9. THE LATER FOUNDERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
[367] Joseph Leigh (sic) served at the sixty-fourth Feast (i.e., about 1675), and 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).
[368] His name occurs in the list of Masters and Workmen Printers, as having served as Steward at the sixty-ninth Feast (1680).
[369] Mores’ Dissert., p. 13.
[371] The names of both occur among the stewards who had served office at the annual Brotherly Meetings of Masters and Workmen Printers; James Grover at the sixty-first Feast (1672), and Thomas Grover at the sixty-third (1674).
[375] “The Arabic (of the Polyglot) is Great Primer, in our (i.e., James’s) foundery; and it came from Mr. Grover” (Mores’ Dissert., p. 13; and again, p. 63). Mores, however, only mentions an imperfect set of Double Pica matrices in the summary of this foundry, whereas Andrews possessed a complete fount of Great Primer. A few odd punches of the Polyglot Arabic are still in existence.
[376] Mores’ Dissert., p. 46.
[377] Ibid., p. 67.
[378] This distinguished ambassador belonged to an honourable family, of whom by no means the least worthy member was Miss Elizabeth Rowe, who in 1785 married Henry Caslon, and subsequently—first with her mother-in-law, and afterwards by her own exertions—ably conducted the affairs of the Chiswell Street foundry. See post, chap. xi.
[380] Gent. Magaz., vol. 56, p. 497. Nichols’ Lit. Anec., ix, 9.
[381] Proposuit quidem D. Junius multis antehac annis MS. hoc typis evulgare, cujus etiam specimen impressum vidi; sed consilium illius, multis viris doctis merito improbatum, ejus progressum retardavit; dum multa pro arbitrio ex MS. detruncaret et mutaret, idque cùm nulla premebat necessitas, prout ex Catalogo satis magno vocabulorum per pauca Geneseos capita, quæ ipse mutaverat et expunxerat (quem mihi ostendit Typographus) constat (Proleg., sec. ix, § 34).
[382] Vitæ quorundam eruditissimorum et illustrium Virorum.—Patricii Junii. Lond., 1707. 4to. “Utcunque futuri operis specimen, quod jam præ oculis meis habeo, primum nimirum caput libri Geneseos, una cum doctissimis Scholiis, edere placuit. Omnes illud certamen arripiunt, avidisque oculis legunt perleguntque, ac optimâ spe de promissâ editione, quam cum maximo et vix continendo affectu exspectant efflagitantque, conceptâ, quasi moram pertæsi, Orbem Christianum hoc eximio thesauro, quod dudum fuisset locupletandus, nimium diu hactenus caruisse amicè queruntur” (p. 32).
[383] Parr’s Life of Usher, 1686, p. 621. Usher to Boate, June 1651: “ . . . the Alexandrian copy (in the Library of St. James) which he intendeth shortly to make publick, Mr. Selden and myself every day pressing him to the work.”
[384] Wood, Athen. Ox., 1691, i, 796; also Edwards, Libraries and Founders of Libraries, Lond., 1865, 8vo, p. 168.
[385] Lansd. MSS., No. 231, fo. 169.
[386] See post, chap. xvi.
[387] The matrices of all these curious founts have survived to the present day, and, indeed, lie before us as we write. They bear strong evidence of having been justified and finished by the same hand.
[388] From this assertion we except, of course, the letter of the first printers, which, if not imitating the actual handwriting of one particular scribe, was a copy of the conventional book-writing hand of the period. Some of the earliest scripts, italics and cursives are also reputed to have been modelled on the handwriting of some famous caligrapher or artist. One of the first instances of printing with facsimile types was the copy of the famous Medicean Virgil, produced at Florence in 1741. The types are for the most part ordinary Roman capital letters with a certain number of “discrepants” or peculiar characters. The title of this fine work is:—P. VergiliI Maronis Codex Antiquissimus . . qui nunc Florentiæ in Bibliotheca Mediceo-Laurentiana adservatur. Bono publico Typis descriptus Anno MDCCXLI. Florentiæ. Typis Mannianis. 8vo.
[389] This is possibly the printer respecting whom Nichols (Illust. Lit., viii, 464) notes that on Nov. 20, 1732, John Mears, bookseller, was taken into custody for publishing a Philosophical Dissertation on Death . . . Meares succeeded to the business of Richard Nutt, and printed the Historical Register. Among the Bagford Collections (Harl. MS. No. 5915) is a Specimen by H. Meere, printer, at the Black Fryar, in Blackfriars, London. No date.
[390] Richard Nutt, printer in the Savoy, died March 11, 1780, aged 80 years.
[391] Grover contributed £2 2s. in 1712 towards defraying the loss incurred by the elder Bowyer on the occasion of the fire at his printing-house.
[392] His name occurs in the List of Masters and Workmen Printers in 1681; see ante, p. [166].
[394] Cotton’s Typographical Gazetteer. Second Series, 1866, p. 17.
[395] Vol. ii, p. 120.
[396] Some of the matrices are without sides, which were probably supplied by a peculiar adaptation of the mould.
[397] Bagford (writing in 1714) states that Walpergen “was succeeded by his son, who has long since been succeeded by Mr. Andrews.” If this be the case, the Peter Walpergen whose death occurred in 1714 was probably the son, of whom nothing is known as distinguished from his father.
[398] We are indebted to the kindness of Mr. F. Madan, of the Bodleian Library, for our transcript.
[399] The Holy Bible, containing the Old Testament and the New, etc. Oxford, Printed by John Baskett, Printer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, for Great Britain; and to the University, 1717, 1716. 2 vols., folio. The running title of Luke xx reads, “The parable of the vinegar.”
[400] This, in all probability, was the fount used for printing the “Vinegar” Bible.
[401] The contents of this very interesting document were communicated to the Athenæum of September 5, 1885, by Mr. J. H. Round, in whose possession the original is.
[402] Timperley’s Songs of the Press. London, 1833, 8vo, p. 85.