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.

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 emendat structur 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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

239 Printing was introduced into Cambridge in 1521, when John Siberch printed Bullock’s Oratio and seven other works. He styled himself the first printer in Greek in England, although none of his works were wholly printed in that language. The fount used for the quotations in the Galeni de Temperamentis was probably procured from abroad. The residence of Erasmus at Cambridge lent undoubted impetus to the art, which progressed actively while the Oxford press was idle. The first University printers, three in number, were appointed in 1534, by virtue of a charter granted by Henry VIII, in terms considerably more liberal than those first granted to Oxford. At no period of its career has the Cambridge press boasted of a type-foundry. In 1626 Archbishop Usher made an effort to procure from Leyden, for the use of the press, matrices of Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic and Samaritan letters, which, had he been successful, might have formed the nucleus of a foundry. Unfortunately, the Archbishop was forestalled by the Elzevirs, who secured the matrices for their own press (Parr’s Life of Usher. London, 1686, fol., p. 342–3). The University made an effort in 1700 to enrich their press by the purchase of a fount of the famous Paris Greek types of Francis I, known as the King’s Greek. But as the French Academy insisted, as a condition of the purchase, that all works printed in these characters should bear the imprint “characteribus GrÆcis e Typographeo regio Parisiensi,” the Cambridge Syndics, unable to accede to the terms, withdrew from the negotiations (Gresswell’s Early Parisian Greek Press. Oxford, 1833, i, 411; and De Guignes’ Typographie Orientale et Grecque de l’Imprimerie Royale. Paris, 1787, p. 85).

240 Novum Testamentum. CantabrigiÆ. Apud Tho. Buck. 1632. 8vo.

241 Anecdotes, i, 119. Elsewhere (v, 111) Beloe asserts that the type thus used was the Greek of Sir Henry Savile. Although the same size, and in many points closely resembling this letter, it differs from it materially in other respects. This may possibly be accounted for on the supposition that some of the Savile characters having been lost, they had been replaced either by new matrices, or by the addition of letters from some other fount. Buck discarded many of the cumbrous abbreviations used in the Chrysostom, greatly to the advantage of his text (see 4th Report Historical MSS. Commission, p. 464).

242 Rushworth’s Collections, ii, 74.

243 Works of Laud. Oxford, 1847–60. 7 vols., 8vo, v, 80.

244 The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New, etc. Printed at London by Robert Barker ... and by the Assignes of John Bill. Anno 1631. 8vo.

245 Bagford and others erroneously mention the fine as £3,000.

246 Clementis ad Corinthios Epistola prior. 4to. Oxonii, 1633.

247 Augustin Linsdell.

248 Wilkins (D.) Concilia, iv, 485.

249 According to documents in the Record Office, the fine was entered Feb. 18, 163³?/?₄, “Fined for errors in printing the Bible, Barker £200, Lucas £100.” It was allowed to stand over from time to time, “to see whether they would set up their press for the printing of Greek.” On June 23, 1635, it was ordered that all Bibles now in Stationers’ Hall which had been erroneously printed should be redelivered to them “with charge to see all the gross faults amended before they vent the same.”

250 Catena GrÆcorum Patrum in Beatum Job ... oper et studio Patricii Junii, Bibliothecarii Regii, etc. Londini, ex Typographio Regio. 1637. Fol. In his dedication to the Archbishop, Young thus refers to the care taken by Laud in the purchase of the type: “Quod quidem si e fronte acceperis ... qu Britanniam denique characterum eleganti in omni linguarum genere locupletas, ac vicinis gentibus, non minus pulchrÂ, quam polit et accurat veterum scriptorum editione, invidendam reddis, etc.”

251 The matrices of this fount, as will be seen hereafter, passed into Grover’s foundry, and were sold at the dispersion of James’s foundry in 1782.

252 State Papers, Domestic, 1637–8. No. 75.

253 Probably from the Elzevirs, who in 1626 (as noticed p. 66, note) had succeeded in outbidding the representatives of Cambridge University for the Oriental press and matrices of Erpenius.

254 Thomas Smith at a later date referred to the same gift:—“Circa id temporis ... D. Guilielmus Laudus ... postquam ingentem Codicum omne genus manu exaratorum molem pecuniis largissime effusis, ubi ubi merx ista literaria erat reperienda, conquisivisset, elegantissimos typos, omnium ferÈ linguarum, quÆ hodie obtinent, efformari procuravit” (VitÆ, quorundam Virorum ... Patricii Junii, London, 1707, 4to., p. 27).

255 Works of Laud, v. 168.

256 Ibid., v, 236.

257 Latham’s Oxford Bibles and Printing in Oxford. 1870, p. 46.

258 The University supplied a press and type to King Charles I during the Civil War (Gutch, Collectanea Curiosa. Oxford, 1781. 2 vols., 8vo., i, 281).

259 Lemoine, Typographical Antiquities. London, 1797. 8vo, p. 87. The office of Archi-typographus had been instituted by Laud, about 1637.

260 He it was on whom Tom Brown wrote his famous epigram:—

• “I do not love thee, Doctor Fell,
• The reason why, I cannot tell;
• But this alone I know full well,
• I do not love thee, Doctor Fell.”

261 Bagford (Harl. MS. 5901, fo. 89) mentions that Dr. Fell encouraged the fitting-up of a paper mill at Wolvercote, by Mr. George Edwards, “who was a cutter in wood of the great letters, and engraved many other things made use of in the printing of books, and had a talent in maps, although done with his left hand.” Of this mill, Hearne wrote in 1728, “Some of the best paper made in England is made at Wolvercote Mill” (Reliq., ii, 85, ed. 1869).

262 This list, which was appended to the specimen of 1695, doubtless includes a few items acquired by the Press since Dr. Fell’s death. (Harl. MSS. 5901, 5929.)

263 The Coptic fount included in his gift is said to have been cut, not only at his expense, but under his personal supervision, from a character (Mores states) delineated by Mr. Wheeler, rector of St. Ebbe’s, in Oxford.

264 Harl. MS. 5901, fol. 85.

265 Gutch, Collect., i, 271.

266 AthenÆ Oxonienses. London, 1691–2. 2 vols., fol., ii, 604. Wood, in speaking of Mill’s Greek Testament, begun in 1681, says that the first sheets were begun at his Lordship’s cost, “at his Lordship’s printing house, near the Theater” (Fasti Oxon., 3rd ed., ii, 381). This was probably the hired house occupied by the University press prior to its removal to the Theatre, concerning the site of which Hearne remarks (Reliq., i, 254), “One part of the wall, being a sort of bastion, is now to be seen, just as we enter into the Theater-yard, at the west corner of the north side of the Schools, viz., where the late printing-house of Bp. Fell stood.” Moxon, in 1683, recognised the Bishop’s “ardent affections to promote Typographie” in England, by dedicating to him the second volume of his Mechanick Exercises, the first practical work on printing written by an Englishman.

267 A copy of this letter may be seen in the preface to Hickes’ Thesaurus, 1705, p. xliii.

268 The Gothic and Runic punches, and the punches and matrices of the Saxon, formed part of the interesting exhibit of the Oxford University Press at the Caxton Exhibition in 1877.

269 Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, iv, 147.

270 The Oxford Ethiopic types appear to have gone astray, if not at this period, shortly afterwards; for Dr. Mawer, writing to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1759 respecting his proposed Supplement to Walton’s Polyglot, says that the use of the University types had been offered him (in 1743) for printing a specimen of his work, “but,” he adds, “an obstruction was here thrown in my way by reason of the Ethiopic types being most of them lost, and incapable of printing half a page.” (Todd’s Life of Walton, London, 1821, i, 332.)

271 Nichols, Lit. Anec., iv., 146. One of the first works printed in the recovered types was King Alfred’s Saxon version of Boethius’ Consolationis PhilosophiÆ Libri. Oxford, 1698, 8vo. It was edited by Mr. Christopher Rawlinson, from a transcript by Francis Junius among the MSS. at Oxford. Opposite the title is a head of Junius by Burghers, from a sketch by Van Dyck, in the Picture Gallery.

272 A. J. Butler, Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt. Oxford, 1884. 2 vols., 8vo, ii, 257.

273 These additions duly appeared in the second Oxford specimen of 1695, from which the inventory at p. 148 is quoted.

274 There is an amusing account of a visit to the University Press in 1682 in Mrs. D’Anvers’ Academia: or the Humours of the University of Oxford, in Burlesque verse (1691), pp. 25–27.

275 Harl. MS. 5901, fo. 4. The Specimen is given in 5929.

276 Oratio Dominica, p??????tt?? p?????f??, nimirum, plus centum Linguis, Versionibus, aut Characteribus reddita et expressa. Londini, 1700, 4to. 76 pp. The editor was B. M(otte). Typogr. Lond.

277 This circumstance is thus frankly noted in the preface: “PorrÒ, ne Characterum alienorum copi me jactitare videar, scias velim, schedas duas, Linguas Hebraicam, et cÆteras usque ad Slavonicam complexas, in TypographÉo instructissimo inclytÆ AcademiÆ Oxoniensis excusas esse, cui faustissima quÆque comprecator quisquis est qui patriam amat, et bonam mentem colit.”

278 These include the Malabaric, Brahman, Chinese, Georgian, Sclavonic (Hieronymian), Syriac (Estrangelo), and Armenian. The Anglo-Saxon versions are from type, as is also the Irish, which is Moxon’s fount cut for Boyle.

279 A second edition appeared in 1713. In 1715 a similar work was published by Chamberlayne in Amsterdam, entitled Oratio Dominica in diversas omnium fere gentium linguas versa et propriis cujusque linguÆ characteribus expressa. Amstelodami 1715. 4to, with dissertations by Dr. Wilkins and others. This production is superior in general appearance to the English book, but the Oriental and other foreign characters being almost entirely copperplate, its typographical value is decidedly inferior.

280 The Bible-side height is slightly above the ordinary English height. The Learned-side height is about the same as the French height. Ancient jealousies between the two rival “Sides” have much to answer for in the growth of this anomaly. Happily, the difference of “height” is now the only difference between the Bible and the Learned Presses.

281 Writing in 1714, Bagford boasted that the Sheldonian Theatre, Plantin’s Office at Antwerp, the King’s Office in Paris, the King of Spain’s Printing House, (Plantin’s Office at Leyden—since Elzevir’s—is a sorry shed), Janson’s in Amsterdam, and that of the Jews in the same city, were not to compare with the Oxford House (Harl. MS. 5901). The imprint, E Theatro Sheldoniano, was continued on Oxford books till 1743.

282 Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et ArchÆologicus. Oxon. 1703–5. Fol., 3 vols.

283 This learned lady, mistress of eight languages besides her own, was the daughter of Ralph Elstob, a Newcastle merchant, and was born in 1683. Besides making the English translation which accompanies her brother’s Latin version of the Homily on St. Gregory’s Day, she transcribed and translated many Saxon works at an early age. “Miss Elstob,” says Rowe Mores, “was a northern lady of ancient family and a genteel fortune. But she pursued too much the drug called learning, and in that pursuit failed of being careful of an one thing necessary. In her latter years she was tutoress in the family of the Duke of Portland, where we have visited her in her sleeping-room at Bulstrode, surrounded with books and dirtiness, the usual appendages of folk of learning. But if any one desires to see her as she was when she was the favourite of Dr. Hudson and the Oxonians, they may view her pourtraiture in the initial G of the English-Saxon Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory” (Dissertation, p. 29). Miss Elstob died in 1756, and was buried at St. Margaret’s, Westminster.

284 It is interesting to note that among the money contributors on this occasion (a list of whom is preserved in Nichols’ Anecdotes of Bowyer, pp. 496–7), Robert Andrews and Thomas James, the letter-founders, appear as donors of five guineas each, and Thomas Grover of two guineas.

285 Humphrey Wanley, son of Nathaniel Wanley, was secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and afterwards librarian to the Earl of Oxford. He was an adept in the Saxon antiquities and calligraphy, and was an important contributor to Hickes’ Thesaurus, for which work he compiled the historical and critical catalogue of Saxon and other MSS. He died in 1726, aged fifty-four. Much of his correspondence is preserved among the Harleian MSS.

286 Nichols’ Anecdotes of William Bowyer. London, 1782, 4to., p. 498.

287 The Rudiments of Grammar for the English Saxon Tongue. London, 1715. 4to. A specimen of the letter is given in chapter ix, post.

288 “This type Miss Elstob used in her Grammar, and in her Grammar only. In her capital undertaking, the publication of the Saxon Homilies, begun and left unfinished, whether because the type was thought unsightly to politer eyes, or whether because the University of Oxford had cast a new letter that she might print the work with them, or whether (as she expresses herself in a letter to her uncle, Dr. Elstob), because ‘women are allowed the privilege of appearing in a richer garb and finer ornaments than men,’ she used a Saxon of the modern garb. But not one of these reasons is of any weight with an antiquary, who will always prefer the natural face to ‘richer garb and finer ornaments.’ And on his side is reason uncontrovertible.” (Rowe Mores, Dissert., p. 29.)

289 i.e., William Caslon.

290 Nichols’ Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 319. Literary Anecdotes, ii, 361, etc.

291 Dissertation, p. 28.

292 A few of the punches and matrices were shown in the Caxton Exhibition of 1877.

293 The Great Charter and Charter of the Forest. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1759, 4to. This fine work is printed in Caslon’s Great Primer Roman. The copperplate initials and vignettes are very fine, the former containing views of several of the different colleges and public buildings at Oxford.

294 Novum Testamentum, juxta exemplar Millianum. Typis Joannis Baskerville. Oxonii e Typographeo Clarendoniano 1763. Sumptibus AcademiÆ, 4to & 8vo. (See also post, chap. xiii). The Baskerville Greek punches, matrices and types still preserved at Oxford, are supposed to be the only relics in this country of the famous Birmingham foundry.

295 Though dated 1768 on the title, this specimen appears not to have been completed for two years, as it bears the date Sept. 29, 1770, on the last page, and includes specimens of purchases made in that year.

296 Dissertation, p. 45. These strictures we cannot but regard as somewhat hypercritical. It was no uncommon thing to cast a small face of letter on a body larger than its own; and in the case of Hebrew and other Orientals, where detached points were cast to work over the letter, it was by no means unusual at that time, and till a later period, to designate the latter by the name of the body which it and the point in combination collectively formed. With regard to the gradual lapse of obsolete and superannuated founts from the specimen, Mr. Mores’ antiquarian zeal appears to have blinded him to the fact that the Oxford press may have issued their specimens as an advertisement of their present resources, rather than as an historical collection of their typographical curiosities.

298 Mores makes a serious mistake in calling this founder Arthur Nicholas.

299 In the British Museum Catalogue of Early English Books to 1640, the name of John Grismand appears as publisher of twenty-four books between 1597 and 1636. It is probable that the earlier of these, at any rate, were issued by the father of our founder. The name of one Thomas Wright also occurs as a publisher in 1610.

300 Harl. MS. 5910, pt. i, p. 148.

302 Arber’s Transcripts, iii, 363–8.

303 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1649, pp. 362, 523. Among the entries of admission to Merchant Taylors’ School occurs: “Johannes Grismond, filius unicus Johannes Grismond, Typographi, natus Londini, in paroeci de Giles, Cripplegate, Aprilis 1, 1647: an. agens 8. Admissus est Aprilis 3, 1654.”

