From this narrative,—which Papillon informs us was written in a much better hand, though also in Swiss characters, and with much blacker ink than Turine the grandson’s own memorandum,—we obtain the following particulars: The Count de Cunio, father of the twins, was married to their mother, a noble maiden of Verona and a relation of Pope Honorius IV. without the knowledge of their parents, who, on discovering what had happened, caused the marriage to be annulled, and the priest by whom it was celebrated to be banished. The divorced wife, dreading the anger of her own father, sought an asylum with one of her aunts, under whose roof she was brought to bed of twins. Though the elder Cunio had compelled his son to espouse another wife, he yet allowed him to educate the twins, who were most affectionately received and cherished by their father’s new wife. The children made astonishing progress in the sciences, more especially the girl Isabella, who at thirteen years of age was regarded as a prodigy; for she understood, and wrote with correctness, the Latin language; she composed excellent verses, understood geometry, was acquainted with music, could play on several instruments, and had begun to design and to paint with correctness, taste, and delicacy. Her brother Alberic, of a beauty as ravishing as his sister’s, and one of the most charming youths in Italy, at the age of fourteen could manage the great horse, and understood the practice of arms and all other exercises befitting a young man of quality. He also understood Latin, and could paint well.The troubles in Italy having caused the Count Cunio to take up arms, his son, young Alexander Alberic, accompanied him to the field to make his first campaign. Though not more than fourteen years old, he was entrusted with the command of a squadron of twenty-five horse, with which, as his first essay in war, he attacked and put to flight near two hundred of the enemy. His courage having carried him too far, he was surrounded by the fugitives, from whom, however, he fought himself clear without any further injury than a wound in his left arm. His father, who had hastened to his succour, found him returning with the enemy’s banner, which he had wrapped about his wound. Delighted at the valour displayed by his son, the Count Cunio knighted him on the spot. The young man then asked permission to visit his mother, which32was readily granted by the count, who was pleased to have this opportunity of testifying the love and esteem he still retained towards that noble and afflicted lady, who continued to reside with her aunt; of which he certainly would have given her more convincing proofs, now that his father was dead, by re-establishing their marriage and publicly espousing her, if he had not been in duty bound to cherish the wife whom he had been compelled to marry, and who had now borne him a large family.After Alexander Alberic had visited his mother, he returned home, and shortly after began, together with his sister Isabella, to design and work upon the pictures of the achievements of Alexander. He then made a second campaign with his father, after which he continued to employ himself on the pictures in conjunction with Isabella, who attempted in reduce them and engrave them on wood. After the engravings were finished, and copies had been printed and given to Pope Honorius, and their relations and friends, Alexander Alberic proceeded again to join the army, accompanied by Pandulphio, a young nobleman, who was in love with the charming Isabella. This was his last campaign, for he was killed in the presence of his friend, who was dangerously wounded in defending him. He was slain when not more than nineteen; and his sister was so affected by his death that she resolved never to marry, and died when she was scarcely twenty. The death of this lovely and learned young lady was followed by that of her lover, who had fondly hoped that she would make him happy. The mother of those amiable twins was not long in following them to the grave, being unable to survive the loss of her children. The Countess de Cunio took seriously ill at the loss of Isabella, but fortunately recovered; and it was only the count’s grandeur of soul that saved him from falling sick also.Some years after this, Count Cunio gave the copy of the achievements of Alexander, in its present binding, to the grandfather of the person who caused this account to be written. The binding, according to Papillon’s description of it, was, for the period, little less remarkable than the contents. “This ancient and Gothic binding,” as Papillon’s note is translated by Mr. Ottley. “is made of thin tablets of wood, covered with leather, andornamented with flowered compartments, which appear simply stamped and marked with an iron a little warmed, without any gilding.” It is remarkable that this singular volume should afford not only specimens of wood engraving, earlier by upwards of a hundred and thirty years than any which are hitherto known, but that the binding, of the same period as the engravings, should also be such as is rarely, if ever, to be met with till upwards of one hundred and fifty years after the wonderful twins were dead.33As this volume is no longer to be found, as no mention is made of such a work by any old writer, and as another copy has not been discovered in any of the libraries of Italy, nor the least trace of one ever having been there, the evidence of its ever having existed rests solely on the account given of it by Papillon. Before saying a word respecting the credit to be attached to this witness, or the props with which Zani and Ottley endeavour to support his testimony, I shall attempt to show that the account affords internal evidence of its own falsehood.Before noticing the description of the subjects, I shall state a few objections to the account of the twins as written out by order of the youngest Turine, the grandson of Jan. Jacq. Turine, who received the volume from Count Cunio himself, the father of the twins, a few years after their death, which could not well happen later than 1291; as Pope Honorius, to whom their work was dedicated when they were sixteen years old, died in 1287, and Isabella Cunio, who survived her brother, died when she was not more than twenty. Supposing that Count Cunio gave the volume to his friend, J. J. Turine, a native of Berne, in 1300, and that the grandson of the latter caused the history of the twins to be written out eighty years afterwards,—and we cannot fairly assume that it was written later, if indeed so late,—we have thus 1380 as the date of the account written “in old Swiss characters, in a better hand, and with much blacker ink,” than the owner’s own memorandum of the manner in which the volume came into his family, and his reasons for prizing it so highly. The probable date of the pretended Swiss history of the Cunio, Papillon’s advocates carefully keep out of sight; for what impartial person could believe that a Swiss of the fourteenth century could give utterance to the sentimental fustian which forms so considerable a portion of the account? Of the young knight Cunio he knows every movement; he is acquainted with his visit to his repudiated mother; he knows in which arm he was wounded; the number of men that he lost, when with only five-and-twenty he routed two hundred; the name of Isabella’s lover; the illness and happy recovery of Count Cunio’s wife, and can tell the cause why the count himself did not fall sick.To any person who reflects on the doctrine of the church of Rome in the article of marriage, it certainly must appear strange that the parents of the Count Cunio and his first wife, the mother of the twins, should have had the power of dissolving the marriage and of banishing the priest by whom it was solemnized; and still more singular it is that the Count Cunio, whom we must suppose to have been a good Catholic, should speak, after his father’s death, of re-establishing his marriage with his first wife and of publicly espousing her; and that he should make such a communication to her through the medium of her son, who,34as well as his sister, must have been declared illegitimate by the very fact of their mother’s divorce. It is also strange that this piece of family history should come to the knowledge of the grandson of Jan. Jacq. Turine. The Count Cunio’s second marriage surely must have been canonically legal, if the first were not; and if so, it would not be a sense of duty alone to his second wife that would prevent him divorcing her and re-marrying the first. On such subjects the church was to be consulted; and to such playing fast-and-loose with the sacrament of marriage the church said “NO.” Taking these circumstances into consideration, I can come to no other conclusion than that, on this point, the writer of the history of the Cunio did not speak truth; and that the paper containing such history, even if it could be produced, is not genuine, as every other part of it which has the slightest bearing on the point at issue, is equally, if not more, improbable.With respect to the cuts pretended to be executed by the twins themselves, I shall waive any objections which might be urged on the ground of it being unlikely that they should be executed by a boy and a girl so young. Supposing that the twins were as learned and accomplished as they are represented, still it would be a very surprising circumstance that, in the thirteenth century, they should have executed a series of wood engravings of the actions of Alexander the Great as an appropriate present to the pope; and that the composition of one of those subjects, No. 7, should so closely resemble one of Le Brun’s—an artist remarkable for the complication of his designs—that it would seem he had copied this very print. Something like the reverse of this is more probable; that the description of the pretended work of the Cunio was suggested by the designs of Le Brun.I.40The execution of a set of designs, in the thirteenth century, illustrating the actions of Alexander in the manner described by Papillon, would be a rarity indeed even if not engraved on wood; but that a series of wood engravings, and not a saint in one of them, should be executed by a boy and a girl, and presented to apope, in 1286, is scarcely short of miraculous. The twins must have been well read in Quintus Curtius. Though we are informed that both were skilled in the Latin language, yet it plainly appears on two occasions, when we might suppose that they would be least liable to trip, that their Latinity is questionable. The sixth and the eighth subjects, which were accomplished by their joint efforts, are35described as being marked:Alex. Alb. Equ. et Isabel, Cunio pictor. et scalp.