The first Oxford press disappeared altogether in 1486, between which date and 1517 no work is known to have issued. In 1517 John Scolar, another German, printed a few small works very neatly in English and Brevier black-letter, with a Great Primer for titles, and made use of the University arms for the first time, either on his titles or last pages. Scolar’s press, in turn, came to an abrupt standstill in 1519, after which, in common with the other provincial presses of the country, printing at Oxford remained dormant for upwards of half a century.[232]

It was not till the year 1585 that the art was actively resumed. In that {140} year the Earl of Leicester presented a press, and the University made a grant of £100. The Star Chamber Decree of the following year formally allowed (with rigid restrictions) the establishment of the new press, and under Joseph Barnes, the first University printer, it rapidly rose to prominence. It appears from the outset to have been well provided with types, many of them of a beautiful cut, particularly those of the Greek character. The Chrysostomi Homiliæ, printed by Barnes in 1586, and the Herodotus of 1591, were both noticeable for the excellence of their letter. The former is said to be the first Greek book printed at the University.

The reputation of the University for its Greek types was enhanced some years afterwards by the acquisition of the letter in which the magnificent edition of St. Chrysostom[233] had been printed at Eton by John Norton in 1610–13, at the charge and under the direction of Sir Henry Savile.[234] This work, one of the most splendid examples of Greek printing in this country, is said to have cost its author £8,000. Respecting the origin of the types, Bagford says, in one of his MSS.: “Sir Henry Savile, meditating an edition of St. Chrysostom, prepared a fount of curious Greek letters, which in those days were called the Silver letter, not being cast of silver, but for the beauty of the letter so called.” Beloe,[235] on the other hand, considers that the types were procured from abroad. “They certainly resemble,” he says, “those of Stephens, and the other Paris printers, as well as those of the Wechels at Frankfort, at a subsequent period. From the Wechels indeed they are said by some to have been procured, but this fact I have not been able to ascertain. It appears beyond a doubt, from a passage in one of the Epistles of Isaac Casaubon, that they were cast abroad.”[236]

The fine execution of this work obtained for Norton the distinction accorded to Robert Estienne of Paris by Francis I, of “Regius in Græcis Typographus.” Scarcely less high an honour had been paid to this printer in 1594, when we are told Paul Estienne (son of Henri Estienne II) visiting England, and appreciating his merit, permitted him to make use of the device of the Estiennes.[237]

[Μ] 28. Greek fount of the Eton Chrysostom, 1613.

[Μ] 29. From the Catena on Job. 1637.

At what date these famous Greek types came into the possession of the {141} Oxford University Press it is impossible to determine. It was probably not till after some years of rough usage following Sir Henry Savile’s death; as Evelyn,[238] in one of his letters, after lamenting the loss of Sir Simon Fanshaw’s medals, says that “they were after his decease thrown about the house for children to play at counter with, as were those elegant types of Sir Henry Savill’s at Eton, which that learned knight procured with great cost for his edition of St. Chrysostom.”

The types, of which we give a specimen (No. 28), were of a Great Primer body, very elegantly and regularly cut, with the usual numerous ligatures and abbreviations which characterised the Greek typography of that period.