whilst Mr. Jackson, we presume, has supplied, throughout the work, the criticisms upon the several productions submitted to the reader's attention. Their assistance from former works published in this country, has been only incidental and occasional: two Frenchmen have written upon the subject, both about the middle of the last century, John Michael Papillon and P. S. Fournier.

The subject is introduced by an enumeration and description of the various ancient processes, which from their similarity to wood-engraving and to printing, seem almost to anticipate the latter important art, and to excite our wonder that the multiplication of books, through the agency of the press, was not brought into practice at an earlier æra. These are the uniform inscriptions inpressed upon the Babylonian bricks; the stamps on Roman lamps, tiles, and earthern vessels; the cauterium or brand; the principle of stencilling practised by the Romans; and the like manner of affixing royal signatures during the middle ages; the stamping of the monograms or marks of notaries and merchants, &c. &c. For these matters, as they may rather be said to resemble, than to have introduced the art of wood-engraving, we shall simply refer to the volume.

Mr. Chatto has discussed with the consideration and impartiality which became him, the extraordinary history related by Papillon in his "Traité de la Gravure en Bois," respecting the art of wood-engraving having been practised by a young knight and his twin sister, named Cunio, at Rome, about the year 1285; which story has been advocated by an Italian writer very appropriately named Zani (for the reason he gave was that it must needs be true, being told by a Frenchman, who had no national partiality in favour of the Italians), and also by the late Mr. Ottley, who was certainly over credulous on works of ancient art, and generally inclined to attribute them to too early a date. It is, however, treated with contempt by Heineken, Huber, and Bartsch, authors of excellent authority on the origin and progress of engraving; and, indeed, seems to have originated, together with the highly romantic personal history of the twin artists interwoven with it, from the insane invention of Papillon, who is known to have been sometimes out of his right mind.

It is vexatious to the sober and judicious inquirer to be tormented with the trouble of removing from his path such rubbish as this; yet he cannot entirely pass it by, when it has been not only noticed, but advocated by previous writers, who have attained to considerable celebrity and authority. In the present instance we thus encounter our own countrymen, Ottley and Singer; the latter of whom, in his "Researches on the History of Playing-Cards," (a subject, as we shall presently see, intimately connected with the origin of wood-engraving), was called on for his sentiments on this subject. It is stated, however, by Mr. Chatto :

"That Mr. Singer knows comparatively nothing of the art of wood-engraving, of which he professes to give some account in his book, is evident whenever he speaks his own sentiments; whatever he has said worth notice on the early history of the art, is derived from Brietkopf,

from whose essays on Playing-Cards, on Wood Engraving, and on the invention of Printing, three fourths of Mr. Singer's Researches are borrowed without acknowledgment. edgment. The Appendix to the Researches, however, appears to be Mr. Singer's own." (p. 34.)

It seems probable that it was the great demand for playing-cards that first introduced the art of block-printing; so that we have some little debt of gratitude, even to that ugly fellow, the Knave of Clubs. Our author supposes (p. 54) that the Germans were the first* who practised the art of card-making as a trade. Kartenmacher, or card-maker, is found as an appellation at Augsburg in 1418; and in 1433 occurs Margaret Kartenmalerin, or card-painter. These names, however, prove nothing for printing; and the latter rather opposes it. We now proceed to quote the account of the first application of the art of wood-engraving to religious pictures, which is supposed by some authors to have been antecedent to the printing of playing-cards, but the present writer is of a contrary opinion:

"In the town-books of Nuremberg, the term Formschneider, -figure-cutter, the name appropriated to engravers on wood, first occurs in 1449; and as it is found in subsequent years, mentioned in the same page with Kartenmaler, it seems reasonable to conclude that in 1449, and probably earlier, the business of the woodengraver proper, and that of the cardmaker, were distinct... About the time that the term Formschneider first occurs, we find Briefmalers mentioned, and at a later period Briefdruckers,-card-prin

ters; and though there evidently appears to have been a distinction between the two professions, yet we find that between 1470 and 1500 the Briefmalers not only engraved figures occasionally, but also printed books. The Formschneiders and the Briefmalers, however, continued to form but one guild or fellowship, till long after the art of wood-engraving had made rapid strides towards perfection, under the superintendence of such masters as Durer, Burgmair, and Holbein."

