Inchoatur speculum humanae salvacionisIn quo patet casus hominis et modus repactionis.Which may be translated into English thus:In the Mirror of Salvation here is represented plainThe fall of man, and by what means he made his peace again.The following is the right-hand compartment of the same cut. The98title of this subject, as in all the others, is engraved at the bottom; the contracted words when written in full are, “Deus creavit hominem ad ymaginem et similitudinem suam,”—God created man after his own image and likeness.see textThe first two lines of the text in the column underneath this cut are,Mulier autem in paradiso estformataDe costis viri dormienti est parata.That is, in English rhyme of similar measure,The woman was in Paradise for man an help meet made,From Adam’s rib created as he asleep was laid.The cuts in all the editions are printed in light brown or sepia colour which has been mixed with water, and readily yields to moisture. The impressions have evidently been taken by means of friction, as the back of the paper immediately behind is smooth and shining from the action of the rubber or burnisher, while on the lower part of the page at the back99of the text, which has been printed with moveable types, there is no such appearance. In the second Latin edition, in which the explanatory text to twenty of the cutsII.74has been printed from engraved wood-blocks by means of friction, the reverse of those twenty pages presents the same smooth appearance as the reverse of the cuts. In those twenty pages of text from engraved wood-blocks the ink is lighter-coloured than in the remainder of the book which is printed from moveable types, though much darker than that of the cuts. It is, therefore, evident that the two impressions,—the one from the block containing the cut, and the other from the block containing the text,—have been taken separately. In the pages printed from moveable types, the ink, which has evidently been compounded with oil, is full-bodied, and of a dark brown colour, approaching nearly to black. In the other three editions, one Latin and two Dutch, in which the text is entirely from moveable types, the ink is also full-bodied and nearly jet black, forming a strong contrast with the faint colour of the cuts.The plan of the Speculum is almost the same as that of the Poor Preachers’ Bible, and is equally as well entitled as the latter to be called “A History typical and anti-typical of the Old and New Testament.” Several of the subjects in the two books are treated nearly in the same manner, though in no single instance, so far as my observation goes, is the design precisely the same in both. In several of the cuts of the Speculum, in the same manner as in the Poor Preachers’ Bible, one compartment contains the supposed type or prefiguration, and the other its fulfilment; for instance: at No. 17 the appearance of the Lord to Moses in the burning bush is typical of the Annunciation; at No. 23 the brazen bath in the temple of Solomon is typical of baptism; at No. 31 the manna provided for the children of Israel in the Desert is typical of the Lord’s Supper; at No. 45 the Crucifixion is represented in one compartment, and in the other is Tubal-Cain, the inventor of iron-work, and consequently of the nails with which Christ was fixed to the cross; and at No. 53 the descent of Christ to Hades, and the liberation of the patriarchs and fathers, is typified by the escape of the children of Israel from Egypt.Though most of the subjects are from the Bible or the Apocrypha, yet there are two or three which the designer has borrowed from profane history: such as Semiramis contemplating the hanging gardens of Babylon; the Sibyl and Augustus; and Codrus king of Athens incurring death in order to secure victory to his people.The Speculum Salvationis, as printed in the editions previously noticed, is only a portion of a larger work with the same title, and100ornamented with similar designs, which had been known long before in manuscript. Heineken says, at page 478 of his Idée Générale, that the oldest copy he ever saw was in the Imperial Library at Vienna; and, at page 468, he observes that it appeared to belong to the twelfth century.The manuscript work, when complete, consisted of forty-five chapters in rhyming Latin, to which was prefixed an introduction containing a list of them. Each of the first forty-two chapters contained four subjects, the first of which was the principal, and the other three illustrative of it. To each of these chapters were two drawings, every one of which, as in the printed copies of the work, consisted of two compartments. The last three chapters contained each eight subjects, and each subject was ornamented with a design.II.75The whole number of separate illustrations in the work was thus one hundred and ninety-two. The printed folio editions contain only fifty-eight cuts, or one hundred and sixteen separate illustrations.Though the Speculum from the time of the publication of Junius’s workII.76had been confidently claimed for Coster, yet no writer, either for or against him, appears to have particularly directed his attention to the manner in which the work was executed before Fournier, who in 1758, in a dissertation on the Origin and Progress of the Art of Wood-engraving,II.77first published some particulars respecting the work in question, which induced Meerman and Heineken to speculate on the priority of the different editions. Mr. Ottley, however, has proved, in a manner which carries with it the certainty of mathematical demonstration, that the conjectures of both the latter writers respecting the priority of the editions of the Speculum are absolutely erroneous. To elicit the truth does not, with respect to this work, seem to have been the object of those two writers. Both had espoused theories on its origin without much inquiry with respect to facts, and each presumed that edition to be the first which seemed most likely to support his own speculations.Heineken, who assumed that the work was of German origin, insisted that thefirstedition was that in which the text is printed partly from moveable types and partly from letters engraved on wood-blocks, and that the Dutch editions were executed subsequently in the Low Countries. The Latin edition with the text entirely printed from moveable types he is pleased to denominate the second, and to assert, contrary to the evidence which the work itself affords, that the type resembles that of Faust and101Scheffer, and that the cuts in thissecondLatin edition, as he erroneously calls it, are coarser and not so sharp as those in the Latin edition which he supposes to be the first.Fournier’s discoveries with respect to the execution of the Speculum seem to have produced a complete change as to its origin in the opinions of Meerman; who, in 1757, the year before Fournier’s dissertation was printed, had expressed his belief, in a letter to his friend Wagenaar, that what was alleged in favour of Coster being the inventor of printing was mere gratuitous assertion; that the text of the Speculum was probably printed after the cuts, and subsequent to 1470; that there was not a single document, nor an iota of evidence, to show that Coster ever used moveable types; and lastly, that the Latin was prior to the Dutch edition of the Speculum, as was apparent from the Latin names engraved at the foot of the cuts, which certainly would have been in Dutch had the cuts been originally destined for a Dutch edition.II.78In the teeth of his own previous opinions, having apparently gained a new light from Fournier’s discoveries, Meerman, in his Origines Typographicæ, printed in 1765, endeavours to prove that the Dutch edition was the first, and that it was printed with moveable wooden types by Coster. The Latin edition in which the text is printed partly from moveable types and partly from wood-blocks he supposes to have been printed by Coster’s heirs after his decease, thus endeavouring to give credibility to the story of Coster having died of grief on account of his types being stolen, and to encourage the supposition that his heirs in this edition supplied the loss by having engraved on blocks of wood those pages which were not already printed.Fournier’s discoveries relative to the manner in which the Speculum was executed were: 1st, that the cuts and the text had been printed at separate times, and that the former had been printed by means of friction; 2d, that a portion of the text in one of the Latin editions had been printed from engraved wood-blocks.II.79Fournier, who was a type-founder and wood-engraver, imagined that the moveable types with which the Speculum was printed were of wood. He also asserted that Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter and an early edition of the Bible were printed with moveable wooden types. Such assertions are best102answered by a simple negative, leaving the person who puts them forth to make out a probable case.The fact having been established that in one of the editions of the Speculum a part of the text was printed from wood-blocks, while the whole of the text in the other three was printed from moveable types, Heineken, without diligently comparing the editions with each other in order to obtain further evidence, decides in favour of that edition being the first in which part of the text is printed from wood-blocks. His reasons for supposing this to be the first edition, though specious in appearance, are at variance with the facts which have since been incontrovertibly established by Mr. Ottley, whose scrutinizing examination of the different editions has clearly shown the futility of all former speculations respecting their priority. The argument of Heineken is to this effect: “It is improbable that a printer who had printed an edition wholly with moveable types should afterwards have recourse to an engraver to cut for him on blocks of wood a portion of the text for a second edition; and it is equally improbable that a wood-engraver who had discovered the art of printing with moveable types, and had used them to print the entire text of the first edition, should, to a certain extent, abandon his invention in a second by printing a portion of the text from engraved blocks of wood.” The following is the order in which he arranges the different editions:1. The Latin edition in which part of the text is printed from wood-blocks.2. The Latin edition in which the text is entirely printed from moveable types.3. The Dutch edition with the text printed wholly from moveable