Chapter XXI: The Minor Founders, 1800–1830 (3)

[11] The history of these “fatal, unhistorical wooden types” is worth recording for the warning of the over-credulous typographical antiquary. Wetter, writing his book in 1836, and desirous to illustrate the feasibility of the theory, “spent,” so Dr. Van der Linde writes, “really the amount of ten shillings on having a number of letters made of the wood of a pear-tree, only to please Trithemius, Bergellanus, and Faust of Aschaffenburg. . . . His letters, although tied with string, did not remain in the line, but made naughty caprioles. The supposition—that by these few dancing lines the possibility is demonstrated of printing with 40,000 wooden letters, necessary to the printing of a quarternion, a whole folio book—is dreadfully silly. The demonstrating facsimile demonstrates already the contrary. Wetter’s letters not only declined to have themselves regularly printed, but they also retained their pear-tree-wood-like impatience afterwards.” The specimen of these types may be seen in the _Album_ of plates accompanying Wetter’s work, where they occupy the first place, the matter chosen being the first few verses of the Bible, occupying nineteen lines, and the type being about two-line English in body. M. Wetter stated in his work that he had deposited the original types in the Town Library of Mentz, where they might be inspected by anyone wishing to do so. From this repository they appear ultimately to have returned to the hands of M. Wetter’s printer. M. Bernard, passing through Mentz in 1850, asked M. Wetter for a sight of them, and was conducted to the printing office for that purpose, when it was discovered that they had been stolen; whereupon M. Bernard remarks, prophetically, “Peutêtre un jour quelque naïf Allemand, les trouvant parmi les reliques du voleur, nous les donnera pour les caractères de Gutenberg. Voilà comment s’établissent trop souvent les traditions.” This prediction, with the one exception of the nationality of the victim, was literally fulfilled when an English clergyman, some years afterwards, discovered these identical types in the shop of a curiosity-dealer at Mayence, and purchased them as apparently veritable relics of the infancy of printing. After being offered to the authorities at the British Museum and declined, they were presented in 1869 to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, where they remain to this day, treasured in a box, and accompanied by a learned memorandum setting forth the circumstances of their discovery, and citing the testimony of Roccha and other writers as to the existence and use of perforated types by the early printers. The lines (which we have inspected) remain threaded and locked in forme exactly as they appear in Wetter’s specimen. It is due to the present authorities of the Bodleian to say that they preserve these precious “relics,” without prejudice, as curiosities merely, with no insistence on their historic pretensions.

[12] Van der Linde, _Haarlem Legend_. Lond., p. 72.

[13] Skeen, in his _Early Typography_, Colombo, 1872, takes up the challenge thrown down by Dr. Van der Linde on the strength of Enschedé’s opinion, and shows a specimen of three letters cut in boxwood, pica size, one of which he exhibits again at the close of the book after 1,500 impressions. But the value of Skeen’s arguments and experiments is destroyed when he sums up with this absurd dictum: “Three letters are as good as 3,000 or 30,000 or 300,000 to demonstrate the fact that words are and can be, and that therefore pages and whole books may be (and therefore also that they may have been) printed from such separable wooden types.”—P. 424.

[14] _Annales Hirsaugienses_, ii, p. 421: “Post hæc inventis successerunt subtiliora, inveneruntque modum fundendi formas omnium Latini Alphabeti literarum quas ipsi matrices nominabant; ex quibus rursum æneos sive stanneos characteres fundebant, ad omnem pressuram sufficientes, quos prius manibus sculpebant.” Trithemius’ statement, as every student of typographical history is aware, has been made to fit every theory that has been propounded, but it is doubtful whether any other writer has stretched it quite as severely as Meerman in the above rendering of these few Latin lines.

[15] _Origines Typographicæ_, Gerardo Meerman auctore. Hagæ Com., 1765. Append., p. 47.

[16] The constant recurrence in more modern typographical history of the expression “to cut matrices,” meaning of course to cut the punches necessary to form the matrices, bears out the same conclusion.

[17] _Origine et Débuts de l’Imprimerie en Europe._ Paris, 1853, 8vo, i, 38.

[18] _Life and Typography of William Caxton._ London, 1861–3, 2 vols, 4to, ii, xxiv.

[19] _The Invention of Printing._ New York, 1876. 8vo.

[20] _Origine de l’Imprimerie_, i, 40.

[21] Mr. Blades points out that there are no overhanging letters in the specimen. The necessity for such letters would be, we imagine, entirely obviated by the numerous combinations with which the type of the printers of the school abounded. The body is almost always large enough to carry ascending and descending sorts, and in width, a sort which would naturally overhang, is invariably covered by its following letter cast on the same piece.

[22] It is well known that until comparatively recently the large “proscription letters” of our foundries, from three-line pica and upwards, were cast in sand. The practice died out at the close of last century.

[23] _An Enquiry Concerning the Invention of Printing._ London, 1863, 4to, p. 265.

[24] In a recent paper, read by the late Mr. Bradshaw of Cambridge, before the Library Association, he points out a curious shrinkage both as to face and body in the re-casting of the types of the Mentz _Psalter_, necessary to complete the printing of that work. The shrinking properties of clay and plaster are well known, and, assuming the new type to have been cast in moulds of one of these substances formed upon a set of the original types, the uniform contraction of body and face might be accounted for. If, on the other hand, we hold that the types of this grand work were the product of the finished school of typographers, the probability is that the new matrices (of the face of the letter only) were formed in clay, as suggested at p. 15, and that the adjustable mould was either purposely or inadvertently shifted in body to accommodate the new casting.

[25] In connection with the suggested primitive modes of casting, the patent of James Thomson in 1831 (see Chap. iv, _post_), for casting by a very similar method, is interesting.

[26] _Origine de l’Imprimerie._ Paris, 1810, 2 vols., 8vo, i, 97.

[27] _Origine de l’Imprimerie_, i, 99, etc. The following are the citations:—“_Escriture en molle_,” used in the letters of naturalisation to the first Paris printers, 1474. “_Escrits en moule_,” applied to two Horæ in vellum, bought by the Duke of Orleans, 1496. “_Mettre en molle_,” applied to the printing of Savonarola’s sermons, 1498. “_Tant en parchemin que en papier, à la main et en molle_,” applied to the books in a library, 1498. “_Mettre en molle_,” applied to the printing of a book by Marchand, 1499. “_En molle et à la main_,” applied to printed books and manuscripts in the Duke of Bourbon’s library, 1523. “_Pièces officielles moulées par ordre de l’Assemblée._” Procès verbaux des Etats Généraux, 1593.

