SAXON CHARACTERS.
The Saxon characters originated probably from the Gothic, but were altered or modified after the Latin ones which the Saxons found in use in England in the fifth century. The first Saxon types were cut by John Daye, under the patronage of Archbishop Parker, about the year 1567. We give the Lord’s Prayer in modern Anglo-Saxon types:
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofenum. Si þin nama gehalgod. Tobecume þin rice. Cepurðe þin pilla on eorþan, spa spa on heofenum. Urne dæghpamlican hlaf gyfe us to dæg. And forgyf us ure gyltas, spa ssa pe forgifað urum gyltendum. And ne gelædde þu ur on costnunge. ac alys us of yfele. So ðlice.
NAMES AND SIZES OF TYPE.
The principal bodies to which printing letters are cast in England and America are the following:—
| 1. | Diamond. |
| 2. | Pearl. |
| 3. | Agate. |
| 4. | Nonpareil. |
| 5. | Minion. |
| 6. | Brevier. |
| 7. | Bourgeois. |
| 8. | Long Primer. |
| 9. | Small Pica. |
| 10. | Pica. |
| 11. | English. |
| 12. | Columbian. |
| 13. | Great Primer. |
| 14. | Paragon. |
| 15. | Double Small Pica. |
| 16. | Double Pica. |
| 17. | Double English. |
| 18. | Double Great Primer. |
| 19. | Double Paragon. |
| 20. | Canon. |
Besides the foregoing, a smaller size than Diamond, called Brilliant, is now cast in the foundry of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan of Philadelphia, the body of which is just one-half of Minion. Even this is surpassed in smallness by a music type cast in the same foundry, named Excelsior, which is precisely one-half the size of Nonpareil. Another size omitted in the list is Minionette, (equivalent to six of the Didot points,) which is next above Nonpareil.
Canon is conceded to have been first produced by a French artisan, and was probably used in some work relating to the canons of the church; to which the German title, Missal, alludes.