From Hans Sach's Book of Trades, first printed at Nurenberg in 1564, with cuts designed by Josh. Amman, we have representations of the Brief-maler and the Formschneider.

* Having adopted the story of the Cunio, Mr. Ottley and his fellows of course refer the earliest wood-engravings to Italy; but Mr. Chatto states (p. 69) that "No wood-engravings executed in Italy are known of a date earlier than those contained in the Meditationes Johannis in Turre cremata, printed at Rome 1467, and printed, be it observed, by a German, Ulric Hahn."

dicular, oblique, and curved, as may be seen in the saint's robe and mantle. In many of the wood-cuts executed between 1462 and 1500, the figures are expressed, and the drapery indicated, by simple lines of one undeviating degree of thickness, without the slightest attempt at shading by means of parallel lines running in a direction different to those marking the folds of the drapery or the

outlines of the figure. If mere rudeness of design, and simplicity in the mode of execution, were to be considered as the sole tests of antiquity in wood engravings, upwards of a hundred, positively known to have been executed between 1470 and 1500, might be produced as affording intrinsic evidence of their having been executed at a period antecedent to the date of the St. Christopher."

The same volume of the Laus Virginis contains another cut, similarly printed and stencilled, of the Annunciation; and Lord Spencer also possesses a third of the same class, representing St. Bridget. Of both of these Mr. Jackson has given reduced copies. They are without dates; but we may mention here, in further illustration of this part of the subject, that Heineken mentions two other Heilgen, preserved in the monasteries of St. Blaze in the Black Forest, and at Buxheim, the former representing the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, with the date 1437, and the latter figures of St. Dorothy and St. Alexius, dated 1443. In the Royal library at Paris is an ancient wood-cut of St. Bernardin, who is represented on a terrace, the pavement of which consists of alternate squares of yellow, red, and green. To this is attached the date 1454.

We now proceed to the next stage in the progress of wood-engraving, which was the production of BLOCK Books. Letters had been sparingly introduced in the engravings already described; but in these block books the art of printing with moveable types was in some measure anticipated; that is to say, the pictures of which they consisted were accompanied by several lines of inscriptions, all laboriously cut out of the wood. They, in fact, closely resembled the designs in stained glass which at that period occupied the windows of churches, and perhaps still more closely the paintings which were made on the walls both of churches and houses, with long histories underneath them; specimens of which have come down to modern times in the Painted Chamber of the Palace of Westminster, in the cathedrals of Chichester and Salisbury; in the chapel at Stratford upon Avon (the paintings of which were published in fac-simile by the late Mr. Fisher); and in many parish churches.

"The most celebrated Block-books are the Apocalypsis, seu Historia Sancti Johannis; the Historia Virginis ex Cantico Canticorum; and the Biblia Pauperum. The first is a history, pictorial and literal, of the life and revelations of St. John the Evangelist, derived in part from the traditions of the church, but chiefly from the book of Revelations. The second is

a similar history of the Virgin, as it is supposed to be typified in the Songs of Solomon; and the third consists of subjects representing some of the most important passages in the Old and New Testament, with texts either explaining the subject, or enforcing the example of duty which it may afford."

These works bear no date, but our author supposes they were produced between the years 1430 and 1450. He regards the Apocalypsis as the earliest, and its designs as belonging to the Byzantine Greek style.

With respect to that commonly known as the Biblia Pauperum, he has made an important correction of preceding writers.

"It is a manual or kind of catechism of the Bible," says the Rev. T. H. Horne, "for the use of young persons and of the common people, whence it derives its name of Biblia Pauperum, -the Bible of the Poor, who were thus enabled to acGENT. MAG. VOL. XII.

quire, at a comparatively low price, an imperfect knowledge of some of the events recorded in the Scripture." Introduction to the Critical Study of the Scriptures, vol. ii. p. 224.