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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Brief History of Wood-engraving from Its
-Invention, by Joseph Cundall
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-
-
-
-Title: A Brief History of Wood-engraving from Its Invention
-
-
-Author: Joseph Cundall
-
-
-
-Release Date: August 27, 2012  [eBook #40589]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING
-FROM ITS INVENTION***
-
-
-E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Keith Edkins, and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
-available by Internet Archive (http://archive.org)
-
-
-
-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
-      file which includes the original illustrations.
-      See 40589-h.htm or 40589-h.zip:
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40589/40589-h/40589-h.htm)
-      or
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40589/40589-h.zip)
-
-
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      Internet Archive. See
-      http://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofwo00cunduoft
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-      A carat character is used to denote superscription. A
-      single character following the carat is superscripted
-      (example: cccc^o).
-
-      The original page numbers are enclosed by curly brackets
-      and embedded in the text to facilitate the use of the
-      index (examples: {vii} and {127}).
-
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: HENRY VIII. IN COUNCIL
-(_From Holinshed's 'Chronicles of England,'_ 1577)
-_Page 100_]
-
-A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING FROM ITS INVENTION
-
-by
-
-JOSEPH CUNDALL
-
-Author of 'Holbein and His Works' etc.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-London
-Sampson Low, Marston, & Company
-Limited
-St. Dunstan's House
-Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C.
-1895
-
-
-
-{vii}
-
-CONTENTS
-
-  CHAPTER I
-
-  PAGE
-
-  On Pictures of Saints--The print of _The Virgin with the
-  Holy Child in her Lap_ in the Bibliotheque Royale de
-  Belgique--On the print of _St. Christopher_ in the Spencer
-  Library at Manchester--The _Annunciation_ and the _St.
-  Bridget_ of Sweden                                              1
-
-  CHAPTER II
-
-  On the Block Books of the Fifteenth Century--Biblia Pauperum;
-  Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis, &c.                               11
-
-  CHAPTER III
-
-  The Block Books of the Fifteenth Century--Ars Moriendi--
-  _Temptacio Diaboli_--Canticum Canticorum, and others           20
-
-  CHAPTER IV
-
-  Block Book--Speculum Humanae Salvationis--_Casus
-  Luciferi_--The Mentz Psalter of 1459--Book of Fables--The
-  Cologne Bible--Nuernberg Chronicle--Breydenbach's
-  Travels                                                        28
-
-  CHAPTER V
-
-  On Wood-Engraving in Italy in the Fifteenth Century--The
-  Venice _Kalendario_ of 1476--The _Triumph of Petrarch_--The
-  _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_--Aldo Manuzio--Portrait
-  of Aldus                                                       40
-
-  {viii}
-  CHAPTER VI
-
-  On Wood-Engraving in France in the Fifteenth Century--
-  Engraving on Metal Blocks--'Books of Hours'--Famous
-  French Publishers: Pierre Le Rouge, Simon Vostre,
-  Antoine Verard, Thielman Kerver, Guyot Marchant,
-  Philippe Pigouchet, Jean Dupre, and others                     51
-
-  CHAPTER VII
-
-  Wood-Engraving in England in the Fifteenth Century--William
-  Caxton, _Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye_--_Dictes
-  and Sayings of Philosophers_--_Game and Playe of
-  the Chesse_, &c.--Wynkyn de Worde--Richard Pynson              61
-
-  CHAPTER VIII
-
-  Wood-Engraving in Germany in the Sixteenth Century--Albrecht
-  Duerer--_Coronation of the Virgin_--The Apocalypse--The
-  Little Passion--His Engravings on Copper--The
-  Triumphs of Maximilian--The _Triumphal Arch_--The
-  _Triumphal Car_--The _Triumphal Procession_                    69
-
-  CHAPTER IX
-
-  Hans Holbein--_Dance of Death_--Bible Cuts--Hans
-  Luetzelburger--_Dance of Death Alphabet_--The Little
-  Masters--Altdorfer--Beham--Brosamer--Aldegrever--Cranach       81
-
-  CHAPTER X
-
-  Wood-Engraving in Italy and France in the Sixteenth
-  Century--Giuseppe Porta of Venice--Geoffroy Tory and
-  Robert Estienne of Paris--Borluyt's _Figures from the
-  New Testament_--Christophe Plantin of Antwerp                  89
-
-  {ix}
-  CHAPTER XI
-
-  Wood-Engraving in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
-  in Italy and England--Printing in Chiaro-oscuro in
-  Venice--Printing in Colour in Germany--_Habiti Antichi
-  e Moderni_ by Vecellio--Wood-Engraving in England--Foxe's
-  _Acts and Monuments_--Holinshed's _Chronicles_--_A
-  Booke of Christian Prayers_--Dr. Cuningham's _Cosmographical
-  Glasse_--_Aesop's Fables_--The French engraver
-  Papillon                                                       99
-
-  CHAPTER XII
-
-  Thomas Bewick and his Pupils--_Select Fables_--_History of
-  Quadrupeds_--_History of British Birds_--_Aesop's Fables_--
-  Prices at which these books were published--Death of
-  Bewick                                                        108
-
-  CHAPTER XIII
-
-  Bewick's Successors--John Bewick (his Brother)--_Looking-glass
-  for the Mind_--_Goldsmith's Poems_--_Somerville's
-  Chase_--Robert Johnson--Charlton Nesbit--Robert Elliot
-  R. Bewick--_History of Fishes_--Luke Clennell--William
-  Harvey--George Bonner--W. H. Powis--John Jackson--Ebenezer
-  Landells--Robert Branston--F. W. Branston--John
-  Thompson--J. Orrin Smith--John and Mary Byfield--Samuel
-  Williams--W. T. Green--O. Jewitt--C. Gray--S.
-  Slader--J. Greenaway--W. J. Palmer--German Engravers--Modern
-  English Engravers                                             116
-
-  INDEX                                                         129
-
-{x}
-
-[Illustration: THE WOOD-ENGRAVER
-_By Jost Amman_ (1568)]
-
-{1}
-
-A BRIEF HISTORY
-
-OF
-
-WOOD-ENGRAVING
-
-------
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-_ON THE EARLY PICTURES OF SAINTS_
-
-Many volumes have been written on the subject of Wood-Engraving, especially
-in Germany, Holland, and Belgium, where the art first flourished; as well
-as in Italy, France, and England; and some of the best of these books have
-been published during the present century.
-
-The most important of them are, Dr. Dibdin's celebrated bibliographical
-works; 'A Treatise on Wood-Engraving,' by W. A. Chatto, of which a new
-edition has lately been issued; 'Wood-Engraving in Italy in the 15th
-Century,' by Dr. Lippmann; and, above all, 'The Masters of Wood-Engraving,'
-a magnificent folio volume written by Mr. W. J. Linton--himself a
-Master--who, besides giving us the benefit of his technical knowledge
-obtained by the practice of the art for fifty years, presents us with
-copies, from blocks engraved by himself, of the most celebrated woodcuts of
-the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
-
-Many writers have asserted that the first wood-engravings are to be found
-on playing-cards; others maintain that {2} the very rough prints on the
-playing-cards of the early fifteenth century were taken from
-stencil-plates. It is impossible to decide the point, nor is it of much
-importance; there is no evidence whatever as to the method of their
-production. They appeared in Europe about the year 1350: they came from the
-East, but their positive history, according to Dr. Willshire, begins in the
-year 1392.[1] It has been asserted that many prints of Images of Saints
-produced by means of wood-engraving preceded even playing-cards.
-
-The first undoubted fact that we can arrive at in the history of
-wood-engraving is that early in the fifteenth century there were to be
-found, in many of the monasteries and convents in various parts of Europe,
-prints of the Virgin with the Holy Infant, the most popular Saints, and
-Subjects from the Bible, which were certainly taken from engravings on
-wood; and we have now to describe some typical examples of primitive
-devotional pictures, printed by the xylographic process. The earliest of
-these woodcuts may date from 1380, and there are many which are assigned to
-the first half of the fifteenth century; they were all intended to be
-coloured by hand, and are therefore simply in outline, without shading. The
-designs are usually good, but the execution is not always so meritorious.
-
-In the Royal Library at Brussels there is a coloured print of _The Virgin
-with the Holy Child in her lap_, surrounded by four Saints in an inclosed
-garden. On the Virgin's right hand sits St. Catherine, with a royal crown
-on her head, the sword in her left hand, and, leaning against her feet, a
-broken wheel. Beneath is St. Dorothea crowned with roses, with a branch of
-a rose-tree in her right hand and the handle of a basket of apples in her
-left; on the other side are St. Barbara holding her tower, and, under her,
-St. Margaret with a book in her left hand; her right hand clasps a laidly
-dragon, and a cross leans upon her arm. {3}
-
-[Illustration: THE VIRGIN WITH FOUR SAINTS
-_In the Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique_]
-
-{4} Outside the palings a rabbit is feeding; a bird sits on the rail behind
-St. Catherine, two others are flying, and, above all, three angels are
-offering chaplets of roses to the Virgin; a palm-tree is growing on each
-side of her. But the most important part of the print is the very solid
-three-barred gate at the entrance to the garden, for on the uppermost of
-the bars we distinctly read m: cccc^o xviii^o. The print itself measures
-14-1/2 inches in height by 9 inches in width, without reckoning the border
-lines. It was found pasted at the bottom of an old coffer in the possession
-of an innkeeper at Malines in 1844 by a well-known architect, M. de Noter,
-who, recognising its great importance, offered it to the Royal Library at
-Brussels. It has been reproduced in scrupulously exact facsimile and fully
-described in the work entitled 'Documents iconographiques et typographiques
-de la Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique,' published by MM. Muquardt of
-Brussels. The small letters ^o are supposed to represent nails in the gate.
-
-M. Georges Duplessis tells us that he has examined the print minutely
-several times, and that he does not believe this date has been tampered
-with in any way. Some collectors and would-be critics maintain that the
-drawing of the figures and the folds of the garments are of a later date
-than 1418; if they were to examine the works of Hubert and Jan van Eyck,
-and the paintings of Meister Stephan Lochner of Cologne, Rogier van der
-Weyden, and other artists who lived about this time, they would be
-sufficiently answered. Mr. Linton is of opinion (and there can be no better
-judge) that the _style_ of the engraving does not compel him to attribute
-it to a later date than 1418, yet both he and Mr. Chatto express their
-doubts as to its authenticity--it appears to us, without sufficient reason.
-
-About the middle of the eighteenth century Herr Heinecken, a German
-collector of engravings, discovered, pasted {5} inside the binding of a
-manuscript in the library of the convent of Buxheim in Suabia, a folio
-print brightly coloured of _St. Christopher bearing the Infant Christ_.
-
-The outlines are printed in black ink, not by any kind of press, but in
-much the same way as that used by wood-engravers of the present day in
-taking their proofs, who first ink the engraved surface with a printer's
-ball, then lay the paper carefully over the cut, waxed at the edges to hold
-the paper firmly, and rub the back of the paper with a burnisher. In the
-fifteenth century a roller called a _frotton_ was used, as being more
-expeditious.
-
-Our illustration gives an idea of the original, which is still in the cover
-of the book in which it was discovered, and now in the Spencer Library at
-Manchester. The cut measures 11-1/2 inches in height by 8-1/2 inches in
-width, and is coloured after the manner of the time; that is, the Saint's
-robe is tinted with red and the lining with yellow ochre, the nimbuses are
-of the same kind of yellow; the robes of Christ and the monk are light
-blue, of the same tint as the water; the grass and foliage are bright
-green; the faces, hands, and legs are in a pale flesh-tint; there are but
-five or six colours used, and they may have been either washed in by hand
-or brushed in through a stencil-plate. As hand colouring would be quicker
-and less troublesome, one does not see the advantage of the stencil. The
-inscription beneath the cut reads thus:--
-
-  Cristofori faciem die quacumque tueris Millesimo cccc^o
-  Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris xx^o tercio
-
-which may be rendered:
-
-  On whatever day the face of Christopher thou shalt see,
-  On that day no evil form of death shall visit thee.
-
-{6}
-
-[Illustration: ST. CHRISTOPHER
-_The original (11-1/2 in. by 8-1/2 in.) is pasted inside the cover of an
-old manuscript book in the Spencer Library now at Manchester._]
-
-{7} Mr. Linton is enthusiastic in praise of this cut. 'I am well content,'
-he says, 'to give some words of unstinted praise to our St. Christopher for
-the design. I mind not the disproportionate space he occupies in the
-picture. Is not he famous as a giant? The perspective also is good enough
-for me, as doubtless it was to those in whose interest the print was
-issued. It is certain he is crossing a stream; we see a fish beneath the
-waves. He supports his colossal frame and helps his steady course with a
-full-grown fruit-bearing palm-tree--fit staff for saintly son of Anak; no
-heathen he; the nimbus is round his head. As on his shoulders he bears the
-Lord of the World, can we fail to remark his upturned glance, inquiring why
-he is thus bowed down by a little child? The blessing hand of the Blessed
-plainly gives reply. Look again, and see on one side of the stream the
-merely secular life; is it not all expressed by the mill and the miller and
-his ass, and far up the steep road (what need for diminishing distance?)
-the peasant with the sack of flour toiling towards his humble home. And on
-the other side is the spiritual life--the hermit, by his windowless hut,
-the warning bell above; he kneels in front, with his lantern of faith
-lifted high in his hand, a beacon for whatever wayfarer the ferryman may
-bring. Rank grasses and the fearless rabbit mark the quiet solitude in
-which the hermit dwells. I can forgive all shortcomings. These old-century
-men were in earnest.'
-
-In the Spencer collection are two other prints which may be attributed to
-the same period as the St. Christopher. One is a picture of _The
-Annunciation_, which was found pasted on the end cover of the book (_Laus
-Virginis_) in which the St. Christopher was discovered. It is of similar
-size, and is printed with a dark-coloured pigment, probably by means of a
-_frotton_. The Angel Gabriel is kneeling before the Virgin, who also is
-kneeling; she holds a book in her hand, and is represented in a kind of
-Gothic chapel; a vase with flowers in it stands under one of the
-diamond-paned windows. The Holy Dove is descending in a flood of rays;
-unfortunately the figure of the Almighty has been torn from the top
-left-hand corner of the print. On one of the pillars of the chapel is a
-small scroll with the legend
-
-  Ave gracia plena dominus tecum.
-
-{8}
-
-[Illustration: THE ANNUNCIATION
-_The original (11-1/2 in. by 8-1/2 in.) is pasted inside the cover of an
-old manuscript book in the Spencer Library._]
-
-{9} The wood-engraver may produce his design in two ways, either by means
-of black lines on a white ground, or by white designs on a black ground.
-The two methods are here united, while in the St. Christopher one only (the
-first) is used. Notice the discreet use of masses of black to give force to
-the design, and to contrast with the lightness of the other part of the
-picture. The Annunciation belongs to quite a different school to the St.
-Christopher.
-
-The other print is of St. Bridget of Sweden (who died in 1373). She is
-seated at a sloping desk, writing with a stylus in a book. The motto above
-her head is o brigita bit got fuer uns ('O Bridget, pray to God for us').
-In the left upper corner is a small representation of the Virgin with the
-Holy Infant in her arms, opposite is a shield with the letters S.P.Q.R. on
-it, referring to her journey to Rome. In the lower corners are, on the
-left, the palm and crown of martyrdom; and on the right is a shield with
-the _Lion rampant_ of Sweden. A pilgrim's hat and scrip hang on a staff
-behind the Virgin's seat. The print is roughly coloured, evidently by hand.
-
-Many other woodcuts of the same character have been discovered, which are
-believed to have been engraved in the first half of the fifteenth century.
-In the Imperial Library at Vienna there is a print of _St. Sebastian_,
-bearing the date 1437, which was found in the monastery of St. Blaise in
-the Black Forest. 'Having visited,' says Herr Heinecken, 'in my last tour a
-great many convents in Franconia, Suabia, Bavaria, and in the Austrian
-States, I everywhere discovered in their libraries many of these kinds of
-figures engraved on wood. They were usually pasted either at the beginning
-or the end of old volumes of the fifteenth century. These facts have
-confirmed me in my opinion that the next step of the {10} engraver on 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 them into the earliest printed books with which their libraries
-were furnished.' Herr Heinecken possessed more than a hundred of these
-pictures of Saints. There can be little doubt they were produced in the
-monasteries and convents, and distributed to the people, especially in the
-processions of the Church, as aids to devotion. Among the thousands of
-monks who lived in the fifteenth century there must have been many men who,
-like Fra Angelico, were gifted with sufficient artistic taste to enable
-them to draw and engrave such a picture as the St. Christopher.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{11}
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-_ON THE BLOCK BOOKS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY_
-
-In the first half of the fifteenth century, before the invention of
-printing by means of movable type, many books were produced in which the
-woodcuts and the text were engraved on the same page, or sometimes the text
-was on one page and the woodcut opposite. They were impressed on one side
-only of the paper, and the two blank pages were often pasted together. They
-are usually called Block Books. Many of the cuts are more than ten inches
-in height by eight inches in width, and were probably cut with a knife upon
-smoothly planed planks of the pear-tree, or other fine-grained wood, or
-possibly some were engraved upon soft metal.
-
-The most celebrated of them are:
-
-     I. Biblia Pauperum.--Bible of the Poor.
-    II. Apocalypsis Sancti Johnannis.--Visions of St. John.
-   III. Ars Moriendi.--The Art of Dying.
-    IV. Canticum Canticorum.--Solomon's Song.
-     V. Ars Memorandi.--The Art of Remembering.
-    VI. Liber Regum.--Book of Kings.
-   VII. Temptationes Daemonis.--Temptations of a Demon.
-  VIII. Endkrist (only known copy in the Spencer Library).
-    IX. Quindecim Signa.--The Fifteen Signs.
-     X. De Generatione Christi.--Of the Genealogy of Christ.
-    XI. Mirabilia Romae.--The Wonders of Rome.
-   XII. Speculum Humanae Salvationis.--Mirror of Salvation.
-  XIII. Die Kunst Ciromantia.--The Art of Chiromancy.
-   XIV. Confessionale.--Of the Confessional.
-    XV. Symbolum Apostolicum.--Symbols of the Apostles.
-
-{12} and are supposed to have been issued between the years 1420 and 1440.
-There is no title-page to any of them, and the dates are generally only a
-matter of conjecture. Probably they were copies of illuminated manuscripts,
-and were drawn, engraved, and coloured by the monks in their _scriptoria_.
-Doubtless other books of a similar character may be existing in some of the
-old monasteries on the Continent at the present day.
-
-The Block Books appear to have been made in Germany and Holland, and the
-most popular volumes passed through many editions. The earliest specimens
-are printed in a brown ink similar to that used for distemper drawings. It
-sometimes happened that the blocks used for a book were afterwards cut up
-and used over again in a different combination (as noticed by Bradshaw in
-his 'Memoranda,' No. 3, pp. 5 and 6, and by William Blades, in his
-'Pentateuch of Printing,' pp. 12 and 13.) A Block-book edition of the
-'Biblia Pauperum,' printed at Zwolle, was cut up, and the pieces used
-afterwards in a different combination. The same was done with the blocks of
-the 'Speculum nostrae Salvationis,' which were cut up, and the pieces used
-again for an edition printed at Utrecht in 1481. This was a step in the
-development of the art of printing.
-
-
-
-Biblia Pauperum.--In the Print Room of the British Museum there is a very
-fine copy of this work, probably the first edition. It is a small folio
-consisting of forty leaves impressed on one side only of the paper, in
-pale-brown ink or distemper, by means of friction, probably by a _frotton_
-or roller, as we can tell by the glazed surface on the back. The right
-order of the pages is indicated by the letters a, b, c, &c., on the face of
-the prints, each of which is about ten inches in height by seven and a-half
-in breadth. On the upper part of each page are frequently two half-length
-figures and two on the lower, intended for portraits of the prophets and
-other holy men whose writings are cited in the Latin text. {13}
-
-[Illustration: BIBLIA PAUPERUM--TENTH PAGE
-(_Reduced from 10 in. by 7-1/2 in._)]
-
-{14} The middle part of the page consists of three compartments, each of
-which is occupied by a subject from the Old or New Testament. The greater
-part of the text is at the sides of the upper portraits. On each side of
-those below is frequently a rhyming Latin verse. Texts of Scripture also
-appear on scrolls. The illustration, which is a much reduced copy of the
-tenth page (k), will afford a better idea of the arrangement of the subject
-and of the texts than any more lengthened description.
