When the art of printing was first established, it was Printing the glory of the learned to be correctors of the press to the eminent printers. Physicians, lawyers, and bishops themselves, occupied this department. The printers then added frequently to their names those of the correctors of the press; and editions were then valued according to the abilities of the corrector. Printing, ed by them were some quotations, so wretchedly performed, that they were rather to be guessed at than read; in a character very rude and uncouth, and without accents. But Francis Tissard introduced the study of this language at Paris, by his Bλos nyuayugın, in 1507; and that branch of printing was afterwards successfully practised by Henry, Robert, and Henry Stephens. See the article STEPHENS. 16 Of the first ¡Hebrew printing. The earliest edition of the whole Bible was, strictly speaking, the Complutensian Polyglott of Cardinal Ximenes; but as that edition, though finished in 1517, was not published till 1522, the Venetian Septuagint of 1518 may properly be called the first edition of the whole Greek Bible; Erasmus having published the New Testament only at Basil in 1516. A very satisfactory account of Hebrew printing is thus given by Dr Kennicott in his Annual Accounts of the Collation of Hebrew MSS. p. 112. "The method which seems to have been originally observed in printing the Hebrew Bible was just what might have been expected: 1. The Pentateuch in 1482. 2. The Prior Prophets, in 1484. 3. The Posterior Prophets, in 1486. 4. The Hagiographa, in 1487. And, after the four great parts had been thus printed separately (each with a comment), the whole text (without a comment) was printed in one volume in 1488; and the text continued to be printed, as in these first editions, so in several others for 20 or 30 years, without marginal Keri or Masora, and with greater arguments to the more ancient MSS. till about the year 1520 some of the Jews adopted later MSS. and the Musora; which absurd preference has obtained ever since." Thus much for the ancient editions given by Jews. In 1642 a Hebrew Bible was printed at Mantua under the care of the most learned Jews in Italy. This Bible had not been heard of among the Christians in this country, nor perhaps in any other; though the nature of it is very extraordinary. The text indeed is nearly the same with that in other modern editions; but at the bottom of each page are various readings, amounting in the whole to above 2000, and many of them of great consequence, collected from manuscripts, printed editions, copies of the Talmud, and the works of the most renowned Rabbies. And in one of the notes is this remark :-"That in several passages of the Hebrew Bible the differences are so many and so great, that they know not which to fix upon as the true readings." We cannot quit this subject without observing, on Dr Kennicott's authority, that as the first printed Bibles are more correct than the latter ones; so the variations between the first edition, printed in 1488, and the edition of Vander Hooght, in 1705, at Amsterdam, in 2 vols. 8vo, amount upon the whole, to above 1200. See further Bowyer and Nichols, p. 112-117. When the art of printing was first discovered, they only made use of one side of a page: they had not yet found out the expedient of impressing the other. When their editions were intended to be curious, they omitted to print the first letter of a chapter, for which they left a blank space, that it might be painted or illuminated at the option of the purchaser. Several ancient volumes of these early times have been found, where these letters are wanting, as they neglected to have them painted. In the productions of early printing may be distinguished the various splendid editions they made of Primers or Prayer-books. They were embellished with cuts finished in a most elegant taste: many of them were ludicrous, and several were obscene. In one of them an angel is represented crowning the Virgin Mary, and God the Father himself assisting at the ceremony. We have seen in a book of natural history the Supreme Being represented as reading on the seventh day, when he rested from all his works. Sometimes St Michael is seen overcoming Satan; and sometimes St Anthony appears attacked by various devils of most hideous forms. The Prymer of Salisbury, 1533, is full of cuts: at the bottom of the title page there is the following remark able prayer: God be in my Bede, And in my Understandynge. God be in my Eyen, And in my Lookyuge. God be in my Mouthe, And in my Spekynge. God be in my Herte, And in my thinkinge. God be at myn ende, And at my departynge. 