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A HISTORY
OF THE
OLD ENGLISH LETTER FOUNDRIES.
-* true V exact ReprrfentatWl ,of the ^r/ of ^^^^JV/Q^^LettefS^FHnting;.
jS. Interior of Caslon's Foundry in 1750. From the t'»,;»n»! Magasln (The mould k described, p 106).
A HISTORY
i ' OF THE
OLD ENGLISH LETTER FOUNDRIES,
WITH NOTES,
i&tetartcal anto 3Stbltogtapf)tcal,
ON THE
RISE AND PROGRESS OF ENGLISH TYPOGRAPHY.
BY I
I
TALBOT BAINES REED.
LONDON :
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1887.
fi
PREFACE.
<r-**4/Z£'?ZW*~s
N this age of progress, when the fine arts are
rapidly becoming trades, and the machine is
on every side superseding that labour of head
and hand which our fathers called Handicraft,
we are in danger of losing sight of, or, at least,
of undervaluing the genius of those who, with
none of our mechanical advantages, established
and made famous in our land those arts and handicrafts of which
we are now the heritors.
The Art of Letter Founding hesitated long before yielding to
the revolutionary impulses of modern progress. While kindred arts
— and notably that art which preserves all others — were advancing
by leaps and bounds, the founder, as late as half a century ago, was
pursuing the even tenor of his ways by paths which had been trodden
by De Worde and Day and Moxon. But the inevitable revolution
came, and Letter Founding to-day bids fair to break all her old ties
and take new departures undreamed of by those heroes of the punch
and matrix and mould who made her what we found her.
At such a time, it seems not undutiful to attempt to gather
together into a connected form the numerous records of the Old
English Letter Founders scattered throughout our literary and
vi Preface.
typographical history, with a view to preserve the memory . of
those to whose labours English Printing is indebted for so much
of its glory.
The present work represents the labour of several years in what
may be considered some of the untrodden by-paths of English typo-
graphical history.
The curious Dissertation on English Typographical Founders and
Founderies by the learned Edward Rowe Mores, published in 1778,
is, in fact, the only work in the language purporting to treat of Letter
Founding as distinct from the art which it fosters. This quaint and
crabbed sketch, full of valuable but half-digested information, was
intended to accompany a specimen of the types of John James, whose
foundry had gradually absorbed all the minor English foundries, and,
after the death of its owner, had become the property of Mores himself.
The enthusiasm of the Oxford antiquary infused new life into the dry
bones of this decayed collection. Working backwards, he restored in
imagination the old foundries of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, as they had been before they became absorbed in his own.
He tracked back a few famous historical types to their fountain-head,
and even bridged over the mysterious gulf which divided the early six-
teenth from the early seventeenth centuries of English letter-founding.
Mores' Dissertation has necessarily formed the basis of my investi-
gations, and is, indeed, almost wholly incorporated in the present
volume. Of the additional and more anecdotal notes on the later
founders, preserved by Nichols and Hansard, I have also freely made
use ; although in every case it has been my endeavour to take nothing
on report which it has been possible to verify by reference to original
sources. This effort has been rewarded by several interesting dis-
coveries which it is hoped may be found to throw considerable fresh
light on the history of our national typography.
The first century of English letter- founding is a period of
great obscurity, to master which it is absolutely essential to have
Preface. vii
unlimited access to all the works of all the printers whose books were
the only type specimens of their day. Such access it has been beyond
my power fully to secure, and in this portion of my work I am bound
to admit that I can lay claim to little originality of research. I have,
however, endeavoured to examine as many of the specimens of these
early presses as possible, and to satisfy myself that the observations of
others, of which I have availed myself, are such as I can assent to.
In detailing the rise and progress of the various English Letter
Foundries, it has been my endeavour to treat the subject, as far as
possible, bibliographically — that is, to regard as type-specimens not
merely the stated advertisements of the founder, but also the works for
which his types were created and in which they were used. The
Catena on Job, Walton's Polyglot, Boyle's Irish Testament, Bowyer's
Selden, thus rank as type specimens quite as interesting as, and far
more valuable than, the ordinary letter founders' catalogues. Pro-
ceeding on this principle, moreover, this History will be found to
embody a pretty complete bibliography of works not only relating to,
but illustrative of, English Letter Founding. At the same time, the
particular bibliography of the subject has been kept distinct, by
appending to each chapter a chronological list of the Specimen Books
issued by the foundry to which it relates.
The introductory chapter on the Types and Type Founding of
the First Printers may be considered somewhat foreign to the scope of
this History. The importance, however, of a practical acquaintance
with the processes and appliances of the Art of Letter Founding as a
foundation to any complete study of typographical history — as well as
the numerous misconceptions existing on the part even of accepted
authorities on the subject — suggested the attempt to examine the
various accounts of the Invention of Printing from a letter founder's
point of view, in the hope, if not of arriving at any very definite con-
clusions, at least of clearing the question of a few prevalent fallacies.
The two chapters on Type Bodies and Type Faces, although also
viii Preface.
to some extent foreign, are considered important by way of introduction
to the history of English Letter Founding in which the " foreign and
learned " characters have so conspicuously figured.
If this book — the imperfections of which are apparent to no one
as painfully as they are to the writer — should in any way encourage
the study of our national Typography, with a view to profit by the
history of the past in an endeavour to promote its excellence in the
future, the labour here concluded will be amply repaid.
The agreeable task remains of thanking the numerous friends to
whose aid and encouragement this book is indebted for much of
whatever value it may possess.
My foremost thanks are due to my honoured and valued friend,
Mr. William Blades, to whom I am indebted for far more than
unlimited access to his valuable typographical library, and the ungrudg-
ing use of his special knowledge on all subjects connected with English
typography. These I have enjoyed, and what was of equal value
his kindly advice and sympathy during the whole progress of a work
which, but for his encouragement from the outset, might never have
been completed.
Another friend who, brief as was our acquaintance, had taken a
genuine interest in the progress of this History, and had enriched it by
more than one valuable communication, has been snatched away by the
hand of Death before the thanks he never coveted but constantly
incurred can reach him. In Henry Bradshaw the world of books has
lost a distinguished ornament, and this little book has lost a hearty friend.
To Mr. F. Madan, of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, I owe much
valuable information as to early printing at that University ; while to
the kindness of Mr. Horace Hart, Controller of the University Press,
I am indebted for full access to the highly interesting collection of
typographical antiquities preserved at that Press, as well as for the
specimens I am here enabled to show of some of the most interesting
relics of the oldest Foundry in the country.
Preface. ix
Mr. T. W. Smith has kindly given me similar facilities as regards
the archives and historical specimens of the venerable Caslon Foundry.
Mr. Sam. Timmins most generously placed at my disposal much of
the information embodied in my chapter on Baskerville, including the
extracts from the letters forming part of his unique collection relating
to that celebrated typographer.
To Mr. James Figgins I am obliged for many particulars relating
to the early association of founders at the commencement of the
present century ; also for a specimen of one of the most noted founts
of his distinguished ancestor.
Mr. Charles R. Rivington I have to thank for one or two
valuable extracts from the Minutes of the Court of the Stationers'
Company, relating to Letter Founders.
To Messrs. Enschede and Sons, of Haarlem, my thanks are also
specially due for giving me specimens of some of their most curious
and ancient types.
It is also my pleasure, as well as my duty, to thank the Secretary
of the American Antiquarian Society for information regarding
specimens in his possession ; my friend, Dr. Wright, of the British
and Foreign Bible Society, for free access to the highly interesting
Library under his care ; Messrs. Tuer, Bremner, Gill, and others for the
kind loan of Specimens ; the Librarian of the London Institution for
permission to facsimile portions of the rare specimen of James' Foundry
in that Library ; and the numerous other friends, who, by reading proofs
and in other ways, have generously assisted me in my labours.
I also take this opportunity of thanking Mr. Prsetorius and
Mr. Manning for the care they have bestowed on the preparation of
facsimiles for this work; and of expressing my obligations to the officials
of the British Museum and Record Office for their invariable courtesy
on all occasions on which their assistance has been invoked.
LONDON, /anuary 1st, 1887.
CONTENTS.
-^ottoSc
Introductory Chapter. The Types and Type Founding of the First Printers
Chap. i. The English Type Bodies and Faces - - -
„ 2. The Learned, Foreign and Peculiar Characters
„ 3. The Printer Letter-Founders, from Caxton to Day
„ 4. Letter Founding as an English Mechanical Trade
„ 5. The State Control of English Letter Founding
„ 6. The Oxford University Foundry -
„ 7. The Star Chamber Founders, and the London Polyglot
„ 8. Joseph Moxon ---.-..
„ 9. The Later Founders of the 17TH Century
„ 10. Thomas and John James -
„ 11. William Caslon ......
„ 12. Alexander Wilson ......
„ 13. John Baskerville ......
„ 14. Thomas Cottrell ......
„ 15. Joseph and Edmund Fry -
„ 16. Joseph Jackson - - - - - - -
„ 17. William Martin - - -
„ 18. Vincent Figgins ......
„ 19. The Minor Founders of the i8th Century
„ 20. William Miller - - -
„ 21. The Minor Founders from 1800 to 1830 -
1
31
57
13
102
123^-
137
180
193
212
232
257
268
288
298
3i5
33o
335
345
355
357
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
I. — Types cast from leaden matrices, circ. 1500
2. — Specimen illustrating the variations in the face of type, produced by bad casting
3. — Type mould of Claude Garamond. Paris, 1540. From Du verger ...
4. — Profile tracings from M. Claudin's 15th century types
5. — A 15th century type. From M. Madden's Lettres d'un Bibliographe
6. — A 15th century type. From Liber de Laudibus...Marice, circ. 1468 ... ,..
7. — Roman letter. From the Sophologium, Wiedenbach ? 1465-70?
8. — Roman and Black letter intermixed. From Traheron's Exposition of St. yokn, 1552
9. — Robijn Italic, cut by Chr. van Dijk. From the original matrices
10. — Gothic Type or Lettre de Forme, circ. 1480. From the original matrices
11. — Philosophic Flamand engraved by Fleischman, 1743. From the original matrices
12. — Lettre de Civilite, cut by Ameet Tavernier for Plantin, circ. 1570. From the original matrices
13. — Blooming Initials. Oxford, circ. 1700
14. — Pierced Initial. Oxford, ante 1700
15. — Caxton's Advertisement, in his Type 3 ... ... ... ... face
16. — Caxton's Type 4.* From the Golden Legend ... ... ... face
17. — Black letter, supposed to be De Worde's. From Palmer's History of Printing ...
18. — Pynson's Roman letter. From the Oratio in Pace Nuperrimd, 1518
iSa. — Berthelet's Black letter and Secretary type. From the Boke named the Governour, 1531 ...
19. — Portrait of John Day, 1562. From Peter Martir's Commentaries, 1568
20, 21, 22. — Day's Saxon, Roman, and Italic. From the ALlfredi Res Gestce, 1574 ...
23. — Letter Founding in Frankfort in 1568. From Jost Amman's Stande und Handwerker
24. — Letter Founding and Printing circ. 1548. From the Harleian MSS.
25. — Letter Founding in 1683. From Moxon's Mechanick Exercises
26. — Letter Founding in France in 1718. From Thiboust's Typographies Excellentia
27. — Colophon of the Lyndewode, Oxford, n.d. Showing types [c], [d], [e], [f]
28. — Greek fount of the Eton Chrysostom, 161 3
29. — Greeks, Roman and Italic. From the Catena on Job, 1637
30. — The Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. From an old wood-block
31. — The Clarendon Press, Oxford. From an old wood-block
32. — Pica Roman and Italic, presented to Oxford by Dr. Fell, 1667
33. — Pica Roman and Italic, bought by Oxford University in 1692
34> 35. 36, 37, 38. — Hebrew, large and small, Coptic, Arabic, and Syriac, presented to Oxford by
Dr. Fell, 1667. From the original matrices
39.— Ethiopic, bought by Oxford University in 1692. From the original matrices ...
40. — Ethiopic of Walton's Polyglot, 1657. From the original matrices
41. — Syriac of Walton's Polyglot, 1657. From the original matrices
42. — Samaritan of Walton's Polyglot, 1657. From the original matrices ...
43.— Specimen of Nicholas Nicholls, 1665. From the original ... ... face
C
face
face
face
face
pag a
16
18
23
21
24
24
42
45
52
S3
54
56
80
81
]■ 88
90
92
95
99
96
104
105
109
"5
138
140
153
156
152
147
154
174
178
XIV
List of Illustrations.
44. — Portrait of Joseph Moxon. From the Tutor to Astronomy and Geography, 4th ed., 1686, face
45. — Moxon's Irish type, 1680. From the original matrices ...
46. — Dutch Initial Letters. From the original matrices
47. — Nonpareil Rabbinical Hebrew in Andrews' Foundry. From the original matrices
48. — Saxon, cut by R. Andrews for Miss Elstob's Grammar, 1715. From the original matrices ...
49. — Old Dutch Blacks in R. Andrews' Foundry. From the original matrices
50. — Alexandrian Greek in Grover's Foundry, From the Catalogue of James' Sale, 1782
51. — S crip torial in Grover's Foundry. From the original matrices
52. — Court Hand in Grover's Foundry. From the original matrices
53. — Union Pearl in Grover's Foundry. From the original matrices
54. — Walpergen's Music type. Oxford, circ. 1675. From the original matrices
55. — Pictorial pierced Initial. From an 18th century newspaper
56. — Title-page of the Catalogue and Specimen of James' Foundry, 1782. From the original
57. — Portrait of William Caslon. From Hansard ...
58. — View of the Interior of Caslon's Foundry in 1750. From the Universal Magazine
59. — Pica Roman and Italic, cut by Caslon, 1720. From the original matrices
60.-— Black letter, cut by Caslon. From the original matrices ... ...
61. — Arabic, cut by Caslon, 1 720. From the original matrices
62. — Coptic, cut by Caslon, ante 1731. From the original matrices
63. — Armenian, cut by Caslon, ante 1736. From the original matrices
64. — Etruscan, cut by Caslon, 1 738. From the original matrices
65. — Gothic, cut by Caslon, ante 1734. From the original matrices
66. — Ethiopic, cut by Caslon. From the original matrices
67. — Syriac, cut by Caslon II, circ. 1768. From the original matrices
68. — Portrait of Alexander Wilson. From Hansard. ...
69. — Greek, cut by Alex. Wilson, ante 1768. From the Glasgow Homer, 1768
70. — Portrait of John Baskerville. From Hansard
71. — Greek, cut by Baskerville for Oxford. From the Oxford Specimen, 1768-70
72. — Roman and Italic, cut by Baskerville, 1758. From the Milton, Birmingham, 1758
73. — Engrossing, cut by Cottrell, circ. 1768. From the original matrices
73a. — Silhouette Portraits of Joseph and Edmund Fry. From the originals
74. — Alexandrian Greek (formerly Grover's), rejustified by Dr. Fry. From the original matrices..
74a. — Hebrew, cut by Dr. Fry, circ. 1785. From the original matrices ...
75. — Portrait of Joseph Jackson. From Nichols' Literary Anecdotes
76. — Portrait of William Caslon III. From Hansard
77- — Two-line English Roman, cut by Vincent Figgins, 1792. From the original matrices
78. — Samaritan, cut by Dummers for Caslon, circ. 1734. From the original matrices...
180
189
80
194
196
194
200
204
208
81
226
face
232
Frontispiece
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236
239
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235
236
239
...
240
...
239
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240
246
face
258
...
262
face
268
face
274
face
276
289
face
298
:es...
304
304
face
316
face
326
...
337
...
345
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
THE TYPES AND TYPEFOUNDING OF THE FIRST
PRINTERS.
iS
||J
OR four centuries the noise of controversy has raged round
the cradle of Typography. Volumes have been written,
lives have been spent, fortunes have been wasted, com- _
munities have been stirred, societies have been organised,
a literature has been developed, to find an answer to the
famous triple question : " When, where, and by whom
was found out the unspeakably useful art of printing
books ?" And yet the world to-day is little nearer a
finite answer to the question than it was when Ulric Zel indited his memorable
narrative to the Cologne Chronicle in 1499. Indeed, the dust of battle has added
to, rather than diminished, the mysterious clouds which envelope the problem,
and we are tempted to seek refuge in an agnosticism which almost refuses to
believe that printing ever had an inventor.
It would be neither suitable nor profitable to encumber an investigation of
that part of the History of Typography which relates to the types and type-
making of the fifteenth century by any attempt to discuss the vexed question of
the Invention of the Art. The man who invented Typography was doubtless
the man who invented movable types. Where the one is discovered, we have
also found the other. But, meanwhile, it is possible to avail ourselves of
whatever evidence exists as to the nature of the types he and his successors used,
and as to the methods by which those types were produced, and possibly to
B
2 The Old English Letter Foundries.
arrive at some conclusions respecting the earliest practices of the Art of Type-
founding in the land and in the age in which it first saw the light.
No one has done more to clear the way for a free investigation of all
questions relating to the origin of printing than Dr. Van der Linde, in his able
essay, The Haarlem Legend} which, while disposing ruthlessly of the fiction of
Coster's invention, lays down the important principle, too often neglected by
writers on the subject, that the essence of Typography consists in the mobility of
the types, and that, therefore, it is not a development of the long practised art of
printing from fixed blocks, but an entirely distinct invention.
The principle is so important, and Dr. Van der Linde's words are so
emphatic, that we make no apology for quoting them : —
" I cannot repeat often enough that, when we speak of Typography and its
invention, nothing is meant, or rather nothing must be meant, but printing with
loose (separate, moveable) types (be they letters, musical notes, or other figures),
which therefore, in distinction from letters cut on wooden or metal plates, may be
put together or separated according to inclination. One thing therefore is certain :
he who did not invent printing with moveable types, did, as far as Typography
goes, invent nothing. What material was used first of all in this invention ; of
what metal the first letters, the patrices (engraved punches) and matrices were
made ; by whom and when the leaden matrices and brass patrices were replaced
by brass matrices and steel patrices ; all this belongs to the secondary
question of the technical execution of the principal idea : multiplication of
books by means of multiplication of letters, multiplication of letters by means
of their durability, and repeated use of the same letters, i.e., by means of the
independence (looseness) of each individual letter (moveableness)." — P. 19.
If this principle be adopted — and we can hardly imagine it questioned — it
will be obvious that a large class of works which usually occupy a prominent
place in inquiries into the origin of Printing, have but slight bearing on the
history of Typography. The block books of the fifteenth century had little
direct connection with the art that followed and eclipsed them.2 In the one
respect of marking the early use of printing for the instruction of mankind, the
block books and the first works of Typography proper claim an equal interest ;
but, as regards their mechanical production, the one feature they possess in
common is a quality shared also by the playing-cards, pictures, seals, stamps,
1 The Haarlem Legend of the Invention of Printing by Lourens Janszoon Coster, critically
examined. From the Dutch by J. H. Hessels, with an introduction and classified list of the
Costerian Incunabula. London, 187 1. 8vo.
2 Xylography did not become extinct for more than half a century after the invention of
Typography. The last block book known was printed in Venice in 15 10.
The Types and Typefounding of the First Printers. 3
brands, and all the other applications of the principle of impression which had
existed in one form or another from time immemorial.
It is reasonable to suppose that the first idea of movable type may have
been suggested to the mind of the inventor by a study of the works of a
xylographic printer, and an observation of the cumbrous and wearisome method
by which his books were produced. The toil involved in first painfully tracing
the characters and figures, reversed, on the wood, then of engraving them,
and, finally, of printing them with the frotton, would appear — in the case, at any
rate, of the small school-books, for the production of which this process was largely
resorted to — scarcely less tedious than copying the required number by the deft pen
of a scribe. And even if, at a later period, the bookmakers so far facilitated their
labours as to write their text in the ordinary manner on prepared paper, or with
prepared ink, and so transfer their copy, after the manner of the Chinese, on to the
wood, the labour expended in proportion to the result, and the uselessness of the
blocks when once their work was done, would doubtless impress an inventive
genius with a sense of dissatisfaction and impatience. We can imagine him
examining the first page of an Abecedarium, on which would be engraved, in
three lines, with a clear space between each character, the letters of the alphabet,
and speculating, as Cicero had speculated centuries before,1 on the possibilities
presented by the combination in indefinite variety of those twenty-five symbols.
Being a practical man as well as a theorist, we may suppose he would attempt
to experiment on the little wood block in his hand, and by sawing off first
the lines, and then some of the letters in the lines, attempt to arrange his little
types into a few short words. A momentous experiment, and fraught with the
greatest revolution the world has ever known !
No question has aroused more interest, or excited keener discussion in the
history of printing, than that of the use of movable wooden types as a first
stage in the passage from Xylography to Typography. Those who write on the
affirmative side of the question profess to see in the earlier typographical works,
as well as in the historical statements handed down by the old authorities, the
1 " Hie ego non mirer esse quemquam qui sibi persuadeat .... mundum effici .... ex
concursione fortuita ! Hoc qui existimet fieri potuisse, non intelligo cur non idem putet si
innumerabiles unius et viginti formse litterarum, vel aureae, vel qualeslibet, aliquo conjiciantur,
posse ex his in terram excussis, annales Ennii, ut deinceps legi possint, effici" (De Nat.
Deor., lib. ii). Cicero was not the only ancient writer who entertained the idea of mobile
letters. Quintilian suggests the use of ivory letters for teaching children to read while playing :
"Eburneas litterarum formas in ludum offere" {Inst. Orat., i, cap. i); and Jerome, writing to
Laeta, propounds the same idea : " Fiant ei (Paulae) litterae vel buxeas vel eburneae, et suis
nominibus appellentur. Ludat in eis ut et lusus ipse eruditio fiat."
4 The Old English Letter Foundries.
clearest evidence that wooden types were used, and that several of the most
famous works of the first printers were executed by their means.
As regards the latter source of their confidence, it is at least remarkable
that no single writer of the fifteenth century makes the slightest allusion to the
use of wooden types. Indeed, it was not till Bibliander, in 1548,1 first mentioned
and described them, that anything professing to be a record on the subject
existed. " First they cut their letters," he says, " on wood blocks the size of an
entire page, but because the labour and cost of that way was so great, they de-
vised movable wooden types, perforated and joined one to the other by a thread."
The legend, once started, found no lack of sponsors, and the typographical
histories of the sixteenth century and onward abound with testimonies confirm-
atory more or less of Bibliander's statement. Of these testimonies, those only
are worthy of attention which profess to be based on actual inspection of the
alleged perforated wooden types. Specklin2 (who died in 1589) asserts that he
saw some of these relics at Strasburg. Angelo Roccha,3 in 1591, vouches for the
existence of similar letters (though he does not say whether wood or metal) at
Venice. Paulus Pater,4 in 17 10, stated that he had once seen some belonging to
Fust at Mentz ; Bodman, as late as 1781, saw the same types in a worm-eaten
condition at Mentz ; while Fischer,5 in 1802, stated that these precious relics were
used as a sort of token of honour to be bestowed on worthy apprentices on the
occasion of their finishing their term.
This testimony proves nothing beyond the fact that at Strasburg, Venice,
and Mentz there existed at some time or other certain perforated wooden types
which tradition ascribed to the first printers. But on the question whether any
book was ever printed with such type, it is wholly inconclusive. It is possible
to believe that certain early printers, uninitiated into the mystery of the punch and
matrix, may have attempted to cut themselves wooden types, which, when they
proved untractable under the press, they perforated and strung together in lines ;
1 In Commentatione de ratione communi omnium linguantm et liter arum. Tiguri,
1548, p. 80.
2 In Chronico Argentoratensi, m.s. ed. Jo. Schilterus, p. 442. " Ich habe die erste press,
auch die buchstaben gesehen, waren von holtz geschnitten, auch gantze wdrter und syllaben,
hatten lochle, und fasst man an ein schnur nacheinander mit einer nadel, zoge sie darnach
den zeilen in die lange," etc.
3 De Bibliothecd Vaticand. Romae, 1591, p. 412. " Characteres enim a primis illis inven-
toribus non ita eleganter et expedite, ut a nostris fieri solet, sed filo in litterarum foramen
immisso connectebantur, sicut Venetiis id genus typos me vidisse memini."
4 De Germanics Miraculo, etc. Lipsiae, 17 10, p. 10. " . . . . ligneos typos, ex buxi frutice,
perforatos in medio, ut zona colligari una jungique commode possint, ex Fausti officina reliquos,
Moguntias aliquando me conspexisse memini."
5 Essaisur les Monumens Typographiques de Jean Gutenburg. Mayence, an 10, 1802, p. 39.
The Types and Typefounding of the First Printers. 5
but it is beyond credit that any such rude experiment ever resulted in the pro-
duction of a work like the Speculum.
It is true that many writers have asserted it was so. Fournier, a practical
typographer, insists upon it from the fact that the letters vary among themselves
in a manner which would not be the case had they been cast from a matrix in a
mould. But, to be consistent, Fournier is compelled (as Bernard points out)
to postpone the use of cast type till after the Gutenberg Bible and Mentz Psalter,
both of which works display the same irregularities. And as the latest edition
of the Psalter, printed in the old types, appeared in 1516, it would be necessary
to suppose that movable wood type was in vogue up to that date. No one has
yet demonstrated, or attempted seriously to demonstrate, the possibility of
printing a book like the Speculum in movable wooden type. All the experi-
ments hitherto made, even by the most ardent supporters of the theory, have
been woful failures. Laborde1 admits that to cut the 3,000 separate letters
required for the Letters of Indulgence, engraved by him, would cost 450 francs ;
and even he, with the aid of modern tools to cut up his wooden cubes, can only
show four widely spaced lines. Wetter2 shows a page printed from perforated
and threaded wooden types3; but these, though of large size, only prove by their
1 Debuts de Plmprimerie a Strasbourg. Paris, 1840, p. 72.
2 Erjindung der Buchdruckerktmst. Mainz, 1836. Album, tab. ii.
3 The history of these "fatal, unhistorical wooden types" is worth recording for the
warning of the over-credulous typographical antiquary. Wetter, writing his book in 1836,
and desirous to illustrate the feasibility of the theory, " spent," so Dr. Van der Linde writes,
u really the amount of ten shillings on having a number of letters made of the wood of a
pear-tree, only to please Trithemius, Bergellanus, and Faust of Aschaffenburg. . . . His
letters, although tied with string, did not remain in the line, but made naughty caprioles.
The supposition — that by these few dancing lines the possibility is demonstrated of printing
with 40,000 wooden letters, necessary to the printing of a quarternion, a whole folio book — is
dreadfully silly. The demonstrating facsimile demonstrates already the contrary. Wetter's
letters not only declined to have themselves regularly printed, but they also retained their
pear-tree-wood-like impatience afterwards." The specimen of these types may be seen in the
Album of plates accompanying Wetter's work, where they occupy the first place, the matter
chosen being the first few verses of the Bible, occupying nineteen lines, and the type being
about two-line English in body. M. Wetter stated in his work that he had deposited the
original types in the Town Library of Mentz, where they might be inspected by anyone
wishing to do so. From this repository they appear ultimately to have returned to the hands
of M. Wetter's printer. M. Bernard, passing through Mentz in 1850, asked M. Wetter for a
sight of them, and was conducted to the printing office for that purpose, when it was discovered
that they had been stolen ; whereupon M. Bernard remarks, prophetically, " Peutetre un jour
quelque naif Allemand, les trouvant parmi les reliques du voleur, nous les donnera pour les
caracteres de Gutenberg. Voila comment s'dtablissent trop souvent les traditions." This
prediction, with the one exception of the nationality of the victim, was literally fulfilled when
an English clergyman, some years afterwards, discovered these identical types in the shop of
6 The Old English Letter Foundries.
" naughty caprioles" the absurdity of supposing that the " unleaded" Speculum,
a quarternion of which would require 40,000 distinct letters, could have been
produced in 1440 by a method which even the modern cutting and modern
presswork of 1836 failed to adapt to a single page of large-sized print.
John Enschede', the famous Haarlem typefounder, though a strong adherent
to the Coster legend, was compelled to admit the practical impossibility, in his
day at any rate, of producing a single wood type which would stand the test of
being mathematically square ; nor would it be possible to square it after being
cut. " No engraver," he remarks, " is able to cut separate letters in wood in
such a manner that they retain their quadrature (for that is the main thing
of the line in type-casting)."1 Admitting for a moment that some printer may
have succeeded in putting together a page of these wooden types, without the
aid of leads, into a chase : how can it be supposed that after their exposure to
the warping influences of the sloppy ink and tight pressure during the impression,
they could ever have survived to be distributed and recomposed into another
forme ?2
The claims set up on behalf of movable wood types as the means by which
the Speculum or any other of the earliest books was printed, are not only histori-
cally unsupported, but the whole weight of practical evidence rejects them.
Dismissing them, therefore, from our consideration, a new theory confronts
us, which at first blush seems to supply, if not a more probable, certainly a more
possible, stepping-stone between Xylography and Typography. We refer to
what Meerman, the great champion of this theory, calls the " sculpto-fusi"
a curiosity-dealer at Mayence, and purchased them as apparently veritable relics of the infancy
of printing. After being offered to the authorities at the British Museum and declined,
they were presented in 1869 to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, where they remain to
this day, treasured in a box, and accompanied by a learned memorandum setting forth the
circumstances of their discovery, and citing the testimony of Roccha and other writers
as to the existence and use of perforated types by the early printers. The lines (which
we have inspected) remain threaded and locked in forme exactly as they appear in Wetter's
specimen. It is due to the present authorities of the Bodleian to say that they preserve these
precious "relics," without prejudice, as curiosities merely, with no insistence on their historic
pretensions.
1 Van der Linde, Haarlem Legend. Lond., p. 72.
2 Skeen, in his Early Typography, Colombo, 1872, takes up the challenge thrown down by
Dr. Van der Linde on the strength of Ensched^'s opinion, and shows a specimen of three letters
cut in boxwood, pica size, one of which he exhibits again at the close of the book after 1,500
impressions. But the value of Skeen's arguments and experiments is destroyed when he sums
up with this absurd dictum : " Three letters are as good as 3,000 or 30,000 or 300,000 to
demonstrate the fact that words are and can be, and that therefore pages and whole books
may be (and therefore also that they may have been) printed from such separable wooden
types."— P. 424.
The Types and Typefounding of the Frst Printers. 7
characters : types, that is, the shanks of which have been cast in a quadrilateral
mould, and the " faces" engraved by hand afterwards.
Meerman and those who agree with him engage a large array of testimony
on their side. In the reference of Celtis, in 1 502, to Mentz as the city " quae
prima sculpsit solidos sere characteres," they see a clear confirmation of their
theory ; as also in the frequent recurrence of the same word " sculptus" in the
colophons of the early printers. Meerman, indeed, goes so far as to ingeniously
explain the famous account of the invention given by Trithemius in 1514/ in the
light of his theory, to mean that, after the rejection of the first wooden types, " the
inventors found out a method of casting the bodies only (fundendi formas) of all
the letters of the Latin alphabet from what they called matrices, on which they
cut the face of each letter ; and from the same kind of matrices a method was in
time discovered of casting the complete letters (aeneos sive stanneos characteres)
of sufficient hardness for the pressure they had to bear, which letters before — that
is, when the bodies only were cast1— they were obliged to cut"2
After this bold flight of translation, it is not surprising to find that Meerman
claims that the Specidum was printed in " sculpto-fusi" types, although in the
one page of which he gives a facsimile there are nearly 1,700 separate types, of
which 250 alone are ^'s.
Schoepflin, claiming the same invention for the Strasburg printers, believes
that all the earliest books printed there were produced by this means ; and both
Meerman and Schoepflin .agree that engraved metal types were in use for many
years after the invention of the punch and matrix, mentioning, among others so
printed, the Mentz Psalter, the Catholicon of 1460, the Eggestein Bible of 1468,
and even the Nideri Prceceptorium, printed at Strasburg as late as 1476, as " Uteris
in aere sculptis."
Almost the whole historical claim of the engraved metal types, indeed, turns
on the recurrence of the term " sculptus" in the colophons of the early printers.
Jenson, in 1471, calls himself a " cutter of books" (librorum exsculptor). Sensen-
schmid, in 1475, says that the Codex Justinianus is "cut" (insculptus), and that
he has " cut" (sculpsit) the work of Lombardus in Psalterium. Husner of Stras-
burg, in 1472, applies the term "printed with letters cut of metal" (exsculptis
1 Annates Hirsaugienses, ii, p. 421 : "Post haac inventis successerunt subtiliora, invene-
runtque modum fundendi formas omnium Latini Alphabeti literarum quas ipsi matrices
nominabant ; ex quibus rursum aeneos sive stanneos characteres fundebant, ad omnem pres-
suram sufficientes, quos prius manibus sculpebant." Trithemius' statement, as every student
of typographical history is aware, has been made to fit every theory that has been propounded,
but it is doubtful whether any other writer has stretched it quite as severely as Meerman in the
above rendering of these few Latin lines.
2 Origines Typographic , Gerardo Meerman auctore. Hagae Com., 1765. Append., p. 47.
8 The Old English Letter Foundries.
sere Htteris) to the Speculum Dttrandi; and of the Prceceptorium Nideri, printed in
1476, he says it is " printed in letters cut of metal by a very ingenious effort"
(litteris exsculptis artificiali certe conatu ex sere). As Dr. Van der Linde points
out, the use of the term in reference to all these books can mean nothing else
than a figurative allusion to the first process towards producing the types, namely,
the cutting of the punch1 ; just as when Schoeffer, in 1466, makes his Grammatica
Vetus Rhythmica say, " I am cast at Mentz" (At Moguntia sum fusus in urbe
libellus), he means nothing more than a figurative allusion to the casting of the
types.
The theory of the sculpto-fusi types appears to have sprung up on no firmer
foundation than the difficulty of accounting for the marked irregularities in the
letters of the earliest printed books, and the lack of a theory more feasible than that
of movable wood type to account for it. The method suggested by Meerman
seemed to meet the requirements of the case, and with the aid of the very
free translation of Trithemius' story, and the very literal translation of certain
colophons, it managed to get a footing on the typographical records.
Mr. Skeen seriously applies himself to demonstrate how the shanks could
be cast in clay moulds stamped with a number of trough-like matrices repre-
senting the various widths of the blanks required, and calculates that at the rate
of four a day, 6,000 of these blanks could be engraved on the end by one man
in five years, the whole weighing 100 lb. when finished ! " No wonder," Mr.
Skeen naively observes, " that Fust at last grew impatient." We must confess
that there seems less ground for believing in the use of " sculpto-fusi" types as
the means by which any of the early books were produced, than in the perforated
wood types. The enormous labour involved, in itself renders the idea improb-
able. As M. Bernard says, " How can we suppose that intelligent men like the
first printers would not at once find out that they could easily cast the face and
body of their types together ?"2 But admitting the possibility of producing type
in this manner, and the possible obtuseness which could allow an inventor of
printing to spend five years in laboriously engraving " shanks" enough for a single
forme, the lack of any satisfactory evidence that such types were ever used, even
experimentally, inclines us to deny them any place in the history of the origin
of typography.
Putting aside, therefore, as improbable, and not proved, the two theories of
1 The constant recurrence in more modern typographical history of the expression " to cut
matrices," meaning of course to cut the punches necessary to form the matrices, bears out the
same conclusion.
2 Origine et Debuts de Plmfirimerie en Etiroie. Paris, 1853, 8vo, i, 38.
The Types and Typefounding of the First Printers. 9
engraved movable types, the question arises, Did typography, like her patron
goddess, spring fully armed from the brain of her inventor ? in other words, did
men pass at a single stride from xylography to the perfect typography of
the punch, the matrix, and the mould ? or are we still to seek for an intermediate
stage in some ruder and more primitive process of production ? To this question
we cannot offer a better reply than that contained in the following passage from
Mr. Blades's admirable life of Caxton.1 " The examination of many specimens,"
he observes, " has led me to conclude that two schools of typography existed
together . . . The ruder consisted of those printers who practised their art in
Holland and the Low Countries, . . . and who, by degrees only, adopted the
better and more perfect methods of the . . . school founded in Germany by
the celebrated trio, Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer."
It is impossible, we think, to resist the conclusion that all the earlier works
of typography were the impression of cast metal types ; but that the methods of
casting employed were not always those of matured letter-founding, seems
to us not only probable, but evident, from a study of the works themselves.
Mr. Theo. De Vinne, in his able treatise on the invention of printing,2
speaking with the authority of a practical typographer, insists that the key to
that invention is to be found, not in the press nor in the movable types,
but in the adjustable type-mould, upon which, he argues, the existence of
typography depends. While not prepared to go as far as Mr. De Vinne
on this point, and still content to regard the invention of movable types as the
real key to the invention of typography proper, we find in the mould not only
the culminating achievement of the inventor, but also the key to the distinction
between the two schools of early typography to which we have alluded.
The adjustable mould was undoubtedly the goal of the discovery, and those
who reached it at once were the advanced typographers of the Mentz press.
Those who groped after it through clumsy and tedious by-ways were the rude
artists of the Donatus and Speculum.
In considering the primitive modes of type-casting, it must be frankly
admitted that the inquirer stands in a field of pure conjecture. He has only
negative evidence to assure him that such primitive modes undoubtedly did
exist, and he searches in vain for any direct clue as to the nature and details
of those methods.
We shall briefly refer to one or two theories which have been propounded,
all with more or less of plausibility.
Casting in sand was an art not unknown to the silversmiths and trinket-
1 Life and Typography of William Caxton. London, 1 86 1-3, 2 vols, 4to, ii, xxiv.
2 The Invention of Printing. New York, 1876. 8vo.
C
io The Old English Letter Foundries.
makers of the fifteenth century, and several writers have suggested that some of
the early printers applied this process to typefounding. M. Bernard1 considers
that the types of the Speculum were sand-cast, and accounts for the varieties
observable in the shapes of various letters, by explaining that several models
would probably be made of each letter, and that the types when cast would, as is
usual after sand-casting, require some touching up or finishing by hand. He
shows a specimen of a word cast by himself by this process, which, as far as it
goes, is a satisfactory proof of the possibility of casting letters in this way.2
There are, indeed, many points in this theory which satisfactorily account
for peculiarities in the appearance of books printed by the earliest rude Dutch
School. Not only are the irregularities of the letters in body and line intelligible,
but the specks between the lines, so frequently observable, would be accounted
for by the roughness on the "shoulders" of the sand-cast bodies.3
An important difficulty to be overcome in type cast by this or any other
primitive method would be the absence of uniformity in what letter founders term
" height to paper." Some types would stand higher than others, and the low
ones, unless raised, would not only miss the ink, but would not appear at all in
the impression. The comparative rarity of faults of this kind in the Speadum,
leads one to suppose that if a process of sand-casting had been adopted, the
difficulty of uneven heights had been surmounted either by locking up the
forme face downwards, or by perforating the types either at the time of or after
casting, and by means of a thread or wire holding them in their places. The
uneven length of the lines favours such a supposition, and to the same cause Mr.
Ottley4 attributes the numerous misprints of the Speculum, to correct which
in the type would have involved the unthreading of every line in which an error
occurred. And as a still more striking proof that the lines were put into
the forme one by one, in a piece, he shows a curious printer's blunder at the end
of one page, where the whole of the last reference-line is put in upside down,
thus : —
Mot buas bespot slapente tnitt met butenta.
1 Origine de I 'Imprimerie, i, 40.
2 Mr. Blades points out that there are no overhanging letters in the specimen. The
necessity for such letters would be, we imagine, entirely obviated by the numerous combinations
with which the type of the printers of the school abounded. The body is almost always large
enough to carry ascending and descending sorts, and in width, a sort which would naturally
overhang, is invariably covered by its following letter cast on the same piece.
3 It is well known that until comparatively recently the large " proscription letters" of our
foundries, from three-line pica and upwards, were cast in sand. The practice died out at the
close of last century.
1 An Enquiry Concerning the Invention of Printing. London, 1863, 4to, p. 265.
The Types and Typefounding of the Frst Printers. 1 1
A " turn" of this magnitude could hardly have occurred if the letters had
been set in the forme type by type.
Another suggested mode is that of casting in clay moulds, by a method
very similar to that used in the sand process, and resulting in similar peculiarities
and variations in the types. Mr. Ottley, who is the chief exponent of this
theory, suggests that the types were made by pouring melted lead or other soft
metal, into moulds of earth or plaster, formed, while the earth or plaster was in
a moist state, upon letters cut by hand in wood or metal; in the ordinary
manner used from time immemorial in casting statues of bronze and other
articles of metal, whether for use or ornament. The mould thus formed could
not be of long duration ; indeed, it could scarcely avail for a second casting, as it
would be scarcely possible to extract the type after casting without breaking
the clay, and even if that could be done, the shrinking of the metal in cooling
would be apt to warp the mould beyond the possibility of further use.
Mr. Ottley thinks that the constant renewal of the moulds could be effected
by using old types cast out of them, after being touched up by the graver, as
models. And this he considers will account for the varieties observable in the
different letters.
In this last conjecture we think Mr. Ottley goes out of his way to suggest
an unnecessary difficulty. If, as he contends, the Speculum was printed two
pages at a time, with soft types cast by the clay process and renewed from time
to time by castings from fresh moulds formed upon the old letters touched up
by the graver, we should witness a gradual deterioration and attenuation
in the type, as the work progressed, which would leave the face of the letter,
at the end, unrecognisable as that with which it began. It would be more
reasonable to suppose that one set of models would be reserved for the
periodical renewal of the moulds all through the work, and that the variations
in the types would be due, not to the gradual paring of the faces of the models,
but to the different skill and exactness with which the successive moulds would
be taken.1
1 In a recent paper, read by the late Mr. Bradshaw of Cambridge, before the Library-
Association, he points out a curious shrinkage both as to face and body in the re-casting of the
types of the Mentz Psalter, necessary to complete the printing of that work. The shrinking
properties of clay and plaster are well known, and, assuming the new type to have been cast
in moulds of one of these substances formed upon a set of the original types, the uniform
contraction of body and face might be accounted for. If, on the other hand, we hold that
the types of this grand work were the product of the finished school of typographers, the
probability is that the new matrices (of the face of the letter only) were formed in clay, as
suggested at p. 15, and that the adjustable mould was either purposely or inadvertently
shifted in body to accommodate the new casting.
1 2 The Old English Letter Foundries.
The chief objection urged against both the clay and sand methods as
above described is their tediousness. The time occupied after the first
engraving of the models in forming, drying and clearing the mould, in casting,
extracting, touching up, and possibly perforating, the types would be little
short of the expeditious performance of a practised xylographer. Still there
would be a clear gain in the possession of a fount of movable types, which, even
if the metal in which they were cast were only soft lead or pewter, might yet do
duty in more than one forme, under a rough press, roughly handled. On the
xylographic block, moreover, only one hand, and that a skilled one, could labour.
Of the moulding and casting of these rude types, many hands could make
light work. M. Bernard states that the artist who produced for him the few sand-
cast types shown in his work, assured him that a workman could easily produce
a thousand of such letters a day. He also states that though each letter required
squaring after casting, there was no need in any instance to touch up the
faces. M. Bernard's experience may have been a specially fortunate one ; still,
making allowance for the superior workmanship and expedition of a modern
artist, it must be admitted that, in point of time, cost and utility, a printer who
succeeded in furnishing himself with these primitive cast types was as far ahead
of the old engraver as the discoverer of the adjustable mould was in his turn
ahead of him.1
There remains yet another suggestion as to the method in which the types
of the rude school were produced. This may be described as a system of what
the founders of sixty years ago called " polytype." Lambinet, who is responsible
for the suggestion, under cover of a new translation of Trithemius's wonderful
narrative, explains this to mean nothing less than an early adoption of stereotype.
He imagines2 that the first printers may have discovered a way of moulding a
page of some work — an Abecedarium — in cooling metal, so as to get a matrix-plate
impression of the whole page. Upon this matrix they would pour a liquid metal,
and by the aid of a roller or cylinder, press the fused matter evenly, so as to
penetrate into all the hollows and corners of the letters. This tablet of tin or
lead, being easily lifted and detached from the matrix, would then appear as a
surface of metal in which the letters of the alphabet stood out reversed and in
relief. These letters could easily be detached and rendered mobile by a knife or
other sharp instrument ; and the operation could be repeated a hundred times
a day. The metal faces so produced would be fixed on wooden shanks, type
high ; and the fount would then be complete.
1 In connection with the suggested primitive modes of casting, the patent of James
Thomson in 1831 (see Chap. xv,post), for casting by a very similar method, is interesting.
2 Origine de V Imprimerie. Paris, 1810, 2 vols., 8vo, i, 97.
The Types and Typefounding of the First Printers. 1 3
Such is Lambinet's hypothesis. Were it not for the fact that it was endorsed
by the authority of M. Firmin Didot, the renowned typefounder and printer of
Lambinet's day, we should hardly be disposed to admit its claim to serious
attention. The supposition that the Mentz Psalter, which these writers point to
as a specimen of this mode of execution, is the impression, not of type at all,
but of a collection of " casts" mounted on wood, is too fanciful. M. Didot, it
must be remembered, was the enthusiastic French improver of Stereotype, and
his enthusiasm appears to have led him to see in his method not only a
revolution in the art of printing as it existed in his day, but also a solution of
the mystery which had shrouded the early history of that art for upwards of
three centuries.
It may be well, before quitting this subject, to take note of a certain phrase
which has given rise to a considerable amount of conjecture and controversy in
connection with the early methods of typography. The expression " gettt e?i
molle" occurred as early as the year 1446, in a record kept by Jean le Robert of
Cambray, who stated that in January of that year he paid 20 sous for a printed
Doctrinale, "gett6 en molle." Bernard has assumed this expression to refer to the
use of types cast from a mould, and cites a large number of instances where,
being used in contradistinction to writing by hand, it is taken to signify
typography.1
Dr. Van der Linde,2 on the other hand, considers the term to mean, printed
from a wooden form, i.e., a xylographic production, and nothing more, quoting
similar instances of the use of the words to support his opinion ; and Dr. Van
Meurs, whose remarks are quoted in full in Mr. Hessel's introduction to Dr.
Van der Linde's Coster Legend,3 declines to apply the phrase to the methods
by which the Doctrinale was printed at all ; but dwelling on the distinction
drawn in various documents between " en molle" and " en papier," concludes that
the reference is to the binding of the book, and nothing more ; a bound book
being " brought together in a form or binding," while an unbound one is " in
paper."
1 Origine de VImprimerie, i, 99, etc. The following are the citations : — " Escriture en
molle" used in the letters of naturalisation to the first Paris printers, 1474. " Escrits en moule"
applied to two Horas in vellum, bought by the Duke of Orleans, 1496. " Mettre en molle"
applied to the printing of Savonarola's sermons, 1498. " Tant en parchemin qzie en papier,
a. la main et en molle" applied to the books in a library, 1498. " Mettre en molle" applied to
the printing of a book by Marchand, 1499. " En molle et a la main," applied to printed books
and manuscripts in the Duke of Bourbon's library, 1523. "Pieces officielles moulees par ordre
de V Assemblies Proces verbaux des Etats Gdneraux, 1593.
8 Coster Legend, p. 6.
3 Ibid., p. viii.
1 4 The Old English Letter Foundries.
It is difficult to reconcile these conflicting interpretations, to which may be
added as a fourth that of Mr. Skeen, who considers the phrase to refer to the
indented appearance of the paper of a book after being printed. In the three
last cases the expression is valueless as regards our present inquiry ; but if we
accept M. Bernard's interpretation, which seems at least to have the weight of
simplicity and reasonable testimony on its side, then it would be necessary to
conclude that type-casting, either by a primitive or a finished process (but having
regard to the date and the place, almost certainly the former), was practised in
Flanders prior to January 1446. None of the illustrations, however, which M.
Bernard cites points definitely to the use of cast type, but to printing in the
abstract, irrespective of method or process. " Mouses par ordre de l'Assemblee"
might equally well apply to a set of playing-cards or a broadside proclamation ;
"mettre en molle" does not necessarily mean anything more than put into
" print" ; while the recurring expressions " en molle" and " a la main," point to
nothing beyond the general distinction between manuscript and printed matter. In
fact, the lack of definiteness in all the quotations given by M. Bernard weakens his
own argument : for if we are to translate the word moutt throughout in the
narrow sense in which he reads it, -we must then believe that in every instance he
cites, figurative language was employed where conventional would have answered
equally well, and that the natural antithesis to the general term, " by hand," must
in all cases be assumed to be the particular term, " printed in cast metal types."
For ourselves, we see no justification for taxing the phrase beyond its broad
interpretation of " print'5 ; and in this light it appears possible to reconcile most
of the conjectures to which the words have given rise.
Turning now from the conjectured primitive processes of the ruder school
of early Typography, we come to consider the practice of that more mature school
which, as has already been said, appears to have arrived at once at the secret of
the punch, matrix and adjustable mould. We should be loth to assert that they
arrived at once at the most perfect mechanism of these appliances ; indeed, an
examination of the earliest productions of the Mentz press, beautiful as they are,
convinces one that the first printers were not finished typefounders. But even if
their first punches were wood or copper, their first matrices lead, and their first
mould no more than a clumsy adaptation of the composing-stick, they yet had
the secret of the art ; to perfect it was a mere matter of time.
Experiments have proved conclusively that the face of a wood-cut type
may be without injury impressed into lead in a state of semi-fusion, and thus
produce in creux an inverted image of itself in the matrix. It has also been
shown that a lead matrix so formed is capable, after being squared and justified,
The Types and Typefounding of the First Printers. 1 5
of being adapted to a mould, and producing a certain number of types in soft
lead or pewter before yielding to the heat of the operation.1 It has also been
demonstrated that similar matrices formed in clay or plaster, by the application
of the wood or metal models2 while the substance is moist, are capable of similar
use.
Dr. Franklin, in a well-known passage of his Autobiography, gives the
following account of his experiences as a casual letter-founder in 1 727. "Our press,"
he says, "was frequently in want of the necessary quantity of letter; and there
was no such trade as that of letter-founder in America. I had seen the practice
of this art at the house of James, in London; but had at the time paid it
very little attention. I, however, contrived to fabricate a mould. I made use of
such letters as we had for punches, founded new letters of lead in matrices
of clay, and thus supplied in a tolerable manner the wants that were most
pressing."3 M. Bernard states that in his day the Chinese characters in the
Imperial printing-office in Paris were cast by a somewhat similar process. The
original wooden letters were moulded in plaster. Into the plaster mould types of
a hard metal were cast, and these hard-metal types served as punches to strike
matrices with in a softer metal.4
In the Enschede" foundry at Haarlem there exists to this day a set
of matrices said to be nearly four hundred years old, which are described
as leaden matrices from punches of copper, " suivant l'habitude des anciens
fondeurs dans les premiers temps apres l'invention de l'imprimerie."5 By
1 A calculation given in the Magazin EncyclopMique of 1806, i, 299, shows that
from such matrices 120 to 150 letters can be cast before they are rendered useless, and
from 50 to 60 letters before any marked deterioration is apparent in the fine strokes of the
types.
2 Several writers account for the alleged perforated wooden and' metal types reputed to
have been used by the first printers, and described by Specklin, Pater, Roccha and others, by
supposing that they were model types used for forming matrices, and threaded together for
safety and convenience of storage.
8 Works of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, consisting of his Life, written by himself in
2 vols. London, 1793, 8vo, i, 143. It is a very singular fact that in a later corrected edition
of the same work, edited by John Bigelow, and published in Philadelphia in 1875, the passage
above quoted reads as follows : " I contrived a mould, made use of the letters we had as
puncheons, struck the matrices in lead, and thus supplied in a pretty tolerable way all
deficiencies." Whichever reading be correct, the illustration is apt, as proving the possibility
of producing type from matrices either of clay or lead in a makeshift mould.
4 Origine de V Imprimerie, i, 144.
6 From this method of forming the matrices (says a note to the Enschede' specimen)
has arisen the name Chalcographia, which Bergellanus, among others, applies to printing.
1 6 The Old English Letter Foundries.
the kindness of Messrs. Enschede, we are able to show a few letters from types
cast in these venerable matrices.
ABCD
i. Types cast from leaden matrices (eirc. 1500?) now in the Enschede foundry, Haarlem.
Lead matrices are frequently mentioned as having been in regular use in
some of the early foundries of this country. A set of them in four-line pica
was sold at the breaking up of James's foundry in 1782, and in the oldest of the
existing foundries to this day may be found relics of the same practice.
At Lubeck, Smith informs us in 1755,1 a printer cast for his own use, " not
only large-sized letters for titles, but also a sufficient quantity of two-lined
English, after a peculiar manner, by cutting his punches on wood, and sinking
them afterwards into leaden matrices ; yet were the letters cast in them deeper
than the French generally are."
When, therefore, the printer of the Catholicon, in 1460, says of his book,
"non calami styli aut pennse suffragio, sed mira patronarum formarumque
concordia proportione ac modulo impressus atque confectus est," we have not
necessarily to conclude that the types were produced in the modern way from
copper matrices struck by steel punches. Indeed, probability seems to point to
a gradual progress in the durability of the materials employed. In the first
instance, the punches may have been of wood, and the matrices soft lead
or clay2; then the attempt might be made to strike hard lead into soft ; that
failing, copper punches3 might be used to form leaden matrices ; then, when the
necessity for a more durable substance than lead for the letter became urgent,
copper would be used for the matrix, and brass, and finally steel, for the punch.
Of whatever substance the matrices were made, the first printers appear early
to have mastered the art of justifying them, so that when cast in the mould
they should not only stand, each letter true in itself, but all true to one another.
Nothing amazes one more in examining these earliest printed works than
the wonderful regularity of the type in body, height, and line ; and if anything
could be considered as evidence that those types were produced from matrices in
1 Printer's Grammar. Lond., 1755, p. 10.
2 It has been suggested by some that wood could be struck into lead or pewter ; but the
possibility of producing a successful matrix in this manner is, we consider, out of the question.
In 18 16 Robert Clayton proposed to cast types in metal out of wooden matrices punched
in wood with a cross grain, which has been previously slightly charred or baked.
3 In the specimen of " Ancienne Typographic of the Imprimerie Royale of Paris, 1819,
several of the old oriental founts are thus noted : " les poincons sont en cuivre."
The Types and Typefounding of the First Printers. 1 7
moulds, and not by the rude method of casting from matrices which
comprehended body and face in the same moulding, this feature alone is
conclusive. We may go further, and assert that not only must the matrices
have been harmoniously justified, but the mould employed, whatever its form,
must have had its adjustable parts finished with a near approach to mathe-
matical accuracy, which left little to be accomplished in the way of further
improvement.
Respecting this mould we have scarcely more material for conjecture than
with regard to the first punches and matrices. The principle of the bipartite
mould was, of course, well known already. The importance of absolute
squareness in the body and height of the type would demand an appliance
of greater precision than the uncertain hollowed cube of sand or clay ; the heat
of the molten lead would point to the use of a hard metal like iron or steel ;
and the varying widths of the sunk letters in the matrices would suggest the
adoption of some system of slides whereby the mould could be expanded or
contracted laterally, without prejudice to the invariable regularity of its body
and height. By what crude methods the first typefounder contrived to combine
these essential qualities, we have no means of judging1 ; but were they ever so
crude, to him is due the honour of the culminating achievement of the invention
of typography. "His type mould," Mr. De Vinne remarks, "was not merely
the first ; it is the only practical mechanism for making types. For more than
four hundred years this mould has been under critical examination, and many
1 In the 2nd edition of Isaiah Thomas' History of Printing in America, Albany, 1874,
i, 288, an anecdote is given of Peter Miller, the German who printed at Ephrata in the United
States in 1749, which we think is suggestive of the possible expedients of the first printers with
regard to the mould. During the time that a certain work of Miller was in the press, says
Francis Bailey, a former apprentice of Miller's, "particular sorts of the fonts of type on which
it was printed ran short. To overcome this difficulty, one of the workmen constructed a
mold that could be moved so as to suit the body of any type not smaller than brevier nor larger
than double-pica. The mold consisted of four quadrangular pieces of brass, two of them with
mortices to shift to a suitable body, and secured by screws. The best type they could select
from the sort wanted was then placed in the mold, and after a slight corrosion of the surface
of the letter with aquafortis to prevent soldering or adhesion, a leaden matrix was cast on the
face of the type, from which, after a slight stroke of a hammer on the type in the matrix, we
cast the letters which were wanted. Types thus cast answer tolerably well. I have often
adopted a method somewhat like this to obtain sorts which were short ; but instead of
four pieces of brass, made use of an even and accurate composing-stick, and one piece of iron
or copper having an even surface on the sides ; and instead of a leaden matrix, have substituted
one of clay, especially for letters with a bold face." De Vinne describes an old mould
preserved among the relics in Bruce's foundry at New York, composed (with the matrix)
of four pieces, and adjustable both as to body and thickness. Bernard also mentions a
similar mould in use in 1853.
D
1 8 The Old English Letter Foundries.
attempts have been made to supplant it. . . . But in principle, and in all
the more important features, the modern mould may be regarded as the mould
of Gutenberg."
It may be asked, if the matrices were so truly justified, and the mould so
accurately adjusted, how comes it that in the first books of these Mentz
printers we still discover irregularites among the letters — fewer, indeed, but of the
same kind as are to be found in books printed by the artists of the ruder school ?
To this we reply, that these irregularities are for the most part attributable
neither to varieties in the original models, nor to defects in the matrix or the
mould, but to the worn or unworn condition of the type, and to the skill or want
of skill of the caster. Anyone versed in the practice of type-casting in hand-
moulds, is aware that the manual exercise of casting a type is peculiar and
difficult. With the same mould and the same matrix, one clever workman may
turn out nineteen perfect types out of twenty ; while a clumsy caster will scarcely
mmnmtmm
mmmiumitttniftitt /tt f« ffl
2. Specimens illustrating the variations in the face of type produced by bad casting.
succeed in producing a single perfect type out of the number. Different letters
require different contortions to " coax" the metal into all the interstices of the
matrix ; and it is quite possible for the same workman to vary so in his work
as to be as " lucky" one day as he is unprofitable the next. In modern times,
of course, none but the perfect types ever find their way into the printer's hands,
but in the early days, when, with a perishable matrix, every type cast was of
consequence, the censorship would be less severe,1 and types would be allowed to
1 A curious instance of this occurs in the battered text of the De Laudibus Marice, shown
at p. 24, where the rubricator has added his red dashes to capital letters at the beginning,
middle and end of a palpably illegible passage.
The Types and Type founding of the First Printers.
19
pass into use which differed as much from their original model as they did from
one another. Let any inexperienced reader attempt to cast twenty Black-letter
types from one mould and matrix, and let him take a proof of the types
so produced in juxtaposition. The result of such an experiment would lead
him to cease once and for all to wonder at irregularities observable in the
Gutenberg Bible, or the Mentz Psalter, or the Catholicon.
With regard to the metal in which the earliest types were cast, we have
more or less information afforded us in the colophons and statements of the
printers themselves ; although it must be borne in mind that the figurative
language in which these artists were wont to describe their own labours is apt
occasionally to lead to confusion, as to whether the expressions used refer to the
punch, the matrix, or the cast types. We meet almost promiscuously with
the terms, — " sere notas," " aeneis formulis," " chalcographos," " stanneis typis,"
" stanneis formulis," " ahenis formis," " tabulis ahenis," " aere legere," " notas de
duro orichalco," etc. We look in vain for " plumbum," the metal one would
most naturally expect to find mentioned. The word ces, though strictly
meaning bronze, is undoubtedly to be taken in its wider sense, already familiar
in the fifteenth century, of metal in the abstract, and to include, at least, the
lead, tin, or pewter in which the types were almost certainly cast. The
reference to copper and bronze might either apply to the early punches or the
later matrices ; but in no case is it probable that types were cast in either
metal.
Padre Fineschi gives an interesting extract from the cost-book of the
Ripoli press, about 1480,1 by which it appears that steel, brass, copper, tin,
lead, and iron wire were all used in the manufacture of types at that period ;
the first two probably for the mould, the steel also for the punches, the copper
for the matrices, the lead and tin for the types, and the iron wire for the mould,
and possibly for stringing together the perforated type-models.
It is probable that an alloy was early introduced ; first by the addition to the
lead of tin and iron, and then gradually improved upon, till the discovery of
1 Notizie storiche sopra la Stamperia di Ripoli.
riguardanti la Getteria {letter foundry).
Firenze, 1781, p. 49. Prezzi de' generi
Acciaio .
. (steel) . . liv.
2
8
0
Metallo .
(type-metal ?) „
0
11
0
Ottone .
(brass) . „
0
12
0
Rame
(copper) . „
0
6
8
Stagno .
(tin) . . „
0
8
0
Piombo . .
(lead) . . „
0
2
4
Filo di ferrc
(iron wire) „
0
8
0
la lib.
( = 9
( = 2
( = 2
( = o
( = l
d.
o per lb,
0%
3
3
6
S%
6
20 The Old English Letter Foundries.
'&'
antimony at the end of the fifteenth century1 supplied the ingredient requisite
to render the types at once tough and sharp enough for the ordeal of the press.
There is little doubt that at some time or other every known metal was tried
experimentally in the mixture ; but, from the earliest days of letter-casting,
lead and tin have always been recognised as the staple ingredients of the
alloy ; the hard substance being usually either iron, bismuth, or antimony.
Turning now from type-casting appliances to the early types themselves,
we are enabled, thanks to one or two recent discoveries, to form a tolerably
good idea as to their appearance and peculiarities. We have already stated
that, with regard to the traditional perforated wooden types seen by certain old
writers, the probability is that, if these were the genuine relics they professed to
be, they were model types used for forming moulds upon, or for impressing into
matrices of moist clay or soft lead. We have also considered it possible, in
regard to types cast in the primitive sand or clay moulds of the rude school, that
to overcome the difficulties incident to irregular height to paper, uneven bodies,
and loose locking-up, the expedient may have been attempted of perforating
the types and passing a thread or wire through each line, to hold the intractable
letters in their place.
This, however, is mere conjecture, and whether such types existed or not
none of them have survived to our day. Their possessors, as they slowly
discovered the secret of the punch, matrix and mould, would show little venera-
tion, we imagine, for these clumsy relics of their ignorance, and value them only
as old lead, to be remelted and recast by the newer and better method.
But though no relic of these primitive cast types remains, we are happily
not without means for forming a judgment respecting some of the earliest types
of the more finished school of printers. In 1878, in the bed of the river Saone,
near Lyons,2 opposite the site of one of the famous fifteenth century printing-
houses of that city, a number of old types were discovered which there seems
reason to believe belonged once to one of those presses, and were used by the
early printers of Lyons. They came into the hands of M. Claudin of Paris,
1 It would be more correct to say the discovery of the properties of antimony, which
were first described by Basil Valentin about the end of the 15th century, in a treatise entitled
Ctirrus triumfthalis Antimonii.
2 Printing was practised at Lyons in 1473, three years only later than at Paris. From the
year 1476 the art extended rapidly in the city. Panzer mentions some 250 works printed here
during the 15th century by nearly forty printers, among whom was Badius Ascensius. The
earlier Lyons printers are supposed to have had their type from Basle, and their city shortly
became a depot for the supply of type to the printers of Southern France and Spain.
The Types and Typefoitnding of the First Printers.
21
the distinguished typographical antiquary, who, after careful examination and
inquiry, has satisfied himself as to their antiquity and value as genuine relics of
the infancy of the art of printing.
It has been our good fortune, by the kindness of M. Claudin, to have an
opportunity of inspecting these precious relics. The following outline profile-
sketches will give a good idea of the various forms and sizes represented in
the collection. There is little doubt that they were all cast in a mould. The
metal used is lead, slightly alloyed with some harder substance, which in the
case of a few of the types seems to be iron. The chief point which strikes the
observer is the variety in the " height to paper" of the different founts. Taking
the six specimens shown in the illustration, it will be seen that no two of the
r^\
rs
r-\
r\
2 .
3 .
&
4,
types correspond in this particular. No. 4 corresponds as nearly as possible
to our English standard height. No. 3 is considerably lower than an ordinary
space height. No. 2 approaches some of the continental heights still to be met
with, while Nos. 1, 5, and 6 are higher than any known standard. It is easy to
imagine that an early printer who cast his own types would trouble himself
very little as to the heights of his neighbours' and rivals' moulds, so that in a
city like Lyons there might have been as many " heights to paper" as there
were printers. It is even possible that a printer using one style and size of
letter exclusively for one description of work, and another size and style for another
description, might not be particular to assimilate the heights in his own office ;
and so, foreshadowing the improvidence of some of his modern followers, lay in
founts of letter which would not work with any other, but which, as time went
on, could hardly be dispensed with. Then/when the days of the itinerant
typesellers and the type-markets began, he might still further add to his
" heights" by the purchase of a German fount from one merchant, a Dutch from
another, and so on.
The type No. 3, though lower than all the rest, has yet a letter upon its
22 The Old English Letter Foundries.
end. But it seems likely that the old printers cut down their worn-out letters
for spaces, not by ploughing off the face, but by shortening the type at the
foot. So that No. 3 (presuming the bodies to have corresponded) might stand
as a space to No. 4, or No. 4 to No. 1. At the same time, the collection
includes a good number of plain spaces and quadrats (the latter generally
about a square body), which may either have been cast as they now appear, or
be old letters of which the face and shoulder have been cut off.
The small hole appearing in the side of type No. 4 is a perforation, and the
collection contains several types, both letters and spaces, having the same
peculiarity. Whether this hole was formed at the time of or after casting ; whether
the letters so perforated were originally model-types only, or types in actual use ;
whether the hole was intended for a thread or wire to hold the letters in their
places during impression ; or whether, for want of a type-case, it was used for
stringing the types together for safety when not in use, it is as easy to conjecture
as it is impossible to determine. The perforated types which we examined certainly
did not appear to be older, and in most cases appeared less old than those not
perforated, — the outline of type No. 4 itself shows it to be fairer and squarer
than any of its companions.
Another peculiarity to be noted is the " shamfer," or cutting away of one
of the corners of the feet of types 2, 5, and 6. This appears to have been
intentional, and may have served the same purpose as our nick, to guide the
compositor in setting. None of the types have a nick, and types 1 and 3 have
no distinguishing mark whatever. The two small indentations in the side of
type 2 are air-holes produced in the casting.
With regard to the faces of the types, there are traces in most of the letters
of the " shoulders" of the body having been tapered off by a knife or graver
after casting, so as to leave the letter quite clear on the body. In most cases
the letter stands in the centre of the body, which is, as a rule, larger than
the size of the character actually requires. In point of thickness, however, the
old printers appear to have been very sparing ; and a great many of the letters,
though possessing ample room " body-way," actually overhang the sides, and
are what we should style in modern terminology "kerned" letters. The
difficulty, however, which would be experienced by printers to-day with these
overhanging sorts, was obviated to a large extent in the case of the old printers
by the numerous ligatures, contractions, and double letters with which their
founts abounded, and which gave almost all the combinations in which an over-
hanging letter would be likely to clash with its neighbour.
One last peculiarity to be observed is the absence of what is known as the
" break" at the foot of the type. The contrivance in the mould whereby the
The Types and Typefounding of the First Printers.
23
foot of the type is cast square, and the " jet," or superfluous metal left by the
casting, is attached, not to the whole of the foot, but to a narrow ridge across the
centre, from which it is easily detached, was probably unknown to the fifteenth
century typefounders. Their types appear to have come out of the mould with
a " jet" attaching to the entire foot, from which it could only be detached by a
saw or cutter. The " shamfer" already pointed out in types 2, 5, 6, if produced in
the mould^may indicate an early attempt to reduce the size of the jet, which, if
attaching to the entire square of the foot of a type the size of No. 2, would involve
both time and labour in removal. M. Duverger, in his clever essay to the
invention of printing,1 gives an illustration of the manner in which he imagines
the old types would be detached from their jets ; and considers that in the three
points only of the want of a breaking " jet," the want of a spring to hold the
3. Type Mould of Claude Garamond. Paris, 1340. (From Duverger.)
a. The " body" in which the type is cast
b, c. The "jet," or mouthpiece, in which the fluid metal is poured.
d. The type as cast.
matrix to the mould, and the absence of a nick, the mould of the first printer
differed essentially from that of the printer of his day.
Such are some of the chief points of interest to be observed in these vener-
able relics of the old typographers. It is to be hoped that M. Claudin may
before long favour the world with a full and detailed account of their many
peculiarities. Yet, curious as they are, they prove that the types of the fifteenth
century differed in no essential particular from those of the nineteenth. Ruder
and rougher, and less durable they might be, but in substance and form, and in
the mechanical principles of their manufacture, they claim kinship with the
newest types of our most modern foundry.
1 Histoire de V Invention de V Imprimerie par les Monuments. Paris, 1840, fol., p. 12.
24 The Old English Letter Foundries.
The old Lyonnaise relics are not the only guide we have as to the form and
nature of the fifteenth century types.
M. Madden, in 1875, made a most valuable discovery in a book printed by
Conrad Hamborch, at Cologne, in 1476, and entitled La Lhpre Morale, by John
Nider, of the accidental impression of a type, pulled up from its place in the
course of printing by the ink-ball, and laid at length upon the face of the forme,
thus leaving its exact profile indented upon the page. We reproduce in fac-
simile M. Madden's illustration of this type, which accompanies his own
interesting letter on the subject.1
in fequentibs fed bufarat autentico^ tr/ac
l»tiflimrismfit]naliumtocl'aemn(??ai \®U
p?oiiu0\ctt>aftatimfcquuntecbat>v\ \
5. From M. Madden's Lettres d'un Billiographe. Ser. iv, p. 231.
A similar discovery, equally valuable and interesting, was made not many
months ago by the late Mr. Henry Bradshaw, of Cambridge, in a copy of a work
entitled De Laitdibus Gloriosce Virginis Maries, sine notd, but printed probably
ft! qui mnttte iklxfA gdfoit *l*is em* «mt rmb adfprte? m (i fa
pm gratia grams t q?*e ** * p Jicnetaijiwi *gimcafi&
twos no c pbi bi4«u U^s^^^^ &*n6ntni ofttftii vtuiis
Ho&da * Ige esgo time&s inat&ura: mifstfa ^6 angel? a& te w
6. From Liber de Laitdibus ac Festis Gloriosa Virginis. Cologne (?), 1468 (?). Fol. 4 verso. (From the original.)
about 1468 at Cologne.2 We are indebted to Mr. Bradshaw for the present oppor-
tunity of presenting for the first time the annexed facsimile of this curious relic,
1 Lettres d'un Bibliographe. Paris, 1875, 8vo, Ser. iv, letter 16.
2 Begins " Incipit Liber de Laudibtts ac Festis Gloriose Virginis Matris Marie alias
Marionale Dictus per Doctores eximeos editus et compilatus" ; at end, " Explicit Petrns
Damasceni de laudibus gloriose Virginis Marie." The book is mentioned in Hain, 5918. The
drawn-up type occurs on the top of folio b 4 verso.
The Types and Typefonnding of the First Printers. 25
photographed direct from the page on which it occurs.1 These two impressions are
particularly interesting in the light of the old Lyonnaise types still in exist-
ence. Like them, it will be seen they are without nick, and tapered off at
the face. They are also without the jet-break. The height of both types (which
is identical) is above the English standard, and more nearly approaches that of
No. 2 of the Lyons letters ; and M. Madden points out as remarkable that this
height (24 millimetres) is exactly that fixed as the standard " height to paper"
by the " r^glement de la libraire" of 1723. The body of the types (assuming
the letter to be laid sideways, of which there can be little doubt) is about the
modern English, and so corresponds exactly to the body of the text on which
it lies.
The chief point of interest, however, is in the small circle appearing in
both near the top, which M. Madden (as regards the type of the Nider) thus
explains : " This circle, the contour of which is exactly formed, shows that the
letter was pierced laterally by a circular hole. This hole did not penetrate the
whole thickness of the letter, and served, like the nick of our days, to enable the
compositor to tell by touch which way to set the letter in his stick, so as to be
right in the printed page. If the letter had been laid on its other side, the
existence of this little circle would have been lost to us for ever." It would,
however, be quite possible for a perforated type, with the end of the hole
slightly clogged with ink, to present precisely the same appearance as this, which
M. Madden concludes was only slightly pierced ; and were it not for the fact
that the pulling-up of the letter from the forme is itself evidence that the line
could not have been threaded, we should hesitate to affirm that either of the
types shown was not perforated. The sharp edge of the circumference in the
type of the De laudibus, leaving, as it does, in the original page, a clearly em-
bossed circle in the paper, makes it evident that the depression was not the result
of a mere flaw in the casting, although it is possible (as we have satisfied our-
selves by experiment) for the surface of the side of a roughly-cast type to be
depressed by air-holes, some of which assume a circular form, and may even
perforate a thin type. Indeed, at the present day it is next to impossible to cast
by hand a type which is not a little sunk on some part of its sides ; and this
roughness of surface we can imagine to have been far more apparent on the types
1 It will be understood that in each case the outline of the types being merely a depressed
edge in the original, the black outline of the facsimiles represents shadow only, and not, as
might appear at first glance, inked surface. M. Madden's facsimile is apparently drawn. In
the photograph facsimile of the " De latidibus1' type, the distribution of black represents the
distribution of shadow caused by the somewhat uneven or tilted indentation of the side of the
type in the paper.
E
26 The Old English Letter Foundries.
cast by the earliest printers. We doubt, therefore, whether, in types liable to
these accidental depressions of surface, a small artificial hole thus easily
simulated would be of any service as a guide to the compositor. A more
probable explanation of the appearance seems to be that the head of a small
screw or pin, used to fix the side-piece of the mould, projecting slightly on the
surface of the piece it fixed, left its mark on the side of the types as they were
cast, and thus caused the circular depression observable in the illustrations.1
Before leaving this subject it may be remarked that the clear impression of
the printed matter, despite the laid-on types, which must in either case have been
a thin sort, is strong evidence of the softness of the metal in which the fount
was cast. The press appears to have crushed the truant types down into the
letters on which it lay, and, unimpeded by the obstacle, to have taken as good an
impression of the remainder of the forme as if that obstacle had never existed.
The quantity of type with which the earliest printers found it necessary
to provide themselves, turns, of course, upon the question, did the first printers
print only one page at a time, or more ? M. Bernard considers that the
Gutenberg Bible, which is usually collated in sections of five sheets, or twenty
pages, containing about 2,688 types in a page, would require 60,000 types
to print a single section ; and if sufficient type was cast to enable the
compositors to set one section while another was being worked, the fount
would need to consist of 120,000 letters. Others consider that two pages,
requiring, in the case of the Gutenberg Bible, only 6,000 types, were printed at
one time. But even this estimate has been shown to be opposed to the
evidence afforded by a considerable number of the incunabula, respecting which
it is evident only one page was printed at a time. On this point we cannot do
better than quote the words of Mr. Blades. " The scribe," he says, " necessarily
wrote but one page at a time, and, curiously enough, the early printers here
also assimilated their practice. Whether from want of sufficient type to set up
the requisite number of pages, or from the limited capability of the presses,
there is strong evidence of the early books from Caxton's press having been
printed page by page Instances are found of pages on the same side
of the sheet being out of parallel, which could not occur if two pages were
printed together. ... A positive proof of the separate printing of the pages
may be seen in a copy of the Recuyell of the Histories of Troye, in the Bodleian ;
1 Such projections or "drags" in the mould are not unknown in modern typefounding,
where they are purposely inserted so as to leave the newly cast type, on the opening of the
mould, always adhering to one particular side.
The Types and Typefounding of the First Printers. 2 7
for the ninth recto of the third quaternion has never been printed at all,
while the second verso (the page which must fall on the same side of the sheet)
appears properly printed."1
What is true of Caxton's early works is also true of a large number of other
fifteenth century printed books. Mr. Hesscls, after quoting the testimony
of Mr. Bradshaw of Cambridge, and Mr. Winter Jones of the British Museum,
refers to a large number of incunabula in which he has found evidence that
this mode of printing was the common practice of the early typographers.2
Assuming, then, that the first books were generally printed page by page, it
will be seen that the stock of type necessary to enable the printer to proceed was
but small. 2,700 letters would suffice for one page of the forty-two-line Bible;
and for the Rationale Durandi, about 5,000 would be required. It is probable,
however, that, as Bernard suggests, the printers would cast enough to enable one
forme to be composed while the other was working, so that double these
quantities would possibly be provided. Nor must it be forgotten that a
" fount" of type in these days consisted not only of the ordinary letters of the
alphabet, but of a very large number of double letters, abbreviations and
contractions, which must have seriously complicated the labour of composition,
as well as reduced the individual number of each type required to fill the type-
founder's " bill." This feature, doubtless attributable to the attempt on the part of
the early printers to imitate manuscript as closely as possible, as well as to the
exigencies of justification in composition, which, in the absence of a variety of
spaces, required various widths in the letters themselves, was common to both
schools of early typography. M. Bernard states that, in the type of the forty-
two-line Bible, each letter required at least three or four varieties ; while with
regard to Caxton's type 1, which was designed and cast by Colard Mansion at
Bruges, before 1472, Mr. Blades points out that the fount contained upwards of 1 53
sorts, and that there were only five letters of which there were not more than one
matrix, either as single letters or in combination. Speaking of the Speculum,
Mr. Skeen counts 1,430 types on one page, of which 22 are a, 61 e, 91 i, 73 0,
37 u, 22 d, 14 h, 30 m, 50 n, 42 s, and 41 t ; besides which there are no less than
ninety duplicate and triplicate characters, comprising one variation of a, 15 of c,
7 of d, 3 of e, 9 of f, 10 of g, 3 of i, 7 of /, 2 of 0, 3 of 11, 2 of p, 10 of r, 9 of s,
9 of t, varying in the frequency of their occurrence from once to eleven times,
leaving but 541 other letters for the rest of the alphabet, including the capitals ;
1 Life of Caxton, i, 39. Later on (p 52), Mr. Blades points out, as an argument against
the supposed typographical connection between Caxton and Zel of Cologne, that the latter, from
an early period, printed two pages at a time.
2 Haarlem Legend, p. xxiii.
28 The Old English Letter Foundries.
and of these last, from three to twenty would be the utmost of each required.
Altogether, calculating 138 matrices {i.e., two alphabets of twenty-four letters
each, and ninety double and treble letters) to be the least number of matrices
required to make a complete fount,1 the highest number of types of any
one particular sort necessary to print a single page would be ninety-one. The
average number of the eleven chief letters specified above would be about forty-
four, while if we take into calculation the minor letters of the alphabet and the
double letters, this average would be reduced to little more than ten. It will
thus be seen that the founts of the earliest printers consisted of a small quantity
each of a large variety of sorts. Mr. Astle, in his chapter on the Origin
and Progress of Printing,2 is, we believe, the only writer who has dwelt
upon the difficulty which the first letter-founders would be likely to encounter in
the arrangement of their " bill." This venerable compilation was, he considers,
made in the fifteenth century, probably by the ordinary method of casting-off
copy. If so, it must have experienced considerable and frequent change
during the time that the ligatures were falling into disuse, and until the printer's
alphabet had reduced itself to its present limits.
Of the face of type used by the earliest printers we shall have occasion to
speak later on. Respecting the development of letter-founding as an industry,
there is little that can be gathered in the history of the fifteenth century. At
first the art of the inventor was a mystery divulged to none. But the sack of
Mentz, in 1462, and the consequent dispersion of Gutenberg's disciples, spread
the secret broadcast over Europe. Italy, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands,
Spain, England, in turn learned it, and after their fashion improved it. Italy,
especially, guided by the master-hands of her early artists, brought it to rapid
perfection. The migrations of Gutenberg's types among the early presses of
Bamberg, Eltville, and elsewhere, have led to the surmise that he may have sold
matrices of his letter.3 In 1468, Schoeffer put forward what may be considered
the first advertisement in the annals of typography. " Every nation," he says, in
1 Mr. Skeen {Early Typography^ p. 299) speaks of 300 matrices as constituting a com-
plete fount ; he appears accidentally, in calculating for two pages instead of one, to have
assumed that a double number of matrices would be requisite for the double quantity of type.
2 Origin and Progress of Writing. London, 1803. 4:0. Chapter ix.
3 The cost-book of the Ripoli press contains several entries pointing to an early trade
in type and matrices. In 1477 the directors paid ten florins of gold to one John of Mentz,
for a set of Roman matrices. At another time they paid no livres for two founts of Roman
and one of Gothic : and further, purchased of the goldsmith, Banco of Florence, 100 little
initials, three large initials, three copper vignettes, and the copper for an entire set of Greek
matrices.
The Types and Typefounding of the First Printers. 29
the colophon to Justinian's Institutes, "can now procure its own kind of letters,
for he (i.e., Schoeffer himself) excels with all-prevailing pencil" (i.e., in designing
and engraving all kinds of type).3 For the most part printers were their own
founders, and each printer had his own types. But type depots and markets, and
the wanderings of the itinerant typographers, as the demands of printing yearly
increased, brought the founts of various presses and nations to various centres, and
thus gave the first impulse to that gradual divorce between printing and type-
founding which in the following century left the latter the distinct industry it
still remains.
Such is a brief outline of the chief facts and opinions regarding the pro-
cesses, appliances and practices of the earliest typefounders. It may be said
that, after all, we know very little about the matter. The facts are very few, and
the conjectures, in many instances, so contradictory, that it is impossible to
erect a "system," or draw any but general conclusions. These conclusions we
very briefly summarise as follows.
Accepting as a fundamental principle that the essence of typography is in
the mobility of the types, we dismiss, as beyond the scope of our inquiry, the
xylographic works which preceded typography. Passing in review the alleged
stepping-stones between the two arts, we fail to see in the evidence adduced as to the
use of movable wooden perforated types anything to justify the conclusion that
the earliest printers printed books by their means. Such types may have been
cut experimentally, but the practical impossibility of cutting them square
enough to be composed in a forme, and of producing a work of the size and cha-
racter of the Specidum, is fatal to their claims. With regard to the sculpto-fusi
types — types engraved on cast-metal bodies — the evidence in their favour is of
the most unsatisfactory character, and, coupled with the practical difficulties of
their production, reduces their claims to a minimum. The marked difference of
style and excellence in the typography of certain of the earliest books leads us
to accept the theory that two schools of typography existed side by side in the
infancy of the art — one a rude school, which, not having the secret of the more
perfect appliances of the inventors, cast its letters by some primitive method,
probably using moulds of sand or clay, in which the entire type had been
moulded. Such types may have been perforated and held together in lines by a
wire. The suggestion that the earliest types were produced by a system of
polytype, and that the face of each letter, sawn off a plate resembling a stereo-
1 " Natio quaeque suum poterit reperire caragma
Secum nempe stilo praeminet omnigeno."
30 The Old English Letter Foundries.
type-plate, was separately mounted on loose wooden shanks, we dismiss as purely
fanciful.
Turning now to the processes adopted by the typographers of the
more advanced school, we consider that in the first instance, although grasp-
ing the principle of the punch, the matrix and the adaptable mould, they
may have made use of inferior appliances — possibly by forming their matrices
in lead from wooden or leaden punches or models — advancing thence by
degrees to the use of steel punches, copper matrices, and the bipartite iron
mould. We hold that the variations observable in the early works of this
school are due mainly to uneven casting and wear and tear of the types. As
to the metal in which the type was cast, we find mention made of almost
every metal, several of which, however, refer to the punches and matrices,
leaving tin, lead, and antimony as the staple ingredients of the type-metal. Of
the types themselves, we find these in most essential particulars to be the same
as those cast at a later date. We see, however, evidence of perforated, mould-
cast type, and, in the absence of a nick, a " shamfer" at the foot, from which the
jet appears to have been sawn or cut, instead of being broken. We remark a
great irregularity in the heights of different founts, the average of which height is
beyond any modern English standard. The accidental impression of a type in
two early German books, proves that about the year 1476 types were made
differing only in the two points of the want of a nick and the want of a jet-break
from the types of to-day. The quantity of types required by the earliest printers,
we consider, would be small, since they appear in most instances to have printed
only one page at a time ; but the number of different sorts going to make up
a fount would be very considerable, by reason of the numerous contractions,
double letters and abbreviations used.
Finally, we consider that the art of letter-founding rapidly reached maturity
after the general diffusion of printing consequent on the sack of Mentz ; and
that when the writer of the Cologne Chronicle, in the last year of the 15th century,
spoke of " the art as now generally used," he spoke of an art which, at the close
of the 19th century, has been able to improve in no essential principle on the
processes first made use of by the great inventors of Typography.
CHAPTER I,
— J=s3-©sS-8s4—
THE ENGLISH TYPE BODIES AND FACES.
E have laid before the reader, in the Introductory Chapter,
such facts and conjectures as it is possible to gather
together respecting the processes and appliances adopted
by the first letter-founders, and shall, with a view to render
the particular history of the English Letter Foundries
more intelligible, endeavour to present here, in as concise
a form as possible, a short historical sketch of the English
type bodies and faces, tracing particularly the rise and
development of the Roman, Italic, and Black letters before and subsequent to
their introduction into this country ; adding, in a following chapter, a similar
notice of the types of the principal foreign and learned languages which have
figured conspicuously in English typography.
TYPE-BODIES.
The origin of type-bodies and the nomenclature which has grown around
them, is a branch of typographical antiquity which has always been shrouded in
more or less obscurity. Imagining, as we do, that the moulds of the first printers
were of a primitive construction, and, though conceived on true principles, were
adjusted to the various sizes of letter they had to cast more by eye than by rule,
it is easy to understand that founts would be cast on no other principle than that
of ranging in body and line and height in themselves, irrespective of the body,
height and line of other founts used in the same press. When two or more
32 The Old English Letter Foundries.
founts were required to mix in the same work, then the necessity of a uniform
standard of height would become apparent. When two or more founts were
required to mix in the same line, a uniformity in body, and if possible in
alignment, would be found necessary. When initials or marginal notes required
to be incorporated with the text, then the advantage of a mathematical proportion
between one body and another would suggest itself.
At first, doubtless, the printer would name his sizes of type according to the
works for which they were used. His Canon type would be the large character
in which he printed the canon of the Mass. His Cicero type would be the letter
used in his editions of that classical author. His Saint Augustin, his Primer, his
Brevier, his Philosophic, his Pica type, would be the names by which he would
describe the sizes of letter he used for printing the works whose names they
bore. It may also be assumed with tolerable certainty that in most of these
cases, originally, the names described not only the body, but the " face" of their
respective founts. At what period this confused and haphazard system of
nomenclature resolved itself into the definite printer's terminology it is difficult
to determine. The process was probably a gradual one, and was not perfected
until typefounding became a distinct and separate trade.
The earliest writers on the form and proportion of letters, — Diirer1 in 1525,
Tory2 in 1529, and Ycair3 in 1548, — though using terms to distinguish the different
faces of letter, were apparently unaware of any distinguishing names for the
bodies of types. Tory, indeed, mentions Canon and Bourgeoise ; but in both
cases he refers to the face of the letter ; and Ycair's distinction of " teste y glosa"
applies generally to the large and small type used for the text and notes
respectively of the same work.4
In England, type-bodies do not appear to have been reduced to a definite
scale much before the end of the sixteenth century. Mores5 failed to trace them
further back than 1647 ; but in a Regulation of the Stationers' Company, dated
1598,6 Pica, English, Long Primer, and Brevier are mentioned byname as appar-
ently well-established bodies at that time ; and in a petition to the same Com-
pany in 1635,7 Nonpareil and " two-line letters" are mentioned as equally familiar.
Moxon, our first writer on the subject, in his Mechanick Exercises, in 1683,
1 Unterweisung der Messung. Nuremberg, 1525. Fo.
3 Champfieury. Paris, 1529. 8vo.
3 Orthographia Practica. Carago§a, 1548. 4to.
* Both Testo and Glosilla subsequently became the names of Spanish type-bodies, the
fromer being approximately equivalent to our Great Primer, and the latter to our Minion.
5 Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies. London, 1778. 8vo.
0 See post, chap. v. 7 See post, chap. v.
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 3 3
described ten regular bodies in common use in his day, and added to his list the
number of types of each body that went to a foot, viz. : —
Pearl 184 to a foot
Great Primer . .
. . 50 „
Double Pica . .
• • 38 „
2-line English . .
• • 33 „
French Canon. .
■ • 17H »
Nonpareil 150 „
Brevier 112 „
Long Primer .... 92 „
Pica 75 »
" We have one body more," he adds, " which is sometimes used in England ;
that is, a Small Pica : but I account it no great discretion in a master-printer to
provide it, because it differs so little from the Pica, that unless the workmen be
carefuller than they sometimes are, it may be mingled with the Pica, and so the
beauty of both founts may be spoiled."
In this sentence we have the first record of the introduction of irregular
bodies into English typography, an innovation destined very speedily to expand,
and within half a century increase the number of English bodies by the seven
following additions :
Minion 132 to a foot
Bourgeois 100 „
Small Pica 76 „
Paragon 46 „
2-line Pica 37 J4 to a foot
2-line Great Primer . . 25 „
2-line Double Pica . . 19 „
The origin of these irregular bodies it is easy to explain. Between Moxon's
time and 1720 the country was flooded with Dutch type. The English founders
were beaten out of the field in their own market, and James, in self-defence, had
to furnish his foundry entirely with Dutch moulds and matrices. Thus we had
the typefounding of two nations carried on side by side. An English printer
furnished with a Dutch fount would require additions to it to be cast to the
Dutch standard, which might be smaller or larger than that laid down for
English type by Moxon, and yet so near that even if it lost or gained a few
types in the foot, it would still be called by its English name, which would
thenceforth represent two different bodies. If, on the other hand, a new fount
were imported, or cut by an ill-regulated artist here, which when finished was
found to be as much too large for one regular body as it was too small for
another, a body would be found to fit it between the two, and christened by a
new name. In this manner, Minion, Bourgeois, Small Pica, Paragon, and two-
line Pica insinuated themselves into the list of English bodies, and in this manner
arose that ancient anomaly, the various body-standards of the English foundries.
For a founder who was constantly called upon to alter his mould to accommodate
a printer requiring a special body, would be likely to cast a quantity of the
letter in excess of what was immediately ordered ; and this store, if not sold in
due time to the person for whom it was cast, would be disposed of to the first
34
The Old English Letter Foundries.
comer who, requiring a new fount, and not particular as to body, provided the
additions afterwards to be had were of the same gauge, would take it off the
founder's hands. Facilis descensus Averni ! Having taken the one downward
step, the founder would be called upon constantly to repeat it, his moulds would
remain set, some to the right, some to the wrong standard, and every type he
cast would make it more impossible for him or his posterity to recover the simple
standard from which he had erred.
Such we imagine to have been the origin of the irregular and ununiform
bodies. Even in 1755, when Smith published his Printer's Grammar, the mischief
was beyond recall. In no single instance were the standards given by him identical
with those of 1683. Indeed, where each founder had two or three variations of
each body in his own foundry it is impossible to speak of a standard at all.
Smith points out that, in the case of English and Pica alone, Caslon had four
varieties of the former, and the Dutch two ; while of the latter, Caslon had
three, and James two. Nevertheless, he gives a scale of the bodies commonly
in use in his day, which it will be interesting to compare with Moxon's on the
one hand, and the standard of the English foundries in 1841 as given by Savage,
on the other.
Moxon,
Smith,
Caslon,
FlGGINS,
Thorow-
Wilson,
1683.
I755-
1841.
184I.
GOOD, 1841.
1841.
Canon
17V*
18 and G. P.
18
18
i8*
18
2-line Double Pica
20^
20^
20^
20^
20^
2-line Great Primer
—
25X
25K
25X
26
25X
2-line English
33
32
32
32
32X
32
2-line Pica
—
3S3X
36
36
36
36
Double Pica
38
4^A
41^
4I>^
4i
4lK
Paragon
—
AVA
AA'A
aa1A
—
44X
Great Primer
5o
51 and an r.
5i
51
52
51
English
66
64
64
64
64X
64
Pica
75
7ilA
72
T2%
72
72
Small Pica
—
83
83
82
82
83
Long Primer
92
89
89
90
92
89
Bourgeois
—
1 02 and space.
102
IOI^
103
I02
Brevier
112
112%
in
107
112
III
Minion
—
128
122
122
122
122
Nonpareil
150
143
.144
144
144
144
Pearl
184
178
178
l8o
184
178
Diamond
—
—
204
205
210
204
This list does not include Trafalgar, Emerald, and Ruby, which, however,
were in use before 1841. The first named has disappeared in England, as also
has Paragon. The Printer's Grammar of 1787 mentions a body in use at that
time named " Primer," between Great Primer and English.
It is not our purpose to pursue this comparison further or more minutely ;
nor does it come within the scope of this work to enter into a technical
The English Type Bodies and Faces.
35
examination of the various schemes which have been carried out abroad, and
attempted in this country, to do away with the anomalies in type-bodies, and
restore a uniform invariable standard. The above table will suffice as a brief
historical note of the growth of these anomalies.
As early as 1725, in France, an attempt was made to regulate by a public
decree, not only the standard height of a type, but the scale of bodies. But the
system adopted was clumsy, and only added to the confusion it was designed to
remove. Fournier, in 1737, invented his typographical points, the first successful
attempt at a mathematical systematisation of type-bodies, which has since, with
the alternative system of Didot, done much in simplifying French typography.
England, Germany, and Holland have been more conservative, and therefore
less fortunate. Attempts were made by Fergusson in 1824,1 and by Bower of
Sheffield about 1 840,2 and others, to arrive at a standard of uniformity ; but their
schemes were not warmly taken up, and failed.
Before proceeding to a brief historical notice of the different English type-
bodies, we shall trouble the reader with a further table, compiled from specimen-
books of the 1 8th century, showing what have been the names of the corre-
sponding bodies in the foundries of other nations, — premising, however, that these
names must be taken as representing the approximate, rather than the actual,
equivalent in each case3 : —
English.
French.
German.
Dutch.
Italian.
Spanish.
1. French Canon.
Double Canon.
Kleine Missal.
Parys Kanon.
Reale.
2. 2-line Double Pica.
Gros Canon.
Grobe Canon.
Groote Kanon.
Corale.
Canon Grande.
3. 2-line Great Primer.
Trismegiste.
Kleine Canon.
Kanon.
Canone.
Canon.
4. 2-line English.
Petit Canon.
Doppel Mittel.
Dubbelde Augustyn.
Sopracanoncino.
Peticano.
5. 2-line Pica.
Palestine.
Roman.
Dubbelde Mediaan.
Canoncino.
6. Double Pica.
Gros Parangon.
Text or Secunda.
Dubbelde Descendiaan
(or Ascendonica).
Ascendonica.
Misal.
7. Paragon.
Petit Parangon.
Parangon.
Parangon.
Parangone.
Parangona.
8. Great Primer.
Gros Romain.
Tertia.
Text.
Testo.
Texto.
((Large English.)
9> \ English.
Gros Texte.
Grobe Mittel.
Soprasilvio.
St. Augustin.
Kleine Mittel.
Augustyn.
Silvio.
Atanasia.
10. Pica.
Cicero.
Cicero.
Mediaan.
Lettura.
Lectura.
11. Small Pica.
Philosophie.
Brevier.
Descendiaan.
(Filosofia.)
12. Long Primer.
Petit Romain.
Corpus or Garmond.
Garmond.
Garamone.
Entredos.
13. Bourgeois.
Gaillarde.
(Borgis.)
Burgeois or Galjart.
Garamoncino.
14. Brevier.
Petit Texte.
Petit or Jungfer.
Brevier.
Testino.
Breviario.
15. Minion.
Mignone.
Colonel.
Colonel.
Mignona.
Glosilla.
16. Nonpareil.
Nonpareille.
Nonpareille.
Nonparel.
Nompariglia.
Nompareli.
17. Pearl.
( Parisienne or Sedan. )
(Perle. j
Perl.
Holy. )
! Peerl. j
Parmigianina.
(Diamond.)
Diamant.
Diamant.
j Robijn. )
( Diamand. j
1 Hansard's Typographia. London, 1825, 8vo, p. 388. 2 See post, chap. xxi.
3 In several of the German specimens thus examined, not only do the bodies of one
founder differ widely from those of others, but the variations of each body in the same foundry
are often extraordinary. Faulman, in his Geschichte der Buchdrtickerktmst, Vienna, 1882, 8vo,
p. 488, has a table, professing to give the actual equivalents of each body to a fraction ; but
we conceive that, in the absence of a fixed national standard, such an attempt is futile.
36 The Old English Letter Foundries.
A few notes on the origin of the names of English type-bodies will conclude
our observations on this subject.
Canon. — The Canon of the Mass was, in the service-books of the Church,
printed in a large letter, and it is generally supposed that, this size of letter being
ordinarily employed in the large Missals, the type-body took its name accordingly:
a supposition which is strengthened by its German name of Missal. Mores,
however (who objects equally to the epithets of Great or French as unnecessary
and delusive), considers this derivation to be incorrect, and quotes the authority
of Tory, who uses the term Canon to apply to letter cut according to rule — lettres
de forme — as distinguished from letters not so cut, which he terms lettres bastardes.
So that the lettre qiton diet Canon was originally a generic term, embracing all
the regular bodies ; and subsequently came to be confined to the largest size in
that category. The theory is ingenious and interesting ; but it seems more
reasonable to lay greater stress on the actual meaning of a word than on its
equivocal interpretation. In other countries two-line Great Primer was commonly
called Canon, and our French Canon was called by the Dutch Parys Kanon ; by
which it would seem that both England and Holland originally received the
body from the French. In modern letter-founding the name Canon applies
only to the size of the face of a letter which is a three-line Pica cast on a four-
line Pica body.
Passing the next four bodies, which with us are merely reduplications,1 we
note that —
Double Pica, which at present is Double Small Pica, was in Moxon's day,
what its name denotes, a two-line Pica. When the irregular Small Pica was
introduced, Double Pica was the name given to the double of the interloper, the
double of the Pica being styled two-line Pica. In Germany, Double Pica was called
Text or Secunda — the former name probably denoting the use of this size in the
text of Holy Writ, while the latter indicates that the body was one of a series,
the Doppel Mittel, corresponding to our two-line English, being probably the
Prima.
PARAGON, the double of Long Primer, though a body unnamed in Moxon's
day, was a size of really old institution ; it having been a favourite body with
many of the earliest printers, and particularly affected by Caxton in this country.
Its name points to a French origin ; and, like most of the other fanciful names,
proves that the appellation had reference in the first instance, not to the depth
of its shank, but to the supposed beauty of the letter which was cut upon it. It
was a body which did not take deep root in this country, and for the most part
1 Two-line English, Mores points out, was originally a primitive, and not a derivative
body, corresponding to the old German Prima.
The English Type Bodies and Faces, 37
disappeared with the first quarter of the present century. It is noteworthy that
Paragon and Nonpareil are the only bodies which have preserved their names
in all the countries in which they have been adopted.
GREAT Primer. — For this body, Mores claims an indisputable English
origin. He considers it possible that it may date back to before the Reformation,
and that it was the body on which were printed the large Primers of the early
Church.1 This derivation2 would be more satisfactory were it found that these
works, or the school primers of a later date, were, as a rule, printed in type of
this size.3 But this is not the case. Primers, Pyes, and Breviaries occur printed
in almost all the regular bodies. Great Primer was a favourite body with the old
printers, and having been adopted by many of the first Bible printers, was
sometimes called Bible Text. The French called it Gros Romain ; and the
"Great Romaine letter for the titles," mentioned in Pynson's indenture in 15 19,
may possibly refer to an already recognised type-body of this size. In Germany
it was called Tertia, being the third of the regular bodies above the Mittel.
In Holland, Italy, and Spain it was called Text.
ENGLISH is also a body which undoubtedly belongs to us. Until the end of
last century the name served not only to denote a body, but the face of the
English Black-letter ; and many of the old founts used in the law books and
Acts of Parliament were English both in body and face. As in Germany, where it
is called Mittel, English was the middle size of the seven regular bodies in use
among us : the Great Primer, Double Pica, and two-line English (the Tertia,
Secunda, and Prima of the Germans) being on the ascending side, and Pica,
Long Primer, and Brevier on the descending. The French call it St Augustin,4
and the Spaniards Atanasia, apparently from its use in printing the works of
these Christian Fathers. Although the middle body, its standard has been
subject to much variation, particularly in France and Germany, where large and
small English are two distinct bodies.
1 Henry VIII, in 1545, allowed his subjects to use an English Form of Public Prayer, and
ordered one to be printed for their use, entitled The Primer. It contained, besides prayers,
several psalms, lessons and anthems. Primers of the English Church before the Reformation
were printed as early as 1490 in Paris, and in England in 1537.
2 We have nowhere met with the suggestion that Primer may be connected with the Latin
" premere," a word familiar in typography, and naturalized with us in the old word " imprimery."
Great Primer might thus merely mean the large print letter.
3 The religious origin of the names of types is in harmony with the occurrence in typo-
graphical phraseology of such words as chapel, devil, justify, hell (the waste type-pot),
friars and monks (white and black blotches caused by uneven inking), etc.
4 Ulric Hahn's St. Augustini De Civitate Dei, Rome, 1474, is printed in a letter almost
exactly this body. Others derive the name from the great edition of St. Augustine printed
by Amerbach at Basle in 1506.
38 The Old English Letter Fotmdries.
PICA. — This important body, now the standard body in English typography,
presumably owes its name to its use in printing the ordinal of the services of
the early Church, and is coeval with Great Primer. " The Pie," says Mores, of
which this is the Latin name, " was a table showing the course of the service in
the Church in the times of darkness.1 It was called the Pie because it was written
in letters of black and red ; as the Friars de Pica were so named from their party-
coloured raiment, black and white, the plumage of a magpie." " The number
and hardness of the rules of this Pie" is referred to in the preface to our Prayer-
book ; and it will be remembered that Caxton's famous advertisement related to
" Pyes of Salisbury use." But as a larger type-body than Pica was generally
used to print these, it is possible the name may refer to nothing more than the
piebald or black-and-white appearance of a printed page. Some authorities
derive Pica from the Geeek iriva^, a writing tablet, and, hence, an index. The
name was, in fact, applied to the alphabetical catalogue of the names and things
in rolls and records. In France and Germany the body was called Cicero,
on account of the frequent editions of Cicero's Epistles printed in this size
of letter.2 It was the Mediaan body of the Dutch.
SMALL PICA, as already stated, was an innovation in Moxon's day, and was
probably cast in the first instance to accommodate a foreign-cut letter, too
small for pica and too large for long-primer. It subsequently came into very
general use, one of the first important works in which it appeared being
Chambers's Cyclopcedia, in 1728. The French called it Philosophic, and appear to
have used it as a smaller body on which to cast the Cicero face. The Germans
called it Brevier, the Dutch (it being one body below the Mediaan) called it
Descendiaan, and the Italians, when they had it, followed the French, and
called it Filosofia.
Long Primer, Mores suggests, was another of the old English bodies
employed in liturgical works. He explains the use of the word Long to mean
that Primers in this size of type were printed either in long lines instead of
double columns, or that the length of the page was disproportionate to the
width, or more probably, that they contained the service at full length a long,
or without contraction.3 These Primers, however, are rarely to be met with in
this body. The French named the body Petit Romain, preserving a similar
1 " Liber presens, directorium sacerdotum, quern pica Sarum vulgo vocitat clerus," etc.,
is the commencement of a work printed by Pynson in 1497.
2 Both the Cicero of Fust and Schoeffer at Mentz, 1466, and of Hahn at Rome, 1469, were
in type of about this size.
s This Prymer of Salysbury use, is set out a long, ivout ony serchyng, etc. Paris, 1532.
i6mo. Many editions were printed in England and abroad.
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 39
relationship between it and their Gros Romain, as we did between our Long
Primer and Great Primer. The other countries evidently attributed the body
to France, and named it after Claude Garamond, the famous French letter-
cutter, pupil of Tory, one of whose Greek founts, cut for the Royal Typography
of Paris, was on this body. The Germans, however, also called the body Corpus,
on account of their Corpus Juris being first printed in this size.
BOURGEOIS. — This irregular body betrays its nationality in its name, which,
however, is probably derived, not from the fact that it was used by the bourgeois
printers of France, but from the name of the city of Bourges, which was the
birthplace of the illustrious typographer, Geofroy Tory, about the year 1485.
Tory originally applied the term bourgeoise to the lettre de somme, irrespective
of size,1 as distinguished from the lettre Canon. The French call the body
Gaillarde, probably after the printer of that name,2 although it is equally
possible the name, like Mignon or Nonpareille, may be fanciful. As a type-
body, Bourgeois did not appear in England till about 1748, and Smith informs
us that it was originally used as a large body on which to cast Brevier or
Petit.
Brevier. — The smallest of the English regular bodies claims equal
antiquity with Great Primer, Pica, and Long Primer. The conjecture that it
was commonly usedin the Breviaries of the early Church is not borne out by an
examination of these works, most of which are printed in a considerably larger
size.3 The name, like the French and German " Petit," may mean that, being
the smallest body, it was used for getting the most matter into a brief space.
The Germans, when they cut smaller-sized letters, called the Petit Jungfer, or
the Maiden-letter.
Minion, a body unknown to Moxon, was used in England before 1730 ;
and, like the other small fancifully named bodies, appears to have originated in
France. The Dutch and Germans call it Colonel, and the Spaniards Glosilla.
NONPAREIL, now an indispensable body, because the half of Pica, was
introduced as a peerless curiosity long before Moxon's day, and has preserved its
name in all the countries where it has gone. It is said first to have been cut by
Garamond about the year 1560. Mores supposes that, because the Dutch
founders of Moxon's day called it " Englese Nonpareil" in their specimens, the
1 Fournier (ii, 144) shows a specimen of the lettre de Somme with exactly a Bourgeois
face.
2 The first of the family of Paris printers of this name, mentioned by De la Caille, flourished
in 1615.
3 The German Brevier, corresponding to our Small Pica, is of more frequent occurrence
in these works.
40 The Old English Letter Foundries.
body was first used in this country. The Dutch name, however, evidently
refers to the face of the letter, cut in imitation of an English face, or adapted to
suit English purchasers. Paulus Pater1 says that on account of its wonderful
smallness and clearness, the Dutch Nonpareil was called by many the " silver
letter," and was supposed to have been cast in that metal.
Pearl, though an English body in Moxon's day, appears to have been
known both in France and Holland at an earlier date. In the former country it
was celebrated as the body on which the famous tiny editions at Sedan were
printed. The Dutch Joly corresponded more nearly to our modern Ruby than to
Pearl. But Luce, in 1740, cut the size for France, and provoked Firmin Didot's
severe criticism on his performance — " Among the characters, generally bad, which
Luce has engraved, ... is one which cannot be seen."
Diamond was unknown in England until the close of last century, when Dr.
Fry cut a fount which he claimed to be the smallest ever used, and to get in
"more even than the famous Dutch Diamond." This Dutch fount was of
some antiquity, having been cut by Voskens about 1700. Previous to this,
Van Dijk had cut a letter on a body below Pearl, called Robijn, a specimen of
which appears on Daniel Elzevir's sheet in 168 1. M. Henri Didot, however,
eclipsed all these minute-bodied founts by a Semi-nonpareil in 1827.
It now remains to trace briefly the origin and development of the leading
type-faces used in English Typography.
1.— ROMAN.
To trace the history of the Roman character would almost require a risumi
of the works of all the greatest printers in each country of Europe. It must
suffice to point out very briefly the changes it underwent before and after reaching
England.
Italy. — The Italian scribes of the fifteenth century were "famous for their
beautiful manuscripts, written in a hand entirely different from the Gothic of
the Germans, or the Secretary of the French and Netherlands calligraphers.
It was only natural that the first Italian printers, when they set up their
press at Subiaco, should form their letters upon the best model of the national
scribes. The Cicero de Oratore of 14652 is claimed by some as the first book
1 De Germanice Miraculo. Lipsias, 17 10, 4to, p. 37.
2 The Lactantius, published the same year, and usually claimed as the first book printed
in Italy, appears, according to a note of M. Madden's (Leltres cPun Bibliographe^ iv, 28 1), not
to have been completed for a month after the Cicero de Oratore.
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 41
printed in Roman type, although the character shows that the German artists
who printed it had been unable wholly to shake off the traditions of the pointed
Gothic school of typography in which they had learned their craft. The type
of the Lactantius, and the improved type of the works subsequently printed by
Sweynheim and Pannartz at Rome, as well as those of Ulric Hahn, were, in fact,
Gothic-Romans ; and it was not till Nicholas Jenson, a Frenchman, in 1470,
printed his Eusebii Prtzfiaratio at Venice, that the true Roman appeared in Italy,
which was destined to become the ruling character in European Typography.
Fournier and others have considered that Jenson derived his Roman letter from a
mixture of alphabets of various countries j1 but it is only necessary to compare the
Etisebius with the Italian manuscripts of the period, to see that no such elaborate
selection of models was necessary or likely. The claims of Italy in the matter
of Roman type have of late years been somewhat seriously challenged by the
researches of M. Madden, who in a series of remarkable studies on the typo-
graphical labours of the Freres de la Vie Commune at Wiedenbach, near Cologne,
contends that the Roman type known as the fount of the " J^ bizarre," on account
of the peculiar form of that capital letter, was used in that monastery in 14652 ;
and that among the typographical fugitives from Mentz at that time dwelling in
Cologne, there is little doubt that Jenson was here initiated into the art which he
subsequently made famous. The close resemblance between the Roman of the
Wiedenbach monks and that of the Eusebius is, M. Madden considers, clear
evidence that the same hand had trained itself on the one for the marvellous
perfection of the other.3 Jenson's fount is on a body corresponding to English.
The form is round and clear, and differing in fashion only from its future
progeny. The capital alphabet consists of twenty-three letters (J, U, and W
not being yet in use) ; the " lower-case" alphabet is the same, except that the
"u" is substituted for the "v," and in addition there is a long f, and the diph-
thongs se and ce. To complete the fount, there are fifteen contractions, six
double letters, and three points, the . : ? making seventy-three punches in all.4
Jenson's Roman letter fell after his death into the hands of a " firm" of which
Andrea Torresani was head. Aldus Manutius subsequently associated himself
1 " II (Jenson) forma un caractere compose" des capitales latines, qui servirent de majuscules ;
les minuscules furent prises d'autres lettres latines, ainsi que des espagnoles, lombardes, saxones}
franchises ou Carolines." {Man. Tyfi., ii, 261.)
2 M. Philippe, in his Origine de VImprimerie d Paris, Paris, 1885, 4:0, p. 219, mentions
two books printed in this fount, which contain MS. notes of having been purchased in the
years 1464 and 1467 respectively. 3 Lettres cTun Bibliografthe, iv, 60.
4 For a full account and analysis of Jenson's Roman and other type, the reader is referred
to Sardini's Storia Critica di Nic. Jenson. Lucca, 1796-8, 3 parts, fol.
G
42 The Old English Letter Foundries.
with Torresani, and, becoming his son-in-law and heir, eventually inherited his
punches, matrices, and types. The Roman founts of Aldus were eclipsed by his
Italic and Greek, but he cut several very fine alphabets. Renouard1 mentions
eight distinct founts between 1494 and 1558.
Germany. — Whether the fount of the Wiedenbach monks was the progenitor
of the Venetian Roman, or whether each can claim an independent origin, there
seems little doubt that the fount of the "R bizarre" is entitled to rank as the first
Roman letter in Germany. The accompanying facsimile from the Sopholo-
gium will give a good idea of the form and size of this most interesting fount,
and will at the same time show how slightly the form of the Roman alphabet has
changed since its first introduction into Typography.