[28] _Coster Legend_, p. 6.

[29] _Ibid._, p. viii.

[30] A calculation given in the _Magazin Encyclopédique_ of 1806, i, 299, shows that from such matrices 120 to 150 letters can be cast before they are rendered useless, and from 50 to 60 letters before any marked deterioration is apparent in the fine strokes of the types.

[31] Several writers account for the alleged perforated wooden and metal types reputed to have been used by the first printers, and described by Specklin, Pater, Roccha and others, by supposing that they were model types used for forming matrices, and threaded together for safety and convenience of storage.

[32] _Works of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, consisting of his Life, written by himself_, in 2 vols. London, 1793, 8vo, i, 143. It is a very singular fact that in a later corrected edition of the same work, edited by John Bigelow, and published in Philadelphia in 1875, the passage above quoted reads as follows: “I contrived a mould, made use of the letters we had as puncheons, struck the _matrices in lead_, and thus supplied in a pretty tolerable way all deficiencies.” Whichever reading be correct, the illustration is apt, as proving the possibility of producing type from matrices either of clay or lead in a makeshift mould.

[33] _Origine de l’Imprimerie_, i, 144.

[34] From this method of forming the matrices (says a note to the Enschedé specimen) has arisen the name Chalcographia, which Bergellanus, among others, applies to printing.

[35] _Printer’s Grammar._ Lond., 1755, p. 10.

[36] It has been suggested by some that wood could be _struck_ into lead or pewter; but the possibility of producing a successful matrix in this manner is, we consider, out of the question. In 1816 Robert Clayton proposed to cast types in metal out of _wooden_ matrices punched in wood with a cross grain, which has been previously slightly charred or baked.

[37] In the specimen of “_Ancienne Typographie_” of the Imprimerie Royale of Paris, 1819, several of the old oriental founts are thus noted: “les poinçons sont en cuivre.”

[38] In the 2nd edition of Isaiah Thomas’ _History of Printing in America_, Albany, 1874, i, 288, an anecdote is given of Peter Miller, the German who printed at Ephrata in the United States in 1749, which we think is suggestive of the possible expedients of the first printers with regard to the mould. During the time that a certain work of Miller was in the press, says Francis Bailey, a former apprentice of Miller’s, “particular sorts of the fonts of type on which it was printed ran short. To overcome this difficulty, one of the workmen constructed a mold that could be moved so as to suit the body of any type not smaller than brevier nor larger than double-pica. The mold consisted of four quadrangular pieces of brass, two of them with mortices to shift to a suitable body, and secured by screws. The best type they could select from the sort wanted was then placed in the mold, and after a slight corrosion of the surface of the letter with aquafortis to prevent soldering or adhesion, a leaden matrix was cast on the face of the type, from which, after a slight stroke of a hammer on the type in the matrix, we cast the letters which were wanted. Types thus cast answer tolerably well. I have often adopted a method somewhat like this to obtain sorts which were short; but instead of four pieces of brass, made use of an even and accurate composing-stick, and one piece of iron or copper having an even surface on the sides; and instead of a leaden matrix, have substituted one of clay, especially for letters with a bold face.” De Vinne describes an old mould preserved among the relics in Bruce’s foundry at New York, composed (with the matrix) of four pieces, and adjustable both as to body and thickness. Bernard also mentions a similar mould in use in 1853.

[39] A curious instance of this occurs in the battered text of the _De Laudibus Mariæ_, shown at p. 24, where the rubricator has added his red dashes to capital letters at the beginning, middle and end of a palpably illegible passage.

[40] _Notizie storiche sopra la Stamperia di Ripoli._ Firenze, 1781, p. 49. _Prezzi de’ generi riguardanti la Getteria (letter foundry)._

_s._ _d._ Acciaio (steel) liv. 2 8 0 la lib. ( = 9 0 per lb.) Metallo (type-metal?) 〃 0 11 0 〃 ( = 2 0 3/4 〃 ) Ottone (brass) 〃 0 12 0 〃 ( = 2 3 〃 ) Rame (copper) 〃 0 6 8 〃 ( = 1 3 〃 ) Stagno (tin) 〃 0 8 0 〃 ( = 1 6 〃 ) Piombo (lead) 〃 0 2 4 〃 ( = 0 5 1/4 〃 ) Filo di ferro (iron wire) 〃 0 8 0 〃 ( = 1 6 〃 )

[41] It would be more correct to say the discovery of the properties of antimony, which were first described by Basil Valentin about the end of the 15th century, in a treatise entitled _Currus triumphalis Antimonii_.

[42] Printing was practised at Lyons in 1473, three years only later than at Paris. From the year 1476 the art extended rapidly in the city. Panzer mentions some 250 works printed here during the 15th century by nearly forty printers, among whom was Badius Ascensius. The earlier Lyons printers are supposed to have had their type from Basle, and their city shortly became a depôt for the supply of type to the printers of Southern France and Spain.

[43] _Histoire de l’Invention de l’Imprimerie par les Monuments._ Paris, 1840, fol., p. 12.

[44] _Lettres d’un Bibliographe._ Paris, 1875, 8vo, Ser. iv, letter 16.

[45] Begins “_Incipit Liber de Laudibus ac Festis Gloriose Virginis Matris Marie alias Marionale Dictus per Doctores eximeos editus et compilatus_”; at end, “_Explicit Petrus Damasceni de laudibus gloriose Virginis Marie_.” The book is mentioned in Hain, 5918. The drawn-up type occurs on the top of folio b 4 verso.

[46] It will be understood that in each case the outline of the types being merely a depressed edge in the original, the black outline of the facsimiles represents shadow only, and not, as might appear at first glance, inked surface. M. Madden’s facsimile is apparently drawn. In the photograph facsimile of the “_De laudibus_” type, the distribution of black represents the distribution of shadow caused by the somewhat uneven or tilted indentation of the side of the type in the paper.

[47] Such projections or “drags” in the mould are not unknown in modern typefounding, where they are purposely inserted so as to leave the newly cast type, on the opening of the mould, always adhering to one particular side.