18 Stereotype Printing. Different persons in different History, countries have claimed the merit of this invention; but from Mr Nicholls's Biographical memoirs of William Ged, it appears undeniable that he was the first by whom it was invented. Mr Tilloch, the editor of the Philosophical Magazine informs us, that he had turned Vol. x. his attention to the subject for a number of years, and having hit at last upon the discovery, he flattered himself that it was purely original, even feeling vexed when given to understand that he had been anticipated by Mr Ged of Edinburgh, who had printed books from plates about 50 years before. So far back as the year 1725, we find that Mr Ged had begun to prosecute plate-making. In 1727, he entered into a contract with a person who had a smallcapital, but who was so intimidated by the insinuations of some printer, that he expended no more than 221. in the course of two years. In this manner he had printed both bibles and common prayer-books, but the compositors when they corrected one fault, purposely made half a dozen more; and the pressmen when the masters were absent, battered the letter to second the composi'tors. In consequence of these abominable proceedings,. the books were suppressed by authority, and the plates sent to the King's printing-house, and from thence tothe foundery. In consequence of Mr Tilloch's invention and improvement, Stereotype printing was afterwards practised by him in conjunction with Mr Foulis, printer to the university of Glasgow, who obtained patents both for England and Scotland, as Mr Ged's invention had died ́ with Printing. With his son. This art, therefore, may be said to have been twice invented in Britain; after which Didot, a French printer, published several Latin classics in the same manner, and to whom some of his countrymen wished to ascribe the merit of the invention, which must be a mistake. We admit it possible that he might have discovered the secret of the art for himself; but it is not supposeable that he could be ignorant of Ged's progress and that of Mr Foulis, especially since, when patents are obtained, a specification of the process must be put upon record, of which any one may obtain an office copy at a small expence. Neither is it at all probable that stereotype printing was the invention of a Dutchman, who is said to have practised the art even before Ged; since we are assured that Ged himself had offers from Holland repeatedly, either to go over there, or sell his invention, which could not possibly have been the case, had it been in possession of their own countrymen. Founding of pages, on the first view of it, promises many advantages of an economical nature, and to science it holds out what can never be obtained in any other way; we mean editions of books without a single error. From books cast into solid pages, no more copies would be printed than might be wanted for immediate sale; the money thus saved from being sunk in paper, to be piled up in warehouses for years, as is the case at present, would serve as surplus capital to print other works; thus the printer, his workmen, and the booksellers, would all be benefited. Some are of opinion, that the expence of stereotype precludes the use of it, except in the case of standard authors, whose works are sure of an extensive sale; but the very reverse of this is the truth. If there would be an advantage in applying the stereotype art to books of rapid sale, there would be a still greater one in the case of such whose sale would not be so certain, as at the worst there could only be the loss of the plates, instead of that of the paper and press-work of a whole edition, which in almost every instance would amount to a much larger sum. To the advantages already mentioned we may add a few others, as stated by Mr Wilson, Stereotype office Duke street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. The expence of Stereotype plates is not 20 per cent. of that of moveable type pages. A room that is fire-proof will hold Stereotype plates of works, of which the dead stock in printed paper would require a warehouse twenty times the size; and thus warehouse rent and insurance are saved; with the additional advantage, in case of accident by fire, that the stereotype plates may be instantly put to press, instead of going through the tedious operations of moveable type printing; and thus no loss will be sustained from the works being out of print. In stereotype, every page of the most extensive work has a separate plate; of consequence all the pages of the said work must be equally new and beautiful. The types of each sheet are distributed by the old method, by which the subsequent sheets are composed; so that, although the first few sheets of a volume may be well composed, the last part of the volume will appear to be executed in a very inferior manner. Stereotype plates admit of alteration; and it will be found that they will yield at least twice the number of impressions that moveable types are capable of producing. It seems evident upon the whole, says Mr Wilson, that a saving of from 25 to Printing 401. per cent. will accrue to the public in the prices of all books of standard reputation and sale, which, he telieves, are pretty accurately ascertained to comprehend three-fourths of all the book printing of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It