types, supposed by Meerman to be thefirst editionof all.II.804. The Dutch edition with the text printed wholly from moveable types, and which differs only from the preceding one in having the two pages of text under cuts No. 45 and 56 printed in a type different from the rest of the book.The preceding arrangement—including Meerman’s opinion respecting the priority of the Dutch edition—rests entirely on conjecture, and is almost diametrically contradicted in every instance by the evidence afforded by the books themselves; for through the comparisons and investigations of Mr. Ottley it is proved, to an absolute certainty, that the Latin edition supposed by Heineken to be the second is theearliest of all; that the edition No. 4, called the second Dutch, is the next in order to the actual first Latin; and that the two editions, No. 1 and No. 3, respectively proclaimed by Heineken and Meerman as the earliest,103have been printed subsequently to the other two.II.81Which of the pretendedfirsteditions was in reality thelast, has not been satisfactorily determined; though there seems reason to believe that it was the Latin one which has part of the text printed from wood-blocks.It is well known to every person acquainted with the practice of wood-engraving, that portions of single lines in such cuts as those of the Speculum are often broken out of the block in the process of printing. If two books, therefore, containing the same wood-cuts, but evidently printed at different times, though without a date, should be submitted to the examination of a person acquainted with the above fact and bearing it in mind, he would doubtless declare that the copy in which the cuts were most perfect was first printed, and that the other in which parts of the cuts appeared broken away was of a later date. If, on comparing other copies of the same editions he should find the same variations, the impression on his mind as to the priority of the editions would amount to absolute certainty. The identity of the cuts in all the four editions of the Speculum being unquestionable, and as certain minute fractures in the lines of some of them, as if small portions of the block had been broken out in printing, had been previously noticed by Fournier and Heineken, Mr. Ottley conceived the idea of comparing the respective cuts in the different editions, with a view of ascertaining the order in which they were printed. He first compared two copies of the edition called thefirst Latinwith a copy of that called thesecond Dutch, and finding, that, in several of the cuts of the former, parts of lines were wanting which in the latter were perfect, he concluded that the miscalledsecond Dutchedition was in fact of an earlier date than the pretendedfirst Latinedition of Heineken. In further comparing the above editions with the supposedsecond Latinedition of Heineken and the supposedfirst Dutchedition of Meerman, he found that the cuts in the miscalled second Latin edition were the most perfect of all; and that the cuts in Heineken’s first Latin and Meerman’s first Dutch editions contained more broken lines than the edition named by those authors thesecond Dutch. The conclusion which he arrived at from those facts was irresistible, namely, that the earliest edition of all was that called by Heineken the second Latin; and that the edition called the second Dutch was the next in order. As the cuts in the copies examined of the pretendedfirstLatin and Dutch editions contained similar fractures, it could not be determined with certainty which was actually thelast.104As it is undoubted that the cuts of all the editions have been printed separately from the text, it has been objected that Mr. Ottley’s examination has only ascertained the order in which the cuts have been printed, but by no means decided the priority of the editions of the entire book. All the cuts, it has been objected, might have been taken by the engraver before the text was printed in a single edition, and it might thus happen that the book first printed with text might contain the last, and consequently the most imperfect cuts. This exception, which is founded on a very improbable presumption, will be best answered by the following facts established on a comparison of the two Latin, and which, I believe, have not been previously noticed:—On closely comparing those pages which are printed with moveable types in the true second edition with the corresponding pages in that edition which is properly the first, it was evident from the different spelling of many of the words, and the different length of the lines, that they had been printed at different times: but on comparing, however, those pages which are printed in the second edition from engraved wood-blocks with the corresponding pages, from moveable type, in the first edition, I found the spelling and the length of the lines to be the same. The page printed from the wood-block was, in short, a fac-simile of the corresponding page printed from moveable types. So completely did they correspond, that I have no doubt that an impression of the page printed from moveable types had been “transferred,”II.82as engravers say, to the block. In the last cutII.83of the first edition I noticed a scroll which was quite black, as if meant to contain an inscription which the artist had neglected to engrave; and in the second edition I perceived that the black was cut away, thus having the part intended for the inscription white. Another proof, in addition to those adduced by Mr. Ottley of that Latin edition being truly the first in which the whole of the text is printed from moveable types.Though there can no longer be a doubt in the mind of any impartial person of that Latin edition, in which part of the text is printed from engraved wood-blocks, and the rest from moveable types, being later than the other; yet the establishment of this fact suggests a question, as to the cause of part of the text of this second Latin edition being printed from wood-blocks, which cannot perhaps be very satisfactorily answered.105All writers previous to Mr. Ottley, who had noticed that the text was printed partly from moveable types and partly from wood-blocks, decided, without hesitation, that this edition was the first; and each, accordingly as he espoused the cause of Gutemberg or Coster, proceeded to theorise on this assumed fact. As their arguments were founded in error, it cannot be a matter of surprise that their conclusions should be inconsistent with truth. The fact of this edition being subsequent to that in which the text is printed wholly from moveable types has been questioned on two grounds: 1st. The improbability that the person who had printed the text of a former edition entirely from moveable types should in a later edition have recourse to the more tedious operation of engraving part of the text on wood-blocks. 2d. Supposing that the owner of the cuts had determined in a later edition to engrave the text on blocks of wood, it is difficult to conceive what could be his reason for abandoning his plan, after twenty pages of the text were engraved, and printing the remainder with moveable types.Before attempting to answer those objections, I think it necessary to observe that the existence of a positive fact can never be affected by any arguments which are grounded on the difficulty of accounting for it. Objections, however specious, can never alter the immutable character of truth, though they may affect opinions, and excite doubts in the minds of persons who have not an opportunity of examining and judging for themselves.With respect to the first objection, it is to be remembered that in all the editions, the text, whether from wood-blocks or moveable types, has been printed separately from the cuts; consequently the cuts of the first edition might be printed by a wood-engraver, and the text set up and printed by another person who possessed moveable types. The engraver of the cuts might not be possessed of any moveable types when the text of the first edition was printed; and, as it is a well-known fact that wood-engravers continued to execute entire pages of text for upwards of thirty years after the establishment of printing with moveable types, it is not unlikely that he might attempt to engrave the text of a second edition and print the book solely for his own advantage. This supposition is to a certain extent corroborated by the fact of the twenty pages of engraved text in the second Latin edition being fac-similes of the twenty corresponding pages of text from moveable types in the first.To the second objection every day’s experience suggests a ready answer; for scarcely anything is more common than for a person to attempt a work which he finds it difficult to complete, and, after making some progress in it, to require the aid of a kindred art, and abandon his original plan.As the first edition of the Speculum was printed subsequent to the106discovery of the art of printing with moveable types, and as it was probably printed in the Low Countries, where the typographic art was first introduced about 1472, I can discover no reason for believing that the work was executed before that period. Santander, who was so well acquainted with the progress of typography in Belgium and Holland, is of opinion that the Speculum is not of an earlier date than 1480. In 1483 John Veldener printed at Culemburg a quarto edition of the Speculum, in which the cuts are the same as in the earlier folios. In order to adapt the cuts to this smaller edition Veldener had sawn each block in two, through the centre pillar which forms a separation between the two compartments in each of the original engravings. Veldener’s quarto edition, which has the text printed on both sides of the paper from moveable types, contains twelve more cuts than the older editions, but designed and executed in the same style.II.84If Lawrence Coster had been the inventor of printing with moveable types, and if any one folio edition of the Speculum had been executed by him, we cannot suppose that Veldener, who was himself a wood-engraver, as well as a printer, would have been ignorant of those facts. He, however, printed two editions of the Fasciculus Temporum,—one at Louvain in 1476, and the other at Utrecht in 1480,—a work which contains a short notice of the art of printing being discovered at Mentz, but not a syllable concerning its discovery at Harlem by Lawrence Coster. The researches of Coster’s advocates have clearly established one important fact, though an unfortunate