THE BOX. 



77 



the Saints, on which'account the art received the patronage 

 of the Church. The oldest woodcut of which there is any 

 authentic record, is one of St. Christopher carrying an 

 infant Saviour through the water,, and bearing the date of 

 1423. It is of folio size, and coloured in the manner of 

 our playing-cards. 



Such engravings appear to have been distributed as 

 devotional pictures among the laity, and to have been 

 occasionally preserved by the monks, who pasted them into 



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the earliest printed books with which they were furnished . 

 That of St. Christopher, above alluded to, was discovered 

 in the monastery at Buxheim, near Meiningen, and is now 

 in the possession of Earl Spencer. Collections of them 

 appear also to have been published before the invention of 

 printing from moveable types, for the use of those who 

 either were unable to read, or could not afford to purchase 



