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float: right; width: auto; + margin-right: -10%;} + ins.correction {background-color: #CCC; border-bottom: none;} +} + +@media screen { + span.pagenum {position: absolute; right: 2%;} + .mynote ins.correction {border-bottom: 1px dotted red;} +} +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div class = "mynote"> + +<p class = "center"> +<a href = "WoodEngraving.html">Introduction</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving.html#illus">List of Illustrations</a> (separate +file)</p> + +<p class = "center"> +<a href = "WoodEngraving1.html">Chapter I</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving1.html#chap_II">Chapter II</a> (separate +file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving1.html#chap_III">Chapter III</a> (separate +file)<br> +Chapter IV<br> +<a href = "#chap_V">Chapter V</a><br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving6.html">Chapter VI</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving7.html">Chapter VII</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving8.html">Chapter VIII</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving9.html">Chapter IX</a> (separate file)</p> + +<p class = "center"> +<a href = "WoodEngraving.html#index">Index</a> (separate file)</p> +</div> + +<div class = "titlepage"> + +<h2><span class = "smallest">ON</span><br> +WOOD ENGRAVING.</h2> + +</div> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page164" id = "page164"> +164</a></span> +<h3><a name = "chap_IV" id = "chap_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">WOOD ENGRAVING IN CONNEXION WITH THE +PRESS.</span></h3> + +<p class = "synopsis"> +Faust and scheffer’s psalter of 1457—printing at bamberg in +1461—books containing wood-cuts printed there by albert +pfister—opposition of the wood engravers of augsburg to the +earliest printers established in that city—travelling +printers—wood-cuts in “meditationes johannis de turre-cremata,” +rome, 1467; and in “valturius de re militari,” verona, +1472—wood-cuts frequent in books printed at augsburg between 1474 +and 1480—wood-cuts in books printed by caxton—maps engraved +on wood, 1482—progress of map +engraving—cross-hatching—flowered borders—hortus +sanitatis—nuremberg chronicle—wood engraving in +italy—poliphili hypnerotomachia—decline of +block-printing—old wood-cuts in derschau’s collection.</p> + +<div class = "maintext"> + +<div class = "chapfour"> +<p class = "consider" title = "C"><a name = "illus_164" id = +"illus_164"> </a></p> + +<p class = "first"><span class = "firstword"> +onsidering</span> +Gutemberg as the inventor of printing with moveable types; that his +first attempts were made at Strasburg about 1436; and that with Faust’s +money and Scheffer’s ingenuity the art was perfected at Mentz about +1452, I shall now proceed to trace the progress of wood engraving +in its connexion with the press.</p> + +<p>In the first book which appeared with a date and the printers’ +names—the Psalter printed by Faust and Scheffer, at Mentz, in +1457—the large initial letters, engraved on wood and printed in +red and blue ink, are the must beautiful specimens of this kind of +ornament which the united efforts of the wood-engraver and the pressman +have produced. They have been imitated in modern times, but not +excelled. As they are the first letters, in point of time, printed with +two colours, so are they likely to continue the first in point of +excellence.</p> + +<div class = "third"> +<p>Only seven copies of the Psalter of 1457 are known, and they are all +printed on vellum. Although they have all the same colophon, containing +the printers’ names and the date, yet no two copies exactly correspond. +A similar want of agreement is said to have been observed in +different copies of the Mazarine Bible, but which are, notwithstanding, +of one and the same edition. As such works would in the infancy of the +art be a long time in printing—more especially the Psalter, as, +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page165" id = "page165"> +165</a></span> +in consequence of the large capitals being printed in two colours, each +side of many of the sheets would have to be printed thrice—it can +be a matter of no surprise that alterations and amendments should be +made in the text while the work was going through the press. In the +Mazarine Bible, the entire Book of Psalms, which contains a considerable +number of red letters, would have to pass four times through the press, +including what printers call the “reiteration.”<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV1" id = "tagIV1" href = "#noteIV1">IV.1</a></p> +</div> + +<div class = "second"> +<p>The largest of the ornamented capitals in the Psalter of 1457 is the +letter B, which stands at the commencement of the first psalm, “Beatus +vir.” The letters which are next in size are an A, a C, a D, an E, +and a P; and there are also others of a smaller size, similarly +ornamented, and printed in two colours in the same manner as the larger +ones. Although only two colours are used to each letter, yet when the +same letter is repeated a variety is introduced by alternating the +colours: for instance, the shape of the letter is in one page printed +red, with the ornamental portions blue; and in another the shape of the +letter is blue, and the ornamental portions red. It has been erroneously +stated by Papillon that the large letters at the beginning of each psalm +are printed in three colours, red, blue, and purple; and Lambinet has +copied the mistake. A second edition of this Psalter appeared in +1459; a third in 1490; and a fourth in 1502, all in folio, like the +first, and with the same ornamented capitals. Heineken observes that in +the edition of 1490 the large letters are printed in red and green +instead of red and blue.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class = "mynote"> +<p><a href = "#page_image">Page image</a> showing original layout.</p> +</div> + +<p>In consequence of those large letters being printed in two colours, +two blocks would necessarily be required for each; one for that portion +of the letter which is red, and another for that which is blue. In the +body, or shape, of the largest letter, the B at the beginning of the +first psalm, the mass of colour is relieved by certain figures being cut +out in the block, which appear white in the impression. On the stem of +the letter a dog like a greyhound is seen chasing a bird; and flowers +and ears of corn are represented on the curved portions. These figures +being white, or the colour of the vellum, give additional brightness to +the full-bodied red by which they are surrounded, and materially add to +the beauty and effect of the whole letter.</p> + +<p>In consequence of two blocks being required for each letter, the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page166" id = "page166"> +166</a></span> +means were afforded of printing any of them twice in the same sheet or +the same page with alternate colours; for while the body of the first +was printed in red from one block, the ornamental portion of the second +might be printed red at the same time from the other block. In the +second printing, with the blue colour, it would only be necessary to +transpose the blocks, and thus the two letters would be completed, +identical in shape and ornament, and differing only from the +corresponding portions being in the one letter printed red and in the +other blue. In the edition of 1459 the same ornamented letter is to be +found repeated on the same page; but of this I have only noticed one +instance; though there are several examples of the same letter being +printed twice in the same sheet.</p> + +<p>Although the engraving of the most highly ornamented and largest of +those letters cannot be considered as an extraordinary instance of +skill, even at that period, for many wood-cuts of an earlier date afford +proof of greater excellence, yet the artist by whom the blocks were +engraved must have had considerable practice. The whole of the +ornamental part, which would be the most difficult to execute, is +clearly and evenly cut, and in some places with great neatness and +delicacy. “This letter,” says Heineken, “is an authentic testimony that +the artists employed on such a work were persons trained up and +exercised in their profession. The art of wood engraving was no longer +in its cradle.”</p> + +<p>The name of the artist by whom those letters were engraved is +unknown. In Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography, book iii. chapter 159, John +Meydenbach is mentioned as being one of Gutemberg’s assistants; and an +anonymous writer in Serarius states the same fact. Heineken in noticing +these two passages writes to the following effect. “This Meydenbach is +doubtless the same person who proceeded with Gutemberg from Strasburg to +Mentz in 1444.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV2" id = "tagIV2" href = +"#noteIV2">IV.2</a> It is probable that he was a wood engraver or an +illuminator, but this is not certain; and it is still more uncertain +that this person engraved the cuts in a book entitled <i>Apocalipsis cum +figuris</i>, printed at Strasburg in 1502, because these are copied from +the cuts in the Apocalypse engraved and printed by Albert Durer at +Nuremberg. Whether this copyist was the <i>Jacobus Meydenbach</i> who +printed books at Mentz in 1491,<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV3" id = +"tagIV3" href = "#noteIV3">IV.3</a> or he was some other engraver, +I have not been able to determine.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV4" +id = "tagIV4" href = "#noteIV4">IV.4</a></p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page167" id = "page167"> +167</a></span> +<p>Although so little is positively known respecting John Meydenbach, +Gutemberg’s assistant, yet Von Murr thinks that there is reason to +suppose that he was the artist who engraved the large initial letters +for the Psalter of 1457. Fischer, who declares that there is no +sufficient grounds for this conjecture, confidently assumes, from false +premises, that those letters were engraved by Gutemberg, “a person +experienced in such work,” adds he, “as we are taught by his residence +at Strasburg.” From the account that we have of his residence and +pursuits at Strasburg, however, we are taught no such thing. We only +learn from it he was engaged in some invention which related to +printing. We learn that Conrad Saspach made him a press, and it is +conjectured that the goldsmith Hanns Dunne was employed to engrave his +letters; but there is not a word of his being an experienced wood +engraver, nor is there a well authenticated passage in any account of +his life from which it might be concluded that he ever engraved a single +letter. Fischer’s reasons for supposing that Gutemberg engraved the +large letters in Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter are, however, contradicted +by facts. Having seen a few leaves of a Donatus ornamented with the same +initial letters as the Psalter, he directly concluded that the former +was printed by Gutemberg and Faust prior to the dissolution of their +partnership; and not satisfied with this leap he takes another, and +arrives at the conclusion that they were engraved by Gutemberg, as +“<i>his</i> modesty only could allow such works to appear without his +name.”</p> + +<p>Although we have no information respecting the artist by whom those +letters were engraved, yet it is not unlikely that they were suggested, +if not actually drawn by Scheffer, who, from his profession of a scribe +or writer<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV5" id = "tagIV5" href = +"#noteIV5">IV.5</a> previous to his connexion with Faust, may be +supposed to have been well acquainted with the various kinds of flowered +and ornamented capitals with which manuscripts of that and preceding +centuries were embellished. It is not unusual to find manuscripts of the +early part of the fifteenth century embellished with capitals of two +colours, red and blue, in the same taste as in the Psalter; and there is +now lying before me a capital P, drawn on vellum in red and blue ink, in +a manuscript apparently of the date of 1430, which is so like the same +letter in the Psalter that the one might be supposed to have suggested +the other.</p> + +<p>It was an object with Faust and Scheffer to recommend their +Psalter—probably +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page168" id = "page168"> +168</a></span> +the first work printed by them after Gutemberg had been obliged to +withdraw from the partnership—by the beauty of its capitals and +the sufficiency and distinctness of its “rubrications;”<a class = "tag" +name = "tagIV6" id = "tagIV6" href = "#noteIV6">IV.6</a> and it is +evident that they did not fail in the attempt. The Psalter of 1457 is, +with respect to ornamental printing, their greatest work; for in no +subsequent production of their press does the typographic art appear to +have reached a higher degree of excellence. It may with truth be said +that the art of printing—be the inventor who he may—was +perfected by Faust and Scheffer; for the earliest known production of +their press remains to the present day unsurpassed as a specimen of +skill in ornamental printing.</p> + +<p>A fac-simile of the large B at the commencement of the Psalter, +printed in colours the same as the original, is given in the first +volume of Dibdin’s Bibliotheca Spenceriana, and in Savage’s Hints on +Decorative Printing; but in neither of those works has the excellence of +the original letter been attained. In the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, +although the volume has been printed little more than twenty years, the +red colour in which the body of the letter is printed has assumed a +coppery hue, while in the original, executed nearly four hundred years +ago, the freshness and purity of the colours remain unimpaired. In +Savage’s work, though the letter and its ornaments are faithfully +copied<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV7" id = "tagIV7" href = +"#noteIV7">IV.7</a> and tolerably well printed, yet the colours are not +equal to those of the original. In the modern copy the blue is too +faint; and the red, which in the original is like well impasted paint, +has not sufficient body, but appears like a wash, through which in many +places the white paper may be seen. The whole letter compared with the +original seems like a water-colour copy compared with a painting in +oil.</p> + +<p>Although it has been generally supposed that the art of printing was +first carried from Mentz in 1462 when Faust and Scheffer’s sworn workmen +were dispersed<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV8" id = "tagIV8" href = +"#noteIV8">IV.8</a> on the capture of that city by the archbishop +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page169" id = "page169"> +169</a></span> +Adolphus of Nassau, yet there can be no doubt that it was practised at +Bamberg before that period; for a book of fables printed at the latter +place by Albert Pfister is expressly dated on St. Valentine’s day, 1461; +and a history of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther was also printed by +Pfister at Bamberg in 1462, “<span class = "blackletter">Nit lang nach +sand walpurgen tag</span>,”—not long after St. Walburg’s day.<a +class = "tag" name = "tagIV9" id = "tagIV9" href = "#noteIV9">IV.9</a> +It is therefore certain that the art was practised beyond Mentz previous +to the capture of that city, which was not taken until the eve of St. +Simon and St. Jude; that is, on the 28th of October in 1462. As it is +very probable that Pfister would have to superintend the formation of +his own types and the construction of his own presses,—for none of +his types are of the same fount as those used by Gutemberg or by Faust +and Scheffer,—we may presume that he would be occupied for some +considerable time in preparing his materials and utensils before he +could begin to print. As his first known work with a date, containing a +hundred and one wood-cuts, was finished on the 14th of February 1461, it +is not unlikely that he might have begun to make preparations three or +four years before. Upon these grounds it seems but reasonable to +conclude with Aretin, that the art was carried from Mentz by some of +Gutemberg and Faust’s workmen on the dissolution of their partnership in +1455; and that the date of the capture of Mentz—when for a time +all the male inhabitants capable of bearing arms were compelled to leave +the city by the captors—marks the period of its more general +diffusion. The occasion of the disaster to which Mentz was exposed for +nearly three years was a contest for the succession to the +archbishopric. Theodoric von Erpach having died in May 1459, +a majority of the chapter chose Thierry von Isenburg to succeed +him, while another party supported the pretensions of Adolphus of +Nassau. An appeal having been made to Rome, the election of Thierry was +annulled, and Adolphus was declared by the Pope to be the lawful +archbishop of Mentz. Thierry, being in possession and supported by the +citizens, refused to resign, until his rival, assisted by the forces of +his adherents and relations, succeeded in obtaining possession of the +city.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV10" id = "tagIV10" href = +"#noteIV10">IV.10</a></p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page170" id = "page170"> +170</a></span> +<p>Until the discovery of Pfister’s book containing the four histories, +most bibliographers supposed that the date 1461, in the fables, related +to the composition of the work or the completion of the manuscript, and +not to the printing of the book. Saubert, who was the first to notice +it, in 1643, describes it as being printed, both text and figures, from +wood-blocks; and Meerman has adopted the same erroneous opinion. +Heineken was the first to describe it truly, as having the text printed +with moveable types, though he expresses himself doubtfully as to the +date, 1461, being that of the impression.</p> + +<p>As the discovery of Pfister’s tracts has thrown considerable light on +the progress of typography and wood engraving, I shall give an +account of the most important of them, as connected with those subjects; +with a brief notice of a few circumstances relative to the early +connexion of wood engraving with the press, and to the dispersion of the +printers on the capture of Mentz in 1462.</p> + +<p>The discovery of the history of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther, +with the date 1462, printed at Bamberg by Pfister, has established the +fact that the dates refer to the years in which the books were printed, +and not to the period when the works were composed or transcribed. An +account of the history above named, written by M. J. Steiner, +pastor of the church of St. Ulric at Augsburg, was first printed in +Meusel’s Historical and Literary Magazine in 1792; and a more ample +description of this and other tracts printed by Pfister was published by +Camus in 1800,<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV11" id = "tagIV11" href = +"#noteIV11">IV.11</a> when the volume containing them, which was the +identical one that had been previously seen by Steiner, was deposited in +the National Library at Paris.</p> + +<p>The book of fables<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV12" id = "tagIV12" +href = "#noteIV12">IV.12</a> printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1461 is a +small folio consisting of twenty-eight leaves, and containing +eighty-five fables in rhyme in the old German language. As those fables, +which are ascribed to one “Boner, dictus der Edelstein,” are known to +have been written previous to 1330, the words at the end of the +volume,—“Zu Bamberg dies Büchlein geendet ist,”—At Bamberg +this book is finished,—most certainly relate to the time when it +was printed, and not when it was written. It is therefore the earliest +book printed with moveable types which is illustrated with wood-cuts +containing figures. Not having an opportunity of seeing this extremely +rare book,—of which only one perfect copy is known,—I am +unable to speak from personal examination of the style in which its +hundred and one cuts are engraved. Heineken, +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page171" id = "page171"> +171</a></span> +however, has given a fac-simile of the first, and he says that the +others are of a similar kind. The following is a reduced copy of the +fac-simile given by Heineken, and which forms the head-piece to the +first fable. On the manner in which it is engraved I shall make no +remark, until I shall have produced some specimens of the cuts contained +in a “Biblia Pauperum Predicatorum,” also printed by Pfister, and having +the text in the German language.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_171" id = "illus_171"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_171.png" width = "334" height = "202" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The volume described by Camus contains three different works; and +although Pfister’s name, with the date 1462, appears in only one of +them, the “Four Histories,” yet, as the type is the same in all, there +can be no doubt of the other two being printed by the same person and +about the same period. The following particulars respecting its contents +are derived from the “Notice” of Camus. It is a small folio consisting +altogether of a hundred and one leaves of paper of good quality, +moderately thick and white, and in which the water-mark is an ox’s head. +The text is printed in a large type, called missal-type; and though the +characters are larger, and there is a trifling variation in three or +four of the capitals, yet they evidently appear to have been copied from +those of the Mazarine Bible.</p> + +<p>The first work is that which Heineken calls “une Allégorie sur la +Mort;”<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV13" id = "tagIV13" href = +"#noteIV13">IV.13</a> but this title does not give a just idea of its +contents. It is in fact a collection of accusations preferred against +Death, with his answers to them. The object is to show that such +complaints are unavailing, and that, instead of making them, people +ought rather to employ themselves in endeavouring to live well. In this +tract, which +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page172" id = "page172"> +172</a></span> +consists of twenty-four leaves, there are five wood-cuts, each occupying +an entire page. The first represents Death seated on a throne. Before +him there is a man with a child, who appears to accuse Death of having +deprived him of his wife, who is seen on a tomb wrapped in a +winding-sheet.—In the second cut, Death is also seen seated on a +throne, with the same person apparently complaining against him, while a +number of persons appear approaching sad and slow, to lay down the +ensigns of their dignity at his feet.—In the third cut there are +two figures of Death; one on foot mows down youths and maidens with a +scythe, while another, mounted, is seen chasing a number of figures on +horseback, at whom he at the same time discharges his arrows.—The +fourth cut consists of two parts, the one above the other. In the upper +part, Death appears seated on a throne, with a person before him in the +act of complaining, as in the first and second cuts. In the lower part, +to the left of the cut, is seen a convent, at the gate of which there +are two persons in religious habits; to the right a garden is +represented, in which are perceived a tree laden with fruit, +a woman crowning an infant, and another woman conversing with a +young man. In the space between the convent and the garden certain signs +are engraved, which Camus thinks are intended to represent various +branches of learning and science,—none of which can afford +protection against death,—as they are treated of in the chapter +which precedes the cut. In the fifth cut, Death and the Complainant are +seen before Christ, who is seated on a throne with an angel on each side +of him, under a canopy ornamented with stars. Although neither Heineken +nor Camus give specimens of those cuts, nor speak of the style in which +they are executed, it may be presumed that they are not superior either +in design or engraving to those contained in the other tracts.</p> + +<p>The text of the work is divided into thirty-four chapters, each of +which, except the first, is preceded by a summary; and their numbers are +printed in Roman characters. The initial letter of each chapter is red, +and appears to have been formed by means of a stencil. The first +chapter, which has neither title nor numeral, commences with the +Complainant’s recital of his injuries; in the second, Death defends +himself; in the third the Complainant resumes, in the fourth Death +replies; and in this manner the work proceeds, the Complainant and Death +speaking alternately through thirty-two chapters. In the thirty-third, +God decides between the parties; and after a few common-place +reflections and observations on the readiness of people to complain on +all occasions, sentence is pronounced in these words: “The Complainant +is condemned, and Death has gained the cause. Of right, the Life of +every man is due to Death; to Earth his Body, and to Us his Soul.” In +the thirty-fourth chapter, the Complainant, perceiving that he has lost +his +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page173" id = "page173"> +173</a></span> +suit, proceeds to pray to God on behalf of his deceased wife. In the +summary prefixed to the chapter the reader is informed that he is now +about to peruse a model of a prayer; and that the name of the +Complainant is expressed by the large red letters which are to be found +in the chapter. Accordingly, in the course of the chapter, six red +letters, besides the initial at the beginning, occur at the commencement +of so many different sentences. They are formed by means of a stencil, +while the letters at the commencement of other similar sentences are +printed black. Those red letters, including the initial at the beginning +of the chapter, occur in the following order, IHESANW. Whether the name +is expressed by them as they stand, or whether they are to be combined +in some other manner, Camus will not venture to decide.<a class = "tag" +name = "tagIV14" id = "tagIV14" href = "#noteIV14">IV.14</a> From the +prayer it appears that the name of the Complainant’s deceased wife was +Margaret. In this singular composition, which in the summary is declared +to be a model, the author, not forgetting the court language of his +native country, calls the Almighty “the Elector who determines the +choice of all Electors,” “Hoffmeister” of the court of Heaven, and +“Herzog” of the Heavenly host. The text is in the German language, such +as was spoken and written in the fifteenth century.</p> + +<p>The German words “<i>Hoffmeister</i>” and “<i>Herzog</i>” appear +extremely ridiculous in Camus’s French translation,—“le +Maître-d’hôtel de la cour céleste,” and “le Grand-duc de l’armée +céleste.” But this is clothing ancient and dignified German in modern +French frippery. The word “Hoffmeister”—literally, “court-master +or governor”—is used in modern German in nearly the same sense as +the English word “steward;” and the governor or tutor of a young prince +or nobleman is called by the same name. The word “Herzog”—the +“Grand-duc” of Camus—in its original signification means the +leader of a host or army. It is a German title of honour which defines +its original meaning, and is in modern language synonymous with the +English title “Duke.” The ancient German “Herzog” was a leader of hosts; +the modern French “Grand-duc” is a clean-shaved gentleman in a +court-dress, redolent of eau-de-Cologne, and bedizened with stars and +strings. The two words are characteristic of the two languages.</p> + +<p>The second work in the volume is the Histories of Joseph, Daniel, +Judith, and Esther. It has no general frontispiece nor title; but each +separate history commences with the words: “Here begins the history +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page174" id = "page174"> +174</a></span> +of . . . .” in German. Each history forms a separate +gathering, and the whole four are contained in sixty leaves, of which +two, about the middle, are blank, although there is no appearance of any +deficiency in the history. The text is accompanied with wood-cuts which +are much less than those in the “Complaints against Death,” each +occupying only the space of eleven lines in a page, which when full +contains twenty-eight. The number of the cuts is sixty-one; but there +are only fifty-five different subjects, four of them having been printed +twice, and one thrice. Camus gives a specimen of one of the cuts, which +represents the Jews of Bethuliah rejoicing and offering sacrifice on the +return of Judith after she had cut off the head of Holofernes. It is +certainly a very indifferent performance, both with respect to design +and engraving; and from Camus’s remarks on the artist’s ignorance and +want of taste it would appear that the others are no better. In one of +them Haman is decorated with the collar of an order from which a cross +is suspended; and in another Jacob is seen travelling to Egypt in a +carriage<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV15" id = "tagIV15" href = +"#noteIV15">IV.15</a> drawn by two horses, which are harnessed according +to the manner of the fifteenth century, and driven by a postilion seated +on a saddle, and with his feet in stirrups. All the cuts in the “Four +Histories” are coarsely coloured.</p> + +<p>It is this work which Camus, in his title-page, professes to give an +account of, although in his tract he describes the other two contained +in the same volume with no less minuteness. He especially announced a +notice of this work as “a book printed at Bamberg in 1462,” in +consequence of its being the most important in the volume; for it +contains not only the date and place, but also the printer’s name. In +the book of Fables, printed with the same types at Bamberg in 1461, +Pfister’s name does not appear.</p> + +<p>The text of the “Four Histories” ends at the fourth line on the recto +of the sixtieth leaf; and after a blank space equal to that of a line, +thirteen lines succeed, forming the colophon, and containing the place, +date, and printer’s name. Although those lines run continuously on, +occupying the full width of the page as in prose, yet they consist of +couplets in German rhyme. The end of each verse is marked with a point, +and the first word of the succeeding one begins with a capital. +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page175" id = "page175"> +175</a></span> +Camus has given a fac-simile of those lines, that he might at once +present his readers with a specimen of the type and a copy of this +colophon, so interesting to bibliographers as establishing the important +fact in the history of printing, namely, that the art was practised +beyond Mentz prior to 1462. The following copy, though not a fac-simile, +is printed line for line from Camus.</p> + +<p class = "quotation blackletter"> +Ein ittlich mensch von herzen gert . Das er wer weiss<br> +und wol gelert . An meister un’ schrift das nit mag<br> +sein . So kun’ wir all auch nit latein . Darauff han<br> +ich ein teil gedacht . Und vier historii zu samen pra-<br> +cht . Joseph daniel un’ auch judith . Und hester auch<br> +mit gutem sith. die vier het got in seiner hut . Als er<br> +noch ye de’ guten thut . Dar durch wir pessern unser<br> +lebe’ . De’ puchlein ist sein ende gebe’ . Tʒu bambergh<br> +in der selbe’ stat . Das albrecht pfister gedrucket hat<br> +Do ma’ zalt tausent un’ vierhu’dert iar . Im zwei und<br> +sechzigste’ das ist war . Nit lang nach sand walpur-<br> +gen tag . Die uns wol gnad erberben mag . Frid un’<br> +das ewig lebe’ . Das wolle uns got alle’ gebe’ . Ame’.</p> + +<p>The following is a translation of the above, in English couplets of +similar rhythm and measure as the original:</p> + +<div class = "verse"> +<p>With heart’s desire each man doth seek</p> +<p>That he were wise and learned eke:</p> +<p>But books and teacher he doth need,</p> +<p>And all men cannot Latin read.</p> +<p>As on this subject oft I thought,</p> +<p>These hist’ries four I therefore wrote;</p> +<p>Of Joseph, Daniel, Judith too,</p> +<p>And Esther eke, with purpose true:</p> +<p>These four did God with bliss requite,</p> +<p>As he doth all who act upright.</p> +<p>That men may learn their lives to mend</p> +<p>This book at Bamberg here I end.</p> +<p>In the same city, as I’ve hinted,</p> +<p>It was by Albert Pfister printed,</p> +<p>In th’ year of grace, I tell you true,</p> +<p>A thousand four hundred and sixty-two;</p> +<p>Soon after good St. Walburg’s day,</p> +<p>Who well may aid us on our way,</p> +<p>And help us to eternal bliss:</p> +<p>God, of his mercy, grant us this. Amen.</p> +</div> + +<p>The third work contained in the volume described by Camus is an +edition of the “Poor Preachers’ Bible,” with the text in German, and +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page176" id = "page176"> +176</a></span> +printed on both sides. The number of the leaves is eighteen, of which +only seventeen are printed; and as there is a “history” on each page, +the total number in the work is thirty-four, each of which is +illustrated with five cuts. The subjects of those cuts and their +arrangement on the page is not precisely the same as in the earlier +Latin editions; and as in the latter there are forty “histories,” six +are wanting in the Bamberg edition, namely: 1. Christ in the +garden; 2. The soldiers alarmed at the sepulchre; 3. The Last +Judgment; 4. Hell; 5. The eternal Father receiving the +righteous into his bosom; and 6. The crowning of the Saints. As the +cuts illustrative of these subjects are the last in the Latin editions, +it is possible that the Bamberg copy described by Camus might be +defective; he, however, observes that there is no appearance of any +leaves being wanting.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV16" id = "tagIV16" +href = "#noteIV16">IV.16</a> In each page of the Bamberg edition the +text is in two columns below the cuts, which are arranged in the +following manner in the upper part of the page:</p> + +<table> +<tr> +<td></td> +<td colspan = "2" rowspan = "2">3<br> +Christ appearing to the Apostles.</td> +<td></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>1<br>Busts.</td> +<!-- <td></td> +<td></td> --> +<td>2<br>Busts.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td colspan = "2">4<br> +Joseph making himself known to his brethern.</td> +<td colspan = "2">5<br> +The Prodigal Son’s return to his father.</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p>The following cuts are fac-similes of those given by Camus; and the +numbers underneath each relate to their position in the preceding +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page177" id = "page177"> +177</a></span> +example of their arrangement. In No. 1 the heads are intended for +David and the author of the Book of Wisdom; in No. 2, for Isaiah +and Ezekiel.</p> + +<div class = "picture"> +<div class = "picblock w200"> +<p><a name = "illus_177a" id = "illus_177a"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_177a.png" width = "166" height = "99" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 1.</p> +</div> +<div class = "picblock w200"> +<p><a name = "illus_177b" id = "illus_177b"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_177b.png" width = "163" height = "99" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 2.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The subject represented in the following cut, No. 3, forming the +centre piece at the top in the arrangement of the original page, is +Christ appearing to his disciples after his resurrection. The figure on +the right of Christ is intended for St. Peter, and that on his left for +St. John. I believe that in no wood-cut, ancient or modern, is +Christ represented with so uncomely an aspect and so clumsy a +figure.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_177c" id = "illus_177c"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_177c.png" width = "249" height = "253" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 3.</p> + +<p>The subject of No. 4 is Joseph making himself known to his brethren; +from Genesis, chapter <span class = "smallroman">XLV.</span></p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page178" id = "page178"> +178</a></span> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_178a" id = "illus_178a"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_178a.png" width = "275" height = "249" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 4.</p> + +<p>In No. 5 the subject represented is the Prodigal Son received by his +father; from St. Luke, chapter <span class = "smallroman">XV.</span> +Camus says that the cuts given by him were engraved on wood by Duplaa +with the greatest exactitude from tracings of the originals by +Dubrena.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_178b" id = "illus_178b"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_178b.png" width = "273" height = "250" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 5.</p> + +<p>Supposing that all the cuts in the four works, printed by Pfister and +described in the preceding pages, were designed in a similar taste and +executed in a similar manner to those of which specimens are given, the +persons by whom they were engraved—for it is not likely that they +were +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page179" id = "page179"> +179</a></span> +all engraved by one man—must have had very little knowledge of the +art. Looking merely at the manner in which they are engraved, without +reference to the wretched drawing of the figures and want of “feeling” +displayed in the general treatment of the subjects, a moderately +apt lad, at the present day, generally will cut as well by the time that +he has had a month or two’s practice. If those cuts were to be +considered as fair specimens of wood engraving in Germany in 1462, it +would be evident that the art was then declining; for none of the +specimens that I have seen of the cuts printed by Pfister can bear a +comparison with those contained in the early block-books, such as the +Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, or the early editions of the Poor +Preachers’ Bible. To the cuts contained in the latter works they are +decidedly inferior, both with respect to design and engraving. Even the +earliest wood-cuts which are known,—for instance, the St. +Christopher, the St. Bridget, and the Annunciation, in Earl Spencer’s +collection,—are executed in a superior manner.</p> + +<p>It would, however, be unfair to conclude that the cuts which appear +in Pfister’s works were the best that were executed at that period. On +the contrary, it is probable that they are the productions of persons +who in their own age would be esteemed only as inferior artists. As the +progress of typography was regarded with jealousy by the early wood +engravers and block printers, who were apprehensive that it would ruin +their trade, and as previous to the establishment of printing they were +already formed into companies or fellowships, which were extremely +sensitive on the subject of their exclusive rights, it is not unlikely +that the earliest type-printers who adorned their books with wood-cuts +would be obliged to have them executed by a person who was not +professionally a wood engraver. It is only upon this supposition that we +can account for the fact of the wood-cuts in the earliest books printed +with type being so very inferior to those in the earliest block-books. +This supposition is corroborated by the account which we have of the +proceedings of the wood engravers of Augsburg shortly after +type-printing was first established in that city. In 1471 they opposed +Gunther Zainer’s<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV17" id = "tagIV17" href = +"#noteIV17">IV.17</a> admission to the privileges of a burgess, and +endeavoured to prevent him printing wood engravings in his books. +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page180" id = "page180"> +180</a></span> +Melchior Stamham, however, abbot of St. Ulric and Afra, a warm +promoter of typography, interested himself on behalf of Zainer, and +obtained an order from the magistracy that he and John +Schussler—another printer whom the wood engravers had also +objected to—should be allowed to follow without interruption their +art of printing. They were, however, forbid to print initial letters +from wood-blocks or to insert wood-cuts in their books, as this would be +an infringement on the privileges of the fellowship of wood engravers. +Subsequently the wood engravers came to an understanding with Zainer, +and agreed that he should print as many initial letters and wood-cuts as +he pleased, provided that they engraved them.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV18" id = "tagIV18" href = "#noteIV18">IV.18</a> Whether Schussler +came to the same agreement or not is uncertain, as there is no book +known to be printed by him of a later date than 1472. It is probable +that he is the person,—named John <i>Schüssler</i> in the +memorandum printed by Zapf,—of whom Melchior de Stamham in that +year bought five presses for the printing-office which he established in +his convent of St. Ulric and St. Afra. To John Bämler, who at the same +time carried on the business of a printer at Augsburg, no objection +appears to have been made. As he was originally a “calligraphus” or +ornamental writer, it is probable that he was a member of the wood +engravers’ guild, and thus entitled to engrave and print his own works +without interruption.</p> + +<p>As it is probable that the wood-cuts which appear in books printed +within the first thirty years from the establishment of typography at +Mentz were intended to be coloured, this may in some degree account for +the coarseness with which they are engraved; but as the wood-cuts in the +earlier block-books were also intended to be coloured in a similar +manner, the inferiority of the former can only be accounted for by +supposing that the best wood engravers declined to assist in promoting +what they would consider to be a rival art, and that the earlier +printers would generally be obliged to have their cuts engraved by +persons connected with their own establishments, and who had not by a +regular course of apprenticeship acquired a knowledge of the art. About +seventy or eighty years ago, and until a more recent period, many +country printers in England used themselves to engrave such rude +wood-cuts as they might occasionally want. A most extensive +assortment of such wood-cuts belonged to the printing-office of the late +Mr. George Angus of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who used them as head-pieces +and general illustrations to ballads and chap-books. A considerable +number of them were cut with a penknife, on pear-tree wood, by an +apprentice named Randell, who died about forty years ago. +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page181" id = "page181"> +181</a></span> +Persons who are fond of a “rough harvest” of such modern-antiques are +referred to the “Historical Delights,” the “History of Ripon,” and other +works published by Thomas Gent at York about 1733.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the rudeness with which the cuts are engraved in the +four works printed by Pfister, yet from their number a considerable +portion of time must have been occupied in their execution. In the “Four +Histories” there are sixty-one cuts, which have been printed from +fifty-five blocks. In the “Fables” there are one hundred and one cuts; +in the “Complaints against Death,” five; and in the “Poor Preachers’ +Bible,” one hundred and seventy, reckoning each subject separately. +Supposing each cut in the <i>three</i> last works was printed from a +separate block, the total number of blocks required for the <i>four</i> +would be three hundred and thirty-one.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV19" +id = "tagIV19" href = "#noteIV19">IV.19</a> Supposing that each cut on +an average contained as much work as that which is numbered 4 in the +preceding specimens—Joseph making himself known to his +brethren—and supposing that the artist drew the subjects himself, +the execution of those three hundred and thirty-one cuts would occupy +one person for about two years and a half, allowing him to work three +hundred days in each year. It is true that a modern wood engraver might +finish more than three of such cuts in a week, yet I question if any one +of the profession would complete the whole number, with his own hands, +in less time than I have specified.</p> + +<p>From the similarity between Pfister’s types and those with which a +Bible without place or date is printed, several bibliographers have +ascribed the latter work to his press. This Bible, which in the Royal +Library at Paris is bound in three volumes folio, is the rarest of all +editions of the Scriptures printed in Latin. Schelhorn, who wrote a +dissertation on this edition, endeavoured to show that it was the first +of the Bibles printed at Mentz, and that it was partly printed by +Gutemberg and Faust previous to their separation, and finished by Faust +and Scheffer in 1456.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV20" id = "tagIV20" +href = "#noteIV20">IV.20</a> Lichtenberger, without expressly assenting +to Schelhorn’s opinion, is inclined to think that it was printed at +Mentz, and by Gutemberg. The reasons which he assigns, however, are not +such as are likely to gain assent without a previous willingness to +believe. He admits that Pfister’s types are similar to those of the +Bible, though he says that the former are somewhat ruder.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page182" id = "page182"> +182</a></span> +<p>Camus considers that the tracts unquestionably printed by Pfister +throw considerable light on the question as to whom this Bible is to be +ascribed. There are two specimens of this Bible, the one given by Masch +in his Bibliotheca Sacra, and the other by Schelhorn, in a dissertation +prefixed to Quirini’s account of the principal works printed at Rome. +Camus, on comparing these specimens with the text of Pfister’s tracts, +immediately perceived the most perfect resemblance between the +characters; and on applying a tracing of the last thirteen lines of the +“Four Histories” to the corresponding letters in Schelhorn’s specimen, +he found that the characters exactly corresponded. This perfect identity +induced him to believe that the Bible described by Schelhorn was printed +with Pfister’s types. A correspondent in Meusel’s Magazine, No. +VII. 1794, had previously advanced the same opinion; and he moreover +thought that the Bible had been printed previous to the Fables dated +1461, because the characters of the Bible are cleaner, and appear as if +they had been impressed from newer types than those of the Fables.<a +class = "tag" name = "tagIV21" id = "tagIV21" href = +"#noteIV21">IV.21</a> In support of this opinion an extract is given, in +the same magazine, from a curious manuscript of the date of 1459, and +preserved in the library of Cracow. This manuscript is a kind of +dictionary of arts and sciences, composed by Paul of Prague, doctor of +medicine and philosophy, who, in his definition of the word +“Libripagus,” gives a curious piece of information to the following +effect. The barbarous Latin of the original passage, to which I shall +have occasion to refer, will be found in the subjoined note.<a class = +"tag" name = "tagIV22" id = "tagIV22" href = "#noteIV22">IV.22</a> “He +is an artist who dexterously cuts figures, letters, and whatever he +pleases on plates of copper, of iron, of solid blocks of wood, and other +materials, that he may print upon paper, on a wall, or on a clean board. +He cuts whatever he pleases; and he proceeds in this manner with respect +to pictures. In my time somebody of Bamberg cut the entire Bible upon +plates; in four weeks he impressed the whole Bible, thus sculptured, +upon thin parchment.”</p> + +<p>Although I am of opinion that the weight of evidence is in favour of +Pfister being the printer of the Bible in question, yet I cannot think +that the arguments which have been adduced in his favour derive any +additional support from this passage. The writer, like many other +dictionary makers, both in ancient and modern times, has found it a more +difficult matter to give a clear account of a <i>thing</i> than to find +the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page183" id = "page183"> +183</a></span> +synonym of a <i>word</i>. But, notwithstanding his confused account, +I think that I can perceive in it the “disjecta membra” of an +ancient Formschneider and a Briefmaler, but no indication of a +typographer.</p> + +<p>In a jargon worthy of the “Epistolæ obscurorum virorum” he describes +an artist, or rather an artizan, “sculpens subtiliter in laminibus<a +class = "tag" name = "tagIV23" id = "tagIV23" href = +"#noteIV23">IV.23</a> [laminis] æreis, ferreis, ac ligneis solidi ligni, +atque aliis, imagines, scripturam et omne quodlibet.” In this passage +the business of the “Formschneider” may be clearly enough distinguished: +he cuts figures and animals in plates of copper and iron;—but not +in the manner of a modern copper-plate engraver; but in the manner in +which a stenciller pierces his patterns. That this is the true meaning +of the writer is evident from the context, wherein he informs us of the +artist’s object in cutting such letters and figures, namely, “ut prius +imprimat papyro aut parieti aut asseri mundo,”—that he may print +upon paper, on a wall, or on a clean board. This is evidently +descriptive of the practice of stencilling, and proves, if the +manuscript be authentic, that the old “Briefmalers” were accustomed to +“slapdash” walls as well as to engrave and colour cards. In the +distinction which is made of the “laminibus ligneis <i>ligni +solidi</i>,” it is probable that the writer meant to specify the +difference between cutting out letters and figures on thin plates of +metal, and cutting <i>upon</i> blocks of solid wood. When he speaks of a +Bible being cut, at Bamberg, “super lamellas,” he most likely means a +“Poor Preachers’ Bible,” engraved on blocks of wood. An impression of a +hundred or more copies of such a work might easily enough be taken in a +month when the blocks were all ready engraved; but we cannot suppose +that the Bible ascribed to Pfister could be worked off in so short a +time. This Bible consists of eight hundred and seventy leaves; and to +print an edition of three hundred copies at the rate of three hundred +sheets a day would require four hundred and fifty days. About three +hundred copies of each work appears to have been the usual number which +Sweinheim and Pannartz and Ulric Hahn printed, on the establishment of +the art in Italy; and Philip de Lignamine in his chronicle mentions, +under the year 1458, that Gutemberg and Faust, at Mentz, and Mentelin at +Strasburg, printed three hundred sheets in a day.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV24" id = "tagIV24" href = "#noteIV24">IV.24</a></p> + +<p>Of Pfister nothing more is positively known than what the tracts +printed by him afford; namely, that he dwelt at Bamberg, and exercised +the business of a printer there in 1461 and 1462. He might indeed print +there both before and after those years, but of this we have no direct +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page184" id = "page184"> +184</a></span> +evidence. From 1462 to 1481 no book is known to have been printed at +Bamberg. In the latter year, a press was established there by John +Sensenschmidt of Egra, who had previously, that is from 1470, printed +several works at Nuremberg.</p> + +<p>Panzer, alluding to Pfister as the printer only of the Fables and of +the tracts contained in the volume described by Camus, says that he can +scarcely believe that he had a fixed residence at Bamberg; and that +those tracts most likely proceeded from the press of a travelling +printer.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV25" id = "tagIV25" href = +"#noteIV25">IV.25</a> Several of the early printers, who commenced on +their own account, on the dispersion of Faust and Scheffer’s workmen in +1462, were accustomed to travel with their small stock of materials from +one place to another; sometimes finding employment in a monastery, and +sometimes taking up their temporary abode in a small town; removing to +another as soon as public curiosity was satisfied, and the demand for +the productions of their press began to decline. As they seldom put +their names, or that of the place, to the works which they printed, it +is extremely difficult to decide on the locality or the date of many old +books printed in Germany. It is very likely that they were their own +letter-founders, and that they themselves engraved such wood-cuts as +they might require. As their object was to gain money, it is not +unlikely that they might occasionally sell a portion of their types to +each other;<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV26" id = "tagIV26" href = +"#noteIV26">IV.26</a> or to a novice who wished to begin the business, +or to a learned abbot who might be desirous of establishing an amateur +press within the precinct of his monastery, where copies of the Facetiæ +of Poggius might be multiplied as well as the works of St. Augustine. +Although it has been asserted the monks regarded with jealousy the +progress of printing, as if it were likely to make knowledge too cheap, +and to interfere with a part of their business as transcribers of books, +such does not appear to have been the fact. In every country in Europe +we find them to have been the first to encourage and promote the new +art; and the annals of typography most clearly show that the greater +part of the books printed within the first thirty years from the time of +Gutemberg and Faust’s partnership were chiefly for the use of the monks +and the secular clergy.</p> + +<p>From 1462 to 1467 there appears to have been no book printed +containing wood-cuts. In the latter year Ulric Hahn, a German, +printed at Rome a book entitled “Meditationes Johannis de +Turrecremata,”<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV27" id = "tagIV27" href = +"#noteIV27">IV.27</a> which +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page185" id = "page185"> +185</a></span> +contains wood-cuts engraved in simple outline in a coarse manner. The +work is in folio, and consists of thirty-four leaves of stout paper, on +which the water-mark is a hunter’s horn. The number of cuts is also +thirty-four; and the following—the creation of animals—is a +reduced copy of the first.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_185" id = "illus_185"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_185.png" width = "327" height = "242" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The remainder of the cuts are executed in a similar style; and though +designed with more spirit than those contained in Pfister’s tracts, yet +it can scarcely be said that they are better engraved. The following is +an enumeration of the subjects. 1. The Creation, as above +represented. 2. The Almighty speaking to Adam. 3. Eve taking +the apple. (From No. 3 the rest of the cuts are illustrative of the +New Testament or of Ecclesiastical History.) 4. The Annunciation. +5. The Nativity. 6. Circumcision of Christ. 7. Adoration +of the Magi. 8. Simeon’s Benediction. 9. The Flight into +Egypt. 10. Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple. +11. Christ baptized. 12. The Temptation in the Wilderness. +13. The keys given to Peter. 14. The Transfiguration. +15. Christ washing the Apostles’ feet. 16. The Last Supper. +17. Christ betrayed by Judas. 18. Christ led before the High +Priest. 19. The Crucifixion. 20. Mater Dolorosa. 21. The +Descent into Hell. 22. The Resurrection. 23. Christ appearing +to his Disciples. 24. The Ascension. 25. The feast of +Pentecost 26. The Host borne by a bishop. 27. The mystery of +the Trinity; Abraham sees three and adores one. 28. St. Dominic +extended like the “<i>Stam-Herr</i>” or first ancestor in a pedigree, +and sending forth +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page186" id = "page186"> +186</a></span> +numerous branches as Popes, Cardinals, and Saints. 29. Christ +appearing to St. Sixtus. 30. The Assumption of the Virgin. +31. Christ seated amidst a choir of Angels. 32. Christ seated +at the Virgin’s right hand in the assembly of Saints. 33. The +Office of Mass for the Dead. 34. The Last Judgment.</p> + +<p>Zani says that those cuts were engraved by an Italian artist, but +beyond his assertion there is no authority for the fact. It is most +likely that they were cut by one of Hahn’s workmen, who could +occasionally “turn his hand” to wood-engraving and type-founding, as +well as compose and work at press; and it is most probable that Hahn’s +workmen when he first established a press in Rome were Germans, and not +Italians.