There were four types of handwriting recognized in the manuscripts of the period which we are considering. The first was the book hand. This was the recognized type of script used in the production of books and it existed in two forms, the set or upright in which the letters were carefully formed, held upright, and without ligatures or connecting strokes between letters, and the cursive in which the letters were sloped and ligatured. The second type was the church hand, used for ecclesiastical manuscripts and familiar to us as the Gothic or black letter. This also appears in two forms. Manifestly the Gothic does not lend itself to a cursive form so that the two types which appear are the set or upright, similar in its characteristics to the corresponding book hand, and the ornamental or calligraphic which, as its name implies, was an ornamental type of the set hand. The third type was the letter hand, used by persons who were not professional penmen in correspondence and the ordinary uses to which handwriting is applied. The fourth was the court or charter hand. This hand was used for court records, deeds, charters, and all sorts of legal documents. The first two types were highly conventionalized and left very little to the "hand" as we now say of the individual writer. The third, as might be supposed, while following certain general models offers all the peculiarities of individual handwriting at any age. The fourth is intermediate in regard to its conventionality between the first and second types and the third. These recognized conventional types of handwriting were imitated in the cutting of the blocks. They were also imitated when the letters, instead of being cut in groups on a block to form an inscription, were cut on the ends of single types to be used in printing. The first printing, whether on blocks or from types, was an imitation of manuscript and this determined the letter faces. The early 15th century, then, sees everything prepared for the invention and use of movable types for printing purposes. There is a greater demand for books than the hard working copyists can supply. The idea of making impressions from stamps has become very familiar through long use. Ink and paper suitable for these impressions have been discovered and are obtainable at a reasonable price. The rude presses used for so many other purposes have been adapted to the taking of these impressions. Everything is ready for the invention which is to revolutionize the intellectual life of mankind. SUPPLEMENTARY READING The Story of the Alphabet. Edward Clodd. The Story of Books. G. B. Rawlings. Books in Manuscript. Falconer Madan. Books and Their Makers in the Middle Ages. Vol. I. G. H. Putnam. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Eleventh Edition.