He errs likewise in making the female look towards a sort of dog's head, according to him, under the mantle and right hand of her husband, which, he adds, might be taken for the pummell of his sword, and that she fondles this head with her right hand, &c. not one word of which is correct. He says that a good impression of this print would be well worth a Louis d'or to an amateur. He appears to have been in possession of the block belonging to the subject of the lovers preceded by Death with a drum; but it had been spoiled by the stroke of a plane.

COPIES OF THE ABOVE DESIGNS, AND ENGRAVED ALSO ON WOOD.

I. At the head of these, in point of merit, must be placed the Italian spurious edition mentioned in No. VII. of the preceding list. It is entitled "Simolachri historie, e figure de la morte, ove si contiene la medicina de l'anima utile e necessaria, non solo a gli ammalati, ma tutte i sani. Et appresso, il modo, e la via di consolar gl'infermi. Un sermone di S. Cipriano, de la mortalita. Due orationi, l'una a Dio, e l'altra a Christo da dire appresso l'ammalato oppresso da grave infermita. Un sermone di S. Giovan Chrisostomo, che ci essorta a patienza; e che tratta de la consumatione del secolo presente, e del secondo avenimento di Jesu Christo, de la eterna felicita de giusti, de la pena e dannatione de rei; et altre cose necessarie a ciascun Christiano, per ben vivere, e ben morire. Con gratia e privilegio de l'illustriss. Senato Vinitiano, per anni dieci. Appresso Vincenzo Vaugris al segno d'Erasmo, MDXLV." 12mo.

With a device of the brazen serpent, repeated at the end. It has all the cuts in the genuine edition of the same date, except that of the beggar at the gate. It contains a very moral dedication to Signor Antonio Calergi by the publisher Vaugris or Valgrisi; in which, with unjustifiable confidence, he enlarges on the great beauty of the work, the cuts in which are, in his estimation, not merely equal, but far superior to those in the French edition in design and engraving. They certainly approach the nearest to the fine originals of all the imitations, but will be found on comparison to be inferior. The mark [monogram: HL] on the cut of the duchess sitting up in bed, with the two Deaths, one of whom is fiddling, whilst the other pulls at the clothes, is retained, but this could not be with a view to pass these engravings as originals, after what is stated in the dedication. An artist's eye will easily perceive the difference in spirit and decision of drawing. In the ensuing year 1546, Valgrisi republished this book in Latin, but without the dedication, and there are impressions of them on single sheets, one of which has at the bottom, "In Venetia, MDLXVIII. Fra. Valerio Faenzi Inquis. Apreso Luca Bertelli." So that they required a license from the Inquisition.

II. In the absence of any other Italian editions of the "Simolachri," it is necessary to mention that twenty-four of the last-mentioned cuts were introduced in a work of extreme rarity, and which has escaped the notice of bibliographers, intitled "Discorsi Morali dell' eccell. Sig. Fabio Glissenti contra il dispiacer del morire. Detto Athanatophilia Venetia, 1609." 4to. These twenty-four were probably all that then remained; and five others of subjects belonging also to the "Simolachri," are inserted in this work, but very badly imitated, and two of them reversed. In the subject of the Pope there is in the original a brace of grotesque devils, one of which is completely erased in Glissenti, and a plug inserted where the other had been scooped out. A similar rasure of a devil occurs in the subject of the two rich men in conversation, the demon blowing with a bellows into his ear, whilst a poor beggar in vain touches him to be heard. Besides these cuts, Glissenti's work is ornamented with a great number of others, connected in some way or other with the subject of Death, which the author discusses in almost every possible variety of manner. He appears to have been a physician, and an exceedingly pious man.

His portrait is prefixed to every division of the work, which consists of five dialogues.

III. In an anonymous work, intitled "Tromba sonora per richiamar i morti viventi dalla tomba della colpa alla vita della gratia. In Venetia, 1670."

