their supposed degree of rarity. The following observations on the peculiarities of Caxton's productions are from Lewis's Life of Caxton, p. 124:"As to Mr. Caxton's printing, it has been observed that his first performances are very rude and barbarous. He used a letter resembling the handwriting then in use. His d at the end of a word is very singular (an illustration is given in the work quoted from). He used the characteristics which we find in the English MSS. before the Conquest. Instead of commas and periods, he used a transverse or oblique stroke, thus /, as the Dutch printers do to this day in their gothic impressions. Mr. Palmer observed that he used a letter peculiar to himself, and which is easily known from any other, being a mixture of secretary and gothic as to shape, and sometimes of great primer as to size, especially in printing proper names. He had a way of joining almost any two characters together, which, perhaps, might induce Mr. Bayford to suppose that the types which he used were not distinct or fusible types made of metal and cast in moulds as they are now. In his titles he used the German text, or what our printers call the gothic, of the size of great primer, and sometimes he mixed it with his secretary or common print, as our printers now do the italic. Like the other printers of his time, he never used any direction or catch words, but placed the signatures where that now stands, and rarely numbered his leaves, but never his pages. Mr. Palmer has observed that the Liber Festialis or Festivalis is the only one of his books whose lines are not spaced out to the end, which, he says, is an after improvement and elegancy introduced by Mr. Caxton in imitation of foreign printers. In most of his books which I have seen he only printed, as the custom then was, a small letter at the beginning of his chapters, to intimate what the initial or capital letter should be, and left that to be made by the illuminator, who wrote it with a pen and red, blue, or green ink. Thus are the initial letters in his edition of the Polychronicon made with red ink, but in some of his books he used flourished initials, or what the printers call blooming capitals." See Johnson's Typographia, vol. i. pp. 110, 111, where specimens are given. The following are specimens of the various sized types in use at the present day : Great Primer. PRINTING is the Art of mechanically English. PRINTING is the Art of mechanically multip PRINTING is the Art of mechanically multiplying permanent facsimiles, Minion. PRINTING is the Art of mechanically multiplying permanent facsimiles (in Nonpareil. PRINTING is the Art of mechanically multiplying permanent facsimiles (invert Ruby. PRINTING is the Art of mechanically multiplying permanent facsimiles (inverted or direct) Pearl, PRINTING is the Art of mechanically multiplying permanent facsimiles (inverted or direct) of an Diamond. PRINTING is the Art of mechanically multiplying periaanent facsimiles (inserted or direct) of an original. The Caxton died in 1491. His immediate successors were Wynkyn de Worde (a), Richard Pynson, and Julian Notary, the latter of whom printed as late as 1520 (b). In 1478 presses were set up at both Universities, and two years afterwards at St. Albans. There is no certainty of the establishment of the press in Scotland until 1507, when Walter Chapman, a merchant of Edinburgh, obtained the King's patent for himself and Andrew Miller to carry on the business of printing (c). The first book of which there appears to be any account is "A Breviary" of the Church of Aberdeen, printed by Walter Chapman at Edinburgh, 1509 (d). The first book known to have been printed in Ireland is the Book of Common Prayer, printed with sole privilege, "in officina Humphredi Poweli," A.D. 1551. THE PRESS used by the early printers was very rude (e). It was composed entirely of wood, and consisted of a table, along which the coffin containing the form, and furnished with a tympan and frisket, was pushed by hand. The platen worked vertically between standards, and was brought down for the impression and raised after it by a common screw, worked by a bar handle. The platen was only half the size of the form, which had therefore to be shifted to complete the impression. The inking was performed by hand with skin pelts. Little or no improvement was made in respect of the press until the year 1601 (f), when Blaew, of Amsterdam, contrived a press, the platen of which recovered itself by a spring. This became universally adopted, and remained in use with little variation (g) until (a) This printer was the first in England to use the round Roman letter, which had been cut abroad by Sweyheim and Pannartz, under the patronage of the sub-librarian