WOOD-ENGRAVING. 



and alfo by that of her mother, who could not furyive the 

 lofs of her beloved children. The count di Cunio, who 

 had been deeply afflifted by the death of his fon, could 

 fcarcely fupport that of his daughter. Even the countefs 

 di Cunio, who loved Ifabella with great tendernefs, fell ill 

 of grief for her lofs ; and would have funk under it, had 

 flie not been fupported by the manly fortitude of the count. 

 Happily the health of the countefs was, by degrees, re- 

 eftabhfhed. Some years afterwards, the generous count di 

 Cunio gave this copy of the aftions of Alexander, bound, as 

 it now IS, to my grandfather ; and I have caufed the leaves of 

 paper to be inferted, upon which, by my orders, this hif- 

 tory was written." 



From the name of pope Honorius IV. being engraved 

 on the frontifpiece of thefe ancient prints, it is certain that 

 this precious monument of the art of engraving on wood 

 was executed between the years 1284 and 1286; becaufe 

 that pope governed the church only for the fpace of two 

 years, ending in April 1287. The epoch, therefore, of 

 this ancient fpecimen of engraving, is anterior to all the 

 books printed in Europe that have been hitherto known. 

 PapiUon adds, that it is very probable that the copy of the 

 work, which is recorded to have been prefented to pope 

 Honorius, may very poffibly be preferved in the Lbrary of 

 the Vatican. 



The baron Heinnekin and our countryman Strutt dif- 

 truft the truth of this ftory of the twins and their ancient 

 work ; but the latter has let efcape that he read the ori- 

 ginal French with hally inattention, and the former, after 

 offering his objedions, is compelled to add, " ftill there 

 muft be fomething true in Papillon's account ; for, from 

 my knowledge of his charafter, and his manner when I 

 converfed with him, I am firmly perfuaded that he did not 

 invent that which he told me." 



On the other hand, Zani confefles his entire belief of the 

 account of PapiUon, finding in it, as he dates, " every mark 

 of truth :" and Mr. Ottley concluCvely adds, that " Pa- 

 piUon from his infancy had begun to colleft materials for 

 illuflrating the hillory of his favourite art, of which, as is 

 well known, he became a profeffor of fome eminence, having 

 been inttrufted in it by his father, who was alfo an engraver 

 on wood. This praftical experience combined with re- 

 fearch could not but give him great advantages, and render 

 him the lefs liable to be deceived in his decifions. 



" His remarks, indeed, are thofe of a man well accuftomed 

 to examine ancient prints. The blocks, he fays, appear 

 to have been printed by means of the prefTure or friftion 

 of the hand, with a light tint of Indigo in diftemper ; he 

 defcribes the impreflions to be granulous in fome places, as 

 if the paper had been applied to the engraved block without 

 being firft damped. Now, it is well known that many of 

 the very early wood-prints were printed without any mix- 

 ture of oil in the colours ufed for the purpofe ; and there is 

 good reafon alfo to believe that the paper was often applied 

 m its dry ftate. The obfervations of PapiUon are, there- 

 fore, not only evidence that he examined thefe prints with 

 great attention, but that his eye was habituated to very 

 nice difcriminalion, touching all thofe particulars which, 

 perhaps, more than any others that could be named, are 

 guides to enable us to judge of the antiquity of wood- 

 engravings. And the probity of Papillon's charafter 

 feems to preclude the idea that he had any intention to 

 deceive." 



The general corollaries refulting from thefe elaborate 

 inquiries, which have been purfued to much greater length 

 than we have chofen to follow, are, that the origin of Euro- 

 pean inood-engTzv'mg is unknown, (that is to fay, that no 

 perfon is acquainted with the precife fads of vjho firH en- 



graved on wood in this part of the world, or whtn it wa» 

 done) ; and the reluftant ackno^vledgment that it cannot be 

 (hewn to be an European difcovery at all. 



Notwithftanding the detailed prohxity with which the 

 chevalier Cunio's own account of his graphic enterprize is 

 written, and though he Hates that himfelf and his fifter in- 

 vented the eight defigns or piftures from which their tablets 

 were engraven, he fays nothing of the far more important 

 faft, had it been fo, of their having invented an art of mul- 

 tiplying thofe defigns, fo much more likely to have been 

 announced by an ardent youth of fixteen, had there been the 

 leaft foundation for fuch an announcement. No. He was 

 too fincere : and he probably knew alfo that pope Honorius, 

 and his noble relatives, were too well acquainted with fimilar 

 procefTes employed by the Itahan carvers, fealers, book- 

 binders, and other artifans of Venice and Ravenna, (for the 

 bindings of books were even then ornamented by means of 

 heated iron ftamps, ) to have believed him, had he been lefs 

 attentive to truth. He evidently regarded, and expefted that 

 his readers would regard, what he terms in one place engrav- 

 ing, and in another execution in reUef with a fmall knife, as 

 an expedient which might have been adopted by any other 

 perfon in the exifting ftate of that kind of knowledge, and 

 which himfelf and fifter praftifed — in aU probabihty from 

 the imperfeft report of fome inexperienced reporter, who 

 might be thei^ inftruftor in drawing. 



At the period of which we are treating, Venice, as is well 

 known, was the fplendid emporium of exotic luxuries ; and 

 the reader will not hefitate to believe, that, with the facili- 

 ties of Italian intercourfe which then fubfifted, much of the 

 imported knowledge would travel at leaft to Ravenna, along 

 with thofe foreign commodities and that commercial enterprize 

 which were then fpreading through Europe. The father 

 and the uncle of Marco Polo, who had penetrated to Tar- 

 tary and to China, returned from their nineteen years of 

 travel in the Eaft, in the fame year in which the Cunio were 

 born. Nothing, therefore, is more likely, under all the 

 attendant circumftances, than that thefe traveUers brought 

 home the information neceflary to the rude praftice of the 

 wood-engravers' art from China, which we are inclined to 

 deem the parent country of wood-engraving, paper, and 

 printing ; and that it thus became known, though through 

 what particular medium cannot now be traced, to the illuf- 

 trious and romantic twins of Ravenna. 



Should it be objefted here, that Marco Polo has not no- 

 ticed this art, in the account which he has left us of the 

 marvels which he had witneffed in China ; the anfwer is ob- 

 vious. Marco did not himfelf travel thither until after the firft 

 return of his father and uncle, nor did his book appear until 

 ten years after that of " the heroic aftions of the great 

 and magnanimous Macedonian king," when wood-engraving 

 would feem to have been no marvel. Marco very wifely 

 preferred inftrufting the public in matters with which they 

 were not hitherto acquainted. 



In corroboration of this account may be mentioned, that 

 the manner in which the work of the Cunio is defcribed to 

 have been performed, is precifely that in wjiich the Chinefe 

 have from time immemorial engraven on wood, and in 

 which they iliU continue to pradlife that art, as may be 

 feen by any perfon who may pleafe to indulge himfelf in 

 the curiofity of infpedling thofe engraved or carved tablets 

 of wood which are preferved in the mufeum of the Honour- 

 able Eaft India Company, in Leadenhail-llre^^-t. 



We have purfued this mixture of fact and probability thus 

 far, becaufe it appeared to us to contain the beft evidence 

 on the fubjeft that is now obtainable ; and becaufe even 

 this feems to render the ufelefsly-protradled and never-encfing 

 difputes, which have been fo long kept up by certain inte- 



refted 



