the four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, according to the Codex Bezæ. This work was printed at Cambridge, in 1793, in two volumes folio, on the most beautiful paper. It is at once a splendid ornament to the university press, and an unrivalled specimen of typographic excellence. The practice of fac-simile printing has chiefly been confined to the rarest MSS.; which, being liable to decay, have thus been preserved for every valuable purpose of collation. § 4. PRINTING in gold letters.-A splendid mode of printing in burnished gold letters has recently been invented by Mr. John Whitaker, an ingenious bookbinder, which ought not to pass unnoticed in a retrospect of the improvements in the typographic art. Mr. W. has issued proposals for an edition of Magna Charta, (from the original MS. deposited in the British Museum), to be executed after his improved method, on royal purple satin, and on superfine vellum paper: the specimens we have seen are truly superb, and reflect the highest honour on the artist'. ' M. Crapelet, a celebrated Parisian printer, well-known for the beautiful editions which have issued from his press, made several experiments towards printing in golden letters: at length he succeeded, and executed in this style twelve copies of Audebert's and Viellot's Oiseaux Dorés. Cailleau, however, SECTION VIL Observations on early Printers and Printing. AFTER the introduction of printing into Europe, the scribes exerted their utmost efforts to excel in their profession, in order that they might retain their rank in society: but they were soon obliged to yield to the superior utility of the press; as the works performed by it were sold at a much cheaper rate than could possibly be afforded by the scribes. In the early stages of typography, the name of the printer, his place of residence, and the date of his performance, were generally inserted at the end of each book, and not unfrequently accompanied by some pious doxology or ejaculation, in prose or in verse'. does not speak in the most favourable terms of these typographical refinements. Cailleau, Dict. Bibl. tom. iv. p. 36. Mr. Thomas (Hist. of Print. in America, vol. i. p. 159) has given the following curious couplet; which, he states, is to be found in the edition of the "Pragmatic Sanction," printed by Andrew Bocard at Paris, in 1507. "Stet liber hic, donec fluctus formica marinos Imitated. May this volume continue in motion, Till an ant to the dregs drinks the ocean, At The antient printers did not divide words at the ends of lines by hyphens; but, in order to compress as much as possible within a given compass, they made use of vowels with a mark of abbreviation, which denoted that one or more letters were omitted in the syllable where it was placed. For instance, dño for domino; volūtas for voluntas; c' for cum; quib for quibus; decorat' for decoratus; rubricationibusqs for rubricationibusque; scipit for concipit: õpum for christum; ee for esse; sc. for et cetera; Pponatur for proponatur; puipedere, for paruipendere, &c. Thierri Martens, of Alost, abounded particularly in these abbreviations. At length the great number and variety of them, which were gradually introduced, created such obstacles, as the most dexterous and persevering readers only could overcome. At the foot of the title-page of the Prymer of Salisbury, 1533, there is the following remarkable prayer : God be in my bede, And in my understandynge. God be in my eyen, And in my lokynge. God be in my mouthe, And in my spekynge. God be in my herte, And in my thinkinge. God be at myn ende, And at my departynge. . Both in manuscripts and in the printed books of the fifteenth century, the vowels and consonants, u and v, i and j, are confounded together, and indifferently used the one for the other: the diphthongs æ and a do not occur, their place being supplied either by the simple e, or by ae and oe; c was often used for t, as nacio for natio, oracio for oratio; phantasma was spelled fantasma; michi, nichil, for mihi, nihil; stemplatio, cotidiana, servicia, sompnum, for contemplatio, quotidiana, servitia, somnum, &c. &c. For many years after the introduction of the art into this country, the English printing was inferior to that executed on the continent: Caxton's types are greatly inferior, in point of beauty, to the black letter of Jenson and Koeburger' these latter, (Mr. Dibdin observes) have a squareness, firmness, and brilliancy of effect, which are not to be discovered in the works of our typographer. He thinks it probable, however, that much of the superiority of effect, in point of beauty, discernible in the works of foreign printers of this period, arises from the excellence of the paper and press-work. That perfect order and symmetry of press-work, so immediately striking in the pages of foreign books of this period, are in vain to be sought I See a brief notice of these eminent printers, in the Appendix, No. VII. for among the volumes which have issued from Caxton's press; and the uniform rejection of the Roman letter, when it was so successfully introduced by the Spiras, Jenson, and Sweynheym and Pannartz, is unquestionably a blemish in our typographer's reputation. But on the other hand (continues Mr. D.) whenever we meet with good copies of his books, his type has a bold and rich effect, which renders their perusal less painful than that of many foreign productions, where the angular sharpness of the letters somewhat dazzles and hurts the eye. Caxton's ink is of a very inferior quality: he probably imported it, and in consequence was left at the mercy of his agents-to receive what had been discarded by other printers'. Caxton's books are printed on paper made from the paste of linen rags, very fine and good, and not unlike the thin vellum, on which MSS. were at that time usually written. His first performances are very rude and barbarous: he used a letter resembling the hand-writing then in use. His d at the end of a word is very singular he employed the characteristics which we find in English MSS. before the conquest; and instead of commas and periods, he used an oblique stroke, which is to this day retained 8 Dibdin's Ames, vol. I. p. cxxvi. |