It was then a difficult task to learn any valuable trade. The Star Chamber decree of 1637 ordained that there should be but four type-founders for the kingdom of Great Britain, and the number of their apprentices was restricted. When the Long Parliament met in 1640, the decrees of the Star Chamber were practically dead letters, and for a few years there was free trade in typography. In 1644 the Star Chamber regulations were reimposed; in 1662 they were made more rigorous than ever. The importation of types from abroad without the consent of the Stationers’ Company was prohibited. British printers were compelled to buy the inferior types of English founders, who, secure in their monopoly, did but little for the improvement of printing.[2] It is probable that the attention of Moxon was first drawn to type-founding by the founders themselves, who had to employ mechanics of skill for the making of their molds and other implements of type-casting. In this manner he could have obtained an insight into the mysteries of the art that had been carefully concealed. He did not learn type-making or printing in the usual routine. The records of the Company of Stationers do not show that he was ever made a freeman of that guild, yet he openly carried on the two distinct businesses of type-founding and printing after 1669. It is probable that he had a special permit from a higher authority, for in 1665 he had been appointed hydrographer to the king, and a good salary was given with the office. He was then devoted to the practical side of scientific pursuits, and was deferred to as a man of ability. He published several mathematical treatises between the years 1658 and 1687; one, called “Compendium Euclidis Curiosi,” was translated by him from Dutch into English, and printed in London in 1677. Mores supposes that he had acquired a knowledge of Dutch by residence in Holland, but intimates that he was not proficient in its grammar.[3] In 1676 he published a book on the shapes of letters, with this formidable title: “Regulæ Trium Ordinum Literarum Typographicarum; or the Rules of the Three Orders of Print Letters, viz: the Roman, Italick, English—Capitals and Small; showing how they are Compounded of Geometrick Figures, and mostly made by Rule and Compass. Useful for Writing Masters, Painters, Carvers, Masons and others that are Lovers of Curiosity. By Joseph Moxon, Hydrographer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. Printed for Joseph Moxon on Ludgate Hill, at the Sign of Atlas, 1676.” He then dedicated the book to Sir Christopher Wren, “as a lover of rule and proportion,” or to one who might be pleased with this attempt to make alphabetical letters conform to geometric rules.