1800. ] , 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
-$ you have given in p. 162, am ac- 
count of fome ancient prints, in 
which the manner of beheading with a 
guillotine is reprefented ; an addition to 
the lift may perhaps be not unacceptable, , 
from which it willappear that this mode 
of punifhment muift formerly have been cx- 
etedingly common ; and yet I do not re- 
member to have noticed, among the nu- 
merous accounts of executions in old 
writers, any defcription of the inftrument 
in queftion. 
1. In an edition of «* Pet. de Natalibus 
Catalogus Sanétorum,” printed about 1 510, 
St. Boniface is made to fuffer by this ma- 
chine. The faint very patiently lays his 
head over the block, whilft the executioner 
holds the ftring that fupports the axe. 
2. A print enyraved foon after the year 
1500, by Lucas Cranach, of Weftphalia, 
reprefenting the martyrdom of Saint Tha- 
‘deus. The execution is conducted pre- 
cifely in the fame manner as in No. 1. 
3. Ina fet of cuts toa German edition 
of ‘* Petrarchus de remediis utriufque 
fortune,’” isa print of a man fuffering 
this punifhment. He kneels on the ground, 
his hands tied behind him. One execu- 
tioner holds down the fufferer’s head, an- 
other the ftring of the guillotine. ‘[his 
print was engraved 1520. 
4. Aprint by Aldegreve, dated 1553, 
reprefenting the death of Manlius, Torqua- 
tus’s fon. The father is made to hold 
down the youth’s head. ‘The executioner 
with the ftring of the axe in his hand waits 
the fignal from Torquatus. 
5. A print engraved about 1550, at 
Frankfort, being one of a fet reprefenting 
various martyrdoms of faints, with a 
guillotine, in which the ftring of the axe 
is faftened to a peg on the outfide of the | 
frame. 
6. The xvitith emblem in ‘ Achillis 
Bocchii Symbolicz quz{tiones. Bononiz, 
1574, 4to.”” 3 
7- In ‘* Joh. Ludov. Gottfridi Hifto- 
rifche chronica, 1674, folio,”’ there is an 
execution with a guillotine, like that in 
No. a. In the fame work there is an- 
other very fingular inftrument for behead- 
ing, refembling the lower part of a guillo 
tine. ~The malpfacior kneeling, with his 
hands tied behind him, has his head placed 
in a groove, at the top of which one exe- 
gutioner holds an axe, the edge: placed 
near the neck of the fufferer, while an- 
other, with an uplifted mallet, is about to 
firike the axg with all his force. Some- 
4 
Prints of Guillotining: 247 
thing fimilar occurs in a print for a Livy, 
eagraved by Joth. Amman, about1570. 
8. Ina imall Italian print, etched in 
the manner of Callot, exhibiting a variety 
of horrid punifhments, one of them is in- 
titled ‘* Giuftitie eflequite contro tranf- 
egreffori de bandi della fanita.” Here is a 
guillotine, differing very little from that 
ufed by the French, the delinquent being 
extended on aboard, the whole apparatus 
on a feaffold. The executioner, having 
juft cut the ftring with his knife, holds up 
the head to the {pectators. 
g. Aprint in Catz Emblems, with a 
-guillotine, like that in No. 4, A hand 
from the clouds cuts the ftring. ‘This may 
probably be the fame print already men- 
tioned in p.. 152. col. 2. 
10. In p. 654, vol. il. of the firft edi- 
tion of Hollinfhed’s Chronicle, is exhibited 
a decollation by means of a guillotine. A 
prieft is exhorting the culprit, whilft the 
executioner is in the act of cutting the 
cord that fufpends the axe. It is remark- 
able that whilft a great number of decolla~ 
tions in the ufual way are reprefented in 
this book, this cut fhould occur only once. 
All the above cuts are in the writer's 
poffeffion. Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9, 
were communicated to the author of ** A 
Trip to Paris, in July and Auguft, 1792, 
8vo. 1793. in which fome particulars of 
the modern French machine may be found, 
and I believe the firft corre&t reprefenta- 
tion of it. | 
In an edition of ** Pet. de Natalibus Ca- 
tal. fanctorum,”’ printed at Venice, 1506 ; 
the martyrdom of fome of the faints is 
depicted in the following curious, but fa- 
vage manner. An axe like a butcher’s 
cleaver has been previoully ftruck into the 
faint’s neck, where it remains, and the 
bufinefs is compleated by the blow of an 
huge mallet. 
It would beneedle!s to repeat here what 
has been faid refpefting the Enelifh guil- 
jotine; the maiden, formerly ufed at Edin- 
burghand Halifax, and of which fome ac- 
count may be feen in Pennant’s Tour in 
Scotland, vol. ii. p. 363 ; andit wouldbe 
aslittle worth while to inveftigate the re- 
vival of this fort of punifhment in France, 
ufually afcribed toa phyfician, after whom 
it is faid to have been named, efpecially 
as the opinions on the fubje& are’ contra- 
dictory, From the details of the before- 
mentioned prints we may for the prefent, 
colleét that this dreadful engine was an- 
ciently ufed in Italy, Germany, and Eng- 
land; but I'‘know of no inftance of its ufe 
in France before the Revolution. And, 
indeed, 