one for their argument; namely, that the Custos or Warden of St. Bavon’s was not known as a printer to one of his contemporaries. The citizens of Harlem, however, have still something to console themselves with: though Coster may not be the inventor of printing, there can be little doubt of Junius, or his editor, being the discoverer of Coster,—“Est quoddam prodire tenus, si non datur ultra.”There is in the Print Room of the British Museum a small volume of wood-cuts, which has not hitherto been described by any bibliographer, nor by any writer who has treated on the origin and progress of wood engraving. It appears to have been unknown to Heineken, Breitkopf, Von Murr, and Meerman; and it is not mentioned, that I am aware of, either by Dr. Dibdin or Mr. Douce, although it certainly was submitted to the inspection of the latter. It formerly belonged to the late Sir George Beaumont, by whom it was bequeathed to the Museum; but where he obtained it I have not been able to learn. It consists of an107alphabet of large capital letters, formed of figures arranged in various attitudes; and from the general character of the designs, the style of the engraving, and the kind of paper on which the impressions have been taken, it evidently belongs to the same period as the Poor Preachers’ Bible. There is only one cut on each leaf, the back being left blank as in most of the block-books, and the impressions have been taken by means of friction. The paper at the back of each cut has a shining appearance when held towards the light, in consequence of the rubbing which it has received; and in some it appears as if it had been blacked with charcoal, in the same manner that some parts of the cartoons were blacked which have been pricked through by the tapestry worker. The ink is merely a distemper or water-colour, which will partly wash out by the application of hot water, and its colour is a kind of sepia. Each leaf, which is about six inches high, by three and six-eighths wide, consists of a separate piece of paper, and is pasted, at the inner margin, on to a slip either of paper or parchment, through which the stitching of the cover passes. Whether the paper has been cut in this manner before or after that the impressions were taken, I am unable to determine.II.85The greater part of the letter A is torn out, and in that which remains there are pin-marks, as if it had been traced by being pricked through. The letters S, T, and V are also wanting. The following is a brief description of the letters which remain. The letter B is composed of five figures, one with a pipe and tabor, another who supports him, a dwarf, an old man kneeling, and an old woman with a staff. C, a youthful figure rending open the jaws of a lion, with two grotesque heads like those of satyrs. D, a man on horseback, and a monk astride on a fiendish-looking monster. E, two grotesque heads, a figure holding the horn of one of them, and another figure stretching out a piece of cloth. F, a tall figure blowing a trumpet, and a youth beating a tabor, with an animal like a dog at their feet.II.86G, David withGoliath’shead, and a figure stooping, who appears to kiss a flagellum. H, a figure opening the jaws of a dragon. I, a tall man embracing a woman. K, a female with a wreath, a youth kneeling, an old man on his knees, and a young man with his heels uppermost. [Engraved as a specimen atpage 109.] L, a man with a long sword, as if about to pierce a figure reclining. [Engraved as108a specimen atpage 110.] M, two figures, each mounted on a kind of monster; between them, an old man. N, a man with a sword, another mounted on the tail of a fish. O, formed of four grotesque heads. P, two figures with clubs. Q, formed of three grotesque heads, similar to those in O. R, a tall, upright figure, another with something like a club in his hand; a third, with his heels up, blowing a horn. X, composed of four figures, one of which has two bells, and another has one; on the shoulder of the upper figure to the right a squirrel may be perceived. Y, a figure with something like a hairy skin on his shoulder; another thrusting a sword through the head of an animal. Z, three figures; an old man about to draw a dagger, a youth lying down, and another who appears as if flying. [Engraved as a specimen atpage 111.] The last cut is the ornamental flower, of which a copy is given atpage 112.In the same case with those interesting, and probably unique specimens of early wood engraving, there is a letter relating to them, dated 27th May, 1819, from Mr. Samuel Lysons to Sir George Beaumont, from which the following is an extract: “I return herewith your curious volume of ancient cuts. I showed it yesterday to Mr. Douce, who agrees with me that it is a great curiosity. He thinks that the blocks were executed at Harlem, and are some of the earliest productions of that place. He has in his possession most of the letters executed in copper, but very inferior to the original cuts. Before you return from the Continent I shall probably be able to ascertain something further respecting them.” What might be Mr. Douce’s reasons for supposing that those cuts were executed at Harlem I cannot tell; though I am inclined to think that he had no better foundation for his opinion than his faith in Junius, Meerman, and other advocates of Lawrence Coster, who unhesitatingly ascribe every early block-book to the spurious “Officina Laurentiana.”In the manuscript catalogue in the Print Room of the British Museum the volume is thus described by Mr. Ottley: “Alphabet of initial letters composed of grotesque figures, wood engravings of the middle of the fifteenth century, apparently the work of a Dutch or Flemish artist; the impressions taken off by friction in the manner of the early block-books. . . . I perceive the word ‘London’ in small characters written upon the blade of a sword in one of the cuts, [the letter L,] and I suspect they were engraved in England.”see textAs to whether these cuts were engraved in England or no I shall not venture to give an opinion. I am, however, satisfied that they were neither designed nor engraved by the artists who designed and engraved the cuts in the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and the Poor Preachers’ Bible. With respect to drawing, expression, and engraving, the cuts of the Alphabet are decidedly superior to those of every block-book,109and generally to all wood engravings executed previous to 1500, with the exception of such as are by Albert Durer, and those contained in the Hypnerotomachia, an Italian rhapsody, with wood-cuts supposed to have been designed by Raffaele or Andrea Mantegna, and printed by Aldus at Venice, 1499. Although the cuts of the Alphabet may not have been engraved in England, it is, however, certain that the volume had been at rather an early period in the possession of an Englishman. The cover consists of a double fold of thick parchment, on the inside of which, between the folds, there is written in large old English characters what I take to be the name “Edwardus Lowes.” On the blank side of the last leaf there is a sketch of a letter commencing “Right reverent and wershipfull masters and frynds; In the moste loweliste maner that I canne or may, I here recomende me, duely glade to her of yor good110prosperitye and welth.” The writing, as I have been informed, is of the period of Henry VIII; and on the slips of paper and parchment to which the inner margins of the leaves are pasted are portions of English manuscripts, which are probably of the same date. There can, however, be little doubt that the leaves have been mounted, and the volume covered, about a hundred years subsequent to the engraving of the cuts.see textI agree with Mr. Ottley in thinking that those cuts were engraved about the middle of the fifteenth century, but I can perceive nothing in them to induce me to suppose they were the work of a Dutch artist; and I am as little inclined to ascribe them to a German. The style of the drawing is not unlike what we see in illuminated French manuscripts of the middle of the fifteenth century; and as the only two engraved words which occur in the volume are French, I am rather inclined to suppose that the artist who made the drawings was a native of France.111The costume of the female to whom the words are addressed appears to be French; and the action of the lover kneeling seems almost characteristic of that nation. No Dutchman certainly ever addressed his mistress with such an air. He holds what appears to be a ring as gracefully as a modern Frenchman holds a snuff-box, and upon the scroll before him are engraved a heart, and the words which he may be supposed to utter, “Mon Ame.” Atpage 109, is a fac-simile of the cut referred to, the letter K, of the size of the original, and printed in the same kind of colour.see textUpon the sword-blade in the original cut of the following letter, L, there is written in small characters, as Mr. Ottley has observed, the word “London;” and in the white space on the right, or upper side, of the figure lying down, there appears written in the same hand the name “Bethemsted.” In this name the letter B is not unlike a W; and I have heard it conjectured that the name might be that of112John Wethamstede, abbot of St. Alban’s, who was a great lover of books, and who died in 1440. This conjecture, however, will not hold good, for the letter is certainly intended for a B; and in the cut of the letter B there is written “R. Beths.,” which is in all probability intended for an abbreviation of the name, “Bethemsted,” which occurs in another part of the book. The ink with which these names are written is nearly of the same colour as that of the cuts. The characters appear to be of an earlier date than those on the reverse of the last leaf.see textThe cut at page 111, is that of the letter Z, which stands the wrong way in consequence of its not having been drawn reversed upon the block. The subject might at first sight be supposed to represent the angel staying Abraham when about to sacrifice Isaac; but on examining the cut more closely it will be perceived that the figure which might be mistaken for an angel is without wings, and appears to be in the act of supplicating the old man, who with his left hand holds him by the hair.113The opposite cut, which is the last in the book, is an ornamental flower designed with great freedom and spirit, and surpassing everything of the kind executed on wood in the fifteenth century. I speak not of the style of engraving, which, though