go TTie Vance of Death.

The proofs of the above alphabets may have beendeposited by Lutzenberger in the public library of hisnative city. Whether they were cut on wood or on metalmay admit of a doubt ; but there is reason to believe thatthe old printers and type-cutters occasionally used blocksof metal instead of wood for their figured initial letters,and the term For?nschneider equally applies to those whoengraved in relief on either of those materials. Nothingcan exceed the beauty and spirit of the design in thesealphabets, nor the extreme delicacy and accurate minute-ness of the engraving.

The letters in these respective alphabets were intendedfor the use of printers, and especially those of Basle, asCratander, Bebelius, and Isingrin. Copies and imitationsof them aie to be found in many books printed at Zurich,Strasburg, Vienna, Augsburg, Frankfort, &c. and a few evenin books printed at London by Waley, Purslowe, Marsh,and Nicholson, particularly in a quarto edition of Cover-dale's Bible, if printed in the latter city; and one of them,a capital A, is in an edition of Stowe's Survey of London,1618, 4to.

There is an unfortunate ambiguity connected with themarks that are found on ancient engravings in wood, andit has been a very great error on the part of all the writerswho treat on such engravings, in referring the marks thataccomparv them to the block-cutters, or as the Germansproperly denominate them, the Formschneiders, whilst,perhaps, the greatest part of them really belong to thedesigners, as is undoubtedly the case with respect to AlbertDiirer, Hans Schaufelin, Jost Amman, Tobias Stimmer,&c. It may be laid down as a rule that there is no certaintyas to the marks of engravers, except where they are accom-panied with some implement of their art, especially agraving tool. Where the designer of the subject put hismark on the drawing which he made on, or for, the block,the engraver would, of course, copy it. Sometimes themarks of both designer and engraver are found on prints,and in these cases the ambiguity is consequently removed.