[48] _Life of Caxton_, i, 39. Later on (p 52), Mr. Blades points out, as an argument against the supposed typographical connection between Caxton and Zel of Cologne, that the latter, from an early period, printed two pages at a time.

[49] _Haarlem Legend_, p. xxiii.

[50] Mr. Skeen (_Early Typography_, p. 299) speaks of 300 matrices as constituting a complete fount; he appears accidentally, in calculating for two pages instead of one, to have assumed that a double number of matrices would be requisite for the double quantity of type.

[51] _Origin and Progress of Writing._ London, 1803. 4to. Chapter ix.

[52] The cost-book of the Ripoli press contains several entries pointing to an early trade in type and matrices. In 1477 the directors paid ten florins of gold to one John of Mentz, for a set of Roman matrices. At another time they paid 110 livres for two founts of Roman and one of Gothic: and further, purchased of the goldsmith, Banco of Florence, 100 little initials, three large initials, three copper vignettes, and the copper for an entire set of Greek matrices.

[53]

“Natio quæque suum poterit reperire caragma
Secum nempe stilo præminet omnigeno.”

[54] _Unterweisung der Messung._ Nuremberg, 1525. Fo.

[55] _Champfleury._ Paris, 1529. 8vo.

[56] _Orthographia Practica._ Caragoça, 1548. 4to.

[57] Both _Testo_ and _Glosilla_ subsequently became the names of Spanish type-bodies, the former being approximately equivalent to our Great Primer, and the latter to our Minion.

[58] _Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies._ London, 1778. 8vo.

[59] See _post_, chap. v.

[60] See _post_, chap. v.

[61] Hansard’s _Typographia_. London, 1825, 8vo, p. 388.

[62] See _post_, chap. xxi.

[63] In several of the German specimens thus examined, not only do the bodies of one founder differ widely from those of others, but the variations of each body in the same foundry are often extraordinary. Faulman, in his _Geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst_, Vienna, 1882, 8vo, p. 488, has a table, professing to give the actual equivalents of each body to a fraction; but we conceive that, in the absence of a fixed national standard, such an attempt is futile.

[64] Two-line English, Mores points out, was originally a primitive, and not a derivative body, corresponding to the old German Prima.

[65] Henry VIII, in 1545, allowed his subjects to use an English Form of Public Prayer, and ordered one to be printed for their use, entitled _The Primer_. It contained, besides prayers, several psalms, lessons and anthems. _Primers_ of the English Church before the Reformation were printed as early as 1490 in Paris, and in England in 1537.

[66] We have nowhere met with the suggestion that Primer may be connected with the Latin “premere,” a word familiar in typography, and naturalized with us in the old word “imprimery.” Great Primer might thus merely mean the large print letter.

[67] The religious origin of the names of types is in harmony with the occurrence in typographical phraseology of such words as _chapel_, _devil_, _justify_, _hell_ (the waste type-pot), _friars_ and _monks_ (white and black blotches caused by uneven inking), etc.

[68] Ulric Hahn’s _St. Augustini De Civitate Dei_, Rome, 1474, is printed in a letter almost exactly this body. Others derive the name from the great edition of _St. Augustine_ printed by Amerbach at Basle in 1506.

[69] “Liber presens, directorium sacerdotum, quem _pica_ Sarum vulgo vocitat clerus,” etc., is the commencement of a work printed by Pynson in 1497.

[70] Both the _Cicero_ of Fust and Schoeffer at Mentz, 1466, and of Hahn at Rome, 1469, were in type of about this size.

[71] _This Prymer of Salysbury use, is set out a long, wout ony serchyng_, etc. Paris, 1532. 16mo. Many editions were printed in England and abroad.

[72] Fournier (ii, 144) shows a specimen of the lettre de Somme with exactly a Bourgeois face.

[73] The first of the family of Paris printers of this name, mentioned by De la Caille, flourished in 1615.

[74] The German Brevier, corresponding to our Small Pica, is of more frequent occurrence in these works.

[75] _De Germaniæ Miraculo._ Lipsiæ, 1710, 4to, p. 37.

[76] The _Lactantius_, published the same year, and usually claimed as the first book printed in Italy, appears, according to a note of M. Madden’s (_Lettres d’un Bibliographe_, iv, 281), not to have been completed for a month after the _Cicero de Oratore_.

[77] “Il (Jenson) forma un caractère composé des capitales latines, qui servirent de majuscules; les minuscules furent prises d’autres lettres latines, ainsi que des espagnoles, lombardes, saxones, françoises ou carolines.” (_Man. Typ._, ii, 261.)

[78] M. Philippe, in his _Origine de l’Imprimerie à Paris_, Paris, 1885, 4to, p. 219, mentions two books printed in this fount, which contain MS. notes of having been purchased in the years 1464 and 1467 respectively.

[79] _Lettres d’un Bibliographe_, iv, 60.

[80] For a full account and analysis of Jenson’s Roman and other type, the reader is referred to Sardini’s _Storia Critica di Nic. Jenson_. Lucca, 1796–8, 3 parts, fol.

[81] _Annales de l’Imprimerie des Alde._ Paris, 1803–12, 3 vols., 8vo.

[82] Sardini (iii, 82) cites an interesting document wherein Zarot, in forming a typographical partnership with certain citizens of Milan, covenants to provide “tutte le Lettere Latine, e Greche, antique, e moderne.” Bernard points out that “antique” undoubtedly means Roman type, the traditional character of the Italians, while “moderne” applies to the Gothic, which was at that time coming into vogue as a novelty among Italian printers.

[83] Renouard and others claim that these famous characters were cut by the French artists Garamond and Sanlecques. This legend is, however, disposed of by Mr. Willems, in his work, _Les Elzevier_. Brussels, 1880, 8vo.

[84] Pynson was the first to introduce diphthongs into the typographical alphabet.

[85] Garamond’s Roman was cut for Francis I. The Roman character was an object of considerable royal interest in France during its career. In 1694, on the re-organisation of the press at the Louvre under Louis XIV, arbitrary alterations were made in the recognised form of several of the “lower-case” letters, to distinguish the “_Romain du Roi_” from all others, and protect it from imitations. The deformity of the letters thus tampered with was their best protection.

