ideas as regards book-illustration underwent a great change. Theology had become popular, and theological books were not adapted for illustration. The ordinary book, with pictures put in haphazard, absolutely died out; and cuts were only used in chap books, or in large illustrated volumes,—descriptions of horrible creatures, and the likenesses of comets or portents on the one hand, chronicles, books of travel, and scientific works on the other. The difference which we noticed between W. de Worde and Pynson, the one being a popular printer and the other a printer of standard works, is distinctly marked in the succeeding generation. While Wyer, Byddell, and Copland published the popular books, Grafton and Whytchurch, Wolfe and Day, issued more solid literature. The old woodcuts passed into the hands of the poorer printers, and were used till they were worn out, and it is curious to notice how long in many cases this took. On the other hand, the illustrations made for new books are, as a rule, of excellent design and execution, owing a good deal, in all probability, to the influence of Holbein, who, for the latter portion of his life, was living in England. As examples of his work, we may take two books published in 1548, Cranmer's Catechism, published by Walter Lynne, and Halle's Chronicles, published by Grafton. The first contains a number of small cuts, one of which is signed in full Hans Holbein, and two others are signed with his initials H. H. Some writers insist that
these three cuts alone are to be ascribed to him, and that the rest are from an unknown hand. Besides these small cuts, there is one full-page cut on the back of the title of very fine work. It represents Edward VI. seated on his throne with the bishops kneeling on his right, the peers on his left. From the hands of the king the bishops are receiving a Bible. The cut at the end of Halle's Chronicles, very similarly executed and also ascribed to Holbein, represents Henry VIII. sitting in Parliament. Almost all the volumes of chronicles, of which a number were issued in the sixteenth century, contain woodcuts, and two are especially well illustrated,—Grafton's Chronicles, published in 1569, and Holinshed's Chronicles in 1577. The illustrations in the latter book, which Mr. Linton considers to have been cut on metal, do not appear in the later edition of 1586. Among the illustrations in the first edition, so Dibdin says, is to be found a picture of a guillotine.
Of all the English printers of the latter half of the sixteenth century, none produced finer books than John Day, who, it has been suggested, engraved some of the woodcuts which he used. The best known, perhaps, of his books is the Book of Christian Prayers, commonly called Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book, which he published in 1569. In a way, this book is undoubtedly a fine specimen of book-ornamentation, but as it was executed in a style then out of date, having borders
like the earlier service books, it suffers by comparison with the 'Books of Hours' of fifty years earlier. Another book of Day's which obtained great popularity was the History of Martyrs, compiled by John Fox. We read on Day's epitaph in the church of Bradley-Parva—
"He set a Fox to wright how martyrs runne,
By death to lyfe. Fox ventured paynes and health,
To give them light; Day spent in print his wealth."
Considering the popularity of the book, and the number of editions that were issued, we can hardly imagine that Day lost money upon it. The illustrations are of varied excellence, but the book contains also some very fine initial letters. One, the C at the commencement of the dedication, contains a portrait of Queen Elizabeth on her throne, with three men standing beside her, two of whom are supposed to be Day and Fox. Below the throne, forming part of the letter, is the Pope holding two broken keys.
Initial letters about this time arrived at their best. They were often very large, and contained scenes, mythological subjects, or coats-of-arms. A fine specimen of this last class is to be found in the Cosmographical Glasse, by William Cuningham, 1559. It is a large D containing the arms of Robert, Lord Dudley, to whom the book is dedicated. Very soon after this some ingenious printer invented the system of printing an ornamental border for the
letter with a blank space for the insertion of an ordinary capital letter,—a system which soon succeeded in destroying any beauty or originality which letters had up to this time possessed.