effective, is coarse; but of the taste displayed in the drawing. The colour of the cuts on pages 109, 110, 111, from the late Sir George Beaumont’s book, will give the reader, who has not had an opportunity of examining the originals, some idea of the colour in which the cuts of the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, the Poor Preachers’ Bible, and the Speculum, are printed; which in all of them is a kind of sepia, in some inclining more to a yellow, and in others more to a brown.In the volume under consideration we may clearly perceive that the art of wood engraving had made considerable progress at the time the cuts were executed. Although there are no attempts at cross-hatching, which was introduced about 1486, yet the shadows are generally well indicated, either by thickening the line, or by courses of short parallel lines, marking the folds of the drapery, or giving the appearance of rotundity to the figures. The expression of the heads displays considerable talent, and the wood-engraver who at the present time could design and execute such a series of figures, would be entitled to no small degree of commendation. Comparing those cuts with such as are to be seen in books typographically executed between 1461II.87and 1490, it is surprising that the art of wood engraving should have so materially declined when employed by printers for the illustration of their books. The best of the cuts printed with letter-press in the period referred to are decidedly inferior to the best of the early block-books.As it would occupy too much space, and would be beyond the scope of the present treatise to enter into a detail of the contents of all the block-books noticed by Heineken, I shall give a brief description of that named “Ars Memorandi,” and conclude the chapter with a list of such others as are chiefly referred to by bibliographers.The “Ars Memorandi” is considered by SchelhornII.88and by Dr. Dibdin as one of the earliest block-books, and in their opinion I concur. Heineken, however,—who states that the style is almost the same as in the figures of the Apocalypse,—thinks that it is of later date than the Poor Preachers’ Bible and the History of the114Virgin. It is of a quarto size, and consists of fifteen cuts, with the same number of separate pages of text also cut on wood, and printed on one side of each leaf only by means of friction.II.89At the foot of each page of text is a letter of the alphabet, commencing witha, indicating the order in which they are to follow each other. In every cut an animal is represented,—an eagle, an angel, an ox, or a lion,—emblematic of the Evangelist whose Gospel is to be impressed on the memory. Each of the animals is represented standing upright, and marked with various signs expressive of the contents of the different chapters. To the Gospel of St. John, with which the book commences, three cuts with as many pages of text are allotted. St. Matthew has five cuts, and five pages of text. St. Mark three cuts and three pages of text; and St. Luke four cuts and four pages of text.II.90“It is worthy of observation,” says J. C. Von Aretin, in his Essay on the earliest Results of the Invention of Printing, “that this book, which the most intelligent bibliographers consider to be one of the earliest of its kind, should be devoted to the improvement of the memory, which, though divested of much of its former importance by the invention of writing, was to be rendered of still less consequence by the introduction of printing.”II.91The first cut is intended to express figuratively the first six chapters of St. John’s Gospel. The upright eagle is the emblem of the saint, and the numerals are the references to the chapters. The contents of the first chapter are represented by the dove perched on the eagle’s head, and the two faces,—one of an old, the other of a young man,—probably intended for those of Moses and Christ.II.92The lute on the breast of the eagle, with something like three bellsII.93suspended from it, indicate the contents of the second chapter, and are supposed by Schelhorn to refer to the marriage of Cana. The numeral 3, in Schelhorn’s opinion, relates to “nonnihil apertum et prosectum circa ventrem,” which he thinks may be intended as a reference to the words of Nicodemus: “Nunquid homo senex potest in ventrem matris suæ115iterum introire et renasci?” Between the feet of the eagle is a water-bucket surmounted by a sort of coronet or crown, intended to represent the principal events narrated in the 4th chapter, which are Christ’s talking with the woman of Samaria at the well, and his healing the son of a nobleman at Capernaum. The 5th chapter is indicated by a fish above the eagle’s right wing, which is intended to bring to mind the pool of Bethesda. The principal event related in the 6th chapter, Christ feeding the multitude, is indicated by the two fishes and five small loaves above the eagle’s left wing. The cross within a circle, above the fishes, is emblematic of the consecrated wafer in the Lord’s supper, as celebrated by the church of Rome.II.94see textThe above reduced copy of the cut will afford some idea of the manner in which the memory is to be assisted in recollecting the first six chapters of St. John. Those who wish to know more respecting this curious book are referred to Schelhorn’s Amœnitates Literariæ, tom. i.116pp. 1-17; Heineken, Idée Générale, pp. 394, 395; and to Dr. Dibdin’s Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 4, where a copy is given of the first cut relating to the Gospel of St. Matthew.Block-books containing both text and figures were executed long after the introduction of typography, or printing by means of moveable types; but the cuts in such works are decidedly inferior to those executed at an earlier period. The book entitled “Die Kunst Cyromantia,”II.95which consists chiefly of text, is printed from wood-blocks on both sides of each leaf by means of a press. At the conclusion of the title is the date 1448; but this is generally considered to refer to the period when the book was written, and not the time when it was engraved. On the last page is the name: “jorg schapff zu augspurg.” If this George Schapff was a wood-engraver of Augsburg, the style of the cuts in the book sufficiently declares that he must have been one of the very lowest class. More wretched cuts were never chiselled out by a printer’s apprentice as a head-piece to a half-penny ballad.Of the block-book entitled “Ars Moriendi,” Heineken enumerates no less than seven editions, of which one is printed on both sides of the leaves, and by means of a press. Besides these he mentions another edition, impressed on one side of the paper only, in which appear the following name and date: “Hans eporer, 1473, hat diss puch pruffmo er.”II.96Of the book named in German “Der Entkrist”—Antichrist—printed from wood-blocks, Heineken mentions two editions. In that which he considers the first, containing thirty-nine cuts, each leaf is printed on one side only by means of friction; in the other, which contains thirty-eight cuts, is the “brief-maler’s” or wood-engraver’s name: “Der jung hanss priffmaler hat das puch zu nurenberg, 1472.”At Nuremberg, in the collection of a physician of the name of Treu, Heineken noticed a small volume in quarto, consisting of thirty-two wood-cuts of Bible subjects, underneath each of which were fifteen verses in German, engraved on the same block. Each leaf was printed on one side only, and the impressions, which were in pale ink, had been taken by means of friction.The early wood-engravers, besides books of cuts, executed others117consisting of text only, of which several portions are preserved in public libraries in Germany,II.97France, and Holland; and although it is certain that block-books continued to be engraved and printed several years after the invention of typography, there can be little doubt that editions of the grammatical primer called the “Donatus,” from the name of its supposed compiler, were printed from wood-blocks previous to the earliest essays of Gutemberg to print with moveable types. It is indeed asserted that Gutemberg himself engraved, or caused to be engraved on wood, a “Donatus” before his grand invention was perfected.In the Royal Library at Paris are preserved the two old blocks of a “Donatus” which are mentioned by Heineken at page 257 of his Idée Générale. They are both of a quarto form; but as the one contains twenty lines and the other only sixteen, and as there is a perceptible difference in the size of the letters, it is probable that they were engraved for different editions.II.98Those blocks were purchased in Germany by a Monsieur Faucault, and after passing through the hands of three other book-collectors they came into the possession of the Duke de la Vallière, at whose sale they were sold for two hundred and thirty livres. In De Bure’s catalogue of the La Vallière library, impressions are given from the original blocks. The letters in both those blocks, though differing in size, are of the same proportions and form; and Heineken and Fischer consider that they bear a great resemblance to the characters of Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter, printed with moveable types in 1457, although the latter are considerably larger.The art of wood engraving, having advanced from a single figure with merely a name cut underneath it, to the impression of entire pages of text, was now to undergo a change. Moveable letters formed of metal, and wedged together within an iron frame, were to supersede the engraved page; and impressions, instead of being taken by the slow and tedious process of friction, were now to be obtained by the speedy and powerful action of the press. If the art of wood engraving suffered a temporary decline for a few years after the general introduction of typography, it was only to revive again under the protecting influence of thePRESS; by means of which its productions were to be multiplied a hundred fold, and, instead of being confined to a few towns, were to be disseminated throughout every part of Europe.
Inchoatur speculum humanae salvacionisIn quo patet casus hominis et modus repactionis.
Inchoatur speculum humanae salvacionis
In quo patet casus hominis et modus repactionis.
Which may be translated into English thus:
In the Mirror of Salvation here is represented plainThe fall of man, and by what means he made his peace again.
In the Mirror of Salvation here is represented plain
The fall of man, and by what means he made his peace again.
