My illustrations are taken from the copy in the Art Library at South Kensington Museum, and are from negatives taken by Mr. Griggs, for the Science and Art Department, who have issued a set of reproductions in photo-lithography, by him, of the whole of the woodcuts in the volume, of the original size, at the price, I believe, of 5_s._ 6_d._ Here is an instance of what photographic reproduction can do for us--when originals of great works are costly or unattainable we can get reproductions for a few shillings, for all practical purposes as good for study as the originals themselves. If we cannot, in this age, produce great originals, we can at least reproduce them--perhaps the next best thing. [Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. POLIPHILUS. (VENICE, ALDUS, 1499.)] [Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. =TERTIVS= XVTH CENTURY. POLIPHILUS. (VENICE, ALDUS, 1499.)] [Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. ALESSANDRO MINUZIANO. (MILAN, DESIGNER UNKNOWN, 1503.)] [Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. SCHOOL OF GIOV. BELLINI. (VENICE, GEORGIUS DE RUSCONIBUS, 1506.)] [Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. THE DESCENT OF MINERVA, FROM THE QUATRIREGIO. (FLORENCE, 1508.)] [Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. AULUS GELLIUS, PRINTED BY GIOV. TACUINO. (VENICE, 1509.)] [Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. QUINTILIAN. (VENICE, GEORGIUS DE RUSCONIBUS, 1512.)] [Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVITH CENTURY. OTTAVIANO DEI PETRUCCI. (FOSSOMBRONE, 1513.)] There is a French edition of Poliphilus printed at Paris, by Kerver, in 1561,[2] which has a frontispiece designed by Jean Cousin. The illustrations, too, have all been redrawn, and are treated in quite a different manner from the Venetian originals--but they have a character of their own, though of a later, florid, and more self-conscious type, as might be expected from Paris in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The initial letters of a series of chapters in the book spell, if read consecutively, Francisco Columna (F.R.A.N.C.I.S.C.O. C.O.L.V.M.N.A.)--the name of the writer of the romance. [2] The first French edition is dated 1546. Whether such designs as these were intended to be coloured is doubtful. They are very satisfactory as they are in outline, and want nothing else. The book may be considered as an illustrated one, drawings of monuments, fountains, standards, emblems, and devices are placed here and there in the text, but they are so charmingly designed and drawn that the effect is decorative, and being in open line the mechanical conditions are perfectly fulfilled of surface printing with the type. [Sidenote: CAXTON.]