
Robert Branston ; but they did not succeed to their satisfaction, and
none of their productions executed in this manner was ever sub
mitted to the public.. About twenty years ago, Mr. W. Lizars of
Edinburgh appears to have turned his attention to the subject of
metallic relief engraving, and to have succeeded better than either
Bewick or Branston. One of the earliest-published specimens of
his engraving in this style is the portrait of Dr. Peter Morris, form
ing the frontispiece to Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk, printed at
Edinburgh in 1819. This portrait has every appearance of being
executed by the process of reverse etching, — that is, by first cover
ing the plate with etching ground, and then removing the parts
that are to be white, and leaving the lines that are to appear black
in relief. The plate was printed by a common printing-press at
the office of Ballantyne and Co. In the preface the " new inven
tion " of Mr. Lizars is thus mentioned : — " The portrait of Dr.
Morris is done in this pew style ; and, had the time permitted, the
others would have all been done so likewise. It is thrown off by
the common printing-press, as the reader will observe — but this is
only one of the distinguishing excellences of this new and splendid
invention of Mr. Lizars."
Within the last three or four years several plans for executing

718 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
engravings in metallic relief have been devised ; and it has been
prophesied of each, that it would in a short time totally super
sede wood engraving. The projectors of those plans, however,
seem to have taken too narrow a view of the subject ; and to
have thought that the mere novelty of their invention was sufficient
to ensure it success. They appear not to have considered, that it
was necessary that their metallic relief casts should not only be
cheaper than wood-cuts, but that they should be also as well
executed. Mr. Woone has taken out a patent for his invention, and the
principle upon which it is founded is that of taking a cast fi-om
a copper-plate, whereby the lines engraved in intaglio are in the
cast in relief. His process of metallic relief engraving is as follows :
— A smooth plate of metal is covered with a coating of plaster of
Paris, about equal in thickness to the depth to which the lines are
cut in engraving on copper or steel. Upon this surface of plaster
the engraver, with a fine point, as in etching, cuts the lines of the
subject through to the plate below. When this plaster etching is
completed, a cast is taken from it in type-metal ; and, after being
cleared ouf, the subject in metallic relief can be printed at a
common press in the manner of a wood-cut. According to this
plan only one cast can be taken of each subject, as the plaster
is destroyed during the process, so that there is nothing left fi-om
which a second mould can be made, as in the case of a wood
cut. The chief advantage of this invention consists in the lines
being of equal height in the cast, in consequence of their being
etched through the plaster to the level surface of the plate beneath.
As the coating of plaster is, however, extremely thin, it is gene
rally necessary to clear out with a graver the interstices of the cast
in order to prevent their being touched by the inking roller.
A Mr. Schonberg has also made several experiments in metallic
relief engraving by means of etching on stone, and afterwards
taking a cast from his work. Though he has been for several
years endeavouring to perfect his invention, he has not up to
this time succeeded in producing anything which it would be
fair to criticise.
Many of the cuts of trees and shrubs in Loudon's Arboretum
et Fruticetum Britannicum are printed from casts in metallic

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 719
relief, executed by the present Mr. Robert Branston. The mode
of procedure, according to Mr. Branston's method, is extremely
simple ; the subject is first etched on copper, and bit in by aqua
fortis in the usual manner ; and from this etching a cast is after
wards taken in type-metal. As the plate is not corroded to an
equal depth in every part, it is necessary to rub on a stone the
faces of the casts thus obtained in order to reduce the raised lines
to the same level. There is also another inconvenience that attends
casts in metallic relief taken from an etched copper-plate ; for, as
the aquafortis acts laterally as well as vertically, it is difficult to
corrode the lines to a sufficient depth, without at the same time
getting them too thick. It is hence necessary to clear out many
of the hollow parts of such casts with a graver, in order to prevent
their being touched by the balls or inking-roller, and thus giving
to the impression a soiled appearance.
Casts in metallic relief from etchings always appear coarse ;
and, from the experiments hitherto made, it seems impossible to
execute fine work in this manner. So far as relates to cheap
ness, such casts, however well they may be executed, being of
a level surface, cannot be printed properly by a steam-press
in the manner of lowered blocks, or casts from lowered blocks.
For a work of extensive circulation, printed by means of a steam-
press, a lowered block, or a cast fi:om it, would be cheaper at
five pounds, than a cast from an etching at four, even admitting
that both were equally well executed.
The principal feature in Mr. C. Hancock's patent metallic relief
engraving, which is quite original, is, that subjects resembling
mezzotints can be inserted and printed with the text in the same
manner as wood engravings. A mezzotint plate, if printed in the
usual manner previous to being engraved upon, would appear
black. On the other hand, if submitted to the same kind of
printing as a wood-cut, it would scarcely discolour the paper.
Upon this plate Mr. Hancock draws his subject with a broad
steel point or burnisher, which polishes down the small promi
nences to a smooth surface in proportion to the pressure used
in drawing. In proportion as the surface becomes smooth, so
does it print dark, and have the appearance of a mezzotint. The
reader will perceive that, according to this plan, Mr. Hancock

720 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
can take a proof of his subject at any time, and procure either
dark or light at pleasure, as the subject may appear to require it.
The sparkling light can be touched in with the graver, in the same
manner as on wood ; so that such touches appear much sharper than
in common mezzotint, where the lights are got by burnishing. As
Mr. Hancock has not as yet brought anything before the public,
it would be unfair to anticipate him, by introducing anything more
in this place than a description of his process.
Wood engraving is necessarily confined, by the size of the wood,
to the execution of subjects of comparatively small dimensions ;
and this limitation, together with the difficulty of printing even
tints in positive colours, have combined to prevent it from being
made extensively available in the production of works in chiaro
scuro, of large size, by the ordinary modes of surface-printing.
Latterly, however, the demand which the progress of education
has created for maps, school prints, elementary examples of fine
art, and scientific illustrations on a large scale, having called the
attention of artists to the subject, many attempts have been made,
and in some cases with apparent success, to produce relief
engravings on metal ; and also to combine that mode of en
graving with analogous apparatus for the production of works
in tints or colours, separate, combined, or mixed with line plates,
in such degrees as particular cases might require. Several of
these persons have been already named, and their processes
described; it only therefore remains to state, that Mr. Stephen
Sly, in connexion with other artists, has for the last two years
been steadily engaged in making a series of experiments for
giving a practical value, by various inventions, to the discoveries
and experience of their predecessors in the art ; and with every
prospect of success. Their method of procedure is: 1. To pro
duce a finished drawing, in simple or crossed lines, with etch
ing varnish on a plate prepared for the purpose ; 2. To bite away,
with a compound acid, the spaces between the varnish lines ;
and 3. To deepen and finish the work so produced, by the use
of engraving tools, in the ordinary manner. The great diffi
culties in the way of these apparently simple operations have
been, 1. To cast sound and durable plates of a large size, and
of a texture sufficiently compact to produce sharp lines by the

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 721
etching process, and at the same time soft enough to permit
the surfaces to be lowered, and the cutting to be executed with
facility ; 2. To remove the oxide formed by the combination of
the acid with the metal fi-om between the lines ; and 3. To carry
the biting to a depth sufficiently great to permit the plate, with
the addition of a small quantity of graver-work, to yield a clear
impression. The same individuals are now engaged in applying the results
of their labours to the production of maps, geological sections,
manufacturers' patterns, and other works of cheap art, in com
bination with Mr. Knight's principle of colour-printing; and em
ploying the facilities afforded by the mechanical apparatus for
producing perfect register and rapid working which he has
invented. Metallic relief engraving has not unfrequently been practised at
Paris within the last five or six years. I have now lying before
me an impression from a plate engraved in this manner by Messrs.
Best, Andrew, and Leioir, of that city. The subject is a wild
turkey, and it was engraved about three years ago for Mi-. Audu
bon. Though it is the best specimen of metallic relief engraving
that has come under my notice, I am yet of opinion that the
subject could be better engraved on wood, and at a less cost.
Ornaments and borders are sometimes engraved on solid brass
by means of chisels and gravers in the same manner as a wood
cut. The head of Buchanan, and the border on the wrapper of
Blackwood's Magazine, were engraved on brass in this manner,
about nine years ago, by Messrs. Vizitelly, Branston, and Co.
They were originally engraved on wood by Bewick. The greater
durability of ornaments engraved on brass, compensates for their
additional cost. The cheapest mode, however, is to have sueh
ornaments first engraved on wood, and casts afterwards taken
from them in type metal. One great objection to cutting on
metal with the graver is, that the metal cuts the paper in printing
fi-om it.
Duplicates of wood engravings may be readily obtained by means
of casts fi-om the original block ; and within the last six or seven
years, the practice of thus multiplying subjects originally engraved
on wood, has become very prevalent both in this country and in

122 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
France.* Casts can be obtained from wood engravings by two
different processes, and both are practised by two or three stereo
type printers, to whom this business is usually entrusted. By the
one mode, a mould is first made from the block in plaster of
Paris, and from this mould or matrix a cast is afterwards taken
in type metal. By the other mode — termed by the French
clichage-f — the mould or matrix is not formed of plaster; but is
obtained by letting the block fall, vrith its engraved surface down
wards, directly on a mass of metal,J just sufficiently fluid to receive
the impression, and which becomes solid almost at the very instant
it is touched hy the block. From this mould or matrix a cast is
afterwards taken in the same manner. In order to prevent the
surface of the block becoming charred by the heat, it is pre
viously rubbed over with a composition of common yellow soap
and red ochre.
When it is particularly desirable to preserve the original block
uninjured, the safest mode is that of forming a mould or matrix of
plaster ; for by the process of clichage a delicately engraved block
is extremely liable to receive damage. As a cast, whether fi-om
a matrix of metal or of plaster, generally requires certain small
specks of the metal to be removed, or some of the lines to be
cleared out, this operation is fi-equently entrusted to a person
employed in a printing-office where such cast is taken. Such
person, however, should never he allowed to do more than remove
the specks ; for, should he attempt to re-enter or re-cut the lines
or tints on metal, he will be very likely to spoil the work. It is
extremely difficult, even to a dexterous engraver, to re-enter the
lines that have been partially closed up in a tint, so that they shall
appear the same as the others which have come off clear. Should
the printer's picker happen to re-enter them in a direction opposite
to that in which they were originally cut on the block, the work
* Casts of the wood cuts engraved for some of our cheap periodicals are now
transraitted to no less tlian seventeen different countries, for the purpose of being
printed in similar publications,
t A cast from a forra of types, as well as from an engraved wood-block, is by
French printers termed a cliche.
X The metal of which this matrix is forraed, is made several degrees harder than
common type metal, by mixing with the latter a greater portion of regulus of
antimony, otherwise the matrix and cast would adhere.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING,

723

is certain to be spoiled. When a cast requires clearing out and
retouching in this manner, the operation ought to be performed
by a wood engraver, and, if possible, by the person who executed
the original block. When the subject is not very complicated,
it is extremely difficult to distinguish which of two impressions
is from a cast, and which is from the original block. Those who
profess to have great judgment in such matters are left to deter
mine which of the following busts is printed from metal, and which
fi-om wood : —

No, 1.