The following is the right-hand compartment of the same cut. The98title of this subject, as in all the others, is engraved at the bottom; the contracted words when written in full are, “Deus creavit hominem ad ymaginem et similitudinem suam,”—God created man after his own image and likeness.
see text
The first two lines of the text in the column underneath this cut are,
Mulier autem in paradiso estformataDe costis viri dormienti est parata.
Mulier autem in paradiso estformata
De costis viri dormienti est parata.
That is, in English rhyme of similar measure,
The woman was in Paradise for man an help meet made,From Adam’s rib created as he asleep was laid.
The woman was in Paradise for man an help meet made,
From Adam’s rib created as he asleep was laid.
The cuts in all the editions are printed in light brown or sepia colour which has been mixed with water, and readily yields to moisture. The impressions have evidently been taken by means of friction, as the back of the paper immediately behind is smooth and shining from the action of the rubber or burnisher, while on the lower part of the page at the back99of the text, which has been printed with moveable types, there is no such appearance. In the second Latin edition, in which the explanatory text to twenty of the cutsII.74has been printed from engraved wood-blocks by means of friction, the reverse of those twenty pages presents the same smooth appearance as the reverse of the cuts. In those twenty pages of text from engraved wood-blocks the ink is lighter-coloured than in the remainder of the book which is printed from moveable types, though much darker than that of the cuts. It is, therefore, evident that the two impressions,—the one from the block containing the cut, and the other from the block containing the text,—have been taken separately. In the pages printed from moveable types, the ink, which has evidently been compounded with oil, is full-bodied, and of a dark brown colour, approaching nearly to black. In the other three editions, one Latin and two Dutch, in which the text is entirely from moveable types, the ink is also full-bodied and nearly jet black, forming a strong contrast with the faint colour of the cuts.
The plan of the Speculum is almost the same as that of the Poor Preachers’ Bible, and is equally as well entitled as the latter to be called “A History typical and anti-typical of the Old and New Testament.” Several of the subjects in the two books are treated nearly in the same manner, though in no single instance, so far as my observation goes, is the design precisely the same in both. In several of the cuts of the Speculum, in the same manner as in the Poor Preachers’ Bible, one compartment contains the supposed type or prefiguration, and the other its fulfilment; for instance: at No. 17 the appearance of the Lord to Moses in the burning bush is typical of the Annunciation; at No. 23 the brazen bath in the temple of Solomon is typical of baptism; at No. 31 the manna provided for the children of Israel in the Desert is typical of the Lord’s Supper; at No. 45 the Crucifixion is represented in one compartment, and in the other is Tubal-Cain, the inventor of iron-work, and consequently of the nails with which Christ was fixed to the cross; and at No. 53 the descent of Christ to Hades, and the liberation of the patriarchs and fathers, is typified by the escape of the children of Israel from Egypt.
Though most of the subjects are from the Bible or the Apocrypha, yet there are two or three which the designer has borrowed from profane history: such as Semiramis contemplating the hanging gardens of Babylon; the Sibyl and Augustus; and Codrus king of Athens incurring death in order to secure victory to his people.
The Speculum Salvationis, as printed in the editions previously noticed, is only a portion of a larger work with the same title, and100ornamented with similar designs, which had been known long before in manuscript. Heineken says, at page 478 of his Idée Générale, that the oldest copy he ever saw was in the Imperial Library at Vienna; and, at page 468, he observes that it appeared to belong to the twelfth century.
The manuscript work, when complete, consisted of forty-five chapters in rhyming Latin, to which was prefixed an introduction containing a list of them. Each of the first forty-two chapters contained four subjects, the first of which was the principal, and the other three illustrative of it. To each of these chapters were two drawings, every one of which, as in the printed copies of the work, consisted of two compartments. The last three chapters contained each eight subjects, and each subject was ornamented with a design.II.75The whole number of separate illustrations in the work was thus one hundred and ninety-two. The printed folio editions contain only fifty-eight cuts, or one hundred and sixteen separate illustrations.
Though the Speculum from the time of the publication of Junius’s workII.76had been confidently claimed for Coster, yet no writer, either for or against him, appears to have particularly directed his attention to the manner in which the work was executed before Fournier, who in 1758, in a dissertation on the Origin and Progress of the Art of Wood-engraving,II.77first published some particulars respecting the work in question, which induced Meerman and Heineken to speculate on the priority of the different editions. Mr. Ottley, however, has proved, in a manner which carries with it the certainty of mathematical demonstration, that the conjectures of both the latter writers respecting the priority of the editions of the Speculum are absolutely erroneous. To elicit the truth does not, with respect to this work, seem to have been the object of those two writers. Both had espoused theories on its origin without much inquiry with respect to facts, and each presumed that edition to be the first which seemed most likely to support his own speculations.
Heineken, who assumed that the work was of German origin, insisted that thefirstedition was that in which the text is printed partly from moveable types and partly from letters engraved on wood-blocks, and that the Dutch editions were executed subsequently in the Low Countries. The Latin edition with the text entirely printed from moveable types he is pleased to denominate the second, and to assert, contrary to the evidence which the work itself affords, that the type resembles that of Faust and101Scheffer, and that the cuts in thissecondLatin edition, as he erroneously calls it, are coarser and not so sharp as those in the Latin edition which he supposes to be the first.
Fournier’s discoveries with respect to the execution of the Speculum seem to have produced a complete change as to its origin in the opinions of Meerman; who, in 1757, the year before Fournier’s dissertation was printed, had expressed his belief, in a letter to his friend Wagenaar, that what was alleged in favour of Coster being the inventor of printing was mere gratuitous assertion; that the text of the Speculum was probably printed after the cuts, and subsequent to 1470; that there was not a single document, nor an iota of evidence, to show that Coster ever used moveable types; and lastly, that the Latin was prior to the Dutch edition of the Speculum, as was apparent from the Latin names engraved at the foot of the cuts, which certainly would have been in Dutch had the cuts been originally destined for a Dutch edition.II.78In the teeth of his own previous opinions, having apparently gained a new light from Fournier’s discoveries, Meerman, in his Origines Typographicæ, printed in 1765, endeavours to prove that the Dutch edition was the first, and that it was printed with moveable wooden types by Coster. The Latin edition in which the text is printed partly from moveable types and partly from wood-blocks he supposes to have been printed by Coster’s heirs after his decease, thus endeavouring to give credibility to the story of Coster having died of grief on account of his types being stolen, and to encourage the supposition that his heirs in this edition supplied the loss by having engraved on blocks of wood those pages which were not already printed.
Fournier’s discoveries relative to the manner in which the Speculum was executed were: 1st, that the cuts and the text had been printed at separate times, and that the former had been printed by means of friction; 2d, that a portion of the text in one of the Latin editions had been printed from engraved wood-blocks.II.79Fournier, who was a type-founder and wood-engraver, imagined that the moveable types with which the Speculum was printed were of wood. He also asserted that Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter and an early edition of the Bible were printed with moveable wooden types. Such assertions are best102answered by a simple negative, leaving the person who puts them forth to make out a probable case.
The fact having been established that in one of the editions of the Speculum a part of the text was printed from wood-blocks, while the whole of the text in the other three was printed from moveable types, Heineken, without diligently comparing the editions with each other in order to obtain further evidence, decides in favour of that edition being the first in which part of the text is printed from wood-blocks. His reasons for supposing this to be the first edition, though specious in appearance, are at variance with the facts which have since been incontrovertibly established by Mr. Ottley, whose scrutinizing examination of the different editions has clearly shown the futility of all former speculations respecting their priority. The argument of Heineken is to this effect: “It is improbable that a printer who had printed an edition wholly with moveable types should afterwards have recourse to an engraver to cut for him on blocks of wood a portion of the text for a second edition; and it is equally improbable that a wood-engraver who had discovered the art of printing with moveable types, and had used them to print the entire text of the first edition, should, to a certain extent, abandon his invention in a second by printing a portion of the text from engraved blocks of wood.” The following is the order in which he arranges the different editions:
1. The Latin edition in which part of the text is printed from wood-blocks.2. The Latin edition in which the text is entirely printed from moveable types.3. The Dutch edition with the text printed wholly from moveable types, supposed by Meerman to be thefirst editionof all.II.804. The Dutch edition with the text printed wholly from moveable types, and which differs only from the preceding one in having the two pages of text under cuts No. 45 and 56 printed in a type different from the rest of the book.
