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.
Reed, Talbot Baines
Printing -- England -- History; Type and type-founding -- England -- History
Types in this character existed at an early date, a _Psalter_ having
been printed at Cracow in 1491, and reprinted at Montenegro in 1495.
In 1512 the _Gospels_ were printed at Ugrovallachia, and again in
1552 at Belgrade, and in 1562 at Montenegro. There was, in 1553, a
Sclavonic press established by the Czar Ivan Vasilievitch at Moscow,
whence, in 1564, appeared the _Acts and Epistles_, a volume which has
the distinction of being the first book printed in Russia. The type and
material for this press are said to have been brought from Copenhagen.
The first Russian printers were persecuted, but succeeded in producing
several other works in Sclavonic type. In 1581 the first _Bible_ in
that language was printed at Ostrog, and after that printing became
more general. The second Moscow press, established in 1644, was famous
for its excellent typography; the second edition of the _Bible_, in
1663, is a splendid performance. Sclavonic printing appears to have
been but little practised out of Russia, yet we find matrices with
Voskens of Amsterdam about 1690; from which, probably, the improved
types introduced into the Moscow press in 1707 were cast.
The only Sclavonic fount in England was that given by Dr. Fell to
Oxford, and this, Mores states, was replaced in 1695 by a fount of
the more modern Russian character, purchased probably at Amsterdam.
The _Oratio Dominica_ of 1700 gives a specimen of this fount, but
renders the Hieronymian version in copperplate. Chamberlayne’s _Oratio
Dominica_ at Amsterdam in 1715 does the same; but the Cyrillian type
differs from that of Oxford. The press of the Propaganda showed founts
both of Cyrillian and Hieronymian in 1753, and founts occur in nearly
all the Polyglot specimens of the chief European foundries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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