[Μ] 44. From the Tutor to Astronomy and Geography, 4th ed., 1686.

If, as seems probable, he commenced operations with little or no previous experience, and with no plant ready to his hand, the progress of the new foundry must at first have been very slow, particularly as he appears to have devoted much of his time to his other scientific pursuits, to which in 1665 he added that of hydrographer to the king. To this office a considerable salary was attached. In the same year, Mores informs us, he lived at the sign of the “Atlas” on Ludgate Hill, near Fleet Bridge, but the Fire of London in 1666 caused him to {181} quit that abode for another of the same sign in Warwick Lane. From Warwick Lane, where he was living in 1668, he appears to have removed to Westminster, to the sign of the “Atlas” in Russell Street, whence in 1669 was issued his famous specimen of types, the first complete typefounders’ specimen known in England.[335]

In a passage in the Mechanick Exercises, published several years later, Moxon speaks of the art of letter-cutting as a mystery, “kept so conceal’d among the Artificers of it, that I cannot learn anyone hath taught it any other, but every one that has used it, Learnt it of his own Genuine Inclination.” If this be the writer’s own experience—though his subsequent intimate acquaintance with the minutest details of the art almost disproves it—his specimen must be taken as the production of a self-taught typographer after ten years’ intermittent practice. Viewed in this light, the exceedingly poor performance which the sheet presents can to some extent be accounted for. It must also be borne in mind that Moxon’s theoretical and mathematical studies of the proportions and form of letters had not yet been begun, or, at least, elaborated; so that in no sense is his Specimen to be assumed to be a reduction into practice of those theories.

This specimen, which is entitled Prooves of the Several Sorts of Letters cast by Joseph Moxon, is a folio sheet, showing in double column:

Great Canon Romain.
Double Pica Romain.Pica Romain.
Pica Italica.
Great Primmer Romain.Long Primer Romain.
Long Primer Italica.
English Romain.Brevier Romain.
English Italica.Brevier Italica.

The imprint is, “Westminster, printed by Joseph Moxon in Russell Street, at the sign of the Atlas, 1669.”

In all respects it is a sorry performance. Only one fount, the Pica, has any pretensions to elegance or regularity. The others are so clumsily cut, so badly cast, and so wretchedly printed, as here and there to be almost undecipherable. Moxon’s proficiency in the processes of the art does not appear as yet to have attained the pitch of justifying his matrices to any regularity of line, or of casting his types square in body. Some lines of the specimen curve and wave so as to make it a marvel how others kept their places in the forme, and the press-work {182} and ink are so bad that at a first glance the beholder is tempted to mistake the larger letters with their sunken faces for open instead of solid-faced Romans. The sheet was apparently put forward not solely as a specimen of types. The matter of each paragraph is an advertisement of Moxon’s business as a mathematical instrument maker. In Great Canon Romain he calls attention to the “Globes Celestial and Terrestrial of all sizes made by Joseph Moxon, Hydrographer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, 1669.” In Double Pica Romain he announces his Spheres; in Great Primer “a Large Map of the World”; in Pica Italica, “a book called a Tutor to Astronomie and Geographie,” and so on. To one or two of the founts, such as the Great Canon, the Pica and the Brevier, he adds a line of accents or signs.

It would appear, from the imprint already quoted, that Moxon combined printing with typefounding at Westminster. If so, he probably confined his press to the printing of specimens and advertisements of his own goods, as we cannot ascertain that any of his other works were printed by himself, or that he printed anything for the public.

About 1670 he removed back to the sign of the Atlas, in Ludgate Hill. Rowe Mores considers it probable that for some time he resided in Holland, during which time he acquired a certain proficiency in the Dutch language.[336] During the same period it is probable that he may have come across, and been struck by specimens of the beautifully proportioned Elzevir letters of Christoffel Van Dijk, which he admitted were the inspiration of his Regulæ Trium Ordinum.

Of this curious work,[337] which was published in 1676, it will suffice to say here, it is a work intended not so much for the letter-cutter as for the sign-board and inscription painter. Taking the Van Dijk letters as his models, the writer attempts to demonstrate that each letter is a combination of geometrical figures, bearing regular proportions one to another; and by sub-division of the square of each letter into forty-two equal parts, he professes to be able to erect in any other square, similarly sub-divided, the same letter in precise proportion and harmony. This theory he illustrates by copper-plate figures of the various letters {183} of the Roman, Italic and Black Alphabets, and their sub-divisions. The result is not pleasing. The letters are stiff, and in some cases distorted; although this we believe to be the fault not so much of the theory itself as of the rules of proportion for the different parts of each letter predicated in the first instance. The book, as we have observed, is clearly not intended as a guide to punch-cutting. We regard it rather as an interesting attempt to reduce to precise mathematical rules a set of characters which never have and never will yield themselves entirely to such treatment.[338]