“Thus paintersdid notwrite their names at Co.”Why do not the advocates of those early specimens of wood engraving in Italy point out to their readers that these two children were the first who ever affixed the wordspinx. et scalp.to a woodcut? I challenge any believer in Papillon to point out a wood engraving on which the wordspinxitandscalpsit, the first after the painter’s name, and the second after the engraver’s, appear previous to 1580. This apparent copying—and by a person ignorant of Latin too—of the formula of a later period, is of itself sufficient to excite a suspicion of forgery; and, coupled with the improbable circumstances above related, it irresistibly compels me to conclude that the whole account is a mere fiction.With respect to the credibility of Papillon, the sole evidence upon which the history of the wonderful twins rests, I shall have occasion to say very few words. That he was credulous, and excessively vain of what he considered his discoveries in the history of wood engraving, is admitted by those who profess to believe him. He appears also from an early age to have been subject to mental hallucination; and in 1759, the year after he found his papers containing the account of the Cunio, he had a fit of decided insanity which rendered it necessary to convey him to a mad-house, where by copious bleeding he soon recovered his senses.I.41To those interested in the controversy I leave to decide how far the unsupported testimony of such a person, and in such a case, ought to be relied on. How easily he might be deceived on a subject relating to the early history of his art, it is not difficult to comprehend; andeven allowinghim to be sincere in the belief of what he related, he was a person very likely to occasionally deceive both himself and others.I.42Papillon’s insanity had been previously adverted to by Heineken; and this writer’s remarks have produced the following correction from Mr. Ottley: “Heineken takes some pains to show that poor Papillon was not in his right mind; and, amongst his other arguments, quotes a passage36from his book, t. i. p. 335, in which he says, ‘Par un accident et une fatalité commune à plusieurs graveurs, aussi bien qu’à moi, Le Fevre est devenu aliéné d’esprit:’ as if a little pleasantry of expression, such as the French writers, especially, have ever felt themselves at full liberty to indulge in, could really constitute fit grounds for a statute of lunacy.”I.43Had Mr. Ottley, instead of confidently correcting Heineken when the latter had stated nothing but the fact, turned to the cited page of Papillon’s volume, he would there have found that Papillon was indulging in no “little pleasantry of expression,” but was seriously relating a melancholy fact of two brother artists losing their senses about the same time as himself; and had he ever read the supplement, or third volume, of Papillon’s work, he would have seen, at p. 39, the account which Papillon himself gives of his own insanity.Having disposed of the story as told by Papillon, it remains now to notice “the learning and deep research” with which it has been supported by Zani, and some of the arguments which have been alleged in its favour byMr.Ottley.In the first place, Zani has discovered that a family of the name of Cunio, in which the name of Alberico more than once occurs, actually resided in the neighbourhood of Ravenna at the very period mentioned in the title-page to the cuts by the Cunio, and in the history written in old Swiss characters. Upon this, and other similar pieces of evidence, Mr. Ottley remarks as follows: “Now both these cities [Ravenna and Imola] are in the vicinity of Faenza, where the family, or a branch of it, is spoken of by writers of undoubted credit in the twelfth, the thirteenth, and the fourteenth centuries. These circumstances, therefore, far from furnishing any just motive of additional doubt, form together such a phalanx of corroborative evidence in support of the story, as, in my opinion, those who would impeach the truth of Papillon’s statement can never break through.” “Argal,” Rowley’s poems are genuine, because such a person as “Maistre William Canynge” lived at Bristol at the period when he is mentioned by the pseudo Rowley. Zani, however, unfortunately for his own argument, let us know that the names and residence of the family of the Cunio might be obtained from “Tonduzzi’s History of Faenza,” printed in 1675. Whether this book appeared in French, or not, previous to the publication of Papillon’s works, I have not been able to learn; but a Swiss captain, who could read “old Gothic Italian,” would certainly find little difficulty in picking a couple of names out of a modern Italian volume.The reasoning faculties of Signor Zani appear to have been very imperfectly developed, for he cites the following as a case in point; and37Mr. Ottley, who gives it in his text, seems to concur in its applicability. He is noticing the objections which have been made to Papillon’s account, on the ground of no previous author mentioning the existence of such a work, and that no person subsequently had ever seen a copy. Zani’s argument, as given by Mr. Ottley,I.44is as follows: “He, however, who should reason in this manner, might, upon the same grounds, deny the loss of many manuscripts, and even of printed books, which, according to the testimony of credible authors, have become a prey to the flames, or have perished during the anarchy of revolutions, or the distresses occasioned by wars. The learned part of my readers will not require examples. Nevertheless, let him who wants such conviction search throughout all the libraries of Europe for the work entitled ‘Meditationes Reverendissimi patris Domini Johannis de Turre-cremata,’ printed at Rome by Ulrich Hahn, in 1467, and he will presently be informed by the learned librarians, that of that edition there exists but one copy, which is preserved in the library of Nuremberg. This book is, therefore, unique.I.45Now let us suppose that, by some accident, this book should perish; could our descendants on that account deny that it ever had existed?” And this is a corroborative argument in support of the truth of Papillon’s tale! The comment, however, is worthy of the text. It is to be observed that Ulrich Hahn’s edition of Turre-cremata appeared ten years after Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter, of the date 1457, was printed; and that the existence of several hundred volumes printed before 1467 proves that the art of printing was then practised to a considerable extent. That Ulrich Hahn was a printer at Rome in 1468 and subsequent years is proved by many copies of works which proceeded from his press; and the existence of the identical “unique” copy, referred to by Zani, is vouched for by upwards of fifty learned men who have seen it; and, what is more, mentioned the place where it was preserved, so that, if a person were sceptical, he might satisfy himself by the evidence of his own senses. But who, except Papillon, has ever seen the engravings of the Cunio, executed upwards of a hundred and thirty years prior to the earliest authentic specimen of the art, and who has ever mentioned the place where they were to be seen? Had any person of equal credibility with Papillon described a volume printed at Rome in 1285, the date of the pretended wood-cuts of the Cunio, the case would then have been in point, and the decision of every person in the slightest degree acquainted with the subject, and not rendered blind to simple truth by the vivid brightness of his own speculations, would be38inevitably the same; that is, the evidence in both cases would not be relied on.“It is possible,”saysZani, “that at this moment I may be blinded by partiality to my own nation; but I would almost assert, thatto deny the testimony of the French writer, would be like denying the existence of light on a fine sun-shiny day.” His mental optics must have been of a peculiar character, and it can be no longer doubtful that he“Had lights where better eyes are blind,As pigs are said to see the wind.”Mr. Ottley’s own arguments in support of Papillon’s story are scarcely of a higher character than those which he has adopted from Zani. At page 40, in answer to an objection founded on the silence of all authorities, not merely respecting the particular work of the Cunio, but of the frequent practice of such an art, and the fact of no contemporary specimens being known, he writes as follows: “We cannot safely argue from the silence of contemporaneous authorities, that the art of engraving on wood was not practised in Europe in those early times; however, such silence may be an argument that it was not an art in high repute. Nor is our ignorance of such records a sufficient proof of their non-existence.” The proof of such a negative would be certainly difficult; but, according to this mode of argument, there is no modern invention which might not also be mentioned in “certain ancient undiscovered records.” In the general business of life, that rule of evidence is a good one which declares “de non-apparentibus et non-existentibus eadem est ratio;” and until it shall be a maxim in logic that “we ought readily to believe that to be true which we cannot prove to have been impossible,” Mr. Ottley’s solution of the difficulty does not seem likely to obtain general credence.At page 41, speaking of the probability of wood-engraving, for the purpose of taking impressions, being practised at an earlier period than has been generally supposed, Mr. Ottley expresses himself as follows: “Nor is it any proof or strong argument against the antiquity of such a practice, that authentic specimens of wood-engraving of those early times are not now to be found. They were, it may be supposed, for the most part, detached pieces, whose merits, as works of art, were not such as to render their preservation at all probable. They were the toys of the day; and, after having served the temporary purpose for which they were manufactured, were, no doubt, swept away to make room for others of newer fashion.” He thus requires those who entertain an opinion contrary to his own to prove a negative; while he assumes the point in dispute as most clearly established in his own favour.If such wood engravings—“the toys of the day”—had been known39in the thirteenth, or even the fourteenth century, is it not likely that some mention would be made of them in the writings of some one of the minstrels of the period to whom we are indebted for so many minute particulars illustrative of the state of society at the period referred to? Not the slightest allusion to anything of the kind has hitherto been noticed in their writings. Respecting such “toys” Boccaccio is silent, and our countryman Chaucer says not a word. Of wood-cuts not the least mention is made in Petrarch; and Richard de Bury, bishop of Durham, who lived in the reign of Edward III., in his curious Essay on the Love of Books, says not a syllable of wood-cuts, either as toys, or as illustrations of devotional or historical subjects. Upon this question, affirmed by Papillon, and maintained as true by Zani and Ottley, contemporary authorities are silent; and not one solitary fact bearing distinctly upon the point has been alleged in support of Papillon’s narrative.see textI.1C. G. Von Murr, in his Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theil, S. 253, referring to Martorelli, De Regia Theca Calamaria.I.2If this etymology be correct, the English Scrivener and FrenchGreffiermay be related by descent as well as professionally; both words being thus referable to the same origin, the Greekγράφω. The modernWriterin the Scottish courts of law performs the duties both of Scrivener and Greffier, with whose name his own is synonymous.I.3Towards the close of the seventeenth century we find books “adorned withsculpturesby a curious hand;” about 1730 we find them “ornamented withcuts;” at present they are “illustrated withengravings.”I.4Astle on the Origin and Progress of Writing, p. 215, 2nd edit.I.5Author of “An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, ’34, and ’35.”I.6On a mummy in the royal collection at Paris, the six first characters of this stamp occur. Champollion reads them, “Amenoftep,” or “Amonaftep.” He supposes the name to be that of Amonoph the First; and says that it signifies “approuvé par Ammon.”