and by the
early part of the 15th they had become very common. Circulated at first
only in single leaves, at a later period the leaves were folded and
combined into quires as in other books and we have the fully developed
block book as it is called, each leaf being printed from a single plate.

Some of these books were printed in many editions and had enormous
circulation. At a later period a few lines of explanatory text were
added to the picture. In some cases these lines were part of the plate.
In other cases they were written and in some they were even printed, as
the use of the block book survived the invention of typographical
printing. These block books were exactly like the picture books which we
now place in the hands of little children. They were to be looked at
rather than read. The meager explanatory text, as in the case of the
child's book, served the double purpose of a simple reading lesson and
of an aid to the explanation of the book for the benefit of the owner by
some wiser person. One of the most popular of these books was the Biblia
Pauperum, or Poor Man's Bible. This contained a large number of pictures
covering the more striking incidents of the biblical story. These were
not arranged in any particular order, as the idea of historical study of
the scriptures had not yet made its appearance.

A sample page for instance, shows an architectural design. The larger
part of the page is occupied by three panels. Above and below the middle
panel are two smaller ones leaving four blank rectangles at the corners
of the page. The middle one of the larger panels shows Jesus rising from
the tomb while the other two show Samson carrying away the gates of Gaza
and Jonah being disgorged by the whale. Each of the two smaller panels
at top and bottom is occupied by two figures, the four being intended
to represent David, Jacob, Hosea, and Zephaniah. Fortunately the
"portraits" are labelled as these biblical worthies are represented in
the ordinary costume of well-to-do citizens of the early part of the
15th century.

[Illustration: Page from the second edition of the Poor Man's Bible,
about 1450.]

This and other block books continued to be reprinted in type after the
invention of typography. One block book and one only, so far as is
known, was without pictures. This was a Latin grammar commonly known as
Donatus, from its author the famous Roman grammarian Donatus of the 4th
century. This was the one Latin g