[86] Amongst which should be named Vautrollier’s edition of Beza’s _New Testament_ in 1574, which, both in point of type and workmanship, is an admirable piece of typography. The small italic is specially beautiful. Renouard says this type was cut by Garamond of Paris.

[87] _History of the Art of Printing._ Edinburgh, 1713. 8vo.

[88] The _Horace_, printed in 1627, may be mentioned as one of the most interesting of these little typographical curiosities. The type is exactly the modern pearl body. The text is 2 5/6 inches in depth, and 1 1/2 inch wide.

[89] _The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments._ London, printed by John Field, 1653, 32mo. The inexperience of English compositors and correctors in dealing with this minute type is illustrated by the fact that Field’s Pearl Bibles are crowded with errors, one edition, so it is said, containing 6,000 faults.

[90] In one of the Bagford MSS. (Harl. 5915) appear, with the title “Mr. Ogilby’s Letters,” the drawings and proofs of this alphabet in capital and lower-case.

[91] See Specimen No. 21, _post_.

[92] Tradition has asserted that Hogarth designed Baskerville’s types.

[93] In recent years a French typographer, M. Motteroz, has attempted to combine the excellences of the Elzevir and modern Roman, with a view to arrive at an ideally legible type. The experiment is curious but disappointing. For though the new “typographie” of M. Motteroz justifies its claim to legibility, the combination of two wholly unsympathetic forms of letter destroys almost completely the beauty of each.

[94] _Specimen Bibliorum Editionis Hebr. Gr. Lat._ (folio sheet); no date.

[95] _Bibliographical Decameron_, ii, 381–2.

[96] _Origine de l’Imprimerie de Paris_, Paris, 1694, 4to, p. 110. Chevillier gives a curious instance of this tendency of the old printers to contract their words. The example is taken from _La Logique d’Okam_, 1488, fol., a work in which there scarcely occurs a single word not abbreviated. “Sic̃ hic ẽ faɫ s̃m q̃d ad simpɫr a ẽ [*pro]ducibile a Deo g̃ a ẽ & sir hic a ñ ẽ g̃ a ñ ẽ [*pro]ducibile a Do,”-which means: “Sicut hic est fallacia secundum quid ad simpliciter; A est producibile a Deo; ergo A est. Et similiter hic. A non est; ergo A non est producibile a Deo.”

[97] Sir A. Panizzi, in his tract, _Chi era Francesco da Bologna ?_ London, 1858, 16mo, shows that this artist was the same as the great Italian painter, Francesco Francia.

[98] The German practice of inserting proper names and quotations, occurring in a German book, in Roman type, probably suggested a similar use of the Italic in books printed in the Roman letter.

[99] This reform, which was an incident in the general typographical revolution at the close of last century, is usually credited to John Bell, who discarded the long ſ in his _British Theatre_, about 1791. Long before Bell’s time, however, in 1749, Ames had done the same thing in his _Typographical Antiquities_, and was noted as an eccentric in consequence. Hansard notes the retention of the long ſ in books printed at the Oxford University press as late as 1824.

[100] The suggestion that _Lettres de Forme_ may have meant merely letters commonly used in print (adopting the early printers’ use of the word _forma_ as type), appears to be somewhat far-fetched. The term, though apparently distinctly typographical, was used both by Tory and Ycair to denote a class of letter which the former denominated _Canon_, or cut according to rule, as opposed to the more fanciful _lettres bâtardes_.

[101] Petrarch expressed a strong aversion to the character; but some Italian and French printers adopted it, to the exclusion of the Roman, and, like Nicholas Prevost in 1525, boasted of it as the type “most beautiful and most becoming for polite literature.” Gothic printing began in Italy about 1475 and in France in 1473.

[102] See specimen No. 15, _post_.

[103] See specimen No. 49, _post_.

[104] _Bibliographical Decameron_, ii, 407.

[105] The first part of this work is without date or printer’s name; but the types are those of the 1462 Bible. The _Secunda Secundæ_ was printed by Schoeffer at Mentz in 1467, in the types of the _Rationale_.

[106] See specimens Nos. 5 and 6, _ante_, and 18A, _post_.

[107] See specimen No. 27, _post_.

[108] See specimen No. 52, _post_.

[109] See specimen No. 73, _post_.

[110] See specimen No. 51, _post_.

[111] Thus, Ὁτι ἶσα τὰ ἁμαρτήματα appears Oτίcaτaaκaρτηaκaτa.

[112] Lascaris caused to be printed at Florence, in 1494, an _Anthologia Græca_, and several other works wholly in Greek capitals, “litteris majusculis.” In the preface to the _Anthologia_ he vindicates his use of these characters, which he says he has designed after the genuine models of antiquity to be found in the inscriptions on medals, marbles, etc.

[113] Robert Estienne was not the first to hold this title, Conrad Néobar, his predecessor, having enjoyed it from 1538–40. In some of his early impressions before 1543, Estienne used occasionally Greek types, apparently the same as those of Badius.

[114] The Imprimerie Royale at the Louvre, of which the present Imprimerie Nationale is the direct successor, was not founded till 1640, by Louis XIII. Francis I granted the letters patent in 1538, whereby Néobar and his successors received the title of Royal Printers, but did not create a royal printing establishment.

[115] Renouard states that the last of the Greek founts of the Aldine press was without doubt designed from Garamond’s models.

[116] Gresswell mentions an _Alphabetum Græcum_, published in 1543, as a preliminary specimen.

[117] The history of these famous types, the matrices of which for some years lay in pawn at Geneva, whence they were released at a cost of 3,000 livres in 1619, may be read in M. Bernard’s _Les Estienne et les types grecs de François I^{er}_. Paris, 1856. 8vo.

[118] Greek printing did not become common in Spain till a later period. A book printed at Oriola in 1603 contains an apology for the want of Greek types.

[119] See specimen No. 28, _post_.

[120] See specimen No. 29, _post_.

[121] See specimen No. 69, _post_.

[122] See specimen No. 71, _post_.

[123] _De Hebraicæ typographiæ origine._ Parma, 1776. 4to.

[124] _Les Incunables Orientaux._ Paris, 1883. 8vo.

[125] _Recherches . . sur la Vie et les Editions de Thierry Martens._ Alost, 1845. 8vo.

