Among other designs in use between 1576 and 1640 are a number of variants of a device in which a light A and a dark A form the most conspicuous points. Camden, in his "Remaines Concerning Britaine," 1614, commences a chapter on "Impresses," at the head of which the device is found, thus:—"An Imprese (as the Italians call it) is a device in picture with his Motto, or Word, borne by noble and learned personages, to notifie some particular conceit of their owne: as Emblemes (that we may omitte other differences) doe propound some general instructions to all." Then follow a number of examples, and amongst them this:—
"Variete and vicissitude of humane things he seemed to shew which parted his shield, Per Pale, Argent & Sables and counter-changeably writte in the Argent, Ater and in the Sables Albus."
But even if the light A and dark A are used in the design of the head-piece to represent Albus and Ater it does not afford any satisfactory explanation as to why they are so used.
In MDCXVI. was published "Les Emblemes Moraulx et Militaires du Sieur Jacob De Bruck Angermundt Nouvellement mis en Lumiere A Strasbourg, Par Jacob de Heyden Graveur."
In Emblem No. 18, now reproduced, the light A and the dark A will be found in the branch of the tree which the man is about to cut off. (Figure VI.)[44]
Another Emblem does not contain the light A and dark A, but the bark of the trunk and branches of the tree on the design exhibit a strong contrast between the dark and light, which feature is represented in most of the title-pages of books in which the device is found. (Figure VII.)
Mr. Charles T. Jacob, Chiswick Press, London, who is the author of "Books and Printing" (London, 1902), and several works on typography, referring to an article on the migration of woodblocks, said:—
It is a well-known fact to Bibliographers that the same blocks were sometimes used by different printers in two places quite far apart, and at various intervals during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. That the same blocks were employed is apparent from a comparison of technical defects of impressions taken at different places, and at two periods. There was no method of duplication in existence until stereotyping was first invented in 1725; even then the details were somewhat crude, and the process being new, it met with much opposition and was practically not adopted until the early part of the nineteenth century. Electrotyping, which is the ideal method of reproducing woodblocks, was not introduced until 1836 or thereabouts. Of course, it was quite possible to re-engrave the same design, but absolute fidelity could not be relied on by these means, even if executed by the same hand.