8vo. Of which there had already been three editions; there are six of the prints from the originals, as in the "Simolachri," &c. No. I. and a few others, the same as the additional ones to Glissenti's work.

In another volume, intitled "Il non plus ultra di tutte le scienze ricchezze honori, e diletti del mondo, &c. In Venetia, 1677." 24mo. There are twenty-five of the cuts as in the Simolachri, and several others from those added to Glissenti.

IV. A set of cuts which do not seem to have belonged to any work. They are very close copies of the originals. On the subject of the Duchess in bed, the letter [monogram: S] appears on the base of one of the pillars or posts, instead of the original [monogram: HL], and it is also seen on the cut of the soldier pierced by the lance of Death. Two have the date 1546.

In that of the monk, whom, in the original, Death seizes by the cowl or hood, the artist has made a whimsical alteration, by converting the hood into a fool's cap with bells and asses' ears, and the monk's wallet into a fool's bauble. It is probable that he was of the reformed religion.

V. "Imagines Mortis, his accesserunt epigrammata e Gallico idiomate a Georgio aemylio in Latinum translata, &c. Coloniae apud haeredes Arnoldi Birckmanni, anno 1555. 12mo." With fifty-three cuts. This may be regarded as a surreptitious edition of No. IV. of the originals by [monogram: HL]

p. 106. The cuts are by the artist mentioned in No. IX. of those originals, whose mark is [monogram: SA] which is here found on five of them. They are all reversed, except the nobleman; and although not devoid of merit, they are not only very inferior to the fine originals, but also to the Italian copies in No. I. The first two subjects are newly designed; the two Devils in that of the Pope are omitted, and there are several variations, always for the worse, in many of the others, of which a tasteless example is found in that of Death and the soldier, where the thigh bone, as the very appropriate weapon of Death, is here converted into the common-place dart. The mark [monogram: HL] in the original cut of the Duchess in bed, is here omitted, without the substitution of any other. This edition was republished by the same persons, without any variation, successively in 1557, 1566, 1567, and 1573.[116]

Papillon, in his "Traite sur la gravure en bois,"[117] when noticing the above-mentioned mark, has, amidst the innumerable errors that abound in his otherwise curious work, been led into a mistake of an exceedingly ludicrous nature, by converting the owner of the mark into a cardinal. He had found it on the cuts to an edition of Faerno's fables, printed at Antwerp, 1567, which is dedicated to Cardinal Borromeo by Silvio Antoniano, professor of Belles Lettres at Rome, afterwards secretary to Pope Pius IV. and at length himself a Cardinal. He was the editor of Faerno's work. Another of Papillon's blunders is equally curious and absurd. He had seen an edition of the Emblems of Sambucus, with cuts, bearing the mark [monogram: SA] in which there is a fine portrait of the author with his favourite dog, and under the latter the word BOMBO, which Papillon gravely states to be the name of the engraver; and finding the same word on another of the emblems which has also the dog, he concludes that all the cuts which have not the [monogram: SA] were engraved by the same BOMBO. Had Papillon, a good artist in his time, but an ignorant man, been able to comprehend the verses belonging to that particular emblem, he would have seen that the above word was merely the name of the dog, as Sambucus himself has declared, whilst paying a laudable tribute to the attachment of the faithful companion of his travels. Brulliot, in his article on the mark [monogram: SA][118] has mentioned Papillon's ascription of it to Silvio Antoniano, but without correcting the blunder, as he ought to have done. This monogram appears on five of the cuts to the present edition of the "Imagines Mortis;" but M. De Murr and his follower Janssen, are not warranted in supposing the rest of them to have been engraved by a different artist.

It will perhaps not be deemed an unimportant digression to introduce a few remarks concerning the owner of the above monogram. It is by no means clear whether he was a designer or an engraver, or even both. There is a chiaroscuro print of a group of saints, engraved by Peter Kints, an obscure artist, with the name of Antony Sallaerts at length, and the mark.

