Saint Christopher. Woodcut attributed to W.Y. Ottley.

"The earliest print, bearing a date, of the existence of which we have at present any certain knowledge, was discovered by Heineken; who thus described it in his writings: "I found," says he, "in the Chartreuse at Buxheim, near Memmingen, one of the most ancient convents in Germany, a print of Saint Christopher carrying the infant Jesus across the sea : opposite to him is the hermit holding up his lantern to give him light; and behind is a peasant, seen in a back view, carrying a sack, and climbing the ascent of a steep mountain. This piece is of a folio size, and coloured in the manner of our playing-cards ; at the bottom of it is this inscription : " Cristoferi faciem die quacunque tueris, / Illa nempe die morte mala non morieris. " millesimo cccc xx tercio." "At least," continues Heineken, "we know from this piece, with certainty, that the figures of saints, and, also, letters, were engraved in 1423. Nor can any fraud be suspected in this instance. The print is pasted within the cover of an old book of the fifteenth century. Some one of the ancient monks of the convent perhaps desired to preserve it, and at that time no one troubled himself about the antiquity of engraving, or disputed upon the question." It was due to Heineken that I should describe this most interesting specimen of early wood engraving in his own words; since, but for his research, it might have continued to lie unnoticed in the convent of Buxheim, perhaps, for centuries to come. It has now found an asylum worthy of so precious and rare a document, in the splendid library of Earl Spencer, where it is preserved in the same state in which Heineken discovered it, pasted in the inside of one of the covers of a manuscript in the Latin language, of the year 1417. Lord Spencer, with a liberality for which he is eminently distinguished, has permitted it to be faithfully copied, of the same dimensions as the original, for the present work; and the reader will therefore be a competent judge of its merits, except as respects the colours, with which, like the last described print, it was tinted after printing, and which it has been judged proper to omit, that its true pretensions, as a work of engraving, may the better appear. I shall say but a few words concerning this engraving, as a work of art. The principal group is composed with dignity ; and, indeed, as respects its arrangement, is not inferior to many pictures of the same subject, executed by esteemed artists of later times. The reciprocity between St. Christopher and the sacred infant, is well conceived ; the head of the saint is expressive ; and the drapery, floating over his shoulder, is folded in a grand style. But the extremities, and some other parts of the figures, are so defective in point of drawing, as to give reason to suspect that the artist, who prepared the design from which the print was immediately en-graved, had no part in the invention of the piece ; except that of introducing the fish under the feet of the saint, the diminutive mill in the foreground, and the other accessories ; all of them so far beneath criticism, that one would almost suppose it had been his intention, by surrounding St. Christopher with such absurdities, to bring the saint into disrepute. "--Ottley, op. cit., pp. 89-91