in particular, was enabled to correct him, and to supply his deficiencies. I am not surprised, then, that Meerman (p. 259) should suppose Andrea to have been already an engraver before the time of Baldini and Botticelli; I could have wished only that he had better observed the order of the epochs, and not postponed the praise due to him until the pontificate of Innocent VIII. In fact, it is not easy to ascertain the exact time when Mantegna first directed his attention to the art of engraving. It decidedly appears that he commenced at Padua; for the very confidence he displays in every plate, shews that he could be no novice; nor is it credible that his noviciate began only in old age. I suspect he received the rudiments of the art from Niccolo, a distinguished goldsmith, as he gave his portrait, together with that of Squarcione, in a history piece of S. Cristoforo, at the Eremitani in Padua; each most probably being a tribute of respect to his former master. It is true that we meet with no specimens of his hand at that, or even a later period of his early life; though we ought to recollect that he never affixed any dates to his works. So that it is impossible to say that none of them were the production of his earlier years, however equal and beautiful they appear in regard to their style; inasmuch as in his paintings we are enabled to detect little difference between his history of S. Cristoforo, painted in the flower of youth, and his altar-piece at S. Andrea of Mantua, which is considered one of his last labours. A specimen of his engraving with a date, is believed, however, by some, to be contained in a book of Pietro d'Abano; intitled "Tractatus de Venenis," published in Mantua, 1472, "in cujus paginâ prima littera initialis aeri incisa exhibetur, quæ integram columnæ latitudinem occupat. Patet hinc artem chalcographicam jam anno 1472 extitisse." Thus far writes the learned Panzer,[121] but whether he ever saw the work that exists in folio, and of seven pages, I am not certain.[122] A quarto edition was likewise edited in Mantua, 1473, and a copy is there preserved in the public library, but without any plates.
It is certain, however, that about this period copper engraving was practised, not only in Mantua, where Mantegna resided, but also in Bologna. The geography of Ptolemy, printed in Bologna by Domenico de Lapis, with the apparently incorrect date of 1462, is in the possession of the Corsini at Rome, and of the Foscarini at Venice.[123] It contains twenty-six geographical tables, engraved very coarsely, yet so greatly admired by the printer, that he applauds this new discovery, and compares it to the invention of printing, which not long before had appeared in Germany. We give his words as they are quoted from the Latin without being refuted, by Meerman, at p. 251: "Accedit mirifica imprimendi tales tabulas ratio, cujus inventoris laus nihil illorum laude inferior, qui primi litterarum imprimendarum artem pepererunt, in admirationem sui studiosissimum quemque facillime convertere potest." The same writer, however, along with other learned men, contends that the date ought to be corrected, chiefly on the authority of the catalogue of the correctors of the work, among whom we find Filippo Beroaldo, who, in 1462, was no more than nine years of age. Hence Meerman infers, that we ought to read 1482; Audifredi and others, 1491; neither of which opinions I can agree with. For the work of Ptolemy being published at Rome, accompanied by twenty-seven elegant charts in 1478, what presumption, or rather folly, in the publisher of the Bolognese edition, to think of applauding its beauty, after the appearance of one so incomparably superior! I am therefore compelled to refer the former to an earlier period than the last mentioned year. Besides, I ought to inform the reader, that the engraving of twenty-six geographical plates, full of lines, distances, and references, must have been a long and difficult task, particularly during the infancy of the art, sufficient to occupy several years; as we are certain that three or four were devoted to the same purpose at Rome by more modern engravers, far more expert. We are therefore bound to antedate the epoch of the Bolognese engraving several years before the publication of the book, which belongs perhaps to the year 1472.[124] I shall not, however, set myself up as an umpire in this dispute; anxiously expecting, as I do, an excellent treatise from the pen of Sig. Bartolommeo Gamba; which I feel assured will not fail to gratify the public.[125] In regard to Bologna, therefore, I shall only seek to prove that the progress of the goldsmith's art to that of engraving upon metal, was more rapid than it has been supposed. Heineken himself observes, in describing the Ptolemy, that it is evident, from the traces of the zigzag, which the goldsmiths are in the habit of putting on the silver plates, the work is the production of one belonging to that art. The earliest works that can be pointed out with certainty at Florence, are the three elegant engravings of the Monte Santo di Dio, published in 1477; and the two in the two cantos of Dante, 1481; one of which, as if a third engraving, was repeated in the same book; while all of them seem to have been drawn from the roller, the art of inserting the plates in the letter-press being then unknown. We have yet to notice the thirty-seven geographical charts, in whatever way executed, affixed to the book of Berlinghieri, which was printed about the same period, without any date. These also contain several heads with the names Aquilo, Africus, &c., but they are all of youthful appearance, and tolerable in point of design; whereas the same heads in Bologna are of different ages, with long beards and caps, and in a coarser manner. The three before mentioned works appeared from the press of Niccolo Tedesco, or Niccolo di Lorenzo de Lamagna, the first who printed books at Florence with copper plates.
The last and most complete state of engraving upon copper, comes next under our notice. For this improvement, it appears to me, we are as much indebted to Germany as for the art of printing books. The press there first discovered for typography, opened the way for that applied to copper plates. The mechanical construction to be sure was different, in the former the impression being drawn from cast letters which rise outwards; in the latter from plates cut hollow within by the artist's graver. A kind of ink was at the same time adopted, of a stronger and less fuliginous colour, than had been used for engravings in wood; but as it is termed by Meerman (p. 12), "singulare ac tenuius." The same author fixes the date of this improvement in the art at about 1470; and most probably he meant to deduce it from the earliest copper engravings which appeared in Germany. Of this I cannot venture to speak, not having seen the two specimens cited by Heineken, and the others that bear a date; nor is it at all connected with our present history of Italian art, as far as regards engraving. We gather from it, that such improvement was brought to us from Germany by the same Corrado Sweyneym, who prepared the beautiful edition of Ptolemy at Rome. We learn from the anonymous preface prefixed, that Corrado devoted three years to the task, and left it incomplete; and it was continued by Arnold Buckinck, and published by him, as I already observed, in 1478. The tables are engraved with a surprising degree of elegance, and are taken from the press, as Meerman, adopting the opinion of Raidelio, and of such bibliographers as have described it, has clearly shewn, (p. 258). It is conjectured that Corrado commenced his labours about 1472, a fact ascertained no less from the testimony of Calderino, the corrector of the work, than from the tables, impressions of which were taken in 1475.[126] Some are of opinion that the engraving was from the hand of Corrado, although the author of the preface simply observes, "animum ad hanc doctrinam capessendam applicuit (that is, to geography) subinde matematicis adhibitis viris quemadmodum tabulis æneis imprimerentur edocuit,[127] triennioque in hâc curâ consumpto diem obiit." And it seems very probable, that as he employed Italians in the correction of the text, he was also assisted by some one of the same nation in the engravings. It strikes me, likewise, that Botticelli was attracted by this novel art at Rome, since on his return about the year 1474, he began to engrave copper plates with all the ardour that Vasari has described, and was in fact the first who represented full figures and histories in the new art. Perhaps the cause of his impressions being less perfect than others, arose from his ignorance of the method of printing upon a single page, both the plates and the characters; as well as from the want of the press, and that improved plan derived from the office of the German printers. But from whatever cause, it is certain, that our engravers long continued to labour under this imperfection in the art, as I have already recounted. In the time of Marc Antonio, who rose into notice soon after the year 1500, the art, in its perfect state, had been introduced into
