DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0175
MANTEGNA.
171
What printing did for literature, engraving on
wood and copper has done for painting—not only
diffused the designs and inventions of artists, which
would otherwise be confined to one locality, but in
many cases preserved those which would otherwise
have perished altogether. It is interesting to re-
member that three inventions to which we owe
such infinite instruction and delight were almost
simultaneous. The earliest known impression of
an engraving on wood is dated 1423; the earliest
impression from an engraved metal plate was made
about 1452 ; and the first printed book, properly so
called, bears date, according to the best authorities,
1455.
Stamps for impressing signatures and characters
on paper, in which the required forms were cut
upon blocks of wood, we find in use in the earliest
times. Seals for convents and societies, in which
the distinctive devices or letters were cut hollow
upon wood or metal, were known in the fourteenth
century. The transition seems easy to the next ap-
plication of the art, and thence, perhaps, it has
happened that the name of the man who made this
step is lost. All that is certainly known is, that
the first wood-blocks for the purpose of pictorial
representations were cut in Germany, in the pro-
vince of Suabia; that the first use made of the art
was for the multiplication of playing-cards, which
about the year 1418 or 1420 were manufactured in
171
What printing did for literature, engraving on
wood and copper has done for painting—not only
diffused the designs and inventions of artists, which
would otherwise be confined to one locality, but in
many cases preserved those which would otherwise
have perished altogether. It is interesting to re-
member that three inventions to which we owe
such infinite instruction and delight were almost
simultaneous. The earliest known impression of
an engraving on wood is dated 1423; the earliest
impression from an engraved metal plate was made
about 1452 ; and the first printed book, properly so
called, bears date, according to the best authorities,
1455.
Stamps for impressing signatures and characters
on paper, in which the required forms were cut
upon blocks of wood, we find in use in the earliest
times. Seals for convents and societies, in which
the distinctive devices or letters were cut hollow
upon wood or metal, were known in the fourteenth
century. The transition seems easy to the next ap-
plication of the art, and thence, perhaps, it has
happened that the name of the man who made this
step is lost. All that is certainly known is, that
the first wood-blocks for the purpose of pictorial
representations were cut in Germany, in the pro-
vince of Suabia; that the first use made of the art
was for the multiplication of playing-cards, which
about the year 1418 or 1420 were manufactured in