No. 2.

When a duplicate of a modern, or a fac-simile of an old wood
cut is required, the best mode of obtaining a correct copy, is to
transfer the original, if not too large or too valuable, to a pre
pared block ; and the mode of effecting this is as follows : — The
back of the impression to be transferred is first well moistened
with a mixture composed of equal parts of concentrated potash
and essence of lavender ; it is then placed above a block whose
surface has been slightly moistened with water, and rubbed with
a buriiisher. If the mixture be of proper strength, the ink of the
old impression will become loosened, and be transferred to the
wood. Recent impressions of a wood-cut, before the ink is set,
may be transferred to a block without any preparation, merely by
what is technically termed " rubbing down." In order to transfer

724 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
impressions from copper-plates, it is necessary to use the oil of
lavender instead of the essence : if a very old impression, apply
the preparation to its face.
The unequal manner in which wood-cuts are printed, is often
injurious both to publishers and engravers; for, however well a
subject may have been engraved, or whatever may have been
the expense incurred, both the engraver's talents and the pub
lisher's money will, in a great measure, have been thrown away
unless the cut be properly printed. The want of cordial co
operation between printers and wood engravers is one of the
chief causes of wood-cuts being so fi-equently printed in an im
proper manner. One printer's method of printing wood-cuts often
differs so much fi:om that of another, that it is generally necessary
for an engraver who wishes to have justice done to his work,
to ascertain the office at which a hook is to be printed before
he begins to execute any of the cuts. If they are intended to
be printed at a steam-press, they require to be engraved in a
manner suitable to that method of printing ; and if it be further
intended to take casts from them, and to print fi-om such casts
instead of the original blocks, it is necessary for the engraver
to execute his work accordingly. Should they have to be printed
at a common press wifh a blanket, it is necessary that they should
be lowered in such parts as are most liable to be printed too
heavy from the parchment of the tympan, when there is a blanket
behind it, penetrating to a greater depth between the lines than
when no blanket is used.* When it is intended to print cuts in
what is called the best manner, — that is, at a common press
without a blanket, and where the effect is brought up by means
of overlaying, — the engraver has nothing to do but to execute
his subject on a plane surface to the best of his ability, and to
leave the task of bringing up the dark, ancf easing the light parts
* The principal difference, so far as relates to wood engravings, between printing
by a steam-press with cylindrical rollers, and printing by a common press with a
blanket, is, that the blanket or woollen cloth covering tlie cylinder of the steam-
press comes into immediate contact with the paper, while in the coramon press
the parchment ofthe tympan is interposed between the paper and the blanket. It
is necessary that cuts intended to be printed by a steam-press should be lowered to
a greater depth than cuts intended lo be printed with a blanket at a common press,
as the blanket on the cylinder penetrates to a greater depth between the lines.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

725

to the printer,— who, if he have not an artist's eye, can only by
chance succeed in producing the effect intended by the draftsman
and the engraver.
Should a series of wood-cuts be engraved with the view of their
being printed at a steam-press, or at a common press with a blanket,
and should the publisher or proprietor of the work afterwards
change his intention, and decide on having them printed in the best
manner, — that is, by the common press without a blanket, and with
overlays, — such cuts, whatever pains might be taken, could not

be properly and efficiently printed ; for those parts which had been
lowered in order to obviate the iw-pressure of the blanket, would
either be totally invisible, or would only appear imperfectly, — that
is, with the lines indistinct and broken, as if they had not heen
properly inked. The above cut, which was lowered for machine-
printing, or printing with a blanket, but has been worked off at
a common press without a blanket, when compared with the same
subject printed in the manner originally intended, — that is, with
a blanket, — will illustrate what has been previously said on the
subject. I by no means wish it to be understood, that any printer
would allow such a cut to appear quite so bad as it does in
3 B

726

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

the present impression ; he would do something to remedy the
defects but he could not, without employing a blanket, cause it
to have the appearance originally intended hy the designer and
engraver. It is printed here without any aid of overlaying, in
order that the difference might be the more apparent to those who
are unacquainted with the subject. I have, however, not unfre
quently seen excellent cuts spoiled fi:om inattention to bringing
up the lowered parts, even when printed at the office of printers
who have acquired a high character ior fine work, and whose names

^ji^ts^^m^^^^^

on this account are announced in advertisements in connexion with
those of the author, designer, and publisher, as a guarantee for
the superior manner in which the cuts contained in the work will
be printed.* The above cut, of the same subject as that given at
" I have known a printer, who once had a high character for his fine work,
charge and receive twelve guineas per sheet for a book containing a number of
wood-cuts which required to be well printed, and I have known a similar work
better printed frora lowered blocks for less than half the sura per sheet. Publishers
will at no distant tirae discover, that it is their interest rather to have their cuts first
properly engraved than to pay a printer a large additional sum for the trouble
of overlaying thera, and thus giving thera the appearance which they ought to have
without sueh means and appliances, if the blocks were originally executed as they
ought to be.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 727
page 725, shows the appearance of the engraving when properly
printed in the manner intended ; every line is here brought up by
using a blanket, while from the block having been lowered, with
a view to its being printed in this inanner, there has been no
occasion for overlays to increase the effect in the darker parts.
The difference in the two impressions is entirely owing to the
different manner of printing ; for the one is printed from the
block, and the other from a cast.
Subjects engraved on lowered blocks, in the manner of the pre
ceding cut, have always an unfinished appearance when printed
without a blanket, and the feebleness and confusion apparent in
the lighter parts, instead of being remedied by overlaying the
darker parts, are thus rendered more obvious. The connecting
medium between the extremes of black and white being either
entirely omitted or very imperfectly given, causes the impression
to have that harsh and unfinished appearance which is frequently
urged as one of the greatest objections to engraving on wood. It
is indeed true, that many cuts have this objectionable appearance ;
but it is also true, that the fault does not originate in any deficiency
in the art, hut is either the result of want of knowledge on the
part of the engraver, or is occasioned by improper printing. When
wood engravers found that anything approaching to delicapy, in
blending the extremes of black and white in their work, was
extremely liable to be either lost or spoiled in the printing, it
is not surprising that they should have paid comparatively little
attention to the connecting tints. In many excellently engraved
cuts, printed at the common press with overlays, the tint next
in gradation to positive black is often perceived to be too dark,
in consequence of the extra pressure on the adjacent parts ;
while, on the other hand, the delicate lines intended to blend with
the white, are either too heavy or appear broken and confused. It
is chiefly fi-om this cause that so much black and white, without
the requisite connecting middle tints, is found in wood-cuts ; for the
engraver, finding that such tints were frequently spoiled in the
impression, omitted them whenever he could, in order to adapt
his subject to the usual method of printing. When, in consequence
of an improvement in the mode of printing wood-cuts, engravers
can depend on finding all in the irapression that can be executed on
3 b2

728

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

the block, it will no longer be an objection to the art that its
productions have a hard and unfinished appearance, and that it
is only capable of efficiently representing subjects displaying strong
contrasts of black and white.
Should a wood-cut engraved on a plane surface, with the inten
tion of its being printed in the best manner, — that is, at a common
press with overlays, and without a blanket, — be printed at a steam-
press, or at a common press with a blanket, it will present a very

different appearance to the engraver's proof.* The above cut, which
ought properly to have been printed in the best manner, is here
printed improperly with a blanket, and the result is anything
but satisfactory; the parts which ought to have been delicately
printed are, in consequence of the equality of the pressure on every
part of the unlowered surface, brought up too heavy, and from their
appearing too dark, the effect intended by the designer and en
graver is destroyed. The same cut, when printed at a common
press with overlays, and without a blanket, as originally intended,
would have the light parts relieved, and appear as it does on the
opposite page.
• The cuts being arranged back to back, as at pages 725, 726, and thereby
preventing the types appearing, as they do in this and opposite pages, is an
advantage not to be overlooked.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

729

Tbe want of something like a uniform method of printing wood
cuts, and the high price charged by printers for what is called
fine work, have operated most injuriously to the progress and
extension of wood engraving. The practice, however, of printing
wood-cuts by a steam-press, or a press of any kind with a cylindri
cal roller instead of a platten, seems likely to introduce a general
change in the practice of the art. By the adoption of this cheap
and expeditious method of printing, books containing the very best
wood engravings can be afforded at a much cheaper rate than
formerly. As cuts printed in this manner can receive no adven
titious aid from overlays, the wood engraver is required to finish
his work perfectly before it goes out of his hands, and not to
trust to the taste of a pressman for its being properly printed.
The great desideratum in wood engraving is to produce cuts which
can be efficiently printed at the least possible expense ; and, as
a means towards this end, it is necessary that cuts should require
the least possible aid from the printer, and be executed in such
manner that, without gross negligence they will be certain to
print well. The greatest advantage that wood engraving possesses
over engraving on copper or steel is the cheap rate at which its
productions can be printed at one impression, in the same sheet
with letter-press. To increase, therefore, by an incomplete method

730 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
of engraving, the cost of printing wood-cuts, is to abandon the great
vantage ground of the art.
The mode of printing by the common press without a blanket,
and of helping a cut engraved on a plane surface by means of
overlays, is not only rauch more expensive than printing from a
lowered block by the steam-press, or a common press with a
blanket and without overlaying, but is also much more injurious
to the engraving. When a cut requires to be overlaid* in order
that it may be properly printed, a piece of paper is first pasted
on the tympan, and on this an impression is taken, which remains
as a substratum for the subsequent overlays. A second impression
is next taken, and in this the pressman cuts out the lighter parts,
and notes such as are too indistinct and require bringing up. He
then proceeds to paste scraps of paper over the corresponding parts
in the first impression, on a sheet of thin paper, either in front or
at the back of the parchment tympan, in order to increase in
such parts the pressure of the platten ; and thus continues, some
times for half a day, pasting scrap over scrap, until he obtains what
he considers a perfect impression.
As the block is originally of the same height as the type, it is
evident that the overlays must very much increase the pressure
of the platten on such parts as they are immediately above. Such
increase of pressure is not only injurious to the engraving, occasion
ally breaking down the lines ; but it also frequently squeezes the
ink from the surface info the interstices, and causes the impression
in such parts to appear blotted. While a block, with a flat surface,
printed in this manner will scarcely afford five thousand good
impressions without retouching, twenty thousand can be obtained
from a lowered block printed by a steam-press, or by a common
press with a blanket and without overlays ; the darkest parts in
a lowered block being no higher than the type, and not being
overlaid, are subject to no unequal pressure to break down the
lines, while the lighter parts being lowered are thus sufficiently
protected. The intervention of the blanket in the latter case
* What is called underlaying consists in pasting one piece of paper or more on
the lower part of a block, in order to raise it, and increase the pressure. When a
block is uneven at the bottom, in consequence of warping, underlaying is indis
pensable