is fair to conclude, therefore, that both foreign and domestic sales will be much increased, and that the duties on paper will be proportionally productive; so that the public will reap advantage in a twofold way by the general adoption and encouragement of the stereotype art. The advantages of this mode of printing now mentioned, are such as have been suggested by men who were competent judges; but we leave it to our readers to determine for themselves, whether the adoption of the stereotype art of printing would be more beneficial to society at large, than the publishing of books by means of moveable types. Plate The workmen employed in the art of printing are of Method of two kinds: compositors, who range and dispose the let-printing. ters into words, lines, pages, &c. according to the copy delivered them by the author; and pressmen, who apply ink upon the same, and take off the impression. The types being cast, the compositor distributes each kind by itself among the divisions of two wooden frames, an upper and an under one, called cases; each of which is divided into little cells or boxes. Those of the upper case are in number 98: these are all of the same size; and in them are disposed the capitals, small capitals, accented letters, figures, &c. the capitals being placed in alphabetical order. In the cells of the lower case, which are 54, are placed the small letters, with the points, spaces, &c. The boxes are here of different sizes, the largest being for the letters most used; and these boxes are not in alphabetical order, but the cells which contain the letter oftenest wanted are nearest the compositor's hand. Each case is placed a little aslope, that the compositor may the more easily reach the upper boxes. The instrument in which the letters CCCCXL are set is called a composing-stick (fig. 1.), which consists fig. 1. of a long and narrow plate of brass or iron, &c. on the right side of which arises a ledge, which runs the whole length of the plate, and serves to sustain the letters, the sides of which are to rest against it; along this ledge is a row of holes, which serve for introducing the screw a, in order to lengthen or shorten the extent of the line, by moving the sliders be farther from or nearer to the shorter ledge at the end d. Where marginal notes are required in a work, the two sliding-pieces b c are opened to a proper distance from each other in such a manner, as that while the distance between dc forms the length of the line in the text, the distance between the two sliding-pieces torms the length of the lines for the notes on the side of the page. Before the compositor proceeds to compose, he puts a rule or thin slip of brassplate, cut to the length of the line, and of the same height as the letter, in the composing-stick, against the ledge, for the letter to bear against. Things thus prepared, the compositor having the copy lying before him, and his stick in his left-hand, his thumb being over the slider c; with the right he takes up the letters, spaces, &c. one by one, and places them against the rule, while he supports them with his left thumb by pressing them to the end of the slider c, the other hand being con stantly Printing stantly employed in setting in other letters: the whole being performed with a degree of expedition and address not easy to be imagined. A line being thus composed, if it end with a word or syllable, and exactly fill the measure, there needs no further care; otherwise more spaces are to be put in, or else the distances lessened, between the several words, in order to make the measure quite full; so that every line may end even. The spaces here used are pieces of metal exactly shaped like the shanks of the letters: they are of various thicknesses, and serve to support the letters, and to preserve a proper distance between the words; but not reaching so high as the letters, they make no impression when the work is printed. The first line being thus finished, the compositor proceeds to the next; in order to which he removes the brass rule from behind the former, and places it before it, and thus composes another line against it after the same manner as before; going on thus till his stick is full, when he empties all the lines contained in it into the gally. The compositor then fills and empties his composingstick as before, till a complete page be formed; when he ties it up with a cord or pack-thread; and setting it by, proceeds to the next, till the number of pages to be contained in a sheet is completed; which done, he carries them to the imposing-stone, there to be ranged in order, and fastened together in a frame called a chess; and this is termed imposing. The chess is a rectangular iron frame, of different dimensions according to the size of the paper to be printed, having two cross-pieces of the same metal, called a long and short cross, mortised at each end so as to be taken out occasionally. By the different situations of these crosses the chess is fitted for different