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
The eight faces of types show their relation to each other, not only
by common features, but by the occasional appearance of two faces
in one book. That they were never used by any printer of Germany,
nor by any known printer of the Netherlands, is acknowledged even by
those who dispute their age. That they were founded and used in the
Netherlands, and probably in Holland, may rightfully be inferred from
the language of two editions of the same book, from the Dutch fashion
of the letters in all the books, and from the fact that all existing
copies or fragments of works in these types have been discovered in
the Netherlands. That they were the work of one printer, or of the
successors of that printer, is highly probable. But this admission
involves difficulties. These eight faces of types were founded on
as many different bodies: four of these faces are on bodies nearly
the size of English; two of them are on bodies about the size of
Great-primer. The modern printer is at a loss to imagine why his
unknown predecessor should have cut so many punches and made so many
fonts of types with faces closely resembling each other, yet so unlike
that they could not be used together. His perplexity is increased when
he discovers, after careful measurement, that each face on English
body and each face on Great-primer body was cast in a new or different
mould. It would seem that the unknown printer of the _Speculum_ not
only incurred the needless expense of cutting new punches and making
new moulds for every new font of types, but that he intentionally
introduced in his printing office bodies so nearly alike that they
could not, in the shape of single types, be distinguished apart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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