DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28460#0021
Part I.—Introduction.
0
and the printers on stuff, “ Drucker ”1 (in the Netherlands,
“ prenter ”).
The transition from printing patterns on stuff to printing, first
patterns, then pictures, on paper, would he easily made. It may
have arisen, like some otlier inventions in the processes of engraving,
from chance, or because there was a demand for paper, instead of
••stuff, with patterns prinfced on it, for decorating walls. In addition
to three impressions on vellum of early date in the Benedictine
Library at Melk in Lower Austria (afterwards used as book-bindings,
and so preserved), impressions on paper frorn such purely decorative
blocks are also extant (Schr. 2003-5; two of these are described in
the present catalogue—see A 132), but these impressions at least, if
not the blocks themselves, are much later than the time when the
transition of which I am speaking must be supposed to have taken
place—about tlie end of the xiv century. That is the date to
which the earliest specimens of religious woodcuts, such as may be
seen at iSTuremberg and Munich,2 are assigned on the ground of
resemblance to pictures and miniatures of that period.3 They are
executed entirely in outline, in thick lines, with very rounded
idealised forms both of body and drapery, and stooping figures with
large heads and slanting eyes. The drawing of the folds of the
drapery results in long loops, shaped like the eye of a needle.
A good supply of durable paper at a moderate price would be a
necessary condition of any large production of picture woodcuts.
This can liardly have been available much before 1400 ; even after
that date the German towns continued to import the better sorts of
paper from Italy, though they also made their own.
Granted the material conditions for the introduction of wood-
engraving, we have to look for an external cause for the innovation.
1 The earliest mentions of “ Drucker ” are in 135G, 1405-6 (relating to two persons
at Nijrdlingen whose fathers were Drucker), and 1409. In the Netherlanda we have
Jan de prentere at Antwerp, 1417, who is connected by the sense of the documents
relating to him witli printing on stuff, not on paper (the documeuts were printed by
L. de Burbure, Bull. de I’Acad. de Belgique, 2me Ser. vin, 294; they are quoted by
Lippmann, Bepert. f. E. i, 233, and summarised by Schreiber, Centralhl. f. Bibl. xn,
2G4), and other “prenters” at Louvain, 1440, Antwerp, 1442, Bruges, 1454.
2 See Ess. Taf. i-xii (the dates assigned in the text are much too early, and the
range of dates assumed, 1320-1420, is much too wide), and Schm. 82, 67, 4, 19, 72, 21,
18, 10, 44, 39, 8, 30. I quote the numbers of the latter publication in the order assigned
to them in the later work—W. Schmidt, “ Interessante Formschnitte,” Munich, 1886.
These numbers cover a period of about thirty years, 1410-1440. Schm. 99 and 106
may also be mentioned as falling within the same period. Schreiber’s atlas of fac-
similes also contains some good specimens of this period (tome vi, pl. 2-6).
3 Mr. W. H. James Weale (“ Transactions of the Bibliographical Society,” 1898, iv,
207) mentions several woodcuts which liave been fouud in tombs at or near Bruges in
1868, and again more recently. One of tliese tombs, he asserts, witliout giving the
proof, was earlier in date than 1412. I have not seen these woodcuts, and can therefore
pronounce no opinion about tiie early date assigned to tliem.
Transition
to printing
on paper.
Date of thie
transition.
Occasion of
the change.
0
and the printers on stuff, “ Drucker ”1 (in the Netherlands,
“ prenter ”).
The transition from printing patterns on stuff to printing, first
patterns, then pictures, on paper, would he easily made. It may
have arisen, like some otlier inventions in the processes of engraving,
from chance, or because there was a demand for paper, instead of
••stuff, with patterns prinfced on it, for decorating walls. In addition
to three impressions on vellum of early date in the Benedictine
Library at Melk in Lower Austria (afterwards used as book-bindings,
and so preserved), impressions on paper frorn such purely decorative
blocks are also extant (Schr. 2003-5; two of these are described in
the present catalogue—see A 132), but these impressions at least, if
not the blocks themselves, are much later than the time when the
transition of which I am speaking must be supposed to have taken
place—about tlie end of the xiv century. That is the date to
which the earliest specimens of religious woodcuts, such as may be
seen at iSTuremberg and Munich,2 are assigned on the ground of
resemblance to pictures and miniatures of that period.3 They are
executed entirely in outline, in thick lines, with very rounded
idealised forms both of body and drapery, and stooping figures with
large heads and slanting eyes. The drawing of the folds of the
drapery results in long loops, shaped like the eye of a needle.
A good supply of durable paper at a moderate price would be a
necessary condition of any large production of picture woodcuts.
This can liardly have been available much before 1400 ; even after
that date the German towns continued to import the better sorts of
paper from Italy, though they also made their own.
Granted the material conditions for the introduction of wood-
engraving, we have to look for an external cause for the innovation.
1 The earliest mentions of “ Drucker ” are in 135G, 1405-6 (relating to two persons
at Nijrdlingen whose fathers were Drucker), and 1409. In the Netherlanda we have
Jan de prentere at Antwerp, 1417, who is connected by the sense of the documents
relating to him witli printing on stuff, not on paper (the documeuts were printed by
L. de Burbure, Bull. de I’Acad. de Belgique, 2me Ser. vin, 294; they are quoted by
Lippmann, Bepert. f. E. i, 233, and summarised by Schreiber, Centralhl. f. Bibl. xn,
2G4), and other “prenters” at Louvain, 1440, Antwerp, 1442, Bruges, 1454.
2 See Ess. Taf. i-xii (the dates assigned in the text are much too early, and the
range of dates assumed, 1320-1420, is much too wide), and Schm. 82, 67, 4, 19, 72, 21,
18, 10, 44, 39, 8, 30. I quote the numbers of the latter publication in the order assigned
to them in the later work—W. Schmidt, “ Interessante Formschnitte,” Munich, 1886.
These numbers cover a period of about thirty years, 1410-1440. Schm. 99 and 106
may also be mentioned as falling within the same period. Schreiber’s atlas of fac-
similes also contains some good specimens of this period (tome vi, pl. 2-6).
3 Mr. W. H. James Weale (“ Transactions of the Bibliographical Society,” 1898, iv,
207) mentions several woodcuts which liave been fouud in tombs at or near Bruges in
1868, and again more recently. One of tliese tombs, he asserts, witliout giving the
proof, was earlier in date than 1412. I have not seen these woodcuts, and can therefore
pronounce no opinion about tiie early date assigned to tliem.
Transition
to printing
on paper.
Date of thie
transition.
Occasion of
the change.