</p> + +<p>The second book printed in Italy with wood-cuts is the “Editio +Princeps” of the treatise of R. Valturius de Re Militari, which +appeared at Verona from the press of “Johannes de Verona,” son of +Nicholas the surgeon, and master of the art of printing.<a class = "tag" +name = "tagIV28" id = "tagIV28" href = "#noteIV28">IV.28</a> This work +is dedicated by the author to Sigismund Malatesta, lord of Rimini, who +is styled in pompous phrase, “Splendidissimum Arminensium Regem ac +Imperatorem semper invictum.” The work, however, must have been written +several years before it was printed, for Baluze transcribed from a MS. +dated 1463 a letter written in the name of Malatesta, and sent by the +author with a copy of his work to the Sultan Mahomet II. The bearer of +this letter was the painter Matteo Pasti, a friend of the author, +who visited Constantinople at the Sultan’s request in order that he +might paint his portrait. It is said that the cuts in this work were +designed by Pasti; and it is very probable that he might make the +drawings in Malatesta’s own copy, from which it is likely that the book +was printed. As Valturius has mentioned Pasti as being eminently skilful +in the arts of Painting, Sculpture, and <i>Engraving</i>,<a class = +"tag" name = "tagIV29" id = "tagIV29" href = "#noteIV29">IV.29</a> +Maffei has conjectured,—and Mr. Ottley adds, “with some appearance +of probability,”—that the cuts in question were executed by his +hand. If such were the fact, it only could be regretted that an artist +so eminent should have mis-spent his time in a manner so unworthy of his +reputation; for, allowing that a considerable degree of talent is +displayed in many of the designs, there is nothing in the engraving, as +they are mere outlines, but what might be cut by a novice. There is not, +however, the slightest reasonable ground to suppose that those +engravings were cut by Matteo Pasti, for I believe that he died before +printing was introduced into Italy; and it surely would be +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page187" id = "page187"> +187</a></span> +presuming beyond the verge of probability to assert that they might be +engraved in anticipation of the art being introduced, and of the book +being printed at some time or other, when the blocks would be all ready +engraved, in a simple style of art indeed, but with a master’s hand. +A master-sculptor’s hand, however, is not very easily distinguished +in the mere rough-dressing of a block of sandstone, which any country +mason’s apprentice might do as well. It is very questionable if Matteo +Pasti was an engraver in the present sense of the word; the engraving +meant by Valturius was probably that of gold and silver vessels and +ornaments; but not the engraving of plates of copper or other metal for +the purpose of being printed.</p> + +<p>Several of those cuts occupy an entire folio page, though the greater +number are of smaller size. They chiefly represent warlike engines, +which display considerable mechanical skill on the part of the +contriver; modes of attack and defence both by land and water, with +various contrivances for passing a river which is not fordable, by means +of rafts, inflated bladders, and floating bridges. In some of them +inventions may be noticed which are generally ascribed to a later +period: such as a boat with paddle-wheels, which are put in motion by a +kind of crank; a gun with a stock, fired from the shoulder; and a +bomb-shell. It has frequently been asserted that hand-guns were first +introduced about the beginning of the sixteenth century, yet the figure +of one in the work of Valturius makes it evident that they were known +some time before. It is also likely that the drawing was made and the +description written at least ten years before the book was printed. It +has also been generally asserted that bomb-shells were first used by +Charles VIII. of France when besieging Naples in 1495. Valturius, +however, in treating of cannon, ascribes the invention to Malatesta.<a +class = "tag" name = "tagIV30" id = "tagIV30" href = +"#noteIV30">IV.30</a> Gibbon, in chapter lxviii. of his History of the +Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, notices this cut of a bomb-shell. +His reference is to the second edition of the work, in Italian, printed +also at Verona by Bonin de Bononis in 1483, with the same cuts as the +first edition in Latin.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV31" id = "tagIV31" +href = "#noteIV31">IV.31</a> The two following cuts are fac-similes of +the bomb-shell and the hand-gun, as represented in the edition of 1472. +The figure armed with the gun,—a portion of a +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page188" id = "page188"> +188</a></span> +large cut,—is firing from a kind of floating battery; and in the +original two figures armed with similar weapons are stationed +immediately above him.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_188" id = "illus_188"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_188.png" width = "375" height = "273" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The following fac-simile of a cut representing a man shooting with a +cross-bow is the best in the book. The drawing of the figure is good, +and the attitude graceful and natural. The figure, indeed, is not only +the best in the work of Valturius, but is one of the best, so far as +respects the drawing, that is to be met with in any book printed in the +fifteenth century.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_189" id = "illus_189"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_189.png" width = "264" height = "382" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The practice of introducing wood-cuts into printed books seems to +have been first generally adopted at Augsburg, where Gunther Zainer, in +1471, printed a German translation of the “Legenda Sanctorum” with +figures of the saints coarsely engraved on wood. This, I believe, +is the first book, after Pfister’s tracts, printed in Germany with +wood-cuts and containing a date. In 1472 he printed a second volume of +the same work, and an edition of the book entitled “Belial,”<a class = +"tag" name = "tagIV32" id = "tagIV32" href = "#noteIV32">IV.32</a> both +containing wood-cuts. Several other works printed by him between 1471 +and 1475 are illustrated in a similar manner. Zainer’s example was +followed at Augsburg by his contemporaries John Bämler and John +Schussler; +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page189" id = "page189"> +189</a></span> +and by them, and Anthony Sorg, who first began to print there about +1475, more books with wood-cuts were printed in that city previous to +1480 than at any other place within the same period. In 1477 the first +German Bible with wood-cuts was printed by Sorg, who printed another +edition with the same cuts and initial letters in 1480. In 1483 he +printed an account of the Council of Constance held in 1431, with +upwards of a thousand wood-cuts of figures and of the arms of the +principal persons both lay and spiritual who attended the council. Upon +this work Gebhard, in his Genealogical History of the Heritable States +of the German Empire, makes the following observations:—“The first +printed collection of arms is that of 1483 in the History of the Council +of Constance written by Ulrich Reichenthal. To this council we are +indebted accidentally for the collection. From the thirteenth century it +was customary to hang up the shields of noble and honourable persons +deceased in churches; and subsequently the practice was introduced of +painting them upon the walls, or of placing them in the windows in +stained glass. A similar custom prevailed at the Council of +Constance; for every person of consideration who attended +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page190" id = "page190"> +190</a></span> +had his arms painted on the wall in front of his chamber; and thus +Reichenthal, who caused those arms to be copied and engraved on wood, +was enabled to give in his history the first general collection of +coat-armour which had appeared; as eminent persons from all the Catholic +states of Europe attended this council.”<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV33" id = "tagIV33" href = "#noteIV33">IV.33</a></p> + +<p>The practice of introducing wood-cuts became in a few years general +throughout Germany. In 1473, John Zainer of Reutlingen, who is said to +have been the brother of Gunther, printed an edition of Boccacio’s work +“De mulieribus claris,” with wood-cuts, at Ulm. In 1474 the first +edition of Werner Rolewinck de Laer’s chronicle, entitled “Fasciculus +Temporum,” was printed with wood-cuts by Arnold Ther-Hoernen at Cologne; +and in 1476 an edition of the same work, also with wood-cuts, was +printed at Louvain by John Veldener, who previously had been a printer +at Cologne. In another edition of the same work printed by Veldener at +Utrecht in 1480, the first page is surrounded with a border of foliage +and flowers cut on wood; and another page, about the middle of the +volume, is ornamented in a similar manner. These are the earliest +instances of ornamental borders from wood-blocks which I have observed. +About the beginning of the sixteenth century title-pages surrounded with +ornamental borders are frequent. From the name of those borders, +<i>Rahmen</i>, the German wood engravers of that period are sometimes +called <i>Rahmenschneiders</i>. Prosper Marchand, in his “Dictionnaire +Historique,” tom. ii. p. 156, has stated that Erhard Ratdolt, +a native of Augsburg, who began to print at Venice about 1475, was +the first printer who introduced flowered initial letters, and +vignettes—meaning by the latter term wood-cuts; but his +information is scarcely correct. Wood-cuts—without reference to +Pfister’s tracts, which were not known when Marchand wrote—were +introduced at Augsburg six years before Ratdolt and his partners<a class += "tag" name = "tagIV34" id = "tagIV34" href = "#noteIV34">IV.34</a> +printed at Venice in 1476 the “Calendarium Joannis Regiomontani,” the +work to which Marchand alludes. It may be true that he introduced a new +kind of initial letters ornamented with flowers in this work, but much +more beautiful initial letters had appeared long before in the Psalter, +in the “Durandi Rationale,” and the “Donatus” printed by Faust and +Scheffer. The first person who mentions Ratdolt as the inventor of +“florentes litteræ,” so named from the flowers with which they are +intermixed, is Maittaire, in his Annales Typographici, tom. i. part +i. p. 53.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page191" id = "page191"> +191</a></span> +<p>In 1483 Veldener,<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV35" id = "tagIV35" +href = "#noteIV35">IV.35</a> as has been previously observed at page +106, printed at Culemburg an edition in small quarto of the Speculum +Salvationis, with the same blocks as had been used in the earlier folio +editions, which are so confidently ascribed to Lawrence Coster. In +Veldener’s edition each of the large blocks, consisting of two +compartments, is sawn in two in order to adapt them to a smaller page. +A German translation of the Speculum, with wood-cuts, was printed +at Basle, in folio, in 1476; and Jansen says that the first book printed +in France with wood-cuts was an edition of the Speculum, at Lyons, in +1478; and that the second was a translation of the book named “Belial,” +printed at the same place in 1482.</p> + +<p>The first printed book in the English language that contains +wood-cuts is the second edition of Caxton’s “Game and Playe of the +Chesse,” a small folio, without date or place, but generally +supposed to have been printed about 1476.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV36" id = "tagIV36" href = "#noteIV36">IV.36</a> The first edition +of the same work, without cuts, was printed in 1474. On the blank leaves +at the end of a copy of the first edition in the King’s Library, at the +British Museum, there is written in a contemporary hand a list of the +bannerets and knights<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV37" id = "tagIV37" +href = "#noteIV37">IV.37</a> made at the battle of “Stooke by syde +newerke apon trent the xvi day of june the ii<sup>de</sup> yer of harry +the vii.” that is, in 1487. In this battle Martin Swart was killed. He +commanded the Flemings, who were sent by the Duchess of Burgundy to +assist Lambert Simnel. It was at the request of the duchess, who was +Edward the Fourth’s sister, that Caxton translated the “Recuyell of the +Historyes of Troye,” the first book printed in the English language, and +which appeared at Cologne in 1471 or 1472.</p> + +<p>In Dr. Dibdin’s edition of Ames’s Typographical Antiquities there is +a “Description of the Pieces and Pawns” in the second edition of +Caxton’s Chess; which description is said to be illustrated with +facsimile +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page192" id = "page192"> +192</a></span> +wood-cuts. There are indeed fac-similes of some of the figures given, +but not of the wood-cuts generally; for in almost every cut given by Dr. +Dibdin the back-ground of the original is omitted. In the description of +the first fac-simile there is also an error: it is said to be “the +<i>first</i> cut in the work,” while in fact it is the <i>second</i>. +The following I believe to be a correct list of these first fruits of +English wood-engraving.</p> + +<p>1. An executioner with an axe cutting to pieces, on a block, the +limbs of a man. On the head, which is lying on the ground, there is a +crown. Birds are seen seizing and flying away with portions of the +limbs. There are buildings in the distance, and three figures, one of +whom is a king with a crown and sceptre, appear looking on. 2. A +figure sitting at a table, with a chess-board before him, and holding +one of the chess-men in his hand. This is the cut which Dr. Dibdin says +is the first in the book. 3. A king and another person playing at +chess. 4. The king at chess, seated on a throne. 5. The king +and queen. 6. The “alphyns,” now called “bishops” in the game of +chess, “in the maner of judges sittyng.” 7. The knight. 8. The +“rook,” or castle, a figure on horseback wearing a hood and holding +a staff in his hand. From No. 9 to No. 15 inclusive, the pawns +are thus represented. 9. Labourers and workmen, the principal +figure representing the first pawn, with a spade in his right hand and a +cart-whip in his left. 10. The second pawn, a smith with his +buttriss in the string of his apron, and a hammer in his right hand. +11. The third pawn, represented as a <i>clerk</i>, that is a writer +or transcriber, in the same sense as Peter Scheffer and Ulric Zell are +styled <i>clerici</i>, with his case of writing materials at his girdle, +a pair of shears in one hand, and a large knife in the other. The +knife, which has a large curved blade, appears more fit for a butcher’s +chopper than to make or mend pens. 12. The fourth pawn, a man +with a pair of scales, and having a purse at his girdle, representing +“marchauntes or chaungers.” 13. The fifth pawn, a figure +seated on a chair, having in his right hand a book, and in his left a +sort of casket or box of ointments, representing a physician, spicer, or +apothecary. 14. The sixth pawn, an innkeeper, receiving a guest. +15. The seventh pawn, a figure with a yard measure in his +right hand, a bunch of keys in his left, and an open purse at his +girdle, representing “customers and tolle gaderers.” 16. The eighth +pawn, a figure with a sort of badge on his breast near to his right +shoulder, after the manner of a nobleman’s retainer, and holding a pair +of dice in his left hand, representing dice-players, messengers, and +“currours,” that is “couriers.” In old authors the numerous idle +retainers of the nobility are frequently represented as gamblers, +swash-bucklers, and tavern-haunters.</p> + +<p>Although there are twenty-four impressions in the volume, yet there +are only sixteen subjects, as described above; the remaining eight being +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page193" id = "page193"> +193</a></span> +repetitions of the cuts numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10, with two +impressions of the cut No. 2, besides that towards the +commencement.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_193" id = "illus_193"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_193.png" width = "324" height = "284" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The above cut is a reduced copy of the knight, No. 7; and his +character is thus described: “The knyght ought to be maad al armed upon +an hors in suche wise that he have an helme on his heed and a spere in +his right hond, and coverid with his shelde, a swerde and a mace on +his left syde . clad with an halberke and plates tofore his breste . +legge 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. When the Knyghtes been maad they ben bayned or +bathed . That is the signe that they sholde lede a newe lyf and newe +maners . also they wake alle the nyght in prayers and orisons unto god +that he wil geve hem grace that they may gete that thyng that they may +not gete by nature. The kyng or prynce gyrdeth a boute them a swerde in +signe that they shold abyde and kepen hym of whom they taken their +dispences and dignyte.”</p> + +<p>The following cut of the sixth or bishop’s pawn, No. 14, “whiche is +lykened to taverners and vytayllers,” is thus described in Caxton’s own +words: “The sixte pawn whiche stondeth before the alphyn on the lyfte +syde is made in this forme . ffor hit is a man that hath the right hond +stretched out for to calle men, and holdeth in his left honde a loof of +breed and a cuppe of wyn . and on his gurdel hangyng a bondel of keyes, +and this resemblith the taverners hostelers and sellars of vytayl . and +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page194" id = "page194"> +194</a></span> +these ought properly to be sette to fore the alphyn as to fore a juge, +for there sourdeth oft tymes amonge hem contencion noyse and stryf, +which behoveth to be determyned and trayted by the alphyn which is juge +of the kynge.”</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_194" id = "illus_194"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_194.png" width = "332" height = "274" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The next book containing wood-cuts printed by Caxton is the “Mirrour +of the World, or thymage of the same,” as he entitles it at the head of +the table of contents. It is a thin folio consisting of one hundred +leaves; and, in the Prologue, Caxton informs the reader that it +“conteyneth in all lxvii chapitres and xxvii figures, without which it +may not lightly be understāde.” He also says that he translated it from +the French at the “request, desire, coste, and dispense of the +honourable and worshipful man Hugh Bryce, alderman cytezeyn of London,” +who intended to present the same to William, Lord Hastings, chamberlain +to Edward IV, and lieutenant of the same for the town of Calais and the +marches there. On the last page he again mentions Hugh Bryce and Lord +Hastings, and says of his translation: “Whiche book I begun first to +trāslate the second day of Janyuer the yere of our lord <span class = +"smallroman">M.</span>cccc.lxxx. And fynysshed the viii day of Marche +the same yere, and the xxi yere of the reign of the most crysten kynge, +Kynge Edward the fourthe.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV38" id = +"tagIV38" href = "#noteIV38">IV.38</a></p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page195" id = "page195"> +195</a></span> +<p>The “xxvii figures” mentioned by Caxton, without which the work might +not be easily understood, are chiefly diagrams explanatory of the +principles of astronomy and dialling; but besides those twenty-seven +cuts the book contains eleven more, which may be considered as +illustrative rather than explanatory. The following is a list of those +eleven cuts in the order in which they occur. They are less than the +cuts in the “Game of Chess;” the most of them not exceeding three inches +and a half by three.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV39" id = "tagIV39" +href = "#noteIV39">IV.39</a></p> + +<p>1. A school-master or “doctor,” gowned, and seated on a high-backed +chair, teaching four youths who are on their knees. 2. A person +seated on a low-backed chair, holding in his hand a kind of globe; +astronomical instruments on a table before him. 3. Christ, or the +Godhead, holding in his hand a ball and cross. 4. The creation of +Eve, who appears coming out of Adam’s side.—The next cuts are +figurative of the “seven arts liberal.” 5. Grammar. A teacher +with a large birch-rod seated on a chair, his four pupils before him on +their knees. 6. Logic. Figure bare-headed seated on a chair, and +having before him a book on a kind of reading-stand, which he appears +expounding to his pupils who are kneeling. 7. Rhetoric. An upright +figure in a gown, to whom another, kneeling, presents a paper, from +which a seal is seen depending. 8. Arithmetic. A figure +seated, and having before him a tablet inscribed with numerical +characters. 9. Geometry. A figure standing, with a pair of +compasses in his hand, with which he seems to be drawing diagrams on a +table. 10. Music. A female figure with a sheet of music in her +hand, singing, and a man playing on the English flute. +11. Astronomy. Figure with a kind of quadrant in his hand, who +seems to be taking an observation.—An idea may be formed of the +manner in which those cuts are engraved from the fac-simile on the next +page of No. 10, “Music.”</p> + +<p>There are wood-cuts in the Golden Legend, 1483; the Fables of Esop, +1484; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and other books printed by Caxton; but +it is unnecessary either to enumerate them or to give specimens, as they +are all executed in the same rude manner as the cuts in the Book of +Chess and the Mirror of the World. In the Book of Hunting and Hawking +printed at St. Albans, 1486, there are rude wood-cuts; as also in a +second and enlarged edition of the same book printed by Wynkyn de Worde, +Caxton’s successor, at Westminster in 1496. The most considerable +wood-cut printed in England previous to 1500 is, so far as regards the +design, a representation of the Crucifixion at the end of the +Golden Legend printed by Wynkyn de Worde in +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page196" id = "page196"> +196</a></span> +1493.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV40" id = "tagIV40" href = +"#noteIV40">IV.40</a> In this cut, neither of the thieves on each side +of Christ appears to be nailed to the cross. The arms of the thief on +the right of Christ hang behind, and are bound to the transverse piece +of the cross, which passes underneath his shoulders. His feet are +neither bound nor nailed to the cross. The feet of the thief to the left +of Christ are tied to the upright piece of the cross, to which his hands +are also bound, his shoulders resting upon the top, and his face turned +upward towards the sky. To the left is seen the Virgin,—who has +fallen down,—supported by St. John. In the back-ground to the +right, the artist, like several others of that period, has represented +Christ bearing his cross.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_196" id = "illus_196"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_196.png" width = "336" height = "279" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>Dr. Dibdin, at page 8 of the “Disquisition on the Early State of +Engraving and Ornamental Printing in Great Britain,” prefixed to Ames’s +and Herbert’s Typographical Antiquities, makes the following +observations on this cut: “The ‘Crucifixion’ at the end of the ‘Golden +Legend’ of 1493, which Wynkyn de Worde has so frequently subjoined to +his religious pieces, is, unquestionably, the effort of some ingenious +foreign artist. It is not very improbable that Rubens had a recollection +of one of the thieves, twisted, from convulsive agony, round the top of +the cross, when he executed his celebrated picture of the same +subject.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV41" id = "tagIV41" href = +"#noteIV41">IV.41</a> +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page197" id = "page197"> +197</a></span> +In De Worde’s cut, however, it is to be remarked that the contorted +attitude of both the thieves results rather from the manner in which +they are bound to the cross, than from the convulsions of agony.</p> + +<p>At page 7 of the same Disquisition it is said that the figures in the +Game of Chess, the Mirror of the World, and other works printed by +Caxton “are, in all probability, not the genuine productions of this +country; and may be traced to books of an earlier date printed abroad, +from which they were often borrowed without acknowledgment or the least +regard to the work in which they again appeared. Caxton, however, has +judiciously taken one of the prints from the ‘Biblia Pauperum’ to +introduce in his ‘Life of Christ.’ The cuts for his second edition of +‘Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales’ may perhaps safely be considered as the +genuine invention and execution of a British artist.”</p> + +<p>Although I am well aware that the printers of the fifteenth century +were accustomed to copy without acknowledgment the cuts which appeared +in each other’s books, and though I think it likely that Caxton might +occasionally resort to the same practice, yet I am decidedly of opinion +that the cuts in the “Game of Chess” and the “Mirror of the World” were +designed and engraved in this country. Caxton’s Game of Chess is +certainly the first book of the kind which appeared with wood-cuts in +any country; and I am further of opinion that in no book printed +previous to 1481 will the presumed originals of the eleven principal +cuts in the Mirror of the World be found. Before we are required to +believe that the cuts in those two books were copied from similar +designs by some foreign artist, we ought to be informed in what work +such originals are to be found. If there be any merit in a first design, +however rude, it is but just to assign it to him who first employs the +unknown artist and makes his productions known. Caxton’s claims to the +merit of “illustrating” the Game of Chess and the Mirror of the World +with wood-cuts from original designs, I conceive to be +indisputable.</p> + +<p>Dr. Dibdin, in a long note at pages 33, 34, and 35 of the +Typographical Antiquities, gives a confused account of the earliest +editions of books on chess. He mentions as the first, a Latin +edition—supposed by Santander to be the work of Jacobus de +Cessolis—in folio, printed about the year 1473, by Ketelaer and +Leempt. In this edition, however, there are no cuts, and the date is +only conjectural. He says that two editions of the work of Jacobus de +Cessolis on the Morality of Chess, in German and Italian, with +wood-cuts, were printed, without date, in the fifteenth century, and he +adds: “Whether Caxton borrowed the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page198" id = "page198"> +198</a></span> +cuts in his second edition from those in the 8vo. German edition without +date, or from this latter Italian one, I am not able to ascertain, +having seen neither.” He seems satisfied that Caxton had <i>borrowed</i> +the cuts in his book of chess, though he is at a loss to discover the +party who might have them to <i>lend</i>. Had he even seen the two +editions which he mentions, he could not have known whether Caxton had +borrowed his cuts from them or not until he had ascertained that they +were printed previously to the English edition. There is a German +edition of Jacobus de Cessolis, in folio, with wood-cuts supposed to be +printed in 1477, at Augsburg, by Gunther Zainer, but both date and +printer’s name are conjectural. The first German edition of this work +with wood-cuts, and having a positive date, I believe to be that +printed at Strasburg by Henry Knoblochzer in 1483. Until a work on chess +shall be produced of an earlier date than that ascribed to Caxton’s, and +containing similar wood-cuts, I shall continue to believe that the +wood-cuts in the second English edition of the “Game and Playe of the +Chesse” were both designed and executed by an English artist; and I +protest against bibliographers going a-begging with wood-cuts found in +old English books, and ascribing them to foreign artists, before they +have taken the slightest pains to ascertain whether such cuts were +executed in England or not.</p> + +<p>The wood-cuts in the Game of Chess and the Mirror of the World are +equally as good as the wood-cuts which are to be found in books printed +abroad about the same period. They are even decidedly better than those +in Anthony Sorg’s German Bible, Augsburg, 1480, or those in Veldener’s +edition of the Fasciculus Temporum, printed at Utrecht in the same +year.</p> + +<p>It has been supposed that most of the wood-cuts which appear in books +printed by Caxton and De Worde were executed abroad; on the presumption +that there were at that period no professed wood engravers in England. +Although I am inclined to believe that within the fifteenth century +there were no persons in this country who practised wood engraving 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 be 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 noviciate. I conceive that there would be no +greater difficulty in finding a person capable of engraving them than +there would be in finding the pieces of wood on which they were to be +executed. Persons who have noticed the embellishments in manuscripts, +the carving, the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page199" id = "page199"> +199</a></span> +monuments, and the stained glass in churches, executed in England about +the time of Caxton, will scarcely suppose that there were no artists in +this country capable of making the designs for those cuts. There is in +fact reason to believe that in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries the walls of apartments, more especially in taverns and +hostelries, frequently contained paintings, most probably in distemper, +of subjects both from sacred and general history. That paintings of +sacred subjects were not unusual in churches at those periods is well +known.</p> + +<p>In most of the cuts which are to be found in books printed by Caxton, +the effect is produced by the simplest means. The outline of the figures +is coarse and hard, and the shades and folds of the draperies are +indicated by short parallel lines. Cross-hatchings occur in none of +them, though in one or two I have noticed a few angular dots picked out +of the black part of a cut in order that it might not appear like a mere +blot. The foliage of the trees is generally represented in a manner +similar to those in the background of the cut of the knight, of which a +copy is given at page 193. The oak leaves in a wood-cut<a class = "tag" +name = "tagIV42" id = "tagIV42" href = "#noteIV42">IV.42</a> at the +commencement of the preface to the Golden Legend, 1483, are an exception +to the general style of Caxton’s foliage; and represent what they are +intended for with tolerable accuracy. Having thus noticed some of the +earliest books with wood-engravings printed in England, I shall now +resume my account of the progress of the art on the Continent.</p> + +<p>In an edition of Ptolemy’s Cosmography, printed at Ulm in 1482 by +Leonard Holl, we have the first instance of maps engraved on wood. The +work is in folio, and the number of the maps is twenty-seven. In a +general map of the world the engraver has thus inserted his name at the +top: “Insculptum est per Johannē Schnitzer de Armssheim.”<a class = +"tag" name = "tagIV43" id = "tagIV43" href = "#noteIV43">IV.43</a> At +the corners of this map the winds are represented by heads with +puffed-out cheeks, very indifferently engraved. The work also contains +ornamental initial letters engraved on wood. In a large one, the letter +at the beginning of the volume, the translator is represented offering +his book to Pope Paul II. who occupied the see of Rome from 1464 to +1471.</p> + +<p>Each map occupies two folio pages, and is printed on the verso of one +page and the recto of the next, in such a manner that when the book is +open the adjacent pages seem as if printed from one block. What may be +considered as the skeleton of each map,—such as +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page200" id = "page200"> +200</a></span> +indications of rivers and mountains,—is coarsely cut; but as the +names of the places are also engraved on wood, the execution of those +thirty-seven maps must have been a work of considerable labour. In 1486 +another edition with the same cuts was printed at Ulm by John Regen at +the cost of Justus de Albano of Venice.</p> + +<p>The idea of Leonard Holl’s Ptolemy was most likely suggested by an +edition of the same work printed at Rome in 1478 by Arnold Bukinck, the +successor of Conrad Sweinheim. In this edition the maps are printed from +plates of copper; and from the perfect similarity of the letters, as may +be observed in the names of places, there can be no doubt of their +having been stamped upon the plate by means of a punch in a manner +similar to that in which a bookbinder impresses the titles at the back +of a volume. It is absolutely impossible that such perfect uniformity in +the form of the letters could have been obtained, had they been +separately engraved on the plate by hand. Each single letter is as +perfectly like another of the same character,—the capital M for +instance,—as types cast by a letter-founder from the same mould. +The names of the places are all in capitals, but different sizes are +used for the names of countries and cities. The capitals at the margins +referring to the degrees of latitude are of very beautiful shape, and as +delicate as the capitals in modern hair-type.</p> + +<p>At the back of some of the maps in the copy in the King’s Library at +the British Museum, the paper appears as if it had received, when in a +damp state, an impression from linen cloth. As this appearance of +threads crossing each other does not proceed from the texture of the +paper, but is evidently the result of pressure, I am inclined to +think that it has been occasioned by a piece of linen being placed +between the paper and the roller when the impressions were taken.</p> + +<p>In the dedication of the work to the Pope it is stated that this +edition was prepared by Domitius Calderinus of Verona, who promised to +collate the Latin version with an ancient Greek manuscript; and that +Conrad Sweinheim, who was one of the first who introduced the art of +printing at Rome, undertook, with the assistance of “certain +mathematical men,” whom he taught, to “impress” the maps upon plates of +copper. Sweinheim, after having spent three years in preparing these +plates, died before they were finished; and Arnold Bukinck, +a learned German printer, completed the work, “that the emendations +of Calderinus,—who also died before the book was +printed,—and the results of Sweinheim’s most ingenious mechanical +contrivances might not be lost to the learned world.”<a class = "tag" +name = "tagIV44" id = "tagIV44" href = "#noteIV44">IV.44</a></p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page201" id = "page201"> +201</a></span> +<p>An edition of Ptolemy in folio, with the maps engraved on copper, was +printed at Bologna by Dominico de Lapis with the erroneous date <span +class = "smallroman">M.CCCC.LXII.</span> This date is certainly wrong, +for no work from the press of this printer is known of an earlier date +than 1477; and the editor of this edition, Philip Beroaldus the elder, +was only born in 1450, if not in 1453. Supposing him to have been born +in the former year, he would only be twelve years old in 1462. Raidel, +who in 1737 published a dissertation on this edition, thinks that two +numerals—<span class = "smallroman">XX</span>—had +accidentally been omitted, and that the date ought to be 1482. Breitkopf +thinks that one <span class = "smallroman">X</span> might be +accidentally omitted in a date and pass uncorrected, but not two. He +rather thinks that the compositor had placed an <span class = +"smallroman">I</span> instead of an <span class = +"smallroman">L</span>, and that the correct date ought to stand thus: +<span class = +"smallroman">M CCCC L XLI</span>—1491. I am +however of opinion that no instance of the Roman numerals, <span class = +"smallroman">L XLI</span>, being thus combined to express 91, can +be produced. It seems most probable that the date 1482 assigned by +Raidel is correct; although his opinion respecting the +numerals—<span class = "smallroman">XX</span>—being +accidentally omitted may be wrong. It is extremely difficult to account +for the erroneous dates of many books printed previous to 1500. Several +of those dates may have been accidentally wrong set by the compositor, +and overlooked by the corrector; but others are so obvious that it is +likely they were designedly introduced. The bibliographer who should +undertake to enquire what the printers’ reasons might be for falsifying +the dates of their books, would be as likely to arrive at the truth, as +he would be in an enquiry into the reason of their sometimes adding +their name, and sometimes omitting it. The execution of the maps in the +edition of De Lapis is much inferior to that of the maps begun by +Sweinheim, and finished by Bukinck in 1478.</p> + +<p>Bukinck’s edition of Ptolemy, 1478, is the second book which contains +impressions from copper-plates. Heineken, at page 233, refers to the +“Missale Herbipolense,” folio, 1481, as the first book printed in +Germany containing a specimen of copper-plate engraving. Dr. Dibdin, +however, in the 3rd volume of his Tour, page 306, mentions the same work +as having the date of 1479 in the prefatory admonition, and says that +the plate of a shield of arms—the only one in the volume—is +noticed by Bartsch in his “Peintre-Graveur,” vol. x. p. 57. +The printer +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page202" id = "page202"> +202</a></span> +of the edition of 1481 appears from Heineken to have been George Reyser. +In the “Modus Orandi secundum chorum Herbipolensem,” folio, printed by +George Reyser, “Herbipoli,” [at Wurtzburg,] 1485, there is on folio +<span class = "smallroman">II.</span> a copper-plate engraving of the +arms of Rudolph de Scherenberg, bishop of that see. This plate is also +described by Bartsch in his “Peintre-Graveur,” vol. x. p. 156. +The first book which appeared with copper-plate engravings is intitled +“Il Monte Sancto di Dio,” written by Antonio Bettini, and printed at +Florence in 1477 by Nicolo di Lorenzo della Magna. As this book is of +extreme rarity, I shall here give an account of the plates from +Mercier, who first called the attention of bibliographers to it as being +of an earlier date than the folio edition of Dante, with copper-plate +engravings, printed also by Nicolo Lorenzo in 1481. This edition of +Dante was generally supposed to be the first book containing +copper-plate engravings until Bettini’s work was described by +Mercier.</p> + +<p>The work called “Il Monte Sancto di Dio” is in quarto, and according +to Mercier there ought to be a quire or gathering of four leaves at the +commencement, containing a summary of the work, which is divided into +three parts, with a table of the chapters. On the reverse of the last of +those four leaves is the first plate, which occupies the whole page, and +“measures nine inches and seven-eighths in height, by seven inches in +width.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV45" id = "tagIV45" href = +"#noteIV45">IV.45</a> This plate represents the Holy Mountain, on the +top of which Christ is seen standing in the midst of adoring angels. +A ladder is placed against this mountain, to which it is fastened +with iron chains, and on each step is engraved the name of a virtue, for +instance, Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and others. A figure +clothed in a long robe, and who appears to be a monk, is seen mounting +the ladder. His eyes are directed towards a huge crucifix placed half +way up the hill to the right of the ladder, and from his mouth there +proceeds a label inscribed with these words: “<i>Tirami doppo +ti</i>,”—“Draw me up after thee.” Another figure is seen standing +at the foot of the mountain, looking towards the top, and uttering these +words: “<i>Levavi oculos meos in montes</i>,” &c. The second +plate occurs at signature Iv<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV46" id = +"tagIV46" href = "#noteIV46">IV.46</a> after the 115th chapter. It also +represents Christ in his glory, surrounded by angels. It is only four +inches and five lines high, by six inches wide, French measure. The +third plate, which is the same size as the second, occurs at signature +Pvij, and represents a view of Hell according to the description of +Dante. Those plates, which for the period are well enough designed and +executed, especially the second, were most likely engraved +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page203" id = "page203"> +203</a></span> +on copper; and they seem to be by the same hand as those in the edition +of Dante of 1481, from the press of Nicolo di Lorenzo, who also printed +the work of Bettini.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV47" id = "tagIV47" +href = "#noteIV47">IV.47</a> A copy of “Il Monte Sancto di Dio” is +in Earl Spencer’s Library; and a description and specimens of the cuts +are given by Dr. Dibdin in the Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. iv. +p. 30; and by Mr. Ottley in the Inquiry into the Origin and Early +History of Engraving, vol. i. pp. 375-377.</p> + +<p>In the execution of the maps, the copper-plate engraver possesses a +decided advantage over the engraver on wood, owing to the greater +facility and clearness with which letters can be cut <i>in</i> copper +than <i>on</i> wood. In the engraving of letters on copper, the artist +cuts the form of the letter <i>into</i> the plate, the character being +thus in <i>intaglio</i>; while in engraving on a block, the wood +surrounding has to be cut away, and the letter left in <i>relief</i>. On +copper, using only the graver,—for etching was not known in the +fifteenth century,—as many letters might be cut in one day as +could be cut on wood in three. Notwithstanding the disadvantage under +which the ancient wood engravers laboured in the execution of maps, they +for many years contended with the copper-plate printers for a share of +this branch of business; and the printers, at whose presses maps +engraved on wood only could be printed, were well inclined to support +the wood engravers. In a folio edition of Ptolemy, printed at Venice in +1511, by Jacobus Pentius de Leucho, the outlines of the maps, with the +indications of the mountains and rivers, are cut on wood, and the names +of the places are printed in type, of different sizes, and with red and +black ink. For instance, in the map of Britain, which is more correct +than any which had previously appeared, the word “ALBION” is printed in +large capitals, and the word “<span class = "smallroman">GADINI</span>” +in small capitals, and both with red ink. The words “Curia” and +“Bremenium” are printed in small Roman characters, and with black ink. +The names of the rivers are also in small Roman, and in black ink. Such +of those maps as contain many names, are almost full of type. The double +borders surrounding them, within which the degrees of latitude are +marked, appear to have been formed of separate pieces of metal, in the +manner of wide double rules. At the head of several of the maps there +are figures of animals emblematic of the country. In the first map of +Africa there are two parrots; in the second an animal like a jackal, and +a non-descript; in the third, containing Egypt, a crocodile, and a +monstrous kind of fish like a dragon; and in the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page204" id = "page204"> +204</a></span> +fourth, two parrots. In the last, the “curious observer” will note a +specimen of decorative printing from two blocks of wood; for the beak, +wing, and tail of one of the parrots is printed in red.</p> + +<p>In the last map,—of Loraine,—in an edition of Ptolemy, in +folio, printed at Strasburg in 1513, by John Schott, the attempt to +print in colours, in the manner of chiaro-scuro wood engravings, is +carried yet further. The hills and woods are printed green; the +indications of towns and cities, and the names of the most considerable +places, are red; while the names of the smaller places are black. For +this map, executed in three colours, green, red, and black, there would +be required two wood engravings and two forms of type, each of which +would have to be separately printed. The arms which form a border to the +map are printed in their proper heraldic colours.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV48" id = "tagIV48" href = "#noteIV48">IV.48</a> The only other +specimen of armorial bearings printed in colours from wood-blocks, that +I am aware of, is Earl Spencer’s arms in the first part of Savage’s +Hints on Decorative Printing, which was published in 1818, upwards of +three hundred years after the first essay.</p> + +<p>At a later period a new method was adopted by which the wood engraver +was spared the trouble of cutting the letters, while the printer was +enabled to obtain a perfect copy of each map by a single impression. The +mode in which this was effected was as follows. The indications of +mountains, rivers, cities, and villages were engraved on the wood as +before, and blank spaces were left for the names. Those spaces were +afterwards cut out by means of a chisel or drill, piercing quite through +the block: and the names of the places being inserted in type, the whole +constituted only one “form,” from which an impression both of the cut +and the letters could be obtained by its being passed once through the +press. Sebastian Munster’s Cosmography, folio, printed at Basle in 1554, +by Henry Petri, affords several examples of maps executed in this +manner. This may be considered as one of the last efforts of the old +wood engravers and printers to secure to themselves a share of the +business of map-engraving. Their endeavours, however, were unavailing; +for within twenty years of that date, this branch of art was almost +exclusively in the hands of the copper-plate engravers. From the date of +the maps of Ortelius, Antwerp, 1570, engraved on copper by Ægidius +Diest, maps engraved on wood are rarely to be seen. The practice of +engraving the outlines and rivers on wood, and then piercing the block +and inserting the names of the places in type has, however, lately been +revived; and where publishers are obliged either to print maps with the +type or to +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page205" id = "page205"> +205</a></span> +give none at all, this mode may answer very well, more especially when +the object is to give the relative position of a few of the principal +places, rather than a crowded list of names. Most of the larger maps in +the Penny Cyclopædia are executed in this manner. The holes in the +blocks are pierced with the greatest rapidity by gouges of different +sizes acting vertically, and put in motion by machinery contrived by Mr. +Edward Cowper, to whose great mechanical skill the art of steam-printing +chiefly owes its perfection.</p> + +<p>Having thus noticed consecutively the progress of map engraving, it +may not here be out of place to give a brief account of Breitkopf’s +experiment to print a map with separate pieces of metal in the manner of +type.<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV49" id = "tagIV49" href = +"#noteIV49">IV.49</a> Previous to 1776 some attempts had been made by a +person named Preusch, of Carlsruhe, to print maps by a process which he +named typometric, and who published an account of his plan, printed at +the press of Haass the Younger, of <ins class = "correction" title = +"spelling unchanged">Basil</ins>. In 1776 Breitkopf sent a communication +to Busching’s Journal, containing some remarks on the invention of +Preusch, and stating that he had conceived a similar plan upwards of +twenty years previously, and that he had actually set up a specimen and +printed off a few copies, which he had given to his friends. The +veracity of this account having been questioned by an illiberal critic, +Breitkopf, in 1777, prefixed to his Essay on the Printing of Maps a +specimen composed of moveable pieces of metal in the manner of types. He +expressly declares that he considered his experiment a failure; and that +he only produced his specimen—a quarto map of the country round +Leipsic—in testimony of the truth of what he had previously +asserted, and to show that two persons might, independently of each +other, conceive an idea of the same invention, although they might +differ considerably in their mode of carrying it into effect.</p> + +<p>He was first led to think on the practicability of printing maps with +moveable pieces of metal by considering that when the letters are +omitted there remain but hills, rivers, and the indications of places; +and for these he was convinced that representations consisting of +moveable pieces of metal might be contrived. Having, however, made the +experiment, he felt satisfied that the appearance of such a map was +unpleasing to the eye, and that the invention was not likely to be +practically useful. Had it not been for the publication of Preusch, he +says that he never would have thought of mentioning his invention, +except as a mechanical experiment; and to show that the execution of +maps in such a manner was within the compass of the printer’s art.</p> + +<p>In the specimen which he gives, rivers are represented by minute +parallel lines, which are shorter or longer as the river contracts or +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page206" id = "page206"> +206</a></span> +expands; and the junction of the separate pieces may be distinctly +perceived. For hills and trees there are distinct characters +representing those objects. Towns and large villages are distinguished +by a small church, and small villages by a small circle. Roads are +indicated by dotted parallel lines. For the title of the map large +capitals are used. The name of the city of <span class = +"smallroman">LEIPSIC</span> is in small capitals. The names of towns and +villages are in <i>Italic</i>; and of woods, rivers, and hills, in Roman +type. The general appearance of the map is unpleasing to the eye. +Breitkopf has displayed his ingenuity by producing such a typographic +curiosity, and his good sense in abandoning his invention when he found +that he could not render it useful.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ottley, at page 755 of the second volume of his Inquiry, makes +the following remarks on the subject of cross-hatching in wood +engravings:—“It appears anciently to have been the practice of +those masters who furnished designs for the wood engravers to work from, +carefully to avoid all cross-hatchings, which, it is probable, were +considered beyond the power of the Xylographist to represent. Wolgemuth +perceived that, though difficult, this was not impossible; and in the +cuts of the Nuremberg Chronicle, the execution of which, (besides +furnishing the designs,) he doubtless superintended, a successful +attempt was first made to imitate the bold hatchings of a pen-drawing, +crossing each other, as occasion prompted the designer, in various +directions: to him belongs the praise of having been the first who duly +appreciated the powers of this art.”</p> + +<p>Although it is true that cross-hatchings are not to be found in the +earliest wood engravings, yet Mr. Ottley is wrong in assigning this +material improvement in the art to Michael Wolgemuth; for cross-hatching +is introduced in the beautiful cut forming the frontispiece to the Latin +edition of Breydenbach’s Travels, folio, first printed at Mentz, by +Erhard Reuwich, in 1486,<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV50" id = "tagIV50" +href = "#noteIV50">IV.50</a> seven years before the Nuremberg Chronicle +appeared. The cut in the following page is a reduced but accurate copy +of Breydenbach’s frontispiece, which is not only the finest wood +engraving which had appeared up to that date, 1486, but is in point of +design and execution as superior to the best cuts in the Nuremberg +Chronicle, as the designs of Albert Durer are to the cuts in the oldest +editions of the “Poor Preachers’ Bible.”</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_207" id = "illus_207"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_207.png" width = "336" height = "452" +alt = "see text" title = "Philippus de bicken miles"></p> + +<p>In this cut, cross-hatching may be observed in the drapery of the +female figure, in the upper part of the two shields on each side of her, +in the border at the top of the cut, and in other places. Whether the +female figure be intended as a personification of the city of Mentz, as +is +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page207" id = "page207"> +207</a></span> +sometimes seen in old books of the sixteenth century, or for St. +Catherine, whose shrine on Mount Sinai was visited by Breydenbach in his +travels, I shall not pretend to determine. The arms on her right +are Breydenbach’s own; on her left are the arms of John, Count of Solms +and Lord of Mintzenberg, and at the bottom of the cut those of Philip de +Bicken, knight, who were Breydenbach’s companions to the holy sepulchre +at Jerusalem and the shrine of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. St. +Catherine, it may be observed, was esteemed the patroness of learned +men, and her figure was frequently placed in libraries in Catholic +countries, in the same manner as the bust of Minerva in the libraries of +ancient Greece and Rome. The name of the artist by whom the frontispiece +to Breydenbach’s travels was executed is unknown; but I have no +hesitation in declaring him to be one of the best wood engravers of the +period. As this is the earliest wood-cut in which I have noticed +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page208" id = "page208"> +208</a></span> +cross-hatching, I shall venture to ascribe the merit of the +invention to the unknown artist, whoever he may have been; and shall +consider the date 1486 as marking the period when a new style of wood +engraving was introduced. Wolgemuth, as associated with wood engraving, +has too long been decked out with borrowed plumes; and persons who knew +little or nothing either of the history or practice of the art, and who +are misled by writers on whose authority they rely, believe that Michael +Wolgemuth was not only one of the best wood engravers of his day, but +that he was the first who introduced a material improvement into the +practice of the art. This error becomes more firmly rooted when such +persons come to be informed that he was the master of Albert Durer, who +is generally, but erroneously, supposed to have been the best wood +engraver of his day. Albert Durer studied under Michael Wolgemuth as a +painter, and not as a wood engraver; and I consider it as extremely +questionable if either of them ever engraved a single block. There are +many evidences in Germany of Wolgemuth having been a tolerably good +painter for the age and country in which he lived; but there is not one +of his having engraved on wood. In the Nuremberg Chronicle he is +represented as having, in conjunction with William Pleydenwurf, +superintended the execution of the wood-cuts contained in that book. +Those cuts, which are frequently referred to as excellent specimens of +old wood engraving, are in fact the most tasteless and worthless things +that are to be found in any book, ancient or modern. It is a book, +however, that is easy to be obtained; and it serves as a land-mark to +superficial enquirers who are perpetually referring to it as containing +wood-cuts designed, if not engraved, by Albert Durer’s master,—and +such, they conclude, must necessarily possess a very high degree of +excellence.