Part 1

Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=.

This certifies that four hundred and fifty copies only, all on hand-made Holland paper and printed from types, of this edition of Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises,” in two volumes, were completed in August, 1896, and that the types have been distributed.

_Joseph J. Little._ _S. P. Avery._ _Walter Gilliss._ _Douglas Taylor._ _Theo. L. DeVinne._ _David Williams._ _W. W. Pasko._

_Committee of the Typothetæ._

MOXON’S

MECHANICK EXERCISES

MOXON’S MECHANICK EXERCISES

OR THE DOCTRINE OF HANDY-WORKS APPLIED TO THE ART OF

PRINTING

A LITERAL REPRINT IN TWO VOLUMES OF THE FIRST EDITION PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1683

WITH PREFACE AND NOTES BY THEO. L. DE VINNE

VOLUME I

NEW-YORK

THE TYPOTHETÆ OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK

MDCCCLXXXXVI

PREFACE

JOSEPH MOXON was born at Wakefield in Yorkshire, England, August 8, 1627. There is no published record of his parentage or his early education. His first business was that of a maker and vender of mathematical instruments, in which industry he earned a memorable reputation between the years 1659 and 1683. He was not content with this work, for he had leanings to other branches of the mechanic arts, and especially toward the designing of letters and the making of printing-types.

In 1669 he published a sheet in folio under the heading of “Prooves of the Several Sorts of Letters Cast by Joseph Moxon.” The imprint is “Westminster, Printed by Joseph Moxon, in Russell street, at the Sign of the Atlas, 1669.” This specimen of types seems to have been printed, not to show his dexterity as a type-founder, but to advertise himself as a dealer in mathematical and scientific instruments. The reading matter of the sheet describes “Globes Celestial and Terrestrial, Large Maps of the World, A Tutor to Astronomie and to Geographie”—all of his own production. Reed flouts the typography of this sheet: “It is a sorry performance. Only one fount, the Pica, has any pretensions to elegance or regularity. The others are so clumsily cut or badly cast, and so wretchedly printed, as here and there to be almost undecipherable.”[1] The rude workmanship of these early types proves, as he afterward admitted, that he had never been properly taught the art of type-founding; that he had learned it, as he said others had, “of his own genuine inclination.”

It was then a difficult task to learn any valuable trade. The Star Chamber decree of 1637 ordained that there should be but four type-founders for the kingdom of Great Britain, and the number of their apprentices was restricted. When the Long Parliament met in 1640, the decrees of the Star Chamber were practically dead letters, and for a few years there was free trade in typography. In 1644 the Star Chamber regulations were reimposed; in 1662 they were made more rigorous than ever. The importation of types from abroad without the consent of the Stationers’ Company was prohibited. British printers were compelled to buy the inferior types of English founders, who, secure in their monopoly, did but little for the improvement of printing.[2]

It is probable that the attention of Moxon was first drawn to type-founding by the founders themselves, who had to employ mechanics of skill for the making of their molds and other implements of type-casting. In this manner he could have obtained an insight into the mysteries of the art that had been carefully concealed. He did not learn type-making or printing in the usual routine. The records of the Company of Stationers do not show that he was ever made a freeman of that guild, yet he openly carried on the two distinct businesses of type-founding and printing after 1669. It is probable that he had a special permit from a higher authority, for in 1665 he had been appointed hydrographer to the king, and a good salary was given with the office. He was then devoted to the practical side of scientific pursuits, and was deferred to as a man of ability.

He published several mathematical treatises between the years 1658 and 1687; one, called “Compendium Euclidis Curiosi,” was translated by him from Dutch into English, and printed in London in 1677. Mores supposes that he had acquired a knowledge of Dutch by residence in Holland, but intimates that he was not proficient in its grammar.[3]

In 1676 he published a book on the shapes of letters, with this formidable title: “Regulæ Trium Ordinum Literarum Typographicarum; or the Rules of the Three Orders of Print Letters, viz: the Roman, Italick, English—Capitals and Small; showing how they are Compounded of Geometrick Figures, and mostly made by Rule and Compass. Useful for Writing Masters, Painters, Carvers, Masons and others that are Lovers of Curiosity. By Joseph Moxon, Hydrographer to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. Printed for Joseph Moxon on Ludgate Hill, at the Sign of Atlas, 1676.” He then dedicated the book to Sir Christopher Wren, “as a lover of rule and proportion,” or to one who might be pleased with this attempt to make alphabetical letters conform to geometric rules.

