XYLOGRAPHIC BOOKS (Fr. Livres xylographiques; Eng. Blockbooks; Ger. Blockbücher). - A bibliographic term designating small books composed of woodcut engravings with figures and a brief explanatory text, printed on several sheets on one side only, pasted together on the unprinted side and assembled so as to form a kind of illustrated booklet. Sometimes the engravings contain only the figure or, less often, only the text; in older copies the text (caption) is found written by hand, and for this reason they are called "xylochirographic books." There also exist copies of x. b. with the captions printed in movable type.

The x. b., also called tabular printing (page in a single block), intended for popular use, were commonly held to be earlier than the invention of movable type and closely connected with the first products of printing. They are, however, an independent production, contemporary with, parallel to, and even later than the printed book. The oldest copies known thus far date to about 1450. Attempts to attribute them to earlier dates are unconvincing, except for isolated sheets, which constitute a similar but structurally different product and cannot be called books. It is likewise impossible to determine a chronological sequence for them.

The x. b., produced particularly in Holland and Germany, contain for the most part sacred figurations, but there also exist copies with profane figurations or with didactic texts; among the former are to be remembered the Speculum humanae salvationis, the Ars moriendi, the Apocalypse, the Symbolum Apostolicum, the Defensorium virginitatis Mariae, the Exercitium super Pater noster and, famous above all, the Biblia pauperum, a kind of summary of the Old and New Testaments in 40 or 50 woodcut engravings. To the second group belong the Mirabilia Romae, the Dance of Death (Der Totentanz), some Calendars, the series of the Planets and a small group of "Donati," an elementary Latin grammar.

The x. b. had, in Italy, only scanty and sporadic occurrences. The best-known Italian copies are: Mirabilia Romae (about 1450), the Passio of Berlin (Venice 1460), Opera nova contemplativa, a variant of the Biblia pauperum (ibid. 1510), Operina da imparare di scrivere littera cancelleresca by Ludovico degli Arrighi "Vicentino" (Rome 1522), perhaps the last book of the genre. The x. b. known thus far comprise over a hundred texts with a total of a little more than a hundred copies, almost all very rare, or known in a single copy.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: most of the x. b. have been described by W. L. Schreiber, Catalogue des livres xylographiques et xylochirographiques, in Manuel de l'amateur de la gravure sur bois et sur métal au XVe siècle, IV, Leipzig 1902; VII, Berlin 1895; VIII, ibid. 1900; new ed., VII, Leipzig 1929, pp. 24-30; and by W. A. Pollard, Xilographica. Blochbooks, in Catalogue of Books printed in the XVth century now in the British Museum, I, London 1928, pp. 1-11. For general information see also: L. Donati, Quale parte abbia avuto l'arte xilografica nell'invenzione della tipografia, in Il libro e le biblioteche. Atti del I Congresso bibliologico francescano internazionale, I, Rome 1930, pp. 105-22, and G. Avanzi, L'illustrazione libraria, ibid., pp. 132-34 and particularly pp. 154-55 for the bibliography on individual x. b.

Giannetto Avanzi

@incollection{ec12_xilografici_libri_fr_livres_xy, author = {Avanzi, Giannetto}, title = {Xilografici, libri (fr. livres xylographiques; ingl. blochbooks; ted. blochbücher)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1727--1728}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/xilografici-libri-fr-livres-xylographiques-ingl-blochbooks-ted-blochbucher} }

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Xylographic Books

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