A significant number of images collected by Douce relate to the history of printmaking. In this chapter, Douce’s researches on the transmission of themes, types and motifs are considered in connection with early nineteenth-century debates on the role, aims and status of printmaking, which his friend John Landseer regarded as a form of translation. Douce’s collections were used as a visual repository by artists who searched for information that would allow them to reconstruct the past accurately in their history paintings. Some artists also used the collections as a source of models and examples to understand and to learn about specific printmaking techniques and forms of representation. How Douce’s practices and collections fit within the broader historiographical field of studies in iconography will also be discussed in this section.