In 1524 Pynson possessed a fount of Greek which he used in Linacre’s De Emendatâ Structurâ.[162] This is of special interest, since the preface contains the first distinct reference to letter-founding which occurs in any English book. The Greek accents and breathings, it appears, were not sufficient for the whole of the quotations in the book, and their paucity is made the subject of the following interesting apology: “Lectori. S. Pro tuo candore optime lector æquo animo feras, si quæ literæ in exemplis Hellenissimi vel tonis vel spiritibus vel affectionibus careant. Iis enim non satis erat instructus typographus videlicet recens ab eo fusis characteribus græcis, nec parata ea copia, quod ad hoc agendum opus est.”[163] The Linacre is printed in a good Great Primer Roman type, with which the Greek ranges fairly. The letters of the latter character are cast wide, so that each letter stands apart from the next, instead of joining close.
A further mention of Pynson’s types occurs in a Latin letter of his own, printed at the end of the Lytylton Tenures of 1527, in which he thus inveighs against the piracy of his rival and contemporary, Robert Redman: “Richard Pynson, the Royal printer, salutation to the Reader. Behold, I now give to thee, candid Reader, a Lyttleton corrected (not deceitfully), of the errors which occurred in him; I have been careful that not my printing only should be amended, but also that with a more elegant type it should go forth to the day: that which hath escaped from the hands of Robert Redman, but more truly Rudeman, because he is the rudest out of a thousand men, is not easily understood.”
The new fount here referred to must have been among the latest productions of this printer’s industrious labours, as he ceased printing in 1528, having issued upwards of 210 works.
WILLIAM FAQUES,
With Faques and Pynson early English Typography seems to have reached for a time its high-water mark. A slow deterioration set in, probably consequent on the withdrawal of the foreign trade in type, and the necessity thereupon for every printer to become his own punch-cutter and typefounder.
Mores, in passing, is careful to rescue a few names from reproach. “COPLAND THE ELDER,” he says, “(who had been servant to De Worde) and WYER and REDMAN, had founts of two-line Great Primer, the letter good and beautiful. . . WILL. RASTEL used Italic in 1531. . . Redman[164] used a Secretary type in the edition of Rastell’s Grete Abridgement, printed in the year 1534, which Secretary is the last Secretary we remember. BERTHELET had a fount of English Roman with a face as thick as English” (Black-letter), “but pretty.”
18A. From the Boke named the Governour. Printed by Berthelet, 1531.