</p> + +<p>Breydenbach was a canon of the cathedral church of Mentz, and he +dedicates the account of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and visit to +Mount Sinai to Berthold, archbishop of that see. The frontispiece, +although most deserving of attention as a specimen of wood engraving, is +not the only cut in the book which is worthy of notice. Views are given, +engraved on wood, of the most remarkable places which he +visited;—and those of Venice, Corfu, Modon, and the country round +Jerusalem, which are of great length, are inserted in the book as +“folding plates.” Each of the above views is too large to have been +engraved on one block. For that of Venice, which is about five feet +long, and ten inches high, several blocks must have been required, from +each of which impressions would have to be taken singly, and afterwards +pasted together, as is at present done in such views as are too wide to +be contained on one sheet. Those views, with respect to the manner in +which they are executed, are superior to everything of the same kind +which had previously appeared. The work also contains smaller cuts +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page209" id = "page209"> +209</a></span> +printed with the type, which are not generally remarkable for their +execution, although some of them are drawn and engraved in a free and +spirited manner. The following cut is a reduced copy of that which is +prefixed to a chapter intitled “De Surianis qui Ierosolimis et locis +illis manentes etiam se asserunt esse Christianos:”—</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_209" id = "illus_209"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_209.png" width = "337" height = "246" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>In a cut of animals there is a figure of a giraffe,<a class = "tag" +name = "tagIV51" id = "tagIV51" href = "#noteIV51">IV.51</a> named by +Breydenbach “seraffa,” of a unicorn, a salamander, a camel, +and an animal something like an oran-outang, except that it has a tail. +Of the last the traveller observes, “non constat de nomine.” Some +account of this book, with fac-similes of the cuts, will be found in +Dibdin’s Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol iii. pp. 216-228. In the copy +there described, belonging to Earl Spencer, the beautiful frontispiece +was wanting.</p> + +<p>Although a flowered border surrounding a whole page may be observed +as occurring twice in Veldener’s edition of the Fasciculus Temporum, +printed at Utrecht in 1480, yet I am inclined to think that the practice +of surrounding every page with an ornamental flowered border cut in +wood, was first introduced by the Parisian printers at a period somewhat +later. In 1488, an edition of the “Horæ in Laudem beatissimæ virginis +Mariæ,” in octavo, was printed at Paris by Anthony Verard, the text of +which is surrounded with ornamental borders. The practice thus +introduced was subsequently adopted by the printers of +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page210" id = "page210"> +210</a></span> +Germany and Holland, more especially in the decoration of devotional +works, such as Horæ, Breviaries, and Psalters. Verard appears to have +chiefly printed works of devotion and love, for a greater number of Horæ +and Romances proceeded from his press than that of any other printer of +his age. Most of them contain wood-cuts, some of which, in books printed +by him about the beginning of the sixteenth century, are designed with +considerable taste and well engraved; while others, those for instance +in “La Fleur des Battailes,” 4to, 1505, are not superior to those in +Caxton’s Chess: it is, however, not unlikely that the cuts in “La Fleur +des Battailes” of this date had been used for an earlier edition.<a +class = "tag" name = "tagIV52" id = "tagIV52" href = +"#noteIV52">IV.52</a></p> + +<p>The “Hortus Sanitatis,” folio, printed at Mentz in 1491 by Jacobus +Meydenbach, is frequently referred to by bibliographers; not so much on +account of the many wood-cuts which it contains, but as being supposed +in some degree to confirm a statement in Sebastian Munster’s +Cosmography, and in Serrarius, De Rebus Moguntinis, where a <i>John</i> +Meydenbach is mentioned as being a partner with Gutemberg and Faust. Von +Murr, as has been previously noticed, supposed that this person was a +wood engraver; and Prosper Marchand,<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV53" id += "tagIV53" href = "#noteIV53">IV.53</a> though without any authority, +calls <i>Jacobus</i> Meydenbach his son or his relation.</p> + +<p>This work, which is a kind of Natural History, explaining the uses +and virtues of herbs, fowls, fish, quadrupeds, minerals, drugs, and +spices, contains a number of wood-cuts, many of which are curious, as +containing representations of natural objects, but none of which are +remarkable for their execution as wood engravings. On the opposite page +is a fac-simile of the cut which forms the head-piece to the chapter “De +Ovis.” The figure, which possesses considerable merit, represents an old +woman going to market with her basket of eggs.</p> + +<p>This is a fair specimen of the manner in which the cuts in the Hortus +Sanitatis are designed and executed. Among the most curious and best +designed are: the interior of an apothecary’s shop, on the reverse of +the first leaf; a monkey seated on the top of a fountain, in the +chapter on water; a butcher cutting up meat; a man selling +cheese at a stall; a woman milking a cow; and figures of the male +and female mandrake. At chapter 119, “De Pediculo,” a woman is +represented brushing the head of a boy with a peculiar kind of brush, +which answers the purpose of a small-toothed comb; and she appears +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page211" id = "page211"> +211</a></span> +to bestow her labour on no infertile field, for each of her “sweepings,” +which are seen lying on the floor, would scarcely slip through the teeth +of a garden rake. Meydenbach’s edition has been supposed to be the +first; and Linnæus, in the Bibliotheca Botanica, has ascribed the work +to one John Cuba, a physician of Mentz; but other writers have +doubted if this person were really the author. The first edition of this +work, under the title of “Herbarus,” with a hundred and fifty wood-cuts, +was printed at Mentz by Peter Scheffer in 1484; and in 1485 he printed +an enlarged edition in German, containing three hundred and eighty cuts, +under the title of “Ortus Sanitatis oder Garten der Gesundheit.” Of the +work printed by Scheffer, Breydenbach is said to have been one of the +compilers. Several editions of the Hortus Sanitatis were subsequently +printed, not only in Germany, but in <ins class = "correction" title = +", missing">France,</ins> Holland, and Switzerland.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_211" id = "illus_211"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_211.png" width = "247" height = "311" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>Having previously expressed my opinion respecting the wood-cuts in +the Nuremberg Chronicle, there will be less occasion to give a detailed +account of the book and the rubbish it contains here: in speaking thus +it may perhaps be necessary to say that this character is meant to apply +to the wood-cuts and not to the literary portion of the work, which +Thomas Hearne, of black-letter memory, pronounces to be extremely +“pleasant, useful, and curious.” With the wood-cuts the Rev. Dr. Dibdin +appears to have been equally charmed.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page212" id = "page212"> +212</a></span> +<p>The work called the “Nuremberg Chronicle” is a folio, compiled by +Hartman Schedel, a physician of Nuremberg, and printed in that city +by Anthony Koburger in 1493. In the colophon it is stated that the views +of cities, and figures of eminent characters, were executed under the +superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth and William Pleydenwurff, +“mathematical men”<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV54" id = "tagIV54" href += "#noteIV54">IV.54</a> and skilled in the art of painting. The total +number of impressions contained in the work exceeds two thousand, but +several of the cuts are repeated eight or ten times. The following +fac-simile will afford an idea of the style in which the portraits of +illustrious men contained in this often-cited chronicle are +executed.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_212" id = "illus_212"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_212.png" width = "209" height = "262" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The above head, which the owner appears to be scratching with so much +earnestness, first occurs as that of Paris the lover of Helen; and it is +afterwards repeated as that of Thales, Anastasius, Odofredus, and the +poet Dante. In a like manner the economical printer has a stock-head for +kings and emperors; another for popes; a third for bishops; +a fourth for saints, and so on. Several cuts representing what +might be supposed to be particular events are in the same manner pressed +into the general service of the chronicler.</p> + +<p>The peculiarity of the cuts in the Nuremberg Chronicle is that they +generally contain more of what engravers term “colour” than any which +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page213" id = "page213"> +213</a></span> +had previously appeared. Before proceeding, however, to make any further +observations on these cuts, I shall endeavour to explain what +engravers mean by the term “colour,” as applied to an impression taken +with black ink from a copper-plate or a wood-block.</p> + +<p>Though there is no “colour,” strictly speaking, in an engraving +consisting merely of black and white lines, yet the term is often +conventionally applied to an engraving which is supposed, from the +varied character of its lines and the contrast of light and shade, to +convey the idea of varied local colour as seen in a painting or a +water-colour drawing. For instance, an engraving is said to contain much +“colour” which appears clearly to indicate not only a variety of colour, +but also its different degrees of intensity in the several objects, and +which at the same time presents an effective combination of light and +shade. An engraver cannot certainly express the difference between green +and yellow, or red and orange, yet in engraving a figure, say that of a +cavalier by Vandyke, with brown leather boots, buff-coloured woollen +hose, doublet of red silk, and blue velvet cloak, a master of his +art will not only express a difference in the texture, but will also +convey an idea of the different parts of the dress being of different +colours. The Rent Day, engraved by Raimbach from a painting by Wilkie, +and Chelsea Pensioners hearing the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo +read, engraved by Burnet from a picture by the same artist, may be +instanced as copper-plate engravings which contain much “colour.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Landseer, at pages 175, 176, of his Lectures on Engraving, makes +the following remarks on the term “colour,” as conventionally applied by +engravers in speaking of impressions from plates or from +wood-blocks:—“It is not uncommon among print-publishers, nor even +amongst engravers themselves, to hear the word <span class = +"smallroman">COLOUR</span> mistakenly employed to signify <i>shade</i>; +so that if they think an engraving too dark, they say it has too much +<i>colour</i>, too little colour if too light—and so forth. The +same ignorance which has hitherto reigned over the pursuits of this Art, +has here imposed its authority, and with the same unfortunate success: +I cannot however yield to it the same submission, since it is not +only a palpable misuse of a word, but would lead to endless confusion +when I come to explain to you my ideas of the means the Art of engraving +possesses of rendering local colour in the abstract. Wherefore, whenever +I may use the term <i>colour</i>, I mean it in no other than its +ordinary acceptation.”</p> + +<p>“By <span class = "smallroman">MIDDLE TINT</span>, I understand and +mean, ‘the medium between strong light and strong shade.’—These +are Mr. Gilpin’s words; and he adds, with a propriety that confers value +on the definition—‘the phrase is <i>not at all</i> expressive of +colour.’”</p> + +<p>Whether we owe the term “colour,” as applied to engravings, to the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page214" id = "page214"> +214</a></span> +ignorance of printsellers or not, I shall not inquire; I only +know that a number of terms equally objectionable, if their primitive +meaning be considered, are used in speaking of the arts of painting and +engraving by persons who are certainly not ignorant. We have the words +<i>high</i> and <i>deep</i>, which strictly relate to objects of lineal +altitude or profundity, applied to denote intensity of colour; and the +very word <i>intensity</i>, when thus applied, is only relative; the +speaker being unable to find a word directly expressive of his meaning, +explains himself by referring to some object or thing previously known, +as, in this instance, by reference to the <i>tension</i> of a string or +cord. The word <i>tone</i>, which is so frequently used in speaking of +pictures, is derived from the sister art of music. I presume that +none of these terms were introduced into the nomenclature of painting +and engraving by ignorant persons, but that they were adopted from a +necessity originating from the very constitution of the human mind. It +is well known to every person who has paid any attention to the +construction of languages, that almost every abstract term is referable +to, and derived from, the name of some material object. The very word to +“think,” implying the exercise of our mental faculties, is probably an +offset from the substantive “thing.”</p> + +<p>It is also to be observed, that Mr. Landseer speaks as if the term +<i>colour</i> was used by ignorant printsellers, and of course ignorant +engravers, to signify <i>shade</i> only. It is, however, used by them to +signify that there is a considerable proportion of dark lines and +hatchings in an engraving, although such lines and hatchings are not +expressive of shade, but merely indicative of deep colours. Dark brown, +red, and purple, for instance, even when receiving direct rays of light, +would naturally contain much conventional “colour” in an engraving; and +so would a bay horse, a coal barge, or the trunk of an old oak +tree, when receiving the light in a similar manner; all would be +represented as comparatively dark, when contrasted with lighter coloured +objects,—for instance, with a blue sky, grass, or light green +foliage,—although not in shade. An engraving that appears too +light, compared with the painting from which it is copied, is said to +want “colour,” and the copper-plate engraver remedies the defect by +thickening the dark lines, or by adding cross lines and hatchings. As a +copper-plate engraver can always obtain more “colour,” he generally +keeps his work light in the first stage of a plate; on the contrary, +a wood engraver keeps his first proof dark, as he cannot afterwards +introduce more “colour,” or give to an object a greater depth of shade. +A wood engraver can make his lines thinner if they be too thick, +and thus cause his subject to appear lighter; but if he has made them +too fine at first, and more colour be wanted, it is not in his power to +remedy the defect.</p> + +<p>What Mr. Landseer’s ideas may be of the “means [which] the art +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page215" id = "page215"> +215</a></span> +of engraving possesses of rendering local colour in the abstract,” +I cannot very well comprehend. I am aware of the lines used +conventionally by engravers to indicate heraldic colours in coat-armour; +but I can see no natural relation between perpendicular lines in an +engraving and the red colour of a soldier’s coat. I believe that no +person could tell the colour of the draperies in Leonardo da Vinci’s +Last Supper from an inspection of Raphael Morghen’s engraving of it. +When Mr. Landseer says that he will use the term “colour” in its +“ordinary acceptation,” he ought to have explained what the ordinary +acceptation of the word meant when applied to impressions from +copper-plates which consist of nothing but lines and interstices of +black and white.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_215" id = "illus_215"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_215.png" width = "303" height = "342" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>In the second paragraph Mr. Landseer displays great inconsistency in +praising Mr. Gilpin for his definition of the word “tint,” which, when +applied to engravings, is as objectionable as the term “colour.” It +appears that Mr. Gilpin may employ a conventional term with “singular +propriety,” while printsellers and engravers who should use the same +liberty would be charged with ignorance. Is there such a thing as a +<i>tint</i> in nature which is of no colour? Mr. Gilpin’s lauded +definition involves a contradiction even when the word is applied to +engravings, in which every “tint” is indicative of positive colour. That +“medium +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page216" id = "page216"> +216</a></span> +between strong light and strong shade,” and which is yet of no colour, +remains to be discovered. Mr. Gilpin has supplied us with the “word,” +but it appears that no definite idea is necessary to be attached to it. +Having thus endeavoured to give a little brightness to the “colour” of +“ignorant printsellers and engravers,” I shall resume my +observations on the cuts in the Nuremberg Chronicle, to the “colour” of +which the preceding digression is to be ascribed.</p> + +<p>The preceding cut, representing the Creation of Eve, is copied from +one of the best in the Nuremberg Chronicle, both with respect to design +and engraving. In this, compared with most other cuts previously +executed, much more colour will be perceived, which results from the +closeness of the single lines, as in the dark parts of the rock +immediately behind the figure of Eve; from the introduction of dark +lines crossing each other,—called “cross-hatching,”—as may +be seen in the drapery of the Divinity; and from the contrast of the +shade thus produced with the lighter parts of the cut.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_216" id = "illus_216"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_216.png" width = "145" height = "265" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The subjoined cut, of the same subject, copied from the Poor +Preachers’ Bible,<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV55" id = "tagIV55" href = +"#noteIV55">IV.55</a> will, by comparison with the preceding, illustrate +more clearly than any verbal explanation the difference with respect to +colour between the wood-cuts in the old block-books and in most others +printed between 1462 and 1493, and those contained in the Nuremberg +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page217" id = "page217"> +217</a></span> +Chronicle. In this cut there is no indication of colour; the shades in +the drapery which are expressed by hard parallel lines are all of equal +strength, or rather weakness; and the hair of Adam’s head and the +foliage of the tree are expressed nearly in the same manner.</p> + +<p>This manner of representing the creation of Eve appears to have been +general amongst the wood engravers of the fifteenth century, for the +same subject frequently occurs in old cuts executed previous to 1500. It +is frequently represented in the same manner in illuminated missals; and +in Flaxman’s Lectures on Sculpture a lithographic print is given, copied +from an ancient piece of sculpture in Wells Cathedral, where Eve is seen +thus proceeding from the side of Adam. In a picture by Raffaele the +creation of Eve is also represented in the same manner.</p> + +<p>In the wood-cuts which occur in Italian books printed previous to +1500 the engravers have seldom attempted anything beyond a simple +outline with occasionally an indication of shade, or of colour, by means +of short parallel lines. The following is a fac-simile of a cut in +Bonsignore’s Italian prose translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, folio, +printed at Venice by the brothers De Lignano in 1497. It may serve at +once as a specimen of the other cuts contained in the work and of the +general style of engraving on wood in Italy for about ten years +preceding that period.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_217" id = "illus_217"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_217.png" width = "330" height = "213" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The subject illustrated is the difficult labour of Alcmena through +the malign influence of Lucina, as related by Ovid in the <span class = +"smallroman">IX</span>th book of the Metamorphoses, from verse 295 to +314. This would appear to have been rather a favourite subject with +designers, for it is again selected for illustration in Ludovico Dolce’s +Transformationi, a kind of paraphrase of the Metamorphoses, 4to, +printed at Venice by Gabriel Giolito in 1557; and it is also represented +in the illustrations to the Metamorphoses +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page218" id = "page218"> +218</a></span> +designed by Virgil Solis, and printed at Frankfort, in oblong 4to, by +George Corvinus and Sigismund Feyrabent, in 1569.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV56" id = "tagIV56" href = "#noteIV56">IV.56</a></p> + +<p>Of all the wood-cuts executed in Italy within the fifteenth century +there are none that can bear a comparison for elegance of design with +those contained in an Italian work entitled “Hypnerotomachia Poliphili,” +a folio without printer’s name or place, but certainly printed at +Venice by Aldus in 1499. This “Contest between Imagination and Love, by +a general Lover,”—for such seems to be the import of the +title,—is an obscure medley of fable, history, antiquities, +mathematics, and various other matters, highly seasoned with erotic +sketches<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV57" id = "tagIV57" href = +"#noteIV57">IV.57</a> suggested by the prurient imagination of a +monk,—for such the author was,—who, like many others of his +fraternity, in all ages, appears to have had “a <i>law</i> not to +marry, and a <i>custom</i> not to live chaste.” The language in which +this chaos of absurdities is composed is almost as varied as the +subjects. The ground-work is Italian, on which the author engrafts at +will whole phrases of Latin, with a number of words borrowed from the +Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldee. “Certain persons,” says Tiraboschi, +“who admire a work the more the less they understand it, have fancied +that they could perceive in the Hypnerotomachia a complete summary of +human knowledge.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV58" id = "tagIV58" href = +"#noteIV58">IV.58</a></p> + +<p>The name of the author was Francis Colonna, who was born at Venice, +and at an early age became a monk of the order of St. Dominic. In 1467 +he professed Grammar and Classical Literature in the convent of his +order at Trevisa; and he afterwards became Professor of Theology at +Padua, where he commenced Doctor in 1473, a degree which, according +to the rule of his order, he could not assume until he was forty. At the +time of his death, which happened in 1527, he could not thus be less +than ninety-four years old. The true name of this amorous dreaming monk, +and the fictitious one of the woman with whom he was in love, are thus +expressed by combining, in the order in which they follow each other, +the initial letters of the several chapters: “<span class = +"smallcaps">Poliam Frater Fransiscus Columna peramavit.</span>”<a class += "tag" name = "tagIV59" id = "tagIV59" href = "#noteIV59">IV.59</a> If +any reliance can be placed on +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page219" id = "page219"> +219</a></span> +the text and the cuts as narrating and representing real incidents, we +may gather that the stream of love had not run smooth with father +Francis any more than with simple laymen. With respect to the true name +of the mistress of father Francis, biographers are not agreed. One says +that her name was Lucretia Maura; and another that her name was +Ippolita, and that she belonged to the noble family of Poli, of Trevisa, +and that she was a nun in that city. From the name Ippolita some authors +thus derive the fictitious name Polia: Ippolita; Polita; Polia.</p> + +<p>A second edition, also from the Aldine press, appeared in 1545; and +in the following year a French translation was printed at Paris under +the following title: “Le Tableau des riches inventions couvertes du +voile des feintes amourouses qui sont representées dans le Songe de +Poliphile, devoilées des ombres du Songe, et subtilment exposées.” Of +this translation several editions were published; and in 1804 J. G. +Legrand, an architect of some repute in Paris, printed a kind of +paraphrase of the work, in two volumes 12mo, which, however, was not +published until after his death in 1807. In 1811 Bodoni reprinted the +original work at Parma in an elegant quarto volume.</p> + +<p>In the original work the wood-cuts with respect to design may rank +among the best that have appeared in Italy. The whole number in the +volume is one hundred and ninety-two; of which eighty-six relate to +mythology and ancient history; fifty-four represent processions and +emblematic figures: there are thirty-six architectural and ornamental +subjects; and sixteen vases and statues. Several writers have asserted +that those cuts were designed by Raffaele,<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV60" id = "tagIV60" href = "#noteIV60">IV.60</a> while others with +equal confidence, though on no better grounds, have ascribed them to +Andrea Mantegna. Except from the resemblance which they are supposed to +bear to the acknowledged works of those artists, I am not aware +that there is any reason to suppose that they were designed by either of +them. As Raffaele, who was born in 1483, was only sixteen when the +Hypnerotomachia was printed, it is not likely that all, or even any of +<ins class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘hose’">those</ins> cuts +were designed by him; as it is highly probable that all the drawings +would be finished at least twelve months before, and many of them +contain internal evidence of their not being the productions of a youth +of fifteen. That Andrea Mantegna might design them is possible; but this +certainly cannot be a sufficient reason for positively asserting that he +actually did. Mr. Ottley, at page 576, vol. ii, of his Inquiry, asserts +that they were designed by Benedetto Montagna, an +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page220" id = "page220"> +220</a></span> +artist who flourished about the year 1500, and who is chiefly known as +an engraver on copper. The grounds on which Mr. Ottley forms his opinion +are not very clear, but if I understand him correctly they are as +follows:</p> + +<p>In the collection of the late Mr. Douce there were sixteen wood +engravings which had been cut out of a folio edition of Ovid’s +Metamorphoses, printed at Venice in 1509. All those engravings, except +two, were marked with the letters <span class = "blackletter">ía</span>, +which according to Mr. Ottley are the initials of the engraver, Ioanne +Andrea di Vavassori. Between some of the cuts from the Ovid, and certain +engravings executed by Montagna, it seems that Mr. Ottley discovered a +resemblance; and as he thought that he perceived a perfect similarity +between the sixteen cuts from the Ovid and those contained in the +Hypnerotomachia, he considers that Benedetto Montagna is thus proved to +have been the designer of the cuts in the latter work.</p> + +<p>Not having seen the cuts in the edition of the Metamorphoses of 1509, +I cannot speak, from my own examination, of the resemblance between +them and those in the Hypnerotomachia; it, however, seems that Mr. Douce +had noticed the similarity as well as Mr. Ottley: but even admitting +that there is a perfect identity of style in the cuts of the above two +works, yet it by no means follows that, because a few of the cuts in the +Ovid resemble some copper-plate engravings executed by Benedetto +Montagna, he must have designed the cuts in the Hypnerotomachia. As the +cuts in the Ovid may, as Mr. Ottley himself remarks, have been used in +an earlier edition than that of 1509, it is not unlikely that they might +appear before Montagna’s copper-plates; and that the latter might copy +the designs of a greater artist than himself, and thus by his very +plagiarism acquire, according to Mr. Ottley’s train of reasoning, the +merit which may be justly due to another. If Benedetto Montagna be +really the designer of the cuts in the Hypnerotomachia, he has certainly +excelled himself, for they certainly display talent of a much higher +order than is to be perceived in his copper-plate engravings. Besides +the striking difference with respect to drawing between the wood-cuts in +Poliphilo<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV61" id = "tagIV61" href = +"#noteIV61">IV.61</a> and the engravings of Benedetto Montagna, two of +the cuts in the former work have a mark which never appears in any of +that artist’s known productions, which generally have either his name at +length or the letters B. M. In the third cut of Poliphilo, the +designer’s or engraver’s mark, a small b, may be perceived at the +foot, to the right; and the same mark is repeated in a cut at +signature C.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page221" id = "page221"> +221</a></span> +<p>A London bookseller in his catalogue published in 1834, probably +speaking on Mr. Ottley’s hint that the cuts in the Ovid of 1509 might +have appeared in an earlier edition, thus describes Bonsignore’s Ovid, +a work in which the wood-cuts are of a very inferior description, +and of which a specimen is given in a preceding page: “Ovidii +Metamorphoseos Vulgare, con le Allegorie, [Venezia, 1497,] with numerous +beautiful wood-cuts, apparently by the artist who executed the +Poliphilo, printed by Aldus in 1499.” The wood-cuts in the Ovid of 1497 +are as inferior to those in Poliphilo as the commonest cuts in +children’s school-books are inferior to the beautiful wood-cuts in +Rogers’s Pleasures of Memory, printed in 1812, which were designed by +Stothard and engraved by Clennell. It is but fair to add, that the cuts +used in the Ovid of 1497, printed by the brothers De Lignano, cannot be +the same as those in the Ovid of 1509 referred to by Mr. Ottley; for +though the subjects may be nearly the same, the cuts in the latter +edition are larger than those in the former, and have besides an +engraver’s mark which is not to be seen in any of the cuts in the +edition of 1497.</p> + +<p>The five following cuts are fac-similes traced line for line from the +originals in Poliphilo. In the first, Mercury is seen interfering to +save Cupid from the anger of Venus, who has been punishing him and +plucking the feathers from his wings. The cause of her anger is +explained by the figure of Mars behind the net in which he and Venus had +been inclosed by Vulcan. Love had been the cause of his mother’s +misfortune.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page222" id = "page222"> +222</a></span> +<p>In the following cut Cupid is represented as brought by Mercury +before Jove, who in the text, “in Athica lingua,” addresses the God of +Love, as “<span class = "greek" lang = "el" title = "(Greek) SUMOIGLUKUS KAI PIKROS">ΣΥΜΟΙΓΛΥΚΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΙΚΡΟΣ</span>”—“at once sweet and +bitter.” In the inscription in the cut, “<span class = "greek" lang = +"el" title = "(Greek) ALLA">ΑΛΛΑ</span>” is substituted for “<span class += "greek" lang = "el" title = "(Greek) KAI">ΚΑΙ</span>.”</p> + +<div class = "picture"> +<div class = "picblock w200"> +<p><a name = "illus_221" id = "illus_221"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_221.png" width = "168" height = "279" +alt = "see text"></p> +</div> + +<div class = "picblock w200"> +<p><a name = "illus_222a" id = "illus_222a"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_222a.png" width = "160" height = "279" +alt = "see text"></p> +</div> + +<div class = "picblock w200"> +<p><a name = "illus_222b" id = "illus_222b"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_222b.png" width = "164" height = "279" +alt = "see text"></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>In the next cut Cupid appears piercing the sky with a dart, and thus +causing a shower of gold to fall. The figures represent persons of all +conditions whom he has wounded, looking on with amazement.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page223" id = "page223"> +223</a></span> +<p>The three preceding cuts, in the original work, appear as +compartments from left to right on one block. They are here given +separate for the convenience of printing, as the page is not wide enough +to allow of their being placed as in the original folio.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_223" id = "illus_223"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_223.png" width = "209" height = "389" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The subjoined cut is intended to represent Autumn, according to a +description of the figure in the text, where the author is speaking of +an altar to be erected to the four seasons. On one of the sides he +proposes that the following figure should be represented “with a jolly +countenance, crowned with vine leaves, holding in one hand a bunch of +grapes, and in the other a cornucopia, with an inscription: ‘<span class += "smallcaps">Mustulento Autumno S.</span>’”<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV62" id = "tagIV62" href = "#noteIV62">IV.62</a> The face of jolly +Autumn is indeed like that of one who loved new wine, and his body seems +like an ample skin to keep the liquor in;—Sir John Falstaff +playing Bacchus ere he had grown old and inordinately fat.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page224" id = "page224"> +224</a></span> + +<p class = "figfloat"> +<a name = "illus_224a" id = "illus_224a"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_224a.png" width = "82" height = "151" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The following figure of Cupid is copied from the top of a fanciful +military standard described by the author; and on a kind of banner +beneath the figure is inscribed the word “<span class = "greek" lang = +"el" title = "(Greek) DORIKTÊTOI">ΔΟΡΙΚΤΗΤΟΙ</span>”—“Gained in +war.”</p> + +<p>The following is a specimen of one of the ornamental vases contained +in the work. It is not, like the five preceding cuts, of the same size +as the original, but is copied on a reduced scale.</p> + +<p class = "figfloat"> +<a name = "illus_224b" id = "illus_224b"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_224b.png" width = "97" height = "199" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The simple style in which the cuts in the Hypnerotomachia are +engraved, continued to prevail, with certain modifications, in Italy for +many years after the method of cross-hatching became general in Germany; +and from 1500 to about 1530 the characteristic of most Italian wood-cuts +is the simple manner in which they are executed compared with the more +laboured productions of the German wood engravers. While the German +proceeds with considerable labour to obtain “colour,” or shade, by means +of cross-hatching, the Italian in the early part of the sixteenth +century endeavours to attain his object by easier means, such as leaving +his lines thicker in certain parts, and in others, indicating shade by +means of short slanting parallel lines. In the execution of flowered or +ornamented initial letters a decided difference may frequently be +noticed between the work of an Italian and a German artist. The German +mostly, with considerable trouble, cuts his flourishes, figures, and +flowers in relief, according to the general practice of wood engravers; +the Italian, on the contrary, often cuts them, with much greater ease, +in <i>intaglio</i>; and thus the form of the letter, and its ornaments, +appear, when printed, white upon a black ground.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV63" id = "tagIV63" href = "#noteIV63">IV.63</a> The letter C at +the commencement of the present chapter is an example of the German +style, with the ornamental parts in <i>relief</i>; the letter M at the +commencement of chapter <span class = "smallroman">V.</span> is a +specimen of the manner frequently adopted by old Italian wood engravers, +the form of the letter and the ornamental foliage being cut in +<i>intaglio</i>. At a subsequent period a more elaborate manner of +engraving began to prevail in Italy, and cross-hatching was almost as +generally employed to obtain depth of colour and shade as in Germany. +The wood-cuts which appear in works printed at Venice between 1550 and +1570 are generally as good as most German wood-cuts of the same period; +and +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page225" id = "page225"> +225</a></span> +many of them, more especially those in books printed by the Giolitos, +are executed with a clearness and delicacy which have seldom been +surpassed.</p> + +<p>Before concluding the present chapter, which is more especially +devoted to the consideration of wood engraving in the first period of +its connexion with typography, it may not be improper to take a brief +glance at the state of the art as practised by the Briefmalers and +Formschneiders of Germany, who were the first to introduce the practice +of block-printing, and who continued to exercise this branch of their +art for many years after typography had been generally established +throughout Europe. That the ancient wood engravers continued to practise +the art of block-printing till towards the close of the fifteenth +century, there can be little doubt. There is an edition of the Poor +Preachers’ Bible, with the date 1470, printed from wood-blocks, without +place or engraver’s name, but having at the end, as a mark, two shields, +on one of which is a squirrel, and on the other something like two +pilgrim’s staves crossed. Another edition of the same work, though not +from the same blocks, appeared in 1471. In this the engraver’s mark is +two shields, on one of which is a spur, probably a rebus for the name of +“Sporer;” in the same manner that a pair of folding-doors represented +the name “Thurer,” or “Durer.” An engraver of the name of Hans Sporer +printed an edition of the Ars Moriendi from wood-blocks in 1473; and in +the preceding year Young Hans, Briefmaler, of Nuremberg, printed an +edition of the Antichrist in the same manner.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV64" id = "tagIV64" href = "#noteIV64">IV.64</a></p> + +<p>It is probable that most of the single sheets and short tracts, +printed from wood-blocks, preserved in the libraries of Germany, were +printed between 1440 and 1480. Books consisting of two or more sheets +printed from wood-blocks are of rare occurrence with a date subsequent +to 1480. Although about that period the wood engravers appear to have +resigned the printing of books entirely to typographers, yet for several +years afterwards they continued to print broadsides from blocks of wood; +and until about 1500 they continued to compete with the press for the +printing of “Wand-Kalendars,” or sheet Almanacks to be hung up against a +wall. Several copies of such Almanacks, engraved between 1470 and 1500, +are preserved in libraries on the Continent that are rich in specimens +of early block-printing. But even this branch of their business the wood +engravers were at length obliged to abandon; and at the end of the +fifteenth century the practice of printing pages of text from engraved +wood-blocks may be considered as almost extinct in Germany. It probably +began with a single sheet, and with a +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page226" id = "page226"> +226</a></span> +single sheet it ended; and its origin, perfection, decline, and +extinction are comprised within a century. 1430 may mark its origin; +1450 its perfection; 1460 the commencement of its decline; and 1500 its +fall.</p> + +<p>In an assemblage of wood engravings printed at Gotha between 1808 and +1816,<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV65" id = "tagIV65" href = +"#noteIV65">IV.65</a> from old blocks collected by the Baron Von +Derschau, there are several to which the editor, Zacharias Becker, +assigns an earlier date than the year 1500. It is not unlikely that two +or three of those in his oldest class, A, may have been executed +previous to that period; but there are others in which bad drawing and +rude engraving have been mistaken for indubitable proofs of antiquity. +There are also two or three in the same class which I strongly suspect +to be modern forgeries. It would appear from a circumstance mentioned in +Dr. Dibdin’s Bibliographical Tour,<a class = "tag" name = "tagIV66" id = +"tagIV66" href = "#noteIV66">IV.66</a> and referred to at page 236 of +the present work, that the Baron was a person from whose collection +copper-plate engravings of questionable date had proceeded as well as +wood-blocks. The following is a reduced copy of one of those suspicious +blocks, but which the editor considers to be of an earlier date than the +St. Christopher in the collection of Earl Spencer. I am however of +opinion that it is of comparatively modern manufacture.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_226" id = "illus_226"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_226.png" width = "331" height = "232" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The inscription, intended for old German, at the bottom of the cut, +is literally as follows: “<i>Hiet uch, vor den Katczen dy vorn lecken +unde +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page227" id = "page227"> +227</a></span> +hinden kraiczen</i>”—that is: “Beware of the cats that lick before +and scratch behind.” It is rather singular that the editor—who +describes the subject as a cat which appears to teach her kitten “le Jeu +de Souris”—should not have informed his readers that more was +meant by this inscription than met the eye, and that it was in fact part +of a German proverb descriptive of a class of females who are +particularly dangerous to simple young men.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagIV67" id = "tagIV67" href = "#noteIV67">IV.67</a> Among the cuts +supposed to have been engraved previous to the year 1500, another is +given which I suspect also of being a forgery, and by the same person +that engraved the cat. The cut alluded to represents a woman sitting +beside a young man, whose purse she is seen picking while she appears to +fondle him. A hawk is seen behind the woman, and an ape behind the +man. At one side is a lily, above which are the words “<span class = +"blackletter">Ich wart</span>.” At the top of the cut is an +inscription,—which seems, like that in the cut of the cat, to be +in affectedly old German,—describing the young man as a prey for +hawks and a fool, and the woman as a flatterer, who will fawn upon him +until she has emptied his pouch. The subjects of those two cuts, though +not apparently, are, in reality, connected. In the first we are +presented with the warning, and in the latter with the example. Von +Murr—whom Dr. Dibdin suspects to have forged the French St. +Christopher—describes in his Journal impressions from those blocks +as old wood-cuts in the collection of Dr. Silberrad;<a class = "tag" +name = "tagIV68" id = "tagIV68" href = "#noteIV68">IV.68</a> and it is +certainly very singular that the identical blocks from which Dr. +Silberrad’s scarce old wood engravings were taken should afterwards +happen to be discovered and come into the possession of the Baron Von +Derschau.</p> + +<p>In the same work there is a rude wood-cut of St. Catharine and three +other saints; and at the back of the block there is also engraved the +figure of a soldier. At the bottom of the cut of St. Catharine, the name +of the engraver, “<span class = "blackletter">Jorg Glockendon</span>,” +appears in old German characters. As “Glockendon” or “Glockenton” was +the name of a family of artists who appear to have been settled at +Nuremberg early in the fifteenth century, Becker concludes that the cut +in question was engraved prior to 1482, and that this “Jorg Glockendon” +was “the first wood engraver known by name, and not John Schnitzer of +Arnsheim,—who engraved the maps in Leonard Holl’s Ptolemy, printed +in the above year,—as Heineken and others pretend.” That the cut +was engraved previous to 1482 rests merely on Becker’s conjecture; and a +person who would assert that it was engraved ten or fifteen years later, +would perhaps be nearer the truth. John Schnitzer, however, is not the +first wood engraver known by name. The name of Hans Sporer appears in +the Ars Moriendi of 1473; and it is not probable that Hartlieb’s +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page228" id = "page228"> +228</a></span> +Chiromantia, in which we find the name “<span class = "blackletter">Jorg +Schapff zu Augspurg</span>,” was engraved subsequent to 1480. It would +appear that Becker did not consider “Hans Briefmaler,” who occurs as a +wood engraver between 1470 and 1480, as a person “known by name,” though +it is probable that he had no other surname than that which was derived +from his profession.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_228" id = "illus_228"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_228.png" width = "214" height = "258" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>Although Derschau’s collection contains a number of old cuts which +are well worth preserving, more especially among those executed in the +sixteenth century; yet it also contains a large portion of worthless +cuts, which are neither interesting from their subjects nor their +antiquity, and which throw no light on the progress of the art. There +are also not a few modern antiques which are only illustrative of the +credulity of the collector, who mistakes rudeness of execution for a +certain test of antiquity. According to this test the following cut +ought to be ascribed to the age of Caxton, and published with a long +commentary as an undoubted specimen of early English wood engraving. It +is however nothing more than an impression from a block engraved with a +pen-knife by a printer’s apprentice between 1770 and 1780. It was one of +the numerous cuts of a similar kind belonging to the late Mr. George +Angus of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who used them as head-pieces to chap-books +and broadside histories and ballads.</p> + +<p>Besides the smaller block-books, almanacks, and broadsides of text, +executed by wood engravers between 1460 and 1500, they also executed a +number of single cuts, some accompanied with a few sentences of +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page229" id = "page229"> +229</a></span> +text also cut in wood, and others containing only figures. Many of the +sacred subjects were probably executed for convents in honour of a +favourite saint; while others were engraved by them on their own account +for sale among the poorer classes of the people, who had neither the +means to purchase, nor the ability to read, a large “picture-book” +which contained a considerable portion of explanatory text. In almost +every one of the works executed by the Briefmalers and Formschneiders +subsequent to the invention of typography, there is scarcely a single +cut to be found that possesses the least merit either in design or +execution. They appear generally to have been mere workmen, who could +draw and engrave figures on wood in a rude style, but who had not the +slightest pretensions to a knowledge of art.</p> + +<p>Having now brought the history of wood engraving to the end of the +fifteenth century, I shall here conclude the present chapter, +without expressly noticing such works of Albert Durer as were certainly +engraved on wood previous to the year 1500. The designs of this great +promoter of wood engraving mark an epoch in the progress of the art; and +will, with others of the same school, more appropriately form the +subject of the next chapter.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_229" id = "illus_229"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_229.png" width = "249" height = "317" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<div class = "footnote"> + + +<p><a name = "noteIV1" id = "noteIV1" href = "#tagIV1">IV.1</a> +By the common press only one side of a sheet can be printed at once. The +reiteration is the second printing of the same sheet on the blank side. +Thus in the Psalter of 1457 every sheet containing letters of two +colours on each side would have to pass six times through the press. It +was probably in consequence of printing so much in red and black that +the early printers used to employ so many presses. Melchior de Stamham, +abbot of St. Ulric and St. Afra at Augsburg, and who established a +printing-office within that monastery, about 1472, bought five presses +of John Schüssler; a considerable number for what may be considered +an amateur establishment. He also had two others made by Sixtus +Saurloch.—Zapf, Annales Typographicæ Augustanæ, p. xxiv.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV2" id = "noteIV2" href = "#tagIV2">IV.2</a> +Heineken in his Nachrichten, T. I. S. 108, also states that Meydenbach +came from Strasburg with Gutemberg. Oberlin however observes, “Je ne +sais où de Heinecke a trouvè que ce Meydenbach est venu en 1444 avec +Gutenberg à Mayence.” Heineken says, “In der Nachricht von Strassburg +findet man dass ein gewisser Meydenbach 1444 nach Maynz gezogen,” and +refers to Fournier, p. 40. Dissert sur l’Orig. de l’Imprimerie +primitive.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV3" id = "noteIV3" href = "#tagIV3">IV.3</a> +An edition of the Hortus Sanitatis with wood-cuts was printed at Mentz, +by <i>Jacobus Meydenbach</i>, in 1491.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV4" id = "noteIV4" href = "#tagIV4">IV.4</a> +Idée Générale, p. 286.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV5" id = "noteIV5" href = "#tagIV5">IV.5</a> +Scheffer previous to his connexion with Faust was a +“clericus,”—not a <i>clerk</i> as distinguished from a layman, but +a writer or scribe. A specimen of his “set-hand,” written <ins +class = "correction" title = "‘a’ invisible">at</ins> Paris in 1449, is +given by Schœpflin in his Vindiciæ Typographicæ. Several of the earliest +printers were writers or illuminators; among whom may be mentioned John +Mentelin of Strasburg, John Baemler of Augsburg, Ulric Zell of Cologne, +and Colard Mansion of Bruges.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV6" id = "noteIV6" href = "#tagIV6">IV.6</a> +This is intimated in the colophon, which, with the contracted words +written at length, is as follows: “Presens Spalmorum codex venustate +capitalium decoratus Rubricationibusque sufficienter distinctus. +Adinventione artificiosa imprimendi ac caracterizandi absque calami ulla +exaracione sic effigiatus. Et ad eusebiam dei industrie est consummatus. +Per Johannem Fust, Civem maguntinum. Et Petrum Schoffer de Gernzheim, +Anno domini Millesimo. cccc. lvii. In vigilia Assumpcionis.” In the +second edition the mis-spelling, “Spalmorum” for “Psalmorum,” is +corrected.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV7" id = "noteIV7" href = "#tagIV7">IV.7</a> +It is to be observed that in Savage’s copy the perpendicular flourishes +are given horizontally, above and below the letter, in order to save +room. In a copy of the edition of 1459, in the King’s Library, part of +the lower flourish has not been inked, as it would have interfered with +the letter Q at the commencement of the second psalm “<i>Quare +fremuerunt gentes</i>.” Traces of the flourish where not coloured may be +observed impressed in the vellum.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV8" id = "noteIV8" href = "#tagIV8">IV.8</a> +The following passage occurs in the colophon of two works printed by +John Scheffer at Mentz in 1515 and 1516; the one being the “Trithemii +Breviarium Historiæ Francorum,” and the other “Breviarium Ecclesiæ +Mindensis:” “Retinuerunt autem hi duo jam prænominati, <i>Johannes Fust +et Petrus Scheffer</i>, hanc artem in secreto, (omnibus ministris et +familiaribus eorum, ne illam quoquo modo manifestarent, jure jurando +adstrictis :) quæ tandem anno Domini <span class = +"smallroman">M.CCCC.LXII.</span> per eosdem familiares in diversas +terrarum provincias divulgata, haud parvum sumpsit incrementum.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV9" id = "noteIV9" href = "#tagIV9">IV.9</a> +St. Walburg’s day is on the 25th of February; though her feast is also +held both on the 1st of May and on the 12th of October. The eve of her +feast on the 1st of May is more particularly celebrated; and it is then +that the witches and warlocks of Germany hold their annual meeting on +the Brocken. St. Walburg, though born of royal parents in Saxony, was +yet educated in England, at the convent of Wimborn in Dorsetshire, of +which she became afterwards abbess, and where she died in 779.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV10" id = "noteIV10" href = "#tagIV10">IV.10</a> +A mournful account of the expulsion of the inhabitants and the +plundering of the city is given by Trithemius at page 30 of his “Res +Gestæ Frederici Palatini,” published with notes by Marquard Freher, at +Heidelberg, 4to. 1603.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV11" id = "noteIV11" href = "#tagIV11">IV.11</a> +Under the title of “Notice d’un Livre imprimé à Bamberg en <span class = +"smallroman">CIↃCCCCLXII.</span> lue à l’Institut National, par Camus.” +4to. Paris, An <span class = "smallroman">VII.</span> [1800.]</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV12" id = "noteIV12" href = "#tagIV12">IV.12</a> +The copy of those fables belonging to the Wolfenbuttel Library, and +which is the only one known, was taken away by the French and placed in +the National Library at Paris, but was restored on the surrender of +Paris in 1815.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV13" id = "noteIV13" href = "#tagIV13">IV.13</a> +Idée Générale, p. 276. Dr. Dibdin in his Bibliographical Tour says that +this work “is entitled by Camus the <span class = "smallcaps">Allegory +of Death</span>.” This is a mistake; for Camus, who objects to this +title,—which was given to it by Heineken,—always refers to +the book under the title of “Les Plaintes contre la Mort.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV14" id = "noteIV14" href = "#tagIV14">IV.14</a> +“Outre la lettre initiale, on remarque, dans le cours du chapitre, six +lettres rouges non imprimées, mais peintes à la plaque, qui commencent +six phrases diverses. Les lettres initiales des autres phrases du même +chapitre sont imprimées en noir. Les lettres rouges sont IHESANW. +Doit-on les assembler dans l’ordre où elles sont placées, ou bien +doivent-elles recevoir un autre arrangement? Je ne prends pas sur moi de +le décider.”—Camus, Notice, p. 6.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV15" id = "noteIV15" href = "#tagIV15">IV.15</a> +Camus calls it a “voiture,” but I question if such a carriage was known +in 1462; and am inclined to think that he has converted a kind of light +waggon into a modern “voiture.” A light sort of waggon, called by +Stow a “Wherlicote,” was used in England by the mother of Richard the +Second in the manner of a modern coach. I have noticed in an old +wood-cut a light travelling waggon, drawn by what is called a “unicorn +team” of three horses; that is, one as a “leader,” and two “wheelers,” +with the driver riding on the “near side” wheeler. This cut is in the +Bagford collection in the British Museum, and is one of a series of +ninety subjects from the Old and New Testament which have been cut out +of a book. A manuscript note in German states that they are by +Michael Wolgemuth, and printed in 1491. In no wood-cut executed previous +to 1500 have I seen a vehicle like a modern French voiture.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV16" id = "noteIV16" href = "#tagIV16">IV.16</a> +The copy of the Bamberg edition in the Wolfenbuttel Library, seen and +described by Heineken, Idée Générale, pp. 327-329, contained only +twenty-six “histories,” or general subjects.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV17" id = "noteIV17" href = "#tagIV17">IV.17</a> +Gunther Zainer was a native of Reutlingen, in Wirtemberg, and was the +first printer in Germany who used Roman characters,—in an edition +of “Isidori Episcopi Hispalensis Etymologia,” printed by him in 1472. He +first began to print at Augsburg in 1468. In 1472 he printed a German +translation of the book entitled “Belial,” with wood-cuts. A Latin +edition of this book was printed by Schussler in the same year. Von Murr +says that Schussler printed another edition of “Belial” in 1477; but +this would seem to be a mistake, for Veith asserts in his “Diatribe de +Origine et Incrementis Artis Typographicæ in urbe Augusta Vindelica,” +prefixed to Zapf’s “Annales,” that Schussler only printed in the years +1470, 1471, and 1472.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV18" id = "noteIV18" href = "#tagIV18">IV.18</a> +Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theil, S. 144.—Zapf, Buchdruckergeschichte +von Augsburg, 1 Band.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV19" id = "noteIV19" href = "#tagIV19">IV.19</a> +Lichtenberger, in his Initia Typographica, referring to Sprenger’s +History of Printing at Bamberg, says that, besides those four, five +other tracts are printed with Pfister’s types, of which three contain +wood-cuts. One of those three, however, a “Poor Preachers’ Bible,” +with the text in Latin, has the same cuts as the “Poor Preachers’ Bible” +with the text in German. Only one of those other five works contains the +place and date.