chapters are wholly in capitals. The Anthologia graeca of Lascaris
was printed at Florence in 1494 wholly in Greek capitals
(litterae majusculae), and it is stated in the preface that they were
designed after the genuine models of antiquity to be found in the
inscriptions on medals, marbles, &c. But as late as 1493 Greek type
was not common, for in that year the Venice printer Symon Bevilaqua
issued Tibullus, Catullus and Propertius with blanks left in the commentary
for the Greek quotations. In England Greek letters appeared
for the first time in 1519 in W. de Worde's edition of Rob.
Whittington's Grammatica, where a few words are introduced cut
in wood. Cast types were used at Cambridge in Galen's De temperamentis,
translated by Linacre, and printed by Siberch in 1521, who
styles himself the first Greek printer in England; but the quotations
in the Galen are very sparse, and Siberch is not known to have
printed any entire book in Greek. The first printer who possessed
Greek types in any quantity was Reginald Wolfe, who held a royal
patent as printer in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, and printed in
1543 two Homilies of Chrysostom, edited by Sir John Cheke, the
first Greek lecturer at Cambridge. In Edinburgh, in 1563, and as
late as 1579, the space for Greek words was left blank in printing,
to be filled in by hand.
The Oxford University Press, re-established in 1585, was well supplied with Greek types, which were used in the Chrysostom of 1586. About 1607 Sir Henry Savile introduced Greek types (vulgarly called on account of their beauty “the silver letter”) into Eton College, for printing his edition of St Chrysostom (8 vols., 1610-1613, John Norton), and other Greek authors. He afterwards presented this type to the university of Oxford. In 1632 Cambridge applied to Oxford for the loan of a Greek fount to print a Greek Testament, and the same university made an offer in 1700 for the purchase of a fount of the king's Greek at Paris, but withdrew on the French Academy insisting as a condition that every work printed should bear the imprint “characteribus Graecis e typographeo regio Parisiensi.” It should not be forgotten that the large number of ligatures in the Greek of that day made the production of a fount a serious business. The Oxford Augustin Greek comprised no fewer than 354 matrices, the great primer 456, and Fournier's fount showed even 776 different sorts. The Dutch founders effected a gradual reduction of the Greek typographical ligatures. Early in the 19th century a new fashion of Greek, for which Porson was sponsor and furnished the drawings, was introduced, and has remained the prevailing form to this day. Cf. Rob. Proctor, The Printing of Greek in the XVth Century, folio (Oxford, 1900).
The first Hebrew types are generally supposed to have appeared in 1475 in Petrus Niger's Tractatus contra perjidos Judaeos (leaf 10), printed by Conrad Fyner at Esslingen. De Rossi states that a Hebrew work in four folio volumes entitled Arba Turim, of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, was printed in 1475 at Pieve di Hebrew. Sacco in Austrian Italy, while in the same year, a few months earlier, Salomon Jarchi's Comment. on the Pentateuch appeared at Reggio in Italy, printed in the Rabbinical character. Numerous other Hebrew works followed before 1488, in which year the first entire Hebrew Bible was printed, with points, at Soncino, by a family of German Jews. The first English book in which any quantity of Hebrew type was used was Dr Rhys's Cambro-Brytannicae Cymraecaeve linguae institutiones, printed by Thomas Orwin in 1592, though already in 1524 Hebrew characters, but cut on small blocks of wood, were used by W. de Worde in Rob. Wakefield's Oratio. The Hebrew fount made use of in Walton's Polyglott in 1657 was probably the first important fount cut and cast in England, though there were as yet no matrices there for Rabbinical Hebrew. In the beginning of the 18th century Amsterdam was the centre of the best Hebrew printing in Europe.
The first book printed in Arabic types is said to be a Diurnale Graecarum Arabum, printed at Fano in Italy in 1514.[1] Two years later P. P. Porrus's Polyglott Psalter, comprising the Arabic version, was printed at Genoa; and two years later a Koran in Arabic is said to have been printed at Venice. In Arabic. 1505 an Arabic Vocabulary at Granada had the words printed in Gothic letters with the Arabic points placed over them; and in other presses where there were no Arabic types the language was expressed in Hebrew letters or cut in wood. De Guignes and others mention a fount of Arabic used by Gromors in Paris in 1539-1540 to print Postel's Grammar. In England some Arabic words were introduced in Wakefield's Oratio of 1524, but apparently cut on small blocks of wood. In Minsheu's Ductor in linguas, 1617, the Arabic words are printed in Italic characters. Laud's gift of Oriental MSS. to Oxford in 1635, and the appointment of an Arabic lecturer, were the first real incentives to the cultivation of the language by English scholars. Previous to this it is stated that the Raphelengius Arabic Press at Leiden had been purchased by the English Orientalist, William Bedwell; but, if it was brought to England, it does not appear to have been immediately made use of. The Arabic words in Thomas Greave's Oratio de linguae Arabicae utilitate, printed at Oxford in 1639, were written in by hand.