-
-The picture in the middle represents the Temptation of Christ by the Devil;
-that on the right, the Temptation of Adam by Eve; and that on the left,
-Esau selling his birthright for a Mess of Pottage, which his Brother Jacob
-has evidently just cooked in the iron pot suspended over the fire on a
-ratchet in the chimney-breast. The ham and goat's flesh or venison hanging
-on the kitchen wall remind us of the Dutch paintings of two centuries
-later. Esau's bow and quiver will be seen to be of a very primitive
-character.
-
-On the thirty-second page (to give another example) we find in the middle
-compartment Christ appearing to His Disciples; on the left, Joseph
-discovering himself to his Brethren; and on the right, the Return of the
-Prodigal Son.
-
-At the bottom of the page are these rhyming Latin verses:--
-
-  _Under Joseph and his Brethren._
-
-  Quos vex(av)it pridem
-  Blanditur fratribus idem.
-
-  _Under the Return of the Prodigal Son._
-
-  Flens amplexatur
-  Natum pater ac recreatur.
-
-  Hic ihesus apparet: surgentis gloria claret.
-
-Which have been roughly translated:
-
-  Whom he so lately vexed
-  He charms as brother next.
-
-  The wept-one is embraced
-  And as a son replaced,
-
-  Here doth Christ appear, in rising glory clear.
-
-{15}
-
-[Illustration: JACOB AND ESAU--BIBLIA PAUPERUM
-_Facsimile of the original cut_]
-
-{16}
-
-The 'Biblia Pauperum,' although it could not be read by the laity, was
-evidently issued for their especial benefit, and, with the help of the
-priests, it afforded excellent lessons in Bible history. It is believed
-that the first copies were printed at Haarlem about A.D. 1430 to 1440.
-
-Five editions of the 'Biblia Pauperum' are known as block books with the
-text in Latin; two with the text in German; and several others were printed
-about 1475 with the text in movable type. At least three editions were
-printed in Holland, and seven or eight others appear to be of German
-origin; the earlier are of the Dutch School. There are four copies,
-differing editions, in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian Library, and
-one in the Spencer Library. Some of the copies are coloured in a very
-simple manner.
-
-Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis.--This work consists of forty-eight pages of
-woodcuts about ten and a-half inches high by seven and a-half broad,
-printed in ink or distemper of a greyish-brown tint on thick paper on one
-side only. Each page is equally divided into two subjects, taken from the
-Apocalypse, one above the other. The cuts are engraved in the simplest
-manner, without any attempt at shading, as will be seen on examination of
-our print, which forms the first page of the book. In the upper half St.
-John is addressing three men and one woman. The words in the label Conversi
-ab idolis per predicationem beati Johannis Drusiana et ceteri are literally
-'Drusiana and the others are converted from idols by the preaching of the
-blessed John.' The letter a indicates page 1. In the lower half we see St.
-John baptizing Drusiana in a very small font in a small chapel; outside are
-six ill-looking men trying to peep in through the chinks of the door. Over
-the chapel are the words Sanctus Johannes baptisans, and over the men
-Cultores ydolorum explorantes facta ejus, literally, 'Worshippers of Idols
-spying on his acts.' Two of the idolaters are armed with hatchets, as if
-they intended to break open the door. [The Latin words, in accordance with
-the usual practice of the monks, are contracted in a manner very puzzling
-to those unused to these mediaeval writings.] There are several editions of
-the Apocalypsis, all apparently of German origin. {17}
-
-[Illustration: APOCALYPSIS SANCTI JOHANNIS
-_One of the earliest of the Block Books_]
-
-{18}
-
-Many bibliographers, treating of block books and arguing from the very
-simple style of the drawings and engravings, consider that the
-'Apocalypsis' was the first that was produced. Many worse woodcuts were
-issued in the eighteenth century. It would be very hazardous indeed to fix
-a date by the quality of woodcut illustrations.
-
-
-
-In order to assist our readers in reading the text printed with the early
-woodcuts, we give them a key to the most usual abbreviations of Monkish
-Latin.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 1. [-e] denotes a letter with a    **
-  **     straight line over (or through the riser), [~e] the same with a **
-  **     tilde-like curve.                                               **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-1. A right line, thus (-), and a curve, thus (~), placed horizontally over
-a letter, denote: (-) 1st, over a vowel in the middle or end of a word,
-that _one letter_ is wanting, _e.g._ v[-e]d[-a]t=_vendant_,
-bon[-u]=_bonum_, terr[-a]=_terram_. (~) 2nd, above or through a letter=the
-omission of _more than one letter_, e.g. a[~i]a=_anima_, a[~l]r=_aliter_,
-a[~l]ia=_animalia_, abla[~c]o=_ablatio_, Winto[~n]=Wintonia,
-no[~b]=_nobis_, &c. A straight line through a consonant also denotes the
-omission of one or more letters, _e.g._ vo[-b]=_vobis_, q[-d]=_quod_, &c.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 2. ? denotes a backward curl       **
-  **     attached to the top of a letter.                                **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-2. [?]=_er_, or _re_, as the sense requires, _e.g._ [?t]ra=_terra_,
-[?p]dictus=predictus, _i.e._ _praedictus_.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 3. the first [?e] has an oblique   **
-  **     line attached below the letter, the second a lightning bolt.    **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-3. The diphthong is sometimes represented thus, terr[?e] or
-terr[?e]=_terrae_.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 4. the first [-p] has a straight   **
-  **     line & the second a wavy one (like a tilde) through the         **
-  *      descender. In the third a line continues the bottom of the loop **
-  **     and bends down to cut the descender.                            **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-4. A straight or curved line through the letter p, thus, [-p] [-p]=_per_,
-_por_, and _par_. A curved line, thus [-p]=_pro_.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 5. the sign [3] resembles the      **
-  **     type of 3 with an angled top, or a drachm sign.                 **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-5. The character [3] at the end of a word=_us_, omnib[3]=_omnibus_, also
-_et_, deb[3]=_debet_. {19}
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 6. the sign [zs] resembles a z     **
-  **     with a reversed s drawn through the bottom stroke.              **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-6. The figure [zs] at the end of a word=rum, ras, res, ris, and ram;
-eo[zs]=_eorum_, lib[zs]=_libras_ or _libris_, Windeso[zs]=_Windesores_,
-Alieno[zs]=_Alienoram_, &c.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 7. the sign [-&] is an ampersand   **
-  **     with a straight line over; [q3] a q with a mark like a small 3  **
-  **     on the right; [9] a raised spiral rather like a 9, [c)] has a   **
-  **     long bracket-shaped mark descending below the baseline.         **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-7. [-&]=_etiam_, [q3]=_que_, _quia_, and _quod_; [9] at commencement of
-a word=_com_ or _con_; [9]mitto=_committo_, [9]victo=_convicto_. This
-contraction is also printed thus, [c)]. [c)]=_concordia_ or _concessio_.
-In the middle or end of a word [9]=_us_, De[9]=_Deus_, reb[9]=_rebus_,
-Aug[9]ti=_Augusti_; also for os, p[9]=_post_, p[9]t=_post_.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 8. - and ~ are as in paragraph 1.  **
-  **     ^ denotes the next letter is raised (so also in 12. below).     **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-8. In Domesday Book 7=_et_, [-e]=_est_, [~s]t=_sunt_, [-M]=_manerium_,
-m^o=_modo_, di[~m]=_dimidius_, &c.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 9. [-;] is like a semicolon with   **
-  **     a straight line through the middle, and [-:] a colon similarly, **
-  **     like a division sign.                                           **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-9. _Est_ is sometimes written [-;] [-:].
-
-10. Points or dots after letters often denote contractions, _e.g._ di. et
-fi.=_dilectus et fidelis_, e. for _est_, plurib.=_pluribus_.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 11. [?t] has a sort of streamer to **
-  **     the left and curling down.                                      **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-11. [?t]=_et_ in later times.
-
-12. A small letter placed over a word denotes an omission--p^ius=_prius_,
-t^i=_tibi_, q^os=_quos_, q^i=_qui_, &c.
-
-  *************************************************************************
-  ** Transcriber's note: In paragraph 13. ~ is as in paragraph 1.        **
-  *************************************************************************
-
-13. X[~p]s, X[~p]c, X[~p]o, stand for _Christus_ and its different
-cases. M[~e]= _Marie_.
-
-These are the most common contractions. There are many more, including
-numerous technical terms, which it would be useless for us to give for our
-present purpose.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{20}
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-_THE BLOCK BOOKS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY_
-
-(_continued_).
-
-Ars Moriendi.--Of all the block books known to us, this bears the palm for
-artistic merit. It is probable that the 'Ars Moriendi' is of later date
-than the block books already described. Mr. George Bullen (Holbein Society,
-'Ars Moriendi,' 1881, p. 4) was of opinion that the first edition was
-printed at Cologne in Germany about the middle of the fifteenth century.
-Others say that the quarto edition is the earlier. The illustrations belong
-to the lower Rhenish School, which, about the middle of the fifteenth
-century, was influenced by the style of Roger van der Weyde, and probably
-also by the work of some of the pupils of the Van Eycks. There are eleven
-woodcuts, about eight and a-half inches, by five and a-half inches, without
-including the frame-lines, printed on separate pages, and thirteen pages of
-text, all impressed on one side only of the paper. Five of the pictures
-represent a sick man in bed tempted by devils--I. To Unbelief; II. To
-Despair and Suicide; III. To Impatience of Good Advice; IV. To Vainglory;
-and V. To Avarice. In the five opposite pictures the sick man is attended
-by Good Angels, who refute the arguments of the demons. In the eleventh
-print we witness the death of the sick man. The drawings are somewhat
-similar in manner to the works of Roger van der Weyde, who lived in the
-early part of the fifteenth century. {21} It was a time when art was
-beginning to awake from its long sleep, and such works as the 'Ars
-Moriendi' were far in advance of any we know of belonging to the previous
-century.
-
-One of the best of the illustrations is from the last temptation:
-_temptacio diaboli de avaricia_, and is probably intended to be the
-presentation of a dream. The sick man's bed is on the roof of his house! A
-diabolus, as tall as the house, points to a youth--possibly the heir, who
-is leading a very Flemish-looking horse into a doorway--and says, Intende
-thesauro--take care of your treasures. The figures by the bedside must
-represent the father and mother, wife, sisters, and young son of the dying
-man. The diabolus on his right says Provideas amicis--'You may provide for
-your friends.' The heads of the diaboli in this print are more laughable
-than terrible, and suggest the make-up of a pantomime rather than the
-demons who are messengers of the Evil One. On the next page an angel gives
-good counsel to the dying man, a figure of Christ on the cross is at his
-bed's head, and the Mother of Christ blesses him. A group of relations and
-friends still attend him, and beside them are sheep and oxen. In the
-foreground an angel is driving away a man and woman, who are evidently in
-great grief, and a crouching demon says, Quid faciam--'What can I do?'
-Pictures like this appealed forcibly to the minds of the laity in the
-middle ages, and were doubtless fully explained to the uneducated by the
-religious dwellers in the monasteries and convents which at that time
-abounded throughout Europe.
-
-A reproduction of this book was issued a few years since by the Holbein
-Society. The designs were copied in careful pen-and-ink drawings by Mr. F.
-Price, and the text was translated and the pictures described by Mr. George
-Bullen, who also wrote a learned preface, enumerating the various editions
-of the book which are known to have been printed in different languages.
-Weigel printed a photographic reproduction of this book in 1869. {22}
-
-The 'Ars Moriendi' was the most popular of all the block books. Before the
-end of the fifteenth century eight different editions had been issued,
-seven of them in Latin and one in French. M. Passavant states that he had
-met with thirty different imitations of it issued in Germany and Holland.
-
-There is but one quite perfect copy of the first edition of this book
-known, and this fortunately is in the British Museum. It was bought at the
-Weigel sale in Leipsic in 1872 for the large sum of L1,072 10s., exclusive
-of commission.
-
-Canticum Canticorum.--The Church's Love unto Christ prefigured in 'The Song
-of Songs which is Solomon's.' This is a much more pleasing book than the
-'Apocalypsis.' The figures are more gracefully designed and the engraver
-has shown much more knowledge of his art; the indications of shading are in
-many instances very happily given. It consists of only sixteen leaves with
-two subjects, one above the other on each leaf; each picture is five inches
-high by seven wide, and is printed by means of friction in dark-brown ink
-or distemper, on thick paper.
-
-Our illustration is from the second leaf. In the upper subject we see the
-Bride and Bridegroom conversing, two maidens attending. The words on the
-scroll on the left are Trahe me: post te curremus in odorem unguentorum
-tuorum, 'Draw me, we will run after thee: because of the savour of thy good
-ointments' (Song of Solomon, ch. i., v. 4 and 3). On the scroll to the
-right, Sonet vox tua in auribus meis, vox enim tua dulcis et facies tua
-decora, 'Let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance
-is comely' (Song of Solomon, ch. ii., verse 14). In the lower subject, in
-which the Bride is seen seated by her maidens and the Bridegroom is
-standing near, on the left-hand scroll we read, En dilectus meus loquitur
-mihi, Surge, propera, amica mea, 'My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise
-up, my love, my fair one, and come away' (ch. ii., verse 10); and on the
-right, Quam pulchra es amica mea, quam pulchra es! oculi tui columbarum,
-absque eo quod intrinsecus latet, 'How beautiful art thou, my love, how
-beautiful art thou! thy eyes are doves' eyes, besides what is hid within'
-(ch. iv. 1). {23}
-
-[Illustration: CANTICUM CANTICORUM--SECOND LEAF
-(_Much reduced_)]
-
-{24}
-
-On the sixth leaf, the Bride and Bridegroom are eating grapes in a
-vineyard, three maidens attending, all seated. In the cut below, the
-Bridegroom is standing outside a garden wall over which the Bride is
-watching him. An angel is entering the gate, other angels with drawn swords
-are on the wall.
-
-It is supposed that these engravings were executed in the Netherlands: the
-female figures are said to be in the costume of the Court of Burgundy!
-There are several shields of arms to be found in three of the subjects, and
-these have given rise to long dissertations by writers on heraldry. Mr.
-Chatto's book has engravings of eighteen of them with descriptions. One is
-the shield of Alsace, another of the house of Wuertemberg, a third of the
-city of Ratisbon; and the cross-keys, the _fleur-de-lis_, the black
-spread-eagle, and a rose (much like our Tudor rose), may be seen on others.
-Several copies of the 'Canticum' have been found, coloured and uncoloured.
-Two editions of the Canticum Canticorum are known; both appear to have
-emanated from Holland and the Low Countries, and both bear clear traces of
-the influence of the school of the Van Eycks.
-
-The Figure Alphabet.--In the Print Room of the British Museum there is a
-curious little book (six inches by four inches in size) in which nearly all
-the letters of the alphabet are formed by grotesque figures of men. Except
-that it was bequeathed to the Museum by Sir George Beaumont, no one knows
-anything of its history; but internal evidence warrants us in attributing
-it to the work of an engraver of the first half of the fifteenth century.
-The cuts are printed in a kind of sepia-coloured distemper which can be
-easily wiped off by means of moisture. There is one very curious thing
-connected with this work. In the cut forming the {25} letter L a young man
-is leaning on a sword, on the blade of which is plainly written London, and
-on the cloak of the youth lying below we read, in a current hand usual at
-that date, the word _Bethemsted_. The figures, grotesque as they are, were
-drawn by a better artist than those who designed the block books. We know
-that the art of engraving was in a very low state in England at the time we
-are speaking of; we should therefore rejoice if we could anyhow prove that
-these very early specimens of wood-cutting were done in this country.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In the letter F, which we have given as an illustration, very much reduced
-from the original, a tall man is blowing a very long trumpet; a youth,
-bending down to form the crotch of the letter, is beating a tabor; while a
-nondescript animal lies couched at his feet.
-
-Many other block books exist in the British Museum, the Bodleian Library,
-Oxford, the Spencer Library, Manchester, and in the large libraries on the
-Continent besides those we have mentioned. Some were printed, long after
-the introduction of printing, in Venice and in the cities of Lower Germany.
-
-Before the beginning of the fifteenth century we have no record of any
-examples of wood-engraving of an artistic kind, except, as we have said,
-the designs on playing-cards, and the workmanship of these, whether it was
-by woodcuts or by a stencil-plate, was very crude. The art really came into
-existence in the first quarter of that famous fifteenth century. There were
-scores of men at that time who could carve excellently well in stone or
-wood, or who could design {26} and make beautiful jewels, and some of these
-men, probably monks in their monasteries, as well as secular craftsmen,
-drew and cut the first wood-engraving. No one knows who they were.
-
-Up to the year 1475 the original method of wood-cutting changed very
-little; nearly every print was in outline with a thick and a thin line. A
-few, such as those in the 'Ars Moriendi,' had a little shading of the most
-primitive kind. They were intended to be coloured, and, among the prints
-that have been preserved, experts say they can detect the manner of
-colouring prevalent in Upper or Lower Germany, the Rhine Provinces, or the
-Netherlands. Towards the end of the century came a transition. Shading was
-introduced and even cross-hatching was executed by the best wood-engravers
-of the time. The art took, as it were, a sudden bound, and in a few years
-attained a height which we at the end of the nineteenth century find it
-hard to excel. But of this we must speak in a future chapter.
-
-Ars Memorandi.--This very curious book--much more curious than
-beautiful--contains fifteen designs and the same number of pages of
-engraved text. The designs are intended to assist the memory in reading the
-Gospels, and perhaps to assist the friars in preaching to the people. To
-the Gospel of St. John, with which the book begins, there are three cuts
-allotted, and as many pages of text; to St. Matthew five cuts and five
-pages of text; to St. Mark, three cuts and three pages of text; and to St.
-Luke, four cuts and four pages of text.
-
-In every print an allegorical figure is represented; an eagle symbolical of
-St. John, an angel of St. Matthew, a lion of St. Mark, and an ox of St.
-Luke.
-
-The first cut is intended to represent, figuratively, the first six
-chapters of St. John's Gospel. An upright eagle, with spread wings and
-claws, has three human heads--that of the Saint with a dove above it is in
-the middle, the head {27} of Christ is on its right, and that of Moses on
-its left. A lute, from which three bells depend, lies across the eagle's
-breast; this is supposed to refer to the Marriage in Cana, and a little
-numeral tells us that the account of it is in the second chapter. Between
-the outspread claws is a bucket surmounted by a crown. These are symbolical
-of the Well of Samaria and the Nobleman's son at Capernaum in chapter iv.
-On the bend of the eagle's outspread right wing is a fish and the numeral
-5, referring to the Pool of Bethesda in chapter v., and on the left wing
-are five barley loaves and two small fishes, and a small 6, referring to
-the parable of the loaves and fishes in the sixth chapter. This very
-singular book must have been a great favourite with the priests, and
-perhaps with the laity, for it was reprinted over and over again. It
-appears to have been of German origin.
-
-
-
-Of the other block books mentioned in chapter ii. it would be tedious to
-give an account; they are very similar to those we have just described.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{28}
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-_SPECULUM HUMANAE SALVATIONIS_
-
-Historians tell us that in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the
-cities of the Netherlands were the most populous and the richest in all
-Western Europe. Bruges, Ghent, Liege and Brussels by their manufactures,
-and Antwerp by her commerce, in which she rivalled Venice, had become
-celebrated for their great wealth, the grandeur of their rulers, and the
-magnificence of their great Guilds. The more northern towns, too,
-Amsterdam, Haarlem, and Utrecht, and many cities of Germany, such as Mentz,
-Cologne, Strasburg, Nuernberg, Augsburg, and Basel, were rich and
-prosperous. It was among these cities that the sister arts of printing and
-wood-engraving first flourished.
