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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
Different opinions also exist upon this subject: that Masso Finiguerra is entitled to the full merit, the reader will hare no doubt, after an attentive perusal of Mr. Ottley's valuable Work on Early Engraving.
From Italy the art travelled into Flanders, where it was first practised by Martin Schoen of Antwerp; or, as some contend, of Colmar, in Germany.
The Germans contend, that engraving was
fractised in that country long before the time of 'iniguerra, PoUaivli and Montegna. Some con- tend that Francis a Bocholt, was the inventor of the art, and his immediate followers were Israel k Mechenick, and Martin Stock the preceptor of Albert Duter. John Muller or Regiomontanus of Nuremberg, is also mentioned as a very early engraver; William Baur and Frederic Schott, at Strasburg about 1464. Martin Schoen, they tell us, engraved between 1460 and 1470; Lu- precht Rust was his master, and, consequently, must have worked as early as 1450. They also produce a print executed by one H. S. in 1465, and another by Hirschvogel even ten years earlier.
Slrutt, in his History of Engraving, says prints from engraved copper first made their appearance in Germany about 1450. The earliest date of a copper-plate print is indeed only 1461; but however biulty this print may be with respect to the drawing, or defective in point of taste, the mechanical part of the execution of it has by no means the appearance of being one of the first productions of the graver. We have also several other engraving, evidently the work of the same master; in which the impressions are so neatly taken from the plates, and the engravings so clearly printed in every part, that according to all appearance they could not be executed in a much better manner at the present day, with all the conveniences which the copper-plate printers now possess, and the additional knowledge they must necessarily have acquired in the course of more than three centuries. Hence we may fairly conclude, that if they were not the first specimens of the engraver's workmanship, they were much less the first efforts of the copper-plate printer's ability. It is likewise to be observed, that Martin Schoen, who is said, with great appearance of truth, to have worked from 1460 to 1486, was apparently the scholar of Stoltzhirs; for he fol- lowed his style of engraving, and copied from him a set of prints, representing the passion of our Saviour. Now, allowing Stoltzhirs to have pre- ceded his disciple only ten years, this carries the era of the art back to 1450, as was said above. There is no ground to suppose that it was known to the Italians till at least ten years afterwards. The earliest prints that are known to be theirs are a set of tiie seven planets, and an almanack by way of frontispiece; on which are directions for finding Easter from the year 1466 to 1570 inclusive : and we may be well assured, that the engravings were not antedated, for the almanack, of course, became les« and less valuable every year. In all probability, therefore, these prints
must have been executed in the year 1464, whid is only four years later than the Italians them' selves lay any claim to. The three earliest Italian engravers are, Finiguerra, Boticelli, and Baldini. If we are to refer these prints to any of the three, we shall naturally conclude them to be the work of Finiguerra or Baldini : for they are not equal either in drawing or composition to those ascribed to Boticelli, which we know at least were designed by him; and as Baldini is expressly said to have worked from the designs of Boticelli, it will appear most probable that they belong to Finiguerra.
The Dutch will have the source of the art o be among them, and to have flowed from Hol- land into Germany, and from Germany into Italy. They contend that Laurentius Coster, not only invented printing at Haerlem, but also the method of takmg on impressions on wood; and Peter Schoefier found out the art of en- graving on copper, and taking impressions from plates of that metal.
When the Mentz printers were dispersed in 1462, they carried the art of engraving and copper-plate printing into Germany, where they became commonly practised about the year 1465.
Conrad Sweynheim, of Mentz, and Arnold Pannartz, imported the art of engraving into Italy about 1465; the former of these betook himself wholly to engraving about 1474 : the year following some of his plates for Ptolomy's Cosmographia were printed, and these were the first copper-plates Italy ever saw. Meermaa says, that this work could not appear before the year 1478, at Rome, by Amola Buckinck, a German.
Whether we consider the art of engraving with regard to the utility and pleasure it affords, or the difficulty that attends its execution, we cannot but confess, that on every account it deserves a distinguished rank among the polite arts. It is by means of this art that the cabinets of the curious are adorned with the portraits of the greatest men of all ages and all nations: that their memoirs, their most remarkable and most glorious actions, are transmitted to the latest posterity. It is by this art also, that the paintings of the greatest masters are multiplied to a boundless number; and that the lovers of the polite arts, diffused over the face of the whole earth, are enabled to enjoy those beauties from which their distant situation seemed to have for ever debarred them; and persons of moderate fortune are hereby enabled to become possessed of all the spirit, and all the poetry, that are con- tained in those miracles of art, which seemed to have been reserved for the temples of Italy, or the cabinets of princes. When we reflect, more- over, that the engraver, beside the beauties of Soetic composition, and the artful ordinance of esign, is to express, merely by the means of light and shade, all the various tints of colours and clair obtcure; to give a relief to each figure, and a truth to each object; that he is now to paint a sky serene and bright, and then loaded
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