CATALOGUE OF A LOAN COLLECTION OF BOOKS[1] PRINTED BEFORE 1600.
By the Rev. W. J. LOFTIE, F.S.A.
INTRODUCTION.
The general history of the art of printing is so fully and carefully examined in Mr. Winter Jones's address, that it will be unnecessary for me to do more as an introduction to the following catalogue than to call attention to a few general facts regarding the earliest productions of the press; whilst I apologise if I am obliged here and there to trespass on the ground already occupied by him. I shall endeavour to make my notes as concise as possible, referring the reader for further information to Mr. Jones's paper, and to the notices of individual books which will be found under the respective heads.
Printing, as we have it, is the child of wood engraving. The history of wood engraving has been written by a competent authority,[2] whose investigations in pursuit of information regarding one branch of the art enabled him to simplify and lighten the studies of those who pursued a different branch. Wood engraving, again, is apparently descended from a still more ancient art, that of block printing—the exact origin of which cannot be traced. It is not long since some small dies for printing the names of various medicines were exhibited to the Archæological Institute, as having been found among the remains of a Roman villa at Lydney, in Gloucestershire, and many similar examples might be quoted. The Chinese, too, have printed by means of wooden blocks from a very early period.
The earliest examples of playing cards which I have seen were among the collection known as that of Culeman, and