-
-From undoubted evidence accumulated by the patience and labour of many
-bibliographers, it appears that the art of printing by means of movable
-type was not invented by any one man, but was the result of a gradual
-development of the art of engraving. In the fifteenth century, as in the
-nineteenth, there was an ever-growing demand for school books. One of the
-most popular of these in the fifteenth century was the 'Donatus,' a grammar
-so called from the name of the author. There was also a Latin Delectus
-called a 'Catho.' These were cheap books and were usually printed from
-engraved wood blocks. These and the block books already described were
-contemporary, and the immediate forerunners of separate types. (See Blades,
-'Pentateuch of Printing,' p. 12.) {29}
-
-In certain editions of the 'Speculum' there are to be seen woodcuts printed
-in ink of one colour and text in ink of another colour, from metal movable
-types. These types are rude in the extreme, far more so than the German
-Indulgence of 1454, the very earliest known dated piece of printing. There
-is no doubt that the Donatuses were at first printed from wood blocks, both
-in Germany and the Low Countries, but there is not a single Dutch
-block-book Donatus known, while there are some nineteen or twenty early
-type-printed Dutch Donatuses already catalogued. Therefore it appears
-likely that Gutenberg simply developed the process which had already been
-for some time in use in the Low Countries for Donatuses and similar books.
-
-[Illustration: FIRST PAGE OF THE SPECULUM HUMANAE SALVATIONIS]
-
-The first book of importance that was printed at a press {30} and from
-movable type was the celebrated Bible[2] which Gutenberg produced at Mentz
-about the year 1455. About the same time it is asserted that Laurent
-Janszoon Coster of Haarlem issued the _Speculum Humanae Salvationis_, and
-much discussion has risen as to which book has the prior claim. The Dutch
-insist on Coster as being the proto-printer; the Germans not only assert
-the claim of Gutenberg but say that Coster is a myth! The controversy is
-still carried on and there is little likelihood that it will ever be
-decided.
-
-In the year 1462 there was a small revolution in Mentz, owing to the rival
-claims of two Archbishops, and the city was sacked. The printers in the
-employment of Gutenberg and his partners, Fust and Peter Schoeffer, were
-scattered in every direction. Fifteen years afterwards printing-presses
-were to be found in every large city of Germany and the Netherlands, as
-well as in Italy and France; and about 1477, Caxton set up his first press
-in the precincts of Westminster Abbey.
-
-_Speculum Humanae Salvationis_--'The Mirror of Man's Salvation.'--This was
-the first book, printed from type, that had wood engravings. It is a small
-folio containing fifty-eight cuts, each of which is divided into two
-subjects, inclosed in an architectural frame, in which is the title in
-Latin. The cuts are placed at the head of the pages, of which they occupy
-one-third. It is to be noticed that, though the cuts are all printed in
-brown ink, the text beneath them is printed in black: probably because the
-prints were to be coloured.
-
-The arrangement and scope of this work are much like those of the 'Biblia
-Pauperum'; the subjects are taken from the Old and New Testaments,
-including the Apocrypha, and a few are from classic history.
-
-The illustrations are from the first page: Casus {31} Luciferi--'The Fall
-of Lucifer'--and Deus creavit hominem ad ymaginem et similitudinem
-suam--'God created Man after His own image and likeness.'
-
-[Illustration: SPECULUM: THE FALL OF LUCIFER
-(_Size of the original cut_)]
-
-{32}
-
-We see that the arts of drawing and engraving had improved since the time
-of the 'Biblia Pauperum.' The figures are in better proportion: in many of
-the designs the folds of the dress fall more gracefully and the shading is
-more artistically done. There are four fifteenth-century editions of this
-work known, two with the text in Dutch, and two in Latin. Three editions
-are printed entirely with movable type, while part of the fourth--the
-second Latin edition--is certainly from engraved blocks. No one can tell
-the reason of this curious anomaly--we can only conjecture. Experts tell
-the various editions by the state of the cuts; when these are unblemished,
-it is assumed that they are of the first edition; when a few of the lines
-of the cuts are broken, it is supposed that they belong to the second
-edition; when many are broken, to the third edition, and so on.
-
-Mr. Woodbery[3] has so graphically described the 'Speculum' that we cannot
-do better than quote his words: 'A whole series needs to be looked at
-before one can appreciate the interest which these designs have in
-indicating the subjects on which imagination and thought were then
-exercised, and the modes in which they were exercised. Symbolism and
-mysticism pervade the whole. All nature and history seem to have existed
-only to prefigure the life of the Saviour: imagination and thought hover
-about Him, and take colour, shape, and light only from that central form;
-the stories of the Old Testament, the histories of David, Samson, and
-Jonah, the massacres, victories, and miracles there recorded, foreshadow,
-as it were in parables, the narrative of the Gospels; the temple, the
-altar, and the ark of the covenant, all the furnishings and observances of
-the Jewish ritual, reveal occult meanings; the garden of Solomon's Song,
-and the sentiment of the Bridegroom and the Bride who wander in it, are
-interpreted, sometimes in graceful or even poetic feeling, under the
-inspiration of mystical devotion; old kings of pagan Athens are transformed
-into witnesses of Christ, and, with the Sibyl of Rome, attest spiritual
-truth. {33}
-
-[Illustration: THE GRIEF OF HANNAH
-(_From the Cologne Bible_)]
-
-{34} This book and others like it are mirrors of the ecclesiastical mind;
-they picture the principal intellectual life of the Middle Ages; they show
-the sources of that deep feeling in the earlier Dutch artists which gave
-dignity and sweetness to their works. Even in the rudeness of these books,
-in the texts as well as in the designs, there is a _naivete_, an openness
-and freshness of nature, a confidence in limited experience and contracted
-vision, which make the sight of these cuts as charming as conversation with
-one who had never heard of America or dreamed of Luther, and who would have
-found modern life a puzzle and an offence. The author of the _Speculum_
-laments the evils which fell upon man in consequence of Adam's sin, and
-recounts them: blindness, deafness, lameness, floods, fire, pestilence,
-wild beasts, and law-suits (in such order he arranges them); and he ends
-the long list with this last and heaviest evil, that men should presume to
-ask "why God willed to create man, whose fall He foresaw; why He willed to
-create the angels, whose ruin He foreknew; wherefore He hardened the heart
-of Pharaoh, and softened the heart of Mary Magdalene unto repentance;
-wherefore He made Peter contrite, who had denied Him thrice, but allowed
-Judas to despair in his sin; wherefore He gave grace to one thief, and
-cared not to give grace to his companion." What modern man can fully
-realise the mental condition of this poet, who thus weeps over the
-temptation to ask these questions, as the supreme and direst curse which
-Divine vengeance allows to overtake the perverse children of this world?'
-
-By far the most excellent book issued about this time is The Psalter,
-printed by Gutenberg's former partners, Fust and Schoeffer, at Mentz in
-1459. The initial letters, which are printed in red and blue and the Gothic
-type, all of which are in exact imitation of the best manuscripts, could
-not be excelled at the present day. The book belongs more to the History of
-Printing, but on account of its beautiful initial letters, which, it is
-said, were drawn and engraved by Schoeffer, we feel constrained to notice
-it. {35}
-
-[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE TO BREYDENBACH'S TRAVELS
-(_Much reduced_)]
-
-{36}
-
-A _Book of Fables_ issued from the press of Albrecht Pfister, of Bamberg,
-in 1461, may be mentioned as a very early work in which woodcuts and type
-were printed together; it is a small folio of twenty-eight leaves,
-containing eighty-five fables in rhyme in the old German language,
-illustrated with a hundred and one cuts. They are of little merit and show
-no advancement in the art of wood-engraving. The only known copy of this
-book, which is in the Wolfenbuettel Library, was taken away by the French
-under Napoleon's orders and added to the Bibliotheque Nationale; it was
-restored at the surrender of Paris in 1815.
-
-We cannot give a list of all the books containing woodcuts that were issued
-in Germany at the end of the fifteenth century; their name is legion. We
-must, however, mention two or three of the most important.
-
-In the Cologne Bible, printed about the year 1475, there are one hundred
-and nine cuts, one of which we give as an example; they are about equal in
-merit to those in the 'Biblia Pauperum,' but show no improvement. The
-subject of the cut is 'The Grief of Hannah.' We see Elkanah and his two
-wives, Hannah and Peninnah, in a room from which the artist has obligingly
-taken away one of the sides. In the Nuernberg Bible, printed in 1482, we
-find the same set of cuts.
-
-The Nuernberg Chronicle, often quoted as an example of early German
-wood-engraving, is a folio volume containing more than two thousand cuts,
-which include views of cities, portraits of saints and other holy men,
-scenes from Biblical and profane history, and a great many other subjects,
-produced, we are told, under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth and
-William Pleydenwurff, 'mathematical men skilled in the art of painting.'
-The same head does duty for the portrait of a dozen or more historians or
-poets--the {37} same portrait is given to many military heroes--the saints
-are treated in the same way, and even the same view serves for several
-different cities. The cuts are bolder and more full of colour than any we
-have had before, and so far may be said to be in advance, and this we must
-put down to the superintendence of Wolgemuth, who was an artist of repute.
-Chatto says they are the most tasteless and worthless things that are to be
-found in any book, ancient or modern--but this is too sweeping an
-assertion. The work was compiled by Hartman Schedel, a physician of
-Nuernberg, and printed in that city by Anthony Koburger in 1493.
-
-The most important book of this time, so far as the woodcuts are concerned,
-is a Latin edition of Breydenbach's Travels, which was printed in folio by
-Erhard Reuwich in Mentz in 1486. We give a much reduced copy of the
-frontispiece, which is without doubt the best example of wood-engraving of
-the fifteenth century. In this cut we see for the first time cross-hatching
-used in the shadows, in the folds of the drapery of the principal
-figure--Saint Catherine, who is the patroness of learned men--in the upper
-parts of the shields and beneath the top part of the frame. Bernard de
-Breydenbach, who was a canon of the cathedral of Mentz, was accompanied in
-his travels to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and the shrine of St.
-Catherine on Mount Sinai by John, Count of Solms and Lord of Mintzenberg,
-and Philip de Bicken, Knight. The arms of the three travellers are given in
-the cut with the names beneath them. Besides the frontispiece there are
-many other good engravings in this volume--a picture of Venice, five feet
-long and ten inches high; views of Corfu, Modon, in Southern Greece, and
-the country round Jerusalem. There are also many pictures of animals, such
-as a giraffe, a unicorn, a salamander, a camel, and a creature something
-like an ouran-outang. Travellers saw wonderful things in those days! It is
-a great pity that we do not know the names of the artists {38} who drew and
-engraved the cuts in this most interesting book.
-
-[Illustration: THE BIBLIOMANIAC
-_From 'Navis Stultifera' (The Ship of Fools)_]
-
-Just at the close of the century we find the first humorous conception of
-German artists in the illustrations of the Navis Stultifera (Ship of
-Fools), written by Sebastian Brandt and printed at Basel in 1497. This very
-bold and original work had an immense success and was frequently reprinted.
-Every page is adorned with the antics of clowns and men in fools' caps and
-bells, in caricature of some absurdity, and the bibliomaniac is not spared:
-'I have the first place among fools,' he is made to say; 'I have heaps of
-books which I {39} rarely open. If I read them I forget them and am no
-wiser.' As will be seen by the cut, though the perspective of the
-draughtsman is not to be praised, the work of the engraver is excellent;
-the fineness of the lines is new to us and the shadows are well treated.
-Notice also the bindings of the books, with their bosses, hinges, and
-clasps; nearly all are folios, and four or five are ornamented with the
-same pattern. The decoration at the side is evidently copied from an
-illuminated manuscript. With this book we may fitly close our notice of
-German wood-engraving of the fifteenth century.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{40}
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-_ON WOOD-ENGRAVING IN ITALY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY_
-
-Although at this time Germany took the lead of all European countries so
-far as the illustrations of printed books are concerned, the transition
-from German to Italian art is like the change from the strong bleak winds
-of the North to the balmy air and sunny skies of the South. We are aware of
-the difference both of climate and of art in a moment: the very first
-picture presented to us reveals it. The Italians of the fifteenth century
-could not take up a handicraft without making it a fine art. Here is a
-title-page of a folio KALENDARIO produced in Venice in the year 1476. This
-is the first title-page on which the contents of the book, the name of the
-author, the imprint of the publishers, who were also the printers, and the
-date of the issue of the book, were ever given. Mark the decoration. Though
-the publishers were Germans, the artist who drew this border must have been
-an Italian; and probably the engraver was an Italian also, for the book was
-produced at Venice. The character of the design suggests the work of an
-illuminator. The introduction of the printing-press must have interfered
-sadly with the writer of manuscripts and his brother the illuminator, and
-both were doubtless glad to avail themselves of the new art. The manuscript
-writer may have turned compositor, and the illuminator may have been
-transformed into a book decorator. {41}
-
-[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF A FOLIO KALENDARIO BY JOANNE DE MONTE REGIO,
-PRINTED AT VENICE IN 1476 (_much reduced_)]
-
-We have before us a facsimile of a cut called 'The Triumph of Love,' which
-appeared as one of the illustrations of TRIUMPHI DEL PETRARCA, a book
-printed in Venice, in 1488. A man, seated with his hands bound behind him,
-is tied with a rope to a triumphal car which is drawn by four horses; on a
-ball of fire, which rises from the car, a blindfolded Cupid is shooting an
-arrow (apparently at the near leader); a great crowd of men and women,
-among whom we see a king and a mitred bishop, follow and surround the car,
-and on a distant hill we behold Petrarch conversing with his friend. There
-are two rabbits feeding calmly in the {42} foreground, notwithstanding the
-danger of the horses' hoofs, and the usual conventional designs for grass
-and flowers. The groundwork of the border of this curious print is black,
-with an Italian design carefully cut out in white, with but little shadow.
-From the waviness of many of the lines which should be straight, we think
-this print must be from an engraving on metal.
-
-Of all the wood-engravings executed in Italy in the fifteenth century, none
-can compare in excellence with those in the HYPNEROTOMACHIA POLIPHILI
-(Dream of Poliphilo) printed in Venice, by Aldus, in 1499.[4] There are, in
-all, one hundred and ninety-two subjects, of which eighty-six relate to
-mythology and ancient history, fifty-four are pictures of processions and
-emblematic figures, thirty-six are architectural and ornamental, and
-sixteen vases and statues. They have been attributed to many different
-artists, the most probable of whom is Carpaccio. The subject of the
-'Hypnerotomachia' has been described as a 'Contest between Imagination and
-Love'; it is a curious medley of all kinds of fable, history, architecture,
-mathematics, and other matters, seasoned with suggestions which do not
-reflect credit on the moral perceptions of its author, a Dominican monk,
-named Francesco Colonna. An enthusiastic admirer of this book thus
-poetically describes it: 'There is, perhaps, no volume where the exuberant
-vigour of that age is more clearly shown, or where the objects for which
-that age was impassioned are more glowingly described. {43}
-
-[Illustration: POLIPHILO IN THE GARDEN
-_From 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,' printed by Aldus at Venice in 1499_]
-
-The romantic and fantastic rhapsody mirrors every aspect of nature and art
-in which the Italians then took delight--peaceful landscape, where rivers
-flow by flower-starred banks and through bird-haunted woods; noble
-architecture and exquisite sculpture, {44} the music of soft instruments,
-the ruins of antiquity, the legends of old mythology, the motions of the
-dance, the elegance of the banquet, splendour of apparel, courtesy of
-manners, even the manuscript, with its cover of purple velvet sown with
-Eastern pearls--everything that was cared for and sought in that time when
-the gloom of asceticism lifted and disclosed the wide prospect of the world
-lying, as it were, in the loveliness of daybreak.' But it is more on
-account of the beauty of the cuts than the poetry of the author that this
-book has been so much admired and so frequently reprinted. Our illustration
-shows us where Poliphilo in his dream visits a bevy of fair maidens in a
-garden. These nymphs are not very beautiful, but, though they have such
-high waists, remark how gracefully their figures are drawn, and look at the
-action and the drapery of the damsel running away. The engraving is,
-without doubt, an exact facsimile of the artist's drawing; the lines are
-clear and crisp, and are evidently the work of a practised hand. The
-drawing of the gateway and trees is simply conventional. We are sorry that
-we have not room for more of the illustrations of this remarkable work.
-
-In these early books it seems to have been nobody's business to record the
-name of the engraver who produced the illustrations, and, although the
-printer's name is generally very conspicuous in the colophon, the artist's
-name rarely, if ever, appears. But the work of certain masters of certain
-schools is generally recognised with ease, either by some peculiarity of
-manner, or by some particular mark. Thus one artist, who, towards the end
-of the fifteenth century, illustrated a few books printed in Italy, is
-known as 'the master of the dolphin,' because in most of his work this fish
-appears among the decorations. Another is known to us only by the name of
-'the illustrator of the "Poliphilus,"' that quaint romance of Colonna which
-has taken a proud place in literature, not for its own intrinsic merits,
-but {45} rather on account of the beauty of its woodcuts, the name of whose
-author is still a matter of conjecture.
-
-
-
-We may here say a few words about Aldo Manuzio, better known in England by
-his Latinised name, Aldus Manutius, the celebrated printer, and some of the
-other early printers of Venice. One of the first to set up a press in
-Venice was Nicolas Jenson, a Frenchman, who had worked at Mentz, and who
-was the first to cut and introduce Roman type such as is now in use. At his
-death his business and plant were bought by a rich man, Andrea Torresano,
-of Asola, and the work was carried on successfully. Aldo Manuzio, who was
-born at Sermoneta, a village near Velletri, in 1450, received an excellent
-education, especially in Greek; and the celebrated Pico da Mirandola made
-him tutor to his nephews, Alberto and Leonardo Pio, Lords of Carpi. Alberto
-Pio, under his master's training, became a great lover of literature; and
-when Aldo conceived the idea of starting a printing-press, the young lord
-advanced him the necessary funds, and gave him a house in Venice near the
-Church of Sant' Agostino. Aldo then married a daughter of Torresano, and
-the two printing businesses were joined and carried on together under
-Aldo's direction. His house, we are told, was a veritable colony; besides
-the compositors' rooms and the press-rooms, he had closets for
-press-readers and studios for the special use of learned authors. The first
-'printer's devil' was a little negro boy who had been brought by one of the
-men from Greece.
-
-
-
-At the beginning of the sixteenth century the wood-engravers of Florence
-were celebrated for beautiful book illustrations in a distinct style. Those
-in the QUATRO REGGIE, Florence, 1508, are typical examples; their chief
-characteristics are, great breadth; masses of white and black {46} evenly
-balanced; and the frequent use of white lines out of masses of black.
-
-[Illustration: TEOBALDO MANUZIO--KNOWN AS ALDUS, PRINTER AT VENICE]
-
-Some of the fine borders to these early Italian wood-engravings owe their
-distinctive character to earlier work of {47} engravers on metal. Thus the
-borders round the illustrations of the Venice folio of 1491 of the TRIUMPHS
-OF PETRARCH seem to be direct copies of engravings in metal by Filippo
-Lippi. The masses of white on a black background are very effective, and
-the strength of the colour increases the effect of the picture which the
-border surrounds.
-
-Between 1474 and 1512 Aldus printed for the first time the works of
-thirty-three Greek authors. The works of Aristotle, brought out in four
-volumes, occupied three years. A learned Greek, Musurus of Crete, corrected
-the proofs, in which Aldus himself assisted. The workmen were nearly all
-Greeks. The Greek type was copied from the handwriting of Musurus, and the
-Italian, known as the Aldine, from the writings of Petrarch; this was cut
-by the celebrated artist-goldsmith, Francia of Bologna. The Aldine edition
-of Virgil (1501), now exceedingly rare, was the first book printed in this
-Italic type. Notwithstanding all his learning, energy, and philanthropy,
-Aldus did not succeed in his business. Many of his books were pirated, wars
-and insurrections interrupted him, the League of Cambray caused him to
-close his works from 1506 to 1510, and he sold his books at a rate too
-cheap to be remunerative.
-
-The first printed edition of AESOP'S FABLES, which appeared at Verona as
-early as 1481, and was reprinted at Venice in 1491, contains many excellent
-engravings inclosed in ornamental borders, thoroughly Italian in character.
-The figures are not unlike those in the 'Hypnerotomachia,' and we can
-readily imagine that they were drawn by the same artist, who has given us
-little more than outlines, which the engraver has well cut in facsimile.
-The fable of 'The Jackdaw and the Peacock' is particularly well done. An
-edition of OVID'S METAMORPHOSES appeared also at this time with tolerably
-good illustrations not so well engraved.