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 731
not only brings up the lighter parts, but is also less injurious
to the engraving, than the direct action of the wood or metal
platten, with only the thin cloth and the parchment of the tympans
intervening between it and the surface of the block.
When wood-cuts are printed with overlays, and the paper is
knotty, the engraving is certain to be injured by the knots being
indented in the wood in those parts where the pressure is greatest.
When copies of a work containing wood-cuts are printed on India
paper, the engraving is almost invariably injured, in consequence
of the hard knots and pieces of bark with which such paper
abounds, causing indentions in the wood. The consequence of
printing off a certain number of copies of a work on such paper
may be seen in the cut of the Vain Glow-worm, in the second
edition of the first series of Northcote's Fables : it is covered with
white spots, the result of indentions in the block caused by the
knots and inequalities in bad India paper. Overlays frequently
shift if not well attended to, and cause pressure where it was never
intended. In order that wood engravings should appear to the greatest
advantage, it is necessary that they should be printed on proper
paper. A person not practically acquainted with the subject may
easily be deceived in selecting paper for a work containing wood
engravings. There is a kind of paper, manufactured of coarse
material, which, in consequence of its being pressed, has a smooth
appearance, and to the view seems to be highly suitable for the
purpose. As soon, however, as such paper is wetted previous to
printing, its smoothness disappears, and its imperfections become
apparent hy the irregular sweUing of the material of which it is
composed. Paper intended for printing the best kind of wood-cuts
ought to be even in texture, and this ought to be the result of
good material well manufactured. Paper of this kind will not
appear uneven when wetted, hke that which has merely a good
face put upon it by means of extreme pressure. The best mode
of testing the quaUty of paper is to wet a sheet ; however even
and smooth it may appear when dry, its imperfections wiU he
evident when wet, if it be manufactured of coarse material, and
merely pressed smooth.
Paper of unequal thickness, however good the material may be,

732 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
is quite unfit for the purpose of printing the best kind of wood en
gravings ; for, if a sheet be thicker at one end than the other, there
will be a perceptible difference in the strength of the impressions
of the cuts accordingly as they may be printed on the thick or the
thin parts, those on the latter being light, while those on the former
are comparatively heavy or dark. When it is known that an over
lay of the thinnest tissue paper will make a perceptible difference
in an impression, the necessity of having paper of even texture
for the purpose of printing wood-cuts well is obvious. As there
is less chance of inequality of texture in comparatively thin paper
than in thick, the former kind is generally to be preferred, sup
posing it to be equally well manufactured.
Mr. Savage, at page 46 of his Hints on Decorative Printing,
recommends that in a sheet which consists entirely of letter-press
in one fiorm,* and of letter-press and wood-cuts in the other, the
form without cuts should be worked first. His words are as
follow : — " When there are wood-cuts in one form, and none in
the other, then the form without the cuts ought to be worked
first ; as working the cuts last prevents the indention of the types
appearing on the engraving, which would otherwise take place to
its prejudice."
My opinion on this subject is directly the reverse of Mr.
Savage's ; for, under similar circumstances, I should advise that
the form containing the cuts should be printed first ; and for the
following reason : — When any parts of a wood-cut require to be
printed Ught — whether by lowering the block or by overlaying —
the pressure in such parts must necessarily be less than on those
adjacent. If then the form containing such cuts be printed first,
the paper being perfectly flat, and without any indentions, all
the lines will appear distinct and continuous, unless the pressman
should grossly neglect his duty. If, on the contrary, the form
containing such cuts be printed last, there is a risk of the lines
in the lighter parts appearing broken and confused, in consequence
of the inequality in the surface of the paper, caused by the inden
tion of the types on the opposite side. Imperfections of this kind
• The entire quantity of types, or of types and wood-cuts, whioh is locked up
together, and printed on one side of a sheet at one impression, is called by printers
afirm.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 733
are to be seen in many works containing wood-cuts ; and they are
in particular numerous in the Treatise on Cattle published under
the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge. In many of the cuts in this work the lines repre
senting the sky appear discontinuous and broken, and the im
perfections are always according to the kind of type on the
other side of the paper. When both forms contain wood-cuts, I
should recommend that to be worked first which contains the best.
Mr. Savage's reason, independent of the preceding objections, is
scarcely a good one ; for admitting that the indention of the
types of the second form does appear in the clear and distinct
impressions from the cuts in the first, when the sheet is just
taken from the press, are not such inequalities entirely removed
when the sheet is dried and pressed ?
In order to produce good impressions in printing wood-cuts,
much more depends on the manner in which the subject is treat
ed by the designer, and on the place which the cut occupies in a
page, than a person unacquainted with the nicety required in such
matters would imagine. Wood-cuts which are delicately engraved,
or which consist chiefly of outline, are the most difficult to print
in a proper manner, in consequence of their want of dark masses
to relieve the pressure in the more delicate parts, and thus cause
them to appear lighter in the impression. There ought never to
be a large portion of Ught delicate work in a wood-cut without
a few dark parts near to it, which may serve as stays or props
to relieve the pressure. In illustration of what is here said, I
would refer to the cut of King Shahriyar unveiling Shahrazad,
at page 15 of Mr. Lane's Translation of the Arabian Nights'
Entertainments, where it will be seen, that certain dark parts are
introduced as if at measured distances. It is entirely owing to
the introduction of those dark parts that the pressman has been
enabled to print the cut so well : they not only give by contrast
the appearance of greater deUcacy to the lightest parts ; hut
they also serve to relieve thern from that degree of pressure,
which, if the cut consisted entirely of such delicate Unes, would
most certainly cause them to appear comparatively thick and
heavy. Another instance of the advantage which a cut derives
from its being placed in a certain situation in the page, is also

734 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
afforded hy the same work. The cut to which I allude is that of
the Return of the Jinnee at page 47, consisting chiefly of middle tint,
with a piUar of smoke rising up from the ground, and gradually
becoming Ughter towards the top. Had this cut been introduced
at the head of the page without any text above it, the Ught parts
would not have appeared so delicate as they do now when the
cut is printed in its present situation. The top of the cut, where
the lines are required to be lightest, being near to the types, thus
receives a support, and is by them relieved from that degree of
pressure which would otherwise cause the Unes to appear heavy.
Towards the bottom of the cut, which also forms the bottom of
the page, there are two or three dark figures which most oppor
tunely afford that necessary degree of support which in the upper
part is derived from the types.
The engraver by whom a cut has been executed is unquestion
ably the best person that the printer can apply to for any informa
tion as to the manner in which it ought to be printed, as he
alone can be perfectly acquainted with the state of the block, and
with any peculiarity in the engraving. If any Ught part should
have been lowered to a very trifling extent, it is sometimes almost
impossible that the printer should perceive such lowered part
after the block has been covered with ink ; and hence, notvrith
standing the proof which may have heen sent by the engraver as
a guide, such a cut is very likely to be worked off, to the great
injury of the general effect of the subject, without the lowered
part being properly brought up. In order to avoid such an
occurrence, which is by no means unfrequent, it is advisable to
send to the engraver a printed proof of his cut, in order that he
may note those parts where the pressman has failed in obtaining a
perfect impression. From the want of this precaution wood-cuts
are but too often badly printed ; while at the same time the en
graver is blamed for executing his work imperfectly, though in
reality the defect is entirely occasioned by the cut not being
properly printed.
The best mode of cleaning a block after the engraver has taken
his first proof is to rub it well with a piece of woollen cloth. So
long as anything remains to be done with the graver, the block,
after taking a proof, ought never to be cleaned with any liquid.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 735
as by such means the ink on the surface would be dissolved, and
the mixture getting between, the lines would thus cause the cut
to appear uniformly black, and render it difficult for the engraver
to finish his work in a proper manner from his inability to
clearly distinguish the lines.* Turpentine or lye ought to be
very sparingly used to clean a cut after the printing is finished,
and never unless the interstices be choked up with ink which
cannot otherwise be removed. When the surface of the block
becomes foul, in consequence of the ink becoming hardened
upon it, it is most advisable to clean it with a little soap and
water, using as little water as possible, and afterwards to rub the
block well with a piece of woollen cloth. When it is necessary
to use turpentine in order to get the hardened ink out of the
interstices, the surface of the block should immediately afterwards
be slightly washed with a little soap and water, and afterwards
rubbed with a piece of woollen cloth.f Warm water ought never
to be used, as it is much more apt than cold to cause the block
to warp and split. The practice of cleaning wood-cuts in the form
by means of a hard brush, dipped in turpentine or lye, is extremely
injurious to the finest parts, as by this means most delicate lines
are not unfrequently broken. The use of anything damp to clean
the cuts when the pressman finishes his day's- work, is to he avoided ;
as a very small degree of damp is sufficient to cause the block to
warp when left locked up over night in the form. Whenever it
is practicable, the cuts ought to be taken out of the form at night,
and placed on their edges till next morning ; as, by thUs receiving
a free circulation of air all round them, they will be much less
liable to warp, than if allowed to remain in the form. As wood
cuts are often injured by being carelessly printed in a rough proof,
it is advisable not to insert them in the form till all the literal
corrections are made, and the text is ready for the press.
It is a fact, though I am unable to satisfactorily account for
* When a blocks after being printed, requires retouching, it is generally neces
sary to cover it with fine whiting, which, by filling up the interstices, thus enables
the engraver to distinguish the raised lines more clearly.
-f When a block has been cleaned with turpentine, and not afterwards washed
with soap and water, it will not receive the ink well when next used. The first
fifty or sixty impressions subsequently taken, are almost certain lo have a grey and
scumbled appearance.

736 THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.
it, that an impression from a wood-block, taken by a common
press, without overlaying, or any other kind of preparation, is
generally Ughter in the middle than towards the edges. Mr.
Edward Cowper, who has contributed so much to the improvement
of machine-printing, when engaged in making experiments with
common presses constructed with the greatest care,* informs me,
that he frequently noticed the same defect. Such inequaUty in
the impression is not perceptible in cuts printed by a steam-press,
where the pressure proceeds from a cylinder instead of a flat plat
ten of metal or wood. Besides the advantage which the steam-
press possesses over the common press in producing a uniformly
regular impression, the ink in the former method is more equally
distributed over every part of the form in consequence of the un
deviating regularity of the action of the inking rollers. Though
an equal distribution of the ink be of great advantage when all the
cuts in a form require to be printed in the same manner, — that is,
when all are of a similar tone of colour, — yet when some are dark,
and others comparatively light, balls faced with composition are
decidedly preferable to composition rollers, as by using the former
the pressman can give to each cut its proper quantity of ink.
I very much doubt, if soft composition rollers, such as are now
generally used, be so well adapted as composition balls for inking
wood-cuts engraved on a plane surface. The material of which the
rollers are formed is so soft and elastic, that it does not only pass
over the surface of the block, but penetrates to a certain depth
between the lines, thus inking them at the sides, as weU as on
their surface. The consequence of this is, that when the pressure
is too great, the paper is forced in between the Unes, and re
ceives, to the great detriment of the impression, a portion of the
ink communicated by the soft and elastic roller to their sides. For
inking cuts delicately engraved on unlowered blocks, I should
recommend composition balls instead of composition rollers, when
ever it is required that such cuts should be printed in the best
manner. * Some of those presses were so truly constructed, that if the table were wetted,
and brought in contact with the platten, it could be raised from its bed by allow
ing the platten to ascend, in consequence of the two surfaces being so perfectly
plane and level.

