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diff --git a/40589-0.txt b/40589-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b18a6c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/40589-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3234 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40589 *** + +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 Bibliothèque 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--Nürnberg 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 Dupré, 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 + Dürer--_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 + Lützelburger--_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_--_Æsop's Fables_--The French engraver + Papillon 99 + + CHAPTER XII + + Thomas Bewick and his Pupils--_Select Fables_--_History of + Quadrupeds_--_History of British Birds_--_Æsop'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 Bibliothèque 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 +14½ 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 Bibliothèque 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 11½ inches in height by 8½ 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 (11½ in. by 8½ 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 (11½ in. by 8½ 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 für 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 7½ 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 mediæval 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._ _prædictus_. + + ************************************************************************* + ** 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]=_terræ_. + + ************************************************************************* + ** 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. ** + ************************************************************************* + +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 £1,072 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 Würtemberg, 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 HUMANÆ 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, Liège 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, Nürnberg, 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 HUMANÆ 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 Humanæ 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 _naïveté_, 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 Wolfenbüttel Library, was taken away by the French +under Napoleon's orders and added to the Bibliothèque 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 Nürnberg Bible, printed in 1482, we +find the same set of cuts. + +The Nürnberg 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 +Nürnberg, 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 ÆSOP'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 VIRTÙ,' 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, _criblé_ 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 à +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 Dupré, 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 _criblé_ 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 _criblé_ 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'Angoulême, a noted bibliophile, who +commissioned him to print on vellum the romance of 'TRISTAN,' the 'Book of +Consolation' of Boethius, the 'Ordinaire du Chrétien,' and the 'Heures en +François,' 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 _criblé_, 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 Pré 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 +'Æneid' 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 +Dürer of Nürnberg (_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 Dürer 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 Dürer 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 Dürer 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 +Dürer 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 +Dürer'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 Dürer'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 Dürer 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 Dürer was one of his prominent disciples. + +{72} + +[Illustration: THE VIRGIN CROWNED BY TWO ANGELS. BY ALBRECHT DÜRER +_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 Dürer 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. + +Dürer 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 Dürer'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} +Dürer 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 6½ inches by 5½ 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 Dürer, 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 Nürnberg. 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 Nürnberg, 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 Cæsar, 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 Dürer'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 Dürer. Engraved by Jerome Andre._)] + +{77} + +The 'Triumphal Car,' also designed by Dürer 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.' + +Dürer'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 Dürer has often been censured. The engraving of the +subjects, which are in outline, is excellent. + + * * * * * + +{81} + +CHAPTER IX + +_HANS HOLBEIN AND HANS LÜTZELBURGER_ + +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 Zürich. 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 Lützelburger, +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 Lützelburger, 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 Nürnberg +on Dürer'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 Lützelburger; 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 Lützelburger_] + +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 Lützelburger (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 Lützelburger_] + +In the works of 'The Little Masters' who succeeded Dürer 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 Æsop'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-CASSÉ +(_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, Æsop'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 Lützelburger. 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-cassé_, 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 Macé, 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 Héroïques_ (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, 'ætatis 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 'Æsop'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 _Traité 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 Æsop, 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 7¾ inches by 5½ 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 £1 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 +£1 4s.] + +The only book of importance on which Bewick was engaged after 1804 was an +edition of 'Æsop'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 "Æsop" 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 13½ +inches by 10½ 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. Müller, rendered the drawings of Adolf Menzel and Ludwig Richter with +careful exactitude. In the atelier of Hugo Bürkner, 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; Höfel of Vienna; Flegel and Weber of +Leipsic; Mezger and Vieweg of Brunswick; H. Günter, Karl Oertel, Lüttge, +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 + Æsop's Fables (1481), 47 + Æsop'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, Dürer'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 + Bürkner (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 Æsop, 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 + Dupré, Jean, 55, 60 + Dürer, 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 à 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 + Lützelburger, Hans, 81, 87 + + _Macault reading his Translation_, 94 + Macé, 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 + Nürnberg 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_ (Dürer), 75, 76 + ---- _Triumphal Car_ (Dürer), 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 £3,900. + +[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 40589 *** |