-
-There are some curious little cuts in the EPISTOLE DI SAN HIERONYMO
-VOLGARE, published in Ferrara in 1497, which {48} are more valuable for
-their originality than their beauty, either of drawing or engraving. The
-book was evidently intended for the use of the illiterate, to whom the
-quality of the pictures laid before them was of little consequence if they
-told the story that was meant for them to read with their eyes. The homely
-scene of Christ appearing like a Gardener with a hoe on His shoulder,
-addressing Mary Magdalene in an Italian _pergola_, would appeal to their
-feelings much more directly than the Transfiguration of Raphael.
-
-[Illustration: A BOOTMAKER'S SHOP
-_From the 'Decameron,' printed in Venice in 1492_]
-
-We do not find record of any other important wood-engravings in the history
-of printing in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century. Presses abounded
-everywhere, chiefly managed by Germans; there was scarcely an important
-town in Italy without a printer; few illustrated books, however, were
-issued at this time. An edition of Boccaccio's {49} 'DECAMERON,' with many
-excellent cuts, one of which, representing a bootmaker's shop, we give as
-an illustration, was printed by the brothers Gregorio at Venice in 1492.
-And there are some illustrations in a book called 'FIORE DI VIRTU,' which
-appeared in Venice in the same year, that may be praised for the work of
-the wood-engraver, though the designer shows a sad ignorance of the laws of
-perspective and proportion. And we have before us an illustration to a poem
-by POLIZIANO, in which Giuliano dei Medici is kneeling before the altar of
-the goddess Minerva, where we see graceful drawing by the artist and fairly
-good engraving. It {50} was printed in Florence, but the type bears no
-comparison with the beauty of the Aldine books.
-
-[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE TO A 'TERENCE,' PRINTED AT LYONS IN 1493]
-
-
-
-The love of colour, which is born in all Italians, led them to develop a
-process of making pictures in chiaroscuro--by printing several wood-blocks
-one upon another, each block giving a separate tint. In fact, it was the
-beginning of the modern colour-printing. The invention of the new process
-was claimed by Ugo da Carpi, who reproduced several of the designs of
-Raphael. In the beginning of the next century we find pictures printed in
-four different colours--trying to imitate water-colour, or, rather,
-distemper drawings. (See p. 99.)
-
-
-
-At Lyons, about the same time, there was an illustrated edition of
-'TERENCE' published, with well-executed woodcuts, from which we are able to
-give only the frontispiece, 'The Author writing his book.' It is sufficient
-to show that the engraving is the work of a practised hand.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{51}
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-_IN FRANCE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY_
-
-Before we begin our brief history of wood-engraving in France it will be
-well to speak of the technical part of the new art in the fifteenth
-century. We have already stated that the engraving of the 'St. Christopher'
-and other large prints were cut with a knife on planks of apple or pear or
-other close-grained wood; but there has always been much doubt about the
-small book illustrations which appeared in various countries quite at the
-end of the century. The discovery, however, of some engraved blocks of
-metal solved the difficulty. In those days workers in metal were to be
-found in all large towns; the age of moulding and casting everything that
-could be cast had not then arrived: of course, coins and medals were made
-in the foundry; but handwork of the most perfect kind on metal was as
-common as wood-carving for the churches.
-
-Experts have discovered twisted lines in some of the old prints; a line in
-a woodcut may easily be broken but it can hardly be bent, and it is now
-asserted that many of the woodcuts, including the beautiful initial letters
-in Fust and Schoeffer's 'Psalter,' were really engraved on metal. The view
-of London at the head of the first page of the _Illustrated London News_
-is, we are told, cut in brass; Mulready's well-known envelope, engraved on
-brass by the celebrated wood-engraver, John Thompson, may be seen in the
-South Kensington Museum; and scores of other examples of metalwork of this
-kind might be cited.
-
-{52}
-
-[Illustration: ORNAMENTS FROM 'HEURES A L'USAIGE DE CHARTRE'
-(_Published by Vostre_)]
-
-And there is no doubt that the famous illustrations of the Missal, or 'Book
-of Hours,' issued in Paris between 1490 and 1520, were engraved on metal of
-some kind, perhaps on copper or some amalgam of tin and copper. There was a
-metal known as 'latten' in those days, and probably the engraving was done
-on some material of this kind, not too hard to cut, not too soft to wear
-away. It will be noticed that the groundwork of many borders in the French
-books is filled with little white dots, _crible_ it was called; these dots
-are, in the first place, to imitate similar work in the gold grounds of the
-borders of illustrated missals, and, in the second place, to save the
-labour of cutting away so much of the metal as would be required for a
-white ground. These dots were evidently {53} made by means of a sharp and
-finely-pointed tool driven by a blow into the metal. (See page 59.)
-
-France was not early in the field with illustrated books, but she quickly
-made up for the delay by the excellence of her work, more especially in
-ornament. In 1488, Pierre Le Rouge, a printer and publisher, sent forth a
-book, 'LA MER DES HISTOIRES,' which contains many charming designs, from
-which beautiful wall-papers we know of have been borrowed; they are as well
-engraved as similar work at the present day, and only needed better
-'over-laying' by the pressman, an art but little practised at that time.
-This book contains the first decorative work by wood-engraving we have met
-with, and shows the great excellence of art in France at this period. There
-is a good example, though much reduced in size, among the illustrations of
-Mr. William Morris's paper 'On the Woodcuts of Gothic Books,' that he read
-before a meeting of the Society of Arts in January 1892: it is printed in
-the Journal of the Society for February 12th.
-
-Besides Le Rouge, there were in Paris at the end of the fifteenth and
-beginning of the sixteenth centuries four celebrated printers, who were
-also publishers, whose books command our attention. Their names are Simon
-Vostre, Antoine Verard, Thielman Kerver, a German, and Guyot Marchant; they
-all published the 'Book of Hours,' illustrated and decorated by the best
-artists and engravers of their time. There was likewise a printer named
-Philippe Pigouchet, who was also an engraver on wood, and who began by
-cutting blocks for Simon Vostre, and afterwards turned publisher on his own
-account. An important point to notice in connection with the illustrations
-of French 'Books of Hours' at this time is that they are nearly all
-inspired by German artists and nearly all copied from illuminated MSS.
-
-{54}
-
-[Illustration: THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN
-(_From a Missal published by Simon Vostre_)]
-
-{55} At the end of the fifteenth century the art of illumination was at its
-height in Paris. No one excelled the exquisite work of Jean Foucquet,
-servant to the King, and Jean Perreal, painter to Anne of Brittany.
-Manuscripts containing their miniature paintings command a large sum
-whenever they are offered for sale at the present day. These artists, it is
-said, gave their aid to the publishers of the 'Book of Hours' (_Heures a
-l'usage de Rome_), which had such an enormous sale that each publisher
-produced an edition for himself. Mr. Noel Humphreys asserts, in his
-'History of the Art of Printing,' that no fewer than sixty editions were
-published between 1484 and 1494. In his 'Introduction to the Study and
-Collection of Ancient Prints,' Dr. Willshire says: 'Towards the end of the
-fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries some well-known French
-printers--Pigouchet, Jean Dupre, Antoine Verard, and Simon
-Vostre--published some beautiful "Books of Hours," ornamented with
-engravings having some peculiar characters. The chief of these were that
-the ground and often the dark portions of the print were finely _crible_ or
-dotted white, serving as a means of "killing black"--a practice then
-prevalent among French engravers; secondly, each page of text was
-surrounded by a border of little subjects engraved in the same manner, and
-often repeated at every third page.... Not unfrequently they were printed
-in brilliant ink on fine vellum, that they might compete with the
-illuminated MS. "Books of Hours" then in fashion. The prints decorating
-these books have been generally considered to be impressions from wood.'
-But Mr. Linton says they are from engraved blocks of metal; and every
-practical man will, we are sure, agree with the great living Master of
-Wood-engraving.
-
-Our first illustration is from a 'Book of Hours,' or Missal, published by
-Simon Vostre in 1488. It represents 'The Death of the Virgin,' a subject
-that was always chosen by the illustrator of religious books in those days;
-in our account of wood-engraving in the next two centuries we shall
-frequently meet with it among the works of the great artists. {56}
-
-[Illustration: THE PASSION OF OUR LORD
-(_After a painting by Martin Schongauer. From a Missal by Simon Vostre_)]
-
-{57} The Gothic framework of the cut is evidently borrowed from church
-ornament. The expression of the faces in the crowd of visitors is far in
-advance of anything we have seen hitherto in the German cuts; and the
-engraving, which was probably on metal, is evidently facsimile of the
-drawing and is remarkably well executed. The narrow border on the right of
-the cut is from an illuminated manuscript. In another of Vostre's Missals
-we find a copy of an engraving after the German painter, Martin Schongauer,
-'Christ bearing the Cross,' enclosed in a French Renaissance frame. In the
-sky there is a good example of the _crible_ work of which we have spoken.
-The towers of Jerusalem in the background must have been evolved from the
-artist's inner consciousness: he certainly never saw the Holy City.
-
-Antoine Verard also published many 'Livres d'Heures,'[5] very much like
-Vostre's. We are told that he frequently printed a few copies on the finest
-vellum and had them coloured in exact imitation of the illuminated Missals.
-One of Verard's patrons was the Duc d'Angouleme, a noted bibliophile, who
-commissioned him to print on vellum the romance of 'TRISTAN,' the 'Book of
-Consolation' of Boethius, the 'Ordinaire du Chretien,' and the 'Heures en
-Francois,' all with illuminated borders and handsome bindings. For this
-great amount of work Verard received about 240l., then equivalent perhaps
-to 1,000l. of the present day. We give an outline copy of one of the pages
-of the romance of 'TRISTAN,' which will repay much attention both for the
-principal subject, the King's Banquet, and the tapestry on the wall, which
-ought to be coloured to be properly appreciated. This famous publisher
-issued also a huge chronicle in five folio volumes, the 'Miroir
-Historical,' profusely illustrated with good wood engravings; the first
-volume in 1495, the last in 1496. {58}
-
-[Illustration: THE KING'S BANQUET
-(_From the romance of 'Tristan,' published by Antoine Verard_)]
-
-Thielman Kerver, the German, also brought out many 'Books of Hours,'
-copying those issued by Simon Vostre in a most barefaced way; indeed,
-piracy of this kind was rampant all over Europe, and but little regarded.
-We give {59} a reduced copy of Kerver's book-mark; in the original it will
-be seen that the background is _crible_, thus suggesting that it was cut on
-metal.
-
-[Illustration: MARK OF THIELMAN KERVER]
-
-It was Guyot Marchant who produced, in 1485, the first edition of the
-'DANCE OF DEATH,' which contained seventeen engravings on ten folio leaves,
-with the text printed in the old Gothic characters. This awe-inspiring but
-highly popular subject had been painted on the walls of many public
-buildings in Germany and France, and in past ages it had always been a
-great favourite with the lower classes (many of our readers will remember a
-version of it on the walls of the curious old wooden bridge at Lucerne, the
-designs of which have doubtless been handed down by tradition)--but {60}
-Marchant was the first who printed the story in a series of woodcuts, well
-drawn and admirably engraved, and he had his reward, for the work was
-reprinted over and over again. The Pope, the Emperor, the Bishop, the Duke
-and the Duchess are given with much spirit, and are evidently the work of a
-clever draughtsman, who might, however, have made his Death a little less
-hideous. But there was a great love of the horrible in those days.
-
-A special chapter might well be devoted to the beautiful marks used by
-French printers. Guyot Marchant's mark represents leather-workers engaged
-at their trade, and above are a few musical notes. There are two varieties
-of this device. The mark of Jehan Du Pre is an elaborate piece of work, in
-which heraldry plays a conspicuous part, while that of Antoine Caillaut is
-pictorial. The Le Noirs used devices in which the heads of negroes figured
-prominently. The well-known mark of Badius Ascensius represents printers at
-work. Jehan Petit used several beautiful cuts, in which his mark forms part
-of an elaborate design.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{61}
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-_IN ENGLAND IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY_
-
-In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries many of the finest churches in
-England were built by architects so celebrated that some of them were sent
-for to erect similar buildings in France. The beautiful carvings and highly
-decorated monuments still existing in our cathedrals prove that the art of
-sculpture in England was at that time little inferior to that of other
-countries. And in the British Museum and Bodleian Library, and many private
-collections, there is plentiful evidence that the miniature painters and
-illuminators were but little behind their brethren in Italy and France;
-even the binders, as we see by existing work, used excellent ornament in
-the decoration of the covers of their books. Why is it, then, that we find
-the art of wood-engraving, when it was flourishing in all the chief
-countries on the Continent, almost at its earliest state of infancy in
-England? This is a question very difficult to answer. Certainly our great
-printers, William Caxton, and his successors, Wynkyn de Worde and Richard
-Pynson, did not follow the example of the great typographers of Venice or
-the yet more-to-be-praised booksellers of Paris, who devoted so much energy
-and taste in the decoration of their books.
-
-Of the few cuts printed in the fifteenth century, such as they are, we must
-say a few words. The earliest are all {62} small devotional pictures,
-representing Scriptural subjects, as 'The Image of Pity,' a figure of
-Christ on the Cross surrounded by emblems of the Passion; four or five only
-of these early cuts have been found.
-
-William Caxton, the first English printer, who was born in the Weald of
-Kent about the year 1422, was apprenticed to Robert Large, a rich mercer of
-London, who was Lord Mayor in 1440. In the following year the master died
-and Caxton went to Bruges, where he prospered in business, and in 1462 was
-made Governor of a Company of English Merchants who traded in Flanders,
-then the foremost mercantile country in the world. In 1471 Caxton gave up
-commerce and attached himself to the court of Margaret, Duchess of
-Burgundy, the sister of Edward IV. At the request of the duchess, he then
-translated the _Le Recueil des Histoires de Troye_, written by Raoul
-Lefevre, and employed Colard Mansion of Bruges to produce it. This was the
-first book printed in the English language. In passing his book through the
-press Caxton learned the new art, and with type bought of Colard Mansion he
-set up the first printing-press in England, at the sign of 'The Red Pale'
-in the Almonry at Westminster, at the end of the year 1476. 'The Dictes and
-Sayings of Philosophers,' which appeared in 1477, is believed to be the
-first book printed in England; this was followed by 'The Morale Prouerbes
-of Cristyne,' and several other books, all without illustration. In 1478 he
-printed 'The Mirrour of the World,' the first book printed in England with
-cuts, one of which we give as an example; and the more famous 'Game and
-Playe of the Chesse,' from the second edition of which we have taken as a
-specimen 'The Knight,' which Caxton thus describes: 'The knyght ought to be
-maad al armed upon a hors in such wise that he have an helme on his heed
-and a spere in his right hond, and coverid with his shelde, a swerde and a
-mace on his left syde, clad with an halberke and plates tofore his breste,
-legge harnoys on his legges, spores on his heelis, on hys handes hys
-gauntelettes, hys hors wel broken and taught, and apte to bataylle, and
-coveryd with hys armes.' {63}
-
-[Illustration: MUSIC
-(_From Caxton's 'Mirrour of the World'_)]
-
-(Orthography was not much regarded in those days.) This book is so rare and
-so keenly sought for that at the sale at Osterley Park in 1855 a perfect
-copy was bought for the enormous sum of 1,950l. In 1483 appeared 'The
-Golden Legende,' considered to be his _magnum opus_, on account of the
-beauty of the typography; and about 1490 'The Talis of Cauntyrburye' with
-27 cuts representing individual pilgrims, and one with all the pilgrims
-seated round a large table. It is {64} said that Caxton printed ninety-nine
-different works, of which sixty-four survive either in perfect books or in
-fragments, which may be consulted at the British Museum. He produced the
-first printed edition of Chaucer, Lydgate, Gower, and Sir Thomas Malory's
-'King Arthur.' He was an accomplished linguist, and translated and
-published Cicero's Orations 'De Senectute' and 'De Amicitia,' Virgil's
-'Aeneid' and many other classical works.
-
-[Illustration: THE KNIGHT
-(_From Caxton's 'Game and Playe of the Chesse'_)]
-
-With one exception none of his books has a title-page, though some have
-prologues and colophons; and the pages are not numbered. They are all
-printed in the Gothic {65} character known as 'black letter,' and nearly
-all are in small folio size. Caxton, we are assured, received the patronage
-and friendship of all the great men of his time and was much esteemed
-throughout Europe; and from a miniature painting in a beautiful manuscript
-in the library of Lambeth Palace we know that Earl Rivers presented him
-with his first book in his hand to the King, Edward IV. It is supposed that
-he died at the end of 1491 in his sixty-ninth year.
-
-[Illustration: WYNKYN DE WORDE'S MARK
-_With Caxton's Initials_]
-
-Wynkyn de Worde, Caxton's pupil and successor, was a native of Lorraine. He
-probably came over with him from Bruges, and so attached was he to his
-master, and so highly did he esteem him, that in all the nine book-marks
-that De Worde used, he always included the initials W. C. The mark we have
-given is of rare occurrence, and is one of the best pieces of engraving of
-the time. Bibliographers have found four hundred books printed by him;
-among them is 'The Golden Legende,' with woodcuts (1493); a translation of
-'Huon de Bordeaux,' from which Shakespeare borrowed the plot of his
-'Midsummer Night's Dream'; and his best-known {66} work, often reprinted,
-'Treatyses perteynynge to Hawkynge and Huntynge, and Fyshynge with an
-Angle,' by Dame Juliana Berners (1496), which contains many woodcuts, one
-of which, a man fishing, is very quaint (_see engraving_). A book which was
-'imprynted at London in Flete Street in 1531,' called 'Pilgrymage of
-Perfeccyon, A devoute Treatyse in Englysshe,' is illustrated by three
-curiously folded woodcuts. De Worde was the first printer in England who
-used the Roman type. Several of his books have a woodcut on the title-page.
-
-In his 'History of Wood-engraving,' Mr. Chatto gives his opinion about the
-cuts of this period:--'Although I am inclined to believe that within the
-fifteenth century there were no persons who practised wood-engraving in
-this country as a distinct profession, yet it by no 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 have been cut by any person who could handle a graver. Looking
-at them merely as specimens of wood-engraving, they are not generally
-superior to the practice-blocks cut by a modern wood-engraver's apprentice
-within the first month of his novitiate.'
-
-Soon there were other printers in London. Richard Pynson began to publish
-books from his own press in Fleet Street. His first book illustrated with
-woodcuts appears to have been 'The Canterbury Tales,' printed before 1493.
-In the following year Pynson issued Lydgate's 'Falle of Princis' with
-numerous small woodcuts by a master-hand, which appear too good to be
-English.
-
-{67}
-
-[Illustration: 'FYSHYNGE WYTH AN ANGLE'
-(_From 'The Book of St. Albans,' printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496_)]
-
-For a 'Sarum Missal' of 1500, he used some beautifully engraved borders and
-ornaments, as well as a large cut of Archbishop Morton's coat of arms.
-Another of his important works was Lord Berners' translation of Syr John
-Froissart's 'Cronycles of Englande, Fraunce, Spayne, &c.' We give a {68}
-copy of Pynson's 'Mark,' but we fear both this and De Worde's were engraved
-on the Continent.
-
-[Illustration: RICHARD PYNSON'S MARK]
-
-In 1498, Julian Notary established an office from which twenty-three books
-have been traced. Many of them have curious woodcuts, some of which seem to
-have descended to him from Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde. We find the
-decoration of the covers of Notary's works mentioned with approval in the
-early history of book-binding, which arrived at a much greater perfection
-than wood-engraving in this country at the close of the fifteenth century.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{69}
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-_IN GERMANY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY_
-
-We must now retrace our brief history to Germany, where, under the
-immediate direction and control of such well-known artists as Albrecht
-Duerer of Nuernberg (_b._ 1471, d. 1528) and Hans Burgkmair of Augsburg
-(_b._ 1472, d. 1531), as well as of Lucas Cranach, a Franconian (_b._ 1472,
-d. 1553), and, afterwards, of Hans Holbein of Augsburg (_b._ 1497, d.
-1543), the art of wood-engraving in its grandest and purest form arrived at
-its first culmination. This was in a great measure due to the liberal
-patronage of the Emperor Maximilian, who, possessing a great love of art,
-esteemed all painters, architects, designers, and engravers as highly as
-his warriors. He was fond of magnificence in a truly imperial way, and the
-superb series of wood-engravings--the noblest the world has ever
-seen--known as 'The Triumphs of Maximilian,' were the outcome of this
-generous tendency. Of these celebrated works, which were not completed when
-the Emperor died in 1519, we must speak in their proper place.