304 Domestic, 1637–8. Vol. 376, Nos. 13 and 14.

305 The list of matrices is given on p. 173?, post.

306 Dissertation, p. 40.

307 The first project of a Polyglot Bible is due to Aldus Manutius, who, probably between 1498 and 1501, issued a specimen-page containing the first fifteen verses of Genesis, in collateral columns of Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The typographical execution is admirable. A facsimile is shown in Renouard’s Annales de l’Imprimerie des Aldes, 2nd and 3rd editions.

308 It was begun in 1502; completed in 1517, but not published till 1522.

310 These Proposals were printed by R. Norton for Timothy Garthwaite at the lesser North Gate of St. Paul’s Church, London, 1652.

311 It is described by the Rev. H. J. Todd in his Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Rev. Brian Walton, D.D. London, 2 vols., 8vo, 1821. Mr. Todd’s work contains much valuable information respecting the Polyglot.

312 Among the MSS. in Sydney College is a letter written by Abraham Wheelock to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, dated Jan. 5, 1652, in which, referring to the specimen, he says: “When the sheete, here sent, was printed off, I corrected at least 80 errata in it. It as yet serves to show what letters Mr. Flesher, an eminent printer, my friend and printer of my booke, hath” (Todd’s Memoirs, i, 56). James Flesher, son (?) of Miles Flesher (one of the twelve Star Chamber printers named in the Act of 1637), entered into a bond of £300 to the Stationers’ Company in 1649, and held the office of City printer in 1657. His name occurs in the list of the Brotherly Meeting of Printers as Steward at the 42nd Feast. In 1664 he served, together with Roycroft, on the jury at the trial of John Twyn; see ante, p. 132?.

313 Walton’s Polyglot is supposed to be the second book printed by subscription in England. In 1617, Minsheu’s Dictionary in Eleven Languages was published by subscription, the names of those who took a copy of the work being printed. Minsheu’s venture, however, turned out a failure. In Dr. Walton’s case this mode of publication was, owing to the energy of the promoter and the number of his friends, successful. The subscription was £10 per copy, or £50 for six copies. The estimated cost of the first volume was £1,500, and of succeeding volumes £1,200 each. Towards this, £9,000 was subscribed four months before the first volume was put to press.

314 Parr’s Life and Letters of Usher. Lond., 1686, fol., p. 590. Dr. Walton received the Protector’s permission to import the paper for his work, duty free.

315 Origine de l’Imprimerie de Paris. Paris, 1694, 4to, p. 59.

316 Discours Historique sur les principales editions des Bibles Polyglottes. Paris, 1713, 12mo, p. 209.

317 This useful little tract was reprinted with improvements in the following year, entitled: “Introductio ad lectionem linguarum Orientalium, HebraicÆ, ChaldaicÆ, SamaritanÆ, SyriacÆ, ArabicÆ, PersicÆ, ÆthiopicÆ, ArmenÆ, CoptÆ ... in usum tyronum ... prÆcipuÈ eorum qui sumptus ad Biblia Polyglotta (jam sub prelo) imprimenda contulerunt. Londini. Imprimebat Tho. Roycroft, 1655. 18mo.” Republished at Deventer in 1658. The Armenian and Coptic alphabets were cut in wood, and reappeared in the Prolegomena of the Polyglot.

318 “The latter part,” says Bowyer, “is much more incorrectly printed than the former, probably owing to the editor’s absence from the press, or to his being over-fatigued by the work. The Hebrew text suffered much in several places by the rapidity of the publication.”

319 Rev. Mr. Twells, author of Life of Dr. Pocock.

320 Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, complectentia Textus Originales, Hebraicum cum Pentateucho Samaritano, Chaldaicum, GrÆcum; Versionumque antiquarum, SamaritanÆ GrÆcÆ LXX Interpr. ChaldaicÆ, SyriacÆ, ArabicÆ, ÆthiopicÆ, PersicÆ, Vulg. Lat. Quicquid comparari poterat. Cum Textuum et Versionum Orientalium Translationibus Latinis ... Omnia eo ordine disposita, ut Textus cum Versionibus uno intuitu conferri possint. Cum Apparatu, etc. etc. ... Edidit Brianus Waltonus, S.T.D. Londini. Imprimebat Thomas Roycroft, 1657. 6 vols., fol.

321 One of the compositors employed on the work was Ichabod Dawks (grandfather to Wm. Bowyer), of whose son and his curious script type, see The Tatler, No. 178, etc.

322 See ante, p. 98?.

323 In some cases a few of the matrices have undergone renovation in the hands of their successive owners.

324 “The Æthiopic of the Congregation,” i.e., of the Propaganda at Rome, “is not to be compared with ours. And Ludolphus, whose abode was at Gotha, sent his Lexicon to be published at London, where it was printed by Mr. Roycroft upon the type of the English Polyglot” (Mores, p. 12).

325 “The elegant face of the Samaritan is justly attributed by Cellarius to the English, for it was first used in our Polyglot. It differs widely from the type used by Scaliger in his Emend. Temp., and by Leusden at the end of his ScholÆ SyriacÆ, and from another used in an encomiastic of Abr. Ecchelensis upon F. Kircher, which type belonged to the Congregation at Rome; and which was afterwards more neatly cut by Voskens” (ibid., p. 13).

326 In his “loyal” dedication, Walton asserts that from the outset he had intended to dedicate the work to Charles II, and that Cromwell’s patronage of the work had been offered only as the price of a public compliment for himself (Todd, i, 82 et seq.).

327 “The first view of this dedication,” he says, “will prove it to have been printed with different and inferior types, the hasty produce of a courteous after thought” (Introd. Classics, i, 27).

328 “Thomas Roycroft died August 10, 1677. In 1675 he was master of the Stationers’ Company, and in 1677 he gave to them two silver mugs, weight 27 ozs. 3 dwts. In the rear of the altar at St. Bartholemew’s the Great is this epitaph:—‘M.S. Hic juxta situs est Thomas Roycroft, armiger, linguis Orientalibus Typographus Regius, placidissimis moribus et antiqu probitate ac fide memorandus, quorum grati optimi civis famam jure merito adeptus est. MilitiÆ civicÆ Vicetribunus. Nec minus apud exteros notus ob libros elegantissimis suis typis editos, inter quos sanctissimum illud Bibliorum Polyglottorum, opus quam maxime eminet. Obiit die 10 Augusti, ann. ReparatÆ Sal. MDCLXXVII, postquam LVI Ætatis suÆ annum implevisset. Parenti optimÈ merito, Samuel Roycroft, filius unicus, hoc monumentum pie posuit.’?”

329 Lexicon Heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Æthiopicum, Arabicum, conjunctim; et Persicum separatim, etc., etc. Authore Edmundo Castello, S.T.D., etc. Londini, Imprimebat Thomas Roycroft, L.L. Orientalium Typographus Regius, 1669. Two vols., fol.

330 State Papers, Domestic, 1665. Vol. 142, No. 174.

331 State Papers, Domestic, 1667. Ent. Book 23, p. 337.

332 In the List of Stewards of the Brotherly Meeting of printers referred to p. 166, Nicholas Nicholls’ name occurs with James Flesher’s as a Steward at the 42nd Feast.

333 Dissertation, p. 46.

334 See ante, p. 148?.

336 In 1677 he published Geometrical Operations, London, 4to, translated by himself from Dutch into English.

337 RegulÆ Trium Ordinum Literarum Typographicarum; or the Rules of the Three Orders of Print Letters, viz.: the Roman, Italick, English,—Capitals and Small; showing how they are compounded of Geometrick Figures and mostly made by Rule and Compass. Useful for Writing Masters, Painters, Carvers, Masons and others that are Lovers of Curiosity; by Joseph Moxon, Hydrographer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. London. Printed for Joseph Moxon on Ludgate Hill at the Sign of Atlas. 1676. 4to. (Dedicated to Sir Christopher Wren.)

338 The theory of the proportion of letters had been dealt with by several foreign authors in the sixteenth century. In 1509 Fra Luca Pacioli’s book, entitled De Divin Proportione, was printed at Venice, containing woodcut illustrations of the various letters of the alphabet. In 1525 Albert DÜrer published in Nuremberg his Unterweisung der Messung mit dem Zirkel und Richtscheit, reducing all letters to a combination of circles and straight lines. In 1529 Geofroy Tory’s Champfleury appeared at Paris, an extraordinary treatise, deriving every letter of the Latin alphabet from the goddess IO, of the letters of whose name every other letter is formed; and proportioning each to the human body and countenance in their various poses and aspects. Fantastic as his work was, it is credited with having revolutionised the form of the Roman letter in France. Like Moxon, Tory sub-divided the square of each letter into a number of minute squares, in which he constructed his model letters. A somewhat similar work was published at Saragossa, in Spain, in 1548, by Ycair, entitled Orthographia Practica, containing specimens of alphabets, and intended, like all of the above-named works, more for the use of the caligrapher and sculptor than for the printer.

339 Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works. Began Jan. 1, 1677. And intended to be Monthly continued. By Joseph Moxon, Hydrographer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. London. Printed for Joseph Moxon on Ludgate Hill at the Sign of the Atlas. Two vols., 4to.

Vol. I (14 numbers). The Smiths, the Joyners, the Carpenters, and the Turner’s Trades. 1677–80.

Vol. II (24 numbers). Applied to the Art of Printing, 1683–6. (Dedicated to Dr. Fell, Bishop of Oxford.)

340 Mores says that before Moxon’s time letter-cutters worked by eye and hand only, and practised their art by guess-work (Dissert., p. 43).

341 See chap. iv.

342 Or rather a hair space, of which seven go to the body; so that one such space divided by six would give a 42nd part!

343 See ante, p. 109?.

344 Of the eighteen letters of the alphabet, the b, c, h, l, m, n, o, s, u, are in Roman, the a and e in Italic.

345 A copy of this rare broadside is in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

346 The full title of this rare little tract, consisting of eight leaves only, is translated as follows:—Aibidil Gaoidheilge Caiticiosma, etc. (The Irish Alphabet and Catechism, precept or instruction of a Christian, together with certain articles of a Christian faith which are proper for everyone to adopt who would be submissive to the ordinance of God and the Queen of this Kingdom. Translated from Latin and English into Irish by John O’Kearney .. Printed in the town of the Ford of Hurdles, (Dublin), at the cost of Master John Ussher, Alderman, at the head of the Bridge, the 20th of June 1571, with the privilege of the great Queen. 1571.) 8vo.

347 Tiomna Nuadh, etc. (The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, faithfully translated from the Greek into the Irish by William O’Donnell.) SÉon Francke: a mBaile athÁ Cliath (Dublin), 1602. Fol. This work was printed in the house of Sir William Ussher, Clerk of the Council.

348 Leabhar na nurnaightheadh gcomhchoidchiond agus mheinisdraldachda na Sacrameinteadh, etc. (Translated from the English by W. Daniel, Archbishop of Tuam), a dtigh ShÉon Francke, alias Franckton, a Mbaile athÁ Cliath (Dublin), 1608. Fol. Not published till 1609. In his dedication, Daniel says that, “having translated the book, I followed it to the presse with jealousy and daiely attendance, to see it perfected; payned as a woman in travell desirous to be delivered.”

349 A B C, or the Institution of a Christian. Printed by the Company of Stationers. Dublin, 1631. 8vo.

350 The Catechism, with the Six points of W. Perkins, translated into Irish by Godfrey Daniel. Dublin, 1652. 8vo.

351 “The publication of everything valuable in this language by the fathers of Donegal was unfortunately prevented by the troubles of the time of Charles I, by Cromwell’s usurpation. These fathers had procured a fount for this purpose, which, when forced to fly, they carried with them to Louvain, where some fragments of this fount are yet to be found” (Theoph. O’Flanagan on the Ancient Language of Ireland. Transac. of the Gaelic Soc. 8vo, Dublin, 1808, p. 212). Others stated that the fount had been removed to Douay, and there used to print several Catholic tracts. No Irish work whatever is known to have been printed at Douay. Respecting the various foreign Irish founts, the reader is referred to the account given in chapter ii, p. 75?.

352 Life of William Bedell, D.D., by H. J. Monck Mason. Lond., 8vo, 1843, p. 287.

353 In addition to the A B C and Catechism, already referred to as published by Bedell in 1631, some of his biographers record that he had printed a later edition about 1641, and at the same time the following tracts in Irish, viz.: Some forms of prayer, a selection of passages from Scripture, the first three of Chrysostom’s Homilies on the rich man and Lazarus, and some sermons by Leo. Copies of these have not been seen.

354 Most of the copies were stated to have been bought up, like the type, by Roman ecclesiastics.

355 Of this work a copy has not yet been seen.

356 Tiomna Nuadh. (The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, faithfully translated from the Greek into the Irish by William O’Donnell). London. Robert Everingham. 1681. 4to.

357 “Mr. Everingham and Mr. Whiteledge,” says Dunton (Life, p. 331), “were two partners in the trade; I employ’d ’em very much, and look’d upon ’em to be honest and thriving men. Had they confin’d ’emselves a little sooner to Household Love, they might possibly have kept upon their own Bottom; however, so it happen’d, that they lov’d themselves into Two Journey-men Printers again.” Everingham was the printer, in 1680, of a Weekly Advertisement of Books for some London publishers.

358 Writing to Dr. Marsh of Dublin, Jan. 17th, 1681–2, Boyle refers to a projected Irish Grammar, and offers the use of his type. “I am glad that so useful a designe as that of frameing a compendious Irish Grammar has been conceived by one that is so able to execute it well; but I presume you will want letters for many of the Irish words; in which case you may please to consider what use may be made of those I have already, that may be consistent with the printing of the Old Testament in the language they relate to; for all the designe I had in having them cut off was, that they might be in a readiness to print useful bookes in Irish, whether there or here” (Mason’s Life of Bedell, p. 301).

359 Leabhuir na Seintiomna, etc. (The Books of the Old Testament translated into Irish by Dr. William Bedell, late Bishop of Kilmore. London.) 1685. 4to.

360 An Biobla Naomhtha. (W. Bedell’s and W. O’Donnell’s Irish Bible, revised, and printed at London by R. Everingham.) 1690. 8vo.

361 Mason’s Life of Bedell, p. 305.

362 The Book of Common Prayer, Irish and English, with the Elements of the Irish Language, by John Richardson. London, 1712. 8vo.

363 Practical Sermons. London, 1711.

364 Dissertation, p. 33. It is worthy of note that at the date when Mores wrote an almost universal cessation in Irish printing was taking place at home and abroad. At Louvain no work had appeared since 1663, at Rome since 1707, or at Paris (with the exception of the specimen in Fournier’s Manuale Typographique, 1764), since 1742. In the few Irish works issued at home during this period (with the notable exception of Miss Brooke’s Reliques of Irish Poetry, printed by Bonham of Dublin in 1789, in a new fount, apparently privately cut) the Irish character is generally rendered in copperplate, or in Roman type. It was not till Marcel published his Alphabet Irlandais, at Paris in 1804, and Neilson his Irish Grammar, at Dublin in 1808, that a revival of Irish typography took place, both abroad and at home.

365 An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, by John Wilkins, D.D., Dean of Ripon. London, printed ... for the Royal Society. 1668. Fol.

366 Dissertation, p. 43. Mores mentions a James Moxon who in 1677 lived near Charing Cross, and sold Joseph Moxon’s books at his house (p. 44).

368 His name occurs in the list of Masters and Workmen Printers, as having served as Steward at the sixty-ninth Feast (1680).

369 Mores’ Dissert., p. 13.

370 See ante, p. 157?.

371 The names of both occur among the stewards who had served office at the annual Brotherly Meetings of Masters and Workmen Printers; James Grover at the sixty-first Feast (1672), and Thomas Grover at the sixty-third (1674).

