Copperplate Engraving and Intaglio Printing

Timeline

1. c. 1542–1545Nuremberg · GermanyGerman workshops carried on the line-engraving tradition since Dürer, using burins to cut lines into copper plates, scraping off ink, and pressing damp paper to produce finely detailed illustration plates that could be reproduced in batches, suitable for scientific illustration and religious imagery.
2. c. 1547–1550Antwerp · Low CountriesPublishers in the Low Countries bound copperplate illustrations together with movable-type text, promoting the cross-border circulation of world maps, botanical compendia, and anatomical atlases; copperplate became the standard carrier for high-end printed matter and scholarly illustration.