THE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING. 737
The great advantage which modern wood engraving possesses
over every other branch of graphic art, is the cheap rate at which
its productions can be disseminated in conjunction with types, by
means of the press. This is the stronghold of the art ; and when
ever it has been abandoned in modern times to compete with
copper-plate engraving, in point of delicacy or mere difficulty of
execution, the result has been a failure. No large modern wood
cuts published separately, and resting on their own merits as works
of art, have repaid the engraver. The price at which they were
pubUshed was too high to aUow of their being purchased by the
humbler classes, while the more wealthy collectors of fine prints
have treated them with neglect. Such persons were not inclined
to purchase comparatively expensive wood-cuts merely as curiosi
ties, showing how closely the pecuUarities of copper-plate engraving
could be imitated on wood.
Though most of the large cuts designed by Albert Durer were
either published separately without letter-press, or in parts with
brief explanations annexed ; yet we cannot ascribe the favour with
which they were unquestionably received, to the mere fact of their
being executed on wood ; they were adapted to the taste and feel
ings of the age, and were esteemed on account of the interest of the
subjects and the excellence of the designs. Were a modern artist
of comparatively equal talent to pubUsh a series of subjects of ex
cellence and originaUty, engraved on wood in the best manner,
I have little doubt of their being favourably received ; their success,
however, would not be owing to the circumstance of their being
engraved on wood, but to their intrinsic merits as works of art.
On taking a retrospective glance at the history of wood engrav
ing, it will be perceived that the art has not been regularly pro
gressive. At one period we find its productions distinguished for
excellence of design and freedom of ejfecution, and at another we
find mere mechanical labour substituted for the talent of the artist.
As soon as this change commenced, wood engraving as a means
of multiplying works of art began to decline. It continued in a
state of neglect for upwards of a century, and showed little symp
toms of revival until the works of Bewick again brought it into
notice. The maxim that "a good thing is valuable in proportion as

738

TUE PRACTICE OF WOOD ENGRAVING.

many can enjoy it," may be applied with peculiar propriety to
wood engraving ; for the productions of no other kindred art have
been more generally disseminated, nor with greater advantage to
those for whom they were intended. In the child's first book
wood-cuts are introduced, to enable the infant mind to connect
words with things ; the youth gains his knowledge of the forms of
foreign animals from wood-cuts ; and the mathematician avails
himself of wood engraving to execute his diagrams. It has been
employed, in the representation of reUgious subjects, as an aid
to devotion ; to celebrate the triumphs of kings and warriors ; to
illustrate the pages of the historian, the traveller, and the poet ;
and by its means copies of the works of the greatest artists of
former times, have been afforded at a price which enabled the very
poorest classes to become purchasers. As at least one hundred
thousand good impressions can he obtained from a wood-cut, if
properly engraved and carefully printed ; and as the additional cost
of printing wood-cuts with letter-press is inconsiderable when com
pared with the cost of printing steel or copper plates separately,
the art will never want encouragement, nor again sink into neglect^
so long as there are artists of talent to furnish designs, and good
engravers to execute them.

INDEX.

AccuBsrus, Mariangelus, note written by, in a
Donatus, 151,
Advertisements, wood-cuts prefixed to, n. 530,
Allegory of Death, a tract printed at Bam
berg, 1462.210,
Almanach de Paris, with wood-cuts, by Pa
pillon, 544.
Almanacks, sheet, 1470. 1500. 274,
Alphabet of figures, engraved on wood, in
the British Museum, 131 ; with figures, of a
Dance of Death, preserved iu the public
library at Basle, 423.
Altdorffer, A, 385.
Amman, Jost, cuts designed by, in a book
of trades and professions, 488 ; other cuts
designed by him, 491, 492,
Amonoph, a name on an Egyptian brick-
stamp, 8,
Andreani, Andrea, chiaro-scuros engraved
by, 513,
Angus, George, of Newoastle-on-Tyne, prin
ter, wood-cuts used by, in cheap works,
220. 277, 527,
Annunciation, old cut of the, 63,
Ansgarius, St., supposed to have been the
compiler ofthe Biblia Pauperum, 116.
Antichrist, cut of, 85,
Antonianus, Silvius, a cardinal, claimed by
PapiUon as a wood engraver, 405,
Antonio, Marc, his copies of the Little Pas-
sion and the Life of the Virgin, designed
by Durer, 304,
Antwerp, painters' company of, entertain Du
rer, 315 ; procession in honour of the Vir
gin, 316.
Apelles, the image of the life of man as
painted in a table by, 519.
Apocalypse, an ancient block-book, 78 — 86 ;
cuts in illustration of, from Durer's de
signs, 290.
Arch, triumphal, of Maximilian, designed by
Durer, 309.
Aretin, J, C, Von, 140,
Ars Memorandi, 139,
Ars Moriendi, an old block-book, 142.
Art, early German, 387,
Assen, J. W, Van, 383,
Astle's Origin and Progress of Writing, 24.

Atkinson, G. C, his Life of Bewick, 562,
663. 565, 582. 583. 595,
Austin, an English wood-engraver, 628,
B,
Babylonian brick, 9.
Balls, leather, formerly used by .pressmen,
not so elastic as composition rollers, 703.
Bamberg, a book of fables printed at, in
1461, 207.
Bamler, John, a printer of Augsburg, 231.
Baptism of Drusiana, 84.
Bartsch, Adam, of opinion that Albert Durer
did not engrave on wood, 287.
Battailes, La Fleur des, 1505, 255.
Baxter, George, his improvements in printing
in colours, 370 ; his chiaro-scuros and pic
ture-prints, 712,
Beating time with the foot mistaken for print.
ing, 147.
Beaumont, Sir George, curious alphabet of
figures engraved ou wood, formerly be
longing to, 131,
Bechtermuntze, Henry and Nicholas, early
printers, related to Gutemberg, 175, 176.
Beddoes, Dr. Thomas, his poem of Alex
ander's expedition down the Hydaspes,
with wood-cuts, by E. Dyas, 1792, «.
548,
Behaim, Michael, letter to, from Albert
Durer, 285.
Behaim, H. S. note, 306. 385.
Beilby, Ralph, the partner of Bewick, 580.
Beildeck, Lawrence, his evidence in the suit
of the Drytzehns against Gutemberg, 1438,
157.
Bekker, R. Z. editor of a collection of wood
cuts, from old blocks in the possession of
the 13aron Von Derschau, 274.
Bellini, Giovanni, his praise of Durer, 293.
Benting, William, Lord of Rhoon and Pen
draght, a fictitious character, mentioned by
T. Nieuhoff Piccard, 432, 433. 435.
Bemardin, St., account of an old wood-cut
of, 72.
Beroaldus, Peter, editor of an edition of Pto
lemy, 244.
Best, Andrew, and Leioir, their metallic
relief engraving, 721 .

740

INDEX.

Bethemsted, a name in an old book of wood
cuts, 136.
Beugnet, a French wood engraver, 634,
Bewick, Thomas, his birth, 1753, 559; ap
prenticed to Mr. R. Beilby, 562 ; en
graves the diagrams in Hutton's Mensura
tion, 1768 — 1770, 562 ; receives a premium
for his cut of the Old Hound, 1775, 564;
visits London, 565 ; cuts engraved by him
in a Hieroglyphic Bible, 566 ; his love of
the country, 567 ; his cuts in G ay's Fables,
568 ; his cut of the Chillingham Bull,
569; his Quadrupeds, 1791, 570—579;
his British Birds, 1797—1804, 580—593 ;
his Select Fables, 1818, 593—598; his
cut of the Old Horse waiting for Death,
598 ; his diligence, 599 ; his death, 603 ;
tribute to his merits from Blackwood's
Magazine, 604.
Bewick, John, notice of his principal works,
605—608.
Bible, the Mazarine, printed prior to August
1456, 171.
Bible supposed to have been printed by Pfis
ter, at Bamberg, 221.
Bible cuts, Lyons, 1538, designed by Hol
bein, 438—444.
Bible, Quadrins Historiques de la, 479.
Biblia Pauperum, 101 — 117.
Bildhauer, 3.
Binding, old, 76.
Birds, engraved by Bewick's pupils, n. 582.
Birkman, Arnold, Dance of Death, copied
from the Lyons edition, published by his
heirs, Cologne, 1555 — 1572, 405.
Blake, William, his mode of engraving in
metallic relief, 715.
Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, cut from,
627,
Block-books claimed for Lawrence Coster,
74.
Blocks, original, of the Triumphs of Max
imilian, preserved at Vienna, 353.
Bombo, the name of a dog, supposed by Pa
pillon to be the narae of a wood-engraver,
n. 405.
Bomb-shell, cut of a, from a book printed in
1472, 229,
Borbonius, or Bourbon, Nicholas, verses by,
in praise of Holbein, 426, 428. 440.
Borders, flowered, earliest specimens of in
books, 255.
Bottiger, C. A., n. 26,
Box. wood, different qualities of, 637, 643.
Brands for marking cattle, 13.
Branston, Robert, notice of his principal
wood-cuts, 628—631.
Branston, R. the younger, wood-engraver,
633 ; his method of engraving in metallic
relief, 719.
Branston, F. W. wood-engraver, 633.
Braunche, Robert, his monument at Lynn, 27,
Breitkopf, G. J., his attempt to print maps
with separative pieces of type-metal, 1776,
249.
Breydenbach's Travels, 1486, 251—254.
Bridget, St., cut of, 66.

Brief of Indulgence, an early specimen of
typography, 168.
Briefe, cards so called in Germany, 54.
Briefmalers and Briefdruckers, 56.
British Birds, History of, with cuts by Be
wick, 580—593.
Broughton, Hugh, his Concent of Scripture,
with copper-plate engravings, 1591, 604.
Biichel, Emanuel, a Dance of Death copied
by, in water-colours, 392.
Bukinck, Arnold, printer, his edition of Pto
lemy, 1478, with maps, engraved on copper,
243.
Bullet, J, B., his Researches on Playing
Cards, 53.
Bulwer, Sir E. L, erroneously mentions Wil
liam Harvey as continuing the profession
of a wood-engraver, 476.
Burgmair, Hans, painter, and designer on
wood, 336, 337.
Burleigh, Lord, his portrait in Archbishop
Parker's edition of the Bible, 1568, 500.
Bumet, John, his engraving of Chelsea Pen
sioners, after Wilkie, 259.
Burning in the Hand, 14.
Bury, Richard de, makes no mention of
wood engraving, 51.
Businck, chiaro-scuros engraved by, 523.
Buttons, silver, engraved by Bewick, n. 668.
Bybel, Historische School en Huis, Amster
dam, 1743, vrith wood-cuts, 545.
Byfield, John and Mary, wood engravers, 633.

