Samaritan type appears to have followed closely on the purchase of the celebrated MS. of the Samaritan Pentateuch, which was deposited in the Oratory at Paris in 1623. The press of the Propaganda had a fount in 1636, and the Paris Polyglot, completed in 1645, contained the entire Pentateuch in type of which the punches and matrices had been specially prepared under Le Jay’s direction. The fount used in the London Polyglot in 1657 is admitted to be an English production,[141] and was probably cut under the supervision of Usher, who between 1620 and 1630 was most active in procuring Samaritan MSS. for this country. Samaritan type was used in Scaliger’s De emendatione temporum, printed at Geneva in 1629; also in Leusden’s Schola Syriaca, at Utrecht, in 1672; besides which, Mores mentions a fount neatly cut by Voskens of Amsterdam. Another fount was included in Dr. Fell’s gift to Oxford in 1667, and this appears in the Oratio Dominica of 1700. The Polyglot Samaritan passed into Grover’s hands, thence to James, at whose sale it was bought, together with another fount of the same character, by Dr. Fry. The Leusdenian fount belonging to Andrews also came to James’s foundry, but was there lost. Caslon had a fount cut by Dummers,[142] which, with those of James and Oxford, were the only founts in the country in 1778.[143] In Hansard’s list of learned founts in 1825, these four founts were still the only Samaritans in the country. {71}
SCLAVONIC.
Types in this character existed at an early date, a Psalter having been printed at Cracow in 1491, and reprinted at Montenegro in 1495. In 1512 the Gospels were printed at Ugrovallachia, and again in 1552 at Belgrade, and in 1562 at Montenegro. There was, in 1553, a Sclavonic press established by the Czar Ivan Vasilievitch at Moscow, whence, in 1564, appeared the Acts and Epistles, a volume which has the distinction of being the first book printed in Russia. The type and material for this press are said to have been brought from Copenhagen. The first Russian printers were persecuted, but succeeded in producing several other works in Sclavonic type. In 1581 the first Bible in that language was printed at Ostrog, and after that printing became more general. The second Moscow press, established in 1644, was famous for its excellent typography; the second edition of the Bible, in 1663, is a splendid performance. Sclavonic printing appears to have been but little practised out of Russia, yet we find matrices with Voskens of Amsterdam about 1690; from which, probably, the improved types introduced into the Moscow press in 1707 were cast.
The only Sclavonic fount in England was that given by Dr. Fell to Oxford, and this, Mores states, was replaced in 1695 by a fount of the more modern Russian character, purchased probably at Amsterdam. The Oratio Dominica of 1700 gives a specimen of this fount, but renders the Hieronymian version in copperplate. Chamberlayne’s Oratio Dominica at Amsterdam in 1715 does the same; but the Cyrillian type differs from that of Oxford. The press of the Propaganda showed founts both of Cyrillian and Hieronymian in 1753, and founts occur in nearly all the Polyglot specimens of the chief European foundries.
The MODERN SCLAVONIC, better known to us as RUSSIAN, is said to have appeared first in portions of the Old Testament, printed at Prague in 1517–19. Ten years later there was Russian type in Venice. A Russian press was established at Stockholm in 1625, by order of Gustavus Adolphus, and in 1696 there were matrices in Amsterdam, from which came the types used in Ludolph’s Grammatica Russica, printed at Oxford in that year, and whence also, it is said, the types were procured which furnished the first St. Petersburg press, established in 1711 by Peter the Great. At Amsterdam, also, a second attempt to translate and print the Bible into Russian, begun about 1698, was frustrated by the loss of the MSS. and library of Ernest Gluck, the editor and translator, at the siege of Marienburg, in 1702. The presses at St. Petersburg increased, and it is probable that on the establishment of the press in connection with the Academy of Sciences, in 1727, Russian types were cast in that city. Breitkopf of Leipsic {72} had matrices prior to 1787; Fournier, at Paris, in 1766, showed a specimen of a fount in his foundry; Marcel, in his Oratio Dominica, 1805, showed another; and Bodoni of Parma, in his Manuale Tipografico, 1818, had no less than twenty-one sizes.
The Emperor Alexander, in 1813, promoted the publication of a Bible by the Russian Bible Society, which resulted in the printing of the Gospels in 1819, and of the entire New Testament in 1823.
In England, Mores notes that in 1778 there was no Russian type in the country, but that Cottrell was at that time engaged in preparing a fount. It does not appear that this project was carried out, and the earliest Russian we had was cut by Dr. Fry from alphabets in the Vocabularia, collected and published for the Empress of Russia in 1786–9. This fount appeared in the Pantographia in 1799. About 1820 Thorowgood procured matrices in two sizes from Breitkopf, and these three founts were the only ones enumerated by Hansard in 1825.
ETRUSCAN.
The fount of this character cut by William Caslon[144] about 1733 for Mr. Swinton of Oxford was apparently the first produced. Fournier, in 1766, showed an alphabet engraved in metal or wood. In 1771 the Propaganda published a specimen of their fount, and Bodoni of Parma, in 1806, exhibited a third in his Oratio Dominica. The character is one rarely used, and prior to 1820 it is doubtful whether there were more than the three founts above mentioned in existence.