Identifier: oldpicturebooksw00pollrich (find matches)
Title: Old picture books; with other essays on bookish subjects
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Pollard, Alfred W. (Alfred William), 1859-1944 Pollard, Alice
Subjects: Bibliography Illustrated books
Publisher: London : Methuen and co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ooked on only as an example of the sporadic illustrations of which we have spoken as appearing in other districts. But from the 28th of September, 1490, onwards for twenty years, we have a succession of woodcuts which, amid all the differences which give them individuality, are yet closely linked together in style, and form, on the whole, by far the finest series of book illustrations of early date. The popularity which these woodcuts attained is attested by the repeated editions of the works in which they appear; while the suddenness with which they sprang up, the general similarity of style, and the nature of the books they illustrate, all suggest that we have here to deal with a conscious and carefully directed movement as opposed to the haphazard use of illustrations in other cities during the previous twenty years. The book in which the first characteristic Florentine woodcut appears is an edition of the Laude, of Jacopone da Todi, printed by Francesco Buonaccorsi; rMMMaMAMMMhaaaaaaBaaHMMM*
Text Appearing After Image:
FROM JACOPONE DA TODlS LAUDE, 1490 FLORENTINE RAPPRESENTAZIONI 17 and both the choice of the book and the name of the printer offer a tempting basis for theory-making. Printing, we must remember, though it had been in use for more than a third of a century, was even then a new craft, and was still taken up sometimes as a side-employment by many persons who had been bred to other trades or professions. Our own Caxton, as we all know, was a mercer; the first printer at St. Albans, a schoolmaster; Francesco Tuppo, of Naples, a jurist; Joannes Philippus de Lignamine, of Rome, a physician; and so on. In natural continuation, however, of the work of the Scriptorium in many monasteries, we find that a large number of the early printers were members of monasteries orpriests, and it was to this latter order that the Buonaccorsiwho printed the Laude belonged. Now, the nameBuonaccorsi is the name of the family of Savonarolasmother. A few months before the appearance of the Laude the great Dominican

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