The agriculturists of the upper illustration are in monastic habits: some are cutting and threshing grain; one is pounding the grain in a mortar and another is grinding it in a hand mill. In the open little house before the monk with a pestle, is a desk with two books. In this combination of agricultural work with the emblem or suggestion of study, Harzen sees an illustration of the daily work of the Brethren of the Life-in-Common, to whom he attributes the engraving and printing of this book. The brethren of this order were eminent as students and copyists of books, and had some distinction in the last quarter of the fifteenth century as printers, but their connection with this book cannot be established.[116] [Illustration: Fac-simile of the First Page of the Canticles. Engraving in the original print is 7-1/4 by 10-1/2 American inches. [From Heineken.]] The words at the top of one of the cuts are not the only Dutch feature in the book: the style of design is that of the Netherlandish school of art. The blocks have been drawn and engraved with much more care than those of the _Apocalypse_, or the _Bible of the Poor_. There is more of grace in the attitudes and draperies of the female figures of the _Canticles_, and less of that gross and unimaginative treatment of sacred personages which borders both on the ludicrous and the profane. But [p218] the designer of the book presents the oriental love story to his readers with Dutch accessories. The bride of the Song of Solomon wanders about the streets of a city supposed to be Jerusalem, but the dwellings have high-peaked roofs, Dutch gables, and overhanging upper stories; she is assaulted by an armed and helmeted cavalier who carries on his shield the heraldic black eagle of some unknown German potentate; the pope, two cardinals and a bishop, with drawn swords in their hands and shields on their arms, look with great composure over Gothic battlements on the assault below. Writers who are skilled in heraldry say that there is a peculiar significance in the presentation of the devices and the arms on shields which are found in many places in the book. Some German authors see in these devices the arms of the German Empire, of Wittemburg and of minor German principalities. Those who believe that the book was printed in the Netherlands, see in the shields the arms of Burgundy, of Alsace, and of Flemish towns and cities. From these trivial evidences, the conclusion has been drawn by one class of partisans that the designer must have been a German, and, by another class, that he must have been a Hollander.[117] [p219] The engraved letters of this book are much more legible than those of the _Apocalypse_ or the _Bible of the Poor_. The Dutch final _t_ is frequently introduced. The paper-marks most frequently observed are the unicorn, the bull’s head, and the letter P; but no information of value can be derived from the paper-marks, and but little from the designs and engravings.