The practice of engraving first developed in the area of the Rhine partially due to the large number of goldsmiths there. The earliest dated engraving is an image of a Flagellation of Christ from 1446 created by an unknown artist, but the technique may go further back than that. A Flemish goldsmith recorded its registers on copper plates that were inscribed with a burin as far back as 1400. An intaglio print, in a simplified explanation, is one in which the image is incised into a plate, the plate is covered with ink which sinks into the valleys that make up the image, the surface of the plate is wiped clean, and a piece of paper is placed on the plate. They are run through a press together so that the paper takes up the ink left in the valleys.
Copper is the preferred material for intaglio engraving.
Other metals, such as brass, tin, or pewter have also been used. Brass is the hardest of these and is difficult to engrave while tin is very soft, making it good for use of the drypoint technique. The cutting end of the burin can have a variety of shapes in order to achieve different types of incisions which in turn create effects on the printed image. The drypoint is another tool for marking the surface of the plate. It is often used in conjunction with other tools for touching up or adding tonal qualities to a nearly completed image because it makes a shallower mark than the burin.