Page:A History of Wood-Engraving.djvu/71

Fig. 17.—The Stork. From the "Ortus Sanitatus." Venice, 1511. popular fable. The views of Venice are examples of the very common attempts to represent the actual appearance of the great cities, which possess sometimes an historic value. This Germanic work is but slightly different from that already noticed; but as soon as the art became naturalized, and was practised by the Italian engravers, it was characterized at once by beauty of design. There is something more than promise in an edition of Æsop's Fables, published at Verona in 1481, as may be seen from these examples (Figs.

Fig. 18.—View of Venice. From the "Fascilus Temporum." Venice, 1484.