illustrations, the preservation of clean and uncropped copies of the books in which they occur and the tribute of careful cataloguing and description are certainly their due. While the desired completeness has not been attained the ground here covered is still very wide, and for the book as a whole no more can be claimed than that it is a compilation from the best sources--a list of these will be found in the Bibliography--controlled by some personal knowledge, the amount of which naturally varies very much from chapter to chapter. The obligations incurred in writing it have thus been great, and a sad number of these are to fellow-workers and friends--Proctor, John Macfarlane, W. H. Allnutt, Konrad Burger, Dr. Lippmann, Anatole Claudin, and the Prince d'Essling--who have died while the book has been in progress. Among those still happily alive acknowledgment must specially be made to Sir Sidney Colvin for help received from his masterly introduction to the great monograph on _Early Engravers and Engraving in England_ published by the Trustees of the British Museum; to Mr. A. M. Hind for use made of the list of engravers and their works in the same book; to Mr. Campbell Dodgson for dippings into the wealth of information in his _Catalogue of German and Flemish Woodcuts in the Print Room of the British Museum_ (Vols. I and II); to Mr. Gordon Duff for help derived from his three series of Sandars Lectures on English Printing, and to Mr. Evans for information obtained from his _American Bibliography_. Among other obligations the chief is to the writers (notably Mr. H. R. Plomer) of numerous papers contributed to the _Transactions_ of the Bibliographical Society and to _The Library_, and these are acknowledged with special pleasure. A. W. P. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I. COLLECTORS AND COLLECTING 1 " II. BLOCK-BOOKS 19 " III. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING--HOLLAND 32 " IV. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING--MAINZ 44 " V. OTHER INCUNABULA 59 " VI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRINTING 83 " VII. EARLY GERMAN AND DUTCH ILLUSTRATED BOOKS 100 " VIII. EARLY ITALIAN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS 123 " IX. EARLY FRENCH AND SPANISH ILLUSTRATED BOOKS 143 " X. LATER FOREIGN BOOKS 165 " XI. FOREIGN ILLUSTRATED BOOKS OF THE 16TH CENTURY 180 " XII. PRINTING IN ENGLAND (1476-1580) 204 " XIII. ENGLISH BOOKS PRINTED ELSEWHERE THAN AT LONDON 224 " XIV. ENGLISH WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS 250 " XV. ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATIONS 267 " XVI. MODERN FINE PRINTING 297 BIBLIOGRAPHY 309