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while the fiend is cast headlong beneath, having a label inscribed Labores amisi.' The TEXT is entitled Bona inspiracio angeli De paciencia '-and has 36 lines exclusively of this title.

IMPRESSION VII. We have here five very horrific fiends, of which the following is perhaps the most extraordinary one:

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These five fiends surround the dying man, offering him crowns; one of which he holds with his left hand. A group of five figures, with heads encircled by glories, are above. The title of the text is 'Temptacio dyaboli de bana gloria', 24 lines, more widely printed than usual, are beneath.

VIII. A group of angels and saints are to the left of, and above, the death-bed: one of these angels, in the foreground, against the frame of the cut, is worth introducing to the reader's notice, in the following fac-simile. It has an elegance and tenderness of expression which would not have disgraced the early efforts of Raffaelle's pencil.

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At bottom lies a small fiend upon his belly; and to the right, in the foreground, is a huge monster with its mouth open, with three small human figures about to be devoured. From this monster issues a label 'Superbos punio.' The title of the text is as follows: Bona inspi racio angeli contra banam gloriam:' 28 lines are beneath.

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IMPRESSION IX. This entire cut is represented in effect by Heinecken.* page 406, plate 20. It is however by no means a correct

The reader has been referred, at page xvi ante, to a conclusion about to be drawn respecting the antiquity of this impression, from certain premises laid down in the present note. They are briefly these. At pages 402 and 406 Heinecken gives fac-similes of the above cut. In that, attached to what he calls the EARLIEST edition, there is a man, in the lower compartment of the piece, leading his horse by a rope into a stable; near which, in a cellar, are seven barrels, and a man tapping one of them. In the plate belonging to THIS impression, the man is rather dragging than leading the horse; and in the cellar are three barrels only, arranged with less attention to accuracy of perspective, and without any man in the act of broaching or tapping. I conclude, therefore, that as this latter is the more simple representation, the work itself may be more ancient. The introduction of the tapster seems to be the after-thought of a more refined artist.

The reader having now perused a considerable quantity of matter, connected with the history and illustration of three of the most extraordinary efforts of EARLY BLOCK PRINTING, he may probably not be displeased with the following crudely-composed extractrelating, in part, to the same subject-from the first general History of Printing published

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fac-simile of the present one. The text treats of Temp

tacio dyaboli de Auaricia;' and has 26 lines exclusively of this title.

IMPRESSION X. In the foreground, an angel is holding up a drapery, before which are two small figures of a man and woman walking, with elevated hands, full of expression. A crucifix is by the side of the dying man. To the left,

are an old man and three females; which latter have

in our own country. The reader will discard every thing in it relating to the supposition of Fust having any share in these ' tentamina.'

'I come now (says Palmer) to give the reader an account of the other five books, viz. Ars Moriendi, the History of the Apocalypse, the History of the Bible, the Speculum Salutis, and the Spiegel, or Speculum, translated into Low Dutch. That these, however, are not all that was done upon wooden planks, is plain, because Trithemius tells us of the Catholicon, first printed upon wood, Scaliger speaks of a Psalter of the same stamp, which his grandmother had, and other antiquaries mention several others not worth inserting here, all which are either perished, or are as yet undiscovered: however, I cannot omit the Speculum, and some others seen by Saubert in the Nuremberg library, of which he was keeper, and mentioned by him in the catalogue of that library, called in Latin Bibliotheca Norica; which books were printed in High Dutch, and may justly be supposed some of Faustus's first tentamina or essays, from ann. 1440 to 1450: but as that author has only given us the names, without any further account of them; I shall pass them by, and return to the five abovementioned; which are no where to be met with together, but in that noble collection of the RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF PEMBROKE: and as no one besides myself has described them all, I hope the reader will not be displeased, if I give him a more particular account of them, than any but a printer could possibly have done: they are all five printed on a very small folio.

'ARS MORIENDI.

'It is a moral treatise upon the subject of dying well, with wooden cuts suited to the taste of the Romish church; a sick man is figured lying in his bed, with angels and devils attending him: the one to tempt, the other to strengthen him; to which end the designer has made labels from their mouths, to express the intention of each: the designs of this first book are somewhat better drawn than those of the rest; for in that age, as well as ours, there were good and bad painters or designers; but the press work is the worst of the five: this induces me to think this piece to be the oldest, and its wanting the several improvements which we find in the others, does not a little confirm me in my conjecture; for first, it is printed with common writing-ink without any gum, which is plain from its spreading itself, and soaking into the paper, so that in many places it is scarce legible; and the ink is grown withall so pale, by length of time, that it doth but just show itself at the best: secondly, it seems to have received several degrees of improvement as the work went on, and is better printed and with better ink, the nearer it draws to the end: the third circumstance that proves its priority to the rest, is, that it hath neither the capitals A, B, C, &c. (which are now called signatures) at the bottom of the first pages of each sheet, nor any direction-word at the end of each page; which is a guide to the book-binder how to place the sheets; this improvement we find in the two next books.' General History of Printing; 1733, 4to. p. 52-3.

great merit. The heads of three lambs, or sheep, are between the old and the dying man. An angel stands before the bed. At bottom, to the right, is a fiend sitting; with a label near him, on which is inscribed,

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faciam.' The TEXT treats of Bona inspiracio angeli contra auariciam:' 30 lines are beneath this title.

IMPRESSION XI. In the present copy this is the last cut, and not the least horrific representation of the whole; as the ensuing fac-simile of a part of it may demonstrate.

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The dying man is in his bed, with his mouth opened, and apparently convulsed with apprehension; while his spirit, in the shape of a child, issues from his mouth. A hooded friar is stooping and holding a torch before him a group of small angels and women is behind, and above, the bed. To the left, is a crucifix; and yet more

to the left, are two figures with elevated hands. The TEXT Contains 32 lines, and has no title or prefix; beginning with 'Si agonisans loqui,' &c.*

The entire impression seems to have been executed in pale or brown ink; and in the present copy the cuts are rudely coloured by an ancient hand. It would appear, however, to want the first leaf, which contains a preface. Heinecken notices seven Latin editions, and two German ones, printed from blocks, of the present work. He considers this to be either the first or second; and he knew of no other copy of it than that which was in the collection of Mr. Mariette. Clement thought one or the other of these editions was among the first efforts of WILLIAM CAXTON '!— but he properly adds, the surest way is to adopt the system of ignorance, and hold one's tongue,' Bibl. Curieuse, &c. vol. ii. p. 146. In blue morocco.

4*. ARS MORIENDI. Folio.

A careful examination of this impression with the account by Heinecken of a copy of the seventh edition of the work, in the Electoral Library at Munich, clearly demonstrates the present to be the same

* His Lordship has recently obtained a comparatively modern edition of the above work, but executed in the 15th century. The cuts are all copies; and, both in design and engraving, are very inferior. The work has the following title on the recto of the first leaf:

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On the reverse is an aged person in a chair, with a young man kneeling before him, apparently receiving his good advice. An angel is conducting a group of young people to succeed: but the devil is seizing a young gallant, or gaily dressed youth, by the arm, and endeavouring to inveigle him by shewing him some dice. The remaining cuts are bad copies of the above. On the reverse of the last leaf is a cut of an angel standing, and holding a pair of scales: a devil, with buildings, is in one scale, kicking the beam; a child is in another scale below. Beneath, are some people boiling in a cauldron, which is stirred up by a devil. Another devil is busied in grinding people in a barrel. In each page there are 30 lines, besides the title to each temptation.

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