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV20" id = "noteIV20" href = "#tagIV20">IV.20</a> +De Antiquissima Latinorum Bibliorum editione . . . . Jo. Georgii +Schelhorn Diatribe. Ulmæ, 4to. 1760.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV21" id = "noteIV21" href = "#tagIV21">IV.21</a> +Dr. Dibdin says that a copy of this Bible, which formerly belonged to +the Earl of Oxford, and is now in the Royal Library at Paris, contains +“an undoubted coeval MS. date, in red ink, of 1461.”—Bibliog. +Tour, vol. ii p. 108. Second edition.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV22" id = "noteIV22" href = "#tagIV22">IV.22</a> +“Libripagus est artifex sculpens subtiliter in laminibus æreis, ferreis, +ac ligneis solidi ligni, atque aliis, imagines, scripturam et omne +quodlibet, ut prius imprimat papyro aut parieti aut asseri mundo. +Scindit omne quod cupit, et est homo faciens talia cum picturis; et +tempore mei Bambergæ quidam sculpsit integram bibliam super lamellas, et +in quatuor septimanis totam bibliam in pergameno subtili præsignavit +sculpturam.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV23" id = "noteIV23" href = "#tagIV23">IV.23</a> +In 1793, a learned doctor of divinity of Cambridge is said in a like +manner to have broken Priscian’s head with “<i>paginibus</i>.” An +epigram on this “blunder<i>bus</i>” is to be found in the “Gradus ad +Cantabrigiam.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV24" id = "noteIV24" href = "#tagIV24">IV.24</a> +Lichtenberger, Initia Typographica, p. 51.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV25" id = "noteIV25" href = "#tagIV25">IV.25</a> +“Opuscula quæ typis mandavit typographus hic, hactenus ignotus, ad +litteraturam Teutonicam pertinent. Imprimis Pfisterum hunc Bambergæ +fixam habuisse sedem vix crediderim. Videntur potius hi libri Teutonici +monumenta transeuntis typographi.”—Annal. Typogr. tom. +i. p. 142, cited by Camus.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV26" id = "noteIV26" href = "#tagIV26">IV.26</a> +Breitkopf, Ueber Bibliographie, S. 25. 4to. Leipzig, 1793.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV27" id = "noteIV27" href = "#tagIV27">IV.27</a> +The following is the title at length as it is printed, in red letters, +underneath the first cut: “Meditationes Reverē dissimi patris dñi +Johannis de turre cremata sacros͞ce Romane eccl’ie cardinalis posite +& depicte de ipsius mādato ī eccl’ie ambitu Marie de Minerva. Rome.” +The book is described in Von Murr’s Memorabilia Bibliothecar. Publicar. +Norimbergensium and in Dibdin’s Ædes Althorpianæ, vol. ii. p. 273, +with specimens of the cuts.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV28" id = "noteIV28" href = "#tagIV28">IV.28</a> +The following is a copy of the colophon: “Johannes ex verona oriundus: +Nicolai cyrurgie medici filius: Artis impressorie magister: hunc de re +militari librum elegantissimum: litteris et figuratis signis sua in +patria primus impressit. An. <span class = +"smallroman">MCCCCLXXII.</span>”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV29" id = "noteIV29" href = "#tagIV29">IV.29</a> +“Valturius speaks of Pasti in one of his letters as being eminently +skilful in the arts of Painting, Sculpture, and +Engraving.”—Ottley, Inquiry, p. 257.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV30" id = "noteIV30" href = "#tagIV30">IV.30</a> +“Inventum est quoque alterum machinæ hujusce tuum Sigismonde Panpulfe +[Malatesta]: qua pilæ æneæ tormentarii pulveris plenæ cum fungi aridi +fomite urientis emittuntur.”—We hence learn that the first +bomb-shells were made of copper, and that the fuzee was a piece of a +dried fungus. As the first edition has neither numerals nor signatures, +I cannot refer to the page in which the above passage is to be +found. It is, however, opposite to the cut in which the bomb-shell +appears, and that is about the middle of the volume.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV31" id = "noteIV31" href = "#tagIV31">IV.31</a> +“Robert Valturio published at Verona, in 1483, his twelve books de Re +Militari, in which he first mentions the use of bombs. By his patron +Sigismond Malatesti, Prince of Rimini, it had been addressed with a +Latin epistle to Mahomet II.”—Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire, chap. lxviii., note.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV32" id = "noteIV32" href = "#tagIV32">IV.32</a> +Von Murr says that the person who engraved the cuts for this book also +engraved the cuts in a German edition of the Speculum without date, but +printed at Augsburg, and dedicated to John [von Giltingen] abbot of the +monastery of St. Ulric and St. Afra, who was chosen to that office in +1482. Heineken supposed that the person to whom the book was dedicated +was John von Hohenstein, but he resigned the office of abbot in 1459; +and the book was certainly not printed at that period.—See +Heineken, Idée Gén. p. 466; and Von Murr, Journal, 2 Theil, +S. 145.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV33" id = "noteIV33" href = "#tagIV33">IV.33</a> +L. A. Gebhard, Genealogische Geschichte, 1 Theil, Vorrede, S. 11. +Cited by Veith in his “Diatribe,” prefixed to Zapf’s “Annales +Typographiæ Augustanæ.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV34" id = "noteIV34" href = "#tagIV34">IV.34</a> +The following colophon to an edition of Appian informs us that his +partners were Bernard the painter and Peter Loslein, who also acted as +corrector of the press: “Impressum est hoc opus Venetiis per Bernardū +pictorem & Erhardum ratdolt de Augusta una cum Petro Loslein de +Langenzen correctore ac socio. Laus Deo. <span class = +"smallroman">MCCCCLXXVII.</span>”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV35" id = "noteIV35" href = "#tagIV35">IV.35</a> +Veldener at the conclusion of a book printed by him in 1476, containing +“<i>Epistolares quasdam formulas</i>,” thus informs the reader of his +name and qualifications: “Accipito huic artifici nomen esse magistro +Johanni Veldener, cui quidem certa manu insculpendi, celandi, +intorculandi, caracterandi adsit industria; adde et figurandi et +effigiendi.” That is, his name was John Veldener; he could engrave, +could work both at press and case, and moreover he knew something of +sculpture, and could paint a little.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV36" id = "noteIV36" href = "#tagIV36">IV.36</a> +Heineken, Idée Gén. p. 207, erroneously states that the first book with +wood-cuts printed in England was the Golden Legend, by Caxton, in 1483. +It is probable that the second edition of the Game of Chess preceded it +by seven years, and it certainly was printed after the Mirror of the +World.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV37" id = "noteIV37" href = "#tagIV37">IV.37</a> +The following are some of the names as they are written: “S gilbert +talbott . S John cheiny . S williā stoner . Theis iij wer made byfore +the bataile, and after the bataile were made the same day : +S<sup>r.</sup> John of Arundell . Thomas Cooksey . John forteskew . +Edmond benyngfeld . james blount . ric . of Croffte . Geofrey Stanley . +ric . delaber . John mortymer . williā troutbeke.” The above appear to +have been created <i>Bannerets</i>, for after them follows a list of +“<i>Knyghtes</i> made at the same bataile.” It is likely that the owner +of the volume was at the battle, and that the names were written +immediately after.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV38" id = "noteIV38" href = "#tagIV38">IV.38</a> +Edward IV. began to reign 4th March 1461; the twenty-first year of his +reign would consequently commence on 4th March 1481; Caxton’s dates +therefore do not agree, unless we suppose that he reckoned the +commencement of the year from 21st March. If so, his date viii March +1480, and the xxi year of the reign of Edward IV. would agree; and the +year of Christ, according to our present mode of reckoning, would be +1481. Dr. Dibdin assigns to the Mirror the date 1481.—Typ. Ant. +i. p. 100.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV39" id = "noteIV39" href = "#tagIV39">IV.39</a> +Fac-similes of six of those cuts are given in Dr. Dibdin’s edition of +Ames’s Typographical Antiquities, vol. i. p. 110-112.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV40" id = "noteIV40" href = "#tagIV40">IV.40</a> +A large flowered letter, a T, cut on wood, occurs on the same page as +the Crucifixion.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV41" id = "noteIV41" href = "#tagIV41">IV.41</a> +In a note upon this passage Dr. Dibdin gives the following extract from +Sir Joshua Reynolds. “To give animation to this subject, Rubens has +chosen the point of time when an executioner is piercing the side of +Christ, while another with a bar of iron is breaking the limbs of one of +the malefactors, who in his convulsive agony, which his body admirably +expresses, has torn one of his feet from the tree to which it was +nailed. The expression in the action of the figure is wonderful.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV42" id = "noteIV42" href = "#tagIV42">IV.42</a> +A copy of this cut is given at p. 186, vol. i. of Dr. Dibdin’s +edition of the Typographical Antiquities.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV43" id = "noteIV43" href = "#tagIV43">IV.43</a> +Arnsheim, which is probably the place intended, is about twenty miles to +the south-west of Mentz.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV44" id = "noteIV44" href = "#tagIV44">IV.44</a> +“Magister vero Conradus Suueynheyn, Germanus, a quo formandorum +Romæ librorum ars primum profecta est, occasione hinc sumpta posteritati +consulens animum ad hanc doctrinam capessendam applicuit. Subinde +mathematicis adhibitis viris quemadmodum tabulis eneis imprimerentur +edocuit, triennioque in hac cura consumpto diem obiit. In cujus +vigilarum laborumque partem non inferiori ingenio ac studio Arnoldus +Buckinck e Germania vir apprime eruditus ad imperfectum opus succedens, +ne Domitii Conradique obitu eorum vigiliæ emendationesque sine +testimonio perirent neve virorum eruditorum censuram fugerent immensæ +subtilitatis machinimenta, examussim ad unum perfecit.”—Dedication +to the Pope, of Ptolemy’s Cosmography, Rome, 1478.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV45" id = "noteIV45" href = "#tagIV45">IV.45</a> +This is Mr. Ottley’s measurement, taken within the black line which +bounds the subject. The width as given by Mercier does not accord with +the above. He says that the plate “a neuf pouces et demi de haut +sur six de large.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV46" id = "noteIV46" href = "#tagIV46">IV.46</a> +Mr. Ottley says, “on the reverse of signature N viij.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV47" id = "noteIV47" href = "#tagIV47">IV.47</a> +“Lettres de M. l’Abbé de St. L***, [St. Léger, autrefois le pere Le +Mercier, ancien Bibliothecaire de St. Genevieve] à M. le Baron +de H*** sur différentes Editions rares du XV<sup>e</sup>. Siécle,” +p. 4-5. 8vo. Paris, 1783. A short biographic sketch of the +Abbé Mercier St. Léger, one of the most eminent French Bibliographers of +the last century, will be found in Dr. Dibdin’s Tour, vol. ii. +p. 180.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV48" id = "noteIV48" href = "#tagIV48">IV.48</a> +I regret that I have not had an opportunity of personally examining this +map. There is a copy of Schott’s edition in the British Museum; but all +the maps, except one of the sphere, are taken out. The above account of +the map of Loraine is from Breitkopf’s interesting essay “Ueber den +Druck der Geographischen Charten,” S. 7. 4to. Leipzig, 1777.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV49" id = "noteIV49" href = "#tagIV49">IV.49</a> +The following particulars respecting Breitkopf’s invention are derived +from his essay “Ueber den Druck der Geographischen Charten,” previously +referred to.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV50" id = "noteIV50" href = "#tagIV50">IV.50</a> +An edition of this work in German, with the same cuts, was printed by +Reuwich in 1488. Within ten years, at least six different editions of +this work were printed in Germany. It was also translated into Low +Dutch, and printed in Holland.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV51" id = "noteIV51" href = "#tagIV51">IV.51</a> +This is probably the first figure of the giraffe that was communicated +to the “reading public” of Europe. Its existence was afterwards denied +by several naturalists; and it is only within a comparatively recent +period that the existence of such an animal was clearly established.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV52" id = "noteIV52" href = "#tagIV52">IV.52</a> +A good specimen of early French wood engraving may be seen in the large +cut forming a kind of frontispiece to the “Roman du Roy Artus,” folio, +printed at Rouen in 1488 by Jehan de Bourgeois. This cut, which occupies +the whole page, represents King Arthur and his knights dining off the +round table. A smaller one occurs at the beginning of the second +part, and both are surrounded by ornamental borders.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV53" id = "noteIV53" href = "#tagIV53">IV.53</a> +Hist. de l’Imprimerie, p. 49.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV54" id = "noteIV54" href = "#tagIV54">IV.54</a> +The expression “adhibitis tamen viris mathematicis” in the Nuremberg +Chronicle, is evidently borrowed from that,—“subinde mathematicis +adhibitis viris,”—in the dedication of Bukinck’s Ptolemy, 1478, to +the Pope. “Mathematical men,” in the present sense of the term, might be +required to construct the maps in the edition of Ptolemy, but scarcely +to design or engrave the vulgar figures and worthless views in the +Nuremberg Chronicle.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV55" id = "noteIV55" href = "#tagIV55">IV.55</a> +In the original, this cut, with one of Christ’s side pierced by a +soldier, and another of Moses striking the rock, are intended to +illustrate the mystery of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV56" id = "noteIV56" href = "#tagIV56">IV.56</a> +Mr. Ottley in speaking of an edition of the Metamorphoses printed at +Venice in 1509, with wood-cuts, mentions one of them as representing the +“Birth of Hercules,” which is probably treated in a manner similar to +those above noticed. Mr. Ottley also states that he had discovered the +artist to be Benedetto Montagna, who also engraved on +copper.—Inquiry, vol. ii p. 576.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV57" id = "noteIV57" href = "#tagIV57">IV.57</a> +Bibliographers and booksellers in their catalogues specify with delight +such copies as contain “la figura rappresentante il Sacrifizio à Priapo +bene conservata,” for in some copies this choice subject is wanting, and +in others partially defaced.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV58" id = "noteIV58" href = "#tagIV58">IV.58</a> +Some account of the Hypnerotomachia and its author is to be found in +Prosper Marchand’s Dictionnaire Historique.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV59" id = "noteIV59" href = "#tagIV59">IV.59</a> +In the life of Colonna in the Biographie Universelle, the last word is +said to be “<i>adamavit</i>,” which is a mistake. The word formed by the +initial letters of the nine last chapters is “<i>peramavit</i>,” as +above.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV60" id = "noteIV60" href = "#tagIV60">IV.60</a> +Heineken, in his catalogue of Raffaele’s works, mentions the cuts in the +Hypnerotomachia, but he says that it is questionable whether he designed +them all or only the eighty-six mythological and historical +subjects.—Nachrichten von Künstlern und Kunst-Sachen, 2er Theil, +S. 360. 8vo. Leipzig, 1769.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV61" id = "noteIV61" href = "#tagIV61">IV.61</a> +The author thus names his hero in his Italian title: “<i>Poliphilo</i> +incomincia la sua hypnerotomachia ad descrivere et l’hora et il tempo +quando gli appar ve in somno, &c.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV62" id = "noteIV62" href = "#tagIV62">IV.62</a> +The epithets applied to the different seasons as represented on this +votive altar are singularly beautiful and appropriate: “Florido Veri; +Flavæ Messi; Mustulento Autumno; Hyemi Æoliæ, Sacrum.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV63" id = "noteIV63" href = "#tagIV63">IV.63</a> +The letter M at the commencement of the next chapter affords an example +of this style of engraving.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV64" id = "noteIV64" href = "#tagIV64">IV.64</a> +Von Murr says that “Young Hans” was unquestionably the son of “Hans +Formschneider,” whose name appears in the town-books of Nuremberg from +1449 to 1490. He also thinks that he might be the same person as Hans +Sporer.—Journal, 2 Theil, S. 140, 141.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV65" id = "noteIV65" href = "#tagIV65">IV.65</a> +The title of this work is: “Holzschnitte alter Deutscher Meister in den +Original-Platten gesammelt von Hans Albrecht Von Derschau. Als ein +Beytrag zur Kunstgeschichte herausgegeben, und mit einer Abhandlung über +die Holzschneidekunst begleitet, von Rudolph Zacharias Becker.” It is in +large folio, with the text in German and French. The first part was +published at Gotha in 1808; the second in 1810; and the third in +1816.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV66" id = "noteIV66" href = "#tagIV66">IV.66</a> +Vol. iii. p. 445, edit. 1829.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV67" id = "noteIV67" href = "#tagIV67">IV.67</a> +“<span class = "blackletter">Huren sind böse katzen die vornen lecken +und hinten kratzen.</span>”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteIV68" id = "noteIV68" href = "#tagIV68">IV.68</a> +Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2er Theil, S. 125, 126.</p> + +</div> +</div> + +<div class = "correction"> +<h5>Errors in Chapter IV</h5> + +<p><span class = "citation"> +printed at the press of Haass the Younger, of Basil</span><br> +<i>spelling unchanged</i></p> +<p><span class = "citation"> +not only in Germany, but in France, Holland, and Switzerland</span><br> +France Holland,</p> +<p><span class = "citation"> +or even any of those cuts were designed by him</span><br> +hose cuts</p> +<p><span class = "citation"> +“ΣΥΜΟΙΓΛΥΚΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΙΚΡΟΣ”—“at once sweet and bitter.”</span><br> +<i>printed as shown, matching the illustration; the quotation is usually +given as</i> ΣΥΜΟΙ ΓΛΥΚΥΣ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΠΙΚΡΟΣ</p> + +<p>Footnote IV.5</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">written at Paris in 1449</span><br> +<i>a in “at” invisible</i></p> +</div> + + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page230" id = "page230"> +230</a></span> + +<h3><a name = "chap_V" id = "chap_V">CHAPTER V.</a><br> +<span class = "subhead">WOOD ENGRAVING IN THE TIME OF ALBERT +DURER.</span></h3> + +<p class = "synopsis"> +Chiaro-scuro engraving on wood—a copper-plate by mair mistaken for +the first chiaro-scuro—dotted backgrounds in old +wood-cuts—albert durer probably not a wood-engraver—his +birth—a pupil of michael wolgemuth—his travels—cuts of +the apocalypse designed by him—his visit to venice in +1506—the history of the virgin and christ’s passion engraved on +wood from his designs—his triumphal car and triumphal arch of the +emperor maximilian—his invention of etching—his +carving—visit to the netherlands—his death—wood-cuts +designed by l. cranach, h. burgmair, and +h. schæfflein—the adventures of sir theurdank—the wise +king—the triumphs of maximilian—ugo da carpi—lucas van +leyden—william de figuersnider—ursgraff—cuts designed +by unknown artists between 1500 and 1528.</p> + +<div class = "maintext"> + +<p class = "first"><span class = "firstword"><span class = "dropcap"> +<a name = "illus_230" id = "illus_230"> +<img src = "images/illus_230.png" width = "181" height = "192" +alt = "M"></a></span>ost</span> +authors who have written on the history of engraving have incidentally +noticed the art of chiaro-scuro engraving on wood, which began to be +practised early in the sixteenth century.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV1" +id = "tagV1" href = "#noteV1">V.1</a> The honour of the invention has +been claimed for Italy by Vasari and other Italian writers, who seem to +think that no improvement in the arts of design and engraving can +originate on this side of the Alps. According to their account, +chiaro-scuro engraving on wood was first introduced by Ugo da Carpi, who +executed several pieces in that manner from the designs of Raffaele. +But, though confident in their assertions, they are weak in their +proofs; for they can produce no chiaro-scuros by Ugo da Carpi, or by any +other Italian engraver, of an earlier date than 1518. The engravings of +Italian artists in this style +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page231" id = "page231"> +231</a></span> +are not numerous, previous to 1530, and we can scarcely suppose that the +earliest of them was executed before 1515. That the art was known and +practised in Germany several years before this period there can be no +doubt; for a chiaro-scuro wood engraving, a Repose in Egypt, by +Lucas Cranach, is dated 1509; two others by Hans Baldung Grün are dated +1509 and 1510; and a portrait, in the same style, by Hans Burgmair, is +dated 1512.</p> + +<p>Some German writers, not satisfied with these proofs of the art being +practised in Germany before it was known in Italy, refer to an +engraving, dated 1499, by a German artist of the name of Mair, as one of +the earliest executed in this manner. This engraving, which is from a +copper-plate, cannot fairly be produced as evidence on the point in +dispute; for though it bears the appearance of a chiaro-scuro engraving, +yet it is not so in reality; for on a narrow inspection we may perceive +that the light touches have neither been preserved, nor afterwards +communicated by means of a block or a plate, but have been added with a +fine pencil after the impression was taken. It is, in fact, nothing more +than a copper-plate printed on dark-coloured paper, and afterwards +heightened with a kind of white and yellow body-colour. It is very +likely, however, that the subject was engraved and printed on a dark +ground with the express intention of the lights being subsequently added +by means of a pencil. The artist had questionless wished to produce an +imitation of a chiaro-scuro drawing; but he certainly did not effect his +purpose in the same manner as L. Cranach, H. Burgmair, or Ugo +da Carpi, whose chiaro-scuro engravings had the lights preserved, and +required no subsequent touching with the pencil to give to them that +character.</p> + +<p>The subject of this engraving is the Nativity, and there is an +impression of it in the Print Room of the British Museum.<a class = +"tag" name = "tagV2" id = "tagV2" href = "#noteV2">V.2</a> In the +foreground, about the middle of the print, is the Virgin seated with the +infant Jesus in her lap. At her feet is a cradle of wicker-work, and to +the left is an angel kneeling in adoration. On the same side, but +further distant, is Joseph leaning over a half door, holding a candle in +one hand and shading it with the other. In the background is the stable, +in which an ox and an ass are seen; and the directing star appears +shining in the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page232" id = "page232"> +232</a></span> +sky. The print is eight inches high, and five inches and three-eighths +wide; at the top is the date 1499, and at the bottom the engraver’s +name, <span class = "smallcaps">Mair</span>. It is printed in black ink +on paper which previous to receiving the impression had been tinted or +stained a brownish-green colour. The lights have neither been preserved +in the plate nor communicated by means of a second impression, but have +been laid on by the hand with a fine pencil. The rays of the star, and +the circles of light surrounding the head of the Virgin, and also that +of the infant, are of a pale yellow, and the colour from its chalky +appearance seems very like the touches of a crayon. The lights in the +draperies and in the architectural parts of the subject have been laid +on with a fine pencil guided by a steady hand. That the engraver +intended his work to be finished in this manner there can be little +doubt; and the impression referred to affords a proof of it; for +Joseph’s candle, though he shades it with his left hand, in reality +gives no light. The engraver had evidently intended that the light +should be added in positive body colour; but the person—perhaps +the engraver himself—whose business it was to add the finishing +touches to the impression, has neglected to light Joseph’s candle.<a +class = "tag" name = "tagV3" id = "tagV3" href = "#noteV3">V.3</a></p> + +<p>Towards the latter end of the fifteenth century,<a class = "tag" name += "tagV4" id = "tagV4" href = "#noteV4">V.4</a> a practice was +introduced by the German wood engravers of dotting the dark parts of +their subjects with white, more especially in cuts where the figures +were intended to appear light upon a dark ground; and about the +beginning of the sixteenth, this mode of “killing the black,” as it is +technically termed, was very generally prevalent among the French wood +engravers, who, as well as the Germans and Dutch, continued to practise +it till about 1520, when it was almost wholly superseded by +cross-hatching; a mode of producing shade which had been much +practised by the German engravers who worked from the drawings of Durer, +Cranach, and Burgmair, and which about that time seems to have been +generally adopted in all countries where the art had made any progress. +The two following cuts, which are from an edition of “Heures à l’Usaige +de Chartres,” printed at Paris by Simon Vostre, about 1502, are examples +of this mode of diminishing the effects of a ground which would +otherwise be entirely black. Books printed in France between 1500 and +1520 afford the most numerous instances of dark backgrounds dotted with +white. In many cuts executed about the latter period the dots are of +larger size and more numerous in proportion to the black, and they +evidently have been +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page233" id = "page233"> +233</a></span> +produced by means of a lozenge-pointed tool, in imitation of +cross-hatching.</p> + +<p>The greatest promoter of the art of wood engraving, towards the close +of the fifteenth and in the early part of the sixteenth century, was +unquestionably Albert Durer; not however, as is generally supposed, from +having himself engraved the numerous wood-cuts which bear his mark, but +from his having thought so well of the art as to have most of his +greatest works engraved on wood from drawings made on the block by +himself. Until within the last thirty years, most writers who have +written on the subject of art, have spoken of Albert Durer as a wood +engraver; and before proceeding to give any account of his life, or +specimens of some of the principal wood engravings which bear his mark, +it appears necessary to examine the <ins class = "correction" title = +"text reads ‘gronnds’">grounds</ins> of this opinion.</p> + +<div class = "picture"> +<div class = "picblock w250"> +<p><a name = "illus_233" id = "illus_233"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_233a.png" width = "233" height = "94" +alt = "see text"></p> +</div> + +<div class = "picblock"> +<p><img src = "images/illus_233b.png" width = "232" height = "93" +alt = "see text"></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>There are about two hundred subjects engraved on wood which are +marked with the initials of Albert Durer’s name; and the greater part of +them, though evidently designed by the hand of a master, are engraved in +a manner which certainly denotes no very great excellence. Of the +remainder, which are better engraved, it would be difficult to point out +one which displays execution so decidedly superior as to enable any +person to say positively that it must have been cut by Albert Durer +himself. The earliest engravings on wood with Durer’s mark are sixteen +cuts illustrative of the Apocalypse, first published in 1498; and +between that period and 1528, the year of his death, it is likely that +nearly all the others were executed. The cuts of the Apocalypse +generally are much superior to all wood engravings that had previously +appeared, both in design and execution; but if they be carefully +examined by any person conversant with the practice of the art, it will +be perceived that their +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page234" id = "page234"> +234</a></span> +superiority is not owing to any delicacy in the lines which would render +them difficult to engrave, but from the ability of the person by whom +they were drawn, and from his knowledge of the capabilities of the art. +Looking at the state of wood engraving at the period when those cuts +were published, I cannot think that the artist who made the +drawings would experience any difficulty in finding persons capable of +engraving them. In most of the wood-cuts supposed to have been engraved +by Albert Durer we find cross-hatching freely introduced; the readiest +mode of producing effect to an artist drawing on wood with a pen or a +black-lead pencil, but which to the wood engraver is attended with +considerable labour. Had Albert Durer engraved his own designs, +I am inclined to think that he would not have introduced +cross-hatching so frequently, but would have endeavoured to attain his +object by means which were easier of execution. What is termed +“cross-hatching” in wood engraving is nothing more than black lines +crossing each other, for the most part diagonally; and in <i>drawing</i> +on wood it is easier to produce a shade by this means, than by +thickening the lines; but in <i>engraving</i> on wood it is precisely +the reverse; for it is easier to leave a thick line than to cut out the +interstices of lines crossing each other. Nothing is more common than +for persons who know little of the history of wood engraving, and still +less of the practice, to refer to the frequent cross-hatching in the +cuts supposed to have been engraved by Albert Durer as a proof of their +excellence: as if the talent of the artist were chiefly displayed in +such parts of the cuts as are in reality least worthy of him, and which +a mere workman might execute as well. In opposition to this vulgar error +I venture to assert, that there is not a wood engraver in London of the +least repute who cannot produce <i>apprentices</i> to cut fac-similes of +any cross-hatching that is to be found, not only in the wood engravings +supposed to have been <ins class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘excuted’">executed</ins> by Albert Durer, but in those of any other +master. The execution of cross-hatching requires time, but very little +talent; and a moderately clever lad, with a steady hand and a +lozenge-pointed tool, will cut in a year a <i>square yard</i> of such +cross-hatching as is generally found in the largest of the cuts supposed +to have been engraved by Albert Durer. In the works of Bewick, scarcely +more than one trifling instance of cross-hatching is to be found; and in +the productions of all other modern wood engravers who have made their +own drawings, we find cross-hatching sparingly introduced; while in +almost every one of the cuts designed by Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, and +others who are known to have been painters of eminence in their day, it +is of frequent occurrence. Had these masters engraved their own designs +on wood, as has been very generally supposed, they probably would have +introduced much less cross-hatching into their subjects; but as there is +every reason to believe that they only made the drawing on the wood, the +engravings +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page235" id = "page235"> +235</a></span> +which are ascribed to them abound in lines which are readily made with a +pen or a pencil, but which require considerable time to cut with a +graver.</p> + +<p>At the period that Durer published his illustrations of the +Apocalypse, few wood-cuts of much merit either in design or execution +had appeared in printed books; and the wood engravers of that age seem +generally to have been mere workmen, who only understood the mechanical +branch of their art, but who were utterly devoid of all knowledge of +composition or correct drawing; and there is also reason to believe that +wood-cuts at that period, and even for some time after, were not +unfrequently engraved by women.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV5" id = +"tagV5" href = "#noteV5">V.5</a> As the names of those persons were +probably not known beyond the town in which they resided, it cannot be a +matter of surprise that neither their marks nor initials should be found +on the cuts which they engraved from the drawings of such artists as +Albert Durer.</p> + +<p>It perhaps may be objected, that as Albert Durer’s copper-plate +engravings contain only his mark, in the same manner as the wood +engravings, it might with equal reason be questioned if they were really +executed by himself. Notwithstanding the identity of the marks, there +is, however, a wide difference between the two cases. In the age of +Albert Durer most of the artists who engraved on copper were also +painters; and most of the copper-plate engravings which bear his mark +are such as none but an artist of great talent could execute. It would +require the abilities of a first-rate copper-plate engraver of the +present day to produce a fac-simile of his best copper-plates; while a +wood engraver of but moderate skill would be able to cut a fac-simile of +one of his best wood engravings after the subject was drawn for him on +the block. The best of Albert Durer’s copper-plates could only have been +engraved by a master; while the best of his wood-cuts might be engraved +by a working Formschneider who had acquired a practical knowledge of his +art by engraving, under the superintendence of Michael Wolgemuth and +William Pleydenwurff, the wood-cuts for the Nuremberg Chronicle.</p> + +<p>Von Murr, who was of opinion that Albert Durer engraved his own +designs on wood, gives a letter of Durer’s in the ninth volume of his +Journal which he thinks is decisive of the fact. The letter, which +relates to a wood engraving of a shield of arms, was written in 1511, +and is to the following effect: “Dear Michael Beheim, I return you +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page236" id = "page236"> +236</a></span> +the arms, and beg that you will let it remain as it is. No one will make +it better, as I have done it according to art and with great care, as +those who see it and understand the matter will tell you. If the labels +were thrown back above the helmet, the volet would be covered.”<a class += "tag" name = "tagV6" id = "tagV6" href = "#noteV6">V.6</a> This +letter, however, is by no means decisive, for it is impossible to +determine whether the “arms” which the artist returned were a finished +engraving or merely a drawing on wood.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV7" id += "tagV7" href = "#noteV7">V.7</a> From one or two expressions it seems +most likely to have been a drawing only; for in a finished cut +alterations cannot very well be introduced; and it seems most probable +that Michael Beheim’s objections would be made to the drawing of the +arms before they were engraved, and not to the finished cut. But even +supposing it to have been the engraved block which Durer returned, this +is by no means a proof of his having engraved it himself, for he might +have engravers employed in his house in order that the designs which he +drew on the blocks might be executed under his own superintendence. The +Baron Derschau indeed told Dr. Dibdin that he was once in possession of +the <i>journal</i> or day-book of Albert Durer, from which “it appeared +that he was in the habit of drawing upon the blocks, and that his men +performed the remaining operation of cutting away the wood.”<a class = +"tag" name = "tagV8" id = "tagV8" href = "#noteV8">V.8</a> This +information, had it been communicated by a person whose veracity might +be depended on, would be decisive of the question; but the book +unfortunately “perished in the flames of a house in the neighbourhood of +one of the battles fought between Bonaparte and the Prussians;” and from +a little anecdote recorded by Dr. Dibdin the Baron appears to have been +a person whose word was not to be implicitly relied on.<a class = "tag" +name = "tagV9" id = "tagV9" href = "#noteV9">V.9</a></p> + +<p>Neudörffer, who in 1546 collected some particulars relative to the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page237" id = "page237"> +237</a></span> +history of the artists of Nuremberg, says that Jerome Resch, or Rösch, +engraved most of the cuts designed by Albert Durer. He also says that +Resch was one of the most skilful wood engravers of his day, and that he +particularly excelled in engraving letters on wood. This artist also +used to engrave dies for coining money, and had a printing establishment +of his own. He dwelt in the Broad Way at Nuremberg, with a back entrance +in Petticoat Lane;<a class = "tag" name = "tagV10" id = "tagV10" href = +"#noteV10">V.10</a> and when he was employed in engraving the Triumphal +Car drawn by Albert Durer for the Emperor Maximilian, the Emperor used +to call almost every day to see the progress of the work; and as he +entered at Petticoat Lane, it became a by-word with the common people: +“The Emperor still often drives to Petticoat Lane.”<a class = "tag" name += "tagV11" id = "tagV11" href = "#noteV11">V.11</a></p> + +<p>Although it is by no means unlikely that Albert Durer might engrave +two or three wood-cuts of his own designing, yet, after a careful +examination of most of those that bear his mark, I cannot find one +which is so decidedly superior to the rest as to induce an opinion of +its being engraved by himself; and I cannot for a moment believe that an +artist of his great talents, and who painted so many pictures, engraved +so many copper-plates, and made so many designs, could find time to +engrave even a small part of the many wood-cuts which have been supposed +to be executed by him, and which a common wood engraver might execute as +well. “If Durer himself had engraved on wood,” says Bartsch in the +seventh volume of his Peintre-Graveur, “it is most likely that among the +many particular accounts which we have of his different pursuits, and of +the various kind of works which he has left, the fact of his having +applied himself to wood engraving would certainly have been transmitted +in a manner no less explicit; but, far from finding the least trace of +it, everything that relates to this subject proves that he had never +employed himself in this kind of work. He is always described as a +painter, a designer, or an editor of works engraved on wood, but +never as a wood engraver.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV12" id = "tagV12" +href = "#noteV12">V.12</a> I also further agree with Bartsch, who +thinks that the wood-cuts which contain the marks of Lucas Cranach, Hans +Burgmair, and others who are known to +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page238" id = "page238"> +238</a></span> +have been painters of considerable reputation in their day, were not +engraved by those artists, but only designed or drawn by them on the +block.</p> + +<p>Albert Durer was born at Nuremberg, on 20th May 1471. His father, +whose name was also Albert, was a goldsmith, and a native of Cola in +Hungary. His mother was a daughter of Jerome Haller, who was also a +goldsmith, and the master under whom the elder Durer had acquired a +knowledge of his art. Albert continued with his father till his +sixteenth year, and had, as he himself says, learned to execute +beautiful works in the goldsmith’s art, when he felt a great desire to +become a painter. His father on hearing of his wish to change his +profession was much displeased, as he considered that the time he had +already spent in endeavouring to acquire a knowledge of the art of a +goldsmith was entirely lost. He, however, assented to his son’s earnest +request, and placed him, on St. Andrew’s day, 1486, as a pupil under +Michael Wolgemuth for the term of three years, to learn the art of +painting. On the expiration of his “lehr-jahre,” or apprenticeship, in +1490, he left his master, and, according to the custom of German artists +of that period, proceeded to travel for the purpose of gaining a further +knowledge of his profession. In what manner or in what places he was +chiefly employed during his “wander-jahre”<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV13" id = "tagV13" href = "#noteV13">V.13</a> is not very well +known; but it is probable that his travels did not extend beyond +Germany. In the course of his peregrinations he visited Colmar, in 1492, +where he was kindly received by Caspar, Paul, and Louis, the brothers of +Martin Schongauer; but he did not see, either then or at any other +period, that celebrated engraver himself.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV14" id = "tagV14" href = "#noteV14">V.14</a> He returned to +Nuremberg in the spring of 1494; and shortly afterwards married Agnes, +the daughter of John Frey, a mechanist of considerable reputation +of that city. This match, which is said to have been made for him by his +parents, proved to be an unhappy one; for, though his wife possessed +considerable personal charms, she was a woman of a most wretched temper; +and her incessant urging him to continued exertion +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page239" id = "page239"> +239</a></span> +in order that she might obtain money, is said to have embittered the +life of the artist and eventually to have hastened his death.<a class = +"tag" name = "tagV15" id = "tagV15" href = "#noteV15">V.15</a></p> + +<p>It has not been ascertained from whom Albert Durer learnt the art of +engraving on copper; for there seems but little reason to believe that +his master Michael Wolgemuth ever practised that branch of art, though +several copper-plates, marked with a W, have been ascribed to him by +some authors.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV16" id = "tagV16" href = +"#noteV16">V.16</a> As most of the early copper-plate engravers were +also goldsmiths, it is probable that Durer might acquire some knowledge +of the former art during the time that he continued with his father; +and, as he was endowed with a versatile genius, it is not unlikely that +he owed his future improvement entirely to himself. The earliest date +that is to be found on his copper-plates is 1494. The subject in which +this date occurs represents a group of four naked women with a globe +suspended above them, in the manner of a lamp, on which are inscribed +the letters O. G. H. which have been supposed to signify the +words “O Gott helf!”—Help, O Lord!—as if the +spectator on beholding the naked beauties were exceedingly liable to +fall into temptation.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV17" id = "tagV17" href += "#noteV17">V.17</a></p> + +<p>The earliest wood engravings that contain Albert Durer’s mark are +sixteen subjects, of folio size, illustrative of the Apocalypse, which +were printed at Nuremberg, 1498. On the first leaf is the title in +German: “Die heimliche Offenbarung Johannes”—“The Revelation of +John;”—and on the back of the last cut but one is the imprint: +“Gedrücket zu Nurnbergk durch Albrecht Durer, maler, nach Christi geburt +<span class = "smallroman">M. CCCC.</span> und darnach im xcviij. +iar”—“Printed at Nuremberg by Albert Durer, painter, in the year +after the birth of Christ 1498.” The date of those cuts marks an +important epoch in the history of wood engraving. From this time the +boundaries of the art became enlarged; and wood engravers, instead of +being almost wholly occupied in executing designs of the very lowest +character, drawn without feeling, taste, or knowledge, were now to be +engaged in engraving subjects of general interest, drawn, expressly for +the purpose of being thus executed, by some of the most celebrated +artists of the age. Though several cuts of the Apocalypse are faulty in +drawing and extravagant in design, they are on the whole +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page240" id = "page240"> +240</a></span> +much superior to any series of wood engravings that preceded them; and +their execution, though coarse, is free and bold. They are not equal, in +point of well-contrasted light and shade, to some of Durer’s later +designs on wood; but considering them as his first essays in drawing on +wood, they are not unworthy of his reputation. They appear as if they +had been drawn on the block with a pen and ink; and though +cross-hatching is to be found in all of them, this mode of indicating a +shade, or obtaining “colour,” is much less frequently employed than in +some of his later productions. The following is a reduced copy of one of +the cuts, No. 11, which is illustrative of the twelfth chapter of +Revelations, verses 1-4: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; +a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon +her head a crown of twelve stars.——And there appeared +another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven +heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew +the third part of +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page241" id = "page241"> +241</a></span> +the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon +stood before the woman.”</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_240" id = "illus_240"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_240.png" width = "326" height = "439" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>In 1502 a pirated edition of those cuts was published at Strasburg by +Jerome Greff, who describes himself as a painter of Frankfort. In 1511 +Durer published a second edition of the originals; and on the back of +the last cut but one is a caution addressed to the plagiary, informing +him of the Emperor’s order, prohibiting any one to copy the cuts or to +sell the spurious impressions within the limits of the German empire, +under the penalty of the confiscation of goods, and at the peril of +further punishment.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV18" id = "tagV18" href = +"#noteV18">V.18</a></p> + +<p>Though no other wood engravings with Durer’s mark are found with a +date till 1504, yet it is highly probable that several subjects of his +designing were engraved between 1498, the date of the Apocalypse, and +the above year; and it is also likely that he engraved several +copper-plates within this period; although, with the exception of that +of the four naked women, there are only four known which contain a date +earlier than 1505. About the commencement of 1506 Durer visited Venice, +where he remained till October in the same year. Eight letters which he +addressed to Bilibald Pirkheimer from Venice, are printed in the tenth +volume of Von Murr’s Journal. In the first letter, which is dated on the +day of the Three Kings of Cologne, 1506, he informs his friend that he +was employed to paint a picture for the German church at Venice, for +which he was to receive a hundred and ten Rhenish guilders,<a class = +"tag" name = "tagV19" id = "tagV19" href = "#noteV19">V.19</a> and that +he expects to have it ready to place above the altar a month after +Easter. He expresses a hope that he will be enabled to repay out of this +money what he had borrowed of Pirkheimer. From this letter it seems +evident that Durer’s circumstances were not then in a very flourishing +state, and that he had to depend on his exertions for the means of +living. The comparatively trifling sums which he mentions as having sent +to his mother and his wife sufficiently declare that he had not left a +considerable sum at home. He also says, that should his wife want more +money, her father must assist her, and that he will honourably repay him +on his return.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page242" id = "page242"> +242</a></span> +<p>In the second letter, after telling Pirkheimer that he has no other +friend but him on earth, he expresses a wish that he were in Venice to +enjoy the pleasant company that he has met with there. The following +passage, which occurs in this letter, is, perhaps, the most interesting +in the collection: “I have many good friends among the Italians, +who warn me not to eat or drink with their painters, of whom several are +my enemies, and copy my picture in the church and others of mine, +wherever they can find them; and yet they blame them, and say they are +not according to ancient art, and therefore not good. Giovanni Bellini<a +class = "tag" name = "tagV20" id = "tagV20" href = "#noteV20">V.20</a> +however has praised me highly to several gentlemen, and wishes to have +something of my doing. He called on me himself, and requested that I +would paint a picture for him, for which he said he would pay me well. +People are all surprised that I should be so much thought of by a person +of his reputation. He is very old, but is still the best painter of them +all. The things which pleased me eleven years ago, please me no longer. +If I had not seen it myself I could not have believed it. You must also +know that there are many better painters within this city than Master +Jacob is without, although Anthony Kolb swears that there is not on +earth a better painter than Jacob.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV21" id = +"tagV21" href = "#noteV21">V.21</a> The others laugh, and say if he were +good for anything he would live in Venice.”</p> + +<p>The greater part of the other six letters are chiefly occupied with +accounts of his success in executing sundry little commissions with +which he had been entrusted by his friends, such as the purchase of a +finger-ring and two pieces of tapestry; to enquire after such Greek +books as had been recently published; and to get him some crane +feathers. The sixth and seventh letters are written in a vein of humour +which at the present time would be called gross. Von Murr illustrates +one passage by a quotation from Swift which is not remarkable for its +delicacy; and he also says that Durer’s eighth letter is written in the +humorous style of that writer. Those letters show that chastity was not +one of Bilibald Pirkheimer’s virtues; and that the learned counsellor of +the imperial city of Nuremberg was devoted “tam Veneri quam Mercurio.”<a +class = "tag" name = "tagV22" id = "tagV22" href = +"#noteV22">V.22</a></p> + +<p>In the fourth letter Durer says that the painters were much opposed +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page243" id = "page243"> +243</a></span> +to him; that they had thrice compelled him to go before the magistracy; +and that they had obliged him to give four florins to their society. In +the seventh letter, he writes as follows about the picture which he had +painted for the German church: “I have through it received great +praise, but little profit. I might well have gained two hundred +ducats in the same time, and all the while I laboured most diligently in +order that I might get home again. I have given all the painters a +rubbing down who said that I could engrave<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV23" id = "tagV23" href = "#noteV23">V.23</a> well, but that in +painting I knew not how to manage my colours. Everybody here says they +never saw colours more beautiful.” In his last letter, which is dated, +“at Venice, I know not what day of the month, but about the +fourteenth day after Michaelmas, 1506,” he says that he will be ready to +leave that city in about ten days; that he intends to proceed to +Bologna, and after staying there about eight or ten days for the sake of +learning some secrets in perspective, to return home by way of Venice. +He visited Bologna as he intended; and was treated with great respect by +the painters of that city. After a brief stay at Bologna, he returned to +Nuremberg; and there is no evidence of his ever having visited Italy +again.</p> + +<p class = "figfloat"> +<a name = "illus_243" id = "illus_243"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_243.png" width = "227" height = "220" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>In 1511, the second of Durer’s large works engraved on wood appeared +at Nuremberg. It is generally entitled the History of the Virgin, and +consists of nineteen large cuts, each about eleven inches and three +quarters high, by eight inches and a quarter wide, with a vignette of +smaller size which ornaments the title-page.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV24" id = "tagV24" href = "#noteV24">V.24</a> Impressions are to be +found without any accompanying text, but the greater number have +explanatory verses printed from type at the back. The cut here +represented is a reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page. The +Virgin +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page244" id = "page244"> +244</a></span> +is seen seated on a crescent, giving suck to the infant Christ; and her +figure and that of the child are drawn with great feeling. Of all +Durer’s Madonnas, whether engraved on wood or copper, this, perhaps, is +one of the best. Her attitude is easy and natural, and happily +expressive of the character in which she is represented—that of a +nursing mother. The light and shade are well contrasted; and the folds +of her ample drapery, which Durer was fond of introducing whenever he +could, are arranged in a manner which materially contributes to the +effect of the engraving.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_244" id = "illus_244"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_244.png" width = "332" height = "462" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The following cuts are reduced copies of two of the larger subjects +of the same work. That which is here given represents the birth of the +Virgin; and were it not for the angel who is seen swinging a censer at +the top of the room, it might be taken for the accouchement of a German +burgomaster’s wife in the year 1510. The interior is apparently that of +a house in Nuremberg of Durer’s own time, and the figures introduced +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page245" id = "page245"> +245</a></span> +are doubtless faithful copies, both in costume and character, of such +females as were generally to be found in the house of a German tradesman +on such an occasion. From the number of cups and flagons that are seen, +we may be certain that the gossips did not want liquor; and that in +Durer’s age the female friends and attendants on a groaning woman were +accustomed to enjoy themselves on the birth of a child over a cheerful +cup. In the fore-ground an elderly female is perceived taking a draught, +without measure, from a flagon; while another, more in the distance and +farther to the right, appears to be drinking, from a cup, health to the +infant which a woman like a nurse holds in her arms. An elderly female, +sitting by the side of the bed, has dropped into a doze; but whether +from the effects of the liquor or long watching it would not be easy to +divine. On the opposite side of the bed a female figure presents a +caudle, with a spoon in it, to St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin, while +another is seen filling a goblet of wine. At the bottom of the cut is +Durer’s mark on a tablet. The original cut is not remarkable for the +excellence of its engraving, but it affords a striking example of the +little attention which Durer, in common with most other German painters +of that period, paid to propriety of costume in the treatment of such +subjects. The piece is Hebrew, of the age of Herod the Great; but the +scenery, dresses, and decorations are German, of the time of +Maximilian I.</p> + +<p>The second specimen of the large cuts of Durer’s Life of the Virgin, +given on the next page, represents the Sojourn of the Holy Family in +Egypt. In the fore-ground St. Joseph is seen working at his business as +a carpenter; while a number of little figures, like so many Cupids, are +busily employed in collecting the chips which he makes and in putting +them into a basket. Two little winged figures, of the same family as the +chip-collectors, are seen running hand-in-hand, a little more in +the distance to the left, and one of them holds in his hand a plaything +like those which are called “windmills” in England, and are cried about +as “toys for girls and boys,” and sold for a halfpenny each, or +exchanged for old pewter spoons, doctors’ bottles, or broken +flint-glass. To the right the Virgin, a matronly-looking figure, is +seen sitting spinning, and at the same time rocking with her foot the +cradle in which the infant Christ is asleep. Near the Virgin are St. +Elizabeth and her young son, the future Baptist. At the head of the +cradle is an angel bending as if in the act of adoration; while another, +immediately behind St. Elizabeth, holds a pot containing flowers. In the +sky there is a representation of the Deity, with the Holy Ghost in the +shape of a dove. The artist has not thought it necessary to mark the +locality of the scene by the introduction of pyramids and temples in the +back-ground, for the architectural parts of his subject, as well +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page246" id = "page246"> +246</a></span> +as the human figures, have evidently been supplied by his own <ins class += "correction" title = ". invisible">country.