"Nay, Anna," he answered thoughtfully, "but didst thou ever consider how the picture on this card was made?"
"I suppose it was drawn in outline, and then painted, as other pictures are."
"But there is a better way," said Gutenberg, still studying the playing-card. "These lines were first marked out on a wooden block, and then the wood was cut away on each side of them, so that they were left raised. The lines were then smeared with ink and pressed on the cardboard. This way is shorter, Anna, than by drawing and painting each picture separately, because when the block is once engraved it can be used to mark any number of cards."
Anna took the playing-card from her husband's hand. It represented a figure that was known as the Knave of Bells. "It's an unsightly creature," she said, studying it, "and not to be compared with our picture of good St. Christopher on the wall yonder. Surely that was made with a pen?"
"Nay, it was made from an engraved block, just like this card," said the young lapidary.
"St. Christopher made in that way!" exclaimed his wife. "Then what a splendid art it must be, if it keeps the pictures of the blessed saints for us!"
The picture of the saint was a curious colored woodcut, showing St. Christopher carrying the child Jesus across the water. Under it was an inscription in Latin, and the date 1423.
"Yes, thou art right, dear," Gutenberg went on. "Pictures like that are much to be prized, for they fill to some extent the place of books, which are so rare and cost so much. But there are much more valuable pictures in the Cathedral here at Strasburg. Dost thou remember the jewels the Abbot gave me to polish for him? When I carried them back, he took me into the Cathedral library, and showed me several books filled with these engraved pictures, and they were much finer than our St. Christopher. The books I remember were the 'Ars Memorandi,' the 'Ars Moriendi,' and the 'Biblia Pauperum,' and the last had no less than forty pictures, with written explanations underneath."
"That is truly wonderful, John! And what are they about?"
"The 'Biblia Pauperum' means 'Bible for the Poor,' and is a series of scenes from the Old and New Testaments."
"I think I've heard of it; but I wish you'd tell me more about it."