Calderinus, D., editor of an edition of Pto
lemy, 244.
Camus, his account of a book printed at Bam
berg, 1462, 208.
Capitals, ornamented, in Faust and Schefifer's
Psalter, 201 ; in English and other books,
511.
Car, triumphal, of Maximilian, designed by
Durer, 307.
Cards, known in 1340, 53.
Caron, Nicholas, wood-engraver, his portrait
of PapiUon, 553.
Carpi, Ugo da, engraver of chiaro-scuros,
on wood, 279. 370.
Casts, stereotype, early, 499 ; modem, 721 ;
clichage, 722.
Catherine, St., patroness of learned men, 252.
Catholicon Johannis Januensis, 174.
Cauteria, 14.
Caxton, W., books printed by, — Game of
Chess, 233 ; Mirror of the World, 237 ;
Golden Legend, Fables of Esop, Canter
bury Tales, 238.
Caylus, Count, chiaro-scuros executed by,
and N. Le Sueur, ti. 540.
Cessolis, J. de, his work on Chess, 241.
ChampoUion, ». 8.
Chantrey Sir F., monument by, in Lichfield
Cathedral, 669.
Characters in an old Dutch Dance of Death,
395,
Charlemagne, his monogram, 17.

INDEX,

741

Chelsea Pensioners, engraving of, after Sir
D. Wilkie, 259,
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 62,
Chess, the Game of, printed by Caxton, 233.
Chiaro-scuro, engraving on wood, known in
Germany in 1509, 280.
Chiaro-scuros, 465. 481, 483. 513. 523. 536.
539. 711.
Children in the Wood, cut from, 626,
Chillingham bull, cut of, by Bewick, 569.
Chinese engraving and printing, 26.
Chirotipografia, or hand-printing, n. 58.
Christopher, St. wood-cut of, in the pos
session of Earl Spencer, 59.
Circular wood engravings in the British Mu
seum, 69.
Cleaning wood-cuts after printing, mode of,
Clennell, Luke, a pupil of Bewick, biogra
phical notice of, 615—622.
Clerc, Sebastian le, cuts in Croxall's iEsop's
Fables, copied from his engravings, 534.
CUchage, a mode of taking a cast from a
wood-engraving, 722.
Coeck, Peter, of Alost, his Costumes and
Manners ofthe Turks, 480.
Coining, its antiquity, 22.
Cole, Humphrey, an English engraver, 1572,
500.
Collation of editions of the Speculum Salva
tionis, 126—129.
Cologne Chronicle, unfairly quoted by the
advocates of Coster, 150.
Colonna, Francis, author of the Hypneroto
machia, 265.
Colour, the meaning ofthe word when ap
plied to engravings, 259.
Committee of the House of Commons on
Arts and their Connection with Manufac
tures, 368.
Concanen, M., wood-out in Miscellaneous
Poems, published by, 1724, 537.
Coornhert, Theodore, claims the invention of
printing for Harlem, 180.
Copper-plate engraving, its invention ascribed
to Varro, 25.
Copper-plates, earliest books containing, 246 ;
the earliest engraved in England, 502 —
604.
Coriolano, Bartolomeo, chiaro-scuros en
graved by, 523.
Cornelius, a bookbinder, his account of Cos
ter's invention, 185 — 187.
Coster, Lawrence, first mentioned by Hadrian
Junius as the inventor of printing, 181;
account of his invention, 183.
Cotman's Sepulchral Brasses, 26,
Coverdale, Miles, cuts in his translation of
the Bible, 1535, 461—464.
Cowper, Edward, his invention for piercing
wood blocks for map engraving, 249.
Cracherode, Rev. C. M. books presented by
him to the British Museum, 91. 425. 460.
Cranach, L. painter and designer on wood,
333 ; chiaro-scuros cut affer, 334 ; figure
of Christ printed in colours, supposed to
be by him, 481—483.

Cranmer, Archbishop, his Catechism, 1548,
with wood-cuts, 454 — 458.
Crown-piece of George IV. impressions of
casts from, 700.
Cross-hatching, 251—263. 635. 680. 682.
CroxaU's ./Esop's Fables, wood-cuts in, 1722,
532.
Cuningham's, Dr. William, Cosmographica
Glass, 1559, 505—509.
Cunio, Alberic and Isabella, pretended wood
engravers, 33.
Curved lines, the effect of, 664.
D.
Dammetz, Lucas, called also Lucas Van
Leyden, 371.
Dampth, its effect on box-wood, 639.
Dance of Death, in old churches, 391 ; at
Basle, 391, 392 ; in old French and other
books, 394, 395 ; the Lyons Dance of
Death, 1538, with cuts, designed by Hans
Holbein, 396—438.
Dante, edition of, with copper-plates, 1482,
246 ; the cat edition of, Venice, 1578, 512.
Dates of block-books and cuts, mistake about,
75.
Day, John, an English printer, supposed to
have also engraved on wood, 507.
Denecker, Jobst, publisher of a Dance of
Death at Augsburg, 1544, 404.
Dentatus, the large cut of the death of, en
graved by W. Harvey, 624 ; specimens of
it, 682. 692.
Derschau, the Baron Von, his collection of
old wood-blocks, 274.
Desroches, M. ascribes the invention of
printing to " Vedelare Lodewyc," 147.
Deutsch, N. E., 379.
Doctrinale gette en mole, 150.
Dodd, Daniel and John, wood engravers, 633.
Dolce, Ludovico, hisTransformationi, a para
phrase of Ovid's Metamorphoses, 471.
Dominicals, stamped on paper, 148.
Dominotiers, 59.
Donatus, a grammatical treatise so called,
printed from wood-blocks, 143 ; one sup
posed to have been stamped, 1340, 148 ;
idea of typography perhaps suggested by
such a work, 151.
Douce, Francis, his opinion about the name
Machabre, 391 ; his list of books contain
ing figures of a Dance of Death, 394 ; his
edition of the Dance of Death, 1833, 406 ;
denies that the cuts in the Lyons edition
were designed by Holbein, 416 ; but be
lieves, on the authority of an unknown
writer, named Picard, that Holbein painted
a Dance of Death in the old palace at
Whitehall, 431.
Drawings, of a Dance of Death, supposed to
be originals, by Holbein, ra. 428 ; by
Robert Johnson, purchased of Beilby and
Bewick, by the Earl of Bute, 610 ; on
wood, mode of preparing the block for, 643 ;
for wood engraving, difficulty of obtaining
good, 671. 3 c

742

INDEX.

Drytzehn, Andrew, a partner of Gutemberg's,
154.
Diinne, Hans, work done by him for Gutem
berg, on account of printing, previous to
1438, 158.
Durer, Albert, placed as pupil under Michael
Wolgemuth, 288 ; earliest known copper
plate of his engraving, 1494, 290; his
illustrations of the Apocalypse, 291 ; his
visit to Venice, 292 ; his illustrations of
the History of the Virgin, 294—298;
of Christ's Passion, 299. 302 ; triumphal
car, 307 ; triumphal arch, 309 ; his earliest
etchings, 312 ; specimen of his carving in
the British Museum, 313 ; his poetry, n.
314; his visit to Flanders, 314— 326; his
death, said to have been hastened through
his wife's bad temper, 330.
Dyas, E. a self-taught wood-engraver, n. 649.
Dyers of Ovingham, 693, E.
Egyptian brick- stamp, 7.
Emblems of Mortality, with cuts, engraved by
John Bewick, 1789, 395. 605.
Emblems, Religious, with wood-cuts, 1808,
613.
English book, the earliest, that contains wood
cuts, 233—237.
Engraving, the word explained, 2 ; copper
plate, 25. 246. 502—604.
Enschedius, J. specimen of typography dis
covered by him, 198.
Entkrist, Der, an old block-book, 143.
Erasmus, portrait of, painted by Durer, 318 ;
invoked by Durer to exert himself in behalf
of the Reformation, 323 ; his worldly wis
dom displayed in his letter introducing
Holbein to Aegidius, 449.
Etching, the process of, explained, n. 312 ;
in metallic relief, 715.
Eve, creation of, conventional mode of repre
senting, 263.
Evelyn's Sculptura, 6.
Eyck, Hubert and J. Van, paintings by them,
320,321. F.
Fables, book of, printed at Bamberg, 1461,
207 ; Select, with cuts, by Bewick, 1818,
593. 598.
Falconer's Shipwreck, 1808, with cuts by
Clennell, 616.
Fanti, Sigismond, his Triompho di Fortuna,
Venice, 1527, 380. 382.
Fantuzzi, Antonio, called also Antonio da
Trente, engraver of chiaro-scuros, 465.
Fasciculus Temporum, with wood-cuts, 1474,
232,
Faust, John, becomes a partner of Gutem
berg, 161 ; sues him for money advanced,
163 ; gains the cause, 165.
Fellowship, or Guild of St. Luke, at Antwerp,
149.
Figures du Nouveau Testament, 479.
Flaxman's Lectures, print of the creation of

Eve in, 263 ; his opinion of expression and
sentiment in art, 664 ; cut from a design
by, 670.
Folkard, W. A., wood engraver, 633,
Forma, a shape or mould, 55.
Formschneiders, 23. 55. 57.
Fournier, P. S. his discoveries with respect to
the Speculum Salvattionis, 124 ; his opinion
of wooden types, 167 : his works, 554. 556.
Fox, George, the Quaker, 47.
Fox's, John, Acts and Monuments, 610.
Frellon, John aud Francis, publishers of the
second edition of the Lyons Dance of
Death, 401.
Frey, Agnes, the wife of Durer, ber avarice
and ill-temper said to have hastened her
husband's deatb, 33 1 .
G.
Gsensfleisch, a surname of the family of Gu
temberg, 152.
Galenus de Temperamentis, with a title-page,
engraved on copper, printed at Cambridge,
1521, 502.
G alius, Nicholas, tells the story of Coster's
invention to H. Junius, 184.
Gamperlin, Von, cuts ascribed to, 378.
Garfagninus, Joseph Porta, 466, 467.
Gebhard, L. A., his notice of tbe History of
the Council of Constance, with cuts of
arms, 231.
Gemini, Thomas, his Compendium of Ana
tomy, with copper-plate engravings, Lon
don, 1545, 503.
Gent, Thomas, wood-cuts in his History of
Ripon, 221.
George IV. his signature stamped, 18 ; his
snuff-box, with designs, by Flaxman, 671.
Gesner, Conrad, expressly mentions the cuts
in the Lyons Dance of Deatb as having
been designed by Holbein, 437.
Ghesquiere, M., his answer to M. Desroches,
147.
Gilpin, Rev. William, his definition oftint,
260, 261.
Giolito, Gabriel, printer, of Venice, 470.
Giraffe, wood-cut of a, in Breydenbach's Tra
vels, 1486, 264.
Glasses, observations on the use of, 650.
Globe, glass, the engraver's, to concentrate
the light of the lamp, 652.
Glockendon, George, an early German wood
engraver, 276.
Glockenton, A., cuts ascribed to, 382.
Goethe, aUusion to Sir Theurdank, in his
Gotz Von Berlichingen, n. 340.
Golden Legend, printed by W. de Worde,
1493, large cut in, 239.
Goldsmith and Parnell, Poems by, printed by
Bulmer, 606.
Goltzius, Hubert, his portraits of the Roman
Emperors in chiaro-scuro, from plates of
metal, 1557,483, 484.
Goltzius, Henry, chiaro-scuros by, 514.
Goose, Bernacle, said to be produced from a
tree, 495.