—Précis du Système Hiéroglyphique. Planches et Explication, p. 20, No. 161.I.7Inscriptionum Explicatio, fol. Romæ, 1699.I.8“O nata mecum consule Manlio!” says Horace, addressing an amphora of wine as old as himself; and Petronius mentions some choice Falernian which had attained the ripe age of a hundred: “Statim allatæ sunt amphoræ vitreæ diligenter gypsatæ, quarum in cervicibus pittacia erant affixa, cum hoc titulo:Falernum Opimianum annorum centum.”Pittaciawere small labels—schedulæ breves—attached to the necks of wine-vessels, and on which were marked the name and age of the wine.I.9Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theil, S. 81. By grotesque—“Laubwerk”—ornamental foliage is here meant;—grot-esque, bower-work,—not caricatures.I.10M. Dulaure’s latinity is bad. “Lippas” certainly is not the word. His translation is, “Remède anodin de Quintus Junius Tauridus, pourtous les mauxd’yeux.” Other stone stamps, supposed to have been used by oculists to mark the vessels containing their medicaments, were discovered and explained long before M. Dulaure published his interpretation. See “WalchiiAntiquitates Medicæ Selectæ, Jenæ, 1772,” Num. 1 and 2, referred to by Von Murr.I.11Hermannus Hugo, De prima Origine Scribendi, cap. xix. De Notis Servilibus, et cap. xx. De Notis pecudum. A further account of the ancientstigmata, and of the manner in which slaves were marked, is to be found inPignorius, De Servis.I.12History of the Poor Laws, 8vo. 1764, by Richard Burn, LL.D., who in his observations on such punishments says: “It is affecting to humanity to observe the various methods that have been invented for thepunishmentof vagrants; none of all which wrought the desired effect . . . . . . This part of our history looks like the history of the savages in America. Almost all severities have been exercised against vagrants, except scalping.”I.13“Quum puer jam ductus sequi cœperit, non inutile erit, litteras tabellæ quam optime insculpi, ut per illos, velut sulcos, ducatur stylus. Nam neque errabit, quemadmodum in ceris, continebitur enim utrimque marginibus, neque extra præscriptum poterit egredi; et celerius ac sæpius sequendo certa vestigia firmabit articulos, neque egebit adjutorio manum suam, manu superimposita, regentis.” Quintiliani Instit. Orator., lib. i. cap. I.I.14Prosper Marchand, at page 9 of his “Histoire de l’Imprimerie,” gives the following title of a book in 8vo. which was wholly, both text and figures, executed in this manner,percé au jour, in vellum: “Liber Passionis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, cum figuris et characteribusex nulla materiacompositis.” He states that in 1640 it was in the collection of Albert Henry, Prince de Ligne, and quotes a description of it from Anton. Sanderi Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta, parte ii. p. 1.I.15“Rex Theodoricus inliteratus erat, et sic obruto sensu ut in decem annos regni sui quatuor literas subscriptionis edicti sui discere nullatenus potuisset. De qua re laminam auream jussit interrasilem tieri quatuor literas regis habentem, unde ut si subscribere voluisset, posita lamina super chartam, per eam pennam duceret et subscriptio ejus tantum videretur.”—Vita Theodorici Regis Ostrogothorum et Italiæ, autore Joanne Cochlæo; cum additamentis Joannis Peringskiold, 4to. Stockholmiæ, 1699, p. 199.I.16A monogram, properly, consists of all, or the principal letters of a name, combined in such a manner that the whole appear but as onecharacter; a portion of one letter being understood to represent another, two being united to form a third, and so on.I.17Mabillon’s opinion is founded on the following passage in the Life of Charlemagne, by his secretary Eginhard: “Ut scilicet imperitiam hanc[scribendi]honesto ritu suppleret, monogrammatis usum loco proprii signi invexit.”I.18“Triplex cruces exarandi modus: 1. penna sive calamo; 2. lamina interrasili; 3. stampilla sive typo anaglyptico. Laminæ interrasiles ex auro aliove metallo, vel ex ebore etiam confectæ sunt, atque ita perforatæ, ut hiatus, pro re nata, crucium cet. speciem præ se ferrent, per quos velut sulcos, calamus sive penna ducebatur. Stampillæ vero ita sculptæ sunt, ut figuræ superficiem eminerent, quæ deinde atramento tinctæ sunt, chartæque impressæ.”—Gatterer, Elementa Artis Diplomaticæ, § 264, De Staurologia.I.19No. lxi. p. 108, where the preceding Gothic marks, with the explanation of them, are given.I.20Essay on Medals, pp. 144, 145. Edit. 1784.I.21It it given by Gatterer in his “Elementa Artis Diplomaticæ,” p. 166; [4to. Gottingæ, 1765;] who refers to Muratori, Antiquit. Italiæ Medii Ævi, t. vi. p. 9.I.22These stamps are copied from “D. E. Baringii Clavis Diplomatica,” 4to. Hanoveræ, 1754. There is a work expressly treating of the use of the Diplomatic Stamp—J. C. C. Oelrichs de Stampilla Diplomatica, folio, Wismariæ, 1762, which I have not been able to obtain a sight of.I.23The marks here given are copied from Mackarel’s History of King’s Lynn, 8vo. 1737. In the same book there are upwards of thirty more of a similar kind, from the middle of the fourteenth century to the latter end of the seventeenth. Perhaps no two counties in the kingdom afford so many examples of merchants’-marks and monumental brasses as Norfolk and Suffolk.I.24“Y-meddledis mixed; the marks of merchants are put in opposition to the ‘shapen shields,’ because merchants had no coats of arms.”—Specimens of the Early English Poets, by George Ellis, Esq. vol. i. p. 163. Edit. 1811.I.25“Till lately this was the earliest dated evidence of block printing known; but there has just been discovered at Malines, and now deposited at Brussels, a woodcut of similar character, but assumed to be Dutch or Flemish, datedMCCCCXVIII.; and though there seems no reason to doubt the genuineness of the cut, it is currently asserted that the date bears evidence of having been tampered with.”—Extract from Bohn’s Lecture on Printing.I.26The woodcut referred to is that of St. Christopher, discovered by Heineken, pasted within the cover of a book in the Monastery of Buxheim, near Memmingen, in Suabia. It is of a folio size, and is coloured by means of stencils; a practice which appears to have been adopted at an early part of the fifteenth century by the German Formschneiders and Briefmalers, literally, figure-cutters and cardpainters, to colour their cuts and their cards. The St. Christopher is now in Earl Spencer’s library. (See a reduced copy of it at p. 46).I.27The small and thick brass coins, struck by Grecian cities under the Roman emperors, and known to collectors as “colonial Greek,” appear to have been cast, and moulds for such a purpose have been discovered in our own country.I.28“That a strong passion for portraits formerly existed, is attested both by Atticus, the friend of Cicero, who wrote a work on this subject, and by M. Varro, who conceived the very liberal idea of inserting by some means or other, in his numerous volumes, the portraits of seven hundred individuals; as he could not bear the idea that all traces of their features should be lost, or that the lapse of centuries should get the better of mankind.”—Pliny’s Natural History, BookXXXV.chap. 2.—(Bohn’s Ed. vol. vi. p. 226. M. Deville is of opinion that these portraits were made in relief upon plates of metal, perhaps bronze, and coloured with minium, a red tint much esteemed by the Romans).I.29See De Pauw, Recherches Philosophiques sur les Grecs, t. ii. p. 100. The subject is discussed in Meusel’s “Neue Miscellaneen von artistischen Inhalts,” part xii. p. 380-387, in an article, “Sind wirklich die Römer die Erfinder der Kupferstecherkunst?—Were the Romans truly the inventors of copper-plate engraving?”—by A. Rode. Böttiger, one of the most learned and intelligent of all German writers on the fine arts, and Fea, the editor of Winkleman’s History of Art, do not admit De Pauw’s conjecture, but decide the question in the negative.I.30An excellent representation of this celebrated monument is given in Cotman’s “Engravings from the most remarkable Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk,” folio, 1819 (republished with considerable additions in 2 vols. folio, 1839).I.31At page 7, Mr. Ottley, borrowing from Du Halde, has erroneously stated that the delicate nature of their paper would not permit the use of a press. He must have forgot, for he cannot but have known, that impressions on the finest India paper had been frequently taken from wood-blocks by means of the common printing-press many years previous to 1816, the date of the publication of his book. I have never seen Chinese paper that would bear printing by hand, which would not also bear the action of the press, if printed without being wet in the same manner as common paper.I.32It would appear that Chinese annalists themselves were not agreed as to the period when printing by the hand from wood-blocks was first practised in that country. “Nicholas Trigaltius, a member of our order,” writes Herman Hugo, “who has recently returned from China, gives the following information respecting printing, which he professes to have carefully extracted from the annals of the Chinese themselves. ‘Typography is of somewhat earlier date in China than in Europe, for it is certain that it was practised in that country about five centuries ago. Others assert that it was practised in China at a period prior to the Christian era.’”—Hermannus Hugo, De Prima Origine Scribendi, p. 211. Antwerpiæ, 1617.I.33The pretensions of the Chinese to excellence in science are ably exposed by the learned Abbé Renaudot in a disquisition “Sur les sciences des Chinois,” appended to his translation, from the Arabic, entitled “Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahométans, qui y allèrent dans le neuvième siècle.”—8vo. Paris, 1718.I.34See the Travels of Marco Polo. (In Bohn’s Antiq. Library).I.35It has been conjectured that the following passages in the travels of Marco Polo might suggest the idea of block-printing, and consequently wood engraving: “Gradatim reliquos belli duces in digniorem ponit statum, donatque illis aurea et argentea vasa, tabulas, privilegia atque immunitatem. Et hæc quidem privilegia tabulis vel bracteis per sculpturas imprimuntur.” “Moneta magni Cham non fit de auro vel argento, aut alio metallo, sed corticem accipiunt medium ab arbore mori, et hunc consolidant, atque in particular varias et rotundas, magnas et parvas, scindunt, atque regale imprimunt signum.”—M. Pauli Veneti Itiner. lib. ii. capp. vii. & xxi. The mention of paper money impressed with the royal stamp also occurs in the Eastern History of Haython, an Armenian, whose work was written in 1307, in Latin, and has been printed several times, of which the last edition is by And. Müller, Colon. 1671, 4to.I.36An article on Marsden’s “Translation of the Travels of Marco Polo,” in the Quarterly Review, No. xli. May, 1819, from p. 191 to 195, contains some curious particulars respecting the early use of the mariner’s compass, and of gunpowder and cannon in Europe.I.37A Monsieur Spirchtvel, as Papillon informs us. Tom. i. p. 92.I.38Cartouch.“This word is used to denote those fantastic ornaments which were formerly introduced in decorating the wainscots of rooms; and frequently served the purpose of frames, surrounding inscriptions, small paintings, or other devices. Thesecartoucheswere much in vogue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the frontispieces of books of prints; and indeedCallotandDella Bellaetched many entire sets of small subjects surrounded by similar ornaments. From the irregularity of their forms, the terms tablet shield, or panel, would be but ill expressive of their character.”—Ottley’s Inquiry, vol. i. p. 12.I.39Readers of French romances will find the tale of the Cunio at p. 89,tom.i. of Papillon’s “Traité de la Gravure en Bois,” or at p. 17, vol. i. of Mr. Ottley’s “History of Engraving.”I.40Of Le Brun’s five subjects illustrative of the actions of Alexander the Great, four of them are precisely the same as four of those said to be executed by the Cunio: 1. Alexander passing the Granicus; 2. the battle of Arbela; 3. the reception of Porus by Alexander; 4. Alexander’s triumphant entry into Babylon. There certainly has been some copying here; but it is more likely that Papillon or his informant had seen Le Brun’s paintings, than that Le Brun had seen the original wood engravings executed by the Cunio.I.41From the age of sixteen, cruel and secret annoyances interrupted his studies; shortly after his marriage, in 1723, his absent manner was a source of uneasiness to his wife; and in 1759 he fairly lost his senses. See Papillon, Traité de la Gravure en Bois, 8vo. 1766, Preface, p. xi.; & p. 335, tom. i. et Supplement, p. 39.I.42It is worthy of remark that Papillon, when questioned by Heineken, who called on him in Paris after the publication of his work, respecting the account of the Cunio, did not produce his three sheets of original memoranda. He might thus have afforded a proof of his own good faith, by producing the manuscript written by him in 1720 from the dictation of Captain de Greder.I.43Inquiry into the Early History of Engraving, vol. i. p. 23.I.44History of Engraving, vol. i. p. 28.I.45Three copies of this supposed unique book have long been known to bibliographers; one in the public library of Nuremberg, another in the Imperial library of Vienna, and the third in Lord Spenser’s library.