Here he appears as a designer. M. Malpe, the Besancon author of "Notices sur les graveurs," speaks of Sallaerts as an excellent painter, born at Brussels about 1576, which date cannot possibly apply to the artist in question; but at the same time, he adds, that he is said to have engraved on wood the cuts in a little catechism printed at Antwerp that have the monogram [monogram: SA]. These are certainly very beautiful, in accordance with many others with the same mark, and very superior in design to those which have it in the "Imagines Mortis." M. Malpe has also an article for Antony Silvyus or Silvius, born at Antwerp about 1525, and he mentions several books with engravings and the mark in question, which he gives to the same person. M. Brulliot expresses a doubt as to this artist; but it is very certain there was a family of that name, and surnamed, or at least sometimes called, Bosche or Bush, which indeed is more likely to have been the real Flemish name Latinized into Silvius. Foppens[119] has mentioned an Antony Silvius, a schoolmaster at Antwerp, in 1565, and several other members of this family. Two belonging to it were engravers, and another a writing master.

Whether the artist in question was a Sallaerts or a Silvius, it is certain that Plantin, the celebrated printer, employed him to decorate several of his volumes, and it is to be regretted that an unsuccessful search has been made for him in Plantin's account books, that were not long since preserved, with many articles belonging to him, in his house at Antwerp.

His mark also appears in several books printed in England during the reign of Elizabeth, and particularly on a beautiful set of initial letters, some of which contain the story of Cupid and Psyche, from the supposed designs by Raphael, and other subjects from Ovid's Metamorphoses: these have been counterfeited, and perhaps in England. The initial [monogram: G], in this alphabet, with the subject of Leda and the swan, was inadvertently prefixed to the sacred name at the beginning of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews in the Bishop's Bible, printed by Rd. Jugge in 1572, and in one of his Common Prayer Books. An elegant portrait of Edward VI. with the mark [monogram: SA] is likewise on Jugge's edition of the New Testament, 1552, 4to. and there is reason to believe that Jugge employed this artist, as the same monogram appears on a cut of his device of the pelican.

VI. In the German volume, the title of which is already given in the first article of the engravings from the Basle painting,[120] there are twenty-nine subjects belonging to the present work; the rest relating to the Basle dance, except two or three that are not in either of them. These have fallen into the hands of a modern bookseller, but there can be no doubt that there were other editions which contained the whole set. The most of them have the letters [monogram: G. S.] with the graving tool, and one has the date 1576. The name of this artist is unknown; but M. Bartsch has mentioned several other engravings by him, omitting, however, the present, which, it is to be observed, sometimes vary in design from the originals.

VII. "Imagines Mortis illustratae epigrammatis Georgii aemylii theol.

doctoris. Fraxineus aemylio Suo. Criminis ut poenam mortem mors sustulit una: sic te immortalem mortis imago facit." With a cut of Death and the old man. This is the middle part only of a work, intitled "Libellus Davidis Chytraei de morte et vita aeterna. Editio postrema; cui additae sunt imagines mortis, illustrata Epigrammatis D. Georgio aemylio, Witebergae.

Impressus a Matthaeo Welack, anno MDXC." 12mo. The cuts, fifty-three in number, are, on the whole, tolerably faithful, but coarsely engraved. In the subject of the Pope the two Devils are omitted, and, in that of the Counsellor, the Demon blowing with a bellows into his ear is also wanting.

Some have the mark [monogram: cross], and one that of [monogram: W] with a knife or graving tool.

VIII. "Todtentanz durch alle stendt der menschen, &c. furgebildet mit figuren. S. Gallen, 1581." 4to. See Janssen, Essai sur l'origine de la gravure, i. 122, who seems to make them copies of the originals.

IX. The last article in this list of the old copies, though prior in date to some of the preceding, is placed here as differing materially from them with respect to size. It is a small folio, with the following title, "Todtentantz,

Das menschlichs leben anders nicht Dann nur ain lauff zum Tod Und Got ain nach seim glauben richt Dess findstu klaren tschaid O Mensch hicrinn mit andacht lisz Und fassz zu hertzen das So wirdsttu Ewigs hayls gewisz Kanst sterben dester bas.