-
-It was to the genius of Albrecht Duerer and the engravers who translated
-his drawings into woodcuts that the art received its new vigour. Up to this
-time wood-engraving in Germany had been the work of craftsmen who were
-little better than mechanics; but when Duerer and Burgkmair, who knew the
-capabilities of the art, made drawings on the wood expressly for the
-engravers to reproduce in exact lines, there {70} was a quick improvement
-which went on increasing in excellence for more than half a century. After
-the death of Holbein and his immediate successors, the art faded into
-insignificance in Germany for many years.
-
-The first important work of the early life of Albrecht Duerer was a series
-of fifteen large drawings on wood representing allegorical Scenes from the
-Apocalypse. They are mystical, indeed almost incomprehensible; at the same
-time we are obliged to notice the tremendous vigour and the wonderful power
-of invention in the man who designed them. But his attempt to embody the
-supernatural led him into the most extravagant conceptions. 'In attempting
-to bring such themes within the power of expression which art possesses,'
-writes Mr. Woodbery, 'he strove to give speech to the unutterable.' Yet the
-genius of the true artist was apparent through all his work. The most
-celebrated of the Apocalypse designs is the fourth in the book, 'The
-Opening of the First Four Seals,' a wonderfully grand conception of the
-Four Horsemen going forth to conquer; Death on the pale horse below, and
-'Hell following him.' (Revelation vi. 8.) King, burgher, peasant and
-priest, have all fallen beneath him. Although we are expressly told that
-Duerer himself printed this work in 1498, it by no means follows that he
-engraved the woodcuts; they are greatly in advance of any previous work of
-the kind, and this may be attributed to the fact that the artist who
-designed them knew the best capabilities of the art. If he and the unknown
-engraver had learned the advantages of lowering the face of the wood when
-delicate lines were required, and the present methods of overlaying the
-cuts to produce greater intensity of colour, some of the engravings of
-Duerer's time would be models of excellence.
-
-The series of the Apocalypse was succeeded by three others in which the
-human interest is far greater. These were what the artist himself called
-'The Larger Passion of {71} Our Lord,' a series of eleven large cuts, with
-a vignette on the title-page; 'The Life of the Virgin,' a series of twenty
-cuts; and 'The Smaller Passion of Our Lord,' a series of thirty-six cuts of
-less size, with a well-known vignette of 'Christ Mocked' on the title-page.
-These works mark an important era in the history of wood-engraving and
-clearly led onwards to its future development. They were all published
-between 1510 and 1512, and so great was their popularity that the
-celebrated Italian engraver, Marc Antonio Raimondi, reproduced the whole of
-'The Smaller Passion' in copper-plate--much, as may be imagined, to
-Duerer's annoyance.
-
-In the 'Larger Passion of Our Lord' we find representations of the Last
-Supper, Christ on the Mount of Olives, the Betrayal, the Scourging, Christ
-Mocked, Christ Bearing his Cross, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and
-other subjects from the New Testament; and so deeply did the highly-wrought
-artist feel the awful importance of his subject that he repeated some of
-these events in at least five different series. In all of them his
-characters are dressed in the uncouth habiliments of German peasants, and
-we see bits of German villages; but in this respect he only followed the
-example of the great Italian painters, who clothed the most sacred figures
-in the costumes of their own towns, and, when possible, gave an Italian
-landscape for a background to their pictures of the Holy Land.
-
-The series of twenty large engravings called 'The Life of the Virgin' was
-published and sold by Duerer himself in book form at about the same time
-(1510), and was equally well received by the German people, who were at
-that time in a state of religious ferment consequent on the preachings of
-Martin Luther, and Duerer was one of his prominent disciples.
-
-{72}
-
-[Illustration: THE VIRGIN CROWNED BY TWO ANGELS. BY ALBRECHT DUERER
-_Engraved by Jerome Andre_ (_?_)]
-
-{73} But it was the series of thirty-seven smaller woodcuts, known as 'The
-Lesser Passion,' that was most popular; in some measure, perhaps, because
-the prints are of a more handy size. All the subjects of 'The Larger
-Passion' are repeated, with variations, in this series, and twenty-five
-others from the Life of Christ are added. By a happy chance, thirty-five of
-the original woodcuts of this series are preserved in the British Museum.
-In the year 1840 they were reprinted, by permission of the trustees, under
-the care of Mr. Henry Cole. The wood was found to be much worm-eaten, but
-all injury was deftly repaired by Mr. Thurston Thompson, and a small
-edition of the work was issued[6] with an exhaustive introduction by Mr.
-Cole.
-
-The most admired of all the works of Duerer are the large plates known as
-'The Knight, Death, and the Devil,' 'The Conversion of St. Eustace,'
-'Melencolia,' 'St. Jerome in his Chamber,' and several others which he
-engraved or etched on copper with his own hands and which he himself
-published. Fine impressions of these marvellous works are now as eagerly
-sought for as celebrated Rembrandt etchings.
-
-Duerer made also many drawings on wood which were engraved and printed
-under his immediate supervision, and issued in separate sheets. Of one of
-the most beautiful, of these, 'The Virgin crowned by two Angels,' we are
-able to give an impression which is an exact facsimile (reduced) of a print
-of the year 1518. Nothing of its kind can exceed the brilliancy of the
-original, the engraving is as nearly perfect as possible, and were it not
-for the hardness of the lines in the faces and other objects where softness
-is required, no craftsman of the present day could surpass its excellence
-as a product of the printing-press. Many other separate large
-wood-engravings, after Duerer's drawings, appeared between the years 1510
-and 1518, such as 'The Holy Family with the three Rabbits,' 'St. Jerome in
-his Chamber,' 'The Flight into Egypt,' 'Beheading of St. John the Baptist,'
-and, among other strange subjects, a representation of a Rhinoceros. {74}
-Duerer also designed a frontispiece to his own book of poems, published in
-1510.
-
-Three magnificent books illustrated with woodcuts of great size, the
-'Theuerdank,' the 'Werskunig,' and the 'Freydal,' appeared in Germany early
-in the sixteenth century. The first is an epic relating to the Emperor
-Maximilian's journey to Burgundy on matrimonial affairs; it was published
-in 1517. Hans Schaufelein drew the designs for a hundred and eighteen cuts,
-measuring 6-1/2 inches by 5-1/2 inches each. The second is in honour of the
-Emperor's journeys in distant lands, and the third to celebrate his deeds
-of prowess. There are 237 designs, chiefly by Hans Burgkmair of Augsburg,
-in the 'Werskunig'; the blocks are still preserved; they remained unused
-till long after the Emperor's death, and were not published till 1775. The
-'Freydal' has never been completed, though the designs are still in
-existence.
-
-_THE TRIUMPHS OF MAXIMILIAN_
-
-But we have yet to speak of 'The Triumphs of Maximilian.' This imperial
-work, the most important production of the art of wood-engraving the world
-has ever seen, was executed by command of the Emperor Maximilian to convey
-to posterity a pictorial representation of the magnificence of his court,
-the splendour of his victories, and the extent of his dominions. It
-consists of three distinct sets of designs: (I.) The 'Triumphal Arch,'
-(II.) the 'Triumphal Car,' both from the hand of Albrecht Duerer, and
-(III.) the 'Triumphal Procession,' by Hans Burgkmair. The size of the work
-is immense; if the whole series were laid out side by side it would cover
-about one hundred and ninety-two feet (64 yards!) The drawings were made on
-pear-wood and were cut by about eleven different engravers, of whom the
-most famous was Jerome of Nuernberg. Many of the original blocks are
-happily preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna, and on the backs of
-them are written the names or {75} initials of the various engravers. It is
-evident, therefore, that at the beginning of the sixteenth century there
-was a recognised school of wood-engravers in Germany of considerable
-importance. One of them, Jobst de Neger, or Dienecker, came from Antwerp; a
-few lived at Nuernberg, others at Augsburg.
-
-Some idea of the 'Triumphal Arch' is conveyed to our mind when we learn
-that it was drawn on ninety-two separate blocks of wood, and that when
-properly joined it is ten and a half feet high and nine and a half feet
-wide! It was designed 'after the manner of those erected in honour of the
-Roman Emperors at Rome;' there are three gateways or entrances--that in the
-centre is called the Gate of Honour and Power, on the right is the Gate of
-Nobility, on the left the Gate of Fame, a part of which is seen in the
-illustration. The arch itself is decorated with portraits of the Roman
-Emperors from the time of Julius Caesar, shields of arms showing the
-descent of the Emperor and his alliances, representations of his most
-famous exploits, including his adventures while chamois-hunting in the
-Tyrol, with explanatory verses in the German language cut in the wood.
-Above the central entrance is a grand tower surmounted by a figure of
-Fortune holding the imperial crown. The whole is a kind of epitome of the
-history of the German Empire. The 'projector of the design' was Hans
-Stabius, who calls himself the historiographer and poet of the Emperor. The
-work was begun in 1515--four years before the Emperor's death--and was not
-quite finished at the time of the death of the artist in 1528. Although we
-do not see the greatest excellence of Duerer's peculiar genius in this
-immense production executed to order, for it is too full of German
-fantasies and very unlike the classic simplicity of the old Roman arches,
-it will be found to contain the finest work of the wood-engraver at that
-period. Some parts of it are of a marvellous delicacy that can hardly be
-surpassed. {76}
-
-[Illustration: THE GATE OF FAME
-(_From the 'Triumphal Arch' by Albrecht Duerer. Engraved by Jerome
-Andre._)]
-
-{77}
-
-The 'Triumphal Car,' also designed by Duerer at the suggestion of Stabius,
-is a richly decorated chariot drawn by six pairs of horses. In it the
-Emperor in his imperial robes is seated under a canopy amid allegorical
-figures representing Justice, Truth, Clemency, Temperance, and the like,
-who offer to him triumphal wreaths. Over the canopy is an inscription: quod
-. in . celis . sol . Hoc . in . terra . Caesar . est. The Car is driven by
-Reason with Reins of Nobility and Power, and the horses are guided by
-female figures of Swiftness, Prudence, Boldness, and similar equine
-virtues. The whole of the design is seven feet four inches in length and
-about a foot and a half in height.
-
-To modern eyes the car is not prepossessing, the figures of the attendant
-damsels are by no means elegant, and the horses would not, we fear, meet
-with the approval of English critics. It brings to us a reminiscence of the
-funeral car of the Duke of Wellington, which, we remember, was designed by
-a German artist. Some parts of the decorations are excellent and the whole
-is well engraved.
-
-The 'Triumphal Procession' is still more important. It consists of a series
-of one hundred and thirty-five large cuts, which, joined together, would
-cover in length one hundred and seventy-five feet (upwards of 58 yards!) A
-herald, mounted on a fantastic, four-footed winged gryphon, leads the
-procession; next follow two led horses bearing a tablet with these words,
-doubtless by Stabius: 'This Triumph has been made for the praise and
-everlasting memory of the noble pleasures and glorious victories of the
-most serene and illustrious prince and lord, Maximilian, Roman Emperor
-elect, and head of Christendom, King and Heir of seven Christian kingdoms,
-Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and of other grand principalities and
-provinces of Europe.' More horses follow, then come falconers with hawks on
-their wrists, hunters of the chamois and the bear, behind them are elks and
-buffaloes, richly caparisoned stags four abreast, and camels drawing
-decorated chariots in which ride the musicians.
-
-{78}
-
-[Illustration: HORSEMEN, THREE ABREAST, WITH BANNERS
-(_From 'The Triumphal Procession' by Burgkmair. Cut by Dienecker and other
-engravers_)]
-
-The Emperor's favourite jester, Conrad von der Rosen, follows on horseback,
-bearing an immense flag; then come fools, fencing-masters, and soldiers of
-all kinds armed for every service, horsemen three abreast, with banners
-inscribed with the names of the great battles which the Emperor had won,
-cars filled with trophies taken from conquered nations, among them the
-'Savages of Calicut'--natives of India--one of them riding a huge elephant,
-and numerous other figures filled up the immense length of the engraving.
-{79}
-
-[Illustration: THE SAVAGES OF CALICUT
-(_From 'The Triumphal Procession' by Burgkmair. Cut by Dienecker and other
-engravers_)]
-
-The whole work, though evidently intended to be a glorification of the
-great Emperor, is much {80} more valuable to us at the present day as a
-marvellous record of the barbaric magnificence of the middle ages, and an
-outward aspect of secular life. 'The ideal of worldly power and splendour,
-the spirit of pleasure and festival, is shown forth in this marvellously
-varied march of laurelled horses and horsemen, whose trappings and armour
-have the beauty and glitter of peaceful parade. There is nowhere else a
-work which so presents at once the feudal spirit and feudal delights in
-such exuberance of picturesque and feudal display.'
-
-Duerer's designs for the 'Prayer-book of Maximilian' also claim a short
-notice. Only three copies of the work are known to be in existence, one of
-which is in the British Museum. The margins are full of fanciful designs;
-amid intertwining branches, birds are singing, apes are climbing, snakes
-creeping, and gnats flying. King David is charming a stork with his harp; a
-fox is playing a flute to poultry. It is a curious mixture of the sacred
-and profane, for which Duerer has often been censured. The engraving of the
-subjects, which are in outline, is excellent.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{81}
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-_HANS HOLBEIN AND HANS LUETZELBURGER_
-
-Hans Holbein, who first saw the light at Augsburg in the year 1497, was the
-greatest artist ever born in Germany, and as he passed half of his artistic
-life in England we may claim some little share in the glory of his
-undisputed eminence.
-
-The son of a worthy painter of sacred pictures for the Church, he was
-brought up amidst all the paraphernalia of the studio, and at a very early
-age began to design title-pages, initial letters, and ornaments for
-numerous important books published by Johann Froben, Valentine Curio, and
-other printers of Basel, and Christoph Froschover, of Zuerich. Some of
-these folio title-pages, most of which are of an architectural character,
-are veritable works of art, and are greatly treasured at the present day.
-Next we find him making illustrations for the New Testament, some of which
-were engraved on wood and some on metal, probably by Dienecker or
-Luetzelburger, though of this we have no direct evidence.
-
-But Holbein's greatest fame, as a designer of book-illustrations, is
-derived from his well-known series of the 'Dance of Death,' which was first
-given to the world in the year 1538, though from some proofs still in
-existence they are known to have been engraved before the artist's first
-visit to London in 1527. It is believed that the original forty-one
-drawings on wood were all cut by Hans Luetzelburger, who has been very
-properly called the 'True Prince of Wood-Engravers,' for, in the opinion of
-our foremost critics, these 'Dance of Death' cuts are the masterpieces of
-the art at that period, excelling even the work of Jerome Andre of
-Nuernberg on Duerer's 'Triumphal Arch.' {82}
-
-[Illustration: HOLBEIN'S DANCE OF DEATH
-THE KING]
-
-Seventeen other designs were added to the 'Dance of Death' afterwards,
-making the complete series fifty-eight. The original blocks are lost; they
-have been copied on the Continent many times, and were reproduced in
-England in perfect facsimile and in the very best manner under the
-superintending care of Francis Douce, a celebrated antiquary, by John and
-Mary Byfield and George Bonner, all excellent engravers. Accompanied by a
-learned dissertation by Mr. Douce, the work {83} was published by William
-Pickering[7] in the year 1833. It is from electrotypes of these blocks that
-we are enabled to present to our readers the designs of 'The King,' 'The
-Queen,' 'The Astrologer,' and 'The Pedlar,' four of the best of the series.
-
-[Illustration: HOLBEIN'S DANCE OF DEATH
-THE QUEEN]
-
-Wall-pictures of 'The Dance of Death,' with but little artistic merit,
-existed at a much earlier period, and some of them may still be traced in
-the cloisters of old cathedrals. The subject was a great favourite with
-both priest and people in the Middle Ages; it appealed to the feelings of
-rich and poor, old and young, and Holbein's 'fearful' pictures, as soon as
-they appeared, met with immense popularity, which, to this day, has never
-ceased. {84}
-
-[Illustration: HOLBEIN'S DANCE OF DEATH
-THE ASTROLOGER]
-
-Almost every class is represented in them--the King at his well-spread
-board is served by his fellow King, who fills his bowl; the Queen, walking
-with her ladies, is led into an open grave; in a landscape, in which we see
-a flock of sheep, Death appears to an aged Bishop; here we see Death
-running away with the Abbot's mitre and crozier; there he visits the
-Physician and the Astrologer. In the church is a Preacher who holds the
-people in awe, behind him is a Preacher more dread still; the Miser with
-his bags, the Merchant with his bales, are alike surprised by Death; the
-Knight's armour is defenceless, the Pedlar with his basket cannot escape,
-the Waggoner with {85} his wine-cart is overthrown. All are represented in
-their turn--the Duchess in her bed, the poor woman in her hovel, the child
-who is ruthlessly taken from his mother. We can imagine the sensation which
-such a work would create among a very impressionable people at that season
-of religious ferment, the greatest the world has ever known. Thirteen
-editions from the original blocks are known to have been printed between
-the years 1538 and 1563.
-
-[Illustration: HOLBEIN'S DANCE OF DEATH
-THE PEDLAR]
-
-About the same time another series of wood-engravings appeared, consisting
-of eighty-six designs by Holbein, drawn on wood larger than the 'Dance of
-Death' blocks and just as well engraved, probably by Luetzelburger; these
-were 'Scenes from Old Testament History,' generally known as 'Holbein's
-Bible Cuts'; they were issued separately with descriptions in verse and
-were also used to illustrate Bibles. {86}
-
-[Illustration: THE HAPPINESS OF THE GODLY.--HOLBEIN'S BIBLE CUTS
-_Engraved by Luetzelburger_]
-
-This series was also reproduced by the same artists who cut the 'Dance of
-Death,' under the superintendence of Mr. Douce; and it is from electrotypes
-of these blocks that we are enabled to give our two Bible illustrations,
-'The Happiness of the Godly' (Psalm i.), and 'Joab's Artifice' (2 Samuel
-xiv. 4). They copy the original prints in exact facsimile, and, looking at
-them, one cannot but wonder at the high state of perfection to which the
-art of wood-engraving had attained nearly four hundred years ago. At that
-time, Germany stood alone in its excellence; France, and even Italy, were
-far behind her; and England and Spain were nowhere. We ought to add that
-both the 'Dance of Death' and the 'Bible Cuts' were {87} issued, with text,
-by the brothers Trechsel, the celebrated publishers of Lyons, in 1538, when
-Holbein must have been in England.
-
-A wonderful alphabet, with 'Dance of Death' figures, evidently designed by
-Holbein, has Hanns Luetzelburger (Formschnider) genant Franck printed at
-the foot of the page. These letters were probably engraved on metal. A
-'Peasant's Dance' and 'Children's Sports,' designed as headings of chapters
-by the same artist, are well known, as they have been frequently
-reproduced.
-
-[Illustration: JOAB'S ARTIFICE.--HOLBEIN'S BIBLE CUTS
-_Engraved by Luetzelburger_]
-
-In the works of 'The Little Masters' who succeeded Duerer and Holbein we
-are not much concerned. Albrecht Altdorfer (d. 1538) was a designer as well
-as an engraver on wood. Hans Beham (d. 1550?) is best known by his {88}
-twentysix designs from the Apocalypse which Mr. Linton praises as of
-'supremest excellence.' He says, moreover, that they were probably engraved
-on metal (perhaps copper), by Beham himself, as well as his 81 little Bible
-cuts which were used to illustrate the first English Bible. He also
-designed and perhaps engraved several large cuts, one of which, 'The
-Fountain of Youth,' is four feet long; another is 'The Dance of the
-Daughter of Herodias,' reproduced by Dr. Lippmann. Hans Brosamer (d. 1552)
-designed and engraved pictures for books. Heinrich Aldegrever (d. 1558) is
-well known for his portraits of Luther, Melanchthon, and the notorious John
-of Leyden. Virgil Solis (d. 1562) was a prolific book-illustrator; he
-designed a series of 216 Bible pictures, all of small size, as well as 178
-cuts for Ovid's 'Metamorphoses,' and 194 for Aesop's Fables; he also
-designed and probably engraved much ornament, especially for title-pages of
-books, some of which was very good. Jost Amman (d. 1591) is celebrated for
-his book of 'All Ranks, Arts, and Trades,' with one hundred and thirty-two
-figures. (See page 128).