372 See ante, p. 96?.

373 See ante, p. 90?.

374 See ante, p. 144?.

375 “The Arabic (of the Polyglot) is Great Primer, in our (i.e., James’s) foundery; and it came from Mr. Grover” (Mores’ Dissert., p. 13; and again, p. 63). Mores, however, only mentions an imperfect set of Double Pica matrices in the summary of this foundry, whereas Andrews possessed a complete fount of Great Primer. A few odd punches of the Polyglot Arabic are still in existence.

376 Mores’ Dissert., p. 46.

377 Ibid., p. 67.

378 This distinguished ambassador belonged to an honourable family, of whom by no means the least worthy member was Miss Elizabeth Rowe, who in 1785 married Henry Caslon, and subsequently—first with her mother-in-law, and afterwards by her own exertions—ably conducted the affairs of the Chiswell Street foundry. See post, chap. xi.

379 See ante, p. 144?.

380 Gent. Magaz., vol. 56, p. 497. Nichols’ Lit. Anec., ix, 9.

381 Proposuit quidem D. Junius multis antehac annis MS. hoc typis evulgare, cujus etiam specimen impressum vidi; sed consilium illius, multis viris doctis merito improbatum, ejus progressum retardavit; dum multa pro arbitrio ex MS. detruncaret et mutaret, idque cÙm nulla premebat necessitas, prout ex Catalogo satis magno vocabulorum per pauca Geneseos capita, quÆ ipse mutaverat et expunxerat (quem mihi ostendit Typographus) constat (Proleg., sec. ix, § 34).

382 VitÆ quorundam eruditissimorum et illustrium Virorum.—Patricii Junii. Lond., 1707. 4to. “Utcunque futuri operis specimen, quod jam prÆ oculis meis habeo, primum nimirum caput libri Geneseos, una cum doctissimis Scholiis, edere placuit. Omnes illud certamen arripiunt, avidisque oculis legunt perleguntque, ac optim spe de promiss editione, quam cum maximo et vix continendo affectu exspectant efflagitantque, conceptÂ, quasi moram pertÆsi, Orbem Christianum hoc eximio thesauro, quod dudum fuisset locupletandus, nimium diu hactenus caruisse amicÈ queruntur” (p. 32).

383 Parr’s Life of Usher, 1686, p. 621. Usher to Boate, June 1651: “... the Alexandrian copy (in the Library of St. James) which he intendeth shortly to make publick, Mr. Selden and myself every day pressing him to the work.”

384 Wood, Athen. Ox., 1691, i, 796; also Edwards, Libraries and Founders of Libraries, Lond., 1865, 8vo, p. 168.

385 Lansd. MSS., No. 231, fo. 169.

386 See post, chap. xvi.

387 The matrices of all these curious founts have survived to the present day, and, indeed, lie before us as we write. They bear strong evidence of having been justified and finished by the same hand.

388 From this assertion we except, of course, the letter of the first printers, which, if not imitating the actual handwriting of one particular scribe, was a copy of the conventional book-writing hand of the period. Some of the earliest scripts, italics and cursives are also reputed to have been modelled on the handwriting of some famous caligrapher or artist. One of the first instances of printing with facsimile types was the copy of the famous Medicean Virgil, produced at Florence in 1741. The types are for the most part ordinary Roman capital letters with a certain number of “discrepants” or peculiar characters. The title of this fine work is:—P. VergiliI Maronis Codex Antiquissimus .. qui nunc FlorentiÆ in Bibliotheca Mediceo-Laurentiana adservatur. Bono publico Typis descriptus Anno MDCCXLI. FlorentiÆ. Typis Mannianis. 8vo.

389 This is possibly the printer respecting whom Nichols (Illust. Lit., viii, 464) notes that on Nov. 20, 1732, John Mears, bookseller, was taken into custody for publishing a Philosophical Dissertation on Death ... Meares succeeded to the business of Richard Nutt, and printed the Historical Register. Among the Bagford Collections (Harl. MS. No. 5915) is a Specimen by H. Meere, printer, at the Black Fryar, in Blackfriars, London. No date.

390 Richard Nutt, printer in the Savoy, died March 11, 1780, aged 80 years.

391 Grover contributed £2 2s. in 1712 towards defraying the loss incurred by the elder Bowyer on the occasion of the fire at his printing-house.

392 His name occurs in the List of Masters and Workmen Printers in 1681; see ante, p. 166?.

393 See ante, p. 149?.

394 Cotton’s Typographical Gazetteer. Second Series, 1866, p. 17.

395 Vol. ii, p. 120.

396 Some of the matrices are without sides, which were probably supplied by a peculiar adaptation of the mould.

397 Bagford (writing in 1714) states that Walpergen “was succeeded by his son, who has long since been succeeded by Mr. Andrews.” If this be the case, the Peter Walpergen whose death occurred in 1714 was probably the son, of whom nothing is known as distinguished from his father.

398 We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. F. Madan, of the Bodleian Library, for our transcript.

399 The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New, etc. Oxford, Printed by John Baskett, Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, for Great Britain; and to the University, 1717, 1716. 2 vols., folio. The running title of Luke xx reads, “The parable of the vinegar.”

400 This, in all probability, was the fount used for printing the “Vinegar” Bible.

401 The contents of this very interesting document were communicated to the AthenÆum of September 5, 1885, by Mr. J. H. Round, in whose possession the original is.

402 Timperley’s Songs of the Press. London, 1833, 8vo, p. 85.

404 Dissertation, p. 51, et seq.

405 Rabbi Joseph Athias, son of Tobias Athias, who printed a Spanish Bible for the use of the Jews, was a printer, publisher and typefounder in Amsterdam. He succeeded to the Elzevir foundry as improved and added to by Van Dijk. In 1662–3 he issued an edition of the Old Testament printed in Hebrew type, specially cut by Van Dijk, for the accuracy and beauty of which he received great renown; and in 1667, when a new edition of the Bible was published, the Government of the United Provinces signified their satisfaction by presenting him with a gold medal and a massive gold chain. He is said to have printed a great number of English Bibles. Van Dijk, whose models were so warmly applauded by Moxon, was a letter-cutter only, and worked for various foundries. His founder was John Bus, who cast in Athias’ house, as the title of the following specimen-sheet, issued about 1700, indicates:—Proeven van Letteren die gesneden zijn door Wylen Christoffel van Dijck, welke gegoten werden by Jan Bus, ten huyse van Sr. Joseph Athias woonst in de Swanenburg Street, tot Amsterdam. Demy broadside (showing five Titlings, sixteen Roman and Italic, eight Black and two Music). After passing through several hands, Athias’ foundry was purchased by John EnschedÉ of Haerlem in 1767, in whose family it still remains.

406 This should be Dirk Voskens of Amsterdam, who bought the foundry of Bleau in 1677, and was the first Dutch founder who kept types for the Oriental and recondite languages. Like Athias and others, he was a founder only, his punches and matrices being cut and sunk by Rolij. The foundry descended to his great-grandson, and was ultimately put up to auction in 1780, and purchased by the brothers Ploos Van Amstel, and subsequently became absorbed by the EnschedÉ foundry.

407 Rolij seems to be Rowe Mores’ way of spelling Rolu, of whose types the following specimen-sheet exists:—Proeven van Letteren dewelcke gegooten worden by Mr. Johannes Rolu, Letter-Snyder woonende tot Amsterdam in de laetste Lelydwars-streat, c. 1710 (probably the specimen referred to by James further on).

408 Voskens.

409 “The matter was first composed in the usual way, then the form was affused with some sort of gypsum, which after it was indurated, became a complication of matrices for casting the whole page in a single piece” (Mores, p. 59). As early as the year 1705 a Dutchman, named J. Van der Mey, had, with the assistance of Johann Muller, a German clergyman, devised a method of soldering together the bottoms of common types imposed in a forme, so as to form solid blocks of each page. By this method, two Bibles, a Greek Testament and a Syriac Testament with Lexicon were produced, the plates of all of which, except the last named, were preserved in 1801. See T. Hodgson’s Essay on the Origin and Progress of Stereotype Printing, Newcastle, 1820, 8vo.

410 “Being called into our company,” says Ged, in his Narrative, “he bragged much of his great skill and knowledge in all the parts of mechanism, and particularly vaunted, that he, and hundreds besides himself, could make plates to as great perfection as I could: which occasioned some heat in our conversation.”

411 Hansard (Typog. p. 823), shows an impression of two pages of a Prayer Book, from plates which had escaped “Caslon’s cormorant crucible.”

412 C. Crispi Sallustii Belli Catilinarii et Jugurthini HistoriÆ. Edinburgi; Guilielmus Ged, Aurifaber Edinensis, non typis mobilibus, ut vulgo fieri solet, sed tabellis seu laminis fusis, excudebat. 1739, 8vo (reprinted 1744). According to the account given by Ged’s daughter in the narrative above referred to, the Sallust was completed in 1736. No copy of that date is, however, known. Some of the plates of the work are still in existence.

413 The story may be read in detail in Biographical Memoirs of William Ged, including a particular account of his progress in the art of Block printing. London, 1781, 8vo. Fenner died insolvent about the year 1735. James Ged, after working for some time with his father, engaged in the rebellion of 1745, and narrowly escaped execution. He ultimately went to Jamaica, a year before his father’s death.

414 Despite Mores’ prophecy that Ged’s invention, even if at first successful, would soon have sunk under its own burden, the method was successfully revived, or rather re-invented, about the year 1781 by Dr. Tilloch of Edinburgh, in conjunction with Mr. Foulis, printer to the University of Glasgow, at whose press were printed a stereotype edition of Xenophon’s Anabasis in 1783, and several chap-books. Messrs. Tilloch and Foulis did not persevere with their venture, which was about the year 1800 successfully revived and perfected by Mr. Wilson, a London printer, aided by Earl Stanhope. In France, Firmin Didot, in 1795, attempted a method similar to that of Van de Mey in 1705; but abandoning this, succeeded in 1798 in producing good stereo plates by a system of polytypage, as described ante, p. 13?. The reader is referred to Hodgson’s Essay for specimens and particulars of the successive efforts to perfect the stereotype process at home and abroad.

415 Mores contradicts himself as to this date, giving it as 1738 in one place, and 1736 in another. As, however, he is particular to mention that John James, in 1736, after his father’s death, commenced his specimen of the foundry, the earlier date may be assumed to be correct.

416 Timperley, who quotes this document (Encycl. p. 655), gives no particulars as to the letter in which it is printed.

417 See ante, p. 206?.

418 See ante, p. 205?.

419 The Oxford University foundry must, of course, be included as a fourth foundry existing at this time, but does not rank as a trading establishment. Cottrell’s foundry was also started in 1757, but it is doubtful whether he had yet finished cutting his punches. Smith, in The Printer’s Grammar, 1755, in comparing the standard bodies in use at that time in England, names Caslon and James as the only English founders.

420 Smith’s Printer’s Grammar, 1755, in referring to the use of flowers in typography, makes mention of “the considerable augmentation which Mr. Caslon has made here in flowers, and in which Mr. James likewise has so far proceeded that we may soon expect a specimen of them” (p. 137).

421 Nichols, Illust. Lit., viii, 450.

422 Edward Rowe Mores was born about the year 1729, at Tunstall in Kent, of which place his father was rector. He was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School and Queen’s College, Oxford, and being originally intended for holy orders, took his M.A. degree. He did not, however, enter the Church, but devoted himself to literary and antiquarian pursuits. Besides his Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders, he spent some time in correcting Ames, and in other investigations into the early history of printing. On one occasion, as he himself narrates, he assisted Ilive in correcting the Hebrew proofs of Calasio’s Concordance for the press. His latter life was marred by habits of negligence and intemperance, which hastened his death in 1778 at Low Leyton. His valuable library of books and MSS. was sold by auction by Paterson in August 1779, on which occasion the eighty copies of the Dissertation, being the entire impression, were bought up by Mr. Nichols and given to the public with a short Appendix.

423 A Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies, by Edward Rowe Mores, A.M. and A.S.S. (London) 1778. 8vo (only 80 copies printed).

424 Consisting of eight founts of Hebrew, four of Samaritan, three of Arabic, four of Greek, five of Roman or Italic, three of Saxon, one of Anglo-Norman, and four of Black.

425 “Such as those which being uniques cannot be perfected without new punches, and if they were made complete, it would be no more than oleum et operam, etc., because they are either out of use or the times afford better, as the Antique Hebrew (spec. 7); Leusden’s Samaritan (spec. 27); 2-line Great Primer Hebrew (spec. 38); the Runic, Gothic, and some other recondites, the matrices for which are incomplete or useless. But of the founts which are in daily use the imperfects will continue, as they mutually aid and help out one another. For the same reason also will continue those which have been cast aside (not by their owner) under the name of waste.”

426 In another place Mr. Mores states that the “waste and pye” of the foundry contained upwards of 6,000 matrices.

427 This is the old Black from Grover’s foundry; see ante, p. 199?.

428 This sly allusion leaves little doubt as to the light in which Mr. Mores viewed the Coster legend so industriously defended by such writers of his own day as Meerman, Bowyer and Nichols.

429 “Excusatos nos habeant eruditi quibus obvenerit typorum Jamesianorum specimen accuratis perlustrare oculis, quod minus quam expetendum esset, in linguis prÆsertim reconditoribus, elimatum prodeat; in animo erat de dedisse emendatissimum et si sat se fecisse existiment opifices, si, posthabitis preli, ceterisque maculis, ostendatur literarum facies—limÆ non defuit labor,—at cessante Fusore cessavit Fornax et defuerunt fusi ad emaculandum typi.”—Preface to the Specimen.

430 i.e., [P.] Polyglot, [A.] Andrews, [G.] Grover, [R.] Rolij, [N.] Nicholls, [S.A.] Sylvester Andrews, [Anon.] “Anonymous.” Of founts marked *, punches or matrices still exist.

431 Two sets of Small Pica and two sets of Pearl not shown in Specimen, were also sold. A Canon, 2-line Great Primer, three Great Primers, an English, Pica, and Bourgeois, had been lost.

432 It is to be borne in mind that Andrews’ foundry included that of Moxon, from whom many of his oldest founts doubtless came.

433 A Great Primer, Pica, Small Pica and Long Primer had been lost, but the Long Primer punches remained.

434 A 2-line English, Double Pica and Pica had been lost.

435 There were also, not in Specimen, a 2-line Great Primer, Double Pica, Pica, two Small Picas and a set of 2-line Nonpareil Capitals. A Paragon, Bourgeois and two sets of Nonpareil had been lost.

436 This was the fount used in the Catena on Job, 1637.

437 “Remarkably beautifully cut and justified.”

438 A Double Pica, Pica and Long Primer had been lost.

439 A 2-line English had been lost.

440 Also a Double Pica not in specimen.

441 i.e., Black—of which the following sets, not in Specimen, were also sold:—Double Pica, two Great Primers, two English, four Small Picas, Long Primer, three Breviers and Nonpareil. A 2-line Great Primer, Double Pica, Long Primer and Bourgeois had been lost.

442 Of these, one was a 4-line, to which belonged a set of “leaden” lower-case matrices.

443 There is more difficulty in tracing these to their original sources than in the case of the matrices, as not only are the numbers not given, but the bodies named may very likely vary from the actual bodies to which the matrices were justified.

444 See p. 191?. Though the matrices of this fount do not appear in the Catalogue, they were evidently in James’s foundry, as they are mentioned in the list drawn up by James in 1767, and are not specified among the matrices lost. They were acquired at the sale of Dr. Fry, and may possibly have been included with the Saxons, or with the imperfect lots.

