[154] In some cases goldsmiths and engravers of coin-dies became printers owing to their knowledge of the technical process necessary for cutting the punches for type. The great French printer Nicolas Jenson, who produced the most magnificent printed books in Venice, was, until the year 1462, Master of the Mint at Tours. And Bernardo Neri, the printer of the Florentine _Editio Princeps_ of Homer, was originally a goldsmith, and had assisted Ghiberti in his work on the famous bronze doors of the Florentine Baptistery. [155] The glorious copy on vellum of the _Mazarine Bible_ in the British Museum has illuminated borders and initial miniatures of the finest style and execution. This earliest of printed books is commonly called after the copy in the library of Cardinal Mazarin which contains the illuminator's note that his work was finished in 1456. Sir John Thorold's copy on paper was sold in 1884 for £3900. [156] Italian books frequently had clasps at the top and bottom as well as two at the side. [157] The first or almost the first book printed by Aldus was the _Hero and Leander_ of Musaeus of 1494 in small 4to. The Virgil of 1501 was followed rapidly by a Juvenal and a Martial, issued in the same year. [158] Chinese wood engravings of considerably earlier date do exist. [159] See page 1373; this remarkable manuscript was then (in 1873) priced at £650. [160] Early wood-cuts were not cut on the cross ends of the grain, but on the "plank side" of a wooden board. [161] The _Cantica Canticorum_ of about 1435 has most lovely designs, and the _Apocalypse_, the _Ars Moriendi_, the _Speculum Humanae Salvationis_, and the _Biblia Pauperum_ all have wood-cut illustrations of great vigour and spirit, produced between about 1420 and 1450. [162] Even before 1400 initial letters in manuscripts had been occasionally printed from wooden stamps covered with red or blue pigment. [163] Much of the German bronze-work of this period is extremely fine and skilful in execution, such as the fonts and doors of churches at Hildesheim, Augsburg and other places. The bronze font at Liége, cast about 1112 by a sculptor of the German school, is a work of most wonderful grace and beauty. [164] Till the thirteenth century the art of the Netherlands and Flanders was German in character; after that Flanders was, artistically, as well as politically, partly Teutonic and partly French. [165] See above, page 110, for an English example of wall paintings being copied from manuscript miniatures.