Syriac type, probably cut in wood, first appeared in Postel’s Linguarum xii Alphabeta, printed in Paris in 1538; but the characters are so rude in form and execution as to be scarcely legible. In 1555, however, Postel assisted in cutting the punches for the famous Syriac Peshito New Testament, printed at Vienna, in two vols. 4to, the first portion of the Scriptures, and apparently the first book printed in that language. In 1569–72 Plantin at Antwerp included the Syriac New Testament in his Polyglot, and reissued it in separate form in 1574. The Vatican press had a good fount in 1591, which appears in Roccha’s Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Mores mentions a Nomenclature by Ferrarius at Rome in 1622 with Syriac type. In 1636 the press of the Propaganda issued a specimen of the Estranghelo and Syriac alphabets, and in the same year Kircher’s Prodromus Coptus, published at the same press, contained passages in both these characters, and in Heraclean. A Syriac Testament was printed at Cothon, in Upper Saxony, in 1621, and at Hamburg in 1663; and later, Gutbier printed the same work in several editions. In France, after the disappearance of Postel’s types, there was no Syriac printing for nearly a century. Henri Estienne printed his Syriac New Testament in 1539, in Hebrew characters; and in Cajetan’s Paradigmata de iv lingis, which appeared in 1596, the Syriac character was cut on wood, and longer passages expressed in Hebrew type. In 1614 Savary de Brèves brought Syriac matrices along with those of other Oriental characters to Paris, and these were made use of by Vitré, in 1625, to print a Syriac and Latin Psalter, and appeared subsequently in the great Polyglot of Le Jay.
Syriac did not make its appearance in England till the middle of the seventeenth century. The language was usually expressed in the earlier works in Hebrew characters. A letter of Bishop Usher’s, in 1637, mentions a project to {68} purchase Syriac type abroad, and negotiations appear to have been made both in Paris (where the Bishop’s correspondent informed him there were at that time three or four founts) and at Geneva, with a view to procuring the characters.[132] But it was not till the prospectus and preliminary specimen of Walton’s Polyglot were issued in 1652 that we find Syriac type in use in this country. The Polyglot contains the entire Bible in Syriac. In 1661 there was a fount at Oxford, which appears in Pocock’s Carmen Tograi, and differs from the fount subsequently presented by Dr. Fell,[133] which was used in the Oratio Dominica of 1700, and other Oriental publications of the University. The Polyglot fount[134] found its way to Caslon’s foundry, who added two new founts of his own cutting. In 1778 Mores noted six founts altogether in the country. A fresh interest was taken in Syriac printing by the exertions of Dr. Claudius Buchanan, who, in 1815, had the Gospels and Acts printed in types cut and cast under his supervision by Vincent Figgins. After his death, his work fell into the hands of Dr. Lee to complete, who, objecting to the omission of the vowel points, printed the entire New Testament in 1816. In 1825 Dr. Fry produced the beautiful Nonpareil Syriac for Bagster’s Polyglot, and in 1829 Mr. Watts cast the fount of Estranghelo for the edition of the Bible published that year, which at the time was the only Syriac Bible in Nestorian characters printed in this country.
ARMENIAN.
The press of the Vatican at Rome possessed a good fount of this character in 1591, when Angelo Roccha showed a specimen in his Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Previous to this a Psalter is said to have been printed at Rome in 1565, and Rowe Mores mentions doubtfully a Liturgy printed at Cracow in 1549. In 1662 the Armenian Bishops applied to France for assistance in printing an Armenian Bible, but being refused, although Armenian printing had been practised in Paris in 1633, went to Rome, where, as early as 1636, the press of the Propaganda had published a specimen of its Armenian matrices. The Patriarch, after fifteen months’ residence in Rome, removed to Amsterdam, where he established an Armenian press, and printed the Bible in 1666, followed, in 1668, by a separate edition of the New Testament. In 1669 the press was set up at Marseilles, where it continued for a time, and was ultimately removed to Constantinople.
In England the first Armenian types were those presented by Dr. Fell to {69} Oxford in 1667. In the Prolegomena of Walton’s Polyglot, the alphabet there given had been cut in wood. In 1736 Caslon cut a neat Armenian[135] for Whiston’s edition of Moses Chorenensis, and these two were the only founts in England before 1820.
ETHIOPIC.
The earliest type of this language appeared in Potken’s Psalter and Song of Solomon, printed at Rome in 1513. The work was reprinted at Cologne in 1518, in Potken’s polyglot Psalter. In 1548 the New Testament was printed at Rome by some Abyssinian priests. The press of the Propaganda issued a specimen of its fount in 1631, and again in Kircher’s Prodromus Coptus in 1636. Erpenius at Leyden had an Ethiopic fount, which in 1626 was acquired by the Elzevirs. Usher attempted to procure the fount for this country, but his attempt failing, punches were cut, and matrices prepared by the London founders for the London Polyglot, which showed the Psalms, Canticles, and New Testament in the Ethiopic version. Various portions of Scripture were printed at Leyden and Frankfort about the same time, of which the most important work was the Psalter, etc., of Ludolfus, printed at the latter place in 1701, in a letter bolder and larger than either the Vatican or London fount. The Oxford press possessed a fount of Ethiopic[136] prior to 1693, which appears, with the other Oxford Orientals, in the Oratio Dominica of 1700 and 1713—the Amharic being in the same character. Chamberlayne’s Oratio Dominica, printed at Amsterdam in 1715, shows these versions in copperplate. Mores mentions a second English fount in his list of the matrices of the “Anonymous” foundry, besides the fount cut by Caslon[137] for his foundry. There were thus four founts in England in 1778. The Polyglot fount[138] and that of the anonymous founder came into the possession of James, and at the sale of his matrices in 1782, were acquired by Dr. Fry. The reprint of Ludolfus’ Psalter by the Bible Society in 1815 was in the latter type. But the Ethiopic Gospels printed by the same society in 1826 were in a fount of types cast from the matrices presented by Ludolfus to the Frankfort Library in 1700. No new fount of Ethiopic in England had been added to the four already named, when Hansard wrote in 1825.
COPTIC.
Of this character the press of the Propaganda possessed a fount, of which a specimen was issued in 1636, in which year also Kircher’s Prodromus Coptus {70} appeared at the same press. No fount, however, appeared in England till 1667—the alphabets shown in the Introduction and Prolegomena to the London Polyglot in 1655 and 1657 being cut on wood. In 1667 Dr. Fell presented Coptic matrices[139] to Oxford, and it was from these that the types were cast for David Wilkins’ edition of the New Testament, printed in 1716. In 1731 the same scholar published an edition of the Pentateuch, this time at the press of Bowyer, in types specially cut by William Caslon.[140] Mores further mentions a Coptic fount cut by Voskens of Amsterdam; and abroad, besides the fount at Rome, there was one (or more) at Paris. A specimen is shown in Fournier; and in 1808, in Quatremère’s work on the Language and Literature of Europe, considerable portions of Scripture in Coptic were included. In our own country the Oxford and Caslon founts were the only two in 1778, when Mores wrote, nor had the number been increased when Hansard compiled his list of foreign founts in 1825.