Types of this character were first used at Stockholm in a Runic and Swedish Alphabetarium, printed in 1611. The fount, which was cast at the expense of the king, was afterwards acquired by the University. About the same time Runic type was used at Upsala and at Copenhagen. Voskens, at Amsterdam, had matrices about the end of the century, and it was from Holland that Junius is supposed to have procured the matrices which in 1677 he presented to Oxford. This fount appears in the Oratio Dominica of 1700, and in Hickes’ Thesaurus, 1703–5. Mores mentions a second fount, incomplete, in James’s foundry, which, however, was lost; so that the Oxford fount remained the only one in the country. Fournier and Fry show the alphabet engraved. {73}
GOTHIC.
Matrices of this language were presented to Oxford by Junius in 1677. There appear to have been other matrices in Holland, as the neat Gothic type used in Chamberlayne’s Oratio Dominica at Amsterdam in 1715 differs from the Oxford fount which had appeared in the edition of 1700, as well as in Hickes’ Thesaurus. Mores speaks of another fount in James’s foundry, whither it had come from the “Anonymous” foundry. But the matrices were lost. Caslon, however, cut a fount,[145] which appeared in his first specimen in 1734. This and the Oxford fount were the only two in England in 1820.
ICELANDIC, SWEDISH AND DANISH.
Founts of these characters were also included in Junius’ gift to Oxford in 1677, and were probably specially prepared in Holland. The first-named is shown in the Oratio Dominica of 1700, and in Hickes’ Thesaurus. Printing had been practised in Iceland since 1531, when a Breviary was printed at Hoolum, in types rudely cut, it is alleged, in wood. In 1574, however, metal types were provided, and several works were produced. After a period of decline, printing was revived in 1773; and in 1810 Sir George McKenzie reported that the Hoolum press possessed eight founts of type, of which two were Roman, and the remainder of the common Icelandic character, which, like the Danish and Swedish, bears a close resemblance to the German.
SAXON.
The first type for this language was cut by John Day in 1567, under the direction of Archbishop Parker, and appeared in Ælfric’s Paschal Homily in that year, and in the Ælfredi Res Gestæ of Asser Menevensis, published in 1574. Parker, in his preface to the latter work, makes mention of Day as the first who had cut Saxon characters. This interesting fount[146] is rather less than a Great Primer in body, and in general appearance is handsomer than many of its successors. Day used the type in several other works, and added another fount on Pica body. Saxon type was used by Browne in 1617, in Minsheu’s Ductor in Linguas; and Haviland, who printed the second edition of that work in 1626, had in 1623 already made use of the character in Lisle’s edition of Ælfric’s Homily. Another fount was used by Badger in 1640 for Spelman’s Saxon Psalter, {74} so that, as Mores points out, at that date there were already four founts in the country. Hodgkinson, one of the Star Chamber printers, had a Pica Saxon, which was used in Dugdale’s Monasticon, 1655; and Mores mentions two founts, a Great Primer and a Pica, in use at Cambridge in 1644, in Wheelock’s edition of Bede. In 1654 Francis Junius had a fount of Saxon “cut, matriculated, and cast,” at Amsterdam, which, after printing Cædmon’s Paraphrase of Genesis in 1655, and some other works in that town, he brought over to England, and in 1677 presented to the University of Oxford. As early as 1659 the University had possessed a Saxon fount, and a second had been included among the purchases made, probably, about the year 1672. Junius’ fount was used in Hickes’ Thesaurus, 1705, and his Saxon Grammar in 1711, but was not employed by the printer of the Oratio Dominica of 1700, where a different fount appears—the same, apparently, which in 1709 Bowyer used to print Miss Elstob’s Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory. The Amsterdam printers of the Oratio Dominica of 1715 used a handsome fount of their own. The great interest taken in the study of the Northern languages at this period in England produced many Saxon works, and some of our scholars devoted themselves to the study of the most beautiful of the old manuscripts, with a view to the improvement of the character in print. But the failure of the typefounder Robert Andrews to do justice to Humphrey Wanley’s drawings, in cutting the punches for Bowyer’s new fount in 1715,[147] apparently discouraged further endeavours. Miss Elstob’s Anglo-Saxon Grammar was printed in that year in the new type, the matrices of which were subsequently presented to Oxford, where they still remain.
Voskens, the Dutch founder, had Anglo-Saxon matrices at the beginning of the eighteenth century, but, except in England and Holland, the character was not used. Caslon and most of his successors cut Saxon founts. Mores noted eleven different founts existing in England in 1778. This number was afterwards increased by numerous new founts cut by Fry, Figgins, and Wilson; and Hansard enumerated twenty-three in 1825.
The Anglo-Norman Saxon character in which the Domesday Book was written, was twice imitated in type during the eighteenth century, once by Cottrell, whose attempt was not wholly successful, and again by Joseph Jackson, under the supervision of Abraham Farley, in 1783. Jackson’s types were used in the facsimile printed by Nichols in that year, and the matrices, it is stated, were deposited with the British Museum. {75}