From a fancied delicacy in the engraving of the cuts of the History of the Virgin, Dr. Dibdin was led to conjecture that they were the “production of some metallic substance, and not struck off from wooden blocks.”[II-46] This speculation is the result of a total ignorance of the practical part of wood engraving, and of the capabilities of the art; and the very process which is suggested involves a greater difficulty than that which is sought to be removed. But, in fact, so far from the engravings being executed with a delicacy unattainable on wood, there is nothing in them--so far as the mere cutting of fancied delicate lines is concerned--which a mere apprentice of the present day, using very ordinary tools, would not execute as well, either on pear-tree, apple-tree, or beech, the kinds of wood on which the earliest engravings are supposed to have been made. Working on box, there is scarcely a line in all the series which a skilful wood-engraver could not split. In a similar manner Mr. John Landseer conjectured from the frequent occurrence of cross-hatching in the wood engravings of the sixteenth century, that they, instead of being cut on wood, had in reality been executed on type-metal; although, as is known to every wood-engraver, the execution of such hatchings on type-metal would be more difficult than on wood. When, in refutation of his opinion, he was shown impressions from such presumed blocks or plates of type-metal, which from certain marks in the impressions had been evidently worm-eaten, he--in the genuine style of an “ingenious disputant” who could “Confute the exciseman and puzzle the vicar,--” abandoned type-metal, and fortified his “_stubborn_ opinion behind _vegetable putties_ or pastes that are capable of being hardened--or any substance that is capable of being _worm-eaten_.”[II-47] Such “commenta opinionum”--the mere figments of conjecture--only deserve notice in consequence of their extravagance. [Footnote II-46: Bibliotheca Spenceriana, vol. i. p. 36. Mr. Ottley cites the passage at p. 139, vol i. of his Inquiry, for the purpose of expressing his dissent from the theory.] [Footnote II-47: Landseer’s Lectures on the Art of Engraving, pp. 201-205, 8vo. London, 1807.] The History of the Virgin, in the same manner as every other ancient block-book, has been claimed for Coster by those who ascribe to him the invention both of wood engraving and printing with moveable types; but if even the churchwarden of St. Bavon’s in Harlem ever had handled a graver, or made a design, or if he was even the cause of wood-cuts being engraved by others,--every one of which assertions I very much doubt,--I should yet feel strongly inclined to believe that the work in question was the production of an artist residing either in Suabia or Alsace.