-
-The religious books printed in Germany at the end of the sixteenth century
-were altogether inferior as regards their illustrations, though a few are
-fairly designed and executed. Ornamental borders, especially on title
-pages, were usual, and those designed by Lucas Cranach are of considerable
-merit. Many of the German printers' marks or devices, which are very well
-engraved, were the work of some of the best artists of the times.
-
-These were but expiring efforts, and by the end of the century, owing to
-continual warfare and internal disturbances, the art of wood-engraving in
-Germany was almost forgotten.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{89}
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-_IN ITALY AND FRANCE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY_
-
-In the early years of the sixteenth century, the printers of Florence
-issued many cheap popular books, chiefly _Rappresentazioni_, i.e. Plays,
-sacred or secular. These plays are generally badly printed in double
-columns, but they are illustrated with numerous cuts, some of which are of
-peculiar merit. The earliest known printer of them was Francesco Benvenuto
-(c. 1516-1545), but the majority appear to have been issued between 1550
-and 1580, anonymously, though we know that Giovanni Baleni of Florence was
-the printer of some of these.
-
-There were also many quaint little tracts, metrical _Novelle_ and
-_Istorie_, of which a collection has been found at the University Library,
-Erlangen; a valuable description of them was published by Dr. Varnhagen.
-The poems are, as a rule, illustrated with small cuts, inclosed within a
-neat border, the subjects are usually well chosen, and the drawing very
-good; the treatment of some of the domestic scenes is worthy of Bewick.
-
-{90}
-
-[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE OF 'LE SORTI DI MARCOLINI'
-_By Giuseppe Porta Venice 1540_]
-
-[Illustration: LE POT-CASSE
-(_Device of Geoffroy Tory_)]
-
-In striking contrast to the simplicity of these popular wood-engravings are
-the elaborate engravings which appeared in the more expensive books issued
-in the latter half of the same century, when illustrated editions of Dante,
-Boccaccio, Ovid, Aesop's Fables, and Alciat's 'Emblems,' appeared, one
-after the other, but not one of these calls for {91} special notice; nor
-did the best of their wood-engravings equal the work of Luetzelburger. The
-frontispiece of a curious book, _Le Sorti di Marcolini da Forli_, printed
-at Venice in 1540, of which we offer a reduced copy, gives us a good idea
-of the prevailing art of the period. It is said to be taken from a design
-by Raphael for his celebrated picture 'The School of Athens,' and we see by
-the tablet in the foreground that it was either drawn on the wood or
-engraved by Joseph (Giuseppe) Porta, known as Salviati, after his more
-celebrated master whom he accompanied to Venice.
-
-In Paris, in the first half of the sixteenth century, there lived a very
-celebrated printer, 'Geoffroy Tory, Peintre et Graveur, Premier Imprimeur
-Royal, Reformateur de l'Orthographe, et de la Typographie,' as he is
-described by his biographer, M. A. Bernard (Paris, 1857). He was born at
-Bourges in 1480, and in early life went to Paris, where he not only wrote
-books and printed them, but designed ornamental borders and engraved them.
-He also studied his profession in Italy, and brought back with him new
-ideas about printing and illustrating books. Such a man had great influence
-at that time, for he had much inborn taste and excellent skill, and
-publishers should all be proud of him as one of their most praiseworthy
-ancestors. He adopted the singular design the _Pot-casse_, of which we give
-a copy, as his somewhat enigmatical device; and some writers maintain that
-the little 'Cross of Lorraine' (++) found on many of the cuts of this
-period is also his mark. {92}
-
-[Illustration: FROM 'LES HEURES' PRINTED BY SIMON DE COLINES
-_Engraved by Geoffroy Tory_]
-
-{93} In our illustration, taken from the _Heures_, printed by Simon de
-Colines, this Cross of Lorraine will be seen under the kneeling priest. He
-made antique letters, he himself tells us, for Monseigneur the Treasurer
-for War, Master Jehan Grolier, whom we know as one of the best patrons of
-book-binding; and wrote a book which he called '_Champfleury, auquel est
-contenu l'art et science de la deue proportion des lettres ... selon le
-corps et le visage humain_,' a very learned and amusing treatise. Some of
-the initial letters in this book are very cleverly designed and
-engraved--probably by the ingenious author. The picture of 'Antoine Macault
-reading his translation of Diodorus Siculus to the King' is said to have
-been engraved by Tory; it is evidently either from a design by Hans Holbein
-or by an artist who copied his style. All the figures in this excellent
-engraving are portraits--the King (Francis I.), his three sons, and his
-favourite nobles. It is the best cut that was issued at Paris at this time.
-Geoffroy Tory died in 1533, though his workshop was carried on for many
-years afterwards.
-
-Among other woodcuts of this period we find a small portrait of the poet
-Nicholas Bourbon, dated 1535. As this is a direct copy of the portrait of
-the same individual, undoubtedly by Holbein, which is now at Windsor
-Castle, and as the ornamentation is quite in Holbein's style, we cannot
-doubt that this celebrated painter had frequent relations with the
-publishers on the Continent in the first half of the sixteenth century.
-
-{94}
-
-[Illustration: ANTOINE MACAULT READING HIS TRANSLATION OF DIODORUS SICULUS
-TO KING FRANCIS I.
-_Designed by Holbein. Engraved by Geoffroy Tory?_]
-
-{95} Another celebrated printer who enjoyed the patronage of the King was
-Robert Estienne, who, by some curious perversity, is frequently spoken of
-by English scholars and biographers as Robert Stephens, simply because,
-following the fashion of the day, he often latinised his name and signed
-Robertus Stephanus. Estienne was, next to Aldo Manuzio of Venice, the most
-learned of printers, and deserves to be held in due reverence. The most
-important illustrated book he published was 'The Lives of the Dukes of
-Milan,' by Paulus Jovius (Paris, 1549). This work has sixteen portraits of
-the Dukes, well engraved, some say by Geoffroy Tory himself, but this is a
-matter of dispute, though they certainly were cut in his workshop.
-
-Among the most characteristic works of the wood-engraver in the middle of
-the century were two large processions, 'The Triumphal Entry of King Henri
-II. into Paris,' published by Roville of Lyons, in 1548, and 'The Triumphal
-Entry into Lyons,' issued in the following year. These prints were designed
-either by Jean Cousin or Cornelis de la Haye, but the name of the engraver
-is nowhere mentioned. They are somewhat similar to 'The Triumph of
-Maximilian,' by Burgkmair, but are not nearly so important as works of art,
-and did nothing to raise the character of wood-engraving.
-
-In the books published in the second half of the century we frequently meet
-with the name of Bernhard Salomon (born at Lyons in 1512), generally called
-Le Petit Bernard, who made designs for Alciat's 'Emblems' (A.D. 1560) and
-Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' (A.D. 1564), which were engraved in the workshop of
-Geoffroy Tory, and published by Jean (or Hans) de Tournes, of Lyons.
-Bernard's style was much influenced by the Italian painters Rosso and
-Primaticcio, who had been invited by the King to decorate Fontainebleau,
-and may be easily recognised by the extreme height and tenuity of his
-figures, and by the peculiar ornament which he used as framework for his
-drawings.
-
-Another book containing equally good illustrations is _Ghesneden Figuera
-wyten Niewen Testamente_ ('Engraved Figures from the New Testament'),
-adorned with ninety-two small cuts besides the title-page and initial
-letters; these were drawn and probably engraved by Guilliame Borluyt, {96}
-citizen of Ghent, and published by Jean de Tournes of Lyons in 1557. From
-the fineness of the lines and other indications we suspect these designs
-were cut on metal, which was much used at this time instead of wood.
-Through the kindness of Messrs. H. S. Nichols & Co., of Soho Square, who
-possess an excellent copy of this very rare book, we are enabled to offer
-our readers two cuts, 'The Woman of Samaria' and 'Christ Scourged,' of the
-same size as the originals. The publishers of Lyons were celebrated from
-the end of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century for their
-dainty little books, which were very prettily illustrated.
-
-[Illustration: CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA
-_By Guilliame Borluyt_]
-
-We must not conclude this chapter without mentioning another celebrated
-publisher, Christophe Plantin of Antwerp. He was born at Saint-Avertin,
-near Tours, in 1514, and at an early age apprenticed to a printer and
-book-binder, Robert Mace, at Caen; thence he went to Paris, whence wars
-soon drove him away. He next took refuge at Antwerp, where he employed
-himself in binding books and making leather boxes, _coffrets_, curiously
-inlaid and gilt. {97}
-
-[Illustration: THE SCOURGING OF CHRIST
-_By Guilliame Borluyt_]
-
-By mistake he was, one dark evening, stabbed with a sword, and he
-afterwards suffered so much pain from the wound that he could not stoop
-without feeling it: consequently he turned to the business of a printer,
-and soon became the most celebrated man of the day in that craft. Philip
-II. of Spain made him his chief printer, and under royal orders Plantin
-produced the well-known Polyglot Bible in eight folio volumes (1568-1573).
-He had previously printed some smaller books of Emblems (1564), and
-_Devises Heroiques_ (1562), and had employed Pierre Huys, Lucas de Heere,
-Godefroid Ballain, and other artists, to illustrate them. He died in 1589.
-His second daughter married Jean Moret, one of the overseers of {98} the
-printing-office, and the business known as 'Plantin-Moretus' continued to
-prosper up to the present century. A few years since the offices were
-bought by the city authorities, and the Plantin Museum is now one of the
-principal attractions of Antwerp. In his various works Plantin used many
-woodcuts, but most of his title-pages have borders executed by Wierix,
-Pass, and other celebrated copperplate engravers. His device was a Hand
-with a pair of compasses, and his motto _Labore et Constantia_.
-
-The history of wood-engraving and wood-engravers in Holland forms the
-subject of a monograph from the pen of Mr. W. M. Conway ('The Woodcutters
-of the Netherlands,' Cambridge, 1884). The list commences with a Louvain
-engraver, who worked for Veldener in 1475, and about the same time for John
-and Conrad de Westphalia.
-
-Most of the greater Dutch towns had wood-engravers, and the work of these
-artists appears in many of the books printed in the Low Countries. As in
-France, many of the printers' marks are very good.
-
-It was in this century that publishers began to illustrate their books with
-copperplate engravings, which soon came into general use, and these plates
-for many years, to a very great extent, superseded engraving on wood.
-Etchings by the artist's own hands are also frequently met with, and to
-these causes we may in a great measure attribute the decay of the
-Formschneider's art for at least two centuries.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{99}
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-_IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES IN GERMANY, ITALY AND
-ENGLAND_
-
-In the portfolios of collectors of works of art of the sixteenth century we
-frequently meet with very interesting examples of printing in
-_chiaro-oscuro_, as it was called, by means of successive impressions of
-engraved wood-blocks. Sometimes two or three blocks were used, sometimes
-six or eight, in all cases with the intention of reproducing the appearance
-of a tinted water-colour drawing or an oil-painting. Those prints which
-were the least ambitious were the most successful, They were generally
-printed in various shades of grey and brown--from light sepia to deep
-umber--and sometimes the effects are admirable. A well-known designer and
-engraver on wood, Ugo da Carpi (c. 1520), introduced this new style of
-printing into Venice, and other artists, Antonio da Trento, Andrea
-Andreani, Bartolomeo Coriolano, and others made many successful efforts in
-a similar direction; their best works are much prized.
-
-At the same time a group of Venetian artists, who were also engravers on
-wood, distinguished themselves by copying the works of Titian and other
-Italian painters. The most celebrated of these engravers were Nicolo
-Boldrini, Francesco da Nanto, Giovanni Battista del Porto, and Giuseppe
-Scolari, who all flourished between the years 1530 and 1580. Their {100}
-productions, which are on a large scale, are greatly valued by artists.
-
-Near the end of the century a book of costume entitled _Habiti Antichi e
-Moderni di tutto il Mondo_ was designed and published at Venice by Cesare
-Vecellio, who is said to have been a nephew of the great Titian. This work
-contains nearly six hundred figures in the costume of every age and
-country, admirably drawn and engraved; indeed, they are the best examples
-of the art of wood-engraving in Italy at the time. This excellent work was
-reproduced in their well-known style by Messrs. Firmin, Didot & Cie in two
-volumes (Paris, 1860).
-
-An edition of 'Dante' published by the brothers Sessa at Venice in 1578 is
-well illustrated with good woodcuts.
-
-German artists were also bitten at this time with a mania for reproducing
-pictures by means of colour blocks. The results, however, were much more
-curious than beautiful. We have before us a copy of a painting designed by
-Altdorfer, one of the 'Little Masters,' of 'The Virgin with the Holy Infant
-on her Lap,' set in an elaborate architectural frame. In this print at
-least eight different colour-blocks were used, among them a deep red and a
-vivid green. The printer's register has been fairly well kept, and the
-mechanical part of the work is worthy of all praise; but we fear the effect
-on most of our readers would be to produce anything but admiration. A Saint
-Christopher, designed and probably engraved by Lucas Cranach, printed in
-black and deep umber, only with the high lights carefully cut out of the
-latter block, is much more satisfactory.
-
-In the middle and towards the end of the sixteenth century there were
-several excellent wood-engravings published in London in illustration of
-Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' (1562), Holinshed's 'Chronicles of England,
-Scotland, and Ireland' (1577), 'A Booke of Christian Prayers' (1569), and
-other works, chiefly from the press of the celebrated John Daye. {101}
-
-[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JOHN DAYE, THE CELEBRATED PRINTER OF FOXE'S
-'BOOK OF MARTYRS,' A.D. 1562]
-
-{102} As an example we give one of the illustrations of Holinshed's
-Chronicles as a frontispiece. There can be no doubt that Holbein designed
-it; the ornamentation alone would almost prove it to be from his hand. The
-title-page of the 'Bishops' Bible,' printed about the same time, has a
-finely engraved border, representing the King handing the volume to the
-Bishops, who in turn present it to the people. There are many woodcuts in
-the text, but they are of very low merit.
-
-We give an illustration of 'A Booke of Christian Prayers,' known as Queen
-Elizabeth's Prayer-book, from a fine portrait of Her Majesty kneeling on a
-handsome cushion, with clasped hands before a kind of altar. The Queen's
-dress is magnificent, and the ornamentation of the whole design is of a
-similar character. It is an excellent piece of engraving, and we are able
-to give a facsimile of it, cut about sixty years ago by George Bonner. Mr.
-Linton thinks the original was on metal; who engraved it is at present
-unknown. We fear there was no one in England who could produce such work,
-nor can anyone tell who made the design. It is printed on the back of the
-title-page, which is decorated with a border of a 'Jesse-tree,' with a
-figure of Jesse at the foot and the Virgin with the Holy Infant on her lap
-at the head. There are woodcut borders to each of the 274 pages, all
-betraying German origin, and evidently by different hands. A few floral
-designs and single figures of 'Temperance,' 'Charity,' and the like are the
-best. Among the rest is a series of 'Dance of Death' pictures, but _not_ by
-Holbein. Another edition of this work was printed in 1590 at London, 'By
-Richard Yardley and Peter Short for the assignes of Richard Day dwelling in
-Bred-street hill at the signe of the Starre.' [Doubtless this was on the
-site of the present printing office of Richard Clay & Sons.] Richard Day
-was a son of John Day or Daye, as we often find the name printed.
-
-{103}
-
-[Illustration: ELIZABETHA REGINA
-(_From 'A Booke of Christian Prayers.' Printed by John Daye, London,
-1569._)]
-
-{104} Another illustrated book, 'The Cosmographical Glasse, conteinyng the
-pleasant Principles of Cosmographie, Geographie, Hydrographie or
-Navigation. Compiled by William Cuningham, Doctor in Physicke' (of
-Norwich), was printed by John Day in 1559, with many cuts. In the
-ornamental title-page there is a large bird's-eye view of the city of
-Norwich, with a mark of the engraver, I. B. There is also a large and
-well-engraved portrait of the author, 'aetatis 28,' a rather sad-looking
-young man; and many initial letters, some of which have a small I. D. at
-the foot, which probably tell us that John Day himself engraved them.
-Others have a small I inside a larger C, and this monogram appears
-frequently on the small cuts in the border of Queen Elizabeth's Book of
-Prayers. John Day tells us in a work published in 1567 that the Saxon type
-in which it is printed was _cut_ by himself.
-
-John Day was a great friend of John Foxe, and assisted him in producing his
-celebrated 'Acts and Monuments of the Church,' generally known as his
-'Booke of Martyrs.' In the 'Acts and Monuments,' printed in 1576, there is
-a large initial C, evidently drawn and engraved by the artists who produced
-the Queen's portrait. In this initial, Elizabetha Regina is seen seated in
-state, with her feet resting on the same cushion that appears in the larger
-print, attended by three of her Privy Councillors standing at her right
-hand. A figure of the Pope with two _broken_ keys in his hands forms part
-of the decoration of the base; an immense cornucopia reaches over the top.
-
-Early in the seventeenth century we meet with the name of an excellent
-wood-engraver at Antwerp, Christoph Jegher, who worked for many years with
-Peter Paul Rubens, and produced many large woodcuts. We are enabled to give
-a much-reduced copy of a 'Flight into Egypt,' which in the original is
-nearly twenty-four inches in length. Underneath appears the inscription,
-_P. P. Rub. delin. & excud._, from which we learn that Rubens himself
-superintended the {105} printing, for _C. Jegher sculp._ appears on the
-other side. Some of this series of cuts were printed with a tint of sepia
-over them in imitation of the Italian chiaro-oscuro prints of the previous
-century. Christoph Jegher was born in Germany in 1590 (?) and died at
-Antwerp in 1670. He lived through many tempestuous years and did much good
-work. A contemporary wood-engraver named Cornelius van Sichem, living at
-Amsterdam, produced a few excellent cuts from drawings by Heinrich Goltzius
-(d. 1617), who copied the Italian school.
-
-[Illustration: THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. BY RUBENS
-_Reduced copy of the engraving by C. Jegher_]
-
-At the end of the seventeenth century the art of wood-engraving reached its
-lowest ebb. There were a few tolerably good mechanical engravers on the
-Continent, who were {106} chiefly employed in the manufacture of ornaments
-for cards, and head and tail pieces for books and ballads, but nearly all
-the woodcuts we meet with in English books are of the most childish
-character. The rage for copper-plate engravings had set in with so much
-vigour among all the printers and publishers that the poor wood-engraver
-was well-nigh forgotten.
-
-In London a new edition of 'Aesop's Fables,' edited by Dr. Samuel Croxall,
-and illustrated with many woodcuts much better engraved than was customary
-at the time, was published by Jacob Tonson at the Shakespear's Head, in the
-Strand, in 1722. We do not learn the names of the artists. In 1724 Elisha
-Kirkall engraved and published seventeen Views of Shipping, from designs by
-W. Vandevelde, which he printed in a greenish kind of ink; and in a
-portfolio full of woodcuts in the Print Room of the British Museum Mr. W.
-J. Linton recently discovered a large Card of Invitation (query--to a
-wedding?) from Mr. Elisha and _Mrs._ Elizabeth Kirkall, dated '_August_ the
-31st, 1709. Printed at His Majesty's Printing Office in _Blackfryers_,'
-which is very firmly and boldly engraved, probably in soft metal. On the
-left of the Royal Arms, Fame, blowing a trumpet, holds up a circular
-medallion portrait of Guttenburgh (we follow the spelling); a similar
-figure on the right holds the portrait of W. Caxton and a scroll; at the
-foot, in the middle, is a view of London Bridge over the Thames, with the
-Monument and St. Paul's Cathedral, and on either side is a Cupid--one with
-a torch and a dove, with masonic emblems at his feet, the other with
-attributes of painting, sculpture, and music. The Cupids are very like the
-fat-faced little cherubim we so constantly meet with on seventeenth-century
-monuments, though Mr. Linton has nothing but praise to give to the
-engraving, which he says is the first example of the use of the 'white
-line' in English work.
