TYPE 1.—This type, as already pointed out, was never used in England, but appears in the works of the Bruges press between the years 1472 and a date later than 1476. Bernard considers that it was modelled on the handwriting of Colard Mansion. Although this type was chiefly used by Mansion, Caxton appears to have used it in at least two English books printed under Mansion’s roof, the _Recuyell_ and the _Chess Book_, the former of which was the first book printed in the English language. The body of the type corresponds to the present Great Primer; and a fount comprised 163 sorts, of which a considerable number were varieties of the same letters, “there being only five sorts for which there were not more than one matrix, either as single letters or in combination.” TYPE 2 was the fount with which Caxton printed, in 1477, at Westminster, the _Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers_. Although this is the first dated book printed in England, there is some reason for supposing that the undated _Jason_, and possibly some of the small quarto poems, printed in the same type may have preceded it. The fount was cut probably by Colard Mansion, in imitation of the Gros Bâtarde type already in use at his press, but in a smaller size; and it is supposed that before Caxton brought it over to England it had been used at Bruges to print _Les Quatre Derrenieres Choses_. Twenty works in all are known to have been printed in Type 2, which is on a body equal to two-line Long Primer, or “Paragon,” and consists of 217 sorts. The capital letters are extremely irregular, not only in size but in design, some being of the simplest possible construction, while others have spurs, lines and flourishes. It was used from 1477 to 1479, when, on its becoming worn out, selected letters were trimmed up with a graver, new matrices formed, and a recasting made. {87} This recasting, known as Type 2*, is the same body as Type 2, but in all cases the letters are slightly thinner, while in the case of ascending and descending types it is found that the process of trimming has resulted in the amputation of certain portions of the letters. There are also some thirty-seven sorts more in the second fount, consisting largely of double and compound letters, which do not appear in the first. To Type 2* belongs the honour of being in all probability the first fount _cast_ in England. It was used from 1479 to 1481, and nine books are known to have been printed in it, including the second edition of the _Game and Play of the Chesse_, from which Mr. Vincent Figgins[154] in 1855 took the models for his facsimile of the “Caxton Black.”