MDXLIIII.

Desine longaevos exposcere sedulus annos Inque bonis multos annumerare dies Atque hodie, fatale velit si rumpere filum Atropos, impavido pectore disce mori."

At the end, "Gedruckt inn der kaiserlichen Reychstatt Augspurg durch Jobst Denecker Formschneyder." This edition is not only valuable for its extreme rarity, but for the very accurate and spirited manner in which the fine original cuts are copied. It contains all the subjects that were then published, but not arranged as those had been. It has the addition of one singular print, intitled "Der Eebrecher," _i. e._ the Adulterer, representing a man discovering the adulterer in bed with his wife, and plunging his sword through both of them, Death guiding his hands. On the opposite page to each engraving there is a dialogue between Death and the party, and at bottom a Latin hexameter. The subject of the Pleader has the unknown mark [monogram], and on that of the Duchess in bed, there is the date 1542. From the above colophon we are to infer that Dennecker, or as he is sometimes, and perhaps more properly, called De Necker or De Negher, was the engraver, as he is known to have executed many other engravings on wood, especially for Hans Schaufelin, with whom he was connected. He was also employed in the celebrated triumph of Maximilian, and in a collection of saints, to whom the family of that emperor was related.

X. "Emblems of Mortality, representing, in upwards of fifty cuts, Death seizing all ranks and degrees of people, &c. Printed for T. Hodgson, in George's Court, St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell, 1789. 12mo." With an historical essay on the subject, and translations of the Latin verses in the Imagines Mortis, by John Sidney Hawkins, esq. The cuts were engraved by the brother of the celebrated Bewick, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and a pupil of Hodgson, who was an engraver on wood of some merit at that time.

They are but indifferently executed, but would have been better had the artist been more liberally encouraged by the master, who was the publisher on his own account, Mr. Hawkins very kindly furnishing the letter-press.

They are faithful copies of all the originals, except the first, which, containing a figure of the Deity habited as a Pope, was scrupulously exchanged for another design. A frontispiece is added, representing Death leading up all classes of men and women.

XI. "The Dance of Death of the celebrated Hans Holbein, in a series of fifty-two engravings on wood by Mr. Bewick, with letter-press illustrations.

What's yet in this That bears the name of life? Yet in this life Lie hid more thousand Deaths: yet Death we fear, That makes these odds all even.

SHAKSPEARE.

London. William Charlton Wright." 12mo. With a frontispiece, partly copied from that in the preceding article, a common-place life of Holbein, and an introduction pillaged verbatim from an edition with Hollar's cuts, published by Mr. Edwards. The cuts, with two or three exceptions, are imitated from the originals, but all the human figures are ridiculously modernised. The text to the subjects is partly descriptions in prose, and partly Mr. Hawkins's verses, and the cuts, if Bewick's, very inferior to those in his other works.

XII. "Emblems of Mortality, representing Death seizing all ranks and degrees of people. Imitated in a series of wood cuts from a painting in the cemetery of the Dominican church at Basil in Switzerland, with appropriate texts of scripture, and a poetical apostrophe to each, freely translated from the Latin and French. London. Printed for Whittingham and Arliss, juvenile library, Paternoster-row." 12mo. The frontispiece and the rest of the cuts, with two exceptions, from the same blocks as those used for the last-mentioned edition. The preface, with very slight variation, is abridged from that by Mr. Hawkins in No. VIII. and the descriptive verses altogether the same as those in that edition. Both the last articles seem intended for popular and juvenile use. It will be immediately perceived that the title page is erroneous in confounding the Basle Dance of Death with that in the volume itself.

XIII. The last in this list is "Hans Holbein's Todtentanz in 53 getreu nach den holtz schnitten lithographirten Blattern. Herausgegeben von J.