of Paul II. (b) A list of the works of each English printer, from this period down to 1599, may be seen in Johnson's Typographia, vol. i. p. 481, et seq. (c) Chalmer's Life of Ruddiman, p. 80. (d) Ames, Typ. Ant., by Herbert (ed. 1790), vol. iii. p. 1468. (e) A good idea of the presses on the old principle will be derived from a device of Badius Ascensius of Lyons, 1495-1535, inserted on the title pages of his books in various sizes, and an engraving (bearing date 1560) frequently used as a device by printers on the Continent at that period. A copy is in Dibdin's Typ. Ant., Preliminary Disquisition, p. lvii., and Johnson, vol. ii. p. 498. The same colophons show the method of applying the ink to the types. It was laid in some thickness on the corners of a stone slab, and thence taken in small portions and ground with a muller, and so taken up by the balls and applied to the type. The types were disposed in cases similar to the present, but the composing stick was somewhat different. (f) Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, art. "Printing." A drawing of this press, as worked in 1771, may be seen in Luckombe, p. 293. There seems to be soine confusion as to the author of this improvement, it being by some attributed to the father, Nicholas Blaew, and by others to the son, Willem Jansen Blacw. (g) See Johnson's Typographia, vol. ii. p. 502, where the "improved wooden press "is described and a drawing given. the end of the last century. At this period a great change took place by the introduction of presses, known as the "Apollo," Roworth's, and the "Stanhope." In all these the platen was made of a size sufficient to cover the entire form. The "Apollo," the first in order, was imported from France. The platen was of iron. Its lower surface, which was of brass, was ground perfectly flat, and was of such thickness as not to bend or yield at the parts most distant from the centre of pressure. The spindle was joined by connecting rods to a long lever placed by the side of the press, which was wrought by the pressman with both hands in a vertical plane, like the handle of a pump. The press, however, was worked only with great labour, and fell into disuse (a). Roworth's press is considered by some to have been the first real improvement on the common press. Here the spindle is entirely plain, and works at its upper end in a socket at the head of the press, and at its lower in a cup on the upper side of the platen. On a shoulder at the upper end of the spindle is a circular collar of steel (b), about 8 inches in diameter, the upper surface of which forms, at opposite sides of the spindle, two similar inclined planes, rising rapidly at first and gradually decreasing in inclination. In the head of the press are fixed two solid rollers or studs of steel, which as the spindle is turned (about one-third of a revolution by a lever at the off side of the press) act upon the inclines so as to bring the platen down with constantly decreasing velocity and increasing force until it reaches the type. The platen recovers itself by a weighted lever. It is strengthened by fastening to its upper side an iron piece almost the size of the entire platen in the "two-pull" presses which had been formerly in use. In 1798, Earl Stanhope perfected the press that bears his name (c). It consists of a heavy cast-iron frame in one piece, screwed to a wooden cross. It was furnished with rails, along which the typecarriage was run under the platen by means of a rounce and bands (c). The descent of the platen was caused by a screw worked by a (a) Encyc. Met., viii. 775. (b) Chilled cast iron was subsequently found to be better adapted for the formation of the collar and studs. (c) In the construction of this press, Hansard (Typographia, p. 637,) remarks his Lordship "must have found many useful hints in M. Anisson's Premier Mémoire sur l'impression en Lettres, suivi de la Description d'une Nouvelle Presse, exécutée pour le Service du Roi." (d) A general view of the press is given in Johnson's Typographia, vol. ii. p. 537; Encyc. Met., p. lxxx., figs. 2 and 9. peculiar combination of levers (a), so arranged as to act with progressively increasing force until the platen reaches the types. A moveable stop regulated the range of the handle, and consequently the pressure exerted on the types. With this machine about 250 impressions could be taken, or 125 sheets printed, on both sides in an hour; and although by excessive labour a greater number was produced in newspaper printing offices, yet it was necessary to have duplicate presses, and set up forms of type to carry on such work, and still the production of copies was quite inadequate to satisfy the increased demand. Hence arose the necessity for machine printing (the earliest attempt at which will be found embodied in N° 1748 post), which has produced an entire revolution in the mechanism of the art (b). MUSIC PRINTING.