445 Lit. Anec., iii, 438.

446 See our facsimiles from the Specimen at pages 200 and 204?, ante.

448 The following sketch of William Caslon is mainly taken, and in parts quoted, from the interesting particulars of his career preserved in Nichols’ Anecdotes of Bowyer and the larger work into which that was subsequently expanded. The elder Bowyer’s intimate connection with Caslon’s first ventures in letter-founding give Nichols’ work a special authority in the matter. At the same time there exists a certain confusion in the earlier part of the narrative which it is difficult completely to harmonise.

449 John Watts, a printer of first-rate eminence, for some time partner with Jacob Tonson II in Covent Garden. It was in Watts’ printing office in Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn, that Benjamin Franklin worked as journeyman in 1725. Watts died in 1763, aged 85.

450 William Bowyer, the elder, regarded as one of the foremost printers of his time, was born in 1663. In 1699 he had his office in Dogwell Court, Whitefriars. His premises were burnt in 1713, and in the conflagration he lost all his types and presses. By the liberality of his fellow-printers, however, this loss (estimated at over £5,000) was partly made good, and he was enabled to start again and rise once more to a foremost place in his profession. For all particulars respecting Mr. Bowyer and his learned son, see Nichols’ Anecdotes of William Bowyer, London, 1782, 4to, and Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century, London 1812–15, 9 vols., 8vo, a work the foundation of which is a bibliography of the productions of this celebrated press. See also ante, p. 157?.

451 James Bettenham, husband of the elder Bowyer’s step-daughter, was born 1683. He printed in St. John’s Lane, and attained to considerable eminence as a printer, although after sixty years’ labour he left behind him only £400. “He died,” says Rowe Mores, “in 1774, ferÈ centenarius sanÆque mentis et memoriÆ.”

452 Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 585.

453 A tradition in the Caslon family that William Caslon began his career as a letter-founder in 1716, induced the late Mr. H. W. Caslon to adopt this as the date of the establishment of the Foundry. In the absence, however, of any testimony in support of the statement, and in the face of the clear announcement by Caslon himself that his Foundry was begun in the year 1720, there seems to be no ground for attaching any importance to the use of this earlier date.

454 This Society, which was established in 1698, had already displayed considerable activity in the introduction of printing into the distant fields of its missionary effort. In 1711 it sent out to the missionaries of Tranquebar, on the Coromandel Coast, a printing press furnished with Portuguese types, paper, etc., which, after an adventurous voyage, in which the vessel was plundered by the French of all her other cargo, reached its destination and enabled the missionaries to commence the printing of a Tamulic New Testament, of which the Gospels appeared in 1714, with the imprint “TranquebariÆ in littore Coromandelino, typis Malabaricis impressit G. Adler, 1714.” It is related that the publication of the remainder of the work was delayed from a scarcity of paper, their types being very large; till at length the expedient was adopted of casting a new fount of letter from the leaden covers of some Cheshire cheeses, which had been sent out to the missionaries by the Society. The attempt succeeded, and with these new and smaller types the remainder of the Testament was printed, the whole being published together in 1719. (Cotton, Typographical Gazetteer, 2nd edit., p. 289.)

455 Liber Psalmorum .. una cum decem PrÆceptis .. et Oratione Dominic .. ArabicÈ; sumptibus Societatis de Propagand Cognitione Christi apud Exteros. London, 1725. 8vo.

456 Novum Testamentum, ArabicÈ. Londini. Sumptibus Societatis de Propagand Cognitione Christi apud Exteros. 1727. 4to.

457 “This circumstance,” says Nichols (Anec. Bowyer, p. 317) “has lately been verified by the American, Dr. Franklin, who was at that time a journeyman under Mr. Watts, the first printer that employed Mr. Caslon.”

458 Dibdin, in repeating this anecdote, uses rather stronger language. “Caslon,” he says, “after giving (I would hope) that wretched pilferer and driveller Samuel Palmer (whose History of Printing is only fit for chincampane paper) half a dozen good canings for his dishonesty, betook himself to Mr. Bowyer.” (Bibl. Decam. II., 379.)

459 Joannis Seldeni Jurisconsulti Opera Omnia, tam edita quam inedita. In tribus voluminibus. Colligit ac recensuit ... David Wilkins, S.T.P. ... Londini, Typis Guil. Bowyer. 1726. Fol. (Begun in 1722.)

460 Dr. David Wilkins, F.S.A., was Keeper of the Lambeth Library under Archbishop Wake, and drew up a Catalogue of all the MSS. and books there in his time. Besides editing the Selden and the Coptic Testament and Pentateuch, he published some important works in Anglo-Saxon Literature, and edited the learned Prolegomena to Chamberlayne’s Oratio Dominica in 1715. He died in 1740. Rowe Mores considers that in his Coptic studies Dr. Wilkins was indebted to Kircher, the Jesuit, whose Prodromus Coptus, published in Rome in 1636, the Doctor had severely handled.

461 Quinque Libri Moysis ProphetÆ in Lingu ÆgyptiÂ. Ex M.S.S. ... descripsit ac Latine vertit Dav. Wilkins. Londini 1731. 4to. Only 200 copies were printed.

462 See ante, p. 147?. Nichols, writing about 1813, mentioned that the Coptic fount, having escaped the conflagration of his printing office in 1808, was still in his possession.

463 Typographia, p. 349.

464 See ante, p. 205?.

465 See ante, p. 218?.

466 Anec. Bowyer, p. 537.

467 See ante, p. 215?.

468 Psalmorum Liber. (Heb. et Lat.) in Versiculos metrice divisus, etc. Londini 1736. 2 vols., 8vo.

469 Moses Choronensis HistoriÆ ArmeniacÆ Libri iii. ArmeniacÈ ediderunt, LatinÈ verterunt notisq: illustr. Guil. et Geo. Whistoni. London, 1736. 4to.

470 De Lingu EtruriÆ. J. Swinton. Oxon., 1738.

471 This fount may be seen also in Nichols’ Appendix to Rowe Mores’ Dissertation, p. 96, and in Ames’ Typographical Antiquities, 1st edit., p. 571.

472 If these were the matrices which Mores, in his summary of the Polyglot Foundry (p. 172?, ante), described as Great Primer, it is difficult—unless they were duplicates—to determine through whose foundry they passed into Caslon’s hands. Andrews had a Great Primer, and Grover a Double Pica and Pica; but all these came to James, in whose foundry they remained when Mores wrote in 1778.

473 CyclopÆdia, or an Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, etc., by E. Chambers, F.R.S., London, 1738. 2 vols., fol. (Caslon’s Specimen faces the article “Letter.”) The first edition of this valuable work—the first repertory of general knowledge published in Britain—appeared in 1728. It subsequently formed the basis of Rees’ EncyclopÆdia.

474 See ante, p. 206?.

475 Rowe Mores’ account of the Caslon foundry in 1778, wherein he attributes several of the founts which originally appeared in the 1734 Specimen to Mitchell, might suggest at first sight that Caslon had acquired Mitchell’s foundry prior to 1739. Mores is, however, particular to give the exact date of the purchase, 26th July 1739. It seems more probable that, finding the bodies in Caslon’s Specimen corresponding generally with the description of the matrices he was known to have bought from Mitchell, he concluded hastily that the founts shown were Mitchell’s, whereas a reference to the Specimen would have proved that Caslon preferred his own original faces, in most cases, to those he had bought. See also our notes, post, pp. 247?, 248?.

476 Anec. Bowyer, p. 317.

477 Anec. Bowyer, p. 586.

478 “Les caractÈres de Caslon ont ÉtÉ gravÉs, pour la plus grande partie, par Caslon fils, avec beaucoup d’adresse et de propretÉ. Les epreuves qui on out ÉtÉ publiÉes en 1749 contiennent beaucoup de sortes diffÉrentes de caractÈres” (Man. Typog., II, xxxviii).

479 Typographical Antiquities. London, 1749, 4to, p. 571. The names of William Caslon, sen., and William Caslon, jun., letter-founders, figure among the subscribers to the work; and the plate of facsimiles of Caxton’s types is dedicated “to Mr. Wm. Caslon, a good promoter of this work, and as suitable to the principal Letter Founder.”

480 An Essay on the Original, Use, and Excellency of the Noble Art and Mystery of Printing. London, 1752. 8vo. The work is of little interest apart from the references to the Caslons, and a curious poem at the end.

481 See post, chap. xiii.

482 The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure. London. Vol. vi. June 1750, p. 274.

483 See post, chap. xvi.

484 A copy of this Specimen, dated 1763, evidently an advance copy, is in the library of the American Antiquarian Society, the gift of Isaiah Thomas, the printer, and is, as far as is known, the only copy in existence bearing this date. Copies of the 1764 Specimen occur in 8vo and 4to.

485 Forty-four new founts appear in all, viz.: 2 Titlings, 15 Romans, 4 Greeks, 9 Hebrews, 1 Ethiopic, 1 Etruscan, 2 Saxons, 8 Blacks, and 2 Music, while the Flowers now number 63 varieties.

486 “?‘This New Foundery was begun in the year 1720 and finished 1763.’ So we are told by a note at the end of their Specimen published in 1764, although the same note tells us that though it was finished, yet it was not finished, ‘but would (with God’s leave) be carried on, etc.’ Amen!” (Dissert., p. 80.)

487 Among the relics of the Caslon Foundry is a copy of the 1764 specimen book presented by Mr. Caslon to his friend Phil. Thicknesse the poet. At the end of the book appears Mr. Thicknesse’s letter of thanks to the donor, execrably printed by the poet himself, in type given him by Mr. Caslon.

488 This Concert Room remains at Chiswell Street in pretty much its old form, and is now the repository of the interesting collection of portraits and relics, still preserved, of this venerable Foundry.

489 A General History of the Science and Practice of Music. London. 1776. 4to. Vol. v, 127.

490 The Rev. Dr. Lyttelton writes to Ames, April 25, 1744, “Some unforeseen business prevents Dr. Pococke and myself dining with Mr. Caslon to-morrow. I give you this notice that you may defer your visit till some day next week, when we will endeavour to meet there.”—Nichol’s Illustrations of Literature, iv, 231.

491 Copies of which he continued to circulate, erasing with pen and ink the words “and Son” from the title-page and advertisement.

492 A Concise History of the Origin and Progress of Printing, etc. London, 1770. 8vo. Reprinted in the following year with the title:—The History of the Art of Printing, in two Parts, etc., J. P. Luckombe, M.T.A. London, 1771. 8vo.

493 Dissertation, p. 81.

494 Mores calls this “excavated” or “Hutter’s leading-string” Hebrew. A specimen may be seen in The Scholars Instructor. An Hebrew Grammar of Israel Lyons, Cambridge, 1735, 8vo. The open Hebrew is here used to distinguish the servile from the radical letters. Lyons in his preface deprecates Hutter’s method of printing the entire Bible in this character, thereby keeping the learners “too long in leading-strings” (see also ante, p. 63?).

495 Mores omits a Small Pica Hebrew, which is the same as the Brevier shown in the sheet of 1734.

496 These founts are not Head’s or Mitchell’s, as Mores states, but were cut by Caslon I, and shown on the 1734 sheet.

497 The Pica Greek shown on the 1734 sheet was discarded in favour of this fount.

498 “But,” adds Mores, “Mr. Caslon is cutting a Patagonian which will lick up all these diminutives as the ox licketh up the grass of the field.”

499 “Supported by arches.” Doubtless cast in sand.

500 These were not cut, as Mores states, by Caslon II, but by Caslon I, and appeared on the sheet of 1734, when Caslon II was but 14 years of age.

501 “These,” says Mores, “are one and the same. The Acts of Parliament are printed in them, therefore we call them as Dr. Ducarel and the Act call them, ‘the common legible hand and character.’?”

502 Mores omits here the Pica Black, cut by Caslon I, and shown on the sheet of 1734.

503 Not Cartledge, as erroneously given by Nichols. This lady was the only child of Mr. Cartlitch, an eminent refiner in Foster Lane, Cheapside, and was born May 31, 1730.

504 With the addition of the Long Primer Syriac cut for Oxford University, the “learned” founts in the 1785 Specimen are precisely the same as those which appeared in the book of 1764.

505 The address is a literary curiosity: “The acknowledged excellence of this Foundry, with its rapid success, as well as its unexampled Productions having gained universal Ecomiums on its ingenious Improver and Perfecter (whose uncommon Genius transferred the Letter Foundry Business from HOLLAND to ENGLAND, which, for above Sixty years, has received, for its beauty and Symmetry, the unbounded praises of the Literati, and the liberal encouragement of all the Master Printers and Booksellers, not only in this Country but of all EUROPE and AMERICA) has excited the Jealousy of the Envious and the Desires of the enterprising, to become Partakers of the Reward due to the Descendants of the Improver of this most useful and important Art.

“They endeavour, by every method to withdraw, from this Foundry, that which they silently acknowledge is its indisputable Right: Which is conspicuous by their very Address to the Public, wherein they promise (in Order to induce Attention and Encouragement) that they will use their utmost Endeavours to IMITATE the Productions of this Foundry; which assertion, on inspection, will be found impracticable, as the Imperfections cannot correspond in size.

“The Proprietor of this Foundry, ever desirous of retaining the decisive Superiority in his Favour, and full of the sincerest Gratitude for the distinguished Honour, by every Work of Reputation being printed from the elegant Types of the Chiswell Street Manufactory, hopes, by every Improvement, to retain and merit a Continuance of their established Approbation, which, in all Quarters of the Globe, has given it so acknowledged an Ascendency over that of his Opponents.”

The address prefixed to the 1785 Specimen Book of the Worship Street Foundry had evidently been the inspiration of this tirade, which in turn evoked a spirited reply from the Frys in the following year. See post, chap. xv.

506 The sheets appear (along with some of Fry & Son’s and Wilson’s) in Chambers’ CyclopÆdia—incorporated in one Alphabet by Abraham Rees, London, 1784–86. 4 vols. folio.

507 These are sometimes (as in the case of the British Museum copy) bound up with the 1785 8vo specimen book as folding plates.

508 See ante, p. 200?. Hansard observes that besides Queen Elizabeth’s Ambassador, the same family had produced Sir Henry Rowe, a Lord Mayor of London; and Owen Rowe, the Regicide.

509 This celebrated typographer was born at Saluzzo, in the Sardinian States, in 1740. At an early age he visited Rome, and obtained a situation in the printing office of the Propaganda, where he gained great credit for his printing. In 1768 he settled at Parma, where he published many famous works, and established a European reputation. His Homer in 3 vols. folio, published in 1808, is his most famous work. He never visited England, although one or two works were printed by him in our language, viz., Lord Orford’s Castle of Otranto, 1791, 8vo, Gray’s Poems, 1793, 4to, Thomson’s Seasons, 1794, folio and quarto. He died in 1813, and his widow finished and published in 1818 the Manuale Tipografico, 2 vols., royal 4to, a most sumptuous work, containing upwards of 250 exquisite specimens of type and ornaments. A monument was erected to him in Saluzzo in 1872. Of Bodoni’s office at Parma the following interesting particulars are preserved in Dr. Smith’s Tour on the Continent, 2nd edit., vol. iii: “A very great curiosity in its way, is the Parma printing-office, carried on under the direction of M. Bodoni, who has brought that art to a degree of perfection hardly known before him. Nothing could exceed his civility in showing us numbers of the beautiful productions of his press, of which he gave us some specimens, as well as the operations of casting and finishing the letters. The materials of his type are antimony and lead, as in other places, but he showed us some of steel. He has sets of all the known alphabets, with diphthongs, accents, and other peculiarities in the greatest perfection. His Greek types are peculiarly beautiful, though of a different kind of beauty from those of old Stephens, and perhaps less free and flowing in their forms.”