Icut narratur in fciftoria triptita: libro prima
%j> Conftanfcmus fa^us criffianus;cultum di'
Kumtu,^ uinum in tantrum dilexitq? tabernaculuin ad
aftar ccdeGe factum Cecum deferri mbebat . Cui facer
dotes BC miniftn ecclefse affiftebant: precibufcj mten
debant. Romanomq; diuerfc cobortes eius exemplo
Emiliter fecemt . varmm tame diem (ecundum diuer
fas opiniones elegerdt . Vnde facerdotes Si diaconi do
Kiinicam diem coluerut. Alii vero feriam fextam pre
tulerunt.gi d^minus in ea paflus eft .Vnde apud Ro
manosferiafextaprius celebrabatur. nee rationabili
7. From the SopJwlogium "a 1" £\^ bizarre." Wiedenbach (?), 1465-70.
Roman type was adopted before 1473 by Mentelin of Strasburg, whose
beautiful letter placed him in the front rank of German printers. Gunther
Zainer, who settled at Augsburg in 1469, after printing some works in the round
Gothic, also adopted, in 1472, the Roman of the Venetian School, founts of
which he is said to have brought direct from Italy. The German name of
Antiqua, applied to the Roman character, has generally been supposed to imply
a reluctance to admit the claim of Italy to the credit of introducing this style of
letter. As, however, the Italians themselves called the letter the " Lettera
Antiqua tonda," the imputation against Germany is unfounded.2 The French,
Dutch, and English called it " Roman" from the first.
1 Annates de Vlmprimerie des Aide. Paris, 1803-12, 3 vols., 8vo.
2 Sardini (iii, 82) cites an interesting document wherein Zarot, in forming a typographical
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 43
FRANCE. — The French received printing and the Roman character at the
same time, the first work of the Sorbonne press in 1470 being in a handsome
Roman letter about Great Primer in size, with a slight suggestion of Gothic in
some of the characters. Gering, a German himself, and his associates, had learned
their art at Basle ; but cut, and probably designed, their own letter on the best
available models. Their fount is rudely cast, so that several of their words appear
only half-printed in the impression, and have been finished by hand. It has been
stated erroneously, by several writers, on the authority of Chevillier, that their
fount was without capitals. The fount is complete in that respect, and Chevillier's
expression, " lettres capitales," as he himself explains, refers to the initial letters
for which blank spaces were left to be filled in by hand. Besides the ordinary
capital and " lower-case" alphabets, the fount abounds in abbreviations. This
letter was used in all the works of the Sorbonne press, but when Gering left
the Sorbonne and established himself at the"Soleil d'Or," in 1473, he made
use of a Gothic letter. In his later works, however, new and greatly improved
founts of the Roman appear. Jodocus Badius, who by some is erroneously
supposed to have been the first who brought the Roman letters from Italy to
France, did not establish his famous " Prelum Ascensianum" in Paris till
about 1500, when he printed in Roman types — not, however, before one or
two other French printers had already distinguished themselves in the same
direction.
Netherlands. — The Roman was introduced into the Netherlands by
Johannes de Westfalia, who, it is said, brought it direct from Italy about the year
1472. He settled at Louvain, and after several works in semi-Gothic, published in
1483 an edition of JEneas Silvius in the Italian letter. His fount is elegant, and
rather a lighter face than most of the early Roman founts of other countries.
This printer appears to have been the only one in the Low Countries who used
this type during the fifteenth century ; nor was it till Plantin, in 1555, established
his famous press at Antwerp, that the Roman attained to any degree of excellence.
But Plantin, and after him the Elzevirs, were destined to eclipse all other artists
in their execution of this letter, which in their hands became a model for the
typography of all civilisation. It should be mentioned, however, that the
Elzevirs are not supposed to have cut their own punches. The Roman types
which they made famous, and which are known by their name, were cut by
partnership with certain citizens of Milan, covenants to provide " tutte le Lettere Latine, e
Greche, antique, e moderne." Bernard points out that "antique" undoubtedly means Roman
type, the traditional character of the Italians, while " moderne" applies to the Gothic, which
was at that time coming into vogue as a novelty among Italian printers.
44 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Christopher Van Dijk/the form of whose letter was subsequently adopted by the
English printers.
SWITZERLAND early distinguished itself by the Roman letter of Amerbach of
Basle, and still more so by the beautiful founts used by Froben of the same city,
who between 1491 and 1527 printed some of the finest books then known in
Europe. His Roman was very bold and regular. Christopher Froschouer of
Zurich, about 1545, made use of a peculiar and not unpicturesque form of the
Roman letter, in which the round sorts were thickened, after the Gothic fashion, at
their opposite corners, instead of at their opposite sides.
England. — The Roman did not make its appearance in England till 15 18,
when Richard Pynson printed Pace's Oratio in Pace Nuperrima, in a handsome
letter, of which we show a facsimile at p. 93. This printer's Norman birth,
and his close relationship with the typographers of Rouen, as well as his
supposed intimacy with the famous Basle typographer Froben, make it highly
probable that he procured his letter abroad, or modelled it on that of some of the
celebrated foreign printers of his day. The fount is about Great Primer in body,
and though generally neat and bold in appearance, displays considerable
irregularity in the casting, and, like most of the early Roman founts, contains
numerous contractions.2
The Roman made its way rapidly in English typography during the first
half of the sixteenth century, and in the hands of such artists as Faques, Rastell,
Wyer, Berthelet, and Day, maintained an average excellence. But it rapidly
degenerated, and while other countries were dazzling Europe by the brilliancy
of their impressions, the English Roman letter went from good to bad, and from
bad to worse. No type is more beautiful than a beautiful Roman ; and with
equal truth it may be said, no type is more unsightly than an ill-fashioned and
ill-worked Roman. While Claude Garamond3 in France was carrying out into
noble practice the theories of the form and proportion of letters set out by his
master, Geofroy Tory ; while the Estiennes at Paris, Sebastian Gryphe at Lyons,
Froben at Basle, Froschouer at Zurich, and Christopher Plantin at Antwerp,
were moulding and refining their alphabets into models which were to become
1 Renouard and others claim that these famous characters were cut by the French artists
Garamond and Sanlecques. This legend is, however, disposed of by Mr. Willems, in his work,
Les Elsevier. Brussels, 1880, 8vo.
2 Pynson was the first to introduce diphthongs into the typographical alphabet.
3 Garamond's Roman was cut for Francis I. The Roman character was an object of con-
siderable royal interest in France during its career. In 1694, on the re-organisation of the press
at the Louvre under Louis XIV, arbitrary alterations were made in the recognised form of several
of the "lower-case" letters, to distinguish the "Romain du Rof from all others, and protect it
from imitations. The deformity of the letters thus tampered with was their best protection.
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 45
classical, English printers, manacled body and soul by their patents and mono-
polies and state persecutions, achieved nothing with the Roman type that was
not retrograde. For a time a struggle appears to have existed between the
Black-letter and the Roman for the mastery of the English press, and at one
period the curious spectacle was presented of mixed founts of the two. We
present our readers with a specimen of English printing at a foreign press in this
«ffCfie
READINGT
Vlth verie fetp,but the fame moftp!
tYic, femelie, & apte wot dc$i the E-
uangeliit hath declared ^nto vs , the
diuine nature of the Lorde XeftiSjarid his po
wcr f hewed forth , and (kn& abrode to the
fig&t af al menj by £is moftivondrefui spof*
fes.For by t^is godhead , and diuine nature
of tfce Lorde Jefus^bot^ al twinges were lidfc
made of nothmge, and notoalfo althingcs
ar prcferued , and continued in their ftate*
that thev returne not 10 not^inge. By it al
thinges liue> moue, and haue tfjeif beinge.
By it man, wherein he^xcellet^ other liuiri-
ge creatures , is rurnif hed with the lig^tof
reafonjand vndreftading^id? though t Jo-
roug^ mannes faute, it be now greatel^blc-
miffed >and darefned, vet the fpajc?e$fema|
ning fu Mice to f fpew fo mud? vnto vs of god
des fonne , as maie iuflly condemns vsof
wilful ignorance .
The beames than of £ts glorie Jaue eueff
f fjincd in dede.,and yet do f^ine euerie w£c*
re to the fight of al men, and ma was foftrd
8. From Traheron's Exposition of St. John. Wesel (?), 1557. Showing Roman and Black-letter intermixed.
transition period, as illustrative not only of the compromise between the two
rival characters, but of the average unappetising appearance of the typography
46 The Old English Letter Foundries.
of the day. Always impressionable and unoriginal, our national Roman letter,
in the midst of many admirable models, chose the Dutch for its pattern, and tried
to imitate Plantin and Elzevir, but with very little of the spirit of those great
artists. No English work of the time, printed in English Roman type, repro-
duces within measurable distance the elegant embonpoint, the harmony, the
symmetry of the types of the famous Dutch printers. The seeker after the
beautiful looks almost in vain for anything to satisfy his eye in the English
Roman-printed works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A few excep-
tions there are1 ; and when the English printers, giving up the attempt to cut
Roman for themselves, went to Holland to buy it; or when, as in the case of
Oxford and Thomas James, the English foundries became furnished with Dutch
matrices, our country was able to produce a few books the appearance of which
does not call forth a blush.
The first English Bible printed in Roman type was Bassendyne's edition
in Edinburgh, in 1576. We have it on the authority of Watson2 that, from the
earliest days of Scotch typography, a constant trade in type and labour was
maintained between Holland and Scotland ; and he exhibited in his specimen
pages the Dutch Romans which at that day were the most approved letters in
use in his country.
Utilitarian motives brought about one important departure from the first
models of the Roman letter in the different countries where it flourished. The
early printers were generous in their ideas, and cut their letters with a single eye
to artistic beauty. But as printing gradually ceased to be an art, and became a
trade, economical considerations suggested a distortion or cramping of these
beautiful models, with a view to "getting more in." In some cases the variation
was made gracefully and inoffensively. The slender or compressed Roman
letters of the French, Italian, and in some cases the Dutch printers, though not
comparable with the round ones, are yet regular and neat ; but in other cases, ours
among them, there was little of either delicacy or skill in the innovation. The early
part of the seventeenth century witnessed the creation abroad of some very small
Roman faces, foremost among which were those of the beautiful little Sedan
editions of Jannon,3 which gave their name to the body of the microscopic letter
1 Amongst which should be named Vautrollier's edition of Beza's New Testament in 1574,
which, both in point of type and workmanship, is an admirable piece of typography. The small
italic is specially beautiful. Renouard says this type was cut by Garamond of Paris.
2 History of the Art of Printing. Edinburgh, 1713. 8vo.
3 The Horace, printed in 1627, may be mentioned as one of the most interesting of these
little typographical curiosities. The type is exactly the modern pearl body. The text is
2f inches in depth, and 1 2 inch wide.
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 47
in which they were printed. Van Dijk cut a still smaller letter for the Dutch in
Black-letter, and afterwards in Roman ; and for many years the Dutch Diamond
held the palm as the smallest fount in Europe. England followed the general
tendency towards the minute, and though it is doubtful whether either Pearl or
Diamond were cut by English founders before 1700, an English printer, Field,
accomplished in 1653 the feat of printing a 32mo Bible in Pearl.1 Among
English printers in the seventeenth century who did credit to their profession,
Roycroft is conspicuous, especially for the handsome large Romans in which he
printed Ogilby's Virgil? and other works. Yet Roycroft's handsomest letter —
that in which he printed the Royal Dedication to the Polyglot of 1657 — was the
fount used nearly a century before by Day,3 whose productions few English
printers of the seventeenth century could equal, and none, certainly, could excel.
Of Moxon's attempt in 1683 to regenerate the Roman letter in England, we shall
have occasion to speak elsewhere. His theories, as put into practice by himself,
were eminently unsuccessful ; and though the sign-boards of the day may have
profited by his rules, it is doubtful if typography did. His enthusiastic
praise of the Dutch letter of Van Dijk may have stimulated the trade between
England and Holland ; but at home his precepts fell flat for lack of an artist
to carry them out.
That artist was forthcoming in William Caslon in 1720, and from the time
he cut his first fount of pica, the Roman letter in England entered on a career of
honour. Caslon went back to the Elzevirs for his models, and throwing into his
labour the genius of an enlightened artistic taste, he reproduced their letters with
a precision and uniformity hitherto unknown among us, preserving at the same
time that freedom and grace of form which had made them of all others the most
beautiful types in Europe. Caslon's Roman became the fashion, and English
typography was loyal to it for nearly 80 years. Baskerville's exquisite letters
were, as he himself acknowledged, inspired by those of Caslon. They were sharper
and more delicate in outline, and when finely printed, as they always were, were
more attractive to the eye.4 But what they gained in brilliance they missed in
sterling dignity ; they dazzled the eye and fatigued it, and the fashion of the
1 The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments. London, printed by John
Field, 1653, 32mo. The inexperience of English compositors and correctors in dealing with
this minute type is illustrated by the fact that Field's Pearl Bibles are crowded with errors,
one edition, so it is said, containing 6,000 faults.
2 In one of the Bagford MSS. (Harl. 5915) appear, with the title "Mr. Ogilby's Letters,
the drawings and proofs of this alphabet in capital and lower-case.
3 See Specimen No. 21, post.
i Tradition has asserted that Hogarth designed Baskerville's types.
48 The Old English Letter Foundries.
national taste was not seriously diverted. Still less was it diverted by the
experiments of a " nouvelle typographic," which Luce, Fournier, and others were
trying to introduce into France. The stiff, narrow, cramped Roman which
these artists produced scarcely finds a place in any English work of the eighteenth
century. The Dutch type was now no longer looked at. Wilson, whose letter
adorned the works of the Foulis press, and Jackson, whose exquisite founts helped to
make the fame of Bensley, as those of his successor Figgins helped to continue it,
all adhered to the Caslon models. And all these artists, with Cottrell, Fry, and
others, contributed to a scarcely less important reform in English letter-founding,
namely, the production by each founder of his own uniform series of Roman
sizes, — a feature wofully absent in the odd collections of the old founders before
1720. Towards the close of the century the Roman underwent a violent
revolution. The few founders who had begun about 1760 in avowed imitation
of Baskerville, had found it in their interest before 1780 to revert to the models
of Caslon ; and scarcely had they done so, when about 1790 the genius of Didot
of Paris and Bodoni of Parma took the English press by storm, and brought
about that complete abandonment of the Caslon-Elzevir models which marked,
and in some cases disfigured, the last years of the eighteenth century. The
famous presses of Bensley and Bulmer introduced the modern Roman under the
most favourable auspices. The new letter was honest, businesslike, and trim ;
but in its stiff angles, its rigid geometrical precision, long hair-seriffs, and sharp
contrasts of shade, there is little place for the luxuriant elegance of the old style.1
In France, the new fashion, even with so able an exponent as Didot, had a com-
petitor in the Baskerville type, which, rejected by us, was welcomed by the French
literati. Nor was this the only instance in which the fashion went from England
to France, for in 18 18 the Imprimerie Royale itself, in want of a new
typographie of the then fashionable Roman, came to London for the punches.
The typographical taste of the first quarter of the present century suffered
a distinct vulgarisation in the unsightly heavy-faced Roman letters, which were
not only offered by the founders, but extensively used by the printers ; and the
date at which we quit this brief survey is not a glorious one. The simple
uniformity of faces which characterised the specimens of Caslon and his
disciples had been corrupted by new fancies and fashions, demanded by
the printer and conceded by the founder, — fashions which, as Mr. Hansard
1 In recent years a French typographer, M. Motteroz, has attempted to combine the
excellences of the Elzevir and modern Roman, with a view to arrive at an ideally legible type.
The experiment is curious but disappointing. For though the new "typographic" of M.
Motteroz justifies its claim to legibility, the combination of two wholly unsympathetic forms of
letter destroys almost completely the beauty of each.
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 4$
neatly observed in 1825, "have left the specimen of a British letter-founder
a heterogeneous compound, made up of fat-faces and lean-faces, wide-set
and close-set, proportioned and disproportioned, all at once crying " Quousque
tandem abutere patientia nostra ?"
Some of the coarsest of the new fashions were happily short-lived ; and it is
worth transgressing our limit to record the fact that in 1844 the beautiful
old-face of Caslon was, in response to a demand from outside, revived, and has
since, in rejuvenated forms, regained both at home and abroad much of its old
popularity.
It will not be out of place to add a word, before leaving the Roman, in reference
to letter-founders' specimens. When printers were their own founders, the pro-
ductions of their presses were naturally also the published specimens of their
type. They might, like Schoeffer, in the colophon to the Justinian in 1468,
call attention to their skill in cutting types ; or, like Caxton, print a special
advertisement in a special type ; or, like Aldus, put forward a specimen of
the types of a forthcoming work.1 But none of these are letter-founders'
specimens ; nor was it till letter-founding became a distinct trade that such
documents became necessary. England was probably behind other nations
when, in 1665, the tiny specimen of Nicholas Nicholls was laid under the Royal
notice. It is doubtful whether any founder before Moxon issued a full specimen
of his types. He used the sheet as a means of advertising not only his
types, but his trade as a mathematical instrument maker ; and his specimen,
taken in connection with his rules for the formation of letters, is a sorry
performance, and not comparable to the Oxford University specimen, which that
press published in 1693, exhibiting the gifts of Dr. Fell and Junius. Of the
other English founders before 1720, no type specimen has come down to us ; that
shown by Watson in his History of the Art of Printing being merely a specimen
of bought Dutch types. Caslon's sheet, in 1734, marked a new departure. It
displayed at a glance the entire contents of the new foundry ; and by printing
the same passage in each size of Roman, gave the printer an opportunity
of judging how one body compared with another for capacity. Caslon
was the first to adopt the since familiar "Quousque tandem" for his
Roman specimens. The Latin certainly tends to show off the Roman
letter to best advantage ; but it gives an inadequate idea of its appearance in
any other tongue. "The Latin language," says Dibdin, "presents to the
eye a great uniformity or evenness of effect. The m and n, like the solid
sirloin upon our table, have a substantial appearance ; no garnishing with useless
1 Specimen Bibliorum Editionis Hebr. Gr. Lat. (folio sheet) ; no date.
H
50 The Old English Letter Foundries,
herbs . . to disguise its real character. Now, in our own tongue, by the
side of the m or n, or at no great distance from it, comes a crooked, long-tailed g, or
a tk, or some gawkishly ascending or descending letter of meagre form, which
are the very flankings, herbs, or dressings of the aforesaid typographical dish,
m or n. In short, the number of ascending or descending letters in our
own language — the fs, /'s, Ik's, and sundry others of perpetual recurrence
— render the effect of printing much less uniform and beautiful than in the
Latin language. Caslon, therefore, and Messrs. Fry and Co. after him," — and
he might have added all the other founders of the eighteenth century, — " should
have presented their specimens of printing-types in the English language ; and
then, as no disappointment could have ensued, so no imputation of deception
would have attached."1 Several founders followed Caslon's example by issuing
their specimens on a broadside sheet, which could be hung up in a printing-office,
or inset in a cyclopaedia. Baskerville appears to have issued only specimens of
this kind ; but Caslon, Cottrell, Wilson and Fry, who all began with sheets, found it
necessary to adopt the book form. These books were generally executed by a
well-known printer, and are examples not only of good types, but of fine printing.
Bodoni's splendid specimens roused the emulation of our founders, and the
small octavo volumes of the eighteenth century gave place at the commencement
of the nineteenth to quarto, often elaborately, sometimes sumptuously got up. Mr.
Figgins was the first to break through the traditional " Quousque tandem,"
by adding, side by side with the Latin extract, a passage in the same-sized letter
in English. But it has not been till comparatively recent years that the
venerable Ciceronian denunciation has finally disappeared from English letter-
founders' specimens.
ITALIC.
The ITALIC letter, which is now an accessory of the Roman, claims an origin
wholly independent of that character. It is said to be an imitation of the hand-
writing of Petrarch, and was introduced by Aldus Manutius of Venice, for the
purpose of printing his projected small editions of the classics, which, either in the
Roman or Gothic character, would have required bulky volumes. Chevillier in-
forms us that a further object was to prevent the excessive number of contractions
then in use, a feature which rendered the typography of the day often unin-
telligible, and always unsightly.2 The execution of the Aldine Italic was entrusted
1 Bibliographical Decameron, ii, 381-2.
2 Origine deVImprimerie de Paris, Paris, 1694, 4to,p. 1 10. Chevillier gives a curious instance
of this tendency of the old printers to contract their words. The example is taken from La
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 51
to Francesco da Bologna,1 who, says Renouard, had already designed and cut the
other characters of Aldus' press. The fount is a "lower-case" only, the capitals
being Roman in form. It contains a large number of tied letters, to imitate hand-
writing, but is quite free from contractions and ligatures. It was first used in the
Virgil of 1501, and rapidly became famous throughout Europe. Aldus produced
six different sizes between 1501-58. It was counterfeited almost immediately in
Lyons and elsewhere. The Junta press at Florence produced editions scarcely
distinguishable from those of Venice. Simon de Colines cut an Italic bolder
and larger than that of Aldus, and introduced the character into France about
1 521, prior to which date Froben of Basel had. already made use of it at his
famous press. Plantin used a large Italic in his Polyglot, but, like many other
Italics of the period, it was defaced by a strange irregularity in the slopes of
the letters. The character was originally called Venetian or Aldine, but sub-
sequently took the name of Italic in all the countries into which it travelled,
except Germany, which, acting with the same independence as had been dis-
played towards the Roman, called it "Cursiv." The Italians also adopted the
Latin name, " Characteres cursivos seu cancellarios."
The Italic was at first intended and used for the entire text of a classical
work. Subsequently, as it became more general, it was used to distinguish
portions of a book not properly belonging to the work, such as introductions,
prefaces, indexes, and notes ; the text itself being in Roman. Later, it was used
in the text for quotations ; and finally served the double part of emphasising
certain words2 in some works, and in others, chiefly the translations of the Bible,
of marking words not rightly forming a part of the text.
In England it was first used by De Worde, in Wakefield's Oratio, in 1524.
Day, about 1567, carried it to a high state of perfection ; so much so, that his
Italic remained in use for several generations. Vautrollier, also, in his New
Testaments, made use of a beautiful small Italic, which, however, was probably
of foreign cut. Like the Roman, the Italic suffered debasement during the
century which followed Day, and the Dutch models were generally preferred
Logique cCOkam, 1488, fol., a work in which there scarcely occurs a single word not abbreviated.
" Sic hie e fat sm qd ad simplr a e pducibile a Deo g a e & sir hie a n e g a n e pducibile a
Do," — which means: " Sicut hie est fallacia secundum quid ad simpliciter; A est producibile
a Deo ; ergo A est. Et similiter hie. A non est ; ergo A non est producibile a Deo."
1 Sir A. Panizzi, in his tract, Chi era Francesco da Bologna? London, 1858, i6mo, shows
that this artist was the same as the great Italian painter, Francesco Francia.
2 The German practice of inserting proper names and quotations, occurring in a German
book, in Roman type, probably suggested a similar use of the Italic in books printed in the
Roman letter.
52 The Old English Letter Foundries.
by English printers. These were carried down to a minute size, the " Robijn
Italic" of Christopher Van Dijk being in its day the smallest in Europe.
Nibilne te nocturnum presidium Palatii, nihil urbis vigiBee, nihil timor populi, nihil concursus lom-
rum omnium, nihil hie munirissimus hahendi semittis locus, nihil horum ora vnlttisqne movernnt? ppttrc
tu i consilia nen sentisi conttrictanijam omnium btrnni coascientia teneri conjurationem tuam non videt?
9. Robijn Italic, cut by Chr. van Dijk. (From the matrices in the Enschede foundry.)
It is not easy to fix the period at which the Roman and Italic became united
and interdependent. Very few English works occur printed wholly in Italic, and
there seems little doubt that before the close of the sixteenth century the founders
cast Roman and Italic together as one fount. The Italic has undergone fewer
marked changes than the Roman. Indeed, in many of the early foundries, and
till a later date, one face of Italic served for two or more Romans of the same
body. We find the same Italic side by side with a broad-faced Roman in one
book, and a lean-faced in another. Frequently the same face is made to serve
not only for its correct body, but for the bodies next above or below it, so that
we may find an Italic of the Brevier face cast respectively on Brevier, Bourgeois,
and Minion bodies. These irregularities were the more noticeable from the
constant admixture in seventeenth and eighteenth century books of Roman and
Italic in the same lines ; the latter being commonly used for all proper names, as
well as for emphatic words. The chief variations in form have been in the
capital letters, and the long-tailed letters of the lower-case. The tendency to
flourish these gradually diminished on the cessation of the Dutch influence, and
led the way to the formal, tidy Italics of Caslon and the founders of the
eighteenth century, some of whom, however, consoled themselves for their loss of
liberty in regard to most of their letters, by more or less extravagance in the
tail of the i^ which commenced the Qtwusque tandem of their specimens. As in
the case of the Roman, Caslon cut a uniform series of Italics, having due relation,
in the case of each body, to the size and proportions of the corresponding
Roman. The extensive, and sometimes indiscriminate, use of Italic gradually
corrected itself during the eighteenth century ; and on the abandonment, both
in Roman and Italic, of the long f and its combinations,1 English books were
left less disfigured than they used to be.
1 This reform, which was an incident in the general typographical revolution at the close
of last century, is usually credited to John Bell, who discarded the long f in his British Theatre,
about 1 79 1. Long before Bell's time, however, in 1749, Ames had done the same thing in his
Typographical Antiquities, and was noted as an eccentric in consequence. Hansard notes
the retention of the long /in books printed at the Oxford University press as late as 1824.
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 53
BLACK LETTER.
The Gothic letter employed by the inventors of printing for the Bible,
Psalter, and other sacred works, was an imitation of the formal hand of the
German scribes, chiefly monastic, who supplied the clergy of the day with
their books of devotion. This letter, as a typographical character, took the
name of Lettre de Forme, as distinguished from the rounder and less regular
ptttitn irfcpfifto cxt uolutfTe oliuCea
uolut ipf r ctt ttolutfTem? uoltttfTett0
10. Gothic type, or " Lettre de Forme," said to have been engraved circa 1480.
(From the original matrices in the Enschede foundry.)
manuscript-hand of the Germans of the fifteenth century, which was adopted
by Schoeffer in the Rationale, the Catholicon, and other works, and which
became known as Lettre de Somme. The pointed Gothic, or Lettre de
FORME, a name1 generally supposed to have reference to the precision in the
figure of the old ecclesiastical character (although some authorities have
considered it to be a corrupt, rather than a standard form of handwriting),
preserved its character with but little variation in all the countries to which it
travelled. It is scarcely necessary to detail its first appearance at the various
great centres of European typography, except to notice that in Italy and France
it came later than the Roman.2 In England it appears first in Caxton's type
No. 3,3 and figures largely in nearly all the presses of our early printers. De
Worde was, in all probability, the first to cut punches of it in this country, and to
produce the letter which henceforth took the name of " English," as being the
national character of our early typography. De Worde's English, or as it was
subsequently styled, Black-letter, was for two centuries and a half looked upon
as the model for all his successors in the art ; indeed, to this day, a Black-letter
1 The suggestion that Lettres de Forme may have meant merely letters commonly used in
print (adopting the early printers' use of the -word forma as type), appears to be somewhat far-
fetched. The term, though apparently distinctly typographical, was used both by Tory
and Ycair to denote a class of letter which the former denominated Canon, or cut according to
rule, as opposed to the more fanciful lettres bdtardes.
2 Petrarch expressed a strong aversion to the character ; but some Italian and French
printers adopted it, to the exclusion of the Roman, and, like Nicholas Prevost in 1525, boasted
of it as the type " most beautiful and most becoming for polite literature." Gothic printing
began in Italy about 1475 and in France in 1473.
3 See specimen No. 15, post.
54 The Old English Letter Foundries.
is held to be excellent, as it resembles most closely the character used by our earliest
printers. The Black being employed in England to a late date, not only for Bibles,
but for law books and royal proclamations and Acts of Parliament, has never wholly
fallen into disuse among us. The most beautiful typography of which we as a
nation can boast during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, is to be found
in the Black-letter impressions of our printers. The Old English was classed
with the Roman and Italic by Moxon as one of the three orders of printing-
letter ; and in this particular our obligations to the Dutch are much less
apparent than in any other branch of the printing art. Indeed, the English
Black assumed characteristics of its own which distinguished it from the LETTRE
Flamand of the Dutch on the one hand, and the FRACTUR of the Germans on
<&tiau£our tanbcm afttiterc, Catania, patientia
nostra 5 ruiamtuit rtiam furor i*»te ttm£ no£ eht*
bet 5 ruiem ab flnrm fefc effrenata jactaftit aunacia 5
ii. Philosophie Flamand, engraved by Fleischman, 1743. (From the matrices in the Enschede foundry.)
the other. It has occasionally suffered compression in form, and very occasion-
ally expansion ; but till 1800 its form was not seriously tampered with. Caslon
was praised for his faithful reproduction of the genuine Old English ; other
founders, like Baskerville, did not even attempt the letter ; the old Blacks were
looked upon as the most useful and interesting portion of James's foundry at its
sale1; and the Roxburgh Club, those Black-letter heroes of the early years of this
century, dismissed all the new-fangled founts of modern founders in favour of
the most venerable relics of the early English typographers. Of these new-
fangled Blacks, it will suffice to recall Dibdin's outburst of righteous indignation —
" Why does he {i.e., Mr. Whittingham), and many other hardly less distinguished
printers, adopt that frightful, gouty, disproportionate, eye-distracting and taste-
revolting form of Black-letter, too frequently visible on the frontispieces of his
books ? It is contrary to all classical precedent, and outrageously repulsive in
itself. Let the ghost of Wynkin de Worde haunt him till he abandon it !"2
The Lettre de Somme of the Germans, which, as we have seen, was adopted
by Schoeffer in 1459, became in the hands of the fifteenth century printers a
rival to the Gothic. Whether, as some state, it was derived from the Gothic, or
was a distinct hand used by the lay scribes, we need not here discuss. Its name
has been generally supposed to owe its origin to the fact that among the earliest
works printed in this character was the Summa fratris S. Thomce de Aquino?
1 See specimen No. 49, post. 2 Bibliographical Decameron, ii, 407.
3 The first part of this work is without date or printer's name ; but the types are those of
the 1462 Bible. The Secunda Secundce was printed by Schoeffer at Mentz in 1467, in the types of
the Rationale.
The English Type Bodies and Faces. 55
Others derive the name from the carelessly formed letters used in books of
account. This letter developed in considerable variety among the early presses
of the fifteenth century. Its main characteristics being that of a round Gothic,1
or at least of a Gothic shorn of its angles, it lent itself readily to the influence of
the Roman, and we find it, as in the case of the first Italian books, merging into
that character; while in the case of many of the German and Netherlands presses
we find it occasionally absorbing that character, adopting its form frequently in
the capitals, and " Gothicising" it in the lower-case. But to arrive at an accurate
idea of the changes and varieties of the Lettre DE Somme, it is necessary to
study carefully the productions of the various presses and schools of typography
in which it was used. In England it appeared, as might be expected, in some of
the early works of the first Oxford press,2 whither it was brought from Cologne.
But it never took root in the country, and was speedily rejected for the national
Gothic, only to reappear as an exotic or a curiosity.
SECRETARY.
The Secretary, or Gros-BAtarde, was the manuscript-hand employed
by the English and Burgundian scribes in the fifteenth century. It was,
therefore, only natural that Caxton, like his typographical tutor, Colard Mansion
of Bruges, should adopt this character for his earliest works, in preference to
the less familiar Gothic, Semi-Gothic, or Roman letter. The French possessed
a similar character, which, according to Fournier, was first cut by a German
named Heilman, resident in Paris about 1490. But several years before 1490
the Gros-Batarde was in use in France; in some cases the resemblance between
the French and English types being remarkable. The Rouen printers, who
executed some of the great law books for the London printers early in the six-
teenth century, used a particularly neat small-sized letter of this character. Like
the Semi-Gothic, the Secretary, after figuring in several of the early London
and provincial presses, yielded to the English Black-letter, and after about 1534
did not reappear in English typography. It developed, however, several curious
variations ; the chief of which were what Rowe Mores describes as the Set-
Court, the Base Secretary, and the Running Secretary. Of the first
named, James's foundry in 1778 possessed two founts, come down from Grover's3;
but as the old deformed Norman law hand which they represented was abolished
by law in 1733, the matrices, which at no time appear to have been much used,
1 See specimens Nos. 5 and 6, ante, and 18A, post. 2 See specimen No. 27, post.
8 See specimen No. 52, post.
56 The Old English Letter Foundries.
became valueless. The name COURT Hand has since been appropriated for one
of the modern scripts. Its place was taken in law work by the ENGROSSING hand,
which Mores denominates as Base Secretary. Of this character, the only fount in
England appears to have been that cut by Cottrell about 1760.1 The RUNNING
SECRETARY was another law hand, described by Mores as the law Cursive of
Queen Elizabeth's reign. It was similar to the French Cursive, of which Nicolas
Granjon in 1556 cut the first punches at Lyons. Granjon's letter at first was
called after its author, but subsequently became known as Lettre de ClVILITE,
on account of its use, so Fournier informs us, in a work entitled la Civilite
puerile et honnete, to teach children how to write. Plantin possessed a similar
12. Lettre de Civilite, cut by Ameet Tavernier for Plantin, circa 1570. (From the matrices in the Enschede foundry.)
character in more than one size, which he made use of in dedications and other
prefatory matter. The English fount in Grover's foundry appears to have been
the only one in this country.
The Script, by which is meant the conventional copy-book writing hand, as
distinguished from the Italic on the one hand and the law hand on the other, is
another form of the Batarde, and is supposed to have originated with Pierre
Moreau of Paris, whose widow in 1648 published a very curious Virgil, the first
volume of which is printed in this character, in four or five sizes. The Dutch
founders copied it, and the curious founts in Grover's foundry were probably most
of them of Dutch origin.2 About 1760 Cottrell and Jackson both cut improved
founts of this character. The Script, which the French have called Lettre
Coulee and Lettre de Finance, and the Germans Geschreven Schrift,
has undergone a good many changes, especially during the present century.
M. Didot in 181 5 introduced a series of ligatures, or connectors, which had the
effect of making the letters in each word join continuously ; and at the same
time cast his letters on an inclined body, so as to fit closely together, and be
self-supporting. His system, however, involved a large number of combination-
letters and ligatures, which rendered it generally impracticable ; and it was
eventually replaced by a square-bodied Script, contrived to unite all the
advantages, and obviate all the disadvantages, of his ingenious system.
1 See specimen No. 7 '3, post. 2 See specimen No. $i,post.
CHAPTER II.
TYPE FACES (continued).
THE LEARNED, FOREIGN, AND PECULIAR CHARACTERS.
GREEK.
REEK type first occurs in the Cicero de Officiis, printed
at Mentz in 1465, at the press of Fust and Schoeffer.
• The fount used is exceedingly rude and imperfect,
many of the letters being ordinary Latin.1 In the same
year Sweynheim and Pannartz at Subiaco used a good
Greek letter for some of the quotations occurring in
Lactantius ; but the supply being short, the larger quo-
tations were left blank, to be filled in by hand. The first
book wholly printed in Greek was the Grammar of Lascaris, by Paravisinus, in
Milan, in 1476, in types stated to be cut and cast by Demetrius of Crete. The
fount (about a Great Primer in body) is a curious one, and contains breathings,
accents and a few abbreviations. The headings to the chapters are wholly in
capitals, which are very bold.2 It is to the glory of Milan that not only was the
first Greek book printed within its walls, but also the first Greek classic and the
first portion of the Greek Scriptures. The former was the ^Lsop, printed, it is
supposed, in 1480, but without printer's name. The resemblance, however,
1 Thus, 'On taa ra afiapTrjfiara appears OT/caTaa/ca/JT^a/caTa.
2 Lascaris caused to be printed at Florence, in 1494, an Anthologia Grceca, 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.
58 The Old English Letter Foundries.
between the fount of this work and that of the Lactantias is so close that there
seems much reason for crediting Paravisinus with the performance. The Greek
of the Psalter of 1481 is very different, the lower-case being larger, and remark-
ably bold and compact in appearance. The capitals generally resemble the
Lactantius fount.
Jenson, at Venice, appears to have cut Greek type as early as about 1470.
In i486 two Cretan printers produced respectively a Greek Psalter, with accents
and breathings, and Homer's Batrachomyomachia. It was, however, reserved to
Florence to boast of the first complete edition of Homer, which was printed in
that city in 1488. This work, one of the most glorious monuments of the
typographic art, appears in a beautiful Great Primer type, of remarkable elegance
and neatness, with few abbreviations. The printer was Demetrius of Crete.
But it was at Venice that Greek printing was destined to reach its greatest
excellence in the fifteenth century, at the press of Aldus, who in 1495 produced
his famous Aristotle, in a beautiful letter which eclipsed all its predecessors. His
fount was about a Double Pica in body, and much bolder and more imposing than
any which had yet appeared, as well as being better cast and justified. The
splendid Greek impressions of the elder Aldus are too well known to need further
notice here. Renouard mentions nine separate founts used at this press.
The fame of the Italian Greek presses early roused emulation in France.
Among the first printers of Paris, however, the Greek ^quotations and words
introduced in their works were scanty and indifferent. Gering used but a
very few letters, and Jodocus Badius, in 1505, excused the poverty of his
Annotatioiies in Nov. Testamentum, by pleading the paucity of his types. The
early works of the first Henri Estienne were similarly defective. In 1507, how-
ever, Greek punches were cut and matrices struck by Gilles de Gourmont, and
the first wholly Greek work was printed at his press in this year, being a Greek
Alphabet, with rules for pronunciation and reading. In the same year he also
printed the Batrachomyomachia. Greek printing, once started in Paris, made
rapid progress. Jodocus Badius, Vidouve, Colinseus, and Christian Wechel, all
distinguished themselves. Geofroy Tory contributed largely to the improvement
in the form of the character. But it was not till Robert Estienne, with the title
of " Regius in Graecis Typographus,"1 commenced his career, that Greek printing
reached its greatest perfection in France. On the establishment of an Imprimerie
Royale by Francis I,2 Claude Garamond, the first typographical artist of his day,
1 Robert Estienne was not the first to hold this title, Conrad Ndobar, 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.
2 The Imprimerie Royale at the Louvre, of which the present Imprimerie Nationale is the
The Learned, Foreign, and Pecttliar Characters. 59
was entrusted with the care of engraving punches and preparing matrices for
three founts of Greek, about an English, Long Primer, and Double Pica in body,
which henceforth became famous throughout Europe as the " Characteres Regii."1
These characters, modelled as to their capitals on the alphabet of Lascaris, and as
to their " lower-case" and abbreviations from the beautiful Greek calligraphy of
Angelus Vergetius of Candia, first appeared in the Eusebius, printed, in 1544,2
by Robert Estienne, to whom the use of the types was, by virtue of his office, con-
ceded,and whoemployed them in theproduction of some of the most brilliant Greek
impressions Europe has ever seen.3 During the seventeenth century the Royal
Greek punches and matrices lay for the most part idle ; but in 1691, Anisson,
Director of the Imprimerie Royale, rescued them from obscurity, and caused
new punches to be cut and matrices struck, to supply what were missing, by
Grandjean, the famous Parisian founder.
In the Low Countries, as early as 1501, Thierry Martens, at Louvain, had
Greek types with which he printed occasional words. He produced an edition of
/Esop in 15 13, and in 15 16 a Grammar of Theodore de Gaza's, and a little
book of Hours, in Greek. The latter is considered an excellent piece of
typography. Greek printing attained to considerable celebrity in the Low
Countries. The Greek fount used in Plantin's Polyglot, in 1569-72, is said to
have been cut by the famous French founder and engraver, Le Be.
Spain claims a prominent place in the history of early Greek printing in
Europe, as it was at Alcala in that country that the famous Complutensian
Polyglot of Cardinal Ximenes was printed in 1514-17,4 including the entire text
of the Bible in Greek. The fount employed in the New Testament is very grand
and imposing, and is said to have been cut specially for the work on the models
of Greek manuscripts of the eleventh or twelfth century.
Before the completion of this great work, Germany had secured the honour
of producing the first entire Greek Testament at the press of Froben of Basle.
Froben's Greek is somewhat cramped and stiff. Oporinus, who printed in the
direct successor, was not founded till 1640, by Louis XIII. Francis I granted the letters patent
in 1538, whereby Ndobar and his successors received the title of Royal Printers, but did not
create a royal printing establishment.
1 Renouard states that the last of the Greek founts of the Aldine press was without doubt
designed from Garamond's models.
2 Gresswell mentions an Alphabetum Grcecum, published in 1 543, as a preliminary specimen.
3 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 Francois Ier. Paris, 1856. 8vo.
4 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.
60 The Old English Letter Foundries.
same city in 1 55 1, besides using a fount identical with that of Froben, introduced
a smaller and much neater letter at the same time. Numerous printers produced
Greek works in Germany at this period, perhaps the most famous being Andrew
Wechel, who began at Paris with types inherited from his father, but in 1573
established himself at Frankfort, where he printed several very fine works in a
new and most elegant Greek, said to have been acquired from the Estiennes, to
whose letter it bears the closest resemblance.
The first appearance of Greek type in England is observed in De Worde's
edition of Whitintoni Grammatices, printed in 15 19, where a few words
are introduced cut in wood. Cast types were used at Cambridge in a
book entitled Galenus de Temperamentis, translated by Linacre, and printed by
Siberch in 1521. Siberch styles himself the first Greek printer in England ; but
the quotations in the Galenus are very sparse, and he is not known to have printed
any entire book in Greek. In 1524, Pynson also used some Greek words and
lines, without accents or breathings, in Linacre's De emendatd structurd Latini
sermonis ; but added an apology for the imperfections of the characters, which he
said were but lately cast, and in a small quantity. The first printer who possessed
Greek types in any quantity was Reginald Wolfe, who held a royal patent as
printer in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and printed, in 1543, Two Homilies of
Chrysostom, edited by Sir John Cheke, the first Greek Lecturer at Cambridge.
Eight years later, in the first volume of Dr. Turner's Herbal, printed at
Mierdman's press in London, the Greek words were given in Black, and quota-
tions in Italic. In Edinburgh, in 1 563, and as late as 1 579, the space for Greek words
was left blank in printing, to be filled in by hand. The Oxford University press,
re-established in 1585, was well supplied with Greek types, which were used in
the Chrysostom of 1586, and the Herodotus of 1591. The beautiful Greek fount
used in the Eton Chrysostom^ in 1 610- 12 — a work which takes rank with the finest
Greek impressions in Europe — is supposed to have been obtained from abroadj
probably from Paris or Frankfort. Its similarity to the Greek of the Estiennes
is remarkable. Indeed, the "characteres regii" of France were at that time, and
for long afterwards, the envy and models for all Europe. The Eton Greek types,
of which probably the matrices were not in England, were acquired by the Oxford
University, to which body, in 1632, application was made by Cambridge for the
loan of a Greek fount to print a Greek Testament, the sister University possessing
no Greek types of her own. A Greek press was established in London in 1637,
under peculiar circumstances, which are detailed in our account of the Oxford press.
There is every reason to suppose that of the handsome Greek letter provided
1 See specimen No. 28, post.
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. 61
for this press,1 not only the types, but the matrices were acquired. After this, Greek
printing became general in London and Oxford. The various typefounders all
provided themselves with a good variety of sizes, some of which were very small
and neat. There was a very fine Brevier Greek in Grover's foundry in 1700, and
a Nonpareil in that of Andrews in 1706 ; but for minute Greek printing, England
could produce nothing to equal the Sedan Greek Testament, printed by Jannon
in 1628.
As was the case with the Roman letter, many of our printers at the close of
the seventeenth century preferred the Dutch Greeks, which at that time were good,
particularly those cut by the Wetsteins. Thomas James, in 17 10, brought over
the matrices of four founts from Vosken's foundry at Amsterdam. In 1700,
Cambridge University, still badly off for Greek, made an offer for the purchase
of a fount of the King's Greek at Paris ; but withdrew on the French Academy
insisting as a condition that every work printed should bear the imprint,
" Characteribus Graecis e Typographeo Regio Parisiensi." The large number of
ligatures and abbreviations in the Greek of that day made the production of a
fount a serious business. The Oxford Augustin Greek comprised no fewer than
354 matrices, and the Great Primer as many as 456, and the Pica 508 ; Fournier,
however, went beyond all these, and showed a fount containing Jj6 different sorts !
The impracticability of such enormous founts brought about a gradual reduction
of the Greek typographical ligatures — a reform for which the Dutch founders,
under the guidance of Leusden, deserve the chief credit. Fournier, in 1764,
stated that for some years previously, in Holland, Greek printing had been
carried on with the simple letters of the alphabet. Wilson's beautiful Double
Pica Greek,2 used in the Glasgow Homer of 1756, was in its day the finest Greek
fount our country had ever seen. A new departure, however, was initiated by
the production, in 1763, of Baskerville's Greek fount3 for the Oxford New
Testament. The letter is neat, but stiff and cramped, and apparently formed
on an arbitrary estimate of conventional taste, and without reference to any
accepted model. The fount was praised, and provoked imitation. Basker-
ville's apprentice, Martin, produced a letter still less Greek than his master's,
and the general tendency was countenanced by the form of Bodoni's types,
which were so much admired in this country at the close of the century. A
reaction, however, had begun before Bodoni's time. The Glasgow Greek kept
its place in Wilson's specimens ; and Jackson, encouraged by the younger
Bowyer's remark, that the Greek types in common use " were no more Greek
1 See specimen No. impost. 2 See specimen No. 69, post.
3 See specimen No. yi,post.
62 The Old English Letter Foundries.
than they were English," cut a beautiful Pica about 1785 for his rising foundry.
Early in the nineteenth century, a new fashion of Greek, for which Porson was
sponsor and furnished the drawings, came into vogue, and has remained the
prevailing form to this day. It may be doubted if the Porsonian letter would be
recognised by an ancient Greek scribe as the character of his native land ;
but at any rate it is neat, elegant, and legible, and dispenses with all useless
contractions and ligatures. In taking leave of this subject, it would be an
omission not to mention the most beautiful little fount in which Pickering
printed his Homer, in 183 1. Probably no finer masterpiece of minute Greek
printing exists anywhere.
HEBREW.
The first Hebrew types are generally supposed to have appeared in 1475, in a
work printed by Conrad Fyner, at Esslingen in Wirtemburg, entitled Tractatus
contra perfidos Judceos. In Pheibia, in Austrian Italy, also in 1475, a Hebrew work
in four folio volumes, entitled the Arba Turim of Rabbi Jacob ben Ascher, is stated
by De Rossi1 to have been printed ; while in the same year, a few months earlier, at
Reggio in Italy, appeared Salamon Jarchi's Commentary on the Pentateuch, by
Abraham ben Garton ben Isaac. The type of this last-named work (which Schwab2
considers without doubt to be the first Hebrew book printed) is in the Rabbinical
character, somewhat rudely cut, but neat. Numerous other Hebrew works
followed, earlier than 1488, at which date the first entire Hebrew Bible was
printed at Soncino, by a family of German Jews. This rare Bible is printed with
points, and is neat and regular in appearance. The volume itself is highly
decorative, and shows a considerable amount of typographical skill on the part
of its Jewish printers.
Hebrew printing did not spread very rapidly. De Rossi mentions several
works printed at Constantinople during the fifteenth century, as also in the
Italian towns to which the family of Soncino printers carried the art. Aldus
was possessed of some rude Hebrew characters ; but it was Bomberg,
who established his Hebrew press in Venice in 15 17, who raised the fame of
that already famous city by the excellence of his types and workmanship. But
as late as 1520, at Naples, in a treatise on the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin letters,
by De Falco, the Hebrew words, for lack of types, were written in by hand.
In Western Europe, France was next to Italy in producing Hebrew type.
Mention is made of an Alphabetum Hebraicum et Grcscum, printed by Gilles de
Gourmont in 1 507 ; and in 1 508 that able typographer, whose distinction as
1 De Hebraicce typographies origine. Parma, 1776. 4to.
2 Les Incunables Orientaux. Paris, 1883. 8vo.
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. 63
the first cutter of Greek type in France we have already noticed, produced,
under the conduct of his patron, Tissard, a Hebrew Grammar, together with the
Oratio Dominica, and other passages in the sacred language. The types made
use of were ill-formed and imperfect. Although thus early initiated, Hebrew
printing made little or no progress for some years. Jodocus Badius showed
a few lines in 15 11 ; and in 15 16 Gourmont printed an Alphabetum Hebraicum
et Grcecum. In 15 19, Augustino Giustiniani, a native of Genoa, who had already
distinguished himself by superintending the production of Porrus' Polyglot
Psalter at that city in 15 16, being invited to Paris by the King, caused new
punches and matrices of the Hebrew to be made by Gourmont. The work took a
year and a half to complete ; when, in 1520, was published the Grammar of the
Rabbi Moses Kimhi, the first wholly printed Hebrew work produced in Paris.
From this time Hebrew printing made steady progress in France. Most of the
printers possessed types, the Wechels and the Estiennes being the most dis-
tinguished in their use of them.
In Spain the printers of the Complutensian Polyglot made use of a fine
Hebrew fount in 15 14-17.
In Germany, as early as 1501, in a book supposed to have been printed at
Erfurt, Hebrew letters occur, cut rudely on wood ; and at Basle, Strasburg, and
Augsburg a similar primitive method was adopted, as it was also in the case of
the Hebrew Grammar printed at Leipsic in 1 520. In 1 5 12, however, at Tubingen
in Wirtemburg, the Septem psalmi pcenitentiales were printed in cast metal type.
In 1534, at Basle, the first Hebrew Bible printed by a Gentile was produced at the
press of Bebel. Froben's Bible, in the same town, in 1536, is in a type inferior
to that of Bomberg. The running titles are all in the Rabbinical character.
In 1587, Elias Hutter printed at Hamburg a Hebrew Bible in large type, in
which the " radical" letters appear black in the usual way, and the " serviles" are
open, or in outline, while the " quiescents" are in smaller solid letters placed above
the line. This Bible was reprinted in 1603, and is a typographical curiosity.
In the Low Countries, Hebrew words, probably cut in wood, occur in the
Epistola apologetica Paidi de Middleburgo, printed at Louvain in 1488; and Gand1
gives 1 506 as the probable date of a Hebrew Dictionary, sine notd, but attributed
to Martens. This, however, appears doubtful, as in 15 18 Martens first announced
his intention to print in Hebrew. His first-dated Hebrew work was a Grammar,
in 1528 ; though Schwab considers that the Dictionary above referred to properly
belongs to the year 1520. Martens' earliest founts were a large Hebrew with
vowel points, and a small, without. Hebrew printing was also practised at
1 Recherches . . sur la Vie et les Editions de Thierry Martens. Alost, 1845. 8vo.
64 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Leyden in 1520. The splendid type cut by Le Be, the Frenchman, for Plantin's
Polyglot, printed at Antwerp in 1569-72, placed the Netherlands in the front rank
of Hebrew typography. Amsterdam, during the seventeenth century, excelled all
other cities in its Hebrew printing. Abraham and Bonaventura Elzevir printed
here in Hebrew about 1630, and the Hebrew Bibles of Janson in 1639, Athias
in 1667, and Van der Hooght in 1705, are justly regarded as masterpieces of
Hebrew typography.
The first specimen of Hebrew printing in England occurs in Wakefield's
Oratio de laudibus et utilitate trium linguarum, printed by De Worde in 1524,
where a few words appear, rudely cut on wood. In the same work the author
complained that he was compelled to omit a third part, because the printer had no
Hebrew types. Hebrew words cut in wood are also used in Humfrey's Life of
Bishop Jewell, printed by John Day in 1573 ; and Todd, in his Life of Walton,
mentions a work of Dr. Peter Baro on Jonah, printed at the same press in 1579,
in the preface to which occur several verses of Hebrew. As late as 1603 Dibdin
points out that in a poem, published at Oxford, composed by Dr. Thorne, Regius
Professor of Hebrew at that University, a phrase in Hebrew is added, with the
remark, " Interserenda hoc in loco . . . sed enim Typographo deerant
characteres." Todd, however, mentions a work printed at Oxford in 1 597,
in which Hebrew type is used, while a translation from 6\ Chrysostom, of
John Willoughbie, printed by Barnes in 1602, shows two distinct founts in
use. The first English book in which any quantity of Hebrew type was
made use of was Dr. Rhys's Cambro-brytanniccz CymrcBccBve Ungues institu-
tioiies, printed by Thomas Orwin in 1592. Minsheu's Ductorin Linguas,'m i6iy,
printed by John Browne, shows Hebrew which serves not only for its own
language, but also for the Syriac. And in 1621 John Bill used a newer and
better letter for printing Dr. Davies's Antique? Ungues BritanniceB . . rudimenta.
The Hebrew fount made use of in Walton's Polyglot in 1657 was probably the
first important fount cut and cast in this country ; and, as we shall have occasion
to notice, was found fault with by the critics of that great undertaking. Oxford
received a great and small Hebrew1 among the matrices presented to her by Dr.
Fell ; and both there and in London several Hebrew works were printed at the
close of the seventeenth century, although none of striking importance. It is
significant of the superior reputation of the Oxford Hebrew, that the Hebrew and
Chaldaean versions in the Oratio Dominica of 1700 were among the versions printed
for the London publisher of that work in the University types. Thomas James,
although he visited Amsterdam in 17 10, at that time the centre of the best
1 See specimens Nos. 34 and 35, post.
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. 65
Hebrew printing in Europe, failed to secure any matrices ; and most of those
which subsequently were added to his foundry appear to have been cut by
English founders. Among them were four founts of Rabbinical Hebrew,1 for which
character there existed no matrices in England in Walton's time, as he was com-
pelled to cut the alphabet shown in his Prolegomena in wood. Mores counted as
many as twenty-three different founts in James's foundry in his day, eight of which
were with points, the remainder without. For those without points it was early the
practice to cast points on a minute body, to be worked in a separate line below
the letter. Caslon cut several good founts of Hebrew (one of which was of
the open or outline description first introduced by Hutter) ; and during the
eighteenth century the character became a necessary part of the stock of every
founder. It would be difficult, however, to point to any striking achievement in
Hebrew typography earlier than Bagster's Polyglot in 1 817-21, in which the
Hebrew text is printed in a very small and beautiful type cut by Vincent Figgins,
which in its day had the reputation of being the smallest Hebrew with points in
England, and of equalling in size and exceeding in beauty even the elegant
letter of Jansson of Amsterdam, two centuries before.
ARABIC
The first book printed in Arabic types is supposed to be a Diurnale
grcECorum Arabum, printed at Fano in Italy, in 15 14. Two years later, Porrus'
Polyglot Psalter, comprising the Arabic version, was printed at Genoa : and two
years later still, a Koran in Arabic is said to have been printed at Venice.
Thus, says De Rossi, while no Arabic types were to be found in any other
part of Europe, three towns of Italy possessed, and were making use of them
at the same moment.
In 1505 an Arabic Vocabidary at Granada had the words printed in Gothic
letter with the Arabic points placed over them ; and in other presses where there
were no Arabic types, the language was expressed in Hebrew letters or cut
in wood. De Guignes and others mention a fount of Arabic used by Gromors
in Paris, in 1539-40, to print Postel's Grammar, and add that the fount subse-
quently disappeared and was lost ; and as late as 1 596, in a book printed at Paris,
the Arabic words had to be rendered in Hebrew. In 1591 the Vatican press
had a fine fount of Arabic, a specimen of which is given by Angelo Roccha in
his Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, printed at that press. The Medicean and
Borromean presses also had founts ; and at Leyden, Raphlengius and Erpenius
1 See specimen No. 47, post.
K
66 The Old English Letter Fottndries.
were both celebrated for their Arabic letter. In 1636 the foundry of the
Propaganda showed specimens of Arabic, previous to which date Savary de
Breves had had cut in Constantinople, and finished by Le Be of Paris, the
famous Arabic founts which were used to print the Psalter at Rome in 1614, and
subsequently were purchased by Vitre for the French king,1 and used in Le
Jay's magnificent Paris Polyglot of 1645. The punches and matrices of these
founts still exist. Cotton mentions an Arabic press in Upsala in 1640.
In England it was not till early in the seventeenth century that Arabic
printing began to be practised. In Wakefield's Oratio de laudibus . . trium
linguarum, Arabicce, Chaldaicce et Hebraicce, printed by De Worde in 1524, a
few rude Arabic letters are introduced, cut in wood. In Minsheu's Ductor in
Linguas, 1617, the Arabic words are printed in Italic characters. Laud's gift
of Oriental MSS. to Oxford in 1635, and the appointment of an Arabic lecturer,
.was the first real incentive to the cultivation of the language by English
scholars. Previous to this, it is stated that the Raphlengius Arabic press at
Leyden had been purchased by the English Orientalist, William Bedwell ; but if
brought to this country, it does not appear that it was immediately made use of.2
The Arabic words in Thomas Greave's oration, De Linguce Arabics Utilitate,
printed at Oxford in 1639, were written in by hand; and the same author, when
publishing his Elementa Linguce Persicce at the press of James Flesher at London,
in 1649, explained in his preface that his work had been ready for publication
nine years before, but having no types with which to print it, it had been delayed.
A year earlier, in 1648, Miles Flesher, predecessor to James and one of the Star
Chamber printers, had published in the same type, and at the same press, a work
entitled De Siglis Arabum et Persarum Astronomis. James Flesher was the
printer who printed in his own types the original specimen-page of the London
Polyglot in 1652. His Arabic, however, is a smaller character than' that
subsequently made use of by Roycroft for this grand work. Dr. Fell's gift of
matrices to Oxford in 1667 included a fount of Arabic,3 which appeared in the
specimen of the foundry, and was used also in the Oratio Dominica of 1700.
Prior to this, however, Pocock's Carmen Tograi was printed at Oxford by Hall
in 1661, "Typis Arabicis Academicis," in a letter differing both from Flesher's
1 The English were in negotiation for the founts when Vitre" received his orders to
purchase.
2 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. 3 See specimen No 37, post.
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. 67
and Dr. Fell's. In 1721, William Caslon cut for the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge the fount of Arabic for the Psalter of 1725, and the Testa-
ment of 1727. This fount,1 with those of Oxford and the Polyglot ', shared
among them nearly all the Arabic printing in England for about a century
later, when new faces began to be cut or imported. The Polyglot Arabics
passed through Grover's foundry into that of Thomas James, at the sale of
which, in 1782, they were bought in an imperfect state by Dr. Edmund Fry for
the Type Street foundry. Mores mentions three other Arabic founts cut by
English founders, but includes them among the lost matrices in his collection.
SYRIAC.
Syriac type, probably cut in wood, first appeared in Postel's Lingnarum
xii Alphabeta, printed in Paris in 1538 ; but the characters are so rude in form and
execution as to be scarcely legible. In 1555, however, Postel assisted in cutting
the punches for the famous Syriac Peshito New Testament, printed at Vienna,
in two vols. 4to, the first portion of the Scriptures, and apparently the first book
printed in that language. In 1569-72 Plantin at Antwerp included the Syriac
New Testament in his Polyglot, and reissued it in separate form in 1574.
The Vatican press had a good fount in 1 591, which appears in Roccha's Bibliotheca
Apostolica Vaticana. Mores mentions a Nomenclature by Ferrarius at Rome in
1622 with Syriac type. In 1636 the press of the Propaganda issued a specimen
of the Estranghelo and Syriac alphabets, and in the same year Kircher's
Prodromus Coptus, published at the same press, contained passages in both
these characters, and in Heraclean. A Syriac Testament was printed at
Cothon, in Upper Saxony, in 1621, and at Hamburg in 1663; and later, Gutbier
printed the same work in several editions. In France, after the disappearance
of Postel's types, there was no Syriac printing for nearly a century. Henri
Estienne printed his Syriac New Testament in 1539, in Hebrew characters;
and in Cajetan's Paradigmata de iv lingis, which appeared in 1596, the Syriac
character was cut on wood, and longer passages expressed in Hebrew type. In
1614 Savary de Breves brought Syriac matrices along with those of other
Oriental characters to Paris, and these were made use of by Vitre, in 1625, to
print a Syriac and Latin Psalter, and appeared subsequently in the great
Polyglot of Le Jay.
Syriac did not make its appearance in England till the middle of the
seventeenth century. The language was usually expressed in the earlier works
in Hebrew characters. A letter of Bishop Usher's, in 1637, mentions a project to
1 See specimen No. 61, post.
68 The Old English Letter Foundries.
purchase Syriac type abroad, and negotiations appear to have been made both
in Paris (where the Bishop's correspondent informed him there were at that time
three or four founts) and at Geneva, with a view to procuring the characters.1
But it was not till the prospectus and preliminary specimen of Walton's
Polyglot were issued in 1652 that we find Syriac type in use in this country.
The Polyglot contains the entire Bible in Syriac. In 1661 there was a fount at
Oxford, which appears in Pocock's Carmen Tograi, and differs from the fount
subsequently presented by Dr. Fell,2 which was used in the Oratio Dominica of
1700, and other Oriental publications of the University. The Polyglot fount3
found its way to Caslon's foundry, who added two new founts of his own cutting.
In 1778 Mores noted six founts altogether in the country. A fresh interest was
taken in Syriac printing by the exertions of Dr. Claudius Buchanan, who, in
1 81 5, had the Gospels and Acts printed in types cut and cast under his
supervision by Vincent Figgins. After his death, his work fell into the hands of
Dr. Lee to complete, who, objecting to the omission of the vowel points, printed
the entire New Testament in 18 16. In 1825 Dr. Fry produced the beautiful
Nonpareil Syriac for Bagster's Polyglot, and in 1829 Mr. Watts cast the fount of
Estranghelo for the edition of the Bible published that year, which at the time
was the only Syriac Bible in Nestorian characters printed in this country.
ARMENIAN.
The press of the Vatican at Rome possessed a good fount of this character
in 1 591, when Angelo Roccha showed a specimen in his Bibliotheca Apostolica
Vaticana. Previous to this a Psalter is said to have been printed at Rome in
1565, and Rowe Mores mentions doubtfully a Liturgy printed at Cracow in
1549. In 1662 the Armenian Bishops applied to France for assistance in
printing an Armenian Bible, but being refused, although Armenian printing had
been practised in Paris in 1633, went to Rome, where, as early as 1636, the press
of the Propaganda had published a specimen of its Armenian matrices. The
Patriarch, after fifteen months' residence in Rome, removed to Amsterdam,
where he established an Armenian press, and printed the Bible in 1666, followed,
in 1668, by a separate edition of the New Testatment. In 1669 the press was
set up at Marseilles, where it continued for a time, and was ultimately removed
to Constantinople.
In England the first Armenian types were those presented by Dr. Fell to
1 Parr's Life and Letters of Usher. London, 1686, fol., p. 488.
2 See specimen No. 38, post. 3 See specimen No. 41, post.
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. 69
Oxford in 1667. In the Prolegomena of Walton's Polyglot, the alphabet there
given had been cut in wood. In 1736 Caslon cut a neat Armenian1 for
Whiston's edition of Moses Chorenensis, and these two were the only founts in
England before 1820.
ETHIOPIC.
The earliest type of this language appeared in Potken's Psalter and Song of
Solomon, printed at Rome in 1513. The work was reprinted at Cologne in
1 5 18, in Potken's polyglot Psalter. In 1548 the New Testament was printed at
Rome by some Abyssinian priests. The press of the Propaganda issued a
specimen of its fount in 163 1, and again in Kircher's Prodromns Coptics in 1636.
Erpenius at Leyden had an Ethiopic fount, which in 1626 was acquired by the
Elzevirs. Usher attempted to procure the fount for this country, but his attempt
failing, punches were cut, and matrices prepared by the London founders for the
London Polyglot, which showed the Psalms, Canticles, and New Testament in the
Ethiopic version. Various portions of Scripture were printed at Leyden and
Frankfort about the same time, of which the most important work was the
Psalter, etc., of Ludolfus, printed at the latter place in 1 701, in a letter bolder
and larger than either the Vatican or London fount. The Oxford press possessed
a fount of Ethiopic2 prior to 1693, which appears, with the other Oxford Orientals,
in the Oratio Dominica of 1700 and 171 3 — the Amharic being in the same
character. Chamberlayne's Oratio Dominica, printed at Amsterdam in 17 15,
shows these versions in copperplate. Mores mentions a second English fount
in his list of the matrices of the "Anonymous" foundry, besides the fount cut
by Caslon3 for his foundry. There were thus four founts in England in 1778.
The Polyglot fount4 and that of the anonymous founder came into the possession
of James, and at the sale of his matrices in 1782, were acquired by Dr. Fry.
The reprint of Ludolfus' Psalter by the Bible Society in 181 5 was in the latter
type. But the Ethiopic Gospels printed by the same society in 1826 were in
a fount of types cast from the matrices presented by Ludolfus to the Frankfort
Library in 1700. No new fount of Ethiopic in England had been added to
the four already named, when Hansard wrote in 1825.
COPTIC.
Of this character the press of the Propaganda possessed a fount, of which a
specimen was issued in 1636, in which year also Kircher's Prodromus Coptus
1 See specimen No. 63, post. 2 See specimen No. 39, post.
3 See specimen No. (id, post. * See specimen No. 40, post.
Jo The Old English Letter Foundries.
appeared at the same press. No fount, however, appeared in England till 1667
— the alphabets shown in the Introduction and Prolegomena to the London
Polyglot in 1655 and 1657 being cut on wood. In 1667 Dr. Fell presented Coptic
matrices1 to Oxford, and it was from these that the types were cast for David
Wilkins' edition of the New Testament, printed in 1716. In 1731 the same
scholar published an edition of the Pentateuch, this time at the press of
Bowyer, in types specially cut by William Caslon.2 Mores further mentions a
Coptic fount cut by Voskens of Amsterdam ; and abroad, besides the fount at
Rome, there was one (or more) at Paris. A specimen is shown in Fournier ; and
in 1808, in Quatremere's work on the Language and Literature of Europe,
considerable portions of Scripture in Coptic were included. In our own country
the Oxford and Caslon founts were the only two in 1778, when Mores wrote, nor
had the number been increased when Hansard compiled his list of foreign founts
in 1825.
SAMARITAN.
Samaritan type appears to have followed closely on the purchase of the
celebrated MS. of the Samaritan Pentateuch, which was deposited in the Oratory
at Paris in 1623. The press of the Propaganda had a fount in 1636, and the
Paris Polyglot, completed in 1645, contained the entire Pentateuch in type of
which the punches and matrices had been specially prepared under Le Jay's
direction. The fount used in the London Polyglot in 1657 is admitted to be
an English production,3 and was probably cut under the supervision of Usher,
who between 1620 and 1630 was most active in procuring Samaritan MSS.
for this country. Samaritan type was used in Scaliger's De emendatione
temporum, printed at Geneva in 1629 ; also in Leusden's Schola Syriaca, at
Utrecht, in 1672; besides which, Mores mentions a fount neatly cut by Voskens
of Amsterdam. Another fount was included in Dr. Fell's gift to Oxford in 1667,
and this appears in the Oratio Dominica of 1700. The Polyglot Samaritan
passed into Grover's hands, thence to James, at whose sale it was bought,
together with another fount of the same character, by Dr. Fry. The Leusdenian
fount belonging to Andrews also came to James's foundry, but was there lost.
Caslon had a fount cut by Dummers,4 which, with those of James and Oxford,
were the only founts in the country in 1778.5 In Hansard's list of learned
founts in 1825, these four founts were still the only Samaritans in the country.
1 See specimen No. 36, post. 2 See specimen No. 62, post.
3 See specimen No. 42, post. i See specimen No. 78, post.
6 James's foundry also had a set of punches in Long Primer, but these appear never to have
been struck,
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. Ji
SCLAVONIC.
Types in this character existed at an early date, a Psalter having been
printed at Cracow in 1491, and reprinted at Montenegro in 1495. In 15 12 the
Gospels were printed at Ugrovallachia, and again in 1552 at Belgrade, and in 1562
at Montenegro. There was, in 1553, a Sclavonic press established by the Czar
Ivan Vasilievitch at Moscow, whence, in 1564, appeared the Acts and Epistles, a
volume which has the distinction of being the first book printed in Russia. The
type and material for this press are said to have been brought from Copenhagen.
The first Russian printers were persecuted, but succeeded in producing several
other works in Sclavonic type. In 1581 the first Bible in that language was
printed at Ostrog, and after that printing became more general. The second
Moscow press, established in 1 644, was famous for its excellent typography ; the
second edition of the Bible, in 1663, is a splendid performance. Sclavonic
printing appears to have been but little practised out of Russia, yet we find
matrices with Voskens of Amsterdam about 1690; from which, probably, the
improved types introduced into the Moscow press in 1707 were cast.
The only Sclavonic fount in England was that given by Dr. Fell to Oxford,
and this, Mores states, was replaced in 1695 by a fount of the more modern
Russian character, purchased probably at Amsterdam. The Oratio Dominica
of 1700 gives a specimen of this fount, but renders the Hieronymian version in
copperplate. Chamberlayne's Oratio Dominica at Amsterdam in 17 15 does the
same ; but the Cyrillian type differs from that of Oxford. The press of the
Propaganda showed founts both of Cyrillian and Hieronymian in 1753, and founts
occur in nearly all the Polyglot specimens of the chief European foundries.
The Modern Sclavonic, better known to us as Russian, is said to have
appeared first in portions of the Old Testament, printed at Prague in 15 17-19.
Ten years later there was Russian type in Venice. A Russian press was
established at Stockholm in 1625, by order of Gustavus Adolphus, and in 1696
there were matrices in Amsterdam, from which came the types used in Ludolph's
Grammatica Russica, printed at Oxford in that year, and whence also, it is said,
the types were procured which furnished the first St. Petersburg press, established
in 171 1 by Peter the Great. At Amsterdam, also, a second attempt to translate
and print the Bible into Russian, begun about 1698, was frustrated by the loss of
the MSS. and library of Ernest Gliick, the editor and translator, at the siege of
Marienburg, in 1702. The presses at St. Petersburg increased, and it is probable
that on the establishment of the press in connection with the Academy of
Sciences, in 1727, Russian types were cast in that city. Breitkopf of Leipsic
j 2 The Old English Letter Foundries.
had matrices prior to 1787; Fournier, at Paris, in 1766, showed a specimen of a
fount in his foundry ; Marcel, in his Oratio Dominica, 1805, showed another ; and
Bodoni of Parma, in his Manuale Tipogrqfico, 18 18, had no less than twenty-one
sizes.
The Emperor Alexander, in 18 13, promoted the publication of a Bible by
the Russian Bible Society, which resulted in the printing of the Gospels in 18 19,
and of the entire New Testameiit in 1823.
In England, Mores notes that in 1778 there was no Russian type in the
country, but that Cottrell was at that time engaged in preparing a fount. It
does not appear that this project was carried out, and the earliest Russian we
had was cut by Dr. Fry from alphabets in the Vocabidaria, collected and
published for the Empress of Russia in 1786-9. This fount appeared in the
Pantographia in 1799. About 1820 Thorowgood procured matrices in two sizes
from Breitkopf, and these three founts were the only ones enumerated by
Hansard in 1825.
ETRUSCAN.
The fount of this character cut by William Caslon1 about 1733 for Mr.
Swinton of Oxford was apparently the first produced. Fournier, in 1766, showed
an alphabet engraved in metal or wood. In 1771 the Propaganda published a
specimen of their fount, and Bodoni of Parma, in 1806, exhibited a third in his
Oratio Dominica. The character is one rarely used, and prior to 1820 it is
doubtful whether there were more than the three founts above mentioned in
existence.
RUNIC.
Types of this character were first used at Stockholm in a Runic and
Swedish Alphabetarium, printed in 161 1. The fount, which was cast at the
expense of the king, was afterwards acquired by the University. About the same
time Runic type was used at Upsala and at Copenhagen. Voskens, at Amster-
dam, had matrices about the end of the century, and it was from Holland that
Junius is supposed to have procured the matrices which in 1677 he presented to
Oxford. This fount appears in the Oratio Dominica of 1700, and in Hickes'
Thesaurus, 1703-5. Mores mentions a second fount, incomplete, in James's
foundry, which, however, was lost ; so that the Oxford fount remained the only
one in the country. Fournier and Fry show the alphabet engraved.
1 See specimen No. 64, post.
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. 73
GOTHIC.
Matrices of this language were presented to Oxford by Junius in 1677.
There appear to have been other matrices in Holland, as the neat Gothic type
used in Chamberlayne's Oratio Dominica at Amsterdam in 171 5 differs from
the Oxford fount which had appeared in the edition of 1700, as well as in Hickes'
Thesaurus. Mores speaks of another fount in James's foundry, whither it had
come from the "Anonymous" foundry. But the matrices were lost. Caslon,
however, cut a fount,1 which appeared in his first specimen in 1734. This and
the Oxford fount were the only two in England in 1820.
ICELANDIC, SWEDISH AND DANISH.
Founts of these characters were also included in Junius' gift to Oxford in
1677, and were probably specially prepared in Holland. The first-named is
shown in the Oratio Dominica of 1700, and in Hickes' Thesaurus. Printing had
been practised in Iceland since 153 1, when a Breviary was printed at Hoolum,
in types rudely cut, it is alleged, in wood. In 1574, however, metal types were
provided, and several works were produced. After a period of decline, printing
was revived in 1773; and in 1810 Sir George McKenzie reported that the
Hoolum press possessed eight founts of type, of which two were Roman, and
the remainder of the common Icelandic character, which, like the Danish and
Swedish, bears a close resemblance to the German.
SAXON.
The first type for this language was cut by John Day in 1567, under the
direction of Archbishop Parker, and appeared in ALlfric's Paschal Homily
in that year, and in the Ailfredi Res Gestce of Asser Menevensis, published in
1574. Parker, in his preface to the latter work, makes mention of Day as the
first who had cut Saxon characters. This interesting fount2 is rather less than
a Great Primer in body, and in general appearance is handsomer than many
of its successors. Day used the type in several other works, and added another
fount on Pica body. Saxon type was used by Browne in 161 7, in Minsheu's
Ductor in Linguas; and Haviland, who printed the second edition of that work
in 1626, had in 1623 already made use of the character in Lisle's edition oi^Elfrids
Homily. Another fount was used by Badger in 1640 for Spelman's Saxon Psalter,
1 See specimen No. 65, post, 2 See facsimile No. 20, post.
74 The Old English Letter Foundries.
so that, as Mores points out, at that date there were already four founts in the
country. Hodgkinson, one of the Star Chamber printers, had a Pica Saxon, which
was used in Dugda&s Monasticon, 1655 ; and Mores mentions two founts, a Great
Primer and a Pica, in use at Cambridge in 1644, in Wheelock's edition of Bede.
In 1654 Francis Junius had a fount of Saxon "cut, matriculated, and cast," at
Amsterdam, which, after printing Ccedmorts Paraphrase of Genesis in 1655, and
some other works in that town, he brought over to England, and in 1677
presented to the University of Oxford. As early as 1659 the University had
possessed a Saxon fount, and a second had been included among the purchases
made, probably, about the year 1672. Junius' fount was used in Hickes'
Thesaurus, 1705, and his Saxon Grammar in 171 1, but was not employed by the
printer of the Oratio Dominica of 1700, where a different fount appears — the same,
apparently, which in 1709 Bowyer used to print Miss Elstob's Homily on the
Birthday of St. Gregory. The Amsterdam printers of the Oratio Dominica of
171 5 used a handsome fount of their own. The great interest taken in the study
of the Northern languages at this period in England produced many Saxon
works, and some of our scholars devoted themselves to the study of the most
beautiful of the old manuscripts, with a view to the improvement of the
character in print. But the failure of the typefounder Robert Andrews to do
justice to Humphrey Wanley's drawings, in cutting the punches for Bowyer's
new fount in 1 71 5, 1 apparently discouraged further endeavours. Miss Elstob's
Anglo-Saxon Grammar was printed in that year in the new type, the matrices of
which were subsequently presented to Oxford, where they still remain.
Voskens, the Dutch founder, had Anglo-Saxon matrices at the beginning of
the eighteenth century, but, except in England and Holland, the character was not
used. Caslon and most of his successors cut Saxon founts. Mores noted eleven
different founts existing in England in 1778. This number was afterwards in-
creased by numerous new founts cut by Fry, Figgins, and Wilson ; and Hansard
enumerated twenty-three in 1825.
The Anglo-Norman Saxon character in which the Domesday Book was
written, was twice imitated in type during the eighteenth century, once by
Cottrell, whose attempt was not wholly successful, and again by Joseph Jackson,
under the supervision of Abraham Farley, in 1783. Jackson's types were used in
the facsimile printed by Nichols in that year, and the matrices, it is stated,
were deposited with the British Museum.
1 See specimen No. 48, post.
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. 75
IRISH.
The first fount of this character was that presented by Queen Elizabeth
to O'Kearney in 1571, and used to print the Catechism, which appeared in that
year in Dublin, at the press of Franckton. The fount, which is on English body,
is only partially Irish, many of the letters being ordinary Roman or Italic. Its
general appearance is, however, neat. It was used in several works during the
early years of the seventeenth century, notably in the Daniel's New Testament,
printed by Franckton in 1602, and the Common Prayer, issued from the same
press in 1608. This interesting fount was stated by some to have been secured
by the Jesuits, and transferred by them to one of their seminaries abroad ; but
there appears to be no foundation for such a statement. As late as 1652 it was
used in Godfrey Daniels' Christian Doctrine, printed in Dublin ; and still later
occasional words mark its gradual extinction. The Irish seminaries abroad,
meanwhile, were better supplied with Irish type than our countrymen. At
Antwerp, in 161 1, O'Hussey's Catechism was printed in an Irish fount, which
subsequently reappeared in 161 6 at Louvain, and was afterwards used to print
a number of works published by the Irish College in that place. In 1645 a
second and larger Irish fount appeared at Louvain, in Colgan's Acta Sanctorum
Hibemicz. In 1676 the press of the Propaganda at Rome published Molloy's
Lucema Fidelium in a handsome and bold character, Great Primer in body,
which was used again in the following year in Molloy's Grammar, and in 1707
for the Catechism of O'Hussey. Previous to this, however, Irish printing had
revived in England, and Moxon, in 1680, had cut the curious fount of Small
Pica Irish,1 used in Boyle's New Testament, printed by Robert Everingham
in 168 1, followed by Bedell's Old Testament in 1685, and in several further
publications from the same press. Until the year 1800 this fount was the only
Irish in this country. Abroad, a new fount appeared at Paris in 1732, where it
was used in McCuirtin's Dictionary, and in 1742 in Donlevey's Catechism, printed
by Jas. Guerin. The matrices for this fount appear to have been held, if not
prepared, by Fournier, as in the Manuale Typographique (ii, p. 196), issued
by him in 1766, a specimen of it appears among the foreign founts of his
foundry. The fate of this fount is a matter of uncertainty. After 1742 a
general cessation of Irish typography at home and abroad took place ; and the
few Irish works which appeared between that date and 1800 were for the most
part in Roman type (like O'Brien's Dictionary, Paris, 1768), or with the Irish
1 See specimen No. 45, post.
/6 The Old English Letter Foundries.
characters in copperplate (like Vallancey's Grammar). In 1804, however, a
revival took place, beginning in Paris, where Marcel, being at that time in
possession of several of the founts belonging to the press of the Propaganda,
which Napoleon had impounded for the use of the press of the Republic,
repaired and re-cast the Irish founts of the Lucevna Fidelium, and issued a
short sketch of the character and language, illustrated with readings in this type.
In his beautiful Oratio Dominica, printed in 1805 in presence of Napoleon,
the same type is used. " Strikes" of these founts were retained in Paris,
and the letter has reappeared in specimens issued in 18 19 and 1840. The
matrices probably remain part of the stock of the Imprimerie Nationale to this
day. The revival in our kingdom was more rapid. Moxon's fount, which
had passed through the hands of Robert Andrews, came in 1733 into the foundry
of Thomas James, at the sale of which, in 1782, the punches and matrices were
purchased in a somewhat defective condition by Dr. Fry. A specimen was shown
in Dr. Fry's specimen of 1794, and in his Pantographia, 1799, after which the
fount occasionally reappeared until 1820, when it was last seen in O'Reilly's
Catalogue of Irish Writers, printed in Dublin in that year. By this time,
however, there were some six new founts in the country. Neilson's Grammar,
printed at Dublin in 1 808, appeared in a type apparently privately cut, as it is
not found in the specimens of any of the British founders. Vincent Figgins cut
an elegant fount after the copperplate models in Vallancey's Grammar ; Dr. Fry,
under the inspection of Thaddeus Conellan, cut a Long Primer, Small Pica, and
Pica, and Watts shortly afterwards added three others.
MUSIC.
The earliest specimen of music-type occurs in Higden's Polychronicon,
printed by De Worde at Westminster in 1495. The square notes appear to have
been formed of ordinary quadrats, and the staff-lines of metal rules imperfectly
joined. In Caxton's edition of the same work in 1482 the space had been left
blank, to be filled up by the illuminator or scribe. In other countries music was
occasionally shown, but not in type. The plain chant in the Mentz Psalter of
1490, printed in two colours, was probably cut on wood. Hans Froschauer of
Augsburg printed music from wooden blocks in 1473, and the notes in Burtius'
Opuscidum Musices, printed at Bologna in 1487, appear to have been produced in
the same manner1; while at Lyons, the Missal printed by Matthias Hus in 1485
had the staff only printed, the notes being intended to be filled in by hand,
1 Music engraved on wood was used as late as 1845, in Oakley's Laudes Diurnce,
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. J J
either with a pen or by means of an inked stamp or punch. About 1500 a
musical press was established at Venice by Ottavio Petrucci, at which were
produced a series of Mass-books. In 15 13 he removed to Fossombrone, and
obtained a patent from Leo X for his invention of types for the sole printing
of figurative song (cantus figuratus). Petrucci's notes were lozenge-shaped,
and each was cast complete, with its correspondent proportion of staff-lines.
Before 1550 several European presses followed Petrucci's example, and music-
type, among other places, was used at Augsburg in 1506 and 151 1, Parma in
1526, Lyons in 1532, and Nuremburg in 1549. In 1525 Pierre Hautin cut punches
of lozenge-shaped music at Paris. Round notes were used at Avignon in 1532,
and Granjon cut this kind at Paris about 1559. In 1552, Adrian Leroy,
musician to Henri II of France, and Robert Ballard were appointed King's
printers for music. Their types are said to have been engraved by Le Be\
In England, after its first use, music-printing did not become general till 1550,
when Grafton printed Marbecke's Book of Common Prayer. " noted" in movable
type ; the four staff lines being printed in red, and the notes in black. There
are only four different sorts of notes used, — three square and one lozenge. The
appearance of the music is very bold and distinct. Day, Vautrollier, and East,
all printed with music-type, which was of the kind generally used during the
sixteenth century in Italy, Germany and France. Vautrollier was the printer
for Tallis and Bird, who obtained a patent from Elizabeth for the sole printing
of music. After the expiration of their patent, and another granted to Morley
in 1598, music-printing was exercised (as Sir John Hawkins states) by every
printer who chose it. A larger variety of founts appeared, and in some works
two or more founts of music appear mixed in the same work. About 1660 the
detached notes hitherto used began to give place to the " new tyed note," by
which the heads of sets of quavers could be joined. But at the close of the
seventeenth century music-printing from type became less common, on
account of the introduction of stamping and engraving plates for the purpose.
There was music-type in Aberdeen in 1666 at the press of Forbes. Oxford
University possessed music matrices, some apparently presented by Dr. Fell
about 1667, and others cut by Walpergen. The punches and matrices of the
latter are still preserved,1 and are very curious ; many of the matrices being without
sides in the copper, and justified so that the mould shall supply the side, and the
lines thus be cast so as to join continuously in the composition. Grover's
foundry also had a Great Primer music, and Andrews had matrices of several
sizes of the square-headed or plain chant character. Caslon possessed a set
1 See specimen No. impost.
j& The Old English Letter Foundries.
of round-headed matrices in two sizes, which came to him from Mitchell's
foundry. In 1764 Breitkopf of Leipsic succeeded in casting a music-type, in
which the notes were composed of several pieces, which were " built up" by the
compositor. Fleischman cut an improved music on the same principle for the
Enschedes at Haarlem. Rosart of Brussels, and Fournier of Paris, succeeded
in reducing the number of pieces of a fount to three hundred and one hundred,
respectively. Henry Fought, in our own country in 1767, invented sectional types,
which divided so as to admit the staff lines. The principal improvements after
Fought's time aimed at overcoming the hiatus caused by the joining of the lines.
Attempts were made to cast the notes separately from the lines, or to adopt a
logographic system of casting several notes in one piece. After the beginning
of the present century the production of music-type was left in the hands of
specialists, amongst whom Mr. Hughes, as late as 1841, had the reputation of
possessing the best founts in the trade. Of the plain chant and psalm music,
both Dr. Fry and Hughes had matrices in several sizes.
BLIND.
Printing for the blind was first introduced in 1784, by Valentin Haliy, the
founder of the Asylum for Blind Children in Paris. He made use of a large
script character, from which impressions were taken on a prepared paper, the
impressions so deeply sunk as to leave their marks in strong relief, and legible
to the touch. Haiiy's pupils not only read in this way, but executed their own
typography, and in 1786 printed an Essai giving an account of their institution
and labours, as a specimen of their press.1
The first School for the Blind in England was opened in Liverpool in 1791,
but printing in raised characters was not successfully accomplished till 1827,
when Mr. Gall, of the Edinburgh Asylum, printed the Gospel of St. John from
angular types. Mr. Alston, the Treasurer of the Glasgow Asylum, introduced the
ordinary Roman capitals in relief, and this system was subsequently improved
upon by the addition of the " lower-case" letters by Dr. Fry, the type-founder,
whose specimen gained the prize of the Edinburgh Society of Arts in 1837.
A considerable number of rival systems have competed in this country for
adoption, greatly to the prejudice of the cause of education among the blind.
The most important of these we here briefly summarize :
1 Essai sur PEdtication des Aveugles. Dedie" au Roi. A Paris. Imprime 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.
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters. 79
1. LUCAS SYSTEM. The letters were represented by curves and lines,
having no connection with the form of the characters they denoted. In this
type the Scriptures occupied about 36 volumes.
2. Frere's System. Wholly phonetic, the sounds being represented by
circles, angles, and lines. These symbols were cut in copper wire, and soldered
upon sheets of tin. From this form a stereotype-plate was taken.
3. MOON'S System. Based upon the two preceding, but professed to be
alphabetic. Nearly each symbol represents the form of a portion of the Roman
letter it denotes. The plates were prepared by Frere's method.
4. Braille's System. A series of dots in various combinations, designed
as a universal system. This system was introduced in the " Institution pour les
jeunes aveugles" in Paris, in place of the alphabetical system which had prevailed
since Haiiy's time.
5. Carton's System. Also arbitrary, though following somewhat the form
of the lower-case alphabet.
6. Alston's System. This great improvement consisted in the rejection of
all arbitrary symbols, and the adoption of the plain Roman alphabet of capitals.
In addition to the simplicity both to the teacher and the scholar, its adaptability
to typography was obvious. Instead of soldering the wire outlines on to tin,
the letters were now cut and cast by the ordinary process of typefounding.
The subsequent alphabetical systems have all been modifications of or
attempted improvements on that of Alston, as perfected by Dr. Fry, and there
seems every probability that this system will eventually become the recognised
method of printing for the blind in all European countries.
INITIALS.
In the earliest printed books, with the exception of the Mentz Psalter,
where engraved letters are undoubtedly used, a blank space was left for initial
letters, which were inserted by hand. A small index-letter, indicating what
the letter was to be, was generally printed or written in the space by the printer
before handing the work over to the illuminator. The trouble and cost involved
by this system early suggested the use of wood-cut initials, and Erhard Ratdolt
of Venice, about 1475, is generally supposed to have been the first printer to in-
troduce the " Literae florentes," which eventually superseded the hand-painted
initials. These ornamental initials, called also lettres tourmures, or sometimes
typi tomatissimi, were not generally adopted till the close of the century, by
which time, however, they had found their way to England, where, in 1484,
Caxton had introduced one or two kinds. The more elaborate initials, such as
8o
The Old English Letter Foundries.
that used in the Mentz Psalter, and the later beautiful letters used by Aldus at
Venice, by Schoeffer at Mentz in 1518, by Tory and the Estiennes at Paris,
by Froben at Basle, and by the other great printers of their day, were known as
lettres grises. Besides these, the ordinary "two-line letters," or large plain
capitals, came into use ; and these were generally cast — the ornamental letters
being for the most part engraved on wood or metal, and shifted about from one
forme to another. The general debasement of artistic taste in the latter half of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is very apparent in the initial letters,
particularly in England. Large black-letters were frequently used as initials
to books in Roman type, the large plain caps appear to have been most rudely
cut and cast, and when pictorial letters were made use of, the effect was not infre-
46. Dutch Initial Letters used in Boyle's Irish Testament, 1681. From the original matrices in the
Enschede foundry, Haarlem.
quently grotesque. Dutch initials found their way into this country in large
numbers. They were, as a rule, heavy and indistinct, and lacked the elegance of
the letters which, even as late as 1650, characterised some of the best printing in
France. The best initial letters we had were those used at Oxford, and these
were for the most part copperplate, and engraved by an artist specially retained
13. Blooming Initials, at the Oxford University Press. Circa 1700.
by the University for the purpose. The " Dutch Bloomers" shown by Watson
in 171 1 probably represented the ne plus idtra of typographical ornament at
that day. With Bible printers it was not uncommon to use appropriate pictorial
The Learned, Foreign, and Peculiar Characters.
Si
letters, and we frequently find in their works, both sacred and profane, the
initial " I " of Genesis representing the Creation, the " D " representing David
playing on his harp, the " P " representing the conversion of St. Paul, and so on.
Armorial initials were also occasionally used, and sometimes letters embodying
portraits or landscapes. About the beginning of the seventeenth century, pierced
initial ornaments — that is, wood block devices, in which a space is pierced
14. Pierced Initial, at the Oxford University Press. Ante 1700.
53. Pierced Initial. London, circa 1700.
out to admit of any letter — came into use. The great letter-founders of the
revival, Caslon, Baskerville, and their immediate successors, confined their
attention to the large plain initials, uniform in shape and design with their Roman
letters ; and it was not till a taste for fancy type arose, early in the present
century, that founders cut punches for and cast ornamental initials.
M
The Old English Letter Foundries.
TYPE ORNAMENTS AND FLOWERS.
These began, like the initials, with the illuminators, and were afterwards cut on
wood. The first printed ornament or vignette is supposed to be that in the Lactan-
tius, at Subiaco, in 1465. Caxton, in 1490, used ornamental pieces to form the
border for his Fifteen O's. The Paris printers at the same time engraved still more
elaborate border pieces. At Venice we find the entire frame engraved in one
piece ; while Aldus, as early as 1495, used tasteful head-pieces, cut in artistic
harmony with his lettres grises. Of the elaborate woodcut borders and vignettes
of succeeding printers we need not here speak. As a rule, they kept pace with
the initial letters, and degenerated with them. Early in the sixteenth century we
observe detached ornaments and flourishes, which have evidently been cast from
a matrix, and the idea of combining these pieces into a continuous border or head-
piece was probably early conceived.1 Mores states that ornaments of this kind
were common before wood-engraved borders were adopted, and Moxon speaks
of them in his day as old-fashioned. In Holland, France, Germany and
England, however, these " type-flowers" were in very common use during the
eighteenth century, and almost every foundry was supplied with a considerable
number of designs cast on the regular bodies. Some of the type-specimens
exhibit most elaborate figures constructed out of these flowers, and as late as
1820 these ornaments continued to engross a considerable space in the specimen
of every English founder.
1 A curious collection of these may be seen in the Quincuplex Psalterium, printed by Henri
Estienne I, at Paris, in 15 13.
CHAPTER III
— T3=#-®ij:-es4—
THE PRINTER LETTER-FOUNDERS,
FROM CAXTON TO DAY.
N taking a brief survey of that early period of English
Typography when printers are assumed to have been
their own letter-founders, we shall attempt no more than
to gather together, as concisely as possible, any facts
which may throw light on the first days of English letter-
founding, leaving it to the historian of Printing to describe
the productions which, as we have already stated, must be
regarded, not only as the works of our earliest printers,
but as the specimen-books of our earliest letter-founders. Mores and other
chroniclers are, as we conceive, misleading, when they single out half a dozen
names from the long list of printers between Caxton and Day, as if they only
had been concerned in the development of the art of letter-cutting and founding.
It is true that these names are the most distinguished ; but it is necessary to
bear in mind that the most obscure printer of that day, unless he succeeded in
purchasing his founts from abroad, or in obtaining the reversion of the worn
types of another printer, probably cast his letter in his own moulds, and from
his own matrices.
Respecting many of our early printers, our information especially with
regard to their mechanical operations, is extremely meagre. But the researches
of Mr. William Blades1 have thrown a stream of light upon the typography of
1 The Life and Typography of William Caxton, England1 s first Printer. 2 vols. London,
1 86 1 -3. 4to.
84 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Caxton and his contemporaries, of which we gladly avail ourselves in recording
the following facts and conjectures as to the letter-founding of the period in
which they flourished. Adopting as a fundamental rule "that the bibliographer
should make such an accurate and methodical study of the types used and habits
of printing observable at different presses, as to enable him to observe and be
guided by these characteristics in settling the date of a book which bears no
date upon the surface," Mr. Blades has succeeded not only in establishing a
precise chronology of the productions of the first English printer, but an ex-
haustive catalogue of his several types, such as has never before been success-
fully accomplished.
Previous writers, many of them practical printers, have all failed in this
particular. Most of them lacked the patience or the opportunity to make a
systematic study of the specimens of Caxton's press, and have been content to
perpetuate the account of others who, like Bagford, Ames, Herbert and Dibdin,
had ample opportunity for such a study, but failed to bring to bear upon their
investigations that practical experience which would have saved them from the
inaccuracies with which their descriptions abound. Among such writers few
have been more unfortunate than Rowe Mores, whose account of Caxton's types
(although endorsed by the authority of his editor, John Nichols) is as misleading
as it is meagre.
As we are concerned with Caxton only in his capacity as letter-founder, we
must refer the reader for all details respecting his life and literary industry to
Mr. Blades' admirable biography ; merely stating here that he made his first
essay at printing in the year 1474-5, m the office of Colard Mansion at Bruges ;
that in 1477, if not earlier, he settled as printer at Westminster, where he
remained an industrious and prolific worker until the year of his death in 149 1.
As we have already observed, the history of the introduction of printing
into England differs from that of its origin in most other countries in this
important particular, that whereas in Germany, Italy, France and the Low
Countries letter-founding is supposed to have preceded printing, in our own country
it followed it. Caxton had already run through one fount of type before he
reached this country, and it appears to be quite certain that his Type No. 2,
with which he established his press at Westminster, was brought over by him
from Bruges, where it had been cast for him, and already made use of by his
preceptor, Colard Mansion. The English origin of his Type No. 3 is also open
to question. There seems, however, reasonable ground for supposing that
Type No. 4 was both cut and cast in England ; so that Caxton had probably
been at work for a year or two in this country as a printer, before he became a
letter-founder. It must be admitted that any conclusion we may come to as to
The Printer Letter-Founders, from Caxton to Day. 85
Caxton's operations as a letter- founder are wholly conjectural. In none of his
own works (in several of which he discourses freely on his labour as a translator
and a printer) does he make the slightest allusion to the casting of his types,
nor does there remain any relic or contemporary record calculated to throw light
on so interesting a topic.
That Caxton made use of cast types, it is hardly needful here to assert.
Even admitting the possibility of a middle stage between Xylography and
Typography, the general identity of his letters, the constant recurrence of
certain flaws among his types, and the solidity of his pages, may be taken
as sufficient evidence that his types were cast, and not separately engraved
by hand.
It is scarcely likely that during his residence at Bruges, where, as he himself
states in the prologue to the third book of the Recuyell, " I have practysed and
lerned at my grete charge and dispense to ordeyne this said book in prynte,"
he would omit to make himself acquainted with the methods used in the Low
Countries for the production and multiplication of types ; and it is at least
reasonable to suppose that, once established in this country, and removed from
the source of his former supplies, he would put into practice this branch of his
knowledge, and produce for himself the remaining founts of which he made
use.
As to the particular process he employed, we have, as Mr. Blades points
out, only negative evidence on which to rely. The frequent unevenness and
irregularity of his lines, as well as the variations of the letters themselves, lead
to the conclusion that the method employed was a rude one, inferior not
only to that now in use, but even to that adopted by the advanced German
School of Typography of his own day. Rude, however, as his method may
have been, we are not disposed to allow that Caxton could have produced the
types he did without the use of a matrix and an adjustable mould. Despite his
rough workmanship, his types are as superior to those of the Speculum and
Donatus as they are inferior to those of the Mentz Bible and the Catholicon ; and
we consider it out of the question that works like the Dictes, or the Polychronicon,
or the Fifteen O's, could have been produced from types cast by a clay or sand
process, which we have elsewhere described as possibly employed in the most
primitive practice of the art.
It is more probable that both Colard Mansion and Caxton, possessing the
principle of the punch, matrix and adjustable mould, but ill-furnished with the
mechanical appliances for putting that principle into practice, made use of rough
and perishable materials in all three branches of the manufacture. Some such
rough appliances we have already suggested in our introductory chapter. . His
86 The Old English Letter Foundries.
& '
punches, as Mr. Blades has pointed out, were, in the case of at least two of his
founts, touched-up types of a fount previously in use. A matrix formed from
such a punch, either in soft lead or plaster, could not be anything but rough and
fragile ; and such a matrix, when justified and applied to a mould of which the
adjustable parts may have lacked mathematical finish and accuracy, could
scarcely be expected to produce types of faultless precision.
As we have freely admitted, it is impossible on this subject to go beyond
the regions of speculation, but we decidedly incline to the opinion that the
irregularities and defects of Caxton's types may be accounted for in the way
here suggested, rather than by the assumption that he made use of a method of
casting differing wholly in principle from that which was presently to become
the universal practice.
We shall now briefly follow Mr. Blades' chronological summary of Caxton's
six types, with a view to point out such particulars respecting them as may have
special bearing on the object of this work.
Type i. — This type, as already pointed out, was never used in England, but
appears in the works of the Bruges press between the years 1472 and a date
later than 1476. Bernard considers that it was modelled on the handwriting of
Colard Mansion. Although this type was chiefly used by Mansion, Caxton
appears to have used it in at least two English books printed under Mansion's
roof, the Recnyell and the Chess Book, the former of which was the first book
printed in the English language. The body of the type corresponds to the
present Great Primer; and a fount comprised 163 sorts, of which a considerable
number were varieties of the same letters, " there being only five sorts for which
there were not more than one matrix, either as single letters or in combination."
TYPE 2 was the fount with which Caxton printed, in 1477, at Westminster,
the Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers. Although this is the first dated
book printed in England, there is some reason for supposing that the undated
Jason, and possibly some of the small quarto poems, printed in the same type
may have preceded it. The fount was cut probably by Colard Mansion, in
imitation of the Gros Batarde type already in use at his press, but in a smaller
size ; and it is supposed that before Caxton brought it over to England it had
been used at Bruges to print Les Quatre Derrenieres Choses. Twenty works in
all are known to have been printed in Type 2, which is on a body equal to
two-line Long Primer, or "Paragon," and consists of 217 sorts. The capital
letters are extremely irregular, not only in size but in design, some being of the
simplest possible construction, while others have spurs, lines and flourishes. It
was used from 1477 to 1479, when, on its becoming worn out, selected letters
were trimmed up with a graver, new matrices formed, and a recasting made.
The Printer Letter-Founders, from Caxton to Day. 87
This recasting, known as Type 2*, is the same body as Type 2, but in all cases
the letters are slightly thinner, while in the case of ascending and descending
types it is found that the process of trimming has resulted in the amputation of
certain portions of the letters. There are also some thirty-seven sorts more in
the second fount, consisting largely of double and compound letters, which do
not appear in the first. To Type 2* belongs the honour of being in all pro-
bability the first fount cast in England. It was used from 1479 to 148 1, and
nine books are known to have been printed in it, including the second edition
of the Game and Play of the C/iesse, from which Mr. Vincent Figgins1 in 1855
took the models for his facsimile of the " Caxton Black."
TYPE 3. — This handsome fount appears to have been used from about
1479 to 1483, chiefly for head-lines, although one or two small church books,
as well as Caxton's Advertisement, were printed entirely in it. The body is
the same as that of Type 2, with which it is sometimes used, to distinguish
proper names. The fount consists of 194 sorts, of which the points are
remarkable as being smaller than those of Type 2. It is the first appearance of
the " Lettre de Forme" in English typography ; although, as Mr. Blades has
pointed out, this character belongs only to the "lower-case" letters, the capitals
partaking more of the features of Mansion's " Gros Batarde". The fount
possesses a special interest in being the first letter put forward as an English
printer's Type-specimen. In the Advertisement, which we reproduce in facsimile
(No. 15), Caxton calls attention to the fact that he is prepared to sell cheap
copies of the Pica or Ordinary of the Salisbury service, printed in the same type
as the specimen shown, to anyone, spiritual or temporal, who may come to his
shop at the Red Pale, Westminster. There is nothing to show whether this
fount was brought by Caxton from Bruges, or whether it is entitled to the
distinction of being the first fount wholly cut and cast in this country.
The German cut of the " lower-case," as well as the slight use which Caxton
made of it, would almost suggest that it was not the product of his own genius.
On the other hand, the frequent use which De Worde made of the fount after
his master's death, seems to point to the existence of the matrices, as well as the
types, in this country.
Type 4. — This letter was in use by Caxton from 1480 to 1484, and there is
strong reason for believing that (whatever may have been the case with Type 3)
it was both cut and cast in this country. That Caxton possessed punches of it
1 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.
SS The Old English Letter Foundries.
appears highly probable from the fact that in the recasting of the fount as
Type 4* we do not find the face of the old letters to have been trimmed up, as
was the case with Type 2*. On the contrary, as far as face is concerned, the two
founts are identical — a result which could hardly be expected had the matrices
for the second fount been produced by any means but a re-striking of the original
punches. The fount is smaller in size than Type 2, though the design is similar.
It consists of 194 sorts, of which seven were not re-struck for 4*. Ten works
were wholly printed in Type 4, and two partly in 4 and 4*. The one difference
between the first and second fount is, that whereas Type 4 is very close to English
body, Type 4* is cast on a body equal to two-lines Minion ; or more precisely,
nineteen types of Type 4* are equivalent to twenty types of Type 4. It appears,
therefore, that, either purposely or accidentally, Caxton shifted his mould
between the two castings. It is easy to imagine that his supply of moulds
might be very limited ; and even that it might be limited to but one mould
capable of being varied in " body," as well as in " thickness," which he would
adapt as necessity required to cast any size of letter ; so that if, for instance,
after casting Type 4, he had had occasion to "break" his mould in order to
cast some additional letters in Type 3, he might easily fail to readjust it to the
precise body of his former fount, particularly if he used a worn or foul type by
which to " set" it. The fact that in the Confessio A mantis, and the Knight of
the Tower, both castings are used, shows at least that 4* was intended to supple-
ment, rather than replace its predecessor. Besides the two partly printed works,
sixteen entire works were printed in Type 4* between 1483-85, from one of
which, the Golden Legend, our facsimile, No. 16, is taken.
Type 5. — In this fount the " Lettre de Forme," first introduced with Type 3,
reappears in a smaller, but very similar form. Eleven books were printed in it
between about 1487-91, the majority of which were Latin works of devotion.
The body is rather larger than two-line Brevier, and the fount consists of only
153 sorts, there being very few double letters. With this fount is a set of bold
Lombardic capitals, cast full on the body, and used as initials. These Caxton
afterwards cut down for quadrats, shortening them, as was usual at that time, at
the foot-end of the type, and so not destroying the face.
Type 6. — This fount was for the most part produced from matrices formed
from trimmed-up letters of Types 2 and 2*, supplemented by a few new letters
and some from other founts. The body on which it is cast is considerably
smaller than Type 2, being nearly a Great Primer as against a two-line Long
Primer. This reduction in size necessitated the compression of a number of full-
faced letters of the original founts, some of which have been forcibly squeezed
into the compass and others truncated. The fount comprises only 141 sorts,
giC it pk&nnp mm ^rirituci m ixmpultatytmp
ppta of mo ano fl$& totnemotaaoo o£ &UCM nfc
enptpntiiJ aftw ffcfimw of tins jm^fetarotfjic^e
ben va$i ant} ir# ometf/late fern osrat to tttfimo;
nefta in t» t^ almontfcjeatijme&ij&fe antilje ffjal
tyaut $em gooo <$gpe .v
^tt#tco fetteoula
15. Advertisement of William Caxton. Type 3.
ae&t^i^i^ ^oai$g/ foia© tttod)e
fle % tfje $oge & toae mfle^ 3$u$ /
($$uta® & ^e tefotj of % name / $?
Iba© not finolkst? / Jos 3&fue is afmo
cfc 6) fa^ a© favour / Tlnty ^u^n
&r(2oo& noi %g / %ftiet ^c afumc *
fiot) / tfyi® name &e8& Ibae c(tef$£>?
atity SccCatsd? / $0? fgxft to tfyz cs?£&?g*t
& / $fe fwnd? & t£)e puBtyKttaoi) / $fj*
tfjitfs 6? t^e tcfo$ of ^ name / &fy fixfi
nam? i& fene of goty / Ttn^ t§at /%fe
ttamce fejj a$ncp*ety & fygn)/ fegnf $iC
JCatge wi $10 foo^e- (Qat ft? ma& of tfje
ftgnpfc fattQ t^iie / (fcetc fiftuif) §ci %i*
gem$I / 3)j diuct^ manete /tfjie name
fbne of goty t© Braolbq? / a© it is Ibi*
roffity of go^ / ®o*2 $fy* fa&* Ihitrnf
fitf) it/ tfyit ft? i@ f)ie feme/ £6a#oftfce
16. From the Golden Legend. Westminster, 1480. Caxton Type 4*.
The Printer Letter- Founders, from Caxton to Day. 89
and has a set of Lombardic capitals. It was used by Caxton between 1489 and
the time of his death in 1491, during which period eighteen works were printed
in it. In the Treatise of Love, printed in the same type, and supposed to have
been produced by De Worde after his master's death, appears an initial line in a
new type, which might be reckoned as Type No. 7 ; although, if the work was
wholly posthumous, its claim to be included as one of Caxton's founts holds
only as regards the cutting and founding of it.
Such is a brief summary of the types of our first printer. It would be
interesting, were it possible, to continue in an equally detailed manner an exam-
ination of the types of all the early English printers. But the rapid increase
of printing which followed Caxton's death would render such a task one of
great labour and difficulty. We shall content ourselves with collecting such
references to typefounding as may throw general light on the progress of the art
during the first century of its existence.
We have elsewhere stated our reasons for supposing that the first Oxford
press was commenced with types brought from abroad. Of the St. Alban's
printer and his contemporaries, Lettou and Machlinia, in the city of London, we
know very little. The types of both presses were extremely rude, and might
therefore suggest that an attempt was made to produce them by untrained
English artists, or, as is equally probable, that the old and worn-out soft lead
types of an earlier printer were made use of.
Wynkyn de Worde was the most brilliant, as he was the most prolific,
English printer of the fifteenth century. Inheriting some, if not all, of his
master Caxton's matrices, he cut a large number of new letters for himself, and
appears in the execution of these founts to have perfected the manual processes
of the manufacture, so as to leave no doubt that his types were produced in true
adjustable moulds, out of durable matrices, impressed with hard metal punches.
His letters are clear and regularly cast ; indeed, his English or Black-letter was
so excellent that it became a model for all future letter-cutters, and was closely
imitated, not only in England, but, apparently, abroad. Some writers have con-
sidered that De Worde supplied duplicate matrices of his Black-letter to some
of his contemporaries, or else cast founts from his own matrices for the trade.
The close resemblance between some of his founts and those of other English
printers of the period, seems to give colour to such a suggestion, although the
probability is that his old discarded types occasionally found their way into the
provinces, where (as at the press of Goes of York) they appeared during the life-
time of their original founder. Palmer (or Psalmanazar) makes the following
N
90 The Old English Letter Foundries.
note on this subject : " There is one circumstance," he says,1 " that induces me to
think he was his own letter-founder ; which is, that in some of his first printed
books, the very letter he made use of, is the same used by all the printers in
London to this day ; and, I believe, were struck from his puncheons. The first
is the two lin'd Great Primmer Black, the next is the Great Primmer Black."
Of each of these two founts he shows a specimen (a facsimile of which is here
The firlt is the two lin'd Great Primmer black,5
6? me®Kmfcen u Wlowt
The next is the Great Primmer black,
17. Black Letter, supposed to be from De Worde's matrices. (From Palmer's General History of Printing?)
given), which, as Rowe Mores explains, were taken from the matrices at that
time (1732) in Grover's foundry, where they were reputed at one time to have
belonged to De Worde.2
This piece of evidence is not very convincing. It is more to the point that
some of his early types are not to be observed in books from the press by any
foreign printer at that time ; which could scarcely have been had he, along with
other English printers, purchased founts from some of the foreign founders
at that time carrying on a brisk trade with this country. It is, however, to be
borne in mind that every printer cut or provided himself with Black as regularly
as with Roman and Italic ; and the Black-letter, especially in the large sizes,
being easy to imitate, the general resemblance among the founts of that period
may mean nothing more than that De Worde's models were faithfully copied by
his imitators.
De Worde introduced a larger variety in body than Caxton, and in some of
1 The General History of Printing. London, 1732, 4to, p. 343.
2 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 v etu state formaque et squalore venerabiles, and
we would not give a lower-case letter in exchange for all the leaden cups of Haerlem" {Disser-
tation, 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.
The Printer Letter-Founders, from Caxton to Day. 91
his works, as in the Whitintoni Lucubrationes, in 1527, used a very small Black-
letter, apparently, as Herbert remarks, because he had no Roman or Italic small
enough. In his Black founts he used a large number of abbreviations, though
not so many as were at that time used by printers abroad. He has been
erroneously credited by some writers with having been the first to introduce the
Roman letter into this country. It appears, however, that he closely followed
Pynson in this innovation1; and, in his later works, made considerable use of
that character, both for printing entire books, and for distinguishing remarkable
words or quotations in his Black-letter text.
Although characterised as a better printer than scholar, he was the first to
introduce letters of some of the learned languages into his books. In 15 19, in
Whitintonus de concinitate grammatices, he used some Greek words, the first in
England, cut in wood. Later, in 1524, in Wakefield's Oratio? printed in
Roman characters with marginal notes in Italic,3 he printed some Greek words
in movable types, and showed Arabic and Hebrew cut in wood, the first used
in this country. The Hebrew is Rabbinical, and the author complains that he
has been obliged to omit a third part, because the printer lacked Hebrew types.
As early as 1495, moreover, De Worde, as we have elsewhere noted, in his
edition of the Polychronicon, used the first music-types known in typography.
He died in 1534, after printing upwards of 400 books.
