A NEW FOUNT OF GREEK TYPE
The Greek type of which a specimen is shown on page 359 is based on the celebrated Alcalà fount of 1514. This was cut by order of Cardinal Ximenes for use in the New Testament of the great Complutensian polyglot Bible, and is usually supposed, though there is no direct evidence, to owe its form to an ancient manuscript which was sent to Spain by Leo X from the Vatican library to serve as the basis for the text of the New Testament in that work. The printer, Arnaldo Guillen de Brocar, asserts in his preface that the type was designed to do special honour to the original language of the Gospels. The present type is adapted from this Alcalà fount with little alteration, as far as the lower case is concerned, the chief change beyond an increase in size being as follows. The New Testament of 1514 was printed with no accents except the acute, and the body of the type was adjusted to this condition. But when Guillen came to print other books (the ‘Chrysoloras’ of the same year, the undated ‘Hero and Leander,’ and one or two others), he found it necessary to provide a complete set of accents, and as the body of the type was not high enough to give room for the tallest of these, he was compelled, in order to avoid recasting the whole fount, to hang these over the line above by means of what are called kerns. The result of this is that while the page produces a very fine solid effect, the lines are too close to each other for comfort in reading. This has been avoided in the new type by taking the tallest combination as the standard of height, and thus increasing the whites between the lines, with a corresponding increase of readableness. But the Alcalà type had only one capital letter, a Π, and it has been necessary to design the whole of the capitals for the new type, as no good models were available. The capitals have in fact always been the weakest point in Greek types. The points and other minor features are also new. ¶ The punches have been cut for Mr. Robert Proctor by Mr. E. P. Prince, who cut the punches for the Kelmscott, Doves, and other special founts, from drawings prepared by Messrs. Walker and Cockerell, and the type has been cast on a double-pica body by Messrs. Miller and Richard, of Edinburgh, the vowels and accents being made separately, and contrived by means of overhangs to combine into a single sort. It is proposed to use this, which will be called the Otter type, for the production of books representative of Greek literature of all periods, ancient, mediaeval, and modern. They will be printed by a hand-press on special hand-made paper in red and black, and no effort will be spared to give, in most cases for the first time since the invention of printing, a form worthy of them to the masterpieces of the greatest classical literature of the world. The first volume, which will probably appear in the autumn of this year, is to be the ‘Oresteia’ of Aeschylus, a quarto of some 250 pages.
Τηλέμαχ᾽, οὔ σ᾽ ὁ ξεῖνος ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν ἐλέγχει ἥμενος, οὐδέ τι τοῦ σκοποῦ ἤμβροτον οὐδέ τι τόξον δὴν ἔκαμον τανύων· ἔτι μοι μένος ἔμπεδόν ἐστιν, οὐχ ὥς με μνηστῆρες ἀτιμάζοντες ὄνονται. νῦν δ᾽ ὥρη καὶ δόρπον Ἀχαιοῖσιν τετυκέσθαι ἐν φάει, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα καὶ ἄλλως ἑψιάασθαι μολπῇ καὶ φόρμιγγι· τὰ γάρ τ᾽ ἀναθήματα δαιτός. ἦ καὶ ἐπ᾽ ὀφρύσι νεῦσεν· ὁ δ᾽ ἀμφέθετο ξίφος ὀξὺ Τηλέμαχος, φίλος υἱὸς Ὀδυσσῆος θείοιο, ἀμφὶ δὲ χεῖρα φίλην βάλεν ἔγχεϊ, ἄγχι δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ αὐτοῦ πὰρ θρόνον ἑστήκει κεκορυθμένος αἴθοπι χαλκῷ. ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙΑΣ ΒΙΒΛΟΣ ΕΙΚΟΣΤΟΣ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΟΣ ❆ αὐτὰρ ὁ γυμνώθη ῥακέων πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς ἆλτο δ᾽ ἐπὶ μέγαν οὐδὸν ἔχων βιὸν ἠδὲ φαρέτρην ἰῶν ἐμπλείην, ταχέας δ᾽ ἐκχεύατ᾽ ὀιστοὺς αὐτοῦ πρόσθε ποδῶν, μετὰ δὲ μνηστῆρσιν ἔειπεν. οὗτος μὲν δὴ ἄεθλος ἀάατος ἐκτετέλεσται· νῦν αὖτε σκοπὸν ἄλλον, ὃν οὔ πώ τις βάλεν ἀνήρ εἴσομαι, αἴ κε τύχωμι, πόρῃ δέ μοι εὖχος Ἀπόλλων. ἦ καὶ ἐπ᾽ Ἀντινόῳ ἰθύνετο πικρὸν ὀϊστόν. ἦ τοι ὁ καλὸν ἄλεισον ἀναιρήσεσθαι ἔμελλεν χρύσεον ἄμφωτον, καὶ δὴ μετὰ χερσὶν ἐνώμα ὄφρα πίοι οἴνοιο· φόνος δέ οἱ οὐκ ἐνὶ θυμῷ μέμβλετο. τίς κ᾽ οἴοιτο μετ᾽ ἀνδράσι δαιτυμόνεσσιν μοῦνον ἐνὶ πλεόνεσσι, καὶ εἰ μάλα καρτερὸς εἴη, οἷ τεύξειν θάνατόν τε κακὸν καὶ κῆρα μέλαιναν· τὸν δ᾽ Ὀδυσεὺς κατὰ λαιμὸν ἐπισχόμενος βάλεν ἰῷ ἀντικρὺ δ᾽ ἁπαλοῖο δι᾽ αὐχένος ἤλυθ᾽ ἀκωκή, ἐκλίνθη δ᾽ ἑτέρωσε, δέπας δέ οἱ ἔκπεσε χειρὸς βλημένου, αὐτίκα δ᾽ αὐλὸς ἀνὰ ῥῖνας παχὺς ἦλθεν αἵματος ἀνδρομέοιο, θοῶς δ᾽ ἀπὸ εἷο τράπεζαν ὦσε ποδὶ πλήξας, ἀπὸ δ᾽ εἴδατα χεῦεν ἔραζε.
MR. ROBERT PROCTOR’S ‘OTTER’ TYPE
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LARGER IMAGE