In 1665 he presented to the king a petition to be appointed His Majesty’s Letter Founder. The original document is in the Record Office,[330] and is as follows:— {178}
“To the KINGE’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE. The humble peticion of Nicholas Nicholls. Most humbly sheweth
“That the petitioner in the worst of tymes was a constant and loyall sufferer for the causes of your Majestie and that of your Royall ffather of glorious memory, and thereby reduced to greate extreamities.
“Now soe it is, That the peticioner by Industrie hath attained to a considerable skill in the Art of cutting and casting all kinds of Letters and faire Characters (as by the annexed may appeare) And your Majestie beinge the great encourager of good Literature
“Your Majestie’s peticioner most humbly prays your Grace and ffavour to serve in the place of Letter Founder to your Majesties Presses That soe your Majesties presses may be supplyed with Characters in some measure worthy of your Royall Greatness. And the peticioner makes no question but he shall perform that service (with the blessing of God) to your Majestie’s full content and satisfaction.
“And the peticioner (as in duty bound) shall alwaies pray for your Majesties long and prosperous Reigne over us.”
Attached to the petition, in the centre of a folio sheet, is the tiny polyglot specimen, of which we here present our readers with an exact facsimile. English typography possesses few relics more interesting than this quaint little page—the earliest known type-founder’s specimen in the country.
The execution, particularly of the Roman fount, is very poor, and one wonders, in examining it and comparing it with the recently completed Polyglot, at the artist’s claim “to considerable skill in cutting and casting of faire characters.” It is possible, however, that the unusual minuteness of the type may have been held to be a merit compensating for defects in execution. And as none of the founts are known to have been used in any other work of the time, it may be presumed the letters were cut specially for this specimen. The Roman and Greek founts are Pearl in body, and the Orientals Nonpareil, and display the text “Vivas o rex in perpetuum” in Latin, Greek, Hebrew (with points), Syriac, Samaritan, Ethiopic and Arabic. This loyal aspiration, effusively dedicated as “the prayer of the devoted heart, and the specimen of the Art of the least of the subjects of the greatest of the Kings,” is surrounded by a neat flower-border (also Nonpareil in body), and printed somewhat roughly on coarse paper. Despite its defects, it appears to have found favour with the august personage to whom it was offered, as we find, on January 29th, 1667, a minute of a “Warrant for swearing Nicholas Nicholls, Letter Founder to His Majesty.”[331]
43. Specimen of Nicholas Nicholls, 1665. (From the original in the Record Office.)
Of the subsequent operations of Nicholls we know very little.[332] He probably inherited his father’s foundry, and cast from his matrices. The NICHOLS whom {179} Mores mentions as having founded in 1690,[333] could hardly (if the date be correctly given) be the same man who was a practised letter-founder in 1637.
To this last-named founder no doubt belongs the fount of Great Primer Roman and Italic acquired by the Oxford University Press, which had the unenviable distinction of being designated in their Specimen of 1695, as “cut by Mr. Nichols—not good.”[334]
The following is the only specimen we have to note in this place:—