DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7597#0290
chap, in.] WOOD CUTS IN EARLY ITALIAN BOOKS.
257
tian, are sufficient to prove that the art of printing characters from
engraved blocks of wood was neither the invention of Gutenberg,
of Fust, or of Coster.*
Although the art of wood engraving does not appear to have
been anciently practised in Italy with the same care and diligence
as was bestowed upon it in Germany and the Low Countries, the
Italians, nevertheless, upon the introduction of the newly invented
art of typography among them, were not deficient in artists com-
petent to the task of illustrating their first printed books with wood-
cuts. The Meditationes Rcverendissimi patris Domini Johannis de Tur-
recremata, printed at Rome in 1467, by Ulric Han, is accompanied
by wood-cuts, which, although of excessive rudeness, are engraved,
as Zanif assures us, by the hand of an Italian artist. The nume-
rous cuts of figures and machinery that enrich the Roberti Valturii
opus de re Militari, printed at Verona, by Giovanni da Verona,
in 1472, are full of spirit, and are supposed to have been designed,
and perhaps engraved, by Matteo Pasti, a Veronese artist of
some note in those times, and the friend of Valturius.;}: The reader
* When I wrote the first chapter of this
book, (vide p. 40) I was not aware of the
memorandum in Rabbi Joseph's chronicle,
in which mention is made of a block-book
said to have been printed at Venice in 1428.
If such a book ever existed, and the fact does
not seem very improbable, it was, no doubt,
a book of images, with inscriptions. Scri-
verius thinks it must have been the Biblia
Pauperum, which the Rabbi chanced to see
at Venice. Meerman gives no credit to the
story, but inserts the passage, both in the
original Hebrew and in a Latin translation,
amongst his Documents. The Hebrew text
is omitted in the following extract.
Documenta, Num. uxxx. R. Joseph
Haccohen (qui etiam R. Joseph fil. Josuae
appellatur) in Chronico quod Verba dierum
inscribitur, atque Annales continet Regum
Galliae etDomus Ottomannicae, edit. Venet.
apud Cornelium Adelkind, a. 1554. ad
a. 1428.
" Dicit Joseph Haccohen. Videtur jam
his tempoi ibus typographia inventa ; nam ipse
ego vidi librum, typis excusum Venetiis, anno
millesimo quadringentesimo vigesimo octavo."
t " Materiali," &c. p. 194, note 85.
Further notice concerning this edition of
Turrecremata has been before given at p. 29.
A copy of one of the cuts is given in De
Murr's " Bibl. Noremb." vol. i. p. 260.
+ Majjfei, " Verona Illustrata," parte iii.
col. 195, et seq. Matteo Pasti resided some
time at Rimini, of which city was Valturius.
Valturius speaks of Pasti, in one of his let-
ters, as being eminently skilful in the arts of
L
257
tian, are sufficient to prove that the art of printing characters from
engraved blocks of wood was neither the invention of Gutenberg,
of Fust, or of Coster.*
Although the art of wood engraving does not appear to have
been anciently practised in Italy with the same care and diligence
as was bestowed upon it in Germany and the Low Countries, the
Italians, nevertheless, upon the introduction of the newly invented
art of typography among them, were not deficient in artists com-
petent to the task of illustrating their first printed books with wood-
cuts. The Meditationes Rcverendissimi patris Domini Johannis de Tur-
recremata, printed at Rome in 1467, by Ulric Han, is accompanied
by wood-cuts, which, although of excessive rudeness, are engraved,
as Zanif assures us, by the hand of an Italian artist. The nume-
rous cuts of figures and machinery that enrich the Roberti Valturii
opus de re Militari, printed at Verona, by Giovanni da Verona,
in 1472, are full of spirit, and are supposed to have been designed,
and perhaps engraved, by Matteo Pasti, a Veronese artist of
some note in those times, and the friend of Valturius.;}: The reader
* When I wrote the first chapter of this
book, (vide p. 40) I was not aware of the
memorandum in Rabbi Joseph's chronicle,
in which mention is made of a block-book
said to have been printed at Venice in 1428.
If such a book ever existed, and the fact does
not seem very improbable, it was, no doubt,
a book of images, with inscriptions. Scri-
verius thinks it must have been the Biblia
Pauperum, which the Rabbi chanced to see
at Venice. Meerman gives no credit to the
story, but inserts the passage, both in the
original Hebrew and in a Latin translation,
amongst his Documents. The Hebrew text
is omitted in the following extract.
Documenta, Num. uxxx. R. Joseph
Haccohen (qui etiam R. Joseph fil. Josuae
appellatur) in Chronico quod Verba dierum
inscribitur, atque Annales continet Regum
Galliae etDomus Ottomannicae, edit. Venet.
apud Cornelium Adelkind, a. 1554. ad
a. 1428.
" Dicit Joseph Haccohen. Videtur jam
his tempoi ibus typographia inventa ; nam ipse
ego vidi librum, typis excusum Venetiis, anno
millesimo quadringentesimo vigesimo octavo."
t " Materiali," &c. p. 194, note 85.
Further notice concerning this edition of
Turrecremata has been before given at p. 29.
A copy of one of the cuts is given in De
Murr's " Bibl. Noremb." vol. i. p. 260.
+ Majjfei, " Verona Illustrata," parte iii.
col. 195, et seq. Matteo Pasti resided some
time at Rimini, of which city was Valturius.
Valturius speaks of Pasti, in one of his let-
ters, as being eminently skilful in the arts of
L