They were badly copied, and with occasional variations, for books printed at Strasburg by J. Schott about 1540. Same size as the originals. The same initials were used by Henry Stainer of Augsburg in 1530.
Schott also used two other sets of a larger size, the same subjects with variations, and which occur likewise in books printed at Frankfort about 1550 by Cyriacus Jacob.
Christopher Froschover, of Zurich, used two alphabets with the Dance of Death. In Gesner’s “Bibliotheca Universalis,” printed by him in 1545, folio, he used the letters A. B. C. in indifferent copies of the originals with some variation. In a Vulgate Bible, printed by him in 1544, he uses the A and C of the same alphabet, and also the following letters, with different subjects, viz. F. Death blowing a trumpet in his left hand, with the right seizes a friar holding his beads and endeavouring to escape. O. Death and the Swiss soldier with his battle-axe; and, S. a queen between two Deaths, one of whom leads her, the other holds up her train. The Gesner has also a Q from the same alphabet of Death and the nun. This second alphabet is coarsely engraved on wood, and both are of the same size as the originals.
In Francolin’s “Rerum præclare gestarum, intra et extra mœnia civitatis Viennensis, pedestri et equestri prælio, terra et aqua, elapso Mense Junio Anni Domini MDLX. elegantissimis iconibus ad vivum illustratarum, in laudem et gloriam sere. poten. invictissimique principis et Domini, Domini Ferdinandi electi Roma: imperatoris, &c. Vienna excudebat Raphael Hofhalter,” at fo. xxii. b. the letter D is closely copied in wood from the original, and appears to have been much used. This very rare work is extremely interesting for its large and spirited etchings of the various ceremonies on the above occasion, but more particularly for the tournaments. It is also valuable for the marks of the artists, some of which are quite unknown.
Other copies of them on wood occur in English books, but whether the whole alphabet was copied would be difficult to ascertain. In a Coverdale’s Bible, printed by James Nicolson in Southwark, the letters A. I. and T. occur. The subject of the A. is that of the fool and Death, from the R. of the originals, with the addition of the fool’s bauble on the ground: the two other letters are like the originals. The size 2 inches by 1½. The same letters, and no others, occur in a folio English Bible, the date of which has not been ascertained, it being only a fragment. The A is found as late as 1618 in an edition of Stowe’s “Survey of London.” In all these letters large white spots are on the back-ground, which might be taken for worm-holes, but are not so. The I occurs in J. Waley’s “table of yeres of kings,” 1567, 12mo.
An X and a T, an inch and ½ square, with the same subjects as in the originals, and not only closely copied, but nearly as well engraved on wood, are in the author’s collection. Their locality has not been traced.
Hollar etched the first six letters of the alphabet from the initials described in p. [214]. They are rather larger than the originals, but greatly inferior to them in spirit and effect.
Two other alphabets, the one of peasants dancing, the other of boys playing, by the same artists, have been already described in p. [101], and were also used by the Basle and other printers.
In Braunii Civitates Orbis terrarum, Par. I. No. 37, edit. 1576, there is an H, inch and ½ square. The subject, Death leading a Pope on horseback. It is engraved on wood with much spirit.
In “Prodicion y destierro de los Moriscos de Castilla, por F. Marcos de Guadalajara y Xavier.” Pamplona, 1614, 4to. there is an initial E cut in wood with the subject of the cardinal, varied from that in Lutzenberger’s alphabet.