Engraving -- The Word Explained -- The Art Defined -- Distinction Between Engraving on Copper and on Wood -- Early Practice of the Art of Impressing Characters by Means of Stamps Instanced in Babylonian Bricks; Fragments of Egyptian and Etruscan Earthenware; Roman Lamps, Tiles, and Amphoræ -- The Cauterium or Brand -- Principle of Stencilling Known to the Romans -- Royal Signatures thus Affixed -- Practice of Stamping Monograms on Documents in the Middle Ages -- Notarial Stamps -- Merchants’-Marks -- Coins, Seals, and Sepulchral Brasses -- Examination of Mr. Ottley’s Opinions Concerning the Origin of the Art of Wood Engraving in Europe, and its Early Practice by Two Wonderful Children, the Cunio. As few persons know, even amongst those who profess to be admirers of the art of Wood Engraving, by what means its effects, as seen in books and single impressions, are produced, and as a yet smaller number understand in what manner it specifically differs in its procedure from the art of engraving on copper or steel, it appears necessary, before entering into any historic detail of its progress, to premise a few observations explanatory of the word ENGRAVING in its general acceptation, and more particularly descriptive of that branch of the art which several persons call Xylography; but which is as clearly expressed, and much more generally understood, by the term WOOD ENGRAVING. The primary meaning of the verb “to engrave” is defined by Dr. Johnson, “to picture by incisions in any matter;” and he derives it from the French “_engraver_.” The great lexicographer is not, however, quite correct in his derivation; for the French do not use the verb “engraver” in the sense of “to engrave,” but to signify a ship or a boat being embedded in sand or mud so that she cannot float. The French synonym of the English verb “to engrave,” is “graver;” and its root is to be found in the Greek γράφω (_grapho_, I cut), which, with its compound ἐπιγράφω, according to Martorelli, as cited by Von Murr,[I-1] is always used by Homer to express cutting, incision, or wounding; but never to express writing by the superficial tracing of characters with a reed or pen. From the circumstance of laws, in the early ages of Grecian history, being cut or engraved on wood, the word γράφω came to be used in the sense of, “I sanction, or I pass a law;” and when, in the progress of society and the improvement of art, letters, instead of being cut on wood, were indented by means of a skewer-shaped instrument (stylus) on wax spread on tablets of wood or ivory, or written by means of a pen or reed on papyrus or on parchment, the word γράφω, which in its primitive meaning signified “to cut,” became expressive of writing generally. [Footnote I-1: C. G. Von Murr, in his Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2 Theil, S. 253, referring to Martorelli, De Regia Theca Calamaria.]