Page:A History of Wood-Engraving.djvu/58

56 of that great school in wood-engraving which seeks its effects in black lines.

To describe the hundreds of illustrated books which the German printers published before the end of the century belongs to the bibliographer. Should any one turn to them, he would find in the cuts that they contain much diversity in character, but little in merit; he would meet at



Bamberg, in the works printed by Pfister, whose Book of Fables, published 1461, is the first dated volume with wood-cuts of figures, designs so rude that they are generally believed to have been hacked out by apprentices wholly destitute of training in the craft; he would notice in the