IMlOCEICDINCiS or TllK 



Ills fidelity of (Iraughtsiujuisliip even of delet-ts ui' the fspt'ciiiieiis 

 before liim. Jii 1542 tin- .s[)leiulid folio of Leoiiliard Fiiclis 

 appeared, with woodcuts wliicli liave been deservedly praised for 

 Iheir accuracy and style ; be gave the [)ortraits ol U\» three 

 bel|)ers, tuo drauglilsinen and the engraver, at the end of his 

 book. Within the next generation we find 1^'inhert Dodoens, 

 I'ierre Pena, with his coih-ague Alathias de I'Obel, followed by 

 many workers, including Charles do I'Eschise, our ou)i John 

 Gerard, the Valgrisi (Venetian printers), Cainei'arius, Bock, and 

 John Parknison, whose large blocks were cut "plank-wise" — that 

 is, ilown the grain- — generally of pear-wood, often supplemented 

 by an under layer of deal. With the advent of Thomas Bewick 

 (i7o;j-181^8) wood-engraving entered upon a new phase ; this 

 celebrated man en)ployed the white line and the fiat black in a 

 . most skilful manner. Japanese and Frejjch 8[)ecimens show the 

 latest state of what is almost a lost art. 



2. Coi)per plates. Contemporary with the later herbalists, 

 copper-plate etching made its appearance; the etching was simply 

 ])rinted, none of the usual iinesse of the copper-])late printer 

 being used. Colonna, licneaulme, and vVlpini may be instanced as 

 having successfully employed etching, and much later, Dillenius. 

 Dry-point, the use of a needle on the plate to produce a burr, was 

 much employed by Dv. John Hill ; this burr rapidly v ore away, 

 and accounts for the poor appearance of many of llill's plates, for 

 the plan of " steeling'"' is a comparatively recent invention. 



Engraving by trained craftsmen followed the use of etching ; 

 beautiful work may be seen in Yaillant's folio on the plants grow- 

 ing about Paris, and after Ehret, in the 'Jlortus Clillbrtiaiuis.' 

 iSole's plates in his 'British Rlinls ' display the most elaborate 

 attempt to show texture and colour, in a black plate. Mezzotint 

 to a small extent was tried by John Martyn. 



The second period of copper-plale engraving was largely that 

 of stippling, as used by lledoute, and in our own time by Bornet 

 and Tburet. 



3. Lithography depends upon the mutual repulsion of oil and 

 water; a drawing upon a certain kind of limestone, made with 

 greasy ink or chalk, will repel wat'^', and the latter when soaked 

 into the stone will repel ink, printing being an alternation of 

 inking and wetting the stone before a])plying the paper and 

 subjecting it to pressure. 



Ectype, jS'ature-printing or Bradburytype, and Woodburytype 

 Avere next considereil, and then current processes were discussed. 



Zinco, or line j)rocess blocks, depend upon the property of 

 bichromate salts in conjunction with gelatine or albumeii of 

 causing the compound to become insoluble under the action of 

 light. A negative of a dniwing is placed upon a metal ])lale thus 

 sensitised, and after exposure, the gelatine which has been exposed 

 to light remains hard, but the protected gelatine is washed away. 

 The spaces between the lines are etched away with weak acid, 



