After 1602 no serious attempt had been made to complete the translation of the Scriptures into Irish until Dr. Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore, undertook the task about 1630. For this purpose, being then at the age of 57, he devoted himself to the study of the language, and having secured the assistance of Mr. King and the Rev. Denis Sheridan, both eminent Irish scholars, the translation of the _Old Testament_ was completed in 1640. Bedell, we are informed “determined to publish the version immediately at his own expense and in his own house, and made an agreement with a person who undertook to print it: the types were even sent for to Holland.”[352] But the troubles and persecutions of the ensuing year, followed closely by the death of the Bishop, hindered the design, and the manuscript lay neglected for forty years.[353] {189} In the year 1680, the _New Testament_ of 1602 being then entirely out of print,[354] and no Irish types being available, the illustrious Robert Boyle determined on republishing it at his own expense. To this end he caused a fount of Irish type to be cut and cast in London, and had an able printer instructed in the language for the purpose of printing it. Moxon was the founder selected to produce the types, and the result was the curious Irish fount of which the matrices formed part of his foundry. With this type Boyle is said to have had the _Church Catechism_, with the _Elements of the Irish Language_, printed in 1680,[355] and in the following year was issued in London, with a preface in Irish and English, the new edition of Daniel’s Irish _New Testament_.[356] [Illustration: 45. Moxon’s Irish fount, from the original punches.] “God hath raised up,” says this preface, “the generous Spirit of Robert Boyle, Esq., son to the Right Honourable Richard, Earl of Cork, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, renowned for his Piety and Learning, who hath caused the same Book of the New Testament to be Reprinted at his proper Cost; And as well for that purpose, as for Printing the _Old Testament_, and what other Pious Books shall be thought convenient to be published in the Irish Tongue, has caused a New Set of fair Irish Characters to be Cast in London, and an able Printer to be instructed in the way of Printing this Language.” The printer was Robert Everingham,[357] at the Seven Stars, in Ave Maria Lane, who in 1685 was further employed by Boyle to print, in the same Irish {190} types,[358] Bishop Bedell’s translation of the _Old Testament_,[359] the manuscript of which had fortunately been preserved. The whole _Bible_ being thus complete, it was issued in two 4to volumes, and in 1690 was reprinted in Roman characters at Everingham’s press for the use of the Highlanders.[360]