Volume 182402

Typographia: or the printers' instructor, including an account of the origin of printing. With biographical notices of the printers of England, from Caxton to the close of the sixteenth century: a series of ancient and modern alphabets, and Domesday characters: together with an elucidation of every subject connected with the art / By J. Johnson, printer.

  • John Johnson
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Typographia: or the printers' instructor, including an account of the origin of printing. With biographical notices of the printers of England, from Caxton to the close of the sixteenth century: a series of ancient and modern alphabets, and Domesday characters: together with an elucidation of every subject connected with the art / By J. Johnson, printer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    We may reasonably-hope, from the pleasing aspect of the present age, when mankind have dared to burst the fetters of prejudice and superstition, being determined to exercise their better judgment, and adopt plans more congenial to true taste, thatthe Roman character will be universally employed in all civilized states. The Roman letter, it may be concluded, owes its origin to the nation whence it derives its name : though the face of the present and the ancient Ro- man letters materially differ, from the improvements they have undergone at various times. The Germans and their confederates differ from us in calling those letters Antiqua, which we, as well | as the French and other nations, term Roman. An inquiry into the cause of this distinction can be of smal] importance, further than it might prove a desire in the Germans to deprive the ancient Romans of the ‘merit of forming those letters. That good Roman makes the best figure in a specimen of typography, cannot be disputed; and this superiority is greatly improved by the founders | of the present day. A printer, in his choice of type, should not only attend to the cut of the letter, but also observe that its shape be perfectly true, and that it lines or ranges with accuracy. The quality of the metal of which it is composed demands also his particular attention. The ingenious Mr. Moxon says, “That the Roman letters were originally intended to be made to consist of circles, arches of circles, and Straight lines; and that therefore those letters that have these figures either entire, or else properly mixt, so as the course and progress of the pen may best admit, may de- Serve the name of true shape.” By attending to the above mathematical rules, the letter-cutter may produce Roman characters of such harmony, grace, and symmetry, as will please the eye in reading ; and, by having their fine strokes a