Description of a Wood Engraved Folio

is that mentioned by him, at page .'i<>7, as then being in the collection of M. de (iaignut, and a- wanting two cuts. Xos. .'}(! and 37. It is at present in the King's Library at the llritisli Museum. I' is a thin folio in modern red morocco binding, and has, when perfect, coiiM>ted of lifty \ood engravings, with their, explanatory text also cut in wood, generally within an oblong border of a single line, within the .///</ of the engraving, and not added underneath, as in the Speculum Salvationis, nor in detached compartments, both above and below, as in the I'.iblia Puuperum. The paper, which is somewhat of a cream colour, is stout, with rather a coarse surface, and such as we find the most ancient books printed on. As each leaf has been pasted down on another of modern paper, in order to preserve it, the marks of the rubber at the back of each impression, as described by Heineken, cannot be seen. The annexed outline is a reduced copy of a paper-mark, which may l>c perceived on some of the leaves. It is very like that numbered "vii." at p. 224, vol. i. of Mr. Ottley's Inquiry, and which he says occurs in the edition called the first Latin of the Sjx?culum Salvationis. It is nearly the same as that which is to be seen in Earl Spencer's " Historia Virginia ;" and Santander I<Me Glnvralc, pp. 334-370. WOOD ENGHAVING. 63 states that he has noticed a similar mark in books printed at Cologne by Ulric Zell, and Bart, de Unkel ; at Louvaiu by John Veldener and Conrad Braen ; and in books printed at Utrecht by Nic. Ketelaer and Gerard de Leeinpt. The size of the largest cuts, as defined by the plain lines which form the border, is about ten and five-eighths inches high, by seven and six- eighths inches wide ; of the smallest, ten and two-eighths inches high, by seven and three-eighths wide.* The order in which they are to be placed in binding is indicated by a letter of the alphabet, which serves the same purpose as our modern signatures, engraved in a conspicuous part of the cut. For instance, the first two, which, as well as the others, might either face each other or be pasted back to back, are each marked with the letter a ; the two next with the letter b, and so on through the alphabet. As the alphabet which has the i the same as the j, the v the same as the u, and has not the w became exhausted at the forty-sixth cut, the forty-seventh and forty-eighth are marked with a character which was used to represent the words "et cetera;" and the forty-ninth and fiftieth with the terminal abbreviation of the " letters us." In the copy described by Heiueken, he observed that the directing n letters 111 and were wanting in the twenty-fourth and twenty-sixth cuts, and in the copy under consideration they are also omitted. The m, however, appears to have been engraved, though for some reason or other not to have been inked in taking an impression ; for on a careful examination of this cut, without being aware at the time of Heiueken having noticed the omis- sion, I thought that I could very plainly discern the indention of the letter above one of the angels in the \ipper compartment of the print: Of the forty-eight cuts')- contained in the Museum copy, the greater number are divided by a horizontal line, nearly in the middle, and thus each consists of two compartments ; of the remainder, each is occupied by a single subject, which fills the whole page. In some, the explanatory text consists only of two or three lines ; and in others it occupies so * In the copy of the Biblia Paupenim in the British Museum, Indies. Inches. The largest cut is 10$ high, and 7 is wide. The smallest 10J - 7| - In the Historia Virginis, also in the British Museum, The largest cut is 10| high, and 7| wide. The smallest - - 9| - - 6J t The two which are wanting are those numbered 36 and 37 that is, the second s, and the first t in Heineken's collation. Although there is a memorandum at the commence- ment of the book that those cuts are wanting, yet the person who has put in the nuinlwrs, in manuscript, at the foot of each, has not noticed the omission, but has continued the numbers consecutively, marking that 36 which in a perfect copy is 38, and so on to the rest. A reference to Heineken from those manuscript numbers subsequent to the thirty-fifth cut would lead to error. 64 PROGRESS OF large a space, that if it were set up in moderately sized type, it would be sufficient to fill a duodecimo page. The characters are different from those in the History of the Virgin and the Biblia Pauperura, and are smaller than those of the former, and generally larger and more distinctly cut than those of the latter; and although, as well as in the two last-named books, the words are much abbreviated, yet they are more easy to be made out than the text of either of the others. The impressions on tin- whole are better taken than those of the liiblia Paupemm, though in lighter-coloured ink, .something like a greyish sepia, and apparently of a thinner body. It does not appear to have contained any oil. and is more like distemper or water-colour than printer's ink. From the manlier in which the lines are indented in the paper, in several of the cuts, it is evident that they must either have been subjected to a considerable degi-i I pressure or have been very hard rubbed. Although some iif the figures bear a considerable degree of likeness to others of the same kind in the 1'iblia Paupcrnm, 1 cannot think that the designs tor both bonks were made by the same person. The figures in the dj|]e|-eiit works