INDEX.

743

Gorway, Charles, wood engraver, 633.
Gospels of Ulphilus, 58.
Gothic monograms, 19.
Grand-due de I'armfee celeste, 212.
Gratture, the French term for the process of
thickening the lines in a wood-cut by scrap
ing them down, 550.
Gravers, 654.
Gray, Charies, wood-engraver, 633.
Green, W. T., wood-engraver, ib.
Greff, Jerome, publisher of a pirated edition
of Durer's Illustrations of the Apocalvpse,
291. *^ ¦'*^
Greffier and Scrivener, n. 2.
Gregson, Mr. C, letter to, from Bewick,
561. 567.
Gringonneur, Jacquemin, cards painted by,
53.
Gritner, a French wood-engraver, 634.
Grotesque, »i. 11.
Griin, H. B., 386, 386.
Gubitz, a modern German wood-engraver, 634.
Guicciardini, L., mentions the report of print
ing having been invented at Harlem, 181.
Gutemburg, John, his birth, 150 ; residing
at Strasburg in 1434, 153 ; his partnership
with Andrew Drytzehn, 154 ; evidences of
his having a press in 1438, 157 ; and for
the purpose of printing, 158 ; his return to
Mentz and partnership with Faust, 161 ;
partnership dissolved, 163; proofs ofhis
having afterwards had a press of his own,
173, 174 ; his death and epitaph, 177.
H.
Hahn, Ulric, Meditationes J. de Turrecre-
meta printed by, in 1467, 226.
Hancock, Charles, his patent for engraving in
metallic relief, 719.
Handgun, figure of one seen in cut in Val
turius derellilitari, 1472, 229.
Hans, Young, Briefmaler, 143. 273.
Harrington, Sir John, his translation of Ari
osto, with copper-plate engravings, 1591,
504.
Hartlieb, Dr. Cyromantia, 142.
Harvey, WUliam, a pupU of Bewick, notice
of his works as an engraver and designer,
622—627.
Hawkins, John Sidney, editor of Emblems of
Mortality, 1789, 395.
Hawkins, Sir John, wood-cuts in his History
of Music, 1776,558.
Haydock, R., his translation of Lomazzo,
with copper-plate engravings, 1598, 504.
Head of Paris, the lover of Helen, serves for
that of Thales, Dante, and others, 258.
Hegner, Ulrich, author of Life of Holbein, his
notice of the Dance of Death at Basle,
392 ; of the German names in proof im
pressions of the cuts in the Lyons Dance of
Death, 399 ; of Hans Lutzelburger, 424 ;
his Life of Holbein, 446. 450.
Heilman, Anthony, his evidence in the suit
ofthe Drytzehns against Gutemberg, 1438,
167.

Heineken, Charies, Baron Von, his disbelief
of PapiUon's story of the Cunio, 34; his
opinion that cards were invented in Ger
many, 64 ; his notice of the old wood-cut
of St. Christopher, 69 ; of the History of
the Virgin, 86 ; of the Poor Preacher's
Bible, 103. 105. 116; of the Speculum
Salvationis, 124 ; his erroneous account of
a Dutch wood-cut, by Phillery [WiUem]
de figursnider, 373.
Helgen, figures of Saints, 68.
Henderson, Dr. his History of Wines, with
Illustrations, by W. Harvey, 625.
Henry VIII, his signature stamped, 18.
Heures a I'Usaige de Chartres, printed by
S. Vostre, 1602, 282.
Hieroglyphic sonnet, 473 ; Bible, 666.
Highland Society, diploma of, 617.
Historiarum Veteris Testamenti Icones, or
Bible-cuts, designed by Holbein, 438—
444.
History of the Virgin, an ancient block-book,
86-1 00.
Hodgson, Solomon, printer of the first four
editions of Bewick's Quadrupeds, 578.
Hodgson, T., the engraver of a cut in Sir
John Hawkins's History of Music, 1776,
568.
Hogenberg, R. portrait of Archbishop Parker
engraved by, 1572, 504.
Holbein, Hans, the designer of the cuts in
the Dance of Death printed at Lyons, 446 ;
his birth, 445 ; his marriage, 446 ; how
employed at Basle, 447 ; visits England,
450 ; revisits Basle, 451 ; his death, 452.
Hole, Henry, a pupil of Bewick, ra. 616.
Holl, Leonard, printer of Ulm, his edition of
Ptolemy, 1483, 243.
Hollar, W. his etchings of the Dance of
Death, 405.
Holzschneider, 3.
Horace, his well-stored wine, 11.
Horne, Rev. T. H. probably incorrect with
respect to a date, 75.
Hortus Sanitatis, 1491, 255.
Householder, the Good, 518.
Howel's Medulla Historiae Anglicanse, with
wood-cuts, 1712, 529.
Hughes, William, wood engraver, n. 628.
Hunting and Hawking, Book of, printed at
St. Albans 1486, and at Westminster in
1496,239.
Hutton's Mensuration, with diagrams en
graved by Bewick, 1768—1770, 562.
Hypnerotomachia PoliphiU, 266. 272.
I.
Images of the Old Testament, with cuts, de
signed by Holbein, 438—443.
Impressions from wood and from copper, the
difference in the mode of taking, 6.
Initial letters, flowered, 232.
Insanity of engravers, 543.
Inscriptions on bells, 24.
Intaglio engraving on wood, so that the out
lines appear white upon black, 272.

744

INDEX.

Jackson, John Baptist, an English wood en
graver, perhaps a pupil of Kirkall, 637 ;
Papillon's notice of him, 538 ; engraves
several chiaro-scuros at Venice, 539 ; esta
blishes a manufactory for paper-hangings
at Battersea, and publishes an essay on
chiaro-scuro engraving, 639 — 542.
Janszoon, Lawrence, supposed to be the same
person as Lawrence Coster, 195.
Javelin-headed characters, 9.
Jean-le-Robert, his Journal, 149.
Jegher, Christopher, wood engravings by, from
drawings by Rubens, 519.
Jettons, or counters, 24,
Johnson, Robert, a pupil of Bewick's, list of
tail-pieces in the British Birds designed by,
687 ; notice of his life, 609.
Johnson, John, a pupil of Bewick, 611.
Journal, Albert Durer's, of his visit to Flan
ders, 314.
Junius, Hadrian, claims the invention of
printing for Lawrence Coster, 181 — 185.
K.
Kartenmachers in Germany, in the fifteenth
century, 54.
Killing fhe black, a technical term in wood
engraving, explained, 282.
Kirkall, E. copper-plate frontispiece to How
el's Medulla Historise Anglicans;, engraved
by, 1712, 531 ; chiaro-scuros engraved by,
636 ; copper- plates engraved by, in Rowe's
translation of Lucan's Pharsalia, and other
works, 536.
Klauber, H. H. repainted the Dance of
Death in the church-court of the Domini
cans, at Basle, 393.
Knight, R. Payne, his bequest of a piece of
sculpture, by A. Durer, to the British Mu
seum, 313.
Knight, C, his patent illuminated prints and
maps, 713. 721.
Koburger, Anthony, printer of the Nurem
berg Chronicle, 1493, 257.
Koning, J. a modern advocate of Coster's in
vention, 193.
Krismer, librarian of the Convent of Bux
heim, 64,
Kunig, der Weiss, the title of a work, with
wood-cuts, chiefly written by the Emperor
Maximilian, 345 ; summary of its contents,
347.
Kupfer-stecher, 3.
Kiittner, K. G. his opinion of Sir Theur
dank, 341.

Ladenspelder, Hans, 426.
Laer, W. Rolewinck de, his Fasciculus Tem
porura, with wood-cuts, 1474, 232.
Lamp, the engraver's, 662.
Landells, Ebenezer, wood-engraver, 633.
Landseer, Mr. John, his theory of vegetable

putties, 92 ; his observations on the term
colour, as applied to engravings, 259.
Laocoon, burlesque ofthe, by Titian, 517.
Lapis, Dorainico de, printer of Bologna, his
edition of Ptolemy, with an erroneous date,
244.
Lar, the word on a Boman stamp, 10.
Lee, J. wood-engraver, 627.
Leglenweiss, the word explained, 67.
Legrand, J. G. his translation of tbe Hyp
nerotomachia, 266.
Lehne, F. his observations on a passage in
the Cologne Chronicle, 150 ; his Chrono
logy of the Harlem Fiction, 189; his re
marks on Koning, 194.
Leicester, Robert Earl of, his portrait in
Archbishop Parker's edition of the Bible,
1668, 500.
Leland, John, his Nsenis, 1542, contains a
portrait, engraved on wood, of Sir Thomas
Wyatt, 453.
Letania Lauretana, with wood-cuts, Valencia,
1768, 556.
Lettere Cifrate, 472.
Leyden, Lucas Van, visited by Durer, 325 ;
his engravings, 371.
Lhuyd, Humphrey, erroneously described by
Walpole as an engraver, 601.
Libripagus, a definition of the word, by Panl
of Prague, 222.
Lignamine, P. de, in his Chronicle, 1474,
mentions Gutemberg and Faust, as printers
at Mentz in 1468, 173.
Linton, J. W. wood-engraver, 633.
Lobel and Fena's Stirpium Adversaries with
copper-plate title-page, London, 1670, 604.
Lodewyc von Vaelbeke, a fidler, supposed to
have been the inventor of printing, 146.
Logography, 498.
Lorenzo, Nicolo, books containing copper
plates printed by him, 1477—1481, 246.
Lorich, Melchior, 487.
Loudon's Arboretum, with cuts, printed from
casts of etchings, by Branston, 718.
Lowering, the practice of, no recent invention,
548.
Lowering, concave, 700.
Lowering, advantages of, 707.
Lowering, complicated, 709.
Lowering, the difference between cylindrical
rollers and the common press, so far as re
lates to, n. 724.
Lucchesini, an Italian wood-engraver, about
1770, 566.
Luther, Martin, his cause espoused by Durer,
321 ; caricature portraits of, 324, 326.
Lutzelburger, Hans, a wood engraver, 421 —
424.
Lydgate, John, mentions vignettes in his
Troy Book, 699.
Lysons, Mr. Samuel, letter from, to Sir
George Beaumont, 133.

M.
MabiUon, 17.
Machabre, The Dance of, 391-

¦394.

INDEX.