From this narrative,—which Papillon informs us was written in a much better hand, though also in Swiss characters, and with much blacker ink than Turine the grandson’s own memorandum,—we obtain the following particulars: The Count de Cunio, father of the twins, was married to their mother, a noble maiden of Verona and a relation of Pope Honorius IV. without the knowledge of their parents, who, on discovering what had happened, caused the marriage to be annulled, and the priest by whom it was celebrated to be banished. The divorced wife, dreading the anger of her own father, sought an asylum with one of her aunts, under whose roof she was brought to bed of twins. Though the elder Cunio had compelled his son to espouse another wife, he yet allowed him to educate the twins, who were most affectionately received and cherished by their father’s new wife. The children made astonishing progress in the sciences, more especially the girl Isabella, who at thirteen years of age was regarded as a prodigy; for she understood, and wrote with correctness, the Latin language; she composed excellent verses, understood geometry, was acquainted with music, could play on several instruments, and had begun to design and to paint with correctness, taste, and delicacy. Her brother Alberic, of a beauty as ravishing as his sister’s, and one of the most charming youths in Italy, at the age of fourteen could manage the great horse, and understood the practice of arms and all other exercises befitting a young man of quality. He also understood Latin, and could paint well.
The troubles in Italy having caused the Count Cunio to take up arms, his son, young Alexander Alberic, accompanied him to the field to make his first campaign. Though not more than fourteen years old, he was entrusted with the command of a squadron of twenty-five horse, with which, as his first essay in war, he attacked and put to flight near two hundred of the enemy. His courage having carried him too far, he was surrounded by the fugitives, from whom, however, he fought himself clear without any further injury than a wound in his left arm. His father, who had hastened to his succour, found him returning with the enemy’s banner, which he had wrapped about his wound. Delighted at the valour displayed by his son, the Count Cunio knighted him on the spot. The young man then asked permission to visit his mother, which32was readily granted by the count, who was pleased to have this opportunity of testifying the love and esteem he still retained towards that noble and afflicted lady, who continued to reside with her aunt; of which he certainly would have given her more convincing proofs, now that his father was dead, by re-establishing their marriage and publicly espousing her, if he had not been in duty bound to cherish the wife whom he had been compelled to marry, and who had now borne him a large family.
After Alexander Alberic had visited his mother, he returned home, and shortly after began, together with his sister Isabella, to design and work upon the pictures of the achievements of Alexander. He then made a second campaign with his father, after which he continued to employ himself on the pictures in conjunction with Isabella, who attempted in reduce them and engrave them on wood. After the engravings were finished, and copies had been printed and given to Pope Honorius, and their relations and friends, Alexander Alberic proceeded again to join the army, accompanied by Pandulphio, a young nobleman, who was in love with the charming Isabella. This was his last campaign, for he was killed in the presence of his friend, who was dangerously wounded in defending him. He was slain when not more than nineteen; and his sister was so affected by his death that she resolved never to marry, and died when she was scarcely twenty. The death of this lovely and learned young lady was followed by that of her lover, who had fondly hoped that she would make him happy. The mother of those amiable twins was not long in following them to the grave, being unable to survive the loss of her children. The Countess de Cunio took seriously ill at the loss of Isabella, but fortunately recovered; and it was only the count’s grandeur of soul that saved him from falling sick also.
Some years after this, Count Cunio gave the copy of the achievements of Alexander, in its present binding, to the grandfather of the person who caused this account to be written. The binding, according to Papillon’s description of it, was, for the period, little less remarkable than the contents. “This ancient and Gothic binding,” as Papillon’s note is translated by Mr. Ottley. “is made of thin tablets of wood, covered with leather, andornamented with flowered compartments, which appear simply stamped and marked with an iron a little warmed, without any gilding.” It is remarkable that this singular volume should afford not only specimens of wood engraving, earlier by upwards of a hundred and thirty years than any which are hitherto known, but that the binding, of the same period as the engravings, should also be such as is rarely, if ever, to be met with till upwards of one hundred and fifty years after the wonderful twins were dead.
As this volume is no longer to be found, as no mention is made of such a work by any old writer, and as another copy has not been discovered in any of the libraries of Italy, nor the least trace of one ever having been there, the evidence of its ever having existed rests solely on the account given of it by Papillon. Before saying a word respecting the credit to be attached to this witness, or the props with which Zani and Ottley endeavour to support his testimony, I shall attempt to show that the account affords internal evidence of its own falsehood.
Before noticing the description of the subjects, I shall state a few objections to the account of the twins as written out by order of the youngest Turine, the grandson of Jan. Jacq. Turine, who received the volume from Count Cunio himself, the father of the twins, a few years after their death, which could not well happen later than 1291; as Pope Honorius, to whom their work was dedicated when they were sixteen years old, died in 1287, and Isabella Cunio, who survived her brother, died when she was not more than twenty. Supposing that Count Cunio gave the volume to his friend, J. J. Turine, a native of Berne, in 1300, and that the grandson of the latter caused the history of the twins to be written out eighty years afterwards,—and we cannot fairly assume that it was written later, if indeed so late,—we have thus 1380 as the date of the account written “in old Swiss characters, in a better hand, and with much blacker ink,” than the owner’s own memorandum of the manner in which the volume came into his family, and his reasons for prizing it so highly. The probable date of the pretended Swiss history of the Cunio, Papillon’s advocates carefully keep out of sight; for what impartial person could believe that a Swiss of the fourteenth century could give utterance to the sentimental fustian which forms so considerable a portion of the account? Of the young knight Cunio he knows every movement; he is acquainted with his visit to his repudiated mother; he knows in which arm he was wounded; the number of men that he lost, when with only five-and-twenty he routed two hundred; the name of Isabella’s lover; the illness and happy recovery of Count Cunio’s wife, and can tell the cause why the count himself did not fall sick.
To any person who reflects on the doctrine of the church of Rome in the article of marriage, it certainly must appear strange that the parents of the Count Cunio and his first wife, the mother of the twins, should have had the power of dissolving the marriage and of banishing the priest by whom it was solemnized; and still more singular it is that the Count Cunio, whom we must suppose to have been a good Catholic, should speak, after his father’s death, of re-establishing his marriage with his first wife and of publicly espousing her; and that he should make such a communication to her through the medium of her son, who,34as well as his sister, must have been declared illegitimate by the very fact of their mother’s divorce. It is also strange that this piece of family history should come to the knowledge of the grandson of Jan. Jacq. Turine. The Count Cunio’s second marriage surely must have been canonically legal, if the first were not; and if so, it would not be a sense of duty alone to his second wife that would prevent him divorcing her and re-marrying the first. On such subjects the church was to be consulted; and to such playing fast-and-loose with the sacrament of marriage the church said “NO.” Taking these circumstances into consideration, I can come to no other conclusion than that, on this point, the writer of the history of the Cunio did not speak truth; and that the paper containing such history, even if it could be produced, is not genuine, as every other part of it which has the slightest bearing on the point at issue, is equally, if not more, improbable.
