Aldis, M.A.
Cambridge: at the University Press 1916
Meditationes of Turrecremata, printed at Rome by UJrich Hahn
in 1467, is the first Italian book in which woodcuts occur; but
much better work may be seen in the eighty-two cuts which
illustrate the edition of the De re militari of Valturius printed
at Verona in 1472. Erhard Ratdolt, who printed at Venice from
1476 to 1485, is celebrated for his beautiful borders and
initial letters; and a few books with pictures appeared both
at Venice and other towns during that period. The use of
woodcuts did not, however, become common in Italian books
until about 1490, in which year Lucantonio Giunta published
at Venice the first illustrated edition of Malermi's Italian
version of the Bible. Some of the cuts in this book-there are
nearly four hundred of them-were adaptations from the
German Bible
quickly copied or imitated, generally in other towns than that of its origin. The Aesop, printed by Johann Zainer at Ulm
and containing two hundred woodcuts, was followed by half-a-score other German editions, most of which were
frankly copies; and the popular Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools) of Sebastian Brant, first published at Basel by Johann
Bergmann von Olpe, in 1494, with over one hundred illustrations, was paid the compliment of being reprinted in three
other towns in the same year. Sometimes the pirated cuts were mere slavish imitations of the originals, perhaps
copied by pasting one of the original pictures on the wood-block, in which case the copy would appear in a reversed
form in the new book and so betray its origin. But the object was easy reproduction of pictures rather than fraudulent
imitation, and details were freely paraphrased. Copies by a poor craftsman would shew a distinct inferiority to the
originals; but in the hands of a capable artist the new version might be a great improvement both in the handling of
the subject and in technical execution.
The illustrations in Breydenbach's Peregrinationes in Montem Syon (Mainz, 1486) shew a marked advance upon
previous efforts in the art of woodcutting. The book also possesses a modern touch in that the illustrator, Erhard
Reuwich, joined the pilgrimage as special artist to the expedition; but the page of animals 'veraciter depicta sicut
vidimus in terra sancta' includes a salamander, a unicorn, and a baboon leading a camel. Shortly after this two of the
most noted illustrated German books made their appearance at Nuremberg from the office of Anton Koberger: the
Schatzbehalter of 1491, and Hartmann Schedel's Liber Ohronicarum of 1493. Michael Wohlgemuth was the artist
responsible for the cuts in both. The latter, usually called the Nuremberg Ohronicle, and perhaps the best-known
illustrated book of the fifteenth century, has elbowed its way to the front by sheer bulk and a blustering profusion of
woodcuts, many of the portraits being repeated over and over again for different personal. The Schatzbehalter, with
its full-page pictures, each with a story to tell, is really the more attractive book.
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