[175] De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ. Londini in ædibus Johannis Daij. 1572. Fol.
[176] An illustration of this maybe seen in Vautrollier’s Latin Testaments, where both Roman and Italic are exquisitely cut founts, but not being of uniform gauge, mix badly in the same line.
4. LETTER FOUNDING AS AN ENGLISH MECHANICAL TRADE
[177] Introduction of the Art of Printing into Scotland. By R. Dickson. Aberdeen, 1885. 8vo. Appendix.
[178] Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stände und . . . Handwerker. Frankfurt, 1568. 4to. Der Schrifftgiesser.
[179] Harleian MS. 5915, No. 201. The cut is undated. The following sentence from Mr. T. C. Hansard’s Treatises on Printing and Typefounding, Edinburgh, 1841, 8vo, p. 223, may possibly refer to the same device. “This evidence” (of the process employed by the early letter-founders) “is afforded us by the device of Badius Ascensius, an eminent printer of Paris and Lyon, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and also by that of an English printer, Anthony Scoloker of Ippeswych, who modified and adopted the device of Ascensius, as indeed did many other printers of various countries. This curious design exhibits in one apartment the various processes of printing, the foreground presenting a press in full work, the background on the left the cases and the compositor, and on the right the foundery; the matrix and other appliances bearing a precise resemblance to those at present in use.” If the above be a description of the block here shown (in which case Mr. Hansard has confused the matrix with the mould), we are able to fix the date approximately at 1548, in which year Scoloker printed at Ipswich.
[180] A description of this interesting establishment will be found in M. De George’s La Maison Plantin à Anvers. 2nd ed. Brussels, 1878, 8vo.
[181] The legend of the silver types has been a favourite one in the romance of typography. Giucciardini states that Aldus Manutius used them; and Hulsemann describes the Bible printed by Robert Estienne in 1557 as “typis argenteis sanè elegantissimis.” The same extravagance was attributed to Plantin. Possibly the famous productions of these great artists impressed their readers with the notion that their beautiful and luxurious typography was the result of rare and costly material; and, ignoring the fact that silver type would not endure the press, they credited them with the absurdity of casting their letters in that costly material. It is difficult to believe that any practical printer, however magnificent, would make even his matrices of silver, when copper would be equally good and more durable. Didot was said, as late as 1820, to have cast his new Script from steel matrices inlaid with silver. The use of the term “silver” as a figurative mode of describing beautiful typography is not uncommon. Sir Henry Savile’s Greek types, says Bagford, “on account of their beauty were called the Silver types.” Field’s Pearl Bible in 1653 has been spoken of as printed in silver types. Smith, in 1755, referred to the fiction, still credited, that “the Dutch print with silver types.” On the other hand, we have the distinct mention in the inventory of John Baskett’s printing-office at Oxford, in 1720, of “a sett of Silver Initiall Letters,” which we can hardly believe to be a purely poetic description, and probably referred to the coating of the face of the letter with a silver wash. It should be stated here that Ratdolt, the Venetian printer, in 1482 was reported to have printed one work in types of gold!
[182] Among the itinerant punch-cutters of Plantin’s day was the famous French artist Le Bé who came to Antwerp to strike the punches for the Antwerp Polyglot.
[183] Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works applied to the Art of Printing. The Second Volume. London, 1683. 4to.