-
-In Paris there was a family of three generations of {107} engravers named
-Papillon, who illustrated hundreds of books with small and very fine cuts,
-in evident imitation of the copper-plates then so much in vogue. Jean
-Michel Papillon, the youngest of them, published a _Traite Historique et
-Pratique de la Gravure en Bois_, in two volumes with a supplement, which,
-though full of credulous errors, has been of inestimable service to all
-writers on the history of wood-engraving. This Papillon was probably in
-England at one time, for he received a prize from the Society of Arts. He
-was born in the year 1698, began to engrave blocks when only eight years
-old, and lived till the year 1776.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{108}
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-_THOMAS BEWICK AND HIS PUPILS_
-
-In the year 1775, the Society for the Encouragement of Arts offered a
-series of small money premiums for the best engravings on wood. These
-prizes were won by Thomas Hodgson, William Coleman, both then living in
-London, and Thomas Bewick, of Newcastle, who sent up for competition five
-engravings intended to illustrate a new edition of 'Gay's Fables.' It is of
-the last of these three--who received an award of seven guineas, which he
-immediately gave over to his mother--that we have now to write. He was born
-at Cherryburn, a farmhouse on the south bank of the Tyne, in the parish of
-Ovingham, about twelve miles from Newcastle, in August 1753. This we learn
-from an inscription now over the door of the 'byre,' or cowshed, which is
-still standing. His father was a farmer, who also rented a small coal-pit
-at Mickley, close by. After having received a fair education at local
-schools and at Ovingham parsonage, young Thomas, who had shown a great love
-of drawing, was in October 1767 apprenticed to Ralph Beilby, a general
-engraver, in St. Nicholas' Churchyard, Newcastle. Here the boy learned to
-cut diagrams in wood, engrave copper-plates for books, tradesmen's cards,
-etch ornament on sword-blades, and other work of the kind, much as Hogarth
-had done some fifty years before him; and, as luck would have it, his
-master received an {109} order to engrave a series of wood-blocks to
-illustrate a 'Treatise on Mensuration' written by Mr. Charles Hutton, a
-schoolmaster in Newcastle--afterwards Dr. Hutton, a Fellow of the Royal
-Society. This work was issued in fifty sixpenny numbers, and published in a
-quarto volume in 1770. It was on this book that Thomas Bewick trained his
-'prentice hand in the art in which he was afterwards to become so famous.
-
-At the end of his apprenticeship in 1774, he worked with his old master for
-a short time at a guinea a week; then he went to live for a time at
-Cherryburn, and in 1776, with three guineas sewed in his waist-band, he
-walked to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and northwards to the Highlands, always
-staying at farm-houses on the road. He returned to Newcastle in a Leith
-sloop, and, after working till he had earned sufficient money, took a berth
-in a collier for London, where he arrived in October and soon found several
-Newcastle friends. But London life did not suit this child of the
-country-side. 'I would rather be herding sheep on Mickley bank top,' he
-writes to a friend, 'than remain in London, although for so doing I was to
-be made Premier of England.'
-
-Soon after his return to Newcastle he joined his old master in partnership,
-and took his younger brother, John, as an apprentice, and for eight years
-the brothers made a weekly visit to Cherryburn, often fishing by the way.
-In the year 1785, their mother, father, and eldest sister all died, and in
-the following year Thomas Bewick married Isabella Elliot, of Ovingham, one
-of the companions of his childhood. He was at that time living in the
-'fine, low, old-fashioned house'--with a long garden behind it, in which he
-cultivated roses--formerly occupied by Dr. Hutton; and going daily to work
-in the old house overlooking St. Nicholas' Churchyard.
-
-We have previously said that the early wood-engravings were cut with a
-knife, held like a pen and drawn towards the craftsman, on 'planks' of the
-soft wood of the pear or {110} apple-tree, or some similar tree. It is
-believed that Bewick was the first who used the wood of the box-tree, which
-is very hard, and who made his drawings on the butt-ends of the blocks, and
-cut his lines with the graver pushed from him. He brought into practice
-what is known as the 'white line' in wood-engraving; that is, he produced
-his effects more by means of many white lines wide apart to give an
-appearance of lightness, and by giving closer lines to produce a grey
-effect, as in our cut of 'The Yellowhammer.' He gave up the old method of
-obtaining 'colour,' as it is termed, by means of cross-hatching, and used a
-much simpler and more expeditious way of giving depth of shadow by leaving
-solid masses of the block, which of course printed black--and he constantly
-adopted the plan of lowering the wood in the background, and such parts of
-the block as were required to be printed lightly.
-
-[Illustration: THE YELLOWHAMMER
-(_From_ '_The Land Birds_')]
-
-{111}
-
-The first book of real importance that was illustrated by Thomas Bewick was
-the 'Select Fables' published by Saint of Newcastle in 1784; this is now
-very rare; there is, however, a copy in the British Museum (press-mark
-12305 g 16) which can at all times be consulted. Most of the designs are
-derived from 'Croxall's Fables,' and many of these were copied from the
-copper-plates by Francis Barlow in his edition of Aesop, published 'at his
-house, The Golden Eagle, in New Street, near Shoo Lane, 1665.' Though
-Bewick improved the drawings, there was little originality in them, but the
-engravings were far in advance of any other work of the kind done at that
-period. The success of this book induced him to carry out an idea he had
-long entertained of producing a series of illustrations for a 'General
-History of Quadrupeds,' on which he was engaged for six years, making the
-drawings and engraving them mostly in the evening. He tells us he had much
-difficulty in finding models, and was delighted when a travelling menagerie
-visited Newcastle and enabled him to depict many wild animals from nature.
-It was while he was employed on this work that he received a commission to
-make an engraving of a 'Chillingham Bull,' one of those famous wild cattle
-to which Sir Walter Scott refers in his ballad, 'Cadyow Castle':
-
- 'Mightiest of all the beasts of chase
-    That roam in woody Caledon.'
-
-He made the drawing on a block 7-3/4 inches by 5-1/2 inches, and used his
-highest powers in rendering it as true to nature as he could; it is said
-that he always considered it to be his best work. After a few impressions
-had been taken off on paper and parchment, the block, which had been
-carelessly left by the printers in the direct rays of the sun, was split by
-the heat; and, though it was in after years clamped in gun-metal, no
-impressions could be taken which did not show {112} a trace of the
-accident. Happily, one of the original impressions on parchment may be seen
-in the Townsend Collection in the South Kensington Museum. Meanwhile the
-'Quadrupeds' were going on bravely: Ralph Beilby compiled the necessary
-text, which Bewick revised where he could, and in 1790 the book was
-published. It sold so well that a second edition was issued in 1791, and a
-third in 1792. Since then it has been frequently reprinted. [The first
-edition consisted of 1,500 copies in demy octavo at 8s., and 100 in royal
-octavo at 12s. The price of the eighth edition, with additional cuts,
-published in 1825, was one guinea.]
-
-[Illustration: TAIL-PIECE
-(_From 'The Quadrupeds'_)]
-
-Besides the engravings of quadrupeds, the best that had appeared up to that
-time, the numerous tail-pieces which Bewick drew from nature charmed the
-public immensely. We give an example, one of them in which a small boy,
-said to be a young brother of the artist, is pulling a colt's tail, while
-the mother is rushing to his rescue. This little cut gives an admirable
-idea of their style. Many of them are humorous, many very pathetic, many
-grimly sarcastic, and all perfectly original. {113}
-
-[Illustration: THE WOODCOCK
-(_From 'The Water Birds'_)]
-
-As soon as the success of the 'Quadrupeds' was assured, Bewick commenced
-without delay his still more celebrated book, the 'History of British
-Birds.' In making the drawings for this work he was much more at home, for
-he knew every feathered creature that flew within twenty miles of Ovingham,
-and it was all 'labour of love.' He worked with all his soul first at the
-'Land Birds' and afterwards at the 'Water Birds,' and it is on these two
-books that Bewick's fame both as a draughtsman and an engraver principally
-rests. We give a copy of the 'Yellowhammer,' which the artist himself
-considered to be one of his best works, and the 'Woodcock,' in which all
-the excellences of his peculiar style may readily be traced.
-
-The first volume, the 'Land Birds,' appeared in 1797, and was received with
-rapture by all lovers of nature. Again, {114} the tail-pieces, pictures in
-miniature, were applauded to the skies, and the gratified author was beset
-on all sides with congratulations. Mr. Beilby wrote the descriptions as
-before, and performed his work very creditably.
-
-[Illustration: A FARMYARD
-(_From 'The Land Birds'_)]
-
-The partnership between Ralph Beilby and Thomas Bewick was dissolved in
-1797, and the descriptions to the second volume, 'The Water Birds,' which
-did not appear till 1804, were written by Bewick himself, and revised by
-the Rev. H. Cotes, Vicar of Bedlington. It is known that Bewick was
-assisted in the tail-pieces by his pupils, Robert Johnson as a draughtsman,
-and Luke Clennell as an engraver, but it is certain that every line was
-done under his immediate superintendence, and no doubt the originator of
-these excellent works was beginning to feel that he was no longer young.
-{115}
-
-[Of the first edition of the 'Land Birds' 1,000 were printed in demy octavo
-at 10s. 6d., 850 on thin and thick royal octavo, at 13s. and 15s., and
-twenty-four on imperial octavo at L1 1s. The first edition of the 'Water
-Birds' in 1804 consisted of the same number of copies as that of the 'Land
-Birds,' but the prices were increased respectively to 12s., 15s., 18s., and
-L1 4s.]
-
-The only book of importance on which Bewick was engaged after 1804 was an
-edition of 'Aesop's Fables,' which was published in 1818. Mr. Chatto says:
-'Whatever may be the merits or defects of the cuts in the Fables, Bewick
-certainly had little to do with them--for by far the greater number were
-designed by Robert Johnson and engraved by W. W. Temple and William Harvey,
-while yet in their apprenticeship.' Bewick amused himself by re-writing the
-Fables, to which he contributed a few of his own, but he was in no sense a
-literary man, and several of his greatest admirers openly expressed their
-disappointment at the book; even his supreme advocate, Dr. Dibdin, said: 'I
-will fearlessly and honestly aver that his "Aesop" disappointed me.'
-
-In 1826 Bewick lost his wife, who left to his care one son and three
-daughters. In the summer of 1828 he visited London alone; he was not in
-good health, took but little interest in what was going on, and soon longed
-to return home. There he was busy as ever on a large cut of an old horse
-'Waiting for Death' (which Mr. Linton has faithfully copied). Early in
-November he took the block to the printers to be proved, and after a few
-days' illness, he died on November 8, 1828. He was buried in Ovingham
-churchyard, where a tablet is erected to his memory. But his books are his
-true monument, and they will live for ever.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{116}
-
-CHAPTER XIII
-
-_THOMAS BEWICK'S SUCCESSORS_
-
-It redounds greatly to the glory of Thomas Bewick that the important
-advance in the art of wood-engraving which was due to his talents and his
-industry did not die with him. He left behind him several eminent
-successors, whose influence is felt to the present day.
-
-His brother John, seven years younger than himself, was his first pupil,
-and to him we are indebted for the illustrations to a work called 'Emblems
-of Mortality,' 1789, copied from Holbein's 'Dance of Death,' the
-'Looking-Glass for the Mind,' and 'Blossoms of Morality,' 1796. Of these,
-the cuts in the 'Looking-Glass for the Mind' are decidedly the best, and
-after examining them carefully we cannot but regret that the artist was
-taken away so young. His drawings are very unlike those of his elder
-brother, and are certainly more graceful--we give one as an example of
-their style. Two other books, 'Poems,' by Goldsmith and Parnell, 1795, and
-Somerville's 'Chase,' 1796, also contain some of his best work; they were
-printed in quarto by Bulmer, 'to display the excellence of modern printing
-and wood-engraving.' For the former of these, John Bewick made most of the
-drawings, in which he was assisted by the clever artist, Robert Johnson, a
-fellow-pupil, and nearly all were engraved by Thomas and John Bewick, and a
-few by another pupil, Charlton Nesbit. {117} For 'The Chase,' John Bewick
-made all the drawings except one, and nearly all were engraved by his
-brother. For five or six years John Bewick lived in London, till ill-health
-compelled him to return to his native place, where he died in the same year
-in which Somerville's 'Chase' was published. He was buried in Ovingham
-churchyard, where a tablet is erected to his memory.
-
-[Illustration: LITTLE ANTHONY. BY JOHN BEWICK
-_From 'Looking-Glass for the Mind'_]
-
-Robert Elliot Bewick, the only son of Thomas Bewick, was trained to the
-business of wood-engraver, and at one time, over the window of the house in
-St. Nicholas' Churchyard, there was a board with an inscription 'BEWICK AND
-SON, _engravers and copper-plate printers_.' Robert suffered much from
-ill-health and turned his attention to drawing rather than engraving. He
-died in 1849, leaving fifty beautiful designs for a 'History of Fishes,'
-which he had long in contemplation as a companion volume to his father's
-works. {118} These drawings, the gift of the last of Bewick's daughters,
-are now in the British Museum.
-
-The most celebrated of Bewick's other pupils were Charlton Nesbit, born at
-Shalwell, near Gateshead, in 1775; Luke Clennell, born at Ulgham, a village
-near Morpeth, in 1781; and William Harvey, born near Newcastle in 1796.
-Nesbit engraved a few of the tail-pieces in the 'Land Birds,' and most of
-the head and tail pieces in the 'Poems' of Goldsmith and Parnell. He also
-engraved, from a drawing by Robert Johnson, a large block, 15 inches by 12
-inches, of St. Nicholas Church, Newcastle, which at the time was considered
-a triumph of art. About the end of the century Nesbit migrated to London,
-where for many years he was employed by Rudolph Ackermann and other
-publishers in engraving the drawings of the artist, John Thurston, whose
-work was at that time very popular. In 1815 Nesbit returned to Shalwell,
-where he continued to reside till 1830, doing but little work besides the
-engraving of 'Rinaldo and Armida' for Savage's 'Hints on Decorative
-Printing,' after a design by Thurston. This is considered to be his best
-work. He then went back to London, and was chiefly engaged in engraving
-drawings by William Harvey for the second volume of Northcote's 'Fables.'
-He died at Queen's Elms in November 1838, aged 63. Mr. Chatto says: 'Nesbit
-is unquestionably the best wood-engraver that has proceeded from the great
-northern hive of art--the workshop of Thomas Bewick.'
-
-The story of Luke Clennell's life is very sad. Like many other artists, he
-showed an early disposition to make sketches on his slate instead of 'doing
-sums,' and was often reproved; his uncle sympathised with him, and in 1797
-apprenticed him to Thomas Bewick for the usual seven years, during which
-time he engraved many of the tail-pieces to the 'Water Birds' and learned
-to make water-colour drawings from nature. When his apprenticeship was over
-he assisted Bewick in the illustrations to a 'History of England,' {119}
-published by Wallis and Scholey, in which Nisbet had also joined, but
-finding that Bewick was paid five pounds for each cut, while he received
-only two pounds, Clennell sent some specimens of his abilities to the
-publishers, who immediately offered him work in London, where he arrived in
-the autumn of 1804. Two years afterwards he received the gold palette of
-the Society of Arts for a wood-engraving of a battle-scene, and soon
-afterwards he was engaged on illustrations to new editions of Beattie's
-'Minstrel,' 1807, and Falconer's 'Shipwreck,' 1808. About this time he
-married the eldest daughter of Charles Warren, a well-known line engraver,
-and became intimate with Abraham Raimbach and other artists whose
-friendship was of much service to him. His most important work as a
-wood-engraver was the 'Diploma of the Highland Society,' a large block
-13-1/2 inches by 10-1/2 inches, of which we give a much-reduced copy.
-Benjamin West made the original design on paper, Clennell himself drew the
-Highlander and Fisherman on the wood, and gave Thurston fifteen pounds to
-fill in the circle with Britannia and her attendant groups. After he had
-worked on the block, which was of boxwood veneered upon beech, for about
-two months, the same fate befell it that had ruined Bewick's 'Chillingham
-Bull'; one evening, while he was at tea, the boxwood split with a loud
-report, and it is said poor Clennell threw the tea-things into the fire!
-This was the sad beginning of a long malady. Taking courage, however, he
-procured a block made of pieces of solid boxwood firmly clamped together,
-paid Thurston again for drawing the central groups, and, after much labour,
-produced his _chef d'oeuvre_, for which he received 150 guineas from the
-Highland Society, and was further rewarded with the gold medal of the
-Society of Arts, May 30, 1809. This second block likewise met with an
-untimely fate; it was burnt in the fire at Bensley's printing-office. John
-Thompson afterwards engraved it in fac-simile. A copy of Clennell's
-original engraving, bequeathed by Mr. John {120} Thompson, may be seen in
-the Art Library at South Kensington.
-
-[Illustration: DIPLOMA OF THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY
-_Engraved by Luke Clennell_]
-
-Among the best wood-engravings by Clennell we may rank the illustrations
-designed by Stothard as head and tail pieces for a small edition of
-Rogers's 'Pleasures of Memory,' 1810. They were drawn in pen and ink, and
-engraved in facsimile with charming spirit and fidelity. After this time,
-Clennell, who could work beautifully in water-colours, gave up engraving
-and exhibited drawings and paintings at the Academy, the British
-Institution, and the Exhibition of Painters in Water-Colours at their room
-in Spring Gardens. In March 1815, the British {121} Institution set aside
-1,000 guineas for premiums for the best oil-paintings illustrating the
-career of Wellington. One of these premiums was awarded to Clennell for his
-'Charge of the Life Guards at Waterloo,' a picture full of spirit, which
-was afterwards engraved. In 1814 the Earl of Bridgewater gave him a
-commission to paint 'The Banquet of the Allied Sovereigns in Guildhall.' He
-experienced great difficulty in obtaining sitters for the necessary
-portraits, and suffered so much from anxiety that, although in April 1817
-he had nearly conquered all his troubles, he suddenly lost his reason. This
-so much affected his wife that she also became insane and soon died. By the
-advice of his friends poor Clennell was sent to live with a relation who
-resided near Newcastle, and there he lingered till February 1840, when he
-died, leaving three children, who were for a time supported in a great
-measure by the Committee of the Artists' Fund and by the profits of the
-engraving of the 'Charge of the Life Guards.'
-
-William Harvey was apprenticed to Bewick in 1810 and was his favourite
-pupil. He frequently made drawings on the wood after the designs of Robert
-Johnson, and engraved many of the cuts in 'Bewick's Fables,' 1818. On New
-Year's Day 1815 Bewick presented him with a copy of his 'History of British
-Birds' in two volumes, which he always showed to his friends with much
-pride. In September 1817 Harvey came to London and, to improve his
-knowledge of drawing, took lessons of an excellent master--B. R. Haydon.
-While under his tuition Harvey copied his picture of the 'Assassination of
-Dentatus' on a large block, and engraved it with most elaborate care. This
-cut has always been greatly admired by the profession, who point to the
-variety of the lines of engraving in the right leg of Dentatus as being a
-triumph of their art. If we can find any fault with this celebrated work,
-it is that, to use Mr. Chatto's words, 'More has been attempted than can be
-efficiently {122} represented by means of wood-engraving'--it is, in fact,
-too much like an attempt to rival copper-plate line-engraving.
-
-About the year 1824 Harvey had so many commissions for designs for both
-copper-plates and woodcuts that he gave up entirely the practice of
-engraving, and devoted himself to drawings for the illustration of books.
-His first successes were his vignettes for Dr. Henderson's 'History of
-Ancient and Modern Wines,' 1824, the illustrations to Northcote's 'Fables,'
-1828 and 1833, the 'Tower Menagerie,' 1828, 'Gardens and Menagerie of the
-Zoological Society,' 1831, and 'The Children in the Wood' and a 'Story
-without an End,' 1832. But perhaps his most characteristic designs were the
-illustrations to Lane's 'Thousand and One Nights' in 1834-40; these are
-considered to be his best work. He was at this time at the height of his
-reputation, and for twenty-six years more he almost monopolised the
-illustration of books published in London. Merely to give a list of them
-would occupy too much space. During the latter years of his life, Harvey
-lived near the old church of Richmond, and there he died in 1866. He was
-one of the most courteous and amiable of men, and though his designs were
-'mannered,' they were always pleasant to look at, and often very poetical.
