‘Peter Schoeffer of Gernsheim, perceiving his master Faust’s design, and being himself ardently desirous to improve the art, found out (by the good providence of God) the method of cutting (incidendi) the characters in a matrix that the letters might easily be singly cast, instead of being cut. He privately cut matrices for the whole alphabet, and when he showed his master the letters cast from those matrices, Faust was so pleased with the contrivance that he promised Peter to give him his only daughter Christina in marriage, a promise which he soon after performed. But there were as many difficulties at first with these letters, as there had been before with wooden ones; the metal being too soft to support the force of the impression: but this defect was soon remedied, by mixing the metal with a substance which sufficiently hardened it.’
SOME ENGLISH NAMES OF TYPES
WITH EXAMPLES OF THEIR RELATIVE SIZES
Double Pica:
The Clarendon
Great Primer:
The Clarendon Pre
English:
The Clarendon Press Ox