INTRODUCTION.

were in all probability in distemper : as no well authen-ticated water-coloured drawing is known to have beenexecuted by him abroad. My authority is Walpole, towhom the Reader is referred below. 2

The first Edition of this popular Work appeared in 1538,and the second in 1539. Of the intervening Editions,between the latter and that of 1547, the following, it ispresumed, is a tolerably accurate list. 3 In 1549 thereappeared, for the first time, an English version of thedifferent passages of Scripture subjoined to elucidate thecuts : all the previous editions having only Latin, Spanish }or Latin and French, Extracts. It is clear that the Authorof this English version was a Foreigner. I have presumedto think that Lutzelberger 4 might have engraved these

2 Anecdotes of Painting, Dallaway 1 s Edition ; 1826—8, vol. i. pp. 118,120. It is somewhat singular, that, Walpole, in enumerating Hol-bein's earlier works abroad, does not notice the original Drawings ofthis identical Work. See p. 128, &c. It might, prima facie, appearthat these Drawings were among "the hundred and three genuineSketches/' in the possession of Amerbach, relating chiefly to the life otChrist.

3 List of the Editions.

1538 Historia Veteris Instrumenti, Icones ad vivum expressse, 4to.Lugduni, sub scuto coloniensi. Excudebant Lugduni Melchior etGaspar Trechsel, 1538.

1539 Historia Veteris Testamenti, 4to. Lugduni, sub scuto coloniensi,

1539- .1543 Historia Veteris Testamenti, 4to. Lugduni, sub scuto coloniensi,

apud Joannem et Franciscum Frellonios, fratres. MD.XL.III.1547 Icones Historiarum Veteris Testamenti. Lugduni, apud Johannem

Frellonium, 4to. 1547.1549 Retratos o Tablas de las Historias del Testamento viejo, hechas y

du buxadas por un muy primo y sotil artifice. Lion de Francia,

1549-

1549 The Images of the Old Testament lately expressed, set forthe

in Ynglishe and Frenche, vuith a playn and brief exposition,

Printid at Lyons by Johan Frellon, the yere of our Lord God 1549.

4 All the editions appear to be printed from the same blocks, except

a pirated one with the following title : "Historiaru Veteris Testamenti

Icones ad viuum expressae. Pans apud Petrum Regnault, sub tribus

coronis Coloniae, via ad diuum Jacobum, 1544,"—in which the subjects

are somewhat altered, and reversed.