His contemporary, PYNSON, who also acknowledged Caxton as his
"Worshipful Master," appears to have been in regular correspondence with the
typographers of Rouen, one of whom printed in his name.4 It is also supposed
that he was on friendly terms with Froben of Basle, whose woodcut designs
occasionally figure in his works. It is, therefore, probable he may have
imported some of his founts, including the Roman, which he had the honour of
first introducing into England in 15 18, from abroad. His first types, which
appeared in the Dives and Pauper, printed by him in 1493, were extremely rude ;
but in this particular he seems to have made rapid progress, and some of his later
1 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.
2 Roberti Wakefeldi . . . oratio de laudibus et utilitate trium linguaricm A rabice, Chaldaicce
et Hebraice atqtie idiomatibus Hebraicis quce in utroque testamento inveniuntur. Londini
afiud Winandum de Vorde (1524). 4to.
3 This is probably the first appearance of Italic type in England.
4 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.
92 The Old English Letter Foundries.
works are distinguished as fine specimens of typography. Mores' account of
Pynson's types is incomplete, and in one particular at least, that of the Roman letter
in 1499, incorrect. He says : " His types in the year 1496 were Double Pica,
Great Primer and Long Primer English (i.e., Black-letter), all clear and good ; a
rude English English, an English and a Long Primer Roman in 1499 {sic), an
English and a Pica Roman with which was printed Bishop Tonstal's book, De
Arte Supputandi, in 1522. They are thick, but they stand well in line . . . He
had another and better fount of Great Primer English, with which was printed the
Gallicantus of Bishop Alcock ... in 1498." The pretty Secretary letter, which
Mores mentions as having been used in Statkam's and Fitzherberfs Abridgments
belonged to Le Tailleur, the Rouen printer, whom Pynson employed to print
several law books, on account, it is supposed, of the greater correctness of the
Norman compositors in setting the law language of the day. " However," says
Ames, " he had such helps afterwards that all statutes, etc., were printed here at
home."
In 1 5 18 he printed his first work in Roman type, the Oratio in Pace
nuperrimd,} by Richard Pace. Only one fount is used throughout this interesting
little work, of which we here reproduce the colophon.
I M P R E S S A Londini. Anno Verb/ m
carnati.M . D« xviij • Nonis Decembns per
Richardum Pynfon regium imprefforem cu
priuilegio aregeindulto/ne qufshanc oratio
nem intra bienni'urn in regno Angli'aeimpri*
mat : aut alibi impreffam / et importatam in
eodem regno Angliae vendat*
18. From the Oratio in Pace nuperrima. Printed by Pynson, 1518.
A document still preserved in the Record Office, dated June 28, 15 19, con-
tains an interesting mention of Pynson's types. It is an indenture between Wm.
Horman, Clerk and Fellow of the King's College at Eton, and Pynson, for
printing 800 copies of such Vulgars as be contained in the copy delivered to
him, " in suffycient and suyng stuff of papyr, after thre dyverse letters, on for
the englysh, an other for the laten, and a thyrde of great romayne letter for
the tytyllys of the booke."
1 Oratio in Pace nuperrimd, etc. Impressa Londini, Anno Verbi incarnati MDXVIII per
Richardum Pynson, Regium Impressorem. 4to.
The Printer Letter-Founders, from Caxton to Day. 93
In 1524 Pynson possessed a fount of Greek which he used in Linacre's
De Emendatd Structurd} This is of special interest, since the preface contains
the first distinct reference to letter- founding which occurs in any English book.
The Greek accents and breathings, it appears, were not sufficient for the whole
of the quotations in the book, and their paucity is made the subject of the
following interesting apology : " Lectori. S. Pro tuo candore optime lector aequo
animo feras, si quae literae in exemplis Hellenissimi vel tonis vel spiritibus vel
affectionibus careant. lis enim non satis erat instructus typographus videlicet
recens ab eofusis characteribus grcecis, nee parata ea copia, quod ad hoc agendum
opus est."2 The Linacre is printed in a good Great Primer Roman type, with
which the Greek ranges fairly. The letters of the latter character are cast wide,
so that each letter stands apart from the next, instead of joining close.
A further mention of Pynson's types occurs in a Latin letter of his own, printed
at the end of the Lytylton Tenures of 1527, in which he thus inveighs against the
piracy of his rival and contemporary, Robert Redman : " Richard Pynson, the
Royal printer, salutation to the Reader. Behold, I now give to thee, candid
Reader, a Lyttleton corrected (not deceitfully), of the errors which occurred in
him ; I have been careful that not my printing only should be amended, but also
that with a more elegant type it should go forth to the day : that which hath
escaped from the hands of Robert Redman, but more truly Rudeman, because
he is the rudest out of a thousand men, is not easily understood."
The new fount here referred to must have been among the latest productions
of this printer's industrious labours, as he ceased printing in 1528, having issued
upwards of 210 works.
William Faques, another contemporary of De Worde's, who printed in
London between 1504 and 151 1, appears to have had a more direct connection
with the Norman typographers than any of his fellow printers. He learned his
art at Rouen with Jean le Bourgeois, and probably came over to this country
furnished with types, if not with matrices, from that market. He is praised
with justice as an excellent workman, and some of his Black-letter founts are
described by Mores as equalling in beauty any which were to be found in
1 ThomcB Linacri de etnendatd structurd Latini sermonzs. Londini, apud Richardum
Ptnsonum. 1524. 4to.
2 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."
94 The Old English Letter Foundries.
England as late as his day (1778). It is supposed that De Worde became
possessed of some of these letters after Faques' death, which occurred in 15 11.
With Faques and Pynson early English Typography seems to have reached
for a time its high-water mark. A slow deterioration set in, probably consequent
on the withdrawal of the foreign trade in type, and the necessity thereupon for
every printer to become his own punch-cutter and typefounder.
Mores, in passing, is careful to rescue a few names from reproach.
" Copland the Elder," he says, "(who had been servant to De Worde) and
Wyer and Redman, had founts of two-line Great Primer, the letter good and
beautiful. . . Will. Rastel used Italic in 1531. . . Redman1 used a Secretary
type in the edition of RasteWs Grete Abridgement, printed in the year 1534,
which Secretary is the last Secretary we remember. Berthelet had a fount
of English Roman with a face as thick as English" (Black-letter), " but pretty."
We annex a specimen of the curious semi-Gothic fount used by this last-
with holy fcnpmre tbat god is the fom^
uyne of Sapience / tyke aa he i& the torn*
raygn* hegynnynge of all generation »
25lfo it was wonderfully well efpzdTed of
wbom Sapience was engendred iy a poete
named sffram«0/wbofe yerk& were fette
ouer tbe pojebe of tbef!cmple/ wbere t be
Senate of Homemoofte common!? aiTem*
bled . wbiebe verfes were in tbie maner.
fafus mt pnnit/ maUf pspctif mmozw
j&op$i<M? wc &tMboeani/iw6ji&<ipimti<M}*
wbiebe in engtylfbe ffl$ye he in this wyfe
tranflated.
$9mto?pe §p$$t mp motfytt/ my fai§e$ e^penenrfe
45t cfcro c affe me M>op§i/ But pt name mt Sapience.
i8a. From the Boke named the Govemour. Printed by Berthelet, 1531.
named printer in 1531 for printing Sir Thomas Elyot's Boke named the Govemour.
The face is of rare occurrence in English typography, and was probably procured
1 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.
The Printer Letter- Founders, from Carton to Day. 95
from abroad. The small Secretary type mixed with it is doubtless English, and
was one of the latest founts of its kind used in the country.
There appears to be no special reason, as we have stated, why the names
and types of any particular printers at this period should be selected to the
exclusion of others who equally with them produced types for their own use.
We may, however, mention REYNOLD Wolfe, who in 1543 held the first patent
as printer to the king in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and printed the first entire
Greek and Latin book in England, being Sir John Cheke's edition of
Chrysostom's two Homilies} He appears, however, to have printed nothing in
Hebrew.
JOHN Day occupies an important place in the history of early English letter-
founding. What is mainly conjecture with regard to most of his predecessors
we are able to state on the authority of historical records with regard to him,
namely, that he was his own letter-founder ; and from his day English letter-
founding may be said to have started on a separate career.
He was born in 1522, and began business about 1546, in St. Sepulchre's
parish. In 1549 he removed to Aldersgate, where he continued until 1572.
The persecutions of Queen Mary's reign caused him to seek refuge abroad, but
he returned in 1556, in which year he was the first person admitted to the
livery of the Stationers' Company, newly incorporated by the charter of Philip
and Mary. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth he became an important printer,
and was chosen Warden of the Company in 1564 and three subsequent years, and
Master in 1580.
Early in the Queen's reign he found a generous patron in Archbishop
Parker, under whose auspices he cut some of his most famous founts. One of
the earliest of these was the fount of Saxon, which appeared first in ^Elfric's
Saxon Homily, edited by the Archbishop under the title of A Testimonie of
Antiquitie, and printed in 1567. It was used again in Lambard's Archaionomia
in the following year, in the Saxon Gospels, printed in 1 571, and subsequently in the
Archbishop's famous edition of Asser Menevensis' ALlfredi Res Gestce in 1574.2
This last-named work, which may be regarded as one of the first historical
monuments of English letter-founding, contained a preface by Parker, in which
1 D. Joannis Chrysostomi homilies dues, nunc firimum in lucem ceditce (Greek and Latin)
a Joanne Cheko. Londini 1543. 4to.
2 JElfredi Regis Res Gestce (without imprint or date), fol. The work was bound up and
published with Walsingham's Historia Brevis, printed by Binneman, and his Yftodigma
Neustrice, printed by Day, both in 1574. The text of the JSlfredi, though in Saxon characters,
is in the Latin language.
96 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Day's performance in cutting the punches is thus particularly alluded to : —
" Jam vero cum Dayus typographus primus (et omnium certe quod sciam solus)
has formas seri incident ; facile quae Saxonicis Uteris perscripta sunt, iisdem
typis divulgabuntur."1
The Saxon fount, as will be seen by the facsimile, is an English in body,
very clear and bold. Of the capitals, eight only, including two diphthongs, are
distinctively Saxon, the remaining eighteen letters being ordinary Roman ; while
in the lower-case there are twelve Saxon letters as against fifteen of the Roman.
The accuracy and regularity with which this fount was cut and cast is highly
creditable to Day's excellence as a founder.2 He subsequently cut a smaller size
of Saxon on Pica body.
The typography of the ALlfredi is superior to that of almost any other work
of the period. Dibdin considered it one of the rarest and most important
volumes which issued from Day's press. The Archbishop's preface is printed
in a bold, flowing Double Pica Italic, and the Latin preface of St. Gregory at
the end in a Roman of the same body, worthy of Plantin himself. It is at least
a curious circumstance, pointing to a community of founts among printers even
at that day, that in Binneman's3 edition of Walsingham's Historia, bound up
with Day's Asser and the Ypodigma Nenstrice, this same large Roman and Italic
is made use of.
Respecting an Italic fount cut by Day in 1572, several interesting particulars
are preserved, which tend to throw further light on our printer's operations as a
punch-cutter and letter-founder.
It appears that in that year, at the time when Day removed his shop from
1 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 charac-
ters will be easily published in the same type."
2 Astle, in his History of Writing, p. 224, remarks : " Day's Saxon types far excel in neat-
ness 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."
3 Parker, who, according to Strype {Life of Parker, London, 171 1, 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 Arch-
bishop 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."
*J De GenealogiaMatris eius.
^w*% Arep quoquc eiupfccm Opbup jh nommabaTup/peb Qoya ni-
1^1 1 raium pxmina; nobilipnremo; nobiIit**j renepe^ qux cpa*c
phz Oflacpmop pincepnx^fjjelpulp peri j*; qui Oylac Go-
Lurcjia'cna'cione.Op'uuperiim epa*u be Go5ij**j Iircij^befeminc fcihcer
8*uup -j Vuih"u3up^ buopu ppaTpu *] etna comrua^. qui acccpra pot;cp?a-
*ue Vuecux .injfulx abauuculo fuo Cepbicpere^*j Cynpic phopio cofo-
bpmo eoptypaiicoj* BpiTonej* ciuj*t>em lnjpalx accolaj^quopn ca inuempe
20. Day's Saxon Fount. (From the ALlfredi Res Gesi<z, 1574.)
Elfredus Rex optat ialutem Wulf-
figeoepifcopodigniisimo beneuole
et amater.Et te fare volo quod miht
fepenumero in mentem venit^quar-
les lapietes diuabhincextiteruntin
Anglica gente3tam de Ipirituali gra-
du,quam de temporali,quaq. foelicia turn tempora fa-
21. Day's Double Pica Roman. (From the Mlfredi Res Gesttr, 1574.)
eius InfuU negotijs implicabuntur.Iam yero cum "Day us
Tjpographus primus (j& omnium certe quodfciamfo-
lus) hasformas <zri incident : facile qutfSaxonicis lite-
risperfcriptufuntjjfdem typis diuulgabuntur. Quorum
fane leUio & yeteris tibi lingua ,ac quondam domejiiaz
memoriam renouahit, & baudparuarn/uppeditnbitab-
Jtrufte cognitionis fuppelleUilem. Facile autem-j erityo^
22. Day's Double Pica Italic. (From the Mlfredi Res Geste, 157*.)
(The extract is Parker's reference to Day as a letter- founder.)
WM
&£&
vJm,
uiP
elsSSvS
w^
Jw^vjSKsfc 1 1 1 *waWx
_GN-r20
The Printer Letter- Founders, from Caxton to Day. gy
Aldersgate to St. Paul's Churchyard, Archbishop Parker was engaged in
providing replies to a Popish polemic of Nicholas Sanders, entitled De Visibili
Monarchia. Dr. Clerke of Cambridge was selected for the task, and his Responsio
was entrusted to Day to print. In a letter to Lord Burleigh, dated December
13, 1572, the Archbishop thus refers to the typography of the forthcoming
work1 :
" To the better accomplishment of this worke and other that shall followe,
I have spoken to Daie the printer to cast a new Italian letter, which he is
doinge, and it will cost him xl marks ; and loth he and other printers be to
printe any Lattin booke, because they will not heare be uttered and for that
Bookes printed in Englande be in suspition abroad."
Strype, referring to the transaction, adds a note : " For our Black English
letter was not proper for the printing of a Latin Book ; and neither he (Day) nor
any one else, as yet had printed any Latin books."2 This misleading statement
is corrected by Herbert,3 who points out that many Latin books had been
printed, few of which, after 1520, had been in Black-letter, and he believed none
at all after 1530. Moreover, many English books had long before 1572 been
printed in Roman or Italic, and even such as had generally been printed in
Black-letter usually had the notes and quotations in Roman or Italic.
It is singular that, after this announcement by the Archbishop, neither of
the replies to Sanders was printed in Italic type. Clerke's Responsio^ in 1573,
appeared in a new Great Primer Roman type, with the quotations only in Italic,
the headings being set in the large Italic afterwards used in the Asser. Acworth's
De Visibili Romanarckia? another rejoinder, in the same year, was in an English
Roman, with a corresponding Italic and Greek. In Parker's great work, however,
De Antiquitate Britannicce Ecclesice? published the year before (1572), and sup-
posed by some to have been printed by Day at a private press of the Archbishop's
at Lambeth, the entire text, consisting of 524 pages, was in the English Italic,
which Dibdin describes as " a full-sized, close, but flowing Italic letter." The
preface only to this work was in Roman ; the various titles and sub-titles being
in the larger founts of the Responsio and Asser.
Day was among the first English printers who cut the Roman and Italic to
range as one and the same fount. Hitherto the two letters had been but seldom
1 Timperley, Encyclopedia, p. 381. 2 Life of Parker, pp. 382, 541.
3 Typographical Antiquities, i, 656.
* Fidelis servi, subdito infideli Responsio. Lond. 1 573- 4*0.
5 De Visibili Romanarckia. Londini, aftud f. Dayum. 1573- 4to.
6 De Antiquitate Britannicce Ecclesitz. Londini in cedibus fohannis Daij. 1572. Fol.
O
98 The Old English Letter Fotmdries.
intermixed, and when they were, they frequently exhibited a disparity in size and
an irregularity in line which was disfiguring.1 Day, however, cut uniform founts.
In addition to the characters already mentioned, he greatly improved the
Greek letter of the day. The Christians Pietatis Prima Institution printed by
him in 1578, is in a beautiful type, which is considered to be equal to that of the
great Greek typographers of Paris — the Estiennes.
Among his further enterprises in letter-cutting may be mentioned the
Hebrew words, cut in wood, which he used in Humphrey's Life of Jewell, in
1573, and in Baro's Readings on Jonah, in 1579 ; and the musical notes which
he introduced into his editions of the metrical Psalter. These notes are chiefly
lozenge-shaped and hollow, differing from those used by Grafton in 1550, in
Merbecke's Booke of Commo?i Praier, noted, which are mostly square and solid.
He also, as he himself stated in a book printed in 1582, " caused a new print of
note to be made, with letters to be joined to every note, whereby thou mayest
know how to call every note by its right name." Besides these, he made use of
a considerable number of signs, mathematical and other, not before cast in type ;
while his works abound with handsome woodcut initials, vignettes and portraits,
besides a considerable variety of metal "flowers." Of the disposal of Day's
punches and matrices after his death we have no precise information, but the
reappearance of the beautiful Double Pica Roman and Italic of the dUlfredi, in
the Bibles printed by the Barkers, in Young's Catena on Job in 1637, in
Walton's Polyglot in 1657, and other works, most of them executed by the royal
printers, suggests that these founts at any rate were retained (probably under
archiepiscopal control), and handed down for the service of the privileged
presses.
In Strype's Life of Parker, already quoted, is preserved an interesting
account of Day's business, with which we close this short notice : " And with
the Archbishop's engravers, we may joyn his printer Day, who printed his
British Antiquities and divers other books by his order ... for whom the
Archbishop had a particular kindness. . . . Day was more ingenious and
industrious in his art and probably richer too, than the rest, and so became
envied by the rest of his fraternity, who hindered, what they could, the sale
of his books; and he had in the year 1572, upon his hands, to the value of two or
three thousand pounds worth, a great summ in those days. But living under
Aldersgate, an obscure corner of the city, he wanted a good vent for them.
1 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.
19. Portrait of John Day, 1562. (From the Colophon to Peter Martir's Commentaries on the Romans, 1568.)
The Printer Letter- Founders, from Caxton to Day. 101
Whereupon his friends, who were the learned, procured him from the Dean and
Chapter of St. Pauls, a lease of a little shop to be set up in St. Pauls Churchyard.
Whereupon he got framed a neat handsome shop. It was but little and low,
and fiat-roofed and leaded like a terrace, railed and posted, fit for men to stand
upon in any triumph or show ; but could not in anywise hurt or deface the same.
This cost him forty or fifty pounds. But ... his brethren the booksellers
envied him and by their interest got the mayor and aldermen to forbid him
setting it up, though they had nothing to do there, but by power. Upon this the
Archbishop brought his business before the Lord Treasurer, and interceded for
him, that he would move the Queen to set her hand to certain letters that he had
drawn up in the Queen's name to the city, in effect, that Day might be permitted
to go forward with his building. Whereby, he said, his honour would deserve
well of Christ's Church, and of the prince and State." — P. 541.
Day died in 1584, aged 62, and was buried at Bradley Parva. He published
about 250 works. "He seems indeed," says Dibdin, "(if we except Grafton)
the Plantin of Old English Typographers ; while his character and reputation
scarcely suffer diminution from a comparison with those of his illustrious con-
temporary just mentioned."
CHAPTER IV.
LETTER-FOUNDING AS AN ENGLISH MECHANICAL
TRADE.— 1477-1830.
:>S*Jo
T will be convenient, now that we have reached a point at
which letter-founding enters upon a new stage as a
distinct trade, to take a brief survey of its progress as a
mechanical industry ; availing ourselves of such records
and illustrations as may be met with, to trace its
development and improved appliances during the period
covered by this narrative.
As has already been stated, the reticence of our first
printers leaves us almost entirely in the dark as to the particular processes by
which they produced their earliest types. Mr. Blades leans to the opinion that
Caxton, in his first attempts at typefounding, adopted the methods of the rude
Flemish or Dutch School, of whose conjectured appliances we have spoken in the
introductory chapter. " The English printers," he says, " whose practice seems
to have been derived from the Flemish School, were far behind their contem-
poraries in the art. Their types show that a very rude process of founding was
practised ; and the use ... of old types as patterns for new, evinces more
of commercial expediency than of artistic ambition."
At the same time, there seems reasonable ground for inferring, from the
peculiarities attending the re-casting of Caxton's Type 4 as 4*, to which
allusion has already been made, that at least as early as 1480 Caxton was
possessed of the secret of the punch, and matrix and adjustable mould; while the
Letter- Founding as an English Mechanical Trade. 103
excellent works of De Worde and his contemporaries demonstrate that, however
rudely, the art may have begun, England was, in the early years of the sixteenth
century, abreast of many of her rivals, both as to the design and workmanship
of her founts.
The frequent indications to be met with of the transmission of founts from
one printer to another, as well as the passing on of worn types from the presses
of the metropolis to those of the provinces, are suggestive of the existence (very
limited, indeed) of some sort of home trade in type even at that early date.
For a considerable time, moreover, after the perfection of the art in England, the
trade in foreign types, which dated back as early as the establishment of printing
in Westminster and Oxford, continued to flourish. With Normandy, especially,
at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a brisk commerce was maintained.
Not only were many of the English liturgical and law books printed abroad
by Norman artists, but Norman type found its way in considerable quantities
into English presses. M. Claudin, whose researches in the history of the early
provincial presses of France entitles him to be considered an authority on the
matter, states that Rouen, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, was the
great typographical market which furnished type not to England only, but to
other cities in France and to Switzerland. " It evidently had special typographical
foundries," he observes. " Richard Pynson, a London printer, was a Norman ;
Will Faques learned typography from J. le Bourgeois, a printer at Rouen.
These two printers had types cast expressly for themselves in Normandy.
Wynkyn de Worde must have bought types in Normandy also, and very likely
from Peter Olivier and Jean de Lorraine, printers in partnership at Rouen."1
And with regard to the first printer of Scotland, M. Claudin has no doubt that
Myllar learned his art in Normandy, and that the types with which his earliest
work was printed were those of the Rouen printer, Hostingue.
It is reasonable to suppose that English printers would endeavour, if pos-
sible, to provide themselves, not with types merely, but with matrices of the
founts of their selections ; and, indeed, we imagine some explanation of the
marked superiority of our national typography at the close of the fifteenth century
over that of half a century later, is to be found in the fact that, whereas many of
the first printers used types wholly cut and cast for them by expert foreign
artists, their successors began first to cast for themselves from hired or purchased
matrices, and finally to cut their own punches and justify their own matrices.
Printing entered on a gloomy stage of its career in England after Day's time,
1 Introduction of the Art of Printing into Scotland. By R. Dickson. Aberdeen, 1885.
8vo. Appendix.
104
The Old English Letter Foundries.
and as State restrictions gradually hemmed it in, crushing by its monopolies
healthy competition, and by its jealousy foreign succour, every printer became
his own letter-founder, not because he would, but because he must, and the art
suffered in consequence.
&et ©c$ rt fffgfe ffm
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Siefan i'cfj aucfj Qnufyjufiitm/
Sic SSucfjJfafeen ^fammn orDmem
ickuinifcfi vnb Xcutfcfyr ©cfefjriffe
$33ae aucfe Die ©ricdjifdj (5prae% anm'fft
CKic 9Qcrfa(m/ <Puncem smb gtSgn
<Qtf fu jw Drr Snitfrep fidj fagm.
© ffjf #<r
23. From Jost Amman's Stande und Handiverker. Frankfurt, 1568.
Of the operations of a sixteenth century letter-foundry, we are fortunately
able to form some idea from the quaint engraving preserved to us by Jost
Letter- Founding as an English Mechanical Trade. 105
Amman in his Book of Trades1 in 1568, and reproduced here. The picture
represents the Frankfort founder seated at his small brick furnace, casting type
in a mould. This mould differs from the modern hand-moulds in being pyramidi-
cal in shape, and holding the matrix as a fixture in its interior. One of the
moulds on the shelf shows a hole in the side, into which the matrix was probably
inserted. From the manner in which the caster is grasping the mould, it would
seem that it was bipartite, and needed the two halves holding together during
casting. The cast types lying in the bowl have "breaks" attached to them,
which at that date were in all probability cast so as to be easily detached.
Behind the caster are some drawers, probably intended to contain matrices, of
which one or two lie on the top waiting their turn for use. On the lower of the
two shelves above the furnace are some crucibles, in which the metals would be
mixed before filling up the casting-pan. On the upper shelf, besides three more
moulds, are some sieves, suggestive of the use of sand, either for moulding large
letters, or, as Mr. Blades suggests, for running the small ingots of metal into for
use in the meltin j-pot. The small room in which this caster is operating in all
probability formed part of a printing-office ; and another interesting engraving
24. Letter-founding and Printing, circa 1548. (From the cut in the Harleian MSS.)
of perhaps a still earlier date, which we here reproduce from the original in the
British Museum,2 shows the two departments of the typographer's art going on in
1 Eygentliche Beschreibung alter Stdnde und . . . Handwerker. Frankfurt, 1 568. 4to.
Der Schrifftgiesser.
2 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
P
io6 The Old English Letter Foundries.
adjoining apartments. In this case, as in the Frankfort cut, the caster is sitting ;
but his mould, large as it is, appears to be furnished with a spring at the bottom,
more like the later hand-moulds.
In the lines accompanying Amman's picture the founder is made to say
that he casts types made of " Bismuth, Tin and Lead," a statement which, if
correct, shows that the Frankfort types of that day must have been cast in
terribly soft metal, of about the substance and durability of modern solder.
The presence of the crucibles, however, points to the use of some fourth metal,
of sufficient hardness to require a violent heat to fuse it. The founder also
states that, he can correctly justify his letters, which may refer either to the
dressing of the types after casting, or the more important justification of the
matrix to adapt it to the mould.
Another interesting memorial of a sixteenth century foundry is to be met
with in a visit to the once famous printing-office of Christopher Plantin at
Antwerp.1 The foundry of the great Netherlands " Archi-typographus," which
is still preserved in its pristine condition, was on the upper floor of his house,
and consisted of two rooms, one devoted wholly to the casting, the other being a
store-room for types awaiting use at the press. In the casting-room is still to be
seen a large brick furnace covered with an earthenware slab. To the right of this
is a smaller furnace, surmounted by the metal pot, which even yet contains some
of the old type-alloy. On the walls hang tongs, ladles, knives and moulds. In a
box are preserved small parcels of pattern-types for setting the moulds by, among
which the visitor is shown three or four types of silver.2 In another box are a
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.
1 A description of this interesting establishment will be found in M. De George's La
Maison Plantin a Anvers. 2nd ed. Brussels, 1878, 8vo.
2 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 sane 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
Letter- Founding as an English Mechanical Trade. 107
large number of punches1 and moulds of all sizes. A bench extends along one
side of the room, doubtless for the use of the dressers or rubbers.
In all these points we recognise that even in Plantin's day the general
appointments of a letter-foundry differed very little from those of the modern
foundry before the introduction of machinery. Although we have no description
of any English foundry before Moxon's time, we know that the processes in
use among us boast a much earlier origin. Moxon described no new method,
but the old-established practice which had obtained, if not from the infancy of
the art, at least from the commencement of that gradual divorce between printing
and letter-founding which led, about 1585, to the establishment of foundries for
the public use. We have no reason to suppose that the foundries connected
with the presses of Day, Wolfe and others differed in practice from those of
their Frankfort and Antwerp contemporaries, or that when, in 1597, Benjamin
Sympson, a letter-founder, gave bond to the Stationers' Company not to cast
type for the printers without due notice, he, or the founders who followed him,
knew any other methods of producing their type than those already familiar to
every printer at home and abroad.
Turning now to Moxon's account of English letter-founding as it was in his
day, we find no lack of detail as to every branch of the art and every appliance
in use by the artist. It is not our purpose here to follow these descriptions
further than as they give a general idea of the practice and method of letter-
founding two centuries ago, — a practice and method which, as we have said,
existed long before his day, and were destined to be in common use for nearly
a century and a half after. We shall best indicate the processes and appliances
he describes by giving a brief analysis of that portion of his book which is
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 !
1 Among the itinerant punch-cutters of Plantin's day was the famous French artist Le Be'
who came to Antwerp to strike the punches for the Antwerp Polyglot,
108 The Old English Letter Foundries.
devoted to the mechanics of letter-founding,1 reserving for a later chapter a
general summary of the complete work.
Naturally beginning with punch-cutting, he first describes in detail the
various tools made use of by the engraver, viz., the forge, the using file, the flat
gauge, the sliding gauges, the face gauges, the Italic and other standing gauges,
the liner, the flat table, the tach, and other furniture of the bench. Every one
of these tools is to be found in the punch-cutter's room of the present day,
scarcely changed in form or use from the woodcuts which illustrate Moxon's
description.
Turning from the tools to the workman, Moxon next proceeds to describe his
choice of steel for the punches ; the making and striking of the counter-punches
on the polished face of the punch ; the " graving and sculping" of the insides of
the letters ; together with certain rules in the use of the gravers, small files, etc.,
employed in this delicate operation.
With regard to the process described as counter-punching, it is necessary to
admit that this constituted a refinement of the art of punch-cutting apparently
unknown to the first printers. The freedom of their letters, consequent on the
imitation of handwriting, which served as their earliest models, makes it evident
that they cut by eye, rather than by mathematical rule. But as typography
gradually made models for itself, the best artists, particularly those who aimed
at producing regular Roman and Italic letters, discovered the utility and
expediency of arriving at uniformity in design and contour, by the use of these
counter-punches, which stamped on to the steel the impress of the hollow
portions of the letters they were about to cut, leaving it to the hand of the
engraver to cut round these hollows the form of the required character.
The punches being cut, finished and hardened, Moxon next deals with the
various parts of the type-mould, describing in turn the " Making" of the mould :
The Carriage,2 (a) ; the Body, (b) ; the Male Gauge, (c) ; the Mouthpiece, (d e) ;
the Register, (f i) ; the Female Gauge, (g) ; the Hag, (h) ; the Bottom Plate, {a) ;
the Wood, (b) ; the Mouth, (c) ; the Throat, (d) ; the Pallat, (e d) ; the Nick, (/);
the Stool, (g) ; the Spring, (/*).
Here again we have described, with scarcely a difference, the mould in
which scores of men yet living have in their day cast types for the trade. The
1 Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy- Works applied to the Art of Printing. The
Second Volume. London, 1683. 4to.
2 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,
25. Letter- founding in 1683. (From Moxon's Meehanick Exercises.)
A. Ladle. B. Leather mould-guard.
a, b, c, d. Furnace-top. e. Pan, r. Funnel, g. Stoke-hole. i. Air-hole.
k, A>h-hole.
Letter- Founding as an English Mechanical Trade. 1 1 1
justification of the mould is then described ; after which the important operation
of striking the steel punch into copper, and forming and justifying the matrix, is
treated of, with instructions for " botching" matrices in the event of a mistake in
the latter process. The matrices being thus ready, the founder is instructed how
to adjust them to the mould in preparation for casting, — a solemn process
which may be best described in the writer's own language : —
" Wherefore, placing the under-half of the Mold in his left hand, with the
Hook or Hag forward, he clutches the ends of its Wood between the lower part
of the Ball of his Thumb and his three hind-Fingers. Then he lays the upper
half of the Mold upon the under half, so as the Male-Gages may fall into the
Female Gages, and at the same time the Foot of the Matrice place itself upon
the Stool. And clasping his left-hand Thumb strong over the upper half of the
Mold, he nimbly catches hold of the Bow or Spring with his right-hand Fingers
at the top of it, and his Thumb under it, and places the point of it against the
middle of the Notch in the backside of the Matrice, pressing it as well forwards
towards the Mold, as downwards by the Sholder of the Notch close upon the
Stool, while at the same time with his hinder- Fingers as aforesaid, he draws the
under half of the Mold towards the Ball of his Thumb, and thrusts by the Ball of
his Thumb the upper part towards his Fingers, that both the Registers of the
Mold may press against both sides of the Matrice, and his Thumb and Fingers
press both Halves of the Mold close together. Then he takes the Handle of the
Ladle in his right Hand, and with the Boll of it gives a Stroak two or three
outwards upon the Surface of the Melted Mettal to scum or cleer it from the
Film or Dust that may swim upon it. Then he takes up the Ladle full of Mettal,
and having his Mold as aforesaid in his left hand, he a little twists the left side
of his Body from the Furnace, and brings the Geat of his Ladle, (full of Mettal)
to the Mouth of the Mold, and twists the upper part of his right-hand towards
him to turn the Mettal into it, while at the same moment of Time he Jilts the
Mold in his left hand forwards to receive the Mettal with a strong Shake (as
it is call'd) not only into the Bodies of the Mold, but while the Mettal is yet hot,
running swift and strongly into the very Face of the Matrice to receive its perfect
Form there as well as in the Shanck."
This done, the mould is opened, and the type released ; Moxon adding that
a workman will ordinarily cast 4,000 such letters in a day.
Then follow rules to be observed in breaking off, rubbing, kerning, setting-
up and dressing, with descriptions of the dressing-sticks, block-groove, hook,
knife and " plow." That these operations, as well as the casting, had undergone
no alteration nearly a century after Moxon's day, may be judged from the fact
that Moxon's descriptions are used verbatim to accompany the view of the
i i 2 The Old English Letter Foundries.
s
interior of Caslon's foundry, shown in the Universal Magazine of 1750, where all
these operations are exhibited in active progress.
With regard to the preparation of the type-metal, Moxon's account is minute
and a trifle peculiar. This metal was, according to his account, made of lead
hardened with iron.1 Stub-nails were chosen as the best form of iron to melt,
and the mixture was made with the assistance of antimony, of which an equal
amount with the iron was added to the lead, in the proportion of 3 lb. of iron to
25 lb. of lead. The great heat required to melt the iron necessitated open
furnaces of brick, built out of doors, in a broad, open place, well exposed to
the wind, into which the iron and antimony mixture was put in pots surrounded
with charcoal. After half an hour's time the metal men were to " lay their Ears
near the Ground and listen to hear a Bubling in the Pots," which is the sign that
the iron is melted. They then were to erect another small furnace, " on that side
from whence the Wind blows," which was to contain the large pot full of lead.
The lead being melted, they were to carry it at a great heat, with a " Labour
would make Hercules sweat," to the open furnace, filling up the pots of iron and
antimony with the lead, and stirring at the same time. The open furnace was
to be then demolished, and the mixed metal left to cool in the pots. And " now,"
says Moxon, "(according to Custom), is Haifa Pint of Sack mingled with Sallad
Oyl provided for each Workman to Drink ; intended for an Antidote against the
Poysonous Fumes of the Antimony, and to restore the Spirits that so Violent a
Fire and Hard Labour may have exhausted."
Such is a brief account of the practice of typefounding in Moxon's time. Of
the trade customs of the day our author also presents us with a curious picture,
in his account of the Chapel.
"A Founding- House," he says, "is also call'd a Chappel : but I suppose the
Title was originally assum'd by Founders to make a Competition with Printers.
The Customes used in a Founding-House are made as near as maybe those of a
Printing- House ; but because the Matter they Work on and the manner of their
Working is different, therefore such different Customes are in Use as are suitable
to their Trade, as : —
" First, To call Mettle Lead, a Forfeiture.
" Secondly, A Workman to let fall his Mold, a Forfeiture.
" Thirdly, A Workman to leave his Ladle in the Mettle Noon or Night,
a Forfeiture."
1 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.
Letter- Founding as an English Mechanical Trade. 113
We are given to understand that in the case of other offences, common to
both printing and typefounding, such as swearing, fighting, drunkenness, abusive
language, or giving the. lie in the chapel, or the equally heinous offence of leaving
a candle burning at night, the journeyman founder was liable to be "solaced" by
his fellow-workmen, in the same hearty and energetic way which characterised
the administration of justice among the printers.
After Moxon's time we meet with numerous accounts of foundries and their
appointments. The interesting inventory of the Oxford foundry, appended to
the specimen of the press in 1695, gives a good idea of the extent of that
establishment. There were apparently two casters, two rubbers, and two or
three dressers, and the foundry possessed twenty-eight moulds. The punches
were sealed up in an earthen pot, possibly to protect them from rust or injury ;
or possibly, because having once served their purpose in striking the matrices,
they were put aside as of little or no use. The small value put upon punches
after striking is constantly apparent about this period. Very few punches came
down with the foundries which were absorbed by that of John James ; and of
those that did, the greater portion were left to take their chance among the waste
as worthless. The small value set upon the punches of Walpergen's music, in the
inventory of his plant,1 shows that they were considered the least important of his
belongings. Matrices did not wear out in the old days of hand-moulds and soft
metal, as they do now under steam machines and "extra hard"; but the liability
to loss or damage, and the importance of protecting and preserving the steel
originals of their types, can hardly have been less with the founders of a century
and a half ago than it is to-day.
The entertaining letters of Thomas James from Holland, in 1710,2 point to a
curious practice in that country, which we believe has never obtained in this. We
refer to the habit of lending casters and matrices by one founder to another. In
each of the two foundries he visited there were places for four casters ; but in one
case only one man was at work, and in the other no one was to be found, for this
reason. This system of interchange is hardly consistent with the jealousy and
suspicion shown by the same Dutch founders towards their English rival in his
endeavours to procure sets of matrices from their punches. In this endeavour,
however, he succeeded, much to his own satisfaction. He also purchased moulds,
which, like all the other Dutch moulds he saw, were made of brass. Voskens'
foundry, which he visited, appears to have been " a great business, having five or
six men constantly at the furnace, besides boys to rub, and himself and a brother
1 See post, chapter ix. 2 See post, chapter x.
ii4 The Old English Letter Foundries.
to do the other work." He also found artists who, like Cupi and Rolij, were
punch-cutters only, not attached to any one foundry, but doing work for
founders generally. Van Dijk was a cutter only, who kept a founder of his
own named Bus, and this founder cast, not at his own or Van Dijk's house, but
at the house of Athias, by whom probably he was also engaged. The Voskens,
who succeeded Van Dijk, did their own casting, but their punches and matrices
were supplied them by Rolij, who, as an independent artist, was free to sell
duplicate matrices of his letters to James. This division of letter-founding into
one or more trades, though common abroad, was never a common practice in
England, where jealousy and lack of enterprise conspired to keep each founder's
business a mystery known only to himself.1
In the course of this book we shall have constant occasion to point out the
intimate relations which existed at the beginning of the eighteenth century
between English printers and Dutch founders. There was probably more Dutch
type in England between 1700 and 1720 than there was English. The Dutch
artists appeared for the time to have the secret of the true shape of the Roman
letter ; their punches were more carefully finished, their matrices better justified,
and their types of better metal, and better dressed, than any of which our
country could boast. Nor was it till Caslon developed a native genius that
English typography ceased to be more than half Dutch.
Thiboust's quaint Latin poem on the excellence of printing,2 though throw-
ing little new light on the practice of the art, is worth recording here, not only
for the description it gives of letter-founding in France at the time, but for the
sake of the curious woodcut which accompanies it. The latter represents a
round furnace in the centre of a room, surmounted by a metal pot, at which
two casters are standing, with ladle and mould in hand. The moulds, of which
a number are to be seen in a rack against the wall, are almost cubic in shape,
and apparently without the hooks shown in Moxon's illustration. One of the
casters is holding his mould low, as in the act of casting. A workman sitting
on a stool is setting up in a stick the newly-cast type from a box on the floor
1 Psalmanazar, in referring to Samuel Palmer's projected second part to his History oj
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).
2 Typographies Excellentia. Carmen notis Gallia's illustratum a C. L. Thiboust, Fusore-
Typographo-Bibliopold. Paris, 17 18. 8vo.
Letter- Fotmding as an English Mechanical Trade.
"5
— possibly breaking them off at the same time. Beyond is a dresser grooving
out the break in a stick of types.
Jcc'cTypii ael.ii mo n parviimFuiojr}^ onorcm
jS'c&cet'umiteaai ^IpleudiVla&i^ixiaci t
J&hnpTesjicm, -poTxrfcuheaAjLte/ , TJuTj
26. Letter-founding in France in 1718. (From Thiboust's Typographies Excellefitia.)
Of the portion of the poem devoted to letter-founding,1 we venture to give
the following rough translation : —
1 "LlQUATOR.
" Ecce Liquator adest ; en crebris ignibus ardet
Ejus materies ; praebet Cochleare, Catillum
Et Formas queis mixto ex asre fideliter omnes
Conflat Litterulas ; Hie paret sponte Peritis,
Sive Latina velint conscribere, GrascaVe dicta ;
Sive suam exoptent Hebraea dicere mentem
Lingua, seu cupiant Germanica verba referre,
Cunctas ille sua fabricabitur arte figuras.
Cernis qua. fiat cum dexteritate character
Singulus Archetypo, quod format splendida sign a,
Cum mollis fuerit solers industria scalpri.
Ilium opus est fusi digito resecare metalli
Quod superest, Ferulisque Typos componere leves,
Ut queat exsequans illos Runcina parare.
Sed solet esse gravis nimiis ardoribus eestus."
1 1 6 The Old English Letter Foundries.
" The founder see, whose molten metal glows
Above the blazing furnace. From the pot
His ladle nimbly feeds the curious mould,
Whence straight the type in perfect fashion falls.
The willing servant, he, of all the Schools,
Whether in Latin they would write, or Greek,
Or in the Hebrew tongue their minds disclose,
Or in the German. He, for all prepared,
Skilful, for each his character provides.
See with what art the several types are cast,
Each from its parent matrix ; see how bright,
Trimmed by the dresser's cunning knife, they lie.
He the redundant metal first breaks off,
Then on the stick in order sets the type,
And with his plane their equal height assures.
Such is the founder's craft, whose arduous round
Of toil 'midst ardent heats is daily found."
A still more satisfactory view of an eighteenth century foundry is to be
found in the Universal Magazine of 1750. This engraving, of which our frontis-
piece is a facsimile, represents the interior of Caslon's foundry, with the processes
of casting, breaking-off, rubbing, setting-up, and dressing, all in operation. The
casting is specially interesting, in the light of Moxon's graphic account of the
attitudes and contortions of the caster. Unlike their French brethren, each of
Caslon's casters stands partitioned off from his neighbour, with a furnace and
pan to himself. One of them is dipping his ladle in the pot for a new cast ; the
next holds his mould lowered, at the commencement of a " pour"; the third has
evidently completed the upward jerk necessary to force the metal into the matrix;
and the fourth, with his mould again lowered, is apparently throwing out the type
and preparing for the next casting.
A set of three views of the interior of a French foundry, from an Encyclo-
pedia1 of about this date, presents a few interesting points of contrast between
foreign and English methods. In the first view the process of punch-cutting is
displayed.2 One man is finishing a punch with his file; another is striking a
counter-punch (with perhaps undue energy) into the steel face of a punch ; while
the third, at a large forge, is hammering a piece of steel in readiness for the
engraver. The second view shows metal making, casting, breaking-ofif, and
1 Fonderie en caracteres de F Imftrimerie. 4 pp., and 4 pp. of plates. Fol. No date.
2 Smith (Printers' Gra?nmar, 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 175 5> onry stood in relief to the thickness of an
ordinary sheet of paper. He contrasts English punch-cutting favourably with French in this
particular.
Letter- Founding as an English Mechanical Trade. 1 1 7
rubbing, in operation. There are two men at the large furnace, one watching
the melting of antimony in a crucible, the other pouring off the mixed metal
into ingots. At the small metal pot with three divisions, in the centre of the
room, are three casters, one of whom is about to cast, another has finished his
" throw," and the third is loosening his spring so as to open the mould. At the
table in the rear sit two girls, one breaking off, the other rubbing. The third
view represents a dressing-room, where a girl is setting up the rubbed types on
a stick. The dresser is ploughing the " break" from the foot of a stick of types,
which is placed in the blocks, not lengthways along the bench, but across it. An
apprentice sitting at the table completes the dressing, holding one end of the
stick tilted while he passes his scraper over the front and back of the row of
types. Drawings of all the tools and parts of tools used in typefounding com-
plete the illustration.
Fournier, the French Moxon, in 1764 devoted the latter part of vol. i of his
Manuel Typographiquex to the appliances and instruments used in type-casting.
His work enters in detail into the form and use of every tool used in every depart-
ment of the trade, from the cutting of the punch to the storage of the finished
types, giving careful and accurate woodcuts of each. Allowing for a few national
peculiarities, and certain improvements in casting, there is scarcely anything but
the date of the book to distinguish it from a mechanical handbook to typefounding
in the middle of the nineteenth century.
The operations of punch-cutting and justifying appear to have been kept a
mystery from the earliest days of the trade. To lay minds, the one work of the
founder was to cast types ; but the preliminary operations on which his whole
reputation as a founder depended, were little understood by any but the founder
himself. And even he, as in the case of the first two Caslons, carried on this part
of the mystery stealthily, and with closed doors even against his own apprentices.
In many cases, especially with the originators of the great foundries, Caslon,
Cottrell and Jackson, it was the master himself who designed and cut his
own punches. It was not till the unusual demand for artists at the close of
last century broke down this exclusiveness that outsiders arose to work for the
trade in general. And even these, it was the policy and endeavour of each
founder to attach to himself, treating him as a gentleman at large, and free from
the obligations imposed on his other workmen.
The Rules and Regulations of Thome's Foundry ', printed about the year 1 806,
give an interesting glimpse into the internal economy of a foundry of that period.
After fixing the prices to be paid for work (for casting, rubbing, and kerning were
1 Manuel Typografihique, utile auxgens de lettres. 2 torn. Paris, 1764-6. 8vo.
1 1 8 The Old English Letter Foundries.
all paid by "piece"), they provide that the dressers shall have 25^. a week, "abiding
by the old custom of leaving work at four o'clock on Mondays. Each man to
dress after four casters." The fines for "foot-ale" imposed on new hands are
ordered to be deposited with the master, who is to keep an account of the same,
and divide it equally among the men at Christmas. The foundry hours are from
six in the morning to eight in the evening in summer, and from seven to eight in
winter, "beginning when candle-light commences." The dressers are to work
from seven to eight in summer, and eight to eight in winter. Any man losing
or damaging a mould, matrix, or tool, to make good the loss on the following
Saturday. Any man leaving his lamp or candle alight after hours is to pay 6d.,
and the master for a similar offence is to fine himself is. Rubbers must grind their
stones once a fortnight, " if requested to do so either by the master or foreman."
No work to be taken out of the foundry. Casters and rubbers must take their
turn at carrying in metal. Breaking-off and setting-up boys shall earn lod. a
week for each man they set-up after. Many of these customs are traditional, and
survive at the present time.
Conservatism, indeed, has been a marked feature in the history of British
letter-founding. Between 1637 and 1837 the number of important foundries
rarely exceeded the limit prescribed by the Star Chamber decree of the former
year. The methods and practice of the art, as we have seen, remained virtually
unchanged during the whole period. The traditional customs, the trade argot,
the relations of men to men, and men to masters, even the tricks and gestures of
the caster, suffered nothing by the lapse of two centuries. The relations of the
founders among themselves during the period underwent more vicissitudes. At
all times jealous of their mystery, they mistrusted in turn the printers and one
another. As the new school of Caslon and his apprentices rose up to oust the
old Dutch school of James, mutual antagonism was the order of the day. The
literary duel between the Caslons and the Frys was perhaps the least injurious
outcome of this spirit. This antagonism resolved itself, at the close of last
century, into a combination of London founders against their rising Scotch
competitors. An Association was formed in 1793, which continued for three
years. In 1799 it was re-formed, and this time lasted four years; and again in
1809 ^ was revived and continued till 1820, when it terminated. In the early days
of this Association the lady Caslons took a prominent part in its deliberations,
which, however, frequently consisted of little more than the imposition of
fines for non-attendance. The prices of type during this period, chiefly owing
to the fluctuations in the value of metals during the French war, were constantly
changing. Pica in 1793 was is. \\d. a pound, in 1800 is. 4^/., in 18 10 3^., and
in 1 8 16 (after the price of antimony had gone down from X4.00 to £200 a
Letter- Founding as an English Mechanical Trade. 119
ton), 2s. The Scotch founders, however, joined presently by the Sheffield houses,
continued to underbid the London founders in their own market ; and at one time
a combination of all the English houses existed in opposition to the unfortunate
new foundry of the Frenchman, Pouchee.
Our survey does not extend beyond the year 1830, but before concluding
this hasty outline of the progress of letter-founding as a mechanical trade, it will
be interesting to notice the gradual changes in the process of casting which led
to the final abandonment of the venerable hand-mould in favour of machinery.
We cannot do better than give a brief summary from the Patent Book1 of
the chief "improvements proposed to be made in typefounding prior to 1830,
premising that many of the schemes advanced no further than the proposal, and
that some of the most important improvements which actually did take place
were not registered in the Patent Book at all.
1790. — William Nicholson proposed to cast type in the usual manner, except that
instead of leaving a space in the mould for the stem of the letter only, several letters are cast
at once in ordinary moulds, communicating by a common groove at the top. The types are
also to be scraped in dressing, so as to render the tail of the letter gradually smaller the more
remote it is from the face ; thus enabling them to be set imposed upon a cylindrical surface.
1790. — Robert Barclay. A method of making punches on broken steel, the irregular
figures in the grain of which will effectually obviate counterfeit. Punches may be formed of
steel broken as above, by cutting, drilling, punching, bending parts of the letters, and leaving
the grain of the steel to form the lines or strokes ; and in this way complex founts of type
might be cast, every letter of which would vary in its lines from every other.
1802. — Philip Rusher.2 Improvements in the form of printing types. Each capital
letter, with few exceptions, should be comprised in the compass of an oval. Each small letter
is to be without tail-piece or descender, and the metal (both in small letters and capitals) is to
extend no lower than the body of the letter. The letters above the line have their heads
shortened or lowered about one-third.
1806. — Anthony Francis Berte. A machine for casting type. The casting is per-
formed by applying the mould to one of several apertures in the side of the metal pot, through
which, by the removal of a lock or valve, the metal is made suddenly to flow into the mould
with a force proportionate to the height of the surface of the type-metal in the vessel.3
1 Patents for Inventions. — Abridgments of Specifications relating to Printing (161 7 to
1857). London, 1859. 8vo.
2 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 Passe/as, "printed with patent types in a manner never before
attempted," will always claim a place among typographical curiosities.
3 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.
1 20 The Old English Letter Foundries.
1806. — Elihu White. A machine for casting types ; consisting of a matrix-box con-
taining a certain number of matrices, which is applied to a complex mould having a similar
number of apertures, through which the metal is poured, thus forming several types at one
operation.
1807. — Anthony Francis Berte. Improvements on his former patent. The metal is
forced through the aperture by means of a plug or piston, and the machine is so contrived as
to regulate the quantity of metal ejected at each application of the mould.
Another improvement consists of making the body of the mould in four adjustable pieces
instead of two, which will admit of changes in the body, as well as the thickness of the types.
The moulds are without nicks,1 and the type, when cast, is expelled by a punch or other tool,
without opening the mould.
1809. — John Peek. A machine for the more expeditious casting of types, by which three
motions out of the five ordinarily made use of in casting, are saved. This consists in the
addition of two parts to the ordinary hand-mould ; that to the upper part being a plate with a
socket in which the matrix is suspended on pivots, and that to the lower part being a bolt
which presses the matrix to the mould, where it is kept by a spiral spring round the bolt, and
by the withdrawal of which the matrix is tilted, another spiral spring keeping it in that position
till the mould recloses. The bolt is worked by a lever.2
1812. — William Caslon. An improved printing type. The face or letter part of the
type is made of the usual thickness, and in the usual way, " but the body, which is commonly
made about seven-eighths of an inch, I make only three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness ; and
the front of the said body I make sloping or bevelling upwards from the outer side towards the
face, as well as the opposite side or back, by which means the upper part of the body is about
one-eighth of an inch narrower than the under part of the same." These short types are raised
to the requisite height to paper by stands of the necessary thickness. " Or the body may,
without being bevelled, be fixed by nails or otherwise, upon blocks of wood of a proper width
and height. Or the stands may be made of the whole width of the body of the type, with only
one projecting part, the other being screwed on after the types are put on the stands. The
advantage of these types is in economy of weight and space ; the former being one-half, and
the latter one-third to one-half of the ordinary types."
1814.— Ambroise Firmin Didot. An improvement in the method of making types. In
Roman text, running hand or any other hand consisting more or less in hair strokes or fine
lines, from letter to letter, the projecting extremities of each letter are extended so as to form
a join with the next. In the case of inclined letters " I do, by suitable alteration in my moulds,
cast my types and the beards and shanks or tails thereof with the same or nearly the same
inclination or slope of surface as aforesaid ; and to prevent such types sliding upon each other
1 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.
2 The lever mould was first used in America about 1800.
Letter- Founding as an English Mechanical Trade. 121
when set up, a protuberance or projecting part is cast on one face, and a cavity or indentation
corresponding to it in the opposite one ; or otherwise I do, by angular or curved deviations
from, in, or as to the straight direction of the said surfaces, render it impossible that any sliding
should take place between the same."
1816. — Robert Clayton. A new method of preparing metal . . . types. The specifica-
tion mainly relates to plate-printing, but concludes : " Thirdly, I obtain what I shall term alto
or high-relief, by producing metal castings from wooden moulds or matrices, punched in wood
with a cross-grain, which has been previously slightly charred or baked."1 The metal is
bismuth, tin and lead in equal parts, or tin (4), bismuth (4), lead (3), and antimony (1).
1822. — William Church. Machine for casting the types and arranging them ready to
be transferred to the composing machinery. A matrix-bar containing a series of matrices is
applied to a mould-bar, with a corresponding number of moulds. At the time of casting the
latter is applied to jets leading from the metal chest, which is supplied from a metal fountain
connected with the metal pot, and furnished with a valve to prevent the return of the metal.
After the casting, the mould-bar, drawn endways, cuts off communication with the metal, and
brings the said types beneath a series of punches, which descend and force them out at the same
time that the matrix-box is unlocked, and descends clear of the types . . . The mould-bar is
kept cool during the process by a stream of water passing through it . . . The metal is
injected by the descent of a plunger into the metal chest. The type, as cast, is carried direct
into a composing machine, where it is set up by means of a mechanism worked by keys,
resembling the notes of a piano.2
1823. — Louis John Pouchee3 (communicated by Didot of Paris). Machine calculated
to cast from 150 to 200 types at each operation, the operation being repeated twice or oftenev
in a minute. The moulds are composed of steel bars. The first has horizontal grooves at right
angles to its length, and forms the body of the letter. The second is a matrix-bar, screwed
to the bottom of the first. The third bar forms the fourth side of the type-body. The feet ot
the type are made by the fourth, a "break bar," with orifices communicating with each type-
mould. Two of these moulds are placed side by side so as to form a trough between them, in
which the molten metal is poured, nearly as high as the orifices on the " break bar." On
Pulling a trigger by a string, a plunger at the end of a lever falls into the trough, and injects
the metal into the moulds. The lever is slightly raised after the casting, by a treadle, after
which the workman raises it by hand until it passes a catch, which retains it until the string is
pulled again. The mould is then undamped, the mould-bars drawn asunder by wrenches, the
types are found adhering to the break bar like the teeth of a comb, when they are broken off
and dressed in the usual way.
1823.— John Henfrey and Augustus Applegarth. Certain machinery for casting
types. The type is cast in a space between two flanges, set at right angles on a spindle, and
pressed to and drawn from one another alternately by a spring and a peculiarly arranged
eccentric piece. A piece of steel, called the " body," adjustable to the thickness of the
particular type, is screwed to one of the flanges. The matrix is on a carriage, and is run
through holes in the flanges for the casting, and kept in its place by a spring. The metal is
1 Clayton issued a pamphlet printed from plates produced by this process.
2 It was calculated that 75,000 types could be produced by two men in an hour.
3 See post, chap. xxi. Prior to PoucheVs 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.
R
122 The Old English Letter Foundries.
injected by the descent of a plunger, which recovers itself by a spring. After the casting the
spindle begins to revolve, immediately upon which the matrix is disengaged from the type and
withdrawn clear of the flanges. The flanges are then opened, and the cast type pushed from
the mould by the action of spring pins. A type is thus cast for each revolution of the spindle.
The " break" is disengaged from the letter by two small pins, one of which protrudes from each
jaw after the casting.1
1828. — Thomas Aspinwall. An improved method of casting types, by means of a
" Mechanical Type Caster." The working parts of this machine are mounted on a table sus-
pended so as to move to and from the melting-pot. The mould is in two parts, mounted on two
sliding " carrier pieces" on the table, inclined to each other at a slight angle. The matrix is
held during the casting by a spring. On the revolution of the crank shaft (by hand) a sliding
rod on the table is made to move towards the melting-pot, and the carrier pieces being acted
upon by a cross-bar attached to it by springs, are drawn forward so as to unite the two parts
of the mould for the casting. By a further revolution of the crank shaft, a projecting piece
on the end of the sliding rod, coming in contact with an adjusting screw on one end of a bent
lever, causes it to turn on its centre, and by a friction roller at the other end forces down
the plunger of a cylinder communicating with the metal pot, so as to inject the metal into a
chamber, whence it ejects a portion previously there through a nozzle into the mould as it is
moved forward by the forward motion of the table. The handle of the crank is then turned
the reverse way, the table swings back from the metal pot, the plunger rises by a spring, the
parts of the mould separate, the matrix is withdrawn from the cast type by a lever (which
overcomes the force of the spring by which it is held during the casting), and the type itself
loosened from the mould by coming in contact with an inclined plane.
We conclude these extracts with a proposal suggestive more of the primitive
experiments of the first printers than of nineteenth century letter-founding.
1 83 1. — James Thomson. Certain improvements in making or producing printing types.
" My improvements consist in making printing types by casting or forming a cake of metal
having letters formed and protruding on one side of it, and in afterwards sawing this cake
directly or transversely, so as to divide it into single types." The casting is effected in two
ways. First by forming a mould from types set up, and immersing this within an iron box
in a pot of melted type-metal, " as in making stereotype plates ; with this difference, however,
that in the present case, the plate must be as thick as the length of the intended type ; and
further, that in setting up the types for the cast, proper spaces must be made between each
letter and between the lines, in order to allow for what will be taken away in the sawing." The
second mode is " by taking a plate of copper or other suitable metal, and making in it
indentations or matrices with a punch having on it the letter for the intended type, taking care
to make them in straight rows, direct and transverse. The plate being so indented, is put into
an iron box and immersed in a pot of liquid type-metal, and kept there the proper depth and
proper time, so as to enable the metal fully to enter into those indentations or matrices, that
the letter may be well formed. The cake thus cast or formed, after being taken out and cooled,
is sawed as before."
1 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.
CHAPTER V.
THE STATE CONTROL OF ENGLISH
LETTER-FOUNDING.
UR Statute Books and Public Records do not throw
any very important light on the early history of English
letter-founding. Although a busy import trade in type
appears to have been maintained by theearliest printers,
and although as early as the days of De Worde, as we
have seen, there were English printers who not only cast
types for themselves, but are supposed to have supplied
them to others, we search in vain for any definite reference
to letter- founding in the decrees and proclamations which, prior to 1637, had for
their object the regulation or repression of printing. It is true that the term
printing was at that period wide enough to cover all its tributary arts, from paper-
making to book-selling. At the same time, it is noteworthy that, whereas in many
of the early decrees paper-making, book-binding and book-selling are distinctly
mentioned, letter-founding is invariably ignored. If any inference is to be drawn
from this fact, it is that type was one of the latest of the printer's commodities
to go into the public market. A printer's type was his own, and no one else's ;
and if occasionally one great printer was pleased to part with founts of his letter
to his brother craftsmen, either by favour or for a consideration, it was not till
late in the day — that is, not for about a century after the introduction of printing
into England — that English-cast types became marketable ware in the country.
It is not our purpose here to review in detail the various decrees and pro-
i24 The Old English Letter Foundries.
clamations which regulated printing in this country1 ; but it will be interesting
to notice such of them as appear to have special reference to letter-founding.
The earliest Statute relating to printing was made in 1483, before the art had
well taken root in the country ; and proclaimed free trade in all printed matter
imported from abroad. In 1533 this enactment was repealed, on the ground that
" at this day there be within this realm a great number of cunning and expert in
the said science or craft of printing."2
More direct control was assumed in 1556, when the charter was granted to
the Stationers' Company, constituting that body the " Master and Keepers, or
Wardens and Commonalty, of the Mystery or Art of a Stationer of the City of
London."3 Under this comprehensive term, there is little doubt, founders of type,
had any at that time been practising in London, would be included ; and such
being the case, it would become necessary for them, as well as for paper-makers,
printers, binders, booksellers and others, to become members of the Stationers'
Company, and subsequently, in compliance with the enlarged powers conferred
on the Company in 1559 and 1556, to give surety to that body for the due
observance of the ordinances by virtue of which they held their privileges.
The powers conferred on the Company by its charter related exclusively
to the publication of printed matter; and the rights of search granted in the
subsequent Acts confirming the charter appear to have been directed rather
against the possession of smuggled or illegally printed books than against the
possession of the materials necessary to produce them. "
In 1582 was tried a celebrated lawsuit known as the Star Chamber case of
John Day versus Roger Ward and William Holmes, for illegal printing of an
1 The reader is referred to the concise summary given under the title " Parliamentary
Papers," in Bigmore and Wyman's Bibliography of Printing, also to the Abridgments of
Specifications relating to Printiyig, 1617 to 1857, published by the Commissioners of Patents
in 1859, and for more minute particulars to Mr. Arber's Transcript of the Registers of the
Stationers' Company, and the Calendars of Domestic State Papers.
2 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.
3 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."
The State Control of English Letter-Founding. 125
ABC and Catechism.1 In the course of the inquiry occurs an interesting
reference to the practice of printers as their own letter-founders, which we
reproduce as being one of the earliest direct notices of letter-founding in the
Public Records. Amongst the questions put to the recalcitrant Roger Ward2
the following three were intended to discover whether the illicit ABC was
printed by him in his own type, or whether (with a view to remove suspicion
from himself) he had printed it in the type of another printer : —
" Question xiii. Did any person or personns Ayde help or assist you with paper
letters {type) or other necessaries in this work ?
" Answer. He was not with paper letters (type) or other necessaryes in the said
worke aidyd holpen or assistyd by any manner of personne or persons but that one
Adam a Servant of Master Purfo(o)ttes dyd lend him some letters wherewith he
imprinted the said boke.
" Question xviii. Whether were the Letters wherewith you imprinted the sayd
ABC your owne yea or no ? If not whose were they and by what meanse came
you by them, And whether with the Consent of the owner or not ? And whether have
you redelivered them back againe and how long since, And what nomber of Reames
did you imprint with the said letter ?
" Answer. That all the letters wherewith he impryntyd the said ABC were
not his owne for he dyd borrowe of one Adame, a man of one master Purfott all the
Inglisshe (i.e., Black) Letters to the said worke and he borrowyd these letters without
the consent of the said master Purfytt and hath the same as yet in this defendants
custodye and have not Redelyvered of the same sithes he borrowyd the same as
aforesaid and to his Remembrance he Did imprynt with the sayd letter the nomber of
Twentie Reames of paper.
" Question xix. Whether have you cast any new Letter of your owne since
the first printinge of the said ABC, and what nomber of the same have you printed
of that letter (in that type) ?
" Answer. He confessyth that he hath sythes the first imprintyng of the said
ABC, cast a newe letter of his owne and yet he hath not pryntyd any of that letter
(in that type)."
This testimony was generally corroborated by the other printers and persons
examined, to many of whom it appeared to be notorious that Roger Ward had
printed the book in a letter not his own, and that he had since cast a new fount
of type for his own use. The whole inquiry throws a curious light on the
methods of business of the printers of the day. Composition then, as Mr. Arber
points out, was not necessarily done in the master-printer's house where he kept
1 Arber's Transcripts, ii, 753-69.
2 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.
126 The Old English Letter Foundries.
his press. Of course that which was done by himself and his apprentices was
done there, but work given out to journeymen (who were generally householders),
was probably done in their houses and paid for by piecework. " A custom which,"
continues Mr. Arber," was facilitated by most of the books then printed being almost
always in some one size of type. Therefore there could not be so much control
exercised over the literature in respect to the guardianship of the type — however
easy it was for printers of that day to identify the printer of a book by its
typography — neither do we find any such attempted ; but only in respect to the
custody of the hand printing press, which was doubtless well secured every night
as a dangerous instrument, lest secret nocturnal printing should go on without
the owner's consent."1
In the same year, 1582, Christopher Barker, the Queen's printer, drew up an
able report on the condition of printing as it then existed, in which, among other
matters, he referred to the cost of making type, and its consequent effect on
publishers and printers. " In King Edward the Sixt his Dayes," he says,
" Printers and printing began greatly to increase ; but the provision of letter,
and many other thinges belonging to printing was so exceeding chargeable,
that most of those printers were Dryven throughe necessitie, to compound
before[hand] with the booksellers at so low value, as the printers themselves
were most tymes small gayners and often loosers . . . The Bookesellers . . now
(1582) . . keepe no printing howse, neither beare any charge of letter, or other
furniture, but onlie paye for the workmanship ... so that the artificer printer,
growing every Daye more and more unable to provide letter2 and other fur-
niture . . . will in tyme be an occasion of great discredit to the professours
of the arte."
The report goes on to mention that at that time (December 1582) "there
are twenty-two printing howses in London, where eight or ten at the most
would sufifise for all England, yea, and Scotland too."3
In May of the following year there were twenty-three printers with fifty-
three presses among them, and during the next two years the number appears
to have increased so considerably as to call for that sweeping enactment, the
Star Chamber decree of 1586. This famous measure prohibits all presses out of
London, except one each at the two Universities, and " tyll the excessive multy-
1 Arber's Transcripts, ii, 22.
2 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.
3 Arber's Transcripts, i, 1 14, 144.
The State Control of English Letter-Founding. 1 2 7
tude of Prynters havinge presses already sett up be abated," permits no new
press whatsoever to be erected.1 The Stationers' Company have authority to
inspect all printing offices, " to search take and carry away all presses, letters
and other pryntinge instrumentes sett up, used or employed . . contrary to the
intent and meaninge hereof; . . . and thereupon shall cause all suche printing
presses, or other printing instruments, to be Defaced, melted, sawed in peeces,
broken, or battered . . . and the stufife of the same so defaced, shall redelyver to
the owners thereof againe within three monethes next after the takinge or
seizinge thereof as aforesayd."2
The Company were not slow in making use of their enlarged powers, and
the refractory Roger Ward appears to have had considerable experience of the
rigours of the new decree. In October 1586 the wardens seized on his premises
" 3 presses and divers other parcells of pryntinge stufife," and ordered them to be
defaced and rendered unserviceable, according to the tenor of the decree. In
1590 they made a further visitation, and discovered that "he did kepe and
conceale a presse and other pryntinge stuff in a Taylor's house near adjoyninge
to his owne, and did hide his letters in a hen house near St. Sepulchure's Churche,
expressely against the Decrees of the Star Chamber. All the whyche stuff were
brought to Stacioners Hall" and duly destroyed. But the dauntless Roger
Ward was not thus to be extinguished, and scarcely six months later, at
Hammersmith, another press, "with 5 formes of letters of Divers sortes and 3
cases with other printing stuffe," were impounded and rigorously defaced.
Nor was Ward the only victim. In a Secret Report presented in September
1589 to Lord Burleigh respecting the authors of the famous Marprelate Tracts,
it is stated that the printer of the first three of these, " all beinge printed in a
Dutch letter," was Robert Waldegrave ; and " towchinge the printinge of the
two last Lebells in a litle Romaine and Italian letter," the report states — once
more showing how in those days a printer was known by his types — " the letter
that these be printed in is the same that did printe the Demonstration of
Discipline aboute Midsommer was twelve moneth (24 June, 1588), which was
printed by Waldegrave neere Kingston upon Thames, as is discovered. When
his other letters and presse were defaced about Easter was twelve moneth
1 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), d. 28.
2 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.
128 The Old English Letter Foundries.
(7th April, 1588) he saved these lettres in a boxe under his Cloke, and brought
them to Mistris Cranes howse in London, as is allso confessed ; and they are
knowen by printers to be Waldegrave's letters ; And it is the same letter that
was taken with Hodgkys. These two last Libells came abroade in July (1589)
last. Now it is confessed by the Carier that John Hodgkys that is taken, did
send from a gentlemans howse in Woltonam in Warwikeshier unto Warrington
immediatlye after whitsontyde last (18 May 1589), aprintinge presse, two boxes
of letter, a barrell of nicke (incke ?), a baskett and a brasse pott, which were
delyvered to him at Warrington," etc.1
The Stationers' Company, on the whole, had a busy time during the few
years following the Star Chamber decree, in hunting up and destroying dis-
orderly presses and the " stuffe '" appertaining thereto. The numerous monopolies
and patents of which they were the appointed guardians provoked a regular
secret organisation of unprivileged printers,2 who pirated right and left, some-
times with impunity, sometimes at the cost of losing their whole plant and stock-
in-trade by a raid of the authorities.
These raids must have kept the typecasters of the day well occupied, and
it is even possible that the " stuffe" which from time to time fell into the hands
of the Company may have included punches, matrices and moulds, which it
would be far less easy to replace than presses, ink and balls.
A printer liable to such visitations would prefer, if possible, to procure his
type out of doors, rather than maintain the valuable plant requisite to make it
himself ; and it is probable that the outside demand thus created may have been
among the causes which led to the establishment of one or two small foundries,
unconnected with any one printing office in particular, whose business it would
be to supply any purchaser with type from its matrices.
The Stationers' Company, who from time to time supplemented the powers
conferred upon them by the Star Chamber with regulations of their own on matters
such as standing formes, apprentices and prices, would naturally recognise a
source of danger in a new foundry starting under the circumstances described,
and were prompt to assert their authority.
Accordingly we find the following entry in the Index to the Court Books
of the Company under date 1597 : —
" Benjamin Sympson, letter founder, to enter into a ^40 bond not to cast any
letters or characters, or to deliver them, without advertising the Master and Wardens
in writing, with the names of the parties for whom they are intended. — 1597."
1 Arber's Transcripts ; ii, 816.
2 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.)
The State Control of English Letter- Founding. 129
Here we have the first historical record of letter-founding as a distinct and
recognised trade.1 Of Benjamin Sympson and his types nothing is known. His
name does not occur in any of the lists of printers of the period, nor does it
appear that he was even a member of the Stationers' Company. Whether he was
called upon at his own request to qualify as a typefounder, or whether the
resolution of the Court was arrived at in consequence of his previous transactions
with one or more of the disorderly printers, is equally uncertain.
In 1598 the Stationers' Company made a regulation respecting the price of
work, which is also of interest, as indicating the bodies of type at that time
most commonly in use for bookwork. It was as follows : —
" No new copies without pictures to be printed at more than the following rates:
those-in pica Roman and Italic and in English (i.e., Black letter) with Roman and
Italic at a penny for two sheets ; those in brevier and long primer letters at a penny
for one sheet and a half."2
A further regulation regarding typefounders shows that in 1622 the trade
had more than one recognised representative : —
" The Founders bound to the Company by bond, not to deliver any fount of new
letters, without acquainting the Master and Wardens — 1622."
The Act of 1586, despite the rigour with which, at first at any rate, it was
enforced, appears to have fallen into contempt, and to have been openly disre-
1 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 me'tier des fondeurs de lettres est connexe a l'art
de 1'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 commencee 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 VImprimerie. Paris, 8vo, pp. 124-8.)
2 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 com-
positors 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.)
130 The Old English Letter Foundries.
garded by the printers of the first quarter of the seventeenth century. According
to the account of the- " London Printer," who wrote his Lamentation in 1660, print-
ing and printers, about 1637, were grown to such "monstrous excess and exorbitant
disorder" as to call for the prompt and serious attention of the Court of Star
Chamber, who in that same year, because the former " Orders and Decrees have
been found by experience to be defective in some particulars; and divers abuses
have sithence arisen and been practiced by the craft and malice of wicked and
evill disposed persons/' put forward the famous Star Chamber Decree of 1637.1
In this decree, the severity of which called forth from Milton his noble protest,
the Areopagitica? letter-founding is formally recognised as a distinct industry,
and shares with printing the rigours of the new restrictions. The following is
the text of the clauses relating to founders : —
XXVII. — Item, The Court doth order and declare, that there shall be foure
1 Founders of letters for printing allowed, and no more, and doth hereby nominate,
I allow, and admit these persons, whose names hereafter follow, to the number of foure,
' to be letter-Founders for the time being, (viz.) John Grismand, Thomas Wright, Arthur
Nichols, Alexander Fifield. And further the Court doth Order and Decree, that it
shall be lawfull for the Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury, or the Lord Bishop of London
for the time being, taking unto him or them, six other high Commissioners, to supply
the place or places of those who are now allowed Founders of letters by this Court, as
they shall fall void by death, censure, or otherwise.
Provided that they exceede not the number of foure, set down by this Court. And
if any person or persons, not being an allowed Founder, shall notwithstanding take
upon him, or them, to Found, or cast letters for printing, upon complaint and proofe
made of such offence, or offences, he, or they so offending, shal suffer such punishment,
as this Court, or the high Commission Court respectively, as the severall causes shall
require, shall think fit to inflict upon them.
XXVIII. — Item, That no Master-Founder whatsoever shall keepe above two
Apprentices at one time, neither by Copartnership, binding at the Scriveners, nor any
other way whatsoever, neither shall it be lawfull for any Master-Founder, when any
Apprentice, or Apprentices shall run, or be put away, to take another Apprentice, or
other Apprentices in his, or their place or places, unless the name or names of him, or
them so gone away, be rased out of the Hall-booke of the Company, whereof the
Master-Founder is free, and never admitted again, upon pain of such punishment, as
by this Court, or the high Commission respectively, as the severall causes shall
require, shall be thought fit to bee imposed.
1 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.
2 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, i2mo.
The State Control of English Letter-Founding. 1 3 1
XXIX. — Item, That all Journey-men-Founders be imployed by the Master-
Founders of the said trade, and that idle Journey-men be compelled to worke after
the same manner, and upon the same penalties, as in case of the Journey-men-
Printers is before specified.1
XXX. — Item, That no Master-Founder of letters, shall imploy any other person
or persons in any worke belonging to the casting or founding of letters, than such only
as are freemen or apprentices to the trade of founding letters, save only in the pulling
off the knots of mettle hanging at the ends of the letters when they are first cast, in
which work it shall be lawfull for every Master-Founder, to imploy one boy only that
is not, nor hath beene bound to the trade of Founding letters, but not otherwise, upon
pain of being for ever disabled to use or exercise that art, and such further punish-
ment, as by this Court, or the high Commission Court respectively, as the severall
causes shall require, be thought fit to be imposed.
XIV. — Item, That no Joyner, or Carpenter, or other person, shall make any
printing-Presse, no Smith shall forge any Iron- Worke for a printing Presse, and
no Founder shall cast any Letters for any person or persons whatsoever, neither shall
any person or persons bring, or cause to be brought in from any parts beyond the
Seas, any Letters Founded or Cast, nor buy any such Letters for Printing, Unlesse he or
they respectively shall first acquaint the said Master and Wardens, or some of them,
for whom the same Presse, Iron-works,or Letters, are to be made, forged, or cast, upon
paine of such fine and punishment, as this Court, or the high Commission Court
respectively, as the severall causes shall require, shall thinke fit.
Respecting the four founders thus nominated, and their types, we shall have
occasion to speak in a following chapter. Continuing here our cursory review
of the Statutes which affected letter-founding, it is necessary to remind the
reader that this tremendous decree, which for severity eclipsed all its prede-
cessors, was short-lived.
On November 3, 1640, the Long Parliament assembled, and with it the
Star Chamber disappeared, and its decrees became dead letters. Then for a
season there was virtually free trade in printing, and advantage was taken of the
new condition of affairs to infringe existing rights on every hand, the King's
Patent Printers (if we are to believe the " London Printer," above quoted) being
the chief and most unscrupulous transgressors.
Parliament was not slow to take up the mantle dropped by the late Star
Chamber, and in 1643 attempted to stem "the very grievous" liberty of the
press, reinvesting the Stationers' Company with powers to search and seize all
unlicensed presses and books, and to apprehend the " authors, printers and other
persons whatsoever employed in compiling, printing, stitching, binding,
1 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.
132 The Old English Letter Foundries.
publishing and dispersing the said scandalous, unlicensed and unwarrantable
papers, books and pamphlets."
This ordinance, in which once more typefounders are conspicuous by their
absence, was strengthened by a further decree in 1647, and two years later the Act
of Sept. 20, 1649, virtually reimposed the old Star Chamber regulations, requiring,
among other provisions, that printers should enter into a £300 bond not to print
seditious or scandalous matter ; also that no house or room should be let to a
printer, nor implements made, press imported, or letters founded, without notice
to the Stationers' Company. The penalties attached to a breach of these orders
were severe. This Act was renewed in 1652, but it failed to remedy the abuses it
was intended to meet. Private presses sprung up on all hands; the art was
degraded and prostituted to all manner of base uses ; workmen as well as
master printers joined in their complaints against disorders which were working
their ruin. The number of printers, restricted since 1 586 to twenty, had grown to
sixty; the Royal printers themselves were interlopers, two of them not even
being practical printers, and all of them being political incendiaries.
Such being the condition of affairs, it is not surprising that in 1662 the
remonstrances raised on all sides should result in an Act of Parliament intended
to dispose finally of the abuses complained of.
The Act of 1662 (13 and 14 Charles II, c. 33) reimposes the provisions of
the Star Chamber decree of 1637 with additional rigour.1 It enacts that no
type is to be founded or cast, or brought from abroad, without licence from the
Stationers' Company. The number of founders is again limited to four, and all
1 Ina rare tract tntiiled An Exact Narrative 0/ the Tryal and Condemnation of John Tivyn,
for Printing a?id 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."
The State Control of English Letter- Founding. 133
vacancies in the number are to be filled up by the Archbishop of Canterbury or the
Bishop of London.1 Masters of the Stationers' Company, past and present,
may have three apprentices, liverymen two, and the commonalty only one.
Master founders must see that their journeymen are kept at work ; and these
journeymen must be all Englishmen and freemen, or sons of freemen. Founders
working for the trade who offend are to be disabled from following their craft
for three years, and on a second offence to be permanently disqualified, besides
suffering punishment by fine or imprisonment, or " other corporal punishment not
extending to life and limb."
This uncompromising Act was continued from time to time, with temporary
lapses, until 1693,2 when, in the tide of liberty following the Revolution, it disap-
peared. Despite its stern provisions, we find from a petition entitled The Case
of tJie Free Workmen Printers, presented to the House about 1665, praying
for its renewal, that the number of printing-houses had already grown to seventy,
with one hundred and fifty apprentices ; and in 1683 we have the evidence of
Moxon that the number of founders, as well as of printers, was grown "very
many." It does not, however, appear that at any time during the continuance
of the Act, that the number of founders ever exceeded four. How far they
complied with the regulation requiring them to account to the Company for all
type cast, we are unable, in the absence of any register of such accounts, to say ;
but that a register was duly kept is evident from the following important minute
of the Court in 1674 : —
" All the Letter-founders to give timely notice to the Master and Wardens, of all
such quantities of letter as they shall cast for any person ; which notice shall be
entered by the Clerk in a register book to be provided for that purpose. — 1674."
In 1668, as will be seen in a subsequent chapter, the Company had, in discharge
of their authority, nominated Thomas Goring to the Archbishop of Canterbury
as " an honest and sufficient man" to be one of the four founders allowed by the
Act, there being then a vacancy in the number. And that the penal clauses
were not neglected is equally evident from the resolution of the Court in 1685,
withholding Godfrey Head's dividend until he should comply with the Act by
giving an account to the Company of what type he was casting.
1 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.
2 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.
134 The Old English Letter Foundries.
The latest minute on the Court Books relating to letter-founding was in
1693 — the year in which the Act expired — when the following order was
made : —
" Printed papers to be delivered to all Founders, Press Makers and others con-
cerned, requiring obedience to that Clause in the Act for preventing abuses in Printing,
whereby all Letter Founders, Press Makers, Joiners, and others are commanded to
acquaint the Master or Wardens what Presses or Letters they shall at any time make
or cast. — 1693."
After 1693, letter-founding came from under all restraint. Laws of copy-
right and patent still clung to printing,1 but, except for a proposal made about
1695 by one W. Mascall2 that every printer, letter-founder and press-maker
should enter with a statement on oath the number of his presses, the weight of
his letter and the extent of his other utensils, we find no reference to letter-
founding in the Public Records for upwards of a century.
Notwithstanding this liberty, the number of founders during the eighteenth
century appears rarely to have exceeded the figure prescribed by the Star
Chamber Decree of 1637, and occasionally to have been less.
One more attempt was made in the closing days of the eighteenth century
to control the freedom of the press by law. There is something almost grotesque
in the efforts made by legislators in 1799 to refit, on a full-grown and invincible
press, the worn-out shackles by which the Stuarts had tried to curtail the growth
of its childhood ; and the Act of the 39th George III, cap. 79,3 in so far as it
deals with printing, will always remain one of the surprises, as well as one of the
disgraces, of the Statute-book. Among its worst provisions, the following affect
letter-founders and letter-founding : —
Sec. 23 ordains that no one, under penalty of £20, shall be allowed to possess
or use a printing-press or types for printing, without giving notice thereof to a
Clerk of the Peace, and obtaining from him a certificate to that effect.
Sec. 33 provides that any Justice of the Peace may issue a warrant to
search any premises, and seize and take away any press or printing-types
not duly certificated.
1 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.
2 A Proposal for Restraining the great Licentiousness of the Press throughottt Great
Britain, etc. No date.
3 An Act for the more effectual Suppression of Societies established for Seditious and
Treasonable Pztrposes ; and for better preventing Treasonable and Seditious Practices. [12 July,
1 799-]
The State Control of English Letter- Founding. 135
The following sections we give in full : —
Sec. 25. "That from and after the Expiration of Forty Days after the passing
of this Act, every Person carrying on the Business of a Letter Founder or Maker or
Seller of Types for Printing or of Printing Presses, shall cause Notice of his or her
Intention to carry on such Business to be delivered to the Clerk of the Peace of
the . . . Place where such Person shall propose to carry on such Business, or his
Deputy in the Form prescribed in the Schedule of this Act annexed.1 And such
Clerk of the Peace or his Deputy shall, and he is hereby authorized and required
thereupon to grant a Certificate in the Form also prescribed in the said Schedule,2
for which such Clerk of the Peace or his Deputy shall receive a Fee of One Shilling
and no more, and shall file such Notice and transmit an attested Copy thereof to one
of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State ; and every Person who shall, after
the expiration of the said Forty Days, carry on such Business, or make or sell any
Type for Printing, or Printing Press, without having given such Notice, and obtained
such Certificate, shall forfeit and lose the Sum of Twenty Pounds."
Sec. 26. " And be it further enacted, That every Person who shall sell Types for
Printing, or Printing Presses as aforesaid, shall keep a Fair Account in Writing of
all Persons to whom such Types or Presses shall be sold, and shall produce such
Accounts to any Justice of the Peace who shall require the same; And if such Person
shall neglect to keep such Account, or shall refuse to produce the same to any such
Justice, on demand in Writing to inspect the same, such Person shall forfeit and lose,
for such offence, the Sum of Twenty Pounds."
Such was the law with regard to typefounding at the time when the widows
of the two Caslons were struggling to revive their then ancient business, when
Vincent Figgins was building up his new foundry, and Edmund Fry, Caslon III
and Wilson were busily occupied in cutting their modern Romans to suit the
new fashion. And such the law remained nominally until the year 1869,3
1 " 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, oroi 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."
2 "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."
3 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.]
136 The Old English Letter Foundries.
just upon four centuries after the introduction of the Art into this country. It
is probable that, during the first few disturbed years of its existence, the Act may
have been enforced, that certificates may have been registered, and accounts
dutifully furnished.1 But its provisions appear very soon to have fallen into
contempt, and certainly, as far as we can ascertain, failed to trouble the peace of
any British letter-founder.
Such is a hasty and very cursory review of the various laws which from
time to time have taken letter-founding under control. Whether they succeeded
in placing any real check on the progress of the art, it is difficult to determine.
But it is certain that the heaviest restrictive measures have generally been
accompanied not only by the most grievous abuses in the spirit of the press, but
by distinct degeneration in the quality of the typographical work executed. A
privileged printer, sure of his monopoly and safe from competition, would have
little or no inducement to execute his work at more cost or pains than was
necessary. Old type would do as well as new, and bad type would do as well as
good. Free trade and open competition were the great evils to be dreaded,
because free trade and open competition would demand the best paper, and type
and workmanship. The typography of the entire Stuart period is a disgrace to
English art. Fine printing was an art unknown ; and only a few works like
Walton's Polyglot, which were produced in an atmosphere untainted by
mercenary considerations, stand out to redeem the period from unqualified
reproach.
On the other hand, the removal of the restrictions was the signal for a
revival which may be traced in almost every printed work of the early eighteenth
century. In the absence of any great English founder, the best Dutch types came
freely into the English market. Books came to be legible, paper became white,
ink black, and press-work respectable. Caslon came in on the tide of the revival,
as also did Bowyer, Watts, Bettenham, and artistsof their rank ; and the emanci-
pated press, among them, made up the leeway of a wasted century, and, no
longer in the grip of faction, but the free servant of the great and wise of the
land, raised for itself monuments which will remain a lasting glory not only to
English scholarship and English eloquence, but also to English typography, for
which liberty has been, and always will be, the surest road to achievement.
1 " Now register'd — now ticketed we move,
Our slightest works the double label prove."
(McCreery, The Press, p. 25.)
CHAPTER VI.
-^sg-g:g-8*=h-.
THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY FOUNDRY.
RINTING was practised at Oxford within a year of the
introduction of the art into England. Setting aside the
legend of Corsellis and the " 1468" Exposicio Simboli,
we find that a printer, presumably Theodoric Rood, from
Cologne, was settled here in 1478, and issued three works
anonymously from his press during that and the following
year. Between 1480 and 1483, Rood printed eight works
bearing his own name, and in 1485 and i486, in partner-
ship with an Englishman named Thomas Hunte, he produced six more.
Whether the first Oxford printer made his own type or procured it from
abroad, we have no information, but the distinctly Cologne character of the two
earliest founts favours the supposition that, like Caxton, he brought at any rate
his first types with him from the Continent. The vague reference which Rood
and Hunte make to their labours at the end of the Phalaridis Epistolce in 1485,1
does not throw much light on the question, although the boast of an independent
discovery of the art of printing there recorded may possibly mean that towards
the close of their career they had arrived at a knowledge of the mystery of
making their own types.
Without attempting a detailed examination of the seventeen works of the
" O Veneti,
Que fuerat vobis ars primum nota Latini,
Est eadem nobis ipsa reperta premens."
138 The Old English Letter Foundries.
first Oxford printers, we observe that during the eight years in which they
practised their art, they made use of seven different kinds of type, which arrange
themselves chronologically as follows1 :
Known
Date.
TITLE.
Type.
Group.
1479
1479
1481
1482
1485
Exposicio Symboli...
Aristotelis Ethica ...
AZgidius de peccato originali
Cicero pro Mi Zone ...
Latin Grammar in English
Alexander de Ales. Expositio de Animd.
Two Editions
Lattebury. Morales. Two editions
Hampole. Explanationes
Swyneshed. Insohibilia ...
Anwykyll. Compendium. 1st edition ...
„ „ 2nd „
Lyndewode. Constitutiones
Phalaridis Epistolce
Liber Festivalis ...
Textus Alexandri ...
* Misprint for 1478.
a
a
a
b
b
b, c
b, c
d, e
d, e
d[e?]f
d,f
c, d, e, f
c,f
f,g
d,f,g
Group I, "1468"- 1479.
(No printer's name.)
Group II, 1481-82.
(Theodoric Rood.)
Group III, 1483-86.
(Rood and Hunte.),
It will be noticed from the above list that type [a] was used solely by the
first anonymous Oxford printer, and disappeared entirely as soon as Rood began
to print in his own name. The letter is a Black of similar character, as Mr.
Bradshaw points out, to that used by Zell and Guldenschaft at Cologne, and was
probably brought thence to this country. The body corresponds closely to the
present " English." One peculiarity about type [a] is that in the mis-dated
Exposicio Simboli the capital ^ is always printed sideways (^), whereas in the
two following books it appears correctly.
During the two years that Rood printed under his own name alone, he made
use of a compressed Black-letter of English body, type [b], with which, in the
Ales and Lattebury, he combined a larger Black, type [c], on Double English
body for chapter-headings or initials.
Type [b] disappeared entirely at the close of Rood's solitary labours. Type
[c], however, was preserved ; we find it used in single letters, or very sparsely in
two later works.
Rood and Hunte inaugurated their partnership by the introduction of two
1 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.
[c]
a.
v~v HamftnS** fetttftfto fa
W m % eft fumptum ejc sjtoe J)o.$5t»C
^l W fo& que m&pit quamy <fct ^jate
V«^£^^ fupta ex Cedmies obirctact&*
frf $1 qtiegftnetit a& materia fcuiuef c.fUb f»
j$o0 igt£ #6 jjpfeaa fyk non tcpeto fee&
©rie jjume jjwem ft* ea&m aduemenfe pa*
rd1 fdpaiis ftjhnite&s &ie tubiieo si} Digiita J*
fe(&rce0j.nn9 0mdt|^.^($^Cttei^
fdiritet atfingena grades mfcfinenter cef%
cx> mm latgitod miue maicfbft ptsceef (uii
to jlippliffd g ©motes quatettue m miltta
to cccirfie tubileo fit nos pre ?t e^tojS x&
mum | eamtflioite© gtad&m fibi od&af ac «
f^toe &£ mitiupj?and0 ecdefie iubito fpt
mtu5 ffiRtti gra CDopante etetnahtet feted
gauCtts & qutefetse mereamur (j£mcn
[f] <£]£plid£ opiie ma^n t»tl
fjehnt fgn&moofce JNpcr con*
ffctftttoneeptoumcialee lawo5eo
27. Colophon of Lymdeiuode's Constitutiones. Oxford, 1482 (?). Showing the types [c], [d], [e], [f].
Iface
The Oxford University Foundry.
139
new founts of Black-letter, types [d] and [e], or rather one fount having one size of
capitals, and a small and large size of " lower-case," all cast on the same body,
about a Pica, and capable of being used interchangeably. Subsequently they
used another double fount, types [f] and [g], cast in the same manner, [f ] being the
small, and [g] the large " lower-case," with one size of capitals for both, all cast on
a body closely corresponding to Great Primer. The character of this letter is
decidedly Caxtonian, and suggests the possibility that at this stage of their
labours the printers may have learned the art of making their own type. Type
[f] had been in use for some time in" combination with [c], [d] and [e], before
type [g] appeared. The accompanying facsimile from the Lyndewode shows types
[c],[d],[e]and[f].
We thus find that the seven early Oxford types reduce themselves to four
principal founts, and one fount of initial letter, of which the following table will
briefly sum up the typographical details :
Type.
Character.
Approximate Body.
Notes.
a
b
c
:i
Cologne Black
Narrow Dutch Black
Heading and Initial Black
Small lower-case Dutch Black") sjq-^u
Large lower-case Dutch Black (" ~se . ° ,
Small lower-case Caxtonian Black") ,,r,,
/ With one
Large lower-case Caxtonian Black f p!!!l:tfis
English
English
2-line English
Pica
Pica
Great Primer.
Great Primer.
Used with no other
type. _
Used alone or with [c]
for headlines.
Used chiefly with [b],
also with [d], [e], [f ].
Used chiefly with [e],
also with [f ] and [g].
Used chiefly with [d],
also with [f].
Used chiefly with [g],
also with [d] and [ej.
Used chiefly with [f],
also with [d].
The first Oxford press disappeared altogether in i486, between which date
and 1 5 17 no work is known to have issued. In 15 17 John Scolar, another
German, printed a few small works very neatly in English and Brevier black-
letter, with a Great Primer for titles, and made use of the University arms for
the first time, either on his titles or last pages. Scolar's press, in turn, came to
an abrupt standstill in 15 19, after which, in common with the other provincial
presses of the country, printing at Oxford remained dormant for upwards of
half a century.1
It was not till the year 1585 that the art was actively resumed. In that
1 Bagford attributes this general cessation of printing in Oxford, Cambridge, York, Tavi-
stock; St. Albans, Canterbury and Worcester to Cardinal Wolsey's interference while legate.
140 The Old English Letter Foundries.
year the Earl of Leicester presented a press, and the University made a grant
of £100. The Star Chamber Decree of the following year formally allowed
(with rigid restrictions) the establishment of the new press, and under Joseph
Barnes, the first University printer, it rapidly rose to prominence. It appears
from the outset to have been well provided with types, many of them of a
beautiful cut, particularly those of the Greek character. The Chrysostomi
Homilice, printed by Barnes in 1586, and the Herodotus of 1591, were both
noticeable for the excellence of their letter. The former is said to be the first
Greek book printed at the University.
The reputation of the University for its Greek types was enhanced some
years afterwards by the acquisition of the letter in which the magnificent edition
of St. Chrysostoni)- had been printed at Eton by John Norton in 1610-13, at the
charge and under the direction of Sir Henry Savile.2 This work, one of the
most splendid examples of Greek printing in this country, is said to have cost
its author ^"8,000. Respecting the origin of the types, Bagford says, in one of
his MSS. : "Sir Henry Savile, meditating an edition of St. Chrysostoni, prepared
a fount of curious Greek letters, which in those days were called the Silver letter,
not being cast of silver, but for the beauty of the letter so called." Beloe,3 on
the other hand, considers that the types were procured from abroad. " They
certainly resemble," he says, " those of Stephens, and the other Paris printers, as
well as those of the Wechels at Frankfort, at a subsequent period. From the
Wechels indeed they are said by some to have been procured, but this fact I
have not been able to ascertain. It appears beyond a doubt, from a passage in
one of the Epistles of Isaac Casaubon, that they were cast abroad."4
The fine execution of this work obtained for Norton the distinction accorded
to Robert Estienne of Paris by Francis I, of " Regius in Greeds Typographus."
Scarcely less high an honour had been paid to this printer in 1594, when we are
told Paul Estienne (son of Henri Estienne II) visiting England, and appre-
ciating his merit, permitted him to make use of the device of the Estiennes.5
At what date these famous Greek types came into the possession of the
1 S. Joannis Chrysostomi opera Greece, octo voluminibus. Etonce, in Collegio Regali,
Excudebat Joannes Norton, in Grcecis &*c. Regius Typographus. 1610-13. Fol.
s 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 162 1,
setat. 72.
3 Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books. London, 1807-12. 6 vols., 8vo, v, m, 122.
4 The passage referred to is the following vague reply to an inquiry addressed by Sir
Henry Savile to Casaubon : " De characteribus Stephanicis longa historia, longae ambages.
Itaque melius ista coram."
6 Dupont, Histoire de VImprimerie, Paris, 1854. 2 vols., 8vo, i, 488.
IlEPI lEPflSYNHX. Aoy.*.
Mot ttdMoj fA, iyu&p $!?£)> yvAaiotft ^ «t A»%?s, ^] (w
£ ^> fiafyjuijf »4°t/29ct fficu/Tav, *j Sx$)&ex<L?$i<; i%Pn«»
& &cmiub cx.«5^v c^eAjoViJu: 3v*A€us©5«^ £££&<>, 07toj^u eAe'aSsty iv ]2>/au ^eAtfo? i^hiSi^
28. Greek fount of the Eton Chrysostom, 1613.
» t>^ rop vjjJ]p i%vog dirt-
Skofjicui, cos'e coooni fue efc, £-
c^foov, 7i cm ffiapg S'xwcts'oov pc-
XPTSOST. Mj,<p»»(7iV,c^aM
Quid enirn^ ? nunquid ali^
quid vos petit ? aut fortitudine
vejlra indigeo , ut falvetis me de
inimicis , vel de manu potentiuin
liber etis me ?
CHRYSOSTOMI. Num in ali-
qua re 3 inquit3 molefhis vobis fui3 ut
me crudeliter adeo tradraretis ? vel opem ve-
ftram contra adverfarios meos rogavi ? vel
ut
29. From the Catena on Job. 1637.
T face c. liO.
The Oxford University Foundry. 141
Oxford University Press it is impossible to determine. It was probably not till
after some years of rough usage following Sir Henry Savile's death ; as Evelyn,1
in one of his letters, after lamenting the loss of Sir Simon Fanshaw's medals,
says that " they were after his decease thrown about the house for children to play
at counter with, as were those elegant types of Sir Henry SavilPs at Eton, which
that learned knight procured with great cost for his edition of St. Chrysostom."
The types, of which we give a specimen (No. 28), were of a Great Primer
body, very elegantly and regularly cut, with the usual numerous ligatures and
abbreviations which characterised the Greek typography of that period.
During the early part of the seventeenth century the Oxford Greek types
do not appear to have been extensively used ; and in 1632 we find it re-
corded that Lord Pembroke, the then Chancellor of the University of
Cambridge,2 applied for and obtained the loan of one of these founts for
the purpose of printing the Greek Testament? which was issued in that
year by Buck, the University printer, and which, says Beloe,4 " has ever
1 Diary and Correspondence. London, 1850-2. 4 vols. 8vo, iii, 300.
2 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 Galenide 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 Graecis 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 Orientate et Grecque de P Imprimerie Roy ale. Paris, 1787, p. 85).
3 Novum Testamentum. Cantabrigice. Apud Tho. Buck. 1632. 8vo.
4 Anecdotes, i, 119. Elsewhere (v, m) 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).
142 The Old English Letter Foundries.
been admired for the perspicuity of its types as well as for the accuracy of
its typography."
The reason urged for this loan was, that the Oxford press made no
use of the Greek type itself. This reproach was, however, shortly afterwards
removed by the bounty and interest of Archbishop Laud, whose generous
encouragement of printing at Oxford must always entitle him to an honourable
mention in any record of the history of the art.
Laud, at that time Bishop of London, was appointed Chancellor of the
University in 1630, and in the same year projected, among other acts of bounty,
two important measures for the advancement of printing at that Academy.
These were : —
" To procure a large Charter for Oxford, to confirm their Ancient Privileges, and
obtain new for them, as large as those of Cambridge, which they had got since Henry
the 8th and Oxford had not.
" To set up a Greek press in London and Oxford, for printing the Library-Manu-
scripts, and to get both Letters and Matrices.1
The former of these projects was carried out in 1632, when Charles I
granted a charter to Oxford, giving her equal privileges with the sister
University, authorising her to employ three printers, and securing to her a right
for a certain term over all books issued. In forwarding this charter to the
University, Laud mentioned by name two of the printers — King and Motteshead,
but urged Convocation as yet to nominate no one as the third, in order, he said,
" that you may get an able man, if it be possible, for the printing of Greek when
you shall be ready for it."2
This is clearly an allusion to the Bishop's other project, which, however, was
only partially fulfilled during his lifetime.
A Greek press was established in London in 1632, under peculiar circum-
stances, which, though not strictly bearing upon the history of letter-founding at
Oxford, we may here refer to as an interesting episode in the history of English
printing.
Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the King's printers in London, were
arraigned before the High Commission Court for a scandalous error in a Bible*
printed by them in 163 1, whereby the seventh commandment was made to read,
" Thou shalt commit adultery." For this grave offence, the impression (which
numbered 1,000 copies and was full of typographical errors) was called in, and
1 RushwortK s Collections, ii, 74.
2 Works of Laud. Oxford, 1847-60. 7 vols., 8vo, v, 80.
The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New, etc. Printed at London by
Robert Barker . . . and by the Assignes oj John Bill, Anno 1631. 8vo.
The Oxford University Foundry. 143
the printers were ordered to pay a fine of ^oo.1 This sum of money Laud
received the royal authority to expend in the purchase of Greek types, accord-
ing to the terms of the following letter addressed to him by the King, dated
January 13, 1633:
" Most reverend father in God, right trusty and right entirely beloved counsellor,
we greet you well. Whereas our servant, Patrick Young, keeper of our library, hath
lately with great industry and care published in print an epistle of Clemens Romanus2
in Greek and Latin, which was never printed before, and has done this to the benefit
of the church, and our great honour, the manuscript, by which he printed it, being in
our library ; and whereas we further understand that the right reverend father in God,
Augustin,3 now Bishop of Peterborough, and our said servant Patrick Young, are
resolved for to make ready for the press one or more Greek copies every year, by such
manuscripts as are either in our library or in the libraries of our universities of
Oxford and Cambridge, or elsewhere, if there were Greek presses, matrices, and
mony ready for the work which pains of theirs will tend to the great honour of our
self, this church, and nation ; we have thought good to give them all possible en-
couragement herein, and do therefore first require you, that the fine lately imposed by
our high commissioners upon Robert Barker and Martin Lucas for base and corrupt
printing of the Bible, being the sum of three hundred pounds, be converted to the
present buying of such and so many Greek letters and matrices, as shall be by you
thought fit for this great and honourable work. And our further will and pleasure is
that the said Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, our patentees for printing, which
either now are, or shall hereafter succeed them, being great gainers by that patent,
which they hold under us, shall at their own proper costs and charges of ink, paper, and
workmanship, print, or cause to be printed in Greek, or Greek and Latin, one such
volume in a year, be it bigger or less, as the right reverend father aforesaid, or our
servant Patrick Young or any other of our learned subjects shall provide and make
ready for the press, and shall print such a number of each copy, as yourself, or your
successors for the time being, shall think fit ; and all this they shall perform, whether
the said copy or copies be to be printed in London, Oxford, or Cambridge, which shall
be left free to their judgments and desire, whose pains prepare the copy or copies for
the press. And last of all, our further will and pleasure is, that the aforesaid patentees
do without any delay procure such, and so many matrices and letters, as aforesaid, that
no hindrance be put upon the work, and that they be at the charge of printing in the
mean time with such letters, as are already in the kingdom. Of all which or any
other necessary circumstances for the furtherance of this work, we shall not fail to call
for a strict account from you ; and therefore do look that you call for as strict a one
from them : provided always, that it shall be, and remain in your power to mitigate
their fine aforesaid, according as you shall see their diligence and care for the ad-
vancing of this work."4
This letter Laud forwarded to the printers, who in reply, " accounted it so
1 Bagford and others erroneously mention the fine as ,£3,000.
2 dementis ad Corinthios Epistola prior. 410. Oxonii, 1633.
3 Augustin Linsdell. * Wilkins (D.) Concilia, iv, 485.
144 The Old English Letter Foundries.
great a happiness" to receive the royal commands in the matter, and stated that
they were already labouring " to find out the best fount and matrices, and to
purchase the same at what cost soever."1
The new Greek press, thus furnished, was in due time settled in London, at
the King's Printing House in Blackfriars, and from its types was printed, in 1637,
Patrick Young's Catena on Job? " in as curious a letter," says Bagford, " as any
book extant." In this interesting work, from which we here give a facsimile,
two Greek founts are used, the larger being a handsome Double Pica,3 not
dissimilar to that in which Estienne's great folio Greek Testament was printed
in Paris. The smaller fount, a Great Primer, bears so close a resemblance to the
fount used in the Eton Chrysostom, that it is probable it may have been cast
abroad from the same matrices. The Double Pica Roman and Italic used in the
work are the same as those employed by Day in the preface to the ^Elfredi in
1574; the matrices having apparently been secured by the Archbishop for the
use of the Royal press.
Although Laud's project for the establishment of a Greek press at Oxford,
similar to that in London, was not fully realised, his efforts on behalf of the
University and its press continued unabated. In 1635 ne presented his fine
collection of Oriental Manuscripts, and established a Chair of Arabic, which
greatly encouraged and promoted the study and printing of works in that and
other Eastern languages. This favour he followed up with a gift of Oriental
types, which is alluded to in a letter from John Greaves to Dr. Peter Turner,
dated 1637.^ Greaves approves of the bargain formed by the proctor's brother,
Mr. Browne, for the purchase at Leyden5 of some printing types, of probably an
1 According to documents in the Record Office, the fine was entered Feb. 18, 163^,
" 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.''
2 Catena Grcecorttm Patrum in Beahim Job . . . operd et studio Patricii Junii,
Bibliothecarii Regit, etc. Londini, ex Tvftografthio Regio. 162,7. 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 ea fronte acceperis . . . qua Britanniam denique characterum elegantia in
omni linguarum genere locupletas, ac vicinis gentibus, non minus pulchra, quam polita et
accurata veterum scriptorum editione, invidendam reddis, etc."
3 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.
4 State Papers, Domestic, 1637-8. No. 75.
5 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.
The Oxford University Foundry. 145
Eastern language. The only danger is that some are wanting. Mr. Bedwell,
when he bought Raphelengius's Arabic press, found some characters defective,
which he was never able to get supplied. The writer hopes that, " now that
Archbishop Laud has taken such care for furnishing the University with all sorts
of types, and procuring so many choice MSS. of the Oriental languages, that
some will endeavour to make true use of his noble intentions, and publish some
of those incomparable pieces of the East, not inferior to the best of the Greeks
or Latins."1
In a letter addressed May 5, 1637, to the Vice-Chancellor, the Archbishop
himself refers to these recent acquisitions in the following terms : —
" You are now upon a very good way towards the setting up of a learned press ; and
I like your proposal well to keep your matrices and your letters you have gotten, safe,
and in the mean time to provide all other necessaries, that so you may be ready for
that work."2
One of the last recorded services of Laud to the Oxford press was the
recovery, in 1639, of the Savile Greek Types, which had been clandestinely
abstracted by Turner, the University printer. His letter on the subject is
characteristic of the fatherly care which he exercised over the interests of the
Oxford Press :
"I am informed," he says, " that under pretence of printing a Greek Chronologer
. . . Turner, the printer . . . got into his hands all Sir H. Savil's Greek letters
amounting to a great number, some of them scarce worn. It was in Dr. Pink's time.
I pray speak with the Dr. about it and call Turner to an account before the heads
what's become of them. I doubt Turner's poverty and knavery together hath made
avoidance of them." Oct. 18, 1639.
"Feb 13th. Turner brought back the Greek letters, and delivered them by
weight as he received them : there were not any wanting. He came very unwillingly
to it."3
This celebrated Greek fount does not appear to have been much used after
this, and no trace of it now remains at the University press.4
Unfortunately for the cause of learning at Oxford, as elsewhere, the political
troubles of the following years abruptly terminated Laud's services in that
1 Thomas Smith at a later date referred to the same gift : — "Circa idtemporis . . . 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 fere linguarum, quae hodie obtinent, efformari procuravit" ( Vitce,
quorundam Virorum . . . Patriciijttnii, London, 1707, 4to., p. 27).
2 Works of Latid, v. 168.
3 Ibid., v, 236.
4 Latham's Oxford Bibles and Printing in Oxford. 1870, p. 46.
U
146 The Old English Letter Foundries.
direction, and suspended for a time all further progress in the development of
the press.1
A revival took place during the Commonwealth, on the appointment, in
1658, of Dr. Samuel Clarke, the learned Orientalist (who a short time previously-
had assisted in the correction of Walton's Polyglot)^ as Archi-Typographus.
This responsible functionary was " a person," so the University Statute ordained,
" set over the printers, who shall be well skilled in the Greek and Latin tongues,
and in philological studies, . . whose office is to supervise and look after the
business of Printing, and to provide at the University expence, all paper, presses,
types, etc., to prescribe the module of the letter, the quality of the paper, and the
size of the margins, when any book is printed at the cost of the University, and
also to correct the errors of the press."2 This office was, by the same Statute,
annexed to that of superior law bedel, as having less business than the rest.
After the Restoration, printing at Oxford made still greater advances,
chiefly through the instrumentality and munificence of Dr. John Fell.
This eminent scholar and theologian was born in the year 1625. He
entered as a student of Christ Church at the age of eleven, and in 1643 bore arms
in the civil wars for the king in the garrison of Oxford. At the Restoration
he received ecclesiastical promotion, and in 1666 became Vice-Chancellor of
the University.3 In this capacity he exerted himself strenuously to continue
the work begun by Laud for the advancement of learning and encourage-
ment of printing at the University;4 and about 1667 presented a complete
typefoundry, consisting of the punches and matrices of twenty founts of Roman,
Italic, Orientals, Saxons, Black and other letter, besides moulds and all the
apparatus and utensils necessary for a complete printing office.
The extent of this noble gift, the importance of which can only be estimated
1 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).
J Lemoine, Typographical Antiquities. London, 1797. 8vo, p. 87. The office ofArchi-
typographus had been instituted by Laud, about 1637.
3 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."
4 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).
Hebrew.
diytrh tm nrnan am
35 y\w ,nain:> anoiyi psiptp pwi wi
/inKip1? D'd: ♦pEW-in ifipn^ /iothS ^^ mis
.dw? pimp1? pim Dȣnivoi D'ooino vnp?
36
h. &ixen ^A.rte^ooT gtouj £>en T&^e rim-
pojutni xn^ e<£>pHi eo**K££,i e^Tfx^xeoq eftoX-
£>en TCHqi e^.TecooT'j" juuuioq e^joTn eftoX,£en
£/jiX*.oc e**oaj exen niK^X^.«4>o iXnicX iu.i ex-
A-fepoji-qe ftcHcnrniften oto£, neoq £.fim Juuu.oq
£ftoX ott£ £,<utX^oc.
Arabic,
CUAJ ^Jx ^j l-^j! ^^1 ^J.2*. SvJbjJ! ^J
A^A-ST (JJvUJl 5*JJ> JWwU (^.A^J y^JjM ^j'
oIaU ^^« (J b^J &£==;! Jw<> CjIc^uJj A — Jj — s
Syriac.
JL^a-~o xojja^vs >^°u ^J> f^^° J-1*0 *-*•*>
vq-2l^.o oJsa^iJ JL^joj fJ-^ Jj0^' Jv^ox <jJ
J^^ H^oC^ r) jbjo JU^co l^b **a^
34 to 38. Oriental Founts presented to the Oxford Press by Dr. Fell in 1667. (From the original matrices,)
148
The Old English Letter Foundries.
by recalling the low condition of letter-founding in England at the time, will
best appear by the following Inventory, published by the University in 1695 :
An Account of the Matrices, Puncheons, etc., given by Bishop Fell to the University of
Oxford1 : —
1.
2.
3-
4-
5-
6.
7-
8.
9-
10.
11.
12.
13-
14.
15.
16.
17-
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23-
24.
25.
Great Primer Roman
Double Pica Roman
Pica Greek ...
Augustin Greek
Long Primer Greek -
Great Primer Greek
Long Primer Italic -
Small Pica Italic
Long Primer Roman
Pica Roman -
Brevier Roman
Great Brass Roman Caps.
Augustin Roman
English Black -
Small Pica Roman -
Coptick - - - -
Augustin Italic
Pica Italic
Nonpareil Italic
Nonpareil Roman -
I Paragon Greek
Syriac -
Double Pica Italic -
Great Canon -
34 Boxes of Matrices.
26. Brevier Italic
27
28
- 121
- 123
- 513
- 353
- 354
- 456
- 121
- 142
- 155
- iS6
- 156
- 40
- 142
- 73
- 142
- 135
- 114
- 130
- 121
- 134
- 445
121
87
204
29.
30.