745

Mair, an engraver, a supposed chiaro-scuro by,
1499, 280.
Maittaire's Latin Classics, wood-cut orna
ments in, 1713, 531.
Mallinkrot, his translation of a passage in
the Cologne Chronicle, 151.
Mander, C. Van, ascribes the Lyons Dance
of Death to Holbein, 437.
Mantegna, Andrea, wood-cuts of the Hypne
rotomachia ascribed to, 266.
Manung Widder die Durken, an early speci
men of typography, 169.
Map engraved on wood, specimen of a, 695.
Maps engraved on wood and on copper, the
earliest, 243 ; names of places in, printed
in type, 1511, 247 ; printed in colours,
1638, 248 ; improvements in engraving,
248 ; printed in separate pieces, with
types, 1776, 249 ; improvements in print
ing, 497 ; early, on copper, published in
England, 600—602; Knight's patent il
luminated, 714.
Marcolini, F, wood-cuts in his Soiti, 1640,
466. 470.
Marks, double, on wood-cuts, 420.
Martin, J. wood-engraver, 633.
Mary de Medici, her portrait mistaken by
Papillon and Fournier for a specimen of
her own engraving on wood, 547. 655.
Matsys, Quintin, entertains Durer, 316.
Maude, Thomas, extract from his poem of
the School Boy, 564.
Maugerard, M. copy of an early edition of the
Bible discovered by, 171.
Maximihan the First, Emperor of Germany,
his triumphal car and arch, designed by
Durer, 307 — 309 ; the Adventures of Sir
Theurdank, the joint composition of himself
and his secretary, 340 — 345 ; works cele
brating his actions, — The Wise King, 346 ;
the Triumphal Procession, 349.
Mechel, Christian von, of Basle, his en
gravings after Holbein, 421.
Medals, 386.
Meditationes Joannis de Turrecremata, 225.
Meerman, G. his disbelief of the story of
Coster's invention, 190; and his subse
quent attempts to establish its credibility,
191—193.
Mentelin, John, printer, of Strasburg, for
merly an illuminator, 149.
Mentonniere, 562. 651.
Merchants'-marks, ^2.
Metallicf relief engraving, erroneous state
ments about, 368 ; Blake's metallic relief
engraving, 715 ; portrait thus executed
byLizars, 717 ; Woone's, 718; Hancock's
patent, 719 ; Schonberg's metallic relief,
718 ; Branston's, 719 ; Sly's, 720 ; Messrs.
Best, Andrew, and Leioir, 721.
Metamorphoses, Ovid's, printed at Venice,
1497, 263.
Meydenbach, John, said to have been one of
Gutemberg's assistants, 204.
Meydenbach, Jacobus, printer of the Hortus
Sanitatis, 1491, 265.
Mints, provincial, for coining money, 24.

Mirror of Human Salvation, 117.
Mirror ofthe World, printed by Caxton, 237.
Missale Herbipolense, with a copper-plate
engraving, 1481,245.
Moffet's Theatre of Insects, 525.
Monogram, 17, 19.
Montagna, Benedetto, wood-cuts of the Hyp
nerotomachia ascribed to him, 267.
Monte Sancto di Dio, II, an early book, con
taining copper-plates, 1477, 246.
Monumental brasses, 26.
Mort, Les Simulachres de la, Lyons, 1538,
396.
Mosses, Thomas, wood engraver, 633.
Munita, n. 11.
Munster, Sebastian, his Cosmography, 492 ;
his letter to Joachim Vadianus about an
improvement in the mode of printing maps,
497.
Murr, C. G. Von, references to his Journal of
Art, 2. 11. 55, 56. 69. 64. 72, 73. 94.
286. 289. 293, 294. 311. 314. 319. 322,
323. 331. 339. 342.

N.

Naraes of wood engravers at the back of the
original blocks of The Triumphs of Max
imihan, 353, 364.
Naming of John the Baptist, a piece of
sculpture by A. Durer, 314.
Nesbit, Charlton, a pupil of Bewick, notice
of some of his principal cuts, 612 — 615.
Neudorffer, his account of Jerome Resch, a
wood engraver, contemporary with Durer,
287.
Nicholson, Isaac, a pupil of Bewick, 622.
Northcote, James, his mode of composing the
cuttings for his Fables, /i., 625.
Notarial stamps, 20, 21.
Nummi bracteati, 19.
Nuremberg Chronicle, 267, 258.

O.
Oberiin, J. J. Essai d'Annales de la Vie de
Gutenberg, 153. 160. 167. 169. 176.
Odes, two, by Lloyd and Colman, with wood
cuts, 1760, 667.
Ortelius, Abraham, his collection of maps,
engraved on copper, 1670, 600.
Ortus Sanitatis, 267.
Ottley, W. Y. adopts Papillon's story of the
Cunio, 34. 45 ; his advocacy of Coster's
pretensions, 196 ; ascribes the introduction
of cross-hatching to M. Wolgemuth, 261 ;
and the designs of the cuts in the Hyp
nerotomachia to Benedetto Montagna,
267.
Outline, in wood engraving, the difference be-
tween the white and the true, 667 ; en
gravings in, 670.
Overlaying wood-cuts, mode of, 696. 730.
Ovingham, the parsonage at, 660. 713.
Oxford Sausage, with wood-cuts, 1764,
557.

746

INDEX.

Palatino, G. B. his work on Penmanship,
472.
Paper, proper for printing wood-cuts, 729;
India paper, injurious to wood-cuts, 731.
Paper-mark in an old book of wood-cuts,
132.
Paper money, 32.
Papillon, John, the elder, 526.
Papillon, John Michael, his story of the
Cunio, 40 ; notice of his works, 542. 654.
Parafe, or ruche, 18.
Parker, Archbishop, his portrait, engraved by
R. Hogenberg, 1572, 604.
Parkinson's Paradisus Terrestris, 625.
Parmegiano, chiaro-scuros after his designs,
465.
Fasti, Matteo, supposed to have designed the
cuts in Valturius de re Militari, 1472, 227.
Patroner, the word explained, ra. 397.
Paul of Prague, his definition of " libri
pagus," 222.
Pepyr, Edmund, his mark, 22.
Peringskiold, 16.
Petit-Jehan de Saintre, Chronicle of, 53.
Petrarch's Sonnetti, Lyons, 1545, cuts in,
478.
Petronius, n. 10.
Pfintzing, Melchior, joint author of Sir Theur-
dank, 340.
Pfister, Albert, works printed by, at Bam
berg in 1461 and 1462, 207. 224.
Phillery, properly Willem, de figuersnider,,
mistakes about a cut of his engraving, 374.
376.
Piccard, T. Nieuhoff, an unknown discoverer
of a painting of the Dance of Death, by
Holbein, 432. 435.
Pictura, a wood-cut sometimes called, 428.
Pilgrim, John Ulric, cuts ascribed to, 382.
Pinkerton, John, his statement that several
of the cuts in Bewick's Quadrupeds were
drawn on the block by R. Johnson, n,
581.
Pinx. et Sculp, not to be found on early wood
cuts, 44,
Pirkheimer, Bilibald, letters written to him
by Albert Durer, 292—294 ; his letter to
J, Tscherte, announcing Durer's death,
331.
Pittacia, small labels, n. 10.
Plebanus, a curate or vicar, 77.
Pleydenwurff, William, with M. Wolgemuth,
superintends the cuts of the Nuremberg
Chronicle, 1491,257.
Ploughman, Pierce, his Creed, 22.
Plug, mode of inserting in an engraved wood
block, 646.
Poetry, specimen of Durer's, -n. 314.
Poetry, specimens of Clennell's, when in
sane, 621.
PoliphiU, Hypnerotomachia, 264. 272.
Polo, Marco, 31.
Poor Preacher's Bible, 100— 117.
Portraits of Bewick, list of the principal, n.
602.

Powis, W. H. wood engraver, 633.
Prayer-Book, Queen Elizabeth's, 1569, 509.
Prenters of Antwerp in 1442, 149.
Press made for Guteraberg previous to 1438,
157.
Press, lolling, for copper-plate printing, 6.
Press, steam, wood-cuts printed by, 729.
Preusch, his attempt to print maps by a typo
metric process, 249.
Printing, Gutemberg occupied witb the in
vention of, in 1436, 168.
Printing in colours, a figure of Christ, with
the date 1543, 481 — 483 ; Savage's deco
rative printing, 711 ; G. Baxter's improve
ments, 712 ; C. Knight's patent illumi
nated prints and maps, 713 — 716.
Priming wood-cuts, best mode of, 724 — 736.
Priority of editions of the Speculum Salva
tionis, 126.
Procession, triumphal, of MaximUian, 349.
368.
Procopius, 16.
Proofs of wood engravings, mode of unfairly
taking, 552.
Psalter printed by Faust and Schaffer in
1457, 201.
Ptolemy's Cosmography, with maps, en
graved on wood, 1483, 243 ; an edition
printed by Dominico de Lapis, at Bologna,
244 ; at Venice, by J. Pentius de Leucho,
1511,247. Q.
Quadrin's Historiques de la Bible, 479.
Quadrupeds, History of, with cuts, by Be
wick, 1791, 570. 679.
QuintiUan, his notice of the manner of boys
learning to write by tracing the letters
through a stencil, 15. R.
Raffaele, designs for the wood-cuts of the
Hypnerotomachia ascribed to him, 266 ;
a wood-cut after a drawing by, in Mar
eolini's Sorti, 466.
Rahmenschneiders, or border-cutters, 232.
384.
Raidel, his Dissertation on an edition of
Ptolemy, 245 ; dates, erroneous in books,
245.
Rairabach, Abraham, his engraving of the
Rent-day, after Sir D. Wilkie, 259.
Raynalde's Birth of Mankind, with three cop
per-plate engravings, 1540, 502.
Rebus, or " name devises," 475.
Relief, metallic, engraving in, erroneous
statements about, 368 ; practised by Blake
and others, 715—721. 709, 710.
Rembrandt, cuts copied from etchings by,
676. 680. 684. 687.
Renaudot, I'Abb^, 31.
Rent-day, engraving of a group from, after
Sir D. Wilkie, 259.
Reperdius, George, a painter praised by
Nicholas Bourbon, 426..

INDEX.

