[Footnote IV-31: “Robert Valturio published at Verona, in 1483, his twelve books de Re Militari, in which he first mentions the use of bombs. By his patron Sigismond Malatesti, Prince of Rimini, it had been addressed with a Latin epistle to Mahomet II.”--Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. lxviii., note.] [Illustration] [Illustration] The following fac-simile of a cut representing a man shooting with a cross-bow is the best in the book. The drawing of the figure is good, and the attitude graceful and natural. The figure, indeed, is not only the best in the work of Valturius, but is one of the best, so far as respects the drawing, that is to be met with in any book printed in the fifteenth century. [Illustration] The practice of introducing wood-cuts into printed books seems to have been first generally adopted at Augsburg, where Gunther Zainer, in 1471, printed a German translation of the “Legenda Sanctorum” with figures of the saints coarsely engraved on wood. This, I believe, is the first book, after Pfister’s tracts, printed in Germany with wood-cuts and containing a date. In 1472 he printed a second volume of the same work, and an edition of the book entitled “Belial,”[IV-32] both containing wood-cuts. Several other works printed by him between 1471 and 1475 are illustrated in a similar manner. Zainer’s example was followed at Augsburg by his contemporaries John Bämler and John Schussler; and by them, and Anthony Sorg, who first began to print there about 1475, more books with wood-cuts were printed in that city previous to 1480 than at any other place within the same period. In 1477 the first German Bible with wood-cuts was printed by Sorg, who printed another edition with the same cuts and initial letters in 1480. In 1483 he printed an account of the Council of Constance held in 1431, with upwards of a thousand wood-cuts of figures and of the arms of the principal persons both lay and spiritual who attended the council. Upon this work Gebhard, in his Genealogical History of the Heritable States of the German Empire, makes the following observations:--“The first printed collection of arms is that of 1483 in the History of the Council of Constance written by Ulrich Reichenthal. To this council we are indebted accidentally for the collection. From the thirteenth century it was customary to hang up the shields of noble and honourable persons deceased in churches; and subsequently the practice was introduced of painting them upon the walls, or of placing them in the windows in stained glass. A similar custom prevailed at the Council of Constance; for every person of consideration who attended had his arms painted on the wall in front of his chamber; and thus Reichenthal, who caused those arms to be copied and engraved on wood, was enabled to give in his history the first general collection of coat-armour which had appeared; as eminent persons