3i-
3?-
5J
33-
Music
[Pica Roman and Italic, bought by
the University, an. 1692.] Roman,
93 ; Italic, 78 ; Small Caps., not
justified, 27 ; in all
Great Primer Italic - - - -
Astronomical Signs, Pica
Samaritan, English - -
Mathematical Marks -
Cancelled Figures, Pica -
Brasses, Long Primer
Mathematical Marks, Small Pica -
Hebrew, Great and Small
Armenian
Arabic, Syriac, and Hebrew -
Arabic Figures -
Sclavonian, Great Primer
A paper of Flower Matrices.
A paper of Great Primer Roman and
Italic, cut by Mr. Nichols — not
good.
New Music Puncheons and Matrices,
cut by Peter Walpergen.
134
70
198
37
25
30
21
10
16
10
292
254
7
228
10
no
Puncheons sealed up in an Earthen Pot.
For the Double Pica Roman and Italic, and
some for the Double Pica Greek.
For the Great Brass Roman Capitals.
For the Black, English.
For the Coptick.
For the Syriack.
1 small anvil.
4 hammers.
28 moulds.
For the Samaritan.
For the Cannon Roman and Italic.
For the Astronomical Signs and Figures.
[For the Pica Roman and Italic]
[For the Sclavonian also there were 109
punches.]
Utensils for Printing.
1 engine to make brass rules with a plane.
1 wyer sieve.
332 dressing sticks.
1 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.)
The Oxford University Foundry. 149
32 copper letters.
7 printing presses, with all things belonging
to them.
2 rolling presses, with all things necessary
to them.
132 upper and lower cases.
5 pair of capital cases.
5 pair of fund cases.
13 pair of Greek cases.
50 chases.
2 great vices.
2 hand vices.
21 great files.
1 pair of sheers.
2 iron pots.
4 dressing planes.
3 dressing blocks.
3 plyers.
2 rubbing stones.
1 grinding stone.
26 copper borders.
Dr. Fell supplemented this gift by a further signal service, which is thus
recorded by Bagford : —
" The good Bishop provided from Holland the choicest Puncheons,1 Matrices,
etc., with all manner of Types that could be had, as also a Letter Founder, a
Dutchman by Birth, who had Served the States in the same quality at Batavia,
in the East Indies. He was an excellent workman, and succeeded by his son,
who has been since succeeded by Mr. Andrews."2
The Dutchman here spoken of was Walpergen, who, as will be seen later
on, preceded Sylvester Andrews as typefounder in Oxford.
Fell was a zealous defender of the privileges enjoyed by his University, and
in 1679 drew up a report setting forth its claims in the matter of printing.3 In
this report he mentions that, in the year 1672, several members of the University,
himself included, taking into consideration the " low estate of the manufacture
of printing" in the kingdom, and particularly in the University, " took upon
themselves the charges of the press in the said University, and at the expence of
above four thousand pounds furnisht from Germany, France and Holland, an
Imprimery, with all the necessaries thereof, and pursued the undertaking so
vigorously, as in the short compass of time which hath since intervened, to have
printed many considerable books in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, as well as in
English ; both for their matter and elegance of paper and letter, very satisfactory
to the learned abroad and at home."
It is probable that the transaction here recorded constituted a portion of
what became known as Dr. Fell's gift to the University ; a series of benefactions
which doubtless extended over several years — from 1667 to 1672 — and included,
when complete, the whole of the types and implements named in the above
Inventory. Mores, who is responsible for the date, 1667, leads us to suppose
1 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.
2 Harl. MS. 5901, fol. 85. 3 Gutch, Collect., i, 271.
150 The Old English Letter Foundries.
that the gift was completed in that year ; but he gives no authority ; and the
absence of any second inventory of the acquisitions made in 1672, points strongly
to the conclusion that the two transactions were part of the same gift.
In 1675 Dr. Fell was created Bishop of Oxford, and continued his active
services to the cause of learning until the time of his death in 1686, having, as
Anthony a Wood remarks, "advanced the learned press, and improved the
manufacture of printing in Oxford in such manner as it had been designed
before by that public spirited person, Dr. Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury."1
In 1677 the University press was further enriched by another important
gift of type and matrices, presented by Mr. Francis Junius.
This learned scholar, whom Rowe Mores styles the restorer — if not more than
the restorer — of the knowledge of the Septentrional languages in England, was a
German, the son of Francis Junius, the theologist, of Heidelberg. He resided for
some time in England as librarian to the Earl of Arundel, during which time he
zealously prosecuted his philological studies. In 1654, being then at Amsterdam,
he furnished himself with a set of Saxon punches and matrices, respecting
which he wrote as follows to Selden in that year2: — " In the meanwhile have I
here Anglo-Saxonic types (I know not whether you call them puncheons) a
cutting, and I hope they will be matriculated and cast within the space of seven
or eight weeks at the furthest. As soon as they come I will send you some
little specimen of them to the end I might know how they will be liked in
England." In addition to this Saxon, Junius also obtained founts of Gothic,
Runic, Danish, Icelandic, Greek, Roman, Italic, and a pretty Black, all cast on
Pica body. These he brought over with him to this country. Of the Gothic,
Runic, Saxon, and Greek he certainly brought punches and matrices as well as
types, as these are to this day preserved at Oxford, and there is reason to
suppose all his founts were similarly complete.3
Junius, who had spent much time in his younger years at Oxford for the
1 Athena Oxonienses. London, 169 1-2. 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 Typographic"
in England, by dedicating to him the second volume of his Mechanick Exercises, the first
practical work on printing written by an Englishman.
2 A copy of this letter may be seen in the preface to Hickes' Thesaurus, 1705, p. xliii.
3 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.
The Oxford University Foundry. 151
sake of study, libraries, and conversation, and had visited it frequently since,
retired there at last in 1676, and executed a deed of gift whereby he presented
his books in the Northern language and his punches and matrices to the Univer-
sity, the latter consisting of the following founts : —
Pica Runic.
Pica Gothic.
Pica Anglo-Saxon.
Pica Icelandic.
Pica Danish.
Pica Black.
Pica Greek.
Pica Roman.
Pica Italic.
English Swedish.
Junius died the following year at Windsor, at the great age of ninety. A
quaint tribute to his memory exists in a note from Dr. (afterwards Bishop)
Nicolson, who, writing to Thwaites in May 1697, says, "My acquaintance with
that worthy personage was very short, and in his last days, when he was near
ninety . . ; . alas ! I can remember little more of him than that he was very
kind and communicative, very good, and very old."1
The custodians of his valuable gift scarcely appear at first to have been
impressed with an adequate sense 01 their responsibility, for we find that the
Junian punches and matrices disappeared shortly after their presentation, and
remained lost for a considerable period, when they were discovered by chance
under the circumstances thus humorously narrated in a letter from Dr. (afterwards
Bishop) Tanner, dated All Souls College, Aug. 10, 1697, and addressed to
Dr. Charlett:—
" Mr. Thwaites and John Hall took the courage last week to go to Dr. Hyde about
Junius' matrices and punchions which he gave with his books to the University. These,
nobody knew where they were, till Mr. Wanley discovered some of them in a hole in
Dr. Hyde's study. But, upon Mr. Hall's asking, Dr. Hyde knew nothing of them; but
at last told him he thought he had some punchions about his study, but did not know how
they come there ; and presently produces a small box-full, and taking out one, he pores
upon it, and at last wisely tells them that these could not be what they looked after, for
they were Ethiopic2 : but Mr. Thwaites desiring a sight of them, found that which he
looked on to be Gothic and Runic punchions, which they took away with them, and a
whole oyster-barrel full of old Greek letter, which they discovered in another hole."3
1 Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, iv, 147.
2 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.)
3 Nichols, Lit. Anec, iv., 146. One of the first works printed in the recovered types was
King Alfred's Saxon version of Boethius' Consolationis Philosophies 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.
Pica Roman* ,
A^BCDE^GHSIKlMKOPQRSfVUf
XYZ.
F^ter noller qui es hi eogIig3 faedificetar oomen mum-
Vessiat regisum tuum: Hag voluntas tua, ficut ia coelo&
ita etkrn la terra* Panera noftrum quotidiaoum da nobis ho-
dle. Et remiese nobis deblta nollra, ficut 8s remittimus debl=»
torlbus poftris. Et oe oos ioducas In teotationera, fed libera
nos ab illo saalo. Quia mum e® regnam, & potenda, & glo-
ria in fecala. Amen,
Pica Italkk*
JjEBCDEFGHIJKLMWOP QjLSTVVWXTZ.
€DAtsr mjter qui es in talis, fanttificetur nemen tuum. Ven'm
regnum tuum t fiat voluntas ma, ficut in ewb, ha etiam in
terra. Pattern ntftrum qutti&ianum da nobis bedie, Es remiite no-
bis debits nofira, ficut & remittimtu debitoribm noftns. Et m nos
inducts in tentationm, fed libera ms eh ills mafo. Quia tuum ej£
ngmm, & patent}*, & gloria in fecula, Amen.
'Pica Roman. [Bought by the Univerfity tops.]
AJ&BCDEFGHIJKL'MttOPQjEtSTVUWXYZ,
PAter noiler qui es in ccslis, iandifioetur nomen tuum. Ve-
nkt regnum mum 4 fiat -voluntas tua, ficut in coelo9 ita
etiam in terra. Panem noflrum quotidianum da nobis hodie.
Et ramsse 'nobis debita noftra, feet & remimmus debitoribus
noflris. Et as &©j inducas in tsatationem, lid lib-era nos ab
illo maSo. Quia tuum eft regnum, & potentia, & gloria in !i*
euk^ Axssn.
9ica Italkk. [Bought 169%.]
j$u£B€^EFGHiyKL3IN0T-§J®$TFr$JW!Xr%
'pjfer nofier qui a in c&Iis, fan&ifketur mme® tuum, ffauat
^ regmm tuum : fiat voluntas tuaj ficm in €mhd ha etiem m
terra. T®nswi noftrum qpMidt&mm da mMs bodie. Es remitis
nobis debita noBra, .ficut ^ remittmus debitoribus mBris. Ef
ne nos mducas in tentationem, Jed Bkm nos ah ilk male. %£&
tuum eB regnum^ fe ptmtk} fy gkm m fecufe9 Amen.
32. Pica Roman and Italic presented to the Oxford Press by Dr. Fell, 1667.
33. Pica Roman and Italic bought by the University in 1692.
(From the Specimen of 1692.)
The Oxford University Foundry.
153
The combined gifts of Dr. Fell and Francis Junius laid the foundation
of the Oxford University foundry as it now exists. Even before the close of
the century it had been augmented by numerous small additions and purchases.
About the time of Fell's gift the press received a second fount of Coptic, pre-
sented by Witsen, the Burgomaster of Amsterdam.1 In 1694, Dr. Charlett, writing
to Archbishop Tenison, refers to the founts of Slavonic and Armenian types, "very
elegantly cut, which M. Ludolfus is bringing to Oxford from Holland." The
University also purchased matrices of Pica-Roman and Italic in 1692, besides
adding to its stock some indifferent Great Primer matrices by Nichols, and music
cut by the Oxford founder, Walpergen.2
About the year 1669 the foundry, which, together with the press, had been
carried on in hired premises provided by Fell, was transferred to the basement
of the then new Sheldonian Theatre.3 Here it was that, in the year 1693, appeared
The Sheldonian Theatre. (From an old wood block in the Oxford University Press.)
the earliest known " Specimen of the several Sorts of Letter given to the University
by Dr. John Fell, late Lord Bishop of Oxford, to which is added the Letter given
1 A. J. Butler, Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt. Oxford, 1884. 2 vols., 8vo, ii, 257. ^
2 These additions duly appeared in the second Oxford specimen of 1695, from which
the inventory at p. 148 is quoted.
8 There is an amusing account of a visit to the University Press in 1682 in Mrs. D' An vers
Acadetnia : or the Humours of the University of Oxford, in Burlesque verse (1691), pp. 25-27.
X
i^4 The Old English Letter Foundries.
by Mr. F. Junius!' A manuscript note on the title-page of the Bodleian copy of
this interesting specimen adds "with puncheons and matrices bought of
others." These additions, besides those already noted, include an Ethiopic
Eihiopic
oKpvfrrtA}*: hicm: Ah°WK AJWi.: *n:
ittn: frinT. -n^A: asifi: frf™*i&6\: *nv.A: ^.pa:
/n>cp-*: •fW.A: °^: iffr: Ms: -n^A: izx:
MM: -ny.A: ™frm: oo^c: 4W.A: swr: a,a:
a,a: 4W.A: nx\: nvr: An: -n^A: +<tfvt: AA>y:
•nv.A: e?£: n-*v: fiv: «: >fV£A: A*7?*: c*o:
39. Ethiopic, purchased by the Oxford Press in 1692. (From the original matrices.)
" bought of Dr. Bernard," and some supplementary Arabic sorts and Syriac
vowels " bought by Dr. Hyde." The Specimen consists of eighteen leaves.
In 1695 a fuller specimen (of twenty-four leaves) appeared with the same
title, and included the Junian Danish, a few later acquisitions, such as the new
Slavonic, and a fount of spoon-shaped music cut by Walpergen. To this docu-
ment was also appended the inventory of " utensils for printing," already given in
the account of Dr. Fell's gift.
Of the estimation in which this specimen was held at the time, the following
eulogium of Bagford may be taken as testimony. He says : " For the satisfaction
of the curious, I shall give a catalogue and specimen of the letter presented by
Dr. Fell, the like of which cannot be shown by any of the great printing houses
in Europe, which may be seen by that printed in 1695, although it may fall into
the hands of foreign printers of Holland, Flanders, Italy, Germany and France,
they must confess that they had not seen the like, both for the great beauty and
goodness of the letters."1
Apart from its value as a specimen of the Oxford foundry, considerable
interest attaches to the specimen of 1695, as being the first polyglot production
in this country in which a stated portion of the Scripture — the Lord's Prayer —
appears in as many as forty-five different forms and nineteen different languages.
In this respect, however, it was shortly afterward eclipsed by a polyglot
Oratio Dominica, published in London in 1700,2 exhibiting the Lord's Prayer in
upwards of one hundred versions. This may, to some extent, be regarded as a
specimen of the University press, as the two principal sheets of the work were
printed at Oxford containing the prayer in the Hebrew, Samaritan, Chaldee,
1 Harl. MS. 5901, fo. 4. The Specimen is given in 5929.
2 Oratio Dominica, ttoXv^Xwtto^ 7ro\v/ji.op(})os, nimirum,plus centum Linguis, Versionibus,
aut Characteribus reddita et expressa. Londini, 1700, 4to. 76 pp. The editor was B. M(otte).
Typogr. Lond.
The Oxford University Foundry. 155
Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Amharic, Arabic, Persic, Turkish, Tartaric, Malayan,
Gothic, Runic, Icelandic and Sclavonic, of the University foundry.1 These
constitute the most interesting part of the collection, as the remaining versions,
requiring special characters, are produced chiefly in copperplate.2 Rowe Mores
points with some pride to this specimen as showing how far superior we were at
that time to our neighbours abroad in the variety of our metal types.3
Specimens of Dr. Fell's and Junius' gifts, and an account of the foundry with
its recent acquisitions, were frequently printed in the early part of the eighteenth
century. Rowe Mores mentions four between 1695 and 1706. In the latter
year the document had grown to twenty-five leaves, and included a Great Primer
and a two-line Great Primer, purchased in 1701, and other additions. The
inventory mentions twenty-eight moulds as being the number still in use in the
foundry, and seven presses in the printing-house. It also distinguishes certain
types as being of the Dutch height, a discrepancy to which, in all probability,
may be traced that unfortunate anomaly of " Bible height" and " Classical height,"
which to this day hampers the operations of a foundry where, in perpetuation of
a blunder made two centuries ago, types are still cast to two different heights,
agreeing neither with one another nor with any British standard.4
A later specimen, without date, was issued in broadside form, in which the
old title gave place to the more simple one of A Specimen of the several Sorts of
Letters in the University Printing House, Oxford. In this specimen, while in-
cluding all the recent acquisitions, several of the older and less sightly founts
comprised in Dr. Fell's gift are discarded.
1 This circumstance is thus frankly noted in the preface : " Porro, ne Characterum
alienorum copia me jactitare videar, scias velim, schedas duas, Linguas Hebraicam, et
caeteras usque ad Slavonicam complexas, in Typography instructissimo inclytas Academias
Oxoniensis excusas esse, cui faustissima quaeque comprecator quisquis est qui patriam amat,
et bonam mentem colit."
2 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.
3 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 cuj usque lingua: characteribus express a. Amstelodami 17 15. 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.
4 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.
156
The Old English Letter Foundries.
In the year 17 12 the University press was removed from the Sheldonian
Theatre to occupy its new quarters in the Clarendon Printing House, erected for
41. The Clarendon Press. (From an old wood block at the Oxford University Press.)
its accommodation — a building considered at the time one of the finest printing-
houses in the world.1
The encouragement given by Junius to the study of the Northern languages
resulted in the production of many important works in that branch of litera-
ture at the University press during the early years of the eighteenth century.
Foremost among these was Dr. Hickes' Thesaurus? printed in 1703-5, a learned
and elaborate work, in which the types presented by Junius are many of them
displayed to advantage.
Rowe Mores, for the honour of his University in general, and his own college
in particular, gives a list of the famous " Saxonists" of Dr. Hickes' time. Amongst
these, not the least eminent was Miss Elizabeth Elstob, who published in 171 5
an Anglo-Saxon Grammar, printed in types, which, as they subsequently found
their way into the Oxford foundry, call for a particular mention here.
William Bowyer the younger had printed in 1709 a work entitled An
E?tg lis h- Saxon Homily on the Birth-Day of St. Gregory, translated by the Rev.
William Elstob of Oxford and his sister, a young lady of great industry and
1 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 Sheldo-
niano, was continued on Oxford books till 1743.
2 Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criiicus et Archceologicus.
Oxon. 1703-5. Fol., 3 vols.
The Oxford University Foundry. 1 5 7
learning, whom Mores describes as the " indefessa comes" of her brother's studies,
and a female student of the University.1 In 17 12, in the same types, was
issued a specimen of Miss Elstob's Anglo-Saxon Grammar.
Before, however, this work could be completed, Bowyer's printing-house was
destroyed by fire, and his types, including the Anglo-Saxon, perished in the
flames. This disastrous event was the occasion for a remarkable display of
sympathy on the part of Mr. Bowyer's many friends, both in and out of the pro-
fession, which found expression in several forms,2 one of the most practical of
which was the offer of Lord Chief Justice Parker (afterwards Earl of Macclesfield)
to be at the cost of cutting a new set of Anglo-Saxon types for Miss Elstob's
Grammar. The drawings for the new types were made, at Lord Parker's request,
by Humphrey Wanley,3 the eminent Saxonist, and the cutting of the punches
entrusted to Robert Andrews the letter-founder, who, however, proved unequal to
the task. " I did what was required," Mr. Wanley wrote, " in the most exact
and able manner that I could in all respects. But it signified little ; for
when the alphabet came into the hands of the workman (who was but a
blunderer), he could not imitate the fine and regular stroke of the pen ; so that
the letters are not only clumsy, but unlike those that I drew. This appears by
Mrs. Elstob's Saxon Grammar"*
1 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 trans-
lation 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.
2 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.
3 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.
4 Nichols' Anecdotes of William Bowyer. London, 1782, 4to., p. 498.
158 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Poor as the letter-founder's performance was, the Grammar duly appeared in
the new letter in 1715,1 and the punches, matrices and types remained in the
possession of Mr. Bowyer and his son, being used occasionally in some of their
subsequent works, though not in any other of which Miss Elstob was the
authoress.2 In 1753 they were sent by William Bowyer the younger, to Rowe
Mores, with the following letter, for presentation to the University of Oxford : —
"To Edward Rowe Mores, Esq., at Low Leyton. 4th December, 1753.
" Sir, — I make bold to transmit to Oxford, through your hands, the Saxon punches
and matrices, which you were pleased to intimate would not be unacceptable to that
learned body. It would be a great satisfaction to me, if I could by this means per-
petuate the munificence of the noble donor, to whom I am originally indebted for them,
the late Lord Chief Justice Parker, afterwards Earl of Macclesfield, who, among the
numerous benefactors which my father met with, after his house was burned in
1712-13, was so good as to procure those types to be cut, to enable him to print Mrs.
Elstob's Saxon Grammar. England had not then the advantage of such an artist
in letter cutting as has since arisen,3 and it is to be lamented, that the execution of
these is not equal to the intention of the noble donor, and, I now add, to the place in
which they are to be reposited. However, I esteem it a peculiar happiness, that as my
father received them from a great patron of learning, his son consigns them to the
greatest seminary of it, and that he is, Sir, your most obliged friend, and humble
Servant,
"W. Bowyer."
The adventures of this epistle and the gift which accompanied it, before
reaching their destination, are almost romantic. For some reason which does
not appear, Rowe Mores, on receipt of the punches and matrices, instead of
transmitting them to Oxford, took them to Mr. Caslon's foundry to be repaired
and rendered more fit for use. Mr. Caslon having kept them four or five years
without touching them, Mr. Bowyer removed them from his custody, and in 1758
entrusted them to Mr. Cottrell, from whom in the same year he received them
again, carefully " fitted up " and ready for use, together with 1 5 lbs. of letter cast
1 The Rudiments of Grammar for the English Saxon Tongue. London, 1715. 4to. A
specimen of the letter is given in chapter ix, post.
2 " 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 uncontro-
vertible." (Rowe Mores, Dissert., p. 29.)
3 i.e., William Caslon.
The Oxfoi'd University Foundry. 159
from the matrices. In this condition the whole was again consigned by Mr.
Bowyer to Rowe Mores, together with a copy of Miss Elstob's Grammar, for
transmission to Oxford. On hearing, two years later, that his gift had never
reached the University, he made inquiries of Mores, from whom he received a
reply that " the punches and matrices were very safe at his house," awaiting an
opportunity to be forwarded to their destination. This opportunity does not
appear to have occurred for three years longer, when, in October, 1764, the gift
was finally deposited at Oxford. Its formal acknowledgment was, however,
delayed till August 1778, exactly a quarter of a century after its presentation.1
The correspondence touching this transaction, amusing as it is, throws a
curious light on Rowe Mores' character for exactitude, and it is doubtful whether
the publication of Mr. Bowyer's first letter in the Dissertation? together with a
few flattering compliments, was an adequate atonement for the injury done to
that gentleman by the unwarrantable detention of his gift. Nor does the title
under which the gift was permitted to appear in the University specimen, sup-
pressing as it does all mention of the real donor's name, and giving the entire
honour to the dilatory go-between, reflect any credit on the hero of the transaction.
The entry appears thus : " Characteres Anglo-Saxonici per eruditam fceminam
Eliz. Elstob ad fidem codd. mss. delineati ; quorum tarn instrumentis cusoriis
quam matricibus Univ. donari curavit E. R. M. e Collegio Regin., A.M. 1753.
" Cusoria majuscula 42 (desunt S et p)
Matrices majusculse 44.
Cusoria minuscula 37 (desunt e et 1)
Matrices minusculse 39."
It does not appear that these types were ever made use of at Oxford. The
punches and matrices remain in the University press to this day.3
Between the Broadside sheet following the specimen of 1706, and 1768, no
specimen of the Oxford foundry occurs. There exists, however, in the works
issuing from the Press during that period ample testimony to its activity. The
proposal to print Dr. Mawer's Supplement to Walton's Polyglot, with its types, is
evidence of the continued reputation of its " learned" founts ; while such an
admirable specimen of typography as Blackstone's Charter of the Forest,
printed in 1759,4 affords proof that Oxford was not behindhand in that famous
1 Nichols' Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 319. Literary Anecdotes, ii, 361, etc.
2 Dissertation, p. 28.
3 A few of the punches and matrices were shown in the Caxton Exhibition of 1877.
4 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.
160 The Old English Letter Foundries.
revival of printing which received such impetus from the taste and genius of
Baskerville.
The Delegates of the Press had, indeed, so high an opinion of the talents of
this famous artist, that they employed him in 1758 to cut a fount of Great Primer
Greek type for a Greek Testament shortly to be issued.1 The performance
was pronounced unsuccessful, but the Greek types duly appeared, together with
numerous other acquisitions, including a Long Primer Syriac purchased from
Caslon, in the Specimen of 1768-70.2
Of this specimen Rowe Mores (who informs us that it was printed at the
request of foreigners) falls foul as inaccurate. " The materials from which this
account {i.e., his summary of the contents of the Foundry) is drawn," he says,
" are not so accurate as might have been expected from an Architypographus and
the Curators of the Sheldonian. In excuse may be alleged that neither the Archi-
typographus nor the Curators are Letter-founders ; certainly that the matter has
not been treated with that precision which in so learned a body should seem to
be requisite. For one instance among others, which might be produced, take
the Double Pica, Brevier and Nonpareil Hebrew, the only Hebrew types the
University then had. They are two-line English, English and Long Primer.
And this mistake has run through all the editions of the Oxford specimen, and
in the last of 1770, the leanest and the worst of all, appears most glaringly. For
this Brevier is placed immediately under Caslon's Long Primer, a diversity
sufficient one would think to show the blunder without the aid of a magnifier.
The Nonpareil as it is called is omitted in this last specimen, and so are many
other sets of matrices which have been given to the University, touching which
enquiry should be made out of respect (at least) to the memory of the donors."3
1 Novum Testamentum, juxta exemplar Millianum. Typisjoannis Baskerville. Oxonii e
Typographeo Clarendoniano 1763. Sumptibus Academics, 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.
2 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.
3 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.
The Oxford University Foundry.
161
Another specimen appeared in 1786, in which more of the old founts are
discarded in favour of more modern letters, among which are noticeable several
Roman founts cast on a large body, to obviate the necessity of " leading" ;
including an English, cast for Mr. Richardson's Dictionary. Almost all the
" learned" founts presented by Fell and Junius are here shown, as well as a con-
siderable number of borders and ornamental initials.
In 1794 a still fuller specimen appeared, which included a Great Primer
Greek, cut by Caslon, and several new titling letters. To this specimen is appended
a detailed inventory, both of the punches and matrices at that time in the
possession of the University, and of the quantity of type of various kinds in
stock, with the utensils for printing.
The following is a summary of the foreign and " learned" punches and
matrices included in this catalogue : —
Punches.
Anglo-Saxon -
Arabic -
Armenian
Black, English
Coptic, Pica -
Gothic -
Greek, Great Primer
» »
„ Double Pica
(Baskerville's)
79
33
65
72
116
25
114
148
190
Greek, 2-line English -
Hebrew, with points
Music -
Runic -
Samaritan, English
Saxon - - - -
Slavonian
Syriac, English
Turkish, Persian, Malayan
10
20
220
24
28
21
106
90
47
Arabic, Syriac and Hebrew
Arabic figures
Anglo-Saxon -
Armenian
Black, English
Coptic -
Ethiopic
Greek, Augustin (or English)
„ Great Primer
„ „ (Baskerville's)
„ Double Pica (bad)
„ Paragon (Double Pica)
Matrices
228
10
83
77
7
7
73
135
27
224
35i
493
167
239
432
Greek, Long Primer
„ 2-line English
Hebrew, large and small
- 352
11
- 230
» „ " - 25a
Music 228
„ 7°
Runic, Dutch, Saxon, Gothic and
Greek - . - - - - - 89
Samaritan ------ 30
Saxon, Small Pica, Long Primer, Pica - 20
Slavonic - - - - - - no
Syriac, English - - - - - 120
„ vowels 5
Turkish, Persian, Malayan - - - 47
Welch 10
Of the printing utensils, the following items will give an idea of the extent
of the press at that date : —
Y
l62
The Old English Letter Foundries.
Cases (filled with Type).
Common cases 267
Single cases and boxes - - - 44
Fount cases ------ 26
Long Greek cases 34
Frames -
Chases -
Letter boards
Presses
Proof press -
3°
129
37
5
1
Of the presses, one is described as " mahogany, set up in the year 1793," and
another as "on the new constitution which works with a lever, set up in 1793."
We have now brought our account of letter-founding at Oxford to the close
of the last century. Its later history is of comparatively slight interest. The
foundry still remains a part of the Press, and the reputation of the University for
its oriental and learned founts has been maintained by numerous additions to its
punches and matrices. Of such matters, however, in the absence of periodical
general specimens, it is impossible to give particulars. The list of matrices given
by Hansard in 1825 is entirely misleading, as he merely summarises the list
taken by Mores from the Specimen of 1768-70.
We may, however, observe that at the present moment, under able manage-
ment, the foundry is in active operation, and that the University Press possesses
probably the largest collection of " Polyglot " matrices of any foundry in the
kingdom.
The famous gifts of Fell and Junius are now relegated to the relics of this
venerable yet still flourishing foundry, where, in company with Baskerville's Greek,
Walpergen's music and Miss Elstob's Anglo-Saxon, they rest from their labours,
and remain to this day the most interesting monuments our country possesses of
the art and mystery of its early letter-founders.
Appended is a list of the various specimens issued by the Oxford press from
1693 to I794-—
1693. A specimen of the Several sorts of Letter given to the University by Dr. John Fell,
late Lord Bishop of Oxford. To which is added, the Letter given by Mr. F. Junius. Oxford,
printed at the Theater, A.D. 1693. 8vo. (Bodl. C, i, 24, Art.)
1695. A specimen of the Several sorts of Letter given to the University by Dr. John Fell,
sometime Lord Bishop of Oxford. To which is added the Letter given by Mr. F. Junius. Oxford,
Printed at the Theater, a.d. 1695. 8vo. (Bodl. Gough, Ox., 142 ; B. M. Harl. MS. 1529.)
1706. A specimen of the Several sorts of Letters given to the University by Dr. John Fell,
sometime Lord Bishop of Oxford. To which is added the Letter given by Mr. F. Junius,
Oxford, Printed at the Theater, A.D. 1706, 8vo. (Bodl. Gough, Ox., 142.)
No date. A specimen of the Several Sorts of Letters in the University Printing House.
Oxford. Broadside. (Bodl. C, i, 24, Art.)
No date. Characteres Anglo-Saxonici per eruditam fceminam Eliz. Elstob adfidem codd.
The Oxford University Foundry.
163
mss. delineati, quorum tam instruments cusoriis quam matricibus Univ.donari curavit E. R. M
e. collegio Regin. A.M. 1753. 8vo leaf. (W. B.)
1768-70. A specimen of the Several sorts of Printing Types belonging to the University
of Oxford at the Clarendon Printing House, 1768 (together with New Letters purchased in the
years 1768, 1769, 1770). Clarendon Press, Sept. 29, 1770. 8vo. (Univ. Pr.)
1786. A specimen of the Several sorts of Printing Types belonging to the University of
Oxford at the Clarendon Printing House, 1786. 8vo. (Univ. Pr.)
1794. A specimen of the Several Sorts of Printing Types belonging to the University of
Oxford, at the Clarendon Printing House, 1794. 8vo. (W. B.)
CHAPTER VII.
THE STAR CHAMBER FOUNDERS, AND THE
LONDON POLYGLOT.
RIOR to 1637, letter-founding is not specifically men-
tioned as a distinct industry in any of the Public
Documents. We are not on that account however, (as
we have endeavoured to point out), to assume either that
the restrictive provisions of previous enactments which
regulated printing did not apply to letter-founding, or
that, as a trade, it had no separate existence before
that date. The divorce of letter-founding from printing
was in all probability a long and gradual process ; and although it would be
difficult to fix any precise date to the completion of that process, we may yet
infer from the fact that the Decree of 1586 (which includes by name almost
every other- branch of industry connected with printing) makes no mention of
letter-founding, while the Decree of 1637 particularly names it, that between
these two dates printers ceased generally to be their own letter-founders.
As we have elsewhere noticed, the Stationers' Company as early as 1597
took cognisance of letter-founding as a distinct trade, when it called upon
Benjamin Sympson to enter into a bond of £4.0 not to cast any letters or
characters, or to deliver them, without previous notice to the master and
wardens. And that there was a certain body of men known in the trade as
"founders" owning the authority of the Stationers' Company in 1622, is evident
The Star Chamber Founders and the London Polyglot. 165
from the fact that in that year the Court called upon " the founders" to give
bond to the Company not to deliver any fount of new letters without notice.
It would be erroneous, therefore, to imagine that the Star Chamber Decree of
1637 in any sense created letter-founding as a distinct trade. Its purpose, as in
the case of printing, was to restrict the number of those engaged in it, which had
probably grown excessive under the milder regime of the Decree of 1586.
In the curious little tract, to which allusion has already been made, entitled
The London Printer, his Lamentation} the author, writing in 1660, after highly
commending the Decree of Elizabeth (23 June, 1586), limiting the number of
printers, says that about 1637, notwithstanding the above Decree, " printing and
printers were grown to monstrous excess and exorbitant riot," and that the law
was infringed at all points. In this " monstrous excess and exorbitant riot,"
it is highly probable that the letter-founders of the day figured. And it seems
equally probable that John Grismand, Thomas Wright, Arthur Nicholls (or
Nichols2) and Alexander Fifield, who were appointed by the Decree of 1637 as
the four authorised founders, had already been founding types for several years,
with or without the sanction of the authorities.
In the Registers of the Stationers' Company, the names both of John
Grismand and Thomas Wright occur as publishers of certain works, the former
in 1635, the latter in 1638 ; from which it would appear that both before and
after 1637 they may have combined the trade of bookseller and printer with that
of letter-founder.3
And in another curious document, preserved among the Bagford col-
lections, and entitled The Brotherly Meeting of the Masters and Workmen
Printers, began November 5, 1621 ; the first Sermon being on November 5, 1628,
1 Harl. MiscelL, Lond., 1745, 4to, iii, 277. The full title and description of this curious
tract is as follows : — " The London Printer, his Lamentation j or the Press oppressed, or over-
pressed. September 1660. Quarto, containing 8 pages. In this sheet of Paper is contained, first,
a short account of Printing in general, as its Usefulness, where and by whom invented; and
then a Declaration of its Esteem and Promotion in England, by the several Kings and Queens
since its first Arrival in this Nation j together with the Methods taken by the Crown for its
better Regulation and Government till the year 1640 ; when, says the Author, this Trade, Art and
Mystery was prostituted to every vile Purpose both in Church and State j where he bitterly
inveighs againt Christopher Barker, John Bill? Thomas Newcomb, John Field and Henry
Hills as Interlopers, and, under the King's Patent, were the only instruments of inflaming the
People against the King and his Friends, etc"
2 Mores makes a serious mistake in calling this founder Arthur Nicholas.
8 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 ot
one Thomas Wright also occurs as a publisher in 16 10.
1 66 The Old English Letter Foundries.
and hath been continued by the Stewards, zvhose names follow in this Catalogue to
this present third of May 1681,1 the names of Thomas Wright, Arthur Nichols,
and Alexander Fifield all appear as having served their Stewardship, although
unfortunately the list does not assign dates to the respective terms of service.2
In the lists of the Stationers' Company, however, we find that the four founders
took up their freedom in the following order : John Grisman {sic), December 2,
1616; Thomas Wright, May 7, 1627 ; Arthur Nicholls, December 3, 1632 ; and
Alexander Fifield, July 20, 1635.3
Respecting Wright and Fifield, after their nomination as Star Chamber
founders history records nothing. It is probable that they continued to com-
bine the callings of printer and founder, as John Grismand certainly appears to
have done, for we find him named in a State Paper in 1649 as having on the
19th October of that year entered into a bond of £300, and given two
sureties, not to print any seditious work.4
Of Arthur Nicholls there remains a record of a more ample and satisfactory
nature, which we are glad to lay before the reader (as we believe) for the first
time, being undoubtedly one of the most valuable and interesting memorials of
early English letter-founding which we possess.
It appears that Nicholls, at the time of his nomination as Star Chamber
founder in 1637, was also a candidate for the vacant place of printer at Oxford,
at that time at the disposal of Archbishop Laud, who, as we have seen in the
1 Harl MS. 5910, pt. i, p. 148.
2 Moxon, in his account of the Customs of the Chapel (Mechanick Exercises, ii, 363), gives
a full description of this yearly Feast, which, he says, " is made by Four Stewards, viz., two
Masters and two Journey-men ; which Stewards, with the Collection of half a Crown apiece of
every Guest, defray the Charges of the whole Feast." The List of Stewards, above referred to,
contains, among others, the names of nearly all the seventeenth century letter- founders. Seventy
feasts were held between 1621 and 1681, the first few probably being half-yearly. Three or
four Stewards officiated at each. The names of the founders occurring in the list are as
follows, the figures appended to each indicating the number of the feast at which each served
his stewardship, with the approximate date :
(24) Thomas Wright (1635). (63) Thomas Grover (1674).
(26) Arthur Nichols (1637). (64) Joseph Leigh (Lee?) (1675).
(31) Alexander Fifield (1642). (66) Godfrey Head (1677)
(42) Nicholas Nichols (1653). (67) Thos. Goring (1678).
(61) James Grover (1672). (69) Robert Andrews (1680).
3 Arber's Transcripts, iii, 363-8.
4 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 parcecia de Giles, Cripplegate, Aprilis 1, 1647 : an. agens 8.
Admissus est Aprilis 3, 1654."
The Star Chamber Founders and the London Polyglot. 167
preceding chapter, had been reserving it for a printer well versed in the Greek
language. Nicholls, being unsuccessful in this matter, and driven by his straitened
circumstances to seek some addition to his slender pittance as letter-founder
thereupon made application to Laud to be admitted as a licensed master-printer
in London, that so he might make use of his own type. His letter and the
" Cause of Complaint" annexed are preserved among the State Papers,1 and are
so important that we make no apology for quoting them in extenso :
" To the Right Reverend Father in God, William, Lord Archbishop of
Canterbury, his Grace, Primate and Metropolitane of all England.
" The humble peticion of Arthur Nicholls. Showeth unto your grace :
"That the said peticioner hath spent much tyme and paines in cuttinge and
foundinge of letters for divers of the printers in London, and at this tyme hath greate
store of letters ready cast lying upon his hands, they refusing to take them from him
att any rate.
" Besides this his imployment of founding letters is of soe small gaine that alone it
will not mainteyne him and his familie but that of necessitie hee must betake himself
to some other course whereby to be freed from extreame povertie, and utterly to
quitt himself of that, unless your Grace be pleased out of your wonted goodness to
comiserate his case.
" May it therefore please your Grace, since you have otherwise determined to
dispose of the printers place att Oxford, to give him leave, for the better encourage-
ment of that course wherein he hath so long exercised himself, to bee a printer here
in London, That soe he may make use of his owne letters for the elegant performance
whereof hee doth promise to use his best care and industry And ever to pray for your
Grace's honour and happinesse."
The " Cause of Complaint" gives a lively picture of the tribulations of
letter-founders at that time :
" The Cause of Complaint 0/ Arthur Nicholls" (endorsed "Mr. Nicholls his reasons to
be made printer?}
"The Complainant being the cutter and founder of Letters for Printers is 3
quarter of a yeares time cuttinge the Punches and Matrices belonginge to the castinge
of one sorte of letters, which are some 200 of a sorte, after which they are 6 weekes
a castinge, that done some 2 monthes tyme is required for triall of every sorte,
and then the Printers pay him what they themselves list ; thus he is necessitated to
lay out much money and forebeare a long tyme to little or noe benefitt.
" Likewise for the Greeke the Printers came unto him promisinge him the doinge
of all the common worke, which drewe him to doe 400 Mattrices and Punches for 80 /.
which weare truly worth 150/:
"Further they caused him to spend 5 weekes tyme in cutting the letters for
the small Bible, it beinge finished was approved for the best in England, notwith-
standinge they put him off aboute it from tyme to tyme for 1 5 weekes till (as they
pretended) Mr. Patricke Yonge came out of the contry.
1 Domestic, 1637-8. Vol. 376, Nos. 13 and 14.
1 68 The Old English Letter Foundries.
" All which tyme he kept his servants standinge still, in regard whereof he refused
to doe it, except he might doe the common worke likewise, when for feare of the
displeasure of my lord his Grace, they came to him agayne but told him that if they
should lett him have worke enough, he would growe to ritch.
" Albeit, of soe small benifitt hath his Art bine, that for 4 yeares worke and
practice he hath not taken above 48 /., and had it not bine for other imploymente
he might have perrisht.
" He seeinge himself soe slightly regarded by them, was the rather annimated to
sell off the proffitablest of his worke thinking to take some other businesse in hand,
whereby to free himselfe from want, being not able to subsist by workinge only for 2
or 3.
" Notwithstandinge his longe tyme spent in that Art, wherein he hath brought up
his sonne to bee soe expert and able that if it please God to call him, the other
is able exactly to performe anythinge touchinge the same.
" Wherefore he requesteth my lorde Grace not to confine him to these miserable
uncertainties, but promiseth if he will bee pleased to grant his peticion, he shall see
more done in one yeare than was ever done in England for all kindes of languages
which he is assured will bee for the good of the commonwealth in general and his
Graces particular content."
Whether Nicholls' application was successful or otherwise, is not known.
In the disastrous times which immediately followed the four Star Chamber
founders are lost sight of. It is scarcely likely, judging from the dismal account
given above of the trade in times of peace, that they were able, any of them, to
keep a business together in times of civil war. Nor is there any certainty that
when, in 1649, the Commonwealth re-enacted the main provisions of the Star
Chamber Decree, that the four founders then appointed were the same who had
been licensed in 1637. Mores, however, leads us to suppose that they were, and
for the purpose of enumerating the Oriental and learned matrices which about
the year 1657 were in use in the country, treats their four foundries as one.
There is, however, no reason for supposing that they worked in partnership, or
that their business was in any way connected. But in one great undertaking
they were associated ; and the London Polyglot of 1657 has generally been
regarded as the product of the types of some, if not all, of their number.
" By these or some of them," observes Mores, " we may suppose to have
been cut the letter used in The English Polyglott: but as we cannot assign to any
of them their particular performances we shall till we are better able to ascertain
them, call their labours by the name of the Polyglott Foundery, which, as
nearly as that work and the Heptaglott which accompanies it instructs us, is
described at the bottom of the page.1 But it is not to be doubted, considering
the elegance and simplicity of the assortment which we see, that the foundery
1 The list of matrices is given on p. 173, /<?.$•/.
The Star Chamber Founders and the London Polyglot. 169
was as completely furnished with that which we see not, and which, for that
reason we cannot mention."1
The London Polyglot ranks deservedly as one of the most conspicuous land-
marks of English typography. Great works had gone before it, and greater
followed. But in few of these has the learning of the scholar, the enterprise of
the publisher, the industry of the editor, the ability of the printer, and the skill
of the letter-founder been combined to so extraordinary a degree as in the pro-
duction of this magnum opus of the Commonwealth press.
A brief sketch of the typographical history of this famous work may be
interesting, and not out of place here.
The London Polyglot was the fourth great Bible of the kind which had
been given to the world.2
In 1 5 173 the Complutensian Polyglot had been printed at Alcala, at the charges
of Cardinal Ximenes, in six volumes, containing the Sacred Text, in Hebrew,
Latin, Greek and Chaldean, including an " Apparatus" consisting of a Hebrew
and Chaldee Lexicon, etc. This work will always be famous, if for no other
reason, for the grand, bold Greek type in which the Septuagint and New
Testament are printed.
In 1572 the Antwerp Polyglot of Arias Montanus was printed, in eight
magnificent volumes, by Christopher Plantin. It comprises the whole of the
Complutensian texts, with the addition of the Syriac, and an Apparatus con-
taining Lexicons and Grammars of Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac and Greek.
In 1645 the Paris Polyglot, edited by Le Jay and others, was published in
ten sumptuous volumes. It comprises the whole of the texts of the Antwerp
Polyglot, with the addition of Arabic and Samaritan. Owing to the abrupt
completion of this work, no Apparatus was included of any description. This
work was seventeen years in the press.
The London Polyglot, as we shall observe, added to the languages used in
the Paris Polyglot, the Persian and Ethiopic, with an Appendix containing
additional Targums, also a complete "Apparatus " and Prolegomena, with alpha-
betical tables of the various languages employed, and others besides.
1 Dissertation, p. 40.
2 The first project of a Polyglot Bible is due to Aldus Manutius, who, probably between
1498 and 1 501, issued a specimen-page containing' the first fifteen verses of Genesis, in colla-
teral columns of Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The typographical execution is admirable. A
facsimile is shown in Renouard's Annates de Plmprimerie des Aides, 2nd and 3rd editions.
? It was begun in 1502; completed in 1517, but not published till 1522.
Z
170
The Old English Letter Foundries.
The following table will show clearly the gradual advances made by the
four great Polyglots in respect of the versions they comprise1 : —
COMPLUTUM, 1520.
Antwerp, 1572.
Paris, 1645.
London, 1657.
I
Old Test., Heb.
Old Test., Heb.
Old Test., Heb.
Old Test., Heb.
2
Vulgate, Lat.
Vulgate, Lat.
Vulgate, Lat.
Vulgate, Lat.
3
Septuagint, Gr.
Septuag. Gr. Lat.
Septuag., Gr.
Septuag., Gr.
Lat.
Lat.
Lat.
4
Pentat., Chat.
Old Test., dial.
Old Test, Choi.
Old Test., dial.
Lat.
Lat.
Lat.
Lat.
1
New Test., Gr.
New Test., Gr.
New Test., Gr.
New Test., Gr.
Lat.
Lat.
Lat.
Lat.
6
New Test., Syriac,
Heb. Lat.
C New Test., Syriac,
) Heb. Lat.
( New Test., Syriac
7
\ Old Test., Syriac
' Lat.
( Old Test., Syriac
8
Bible, Arab. Lat.
Bible, Arab.
9
Pentat., Samar.
Lat.
Pentat., Samar.
10
Pentat. Gospels,
Per. Lat.
11
Ps., Cant. New
Test., Eth. Lat.
12
Add. Targums
13
Apparatus
Apparatus
Apparatus, Proleg.,
etc.
The first announcement of the London Polyglot was made in 1652, when
Dr. Walton published A Brief Description of an Edition of the Bible in the
Original Hebrew, Samaritan, and Greek, with the most ancient Translations of
the Jewish and Christian Churches, viz. the Sept. Greek, Chaldee, Syriac, Ethiopic,
Arabic, Persian, etc., and the Latin versions of them all ; a new Apparatus, etc?
1 In addition to the four great Bibles, the following polyglot versions had also appeared
before 1657 : —
1 5 16. Psalter in Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldee, Greek and Latin, published by Porrus at Genoa.
1 5 18. Psalter m Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Ethiopic, published by Potken at Cologne.
1546. Pentateuch in Hebrew, Chaldee, Persian and Arabic, published at Constantinople (but
all in Hebrew type).
1547. Pentateuch in Hebrew, Spanish and modern Greek, published at Constantinople.
1586. Bible in Hebrew, Greek and Latin (two versions), published at Heidelberg.
1596. Bible in Greek, Latin and German, published by Wolder at Hamburg.
1599. Bible (portions) in Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, Latin, German, Sclavonic, etc., published
by Hutterus at Nuremberg.
2 These Proposals were printed by R. Norton for Timothy Garthwaite at the lesser North
Gate of St. Paul's Church, London, 1652.
The Star Chamber Founders and the London Polyglot. 171
This Description, which set forth the various improvements in the proposed
Polyglot on its predecessors, was accompanied by a specimen-sheet1 containing
the first twelve verses of the first chapter of Genesis in the following order : On
one side, Hebrew with interlinear Latin translation, Latin (Vulgate), Greek
(Septuagint) with Latin, Chaldean paraphrase with Latin, Hebrew-Samaritan,
Samaritan. On the other side, Syriac with Latin, Arabic with Latin, Latin
translation of the Samaritan, Persian with Latin. The imprint to this highly
interesting specimen (a copy of which is said to be in the Library of Sydney
College, Cambridge) was : Londini, Typis Jacobi Flesher; from which it appears
that James Flesher was the first possessor of some of the types cast by the
polyglot founders, and subsequently used by Roycroft in this great work.2
Flesher's Specimen, which we have unfortunately not been able to discover,
met with many critics. Amongst others was Dr. Boate, the Dutch scholar (who
had already found fault with the Hebrew character used in the Paris Polyglot,
which he described as " a very scurvy one, and such as will greatly disgrace the
work"), was very disparaging to the new undertaking. It was probably in
deference to this critic that Dr. Walton added the following MS. note to the
copy of the specimen now at Sydney College, Cambridge : " Typos Hebr. et Syr.
cum punctis meliores, parabimus, etc."
The time occupied in securing the co-operation and assistance of the learned
men of the day, in getting subscribers,3 in arranging copy, and finally in provid-
1 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 workj; contains
much valuable information respecting the Polyglot.
2 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.
3 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 pro-
moter and the number of his friends, successful. The subscription was ,£io 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.
172 The Old English Letter Foundries.
ing the necessary types, delayed the commencement of the undertaking till
September 1653. Writing to Usher on July the 1 8th of that year, Dr. Walton
thus notes the near completion of the preliminary arrangements : " I hope we
shall shortly begin the work ; yet I doubt the founders will make us stay a week
longer than we expected. . . . We have resolved to have a better paper than
that of 1 1 s. a ream, viz., of i$s. a ream."1
Towards the end of September 1653, the impression of the first volume was
begun at the press of Thomas Roycroft, in Bartholomew Close, whose name will
always be honourably associated with this famous work.
Very little is known of the actual manual labour employed in the pro-
duction, beyond the fact that two presses only were said to have been kept at
work, and that the types were supplied by more than one of the four authorised
founders.
Chevillier2 speaks somewhat contemptuously of the typographical execution
(fabrique de l'lmprimerie) of the London as compared with that of the Paris
Polyglot. And if, as Le Long points out, " he means by that term the beauty of
the paper and the magnificence of the types, it must be admitted that the Paris
edition is superior ; but if he means the arrangement of the texts and versions,
and the general disposition of the entire work, then it is much inferior ; for
Walton has mapped out his work so precisely that at a single opening of the
book you see the texts and versions all at a glance ; thus giving a great facility
for comparison, wherein the chief usefulness of compilations of this sort
consist."3
Not the least noticeable feature about the work is the fact that from the
time of its first going to press to its completion, the printing barely occupied
four years. The first volume was completed at the beginning of September
1654. A month later, from the same press was published Dr. Walton's Intro-
ductio ad Lectionem Linguarum Orientalium for the use of subscribers.4 In
1655 the second volume of the Bible was finished ; in 1656 the third, and about
1 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.
2 Origine de P Pmprimerie de Paris. Paris, 1694, 4to, p. 59.
3 Discours Historique sur les principales editions des Bibles Polyglottes. Paris, 1713, i2mo,
p. 209.
4 This useful little tract was reprinted with improvements in the following year, entitled :
" Lntroductio ad lectionem linguarum Orientaliwn, Hebraiccs, Ckaldaicce, Sa7naritan<z, Syriaccz,
Arabicce, Persicce, ALthiopicce, Armence, Coptce . . . in usum tyronum . . . prcecipue eorum
qui sumptus ad Biblia Polyglotta (jam sub prelo) imprimenda contulerunt. Londini. Lmpri-
mebat Tho. Roycroft, 1655. i8mo." Republished at Deventer in 1658. The Armenian and
Coptic alphabets were cut in wood, and reappeared in the Prolegomena of the Polyglot.
The Star Chamber Founders and the London Polyglot. 173
the close of 1657 the remaining three.1 "And thus," says a contemporary,2 "in
about four years was finished the English Polyglot Bible,3 the glory of that age,
and of the English Church and Nation ; a work vastly exceeding all former
attempts of the kind, and that came so near perfection as to discourage all future
ones."
Apart altogether from the literary and scholastic value of the Bible, the
amount of labour and industry represented in its mere typographical execution
is astonishing. Each double page presents, when open, some ten or more versions
of the same passage divided into parallel columns of varying width, but so set
that each comprehends exactly the same amount of text as the other. The
regularity displayed in the general arrangement, in the references and inter-
polations, in the interlineations, and all the details of the composition and
impression, are worthy of the undertaking and a lasting glory to the typography
of the seventeenth century.4
With regard to the types, which concern us most, the following is the list of
the characters employed, as extracted by Rowe Mores : —
Orientals. — Hebrew : Two-line English, Double Pica, English.
Samaritan (with the English face) : English.*
Syriac : Double Pica, Great Primer.*
Arabic : Double Pica, Great Primer.
Meridional. — Ethiopic : English or Pica.*
Occidentals. — Greek : Great Primer and Small Pica.
Roman and Italic : Two-line English, Double Pica [Day's],5 Great Primer,
English, Pica, Long Primer, Brevier, five-line Pica, two-line Great Primer,
Small Pica.
Septentrional.— English (Black) : Pica.
1 " 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."
2 Rev. Mr. Twells, author of Life of Dr. Pocock.
s Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, complectentia Textus Originates, Hebraicum cum Pentateticho
Samaritano, Chaldaicum, Grcecumj Versionumque antiquarum, Samaritance Grceccs LXX
Interpr. Chaldaicce, Syriacce, Arabicce, At,thiopicce, Persies, Vulg. Lat. Quicquid comparari
■boterat. Cum Textuum et Versiomim Orientalium Trans lationibus Latinis . . . Omnia eo
ordine disposita, ut Textus cum Versionibus uno intuitu conferri possint. Cmn Apparatu, etc.
etc. . . . Edidit Brianus Waltomis, S.T.D. Londini. Imprimebat Thomas Roy croft, 1657.
6 vols., fol.
4 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.
* Of the founts marked thus (*) in the present and following summarised lists of the
contents of the English foundries, the matrices or punches, and in some cases both matrices
and punches, still exist.
5 See ante, p. 98.
1 74 The Old English Letter Foundries.
The matrices of three of these founts, the Samaritan, the Ethiopic, and the
Syriac, have survived to the present day, and in the course of this work we shall
Founts of the London Polyglot, 1657.
'WtW^Tl:: ,£irv5: <t$>1\: Uh<fl>: Ui"i<^,£: (DU/*>
R&i ri/iP*: HM: O/Ytt: Uftf: P/^:: -hKli
40. Ethiopic. From the original matrices.
[ 1 ^Qfi-31 [ 1 ru) ct.,l„ i "if
41. Syriac. From the original matrices.
:aA?aZ^J ^?3A a^am mcsr-m :ia«miax"9x" "tutts/s-
x^£Z -m<w3 t^a? sms**^ v^a &?flft m^nr
a>y ^ftZ^ ;ja?rra ^Z ^a tatnra jatfrr ^3<?
42. Samaritan. From the original matrices.
have occasion to trace their descent from the original makers to the present
owners. Meanwhile, it is with great satisfaction that we are able here to show a
specimen of types actually cast from these venerable relics as they now exist.1
Of the Arabic fount, some of the punches and matrices also exist, but in too
incomplete and dilapidated a state to allow of their being used.
Of the Orientals, the Hebrew is, perhaps, the least good. The Syriac and
Arabic are fine bold characters. The Greek is neat, though somewhat insigni-
ficant. The Ethiopic2 and Samaritan3 are both good and elegant faces. The
Italic is particularly neat. As might be expected from founts procured from
various foundries in that day, there is a certain absence of uniformity in the
1 In some cases a few of the matrices have undergone renovation in the hands of their
successive owners.
2 " The Ethiopic 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).
3 " 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 Scholce Syriacce, and from another used in
an encomiastic of Abr. Ecchelensis upon F. Kircher, which type belonged to the Congrega-
tion at Rome ; and which was afterwards more neatly cut by Voskens" (ibid., p. 13).
The Star Chamber Founders and the London Polyglot. 175
bodies on which the different founts are cast. This only makes the more
remarkable the accuracy and precision with which the columns are arranged.
In most copies the columns are divided by red lines, ruled by hand — in itself
an enormous task.
Nine languages are used in the Polyglot, but no single book is printed in
so many. The following is the arrangement of texts according to volumes :
VOL. 1. — Prolegomena.
Pentateuch. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Samaritan.
„ 2. — Joshua to Esther. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac and Arabic.
„ 3. — Job to Malachi. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Psalms also
in Ethiopic.
„ 4. — Apocrypha. Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic (some of the books, however, have
not the Arabic. Tobit is in a two-fold Hebrew). An appendix to
this volume contains two Chaldee Targums and a Persic Pentateuch.
„ 5. — New Testament, Gospels in Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic and
Persian ; other books, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic.
„ 6.— Various readings.
It will thus be seen that the Greek, Latin, Syriac and Arabic texts run
throughout the work. The Chaldean text and Targums are all given in
Hebrew type. The Hebrew text is printed throughout masoretically.
In addition to the above fundamental characters used, the Prolegomena
show the following Alphabets cut in wood, viz.: — Rabbinical Hebrew, Syriac
duplices, Nestorian and Estrangelan, Armenian, Coptic, Illyrian, both Cyrillian
and Hieronymian, Iberian, Gothic, Chinese, and the character of the Codex
Alexandririus. These are, for the most part, rudely cut, and valuable only as
curiosities.
From our point of view, the chief glory of the English Polyglot is that it is
wholly the impression of English type. It marks an epoch in the history of our
national letter-founding, as, before it appeared, no work of importance had
been printed in any of the learned characters except Latin and Greek. The
Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic were probably cut expressly
for the work, under the supervision of its learned editors, and became thus the
models or prototypes of the numerous Oriental founts which during the
eighteenth century figured so largely in the works of English scholarship.
The original preface to the Polyglot contained an honourable reference to
Cromwell, who had, from the first, encouraged the undertaking and materially
assisted it by remitting the tax on the paper imported from abroad for the use
of the work. But the Protector's death took place in the year after the publi-
cation ; and the Restoration, which followed two years later, was made the occasion
for a somewhat ignoble act of time-service on the part of Walton, who cancelled
176 The Old English Letter Foundries.
the last three leaves of the preface, and added a Dedication to Charles II, in
which, among other attacks on the memory of his former patron, he referred to
Cromwell as " Draco ille magnus."1 The particular typographical interest of this
Royal Dedication is that it is printed in the handsome Double Pica Roman and
Italic used by Day in the SElfredi of I574> and subsequently by Barker and
Lucas in Young's Catena on Job, in 1637, and in other works. The somewhat
worn condition of the types leads Dibdin to condemn the founts as inferior2;
but in point of elegance and grandeur this venerable letter remained still one of
the best of which our national typography could boast
In recognition of his services, Charles made Walton his chaplain-in-ordinary,
and created him subsequently Bishop of Chester. Nor was he the only worker
to whom the completion of this great enterprise brought honour. Roycroft,
after what may be considered a feat of rapid and skilful typography, was per-
mitted to take the title Orientalinm Typographies Regius?
The value of the English Polyglot was vastly enhanced by the addition to
it of Dr. Edmund CastelPs Heptaglot Lexicon^ which, after seventeen years of
incessant labour, commencing with the first announcement of the Polyglot, was
printed, at Roycroft's press, in 1669, in two volumes, uniform in size and style
with the Bible, of which henceforth it formed a necessary complement.
Respecting this famous work, there is little to add from a typographical
point of view to what has already been noted with regard to the Polyglot. The
1 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.).
2 " 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).
3 " 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. Hie juxta situs est
Thomas Roycroft, armiger, linguis Orientalibus Typographus Regius, placidissimis moribus
et antiqua. probitate ac fide memorandus, quorum gratia optimi civis famam jure merito
adeptus est. Militias civicae Vicetribunus. Nee minus apud exteros notus ob libros elegan-
tissimis suis typis editos, inter quos sanctissimum illud Bibliorum Polyglottorum, opus
quam maxime eminet. Obiit die 10 Augusti, ann. Reparatas Sal. MDCLXXVll, postquam LVI
aetatis suae annum implevisset. Parenti optime merito, Samuel Roycroft, filius unicus, hoc
monumentum pie posuit.' "
4 Lexicon Heptaglotton, Hebraicuvi, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, JEthiopicum,
Arabicum, conjunctim ; et Persicum separatim, etc., etc. Authore Edmicndo Caste llo, S.T.D.,
etc. Londini, Imprimebat TJwmas Roycroft, L,L* Orientalium Typographus Regius, 1669.
Two vols., fol.
The Star Chamber Founders and the London Polyglot. 177
same types are, with few exceptions, used in both. Mores considers, but
wrongly, that the Amharic shown in CastelPs work is metal, and the same as
that used in the Oratio Dominica of 171 3. This letter (which also appeared in
the first edition of the Oratio Dominica in 1700) belonged to Oxford University,
who procured it in 1692, being the Ethiopic character with additions. But the
few letters shown in the Heptaglot are evidently engraved by hand, and not cast.
It is to be regretted that Castell's work, which has been pronounced one of
the greatest and most perfect works of the kind ever performed by human
industry and learning, and which represented an amount of heroic perseverance
in the midst of adverse circumstances scarcely credible, was almost the ruin of
its author, both in constitution and fortune. It sold slowly, and at the time of
his death upwards of 500 copies were left on hand. The encouragement he
received both from royal and episcopal patronage was inadequate to cover the
losses which the undertaking had involved, and he died in comparative obscurity
in 1685.
Roycroft's office appears to have suffered severely by the Fire of London
in 1666, and a large number of copies of Castell's Lexicon, then in course of
printing, were destroyed. To the same disastrous event may also be attributed
the disappearance of some of the founts of the Polyglot founders, after the com-
pletion of the Lexicon. Mores, however, succeeds in tracing the most interesting
of these ; and the fact that all the matrices did not go down to posterity as a
single property, is additional proof that they were not all the production of one
artist. The Arabic, larger Syriac, and Samaritan passed into the foundry of the
Grovers, and the Ethiopic into that of Robert Andrews, who, it seems probable,
also inherited the Hebrew and Black. The smaller Syriac came into Mr.
Caslon's hands.
NICHOLAS NlCHOLLS. — This founder was son of Arthur Nicholls, the Star
Chamber founder, and, as appears by the mention of him in his father's petition
to Archbishop Laud, already quoted, was brought up to the Art, in which, as
early as 1637, he was "so expert and able as to be able to perform anything
touching the same." During the Civil Wars he appears to have suffered in the
royal cause, and, like many others, at the Restoration to have looked for sub-
stantial reward at the hands of the son of the Royal Martyr.
In 1665 he presented to the king a petition to be appointed His Majesty's
Letter Founder. The original document is in the Record Office,1 and is as
follows : —
1 State Papers, Domestic, 1665. Vol. 142, No. 174.
A A*
178 The Old English Letter Foundries.
"To the Kinge's Most Excellent Majestie. The humble peticion of
Nicholas Nicholls. Most humbly sheweth
" That the petitioner in the worst of tymes was a constant and loyall sufferer for
the causes of your Majestie and that of your Royall ffather of glorious memory, and
thereby reduced to greate extreamities.
" Now soe it is, That the peticioner by Industrie hath attained to a considerable
skill in the Art of cutting and casting all kinds of Letters and faire Characters (as by
the annexed may appeare) And your Majestie beinge the great encourager of good
Literature
"Your Majestie's peticioner most humbly prays your Grace and ffavour to serve
in the place of Letter Founder to your Majesties Presses That soe your Majesties
presses may be supplyed with Characters in some measure worthy of your Royall
Greatness. And the peticioner makes no question but he shall perform that service
(with the blessing of God) to your Majestie's full content and satisfaction.
"And the peticioner (as in duty bound) shall alwaies pray for your Majesties
long and prosperous Reigne over us."
Attached to the petition, in the centre of a folio sheet, is the tiny polyglot
specimen, of which we here present our readers with an exact facsimile. Eng-
lish typography possesses few relics more interesting than this quaint little page
— the earliest known type-founder's specimen in the country.
The execution, particularly of the Roman fount, is very poor, and one wonders,
in examining it and comparing it with the recently completed Polyglot, at the
artist's claim " to considerable skill in cutting and casting of faire characters."
It is possible, however, that the unusual minuteness of the type may have been
held to be a merit compensating for defects in execution. And as none of the
founts are known to have been used in any other work of the time, it may be pre-
sumed the letters were cut specially for this specimen. The Roman and Greek
founts are Pearl in body, and the Orientals Nonpareil, and display the text
" Vivas o rex in perpetuum" in Latin, Greek, Hebrew (with points), Syriac,
Samaritan, Ethiopic and Arabic. This loyal aspiration, effusively dedicated as
" the prayer of the devoted heart, and the specimen of the Art of the least of the
subjects of the greatest of the Kings," is surrounded by a neat flower-border (also
Nonpareil in body), and printed somewhat roughly on coarse paper. Despite its
defects, it appears to have found favour with the august personage to whom it
was offered, as we find, on January 29th, 1667, a minute of a "Warrant for
swearing Nicholas Nicholls, Letter Founder to His Majesty."1
Of the subsequent operations of Nicholls we know very little.2 He probably
inherited his father's foundry, and cast from his matrices. The Nichols whom
1 State Papers ; Domestic, 1667. Ent. Book 23, p. 337.
2 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.
Auguflifilmo Monarchy t, Sercnilfiroo
Principi & Domino
C A R O I O ||I»
Britanniarum, St Francis Rpgi
Gloriofiftimo Fidel Drfenfofi.&c
H« vofa fequentia
Vivas O Re» in prrp.-ruun,
ct-aju )QAv^ iA-\y>
: amaai : ^rm/n
n&T • ^gn,/> : Ajiy i A*1vU/ ;
Ul cordis lircotiinnii anhelituj
Ai[)A)ur fua> fpccimCT,
SacratiiSra? Velrrs Majeftati
Humillimf offen, & dadicat
Maxirai Regit Suhditorura nurrioms,
Nicholas Nicholls
43. Specimen of Nicholas Nicholls, 1665. (From the original in the Record Office.)
[face p. 17
The Star Chamber Founders and the London Polyglot. 179
Mores mentions as having founded in 1690/ could hardly (if the date be
correctly given) be the same man who was a practised letter-founder in 1637.
To this last-named founder no doubt belongs the fount of Great Primer
Roman and Italic acquired by the Oxford University Press, which had the
unenviable distinction of being designated in their Specimen of 1695.. as "cut
by Mr. Nichols— not good."2
The following is the only specimen we have to note in this place : —
(1665). Specimen sheet of minute printing in several languages, addressed to the King
by Nicholas Nicholls, Letter Founder. {State Papers, Domestic, 1665, vol. 142, No. 174.)
1 Dissertation, p. 46. 2 See ante, p. 148.
CHAPTER VIII.
-|3*@i§-&M-
JOSEPH MOXON, 1659.
OSEPH MOXON, whose distinction it is to have been
the first practical English writer on the mechanics of
typography, was born at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, on
August 8, 1627, and appears to have been brought up as a
mathematical instrument maker, in which profession he
showed himself highly proficient In the year 1659,
being either already settled in the metropolis, or having
come thither for the purpose, he added to his stated
business that of a typefounder, in which, according to Mores, he continued till
1683.
It is difficult to fix the precise condition of the laws relating to typefounders
in the last year of the Commonwealth. The Ordinances of 1647 and 1649, which
reimposed the main provisions of the Star Chamber Decree of 1637, remained
nominally in force till the Restoration, so that we are to suppose that Moxon,
unless he practised his art surreptitiously or sub rosd, was formally installed into
a vacancy in the body of authorised founders on execution of the usual bond to
the Company of Stationers.
If, as seems probable, he commenced operations with little or no previous
experience, and with no plant ready to his hand, the progress of the new foundry
must at first have been very slow, particularly as he appears to have devoted
much of his time to his other scientific pursuits, to which in 1665 he added that
of hydrographer to the king. To this office a considerable salary was attached.
In the same year, Mores informs us, he lived at the sign of the " Atlas " on
Ludgate Hill, near Fleet Bridge, but the Fire of London in 1666 caused him to
44- From the Tutor to Astronomy and Geography, 4th ed., 1686.
[/ace p. 180.
Joseph Moxon. 181
quit that abode for another of the same sign in Warwick Lane. From Warwick
Lane, where he was living in 1668, he appears to have removed to Westminster,
to the sign of the "Atlas" in Russell Street, whence in 1669 was issued his
famous specimen of types, the first complete typefounders' specimen known in
England.1
In a passage in the Mechanick Exercises, published several years later,
Moxon speaks of the art of letter-cutting as a mystery, " kept so conceal'd
among the Artificers of it, that I cannot learn anyone hath taught it any other,
but every one that has used it, Learnt it of his own Genuine Inclination." If this
be the writer's own experience — though his subsequent intimate acquaintance
with the minutest details of the art almost disproves it — his specimen must be
taken as the production of a self-taught typographer after ten years' intermittent
practice. Viewed in this light, the exceedingly poor performance which the
sheet presents can to some extent be accounted for. It must also be borne in
mind that Moxon's theoretical and mathematical studies of the proportions and
form of letters had not yet been begun, or, at least, elaborated ; so that in no
sense is his Specimen to be assumed to be a reduction into practice of those
theories.
This specimen, which is entitled Prooves of the Several Sorts of Letters cast
by Joseph Moxon, is a folio sheet, showing in double column :
Great Canon Romain.
Double Pica Romain. Pica Romain.
Pica Italica.
Great Primmer Romain. Long Primer Romain.
Long Primer Italica.
English Romain. Brevier Romain.
English Italica. Brevier Italica.
The imprint is, " Westminster, printed by Joseph Moxon in Russell Street, at
the sign of the Atlas, 1669."
In all respects it is a sorry performance. Only one fount, the Pica, has any
pretensions to elegance or regularity. The others are so clumsily cut, so badly
cast, and so wretchedly printed, as here and there to be almost undecipherable.
Moxon's proficiency in the processes of the art does not appear as yet to have
attained the pitch of justifying his matrices to any regularity of line, or of casting
his types square in body. Some lines of the specimen curve and wave so as to
make it a marvel how others kept their places in the forme, and the press-work
1 Nicholas Nicholls' tiny specimen, printed four years earlier, exhibited only a few lines
specially cut, and dedicated privately to the King.
1 82 The Old English Letter Foundries.
<3
and ink are so bad that at a first glance the beholder is tempted to mistake the
larger letters with their sunken faces for open instead of solid-faced Romans.
The sheet was apparently put forward not solely as a specimen of types. The
matter of each paragraph is an advertisement of Moxon's business as a mathe-
matical instrument maker. In Great Canon Romain he calls attention to the
" Globes Celestial and Terrestrial of all sizes made by Joseph Moxon, Hydro-
grapher to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 1669." In Double Pica Romain
he announces his Spheres ; in Great Primer " a Large Map of the World" ; in
Pica Italica, " a book called a Tutor to Astronomie and Geographie," and so on.
To one or two of the founts, such as the Great Canon, the Pica and the Brevier,
he adds a line of accents or signs.
It would appear, from the imprint already quoted, that Moxon combined
printing with typefounding at Westminster. If so, he probably confined his
press to the printing of specimens and advertisements of his own goods, as we
cannot ascertain that any of his other works were printed by himself, or that he
printed anything for the public.
About 1670 he removed back to the sign of the Atlas, in Ludgate Hill.
Rowe Mores considers it probable that for some time he resided in Holland,
during which time he acquired a certain proficiency in the Dutch language.1
During the same period it is probable that he may have come across, and been
struck by specimens of the beautifully proportioned Elzevir letters of Christo-
ffel Van Dijk, which he admitted were the inspiration of his Regulce Trium
Ordinum.
Of this curious work,2 which was published in 1676, it will suffice to say
here, it is a work intended not so much for the letter-cutter as for the sign-board
and inscription painter. Taking the Van Dijk letters as his models, the writer
attempts to demonstrate that each letter is a combination of geometrical figures,
bearing regular proportions one to another ; and by sub-division of the square
of each letter into forty-two equal parts, he professes to be able to erect in any
other square, similarly sub-divided, the same letter in precise proportion and
harmony. This theory he illustrates by copper-plate figures of the various letters
1 In 1677 he published Geometrical Operations, London, 4to, translated by himself from
Dutch into English.
2 Regulce 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 comfiotmded 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.)
Joseph Moxon. 183
of the Roman, Italic and Black Alphabets, and their sub-divisions. The result
is not pleasing. The letters are stiff, and in some cases distorted ; although
this we believe to be the fault not so much of the theory itself as of the rules of
proportion for the different parts of each letter predicated in the first instance.
The book, as we have observed, is clearly not intended as a guide to punch-
cutting. We regard it rather as an interesting attempt to reduce to precise
mathematical rules a set of characters which never have and never will yield
themselves entirely to such treatment.1
At the conclusion of the section devoted to " the ordering of Inscriptions",
Moxon says (p. 11), "But of this and several other Observations of this Nature,
I have written more at large in a book I intend to publish on the whole Art of
Printing." From this it is evident that, as early as 1676, his treatises on Typo-
graphy, which formed the second volume of the Mechanick Exercises and were
published in 1683, were already written.
To this highly interesting work2 — the first work on the mechanics and
practice of printing and letter-founding — we have already alluded in a previous
chapter. It is impossible here to give more than a brief summary of its contents.
Its publication commenced in 1677, with a series of monthly " Exercises" devoted
to the Smith's, Joiner's, Carpenter's and Turner's trades. These formed the
first volume. Moxon himself informs us that their publication was interrupted
by the excitement of Oates' plot, "which took off the minds of his few
1 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 Divind Proportione, was
printed at Venice, containing woodcut illustrations of the various letters of the alphabet. In
1525 Albert Diirer 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 10, 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.
2 Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works. Began Jan. I, 1677. And
intended to be Monthly continued. By Joseph Moxon, Hydrographer to the King's Most
Excellent Majesty. London. Printed for Joseph Moxon on Lttdgate 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.)
184 The Old English Letter Foundries.
customers from buying them, as formerly." It was not till 1683 that the work
was resumed. The second volume (which appeared in twenty-four monthly
parts), treating wholly of the Art of Printing, commences with a brief account of
the Invention of the Art (in which the reader is left to decide between the titles
of Haarlem and Mentz), and with a claim on behalf of Typography equally with
Architecture to be regarded as a Mathematical Science.1 " A scientifick man,"
says Moxon, " was doubtless he who was the first Inventor of Typographic ; but
I think few have succeeded him in Science, though the number of Founders and
Printers be grown very many : Insomuch that for the more easie managing of
Typographic, the Operators have found it necessary to devide it into several
Trades. . . . The several devisions that are made are — 1. The Master Printer.
2. The Letter Cutter. 3. The Letter Caster. 4. The Letter Dresser. 5. The
Compositer. 6. The Correcter. 7. The Press Man. 8. The Inck-Maker.
Besides several other Trades they take in to their Assistance, as the Smith, the
Joyner, etc."
These divisions he proceeds to treat of seriatim and in detail. We have
elsewhere quoted freely from this work, with a view to illustrate the condition of
letter-founding as a mechanical trade in his time.2 But we notice here, that
in the advice which he gives to the Master Printer on the choice of letter for his
office, he takes the opportunity to reiterate his admiration of the Dutch form of
letter, particularly that adopted by Christoffel Van Dijk, and his conviction that as
the Roman letters were originally made to consist of circles, arcs of circles and
straight lines, the cutting of those letters should invariably be according to strict
mathematical rule of form and proportion. His advice on the choice of letter is
fourfold.
1. "That the Letter have a true shape."
2. " That they be deep cut" {i.e., in the punch).
3. "That they be deep sunck in the Matrices" (with a good "beard").
4. " That his Letter be cast upon good Mettal."
He then proceeds to indicate the quantities of each body of letter with
which the printer should provide himself; and from that proceeds to notice in
turn every possible requisite for a well-ordered printing office, from the " ball-nails"
to the press.
His " Exercises on Letter Founding" may be best introduced in his own
language : " Having shown you the Master Printers Office," he says, " I account
1 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).
9 See chap. iy„
Joseph Moxon. 185
it suitable to proper Method to let you know how the Letter Founder Cuts the
Punches, how the Molds are made, the Matrices sunck, and the Letter Cast and
Drest. . . . Wherefore the next Exercises shall be (God willing) upon Cutting
of Steel Punches."
The minuteness with which he enters into every detail connected with this
mysterious art, and his familiarity with the terminology of the craft, prove that
Moxon, although he professed to have learned it not from any master, but " of
his own genuine inclination," was an experienced and even enthusiastic punch-
cutter. He devotes considerable attention to the tools and gauges necessary for
the work, and returns once more to the charge on behalf of geometry as the
foundation of typography.
Anyone acquainted with the modern practice of punch-cutting, cannot but
be struck, on reading the directions laid down in the Mechanick Exercises, with
the slightness of the change which the manual processes of that art have under-
gone during the last two centuries. Indeed, allowing for improvements in tools,
and the greater variety of gauges, we might almost assert that the punch-cutter
of Moxon's day knew scarcely less than the punch-cutter of our day, with the
accumulated experience of two hundred years, could teach him.
Moxon's observations, as in the Regulce Trium Ordinum, apply only to the
Roman, Italic and Black-letter, and these he illustrates by a series of plates
devised on the same method as in his former work, showing each letter in a
magnified form on a square subdivided into forty-two parts, with the proportions
for the various parts of each letter minutely laid down. He imagines an objection
that it may be deemed impossible in the case of a small letter to divide the square
of the body into forty-two equal parts. " But yet," he says, " it is possible with
curious working," and proceeds, evidently to his own satisfaction, to demonstrate
the fact in a very curious way, by suggesting a series of graduations in the
rubbing of spaces and points, whereby a thin1 space may be enlarged by sixths
until a series of 42nd parts of each body is arrived at.
Impracticable as such a system appears, it is consistently carried out in the
enlarged letters which illustrate the Exercises. The result is not more successful
than that produced in the Regulce Trium Ordinum; and we venture to think that
if any proof were needed that geometry is not, and cannot be, the Alpha and
Omega of typographical beauty, these reductions into practice of Moxon's in-
genious theories will supply it.
Passing from letter-cutting, Moxon next describes with much minuteness
1 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 !
B B
1 86 The Old English Letter Foundries.
'&
the various parts of the mould and the method of putting them together. Here
the practical instrument maker is on familiar ground, and the directions he gives
remained the best authority on the subject, until the venerable hand-mould which
he describes began to give place, a century and a quarter after his time, to the
lever-mould from America.
Next to mould-making, the Exercises deal with the important processes of
striking and justifying the matrices, operations which, like that of punch-cutting,
have undergone but little change since his day. Then follow descriptions of the
furnace, the alloy of the metal, and the methods of casting and dressing the type,
with the implements necessary for these branches of the work ; and this portion
of the work closes with a few highly interesting plates, amongst which that of
the caster at work1 is the most curious and valuable.
The remainder of the book is devoted to various departments of the letter-
press printer's trade, those of the compositor, the corrector, the pressman, and
the warehouse keeper. To this is added an Appendix, describing the ancient
customs of the " Chapel," and a Dictionary of typographical terms.
Such is a brief and meagre outline of the contents of this first English book
on printing and letter-founding. It is a work which no one interested in English
typography can omit to consult. For almost a century it remained the only
authority on the subject ; subsequently it formed the basis of numerous other
treatises, both at home and abroad, and to this day it is quoted and referred to,
not only by the antiquary who desires to learn what the art once was, but by the
practical printer, who may still on many subjects gather from it much advice
and information as to what it should still be.
Reverting now to Mores' description of the contents of Moxon's foundry,
we meet with one fount which calls for particular mention here.
The Pica Irish was cut expressly for the purpose of printing the Irish New
Testament, published in 1681 at the cost of Robert Boyle, son of the Earl of
Cork, and is described by Mores as the only fount of purely Irish type he had
ever seen in the country. We may, perhaps, be excused a slight digression in
this place for the purpose of giving a sketch of the efforts which before Moxon's
day had been made to propagate the Irish language by means of typography.
The first fount of Irish type known was presented in 1571 by Queen
Elizabeth to John O'Kearney, treasurer of St. Patrick's, with a view to encourage
the diffusion of the Scriptures in the Irish character.
By whom this character was prepared we are not informed. It is not the
1 See ante, p. 109.
Joseph Moxon. 187
genuine Irish, but a hybrid fount, consisting chiefly of Roman and Italic letters,
to which the " discrepants," or seven distinctively Irish sorts, are added.1 It is
accompanied by a small and equally neat letter for notes, which, however, appears
to be Saxon.
The earliest specimen of this fount appears in a broadside Poem on the Last
Judgment? printed in 1571, and sent over to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
apparently as a specimen of the type. This was followed almost immediately
by the Church Catechism and Articles, translated by O'Kearney and Nicholas
Walsh, afterwards Bishop of Ossery, and printed in 1571 at the cost of John
Ussher.3
The object of the royal donor was further realised in 1602, when there
appeared from the press of John Francke, William O'Donnell's (or Daniel's) Irish
New Testament? the first version of that or any portion of the Holy Scriptures
in the native character. In dedicating the translation to James I, Daniel thus
refers to the royal origin of the types : — " And notwithstanding that our late
dreade Soveraigne Elzabeth . . . provided the Irish characters and other
instrumentes for the presse in the hope that God in mercy would raise up some
to translate the Newe Testament into their native tongue, yet hath Sathan
hitherto prevailed, and still they remain Lo-ruchama Lo-ammi, etc."
The type did further service in 1608, when Daniel's Common Prayer" was
printed by Francke, a well-executed work, with engraved title and beautiful
1 Of the eighteen letters of the alphabet, the b, c, h, 1, m, n, o, s, u, are in Roman, the a
and e in Italic.
2 A copy of this rare broadside is in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
3 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 C Kearney . .
Printed in the town of the Ford of Hurdles, (Dublin), at the cost of Master John Ussher,
Alder7nan, at the head of the Bridge, the 20th of June 1571, with the privilege of the great
Queen. 1571.) 8vo.
4 Tiomna Nuadh, etc. (The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
faithfully translated from the Greek into the Irish by William O 'Donne 11.) Se'on Francke:
a mBaile athd Cliath (Dublin), 1602. Fol. This work was printed in the house of Sir
William Ussher, Clerk of the Council.
6 Leabhar na nurnaightheadh gcomhchoidchiond agus mhemisdraldachda na Sacra-
meinteadh, etc. (Translated from the English by W. Daniel, Archbishop of Tuam), a dtigh
She'on Francke, alias Francktotz, a Mbaile athd 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,"
1 88 The Old English Letter Fozmdries.
ornamented initials, each page being enclosed in a rule border. After the
appearance of this book nearly a quarter of a century elapsed before the type
reappeared in Bishop Bedell's A B C, or English and Irish Catechism, printed
by the Stationers' Company at Dublin in 163 1.1 This Catechism, with additional
matter, was republished by Godfrey Daniel in 1652, also in Dublin,2 after which
the Irish type of Queen Elizabeth disappeared in Ireland, and reappeared only
in occasional words occurring in Sir James Ware's books, printed in London by
Tyler, in 1656 and 1658.
There seems no reason for believing, as some state, that it was secured by
the Jesuits and taken abroad.3 Not only is it not to be found in any Irish work
printed abroad, but the Irish Seminary at Louvain possessed a fount of its own,
which, between 161 6 and 1663, was in constant use.
After 1602 no serious attempt had been made to complete the translation
of the Scriptures into Irish until Dr. Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore, undertook the
task about 1630. For this purpose, being then at the age of 57, he devoted
himself to the study of the language, and having secured the assistance of Mr.
King and the Rev. Denis Sheridan, both eminent Irish scholars, the translation
of the Old Testament was completed in 1640. Bedell, we are informed "deter-
mined to publish the version immediately at his own expense and in his own house,
and made an agreement with a person who undertook to print it : the types
were even sent for to Holland."4 But the troubles and persecutions of the
ensuing year, followed closely by the death of the Bishop, hindered the design,
and the manuscript lay neglected for forty years.5
1 A B C, or the Institution 01 a Christian. Printed by the Company of Stationers.
Dublin, 1 63 1. 8vo.
2 The Catechism, with the Six points of W. Perkins, translated into Irish by Godfrey
Daniel. Dublin, 1652. 8vo.
3 " 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.
C Flanagan on the Ancient Langtiage 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.
4 Life of William Bedeh, D.D., by H. J. Monck Mason. Lond., 8vo, 1843, p. 287.
5 In addition to the ABC 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.
Joseph M oxon. 189
In the year 1680, the New Testament of 1602 being then entirely out of
print,1 and no Irish types being available, the illustrious Robert Boyle determined
on republishing it at his own expense. To this end he caused a fount of Irish
type to be cut and cast in London, and had an able printer instructed in the
language for the purpose of printing it.
Moxon was the founder selected to produce the types, and the result was
the curious Irish fount of which the matrices formed part of his foundry. With
this type Boyle is said to have had the Church Catechism, with the Elements of
QI12 TXMf bo cficrc<xib bia ngm <xgxf c<xl<xm. Qlyxf
bo hi <xn r<xl<xm g<xn cumab, <xgu/~ j:ol<xro; <xgu/* bo
bo^cabu/" <J <xj<xib <x naigew. <De <£ <xj<xib n<\ nr^
45. Moxon's Irish fount, rom the original punches.
the Irish Language, printed in 1680,2 and in the following year was issued in
London, with a preface in Irish and English, the new edition of Daniel's Irish
New Testament?
" God hath raised up," says this preface, " the generous Spirit of Robert
Boyle, Esq., son to the Right Honourable Richard, Earl of Cork, Lord High
Treasurer of Ireland, renowned for his Piety and Learning, who hath caused the
same Book of the New Testament to be Reprinted at his proper Cost ; And as
well for that purpose, as for Printing the Old Testament, and what other Pious
Books shall be thought convenient to be published in the Irish Tongue, has
caused a New Set of fair Irish Characters to be Cast in London, and an able
Printer to be instructed in the way of Printing this Language."
The printer was Robert Everingham,4 at the Seven Stars, in Ave Maria
Lane, who in 1685 was further employed by Boyle to print, in the same Irish
1 Most of the copies were stated to have been bought up, like the type, by Roman
ecclesiastics.
2 Of this work a copy has not yet been seen.
3 Tiomna Nuadh. (The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ faithfully
translated from the Greek into the Irish by William (JDonnelt). London. Robert Evering-
ham. 1 68 1. 4to.
4 " 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 Advertise-
ment of Books for some London publishers.
190 The Old English Letter Foundries.
types,1 Bishop Bedell's translation of the Old Testament? the manuscript of
which had fortunately been preserved. The whole Bible being thus complete,
it was issued in two 4to volumes, and in 1690 was reprinted in Roman characters
at Everingham's press for the use of the Highlanders.3
Our space forbids us to give here anything like a list of the different works
in which Moxon's Irish type appeared after 1690. An interesting note as to the
early use of the fount in Ireland occurs in a petition presented in 1709 to the
Lord Lieutenant by several of the clergy and gentry of Ireland for the printing
of a new edition of the New Testament " in the Irish character and tongue, in
order to which the only set of characters now in Britain is bought already."4
This petition does not appear to have been successful ; but in 17 12 a Book
of Common Prayer? translated by Dr. John Richardson, Rector of Annah
(Chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant), with the assistance of the Christian Know-
ledge Society, was printed by Elinor Everingham, at the Seven Stars in Ave
Maria Lane. Dr. Richardson also published some Irish Sermons* at the same
press, and a History of the A ttempts . . . to Convert the Popish Natives of Ireland.
In 1700, in the London Oratio Dominica, Moxon's Irish type was used, as
also in the reprint in 171 3, after which the fount frequently reappeared until 1820,
when it was used in the Transactions of the Iberno Celtic Society, for printing
the titles of E. O'Reilly's "Chronological Account of Irish Writers" there
given.
The "punches and matrices", said Mores, writing in 1778, "have ever since
continued in England. The Irish themselves have no letter of this face, but are
supplied with it by us from England ; though it has been said, but falsely, that
1 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 o
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).
2 Leabhuir na Seintiomna, etc. {The Books of the Old Testament translated into Irish by
Dr. William Bedell, late Bishop of Kilmore. London.') 1685. 4to.
3 A?i Biobla Naomhtha. (IV. Bedell's and W. 0' Don f tell' s Irish Bible, revised, and printed
at London by R. Everingham!) 1690. 8vo.
4 Mason's Life of Bedell, p. 305.
5 The Book of Common Prayer, Irish and English, with the Elements of the Irish
Language, by John Richardson. London, 17 12. 8vo.
6 Practical Sermons, London, 171 1,
Joseph Moxon. 191
the University of Louvain have lately procured a fount to be cut for the use of
the Irish Seminary there."1
We are glad to add to this statement that the punches of this interesting
fount are still in existence, and, indeed, that these most curious relics of the
handiwork of the author of the Mechanick Exercises lie before us as we write
these words.
Among the other peculiar characters cut by Moxon may be mentioned the
symbols used in Mr. George Adams' scientific works, and the Philosophic
or " Real Character" designed by Bishop John Wilkins for his learned Essay
totvards a Universal Language, printed in 1668.2. The correcting marks used
in the Mechanick Exercises, as well as other mathematical and astronomical
symbols, were also the work of this versatile artist, whose scientific genius
appears to have had a special bent towards the more curious by-paths of
typography.
Moxon's foundry descended to Robert Andrews, with whom it is possible
he was, during the close of his career, associated, either as a master or a partner.
Rowe Mores is unable to distinguish, beyond the peculiar founts above noted,
and the Canon Roman and Italic (which subsequently came into Mr. Caslon's
hands), what were the precise contents of his foundry. He therefore omits his
usual list, and includes the whole in Andrews'.
The date of Moxon's death is uncertain. A third edition of the Mechanick
Exercises, not including the typographical portion, was issued in 1703. Unless
this was a posthumous publication, Moxon must have been seventy-six years
old at the time.
Mores states that he founded in London from 1659 to 1683, from which it
would seem that he retired from the type business a considerable time before
his death. He was a voluminous writer on scientific and mathematical subjects,
and many of his works ran through several editions.
1 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.
2 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.
192 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Mores describes him cordially as an admirable mechanic and an excellent
artist, and states that he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, 30th Novem-
ber 1678. He was succeeded in his office of Hydrographer to the King by Mr.
George Adams, whom Mores describes as "our ingenious friend . . . and a
successor to Mr. Moxon as well in skilfulness and curiosity as well as office."1
Our portrait of Moxon is taken from the frontispiece to the fourth edition of
his Tutor of Astronomy and Geography ; 1686, printed by Samuel Roycroft
for the author.
It is doubtful whether his investigations and theories had any sensible
effect on the practice of English letter-founding. They may have tended to
encourage the favour with which Dutch letter was regarded at the beginning of
the eighteenth century ; but it is not clear that his attempt to confine to rule
and compass the art of letter-cutting either secured general adoption or was
productive of any appreciable reform in our national typography.
The following is the title of the only specimen known to have been issued
by Moxon : —
1669. Prooves of the Several Sorts of Letters cast by Joseph Moxon. Westminster,
printed by Joseph Moxon in Russell Street, at the sign of the Atlas, 1669. Fo.
(B. M., Hart. MS. 5915, fo. 160.)
1 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).
CHAPTER IX.
THE LATER FOUNDERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY.
THOMAS GORING, 1668.
JOSEPH LEE, 1669.
F these two founders nothing- is known beyond what is
recorded in two short entries on the books of the
Stationers' Company, viz. : —
1668. The Master and Wardens requested to certify-
to the Archbishop of Canterbury that Thomas Goring, a
member of this Company, is an honest and sufficient man,
and fit to be one of the four present founders ; there being
one now wanting, according to the Act of Parliament.
1669. Mr. Joseph Lee and Mr. Goring to give at the
next Court an account in writing, what sorts of letter they have made, and for whom,
since the Act of Parliament in that case was provided.
The names of both these founders occur in the list, already referred to, of
former Stewards of the Brotherly Meeting of Masters and Workmen Printers,
issued in 168 1.1
1 Joseph Leigh {sic) served at the sixty-fourth Feast {i.e., about 1675), ar*d Thos. Goring
at the sixty-seventh (1678). In the same List occurs the name of John Goring, probably a
relative of Thomas Goring, at the forty-sixth Feast (1657).
C C
194 The Old English Letter Fotmdries
ROBERT ANDREWS, 1683.
This founder, who was born in 1650, succeeded Joseph Moxon, probably
about the year 1683,1 and transferred his foundry to Charterhouse Street, where
he continued in business till 1733. His foundry, of which, Mores informs us,
Moxon's matrices formed the most considerable part, was, next to that of the
Grovers, the most extensive of its day ; and it would appear that, for some time
at any rate, these two shared between them the whole of the English trade.
Andrews' foundry consisted of a large variety of Roman letter and Titlings ; and
in " learned" founts was specially rich in Hebrew, of which there were no less than
c?ift nm oiop 'as So "pni 1031 top wo pfTOi :pfo M*i owe? pft coifi dis nfna
■p o'?lft S73M 310 's -jin? pf> o'oin frvi : -j>rs vj<i his w otoJ/> ir^'i : oto '59 bo rsmn
■jpftn : wis oi' -5p3 tom 3io tom oW nip ^pii on iiM o'pift fap'i : -pro y35 ,,<i9
47. Nonpareil Rabbinical Hebrew, from R. Andrews' Foundry. (From the original matrices.)
eleven founts, and five Rabbinical. Of peculiar sorts, he possessed the matrices
of Bishop Wilkins' " Real Character," also the correcting-marks used by Moxon
in his Mechanick Exercises, and other symbols, besides three or four founts of
square-headed music.
He also possessed the Hebrews and the Ethiopic2 used in Walton's Polyglot ;
the Irish cut by Moxon for Boyle's New Testament, and a curious alphabet of
Great Primer Anglo-Norman ; besides a fine specimen of old Blacks (two of
which are here shown), probably handed down from some of the early English
HX fyz grete Corotue t^at allies uemeneti for tlj e
Ml) of ^#$ fren&e patxotlu^ ana of tlje armes t^at
C^ew W tuoDer fctfse Doo forge hy aicau* Capttulo
Decimoqutnto*
*2De la fcetaiption beg SUtmeg que fotga &fcan a 3Utf)tfeg*
*€n ieftu flit, par treg gtafce & fubtitfe matftrife, figuree
% poumaite la tieiuCe tieg elemeng, ieutg fufoftanteg & Teurg
'natuteg et touted tag fctffereceg, ft n ftit poumait le to
'mamet et leg eftoifleg, c&agcune en (a propriete, <£t leg
'fcouje figneg &u ^otiiacne en Jeutg ptopreg natureg & feur
maaeittoogqSriuu^Sli^^it^fe^m^
49. Old Blacks from R. Andrews' Foundry, 1706. (From the original matrices.)
1 His name occurs in the list of Masters and Workmen Printers, as having served as
Stev/ard at the sixty-ninth Feast (1680).
Mores' Dissert., p. 13.
The Later Founders of the Seventeenth Century.
195
printers, whose character they strongly resemble. His son, Silvester Andrews,
as we shall notice later on, founded at Oxford, whither he appears to have
taken matrices of some of the Romans and one fount of Hebrew from his father's
foundry.
The following is the list of matrices in the foundry in 1706, as given by
Mores. Founts of which the punches or matrices are still in existence are dis-
tinguished by an asterisk ; those descended from the Polyglot foundry are
marked [P.], and those from Moxon's [M.] : —
" Mr. ROBERT ANDREWS' FOUNDERY, 1706.
Orientals.
Hebrew. — 2-line English, 32. [P. ?]
Double Pica, 68. [P.?]
Great Primer, 35.
English (the common German face), 47.
English, 73. [P. ?]
Pica, 65.
Long Primer, 35.
Brevier, 35.
Small Pica, old, 42.
„ another, 77.
„ another, 73.
Nonpareil, 35.
Rabbinical Hebrew. — English (German), 30.
Rashi, Pica, 29.
„ Long Primer,* 30.
„ Brevier,* 29.
„ Nonpareil,* 29.
Large face points, 42.
Accents, 27.
Small face points, 28.
Samaritan. — (Leusdenian), 21.
Syriac. — Great Primer, 47 ; Points, 13.
Arabic. — Great Primer, 104.
English, 62.
Meridionals.
jEthiofiic. — Great Primer,* 212.
[P-]
Occidentals.
Greek. — English ] " These three were purchased
Long Prime'r. I b? Th°s • James' ff1 APJ"il
^ . ( 1724, ten years before the
Brevier. !
Long Primer, 457.
Brevier, 331.
N onpareil, 329
sale of the foundery."
Roman and Italic. — 2-line English full face
caps, 31.
2-line English Roman, 147.
„ Italic, 108.
Double Pica large face Roman, 122.
„ small face „ US-
„ Italic, 107.
„ 2, Roman, 118.
„ „ Italic, 66.
Another, 126.
Great Primer 1, Roman, 114.
„ „ Italic, 102.
„ 2, Roman, no.
„ „ Italic, 66.
English Roman and Italic, ...
„ 2, Roman, 92.
» 3, » 96.
„ Roman lower-case, 32.
Pica Roman, 117.
„ „ lower-case, 27.
„ „ and Italic, long face, ...
Long Primer Roman, 84.
„ Italic, 80.
„ Roman lower-case, 42.
„ „ „ another, 38.
„ Italic capitals and double-
letters, 45.
Brevier Roman lower-case, 57.
„ „ „ another, 57.
„ Italic, ...
Title Letters and Irregttlars. — 4-line Pica full
face caps, 30.
Canon Roman, 27. [M.]
„ Italic, 74- [M.]
2-line Double Pica Roman, 12/.
„ Great Primer full face caps, 31.
196
The Old English Letter Foundries.
Title Letters and Irregulars. — 2-line Pica full
face caps, 31.
2-line Pica Roman lean face, 58.
Paragon Roman, 122.
„ Italic, 100.
Small Pica Roman, 76.
„ Italic, 82.
„ „ another, 98.
„ „ another, 80.
Small Pica Roman and Italic, ...
Bourgeois Italic, 72
Nonpareil Roman, 80.
Pearl Roman, 2 sets.
Septentrionals.
Anglo-Saxon. — Pica, 16.
Pica, another, 21.
Anglo-Norman. — Great Primer capitals, 24.
English. — Great Primer with law, 116.
English* „ 106.
Pica „ 125
English. — Pica small face, 71.
Long Primer,* 78.
Brevier with law, 118.
Small Pica* „ 120.
Small Pica,* 58.
Nonpareil,* 43.
Secretary. — Great Primer capitals, 15.
Hibernian. — Pica,* 60. [M.]
Bishop Wilkins' Real Character, English, 160.
[M.]
Mr. Adam's symbols, 20. [M.]
Mr. Moxon's correcting marks, English, 16.
[M.]
Mathematical Characters, English and Small
Pica, 42. [M.]
Astronomical and Astrological, 31. [M.]
Music. — 2-line Great Primer, 54.
Paragon, square-headed, 44.
Large old „ 61.
Sundry „ „ 155.
Although he accumulated a large quantity of matrices, Robert Andrews
does not appear to have been a good workman. The very indifferent manner in
Elstob Saxon.
Eonnurrlicc' 5ebi"Dt)a<S' toy Jmr:. Fatten
un£ Jm |?£ eajir on keopenum. Si jun nama
5ehal5ot):.. Co-becume' |nn nice':-. EepunbY
J?m rill a on eonJ?an. rt?a yya on htoytnum:-.
Onne' "ba^hyamlican Hlar. rvlc' ur ro "5^59.
An"D Tfon^yif ur un£ 5ylrar. yya rra rC
y 0)151]: aft unum 5yl centum:. AnD nd 5c-
l^'D'De' f?u ur on corcnun5C\ ac alvr ur oy
y^ele':-. SoS\ic€:..
48. Saxon cut by R. Andrews for Miss Elstob's Grammar, 1715. ^From the original matrices.)
which he cut the punches for Miss Elstob's Saxon Grammar has been elsewhere
recorded,1 and the fact that his apprentice, Thomas James, after quitting his
1 See ante, p. 157.
The Later Founders of the Seventeenth Century. 197
service and setting up for himself, furnished his new foundry entirely with
foreign matrices, speaks somewhat unfavourably for the merits of the English
letter then in common use.
Three of the Greek founts, however, James did subsequently purchase, in
1724, for his own use; and nine years later, on Andrews' retirement from
business, he purchased the whole of his foundry, and that of his son, with the
exception of the Canon Roman and Italic, which were acquired by Mr. Caslon.
Robert Andrews was one of the Assistants of the Stationers' Company.
He only survived his retirement two years, and died November 27th, 1735, at
the age of 80.
His name appears as a contributor of £$ $s. towards the subscription raised
by Mr. Bowyer's friends in 17 12, after the destruction by fire of that eminent
printer's office.
JAMES GROVER, circ. 1675. THOMAS GROVER, his son.1
This foundry, which, according to Rowe Mores, was supposed to include
founts formerly belonging to Wynkyn de Worde, was the most extensive, and in
many respects the most interesting of the later seventeenth century foundries.
It seems probable that James and Thomas Grover began business in partner-
ship, about the year 1674, in succession to one of the " Polyglot" founders, whose
matrices they appear to have acquired. Their foundry was situated in Angel
Alley, Aldersgate Street; and, about 1700, at which date Rowe Mores fixes his
summary, was evidently of considerable extent.
Although many of the founts are of little importance, it is worthy of note
that among the Roman and Italic matrices is included, for the first time, a
Diamond ; and that a Pica and Long Primer are distinguished as " King's
House" founts, and were probably reserved for the service of the Royal press at
Blackfriars. The large-face Double Pica Roman and Italic, there is reason to
suppose, is the famous fount cut by John Day about 1572, which had subse-
quently been in the possession of one of the Polyglot founders.2 In Scriptorials,
Cursives and other fancy letters, as well as in peculiar and mathematical sorts, the
foundry was unusually rich. The Great Primer and 2-line Great Primer Black
matrices are those reputed to have belonged to De Worde; and from these
1 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).
2 See ante, p. 96.
198
The Old English Letter Foundries.
founts, says Mores, were taken the two specimens shown on page 343 of
Palmer's General History of Printing}
Among the " learned" founts, the English Samaritan matrices were those
from which had been cast the type for Walton's Polyglot, in 1657, as were also
those of the larger Syriac ; while the Double Pica large and small faced Greek
claim a still earlier origin, being the founts in which was printed Patrick Young's
Catena on Job, in 1637, the matrices having been procured from the proceeds of
the fine on the King's printers for their scandalous errors in the printing of the
"Wicked" Bible, as detailed in a former chapter.2 The smaller face, as we have
noticed, bears the strongest resemblance to the Greek of the Eton Chrysostom.
Mores states that the Great Primer Arabic of the Polyglot was in this foundry,
but omits to include the matrices in his summary.3
The following is the full list of the matrices in the foundry, circ. 1700, as
given by Mores : —
"THE FOUNDERY OF THE
Orientals.
Hebrew. — Great Primer, 30.
Pica, 80.
Long Primer, 60.
Brevier, 130.
Samaritan (with English face). — English,* 32.
[P-]
Syriac. — Double Pica, 60. [P.]
Pica, 80.
Arabic. — Double Pica, 30. Great Primer, [P. ?]
Meridionals.
Coptic (the new hand),* 81.
"This seems to be a mistake of the cataloguers, who had
fallen upon something which they did not understand ; we
suppose the Alexandrian fount, which from the semblance
they took to be Coptic ; the number 81 was made up with
something else they were strangers to ; and so ate we. But
whatever it was (it it is in the foundry) it is now in its proper
place."
Occidentals.
Greek. — Double Pica large face, 183.
„ small face, ...
Great Primer, 144.
English, 350.
] [Royal.]
TWO Mr. GROVERS, circ. 1700.
Greek. — Pica, 380.
„ another, 120.
Long Primer, 120.
Brevier, 426. Very fine.
„ another, imperfect.
2-line full face capitals, 23.
Roman and Italic. — 2-line English full face
capitals, 31.
2-line English Roman, 100.
„ Italic, 77.
Double Pica Roman large face, 120. [Day?]
[P.?]
„ Italic, 98. [Day?] [P.?]
„ Roman small face, 126.
„ Italic, 98.
Great Primer Roman large face, 102.
„ Italic, 105.
„ Roman small face, 153.
„ Italic, 105.
„ small capitals, 27.
English Roman, 159.
„ Italic, 114.
1 See ante, p. 90. 2 See ante, p. 144.
3 "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,
The Later Founders of the Seventeenth Century.
199
Roman and Italic. — Two other English
Roman and Italic. (One called the
Old English.)
English small capitals, 27.
Pica Roman broad face, 85.
„ Roman, 146. (Called King's House.)
„ Roman and Italic, 292.
„ Italic, 42.
„ small capitals, 27.
Long Primer Roman and Italic, 177.
„ another, 226. (Called King's
House.)
„ another, 219.
„ two others.
Small capitals, 27.
Brevier Roman large face, 96.
„ Roman and Italic, 241.
„ „ „ small face.
„ Italic.
Title Letters and Irregulars. — 5-line Pica full
face capitals, 31.
Canon Roman, 87.
„ Italic, 70.
„ Roman lean face capitals, 57.
2-line Double Pica full face capitals, 26.
„ Great Primer „ „ 31.
„ „ Roman, 86.
„ „ Italic, 68.
„ Pica full face capitals, 31.
„ „ Roman, 83.
„ „ Italic, 77.
„ Small Pica full face capitals, 27.
„ Long Primer „ „ 31.
„ Brevier „ „ 21.
Paragon Roman, 106.
„ Italic, 38.
Small Pica Roman and Italic, 175.
„ „ „ another, 233.
„ small capitals, 27.
Minion Roman and Italic, 175.
Nonpareil „ „ 174.
„ „ „ another, 175.
Pearl Roman and Italic, 167.
Diamond „ „ 94.
Septentrionals.
Anglo-Saxon. — Great Primer, ...
Pica, 30.
English. — Double Pica, 69.
Great Primer, 66. [De Worde ?]
„ another, with law, 7^.
English, 82.
„ another, with law, 128.
Long Primer 1, 74.
» 2, 89.
„ 3, 74-
Brevier, 7^.
2-line Great Primer, 69. [De Worde ?]
Small Pica, 70.
Nonpareil, 88.
Scriptorial. — Double Pica Court, 80.
English Court,* 100.
Great Primer Secretary, 105.
Double Pica Union Pearl,* 6r.
Cursive. — Double Pica, ...
Great Primer, 69.
English 1, 68.
» 2, 57.
Pica,* ...
Long Primer, 68.
Geometrical and Algebraical Symbols.
Astronomical, Astrological, and Pharmaceuti-
cal Characters. — English, 55.
Figures struck in circles and squares. —
English, 22.
Pica Astronomical Characters belonging to
Pica King's House, 22.
Pica Algebraical and Pharmaceutical Marks,
and cancelled figures, 3 sets.
Long Primer Dominical Letters, Astronomical
and Pharmaceutical Marks and
Characters.
Long Primer Fractions, 20.
Music. — Great Primer, 176.
Flowers, 200.
Space Rules, Metal Rules, Braces, 150.
Punches. — Some for Pica, Long Primer and
Nonpareil Greek.
Long Primer and other Punches.
Respecting one of the founts in this foundry a special interest exists, which
calls for particular reference here. Among the " Meridionals " in the list is
included a " Coptic (the new hand) 8 1 matrices," an entry which Mores considers
200 The Old English Letter Foundries
to be " a mistake of the cataloguers, who had fallen upon something they did
not understand — we suppose the Alexandrian fount, which from the semblance
OCCIDENTALS.
GREEK.
Englifh. Alexandrian,
MAKAplOCANHpOCOVKGnO GREEK.
fev^HeNBOYXHAcescuNKAieN
OXCOAMApTCOXCONOYKeCTHKK
De Words 8. Matrices 31.
50. Alexandrian Greek in Grover's Foundry, ante, 1700. (From the Catalogue of James's Foundry, 1782, p. 10.)
they took to be Coptic. The number 8 1 was made up with something else which
they were strangers to, and so are we."1 Later on, in noting the various founts
missing in the collection of John James, he again refers to this " New Coptic,"
adding, " it certainly was the Alexandrian which they called New Coptic";2 and
a specimen of this Alexandrian Greek duly appears in the catalogue of James's
foundry, prepared by Mores in 1778. This fount, which we are thus enabled to
trace back with tolerable certainty to an earlier date than 1700, is interesting as
being the first attempt at facsimile reproduction by means of type. The history
of its origin is vague, but there seems reason to believe that it may have been in
existence at least half a century before coming into the hands of the Grovers.
In the year 1628 Cyrillus Lucaris, a native of Crete and Patriarch of Con-
stantinople, sent to King Charles I, by the hand of Sir Thomas Rowe,3 English
ambassador to the Grand Seignor, a manuscript of the Bible in four volumes,
written in Greek uncial or capital letters, without accents or marks of aspiration,
and supposed to be the work of Thecla, a noble Egyptian lady who lived in the
1 Mores' Dissert., p. 46. 2 Ibid., p. 67.
3 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.
The Later Founders of the Seventeenth Century. 201
sixth century. This precious work was received by Charles I and deposited in
the Royal Library of St. James, of which at that time Patrick Young was the
Keeper.
Young applied himself with enthusiasm to the work of collating and
examining the Manuscript, with a view to putting forward a literal transcript of
its contents in print. Having published at Oxford, in 1633, an edition of the
first epistle of Clemens Romanus to the CorintJiians, in Greek and Latin, the text
of which is included in the Alexandrian MS., he was encouraged to put forward,
in 1637, his Catena on Job, which contained the entire text of that book tran-
scribed from the same Codex. This book was printed in the Greek types of
the Royal printing office, purchased under the peculiar circumstances already
detailed.1 After this, says Gough, Young " formed the design of printing the
entire text of the Codex in facsimile type, of which, in 1643, he printed a
Specimen, consisting of the first chapter of Genesis, with notes, and left behind
him scholia as far as to the fifteenth chapter of Numbers"21
Of this specimen, unfortunately, no copy can be discovered ; although as to
the existence of such a document there is no lack of contemporary evidence.
In his Prolegomena to the London Polyglot of 1657, Bishop Walton, who had
made a careful study of the Codex, and availed himself freely of Young's notes,
distinctly states that he had seen the specimen, and that the proposal to carry
through the work had been discouraged by the advice of Young's friends.3
Walton shows a few words of the Alexandrian Greek, poorly cut in wood, among
the specimens in his Prolegomena : a circumstance which would suggest that in
1657 the matrices used for Junius' facsimile, if in existence, were not then
available.
Walton's statement was confirmed by Grabe, Mill, and others, who made
a study of the Codex and its history; and in 1707 Young's biographer and
successor in the task of preparing the Codex for print, Dr. Thomas Smith,
repeated it with the authority of one who had also personally inspected the
Specimen.4
1 See ante, p. 144. 2 Gent. Magaz., vol. 56, p. 497. Nichols' Lit. Anec, ix, 9.
3 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 cum
nulla premebat necessitas, prout ex.Catalogo satis magno vocabulorum per pauca Geneseos
capita, quae ipse mutaverat et expunxerat (quern mihi ostendit Typographus) constat (Pro/eg,
sec. ix, § 34).
4 Vitce qtwrundam eruditissimorum et illustrium Viromm. — Patricii Junii. Lond., 1707.
4to. " Utcunque futuri operis specimen, quod jam pras oculis meis habeo, primum nimirum
D D
202 The Old English Letter Foundries.
It has been assumed by later writers that both Walton and Thomas Smith
made reference to a proposed facsimile reprint of the Manuscript ; and Gough's
circumstantial statement, already quoted (which is adopted by Nichols and
copied by others, such as Home, Edwards, etc.), leaves little doubt that the
chapter of Genesis was actually put forward in 1643, in facsimile type, as a
specimen of the forthcoming work. The evidence as to the existence of the
types receives further countenance from the presence of these matrices in
Grover's foundry, certainly before the year 1700.