Syriac type, probably cut in wood, first appeared in Postel's Linguarum XII. Alphabeta, printed in Paris in 1538; but the characters are so rude in form and execution as to be scarcely legible. In 1555, however, Postel assisted in cutting the punches for the Syriac Peshito New Testament, printed at Vienna in 4to, the first Syriac. portion of the Scriptures, and apparently the first book, printed in that language. In 1569-1572 Plantin at Antwerp included the Syriac New Testament in his Polyglott, and reissued) it in a separate form in 1574. In England Syriac was usually expressed in the earlier works in Hebrew characters. But in 1652, when the prospectus and preliminary specimen of Walton's Polyglott were issued, we find Syriac type in use.
Of the Armenian character the press of the Vatican possessed a good fount in 1591, when Angelo Roccha showed a specimen in his Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. A psalter is said to have been printed at Rome in 1565, and Rowe Mores mentions doubtfully a liturgy printed at Cracow in 1549. Armenian Armenian. printing was practised in Paris in 1633; but the Armenian bishops, on applying to France for assistance in printing an Armenian Bible, in 1662, were refused, and went to Rome, where, as early as 1636, the press of the Propaganda had published a specimen of its Armenian matrices. The patriarch, after fifteen months' residence in Rome, removed to Amsterdam, where he established an Armenian press, and printed the Bible in 1666, which was followed in 1668 by a separate edition of the New Testament. In 1669 the press was set up at Marseilles, where it continued for a time, and was ultimately removed to Constantinople. In England the first Armenian type was that presented by Dr Fell to Oxford in 1667. The alphabgt given in the prolegomena of Walton's Polyglott was cut in wood.
Of Ethiopic the earliest type appeared in Potken's Psalter and Song of Solomon, printed at Rome in 1513. The work was reprinted at Cologne, in 1518, in Potken's Polyglott Psalter. In 1548 the New Testament was printed at Rome by some Abyssinian priests. The press of the Propaganda issued a specimen Ethiopic. of its fount in 1631, and again in Kircher's Prodromus Coptus in 1636. Erpenius at Leiden had an Ethiopic fount, which in 1626 was acquired by the Elzevirs. Usher attempted to procure the fount for England; but, his attempt failing, punches were cut and matrices prepared by the London founders for the London Polyglott, which showed the Psalms, Canticles and New Testament in the Ethiopic version.
Of Coptic the press of the Propaganda possessed a fount, and a specimen was issued in 1636, in which year also Kircher's Prodromus Coptus appeared from the same press. In England David Wilkins's edition of the New Testament was printed in 1716 from Coptic types cast with matrices which Dr Fell Coptic. had presented to Oxford in 1667. The alphabets shown in the introduction and prolegomena to the London Polyglott of 1655 and 1657 were cut in wood.
Of Samaritan the press of the Propaganda had a fount in 1636, and the Paris Polyglott, completed in 1645, contained the entire Pentateuch in type, the punches and matrices of which had been specially prepared under Le Jay's direction. The fount used for the London Polyglott in 1657 is admitted to have Samaritan. been an English production, and was probably cut under the supervision of Usher.
With Slavonic type a psalter was printed at Cracow as early as
1491, and reprinted in Montenegro in 1495. The only Slavonic
fount in Eng and was that given by Dr Fell to Oxford,
and this, Mores states, was replaced in 1695 by a fount
of the more modern Russian character, purchased probably at
Slavonic.
Russian.
Amsterdam. The Oratio Dominica in 1700 gives a specimen of
this fount, but renders the Hieronymian version in
copper-plate. Modern Slavonic, better known as
Russian, is said to have appeared first in portions of the Old Testament,
printed at Prague in 1517-1519. Ten years later there was
Russian type in Venice. A Russian press was established at Stockholm
in 1625, and in 1696 there were matrices in Amsterdam, from
which came the types used in Ludolph's Grammatica Russica,
printed at Oxford in that year, and whence also, it is said, the types
were procured which furnished the first St Petersburg press, established
in 1711 by Peter the Great. Mores notes that in 1778 there
was no Russian type in England, but that Cottrell was at that time
engaged in preparing a fount. It does not appear that this project
was carried out, and the earliest Russian in England was cut by
Dr Fry from alphabets in the Vocabularia, collected and published
for the empress of Russia in 1786-1789. This fount appeared in the
Pantographia in 1799.
A fount of the Etruscan character cut by William Caslon about 1733 for Swinton of Oxford was apparently the first produced. Fournier in 1766 showed an alphabet engraved in metal or wood. In 1771 the Propaganda published a specimen of their fount, and Bodoni of Parma in 1806 exhibited a third in Etruscan. his Oratio Dominica.
Runic types were first used at Stockholm in a Runic and Swedish Alphabetarium, printed in 1611. The fount, which was cast at the expense of the king, was afterwards acquired by the university. About the same time Runic type was used at Upsala and at Copenhagen. Voskens of Amsterdam had Runic. matrices about the end of that century, and it was from Holland that Francis Junius is supposed to have procured the matrices
which, in 1677, he presented to Oxford. This fount appears in the- ↑ See Panzer vii. 2.