volumes for quartos and octavos, one traverses the middle lengthwise, the other broadwise, so as to intersect each other in the centre: for twelves and twenty-fours, the short cross is shifted nearer to one end of the chess; for folios, the long cross is left entirely out, and the short one left in the middle; and for broadsides, both crosses are set aside. To dress the chess, or range and fix the pages therein, the compositor makes use of a set of furniture, consisting of slips of wood of different dimensions, and about half an inch high, that they may be lower than the letters: some of these are placed at the top of the pages, and called head-sticks; others between them, to form the inner margin; others on the sides of the crosses, to form the outer margin, where the paper is to be doubled; and others in the form of wedges to the sides and bottoms of the pages. Thus all the pages being placed at their proper distances, and secured from being injured by the chess and furniture placed about them, they are all united, and fastened together by driving small pieces of wood called quoins, cut in the wedge-form, up between the slanting side of the foot and the side-sticks and the chess, by means of a piece of hard wood and a mallet; and all being thus bound fast together, so that none of the letters will fall out, it is ready to be committed to the pressmen. In this condition the work is called a form; and as there are two of these forms required for every sheet, when both sides are to be printed, it is necessary the distances between the pages in each form should be placed with such exactness, that the impression of the pages in one form shall fall exactly on the back of the Printing pages of the other, which is called register. As it is impossible but that there must be some mistakes in the work, either through the oversight of the compositor, or by the casual transposition of letters in the cases; a sheet is printed off, which is called a pronf, and given to the corrector; who reading it over and, rectifying it by the copy, making the alterations in the margin, it is delivered back to the compositor to be corrected. The compositor then unlocking the form upon the correcting-stone, by loosening the quoins or wedges which bound the letters together, rectifies the mistakes by picking out the faulty or wrong letters with a slender sharp pointed steel-bodkin, and putting others into their places. After this another proof is made, sent to the author and corrected as before; and lastly, there is another proof called a revise, which is made in order to see whether all the mistakes marked in the last proof are corrected. The pressman's business is to work off the forms thus prepared and corrected by the compositor; in doing which there are four things required, paper, ink, balls, and a press. To prepare the paper for use, it is to be first wetted by dipping several sheets together in water: these are afterwards laid in a heap over each other; and to make them take the water equally, they are all pressed close down with a weight at the top. The ink is made of oil and lamp-black; for the manner of preparing which, see Printing-INK. The balls, by which the ink is applied on the forms, are a kind of wooden funnels with handles, the cavities of which are filled with wool or hair, as is also a piece of alum leather or pelt nailed over the cavity, and made extremely soft by soaking in urine, and by being well rubbed. One of these the pressman takes in each hand; and applying one of them to the ink-block, daubs and works them together to distribute the ink equally; and then blackens the form which is placed on the press, by beating with the balls upon the face of the letter. The printing press, represented fig. 2. is a very cu- Fig. 2. rious though complex machine. The body consists of two strong cheeks a, a, placed perpendicularly, and joined together by four cross-pieces, the cap b; the head c, which is moveable, being partly sustained by two iron. pins or long bolts, that pass the cap; the till or shelf dd, by which the spindle and its apparatus are kept in their proper position; and the winter e, which bears the carriage, and sustains the effort of the press beneath. The spindle fis an upright piece of iron pointed with steel, having a male screw which goes into the fernale one in the head about four inches. Through the eye g of this spindle is fastened the bar k, by which the pressman makes the impression. The spindle passes through a hole in the middle of the till; and its point works into a brass pan or nut, supplied with oil, which is fixed to an iron plate let into the top of the platten. The body of the spindle is sustained in the centre of an open frame of polished iron, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, fixed to it in such a manner as, without obstructing its free play, to keep it in a steady direction; and at the same time to serve for suspending the platten. This frame consists of two parts; the upper called the garter, 1, 