2. THE LEARNED, FOREIGN, AND PECULIAR CHARACTERS
[111] Thus, Ὁτι ἶσα τὰ ἁμαρτήματα appears Oτίcaτaaκaρτηaκaτa.
[112] Lascaris caused to be printed at Florence, in 1494, an Anthologia Græca, and several other works wholly in Greek capitals, “litteris majusculis.” In the preface to the Anthologia he vindicates his use of these characters, which he says he has designed after the genuine models of antiquity to be found in the inscriptions on medals, marbles, etc.
[113] Robert Estienne was not the first to hold this title, Conrad Néobar, his predecessor, having enjoyed it from 1538–40. In some of his early impressions before 1543, Estienne used occasionally Greek types, apparently the same as those of Badius.
[114] The Imprimerie Royale at the Louvre, of which the present Imprimerie Nationale is the direct successor, was not founded till 1640, by Louis XIII. Francis I granted the letters patent in 1538, whereby Néobar and his successors received the title of Royal Printers, but did not create a royal printing establishment.
[115] Renouard states that the last of the Greek founts of the Aldine press was without doubt designed from Garamond’s models.
[116] Gresswell mentions an Alphabetum Græcum, published in 1543, as a preliminary specimen.
[117] The history of these famous types, the matrices of which for some years lay in pawn at Geneva, whence they were released at a cost of 3,000 livres in 1619, may be read in M. Bernard’s Les Estienne et les types grecs de François I er. Paris, 1856. 8vo.
[118] Greek printing did not become common in Spain till a later period. A book printed at Oriola in 1603 contains an apology for the want of Greek types.
[119] See specimen No. 28, post.
[120] See specimen No. 29, post.
[121] See specimen No. 69, post.
[122] See specimen No. 71, post.
[123] De Hebraicæ typographiæ origine. Parma, 1776. 4to.
[124] Les Incunables Orientaux. Paris, 1883. 8vo.
[125] Recherches . . sur la Vie et les Editions de Thierry Martens. Alost, 1845. 8vo.
[126] See specimens Nos. 34 and 35, post.
[127] See specimen No. 47, post.
[128] The English were in negotiation for the founts when Vitré received his orders to purchase.
[129] See Calendar State Papers, 1637–8, p. 245. Raphlengius died in 1597. Among Laud’s MSS. at the Bodleian is a printed work by Bedwell, entitled The Arabian Trudgman, London, 1615, 4to, but no Arabic type is used in it. An attempt to buy the Oriental matrices of Erpenius for Cambridge, in 1626, was forestalled by the Elzevirs, who secured them for their own press.
[130] See specimen No 37, post.
[131] See specimen No. 61, post.
[132] Parr’s Life and Letters of Usher. London, 1686, fol., p. 488.
[133] See specimen No. 38, post.
[134] See specimen No. 41, post.
[135] See specimen No. 63, post.
[136] See specimen No. 39, post.
[137] See specimen No. 66, post.
[138] See specimen No. 40, post.
[139] See specimen No. 36, post.
[140] See specimen No. 62, post.
[141] See specimen No. 42, post.
[142] See specimen No. 78, post.
[143] James’s foundry also had a set of punches in Long Primer, but these appear never to have been struck.
[144] See specimen No. 64, post.
[145] See specimen No. 65, post.
[146] See facsimile No. 20, post.
[147] See specimen No. 48, post.
[148] See specimen No. 45, post.
[149] Music engraved on wood was used as late as 1845, in Oakley’s Laudes Diurnæ.
[150] See specimen No. 54, post.
[151] Essai sur l’Education des Aveugles. Dedié au Roi. À Paris. Imprimé par les Enfants Aveugles. 1786. 4to. The work is printed in the large script letter of the press, but not in relief. Appended are specimens of circulars, addresses, etc., printed in ordinary type, for the use of the public.
[152] A curious collection of these may be seen in the Quincuplex Psalterium, printed by Henri Estienne I, at Paris, in 1513.
3. THE PRINTER LETTER-FOUNDERS, FROM CAXTON TO DAY
[153] The Life and Typography of William Caxton, England’s first Printer. 2 vols. London, 1861–3. 4to.
[154] Mr. Figgins, apparently misled by the irregularities in form consequent on the touching-up of Type No. 2, concluded that the whole of the types in which this book was printed were cut separately by hand.
