, and one that of
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 longævos 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
, 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.