There is no intimation that the book was intended for punch-cutters. It contains specific directions about the shapes of letters, covering fifty-two pages, as proper introduction to the thirty-eight pages of model letters that follow, rudely drawn and printed from copper plates. Moxon says that these model letters are his copies of the letters of Christopher Van Dijk, the famous punch-cutter of Holland. He advises that each letter should be plotted upon a framework of small squares—forty-two squares in height and of a proportionate width, as is distinctly shown in the plates of letters in this book.[4] Upon these squares the draftsman should draw circles, angles, and straight lines, as are fully set forth in the instructions.

These diagrams, with their accompanying instruction, have afforded much amusement to type-founders. All of them unite in saying that the forming of letters by geometrical rule is absurd and impracticable. This proposition must be conceded without debate, but the general disparagement of all the letters, in which even Reed joins, may be safely controverted. It is admitted that the characters are rudely drawn, and many have faults of disproportion; but it must not be forgotten that they were designed to meet the most important requirement of a reader—to be read, and read easily. Here are the broad hair-line, the stubby serif on the lower-case and the bracketed serif on the capitals, the thick stem, the strong and low crown on letters like m and n, with other peculiarities now commended in old-style faces and often erroneously regarded as the original devices of the first Caslon. The black-letter has more merit than the roman or italic. Some of the capitals are really uncouth; but with all their faults the general effect of a composition in these letters will be found more satisfactory to the bibliophile as a text-type than any form of pointed black that has been devised in this century as an improvement.

Moxon confesses no obligation to any one for his geometrical system, but earlier writers had propounded a similar theory. Books on the true proportions of letters had been written by Fra Luca Paccioli, Venice, 1509; Albert Dürer, Nuremberg, 1525; Geofroy Tory, Paris, 1529; and Yciar, Saragossa, 1548. Nor did the attempt to make letters conform to geometrical rules end with Moxon. In 1694, M. Jaugeon, chief of the commission appointed by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, formulated a system that required a plot of 2304 little squares for the accurate construction of every full-bodied capital letter. The manuscript and diagrams of the author were never put in print, but are still preserved in the papers of the Academy.

This essay on the forms of letters seems to have been sent out as the forerunner of a larger work on the theory and practice of mechanical arts. Under the general title of “Mechanick Exercises,” in 1677, he began the publication, in fourteen monthly numbers, of treatises on the trades of the smith, the joiner, the carpenter, and the turner. These constitute the first volume of the “Mechanick Exercises.” The book did not find as many buyers as had been expected. Moxon attributed its slow sale to political excitement, for the Oates plot put the buying and study of trade books away from the minds of readers. He had to wait until 1683 before he began the publication of the second volume, which consists of twenty-four numbers, and treats of the art of printing only. It is this second volume that is here reprinted, for the first volume is of slight interest to the printer or man of letters.

Moxon’s book has the distinction of being not only the first, but the most complete of the few early manuals of typography. Fournier’s “Manuel Typographique” of 1764 is the only book that can be compared with it in minuteness of detail concerning type-making, but he treats of type-making only. Reed says: “Any one acquainted with the modern practice of punch-cutting cannot but be struck, on reading the directions laid down in the ‘Mechanick Exercises,’ with the slightness of the changes which the manual processes of that art have undergone during the last two centuries. Indeed, allowing for improvements in tools, and the greater variety of gauges, we might almost assert that the punch-cutter of Moxon’s day knew scarcely less than the punch-cutter of our day, with the accumulated experience of two hundred years, could teach him.... For almost a century it remained the only authority on the subject; subsequently it formed the basis of numerous other treatises both at home and abroad; and to this day it is quoted and referred to, not only by the antiquary, who desires to learn what the art once was, but by the practical printer, who may still on many subjects gather from it much advice and information as to what it should still be.”[5]

During his business life, Moxon stood at the head of the trade in England. He was selected to cut a font of type for an edition of the New Testament in the Irish language, which font was afterward used for many other books. He cut also the characters designed by Bishop John Wilkins for his “Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language,” and many mathematical and astronomical symbols. Rowe Mores, who describes him as an excellent artist and an admirable mechanic, says that he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1678.[6] There is no known record of the date of his death. Mores gives the year 1683 as the date of his relinquishment of the business of type-making, but he was active as a writer and a publisher for some years after.