With respect to the cuts pretended to be executed by the twins themselves, I shall waive any objections which might be urged on the ground of it being unlikely that they should be executed by a boy and a girl so young. Supposing that the twins were as learned and accomplished as they are represented, still it would be a very surprising circumstance that, in the thirteenth century, they should have executed a series of wood engravings of the actions of Alexander the Great as an appropriate present to the pope; and that the composition of one of those subjects, No. 7, should so closely resemble one of Le Brun’s—an artist remarkable for the complication of his designs—that it would seem he had copied this very print. Something like the reverse of this is more probable; that the description of the pretended work of the Cunio was suggested by the designs of Le Brun.I.40The execution of a set of designs, in the thirteenth century, illustrating the actions of Alexander in the manner described by Papillon, would be a rarity indeed even if not engraved on wood; but that a series of wood engravings, and not a saint in one of them, should be executed by a boy and a girl, and presented to apope, in 1286, is scarcely short of miraculous. The twins must have been well read in Quintus Curtius. Though we are informed that both were skilled in the Latin language, yet it plainly appears on two occasions, when we might suppose that they would be least liable to trip, that their Latinity is questionable. The sixth and the eighth subjects, which were accomplished by their joint efforts, are35described as being marked:Alex. Alb. Equ. et Isabel, Cunio pictor. et scalp.
“Thus paintersdid notwrite their names at Co.”
Why do not the advocates of those early specimens of wood engraving in Italy point out to their readers that these two children were the first who ever affixed the wordspinx. et scalp.to a woodcut? I challenge any believer in Papillon to point out a wood engraving on which the wordspinxitandscalpsit, the first after the painter’s name, and the second after the engraver’s, appear previous to 1580. This apparent copying—and by a person ignorant of Latin too—of the formula of a later period, is of itself sufficient to excite a suspicion of forgery; and, coupled with the improbable circumstances above related, it irresistibly compels me to conclude that the whole account is a mere fiction.
With respect to the credibility of Papillon, the sole evidence upon which the history of the wonderful twins rests, I shall have occasion to say very few words. That he was credulous, and excessively vain of what he considered his discoveries in the history of wood engraving, is admitted by those who profess to believe him. He appears also from an early age to have been subject to mental hallucination; and in 1759, the year after he found his papers containing the account of the Cunio, he had a fit of decided insanity which rendered it necessary to convey him to a mad-house, where by copious bleeding he soon recovered his senses.I.41To those interested in the controversy I leave to decide how far the unsupported testimony of such a person, and in such a case, ought to be relied on. How easily he might be deceived on a subject relating to the early history of his art, it is not difficult to comprehend; andeven allowinghim to be sincere in the belief of what he related, he was a person very likely to occasionally deceive both himself and others.I.42
Papillon’s insanity had been previously adverted to by Heineken; and this writer’s remarks have produced the following correction from Mr. Ottley: “Heineken takes some pains to show that poor Papillon was not in his right mind; and, amongst his other arguments, quotes a passage36from his book, t. i. p. 335, in which he says, ‘Par un accident et une fatalité commune à plusieurs graveurs, aussi bien qu’à moi, Le Fevre est devenu aliéné d’esprit:’ as if a little pleasantry of expression, such as the French writers, especially, have ever felt themselves at full liberty to indulge in, could really constitute fit grounds for a statute of lunacy.”I.43Had Mr. Ottley, instead of confidently correcting Heineken when the latter had stated nothing but the fact, turned to the cited page of Papillon’s volume, he would there have found that Papillon was indulging in no “little pleasantry of expression,” but was seriously relating a melancholy fact of two brother artists losing their senses about the same time as himself; and had he ever read the supplement, or third volume, of Papillon’s work, he would have seen, at p. 39, the account which Papillon himself gives of his own insanity.
Having disposed of the story as told by Papillon, it remains now to notice “the learning and deep research” with which it has been supported by Zani, and some of the arguments which have been alleged in its favour byMr.Ottley.
In the first place, Zani has discovered that a family of the name of Cunio, in which the name of Alberico more than once occurs, actually resided in the neighbourhood of Ravenna at the very period mentioned in the title-page to the cuts by the Cunio, and in the history written in old Swiss characters. Upon this, and other similar pieces of evidence, Mr. Ottley remarks as follows: “Now both these cities [Ravenna and Imola] are in the vicinity of Faenza, where the family, or a branch of it, is spoken of by writers of undoubted credit in the twelfth, the thirteenth, and the fourteenth centuries. These circumstances, therefore, far from furnishing any just motive of additional doubt, form together such a phalanx of corroborative evidence in support of the story, as, in my opinion, those who would impeach the truth of Papillon’s statement can never break through.” “Argal,” Rowley’s poems are genuine, because such a person as “Maistre William Canynge” lived at Bristol at the period when he is mentioned by the pseudo Rowley. Zani, however, unfortunately for his own argument, let us know that the names and residence of the family of the Cunio might be obtained from “Tonduzzi’s History of Faenza,” printed in 1675. Whether this book appeared in French, or not, previous to the publication of Papillon’s works, I have not been able to learn; but a Swiss captain, who could read “old Gothic Italian,” would certainly find little difficulty in picking a couple of names out of a modern Italian volume.
The reasoning faculties of Signor Zani appear to have been very imperfectly developed, for he cites the following as a case in point; and37Mr. Ottley, who gives it in his text, seems to concur in its applicability. He is noticing the objections which have been made to Papillon’s account, on the ground of no previous author mentioning the existence of such a work, and that no person subsequently had ever seen a copy. Zani’s argument, as given by Mr. Ottley,I.44is as follows: “He, however, who should reason in this manner, might, upon the same grounds, deny the loss of many manuscripts, and even of printed books, which, according to the testimony of credible authors, have become a prey to the flames, or have perished during the anarchy of revolutions, or the distresses occasioned by wars. The learned part of my readers will not require examples. Nevertheless, let him who wants such conviction search throughout all the libraries of Europe for the work entitled ‘Meditationes Reverendissimi patris Domini Johannis de Turre-cremata,’ printed at Rome by Ulrich Hahn, in 1467, and he will presently be informed by the learned librarians, that of that edition there exists but one copy, which is preserved in the library of Nuremberg. This book is, therefore, unique.I.45Now let us suppose that, by some accident, this book should perish; could our descendants on that account deny that it ever had existed?” And this is a corroborative argument in support of the truth of Papillon’s tale! The comment, however, is worthy of the text. It is to be observed that Ulrich Hahn’s edition of Turre-cremata appeared ten years after Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter, of the date 1457, was printed; and that the existence of several hundred volumes printed before 1467 proves that the art of printing was then practised to a considerable extent. That Ulrich Hahn was a printer at Rome in 1468 and subsequent years is proved by many copies of works which proceeded from his press; and the existence of the identical “unique” copy, referred to by Zani, is vouched for by upwards of fifty learned men who have seen it; and, what is more, mentioned the place where it was preserved, so that, if a person were sceptical, he might satisfy himself by the evidence of his own senses. But who, except Papillon, has ever seen the engravings of the Cunio, executed upwards of a hundred and thirty years prior to the earliest authentic specimen of the art, and who has ever mentioned the place where they were to be seen? Had any person of equal credibility with Papillon described a volume printed at Rome in 1285, the date of the pretended wood-cuts of the Cunio, the case would then have been in point, and the decision of every person in the slightest degree acquainted with the subject, and not rendered blind to simple truth by the vivid brightness of his own speculations, would be38inevitably the same; that is, the evidence in both cases would not be relied on.
“It is possible,”saysZani, “that at this moment I may be blinded by partiality to my own nation; but I would almost assert, thatto deny the testimony of the French writer, would be like denying the existence of light on a fine sun-shiny day.” His mental optics must have been of a peculiar character, and it can be no longer doubtful that he
“Had lights where better eyes are blind,As pigs are said to see the wind.”
“Had lights where better eyes are blind,
As pigs are said to see the wind.”
Mr. Ottley’s own arguments in support of Papillon’s story are scarcely of a higher character than those which he has adopted from Zani. At page 40, in answer to an objection founded on the silence of all authorities, not merely respecting the particular work of the Cunio, but of the frequent practice of such an art, and the fact of no contemporary specimens being known, he writes as follows: “We cannot safely argue from the silence of contemporaneous authorities, that the art of engraving on wood was not practised in Europe in those early times; however, such silence may be an argument that it was not an art in high repute. Nor is our ignorance of such records a sufficient proof of their non-existence.” The proof of such a negative would be certainly difficult; but, according to this mode of argument, there is no modern invention which might not also be mentioned in “certain ancient undiscovered records.” In the general business of life, that rule of evidence is a good one which declares “de non-apparentibus et non-existentibus eadem est ratio;” and until it shall be a maxim in logic that “we ought readily to believe that to be true which we cannot prove to have been impossible,” Mr. Ottley’s solution of the difficulty does not seem likely to obtain general credence.
At page 41, speaking of the probability of wood-engraving, for the purpose of taking impressions, being practised at an earlier period than has been generally supposed, Mr. Ottley expresses himself as follows: “Nor is it any proof or strong argument against the antiquity of such a practice, that authentic specimens of wood-engraving of those early times are not now to be found. They were, it may be supposed, for the most part, detached pieces, whose merits, as works of art, were not such as to render their preservation at all probable. They were the toys of the day; and, after having served the temporary purpose for which they were manufactured, were, no doubt, swept away to make room for others of newer fashion.” He thus requires those who entertain an opinion contrary to his own to prove a negative; while he assumes the point in dispute as most clearly established in his own favour.
