The “lower case” consisted of at least 121 divisions. Of the simple unmodified letters k and z are wanting, and except in the Jerome j (but ij is found in all, colligated). There are two forms of p, r, and three of s, the two p’s and r’s being used indiscriminately, but the two s’s (final) and the ſ (initial and medial) having their proper use. Of colligated or modified letters there are at least eighty-three, and of other symbols eleven (for -et, &, con-, -us [two], id est, full stop, colon, ?). Of these 121 about 95 are common to all three. The signs of progress are as follows:—
In the Jerome, contrasted with the other two, Q is except in two places
, H is generally used as P, and I have not elsewhere noticed ̓b, or j used by itself. On the other hand in the two others, and not in the Jerome, are found an extra short t in which the perpendicular stroke hardly appears at all above the horizontal line, and eleven new forms, including fe, ff, and pp in colligation. The Q and P are rightly used, always.
So too in the Jerome and Aretinus compared with the Aegidius we find that q is printed too high up, being in fact an inverted b, or, more accurately, an inverted broken h occasionally used for b. In the Jerome this is almost always the case, in the Aretinus as often as not, in the Aegidius hardly ever. It may be accidental that B and H and three minor modified letters are not found in the short Aegidius, that w (in wlt = vult) is only found in the Jerome, ·|· (= id est) only in the Aretinus: but the occurrence of ؟ (= ?) and of printing in red ink only in the Aegidius, is not insignificant.
The relative order of the three may therefore be assumed to be as above indicated.
Origin of the type.
It may be taken as certain that as Caxton’s type is based on Bruges models, so the first Oxford type is ultimately derived from Cologne. Ulric Zel began printing there at least as early as 1466, and the general resemblance to his letters is clear. The likeness is still nearer when we follow Zel’s influence on Arnold ther Hoernen (Cologne, from 1470), Richard Paffroet of Cologne (Deventer, from 1477), and especially a little-known Cologne printer named Gerard ten Raem de Bercka, whose only dated book is of 1478. John of Westphalia (Alost and Louvain, from 1473) and Jacobus de Breda, a successor of Paffroet at Deventer, also supply similarities. In the case of Gerard we actually find, besides a close general similarity, the same misuse of H as P. Unfortunately no works printed by him, except the dated Modus Confitendi and an undated Aesopus, are at present known, so that it must not be assumed that 1478 is his earliest or only date.
It is at present also unsafe to assume that Theodoricus Rood of Cologne who printed at Oxford in 1481–85 was the first Oxford printer, or ever used type no. 1.