Anthony a Wood states that Young's project excited much curiosity and
expectation, and that in 1645 an ordinance was read for printing and publishing
the Septuagint, under the direction of Whitelock and Selden. The troublous
times which ensued, however, as well as certain doubts as to the fidelity with
which the original text was being treated by the transcriber, led to the
abandonment of the scheme during Young's tenure of office, which ceased in
1649. In that year Bulstrode Whitelock became Library Keeper, and con-
sequently custodian of the MS. It would appear, however, from a sentence in
one of Usher's letters,1 that as late as 165 1 Young retained his purpose of
publishing the Bible from the text of the Codex, but his death in the following
year finally stopped the enterprise.
What became of the specimen chapter of Genesis it is impossible to say.
Bishop Walton, as he himself states, acquired possession of the scholia to the
end of Numbers and the remainder of Young's Greek and Latin MSS., Wood
informs us, came to the hands of Dr. Owen, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford.
Assuming the matrices to have existed, their natural location would be either
the Royal Printing Office, or the foundry in which already had been deposited
the Greek types and matrices used in the Catena on Job. If, however, they
remained in the St. James's Library, it is possible to conceive of their disappear-
ance for a considerable period, as Whitelock's principal duties during his term of
office appear to have been to check the depredations which in Young's own time
had already deprived the Library of many of its treasures.2
caput libri Geneseos, una cum doctissimis Scholiis, edere placuit. Omnes illud certamen
arripiunt, avidisque oculis legunt perleguntque, ac optima spe de promissa editione, quam
cum maximo et vix continendo affectu exspectant efflagitantque, concepta, quasi moram
pertsesi, Orbem Christianum hoc eximio thesauro, quod dudum fuisset locupletandus, nimium
diu hactenus caruisse amice queruntur" (p. 32).
1 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."
2 Wood, Athen. Ox., 1691, i, 796 ; also Edwards, Libraries and Founders of Libraries,
Lond., 1865, 8vo, p. 168.
The Later Founders of the Seventeenth Century. 203
At the Restoration, the Keepership of the Library was bestowed on
Thomas Rosse, by whom was once more revived the suggestion of reproducing
the Alexandria Codex in facsimile, not this time by means of type, but by
copper-plate. This circumstance is thus related by Aubrey in his inedited
Remains of Gentilism and Judaism, preserved among the Lansdowne MSS. in
the British Museum.1
". . . . ye Tecla MS. in S1 James Library . . . was sent as a Present to King
Charles the First, from Cyrillus, Patriark of Constantinople : as a Jewell of that
antiquity not fit to be kept among Infidels. Mr. . . . Rosse (translator of Statius)
was Tutor to ye Duke of Monmouth who gott him the place (of) Library-Keeper at
Sl James's : he desired K. Cha. I (sic) to be at ye chardge to have it engraven in
copper-plates, and told him it would cost but .£200 ; but his Ma*y would not yeild
to it. Mr. Ross sayd 'that it would appeare glorious in History, after his Maty'55
death.' ' Pish,' sayd he, ' I care not what they say of me in History when I am dead.'
H. Grotius, J. G. Vossius, Heinsius, etc., have made Journeys into England purposely
to correct their Greeke Testaments by this Copy in St James's. Sr Chr. Wren sayd
that he would rather have it engraved by an Engraver that could not understand or
read Greek, than by one that did."
The Manuscript was subsequently handed, in 1678, to Dr. Thomas Smith
to collate and edit, with a view to its reproduction ; but once again the scheme
fell through, and (with the exception of Walton's Polyglot) it was not till Grabe,
in 1707, published his Octateuch (accompanying his preface by a small copper-
plate specimen of the MS.), that any considerable portion of the Bible appeared
from this ancient text.
Of the subsequent successful attempt to produce the entire Manuscript in
facsimile type we have spoken elsewhere.2 Meanwhile, we find from the
facts here given, that in 1643 a specimen of a portion of the text of the
Codex is said to have been issued in facsimile type ; that constant efforts had
been made during the latter half of the seventeenth century to carry out
Patrick Young's purpose of reproducing the entire Bible in this form ; that
in 1657 Bishop Walton was presumably unaware of the existence of any
matrices from which to exhibit a specimen of the uncial Greek of the Codex ;
that Grabe, similarly ignorant, made use of copper-plate in 1707 for a similar
purpose ; but that prior to the year 1700, concealed under the erroneous name
of " Coptic — the new hand," there existed in the foundry of the Grovers (where
already were deposited several of the " King's House" matrices, as well as those
of the Greek fount used in Junius' Catena on Job in 1637) a set of matrices
consisting of a single alphabet of the Alexandrian Greek, which apparently
lay undetected until 1758, when that foundry came into the hands of John
1 Lansd, MSS.y No. 231, fo. 169. g See post, chap. xvi.
204 The Old English Letter Foundries.
James, or more probably until 1778, when Rowe Mores applied himself to the
task of arranging and cataloguing the various matrices of interest in that
miscellaneous collection.
It may be added that the letters of this fount (like those of the old Greek,
Court Hand, Scriptorial and Union Pearl in the same foundry) are struck
Quo 11*54 ue t&ifftem atfutere (odtWinn fiat'ient'ia nostra.. SJhuLm-
%ii nos eti&m, Juror iiie tutu eCiBet. actfefiCmuqrsttiJf
51. Scriptorial in Grover's Foundry, 1700. (From the original matrices.)
E * ]
COURT HAND.
Double Pica.
djiwupni© tamtam ftftitoio $ftbiun& jj&fcisnfrifc c ° u R
Byddel 10. Matrices 59.
52. Court Hand in Grover's Foundry, 1700. (From the Catalogue of James's Foundry, 1782, p. 16.)
T-
D-
53. Union Pearl in Grover's Foundry, 1700. (From the original matrices.)
inverted in the copper1; a peculiarity which may be due either to their foreign
execution, or to the ignorance of the English striker, and which, in either case,
goes far to account for the confusion which existed respecting their identity.
Unfortunately, the link which might definitely connect these Alexandrian
matrices with the facsimile types of Patrick Young is, in the absence of any
copy of the specimen chapter of Genesis of 1643, wanting. But, apart even
1 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.
The Later Founders of the Seventeenth Century. 205
from this, the fount undoubtedly claims the distinction of being the first attempt
at facsimile by means of type1; on which account this somewhat lengthy note
as to its history will, perhaps, be pardoned.
Thomas Grover had several daughters, one of whom, Cassandra, was the
wife of Mr. Meres2; and Mr. Meres' daughter Elizabeth was the wife of Mr.
Richard Nutt.3 On Thomas Grover's death4 his foundry became the joint
property of all his daughters, who attempted to dispose of it by private contract
in 1728, when it was appraised by Thomas James and William Caslon. Mr.
Caslon actually made an offer for its purchase, but at so low a figure that it was
not accepted. The foundry therefore remained locked up in the house of
Mr. Nutt, who appears to have been a printer, and to have provided himself
with type for his own use during his tenure of the matrices. Finally, on the
death of all Grover's daughters, the foundry became Mr. Nutt's absolutely, and
was by him sold on the 14th September 1758 to John James.
GODFREY HEAD, 1685,5
was one of the authorised founders in 1685, when the following record against
him was entered on the Court minutes of the Stationers' Company : —
"The next dividend of the Stock of Mr. Godfrey Head to be detained in the
treasurer's hand until further order, for his not giving a due account of the letter he
is to cast, as the Act of Parliament prescribes. — 1685.
" Godfrey Head's dividend paid on his submission, and giving 20s. to the
poor's box."
1 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. Vergilil Maronis Codex Antiquissimus . . qui nunc Florentitz in Bibliotheca Mediceo-
Laurentiana adservatur. Bono publico Typis descriptus Anno MDCCXLI. Florentice. Typis
Mannianis. 8vo.
2 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 Philo-
sophical 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.
3 Richard Nutt, printer in the Savoy, died March 1 1, 1780, aged 80 years.
4 Grover contributed £2 2s. in 17 12 towards defraying the loss incurred by the elder
Bowyer on the occasion of the fire at his printing-house.
5 His name occurs in the List of Masters and Workmen Printers in 168 1 ; see ante, p. 166,
206
The Old English Letter Foundries.
His foundry, Mores informs us, was in St. Bartholomew's Close. Whether
Head succeeded to it or established it, we are unable to ascertain. Of his pro-
ductions, two founts only can be traced with any certainty, the Pica Greek
and the English Blacky both of which subsequently passed into Mr. Caslon's
foundry. He was succeeded by
ROBERT MITCHELL,
who had formerly been servant to Mr. Grover. Mitchell removed the foundry first
to Jewin Street, and afterwards, says Mores, " lived over Cripplegate, and after-
wards in Paul's Alley, between Aldersgate Street and Red Cross Street. His
foundry, containing nothing very curious, unless it were the Blacks, was on the
26th July 1739 purchased by William Caslon and John James jointly, and
divided between them."
The following is Mores' summary of the contents of this foundry, at its
partition : —
•Mr. ROBERT MITCHELL'S FOUNDERY.
Mr. Caslon's Choice.
Greek. — Pica.
Roman and Italic. — 4-line Pica ] full-
2-line Great Primer (face
„ English J capi-
„ Pica J tals.
and Great Primer, English, Long Primer,
Brevier, and Nonpareil.
English (Black). — Great Primer, English,
Pica, Long Primer, Brevier, Small Pica.
The Music matrices. The Flower matrices.
Mr. James's Share.
Roman and Italic. — Canon, 2-line Great
Primer, 2-line English, Double Pica
(small faced), Great Primer (3 founts),
English (large face), Pica, Brevier (3
founts), Small Pica, Minion, Pearl (2
founts).
Algebra. — English.
Cancelled Figures. — Pica.
Almanac matrices. — Long Primer.
THE "ANONYMOUS" FOUNDRY.
Over and above the foundries described by Mores as having been absorbed
by that of Thomas and John James, there remained in his possession a certain
number of matrices — some of them of some importance — of whose former
owners he was unable to give an account. "These may be considered as a
distinct foundery," he says, " and distinguished by the title of ' anonymous,' for
we know not whence they came. Our account of Mr. James's purchases is
accurate, and these are not included amongst them, but at the end of our scrutiny
remained unclaimed. Let them then be called 'The Anonymous Foundry'."
The Later Founders of the Seventeenth Century,
207
We do not presume to step in where Rowe Mores fears to tread, and therefore
leave the matrices, of which the following is his list, still unappropriated : —
"THE ANONYMOUS FOUNDERY, absq. dat.
Orientals.
Arabic. — Double Pica.
AZthiopic. — English.
Occidentals.
Greek. — Great Primer.
Roman and Italic. — Great Primer.
English.
Long Primer.
Brevier.
2-line Double Pica full face capitals.
„ Great Primer „ ,,
„ English „
,, .rica „ ,,
Small Pica.
Bourgeois.
Nonpareil.
Pearl.
Septentrionals.
Gothic. — Pica.
Anglo-Norman. — Pica.
English. — English.
Pica.
Long Primer.
Small Pica.
(" of all of which a more full account will be
given in the ensuing catalogue.")
OXFORD FOUNDERS.
PETER WALPERGEN, or Walberger, as we have stated in our account of
the Oxford Foundry, was doubtless the individual alluded to by Bagford when, in
recounting Fell's services to Oxford, he says : " The good Bishop provided from
Holland ... a Letter Founder, a Dutchman by birth, who had served the
States in the same quality at Batavia in the East Indies."1 Bagford, it
is true, does not name this founder, but as there exists in the Bodleian
Library a copy of a Portuguese version of JEsofi's Fables, edited by Jo. Ferreira
d' Almeida, and printed at Batavia by Pedro Walberger in 1672,2 we have no
hesitation in identifying our founder with this Dutch typographer, and in
fixing his settlement at Oxford somewhere about the above date, which, it will
be remembered, was the year in which Fell and others took upon them the
charge of the University Press3 and furnished from abroad all the necessaries for
its use and advancement.
That he was well known at Oxford in 1683 is also apparent from a casual
reference to " Mr. Walberger of Oxford " in Moxon's Mechanick Exercises?
where the writer dwells with some minuteness on a peculiar and elaborate tool,
called the " Joynt- Flat-Gauge," contrived by this founder for polishing the faces
of his punches after hardening them, and before striking them into the copper.
1 See ante., p. 149.
2 Cotton's Typographical Gazetteer. Second Series, 1866, p. 17.
3 Vol. ii, p. 120.
208
The Old English Letter Foundries.
It was doubtless from this casual notice that Rowe Mores derived his scant
reference to Walpergen, of whom he knows nothing, save that he founded at
Oxford in 1683, was sometimes called Walperger, and by name appears to have
been a foreigner, therefore probably a "transient," by means of his countryman
Michael Burghers, the University engraver.
Of Walpergen's work little is known beyond the fact that he appears to have
devoted his attention chiefly to the production of Music type, impressions of which
appear in the University Specimen of 1695. The punches and matrices of this
54. Music, cut by Walpergen, Oxford, circ. 1695. (From the original matrices.)
interesting fount are still preserved at Oxford, and are singular relics of the old
letter-founders' art.1
Although the Music was the only fount cut by Walpergen of which we have
any certain knowledge, it is probable that the experienced Dutch artist, whom
Bagford describes as an excellent workman, did not confine his labours to that
class of work. What were his exact relations with the University Press is also a
matter of conjecture. But it seems probable, from the manner in which he is
spoken of by Moxon, and in the Oxford Specimen, that he practised as a letter-
founder on his own account, and not wholly as an official of the University.
He died in 1714.2 Among the University archives is preserved an inven-
tory of his chattels, which, if a full account of his earthly possessions, speaks
1 Some of the matrices are without sides, which were probably supplied by a peculiar
adaptation of the mould.
2 Bagford (writing in 17 14) 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.
The Later Founders of the Seventeenth Century. 209
poorly for the profits of the profession of letter-founding in those days. This
highly interesting document runs as follows1 : —
An inventory of the Chattels of Peter De Walftergen, deceased, taken the tenth day of
January 1714-5.
Being the Moiety of a Fount of Musick.
£ s. d.
Two hunderd and two pounds weight of Mettal (? cast type) at four pence per pound
his part is- - - - - - - - - -1138
One hunderd fourty seven Matrices at one Shilling per piece his part is - - 3 13 6
Nine quadrats at two pence per piece his part is - - - - -009
Four moulds at two shillings six pence per piece his part - - - -050
Sixty three puncheons at five shillings {i.e., for the lot) his part - - -026
Four cases at four shillings his part - - - - - - -020
Two galleys at two shillings his part - - - - - - -010
A box at sixpence his part - - - - - - - -003
Appraised by us, Leonard Lichfield.
Richard Green.
The extraordinarily low value of the punches is quite consistent with the
esteem in which these now precious steel originals were held at the time, after
once being struck.
Walpergen's music matrices were secured by the University Press, in whose
Specimens the type had already figured for some years ; but we have, so far,
been unable to discover any important works in which the character was used.
Sylvester Andrews, who succeeded to Walpergen's foundry before the
year 17 14, was the son of Robert Andrews,, the London founder. His foundry,
which, with the exception of one alphabet of Hebrew, consisted entirely of
Roman and Italic, was, Rowe Mores informs us, nothing compared with that of
his father, and was indeed a part of his father's. The following is the list of his
matrices : —
"Mr. SILVESTER ANDREWS' FOUNDERY ; furtim :;
Hebrew.
Brevier (at first 33) - - - - 30
Roman and Italic.
2-line English Capitals - - - - ...
Great Primer Roman, large face - - 125
„ Italic - - - - 82
English Roman - - - - - 148
„ Italic 08
Pica Roman, large face- - - - 153
„ „ small „ - - - - 148
„ Italic - - - - - - no
„ Roman, lower case - - - 27
Long Primer Roman - - - 119
Long Primer Italic - - - - 102
Brevier Roman, large face - - - 130
„ „ small „ - - - 135
„ Italic (2 sets of Capitals)- - 105
1 We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. F. Madan, of the Bodleian Library, for our
transcript.
E E
2IO
The Old English Letter Foundries.
2-line Pica Italic -
Small Pica Roman
„ Italic
Minion Roman and Italic
Nonpareil Roman, large face
146
28
140
Nonpareil Italic -
„ Roman, small face
Pearl Roman
„ Italic - - - -
105
94
98
38
Although his stock of matrices was limited, he appears to have done a
considerable business, not only with the University, in whose service he was
probably retained, but also with other printers practising in Oxford, notably
with John Baskett, the king's printer, to whom, with two others, the " Chancellor,
Masters and Scholars of the University," leased their " privilege and interest in
printing" for twenty-one years from March 171 3.
In the year 17 19 Baskett, who had two years previously produced the mag-
nificent " Vinegar" Bible1 at Oxford, mortgaged his stock and privilege at the
University to James Brooks, stationer, of London, as security for a loan of
£3,000. And in a schedule attached to an indenture, dated May 23, 1720,
having reference to this transaction, occurs an inventory of the type at that
time in the printer's possession, which is highly interesting, not only as throwing
light on Andrews' business, but as indicating the contents of a large office of the
period, and the extent to which Dutch type at that time competed in this
country with English. The schedule is as follows : —
An Account of the Letter Presses and other Stock and Implements of and in the Printing
house at Oxford belonging to John Baskett, Citizen and Staconer of London : —
A Large ffount of Perle Letter Cast by Mr. Andrews.
A Large ffount of Nonp1 Letter, New- Cast by ditto.
Another ffount of Nonp1 Letter, Old, the whole standing and Sett up in a Com'on
Prayer in 241x10 Compleat.
A large ffount of Minn Letter, New-Cast by Mr. Andrews.
Another Large ffount of Minn Letter, New-Cast in Holland.
The whole Testament standing in Brevr and Minn Letter, Old.
A Large ffount of Brevr Letter, New- Cast in Holland.
A very Large ffount of Lo. Primr Letter, New-Cast by Mr. Andrews.
A Large ffount of Pica Letter, very good, cast by ditto.
Another Large ffount of ditto, never used, Cast in Holland.
A small Quantity of English, New- Cast by Mr. Andrews.
A small Quantity of Great Primr, New-Cast by ditto.
A very Large ffount of Double Pica, New, the largest in England.2
1 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, 171 7, 171 6. 2 vols., folio. The running title of Luke xx reads, " The parable of
the vinegar"
This, in all probability, was the fount used for printing the " Vinegar" Bible.
The Later Founders of the Seventeenth Century. 2 1 1
A Quantity of Two Line English Letters.
A Quantity of ffrench Cannon.
Two line Letters of all Sorts and a Sett of Silver Initiall Letters.
Cases, Stands, etc.
ffive Printing Presses, very good, with other Appurtenances, etc.
The schedule is signed " Jno. Baskett."1
In 1733 Sylvester Andrews' foundry was purchased, at the same time with
that of his father, by Thomas James, and removed to London. His epitaph
remains, and gives an amusing glimpse of his character and the reputation he
bore at Oxford.
On a Letter-Fowtder at Oxford.
" Underneath this stone lies honoured Syl
Who died, though much against his will ;
Yet, in his fame he will survive —
Learning shall keep his name alive ;
For he the parent was of letters, —
He founded, to confound his betters ;
Though what those letters should contain
Did never once disturb his brain.
Since, therefore, reader, he is gone,
Pray let him not be trod upon."2
1 The contents of this very interesting document were communicated to the Athenceum of
September 5, 1885, by Mr. J. H. Round, in whose possession the original is.
2 Timperley's Songs of the Press. London, 1833, 8vo, p. 85.
CHAPTER X.
-<*,-
THOMAS AND JOHN JAMES, 1710.
HOMAS JAMES was the son of the Rev. John James,
vicar of Basingstoke.1 He served his apprenticeship to
Robert Andrews, but quitted his service prior to the year
1 7 10, in order to start business on his own account.
Impressed, doubtless, with the present low condition of
the art in England, and lacking the skill to regenerate
it by his own labour, he determined to visit Holland and
procure for himself, from that famous typographical
market, the matrices and moulds necessary for establishing a successful foundry
1 Nichols' note on the James family {Anecdotes of Mr. Bowyer, pp. 585, 609) is at variance
with the account given by Rowe Mores. According to the former, Thomas, John and George
James were all brothers, and sons of the notorious half-crazy Elianor James, whose husband,
Thomas James, the printer, was a large benefactor to Sion College, and died in 171 1. On
this point, however, Mores, whose relations with the family gave him special opportunities for
information, may be considered as more correct in representing Thomas and John as sons of
the Rev. John James. George James, the son of Thomas and Elianor, was City Printer in
1724. His office was in Little Britain, where he wrote and printed the Post Boy. He was
Common Councilman for the Ward of Aldersgate Without, and died in 1735. His great-
grandfather, Dr. Thomas James, Dean of Wells, was the first Keeper of Bodley's Library at
Oxford in 1605. Portraits of this Dr. Thomas James, and of Thomas and Elianor, the parents
of George James, are preserved in Sion College, as is also a portrait of Elizabeth, their
daughter, who married Jacob Hive, the printer, and who was herself a benefactor to the
College. Nichols mentions another member of the family, one Harris James, who, he says,
was originally a letter-founder, and " formerly of Covent Garden Theatre, where he represented
fops and footmen,''
Thomas and John James. 2 1 3
in London. The characteristic letters in which he describes this expedition
to his brother are given by Rowe Mores,1 and present so instructive and entertain-
ing a picture of the Dutch type-founders of the day, that we are tempted to copy
them in ex ten so.
"Rotterdam, 22 June 17 10. — I have been with all the Letter Founders in Amster-
dam, and if I would have given for matrices, could not persuade any of 'em but the
last I went to, to part with any. So far from it that it was with much ado I could get
them to let me see their business. The Dutch letter founders are the most sly and
jealous people that ever I saw in my life. However this last man (being as I per-
ceived by the strong perfume of Geneva waters a most profound sot) offers to sell
me all his house for about — I mean the matrices: for the punchions with them he
will not sell for any money. But there being about as much as he would have
for, Hebrew and other Oriental languages such as Syrian, Samaritan and
Russian characters, I would not consent to buy 'em. But the rest consisting of
about 17 sets of Roman and Italic capitals and small letters, and about 5
sets of capital letters only, and 3 sets of Greek, besides a set or two of Black
with other appurtenances, these I design to buy. He is not very fond of selling
them because it will be a great while before he can furnish himself again. However
I believe I shall have 'em for less than a matrice, which as he says is cheaper
than ever they were his ; but having most of the punches he can sink 'em again and
so set himself to rights with little trouble and less charge."
The next letter, dated Rotterdam, 14th July 17 10, describes graphically the
difficulties which James encountered in driving his bargain to a conclusion.
" I took a place in the waggon for Tergoes and from thence in a scayte for
Amsterdam, where I arrived at 5 o'clock on Monday morning 10 July. As soon
as I thought the person I have dealt with was stirring I went to confer with him
farther about his matrices ; but instead of finding all things set in order for sale, I
found him less provided than when I was with him before ; for indeed he had lent
about eight sets of matrices to another Letter Founder. I let him know my mind by
an interpreter. He told me what a disposition his things were in, and said he had
rather part with some particular sets than with all. In short, I found he had not a
mind to part with any but those which he esteemed least, and those of which he had
the puncheons by him to sink again when he pleased. I told him that I came
expecting to make an end of the bargain, if he would part with all the sets I had seen
in his proof for the price I had offered. The man hesitated a good while and at last
told me he would advise about it. I told him I'd have him resolve presently, and
showed him the bill . . . The sight of the bill made the man begin to be a little more
serious than before ; so after a few more words he told me he would send for his other
sets in the afternoon. I told him that he might do, but in the meantime I would
survey those he had by him ; so he had a table set and he fetched his matrices to me.
The reason why I would not stir out of his house till I had taken a survey of his
matrices was, because I was fearful that he might pick and cull (as we call it) a great
1 Dissertation, p. 51, et seq.
214 The Otd English Letter Foundries.
many things which are useful in printing besides just the alphabets ; and indeed lest
he might change some whole sets ; though indeed the man declares he would not do a
thing so ill for his life. However I having all the matrices brought into one room
locked 'em up and took the key away with me, and went to dinner. In the afternoon
I went again with my interpreter (being an Exchange Broker) where we sat all the
afternoon viewing the matrices. At night I locked 'em up again and took the key with
me, and on Tuesday morning presented my bill, which was accepted and paid
immediately. But I should have told you that the afternoon before he sent his wife
to speak to the people to send home the other sets ; but she brought a note from the
house and said the master who had the key and keeping of 'em was gone a great
way out of town to the burial of his mother, and they did not expect him back till
Wednesday. This news was very disagreeable to me ; but not knowing how to help
myself, on Tuesday, after having viewed all day those he had, I paid him , and
took 'em along with me to my lodging when it was too late to send to you by the post
from Amsterdam. On Wednesday I went again but could not find the man at home.
He was gone for the other sets. So I tarried till yesterday and went again and
received 3 of the 8 sets. The rest are not to be had yet, the man being not
returned, only his wife who gave him those three sets. So there are wanting but five
sets more which are all Greeks but one. I took 'em, molds and all, and packed them
up in a box and sent 'em by an Amsterdam scayte appointed to carry goods for
Rotterdam. This I did, fearing the Catherine yacht might sail if I tarried for the
rest. At 8 o'clock last night I took scayte for Tergoes, and arrived there this
morning. From thence I came hither by waggon and arrived here before 9."
The next letter, dated Rotterdam, 27th July 17 10, describes his purchase
more in detail, and gives particulars as to the Dutch foundries visited.
" You are desirous to know whether the matrices I have bought excel those which
are in the hands of the Letter Founders in England. The beauty of letter like that
of faces is as people opine ; but notwithstanding I had no choice, all the Romans excel
what we have in England in my opinion, and I hope being well wrought, I mean cast,
will gain the approbation of very handsome letters. The Italic I do net look upon to
be unhandsome, though the Dutch are never very extraordinary in those. An account
of the names that I think I shall give the sets I have bought is as follows : The
largest size I shall distinguish by the name of Four-line Pica, the next by that of
French Cation, the next by that of Two-line Pica; these three consist of Capitals
only. The fourth size is a small Canon Italic, the fifth a Two-line English Roman
and Italic, the sixth Great Primer Roman, of which I have two sets, a great face
and a small one, with one Italic to them both. The seventh size is an English Roman
and Italic ; the eighth a Pica, of which I have three sets Roman, and one Italic ;
the ninth a Small Pica Roman and Italic, the tenth Long Primer, three sets Roman
and one Italic, the eleventh, Brevier Roman and Italic. Besides these I have one
set of Great Primer Greek, one of English Greek, one of Pica Greek, one of Breviet
Greek, as also one set of Pica Black and one of Brevier Black together with matrices
of divers sorts of flowers useful as ornaments in printing. To which I have 15
molds. All the sizes except the three first have Capitals, small letters, double letters,
figures and points, as also all the accents, amounting in the whole to the number of
about 3500 matrices. As for sets of Nonpareil and Pearl, I am informed nobody in
Thomas and John James. 215
this country has any but the Jew whose name is Athias.1 Him I was with first of
all, who assured me he would part with none of any size whatever, as did likewise
another man whose name is Foskins.2 The next I went to was Cupi by name. He
said he must consult a friend of his before he could give me my answer, which friend
being gone out of town it would be two or three days before he could certify me.
The next and last I went to the same day : his name was Rolij,3 a German by birth.
Him I soon perceived I should agree with, as afterwards I did. But before I went to
him I called upon Cupi. He told me he would sell no matrices, but he would cast
me as much letter as I would have as cheap as anybody. I went to him before I
agreed with Rolij because I would see which would sell cheapest. But finding them
all so inflexible I was obliged to agree with Rolij upon his own terms, who, however,
did not know but I had come to him first, since himself and Cupi are the only letter-
cutters in this country, and he did not imagine but that if he would not have sold me
matrices Cupi would, as I found by him afterwards. When Cupi perceived that Rolij
would sell me some matrices (as, indeed, then Rolij and I had agreed and he received
1700 gilders in part), he comes to the Exchange-Broker and told him he would sink
his puncheons again and in half a year's time deliver me all the matrices he has,
perfect, after the rate of per matrice, but that except I would take all one with
another, he would sell none at all.
" His Roman letters are very handsome and his Italics ugly, but all printed upon a
proof of the best paper ; with all the care taken in composing and printing imaginable,
which adds much to the lustre of his letter. In a book it is quite another thing ; not
1 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 ne 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,
ivelke gegoten werden by Jan Bus, ten huyse van Sr. Joseph Athias woonst in de Swanen-
burg 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 Enschede' of Haerlem in 1767, in whose fa milyit still remains.
2 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 Enschede' foundry.
3 Rolij seems to be Rowe Mores' way of spelling Rolu, of whose types the following speci-
men-sheet exists : — Proeven van Letteren dewelcke gegooten worden by Mr. Johannes Rolu,
Letter-Snyder woonende tot Amsterdam in de laetste Lelydwars-streat, c. 17 10 (probably the
specimen referred to by James further on).
216 The Old English Letter Foundries.
so handsome as Rolij's, whose letter in the proofs I could see in matter looks much
better than it does in his printed Specimen, which is done with all disadvantage,
being wretchedly composed and worse printed off, upon very sorry paper. How-
ever I can see when letters are well proportioned. I have two specimens of
his letter in matter which look very beautiful. Roiij says whatever matrices I
want, whether great or small, he'll cut 'em for me as soon as I give him orders,
provided it happens before a peace. He told me likewise he would see if he
could procure any Nonpareil and Pearl of the Jew, I allowing him a reasonable profit
for his pains. Rolij says he was the man who made Foskins1 father by the letter he
cut for him. Foskins1 is a man of great business, having five or six men constantly
at the furnace, besides boys to rub, and himself and a brother to do the other work.
How many men the Jew keeps at work I do not know, for he would not permit me to
go up into his work-house. Foskins thought I wanted letter to be cast, but when he
knew that I was a letter founder he looked very sly, and watched me as if I had been
a thief, being I suppose very fearful that I should steal some of their art from them.
Cupi was not very forward to let me see his work-house, and the first time avoided it
by saying he could not stay for he was just going out, but the second time I did see
it though he was as loth then as before, saying he believed there was nobody at work.
But I told him the person who was with me wanted to see the trade, and he would
oblige me by showing it. He had places for four to work, although there was but one
casting. I did not ask Rolij to show me his work-house the first time I went to him,
but the second time I went up and saw places for four men and nobody at work.
I asked him where his men were ; he told me they were gone to a fair at Harlem, but
I believe he had lent them out as well as his matrices to some other letter founder.
As I was going along the street with him, he told me there was an English gentleman
that had lodged at such a house (pointing to it), for whom he had cast three hundred
pounds worth of work not long ago, which if true must have been for Tonson.
" I have bought of Rolij in all thirty sets of matrices, besides the box of flowers
and 15 molds made of brass as almost all the Dutch molds I saw were. Mr.
Cupi has in all but eighteen sets of matrices, but is continually, as I hear, cutting
more, designing in time to set up printing and bookselling too. He is a very close
and very civil fellow. I do not know but one time or other I may take another trip
into this country for matrices, for there's no trusting to anybody here to manage
business for one. There's hardly such a thing as an honest man to be found. They
all live by buying and selling, and whatever they can bite anyone of, they count it
fairly got in the way of trade. I hear but a very indifferent character of the young
man, the broker, who interprets for me. He is very expert indeed at that, and I do
not know what I should have done without him : but I am informed that if it lay in
his power to come at any of my money, he would contrive some way or other to
cozen me of it, or part of it at least ; for which reason I took particular care. He stood
very hard with me for a gilder per cent, for every hundred I laid out. The moulds
and matrices together stand me in . I have enquired very diligently of
abundance of Printers, Booksellers, and of Mr. Rolij whether there are any letter
founders at Harlem, Leyden, The Hague, Delft or Utrecht. I was told by some they
knew of none, and by others that there were none, and Rolij assured me there were
none at any of those places ; and I myself saw at Foskins1 a box with letter in it,
1 Voskens.
Thomas and John James. 217
directed for Utrecht ; and it seems very probable there may be none at any of these
places, because letter may be sent from Amsterdam to any of these places as cheap
by water as a porter in London will carry a burthen half a mile. The box of molds
and matrices which I bought was brought hither from Amsterdam for twelve stivers
into the house, the distance about forty English miles. I am told there is one letter
founder at Tergoes, but I can't hear of one Englishman or English house in the whole
town. However I'll endeavour to find the founder before I leave the country. I have
been through Tergoes three times, and as often through Harlem, Leyden and Delft,
but never made any stay in any one of them. I have been twice to the Hague, but
at such times that I could not see the States House. The town is very fine. One's
charges thither and back again are not above a gilder. 'Tis very easy, and travelling
would be very pleasant if one were not destitute of company."
On his return to England with his purchases, James established his foundry
in Aldermanbury, and afterwards removed to the Town Ditch.
The following is Rowe Mores' summary of his original matrices :
"Mr. JAMES'S FOUNDERY.
Occidentals.— Greek : Great Primer, 191 ; Pica, 161 ; Brevier, 141 ; Small Pica, 130.
Roman and Italic. — Two-line English Roman, 148 ; Italic, 90. Great Primer Roman,
in; another Roman, 101 ; Italic, 123. English Roman, 86 ; Italic, 78. Pica
Roman, 109 ; another 80 ; another, 82 ; Italic, 95. Long Primer Roman, 140 ;
another, 155 ; another, 141 ; Italic, 94. Brevier Roman, 112; Italic, 97.
Titles and Irregulars. — Four-line Pica Roman, 35. Canon Roman (Two-line Great
Primer it is), 33. Small Canon (Two-line English) missing. Two-line Pica
Roman, 31. Small Pica Roman, 136 ; Italic, 73.
Septentrionals. — English {Blacks). — Pica, 60. Brevier, 65.
Mathematical Marks, Flowers, etc.
James' business appears to have thriven for a time, owing doubtless to the
fact of his being possessed of the matrices of Dutch letter, which at that time
had quite superseded the home productions in the popular favour. So much
were they sought after, indeed, that we hear of a great printer like Tonson
making a special journey to Holland, and there laying out as much as ^300
on Dutch letter. The upper floor, on which the work of the foundry was carried
on in the house at the Town Ditch, being insufficient in strength for the weight
of his operations, he removed to the foundry in Bartholomew Close, where he
continued till the time of his death. " This founding House," says Rowe Mores,
"is an edifice disjoined from the dwelling-house, and seems to have been built
for Mr. James' own purpose. The dwelling-house is an irregular rambling
place, formerly in the occupation of Mr. Roycroft, afterwards in that of Mr.
Houndeslow, afterwards in that of Mr. S. Palmer, author of the General History
of Printing, and lastly that of the two Mr. James's, and was a part of the Priory
of St. Bartholomew. And in this house wrought formerly as a journeyman
F F
2i8 • The Old English Letter Foundries.
with Mr. Palmer, a gentleman well known since in the philosophical world, Dr.
Benj. Franklin of Philadelphia." Franklin worked here in 1725 for about a
year, during which time, as he himself states in the interesting note quoted from
his autobiography at page 15, he was an occasional visitor in James's type-
foundry adjoining.
James' later years were embittered by transactions which tended neither
to his credit nor his fortunes, and which one would be tempted to pass by
unnoticed, but that the history of English type-founding is closely involved in
the narration.
In the year 1725 a Scotch printer complained to William Ged, a respectable
goldsmith of Edinburgh, of the inconvenience of being compelled to send to
London or Holland for type, there being no foundry in Scotland at the time,
and urged him to undertake the business of type-founder. Ged, in considering
the matter, was struck with the idea of producing plates from whole pages of
composed type, and after several experiments, satisfied himself that the idea was
practicable.1 In 1727 he entered into a contract with an Edinburgh printer to
prosecute the invention, but the latter being intimidated by the rumoured costli-
ness of the process, withdrew from the bargain at the end of two years. In 1729
Ged entered into a new partnership with William Fenner, a London stationer,
who offered, for one half of the profits, to find the requisite capital and work
the undertaking. Fenner introduced him to Thomas James, the founder, and a
company was shortly afterwards formed, consisting of Ged, Fenner, Thomas
James, John James, his brother, an architect at Greenwich, and James Ged, son of
the inventor. Ged's narrative, which is simple, and to all appearances straight-
forward, represents Thomas James as having played from the first a highly
dishonourable part in the proceedings of the new company. Being naturally
selected to provide the necessary type, he supplied worn and battered letter, which
Ged was compelled to reject as useless. Ged next applied to the King's printers,
who had recently discarded James's type in favour of the highly superior letter of
William Caslon, for permission to take plates from some formes of their new
letter. The printers consulted Mr. Caslon, who not only denied the utility of
1 " 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.
Thomas and John James. 2 1 9
the invention, but asserted that he could, if he chose, make as good plates as
Ged.1 A wager of £50 ensued. Each of the disputants was furnished with a
page of type, and allowed eight days for producing the plate. At the end of a
single day Ged produced three plates to the umpire, who was bound to admit
his success. This feat becoming known, the partners applied for, and obtained
a privilege from the University of Cambridge in 173 1, to print Bibles and Prayer
Books by the new method.
Ged was, however, again thwarted in every direction by the treachery of
his colleagues, especially of Thomas James, who continued to supply imperfect
type, and actively intrigued with the King's printers for the purpose of upsetting
the University contract and discrediting the invention. With wonderful courage
and perseverance Ged struggled against the opposition, and, it is said, completed
two Prayer Books. The printers engaged on the work, however, were influenced
by James, the compositors making malicious errors in the text, and the press-
men damaging the formes with their ink balls. The complaint thus raised
against the type was the motive for sending James in 1732 to Holland, to
procure fresh letter. This second expedition lacked all the interesting features
of the first, and he returned after being absent for two months and spending
£160, with only one fount of type, far too large for the requirements of the
undertaking. Meanwhile, however, in consequence of the persistent animosity
of the printers, the books were suppressed by authority, and the plates sent to
the King's printing house, and thence to Caslon's foundry to be broken up.2
Ged, shattered in health and fortune, returned to Edinburgh in 1733, where, by
the assistance of his friends, he was enabled, after some delay, to finish his
edition of Sallust.3 He died in 1749.4
1 " 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."
2 Hansard (Tyfiog. p. 823), shows an impression of two pages of a Prayer Book, from
plates which had escaped " Caslon's cormorant crucible."
3 C. Crispi Sallustii Belli Catilinarii et Jugurthini Histories. Edinburgi ; Gteilielmus
Ged, Aurifaber Edinensis, non typis mobilibus, ut vulgo fieri solet,sed tabellis seu lamz'nisfusis,
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.
4 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.
220 The Old English Letter Foundries.
The dishonourable part taken by James in this business reacted on himself,
for we find that he suffered considerably both in purse and business, in conse-
quence of his connection with the undertaking. " The printers," says Mores,
" would not employ him, because the block printing, had it succeeded, would
have been prejudicial to theirs."1 The rising fame of Caslon at this particular
period contributed also, and with equal force, to the ill-success of his later
years.
Before his death, however, he added considerably to his foundry, chiefly by
the purchase of the foundries of his old master, Robert Andrews, and of his
son Sylvester at Oxford. By the former he acquired not only a large number
of Roman and Italics, but also several Oriental and curious founts (some of
which had formed the foundry of Moxon), which constituted the nucleus of
that large collection for which his foundry subsequently became notorious. He
died in 1736,2 after a long illness, during which his son John James managed
the business.
The following circular, addressed to the printing trade at the time of his
death, is interesting, not only as notifying the fact, but as being put forward as a
specimen of the type of the foundry.
Advertisement.
"The death of Mr. Thomas James of Bartholomew Close, Letter Founder,
having been industriously published in the Newspapers, without the least mention of
any person to succeed in his business, it is become necessary for the widow James
to give as public notice that she carries on the business of letter founding, to as great
exactness as formerly, by her son John James, who had managed it during his father's
long illness ; the letter this advertisement is printed on being his performance.3 And
he casts all other sorts from the largest to the smallest size. Also the Saxon, Greek,
Hebrew, and all the Oriental types, of various sizes."
1 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 178 1 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 XenophorCs
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.
2 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.
3 Timperley, who quotes this document (Encycl. p. 655), gives no particulars as to the
letter in which it is printed.
Thomas and John James.
221
Although the above seems to indicate that John James was a practical
letter-cutter, he does not appear to have contributed much to the increase of his
foundry by his own handiwork. In 1739 he purchased, jointly with William
Caslon, the foundry of Robert Mitchell, and took a half of the matrices.1 A
year later he bought Hive's foundry. Of this purchase Rowe Mores mentions
that the two founts of Nonpareil Greek, though duly paid for, never came to
James's hands. The remaining matrices, consisting of Roman and Italics and a
few sundries, were transferred to Bartholomew Close, where they lay, apparently
unused, in the boxes distinguished by the name of Jugge.
A far more important purchase was made some eighteen years later, when
Grover's foundry, after having lain idle for thirty years in the possession of his
family, was finally sold to James by Mr. Nutt in 1758. By this purchase James
became possessed of a stock of matrices, the number of which nearly doubled
his own foundry, and which included many of the most interesting relics of the
art.2 At the same time, he combined in one no fewer than nine of the old
English foundries, and remained, with Caslon and Baskerville, as one of only
three representatives of the trade in the country.3
The following table will present in a clear form the gradual absorption of
all the old foundries into that of James : —
{De Worde)
{Day)
{Privileged printers)
The Polyglot
Founders
1637-1667
I
Moxon
1659-1683
Jas. Grover
1680- 1 700
I
Thos. Grover
1700-1758
I
R. Andrews
1683-1733
{Rolij)
1710
(Walpergen)
1673-1714
S. Andrews Hive
1 7 14- 1 733 1730.-1740
Thos. James
1710-1736
John James
1736-1772
the last of the Old English Letter Founders.
Head
1685- 1 700 (?)
Mitchell
1 700- 1 739
Caslon
1 See ante, p. 206. 2 See ante, p. 205.
3 The Oxford University foundry must, of course, ba 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.
222 The Old English Letter Foundries.
With the exception of the circular already mentioned, nothing of the nature
of a specimen of this large foundry appeared during the lifetime of its owner.
As early as 1736, Rowe Mores informs us, a specimen was begun, designed to
show the variety of matrices with which the foundry then abounded, and from
which types could be supplied to the trade. But although so early begun, and
progressed with for several years, the work was left incomplete at the time of
James's death in 1772.1
Two causes may be assigned for this fact, one being the frequent and
numerous additions to the foundry from time to time, which would render any
specimen undertaken at an early stage of its existence incomplete ; and the
second and more cogent reason is to be found in the fact that the excellence and
growing popularity of Caslon's founts at this particular period tended rapidly to
depreciate the productions of the old founders, and, as Rowe Mores himself
states, to render many of their founts altogether useless in typography ; so that
a letter which in 1736 might have commanded a tolerable sale, would in 1756 be
despised, and in 1770 scoffed at.
At John James's death his foundry passed by purchase2 into the hands of
Mr. Rowe Mores,3 a learned and eccentric antiquary and scholar, who had
devoted himself, among other matters, to the study of typographical antiquities,
a pursuit in which he received no little stimulus from the possession of a collection
of punches and matrices, some of which were supposed to be as old as the days
of Wynkyn de Worde.
Whether any motive besides a pure antiquarian zeal prompted the purchase,
or whether he held the collection in the capacity of trustee, is not known, but it
1 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).
2 Nichols, Illust. Lit., viii, 450.
3 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 Hive 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.
Thomas and John James. 223
seems probable he had been intimately acquainted with the foundry and its
contents for some time before James's death. He speaks emphatically of it as
"our" foundry, and his disposition of its contents for sale is made with the
authority of an absolute proprietor. It does not appear, however, that during
the six years of his possession any steps were taken to extend or even continue
the old business, which we may assume to have died with its late owner.
Mr. Mores found himself the owner of a vast confused mass of matrices,
many of them unjustified, and others imperfect, which to an ordinary observer
might have been summarily condemned as rubbish, but which he, with an
enthusiasm quite remarkable, set himself to catalogue and arrange in order,
considering himself amply repaid for his pains by the discovery of a few veritable
relics of Wynkyn de Worde and other old English printers.
The result of his labours he minutely relates in his Dissertation} a work
written, as he himself says, " to preserve the memory of this Foundry, the most
ancient in the kingdom, and which may now be dispersed," and intended as an
introduction to the completed specimen of its contents. Despite its eccentric
style and crabbed diction, the work, by virtue of its learning and acuteness, will
always remain one of the most interesting contributions to the history of English
typography.
The condition of the foundry will be best described in its author's own
words.
After giving a list of matrices lost,2 and quoting a catalogue of the matrices
of the learned languages in the foundry in 1767, written by James himself (which
varies considerably from the Catalogue presented at the sale, to be given later
on), he observes:
" The specimen will show that several of the matrices are unjustified. This
being but an accidental circumstance, does not in the least affect the goodness
of the type, though it affects its appearance in the casting. The matrices were
amassed at all events to augment the collection, and the operation of the file
was suspended till a call for the type should make it necessary. So this defect
is no more than a proof that the matrices have not been impaired by use.
"Another circumstance it may be necessary to mention relating to the
difference in the number of matrices of the same face and body, which may lead
to a suspicion that those of a lesser number are imperfect. But this is not the
1 A Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies, by Edward Roive
Mores, A.M. and A. S.S. (London) 1778. 8vo (only 80 copies printed).
2 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.
224 The Old English Letter Foundries.
fact. The difference arises from a difference in the quantity of ligations, which
have been always cut in a greater or smaller number according to the humour
or fancy of the artist. We own ourselves admirers of ligatures, for they are
certainly ornamental and elegant, and it is to be wished that they could be used
in typography with the same ease as they are displayed in calligraphy. But this
is impossible ; fusile types are not so tractable as the pen of a ready writer,
and we scruple not to call a fount complete though it be destitute of every
jugation. . . .
" A word or two must be added in relation to the Specimen. It was begun
by Mr. James in the year 1736, in which year, after the decease of his father, he
entered into business for himself, and was designed to show the variety of
matrices with which his foundery abounded. Therefore it is a specimen only of
the types which he could cast for those who wanted ; no reference being made to
the situation of the matrices from which he would have cast them. But not-
withstanding the number of years intermediate, the Specimen was left unfinished
by Mr. James at the time of his death, and that which was left has been mangled
since his decease. Not that there was any occasion for such references, for Mr.
James was possessed of the matrices, and consequently of the secret of adapting
them to his purpose. To supply this deficiency in a specimen of the matrices
(for as such the specimen is now to be considered) has been attended with
trouble incredible to anyone but one who upon a like occasion shall attempt the
same. And such an occasion we believe there will never be.
" For the Specimen some apology is to be made ; neither the form nor the
matter is so judicious as we could wish, but the greatest part of it was composed
long ago, and it was almost impossible now to alter it. Incorrectness must be
overlooked, because Letter Founders generally compose their own specimens, and
this might be sufficient to apologise for deficiencies in the Composing part. But
we must use another plea in extenuation of enormities in this part unavoidable ;
the confinement of large-bodied letters to a narrow measure; though for blemishes
of this sort the just allowance will be made by those of judgement. It shows
the letter, the common purpose of this kind of specimens.
" We have inserted specimens of several matrices which the great improve-
ments made in the art of letter-cutting have rendered altogether useless in
typography ; but these specimens will be found of critical use to an antiquary,
for whose sake we have inserted them, regardless of the charge that we deform
our Specimen, or of another more material accusation, that by multiplying
particulars we endeavour to enhance the value of our foundery. The latter we
can easily refute ; for the sets we speak of, besides the rudeness of the work-
manship, are imperfect, and consequently unsaleable, and will probably be taken
Thomas and John James. 225
from the foundery before it is disposed of to prevent the trouble of a future
garbling,1 and this consideration must extend to those objections which may be
made against things cast in haste without justification, for the purpose only of
shewing the faces.
" Hitherto we have spoken only of Matrices. The punches, though in order
they are first, must come last ; and of them we have but little to say ; for these
having performed their office by formation of the matrice are generally like
other useful instruments which have discharged their duty, neglected, discarded
and thrown away.
" The entire loss, the waste and the rubbish in our foundery in this article are
great. The waste and rubbish are in weight about 120 lbs., and were we to put
down tale instead of weight (the pusils which seem to make the greater part of
this quantity not much exceeding in largeness the little end of a poinctrel) the
number would be very great. But covetous of preserving the remembrance of
everything which in Mr. James' Foundery was curious or uncommon, we have
re-scrutinized these, and have left behind us nothing but the Roman and Italic
in which is nothing either curious or uncommon.
" The same likewise have we done to the matrices, the waste of which now
remaining and disposed of in order is in number about 2,6oo,2 the rubbish in
weight about \ cwt.
"A work of some trouble but virtii hath been gratified amongst the
rubbish of punches by some originals of Wynkyn de Worde, some punches of
the 2-line Great Primer English.3 They are truly vetustate formdque et squalore
venerabiles, and we would not give a lower-case letter in exchange for all the
leaden cups of Haerlem."4
Mr. Mores, unfortunately, did not live to see the publication of his
1 " 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 Samari-
tan (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."
2 In another place Mr. Mores states that the " waste and pye" of the foundry contained
upwards of 6,000 matrices.
3 This is the old Black from Grover's foundry; see ante, p. 199.
4 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.
G G
CATALOGUE and SPECIMEN
Of the Large and Exfenfive
P R I NT I N G - T YP E - F O U N D E R V
Of the late ingenious
Mr. JOHN JAMES, Letter-founder,
Formerly of Bartholomew-Close, London, deceafed:
Including feveral other FOUNDERIES,
English and Foreign.
Improved by the late Reverend and Learned
EDWARD R OWE MORES, deceafed:
COMPREHE N_D I N G
A great Variety of Punches and Matrices of the Hebrew
Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic, /Ethiopia, Alexandrian, Greek,
Roman, Italic, Saxon, Old Englifh, Hfberoian, Script,
Secretary, Court-Hand, Mathematical, Mufical,
and other Characters, Flowers, and Ornaments j
Which will be Sold by A ir c-t i o n,
By Mr. P A T E R S O N,
At his Great Room (No. 6), King's-Streer, CoventrGardcn^
London,
On Wednefday, 5th June, 1782; and the Thfee following Days,
To begin- exaclly at 12 o'Clock.
l"o be viewed on Wednefday, May 29, and to the Time of Sale*
Catalogues, with Specimen of the Types, may be had at the Place
of Sale.
£ Price One Shilling. 3
56. From the original in the Library of the London Institution.
Thomas and John James.
?.?.*]
Dissertation, or to complete the Specimen which was to accompany it. He died
in 1778, and four years elapsed before the foundry was put up to auction, and
the catalogue with its specimen attached finally appeared.
Of this interesting document we need only observe that in point of
execution and printing it calls for all the apology which Mr. Mores offers on its
behalf;1 for one could hardly imagine a specimen doing less justice to the
collection it represents. Yet, in spite of its imperfections, it is a work of the
highest importance to anyone interested in the history of the old English letter-
founders, and we regret that space forbids quoting the Catalogue in full.
We shall, however, present our readers with an abstract of the Specimen as
far as it relates to the matrices of the " learned" languages in the foundry; adding,
as far as possible, the initials of the foundries through which each fount had
come into James' hands.2
The specimens shown are as follows : —
Hebrew (Biblical).3 — 2-1. Engli
sh Mod. [A.]4
Hebrew. — Small Pica Modern.
2-line English No. 2.
Long Primer.
[G.?]
„ „ Ancient.
[P.]
Brevier.
[A.]
Double Pica.
[P.] [A.]
„ No. 2.
[S.A.]
Great Primer.
[A.]
Nonpareil.
[A.]
English Antique.
Hebrew (Rabbinical). — English
German (a
„ Ancient, No. 2.
[P-] [A-]
spurious Rashi).
[A.]
» „ No. 3.
Rashi Pica.
[A.]
„ Modern.
„ Long Primer.*
[A]
Pica Ancient.
[G.?]
„ Brevier.*
[A.]
„ Modern.
[A]
„ Nonpareil.*
[A]
Small Pica Antique.
[A.]
Samaritan.5 — Double Pica (Leusden's). [A.]
„ „ No. 2.
[A.]
English* (with English face).
[P-] [GO
1 " Excusatos nos habeant eruditi quibus obvenerit typorum Jamesianorum specimen
accuratis perlustrare oculis, quod minus quam expetendum esset, in linguis praesertim recon-
ditoribus, elimatum prodeat ; in animo erat de dedisse emendatissimum et si sat se fecisse
existiment opifices, si, posthabitis preli, ceterisque maculis, ostendatur literarum facies — limas
non defuit labor, — at cessante Fusore cessavit Fornax et defuerunt fusi ad emaculandum typi."
— Preface to the Specimen.
2 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.
3 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.
4 It is to be borne in mind that Andrews' foundry included that of Moxon, from whom
many of his oldest founts doubtless came.
5 A Great Primer, Pica, Small Pica and Long Primer had been lost, but the Long Primer
punches remained.
228
The Old English Letter Foundries.
Syriac. — Double Pica. [P.] [G]
Great Primer. [A.]
Pica. [G.]
Arabic}— Double Pica (Gt. Primer?)*[P.?][G.]
Great Primer. [A.]
^Ethiopic.—Gt. Primer or English*. [P.] [A.]
English. [Anon.]
Greek.2— Double Pica.3 [Royal] [G]
Great Primer.* [G.]
„ „ No. 2.
,. No. 3. [R-]
English.
„ No. 2.
Pica. [R.]
„ No. 2.
Small Pica. [P.]
No. 2. [R. ?]
No. 3. [P.]
Brevier. [A.]
„ No. 2. [R.]
,, No. 3-4 [G]
Nonpareil. [A.]
Pearl. [N. ?]
English Alexandrian.* [G]
Gothic. — Pica. [Anon.]
Anglo-Saxon.5 — Great Primer. [G.]
Great Primer, No. 2. [G.]
English (Pica). [A.]
Long Primer. [A. ?.]
Anglo-Norman.6 — Great Primer. [A.]
English. [Anon.]
Runic. — Pica.
Court Hand. — Double Pica.
English.*
Union. — Double Pica.*
Scriptorial {Cursive)? — Double
English.
„ No. 2.
Pica.*
Small Pica.
Secretary. — Great Primer.
Hieroglyphics. — A Set.
English? — 2-line Great Primer.
[De
Great Primer. [De
„ No. 2.
English.
„ No. 2.*
„ No. 4.
Pica.
„ No. 2.
„ No. 3.
Small Pica No. 2.
» No. 3.
„ No. 6.
No. 7.
Long Primer (Dutch cut).
„ No. 2.
„ No. 3.
Brevier.
„ No. 4.
Nonpareil.*
[G.l
[G]
.[G]
Pica. [G]
[G]
[G.]
|G]
[G]
[G]
Worde ?] [G]
Worde ?] [G]
[A.]
[Anon.]
[A.]
[G]
[A.]
[Anon.]
[R.?]
[A]
[Anon. ?]
[A.]
[A.?]
[G?]
[G]
[G]
[G?]
[R.?]
[G]
Of Roman capitals, eight founts were shown,9 and of Roman and Italic from
1 A 2-line English, Double Pica and Pica had been lost.
2 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.
3 This was the fount used in the Catena on yob, 1637.
4 u Remarkably beautifully cut and justified."
5 A Double Pica, Pica and Long Primer had been lost.
6 A 2-line English had been lost.
7 Also a Double Pica not in specimen.
8 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.
9 Of these, one was a 4-line, to which belonged a set of "leaden" lower-case matrices.
Thomas and John James. 229
Canon to Diamond, there were thirty-nine founts in specimen and a hundred and
eight not shown.
In addition to the above, the specimen included ninety-seven varieties of
flowers, chiefly from the Grovers' foundry ; while other odd flowers, with signs,
rules, braces, and various imperfect founts (contained in sixteen drawers) were
also sold, though not shown. At the end of the list of matrices came what was
perhaps the most interesting feature of the sale, viz., a set of punches contained
in a press named " Caxton," consisting of twenty drawers. Of these the
majority were Roman and Italics, which we will not specify, as it is impossible
to determine whose handiwork they were in the first instance. We give, however,
the contents of drawers A E F and G, which contained the following punches of
the learned languages1 :
A.-
-./Ethiopic
English*
-
-
[P.] [A]
Samaritan -
Pica* (English?) -
-
-
[P.] EG.]
»
Long Primer
Syriac
English (Pica ?) -
-
-
[G]
Arabic
Great Primer
-
-
[A.]
»
Pica (English ?)
-
-
[A.]
Greek
Brevier
Saxon - - -
[A.]
Hibernian2 -
Pica*
-
-
[M.] [A.]
E.-
—Greek -
Great Primer,* points and ligatures [G.]
F.
11
Pica, „
»
G.
»
Nonpareil, „
>j
[A]
It is at least remarkable that so few punches should have existed in so large
a foundry ; but it is to be remembered that the wear and tear of the matrices in
those days was not so great as now, and the necessity for a new set of strikes
from the punches was consequently less frequent. We may even suppose, from
Mr. Mores' own reference to the subject, already quoted, that it was a common
practice to discard a set of punches as useless as soon as they had left their
impression in the matrices.
The concluding items of the Catalogue are " about 60 or 70 moulds, from
5 -line Pica down to Nonpareil, some two, some three or more of a sort which
1 There is more difliculty 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.
2 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.
230 The Old English Letter Foundries.
will be lotted according to their bodies ; also a parcel of iron ladles ; a vice,
33 lbs. weight, several gauges, dividers, blocks, setting-up sticks, dressing sticks,
etc.," — a meagre list, which, if it represents the working plant of the foundry,
points to a rough and ready practice of the art which, even in Moxon's time,
would have been considered primitive.
A word must be added respecting the Catalogue. Whether it was taken
precisely as Mr. Mores left it, or whether Mr. Paterson, the auctioneer (whose
"talent at Cataloguing" Nichols, in his Anecdotes, approvingly mentions),1
completed it, we cannot say. It is as precise, perhaps, as any catalogue of so
confused a collection could be. An opening was, however, left for a good deal
of misapprehension, by the fact that the nests of drawers in which the matrices
were stored, instead of bearing distinguishing numbers, bore the names of
famous old printers, which duly figured in the Catalogue.2 Misled by this
circumstance, it seems more than likely that Paterson may have enhanced the
importance of his lots by dwelling on the fact that one fount was " De Worde's",
another " Cawood's," another " Pynson's," and so on. The absurdity of this
delusion becomes very apparent when we see the Alexandrian Greek some years
later puffed by its purchasers as the veritable production of De Worde (who
lived a century before the Alexandrian MS. came to this country), and find
Hansard, in 1825, ascribing seven founts of Hebrew and a Pearl Greek to
Bynneman.
What was the result of the sale financially we cannot ascertain. Of the
fate of its various lots we know very little either, except that Dr. Fry secured
most of the curious and "learned" matrices. How far the other foundries of
the day, at home and abroad, enriched themselves, or how much of the
collection fell into the hands of the coppersmiths, are problems not likely to
find solution.
With the sale, however, disappeared the last of the old English foundries,
and closed a chapter of English typography, which, though not the most glorious,
is certainly not the least instructive through which it has passed.
The only specimen of this foundry is that appended to the Catalogue of the
sale : —
A Catalogue and Specimen of the large and extensive Printing-Type-Foundery
of the late ingenious Mr. John James, Letter-founder, formerly of Bartholomew Close,
London, deceased ; including several other Founderies, English and Foreign. Improved
1 Lit. Anec, iii, 438.
2 See our facsimiles from the Specimen at pages 200 and 204, ante.
Thomas and John James.
231
by thelatc Reverend (sic) and Learned Edward Rowe Mores, deceased. Comprehending
a great variety of punches and matrices of the Hebrew, Samaritan, Syriac, Arabic,
^thiopic, Alexandrian, Greek, Roman, Italic, Saxon, Old English, Hibernian, Script,
Secretary, Court-Hand, Mathematical, Musical, and other characters, Flowers and
Ornaments : which will be sold by Auction by Mr. Paterson at his Great Room
(No. 6) King Street, Covent Garden, London, on Wednesday, 5th June, 1782, and the
Three following days. To begin exactly at 12 o'clock. To be viewed on Wednesday,
May 29th, and to the Time of Sale. Catalogues, with Specimen of the Types, may be
had at the Place of Sale. (Price One Shilling.) 8vo. (Lond. Inst.)
CHAPTER XL
WILLIAM CASLON, 1720.
RINTING had reached a low ebb in England in the early
years of the eighteenth century. A glance through any
of the common public prints of the day, such, for instance,
as official broadsides, political pamphlets, works of litera-
ture, or even Bibles,1 points to a depression and degenera-
tion so marked that one is tempted to believe that the art
of Caxton and Pynson and Day was rapidly becoming
lost in a wilderness of what a contemporary satirist terms
" Brown sheets and sorry letter."
With the exception of Oxford University, no foundry of the day was con-
tributing anything towards the revival of good printing, or even towards the main-
tenance of such a standard as did exist. And Oxford, as we have said, owed its
best founts to gifts procured, almost entirely, from abroad. Grover and Andrews,
the heritors of the old founders, originated little or nothing ; and where their efforts
were put into requisition (as in the case of Andrews' attempt to cut the Anglo-
Saxon for Miss Elstob's Grammar) they failed. Scarcely a work with any pre-
1 In 1703, in the Convocation of Clergy in the Lower House, a complaint was exhibited
against the printers of the Bible for the careless and defective way in which it was printed by
the patentees. The editions specially complained of were those printed by Hayes, of
Cambridge, in 1677 and 1678, and an edition in folio printed in London in 1701. The printers
continued, however, to print the Bible carelessly, with a defective type, on bad paper ; and
when printed, to sell copies at an exorbitant price.
57- From Hansard..
[/are p. 232.
William Caslon.
233
tension to fine printing was the impression of honest English type. Watson,
the Scotch historian of printing, openly rebuked his brethren of the craft for not
stocking their cases with Dutch type. Tonson, a king among English printers
is said on one occasion to have lodged in Amsterdam while a founder there was
casting him £300 worth of type ; and James, the only English founder whose
business showed any vitality, owed his success chiefly, if not entirely, to the fact
that all his letter was the product of Dutch matrices ; and even these, in his
hands, were so indifferently cast as to be often as bad as English type.
What was the reason for this lamentable decline — how far it was chargeable
on the printer, how far on the founder, or how far both were the victims of that
system of Star Chamber decrees, monopolies, patents, restraints and privileges
which had characterised the illiberal days of the* Stuarts — this is not the place to
inquire. Nor, happily, are we called upon to speculate as to what would have
been the consequence to English Typography of an uninterrupted prolongation
of the malady under which it laboured. But it is necessary to remind ourselves
of the critical nature of that malady in order to appreciate properly the provi-
dential circumstance which turned the attention of William Caslon to type-
founding, and thus served to avert from England the disgrace which threatened
her.
William Caslon1 was born at Hales Owen in Shropshire in the year 1692.
He served his apprenticeship to an engraver of gun-locks and barrels in London,
and at the expiration of his term followed his trade in Vine Street, near the
Minories.
The ability he displayed in his art was conspicuous, and by no means
confined to the mere ornamentation of gun-barrels — the chasing of silver and
the designing of tools for bookbinders frequently occupying his attention.
While thus engaged, some of his bookbinding punches were noticed for their
neatness and accuracy by Mr. Watts,2 the eminent printer, who, fully alive to
the present degenerate state of the typographical art in this country, was quick
to recognise the possibility of raising it once more to its proper position. He
1 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.
2 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.
H H
234 The Old English Letter Foimdries.
accordingly encouraged Mr. Caslon to persevere in letter-cutting, promising him
his personal support, and favouring him meanwhile with introductions to some
of the leading printers of the day.
About the same time, it is recorded that another great printer, the elder
Bowyer,1 "accidentally saw in the shop of Mr. Daniel Browne, bookseller,
near Temple Bar, the lettering of a book, uncommonly neat; and enquiring who
the artist was by whom the letters were made, Mr. Caslon was introduced to his
acquaintance, and was taken by him to Mr. James's foundery in Bartholomew
Close. Caslon had never before that time seen any part of the business ; and
being asked by his friend if he thought he could undertake to cut types, he
requested a single day to consider the matter, and then replied he had no doubt
but he could. From this answer, Mr. Bowyer lent him £200, Mr. Bettenham2
(to whom also he had been introduced) lent the same sum, and Mr. Watts ;£ioo."3
With this assistance Mr. Caslon established himself in a garret in Helmet
Row, Old Street, and devoted himself with ardour to his new profession.4 An
opportunity for distinguishing himself presented itself shortly afterwards.
In the year 1720 the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,5 acting
1 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 1 7 13, 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 i8tA 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.
2 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, fere~
centenarius sanceque mentis et memories."
3 Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 585.
4 A tradition in the Caslon family that William Caslon began his career as a letter-founder
in 17 16, 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.
5 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 171 1 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 17 14, with the imprint " Tranquebarice in littore Coromandelino, typis Malabaricis
William Caslon. 235
on a suggestion made by Mr. Salomon Negri, a native of Damascus, and a dis-
tinguished Oriental scholar, " deemed it expedient to print for the Eastern
Churches the New Testament and Psalter in the Arabic language for the benefit
of the poor Christians in Palestine, Syria, Mesapotamia, Arabia and Egypt,
the constitution of which countries allowed of no printing." A new Arabic
fount being required for the purpose, Mr. Caslon, whose reputation as a letter-
cutter appears already to have been known, was selected to cut it. This he did
to the full satisfaction of his patrons, producing the elegant English Arabic which
gi\ 1$j1 pic! j^dj^L * x*\J> s*i^S w^
61. EDglish Arabic, cut by Caslon in 1720. (From the original matrices.
figures in his early specimens. The Society was, according to Rowe Mores,
already possessed of a fount of Arabic cast from the Polyglot matrices in
Grover's foundry. But Caslon's fount was preferred for the text, and in it
appeared, in due time, first the Psalter in 1725,1 and afterwards the New
Testament in 1727.2
" Mr. Caslon, after he had finished his Arabic fount, cut the letters of his
own name in Pica Roman, and placed the name at the bottom of a specimen of
the Arabic3; and Mr. Palmer (the reputed author of Psalmanazar's History of
Printing), seeing this name, advised Mr. Caslon to complete the fount of Pica.
Mr. Caslon did so ; and as the performance exceeded the letter of the other
founders of the time, Mr. Palmer — whose circumstances required credit with
those who, by his advice, were now obstructed (i.e., whose business was likely to
impressit G. Adler, 17 14." 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 pub-
lished together in 17 19. (Cotton, Typographical Gazetteer, 2nd edit., p. 289.)
1 Liber Psahnorum . . una cum decern Pracefitis . . et Oratione Dominicd . . Arabicey
sumptibus Societatis de Propaganda Cognitione Christi apud Exteros. London, 1725. 8vo.
2 Novum Testamentum, Arabice. Londini. Sumptibus Societatis de Propaganda" Cog-
nitione Christi apud Exteros. 1727. 4to.
3 " 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."
236 The Old English Letter Foundries.
suffer from this new rival) — repented having given the advice, and discouraged
Mr. Caslon from any further progress.
Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia noftra?
'quamdiu nos etiam furor ifte tuus eludet? quern ad finem
fefe effrenata jactabit audaciatua? nihilne te nocturnum
presidium palatii, nihil urbis vigiliae, nee timor populi
duoufque tandem abutere, Catilina, 'patientia noftra?
quamdiu nos etiam furor ifte tuus eludet? quern ad finem
Jefe effrenata jactabit audacia tua? nihilne te nocturnum
59. Pica Roman and Italic, cut by William Caslon, 1720. (From the original matrices.)
" Mr. Caslon, disgusted,1 applied to Mr. Bowyer, under whose inspection
he cut, in 1722, the beautiful fount of English (Roman) which was used in
printing the edition of Selden' s Works'2' in 1726."
Caslon's excellent performance of this task may best be judged of by an
inspection of this noble work, which remains conspicuous not only as the
impression of the first letter cast at the Caslon foundry, but as marking a distinct
turning-point in the career of English typography, which from that time forward
entered on a course of brilliant regeneration. The Hebrew letter used in the
Selden was also of Caslon's cutting, and must therefore share with the English
Roman the honour of a first place in the productions of his foundry.
His next performance was a fount of Pica Coptic for Dr. Wilkins's3 edition
IlemuoT" ex j^ertru $Rcnn *- *x&.-
peq T-cnf&oftxe neKp^rt *~ st&&.pec
iftxexejouLe xonrpo *~ nexe^rt.LK
62. Pica Coptic, cut by Caslon, ante 1731. (From the original matrices.)
1 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.)
2 Joannis Seldeni Jttrisconsulti Opera Omnia, tarn edita quant inedita. hi tribus volumini-
bus. Colligit ac recensuit . . . David Wilkins, S.T.P. . . . Londini, Typis Guil. Bowyer.
1726. Fol. (Begun in 1722.)
3 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 Prodromtis Coptus, published in Rome
in 1636, the Doctor had severely handled.
William Caslon. 237
of the Pentateuch,1 a letter which Rowe Mores commends as superior to the
Oxford Coptic in which Dr. Wilkins' New Testament had been printed in 17 16.2
This fount Caslon also cut under the direction of Mr. Bowyer, his generous
patron, whom he always acknowledged as his master from whom he had learned
his art.
Caslon's business, thus established, rapidly advanced in fame and excel-
lence. Although at the outset it depended mainly on the support of his three
chief patrons, it was soon able to stand alone and compete with the best houses
in the trade.
" It is difficult," observes Mr. Hansard, " to appreciate the obstacles which
Mr. Caslon encountered at the commencement of his career. At present the
theory and practice of letter-founding are not, as in his time, an 'art and
mystery,' and efficient workmen in every branch are easily procured. He had
not only to excel his competitors in his own particular branch of engraving the
punches, which to him was probably the easiest part of his task, but to raise an
establishment and cause his plans to be executed by ignorant and unpractised
workmen. He had also to acquire for himself a knowledge of the practical and
mechanical branches of the art, which require, indeed, little genius, but the most
minute and painful attention to conduct successfully. The wishes and expecta-
tions of his patrons were fulfilled and exceeded by his decided superiority over
his domestic rivals and Batavian competitors. The importation of foreign types
ceased ; his founts were, in fact, in such estimation as to be frequently, in their
turn, exported to the Continent."3
In 1728 Mr. Caslon narrowly escaped committing an error which might
seriously have affected his after career. The foundry of the Grovers being then
in the market, he contracted for the purchase of it.4 Fortunately for English
typography, the business fell through, and Caslon was still left a free man to
pursue his own method, unburdened by the incubus of a large and useless stock
of matrices, which, had they been suffered to mingle with his own beautiful
productions, would have degraded his foundry to a patchwork establishment
little better than that of his competitors at home and abroad. As it was, he
had the advantage of completing his specimens after his own plan, and im-
pressing with the mark of his own genius every fount which bore his name.
His fame in 1730 was such, that (as Ged, in his narrative of the invention of
1 Qidnque Libri Moysis Prophetce in Lingud sEgyptid. Ex M.S.S. . . . descripsit ac Latine
vertit Dav. Wilkins. Londini 1731. 4to. Only 200 copies were printed.
2 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.
3 Typographic/,, p. 349. 4 See ante, p. 205.
238 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Block-Printing, states) he had already eclipsed most of his competitors, and had
introduced his founts into some of the chief printing houses of the metropolis,
and even secured the custom of the King's printers to the exclusion of all
others.1 Although Ged's narrative goes to show that Caslon shared the
scepticism of his contemporaries with regard to the utility of stereotyping, and
was even ready to back his opinion with his money, it is satisfactory to observe
that he was no party to the discreditable persecution to which that unfortunate
inventor was subjected by other members of the craft. Indeed, the only suc-
cessful experiment made by Ged appears to have been a cast from Caslon's type.
That the success of the new foundry was not achieved wholly without
opposition is apparent from the following anecdote preserved by Mr. Nichols,
and told in connection with the account of Bishop Hare's Hebrew Psalter,
published by Bowyer in 1733.2
This work, it appears, had been originally intended to be printed at the
press of Palmer, with whom Caslon, as we have seen, had already had dealings
of a not altogether satisfactory character.
" His Lordship, however," says Nichols (quoting Psalmanazar's account of
the transaction), " had excepted against Mr. Palmer's Hebrew types which were
of Athias' font,3 and a little battered, and insisted upon his having a new set
from Mr. Caslon, which greatly exceeded them in beauty. But Mr. Palmer was
so deeply in debt to him (Caslon) that he knew not how to procure it from him
without ready money, which he was not able to spare. The Bishop likewise
insisted upon having some Roman and Italic types cast with some dis-
tinguishing mark, to direct his readers to the Hebrew letters they were designed
to answer, and these required a new set of punches and matrices before they
could be cast ; and that would have delayed the work, which Mr. Palmer was in
haste to go about that he might the sooner finger some of his Lordship's money.
This put him upon such an unfair stratagem as, when discovered, quite dis-
gusted his lordship against him; namely, representing Mr. Caslon as an idle,
dilatory workman, who would in all probability make them wait several years
for those few types, if ever he finished them. That he was indeed the only
Artist that could supply him with those types, but that he hated work and was
not to be depended upon ; and therefore advised his Lordship to make shift with
some sort which he could substitute and would answer the same purpose, rather
than run the risk of staying so long and being perhaps disappointed.
" The Bishop, however, being resolved, if possible, to have the desired types,
sent for Mr. Bowyer, and asked him whether he knew a letter-founder that could
1 See ante, p. 218. 2 Artec. Bowyer, p. 537. 3 See ante, p. 215.
William C as Ion. 239
cast him such a set out of hand, who immediately recommended Mr. Caslon ;
and being told what sad and disadvantageous character he had heard of him,
Mr. Bowyer not only assured his Lordship that it was a very false and unjust one,
but engaged to get the above-mentioned types cast by him, and a new font of
his Hebrew ones, in as short a time as the thing could possibly be done. Mr.
Caslon was accordingly sent for by his Lordship, and having made him sensible
of the time the new ones would require to be made ready for use, did produce
them according to his promise, and the book was soon after put to the press."1
Among the other interesting founts cut by Caslon about this time, may be
mentioned the Pica Black, of which we show a specimen, and which received
special commendation for its faithful following of the traditional Old English
character first used by Wynkyn de Worde.
8nti tie it further Stnoton tip t&e aut&orttp afo?efaiD,
Cbatall ana etierpof tfjefaiD OEjcc&equer I5tll0 to tie
mane fo?tb tip titrtue of tW 3ft, o? 00 manp of t&em
as ftaii ftom ai5CD^jFe^3[E!L^ii3€)ipmia^)
|6o. Pica Black, cut by Caslon. (From the original matrices.)
He also cut an Armenian for Whiston's edition of Moses Choronensis? and
an Etruscan for Mr. J. Swinton of Oxford, the learned antiquary and philologist,
who published his De Lingud Elrurics3 in 1738 ; as well as a Gothic and several
other of the foreign and learned characters.
^juhpuufiun— ptusntuBifnL. ?»« tuuin^
ni-uicruijhnnu fi j?hn ^ftnp^u/aht L-
quslsrj-nL-i *>n+ulfil P tU;PuV -£HJ
63. Pica Armenian, cut by Caslon, ante 1736. (From the original matrices.)
AttA riNSAK <l>n in hiMin-
AM: V^h^A1 NAM& «J*GIN:
UIMAl <J>in&INASSNS «J>6INS:
65. Pica Gothic, cut by Caslon, ante 1734. (From the original matrices.)
1 Psalmorum Liber. (Heb. et Lat.) in Versiculos metrice divisus, etc. Londini 1736.
2 vols., 8vo.
2 Moses Choronensis Historice Armeniacce Libri Hi. Armeniace ediderunt, Latine
verterunt notisq : illustr. Guil. et Geo. Whistoni. London, 1736. 4to.
3 De Lingud Etruria. J. Swinton. Oxon., 173S.
240 The Old English Letter Fotindries.
}fltnAq8 tmtYqt eumtan
qj- qj- e3tfl8AD >iaym<i^ wm
64. Pica Etruscan, cut by Caslon, 1738. (From the original matrices.
hfch: WW^: £t<p£i1: ft*M): : ^
OWWft:: iViP^: HAA: WVM: UM:
66. Pica Ethiopic, cut by Caslon. (From the original matrices.)
All of these, with exception of the Etruscan and an Ethiopic cut still later,
were completed before 1734, in which year the first Specimen of his foundry
appeared.
This famous broadside, of which very few copies are now extant, dates
from Chiswell Street, to which address Mr. Caslon had transferred the Helmet
Row Foundry (after an intermediate sojourn in Ironmonger Row), about the
year 1734.
The sheet is arranged in four columns, and displays altogether thirty-eight
founts, namely :
Titlings. — 5-line Pica, 4-line Pica, 2-line Great Primer, 2-line English, 2-line Pica, 2-line
Long Primer, 2-line Brevier.
Roman and Italic. — French Canon, 2-line Great Primer, 2-line English, Double Pica,
Great Primer, English, Pica, Small Pica (2), Long Primer (2), Brevier, Nonpareil,
and Pearl.
Saxon. — Pica and Long Primer.
Black. — Pica and Brevier.
Gothic, Coptic, Armenian, Samaritan. — Pica of each.
Syriac and Arabic. — English of each.
Hebrew. — English, English with points, Brevier.
Greek. — English, Pica, Long Primer, Brevier.
Flowers. — Seven designs.
Of these, all, with three exceptions, are Caslon's own handiwork, and
represent the untiring industry of fourteen years. Of the excellence of the
performance it is sufficient to say that the Specimen placed Caslon absolutely
without rival at the head of his profession ; " and," as Nichols says, " for clear-
ness and uniformity, for the use of the reader and student, it is doubtful whether
it has been exceeded by any subsequent production."
The three founts referred to as'not the product of Caslon's hand, were the
Canon Roman, from Andrews' foundry, formerly Moxon's, and exhibited in the
William Caslon. 241
Mechanick Exercises1; the English Syriac, which is from the matrices of the
Polyglot2; and the Pica Samaritan, which was cut by a Dutchman named
Dummers.
Fame appears to have followed rapidly on the appearance of this Specimen.
The sheet was included as an inset plate in the second edition of Ephraim
Chambers' Cyclopaedia in 1738,3 with the following flattering notice: — "The
above were all cast in the foundery of Mr. W. Caslon, a person who, though not
bred to the art of letter-founding, has, by dint of genius, arrived at an excellency
in it unknown hitherto in England, and which even surpasses anything of the
kind done in Holland or elsewhere."
Caslon made a further addition to his stock of matrices in 1739 by the
purchase of half of Mitchell's foundry,4 of which the most interesting items were
a Pica Greek, sets of Music and flower matrices, and six sizes of Black. The
remainder, consisting of Romans and Italics, do not appear to have added much
to the resources of the Chiswell Street foundry.5
In the year 1742 Mr. Caslon's eldest son, William — at that time twenty-two
years of age — entered the business, and in the Specimen of the same year his
name first appears in conjunction with his father's. Unfortunately, no copy of this
Specimen (which had evidently been seen by Nichols6) is known to be extant.
Another Specimen, also unfortunately missing, is mentioned by the same
authority, who says, " the abilities of the second Caslon appeared to great
1 This fount may be seen also in Nichols' Appendix to Rowe Mores' Dissertation, p. 96,
and in Ames1 Typographical Antiquities, ist edit., p. 571.
2 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 deter-
mine 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.
3 Cyclopedia, 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' Encyclopcedia.
4 See ante, p. 206.
5 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.
0 Anec. Bowyer, p. 317.
I I
242 The Old English Letter Fotmdries.
advantage in the specimen of the types of the learned languages in 1748."1
A further Specimen was issued in the following year, in broadside form, which
displayed a large variety of letters, from Canon to Pearl, many of them being
the handiwork of Caslon the younger. It is possible that this last sheet may
have been sent, for the most part, abroad ; for while no copy of it is to be found
in this country, we find one mentioned with commendation by Fournier in
1766,2 and another preserved to this day in the Sohmian Collection at Stock-
holm, where, along with several other rare English and foreign specimens, it has
been recently discovered by the indefatigable Mr. William Blades.
In Ames' Typographical Antiquities? published in 1749, appears a
specimen of " Mr. Caslon's Roman letter and the names of the sizes now in
use," the introductory note to which affords the first definite notice of the
younger Caslon in connection with the foundry. " The art," says Ames, " seems
to be carried to its greatest perfection by Mr. William Caslon, and his son, who,
besides the type of all manner of living languages now by him, has offered to
perform the same for the dead, that can be recovered, to the satisfaction of any
gentleman desirous of the same."
Another contemporary record of equal interest, which seems, moreover, to
allude to one or more of the three missing Specimens above mentioned, is con-
tained in a little essay on the Original, Use, and Excellency of Printing,
published in 17524; in which the anonymous writer, after dealing with the
invention, remarks : " Altho' the chief honour is due to the Inventor, yet the
perfection and beauty that Printing is now arrived at is very much owing to
them that came after. Many in the present age have not a little contributed
thereto. Among whom I cannot but particularly mention Mr. William Caslon
and his Son, Letter Founders in Chiswell Street, who have very much by their
indefatigable labours promoted the honour of this Art, and who have lately
printed three broadsheet specimens of their curious types ; one of them con-
sisting of all the common sorts of letter used in printing ; the second sheet is
1 Anec. Bowyer, p. 586.
2 " Les caracteres de Caslon ont 6t€ grave's, pour la plus grande partie, par Caslon fils, avec
beaucoup d'adresse et de proprete". Les epreuves qui en ont 6t6 publie'es en 1749 contiennent
beaucoup de sortes differentes de caracteres" (Man. Typog., II, xxxviii).
3 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."
4 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.
William C as Ion. 243
divers sorts of their Orientals, Old-English, and Saxon ; and the third contains
a great variety of curious Flowers and Fancies for Ornamenting of Title Pages,
Tickets, &c, also several sorts of Titling letter of Roman, Old-English and
Greek ; and the whole, for their master strokes and curious flourishes, outdo all
that have been cast in England, Holland or any other place before."
The above is one of many compliments paid to Caslon at this period by his
contemporaries. Smith, in his Printer's Grammar in 1755, goes out of his way
more than once to commend the founder by whose genius " letter is now in
England of such a beautiful cut and shape as it never was before." Baskerville,
in a passage quoted elsewhere,1 frankly acknowledges him as the greatest master
of the art. Ames and Chambers, as has been noticed, vie with one another in
proclaiming his pre-eminence ; Mores himself styles him the Coryphaeus of
modern letter founders, and Lemoine awards him the title of the English
Elzevir.
In 1750 Mr. Caslon's reputation was such that his Majesty George II.
placed him on the Commission of the Peace for Middlesex, which office he
sustained with honour to himself and advantage to the community till the time
of his death.
In June of the same year, the Universal Magazine* contained an Article on
Letter Founding, extracted chiefly from Moxon, and accompanied by a view of
the interior of Caslon's Foundry, containing portraits of six of his workmen.
The view (of which our frontispiece is a reproduction) represents four casters at
work, one rubber (Joseph Jackson), one dresser (Thomas Cottrell), and three
boys breaking off, etc. Considering the extent of the business at the time, it
may be doubted whether this represents the entire working staff of the establish-
ment, or whether the view is of a portion only, in which, for the convenience of
the artist, the four processes of the manufacture are assembled. The processes
of punch-cutting and justifying were conducted in private by the Caslons them-
selves ; yet not, as history shows, in such secrecy as to prevent their two
apprentices, Cottrell and Jackson, from observing and learning the manual
operation of that part of the " art and mystery."3
A movement among the workmen of the Foundry in 1757 for a higher
scale of wages, although decided in favour of the men, resulted in the dismissal
of the two ex-apprentices, who were supposed to have been ringleaders in the
1 See post, chap. xiii.
2 The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure, London. Vol. vi. June 1750,
p. 274.
3 See post, chap, xvi,
244 The Old English Letter Foundries.
movement. With the experience acquired during their term of service at
Chiswell Street, both these men were enabled to establish foundries of their
own ; and it is to the credit of Cottrell's good sense, if not of his good feeling,
that he subsequently supported his own claim to the patronage of the trade by-
announcing on his specimens that he had " served his apprenticeship to William
Caslon, Esq."
The active part taken by the Second Caslon in the operations of the
Foundry may be best judged of by a reference to the Specimen Book of 1764.1
In this book the number of founts which originally appeared on the broadside of
1734 is more than doubled,2 most of the additions (with the exception of those
which had formed part of Mitchell's Foundry) being the handiwork of Caslon II.
The following advertisement appears on the last page : —
" This new Foundery was begun in the year 1720, and finish'd 1763 ; and will (with
God's leave) be carried on, improved and inlarged by William Caslon and Son, Letter-
Founders in London. — Soli Deo Gloria."
Rowe Mores, whose prejudice against the Second Caslon is undisguised,
waxes facetious on the head of this innocent declaration,3 although he can find but
little to blame in the Specimen itself, " in which," he says, " is nothing censurable
but the silly notion and silly fondness of multiplying bodies " — the Specimen
showed a long-bodied English and a large-face Long Primer and Bourgeois —
" as if the intrinsic of a foundery consisted in the numerosity of the heads ! "
Such animadversions, however, leave untouched the younger Caslon's reputation
as an able and successful typefounder, which was, indeed, so well established
that during the later years of his father's life he appears to have had the sole
management of the business.
Caslon I, having lived to see the result of his genius and industry in the
regeneration of the Art of Printing in England, retired, universally respected,
from the active management of the Foundry, and took up his residence first in
1 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.
2 Forty-four new founts appear in all, viz.: 2 Tidings, 15 Romans, 4 Greeks, 9 Hebrews}
1 Ethiopic, 1 Etruscan, 2 Saxons, 8 Blacks, and 2 Music, while the Flowers now number 6s
varieties.
3 '"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,)
William Caslon. 245
a house opposite the Nag's Head in the Hackney Road, removing afterwards to
Water Gruel Row, and finally settling in what was then styled a country house
at Bethnal Green, where he resided till the time of his death.
" Mr. Caslon," says Nichols, " was universally esteemed as a first-rate artist,
a tender master, and an honest, friendly, and benevolent man."1 The following
anecdote, preserved by Sir John Hawkins in his History of Music, gives a
pleasing glimpse into his private life, and shows that in his devotion to the
severer arts the gentler were not neglected.
" Mr. Caslon," says Sir John, " settled in Ironmonger Row, in Old Street ;
and being a great lover of music, had frequent concerts at his house, which were
resorted to by many eminent masters. To these he used to invite his friends
and those of his old acquaintance, the companions of his youth. He afterwards
removed to a large house in Chiswell Street, and had an organ in his concert
room.2 After that, he had stated monthly concerts, which, for the convenience of
his friends, and that they might walk home in safety when the performance was
over, were on that Thursday in the month which was nearest the full moon ;
from which circumstance his guests were wont humourously to call themselves
' Luna-tics.' In the intervals of the performance the guests refreshed them-
selves at a sideboard, which was amply furnished ; and when it was over, sitting
down to a bottle of wine, and a decanter of excellent ale, of Mr. Caslon's own
brewing, they concluded the evening's entertainment with a song or two of
Purcell's sung to the harpsicord, or a few catches ; and, about twelve, retired."3
Mr. Caslon's hospitalities were not confined to his musical friends merely.
His house was a resort of literary men of all classes, of whom large parties
frequently assembled to discuss interesting matters relating to books and studies.4
Mr. Caslon was thrice married. His second and third wives were named
respectively Longman and Waters, and each had a good fortune. By his first
wife he had two sons and a daughter : William, who succeeded him at Chiswell
1 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.
2 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.
3 A General History of the Science and Practice of Music. London. 1776. 4to. Vol. v, 127.
4 The Rev. Dr. Lyttelton writes to Ames, April 25, 1744, " Some unforeseen business pre-
vents 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." —
Nichofs Illustrations of Literature, iv, 231.
246 The Old English Letter Fotmdries.
Street ; Thomas, who became an eminent bookseller in Stationers' Hall Court,
where he died in 1783, after having in the previous year served the office of
Master of the Stationers' Company ; and Mary, who married first Mr. Shewell,
one of the original partners in Whitbread's brewery, and afterwards Mr. Hanbey,
an ironmonger of large fortune. A brother of Mr. Caslon, named Samuel, is
mentioned by Rowe Mores, and appears to have served at Chiswell Street for a
short time as mould maker, leaving there subsequently, on some dispute, to work
in the same capacity for Mr. Anderton of Birmingham.
Mr. Caslon died, much respected, at Bethnal Green, on Jan. 23rd, 1766,
aged 74, and was buried in the Churchyard of St. Luke's, the parish in which
his three foundries were all situated. The monument to his memory, kept in
repair by bequest of his daughter, Mrs. Hanbey, is thus briefly inscribed : —
W. Caslon, Esq., ob. 23rd Jan., 1766, aetat 74.
A life-size portrait of him by Kyte is preserved at Chiswell Street, representing
him holding in his hand the famous Specimen Sheet of 1734.
William Caslon II issued in the year of his father's death a Specimen in
small quarto, bearing his own name and containing the same founts as those
exhibited in the 1764 book.1 This Specimen, consisting of thirty-eight leaves,
was again reprinted in 1770 by Luckombe in his History of Printing? of which
work it occupies pages 134 to 173.
About the year 1768 the Chiswell Street foundry was called upon to supply
a Syriac fount for the Oxford University Press, and Caslon produced the Long
Primer Syriac which occurs in his subsequent specimens. He had previously
. oi^x ricjo ia[o - lAoAm^o P ^oAjj *2>]
67. Long Primer Syriac, cut by Caslon II, circa 1768. (From the original matrices.)
supplied the University with a Long Primer Hebrew, and the old ledgers of the
foundry show that numerous transactions of a similar kind took place during
the latter half of last century.
In 1770, besides the specimen of Luckombe, another indirect specimen of
the Caslon types was issued by a Mr. Cornish, printer, in Blackfriars, in a very
1 Copies of which he continued to circulate, erasing with pen and ink the words " and
Son " from the title-page and advertisement.
2 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. Ltickombe, M.T,A, London, 1771. 8vq.
William Caslon.
HI
small form — 32mo — exhibiting a series of Romans, two founts of Black, and
three pages of flowers.
It was probably on the Specimen of 1766 that Rowe Mores founded his sum-
mary of the contents of the Caslon foundry ; and it will be interesting to
reproduce this list, as it presents a view of the state of the foundry as it then
existed, and, at the same time, distinguishes the authors of the several founts
with which it was supplied.
Rowe Mores seizes the opportunity afforded by this enumeration for
another sneer at Caslon II. " This is the best account," he says, "we can give of
this capital and beautiful foundery, the possessor of which refused to answer the
natural questions, because, forsooth, ' answering would be of no advantage
to us ; if we wanted letter to be cast, he would cast it.' But this we can do
ourselves."1
The summary is as follows : —
" Mr. CASLON'S
Orientals.
Hebrew. — 2 -line English.
[Caslon I]
Double Pica.
[Caslon II]
Great Primer.
do.
English.
[Caslon I]
English open.2
do.
Pica.
[Caslon II]
Long Primer.3
do.
Brevier.
do.
2-line Great Primer.
do.
Samaritan. — Pica.
[Dummers]
Syriac. — English.
[Polyglot]
Arabic. — English.
[Caslon I]
Armenian. — Pica.
do.
Meridionals.
Coptic. — Pica.
[Caslon I]
Ethiopic. — Pica.
do.
FOUNDERY.
Occidentals
Greek. — Double Pica.
Great Primer.
English.4
Pica.5
Long Primer.
Brevier.
Small Pica.
Nonpareil.
Etruscan. — English
Ro7nan and Italic—
[Caslon II]
do.
do.
[Head]-[Mitchell]
[Caslon I]
do.
[Caslon II]
do.
[Caslon I]
All the regulars.
Irregttlars and Titlings. — 5-line. [Caslon I]
4-line.6 do.
Canon. [Moxon]-[Andrews]
2 -line Double Pica. [Caslon II]
2-line Great Primer.7 [C aslon I]
2-line English.8 do.
2-line Pica full-face. [Mitchell]
1 Dissertation, p. 81.
2 Mores calls this " excavated" or " Hutter's leading-string" Hebrew. A specimen may be
seen in The Scholar's 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).
3 Mores omits a Small Pica Hebrew, which is the same as the Brevier shown in the sheet
of 1734.
4 6 t 8 These founts are not Head's or Mitchell's, as Mores states, but were cut by Caslon I,
and shown on the 1734 sheet.
6 The Pica Greek shown on the 1734 sheet was discarded in favour of this fount.
248
The Old English Letter Foundries.
Irregulars and Titlings. —
2-line Pica.
Paragon.
[Caslon II]
do.
Anglo-Saxon. — Long Primer.4
Brevier.
English. — Double Pica.
[Caslon I]
[Caslon II]
do.
Small Pica.
do.
Great Primer.
do.
Bourgeois.
Minion.
Nonpareil.
Pearl.1
do.
do
do.
do.
English.
English Modern. 5
Pica.6
Long Primer.
' [Head]-[Mitchell]
[Caslon II]
do.
do.
Proscription. — 20-line to 4-line.2
Septentrionals.
do.
Brevier.
2-line Great Primer.
Small Pica.7
[Caslon I]
[Caslon II]
do.
Gothic. — Pica.
[Caslon I]
Music. — Round Head.
do.
A nglo- Saxon. — Engli sh .
Pica.3
[Caslon II]
[Caslon I]
Flowers and the rest of the Apparatus.
Caslon II died in 1778, aged 58, and was buried in the family vault at St.
Luke's, the following line being added to his father's inscription :
Also W. Caslon, Esq. (son of the above) ob. 17 Aug., 1778, aetat. 58 years.
Of him, too, an excellent oil portrait is preserved at Chiswell Street. He
had married a Miss Elizabeth Cartlitch,8 a lady of beauty, understanding, and
fortune, who, during the latter years of her husband's life, had taken an active
share in the management of the foundry.
Mr. Caslon dying intestate, his property was divided equally between his
widow and her two sons, William and Henry, the chief superintendence of the
business devolving on William Caslon III, at that time quite a young man. The
chief event of the new regime was the issue of the admirable Specimen Book of
1785, a work which, for its completeness and excellent execution, has received
high approbation. It consists of sixty sheets, twenty-one of which are devoted to
Romans and Italics, ten to " learned " letter9 and Blacks, two to Music, two to
1 "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."
2 " Supported by arches." Doubtless cast in sand.
3 4 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.
5 6 " 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.' "
7 Mores omits here the Pica Black, cut by Caslon I, and shown on the sheet of 1734.
8 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.
9 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.
William C as I on. 249
Script, and no fewer than twenty-six to flowers arranged in artistic combinations
and designs. The volume is dedicated to King George III, Mr. Caslon
assuming the title allowed a century earlier to Nicholas Nicholls, of " Letter
Founder to His Majesty."
The "Address to the Public," which prefaces this Specimen, naturally lays
claim on behalf of the Caslon Foundry to the merit of having rescued the type
trade in England from the hands of foreigners. But it also suggests, by the
somewhat acrid tone in which it refers to its " opponents," that the competition
of the newly-established foundries of Cottrell, Fry, Wilson, and Jackson was
already beginning to tell on the temper of the third of the Caslons, who
evidently did not regard as flattery the avowed imitation of the Caslon models
by some of his rivals.1
The Specimen contains one new feature — a Double Pica Script — which,
however, is of no particular merit.
The year 1785 was prolific in Specimens of the Chiswell Street foundry.
In addition to the book above referred to, two folio Specimens, one an 8 pp.
large post-folio, and another a 6 pp. foolscap-folio, appeared, intended for use as
1 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.
K K
250 The Old English Letter Foundries.
inset plates to Encyclopaedias,1 in which the principal founts of the foundry,
Roman and Oriental, were displayed. In addition to this, there was issued a
2 pp. folio Specimen of large letter2 showing the sand-cast types of the foundry
in sizes from 19 to 7-line Pica.
In the preceding year Caslon III. had issued his specimen of Cast
Ornaments — the first of the kind exhibited by an English Founder — displaying
65 designs of various size and merit at prices ranging from 3d. to 7s. each. In his
introductory note to the second edition, dated July 20, 1786, he takes to himself the
credit of an invention " completed with infinite attention and at an inconceivable
expence," whereby the trade is in future to be supplied with typographic designs
equal to copperplate and less costly than the commonest wood-cuts. The
process thus originated was that of sharply impressing a wood block in cooling
metal so as to form a lead matrix from which to " dab " further impressions as
required. The specimen of 1785 contained a few small ships of imposing
appearance, but these were produced by the usual method of punch and matrix.
It does not appear that the third Caslon's connexion with the business
resulted in any large addition to its founts. As, however, no specimen book of
the Foundry is known between 1786 and 1805, *t is difficult to judge of its
progress during that period.
In the year 1792 Mr. Caslon disposed of his interest in the Chiswell Street
business to his mother and sister-in-law. Henry Caslon had died in 1788. He
had married Miss Elizabeth Rowe, a lady of good family,3 between whom and
their only son, Henry (at that time an infant of two years), he left his share
of the Foundry.
" It will not appear extraordinary," says Hansard, " that a property so
divided, and under the management of two ladies, though both superior and
indeed extraordinary women, should be unable to maintain its ground
triumphantly against the active competition which had for some time existed
against it. In fact, the fame of the first William Caslon was peculiarly
disadvantageous to Mrs. Caslon, as she never could be persuaded that any
attempt to rival him could possibly be successful."
Mrs. Caslon, sen., was an active member of the Association of Typefounders
1 The sheets appear (along with some of Fry & Son's and Wilson's) in Chamber?
Cyclopedia — incorporated in one Alphabet by Abraham Rees, London, 1784-86. 4 vols, folio.
2 These are sometimes (as in the case of the British Museum copy) bound up with the
1785 8vo specimen book as folding plates.
3 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.
William Caslon. 251
of her day, which first met in 1793. In this capacity she gained the esteem of her
fellow founders as well as of the printers, and on one occasion formed one of a
deputation of two to confer with the latter on certain questions affecting the
price of type.
She died from the effects of a paralytic stroke in October 1795.
The esteem in which she was held by all who knew her was amply testified
by numerous notices in the public prints of the day. " Her merit and abilities,"
says one, " in conducting a capital business during the life of her husband and
afterwards, till her son was capable of managing it, can only be known to those
who had dealings with the manufactory. In quickness of understanding and
activity of execution she has left few equals among her sex." And, in the same
strain, the Freemasons Magazine of March 1 796, thus speaks of her : " The
urbanity of her manners, and her diligence and activity in the conduct of so
extensive a concern, attached to her interest all who had dealings with her, and
the steadiness of her friendship rendered her death highly lamented by all
who had the happiness of being in the extensive circle of her acquaintance."
The latter .notice is accompanied by a portrait of this worthy lady.
Mrs. Caslon's will becoming the object of some litigation, her estate was
thrown into Chancery, and in March 1799, the Foundry was, by order of the
Court, put up for auction and purchased by Mrs. Henry Caslon for £520. The
smallness of this figure is the more remarkable since only seven years previously,
on the retirement of Caslon III., a third share of the concern had sold for ^"3000.
"On the decease of Mrs. Caslon," writes Hansard, in 1825, "the manage-
ment of the Foundry devolved on Mrs. Henry Caslon, who, possessing an
excellent understanding, and being seconded by servants of zeal and ability, was
enabled, though suffering severely under ill-health, in a great measure to retrieve
its credit. Finding the renown of William Cas-lon no longer efficacious in
securing the sale of his types, she resolved to have new founts cut. She
commenced the work of renovation with a new Canon, Double Pica and Pica,
having the good fortune to secure the services of Mr. John Isaac Drury, a very
able engraver, since deceased. The Pica, an improvement on the style of
Bodoni,1 was particularly admired, and had a most extensive sale. Finding
1 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, pub-
lished 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,
Grafs Poems, 1793, 4t0> Thomson's Seasons, 1794, folio and quarto. He died in 18 13, and his
widow finished and published in 18 18 the Manuale Tipografico, 2 vols.? royal 4to, a most
252 The Old English Letter Foundries.
herself, however, from the impaired state of her health, which suffered from
pulmonary attacks, unable to sustain the exertions required in conducting so
extensive a concern, she resolved, after the purchase of the Foundry, to take
as an active partner Mr. Nathaniel Catherwood, (a distant relation), who by his
energy and knowledge of business fully equalled her expectations. This
connection gave a new impetus to the improvements of the Foundry, which did
not cease during the lives of the partners, and their exertions were duly
appreciated and encouraged by the printers. In 1808 the character of the
Foundry may be considered as completely retrieved, but the proprietors did not
long live to enjoy their well-merited success. In 1799, Mrs. Henry Caslon had
married Mr. Strong, a medical gentleman, who died in 1 802. In the spring of 1 808
she was afflicted with a serious renewal of her pulmonary attack, in consequence
of which she was advised to try the effect of the air of Bristol Hotwells, which
probably protracted her life during a twelvemonth of extreme suffering, but
could not eradicate the fatal disease. Her fortitude and resignation under this
long continued, and helpless affliction could not be surpassed, and were truly
admirable. Her sufferings were terminated in March 1809, when sne was buried
in the Cathedral of Bristol. The worthy and active Mr. Nathaniel Catherwood
did not long survive his associate, being seized with a typhus fever which baffled
the medical art. He died on the 6th of June, aetat. 45, very generally
regretted."1 A portrait of Mrs. Strong is preserved at Chiswell Street.
In 1805 was published the first Specimen containing the new Romans of
Messrs. Caslon and Catherwood, among which, however, the Canon and Double
Pica referred to by Hansard are not included. The dates affixed to the various
specimens2 show that most of them were completed between 1802 and 1805, the
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."
1 Typographia, p. 352.
2 2-line Gt. Primer-1803 Pica 2 and 3-March, 1805 Bourgeois 1 and 2-July, 1802
Great Primer- May, 1802 Small Pica 1,2 and 3- July, 1804 Brevier 1 and 2-May, 1805
English i-August, 1802 Long Primer 1 2, and 3-July, Minion-May, 1805
English 2- April, 1805 1804. Nonpareil 1, 2-October, 1803.
William Caslon. 253
earliest being the Great Primer, dated May 1802. The Specimen also con-
tained the Caslon Orientals. In 1808 a further Specimen of the Romans,
including a few additional founts, appeared as a supplement to Stower's Printers'
Grammar}
These two Specimens, which are the only ones known to have been issued
during twenty-three years, indicate clearly the important revolution through
which the Chiswell Street Foundry, in common with all the other foundries of
the day, had passed in respect of the model of its characters. All the once
admired founts of the originator of the Foundry have been discarded, and
between the Specimen of 1785 and that of 1808 there is absolutely no feature
in common.2
On the death of his mother and her partner, Henry Caslon II assumed the
management of the business, and fully maintained its reputation. The former
name of the firm was retained, and a fresh specimen of Roman letters and modern
Blacks was issued about the year 18,12.
In 1 8 14 Mr. Caslon took into partnership Mr. John James Catherwood,3
brother to Mr. Nathaniel Catherwood, and in this association proceeded vigor-
ously with the improvement of the foundry. The partnership continued until
1821, during which period, says Hansard, "the additions and varieties made to
the stock of the Foundry have been : immense. Nothing that perseverance in
labour and unsparing effort could effect, either to meet the fashion and evan-
escent whim of the day, or with the superior view of permanent improvement,
has been wanted to keep the concern up to its long-established eminence, and to
enable it to rank high among the many able competitors of the present age. The
ancient stock can never be equalled — the modern never excelled."4
Among the more important accessions to the stock of the Foundry may
1 The Printers'1 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."
2 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.
3 " 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."
4 Typograpia, p. 353.
254
The Old English Letter Foundries.
be mentioned the acquisition in 1 817 of the Foundry of Mr. William Martin of
Duke Street, St. James's, which, as elsewhere stated,1 included several good
Roman and Oriental letters.
The partnership between Mr. Caslon and Mr. Catherwood being dissolved
in 1 82 1 by the withdrawal of the latter,2 Mr. Caslon admitted to a share of
the business Mr. Martin William Livermore, " who for many years," says Han-
sard, " had evinced ample talent, indefatigable zeal, and obliging attention, as
active foreman and manager of the mechanical department."
It is to be regretted that the absence of any specimen book between 18 12
and 1830, prevents us from forming any accurate idea of the development of the
Foundry during that period. It may be interesting, however, to quote the list
given by Hansard, of matrices of the " learned " languages in the Foundry at the
time when he wrote, i.e. 1825 \
Arabic. — English.
A rmenian.- — Pica.
Coptic. — Pica.
Ethiopic. — Pica.
Etruscan. — Pica.
German. — Pica, Long Primer, Brevier.
Greek. — Double Pica,3 Great Primer,4 Eng-
lish, Pica, Small Pica, Long Primer, Bour-
geois, Brevier, Nonpareil, Pearl, Dia-
mond.6
Gothic- — Pica.
Persian. — English.
Hebrew. — Two-line Great Primer, Two-line
English, Double Pica, Great Primer ;
ditto, with points; English ; ditto, with
points ; Pica ; ditto, with points ; Small
Pica, Long Primer, Bourgeois, Brevier.
Samaritan. — Pica.
Sanscrit. — English.6
Saxon. — English, Pica, Long Primer, Brevier.
Syriac. — English {Polyglot) Long Primer.
Music. — Large, Small.
Black. — Two-line Great Primer, Double Pica,
Great Primer, English, Pica, Small Pica,
Long Primer, Brevier, Nonpareil.
Messrs. Caslon and Livermore issued specimens in 1830 and 1834, the latter
appearing exactly one hundred years after the first broadside published by
William Caslon I.
We do not propose to continue the particular history of this venerable
Foundry beyond this date. It may, however, be interesting to take a rapid
survey of its subsequent career.
1 See post, chap. xvii.
2 See post, chap, xxi, s.v. Bessemer. In the Directory at the end of Johnson's Typographiat
1824 (ii, 652), a Catherwood is mentioned among the Letter Founders, Charles' Sq.f Hoxton.
3 4 Cut by William Martin.
6 This beautiful little fount was cut for Pickering's Greek Testament 1826, and for clear-
ness 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 speci
men of the type.
6 Cut for Dr, C. Wilkins, Oriental Librarian to the East India Company.
William Caslon. 255
Numerous specimens followed the Issue of 1834, that of 1839 bearing the title
of Caslon, Son, and Livermore, Letter-founders to Her Majesty's Board of Excise
— the new partner being Mr. Caslon's son, the late Mr. Henry William Caslon.
Shortly afterwards, Mr. Livermore's connexion with the business ceased, and the
next few specimens bear the name of Henry Caslon alone.
In 1843 a revival of the Caslon old-style letter took place under the fol-
lowing circumstances, which, as they initiated a new fashion in the trade
generally, call for reference here. In the year 1843, Mr. Whittingham of the
Chiswick press, waited upon Mr. Caslon to ask his aid in carrying out the then
new idea of printing in appropriate type The Diary of Lady Willoughby} a work
of fiction, the period and diction of which were supposed to be of the reign of
Charles I. The original matrices of the first William Caslon having been
fortunately preserved, Mr. Caslon undertook to supply a small fount of Great
Primer. So well was Mr. Whittingham satisfied with the result of his experiment,
that he determined on printing other volumes in the same style, and eventually
he was supplied with the complete series of all the old founts. Then followed a
demand for old faces, which has continued up to the present time.
An attempt to sell the Foundry in 1846,2 not being successful, the business,
again took the style of Caslon and Son.
Mr. Henry Caslon died May 28, 1850, and in the same year the important
step was taken of uniting the London Branch of the Glasgow Letter Foundry
with that of Chiswell Street, which was now carried on under the style of H. W.
Caslon and Co., Mr. Alexander Wilson, of the Glasgow Foundry, being for some
time associated with Mr. H. W. Caslon in the management.
In 1873, Mr. Caslon, being in ill health, retired, and died in the following
year. He was the last of his race, and the Chiswell Street Foundry, after an un-
interrupted dynasty of five generations, covering a period of nearly 160 years j
was by his death left without a Caslon to represent it. The management of the
business devolved on Mr. T. W. Smith, in whose hands it has since remained.
1 The Diary of Lady Willoughby -, as relates to her Domestic History in the Reign of King
Charles I. London, 1844. 4to.
2 Particulars of a most valuable property for Investment called the Caslon Letter
Foundry j 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.
256 The Old English Letter Foundries.
LIST OF SPECIMENS OF THE CASLON FOUNDRY, 1734-1830.
1734. A Specimen by William Caslon, Letter-founder in Chiswell Street, London. 1734. Large
post broadside. (Caslon.)
1738. A Specimen by William Caslon, Letter-founder in Chiswell Street, London. Large post
broadside. (Chambers' Cycl., 1738.)
1742. A Specimen by Caslon and Son, (referred to by Nichols, Lit. Anec, ii, 365). {Lost.)
1748. A Specimen by Caslon and Son (referred to by Nichols, Lit. Anec, ii, 721). {Lost.)
1749. A Specimen by William Caslon and Son, Letter- founders in Chiswell Street, London. 1749.
Large Broadside. (Sohmian Coll., Stockholm.)
1749. A Specimen of Mr. Caslon's Roman Letter, and the names of the sizes now in use.
(Ames' Typ. Antiq., p. 571.)
1763. A Specimen of Printing Types by William Caslon and Son. Printed by Dryden Leach,
London, 1763, 8vo, . (Amer. Antiq. Soc.)
1764. A Specimen of Printing Types by William Caslon and Son. Printed by Dryden Leach.
London, 1764. 4to and 8vo. (T. B. R.)
1766. A Specimen of Printing Types by William Caslon, Letter-founder, London. Printed by
John Towers. 1766. Small 4to. (B.M. T, 320, [11].)
1770. A Specimen of Printing Types by William Caslon, Letter-founder, London. 8vo.
(Luckombe's History of Printing, pp. 134-147.)
1770. A Specimen of Printing Types cast by Willam Caslon for the use of John Dixcey Cornish,
at Number 4, in Printing-House-Yard, Blackfriars, London. 1770. 32mo. (Caslon)
1784. A Specimen of Cast Ornaments on a new plan by William Caslon and Son. London.
1784. 8vo. (Sohmian Coll., Stockholm.)
1785. A Specimen of Printing Types by William Caslon, Letter-founder to His Majesty. London.
Printed by Galabin and Baker, 1785. 8vo. (B.M. 441, f. 14.)
1785. A Specimen of Large letter by William Caslon, London, 1785. Two sheets folio.
(B.M. 441, f. 14.)
1785. A Specimen of Printing Types by William Caslon, Letter-founder to His Majesty, 1785.
Folio, 8 pp. (Chambers' Cycl., 1784-6.)
1786. A Specimen of Cast Ornaments on a new plan by William Caslon, Letter-founder to His
Majesty. London. Printed by J. W. Galabin, 1786. 8vo. (B.M. 668, g. 17, [2].)
1805. Specimen of Printing Types by Caslon and Catherwood, Letter-founders, Chiswell Street,
London. T. Bensley, printer, London. 1805. 8vo. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1808. A Specimen of Caslon and Catherwood's modern-cut PrintingTypes. London, 1808. 8vo.)
(Stower's Printers' Grammar.)
n. d. Specimen of Printing Types by Caslon and Catherwood, Chiswell Street, London. T.
Bensley, printer, London. 18 12 ? 8vo. (Caslon.)
1830. Specimen of Printing Types by Caslon and Livermore, Letter-founders, Chiswell Street,
London. Bensley, Printer, 1830. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel. 4411.)
CHAPTER XII.
ALEXANDER WILSON, 1742.
