IX. "Imagines Mortis, or the Dead Dance of Hans Holbeyn, painter of King Henry the VIII." This title is on a copper-plate within a border, and accompanied with nineteen etchings on copper, by Nieuhoff Piccard, a person who will be more particularly adverted to hereafter. They consist of, 1. The emblem of Mortality. 2. The temptation. 3. The expulsion from Paradise. 4. Adam digging, Eve spinning. 5. Concert of Deaths. 6. The Infant. 7. The new married couple. 8. The Duke. 9. The Advocate. 10. The Abbot. 11. The Monk. 12. The Abbess. 13. The Soldier. 14. The Merchant. 15. The Pedler. 16. The Fool. 17. The Blind Man. 18. The Old Woman. 19. The Old Man. The designs, with some occasional variations, correspond with those in the original wood-cuts. The plates of these etchings must have passed into the hands of some English printsellers, as broken sets of them have not long since been seen, one only of which, namely, that of the Temptation, had these lines on it: "All that e'er had breath Must dance after Death." with the date 1720. Several were then numbered at bottom with Arabic numerals. X. "Schau-platz des Todes, oder Todten Tanz, von Sal. Van Rusting Med. Doct. in Nieder-Teutscher-Spracke nun aber in Hoch Teutscher mit nothigen Anmerchungen heraus gegeben von Johann Georg. Meintel Hochfurstl Brandenburg-Onoltzbachischen pfarrer zu Petersaurach." Nurnberg, 1736. 8vo. Or, "The Theatre of Death, or Dance of Death, by Sol. Van Rusting, doctor of medicine, in Low German language, but now in High German, with necessary notes by John George Meintel in the service of his Serene Highness of Brandenburg, and parson of Petersaurach." It is said to have been originally published in 1707, which is very probable, as Rusting, of whom very little is recorded, was born about 1650. In the early part of his life he practised as an army surgeon. He was a great admirer and follower of the doctrines of Balthasar Bekker in his "Monde enchanté." There are editions in Dutch only, 1735 and 1741. 12mo. the plates being copies. In the above-mentioned edition by Meintel there is an elaborate preface, with some account of the Dance of Death, and its editions, but replete with the grossest errors, into which he has been misled by Hilscher, and some other writers. His text is accompanied with a profusion of notes altogether of a pious and moral nature. Rusting's work consists of thirty neat engravings, of which the following are copied from the Lyons wood-cuts. 1. The King, much varied. 2. The Astrologer. 3. The Soldier. 4. The Monk. 5. The Old Man. 6. The Pedler. The rest are, on the whole, original designs, yet with occasional hints from the Lyons cuts; the best of them are, the Masquerade, the Rope-dancer, and the Skaiters. The frontispiece is in two compartments; the upper one, Death crowned, sitting on a throne, on each side of him a Death trumpeter; the lower, a fantastic Dance of seven Deaths, near a crowned skeleton lying on a couch.