</ins> Durer’s mark is at +the bottom of the cut on the right.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_246" id = "illus_246"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_246.png" width = "334" height = "466" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>Christ’s Passion, consisting of a series of eleven large wood-cuts +and a vignette, designed by Albert Durer, appeared about the same time +as his History of the Virgin.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV25" id = +"tagV25" href = "#noteV25">V.25</a> The descriptive matter was compiled +by Chelidonius; and, in the same manner as in the History of the Virgin, +a certain number of impressions were printed without any +explanatory text.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV26" id = "tagV26" href = +"#noteV26">V.26</a> The large subjects are about fifteen inches and a +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page247" id = "page247"> +247</a></span> +half high, by eleven inches and an eighth wide. The following cut is a +reduced copy of the vignette on the title-page.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_247" id = "illus_247"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_247.png" width = "223" height = "219" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The subject is Christ mocked; but the artist has at the same time +wished to express in the figure of Christ the variety of his sufferings: +the Saviour prays as if in his agony on the mount; near him lies the +instrument of his flagellation; his hands and feet bear the marks of the +nails, and he appears seated on the covering of his sepulchre. The +soldier is kneeling and offering a reed as a sceptre to Christ, whom he +hails in derision as King of the Jews.</p> + +<p>The three following cuts are reduced copies of the same number in the +Passion of Christ. In the cut of the Last Supper, in the next page, +cross-hatching is freely introduced, though without contributing much to +the improvement of the engraving; and the same effect in the wall to the +right, in the groins of the roof, and in the floor under the table, +might be produced by much simpler means. No artist, I am persuaded, +would introduce such work in a design if he had to engrave it himself. +The same “colour” might be produced by single lines which could be +executed in a third of the time required to cut out the interstices of +the cross-hatchings. Durer’s mark is at the bottom of the cut, and the +date 1510 is perceived above it, on the frame of the table.</p> + +<p>The cut on page 249, from the Passion, Christ bearing his Cross, is +highly characteristic of Durer’s style; and the original is one of the +best of all the wood engravings which bear his mark. The characters +introduced are such as he was fondest of drawing; and most of the heads +and figures may be recognised in several other engravings either +executed by himself on copper or by others on wood from his designs.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_248" id = "illus_248"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_248.png" width = "335" height = "445" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The figure which is seen holding a kind of halbert in his right hand +is a favourite with Durer, and is introduced, with trifling variations, +in at +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page248" id = "page248"> +248</a></span> +least half a dozen of his subjects; and the horseman with a kind of +turban on his head and a lance in his left hand occurs no less +frequently. St. Veronica, who is seen holding the “sudarium,” or holy +handkerchief, in the fore-ground to the left, is a type of his female +figures; the head of the executioner, who is seen urging Christ forward, +is nearly the same as that of the mocker in the preceding vignette; and +Simon the Cyrenian, who assists to bear the cross, appears to be the +twin-brother of St. Joseph in the Sojourn in Egypt. The figure of +Christ, bowed down with the weight of the cross, is well drawn, and his +face is strongly expressive of sorrow. Behind Simon the Cyrenian are the +Virgin and St. John; and under the gateway a man with a haggard visage +is perceived carrying a ladder with his head between the steps. The +artist’s mark is at the bottom of the cut.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page249" id = "page249"> +249</a></span> +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_249" id = "illus_249"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_249.png" width = "328" height = "444" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The subject of the cut on page 250, from Christ’s Passion, represents +the descent into hell and the liberation of the ancestors. The massive +gates of the abode of sin and death have been burst open, and the banner +of the cross waves triumphant. Among those who have already been +liberated from the pit of darkness are Eve, who has her back turned +towards the spectator, and Adam, who in his right hand holds an apple, +the symbol of his fall, and with his left supports a cross, the emblem +of his redemption. In the front is Christ aiding others of the ancestors +to ascend from the pit, to the great dismay of the demons whose realm is +invaded. A horrid monster, with a head like that of a boar +surmounted with a horn, aims a blow at the Redeemer with a kind of rude +lance; while another, a hideous compound of things that swim, and +walk, and fly, sounds a note of alarm to arouse his kindred fiends. On a +stone, +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page250" id = "page250"> +250</a></span> +above the entrance to the pit, is the date 1510; and Durer’s mark is +perceived on another stone immediately before the figure of Christ. This +cut, with the exception of the frequent cross-hatching, is designed more +in the style and spirit of the artist’s illustrations of the Apocalypse +than in the manner of the rest of the series to which it belongs.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_250" id = "illus_250"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_250.png" width = "329" height = "446" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The preceding specimens of wood-cuts from Durer’s three great works, +the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and Christ’s Passion, afford +not only an idea of the style of his drawing on wood, but also of the +progress made by the art of wood engraving from the time of his first +availing himself of its capabilities. In Durer’s designs on wood we +perceive not only more correct drawing and a greater knowledge of +composition, but also a much more effective combination of light and +shade, than are to be found in any wood-cuts executed before the date of +his earliest work, the Apocalypse, which appeared in 1498. One of the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page251" id = "page251"> +251</a></span> +peculiar advantages of wood engraving is the effect with which strong +shades can be represented; and of this Durer has generally availed +himself with the greatest skill. On comparing his works engraved on wood +with all those previously executed in the same manner, we shall find +that his figures are not only much better drawn and more skilfully +grouped, but that instead of sticking, in hard outline, against the +back-ground, they stand out with the natural appearance of rotundity. +The rules of perspective are more attentively observed; the back-grounds +better filled; and a number of subordinate objects introduced—such +as trees, herbage, flowers, animals, and children—which at once +give a pleasing variety to the subject and impart to it the stamp of +truth. Though the figures in many of his designs may not indeed be +correct in point of costume,—for though he diligently studied +Nature, it was only in her German dress,—yet their character and +expression are generally appropriate and natural. Though incapable of +imparting to sacred subjects the elevated character which is given to +them by Raffaele, his representations are perhaps no less like the +originals than those of the great Italian master. It is indeed highly +probable that Albert Durer’s German representatives of saints and +apostles are more like the originals than the more dignified ideal +portraits of Raffaele. The latter, from his knowledge of the antique, +has frequently given to his Jews a character and a costume borrowed from +Grecian art of the age of Phidias; while Albert Durer has given to them +the features and invested them in the costume of Germans of his own +age.</p> + +<p>Shortly after the appearance of the large cuts illustrative of +Christ’s Passion, Durer published a series of thirty-seven of a smaller +size, also engraved on wood, which Mr. Ottley calls “The Fall of Man and +his Redemption through Christ,” but which Durer himself refers to under +the title of “The Little Passion.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV27" id = +"tagV27" href = "#noteV27">V.27</a> All the cuts of the Little Passion, +as well as seventeen of those of the Life of the Virgin and several +other pieces of Durer’s, were imitated on copper by Marc Antonio +Raimondi, the celebrated Italian engraver, who is said to have sold his +copies as the originals. Vasari, in his Life of Marc Antonio, says that +when Durer was informed of this imitation of his works, he was highly +incensed and +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page252" id = "page252"> +252</a></span> +he set out directly for Venice, and that on his arrival there he +complained of Marc Antonio’s proceedings to the government; but could +obtain no further redress than that in future Marc Antonio should not +put Durer’s mark to his engravings.</p> + +<p>Though it is by no means unlikely that Durer might apply to the +Venetian government to prevent the sale of spurious copies of his works +within the bounds of their jurisdiction, yet Vasari’s account of his +personally visiting that city for the purpose of making a complaint +against Marc Antonio, and of the government having forbid the latter to +affix Durer’s mark to his engravings in future, is certainly incorrect. +The History of the Virgin, the earliest of the two works which were +almost entirely copied by Marc Antonio, was not published before 1510, +and there is not the slightest evidence of Durer having re-visited +Venice after his return to Nuremberg about the latter end of 1506. +Bartsch thinks that Vasari’s account of Durer’s complaining to the +Venetian government against Marc Antonio is wholly unfounded; not only +from the fact of Durer not having visited Venice subsequent to 1506, but +from the improbability of his applying to a foreign state to prohibit a +stranger from copying his works. Mr. Ottley, however,—after +observing that Marc Antonio had affixed Durer’s mark to his copies of +the seventeen cuts of the Life of the Virgin and of some other single +subjects, but had omitted it in his copies of the cuts of the Little +Passion,—thus expresses his opinion with respect to the +correctness of this part of Vasari’s account: “That Durer, who enjoyed +the especial protection of the Emperor Maximilian, might be enabled +through the imperial ambassador at Venice to lay his complaints before +the government, and to obtain the prohibition before stated, may I think +readily be imagined; and it cannot be denied, that the circumstance of +Marc Antonio’s having omitted to affix the mark of Albert to the copies +which he afterwards made of the series of the ‘Life of Christ’ is +strongly corroborative of the general truth of the story.”<a class = +"tag" name = "tagV28" id = "tagV28" href = "#noteV28">V.28</a> As two of +the cuts in the Little Passion, which Mr. Ottley here calls the “Life of +Christ,” are dated 1510, and as, according to Mr. Ottley, Marc Antonio +arrived at Rome in the course of that year, it is difficult to conceive +how the government of Venice could have the power to prohibit a native +of Bologna, living in a state beyond their jurisdiction, from affixing +Albert Durer’s mark to such engravings as he might please to copy from +the works of that master.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page253" id = "page253"> +253</a></span> +<p>Among the more remarkable single subjects engraved on wood from +Durer’s designs, the following are most frequently referred to: God the +Father bearing up into heaven the dead body of Christ, with the date +1511; a Rhinoceros, with the date 1515; a portrait of Ulrich +Varnbuler, with the date 1522; a large head of Christ crowned with +thorns, without date; and the Siege of a fortified town, with the date +1527. In the first of the above-named cuts, God the Father wears a kind +of tiara like that of the Pope, and above the principal figure the Holy +Ghost is seen hovering in the form of a dove. On each side of the Deity +and the dead Christ are angels holding the cross, the pillar to which +Christ was bound when he was scourged, the crown of thorns, the sponge +dipped in vinegar, and other emblems of the Passion. At the foot are +heads with puffed-out cheeks intended to represent the winds. This cut +is engraved in a clearer and more delicate style than most of the other +subjects designed by Durer on wood. There are impressions of the +Rhinoceros, and the portrait of Varnbuler, printed in chiaro-scuro from +three blocks; and there are also other wood-cuts designed by Durer +executed in the same manner. The large head of Christ, which is engraved +in a coarse though spirited and effective manner, is placed by Bartsch +among the doubtful pieces ascribed to Durer; but Mr. Ottley says, +“I am unwilling to deny to Durer the credit of this admirable and +boldly executed production.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV29" id = +"tagV29" href = "#noteV29">V.29</a> The cut representing the siege of a +fortified town is twenty-eight inches and three-eighths wide, by eight +inches and seven eighths high. It has been engraved on two blocks, and +afterwards pasted together. A number of small figures are +introduced, and a great extent of country is shown in this cut, which +is, however, deficient in effect; and the little figures, though drawn +with great spirit, want relief, which causes many of them to appear as +if they were riding or walking in the air. The most solid-like part of +the subject is the sky; there is no ground for most of the figures to +stand on; and those which are in the distance are of the same size as +those which are apparently a mile or two nearer the spectator. There is +nothing remarkable in the execution, and the design adds nothing to +Durer’s reputation.</p> + +<p>The great patron of wood engraving in the earlier part of the +sixteenth century was the Emperor Maximilian I, who,—besides +originating the three works, known by the titles of Sir Theurdank, the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page254" id = "page254"> +254</a></span> +Wise King, and the Triumphs of Maximilian, which he caused to be +illustrated with numerous wood engravings, chiefly from the designs of +Hans Burgmair and Hans Schaufflein,—employed Albert Durer to make +the designs for two other series of wood engravings, a Triumphal +Car and a Triumphal Arch.</p> + +<p>The Triumphal <i>Car</i>, engraved by Jerome Resch from Durer’s +drawings on wood, is frequently confounded with the larger work called +the Triumphs of Maximilian, most of the designs of which were made by +Hans Burgmair. It is indeed generally asserted that all the designs for +the latter work were made by Hans Burgmair; but I think I shall be able +to show, in a subsequent notice of that work, that some of the cuts +contained in the edition published at Vienna and London in 1796 were, in +all probability, designed by Albert Durer. The Triumphal Car consists of +eight separate pieces, which, when joined together, form a continuous +subject seven feet four inches long; the height of the highest +cut—that containing the car—is eighteen inches from the base +line to the upper part of the canopy above the Emperor’s head. The +Emperor is seen seated in a highly ornamented car, attended by female +figures, representing Justice, Truth, Clemency, and other virtues, who +hold towards him triumphal wreaths. One of the two wheels which are seen +is inscribed “Magnificentia,” and the other “Dignitas;” the driver of +the car is Reason,—“Ratio,”—and one of the reins is marked +“Nobilitas,” and the other “Potentia.” The car is drawn by six pair of +horses splendidly harnessed, and each horse is attended by a female +figure. The names of the females at the head of the first pair from the +car are “Providentia” and “Moderatio;” of the second, “Alacritas” and +“Opportunitas;” of the third, “Velocitas” and “Firmitudo;” of the +fourth, “Acrimonia” and “Virilitas;” of the fifth, “Audacia” and +“Magnanimitas;” and the attendants on the leaders are “Experientia” and +“Solertia.” Above each pair of horses there is a portion of explanatory +matter printed in letter-press; and in that above the leading pair is a +mandate from the Emperor Maximilian, dated Inspruck, 1518, addressed to +Bilibald Pirkheimer, who appears to have suggested the subject; and in +the same place is the name of the inventor and designer, Albert Durer.<a +class = "tag" name = "tagV30" id = "tagV30" href = "#noteV30">V.30</a> +The first edition of those cuts appeared at Nuremberg in 1522; and in +some copies the text is in German, and in others in Latin. A second +edition, with the text in Latin only, was printed at the same place in +the following year. A third edition, from the same blocks, was +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page255" id = "page255"> +255</a></span> +printed at Venice in 1588; and a fourth at Amsterdam in 1609. The +execution of this subject is not particularly good, but the action of +the horses is generally well represented, and the drawing of some of the +female figures attending them is extremely spirited. Guido seems to have +availed himself of some of the figures in Durer’s Triumphal Car in his +celebrated fresco of the Car of Apollo, preceded by Aurora, and +accompanied by the Hours.</p> + +<p>It is said that the same subject painted by Durer himself is still to +be seen on the walls of the Town-hall of Nuremberg; but how far this is +correct I am unable to positively say; for I know of no account of the +painting written by a person who appears to have been acquainted with +the subject engraved on wood. Dr. Dibdin, who visited the Town-hall of +Nuremberg in 1818, speaks of what he saw there in a most vague and +unsatisfactory manner, as if he did not know the Triumphal Car designed +by Durer from the larger work entitled the Triumphs of Maximilian. The +notice of the learned bibliographer, who professes to be a great admirer +of the works of Albert Durer, is as follows: “The great boast of the +collection [in the Town-hall of Nuremberg] are the Triumphs of +Maximilian executed by <i>Albert Durer</i>,—which, however, have +by no means escaped injury.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV31" id = +"tagV31" href = "#noteV31">V.31</a> It is from such careless +observations as the preceding that erroneous opinions respecting the +Triumphal Car and the Triumphs of Maximilian are continued and +propagated, and that most persons confound the two works; which is +indeed not surprising, seeing that Dr. Dibdin himself, who is considered +to be an authority on such matters, has afforded proof that he does not +know one from the other. In the same volume that contains the notice of +the “Triumphs of Maximilian” in the Town-hall of Nuremberg, Dr. Dibdin +says that he saw the “<span class = "smallroman">ORIGINAL +PAINTINGS</span>” from which the large wood blocks were taken for the +well-known work entitled the “<i>Triumphs of the Emperor +Maximilian</i>,” in large folio, in the Imperial Library at Vienna.<a +class = "tag" name = "tagV32" id = "tagV32" href = "#noteV32">V.32</a> +Such observations are very much in the style of the countryman’s, who +had seen <i>two</i> genuine skulls of Oliver Cromwell,—one at +Oxford, and another in the British Museum. Though I have not been able +to ascertain satisfactorily the subject of Durer’s painting in the +Town-hall of Nuremberg, I am inclined to think that it is the +Triumphal <i>Car</i> of Maximilian. In a memorandum in the hand-writing +of Nollekins, preserved with his copies of Durer’s Triumphal Car and +Triumphal Arch of Maximilian, in the Print Room of the British Museum, +it is said, though erroneously, that the former is painted in the +Town-hall of <i>Augsburg</i> with the figures as large as life.</p> + +<p>The Triumphal <i>Arch</i> of the Emperor Maximilian, engraved on wood +from Durer’s designs, consists of ninety-two separate pieces, which, +when +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page256" id = "page256"> +256</a></span> +joined together, form one large composition about ten feet and a half +high by nine and a half wide, exclusive of the margins and five folio +sheets of explanatory matter by the projector of the design, John +Stabius, who styles himself the historiographer and poet of the Emperor, +and who says, at the commencement of his description, that this arch was +drawn “after the manner of those erected in honour of the Roman emperors +at Rome, some of which are destroyed and others still to be seen.” In +the arch of Maximilian are three gates or entrances; that in the centre +is named the Gate of Honour and Power; that to the left the Gate of +Fame; and that to the right the Gate of Nobility.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV33" id = "tagV33" href = "#noteV33">V.33</a> Above the middle +entrance is what Stabius calls the “grand tower,” surmounted with the +imperial crown, and containing an inscription in German to the memory of +Maximilian. Above and on each side of the gates or entrances, which are +of very small dimensions, are portraits of the Roman emperors from the +time of Julius Cæsar to that of Maximilian himself; there are also +portraits of his ancestors, and of kings and princes with whom he was +allied either by friendship or marriage; shields of arms illustrative of +his descent or of the extent of his sovereignty; with representations of +his most memorable actions, among which his adventures in the Tyrolean +Alps, when hunting the chamois, are not forgotten. Underneath each +subject illustrative of his own history are explanatory verses, in the +German language, engraved on wood; and the names of the kings and +emperors, as well as the inscriptions explanatory of other parts of the +subject, are also executed in the same manner. The whole subject is, in +fact, a kind of pictorial epitome of the history of the German +empire; representing the succession of the Roman emperors, and the more +remarkable events of Maximilian’s own reign; with illustrations of his +descent, possessions, and alliances.</p> + +<p>At the time of Maximilian’s death, which happened in 1519, this great +work was not finished; and it is said that Durer himself did not live to +see it completed, as one small block remained to be engraved at the +period of his death, in 1528. At whatever time the work might be +finished, it certainly was commenced at least four years before the +Emperor’s death, for the date 1515 occurs in two places at the foot of +the subject. Though Durer’s mark is not to be found on any one of the +cuts, there can be little doubt of his having furnished the designs for +the whole. In the ninth volume of Von Murr’s Journal it is stated that +Durer received a hundred guilders a year from the +Emperor,—probably on account of this large work; and in the same +volume there is a letter +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page257" id = "page257"> +257</a></span> +of Durer’s addressed to a friend, requesting him to apply to the emperor +on account of arrears due to him. In this letter he says that he has +made many drawings besides the “<i>Tryumps</i>”<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV34" id = "tagV34" href = "#noteV34">V.34</a> for the emperor; and +as he also thrice mentions Stabius, the inventor of the Triumphal Arch, +there can be little doubt but that this was the work to which he +alludes.</p> + +<p>As a work of art the best single subjects of the Triumphal Arch will +not bear a comparison with the best cuts in Durer’s Apocalypse, the +History of the Virgin, or Christ’s Passion; and there are several in +which no trace of his effective style of drawing on wood is to be found. +Most of the subjects illustrative of the emperor’s battles and +adventures are in particular meagre in point of drawing, and deficient +in effect. The whole composition indeed appears like the result of +continued application without much display of talent. The powers of +Durer had been evidently constrained to work out the conceptions of the +historiographer and poet, Stabius; and as the subjects were not the +suggestions of the artist’s own feelings, it cannot be a matter of +surprise that we should find in them so few traces of his genius. The +engraving of the cuts is clear, but not generally effective; and the +execution of the whole, both figures and letters, would occupy a single +wood engraver not less than four years; even allowing him to engrave +more rapidly on pear-tree than a modern wood engraver does on box; and +supposing him to be a master of his profession.</p> + +<p>From his varied talents and the excellence which he displayed in +every branch of art that he attempted, Albert Durer is entitled to rank +with the most extraordinary men of his age. As a painter he may be +considered as the father of the German school; while for his fidelity in +copying nature and the beauty of his colours he may bear a comparison +with most of the Italian artists of his own age. As an engraver on +copper he greatly excelled all who preceded him; and it is highly +questionable if any artist since his time, except Rembrandt, has painted +so many good pictures and engraved so many good copper-plates. But +besides excelling as an engraver on copper after the manner in which the +art had been previously practised, giving to his subjects a breadth of +light and a depth of shade which is not to be found in the productions +of the earlier masters, he further improved the art by the invention of +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page258" id = "page258"> +258</a></span> +etching,<a class = "tag" name = "tagV35" id = "tagV35" href = +"#noteV35">V.35</a> which enables the artist to work with greater +freedom and to give a variety and an effect to his subjects, more +especially landscapes, which are utterly unattainable by means of the +graver alone.</p> + +<p>There are two subjects by Albert Durer, dated 1512, which Bartsch +thinks were etched upon plates of iron, but which Mr. Ottley considers +to have been executed upon plates of a softer metal than copper, with +the dry-point. There are, however, two undoubted etchings by Durer with +the date 1515; two others executed in the same manner are dated 1516; +and a fifth, a landscape with a large cannon in the fore-ground to +the left, is dated 1518. There is another undoubted etching by Durer, +representing naked figures in a bath; but it contains neither his mark +nor a date. The three pieces which Mr. Ottley thinks were not etched, +but executed on some soft kind of metal with the dry-point, are: +1. The figure of Christ, seen in front, standing, clothed with a +mantle, having his hands tied together, and on his head a crown of +thorns; date 1512. 2. St. Jerome seated amongst rocks, praying to a +crucifix, with a book open before him, and a lion below to the left; +date 1512. 3. The Virgin, seated with the infant Christ in her lap, +and seen in front, with St. Joseph behind her on the left, and on the +right three other figures; without mark or date.—One of the more +common of Durer’s undoubted etchings is that of a man mounted on a +unicorn, and carrying off a naked woman, with the date 1516.</p> + +<p>Albert Durer not only excelled as a painter, an engraver on copper, +and a designer on wood, but he also executed several pieces of sculpture +with surprising delicacy and natural expression of character. An +admirable specimen of his skill in this department of art is preserved +in the British Museum, to which institution it was bequeathed by the +late +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page259" id = "page259"> +259</a></span> +R. Payne Knight, Esq., by whom it was purchased at Brussels for +five hundred guineas upwards of forty years ago. This most exquisite +piece of sculpture is of small dimensions, being only seven and three +quarter inches high, by five and a half wide. It is executed in +hone-stone, of a cream colour, and is all of one piece, with the +exception of a dog and one or two books in front. The subject is the +naming of John the Baptist.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV36" id = +"tagV36" href = "#noteV36">V.36</a> In front, to the right, is an old +man with a tablet inscribed with Hebrew characters; another old man is +seen immediately behind him, further to the right; and a younger +man,—said to be intended by the artist for a portrait of +himself,—appears entering the door of the apartment. An old woman +with the child in her arms is seated near the figure with the tablet; +St. Elizabeth is perceived lying in bed, on the more distant side of +which a female attendant is standing, and on the other, nearer to the +spectator, an elderly man is seen kneeling. It is supposed that the +latter figure is intended for Zacharias, and that the artist had +represented him in the act of making signs to Elizabeth with his hands. +The figures in the fore-ground are executed in high relief, and the +character and expression of the heads have perhaps never been surpassed +in any work of sculpture executed on the same scale. Durer’s mark is +perceived on a tablet at the foot of the bed, with the date 1510. This +curious specimen of Durer’s talents as a sculptor is carefully preserved +in a frame with a glass before it, and is in most perfect condition, +with the exception of the hands of Zacharias and of Elizabeth, some of +the fingers of which are broken off.</p> + +<p>Shortly after Whitsuntide, 1520, Durer set out from Nuremberg, +accompanied by his wife and her servant Susanna, on a visit to the +Netherlands; and as he took with him several copies of his principal +works, engravings on copper as well as on wood, and painted and drew a +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page260" id = "page260"> +260</a></span> +number of portraits during his residence there, the journey appears to +have been taken as much with a view to business as pleasure. He kept a +journal from the time of his leaving Nuremberg till the period of his +reaching Cologne on his return, and from this curious record of the +artist’s travels the following particulars of his visit to the +Netherlands have been obtained.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV37" id = +"tagV37" href = "#noteV37">V.37</a></p> + +<p>Durer proceeded <ins class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘foom’">from</ins> Nuremberg direct to Bamberg, where he presented to +the bishop a painting of the Virgin, with a copy of the Apocalypse and +the Life of the Virgin engraved on wood. The bishop invited Durer to his +table, and gave him a letter exempting his goods from toll, with three +others which were, most likely, letters of recommendation to persons of +influence in the Netherlands.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV38" id = +"tagV38" href = "#noteV38">V.38</a> From Bamberg, Durer proceeded by way +of Eltman, Sweinfurth, and Frankfort to Mentz, and from the latter city +down the Rhine to Cologne. In this part of his journey he seems to have +met with little which he deemed worthy of remark: at Sweinfurth Dr. +Rebart made him a present of some wine; at Mentz, Peter Goldsmith’s +landlady presented him with two flasks of the same liquor; and when Veit +Varnbuler invited him to dinner there, the tavern-keeper would not +receive any payment, but insisted on being Durer’s host himself. At +Lohnstein, on the Rhine, between Boppart and Coblentz, the +toll-collector, who was well acquainted with Durer’s wife, presented him +with a can of wine, and expressed himself extremely glad to see him.</p> + +<p>From Cologne, Durer proceeded direct to Antwerp, where he took up his +abode in the house of “Jobst Planckfelt;” and on the evening of his +arrival<a class = "tag" name = "tagV39" id = "tagV39" href = +"#noteV39">V.39</a> he was invited to a splendid supper by Bernard +Stecher, an +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page261" id = "page261"> +261</a></span> +agent of the Fuggers, the celebrated family of merchants of Nuremberg, +and the most wealthy in Germany. On St. Oswald’s day, Sunday, 5th +August, the Painters’ Company of Antwerp invited Durer, with his wife +and her maid,<a class = "tag" name = "tagV40" id = "tagV40" href = +"#noteV40">V.40</a> to a grand entertainment in their hall, which was +ornamented in a splendid manner, and all the vessels on the table were +of silver. The wives of the painters were also present; and when Durer +was conducted to his seat at the table “all the company stood up on each +side, as if some great lord had been making his entrance.” Several +honourable persons, who had also been invited, bowed to him; and all +expressed their respect and their wishes to afford him pleasure. While +he was at table the messenger of the magistrates of Antwerp made his +appearance, and presented him in their name with four flaggons of wine, +saying, that the magistrates thus testified their respect and their +good-will towards him. Durer, as in duty bound, returned thanks, and +tendered to the magisterial body his humble service. After this little +affair was despatched, entered Peter the city carpenter <i>in propria +persona</i>, and presented Durer with two more flaggons of wine, and +complimented him with the offer of his services. After the party had +enjoyed themselves cheerfully till late in the night, they attended +Durer to his lodgings with torches in a most honourable manner, +expressing their good-will towards him, and their readiness to assist +him in whatever manner he might choose.—Shortly after this grand +Fellowship-feast, Durer was entertained by Quintin +Matsys,—frequently called the Blacksmith of Antwerp,—whose +celebrated picture of the Misers is now in the Royal Collection at +Windsor.</p> + +<p>On the Sunday after the Assumption,<a class = "tag" name = "tagV41" +id = "tagV41" href = "#noteV41">V.41</a> Durer witnessed a grand +procession in honour of the Virgin, and the account which he has given +of it presents so curious a picture of the old religious pageantries +that it appears worthy of being translated without abridgement. “On the +Sunday after the Assumption of our Lady,” says the artist, “I saw +the grand procession from our Lady’s church at Antwerp, where all the +inhabitants of the city assembled, gentry as well as trades-people, +each, according to his rank, gayly dressed. Every class and fellowship +was distinguished by its proper badge; and large and valuable crosses +were borne before several of the crafts. There were also silver trumpets +of the old Frankish fashion; with German drums and fifes playing loudly. +I also saw in the street, marching after each other in rank, at a +certain +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page262" id = "page262"> +262</a></span> +distance, the Goldsmiths, the Painters, the Masons, the Embroiderers, +the Statuaries, the Cabinet-makers, the Carpenters, the Sailors, the +Fishermen, the Butchers, the Curriers, the Weavers, the Bakers, the +Tailors, the Shoemakers, and all kinds of craftsmen with labourers +engaged in producing the necessaries of life. In the same manner came +the Shopkeepers and Merchants with their assistants. After these came +the Shooters, with firelocks, bows, and cross-bows, some on horseback +and some on foot; and after them came the City Guard. These were +followed by persons of the higher classes and the magistrates, all +dressed in their proper habits; and after them came a gallant troop +arrayed in a noble and splendid manner. In this procession were a number +of females of a religious order who subsist by means of their labour, +all clothed in white from head to foot, and forming a very pleasing +sight. After them came a number of gallant persons and the canons of our +Lady’s church, with all the clergy and scholars, followed by a grand +display of characters. Twenty men carried the Virgin and Christ, most +richly adorned, to the honour of God. In this part of the procession +were a number of delightful things, represented in a splendid manner. +There were several waggons in which were representations of ships and +fortifications. Then came a troop of characters from the Prophets in +regular order, followed by others from the New Testament, such as the +Annunciation, the Wise Men of the East, riding on great camels and other +wonderful animals, and the Flight into Egypt, all very skilfully +appointed. Then came a great dragon, and St. Margaret, with the image of +the Virgin at her girdle, exceedingly beautiful; and last St. George and +his squire. In this troop rode a number of boys and girls very +handsomely arrayed in various costumes, representing so many saints. +This procession, from beginning to end, was upwards of two hours in +passing our house; and there were so many things to be seen, that I +could never describe them all even in a book.”<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV42" id = "tagV42" href = "#noteV42">V.42</a></p> + +<p>Though Durer chiefly resided at Antwerp during his stay in the +Netherlands, he did not entirely confine himself to that city, but +occasionally visited other places. On the 2nd of September 1520, he left +Antwerp for Brussels, proceeding by way of Malines and Vilvorde. When at +Brussels, he saw a number of valuable curiosities which had been sent to +the Emperor from Mexico, among which he enumerates a golden sun, +a fathom broad, and a silver moon of the same size, with weapons, +armour, and dresses, and various other admirable things of great beauty +and cost. He says that their value was estimated at a hundred thousand +guilders; and that he never saw any thing that pleased him so much in +his life. Durer was evidently fond of seeing sights; he speaks with +delight of the fountains, the labyrinths, and the parks in the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page263" id = "page263"> +263</a></span> +neighbourhood of the Royal Palace, which he says were like Paradise; and +among the wonders which he saw at Brussels, he notices a large fish-bone +which was almost a fathom in circumference and weighed fifteen +“centner;”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV43" id = "tagV43" href = +"#noteV43">V.43</a> a great bed that would hold fifty men; and a +stone which fell from the sky in a thunder-storm in presence of the +Count of Nassau. He also mentions having seen at Antwerp the bones of a +giant who had been eighteen feet high. Durer and his wife seem to have +had a taste for zoology: Herr Lazarus Von Ravenspurg complimented him +with a monkey; and “Signor Roderigo,” a Portuguese, presented his +ill-tempered spouse with a green parrot.</p> + +<p>When at Brussels, Durer painted the portrait of the celebrated +Erasmus, from whom, previous to leaving Antwerp, he had received as a +present a Spanish mantle and three portraits. He remained about a week +at Brussels, during which time he drew or painted seven portraits; and +in his Journal he makes the following memorandum: “Item, six persons +whose likenesses I have taken at Brussels, have not given me anything.” +Among those portraits was that of Bernard Van Orley, an eminent Flemish +painter who had studied under Raffaele, and who at that time held the +office of painter to the Archduchess Margaret, regent of the +Netherlands, and aunt of the Emperor Charles V. When at Brussels, +Durer bought for a stiver<a class = "tag" name = "tagV44" id = "tagV44" +href = "#noteV44">V.44</a> two copies of the “Eulenspiegel,” +a celebrated engraving by Lucas Van Leyden, now of very great +rarity.</p> + +<p>After remaining at Antwerp till the latter end of September, Durer +proceeded to Aix-la-Chapelle, where, on the 23rd of October, he +witnessed the coronation of the Emperor Charles V. He afterwards +proceeded to Cologne, where, on the Sunday after All Saints’ day, he saw +a grand banquet and dance given by the emperor, from whom, on the Monday +after Martinmas day, he received the appointment of court-painter to his +Imperial Majesty. When at Cologne, Durer bought a copy of the +“Condemnation of that good man, Martin Luther, for a white-penny.” This +Condemnation was probably a copy of the bull of excommunication issued +against Luther by Pope Leo X. on 20th June +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page264" id = "page264"> +264</a></span> +1520. In a day or two after receiving his appointment, Durer left +Cologne and proceeded down the Rhine, and visited Nimeguen. He then went +to Bois-le-duc, where he was entertained by Arnold de Beer, +a painter of considerable reputation in his day, and treated with +great respect by the goldsmiths of the place. On the Thursday after the +Presentation of the Virgin,<a class = "tag" name = "tagV45" id = +"tagV45" href = "#noteV45">V.45</a>—21st November,—Durer +again arrived at Antwerp. “In the seven weeks and upwards that I was +absent,” he writes in his Journal, “my wife and her maid spent seven +gold crowns. The first had her pocket cut off in St. Mary’s church on +St. Mary’s day; there were two guilders in it.”</p> + +<p>On the 3rd of December, Durer left Antwerp on a short journey through +Zealand, proceeding by way of Bergen-op-Zoom. In the Abbey at Middleburg +he saw the great picture of the Descent from the Cross by Mabeuse; of +which he remarks that “it is better painted than drawn.” When he was +about to land at Armuyden, a small town on the island of Walcheren, +the rope broke, and a violent wind arising, the boat which he was in was +driven out to sea. Some persons, however, at length came to their +assistance, and brought all the passengers safely ashore. On the Friday +after St. Lucia’s day he again returned to Antwerp, after having been +absent about twelve days.</p> + +<p>On Shrove Tuesday, 1521, the company of goldsmiths invited Durer and +his wife to a dinner, at which he was treated with great honour; and as +this was an early meal, he was enabled at night to attend a grand +banquet to which he was invited by one of the chief magistrates of +Antwerp. On the Monday after his entertainment by the goldsmiths he was +invited to another grand banquet which lasted two hours, and where he +won, at some kind of game, two guilders of Bernard of Castile. Both at +this and at the magistrates’ banquet there was masquerading. At another +entertainment given by Master Peter the Secretary, Durer and Erasmus +were present. He was not idle at this period of festivity, but drew +several portraits in pencil. He also made a drawing for “Tomasin,” and a +painting of St. Jerome for Roderigo of Portugal, who appears to have +been one of the most liberal of all Durer’s Antwerp friends. Besides the +little green parrot which he gave his wife, he also presented Durer with +one for himself; he also gave him a small cask of comfits, with various +other sweetmeats, and specimens of the sugar-cane. He also made him a +present of cocoa-nuts and of several other things; and shortly before +the painting was finished, Signor Roderigo +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page265" id = "page265"> +265</a></span> +gave him two large pieces of Portuguese gold coin, each of which was +worth ten ducats.</p> + +<p>On the Saturday after Easter, Durer visited Bruges, where he saw in +St. James’s church some beautiful paintings by Hubert Van Eyck and Hugo +Vander Goes; and in the Painters’ chapel, and in other churches, he saw +several by John Van Eyck; he also mentions having seen, in St. Mary’s +church, an image of the Virgin in alabaster by Michael Angelo. The guild +of painters invited him to a grand banquet in their hall. Two of the +magistrates, Jacob and Peter Mostaert, presented him with twelve +flaggons of wine; and on the conclusion of the entertainment, all the +company, amounting to sixty persons, accompanied him with torches to his +lodgings. He next visited Ghent, where the company of painters also +treated him with great respect. He there saw, in St. John’s church, the +celebrated picture of the Elders worshipping the Lamb, from the +Revelations, painted by John Van Eyck for Philip the Good, Duke of +Burgundy. Durer thus expresses his opinion of it: “This is a well +conceived and capital picture; the figures of Eve, the Virgin, and God +the Father, are, in particular, extremely good.” After being about a +week absent, he again returned to Antwerp, where he was shortly after +seized with an intermitting fever, which was accompanied with a violent +head-ache and great sense of weariness. This illness, however, does not +seem to have lasted very long; his fever commenced in the third week +after Easter, and on Rogation Sunday he attended the marriage feast of +“Meister Joachim,”—probably Joachim Patenier, a landscape +painter whom Durer mentions in an earlier part of his Journal.</p> + +<p>Durer was a man of strong religious feelings; and when Luther began +to preach in opposition to the church of Rome, he warmly espoused his +cause. The following passages from his Journal sufficiently demonstrate +the interest which he felt in the success of the great champion of the +Reformation. Luther on his return from Worms, where he had attended the +Diet under a safe-conduct granted by the Emperor Charles V, was waylaid, +on 4th May 1521, by a party of armed men, who caused him to descend from +the light waggon in which he was travelling, and to follow them into an +adjacent wood. His brother James, who was in the waggon with him, made +his escape on the first appearance of the horsemen. Luther having been +secured, the driver and others who were in the waggon were allowed to +pursue their journey without further hindrance. This secret apprehension +of Luther was, in reality, contrived by his friend and supporter, +Frederick, Elector of Saxony,<a class = "tag" name = "tagV46" id = +"tagV46" href = "#noteV46">V.46</a> in order to withdraw him +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page266" id = "page266"> +266</a></span> +for a time from the apprehended violence of his enemies, whose hatred +towards him had been more than ever inflamed by the bold and undisguised +statement of his opinions at Worms. Luther’s friends, being totally +ignorant of the elector’s design, generally supposed that the +safe-conduct had been disregarded by those whose duty it was to respect +it, and that he had been betrayed and delivered into the hands of his +enemies. Durer, on hearing of Luther’s apprehension, writes in his +Journal as follows.</p> + +<p>“On the Friday after Whitsuntide, 1521, I heard a report at Antwerp, +that Martin Luther had been treacherously seized; for the herald of the +Emperor Charles, who attended him with a safe-conduct, and to whose +protection he was committed, on arriving at a lonely place near +Eisenach, said he durst proceed no further, and rode away. Immediately +ten horsemen made their appearance, and carried off the godly man thus +betrayed into their hands. He was indeed a man enlightened by the Holy +Ghost, and a follower of the true Christian faith. Whether he be yet +living, or whether his enemies have put him to death, I know not; +yet certainly what he has suffered has been for the sake of truth, and +because he has reprehended the abuses of unchristian papacy, which +strives to fetter Christian liberty with the incumbrance of human +ordinances, that we may be robbed of the price of our blood and sweat, +and shamefully plundered by idlers, while the sick and needy perish +through hunger. Above all, it is especially distressing to me to think +that God may yet allow us to remain under the blind doctrine which those +men called ‘the fathers’ have imagined and set forth, whereby the +precious word is either in many places falsely expounded or not at all +observed.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV47" id = "tagV47" href = +"#noteV47">V.47</a></p> + +<p>After indulging in sundry pious invocations and reflections to the +extent of two or three pages, Durer thus proceeds to lament the supposed +death of Luther, and to invoke Erasmus to put his hand to the work from +which he believed that Luther had been removed. “And is Luther dead? Who +henceforth will so clearly explain to us the Gospel? Alas! what might he +not have written for us in ten or twenty years? Aid me, +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page267" id = "page267"> +267</a></span> +all pious Christians, to bewail this man of heavenly mind, and to pray +that God may send us another as divinely enlightened. Where, +O Erasmus, wilt thou remain? Behold, now, how the tyranny of might +and the power of darkness prevail. Hear, thou champion of Christ! Ride +forward, defend the truth, and deserve the martyr’s crown, for thou art +already an old man.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV48" id = "tagV48" href = +"#noteV48">V.48</a> I have heard from thy own mouth that thou hast +allotted to thyself two years yet of labour in which thou mightst still +be able to produce something good; employ these well for the benefit of +the Gospel and the true Christian faith: let then thy voice be heard, +and so shall not the see of Rome, the gates of Hell, as Christ saith, +prevail against thee. And though, like thy master, thou shouldst bear +the scorn of the liars, and even die a short time earlier than thou +otherwise mightst, yet wilt thou therefore pass earlier from death unto +eternal life and be glorified through Christ. If thou drinkest of the +cup of which he drank, so wilt thou reign with him and pronounce +judgment on those who have acted unrighteously.”<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV49" id = "tagV49" href = "#noteV49">V.49</a></p> + +<p>About this time a large wood-cut, of which the following is a reduced +copy, was published; and though the satire which it contains will apply +equally to any monk who may be supposed to be an instrument of the +devil, it was probably directed against Luther in particular, as a +teacher of false doctrine through the inspiration of the father of lies. +In the cut the arch-enemy, as a bag-piper, is seen blowing into the ear +of a monk, whose head forms the “bag,” and by skilful fingering causing +the nose, elongated in the form of a “chanter,” to discourse sweet +music. The preaching friars of former times were no less celebrated for +their nasal melody than the “saints” in the days of Cromwell. +A serious +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page268" id = "page268"> +268</a></span> +portrait of Luther, probably engraved or drawn on wood by Hans Baldung +Grün, a pupil of Durer, was also published in 1521. It is printed +in a quarto tract, entitled, “Acta et Res gestæ D. Martini Lutheri +in Comitiis Principum Vuormaciæ, Anno <span class = +"smallroman">MDXXI</span>,” and also in a tract, written by Luther +himself in answer to Jerome Emser, without date, but probably printed at +Wittenberg about 1523. In this portrait, which bears considerable +resemblance to the head forming the bag of Satan’s pipe, Luther appears +as if meditating on a passage that he has just read in a volume which he +holds open; his head is surrounded with rays of glory; and the Holy +Ghost, in the form of a dove, appears as if about to settle on his +shaven crown. In an impression now before me, some one, apparently a +contemporary, who thought that Luther’s inspiration was derived from +another source, has with pen and ink transformed the dove into one of +those unclean things between bat and serpent, which are +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page269" id = "page269"> +269</a></span> +supposed to be appropriate to the regions of darkness, and which are +generally to be seen in paintings and engravings of the temptation of +St. Anthony.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_268" id = "illus_268"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_268.png" width = "322" height = "416" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>A week after Corpus Christi day<a class = "tag" name = "tagV50" id = +"tagV50" href = "#noteV50">V.50</a> Durer left Antwerp for Malines, +where the Archduchess Margaret, the aunt of the emperor Charles V, was +then residing. He took up his lodgings with Henry de Bles, +a painter of considerable reputation, called Civetta by the +Italians, from the owl which he painted as a mark in most of his +pictures; and the painters and statuaries, as at Antwerp and other +places, invited him to an entertainment and treated him with great +respect. He waited on the archduchess and showed her his portrait of the +emperor, and would have presented it to her, but she would by no means +accept of it;—probably because she could not well receive such a +gift without making the artist a suitable return, for it appears, from a +subsequent passage in Durer’s Journal, that she had no particular +objection to receive other works of art when they cost her nothing.</p> + +<p>In the course of a few days Durer returned to Antwerp, where he +shortly afterwards saw Lucas Van Leyden, the celebrated painter and +engraver, whose plates at that time were by many considered nearly equal +to his own. Durer’s brief notice of his talented contemporary is as +follows: “Received an invitation from Master Lucas, who engraves on +copper. He is a little man, and a native of Leyden in Holland.” +Subsequently he mentions having drawn Lucas’s portrait in crayons; and +having exchanged some of his own works to the value of eight florins for +a complete set of Lucas’s engravings. Durer in this part of his Journal, +after enumerating the portraits he had taken and the exchanges he had +made since his return from Malines to Antwerp, thus speaks of the manner +in which he was rewarded: “In all my transactions in the +Netherlands—for my paintings, drawings, and in disposing of my +works—both with high and low I have had the disadvantage. The Lady +Margaret, especially, for all that I have given her and done for her, +has not made me the least recompense.”</p> + +<p>Durer now began to make preparations for his return home. He engaged +a waggoner to take him and his wife to Cologne; he exchanged a portrait +of the emperor for some white English cloth; and, on 1st July, he +borrowed of Alexander Imhoff a hundred gold guilders to be repaid at +Nuremberg; another proof that Durer, though treated with great +distinction in the Low Countries, had not derived much pecuniary +advantage during the period of his residence there. On the 2nd July, +when he was about to leave Antwerp, the King of Denmark, Christian II, +who had recently arrived in Flanders, sent for him to take his +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page270" id = "page270"> +270</a></span> +portrait. He first drew his majesty with black chalk—mit der +Kohlen—and afterwards went with him to Brussels, where he appears +to have painted his portrait in oil colours, and for which he received +thirty florins. At Brussels, on the Sunday before St. Margaret’s Day,<a +class = "tag" name = "tagV51" id = "tagV51" href = "#noteV51">V.51</a> +the King of Denmark gave a grand banquet to the Emperor and the +Archduchess Margaret, to which Durer had the honour of being invited, +and failed not to attend. On the following Friday he left Brussels to +return to Nuremberg, proceeding by way of Aix-la-Chapelle to +Cologne.</p> + +<p>Out of a variety of other matters which Durer has mentioned in his +Journal, the following—which could not be conveniently given in +chronological order in the preceding abstract—may not, perhaps, be +wholly uninteresting. He painted a portrait of one Nicholas, an +astronomer, who was in the service of the King of England, and who was +of great service to Durer on several occasions.