N the early years of the 1 8th century, printing in Scotland
was in a condition even more depressed and unsatis-
factory than in England. Except in Glasgow and
Edinburgh the art was almost wholly neglected ; and in
those two cities the disadvantages at which printers were
placed, owing partly to restrictive patents and monopolies,
partly to jealousies among themselves, but chiefly to the
absence of any letter-foundry in their own country, were
sufficient bar to all prosperity, either as an industry or an art.
A graphic sketch of this lamentable state of affairs is given in James
Watson's History of Printing, published in Edinburgh in 171 3,1 a work which,
while professing to give a general history of the art, derives its chief interest
from the brief account of printing in Scotland given in the preface. That the
art was derived in that country from Holland the author entertains no doubt,
1 The History of the Art of Printing, containing an Account of its Invention and Progress
in Europe, with the itames of the famous Printers, the places of their birth and the works
printed by them, and a Preface by the Publisher to the Printers in Scotland. Edinburgh,
printed by James Watson. Sold at Ms shop opposite the Lticken Booths, and at the shops of
David Scot in the Parliament Close, and George Stewart a little above the Cross, 1713, i2mo.
Watson's preface is stated to have been written by John Spotswood, Advocate. The historical
portion is a condensed translation of De la Caille's Histoire de Vhnprimerie, published at
Paris in i68q.
L L
258 The Old English Letter Foundries.
and that it was indebted for its maintenance and any measure of excellence it
might claim to the same foreign source, he boldly asserts. It was the inter-
vention of Dutch workmen that mainly contributed to relieve the deadlock
into which the monopolies and patents of the 17th century had brought the trade
generally, and it was only by a continuous supply of Dutch workmen, Dutch
presses, and Dutch type that printing in Scotland was to be raised from its
present low condition. And, as a crowning argument, he exhibits with some
pride a selection of indifferent Dutch types and " Bloomers," with which his own
office is provided, as a suggestion of the excellence to which Scotch Typography
might yet attain.1 This avowal of entire dependence on foreign labour and
workmanship is significant ; and the absence of any suggestion for remedying
the evil by the establishment of a foundry in Scotland itself only emphasises
the helpless condition into which the art had sunk.
But although such a notion was too wild a dream for James Watson, others
of his countrymen were bold enough to entertain it, and we find that in 1725
a Scotch printer clearly represented to William Ged the disadvantage under
which the country laboured from having no foundry nearer than London or
Holland, and urged him to undertake the business. Of Ged's career we have
spoken elsewhere.2 He failed, and Scotch typography, despite the rising fame
of Caslon, might have remained many years longer in its depressed condition,
but for the accident which directed the genius of Alexander Wilson to letter-
founding.
Born at St. Andrews in 1714, young Wilson was originally intended for the
medical profession, and it was with a view to push his fortunes in that direction
that he came up to London in 1737 and took employment as assistant to a surgeon
and apothecary in the great city. While thus engaged he obtained an introduc-
tion to Dr. Stewart, physician to Lord Isla, afterwards Duke of Argyle, and in
this way came under the notice of his lordship. A common interest in scientific
pursuits, particularly astronomy, served to interest Lord Isla in the young
doctor's assistant, and during the term of his service in London Wilson devoted
much of his leisure to scientific study under the encouragement and favour of
his new patron.
Of his first introduction to typography, we quote the following account
given by Hansard on the authority of Alexander Wilson's son and grandson :3 —
1 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.
2 See ante, p. 218.
3 Typographia, p. 362.
68. From Hansard.
I face p. 258.
Alexander Wilson. 259
" While he was thus passing his time in a manner which he considered com-
fortable for one at his first entrance upon the world, a circumstance accidentally
occurred which gave a new direction to his genius, and which in the end led to an
entire change of his profession. This was a chance visit made one day to a letter-
foundry with a friend, who wanted to purchase some printing types. Having
seen the implements and common operations of the workmen usually shown to
strangers, he was much captivated by the curious contrivances made use of in
prosecuting that art. Shortly afterwards, when reflecting upon what had been
shown him in the letter-foundry, he was led to imagine that a certain great
improvement in the process might be effected ; and of a kind too, that, if
successfully accomplished, promised to reward the inventor with considerable
emolument. He presently imparted his idea on the subject to a friend named
Baine, who had also come from St. Andrews, and who possessed a considerable
share of ingenuity, constancy and enterprise. The consequence of this was, the
resolution of both these young adventurers to relinquish, as soon as it could be done
with propriety, all other pursuits, and to unite their exertions in prosecuting the
business of Letter Founding, according to the plan which had been contemplated
with a view to improvements. After some further deliberation, Mr. Wilson
waited upon his patron, Lord Isla, to whom he communicated his views, and the
design of embarking in this new scheme ;»and derived much satisfaction from his
Lordship's entire approbation and best wishes for his success.
" Mr. Wilson and Mr. Baine then became partners in the project, and having
taken convenient apartments, applied with great assiduity to the different
preparatory steps of the business. At an early stage they had proofs of
difficulties to an extent which had not been anticipated, and which, had their
magnitude been foreseen, would probably have altogether deterred them from
their attempt. But although they found their task grow more and more arduous
as their experience improved, it may yet be mentioned, as a fact which bespeaks
singular probity of mind, that they never once attempted to gain any insight
whatever through the means of workmen employed in any of the London
foundries, some of whom they understood could have proved of considerable
service to them."
Of the precise nature of the improved system of founding by which the two
young Scotchmen proposed to prosecute their undertaking, the narrative given
by Mr. Hansard affords no information. It has been suggested by some that it
was no other than that of stereotyping by a method similar to, or better than,
that attempted a few years earlier by Ged. But whatever it may have been,
further experiment failed to justify the scheme as one of practical utility, and
the two partners, who had by this time quitted the metropolis and returned to
260 The Old English Letter Foundries
"i> '
St. Andrews, determined to abandon it and to fall back on the ordinary method
of manufacturing type. " In their attempt to prosecute this speculation,"
continues Mr. Hansard, still quoting the narrative furnished him by Dr.
Wilson's successors, " they found themselves in a more sure, though still in a
difficult track, and in which they had no guide whatever but their own talent of
invention and mechanical ability ; and it was by the aid of these that they
carried things forward until, at length, they were enabled to cast a few founts of
Roman and Italic characters : after which they hired some workmen, whom
they instructed in the necessary operations, and at last opened their infant letter-
foundry at St. Andrews in the year 1742."
The Scotch printers were not slow in showing their appreciation of the
convenience afforded them by the establishment of a foundry in their midst, and
from the first Messrs. Wilson and Baine appear to have received liberal en-
couragement in their new venture. They added steadily to the variety of their
founts, and finding the demand for their type on the increase, not only in
Scotland, but in Ireland and North America, they decided in 1744 to remove
from St. Andrews to a more convenient centre at Camlachie, a small village a
mile eastward of Glasgow.
In 1747 the claims of their Irish business necessitated the residence of one
of the partners in Dublin.1 Mr. Baine was selected by lot for the duty, and
accordingly departed for Ireland, leaving Mr. Wilson at Camlachie. Two years
later the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. Baine quitted
the business to make an independent venture in type founding.2
1 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. 26472, 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.
2 For an account of Baine's subsequent career as a type-founder, see post, chap. xix.
Alexander Wilson. 261
Left to himself, Mr. Wilson actively prosecuted his business, and although
no specimen of the foundry is known to exist, either during the partnership
between Wilson and Baine, or, indeed, during the entire period of its location at
Camlachie, its productions very shortly attained some considerable celebrity.
" During his residence at Camlachie," says Mr. Hansard, " Mr. Wilson had
contracted habits of intimacy and friendship with some of the most respectable
inhabitants and eminent characters in that quarter, among whom may be par-
ticularly reckoned the professors of the University of Glasgow and Messrs. Robert
and Andrew Foulis, the University printers.1 The growing reputation of the
University Press, conducted by these latter gentlemen, afforded more and more
scope to Mr. Wilson to exercise his abilities in supplying their types ; and being
now left entirely to his own judgment and taste, his talents as an artist in the
line to which he had become devoted became every year more conspicuous."
"When the design was formed by the gentlemen of the University, together
with the Messrs. Foulis, to print splendid editions of the Greek classics, Mr.
Wilson with great alacrity undertook to execute new types, after a model highly
approved. This he accomplished, at an expense of time and labour which
could not be recompensed by any profits arising from the sale of the types
themselves. Such disinterested zeal for the honour of the University Press was,
however, upon this occasion, so well understood as to induce the University, in
the preface to their folio Homer} to mention Mr. Wilson in terms as honourable
to him as they had been justly merited."
Of this magnificent work — one of the finest monuments of Greek typography
1 These eminent printers, the most elegant typographers of which Scotland can boast, pro-
duced 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 i2mo 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.
2 Homeri Opera, Greece {ex edit. Sam. Clarke). Glasgiuzj in JEdibus Academicis excir
debant 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.
262 The Old English Letter Foundries.
which our nation possesses — it is sufficient to say that if the reputation of
Alexander Wilson depended on no other performance, it alone would give him
a lasting title to the distinction accorded to him in the preface, of "egregius
ille typorum artifex."1
I A I A A O X
TO TH2 AAOA.
MHNIN cletfre, OK A, tlnXvii^ico AXIAHOS
OvXofJLivviv, n fAugi Amatols ccXye Wyiks'
TloXXccg y i<p8if&*£ ^/v^ccc cc'ivi TTgo'lwyev
Hpwoov, c&vrxg 5' iXojgta, rev^e KvvtfTViv,
Qlcovoici re t&ot Aiog $ ereXeielo $xxh'
E^ S ^ rk 7C(>5)ra, hg-Yirw igivuvlc/A
Arpe&ng re, owot^ kvo^ojv, ^ Yiog AfciXXzvg.
T/V r ag (T$o)i Szm zgih ^vvtYize ~p.byi8fm\
AnrSg v-cii Aiog viog- 0 yko (hcuriXvii ^oXcoSetg
69. Double Pira Greek, cut by Alex. Wilson, 1756. (From the Glasgow If outer (Foulis) 1756-8.)
In 1760 Mr. Wilson was honoured with the appointment of the Practical
Astronomy Professorship in the University of Glasgow, about two years after
which the foundry was removed to the more immediate vicinity of the college.
After this appointment the further enlargement and improvement of the foundry
1 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 graecos expresserat jam apud nos, atque imitatione
accuratissima repraesentaverat Alexander Wilson, A.M., egregius ille Typorum artifex, quern
et hoc nomine adscripserat sibi Alma Mater. In his autem grandioris formae charac-
teribus Stephanianis id unum desiderari quodammodo videbatur, scilicet, si res ita ferre
posset, ut, salva. tamen ilia solidas magnitudinis specie qua delectantur omnes, existeret una
simul elegantias quiddam, magis atque venustatis. Rogatus est igitur ille artifex, ut, in hoc
assequendo solertiam suam, qua. quidem pollet maxima, strenne exercet. Quod et lubenter
aggresus est, et ad votum usque videtur consecutus vir ad varias ingenuas artes augendas
natus,"
Alexander Wilson. 263
devolved upon his two eldest sons ; and he lived to witness its rise under their
management to the highest reputation.
Among the later performances of Dr. Wilson, the most important was the
beautiful fount of Double Pica cut in 1768 for the 4I0 edition of Gray's Poems1
published by the Brothers Foulis, who in their preface made public acknowledg-
ment of the excellence of the letter and the expedition with which it had been
provided.2
Another high compliment was paid to Dr. Wilson's talents in 1775, when
Dr. Harwood, in the preface to his View of the Greek and Roman Classics*
singled out, along with Baskerville's types, the " Glasgow Greek types which have
not been used since the superb edition of Homer in 1757, and which are the
most beautiful that modern times have produced," as fit to form the nucleus of a
Royal typography for England, dedicated to the improvement of the " noblest
art which human genius ever invented."4
The first known specimen of the Glasgow Letter Foundry, as it was now
called, was published in 1 772. It is at least remarkable that no specimen of its
types should have been issued during the first thirty years of its successful career.
But although Rowe Mores mentions with approval a sheet by Baine, he had
apparently seen none bearing the name of Wilson.
The specimen of 1772, which dated from the College of Glasgow, consisted
of twenty-four 8vo leaves, and showed Roman and Italic only, in sizes from 5 -line
to Pearl, there being several faces to most of the bodies. Certain of these, it is
stated, are " conformable to the London types"; and the enterprising proprietors
undertake " to cast to any body and range, on receiving a few pattern types."
In 1783, another specimen was issued in a broadside form, in four columns,
and is usually to be met with in copies of Ephraim Chambers' Cycloptzdia,
enlarged by Rees, where it is inserted to illustrate the article "Printing."
1 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 Grafs 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."
2 u 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 expe-
ditiously, and with so much attention, characters of so beautiful a form."
3 A View of the Various Editions of the Greek and Roman Classics. London, 1775.
i2mo. Improved editions in 1778, 1782, and 1790.
4 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 Bibliotheque cPun Amateur. Paris,
1 8 19. 4 vols. 8vo. ii, 75.
264 The Old English Letter Foundries.
It shows Roman and Italic from 6-line to Pearl, with five sizes of Black, six of
Hebrew, and five of Greek, including the famous " Glasgow Homer" Double
Pica.1 The general appearance of the sheet is good, and the founts compare
favourably in shape and finish with those of any other foundry of the day. A
note to the specimen intimates that the founts shown form a portion only of the
contents of the Foundry. A full specimen appeared in 1786, and again in 1789,
the latter being a small 4to volume of 50 pages, showing very considerable
advance on its predecessors.2 A further specimen appeared in 181 5, showing the
modern cut letters of the Foundry.
With almost a monopoly, of the Scotch and Irish3 trade, the Glasgow
Foundry became in course of time a formidable rival to the London houses, whose
productions it contrived to undersell even in the English market. Its success,
however, raised up competitors with itself in Scotland, foremost among which
was the foundry of Mr. Miller, a former manager in the Glasgow Foundry.
In 1825 the proprietors of the Foundry were Messrs. Andrew and Alexander
Wilson, son and grandson to the originator. Hansard summarises their foreign
and learned founts at this date as follows:
Greek. — Double Pica [Glasgow Homer), Great Primer, English, Pica, Small Pica,
Long Primer (" Elzevir"), Brevier, Nonpareil.
Hebrew. — 2-line English, Double Pica, Great Primer, English,4 Pica, Small Pica,
Long Primer, Brevier, Minion, Nonpareil.
Saxon. — English, Pica, Small Pica, Long Primer, Brevier.
Black. — 2-line Great Primer, Double Pica, Great Primer, English, Pica, Long
Primer, Brevier, Nonpareil.
In 1828 another complete specimen appeared, showing the new series of
Romans from Double Pica to Diamond, Greek, and fifteen pages of flowers.
Mr. Andrew Wilson dying in 1830, the management of the business devolved
on his sons Alexander and Patrick, by whom it was decided, in 1832, to establish
a branch house in Edinburgh.
1 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).
2 In a later specimen is shown a " New Small Pica Italic " cut for the King's printer in
Edinburgh, 1807.
3 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.
4 This fount (according to Savage, Diet, 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 Sfihardim.
Alexander Wilson. 265
A handsome 4to specimen of the Roman letter of the Foundry was published
in 1833. This volume is interesting as being one of the first to show the letter
not only in the venerable " Quousque tandem" paragraph, but also in an English
garb.1 It includes also five pages of Greek, in which the Double Pica " Homer"
is still prominent, and two pages of Hebrew, but no other orientals.
In 1834 the important step was taken of transferring the Glasgow Foundry
to London, where, in premises at New Street, Gough Square, the business was
carried on.2
Briefly to trace the later vicissitudes of the Foundry we may add that, about
1834, a further development of the business was completed by the establishment
of a Foundry at Two-Waters in Hertfordshire, where it was expected the cost of
production would be considerably reduced by the cheaper labour attainable in the
country. A strike occurring in 1837 among the London workmen, the Gough
Square House was closed. In 1840 another branch was established at Dublin.
Despite the activity of Mr. Alex. Wilson and the continued excellence of his
types, the business declined. The latter years of his management were spent in
fruitless endeavours to supersede the old method of handcasting by machinery.
The various experiments made, however, (one of which was by the present Sir
Henry Bessemer, whose father3 had been a type-founder) failed, and tended
further to diminish Mr. Wilson's resources, until in 1845 be became bankrupt.
The London and Two-Waters Foundries being offered for sale by auction,
the principal part of the matrices were purchased by the proprietors of the
Caslon Foundry in 1850, Mr. Wilson remaining for some time with Mr. Caslon
as joint manager.
The Edinburgh branch of the business, started in 1832, had continued for
1 " 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 con-
cealing 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.
2 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.
3 See post, chap. xxi.
M M
266 The Old English Letter Foundries.
some time with Mr. Duncan Sinclair as managing partner. But on the latter
withdrawing from the concern and establishing himself as an independent
founder at Whiteford House, Edinburgh, about 1839, the management was
entrusted to Mr. John Gallie.
On the breaking up of the business, the plant of the Edinburgh and Dublin
branches was acquired by Dr. James. Marr, who, in association with Mr. Gallie,
carried on the business under the firm of Marr, Gallie, and Co. In 1853 it was
James Marr and Co., with branches in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Dr.
James Marr died in 1866, from which time till 1874, the business was carried on
by his widow, with Mr. John Blair as manager. In 1874 it was converted into
a Limited Company under the title of the Marr Typefounding Company,
Limited, who removed the business from the old premises in New Street,
Edinburgh, to Whiteford House, where it is still carried on.
Mr. Duncan Sinclair, between whose specimens and those of the Wilson
Foundry there was an obvious similarity, continued for some years at Whiteford
House, where his son, formerly manager at the Two-Waters branch of the Glas-
gow Foundry, subsequently joined him. They published specimens in 1840,
1842, and 1846 (which latter included a fount of "Gem"). In 1861 the Whiteford
House Foundry was in the hands of John Milne and Co., who published a quarto
specimen. In 1870 the contents of this foundry were dispersed at public auction,
and the premises, as already stated, were shortly afterwards taken by the Marr
Typefounding Company.
SPECIMEN BOOKS, 1783-1834.
4
1772. A Specimen of some of the Printing Types cast in the Foundery of Dr. A. Wilson and
Sons, College of Glasgow (Glasgow,) 1772. 8vo, 24 leaves. (B.M., B. 722, 8.)
1783. A Specimen of Printing Types . . The above are some of the sizes cast in the Letter
Foundery of Dr. Alex. Wilson and Sons, Glasgow. 1783. Broadside.
(Chambers' Cyclopcedia, 1784-6.)
1786. A Specimen of Printing Types cast in the Letter Foundry of Alex. Wilson and Sons,
Glasgow, 1786. 8vo. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1789. A Specimen of Printing Types cast in the Letter Foundry of Alex. Wilson and Sons,
Glasgow, 1789. Small 4to. (Caslon.)
1812. A Specimen of Modern Cut Printing Types by Alex. Wilson and Sons, Letter Founders,
Glasgow, 1812. 4to. (Caslon.)
181 5. A Specimen of Modern Cut Printing Types by Alex. Wilson and Sons, Letter Founders,
Glasgow, 1815. 4to. (Caslon.)
1823. A Specimen of Modern Printing Types by Alex. Wilson and Sons, Glasgow, 1823.
4to. (Caxt. Cel. 4402.)
Alexander Wilson.
267
1828. A Specimen of Modern Printing Types by Alex. Wilson and Sons, Letter Founders,
Glasgow, 1828. 4to. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1X33. A Specimen of Modern Printing Types cast at the Letter Foundry of Alex. Wilson
and Sons, Glasgow, 1833. 4to. (T. B. R.)
1833. A Specimen of Modern Printing Types cast at the Letter Foundry of Wilsons and
Sinclair, New Street, Edinburgh, 1833. 4to. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1834. A Selection from the Specimen Book of Alex. Wilson and Sons, Glasgow Letter
Foundry, Great New Street, Gough Square, London, 1834. 4to. . (Caslon.)
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CHAPTER XIII.
JOHN BASKERVILLE, 1752.
OHN BASKERVILLE was born at Wolverley, in the
county of Worcestershire, in the year 1706. He began
life as a footman to a clergyman, and at the age of twenty
became a writing-master in Birmingham. This occupation
he appears to have supplemented by, or exchanged for, that
of engraving inscriptions on tombstones and memorials ;
a profession in which he is said to have shown much
talent.1 In 1737 he was still engaged in teaching writing
at a school in the Bull-Ring, Birmingham, and is said to have written an
excellent hand. His artistic tastes led him afterwards to enter into the japanning
business, in which he prospered and became possessed of considerable property.
He purchased an estate on the outskirts of the town, to which he gave the name
of Easy Hill ; and here built a handsome house, in which he carried on his
business, and lived in considerable style.2
About the year 1750 his inclination for letters induced him to turn his
1 There still exists, in Mr. Timmins' collection of Baskerville relics, a slate tablet beauti-
fully engraved with the words " Grave Stones cut in any of the Hands by John Baskervill,
Writing Master," in which the admirable models of Roman and Italic for which he afterwards
became famous are clearly prefigured.
2 " His carriage,'' says Nichols, "each panel of which was a distinct picture, might be con-
sidered the pattern-card of his trade, and was drawn by a beautiful pair of cream-coloured
horses" {Lit. Anec, iii, 451).
S^yjZSM V-JJ£^$
70. From Hansard.
[face p. 26!
John Baskerville. 269
attention to typography, and to add to his business of a japanner that of a
printer,1
' 'The condition of printing in England at this period was still anything
but satisfactory. Fine printing was an art unknown ; and although under the
influence of Caslon's genius the press was recovering from the reproach under
which it lay at the beginning of the century, England was still very far behind
her neighbours both in typographical enterprise and achievement. Once more
it was left to an outsider to initiate the new departure ; and as in 1720 the art of
letter-founding had been roused from its lethargy by the genius of a gunsmith's
apprentice, so in 1750 the art of printing was destined to find its deliverer in the
person of an eccentric Birmingham japanner. Whatever may be the judgment
of posterity as to the merits of Baskerville's performances, to him is undoubtedly
due the honour of the first real stride towards a higher level of national
typography ; an example which became the incentive to that outburst of
enthusiasm — that " matrix and puncheon mania," as Dibdin terms it — which
brought forth the series of splendid typographical productions with which the
eighteenth century closed and the nineteenth opened.
Baskerville's first essay in his new enterprise was deliberate, and gave ample
proof of the enthusiasm of the man. Six years elapsed before any work issued
from his press. During that period he is said to have sunk upwards of £600? in
the effort to produce a type sufficiently perfect to satisfy his fastidious taste.
He engaged the best punch-cutters that could be had,3 in addition to which he
made his own moulds, chases, ink, presses, and, indeed, almost the entire
apparatus of the art. /
The following extracts from letters in the possession of Mr. S. Timmins, to
whose industrious researches the student of typography is indebted for much
new light on the history of Baskerville's career, and to whose courtesy we are
indebted for the present opportunity of placing them before our readers, will
1 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 Basker-
ville'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.
2 Dibdin {Intr. to Classics, ii, 555) says ^800.
3 "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-)
270 The Old English Letter Foundries.
best describe the marvellous industry and enthusiasm which carried our printer
to the successful issue of his great enterprise. The letters form part of a corre-
spondence between Baskerville and his friend R. Dodsley, the publisher, respecting
the preparations for his earliest printing venture : —
Baskerville to R. Dodsley. 2nd October 1752.
" To remove in some measure your impatience, I have sent you an impression of
fourteen punches of the Two-lines Great Primer, which have been begun and finished in
nine days only, and contain all the letters Roman necessary in the Titles and Half-
titles. I cannot forbear saying they please me, as I can make nothing more correct,
nor shall you see anything of mine much less so. You'll observe they strike the eye
much more sensibly than the smaller characters, tho' equally perfect, till the press
shows them to more advantage. The press is creeping slowly towards perfection. I
natter myself with being able to print nearly as good a colour and smooth a stroke as
the enclosed. I should esteem it a favour if you'd send me the Initial Letters of all
the Cantos lest they should not be included in the said fourteen, and three or four pages
of any part of the Poem from whence to form a Bill for the casting a suitable number
of each letter. The R wants a few slight touches, and the Y half an hour's correction.
This day we have resolutely set about thirteen of the same siz'd Italic Capitals, which
will not be at all inferior to the Roman, and I doubt not to complete them in a fortnight.
You need, therefore, be in no pain about our being ready by the time appointed. Our
best respects to Mrs. Dodsley and our friend, Mr. Beckett."
Baskerville to R. Dodsley. 19th October 1752.
" As I proposed in my last, I have sent you impressions from a candle of twenty
Two-lines Great Primer Italick, which were begun and finished in ten days only. We
are now about the figures, which are in good forwardness, and changing a few of those
letters we concluded finished. My next care will be to strike the punches into copper
and justify them with all the care and skill I am master of. You may depend on
my being ready by your time (Christmas), but if more time could be allowed, I should
make use of it all in correcting and justifying. So much depends on appearing perfect
on first starting . . ."
Baskerville to R. Dodsley. 16th January 1754.
" I have put the last hand to my Great Primer, and have corrected fourteen letters
in the specimen you were so kind to approve, and have made a good progress in the
English, and have formed a new alphabet of Two-line Double Pica and Two-line
Small Pica capitals for Titles, not one of which I can mend with a wish, as they come
up to the most perfect idea I have of letters."
He then details his scheme for obtaining absolutely correct texts of the
works he is about to print, as follows : —
" 'Tis this. Two people must be concerned ; the one must name every letter,
capital, point, reference, accent, etc., that is, in English, must spell every part of every
word distinctly, and note down every difference in a book prepared on purpose. Pray
oblige me in making the experiment with Mr. James Dodsley in four or five lines of
John Baskerville. 271
any two editions of an author, and you'll be convinced that it's scarcely possible for the
least difference, even of a point, to escape notice. I would recommend and practise the
same method in an English author, where most people imagine themselves capable of
correcting. Here's another great advantage to me in this humble scheme ; at the
same time that a proof sheet is correcting, I shall find out the least imperfection in
any of the Types that has escaped the founder's notice. I have great encomiums on
my Specimen from Scotland."
The concluding sentence of this letter probably refers to the public
announcement of the forthcoming quarto Virgil} put forward about this time,
together with a specimen of the type. This most interesting document, a very
few copies of which still exist, is in the form of a quarto sheet, headed, "A
Specimen by John Baskerville, of Birmingham, in the County of Wanvick, Letter
Founder and Printer? It displays the Roman and Italic of the Great Primer
fount, and is remarkable not only as a piece of exquisite printing,2 but as the first
known specimen of the famous Birmingham foundry.
The following letters refer principally to the progress and completion of the
Virgil : —
Baskerville to R. Dodsley. Birmingham, 20th December 1756.
" I shall have Virgil out of the press by the latter end of January, and hope to
produce the Volume as smooth as the best paper I have sent you. Pray, will it not be
proper to advertize how near it is finishing, and beg the gentlemen who intend favouring
me with their names, to send them by that time ? When this is done, I can print
nothing at home but another Classick (a specimen of which will be given with it) which
I cannot forbear thinking a grievous hardship after the infinite pains and great expense
I have been at. I have almost a mind to print a pocket Classick in one size larger
than the old Elzevirs, as the difference will, on comparison, be obvious to every Scholar ;
nor should I be very sollicitous whether it paid me or not."
R. Dodsley to Baskerville. 10th February 1757.
" The account you give me of the Virgil pleases me much, and I hope you will
in that have all the success your heart can wish. I beg if you have any objection,
addition or alteration to make in the following Advertisement you will let me know by
return of post : —
1 "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 in-
clined 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, Book-
sellers in Pall Mall, London."
2 Of the two copies in the possession of Mr. S. Timmins, one is printed on very fine bank-
note paper, and the other, more heavily, on a coarse brown.
2^2 The Old English Letts?' Foundries.
"'To the Public.
" 'John Baskerville of Birmingham thinks proper to give notice that having now
finished his Edition of Virgil 'in one Volume, Quarto, it will be published the latter end
of next month, price one guinea in sheets. He therefore desires that such gentlemen
who intend to favour him with their names, will be pleased to send them either to
himself at Birmingham, or to R. and J. Dodsley in Pall Mall, in order that they may
be inserted in the list of his encouragers.' "
R. Dodsley to Baskervttle. April 7, 1757.
" I am very sorry I advertised your Virgil to be published last month as you have
not enabled me to keep my word with the public ; but I hope it will not be delayed
any longer, as every day you lose now the season is so far advanced, is certainly a
great loss to you. I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you and it together.
However, if the delay is occasioned by your making corrections, I think that a point
of so much consequence, that no consideration should induce you to publish till it is
quite correct. As to the ornamented paper, I will lower the price since you think it
proper, but am still of opinion that it will not sell at our end of the town, tho' for what
reason I cannot imagine. ... I like exceedingly your specimen of a Common
Prayer, and hope you are endeavouring to get leave to print one. There is an error in
the Exhortation, shall for should. Your small letter is extremely beautiful ; I wish
I could advise you what to print with it. What think you of some popular French
book — Gil Bias, Moliere, or Telemaque? In the specimen from Melmoth I think you
have used too many Capitals, which is generally thought to spoil the beauty of printing ;
but they should never be used to adjectives, verbs, or adverbs. My best compliments
attend your whole family."
At length, after repeated delays, caused mainly by the nervous fastidiousness
of the printer, who even corrected his work currenti prelo up to the last moment, the
famous Virgil appeared in 1757/and with its publication Baskerville's reputation
was made. Being the earliest performance of this press, the volume possesses a
peculiar interest among the productions of English typography. Opinions
may differ as to some of the eulogies pronounced on it by bibliographers and
bibliophiles,2 but as a typographical curiosity,3 and as a pioneer of fine printing
in our midst, it is a work to be treasured and reverenced.
1 Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, Georgica, et JEneis. Birminghamice Typis yohannis
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 nth Books of the JEneid are headed "Liber Decimus. ^Eneidos", and "Liber
Undecimus. ^Eneidos", whereas in the re-impression they appear, uniform with the other titles,
"^Eneidos Liber Decimus." "^Eneidos Liber Undecimus.'' A Virgil was printed in 8vo, in
1766.
2 " 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).
3 " 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).
John Baskerville. 273
From a letter-founder's point of view its chief interest consists in its being
the earliest book printed in the type of the new Birmingham foundry. The fount
used is a Great Primer, slender and delicate in form, combining, as Dibdin says,
in a singularly happy manner, the elegance of Plantin with the clearness of the
Elzevirs. The Italic letter was specially admired for its freedom and symmetry —
qualities in which it excelled even the beautiful founts of Aldus and Colinseus.
Baskerville's merit met with prompt recognition in many quarters, amongst
others, by the Delegates of the Oxford Press, who, in 1758 (apparently on his
own application), entrusted him with the cutting and casting of a new Greek
fount for their own use. A record of this important transaction remains in the
following Minutes of the Delegates : —
"June 6, 1758. — Present (among others) Dr. (Sir W.) Blackstone. Ordered that
this Delegacy will at their next meeting take into consideration Mr. Baskerville's
Proposals for casting a Set of new Greek Types.
"July 5, 1758. — Ordered that Dr. Blackstone be empowered to agree with Mr.
Baskerville of Birmingham to make a new set of Greek Puncheons, matrices and
moulds, in Great Primer, for the Use of the University, and also to cast therein 300
Weight of Types, at the Price of 200 Guineas for the whole. And that he and Mr.
Prince (Warehouse-keeper) do give proper Directions for that Purpose.
"Jan. 31, 1759. — Agreed that Mr. Musgrave have leave to print his Euripides at
the University Press on Mr. Baskerville's Types as soon as they arrive.1
"March u, 1761. — Ordered, That a Greek Testament in Quarto and Octavo be
printed on Baskerville's Letter, and three or four Gentlemen of Learning and Accuracy
be desired separately to correct the Proofs.
"June 23, 1761. — 500 copies in Quarto and 2,000 in Octavo ordered to be
printed."
In the accounts for 1761 the following entry records the conclusion of the
business : —
" To Mr. Baskerville for Greek Types . . . . ^210 o o."
Considerable expectation was aroused by this order, which was considered
of sufficient importance to deserve mention in the public press, as the following
extract from the St. James's Chronicle of September 5, 1758, testifies : —
/'"The University of Oxford have lately contracted with Mr. Baskerville of
Birmingham for a complete Alphabet of Greek Types of the Great Primer size ; and it
is not doubted but that ingenious artist will excel in that Character, as he has already
done in the Roman and Italic, in his elegant edition of Virgil, which has gained the
applause and admiration of most of the literati of Europe, as well as procured him the
esteem and patronage of such of his own countrymen as distinguish themselves by
paying a due regard to merit." / )
The anticipations thus expressed were destined to be disappointed ; for
1 Other type was used for this work.
N N
274 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Baskerville's genius appears to have failed him in his efforts to reproduce a
foreign character. Even before the appearance of the Oxford Greek Testament,
which did not occur till 1763, rumours of the failure of this undertaking had
begun to circulate. Writing in 1763/ respecting a forthcoming Greek Testament
of his own, Bowyer says, " Two or three quarto Editions on foot, one at Oxford,
far advanced on new types by Baskerville, — by the way, not good ones."1
The appearance of the work in question2 justified, to some extent, the
criticism. Regular as the Greek character is, it is stiff and cramped, and, as
Dibdin says, " like no Greek characters I have ever seen." Rowe Mores goes to
the length of styling it "execrable"; and Bowyer appears to have had it specially
in mind when he said to Jackson that the Greek letters commonly in use were
no more like Greek than English.
Be this as it may, Baskerville made no further excursions into the foreign
and learned languages, and, fortunately (as we consider) for his reputation,
confined his talents to the execution of the characters of his native tongue, a
branch of the art in which he had no rival.
The punches, matrices and some of the types of this interesting fount are
still preserved at Oxford,3 and are the only relics in this country of Baskerville's
letter-foundry. We are particularly glad, therefore, to be able to present here,
in addition to the annexed facsimile from the Specimen of 1768-70, a line printed
from the actual type cast by Baskerville in 1761 : —
TIATEP raicov 6 iv to7c, ovpavo~$9
1 Lit. Anec.,n, 411.
2 " H Kaipj] A.ia6rjK7]. Novum Testa?nentum juxta exemplar Millianum. Typis Joannis
Baskerville. Oxoftii e Typographeo Clarendoniano. 1763. Stemptibus Academia:, 4to and
8vo.
3 Some of the Punches were exhibited by the University Press at the Caxton Exhibition
in 1877. Since then, thanks to the energy of the present Controller, Mr. Horace Hart, to whom
we are indebted for the above extracts and specimens, the matrices of the fount have come
to light as well as the punches and matrices of the two-line letters and figures belonging to it.
These were exhibited at the British Association Meeting at Birmingham in August 1886, being
catalogued as follows : —
" Punchions of the Great Primer Greek — a large proportion of the fount, but not the whole.
" Matrices of the same.
" Punchions of the Two-line Great Primer, with Initial Letters. Complete.
" Matrices of the same, also complete.
" Punchions of one set of Figures, supplied with the above.
" Matrices of the same."
Still more recently, Mr. Horace Hart has been fortunate enough to discover part of the
actual type in its original cases. It is interesting to note that these types, which are of rather
a soft metal, are cast to the Oxford Learned-Side "height-to-paper."
Great Primer Greek. N° i.
(Caft by Bajkervilk.)
ABrAEZHQIK
ABrAEZH0IKAMNS0nP2Tr$XWn
XAI pLsrd Tavra i?Wa (pcovriv oyXov &oXXh
fjisyaXriv iv to) xpavo), XeyovToc,' 'AXXrtX&'a'
$ aoTtjgia xal r[ hoZa ml r\ ri\u\ xal r\ &iva//f$ Ku-
piop tc5 6so) yum* "On dXtftivai xal fiixaiat aJ
xgiaei$ avrS* on expm ty[v zsopvr\v ti\v jLt^aXqy,
jjfr/£ sapQeips rrfv yjfv iv nj tsogvsia avTtfc, xal e&-
iixr\OB to aTua tcov SiXcov aurS eh rfc x£lP% au"
rrjt;. Kal hsmspov eipr\xav 'AXXr\X£ia. Kal 6
xaitvoc, aur${ dvaSahei «; t«$ alcovac, tcov clicqvqv.
Kal eteaov oi tipsafivrspoi oi eixoai xal reojapet;,
xal ra riojapa £c5a, xal itpoosxyv^av rco Geo) to)
xa^riiisvo} hi r§ 3-povx, Xiyovlsc,* 'Apiy* 'AXXri-
Asi'a. Kal <pamj ex tS 5fov» iZqXds, XtyxGa* AU
mt£ tov Gsov riiJLM &dm(, ol foXoi avT$, xal oi
(poS^svoi dwov xal oi \iixpol xal oi neydXoi, Kal
»/Wa cot; (pcovjjv o^Aa sroAAS, xal cot; (pawjv vM-
tcov croAAwv, xal (o\ (pcovriv fiponw i%vpcov9 Xi-
?ovra$.
71 Baskerville's Greek. (P'rom the Oxford Specimen of 1768-70.)
[Face f. 274.
John Baskcrville. 275
Among the other important works which, says Mr. Nichols, " Baskerville /
printed with more satisfaction to the literary world than emolument to himself," /
(his Paradise Lost, in 4to, printed in 1758,1 is of signal merit and beauty. As a
work of fine printing, it equals, if it does not excel, the Virgil. " The type",
observes Hansard (who speaks of it as a Pica instead of an English) " is mani-
festly an improvement on the 'slender and delicate' mentioned by Mr. Dibdin';
I should think it, on the contrary, approaching to the embonpoint, and admirably
calculated by extending the size (if in exact proportion), for works of the
largest dimensions. The Italic possesses much room for admiration. . . . This
work will, in my opinion, bear a comparison, even to its advantage, with those
subsequently executed by the first typographer of our age. There is a clearness,
a soberness, a softness, and at the same time a spirit, altogether harmonising,
in Baskerville's book, that neither of the others with which I am comparing it, can,
I think, fairly claim."2
In his preface to the Paradise Lost, Baskerville gives an interesting account
of his own labours and ambitions as a letter-founder. He says : —
" Amongst the several mechanic Arts that have engaged my attention, there is no
one which I have pursued with so much steadiness and pleasure as that of Letter
Founding. Having been an early admirer of the beauty of Letters, I became insensibly
desirous of contributing to the perfection of them. I formed to myself ideas of
greater accuracy than had yet appeared, and have endeavoured to produce a Sett of
Types according to what I conceived to be their true proportion.
"■Mr. Caslon is an artist to whom the Republic of Learning has great obligations ;
his ingenuity has ileft a fairer copy for my emulation than any other master. In his
great variety of Characters I intend not to follow him ; the Roman and Italic are all I
have hitherto attempted : if in these he has left room for improvement it is probably
more owing to that variety which divided his attention, than to any other cause. I
honour his merit and only wish to derive some small share of Reputation from an
Art which proves accidentally to have been the object of our mutual pursuit.
" After having spent many years, and not a little of my fortune, in my endeavours
to advance this art ; I must own it gives me great satisfaction to find that my edition of
Virgil has been so favorably received . . .
" It is not my desire to print many books ; but such only as are books of Consequence,
of intrinsic merit, or established Reputation, and which the public may be pleased
to see in an elegant dress, and to purchase at such a price as will repay the extra-
ordinary care and expence that must necessarily be bestowed upon them ... If
1 Paradise Lost, etc., Paradise Regairid, 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. >
2 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 i 757, or the Milton of 1758, /
276 The Old English Letter Foundries.
this performance {i.e., the Milton) shall appear to persons of judgment and penetration
in the Paper, Letter, Ink, and Workmanship to excel, I hope their approbation may
contribute to procure for me,- what would indeed be the extent of my Ambition, a
power to print an Octavo Prayer Book, and a Folio Bible."
Both these ambitions were in due time fulfilled. In 1758 Baskerville had
applied for the post of Printer to the University of Cambridge, an office which
he obtained, with permission to print the folio Bible, and two editions of the
Common Prayer in three sizes. This learned body, however, appear to have
been influenced in the transaction more by a wish to fill their own coffers than by
a desire to promote the interests of the Art ; and the heavy premiums exacted
from Baskerville for the privilege thus accorded effectually deprived him of any
advantage whatever in the undertaking. He continued to hold this unsatis-
factory office till 1766.
Meanwhile he had laboured assiduously to complete his promised series of
the Roman and Italic faces. At the time of the publication of the Virgil, he
put forward a quarto sheet containing specimens of the Great Primer, English.
Pica, and Brevier Roman, and Great Primer and Pica Italic, beautifully printed.
This sheet, which is noted by Renouard,1 and which is occasionally found bound
up with copies of the Virgil, was very shortly followed, about the end of
the year 1758, by a larger and more general specimen, consisting entirely of
Roman and Italic letter in eight sizes, viz. : — Double Pica, Great Primer,
English, Pica, Small Pica, Long Primer, Bourgeois and Brevier. Of the two
last, Roman only is shown. The whole is arranged in two columns on a
broadside sheet, with appropriate titlings, and forms a beautiful display. Although
the only copy we have seen is printed on a greenish paper, somewhat coarse, the
Specimen exceeds in elegance and uniformity most, if not all, the productions of
contemporary founders.2
It may be worth noting here that in point of body Baskerville appears to
1 Catalogue de la Bibliotheque dun Amateur, i, 310. After noticing the folio specimen
following, he says : " Un autre essai de Baskerville, sur une plus petite feuille, contient seul-
ment quatre caracteres romains et deux en italique . . . Outre cette ^preuve de grand essai,
j'ai l'un et l'autre rdunis a 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.
2 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 vertii"
(Nichols, Illust. Lit., i, 813).
XVIII.
The Fifth ODE of Horace, Lib. I.
Quismulta gracilis tepuer in rofa, rendred almqfl word for
word without rime, according to the Latin meafure, as
near as the language will permit.
WH ATflender youth bedew'd with liquid odors
Courts thee on rofes in fome pleafant cave,
Pyrrha? for whom bind' ft thou
In wreaths thy golden hair,
Plain in thy neatnefs? O how oft mail he 5
On faith and changed Gods complain, and feas
Rough with black winds and ftorms
Unwonted fhall admire!
72. Baskerville's English Roman and Italic. (From the Milton, 1758.)
{/ace p. 276
John Baskerville. 277
have followed an independent course ; most of his bodies, even the Pica, varying
from the usual standards. The punches of the Greek fount, preserved at
Oxford, show marks of high finish, although unnecessarily, as it seems to us,
rounded in the stem. It is probable that these and the other punches of
his foundry were not his own handiwork, but cut by skilled artists under his
critical supervision.
Unfortunately, very little is known of the operations of the Birmingham
foundry as a trade undertaking. It is even doubtful whether, at first, Basker-
ville supplied his types to any press but his own ; indeed, the activity of that
press during the period when it was in the height of its prosperity was such that
it is unlikely its proprietor would encumber himself with the duties of a letter-
founder to the trade in general.
The magnificent works1 which between 1759 and 1772 continued to issue
from his press not only confirmed him in his reputation, but raised his name to
an unique position among the modern improvers of the art. The paper, the type
and the general execution of his works were such as English readers had not
hitherto been accustomed to, while the disinterested enthusiasm with which,
regardless of profit, he pursued his ideal, fully merited the eulogy of the printer-
poet who wrote : —
" O Baskerville ! the anxious wish was thine
Utility with beauty to combine ;
To bid the o'erweening thirst of gain subside ;
Improvement all thy care and all thy pride ;
When Birmingham — for riots and for crimes
Shall meet the long reproach of future times,
Then shall she find amongst our honor'd race,
One name to save her from entire disgrace."2
Baskerville's third specimen sheet, undated, but probably issued in 1762, is an
exquisitely printed large folio on highly glazed white paper. It completes the
series of Roman and Italic displayed in the former sheet with a Nonpareil, and
the whole is surrounded by an elegant light border. It is incomparably the most
beautiful type-specimen of its day, although it must be admitted that not a little
of its beauty is due to the brilliancy of the ink and the gloss of the paper.
Despite the applause bestowed on him, and the acknowledged excellence of
his work, Baskerville failed to make his new business a paying one. His letter
1 Amongst which should be particularly singled out the Horace in i2mo printed in 1762,
which Dr. Harwood describes as "the most beautiful little book, both in regard to type and
paper, I ever beheld."
2 The Press, a poem. Published as a Specimen of Typography by John McCreery. Liver-
pool, 1803, 4to. p. 19.
The Old English Letter Foundries.
&
to Horace Walpole in 1762 best details the history of his struggles and
disappointments : —
" To the Hon'ble Horace Walpole, Esq., Member of Parliament, in
Arlington Street, London, this :
Easy Hill, Birmingham, 2 Nov. 1762.
"Sir, — As the Patron and Encourager of Arts, and particularly that of Printing,1
I have taken the Liberty of sending you a Specimen of Mine, begun ten Years ago at
the age of forty-seven, and prosecuted ever since with the utmost Care and Attention,
on the strongest Presumption, that if I could fairly excel in this divine Art, it would
make my Affairs easy or at least give me Bread. But alas ! in both I was mistaken.
The Booksellers do not chuse to encourage Me, though I have offered them as low
terms as I could possibly live by ; nor dare I attempt an Old Copy till a Law Suit
relating to that affair is determined.
" The University of Cambridge have given me a Grant to print their 8vo and i2mo
Co7nmon-Prayer Books, but under such Shackles as greatly hurt me. I pay them for
the former twenty and for the latter twelve pounds ten shillings the thousand ; and to
the Stationers' Company thirty-two pound for their permission to print one edition of
the Psalms in Metre to the small Prayer Book; add to this the great expense of
Double and treble carriage, and the inconvenience of a printing house an hundred
Miles off. All this Summer I have had nothing to print at Home. My folio Bible is
pretty far advanced at Cambridge, which will cost me near ^2000 all hired at 5 per
cent. If this does not sell, I shall be obliged to sacrifice a small patrimony which
brings me in ^74 a year to this business of Printing, which I am heartily tired of and
repent I ever attempted. It is surely a particular hardship, that I should not get
Bread in my own country (and it is too late to go abroad) after having acquired the
Reputation of excelling in the most useful Art known to mankind ; while everyone
who excels as a Player, Fiddler, Dancer, &c, not only lives in Affluence, but has it in
their power to save a Fortune.
" I have sent a few Specimens (same as the enclosed) to the Courts of Russia and
Denmark, and shall endeavour to do the same to most of the Courts in Europe ; in
hopes of finding in some of them a purchaser of the whole scheme, on the Condition
of never attempting another Type. I was saying this to a particular Friend, who
reproached me with not giving my own Country the Preference, as it would (he was
pleased to say) be a national Reproach to lose it : I told him nothing but the greatest
Necessity would put me upon it ; and even then I should resign it with the utmost
reluctance. He observed the Parliament had given a handsome Premium for a great
Medicine ; and he doubted not, if My Affair were properly brought before the House
of Commons, but some Regard would be Paid to it. I replied I durst not presume to
Petition the House, unless encouraged by some of the Members, who might do me
the honour to promote it ; of which I saw not the least hopes or probability. Thus,
Sir, I have taken the Liberty of laying before you my Affairs without the least
Aggravation ; and humbly hope your patronage : To whom can I apply for Pro-
1 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,
John Baskerville. 2jg
tection, but the Great who alone have it in their power to serve me ? I rely on your
candour as a Lover of the Arts and to excuse this Presumption in your most obedient
and most humble servant John Baskerville.
" P.S. — The folding of the Specimens will be taken out by laying them for a short
time between damped Papers. N.B. — The Ink, Presses, Chases, Moulds for Casting,
and all the apparatus for Printing were made in my own shops."1
The folio Bible1 referred to in this letter has always been regarded as
Baskerville's magnum opus, and is his most magnificent as well as his most
characteristic specimen. It duly appeared in Cambridge in 1763, in a beautiful
Great Primer type, fully meriting the applause which it evoked. It had been
preceded in 1760 by some very elegant editions of the Book of Common Prayer?
all published at Cambridge in his capacity of University printer.
After the publication of the Bible, Baskerville wearied of his profession of
printing, disheartened alike by the poor pecuniary returns for his labours, and
the unfriendly criticism pronounced in various quarters upon his performances.
Despite the splendid appearance of his impressions, the ordinary English printers
viewed with something like suspicion the meretricious combination of sharp type
and hot-pressed paper which lent to his sheets their extraordinary brilliancy.4
They objected to the dazzling effect thus produced on the eye ; they found fault
with the unevenness of tone and colour in different parts of the same book, and
even discovered an irregularity and lack of symmetry in some of his types, which
his glossy paper and bright ink alike failed to disguise.
That these strictures were not wholly the result of prejudice and jealousy, a
careful examination of Baskerville's printed works in the light of the modern
1 The original of this important letter, with the specimen attached, is in Mr. Timmins's
possession.
2 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 co?mnand. 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.
3 The Book of Common Prayer, Cambridge, 1 760, roy. 8vo, (with long lines) ; 1 760, roy. 8vo,
(in double columns); 1761, roy. 8vo ; 1762, roy. 8vo (with long lines): 1762, i2mo.
4 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
1 on all simultaneously. However well the method may have answered at the time, the dis-
/ coloration of his books still preserved in the British Museum and elsewhere, shows that the
{ brilliance thus imparted was most tawdry and ephemeral.
:§o The Old English Lettei- Foundries.
&
canons of fine printing will prove. Even his warmest admjrers, like Fournier,1
tempered their praise with some reservation ; while hostile critics, like Mores,
summarily denied him a place among letter-cutters at all.2
Of the prejudice rife against Baskerville at this time, an amusing anecdote
is preserved in a letter of Benjamin Franklin to our printer, dated 1760 : —
"Craven Street, London, 1760.
" Dear Sir, — Let me give you a pleasant instance of the prejudice some have
entertained against your work. Soon after I returned, discoursing with a gentleman
concerning the artists of Birmingham, he said you would be a means of blinding all
the readers of the nation, for the strokes of your letters being too thin and narrow,
hurt the eye, and he could never read a line of them without pain. ' I thought,' said
I, ' you were going to complain of the gloss of the paper some object to.' ' No, no,'
said he, ' 1 have heard that mentioned, but it is not that ; it is in the form and cut of
the letters themselves, they have not that height and thickness of the stroke which
makes the common printing so much more comfortable to the eye.' You see this
gentleman was a connoisseur. In vain I endeavoured to support your character
against the charge ; he knew what he felt, and could see the reason of it, and several
other gentlemen among his friends had made the same observation, etc. Yesterday
he called to visit me, when, mischievously bent to try his judgement, I stepped into
my closet, tore off the top of Mr. Caslon's specimen, and produced it to him as
yours, brought with me from Birmingham, saying, I had been examining it, since he
spoke to me, and could not for my life perceive the disproportion he mentioned,
desiring him to point it out to me. He readily undertook it, and went over the
several founts, showing me everywhere what he thought instances of that dispro-
portion ; and declared, that he could not then read the specimen, without feeling very
strongly the pain he had mentioned to me. I spared him that time the confusion of
being told, that these were the types he had been reading all his life, with so much
ease to his eyes ; the types his adored Newton is printed with, on which he has
pored not a little ; nay, the very types his own book is printed with (for he is himself
an author), and yet never discovered this painful disproportion in them, till he thought
they were yours.
" I am, etc.,
" B. Franklin."3
This occasion for the above interesting letter, was an application made by
/
1 " Les caracteres sont grave's avec beaucoup de hardiesse, les italiques sont les meilleures
qu'il y aiqdans 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.)
2 " 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.)
3 The Life of Benjamin Franklin, written by himself etc. (Bigelow's edition). Phila-
delphia, 1875, i> 4X3- Nichols, in error, gives the date of this letter as 1764.
John Baskerville. 281
Baskerville in 1760 to his friend, Dr. Franklin, to assist him in London to sound
the literati there respecting the purchase of his types. This attempt failing,
a few years later Dr. Franklin undertook a similar good office in Paris,1 and with
a similar result. " The French," he wrote in 1767, "reduced by the war of 1756
were so far from being able to pursue schemes of taste, that they were unable to
repair their public buildings, and suffered the scaffolding to rot before them."
Having lost all spirit for the printing business, Baskerville, about 1766,
declined to pursue it except through the medium of a confidential agent, and
the following notice, issued about this period, announced this decision to the
public : —
" Robert Martin has agreed with Mr. Baskerville for the use of his whole printing
apparatus, with whom he has wrought as a journeyman for ten years past. He there-
fore offers his services to print at Birmingham for Gentlemen or Booksellers, on the
most moderate terms, who may depend on all possible care and elegance in the
execution. Samples, if necessary, may be seen on sending a line to John Baskerville
or Robert Martin."2
After a retirement of three years, Baskerville resumed work in 1769, com-
pleting between that period and the time of his death his fine series of the 4to
classics, which bear the marks of unabated genius even in declining days ; and
suffice, had he printed nothing else, to distinguish him as the first typographer of
his time.
It would appear from a passage in a letter of Franklin's in reference to the
fine edition ot Shaftesbtiry's Characteristics, published in 1773 (4-to), that, in that
year, Baskerville contemplated some further development of his type-founding
business.3 His press, at any rate, seems to have continued active till that date,
and even later ; although it is doubtful whether the latest works bearing his
imprint received his personal oversight.
He died on January 8, 1775. Notwithstanding the poor success of his printing
enterprise, he left behind him a fortune of £1 2,000, which, as he had no heir,
went, together with the stock and goodwill of his business, to his widow.4
1 The apparatus was first offered, it is said, to the French Ambassador in London for
;£8,ooo. 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."
2 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, i2mo;
Bible with cuts, 1769, 4to ; and editions of the Lady's Preceptor.
3 Letter dated 21 Sept. 1773. "You speak of enlarging your Foundery" {Works, viii, 88).
4 The remaining copies of Baskerville's impressions, were, after his death purchased for j
£\,ioo by W. Smart, bookseller, of Worcester, and publisher of the Worcester Guide.
O O
282 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Of Baskerville's personal character, a biographer observes : " In private life,
he was a humourist, idle in the extreme ; but his invention was the true
Birmingham model, active. He could well design, but procured others to
execute ; wherever he found merit, he caressed it ; he was remarkably polite
to the stranger, fond of shew ; a figure, rather of the smaller size, and delighted to
adorn that figure with gold lace. Although constructed with the light timbers
of a frigate, his movement was stately as a ship of the line. During the twenty-
five last years of his life, though then in his decline, he retained the singular
traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a peevish temper, we may consider
that good nature and intense thinking are not always found together. Taste
accompanied him through the different walks of agriculture, architecture, and
the fine arts. Whatever passed through his fingers bore the living marks of
John Baskerville."1
A less pleasing sketch of his character is given by Mark Noble in his
Biographical History of England: — " I have very often", he says, "been with my
father at his house, and found him ever a most profane wretch, and ignorant of
literature to a wonderful degree. I have seen many of his letters, which like
his will, were not written grammatically, nor could he even spell well. In per-
son he was a shrivelled old coxcomb. His favourite dress was green, edged
with narrow gold lace, a scarlet waistcoat, with a very broad gold lace, and a
small round hat, likewise edged with gold lace. His wife was all that affectation
can describe. . . . She was originally a servant. Such a pair are rarely met
with. He had wit ; but it was always at the expense of religion and decency,
particularly if in company with the clergy. I have often thought there was
much similarity in his person to Voltaire, whose sentiments he was ever
retailing."2
Professing a total disbelief of the Christian religion, he ordered that his
remains should be buried in a tomb in his own grounds, prepared by himself for
the purpose, with an epitaph 3 expressing his contempt for the superstition which
1 Hutton, History of Birmingham, 1835, P- :97-
2 Biographical History of England, ii, 362.
3 " 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 ! "
John Baskerville. 283
the bigoted called Religion. Here, accordingly, his body was buried upright,
and here it remained, although the building that contained it was destroyed by
the Birmingham riots of 1791. About half a century after his death his body
was exhumed and exhibited for some time in a shop in Birmingham. Its final
resting-place is to this day a matter of debate.
There is a portrait of Baskerville by Exteth, in the possession of the
Messrs. Longman, and another in the possession of the Rev. Dr. Caldecott. An
engraving of the latter is given in Hansard's Typographia ; and there is a copper-
plate from the same portrait (unpublished), at the present time in the collection
of Mr. Timmins of Birmingham.
Mrs. Baskerville1, on succeeding to her husband's property, declined to
continue the printing business, although continuing that of letter-founding ; and
thus advertised her intention to the public : —
" Mrs. Baskerville, being about to decline business as a printer, purposes disposing
of the whole of her apparatus in that branch, comprehending, among other articles, all
of them perfect in their kind, a large and full assortment of the most beautiful types,
with the completest printing presses, hitherto known in England. She begs leave to
inform the publick, at the same time, that she continues the business of Letter-
founding, in all its parts, with the same care and accuracy that was formerly observed
by Mr. Baskerville. Those gentlemen who are inclined to encourage so pleasing an
improvement may, by favouring her with their commands, be now supplied with
Baskerville's elegant types at no higher expence than the prices already established in
the trade."2 April 6, 1775.
The following further advertisement intimates that two years later the type-
founding business was still carried on under the same management : —
" The late Mr. Baskerville, having taken some pains to establish and perfect
a Letter-foundry for the more readily casting of Printing-types for sale, and as the
undertaking was finished but a little before his death, it is now become necessary for
his widow, Mrs. Baskerville, to inform all Printers that she continues the same busi-
ness, and has now ready for sale, a large stock of types, of most sizes, cast with
all possible care, and dressed with the utmost accuracy. She hopes the acknowledged
partiality of the world, in regard to the peculiar beauty of Mr. Baskerville's types, in
the works he has published, will render it quite unnecessary here to say anything to
recommend them— only that she is determined to attend to the undertaking with all
care and diligence ; and to the end that so useful an improvement may become
as extensive as possible, and notwithstanding the extraordinary hardness and
durability of these types above all others, she will conform to sell them at the same
prices with other Letter founders." Feb. 25, 1777.
1 " 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.
2 In 1776, Chapman used Baskerville's type for Dr. W. Sherlock's Discourses concerning
Death. 8vo.
284 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Notwithstanding Mrs. Baskerville's avowed intention of continuing the
business, many attempts had been made, and were still made, to dispose of the
foundry. It was offered to the Universities and declined ; and the London
booksellers preferred the types of Caslon and his apprentices.1 The stock lay a
dead weight till 1779, when the whole was purchased by Beaumarchais for the
Societe Litteraire-Typographique, for the sum of £3,700, and transferred to
France.
Much blame and even contempt was bestowed at the time on the bad taste
and unpatriotic spirit of the English nation in thus allowing the materials of this
famous press to go out of the country.2 Degnstibus non est disputandum. Deprived
of the master-hand of their designer, the types which startled the world into
admiration in the Virgil of 1757, had lost their magic by 1779; and it seems
hardly reasonable to blame the printers of this country for preferring the sterling
types of Caslon and Jackson, in which works as beautiful were being produced,
and by far simpler methods than those employed by the Birmingham genius.
Nor does it appear that after the purchase by the French there was any general
feeling of regret in this country at the opportunity missed. It is, however, a fact
that for some important works produced towards the close of the century —
particularly those of Bulmer's press — it was considered an advantage to secure
the services of artists of the Birmingham school, both in the formation of the
types and the execution of the press-work. As the pioneer of fine printing in
England, Baskerville deserves, and will receive the grateful approbation of all
lovers of the art. But it would be idle to say that he was not speedily matched
and even surpassed by the performance of others, or that his types, had they
remained in this country, would have been more valuable on account of their
intrinsic excellence than of their historical interest.
That the French were well satisfied with their bargain, may be gathered from
the following letter quoted by Nichols, dated Paris, August 8th, 1780: —
" The English language and learning are so cultivated in France, and so eagerly-
learned, that the best Authors of Great Britain are now reprinting in this Metropolis :
Shakespeare, Addison, Pope, Johnson, Hume, and Robertson, are to be published here
very soon. Baskerville's types, which were bought it seems for a trifle, to the eternal
disgrace of Englishmen, are to be made use of for the purpose of propagating the
English Language in this country."8
1 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.
2 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.
3 Lit. Anec, iii, 460.
John Baskerville. 285
Nichols himself adds, after deploring the comparative failure of Baskerville,
to receive appreciation in his native land : " We must admire, if we do not imitate
the taste and economy of the French nation, who, brought by the British arms in
1762 to the verge of ruin, rising above distress, were able, in seventeen years, to
purchase Baskerville's elegant types, refused by his own country, and to expend
an hundred thousand pounds in poisoning the principles of mankind by printing
the Works of Voltaire?
This great work, for the express purpose of printing which Baskerville's
types were procured, was thus announced to the English public in 17821: —
" A complete edition of the Works of Voltaire, printed by subscription, with the
types of Baskerville.
" This work, the most extensive and magnificent that ever was printed, is now in
the press at Fort Kehl, near Strasburgh, a free place, subject to no restraint or
imprimatur, and will be published towards the close of the present year. It will never
be on sale. Subscribers only can have copies. Each set is to be numbered, and a
particular number appropriated to each subscriber at the time of subscribing. As the
sets to be worked off are limited to a fixed and small number, considering the great
demand of all Europe, those who wish to be possessed of so valuable a work must be
early in their application, lest they be shut out by the subscriptions being previously
filled. Voltaire's Manuscripts and Port-Folios, besides his Works already published,
cost 12,000 guineas. This and other expenses attending the publication, will lay the
Editors under an advance of ,£100,000 sterling. The public may from thence form a
judgment of the extraordinary care that will be taken to make this edition a lasting
monument of typographical elegance and grandeur," etc. June 4, 1782.
The " proposals" were accompanied by two pages of specimens of the type.
Of this famous edition of Voltaire an interesting account is given in
Lomenie's Beaumarchais et ses Temps? The Society in whose name Beau-
marchais undertook the work consisted of himself alone. Besides the Voltaire
MSS. and the Baskerville types, he bought and set to work three paper-mills in
the Vosges, and after much difficulty secured the old fort at Kehl as a neutral
ground on which to establish in security his vast typographical undertaking.
The enterprise was one involving labour, time and cost vastly beyond his
expectations, and his correspondence with his manager at Kehl presents an
almost pathetic picture of his efforts to grapple with the difficulties that beset
his task. "How can we promise," he wrote in 1780, "in the early months of
1 Proposals for Printing by Stibscription 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.
2 Beaumarchais and His Times. Translated by H. S. Edwards. London, 1856. 4 vols.
8vo (iii, chap. 24).
286 The Old English Letter Foundries.
1782 an edition which has neither hearth nor home in March 1780? The paper-
mills have to be made, the type to be founded, the printing press to be put up,
and the establishment to be formed." And on another occasion he writes :
" Here am I, obliged to learn my letters at paper-making, printing and book-
selling."
It was not until 1784 that Volume One appeared ; and the whole work in two
editions was not completed till 1790,1 by which time France was in the throes of
the Revolution, and little likely to heed the literary exploits even of one of her
most talented sons. Of the 15,000 copies printed, only 2,000 found subscribers ;
and after the dissolution of the establishment at Kehl2 (where, besides, he printed
an edition of Rousseau and a few other works) all the benefit Beaumarchais
received from his enterprise was a mountain of waste-paper.
The final destination of Baskerville's types is shrouded in mystery. Most
writers assert that the printing establishment at Kehl was entirely destroyed at
the commencement of the French Revolution, and many suggest that the types
performed their last service in the shape of bullets. Plausible as this story is, it
is disproved by the existence of four works of Alfieri, all bearing the imprint,
dalla Tipografia di Kehl, cd caratteri di Baskerville, and dated severally 1786,
1795, 1800 and 1809.3 These works, to whose existence no writer on Baskerville
appears hitherto to have called attention, bear the strongest internal evidence of
the accuracy of their claims, and thus enable us to trace the survival of these
famous types to a date twenty years later than that at which they are commonly
supposed to have perished. In England, some of Baskerville's types are said
to have been in use in the office of Messrs. Harris, in Liverpool, in 1820; and
seven years later, we find a work printed by Thomas White, of Crane Court,
London, for Pickering, claiming to be " with the types of John Baskerville".4
But though a fount or two of the types may have survived, all search as to
the ultimate fate of the punches or matrices is baffled. They may still exist,
1 CEuvres Computes de Voltaire. De V Imprimerie de la Societe litteraire el typographique,
(Kehl) 1 784- 1 789. 70 vols, in 8vo ; and 92 vols, in i2mo.
2 Renouard mentions having seen at Paris a broadside specimen of all the Baskerville
types transported to Beaumarchais' establishment : " Ce sont les memes types," he adds, "mais
quelle difference dans leur emploi !" {Catalogue, i, 310).
3 La Virtu Sconosciuta Dialogo, 1786, 8vo.
Del Principe e delle Lettere, 1795, 8vo.
UEtruria Vendicata Poema, 1800, 8vo.
Delia Tirannide, 1809, 8vo.
4 The Treaty se 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 Williatn Pickering. (Thos. White, imp.) 1827. 8vo.
John Baskerville. 287
neglected, in the dusty drawers of some foreign press or fonndry.1 If so, it is
±0 be hoped that their discovery may in due time reward the patience of those
/whose ambition it is to recover for their native land these precious relics of the
\ most brilliant of all the English letter-founders. *'
LIST OF BASKERVILLE'S SPECIMENS.
No date. A Specimen by John Baskerville, of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick,
Letter Founder and Printer. 4to sheet. (1752 ?) (S. T.)
No date. A Specimen by John Baskerville of Birmingham. 4to sheet. (i7S7?) (Althorp.)
No date. A Specimen by John Baskerville of Birmingham, Letter Founder and Printer.
(1758 ?). Broadside. (S. T.)
No date. A Specimen by John Baskerville of Birmingham. (1762 ?). Folio. (S. T.)
1 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.
CHAPTER XIV.
THOMAS COTTRELL, 1757.
HOMAS COTTRELL, described by Mores as a primo
ftroximus of modern letter-founders, served his appren-
ticeship in the foundry of the first Caslon. He was
employed there as a dresser, and the portrait of him
which is to be seen in the Universal Magazine of
1750,1 among a group of Caslon's workmen, represents
him as engaged in that branch of the business.
It is not improbable that he joined with his friend
and fellow apprentice, Joseph Jackson, in clandestinely observing the operation
of punch-cutting, secretly practised by his master and his master's son at Chis-
well Street ; and being assisted by natural ability, and what Moxon terms a
" genuine inclination," he contrived during his apprenticeship to qualify himself
not only in this, but in all the departments of the art.
In 1757 a question as to the price of work having arisen among Mr. Caslon's
workmen, Cottrell and Jackson headed a deputation on the subject to their
employer, then a Commissioner of the Peace, residing at Bethnal Green. The
worthy justice taking this action in dudgeon, the two ringleaders were
dismissed from Chiswell Street, and thus thrown unexpectedly on their own
resources.
Cottrell, in partnership for a short time with Jackson, and (according to
Rowe Mores), assisted also by a Dutchman, one Baltus de Graff, a former
1 See frontispiece. Cottrell is the figure marked 4.
Thomas Cottrell. 289
apprentice of Voskens of Amsterdam, established his foundry in Nevil's Court,
Fetter Lane. His first fount was an English Roman, which, though it will
compare neither with the performance of his late master, nor with the then new
faces of Baskerville, was yet a production of considerable merit for a self-trained
hand.
In 1758 an incidental record of Cottrell's Foundry exists in the history, else-
where recorded, of Miss Elstob's Saxon types, the punches and matrices of
which, after remaining untouched for several years at Mr. Caslon's, were brought
to Cottrell by Mr. Bowyer, to be " fitted up" ready for use. This task Cottrell
performed punctually and apparently to the satisfaction of his employer,
returning them with a small fount of the letter cast in his own mould, as a
specimen of the improvement made in them.1
In 1759 Jackson quitted the business to go to sea, and Cottrell, left to
himself, busily proceeded with the completion of his series of Romans, which
he carried as low as Brevier, a size " which," says Rowe Mores, " he thinks low
enough to spoil the eyes."2
He also cut a Two-line English Engrossing in imitation of the Law-Hand,
and several designs of flowers.
The Engrossing, or as Mores styles it, the Base Secretary, was a character
designed to take the place of the lately abolished Court Hand in legal
documents, and appears to have been designed for Cottrell by a law printer
named Richardson. On the completion of the fount, an impression of which we
c/Utb %l if fuii&ti fatitfeu, t-M-afflb,
&&a{ &l Q/ftayoto 2/haifoff, aub
ntab O^itttA of t<oUu, ^Loyou. anb
73. Engrossing, cut by Cottrell, circa 1768. (From the original matrices.)
here give, Richardson issued a specimen of it,3 claiming the design, and
representing its advantages as the proper character for leases, agreements,
1 See ante, p. 158. 2 Dissertation, p. 82.
3 A Specimen of a New Printing Type, in Imitation of the Law-Hand. Designed by
Williatn Richardson, of Castle Yard, Holborn. London, n. d. Broadside.
P P
290 The Old English Letter Foundries.
indentures, etc. The matrices, however, remained with Cottrell, and the
inclusion of the fount in his general specimen shows that Richardson ceased to
retain any exclusive use of it. It was the only fount of the kind in England
when Mores wrote in 1778.
Cottrell's first specimen was a broadside sheet, undated, but probably issued
about the year 1760. It shows the Roman founts, arranged in a form very
similar to that of Caslon's broadside of 1749. The only copy of this specimen
known is that in the Sohmian Collection at Stockholm.
It was followed, a few years later, by an 8vo Specimen Book, which, from
its obvious resemblance to Caslon's Book of 1764, we may judge to have seen
the light about 1766.1 This Specimen exhibits the Roman and Italic Founts
from Five-line to Brevier, the Engrossing above mentioned, and five pages of
Small Pica Flowers elaborately arranged. The general appearance is neat, each
page being surrounded by a border. The Romans are cut after the Caslon
models, and are fairly good, although a close inspection would suggest that
Cottrell's " genuine inclination" did not extend to the justifying of his matrices
with the same success as to the cutting of the punches.
The following note at the foot of the Long Primer on Bourgeois specimen is,
perhaps, the most interesting feature of this book : —
"This Foundery was begun in the Year 1757, and will (with God's leave) be
carried on, improved and enlarged, by Thomas Cottrell, Letter Founder, in London.
" N. B. Served my apprenticeship to William Caslon, Esq.''
Fournier, in the second part of his Manuel Typographique, 1766, mentions
Cottrell's Foundry, but in such a manner as to lead one to suppose he had never
seen his specimen, or heard of it except by the vaguest hearsay. He mentions
him as " Cottrell a Oxfort," at the head of his list of English Founders.2
1 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 the other sheets. It was not finished in 1778 when Mores wrote. See
Dissert., p. 83.
2 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 caracteres : les principales sont celles de Thomas Cottrell a Oxfort ; de Jacques
Watson a Edimbourg, de Guillaume Caslon & Fils a Londres, et de Jean Baskerville a Birming-
ham" ! 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 passde a sa veuve et au Sieur Zonen" !
Thomas Co tire 11. 291
A more satisfactory contemporary record is contained in Luckombe's
History and Art of Printing, 1770, where pages 169 to 174 are occupied by
specimens of the Engrossing and Flowers already exhibited in the specimen
book, and a fount of English Domesday.
This latter fount, which appears to have been completed subsequent to
the issue of the specimen book, Cottrell cut under the inspection of Dr.
Morton for the forthcoming issue of Domesday Book, begun in 1773, and
" which", Rowe Mores sarcastically observes, " if the undertakers go on as they
have begun, will by domes-day hardly be finished."
The work was, however, finished and printed, but not in Cottrell's type, his
performance having been eclipsed by that of his old colleague and partner
Jackson, who, after returning from sea in 1763, had worked for a short time
at the Nevil's Court Foundry, and then left to start business for himself,
taking with him two of Cottrell's workmen.
Cottrell was at this period a private in the Life Guards ; a position
considered highly respectable in those days, and not at all incompatible with
business pursuits. His military ardour evidently had its effect in the Foundry,
for we find that Robinson and Hickson, his two workmen who left with
Jackson, were also enlisted in the same service.
He does not appear to have extended his foundry very much as regards its
Roman letter. According to Rowe Mores, however, he produced "some un-
common founts of proscription, or posting letter of great bulk and dimensions as
high as to the measure of twelve-line Pica."1 Of these founts (which were
no doubt cast, like Caslon's, in sand), a specimen is in existence, consisting of
two broadside sheets, showing about eleven sizes from two-line Double Pica to
twelve-line Pica.
No specimen, however, is to be found of the Russian fount, which Mores,
writing in 1778, hopes Cottrell is about to cut "for a gentleman who compiles
a Russian Dictionary ; the same gentleman who translated into English, The
Grand Instructions of Her Imperial Majesty Catherine II, for a new Code of Laws
for the Russian Empire. London, 1768, 4to., to whom we wish success."
Cottrell died in 1785. He is described as obliging, good-natured, and
friendly, rejecting nothing because it is out of the common way, and expeditious
in his performances. Nichols, in recording his death, says " Mr. Cottrell died, I
am sorry to add, not in affluent circumstances, though to his profession of a letter-
founder were superadded that of a doctor for the toothache, which he cured by
1 Mores {Dissert., p. 83), says he was the first to produce letters of this size,
292
The Old English Letter Foundries.
burning the ear ; and had also the honour of serving in the Troop of His Majesty's
Life Guards."1
The following is the summary of his foundry as gathered from his specimen
book, together with the additional founts cut subsequently : —
MR. COTTRELL'S FOUNDRY.
Roman. — 5 -line, 4-line, 2-line Double Pica,
2-line Great Primer, 2-line English, 2-line
Small Pica, 2-line Long Primer.
Roman and Italic. — Canon, 2-line Great Pri-
mer, 2-line English, Double Pica, Great
Primer, English, Pica 1, Pica 2, Small
Pica, Long Primer 1, Long Primer 2,
Bourgeois, Brevier.
Flowers. — Small Pica, 29 varieties.
Engrossing. — 2-line English.
Script. — Double Pica.
Domesday. — English.
Large letter. — From 4-line up to 12-line.
Of the history of the Foundry during the nine years following Mr. CottrelPs
death, no record remains. In 1794 it became the property of Robert Thorne,
a former apprentice of CottrelPs, who removed the business from Nevil's Court
to No. 1, Barbican, whence he issued in that year his first specimen and a price list
announcing his new undertaking.2
The specimen book consists entirely of elegantly shaped large letters cast
in sand, from five-line up to nineteen-line, a then unprecedented size. The bulk
of these, comprising the sizes from five to twelve-line, advancing by one pica em
in body, it may be surmised, are from Cottrell's models ; the thirteen, sixteen, and
nineteen-line, being added by Thorne. For his specimen of ordinary-sized letter,
Thorne probably made use at first of Cottrell's book as it stood.3
But it is evident by the specimen published four years later, in 1798, that
if he ever was possessed of the matrices of these founts, he entirely discarded
them, in conformity with the passing fashion, in favour of others more closely
resembling the beautiful faces of Jackson and Figgins. His specimen of 1798 is
indeed one of the most elegant of which that famous decade can boast. For
1 Lit. Aftec, ii, 358.
2 " 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."
3 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.
Thomas Cottrell. 293
lightness, grace, and uniformity, the series of Romans and Italics which are
exhibited excels that of almost all his competitors. The book, which contains
not a single fount which had previously appeared in Cottrell's book, consists of
forty-eight leaves, of which thirty are devoted to Roman and Italic, and the
remainder to Titlings, Shaded letters, and Flowers, with one fount of Double-
Pica Script. A postscript to the specimen states that four more founts were
nearly ready, completing the series, the preparation of which had evidently been
the labour of many years.1 It is therefore the more to be regretted, that
Thorne, in common with all his contemporaries, was compelled almost immedi-
ately, by the sudden change of public taste in favour of the new style of Roman,
to abandon the further prosecution of this excellent series, and devote himself
to the production of founts according to " modern" fashion.
In 1 80 1 a revised price list was issued announcing a rise in the price of type
owing to the advanced cost of raw material and journeymen's wages2; and in
1 803 appeared the specimen of the new Roman series, representing the product
of five years' incessant toil and sacrifice. It cannot be said that this specimen of
" Improved Types"3 — one of the first completed in the trade — bears any com-
parison with the artistic elegance of its predecessor.
It exhibits the new Roman and Italic in ten, seven, and five-line Pica,
Canon, two-line Great Primer (two faces), two-line English (two faces), Double
Pica (two faces), Great Primer (two faces), English, Pica, Long Primer (two
faces), Bourgeois, Brevier, and Minion. Ornamenteds — two-line Pica (two faces),
two-line Small Pica (two faces). Shadeds — two-line Small Pica (two faces), two-
line Nonpareil (three faces). Script — Double Pica.
Thorne, indeed, having once abandoned the old style for the new, appears in
the van of the innovating fashion. Not sharing in the regret expressed by his
brethren in the art at the new departure, he still further advanced upon it by
the production of some exceedingly thick and fat (and we may add unsightly)
jobbing letters, which, though subsequently followed and even exceeded by
others, were at the time unique for boldness and deformity.
1 In a note, he says, " R. T. informs those gentlemen to whom he is at present unknown,
hat 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."
2 Pica, which in 1798 had been is. per lb., is raised to is. i\d^ and Nonpareil is advanced
from $s. to 5-y. 6d. The other sizes are in similar proportion.
3 "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.
" Barbican, 1803. " I remain, your obedient Servant, Robert ThoRNE.
294 The Old English Letter Foundries.
In Oriental and "learned" letters he appears to have achieved nothing; as
not a single fount, not even CottrelPs Domesday, appears in this specimen, or in
the subsequent inventory of the Foundry.
A curious document entitled Rules and Regulations of the Letter-Foundry
of Robert Thome, London, Jan. 1 806, exists, and gives an interesting glimpse
into the order and customs of the Barbican Foundry. To the general scope of
these rules we have referred in another place1; but as being personal to Thorne
in his relations with his men, we may mention here that he constituted himself
Treasurer of the fines for " Footale," imposed by the men on all new workmen,
with an obligation to account for and distribute the sum every Christmas Eve,
and also made himself liable, equally with his men, to a fine of a shilling if he
left his light burning when quitting the Foundry for the night.
For some time (though the exact dates cannot be fixed), Mr. Thorne had a
partner in Mr. Hugh Hughes, an able engraver and designer of music and other
characters, who afterwards commenced a foundry in Dean Street, Fetter Lane.2
This association does not appear to have lasted long, or to have involved any
alteration in the style of the firm.
About the year 18 10 Mr. Thorne removed from Barbican to Fann Street,
Aldersgate,3 where, in premises formerly occupied by a brewery, he continued his
business under the name, which it still bears, of the Fann Street Foundry.
Considerable additions were made to the faces of the Foundry during the
next ten years. Two new Scripts were cut, the " Sanspareil" matrices were
adopted for the large letters, and a few new book founts appeared with light
faces, which contrasted agreeably with the fat style generally predominating in
Thome's specimens.
In 1 8 17, declining health induced Mr. Thorne to attempt to dispose of his
business to his fellow-founders ; but his offer being declined, he resumed his labours
and continued actively at work until the time of his death, which occurred in
1820, at the age of sixty-six. He was buried in Holloway Churchyard, where a
tablet is erected to his memory.
No complete specimen of his type remains later than that of 1803 ;
although the numerous loose sheets which appeared after that date, and the
fact that as many as 132 pages of composed specimens were left in type at the
time of his death, show that one, if not several books had been issued during the
interval.
1 See ante, p. 117. 2 See post, chap. xxi.
3 In the Directory at the end of $ tower's Printers' Grammar ) 1808, Thorne's name is given
without address,
Thomas CottrelL 295
On June 21st, 1820, the Foundry was put up to auction,1 and purchased
entire by Mr. William Thorowgood.
This gentleman was previously unconnected with the typographical pro-
fession,2 having been engaged as London manager and agent to a Patent Roller
Pump business at Stone, in Staffordshire, of which concern he was one of the
principal proprietors.
With the proceeds, it is said, of a fortunate draw in one of the State
Lotteries,3 he became possessor of the Fann Street Foundry, and proceeded at
once to throw himself into the new business with great energyand no small success.
His first specimen book, issued in January 1821, a few months after the
purchase, may be taken as representing the contents of the Foundry pretty much
as Thorne left it ; although even in this short space of time some additions are
apparent, which formed no part of his predecessor's stock.4
1 Particulars of the Lease and Valuable Plant of the Type Foundry of Mr. Robert Thorne,
deceased, situate in Fanris Street, Alder sgate Street, which will be Sold by Auction by
Mr. W. Davies, at Garraway's Coffee House, on Wednesday, the list of fune, 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 : —
Shaded. — 5-line to Brevier (21).
Flowers. — All bodies (15).
Ornamented. — Canon to 2-line Bourgeois (6).
Egyptian. — 2-line Great Primerto Brevier (6).
Script. — 2-line Pica, Double Pica, Great
Primer.
Engrossing. — 2-line English.
German. — English.
Two-line Letters, Signs, etc., etc.
Sanspareil Founts. — 14-line to 4-line (24).
Roman and Italic. — 5-line (3), 4-line (3), Canon
(4), 2-line Double Pica (3), 2-line Great
Primer (4), 2-line English (4), 2-line Pica
(1), Double Pica (4), Great Primer (4),
English (5), Pica (6), Small Pica (3), Long
Primer (6), Bourgeois (3), Brevier (5),
Minion ( 1 ), Nonpareil Roman (2), Pearl (1)
Black {plain or open). — 5-line (5), 4-line (2),
Canon (2), 2-line Great Primer (5), 2-line
English (2), Double Pica (2), Great Primer
(2), English (1), Pica (1), Small Pica (1),
Long Primer (2), Bourgeois (1).
2 He had a brother (?) a printer, in Wood Street, Cheapside.
3 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.
4 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 01
manufacturing types possessed by myself in common with the other founders of the metropolis
has been used to their advantage," etc.
296 The Old English Letter Foundries.
In the following year Mr. Thorowgood was sworn Letter-Founder to His
Majesty, and put forth a specimen of a Greek fount of good cut, which, at the
time, was the sole representative of the "learned" languages in his Foundry.
Further progress was, however, made in this direction during the next few years ;
as Hansard, writing in 1825, mentions three sizes of German, two of Greek, one
of Hebrew, and four of Russian, as forming part of his stock. The Germans,
and the Pica and Bourgeois Russian, were procured from the Foundry of Breit-
kopf and H artel of Leipzig.1
A new specimen book was issued in 1828. In the same year, the retirement
of Dr. Fry presented Mr. Thorowgood with the opportunity of making a most
important addition to his business by the acquisition of the Type Street Foundry.
This purchase transferred to the Fann Street Foundry not only the whole of Dr.
Fry's interesting collection of oriental and " learned" founts, which included many
relics of the old foundries, but augmented his stock of book founts, Blacks,
Titlings, and Flowers, to almost double their former extent.
The transfer was completed in 1829, and early in the following year a
specimen of additions to the Foundry contained an announcement that " a new
edition of the Greeks, Hebrews, and foreign characters of the Polyglot Foundry,
late the property of Dr. Fry, is in preparation."
This promised specimen duly appeared in 1830, the sheets still bearing Dr.
Fry's imprint ; and after this date frequent supplementary specimens marked the
development of the business of this now extensive foundry.
As the scope of this history does not extend beyond the period now
reached, it will suffice to state that about 1838, Mr. Thorowgood admitted into
partnership Mr. Robert Besley, who, since the year 1 826, had been in the service
of the Foundry as traveller and in other capacities. The firm then became
known as Thorowgood and Co., or more commonly Thorowgood and Besley.
This partnership ceasing by the withdrawal of Mr. Thorowgood in 1849, Mr.
Benjamin Fox, a practical punch cutter of much talent, joined Mr. Besley as
Robert Besley and Co. On the retirement of Alderman Besley in 1861, Mr.
(afterwards, Sir) Charles Reed, a printer, entered the business, which took the
style of Reed and Fox. Mr. Fox died in 1877, when the firm became Sir
1 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.
Thomas Cot tr ell. 297
Charles Reed and Sons. Sir Charles Reed died in 1881, and the business is
now in the hands of his two sons.
LIST OF SPECIMENS, 1760-1830.
No date. A specimen by Thomas Cottrell. (1760?) Broadside.
(Sohmian Coll. Stockholm.)
No date. A specimen of Printing Types by Thomas Cottrell, Letter Founder, in Nevil's
Court, Fetter Lane, London. (1766?) 8vo. (T.B.R.)
1770. A specimen of CottrelFs Engrossing, Flowers, and Domesday Letters. 8vo.
(Luckombe's History of Printing, pp. 169-174.)
No date. A specimen of Large Letters by Thomas Cottrell, in Nevil's Court, Fetter
Lane, London. (1785 ?) 2 sheets, Broadside. (Sohmian Coll. Stockholm.)
1794. Specimen of Printing Types by R. Thorne, Letter Founder, No. 11, Barbican,
London. Printed by W. Glindon, 1794. Sm. 4to. (T.B.R.)
1798. Specimen of Printing Types by R. Thorne, Letter Founder, Barbican, London,
Printed in the year 1798. Sm. 4to. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1803. Thome's Specimen of Printing Types, 1803. 8vo. (W.B.)
1 82 1. Thorowgood's New Specimen of Printing Types, late R. Thome's, No. 2, Fann
Street, Aldersgate Street, London. 8vo. (T.B.R.)
1822. A specimen sheet of Greek Type, W. Thorowgood, June, 1822. 8vo. (T.B.R.)
1828. Thorowgood's, late Thome's, Specimen of Printing Types, ] 828. 8vo. (T.B.R.)
1830. Additions to the Specimen of the Fann Street Letter Foundry, W. Thorowgood,
Letter Founder to His Majesty, London, 1830. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel. 4418.)
1830. Fann Street Letter Foundry, London. Thorowgood's Specimens of Greeks,
Hebrews, and Foreign Characters, late the property of Dr. Edmund Fry. 1830. 8vo.
(Caxt. Cel. 4413.)
Q Q
CHAPTER XV.
>x*:c
JOSEPH AND EDMUND FRY, 1764.
HIS foundry, first known as Fry and Pine's, had its
origin in Bristol in the year 1764.
Mr. Joseph Fry, a prominent and enterprising Bris-
tolian, was the son of Mr. John Fry, and was born in the
year 1728. He entered the medical profession, where,
says a biographer,1 " his affable, courteous manners and
sound Christian principles soon secured to him a large
practice amongst the highest class of his fellow citizens.
Possessing uncommon energy and activity of mind, he was led to take a part in
many new scientific undertakings, actuated more by the desire to be useful to
society and advance the arts than by any hope of individual profit."
This spirit of enterprise induced him, in the year 1764, to turn his attention to
letter-founding, which, though hardly to be called a new scientific undertaking,
was at least a novel industry for a provincial city. The success of Baskerville's
foundry at Birmingham, at that time in the height of its celebrity, was
undoubtedly an incentive to the adventurers of Bristol, whose first founts were
avowedly cut in close imitation of those famous models.
William Pine, Mr. Fry's partner, was a practical printer of some note in his
native city. He was the first printer of the Bristol Gazette, and carried on a
considerable business at his premises in Wine Street. The new foundry was
Hugh Owen. Two Centuries of Cerci7nic Art in Bristol, 1873, 8vo.
Joseph Fry. Dr. Edmund Fry.
73.V From Silhouttes in the possession of Francis Fry, Esq., of Bristol.
I /act p. 29X.
Joseph and Edmund Fry. 299
attached to his office, and its productions may be traced in several works which
issued from his press between the years 1764 and 1770.1 Messrs. Fry and Pine's
manager was one Isaac Moore, who (Rowe Mores informs us) was originally
an ingenious whitesmith of Birmingham before he removed to Bristol. The
practical superintendence of the foundry, if not the actual cutting of its
punches, devolved on him ; and his services appear to have been acknowledged
by his admission into the partnership at an early stage of the undertaking, the
business being carried on in his name.
Renouard mentions a Specimen by Isaac Moore, Bristol, in 1768, of which
he possessed a copy mounted on linen,2 and which he describes as displaying
" caracteres assez bien graves, et imitant ceux de Baskerville." If this was, as
it would appear from the title, issued at Bristol, we must conclude that the
removal of the foundry to the metropolis took place in the same year, as there
exists in the Sohmian Collection at Stockholm, where it was recently discovered
by Mr. W. Blades, a broadside Specimen by Isaac Moore and Co. in Queen Street,
near Upper Moorfields, London, showing the Roman series from five-line to Brevier,
bearing the same date. Whether the two specimens are the same or not, it is
hardly likely that their contents could have varied much during the brief
interval. Two years later, however, the progress of the undertaking was
announced by the issue of a fresh broadside sheet containing the complete
series of Romans, cut after the Baskerville models, from eight-line to Pearl,
with Italics to most of the founts, besides a fair display of flowers. The general
appearance of the letters is elegant, especially in the larger sizes.
Appended to the specimen, in the form of a postscript, is the following
address to the public (the first of a series of florid effusions which characterised
the specimens of this foundry), in which the proprietors announce the principles
on which their venture is to be conducted, and refer with satisfaction to the
success already achieved by their productions : —
" The Proprietors of the above Foundery having nearly compleated all the Roman
and Italic Founts, desire with great Deference, to lay this Specimen before the Trade ;
and intreat the Curious and critical, before any decisive Judgement be passed, on the
Merits or Demerits of the Performance, to make a minute Examination and Compari-
son of the respective letters and founts of each Size, with the same Letters and Founts
of the most respectable Founders in the Kingdom ; For as all Letters, whether Roman
or Italic, bear a great Similitude to each other, to apprehend the peculiar Beauty or
Deformity of them are only to be discovered by such a Comparison. In making
1 Of these books we have one before us — A Collection of Hymns adapted for Public
Worship. Bristol, (1769), i2mo, in the Long Primer of the foundry, showing, besides, several
varieties of title-letters and flowers.
2 Catalogue, i, 310, " Grande feuille collee sur une toile ou batiste fine,"
300 The Old English Letter Foundries.
which they hope the Candid and Judicious will set aside the Influence of Custom and
Prejudice (those Great Barriers against Improvement) and attend to Propriety,
Elegance and Mathematical Proportion. And as these have been objects particularly
attended to in the Course of the Work, they apprehend it will appear on such a
Disquisition, that all the above sizes bear a greater Likeness to each other, than those
of any other Founder. They have been already favoured with the Encouragement and
Approbation of several very respectable printers, who have wrought off many large
Editions on their Founts, which have been Experienced to wear extremely well?; owing
to the Letter being clearly and deeply cut and to the Goodness of the Metal, which
they make of an Extraordinary Composition ; the Singular Advantage of which
cannot but be obvious. Therefore hope that others will likewise make Trial of them,
as they doubt not but they also will find it greatly to their Satisfaction.''1
It is doubtful whether the encouragement accorded to the new foundry on
its first establishment in the metropolis came up to the expectations of the pro-
prietors ; and a circular issued shortly afterwards by two of the partners, suggests
that some fillip was deemed necessary to awaken a more extended patronage
of the concern. This curious document is entitled Proposals for discovering a
very great Improvement which William Pine, printer of Bristol, and Isaac Moore,
Letter Founder, in Queen Street, Upper Moorfields, London, have made in the Art
of Printing, both in the Construction of the Press and in the Manner of Beating
and Pulling, and publicly offers the secret of the invention (the precise nature of
which is not apparent) to any customer of the new foundry ordering type to the
value of ten pounds and upwards.2
1 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." {Dis-
sertation, p. 84.)
2 " 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 ac-
quainted 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
Joseph and Edmund Fry. 301
How far this ingenuous offer had the effect of stimulating the type business
is not recorded ; but the proprietors were forced before long to recognise the
desirability of adopting other and surer methods for gaining the popular favour.
Although Luckombe, writing in 1770,1 mentions Moore along with Caslon
and Jackson, as one of the three London founders, the same authority makes a
decidedly disparaging reference to his types2; a circumstance which may be
accounted for by the then growing prejudice amongst metropolitan printers
against the Baskerville form of letter adopted by the new foundry.
Representations of a similar nature having been made from several
influential quarters, it became evident to the proprietors that if they were to
retain public favour at all, it must be by adapting themselves to public taste, and
abandoning the formal, delicate models of Baskerville for the more serviceable,
dashing characters of Caslon.
This laborious task occupied several years in completion. Meanwhile the
original founts were not discarded.
The printing office connected with the foundry distinguished itself in the
interval by the production of two highly interesting Bibles, the one a folio,
published in 1774, and the other an 8vo, in five volumes, published 1774-6.3
Both are elegantly printed in the clear Great Primer letter shown in the 1770
Specimen ; the latter being in long lines specially for the use of the aged. The
general appearance of the folio edition compares not unfavourably with the
Baskerville Bible of 1772.
In 1774, Pine printed at Bristol a very neat Bible in the Pearl type of the
foundry, " being", says the preface, " the smallest a Bible was ever printed with,
and made on purpose for this work."4
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 Speci-
fications for Printing, 1617-1857, London, 1859. 8vo, p. 88.
1 History and Art of Printing, p. 244.
2 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).
3 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 Foitnders 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.
4 A Co7iimentary 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, i2mo,
302 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Moore's connection with the business appears to have terminated in 1776,
after which the style of the firm became J. Fry and Co., who in the following
year issued, in their own name, reprints of the folio and octavo Bibles above
referred to.1 No specimen-sheet of their types appeared till seven years later,
by which time Mr. Pine had also withdrawn from the business.2 He continued
to print the Bristol Gazette in Wine Street, Bristol, till the time of his death,
which occurred in 1803, at the age of sixty-four years.
Left to himself, Mr. Fry, in the year 1782, admitted his sons Edmund and
Henry into partnership, under whose supervision the work of re-cutting the
Romans of the foundry made active progress.
Edmund Fry, probably the most learned letter-founder of his day, had, like
his father, been educated for the medical profession, and had taken his doctor's
degree. But the infirmity of deafness prevented him from following that walk
in life, and he abandoned it for typefounding, applying himself to that pursuit,
not only with the enthusiasm of an ardent philologist, but also with considerable
natural ability for conducting the practical operations of the art.
The year of his entry into the business (1782) was signalised by an
important event in the typefounding world — the sale of James's foundry. This
event has been fully alluded to elsewhere,3 but it is interesting to note that the
Frys were considerable purchasers on the occasion, securing amongst other
items the chief part of the "learned" and foreign matrices, for which that
collection was noted.
The following list of their purchases forms an interesting connecting link
between the old and the new letter-foundries ; particularly as either punches or
matrices of all the founts (and in some cases both) still exist, many of the latter
being to this day in occasional use : —
1 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.
2 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.
3 See p. 226 et seo,
Joseph and Edmtind Fry.
303
Blacks?- — English
[A.]
Greek. — Great Primer
[G]
Pica
[A.]
Another
[R?]
Small Pica
[A]
Pica
[R?]
Long Primer
[A.]
Arabic. — Great Primer
[A?]
Brevier
[G.]
Irish. — Small Pica
[M.] [A.]
Nonpareil
[G.]
Ethiopic. — English
[P.] [A.]
Hebrew. — English
[A?]
Pica
Small Pica
Samaritan. — English
[P.] [G]
Long Primer (or Bourgeois)
Long Primer
Brevier
Scriptorial. — Pica
[G]
Rabbinical Hebrew.— Small Pica
[A.]
English
[G]
Brevier
[A]
Union Pearl. — Double Pica
[G]
Nonpareil
[A.]
Cottrt Hand. — English
[G]
Greek. — Alexandrian
[G.]
Flowers. — Nearly all
The business was shortly afterwards removed to Worship Street, hard by
the old premises ; and here, in 1785, the first specimen-book of the foundry was
issued. This volume exhibits the greater part of the new Caslon series of
Romans, which the proprietors in their "Advertisement" frankly admit to have been
cut in the closest possible imitation of that ingenious artist's models.2 It includes
also two pages of Hebrew type. Later in the same year appeared a large
broadside sheet printed both sides, containing an epitome of the specimen-
book, and displaying, besides the Arabic, Hebrews, Greek and Samaritan
1 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.
2 " 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 flatterjthemselves 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 com-
pliment, see ante, p. 249.
3^4 The Old English Letter Foundries.
recently acquired at James's sale, one or two fresh Hebrew founts lately finished.
TTXTefHMCDNOeNTOICOVfXNOIC
XriXCBHTCDTO ONOMXCOYGXeeTCJO
HsxcixeixcoYreNHOHTCOTo
eexHMxcoYUx^eNOYf^N^K^eTTi
XBrxeZH0IKXMNXOTTJ'CTY<|>XN|/CJL)
4. The Alexandrian Greek (formerly Grover's), rejustified by Dr. Fry, 1786. (From the original matrices.)
rs • ••• : j t t ^ . • • .
74A. Two-line Great Primer Hebrew, cut by Dr. Fry, circa 1785. (From the original matrices. )
Considerable variety is thrown into this 'and later specimens by showing each
size not only on its own body, but upon the bodies next larger and next smaller,
— short descending sorts being specially cut for the latter. The broadside
also includes a Diamond Roman, the first in England, for which the founders
claim that it is " the smallest letter in the world," adding subsequently that it
" gets in considerably more than the famous Dutch Diamond."
Another Specimen followed in 1786, showing several more of the new
founts, and including seven pages of Orientals. This volume is dedicated to the
Prince of Wales, and is prefaced by an address to the public of the usual self-
laudatory character, with a somewhat aggressive reference to the rival foundry at
Chiswell Street.1
In the following year Mr. Joseph Fry retired from the business. Besides
founding a chocolate business in his native city, and becoming a considerable
1 a 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 ";
Joseph and Edmund Fry. 305
partner in the new Bristol Porcelain Works, he had added to his other
enterprises that of a Chemical Works at Battersea, and later still had established
some important Soap Works in partnership with Mr. Alderman Fripp of Bristol.
He did not long survive his retirement, and died, after a few days' illness,
on March 29, 1787, aged fifty-nine, greatly respected. He was buried in the
Friends' burial-ground at the Friars, Bristol. A silhouette portrait of him is to
be seen in Mr. .Hugh Owen's Two Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol, where
also many interesting details of his life are to be found.1
In 1787 was issued a Specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry and Co.
— the first mention of the firm under its new title. This was followed in the
next year by a full specimen of the foundry, with a preface and dedication
similar to those of the 1786 edition, but showing several fresh additions,
particularly among the Orientals, which occupy twelve pages. Of the latter,
several founts had been cut by Dr. Fry himself.
The specimen of 1787 was included in the Printer's Grammar published in
that year — a work which makes considerable reference to the Frys' foundry, whose
specimens and standards are used in illustration of the various subjects dealt
with. The introductory note to the specimen gives the following account of the
then condition of the foundry. It "was begun in 1764 and has been continued
with great perseverance and assiduity, at a very considerable expence. The
plan on which they first sat out, was an improvement of the Types of the late
Mr. Baskerville of Birmingham, eminent for his ingenuity in his line, as also for
his curious Printing, many proofs of which are extant and much admired : But
the shape of Mr. Caslon's Type has since been copied by them with such accuracy
as not to be distinguished from those of that celebrated Founder. They have at
present Twenty-seven complete Founts in punches and matrices of Roman and
Italic, besides many sizes of larger Letter cast in Sand ; also an elegant assort-
ment of Blacks, with Hebrews and Greeks, and many other Orientals : They
have also a greater variety of Flowers than are to be met with in any other
Foundery in this Kingdom."
The premises at Worship Street becoming inadequate for the type and
printing business combined, Dr. Fry took a plot of ground opposite Bunhill
Fields in Chiswell Street — then open fields — and there built the foundry which
gave its name to Type Street. To these premises the business was removed in
1788 ; and the Specimen of that year dates from the Type Street Foundry.
1 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.
2 The Printer's Grammar. London, printed by L. Way land. 1787. 8vo.
R R
306 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Among many elegant works printed at this time in the types of this
foundry was the Rev. Mr. Homer's fine edition of the classics,1 printed
by Millar Ritchie,2 in which the somewhat rare compliment was paid the
founder, of adding his name to the list of typographers engaged on the work.
The printing business was about the same time dissociated from the type-
founding, and remained at Worship Street under the management of Henry
Fry, who styled his office the " Cicero Press."3
In the year 1794 Dr. Fry took Mr. Isaac Steele into partnership, and the
specimen of this year, under the title of Edmund Fry and Isaac Steele, Letter-
Founders to the Prince of Wales, shows a marked advance on its predecessors.
Besides the additional Romans, it includes the Irish fount originally cut by
Moxon in 1680, and is further supplemented by a considerable display of
" Metal Cast Ornaments, curiously adjusted to paper", of which a specimen had
already appeared in the preceding year. Rude as many of these cuts now
appear, they were much affected at the time, while a few of their number bear
evident testimony to the wholesome revolution then being effected in the art of
engraving by Mr. Bewick. A distinct improvement in the same direction may
be traced in the series of " Head and Fable Cuts" for Dilworth's Spelling Book,
a specimen of which was issued shortly afterwards.4
In 1798 Dr. Fry put forth proposals for publishing the important philolo-
gical work on which he had for sixteen years been engaged, and which, in the
following year, was issued under the title of Pantographia, with a dedication
to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society.
1 We have the following volume very beautifully printed : — C. Plinii Ccecilii Secundi
Epislolarum Libri x. Sumptibus editoris excudebant M. Ritchie et J. Samuells. Londini,
17 go. 8vo. At end : — Typis Edmundi Fry.
2 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 ; CcBsar, 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.
3 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 Pry,
No. 5 Worship Street, Upper Moorfields. 1788. 8vo. At one time Henry Fry appears to
have had a partner named Couchman.
4 A New Guide to the English Tongue in five parts by Thomas Dilworth . . . School-
master in Wapping. Stereotype Edition. London. Andrew Wilson, Camden Town. 8vo.
Contains portraits, tail piece and 12 fable cuts.
Joseph and Edmund Fry. 307
This important work,1 which displays great learning and research, was
favourably received. It exhibits upwards of 200 alphabets, amongst which are
18 varieties of the Chaldee and no less than 39 of the Greek. Many of the
letters were cut by the author expressly for the work, under the direction or
with the advice of some of the most eminent scholars of the day, and not a few
subsequently found a place among the specimens of the foundry.
In 1799 Mr. George Knowles was admitted into partnership, and the firm
became Fry, Steele and Co.
A new revolution in the public taste necessitated at this stage the abandon-
ment of the Caslon Old Style faces, and the adoption of the modern cut
Roman letter then coming into vogue ; and the specimens between 1 800 and
1808 are interesting as marking the gradual accomplishment of this task. The
specimen of 1803 showed the first of the new Romans, and in 1808 Stower's
Printers Grammar contained the series almost complete.2
The new style may have been considered an improvement at the time,
but a later judgment has endorsed the regret with which Dr. Fry and others
witnessed the then entire abandonment of the time-honoured and graceful
Elzevir-cut characters of the first Caslon.
Naturally conservative in most matters pertaining to his art, Dr. Fry viewed
with the utmost displeasure another innovation of the same period, in the intro-
duction of ornamental type ; and to the end of his career he strenuously resisted
the " pernicious fashion," as he styled it ; yielding only to the extent of one
small series of flowered titling-letters, which crept into his later specimens.
But, although opposed to ornaments in this form, the Type Street specimens
show no lack of flowers, and Stower's book includes a profuse specimen of
these ornaments, arranged in fantastic designs by Mr. Hazard, the printer, of
Bath.3
Both Mr. Steele and Mr. Knowles appear to have retired about the year
1808, when Dr. Fry assumed the sole management of the business. In the
specimen of 18 16 he styles himself Letter Founder to the King and Prince
1 Pantographiaj 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 j 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.
2 The Printer's Grammar or Introductio7i to the Art of Printing : containing a concise
History of the Art, etc., by C. Slower, Printer. London. Printed by the Editor. 1808, 8vo.
The same work also shows extracts and specimens from Pantographia.
3 Hazard was also the designer of a pair of cases, a plan of which is shown by Stower, p. 463.
308 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Regent. Soon afterwards, his own health failing, he admitted his son, Mr.
Windover Fry, into partnership, and the firm became Edmund Fry and Son.
The subsequent specimens of the foundry are not marked by any special
feature of interest, if we except the introduction of M. Firmin Didot's Great
Primer Script in 1821, containing upwards of sixty lower-case sorts, in a system
of ligatures and connectors so elaborate as to necessitate the printing of a
scheme to facilitate their composition, and the manufacture of special cases to
hold them.
Dr. Fry's philological studies had not ceased with the publication of
Pantographia, and he was constantly adding to the stock of punches and
matrices of the " learned" languages, in which his foundry was already rich. His
excellence as a cutter of Oriental punches led to his selection by the University
of Cambridge1 to execute several founts for that learned body ; in addition to
which he was employed to produce types for the works of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, and similar biblical publications.
His most important effort in this direction was an English Syriac for Bag-
ster's Polyglot, with the points cast on the body, the entire fount consisting of
nearly 400 matrices.
The specimen of 1824, which was issued both in octavo and (more sumptu-
ously) in quarto, for presentation, signalised the completion of his efforts in
this department, and at the same time notified that the name of the foundry had
been changed — not inappropriately — to the Polyglot Foundry.
It is to be regretted that Dr. Fry's energy in one particular branch of his
art, congenial as it was to his own tastes, did not turn out lucrative from a
business point of view ; and the last few years of his career as a type-founder
were not prosperous. His latest specimen was a broadside sheet of Newspaper
founts in 1827.
In the same year he produced a raised type for the blind, under the following
circumstances : — The Scotch Society of Arts, anxious to promote the welfare
of the blind, and desirous to determine, among the many systems at that time
proposed, which was the most suitable method of printing for their instruction,
offered a gold medal of the value of £20 for the best communication on the
subject. Twenty designs were sent in in 1833, of which Dr. Fry's was the only
one retaining the ordinary alphabetical characters. His specimen consisted
of large and small square "sanseriff" capitals working in combination, with
no deviation from the regular form. The committee occupied four years in
arriving at a decision ; employing the time in corresponding with and eliciting
1 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.
Joseph and Edmund Fry.
309
the opinion of all the chief persons interested and experienced in the education
of the blind, in reference to the various designs. Amongst others they received
a long communication from the Rev. W. Taylor of York, who commended Dr.
Fry's system, approving specially of the absence of a " lower-case" letter.1 The
report was published May 31st, 1837, awarding the medal to Dr. Fry, who, how-
ever, was at that time no more, his death having occurred two years previously.
The following summary of the contents of the Polyglot Foundry, as far as
its foreign and rare founts were concerned, is taken from the Specimen Book of
1824, and corresponds closely to the list given in Hansard's Typographic*, in the
following year. With the exception of the founts purchased at James' sale in
1782 (which are distinguished by the initials), most of the characters were cut
by, or under the direction of, Dr. Fry himself.
DR. FRY'S FOUNDRY.
Hebrew. — English with points.
Pica.
Small Pica.
Long Primer.
Bourgeois.
Brevier.
Nonpareil.
Hebrew Rabbinical. — Small Pica [A.] [J.]
Brevier [A.] [J.]
Nonpareil. [A. [J.]
Irish. — Pica.
Small Pica [M.] [A] [J.]
Ditto, No. 2.
Malabaric. — English.
Pica.
Russian. — Double Pica.
Arabic. — Great Primer
[J?]
Ditto, No. 2.
English.
A mharic. — E nglish.
Ethiopic. — English
[P-][A][J.]
Ditto, No. 2.
Pica.
Q-]
German. — Long Primer.
Greek. — Double Pica.
Great Primer.
English.
Pica.
Pica, No. 2.
Small Pica.
Long Primer.
Ditto, No. 2.
Brevier.
Nonpareil.
Greek Alexandrian. — Pica.
[G.][J.]
Guzerattee. — Great Primer.
Long Primer.
Hebrew. — 2-line Great Primer.
2-line English.
Double Pica with points.
Samaritan. — Pica
Long Primer
Saxon. — Double Pica.
Great Primer.
English.
Pica.
Small Pica.
Long Primer.
Brevier.
[P.] [G.] [J.]
[J-]
1 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, may be seen in Vol. I
of the Transactions of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts.
Blacks. — Great Primer.
English, No. I.
Ditto, No. 2.
[A.] [J.]
Pica, No. i.
Ditto, No. 2.
Small Pica.
[A.] [J.]
Long Primer.
Brevier.1
[A.] Q-]
310 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Syriac. — English.
Long Primer.
Music. — Large Plein Chant.
Small „
Psalm.
Blacks. — 4-line.
2-line Great Primer.
2-line English.
Double Pica.
In 1828, being now of an advanced age, and after 46 years' incessant labour,
Dr. Fry decided to dispose of his foundry ; and a circular was issued announcing
the fact to the public. This document, throwing as it does considerable light
on the history of the Type Street Foundry, is interesting enough to quote at
length. After enumerating generally the contents of the foundry and stating the
conditions of sale, Dr. Fry remarks :
"The Substructure of this Establishment was laid about the year 1764; com-
mencing with improved imitations of Baskerville's founts, of which every size was
completed, from the largest down to the Diamond : but they did not meet the en-
couraging approbation of the Printers, whose offices generally, throughout the kingdom,
were stored from the London and Glasgow Founderies with Types of the form intro-
duced by the celebrated William Caslon, early in the last century ; chiefly from the
admired Dutch models, which gained so much credit to the Elzevirs of Amsterdam,
Leyden, &c.
" By the recommendation, therefore, of several of the most respectable Printers of
the Metropolis, Doctor Fry, the proprietor, commenced his imitation of the Chiswell
Street Foundery, which he successfully finished throughout all it's various sizes, at a
vast expense, and with very satisfactory encouragement, during the completion of it.
At which period a rude, pernicious, and most unclassical innovating System was
commenced, which, in a short time was followed by the most injurious and desolating
ravages on the property of every Letter Founder and Printer in the kingdom, by the
introduction of fancy letters of various anomalous forms, with names as appropriate
— disgraceful in a Profession, once held so Sacred, as to have it's operations confined
to consecrated Buildings, and those of the highest class.
" The Baskerville and Caslon imitations, all completed with Accents, Fractions,
&c, were, in consequence of this revolution, laid by for ever ; and many thousand
pounds weight of new letter in Founts, estimated on the average at selling prices, at
2s. 6d. per pound, were taken from the shelves, and carried to the melting-pot to be
recast into Types, no doubt, in many instances, more beautiful ; but no instance has
occurred to the attentive observation of the Proprietor of this Foundery, where any
Founts of book letter on the present system, have been found equal in service, or
1 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.
Joseph and Edmund Pry. 311
really so agreeable to the reader, as the true Cas Ion-shaped Elzevir Types ; and this
is the undisguised sentiment of many judicious Printers.
"When that eminent Printer, the late William Bowyer, gave instructions to
Joseph Jackson to cut his beautiful Pica Greek, he used to say " Those in common use
were no more Greek than they were English." Were he now living, it is likely he
would not have any reason to alter that opinion.
" The Greeks of this Foundery were many of them made in Type Street, copied
from those of the celebrated Foulis of Glasgow ; and there are two, a Pica, and a
Long Primer, on the Porsonian plan. The Codex Alexandrinus was purchased at
James' Sale in 1782.1
" The Hebrews were also chiefly cut by Dr. Fry, subject to the direction and
approbation of the most learned Hebraists.
"The two Arabics,2 Great Primer and English, were cut from the original
drawings of, and under the personal direction of Dr. Wilkins, Oriental Librarian to
the East India Company ; and have no rival either in beauty or correctness.
" The Syriac3 has been made within the last two years, with all it's vowel points,
reduced to an English body, from the Double Pica of the eminent Assemann's edition
of Ludolph's Testament.
