Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) A HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING [Illustration: A HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING BY GEORGE E. WOODBERRY _ILLUSTRATED_ LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET 1883] Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. _All rights reserved._ PREFACE. In this book I have attempted to gather and arrange such facts as should be known to men of cultivation interested in the art of engraving in wood. I have, therefore, disregarded such matter as seems to belong rather to descriptive bibliography, and have treated wood-engraving, in its principal works, as a reflection of the life of men and an illustration of successive phases of civilization. Where there is much disputed ground, particularly in the early history of the art, the writers on whom I have relied are referred to, and those who adopt a different view are named; but where the facts seemed plain, and are easily verifiable, reference did not appear necessary. In conclusion, I have the honor to acknowledge my obligations to the officers of the Boston Public Library, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Harvard College Library, for permission to reproduce several cuts in their possession; and to Mr. Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public Library, for the list of authorities at the end of the volume. Especially it is my pleasant duty to thank Professor Charles Eliot Norton, of Harvard University, from whose curious and valuable collection more than half of these illustrations are derived, both for them and for suggestion, advice, and criticism, without which, indeed, the work could not have been written. GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY. CONTENTS. I. PAGE _THE ORIGIN OF THE ART_ 13 II. _THE BLOCK-BOOKS_ 30 III. _EARLY PRINTED BOOKS IN THE NORTH_ 45 IV. _EARLY ITALIAN WOOD-ENGRAVING_ 65 V. _ALBERT DÜRER AND HIS SUCCESSORS_ 90 VI. _HANS HOLBEIN_ 116 VII. _THE DECLINE AND EXTINCTION OF THE ART_ 135 VIII. _MODERN WOOD-ENGRAVING_ 151 _A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS UPON WOOD-ENGRAVING USEFUL TO STUDENTS_ 211 _INDEX_ 217 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG.....PAGE 1.--From “Epistole di San Hieronymo Volgare.” Ferrara, 1497. (Initial letter).....13 2.--St. Christopher, 1423. From Ottley’s “Inquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving upon Copper and in Wood”.....22 3.--The Crucifixion. From the Manuscript “Book of Devotion.” 1445.....24