<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV52" id = "tagV52" href = "#noteV52">V.52</a> He gave one florin and +eight stivers for wood, but whether for drawing on, or for fuel, is +uncertain. He only mentions having made two drawings on wood during his +residence in the Low Countries, and both were of the arms of Von +Rogendorff, noticed at page 236. In one of those instances, he +distinctly says that he made the drawing, “<i>das man’s schneiden +mag</i>”—that it may be engraved. The word “<i>man’s</i>” clearly +shows that it was to be engraved by another person.—He mentions +that since Raffaele’s death his works are +dispersed—“<i>verzogen</i>,”—and that one of that master’s +pupils, by name “Thomas Polonier,” had called on him and made him a +present of an antique ring. In a subsequent passage he calls this person +“Thomas Polonius,” and says that he had given him a set of his works to +be sent to Rome and exchanged for “<i>Raphaelische +Sache</i>”—things by Raffaele.</p> + +<p>It has been said, though without sufficient authority, that Durer, +weary of a home where he was made miserable by his bad-tempered, +avaricious wife, left Nuremberg, and visited the Low Countries alone for +the purpose of avoiding her constant annoyance. There is, however, no +evidence of Durer’s visiting the Low Countries previous to 1520, when he +was accompanied by his wife; nor is there any authentic record of his +ever again visiting Flanders subsequent to the latter end of August +1521, when he left Brussels to return to Nuremberg. In 1522, Durer +published the first edition of the Triumphal Car of the Emperor +Maximilian, the designs for which had probably been made five or six +years before. One of the best portraits drawn by Durer on wood also +bears the date 1522. It is that of his friend Ulrich Varnbuler,<a class += "tag" name = "tagV53" id = "tagV53" href = +"#noteV53">V.53</a>—mentioned at page 253,—and is of large +size, being about +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page271" id = "page271"> +271</a></span> +seventeen inches high by twelve and three-fourths wide. The head is full +of character, and the engraving is admirably executed. From 1522 to +1528, the year of Durer’s death, he seems to have almost entirely given +up the practice of drawing on wood, as there are only three cuts with +his mark which contain a date between those years; they are his own arms +dated 1523; his own portrait dated 1527; and the siege of a fortified +city previously noticed at page 253, also dated 1527. The following is a +reduced copy of the cut of Durer’s arms. The pair of <i>doors</i> on the +shield—in German <i>Durer</i> or <i>Thurer</i>—is a rebus of +the artist’s name; after the manner of the Lucys of our own country, who +bore three <i>luces</i>,<a class = "tag" name = "tagV54" id = "tagV54" +href = "#noteV54">V.54</a> or pikes—fish, not +weapons—argent, in their coat of arms.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_271" id = "illus_271"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_271.png" width = "252" height = "339" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page272" id = "page272"> +272</a></span> +<p>The last of Durer’s engravings on copper is a portrait of Melancthon, +dated 1526, the year in which the meek and learned reformer visited +Nuremberg. The following is a reduced copy of his own portrait, perhaps +the last drawing that he made on wood. It is probably a good likeness of +the artist; at any rate it bears a great resemblance to the portrait +said to be intended for Durer’s own in his carving of the naming of St. +John, of which some account is given at page 259. The size of the +original is eleven inches and three-eighths high by ten inches wide. +According to Bartsch, the earliest impressions have not the arms and +mark, and are inscribed above the border at the top: “<i>Albrecht +Durer’s Conterfeyt</i>”—Albert Durer’s portrait. It would seem +that the block had been preserved for many years subsequent to the date, +for I have now before me an impression, on comparatively modern paper, +from which it is evident that at the time of its being taken, the block +had been much corroded by worms.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_272" id = "illus_272"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_272.png" width = "315" height = "373" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>It is probable that between 1522 and 1528 the treatises of which +Durer is the author were chiefly composed. Their Titles are An Essay on +the Fortification of Towns and Villages; Instructions for Measuring +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page273" id = "page273"> +273</a></span> +with the Rule and Compass; and On the Proportions of the Human Body.<a +class = "tag" name = "tagV55" id = "tagV55" href = "#noteV55">V.55</a> +They were all published at Nuremberg with illustrative wood-cuts; the +first in 1527, and the other two in 1528. It is to the latter work that +Hogarth alludes, in his Analysis of Beauty, when he speaks of Albert +Durer, Lamozzo, and others, having “puzzled mankind with a heap of +minute unnecessary divisions” in their rules for correctly drawing the +human figure.</p> + +<p>After a life of unremitted application,—as is sufficiently +proved by the number of his works as a painter, an engraver, and a +designer on wood,—Albert Durer died at Nuremberg on 6th April +1528, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. His wife’s wretched temper +had unquestionably rendered the latter years of his life very unhappy, +and in her eagerness to obtain money she appears to have urged her +husband to what seems more like the heartless toil of a slave than an +artist’s exercise of his profession. It is said that her sitting-room +was under her husband’s studio, and that she was accustomed to give an +admonitory knock against the ceiling whenever she suspected that he was +“not getting forward with his work.” The following extracts from a +letter, written by Bilibald Pirkheimer shortly after Durer’s death, will +show that common fame has not greatly belied this heartless, selfish +woman, in ascribing, in a great measure, her husband’s death to the +daily vexation which she caused him, and to her urging him to continual +application in order that a greater sum might be secured to her on his +decease. The passages relating to Durer in Pirkheimer’s letter are to +the following effect.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV56" id = "tagV56" href += "#noteV56">V.56</a></p> + +<p>“I have indeed lost in Albert one of the best friends I had on earth; +and nothing pains me more than the thought of his death having been so +melancholy, which, next to the will of Providence, I can ascribe to +no one but his wife, for she fretted him so much and tasked him so hard +that he departed sooner than he otherwise would. He was dried up like a +bundle of straw; durst never enjoy himself nor enter into company. This +bad woman, moreover, was anxious about that for which she had no +occasion to take heed,—she urged him to labour day and night +solely that he might earn money, even at the cost of his life, and leave +it to her; she was content to live despised, as she does still, provided +Albert might leave her six thousand guilders. But she cannot +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page274" id = "page274"> +274</a></span> +enjoy them: the sum of the matter is, she alone has been the cause of +his death. I have often expostulated with her about her fretful, +jealous conduct, and warned her what the consequences would be, but have +only met with reproach. To the friends and sincere well-wishers of +Albert she was sure to be the enemy; while such conduct was to him a +cause of exceeding grief, and contributed to bring him to the grave. +I have not seen her since his death; she will have nothing to say +to me, although I have on many occasions rendered her great service. +Whoever contradicts her, or gives not way to her in all things, is sure +to incur her enmity; I am, therefore, better pleased that she +should keep herself away. She and her sister are not indeed women of +loose character; but, on the contrary, are, as I believe, of honest +reputation and religious; one would, however, rather have one of the +other kind who otherwise conducts herself in a pleasant manner, than a +fretful, jealous, scolding wife—however devout she may +be—with whom a man can have no peace either day or night. We must, +however, leave the matter to the will of God, who will be gracious and +merciful to Albert, for his life was that of a pious and righteous man. +As he died like a good Christian, we may have little doubt of his +salvation. God grant us grace, and that in his own good time we may +happily follow Albert.”</p> + +<p>The popular error,—as I believe it to be,—that Albert +Durer was an engraver on wood, has not tended, in England, where his +works as a painter are but little known, to increase his reputation. +Many persons on looking over the wood engravings which bear his mark +have thought but meanly of their execution; and have concluded that his +abilities as an artist were much over-rated, on the supposition that his +fame chiefly rested on the presumed fact of his being the engraver of +those works. Certain writers, too, speaking of him as a painter and an +engraver on copper, have formed rather an unfavourable estimate of his +talents, by comparing his pictures with those of his great Italian +contemporaries,—Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and +Raffaele,—and by judging of his engravings with reference to the +productions of modern art, in which the freedom and effect of etching +are combined with the precision and clearness of lines produced by the +burin. This, however, is judging the artist by an unfair standard. +Though he has not attained, nor indeed attempted, that sublimity which +seems to have been principally the aim of the three great Italian +masters above mentioned, he has produced much that is beautiful, +natural, and interesting; and which, though it may not stand so high in +the scale of art as the grand compositions of his three great +contemporaries, is no less necessary to its completion. The field which +he cultivated, though not yielding productions so noble or splendid as +theirs, was of greater extent and afforded greater variety. If they have +left us more sublime conceptions of past and future events, +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page275" id = "page275"> +275</a></span> +Durer has transmitted to us more faithful pictures of the characters, +manners, and customs of his own times. Let those who are inclined to +depreciate his engravings on copper, as dry and meagre when compared +with the productions of modern engravers, consider the state in which he +found the art; and let them also recollect that he was not a mere +translator of another person’s ideas, but that he engraved his own +designs. Setting aside his merits as a painter, I am of opinion +that no artist of the present day has produced, from his own designs, +three such engravings as Durer’s Adam and Eve, St. Jerome seated in his +chamber writing, and the subject entitled Melancolia.<a class = "tag" +name = "tagV57" id = "tagV57" href = "#noteV57">V.57</a> Let it also not +be forgotten that to Albert Durer we owe the discovery of etching; +a branch of the art which gives to modern engravers, more +especially in landscape, so great an advantage over the original +inventor. Looking impartially at the various works of Durer, and +considering the period and the country in which he lived, few, +I think, will venture to deny that he was one of the greatest +artists of his age. The best proof indeed of the solidity of his fame is +afforded by the esteem in which his works have been held for three +centuries by nearly all persons who have had opportunities of seeing +them, except such as have, upon narrow principles, formed an exclusive +theory with respect to excellence in art. With such authorities nothing +can be beautiful or interesting that is not <i>grand</i>; every country +parish church should be built in the style of a Grecian temple; our +woods should grow nothing but oaks; a country gentleman’s dove-cot +should be a fac-simile of the lantern of Demosthenes; the sign of the +Angel at a country inn should be painted by a Guido; and a picture +representing the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement +of Science should be in the style of Raffaele’s School of Athens.</p> + +<p>Lucas Cranach, a painter of great repute in his day, like his +contemporary Durer has also been supposed to be the engraver of the +wood-cuts which bear his mark, but which, in all probability, were only +drawn by him on the block and executed by professional wood engravers. +The family name of this artist was Sunder, and he is also sometimes +called Muller or Maler—Painter—from his profession. He +acquired the name Cranach, or Von Cranach, from Cranach, a town in +the territory of Bamberg, where he was born in 1470. He enjoyed the +patronage of the electoral princes of Saxony, and one of the most +frequent of his marks is a shield of the arms of that family. Another of +his marks is a shield with two swords crossed; a third is a kind of +dragon; and a fourth is +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page276" id = "page276"> +276</a></span> +the initial letters of his name, L. C. Sometimes two or three of +those marks are to be found in one cut. There are four engravings on +copper with the mark <img class = "middle" src = "images/illus_276.png" +width = "35" height = "43" alt = "LCZ"> which are generally ascribed to +this artist. That they are from his designs is very likely, but whether +they were engraved by himself or not is uncertain. One of them bears the +date 1492, and it is probable that they were all executed about the same +period. Two of those pieces were in the possession of Mr. Ottley, who +says, “Perhaps the two last characters of the mark may be intended for +<i>Cr</i>.” It seems, however, more likely that the last character is +intended for the letter which it most resembles—a Z, and that it +denotes the German word <i>zeichnet</i>—that is “<i>drew</i>;” in +the same manner as later artists occasionally subjoined the letter P or +F to their names for <i>Pinxit</i> or <i>Fecit</i>, respectively as they +might have painted the picture or engraved the plate.</p> + +<p>One of the earliest chiaro-scuros, as has before been observed, +printed from three blocks, is from a design of Lucas Cranach. It is +dated 1509, nine years before the earliest chiaro-scuro with a date +executed by Ugo da Carpi, to whom Vasari and others have erroneously +ascribed the invention of this mode of imitating a drawing by +impressions from two or more wood-blocks. The subject, like that of the +following specimen, is a Repose in Egypt, but is treated in a different +manner,—the Virgin being represented giving suck to the infant +Christ.</p> + +<p>The wood engravings that contain Cranach’s mark are not so numerous +as those which contain the mark of Albert Durer, and they are also +generally inferior to the latter both in effect and design. The +following reduced copy of a cut which contains three of Cranach’s four +marks will afford some idea of the style of his designs on wood. As a +specimen of his ability in this branch of art it is perhaps superior to +the greater part of his designs executed in the same manner. The subject +is described by Bartsch as a Repose in Egypt. The action of the youthful +angels who are dancing round the Virgin and the infant Christ is +certainly truly juvenile if not graceful. The two children seen up the +tree robbing an eagle’s nest are perhaps emblematic of the promised +peace of Christ’s kingdom and of the destruction of the power of Satan: +“No lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it +shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.”<a class = +"tag" name = "tagV58" id = "tagV58" href = "#noteV58">V.58</a> In the +right-hand corner at the top is the shield of the arms of Saxony; and to +the left, also at the top, is another of Cranach’s marks—a shield +with two swords crossed; in the right-hand corner at the bottom is a +third mark,—the figure of a kind of dragon with a ring in its +mouth. The size of the original cut is thirteen inches and one-fourth +high by nine inches and one-fourth wide.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_277" id = "illus_277"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_277.png" width = "333" height = "463" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page277" id = "page277"> +277</a></span> +<p>Cranach was much esteemed in his own country as a painter, and +several of his pictures are still regarded with admiration. He was in +great favour with John Frederick, Elector of Saxony,<a class = "tag" +name = "tagV59" id = "tagV59" href = "#noteV59">V.59</a> and at one +period of his life was one of the magistrates of Wittenberg. He died at +Weimar, on 16th October 1553, aged eighty-three.</p> + +<p>Another eminent painter who has been classed with Durer and Cranach +as a wood engraver is Hans Burgmair, who was born at Augsburg about +1473. The mark of this artist is to be found on a +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page278" id = "page278"> +278</a></span> +great number of wood engravings, but beyond this fact there is not the +least reason to suppose that he ever engraved a single block. To those +who have described Burgmair as a wood engraver from this circumstance +only, a most satisfactory answer is afforded by the fact that +several of the original blocks of the Triumphs of Maximilian, which +contain Burgmair’s mark, have at the back the names of the different +engravers by whom they were executed. As we have here positive evidence +of cuts with Burgmair’s mark being engraved by other persons, we cannot +certainly conclude that any cut, from the mere fact of its containing +his mark, was actually engraved by himself. Next to Albert Durer he was +one of the best designers on wood of his age; and as one of the early +masters of the German school of painting he is generally considered as +entitled to rank next to the great painter of Nuremberg. It has indeed +been supposed that Burgmair was a pupil of Durer; but for this opinion +there seems to be no sufficient ground. It is certain that he made many +of the designs for the wood-cuts published under the title of The +Triumphs of Maximilian; and it is also probable that he drew nearly all +the cuts in the book entitled Der Weiss Kunig—The Wise King, +another work illustrative of the learning, wisdom, and adventures of the +Emperor Maximilian.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV60" id = "tagV60" href = +"#noteV60">V.60</a> Before proceeding, however, to give any account of +those works, it seems advisable to give two specimens from a different +series of wood-cuts of his designing, and to briefly notice two or three +of the more remarkable single cuts that bear his mark.</p> + +<p>The cut on the opposite page is a reduced copy from a series designed +by Burgmair. The subject is Samson and Delilah, and is treated according +to the old German fashion, without the least regard to propriety of +costume. Samson is represented like a grisly old German baron of +Burgmair’s own time, with limbs certainly not indicating extraordinary +strength; and Delilah seems very deliberately engaged in cutting off his +hair. The wine flagon and fowl, to the left, would seem to indicate the +danger of yielding to sensual indulgence. The original cut is surrounded +by an ornamental border, and is four inches and five-eighths high by +three inches and five-eighths wide. Burgmair’s mark H. B. is at the +bottom of the cut, to the right.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_279" id = "illus_279"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_279.png" width = "325" height = "398" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The cut on page 280 is also a reduced copy from one of the same +series, and is a proof that those who call the whole by the general +title of “Bible Prints” are not exactly correct in their nomenclature. +The somewhat humorous-looking personage, whom a lady is using as her +pad, is thus described in an inscription underneath the cut: “Aristotle, +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page279" id = "page279"> +279</a></span> +a Greek, the son of Nicomachus. A disciple of Plato, and the master +of Alexander the Great.” Though Aristotle is said to have been extremely +fond of his wife Pythaïs, and to have paid her divine honours after her +death, there is no record, I believe, of her having amused herself +with riding on her husband’s back. The subject is probably intended to +illustrate the power of the fair sex over even the wisest of mortals, +and to show that philosophers themselves when under such influence +occasionally forget their character as teachers of men, and exhibit +themselves in situations which scarcely an ass might envy. The original +is surrounded by a border, and is four inches and five-eighths high by +three inches and five-eighths wide.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_280" id = "illus_280"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_280.png" width = "324" height = "402" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>There are several chiaro-scuros from wood-blocks with Burgmair’s +mark. One of the earliest is a portrait of “Joannes Paungartner,” from +two blocks, with the date 1512; another of St. George on horseback, from +two blocks, engraved by Jost or Josse de Negher, without date; +a third representing a young woman flying from Death, who is seen +killing +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page280" id = "page280"> +280</a></span> +a young man,—from three blocks, without date; and a fourth of the +Emperor Maximilian on horseback, from two blocks, with the date +1518.</p> + +<p>The best cuts of Burgmair’s designing, though drawn with great spirit +and freedom, are decidedly inferior to the best of the wood-cuts +designed by Albert Durer. Errors in perspective are frequent in the cuts +which bear his mark; his figures are not so varied nor their characters +so well indicated as Durer’s; and in their arrangement, or grouping, he +is also inferior to Durer, as well as in the art of giving effect to his +subjects by the skilful distribution of light and shade. The cuts in the +Wise King, nearly all of which are said to have been designed by him, +are, for the most part, very inferior productions both with respect to +engraving and design. His merits as a designer on wood are perhaps shown +to greater advantage in the Triumphs of Maximilian than in any other of +his works executed in this manner.—Some writers have asserted that +Burgmair died in 1517, but this is certainly incorrect; for there is a +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page281" id = "page281"> +281</a></span> +portrait of him, with that of his wife on the same pannel, painted by +himself in 1529, when he was fifty-six years old. Underneath this +painting was a couplet to the following effect:</p> + +<div class = "verse"> +<p>Our likeness such as here you view;—</p> +<p>The glass itself was not more true.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV61" +id = "tagV61" href = "#noteV61">V.61</a></p> +</div> + +<p>Burgmair, like Cranach, lived till he was upwards of eighty; but it +would seem that he had given up drawing on wood for many years previous +to his death, for I am not aware of there being any wood-cuts designed +by him with a date subsequent to 1530. He died in 1559, aged +eighty-six.</p> + +<p>Hans Schäufflein is another of those old German painters who are +generally supposed to have been also engravers on wood. Bartsch, +however, thinks that, like Durer, Cranach, and Burgmair, he only made +the designs for the wood-cuts which are ascribed to him, and that they +were engraved by other persons. Schäufflein was born at Nuremberg in +1483; and it is said that he was a pupil of Albert Durer. Subsequently +he removed to Nordlingen, a town in Suabia, about sixty miles to +the south-westward of Nuremberg, where he died in 1550.</p> + +<p>The wood-cuts in connexion with which Schäufllein’s name is most +frequently mentioned are the illustrations of the work usually called +the Adventures of Sir Theurdank,<a class = "tag" name = "tagV62" id = +"tagV62" href = "#noteV62">V.62</a> an allegorical poem, in folio, which +is +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page282" id = "page282"> +282</a></span> +said to have been the joint composition of the Emperor Maximilian and +his private secretary Melchior Pfintzing, provost of the church of St. +Sebald at Nuremberg. Though Köhler, a German author, in an Essay on +Sir Theurdank,—De inclyto libro poetico Theurdank,—has +highly praised the poetical beauties of the work, they are certainly not +such as are likely to interest an English reader. “The versified +allegory of Sir Theurdank,” says Küttner,<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV63" id = "tagV63" href = "#noteV63">V.63</a> “is deficient in true +Epic beauty; it has also nothing, as a poem, of the romantic +descriptions of the thirteenth century,—nothing of the delicate +gallantry of the age of chivalry and the troubadours. The machinery +which sets all in action are certain personifications of Envy, restless +Curiosity, and Daring; these induce the hero to undertake many perilous +adventures, from which he always escapes through Understanding and +Virtue. Such is the groundwork of the fable which Pfintzing constructs +in order to extol, under allegorical representations, the perils, +adventures, and heroic deeds of the emperor. Everything is described so +figuratively as to amount to a riddle; and the story proceeds with +little connexion and without animation. There are no striking +descriptive passages, no Homeric similes, and no episodes to allow the +reader occasionally to rest; in fact, nothing admirable, +spirit-stirring, or great. The poem is indeed rather moral than epic; +Lucan’s Pharsalia partakes more of the epic character than Pfintzing’s +Theurdank. Pfintzing, however, surpasses the Cyclic poets alluded to by +Horace.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV64" id = "tagV64" href = +"#noteV64">V.64</a></p> + +<p>The first edition of Sir Theurdank was printed by Hans Schönsperger +the elder, at Nuremberg in 1517; and in 1519 two editions appeared at +Augsburg from the press of the same printer. As Schönsperger’s +established printing-office was at the latter city and not at Nuremberg, +Panzer has supposed that the imprint of Nuremberg in the first edition +might have been introduced as a compliment to the nominal author, +Melchior Pfintzing, who then resided in that city. Two or three other +editions of Sir Theurdank, with the same cuts, appeared between 1519 and +1602; but Küttner, in his Characters of German poets and prose-writers, +says that in all those editions alterations have been made in the +text.</p> + +<p>The character in which Sir Theurdank is printed is of great beauty +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page283" id = "page283"> +283</a></span> +and much ornamented with flourishes. Several writers, and among others +Fournier, who was a type-founder and wood-engraver, have erroneously +described the text as having been engraved on blocks of wood. This very +superficial and incorrect writer also states that the cuts contained in +the volume are “chefs-d’œuvres de la gravure en bois.”<a class = "tag" +name = "tagV65" id = "tagV65" href = "#noteV65">V.65</a> His opinion +with respect to the cuts is about as correct as his judgment respecting +the type; the most of them are in fact very ordinary productions, and +are neither remarkable for execution nor design. He also informs his +readers that he has discovered on some of those cuts an H and an S, +accompanied with a little shovel, and that they are the monogram of +<i>Hans Sebalde</i>, or Hans Schäufflein. By <i>Hans Sebalde</i> he +perhaps means Hans Sebald Behaim, an artist born at Nuremberg in 1500, +and who never used the letters H and S, accompanied with a little +shovel, as a monogram. Fournier did not know that this mark is used +exclusively by Hans Schäufflein; and that the little shovel, or baker’s +peel,—called in old German, Schäufflein, or Scheuffleine,—is +a rebus of his surname. The careful examination of writers more +deserving of credit has completely proved that the text of the three +earliest editions—those only in which it was asserted to be from +engraved wood-blocks—is printed from moveable types of metal. +Breitkopf<a class = "tag" name = "tagV66" id = "tagV66" href = +"#noteV66">V.66</a> has observed, that in the edition of 1517 the letter +i, in the word <i>shickhet</i>, in the second line following the +eighty-fourth cut, is inverted; and Panzer and Brunner have noticed +several variations in the orthography of the second and third editions +when compared with the first.</p> + +<p>There are a hundred and eighteen wood-cuts in the Adventures of Sir +Theurdank, which are all supposed to have been designed, if not +engraved, by Hans Schäufflein, though his mark, <img class = "middle" +src = "images/illus_283.png" width = "59" height = "16" alt = "symbol">, +occurs on not more than five or six. From the general similarity of +style I have, however, no doubt that the designs were all made by the +same person, and I think it more likely that Schaufflein was the +designer than the engraver. The cut on page 284 is a reduced copy of +that numbered 14 in the first edition. The original is six inches and +one-fourth high by five inches and a half wide. In this cut, Sir +Theurdank is seen, in the dress of a hunter, encountering a huge bear; +while to the right is perceived one of his tempters, +<i>Fürwittig</i>—restless Curiosity,—and to the left, on +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page284" id = "page284"> +284</a></span> +horseback, Theurdank’s squire, Ernhold. The title of the chapter, or +fytte, to which this cut is prefixed is to the following effect: “How +Fürwittig led Sir Theurdank into a perilous encounter with a she-bear.” +The subject of the thirteenth chapter is his perilous encounter with a +stag, and in the fifteenth we are entertained with the narration of one +of his adventures when hunting the chamois.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_284" id = "illus_284"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_284.png" width = "323" height = "369" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The opposite cut is a reduced copy of No. 111 in the Adventures of +Sir Theurdank. The title of the chapter to which this cut is prefixed +is: “How Unfalo [one of Theurdank’s tempters] was hung.” A monk at +the foot of the gallows appears to pray for the culprit just turned off; +while Ernold seems to be explaining to a group of spectators to the left +the reason of the execution. The cut illustrative of the 110th chapter +represents the beheading of “Fürwittig;” and in the 112th, “Neydelhart,” +the basest of Theurdank’s enemies, is seen receiving the reward of his +perfidy by being thrown into a moat. The two original cuts which have +been selected as specimens of the wood engravings in the Adventures of +Sir Theurdank, though not the best, are perhaps, in point of design and +execution, rather superior to two-thirds of those contained in the work. +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page285" id = "page285"> +285</a></span> +The copies, though less in size, afford a tolerably correct idea of the +style of the originals, which no one who is acquainted with the best +wood-cuts engraved after the designs of Durer and Burgmair will assert +to be “chefs-d’œuvres” of the art of wood engraving.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_285" id = "illus_285"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_285.png" width = "322" height = "364" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>There are a number of wood-cuts which contain Hans Schäufflein’s +mark, though somewhat different from that which occurs in the Adventures +of Sir Theurdank; the S being linked with one of the upright lines of +the H, instead of being placed between them. When the letters are +combined in this manner, there are frequently two little shovels +crossed, “in saltire,” as a herald would say, instead of a single one as +in Sir Theurdank. The following mark, <img class = "middle" src = +"images/illus_285b.png" width = "58" height = "17" alt = "symbol">, +occurs on a series of wood-cuts illustrative of Christ’s Passion, +printed at Frankfort by C. Egenolf, 1542; on the cuts in a German +almanack, Mentz, 1545, and 1547; and on several single subjects executed +about that period. This mark, it is said, distinguishes the designs of +Hans Schaufflein the younger. Bartsch, however, observes, that “what +Strutt has said about there being two persons of this name, an elder and +a younger, seems to be a mere conjecture.”</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page286" id = "page286"> +286</a></span> +<p>The book entitled Der Weiss Kunig—the Wise King—is +another of the works projected by the Emperor Maximilian in order to +inform the world of sundry matters concerning his father Frederick III, +his own education, warlike and perilous deeds, government, wooing, and +wedding. This work is in prose; and though Marx Treitzsaurwein, the +emperor’s secretary, is put forth as the author, there is little doubt +of its having been chiefly composed by Maximilian himself. About 1512 it +appears that the materials for this work were prepared by the emperor, +and that about 1514 they were entrusted to his secretary, +Treitzsaurwein, to be put in order. It would appear that before the work +was ready for the press Maximilian had died; and Charles V. was too +much occupied with other matters to pay much attention to the +publication of an enigmatical work, whose chief object was to celebrate +the accomplishments, knowledge, and adventures of his grandfather. The +obscurity of many passages in the emperor’s manuscript seems to have, in +a great measure, retarded the completion of the work. There is now in +the Imperial Library at Vienna a manuscript volume of queries respecting +the doubtful passages in the Weiss Kunig; and as each had ultimately to +be referred to the emperor, it would seem that, from the pressure of +more important business and his increased age, he had wanted leisure and +spirits to give the necessary explanations. In the sixteenth century, +Richard Strein, an eminent philologer, began a sort of commentary or +exposition of the more difficult passages in the Wise King; and +subsequently his remarks came into the hands of George Christopher von +Schallenberg, who, in 1631, had the good fortune to obtain at Vienna +impressions of most of the cuts which were intended by the emperor to +illustrate the work, together with several of the original drawings. +Treitzsaurwein’s manuscript, which for many years had been preserved at +Ambras in the Tyrol, having been transferred to the Imperial Library at +Vienna, and the original blocks having been discovered in the Jesuits’ +College at Gratz in Stiria, the text and cuts were printed together, for +the first time, in a folio volume, at Vienna in 1775.<a class = "tag" +name = "tagV67" id = "tagV67" href = "#noteV67">V.67</a></p> + +<p>It is probable that the greater part, if not all the cuts, were +finished previous to the emperor’s death; and impressions of them, very +likely taken shortly after the blocks were finished, were known to +collectors long before the publication of the book. The late Mr. Ottley +had seventy-seven of the series, apparently taken as proofs by means of +a +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page287" id = "page287"> +287</a></span> +press. The paper on which these cuts are impressed appears to have +consisted of fragments, on one side of which there had previously been +printed certain state papers of the Emperor Maximilian, dated 1514. They +were sold at the sale of the late Mr. Ottley’s engravings in 1838, and +are now in the Print Room of the British Museum. In the volume printed +at Vienna in 1775, there are two hundred and thirty-seven<a class = +"tag" name = "tagV68" id = "tagV68" href = "#noteV68">V.68</a> large +cuts, of which number ninety-two contain Burgmair’s mark, H. B; one +contains Schaufflein’s mark; another the mark of Hans Springinklee; and +a third, a modern cut, is marked “F. F. S. V. 1775.” +Besides the large cuts, all of which are old except the last noticed, +there are a few worthless tail-pieces of modern execution, one of which, +a nondescript bird, has been copied by Bewick, and is to be found +at page 144 of the first edition of his Quadrupeds, 1790.</p> + +<p>The cuts in the Weiss Kunig, with respect to the style in which they +are designed, bear considerable resemblance to those in Sir Theurdank; +and from their execution it is evident that they have been cut by +different engravers; some of them being executed in a very superior +manner, and others affording proofs of their either being cut by a +novice or a very indifferent workman. It has been said that all those +which contain the mark of Hans Burgmair show a decided superiority in +point of engraving; but this assertion is not correct, for several of +them may be classed with the worst executed in the volume. The unequal +manner in which the cuts with Burgmair’s mark are executed is with me an +additional reason for believing that he only furnished the designs for +professional wood engravers to execute, and never engraved on wood +himself.</p> + +<p>It seems unnecessary to give any specimens of the cuts in the Weiss +Kunig, as an idea of their style may be formed from those given at pages +284 and 285 from Sir Theurdank; and as other specimens of Burgmair’s +talents as a designer on wood will be given subsequently from the +Triumphs of Maximilian. The following abstract of the titles of a few of +the chapters may perhaps afford some idea of the work, while they prove +that the education of the emperor embraced a wide circle, forming almost +a perfect Cyclopædia. The first fifteen chapters give an account of the +marriage of the Old Wise King, Frederick III, the father of Maximilian, +with Elenora, daughter of Alphonso V, King of Portugal; his journey +to Rome and his coronation +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page288" id = "page288"> +288</a></span> +there by the pope; with the birth, and christening of Maximilian, the +Young Wise King. About thirty-five chapters, from <span class = +"smallroman">XV.</span> to <span class = "smallroman"><ins class = +"correction" title = ". missing">L.</ins></span>, are chiefly occupied +with an account of Maximilian’s education. After learning to write, he +is instructed in the liberal arts; and after some time devoted to +“Politik,” or King-craft, he proceeds to the study of the +<i>black-art</i>, a branch of knowledge which the emperor subsequently +held to be vain and ungodly. He then commences the study of history, +devotes some attention to medicine and law, and learns the Italian and +Bohemian languages. He then learns to paint; studies the principles of +architecture, and tries his hand at carpentry. He next takes lessons in +music; and about the same time acquires a practical knowledge of the art +of cookery:—the Wise King, we are informed, was a person of nice +taste in kitchen affairs, and had a proper relish for savoury and +well-cooked viands. To the accomplishment of dancing he adds a knowledge +of numismatics; and, after making himself acquainted with the mode of +working mines, he learns to shoot with the hand-gun and the cross-bow. +The chase, falconry, angling, and fowling next occupy his attention; and +about the same time he learns to fence, to tilt, and to manage the great +horse. His course of education appears to have been wound up with +practical lessons in the art of making armour, in gunnery, and in +fortification. From the fiftieth chapter to the conclusion, the book is +chiefly filled with accounts of the wars and adventures of Maximilian, +which are for the most part allegorically detailed, and require the +reader to be well versed in the true history of the emperor to be able +to unriddle them. Küttner says that, notwithstanding its allegories and +enigmatical allusions, the Weiss Kunig is a work which displays much +mind in the conception and execution, and considerable force and +elegance of language; and that it chiefly wants a more orderly +arrangement of the events. “Throughout the whole,” he adds, “there are +evidences of a searching genius, improved by science and a knowledge of +the affairs of the world.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV69" id = "tagV69" +href = "#noteV69">V.69</a></p> + +<p>The series of wood-cuts called the Triumphs of Maximilian are, both +with respect to design and engraving, the best of all the works thus +executed by command of the emperor to convey to posterity a pictorial +representation of the splendour of his court, his victories, and the +extent of his possessions. This work appears to have been commenced +about the same time as the Weiss Kunig; and from the subject, +a triumphal procession, it was probably intended to be the last of +the series of wood-cuts by which he was desirous of disseminating an +opinion of his power and his fame. Of those works he only lived to see +one published,—the Adventures of Sir Theurdank; the Wise King, the +Triumphal Car, the Triumphal Arch, and the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page289" id = "page289"> +289</a></span> +Triumphal Procession, appear to have been all unfinished at the time of +his decease in 1519. The total number of cuts contained in the latter +work, published under the title of the Triumphs of Maximilian, in 1796, +is one hundred and thirty-five; but had the series been finished +according to the original drawings, now preserved in the Imperial +Library at Vienna, the whole number of the cuts would have been about +two hundred and eighteen. Of the hundred and thirty-five published there +are about sixteen designed in a style so different from the rest, that +it is doubtful if they belong to the same series; and this suspicion +receives further confirmation from the fact that the subjects of those +sixteen doubtful cuts are not to be found among the original designs. It +would therefore seem, that, unless some of the blocks have been lost or +destroyed, little more than one-half of the cuts intended for the +Triumphal Procession were finished when the emperor’s death put a stop +to the further progress of the work. It is almost certain, that none of +the cuts were engraved after the emperor’s death; for the date, +commencing with 1516, is written at the back of several of the original +blocks, and on no one is it later than 1519.</p> + +<p>The plan of the Triumphal Procession,—consisting of a +description of the characters to be introduced, the order in which they +are to follow each other, their arms, dress, and +appointments,—appears to have been dictated by the emperor to his +secretary Treitzsaurwein, the nominal author of the Weiss Kunig, in +1512. In this manuscript the subjects for the rhyming inscriptions +intended for the different banners and tablets are also noted in prose. +Another manuscript, in the handwriting of Treitzsaurwein, and interlined +by the emperor himself, contains the inscriptions for the banners and +tablets in verse; and a third manuscript, written after the drawings +were finished, contains a description of the subjects,—though not +so much in detail as the first, and in some particulars slightly +differing,—with all the inscriptions in verse except eight. From +those manuscripts, which are preserved in the Imperial Library at +Vienna, the descriptions in the edition of 1796 have been transcribed. +Most of the descriptions and verses were previously given by Von Murr, +in 1775, in the ninth volume of his Journal. The edition of the +Triumphal Procession published in 1796 also contains a French +translation of the descriptions, with numbers referring to those printed +at the right-hand corner of the cuts. The numbers, however, of the +description and the cut in very many instances do not agree; and it +would almost seem, from the manner in which the text is printed, that +the publishers did not wish to facilitate a comparison between the +description and the cut which they have numbered as corresponding with +it. The gross negligence of the publishers, or their editor, in this +respect materially detracts from the interest of the work. To compare +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page290" id = "page290"> +290</a></span> +the descriptions with the cuts is not only a work of some trouble, but +it is also labour thrown away. Von Murr’s volume, from its convenient +size, is of much greater use in comparing the cuts with the description +than the text printed in the edition of 1796; and though it contains no +numbers for reference,—as no complete collection of the cuts had +then been printed,—it contains no misdirections: and it is better +to have no guide-posts than such as only lead the traveller wrong.</p> + +<p>The original drawings for the Triumphal Procession,—or as the +work is usually called, the Triumphs of Maximilian,—are preserved +in the Imperial Library at Vienna. They are painted in water colours, on +a hundred and nine sheets of vellum, each thirty-four inches long by +twenty inches high, and containing two of the engraved subjects. Dr. +Dibdin, who saw the drawings in 1818, says that they are rather gaudily +executed, and that he prefers the engravings to the original +paintings.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV70" id = "tagV70" href = +"#noteV70">V.70</a> Whether those paintings are the work of Hans +Burgmair, or not, appears to be uncertain. From the following extract +from the preface to the Triumphs of Maximilian, published in 1796, it is +evident that the writer did not think that the original drawings were +executed by that artist. “The engravings of this Triumph, far from being +servile copies of the paintings in miniature, differ from them entirely, +so far as regards the manner in which they are designed. Most all the +groups have a different form, and almost every figure a different +attitude; <i>consequently Hans Burgmair appears in his work in the +character of author</i> [<i>original designer</i>]<i>, and so much the +more, as he has in many points surpassed his model</i>. But whatever may +be the difference between the engravings and the drawings on vellum, the +subjects still so far correspond that they may be recognised without the +least difficulty. It is, however, necessary to except eighteen of the +engravings, in which this correspondence would be sought for in vain. +Those engravings are, the twelve from No. 89 to 100, and the six +from 130 to 135.” As the cuts appear to have been intentionally wrong +numbered, it is not easy to determine from this reference which are +actually the first twelve alluded to, for in most of the copies which I +have seen, the numerals 91, 92, and 93 occur twice,—though the +subjects of the cuts are different. In the copy now before me, +I have to observe that there are <i>sixteen</i><a class = "tag" +name = "tagV71" id = "tagV71" href = "#noteV71">V.71</a> cuts designed +in a style so different from those which contain Burgmair’s mark, that I +am convinced they have not been drawn by that artist. +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page291" id = "page291"> +291</a></span> +Without enquiring whether the subjects are to be found in the paintings +or not, I am satisfied that a considerable number of the +engravings, besides those sixteen, were not drawn on the wood by Hans +Burgmair. Both Breitkopf and Von Murr<a class = "tag" name = "tagV72" id += "tagV72" href = "#noteV72">V.72</a> have asserted that the drawings +for the Triumphs of Maximilian were made by Albert Durer, but they do +not say whether they mean the drawings on vellum, or the drawings on the +blocks. This assertion is, however, made without any authority; and, +whether they meant the drawings on vellum or the drawings on the block, +it is unquestionably incorrect. The drawings on vellum are not by Durer, +and of the whole hundred and thirty-five cuts there are not more than +five or six that can be supposed with any degree of probability to have +been of his designing.</p> + +<p>Forty of the blocks from which the Triumphs of Maximilian are printed +were obtained from Ambras in the Tyrol, where they had probably been +preserved since the time of the emperor’s death; and the other +ninety-five were discovered in the Jesuits’ College at Gratz in Stiria. +The whole were brought to Vienna and deposited in the Imperial Library +in 1779. A few proofs had probably been taken when the blocks were +engraved; there are ninety of those old impressions in the Imperial +Library; Monsieur Mariette had ninety-seven; and Sandrart had seen a +hundred. The latter, in speaking of those impressions, expresses a +suspicion of the original blocks having been destroyed in a fire at +Augsburg; their subsequent discovery, however, at Ambras and Gratz, +shows that his suspicion was not well founded. On the discovery of those +blocks it was supposed that the remainder of the series, as described in +the manuscript, might also be still in existence; but after a diligent +search no more have been found. It is indeed highly probable that the +further progress of the work had been interrupted by Maximilian’s death, +and that if any more of the series were finished, the number must have +been few. About 1775, a few impressions were taken from the blocks +preserved at Ambras, and also from those at Gratz; but no collection of +the whole accompanied with text was ever printed until 1796, when an +edition in large folio was printed at Vienna by permission of the +Austrian government, and with the name of J. Edwards, then a +bookseller in Pall-Mall, on the title-page, as the London publisher. It +is much to be regretted that greater pains were not taken to afford the +reader every information that could be obtained with respect to the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page292" id = "page292"> +292</a></span> +cuts; and it says very little for the English publisher’s patriotism +that the translation of the original German descriptions should be in +French;—but perhaps there might be a reason for this, for, where +no precise meaning is to be conveyed, French is certainly much better +than English. From the fact of several of the subjects not being +contained in the original drawings, and from the great difference in the +style of many of the cuts, it is by no means certain that they were all +intended for the same work. There can, however, be little doubt of their +all having been designed for a triumphal procession intended to +celebrate the fame of Maximilian.</p> + +<p>The original blocks, now preserved in the Imperial Library at Vienna, +are all of pear-tree, and several of them are partially worm-eaten. At +the back of those blocks are written or engraved seventeen names and +initials, which are supposed, with great probability, to be those of the +engravers by whom they were executed. At the back of No. 18, which +represents five musicians in a car, there is written, “Der kert an die +Elland,—hat <i>Wilhelm geschnitten</i>:” that is, “This follows +the Elks.—Engraved by William.” In the preceding cut, No. 17, +are the two elks which draw the car, and on one of the traces is Hans +Burgmair’s mark. At the back of No. 20 is written, “<i>Jobst +putavit, 14 Aprilis 1517. Die gehert an die bifel, und die bifel halt +Jos geschnitten.</i>”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV73" id = "tagV73" href += "#noteV73">V.73</a> This inscription Mr. Ottley, at page 756, volume +ii. of his Inquiry, expounds as follows: “Josse putavit (perhaps for +<i>punctavit</i>), the 14th of April, 1517. This block joins to that +which represents the Buffaloes.” This translation is substantially +correct; but it is exceedingly doubtful if <i>putavit</i> was written in +mistake for <i>punctavit</i>. The proposed substitution indeed seems +very like explaining an <i>ignotum per ignotius</i>. The verb +<i>punctare</i> is never, that I am aware of, used by any writer, either +classical or modern, to express the idea of engraving on wood. +A German, however, who was but imperfectly acquainted with Latin, +would not be unlikely to translate the German verb <i>schneiden</i>, +which signifies <i>to cut</i> generally, by the Latin <i>putare</i>, +which is specially applied to the lopping or pruning of trees. +I have heard it conjectured that <i>putavit</i> might have been +used in the sense of <i>imaginavit</i>, as if Jobst were the designer; +but there can be little doubt of its being here intended to express the +cutting of the wood-engraver; for Burgmair’s mark is to be found both on +this cut and on the preceding one of the two buffaloes, No. 19; and +it cannot for a moment be supposed that he was a mere workman employed +to execute the designs of another person. Were such +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page293" id = "page293"> +293</a></span> +a supposition granted, it would follow that the wood-engraver of that +period—at least so far as regards the work in question—was +considered as a much superior person to him who drew the designs; that +the <i>workman</i>, in fact, was to be commemorated, but the +<i>artist</i> forgotten; a conclusion which is diametrically +opposed to fact, for so little were the mere wood-engravers of that +period esteemed, that we only incidentally become acquainted with their +names; and from their not putting their marks or initials to the cuts +which they engraved has arisen the popular error that Durer, Cranach, +Burgmair, and others, who are known to have been painters of great +repute in their day, were wood-engravers and executed themselves the +wood-cuts which bear their marks.</p> + +<p>The following are the names and initial letters at the back of the +blocks. 1. Jerome André, called also Jerome Resch, or Rösch, the +engraver of the Triumphal Arch designed by Albert Durer. 2. Jan de +Bonn. 3. Cornelius. 4. Hans Frank. 5. Saint German. +6. Wilhelm. 7. Corneille Liefrink. 8. Wilhelm Liefrink. +9. Alexis Lindt. 10. Josse de Negker. On several of the blocks +Negker is styled, “engraver on wood, at Augsburg.” 11. Vincent +Pfarkecher. 12. Jaques Rupp. 13. Hans Schaufflein. +14. Jan Taberith. 15. F. P. 16. H. F. 17. W. +R. It is not unlikely that “Cornelius,” No. 3, may be the same +as Corneille Liefrink, No. 7; and that “Wilhelm,” No. 6, and +Wilhelm Liefrink, No. 8, may also be the same person. At the back +of the block which corresponds with the description numbered 120, Hans +Schaufflein’s name is found coupled with that of Cornelius Liefrink; and +at the back of the cut which corresponds with the description numbered +121 Schaufflein’s name occurs alone.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV74" id += "tagV74" href = "#noteV74">V.74</a> The occurrence of Schaufflein’s +name at the back of the cuts would certainly seem to indicate that he +was one of the engravers; but his name also appearing at the back of +that described under No. 120, in conjunction with the name of +Cornelius Liefrink, who was certainly a wood-engraver,<a class = "tag" +name = "tagV75" id = "tagV75" href = "#noteV75">V.75</a> makes me +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page294" id = "page294"> +294</a></span> +inclined to suppose that he might only have made the drawing on the +block and not have engraved the cut; and this supposition seems to be +partly confirmed by the fact that the cuts which are numbered 104, 105, +and 106, corresponding with the descriptions Nos. 119, 120, and 121, +have not Hans Burgmair’s mark, and are much more like the undoubted +designs of Hans Schaufflein than those of that artist. That the cuts +published under the title of the Triumphs of Maximilian were not all +drawn on the block by the same person will, I think, appear +probable to any one who even cursorily examines them; and whoever +carefully compares them can scarcely have a doubt on the subject.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_294" id = "illus_294"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_294.png" width = "264" height = "276" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +From No. 15. With Burgmair’s mark.</p> + +<p>Almost every one of the cuts that contains Burgmair’s mark, in the +Triumphal Procession, is designed with great spirit, and has evidently +been drawn by an artist who had a thorough command of his pencil. His +horses are generally strong and heavy, and the men on their backs of a +stout and muscular form. The action of the horses seems natural; and the +indications of the joints and the drawing of the hoofs—which are +mostly low and broad—evidently show that the artist had paid some +attention to the structure of the animal. There are, however, +a considerable number of cuts where both men and horses appear +remarkable for their leanness; and in which the hoofs of the horses are +most incorrectly drawn, and the action of the animals represented in a +manner which is by no means natural. Though it is not unlikely +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page295" id = "page295"> +295</a></span> +that Hans Burgmair was capable of drawing both a stout, heavy horse, and +a long-backed, thin-quartered, lean one, I cannot persuade myself +that he would, in almost every instance, draw the hoofs and legs of the +one correctly, and those of the other with great inaccuracy. The cut on +the opposite page and the five next following, of single figures, copied +on a reduced scale from the Triumphs, will exemplify the preceding +observations. The numbers are those printed on the cuts, and they all, +except one, appear to correspond with the French descriptions in the +text. The preceding cut is from that marked No. 15. The mark +of Hans Burgmair is on the ornamental breast-plate, as an English +saddler would call it, that passes across the horse’s chest. This +figure, in the original cut, carries a tablet suspended from a staff, of +which the lower part only is perceived in the copy, as it has not been +thought necessary to give the tablet and a large scroll which were +intended to contain inscriptions.