NOTES ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF ENGRAVING. 
175 
Nature and Art, .Tune 1 , 18 ( 57-3 
block, in 1441, setting forth “the decay into 
which the art and mystery of making cards and 
printed figures had fallen,” and, for the restoration 
of this “ art and mystery,” and the encouragement 
of native talent, prohibiting the importation of 
“ playing-cards and works of art printed or painted 
on cloth or paper.” It may be not unreasonably 
insisted that an industrial art of this kind Cbuld 
not have been invented or first introduced, have at- 
tained to a considerable amount of remunerative 
practice, and have eventually fallen into decay so 
signally as to call for Government intervention 
for its protection, except in a series of years mea- 
sured by generations, if not by centuries. Let us 
hazard the conjecture that the first cards used in 
Germany, say, in 1275 — the earliest date named in 
the note of the “ Encyclopaedia Britannica,” — were 
imported from Italy ; that the Germans afterwards 
commenced making them for themselves, some of 
which in course of time found their way into the 
North of Italy, and were the cause of exciting the 
jealousy of the Venetians, which manifested itself 
in the above-cited decree of 1441. 
As it tends to support the claim of Italy to 
priority over other European nations in the use of 
this art, the account given by Papillon, although 
unsupported by corroborative testimony, is de- 
serving of attention. Accepting his statements 
as authentic, they establish an instance of en- 
graving on wood as early as the year 1285. 
Papillon begins his narrative by telling us 
that in 1758, when employed in the way of his 
trade in papering the walls of a room in the 
house of a Swiss officer whom he names, at 
Bagnense, near Mont Range, he was shown by the 
latter a volume containing nine wood-engravings, 
representing events in the life of Alexander the 
Great (which he minutely describes), the work of 
a brother and sister of the name of Cunio, and 
which were dedicated to Pope Honorius IV., who 
occupied the Papal chair during the years 1284-5. 
The story of these young amateur artists, as related 
in a MS. statement which had been inserted in the 
volume in question by the Swiss officer, its pos- 
sessor, is rather a romantic one. It appears that 
they were the twin children of the son of a certain 
Count de Cunio, by a Veronese lady allied to the 
family of Honorius IV., whom that young noble- 
man had married clandestinely, and contrary to the 
wish of his friends. This marriage was annulled, 
and the husband was compelled by his father, the 
Count de* Cunio, to espouse another lady ; but the 
twins were nevertheless brought up and carefully 
educated in his house, their stepmother loving 
them as if they had been her own children. 
Already at the age of thirteen they were highly 
accomplished in Latin, geometry, music, and 
painting; at the age of fourteen the boy went 
with his father to the wars, where he was wounded, 
and knighted by his father on the field of battle. 
It was after his return that, jointly with his sister, 
Isabella, he commenced those designs of the actions 
of Alexander, engraving them on wood, and of 
which he presented copies to Pope Honorius and 
other relatives. He again joined the army, and 
was killed in battle — his sister dying of grief 
shortly afterwards at the age of twenty. Such is 
a brief abstract of the narrative given by 
Papillon, as copied by him from the written 
statement in the book itself. “ Some years after- 
wards,” concludes the writer of this statement, 
“ the generous Count de Cunio gave this copy of 
the ‘Actions of Alexander,’ bound as it now is, to 
my grandfather ; and I have caused the. leaves to 
be inserted, upon which, by my orders, this history 
was written.” 
It is certainly unfortunate that this curious 
volume, which Papillon states he saw in 1758, has 
not been since discovered by any one who has 
written on the subject ; and the whole story of it 
has consequently been denounced as apocryphal by 
many writers who appear not to have studied the 
evidence in the matter with sufficient care. Strutt 
and Bryan, for instance, when writing the prefaces 
to their respective dictionaries of painters and 
engravers, appear to have read Papillon’s narrative 
so curiously that they charge him with giving it all 
upon the hearsay evidence of the Swiss officer, -and 
never having seen the book himself ; whereas he 
clearly states that he had seen the book and closely 
examined it. 
Ileinecken, who espouses the claim of Germany 
to the invention of wood-engraving, contemptuously 
dismisses Papillon’s statement as utterly unworthy 
of credit, and argues upon the names and dates 
mentioned in it, to prove its impossibility. These 
arguments, however, have since been investigated 
at length by Zani and Ottley (“Origin and Early 
History of Engraving ”), and the result of their 
researches is to establish the existence of all 
the principal persons mentioned by Papillon in 
his narrative, together with many corroborative 
circumstances ; and they consequently come to the 
conclusion that the stoi-y of the works of these 
Cunij is true. 
With the exception of the playing-cards of 
Venice, and the illustrations of the achievements 
of Alexander the Great by the gifted Cunio, 
we have no account, even traditional, of the early 
practice of the art of wood-engraving in Italy. It 
is to the Western and Northern states of Europe 
that we must look for its application to nobler 
uses ; and here again, in apportioning the honours 
of the achievement, authorities are at variance. 
Authorities of the class to which the “ Encyclopaedia 
Britannica ” belongs tell us very confidently that 
whilst we are indebted to the brief -makers, or 
playing-card makers, of Germany for the invention 
of wood-engraving, we are indebted to them also 
for applying their newly-discovered art to the pro- 
duction of the block-print books, which early in 
the fifteenth century came to take up the ground 
previously occupied by the ancient missal, with its 
artistic miniature decorations. But the late 
Mr. Ottley dissented from this position ; con- 
sidering that, although the arts of painting and 
engraving may have been practised throughout 
Germany long previous to the commencement of 
