This particular kind of book-illustration came from the Byzantine monasteries and spread throughout Europe. Old Persian manuscripts show that the art is of Oriental origin. The same style of decoration was followed in em broidery; and church vestments were adorned with needle-wrought pictures similar to those in the °illuminated manuscripts.° See EM BROIDERY.
The fashion of book-illustration changed when printing was invented in the 15th century. Pictures drawnby the artist were now cut on blocks of wood by a special worker and in serted in the page of type. Some of these old wood-cuts were crude and rough with coarse lines and some were colored in gaudy hues. English billed sheets, called and chap-books sold by peddlers for a few pennies were illustrated in this way.
The Italian artists with their refinement of taste and imaginative qualities made the illus trated Italian books of the Renaissance veri table works of art. They are highly prized by the book-collector. The decorative 4itle-pages, borders, vignettes, tail-pieces initial letters and pictures produced by the. Italians—particularly the Florentines—form a chapter by themselves in decorative art as well as in the art of book illustration. The ornamentation of these Italian books can be compared only to the filagree work of the goldsmiths of the Renaissance; and it is most natural that the designs should be similar, since many of the Florentine painters of the early years of the Renaissance were gold smiths. Such was Sandro Botticelli (1444 1510), for example, whose illustrations of Dante's Commedia,' made in 1494 for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco, rank among the most wonderful of all engravings. One rarely thinks of Botticelli, the great painter of spring ((Primevera)), Rising from the and the (Madonna of the Magnificat,' as an en graver; but these pictures for Dante's work, preserved, some in the Vatican and some in the Berlin Cabinet, show Botticelli as one of the greatest masters of the single line — almost Japanese in his simplicity and directness. These illustrations were sketched in silver print and finished with pen and ink. A few of them are in color. The style of the Rennaissance is to be found in every illustrated book of. the 15th and 16th centuries, whether published in Italy, France, Spain, England, the Low Countries, or in the Holy Roman Empire (which included the present Austria and Germany). Every title-page was ornamented with leafy scrolls, mermaids, sirens, cupids' heads, sea-horses and mythological figures or interlaced strap-work; and every chapter and section began with a decorative initial letter and ended with a tail piece. Even treatises on medicine and hand books for the use of furniture-makers had such rich embellishments. On books of travel and geography the illustrators lavished all their skill. Maps appealed especially to the Renaissance illustrators and open to the student a vast field of information "and to the decorator a world of design.
The books illustrated by Diirer (1471-1528) and Holbein the younger (1497-1543) are ex amples of the Renaissance as interpreted by the German mind. Holbein had great influence upon contemporary English taste, as he resided in England and was a great friend of the leader of taste and literature — Sir Thomas More. In the decoration of books .the fash
ionable style of .the day is always to be found. Therefore, in the days of Louis XIV we see the influence of Berain and Lepautre taking the place of the Renaissance style. In the next period, that of the Regency and Louis XV, the styles of Watteau, Fragonard, Huet and Boucher are just as noticeable. Correspond ingly in England the °Chippendale° style (de rived from the Louis XV style) appears on many a title-page,
interlacing curves, rock-and-shell (rococo), dripping water, Chi nese mandarins, pavilions and floral emblems. Then comes the pseudo-classic Louis XVI period, with its elongated ovals, slender lines, urns, trophies and classic ornamentation. It is only necessary for an expert to open a book in order to tell the period of its manufacture, even if there is no date on the title-page. Some of the most charming ideas and loveliest orna mentation are to be found in various editions of La Fontaine's Fables, Moliere's plays and, in fact, all the plays and novels of the 17th and 18th century authors. The French have always excelled in the art of book-illustration, both in color and in black-and-white. Throughout the 18th century and until the last quarter of the 19th, when the half-tone process of reproduc tion was introduced, the artist's work was reproduced by means of the wood-cut, or steel engraving, or copper-plate etching. (See EN GRAVING). Nothing is more charming than the old wood-cut, which has a peculiar softness and delicacy. For the development of its technique Thomas Bewick (1753-1828), an Englishman, was largely responsible. Bewick was remark able for his great precision of outline, his tint and his so-called °white line.° His illustration of (British( Birds,' Gay's (Fables) and /Esop's
are classic. His contemporary, Wil liam Blake (1757-1827), was a remarkable in stance of an inspired genius at creation and a master of technique. All artists study Blake's
to the Book of Job' (18X). The next period of English illustrators is headed by George Cruikshank (1792-1878), who never quite gets away from caricature in which he was a master. Cruikshank is somewhat vulgar at times, but he has humor and often a delight ful fancy. His illustrations of several old (Fairy Tales' appeal to artists. One can hardly ever think of Dickens' works apart from Cruik shank, who shares fame as a Dickens illustrator with John Leech (1817-64) and Hablot K. Brown (1815-82), known as °Phiz." It is interesting to speculate on how Thackeray would have treated the
Papers> if Dickens had given him the requested permission to illustrate them. William Make peace Thackeray (1811-63), was almost as great a draughtsman as novelist. In •his illustrations for his own novels— (Vanity Fair,' for in stance — he presents A world of humor, some times direct and sometimes subtle, which ap peals as strongly to artists as to lovers of literature. Thackergy evidently inspired the work of W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911), whose de lightful illustrations of his own