[126] See specimens Nos. 34 and 35, _post_.

[127] See specimen No. 47, _post_.

[128] The English were in negotiation for the founts when Vitré received his orders to purchase.

[129] See _Calendar State Papers_, 1637–8, p. 245. Raphlengius died in 1597. Among Laud’s MSS. at the Bodleian is a printed work by Bedwell, entitled _The Arabian Trudgman_, London, 1615, 4to, but no Arabic type is used in it. An attempt to buy the Oriental matrices of Erpenius for Cambridge, in 1626, was forestalled by the Elzevirs, who secured them for their own press.

[130] See specimen No 37, _post_.

[131] See specimen No. 61, _post_.

[132] Parr’s _Life and Letters of Usher_. London, 1686, fol., p. 488.

[133] See specimen No. 38, _post_.

[134] See specimen No. 41, _post_.

[135] See specimen No. 63, _post_.

[136] See specimen No. 39, _post_.

[137] See specimen No. 66, _post_.

[138] See specimen No. 40, _post_.

[139] See specimen No. 36, _post_.

[140] See specimen No. 62, _post_.

[141] See specimen No. 42, _post_.

[142] See specimen No. 78, _post_.

[143] James’s foundry also had a set of punches in Long Primer, but these appear never to have been struck.

[144] See specimen No. 64, _post_.

[145] See specimen No. 65, _post_.

[146] See facsimile No. 20, _post_.

[147] See specimen No. 48, _post_.

[148] See specimen No. 45, _post_.

[149] Music engraved on wood was used as late as 1845, in Oakley’s _Laudes Diurnæ_.

[150] See specimen No. 54, _post_.

[151] _Essai sur l’Education des Aveugles._ Dedié au Roi. À Paris. Imprimé par les Enfants Aveugles. 1786. 4to. The work is printed in the large script letter of the press, but not in relief. Appended are specimens of circulars, addresses, etc., printed in ordinary type, for the use of the public.

[152] A curious collection of these may be seen in the _Quincuplex Psalterium_, printed by Henri Estienne I, at Paris, in 1513.

[153] _The Life and Typography of William Caxton, England’s first Printer._ 2 vols. London, 1861–3. 4to.

[154] Mr. Figgins, apparently misled by the irregularities in form consequent on the touching-up of Type No. 2, concluded that the whole of the types in which this book was printed were cut separately by hand.

[155] _The General History of Printing._ London, 1732, 4to, p. 343.

[156] Among the rubbish of James’s foundry, Mores, who evidently credited the legend, states that he discovered some of the punches from which the two-line Great Primer matrices had been struck. “They are,” he observed, “truly _vetustate formâque et squalore venerabiles_, and we would not give a lower-case letter in exchange for all the leaden cups of Haerlem” (_Dissertation_, p. 76). Hansard, in 1825, appears also to have believed in the survival of De Worde’s punches, the form of which he professed to recognise among the Black-letter shown in Caslon’s specimen-book of 1785.

[157] The first Roman, or (as it was sometimes called) White-letter, noticed by Herbert in any of De Worde’s books was in the _Whitintoni de heteroclytis nominbus_, 1523.

[158] _Roberti Wakefeldi . . . oratio de laudibus et utilitate trium linguarum Arabice, Chaldaicæ et Hebraice atque idiomatibus Hebraicis quæ in utroque testamento inveniuntur. Londini apud Winandum de Vorde_ (1524). 4to.

[159] This is probably the first appearance of Italic type in England.

[160] Pynson was not the first English printer who “put out” his work to foreign typographers. Caxton, in 1487, employed W. Maynyal of Paris to print a Sarum _Missal_ for him; and one book, at least, is known to have been printed for De Worde by a Parisian printer.

[161] _Oratio in Pace nuperrimâ, etc. Impressa Londini, Anno Verbi incarnati_ MDXVIII _per Richardum Pynson, Regium Impressorem_. 4to.

[162] _Thomæ Linacri de emendatâ structurâ Latini sermonis. Londini, apud Richardum Pinsonum._ 1524. 4to.

[163] _i.e._, “Greeting to the Reader: Of thy candour, reader, excuse it if any of the letters in the Greek quotations are lacking either in accents, breathings or proper marks. The printer was not sufficiently furnished with them, since Greek types have been but lately cast by him; nor had he the supply prepared necessary for the completion of this work.”

[164] Redman, who began to print about 1525, in Pynson’s old house, is supposed to have succeeded to the types of his predecessor. His edition of _Littleton’s Tenures_ (no date) shows the Roman letter in Long Primer body.

[165] _D. Joannis Chrysostomi homiliæ duæ, nunc primum in lucem æditæ_ (Greek and Latin) _a Joanne Cheko. Londini_ 1543. 4to.

[166] _Ælfredi Regis Res Gestæ_ (without imprint or date), fol. The work was bound up and published with Walsingham’s _Historia Brevis_, printed by Binneman, and his _Ypodigma Neustriæ_, printed by Day, both in 1574. The text of the _Ælfredi_, though in Saxon characters, is in the Latin language.

[167] _i.e._, “And inasmuch as Day, the printer, is the first (and, indeed, as far as I know, the only one) who has cut these letters in metal; what things have been written in Saxon characters will be easily published in the same type.”

[168] Astle, in his _History of Writing_, p. 224, remarks: “Day’s Saxon types far excel in neatness and beauty any which have since been made, not excepting the neat types cast for F. Junius at Dort, which were given to the University of Oxford.”

[169] Parker, who, according to Strype (_Life of Parker_, London, 1711, fol., p. 278), extended his patronage to Binneman as well as to Day, and at whose expense the _Historia_ was published, may possibly have claimed the disposal of founts specially cut for his own use, and in this manner secured for Binneman founts cast from Day’s matrices. Binneman is described as a diligent printer, who applied through Parker for the privilege of printing certain Latin authors, accompanying his petition by a small specimen of his typography, “which the Archbishop sent to the Secretary to see the order of his print. The Archbishop said he thought he might do this amply enough, and better cheap than they might be brought from beyond the seas, standing the paper and goodness of his print. Adding, that it were not amiss to set our own countrymen on work, so they would be diligent, and take good characters.”

[170] Timperley, _Encyclopædia_, p. 381.

[171] _Life of Parker_, pp. 382, 541.