1. The Latin edition in which part of the text is printed from wood-blocks.
2. The Latin edition in which the text is entirely printed from moveable types.
3. The Dutch edition with the text printed wholly from moveable types, supposed by Meerman to be thefirst editionof all.II.80
4. The Dutch edition with the text printed wholly from moveable types, and which differs only from the preceding one in having the two pages of text under cuts No. 45 and 56 printed in a type different from the rest of the book.
The preceding arrangement—including Meerman’s opinion respecting the priority of the Dutch edition—rests entirely on conjecture, and is almost diametrically contradicted in every instance by the evidence afforded by the books themselves; for through the comparisons and investigations of Mr. Ottley it is proved, to an absolute certainty, that the Latin edition supposed by Heineken to be the second is theearliest of all; that the edition No. 4, called the second Dutch, is the next in order to the actual first Latin; and that the two editions, No. 1 and No. 3, respectively proclaimed by Heineken and Meerman as the earliest,103have been printed subsequently to the other two.II.81Which of the pretendedfirsteditions was in reality thelast, has not been satisfactorily determined; though there seems reason to believe that it was the Latin one which has part of the text printed from wood-blocks.
It is well known to every person acquainted with the practice of wood-engraving, that portions of single lines in such cuts as those of the Speculum are often broken out of the block in the process of printing. If two books, therefore, containing the same wood-cuts, but evidently printed at different times, though without a date, should be submitted to the examination of a person acquainted with the above fact and bearing it in mind, he would doubtless declare that the copy in which the cuts were most perfect was first printed, and that the other in which parts of the cuts appeared broken away was of a later date. If, on comparing other copies of the same editions he should find the same variations, the impression on his mind as to the priority of the editions would amount to absolute certainty. The identity of the cuts in all the four editions of the Speculum being unquestionable, and as certain minute fractures in the lines of some of them, as if small portions of the block had been broken out in printing, had been previously noticed by Fournier and Heineken, Mr. Ottley conceived the idea of comparing the respective cuts in the different editions, with a view of ascertaining the order in which they were printed. He first compared two copies of the edition called thefirst Latinwith a copy of that called thesecond Dutch, and finding, that, in several of the cuts of the former, parts of lines were wanting which in the latter were perfect, he concluded that the miscalledsecond Dutchedition was in fact of an earlier date than the pretendedfirst Latinedition of Heineken. In further comparing the above editions with the supposedsecond Latinedition of Heineken and the supposedfirst Dutchedition of Meerman, he found that the cuts in the miscalled second Latin edition were the most perfect of all; and that the cuts in Heineken’s first Latin and Meerman’s first Dutch editions contained more broken lines than the edition named by those authors thesecond Dutch. The conclusion which he arrived at from those facts was irresistible, namely, that the earliest edition of all was that called by Heineken the second Latin; and that the edition called the second Dutch was the next in order. As the cuts in the copies examined of the pretendedfirstLatin and Dutch editions contained similar fractures, it could not be determined with certainty which was actually thelast.
As it is undoubted that the cuts of all the editions have been printed separately from the text, it has been objected that Mr. Ottley’s examination has only ascertained the order in which the cuts have been printed, but by no means decided the priority of the editions of the entire book. All the cuts, it has been objected, might have been taken by the engraver before the text was printed in a single edition, and it might thus happen that the book first printed with text might contain the last, and consequently the most imperfect cuts. This exception, which is founded on a very improbable presumption, will be best answered by the following facts established on a comparison of the two Latin, and which, I believe, have not been previously noticed:—On closely comparing those pages which are printed with moveable types in the true second edition with the corresponding pages in that edition which is properly the first, it was evident from the different spelling of many of the words, and the different length of the lines, that they had been printed at different times: but on comparing, however, those pages which are printed in the second edition from engraved wood-blocks with the corresponding pages, from moveable type, in the first edition, I found the spelling and the length of the lines to be the same. The page printed from the wood-block was, in short, a fac-simile of the corresponding page printed from moveable types. So completely did they correspond, that I have no doubt that an impression of the page printed from moveable types had been “transferred,”II.82as engravers say, to the block. In the last cutII.83of the first edition I noticed a scroll which was quite black, as if meant to contain an inscription which the artist had neglected to engrave; and in the second edition I perceived that the black was cut away, thus having the part intended for the inscription white. Another proof, in addition to those adduced by Mr. Ottley of that Latin edition being truly the first in which the whole of the text is printed from moveable types.
Though there can no longer be a doubt in the mind of any impartial person of that Latin edition, in which part of the text is printed from engraved wood-blocks, and the rest from moveable types, being later than the other; yet the establishment of this fact suggests a question, as to the cause of part of the text of this second Latin edition being printed from wood-blocks, which cannot perhaps be very satisfactorily answered.105All writers previous to Mr. Ottley, who had noticed that the text was printed partly from moveable types and partly from wood-blocks, decided, without hesitation, that this edition was the first; and each, accordingly as he espoused the cause of Gutemberg or Coster, proceeded to theorise on this assumed fact. As their arguments were founded in error, it cannot be a matter of surprise that their conclusions should be inconsistent with truth. The fact of this edition being subsequent to that in which the text is printed wholly from moveable types has been questioned on two grounds: 1st. The improbability that the person who had printed the text of a former edition entirely from moveable types should in a later edition have recourse to the more tedious operation of engraving part of the text on wood-blocks. 2d. Supposing that the owner of the cuts had determined in a later edition to engrave the text on blocks of wood, it is difficult to conceive what could be his reason for abandoning his plan, after twenty pages of the text were engraved, and printing the remainder with moveable types.
Before attempting to answer those objections, I think it necessary to observe that the existence of a positive fact can never be affected by any arguments which are grounded on the difficulty of accounting for it. Objections, however specious, can never alter the immutable character of truth, though they may affect opinions, and excite doubts in the minds of persons who have not an opportunity of examining and judging for themselves.
With respect to the first objection, it is to be remembered that in all the editions, the text, whether from wood-blocks or moveable types, has been printed separately from the cuts; consequently the cuts of the first edition might be printed by a wood-engraver, and the text set up and printed by another person who possessed moveable types. The engraver of the cuts might not be possessed of any moveable types when the text of the first edition was printed; and, as it is a well-known fact that wood-engravers continued to execute entire pages of text for upwards of thirty years after the establishment of printing with moveable types, it is not unlikely that he might attempt to engrave the text of a second edition and print the book solely for his own advantage. This supposition is to a certain extent corroborated by the fact of the twenty pages of engraved text in the second Latin edition being fac-similes of the twenty corresponding pages of text from moveable types in the first.
To the second objection every day’s experience suggests a ready answer; for scarcely anything is more common than for a person to attempt a work which he finds it difficult to complete, and, after making some progress in it, to require the aid of a kindred art, and abandon his original plan.
As the first edition of the Speculum was printed subsequent to the106discovery of the art of printing with moveable types, and as it was probably printed in the Low Countries, where the typographic art was first introduced about 1472, I can discover no reason for believing that the work was executed before that period. Santander, who was so well acquainted with the progress of typography in Belgium and Holland, is of opinion that the Speculum is not of an earlier date than 1480. In 1483 John Veldener printed at Culemburg a quarto edition of the Speculum, in which the cuts are the same as in the earlier folios. In order to adapt the cuts to this smaller edition Veldener had sawn each block in two, through the centre pillar which forms a separation between the two compartments in each of the original engravings. Veldener’s quarto edition, which has the text printed on both sides of the paper from moveable types, contains twelve more cuts than the older editions, but designed and executed in the same style.II.84If Lawrence Coster had been the inventor of printing with moveable types, and if any one folio edition of the Speculum had been executed by him, we cannot suppose that Veldener, who was himself a wood-engraver, as well as a printer, would have been ignorant of those facts. He, however, printed two editions of the Fasciculus Temporum,—one at Louvain in 1476, and the other at Utrecht in 1480,—a work which contains a short notice of the art of printing being discovered at Mentz, but not a syllable concerning its discovery at Harlem by Lawrence Coster. The researches of Coster’s advocates have clearly established one important fact, though an unfortunate one for their argument; namely, that the Custos or Warden of St. Bavon’s was not known as a printer to one of his contemporaries. The citizens of Harlem, however, have still something to console themselves with: though Coster may not be the inventor of printing, there can be little doubt of Junius, or his editor, being the discoverer of Coster,—
“Est quoddam prodire tenus, si non datur ultra.”