510 Typographia, p. 352.

512 The Printers’ Grammar, etc., by C. Stower, Printer. London, 1808. 8vo. The following note is prefixed to the specimen: “A 4-line Pica, Canon and Double Pica of a bold and elegant shape, were not quite ready to introduce with these specimens.”

513 Savage, in his Hints on Decorative Printing, London, 1822, 4to, chapter ii, shows specimens of Mrs. Caslon’s Roman letter contrasted with the old models of the Foundry on the one hand, and its more recent developments on the other.

514 “Chiswell Street, January 19, 1814. Henry Caslon respectfully informs his friends and the printers in general, that the term of his partnership with the executors of the late Mr. Nathaniel Catherwood having expired, he has entered into a new engagement with Mr. John James Catherwood, brother to his late partner, and that the firm is now carried on under the firm of Henry Caslon and J. J. Catherwood. He embraces this opportunity of expressing his grateful sense of the distinguished patronage the Foundry has received, and the kind encouragement he has individually experienced from his friends in the printing business, since the death of his mother and late partner.”

515 Typograpia, p. 353.

516 See post, chap. xvii.

517 See post, chap. xxi, s.v. Bessemer. In the Directory at the end of Johnson’s Typographia, 1824 (ii, 652), a Catherwood is mentioned among the Letter Founders, Charles’ Sq., Hoxton.

518 Cut by William Martin.

519 This beautiful little fount was cut for Pickering’s Greek Testament 1826, and for clearness and minuteness eclipses both the Sedan Greek, and that of Blean of Amsterdam. It was also used in the Homer of 1831. Dibdin (Introd. to the Classics, 1827, i, 166) shows a specimen of the type.

520 Cut for Dr. C. Wilkins, Oriental Librarian to the East India Company.

521 The Diary of Lady Willoughby, as relates to her Domestic History in the Reign of King Charles I. London, 1844. 4to.

522 Particulars of a most valuable property for Investment called the Caslon Letter Foundry; also a most extensive Modern Foundry on which has been expended upwards of £50,000, which will be sold by auction by W. Lewis and Son ... on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 1846, at 11 for 12 precisely (unless previously disposed of by private contract). In the list of matrices catalogued, the cutters’ names are added, those of Hughes, Bessemer, and Boileau being among the most frequent.

524 Specimen of Types in the Printing House of James Watson. 1713. 48 pp., of which 26 are devoted to Dutch “Bloomers” or Initials, and the remainder to Romans and Italics from French Canon to Nonpareil, with a fount of Greek, one of Black, and a few signs, etc.

525 See ante, p. 218?.

526 Typographia, p. 362.

527 Ireland, during a portion of the eighteenth century appears to have been well supplied with type from native sources. Of the fortunes of Wilson’s branch foundry here alluded to, we have no further record, unless we are to connect the following statement with the enterprise of the Scotch typographers:—Boulter Grierson in 1764 petitioned the Lord Lieutenant for a renewal of the Patent granted to his distinguished father George Grierson by George II in 1731, for King’s printer in Ireland. Among other reasons in support of his prayer, he states: “That the art of making types for printing was unknown in Ireland until very lately, when your petitioner’s father encouraged it by laying out about One Thousand pounds in that article alone, in order to establish that art in the said kingdom, and there are now as good types made here as any imported, by which means there is a great saving to the public, and great part of the money that would be otherwise sent to foreign country’s is left in this kingdom.” (We are indebted to the kindness of a lady descendent of George Grierson for this interesting extract.) According to a note of Lemoine which we quote at p. 264n, Dublin printers in 1797 were getting their types either from Wilson of Glasgow, or from London. It is therefore probable that, whether George Grierson’s enterprise may have consisted in the encouragement of Wilson’s foundry or in the establishment of another foundry of his own, the art did not long hold its ground in Ireland, and was discontinued in the latter half of the century, only to be once revived, and that for a short period only, by Dr. Wilson’s grandsons in 1840. See p. 265?.

528 For an account of Baine’s subsequent career as a type-founder, see post, chap. xix.

529 These eminent printers, the most elegant typographers of which Scotland can boast, produced in their day some of the finest editions ever printed. Robert was originally a barber, but began as a printer in 1740. In 1743 he was appointed printer to Glasgow University, one of his first productions being an edition of Demetrius Phalereus in that year. In 1744 he brought out his famous “immaculate” edition of Horace in 12mo at Glasgow. Shortly afterwards his brother Andrew, who had been a teacher of French at the University, joined him, and the two together, by great industry and excellent artistic taste, produced a large number of beautifully printed works, some of which will rank with the finest achievements of Bodoni, or Barbou, or even the Elzevirs. Their classics, both Greek and Latin, were as remarkable for their exactness as for their beauty, and it is recorded that the brothers, following the example of some of the old masters, were in the habit of publicly exhibiting their proof sheets and offering a reward for the detection of any error. Andrew Foulis died in 1775, and Robert in the following year. The business was carried on under the old name of R. & A. Foulis for some years by Andrew Foulis, son of Robert. This printer it was who was associated with Tilloch in his patent for stereotype in 1784. He died in 1829 in great poverty.

530 Homeri Opera, GrÆce (ex edit. Sam. Clarke). GlasguÆ; in Ædibus Academicis excudebant Robertus et Andreas Foulis, Academii Typographi 1756–8, 4 vols., fol. This work is one of the most splendid editions of Homer ever printed. Each sheet was corrected six times before being finally worked. Flaxman’s illustrations were designed for the work.

531 After stating that it was the ambition of the publishers of this work to rival the finest productions of the Stephani of Paris, the preface continues (p. viii):—“Omnes quidem tres regios Stephanorum characteres grÆcos expresserat jam apud nos, atque imitatione accuratissim reprÆsentaverat Alexander Wilson, A.M., egregius ille Typorum artifex, quem et hoc nomine adscripserat sibi Alma Mater. In his autem grandioris formÆ characteribus Stephanianis id unum desiderari quodammodo videbatur, scilicet, si res ita ferre posset, ut, salv tamen ilia solidÆ magnitudinis specie qu delectantur omnes, existeret una simul elegantiÆ quiddam, magis atque venustatis. Rogatus est igitur ille artifex, ut, in hoc assequendo solertiam suam, qu quidem pollet maximÂ, strenue exercet. Quod et lubenter aggresus est, et ad votum usque videtur consecutus vir ad varias ingenuas artes augendas natus.”

532 Poems of Mr. Gray. Glasgow, printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis, Printers to the University. 1768. 4to. This edition was published simultaneously with Dodsley’s first collected edition of Gray’s Poems, in London; and far exceeded it in beauty of typography and execution. Writing to Beattie in 1768, Gray says, “I rejoice to be in the hands of Mr. Foulis (the famous printer of Glasgow) who has the laudable ambition of excelling the Etiennes and the Elzevirs as well in literature as in the proper art of his profession.”

533 “This is the first work in the Roman character which they (A. and R. Foulis) have printed with so large a type, and they are obliged to DOCTOR WILSON for preparing so expeditiously, and with so much attention, characters of so beautiful a form.”

534 A View of the Various Editions of the Greek and Roman Classics. London, 1775. 12mo. Improved editions in 1778, 1782, and 1790.

535 Renouard, speaking of the twenty volume edition of Cicero printed by the Foulis in 1749, prefers its type to that of the Elzevirs. Catalogue de la BibliothÈque d’un Amateur. Paris, 1819. 4 vols. 8vo. ii, 75.

536 Hansard states that the Long Primer Greek matrices of the foundry were “from the type cast in which the Elzevirs printed some of their editions”—(Typographia, 404).

537 In a later specimen is shown a “New Small Pica Italic” cut for the King’s printer in Edinburgh, 1807.

538 Lemoine, Typographical Antiquities, 1797, says, “Ireland, by its connection with London and Scotland, produces some very neat printing; Wilson’s types are much approved of at Dublin. Alderman George Faulkner may be considered as the first printer in Ireland in his time; but it must be remembered his letter was all cast in London.” p. 99.

539 This fount (according to Savage, Dict. of Printing, p. 320) was cut after the classical and elegant type of Athias, for Mr. Jno. Wertheimer, of Leman Street, and was used in printing the Rev. D. A. De Sola’s edition of the Prayers of the Sphardim.

540 “In conformity,” says the preface, “with ancient immemorial usage, we have in Part I displayed our Founts in the Roman Garb—the venerable Quousque tandem—but lest it should be supposed we had adopted the flowing drapery of Rome for the purpose of shading or concealing defects, we have in Part II shown off our founts in a dress entirely English.” Mr. Figgins was the first to introduce this practice in his Specimens.

541 The following extract from the preface to the 1834 Specimen, announces the removal: “We had the honour some time ago of announcing the removing of the Glasgow Letter Foundry to London, and we beg leave to inform you that we have now carried our intentions into execution, and are prepared to receive your commands in our establishment in Great New Street, Gough Square, London. The operative department will be conducted by Mr. John Sinclair, whose integrity of conduct and thorough knowledge of his profession we now reward by making him a partner in our business.” London, Aug. 1, 1834. The London Foundry was carried on under the old name of Alex. Wilson & Sons, or occasionally Wilsons and Sinclair; the Edinbro’ branch, and that subsequently started in Dublin, being styled A. & P. Wilson.

542 See post, chap. xxi.

544 “His carriage,” says Nichols, “each panel of which was a distinct picture, might be considered the pattern-card of his trade, and was drawn by a beautiful pair of cream-coloured horses” (Lit. Anec., iii, 451).

545 He appears to have continued his original business to the end of his days. Writing in 1760, Mr. Derrick, in a letter to the Earl of Cork, dated July that year, after describing Baskerville’s printing achievements, adds: “This ingenious artist carries on a great trade in the Japan way, in which he showed me several useful articles, such as candlesticks, stands, salvers, waiters, bread-baskets, tea-boards, etc., elegantly designed and highly finished.” The name of Baskerville had previously been associated with typography, as we find in the lists of the Stationers’ Company a Gabriel Baskerville, who took up his freedom in 1622, and a John Baskerville, who took up his freedom in 1639.

546 Dibdin (Intr. to Classics, ii, 555) says £800.

547 “Towards the end of 1792 died Mr. John Handy, the artist who cut the punches for Baskerville’s types, and for twelve years was employed in a similar way at the Birmingham Typefoundry of Mr. Swinney.” (Gent. Mag., 1793, p. 91.)

548 “John Baskerville proposes, by the advice and assistance of several learned men, to print from the Cambridge Edition, corrected with all possible care, an elegant edition of Virgil. The work will be printed in quarto, on a very fine writing Royal paper, and with the above letter. The price of the Volume in sheets will be one guinea, no part of which will be required till the Book is delivered. It will be put to press as soon as the number of subscribers shall amount to five hundred, whose names will be prefixt to the work. All persons who are inclined to encourage the undertaking, are desired to send their names to John Baskerville in Birmingham, who will give specimens of the work to all who are desirous of seeing them. Subscriptions are also taken in, and specimens delivered by Messieurs R. and J. Dodsley, Booksellers in Pall Mall, London.”

549 Of the two copies in the possession of Mr. S. Timmins, one is printed on very fine banknote paper, and the other, more heavily, on a coarse brown.

550 Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, Georgica, et Æneis. BirminghamiÆ Typis Johannis Baskerville. 1757. 4to. As Baskerville reprinted this work in 1771 with the old date 1757 on the title-page, it is necessary to note that, in the genuine edition, among other peculiarities, the 10th and 11th Books of the Æneid are headed “Liber Decimus. Æneidos”, and “Liber Undecimus. Æneidos”, whereas in the re-impression they appear, uniform with the other titles, “Æneidos Liber Decimus.” “Æneidos Liber Undecimus.” A Virgil was printed in 8vo, in 1766.

551 “I have always considered this beautiful production as one of the most finished specimens of typography” (Dibdin, Introduction to the Classics, 2nd ed. II, 335).

552 “My neighbour Baskerville at the close of this month (March 1757) publishes his fine edition of Virgil; it will for type and paper be a perfect curiosity” (Shenstone’s Letters and Works, 1791, Letter 88).

553 Other type was used for this work.

554 Lit. Anec., ii, 411.

555 “? ?a??? ??a????”. Novum Testamentum juxta exemplar Millianum. Typis Joannis Baskerville. Oxonii e Typographeo Clarendoniano. 1763. Sumptibus AcademiÆ, 4to and 8vo.

556 Some of the Punches were exhibited by the University Press at the Caxton Exhibition in 1877. Since then, thanks to the energy of the present Controller, Mr. Horace Hart, to whom we are indebted for the above extracts and specimens, the matrices of the fount have come to light as well as the punches and matrices of the two-line letters and figures belonging to it. These were exhibited at the British Association Meeting at Birmingham in August 1886, being catalogued as follows:—

• “PUNCHIONS of the Great Primer Greek—a large proportion of the fount, but not the whole.

• “MATRICES of the same.

• “PUNCHIONS of the Two-line Great Primer, with Initial Letters. Complete.

• “MATRICES of the same, also complete.

• “PUNCHIONS of one set of Figures, supplied with the above.

• “MATRICES of the same.”

Still more recently, Mr. Horace Hart has been fortunate enough to discover part of the actual type in its original cases. It is interesting to note that these types, which are of rather a soft metal, are cast to the Oxford Learned-Side “height-to-paper.”

557 Paradise Lost, etc., Paradise Regain’d, etc. Birmingham, 1758. 2 vols., 4to. The work was also published in the same year in 8vo, and again in 4to in 1759. The 4to edition of 1758 appears to be overlooked by some bibliographers, Hansard, among others, who refers in the extract here given to the reprint of 1759.

558 Typographia, p. 310. It is worthy of note that the very high gloss on the paper which characterised most of Baskerville’s later works, is not always observable either in the Virgil of 1757, or the Milton of 1758.

559 Catalogue de la BibliothÉque d’um Amateur, i, 310. After noticing the folio specimen following, he says: “Un autre essai de Baskerville, sur une plus petite feuille, contient seulment quatre caractÈres romains et deux en italique ... Outre cette Épreuve de grand essai, j’ai l’un et l’autre rÉunis À la fin de son Virgile in 4.” The only example we have met with is that bound up with Lord Spencer’s beautiful copy of the Virgil in the Althorp Library.

560 Writing to Mr. R. Richardson of Durham on Oct. 29, 1758, Dr. Bedford says: “By Baskerville’s specimen of his types, you will perceive how much the elegance of them is owing to his paper, which he makes himself, as well as the types and ink also; and I was informed whenever they came to be used by common pressmen and with common materials they will lose of their beauty considerably. Hence, perhaps, this specimen may become very curious (when he is no more, and the types cannot be set off in the same perfection), and a great piece of vertÛ.” (Nichols, Illust. Lit., i, 813).

561 Amongst which should be particularly singled out the Horace in 12mo printed in 1762, which Dr. Harwood describes as “the most beautiful little book, both in regard to type and paper, I ever beheld.”

562 The Press, a poem. Published as a Specimen of Typography by John McCreery. Liverpool, 1803, 4to. p. 19.

563 An interesting notice of Lord Orford’s famous private press at Strawberry Hill, with a Catalogue of the—many of them—finely printed works that issued from it, is given in Lemoine’s Typographical Antiquities, p. 91.