If such wood engravings—“the toys of the day”—had been known39in the thirteenth, or even the fourteenth century, is it not likely that some mention would be made of them in the writings of some one of the minstrels of the period to whom we are indebted for so many minute particulars illustrative of the state of society at the period referred to? Not the slightest allusion to anything of the kind has hitherto been noticed in their writings. Respecting such “toys” Boccaccio is silent, and our countryman Chaucer says not a word. Of wood-cuts not the least mention is made in Petrarch; and Richard de Bury, bishop of Durham, who lived in the reign of Edward III., in his curious Essay on the Love of Books, says not a syllable of wood-cuts, either as toys, or as illustrations of devotional or historical subjects. Upon this question, affirmed by Papillon, and maintained as true by Zani and Ottley, contemporary authorities are silent; and not one solitary fact bearing distinctly upon the point has been alleged in support of Papillon’s narrative.
see text
I.1C. G. Von Murr, in his Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theil, S. 253, referring to Martorelli, De Regia Theca Calamaria.I.2If this etymology be correct, the English Scrivener and FrenchGreffiermay be related by descent as well as professionally; both words being thus referable to the same origin, the Greekγράφω. The modernWriterin the Scottish courts of law performs the duties both of Scrivener and Greffier, with whose name his own is synonymous.I.3Towards the close of the seventeenth century we find books “adorned withsculpturesby a curious hand;” about 1730 we find them “ornamented withcuts;” at present they are “illustrated withengravings.”I.4Astle on the Origin and Progress of Writing, p. 215, 2nd edit.I.5Author of “An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, ’34, and ’35.”I.6On a mummy in the royal collection at Paris, the six first characters of this stamp occur. Champollion reads them, “Amenoftep,” or “Amonaftep.” He supposes the name to be that of Amonoph the First; and says that it signifies “approuvé par Ammon.”—Précis du Système Hiéroglyphique. Planches et Explication, p. 20, No. 161.I.7Inscriptionum Explicatio, fol. Romæ, 1699.I.8“O nata mecum consule Manlio!” says Horace, addressing an amphora of wine as old as himself; and Petronius mentions some choice Falernian which had attained the ripe age of a hundred: “Statim allatæ sunt amphoræ vitreæ diligenter gypsatæ, quarum in cervicibus pittacia erant affixa, cum hoc titulo:Falernum Opimianum annorum centum.”Pittaciawere small labels—schedulæ breves—attached to the necks of wine-vessels, and on which were marked the name and age of the wine.I.9Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theil, S. 81. By grotesque—“Laubwerk”—ornamental foliage is here meant;—grot-esque, bower-work,—not caricatures.I.10M. Dulaure’s latinity is bad. “Lippas” certainly is not the word. His translation is, “Remède anodin de Quintus Junius Tauridus, pourtous les mauxd’yeux.” Other stone stamps, supposed to have been used by oculists to mark the vessels containing their medicaments, were discovered and explained long before M. Dulaure published his interpretation. See “WalchiiAntiquitates Medicæ Selectæ, Jenæ, 1772,” Num. 1 and 2, referred to by Von Murr.I.11Hermannus Hugo, De prima Origine Scribendi, cap. xix. De Notis Servilibus, et cap. xx. De Notis pecudum. A further account of the ancientstigmata, and of the manner in which slaves were marked, is to be found inPignorius, De Servis.I.12History of the Poor Laws, 8vo. 1764, by Richard Burn, LL.D., who in his observations on such punishments says: “It is affecting to humanity to observe the various methods that have been invented for thepunishmentof vagrants; none of all which wrought the desired effect . . . . . . This part of our history looks like the history of the savages in America. Almost all severities have been exercised against vagrants, except scalping.”I.13“Quum puer jam ductus sequi cœperit, non inutile erit, litteras tabellæ quam optime insculpi, ut per illos, velut sulcos, ducatur stylus. Nam neque errabit, quemadmodum in ceris, continebitur enim utrimque marginibus, neque extra præscriptum poterit egredi; et celerius ac sæpius sequendo certa vestigia firmabit articulos, neque egebit adjutorio manum suam, manu superimposita, regentis.” Quintiliani Instit. Orator., lib. i. cap. I.I.14Prosper Marchand, at page 9 of his “Histoire de l’Imprimerie,” gives the following title of a book in 8vo. which was wholly, both text and figures, executed in this manner,percé au jour, in vellum: “Liber Passionis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, cum figuris et characteribusex nulla materiacompositis.” He states that in 1640 it was in the collection of Albert Henry, Prince de Ligne, and quotes a description of it from Anton. Sanderi Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta, parte ii. p. 1.I.15“Rex Theodoricus inliteratus erat, et sic obruto sensu ut in decem annos regni sui quatuor literas subscriptionis edicti sui discere nullatenus potuisset. De qua re laminam auream jussit interrasilem tieri quatuor literas regis habentem, unde ut si subscribere voluisset, posita lamina super chartam, per eam pennam duceret et subscriptio ejus tantum videretur.”—Vita Theodorici Regis Ostrogothorum et Italiæ, autore Joanne Cochlæo; cum additamentis Joannis Peringskiold, 4to. Stockholmiæ, 1699, p. 199.I.16A monogram, properly, consists of all, or the principal letters of a name, combined in such a manner that the whole appear but as onecharacter; a portion of one letter being understood to represent another, two being united to form a third, and so on.I.17Mabillon’s opinion is founded on the following passage in the Life of Charlemagne, by his secretary Eginhard: “Ut scilicet imperitiam hanc[scribendi]honesto ritu suppleret, monogrammatis usum loco proprii signi invexit.”I.18“Triplex cruces exarandi modus: 1. penna sive calamo; 2. lamina interrasili; 3. stampilla sive typo anaglyptico. Laminæ interrasiles ex auro aliove metallo, vel ex ebore etiam confectæ sunt, atque ita perforatæ, ut hiatus, pro re nata, crucium cet. speciem præ se ferrent, per quos velut sulcos, calamus sive penna ducebatur. Stampillæ vero ita sculptæ sunt, ut figuræ superficiem eminerent, quæ deinde atramento tinctæ sunt, chartæque impressæ.”—Gatterer, Elementa Artis Diplomaticæ, § 264, De Staurologia.I.19No. lxi. p. 108, where the preceding Gothic marks, with the explanation of them, are given.I.20Essay on Medals, pp. 144, 145. Edit. 1784.I.21It it given by Gatterer in his “Elementa Artis Diplomaticæ,” p. 166; [4to. Gottingæ, 1765;] who refers to Muratori, Antiquit. Italiæ Medii Ævi, t. vi. p. 9.I.22These stamps are copied from “D. E. Baringii Clavis Diplomatica,” 4to. Hanoveræ, 1754. There is a work expressly treating of the use of the Diplomatic Stamp—J. C. C. Oelrichs de Stampilla Diplomatica, folio, Wismariæ, 1762, which I have not been able to obtain a sight of.I.23The marks here given are copied from Mackarel’s History of King’s Lynn, 8vo. 1737. In the same book there are upwards of thirty more of a similar kind, from the middle of the fourteenth century to the latter end of the seventeenth. Perhaps no two counties in the kingdom afford so many examples of merchants’-marks and monumental brasses as Norfolk and Suffolk.I.24“Y-meddledis mixed; the marks of merchants are put in opposition to the ‘shapen shields,’ because merchants had no coats of arms.”—Specimens of the Early English Poets, by George Ellis, Esq. vol. i. p. 163. Edit. 1811.I.25“Till lately this was the earliest dated evidence of block printing known; but there has just been discovered at Malines, and now deposited at Brussels, a woodcut of similar character, but assumed to be Dutch or Flemish, datedMCCCCXVIII.; and though there seems no reason to doubt the genuineness of the cut, it is currently asserted that the date bears evidence of having been tampered with.”—Extract from Bohn’s Lecture on Printing.I.26The woodcut referred to is that of St. Christopher, discovered by Heineken, pasted within the cover of a book in the Monastery of Buxheim, near Memmingen, in Suabia. It is of a folio size, and is coloured by means of stencils; a practice which appears to have been adopted at an early part of the fifteenth century by the German Formschneiders and Briefmalers, literally, figure-cutters and cardpainters, to colour their cuts and their cards. The St. Christopher is now in Earl Spencer’s library. (See a reduced copy of it at p. 46).I.27The small and thick brass coins, struck by Grecian cities under the Roman emperors, and known to collectors as “colonial Greek,” appear to have been cast, and moulds for such a purpose have been discovered in our own country.I.28“That a strong passion for portraits formerly existed, is attested both by Atticus, the friend of Cicero, who wrote a work on this subject, and by M. Varro, who conceived the very liberal idea of inserting by some means or other, in his numerous volumes, the portraits of seven hundred individuals; as he could not bear the idea that all traces of their features should be lost, or that the lapse of centuries should get the better of mankind.”—Pliny’s Natural History, BookXXXV.chap. 2.—(Bohn’s Ed. vol. vi. p. 226. M. Deville is of opinion that these portraits were made in relief upon plates of metal, perhaps bronze, and coloured with minium, a red tint much esteemed by the Romans).I.29See De Pauw, Recherches Philosophiques sur les Grecs, t. ii. p. 100. The subject is discussed in Meusel’s “Neue Miscellaneen von artistischen Inhalts,” part xii. p. 380-387, in an article, “Sind wirklich die Römer die Erfinder der Kupferstecherkunst?—Were the Romans truly the inventors of copper-plate engraving?”