There is in the Print Room of the British Museum a small volume of wood-cuts, which has not hitherto been described by any bibliographer, nor by any writer who has treated on the origin and progress of wood engraving. It appears to have been unknown to Heineken, Breitkopf, Von Murr, and Meerman; and it is not mentioned, that I am aware of, either by Dr. Dibdin or Mr. Douce, although it certainly was submitted to the inspection of the latter. It formerly belonged to the late Sir George Beaumont, by whom it was bequeathed to the Museum; but where he obtained it I have not been able to learn. It consists of an107alphabet of large capital letters, formed of figures arranged in various attitudes; and from the general character of the designs, the style of the engraving, and the kind of paper on which the impressions have been taken, it evidently belongs to the same period as the Poor Preachers’ Bible. There is only one cut on each leaf, the back being left blank as in most of the block-books, and the impressions have been taken by means of friction. The paper at the back of each cut has a shining appearance when held towards the light, in consequence of the rubbing which it has received; and in some it appears as if it had been blacked with charcoal, in the same manner that some parts of the cartoons were blacked which have been pricked through by the tapestry worker. The ink is merely a distemper or water-colour, which will partly wash out by the application of hot water, and its colour is a kind of sepia. Each leaf, which is about six inches high, by three and six-eighths wide, consists of a separate piece of paper, and is pasted, at the inner margin, on to a slip either of paper or parchment, through which the stitching of the cover passes. Whether the paper has been cut in this manner before or after that the impressions were taken, I am unable to determine.II.85
The greater part of the letter A is torn out, and in that which remains there are pin-marks, as if it had been traced by being pricked through. The letters S, T, and V are also wanting. The following is a brief description of the letters which remain. The letter B is composed of five figures, one with a pipe and tabor, another who supports him, a dwarf, an old man kneeling, and an old woman with a staff. C, a youthful figure rending open the jaws of a lion, with two grotesque heads like those of satyrs. D, a man on horseback, and a monk astride on a fiendish-looking monster. E, two grotesque heads, a figure holding the horn of one of them, and another figure stretching out a piece of cloth. F, a tall figure blowing a trumpet, and a youth beating a tabor, with an animal like a dog at their feet.II.86G, David withGoliath’shead, and a figure stooping, who appears to kiss a flagellum. H, a figure opening the jaws of a dragon. I, a tall man embracing a woman. K, a female with a wreath, a youth kneeling, an old man on his knees, and a young man with his heels uppermost. [Engraved as a specimen atpage 109.] L, a man with a long sword, as if about to pierce a figure reclining. [Engraved as108a specimen atpage 110.] M, two figures, each mounted on a kind of monster; between them, an old man. N, a man with a sword, another mounted on the tail of a fish. O, formed of four grotesque heads. P, two figures with clubs. Q, formed of three grotesque heads, similar to those in O. R, a tall, upright figure, another with something like a club in his hand; a third, with his heels up, blowing a horn. X, composed of four figures, one of which has two bells, and another has one; on the shoulder of the upper figure to the right a squirrel may be perceived. Y, a figure with something like a hairy skin on his shoulder; another thrusting a sword through the head of an animal. Z, three figures; an old man about to draw a dagger, a youth lying down, and another who appears as if flying. [Engraved as a specimen atpage 111.] The last cut is the ornamental flower, of which a copy is given atpage 112.
In the same case with those interesting, and probably unique specimens of early wood engraving, there is a letter relating to them, dated 27th May, 1819, from Mr. Samuel Lysons to Sir George Beaumont, from which the following is an extract: “I return herewith your curious volume of ancient cuts. I showed it yesterday to Mr. Douce, who agrees with me that it is a great curiosity. He thinks that the blocks were executed at Harlem, and are some of the earliest productions of that place. He has in his possession most of the letters executed in copper, but very inferior to the original cuts. Before you return from the Continent I shall probably be able to ascertain something further respecting them.” What might be Mr. Douce’s reasons for supposing that those cuts were executed at Harlem I cannot tell; though I am inclined to think that he had no better foundation for his opinion than his faith in Junius, Meerman, and other advocates of Lawrence Coster, who unhesitatingly ascribe every early block-book to the spurious “Officina Laurentiana.”
In the manuscript catalogue in the Print Room of the British Museum the volume is thus described by Mr. Ottley: “Alphabet of initial letters composed of grotesque figures, wood engravings of the middle of the fifteenth century, apparently the work of a Dutch or Flemish artist; the impressions taken off by friction in the manner of the early block-books. . . . I perceive the word ‘London’ in small characters written upon the blade of a sword in one of the cuts, [the letter L,] and I suspect they were engraved in England.”
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As to whether these cuts were engraved in England or no I shall not venture to give an opinion. I am, however, satisfied that they were neither designed nor engraved by the artists who designed and engraved the cuts in the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, and the Poor Preachers’ Bible. With respect to drawing, expression, and engraving, the cuts of the Alphabet are decidedly superior to those of every block-book,109and generally to all wood engravings executed previous to 1500, with the exception of such as are by Albert Durer, and those contained in the Hypnerotomachia, an Italian rhapsody, with wood-cuts supposed to have been designed by Raffaele or Andrea Mantegna, and printed by Aldus at Venice, 1499. Although the cuts of the Alphabet may not have been engraved in England, it is, however, certain that the volume had been at rather an early period in the possession of an Englishman. The cover consists of a double fold of thick parchment, on the inside of which, between the folds, there is written in large old English characters what I take to be the name “Edwardus Lowes.” On the blank side of the last leaf there is a sketch of a letter commencing “Right reverent and wershipfull masters and frynds; In the moste loweliste maner that I canne or may, I here recomende me, duely glade to her of yor good110prosperitye and welth.” The writing, as I have been informed, is of the period of Henry VIII; and on the slips of paper and parchment to which the inner margins of the leaves are pasted are portions of English manuscripts, which are probably of the same date. There can, however, be little doubt that the leaves have been mounted, and the volume covered, about a hundred years subsequent to the engraving of the cuts.
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I agree with Mr. Ottley in thinking that those cuts were engraved about the middle of the fifteenth century, but I can perceive nothing in them to induce me to suppose they were the work of a Dutch artist; and I am as little inclined to ascribe them to a German. The style of the drawing is not unlike what we see in illuminated French manuscripts of the middle of the fifteenth century; and as the only two engraved words which occur in the volume are French, I am rather inclined to suppose that the artist who made the drawings was a native of France.111The costume of the female to whom the words are addressed appears to be French; and the action of the lover kneeling seems almost characteristic of that nation. No Dutchman certainly ever addressed his mistress with such an air. He holds what appears to be a ring as gracefully as a modern Frenchman holds a snuff-box, and upon the scroll before him are engraved a heart, and the words which he may be supposed to utter, “Mon Ame.” Atpage 109, is a fac-simile of the cut referred to, the letter K, of the size of the original, and printed in the same kind of colour.
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Upon the sword-blade in the original cut of the following letter, L, there is written in small characters, as Mr. Ottley has observed, the word “London;” and in the white space on the right, or upper side, of the figure lying down, there appears written in the same hand the name “Bethemsted.” In this name the letter B is not unlike a W; and I have heard it conjectured that the name might be that of112John Wethamstede, abbot of St. Alban’s, who was a great lover of books, and who died in 1440. This conjecture, however, will not hold good, for the letter is certainly intended for a B; and in the cut of the letter B there is written “R. Beths.,” which is in all probability intended for an abbreviation of the name, “Bethemsted,” which occurs in another part of the book. The ink with which these names are written is nearly of the same colour as that of the cuts. The characters appear to be of an earlier date than those on the reverse of the last leaf.
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The cut at page 111, is that of the letter Z, which stands the wrong way in consequence of its not having been drawn reversed upon the block. The subject might at first sight be supposed to represent the angel staying Abraham when about to sacrifice Isaac; but on examining the cut more closely it will be perceived that the figure which might be mistaken for an angel is without wings, and appears to be in the act of supplicating the old man, who with his left hand holds him by the hair.