564 The original of this important letter, with the specimen attached, is in Mr. Timmins’s possession.

565 The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New, translated out of the Original Tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised. By His Majesty’s special command. Appointed to be read in Churches. Cambridge: printed by John Baskerville, Printer to the University. 1763. Cum Privilegio. Fol. The prospectus of this work, with a specimen of the type, appeared in 1760. The folio Bible, printed at Birmingham in 1772, is a much inferior performance.

566 The Book of Common Prayer, Cambridge, 1760, roy. 8vo, (with long lines); 1760, roy. 8vo, (in double columns); 1761, roy. 8vo; 1762, roy. 8vo (with long lines): 1762, 12mo.

567 He appears always to have kept a large number of hot plates of copper always ready, between which, as soon as printed, just as they were discharged from the tympan, the sheets were inserted. The moisture was thus expelled, the ink set, and the smooth, glossy surface put on all simultaneously. However well the method may have answered at the time, the discoloration of his books still preserved in the British Museum and elsewhere, shows that the brilliance thus imparted was most tawdry and ephemeral.

568 “Les caractÈres sont gravÉs avec beaucoup de hardiesse, les italiques sont les meilleures qu’il y ait dans toutes les Fonderies d’Angleterre, mais les romains sont un peu trop larges.” .. And of his editions he adds, “Quoiqu’elles fatiguent un peu la vue, on ne peut disconvenir que ce ne soit la plus belle chose qu’on ait encore vue en ce genre.” (Man. Typ., ii, xxxix.)

569 “Mr. Baskerville ... made some attempts at letter-cutting, but desisted, with good reason. The Greek cut by him or his for the University of Oxford is execrable. Indeed, he can hardly claim a place amongst letter-cutters. His typographical excellence lay more in trim, glossy paper to dim the sight.” (Dissert., p. 86.)

570 The Life of Benjamin Franklin, written by himself, etc. (Bigelow’s edition). Philadelphia, 1875, i, 413. Nichols, in error, gives the date of this letter as 1764.

571 The apparatus was first offered, it is said, to the French Ambassador in London for £8,000. Subsequently Baskerville wrote, on Sept. 7, 1767: “Suppose we reduce the price to £6,000. ... Let the reason of my parting with it be the death of my son and intended successor, and having acquired a moderate fortune, I wish to consult my ease in the afternoon of life.”

572 The following works were printed by Martin between 1766 and 1769, viz., Christians’ Useful Companion, 1766, 8vo; Somerville’s Chace, 1767, 8vo; Shakespeare, 9 vols., 1768, 12mo; Bible with cuts, 1769, 4to; and editions of the Lady’s Preceptor.

573 Letter dated 21 Sept. 1773. “You speak of enlarging your Foundery” (Works, viii, 88).

574 The remaining copies of Baskerville’s impressions, were, after his death purchased for £1,100 by W. Smart, bookseller, of Worcester, and publisher of the Worcester Guide.

575 Hutton, History of Birmingham, 1835, p. 197.

576 Biographical History of England, ii, 362.

577

• “Stranger,
• beneath this cone, in unconsecrated ground,
• a friend to the liberties of mankind directed his
• body to be inurn’d.
• May the example contribute to emancipate thy mind
• from the idle fears of Superstition,
• and the wicked arts of Priesthood.”

Touching this epitaph Archdeacon Nares has the following note:—“I heard John Wilkes, after praising Baskerville, add, “But he was a terrible infidel; he used to shock me !”

578 “On Friday last, Mr. Baskerville, of this town, was married to Mrs. Eaves, widow of the late Richard Eaves, Esq., deceased” (Birmingham Register, June 7, 1765). Mrs. Baskerville d. 1788. Two works exist, printed at Birmingham, with the imprint, Sarah Baskerville.

579 In 1776, Chapman used Baskerville’s type for Dr. W. Sherlock’s Discourses concerning Death. 8vo.

580 This preference was so marked, that about this time the proprietors of Fry and Pine’s foundry, who had begun with an avowed imitation of the Baskerville models, were constrained to admit their mistake, and discard that fashion for new founts cut on the model of Caslon.

581 As early as 1775, Dr. Harwood, in the preface to his View of the Editions of the Classics, had pleaded urgently for the purchase of Baskerville’s types, and Wilson’s famous Greek, as the nucleus of a Royal Typography in England.

582 Lit. Anec., iii, 460.

583 Proposals for Printing by Subscription a Complete Edition of the Works of Voltaire, printed with the Types of Baskerville for the Literary and Typographical Society, 1782, 12 pp. 8vo, with 2 pp. specimens of the type. The French proposal appears to have been put forward in 1780.

584 Beaumarchais and His Times. Translated by H. S. Edwards. London, 1856. 4 vols. 8vo (iii, chap. 24).

585 Œuvres ComplÈtes de Voltaire. De l’Imprimerie de la SociÉtÉ litteraire et typographique, (Kehl) 1784–1789. 70 vols. in 8vo; and 92 vols. in 12mo.

586 Renouard mentions having seen at Paris a broadside specimen of all the Baskerville types transported to Beaumarchais’ establishment: “Ce sont les mÊmes types,” he adds, “mais quelle diffÉrence dans leur emploi!” (Catalogue, i, 310).

588 The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle. Attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, reprinted from the Book of St. Albans. London; printed with the types of John Baskerville for William Pickering. (Thos. White, imp.) 1827. 8vo.

589 A statement that they were acquired at the beginning of the century for the printing offices of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, appears, after careful inquiry, to rest on no further foundation than rumour.

591 See ante, p. 158?.

592 Dissertation, p. 82.

593 A Specimen of a New Printing Type, in Imitation of the Law-Hand. Designed by William Richardson, of Castle Yard, Holborn. London, n. d. Broadside.

594 The Double Pica Script sheet occasionally bound in with this specimen, is evidently an interpolation of a later date, as it neither has the border round, nor does it conform to the measure or gauge of theother sheets. It was not finished in 1778 when Mores wrote. See Dissert., p. 83.

595 Manuel Typographique, ii, xxxviii. This whole notice is so exceedingly incorrect as to call for mention here. “L’Angleterre a peu de Fonderies, mais elles sont bien fournies en toutes sortes de caractÈres: les principales sont celles de Thomas Cottrell À Oxfort; de Jacques Watson À Edimbourg, de Guillaume Caslon & Fils À Londres, et de Jean Baskerville À Birmingham”! It would almost appear as if, having before him the names of Cottrell, Oxford, James, Wilson of Glasgow, Caslon of London, and Baskerville of Birmingham, the then existing foundries in this kingdom, Fournier had taxed his ingenuity to make four foundries out of six and had succeeded, altering Wilson’s name to that of his long defunct fellow citizen, Queen Anne’s printer, in the process. This feat has, however, been eclipsed in his notice of the Voskens’ foundry at Amsterdam, which, after the death of Dirk Voskens, passed to his widow and sons. “Cette Fonderie” Fournier informs us, “a passÉe À sa veuve et au Sieur Zonen”!

596 Mores (Dissert., p. 83), says he was the first to produce letters of this size.

597 Lit. Anec., ii, 358.

598 “R. Thorne, Letter-Founder, takes the Liberty of informing the Trade in general that he has begun business upon his own account, and intends serving them at the following old-established prices: [here follows price list]. He respectfully informs those gentlemen that choose to favour him with their orders, that they may depend upon the best workmanship and materials. Barbican, July 1, 1794.”

599 It appears to have been no uncommon practice in the trade to make use of a predecessor’s book, corrected on the title-page in pen and ink. Our copy of Cottrell’s specimen is thus altered to the name of a broker; and the specimens of the Type Street Foundry are many of them similarly corrected to adapt them for the frequently changing style of that firm.

600 In a note, he says, “R. T. informs those gentlemen to whom he is at present unknown, that the Types of the Barbican Foundry are cast to the usual Height and Body; and that great care has been taken to have the Counterpart deeply cut, by which means they will wear much longer than any hitherto in use.”

601 Pica, which in 1798 had been 1s. per lb., is raised to 1s. 2½d., and Nonpareil is advanced from 5s. to 5s. 6d. The other sizes are in similar proportion.

602 “Sir,—Having published a Specimen of Improved Printing Types, I have taken the liberty of sending you a Copy, which I hope you will approve of; and be assured that every possible exertion shall be used in completing those orders you may favor me with.

“I remain, your obedient Servant, ROBERT THORNE.”

“Barbican, 1803.

603 See ante, p. 117?.

604 See post, chap. xxi.

605 In the Directory at the end of Stower’s Printers’ Grammar, 1808, Thorne’s name is given without address.

606 Particulars of the Lease and Valuable Plant of the Type Foundry of Mr. Robert Thorne, deceased, situate in Fann’s Street, Aldersgate Street,.........which will be Sold by Auction by Mr. W. Davies, at Garraway’s Coffee House, on Wednesday, the 21st of June, 1820, at Twelve o’clock, in One Lot. Besides the lease, plant, and fixtures, the Catalogue comprised 316 lots of matrices and about 340 moulds. The matrices were as follows:—

607 He had a brother (?) a printer, in Wood Street, Cheapside.

608 It is curious to note that the matter of not a few of Thorowgood’s early specimens has reference to the lucky numbers “always found in great variety in the Grand State Lotteries.” Such gratuitous advertisements are no doubt so many grateful acknowledgments of his own obligations to a time-honoured institution.

609 The address to the printers, prefixed to this specimen, is as follows: “I cannot omit the opportunity offered in presenting my first specimen to your notice, to return my most sincere thanks to the profession for that portion of their patronage which I have received since my succession to Mr. Thorne. Although some difficulties presented themselves in redeeming the pledge I made of renovating my small founts and casting them of metal more durable than those in common use, yet I flatter myself that those friends who relied on my professions will bear ample testimony that they have not been disappointed, and that the superior facilities of manufacturing types possessed by myself in common with the other founders of the metropolis has been used to their advantage,” etc.

610 This famous foundry, which still exists, was established by Bernard Christopher Breitkopf in 1719. His son, Johann Gottlieb Immanuel Breitkopf, was the inventor (simultaneously with Haas of Basle) of the art of map printing with movable types, and is claimed also as the inventor of movable music types about 1748. Many eminent punch cutters were employed on the founts of this foundry, which was in 1800 one of the largest in Germany. The first specimen appeared in 1739.

612 Of these books we have one before us—A Collection of Hymns adapted for Public Worship. Bristol, (1769), 12mo, in the Long Primer of the foundry, showing, besides, several varieties of title-letters and flowers.

613 Catalogue, i, 310, “Grande feuille collÉe sur une toile ou batiste fine.”

614 Rowe Mores, after quoting the above, adds drily: “Their letter is neat. We do ‘set aside the influence of custom,’ and call it the law of fools, but we must recommend to the consideration of the proprietors the difference between scalping and counterpunching.” (Dissertation, p. 84.)

615 “The Inventors, sensible of the great utility of their Discovery, have mentioned it to several of the Trade, who have made very considerable offers to encourage the laying open the Secret: But as their desire is, that every Printer in the Kingdom might be benefited by it they propose to make the Discovery as universal as possible, by making an honourable and generous present of it to the whole trade: To many of whom they are under some Obligations for the kind encouragement of their new Foundery. And as that is an object they desire here to recommend, they would further propose, (as they have nearly compleated all their founts, and can serve the Trade on as good Terms as any in the Kingdom, and with Types they will warrant to wear as long) that every Printer who shall give them an order for Ten Pounds worth of Type or more (Five Pounds of which to be paid on ordering and the Remainder on the Delivery) shall be made acquainted with the above improvements. So that the whole Advantage proposed is the selling some Founts of Letter which every Printer does or will want. And as they expect that the Trade in general will approve of their Plan, they beg that the Encouragers of it would send their orders with all convenient Speed to the above Foundery; (as they intend as soon as they have got a sufficient Number to lay open the whole) which they hope will not be less universal than the desire of being made Partakers of so interesting a Discovery: for it merits nothing less than the most cordial Encouragement of every Printer in Europe, though here so freely offered. And it will appear when laid open to be of such Service as nothing like it has been discovered in Printing for some Centuries. ... The whole expence of altering the present presses to the above Improvement will be but about forty shillings.” A notice of this invention, as well as of a patent type-case designed by the same partners, is found in the Abridgments of Specifications for Printing, 1617–1857, London, 1859. 8vo, p. 88.

616 History and Art of Printing, p. 244.

617 After commending Caslon and Jackson, he says: “As to the productions of other Founderies we shall be silent, and leave them to sound forth their own good qualifications, which by an examiner are not found to exist” (p. 230).

618 The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testament, with Notes Explanatory, Critical and Practical, selected from the Works of several Eminent Divines. London, I. Moore and Co., Letter Founders and Printers in Queen Street, near Upper Moorfields. 1774. Folio.

The Same, in 5 vols., 8vo:—Vols. 1, 2, 3, 1774; Vol. 4, 1776; Vol. 5 (Apocrypha) 1775.

619 A Commentary on the Holy Bible, containing the Whole Sacred Text of the Old and New Testaments, with Notes, etc. Bristol, Printed and Sold by William Pine. 1774, 12mo.

620 The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testament, with Notes Explanatory, Critical and Practical, selected from the Works of several Eminent Authors. London. Printed and Sold by J. Fry and Co., Letter Founders and Printers in Queen Street, near Upper Moorfields. 1777. Folio.

The Same, 4 vols., 1777. 8vo.

621 Amongst other works printed by him there is preserved a tract, entitled An Answer to a Narrative of Facts ... lately published by Mr. Henry Burgum as far as relates to the Character of Wm. Pine. Bristol. Printed in the year 1775. 8vo. This is a letter of rejoinder addressed by Pine to Burgum, repelling charges relating to the publication of an offensive pamphlet. Pine also printed several works for the Wesleys.

622 See p. 226 et seq.

623 The pedigree of the matrices is indicated, as far as can be ascertained, by the initials (see our note 2 at p. 227); but in several cases, particularly in the case of the Blacks, the origin is considerably more remote than the foundry named. The error of inferring anything as to their origin from the names of famous old printers appearing on the drawers in which they were stored at James’s foundry has already been pointed out—see ante, p. 230?. Several of these founts Dr. Fry appears to have received in a defective state, necessitating in some cases a complete re-justifying of the matrices, and in others the cutting of a considerable number of punches, and casting on bodies which did not always agree with those named in the sale Catalogue. This circumstance will account for many of the apparent discrepancies between the original founts and the renovated founts as they appear in the Type Street specimens.

624 “It affords them”—the proprietors—“great Satisfaction to observe that the original Shape of their Roman and Italic Letters continues to meet the Approbation of the Curious, both in and out of the Printing Trade: nevertheless, to remove an Objection which the difference in Shape, from the letters commonly used here, raised in some, whereby their Introduction into several Capital Offices have been prevented; they have cut entire new sets of Punches, both Roman and Italic; and they flatter themselves they have executed the Founts, as far as they are done, in an elegant and masterly Manner, which in this Specimen are distinguished by the title NEW, and which will mix with and be totally unknown from the most approved Founts made by the late ingenious Artist, William Caslon.” For Caslon’s acknowledgment of this compliment, see ante, p. 249?.

625 “However desirous the proprietor of another Foundery may be to persuade the public into an idea of a superiority in his own favour, owing to Rapid improvements for upwards of Sixty years, a little time may, perhaps, suffice to convince impartial and unbiassed Judges that the very elegant Types of the WORSHIP STREET MANUFACTORY, though they cannot indeed boast of their existence longer than about Twenty years! will yet rank as high in Beauty, Symmetry, and intrinsic Merit as any other whatever, and ensure equal approbation from the Literati not only in this Country but in every quarter of the Globe.”

