The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His AssociatesDe Vinne, Theodore Low
History
The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates
De Vinne, Theodore Low
Incunabula -- Bibliography; Printing -- History -- Origin and antecedents
This Type V seems to have been more frequently used than any other
type in the list, but it was always on petty books or pamphlets. One
book printed in it has only twenty-four pages, but it is made up of
four distinct tracts: _William of Saliceto on the Health of the Body_;
_Torquemada on the Health of the Soul_; _A Treatise on Love, etc., by
Pope Pius II_; _The Iliad of Homer_, or more definitely, a commendation
of the _Iliad_. Two editions of this book have been discovered. A
fragment of one edition was found in the binding of a work printed by
Jan Andrieszoon, of Haarlem, in the year [p288] 1486. Another book in
the same type, which consists of ten leaves, contains an abridgment
or an epitome of the _Iliad_, with a preface by Pius II in praise of
Homer. Of this book two editions were printed. Six editions of the
_Donatus_, four editions of the _Doctrinal of Alexander Gallus_, and
one edition of the _Couplets of Cato_ were also printed in this type.
[Illustration: Type V. Fac-simile of the Types of the Epitaphs of Pope
Pius II.
[From Koning.]]
TYPE VI. An edition of the _Donatus_, twenty-seven lines to the page,
is the only known book in this type, which was founded on Great-primer
body.
TYPE VII. Four leaves of a _Donatus_ on vellum, taken from the binding
of a book printed in Strasburg in the year 1493, and belonging to a
convent in North Brabant, are all that is known of this type, which
closely resembles the character described as Type V.
TYPE VIII.[147] Impressions from this face of type have been found
in the fragments of only two books. Two broad bands of parchment
printed upon one side only with the text of a [p289] _Donatus_,
which were discovered in the cover linings of a manual of devotion,
printed at Delft in 1484, are the only known relics of one of these
books. The types are barbarous, of singularly ungraceful cut, of
uneven height and out of line, evidently founded by a man who had no
skill in type-founding. They are printed in pale ink which is readily
removed by the application of water. The presswork is as slovenly as
the type-founding, but the composition was done with some care and
intelligence. The lines of type are nearly even as to length, and the
words, when broken, are properly divided in syllables. It is evident
that the compositor knew how to space and divide words, but the
font of type that he used was not provided with hyphens or marks of
punctuation. The fashion of the letter is in the Dutch style as may be
seen in the final _t_ with the perpendicular bar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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