This Dedication is prefixed to the Edition of 1538, and speaks of the Designer (by which, I conceive, we must understand both Painter and Engraver, for it speaks of the Drawings of the unfinished ones as having been then already traced or drawn; and, if so, they might surely have been finished by the Engraver of the former ones) as then lately dead; now it is well known that Holbein did not die till 1554[19], and therefore it could not be he: And I would further observe, that the Mark
is not peculiar to Holbein. Strutt, in his Biographical Dictionary of Engravers, Vol. II. P. 86, attributes it to one Hans Lederer, of whom he gives no Particulars; and the Catalogue of Marks and Cyphers of Engravers, P. 21. Edit. 1730, mentions one Lambrecht Hopfer, a German, but the Age in which he lived is not noticed, who used, as his Mark, sometimes a Vase of Flowers in the Midst of the Letters L H, and sometimes the perpendicular Stroke of the L in the second Stroke of the H, which is exactly as it appears in the Cut before referred to.
I have only to add, that the Cuts in the present Edition, excepting only the first (which, representing in the Original the Deity in the Habit of the Pope, to avoid giving Offence, it was thought proper to omit, and to substitute in its Room one designed for the Purpose) are engraven, and the Verses under them translated, from the Latin Edition of 1547; and that the additional Cuts, which appeared in the French Edition of 1562 (with the Omission only of four of Boys, as being foreign to this Subject) are here also inserted, and the Verses under them translated from the French.
The EDITOR.
March 24, 1789.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Anecdotes of Painting, 8vo. Vol. I. P. 123.
[2] As it may afford the Reader some Satisfaction to be informed particularly what Characters are represented in this Painting, we here give a List of them from Merian’s Engravings mentioned in the Text: At the Beginning is a Cut of Oecolompadius preaching; next follows one of a Charnel-House, and two Figures of Death piping; after which, in distinct Cuts, are given the Pope, Emperor, Empress, King, Queen, Cardinal, Bishop, Duke, Duchess, Count, Abbot, Knight, Lawyer, Magistrate, Canon, Physician, Gentleman, Lady, Merchant, Abbess, Cripple, Hermit, Young Man, Usurer, Maiden, Musician, Herald, Mayor, Grand Provost, Buffoon, Pedlar, Blind Man, Jew, Pagan, Female Pagan, Cook, Peasant, Painter, Painter’s Wife.
[3] History of Poetry, Vol. II. P. 54, in a Note.