626 For a short time following Mr. Fry’s death his widow is said to have been associated with her sons in the conduct of the letter-foundry. Mrs. Fry lived at Great Marlow, and afterwards in Charterhouse Square, London, where she died, Oct. 22, 1803, aged 83.

627 The Printer’s Grammar. London, printed by L. Wayland. 1787. 8vo.

628 We have the following volume very beautifully printed:—C. Plinii CÆcilii Secundi Epistolarum Libri x. Sumptibus editoris excudebant M. Ritchie et J. Samuells. Londini, 1790. 8vo. At end:—Typis Edmundi Fry.

629 This excellent artist was a Scotchman, and printed in Bartholomew Close in 1785. He was one of the first who started in emulation of Baskerville as a fine printer; his series of Mr. Homer’s Classics (Sallust, 1789; Pliny, 1790; Tacitus, 1790; Q. Curtius; CÆsar, 1790; Livy, 1794) established his reputation. His quarto Bible and the Memoirs of the Count de Grammont are also celebrated. He printed on Whatman’s paper with admirable ink and most careful press-work, and is stated to have produced most of his books by his own personal and manual labour.

630 From this press the following elegantly printed volume was issued in 1788:—The Beauties of the Poets, being a Collection of Moral and Sacred Poetry, etc., compiled by the late Rev. Thomas Janes of Bristol. London, printed at the Cicero Press by and for Henry Fry, No. 5 Worship Street, Upper Moorfields. 1788. 8vo. At one time Henry Fry appears to have had a partner named Couchman.

631 A New Guide to the English Tongue in five parts by Thomas Dilworth ... Schoolmaster in Wapping. Stereotype Edition. London. Andrew Wilson, Camden Town. 8vo. Contains portraits, tail piece and 12 fable cuts.

632 Pantographia; containing accurate copies of all the known Alphabets in the World, together with an English explanation of the peculiar Force or Power of each Letter; to which are added specimens of all well authenticated Oral Languages; forming a comprehensive Digest of Phonology. By Edmund Fry, Letter Founder, Type Street, London, 1799. Roy. 8vo. A few copies were printed on vellum, one of which is in the Cambridge University Library.

633 The Printer’s Grammar or Introduction to the Art of Printing: containing a concise History of the Art, etc., by C. Stower, Printer. London. Printed by the Editor. 1808, 8vo. The same work also shows extracts and specimens from Pantographia.

634 Hazard was also the designer of a pair of cases, a plan of which is shown by Stower, p. 463.

635 The Rev. Samuel Lee, B.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, was a constant visitor at Type Street, and personally directed the cutting of many of the founts.

636 Dr. Fry’s system was virtually that first introduced by Mr. Alston, of Glasgow, to which reference is made ante, p. 78?, where details are also given as to the other principal systems of type for the Blind. A “lower-case” was subsequently added to Dr. Fry’s fount by his successors, and in this form the type was largely used by the various Type Schools following Mr. Alston’s method. Full particulars of this award, with specimens, maybe seen in Vol. I of the Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts.

637 Hansard mentions a Two-line English Engrossing, two sizes of Music, and the matrices of Dr. Wilkins’ Philosophical Character; none of which, however, formed part of this Foundry.

638 Of the supposed antiquity of this interesting fount an account has already been given at pages 200–5, ante. By a curious confusion of names and dates, Dr. Fry, in his specimens stated that “this character was cut by Wynkyn de Worde, in exact imitation of the Codex Alexandrinus in the British Museum”! This absurd anachronism—the more extraordinary as emanating from an antiquary of Dr. Fry’s standing—appears to have arisen from the fact that at the sale of James’ Foundry the matrices lay in a drawer which bore the name, “De Worde.” This circumstance misled Paterson, the auctioneer, into advertising the fount as the genuine handiwork of De Worde, a printer who lived a century before the Codex was brought into this country. The further coincidence that Dr. Woide of the British Museum was, at the time of the sale, engaged in producing an edition of the Codex, with facsimile types prepared by Jackson the founder, doubtless added—by the similarity of the names De Worde and Dr. Woide—to the confusion. After its purchase, the fount first appeared in Joseph Fry and Sons’ Specimen of 1786, without note. But, in the subsequent specimens of the Foundry, bearing his own name, Dr. Fry introduced the fiction, which remained unchallenged for a quarter of a century.

639 In addition to which Dr. Fry possessed, in an imperfect condition (many of the characters having been recut), the Great Primer Arabic of Walton’s Polyglot. According to Hansard he also had a set of matrices, English body, from the first punches cut by William Caslon; but this seems to be an error.

640 Used in Bagster’s Polyglot. The same fount was cast on Long Primer with movable points. Hansard is in error in stating that Dr. Fry cut a Nonpareil Syriac.

641 An error still less explicable than that of the Alexandrian Greek, but which not only Dr. Fry’s successors, but Hansard himself has copied. The following seems to be the “good authority” on which the assertion is based. In 1819, Mr. Bulmer, the eminent printer, printed for the Roxburghe Club, Mr. Hibbert’s transcript of the MS. fragment of the translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, made by Caxton about 1480, and preserved in the library of Pepys at Magdalen College, Cambridge. The body of the work was set in the English Black bought by Dr. Fry at James’ Sale—but in two places a smaller size of type was required to print passages omitted in Caxton’s translation, but supplied by the Editor in the original French of Colard Mansion’s edition. For these passages the Pica Black was selected, and as the French text contained several accents and contractions, these had to be specially cut. This task Dr. Fry performed, and understanding that the letter was to be used for printing a work of Caxton’s, he appears, without further enquiry, to have assumed that the work in question was a fac-simile reprint, and that his old matrices had been discovered to bear the impress of the veritable character used by that famous man. Had he seen the book in question he would have discovered that not only was it a transcript from a MS. of which no printed copy had ever been known to exist, but that the very passages in which the boasted type was used, were passages which did not even appear in a work of Caxton at all. The matrices are very old. They were in Andrews’ foundry about 1700, and in all probability came there from Holland, as they closely resemble the other old Dutch Blacks in James’ Foundry.

642 In the Small Pica, No. 2, was printed The Two First Books of the Pentateuch, or Books of Moses, as a preparation for learners to read the Holy Scriptures. The types cut by Mr. Edmund Fry, Letter Founder to His Majesty, from Original Irish Manuscripts, under the care and direction of T. Connellan (2nd Edit.) Printed at the Apollo Press, London, J. Johnson, Brook Street, Holborn, 1819. 12mo.

643 Whatever singularity M. Didot may have indulged in in the first strikes from his famous punches for his own use, the matrices now in the possession of Dr. Fry’s successors are of most unmistakeable copper throughout. And it does not appear that more than one set of the strikes was needed to meet all the demands made upon this complicated letter by the printers of the day.

644 Gentleman’s Magazine, May, 1836.

646 Dissert., p. 83.

647 Probably as a rubber, in which occupation he is represented as engaged in the View of the Caslon Foundry given in the Universal Magazine for June 1750 (see frontispiece).

648 Dissertation, p. 83.

649 Mr. Halhed thus refers to this circumstance in the introduction to his Bengal Grammar (see post): “That the Bengal letter is very difficult to be imitated in steel will readily be allowed by every person who shall examine the intricacies of the strokes, the unequal length and size of the characters, and the variety of their positions and combinations. It was no easy task to procure a writer accurate enough to prepare an alphabet of a similar and proportionate body throughout, with that symmetrical exactness which is necessary to the regularity and neatness of a fount. Mr. Bolts (who is supposed to be well versed in this language) attempted to fabricate a set of types for it with the assistance of the ablest artists in London. But, as he has egregiously failed in executing even the easiest part, or primary alphabet, of which he has published a specimen, there is no reason to suppose that his project when completed would have advanced beyond the usual state of imperfection to which new inventions are constantly exposed.”

650 This distinguished scholar and self-made typographer was born in the year 1751. He entered the East India Company’s Civil Service, where he devoted himself not only to the study of the Oriental languages, but to the actual production of the types necessary to extend the study of those languages among his fellow-countrymen, with extraordinary skill and perseverance. He succeeded in cutting the punches and casting the types for Halhed’s Grammar of the Bengal Language, published at Hoogly in Bengal in 1778, 4to. In his preface to that work, Mr. Halhed, after referring to Mr. Bolts’ failure, in the passage quoted in the preceding note, thus describes the undertaking:—“The advice and even solicitation of the Governor-General prevailed upon Mr. Wilkins, a gentleman who has been some years in the India Company’s Civil Service in Bengal, to undertake a set of Bengal Types. He did, and his success has exceeded every expectation. In a country so remote from all connection with European artists, he has been obliged to charge himself with all the various occupations of the Metallurgist, the Engraver, the Founder, and the Printer. To the merit of invention he was compelled to add the application of personal labour. With a rapidity unknown in Europe, he surmounted all the obstacles which necessarily clog the first rudiments of a difficult art, as well as the disadvantages of solitary experiment; and has thus singly, on the first effort, exhibited his work in a state of perfection which in every part of the world has appeared to require the united improvements of different projectors and the gradual polish of successive ages.” Mr. Wilkins persevered in his noble undertaking of rendering the Oriental languages available to the English scholar through the medium of typography. With this view he compiled from the most celebrated native Grammars and Commentaries a work entirely new to England on the Structure of the Sanskrita tongue. Of the difficulties and discouragements attendant on the execution of this self-imposed task he thus speaks in his Preface:—“At the commencement of the year in 1795, residing in the country and having much leisure, I began to arrange my materials and prepare them for publication. I cut letters in steel, made matrices and moulds, and cast from them a fount of types of the Deva Nagari character, all with my own hands; and, with the assistance of such mechanics as a country village could afford, I very speedily prepared all the other implements of printing in my own dwelling-house; for by the second of May of the same year I had taken proofs of 16 pages, differing but little from those now exhibited in the first two sheets. Till two o’clock on that day everything had succeeded to my expectations; when alas! the premises were discovered to be in flames, which, spreading too rapidly to be extinguished, the whole building was presently burned to the ground. In the midst of this misfortune, I happily saved all my books and manuscripts, and the greatest part of the punches and matrices; but the types themselves having been thrown out and scattered on the lawn, were either lost or rendered useless.” About ten years afterwards the Directors of the East India Company encouraged Dr. Wilkins, then Librarian to the Company, to resume his labours and cast new types, as the study of the Sanskrita had become an important object in their new College at Hertford. Dr. Wilkins complied, and the Grammar of the Sanskrita Language, London, 1808, 4to, duly appeared from Bulmer’s Press, and was allowed to be a monument at once of beautiful typography and erudite industry. Dr., subsequently Sir Charles, Wilkins died May 13th, 1836, at the advanced age of 85. Specimens of his Bengali and Sanskrit may be seen in Johnson’s Typographia, ii, 389–94.

651 A Vocabulary, Persian, Arabic, and English, containing such words as have been adopted from the two former of these languages, and incorporated into the Hindvi; together with some hundreds of compound verbs formed from Persian or Arabic nouns and in universal use. Being the seventh part of the new Hindvi Grammar and Dictionary. London, 1785. 4to.

652 The Domesday letter of Cottrell and Jackson may be seen in juxtaposition in Fry’s Pantographia, 1799, pp. 50 and 314; also in Stower’s Printer’s Grammar, 1808, p. 253. Jackson’s also appears in Johnson’s Typographia (ii, p. 248), from which work our account is chiefly taken.

653 Domesday Book seu Liber Censualis Willelmi primi Regis AngliÆ inter Archivos Regni in Domo capitulari Westmonasterii asservatus. Jubente Rege Augustissimo Georgio Tertio prelo mandatus. Londini. Typis J. Nichols. 2 vols. Folio. 1783.

654 Domesday Book Illustrated. London. 1788. 8vo.

655 Dr. Woide was appointed Assistant Librarian at the British Museum in 1782.

656 See ante, p. 200?–5.

657 A specimen of this letter may be seen in Dr. Fry’s specimens, also in his Pantagraphia, p. 126.

658 Gough, writing in the Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lvi, p. 497, says:—“It was reserved, therefore, for the industry and application of Dr. Woide ... to rescue this valuable MS. from the fate which befel a MS. of the Septuagint in the Cottonian Library of equal antiquity, type, and, value, of which a very few fragments escaped the fire in 1733, by adopting the facsimile mode of reproduction, which, from the great expense attending it, has unfortunately been adopted in so few instances.” The facsimile of the Laudian Codex, comprising the Acts of the Apostles, published by Hearne at Oxford in 1715, had been the only previous successful attempt of this kind in England. Hearne’s facsimile, however, was engraved, and not from type. A list of the most important subsequent facsimile reproductions from Codices of the Holy Text is given in Horne’s Introduction (edit. 1872), iv, pp. 682–3.

659 Novum Testamentum GrÆcum È Codice MS. Alexandrino qui Londini in Bibliothec Musei Britannici asservatur, descriptum a Carolo Godofredo Woide ... Musei Britannici Bibliothecaria Londini. Ex prelo Jeannis Nichols. Typis Jacksonianis, 1786. Folio.

660 Psalterium GrÆcum È Codice MS. Alexandrino qui Londini in Bibliothec Musei Britannici asservatur Typis ad similitudinem ipsius Codicis ScripturÆ fideliter descriptum. Cur et labore H. H. Baber. Londini, 1812. Folio.

661 Vetus Testamentum GrÆcum È Codice MS. Alexandrino qui Londini in Bibliothec Musei Britannici asservatur, Typis ad similitudinem ipsius Codicis ScripturÆ fideliter descriptum. Cur et labore H. H. Baber, Londini, 1816–21. 4 vols., Folio. Mr. Baber, the better to preserve the identity of the original in his fac-similes, introduced a considerable number of fresh types as well as numerous woodcuts.

662 Codex Theodori BezÆ Cantabrigiensis, Evangelia et Acta Apostolorum complectens, quadratis literis, GrÆco-Latinus. Academia auspicante summ qua fide potuit, adumbravit, expressit, edidit, codicis historiam prÆfixit, notasque adjecit T. Kipling. CantabrigiÆ È prelo Academico, impensis AcademiÆ, 1793. 2 vols., Folio.

663 Gent. Mag., 1793, p. 733.

664 Mores’ Dissert., Appendix, p. 98.

665 Prosodia Rationalis, an Essay towards establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech by Symbols. London, 1779. 4to.

666 An Essay towards Establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech, to be expressed and perpetuated by peculiar Symbols. London, 1775. 4to.

667 The Holy Bible, embellished with Engravings from Pictures and Designs by the most eminent Artists. London: printed for Thomas Macklin by Thomas Bensley, 1800. 7 vols. Folio.

668 See p. 336?, post. Jackson’s fount is used to the end of Numbers.

669 Lit. Anec., ii, 360.

670 The History of England from the Invasion of Julius CÆsar to the Revolution in 1688. By David Hume. London: printed by T. Bensley, for Robert Bowyer, 1806. 10 vols. Folio.

671 Gent. Mag., 1792, p. 166.

672 John William Pasham, originally of Bury St. Edmund’s, where he published the Bury Flying Weekly Journal. He removed to Blackfriars in London, where, in 1776, he published a beautiful pocket edition of the Bible in 24mo, which obtained the title of the Immaculate Bible, on account of the rarity of its errors. It had foot-notes, which could be cut off in the binding if required. Of this Bible, Lemoine says “it is spoiled by being dried in a kiln, which has entirely changed the colour of the paper; besides, the colour of the print is uneven, one side being darker than the other.” This Bible is said to have been printed in a house on Finchley Common. Mr. Pasham died Dec. 1783.