-As early as 1490 music was printed by letter-press. The edition of the Psalms printed at Mentz in 1490 had the music (plain chant) in two colours, the notes being in black and the ledger-lines in red. The shape of the notes in this edition is different from the square notes subsequently adopted for sacred music. The notes of the music executed by Peter Hautin, an engraver, typefounder, and printer (c), were lozengeshaped, and each note was cast separately with the ledger lines. Peter Atteignaud, of Paris, printed in 1530 twenty-nine songs, with this description of music. 66 Burney, in his General History of Music, 4to., London, 1782, vol. ii., p. 446, says, "The most curious specimens of early counter"points among the printed music in the (British) Museum are a "collection of masses in four parts, the first that issued from the press after the invention of printing. They consist of the first " and third sets of the masses which Jusquin composed for the Pope's chapel during the Pontificate of Sextus IV., who reigned "from 1471 to 1484; the masses of Pierre de la Rue, sometimes "called Petrus Platensis; a set of masses by Anthony de Feven or Feum, Robert de Feven, and Pierzon; the masses of John 66 66 (a) Drawings of this arrangement of levers may be seen in Hansard's Typographia, p. 637; Encyc. Brit., art. "Printing." (b) By some of the fast newspaper machines in use at the present day the production amounts to no less than 15,000 copies per hour. (c) Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde, and Pynson were type founders as well as printers, Ames, Typ. Ant., vol. iii. p. 1764. Most of the early printers styled themselves" printers and binders." In a reprint of Caxton's edition of 1482 of the Polychronicon, de Worde has printed the scheme of the musical concords, the discovery of which is there attributed to Pythagoras from the ringing of differently weighted hammers. In Caxton's copy a blank is left to be filled up by the illuminator, in the same manner as the initials. Dibd. Typ. Ant. vol. ii. "Monton; ditto of several composers, viz., Obrecht, Phil. Bas"siron, Brumel, Gaspar, and De la Rue. All these were printed by Ottavio Petruccio da Fossembrone; he first published the masses of De la Rue at Venice, 1503, and in 1508 those by "different authors. In 1513, removing to Fossembrone in the "Ecclesiastical State, he obtained a Patent from Leo X. in behalf "of his invention of types for the sole printing of figurative song (cantus figuratus) and pieces for the organ (organorum intablaturæ) during the term of 20 years.” In 1552 Adrian Leroy, musician to Henry II. of France, and Robert Ballard, his brother-in-law and partner, obtained the title of King's printers for music. The types were engraved by William Le Bé, an eminent artist of that period, and were on the same plan as those of Peter Hautin. In 1579 Angelo Gardano printed in Venice from music types "Madrigali à sei voce di Sabino." The process was the same as Peter Hautin's, but the execution was very inferior. The opera of "Thesée" was printed by Ballard in 1688. The typographical execution was imperfect. The same work in folio was printed in 1720 by Beauscune from copper-plates, and was so superior to the music printed from types that the old method was abandoned for that of printing from engraved plates. The exclusive privilege granted to Ballard was maintained in his family without opposition until 1639, when Sanlecque, another engraver in Paris, obtained Letters Patent from Louis XIII. of France for a ten years' sole right of printing the plain chant music by a new process of his invention. In consequence of this Patent, copperplate music printing superseded typographic music printing as early as 1675. In 1746 M. Dornel, of Paris, entered into partnership with M. Klebin, an engraver and typefounder, for the purpose of casting music types in sand. By this kind of stereotyping the printing appeared to possess some advantages, but the plan was abandoned. In 1764 M. Breitkopf, a typefounder and printer at Leipzig, succeeded in casting music types. In this type music the notes were each composed of separate pieces, and in Germany, until then, there had been only one piece for each note and ledger-line. The system possessed some advantages, but the composition was tedious and the types costly. At the same time MM. Enschédé, of Haarlem, caused M. Feischman, an artist employed in their foundry, to engrave music types, the perfection of which has scarcely been surpassed, but the system which they adopted was |