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168 THE HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Ny» In Its Ancient And More General Sens...
that Heineken considers It an authentic testimony that the artists loyed on such a work were persons trained up and exercised in
their emp profession ; the art of wood-engraving being no longer In its cradle .
Another very celebrated illustrated book of this date is a book of fablesprinted in 1462 at Bambergby Pfister , and is the earliest
book , , printed with moveable , types , which , is illustrated with woodcuts containing figures .
The progress of typography was regarded with jealousy by the earlwood-and block-printerswho were apprehensive
that y it would engravers ruin their trade ; and it is not , unlikely that the early type-printers , who adorned their books with woodcuts , . would be
obliged to have them executed by a person who was not professedly a wood-. It is only upon this supposition that we can
account for engraver the fact of the woodcuts in the first books printed with type being so inferior to those in the earlier block-books .
Again , it is probable very that the first woodcuts which appeared in books were intended to be colouredwhich may in some degree
, account for the coarseness with which they were engraved . For some time also much of the etching remained in the hands of the
painters only , and so long as this was the case no great improvement could be expected to take place , their attention being
necessarily turned to objects of greater importance , while etching was of course considered a matter of secondary consideration . The _first
printed book in the English language , which contains woodcuts , is the second edition of Caxton ' s ' Game and Playe of the Chesse ; ' a
small folio , supposed to have been printed about 1470 . Nor ought it to be forgotten that it was at the request of the Duchess of
of Burgund Troye y ' the that first Caxton book printed translated in the the Eng * Recuyell lish language of the , and Historyes which
appeared , at Cologne in 1471 or 1472 . It has been supposed that most of the woodcuts which appear in books printed by Caxton
and De Word © ( Caxton ' s successor at Westminster , 1496 ) were executed abroad , on the presumption that there were at that
period no professed wood-engravers in this country ; but Jackson ( no mean authority on this subject , and from whom we have
derived much information ) is of a different opinion , and remarks that , after looking at the stained-glass windows and carved
monuments in our churches executed about this time , we can scarcely suppose that there were no artists living capable of producing
designs for such cuts ; while , with regard to the engravings themselvesthey are not generally superior to the practice-blocks cut
by a modern , wood-engraver ' s apprentice within his first month ' s noviciate .
Several of the early printers who commenced on their own account on the dispersion of the workmen employed by Faust and
_Bchoeffer in 1462 , were accustomed to travel with their small stock
if
168 The History Of Wood-Engraving.
168 THE HISTORY OF WOOD-ENGRAVING .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1858, page 168, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051858/page/24/
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