[Footnote 75: Lib. i. c. 18. Accipe semen lini, et exsicca illud in sartagine super ignem sine aqua, &c. Brustolato says, it should be pounded, and again subjected to the fire in water, then put into a press between cloths, and the oil extracted. He continues: Cum hoc oleo tere minium sive cenobrium super lapidem sine aqua, et cum pincello linies super ostia vel tabulas quas rubricare volueris, et ad solem siccabis, deinde iterum linies et siccabis. And in chap. 22, he says,--Accipe colores quos imponere volueris, terens eos diligenter, oleo lini sine aqua; et fac mixturas vultuum ac vestimentorum sicut superius aqua feceras, et bestias, sive aves, aut folia, variabis suis coloribus prout libuerit.] [Footnote 76: Gottingen, 1792. See Esprit des Journaux, Ottobre, 1792.] [Footnote 77: Raspe (_Lib. Cit._). Della Valle (_Ann. al Vasari_, tom. iii. p. 313). Tiraboschi (_St. Lett._ tom. vi. p. 407). Vernazza (_Giorn. Pisano_, tom. xciv. p. 220), cited by Morelli (_Notizia_, p. 114). More recently is added the authority of P. Federici Domenicano. It is absurd to suppose that Tommaso da Modena, or, according to him, da Trevigi, carried the discovery from this city into Germany, from whence it was subsequently communicated to Flanders.] [Footnote 78: Pisa Illustrata, p. 160, et seq.] [Footnote 79: See Opuscoli del Calogerà, tom. xlv.] [Footnote 80: This person invented and fabricated an ornament called ghirlanda or garland, worn on the heads of the Florentine children.] [Footnote 81: Mengs, tom. ii. p. 109.] [Footnote 82: Tom. vi. p. 1204.] [Footnote 83: _Victurus genium debet habere liber._ Martial.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. EPOCH I. _Origin and progress of Engraving on Copper and Wood._ SECTION III. The subject of which I propose here to treat, ought to be more carefully examined than any other portion of this work. The age in which I write is, we know, by many called the age of brass, inasmuch as it has been less productive of great names and great pictoric works, than the preceding; yet I believe we might better denominate it such from the number of engravings, which have recently been carried to a high degree of excellence. The number of their connoisseurs has increased beyond calculation; new collections every where appear, and the prices have proportionably advanced, while treatises upon the art are rapidly multiplied. It has become a part of liberal knowledge to discern the name and hand of a master, as well as to specify the most beautiful works of each engraver. Thus, during the decline of painting, the art of engraving on copper has risen in estimation; modern artists in some points equal or surpass the more ancient; their reputation, their remuneration, and the quick process of their labours, attract the regard of many men of genius born to adorn the arts, who to the loss of painting, devote their attention to the graver.