Treatise on Engraving and Etching

In 1645 French artist and printmaker, Abraham Bosse wrote, illustrated and published in Paris the first treatise on engraving and etching techniques: Tract� des manieres de graver en taille douce sur l’airin. Later it went through many reprintings and translated editions in the decades and centuries to come. Although Bosse favoured the esthetic of the engraving, the technique of etching as he treats is basically that employed by Rembrandt, the greatest master of etching.

The present illustration is from a Dutch edition of 1662. which copied the illustrations from Bosse’s. After the acid is poured over the plate ten or twelve times, the latter has to be turned in various other positions in order to ensure equal biting.