blocks were not produced by the graver on the end section of a piece of fine-grained wood (box now invariably), but by the knife on the plank section of pear-tree or similar wood—a much more difficult feat when the cuts were fine, as, e.g., in Lützelberger's marvellous cuts of the "Dance of Death."

[Mr. Morris then showed a series of lantern slides, which he described as follows:]

1. This is taken from the "Ars Moriendi," date about 1420. You may call it Flemish or Dutch, subject to raising the controversy I mentioned just now.
2. The "Song of Solomon," about the same date.
3. From the first illustrated book of the Ulm school. The Renowned and Noble Ladies of Boccaccio. It begins with Adam and Eve. The initial letter is very characteristic of the Ulm school of ornament. The trail of the serpent forms the S, and in the knots of the tail are little figures representing the seven deadly sins.
4. Another page from the same book. "Ceres and the Art of Agriculture." One of the great drawbacks to wood block printing in those times was the weakness of the presses. Their only resource was to print with the paper very wet, and with very soft packing, so that the block went well into the paper; but many books, and this amongst others, have suffered much from this cause.
5. Another page of the same book. The date is 1473.
6. This is from an Augsburg book. "Speculum Humanæ Vitæ," written by a Spanish bishop, which was a great favourite in the Middle Ages. It gives the advantages and disadvantages of all conditions of life. This block contains a genealogical tree of the Hapsburg family, and is an exceedingly beautiful piece of ornamental design, very well cut.
7. From the same book; representing not the "Five Alls," with which you are familiar, but the "Four Alls;" the gentleman, the merchant, the nobleman, and the poor man, who is the support of the whole lot, with his toes coming through his shoes. This is a fine specimen of printing of Gunther Zainer. The initial letters are very handsome in all these Augsburg books.
8. There is a picture of the Unjust Lawyer, from the same book, taking money from both sides. The date of this book is about 1475.
9. From "Æsop's Fables," a reproduction of the "Ulm Æsop," by Antony Sorg, of Augsburg (but the pictures are printed from the same blocks), the "Fly on the Wheel," and the "Jackdaw and Peacock." These designs for the Æsop pictures went all through the Middle Ages, with very little alteration.
10. "King Stork and King Log," from the same book.
11. This is from the Table-book of Bidpay, by Conrad Dinckmuth, who carried on the early glories of the Ulm school in a later generation; about 1486.
12. The Parrot in a Cage, with the ladies making a sham storm to cause the poor bird to be put to death. Dinckmuth did some very remarkable work: one of the best of which was a German translation of the "Eunuchus" of Terence; another the "Chronicle of the Swabians."
13. The "Schatzbehalter," published by Koburger, of Nuremberg, 1491. Although so late, there is no trace of any classical influence in the design. The architecture, for instance, is pure late German architecture.
14. From the same book, "Joshua Meeting the Angel," and "Moses at the Burning Bush."
15. A page, or part of a page, from the celebrated Nuremberg Chronicle, printed by Koburger in 1493. This is, in a way, an exception to the rule of illustrated books being in the vernacular, as it is in Latin; but there is also a German edition.
16. Another specimen of the same book.
17. From a curious devotional book, "Der Seusse," printed by Antony Sorg, at Augsburg, about 1485.
18. Another page, which shows the decorative skill with which they managed their diagram pictures.
19. An example of the Flemish school, and characteristic of the design of white and black, which is so often used both by the Florentine and the Flemish wood-cutters. It is from a life of Christ, published by Gerard Leeuw in 1487.
20. Another page from the same book. There are certainly two artists in this book, and the one on the left appears to be the more pictorial of the two; though his designs are graceful, he is hardly as good as the rougher book illustrator. Gerard Leeuw had a very handsome set of initial letters, a kind of ornament which did not become common until after 1480.
21. Another one from the same book.
22. From another Flemish book, showing how the style runs through them all. St. George and the Dragon; from "A Golden Legend," 1503.
23. One of French series, from a very celebrated book called "La Mer des Histoires." It begins the history of France a little before the deluge. It is a most beautiful book, and very large. One would think these borders were meant to be painted, as so many "Books of Hours" were, but I have never seen a copy which has had the borders painted, though, as a rule, when the borders are meant to be painted, it is not common to find one plain.
24. Another page from the same book; but the slide does not do justice to it. I will here mention that one failing of the French publishers was to make one picture serve for several purposes. The fact is, they were more careful of decoration than illustration.
25. Another French book by a French printer, the "Aubre des Batailles," which illustrates that curious quality of romance which you find in the French pictures. It is true that many of these cuts were not made for this book; in fact, they were done for another edition of the Chevalier Delibré, the Flemish edition of which I have mentioned before, for some have that name on them.
26. Another from the same book.
27. Another good example of the French decorative style. It is from Petrarch's "Remedy of either Fortune." This is the author presenting his book to the king, and is often used in these French books.
28. From another French book of about the same date (the beginning of the sixteenth century), "The Shepherd's Calendar," of which there were a great number of English editions, even as late as 1656, the cuts being imitated from these blocks.
29. A page from one of the beautiful "Books of Hours," which were mostly printed on vellum, every page of which is decorated more or less with this sort of picture. Here is the calendar, with the signs of the Zodiac, the work of the months, the saints that occur in it, and games and sports; on the other side is the Sangraal. This book is throughout in the same style—wholly Gothic. It was printed in 1498, and about twenty years after these service-books became very much damaged by having Renaissance features introduced from German artists of the time.
30. Another page from the same book. The Resurrection, and the raising of Lazarus are the principal subjects.
31. Nominally an Italian woodcut; the book was printed at Milan, but this cut is probably of German design, if not execution.
32. From a very beautiful book in the Florentine style. One of the peculiarities is the copious use of white out of black.
33. Another from the same—"The Quatre reggio," 1508.
34. Another, very characteristic of the Florentine style, with its beautiful landscape background.
35. This is one in which the ornament has really got into the Renaissance style. It is a sort of "Lucky Book," with all sorts of ways of finding your fortune, discovering where your money has gone, who is your enemy, and so on. One of the Peschia books, actually printed at Milan, but of the Venetian school.
36. From a book of the Venetian style, about the same date. I show it as an example of the carefulness and beauty with which the artists of the time combined the border work with the pictures. There is something very satisfactory in the proportion of black and white in the whole page.

Now you have seen my examples, I want once more to impress upon you the fact that these designs, one and all, while they perform their especial function—the office of telling a tale—never forget their other function of decorating the book of which they form a