" The English, No. 1, and Pica Ethiopics — the Pica and Long Primer Samaritans,
were purchased at James's sale. The other Orientals, viz. two Malabarics — the
Amharic — Ethiopic, No. 3, and Guzerattee, were all cut at this Foundery. As was the
fine collection of Blacks, or pointed Gothics, except the English, No. 1, — Pica, No. 2, —
Long Primer, No. 1,— and Brevier, which were collected by the late John James. There
is good authority for believing that this Pica Black, No. 2, was once the property of
1 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 extra-
ordinary 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 ot
the Foundry, bearing his own name, Dr. Fry introduced the fiction, which remained un-
challenged for a quarter of a century.
2 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.
3 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.
312 The Old English Letter Foundries.
William Caxton1; Doctor Fry having recut for a reprint of a work published by the
celebrated man, all the contractions and accented letters exhibited in the Specimen
Book.
" The Occidentals, as termed by Moxon, Mores, and others, viz. the Saxons,
Hibernians,2 German, and Russian, were also produced at this Foundery. As were
the two Plein Chants, and the Psalm Music.
"The Great Primer Script, which, it must be acknowledged, is the Ne phis ultra
of every effort of the Letter Founder in imitation of writing, was made for the
Proprietor by the celebrated Firmin Didot, at Paris ; the Matrices are of Steel, and
the impressions from the Punches sunk in inlaid Silver !3
" In taking leave of a Profession, which has for many years engaged his whole
attention, the Proprietor begs to convey, through this channel, the high sense of
obligation he hopes to retain during his life, for the great encouragement with which
he has been favoured for so long a period ; as well as for the generous assistance and
advice of many of his learned Friends, in the getting tip, and accurate completion of
various undertakings. It is also with much gratification, that he can look back and
recall to recollection, that he has carefully followed their advices, in not admitting into
- 1 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 Mag-
dalen 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.
2 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 ScripUires. 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. fohnson, Brook Street, Holborn, 18 19. i2mo.
3 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.
Joseph and Edmund Fry. 313
his Foundery any article degrading or disgraceful, or unbecoming the dignity of that
Art, which deserves to be looked up to and revered as the 'Head of the republic of
letters :' — claiming Permission to recommend to his Successor and Contemporaries,
the steady pursuit of that plan which will secure the reputation of the once Sacred
Profession, and restore to it the honourable Character it obtained several Centuries
ago, of
"Ars Artium omnium Conservatrix."
Polyglot Letter Foundery, 2nd month \\th, 1828."
The foundry met with a purchaser in Mr. William Thorowgood, of Fann
Street, to whose premises the entire stock was removed in 1829, where it now
forms part of the Fann Street Foundry.
Dr. Fry retired to his residence at Stratford Green, and subsequently
removed to Dalby Terrace, City Road, where he died Dec. 22, 1835.1
He was an old Member of the Stationers' Company. In private life he
was a man of genial disposition. A portrait of him, painted by Frederique
Boileau, was exhibited in the Caxton Exhibition of 1877 by his son, the late
Arthur Fry, and an excellent silhouette is also in possession of the family of
the late Mr. Francis Fry, F.S.A., of Bristol, to whom we are indebted for our
copy.
LIST OF SPECIMENS, 1768-1827.
1768. A specimen by Isaac Moore, Bristol, 1768. Broadside. (Renouard, Cat. ii, 310.)
1768. A specimen of Printing Types by Isaac Moore & Co., Letter Founders, in Queen
Street, near Upper Moorfields, London, 1768. Broadside. (Sohmian Coll., Stockholm.)
1770. A specimen of Printing Types by Isaac Moore & Co., Letter Founders, of Queen
Street, near Upper Moorfields, London, 1770. Broadside. (Caxt. Cel., 4371.)
1785. A specimen of Printing Types made by Joseph Fry and Sons, Letter Founders
and Marking Instrument Makers by the King's Royal Letters Patent. London, Printed in the
year 1785. 8vo. (B. M., 679, e. 16.)
1785. A specimen of Printing Types by Joseph Fry & Sons, Letter Founders, Worship
Street, Moorfields, London, 1785. Broadside. (T. B. R.)
1786. A specimen of Printing Types by Joseph Fry & Sons, Letter Founders to the
Prince of Wales- London, Printed in the year 1786. 8vo. (W. B.)
1787. A specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry & Co., 1787. 8vo.
{Printer's Grammar, pp. 273-316.)
1788. A specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry & Co., Letter Founders to the
Prince of Wales. London, Printed in the year 1788. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
1790. A specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry & Co., Letter Founders to the
Prince of Wales. London, Printed in the year 1790. 8vo. (Sohmian Coll., Stockholm.)
1 Gentleman's Magazine, May, 1836.
S S
314 The Old English Letter Foundries.
1793. Specimen of Metal Cast Ornaments, curiously adjusted to Paper by Edmund Fry
& Co., Letter Founders to the Prince of Wales, Type Street, London. Printed by T. Rickaby,
1793. 8vo. (Amer. Antiq. Soc.)
1794. A specimen of Printing Types by Fry & Steele, Letter Founders to the Prince of
Wales, Type Street, London. Printed by T. Rickaby, 1794. 8vo. (B. M., 11899, i. 18.)
1794. Specimen of Metal Cast Ornaments, curiously adjusted to paper by Edmund Fry
and Isaac Steele, Letter Founders to the Prince of Wales, Type Street, London. Printed by
T. Rickaby, 1794. 8vo. (W. B.)
1795. A specimen of Printing Types by Fry & Steele, Letter Founders to the Prince of
Wales, Type Street, London. Printed by T. Rickaby, 1795. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
1800. A specimen of Printing Types by Fry, Steele and Co., Letter Founders to the
Prince of Wales, Type Street, London. Printed in the year 1800. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
Reprinted 1801 and 1803.
1805. A specimen of Printing Types by Fry & Steele, Letter Founders to the Prince of
Wales, Type Street, London. Printed in the year 1805. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
1805. Specimen of Metal Cast Ornaments, curiously adjusted to paper by Fry and Steele,
Letter Founders to the Prince of Wales, Type Street, London. Printed in the year 1805. 8vo.
(W. B.)
No date. Specimen sheet of Head and Fable Cuts for Dilworth's Spelling Book, cast on
hard metal, and curiously adjusted to paper on the best Turkey Box, by Fry and Steele, Letter
Founders, Type Street, London. Price ^"44^. (1805?). Broadside. (Caxt. Cel., 4386.)
1808. Specimens of Modern Cut Printing Types from the Foundry of Messrs. Fry and
Steele; together with a Specimen of Flowers. 1808. 8vo. (Stower's Printer's Grammar?)
1 8 16. A specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry, Letter Founder to the King and
Prince Regent, Type Street, London, 1 8 16. 8vo. (B. M., 11899, h. 11.)
1820. Specimen of Modern Printing Types by Edmund Fry and Son, Letter Founders
to the King, Type Street, London, 1820. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
1824. Specimen of Modern Printing Types by Edmund Fry, Letter Founder to the King
(Polyglot Foundry), Type Street, London. 1824. 4to. and 8vo. (B. M., 11899, h. 12.)
1825. A specimen of Diamond, by Edmund Fry, March 1825. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
1827. Fry's Newspaper Specimen, Type Street, 1827. Broadside. (J. F.)
CHAPTER XVI.
JOSEPH JACKSON, 1763.
OSEPH JACKSON, apprentice to Caslon I, was born in
Old Street, London, on Sept. 4, 1733. He was the first
child baptised in St. Luke's, and received his education at
a school in that neighbourhood, the gift of a Mr. Fuller.
During the term of his service at Chiswell Street, he was,
says Nichols,1 exceedingly tractable in the common
branches of the business. Rowe Mores states that he was
an " apprentice to the whole art,"2 but this term evidently
does not comprehend the most important branch of that art, namely the cutting
of punches. This was kept a profound secret at Chiswell Street, Mr. Caslon and
his son constantly locking themselves into the apartment in which they practised it.
Jackson, who had a great desire to learn the mystery, bored a hole through the
wainscot, and was thus, at different times, able to watch his employers through
the process, and to form some idea how the whole was performed ; and he after-
wards applied himself at every opportunity to the finishing of a punch. " When
he had completed one to his own mind, he presented it to his master, expecting
to be rewarded for his ingenuity : but the premium he received was a hard
blow, with a threat that he should be sent to Bridewell if he again made a
similar attempt. This circumstance being taken in dudgeon, his mother bought
him what tools were necessary, and he improved himself at her house whenever
he had an opportunity."
1 Nichols' Lit. Anec, ii, 358-9 ; and Geiitlemaii s Magazine, 1792, p. 93
2 Dissert., p. 83.
316 The Old English Letter Foundries.
"He continued," adds Nichols, "to work for Mr. Caslon after he came out of
his time,1 till a quarrel arose in the foundery about the price of work ; and a
memorial, which terminated in favour of the workmen, being sent to the elder
Caslon (who was then in the Commission of the Peace, and had retired to Bethnal
Green), young Jackson and Mr. Cottrell were discharged, as supposed ring-
leaders.
" Compelled thus to seek employment, they united their slender stock in a
partnership, and went on prosperously till, Jackson's mother dying, he entered
in 1759, on board the " Minerva" frigate, as armourer; and in May 1761 was
removed, with Capt. Alexander Hood, into the same situation in the "Aurora";
and proved somewhat successful, having about £40 prize money to receive at the
Peace of 1763. During the time he was at sea, he was visited by a severe fit of
sickness, in which he vowed, if he recovered, to lead in future a very penitent
life ; which promise he punctually fulfilled."
Quitting the navy, he returned to London and rejoined once more his
old comrade and partner, now a fully-established type-founder in Nevil's
Court, Fetter Lane. He worked for some time under Cottrell, but at length,
at the instigation, it would appear, of two of his fellow workmen, Robinson and
Hickson (who shared with Cottrell the distinction of serving as privates in the
Life Guards), he determined to set up in business for himself.
The necessary capital for the new concern was found by Robinson and
Hickson, who agreed to allow Jackson, as his salary for conducting the business
under the partnership, the sum of £62 8s. per annum, and to supply money for
carrying on the trade for two years.
A small house in Cock Lane was taken for the purpose, and such was
the modest beginning of this famous foundry.
The hazardous adventure succeeded, thanks to the genius of Jackson,
who was able soon to satisfy his partners that the business would be productive
before the time promised.
"When he had pursued his labours about six months, Mr. Bowyer
accidentally calling to inspect some of his punches (for he had no specimen),
approved them so much, that he promised to employ him ; adding, ' My father
was the means of old Mr. Caslon riding in his coach, how do you know but I
may be the means of your doing the same ? '
" A short time after this, he put out a small specimen of one fount ; which
his former young master carried to Bethnal Green with an air of contempt. The
good old justice treated it otherwise ; and desired his son ' to take it home and
1 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).
75- From Nichols' Literary Anecdotes.
{face p. \i6.
Joseph Jackson. 317
preserve it ; and whenever he went to cutting again to look well at it' It is but
justice to the third William Caslon to add that he always acknowledged the
abilities of Mr. Jackson ; and though rivals in an art which requires the greatest
exertions of ingenuity, they lived in habits of reciprocal friendship."
It is much to be regretted that no copy of Jackson's first specimen sheet
(which we may assume to have been issued about 1665) is now to be discovered.
Business increasing, he removed from Cock Lane to more commodious
premises in Dorset Street, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, and here his foundry
and reputation made rapid advances.
" About the year 1771", Nichols relates, "he was applied to by the Duke of
Norfolk to make a mould to cast a hollow square. Telling the Duke that he
thought this was practicable, his Grace observed that he had applied to all the
skilful mechanicks in London, Mr. Caslon not excepted, who declared it impos-
sible. He soon convinced the Duke of his abilities, and in the course of three
months, producing what his Grace had been years in search of, was ever after
held in great estimation by the Duke, who considered him as the first mechanick
in the kingdom."
In 1773, it would appear that Jackson issued a further specimen of his
now increasing foundry. Of this performance Rowe Mores makes flattering
mention in presenting his summary of the contents of the foundry as it stood
in that year : —
" Mr. Jackson," he says, " lives in Salisbury Court in Fleet Street. He is
obliging and communicative, and his Specimen will, adjuvant e numine, have
place amongst the literate specimens of English letter cutters. The prognostics
are these : —
" Mr. JACKSON'S FOUNDERY.
Occidentals :
Greek. — English, Long Primer, Brevier.
Roman and Italic. — sicut et reliqui.
Septentrionals :
English. — 2-line Great Primer.
Scriptorial. — Double Pica, nearly finished.
Orientals :
Hebrew. — Double Pica.
Persic. — English.
Bengal. — (or Modern Sanskrit), a cor-
ruption of the older characters of the
Hindoos, the ancient inhabitants of
Bengal.
"He has likewise Proscription letters beginning at 12-line Pica, the same
with those of Mr. Cottrell, the first who cut letters of this dimension."
With regard to the Bengalee letter, Rowe Mores states that this was
cut by Jackson " for Mr. William Bolts, Judge of the Mayor's Court of
Calcutta, for a work in which he had been engaged at the time of his sudden
departure from England about 1774."1
1 Dissertation, p. 83.
3 1 8 The Old English Letter Foundries.
The work here referred to was the Grammar of the Bengal Language, pro-
jected by the East India Company as part of a scheme for the dissemination of
a knowledge of the Indian Languages in Europe. It appears, however, that
although Mr. Bolts was supposed to be in every way competent for the fabrica-
tion of this intricate character, his models, as copied by Jackson, failed to give
satisfaction, and the work was for the time abandoned j1 to be revived and
executed some few years later in a more masterly and accurate manner by
Mr. Charles Wilkins,2 then in the service of the East India Company in Bengal,
1 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."
2 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 per-
severance. 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, 410. 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
Joseph Jackson. 319
who with an extraordinary combination of talents, succeeded, by the work of his
own hand, in designing, engravings casting and printing the Grammar published
at Hoogly in 1778.
Mr. Bolts' failure in this particular reflects no discredit on Jackson, who
faithfully reproduced the models given him, and who displayed his talent in the
same direction shortly after by the production of a fount of Deva Nagari, cut
under the direction of Captain William Kirkpatrick, of the East India Service,
and Persian Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief for India, for the purpose
of printing a Grammar and Dictionary in that language.
Of this fount a specimen remains — the only specimen extant, we believe,
bearing Jackson's name. It is a broadside, displaying in table form the alphabet
and combinations of the Sanscrit, and exhibits no small delicacy of workmanship,
not only in the Oriental character itself, but in the few lines of Roman letter
composing the title. There is no date to the specimen.
Captain Kirkpatrick's Dictionary was never completed. One part only
appeared in 1785,1 containing the Glossary of the Arabic and Persian words
incorporated with the Hindu, and in this no Nagari is used. All the remaining
parts of the work, as first projected, depended on the new type ; but as they
never appeared, the object for which the fount was cut was lost.
The next important undertaking which engaged Jackson's talents was one
of national interest. The House of Lords had, in the year 1767, determined
upon printing the Journals and Parliamentary records, "a work, which," says
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 after-
wards 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
Gram,7nar 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.
1 A Vocabulary, Persian, Arabic, and English, containing such words as have been adopted
from the two former of these languages, and incorporated into the Hindvij together with some
hundreds of compound verbs formed from Persian or A rabic nouns and in universal use. Being
the seventh part of the new Hindvi Grammar and Dictionary. London, 1785. 4to.
320 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Nichols, " will ever reflect honour on the good taste and munificence of the
present reign" (George III). Jackson had been employed to cut several
varieties of letter for this work ; and he was now called upon to assist in a further
outcome of the same good taste and munificence, in the production of type for
the splendid facsimile of the Domesday Book, begun in 1773. This important
work was projected and carried through by Dr. Nichols himself, and a brief
account of the circumstances under which it saw the light may be interesting
and not out of place here.
The Lords, it appears, being petitioned to sanction the printing of the Domes-
day Book, the most important of the Anglo-Saxon records, as a matter of national
importance, referred, through the Treasury Board, to the Society of Antiquaries
as to the mode in which it should be published, whether by printing-types,
or by having a copy of the manuscript engraved in facsimile. By the
examination of several eminent printers, it was learned that according to the
first plan very many unavoidable errors would occur ; a tracing of the record was
then proposed, to be transferred to copper plates. An estimate of the expense
of this was next ordered by the Treasury Board, which amounted to ^"20,000
for the printing and engraving of 1250 copies, each containing 1664 plates ; but
this sum, however proportionate, was considered too large, and the first plan
was again reverted to.
It was then proposed by the learned Dr. Morton that a fount of facsimile
types should be cut under his superintendence. This undertaking, however,
failed, and Dr. Morton received £500 for doing little or nothing, and nearly £200
more for types that were of no use. The founder to whom Dr. Morton applied
was Thomas Cottrell, a specimen of whose unsuccessful fount appeared shortly
afterwards in Luckombe's History of Printing, 1770.
Dr. Morton's plan being abandoned, on account of the difficulty of producing
in type letters which, in the manuscript, were constantly differing in their forms, the
work was entrusted to Mr. Abraham Farley, F.R.S., a gentleman of great Record
learning, and who had had access to the ancient MSS. for upwards of forty
years. His knowledge, however, did not induce him to differ from his original
in a single instance, even when he found an apparent error ; he preserved in his
transcript every interlineation and contraction, and his copy was ultimately placed
in Mr. Nichols' hands. Jackson was then emploeyd to cut the types, and
successfully accomplished the difficult undertaking.1 The work occupied ten
1 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. Jack-
son's also appears in Johnson's Typographia (ii, p. 248), from which work our account is
chiefly taken.
Joseph Jackson. 321
years in printing, and appeared in 1783, in two folio volumes.1 The type was
destroyed in the fire which consumed the printing-office of Mr. Nichols in 1808,
previous to which, however, it was used in Kelham's Introduction and Glossary
to the Domesday Book in 1788.2
It was Jackson's success, no doubt, in his facsimile letter for the Domesday
Book, which led to his selection shortly afterwards by Mr. Nichols to cut the
type for Dr. Woide's3 facsimile of the New Testament of the Alexandrian Codex
in the British Museum. To the history of this priceless relic reference has been
made once or twice in the course of this work.4 Only one attempt had previously
been made to reproduce its character in type, — that of Dr. Patrick Young, in 1643,
within a few years of the arrival of the manuscript in this country. In this letter was
printed a specimen containing the first chapter of Genesis. But the project was
abandoned, and the matrices, there is reason to believe, subsequently passed
into Grover's Foundry, and afterwards, through James, into the possession of
Dr. Fry in 1782.5 That Mr. Nichols was acquainted with their existence in 1778
is almost certain, since they are mentioned in Rowe Mores' Dissertation, which
he himself edited and annotated. But not being sufficiently exact for the
purpose, and, at the same time, it being decided that the facsimile should
be produced through the medium of type in preference to other process,6
Mr. Jackson was fixed on to cut a new set of punches from the transcript made
by Dr. Woide's own hand. To this task he proved fully equal, and the work
issued from Mr. Nichols' press in 17867 — a splendid folio edition, worthy alike of
1 Domesday Book sett Liber Censualis Willelmi priini Regis Anglice inter Archivos Regni
in Domo capitulari Westmonasterii asservatus. Jubente Rege Augustissimo Georgio Tertio
prelo mandatus. Londini. Typis J. Nichols. 2 vols. Folio. 1783.
2 Domesday Book Illustrated. London. 1788. 8vo.
3 Dr. Woide was appointed Assistant Librarian at the British Museum in 1782.
4 See ante, p. 200-5.
5 A specimen of this letter may be seen in Dr. Fry's specimens, also in his Pantagraphia,
p. 126.
6 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
Home's Introduction (edit. 1872), iv, pp. 682-3.
t Novum Testamentum Gracwn e Codice MS. Alexandrino qui Londini in Bibliothecd
Musei Britannici asservatur, descriptum a Carolo Godofredo Woide . . . Musei Britannici
Bibliothecaria Londini. Ex prelo Jeannis Nichols. Typis Jacksonianis, 1786. Folio.
T T
322
The Old English Letter Foundries.
its subject and the artists who produced it. The unusual compliment was, in this
instance, paid to the letter-founder of mentioning his name on the title-page as
the author of the types employed in the work.
The matrices were afterwards deposited in the British Museum, and were
again brought into requisition when, in 1812, Mr. Baber produced his facsimile of
the Psalms^ from the Alexandrian MS., and afterwards, in 1816-21, at the press of
Messrs. R. and A. Taylor, completed the entire Old Testament? Thus concluded
this great enterprise, which has been justly characterised by the Abbe* Jager as
" opus plane aureumP
Jackson having now become famous for his skill in this particular branch
of his art, was called upon shortly before his death to execute a work of scarcely
less importance than the facsimile of the Alexandrian Greek. This was to cut
the punches for Dr. Kipling's facsimile of the celebrated Codex Bezce preserved
at the University of Cambridge. The character of this MS. differs considerably
from that of the Alexandrine ; and, being less regular in its execution, the diffi-
culty of reproducing it in type is proportionately greater. Jackson, however,
accomplished his task faithfully and with marked success. Unhappily his death
in 1792 prevented him from seeing in print the fruit of his labours, as the
work did not appear till the following year, when it was published at Cambridge
in two beautiful folio volumes,3 — a work which, says its reviewer, " reflects honour
on the University of Cambridge, and its editor, and, we may add, on the late
excellent letter-founder, Mr. Jackson, who cut the types for this handsome book,
as well as for the Alexandrine MS. and for Domesday"4'
Jackson's reputation was not by any means wholly dependent on his skill in
expressing in type the character of ancient and difficult manuscripts.
During the time he was occupied in the works above described, he made
several useful additions to his foundry. Amongst others, he cut a beautiful
1 Psalterium Grcecwn e Codice MS. Alexandrine/ qui Londini in Bibliothecd Musei Bri-
tannia asservatur Typis ad similitudinem ipsius Codicis Scriptures fideliter descriptum. Curd
et labore H. H. Baber. Londini, 18 12. Folio.
2 Vetus Testamentum Grcecujn e Codice MS. Alexandrino qui Londini in Bibliothecd Musei
Britannici asservatur, Typis ad similitudinem ipshis Codicis Scripturee fideliter descriptum.
Curd et labore H. H. Baber, Londini, 18 16-21. 4 vols., Folio. Mr. Baber, the better to pre-
serve the identity of the original in his fac-similes, introduced a considerable number of fresh
types as well as numerous woodcuts.
3 Codex Theodori Bezce Cantabrigiensis, Evangelia etActa Apostolorum complectens, quad-
ratis Uteris, Grceco-Latinus. Academia auspicante summd qua fide potuit, adumbravit, expressit,
edidit, codicis historiam prafixit, notasque adjecit T. Killing. Cantabrigian e prelo Academico,
impensis Acade?nicz, 1793. 2 vols., Folio.
4 Cent. Mag., 1793, p. 733.
Joseph Jackson. 323
fount of Pica Greek for Mr. Bowyer, "who," says Nichols,1 "used to say that
the types in common use were no more Greek than they were English."
" He had also, under the direction of Joseph Steele, the ingenious author of
Prosodia Rationalist augmented the number of musical notes by such as
represent the emphasis and cadence of prose." This curious work, designed
to show how the recitation of Garrick and other eminent speakers might be
transmitted to posterity in score, was printed by Nichols in 1779, being an
amplified edition of a treatise published four years previously,3 in which
Jackson's " expression symbols" were made use of.
The most important work of his later years was undoubtedly the splendid
fount of 2-line English Roman, cut for Mr. Bensley, about the year 1789, for
Macklin's Bible.* As in the case of the Bezae Gospels, he did not live to see the
completion of his labours in the publication of this grand edition, which did not
appear till some years after his death, and then in a type not wholly his own, but
supplemented, in close facsimile, by a fount cut by his former apprentice and
manager, Vincent Figgins.5 Jackson's grand letter is justly counted among his
greatest achievements, exhibiting, as Nichols observes, a pattern of the most
perfect symmetry to which the art had at that time arrived."6
A crowning monument to the skill of this excellent artist is Robert Bowyer's
sumptuous edition of Hume's History of England, printed by Bensley7 in 1 806,
in a Double Pica type, on which Jackson was engaged at the time of his death.
On the execution of this fount he appears to have staked his reputation ; " Mr.
Jackson," says his biographer in the Gentleman 's Magazine* " had been engaged
to cut the letter for the projected edition of Hume's History of England, which
he declared should ' be the most exquisite performance of the kind in this or any
other country.' And accordingly he had, in a great degree, accomplished his
purpose, but his anxiety and application were so intense that his health suffered
and he fell a victim to the great undertaking."
1 Mores' Dissert., Appendix, p. 98.
a Prosodia Rationalis, an Essay towards establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech
by Symbols. London, 1779. 4to.
3 An Essay towards Establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech, to be expressed and
perpetuated by peculiar Symbols. London, 1775. 4to.
4 The Holy Bible, embellished with Engravings front Pictures and Designs by the most
eminent Artists. London: printed for Thomas Macklin by Thomas Bensley, 1800. 7 vols.
Folio.
5 See p. 336, post. Jackson's fount is used to the end of Numbers.
6 Lit. Anec, ii, 360.
7 The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Ccesar to the Revolution in 1688.
By David Hume. London : printed by T. Bensley, for Robert Bowyer, 1806. 10 vols. Folio.
8 Gent. Mag., 1792, p. 166.
324 The Old English Letter Foundries.
This circumstance was made the occasion of a curious and affecting Elegy,
of which we will venture to inflict a specimen on the reader, not on account of
its merit, but as being a rare instance of a letter-founder becoming the object of a
poetical tribute: —
" Patrons of merit, heave the sadden'd sigh !
Ye brilliant dewdrops, hang on Beauty's eye !
Let heavy hearts beat with the tolling bell,
And mourn the fatal hour when Jackson fell !
His were the gifts the Gods alone impart —
A tow1 ring genhis and a tender heart !
A greatness equalled only by his skill —
A goodness greater than his greatness still ;
An ardent zeal each purpose to obtain,
Which Virtue and the Arts might entertain.
But Fate in jealous fury snatched him hence
The moment he accomplished excellence !
Tenax propositi — his art he tried,
Achieved perfection — and achieving died ! '' etc.
Although anxiety and overwork may have contributed to Jackson's death,
the immediate cause was a severe attack of scarlet-fever, which carried him off
on January 14th, 1792, in the 59th year of his age. The last few years of his
life had been considerably troubled. In 1790 his foundry was destroyed by a
fire, in which his moulds and matrices were seriously damaged. The shock of
this calamity affected both his health and his energy, and the management of
his business was, during his later years, left almost entirely in the hands of his
trusted servant, Mr. Vincent Figgins. The foundry was rebuilt, and the damaged
materials were, as far as possible (though not wholly), replaced at the time of his
death.
Mr. Jackson was twice married — first to Miss Elizabeth Tassell, originally a
whinster in Spitalfields, " a very worthy woman," says Nichols, " and an excellent
wife, who greatly contributed by her care and industry to his getting forward in
his first entering into business.-" She died in 1783, and, in the following year,
Mr. Jackson married Mrs. Pasham, widow of a well-known printer in Black-
friars,1 a union which materially assisted him in the means of carrying on his
1 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.
Joseph Jackson. 325
business. This lady died in 1791, her husband surviving his bereavement only
a few months. He was buried in the same grave with his two wives in the
ground of Spa Fields Chapel.
Of Jackson's private character his contemporaries concur in speaking very
highly. " By the death of this ingenious artist and truly worthy man," says
Nichols, " the poor lost a most excellent benefactor, his own immediate con-
nexions a steady friend, and the literary world a valuable coadjutor in their
labours." He was a deacon at the Meeting- House in Barbican, where a funeral
sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Towers, who also delivered a " neat funeral
oration," at the grave. He died possessed of some considerable property.
There is an oil portrait of him in the possession of Mr. Blades, and an engraved
portrait in Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, from which our copy is taken.
It is unfortunately impossible to ascertain in what condition his foundry was
left at the time of his death — how far it had recovered from the consequences
of the fire, or how far that calamity had destroyed, beyond replacing, any of its
contents.
It was offered for sale in 1792, and Mr. Figgins, the presumptive successor
to the business, not finding himself in a position to become its purchaser, it was
acquired by William Caslon III, who had recently disposed of his share in the
Chiswell Street Foundry, over whose affairs he had for some years been pre-
siding.1 He removed the Foundry from Dorset Street to Finsbury Square,
where for a few years it remained located ; but presently transferred it back to
its old quarters, leaving the house in Finsbury Square to be converted by James
Lackington, the celebrated bookseller, into the " Temple of the Muses," one of
the largest and most popular old book-shops of the day.
In the hands of Mr. Caslon, Jackson's foundry was greatly enlarged and
improved. The specimen of 1798, dedicated to the King, exhibits 19 pages of
Titlings and open letters, 1 of Ornamental, 35 of Roman and Italic, 8 of foreign
letter and Blacks, 1 of Script, 5 of sundry specimens, and 12 of Flowers."2
The book has many features in common with the Chiswell Street specimen
of 1785, many of the founts in which re-appear here. Indeed, it would seem
that on relinquishing his share in the parental business, William Caslon III had
provided himself with duplicate matrices of several of the Chiswell Street founts,
1 See ante, p. 250.
2 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,"
326 The Old English Letter Foundries.
particularly of the Foreign and Oriental letters, which figure prominently in this
and subsequent specimens of the Salisbury Square Foundry.
Bound with the book is a specimen of Cast Ornaments, a species of a
typographical embellishment which Caslon III had had the merit of introducing
into this country in 1784, while still at Chiswell Street. In this particular too,
the Salisbury Square specimen is a reproduction of that of the Chiswell Street
house.
About the year 1803 Mr. Caslon took his son, the fourth William Caslon,
into partnership, and the firm became W. Caslon & Son. The specimen of this
year exhibits a slight increase on that of 1798, the chief additions being in the
modern-faced Romans, then becoming fashionable. The learned and Oriental
founts remain unaltered from the 1798 specimen, and as this is the last specimen
of the foundry in which these occupy a prominent place, it will be convenient to
give the list here :
A rabic. — English.
A rmenian. — Pica.
Samaritan. — Pica.
Saxon. — English, Pica, Brevier.
Blacks. — 2-line Great Primer, Double Pica,
Great Primer, English 1, English 2, Pica
1, Pica 2, Small Pica, Long Primer,
Brevier.
Greek. — Double Pica, Great Primer, English,
English new, Pica, Small Pica, Long
Primer, Brevier, Nonpareil.
Hebrew. — 2-line Great Primer, 2-line English,
Double Pica, Great Primer, ditto with
points, English, ditto with points, Pica,
ditto with points, Small Pica, Long
Primer, Brevier.
Syriac. — English, Long Primer.
The whole of these founts, with the exception of the new English Greek, are
identical with those shown in the Chiswell Street Specimen of 1785.
The Specimen Book of 1803 appears to have served the foundry for several
years; as copies exist in which the date is altered by hand to 1807, and the name
of the firm changed from " W. Caslon & Son " to " W. Caslon, Junior."
This last alteration was consequent on the retirement of William Caslon III
from the business in 1807. Although this gentleman's connection with type
founding ceases here,1 we cannot refrain from quoting the few sentences in which
Mr. Hansard, in 1825, describes his personal character, while the subject of his
notice was yet living : —
"If his friends had not yet the pleasure of occasionally receiving his lively
salutations — of enjoying the gay and gentlemanlike converse, the whim, the
anecdote, and the agreeable bagatelle of William Caslon aforesaid, I might be
induced to amplify on these points . . . The mention, however, of one thing
must not be omitted. Some years ago he was deprived of sight by the forma-
1 He made an offer in 18 17 to travel on commission for the founders generally, but his
services in this direction were not made use of.
76. From Hansard.
{face ?. 326.
Joseph Jackson. 327
tion of a cataract in each eye ; still his musical ear furnished the faculty of
distinguishing persons whom he knew by their voices ; and his cheerful spirits
enabled him to sustain the calamity with a becoming temper of mind. At length,
his courage, in undergoing the operation of couching three several times, was
rewarded with the perfect restoration of his sight ; and his friends again ex-
perience the delight of hearing him truly say, • Ah ! I'm happy to see you, by
.' But although ever ready with anecdote and whim to enliven, still more
to his honour as a man, may it be added, that he can at once turn the cheerful
smile into serious solicitations, for the assistance of a decayed old friend, his
orphan, or his widow." Mr. Caslon died in 1833. The portrait here given is
taken from that in Hansard's Typographia.
William Caslon IV, being left in sole possession of the foundry, made con-
siderable progress in extending the business, especially by the addition of the
new fashioned fat-faced types, at that period so largely affected. His chief im-
provement, however, was the introduction in 18 10 of the Sanspareil matrices for
large letters.1 This invention, which Hansard somewhat extravagantly de-
scribes as the greatest improvement in the art of letter- founding that has taken
place in modern times, consisted in the substitution of pierced, or rather built-up
matrices, in place of the old sand moulds hitherto in use, and it rapidly secured
favour in the trade, and was as early as possible adopted by the other founders.
In 1 8 12, Mr. Caslon also took out a patent for a new form of type for
imposing on a cylinder, of a size from \ to ^th that of ordinary type, and cast
wedge-shaped, or larger at the end containing the face than at the foot ; an
attempt which reflected more credit on the ingenuity of its author than upon
his practical judgment, and which was not proceeded with.2
Although no complete specimen book of Caslon IV has occurred to our
notice of a later date than that of 1807 (which is itself the 1803 book altered by
pen and ink), the numerous sheets appearing from time to time, and collected in
the first specimen of his successors, prove that one or more specimens of the
foundry must have appeared during the interval.
In 1 8 19, Mr. Caslon, Junr. disposed of his foundry to Messrs. Blake,
Garnett & Co., of Sheffield, to which town the entire stock was removed.
After his retirement from type-founding, he devoted himself actively to the
1 The Circular announcing this improvement is dated Salisbury Square, Jan. i, 1810. The
new types are offered at is. lod. per lb., and, as an encouragement to buyers, is. per lb. is
offered for old metal.
2 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.)
328 The Old English Letter Foundries.
scheme for lighting London with coal-gas. For some of his appliances in con-
nection with this business — the sliding water-joints for pendants and chandeliers
amongst others — he received the medal of the Society of Arts (his only re-
ward, for he did not patent his invention). In 1832 he went to reside at Henley,
and ten years later was afflicted with total blindness, an operation for cataract
having proved unsuccessful. In this state he continued for twenty- seven years,
" tired," as he said, " of having been so long in the dark," but serene in temper,
and his mind illuminated with Christian hope. He taught himself to read the
embossed printing for the blind, and was able to write by the aid of a simple
apparatus constructed for that purpose. He lived, in spite of his affliction,
to a cheerful old age, and died in 1869, aged 88. He left no son.
To estimate the complete revolution which had taken place in the pro-
ductions of this foundry during the interval between 1807 and 1819, it is only
necessary to glance through the first specimen book of the new proprietors,
issued in the latter year, which may be taken to represent the state of the
foundry pretty nearly as it was at the time of its transfer to Sheffield. There
is not a single fount in the one book which reappears in the other. The
modern fat-face Romans and Egyptians1 take the place of Jackson's elegant
old-style letters. The Orientals have completely disappeared, and the general
appearance of the book reflects as much as any specimen of the period the
prevalent taste of a so-called improved art.
It was, apparently, highly esteemed in its day. " Mr. Caslon," says
Hansard, writing only six years after the event, " transferred to the Sheffield
founders such a specimen of type and flowers as will ever cause us printers
to regret the loss of such a competitor for fame in this difficult business."
Messrs. Blake, Garnett & Co., a firm formed for the special purpose
of acquiring the type business, issued their first specimen, above referred to,
very shortly after the transfer of the business to its new quarters. Their
prefatory note is interesting, not only as recording the transaction, but as
intimating that the Oriental and Foreign founts, which had formed so con-
spicuous a feature of the previous specimens of the foundry, had also found
their way to Sheffield : —
" Blake, Garnett and Co. beg leave respectfully to inform the trade that they have
purchased the whole of Mr. Caslon's Foundery, which, in addition to the Specimens
here offered to their inspection, contains founts of Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic,
Saxon, German, etc. from Brevier to Double Pica, chiefly modern, also every kind
of Accented letters, and a variety of other Sorts, of which Specimens are
not yet printed.''
1 Considerable prominence is naturally given to the large letters " cast in moulds and
matrices" by the new " Sanspareil" method.
Joseph Jackson. 329
The activity of the new proprietors resulted in a rapid increase in the
extent and business of the foundry. Supplementary specimens were frequently
issued between 1820 and 1830, when the style of the firm became Blake and
Stephenson. Mr. Stephenson was a man of great energy, practical skill and
artistic taste, and it is to his exertions that the rapidly- achieved eminence of
the house was chiefly due. In 1841, the firm took its present style of Stephenson,
Blake & Co. Mr. Stephenson directed the operations of the Sheffield foundry
until i860, when the management devolved on his son, Mr. Henry Stephenson,
in whose hands it still remains.
LIST OF SPECIMENS, 1765-1831.
No date. Jackson's first Specimen of one fount. 1765 ? (Referred to by Nichols, Lit. Anec,
ii, 360.) {Lost)
1783. Jackson's second Specimen (described by Mores, Dissert., p. 83.) (Lost.)
No date. Specimen of the Deo Nagri or Hindvi Type, cut for the purpose of printing
a Grammar and Dictionary of that Language under the Direction of William
Kirkpatrick, Captain in the Service of the Honourable East India Company, and
Persian Secretary to the Commander in Chief in India. By Joseph Jackson, Letter
Founder, Salisbury Court, Fleet Street. 1784? Broadside. (J. F.)
1798. A Specimen of Printing Types by William Caslon, Letter Founder to the King, Salisbury
Square, London. 1798. 8vo. (W. B.)
1798. A Specimen of Cast Ornaments by William Caslon, Letter Founder to the King.
London. Printed by C. Whittingham. 1798. 8vo. (W. B.)
1803. A Specimen of Printing Types by W. Caslon and Son, Letter Founders to the King.
London. Printed by C. Whittingham, Dean Street, Fetter Lane. 1803. 8vo, (Caslon.)
1807. The above Specimen, with additions, and title, altered from "W. Caslon and Son,
1803," to " W. Caslon, junr., 1807." (Caslon.)
No date. A Specimen of Printing Types, etc., by Blake, Garnett and Co. (successors to
Mr. W. Caslon, of London), Letter Founders, Sheffield. (1819.) 8vo. (T. B. R.)
1826. Supplement to Blake, Garnett and Co.'s Specimen, 1826. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 4405.)
1827. Specimen of Printing Types by Blake, Garnett and Co. (successors to Mr. W. Caslon of
London), Letter Founders, Allen Street, Sheffield. 1827. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 4406.)
1827-8. Supplements to Blake, Garnett and Co.'s Specimen, 1827 and 1828. 8vo.
(Caxt. Cel., 4408.)
1830. Select Specimen of Printing Types by Blake and Stephenson, Sheffield. 1830. 8vo.
(Caxt. Cel., 4414.)
1 83 1. Specimen of Printing Types by Blake and Stephenson (successors to Mr. W. Caslon of
London), Letter Founders, Sheffield. 183 1. 8vo. (S. B. & Co.)
U U
CHAPTER XVII.
WILLIAM MARTIN, 1790.
ILLIAM MARTIN was brother to Robert Martin,1 Bas-
kerville's apprentice and successor. He appears to have
acquired his first knowledge of the art at the Birmingham
foundry, and about the year 1786 to have come to
London and entered into the service of Mr. George
Nicol,2 as a punch cutter. Mr. Nicol was at that time
engaged in maturing his plans for the production of a
magnificent edition of Shakespeare, and kept Martin at his
own house " to cut sets of types after approved models in imitation of the sharp
and fine letter used by the French and Italian printers."
On the establishment of the famous "Shakespeare Press,"3 by Messrs.
1 See ante, p. 281.
2 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 Shake-
speare 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.
3 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 18 19, 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.
William Martin. 331
Boydell and Nicol, in 1790, at Cleveland Row, St. James's, with William
Bulmer as presiding genius, Martin was established in premises hard by, in
Duke Street ; his foundry being a sort of private foundry in connection with the
Press. Here it was that he produced the founts in which the magnificent
works, issued during the next twenty years from Bulmer's Press, were printed.
The appearance of the first part of the Shakespeare?- in 1791 at once esta-
blished the fame of the printer and his types ; and the completion of the work, in
nine volumes, in 18 10, may be regarded as marking an epoch in British typo-
graphy. "No work of equal magnitude", says the enthusiastic Dibdin, " ever
presented such complete accuracy and uniform excellence of execution. There is
scarcely one perceptible shade of variation from the first page of the first
volume, to the last page of the work, either in the colour of the ink, the hue of
the paper, or the clearness and sharpness of the types."2
The Milton? which followed, is considered a still finer specimen of typo-
graphy. The enthusiasm animating all concerned in the new undertaking was
remarkable, and attracted universal attention. "The nation," says Dibdin,
" appeared to be not less struck than astonished ; and our venerable monarch,
George III, felt anxious not only to give such a magnificent establishment every
degree of royal support, but, infected with the matrix and puncheon mania, he
had even contemplated the creation of a royal printing office within the walls of
his own palace." One of the King's great ambitions was for England to rival
Parma in the productions of Bodoni,4 and Dibdin alludes to a story current at
the time of "his majesty being completely and joyfully taken in, by bestowing
upon the efforts of Mr. Bulmer's press that eulogy which he had supposed was
due exclusively to Bodoni's".5
In the advertisement of his edition of the Poems of Goldsmith and Parnell?
printed in 1795 and dedicated to the Messrs. Boydell and Nicol, the founders
of the Shakespeare Press, Bulmer thus bears testimony to the talents of those
who had contributed to the performance : — " The present volume, in addition to
1 The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare. Revised by G. Steevens, London :
1792-1802. 18 parts in 9 vols. Atlas folio. With 100 engravings.
2 Bibl. Decam., ii, 384.
3 The Poetical Works of John Milton , with a life of the Author by Willia7n Hay ley.
London : 1794-7. 3 vols. Folio.
4 See ante, p. 251.
5 Bibl. Decam., ii, 384.
6 Poems by Goldsmith and Parnell. London: 1795. 4t0, 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,
332 The Old English Letter Foundries.
the Shakespeare, the Milton, and many other valuable works of elegance which
have already been given to the world through the medium of the Shakespeare
Press, are {sic) particularly meant to combine the various beauties of printing,
type founding, engraving, and paper making ; as well as with a view to ascertain
the near approach to perfection which those arts have attained to (in) this
country, as to invite a fair competition with the typographical productions of
other nations. How far the different artists who have contributed their exertions
to this great object have succeeded in the attempt, the public will now be fully
able to judge."
In all these encomiums, Martin claims a share ; and, regarded simply as type
specimens, the productions of the Shakespeare Press justify his reputation as a
worthy disciple of his great master Baskerville. His Roman and Italic types
were cut in decided imitation of the famous Birmingham models ; although
Hansard points out with disapproval that in certain particulars he attempted
unwisely to vary the design. "As to the type", he says, "the modern artist, Mr.
Martin, has made an effort to cut the ceriphs and hair strokes excessively sharp
and fine ; the long f is discarded, and some trifling changes are introduced ; but
the letter does not stand so true or well in line as Baskerville's, and, as to the
Italic, the Birmingham artist will be found to far excel."1
The Shakespeare Press, along with all the other presses of the land, had to
bow before the revolution which in the closing years of last century swept aside
the beautiful old-face Roman, and set up in its stead the modern character ; and
Hansard's strictures above-quoted doubtless refer to Martin's endeavour, while
adhering to the Baskerville form as his model, to modify it so as to conform to
the new fashion. We are among those who deplore the change thus inaugurated ;
but at the same time it must be admitted that Martin succeeded as well in the
new departure as any of his contemporaries.
Nor did he confine himself to Roman and Italic. He produced several
founts of Greeks and Orientals, which eventually came to form the most valuable
part of his collection.2 His Greek character, however, like the Greeks
attempted by Baskerville and Bodoni, was not a success ; and the otherwise
beautiful edition of Musceus, printed in 1797,3 and bearing on the title-page his
name as the cutter of the type, is marred by the cramped and inelegant effect of
that character.
1 Typographic p. 311.
2 Nichols, Illust. Lit., viii, 485.
3 Musczus. The Loves of Hero and Leander. (Greek and English.) London. Printed
by W. Bulmer 6° Co. Typis Gulielmi Martin. 1797. 4to. This work was privately printed
by Mr. Bulmer for Mr. Grosvenor Bedford, the translator.
William Martin. 333
Although Martin's foundry was entirely supported by, and, indeed, belonged
to, the Shakespeare Press, he appears occasionally to have supplied his types
to outsiders — amongst others to McCreery, the author of the well-known poem
on the Press, and himself a very elegant printer. The Press} was printed
in 1803 from Martin's type, as a specimen of typography, and in his preface
the author pays the following tribute to that artist's abilities : — " The extra-
ordinary efforts which have of late years been made to produce the finest models
of Printing Types, must be highly gratifying to those who have in any measure
interested themselves in raising the credit of the British Press. The spirit for
this species of beauty has long been gaining an ascendancy, having received a
strong impulse from the talents of Baskerville, who endeavoured to combine
sharpness and perfection of impression with graceful types, giving to his
works a finish which was before unknown in this kingdom. Mr. Martin, whose
abilities are so conspicuously displayed in the productions of the Shakespeare
Press, is a pupil of that celebrated school. By the liberality of George Nicol,
Esq., I am enabled to boast of being the first who has participated with Mr.
Bulmer in the use of these types, a mark of kindness for which my warmest
acknowledgements are the least recompense he has a right to expect." Several
of the other productions of McCreery's press were also printed from Martin's
type.
Among the finest specimens of the Shakespeare Press printed in Bulmer's
time, the three great bibliographical works of Dibdin, viz., the Typographical
Antiquities? the Bibliotheca Spenceriana} and the Bibliographical Decameron}
will always take a foremost place. Martin, whose Roman type rarely appeared
to greater advantage, unfortunately did not live to see the completion of the
whole of these typographical masterpieces, as he died in the summer of 18 15.
He was buried in St. James's Church, Westminster.
After his death, the foundry (of which unfortunately no specimen-book
exists), appears to have been continued for a short time by Mr. Bulmer, who,
1 The Press: a Poem. Published as a Specimen of Typography by John McCreery.
Liverpool: printed by J. McCreery. Houghton Street, 1803. 4to.
2 Typographical Antiquities, 6r>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.
3 Bibliotheca Spencerianaj 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.
4 The Bibliographical Decameron j or, Ten Days' Pleasant Discourse upon Illuminated
Manuscripts, and Subjects connected with early Engraving, Typography and Bibliography.
London, 1817. 3 vols. 8vo,
334 The Old English Letter Foundries.
between 1815 and 1819, when he himself retired, produced several fine
works.1
Prior to that event — in 18 17 — Mr. Nichols states that the foundry was united
with that of the Caslons.2 There is, however, reason for supposing that some of
the matrices were retained for the use of the Shakespeare Press, and that
others went into the market and were secured by other founders.3
The Shakespeare Press, under the supervision of Mr. W. Nicol, continued in
active operation till 1855, when he retired, and his printing materials were
sold ; thus closing one of the most memorable chapters in the history of
British typographical enterprise.
1 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 cen-
sures Bulmer for the use of worn type in the Edition of Ben Jvnsorts Works, 1816. 9 vols.
8vo. " L'habile M. Bulmer aurait du jeter a la fonte les caracteres use's dont il a fait usage
pour cette volumineuse Edition, et les libraires entrepreneurs n'auroient pas du lui en permettre
1'emploi."
2 Illust. Lit., viii, 485.
3 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.
CHAPTER XVIII.
VINCENT FIGGINS, 1792.
HIS excellent letter- founder was bound apprentice to Joseph
Jackson in the year 1782, at the age of 16, and remained
in his service till Jackson's death in 1792. During the last
three years of his master's life, as has been already said, the
entire management of the foundry devolved on him ; and
the experience and connection so acquired fully qualified
him to succeed to and increase the business to whose
success he had materially contributed.
Contrary to expectation, however, Vincent Figgins found himself, on Jackson's
death, left in the position of an ordinary outsider ; and not being able or willing
to pay the sum demanded, which was in excess of what he conscientiously con-
sidered the concern to be worth, he failed in succeeding to the foundry, which
was purchased by William Caslon III.
Left thus to his own resources, Mr. Figgins was constrained to enter on an
independent undertaking. Encouraged by the advice of Mr. John Nichols, (who,
as the intimate friend of Jackson, had had many opportunities of observing the
character and talent of his apprentice), he determined to rear a foundry in his
own name. " A large order," says Hansard, " for two founts, Great Primer and
Pica, of each 2,000 lbs — even before he had printed a single specimen — gave
the young adventurer the best heart to proceed ; neither did his liberal patron
suffer him to want the sinews of trade as long as such assistance was required."
Writing to Mr. Nichols, fifteen years afterwards, in reference to a passage in
336 The Old English Letter Foundries.
the Literary Anecdotes, Mr. Figgins thus gracefully acknowledged the generosity
which befriended him at the beginning of his career: —
" I am greatly obliged to you for the very flattering mention of my name, but you
have not done yourself the justice to record your own kindness to me : that, on
Mr. Jackson's death, finding I had not the means to purchase the foundry, you
encouraged me to make a beginning. You gave me large orders and assisted me
with the means of executing them ; and during a long and difficult struggle in pecuniary
matters for fifteen years, you, my dear Sir, never refused me your assistance, without
which I must have given it up. Do mention this — that, as the first Mr. Bowyer was
the means of establishing Mr. Caslon — his son, Mr. Jackson — it may be known that
Vincent Figgins owes his prosperity to Mr. Bowyer's successor."1
Mr. Figgins established himself in Swan Yard, Holborn, and at the outset
of his undertaking an opportunity occurred which served as largely as any
other to establish his reputation as an excellent artist. This was the com-
pletion of Macklin's Bible, for which, as has already been narrated, Mr. Jackson
had, in 1789, cut the beautiful 2-line English Roman fount, in which the first part
of the work is printed. " When Mr. Bensley had proceeded some way in the work
he wished to renew the fount ; but not choosing to purchase it of Mr. Caslon,
the then possessor of Jackson's matrices, he applied to Mr. Figgins to cut a fount
to correspond with that he had begun upon. Mr. Figgins undertook the task ;
and the fount, which was a perfect imitation of the other, was put into use to
begin Deuteronomy about the year 1793."2 Of the excellence of this performance
both as a facsimile and as a work of art, a reference to the splendid Bible* itself
and the no less splendid edition of Thomson's Seasons? in which the same type was
used in 1797, is the most eloquent testimony. Mr. Figgins received the
honour of being named on the title-page of the latter work, which still remains one
of the finest achievements of English typography.5 His services were also
employed in a similar manner to complete the Double Pica fount for R. Bowyer's
edition of Hume, which, it will be remembered, was in course of execution by
Jackson at the time of his death. The splendid types in which these masterpieces
of the typographic art were executed, established Mr. Figgins at once in all the
reputation he could desire.
1 Lit. Anec, ii, 361.
2 Hansard. Typographia, 359.
3 See ante, p. 323.
4 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.
6 Typographia, p. 360.
Vincent Figgins. 337
In 1792, he put forward a single-leaf specimen of the 2-line English fount
on its completion. In the following year, having added a " long-bodied" English
And I will appoint over
them four kinds, faith the
Lord: the fword to flay,
and the dogs to tear, and
the fowls of the heaven and
the beafls of the earth, to
devour and defiroy them.
77. Two-line English Roman cut by Vincent Figgins, 1792, (From the original matrices.)
and a Pica, he issued his first Specimen Book. This interesting document of
five leaves (title, address, and three specimens) was printed by Bensley, and con-
tained the following prefatory note, which will be read with interest as the first
public announcement of this Foundry : —
" At a period when the Art of Printing has, perhaps, arrived to a degree of
excellence hitherto unknown in the annals of literature, the improvement of Types will
no doubt be generally considered an object worthy of attention. Vincent Figgins
having had the advantage of ten years' instruction and servitude under the late
ingenious Mr. Joseph Jackson (great part of which time he had the management of
his Foundery), natters himself he shall not be thought arrogant in soliciting the
patronage of the Master Printers, and other Literary Gentlemen, when he has com-
menced an entire new Letter Foundery, every branch of which, with their support and
encouragement, he hopes he shall be enabled to execute in the most accurate and
satisfactory manner ; assuring them that his best endeavours shall be exerted to
complete so arduous an undertaking. Although as yet he has but few founts finished,
he is anxious to submit a specimen for approbation. All orders he may be favoured
with shall be duly attended to and punctually executed. . . The Italics of the following
founts, with a Long Primer, Brevier and English, are in great forwardness — specimens
of which shall be printed as soon as possible. May 1793."
One of the first public appearances of the English fount was in the 8vo
edition of Milton's Paradise Lost, begun in 1794 in monthly parts, and published
x x
33S The Old English Letter Foundries.
by Parsons in 1796.1 The announcement accompanying Part I makes special
reference to " a new and beautiful Type cast on purpose for this work by Vincent
Figgins." The Italic of this fount is specially elegant.
Mr. Figgins' indefatigable industry enabled him to issue in the next year
an enlarged Specimen Book with the same title and address as before, but con-
taining twelve sheets of specimens, four of which were dated 1794.
He met with further encouragement in his new undertaking by the patronage
of the Delegates of the Oxford Press, under whose direction he completed a fount
of Double Pica Greek, the progress of which had been interrupted by the death
of Mr. Jackson. In connection with this circumstance, Mr. Vincent Figgins the
younger, in the remarks appended to his facsimile reprint of Caxton's Game of
the Chesse, has preserved an anecdote, which it will be interesting to repeat here,
not only as having reference to Mr. Figgins' early productions, but as illustrating
a curious phase of the mystery of type founding at that day : —
" The mystery thrown over the operations of a Type foundry," says Mr.
Vincent Figgins II in 1855, "within my own recollection (thirty-four years), and
the still greater secrecy which had existed in my father's experience, testifies
that the art had been perpetuated by a kind of Druidical or Masonic induction
from the first. An anecdote of my father's early struggles may illustrate this.
At the death of Mr. Joseph Jackson, whom my father had served ten years as
apprentice and foreman, there was in progress for the University Press of Oxford
a new fount of Double Pica Greek, which had progressed under my father's entire
management. The then delegates of that Press — the Rev. Dr. Randolph and the
Rev. W; Jackson — suggested that Mr. Figgins should finish the fount himself.
This, with other offers of support from those who had previously known him,
was the germ of his prosperity (which was always gratefully acknowledged).
But when he had undertaken this work, the difficulty presented itself that he did
not know where to find the punch-cutter. No one knew his address ; but he was
supposed to be a tall man, who came in a mysterious way occasionally, whose
name no one knew, but he went by the sobriquet of ' The Black Man} This old
gentleman, a very clever mechanic, lived to be a pensioner on my father's
bounty — gratitude is, perhaps, the better word. I knew him, and could never
understand the origin of his sobriquet, unless Black was meant for dark,
mysterious, from the manner of his coming and going from Mr. Jackson's
foundry."
Shortly after the completion of the Greek fount, Mr. Figgins was called upon
1 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.
Vincent Figgins. 339
to execute a fount of Persian under the direction of the eminent Orientalist, Sir
William Ouseley.1 This type was used in Francis Gladwin's Persian Moonshee2, in
1 80 1, and other works ; and was commended by Dr. Adam Clarke as a beautiful
letter in the finest form of the Nustaleek character.
About the same time, he cut a fount of English Telegii from a MS., for the
East India Company, in whose library, says Hansard, the " matrices or moulds "
were afterwards deposited. Of this fount he issued two specimens about 1802,
one a folio, the other a quarto ; and about the same time put forward a specimen
of " Two-line letters" in the same form.
In the year 1800, Mr. Figgins was engaged by Messrs. Eyre and Strahan, His
Majesty's Printers, to cut and cast an improved fount of Small Pica Domesday ;
and, in 1805, a new Pica of the same character, expressly for the purpose of
printing the splendid and valuable publications of the Commission of Enquiry
into the State of the Records of the Kingdom.3 In the years 1807 and 1808, he
was also employed by His Majesty's Printers in Scotland on three further
1 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 execu-
tion 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.
2 The Persian Moonshee, by Francis Gladwin, Esquire. Calcutta. London, reprmted
1 801. 4to.
3 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, preserva-
tion 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 u 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 con-
tains 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.
34-Q The Old English Letter Foundries.
founts (Pica, Long Primer, and Brevier) for the purpose of printing the Records
of that portion of the Empire.1 This improved Domesday (a specimen of which
may be seen in Johnson's Typographies), differs considerably from that of
Jackson, in which the Domesday Book had been printed in 1783,2 and became,
subsequently, the uniform character adopted for extracts from Domesday and
other ancient Charters and Records quoted in modern topographical works.
Mr. Figgins' good fortune in the first results of his new business was some-
what tempered by the fact that, within a few years of the establishment of his
foundry, the public taste with regard to the ordinary Roman letter experienced
a complete revolution, setting aside the elegant models on which the punches of
Jackson and his contemporaries had been cut, in favour of the new fashion which
came in with the nineteenth century.
To accommodate himself to this fashion must have involved Mr. Figgins in
a considerable sacrifice of his early labour and industry, and the circumstance
may possibly account for the somewhat remarkable absence of any specimen
bearing his name for a lengthened period.
In the appendix to Stower's Printers' Grammar, 1808, which exhibits the
<' modern faces " of Caslon and Fry, the compiler regrets not being able to show
specimens of the new cut types from Mr. Figgins' foundry, " but understands
that in a few months Mr. F. will have fully completed his specimens."
These new founts appear in a specimen of 1815, a book which contains
24 pages of large letter from 16-line to 4-line ; 35 pages of Roman and Italic from
French Canon to Pearl ; together with Titlings, Black Letter, and Flowers, and a
few Orientals.
Two years later, Mr. Figgins put forward a specimen of Newspaper founts,
showing a series of eight sizes, on a broadside sheet, — the first specimen of the
kind, we believe, specially addressed to the proprietors of the public press.
The title of this sheet is printed in the 5-line German Text, which Hansard
describes as a typographical curiosity.
Speaking of Mr. Figgins about 18 12, Mr. Nichols remarks (in the passage
which called for the acknowledgment already quoted) : " With an ample portion
of his kind instructor's reputation, he inherits a considerable share of his talents
and industry, and has distinguished himself by the many beautiful specimens he
has produced, and particularly of Oriental Types."3
1 The first important work in connection with the Scotch Record Commission was
Inquisitionum ad Cape I lam Domini Regis retornatarum quce in publicis Archivis Scotia
adhuc servantur Abbrevatio aim Indicibus, Edinburgh, 1811-16, 3 vols., folio, and a Supplement.
2 These types perished in the fire of Mr. Nichols' printing office in 1808, see ante, p. 321.
3 Lit Anec, ii, 361.
Vincent Figgins. 341
The foundry had, in the year 1801, been removed from Swan Yard,
Holborn, to West Street, West Smithfield, where, besides the work of completing
the founts most commonly in use, several important and interesting tasks
of a special character had engaged Mr. Figgins' attention. Among these may
be mentioned the Small Pica Hebrew for Bagster' s Polyglot} in 18 17, which
had the distinction in its day of being the smallest Hebrew with points in England.
Dibdin, in his Bibliographical Decameron (ii, 408), while specially commending
the Polyglot, quotes a letter from Mr. Bagster in reference to the Figgins Hebrew
fount, which it will be interesting to repeat here. Writing to Dibdin, Mr. Bagster
remarks :
" The difficulty to the compositor of the Hebrew with points far exceeds every
other language. You are doubtless aware that every line is composed of three distinct
lines ; i.e., points and accents both above and below the line of letters. I wrote to the
printer and letter founder to display these, and one of the letters (that of Mr. Figgins
which follows) is enclosed as their accounts nearly agree. The difference between the
fount with points, and that which is without them is very striking. The former
requires 25 points and accents and 136 mixed letters ; whereas the latter has only 32
altogether and one stop — a difference between the founts of 132 characters — the first
with points exceeding by so considerable a number, and some are so minute that one
ounce is found to contain no less than 236.
u When I embraced the design of this work, no suitable fount of Hebrew existed.
It became therefore necessary to cut the steel punches and the brass (sic) matrices
before the fount of letter could be cast; and thus our country is enriched by the
creation of this new fount.
" The Greek and Roman type I think will also be admired for the delicate neatness
of their execution. The Hebrew and Greek types are of the neatest form, and the
latter is that of Porson." . . .
Mr. Figgins' letter enclosed is as follows : —
" The number of Hebrew matrices are 82 ; these are all first cast on a minion
body, and 54 of them are again cast on a diamond body, to admit of marks and
accents being put over them. The accents and points are 25 in number, of which
there are, of the thinnest sort, about 240 to the ounce. The number of boxes required
to contain the fount are : —
1 Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, Textus Archetypos, Versionesque prcecipuas ab Ecclesid Anti-
quitils 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 Eng-
lish 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.
342 The Old English Letter Foundries.
" Minion Hebrew - 82
Spaces (4), em and en quads (2), large quad (1) - 7
Diamond Hebrew 54
Spaces same as Minion 7
Minikin accents and marks - - - - 25
Spaces, etc., same as Minion .... 7
182
" I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
"West Street, London, 16th Oct., 1816. V. FIGGINS."
The Syriac used in Bagster's Polyglot1 was not cut by Mr. Figgins ; but he
had previously produced' three sizes of this character, viz. : a Double Pica,
English, and Long Primer (two founts), under the direction and partly at the
expense of Dr. Claudius Buchanan, the eminent Indian missionary and Orientalist,
whose work on Christian Researches in Asia, with notices of translations of the
Scriptures into the Oriental Languages, had been published at Cambridge,
in 181 1. At the time of his death, in 1815, Dr. Buchanan was engaged in editing
for the British and Foreign Bible Society a Syriac New Testament, which
appeared in the following year, printed in Figgins' type.2
The founts already specified — to which may be added a Small Pica Irish,
copied from the copper-plate engravings in Charles Vallancey's Irish Grammar,
and some additional Greeks, cut under Porson's superintendence — constituted
the chief features of Mr. Figgins' foundry in respect of the learned and
foreign founts. With regard to its progress in the characters of more general
use, it will be sufficient to quote Mr. Hansard's note, written in 1825, and
based doubtless on an examination of the excellent, specimen of 1821, with its
additions in 1822 and 1823: — "No foundry existing is better stocked with
matrices for those extraneous sorts which are cut more with a view to accommo-
dation than profit ; such as astronomical, geometrical, algebraical, physical,
genealogical, and arithmetical sorts ; and I feel it particularly incumbent on me
to add that, as his specimen bears equal rank with any for the number and beauty
of its founts, so he has strayed less into the folly of fat-faced preposterous dispro-
portions, than either Thorne, Fry or Caslon. I consider his Five-line Pica
German text a typographical curiosity."3
1 See ante, p. 308.
2 Novum Testamentum Syriace denuo recognitum atque adfidem Codicum MSS. emenda-
tum. Impressit R. Watts. London 18 16, 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 interest-
ing 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 com-
pleted by Dr. Lee, Arabic Professor at Cambridge. See ante, p. 68.
3 Typographia, p. 360.
Vincent Figgins. 343
The following is Hansard's summary of the foreign and learned founts con-
tained in this foundry in 1825 : —
MR. FIGGINS' FOUNDRY.
Domesday} — Pica, Small Pica.
German Text (Ornamental). — Five-line Pica.
Greek? — Great Primer, English, Pica, Small
Pica, Long Primer, Brevier.
Hebrew. — English with points, Pica, Small
Pica, Ditto with points.3 — Long Primer,
Nonpareil.
Irish.— Small Pica.
Persian. — Paragon.
Saxon. — Pica, Small Pica, Long Primer,
Brevier.
Syriac. — Double Pica, English, Long Primer,
Brevier.
Tdlegi'i.^ — English.
Black. — Double Pica, Great Primer, English,
Pica, Long Primer.
Further specimens were issued in 1824 and 1826, each indicating the rapid
growth of the rising foundry between those dates. They were followed in 1827 by
a compact little i6mo volume ; and from that date specimens are frequent.
Mr. Figgins died at Peckham, Feb. 29th, 1844. He was for several years
Common Councillor for the Ward of Farringdon Without ; " an amiable and
worthy character, " says Nichols, " and generally respected." He had relinquished
business in 1836, leaving it to his two sons, Vincent Figgins II and James Figgins,
who issued their first specimen book, a handsome quarto, under the style of V. &
J. Figgins, in 1838. Mr. Vincent Figgins II died in i860,5 when the business
was carried on by Mr. James Figgins I and his son, Mr. James Figgins II. On
the retirement of the former, then Mr. Alderman Figgins, M.P., the entire
management devolved on his son, the present proprietor. The foundry was
removed from West Street, Smithfield, to Ray Street, Farringdon Road,
in 1865.
1 The matrices of the Long Primer and Brevier cut for the Scotch Record Commission
were given up to the Government.
2 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.
3 The fount for Bagster's Polyglot.
4 The punches, matrices and moulds of this fount were deposited in the East India Com-
pany's Library.
5 It would be an omission not to mention here Mr. Vincent Figgins IPs 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
344 The Old English Letter Foundries.
LIST OF SPECIMENS, 1792-1832.
No date. A Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder, Swan Yard,
Holborn Bridge, London. (1792.) 4to, 2 pp., (J. F.)
No date. A Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder, Swan Yard,
Holborn Bridge, London. (1793.) 4-to, 5 pp. (J. F.)
1794. A Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder, Swan Yard, Holborn
Bridge, London. 1794. 4to. (W. B.)
1802. Specimen of a fount of Tel egu Types cast by V. Figgins, London. 1802. folio. (J. F.)
(Also in quarto.) ,
No date. Specimen of 2-line Letters cast by Vincent Figgins, West Street, West Smithfield*
London. Broadside. (1802. ?) (J. F.)
1815. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder, West Street, West
Smithfield, London, 1815. 8vo. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1 817. Newspaper Founts cast by Vincent Figgins, West Street, West Smithfield, London, 1817.
Broadside. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1 82 1. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder, West Street, West
Smithfield, London, 1821. 8vo. (J. F.)
(Re-issued with additions 1822 and 1823.)
1824. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder, West Street, West
Smithfield, London, 1824. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel. 4403.)
1826. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder, West Street, West
Smithfield, London, 1826. 8vo. (J. F.)
1827. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder, London, 1827. i6mo.
(Caxt. Cel. 4408.)
1832. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder, West Street, West
Smithfield, London, 1832. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel. 4417.)
from matrices, and, when worn, trimmed up by hand to form the punches for anew fount — a cir-
cumstance 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 pro-
totype ; 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.
CHAPTER XIX.
MINOR FOUNDERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY.
SKINNER, circ. 1710.
HIS founder is mentioned by Mores as a contemporary of
Robert Andrews and Head. Nothing, however, is known
of his types.
DUMMERS, circ. 1734.
Mores says he was a Dutchman who founded in this
country, where he cut the fount of Pica Samaritan which
appears in Caslon's Specimen of 1734.1 He subsequently
returned to his native country. Smith, in his Printers' Grammar, after referring
to the genius of Van Dijk, mentions Voskin and Dommer (sic) as having " been
considered as two Worthies, for their abilities in their profession." We append
a specimen of the Samaritan fount : —
w*3»* ^irraA- x'ya^i :<ni£\A^ ^x
78. Pica Samaritan, cut by Dummers for Cas'on, circ. 1734. (From the original Matrices )
1 See ante, p. 241.
Y Y
346 The Old English Letter Foundries.
JALLESON, circ. 1734.
This man appears to have served, in 1733, as punch cutter to Mr. R. Wetstein
of Amsterdam, for whom he produced, amongst other founts, the accented
Roman with which the Dutch East India Company printed their Malay Edition
of the Bible in that year. He came to London, and lived in the Old Bailey, where
he attempted an economical way of multiplying founts by casting six different
bodies of letter from three sets of punches, viz., Brevier and Long Primer from
one set, Pica and English from another, Great Primer and Double Pica from
a third. " Accordingly," says Smith, " he charged his Brevier, Pica, and Great
Primer with as full a face as their respective bodies would admit of, and, in order
to make some alteration in the advancing founts, he designed to cut the ascending
and descending letters to such a length as should show the extent of their different
bodies. But though he had cast founts of the three minor sorts of letters, he
did not bring the rest here to perfection."1
While in England, " he printed the greatest part of a Hebrew Bible with
letter of his own casting ; but was, by adverse fortune, obliged to finish the said
work in Holland." Jalleson's system, though apparently unsuccessful at the
time, was eventually adopted, to a certain extent, by English founders.
JACOB I LIVE, circ. 1730.
This eccentric individual was a connection of the James's, his mother,
Elizabeth, being the daughter of Thomas James, the printer, and consequently
cousin to Thomas James, the founder.2 His father was a printer resident in
Aldersgate Street,3 and his two brothers, Abraham and Isaac, also followed the
same calling.
About the year 1730, he applied himself to letter-founding, and carried
on a foundry and printing house together in Aldersgate Street over against
Aldersgate Coffee-house, where he was resident in 1734.
" But, afterwards," says Mores, " when Calasitfi was to be reprinted under the
inspection of Mr. Romaine, or of Mr. Lutzena, a Portuguese Jew who corrected the
1 Printer f Grammar, p. 31.
2 See ante, p. 212, n.
3 Mr. Hive 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.
4 Marius de Calasio. Concordantm Bibliorum Hebr. et Lai. edente Guii. Romaine, 4 vols.,
Lo-id. 1747, folio.
. Minor Founders of the Eighteenth Century. 347
Hebrew — as we ourselves did sometimes another part of the work — he removed
to London House (the habitation of the late Dr. Rawlinson) on the opposite
side of the way, where he was employed by the publishers of that work. This
was in the year 1746."
His foundry was only a small one, and does not appear to have received
much patronage or to have issued a specimen. The following is Mores'
summary of its contents : —
"MR. ILIVE'S FOUNDERY, 1734.
Occidentals :
Greek. — Nonpareil, 200 ; another, 80 lb.
Roman. — 2-line English, the small letters
only, 27 ; Pica, similiter, 27 ; Brevier
broadface, 54 ; Small Pica, 70 ; another,
the small letters and double only, 39 ;
Nonpareil cap. 27.
Roman and Italic. — Double Pica, 154; Great
Primer, 212; English, 236; Pica, 214;
Long Primer, 230 ; Brevier, 255; Sm.
Pica, 248.
Figures. — Pica fractions, 20 ; Mercantile
marks, Pica, 17.
Braces, Rides and Flowers, 30."
In 1740 (July 3) the foundry was purchased by John James, in whose premises,
says Mores, it lay in the boxes named Jugge, and underwent very little alteration-
With regard to the sets of Greek matrices, Mores also states that though James
paid for these they never came to his hands.
Although abandoning type-founding early, Hive continued to print until the
time of his death in 1763. Mores says he was an expeditious compositor and
knew the letters by touch. He was, however, less noted for his typography than
for his opinions.
Nichols tells us he was somewhat disordered in his mind. In 1733 he pub-
lished an Oration proving the plurality of worlds, that this earth is hell, that the
souls of men are apostate angels, and that the fire to punish those confined to
this world at the day of judgment will be immaterial. This discourse was com-
posed in 1729, and spoken at Joiners' Hall pursuant to the will of his mother,
who died in 1733 and held the same singular opinions in divinity as her son.1
A second pamphlet, entitled A Dialogue between a Doctor of the Church of
England and Mr. Jacob Hive upon the Subject of the Oration, also appeared in
1733. This strange Oration is highly praised in Holwell's third part of In-
teresting Events relating to Bengal?
In 175 1 Hive perpetrated a famous literary forgery in a pretended transla-
1 Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 130.
2 " 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. Diet., xix, 228).
348 The Old English Letter Foundries.
tion of the Book of Jasher} said to have been made by one Alcuin of Britain.
" The account given of the translation," says Mores, " is full of glaring absurdities,
but of the publication, this we can say, from the information of the Only-One
who is capable of informing us, because the business was a secret between the
Two : Mr. Hive in the night-time had constantly an Hebrew Bible before him
(sed qu. de hoc) and cases in his closet. He produced the copy for Jasher, and it
was composed in private, and the forms worked off in the night-time in a private
press-room by these Two, after the men of the Printing-house had left their
work. Mr. Hive was an expeditious compositor, though he worked in a night-
gown and swept the cases to pye with the sleeves."2
In 1756, for publishing Modest Remarks on the late Bishop Sherlock's
Sermons, Hive was imprisoned in Clerkenwell Bridewell, where he remained for
two years, improving the occasion by writing and publishing Reasons offered for
the Reformation of the House of Correction in Clerkenwell, in 1757. He also pro-
jected several other reforming works.3
In the last year of his life, 1762, he once more became notorious as the
ringleader of a schism among the members of the Stationers' Company, of which
the following narrative (communicated by Mr. Bowyer) is given by Gough : —
" He called a meeting of the Company for Monday the 31st of May, being Whit-
Monday, at the Dog Tavern, on Garlick Hill, ' to rescue their liberties,' and choose
Master and Wardens. Hive was chosen chairman for the day ; and, standing on the
upper table in the hall, he thanked the freemen for the honour they had done him —
laid before them several clauses of their two charters — and proposed Mr. Christopher
Norris and some one else to them for Master ; the choice falling upon Mr. Norris.
He then proposed, in like manner, John Lenthall, Esq., and John Wilcox, Gent., with
two others for Wardens ; when the two first nominated were elected. A Committee was
then appointed by the votes of the Common Hall to meet the first Tuesday in each
month at the Horn Tavern, in Doctors' Commons, to inquire into the state of the
Company, which Committee consisted of twenty-one persons, five of whom (provided
the Master and Wardens were of the number), were empowered to act as fully as if
the whole of the Committee were present. July the 6th being the first Tuesday in the
month, the newly-elected Master, about twelve o'clock, came into the Hall, and being
seated at the upper end of it, the Clerk of the Hall was sent for and desired to swear
Mr. Norris into his office ; but he declined, and Mr. Hive officiated as the Clerk in
1 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 Alaci7i 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.
2 Dissert., p. 65.
3 These are enumerated in Gough's British Topography, i, 637.
Minor Founders of the Eighteenth Century. 349
administering the oath. A boy then offered himself to be bound ; but no Warden
being present, he was desired to defer until next month, when several were bound ;
some freemen made ; and others admitted on the livery ; one of whom, at least, has
frequently polled at Guildhall in contested elections."1
No particular notice appears to have been taken of the proceedings, and
the rebellion was short lived. Previous to its outbreak, Hive had published a
pamphlet on The Charter and Grants of the Company of Stationers ; with
Observations and Remarks thereon, in which he recited various grievances and
stated the opinion of counsel upon several points. " I have a copy of this
pamphlet," says Mr. Hansard, " now lying before me, the twentieth page of which
concludes with the line, ' Excudebat, edebat, donabat, Jacob Hive, Anno 1762.' "
Hive died in the following year.
THE WESTONS.
Some founders of this name are mentioned by Ames ; but Mores supposes
that Ames, " who," he adds, " was an arrant blunderer," has made Englishmen
of the Wetsteins of Amsterdam, who founded in that city about 1733-43. The
Wetsteins, though they doubtless had considerable type dealings with this country,
are not known at any time to have practised type-founding in England.
JOHN BAINE, 1749.
After the dissolution of partnership between Wilson and Baine in 1749,2 the
latter appears to have come to London, where, Rowe Mores informs us, " he
published a specimen (very pretty) without a date. It exhibits Great Primer
and Pica Greek and (we take no notice of title letters) the Roman and Italic
regulars beginning at Great Primer ; and the bastard Small Pica. Mr. Baine
left England and is now (1778), we think, alive in Scotland." He appears
to have carried his foundry with him, for we find in a specimen of types
belonging to a printer, John Reid, in Edinburgh, in 1768,3 two founts, a Small
Pica and a Minion marked as having been supplied by him. In 1787 was
published a Specimen by John Baine and Grandson in Co. at Edinburgh, a copy
of which is in the Library of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester,
Massachusetts.
1 British Topography, i, 597. 2 See ante, p. 260.
3 A Specimen of the Printing Types and Flowers belonging to yohn Reid, Printer, Bailie
Fyfe's Close, Edinburgh, etc. Edinburgh, 1768. 8vo. All the other founts shown are either
Wilson's or Caslon's.
350 The Old English Letter Foundries.
About the same date they established a foundry in Philadelphia, the
grandson having probably taken charge of the new venture before being joined
by his relative. Isaiah Thomas1 speaks in high praise of the mechanical ability
of the elder Baine, and adds that his knowledge of type-founding was the effect
of his own industry ; for he was self-taught. Both, he says, were good workmen
and had full employment. They appear to have been moderately successful in
America.2 The elder Baine died in 1790, aged "/ "J. His grandson relinquished
the business soon after, and, says Mr. Thomas, died at Augusta in Georgia about
the year 1799.
SPECIMENS.
No date. Specimen by John Baine, London, 1756 (?). (Noted by Mores.) (Lost.)
1787. A Specimen of Printing Types by John Baine & Grandson in Co., Letter Founders,
Edinburgh, 1787. (Amer. Ant. Soc.j
GEORGE ANDERTON, 1753.
George Anderton, of Birmingham, appears to have been one of the earliest
of English provincial letter founders. Mores says he " attempted" letter founding,
and in the year 1753 printed a little specimen of Great Primer Roman and Italic.
Samuel Caslon, brother to Caslon I, worked as a mould maker in this foundry
after having left the latter on account of some dispute.
SPECIMEN.
1753. A Specimen of Great Primer by George Anderton, Birmingham, 1753. (Noted by
Mores.) (Lost.)
HENRY FOUGT, circ. 1766.
This man, a German, lived in St. Martin's Lane about the year 1766, and, in
the following year, took out a patent for " Certain new and curious types by me
invented for the printing of music notes as neatly and as well, in every respect,
as hath usually been done by engraving." The Invention consisted in the use of
sectional types " in many respects similar to what in former ages was used in
printing-offices and known by the name of choral type." An explanatory note,
1 History of Printing in America. 2nd Edit. Albany, 1874. i, 31.
2 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 Ger-
many 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 Phila-
delphia, which, however, had ceased its operations when Baine and his grandson, some ten
years later, established their foundry in the same city.
Minor Founders of the Eighteenth Century. 351
setting forth the details of his scheme, accompanies the specification.1 Fougt
issued a specimen of his new type in 1768, and is said to have been the only
printer of music from type of his day who produced any good work. Mores says
that he returned to Germany, after selling his patent to one Falconer, a disap-
pointed harpsichord maker.
SPECIMEN.
1768. Specimen of a New Type for Music by H. Fougt. In Six Sonatas by Uttini. 3 vols.
London, 1768. Folio. (Bibl. Pr. i, 226.)
JOSEPH FENWICK, circ. 1770.
Mores' quaint account of this unlucky person is as follows : — " Mr. Joseph
Fenwick was a locksmith, and worked as a journeyman in David Street in Oxford
Road. Invited by an advertisement from Mr. Caslon for a smith who could file
smooth and make a good screw, he applied, and is now mould-mender in ordinary
to Mr. Caslon. But his ingenuity hath prompted him to greater things than a
good screw. He hath cut a fount of Two-line Pica Scriptorial for a divine, the
planner of the Statute at Plaisterers' Hall for demising and to farm letting servants
of both sexes and all services. Of him Mr. Caslon required an enormous sum
when he thought that nobody could do the work but himself. Mr. Fenwick
succeeded at a very moderate expence ; for he has not been paid for his labour
The plausible design of the fount was the relief and ease of our rural vineyarders,
and the service of those churches in which the galleries overlook the pulpit." In
the synopsis of founts given at the end of Mores' book, Fenwick's Scriptorial, or
Cursive, is mentioned as being at that time (1778) obtainable.
T. RICHARDS, 1778.
Mores says he lived near Hungerford Bridge, and called himself letter
founder and toyman ; but appeared to be an instrument maker for marking the
shirts of soldiers " to prevent plunder in times of peace." " But we have seen no
specimen," he adds, " either on paper or on rags."
McPHAIL, 1778.
Mores describes him as a Scotchman without address. " It is said that he
hath cut two full-faced founts, one of Two-line English, the other of Two-line
Small Pica ; hath made the moulds, and casts the letter his self. If this be true
1 See Abridgments of Specifications relating to Printing, p. 87. See also ante, p. 78.
352 The Old English Letter Foundries.
(and we have reason to believe it is not altogether false) he must travel like the
circumforanean printers of names from door to door soon after the invention of
the art, with all the apparatus in a pack upon his shoulders ; for he is a nidlibi-
quarian, and we cannot find his founding house." To this account Hansard adds
in 1825 : — " I have reason to believe that, some years ago, the foundry of McPhail,
which Mores has commemorated by a most humorous paragraph, was carried on
either by the same individual or a descendant ; but it continues to be screened
from observation by the same cloud which obscured it from the curiosity of that
illustrious typographical historian."
IMISSON, 1785.
Lemoine mentions an ingenious person of this name, " who, among other
pursuits, made some progress in the art of Letter Founding, and actually printed
several small popular novels at Manchester with wood-cuts cut by himself. But
other mechanical pursuits took him off, and death removed him in 1791."1
MYLES SWINNEY, 1785.
This provincial typographer was printer and proprietor of the Birmingham
Chronicle in 1774, and appears to have commenced a letter foundry shortly
after the breaking up of Baskerville's establishment. His shops were in the
High Street, Birmingham ; and in Bisset's Magnificent Directory (1800) a
view of his premises is given, including the Type Foundry. He is styled Letter
Founder, Bookseller and Printer, in the Directories of 1785, and subsequently
added to his other pursuits that of Medicine Vendor. In 1793 he was a member
of the Association of Founders at that time in existence ; and, about the year
1803, issued a neat Specimen Book of twenty pages, comprising a series of Roman
and Italic and a few Ornamented and Shaded letters. The notice accorded to
him in the Magnificent Directory is very complimentary : — " This useful
Branch of the Typographic Art, immediately on the demise of the late cele-
brated Baskerville, was resumed and is now continued, with persevering industry
and success, by Mr. Swinney, whose elegant Specimens of Printing add celebrity
to the other manufactures of this Emporium of the Arts."
1 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. 1 791". (Gent. Magaz.^ lxxiii, part i, p. 161.)
Minor Founders of the Eighteenth Century. 353
The Poetic Survey round Birmingham accompanying the Directory, immor-
talizes our founder in the following couplet :
" The Gods at Swinney's Foundry stood amaz'd,
And at each curious Type and Letter gaz'd."
Among his workmen was John Handy, a former punch cutter for Baskerville.1
Mr. Swinney died in 18 12, aged 74; having been printer and proprietor of
the Birmingham Chronicle for nearly fifty years.
SPECIMEN.
No date. Specimen of part of the Printing Types cast by Myles Swinney, of Birmingham.
Swinney and Hawkins, Printers, Birmingham. (1802?) 8vo. (S.T.)
SIMEON & CHARLES STEPHENSON, 1789.
This short-lived foundry was established in the Savoy prior to 1789, in
which year it appears to have been known as Bell and Stephenson's British
Letter Foundry, and to have issued a specimen. In 1793 the style was altered
to Simeon Stephenson & Co., and subsequently to Simeon and Charles
Stephenson, who removed the foundry to Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane.
Both the partners were members of the Association of Founders existing at that
time.
Of their foundry little is known beyond what may be gathered from their
elegant Specimen Book of Types and Ornaments issued in 1796. The title-page
of this volume states that their punches were cut by Richard Austin ; and the
address to the trade2 (which is dated 1797) refers to the flattering encourage-
ment hitherto received by the proprietors from the public. The specimen
exhibits ten pages of large titling letters, fourteen pages of Roman and Italic,
from Double Pica to Minion, and the remainder chiefly ornaments. The types,
especially in the larger sizes as well as some of the ornaments, are very good.
1 See ante, p. 269.
2 " 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.
Z Z
354 The Old English Letter Foundries.
Despite the merit of its productions the British Foundry was not successful,
and in 1797 was put up for auction. Whether it was purchased as a whole by
some other founder, or whether it was dispersed, we cannot say. It seems
probable, however, that Austin recovered some of the punches cut by him, and
used them when starting his own foundry in Worship Street.
SPECIMENS.
1789. A Specimen of Printing Types cast at Bell & Stephenson's British Letter Foundry
in the Savoy. London, 1789. 8vo. (Bodleian.)
1796. First part of a specimen of Printing Types cast at the Foundry of S. & C.
Stephenson, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane. The punches cut by R. Austin. London,
1796. 8vo. (W. B.)
1797. Catalogue of the Stock in Trade of S. & C. Stephenson, which will be sold by
Auction by Mr. C. Heydinger. 1797. 8vo. (W. B.)
CHAPTER XX.
WILLIAM MILLER, 1809.
ILLIAM MILLER, the originator of this now great
foundry, was for some time a foreman in the Glasgow
Letter Foundry. About the year 1809 he left that service
to begin a foundry of his own in Edinburgh under the
style of William Miller and Co. The first specimen is
stated to have been published in this year,1 but no copy
unfortunately has been found still to exist.
A further specimen was issued in 181 3, followed in
the ensuing year by another of 28 pages, consisting entirely of Roman
and Italic letter, of which there was a complete series from Double Pica to
Pearl, with 2-line letters and one page of borders. As Hansard observes
respecting early founts of this foundry, the letters so much resemble those of
Messrs. Wilson as to require minute inspection to distinguish the one from the
other.2
The business, once started, made rapid progress, and in due time became a
formidable rival not only to the Glasgow foundry, but to the London founders.
The specimen of 18 15 showed further additions to the founts, some of which,
we have it on Hansard's authority, were cut by Mr. Austin, of London.3
In 1822, the firm is described as William Miller only, Letter Founder to
His Majesty for Scotland. The energy and care displayed by Mr. Miller in the
1 Bibliography of Printings ii, 42. 2 Typog., p. 366. 3 Ibid., p. 361.
3 =;6 The Old English Letter Foundries.
prosecution of his business rapidly brought his foundry to the front rank, and
secured for him the support not only of English printers but of some of the
most important newspapers of the day, including The Times.
In 1832, Mr. Richard was admitted a partner; and the style of the firm
became once more William Miller and Co., and so continued until 1838, when it
became Miller and Richard.
Of the later history of this foundry it is beyond the scope of this work to
treat, further than to say that it was the first house successfully to introduce
machinery for the casting of type in this country ; and that on the revival of the
old style fashion about 1844, it took a prominent and successful part with
its series of "Modern Old Face" letter. For the Exhibition of 1851, the
proprietors produced a " Brilliant" type, the smallest then in England,1 and sub-
sequently cut a " Gem" expressly for Mr. Bellows' French Dictionary1 — a book
which for clearness and minuteness combined ranks as a typographical curiosity.
After the death of Mr. Miller in 1843, the business was carried on by Mr.
Richard and his son, until 1868 ; when, on the retirement of Mr. Richard, senior,
the active management of the Foundry (which since 1850 has had a branch
house in London) devolved upon his sons, Mr. J. M. Richard, and Mr. W. M.
Richard, the present proprietors.
LIST OF SPECIMENS, 1809-33.
[1809. Specimen of Printing Types by W. Miller and Co., Edinburgh, 1809.] (B. P. ii, 42.)
1813. Specimen of Printing Types by William Miller and Co., Edinburgh, 1813. 4to.
(B. P. ii, 42.)
1814. Specimen of Printing Types by William Miller and Co., Letter Founders, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh, printed by A. Balfour. 1814. 4to. (M. & R.)
1 81 5. Specimen of Printing Types by William Miller and Co., Letter Founders, Edinburgh.
Printed at the Stanhope Press by R. Chapman. 181 5. 4to. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1822. Specimen of Printing Types by William Miller, Letter Founder to His Majesty for
Scotland, Edinburgh. Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. 1822. 4to.
(Caxt. Cel. 4401.)
1833. Supplement to William Miller and Company's Specimens of Printing Type, Edinburgh,
1833. 4to. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1 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 3^ inches each
in depth.
2 Dictionary for the Pocket; French and English; English and French, 6s^c, by John
Bellows, Gloucester, from type cast specially for the work by Miller and Richard, Type
founders to the Queen, Edinburgh. 1873. 241110.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MINOR FOUNDERS, 1800-1830.
G. W. BOWER, circ. 18 10.
HIS foundry was begun in Sheffield about the beginning of
the present century. In 18 10, Mr. Bower issued a price
list below those of the London founders, whose founts he
succeeded occasionally in underselling. Hansard men-
tions the foundry in 1824, under the style of Bower, Bacon
and Bower. No specimen is known with an earlier date
than 1837, when the firm was G. W. Bower, late Bower
and Bacon.
A later specimen bears the name of Mr. G. W. Bower alone, and in 1841
the firm was Bower Brothers, who published Proposals for establishing a graduated
scale of sizes for the bodies of Printing Types, and fixing their height-to-paper, based
upon Pica as the common standard}
After the death of Mr. G. W. Bower, the foundry was continued by Mr.
Henry Bower till his death about 185 1, in September of which year the plant
and stock were sold by auction and dispersed among the other founders. The
Catalogue of this Sale contained about 50,000 punches and matrices ; many of
them, however, being obsolete or of small value.
1 Sheffield, 3rd edit, 1841, i2mo. A similar proposal, only with Nonpareil as the
standard, was made about 1824 by James Fergusson, whose scheme is quoted in extenso by
Hansard in his Typographia, p. 388.
358 The Old English Letter Foundries.
BROWN, 1810.— LYNCH, 1810.
These two individuals are included among the Letter Founders whose names
are given in Mason's Printer's Assistant1 — the former having had his place of
business in Green Street, Blackfriars, and the latter in Featherstone Buildings.
They do not appear to have continued long in business, and their names are not
included in the list of Letter Founders given in Johnson's Typographic/, in 1824.
MATTHEWSON, circ. 1810.
This man was founding in Edinburgh in 18 10, at which date he had some
correspondence with the Associated Founders respecting prices. Hansard men-
tions him as an incipient founder even in 1825, and a competitor of Mr. Miller's.
Nothing is known of the fate of his foundry ; nor has any Specimen of his types
come under notice.
ANTHONY BESSEMER, 1813.
Anthony Bessemer was a man of remarkable inventive genius. In his twentieth
year he distinguished himself by the erection at Haarlem in Holland of pumping-
engines to drain the turf pits ; and before he had attained the age of twenty-five,
he was elected a member of the Academie at Paris for improvements in the micro-
scope. He subsequently turned his attention to letter founding, and established
a foundry at Charlton, near Hitchin. Of the exact date of this undertaking we
are uncertain ; but, as his son, the present Sir Henry Bessemer, was born at
Charlton in 1813, it is evident that the father was already settled there at that
date. Hansard states2 that " Mr. Bessimer" cut the Caslon Diamond letter. If
the person referred to is Mr. Anthony Bessemer, as is probable, it would appear
that during the early years of his business as a founder, he placed his energies
occasionally at the disposal of his brethren in the art.
In 1 82 1 he issued a specimen of Modern-cut Printing Types, and shortly after-
wards took into partnership Mr. J. J. Catherwood, formerly a partner of Mr. Henry
Caslon II, who, since his retirement from that business, appears for a short time
to have had a foundry of his own at Charles Street, Hoxton.3 Messrs. Bessemer
1 The Printer's Assistant, containitig a Sketch of the History of Printing, etc. London,
1810. i2mo.
2 Typog., p. 3S2.
3 See ante, p. 253-4 ; also Johnson's Typographia, ii, 652.
The Minor Founders, 1 800-1 830. 359
and Catherwood issued a Specimen in 1825, on the title-page of which the new-
partner styles himself " late of the Chiswell Street Foundry, London."
Bessemer's Romans were, in conformity with the fashion of the day, some-
what heavy, but finely cut. His chief performance was a Diamond, which was,
as Hansard informs us, cut to eclipse the famous Diamond of Henri Didot, of
Paris, at that time the smallest known. The execution of this feat, particularly
in the Italic, was highly successful. The partnership between Messrs. Bessemer
and Catherwood was not of long duration, and terminated either by the death or
the retirement of the latter prior to 1830. Mr. Bessemer then removed his
foundry to London, and established it at 54, Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell,
whence, in 1830, he issued his final specimen book, consisting almost entirely of
Roman founts.
In 1832 he retired from the business, and his foundry was put up to auction
and dispersed. The Catalogue of the Sale mentions that the 2,500 punches
included in the plant had been collected at an expense of ^4,000, and that not a
single strike had been taken from them but for the proprietor's own use. From
a marked copy of the Catalogue in our possession, it appears that several of the
lots of punches and matrices fetched high prices. The list of implements and
utensils shows that the foundry employed about seven casters and an equal
number of rubbers and dressers.
Mr. Bessemer's son, Henry, appears to have been for some time in his
father's foundry, where he mastered the mechanics of the trade. In 1838, being
then twenty-five years old, he took out a patent for improvements in type-
founding machinery, embodying several ingenious contrivances, some of which
have since been adopted.
SPECIMENS.
182 1. Specimen of the last modern cut Printing Types by A. Bessemer, Letter Founder,
Hitchin, Herts. 1821. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 4400.)
1825. Specimen of the last modern cut Printing Types by A. Bessemer & J. J. Catherwood,
Letter Founders, Hitchin, Herts. (J. J. Catherwood, late of the Chiswell Street
Foundry, London.) 1825. 8vo. (W. B.)
1830. Specimen of the last modern cut Printing Types by A. Bessemer, Letter Founder, 54,
Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, London. 1830. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
RICHARD AUSTIN, circ. 1815.
Richard Austin began business as a punch cutter in the employ of Messrs.
S. and C. Stephenson of the British Type Foundry, about the year 1795. On
the Title-page of the specimen issued by that foundry in 1796, his name is
360 The Old English Letter Foundries.
mentioned as the cutter of the punches, and the excellent specimen itself is no
mean testimony to his abilities.
The activity prevailing throughout the trade generally at that period, conse-
quent on the transition of the Roman character from the old style to the modern,
brought the punch cutter's services into much request, and Hansard informs us
that Mr. Austin executed most of the modern founts both for Messrs. Wilson of
Glasgow and Mr. Miller of Edinburgh.
Prior to the year 18 19 he began a foundry of his own at Worship Street,
Finsbury, in which subsequently his son, George Austin, joined him ; and, in the
year 1824, succeeded to the business. This foundry was styled the Imperial Letter
Foundry, and carried on under the style of Austin & Sons. The earliest known
specimen was issued in 1827. This 8vo volume is prefaced by a somewhat
lengthy address to the Trade, in which, after criticising the letter founding of the
day, the proprietors boldly claim to be the only letter founders in London who cut
their own punches, which they do in a peculiar manner so as to insure perfect
sharpness in outline. They also announce that they cast their type in an extra
hard metal.
Mr. Austin appears to have been a man of considerable force and indepen-
dence of character. It is related of him that once, on receiving — what to any
founder at that day must have been a momentous mandate — an intimation that
The Times wanted to see him, he replied, with an audacity which sends a shudder
even through a later generation, " that if The Times wanted to see him, he sup-
posed it knew where to find him !"
On the death of Mr. Austin, his foundry was acquired by Mr. R. M. Wood,
who subsequently, in partnership with Messrs. Samuel and Thomas Sharwood,
transferred it to 120 Aldersgate Street, under the title of the Austin Letter
Foundry. Messrs. Wood and Sharwoods' first specimen was issued in 1839. In
their preface, reference is again made to the late Mr. Austin's hard metal, the
superiority of which, it is stated, "was owing to one peculiar article being used in
the mixture which is unknown to our brethren in the Art."
Mr. Wood died in 1845, and the firm subsequently became S. and T. Shar-
wood, who, in 1854, published two specimens, one of Types, the other of Poly-
typed Metal Ornaments.
This latter collection had been begun more than twenty years previously by
Vizitelly, Branston & Co.,1 who, in 1832, had issued a specimen of Cast Metal
1 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.
The Minor Founders, 1800 — 1830. 361
Ornaments, " produced by a new improved method." This method appears to
have consisted of the soldering of the casts on metal mounts — at that time a
novelty. The Sharwoods subsequently acquired this collection of blocks and
considerably increased it.
On the death of the two Sharwoods, which occurred about the same time in
1856, the Austin Foundry was thrown into Chancery and put up for auction,
and its contents dispersed among the trade.
SPECIMENS.
1827. Specimens of Printing Types cast at Austin's Imperial Letter Foundry, Worship
Street, Shoreditch, London. 1827. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 44°7-)
1839. A Specimen Book of the Types cast at the Austin Letter Foundry, by Wood &
Sharwoods. No. 120, Aldersgate Street, London. 1839. 4to. (Caxt. Cel., 4429.)
1832. Specimen of Vizitelly, Branston & Co.'s Cast Metal Ornaments produced by a new
and improved method, greater in number and variety, superior in design and execution, and
considerably cheaper in price than any collection hitherto offered to the notice of printers.
76, Fleet Street, London, January 1832. 4to. (Caxt. Cel., 4416.)
LOUIS JOHN POUCHEE, circ. 1815.
This Frenchman started a foundry in Great Wild Street, Lincoln's Inn.
He had probably been established a few years when his first specimen was
issued in 18 19, the most interesting portion of which was a somewhat lengthy
address to the public, setting forth the principles on which his " New Foundry "
was to be conducted. He mentions that "only four Type Foundries (exclusive
of mine) are worked in London at this time," and declares his intention of
breaking down the monopoly they assumed. The specimen itself is not
remarkable.
In 1823, he took out the patent for this country for Henri Didot's system of
polymatype * which consisted of a machine capable of casting from 1 50 to 200
types at each operation, each operation being repeated twice a minute. This
result was to be obtained by means of a matrix bar which formed one side of a
long trough mould into which the metal was poured; and, when opened, "the
types are found adhering to the break bar like the teeth of a comb, when they
are broken off and dressed in the usual way." Pouchee became agent in Eng-
land for this novel system of casting which, says the editor of the partial reprint
of Hansard's Typographic/,, writing in 1869, was still used successfully in France
at that date.
1 See ante, p. 121. M. Didot's invention had been previously tried by Henry Caslon, but
unsuccessfully.
3 A
362 The Old English Letter Foundries.
The attempt to introduce this system into England went far to ruin
Pouchee ; and, according to the above authority, " on his failure to sustain the
competition of the associated founders,1 Didot's machine and valuable tools
were purchased by them through their agent, Mr. Reed, Printer, King
Street, Covent Garden, and destroyed on the premises of Messrs. Caslon and
Livermore."
Despite this unfortunate speculation, Pouchee (who appears for some time
to have had a partner named Jennings),2 issued another Specimen Book in 1827,
dated from Little Queen Street, London, in the advertisement of which he again
referred to the fact that there were still only four letter-foundries in London
(exclusive of his own), and took credit to himself for bringing about a reduc-
tion of 12 per cent, in the prices of his opponents. The specimen, which
shows Titlings, Roman and Italic, Egyptians, Blacks and Flowers, is of little
merit and is marked by a great preponderance of heavy faces.
About the same time,3 he issued a price list of all kinds of printers'
materials, styling himself "Type Founder and Stereotype Caster." In the
beginning of 1830 he abandoned the business, which was sold by auction. The
Catalogue included a large quantity of stereotype ornaments, as well as
20,000 matrices and punches, moulds, presses, and 35 tons of Type. The
lots were variously disposed of at low prices among the other founders.
SPECIMENS.
1819. Specimen of Printing Types by L. J. Pouche'e, at the New Foundry, Great Wild
Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. 1819. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 4397.)
1827. Specimens of Printing Types by Louis J. Pouche'e, Little Queen Street, London.
1827. 8vo. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
RICHARD WATTS, circ. 1815.
Richard Watts, a printer of Crown Court, Strand, who, from 1802-9, had
held the office of printer to Cambridge University, distinguished himself towards
the close of the first quarter of the present century as a cutter and founder of
Oriental and foreign characters, of which he accumulated a considerable collec-
tion. His first printing office was at Broxbourne, whence in 18 16 he removed
to Crown Court, Temple Bar, and here, chiefly under the patronage of the Bible
1 This appears to be an anachronism. There was no association of Type Founders
between 1820 and 1830.
2 Hansard, Typog.^ p. 361.
3 Johnson, in 1824, gives a list of nine founders (including Pouchee), at that time tradin
in London. (Ty/>og:, ii, 652.)
The Minor Founders, 1800 — 1830. 363
Society and the Mission Presses in India and elsewhere, he produced the punches
of a large number of languages hitherto unknown to English typography. He
received the assistance and advice of many eminent scholars in his work, some
of whom personally superintended the execution of certain of the founts. His
collection increased at a rapid rate, and at the time of his death included almost
every Oriental language in which, at that time, the Scriptures had been
printed. His death occurred in 1844 at Edmonton, in which place his foundry
appears to have been for some time located.
He was succeeded in business by his son, Mr. William Mavor Watts, who
printed a broadside specimen of the founts, numbering 67 languages and
dialects, of which several were shown in different sizes of character. This
number was largely augmented during the following years, and, in the specimen
prepared by Mr. Watts for the Exhibition of 1862, nearly 150 versions were
exhibited. To this specimen was prefixed an interesting note respecting the
origin of many of the founts. The collection was subsequently acquired by
Messrs. Gilbert and Rivington, in whose possession it still remains and increases.
HUGH HUGHES, 1824.
This artist, described as a very able engraver, was for some time in
partnership with Robert Thorne at the Fann Street Foundry. In 1824, he
commenced a foundry of his own in Dean Street, Fetter Lane, whence he
published a specimen of Book and Newspaper type, without date, which, besides
Romans, Scripts, and Egyptians, included also Saxon, Greek, Flowers, and Music-
He appears specially to have applied himself to the production of this last-
named character, and attained the reputation of being the best music type cutter
in the trade. Savage, in his Dictionary of Printing, shows a specimen of Hughes
music, observing that " the English musical types have never to my knowledge
undergone any improvement till within a few years, when Mr. Hughes cut two
new founts," (Nonpareil and Pearl), " which are looked upon as the best we have
and the largest of which I have used for this article (' Music')." Hughes' system
appears to have been that originally introduced by Breitkopf in 1764, and the
scheme of a pair of cases by which his specimen is accompanied shows that a
complete fount comprised as many as 238 distinct characters. Besides music of
the modern notation, Hughes had matrices for the Gregorian Plain Chant Music,
of which a specimen is also shown by Savage.
After the death of Mr. Hughes, which took place before 1841, the punches
and matrices of his different music founts, Gregorian and modern, were purchased
by Mr. C. Hancock, of Middle Row, Holborn, by whom they were considerably
364 The Old English Letter Foundries.
improved, and who, subsequently, after his removal to Gloucester Street, Queen
Square, issued a specimen. Of the disposal of the other contents of Mr. Hughes'
foundry we have no information.
SPECIMENS.
No date. A Specimen of Book and Newspaper Printing Types by Hugh Hughes, Letter
Cutter and Founder, 23 Dean Street, Fetter Lane. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 4398.)
No date. Specimen Sheet of Modern Music Types by H. Hughes, 23 Dean Street, Fetter
Lane, together with a scheme of Music Cases. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
BARTON, 1824.
Hansard states that this founder was early initiated in mechanical science
by Mr. Maudsley, the engineer ; he was formerly in partnership with Mr. Harvey
an engraver, by whom his founts were principally cut. His foundry was in
Stanhope Street, Clare Market, and is mentioned by Johnson as one of the
nine foundries carried on in London in the year 1824. No Specimen has come
under observation.
HEAPHY, 1825 ; SIMMONS, 1825 ; BLACK, 1825.
To complete the list of minor founders prior to 1830, should be added the
names of these three individuals, who are mentioned by Hansard in his Typo-
graphic), as distinct London letter founders in 1825.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
OF
ENGLISH LETTER-FOUNDERS' SPECIMENS
NOTED IN THIS WORK.
1 665-1 830.
1665. Nicholls
1669. Moxon
1693. Oxford
1695. Oxford
1706. Oxford
(1708?) Oxford
1734. Caslon
1749. Caslon
1749. Caslon and Son
1749. Caslon and Son
( 1 752 ?) Baskerville
1753. Anderton
(1756?) Baine
(1757?) Baskerville
(1758?) Baskerville
(1762?) Baskerville
(1760?) Cottrell
1763. Caslon and Son
1764. Caslon and Son
(1765 ?) Jackson
1766. Caslon
(1766?) Cottrell ...
1768. Moore (Bristol)
1768. Moore (London)
1768. Fougt
1768-70. Oxford .;.
1770. Caslon
1770. Caslon
1770. Cottrell
1770. Moore
1772. Wilson
(1778?) Oxford
1782. James
(1783?) Jackson
1783. Wilson
1784. Caslon and Son
1785. Caslon
1785. Caslon
1785. Caslon
(1 785?) Cottrell ...
179
192
162
162
162
162
256
256
256
256
287
35°
3So
287
287
287
297
256
256
329
256
297
313
313
35i
163
256
256
297
3i3
266
163
230
329
266
256
256
256
256
297
78s.
78s.
786.
786.
787.
787.
788.
789.
789.
790.
Fry and Sons
Fry and Sons
Oxford
Caslon
Wilson
Fry and Sons
E. Fry and Co.
Baine
E. Fry and Co.
Wilson
Bell and Stephenson
Fry and Co. ...
1792) Figgins
793. E. Fry and Co.
i793)Figgins
794. Oxford
794. Thome
794. Fry and Steele
794. Fry and Steele
794- Figgins
795. Fry and Steele
796. S. and C. Stephenson
797. S. and C. Stephenson
798. Thome "
1798?) Jackson
798. Caslon III
Caslon III ...
Fry, Steele, and Co.
Fry, Steele, and Co.
Figgins
1802?) Figgins
802. Swinney
Fry, Steele, and Co.
Thome
Caslon III and Son...
Caslon & Catherwood
Fry and Steele
1805 ?) Fry and Steele ...
807. Caslon IV
808. Caslon & Catherwood
798.
800.
801.
802.
803.
803.
803.
805.
805.
PAGE
313
313
I63
256
266
313
313
35°
3i3
266
354
313
344
3H
344
163
297
3H
314
344
3H
354
354
297
329
329
329
314
314
344
344
353
3H
297
329
256
3*4
3H
329
256
1808. Fry and Steele
• ... 314
(1809) Miller
••• 356
(1812?) Caslon and
Cather-
wood
... 256
1 8 12. Wilson
... 266
1813. Miller
- 356
1815. Wilson
... 266
1815. Figgins
••• 344
1815. Miller
... 356
1816. Ed. Fry
... 314
1817. Figgins
••■ 344
(1819) Blake, Garnett
... 329
1819. Pouchee
... 362
1820. Ed. Fry and Son ... 314
1 82 1. Thorowgood
... 297
1 82 1. Figgins
••■ 344
1 82 1. Bessemer
••• 359
1822. Thorowgood
... 297
1822. Miller
••• 356
1823. Wilson
... 266
1824. Ed. Fry
... 314
1824. Figgins
•■• 344
(1824?) Hughes
... 364
1825. Bessemer and Cather-
wood
- 359
1826. Blake, Garnett
... 329
1826. Figgins
... 344
1827. Fry
... 314
1827. Blake, Garnett
... 329
1827. Figgins
■ •• 344
1827. Austin
... 361
1827. Pouchee
... 362
1828. Wilson
... 267
1828. Thorowgood
... 297
1828. Blake, Garnett
■• 329
1830. Caslon and Livermore 256
1830. Thorowgood
... 297
1830. Thorowgood
... 297
1S30. Blake and Stephenson 329
1830. Bessemer
••• 359
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES CONSULTED
OR REFERRED TO. .
Ames (Joseph), Typographical Antiquities ; being an Historical Account of Printing in England.
London, 1749, 4to.
Do. Do. Do. augmented by William Herbert. 3 vols. London, 1 785-90, 4to.
Amman (Jost.), Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stande und...Handwerker. Frankfurt, 1568, 4to.
Arber (Edward), Transcripts of the Registers of the Stationers' Company. London, 1875-77,
4 vols. 4to.
Astle (Thos.), The Origin and Progress of Writing. London, 1784, 4to.
Beloe (W.), Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books, 6 vols. London, 1807-12, 8vo.
BerjeAU, (J. Ph.), Speculum Humanae Salvationis : Reproduit en facsimile. Londres, 1861, 4to.
Bernard (A. J.), Antoine Vitre et les Caracteres orientaux de la Bible Polyglotte de Paris. Paris,
1857, 8vo.
Do. Les Estienne et les types grecs de Francois ier. Paris, 1856, 8vo.
Do. De l'Origine et des Debuts de l'Imprimerie en Europe, 2 vols. Paris, 1853, 8vo.
BiBLIANDER (T.), In Commentatione de ratione communi omnium linguarum et literarum. Tiguri, 1548.
Bigmore and Wyman, A Bibliography of Printing, 3 vols. London, 1880-6, 4to.
Blades (William), Life and Typography of William Caxton, 2 vols. London, 1861-3, 4to.
Do. Some Early Type Specimen Books of England, Holland, France, Italy and Germany.
London, 1875, 8vo.
Bodoni (G.), Manuale Tipografico, 2 vols. Parma, 1818, 4to.
Bowers Bros., Proposals for Establishing a Graduated Scale of Sizes for the Bodies of Printing Types.
Sheffield, 1841, i2mo.
British Museum, Catalogue of Early English Books to 1640, 3 vols. London, 1884, 8vo.
Butler, (A. J.), Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, 2 vols. Oxford, 1884, 8vo.
Caille (J. de la), Histoire de l'Imprimerie et de la Libraire. Paris, 1689, 4to.
Caxton Celebration. ...Catalogue of the Loan Collection at South Kensington. London, 1877, 8vo.
Chalmers (Alex.), The General Biographical Dictionary, 32 vols. London, 1812-17, 8vo.
Chambers (Ephraim), Cyclopcedia, 2 vols., 1728, folio (also editions, 1738 and 1784-6).
Chevillier (A.), L'Origine de l'Imprimerie de Paris. Paris, 1694, 4to.
Cotton (Hy,), A Typographical Gazetteer attempted. 1st series, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1831, 8vo ; second
series, 1866, 8vo.
D'Anvers (Mrs.), Academia, or the Humours of the University of Oxford. 1691.
Daunou (P. C. F.), Analyse des opinions diverses sur l'Origine d l'Imprimerie. Paris, 1810, 8vo.
De George (Leon), La Maison Plantin a, Anvers. 2nd ed. Bruxelles, 1878, 8vo.
De Vinne (Theodore), The Invention of Printing. New York, 1877, 8vo.
Dibdin (T. F.), The Bibliographical Decameron, 3 vols. London, 181 7, 8vo.
Do. Introduction to the Knowledge of the rare and valuable Editions of the Classics. 4th ed.,
2 vols. London, 1827, 8vo.
Dickson (R.), The Introduction of the Art of Printing into Scotland. Aberdeen, 1885, 8vo.
Didot (Pierre), Epitre sur les Progres de l'Imprimerie. Paris, 1784, 8vo.
Dunton (Jno.), The Life and Errors of. London, 1705, 8vo.
Dupont (Paul), Histoire de l'Imprimerie, 2 vols. Paris, 1854, 8vo.
Durer (Alb.), Unterweissung der Messung. Nuremburg, 1525, folio.
