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A History of the Old English Letter Foundries: with Notes, Historical and Bibliographical, on the Rise and Progress of English Typography. — John Shaqi

A History of the Old English Letter Foundries: with Notes, Historical and Bibliographical, on the Rise and Progress of English Typography.Reed, Talbot Baines

History

A History of the Old English Letter Foundries: with Notes, Historical and Bibliographical, on the Rise and Progress of English Typography.

Name: A History of the Old English Letter Foundries: with Notes, Historical and Bibliographical, on the Rise and Progress of English Typography.
Author: Reed, Talbot Baines

Reed, Talbot Baines

Printing -- England -- History; Type and type-founding -- England -- History

As early as 1725, in France, an attempt was made to regulate by a
public decree, not only the standard height of a type, but the scale
of bodies. But the system adopted was clumsy, and only added to the
confusion it was designed to remove. Fournier, in 1737, invented his
typographical points, the first successful attempt at a mathematical
systematisation of type-bodies, which has since, with the alternative
system of Didot, done much in simplifying French typography. England,
Germany, and Holland have been more conservative, and therefore less
fortunate. Attempts were made by Fergusson in 1824,[61] and by Bower
of Sheffield about 1840,[62] and others, to arrive at a standard of
uniformity; but their schemes were not warmly taken up, and failed.

Before proceeding to a brief historical notice of the different
English type-bodies, we shall trouble the reader with a further
table, compiled from specimen-books of the 18th century, showing what
have been the names of the corresponding bodies in the foundries of
other nations,—premising, however, that these names must be taken as
representing the approximate, rather than the actual, equivalent in
each case[63]:―

 +────────────────────────+─────────────────────────────────────────+────────────────────+─────────────────────────────+
 │        ENGLISH.        │       FRENCH.        │     GERMAN.      │       DUTCH.       │   ITALIAN.    │  SPANISH.   │
 +────────────────────────+──────────────────────+──────────────────+────────────────────+───────────────+─────────────+
 │ 1. French Canon.       │Double Canon.         │Kleine Missal.    │Parys Kanon.        │Reale.         │    ....     │
 │ 2. 2-line Double Pica. │Gros Canon.           │Große Canon.      │Groote Kanon.       │Corale.        │Canon Grande.│
 │ 3. 2-line Great Primer.│Trismegiste.          │Kleine Canon.     │Kanon.              │Canone.        │Canon.       │
 │ 4. 2-line English.     │Petit Canon.          │Doppel Mittel.    │Dubbelde Augustyn.  │Sopracanoncino.│Peticano.    │
 │ 5. 2-line Pica.        │Palestine.            │Roman.            │Dubbelde Mediaan.   │Canoncino.     │    ....     │
 │ 6. Double Pica.        │Gros Parangon.        │Text or Secunda.  │Dubbelde Descendiaan│Ascendonica.   │Misal.       │
 │                        │                      │                  │ (or Ascendonica).  │               │             │
 │ 7. Paragon.            │Petit Parangon.       │Parangon.         │Parangon.           │Parangone.     │Parangona.   │
 │ 8. Great Primer.       │Gros Romain.          │Tertia.           │Text.               │Testo.         │Texto.       │
 │ 9. (Large English.)    │Gros Texte.           │Große Mittel.     │        ....        │Soprasilvio.   │    ....     │
 │ 9. English.            │St. Augustin.         │Kleine Mittel.    │Augustyn.           │Silvio.        │Atanasia.    │
 │10. Pica.               │Cicero.               │Cicero.           │Mediaan.            │Lettura.       │Lectura.     │
 │11.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

A History of the Old English Letter Foundries: with Notes, Historical and Bibliographical, on the Rise and Progress of English Typography.

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