TYPE 4.—This letter was in use by Caxton from 1480 to 1484, and there is strong reason for believing that (whatever may have been the case with Type 3) it was both cut and cast in this country. That Caxton possessed punches of it {88} appears highly probable from the fact that in the recasting of the fount as Type 4* we do not find the face of the old letters to have been trimmed up, as was the case with Type 2*. On the contrary, as far as face is concerned, the two founts are identical—a result which could hardly be expected had the matrices for the second fount been produced by any means but a re-striking of the original punches. The fount is smaller in size than Type 2, though the design is similar. It consists of 194 sorts, of which seven were not re-struck for 4*. Ten works were wholly printed in Type 4, and two partly in 4 and 4*. The one difference between the first and second fount is, that whereas Type 4 is very close to English body, Type 4* is cast on a body equal to two-lines Minion; or more precisely, nineteen types of Type 4* are equivalent to twenty types of Type 4. It appears, therefore, that, either purposely or accidentally, Caxton shifted his mould between the two castings. It is easy to imagine that his supply of moulds might be very limited; and even that it might be limited to but one mould capable of being varied in “body,” as well as in “thickness,” which he would adapt as necessity required to cast any size of letter; so that if, for instance, after casting Type 4, he had had occasion to “break” his mould in order to cast some additional letters in Type 3, he might easily fail to readjust it to the precise body of his former fount, particularly if he used a worn or foul type by which to “set” it. The fact that in the _Confessio Amantis_, and the _Knight of the Tower_, both castings are used, shows at least that 4* was intended to supplement, rather than replace its predecessor. Besides the two partly printed works, sixteen entire works were printed in Type 4* between 1483–85, from one of which, the _Golden Legend_, our facsimile, No. 16, is taken. TYPE 5.—In this fount the “Lettre de Forme,” first introduced with Type 3, reappears in a smaller, but very similar form. Eleven books were printed in it between about 1487–91, the majority of which were Latin works of devotion. The body is rather larger than two-line Brevier, and the fount consists of only 153 sorts, there being very few double letters. With this fount is a set of bold Lombardic capitals, cast full on the body, and used as initials. These Caxton afterwards cut down for quadrats, shortening them, as was usual at that time, at the foot-end of the type, and so not destroying the face.