[155] The General History of Printing. London, 1732, 4to, p. 343.
[156] Among the rubbish of James’s foundry, Mores, who evidently credited the legend, states that he discovered some of the punches from which the two-line Great Primer matrices had been struck. “They are,” he observed, “truly vetustate formâque et squalore venerabiles, and we would not give a lower-case letter in exchange for all the leaden cups of Haerlem” (Dissertation, p. 76). Hansard, in 1825, appears also to have believed in the survival of De Worde’s punches, the form of which he professed to recognise among the Black-letter shown in Caslon’s specimen-book of 1785.
[157] The first Roman, or (as it was sometimes called) White-letter, noticed by Herbert in any of De Worde’s books was in the Whitintoni de heteroclytis nominbus, 1523.
[158] Roberti Wakefeldi . . . oratio de laudibus et utilitate trium linguarum Arabice, Chaldaicæ et Hebraice atque idiomatibus Hebraicis quæ in utroque testamento inveniuntur. Londini apud Winandum de Vorde (1524). 4to.
[159] This is probably the first appearance of Italic type in England.
[160] Pynson was not the first English printer who “put out” his work to foreign typographers. Caxton, in 1487, employed W. Maynyal of Paris to print a Sarum Missal for him; and one book, at least, is known to have been printed for De Worde by a Parisian printer.
[161] Oratio in Pace nuperrimâ, etc. Impressa Londini, Anno Verbi incarnati MDXVIII per Richardum Pynson, Regium Impressorem. 4to.
[162] Thomæ Linacri de emendatâ structurâ Latini sermonis. Londini, apud Richardum Pinsonum. 1524. 4to.
[163] i.e., “Greeting to the Reader: Of thy candour, reader, excuse it if any of the letters in the Greek quotations are lacking either in accents, breathings or proper marks. The printer was not sufficiently furnished with them, since Greek types have been but lately cast by him; nor had he the supply prepared necessary for the completion of this work.”
[164] Redman, who began to print about 1525, in Pynson’s old house, is supposed to have succeeded to the types of his predecessor. His edition of Littleton’s Tenures (no date) shows the Roman letter in Long Primer body.
[165] D. Joannis Chrysostomi homiliæ duæ, nunc primum in lucem æditæ (Greek and Latin) a Joanne Cheko. Londini 1543. 4to.
[166] Ælfredi Regis Res Gestæ (without imprint or date), fol. The work was bound up and published with Walsingham’s Historia Brevis, printed by Binneman, and his Ypodigma Neustriæ, printed by Day, both in 1574. The text of the Ælfredi, though in Saxon characters, is in the Latin language.
[167] i.e., “And inasmuch as Day, the printer, is the first (and, indeed, as far as I know, the only one) who has cut these letters in metal; what things have been written in Saxon characters will be easily published in the same type.”
[168] Astle, in his History of Writing, p. 224, remarks: “Day’s Saxon types far excel in neatness and beauty any which have since been made, not excepting the neat types cast for F. Junius at Dort, which were given to the University of Oxford.”
[169] Parker, who, according to Strype (Life of Parker, London, 1711, fol., p. 278), extended his patronage to Binneman as well as to Day, and at whose expense the Historia was published, may possibly have claimed the disposal of founts specially cut for his own use, and in this manner secured for Binneman founts cast from Day’s matrices. Binneman is described as a diligent printer, who applied through Parker for the privilege of printing certain Latin authors, accompanying his petition by a small specimen of his typography, “which the Archbishop sent to the Secretary to see the order of his print. The Archbishop said he thought he might do this amply enough, and better cheap than they might be brought from beyond the seas, standing the paper and goodness of his print. Adding, that it were not amiss to set our own countrymen on work, so they would be diligent, and take good characters.”
[170] Timperley, Encyclopædia, p. 381.
[171] Life of Parker, pp. 382, 541.
[172] Typographical Antiquities, i, 656.
[173] Fidelis servi, subdito infideli Responsio. Lond. 1573. 4to.
[174] De Visibili Romanarchia. Londini, apud J. Dayum. 1572. 4to.
[175] De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ. Londini in ædibus Johannis Daij. 1572. Fol.
[176] An illustration of this maybe seen in Vautrollier’s Latin Testaments, where both Roman and Italic are exquisitely cut founts, but not being of uniform gauge, mix badly in the same line.