9»
LITERATURE.
Canterbury, presented a similar petition to the privy council, settinff forth, that the king had Dorrowed from his priory a volume containing Uie works of St. Gregory ; that he had never re- turned it ; but that, in his testament, he had directed it to be restored ; notwithstanding which the prior of Shine, who had the book, refused to give it up. The council, after mature delibera- tion, commanded a precept,under the privy seal, to be sent to the prior of Shine, requiring him to deliver up the book, or to appear before the council to give the reasons of his refusal.
1422. The following memorial, written in La- tin, with the bishop's own hand, is at the begin- ning of Peter's Brenaru of the Bible. " I Philip of Repyndon, late bishop of Lincoln, give this book called Peter de Aureolis, to the new library to be built within the church of Lincoln ; resen'- ing the use and possession of it to Richard Try- seley, clerk, canon and prebendary of Miltown.m fee, and for the terra of his life ; and afterwards to be given up and restored to the said library, or the keeper of the same, for the time being, faithfully and without delay. Written with my own hand. a. d. 1422."
1422. Printing from blocks is supposed to have been invented in this year.
1423. The earliest print from a wood block of which we have any certain date, is in the collec- tion of earl Spencer. It is the representation of St. Christopher carrying the infant Saviour across the sea, bearing this date. It was discovered in one of the most ancient convents in Germany, the Chartreuse of Buxheim, near Memmingnon, pasted within one of the covers of a Latin ma- nuscript of the year 1417. It has an inscription at the bottom, which has been thus tmnslated.
In whatever day thou seest the likeness ot St. Christopher, In that same day thou wilt, at least, from death no evil blow incur.— H23.
Mr. Ottley and Mr. Dibdin have both given facsimiles of this interesting specimen of wood engraving.
Another wood print, representing the Annun- ciation, said to be the undoubted production of the same artist, but evidently executed with an improved hand ; and a third, of the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, together with one or two others, by the hands of German wood-engraveis, shews the advanced state from singly-printed and coloured prints to the advanced step of block book-print- mg. The method adopted in printing wood- engravings and other subjects was anciently the same as that used in the manufacture of cards.
In my attempt to give a brief outline of the early progress of Xylographic typography, that is, of printing words, sentences, or pages from wooden plates or blocks, from the best materials, and to give tf short account of the successive gradations of the printing art, until its arrival at the acme which it has since attained, I shall give them chronologically as they arose, from the works of those who have written upon this interesting subject. The reader will understand, that the figures or words on such plates or blocks, were represented by having all Oiat was not to
appear in print, cut aiway below &e surface a place containing that which was to appear ; and that by covering the prominent parts with colour or ink, prints might be transferred to any attenu- ated even substance, such as paper by means of friction or pressure : and that these prints might be repeated by the same process, from the same block, so as to obtain any quantity of impressions.
As the art of engraving on wood proceeded, its professors composed historical subjects, with a text or explanation subjoined, "the Books (rf Images are of this description, the pages being placed in pairs facing each other ; and as only one side of the leaves is impressed, the blank pages come also opposite to one another; wbicl, being pasted together, give the whole the ap- pearance of a book printed in the ordinary way, on both sides of the paper. This, even to tSe present day, is the mode of book printing in China. The text corresponding to the figures is placed sometimes below ; sometimes on the side ; and not unfrcquently proceeding, as a label, from the mouth of the figure or personage.
The mode of multiplying copies having been fully accomplished by 'means of printing from carved blocks, this at length gave birth to the idea that every letter and character throughout a work might be made capable of re-arrangement, and thus be brought to form all the succession of pages belonging to any work, instead of doing It by the interminable labour of cutting in solid wood every letter, figure, and page, that required, to be printed. Thus, by a seemingly natural gradation of human ingenuity, the cutting or engraving of whole pages on entire blocks, was followed by the improvement of cutting the letters separately upon wood; — the next step after which, was to engrave them separately upon metal, and this was succee<led by forming matrices and moulds for casting each single letter. After the ground work of the art had been com- pleted, its rise towards perfection was more rapid, perhaps, tlian that of any other art or science whatsoever, for little more than thirty yean elapsed from the time of printing the Biblia Pauperum (which will be hereafter described) from wooden blocks, to the time when Gutenberg and Schoeffer had perfected their cast metalhc types.
The style of art which was practised by lie most ancient engravers on wood, was extremdy simple. The designs from which they workffl were little more uan outlines ; such as it wal customaiT to prepare for those who painted.4i| glass. The engraved blocks furnished die IMI^' ments of the figuies, and the illuniinist rappfln the rest. By degrees a few light hatching ■•<» introduced, thinly scattered upon the folds of <te draperies, and other parts of the figures : and occiisionally, where the opening of a door, or » window, or the mouth of a cavern were to be ex- pressed, the block was left untouched that it might print black in such places, and thereby diminish the task of the colourist. The orna- mental borders, which often surrounded the de- votional cuts, were rendered more attractive to
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