747

Requeno's Chirotipografia, n. 58.
Reynolds, Nicholas, an English engraver on
copper, 1575, 501.
Reyser, George, printer of the Missale Herbi
polense 1481, 245.
Robin Hood's Garland, with wood-cut on the
title-page, 1670, 627.
Rocca, Angelus, mentions a Donatus on
parchment, 151.
Rogers, William, an English copper-plate
engraver, about 1600, 606.
Rolling-press, 5.
Rollers, composition, not so good as com
position balls for inking certain kinds of
wood-cuts, 736.
Roman stamps, 10. 12, 13.
Rotundity, how indicated by straight lines,
665.
Rubens, P. P. his praise of the cuts in the
Lyons Dance of Death designed by Hol
bein, 438 ; wood engravings from his de
signs, 620.
Runic cyphers and monograms, 18, 19.
Ryther, Augustine, an English engraver on
copper, 1575, 501. S.
Sachs, Hans, his descriptions of cuts de
signed by Jost Amman, 488.
Salmincio, Andrea, wood-cuts ascribed to,
624.
Sandrart, J. his notice of the Dance of
Death, with cuts, designed by Holbein, 437.
Saspach, Conrad, his evidence in the Dryt
zehns' suit against Gutemberg, 1438, 157.
Savage, W. chiaro-scuros in his Hints on
Decorative Printing, 711 ; his opinion as to
the best mode of working a form containing
wood-cuts, 730.
Saxton, Christopher, his collection of English
County Maps, engraved on copper, 1573
—1579, 601.
Schapf, George, an early wood engraver, 142.
276.
Schaufilein, Hans, painter, generally sup
posed to have engraved on wood, 339, 340.
342. 346. 354.
Schedel, Hartman, compiler of the Nurem
berg Chronicle, 1493, 257.
Scheffer, Peter, a partner of Gutemberg and
Eaust, 162; mentioned by Faust as his
servant, 163; a clerk, or copyist of books,
205.
Schelhorn's Amoenitates, 139.
Schoepflin.VindioiseTypographicae, 153—158.
Schon, Martin, 93.
Schon, Erhard, 486.
Schonberg, Mr. his attempts to engrave in
metallic relief, 718.
Schijnsperger, Hans, the printer of Sir Theur
dank, 341.
Schopper, Hartman, verses by, in a book of
trades and professions, 488.
Schoting, of Nuremberg, in a cut thus in
scribed, the date 1584, mistaken for 1384,
75.

Schultheis, Hans, his evidence in the Dryt
zehns' suit against Gutemberg, 1438, 156.
Schussler, John, a printer of Augsburg, 231.
Schwartz, J. G. Documenta de Origine Ty
pographia, 152. 164, 165. 174.
Scopoli, raistakes Mr. B. White's sign for the
name ofhis partner, 377.
Scrive, a tool to mark timber with, 2.
Scrivener and Greffier, ra. 2.
Scriverius, his account of Coster's invention,
185.
Seals, engraved, 25.
Sebastian, St. account of an old wood-cut of,
70.
Shade for the eyes, 661.
Shields of arms in the block-book called The
Apocalypse, 82 ; in the History of the Vir
gin, 94. 96, 97.
Sichem, Cornelius Van, wood engraver, 521.
SUberrad, Dr. old wood-cuts iu the pos
session of, 276.
Simulachres et Historiees Faces de la Mort,
Lyons, 1638, 396.
Singer's Researches ou the History of Play
ing Cards, 12 ; his unacknowledged obli
gations to Breitkopf, 34.
Skippe, John, chiaro-scuros engraved by, 711.
Slader, Samuel, wood engraver, 633.
Sly, Stephen, his experiments in metallic re
lief, 720.
Smith, John Orrin, wood engraver, 633.
Snuff-box, George the Fourth's, with designs,
by Flaxman, 670.
Solis, Virgil, 485.
Solomon, Bernard, of Lyons, 475 — 480.
Somervile's Chase, with cuts, designed by
John Bewick, 607.
Sonetto figurato, 473.
Sorg, Anthony, of Augsburg, account of the
Council of Constance, with wood-cuts,
printed by him in 1483, 231.
Sorti, Mareolini's, a work containing wood
cuts, 466—470.
Southey, Robert, his notice of two odes by
Lloyd and Colman, with wood-cuts, 657.
Spanish marks, 18, 19.
Specklin, D. mentions wooden types, 160.
Speculum Salvationis, a misnamed block-
book, 117.131.
Speed's History of Britain, 525.
Sporer, Hans, an old briel^maler, 142. 273.
Springinklee, Hans, 347. 385.
Stabius, J. his description of the triumphal
arch of Maximilian, 309.
Stamham, Melchior de. Abbot of St. Ulric
and Afra, at Augsburg, printing-presses
bought by him, 202.
Stampien, to stamp with the foot as a fidler
beats time, mistaken for printing, 147.
Stamping of letters in manuscripts, 57.
Stampilla, 18.
Stamps, Roman, 12 ; notarial, 20, 21.
Steiner, J. M. his notice of a book printed at
Bamberg in 1462, 208.
Stencilling, 16.
Stereotype, early, 499; modern, 721.
Stigmata, 14.

748

INDEX.

Stake-field, knights and bannerets created
after the battle of, 233.
Stothard, Thomas, R.A. his Illustrations of
Rogers's Poems, 1812, engraved on wood,
618.
Strephon's Revenge, 1724, copy of a tail
piece in, 537.
Sueur, le, Peter and Vincent, 626; Nicho
las, 554.
Swedish coins, 20.
Sweynheim, Conrad, printer, the first that de
vised maps engraved on copper, 244.
Switzer, cuts engraved by, 525.
Sylvius, jEneas, his account of the Bernacle,
or tree-goose, 496. T.
Temple, W. W. a pupU of Bewick, 622.
Terms, abstract, derived from names expressive
of tangible and visible things, 260.
Terra-cottas, called Typi, 8.
Testament, Figures du Nouveau, 479.
Theodoric, his monogram, 16.
Ther-Hoernen, Arnold, prints at Cologne an
edition of the Fasciculus Temporum, with
wood-cuts, 1474, 232.
Theurdank, the Adventures of, an allegorical
poem, by the Emperor Maximilian and his
Secretary, 340 ; the text erroneously sup
posed to have been engraved on wood, 342.
Thompson, John, wood engraver, a pupil of
R. Branston, notice of some of his prin
cipal cuts, 632.
Thompson, Charles, wood-engraver, 632.
Thurston, John, designer on wood, n. 613.
Tindale, William, cuts in his translation of
the New Testament, 1534, 459, 460.
Tinsel money, 19.
Tints, mode of cutting, 669—663.
Tint-tools, ea
Titian, wood-cuts after, 516.
Tools, wood engravers', 663 — 657.
Topsell's History of Four-footed Beasts, 525.
Tract printed by A. Pfister, at Bamberg,
1461, 1462, 207—224.
Transferring, old impression of wood-cuts, n.
128 ; old wood-cuts and copper-plates, 723,
724.
Travelling printers, 225.
Tree goose, 494.
Treitzsaurwein, M. Secretary to the Emperor
Maximilian, nominal author of the Wise
King, 346.
Treschel, Melchior and Gaspar, printers of
the Lyons Dance of Death, 1538, with
cuts, designed by Hans Holbein, 396.
Trithemius, his account of the invention of
printing, 161.
Tnumphal procession, usually called the Tri
uraphs of Maximilian, 349 —367.
Trusler, Dr. his Progress of Man and Society,
with cuts, by John Bewick, 606.
Turner, Dr. Williara, his account of the
Tree goose, 495.
Turner, the Rev. WUliam, his opinion of
cross-hatching, 635.

Turrecremata, J. de, his Meditationes, 225.
Typography, invention of, 145 ; not a chance
discovery, 178.

U.

Underlaying wood-cuts, mode of, •«. 730.
Unger, father and son, German wood en
gravers, 1779, 634.
Urse Graff, a cut designed by, probably
copied by William de figuersnider, 377;
other cuts witb his mark, 378.

Vagabonds and sturdy beggars, 14.
Valcebro, Ferrer de, his notice of the Ber
nacle or Tree goose, 496.
Valturius, R., de Re Militari, 227.
Vasari, George, claims the invention of
chiaro-scuro engraving for Ugo da Carpi,
279.
Vasey, George, wood engraver, 633.
Vaugris, V. printer of a piracy of the Lyons
Dance of Death, at Venice, 1642, n. 403.
Vecellio, Cesare, his book of Costumes,
Venice, 1689, 515.
Vegetable putties, a theory of Mr. J. Land
seer, 92.
Veldener, John, printer of an edition of the
Speculum Salvationis, 1483, 130 ; one of
the earliest printers who introduced or
namental borders engraved on wood, 232.
Venice, foreign cards prohibited to be brought
into the city of, 1441, 56.
Verona, Johannes de, 227.
Vesalius's Anatomy, Basle, 1548, erroneously
said to contain cuts designed by Titian,
516.
Vignettes, 699.
Vincentini, J. N. engraver of chiaro-scuros,
465.
Vostre, Simon, Heures printed by him, 282.
W.
Waagen, Dr. G. F. extract from his evidence
before the Committee on Arts and Manu
factures, 387.
Walsokne, Adam de, his mark, 22.
Walton's Angler, cuts offish in Major's edi
tion of, 632.
Wand-Kalendars, or sheet almanacks, 1470.
1600, 274.
Ward, James, R. A. cut of a dray-horee
from a drawing by, 676.
West, Benjamin, P. R. A. his design fbr the
diploma of the Highland Society, 617.
Wethemstede, John, prior of St. Albans,
136.
Whimper, J. W. wood engraver, 633.
White, Henry, senior and junior, wood en
gravers, 633.
Whitehall, fictions about a Dance of Death
painted by Holbein in tlie old palace at,
432—434.
Wilkie, Sir David, R. A. his sketch for his

INDEX.

749

picture of the Rabbit on the Wall, 672 ;
group from his Rent-day, 673 ; from his
ViUage Festival, 697.
WiUett, R. his opinion of wooden types, 167.
Williams, Samuel, wood engraver, 633.
WUliams, Thomas, wood engraver, 633.
Willis, Edward, a pupil of Bewick, n. 616.
Wimpheling, verses by him, celebrating Gu
temberg as the inventor of printing, 191.
Wirtemberg, Counts of, their arms, 98.
Wolgemuth, Michael, not the first that intro
duced cross-hatching in wood-engravings,
251.
Women, engravers on wood, /». 285.
Wood for the purposes of engraving, several
kinds mentioned by Papillon, 660 ; mode
of preparing, 636— 640.
Wood-cut, the earliest known with a date, 59.
Wood-cuts, largest modern, 369.
Wood engravers unfriendly to the progress of
typography, 219.
Wooden types, 160. 167, 168.
Woone, Mr. his patent for engraving in me
taUic relief, 718.

Worde, W. de, cuts in books printed by him,
239.
Wordsworth, William, his high opinion of
Bewick's talents, 606.
Wright, John, wood engraver, 633.
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, a wood-cut portrait of,
from a drawing, by flolbein, 454.

Zainer, Gunther, of Augsburg, the Legenda
Aurea, with wood-cuts, printed by him, in
1471, 230.
Zainer, John, of Reutlingen, prints at Ulm
in 1473, an edition of Boccacio de Claris
MuUeribus, with wood-cuts, 231.
Zani's arguments in favour of Papillon's story
of the Cunio, 48, 49.
Zerlegen, a word used by German printers to
denote the distribution of the types, occurs
in connection with Gutemberg's press in
1438,157.
Zuyren, J. Van, claims the invention of print
ing for Harlem, 179.

THE END.

LONBON:
FRIKTED BV SAMUEL BENTLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Laue.

ERRATA.

Page 484, line 8 from bottom,/.,- " aqua-tint" read " mezzo-tint.'
— 686, —15, omit "designers and."
193, — 1, read " man of property ;"