The first volume of the “Mechanick Exercises,” concerning carpentry, etc., went to its third edition in 1703, but the second volume, about printing, has been neglected for two centuries. During this long interval many copies of the first small edition of five hundred copies have been destroyed. A perfect copy is rare, and commands a high price, for no early book on technical printing is in greater request.[7]

The instruction directly given is of value, but bits of information indirectly furnished are of greater interest. From no other book can one glean so many evidences of the poverty of the old printing-house. Its scant supply of types, its shackly hand-presses, its mean printing-inks, its paper-windows and awkward methods, when not specifically confessed, are plainly indicated. The high standard of proof-reading here exacted may be profitably contrasted with its sorry performance upon the following pages. The garments worn by the workmen are shown in the illustrations. Some of the quainter usages of the trade are told in the “Customs of the Chappel,” and those of the masters, in the ceremonies of the Stationers’ Company, and in the festivals in which masters and workmen joined. To the student of printing a reading of the book is really necessary for a clear understanding of the mechanical side of the art as practised in the seventeenth century.

NOTE BY THE PRINTER

This edition of the “Mechanick Exercises” is a line-for-line and page-for-page reprint of the original text. The only suppression is that of the repetition of the words “Volume II” in the running title and the sub-titles, which would unnecessarily mislead the reader, and of the old signature marks that would confuse the bookbinder. Typographic peculiarities have been followed, even to the copying of gross faults, like doublets, that will be readily corrected by the reader. The object of the reprint is not merely to present the thought of the author, but to illustrate the typographic style of his time with its usual defects. A few deviations from copy that seemed to be needed for a clearer understanding of the meaning of the author have been specified at the end of the second volume. The irregular spelling and punctuation of the copy, its capricious use of capitals and italic, its headings of different sizes of type, have been repeated. At this point imitation has stopped. Turned and broken letters, wrong font characters, broken space-lines, and bent rules have not been servilely reproduced. These blemishes, as well as the frequent “monks” and “friars” in the presswork, were serious enough to prevent an attempt at a photographic facsimile of the pages.

The two copies of Moxon that have served as “copy” for this reprint show occasional differences in spelling and punctuation. Changes, possibly made in the correction of batters, or after the tardy discovery of faults, must have been done while the form was on press and partly printed. The position of the plates differs seriously in the two copies; they do not follow each other in the numerical order specified. In this reprint the plates that describe types and tools have been placed near their verbal descriptions.

The type selected for this work was cast from matrices struck with the punches (made about 1740) of the first Caslon. It is of the same large English body as that of the original, but a trifle smaller as to face, and not as compressed as the type used by Moxon; but it repeats many of his peculiarities, and fairly reproduces the more important mannerisms of the printing of the seventeenth century.

The portraits have been reproduced by the artotype process of Bierstadt; the descriptive illustrations are from the etched plates of the Hagopian Photo-Engraving Company.

_MECHANICK EXERCISES:_ Or, the Doctrine of Handy-works. Applied to the Art of Printing.

By _Joseph Moxon_, Member of the Royal Society, and _Hydrographer_ to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

_LONDON._

Printed for _Joseph Moxon_ on the Westside of _Fleet-ditch_, at the Sign of _Atlas_. 1 6 8 3.

To the Right Reverend Father in GOD, _JOHN_ Lord Bishop of _Oxford_, and Dean of _Christ-Church_; And to the Right Honourable Sir _LEOLINE JENKINS_ Knight, and Principal Secretary of State; And to the Right Honourable Sir _JOSEPH WILLIAMSON_ Knight; and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council.

Right Honourable.

