Nature aud Alt, June 1, 18(57.3 
NOTES ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF ENGRAVING. 
173 
NOTES ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF ENGRAVING. 
I. WOOD-ENGRAVING. 
I T may not be too much to say that of all the 
important discoveries and inventions which 
have marked intellectual progress that of engraving 
is entitled, all circumstances considered, to the 
first rank in general estimation. As a vehicle 
of design it claims precedence, in point of utility 
and influence, over painting itself. In the latter 
art we have only one picture for each laborious 
effort of the artist ; but when the engraver has 
performed his work, copies almost without limit 
may be taken from it, to spread their influence 
far and wide, and through countless ages of time. 
For prints upon paper are more durable than 
paintings, whether upon pannelled walls or upon 
canvas ; and their value, as preserving the linea- 
ments of the great art-products of every school 
and age for a distant posterity, cannot be over-esti- 
mated. What the world has lost of the teachings 
of ancient Art for want of this vehicle will at once 
be understood and acknowledged. Whilst some 
fragments of the sculpture of the Greeks still re- 
main — at once the marvel and the instructors of a 
remote age — achievements of theirs in painting have 
been entirely lost to us ; whereas, so far as design 
and composition are concerned, these might have 
been preserved for our delight and edification had 
the process of engraving been then known. 
M. Monier, painter to the King of France, and 
professor of painting and sculpture in the Royal 
Academy at Paris, in his “ History of the Arts,” 
published towards the close of the seventeenth 
century, remarks upon the important influence 
which the multiplication of works in painting, 
sculpture, and architecture had upon the revival 
of the Arts in countries which were not, like Italy, 
stored with great original examples of A rt, ancient 
and modern. “ Engraving,” he says, “ has con- 
ferred the same advantages upon painting as upon 
architecture, and has given solid instruction to 
several painters. This may be remarked of the 
prints of Marc Antonio, engraved after the designs 
of Raphael, which have taught the true manner 
of designing to several very considerable painters. 
By the help of those prints, for instance, the illus- 
trious Poussin made great progress when in Paris 
as a youth. It was here this great painter so 
happily imitated the style of Raphael and the 
ancients.” Another example of the kind may be 
cited in our own Reynolds, who was first incited to 
the cultivation of the arts of design by some prints 
which he employed himself in copying. But the 
influence of Italian Art throughout Europe, more 
particularly in England, France, the Low Coun- 
tries, and Germany, through the means of engrav- 
ing, is very striking to all who study the history of 
the various schools of Art. 
It is not, however, in the reproduction aud 
preservation of works of design that the art of 
engraving presents its highest claim to our recog- 
nition and gratitude. Wood-engraving was early 
applied to the production of books of history, and 
of instruction in religion, and other branches of 
knowledge, printed from blocks, and consequently 
called “ Block-books.” The blocks themselves, 
before many years elapsed, suggested the employ- 
ment of moveable types, the most essential condi- 
tion of the art of printing, properly so called. In 
illustration of the momentous results which have 
attended this invention, it may suffice to say that 
the first Bible printed from moveable metal types 
appeared in 1450 ; and that about seventy years 
afterwards the spirit of inquiry thus promoted had 
given to the Reformation the form arid substance 
which were to insure its practical and enduring 
effects. 
Speaking in a general sense, engraving may be 
said to be of two kinds, — Xylography, or Wood- 
engraving, from it/Aor, wood; and, Chalcography, 
or Copperplate-engraving, from yaAi'oe, copper. 
The distinctive difference between the two is that 
in wood-engraving the lights are cut away, leaving 
the lines forming the design in relief; whilst in 
copperplate-engraving the lines composing the de- 
sign are incised, leaving the surface untouched on 
those parts which are to remain white on the 
paper. The “ working off,” or printing, in the two 
cases necessarily differs also. A wood-engraving 
is worked at an ordinary printing-press, like the 
type of a book, the ink being passed over the 
relief surface, and afterwards impressed upon the 
paper ; whilst in the copperplate the ink is rubbed 
into the incised lines, and then, by means of a 
roller press, transferred to the paper. Steel-en- 
graving is but a modification of copperplate, the 
object of employing the material in question being 
its superior hardness, and its capability of giving a 
greater number of impressions than copper. 
Of the two processes, wood-engraving is the 
more ancient, the date of its origin being a 
matter of dispute, which has formed the subject of 
many a ponderous tome of antiquarian lore. Down 
to a comparatively recent period, the opinion gener- 
ally received by that class of winters who are 
content to copy without inquiry whatever comes 
readiest to hand, was, that the art of wood-engrav- 
ing was invented in Germany. In the eighth 
edition of the “ Encyclopaedia Britannica,” for in- 
stance, published so late as 1856, we find it stated, 
without hesitation or qualification, just as it was 
stated in the fifth edition o£ the same learned com- 
pilation, fifty years before, that “ for this inven- 
tion it appears we are indebted to the brief-makers, 
or makers of playing-cards, who practised the Art 
in Germany about the beginning of the fifteenth 
