Limited to 400 copies. Jost Amman, 1589 - 1591, was primarily known as a draftsman for wood-cut book illustration, & the cut on page 2 may well be a self-portrait. He became the master in craft workshop in Nuremburg, negotiating instruction from customers, then making the illustrations that would be used by other craftsworkers in the shop, in the case of these illustrations, drawings would be made for the wood block cutter (3) and if they were then to be coloured with stencils, the illuminator (7).

The Pictures used in this book are chosen from his Standbuch, which translates from the German edition as "an accurate description of all the classes on the Earth, high and low, sacred and profane, all arts of hand and commerce, and from the greatest to the least, also of their origin, invention & usage." Our interest is in the scenes themselves and what we can interpolate from them, for Amman was a skilled observer. He notices the layout of the work space, the tools, the finished work, the shows the costume of the workplace and of some customers.