WOOD-ENGRAVING. 



reilcd print-dealers and their prey, and their h'terary jackalls, 

 about the fuperior pretenfions of Italy or Germany to the 

 difcovery of this art ; a mere recreation of idle credulity ; a 

 waft ng of controverfial ink and ftrength in ftrenuous idle- 

 nefs ; an affair of fpurious importance between " tweedle 

 dum and tweedle dee." 



If ridicule might find any other place in our Cyclopxdia 

 than under the letter R, we (hould here have recommended 

 thefe rakers together of early German and Italian rubbilh ; 

 thefe difciples of their rival pretenfions ; thefe admirers of 

 the miferable virgins, and meagre faints and faviours of thofe 

 dark ages of art, which preceded the refurreftion of the 

 antique fculpture ; thefe complimenting and catalogue- 

 making worfhippers of the pagods of tafteleffhefs, who 

 affeft fuch an exquifite feeling for their wooden prodigies, 

 to be confiftent, and ufe their utmoft diligence in feeking 

 after the chips of the twins of Ravenna, or the ftill earlier 

 chips of the wood-engravers of China, and to tell the tafte- 

 lefs and doting world of bibhographical cognofcenti, that 

 thefe antique excifions are " graceful," or even more " ele- 

 gant," than thofe which Cupid in fhaving from his bow, in 

 the celebrated picture by Corregio, in the colleftion of the 

 moft noble the marquis of Stafford. 



In order to confer as much of faftitious importance as 

 might be found prafticable on thofe relics of early Euro- 

 pean engraving and printing, for which thefe writers affeft 

 fo great veneration ; and to keep up the delufive idea that 

 xylography and block-printing were invented here rather 

 I tlMin/een elfe where, the difference between change of form 

 ; and change of colour in rendering impreflions has been dwelt 

 I on with fome emphafis : but nothing in the procefs of im- 

 i preffing ftamps is of more frequent and ordinary occurrence, 

 I than for fufiicient dirt to accumulate in an intaglio ftamp 

 ' that has lain by for any length of time, to produce a change of 

 colour in the tirft impreflion yielded after fuch lapfe of time. 

 It muft even have been a common, becaufe obvious and effi- 

 cient, mode of cleaning out the engraver's work. How 

 I frequently muft this have occurred in fealing, for example. 

 How frequently does it occur now : and here, without genius 

 or meditation, is the link fupplied at once in the chain of 

 petty caufes and effefts, that has been fo much magnified 

 by the ftupidity and taftelefliiefs of modern dealers and 

 colleftors. 



Of the impreflion of eight copies, mentioned by Papillon, 

 of the life of Alexander, from the hands of the Cunio, it is 

 not known that any remain ; nor will this excite furprife, 

 when we rcfleft that entire editions of fome works that have 

 been fubfequently printed, have been fwept from the face 

 of day. The wood-engravings which fucceeded thefe by 

 the interefting twins of Ravenna, or were produced about 

 the fame period, appear to have been honeftly thought of at 

 the time ; that is to fay, thought of very little, becaufe 

 unworthy of being thought of much. From their non- 

 importance, they have either all difappeared, or, from the 

 fame caufe, not having been dated, the age of fuch of them 

 as do remain, if any remain, is not known. The former of 

 thefe is probably the chief reafon of their difappearance ; 

 for who would think of feeking for the tops of ballads, or 

 the dy ing fpeeches of crimin als, or dirty playing-cards, which 

 were printed even fifty years ago, or of preferving fuch 

 things if accidentally found ? and the early European wood- 

 engravings of which we are treating, until Michael Wolge- 

 muth arofe, and introduced his better works of this kind 

 into the Nuremberg Chronicle, were fcarcely of more con- 

 fequence than thele loweft objefts of the notice of the 

 Tulgar. 

 • But though the prints have difappeared, a decree of the 



fenate of Venice remains toatteft their former exiftence, and 

 that " the art and myftery of making cards and printed 

 figures had," in tie year 1441, "/j//cn to total decay, and this 

 in confequence of the great quantity of playing-cards and 

 coloured figures printed, which are made out of Venice." 

 The decree proceeds : " to which evil it is neceffary to 

 apply fome remedy, in order that the faid artifts, who 

 are a great many in family, may find encouragement 

 rather than foreigners ; let it be ordered and eftabhflied," 

 &c. &c. 



This edift, as Mr. Ottley has well obferved, fpeaks of 

 " the art of making cards and printed figures in terms which 

 would have been every way appropriate, had the edi& had 

 for its objedl the eftablifhment of the oldeft manufadlure of 

 Venice ; and when coupled with other circumftances, efpe- 

 cially the account of the two Cunio, furnifhes a ftrong 

 ground for the conjefture that engraving in wood had from 

 a very early period been praftifed by the Venetians, who 

 may eafily be fuppofed to have learnt it in the courfe of 

 their commerce with the Chinefe." 



The " printed figures," which are fpoken of along with 

 the playing-cards in the Venetian edift, were of the fuper- 

 ftitious or devotional charafter to which we have already 

 alluded, and which are defcribed by Heinnekin as being foon 

 afterward common in Germany and the Low Countries, when 

 they were, — both the legendary wonders and the playing- 

 cards, — defignated by the fame general term, and manufac- 

 tured by the fame hands ; that is to fay, cut in wood by 

 the Formfchnieders, and coloured afterward by the Brief- 

 malers. And to this teftimony of the German writer, the 

 profeffor Fufeli adds, that " in the vulgar tongue of Zurich, 

 and ftill more in that of the Roman Catholic cantons of 

 Switzerland, Helgen, which is a corruption oi Heiligen, mean- 

 ing holy faints, is ufedto denote any hiftorical print." The 

 reafon he gives for which is, " the firft prints reprefented 

 the figures of faints, or other devotional fubjefts, and 

 were, on that account, termed Helgen ; the term, in pro- 

 cefs of time, became generic, as others do, and is now 

 ufed to denote prints of any kind, even thofe of profane 

 fubjeas." 



Of thefe fuperftitious excitements of the vulgar, the baron 

 ftates, that he faw feveral which he believes to be of an- 

 cient date in the hbrary of Wolfenbuttel. " Thefe pieces," 

 fays he, " are of the fame dimenfions as our playing-cards r 

 they meafure three inches and a quarter in height, by two 

 inches and a half in width." There are alfo in the fame 

 library, at the end of the book entitled " ^rs Moriendi," 

 five prints, in which are engraved divers figures of angels, 

 devils, dying perfons, faints, &c. fimilar to playing-cardsj 

 and of the fame fize, each figure being marked with a letter 

 of the alphabet. 



An engraved outlineof a figure of this kind, of St. Bridget 

 writing, with the Virgin and Child above, lurrounded by 

 a fort of cloud of Gothic fcroll-work,. and behind her a 

 pilgrim's hat, wallet, and ftafF, Mr. Ottley has brought for- 

 ward from the colleftion of earl Spencer. Perfpeftive is 

 grofsly violated here, and it is of more tlian twice the dimei.- 

 fions of an ordinary playing-card ; but this print, with an- 

 other mentioned by M. Thierry as being in the library of 

 the public Academy at Lyons, and which is faid to be dated 

 1384, Mr. Ottley thinks may help to fill up the cliafm be- 

 tween the work of the Cunio ; and the larger print of St. 

 Chriftopher croffing the water with the facred Infant, which 

 is dated 1423, is alfo in the colleftion of the fame noble 

 earl, and will be found mentioned in a more particular 

 manner in the commencement of our account of the German 



School of Engraving. 



J ^ ^ WOODFORDt 



