Early Engravers and Their Public

This book is about the production and reception of engravings and metalcuts in the Rhine-Maas region during the second half of the fifteenth century. The Master of the Berlin Passion played a pivotal role in the printmaking industry of the Lower Rhine during this period. He, together with the engravers working in his ambit, specifically targeted their prints at the growing market for illustrated devotional manuscripts, doing so to an extent unparalleled by engravers elsewhere in Europe. As a result, experimental hybrid books combining manuscript and engraving were a phenomenon that flourished particularly in the Rhine-Mass region during the fifteenth century. In the first part the author deals with the production of engravings and metalcuts for the manuscript market, concentrating specifically on the Master of the Berlin Passion and the engravers and metalcutters in his circle. Fresh evidence is considered for their dates, localization and identities, thereby providing the first major re-examination of these printmakers since the 1910s.