Volume 1

Typographical antiquities; or the history of printing in England, Scotland, and Ireland: containing memoirs of our ancient printers, and a register of the books printed by them / Begun by the late Joseph Ames, F.R. & A.SS. Considerably augmented by William Herbert, of Cheshunt, Herts; And now greatly enlarged, with copious notes, and illustrated with appropriate engravings; comprehending the history of English literature, and view of the progress of the art of engraving, in Great Britain; by the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin.

Joseph Ames

Date:: 1810

Credit: Typographical antiquities; or the history of printing in England, Scotland, and Ireland: containing memoirs of our ancient printers, and a register of the books printed by them / Begun by the late Joseph Ames, F.R. & A.SS. Considerably augmented by William Herbert, of Cheshunt, Herts; And now greatly enlarged, with copious notes, and illustrated with appropriate engravings; comprehending the history of English literature, and view of the progress of the art of engraving, in Great Britain; by the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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Mr. Ames [says Herbert] has left in MS. the following addition, to he inserted in a future edition. “ Freinshemius in his Supplement to Q. Curtins, Lib. II. Cap. 5. gives us an account of a remarkable prodigy which happened be- fore the battle near the banks of the Granicus, which may serve to convince us whence most stories of Omens had their rise; and might, I think, to an ingenious mind, also shew how the art of printing might be attained : ‘ That the soldiers minds might be the better confirmed in the hopes of victory/ says he, ‘ while the priest was sacrificing for a safe passage over the river Granicus, the king gave him secret orders to write some reversed characters, with a certain liquor, in the palm of his hand, which being clapped upon the reeking liver would appear right. The writer was to signify nales Typographic ‘ Mr. Maittaire is my friend, and has lent me his assistance; but he had not confined himself to English books, and therefore he can’t do much.’ Lewis requested Ames to bespeak the blocks for the water-marks of the paper used by Caxton [inserted in his own Life of the printer] for which the engraver received a guinea; and so sedulous was Ames to push Lewis’s Life of Caxton, that he tells the biographer he hopes to do more for him, in the way of taking a number of copies, than their common friend Mr. Peter Thompson, lie also made the extracts relating to the burial of Caxton : vide p. cxi, post. But to no one were both Lewis and Ames, especially the latter, more deeply indebted for curious and valuable information, than to John Anstis, the author of the well- known work of the ‘ Order of the Garter.’ Indeed, this eminent antiquary seems to have grudged no labour in anticipating, as well as satisfying, the literary wants of Ames ; who does certainly appear to have started with more willingness to receive information upon, than an acquired knowledge of, the subject upon which he wrote. As early as the year 1737 [Oct. 20] Anstis tells Ames ‘ to use no ceremony in commanding any thing in his power:’ again, he says—‘ You may without any apology command me, for I have always thought it my duty to assist, as far as is in my power, all who oblige the public. In the month of June 1743, he thus remarks : ‘ If you have not observed this passage it will not be ungrateful to you : if you have, it will however shew you how glad I am of any oppor- tunity to communicate any thing for your service/ Ames used to put down quaeres upon a folio sheet of paper, under which Anstis wrote, in general, very satisfactory an- swers.

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