18. VINCENT FIGGINS, 1792
[698] Lit. Anec., ii, 361.
[699] Hansard. Typographia, 359.
[701] The Seasons. By James Thomson. Illustrated with Engravings by F. Bartolozzi, R.A., and P. W. Tomkins, Historical Engraver to their Majesties, from original pictures painted for the work by W. Hamilton, R.A. London: Printed for P. W. Tomkins, New Bond Street. The letter press by T. Bensley. The Types by V. Figgins. 1799. Folio.
[702] Typographia, p. 360.
[703] Paradise Lost, by John Milton, with Notes and Life of the Author. . . . By Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Engravings by Heath, &c. London: Printed for J. Parsons, 1796. 2 vols. 8vo.
[704] Sir William Ouseley was born in 1771, and accompanied his brother Sir Gore Ouseley, the ambassador to Persia, to that country as secretary. He published Persian Miscellanies in 1795, and Oriental Collections in 1797–1800. In the advertisement at the close of the 1st volume of the latter work, he states, “I have employed a few leisure hours in superintending the execution of a new Persian Type, which will, I trust, exhibit as faithful a representation of the true Taleek character as can be effected by any imitative powers of the Typographick Art.” Of this new fount he shows a single line as specimen, which, however, if cut by Mr. Figgins, is not the Paragon Persian which subsequently appeared in his specimen books. Nor did it appear, as promised, in the Oriental Collections of 1798, the quotations in which continued to be printed in Arabic characters.
[705] The Persian Moonshee, by Francis Gladwin, Esquire. Calcutta. London, reprinted 1801. 4to.
[706] This important enquiry was the result of an address of the House of Commons to the King, in 1800, setting forth the necessity of a better provision for the arrangement, preservation and use of the various Public Records scattered among the numerous offices of the kingdom. The Commission thereupon appointed were empowered to take all necessary measures to “methodize, regulate and digest the records, etc.”, preserved in all Public Offices and repositories, and “to superintend the printing of such calendars and indexes and original records and papers” as it should be deemed desirable to print. With this large task before them, the Commissioners went actively to work, and in 1800 and 1806 published their first Reports. The following important publication, issued under the Direction of the Commission, was commenced in 1800:—Reports from the Commissioners appointed to execute the measures recommended by a Select Committee of the House of Commons respecting the Public Records of the Kingdom, etc., London, 1800–19, 2 vols., folio. The appendix forming the second volume contains facsimiles of all the Charters (including Magna Charta) and Inrollments from Stephen to William and Mary, with the Seals inserted in the several works printed under the Commission. The list of the subsequent publications of the Commission is very extensive, and includes verbatim copies, with all abbreviations and contractions, of the most important documents in the kingdom.
[707] The first important work in connection with the Scotch Record Commission was Inquisitionum ad Capellam Domini Regis retornatarum quæ in publicis Archivis Scotiæ adhuc servantur Abbrevatio cum Indicibus, Edinburgh, 1811–16, 3 vols., folio, and a Supplement.
[708] These types perished in the fire of Mr. Nichols’ printing office in 1808, see ante, p. [321].
[709] Lit. Anec., ii, 361.
[710] Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, Textus Archetypos, Versionesque præcipuas ab Ecclesiâ Antiquitùs receptas complectentia. London: 1817–28. 5 parts, 4to, 4 vols., 8vo. This Bible comprises the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament, the Vulgate Latin and the Authorised English version of the entire Bible, the original Greek of the New Testament, and the venerable Peschito or Syriac version of it. This Polyglot was republished with the addition of Spanish, French, Italian, and German versions in 1831, with learned prolegomena by Dr. Samuel Lee.
[712] Novum Testamentum Syriace denuo recognitum atque ad fidem Codicum MSS. emendatum. Impressit R. Watts. London 1816, 4to. Dr. Buchanan was born in 1766 and went to India in 1796, where his researches led to the discovery, among other things, of some interesting Hebrew Manuscripts of portions of the Bible, on goat skins and tablets of brass. He died in the year 1815. The Syriac Testament was corrected by him as far as the Acts, and completed by Dr. Lee, Arabic Professor at Cambridge. See ante, p. [68].
[713] Typographia, p. 360.
[714] The matrices of the Long Primer and Brevier cut for the Scotch Record Commission were given up to the Government.
[715] Hansard omits the Double Pica Greek cut for Oxford University, the matrices of which were retained by Mr. Figgins. A specimen appears in the book of 1823.
[716] The fount for Bagster’s Polyglot.
[717] The punches, matrices and moulds of this fount were deposited in the East India Company’s Library.
[718] It would be an omission not to mention here Mr. Vincent Figgins II’s interesting reprint of the 2nd Edition of Caxton’s Game of the Chesse, London, 1855, sm. folio. Mr. Figgins cut a fount of type after the original, “which” he remarks, “is a mixture of black-letter and the character called secretary,” the black predominating. The “Caxton Black” so produced has been the only attempt made to approach a facsimile of Caxton’s letter by means of type. In his remarks, Mr. Figgins gives his reasons for concluding, from the variety in the form of the letters, that they were not cast from a matrix but cut separately by hand. This theory Mr. Blades, in his “Life of Caxton,” disproves, pointing out that the Type No. 2* used in the second edition of Caxton’s work is really an old fount originally cast from matrices, and, when worn, trimmed up by hand to form the punches for a new fount—a circumstance amply sufficient to account for the irregularities observed. These irregularities are, of course, sufficient to prevent the absolute possibility of anything like an exact facsimile by means of type. It is, however, interesting to note that John Whittaker’s famous restorations of Caxtonian and other early printed works, were to a certain extent accomplished by means of typography. Mr. Dibdin, in his Bibliographical Decameron (ii, 415), describes the operation as follows:—“He has caused to be engraved or cut four founts of Caxton’s letter. These are cut in the manner of binders’ tools for lettering, and each letter is separately charged with ink, and separately impressed on the paper. Some of Caxton’s types are so riotous and unruly that Mr. Whittaker found it impossible to carry on his design without having at least twenty of such irregular letters engraved. The process of executing the text with such tools shall be related in Mr. Whittaker’s own words:—‘A tracing being taken with the greatest precision from the original leaf, on white tracing paper, it is then laid on the leaf (first prepared to match the book it is intended for) with a piece of blacked paper between the two. Then by a point passing round the sides of each letter, a true impression is given from the black paper on the leaf beneath. The types are next stamped on singly, being charged with old printing ink prepared in colour exactly to match each distinct book. The type being then set on the marks made by tracing, in all the rude manner and at the same unequal distances observable in the original, they will bear the strictest scrutiny and comparison with their prototype; it being impossible to make a facsimile of Caxton’s printing in any other way, as his letters are generally set up irregularly and at unequal distances, leaning various ways,’” etc.