CHAPTER II
ON THE BLOCK BOOKS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
In the first half of the fifteenth century, before the invention of printing by means of movable type, many books were produced in which the woodcuts and the text were engraved on the same page, or sometimes the text was on one page and the woodcut opposite. They were impressed on one side only of the paper, and the two blank pages were often pasted together. They are usually called Block Books. Many of the cuts are more than ten inches in height by eight inches in width, and were probably cut with a knife upon smoothly planed planks of the pear-tree, or other fine-grained wood, or possibly some were engraved upon soft metal.
The most celebrated of them are:
VIII. Biblia Pauperum.—Bible of the Poor.
VIII. Apocalypsis Sancti Johnannis.—Visions of St. John.
VIII. Ars Moriendi.—The Art of Dying.
IIIV. Canticum Canticorum.—Solomon's Song.
IIIV. Ars Memorandi.—The Art of Remembering.
IIVI. Liber Regum.—Book of Kings.