TYPE 6.—This fount was for the most part produced from matrices formed from trimmed-up letters of Types 2 and 2*, supplemented by a few new letters and some from other founts. The body on which it is cast is considerably smaller than Type 2, being nearly a Great Primer as against a two-line Long Primer. This reduction in size necessitated the compression of a number of full-faced letters of the original founts, some of which have been forcibly squeezed into the compass and others truncated. The fount comprises only 141 sorts, {89} and has a set of Lombardic capitals. It was used by Caxton between 1489 and the time of his death in 1491, during which period eighteen works were printed in it. In the _Treatise of Love_, printed in the same type, and supposed to have been produced by De Worde after his master’s death, appears an initial line in a new type, which might be reckoned as Type No. 7; although, if the work was wholly posthumous, its claim to be included as one of Caxton’s founts holds only as regards the cutting and founding of it. [Illustration: 15. Advertisement of William Caxton. Type 3.] [Illustration: 16. From the _Golden Legend_. Westminster, 1482. Caxton Type 4*.] * * * * * Such is a brief summary of the types of our first printer. It would be interesting, were it possible, to continue in an equally detailed manner an examination of the types of all the early English printers. But the rapid increase of printing which followed Caxton’s death would render such a task one of great labour and difficulty. We shall content ourselves with collecting such references to typefounding as may throw general light on the progress of the art during the first century of its existence. We have elsewhere stated our reasons for supposing that the first Oxford press was commenced with types brought from abroad. Of the St. Alban’s printer and his contemporaries, Lettou and Machlinia, in the city of London, we know very little. The types of both presses were extremely rude, and might therefore suggest that an attempt was made to produce them by untrained English artists, or, as is equally probable, that the old and worn-out soft lead types of an earlier printer were made use of. * * * * *