application of th Arposes of am bearing the d ach Court of the e as a remunera bestowed upon lines were first which evil it uragement, cay as to rs future ust have nything ofessors on sube, and uth of the figure or personage depicted. The books of images are of this description, the printed pages of which are placed opposite to each other in pairs, and as only one side of the paper is printed upon, the blank pages also come opposite to each other. Now, if the leaves thus printed were pasted together, it would give them the appearance of a book printed in the usual way, on both sides of the paper. This, I may remark in passing, is the ordinary mode of book printing in China at the present day, even where the beautiful founts of type prepared by the agents of our great Missionary Societies are used; while the mode of taking an impression at present practised by the Celestials on all common work is that by which it is supposed the earliest impressions from wood blocks were produced in Europe, as in China, namely by horizontal rubbing, rather than by lateral pressure. This, too, is the mode which the wood engravers of the present day adopt in taking proofs of their work. The earliest print from a wood block of which we have any certain date is a representation of St. Christopher carrying the infant Saviour across the sea- the date 1423. This, with another print representing the Annunciation, and a third, of the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, supposed to be executed about the same period, bring down the productions of the art to the precise period when books printed from wood blocks, -the books of images already adverted to,were supposed to be first produced. These books of images are described by bibliographers under two classes, those without text, and those with. The most celebrated, as they were probably the earliest, are the Biblia Pauperum, which belongs to the former class, and the Speculum Salutis, which is of the latter class. The Biblia Pauperum consists of forty leaves small folio, each leaf containing a cut, with extracts or descriptive sentences, engraved on the wood. The Speculum Salutis, or Mirror of Salvation, said to be the most perfect, in design and execution, is a compilation of passages from Scripture, with a few from profa which have some relation to the Scriptural subje also descriptive extracts or sentences engraved on So popular did this work become that it was tran the German, Flemish, and other languages, and quently printed. Of two Latin editions which a that which was believed by the late Rev. Hartwell be of the earliest date has the explanations of twe the cuts, and these not in regular succession, pri entire wood blocks, while the explanations of the r thirty-eight in number, and five leaves of preface, a from metal type worked with the blocks. In the and Dutch editions the entire text is printed from metal types. Thus we perceive how, in the pr books, the use of wood blocks gradually merged in moveable metal types. "After the groundwork a had been completed," observes Hansard, "its rise perfection was more rapid, perhaps, than that of a art or science whatever; for little more than thir elapsed from the time of printing the Biblia Pauper wooden blocks, to the time when Guttenberg and had perfected their cast metallic types, as may be see following chronological statement of the progress of th Printing from Blocks, invented about the year...... 14 Letters cut separate, on Wood ...... 1s Letters cut separate, on Metal ...... 14 Letters cast in Moulds 14 No surprise need be felt that, in possession of rel very remote antiquity which indicate a very early ac ance with the principle upon which the art of p depends, men should have been so slow to disco capacity of promoting, by the diffusion of knowled social improvement and substantial happiness of the of historical fane history ects, having n the wood. slated into d very fre are extant, Horne to re printed y years m from choeffer by the art: 2. 8. 0. 3." s of a 1aintnting its the great human family. How many inventions of modern times have vainly sought admission iuto the temple of science, lingering at the threshold until the clay tabernacles of the minds which conceived them have mingled with their kindred dust. Prejudice, the dread of innovation, self-interest, and a variety of motives, some of them not very honourable, have been arrayed against these inventions, and retarded, if not entirely prevented, their introduction into general use. That this noble art was discovered, or revived, when it could best be applied, when the need of it was beginning to be felt, is abundantly evidenced by the fact of its rapid diffusion throughout the chief cities and towns of Europe. And that individual can hardly have studied the history of the last three centuries by the lamp of Divine truth, who fails to discover indications of an influence superior to that of man, or of any of the