[702] Typographia, p. 360.
[703] Paradise Lost, by John Milton, with Notes and Life of the Author. . . . By Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Engravings by Heath, &c. London: Printed for J. Parsons, 1796. 2 vols. 8vo.
[704] Sir William Ouseley was born in 1771, and accompanied his brother Sir Gore Ouseley, the ambassador to Persia, to that country as secretary. He published Persian Miscellanies in 1795, and Oriental Collections in 1797–1800. In the advertisement at the close of the 1st volume of the latter work, he states, “I have employed a few leisure hours in superintending the execution of a new Persian Type, which will, I trust, exhibit as faithful a representation of the true Taleek character as can be effected by any imitative powers of the Typographick Art.” Of this new fount he shows a single line as specimen, which, however, if cut by Mr. Figgins, is not the Paragon Persian which subsequently appeared in his specimen books. Nor did it appear, as promised, in the Oriental Collections of 1798, the quotations in which continued to be printed in Arabic characters.
[705] The Persian Moonshee, by Francis Gladwin, Esquire. Calcutta. London, reprinted 1801. 4to.
[706] This important enquiry was the result of an address of the House of Commons to the King, in 1800, setting forth the necessity of a better provision for the arrangement, preservation and use of the various Public Records scattered among the numerous offices of the kingdom. The Commission thereupon appointed were empowered to take all necessary measures to “methodize, regulate and digest the records, etc.”, preserved in all Public Offices and repositories, and “to superintend the printing of such calendars and indexes and original records and papers” as it should be deemed desirable to print. With this large task before them, the Commissioners went actively to work, and in 1800 and 1806 published their first Reports. The following important publication, issued under the Direction of the Commission, was commenced in 1800:—Reports from the Commissioners appointed to execute the measures recommended by a Select Committee of the House of Commons respecting the Public Records of the Kingdom, etc., London, 1800–19, 2 vols., folio. The appendix forming the second volume contains facsimiles of all the Charters (including Magna Charta) and Inrollments from Stephen to William and Mary, with the Seals inserted in the several works printed under the Commission. The list of the subsequent publications of the Commission is very extensive, and includes verbatim copies, with all abbreviations and contractions, of the most important documents in the kingdom.
[707] The first important work in connection with the Scotch Record Commission was Inquisitionum ad Capellam Domini Regis retornatarum quæ in publicis Archivis Scotiæ adhuc servantur Abbrevatio cum Indicibus, Edinburgh, 1811–16, 3 vols., folio, and a Supplement.
[708] These types perished in the fire of Mr. Nichols’ printing office in 1808, see ante, p. [321].
[709] Lit. Anec., ii, 361.
[710] Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, Textus Archetypos, Versionesque præcipuas ab Ecclesiâ Antiquitùs receptas complectentia. London: 1817–28. 5 parts, 4to, 4 vols., 8vo. This Bible comprises the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament, the Vulgate Latin and the Authorised English version of the entire Bible, the original Greek of the New Testament, and the venerable Peschito or Syriac version of it. This Polyglot was republished with the addition of Spanish, French, Italian, and German versions in 1831, with learned prolegomena by Dr. Samuel Lee.