-
-There were other pupils of Bewick who obtained some little fame. Among them
-were John Anderson, a native of Scotland, who assisted Thurston in
-illustrating Bloomfield's 'Farmer's Boy,' published in 1800 by Vernor and
-Hood; John Jackson, who was born at Ovingham in 1801, and Ebenezer
-Landells, born at Newcastle in 1808. Jackson for some reason quarrelled
-with his master, came to London and worked for William Harvey, who was much
-employed about that time in making illustrations for the various works
-issued by Charles Knight, including the 'Penny Magazine,' Knight's
-'Shakspere,' 'Pictorial Bible,' 'Pictorial Prayer-book,' and a hundred
-other books which appeared between 1828 and 1840--under the auspices of
-that enterprising publisher. Some of {123} Jackson's best work will be
-found in the 'Tower Menagerie' and other illustrations of animals designed
-by Harvey. He will always be remembered for the share he took in the
-'Treatise on Wood-Engraving,' for which Mr. Chatto wrote the text. This
-work was undertaken at the sole risk of Mr. Jackson, who engraved many of
-the three hundred illustrations. It is a very valuable book and,
-supplemented by Mr. Linton's 'Masters of Wood-Engraving,' tells pretty well
-all that is ever likely to be known of this fascinating art. Jackson died
-in London in the year 1848.
-
-At the death of Bewick, Ebenezer Landells came to London, 1829, and soon
-found employment in engraving designs for the _Illustrated London News_,
-_Punch_, and other periodicals. His studio became quite a nursery of art,
-and many excellent draughtsmen--among them, Birket Foster--and engravers
-were educated under his superintendence. He died at Brompton in 1860, the
-last of Bewick's pupils.
-
-Going back to the last century we find that we have omitted to speak of
-another self-taught wood-engraver, Robert Branston, who was born in 1778 at
-Lynn in Norfolk. When he was twenty-one years of age he settled in London
-and soon found employment in working for the publishers. He engraved the
-'Cave of Despair' from a drawing by Thurston for Savage's 'Hints on
-Decorative Printing' in rivalry with Nesbit's 'Rinaldo and Armida'; this is
-considered to be his best work. He also assisted in engraving the cuts in
-Scholey's 'History of England,' Bloomfield's 'Wild Flowers,' 1806, and a
-series of 'Fables' after Thurston's designs which, though beautifully
-executed, were never published. He died at Brompton in 1827. Among his
-pupils were his son, Robert Branston the younger, who for many years
-produced excellent work.
-
-{124}
-
-[Illustration: HAYMAKING. BY W. MULREADY, R.A.
-_Engraved by John Thompson_]
-
-John Thompson, one of the princes of wood-engravers, was born in Manchester
-in 1785, came to London early in life, and, after practising for some years
-under Robert Branston the elder, soon gained great distinction in his art.
-Like all other wood-engravers of the period, he was employed chiefly in
-rendering the designs of Thurston. In 1818 he engraved the illustrations to
-a new edition of Butler's 'Hudibras,' and about the same time he was
-engaged by the Bank of England to produce a bank-note which could not be
-imitated. Then followed the illustrations to the 'Blind Beggar of Bethnal
-Green,' 1832, Shakespeare, 1836, and the 'Arabian Nights,' 1841, all after
-designs by William Harvey. He also engraved many of the beautiful cuts in
-the books of Natural History published by Van Voorst. In {125} 1843 he
-produced the work for which he will for ever be celebrated, the
-illustrations to the 'Vicar of Wakefield' from the drawings by
-Mulready--one of the most charming books ever published. It would take too
-much time to enumerate even the best of the engravings he executed in his
-long life. We must not, however, forget to mention that he engraved in
-gun-metal Mulready's design for a postal envelope in 1839, and the figure
-of Britannia which is still printed on Bank of England notes. He presented
-his collection of valuable woodcuts to the Art Library at South Kensington,
-and died at Kensington in 1866, aged 81. His son, Thurston Thompton, was
-also an excellent engraver.
-
-Among the other celebrated wood-engravers of the latter half of this
-century were John and Mary Byfield, who engraved the facsimile cuts of
-Holbein's 'Dance of Death' and 'Scenes from Old Testament History' for
-Pickering's editions of these celebrated works; W. H. Powis, some of whose
-best work may be seen in 'Solace of Song'; J. Orrin Smith, born in
-Colchester in 1800, who placed himself under the tuition of William Harvey,
-and became a very expert craftsman, and whose best work may be seen in
-Wordsworth's 'Greece,' 'The Solace of Song,' Lane's 'Arabian Nights,' and
-in 'Paul et Virginie,' published by Curmer of Paris--Orrin Smith died in
-1843; Samuel Williams, also a native of Colchester, who designed on the
-wood most of the works which he engraved--he was famous for his country
-scenes, the best of which are in Thomson's 'Seasons' and Cowper's 'Poems,'
-published about 1840--he died in 1853 in his 65th year; W. T. Green and
-Thomas Bolton, both excellent reproducers of landscape, and especially of
-the drawings of Birket Foster; Charles Gray, and Samuel V. Slader, all of
-the first repute; Orlando Jewitt, celebrated both for his beautiful
-reproductions of architectural work, for Parker's 'Glossary,' and other
-important works; and, lately, we have lost J. Greenaway, brother of the
-famous artist, Kate {126} Greenaway, and W. J. Palmer, both excellent men
-and engravers of the very first class.
-
-[Illustration: O'ERARCHED WITH OAKS THAT FORM FANTASTIC BOWERS]
-
-Still with us, we can only mention in a few words the modern prince of
-wood-engravers, W. J. Linton, who has for {127} many years resided in
-America; W. L. Thomas, the originator of _The Graphic_ newspaper, and one
-of the ablest artists in water-colours in 'The Institute'; Edmund Evans and
-Horace Harral, who so successfully rendered Birket Foster's drawings some
-years ago; J. W. Whymper, the brothers Dalziel and James Cooper, the
-producers of thousands of good engravings, and a comparatively new man, W.
-Biscombe Gardner, who excels in portraiture.
-
-In Germany, during the last half-century, wood-engraving met with much
-encouragement, and reverting to the earlier and purer style of the
-fifteenth century, many artists and engravers produced work of great merit:
-E. Kretzschmar, of Leipsic, the brothers A. and O. Vogel, F. Unzelmann and
-H. Mueller, rendered the drawings of Adolf Menzel and Ludwig Richter with
-careful exactitude. In the atelier of Hugo Buerkner, of Dresden, the
-much-admired 'Death as a Friend,' by Rethel, was engraved by Jungtow, and
-'Death as an Enemy' by Steinbrecher: and A. Gaber, recently deceased,
-faithfully reproduced the drawings of Overbeck, Schnorr von Carolsfeld,
-Oscar Pletsch, and Moritz von Schwind. Of living engravers we may refer our
-readers to the excellent examples of skill to be seen in the 'Meisterwerke
-der Holzschneidekunst,' a monthly periodical of great merit; and especially
-to the works of Pfnorr of Darmstadt; Hoefel of Vienna; Flegel and Weber of
-Leipsic; Mezger and Vieweg of Brunswick; H. Guenter, Karl Oertel, Luettge,
-and E. Krelb.
-
-In France no great advance has been made, and most of the engravers have
-been contented to produce work a little above mediocrity. Several French
-publishers have given commissions to English engravers--Orrin Smith, Henry
-Linton, and others.
-
-In America great strides have been made, and, in the estimation of many
-excellent judges, the best works ever done by wood-engravers have been
-presented to us in the pages of the illustrated magazines. These
-publications excite {128} our wonder not only at the great energy which is
-thrown into them, apparently without regard to cost, but at the immense
-success which they have justly achieved. Some critics disapprove of the
-style to which we have just referred, and say it is in too close an
-imitation of steel engraving, but it seems hard to censure works which have
-given unbounded satisfaction to so many thousand lovers of art.
-
-
-
-Owing to the invention of various mechanical processes, and the perfection
-to which photography has attained, the art of wood-engraving would seem to
-be in danger of becoming extinct. This is by no means the real case, for
-the brilliant band of wood-engravers which has arisen in America, of whom
-we have just spoken, still continue to give us excellent examples of their
-skill; and especially we may mention the inimitable copies of paintings by
-the Old Masters by Timothy Cole, whose rendering of Paul Potter's 'Young
-Bull' excites our warmest admiration.
-
-In England, under the influence of Mr. William Morris and his followers, a
-revival of this interesting craft, as practised in the fifteenth century,
-has been set on foot in some of the Schools of Art--notably at Birmingham,
-where in 1893 the students issued a Book of Carols illustrated with
-original designs, some of which were cut by the students themselves. This
-revival of the earlier and purer methods of engraving, coupled with a
-careful study of the possibilities of the art, may be taken as a sign that
-by no means the last chapter on the history of engraving on wood has yet
-been written.
-
-At present, much of the new process work which we find in such
-over-abundance in newspapers and magazines is slovenly to the last degree.
-On the other hand, now and then we see beautiful results--the best in the
-American magazines; let us hope that the facile cheapness of this new
-craft--art it cannot be called--will in good hands soon achieve something
-more worthy of our regard.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-{129}
-
-INDEX
-
-_The Engravings in this book are referred to in italic type_
-
-  Abbreviations of Latin words, 18
-  Aesop's Fables (1481), 47
-  Aesop's Fables (Bewick's), 115
-  Aldegrever, 88
-  Aldus Manutius, 45-47
-  _Alphabet_, _Figure_, XV Cent., 25
-  Altdorfer, Albrecht, 87, 100
-  Amman, Jost, 88
-  Anderson, John, 122
-  Andre, Jerome, 82
-  Andreani, Andrea, 99
-  _Annunciation, The_, 8
-  Apocalypse, Duerer's, 70
-  _Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis_, 17
-  Ars Memorandi, 11, 26
-  Ars Moriendi, 11, 20, 26
-
-  Battista del Porta, 99
-  Beham, Hans, 87
-  Beilby, Ralph, 108,112
-  Berners, Dame Juliana, 66
-  Bewick, John, 116
-  Bewick, Robert, 117
-  Bewick, Thomas, 108-115
-  _Bible Cuts_, Holbein's, 86, 87
-  _Biblia Pauperum_, 12-16
-  _Bibliomaniac, The_, 38
-  Block Books of the XV Cent., 11
-  Blossoms of Morality, 116
-  Boldrini, Nicolo, 99
-  Bolton, Thomas, 126
-  Bonner, George, 82, 102
-  _Booke of Christian Prayers_ (Q. Elizabeth), 100
-  Book of Fables (Pfister, 1461), 36
-  Book of Hours, 55
-  Book of St. Albans, 66
-  Borluyt's _Figures from New Testament_, 96, 97
-  Bourbon, Nicolas, 93
-  Brandt's _Navis Stultifera_, 38
-  Branston, Robert, 123
-  _Breydenbach's Travels_, 35, 37
-  _British Birds_, History of (Bewick), 110-115
-  _British Quadrupeds_, History of (Bewick), 111, 112
-  Brosamer, Hans, 88
-  Buerkner (German engraver), 127
-  Bullen, Mr. George, 20
-  Burgkmair, Hans, 69-80
-  Byfield, John and Mary, 82, 125
-
-  Caillaut, Antoine, 60
-  Canterbury Tales, The, 66
-  _Canticum Canticorum_, 11, 23
-  _Casus Luciferi_, 30
-  Caxton, William, 62
-  Chatto, W. A., 1, 4, 66, 118
-  Chiar-oscuro, Printing in, 50, 99
-  Chillingham Bull (Bewick), 111
-  _Christopher, Saint_, 6
-  Clennell, Luke, 118-121
-  Cole, Mr. Henry, 73
-  Cole, Timothy, 128
-  Colines, Simon de, _Heures_ de, 92
-  _Cologne Bible_, 33, 36
-  Colonna, Francesco, 42
-  Colour Printing in Germany (XVI Cent.), 100
-  Conway, W. M. (Woodcutters of the Netherlands), 98
-  Copperplate-Engraving introduced, 98
-  Coriolano, Bartolommeo, 99
-  Cranach, Lucas, 69, 88, 100
-  Croxall's Aesop, 106, 111
-  Cuningham's Cosmographical Glasse, 102
-  Curio, Valentine, 81
-
-  Dance of Death (1485), 59
-  _Dance of Death_ (Holbein's), 81-85
-  _Daye, John_ (Printer), 101-104
-  _Death of the Virgin_ (Missal), 54
-  _Decameron, The_ (1492), 48
-  Dentatus, Death of (_engraved by W. Harvey_), 121
-  Dibdin's, Dr., Works, 1
-  Dienecker (Engraver), 78
-  _Diploma of Highland Society_ (Clennell), 120
-  Douce, Francis, 82
-  Duplessis, M. Georges, 4
-  Dupre, Jean, 55, 60
-  Duerer, Albrecht, 69
-  ---- Apocalypse, 70
-  ---- Engravings on Copper, 71
-  ---- Life of the Virgin, 71
-  ---- Passion of Our Lord, 71
-  ---- 'Smaller' Passion, 71, 73
-  ---- _Virgin crowned by Angels_, 72
-
-  _Elizabetha Regina_ (1569), 103
-  Elizabeth's, Queen, Prayer Book, 102
-  Emblems of Mortality (1789), 116
-  Estienne, Robert, 93
-
-  Figure Alphabet, The, 24
-  _Flight into Egypt_ (Jegher's), 105
-  Foster, Birket, _Drawing_ by, 126
-  Foxe's Book of Martyrs, 100
-  Froben, Johann, 81
-  Froschover, Christoph, 81
-  _Fyshynge with an Angle_ (1496), 67
-
-  Gaber (German Engraver), 127
-  _Game and Playe of the Chesse_ (Caxton's), 62, 64
-  German Engravers, 127
-  Gray, Charles, 125
-  Green, W. T. (Engraver), 125
-  Greenaway, J., 125
-  Gutenberg's Psalter, 34
-
-  Harvey, William, 115, 121
-  Heinecken, Herr, 4, 10
-  _Henry VIII in Council_, _frontispiece_
-  _Heures a l'usaige de Chartres_, 52
-  _History of British Birds_ (Bewick), 110-114
-  _History of Quadrupeds_ (Bewick), 111, 112
-  Holbein, Hans, 69, 81-87
-  ---- Alphabet of Dance of Death, 87
-  ---- _Bible Cuts_ (Old Testament), 86, 87
-  ---- _Dance of Death_, 82-84
-  ---- Society, 20, 21
-  Holinshed's 'Chronicles of England,' &c., 100
-  Humphreys, Noel, 55
-  _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_ (1494), 42-44
-
-  Illuminated Books of XV Century, 53
-  Images of Saints, 2
-
-  Jackson, John, 122
-  _Jegher, Christoph_, of Antwerp, 104
-  Jewitt, Orlando, 125
-  Johnson, Robert, 115
-  Jovius, Paulus, 95
-  Jungtow, 127
-
-  _Kalendario_ (Venice, 1476), 41
-  Kerver, Thielman, 53, 58, 59
-  _King's Banquet, The_, 58
-  Kirkall, Elisha (1724), 106
-  Knight, Charles, 122
-
-  Landells, Ebenezer, 122
-  Le Noir (Printers' mark), 60
-  Le Rouge, 53
-  Linton, W. J., 1, 5, 106
-  Lippmann, Dr., 1
-  Little Masters, The, 87
-  Livres d'Heures, 57
-  _Looking-glass for the Mind_, 116, 117
-  Luetzelburger, Hans, 81, 87
-
-  _Macault reading his Translation_, 94
-  Mace, Robert, of Caen, 96
-  Mansion, Colard, of Bruges, 62
-  _Manuzio, Aldo_, 45, 46
-  Marchant, Guyot, 53, 59
-  Maximilian, Emperor, 69, 74-80
-  Mazarine Bible, 30
-  Mer des Histoires, La, 53
-  Milan, Lives of Dukes of, 95
-  Metal Blocks, 51
-  _Mirrour of the World_ (1478), 63
-  Morris, William, 53, 128
-  Mulready: _Vicar of Wakefield_, 125
-
-  Nanto, Francesco da, 99
-  _Navis Stultifera_ (1497), 38
-  Nesbit, Charlton, 116, 118
-  Notary, Julian, 68
-  Nuernberg Chronicle, 36
-
-  Palmer, W. J., 126
-  Papillon, J. M. (French Engraver), 107
-  _Passion of our Lord_ (Missal), 56
-  Petit, Jehan, 60
-  Pigouchet, Philippe, 55
-  Plantin, Christophe, Antwerp, 96
-  Playing Cards, 2
-  Porta, Giuseppe, 90, 91
-  Porto, Battista del, 99
-  Powis, W. H. (Engraver), 125
-  Printers' marks, 60
-  ---- _Kerver's_, 59
-  ---- _Le Noir's_, 60
-  ---- _Plantin's_, 98
-  ---- _Pynson's_, 68
-  ---- _Tory's, Geoffroy_, 91
-  ---- _Wynkyn de Worde's_, 65
-  Psalter, Gutenberg's, 34
-  Pynson, Richard, 66
-
-  Recueil des Histoires de Troye, 62
-
-  Saint Bridget of Sweden, 9
-  _Saint Christopher_, 6
-  Saint Sebastian, 9
-  Salomon, Bernhard (Petit Bernhard), 95
-  Schaufelein, Hans, 74
-  Schongauer, Martin, 56, 57
-  Scolari, Giuseppe, 99
-  Select Fables (Bewick), 111
-  Sessa Brothers, of Venice, 100
-  Slader, Samuel, 125
-  Smith, J. Orrin, 125
-  Somerville's Chase, 117
-  _Sorti di Marcolini_ (1540), 90, 91
-  _Speculum Salvationis_, 11, 29
-
-  _Terence_ (Lyons, 1493), 49
-  Theuredank, Adventures of, 74
-  Thompson, John, 119, 123, 124
-  Thurston, John, 118
-  Tory, Geoffroy, 91, 92, 94, 95
-  Tournes, Jean de, 95, 96
-  Trento, Antonio da, 99
-  _Tristan, Romance of_, 58
-  Triumphs of Maximilian, 74-80
-  ---- _Triumphal Arch_ (Duerer), 75, 76
-  ---- _Triumphal Car_ (Duerer), 77
-  ---- _Triumphal Procession_ (Burgkmair), 78, 79
-  Triumphal entry of Henri II into Lyons, 95
-  Triumphal entry of Henri II into Paris, 95
-  Triumphi del Petrarca (1488), 41, 47
-
-  Ugo da Carpi, 99
-
-  Vecellio, Cesare, 100
-  Verard, Antoine, 53, 57
-  Virgil Solis, 88
-  _Virgin with four Saints_ (1418), 3
-  Vostre, Simon, 53, 55
-
-  Werskunig, 74
-  Williams, Samuel, 125
-  Willshire, Dr., 2, 55
-  Woodbery, Mr., 32
-  _Wood-Engraver, The_, x
-  Wood Engravers (Living), 126
-  Wynkyn de Worde, 65
-
-_Spottiswoode & Co. Printers, New-street Square, London._
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-NOTES
-
-[1] W. H. Willshire, _Playing and other Cards in the British Museum_, 1
-vol. 8vo. (1876).
-
-[2] It is often called the Mazarine Bible, because a copy was discovered,
-with notes written in it by the illuminator, in the library of Cardinal
-Mazarin. It is very scarce. In 1884 Mr. Quaritch bought a very fine copy
-from the library of Sir John Thorold, for which he paid L3,900.
-
-[3] _History of Wood-Engraving_, 1883.
-
-[4] An English version, neither faithful nor complete, was published in the
-time of Queen Elizabeth, '_At London, Printed for Simon Waterson, and are
-to be sold at his shop in St. Paule's Churchyard at Chepegate, 1592._' It
-is extremely scarce. Many of the pages, as giving examples of costume, have
-lately been reprinted by authority of the Science and Art Department.
-
-There is a French edition of Poliphilo, printed at Paris by Kerver in 1561,
-with illustrations in a late florid French style.
-
-[5] In a recent Catalogue, Mr. Quaritch offers no less than seven different
-editions of the illustrated 'Livre d'Heures' printed by Verard, at prices
-varying from 60l. to 200l.
-
-[6] It was printed, with descriptions in black-letter, at the Chiswick
-Press, and published by Joseph Cundall, 12 Old Bond Street, 1840.
-
-[7] It is now issued by George Bell & Sons, who also publish Holbein's
-Bible Pictures.
-
-
-
-***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BRIEF HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING
-FROM ITS INVENTION***
-
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