II., published in 1722, carried on the work to 1536; dedicated to William, Duke of Devonshire, who had been Maittaire’s school-fellow at Westminster. Volume III., published in 1725, brought down the work to 1557. Volume IV. was completed in 1727, being the conclusion of the Annals, extending to the year 1664; this and the other volumes were published at the Hague.
The completion of this work left him in excellent spirits, as we may judge from his letter to the antiquary, Rev. William Stukeley, M.D., dated October 26, 1727:[1]—
“Dear Doctor, — When I look upon the date of your obliging letter, I am ashamed not to have answered it sooner. I heartily thank you for thinking a poor old friend worth your attention, especially when you have (as I perceive by your letter) so many delightful objects about you to engage it much better. The few friends I have (among whom I desire still to reckon you) are not increased since you left the town. I am too old now to create new friendships; and as the world now goes, a few good ones are best. Among those of your profession I stick still to honest Dr. Hale, who hath not been so fickle and inconstant as to cast me off. I will not turn my letter into a newspaper; you have (no doubt) enough of them in the country, and I live too much retired to be able to be a news-writer. My conversation never did, nor doth, much lie that way; I had rather read the ingenious description you give of your country villa than all the North and South news which stuff our daily papers. Your invitation thither is what I wish I could comply with; but the little businesses which still chain me to the town will not let me enjoy that happiness. Besides, there is a sort of laziness attends one who grows old, which maketh him loth to change his sedentary life. The disposition of your rural house (and none better fitted for those things than yourself) and your suitable inscriptions please me well. The criticism you make upon Horace (in the beautiful antithesis of te and me) and the parallel places you bring to prove it, convince me of the truth of your reading.
“I shall now close my letter with answering the kind conclusion of yours, whereby you are pleased to continue as a subscriber to whatever I publish — by which I see that distance of place makes no alteration in your friendship. I am just rid of my last volume of the Annales Typographici, and am ready to put to the press a New Edition of Marmora Oxoniensia, by subscription, every copy Large Paper, the same as what I have used before in the books you have been so kind to subscribe to. The copies of these books will be as few as I can, and for no other but subscribers; for I value more the opportunity of experiencing the kindness of my friends than the vain name of an author. I will make bold to acquaint you by a letter with my Proposals when they are ready.
“After having robbed you of some minutes (and it is a pity any moment of that time you spend so usefully and agreeably should be lost) by this homely scribble, give me leave to subscribe myself, with the honesty and sincerity of a friend, dear worthy Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant,
“M. Maittaire.”
The “Marmora Oxoniensia” consisted of descriptions and engravings of the Arundel Marbles and similar treasures possessed by Oxford University, prepared for the press and published by Prideaux (afterwards the famous Dean Prideaux) in 1676. Maittaire’s edition contained additions and valuable notes concerning the ancient inscriptions. It was published in 1732, and is considered to be superior, not only to the first edition, but to the later edition produced by Dr. Richard Chandler in 1763. (Marmorum Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi donatorum, &c, folio, 1732. Appendix, folio, 1733. Antiquae Inscriptiones Duae, Graeca altera, altera Latina, folio, 1742.)
In 1733 Mr. Maittaire began a new and enlarged edition of Annales Typographici, published at Amsterdam; the first volume included the period from 1457 to 1500. Three volumes followed (which I have not seen) continuing the work to 1697. It was completed in a fifth volume consisting of an elaborate index, published in London [Londini, apud Gul. Darres et Cl. Du Bosc, mdccxli.]. Each volume comprised two voluminous parts, so that this great work was really in ten volumes. The index was truly colossal, though he sent it to Sir Richard Ellys along with an epigram, beginning thus:—
Chare Eques, indiculum (munus leve) mitto librorum.
It will be observed that the new edition specifies an earlier date than the first for the invention of printing, but yet not early enough, as appears from a letter of Maittaire’s friend Rev. John Lewis, to Joseph Ames, Secretary to the Antiquarian Society, and at a later date the author of “Typographical Antiquities;” in this letter Lewis (a learned man and a useful author) says, on 18th November 1743:[2]—
“Mr. Maittaire has said that he knows of no impression of any book before 1457; yet he owns it is not to be doubted but that before that time a great many printed books were extant. Would it not then have been better not to have said so positively that the useful and invaluable art of printing was first invented anno 1457?