which niosl resemble each other are those of saints and angels, whose form and expression have been represented according to a conventional standard, to which most of the artists of the period c oiitoimed, iii the same manner as in representing the Almighty and ('hrist, whether they were painters, glass-stainers, carvers, or wood- engravers. In many of the figures the drapery is broken into easy and natural folds by means of single lines; ami if this were admitted as a ground for a inning the cut of the Annunciation to Italy, with much greater reason might the Apocalypse be ascribed to the same country. \ ithout venturing to give an opinion whether the cuts were engraved in (lermany, Holland, or in the b.w Countries, the drawing of many of the figures appears to correspond with the idea that I have formed of the style of Creek art, such as it was in the early part of the fifteenth century. St. John was the favourite apostle of the Greeks, as St. Peter was of the church of b'ome ; and as the Revelations were more especially addressed to the churches of Greece, they were more generally read in that country than in Western Europe. Artists mostly copy, in the heads which they draw, the general expression of the country* to which they belong, and where they have received their first impressions; and in the Apoealypsi- the character of several of the heads appears to be decidedly Grecian. The general representation, too, of several visions would seem to have been suggested by a Greek who was familiar with that portion of the New Testament which was so generally perused in his native land, and whose annunciations and figurative prophecies were, in the early Witnew R ,..: randt, who never geU rid of the Dutch character, no matter how elevated hi* Mihjtvt mr.y (-c. WOOD ENGRAVING. G5 part of the fifteenth century, commonly supposed by his countrymen to relate to the Turks, who at that time were triumphing over the cross. With them Mahomet was the Antichrist of the Revelations, and his followers the people bearing the mark of the beast, who were to persecute, and for a time to hold in bondage, the members of the church of Christ. As many Greeks, both artists and scholars, were driven from their countiy by the oppression of the Turks several years before the taking of Constantinople in 1453, I am induced to think that to a Greek we owe the designs of this edition of the Apocalypse. In the lower division of the twenty-third cut, m, representing the fight of Michael and his angels with the dragon, the following shields are borne by two of the heavenly host. The crescent, as is well known, was one of the badges of Constantinople long previous to its capture by the Turks. The sort of cross in the other shield is very like that in the arms of the knights of St. Constautine, u military order which is said to have been founded at Constantinople by the Emperor Isaac Angelus Comnenus, in 1 1 !)(). The above coincidences, though trifling, tend to support the opinion that the designs were made by a Greek artist. It is, however, possible, that the badges on tin- shields may have been suggested by the mere fancy of the designer, and that they may equally resemble the heraldic bearings of some order or of some individuals of Western Europe. Though some of the designs are very indifferent, yet there are others which display considerable ability, and several of the single figures are decidedly superior to any that are contained in the other block-books. They are drawn with greater vigour and feeling ; and though the designs of the Biblia Pauperum show a greater knowledge of the mechanism of art, yet the best of them, in point of expression and emphatic marking of character, are inferior to the best in the Apocalypse. With respect to the engraving, the cuts are executed in the simplest manner, as there is not the least attempt at shading, by means of cross lines or hatchings, to be perceived in any one of the designs. The most difficult part of the engraver's task, supposing the drawings to have been made by another person, would be the cutting of the letters, which in several of the subjects must have occupied a considerable portion of F PROGRESS OF time, and have required no small degree of care. reduced copy of the first cut. The following is a j ciJtxTce <fclc ^ploarfr efriitf In tin- upper portion of the subject, St. John is seen addressing four persona, three men and a woman ; mid the text at the top informs us of the success of his ministry: " Conversi ab idolls, per predicat ionem beati Johannis, Drusiana t-t ceteri." ' Hy the preaching of St. John, Drusiana and others are withdrawn from their idols." The letter a, a little above the saint's outstretched hand, indicates that the cut is the first of the series. In the lower compartment St. John is seen baptizing Drusiana, who, as she stands naked in the font, is of very small size compared with the saint. The situation in which Drusiana is placed might be alleged in support of their peculiar tenets, either by the Baptists, who advocate immersion as the proper mode of administering the rite, or by those who consider sprinkling as sufficient ; but in each case with a difficulty which it would not be easy to explain : for if Drusiana were to be baptized by immersion, the font is too small to allow her to be dipped overhead ; and WOOD ENCRAVINO. 