The opposite cut, which is the last in the book, is an ornamental flower designed with great freedom and spirit, and surpassing everything of the kind executed on wood in the fifteenth century. I speak not of the style of engraving, which, though effective, is coarse; but of the taste displayed in the drawing. The colour of the cuts on pages 109, 110, 111, from the late Sir George Beaumont’s book, will give the reader, who has not had an opportunity of examining the originals, some idea of the colour in which the cuts of the Apocalypse, the History of the Virgin, the Poor Preachers’ Bible, and the Speculum, are printed; which in all of them is a kind of sepia, in some inclining more to a yellow, and in others more to a brown.
In the volume under consideration we may clearly perceive that the art of wood engraving had made considerable progress at the time the cuts were executed. Although there are no attempts at cross-hatching, which was introduced about 1486, yet the shadows are generally well indicated, either by thickening the line, or by courses of short parallel lines, marking the folds of the drapery, or giving the appearance of rotundity to the figures. The expression of the heads displays considerable talent, and the wood-engraver who at the present time could design and execute such a series of figures, would be entitled to no small degree of commendation. Comparing those cuts with such as are to be seen in books typographically executed between 1461II.87and 1490, it is surprising that the art of wood engraving should have so materially declined when employed by printers for the illustration of their books. The best of the cuts printed with letter-press in the period referred to are decidedly inferior to the best of the early block-books.
As it would occupy too much space, and would be beyond the scope of the present treatise to enter into a detail of the contents of all the block-books noticed by Heineken, I shall give a brief description of that named “Ars Memorandi,” and conclude the chapter with a list of such others as are chiefly referred to by bibliographers.
The “Ars Memorandi” is considered by SchelhornII.88and by Dr. Dibdin as one of the earliest block-books, and in their opinion I concur. Heineken, however,—who states that the style is almost the same as in the figures of the Apocalypse,—thinks that it is of later date than the Poor Preachers’ Bible and the History of the114Virgin. It is of a quarto size, and consists of fifteen cuts, with the same number of separate pages of text also cut on wood, and printed on one side of each leaf only by means of friction.II.89At the foot of each page of text is a letter of the alphabet, commencing witha, indicating the order in which they are to follow each other. In every cut an animal is represented,—an eagle, an angel, an ox, or a lion,—emblematic of the Evangelist whose Gospel is to be impressed on the memory. Each of the animals is represented standing upright, and marked with various signs expressive of the contents of the different chapters. To the Gospel of St. John, with which the book commences, three cuts with as many pages of text are allotted. St. Matthew has five cuts, and five pages of text. St. Mark three cuts and three pages of text; and St. Luke four cuts and four pages of text.II.90
“It is worthy of observation,” says J. C. Von Aretin, in his Essay on the earliest Results of the Invention of Printing, “that this book, which the most intelligent bibliographers consider to be one of the earliest of its kind, should be devoted to the improvement of the memory, which, though divested of much of its former importance by the invention of writing, was to be rendered of still less consequence by the introduction of printing.”II.91
The first cut is intended to express figuratively the first six chapters of St. John’s Gospel. The upright eagle is the emblem of the saint, and the numerals are the references to the chapters. The contents of the first chapter are represented by the dove perched on the eagle’s head, and the two faces,—one of an old, the other of a young man,—probably intended for those of Moses and Christ.II.92The lute on the breast of the eagle, with something like three bellsII.93suspended from it, indicate the contents of the second chapter, and are supposed by Schelhorn to refer to the marriage of Cana. The numeral 3, in Schelhorn’s opinion, relates to “nonnihil apertum et prosectum circa ventrem,” which he thinks may be intended as a reference to the words of Nicodemus: “Nunquid homo senex potest in ventrem matris suæ115iterum introire et renasci?” Between the feet of the eagle is a water-bucket surmounted by a sort of coronet or crown, intended to represent the principal events narrated in the 4th chapter, which are Christ’s talking with the woman of Samaria at the well, and his healing the son of a nobleman at Capernaum. The 5th chapter is indicated by a fish above the eagle’s right wing, which is intended to bring to mind the pool of Bethesda. The principal event related in the 6th chapter, Christ feeding the multitude, is indicated by the two fishes and five small loaves above the eagle’s left wing. The cross within a circle, above the fishes, is emblematic of the consecrated wafer in the Lord’s supper, as celebrated by the church of Rome.II.94
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The above reduced copy of the cut will afford some idea of the manner in which the memory is to be assisted in recollecting the first six chapters of St. John. Those who wish to know more respecting this curious book are referred to Schelhorn’s Amœnitates Literariæ, tom. i.116pp. 1-17; Heineken, Idée Générale, pp. 394, 395; and to Dr. Dibdin’s Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 4, where a copy is given of the first cut relating to the Gospel of St. Matthew.
Block-books containing both text and figures were executed long after the introduction of typography, or printing by means of moveable types; but the cuts in such works are decidedly inferior to those executed at an earlier period. The book entitled “Die Kunst Cyromantia,”II.95which consists chiefly of text, is printed from wood-blocks on both sides of each leaf by means of a press. At the conclusion of the title is the date 1448; but this is generally considered to refer to the period when the book was written, and not the time when it was engraved. On the last page is the name: “jorg schapff zu augspurg.” If this George Schapff was a wood-engraver of Augsburg, the style of the cuts in the book sufficiently declares that he must have been one of the very lowest class. More wretched cuts were never chiselled out by a printer’s apprentice as a head-piece to a half-penny ballad.
Of the block-book entitled “Ars Moriendi,” Heineken enumerates no less than seven editions, of which one is printed on both sides of the leaves, and by means of a press. Besides these he mentions another edition, impressed on one side of the paper only, in which appear the following name and date: “Hans eporer, 1473, hat diss puch pruffmo er.”II.96
Of the book named in German “Der Entkrist”—Antichrist—printed from wood-blocks, Heineken mentions two editions. In that which he considers the first, containing thirty-nine cuts, each leaf is printed on one side only by means of friction; in the other, which contains thirty-eight cuts, is the “brief-maler’s” or wood-engraver’s name: “Der jung hanss priffmaler hat das puch zu nurenberg, 1472.”
At Nuremberg, in the collection of a physician of the name of Treu, Heineken noticed a small volume in quarto, consisting of thirty-two wood-cuts of Bible subjects, underneath each of which were fifteen verses in German, engraved on the same block. Each leaf was printed on one side only, and the impressions, which were in pale ink, had been taken by means of friction.
The early wood-engravers, besides books of cuts, executed others117consisting of text only, of which several portions are preserved in public libraries in Germany,II.97France, and Holland; and although it is certain that block-books continued to be engraved and printed several years after the invention of typography, there can be little doubt that editions of the grammatical primer called the “Donatus,” from the name of its supposed compiler, were printed from wood-blocks previous to the earliest essays of Gutemberg to print with moveable types. It is indeed asserted that Gutemberg himself engraved, or caused to be engraved on wood, a “Donatus” before his grand invention was perfected.
In the Royal Library at Paris are preserved the two old blocks of a “Donatus” which are mentioned by Heineken at page 257 of his Idée Générale. They are both of a quarto form; but as the one contains twenty lines and the other only sixteen, and as there is a perceptible difference in the size of the letters, it is probable that they were engraved for different editions.II.98Those blocks were purchased in Germany by a Monsieur Faucault, and after passing through the hands of three other book-collectors they came into the possession of the Duke de la Vallière, at whose sale they were sold for two hundred and thirty livres. In De Bure’s catalogue of the La Vallière library, impressions are given from the original blocks. The letters in both those blocks, though differing in size, are of the same proportions and form; and Heineken and Fischer consider that they bear a great resemblance to the characters of Faust and Scheffer’s Psalter, printed with moveable types in 1457, although the latter are considerably larger.
The art of wood engraving, having advanced from a single figure with merely a name cut underneath it, to the impression of entire pages of text, was now to undergo a change. Moveable letters formed of metal, and wedged together within an iron frame, were to supersede the engraved page; and impressions, instead of being taken by the slow and tedious process of friction, were now to be obtained by the speedy and powerful action of the press. If the art of wood engraving suffered a temporary decline for a few years after the general introduction of typography, it was only to revive again under the protecting influence of thePRESS; by means of which its productions were to be multiplied a hundred fold, and, instead of being confined to a few towns, were to be disseminated throughout every part of Europe.