sb. Also zylo-. [The earliest words of the group are xylography, xylographic, -ical, ad. F. xylographie (18th cent.), xylographique: see XYLO- and -GRAPHY, -GRAPHIC.] A wood-engraving (i.e., either an engraving on wood, or an impression from one), esp. one of the early period. Hence Xylograph v. trans., to execute from a wood-engraving. So Xylographer, Xylographist, a wood-engraver, esp. of the early period; Xylographic, -ical adjs., of, pertaining to, or executed by wood-engraving; Xylographically adv., by the method of wood-engraving; Xylography, wood-engraving, esp. of the early period or of a primitive kind; also, more widely, printing from wood blocks as distinct from type.
1816. Singer, Hist. Cards, Pref. p. xiii. The account which gives the honor of the invention of Xylography to the Cardmakers. Ibid., 176. The covers of books have of late been a fertile source of typographical and xylographical discoveries. Ibid., 205. Whether the xylographic art took its rise in Italy or Germany, cannot so clearly … be proved.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 264. Many past and present ‘Xylographers’ (or wood-cutters) could do infinitely better.
1854. Blackw. Mag., LXXV. 60. Printing, or rather xylography, is said to have been invented about the beginning of the tenth century.
1855. trans. Wedl’s Rudim. Pathol. Histol. (Sydenham Soc.), Auth. Pref. p. vi. The zylography was executed by A. Rosenzweig.
1859. J. P. Berjeau, Biblia Pauperum, 15. Six editions of the Biblia pauperum due to the Netherlandish xylographers.
1863. Sat. Rev., 5 Dec., 738/1. The forthcoming edition of the New Testament, illustrated with all the powers of modern xylography. Ibid. (1864), 17 Dec., 758. The Brothers Dalziel are the xylographists, if there is such a word.
1864. Webster, Xylograph, an engraving on wood, or the impression from such an engraving.
1878. Print. Trades Jrnl., XXIII. 6. Worked in red, blue and yellow, just as if they were the three colors of a xylograph.
1881. Athenæum, 3 Sept., 310/2. The woodcuts, if … coarse from a xylographic point of view, are admirably characteristic.
1883. I. Taylor, Alphabet, viii. II. 221. The runes were essentially a xylographic script.
1887. Hessels, Haarlem, xv. 53. Xylographic Donatuses. Ibid., xviii. 77. The Doctrinales … were not printed typographically but from wooden blocks (xylographically).
1892. Nation (N.Y.), 31 March, 249/2. We have received from Tokio, Japan, a copy of a handsome zylographed life-size picture of Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Ibid. The zylographic picture is a good specimen of popular art.
1905. E. Candler, Unveiling of Lhasa, iv. 67. Xylograph editions of the Lamaist scriptures and lives of the saints are pigeon-holed in lockers in the wall.
