Retrospect of Domestic Literature—Fine Arts. 621 
clumsily added with the hair-pencil, 
though without any attempt at vradation 
of light, andin the manner of old playing- 
cards. Baron Heinnekin, with great 
probability, thinks that the painters of the 
playing-cards, were really the first Euro- 
pean printers, that they devised the me- 
thod of cutting the kings, queens, &c. upon 
wood, to save the trouble of making a se- 
parate drawing for each card; and that 
they also cut the single prints of religious 
subjects [ have just mentioned, of which 
he found one of a folio size, and dated so 
early asthe year 1423, pasted intoa book 
in the library of a convent at Buxheim 
near Memmingen. This curious print, 
supposed to be the oldest extant, having 
been lately purchased by Lord Spencer, is 
now onits way to England, and will very 
soon find its proper place in his valuable 
collection: meanwhile the noble earl has 
kindly enabled me to shew you a fac-si- ° 
mile of this ancient print, which was cut 
a few years ago, and has also allowed me 
to remove from his library a still greater 
curiosity for your inspection. Itisoneotthe 
original blocks which was used in the very 
infancy of printing, before moveable types 
were invented, ard before shadowing was 
even feebly indicated. Of the history and 
Visions of St. John the Divine, no tewer 
than six editions were thus engraven and 
printed at this early period, aud the im- 
pressions from the block f have new the 
honour to exhibit, constituted. according 
to Baron Heinnekin, the second leaf of 
the second edition, of which there is a 
copy in the royal library at Buckingham- 
house: itis probably, therefore, one of the 
earliest engravings on wood that were 
ever performed, and perhaps the oldest 
that 1s vow extant. 
‘¢ Hence it appears that the art of en- 
graving on wood, was the parent of that 
of printing from the surface, and with the 
lecter-press. ‘To the art of printing with 
the rolling press, or of delivering ink from 
the incisions of the graver, it has in like 
manner been disputed among the curious, 
whether Italy or Germany, and whether 
accident or design had the honour of giv- 
ing birth, 
‘“ Italy rests her pretensions on the 
following circumstances recorded by Va- 
sari. It is known to be common with 
those who engrave ornaments on plate, 
occasionally to rub a little charcoal or 
oil, or both, into their work, for the pur- 
pose of seeing the better what they are 
about. In the year 1460, Maso or Tho- 
maso Finiguerra, a goldsmith of Florence, 
-¢hanced to cast or let fail a piece of en- 
’ 
graving thus filled with this sort of ink, 
into melted sulphur; and observing that 
the exact impression of his work was left 
on the sulphur, repeated the experiment 
on moistened paper, rolling it gently with 
aroller, It was attended with success,’ 
and FViniguerra, imparting his discovery 
to Baccio Baldini, of the same place and 
profession, it was by him communicated 
to Sandro Boticelli, and perhaps also to 
Antonio Poltajuoli, and Andrea Man- 
tegna. 
“ At this time the intercourse between 
Italy and Germany, was much less fre- 
quent and considerable, than it soon af 
terward became; and Mr. Strutt has on 
the other hand produced a German print 
from the collection of the late Dr. Monro, 
of which the date is 1461, and says we 
have several other engravings by the same 
master, and thet the impressions are so 
neatly taken from the plates, that they 
could not be done much wetter even at 
present, whence he concludes that they 
were not the first specimens of copper- 
plate orinting. 
‘¢ The print which is reputed to be the 
oldest in the Cracherode collection, is evi- 
dently by the same engraver as this of 
Dr. Monro, and appears too highly finish- 
ed /and too well printed to be really one 
of the first: the same collection contains, 
however, another print from a copper or 
silver plate, which I should suppose to be 
of a still earlier date: It is in a very infe- 
rior style, full of contradiction in the per- 
spective, and error in the drawing of the 
figures; and the angulurity, meagreness, 
and painful attention to minutie, that 
characterise the productions of the early 
German artists are excessive. Its subject 
is Augustus and the Sybil, and the em- 
peror’s diadem, (which is elaborately 
wrought), as well as the profusion of f- 
-nery about his dress, seem to point to- 
ward the goldsmith’s shop, as its origin.” 
The specimen we have here exhibited, 
will at least evince Mr. Landseey’s indus- 
try in tracing the authentic history of his 
art. The remainder of the fourth Lec- 
ture is principally devoted to an exantina» 
tion of the early German engravings; pare. 
ticularly in the books of Martin Schoen 
and Albert Durer. 
The fifth Lecture comprises the rise, 
and early progress of engraving in modern 
Italy, under the patrovage of the Medici. 
Baldini, Boticelli, and Pollajucli are the 
first artists recorded init. On the works 
of Mantegna, of which the remains are 
more numerous than those of his prede- 
cessors, Mr. Landseer enlarges: avd con- 
siders 
a 
