A Catalogue of Books produced by the earliest typographers in in all countries, arranged so as to illustrate the history of the origin and development of the Art of Printing; as well as the publications of the famous Aldine, Giunta, and Elzevir Presses; preceded by some examples of præ-typographical Printing.

I. XYLOGRAPHY, BLOCKBOOKS ; and Early Metal Engravings with

Inscriptions.

Xylography, a term denoting that phase of wood-engraving in which certain inscriptions or portions of text were cut upon the block in addition to the pictorial design,-must have come into existence about the end of the fourteenth century. It seems to have reached its most flourishing period about the year 1450, and to have been chiefly cultivated in the Rhine-lands. It had probably a continued existence in Germany and Holland till near 1480: we find a belated Italian specimen in 1509.

35943 BECKER (Rud. Zach.) Holzschnitte alter deutscher Meister.. Gravures en bois des anciens Maitres allemands tirées des planches originales recueillies par Jean Albert de Derschau, avec un discours sur la nature et l'histoire de la Gravure en bois, 3 parts in 1 vol. imp. folio, 213 engravings, some very large and folded, printed from the original blocks of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; hf. red morocco extra, £16. 16s

Gotha, 1808-16 An incomparably precious collection, including several xylographic impressions and rude engravings which belong to the very beginning of the fifteenth century; and ranging onward to the finest achievements of the great artists of the sixteenth century. As all these are from the original wood blocks, Derschau's collection must rank infinitely higher than all the books of modern facsimiles or imitations.

35944 DESIGNS

FROM METAL PLATES, printed at Hildesheim about A.D. 1400, and illuminated by a contemporary hand; contained in the following MS.: PSALTERIUM CUM CANTICIS ET PRECIBUS (AD USUM DIOCESEOS HILDESHEIMENSIS), 12mo. MS. on vellum written on 266 leaves, with 9 Miniature-Initials and 2 larger separate Miniatures printed from soft metal and then coloured and gilt by the scribe; one of these miniatures bearing the words Ave Maria impressed in pale ink; PURPLE morocco, gilt edges, with chased silver-gilt clasp ; lettered Breviarium Romanum, £45.

(Hildesheim about A.D. 1400)

The MS. and its general features speak for themselves as to the date of this volume; the place is indicated by the names of St. Gotthard and St. Bernhard, Bishops of Hildesheim in the eleventh century, which appear in red letter in the calendar, and which are also in the Litany. There are other names of less prominence which also indicate the region in which the book was executed; and on the final blank leaves there are some prayers (now nearly effaced) in a fifteenth-century hand, the language of which is low Saxon, approximating to the Westphalian dialect. As a specimen, the following few fragmentary words will serve,-" Help mi leue herre so da leuende dat ik diner helige geselle mute... also dine. . sellescap besitte." These additions are in the same hand as the vellum leaves inserted here and there giving the music of the services, and were written about 1450.

an myne

35945 GESCHIEDENIS VAN HET HEYLIGHE CRUYS; or the History of the Holy Cross, reproduced in facsimile from the original edition printed by J. Veldener in 1483, text and engravings by J. Ph. Berjeau, sm. 4to. (published at £1. 5s), bds. 20s

1863

Introduction, 12 pp. History of the Holy Cross, text (in modern type) with illustrative extracts from the Golden Legend and ancient French MSS. 60 pp. The facsimile, 64 woodcuts on 33 leaves, with text at foot.

The lost blockbook which Veldener utilized by cutting the eleven blocks (bearing 64 designs) into 64 separate pieces, and then printing them as a book with a Dutch text (instead of the original Latin) at the foot of each picture must have been Dutch and probably thirty years older than the date of Veldener's production at Culenborch in 1483.

35945*ARS MORIENDI (editio princeps, circ. 1450) a reproduction of the copy in the British Museum, edited by W. Harry Rylands, with an introduction by George Bullen, 4to. pp. viii and 22, followed by a perfect facsimile of the unique blockbook consisting of 11 pp. of illustrations and 13 pp. of text printed in brown ink; cloth, 14s Holbein Society, 1881

The original was bought for the British Museum at Weigel's sale for the sum of £1072. It is the only extant copy of the first xylographic edition of the Ars Moriendi, and is perhaps artistically the finest of all the blockbooks. Mr. Weigel and Mr. Buller agree in referring it to Cologne about 1450; there can be no doubt about the place of impression, but the date may turn out to be a little later.

35946 SPECULUM HUMANÆ SALVATIONIS: le plus ancien Monument de la Xylographie et de la Typographie réunies, reproduit en facsimile avec introduction historique et bibliographique, par J. P. Berjeau, impl. 4to. including facsimiles of the 116 woodcuts (published at £4. 4s), cloth, £2. 10s 1861

Title and Introduction, 72 pp. The Speculum in modern type, 33 pp. The Speculum, in facsimile, 63 leaves printed on one side, and including 116 distinct designs, on Dutch-made paper of precisely the same texture and tint as the original. Only 155 copies were printed, and the book is now out of print.

