In Germany the only copper engravings found in fifteenth century books are the coats of arms of the Bishops and Chapters of Wurzburg and Eichstatt in the books printed for them at these places by Georg and Michel Reyser respectively. In order more easily to persuade the clergy of these dioceses to buy properly revised service-books to replace their tattered and incorrect manuscript copies, the Bishops attached certain "indulgences" to their purchase, and as a proof that the recital of these was not a mere advertising trick of the printer permitted him to print their arms at the foot of the notice. These arms, most charmingly and delicately engraved, are found in the Wurzburg Missals of 1481 (this I have not seen) and 1484, and the "Agenda" of 1482 (see Plate XXXV), and no doubt also in other early service-books printed by Georg Reyser. The Eichstatt books of his kinsmen Michel are similarly adorned--for instance, the _Statuta Synodalia Eystettensia_ of 1484, though neither the design nor the engraving is so good. In how many editions by the Reysers these engraved arms appeared I cannot say, as the books are all of great rarity; but by 1495, if not earlier, they had been abandoned, for in the Wurzburg _Missale Speciale_ of that year we find the delicate engraving replaced by a woodcut copy of nearly four times the size and less than a fourth of the charm. The only French book of the fifteenth century known to me as possessing copper engravings is a very beautiful one, the version of Breidenbach's _Peregrinatio ad Terram Sanctam_, by Frere Nicole le Huen, printed at Lyon by Michel Topie and Jacob Heremberck in 1488, and adorned with numerous excellent capitals. In this all the cuts in the text of the Mainz editions are fairly well copied on wood, but the large folding plans of Venice and other cities on the pilgrims' route are admirably reproduced on copper with a great increase in the delicacy of their lines. [Illustration: XXXV. WURZBURG, G. REYSER, 1482 WURZBURG AGENDA. (END OF PREFACE)]