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV76" id = +"tagV76" href = "#noteV76">V.76</a> The description of the subject is to +the following effect: “After the chase, comes a figure on horseback, +bearing a tablet, on which shall be written the five charges of the +court,—that +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page296" id = "page296"> +296</a></span> +is, of the butler, the cook, the barber, the tailor, and the shoemaker; +and Eberbach shall be the under-marshal of the household, and carry the +tablet.”</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_295" id = "illus_295"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_295.png" width = "263" height = "314" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +From No. 65. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair.</p> + +<p>The cut on page 295 is a reduced copy of a figure, the last, in +No. 65, which is without Burgmair’s mark. In the original the +horseman bears a banner, having on it the arms of the state or city +which he represents; and at the top of the banner a black space whereon +a name or motto ought to have been engraved. The original cut contains +three figures; and, if the description can be relied on, the banners +which they bear are those of Fribourg, Bregentz, and Saulgau. The other +two horsemen and their steeds in No. 65 are still more unlike those +in the cuts which contain Burgmair’s mark.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_296" id = "illus_296"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_296.png" width = "262" height = "353" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +From No. 33. With Burgmair’s mark.</p> + +<p>The above cut is a reduced copy of a figure on horseback in +No. 33. Burgmair’s mark, an H and a B, may be perceived on the +trappings of the horse. This figure, in the original, bears a large +tablet, and he is followed by five men on foot carrying flails, the +<i>swingels</i><a class = "tag" name = "tagV77" id = "tagV77" href = +"#noteV77">V.77</a> of which are of leather. The description of the +cut,—which +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page297" id = "page297"> +297</a></span> +forms the first of seven representing the dresses and arms of combatants +on foot,—is as follows: “Then shall come a person mounted and +properly habited like a master of arms, and he shall carry the tablet +containing the rhyme. Item, Hans Hollywars shall be the master of arms, +and his rhyme shall be this effect: that he has professed the noble +practice of arms at the court, according to the method devised by the +emperor.”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV78" id = "tagV78" href = +"#noteV78">V.78</a></p> + +<p>The following is a reduced copy of a figure in the cut erroneously +numbered 83, but which corresponds with the description that refers to +84. This figure is the last of the three, who, in the original, are +represented bearing banners containing the arms of Malines, Salins and +Antwerp.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_297" id = "illus_297"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_297.png" width = "263" height = "358" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +From No. 83. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page298" id = "page298"> +298</a></span> +<p>The following figure, who is given with his rhyme-tablet in full, is +copied from the cut numbered 27. This jovial-looking personage, as we +learn from the description, is the Will Somers of Maximilian’s court, +and he figures as the leader of the professed jesters and the natural +fools, who +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page299" id = "page299"> +299</a></span> +appear in all ages to have been the subjects of “pleasant mirth.” The +instructions to the painter are as follows: “Then shall come one on +horseback habited like a jester, and carrying a rhyme-tablet for the +jesters and natural fools; and he shall be Conrad von der Rosen.” The +fool’s cap with the bell at the peak, denoting his profession, is +perceived hanging on his left shoulder; and on the breast-plate, +crossing the chest of the horse, is Burgmair’s mark.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_298" id = "illus_298"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_298.png" width = "314" height = "622" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +From No. 27. With Burgmair’s mark.</p> + +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page300" id = "page300"> +300</a></span> +<p>The figure on page 299 of a horseman, bearing the banner of Burgundy, +is from the cut numbered 74. The drawing both of rider and horse is +extremely unlike the style of Burgmair as displayed in those cuts which +contain his mark. Burgmair’s men are generally stout, and their +attitudes free; and they all appear to sit well on horseback. The +present lean, lanky figure, who rides a horse that seems admirably +suited to him, cannot have been designed by Burgmair, unless he was +accustomed to design in two styles which were the very opposites of each +other; the one distinguished by the freedom and the boldness of the +drawing, the stoutness of the men, and the bulky form of the horses +introduced; and the other remarkable for laboured and stiff drawing, +gaunt and meagre men, and leggy, starved-like cattle. The whole of the +cuts from No. 57 to No. 88, inclusive,—representing, +except three,<a class = "tag" name = "tagV79" id = "tagV79" href = +"#noteV79">V.79</a> men on horseback bearing the banners of the kingdoms +and states either possessed or claimed by the emperor,—are +designed in the latter style. Not only are the men and horses +represented according to a different standard, but even the very ground +is indicated in a different manner; it seems to abound in fragments of +stones almost like a Macadamized road after a shower of rain. There is +indeed no lack of stones on Burgmair’s ground, but they appear more like +rounded pebbles, and are not scattered about with so liberal a hand as +in the cuts alluded to. In not one of those cuts which are so unlike +Burgmair’s is the mark of that artist to be found; and their general +appearance is so unlike that of the cuts undoubtedly designed by him, +that any person in the least acquainted with works of art will, even on +a cursory examination, perceive the strongly marked difference.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_299" id = "illus_299"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_299.png" width = "331" height = "584" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 74. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair.</p> + +<p>The following cut is a reduced copy of that numbered 57; and which is +the first of those representing horsemen bearing the banners of the +several kingdoms, states, and cities subject to the house of Austria or +to which Maximilian laid claim. It is one of the most gorgeous of the +series; but, from the manner in which the horses and their riders are +represented, I feel convinced that it has not been drawn by +Burgmair. The subject is thus described in the emperor’s directions +prefixed to the volume: “One on horseback bearing the banner of the arms +of Austria; another on horseback bearing the old Austrian arms; another +also on horseback bearing the arms of Stiria.” On the parts which are +left black in the banners it had been intended to insert inscriptions. +The instructions to the painter for this part of the procession are to +the following effect: “One on horseback bearing on a lance a +rhyme-tablet. Then the arms of the hereditary dominions of the house of +Austria on banners, with their shields, helms, and crests, borne by +horsemen; and the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page301" id = "page301"> +301</a></span> +banners of those countries in which the emperor has carried on war shall +be borne by riders in armour; and the painter shall vary the armour +according to the old manner. The banners of those countries in which the +emperor has not carried on war shall be borne by horsemen without +armour, but all splendidly clothed, each according to the costume of the +country he represents. Every one shall wear a laurel wreath.”</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_301" id = "illus_301"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_301.png" width = "328" height = "339" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 57. Apparently not drawn by Burgmair.</p> + +<p>The cut on the next page is copied from that numbered 107, but which +accords with the description of No. 122. The subject is described +by the emperor as follows: “Then shall come riding a man of Calicut, +naked, except his loins covered with a girdle, bearing a rhyme-tablet, +on which shall be inscribed these words, ‘These people are the subjects +of the famous crowns and houses heretofore named.’” In this cut the mark +of Burgmair is perceived on the harness on the breast of the elephant. +There are two other cuts of Indians belonging to the same part of the +procession, each of which also contains Burgmair’s mark.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_302" id = "illus_302"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_302.png" width = "340" height = "343" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 107. With Burgmair’s mark.</p> + +<p>The cuts which were to follow the Indians and close the procession +were the baggage-waggons and camp-followers of the army. Of those there +are five cuts in the work published in 1796, and it is evident that some +are wanting, for the two which may be considered as the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page302" id = "page302"> +302</a></span> +first and last of those five, respectively require a preceding and a +following cut to render them complete; and there are also one or two +cuts wanting to complete the intermediate subjects. Those cuts are +referred to in the French description under Nos. 125 to 129, but they +are numbered 129, 128, 110, 111, 125. The last three, as parts of a +large subject, follow each other as the numbers are here placed; and +though the right side of No. 110 accords with the left of +No. 128, inasmuch as they each contain the half of a tree which +appears complete when they are joined together, yet there are no horses +in No. 128 to draw the waggon which is seen in No. 110. The +order of Nos. 110, 111, and 125, is easily ascertained; a horse at +the left of No. 110 wants a tail which is to be found in +No. 111; and the outline of a mountain in the left of No. 111 +is continued in the right of No. 125. From the back-grounds, trees, +and figures in those cuts I am very much inclined to think that they +have been engraved from designs by Albert Durer, if he did not actually +draw them on the block himself. There is no mark to be found on any of +them; and they are extremely unlike any cuts which are undoubtedly of +Burgmair’s designing, and they are +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page303" id = "page303"> +303</a></span> +decidedly superior to any that are usually ascribed to Hans Schaufflein. +The following, which is a reduced copy of that numbered 110, will +perhaps afford some idea of those cuts, and enable persons who are +acquainted with Durer’s works to judge for themselves with respect to +the probability of their having been engraved from his designs. One or +two of the other four contain still more striking resemblances of +Durer’s style.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_303" id = "illus_303"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_303.png" width = "331" height = "329" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 110. Probably drawn by Albert Durer.</p> + +<p>Besides the twelve cuts which, in the French preface to the Triumphal +Procession of Maximilian, are said not to correspond with the original +drawings, there are also six others which the editor says are not to be +found in the original designs, and which he considers to have been +additions made to the work while it was in the course of engraving. +Those six cuts are described in an appendix, where their numbers are +said to be from 130 to 135. In No. 130 the principal figures are a +king and queen, on horseback, supposed to be intended for Philip the +Fair, son of the Emperor Maximilian, and his wife Joanna of Castile. +This cut is very indifferently executed, and has evidently been designed +by the artist who made the drawings for the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page304" id = "page304"> +304</a></span> +questionable cuts containing the complicated locomotive carriages, +mentioned at page 290. No. 131, a princess on horseback, +accompanied by two female attendants also on horseback, and guards on +foot, has evidently been designed by the same artist as No. 130. +These two, I am inclined to think, belong to some other work. Nos. +132, 133, and 134, are from the designs of Hans Burgmair, whose mark is +to be found on each; and there can be little doubt of their having been +intended for Maximilian’s Triumphal Procession. They form one continuous +subject, which represents twelve men, habited in various costume, +leading the same number of horses splendidly caparisoned. A figure +on horseback bearing a rhyme-tablet leads this part of the procession; +and above the horses are large scrolls probably intended to contain +their names, with those of the countries to which they belong. The cut +on the opposite page is a reduced copy of the last, numbered 135, which +is thus described in the appendix: “The fore part of a triumphal car, +drawn by four horses yoked abreast, and managed by a winged female +figure who holds in her left hand a wreath of laurel.” There is no mark +on the original cut; but from the manner in which the horses are drawn +it seems like one of Burgmair’s designing.</p> + +<p>That the cuts of the Triumphal Procession of Maximilian were engraved +by different persons is certain from the names at their backs; and I +think the difference that is to be perceived in the style of drawing +renders it in the highest degree probable that the subjects were +designed, or at least drawn on the wood, by different artists. I am +inclined to think that Burgmair drew very few besides those that contain +his mark; the cuts of the banner-bearers I am persuaded are not of his +drawing; a third artist, of inferior talent, seems to have made the +drawings of the fanciful cars containing the emperor and his family; and +the five cuts of the baggage-waggons and camp followers, appear, as I +have already said, extremely like the designs of Albert Durer. The best +engraved cuts are to be found among those which contain Burgmair’s mark. +Some of the banner-bearers are also very ably executed, though not in so +free or bold a manner; which I conceive to be owing to the more laboured +style in which the subject has been drawn on the block. The mechanical +subjects, with their accompanying figures, are the worst engraved as +well as the worst drawn of the whole. The five cuts which I suppose to +have been designed by Albert Durer are engraved with great spirit, but +not so well as the best of those which contain the mark of Burgmair.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_305" id = "illus_305"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_305.png" width = "328" height = "216" +alt = "see text and caption"></p> + +<p class = "caption"> +No. 135. Apparently designed by Burgmair.</p> + +<p>Though there are still in existence upwards of a hundred of the +original blocks designed by Albert Durer, and upwards of three hundred +designed by the most eminent of his contemporaries, yet a person who +professes to be an instructor of the public on subjects of art made the +following statement before the Select Committee of the House of +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page305" id = "page305"> +305</a></span> +Commons on Arts and their Connexion with Manufactures, appointed in +1835. He is asked, “Do you consider that the progress of the arts in +this country is impeded by the want of protection for new inventions of +importance?” and he proceeds to enlighten the committee as follows. +“Very much impeded. Inventions connected with the arts of design, of new +instruments, or new processes, for example, are, from the ease with +which they can be pirated, more difficult of protection than any other +inventions whatever. Such protection as the existing laws afford is +quite inadequate. I cannot better illustrate my meaning, than by +mentioning the case of <i>engraving in metallic relief</i>, an art which +is supposed to have existed three or four centuries ago; and the +re-discovery of which has long been a desideratum among artists. Albert +Durer, who was both a painter and engraver, <i>certainly possessed this +art</i>, that is to say, the art of transferring his designs, after they +had been sketched on paper, <i>immediately into metallic relief</i>, so +that they might be printed along with letter-press. At present, the only +sort of engravings you can print along with letter-press are wood +engravings, or stereotype casts from wood engravings; and then those +engravings are but copies, and often very rude copies, of their +originals; while, in the case of Albert Durer, it is <span class = +"smallroman">QUITE CLEAR</span> <i>that it was his own identical designs +that were transferred into the metallic relief</i>. Wood engravings, +too, are limited in point of size, <i>because they can only be executed +on box-wood</i>, the width of which is very small; in fact, we have no +wood engravings on a single block of a larger size than octavo: when the +engraving is larger, two or three blocks are joined together; but this +is attended with so much difficulty and inconvenience, that it is seldom +done. From the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page306" id = "page306"> +306</a></span> +specimens of <i>metallic relief engraving</i>, left us by Albert Durer, +there is every reason to infer that he was under no such limitation; +that he could produce plates of any size.”<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV80" id = "tagV80" href = "#noteV80">V.80</a> This statement abounds +in errors, and may justify a suspicion that the person who made it had +never seen the cuts designed by Albert Durer which he pretends were +executed in “metallic relief.” At the commencement he says that the art +of engraving in metallic relief is <i>supposed</i> to have existed three +or four centuries ago; and immediately afterwards he asserts that Albert +Durer “certainly possessed this art;” as if by his mere word he could +convert a groundless fiction into a positive fact. When he made this +confident assertion he seems not to have been aware that many of the +original pear-tree blocks of the cuts pretendedly executed in metallic +relief are still in existence; and when, speaking of the difficulty of +getting blocks of a larger size than an octavo, he says, “From the +specimens of metallic relief engraving, left us by Albert Durer, there +is every reason to infer that he was under no such +limitation,—that he could produce plates of any size,” he affords +a positive proof that he knows nothing of the subject on which he has +spoken so confidently. Had he ever examined the large cuts engraved from +Durer’s designs, he would have seen, in several, undeniable marks of the +junction of the blocks, proving directly the reverse of what he asserts +on this point. What he says with respect to the modern practice of the +art is as incorrect as his assertions about Albert Durer’s engraving in +metallic relief. Though it is true that there are few modern engravings +on box-wood of a larger size than octavo, it is not true that the +forming of a large block of two or more pieces is attended with much +difficulty, and is seldom done. The making of such blocks is now a +regular trade; they are formed without the least difficulty, and +hundreds of cuts on such blocks are engraved in London every year.<a +class = "tag" name = "tagV81" id = "tagV81" href = "#noteV81">V.81</a> +When he says that wood engravings “can only be made on box-wood,” he +gives another proof of his ignorance of the subject. Most of the earlier +wood engravings were executed on blocks of pear-tree or crab; and even +at the present time box-wood is seldom used for the large cuts on +posting-bills. In short, every statement that this person has made on +the subject of wood and pretended metallic relief engraving is +incorrect; and it is rather surprising that none of the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page307" id = "page307"> +307</a></span> +members of the committee should have exposed his ignorance. When such +persons put themselves forward as the instructors of mechanics on the +subject of art, it cannot be a matter of surprise that in the arts as +applied to manufactures we should be inferior to our continental +neighbours.</p> + +<p>The art of imitating drawings—called chiaro-scuro—by +means of impressions from two or more blocks, was cultivated with great +success in Italy by Ugo da Carpi about 1518. The invention of this art, +as has been previously remarked, is ascribed to him by some writers, but +without any sufficient grounds; for not even the slightest evidence has +been produced by them to show that he, or any other Italian artist, had +executed a single cut in this manner previous to 1509, the date of a +chiaro-scuro wood engraving from a design by Lucas Cranach. Though it is +highly probable that Ugo da Carpi was not the inventor of this art, it +is certain that he greatly improved it. The chiaro-scuros executed by +him are not only superior to those of the German artists, who most +likely preceded him in this department of wood engraving, but to the +present time they remain unsurpassed. In the present day Mr. George +Baxter has attempted to extend the boundaries of this art by calling in +the aid of aquatint for his outlines and first ground, and by copying +the positive colours of an oil or water-colour painting. Most of Ugo da +Carpi’s chiaro-scuros are from Raffaele’s designs, and it is said that +the great painter himself drew some of the subjects on the blocks. +Independent of the excellence of the designs, the characteristics of Da +Carpi’s chiaro-scuros are their effect and the simplicity of their +execution; for all of them, except one or two, appear to have been +produced from not more than three blocks. The following may be mentioned +as the principal of Da Carpi’s works in this style. A Sibyl reading +with a boy holding a torch, from two blocks, said by Vasari to be the +artist’s first attempt in this style; Jacob’s Dream; David cutting off +the head of Goliah; the Death of Ananias; Giving the Keys to Peter; the +miraculous Draught of Fishes; the Descent from the Cross; the +Resurrection; and Æneas carrying away his father Anchises on his +shoulders from the fire of Troy;<a class = "tag" name = "tagV82" id = +"tagV82" href = "#noteV82">V.82</a> all the preceding from the designs +of Raffaele. Among the subjects designed by other masters are St. Peter +preaching, after Polidoro; and Diogenes showing the plucked cock in +ridicule of Plato’s definition of man, “a two-legged animal without +feathers,” after Parmegiano. +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page308" id = "page308"> +308</a></span> +The latter, which is remarkably bold and spirited, is from four blocks; +and Vasari says that it is the best of all Da Carpi’s chiaro-scuros. +Many of Da Carpi’s productions in this style were copied by Andrea +Andreani of Milan, about 1580. That of Æneas carrying his father on his +shoulders was copied by Edward Kirkall, an English engraver in 1722. +Kirkall’s copy is not entirely from wood-blocks, like the original; the +outlines and the greater part of the shadows are from a copper-plate +engraved in mezzotint, in a manner similar to that which has more +recently been adopted by Mr. Baxter in his picture-printing.</p> + +<p>Lucas Dammetz, generally called Lucas van Leyden, from the place of +his birth, was an excellent engraver on copper, and in this branch of +art more nearly approached Durer than any other of his German or Flemish +contemporaries. He is said to have been born at Leyden in 1496; and, if +this date be correct, he at a very early age gave decided proofs of his +talents as an engraver on copper. One of his earliest prints, the monk +Sergius killed by Mahomet, is dated 1508, when he was only fourteen +years of age; and at the age of twelve he is said to have painted, in +distemper, a picture of St. Hubert which excited the admiration of +all the artists of the time. Of his numerous copper-plate engravings +there are no less than twenty-one which, though they contain no date, +are supposed to have been executed previously to 1508. As several of +those plates are of very considerable merit, it would appear that Lucas +while yet a boy excelled, as a copper-plate engraver, most of his German +and Dutch contemporaries. From 1508 to 1533, the year of his death, he +appears to have engraved not less than two hundred copper-plates; and, +as if these were not sufficient to occupy his time, he in the same +period painted several pictures, some of which were of large size. He is +also said to have excelled as a painter on glass; and like Durer, +Cranach, and Burgmair, he is ranked among the wood engravers of that +period.</p> + +<p>The wood-cuts which contain the mark of Lucas van Leyden, or which +are usually ascribed to him, are not numerous; and, even admitting them +to have been engraved by himself, the fact would contribute but little +to his fame, for I have not seen one which might not have been executed +by a professional “formschneider” of very moderate abilities. The total +of the wood-cuts supposed to have been engraved by him does not exceed +twenty. The following is a reduced copy of a wood-cut ascribed to Lucas +van Leyden, in the Print Room of the British Museum, but which is not in +Bartsch’s Catalogue, nor in the list of Lucas van Leyden’s engravings in +Meusel’s Neue Miscellaneen. Though I very much question if the original +cut were engraved by Lucas himself, I have no doubt of its being +from his design. It represents the death of Sisera; and, with a noble +contempt of the unity of time, Jael is seen giving Sisera a drink of +milk, driving the nail into his head, and +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page309" id = "page309"> +309</a></span> +then showing the body,—with herself in the act of driving the +nail,—to Barak and his followers: the absurdity of this threefold +action has perhaps never been surpassed in any cut ancient or modern. +Sir Boyle Roach said that it was impossible for any <i>person</i>, +except a <i>bird</i> or a <i>fish</i>, to be in two places at once; but +here we have a pictorial representation of a female being in no less +than three; and in one of the localities actually pointing out to +certain persons how she was then employed in another.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_309" id = "illus_309"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_309.png" width = "326" height = "454" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>Heineken, in his account of engravers of the Flemish school, has +either committed an egregious mistake, or expressed himself with +intentional ambiguity with respect to a wood-cut printed at Antwerp, and +which he saw in the collections of the Abbé de Marolles. His notice of +this cut is as follows: “I found in the collections of the Abbé de +Marolles, in the cabinet of the King of France, a detached +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page310" id = "page310"> +310</a></span> +piece, which, in my opinion, is the most ancient of the wood engravings +executed in the Low Countries which bear the name of the artist. This +cut is marked, <i>Gheprint t’ Antwerpen by my Phillery de +figursnider</i>—Printed at Antwerp, by me Phillery, the engraver +of figures. It serves as a proof that the engravers of moulds were, at +Antwerp, in that ancient time, also printers.”<a class = "tag" name = +"tagV83" id = "tagV83" href = "#noteV83">V.83</a></p> + +<p>In this vague and ambiguous account, the writer gives us no idea of +the period to which he refers in the words “cet ancien tems.” If he +means the time between the pretended invention of Coster, and the period +when typography was probably first practised in the Low +Countries,—that is, from about 1430 to 1472,—he is wrong, +and his statement would afford ground for a presumption that he had +either examined the cut very carelessly, or that he was so superficially +acquainted with the progressive improvement of the art of wood engraving +as to mistake a cut abounding in cross-hatching, and certainly executed +subsequent to 1524, for one that had been executed about seventy years +previously, when cross-hatching was never attempted, and when the +costume was as different from that of the figures represented in the cut +as the costume of Vandyke’s portraits is dissimilar to Hogarth’s. The +words “<i>graveurs de moules</i>,” I have translated literally +“engravers of moulds,” for I cannot conceive what else Heineken can +mean; but this expression is scarcely warranted by the word +“<i>figuersnider</i>” on the cut, which is almost the same as the German +“formschneider;” and whatever might be the original meaning of the word, +it was certainly used to express merely a wood engraver. Compilers of +Histories of Art, and Dictionaries of Painters and Engravers, who +usually follow their leader, even in his slips, as regularly as a flock +of sheep follow the bell-wether through a gap, have disseminated +Heineken’s mistake, and the antiquity of “<i>Phillery’s</i>” +wood-engraving is about as firmly established as Lawrence Coster’s +invention of typography. One of those “straightforward” people has +indeed gone rather beyond his authority; for in a “Dictionary of the +Fine Arts,” published in 1826, we are expressly informed that +“<i>Phillery, who lived near the end of the fourteenth century, was the +first engraver on wood who practised in the Netherlands</i>.”<a class = +"tag" name = "tagV84" id = "tagV84" href = "#noteV84">V.84</a> It is +thus that +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page311" id = "page311"> +311</a></span> +error on the subject of art, and indeed on every other subject, is +propagated: a writer of reputation makes an incorrect or an +ambiguous statement; other writers adopt it without examination, and not +unfrequently one of that class whose confidence in deciding on a +question is in the inverse ratio of their knowledge of the subject, +proceeds beyond his original authority, and declares that to be certain +which previously had only been doubtfully or obscurely expressed. In +Heineken’s notice of this cut there is an implied qualification under +which he might screen himself from a charge of incorrectness with +respect to the time of its execution, though not from a charge of +ambiguity. He says that, in his opinion, it is “the most ancient of the +wood engravings executed in the Low Countries <i>which bear the name of +the artist</i>;” and with this limitation his opinion may be correct, +although the cut were only engraved in 1525 or 1526; for I am not aware +of any wood engraving of an earlier date, executed in the Low Countries, +that contains the <i>name</i> of the artist, though there are several +which contain the artist’s mark. It also may be argued that the words +“<i>cet ancien tems</i>” might be about as correctly applied to +designate the year 1525 as 1470: if, however, he meant the first of +those dates, he has expressed himself in an equivocal manner, for he is +generally understood to refer the cut to a considerably earlier period. +It has been indeed conjectured that Heineken, in speaking of this cut, +might intentionally express himself obscurely, in order that he might +not give offence to his friend Monsieur Mariette, who is said to have +considered it to be one of the earliest specimens of wood engravings +executed in the Low Countries. This is, however, without any sufficient +reason, merely shifting the charge of ignorance, with respect to the +difference of style in wood engravings of different periods, from +Heineken to Monsieur Mariette. As there is no evidence to show that the +latter ever expressed any such opinion as that ascribed to him +respecting the antiquity of the cut in question, Heineken alone is +answerable for the account contained in his book. Impressions of the cut +by “<i>Phillery</i>” are not of very great rarity; there are two in the +Print Room at the British Museum, and from one of them the reduced copy +in the following page has been carefully made.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_312" id = "illus_312"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_312.png" width = "297" height = "493" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>Any person, however, slightly acquainted with the progress of wood +engraving could scarcely fail to pronounce that the original of this cut +must have been executed subsequent to 1500, and in all probability +subsequent to the cuts of the Triumphal Procession of Maximilian, to the +general style of which, so far as relates to the manner of engraving, it +bears considerable resemblance. The costume of the figures, too, also +proves that it does not belong to the fifteenth century; +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page312" id = "page312"> +312</a></span> +and on carefully examining the inscription, a person accustomed to +the old German or Dutch characters would be more likely to read +“<i>Willem</i>” than “<i>Phillery</i>” as the name of the artist. To one +of the impressions in the British Museum a former owner, after +extracting Heineken’s account, has appended the following remark: “This +is the print above described. There seems to be an inconsiderable +mistake in the name, which I take to be D’villery.” It is to be observed +that in the original, as in the preceding copy, the inscription is +engraved on wood, and not set up in type; and that consequently the +first character of the doubtful name is rather indistinct. It is however +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page313" id = "page313"> +313</a></span> +most probably a <i>W</i>; and the last is certainly an <i>m</i>, with a +flourish at its tail. The intermediate letters <i>ille</i> are plain +enough, and if the first be supposed to be a <i>W</i>, and the last an +<i>m</i>, we have the name <i>Willem</i>,—a very probable prenomen +for a Dutch wood engraver of the sixteenth century. The inscription when +carefully examined is literally as follows: “<i>Gheprint Tantwerpen Bij +mij Willem de Figuersnider</i>.” Heineken’s mistake of <i>Phillery</i> +for <i>Willem</i>, or William, and thus giving a heretofore unheard-of +name to the list of artists, is not unlike that of Scopoli the +naturalist, who, in one of his works, has commemorated “Horace Head” as +a London bookseller.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV85" id = "tagV85" href += "#noteV85">V.85</a></p> + +<p class = "figfloat"> +<a name = "illus_313" id = "illus_313"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_313.png" width = "44" height = "80" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>Though the cut which bears the name of the supposed “Phillery” +contains internal evidence of its not having been engraved in the +fifteenth century, there is yet further reason to believe that it is +merely a copy of part of a cut of the same size by a Swiss artist of the +name of Urse Graff, which is dated 1524. There is an impression of Urse +Graff’s cut <a class = "tag" name = "tagV86" id = "tagV86" href = +"#noteV86">V.86</a> in the Print Room of the British Museum; in the +fore-ground are the figures which have obviously been copied by +<i>Willem de Figuersnider</i>, alias <i>Phillery</i>, and immediately +behind the middle figure, who holds in his right hand a large Swiss +espadon, is a leafless tree with a figure of Death clinging to the upper +part of the trunk, and pointing to a hour-glass which he holds in his +left hand. A bird, probably intended for a raven, is perched above +the hour-glass; and on the trunk of the tree, near to the figure of +Death, is Urse Graff’s mark with the date as is here given. The +back-ground presents a view of a lake, with buildings and mountains on +the left. The general character of Urse Graff’s subject is Swiss, both +in the scenery and figures; and the perfect identity of the latter with +those in the cut “printed at Antwerp by William the figure-cutter” +proves, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that one of those two artists +has copied the work of the other. Urse Graff’s subject, however, is +complete, and corresponds both in the landscape and in the costume of +the figures with the country of the artist; while the cut of William of +Antwerp represents merely an unrelieved group of figures in the costume +of Switzerland. Urse Graff was an artist of reputation in his time; of +“Willem,” who was probably only an engraver of the designs of others, +nothing more is known beyond what is afforded by the single cut in +question. From these circumstances, +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page314" id = "page314"> +314</a></span> +though it cannot be positively decided which of those cuts is the +original, it is almost morally certain that the Flemish figure-cutter +has copied the work of the Swiss artist.—Urse Graff resided at +Basle, of which city he was probably a native. In one of his engravings +with the date 1523, he describes himself as a goldsmith and die-sinker. +Wood-cuts containing his mark are not very common, and the most of them +appear to have been executed between 1515 and 1528. A series of +wood-cuts of the Passion of Christ, designed in a very inferior manner, +and printed at Strasburg in 1509, are sometimes ascribed to him on +account of their being marked with the letters V. G., which some +writers have supposed to be the mark of an artist named Von Gamperlin. +Professor Christ, in his Dictionary of Monograms, says that he can find +nothing to determine him in favour of the name Gamperlin; and that he is +rather inclined to think that those letters are intended for the name +Von Goar, which he believes that he has deciphered on an engraving +containing this mark. The mark of Urse Graff, a V and a G +interlaced, occurs in the ornamented border of the title-page of several +books printed at Basle, and amongst others on the title of a quarto +edition of Ulrich Hutten’s Nemo, printed there by Frobenius in 1519. At +the end of this edition there is a beautifully-designed cut of the +printer’s device, which is probably the work of the same artist.<a class += "tag" name = "tagV87" id = "tagV87" href = "#noteV87">V.87</a></p> + +<p>A painter, named Nicholas Emanuel Deutsch, a contemporary of Urse +Graff, and who resided at Bern, is said, by Sandrart, to have been of a +noble English family, and the same writer adds that he left his own +country on account of his religion. The latter statement, however, is +not likely to be correct, for there are wood-cuts, with this artist’s +mark, dated “Bern, 1518;” which was before the persecution in England on +account of the doctrines of Luther had commenced. In J. R. Füssli’s +Dictionary of Artists it is stated that he was of a French family, of +the name of Cholard, but that he was born at Bern in 1484, and died +there in 1530. He was a poet as well as a painter, and held one of the +highest offices in the magistracy of Bern.</p> + +<p>Within the first thirty years of the sixteenth century the practice +of illustrating books with wood-cuts seems to have been more general +than at any other period, scarcely excepting the present; for though +within the last eight or ten years an immense number of wood-cuts have +been executed in England and France, yet wood engravings at the time +referred to were introduced into a greater variety of books, and the art +was more generally practised throughout Europe. In +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page315" id = "page315"> +315</a></span> +modern German and Dutch works wood engravings are sparingly introduced; +and in works printed in Switzerland and Italy they are still more rarely +to be found. In the former period the art seems to have been very +generally practised throughout Europe, though to a greater extent, and +with greater skill, in Germany than in any other country. The wood-cuts +which are to be found in Italian books printed between 1500 and 1530 are +mostly meagre in design and very indifferently engraved; and for many +years after the German wood engravers had begun to give variety of +colour and richness of effect to their cuts by means of cross-hatchings, +their Italian contemporaries continued to adhere to the old method of +engraving their figures, chiefly in outline, with the shadows and the +folds of the draperies indicated by parallel lines. These observations +relate only to the ordinary wood engravings of the period, printed in +the same page with type, or printed separately in the usual manner of +surface printing at one impression. The admirable chiaro-scuros of Ugo +da Carpi, printed from two or more blocks, are for effect and general +excellence the most admirable specimens of this branch of the art that +ever have been executed; they are as superior to the chiaro-scuros of +German artists as the usual wood engravings of the latter excel those +executed in Italy during the same period.</p> + +<div class = "picture"> +<div class = "picblock w100"> +<p><a name = "illus_316" id = "illus_316"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_316a.png" width = "72" height = "74" +alt = "see text"></p> +</div> +<div class = "picblock"> +<p><img src = "images/illus_316b.png" width = "73" height = "72" +alt = "see text"></p> +</div> +<div class = "picblock"> +<p><img src = "images/illus_316c.png" width = "73" height = "73" +alt = "see text"></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>In point of drawing, some of the best wood-cuts executed in Italy in +the time of Albert Durer are to be found in a folio work entitled +Triompho di Fortuna, written by Sigismond Fanti, and printed at Venice +in 1527.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV88" id = "tagV88" href = +"#noteV88">V.88</a> The subject of this work, which was licensed by Pope +Clement VII, is the art of fortune-telling, or of answering all kinds of +questions relative to future events. The volume contains a considerable +number of wood-cuts; some designed and executed in the very humblest +style of wood engraving, and others, which appear to have been drawn on +the block with pen-and-ink, designed with great +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page316" id = "page316"> +316</a></span> +spirit. The smallest and most inferior cuts serve as illustrations to +the questions, and an idea may be formed of them from the three here +given, which occur under the question: “Qual fede o legge sia di queste +tre la buona, o la Christiana, l’Hebrea, o quello di +Mahumeto?”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV89" id = "tagV89" href = +"#noteV89">V.89</a> In English: “Which of these three religions is the +best, the Christian, the Jewish, or the Mahometan?” Several larger cuts +are executed in a dry hard style, and evidently drawn by a person very +inferior to the artist who designed the cuts executed in the manner of +pen-and-ink drawings. The following is a fac-simile of one of the +latter. It is entitled “Fortuna de Africo,” in a series of twelve, +intended for representations of the winds.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_316d" id = "illus_316d"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_316d.png" width = "260" height = "278" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>The following cut, which appears in folio 38, is intitled “Michael +Fiorentino,”—Michael Angelo; and it certainly conveys no bad idea +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page317" id = "page317"> +317</a></span> +of the energetic manner in which that great artist is said to have used +his mallet and chisel when engaged on works of sculpture. This cut, +however, is made to represent several other sculptors besides the great +Florentine; it is repeated seven times in the subsequent pages, and on +each occasion we find underneath it a different name. The late +T. Stothard, R.A. was of opinion that wood engraving was best +adapted to express pen-and-ink drawing, and that the wood engraver +generally failed when he attempted more. His illustrations of Rogers’s +poems, engraved on wood by Clennell and Thompson, are executed in a +similar style to that of the following specimen, though with greater +delicacy.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_317" id = "illus_317"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_317.png" width = "311" height = "317" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>Certain wood-cuts with the mark A. G., executed towards the +conclusion of the fifteenth century, have been ascribed to an artist +named Albert Glockenton. Bartsch, however, says that the name of the +artist is unknown; and he seems to consider that Sandrart had merely +conjectured that those letters might represent the name Albert +Glockenton. For no better reason the letters I. V. on a tablet, +with two pilgrim’s-staffs crossed between them, which are to be found on +several old chiaro-scuro wood engravings, have been supposed to +represent the name, John Ulric Pilgrim. This name appears to be a pure +invention of some ingenious expounder of monograms, for there is not the +slightest evidence, that I am aware of, to show that any artist of this +name ever +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page318" id = "page318"> +318</a></span> +lived. The chiaro-scuros with this mark were probably executed in the +time of Durer, but none of them contains a date to establish the fact. +Heineken considers them to have been the productions of a German artist; +and he refers to them in proof of the art of chiaro-scuro having been +practised in Germany long before the time of Ugo da Carpi. It is, +however, highly questionable if they are of an earlier date than 1518; +and it is by no means certain that the artist was a German. By some +persons he has been supposed to have been the inventor of chiaro-scuro +engraving, on no better grounds, it would seem, than that his pieces are +without a date.</p> + +<p>Next to the Germans, in the time of Albert Durer, the Dutch and +Flemings seem to have excelled in the art of wood engraving; but the +cuts executed in Holland and Flanders are generally much inferior to +those designed and engraved by German artists. In a considerable number +of Dutch wood engravings, of the period under review, I have +observed an attempt to combine something like the effect of +cross-hatching and of the dotted manner mentioned at page 232 as having +been frequently practised by French wood engravers in the early part of +the sixteenth century. In a series of cuts from a Dutch prayer-book, +apparently printed between 1520 and 1530, this style of engraving is +frequently introduced. Where a German artist would have introduced lines +crossing each other with great regularity, the Dutch wood engraver has +endeavoured to attain his object by irregularly picking out portions of +the wood with the point of his graver; the effect, however, is not good. +In the border surrounding those cuts, a Dance of Death is +represented, consisting of several more characters than are to be found +in the celebrated work ascribed to Holbein, but far inferior in point of +design and execution.</p> + +<p>An artist, named John Walter van Assen, is usually mentioned as one +of the best Dutch wood engravers or designers of this period. Nothing +further is known of him than that he lived at Amsterdam about 1517. The +mark supposed to be Van Assen’s is often ascribed by expounders of +monograms to another artist whom they call Werner or Waer van +Assanen.</p> + +<p>A considerable number of French works, printed in the time of Albert +Durer, contain wood engravings, but few of them possess much merit when +compared with the more highly finished and correctly drawn productions +of the German school of the same period. The ornamental borders, +however, of many missals and prayer-books, which then issued in great +numbers from the Parisian press, frequently display great beauty. The +taste for surrounding each page with an ornamental border engraved on +wood was very generally prevalent in Germany, France, and Flanders at +that period, more especially in devotional works; and in the +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page319" id = "page319"> +319</a></span> +former country, and in Switzerland, scarcely a tract was +printed—and the Lutheran controversy gave rise to many +hundreds—without an ornamental border surrounding the title. In +Germany such wood engravers as were chiefly employed in executing cuts +of this kind were called +<i>Rahmen-schneiders</i>—border-cutters,—as has been +previously observed at page 190. In England during the same period wood +engraving made but little progress; and there seems to have been a lack +of good designers and competent engravers in this country. The best cuts +printed in England in the time of Durer are contained in a manual of +prayers, of a small duodecimo size. On a tablet in the border of one of +the cuts—the Flight into Egypt<a class = "tag" name = "tagV90" id += "tagV90" href = "#noteV90">V.90</a>—I perceive the date 1523. +The total number of cuts in the volume is about a hundred; and under +each of the largest are four verses in English. Several of the smaller +cuts, representing figures of saints, and preceding the prayers for +their respective days, have evidently been designed by an artist of +considerable talent. As most of the wood-cuts which constitute the +ornaments or the illustrations of books printed at this period are +without any name or mark, it is impossible to ascertain the names of the +persons by whom they were designed or engraved.</p> + +<p>The manner of wood engraving in <i>intaglio</i> so that the figures +appear white on a black ground, so frequently adopted by early Italian +wood engravers, was sometimes practised in Germany; and in one of the +earliest works containing portraits of the Roman emperors,<a class = +"tag" name = "tagV91" id = "tagV91" href = "#noteV91">V.91</a> copied +from ancient medals, printed in the latter country, the cuts are +executed in this style. The subject of the work is the lives of the +Roman emperors, written by Joannes Huttichius, and the portraits with +which it is illustrated are copied from medals in a collection which had +been formed by the Emperor Maximilian, the great promoter of wood +engraving in Germany. The first edition, in Latin, was printed by Wolff +Köpffel, at Strasburg, in 1525; and a second edition, in German, was +published at the same place in the succeeding year. The cut on the next +page, of the head of Nero, will afford an idea of the style in which the +portraits are +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page320" id = "page320"> +320</a></span> +executed, and of the fidelity with which the artist has in general +represented the likeness impressed on the original medals.</p> + +<p>Besides Durer, Burgmair, Cranach, and Schaufflein, there are several +other German painters of the same period who are also said to have +engraved on wood, and among the most celebrated of this secondary class +the following may be mentioned: Hans Sebald Behaim, previously noticed +at page 253; Albert Altdorffer; Hans Springinklee; and Hans Baldung +Grün. The marks of all those artists are to be found on wood-cuts +executed in the time of Durer; but I am extremely doubtful if those cuts +were actually engraved by themselves. If they were, I can only say +that, though they might be good painters and designers, they were very +indifferent wood engravers; and that their time in executing the +subjects ascribed to them must have been very badly employed. The common +working <i>formschneider</i> who could not execute them as well, must +have been a very ordinary wood-<i>cutter</i>, not to say +wood-<i>engraver</i>,—by the latter term meaning one who excels in +his profession, and not a mere cutter of lines, without skill or taste, +on box or pear-tree.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_320" id = "illus_320"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_320.png" width = "163" height = "166" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>Albert Altdorffer was born at Ratisbon in 1480, and afterwards became +a magistrate of his native city. The engravings on wood and copper +containing his mark are mostly of a small size, and he is generally +known as one of the <i>little masters</i> of the German school of +engraving.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV92" id = "tagV92" href = +"#noteV92">V.92</a> Hans Springinklee was a painter of some eminence, +and according to Doppelmayer, as referred to by Bartsch, was a pupil of +Durer’s. His mark is to be found on several wood-cuts; and it occurs in +one of the illustrations in the Wise King. Hans Baldung Grün was born at +Gemund in Suabia, and studied at Nuremberg under Albert Durer. He +excelled as a painter; and the wood-cuts which contain his +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page321" id = "page321"> +321</a></span> +mark are mostly designed with great spirit. The earliest wood engraving +that contains his mark is a frontispiece to a volume of sermons with the +date 1508; and the latest is a group of horses, engraved in a hard, +stiff manner, with the name “<span class = "smallcaps">Baldung</span>” +and the date 1534.<a class = "tag" name = "tagV93" id = "tagV93" href = +"#noteV93">V.93</a> He chiefly resided at Strasburg, where he died in +1545. He is mentioned by Durer, in his Journal, by the name of “Grün +Hannsen.”</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_321" id = "illus_321"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_321.png" width = "339" height = "325" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>We may here conveniently introduce fac-similes on a reduced scale of +two rather interesting wood engravings given by Dr. Dibdin in his +Bibliomania, and copied from an early folio volume, entitled +<i>Revelationes cœlestes sanctæ Brigittæ de Suecia</i>, printed at +Nuremberg by Anthony Köberger, <span class = "smallroman">M CCC +XXI.</span> <i>mensis Septembris</i>, which some read 1500, on the 21st +of September, others 1521, in the month of September. The first of these +cuts is curious as representing the simplicity of an ancient reading +room, with its three-legged joint stool, such as is so prettily +described by Cowper, Task, I. v. 19; the other cut describes a +punishment +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page322" id = "page322"> +322</a></span> +which is said to have been revealed to St. Bridget against those ladies +who have “ornamenta indecentia capitibus et pedibus, et reliquis +membris, ad provocandam luxuriam, et irritandum Deum, in strictis +vestibus, ostensione mamillarum, unctionibus, &c.” The artist is +unknown, but seems to be among the best of the Nuremberg school.