"This block-book, supposed to have been executed about 1435, is of the greatest interest in the history of the origin of typography, as well as of popular education. It is a Pictorial Scripture History, that is to say a picture of a certain subject from the Old or New Testament is given, with a more or less brief account in black letter underneath it, of the personages or scener intended. Each page has a double subject. As regards the drawing we hold it to be, though rude, very artistic. There is a decided character and an expression in the figures that are almost worthy of Albert Dürer. Nothing is feeble, though much is quaint. The draperies are simple and effective, and there is no crowding of figures, but a judicious grouping of from two to five personages in each, with backgrounds of trees, hills or houses, as in the works of the early Masters."-See Home and Foreign Review, April, 1863. 35947 BIBLIA PAUPERUM. A beautiful MANUSCRIPT Facsimile of the Biblia Pauperum, with all the Illustrations, carefully executed by Leclabart, roy. 4to. modern invented title, and 40 leaves of facsimile; bound in bright old French red morocco, gilt edges, by Derome, £8. 88 (P 1450-1770)

This, like the famous Speculum, is doubtless of Dutch origin and not much earlier than the middle of the fifteenth century. The facsimile is apparently made from the edition which usually ranks as second.

35948 LIFE OF CHRIST in engraved designs, by BARTHOLOMEUS, a Suabian artist: A VALUABLE SERIES OF SIX UNIQUE EARLY ENGRAVINGS executed about the year 1470, in the style known in England as "dotted plates," in France as "la manière criblée," and in Germany as "Schrottblätter;"—partly tinted, neatly mounted on cardboard, and bound in a volume, 4to. morocco extra, £105.

The second of these remarkable engravings is that which gives the artist's name. He was perhaps Bartholomeus Zeitblom of Ulm, described by Nagler as "einer der Hauptmeister der Schwäbischen Schule," who was at work as early as 1468, but who is best known as a painter, about 1490.

1. Christ and the Woman of Samaria. Around the border of the well, his words are given as an inscription (white on black ground) "Wyp gip mir drinck."

2. The Raising of Lazarus. At the bottom, on a black ground, is the inscription in white "Bartholomeus," which can only mean the name of the artist.

3. Christ riding on an ass into Jerusalem.

4. Expulsion of the money-changers from the Temple. The above four are smaller than the following two, being impressed in pairs on the single leaves; but all are of one time and from one hand.

5. The Flagellation. Christ attached to a column in the middle, and so placed that his body is full in front of the spectator. There are three scourgers: one on the left strikes Him with a bundle of twigs, one on the right clutches Him by the hair and flogs Him with a whip. The third, kneeling in from stening his rods with a thong.

appears to Magdalen in the garden. She kneels, of ointment in her right hand, its cover in her left.

35949 MIRABILIA ROME. Item in dem puechlein stet geschrieben wei Rome gepauet ward . . . 12mo. a German Block Book, being a Hand Book for the Pilgrims at Rome in the XVth Century, with descriptions of the Relics kept in the Churches, and of the Indulgences given by the Priests of the various Churches, facsimile reprint, cloth, uncut, 9s About 1480 (about 1870)

Only 12 copies were reprinted in facsimile by M. Berjeau, for subscribers. 35950 OPERA NOUA CONTEMPLATIUA p. ogni fidel christiano laquale tratta de le figure del testamento vecchio: le quale figure sonno verificate nel testamento nuouo: con le sue expositione: Et con el detto de li propheti sopra esse figure: Si come legendo trouerete: Et nota che ciaschuna figura del testamento nuouo trouarete dua dil testamento vecchio: le quale sonno affiguratte a quella di nuouo Et sempre quella di nuouo sara posta nel meggio di quelle dua dil vechio: Cosa belissima da itēdere achi se dilectano de la sacra scrittura: Nouamente stampata, sm. 8vo. (12mo.), A BLOCK BOOK, AN ITALIAN BIBLIA PAUPERUM, carved entirely on wood, with cuts by GIOVANNI ANDREA VAVASSORE, from designs by Albert Dürer, Bellini, Carpaccio, Squarcione and Mantegna, a very fine, clean and sound copy, olive morocco super-extra, gilt edges, by Lortic, £42.

Opera di Giouaniandrea Vauassore ditto Vadagnino: Stampata nouamēle nella inclita citta di Vinegia Laus Deo. [circa 1510] Contains: A to G, in eights, and H (7 leaves, of which the last contains on the reverse a woodcut of the Virgin and Child).

The excessive rarity of a complete copy of the OPERA NOVA, the sole Block-Book in Italian known, has led bibliographers into some confusion in their descriptions of the volume. The fact is there were about three distinct issues.

35951 DUTUIT (Eugène) Manuel de l'amateur des Estampes, Vols. I, IV, V (all published as yet), roy. 8vo. and a quarto portfolio of "Planches Xylographiques," with numerous facsimiles from the Block-books; bds. uncut, £5. Paris, 1881-84 35951*WEIGEL (T. O.) und ZESTERMANN (Ad.) die Anfänge der Druckerkunst in Bild und Schrift, an deren frühesten Erzeugnissen in der Weigel'schen Sammlung, 2 vols. folio, portrait, 145 full-size facsimiles, coloured and uncoloured, after Blockbooks and early engravings, with numerous woodcuts in the text; hf. bd. Mr. Henry Bradshaw's copy, £I. Leipsig, 1866