Vocabulary reflected the new linguistic consciousness
and the new demands made upon the vernacular. An esti-
mated 10,000 new words were adopted from Latin, Greek
(often via Latin), Italian, French, and other languages dur-
ing the Renaissance period. Linguistic critics fell into two
camps: those who held that English could provide from its
own native resources all the words necessary and those
who believed that foreign importations were the best route
to an enriched vocabulary. SPENSERwas praised for having
taken the former option in The Shepheardes Calender; “he
hath laboured to restore, as to their rightfull heritage such
good and naturall English words, as have ben long time
out of use and almost cleane disinherited” wrote “E.K.” in
his commendatory letter, contrasting Spenser with those
who “have made our English tongue, a gallimaufray or
hodgepodge of al other speches.” The contemporary term
for those who imported and coined words to an excessive
degree was “inkhornist.” Most of their bizarre affectations
quickly died, but other words that had a genuine role to
play in English took root and flourished.
engraving An intaglio printing process, in which a metal
plate, usually of copper, is incised with an image. The
plate is then inked and the residue of ink is wiped off so
that the ink remains only in the engraved furrows of the
plate. A piece of damp paper is then laid against the plate
and both are rolled through a heavy press, somewhat like
a clothes mangle. Under this intense pressure, the damp
paper is forced into the ink-filled furrows so that an im-
pression of the image is embossed upon the paper. The
final image is a reverse impression of that incised upon the
plate.
The earliest form of engraving, and that most used
during the Renaissance, is line (or copper) engraving, in
which a sharp metal tool with a V-shaped section is
pushed by hand pressure across the plate, rather like a
plough. The tool, known as a burin, throws up metal
shavings and leaves a V-shaped groove, which constitutes
the line subsequently inked. This technique derived from
that used by sculptors to chase the surface of bronze stat-
ues. The earliest dated print executed in this technique is
of 1446.
Dry-point engraving is a simpler, but less commer-
cially viable, technique, in which the image is transferred
to a metal plate by a sharp stylus of hard steel. The stylus
throws up a raised metal edge to the furrow, known as
“burr.” The latter is retained when the plate is inked, so
that it adds a rich, broken edge to the printed image. How-
ever, the pressure of printing rapidly crushes the burr, so
that no more than a few dozen impressions may be made
with this technique. The most outstanding early master of
dry-point engraving was the Dutch Master of the House-
book, active about 1480, who was influential upon Al-
brecht DÜRER.
Etching is a further method of engraving, in which
the plate is covered with a ground impervious to acid,
upon which the engraver draws with a needle, exposing
the copper where he wishes to print. The plate is then im-
mersed in acid, which eats a line in the plate where the
needle has exposed the copper, while leaving the covered
area unaffected. The line produced by this technique has
an irregular, broken form of greater variety than that pro-
duced by line engraving. Although Dürer experimented
with etching as early as 1515, the technique was little used
until the 17th century, since when it has become increas-
ingly popular.
The earliest known engraver, the German Master of
1446, was followed by a number of outstanding northern
masters, including the Master of the Banderoles, the Mas-
ter of the Playing Cards, the MASTER E. S., and Martin
SCHONGAUER, who refined the technique of line engraving
to a high level. In Italy a number of anonymous masters
started producing engravings almost contemporaneously
with their northern counterparts. The earliest major Ital-
ian engravers whose names are known were Antonio POL-
LAIUOLO and Andrea MANTEGNA. However, both were
primarily active in other fields and they produced rela-
tively small editions of prints, which were nevertheless ex-
tremely influential. Albrecht Dürer was the greatest print
maker of the Renaissance. He made numerous technical
refinements, which permitted engraving to reproduce
effects of light and texture with a much higher fidelity
than had previously been possible. Dürer’s example stim-
ulated a remarkably accomplished series of followers, in-
cluding the Germans Albrecht ALTDORFER, Urs GRAF, Hans
BALDUNG, Lucas CRANACH, and Hans Sebald Beham (see
LITTLE MASTERS(OF NUREMBERG)), as well as the Nether-
lander LUCAS VAN LEYDEN. In Italy the most outstanding
school of engraving of the early 16th century was that of
Venice, the leading masters of which were Jacopo de’ BAR-
BARI, Giulio CAMPAGNOLA, and Marcantonio RAIMONDI.
Raimondi, who was profoundly influenced by Dürer,
moved to Rome about 1510, where he specialized in prints
after the paintings of Raphael. Subsequently, a decline in
original engraving set in, which lasted until well into the
following century. The growing market for prints, which
expanded throughout the Renaissance, was satisfied by a
highly organized print trade, in which painters prepared
design drawings which were subsequently engraved by
specialist engravers.
Further reading: David Landau and Peter Parshall,
The Renaissance Print, 1470–1550 (New Haven, Conn. and
London: Yale University Press, 1994).Enzinas, Francisco de (Francis Dryander) (c. 1520–
1570) Spanish scholar, translator, and reformer
Enzinas was born at Burgos and studied at Wittenberg,
where he was influenced by LUTHER’s teaching. He pro-
duced the first translation of the New Testament into116622 eennggrraavviinngg