Y_Our ardent affections to promote_ Typographie _has eminently appeared in the great Charge you have been at to make it famous here in_ England; _whereby this Royal Island stands particularly obliged to your Generous and Publick Spirits, and the whole Common-Wealth of Book-men throughout the World, to your Candid Zeal for the promulgation of good Learning_.

_Wherefore I humbly Dedicate this Piece of_ Typographie _to your Honours; and as it is (I think) the first of this nature, so I hope you will favourably excuse small Faults in this Undertaking; for great ones I hope there are none, unless it be in this presumptuous_ Dedication; _for which I humbly beg your Honours pardon: Subscribing my self, My Lord and Gentlemen_,

_Your Honours most Humble and Obedient Servant_.

Joseph Moxon.

=Footnotes.=

[1] “A History of the Old English Letter Foundries, with Notes Historical and Biographical on the Rise and Progress of English Typography.” By Talbot Baines Reed, London, 1887, p. 181.

[2] The four founders appointed by the Star Chamber did not thrive. One of them, Arthur Nicholls, said of himself: “Of so small benifitt hath his Art bine that for 4 yeares worke and practice he hath not taken above 48£, and had it not bine for other imploymente he might have perrisht.” Reed, p. 168.

[3] “A Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies.” By Edward Rowe Mores, A. M. & A. S. S. [London], 1778. 8vo, p. 43.

[4] See plates Nos. 11 to 17.

[5] Reed, “Old English Letter Foundries,” pp. 185, 186.

[6] Mores, “English Founders,” p. 42.

[7] Hansard says (“Typographia,” p. vii): “I have never been able to meet with more than two copies of this work—one in the Library of the British Museum—the other in the Library of the Society of Arts.” The writer knows of but three copies in America: one in the Library Company of Philadelphia; one in the Library of the Typothetæ of New-York; one in his own collection.

_MECHANICK EXERCISES:_ Or, the Doctrine of =Handy-works.= Applied to the Art of =Printing.=

_PREFACE._

B_Efore I begin with_ Typographie, _I shall say somewhat of its Original Invention; I mean here in_ Europe, _not of theirs in_ China _and other Eastern Countries, who (by general assent) have had it for many hundreds of years, though their Invention is very different from ours; they Cutting their Letters upon Blocks in whole Pages or Forms, as among us our Wooden Pictures are Cut; But_ Printing _with single Letters Cast in Mettal, as with us here in_ Europe, _is an Invention scarce above Two hundred and fifteen years old; and yet an undecidable Controversie about the original Contriver or Contrivers remains on foot, between the_ Harlemers _of_ Holland, _and those of_ Mentz _in_ Germany: _But because the difference cannot be determin’d for want of undeniable Authority, I shall only deliver both their Pleas to this_ Scientifick Invention.

_The_ Harlemers _plead that_ Lawrensz Jansz Koster of Harlem _was the first Inventer of_ Printing, _in the year of our Lord_ 1430. _but that in the Infancy of this Invention he used only Wooden Blocks_ (_as in_ China, _&c. aforesaid_) _but after some time he left off Wood, and Cut single Letters in Steel, which he sunck into Copper_ Matrices, _and fitting them to Iron Molds, Cast single Letters of Mettal in those_ Matrices. _They say also, that his Companion_, John Gutenberg, _stole his Tools away while he was at Church, and with them went to_ Mentz _in_ Germany, _and there set his Tools to work, and promoted His claim to the first Invention of this Art, before_ Koster _did His_.

_To prove this, they say that_ Rabbi Joseph (_a Jew_) _in his Chronicle, mentions a Printed Book that he saw in_ Venice, _in the year_ 5188. _according to the Jewish Account, and by ours the year_ 1428. _as may be read in_ Pet. Scriverius.

_They say much of a Book intituled_ De Spiegel, _Printed at_ Harlem _in_ Dutch _and_ Latin; _which Book is yet there to be seen: and they alledge that Book the first that ever was Printed: But yet say not when this Book was Printed_.

_Notwithstanding this Plea, I do not find_ (_perhaps because of their imperfect Proofs_) _but that_ Gutenberg _of_ Mentz _is more generally accepted for the first Inventer of_ Printing, _than_ Koster _of_ Harlem.