673 See ante, p. 250?.

674 The prefatory note to this specimen runs as follows:—“Sir, Having completed my new Specimen, I take the opportunity of sending you a copy, and flatter myself it will meet with your approbation. I shall be happy to receive your future orders, and you may be assured of every possible attention being paid to the execution of those you may favour me with. I remain, your obedient humble servant, William Caslon. Salisbury Square, Jan. 1, 1798.”

675 He made an offer in 1817 to travel on commission for the founders generally, but his services in this direction were not made use of.

676 The Circular announcing this improvement is dated Salisbury Square, Jan. 1, 1810. The new types are offered at 1s. 10d. per lb., and, as an encouragement to buyers, 1s. per lb. is offered for old metal.

677 See ante, p. 120?. This appears to have been intended as an improvement on the invention of Nicholson, who was the first (in 1790) to suggest the casting of types wedge-shaped, for fixing on cylinders. (p. 119.)

678 Considerable prominence is naturally given to the large letters “cast in moulds and matrices” by the new “Sanspareil” method.

680 George Nicol was born in 1741, and was for many years bookseller to King George III. He married a niece of the first Alderman Boydell in 1787. The idea of the Boydell Shakespeare originated with him. He was a prominent member of the literary clubs of his day, and a personal friend of the Duke of Roxburghe. He died in 1829, aged 88.

681 A history of this celebrated Press would almost involve a history of fine printing in the first quarter of the present century. Dibdin, in the second volume of his Bibliographical Decameron, has given a list of its most famous impressions. Bulmer was a personal friend of Thomas Bewick, the engraver, many of whose blocks were cut for his books. He spared no pains to render the typography of his press the most correct and beautiful England had hitherto known. He retired in 1819, leaving Mr. Wm. Nicol, only son of his friend George Nicol, to carry on the business. Mr. Bulmer died Sept. 9, 1830, in his 74th year, greatly honoured and respected.

682 The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare. Revised by G. Steevens. London: 1792–1802. 18 parts in 9 vols. Atlas folio. With 100 engravings.

683 Bibl. Decam., ii, 384.

684 The Poetical Works of John Milton, with a life of the Author by William Hayley. London: 1794–7. 3 vols. Folio.

685 See ante, p. 251?.

686 Bibl. Decam., ii, 384.

687 Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell. London: 1795. 4to. This work was illustrated with woodcuts by Bewick. It is said that George III ordered his bookseller to procure the blocks of the engravings for his inspection, that he might convince himself they were wood and not copper.

688 Typographia, p. 311.

689 Nichols, Illust. Lit., viii, 485.

690 MusÆus. The Loves of Hero and Leander. (Greek and English.) London. Printed by W. Bulmer & Co. Typis Gulielmi Martin. 1797. 4to. This work was privately printed by Mr. Bulmer for Mr. Grosvenor Bedford, the translator.

691 The Press: a Poem. Published as a Specimen of Typography by John M ^cCreery. Liverpool: printed by J. M ^cCreery. Houghton Street, 1803. 4to.

692 Typographical Antiquities, &c., greatly enlarged, with copious notes, by T. F. Dibdin, London: 1810–12–16–19. 4 vols. 4to. The work was not completed. The first volume was not printed at the Shakespeare Press.

693 Bibliotheca Spenceriana; or, a Descriptive Catalogue of Books printed in the XV Century, and of many valuable First Editions in the Library of George John, Earl Spencer. London: 1814–15. 4 vols. 8vo.

694 The Bibliographical Decameron; or, Ten Days’ Pleasant Discourse upon Illuminated Manuscripts, and Subjects connected with early Engraving, Typography and Bibliography. London, 1817. 3 vols, 8vo.

695 Amongst which were the early publications of the Roxburghe Club, instituted by Earl Spencer, in 1812, for the republication of rare books or unpublished MSS. M. Renouard censures Bulmer for the use of worn type in the Edition of Ben Jonson’s Works, 1816. 9 vols. 8vo. “L’habile M. Bulmer aurait dÛ jeter À la fonte les caractÈres usÉs dont il a fait usage pour cette volumineuse Édition, et les libraires entrepreneurs n’auroient pas dÛ lui en permettre l’emploi.”

696 Illust. Lit., viii, 485.

697 An early specimen of Thorowgood’s shows a Black, the matrices of which, it is stated, “were purchased by Messrs. Fry & Steele at the breaking up of the Cleveland Row Foundry.” As, however, Messrs. Fry & Steele’s partnership terminated about 1808, we consider the whole statement doubtful.

699 Hansard. Typographia, 359.

700 See ante, p. 323?.

701 The Seasons. By James Thomson. Illustrated with Engravings by F. Bartolozzi, R.A., and P. W. Tomkins, Historical Engraver to their Majesties, from original pictures painted for the work by W. Hamilton, R.A. London: Printed for P. W. Tomkins, New Bond Street. The letter press by T. Bensley. The Types by V. Figgins. 1799. Folio.

702 Typographia, p. 360.

703 Paradise Lost, by John Milton, with Notes and Life of the Author. ... By Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Engravings by Heath, &c. London: Printed for J. Parsons, 1796. 2 vols. 8vo.

704 Sir William Ouseley was born in 1771, and accompanied his brother Sir Gore Ouseley, the ambassador to Persia, to that country as secretary. He published Persian Miscellanies in 1795, and Oriental Collections in 1797–1800. In the advertisement at the close of the 1st volume of the latter work, he states, “I have employed a few leisure hours in superintending the execution of a new Persian Type, which will, I trust, exhibit as faithful a representation of the true Taleek character as can be effected by any imitative powers of the Typographick Art.” Of this new fount he shows a single line as specimen, which, however, if cut by Mr. Figgins, is not the Paragon Persian which subsequently appeared in his specimen books. Nor did it appear, as promised, in the Oriental Collections of 1798, the quotations in which continued to be printed in Arabic characters.

705 The Persian Moonshee, by Francis Gladwin, Esquire. Calcutta. London, reprinted 1801. 4to.

706 This important enquiry was the result of an address of the House of Commons to the King, in 1800, setting forth the necessity of a better provision for the arrangement, preservation and use of the various Public Records scattered among the numerous offices of the kingdom. The Commission thereupon appointed were empowered to take all necessary measures to “methodize, regulate and digest the records, etc.”, preserved in all Public Offices and repositories, and “to superintend the printing of such calendars and indexes and original records and papers” as it should be deemed desirable to print. With this large task before them, the Commissioners went actively to work, and in 1800 and 1806 published their first Reports. The following important publication, issued under the Direction of the Commission, was commenced in 1800:—Reports from the Commissioners appointed to execute the measures recommended by a Select Committee of the House of Commons respecting the Public Records of the Kingdom, etc., London, 1800–19, 2 vols., folio. The appendix forming the second volume contains facsimiles of all the Charters (including Magna Charta) and Inrollments from Stephen to William and Mary, with the Seals inserted in the several works printed under the Commission. The list of the subsequent publications of the Commission is very extensive, and includes verbatim copies, with all abbreviations and contractions, of the most important documents in the kingdom.

707 The first important work in connection with the Scotch Record Commission was Inquisitionum ad Capellam Domini Regis retornatarum quÆ in publicis Archivis ScotiÆ adhuc servantur Abbrevatio cum Indicibus, Edinburgh, 1811–16, 3 vols., folio, and a Supplement.

708 These types perished in the fire of Mr. Nichols’ printing office in 1808, see ante, p. 321?.

709 Lit. Anec., ii, 361.

710 Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, Textus Archetypos, Versionesque prÆcipuas ab Ecclesi AntiquitÙs receptas complectentia. London: 1817–28. 5 parts, 4to, 4 vols., 8vo. This Bible comprises the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament, the Vulgate Latin and the Authorised English version of the entire Bible, the original Greek of the New Testament, and the venerable Peschito or Syriac version of it. This Polyglot was republished with the addition of Spanish, French, Italian, and German versions in 1831, with learned prolegomena by Dr. Samuel Lee.

711 See ante, p. 308?.

712 Novum Testamentum Syriace denuo recognitum atque ad fidem Codicum MSS. emendatum. Impressit R. Watts. London 1816, 4to. Dr. Buchanan was born in 1766 and went to India in 1796, where his researches led to the discovery, among other things, of some interesting Hebrew Manuscripts of portions of the Bible, on goat skins and tablets of brass. He died in the year 1815. The Syriac Testament was corrected by him as far as the Acts, and completed by Dr. Lee, Arabic Professor at Cambridge. See ante, p. 68?.

713 Typographia, p. 360.

714 The matrices of the Long Primer and Brevier cut for the Scotch Record Commission were given up to the Government.

715 Hansard omits the Double Pica Greek cut for Oxford University, the matrices of which were retained by Mr. Figgins. A specimen appears in the book of 1823.

716 The fount for Bagster’s Polyglot.

717 The punches, matrices and moulds of this fount were deposited in the East India Company’s Library.

718 It would be an omission not to mention here Mr. Vincent Figgins II’s interesting reprint of the 2nd Edition of Caxton’s Game of the Chesse, London, 1855, sm. folio. Mr. Figgins cut a fount of type after the original, “which” he remarks, “is a mixture of black-letter and the character called secretary,” the black predominating. The “Caxton Black” so produced has been the only attempt made to approach a facsimile of Caxton’s letter by means of type. In his remarks, Mr. Figgins gives his reasons for concluding, from the variety in the form of the letters, that they were not cast from a matrix but cut separately by hand. This theory Mr. Blades, in his “Life of Caxton,” disproves, pointing out that the Type No. 2* used in the second edition of Caxton’s work is really an old fount originally cast from matrices, and, when worn, trimmed up by hand to form the punches for a new fount—a circumstance amply sufficient to account for the irregularities observed. These irregularities are, of course, sufficient to prevent the absolute possibility of anything like an exact facsimile by means of type. It is, however, interesting to note that John Whittaker’s famous restorations of Caxtonian and other early printed works, were to a certain extent accomplished by means of typography. Mr. Dibdin, in his Bibliographical Decameron (ii, 415), describes the operation as follows:—“He has caused to be engraved or cut four founts of Caxton’s letter. These are cut in the manner of binders’ tools for lettering, and each letter is separately charged with ink, and separately impressed on the paper. Some of Caxton’s types are so riotous and unruly that Mr. Whittaker found it impossible to carry on his design without having at least twenty of such irregular letters engraved. The process of executing the text with such tools shall be related in Mr. Whittaker’s own words:—‘A tracing being taken with the greatest precision from the original leaf, on white tracing paper, it is then laid on the leaf (first prepared to match the book it is intended for) with a piece of blacked paper between the two. Then by a point passing round the sides of each letter, a true impression is given from the black paper on the leaf beneath. The types are next stamped on singly, being charged with old printing ink prepared in colour exactly to match each distinct book. The type being then set on the marks made by tracing, in all the rude manner and at the same unequal distances observable in the original, they will bear the strictest scrutiny and comparison with their prototype; it being impossible to make a facsimile of Caxton’s printing in any other way, as his letters are generally set up irregularly and at unequal distances, leaning various ways,’?” etc.

720 Printers’ Grammar, p. 31.

721 See ante, p. 212?, n.

722 Mr. Ilive the elder is named in Samuel Negus’s list of Printers, published by Bowyer in 1724, as one of those “said to be high flyers”. He was a benefactor to Zion College, and printed the classical catalogue of their library from the letter P.

723 Marius de Calasio. ConcordantiÆ Bibliorum Hebr. et Lat. edente Guil. Romaine, 4 vols., Lond. 1747, folio.

724 Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 130.

725 “Emboldened by his first adventure, he determined to become the public teacher of infidelity. For this purpose he hired the use of Carpenters’ Hall, where for some time he delivered his Orations, which consisted chiefly of scraps from Tindal and other similar writers” (Chalmers’ Biog. Dict., xix, 228).

726 The Book of Jasher. With Testimonies and Notes explanatory of the Text. To which is prefixed various Readings. Translated into English from the Hebrew, by Alcuin of Britain, who went a Pilgrimage into the Holy Land, etc. Printed in the year 1751. 4to. The fraud was immediately detected and exposed. The work was reprinted, without acknowledgment and with some variations, at Bristol in 1829, by a Rev. C. R. Bond. Both editions are now rare.

727 Dissert., p. 65.

728 These are enumerated in Gough’s British Topography, i, 637.

729 British Topography, i, 597.

730 See ante, p. 260?.

731 A Specimen of the Printing Types and Flowers belonging to John Reid, Printer, Bailie Fyfe’s Close, Edinburgh, etc. Edinburgh, 1768. 8vo. All the other founts shown are either Wilson’s or Caslon’s.

732 History of Printing in America. 2nd Edit. Albany, 1874. i, 31.

733 The first attempt to introduce type-founding in America had been made by Mitchelson, a Scotchman, in 1768, and failed. In 1769, Abel Buel, of Connecticut, succeeded in casting several founts of Long Primer. Christopher Sower, in 1772, brought over a foundry from Germany to Germantown in Pennsylvania. John Bay also founded in the same town about 1774. Benj. Franklin and his grandson Bache brought over a foundry from France in 1775 to Philadelphia, which, however, had ceased its operations when Baine and his grandson, some ten years later, established their foundry in the same city.

734 See Abridgments of Specifications relating to Printing, p. 87. See also ante, p. 78?.

735 Typog. Antiq., p. 81. This appears to be the person whom Gough, in his list of departed worthies of the eighteenth century, includes among the letter founders, as “Jurisson, d. 1791”. (Gent. Magaz., lxxiii, part i, p. 161.)

736 See ante, p. 269?.

737 “British Foundry. S. & C. Stephenson respectfully submit the present edition of their Specimen to the public with the hope that they shall continue to experience the flattering encouragement hitherto received, and for which they beg to return their most sincere thanks.

“To those of the Trade who have not hitherto used the Types of the British Foundry, it may be necessary to observe, that they are composed of the very best Metal, and that they are justified to paper and body agreeable to the usual standard.

“As the Establishment of this Foundry comprises eminent engravers on wood and brass, orders in either of these branches will be executed in the best stile of the Art. February, 1797.”

A first part of the specimen appears to have been issued in 1796, and the whole book in 1797.

739 Typog., p. 366.

740 Ibid., p. 361.

741 A specimen of this type “the smallest ever manufactured in this country,” was exhibited, and contains the whole of Gray’s Elegy in 32 verses, in 2 columns, measuring 3³?/?₄ inches each in depth.

742 Dictionary for the Pocket; French and English; English and French, &c., by John Bellows, Gloucester, from type cast specially for the work by Miller and Richard, Type founders to the Queen, Edinburgh. 1873. 24mo.

744 The Printer’s Assistant, containing a Sketch of the History of Printing, etc. London, 1810. 12mo.

745 Typog., p. 382.

746 See ante, p. 253–4; also Johnson’s Typographia, ii, 652.

747 Mr. Branston was an engraver, and resided at Beaufort Buildings, Strand, in 1824. He attempted a new system of printing music, by striking the punches deeper than usual in the plate, so that when a stereo cast was taken from it, the notes appeared sufficiently in relief to be printed at a type press.

748 See ante, p. 121?. M. Didot’s invention had been previously tried by Henry Caslon, but unsuccessfully.

749 This appears to be an anachronism. There was no association of Type Founders between 1820 and 1830.

750 Hansard, Typog., p. 361.

751 Johnson, in 1824, gives a list of nine founders (including PouchÉe), at that time trading in London. (Typog., ii, 652.)