[Duverger (E.)], Histoire de l'invention de l'Imprimerie par les Monuments. Paris, 1840, folio.
Edwards (E.), Libraries and Founders of Libraries. London, 1865, 8vo.
[Encyclopaedia], Article sur Fonderie en Caracteres de l'Imprimerie. Paris, n. d., folio.
Enschede, Specimen de Caracteres Typographiques Anciens. Harlem, 1867, 4to.
List of Authorities. 367
Essay on the Original, Use, and Excellency of the Noble Art and Mystery of Printing. London, 1752, 8vo.
Evelyn (Jno.), Diary and Correspondence, 4 vols. London, 1850-2, 8vo.
FaulmAN (C), Geschichte der Buchdruckerkunst. Vienna, 1882, 8vo.
Figgins (V.), Facsimile of Caxton's Game of the Chesse ; with remarks. London, 1855, folio.
Fineschi (V.), Notizie Storiche sopra la Stamperia di Ripoli. Fiorenze, 1781, 8vo.
Fischer (G.), Essai sur les Monumens typographiques de Jean Gutenberg. Mayence, 1802, 4to.
Fournier (P. S.), Manuel Typographique, utile aux gens de lettres, 2 vols. Paris, 1764-66, 8vo.
Franklin (Benj.), Works of, 2 vols., London, 1793, 8vo; also Bigelow's edition, 3 vols. Philadelphia,
1875, 8vo.
Freemason's Magazine. London, 1796, 8vo.
Fry (Edmund), Pantographia. London, 1799, 8vo.
Gaelic Society of Dublin: Transactions of, Dublin, 1808, 8vo.
Gand (M. J.), Recherches Historiques et Critiques sur la Vie et les Editions de Thierry Martens.
Alost, 1845, 8vo.
Ged (William), Biographical Memoirs of. London, 1781, 8vo.
Gentleman's Magazine. Vols, for 1792, 1793, 1803, 1836.
Gough (R.), British Topography, 2 vols. London, 1780, 410.
Greswell (W. P.), A View of the Early Parisian Greek Press, 2 vols. Oxford, 1838, 8vo.
Guignes (J. de), Essai Historique sur la Typographic Orientale et Grecque de l'lmprimerie Royale.
Paris, 1787, 4to.
Gutch (Jno.), Collectanea Curiosa, 2 vols. Oxford, 1781, 8vo.
Hansard (T. C), Typographia. London, 1825, 8vo.
[Hansard (T. C), the Younger.] Treatises on Printing and Type-founding (from the Encycl. Britan.).
Edinburgh, 1 841, 8vo.
Harleian MSS.— The Bagford Collections.
Harleian Miscellany, 8 vols. Lond., 1744-46, 4to. Vol. 3.
Harwood (Edw.), A View of the Various Editions of the Greek and Roman Classics. Lond., 1775,
i2mo.
Hawkins (Sir John), A General History of the Science and Practice of Music. London, 1776, 4to.
Vol. 5.
Hearne (Thos.), Reliquiae Hernianse. Oxford, 1869, 4to, Vol. 2.
Hodgson (T.), An Essay on the Origin and Progress of Stereotype Printing. Newcastle, 1820, 8vo.
Imprimerie Royale (de Paris). Specimen : Ancienne Typographic Paris, 1819, 410.
James (John), Catalogue and Specimen of the large and extensive Printing Type Foundry of. London,
1782, 8vo.
Laborde (Leon), Debuts de l'lmprimerie a Strasbourg. Paris, 1840, 8vo.
La Croix, Fournier et Sere, Histoire de l'lmprimerie, etc. Paris, 1852, 4to.
Lambinet (Pierre), Origine de l'lmprimerie, 2 vols. Paris, 1810, 8vo.
Lansdowne MSS., No. 231.
Latham (H.), Oxford Bibles and Printing in Oxford. Oxford, 1870, 8vo.
Laud (Arch.), Works of, 7 vols. Oxford, 1847-60, 8vo. Vol. 5.
Lemoine (Hy.), Typographical Antiquities. London, 1797, i2mo.
Linde (M. A. van der), The Haarlem Legend of the Invention of Printing by L. J. Coster, critically
examined. Lond., 1871, 8vo.
Lomenie (L. de), Beaumarchais et ses Temps. Edwards' translation, 4 vols. London, 1856, 8vo. Vol. 3.
London Printers' Lamentation. (London, 1660) 4to.
Long (J. le), Discours Historique sur les principales editions des Bibles Polyglottes. Paris, 1713, i2mo.
Luce (L. ), Essai d'une nouvelle typographic Paris, 1771, 4to.
[Luckombe (P.)], A Concise History of the Origin and Progress of Printing. London, 1770, 8vo.
McCreery (Jno.), The Press, a Poem. Published as a Specimen of Typography. Liverpool, 1803-27,
4to.
Madden (J. P. A.), Lettres d'un Bibliographe, 5 vols. Paris, 1868-78, 8vo.
Mason (Monck), Life of William Bedell, D.D. London, 1843, 8vo.
Meerman (G.), Origines Typographies. 2 vols. Hagse Com., 1765, 4to.
Milton (John), Areopagitica. (Arber's Reprint.) London, 1868, 8vo.
Mores (E. Rowe), A Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies. London,
1778, 8vo.
Moxon (Joseph), Regular Trium Ordinum Literarum Typographicarum. London, 1676, 4to.
Do. Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works, 2 vols. London, 1677-83, 4to.
Do. Tutor to Astronomy and Geography, 4th ed. London, 1686, 4to.
Nichols (Jno.), Biographical and Literary Anecdotes of William Bowyer, Printer, F.S.A. London,
1782, 4to.
368 List of Authorities.
Nichols (Jno.), Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, 9 vols. London, 1812-15, 8vo.
Do. Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century, 8 vols. London
1817-58, 8vo.
Noble (Mark), Continuation of Granger's Biographical History of England, 3 vols. London, 1806, 8vo
Ottley (W. Y.), An Inquiry concerning the Invention of Printing. London, 1863, 4to.
Owen (Hugh), Two Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol. 1873, 8vo.
Pacioli (Luca), De Divina Proportione. Venice, 1509, folio.
Palmer (Sam.), A General History of Printing. London, 1732, 4to.
Panizzi (Sir A.), Chi era Francesco da Bologna? London, 1858, i6mo.
Panzer (G. W.), Annales Typographic^ 11 vols. Nuremberg, 1793-1803, 410.
Parr (Richd.), The Life of James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh. London, 1686, folio.
Patents for Inventions. Abridgments of Specifications relating to Printing (1617-1857). London
1859, 8vo.
Pater (Paulus), De Germanise miraculo, optimo, maximo, Typis Literarum . . Dissertatio. Lipsiae
1 710, 4to.
Philippe (J.), Origine de l'lmprimerie a Paris. Paris, 1885, 4to.
Printer's Assistant, The. London, 1810. i2mo.
Printer's Grammar, The. London, 1787, 8vo.
Psalmanazar (Geo.), Memoirs of. London, 1765, 8vo.
Reid (Jno.), A Specimen of the Printing Types and Flowers belonging to. Edinburgh, 1768, 8vo.
Renouard (A.), Annales de l'lmprimerie des Aide. 3 vols. Paris, 1825, 8vo.
Do. Catalogue de la Bibliotheque d'un Amateur. 4 vols. Paris, 1819, 8vo.
Richardson (Rev. J.), A History of the Attempts that have been made to convert the Popish Native
of Ireland. 1712, 8vo.
Richardson (Wm.), A Specimen of a New Printing Type, in Imitation of the Law- hand. London, n.d.
broadside.
Rivington (C. R.), Records of the Company of Stationers. London, 1883, 8vo.
Roccha (Angelo), Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Rome, 1591, 4to.
Rossi (J. B. de), De Hebraicae Typographies Origine ac Primitiis. Parma, 1776, 4to.
Rushworth's Historical Collections, 8 vols. London, 1659 — 1701, folio. Vol. 2.
Sardini (G.), Storia Critica di Nicolao Jenson, 3 vols. Lucca, 1796 — 98, folio.
Savage (Wm.), A Dictionary of the Art of Printing. London, 1841, 8vo.
Do. Practical Hints on Decorative Printing. London, 1822, 4to.
Schoepflin (J. D.), Vindicise Typographies?. Argentorati, 1760, 410.
Schwab (M.), Les Incunables Orientaux. Paris, 1883, 8vo.
Shenstone (Wm.), Works in Verse and Prose, 3 vols. London, 1791, l2mo.
Skeen (W.), Early Typography. Colombo, 1872, 8vo.
Smith (Jno.), The Printer's Grammar. London, 1755, 8vo.
Smith (Thos.), Vitse quorundam eruditissimorum et illustrium Virorum. London, 1707, 4to.
Star-Chamber. A Decree of Starre Chambre concerning Printing (u June, 1637). London,
1637, 4to.
State Papers, Domestic, Calendars of, Various years.
Stower (C), The Printer's Grammar. London, 1808, 8vo.
Strype (Jno.), Life and Acts of Matthew Parker. London, 1711, folio.
Thiboust (C. L.), De Typographise Excellentia ; Carmen. Paris, 17 18, 8vo.
Thomas (Isaiah), The History of Printing in America, (2nd ed.), 2 vols., Albany, 1874, 8vo.
Timperley (C. ), Encyclopaedia of Literary and Typographical Anecdote. London, 1 842, 8vo.
Do. Songs of the Press, London, 1833, 8vo.
Todd (H. J.), Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Rt. Rev. Brian Walton, D.D., 2 vols. London,
1821, 8vo.
Tory (Geofroy), Champ-Fleury. Paris, 1529, sm. folio.
Trithemius (Joh.), Annales Hirsaugienses, 2 vols. St. Gall, 1690, 410.
Twyn (Jno.), An Exact Narrative of the Tryal and Condemnation of. Lond., 1664, 4to.
Universal Magazine, London, 1750, 8vo.
[Watson (James)], The History of the Art of Printing. Edinburgh, 1713, 8vo.
Wetter (Joh.), Kritische Geschichte der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst. Mainz, 1836, 8vo., and
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Willems (A.), Les Elzevier; Histoire et Annales Typographiques. Bruxelles, 1880.
Wilkins (David), Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae. London, 1737, folio. Vol. 4.
Wood (Anthony a), Athenae Oxonienses, 2 vols. Lond., 1 791-2, folio.
Ycair (J. de), Orthographia Practica. Caragoca, 1548, 4to.
INDEX
0S0&
Acta Apostolorum, Gr., Lat. {Laud.
Codex), Oxford 1715; 321
Acta Sanctorum Hibemicz, Louvain, 1645;
75
Adams (Geo.), successor to Moxon, 192
Advertisement of Caxton, 49, 87
SElfredi Res Gest/z, Lond. 1574 ; 73, 95,
96, 98, 144, 176
JElfrics Paschal Homily, Lond. 1567 ;
73. 93 : Lond. 1623 ; 73
JEneas Sihrius, Louvain, 1483 ; 43
sEsop's Fables, Milan, 1480; 57: Louvain,
1513 ; S9
Aldus Manutius, Specimen, 49, 169; 'Sil-
ver type', 106 ; Greek, 58 ; Hebrew, 62 ;
Initials, 80 ; Italic, 50 ; Ornaments, 82 ;
Roman, 41
Alexandrian Greek, matrices, Grover, 198,
204, 321 ; James, 228, 303, 321 ; Fry,
303, 304, 311, 321; Jackson, 321, 322
Alfieri, Works of, Kehl, 1786-1809 ; 286
Alphabet Irlandais, Paris, 1804 ; 76,
191
Alphabetarium Rumc-Swed., Stockholm,
1611 ; 72
Alphabetum, Heb., Gr., Paris 1507 ; 62 :
Paris 1516 ; 63
Amerbach, Roman type of, 43
America, first letter-founders in, 350
Ames (Jos.) on Caxton's types, 84, 242 ;
on Caslon's, 242 ; inaccuracy of, 349
Amharic, same as Ethiopic, 69, 177 ; Cas-
tell's, 177 ; Oxford, 177 ; Fry, 309, 311
Amman (Jost), Book of Trades, 104
ANDERTON (Geo.) founder, 246, 350 ;
specimen of, 350
ANDREWS (Rob.) 157, 166, 194-197;
succeeds Moxon, 194 ; punches cut by,
74, 157, 196 ; summary of foundry, 195 ;
foundry sold, 197
1 Matrices : Anglo-Norman, 196 ;
Arabic, 195 ; Blacks, 194, 196, 312 ;
Ethiopic, 194, 195 ; Greek, 195, 197 ;
Hebrew, 194, 195 ; Irish, 194, 196 ;
Music, 77, 196 ; Roman and Italic, 195,
197 ; Samaritan, 70, 195 ; Saxon, 74,
157, 196 ; Secretary, 196 ; Signs, etc.,
196 ; Syriac, 195, 241
ANDREWS (Syl.) son of above, 149,
195, 209 ; supplies Baskett, 210 ; foundry
sold, 211 ; epitaph, 211
ANDREWS (Syl.) Matrices : Hebrew,
209 ; Roman and Italic, 209, 210
'ANONYMOUS FOUNDRY,' 206 ;
— Matrices : Anglo-Norman, 207 ;
Arabic, 207 ; Black, 207 ; Ethiopic, 207;
Gothic, 207 ; Greek, 207 ; Roman, 207
Anglo-Norman Matrices : Andrews, 196 ;
'Anon.', 207 ; James, 223, 228
Anglo-Saxon ; see Saxon
Anthologia, Gr., Florence 1494; 57
Antimony, discovered, 20 ; use of in type
metal, 20, 117; prices of, 118
Antiqua, German name for Roman, 42 ;
Italian ditto, 42
Antiqtice linguce Brit, rudimenta, Lond.
1621 ; 64
Applegarth (A.) type-casting machine of,
121
Apprentice-founders, regulation of, 130,
133 ; in France, 129
Aquinas (St. Th.) Summa, 1462 ; 54
Arabic, first types of, 65 ; printed in Black
or Hebrew, 65 ; early in Italy, 65, 66 ;
Paris, 65 ; Leyden, 65, 141, 144 ; Upsala,
66
in England, first types, 66 ; printed
in Italic, 66; written by hand, 66; De
Worde's, 66, 91 ; Bedwell's, 66, 145 ;
none at Oxford, 1639, 66 : Flesher's,
66
• Matrices : Oxford, 66, 147, 148, 155,
161; Polyglot, 66, 173, 174, 177, i_
Andrews, 19s ; Grover, 198, 235 ; 'Anon,'
207 ; James, 67, 223, 228, 303 ; Caslon,
67, 235, 240, 247, 254 ; Fry, 67, 303, 309,
311 ; Caslon III, 326
Punches : James, 229
Arabian Trudgman, Lond. 1615 ; 66
Arba Turim, Pheibia, 1475 ; 62
Arber (E.) on early English printers, 125
Archaionomia, Lond. 1568 ; 95
Areopagitica of Milton, 130
Aristotle, Venice, 1495 ; 58
Armenian, first types, 68 ; at Rome, 68 ;
Paris, 68 ; Amsterdam, 68 ; Marseilles,
68 ; Constantinople, 68
Matrices : Oxford, 62, 148, 153, 161;
Astle (T.) on early type 'bills,' 28 ; on
Day's Saxon, 96
Atanasia, Spanish type body, 37
Athias (Jos.) Dutch founder, 114, 215 ;
Hebrew type of, 64, 215, 238, 264
Attempts to convert the Native Irish,
Lond., n.d., 190
Augustin, a type body, 32, 37
Augustini, De Civitate Dei, Rome, 1474;
37 : Basle, 1506 ; 37
AUSTIN (Richd.) letter founder, 359;
cuts punches for Stephenson, 353, 359 ;
Wilson, 360 ; and Miller, 355, 360; starts
a foundry, 360; specimen and advertise-
ment, 360 ; anecdote of, 360 ; his suc-
cessors, 360
Matrices, Roman and Italic, 360
Caslon, 69, 239, 240, 247, 254 ; Caslon
III, 326
Aspinwall (T.) type-casting machine of,
Baber (H.H.) facs. of Alexandrian
Codex, 322
Badius Ascensius, French printer, 20 ;
device, 106 ; Greek, 58 ; Hebrew, 63 ;
Roman, 43
Bagford (Jno.) notes on printing, 84, 139,
140, 144, 146, 165 ; on Oxford Specimen,
154. ; on Oxford Printing House, 156
Bagster (S.), Polyglot Bible of, 65, 308,
311, 341; Hebrew, cut for, 65, 341;
Syriac, 308, 311, 342
BAINE (Jno.) partner with Wilson, 259,
260 ; begins a foundry in London, 349 ;
in Edinburgh, 349 ; specimens, 263,
349- 35o
Barclay (R. ) patent punches of, 119
Barker (Chr.) report on printers, 1582 :
126
Barker (R.) printer of 'Wicked' Bible,
142, 143
Barnes (Jos.) Oxford printer, 140
BARTON— letter founder, 364
Base- Secretary, peculiar type, 55, 56, 289
BASKERVILLE (Jno.) 268-87 i early
training, 268 ; first types cut by, 268,
269, 275 ; letters to Dodsley, 270-2 ;
Virgil, 1757, 271, 272, 273 ; specimens,
271, 276, 277, 287 ; preface to Milton,
27S ; tribute to Caslon, 243, 27s ; em-
ployed by Oxford Press, 160, 273, 274 ;
dazzling impressions of, 275, 279 ; relics
. of, at Oxford, 160, 162, 274 ; privilege
3 b
37o
from Cambridge, 276, 278 ; type bodies
276 ; punch-cutters for, 260, 277. ,«'
letter to H. Walpole, 278 ; prejudice
against, 278,_ 279, 280, 284 ; folio Bible,
r703, 279; tries to sell business, 278, 281
284 ; correspondence with Franklin'
280, 281 ; various tributes to, 263 272'
277, 280, 284; retires from printing, 281!
resumes 281; death, 281 ; personal
notices of, 282 ; epitaph and burial, 282,
283 ; portrait, 283 ; his influence on
English typography, 284, 299, 305, 310,
332. 333 J destination of his types, 287,
Matrices : Roman, 47,, 48, 263, 270,
27i, 275, 276, 277, 279, 280, 284 ; Greek'
Index.
61, 160, 273, 274 ; Initials, 81, 270
Eakerville (Mrs.) notice of, 282, 283 ; her
advertisements, 283 ; book printed by,
238
Baskett (Jno.) printer at Oxford, 210 ; his
Vinegar' Bible, 17x7-16, 210 ; in-
ventory of his types, 210;- 'silver
initials ' of, 107, 211
Batarde, a class of type, 36, 53, 55
Bay (Jno.) early American founder, 350
Beaumarchais, purchases Baskerville's
foundry, 284; typographical establish-
ment at Kehl, 285 ; editions of Voltaire,
285, 286
Beauties of the Poets, Lond. 1788 ; 306
Bebel, Hebrew type of, 63
Bede's Works, Camb. 1644 ; 74
B^e!1,. (Bp-> ABC. or Catechism,
Dublin, 1631, 188 ; Irish Old Testament
Lond. 1685 ; 188
Bedwell (Wm.) buys Arabic abroad, 66
BELL and STEPHENSON, letter foun-
ders, 353
Bellows' 'French Dictionary, Edinburgh
1873; 356 . & '
Bengalee matrices, Jackson, 317, 3x8;
Wilkins, 318
Bensley (T.) printer, employs Figgins,
336
Bernard (A.) on sculpto-fusi types, 8 ;
sand-cast type, 10, 12 ; ' gette en molle,'
13 ; on early founts, 27
Berte (A.F.) type-casting machine of, 119,
120
Berthelet (T.) types of, 94 ; Boke named
the Gozernour, 94
BESLEY (Robt.) partner of Thorow-
good, 296
BESSEMER (Ant.) letter founder, 254,
265, 358 ; starts at Charlton, 358 ;
joined.by J.J. Cathervvood,3s8; removes
to London, 359 ; minute types cut by,
358. 359 ; foundry sold, 359 ; specimens,
358, 359
Matrices .-—Roman and Italic, 359
Bessemer (H. ) son of above, type cast-
ing machine of, 265, 359
Bettenham (Jas.) printer, 234; assists
Caslon, 234
Bewick (T.) wood-engraver, 306, 330, 331
Bible (Polyglot), Complutum, 1514-17 ; 59,
63, 169, 170; Antwerp, 1569-72; 51, 59)
64, 169, 170 ; Heidelberg, 1586 ; 170 ;
Hamburg, 1596 ; 170 : Nuremburg,
1599 ; 170 : Paris, 1645 ; 66, 67, 70, 169,
170, 171 ; London, 1657 ; 47, 66, 68,
69, 70, 98, 136 ; account of, 168—176 ;
London, 1817-28, &c, 65, 68, 308, 341
(Hebrew) Soncino, 1488; 62; Basle, j
1534: 63 ; Hamburg, 1587 and 1603; 63,
247 ; Amsterdam, 1639 ; 64; Amsterdam,
1667 ; 64, 215 ; Amsterdam, 1705 ; 64
Bible, {Greek) Alexandrian Codex, Lond.
1816-21 ; 322
(Latin) Mentz n.d., 26, 27, 53
(English) Lond. 1539 (Grafton's)
124 ; Edinburgh 1576 (Bassendyne) 46 ;
Lond. 1631 (Barker) 142, 198 ; Lond.
1653 (Field) 47 ; Oxford, 1717-16 (Bas-
kett) 210; Cambridge 1763 (Basker-
ville) 279 ; Lond. 1774-6 (Moore) 301 ;
Bristol, 1774 (Pine) 301; Lond. 1776
(Pasham) 324 ; Lond. 1777 (Fry) 302 ;
Lond. 1800 (Macklin) 323, 336
(Armenia?i) Amsterdam, 1666; 68
(Irish) Lond. 1685; 75, 190;
Lond. 1690; 190
(Russia?i) Prague, 1517 — 19 ; 71
(Sclavonic) Ostrog, 1581 ; 71 :
Moscow, 1663 ; 71
(Syriac) Lond. 1829 ; 68
Bible-height at Oxford, 155
Bible-printing, complaints of, 232
Bibliander, on wooden types, 4
Bibliotheca Apostolica V'aticana, Rome,
1591 ; 65, 67, 68
' Bill' of early founders, 28
Bill (Jno.) Hebrew type of, 64
Binneman (H.) types of, 96
BLACK, a founder, 364
Black letter, early use of in England, 54,
97 ; Caxton's, 53, 87, 88, 89, 312, 343 ;
De Worde's, 53, 89, 90, 91, 197, 199,225,
239 ; Faques', 93 ; fashions in, 54 ;
semi-gothic, 55, 94; mixed with Roman,
45, 80
Matrices :— Oxford, 148, 161 ; Poly-
g'ot, 173, 177 ; Andrews, 196, 312 ;
Grover, 197, 199, 225 ; Head, 206, 241 ;
Mitchell, 206, 241 ; ' Anon.', 207; James,
54. 214, 217, 223, 228, 303 ; Caslon, 54,
239, 240, 248, 254 ; Wilson, 264 ; Fry,
3°3. 3i°> 3", 334.: Thome, 295 ; Cas-
lon III, 326; Figgins, 340, 343
Blades (Wm.) on early schools of typo-
graphy, 9 ; on page by page printing,
26 ; Life of Caxton, 83 ; on early letter-
founding, 102
BLAKE, GARNETT & CO., purchase
Caslon IV's foundry, 327 ; specimen,
328 ; Orientals, 328
Blind type : Haiiy's, 78 ; Lucas, 79 ; Frere,
79 ; Moon, 79 ; Braille, 79 ; Carton, 79 ;
Alston, 78, 79, 309; Fry, 78, 79, 308,
309
Block books, not typographical, 2 ; latest
printed, 2
Block-printing, see Stereotype
Bodies, see Type-bodies
Bodman on wooden types, 4
Bodoni (G. B.) notice of, 251, 252 ; speci-
mens, 50, 252 ; influence on English
typography, 251, 331 ; Manuale Tipo-
grafico, 72, 252; Etruscan letter of,
72 ; Greek, 61, 252, 332 ; Roman, 48,
251 ; Russian, 72
Boethius de Consolatione, Oxon. 1698 ; 151
Boke named the Govemour, Lond. 1531 •
94
Bolts (W.) Bengalee type cut for, 317, 318
319
Bomberg, Hebrew type of, 62
Bourgeoise, a class of type, 32
Bourgeois, an English type-body, 33, 39
Bourgeois (J. de) Rouen printer, 103
BOWER (G. W.) Sheffield founder, 357 ;
specimen, 357 ; partners of, 357 ; attempt
to regulate type bodies, 35, 357 ; foundry
sold, 357
Bowyer (Wm.) printer, account of, 234 ; I
Saxon type used by, 74, 157, 289 ; fire of
his office, 157, 197, 205j 234 . his aid
Caslon. 234, 236, 238, 316
Bowyer (Wm. II) his aid to Jackson, 3
316, 323
Boydell (Jno.) founder of the Shakespes
press. 330
Boyle (R.) Irish type cut for, 189
Bradshaw (Henry) on the type of t
Mentz Psalter, xi ; on the first Oxfo
types, 138
Branston, engraver and maker of castorn
ments, 360 ; his stereoplates for musii
360
Breaking off, process in founding, in, 11
116, 117, 131
' Breaks' of early types, 22
Breitkopf (J. G.) Leipzig founder, 296
txerman type of, 296; Map type, 296
Music, 78, 296 ; Russian, 71, 72, 296
Breves (Sav. de) Arabic cut for, 66
oynac, 67
Breviary {Icelandic), Hoolum, 1531 ; 73
Brevier, a type body, 32 ; English, 32 33
39,. 129; German, 38
Brilliant, an English type body, 356
British Theatre, Lond. 1791-2 • 52
Brotherly Meeting of Printers,' 165, 166
171, 178, 193 194 107 205
BROWN, letter-founder, 358
Browne (J.) Hebrew used by, 64
Bruce (D.) type-casting machine of, 122
Buchanan (CI.) Syriac cut for, 342
Buck (T.) Cambridge printer, 141
Buel (Abel) early American founder, 350
Bullock's Oratio, Camb. 1521 ; 141
Bulmer (W.) fine printer, 330, 331, 333 ;
employs Birmingham cutters, 284, 331 ';
prints for Roxburghe club, 312, 334
Burghers (M.) Oxford University engraver,
151, 210
Bus (J.) Dutch founder, 114, 215
Ccedmon's Paraphrase of Genesis, Ams-
terdam, 1655 ; 74
Calasio Concordantice, Lond. 1747 ; 346
Cambridge University, early printing at,
139, 141 ; offer to buy the Paris Greek,
61, 141 ; Greek types at, 60, 141 ; bor-
row type from Oxford, 61, 141 ; Saxon
types of, 74 ; privilege to Ged for stereo-
type, 219 ; to Baskerville, 276, 278 ;
_ Orientals, cut by Fry for, 308
Cambro-brytanniccE . . lingua Institu-
tiones, Lond. 1592 ; 64
Canon, a type body, 32, 36 ; Tory's defi-
nition of, 32
Carmen Tograi, Oxon. 1661 ; 66, 68
Cartlitch (Miss), married Caslon II, 248
CASLON (Wm.) the First, 233-246 ; gun-
smith's apprentice, 233 ; first attempts at
typography, 233-6 ; first foundry, 234 ;
early patrons, 234 ; Palmer's conduct to,
235. 238 ; early difficulties, 237 ; offers
for Grover's foundry, 237 ; reputation of,
237 ; first specimen, 240, 290 ; view of
his foundry, 108, 116, 243, 288, 316 ;
specimens, 241, 242, 280 ; various tributes'
to, 158, 241, 242, 243, 275; wager with
Ged, 219, 238 ; rival to James, 219, 222
238 ; buys half Mitchell's foundry, 206^
221, 241 ; made a Justice, 243 ; his work-
men 243, 288,. 290, 315, 316, 350, 351 ;
family, 245, 246 ; retires, 244 ; anecdote
of private life, 245 ; dies, 246 ; influence
on English typography, 47, 249, 284,
3°i, 303, 3°5
— : Matrices : Armenian, 6g, 239, 240,
247. 254 ; Arabic, 67, 235, 240, 247, 254,
311 ; Black, 54, 239, 240, 241, 248, 254;
Index.
37*
Coptic, 70, 236, 237, 240, 254 ; Ethiopic,
69, 240, 254 ; Etruscan, 72, 239, 240, 247,
254 ; Flowers, 222, 246, 241, 248 ; Gothic,
73, 239> 24°> 248, 254 ; Greek, 240, 241,
247, 254 ; Hebrew, 65, 236, 240, 247, 254 ;
Initials, 81 ; Music, 254 ; Roman and
Italic, 47, 48, 52, 159, 197, 236, 240, 247,
254, 284 ; Samaritan, 70, 240, 241, 247,
254 ; Saxon, 74, 240, 248, 254 ; Syriac,
68, 240, 241, 247, 254
CASLON (WM.)the Second, son of above,
enters business, 241 ; specimens, 246 ;
Mores' prejudice against, 244, 247 ;
anecdote of, 316 ; dies, 248 ; wife and
family of, 248
Matrices : Black, 248 ; Greek, 247 ;
Hebrew, 247 ; Music, 248 ; ' Proscrip-
tion-type,' 248 ; Saxon, 74, 248 ; Syriac,
246
CASLON (Mrs. W.) wife of above, for-
merly Miss Cartlitch, 248 ; manages for
her husband, 248 ; succeeds to the busi-
ness in 1792, 250 ; member of trade Asso-
ciation, 250 ; death, 251 ; tributes to,
251 ; decline in value of foundry under,
251:
CASLON (Wm.) the Third, son of W.
Caslon II, succeeds to the business, 248 ;
specimens, 248, 249, 250 ; founder to His
Majesty, 249 ; altercation with Frys, 249,
303, 304 ; large sand cast type of, 250 ;
cast ornaments, 254, 326 ; leaves Chiswell
Street, 250 ; relations with Jackson, 317,
325
Matrices (Chiswell Street) : Script,
249
Buys Jackson's foundry, 325 ; uses
Chiswell Street Orientals and Cast Or-
naments, 325, 326 ; specimens, 325, 326 ;
retirement and character, 326, 327
Matrices (Salisbury Square) : Ara
bic, 326 ; Armenian, 326 ; Black, 326 ;
Greek, 326 ; Hebrew, 326 ; Samaritan,
326 ; Saxon, 326 ; Syriac, 326
CASLON (Henry) the First, son of W.
Caslon II, 248 ; joint heir to foundry,
248 ; wife of, 250 ; death, 250
CASLON (Mrs. Henry) wife of above,
formerly Miss Rowe, 200, 250 ; joint pro-
prietor of foundry, 251, 252 ; sole pro-
prietor, 251 ; regenerates foundry, 251 ;
cuts new founts, 251 ; her partner, 252 ;
marries Mr. Strong, 252 ; illness and
death, 252 ; specimen, 252
Matrices: Roman and Italic, 251,
252, 253
CASLON (Henry) the Second, son of
above, 250 ; infant proprietor of foundry,
251 ; sole proprietor, 253 ; partners of,
253, 254 > additions to foundry, 253, 254,
334 ; state of foundry in 1825, 254 ; re-
vives the Old Style, 235 ; death, 255
■ Matrices : German, 254 ; Greek,
254; Persian, 234; Diamond Roman,
358 ; Sanscrit, 234
CASLON (Hy. Wm.) son and partner of
above, 255 ; unites Glasgow and Caslon
foundries, 253, 265 ; offers foundry for
sale, 235 ; dies, the last of his name, 253
CASLON (Wm.) the Fourth, son and part-
ner of Wm. Caslon III, 326 ; succeeds to
.Salisbury Square Foundry, 327 ; im-
proved types, 120, 327 : ' Sanspareil '
matrices, 327 ; sells foundry to Blake,
327 ; character, 328
Caslon (Saml.) mould-maker, brother to
Wm. Caslon I. 246, 350
Caslon (Thos.) bookseller, son of Wm.
Caslon I, 246
Caslou Foundry, type bodies in 1841, 34 ;
changes in the value of, 231, 233 ; relics
preserved at, 243
Cast Ornaments, introduced by W. Caslon
III, 230, 326 ; Fry's, 306 ; Vizitelly,
Branston's, 360, 361
Castell (E.) his Heptaglot Lexicon,
176, 177
Casting, primitive methods of, 9 ; early
irregularity of, 18, 23 ; in sand, 9, io, 12;
in clay, 11, 12 ; Moxon's account of, iiij
improvements in, 119-22
Castle of Otranto, Parma, 1791 ; 231
Catechism, and Articles in Irish, Dublin,
i57i ; 75,. 187
Catechism in Irish, Lond. 1680 ? ; 189
Catena on yob, Lond. 1637 ; 98, 144, 176,
198, 201, 228
CATHERWOOD (Natl.) partner of
Mrs. H. Caslon, 232
CATHERWOOD (J. J.) brother to above,
233 ; partner of Hy. Caslon II, 253 ;
leaves Chiswell Street, 254 ; notice of,
by Johnson, 254 ; starts a foundry, 234,
358 ; joins A. Bessemer, 358 ; retires, 359
Catholicon, Mentz, 1460 ; 16
Caxton (Wm.) first English printer, 84;
early training, 84, 83 ; probable methods
cf type founding, 85, 86, 343 ; type cast
by, 84, 85, 102 ; mould of, 88 ; types of,
86-9 ; Black, 33, 87, 88 ; Secretary, 33,
86, 87, 88 ; Initials, 79 ; type ornaments,
82 ; first books of, 86 ; his advertisement,
49, 87 ; printed page by page, 26 ; trans-
lation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, by, 312;
employs a foreign printer, 91 ; fac-
similes of his types, 343, 344
Celtis, his reference to cut types, 7
Certificate, letter founders', form of, 135
' Chalcographia,' derivation of, 15
Champfleury, Paris, 1329; 32, 183
Chapel (a founders'), account of, 112, 166,
186
Chapman, prints with Baskerville's types,
283
Charles II and the London Polyglot, 176 ;
on the Alexandrian Codex facsimile, 203
ChevilIier'(A.) on the London Polyglot, 172
Chinese type cast in plaster moulds, 15
Christian Doctrine, Dublin 1632 ; 73,
188
Christiana Pietatis prima Institutio,
Lond. 1378 ; 98
Chronological accozmt of Irish writers,
Dublin 1820 ; 190
Chrysostomi Homilice, Lond. 1543 ; 60, 95:
Opera, Oxon. 1586 ; 60, 140 ; Transla-
tions from, Oxon. 1602 ; 64 : Opera,
Eton 1610-12 ; 60, 140
Church (W.) Type casting machine of,
121
Cicero's suggestion of mobile types, 3
Cicero, a type body, 32, 38
Cicero de Officiis, Mentz 1463 ; 38, 37 ;
Rome 1469 ; 38
de Oratore, Rome 1465 ; 40
Civilit6, Lettre de, a French cursive, 56 ;
Plantin's, 36
Clarendon Printing House, Oxford, 156
Clarke (S.) Oxford architypographus, 146
Classical 'height-to-paper' at Oxford, 155
274
Claudin (A.) old Lyonnaise types of, 20;
on early type markets, 103
Clayton (Robt.) patent matrices, 16, 121
Clemens Romanus ad Corinthios, Oxon.
1633 ; 143, 201
Codex Alexaudrinus, history of, 200; at-
tempts to facsimile, 200-5, 321
Codex Bezce, facsimile of, Camb. 1793 ;
322
Collection of Hymns, Bristol 1769 ; 299
Colonel, a Dutch and German type body,
39
Commentary on the Pentateuch, Reggio
1475 ; 62
Common Prayer, Lond. 1350 ; 77 : Cam-
bridge 1760-2 ; 279
(Irish) Dublin 1608; 73, 187 ; Lond.
1712 ; 190
Complutensian Polyglot, types of, 39, 63,
169
Copland (R.) printer, types of, 94
Coptic types of the Propaganda, 69 ; Vos-
kens, 70 ; Fournier, 70
Matrices : Oxford, 70, 147, 148,
IS3. I55, 161 ; Grover, ' new-hand,'
198, 200 ; Caslon, 70, 236, 237, 240, 247,
234
Cornish (J. D.) his specimen of Caslon's
types, 246
Corpus, a German type body, 39
Coster legend disposed of by Van der
Linde, 2
COTTRELL (Thos.) 221, 288-92; ap-
prentice to Caslon, 243, 288, 290, 316 ;
starts a foundry, 288, 316 ; his tribute to
Caslon, 244, 290 ; specimens, 290, 291,
292 ; repairs the Elstob Saxon, 138, 289 ;
Fournier's notice of, 290 ; private in the
Guards, 290, 316 ; Nichols' notice of,
291 ; his foundry, 292
Matrices : Domesday, 74, 291, 292,
294, 320 ; Engrossing, 56, 289, 290, 291,
292, 295 ; Flowers, 290, 291, 292; " Pro-
scription," 291, 292, 317 ; Roman and
Italic, 48, 289, 290, 291, 292 ; Russian,
72, 291
Court Hand, early English, 53, 289
Matrices : Grover, 199, 204; James,
228, 303 ; Fry, 303
Cromwell (Oliver), his aid to the London
Polyglot, 172, 175
Cupi, a Dutch punch cutter, 114, 213,
216
Cursiv, a German name for Italic, 31
' Cut matrices,' a misnomer, 8
Cyclopedia, E. Chambers, Lond. 1728 ;
38: Lond. 1738 ; 241: Lond. 1784-6; 250,
263
Danish type at Oxford, 73, 131
Dawks (I.) Script type of, 173
Day (Jno.) printer, account of, 95-101 ;
a letter-founder, 96 ; his Star Chamber
case v. Ward, 124. His types : Greek,
98 ; Hebrew, 64, 98 ; Italic, 51, 96, 97,
98, 144 ; Music, 77, 98 ; Roman, 47, 96,
97, 98, 144 ; Saxon, 73, 96
De Antiquitate BritanniccE E celesta,
Lond. 1572 ; 97
De Arte Supputandi, Lond. 1322 ; 92
De Divind Proportione, Venice, 1309 ;
183
De EmendatA Structura, Lond. 1324 ;
6°) 93
De Lmgucz Arabiccs Utilitate, Oxon,
1639 ; 66
De Lingua, Etruria, Oxon. 1735 ; 239
De Siglis Arabum, Lond. 1648 ; 66
De Vinne (Theo.) on early type moulds,
9, *7
De Visibili RomanarchiA, Lond. 1373 ;
97
De Worde. See Worde (W. de)
Demetrius of Crete, Greek types of,
S7. 58
372
Demetrius Phalereus: Glasgow, 1743 ;
261
Descendiaen, a Dutch type body, 38
Deva Nagari matrices : Jackson, 319 ;
Wilkins, 318
Diamond, an English type body, 40 ; a
Dutch body, 40, 304 ; matrices in
Grover's foundry, 197, 199 ; founts cut
in by Wilson, 264 ; Fry, 304 ; Bessemer,
358. 359
Diary of Lady Willoughby, Lond. 1844 ;
2S5
Dibdin (T. F.) on Black letter fashions,
54 ; on Caxton's types, 84 ; Biblio-
graphical Works of, 333
Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers,
Westminster, 1477 ; 86
Didot (A. F.) improved Script type, 56,
120, 308, 312.
Didot (F.) on Polytype printing, 13, 220
Didot (F. A.) typographical points of, 35 ;
Roman type of, 48
Didot (H.) Semi-Nonpareil cut by, 40 ;
Diamond, 359 ; Patent type-casting
machine, 121, 361
Dilworth's Spelling- Book, Lond. n.d. 306
Dives et Pauper, Lond. 1493 ; 91
Diumale Gr. Arab. Fano, 1514 ; 65
Doctrinale, ' gette en molle,' 13
Domesday matrices : — Cottrell, 74, 291,
292, 294, 320; Jackson, 74, 291, 320, 321,
340 ; Figgins, 339, 340, 343
Domesday Book, Lond. 1783 ; 74, 320, 321,
340
Domesday Book Illustrated, Lond. 1788;
321
Donlevey's Irish Catechism, Paris, 1742 ;
75
Double Pica, an English type body,
33. 36
Dressing, an operation in founding, in,
115, 116
Drury (J. I.) letter cutter to Mrs. H.
Caslon, 251
Ductor in Linguas, Lond. 1617 ; 64, 73,
171
DUMMERS, a letter founder, 345 ;
Samaritan type cut for Caslon, 70, 241,
345
Diirer (A.) on the shape of letters, 32, 183
Dutch Founders, notices of, 113, 213 — 217 ;
type of, in England, 46, 51, 61, 80, 114,
210, 233 ; in Scotland, 257, 258 ; cessa-
tion of trade with, 237, 249
Dutch ' Bloomers,' 80, 258
Duverger (E.) on early type moulds, 23
East (T.) Music type of, 77
East India Company, types cut for, 318,
319. 339 .
Elementa Lingua? Persicee, Lond. 1649 :
66
Elstob (Eliz.) Saxon works of, 74, 157 ;
account of her, 157, 158 : her Saxon
Grammar, 157, 158
Elzevirs, types of : Greek, 264 ; Hebrew,
64 ; Orientals, 66, 141 ; Roman, 44, 263
Emerald, an English type body, 34
English, an English type body, 32, 33, 37;
a name for Black Letter, 37, 53
English Two-line, an English type body,
36 .
English-Saxon Homily on St. Gregory's
Day, Lond. 1709 ; 74, 156
Engrossing matrices ; Cottrell, 56, 289,
290, 291, 292, 295
Enschedes, Dutch letter founders, 215 ;
leaden matrices in their foundry, 15 ;
specimens of their old Italic, 52 ; Gothic,
Index.
53 ; Flamand, 54 ; Civilite, 56 ; Initials,
80
Enschede (J.) on wooden types, 6
Erasmus at Cambridge, 141
Erpenius, Oriental matrices and types of,
65, 69, 144
Essai sur V Education des Avengles,~Pa.ris,
1786 ; 78
Essay on the Original, Use and Excellency
of Printing, Lond. 1752 ; 242
Essay towards a Real Cliaracter, Lond.
1668 ; 191
Essay on Melody of Speech, Lond. 1775 ;
3?3
Estienne (H.) Greek types of, 58 ; flowers,
82
Estienne (P.) his compliment to Norton,
140
Estienne (R.) type of, Greek (Royal), 58,
262 ; Hebrew, 63 ; Initials, 80
Ethiopic, early founts at Rome, 69, 174 ;
Leyden, 69 ; Frankfort, 69 ; Amsterdam,
Matrices : Oxford, 6g, 151, 154, 155,
161 ; Polyglot, 69, 173, 174, 177, 195 ;
Andrews, 198 ; 'Anon.', 69, 207 ; James,
228, 303 ; Caslon, 69, 240, 247, 254 ; Fry,
303, 309, 311 ■
Punches : James, 229
Eton, Greek printing at, 60, 140
Etruscan type at Rome, 72, Parma, 72
Matrices : Caslon, 72, 239, 240, 247
Euselii Prczparatio, Venice, 1470 ; 41
Eusebius, Paris, 1544559
Everingham (R.) printer in Irish, 189,
igo ; works printed by his widow, 190
Exposicio Simboli, Oxon. '1468'; 137,
r38 . ..
Exposition on St. John, Wesel ? 1557 ; 45
Facsimile types, the earliest, 200, 204
Faques (W.) printer, trained at Rouen, 93,
103 ; types of, 93 ; used by De Worde,
94
Fann Street Foundry, 294, 295, 313
Farley (Abr.) Domesday type cut for, 320
Fell (Jno.) his services to Oxford Press,
146, 150; gift of matrices, &c, 148;
report on Oxford printing, 149 ; his
printing house, 150 ; Moxon's compli-
ment to, 150, 183
Fenner (W.) partner of Ged, 218, 219
FENWICK (Jos.) founder, account of,
35i
Matrices : — Scriptorial, 351
Fergusson's proposal for regulating type
bodies, 35, 357
Fidelis Servi Responsio, Lond. 1573 ; 97
FIFIELD (Alex.) founder, nominated,
130, 165 ; account of, 166
Fifteen O's, Westminster, 1490 ; 82, 85
FIGGINS (Vincent) the First, apprentice
and foreman to Jackson, 324, 335, 338 ;
fails to succeed to that foundry, 325, 335 ;
Nichols' aid to, 335, 336; his first foundry,
336, 341 ; facsimile Romans cut by, 336,
337 ; employed by Oxford Press, 338 ;
cuts type for the Record Commission,339,
340 ; for Bagster, 34 1 ; various tributes
to, 340, 342, 343.
Matrices : — Black, 340, 343 ; Domes-
day, 339, 340, 343 ; German Text, 340,
342. 343 ; Greek, 338, 343; Hebrew, 65,
341, 342, 343 ; Irish, 76, 342, 343 ; Persian,
339, 343 ; Roman and Italic, 48, 336, 337,
340; Saxon, 74, 343; Syriac, 68, 342,
343 ; Telegii, 339, 343
FIGGINS (Vincen r) the Second, son
of above, enters business, 343 ; his
anecdote of a punch-cutter, 338 ; his
facsimile of Caxton's type, 87, 343 ;
body-standards in his foundry in 1841,
34
FIGGINS (James) the First, son of V.
Figgins I, 343
FIGGINS (James) the Second, son of
above, 343
Filosofia, an Italian type body, 38
Finance (Lettre de) a Script letter, 56
Fischer (G.)on wooden types, 4
Flamand, a Dutch Black-letter, 54
Flemish school of typography, 102
Flesher (Jas.) printer, 17T, 178 ; Arabic
type of, 66 ; Polyglot specimen of, 171
Flesher (Miles) printer, Arabic type of,
66
Flowers, early type-, 82 ; H. Estienne's,
82 ; Day's, 98
Matrices : — Oxford, 148 ; Grover,
199 ; James, 222, 303 ; Caslon, 222, 240 ;
Cottrell, 290, 291, 292 ; Thome, 293,
295 ! Fry, 303, 307
Forme, (Lettre de) Black-letter, 36, 53, 87,
88
FOUGT (H.) Founder of music type, 78,
350 ; Specimen, 350
Matrices : — Music, 350
Foulis (R. and A.) Scotch printers, 261 ;
to Glasgow University, 261 ; employ
Wilson, 261 ; their Glasgow Homer, 261,
262 ; beautiful impressions of, 261 ; the
poet Gray's tribute to, 263
Foulis (Andrew), son of above Robert, 261;
his patent for stereotype, 220, 261
Founts of early printers, size of, 26, 27
Fournier, (P, S.), on wooden types, 5 ;
typographical points of, 35 ; notes on
English founders, 242, 290 ; account of
founding in France, 117 ; his types;
Coptic, 70 ; Etruscan, 72 ; Irish, 75,191;
Music, 78 ; Roman, 48 ; Russian, 72
FOX (Benj.) partner in Fann Street
Foundry, 296
Fractur, a German Black-letter, 54
France, first Gothic type in, 53 ; Letter
Founding in,ii4,n6; control of founders
in, 129 ; typographical superiority of,
124
Francesco da Bologna, cutAldine punches,
5i
Frankfort, Letter founding at, in 1568,105,
106
Franklin (Benj.), a journeyman in London,
218, 233, 235 ; experiments in casting, 15:
letters to Baskerville, 280, 281 ; starts
foundry in America, 350
Freres de la Vie Commune, Roman type
of, 41, 42
Froben (J.) his supposed acquaintance
with Pynson, 91 ; his types; Greek, 59 ;
Hebrew, 63 ; Initials, 80 ; Roman, 43
Froschouer (Chr.) Roman type of, 43 ;
Froschouer (Jno.) Music type of, 76
FRY (Joseph) begins a foundry in Bristol,
298; imitates Baskerville's Romans, 284,
299, 305, 310 ; first specimens, 299 ; re-
moves to London, 299 ; Bibles printed
by, 301, 302 ; his partners, 299, 300, 302;
adopts Caslon models, 284, 301, 305,
310 ; purchases at James' sale, 230, 302,
303; quarrel with Caslon III, 249, 304;
retirement and death, 304, 305
Matrices : Roman, 48, 284, 299,
300, 301, 310
FRY (Edmund) son and partner of above,
302; philological talents, 302; specimens,
305, 306, 307, 308, 313; removes foundry
to Type Street, 305 ; his types used by
Index.
373
Millar Ritchie, 306 ; his Pantographia,
306, 307 ; his partners, 306, 307, 308 ;
new Romans of, 307, 310 ; dislike to orna-
mented type, 307 310 ; letter founder to
the King, 307 ; cuts Orientals for Cam-
bridge, 308 ; contents of foundry, 309 ;
rehires, 310 ; his Address to the Publicr
310 ; sells foundry to Thorowgood, 296,
3*3
FRY (Edmund) Matrices : Alexandrian
Greek, 303, 304, 309, 311 ; Amharic, 309,
311 ; Arabic, 303, 309, 311 ; Black, 303,
310, 311; Blind, 78, 79, 308, 309; Cast
Ornaments, 306 ;£thiopic, 303, 309, 311 ;
Flowers, 303, 307 ; German, 309, 312 ;
Greek, 303, 309, 311 ; Guzerattee, 309,
311 ; Hebrew, 303, 304, 309, 311 ; Irish,
76, 303, 306, 309, 312 ; Malabaric, 309,
311 ; Music, 78, 310 ; Roman, 303, 305,
306, 307, 310; Russian, 72, 309, 312;
Samaritan, 70, 303, 309, 311 : Saxon, 74,
309, 312 ; Script, 308. 312 ; Syriac, 68,
303, 308, 310, 311, 342
FRY (Henry) brother and partner of
above, 302 ; becomes a printer, 306
FRY (Windover) son and partner of
Edmund Fry, 308
Fust and Schoeffer, music types of, 76;
Initials, 79, 80
' Fusus,' use of word in colophons, 8
Fyner (C), Hebrew type of, 62
Gaillarde, a French type-body, 39
Galenus de Teinperamentis, Camb. 1521 ;
141
Gallicantus, Lond. 1498 ; 92
Gallie (Jno.) manager to Wilson, 266;
partner with Dr. Marr, 266
Game cuid Play of the Chesse (facs.),Lond.
1855 ; 87, 343
Garamond (Cl.) mould of, 23 ; Roman cut
by, 44 ; Greek, 58
Garmond, a foreign type body, 39
Ged (Wm.) inventor of Stereotype, 218,
219, 258 ; misfortunes and failure of, 219,
238 ; Biographical Memoirs of, 219
Gem, an English type body, 356
Gering. first Paris printer, Greek type of,
58 ; Roman, 43
German matrices : Caslon, 254 ; Thorne,
295 ; Thorowgood, 296 ; Fry, 309, 312
German-Text matrices : Figgins, 340, 342,
343
Geschreven Schrift, a German Script, 56
' Gette en molle1, signification of, 13, 14
Glasgow University ; fine printing at, 261
Glosa, a class of type, 32
Glosilla, a Spanish type body, 32, 39
Goes (H.) York printer, used De Worde's
types, 89
Golden Legend, Westminster, n. d. ; 88
Goldsmith and Pamell, Lond. 1795; 331
GORING (Thos.) letter-founder, 193;
nominated 133, 193; notice of, 166
Gothic letter, origin of, 53 ; Petrarch's
aversion to, 53 ; Prevost's eulogy of, 53
Gothic language ; types of at Amsterdam,
73
— — Matrices : Oxford, 73, 150, 151, 155,
161 ; 'Anon.', 207 ; James, 73, 225, 228 ;
Caslon, 73, 239, 240, 248, 234
Gough (jno.) his anecdotes of Jackson,
321, 323 ; of Hive, 348
Gourmont (G. de) Greek type of, 58 ;
Hebrew, 62, 63
Graff (Baltus de), partner of Cottrell, 288
Grafton (Rd.) Bible printed by, 124 ; Music
type of, 77 ; Dibdin's tribute to, 101
Grammar of the Bengal Language,
Hoogly, 1778 ; 318
Grammar of the Sanskrita Language,
Lond. 1808; 319
Granjon (N.) French letter-cutter, Greek
types of, 59 ; Music, 77 ; " Civilite", 56
Gray s Poems, Glasgow, 1768; 263 : Parma,
T793 ; 251
Great Charier, Oxford, 1759 : 159
Great Primer, an English type body, 33,
37, 86
Greek : earliest, Schoeffer's, 57 ; early
founts, Italy, 57, 58 ; France, 58, 59, 60,
61; Netherlands, 59, 61; Spain, 59;
Germany, 60 ; Switzerland, 59 ; Lascaris
" litterse majuscute," 57 ; French " Cha-
racters Regii," 59, 60, 61, 141, 262
In England : De Worde's, 60, 91 ;
Siberch's, 60, 141 ; Pynson's, 60, 93 ;
Day's, 98 ; Wolfe's, 60, 95 ; Mierdman's,
60; Oxford, 60, T40, 141 ; Eton, 6o, 140,
145 ; Royal founts, 60, 142, 144, 167, 201,
202 ; borrowed by Cambridge from Ox-
ford, 60, 141 ; Dutch founts in England,
61 ; Cambridge offers for Paris Greek,
61, 141 ; large number of ligatures, 61 ;
minute sizes, 61, 62, 254 ; fashions in,
6i, 274 ; Porson's improvement in, 62,
342
Matrices : Oxford, 61, 148, 160, 161,
273, 274; Polyglot, 173, 174; Andrews,
61, 195, 197 ; Grover, 61, 198, 200 ;
Head, 206; Mitchell, 206, 241 ; "Anon.",
207 : James, 195, 197, 213, 214, 217, 221,
223, 228, 303 ; Caslon, 240, 241, 247,
254; Wilson, 61, 261, 262, 263, 264, 265 ;
Baskerville, 61, 160, 273, 274 ; Thorow-
good, 296 ; Fry, 303, 307, 309, 311 ;
Jackson, 61, 311, 317, 321, 322 ; Cas-
lon III, 326 ; Martin, 61, 332 ; Figgins,
338, 343 ; Hive, 347
Punches : James, 229
Greek, Alexandrian ; see Alexandrian
Greek
Grierson (G.) Irish printer, his patent,
260 ; establishes letter-founding, 261
Grierson (Boulter), son of above, his peti-
tion, 260
GRISMAND (John) _ Star Chamber
founder, 130, 165 ," notices of, 165, 166
Gromors, Arabic types of, 65
Gros Batarde, a French Secretary type,
55 ; Colard Mansion's, 55, 86, 87
Gros Romain, a French type body, 37
GROVER (Jas.) letter-founder, 166, 197
GROVER (Thos.) son of above, letter-
founder, 157, 166, 197-205 ; Royal founts
in his foundry, 197, 203 ; Caslon offers for
foundry, 205, 237 ; disposal of it, 205
Matrices : Alexandrian Greek, 198-
205 ; Arabic, 198 ; Blacks, 197, 109, 225 ;
Cursives, 199 ; Greek, 198 ; Hebrew,
198 ; Music, 77, 199 ; Roman and Italic,
197, 198, 199 ; Samaritan, 70, 198 ; Saxon,
199 ; Scriptorials, 199 ; Signs, 199 ; Sy-
riac, 198, 241
Gutenberg's types, migrations of, 28
Guzerattee matrices : Fry, 309, 311
Hahn (Ul.) Roman type of, 4r ; his Cicero,
38 ; his St. Augustine, 37
Halhed (N. B.) his Bengal Grammar,
318 ; his account of C. Wilkins, 318
Hanbey (Mr.) son-in-law of Caslon I, 246
Hancock (C.) buys Hughes' Music ma-
trices, 363
Handy (J.) a punch-cutter employed by
Baskerville, 269, 353
Hansard (T. C.) on type fashions, 48 ;
notices of founders from his Typogra-
phia, 251, 253, 254, 258, 264, 296, 309, 310,
312, 326, 328, 332, 336, 342, 343, 352, 355,
36l» 364
Hare (Bp.) transactions with Caslon, 238
Harris (Messrs.) use Baskerville's types,
286
Hautin, Music type of, 77
Haiiy, Blind type of, 78
Hawkins (Sir J.) his anecdote of Caslon,
245 , • ■
Hazard, Bath printer, notice of, 307
HEAD (Godfrey) letter founder, 133, 166,
205
Matrices : Black, 206 ; Greek,
206
HEAPHY, letter founder, 364
Hebrew type, first use of, 62 ; early founts
in Italy, 62 ; France, 62, 63 ; Spain, 63 ;
Germany, 63 ; Netherlands, 63, 64, 65
in England : De Worde's, 64, 91 ;
Day's, 64, 98 ; at Oxford, 64 ; London,
64
■ Matrices : Oxford, 64, 147, 148,
154, 160, 161 ; Polyglot, 64, 171, 173,
174, 177, 194; Andrews, 195 ; Grover, 198;
James, 64, 65, 223, 227, 303 ; Caslon, 65,
236, 238, 240, 246, 247, 254 ; Wilson, 264,
265 ; Fry; 303, 304, 309, 311 ; Jackson,
317; Caslon HI, 326; Figgins, 65/341,
342, 343 ; Thorowgood, 296 ; Jalieson,
346 .
Hebrew Dictionary, Iouvain, 1520? 63
Hebrew Grammar, Paris, 1508 ; 63 : Leip-
sic, 1520, 63 ; Paris, 1520 ; 63 : Louvain,
1528 ; 63
Height-to-paper of sand-cast types, 10 ; of
old Lyons types, 21 ; of old Cologne
types, 25 ; varieties of at Oxford, 155
Heilman, Gros Batarde type of, 55
Henfrey (J.) type-casting machine of, 121
Herbert (W. ) his account of Caxton's types,
84 ; on early use of Roman and Italic, 91,
97
Herodotus, Oxford, 1590 ; 60, 140
Hibernian type, see Irish
Hickes' Thesaurus, Oxon. 1703-5 ; 72, 73,
74. 15°, 156
Saxon Grammar, Oxon. 1711 ; 74
History of England (Hume's) Lond. 1806 ;
323» 336
Hogarth and Baskerville's types, 47
Homeri Opera, Florence, 1488 ; 58 : Glas-
gow, 1756-58 ; 62, 261, 262 : Parma,
1808 ; 251 : Lond. 1831 ; 62, 254
Batrachomyomachia, Venice, i486 ;
58 : Paris, 1507 ; 58
Hooght (Van der) Hebrew types of, 64
Horm {Greek), Louvain, 1516 ; 59
Horatii Opera, Sedan, 1627 ; 46 : Glas-
gow, 1744 ; 261 : Birmingham, 1762 ;
277
Horman (W.) his indenture with Pynson,
92
Hostingue, a Rouen printer, 103
HUGHES (Hugh) partner with Thorne,
294, 363 ; starts a foundry, 363 ; specimen,
363 ; his music type, 363
Matrices : music, 78, 363 _
Hunte (Thos.) early Oxford printer, 137,
138
Hutter, curious Hebrew type of, 63, 247 ;
his Polyglot Bible, 170
Iberno - Celtic Society's Transactions,
Dublin, 1820 ; 190
Iceland, early printing in, 73
Icelandic matrices at Oxford, 73, 151, 155
374
Index.
ILIVE (Jacob) letter founder, 346-9 ; his
eccentricities, 347, 348 ; forged Book of
Jasher, 348 ; heads schism in Stationers'
Company, 348 ; his foundry bought by
James, 221, 347
• Matrices : Greek, 221, 347 ; Roman,
347
IMISSON, letter founder, 352
Imprimerie Royale, Paris, establishment
of, 58 ; Greek type of, 58, 59, 60, 61 ;
Roman, 44, 48
Initials of Mentz Psalter, 79 ; early cut-
ters of, 79, 80 ; Caxton's, 79 ; Day's, 98 ;
'Two-line letters,' 80; Pictorial, 80;
Dutch, 80 ; Bible, 80 ; Armorial, 80 ;
pierced, 81 ; Oxford copperplate, 80,
150 ; fashions in, 81 ; Baskett's ' Silver
initials,' 107, 211
hitroductio ad Lectionem Ling. Oriental.
London, 1655 ; 172
Ireland, letter foundry in, 260, 26s ; print-
ing patent for, 260 ; Scotch and English
type supplied to, 260, 265. Vernacular
printing in, 75, 76, 186, 187, 188
Irish type in Dublin, 75, 186, 187 ; Ant-
werp, 75 ; Louvain, 75, 188, 191 ; Rome,
75, 191 1 Paris, 75, 7<f, 191 ; revival of
Iiith printing, 76, 191
Matrices : Moxon, 75, 76, 155, 186,
189, 190, 194, 306 ; Andrews, 194, 196 ;
James, 229, 303 ; Fry, 229, 303, 306,
309, 312 ; Figgins, 342, 343
Punches : James, 229
Iron, an ingredient in type metal, 21, 112
Irregular type bodies, origin of, 33
Isla (Lord) patron of Wilson, 258
Italic, first cut by Aldus, 50 ; early foreign
founts, 51 ; Van Dijk's, 52 ; various uses
for, 52
In England, fashions in, 52 ; De
Worde's, 52, 91 ; Day, 52, 96, 97, 98,
144, 176 ; Vautrollier, 51, 98 ; James,
214, 217 ; Caslon, 52 ; Baskerville, 275
See also s.v. Roman and Italic
Italy, first Roman type in, 40 ; first Gothic
type in, 53
JACKSON (Jos.) apprentice to Caslon I,
243, 288, 315 ; first punch cut by, 315 ;
dismissed, 243, 288, 316 ; partner with
Cottrell, 288, 291, 316 ; goes to sea, 289,
316 ; starts a foundry, 291, 316 ; first
specimens, 316, 317 ; Bowyer's aid to
3 17> 323 I removes to Salisbury Square,
317 ; makes a hollow square, 317 ; his
foundry, 317 ; employed by Nichols,
320, 321 ; Bensley, 323 ; Oxford Press,
338 ; fire of foundry. 324 ; elegy on, 324 ;
death and tributes to, 324, 325 ; portraits
of, 288, 316, 325
Matrices : Alexandrian Gieek, 321 ;
Bengalee, 317 ; Black, 317 ; Codex-
Bezae Greek, 322 ; Deva Nagari, 319 ;
Domesday, 74, 320, 321, 340 ; Greek, 61,
311, 317, 323 ; Hebrew, 317 ; Music sym-
bols, 323 ; Persian, 317 ; ' Proscription '
letter, 317 ; Roman, 48, 317, 323 ; Script,
56, 317
JALLESON, letter founder, 346 ; his
system of type bodies, 346 ; Hebrew
type, 346
JAMES (Thos.) letter founder, 157, 212-
220 ; his family, 212 ; apprentice to R.
Andrews, 196, 212 ; his letters from Hol-
land/113, 213-17 ; his foundry, 217 ; buys
Greek of Grover, 195, 197 ; rivalry with
Caslon, 218, 220 ; transactions with Ged,
218, 219 ; second visit to Holland, 219 ;
decline of his business, 220 ; buys
Andrews' foundry, 197, 211, 220; death,
220 ; advertisement by his widow, 220
JAMES (Thos.) Matrices : Black, 214,
217 ; Greek, 213, 214, 217 : Roman and
Italic, 46, 213, 214, 217
JAMES (Jno.) son and successor of
above, 220 ; buys half Mitchell's foundry,
206, 221 ; Ilive's, 221, 347 ; Grover' s, 205,
221 ; his projected specimen, 222, 224 ;
dies, 222 ; last of the Old English
Founders, 221, 230
Matrices and Puuches : Anglo-
Norman, 228 ; Arabic, 67, 228, 229,
303 ; Black, 91, 228. 303 ; Court Hand,
228, 303 ; Ethiopic, 228, 229, 303 ;
Flowers, 229, 303 ; Gothic, 73, 228 ;
Greek, 220, 228, 229, 303 ; Hebrew, 65,
220, 227, 303 ; Irish, 229, 303 ; Runic,
72, 228 ; Samaritan, 70, 227, 229. 303 ;
Saxon, 220, 228 ; 229 ; Scriptorial, 228,
303 ; Secretary, 228 ; Syriac, 228, 229,
24[ ...
James (Dr. T.) first Bodleian Librarian,
212
James (Elianor) aunt of Thos. James the
founder, 212
James (George) son of above, City
Printer, 2T2
James (Jno.) architect, brother of Thos.
James the founder, 212 ; partner with
Ged, 218
James' Foundry acquired by Mores, 222 ;
arranged for sale, 223 ; catalogue and
specimen, 226-30, 303 ; matrices Iost,223,
227, 228 ; punches lost, 229 ; obsolete
founts, 224, 225 ; leaden matrices, 16,
228 ; moulds, &c, 229, 230 ; sale of,
230, 302
Jannon, Sedan printer, Roman type of,
46, Greek, 61
Jansson, Hebrew type of, 64, 65
Jasher, Book of, Lond. 1751 ; 348
Jason, Westminster (1477), 86
Jenson, Greek type of, 58 ; Roman, 41
Jerome's suggestion of mobile types, 3
Joly, a Dutch type body, 40
Journeyman founders, regulation of, 131,
133
Jungfer, a German type body, 39
Junius (Fr.) his gift to Oxford, 150, 151 ;
Dr. Nicholson's note on, 151 ; portrait
of; 151
Junius (Pat.) see Young (Pat.)
Jurisson, see Imisson
Justifying of matrices, 10, in, 186 ; a
secret operation, 117
Justinian, Mentz, 1468 ; 49
Kehl, typographical establishment at, 285,
286 ; Voltaire's Works, printed at, 285,
286 ; Works by Alfieri at, 286
Kerning, a process in founding, 22, in
' King's House,' Roman types, 197, 199,
203
Kipling (T.) his facsimile of Codex Bezce,
322
Kirkpatrick (W.) Sanscrit type cut for,
KNOWLES (G.) a partner of Ed. Fry,
307 .
Koran, Venice, 1518; 65
Laborde (Leon) on wooden types, 5
Lackington (J as.) bookseller, 325
Lactantius, Subiaco, 1465 ; 40, 57
La Lepre morale, Cologne, 1476 ; 24
Lambinet (P.) on early polytype printing,
Lascaris Antkologia (in Greek Capitals),
Florence, 1494 ; 57 : Greek Grammar,
Milan, 1476 ; 57
Last Judgment, Irish poem on, Dublin,
1571 ; 187
Laud (Archbp.) his services to Oxford
press, 142-5, 166 ; letter to, from King
Charles I, 143
Le Be" (G.) cuts punches for Plantin, 107 ;
his Arabic, 64 ; Hebrew, 59 ; Music,
77
LEE (Jos.) letter founder, 166, 193
Lee (Dr. S.) Orientals cut for by Dr. Fry,
308
L'Estrange (R.) Surveyor of Imprimery,
132
Le Tailleur, Rouen printer for Pynson,
92
Letter-cutting by eye, not by rule, 184
Letter Founders, one named in 1597, 128,
164 ; regulations of, in 1622, 129, 164; in
1637, 130; in 1662, 132; in 1674, 133;
in 1693, 134 ; called to account, 133, 134,
193, 205 ; petition and ' Cause of Com-
plaint' of one, in 1637, 167 ; To His
Majesty, 178, 249, 296, 307, 329, 356 ;
limited number of, 118, 134; Association
of, 118, 250, 352, 353, 358
Letter Founding of the first printers, 9,
12, 14, 18 ; early secrecy of, 28 ; spread
of, 28
In France : State control of, 129 ;
Thiboust's account of, 114 ; views of in
Encyclopedia, 1 16 ; Fournier's account
of, 117
In Germany : at Frankfort, in 1568,
In Netherlands: Plantin's Foundry,
105
106 ; James' account of Dutch founders,
113, 213-7
In England : came after printing,
84 ; earliest record of, 93 ; early practice
of, 103; curious cut in the Bagford MSS.,
105 ; divorce from printing, 164 ; prac-
tised by Day, 96 ; early unlicensed, 128;
the London Polyglot a land-mark of,
175 ; Moxon's account of, 1683, 107-13,
183-6; at Oxford, in 1695, 113 ; custom
of lending casters and matrices, 113,
216; division of trades in, 114, 184;
trade jealousies in, 114, 118; Universal
Magazine, 1750, account in, 108, 116 ;
secret operations in, 117, 288, 315, 338;
rules of Thome's Foundry, 1806, 117,
294; conservatism of, 118; competition
in, 118 ; State-control of, 123-136; liberty
of, 134 ; final emancipation of, 135
Lettres Tourneures, initials, 79
Lettres de Forme, 36, 53, 87, 88
Lettres de Somme, 53, 54
Lettou and Machlinia, types of, 89
Leusden, simplified Greek types of, 61
Lever-mould, introduced, 120
Lexicon HeJ>taglotton, Lond. 1669; 176
Liber de laudiiits Marice, Cologne ? 1478 ?
24
Life of Jewell, Lond. 1573; 64, 98
Ligatures in old founts, 10, 27, 41, 50,
224
Liguarui7i XII AlpJiabeta, Paris, 1538;
67
Linde (A. Van der) on the essence of typo-
graphy, 2 ; on ' gette en molle,' 13
Litera? Florentes, initials, 79
Littleton Tenures (Pynson's), Lond. 1527;
93 ; (Redman's), Lond. n. d., 94
LIVERMORE (Martin) partner to
Henry Caslon II, 254 ; retires from Chis-
weU Street, 255
Index.
375
Logique oVOkam, 1488, contractions In,
Si
London Printer's Lamentation, 1060: 127,
130, 165
Long Primer, an English type-body, 32,33,
38
Long f, disappearance of, 52
Louvain, Irish type at, 75, 188, 191
Liibeck, leaden matrices at, 16
Lucas (M.) printer of the 'Wicked'
Bible, 142, 143
Luce (L.) Roman type of, 40, 48
Lucerna Fidelium, Rome, 1676 ; 75
Luckombe (P.) his History of Printing,
Lond. 1770 ; 246, 291, 301
Ludolf, Ethiopic type used by, 69
Ludolph's Grammatica Russica, Oxon.
1696 ; 71
LYNCH, letter founder, 358
Lyndewode Constitutiones, Oxon. n.d. ;
_ !39
Lyons, early printing at, 20 ; fifteenth cen-
tury types at, 20 ; nicks used at, 120
Lyons (Israel) Hebrew type cut for, 247
McCuirtin's Irish Dictionary, Paris,
1732; 75
McCreery (J.) prints with Martin's types,
333, his poem on The Press, 277, 333
Machine for type casting, first, 122, 265
Machlinia and Lettou, types of, 89
McPHAIL, letter founder, 351
Madden (J. P. A.) on 15th Century type,
24 ; on the Wiedenbach typographers, 41
Malabaric matrices : — Fry, 309, 311
Mansion (Colard) Caxton's master, 84, 85,
86, 87, Gros Batarde type of, 55, 86, 87
Marcel (J. J.) his Oratio Dominica, 72,
76; his Alphabet Irlandais, 76, 191 ;
Russian type of, 72 ; Irish, 76
Marprelate Tracts, types of, 127
MARR (Dr. J.) acquires part of Glasgow
Foundry, 266
Martens (Th.) Greek type of, 59 ; Heb-
rew, 63
Martin (Robert) agent and manager for
Baskerville, 281, 330 ; works printed by,
281
MARTIN (Wm.) brother to above, 330 ;
cuts punches in London, 330 ; starts
foundry, 330 ; employed by Shakespeare
Press, 331-3 ; tributes to, 331, 332, 333 ;
supplies McCreery, 333; foundry sold
to Caslon, 254, 334 ; Orientals of, 332
Matrices : — Greek, 332 j Roman
and Italic, 332, 333
Mascall (W.) proposal to register founders,
134
Mathematical signs in type, 98, 148, 191,
196, 199, 217, 342
Matrices, early forms of, 14 ; of lead, 14,
15, 16, 228 ; of clay, 15 ; of wood, 16,
121 ; justification of, 16 ; struck inverted,
204; without sides, 208; of steel, 312;
' Sanspareil,' 327
MATTHEWSON, letter founder in
Edinburgh, 358
Maynyal, Paris printer for Caxton, gi
Mediaan, a Dutch type body, 38
Meerman on sculpto-fusi types, 7
Mentelin, Roman type of, 42
Mentz, Sack of, 28 ; school of typography
of, 9
Meres (Jno.) son-in-law of T. Grover, 205
Metals used in type alloy, 19, 106, 112,
121 ; softness of, in early types, 26 ;
Moxon's directions for mixing, 112
Meurs (Dr. Van) on ' gette en molle,' 13
Mierdman, Greek types of, 60
Miller (Peter) American printer, anecdote
of, 17
MILLER (Wm.) manager for Wilson, 264,
355 ; starts foundry, 355 ; his early
founts, 355 ; employed by the Times,
356; specimens, 355, 356; partner and
successors of, 356
Matrices : — Roman and Italic, 355,
356
MILNE & Co., founders, 266
Milton (Jno.) Areopagitica, 130; Works,
Birmingham, 1758; 275; Lond. 1794-7;
331 ; Paradise Lost, Lond. 1796 ; 337,
338
Minion, an English type body, 33, 39,
210; a foreign body, 39
Minsheu's D-uctor in Linguas, Lond. 1617;
64. 73, 171
Missal, a German type body, 36
Missal, printed at Lyons, 1485 ; 76
MITCHELL (Robt.) founder, 206 ; par-
tition of his foundry, 206, 221, 241
Matrices ; Black, 206, 241 ; Greek,
206, 241 ; Music, 78, 206, 241 ; Roman and
Italic, 206 ; Signs, 206
Mitchelson, first American founder, 350
Mittel, a German type body, 37
Model types for clay or sand moulds, n ;
as punches for lead or clay matrices, 15,
16
Moderne, Italian name for Black letter,
, 43
Molloy's Lucerna Fidelium, Rome, 1676 ;
75 : Irish Grammar, Rome, 1677 ; 75
Monasticon, Lond. 1655 ; 74
MOORE (Isaac) manager and partner of
Fry and Pine, 299 ; specimens of, 299 ;
inventions of, 300 ; retires, 302
Moreau, Script type of, 56
Mores (Ed. Rowe) account of, 222 ; pos-
sesssr of James' foundry, 222, 223 ; his
Dissertation, 222, 223 ; account of early
printers by, 84, 90, 92, 94 ; of Miss
Elstob, 157 ; his correspondence as to
her Saxon matrices, 158, 159 ; his account
of James' foundry, 223 ; strictures on
Oxford specimen, 160 ; allusion to Cos-
ter, 225; prejudice against Caslon II;
244, 247 ; against Baskerville, 274, 280 ;
notice of Fry's specimen, 300 ; as a com-
positor, 347
Morton (Dr.) Domesday type cut for, 291,
320
Moses Choronensis, Lond. 1736 ; 69, 239
Motteroz (M.) ideal Roman letter of, 48
Mould, see Type- mould
MOXON (Jos.) letter founder, 180-192 ;
specimen, 181 ; a printer, 182 ; his offices,
181, 182; his Regula TriumOrdinum,
182 ; his Mechanick Exercises, 107-J12,
183-186 ; his standards of type bodies,
33, 34 ; employed by Boyle, 189
Matrices : Irish, 75, 76, 186-191 ;
Roman and Italic, 47, 181
Musceus, Hero and Leander, Lond. 1797 ;
33?
Music ; De Worde's, 76, 91 ; early printing
abroad, 76, 77 ; improvements in, 78 ;
Grafton's, 77 ; Day's, 77, 98 ; Vautrol-
lier's, 77 ; East's, 77 ; ' new-tyed note',
77 ; at Aberdeen, 77
Matrices : Oxford, 77, 148, 161 ;
Walpergen, 77, 148, 153, 208 ; Andrews,
77, 196 ; Grover, 77, 199 ; Mitchell, 78,
206, 241 ; Caslon, 77, 241, 248 ; Fry, 78,
310, 312 ; Fougt, 78, 350 ; Branston's
(stereo), 360 ; Hughes, 78, 363 ; Jackson's
symbols, 323
Myllar (A.) Scotch printer, types of, 103
Negus (S.) li^t of printers by, 346
Neilson's Irish Grammar, Dublin, 1808 ;
76, 191
New Testament {Greek), Basle, 1516 ; 59 :
Sedan, 1628 ; 61 : Cambridge, 1632 ; 60,
141 : Oxford, 1763 ; 61, 160, 273, 274 :
Lond. 1786 {Codex Alex.) ; 321
{Latin), Lond. 1574 ; 46, 51
{Arabic), Lond. 1727 ; 67, 235
{Coptic), Oxon. 1716 ; 70, 237
{Ethiopic), Rome, 1548 ; 69 : Lond.
1826 {Gospels) ; 69
{Irish), Dublin, 1602 ; 75, 187 ;
Lond. 1681 ; 75, 189
{Russian), St. Petersburg, 1819-23 ;
72
{Saxon), Lond. 1571 {Gospels), 95
{Sclavonic), Ugrovallachia, 1512
{Gospels), 71 : Moscow, 1564 {Acts and
Epistles), 71
{Syriac), Paris, 1539 ; 67 : Vienna,
ISS5 j 67 : Cothon, 1621 ; 67 : Hamburg,
1663 ; 67 : Lond. 1816 ; 68, 342
{Tamulic), Tranquebar, 1714-19 ;
234
N1CHOLLS (Arthur) letter founder,
nominated, T30, 165 ; petition to Arch-
bishop Laud, 166, 167 ; ' Cause of Com-
plaint,' 167
NICHOLLS (Nicholas) son of above,
letter founder, 166, 177 ; his father's ac-
count of, 168 ; his petition to the king,
178 ; his specimen, 178, 181 ; letter founder
to the king, 178
NICHOLS, an Oxford letter founder, 148,
178
Nichols (Jno.) his Anecdotes of Bowyer,
233 ; Domesday, facsimile of, 320, 321 ;
assists Figgins, 335, 336
Nicholson (W.) patent for type casting, 119,
327
Nicks, origin of, 120 ; early substitutes for,
22
Nicol (Geo.) founder of the Shakespeare
Press, 330 ; employs W. Martin, 330
Nicol (W.) son of above, succeeds to the
Shakespeare Press, 330
Nomenclator Syriacus, Rome, 1622 ; 67
Nonpareil, an English type body, 32, 33,
39, 129 ; a foreign body, 39
Norfolk (Duke of) employs Jackson, 317
Norton (J.) printer of the Eton Chrysos-
tom, 6o, 140 ; distinctions conferred on,
140
Nutt (Richd.) successor to Grover's foun-
dry, 205
O'Brien's Irish Dictionary, Paris, 1768 ;
75
Ogilby(Jno.) Roman letter of, 47
O'Hussey's Irish Catechism, Antwerp,
1611 ; 75 : Rome; 1707, 75
O' Kearney' s Irish Catechism,Dv.b\in,iS7i ;
75, 187
Oporinus, Greek type of, 59
Opusculum Musices, Bologna, 1487 ; 76
Oratio Dominica, Lond. 1700 ; 64, 66, 68,
69, 7°, 71, 73, 74, 154, 177. 190
Lond. 1713 ; 69, 155, 177, 190 : Amster
dam, 1715 ; 69, 71, 73, 74, 154, 236
Paris, 1805; 72, 76: Parma ; 1806, 72
Oratio in pace nuperrimd, Lond. 1518
44, 92
Oratio tnum hnguarum, Lond. 1524
51, 64, 66, 91
Oriental Collections, Lond. 1797-1800
339
Ornamental type, introduced, 307, 310
Ornaments, see Type ornaments
376
Orthographia Practica, Saragossa, T548 ;
32, 183
Orwin, Arabic type of, 64
Ottley (W.Y.) on early clay moulds, n
Ouseley(Sir W.). Persian type cut for, 339
Ovid's Metamorphoses, Lond. i8io_; 312
Oxford University Press, first printing at
137-9 > types of the early press, 55,
i37< I38 ! Scolar's press, 139 ; revival
of printing, 140 ; early Greek founts,
60, 61, 140, 141, 145 ; lends Greek type
to Cambridge, 141 ; Laud's services to,
142-5, 166 ; charter in 1632, 142 ; early
Oriental types, 64, 6fi, 144 : Archi-
typographus appointed, 146 ; Fell's ser-
vices to, 146-150; loyalty of, 146 ; large
purchases in 1672, 149 ; Junius' gift
to, 150, 151 ; fine printing at, 159
— — Foundry established, 153 ; state of,
in 1665, 113 ; matrices lost at, 151 ;
removed to Sheldonian Theatre, 153 ;
' first specimen, 153 ; types used in the
O ratio Dominica, 1700, 154 ; heights
to paper in, 155 ; removed to Clarendon
Building, 156 ; gift of Elstob Saxon to,
158, 159; Greek cut for, by Baskerville,
160, 273, 274; specimens, 160, 162;
types cut for, by Caslon, 160, 161, 246 ;
by Figgins, 338 ; inventory of, in 1794,
161, 162; relics at, 150, 159, 160, 162, 274
Matrices : Amharic, 177 ! Arabic,
66, 147, 148, 155, 161 ; Armenian, 69,
148, 153, 161 ; Coptic, 70, 147, 148, 149,
153, 155, 161 ; Danish, 73, 151 ; Ethio-
pic, 69, 151, 154. I55. i6ij 177 ; Gothic,
73, IS1! T-SS* l6z ! Greek, 148, 160, 161,
273, 274, 338 ; Hebrew, 64, 147, 148, 154,
161 ; Icelandic, 73, 151, 155 ! Initals, 80;
Music, 77, 148, i53> T54. l6l> 2°°; Roman
and Italic, 150, 152, 179 ; Runic,_ 72,
151, 155, 161 ; Russian, 71 ; Samaritan,
70, 148, 154, 161 ; Saxon, 74, 151, 161 ;
Sclavonic, 71, 148, 153. ISS, 161 ;
Swedish, 73, 151 ; Syriac, 68, 147, 148,
155. 161
Pacioli (L.) on the shape of letters, 183
Palmer (S.) his note on De Worde, 90 ;
his printing-house, 217 ; History of
Printing, 90, 235, 236 ; projected account
of letter-founding, 114; discreditable
conduct to Caslon, 235, 238
Pantographia, Lond. 1799; 72, 76, 306,
307, 308
Paradigmata de IV Linguis, Paris, 1596;
67
Paragon, an English Type body, 33, 36,
86, 343 ; a foreign body, 36
Parker (Archp. M.) patron of Day, 95;
Saxon cut for, 95 ; Roman and Italic for,
96. 97, 98 .
Patents relating to letter-founding, 119-122
Pater (Paulus) on wooden types, 4
Paterson, the auctioneer, notice of, 230,
311
Pauli de Middleburgo Epistola, Louvam,
1488; 63
Pearl an English type body, 33, 40
PeekQno.) type-casting machine of, 120
Pentateuch (Polyglot) Constantinople,
1546 ; 170
(Coptic) Lond. 1731 ; 70, 237
(Irish) Lond.i8i9(GV«. and Exod.),
312
Perforated wooden types, 4, 5 ; sand-cast
types, 10 ; mould-cast types, 22, 25
Perle, a French type body, 40
Persian Matrices : Caslon, 254 ; Jackson,
317 ; Figgins, 339, 343
Index.
Persian Moonshee, Lond. 1801 ; 339
Peiit, a French and German type body, 39
Petit Romain, a French type body, 38
Petrucci, music type of, 77
Phalaridis Epistolce, Oxon. 1485 ; 137, 138
Philosophie, a French type body, 32, 38
Pica, an English type body, 32, 33, 38
Picas or Pies, of the early Church, 38, 87
Pickering (W.) minute Greek used by, 62,
254 ; book printed for, in Baskerville' s
types, 286
PINE (Wm.) Bristol printer and founder ;
partner with Fry, 298; his inventions,
300 ; Bible printed by, 301 ; retires from
founding, 302
Plantin (Chr.) his foundry, 106 ; supposed
silver type of, 106 ; Types : Greek, 59 ;
Hebrew, 64 ; Italic, 51 ; Lettre de
Civilite, 56 ; Roman, 43; Syriac, 67
Plinii Secimdi Epistolce, Lond. 1790; 306
Ploos van Amstel, Dutch founders, 215
Polychronicon, Westminster, 1495 ; 76, 91,
Polyglot Bibles, account of, 169
the London, see Bible (Polyglot)
Psalms (Arabic) Rome, 1614 ; 66 : Lond.
1725; 67, 235
(Armenian) Rome, 1565 ; 68
(Ethiopic) Rome, 1513; 69 : Frank-
fort, 1 701 ; 69
— (Saxon) Lond. 1640 ; 73
(Sclavonic) Cracow, 1491 ; 71
Lond. 1657
POLYGLOT FOUNDRY Matrices : Ara-
bic, 66, 173, 177 ; Black, 173, 177 ; Ethio-
pic, 69, 173, 174, 177; Greek, 173,174!
Hebrew, 64, 173, 177 ; Roman and
Italic, 173, 176 ; Samaritan, 70, 173, 174,
177; Syriac, 68, 173,174, 177, 241
Polytype, supposed early system of, 12;
later attempts at, 122, 220
Porson's improvement in Greek letter, 62,
342
Postel's Arabic Gramma?; Paris 1539-40,
65 ; Syriac type used by, 67
POUCHEE (L. J.) Letter Founder, starts
a foundry, 361 ; agent for Didot's ' poly-
matype,' 121, 361 ; specimen, . 362 ;
abandons business, 362 ; dispersion of
his foundry, 362
Practical Sermons (Irish) Lond. 1711 ;
190
Press, The, a Poem ; Liverpool, 1803; 277,
333
Primer, an English type body, 32, 34 ;
derivation of, 37
Primers of the Early Church, 37, 38
Printing, invention of, 1 ; degeneration of,
in England, 44, 136, 232, 269 ; compre-
hensiveness of the early trade of, 123 ;
statutes relating to, 124-136 ; rise of
fine printing, 269, 272
Printers, their own founders, 88, 102, 103,
123, 125 ; number of, in London, 126;
130, 132, 133, 134
Prodromus Coptus, Rome, 1636 ; 67, 69,
236
Propaganda Press, specimens, 66, 67, 69,
70; Types of: — Arabic, 66; Coptic,
69 ; Ethiopic, 69 ; Irish, 75, 191 ; Sama-
ritan, 70 ; Sclavonic, 71 ; Syriac, 67
' Proscription ' letter, Matrices : — Caslon,
248 ; Cottrell, 291, 292, 317 ; Thorne,
292, 293; Jackson, 317
Prosodia Rationalis, Lond. 1779 ; 323
Psalmanazar (G.) anecdotes of Palmer by,
114, 238
Psalms (Polyglot) Paris, 1513 ; 82 : Genoa,
1516 ; 63, 65, 170 : Cologne, 1518 ; 69,
170
(Hebrew) Tubingen, 1512, (Sep tern
(Syriac-Lat.) Paris, 1625 ; 67
Pump for type-casting machine, 119
Punches, probable earliest, 14 ; of copper,
15, 16 ; of wood, 14, 15, 16 ; small value
put on, 113, 209, 225, 229 ; defects of
French, 116 ; Barclay's patent, 119
Punch-cutting, account of, 108, 185 ; a
distinct trade in Holland, 114 ; indepen-
dent artists in England, 117, 338, 358,
360; secrecy of 117, 243, 288, 315, 338
Pynson (R.) servant to Caxton, 91 ; corre-
spondence with Rouen printers, 91, 92,
103 ; types of, 91, 92, 93 ; his Roman, the
first in England, 37, 44, 92 ; his inden-
ture with Horman, 37, 92 ; Greek types
cast by, 93 ; apology for, 93
Quatremere, Coptic type used by, 70
Quintilian's suggestion of mobile types, 3
' Quousque tandem,' formula for type
specimens, 49, 52
Rabbinical Hebrew, Matrices :— Andrews, I
194, 195 ; James, 65, 227, 303 ; Fry,
3°3
Raphelengius, Arabic type of, 66, 145
Ratdolt, initials of, 79
Rasselas, Banbury, 1804; 119
Rastell (W.) types of, 94
Rasteirs Grete Abridgeinent, Lond. 1534;
94
Readings 071 Jonah, Lond. 1579; 64, 98
Record Commission, types cut for, 339,
340
Reports, Lond. 1800-19 i 339 :Edin-
pcenit.), 63
(Heb. Lat.) Lond. 1736 ; 238, 239
(Greek) Milan, 1481 ; 58: Venice,
i486, 58 : Lond. 1812 (Cod. Alex.) 322
(Latin) Mentz, 1457; 11, i3> 53 :
Mentz, 1490; 76
burgh, 1811-16 ; 340
'Real Character,' Moxon's, cut for Wil-
kins, 191, 196, 310
Recuyell of tlie Histories oj Troye,
Bruges, 1474 ; 86
Redman (R.) Pynson's quarrel with, 93 ;
types of, 94
REED (Charles) partner in the Fann
Street Foundry, 296
Registration of founders, 133, 135
Regtila? Triwm Ordinwn, Lond. 1676 ;
182, 185
Reliqves of Irish Poetry, Dublin, 1789;
RICHARD (Mr.) partner of Mr. Miller,
356
RICHARD (J. M.) son of above, 356 ;
' Brilliant ' type of, 356 ; ' Gem ' type of
356
RICHARD (W. M.) brother of above,
356
RICHARDS (T.) a letter founder, 351
Richardson (Rev. J.) Irish works of, 190
Richardson (W.) Engrossing type cut for,
289, 290
Ripoli Press, metals used in the foundry
of, 19 ; matrices bought by, 28
Ritchie (Millar), fine printer, 306
Robijn, a Dutch type body. 40, 52
Roccha (Ang.) on early perforated types,
4 ; his Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana,
65, 67, 68
Rolij (or Rolu), Dutch letter cutter, 114,
215, 216
Roman letter, origin of, 40 ; early founts in
Italy, 40, 41 ; Germany, 42 ; France, 43,
Index.
377
44 ; Netherlands, 43, 44, 47 ; Switzer-
land, 44
Roman letter, in England : introduction of,
44, 91 ; Pynson's, 44; 92 : De Worde's, 91 ;
Redman's, 94 ; Day's, 47, 96, 97, 98,
144; Vautrollier's, 46, 98; degeneration of,
44, 232 ; called 'White letter,' 91 ; mixed
with Black, 45, 97 ; followed Dutch
models, 46 ; first Bible in, 46 ; in Scot-
land, 46; Roycroft's, 47, 173, 176;
Ogilby's, 47 ; Field's, 47 ; Moxon's rules
for, 47, 182, 184, 185 ; Caslon's influence
on, 47, 249, 284, 301, 303, 305 ; narrow
faces, 46 ; Baskerville's influence on, 47,
284, 299, 305, 332, 333 ; French influence
on, 48 ; Bodoni's influence on, 48, 331 ;
revolutions in, 48, 251, 253, 301, 328, 332,
340 ; French obligations to, 48 ; heavy
faced, 48 ; revival of the Old Face, 49 ;
Rusher's improved, 119 ; Motteroz ideal,
and Italic matrices : Oxford, 148,
152 ; Polyglot, 173, 176 ; Moxon, 181 ;
Andrews, 195; Grover, 198,199; Mitchell,
206; 'Anon,' 207; James, 213, 214,
217, 223 ; Caslon, 47, 159, 235, 240, 247,
251, 252, 253 ; Wilson, 48, 260, 263, 264,
265 ; Baskerville, 47, 48, 263, 270, 271,
27s, 276, 277, 279, 280, 284; Cottrell, 48,
289, 290, 291, 292 ; Fry, 48, 299, 300, 301,
3°3i 3°S) 3°6> 3r° ; Jackson, 48, 317, 323 ;
Figgins, 48, 336, 337, 340 ; Thome,
291, 293, 295 ; Thorowgood, 295 ; Mar-
tin, 332, 333 ; Hive, 347 ; Stephenson (S.
and C), 353 ; Miller, 355, 356
Rood (Theo.) Oxford printer, 137, 138
Rosart, music type of, 78
Rouen, an early type market, 91, 93, 103
Rowe (Sir T.) family of, 200
Rowe (Eliz.) married H. Caslon, 200, 250
Roxburghe Club, works printed for, 312,
334 .
Royal Typography in England, proposal
for a, 263
Roy croft (Thos.) printer of the London
Polyglot, 171, 172; distinction conferred
on, 176 ; printing house of, 217 ; fire of
his office, 177 ; epitaph, 176 ; types used
bv, 47, 64, 66, 173-177
Rubbing, a process in founding, in, 116,
117
Ruby, an English type body, 34
Runic, early foreign founts of, 72
Matrices : Oxford, 72, 150, 151, 155,
161 ; James, 72, 225, 228
Running Secretary, a French Cursiv, 56
Rusher (Ph.) his improved types, 119 ; his
Rasselas, 119
Russian type, chief foreign founts, 71, 72 ;
none in England in 1778 ; 72
Matrices : Cottrell, 72, 291 ; Fry,
72, 309, 312 ; Thorowgood, 72, 296
St. Alban's, printing at, 89, 139
St. Augustin, a French type body, 32, 37
Sallust, Edinburgh, 1739 ; 219
Samaritan type, chief founts abroad, 70,
*74
Matrices : Oxford, 70, 148, 154,
161 ; Polyglot, 70, 173, 174, 177, 198 ;
Andrews, 70, 195 ; Grover, 70, 198 ;
James, 70, 223, 225, 227, 303 ; Caslon,
70, 240, 241, 247, 254 ; Caslon III, 326;
Fry. 7°> 3°3» 3°9> 311 5 Dummers, 70,
241. 34S
■ Punches : James, 229
Sand moulds, early use of, 16
Sanscrit matrices : Caslon, 234 ; Jackson,
319 ; Wilkins, 318, 319
' Sanspareil' matrices invented, 327
Savile (Sir H.) his Eton Chrysostom, 60,
140
Saxon, early types of, in England, 73, 74 ;
in Amsterdam, 74
Matrices : Day, 73, 95, 96 ; Oxford,
74, 150, 151, 158, 161 ; Andrews (for
Elstob), 74, 156, 157, 158, 196, 289 ;
Grover, 199 ; James, 223, 228 ; Caslon,
74, 240, 248 ; Caslon III, 326 ; Wilson,
74, 264 ; Fry, 74, 309, 313 ; Figgins, 74,
343 T, ,
Punches : James, 229
Schoeffer (P.) advertisement of, 28, 49 ;
his Lettre de Somme, 54 ; Greek, 57 ;
Initials, 79
Schoepflin on sculpto-fusi types, 7
Schola Syriaca, Utrecht, 1672 ; 70, 174
Scholar's Instructor, Camb. 173s ; 247
Sclavonic, various founts abroad, 71
Matrices : Oxford, 71, 148, 153, 155,
161
■ modern : see Russian
Scolar (J.) early Oxford printer, 139
Scoloker, Ipswich printer, device of, 106
Scotland, first types in, 103 ; early use of
Dutch types in, 46, 257, 258 ; condition
of printing in, before 1720, 257 ; no
foundry in 1725, 218, 257, 258
Script type, origin of, 56, 204 ; Dutch, 56 ;
French and German, 56 ; Moreau's, 56 ;
Didot's, 56, 120, 308, 312 ; Dawks', 173
Matrices : Caslon, 249 ; Cottrell,
56, 290, 292 ; Fry, 308, 312 ; Jackson, 56,
317 ; Thorne, 293, 294, 295
Scriptorial matrices : Grover, 199, 204 ;
James, 228, 303 ; Fry, 303 ; Fenwick,
35i
' Sculpto-fusi' types, theory of, 7, 8
' Sculptus,' use of the word in colophons,
7
Secretary type, early, at Paris, 55; Rouen,
SS, 92; Caxton's.ss, 86, 87, 88; Berthelet's,
94, 95 ; variations of, 55 ; disappearance.
55, 94, 95
Secretary matrices : Andrews, 196 ; Grover,
199 ; James, 228
Sedan, small Roman type at, 40, 46 ; small
Greek, 61, 234
Sedan, a French type body, 35
Seldeni Opera Omnia, Lond. 1726 ; 236
Semi-Nonpareil, a French type body, 40
Set- Court, see Court Hand
Setting-up, an operation in founding, in,
114, 116, 117
Shakespeare, Lond. 1792-1802 ; 330, 331
Shakespeare Press, established,33i ; works
issued by, 331-3
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 153
Shewell (Mr.) son-in-law of Caslon I,
246
Siberch(Jno.) first Cambridge printer, 141;
Greek types of, 60, 141
Signs cut by Moxon, igr
Silver, alleged use of for type metal, 40,
106, 140
SIMMONS, a letter founder, 364
SINCLAIR (Duncan) manager for Wil-
son, 266 ; starts a foundry in Edinburgh,
266
SINCLAIR (J no.) son of above; manager
for Wilson, 265 ; joins his father, 266
Skeen (W.) on wooden types, 6 ; on
sculpto-fusi types, 8 ; on ' gette en molle,'
14
SKINNER, a letter founder, 345
Small Pica, an English type-body, 33, 38
Smart (W.) purchased Baskerville re-
mainders, 281
Smith (Jno.) his tribute to Caslon, 243 ;
body-standards given by, 34
Smith, (Dr. T.) his tribute to Laud, 145 ;
note by, on the Alexandrian Codex, 201,
203
Smith (T. W.) manager to H. W. Caslon,
255 ,
Society for Promoting Christian Know-
ledge, notice of, 234; their press at
Tranquebar, 234 ; their Arabic Psalms
and Testament, 235
Somme, Lettre de, 54
Soncino, Hebrew type at, 62
Sophologium (Wiedenbach? 1465 ?) 42
Sower (Chr.) early American founder, 350
Spaces, early contrivances for, 21
Specimens, see Type-specimens
Specklin on wooden types, 4
Speculum, not printed with wood type, 4,
5, 6 ; nor with sculpto-fusi types, 6 ;
possible sand-cast types of, 10 ; curious
' turn ' in 10 ; possible clay-cast types
of, 11 ; quantity of types and contrac-
tions in, 27
Star Chamber ; case of Day v. Ward,
124 ; decrees affecting printers and
founders, 126, 130, 167 ; abolished, 131
Starr (E.) Type-casting machine of, 122
Statham's Abridgments, Rouen, w.rf.,92
Stationers, early brotherhood ot, 124
Stationers' Company, incorporation of,
124; powers against printers, 127, 128,
I2q ; minutes relating to founders, 128,
129, 133, 134, 164, 165, 193 ; schism in,
348
Statutes affecting printers and founders,
124, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134
STEELE (Isaac) partner of Edmund
Fry, 306, 307
STEPHENSON (S. and C.) London
founders, 353 ; first foundry, 353 ; speci-
mens, 353, 354 ; punch-cutter for, 353,
359 ; foundry sold, 354
Matrices : — Roman and Italic, 353 ;
Ornaments, 353
STEPHENSON ( Henry ) Sheffield
founder, 329
Stereotype, early suggestion of, 13 ; first
attempts at, 218 ; history of Ged's inven-
tion, 218; re-in^ention by Tilloch, 220,
261 ; perfected by Wilson and Lord
Stanhope, 220 ; Didot's method of, 220
Strong (Mr.) married Mrs. H. Caslon, 252
Strype's note on Day, 98 ; on early types,
97
Subiaco, Roman type at, 40 ; Greek, 57
Swedish Matrices : — Oxford, 73, 151
SWINNEY ( Myles ) Birmingham
founder, 269, 352 ; specimen of, 352, 353 ;
poetical tribute to, 353
Swynheim and Pannartz, Roman types of,
40, 41 ; Greek, 57
SYMPSON (Ben j.) the first recorded
English letter-founder, 128, 164
Syriac, chief founts abroad, 67 ; printed in
Hebrew, 67 ; Usher's attempt to procure
types of, 67, 68
Matrices : Oxford, 68, 147, 148, 155
160, 161 ; Polyglot, 68, 173, 174, 177, 198
241 ; Andrews, 195, 241 ; Grover, 198
241 ; James, 228, 241 ; Caslon, 160, 240,
241, 246, 247, 254; Fry, 68, 303, 308
309, 311, 342 ; Caslon III, 326 ; Figgins
68, 342, 343 ; Watts, 68
Punches : — James, 229
3 c
37*
Index.
Telegii matrices : Figgins, 339, 343
Tertia, a German type body, 37
Teste, a size of type, 32
Testo, a Spanish type body, 32, 37
Thiboust (C. L.) his account of French
founding, 114, 115; his Typographies
Excellentia, 115
Thomas (Isaiah) his Printing in America,
17 ; note on the first American founders,
35o
Thomson (Jas.) his patent for type-casting,
12, 122
Thomson' 's Seasons, Parma, 1794 : 251 :
Lond. 1799 : 336
THORNE (Robt.) apprentice and suc-
cessor to Cottrell, 292 ; removes to Bar-
bican, 292 ; and to Fann Street, 294 ;
regulations of his foundry, 117, 294 ;
specimens, 292, 293, 294 ; new fashions
of Roman, 293 ; sale of his foundry, 295
Matrices : Blacks, 295; Engrossing,
295 ; Flowers, 293, 295 ; German, 295 ;
Ornamented, 295 ; ' Proscription,' 292,
294 ; Roman and Italic, 292, 293, 295 ;
Script, 293, 294, 295 ; Shaded, 293,
295
THOROWGOOD (W,n.) purchases
Thome's foundry, 295 ; specimens, 295,
296 ; purchases Dr. Fry's foundry, 296,
313 ; successors, 296 ; standards of type
bodies in 1841, 34
■ Matrices : German, 296 ; Greek,
296 ; Hebrew, 296 ; Roman and Italic,
295 ; Russian, 72, 296
Tilloch's patent for stereotype, 220, 261
Timmins (S.) Baskerville relics of, 268, 269,
271, 279
Tonson (J.) buys type in Holland, 216, 217,
233
Tory (Geof.) on shapes of types, 32, 53,
183 ; his Champfleury, 32, 183 ; Greek
type of, 58 ; Initials, 80; Roman, 44
Tractatus contra Judceos, Esslingen, 1475
62
Trafalgar, an English type body, 34
Tranquebar, Scriptures printed at, 1714-19 ;
234 .
Treatise of Love, Westminster, 1491 ? ; 89
Treaty se of Fysshynge with an Angle,
Lond. 1827 ; 286
Trithemius on the Invention of Printing, 7
Turners Herbal, Lond. 1551 ; 60
Turner, a dishonest Oxford printer, 145
Two-line letters, early mention of, 32 ; use
of, 80, 129
Tuiyris Tryal and Condemnation, Lond.
16C4 ; 132
Types, early ; first suggestion of mobile,
3 ; wooden, 3 ; perforated, 4 ; Wetter's
specimen of, 5 ; Laborde's specimen, 5 ;
'sculpto-fusi,' 7; sand-cast, 10; clay-
cast, n; irregularities in, 18; 15th
century types at Lyons, 20-23 i an<i at
Cologne, 24-26 ; ligatures and contrac-
tions, 22, 27 ; quantities of, in founts,
26, 27 ; one size only in a book, 126 ;
markets for, 20, 28, 90, 103 ; trade in,
103, 123 ; early control over, 126
Type-bodies, origin of, 31, 32 ; names of
early, 32-40 ; irregular, 33 ; standards
°f. 33) 34 » attempts to regulate, 35,
357 ; names of foreign, 35
Type-casting, Moxon's account of, 111 ;
machine for, origin of, 122 ; patents for,
119-22 ; early machines, 265, 356
Type-ornaments, first at Subiaco, 82 ;
Aldus', 82 ; Caxton's, 82 ; H. Estienne's,
82'; used in combination, 82
Type patented, Rusher's, 119 ; Caslon III,
120, 327
Type-mould, invention of, 9 ; of sand, 10 ;
clay, n, plaster, 15; earliest adjustable,
14; in four pieces, 17, 120; peculia-
rities of early, 23, 105 ; Garamond's, 23 ;
Dutch, of brass, 113, 216; 'drags' in
26 ; Moxon's description of, 108, 186 ;
abandonment of hand, 119 ; lever in-
troduced, 120, 186
Type-specimens, English, 49, 5° ; Dibdin
on, 49 ; Bodoni's, 50, 251
Type Street Foundry established, 305
'Typi tornatissimi,' initials, 79
Typographical Antiquities, Lond. 1749 ;
52, 242
Typographic Excellentia, Carmen, Paris,
1718 ; us
Typography, essence of, 2 ; and xylography,
2 ; two early schools of, 9 ; a mathe-
matical science, 184
Union- Pearl matrices : Grover, 199, 204 ;
James, 228, 303 ; Fry, 303
Universal Magazine, 1750 : account of
letter-founding in, 108, 116, 243, 288,
316
Uutenueissuug der Messung, Nuremburg,
1525; 32, 183
Usher's attempt to procure Oriental types,
67, 69, 141
Van Dijk (Chr.) Dutch letter cutter, 114,
215 ; Moxon's praise of, 182, 184 ; Ro-
man letter of, 40, 44, 47, 182, 184 ; Italic,
52 ; Black, 47
Vatican Press, Oriental types of, 65, 67,
69
Vautrolhtr (Th.) Roman type of, 46, 98 ;
Italic, 51 ; Music, 77
Virgil, Paris, 1648 ; 56 : Lond. (Ogilby's)
47 : Florence, 1741 ; 204 : Birmingham,
1757 ; 272, 273
Vitre, French printer, Arabic types of, 66 ;
Samaritan, 70 ; Syriac, 67
Vizitelly, Branston and Co.'s cast orna-
ments, 360
Vocabularia, St. Petersburg, 1786-9; 72
Vocabulary {Arabic), Granada, 1505 ; 65
Vocabulary, Persian, Arabic and Eng-
lish, Lond. 1785 ; 319
Voltaire, CEuvres de, Kehl, 1784-9 ; 286
Voskens (Dirk) Dutch founder, 114, 215,
216, 290
Matrices of : Coptic, 70 ; Runic,
72 ; Russian, 71 ; Samaritan, 70 ; Saxon,
74 ; Sclavonic, 71
Wages in Caslon's foundry, dispute con-
cerning in, 1757 ; 243 : in Thome's
foundry, 1806 ; 118
Waldegrave (R.) a disorderly printer,
WALPERGEN (P.) Oxford founder,
149, 207 ; book printed by, at Batavia,
207 ; his Music type, 77, 148, 153, 162,
208, 209 ; inventory of his chattels, 209 ;
small value of his punches, 209
Walpole (Horace) Baskerville's letter to,
278
WalsingJiam, Historia Brevz's,T-,ond. 1574;
95. 96
Walton (Brian) editor of the London
Polyglot, 170 ; his Proposals and Speci-
men, 170 ; his Introductio ad lec-
tionem, 172 ; timeservice of, 175 ; re-
wards to, 176 ; note by, on the Alexand-
rian Codex facsimile, 201
Wanley (Humphrey) designs Saxon letter
for Miss Elstob, 157
Ward (Roger) a disorderly printer, 125,
127
Watson (Jas.) Scotch printer, 257; his
History of Printing, 257 ; Specimen,
46, 49, 258 ; his Dutch Initials, 80, 258
WATTS (Richard) Cambridge Univer-
sity printer, 362 ; printer and founder
in London, 362 ; Oriental types of, 363 ;
specimen by his successors, 363
Matrices : Syriac, 68
Watts (Jno.) printer, assists Caslon, 233,
234 ; Franklin his apprentice, 233, 235
Wechels, Frankfort printers, Greek types
of, 58, 60, 140 ; Hebrew, 63
Wertheimer (Jno.) Hebrew type cut for,
264
Weston, see Wetstein
Westfalia (Jno. de) Roman type of, 43
Wetstein, Dutch founders, 346, 349 ; Greek
types of, 61
Wetter's unhistorical wooden types, 5
White (Ehhu) type-casting machine of,
120
White (Thos.) printer, uses Baskerville's
types, 286
' White letter,' a name for Roman, 91
Whittaker (Jno.) Caxtonian restorations
°y. 344
Whittingham (C.) printer, revives the Old
Style Roman, 255
Whitintoni Grammatices, Lond. 1519 ;
60, 91 : De heteroclytis noininibus,
Lond. 1523 ; 91 : Luczibrationes , Lond.
?527 ; 91
Wiedenbach, typographical school at, 41,
42 ; Roman type at, 42
Wilkins(Dr. C.) Librarian to East India
Company, 318; typographical achieve-
ments of, 318, 319 ; Bengal type cut
by. 319 ; Deva Nagari cut by, 319,
320; fiie at his office, 319; Sanscrit
cut for, 254
Willcins (Dr. D.) notice of, 236; Coptic
works of, 236
Wilkins (Dr. Jno.) Philosophical or Real
character of, 191, 196, 310
WILSON (Alex.) the First ; begins as a
doctor's assistant in London, 258 ;
patronised by Lord Isla, 258 ; starts a
foundry, 259 ; his partner Baine, ^59,
260; attempts new method of founding,
259; earliest founts of, 260; settles at St.
Andrew's, 260 ; Irish and foreign busi-
ness, 260, 264; removes to CamUchie,
260 ; casts types for the Foulis, 261 ; the
Glasgow Homer Greek type, 262 ; retires,
262; tributes to, 262, 263; specimens,
263; foundry removed to Glasgow,
263
Matrices : BLtck, 264 ; Greek. 61,
261, 262, 264. 265 ; Hebrew, 261, 265 ;
Roman and Italic, 48, 260, 263, 264, 265 J
Saxon, 74,264
WILSON (Andrew) son of above; assists
and succeeds his father, 264; state of
the foundry in 1825 ; 264
Matrices : Greek, 264 ; Roman,
264, 3SS
WILSON (Alpx.) the Second, son of
above, joins his father, 264 ; succeeds
to the foundry, 264 ; establishes br inches
at Edinburgh, 264, London, 265, and
Two Waters, 265 ; type casting machine
of, 122, 265 ; fails in business, 265 ; sells
foundry, 265 ; joins Mr. Caslon, 255,
26s
Index.
379
WILSON (Patrick) brother and partner
of above, 264
Wilson Foundry, type standards in 1841 ;
34 : division and dispersion of, 255,
265
Woide (Dr.) his facsimile of the Alexan-
drian Codex, 311, 321
Wolfe (Jno.) disorderly City printer, 125
Wolfe (Rey.) types of, 95 ; Greek of, 60
Wolsey (Cardinal) his influence on print-
ing, 139
Women, employment of, in foundries, 117
WOOD AND SHARWOODS, founders,
successors to Austin, 360 ; Cast Orna-
ments of, 360
Wooden types, the legend of, 3-6 ; Speci-
mens of at Oxford, 6 ; used in England,
129
Worde (Wynkyn de) account of, 89-91 ;
used Caxton's types, 87, 89 ; and Faques',
94 ; bought type abroad, 103 ; employed
a Paris printer, 91 ; his own letter
founder, 89, 90, 103 ; types of : Arabic,
66, 91 ; Black, 53, 89, 90, 91, 197, 199,
225, 239 ; Greek, 60, 91 ; Hebrew, 64,
91 ; Italic, 51, 91 ; Music, 76, 91 ; Ro-
man, 91
WRIGHT (Thos.) Star Chamber Foun-
der, 165, 166 ; nominated, 130, 165
Wyer (R.) types of, 94
Xenopho7i's Anabasis, Glasgow, 1783; 220
Xylography, a distinct art from Typo-
graphy, 6 ; extinction of, 2
Ycair on the shapes of letters, 32, 53 ; his
Ortlwgraphia Practica, 32, 53, 183
York, early printing at, 89, 139
Young (Patrick) Royal Librarian, 143,
167 ; his Catena oti Job, 98, 144, 176,
198, 201, 228 ; his facsimile from the
Alexandrian Codex, 201, 321
Z liner (Gunther) Roman type of, 42
Zell (Ulricl his narrative of the inven-
tion of printing, 1
<r\
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