[172] _Typographical Antiquities_, i, 656.

[173] _Fidelis servi, subdito infideli Responsio. Lond._ 1573. 4to.

[174] _De Visibili Romanarchia. Londini, apud J. Dayum._ 1572. 4to.

[175] _De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ. Londini in ædibus Johannis Daij._ 1572. Fol.

[176] An illustration of this maybe seen in Vautrollier’s Latin Testaments, where both Roman and Italic are exquisitely cut founts, but not being of uniform gauge, mix badly in the same line.

[177] _Introduction of the Art of Printing into Scotland._ By R. Dickson. Aberdeen, 1885. 8vo. Appendix.

[178] _Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stände und . . . Handwerker. Frankfurt_, 1568. 4to. _Der Schrifftgiesser._

[179] _Harleian MS._ 5915, No. 201. The cut is undated. The following sentence from Mr. T. C. Hansard’s _Treatises on Printing and Typefounding_, Edinburgh, 1841, 8vo, p. 223, may possibly refer to the same device. “This evidence” (of the process employed by the early letter-founders) “is afforded us by the device of Badius Ascensius, an eminent printer of Paris and Lyon, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and also by that of an English printer, Anthony Scoloker of Ippeswych, who modified and adopted the device of Ascensius, as indeed did many other printers of various countries. This curious design exhibits in one apartment the various processes of printing, the foreground presenting a press in full work, the background on the left the cases and the compositor, and on the right the foundery; the matrix and other appliances bearing a precise resemblance to those at present in use.” If the above be a description of the block here shown (in which case Mr. Hansard has confused the matrix with the mould), we are able to fix the date approximately at 1548, in which year Scoloker printed at Ipswich.

[180] A description of this interesting establishment will be found in M. De George’s _La Maison Plantin à Anvers_. 2nd ed. Brussels, 1878, 8vo.

[181] The legend of the silver types has been a favourite one in the romance of typography. Giucciardini states that Aldus Manutius used them; and Hulsemann describes the Bible printed by Robert Estienne in 1557 as “typis argenteis sanè elegantissimis.” The same extravagance was attributed to Plantin. Possibly the famous productions of these great artists impressed their readers with the notion that their beautiful and luxurious typography was the result of rare and costly material; and, ignoring the fact that silver type would not endure the press, they credited them with the absurdity of casting their letters in that costly material. It is difficult to believe that any practical printer, however magnificent, would make even his matrices of silver, when copper would be equally good and more durable. Didot was said, as late as 1820, to have cast his new Script from steel matrices inlaid with silver. The use of the term “silver” as a figurative mode of describing beautiful typography is not uncommon. Sir Henry Savile’s Greek types, says Bagford, “on account of their beauty were called the Silver types.” Field’s Pearl Bible in 1653 has been spoken of as printed in silver types. Smith, in 1755, referred to the fiction, still credited, that “the Dutch print with silver types.” On the other hand, we have the distinct mention in the inventory of John Baskett’s printing-office at Oxford, in 1720, of “a sett of Silver Initiall Letters,” which we can hardly believe to be a purely poetic description, and probably referred to the coating of the face of the letter with a silver wash. It should be stated here that Ratdolt, the Venetian printer, in 1482 was reported to have printed one work in types of gold!

[182] Among the itinerant punch-cutters of Plantin’s day was the famous French artist Le Bé who came to Antwerp to strike the punches for the Antwerp _Polyglot_.

[183] _Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works applied to the Art of Printing._ The Second Volume. London, 1683. 4to.

[184] The index-letters following each part refer to Moxon’s illustration of a mould in the _Mechanick Exercises_, a reduced copy of which is placed by the artist of the _Universal Magazine_, 1750, at the foot of his View of the Interior of Caslon’s Foundry, of which we give a facsimile in the frontispiece.

[185] Iron does not appear to have continued much longer as a staple ingredient of English type-metal. There was, however, no rule as to the composition of the alloy. The French type-metal at the beginning of the eighteenth century was notoriously bad, and drove many printers to Frankfort for their types, where they used a very hard composition of steel, iron, copper, brass, tin and lead.

[186] See _post_, chapter ix.

[187] See _post_, chapter x.

[188] Psalmanazar, in referring to Samuel Palmer’s projected second part to his _History of Printing_, which should describe all the branches of the trade, says that this project, “though but then as it were in embryo, met with such early and strenuous opposition from the respective bodies of letter-founders, printers and bookbinders, under an ill-grounded apprehension that the discovery of the mystery of those arts, especially the two first, would render them cheap and contemptible . . . that he was forced to set it aside” (_Timperley_, p. 647).

[189] _Typographiæ Excellentia. Carmen notis Gallicis illustratum à C. L. Thiboust, Fusore-Typographo-Bibliopôlâ._ Paris, 1718. 8vo.

[190] “LIQUATOR.

“Ecce Liquator adest; en crebris ignibus ardet
Ejus materies; præbet Cochleare, Catillum
Et Formas queis mixto ex ære fideliter omnes
Conflat Litterulas; Hic paret sponte Peritis,
Sive Latina velint conscribere, Græcáve dicta;
Sive suam exoptent Hebræâ dicere mentem
Linguâ, seu cupiant Germanica verba referre,
Cunctas ille suâ fabricabitur arte figuras.
Cernis quâ fiat cum dexteritate character
Singulus Archetypo, quod format splendida signa,
Cum mollis fuerit solers industria scalpri.
Illum opus est fusi digito resecare metalli
Quod superest, Ferulisque Typos componere lêves,
Ut queat exæquans illos Runcina parare.
Sed solet esse gravis nimiis ardoribus æstus.”

[191] _Fonderie en caractères de l’Imprimerie._ 4 pp., and 4 pp. of plates. Fol. No date.

[192] Smith (_Printers’ Grammar_, p. 8) blames the French founders of his day for the shallow cut of their punches, which being naturally reproduced in the types, was the cause of much bad printing. Some sorts, he said, as late as 1755, only stood in relief to the thickness of an ordinary sheet of paper. He contrasts English punch-cutting favourably with French in this particular.

[193] _Manuel Typographique, utile aux gens de lettres._ 2 tom. Paris, 1764–6. 8vo.

[194] _Patents for Inventions.—Abridgments of Specifications relating to Printing_ (1617 to 1857). London, 1859. 8vo.