</p> + +<p class = "figfloat"> +<a name = "illus_322" id = "illus_322"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_322.png" width = "179" height = "322" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<p>It cannot be reasonably doubted that Durer and several other German +painters of his time were accustomed to engrave their own designs on +copper; for in many instances we have the express testimony of their +contemporaries, and not unfrequently their own, to the fact. +Copper-plate engraving for about sixty years from the time of its +invention was generally practised by persons who were also painters, and +who usually engraved their own designs. Wood engraving, on the contrary, +from an early period was practised as a distinct profession by persons +who are never heard of as painters. That some of the early German +painters—of a period when “artists were more of workmen, and +workmen more of artists”<a class = "tag" name = "tagV94" id = "tagV94" +href = "#noteV94">V.94</a> than in the present day—<i>might</i> +engrave some of the wood-cuts which bear their marks, is certainly not +impossible; but it is highly improbable that all the wood-cuts which are +ascribed to them should have been executed by themselves. If any +wood-cuts were actually engraved by Durer, Cranach, Burgmair, and other +painters of reputation, I conceive that such cuts are not to be +distinguished by their superior execution from those engraved by the +professional <i>formschneider</i> and <i>brief-maler</i> of the day. The +best copper-plates engraved by Albert Durer can scarcely be surpassed by +the best copper-plate engraver of the present day,—that is, +supposing him to execute his work by the same means; while the best of +the wood-cuts which he is supposed to have engraved himself might be +readily executed by a score of modern +<span class = "pagenum"><a name = "page323" id = "page323"> +323</a></span> +wood engravers if the subject were drawn for them on the block. In the +age of Durer the best wood-cuts are of comparatively large size, and are +distinguished more from the boldness and freedom of their design than +from any peculiar excellence of engraving: they display, in fact, rather +the talent of the <i>artist</i> than the skill of the <i>workman</i>. +Though wood engraving had very greatly improved from about the end of +the fifteenth century to the time of Durer’s decease, yet it certainly +did not attain its perfection within that period. In later years, +indeed, the workman has displayed greater excellence; but at no time +does the art appear to have been more flourishing or more highly +esteemed than in the reign of its great patron, the Emperor +Maximilian.</p> + +<p class = "illustration"> +<a name = "illus_323" id = "illus_323"> </a> +<img src = "images/illus_323.png" width = "263" height = "340" +alt = "see text"></p> + +<div class = "footnote"> + + +<p><a name = "noteV1" id = "noteV1" href = "#tagV1">V.1</a> +Chiaro-scuros are executed by means of two or more blocks, in imitation +of a drawing in sepia, India ink, or any other colour of two or more +shades. The older chiaro-scuros are seldom executed with more than three +blocks; on the first of which the general outline of the subject and the +stronger shades were engraved and printed in the usual manner; from the +second the lighter shades were communicated; and from the third a +general tint was printed over the impressions of the other two.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV2" id = "noteV2" href = "#tagV2">V.2</a> +This print is one of the valuable collection left to the Museum by the +Rev. C. M. Cracherode, and the following remark in that gentleman’s +writing is inserted on the opposite page of the folio in which it is +preserved: “The Presepe is a plain proof that printing in chiaro-scuro +was known before the time of Ugo da Carpi, who is erroneously reputed +the inventor of this art at the beginning of the sixteenth century.” The +print in question is certainly not a proof of the art of engraving in +chiaro-scuro; and Mr. Ottley has added the following correction in +pencil: “But the white here is put on with a pencil, and not left in +printing, as it would have been if the tint had been added by a wooden +block after the copper-plate had been printed.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV3" id = "noteV3" href = "#tagV3">V.3</a> +Bartsch describes this print in his Peintre-Graveur, tom. vi. +p. 364, No. 4; but he takes no notice of Joseph holding a +candle, nor of its wanting a light.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV4" id = "noteV4" href = "#tagV4">V.4</a> +Some single cuts executed in this manner are supposed to be at least as +old as the year 1450. The earliest that I have noticed in a book occur +in a Life of Christ printed at Cologne about 1485.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV5" id = "noteV5" href = "#tagV5">V.5</a> +In a folio of Albert Durer’s drawings in the Print Room at the British +Museum there is a portrait of “<i>Fronica, Formschneiderin</i>,” with +the date 1525. In 1433 we find a woman at Nuremberg described as a +card-maker: “<i>Eli. Kartenmacherin</i>.” It is scarcely necessary to +remind the reader that the earliest German wood engravers were +card-makers.—See chapter <span class = "smallroman">II.</span> +p. 41.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV6" id = "noteV6" href = "#tagV6">V.6</a> +The following is Bartsch’s French version of this letter, which is given +in the original German in Von Murr’s Journal, 9<sup>er.</sup> Theil, +S. 53. “Cher Michel Beheim. Je vous envoie les armoiries, en vous +priant de les laisser comme elles sont. Personne d’ailleurs ne les +corrigeroit en mieux, car je les ai faites exprès et avec art; c’est +pourquoi ceux qui s’y connoissent et qui les verront vous en rendront +bonne raison. Si l’on haussoit les lambrequins du heaume, ils +couvriroient le volet.”—Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. +p. 27.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV7" id = "noteV7" href = "#tagV7">V.7</a> +In Durer’s Journal of his visit to the Netherlands in 1520 there is the +following passage: “Item hab dem von Rogendorff sein Wappen auf Holz +gerissen, dafür hat er mir geschenckt vii. Ein Sammet.”—“Also I +have drawn for Von Rogendorff his arms on wood, for which he has +presented me with seven yards of velvet.”—Von Murr, Journal zur +Kunstgeschichte, 7<sup>er.</sup> Theil, S. 76.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV8" id = "noteV8" href = "#tagV8">V.8</a> +Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. p. 442, second edition.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV9" id = "noteV9" href = "#tagV9">V.9</a> +The Baron was the collector of the wood-cuts published with Becker’s +explanations, referred to at page 226, chapter <span class = +"smallroman">IV.</span> The anecdote alluded to will be found in Dr. +Dibdin’s Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. pp. 445, 446. The Baron sold a +rare specimen of copper-plate engraving with the date <span class = +"smallroman">M. CCCC. XXX.</span> to the Doctor, and it seems that +he also sold <i>another</i> impression from the same plate to Mr. John +Payne. There is no doubt of their being gross forgeries; and it is not +unlikely that the plate was in the Baron’s possession.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV10" id = "noteV10" href = "#tagV10">V.10</a> +“Dieser Hieronymus hat allhier im breiten Gassen gewohnt, dessen Wohnung +hinten ins Frauengässlein ging.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV11" id = "noteV11" href = "#tagV11">V.11</a> +Neudörffer, quoted in Von Murr’s Journal, 2ter Theil, S. 158, +159.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV12" id = "noteV12" href = "#tagV12">V.12</a> +At the end of the first edition of the cuts illustrative of the +Apocalypse, 1498, we find the words: <ins class = "correction" title = +"open quote missing">“<i>Gedrukt</i></ins> <i>durch Albrecht Durer, +Maler</i>,”—Printed by Albert Durer, painter; and the same in +Latin in the second edition, printed about 1510. The passion of Christ +and the History of the Virgin are respectively said to have been +“<i>effigiata</i>” and “<i>per figuras digesta</i>”—“drawn” and +“pictorially represented” by Albert Durer; and the cuts of the Triumphal +Car of the Emperor Maximilian are described as being “<i>erfunden und +geordnet</i>”—“invented and arranged” by him.—Bartsch, +Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. p. 28.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV13" id = "noteV13" href = "#tagV13">V.13</a> +The time that a German artist spends in travel from the expiration of +his apprenticeship to the period of his settling as a master is called +his <ins class = "correction" title = "“ missing">“wander</ins>-jahre,”—his travelling years. It is +customary with many trades in Germany for the young men to travel for a +certain time on the termination of their apprenticeship before they are +admitted to the full privileges of the company or fellowship.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV14" id = "noteV14" href = "#tagV14">V.14</a> +It has been stated, though erroneously, that Albert Durer was a pupil of +Martin Schongauer, or Schön, as the surname was spelled by some writers, +one of the most eminent painters and copper-plate engravers of his day. +It has been generally supposed that he died in 1486; but, if an old +memorandum at the back of his portrait in the collection of Count de +Fries can be depended on, his death did not take place till the 2d of +February 1499. An account of this memorandum will be found in Ottley’s +Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving, vol. ii. +p. 640.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV15" id = "noteV15" href = "#tagV15">V.15</a> +On a passage, in which Durer alludes to his wife, in one of his letters +from Venice, 1506, to his friend Bilibald Pirkheimer, Von Murr makes the +following remark: “This Xantippe must even at that time have vexed him +much; and he was obliged to drag on his life with her for twenty-two +years longer, till she fairly plagued him to death.”—Journal, 10er +Theil, S. 32.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV16" id = "noteV16" href = "#tagV16">V.16</a> +Bartsch is decidedly of opinion that Michael Wolgemuth was not an +engraver; and he ascribes all the plates marked with a W, which others +have supposed to be Wolgemuth’s, to Wenceslaus of Olmutz, an artist of +whom nothing is positively known.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV17" id = "noteV17" href = "#tagV17">V.17</a> +This subject has also been engraved by Israel Von Mecken, and by an +artist supposed to be Wenceslaus of Olmutz. It is probable that those +artists have copied Durer’s engraving. On the globe in Israel Von +Mecken’s plate the letters are O. G. B.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV18" id = "noteV18" href = "#tagV18">V.18</a> +This caution is in the original expressed in the following indignant +terms: “Heus, tu insidiator, ac alieni laboris et ingenii surreptor, ne +manus temerarias his nostris operibus inicias cave. Scias enim a +gloriosissimo Romanorum imperatore Maximiliano nobis concessum esse ne +quis suppositiciis formis has imagines imprimere seu impressas per +imperii limites vendere audeat: q’ per contemptum seu avariciæ crimen +secus feceris, post bonorum confiscationem tibi maximum periculum +subeundum esse certissime scias.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV19" id = "noteV19" href = "#tagV19">V.19</a> +Von Murr says that the subject of this picture was the martyrdom of St. +Bartholomew, the saint to whom the church was dedicated; and that the +painting afterwards came into the possession of the Emperor Rudolf II. +and was placed in his gallery at Prague. It seems that Durer had taken +some pictures with him to Venice; for in his fifth letter he says that +he has sold two for twenty-four ducats, and exchanged three others for +three rings, valued also at twenty-four ducats.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV20" id = "noteV20" href = "#tagV20">V.20</a> +In the Venetian dialect of that period Giovanni Bellini was called Zan +Belin; and Durer spells the name “Sambellinus.” He was the master of +Titian, and died in 1514, at the age of ninety.—Von Murr, Journal, +10er Theil, S. 8.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV21" id = "noteV21" href = "#tagV21">V.21</a> +Von Murr says that he cannot discover what Jacob is here meant. It would +not be Jacob Walsch, as he died in 1500. The person alluded to was +certainly not an Italian.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV22" id = "noteV22" href = "#tagV22">V.22</a> +Bilibald Pirkheimer was a learned man, and a person of great authority +in the city of Nuremberg. He was also a member of the Imperial Council, +and was frequently employed in negociations with neighbouring states. He +published several works; and among others a humorous essay entitled +“Laus Podagræ”—The Praise of the Gout. His memory is still held in +great respect in Germany as the friend of Albert Durer and Ulrich +Hutten, two of the most extraordinary men that Germany has produced. He +died in 1530, aged 60.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV23" id = "noteV23" href = "#tagV23">V.23</a> +The kind of engraving meant was copper-plate engraving. Durer’s words +are: “Ich hab awch dy Moler all gesthrilt dy do sagten, Im +<i>Stechen</i> wer ich gut, aber im molen west ich nit mit farben um zu +gen.” The word “<i>Stechen</i>” applies to engraving on copper; +“Schneiden” to engraving on wood.—Von Murr, Journal, 10er Theil, +S. 28.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV24" id = "noteV24" href = "#tagV24">V.24</a> +The title at length is as follows: “Epitome in Divæ Parthenices Marie +Historiam ab Alberto Durero Norico per figuras digestam, cum versibus +annexis Chelidonii.” Chelidonius, who was a Benedictine monk of +Nuremberg, also furnished the descriptive text to the series of twelve +cuts illustrative of Christ’s Passion, of which specimens will be found +between page 246 and page 250.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV25" id = "noteV25" href = "#tagV25">V.25</a> +The cuts of these two works appear to have been in the hands of the +engraver at the same time. Of those in the History of the Virgin one is +dated 1509; and two bear the date 1510; and in the Passion of Christ +four are dated 1510.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV26" id = "noteV26" href = "#tagV26">V.26</a> +The Latin title of the work is as follows: “Passio Domini nostri Jesu, +ex Hieronymo Paduano, Dominico Mancino, Sedulio, et Baptista Mantuana, +per fratrem Chelidonium collecta, cum figuris Alberti Dureri Norici +Pictoris.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV27" id = "noteV27" href = "#tagV27">V.27</a> +The Latin title of this work is “Passio Christi,” and the explanatory +verses are from the pen of Chelidonius. Durer, in the Journal of his +Visit to the Netherlands, twice mentions it as “die Kleine Passion,” and +each time with a distinction which proves that he did not mean the +Passion engraved by him on copper and probably published in 1512. “Item +Sebaldt Fischer hat mir zu Antorff [Antwerp] abkaufft 16 <i>kleiner +Passion</i>, pro 4 fl. Mehr 32 grosser Bücher pro 8 fl. Mehr 6 gestochne +Passion pro 3 fl.”—“Darnach die drey Bücher unser Frauen Leben, +Apocalypsin, und den grossen Passion, darnach <i>den klein Passion</i>, +und den Passion in Kupffer.”—Albrecht Dürers Reisejournal, in Von +Murr, 7er Theil, S. 60 and 67. The size of the cuts of the Little +Passion is five inches high by three and seven-eighths wide. Four +impressions from the original blocks are given in Ottley’s Inquiry, vol. +ii. between page 730 and page <ins class = "correction" title = ". missing">731.</ins></p> + +<p><a name = "noteV28" id = "noteV28" href = "#tagV28">V.28</a> +Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving, vol. ii. +p. 782. The objections to the general truth of Vasari’s story +appear to be much stronger than the presumptions in its favour. +1. The improbability of Albert Durer having visited Venice +subsequent to 1506; 2. The fact of Marc Antonio’s copies of the +cuts of the Little Passion <i>not</i> containing Albert Durer’s mark; +and 3. The probability of Mark Antonio residing beyond the +jurisdiction of the Venetian government at the time of his engraving +them.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV29" id = "noteV29" href = "#tagV29">V.29</a> +There is a copy of this head, also engraved on wood, of the size of the +original, but without Durer’s, or any other mark. Underneath an +impression of the copy, in the Print Room of the British Museum, there +is written in a hand which appears to be at least as old as the year +1550, “Dieser hat <img src = "images/illus_253.png" width = "16" height += "16" alt = "HSB" class = "middle">ehaim gerissen”—“H. S. +Behaim drew this.” Hans Sebald Behaim, a painter and designer on +wood, was born at Nuremberg in 1500, and was the pupil of his uncle, +also named Behaim, a painter and engraver of that city. The younger +Behaim abandoned the arts to become a tavern-keeper at Frankfort, where +he died in 1550.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV30" id = "noteV30" href = "#tagV30">V.30</a> +In the edition with Latin inscriptions, 1523, are the words, +“Excogitatus et depictus est currus iste Nurembergæ, impressus vero per +Albertum Durer. Anno <ins class = "correction" title = "close quote missing"><span class = "smallroman">MDXXIII.</span>”</ins> The Latin +words “excogitatus et depictus” are expressed by “gefunden und geordnet” +in the German inscriptions in the edition of 1522. A sketch by +Durer, for the Triumphal Car, is preserved in the Print Room in the +British Museum.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV31" id = "noteV31" href = "#tagV31">V.31</a> +Bibliographical Tour, vol. iii. p. 438. Edit. 1829.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV32" id = "noteV32" href = "#tagV32">V.32</a> +Ibid. p. 330.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV33" id = "noteV33" href = "#tagV33">V.33</a> +The two last names are, in the first edition, pasted over others which +appear to have been “The Gate of Honour” and “The Gate of Relationship, +Friendship, and Alliance.” The last name alludes to the emperor’s +possessions as acquired by descent or marriage, and to his power as +strengthened by his friendly alliances with neighbouring states.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV34" id = "noteV34" href = "#tagV34">V.34</a> +“Item wist auch das Ich K. Mt. ausserhalb des Tryumps sonst viel +mancherley Fisyrung gemacht hab.”—“You must also know that I have +made many other drawings for the emperor besides those of the Triumph.” +The date of this letter is not given, but Durer informs his friend that +he had been already three years employed for the emperor, and that if he +had not exerted himself the beautiful “work” would not have been so soon +completed. If this is to be understood of the Triumphal Arch, it would +seem that the designs at least were all finished before the emperor’s +death.—Von Murr, Journal, 9er Theil, S. 4.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV35" id = "noteV35" href = "#tagV35">V.35</a> +In the process of etching the plate is first covered with a resinous +composition—called etching ground—on which the lines +intended to be <i>etched</i>, or bit into the plate, are drawn through +to the surface of the metal by means of a small pointed tool called an +etching needle, or an etching point. When the drawing of the subject +upon the etching ground is finished, the plate is surrounded with a +slightly raised border, or “wall,” as it is technically termed, formed +of rosin, bee’s-wax, and lard; and, a corrosive liquid being poured +upon the plate, the lines are “bit” into the copper or steel. When the +engraver thinks that the lines are corroded to a sufficient depth, he +pours off the liquid, cleans the plate by means of turpentine, and +proceeds to finish his work with the graver and dry-point. According to +the practice of modern engravers, where several <i>tints</i> are +required, as is most frequently the case, the process of “biting-in” is +repeated; the corrosive liquid being again poured on the plate to +corrode deeper the stronger lines, while the more delicate are “stopped +out,”—that is, covered with a kind of varnish that soon hardens, +to preserve them from further corrosion. Most of our best engravers now +use a diamond point in etching. <i>Nitrous</i> acid is used for +“biting-in” on copper in the proportion of one part acid to four parts +water, and the mixture is considered to be better after it has been once +or twice used. Before using the acid it is advisable to take the stopper +out of the bottle for twenty-four hours in order to allow a portion of +the strength to evaporate. During the process of biting-in a large +copper-plate the fumes which arise are so powerful as frequently to +cause an unpleasant stricture in the throat, and sometimes to bring on a +spitting of blood when they have been incautiously inhaled by the +engraver. At such times it is usual for the engraver to have near him +some powerful essence, generally hartshorn, in order to counteract the +effects of the noxious vapour. For biting-in on <ins class = +"correction" title = "comma invisible">steel,</ins> <i>nitric</i> acid +is used in the proportion of thirty drops to half a pint of distilled +water; and the mixture is never used for more than one plate.—When +a <i>copper</i>-plate is sufficiently bit-in, it is only necessary to +wash it with a little water previous to removing the etching ground with +turpentine; but, besides this, with a <i>steel</i> plate it is further +necessary to set it on one of its edges against a wall or other support, +and to blow it with a pair of small bellows till every particle of +moisture in the lines is perfectly evaporated. The plate is then rubbed +with oil, otherwise the lines would rust from the action of the +atmosphere and the plate be consequently spoiled. Previous to a steel +plate being laid aside for any length of time it ought to be warmed, and +the engraved surface rubbed carefully over with virgin wax so that it +may be completely covered, and every line filled. A piece of thick +paper the size of the plate, laid over the wax while it is yet adhesive, +will prove an additional safeguard. For this information respecting the +process of biting-in, the writer is indebted to an eminent engraver, Mr. +J. T. Wilmore.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV36" id = "noteV36" href = "#tagV36">V.36</a> +The account of the naming of John the Baptist will be found in St. +Luke’s Gospel, chap. i. verse 59-64.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV37" id = "noteV37" href = "#tagV37">V.37</a> +Durer’s Journal of his Travels is given by Von Murr, 7er Theil, +S. 55-98. The title which the Editor has prefixed to it is, +“Reisejournal Albrecht Dürer’s von seiner Niederländischen Reise, 1520 +und 1521. E. Bibliotheca Ebneriana.” In the same volume, Von Murr +gives some specimens of Durer’s poetry. The first couplet which he made +in 1509 is as follows:</p> + +<div class = "verse"> +<p class = "open">“Du aller Engel Spiegel und Erlöser der Welt,</p> +<p>Deine grosse Marter sey für mein Sünd ein Widergelt.”</p> +</div> + +<div class = "verse"> +<p>Thou mirror of all Angels and Redeemer of mankind,</p> +<p>Through thy martyrdom, for all my sins may I a ransom find.</p> +</div> + +<p>This couplet being ridiculed by Bilibald Pirkheimer, who said that +rhyming verses ought not to consist of more than eight syllables, Durer +wrote several others in a shorter measure, but with no better success; +for he says at the conclusion, that they did not please the learned +counsellor. With Durer’s rhymes there is an epistle in verse from his +friend Lazarus Sprengel, written to dissuade him from attempting to +become a poet. Durer’s verses want “the right butter-woman’s trot to +market,” and are sadly deficient in rhythm when compared with the more +regular clink of his friend’s.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV38" id = "noteV38" href = "#tagV38">V.38</a> +Subsequently, Durer mentions having delivered to the Margrave John, at +Brussels, a letter of recommendation [Fürderbrief] from the Bishop +of Bamberg.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV39" id = "noteV39" href = "#tagV39">V.39</a> +As Durer was at Cologne about the 26th July, it is probable that he +would arrive at Antwerp about the last day of that month.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV40" id = "noteV40" href = "#tagV40">V.40</a> +The maid, Susanna, seems to have been rather a “humble friend” than a +<ins class = "correction" title = "‘l’ invisible">menial</ins> servant; +for she is mentioned in another part of the Journal as being entertained +with Durer’s wife at the house of “Tomasin Florianus,” whom Durer +describes as “<i>Romanus</i>, von Luca bürtig.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV41" id = "noteV41" href = "#tagV41">V.41</a> +The Assumption of the Virgin is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church +on the 15th August.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV42" id = "noteV42" href = "#tagV42">V.42</a> +Albrecht Dürer’s Reisejournal, in Von Murr, 7er Theil, +S. 63-65.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV43" id = "noteV43" href = "#tagV43">V.43</a> +This “gross Fischpein” was probably part of the back-bone of a +whale.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV44" id = "noteV44" href = "#tagV44">V.44</a> +The stiver was the twenty-fourth part of a guilder or florin of gold, +which was equal to about nine shillings English money of the present +time; the stiver would therefore be equal to about four pence +half-penny. About the same time, Durer sold a copy of his Christ’s +Passion, probably the large one, for twelve stivers, and an impression +of his copper-plate of Adam and Eve for four stivers. Shortly after his +first arrival at Antwerp, he sold sixteen copies of the Little Passion +for four guilders or florins; and thirty-two copies of his larger +works,—probably the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and the +Great Passion,—for eight florins, being at the rate of sixteen +stivers for each copy. He also sold six copies of the Passion engraved +on copper at the same price. He gave to his host a painting of the +Virgin on canvass to sell for two Rhenish florins. The sum that he +received for each portrait in pencil [the German is mit Kohlen, which is +literally charcoal], when the parties <i>did</i> pay, appears to have +been a florin.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV45" id = "noteV45" href = "#tagV45">V.45</a> +In Von Murr the words are “Am <ins class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘Donnnerstage’">Donnerstage</ins> nach Marien +Himmelfahrt,”—On the Thursday after the <i>Assumption</i> of the +Virgin. But this is evidently incorrect, the feast of the Assumption +being kept on 15th August. The “Marien Opferung”—the Presentation +of the Virgin—which is commemorated on 21st November, is evidently +meant.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV46" id = "noteV46" href = "#tagV46">V.46</a> +Luther’s safe-conduct from Worms to Wittenberg was limited to twenty-one +days, at the expiration of which he was declared to be under the ban of +the empire, or, in other words, an outlaw, to whom no prince or free +city of Germany was to afford a refuge. Luther, previous to leaving +Worms, was informed of the elector’s intention of secretly apprehending +him on the road and conveying him to a place of safety. After getting +into the wood, Luther was mounted on horseback, and conveyed to +Wartburg, a castle belonging to the elector, where he continued to +live disguised as a knight—Junker Jörge—till March 1522. +Luther was accustomed to call the castle of Wartburg his Patmos.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV47" id = "noteV47" href = "#tagV47">V.47</a> +Durer, though an advocate of Luther, does not seem to have withdrawn +himself from the communion of the Church of Rome. In his Journal, in +1521, he enters a sum of ten stivers given to his confessor, and, +subsequently, eight stivers given to a monk who visited his wife when +she was sick. The passage in which the last item occurs is curious, and +seems to prove that female practitioners were then accustomed both to +dispense and administer medical preparations at Antwerp. “Meine Frau +ward krank,—der Apothekerinn für Klystiren gegeben 14 Stüber; dem +Mönch, der sie besuchte, 8 Stüber.”—Von Murr, Journal, 7er +Theil, S. 93.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV48" id = "noteV48" href = "#tagV48">V.48</a> +This inducement for Erasmus to stand forth as a candidate for the honour +of martyrdom is, in the original, as simple in expression as it is novel +in conception: “Du bist doch sonst ein altes Menniken.” Literally: For +thou art already an old <i>mannikin</i>. Erasmus, however, was not a +spirit to be charmed to enter such a circle by such an invocation. As he +said of himself, “his gift did not lie that way,” and he had as little +taste for martyrdom as he had for fish.—In one or two other +passages in Durer’s Journal there is an allusion to the diminutive +stature of Erasmus.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV49" id = "noteV49" href = "#tagV49">V.49</a> +Von Murr, Journal, 7er Theil, S. 88-93. In volume X, p. 41, Von +Murr gives from Peucer, the son-in-law of Melancthon, the following +anecdote: “Melancthon, when at Nuremberg, on church and university +affairs, was much in the society of Pirkheimer; and Albert Durer, the +painter, an intelligent man, whose least merit, as Melancthon used to +say, was his art, was frequently one of the party. Between Pirkheimer +and Durer there were frequent disputes respecting the recent [religious] +contest, in which Durer, as he was a man of strong mind, vigorously +opposed Pirkheimer, and refuted his arguments as if he had come prepared +for the discussion. Pirkheimer growing warm, for he was very irritable +and much plagued with the gout, would sometimes exclaim “Not +so:—these things cannot be <i>painted</i>.”—“And the +arguments which you allege,” Durer would reply, “can neither be +correctly expressed nor comprehended.”—Whatever might have been +the particular points in dispute between the two friends, Pirkheimer, as +well as Durer, was a supporter of the doctrines of <ins class = +"correction" title = "close quote missing">Luther.”</ins></p> + +<p><a name = "noteV50" id = "noteV50" href = "#tagV50">V.50</a> +Corpus Christi day is a moveable festival, and is celebrated on the +first Thursday after Trinity Sunday.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV51" id = "noteV51" href = "#tagV51">V.51</a> +St. Margaret’s day is the 20th July.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV52" id = "noteV52" href = "#tagV52">V.52</a> +Durer says that this astronomer was a German, and a native of +Munich.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV53" id = "noteV53" href = "#tagV53">V.53</a> +Ulrich Varnbuler was subsequently the chancellor of the Emperor +Ferdinand I. Durer mentions him in a letter addressed to “<ins +class = "correction" title = "text unchanged">Hernn</ins> Frey in +Zurich,” and dated from Nuremberg on the Sunday <i>after St. Andrew’s +day</i>, 1523. With this letter Durer sent to his correspondent a +humorous sketch, in pen and ink, of apes dancing, which in 1776 was +still preserved in the Public Library of Basle. The date of this letter +proves the incorrectness of Mr. Ottley’s statement, in page 723 of his +Inquiry, where he says that Durer did not return to Nuremberg from the +Low Countries “until <i>the middle of the year</i> 1524.” Mr. Ottley is +not more correct when he says, at page 735, that the portrait of +Varnbuler is the “size of nature.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV54" id = "noteV54" href = "#tagV54">V.54</a> +It is supposed that Shakspeare, in alluding to the “dozen white luces” +in Master Shallow’s coat of arms,—Merry Wives of Windsor, Act +I,—intended to ridicule Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecotte, Wiltshire, +before whom he is said to have been brought in his youth on a charge of +deer-stealing.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV55" id = "noteV55" href = "#tagV55">V.55</a> +Etliche Underricht zu Befestigung der Stett, Schloss, und Flecken; +Underweysung der Messung mit der Zirckel und Richtscheyt; Bucher von +Menschlicher Proportion. All in folio. Those treatises were subsequently +translated into Latin and several times reprinted. The treatise on the +Proportions of the Human Body was also translated into French and +printed at Paris in 1557. A collection of Durer’s writings was +published by J. Jansen, 1604.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV56" id = "noteV56" href = "#tagV56">V.56</a> +This letter is addressed to “Johann Tscherte,” an architect residing at +Vienna, the mutual friend of Pirkheimer and Durer.—Von Murr, +Journal, 10er Theil, S. 36.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV57" id = "noteV57" href = "#tagV57">V.57</a> +Those three engravings are respectively numbered 1, 60, and 67 in +Bartsch’s list of Durer’s works in his Peintre-Graveur, tom. vii. The +Adam and Eve is nine inches and three-fourths high by seven inches and a +half wide,—date 1504; St. Jerome, nine inches and five-eighths +high by seven inches and three-eighths wide,—date 1514; +Melancolia, nine inches and three-eighths high by seven inches and one +fourth wide,—date 1514.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV58" id = "noteV58" href = "#tagV58">V.58</a> +Isaiah, chapter xxxv. verse 9.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV59" id = "noteV59" href = "#tagV59">V.59</a> +One of the largest wood-cuts designed by Cranach is a subject +representing the baptism of some saint; and having on one side a +portrait of Frederick, Elector of Saxony, and on the other a portrait of +Luther. The block has consisted of three pieces, and from the +impressions it seems as if the parts containing the portraits of the +elector and Luther had been added after the central part had been +finished. The piece altogether is comparatively worthless in design, and +is very indifferently engraved.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV60" id = "noteV60" href = "#tagV60">V.60</a> +Burgmair also made the designs for a series of saints, male and female, +of the family of the emperor, which are also engraved on wood. The +original blocks, with the names of the engravers written at the back, +are still preserved, and are at present in the Imperial Library at +Vienna.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV61" id = "noteV61" href = "#tagV61">V.61</a></p> +<div class = "verse"> +<p class = "open">“Solche Gestalt unser baider was,</p> +<p>Im Spigel aber nix dan das!”</p> +</div> + +<p>A small engraving in a slight manner appears to have been made of the +portraits of Burgmair and his wife by George Christopher Kilian, an +artist of Augsburg, about 1774.—Von Murr, Journal, 4er Theil, +S. 22.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV62" id = "noteV62" href = "#tagV62">V.62</a> +The original title of the work is: “Die gevarlichkeiten und eins teils +der Geschichten des loblichen streytparen und hochberümbten Helds und +Ritters Tewrdanckha.” That is: The adventurous deeds and part of the +history of the famous, valiant, and highly-renowned hero Sir Theurdank. +The name, Theurdank, in the language of the period, would seem to imply +a person whose thoughts were only employed on noble and elevated +subjects. Goethe, who in his youth was fond of looking over old books +illustrated with wood-cuts, alludes to Sir Theurdank in his admirable +play of Götz von Berlichingen: “Geht! Geht!” says Adelheid to +Weislingen, “Erzählt das Mädchen die den Teurdanck lesen, und sich so +einen Mann wünschen.”—“Go! Go! Tell that to a girl who reads Sir +Theurdank, and wishes that she may have such a husband.” In Sir Walter +Scott’s faulty translation of this play—under the name of +<i>William</i> Scott, 1799,—the passage is rendered as follows: +“Go! Go! Talk of that to some forsaken damsel whose Corydon has proved +forsworn.” In another passage where Goethe makes Adelheid allude to the +popular “Märchen,” or tale, of Number-Nip, the point is completely lost +in the translation: “Entbinden nicht unsre Gesetze solchen +Schwüren?—Macht das Kindern weiss die den Rübezahl glauben.” +Literally, “Do not our laws release you from such oaths?—Tell that +to children who believe Number-Nip.” In Sir Walter Scott’s translation +the passage is thus most incorrectly rendered: “Such agreement is no +more binding than an unjust extorted oath. Every child knows what faith +is to be kept with robbers.” The name <i>Rübezahl</i> is literally +translated by <i>Number-Neep</i>; Rübe is the German name for a +turnip,—Scoticè, a neep. The story is as well known in +Germany as that of Jack the Giant-Killer in England.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV63" id = "noteV63" href = "#tagV63">V.63</a> +Charaktere Teutscher Dichter und Prosaisten, S. 71. Berlin, +1781.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV64" id = "noteV64" href = "#tagV64">V.64</a></p> +<div class = "verse"> +<p>Nec sic incipies, ut scriptor cyclicus olim:</p> +<p>“Fortunam Priami cantabo, et nobile bellum:”</p> +<p>Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu?</p> +<p>Parturiunt montes; nascetur ridiculus mus.</p> +<p class = "author">Ars Poetica, v. 136-139.</p> +</div> + +<p>In a Greek epigram the Cyclic poets are thus noticed:</p> + +<div class = "verse"> +<p class = "greek" title = "Tous kuklious toutous tous autar epeita legontas"> +Τοὺς κυκλίους τούτους τοὺς αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα λέγοντας</p> +<p class = "greek" title = "Misô lôpodutas allotriôn epeôn."> +Μισῶ λωποδύτας ἀλλοτρίων ἐπέων.</p> +</div> + +<p><a name = "noteV65" id = "noteV65" href = "#tagV65">V.65</a> +Dissertation sur l’Origine et les Progres de l’Art de Graver en Bois, +p. 74. Paris, 1758.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV66" id = "noteV66" href = "#tagV66">V.66</a> +The kind of character in which the text of Sir Theurdank is printed is +called “Fractur” by German printers. “The first work,” says Breitkopf, +“which afforded an example of a perfectly-shaped <i>Fractur</i> for +printing, was unquestionably the Theurdank, printed at Nuremberg, +1517.”—Ueber Bibliographie und Bibliophile, S. 8. +1793.—Neudörffer, a contemporary, who lived at Nuremberg at +the time when Sir Theurdank was first published, says that the specimens +for the types were written by Vincent Rockner, the emperor’s +court-secretary.—Von Murr, Journal, 2er Theil, S. 159; and +Lichtenberger, Initia Typographica, p. 194.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV67" id = "noteV67" href = "#tagV67">V.67</a> +The title of the volume is “Der Weiss Kunig. Eine Erzehlung von den +Thaten Kaiser Maximilian des Ersten. Von Marx Treitzsaurwein auf dessen +Angeben zusammen getragen, nebst von Hannsen Burgmair dazu verfertigten +Holzschnitten. Herausgegeben aus dem Manuscripte der Kaiserl. Königl. +Hofbibliothek. Wien, auf Kosten Joseph Kurzböckens, 1775.”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV68" id = "noteV68" href = "#tagV68">V.68</a> +In the Imperial Library at Vienna there is a series of old impressions +of cuts intended for “Der Weiss Kunig,” consisting of two hundred and +fifty pieces; it would therefore appear, supposing this set to be +perfect, that there are fourteen of the original blocks lost. Why a +single modern cut has been admitted into the book, and thirteen of the +old impressions not re-engraved, it perhaps would be difficult to give a +satisfactory reason.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV69" id = "noteV69" href = "#tagV69">V.69</a> +Charaktere Teutscher Dichter und Prosaisten, S. 70.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV70" id = "noteV70" href = "#tagV70">V.70</a> +Bibliographical Tour, vol iii. p. 330.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV71" id = "noteV71" href = "#tagV71">V.71</a> +The subjects of those sixteen cuts are chiefly the statues of the +emperor’s ancestors, with representations of himself, and of his family +alliances. Several of the carriages are propelled by mechanical +contrivances, which for laborious ingenuity may vie with the machine for +uncorking bottles in one of the subjects of Hogarth’s Marriage à la +Mode. In the copy before me those engravings are numbered 89, 90, 91, +91, 92, 92, 93, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 101, 102, 103.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV72" id = "noteV72" href = "#tagV72">V.72</a> +Breitkopf, Ueber Bibliographie und Bibliophile, S. 4. Leipzig, +1793. Von Murr, Journal, 9er Theil, S. 1. At page 255 I have said: +“Though I have not been able to ascertain satisfactorily the subject of +Durer’s painting in the Town-hall of Nuremberg, I am inclined to +think that it is the Triumphal <i>Car</i> of Maximilian.” Since the +sheet containing the above passage was printed off I have ascertained +that the subject <i>is</i> the Triumphal Car; and that it is described +in Von Murr’s Nürnbergischen Merkwürdigkeiten, S. 395.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV73" id = "noteV73" href = "#tagV73">V.73</a> +<i>Jobst</i> and <i>Jos</i>, in this inscription, are probably intended +for the name of the same person. For the name Jobst, Jost, Josse, or +Jos—for it is thus variously spelled—we have no equivalent +in English. It is not unusual in Germany as a baptismal name—it +can scarcely be called <i>Christian</i>—and is Latinized, +I believe, under the more lengthy form of <i>Jodocus</i>.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV74" id = "noteV74" href = "#tagV74">V.74</a> +The printed numbers on those two cuts are 105 and 106, though the +descriptions are numbered 120 and 121 in the text. The subjects are, +No. 105, two ranks, of five men each, on foot, carrying long +lances; and No. 106, two ranks, of five men each, on foot, carrying +large two-handed swords on their shoulders.—Perhaps it may not be +out of place to correct here the following passage which occurs at page +285 of this volume: “Bartsch, however, observes, that ‘what Strutt has +said about there being two persons of this name [Hans Schaufflein], an +elder and a younger, seems to be a mere conjecture.’” Since the sheet +containing this passage was printed off, I have learnt from a +paper, in Meusel’s Neue Miscellaneen, 5tes. Stück, S. 210, that +Hans Schäufflein had a son of the same name who was also a painter, and +that the elder Schäufflein died at Nordlingen, in 1539. At page 281, his +death, on the authority of Bartsch, is erroneously placed in 1550.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV75" id = "noteV75" href = "#tagV75">V.75</a> +The name of Cornelius Liefrink occurs at the back of some of the +wood-cuts representing the saints of the family of Maximilian, designed +by Burgmair, mentioned at page 278, note.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV76" id = "noteV76" href = "#tagV76">V.76</a> +In all the blocks, the tablets and scrolls, and the upper part of +banners intended to receive verses and inscriptions, were left +unengraved. In order that the appearance of the cuts might not be +injured, the black ground, intended for the letters, was cut away in +most of the tablets and scrolls, in the edition of 1796.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV77" id = "noteV77" href = "#tagV77">V.77</a> +That part of the flail which comes in contact with the corn is, in the +North of England, termed a <i>swingel</i>.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV78" id = "noteV78" href = "#tagV78">V.78</a> +The substance of almost every rhyme and inscription is, that the person +who bears the rhyme-tablet or scroll has derived great improvement in +his art or profession from the instructions or suggestions of the +emperor. Huntsmen, falconers, trumpeters, organists, fencing-masters, +ballet-masters, tourniers, and jousters, all acknowledge their +obligations in this respect to Maximilian. For the wit and humour of the +jesters and the natural fools, the emperor, with great forbearance, +takes to himself no credit; and Anthony von Dornstett, the leader of the +drummers and fifers, is one of the few whose art he has not +improved.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV79" id = "noteV79" href = "#tagV79">V.79</a> +Those three are the numbers 77, 78, 79, representing musicians on +horseback. The same person who drew the standard-bearers has evidently +drawn those three cuts also.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV80" id = "noteV80" href = "#tagV80">V.80</a> +Minutes of Evidence before the Select Committee on Arts and +Manufactures, p. 130. Ordered to be printed, 16th August 1836.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV81" id = "noteV81" href = "#tagV81">V.81</a> +Among the principal modern wood-cuts engraved on blocks consisting of +several pieces the following may be mentioned: The Chillingham Bull, by +Thomas Bewick, 1789; A view of St. Nicholas’ Church, +Newcastle-on-Tyne, by Charlton Nesbit, from a drawing by +R. Johnson, 1798; The Diploma of the Highland Society, by Luke +Clennell, from a design by B. West, P.R.A. 1808; The Death of +Dentatus, by William Harvey, from a painting by B. R. Haydon, 1821; +and The Old Horse waiting for Death, left unfinished, by T. Bewick, +and published in 1832.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV82" id = "noteV82" href = "#tagV82">V.82</a> +At the foot of this cut, to the right, after the name of the +designer,—“<span class = "smallcaps">Raphael +Urbinas</span>,”—is the following privilege, granted by Pope +Leo X. and the Doge of Venice, prohibiting all persons from +pirating the work. “<span class = "smallcaps">Quisque has tabellas +invito autore imprimet ex Divi Leonis X. et Il͞l Principis +Venetiarum decretis excominicationis sententiam et alias penas +incurret.</span>” Below this inscription is the engraver’s name with the +date: “Romæ apud Ugum de Carpi impressum. <span class = +"smallroman">MDXVIII.</span>”</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV83" id = "noteV83" href = "#tagV83">V.83</a> +“J’ai trouvé dans les <ins class = "correction" title = "printed as shown, but source has ‘Recueils’">Receueils</ins> de l’Abbé de Marolles, +au Cabinet du Roi de France, une piece détachée, qui, suivant mon +sentiment, est la plus ancienne de celles, qui sont gravées en bois dans +les Païs-Bas, et qui portent le nom de l’artiste. Cette estampe est +marquée: <i>Gheprint t’ Antwerpen by my Phillery de +figursnider—Imprimé à Anvers, chez moi Phillery, le graveur de +figures</i>. Elle sert de preuve, que les graveurs de moules étoient +aussi, dans cet ancien tems, imprimeurs à Anvers.”—Idée Générale +d’une Collection complette d’Estampes, p. 197.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV84" id = "noteV84" href = "#tagV84">V.84</a> +In a work of a similar kind, and of equal authority, published in 1834, +we are informed that Ugo da Carpi was a historical painter, and that he +died in 1500. He was only born in 1486.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV85" id = "noteV85" href = "#tagV85">V.85</a> +The sign of Mr. Benjamin White, formerly a bookseller in Fleet Street, +was Horace’s Head. In Scopoli’s Deliciæ, Flora, et Fauna Insubriæ, plate +24 is thus inscribed: “Auspiciis Benjamini White et Horatii Head, +Bibliopol. Londinensium.” The learned naturalist had mistaken Mr. +White’s sign for his partner in the business.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV86" id = "noteV86" href = "#tagV86">V.86</a> +This cut of Urse Graff is described in Bartsch’s Peintre-Graveur, tom. +vii. p. 465, No. 16.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV87" id = "noteV87" href = "#tagV87">V.87</a> +The device of Frobenius at the end of an edition of the same work, +printed by him in 1518, is much inferior to that in the edition of 1519. +In both, the ornamental border of the title-page is the same.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV88" id = "noteV88" href = "#tagV88">V.88</a> +The title of this book is, in red letters, “Triompho di Fortuna, di +Sigismondo Fanti, Ferrarese.” The title-page is also ornamented with a +wood-cut, representing the Pope, with Virtue on one side, and Vice on +the other, seated above the globe, which is supported by Atlas, and +provided with an axis, having a handle at each side, like a winch. At +one of the handles is a devil, and at the other an angel; to the left is +a naked figure holding a die, and near to him is an astronomer taking an +observation. At the foot of the cut is the mark I. M. or +T. M., for I cannot positively decide whether the first letter be +intended for an I or a T. The following is the colophon: “Impresso +in la inclita citta di Venegia per Agostin da Portese. Nel anno dil +virgineo parto <span class = "smallroman">MD.XXVII.</span> Nel mese di +Genaro, ad instātia di Jacomo Giunta Mercatāte Florentino. Con il +Privilegio di Clemente Papa VII, et del Senato Veneto a requisitione di +l’Autore.” In the Catalogue of the British Museum this book is +erroneously entered as printed at Rome, 1526. The compiler had mistaken +the date of the Pope’s licence for the time when the book was printed. +This trifling mistake is noticed here, as from similar oversights +bibliographers have sometimes described books as having been twice or +thrice printed, when, in fact, there had been only one edition.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV89" id = "noteV89" href = "#tagV89">V.89</a> +The following questions, selected from a number of others, will perhaps +afford some idea of this “Opera utilissima et jocosa,” as it is called +by the author. “Se glie bene a pigliar bella, o bruta donna; se’l +servo sara fidele al suo signore; se quest’ anno sara carestia o +abundantia; quanti mariti havera la donna; se glie bene a far viaggio et +a che tempo; se’l parto della donna sara maschio o femina; se’l sogno +fatto sara vero; se’l fin del huomo sara buono.” The three small +illustrations of the last query are of evil omen; in one, is seen a +gallows; in another, a man praying; and in the third, the quarters +of a human body hung up in terrorem.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV90" id = "noteV90" href = "#tagV90">V.90</a> +The following lines descriptive of this cut are printed underneath +it:</p> +<div class = "verse blackletter"> +<p>How Mary and Joseph with iesu were fayne.</p> +<p>In to Egypte for socour to fle.</p> +<p>Whan the Innocentes for his sake wer slayne.</p> +<p>By com̄issyon of Herodes <ins class = "correction" title = "text reads ‘rueltie’">crueltie</ins>.</p> +</div> + +<p><a name = "noteV91" id = "noteV91" href = "#tagV91">V.91</a> +In a folio work entitled “Epitome Thesauri Antiquitatum, hoc est <span +class = "smallcaps">Impp.</span> Rom. Orientalium et Occidentalium +Iconum, ex Antiquis Numismatibus quam fidelissime delineatarum. Ex Musæo +Jacobi de Strada Mantuani Antiquarii,” Lyons, 1553, it is stated that +the first work containing portraits of the Roman emperors engraved from +their coins was that entitled “Illustrium Imagines,” written by Cardinal +Sadolet, and printed at Rome by Jacobus Mazochius.—In Strada’s +work the portraits are executed in the same manner as in that of +Huttichius. The wood-cut containing the printer’s device, on the +title-page of Strada’s work, is admirably engraved.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV92" id = "noteV92" href = "#tagV92">V.92</a> +Heineken ranks the following in the class of <i>little masters</i>: +Henry Aldgrever, Albert Altdorffer, Bartholomew Behaim, Hans Sebald +Behaim, Hans Binck, Henry Goerting, George Penez, and Virgil Solis. Most +of them were engravers on copper.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV93" id = "noteV93" href = "#tagV93">V.93</a> +The following curious testimony respecting a lock of Albert Durer’s +hair, which had formerly been in the possession of Hans Baldung Grün, is +translated from an article in Meusel’s Neue Miscellaneen, 1799. The lock +of hair and the document were then in the possession of Herr H. S. +Hüsgen of Frankfort on the Mayn: “Herein is the hair which was cut from +the head of that ingenious and celebrated painter Albert Durer, after +his death at Nuremberg, 8th April 1528, as a token of remembrance. It +afterwards came into the possession of that skilful painter Hans +Baldung, burger of this city, Strasburg; and after his death, in 1545, +my late brother-in-law, Nicholas Krämer, painter, of this city, having +bought sundry of his works and other things, among them found this lock +of hair, in an old letter, wherein was written an account of what it +contained. On the death of my brother-in-law, in 1550, it was presented +to me by my sister Dorothy, and I now enclose it in this letter for a +memorial. 1559. <span class = "smallcaps">Sebold Büheler</span>.” To +this testimony are subjoined two or three others of subsequent date, +showing in whose possession the valued relic had been before it came +into the hands of Herr Hüsgen.</p> + +<p><a name = "noteV94" id = "noteV94" href = "#tagV94">V.94</a> +Evidence of Dr. G. F. Waagen of Berlin before the Select Committee of +the House of Commons on Arts and their Connexion with Manufactures, +1835.</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<div class = "correction"> +<h5>Errors in Chapter V</h5> + +<p><span class = "citation"> +necessary to examine the grounds of this opinion.</span><br> +gronnds</p> +<p><span class = "citation"> +wood engravings supposed to have been executed by Albert +Durer</span><br> +excuted</p> +<p><span class = "citation"> +have evidently been supplied by his own country.</span><br> +<i>final . invisible</i></p> +<p><span class = "citation"> +Durer proceeded from Nuremberg direct to Bamberg</span><br> +foom</p> +<p><span class = "citation"> +About thirty-five chapters, from XV. to L., are chiefly +occupied</span><br> +to L, are</p> + +<p>Footnote V.12</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">we find the words: “<i>Gedrukt durch Albrecht +Durer, Maler</i>,”</span><br> +<i>open quote missing</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.13</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">is called his “wander-jahre,”</span><br> +<i>open quote missing</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.27</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">between page 730 and page 731.</span><br> +<i>final . missing</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.30</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">impressus vero per Albertum Durer. Anno +MDXXIII.”</span><br> +<i>close quote missing</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.35</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">For biting-in on steel, <i>nitric</i> acid is +used</span><br> +<i>comma after “steel” invisible</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.40</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">rather a “humble friend” than a menial +servant</span><br> +<i>l in “menial” invisible</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.45</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">“Am Donnerstage nach Marien +Himmelfahrt,”</span><br> +Donnnerstage</p> +<p>Footnote V.49</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">was a supporter of the doctrines of +Luther.”</span><br> +<i>close quote missing</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.53</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">a letter addressed to “Hernn Frey in +Zurich,”</span><br> +<i>spelling unchanged</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.62</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">“Go! Go! Tell that to a girl who reads Sir +Theurdank, and wishes that she may have such a husband.”</span><br> +<i>text unchanged: correct translation is plural “who read and wish that +they”</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.67</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">nebst von Hannsen Burgmair dazu verfertigten +Holzschnitten. Herausgeben aus dem Manuscripte der Kaiserl. Königl. +Hofbibliothek</span><br> +<i>printed as shown, but real title is “nebst den von Hannsen Burgmair +Herausgegeben aus dem Manuscripte.”</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.83</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">“J’ai trouvé dans les Receueils de l’Abbé de +Marolles</span><br> +<i>printed as shown, but source has “Recueils”</i></p> +<p>Footnote V.90</p> +<p class = "continue"> +<span class = "citation">By com̄issyon of Herodes crueltie.</span><br> +rueltie</p> +</div> + +<div class = "endnote"> +<p><a name = "page_image" id = "page_image" href = "#page164">Page +164</a>, as printed:</p> + +<p class ="illustration"> +<img src = "images/page164.png" width = "453" height = "686" +alt = "complete page image"></p> +</div> + +<div class = "mynote"> + +<p class = "center"> +<a href = "WoodEngraving.html">Introduction</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving.html#illus">List of Illustrations</a> (separate +file)</p> + +<p class = "center"> +<a href = "WoodEngraving1.html">Chapter I</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving1.html#chap_II">Chapter II</a> (separate +file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving1.html#chap_III">Chapter III</a> (separate +file)<br> +<a href = "#chap_IV">Chapter IV</a><br> +<a href = "#chap_V">Chapter V</a><br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving6.html">Chapter VI</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving7.html">Chapter VII</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving8.html">Chapter VIII</a> (separate file)<br> +<a href = "WoodEngraving9.html">Chapter IX</a> (separate file)</p> + +<p class = "center"> +<a href = "WoodEngraving.html#index">Index</a> (separate file)</p> +</div> + +</body> +</html> |