ENGRAVING. 
Bograving’ inrei sa ons the tontts-etohies i chutches: 
—Y~ They were executed’ y with the graver, the out- 
~~ Tinerbei ‘made out, and the shadows produced 
slag Gemnleseh sain ae eae Ae 
ing:to the strength of shadow intended, 7 in the 
way that | ngravit oy exeeriechst shee tine. 
Being” on the stones to which they 
ae they formed part of the pavement of the 
chureh’; and so being’ exposed to the feet of the con- 
gregation passing “over them, they were necessarily 
executed in a coarse manner, and the strokes very deep- 
ly eut'into the metal. There are some of these that of- 
ten display very considerable talent in the artist. 
The art’of engraving seals on precious stones or 
which'was practised’ by the ancients, and carried 
by thent'to ‘thé greatest’ perfection, was probably the 
invention’ of the E. jans; but of the means that 
prise tt carve such hard substances, from the 
ous hiero yphies which are seen at the tem- 
one Peete, aca er places, down to the nume- 
rous minute gems which formed ornaments, 
rings; ‘signets, &c. we dare hazard a conjec- 
ture. It is supposed ‘that the corundum stone, or ada- 
mantiné spar, was the substance wa for the pur- 
pose by the Egyptian lapidaries; and Pliny informs us, 
thatthe Romans used to i sand from Ethiopia 
‘and’ India for this purpose, which it is probable was no 
other than the grit or powder of the corundum stone. 
The earliest engravings of the Egyptians are in 
intaglio, consisting most commonly of a opper, 
a scarabee, or an ibis, and in all probability execut- 
ed before the invention of letters. 
The earliest Greek gs are likewise scara- 
Ne 
i 
— in Greece with the . 
by the timie of Alexander the it had arrived 
at the perfection. While it declined under the 
exander, it migrated to Sicily and Etru- 
ria, and there shone in’ undiminished splendour ; but 
at Rome it never attained to any excellence, except in 
the hands of Greek artists. During the middle ages it 
with the other arts, and was afterwards revived 
in the fifteenth 
him kept up by Dominic’ 
7 
Origin and  Wehave thus given a slight sketch of the art of en- 
progress of in the various way? hi which it was practised 
the art the ancients: It now remains to consider its origin 
= 
among the and F the moderns, in its more import- 
come at apt of ivr impressions upon paper, 
from of metal and blocks of wood, by means of 
the or rolling press. 
honour of this invention is equally claimed by 
Printing or 
rolling the Germans, Italians, and Dutch; but as the pretensions 
press. ted Baht nae ml Mle or 
evidence, they are not enti to our consideration. 
The art seems to have origi in Germany, in the 
Brief ma- brief malers, or makers of playing cards, who cut their 
lers. on blocks of wood, them on paper, and 
at first coloured or illuminated with the hand but 
afterwards performed the operation in a much more 
py tele mmn by blocks cut for the purpose, each 
requiring a separate stamp. The carvers of 
* brief malers, that the 
43 
the’ blocks were’ called formschmeiders, ¢. e. cutters’ of Engrsving. 
forms.’ " — 
As the mania for the adoration of images of the saints 
was, at this time, (the’beginning ‘of the 15th century,) 
carried to a most extravagant height; it occurred to the 
ublie superstition might\ be made 
a source of considera emolument to themselves. ‘This 
led them to the cutting of i ; and the representa- 
tions of pious subjects, which-were cut and illuminated 
like the cards, and illustrated ere title of os pao 
or a riate passages from le s, executed on the 
ital beck, in thd Gothic chadanend then in use; these 
were vended for the edification and amusement ofthe 
unlettered, and those to whom written books were not 
accessible. 
Baron Heincken discovered, ‘“ in the Carthusian mo- Impressions 
nastery, at Buxheim, near Memingen, a print of St 9 20m 
Christopher carrying the infant Jesus over the sea; op- shou: 1499. 
posite him is a hermit lighting him with his lanthorn:; 
and behind him is a peasant, with a sack on his back, 
climbing to the top of a hill.” This piece ‘is of folio 
size, engrayed on wood, and illuminated in the same 
way as playing cards, accompanied with an inscription 
at the bottom : @hristofert faciem, Die quacunque tueris. 
FJlla nemype die morte mala non moricris: Millesimo tece? rr” 
tertio, This curious print was‘found ed on the in- 
‘side of the cover of an old book; and there being no 
reason to d its authenticity, it proves that this me- 
thod of en, and ‘printing was practised as early 
as the year 1423. ‘This print was purchased by Ear! 
ee some years ago, and is now in his possession. 
. Heincken likewise informs us, that, in the convents 
in Franconia, Suabia, Bavaria, and the Austrian coun- 
tries, he found many early specimens of works of the 
same sort, which had been intended for the laity, and . 
had been ed by the monks, by attaching them 
to the inside of books. 
These detached plates were soon followed by whole se- 
ries, consisting ofmany plates, mostly in folio, printed-un- 
der the name of legends, in which the figures of the saints 
differ little from each other, or from their yates om 
the figures on the cards, They are illuminated in like 
manner, and leave no doubt by whom they were exe- 
cuted, and are sometimes accompanied with passages 
of considerable length. 
Amongst the books of i without text, there are Poor Man’s 
still preserved in the libraries of the curious, several Bible. 
copies of the Historia veteris et Novi Testamenti, called 
also the Poor Man’s Bible. Each plate contains appro- 
priate sentences, or the names of the persons, sometimes 
at the top, sometimes at the bottom, or in scrolls in the 
middle, all in Latin. At the top and bottom are the busts 
of two saints, or prophets, with their names under them. 
In the middle are three historical subjects, that in the 
centre a principal one, and on each side one typical of 
it. We shall describe the first plate of this series, 
which will afford a fair specimen of the whole: it has 
the annunciation in the centre ; the inscription above is 
Ecce Virgo concipiet et pariet filium ; on the one side 
are Eve and the t ; and below, vipera vim perdit, 
sine vi pariente puella ; and farther down, on a scroll, 
porta clausa erit, et non aperietur. In like manner, 
on the other side, is Gideon with his fleece ; above, on a 
scroll, descendet dominus, sicut pluvia in vellus ; below, 
rore madet Vellus, pluviam sitit arida tellus ; lower down, 
creavit dominus ; and, at the bottom, the indication of the 
principal subject, Virgo Salutatur, innupta manens gra- 
vidatur. This work contains about 50 plates. "There 