67 if the rite were to be administered by mere sprinkling, "why is she standing naked in the font ? To the right of the cut are several figures, two of whom are provided with axes, who seem wishful to break open the door of the chapel in which St. John and his proselyte are seen. The inscription above their heads lets us know that they are " Cultores ydolorum explorantca facta ejus;" " Worshippers of idols watching the saint's proceedings." The following cut is a copy of the eighteenth of the Apocalypse, which is illustrative of the xith and xmth chapters of Revelations. The upper portion represents the execution of the two witnesses of the Lord, who are in the tablet named Enoch and llrlyns, by tliL- \ff( rfent RtiWBwoRtuU (via? ' ttPiVxutK'ux command of the beast which ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, and which is Antichrist. He is seen issuing his commands for the execution of the witnesses ; and the face of the executioner who has just used his sword, and who is looking towards him with an expression of brutal exultation, might have served Albert Durer for that of the mocker in his cut of Christ crowned with thorns. F2 68 PROGRESS OF The inscription to the right, is the 7th verse of the xith chapter, with the names of Enoch and Helyas inserted as those of the two witnesses : " Cum fnifruut Enoch et Helyas test imonfurn mum, lestia qua ascendit de a!>in.io fncift contra eon helium, et vincet eon et occidet illos." In our transla- tion tin- verse i.s rendered thus: "And when they shall have finished their testimony, the lx?ast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them." The talilet to the left contains the following inscription: "Etjacebunt rnrfttirn forum in jilnteis, ct nan sinfiit jmni in monument is." It is formed of t\V(. pa.ssages, in the Ntli and !Hh verses of the Xltli chapter of Reve- lations, which are thus rendered in our version of the Bible: "And their ile. i, | bodies shall lie in the street, ... and they of the people ... shall not Miller their dead bodies to be put ill graves." In the lower compartment Antichrist is seen working his miracles, uprooting the two olive trees, typical <>f the two witnesses whom he had caused to lie .slain.* Two of his followers are seen kneeling as if wor- -liippinu him. while more to the left are the supporters of the true faith dcliv-ri-d into the hands of executioners. The design is illustrative of the \nith < hapter of 1,'evelatioiis. The following is the inscription aljove the liu'iire of Antichrist : " Ilie fm-it Antirhrutus miracula sun, et cre"Here </,///.> in ijisinii lumonit, /i iinTiiliiitix fnrtiK viterjlcit pasnts." Antichrist is |ierlbrniing his miracles, honouring those who believe in him, and putting the incredulous to death by various punishments." The leases of the trees which Antichrist has miraculously uprooted are extremely like those of the tree of life engraved in one of the tuts , ,f the liiblia I'aiiperum, and of which a copy will be found in a subsequent pa jr. In several of the cuts, the typical expressions which occur in the texts are explained. Thus, in cut eighth, we are informed that " Stolie "The ullni tinfiiiarinii ,i-i,i HI ijl, ifisii/iifint." white vestments denote the glory of depart. -.1 souls." Jn the lower compartment of the same cut, the " caeli rrcmtio"- -"the opening of the heavens" is explained to be the communication of the liible to the (ientiles. In the lower compart- ment if the ninth cut, " much " incense is said to signify the precepts of the (!(>sj,c| ; the " censers," the hearts of the Apostles; and the "golden ;dt;ir," the Church. The next block-book which demands notice is that named "Historia sen PruvkU'iitia Virginia Maria-, ex Cantico Canticorum : " that is, "The History or 1'refiguration of the Virgin Mary, from the Song of Songs." It is of small-folio size, and consists of sixteen leaves, printed on one aide only by menus of friction; and the ink is of a dark brown, approaching nearly to black. Each impressed page contains two sub- * KeveUtiuus, chap. xi. verses 3J and 4th. WOOD ENGRAVING. 69 jects, one ubove the other ; the total number of subjects in the book is, consequently, thirty-two. Of this book, according to the observations of Hcineken, there art- two editions; which, from variations noticed by him in the explanatory text, are evidently from different blocks ; but, as the designs are pre- cisely the same, it is certain that the one has been copied from the other,* That which he considers to be the first edition, lias, in his opinion, been engraved in Germany ; the other, he thinks, was a copy of the original, executed by some engraver in Holland. The principal ground on which he determines the priority of the editions is, that in the one the text is much more correctly given than in the other; and he thence concludes that the most correct would be the second. In this opinion I concur; not that his rule will universally hold good, but that in this case the conclusion -which he has drawn seems the most probable. The designs, it is admitted, are precisely the same ; and as the cuts of the one would in all probability be engraved from tracings or transfers of the other, it is not likely that we should tind such a difference in the text of the two editions if that of the first were correct. A wood-engraver on this point I speak from experience would In- much more likely to commit literal errors in copying manuscript, than to deviate in cutting a fac-simile from a correct impression. Had the text of the first edition been correct, considering that the designs of the one edition are exact copies of those of the other, it, is probable that the text of both would have been more nearly alike. But as there arc several errors in the text of the first