Moxon's mechanick exercises, volume 1 (of 2) : $b The doctrine of handy-works applied to the art of printingMoxon, Joseph
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Moxon's mechanick exercises, volume 1 (of 2) : $b The doctrine of handy-works applied to the art of printing
Moxon, Joseph
Printing -- Early works to 1800
Besides, Since the late made _Dutch-Letters_ are so generally, and
indeed most deservedly accounted the best, as for their Shape,
consisting so exactly of Mathematical Regular Figures as aforesaid,
And for the commodious Fatness they have beyond other _Letters_, which
easing the Eyes in Reading, renders them more Legible; As also the
true placing their Fats and their Leans, with the sweet driving them
into one another, and indeed all the accomplishments that can render
_Letter_ regular and beautiful, do more visibly appear in them than in
any _Letters_ Cut by any other People: And therefore I think we may
account the Rules they were made by, to be the Rules of true shap’d
_Letters_.
For my own part, I liked their _Letters_ so well, especially those that
were Cut by _Christophel Van Dijck_ of _Amsterdam_, that I set my self
to examine the Proportions of all and every the parts and Members of
every _Letter_, and was so well pleased with the Harmony and Decorum
of their Symetrie, and found so much Regularity in every part, and so
good reason for his Order and Method, that I examined the biggest of
his _Letters_ with Glasses, which so magnified the whole _Letter_,
that I could easily distinguish, and with small Deviders measure off
the size, scituation and form of every part, and the proportion every
part bore to the whole; and for my own future satisfaction collected my
Observations into a Book, which I have inserted in my _Exercises_ on
_Letter-Cutting_. For therein I have exhibited to the World the true
Shape of _Christophel Van Dijcks_ aforesaid _Letters_, largely Engraven
in Copper Plates.
Whence I conclude, That since common consent of Book-men assign the
Garland to the _Dutch-Letters_ as of late _Cut_, and that now those
_Letters_ are reduced unto a Rule, I think the Objection is Answered;
And our _Master-Printers_ care in the choice of good and true shap’d
_Letters_ is no difficult Task: For if it be a large Bodied _Letter_,
as _English_, _Great-Primmer_ and upwards, it will shew it self; and
if it be small, as _Pearl_, _Nomparel_, &c. though it may be difficult
to judge the exact Symetry with the naked Eye, yet by the help of a
_Magnifying-Glass_ or two if occasion be, even those small _Letters_
will appear as large as the biggest Bodied _Letters_ shall to the naked
Eye: And then it will be no difficult Task to judge of the Order and
Decorum even of the smallest Bodied _Letters_. For indeed, to my wonder
and astonishment, I have observ’d _V. Dijcks Pearl Dutch Letters_ in
Glasses that have Magnified them to great _Letters_, and found the
whole Shape bear such true proportion to his great _Letters_, both for
the _Thickness_, _Shape_, _Fats_ and _Leans_, as if with Compasses he
could have measur’d and set off in that small compass every particular
Member, and the true breadth of every _Fat_ and _Lean Stroak_ in each
_Letter_, not to exceed or want (when magnified) of _Letter Cut_ to the
_Body_ it was Magnified to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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