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the eje by the opposition of broad white and black lines ; and sometimes intennediate spaces of greater extent were enlivened by large white dots, cut out, or perhaps punched, at equal dis- tances in the block ; or decorated with sprigs of foliage, or small flowers, relieved by a similar process upon a black ground. Gradations of shadow next began to be attempted in the figures and other parts of wood engravmgs, by means of white dots, differing from each other in their magnitude and proximity, according to the de- grees of darkness required.* This mode of finish- ing engravings in wood appears to have been practised at Mentz, among other places, soon after the invention of typography, and was after- wards occasionally resorted to by the wood en- eravers of other countries, especially those of Fans.
I have already shown the degree of certainty with which the origin of book-printing may be ascribed to the prior art of engraving upon wood : and I now come to treat somewhat more histori- cally apon the principal stas;es of the art. At the end of the fourteenth, and at the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Italians, Germans, Flemings, .and Dutch, began to engrave on wood and copper. The advances which had been previously made connect themselves more with the art of^sculpture, than with that to which onr inquiry is more immediately directed. The inscriptions in relief upon monuments and altars, in the cloisters, and over church porches, served as models or designs for block-printing ; and the text on painted windows is composed of letters much resembling those in the books of Images.
The Rev. Mr. Home, in his Introduettmi to BiUingraphif, has given the most judicious selec- tion from the gjreater works of those who have written upon this interesting subject, that is to be met with ; and so general a compilation is it of every useful and curious information, that no printer who studies bis profession as a science, nor any amateur of that science, ought to be without it.
1424. Two Antiphoners, books 'containing all the invitatorics, responsories, verses, collects, and whatever were said or sung in the choir, except the lessons, cost the little monkery of Crabhouse, in Norfolk, twenty -six marks, or £17 6s. Sd. The common price of a mass book was five marks, equal to the yearly revenue of a vicar, or curate, irnicb, about this period, was fixed at five marks, \^ <$(. 8d. or two marks aud his board. The ■ Unlyittg of books for dinne service — ^Missals — Arteus, or Breviary — Manuals, Sec. originally M upon the rector : as they were all written, and ■ne of them beautifully illuminated, it was a ntj expensive duty. On 'the institution of vicars,
- See Dibdin's BibHogruphical Decameron for ft fac-
tfnSc of ui ensraTinK at Death upon a Black Horse, in which the horse and a raven are finely depicted in this Buner, vfaUe the remainder of the figures in the cnt arc execnted in ontUne.
Mr. Ottley does not dve any specimen of this kind of work, bnt Ills descripUon is tUgbty interesting. Mr. DBxlln sopidies the one, without the least interfering with UiecAber.
the parishioners M^reed to snpply some of the books ; but the vicars were at ue expense of binding and preserving them.
1425. On the conquest of Paris, the duke of Bedford sent the royal library to England which had been collected by Charles V. Charles VI. and Charles VII. and kept with great care in one of the towers of the Louvre. From a cata- logue still extant, it appears to have 1>een chiefly composed of legends, histories, romances, and books of astrology, geomancy, and chiromancy, which were the favourite studies in these days : it consisted of only eight hundred and fifty- three volumes, but it was valued at two thousand two hundred and twenty-three livres, rather more than the same number of pounds sterling. At this time the price of a cow was about eight shil- lings, of a horse about twenty shillings. And the pension paid by the English government to the earl of Wallachia, who had been driven out of his territories by the Turks, was £26 13». id. per annum.
The King's Library at Paris, now deemed one of the finest in Europe, may justly be attributed to Charles V. This prince, who was fond of reading, and to whom a book was an acceptable
{)resent, began his library with ticenty volumet, eft him as a royal legacy by his father. These he afterwards augmented to nine hundred. The whole was deposited in three chambers, in one of the towers of the Louvre, from thence called the Tower of the Library. The rooms desigiied for their reception, were, on this occasion, wainscot- ted with Irish oak, and ceiled with cypress curi- ously carved. The windows were of painted glass, fenced with iron Itars and copper wire. Manv of the volumes were most superbly illumi- nated by John of Bruges, the best artist in mi- niatures of this period. A saying of Charles V. deser\-es to be remembered ; some persons having complained of the respect he shewed to men of letters, who were then called clerks ; he replied, " Clerks cannot be too much cherished ; for, so long as we honour learning, this kingdom will continue to prosper ; but, when we begin to_ des- pise it, the French monarchy will decline. This monarch, with that wisdom which characterised his reign, formed the design of a new translation of the scriptures. The versions prior to his time had generally been made from Cosmestor's His. toria Scholaslica. Christina de Pisan* a female poet and historian, patronised and pensioned by this prince, informs us that he " was fond of books, and by his liberality procured translations
• In the Biitish Museum, among the Harleian Manu. scripts, No. 4431, there is a large volame, containing part of Uie work* of this celebrated female. It is a vcUum manuscript, written in a smaU Ootliie letter, in double columns. On the recto of the first leaf, in a la-'gc hand, is tbe following autograph :— Henry , Duke of Newcastle his bookc 1676. The illuminations are by various hands : a beautiful sketch of a portion of the principal one is copied in Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron, p. cxxxv. which represents the authoress presenting her book to the Queen of France. About the period of the composition of her poems or Iwladcs, the Duke do Berry gave her not less than two hundred crowns for a set of them.— See Dibdin s Bibliographical Decameron.
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