[195] This misguided reformer lived at Banbury, where, in 1804, he printed an edition of _Rasselas_, 8vo, in his “improved” types. The result is more curious than beautiful, and the public remained loyal still to the alphabets of Aldus, Elzevir, Caslon, Baskerville, and Bodoni. Nevertheless, Rusher’s edition of _Rasselas_, “printed with patent types in a manner never before attempted,” will always claim a place among typographical curiosities.

[196] This is apparently the first suggestion in England of the “hand-pump,” which was subsequently adopted by all the founders, and formed, in combination with the lever-mould, the intermediate stage between hand and machine casting.

[197] The origin of type-nicks is doubtful. Some have considered them to have resulted from a modification of the old alleged system of perforation, and to have been intended as a receptacle for the wire or string used to bind the lines together. The types of the first printers were certainly without them, and as late as 1540 French moulds had none. A nick forms part of Moxon’s moulds in 1683. In French founding the nick is at the back of the type, while in England it is always on the front. In Fournier’s day the Lyonnaise types were an exception to the general French rule, and had the nick on the front, as also did the types of Germany, Holland and Flanders. Some of the old founts procured abroad by English founders were struck in the copper inverted, so that when cast in English moulds they have always had the nick at the back.

[198] The lever mould was first used in America about 1800.

[199] Clayton issued a pamphlet printed from plates produced by this process.

[200] It was calculated that 75,000 types could be produced by two men in an hour.

[201] See _post_, chap. xxi. Prior to Pouchée’s introduction of this system of casting into England, Hansard informs us, Henry Caslon made trial of it, but it was not found eligible to pursue it.

[202] The type-casting machine, of which this is the first patented attempt in England, was not generally adopted till after the International Exhibition of 1851, at which the hand-mould alone was shown. The model generally adopted was the machine patented in America in 1838, by David Bruce, which Alexander Wilson introduced in this country about 1853. Previous to David Bruce’s machine, a machine invented by Edwin Starr had been introduced at Boston in 1826, and tried for five years.

[203] The reader is referred to the concise summary given under the title “Parliamentary Papers,” in Bigmore and Wyman’s _Bibliography of Printing_, also to the _Abridgments of Specifications relating to Printing_, 1617 to 1857, published by the Commissioners of Patents in 1859, and for more minute particulars to Mr. Arber’s _Transcript of the Registers of the Stationers’ Company_, and the _Calendars of Domestic State Papers_.

[204] Notwithstanding this flattering announcement, we find that five years later Grafton and Whitchurch, who held the King’s Bible patent, received the royal permission to print the revised edition of Matthews’s Bible in Paris, “because at that time there were in France better printers and paper than could be had here in England.” The project, as history records, was cut short by the Inquisition; but the presses, types, and workmen were with great difficulty brought over from Paris to London, where the Bible was finished in 1539.

[205] A brotherhood of Stationers, consisting of “writers of text letter,” “lymners of bokes,” and subsequently admitting printers to its fellowship, had existed since 1403. The term Stationer, at the time of the incorporation, included booksellers, printers, bookbinders, publishers, type-founders, makers of writing-tables, and other trades, amongst which were “joiners and chandlers.”

[206] Arber’s _Transcripts_, ii, 753–69.

[207] This unruly printer troubled the Company’s peace for eleven years, and demonstrated, by his persistent defiance of their authority, the insufficiency of their powers to execute the control they nominally possessed. John Wolfe, the City printer, distinguished himself in a similar way.

[208] Arber’s _Transcripts_, ii, 22.

[209] A commission appointed to inquire into the disputes at that time agitating the Company, gave as one of its chief reasons why the monopolies should be sustained, that if anyone were to print any book he chose, this inconvenience would follow, viz., “want of provisions of good letters,” in other words, the quality both of type and printing would degenerate.

[210] Arber’s _Transcripts_, i, 114, 144.

[211] A return of presses and printers made in the same year to the Master and Wardens of the Company after the publication of the decree, shows that this provision had reduced the number to twenty-five printers, with fifty-three presses. A list of these is given in Mr. C. R. Rivington’s _Records of the Company of Stationers_ (London, 1883, 8vo), p. 28.

[212] The provisions of this decree were commended in The _London Printer his Lamentation_, published in 1660, and reprinted in the third volume of the _Harleian Miscellany_. The writer contrasts it favourably with subsequent decrees.

[213] Arber’s _Transcripts_, ii, 816.

[214] A licensed stationer might, with the leave of the Company, employ an unlicensed stationer to reprint a work of his own, on payment of a fine. (_Ibid._, ii, 19.)

[215] In France, as early as 1539, typefounding had been legally recognised as a distinct trade. The edict of 1539 contains the following clause, applying the provisions and penalties of the decree to typefounders: “Et pour ce que le métier des fondeurs de lettres est connexe à l’art de l’imprimeur, et que les fondeurs ne se disent imprimeurs, ne les imprimeurs ne se disent fondeurs, lesdicts articles et ordonnances auront lieu . . . aux compagnons et apprentifs fondeurs, ainsi qu’en compagnons et apprentifs imprimeurs, lesquels oultre les choses dessus dictes seront tenus d’achever la fonte des lettres par eux commencée et les rendre bonnes et valables.” The whole decree is in curious contrast with the Acts regulating English printing and founding. The French “compagnons” are forbidden to band together for military, festive, or religious purposes, to carry arms, to beat and neglect their apprentices, to leave any work incomplete, to use any printer’s marks but their own; and so great is the fatherly solicitude of the Crown for the honour of the press, that printers are made amenable to law for typographical errors in their books. (Lacroix, _Histoire de l’Imprimerie_. Paris, 8vo, pp. 124–8.)

[216] In 1635 the journeymen printers presented a petition to the Stationers’ Company respecting certain abuses which they desired to have reformed. The report of the referees appointed to inquire into the matter, with their recommendations, is still preserved. Amongst other things is a provision against standing formes; also that no books printed in Nonpareil should exceed 5,000 copies, in Brevier 3,000 (except the privileged books); and further, that compositors should keep their cases clean, and dispose of “all wooden letters, and two-line letters, and keep their letter whole while work is doing, and after bind it up in good order.” The Company approved of the report, and ordered it to be entered on the books. (_Calendar of State Papers, Domestic_, 1635. London, 8vo, 1865, p. 484.)