edition, it is most likely that manv of them would be discovered and corrected by the person at whose instance the designs were copied for the. second. Diametrically op- posite to this conclusion is that of Mr. Ottley, who argues as follows : -f" Heineken endeavours to draw another argument in favour of the originality of the edition possessed by I'ertusati, Verdussen, and the Bodleian library, from the various errors, in that edition, in the Latin inscriptions on the scrolls ; which, he says, are corrected in the other edition. But it is evident that this circumstance makes in favour of an opposite conclusion. The artist who originally invented the work must have been well acquainted with Latin, since it is, in fact, no other than an union of many of the most beautiful verses of the Book of Canticles, with a series of designs illustrative of the divine mysteries supposed to be revealed in that sacred poem ; and, consequently, we have reason to consider that edition the original in which the inscrip- tions are given with the most correctness ; and to ascribe the gross blunders in the other to the ignorance of some ordinary wood-engraver by whom the work was copied." Even granting the assumption that the * Ide GgniSrale, p. 376. t Inquiry, vol. i. p. 140. 70 PROGRESS OF engraver of the edition, supposed by Mr. Ottley to be the first, was well acquainted with Latin, and that he who engraved the presumed second did not understand n word of that language, yet it by no means follows that the latter could not make a correct tracing of the engraved text lying before him. Because a draughtsman is unacquainted with a language, it would certainly be most erroneous to infer that he would be incapable of copying the characters correctly. Besides, though it does not benefit his argument a whit, it is surely assuming too much to assert that the artist who made the designs also selected the texts, and that lie mu.tt have been well acquainted with Latin ; and that he wlin executed Mr. Ottley's presumed second edition was some ignorant ordinary wood-engraver. Did the artists who executed the fac-similes in Mr. Ottley's work, or in Dr. Dibdin's " Bibliotheca Spenceriana," understand the abbreviated Lit in which in many instances they had to engrave; and did they in consequence of their ignorance of that language copy incorrectly the original texts and sentences which were before them ( In a copy which Heinekeii considers to be of the second edition, belonging to the city of Harlem, that writer observed the following inscription, from a wood block, impressed, as 1 understand him, at the top of the first cut. " Dit is tic bonstntcljcit ba ftinric tocr moto . go&es . tn (s Qthctr in Intl). filti." This inscription which Heineken says is "en langiie Flamamle, mi plutot en " I'lat-Alcmand may be expressed in Kngli.-h as follows: This is the preligurution of Mary the mother of God, and is in Latin named the Canticles." Heineken expresses no doubt of thi- inscription being genuine, though he makes use of it as an argument in >upport ,,| ],j s opinion, that the copy in which it occurs was "ne of later edition; "for it is well known," he observes, "that the earlu-t edition* of print. -,1 l,,,,,k^ are without titles, and more especially A- this inscription, however, has been found in the Harlem copy only, I am inclined to agree with Mr. Ottley in con- sidering it its a silly fraud devised by some, of the compatriots of Coster for the purpose of establishing a fact which it is, in reality, much better calculated to overthrow."* Heineken, who appears to have had more knowledge than taste on the subject of art, declares the History of the Virgin to be "the most Gothic of all the block-books ; that it is different from them both in the style of the designs and of the engraving ; and that the figures are very ike term the ancient sculptures in " Gothic " he means rude the and churches of Germany." If by the tasteless, I differ with him entirely ; for, though there be great sameness in the subjects, yet the figures, generally, are more gracefully designed than those of any other block- ' Inquiry, p. 140. WOOD ENGRAVING. 71 book that I have seen. Compared with them, those of the Biblia Pauperum and the Speculum might be termed " Gothic " indeed. The above group, from that which Heineken considers the first edition, in which the figures are of the size of the originals, is taken from the seventh subject in Mr. Ottley's enumeration * ; that is, from the upper portion of the fourth cut. The text is the 14th verse of the 1st chapter of the Song of Solomon : " Botrus cipri dilectus meus inter vineas enngadi;" which in our Bible is My " translated : beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vine- yards of En-gedi." In every cut the female figures are almost precisely the same, and the drapery and the expression scarcely vary. From the easy and graceful attitudes of his female figures, as well as from the * Inquiry, p. 144, vol. i. 72 PROGRESS OF manner in which they are clothed, the artist may be considered as the Stnthard of his dav. The two preceding subjects arc impressed on the second leaf, in the order in which they are here represented, forming Nos. 3 and 4 in Mr. Ott ley's enumeration. They are reduced copies from the originals in the tirst edition, and afford a correct idea of a complete page.* On the scroll to the left, in the upper subject, the words arc intended for " Trnhf me, jxutt te rur remits in odore ungutnttorum tuoru.m." They are to le found in the 4th and 3rd verses of the 1st chapter of the