The making of multiple copies is one of the defining traits of engraving, so it is paradoxical that so few prints have survived, and that many of those which do still exist are now unique pieces. Their fragility and utilitarian nature (as devotional, decorative, propaganda and art objects or mere sources of entertainment) meant that they were essentially ephemeral, so although they abounded in the time of the Ancien Régime very few now remain. One excellent example is Notebook of Birds for Prince Balthasar Charles by María Eugenia de Beer, a singular work of great importance in the history of Spanish engraving in the first half of the 17th century. It is the oldest set of prints in the collection of the Banco de España, which acquired it in 1981.

Until it was acquired by the bank, this book was known only from bibliographical references. The earliest is found in Discurso histórico sobre el principio y progreso del grabado ['Historical Discourse on the Beginnings and Progress of Engraving'] by academician José de Vargas Ponce (1760-1821), published in 1790. The close match between its biographical notes on María Eugenia de Beer and those that appeared some years later in Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez's renowned Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes en España ['Historical Dictionary of the Most Illustrious Teachers of Fine Arts in Spain'] suggests that the latter may have obtained his information from Ponce, perhaps based on direct knowledge of the book.

María Eugenia de Beer is the only woman known to have worked as an engraver in Madrid in the first half of the 17th century. Engraving in Spain at that time was dominated by French and Flemish engravers who moved here to meet demand from publishing houses, given that local engravers were too few in number and lacking in skill. Prints were imported, and with them came craftsmen to engrave the plates to illustrate the books produced at Spanish print shops. Indeed, most of their output was for the book publishing business, though they also produced numerous devotional images. It is hard to find any individual prints or series of other kinds, as occurred in the rest of Europe. There were hardly any featuring reproductions of paintings or images straight from the imagination, as this medium was seen as a separate form of expression. In that context María Eugenia de Beer, who began working in Madrid around 1637 and whose last known work was published in 1652, exemplifies the tasks handled by foreign engravers in Spain: most of her output comprises frontispieces, coats of arms, portraits and illustrations for books. The fact that she was a woman, and therefore largely excluded from trade in a male-dominated society, is an exceptional feature of her work as an artist, and one that can only be properly understood by looking in more depth at her personal circumstances. Like most female painters (Josefa de Óbidos (1630-1684)), sculptors (La Roldana (1652-1706)) and engravers (Ana Heylan (†1655)), she was only able to work because she grew up in a family of artists from whom she learned her craft and in whose workshops she was able to exercise her calling, under the supervision of men who very probably took the credit for much of her output.

Her Notebook of Birds dates from her early days, when she was under the protection of her father. In the centre of the cover of the notebook there is a ten-line stanza of poetry dedicated by the young engraver to Prince Balthasar Charles (1629-1646) which translates as follows: 'Lord, to your Majesty / That waxes with such glory / On this day Maria Eugenia offers / Several birds, begging your pardon. / Made by her youthful hand // A burin cut these sketches / Punishment for unfaithful regions / You will mete out later / Play now with the birds, / Until it is time for you to kill lions'.

In dating the notebook the lines 'Made by her youthful hand // A burin cut these sketches' can be taken as a reference to the youth of both Maria Eugenia and Prince Balthasar Charles, who was more of an age to play with birds than to kill wild beasts. How old does a person need to be to be capable of such engraving work? It is known that María Eugenia had published her first works on commission by 1640, so the notebook with its simpler forms and techniques must be slightly earlier. Her date of birth is not known for sure, but it was probably shortly after 1621, when her parents married. By that yardstick, in 1637-1639 she would have been between 15 and 17 years old. This fits in with the mention of her "youthful hand" in the dedication, but is old enough for work as complex as the notebook to be plausibly produced. In the 17th century apprentices joined workshops at the age of 11 and completed their training at 18 or 20, depending on the type of work. Knowing that, and in spite of the lack of documentary records, it can be speculated that María Eugenia was born around 1622, started learning at a very early age in her father's workshop and dedicated this work to the young prince shortly before she completed her training in around 1637. It would have served as a 'calling card' and was probably produced on the advice of her father. Her first work as a paid engraver seems to have been produced in 1640, when she was around 18.

As her basis for producing the Notebook of Birds, she used a series of engravings published in Rome by Nicolas van Aelst (c.1526-1613) in the late 16th century (Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Roma, Corsini Collection, FC119126-FC119149). Her images are a reverse reinterpretation of the series by Van Aeist. In some she introduces motifs not found in the originals, such as insects to fill in blank spaces in the composition, with the bird depicted in the centre, perched on a branch or on the ground.

A comparison of the original and her reproduction, each of which is the only surviving copy known to exist of the respective books, reveals that the reproduction is accurate apart from details such as the reversed images of the birds and the addition of the insects that they are eating in many of the prints. These details are an attempt to personalise the Spanish edition and make it more realistic. Her faithfulness to the original extends to leaving the names of the birds in Italian, except in three cases where the Spanish names are used: thus, the white wagtail appears as nebatilla (codazinzola), the blackbird as merlo [sic] (giandara) and the serin as verzellia (verzellini). The number of plates differs from one version to the other. Studies of the Italian series from 1550-1620 reveal that they were not always sold with the same number of prints, or with the prints in the same order. Copies purchased at different times might contain different numbers of prints. This explains the differences between the two surviving series. The one by María Eugenia de Beer contains two prints which are not in the version from Italy: the kestrel (Xernicola) and the parrot (Parrepallo), while the Italian series contains the Hoopoe (Upupola), the wallcreeper (Pico boscareccio) and the robin (Petto rosso), which do not appear in the Spanish version.

It would be no surprise to learn that prints of birds were reused by painters, just as prints of flowers were. How else could they depict different birds if they had never seen them in real life? They used copies of engravings, as was customary in those days. There is no conclusive evidence, but an analysis of 17th century Spanish still-lifes suggests that such models may well have been used in some cases.

José Manuel Matilla Rodríguez