[217] _A Decree of Starre-Chamber, concerning Printing. Made the eleventh day of July last past, 1637._ London, 1637, 4to. The “London Printer,” previously quoted, writing in 1660, styles this decree “the best and most exquisite form and constitution for the good government and regulation of the press that ever was pronounced, or can reasonably be contrived to keep it in due order and regular exercise.” It was the lapse of its authority in 1640 which led to the abuses over which he lamented.

[218] This famous speech has been reprinted by Mr. Arber among his _English Reprints_, together with a verbatim copy of the decrees which evoked it. London, 1868, 12mo.

[219] That is, the Master and Wardens are obliged to find employment for all honest journeymen out of work, the master-printers and founders being bound to give work to anyone thus brought to them. Masters requiring additional hands can compel the services of any journeyman out of work, who can only refuse the summons at his peril.

[220] In a rare tract entitled _An Exact Narrative of the Tryal and Condemnation of John Twyn, for Printing and Dispersing of a Treasonable Book, etc._ (London, 1664, 4to), several curious particulars are given as to the operation and enforcement of this Act as regards printers. But although a bookseller and bookbinder were arraigned at the same time, no reference was made to the founder of the types, who was apparently not held responsible for a share in the offence. In the evidence given by L’Estrange, however, as to Dover, one of the prisoners, we have a curious glimpse of the technical duties devolving on the Surveyor of the Imprimery and Printing Presses under this Act. He states, “I was at his (Dover’s) house to compare a _Flower_ which I found in the _Panther_ (a dangerous Pamphlet), that flower, that is, the very same _border_, I found in his house, the same mixture of Letter, great and small in the same Case; and I took a Copy off the Press.” The sentence passed upon the unfortunate John Twyn gives a vivid idea of the amenities of a printer at that period: “That you be led back to the place from whence you came, and from thence to be drawn upon an Hurdle to the place of Execution, and there you shall be hanged by the Neck, and being alive shall be cut down, and your privy Members shall be cut off, your Entrails shall be taken out of your body, and you living, the same to be burnt before your eyes: your head to be cut off, your body to be divided into four quarters, and your head and quarters to be disposed of at the pleasure of the King’s Majesty. And the Lord have mercy upon your soul.”

[221] Printers were ordered to enter into a bond of £300 to the Crown not to misconduct themselves, but no bond appears to have been exacted by this Act from letter-founders.

[222] The Act of 1662 was a probationary Act for two years. In 1664 it was continued till the end of the next session, and again until the end of the session following; and in 1666 again until the end of the first session of the next Parliament. In 1685 it was revived for seven years, at the end of which, in 1692, it was continued for one year more, after which it dropped. According to this account, it must have been dormant at any rate between 1679 and 1685.

[223] In 1724, according to the list presented by Samuel Negus to Lord Townsend, the number of printers in London had increased to seventy-five, and in the provinces to twenty-eight. There were also at that time eighteen newspapers.

[224] _A Proposal for Restraining the great Licentiousness of the Press throughout Great Britain, etc._ No date.

[225] _An Act for the more effectual Suppression of Societies established for Seditious and Treasonable Purposes; and for better preventing Treasonable and Seditious Practices._ [12 July, 1799.]

[226] “VI. FORM _of Notice to the Clerk of the Peace that any person carries on the Business of a Letter Founder, or Maker or Seller of Types for Printing, or of Printing Presses_.—To the Clerk of the Peace for (_as the case may be_) or his Deputy.—I, A. B., of ———— do hereby declare, That I intend to carry on the Business of a Letter Founder, or Maker or Seller of Types for Printing, _or_ of Printing Presses (_as the case may be_), at ———— and I hereby require this Notice to be entered in pursuance of an Act passed in the 39th Year of the Reign of His Majesty, King _George_ the Third.”

[227] “VII. FORM _of Certificate that the above Notice has been given_.—I, G. H., Clerk (or Deputy Clerk) of the Peace for ———— do hereby certify that A. B. of ———— hath delivered to me a Notice in Writing, appearing to be signed by him, and attested by E. F. as a Witness to his signing the same, that he intends to carry on the Business of a Letter Founder, or Maker or Seller of Types for Printing or of Printing Presses, at ———— and which Notice he has required to be entered in pursuance of an Act of the 39th Year of His Majesty, King _George_ the Third.”

[228] The clauses relating to printers and typefounders were repealed by the 32 and 33 Vict., cap. 24: _An Act to Repeal certain enactments relating to Newspapers, Pamphlets, and other Publications, and to Printers, Type-founders, and Reading Rooms_. [12 July, 1869.]

[229]

“Now register’d—now ticketed we move,
Our slightest works the double label prove.”

(McCreery, _The Press_, p. 25.)

[230]

. . . . . “O Veneti,
Que fuerat vobis ars primum nota Latini,
Est eadem nobis ipsa reperta premens.”

[231] In the following observations on the first Oxford types we are mainly indebted, in common with all students of the subject, to the careful researches and notes of the late Mr. Henry Bradshaw of Cambridge.

[232] Bagford attributes this general cessation of printing in Oxford, Cambridge, York, Tavistock, St. Albans, Canterbury and Worcester to Cardinal Wolsey’s interference while legate.

[233] _S. Joannis Chrysostomi opera Græce, octo voluminibus. Etonæ, in Collegio Regali, Excudebat Joannes Norton, in Græcis &c. Regius Typographus._ 1610–13. Fol.

[234] Sir Henry Savile (who is not to be confounded with his kinsman and namesake, Long Harry Savile, Camden’s friend) was formerly Greek tutor to Queen Elizabeth. In 1585 he was made Warden of Merton, and in 1596 became Provost of Eton College, where he died in 1621, ætat. 72.

[235] _Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books._ London, 1807–12. 6 vols., 8vo, v, 111, 122.

[236] The passage referred to is the following vague reply to an inquiry addressed by Sir Henry Savile to Casaubon: “De characteribus Stephanicis longa historia, longæ ambages. Itaque melius ista coram.”

[237] Dupont, _Histoire de l’Imprimerie_. Paris, 1854. 2 vols., 8vo, i, 488.

[238] _Diary and Correspondence._ London, 1850–2. 4 vols. 8vo, iii, 300.