—by A. Rode. Böttiger, one of the most learned and intelligent of all German writers on the fine arts, and Fea, the editor of Winkleman’s History of Art, do not admit De Pauw’s conjecture, but decide the question in the negative.I.30An excellent representation of this celebrated monument is given in Cotman’s “Engravings from the most remarkable Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk,” folio, 1819 (republished with considerable additions in 2 vols. folio, 1839).I.31At page 7, Mr. Ottley, borrowing from Du Halde, has erroneously stated that the delicate nature of their paper would not permit the use of a press. He must have forgot, for he cannot but have known, that impressions on the finest India paper had been frequently taken from wood-blocks by means of the common printing-press many years previous to 1816, the date of the publication of his book. I have never seen Chinese paper that would bear printing by hand, which would not also bear the action of the press, if printed without being wet in the same manner as common paper.I.32It would appear that Chinese annalists themselves were not agreed as to the period when printing by the hand from wood-blocks was first practised in that country. “Nicholas Trigaltius, a member of our order,” writes Herman Hugo, “who has recently returned from China, gives the following information respecting printing, which he professes to have carefully extracted from the annals of the Chinese themselves. ‘Typography is of somewhat earlier date in China than in Europe, for it is certain that it was practised in that country about five centuries ago. Others assert that it was practised in China at a period prior to the Christian era.’”—Hermannus Hugo, De Prima Origine Scribendi, p. 211. Antwerpiæ, 1617.I.33The pretensions of the Chinese to excellence in science are ably exposed by the learned Abbé Renaudot in a disquisition “Sur les sciences des Chinois,” appended to his translation, from the Arabic, entitled “Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahométans, qui y allèrent dans le neuvième siècle.”—8vo. Paris, 1718.I.34See the Travels of Marco Polo. (In Bohn’s Antiq. Library).I.35It has been conjectured that the following passages in the travels of Marco Polo might suggest the idea of block-printing, and consequently wood engraving: “Gradatim reliquos belli duces in digniorem ponit statum, donatque illis aurea et argentea vasa, tabulas, privilegia atque immunitatem. Et hæc quidem privilegia tabulis vel bracteis per sculpturas imprimuntur.” “Moneta magni Cham non fit de auro vel argento, aut alio metallo, sed corticem accipiunt medium ab arbore mori, et hunc consolidant, atque in particular varias et rotundas, magnas et parvas, scindunt, atque regale imprimunt signum.”—M. Pauli Veneti Itiner. lib. ii. capp. vii. & xxi. The mention of paper money impressed with the royal stamp also occurs in the Eastern History of Haython, an Armenian, whose work was written in 1307, in Latin, and has been printed several times, of which the last edition is by And. Müller, Colon. 1671, 4to.I.36An article on Marsden’s “Translation of the Travels of Marco Polo,” in the Quarterly Review, No. xli. May, 1819, from p. 191 to 195, contains some curious particulars respecting the early use of the mariner’s compass, and of gunpowder and cannon in Europe.I.37A Monsieur Spirchtvel, as Papillon informs us. Tom. i. p. 92.I.38Cartouch.“This word is used to denote those fantastic ornaments which were formerly introduced in decorating the wainscots of rooms; and frequently served the purpose of frames, surrounding inscriptions, small paintings, or other devices. Thesecartoucheswere much in vogue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the frontispieces of books of prints; and indeedCallotandDella Bellaetched many entire sets of small subjects surrounded by similar ornaments. From the irregularity of their forms, the terms tablet shield, or panel, would be but ill expressive of their character.”—Ottley’s Inquiry, vol. i. p. 12.I.39Readers of French romances will find the tale of the Cunio at p. 89,tom.i. of Papillon’s “Traité de la Gravure en Bois,” or at p. 17, vol. i. of Mr. Ottley’s “History of Engraving.”I.40Of Le Brun’s five subjects illustrative of the actions of Alexander the Great, four of them are precisely the same as four of those said to be executed by the Cunio: 1. Alexander passing the Granicus; 2. the battle of Arbela; 3. the reception of Porus by Alexander; 4. Alexander’s triumphant entry into Babylon. There certainly has been some copying here; but it is more likely that Papillon or his informant had seen Le Brun’s paintings, than that Le Brun had seen the original wood engravings executed by the Cunio.I.41From the age of sixteen, cruel and secret annoyances interrupted his studies; shortly after his marriage, in 1723, his absent manner was a source of uneasiness to his wife; and in 1759 he fairly lost his senses. See Papillon, Traité de la Gravure en Bois, 8vo. 1766, Preface, p. xi.; & p. 335, tom. i. et Supplement, p. 39.I.42It is worthy of remark that Papillon, when questioned by Heineken, who called on him in Paris after the publication of his work, respecting the account of the Cunio, did not produce his three sheets of original memoranda. He might thus have afforded a proof of his own good faith, by producing the manuscript written by him in 1720 from the dictation of Captain de Greder.I.43Inquiry into the Early History of Engraving, vol. i. p. 23.I.44History of Engraving, vol. i. p. 28.I.45Three copies of this supposed unique book have long been known to bibliographers; one in the public library of Nuremberg, another in the Imperial library of Vienna, and the third in Lord Spenser’s library.
I.1C. G. Von Murr, in his Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theil, S. 253, referring to Martorelli, De Regia Theca Calamaria.
I.2If this etymology be correct, the English Scrivener and FrenchGreffiermay be related by descent as well as professionally; both words being thus referable to the same origin, the Greekγράφω. The modernWriterin the Scottish courts of law performs the duties both of Scrivener and Greffier, with whose name his own is synonymous.
I.3Towards the close of the seventeenth century we find books “adorned withsculpturesby a curious hand;” about 1730 we find them “ornamented withcuts;” at present they are “illustrated withengravings.”
I.4Astle on the Origin and Progress of Writing, p. 215, 2nd edit.
I.5Author of “An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, ’34, and ’35.”
I.6On a mummy in the royal collection at Paris, the six first characters of this stamp occur. Champollion reads them, “Amenoftep,” or “Amonaftep.” He supposes the name to be that of Amonoph the First; and says that it signifies “approuvé par Ammon.”—Précis du Système Hiéroglyphique. Planches et Explication, p. 20, No. 161.
I.7Inscriptionum Explicatio, fol. Romæ, 1699.
I.8“O nata mecum consule Manlio!” says Horace, addressing an amphora of wine as old as himself; and Petronius mentions some choice Falernian which had attained the ripe age of a hundred: “Statim allatæ sunt amphoræ vitreæ diligenter gypsatæ, quarum in cervicibus pittacia erant affixa, cum hoc titulo:Falernum Opimianum annorum centum.”Pittaciawere small labels—schedulæ breves—attached to the necks of wine-vessels, and on which were marked the name and age of the wine.
I.9Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theil, S. 81. By grotesque—“Laubwerk”—ornamental foliage is here meant;—grot-esque, bower-work,—not caricatures.
I.10M. Dulaure’s latinity is bad. “Lippas” certainly is not the word. His translation is, “Remède anodin de Quintus Junius Tauridus, pourtous les mauxd’yeux.” Other stone stamps, supposed to have been used by oculists to mark the vessels containing their medicaments, were discovered and explained long before M. Dulaure published his interpretation. See “WalchiiAntiquitates Medicæ Selectæ, Jenæ, 1772,” Num. 1 and 2, referred to by Von Murr.
I.11Hermannus Hugo, De prima Origine Scribendi, cap. xix. De Notis Servilibus, et cap. xx. De Notis pecudum. A further account of the ancientstigmata, and of the manner in which slaves were marked, is to be found inPignorius, De Servis.
I.12History of the Poor Laws, 8vo. 1764, by Richard Burn, LL.D., who in his observations on such punishments says: “It is affecting to humanity to observe the various methods that have been invented for thepunishmentof vagrants; none of all which wrought the desired effect . . . . . . This part of our history looks like the history of the savages in America. Almost all severities have been exercised against vagrants, except scalping.”
I.13“Quum puer jam ductus sequi cœperit, non inutile erit, litteras tabellæ quam optime insculpi, ut per illos, velut sulcos, ducatur stylus. Nam neque errabit, quemadmodum in ceris, continebitur enim utrimque marginibus, neque extra præscriptum poterit egredi; et celerius ac sæpius sequendo certa vestigia firmabit articulos, neque egebit adjutorio manum suam, manu superimposita, regentis.” Quintiliani Instit. Orator., lib. i. cap. I.
I.14Prosper Marchand, at page 9 of his “Histoire de l’Imprimerie,” gives the following title of a book in 8vo. which was wholly, both text and figures, executed in this manner,percé au jour, in vellum: “Liber Passionis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, cum figuris et characteribusex nulla materiacompositis.” He states that in 1640 it was in the collection of Albert Henry, Prince de Ligne, and quotes a description of it from Anton. Sanderi Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta, parte ii. p. 1.
I.15“Rex Theodoricus inliteratus erat, et sic obruto sensu ut in decem annos regni sui quatuor literas subscriptionis edicti sui discere nullatenus potuisset. De qua re laminam auream jussit interrasilem tieri quatuor literas regis habentem, unde ut si subscribere voluisset, posita lamina super chartam, per eam pennam duceret et subscriptio ejus tantum videretur.”—Vita Theodorici Regis Ostrogothorum et Italiæ, autore Joanne Cochlæo; cum additamentis Joannis Peringskiold, 4to. Stockholmiæ, 1699, p. 199.