circumstances in which, from time to time, man may have been placed, directing, controlling, or overruling all events for the advancement of the highest and noblest ends. Be it ours gratefully to acknowledge our debt of obligation to the great Author of our being, for the advantages, civil, social, and sacred, which flow to us from the opportune introduction of the press into Europe, and the consequent emancipation of the human mind at the period of the Reformation as one of its results. And while we mourn over its thraldom in other lands, let us confidently anticipate the day when even there it shall be elevated, as in our own beloved country, if not to the contitutional acknowledgment, at least to the prestige, of a "fourth estate" of the realm. The details into which I have felt it necessary to enter can hardly fail to have awakened some interest in the subject of my paper: to me they appeared indispensable to a correct understanding of it. I now proceed with the history of what, for want of a better term, I have called PICTURE PRINTING. : As it is still matter of controversy to what in honour of the invention, or revival, of the art of the fifteenth century is to be assigned, and where first exercised, rival cities claiming it for their citizens; so with respect to the lighter branch of before us, the production of pictures solely by th press, rival nations contend for the honour of havi birthplace. Jackson, in his history of wood engra "In the first book which appeared with a date and th name the psalter, printed by Faust and Schoeffer, in 1457-the large initial letters engraved on printed in red and blue ink, are the most beautiful of this kind of ornament which the united efforts of engraver and the pressman have produced. They 1 imitated in modern times, but not excelled. As the first letters, in point of time, printed with two colour they likely to continue the first in point of exc Referring to the same book, and the same printers, it is, with respect to ornamental printing, their work... and remains to the present day unsu as a specimen of skill in ornamental printing." Nearly half a century appears to have elapsed bef attempts were made to extend the range of prin colours, when, towards the commencement of the si century, imitations of drawings in sepia, Indian ink, other colours, of two or more shades, were executed by of two or three blocks. The older specimens of these tions of drawings, to which the name of chiaroscuros is rally given, were seldom executed with more than thre would appear that the lightest tint was always printed as an esteemed friend, to whom I am indebted for seve the specimens submitted this evening, is in possession o by Ugo da Carpi, in three tints, of the death of Ananias individual the of printing in re the art was eir respective f the art now the printing wing been its raving, says, the printer's at Menta, wood, and specimens rs, so are he says, re any Eng in eenth or any neans nita ene It rst, I of one nd also of an impression of the first block only, which is in the lightest tint. This branch of the art appears to have been cultivated with great success in Italy about the year 1518, and in the opinion. of competent judges the specimens which have come down to modern times were, twenty or twenty-five years ago, unsurpassed by any modern production. Ugo da Carpi, the Italian engraver, greatly improved the art. Most of the prints executed by him are from designs by Raffaelle, who is said himself to have drawn some of them on the wood. But, independent of the excellence of the designs, their great characteristics are said to be—effect, and simplicity of execution, all, with one or two exceptions, being produced with three blocks. Many of Da Carpi's productions were copied by Andrea Andriani, of Milan, between 1589 and 1590, and one of them by Edward Kirkall, an English engraver, in 1722. This, however, is not entirely from wood blocks; the outlines, and the greater part of the shadows, are from a copperplate in mezzotint. Between 1722 and 1724 Kirkall published by subscription twelve chiaroscuros, engraved by himself, chiefly after designs by the old Italian masters, the sepia-coloured tints being printed from wood, and the outlines and darker parts of the figures from copperplates. They are represented as deficient in spirit, wanting the vigorous character of the older chiaroscuros. In the year 1754, Jackson, an English artist, published a work with the following title: "An Essay on the invention of Engraving and Printing in Chiaroscuro, as practised by Albert Durer, Hugo di Carpi, &c., and the application of it to the making Paper Hangings, of taste, duration, and elegance. By Mr. Jackson, of Battersea. Illustrated with Prints, in proper colours." The Essay contains eight prints, four of which are chiaroscuros, and four are imitations of drawings "in proper colours." With specimens before us by this artist executed in 1739, 1741, |