Schlotthauer, K. Professor. Mit erklarendem Texte. Munschen, 1832. Auf kosten des Herausgebers," 12mo. or, "Hans Holbein's Dance of Death in fifty-three lithographic leaves, faithfully taken from wood engravings.

Published by J. Schlotthauer, royal professor, with explanatory text.

Munich, 1832. At the cost of the editors." This work is executed in so beautiful and accurate a manner that it might easily be mistaken for the wood originals.

The professor has substituted German verses, communicated by a friend, instead of the former Latin ones. He states that the subject will be taken up by Professor Massman, of Munich, whose work will satisfy all enquiries relating to it. Massman, however, has added to this volume a sort of explanatory appendix, in which some of the editions are mentioned. He thinks it possible that the cholera may excite the same attention to this work as the plague had formerly excited to the old Macaber Dance at Basle, and concludes with a promise to treat the subject more at large at some future time.

COPIES OF THE SAME DESIGNS, ENGRAVED IN COPPER.

I. "Todten Dantz durch alle stande und Beschlecht der Menschen, &c."

_i. e._ "Death's Dance through all ranks and conditions of men." This title is on a frontispiece representing a gate of rustic architecture, at the top of which are two boy angels with emblems of mortality between them, and underneath are the three Fates. At the bottom, Adam and Eve with the tree of knowledge, each holding the apple presented by the serpent.

Between them is a circular table, on which are eight sculls of a Pope, Emperor, Cardinal, &c. with appropriate mottoes in Latin. On the outer edge of the table STATVTVM EST OMNIBVS HOMINIBVS SEMEL MORI POST HOC AVTEM IVDICIVM. In the centre the letters MVS, the terminating syllable of each motto. Before the gate are two pedestals, inscribed MEMENTO MORI and MEMORARE NOVISSIMA, on which stand figures of Death supporting two pyramids or obelisks surmounted with sculls and a cross, and inscribed ITER AD VITAM. Below, "Eberh. Kieser excudit." This frontispiece is a copy of a large print engraved on wood long before. Without date, in quarto.

The work consists of sixty prints within borders of flowers, &c. in the execution of which two different and anonymous artists have been employed.

At the top of each print is the name of the subject, accompanied with a passage from scripture, and at the bottom three couplets of German verses.

Most of the subjects are copied from the completest editions of the Lyons cuts, with occasional slight variations. They are not placed in the same order, and all are reversed, except Nos. 57 and 60. No. 12 is not reversed, but very much altered, a sort of duplicate of the Miser. No. 50, the Jew, and No. 51, the Jewess, are entirely new. The latter is sitting at a table, on which is a heap of money, and Death appears to be giving effective directions to a demon to strangle her. No. 52 is also new. A castle within a hedge. Death enters one of the windows by a ladder, whilst a woman looks out of another.[121] The subject is from Jeremiah, ch. ix.

v. 21. "Death is come up into our windows, &c." In the subject of the Pope, the two Devils are omitted. Two military groups of boys, newly designed, are added. The following are copies from Aldegrever, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 11, and 12. At the beginning and end of the book there are moral poems in the German language.

II. Another edition of the same cuts. The title-page of the copy here described is unfortunately lost. It has a dedication in Latin to three patricians of Frankfort on the Maine by Daniel Meisner a Commenthaw, Boh.

Poet. L. C. dated, according to the Roman capitals, in a passage from Psalm 46, in the year 1623. This is followed by the Latin epigram, or address to the reader, by Geo. aemylius, whose translations of the original French couplets are also given, as well as the originals themselves. These are printed on pages opposite to the subjects, but they are often very carelessly transposed. At the end the date 1623 is twice repeated by means of the Roman capitals in two verses from Psalms 78 and 63, the one German, the other Latin. 12mo.

III. "Icones Mortis sexaginta imaginibus totidemque inscriptionibus insignitae, versibus quoque Latinis et novis Germanicis illustratae.

