Syriac did not make its appearance in England till the middle of the seventeenth century. The language was usually expressed in the earlier works in Hebrew characters. A letter of Bishop Usher’s, in 1637, mentions a project to {68} purchase Syriac type abroad, and negotiations appear to have been made both in Paris (where the Bishop’s correspondent informed him there were at that time three or four founts) and at Geneva, with a view to procuring the characters.[132] But it was not till the prospectus and preliminary specimen of Walton’s _Polyglot_ were issued in 1652 that we find Syriac type in use in this country. The _Polyglot_ contains the entire Bible in Syriac. In 1661 there was a fount at Oxford, which appears in Pocock’s _Carmen Tograi_, and differs from the fount subsequently presented by Dr. Fell,[133] which was used in the _Oratio Dominica_ of 1700, and other Oriental publications of the University. The _Polyglot_ fount[134] found its way to Caslon’s foundry, who added two new founts of his own cutting. In 1778 Mores noted six founts altogether in the country. A fresh interest was taken in Syriac printing by the exertions of Dr. Claudius Buchanan, who, in 1815, had the _Gospels and Acts_ printed in types cut and cast under his supervision by Vincent Figgins. After his death, his work fell into the hands of Dr. Lee to complete, who, objecting to the omission of the vowel points, printed the entire _New Testament_ in 1816. In 1825 Dr. Fry produced the beautiful Nonpareil Syriac for _Bagster’s Polyglot_, and in 1829 Mr. Watts cast the fount of Estranghelo for the edition of the _Bible_ published that year, which at the time was the only Syriac Bible in Nestorian characters printed in this country. ARMENIAN. The press of the Vatican at Rome possessed a good fount of this character in 1591, when Angelo Roccha showed a specimen in his _Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana_. Previous to this a _Psalter_ is said to have been printed at Rome in 1565, and Rowe Mores mentions doubtfully a _Liturgy_ printed at Cracow in 1549. In 1662 the Armenian Bishops applied to France for assistance in printing an Armenian Bible, but being refused, although Armenian printing had been practised in Paris in 1633, went to Rome, where, as early as 1636, the press of the Propaganda had published a specimen of its Armenian matrices. The Patriarch, after fifteen months’ residence in Rome, removed to Amsterdam, where he established an Armenian press, and printed the _Bible_ in 1666, followed, in 1668, by a separate edition of the _New Testament_. In 1669 the press was set up at Marseilles, where it continued for a time, and was ultimately removed to Constantinople.