I.16A monogram, properly, consists of all, or the principal letters of a name, combined in such a manner that the whole appear but as onecharacter; a portion of one letter being understood to represent another, two being united to form a third, and so on.
I.17Mabillon’s opinion is founded on the following passage in the Life of Charlemagne, by his secretary Eginhard: “Ut scilicet imperitiam hanc[scribendi]honesto ritu suppleret, monogrammatis usum loco proprii signi invexit.”
I.18“Triplex cruces exarandi modus: 1. penna sive calamo; 2. lamina interrasili; 3. stampilla sive typo anaglyptico. Laminæ interrasiles ex auro aliove metallo, vel ex ebore etiam confectæ sunt, atque ita perforatæ, ut hiatus, pro re nata, crucium cet. speciem præ se ferrent, per quos velut sulcos, calamus sive penna ducebatur. Stampillæ vero ita sculptæ sunt, ut figuræ superficiem eminerent, quæ deinde atramento tinctæ sunt, chartæque impressæ.”—Gatterer, Elementa Artis Diplomaticæ, § 264, De Staurologia.
I.19No. lxi. p. 108, where the preceding Gothic marks, with the explanation of them, are given.
I.20Essay on Medals, pp. 144, 145. Edit. 1784.
I.21It it given by Gatterer in his “Elementa Artis Diplomaticæ,” p. 166; [4to. Gottingæ, 1765;] who refers to Muratori, Antiquit. Italiæ Medii Ævi, t. vi. p. 9.
I.22These stamps are copied from “D. E. Baringii Clavis Diplomatica,” 4to. Hanoveræ, 1754. There is a work expressly treating of the use of the Diplomatic Stamp—J. C. C. Oelrichs de Stampilla Diplomatica, folio, Wismariæ, 1762, which I have not been able to obtain a sight of.
I.23The marks here given are copied from Mackarel’s History of King’s Lynn, 8vo. 1737. In the same book there are upwards of thirty more of a similar kind, from the middle of the fourteenth century to the latter end of the seventeenth. Perhaps no two counties in the kingdom afford so many examples of merchants’-marks and monumental brasses as Norfolk and Suffolk.
I.24“Y-meddledis mixed; the marks of merchants are put in opposition to the ‘shapen shields,’ because merchants had no coats of arms.”—Specimens of the Early English Poets, by George Ellis, Esq. vol. i. p. 163. Edit. 1811.
I.25“Till lately this was the earliest dated evidence of block printing known; but there has just been discovered at Malines, and now deposited at Brussels, a woodcut of similar character, but assumed to be Dutch or Flemish, datedMCCCCXVIII.; and though there seems no reason to doubt the genuineness of the cut, it is currently asserted that the date bears evidence of having been tampered with.”—Extract from Bohn’s Lecture on Printing.
I.26The woodcut referred to is that of St. Christopher, discovered by Heineken, pasted within the cover of a book in the Monastery of Buxheim, near Memmingen, in Suabia. It is of a folio size, and is coloured by means of stencils; a practice which appears to have been adopted at an early part of the fifteenth century by the German Formschneiders and Briefmalers, literally, figure-cutters and cardpainters, to colour their cuts and their cards. The St. Christopher is now in Earl Spencer’s library. (See a reduced copy of it at p. 46).
I.27The small and thick brass coins, struck by Grecian cities under the Roman emperors, and known to collectors as “colonial Greek,” appear to have been cast, and moulds for such a purpose have been discovered in our own country.
I.28“That a strong passion for portraits formerly existed, is attested both by Atticus, the friend of Cicero, who wrote a work on this subject, and by M. Varro, who conceived the very liberal idea of inserting by some means or other, in his numerous volumes, the portraits of seven hundred individuals; as he could not bear the idea that all traces of their features should be lost, or that the lapse of centuries should get the better of mankind.”—Pliny’s Natural History, BookXXXV.chap. 2.—(Bohn’s Ed. vol. vi. p. 226. M. Deville is of opinion that these portraits were made in relief upon plates of metal, perhaps bronze, and coloured with minium, a red tint much esteemed by the Romans).
I.29See De Pauw, Recherches Philosophiques sur les Grecs, t. ii. p. 100. The subject is discussed in Meusel’s “Neue Miscellaneen von artistischen Inhalts,” part xii. p. 380-387, in an article, “Sind wirklich die Römer die Erfinder der Kupferstecherkunst?—Were the Romans truly the inventors of copper-plate engraving?”—by A. Rode. Böttiger, one of the most learned and intelligent of all German writers on the fine arts, and Fea, the editor of Winkleman’s History of Art, do not admit De Pauw’s conjecture, but decide the question in the negative.
I.30An excellent representation of this celebrated monument is given in Cotman’s “Engravings from the most remarkable Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk,” folio, 1819 (republished with considerable additions in 2 vols. folio, 1839).
I.31At page 7, Mr. Ottley, borrowing from Du Halde, has erroneously stated that the delicate nature of their paper would not permit the use of a press. He must have forgot, for he cannot but have known, that impressions on the finest India paper had been frequently taken from wood-blocks by means of the common printing-press many years previous to 1816, the date of the publication of his book. I have never seen Chinese paper that would bear printing by hand, which would not also bear the action of the press, if printed without being wet in the same manner as common paper.
I.32It would appear that Chinese annalists themselves were not agreed as to the period when printing by the hand from wood-blocks was first practised in that country. “Nicholas Trigaltius, a member of our order,” writes Herman Hugo, “who has recently returned from China, gives the following information respecting printing, which he professes to have carefully extracted from the annals of the Chinese themselves. ‘Typography is of somewhat earlier date in China than in Europe, for it is certain that it was practised in that country about five centuries ago. Others assert that it was practised in China at a period prior to the Christian era.’”—Hermannus Hugo, De Prima Origine Scribendi, p. 211. Antwerpiæ, 1617.
I.33The pretensions of the Chinese to excellence in science are ably exposed by the learned Abbé Renaudot in a disquisition “Sur les sciences des Chinois,” appended to his translation, from the Arabic, entitled “Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Mahométans, qui y allèrent dans le neuvième siècle.”—8vo. Paris, 1718.
I.34See the Travels of Marco Polo. (In Bohn’s Antiq. Library).
I.35It has been conjectured that the following passages in the travels of Marco Polo might suggest the idea of block-printing, and consequently wood engraving: “Gradatim reliquos belli duces in digniorem ponit statum, donatque illis aurea et argentea vasa, tabulas, privilegia atque immunitatem. Et hæc quidem privilegia tabulis vel bracteis per sculpturas imprimuntur.” “Moneta magni Cham non fit de auro vel argento, aut alio metallo, sed corticem accipiunt medium ab arbore mori, et hunc consolidant, atque in particular varias et rotundas, magnas et parvas, scindunt, atque regale imprimunt signum.”—M. Pauli Veneti Itiner. lib. ii. capp. vii. & xxi. The mention of paper money impressed with the royal stamp also occurs in the Eastern History of Haython, an Armenian, whose work was written in 1307, in Latin, and has been printed several times, of which the last edition is by And. Müller, Colon. 1671, 4to.
I.36An article on Marsden’s “Translation of the Travels of Marco Polo,” in the Quarterly Review, No. xli. May, 1819, from p. 191 to 195, contains some curious particulars respecting the early use of the mariner’s compass, and of gunpowder and cannon in Europe.
I.37A Monsieur Spirchtvel, as Papillon informs us. Tom. i. p. 92.
I.38Cartouch.“This word is used to denote those fantastic ornaments which were formerly introduced in decorating the wainscots of rooms; and frequently served the purpose of frames, surrounding inscriptions, small paintings, or other devices. Thesecartoucheswere much in vogue in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the frontispieces of books of prints; and indeedCallotandDella Bellaetched many entire sets of small subjects surrounded by similar ornaments. From the irregularity of their forms, the terms tablet shield, or panel, would be but ill expressive of their character.”—Ottley’s Inquiry, vol. i. p. 12.
I.39Readers of French romances will find the tale of the Cunio at p. 89,tom.i. of Papillon’s “Traité de la Gravure en Bois,” or at p. 17, vol. i. of Mr. Ottley’s “History of Engraving.”
I.40Of Le Brun’s five subjects illustrative of the actions of Alexander the Great, four of them are precisely the same as four of those said to be executed by the Cunio: 1. Alexander passing the Granicus; 2. the battle of Arbela; 3. the reception of Porus by Alexander; 4. Alexander’s triumphant entry into Babylon. There certainly has been some copying here; but it is more likely that Papillon or his informant had seen Le Brun’s paintings, than that Le Brun had seen the original wood engravings executed by the Cunio.
I.41From the age of sixteen, cruel and secret annoyances interrupted his studies; shortly after his marriage, in 1723, his absent manner was a source of uneasiness to his wife; and in 1759 he fairly lost his senses. See Papillon, Traité de la Gravure en Bois, 8vo. 1766, Preface, p. xi.; & p. 335, tom. i. et Supplement, p. 39.
I.42It is worthy of remark that Papillon, when questioned by Heineken, who called on him in Paris after the publication of his work, respecting the account of the Cunio, did not produce his three sheets of original memoranda. He might thus have afforded a proof of his own good faith, by producing the manuscript written by him in 1720 from the dictation of Captain de Greder.
I.43Inquiry into the Early History of Engraving, vol. i. p. 23.
I.44History of Engraving, vol. i. p. 28.
I.45Three copies of this supposed unique book have long been known to bibliographers; one in the public library of Nuremberg, another in the Imperial library of Vienna, and the third in Lord Spenser’s library.