_The Learned Dr._ Wallis _of_ Oxford, _hath made an Inquiry into the original of this Invention, and hath in brief sum’d up the matter in these words_.

About the year of our Lord 1460. The Art of _Printing_ began to be invented and practised in _Germany_, whether first at _Mentz_ or first at _Harlem_ it is not agreed: But it seems that those who had it in consideration before it was brought to perfection, disagreeing among themselves, did part Company; and some of them at _Harlem_, others at _Mentz_ persued the design at the same time.

_The Book which is commonly reputed to have been first Printed is_, Tullies Offices, _of which there be Copies extant (as a Rarity) in many Libraries; which in the close of it is said to be Printed at_ Mentz, _in the year of our Lord_ 1465. (_so says that Copy in the_ Bodleyan _Library_) _or_ 1466. (_so that in the Library of_ Corpus Christi.) _The words in the close of that in_ Corpus Christi _Colledge_ Oxon _are these_,

Præsens _Marcij Tullij_ Clarissimum opus, _Johanes Hust, Moguntinus_ Civis, non Atrimento, plumali canna, neq; ærea, sed Arte quadam perpulchra, _Petri_ manu _Petri_ de _Geurshem_ pueri mei, feliciter effeci, finitum Anno M CCCC LX VI quarto die Mensis _Februarij_.

_The like in the_ Bodleyan _Library; save there the Date is only thus_, Finitum Anno M CCCC LX V. _In the same Book there are these written Notes subjoyned_: Hic eft ille _Johannes Faustus_, coadjutor _Johannes Gutenbergij_ primi _Typographiæ_ inventaris, Alter coadjuto erat _Petrus Schœfer_, i. Opilio. Quovix.

Cælando promptior alter erat, inquit _Johan. Arnoldus_ in Libello de Chalcographiæ inventione, _Scheffer_ primas finxit quas vocant _Matrices_. Hi tres exercuerunt artem primo in communi. mox rupto fœdere seorsim sibi quisq; privatim.

_And again_ (_in a later hand_) Inventionem artis _Typographicæ_ ad Annum 1453. aut exerciter referunt Sabillicus _En._ 10.lib.6. & _Monsterus_. Alij ad Annum 1460. Vide _Polid. Virg._lib. 2. de Invent. Rerum, _Theod. Bibland. de Ratione communis linguarum._ cap. de _Chalcographia._

_At_ Harlem _and some other places in_ Holland, _they pretend to have Books Printed somewhat ancienter than this; but they are most of them_ (_if not all_) _done by way of Carving whole Pages in Wood, not by single Letters Cast in Mettal, to be Composed and Distributed as occasion serves, as is now the manner._

_The chief Inventer at_ Harlem _is said to be_ Laurens Jansz Koster.

_After these two places_ (Mentz _and_ Harlem) _it seems next of all to have been practised at_ Oxford: _For by the care, and at the charge of King_ Henry _the_ 6_th, and of_ Thomas Bourchier _then Arch-Bishop of_ Canterbury (_and Chancellour of the University of_ Oxford) Robert Turner _Master of the Robe, and_ William Caxton _a Merchant of_ London _were for that purpose sent to_ Harlem, _at the charges partly of the King, partly of the Arch-Bishop, who then_ (_because these of_ Harlem _were very chary of this secret_) _prevailed privately with one_ Frederick Corseles _an under-Workman, for a sum of Money, to come over hither; who thereupon did at_ Oxford _set up the Art of_ Printing, _before it was exercised any where else in_ England, _or in_ France, Italy, Venice, Germany, _or any other place, except only_ Mentz _and_ Harlem (_aforementioned_): _And there be several Copies yet extant (as one in the Archives of the University of_ Oxford, _another in the Library of Dr._ Tho. Barlow, _now Bishop of_ Lincoln) _of a Treatise of St._ Jerome (_as it is there called_ (_because found among St._ Jerom’s _Works_) _or rather _ Ruffinus _upon the Creed, in a broad_ Octavo) _Printed at_ Oxford _in the year_ 1468. _as appears by the words in the close of it_.