Vorbildungen desz Todtes. In sechtzig figuren durch alle Stande und Geschlechte, derselbigen nichtige Sterblichkeit furzuweisen, aus gebruckt, und mit so viel ubors schriffren, auch Lateinischen und neuen Teutschen Verszlein erklaret. Durch Johann Vogel. Bey Paulus Fursten Kunsthandlern zu finden." On the back of this printed title is an engraving of a hand issuing from the clouds and holding a pair of scales, in one of which is a scull, in the other a Papal tiara, sceptre, &c. weighing down the scull.

On the beam of the scales an hour glass and an open book with Arabic numerals. In the distance, at bottom, is seen a traveller reposing in a shed. Above is a label, inscribed "Metas et tempora libro," and below, "Ich Wage ziel und zeitten ab." Then follows a neatly engraved and regular title-page. At top, a winged scull surmounted with an hour-glass, and crossed with a spade and scythe. At bottom, three figures of Death sitting on the ground; one of them plays on a hautboy, or trumpet, another on a bagpipe, and the third has a drum behind him. The middle exhibits a circular Dance of Death leading by the hand persons of all ranks from the Emperor downwards. In the centre of this circle "Toden Tantz zu finden bey Paulus Furst Kunst handlern," and quite at the bottom of the page, "G.

Stra. in. A. Khol fecit." Next comes an exhortation on Death to the reader in Latin verse, followed by several poems in German and Latin, those in German signed G. P. H. Immediately afterwards, and before the first cut of the work is another elegantly engraved frontispiece representing an arched gate of stone surmounted with three sculls of a Pope, a Cardinal, and a King, between a vase of flowers on the right, and a pot of incense, a cock standing near it, on the left. On the keystone of the gate are two tilting lances in saltier, to which a shield and helmet are suspended. Through the arch is seen a chamber, in which there seems to be a bier, and near it a cross. On the left of the gate is a niche with a scull and bones in it.

Below are two large figures of Death. That on the left has a wreath of flowers round its head, and is beating a bell with a bone. Under him is an owl, and on the side of his left knee a scythe. The other Death has a cap and feather, in his right hand an hour-glass, the left pointing to the opposite figure. On the ground between them, a bow, a quiver of arrows and a dart. On the left inner side of the gate a pot with holy water is suspended to a ring, the sprinkler being a bone. Further on, within the gate, is a flat stone, on which are several sculls and bones, a snake biting one of the sculls. On the right hand corner at bottom is the letter [monogram: A], perhaps the mark of the unknown engraver. The explanations on the pages opposite to each print are in German and Latin verses, the latter by aemylius, with occasional variations. This edition has the sixty prints in the two preceding Nos. some of them having been retouched; and the cut of the King at table, No. 9, is by a different engraver from the artist of the same No. in the preceding 4to. edition, No. I. The present edition has also an additional engraving at the end, representing a gate, within which are seen several sculls and bones, other sculls in a niche, and in the distance a cemetery with coffins and crosses. Over the gate a scull on each side, and on the outer edge of the arch is the inscription, "Quis Rex, quis subditus hic est?" At bottom,

Hie sage wer es sagen kan Here let tell who may: Wer konig sey? wer unterthan. Or, which be the king? which the subject?

Paulus Furst Excu.

The whole of the print in a border of sculls, bones, snakes, toads, and a lizard. Opposite to it the date 1647 is to be gathered from the Roman capitals in two scriptural quotations, the one in Latin, the other in German, ending with this colophon, "Gedrucht zu Nuremberg durch Christoff Lochner. In Verlegung Paul Fursten Kunsthandlern allda." 12mo.

IV. A set of engravings, 8 inches by 8, of which the subject of the Pedlar, only has occurred on the present occasion. Instead of the trump-marine, which one of the Deaths plays on in the original cut, this artist has substituted a violin, and added a landscape in the back-ground.

Below are these verses:

LA MORT.