446 – St. John Forerunner

Card no 446 -  Aleh  (BY-806836)

St. John Forerunner

Country Card Sent From: Belarus

Place that Card Sender Lives: Minsk

Date Received: 14^h March 2013

Distance Travelled: 1,246 miles

Time Taken: 4 days 

The text on the reverse of this card reads – St. John Forerunner. Xylograph. Trifologion. Kucein, 1647

I discovered that a xylograph was an alternative name for a woodcut.  A woodcut is the product of a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges. The areas to show 'white' are cut away with a knife or chisel, leaving the characters or image to show in 'black' at the original surface level. The block is cut along the grain of the wood (unlike wood engraving where the block is cut in the end-grain). The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller (brayer), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas.

This was the stamp.