1; the under, called the crane, 2, 2. These are connected to gether Printing, gether by two short legs or bolts, 3, 3.; which being fixed below in the two ends of the crane, pass upward, through two holes in the till, and are received at top into two eyes at the ends of the garter, where they are secured by screws. The carriage is placed a foot below the platten, having its fore-part supported by a prop called the fore-stay, while the other rests on the winter. On this carriage, which sustains the plank, are nailed two long iron bars or ribs; and on the plank are nailed short pieces of iron or steel called cramp irons, equally tempered with the ribs, and which slide upon them when the plank is turned in or out. Under the carriage is fixed a long piece of iron called the spit, with a double wheel in the middle, round which leather-girts are fastened, nailed to each end of the plank: and to the outside of the spit is fixed a rounce m, or handle to turn round the wheel. Upon the plank is a square frame or coffin, in which is inclosed a polished stone on which the form n is laid; at the end of the coffin are three frames, viz. the two tympans and frisket: the tympans are square, and made of three slips of very thin wood, and at the top a piece of iron still thinner; that called the outer tympan is fastened with hinges to the coffin: they are both covered with parchment; and between the two are placed blankets, which are necessary to take off the impression of the letters upon the paper. The frisket p is a square frame of thin iron, fastened with hinges to the tympan: it is covered with paper cut in the necessary places, that the sheet, which is put between the frisket and the great or outward tympan, may receive the ink, and that nothing may hurt the margins. To regulate the margins, a sheet of paper is fastened upon this tympan, which is called the tympan sheet; and on each side is fixed an iron point, which makes two holes in the sheet, which is to be placed on the same points when the impression is to be made on the other side. In preparing the press for working, the parchment which covers the outer tympan is wetted till it is very soft, in order to render the impression more equable; the blankets are then put in, and secured from slipping by the inner tympan: then while one pressman is beating the letter with the balls covered with ink taken from the ink-block, the other person places a sheet of white paper on the tympan-sheet; turns down the frisket upon it, to keep the paper clean and prevent its slipping; then bringing the tympans upon the form, and turning the rounce, he brings the form with the stone, &c. weighing about 300 lbs. weight, under the platten; pulls with the bar, by which means the platten presses the blankets and paper close upon the letter, whereby half the form is printed; then easing the bar, he draws the form still forward; gives a second pull; and letting go the bar, turns back the form, takes up the tympans and frisket, takes out the printed sheet, and lays on a fresh one; and this is repeated till he has taken off the impression upon the full number of sheets the edition is to consist of. One side of the sheet being thus printed, the form for the other is laid upon the press, and worked off in the same manner. To the above description of the printing press, we shall add that of one invented by Mr Nicholson, and for which a patent was granted in 1790. This machine is recommended by the inventor as being superior to other printing presses in cheapness, accuracy, and neatness, and 5 is adapted with some slight variations in its construction Printing, for printing on paper, linen, cotton, and woollen. Three particulars are to be attended to in the invention. 1st, The manner of preparing and placing the types, engravings, or carvings, from which the impression is to be made; 2dly, In applying the ink or colouring matter to types or engravings; and, 3dly, In taking off the impression. 1st, The moulds, punches, and matrices, for casting letters, are made in the same manner, and with the same materials, as other letter-founders do, excepting that, instead of leaving a space in the mould for the stem of one letter only, he leaves spaces for two, three, or more letters, to be cast at one pouring of the metal; and at the lower extremity of each of those spaces (which communicate by a common groove at top) he places a matrix, or piece of copper, with the letter punched upon its face in the usual way. And moreover, he brings the stem of his letters to a due form and finish, not only by rubbing it upon a stone, and scraping it when arranged in the finishing-stick, but likewise by scraping it, on one or more sides, in a finishing-stick whose hollowed part is less deep at the inner than the outer side. He calls that side of the groove which is nearest the face of the disposed letter, the outer side; and the purpose accomplished by this method of scraping is, that of rendering the tail of the letter gradually smaller the more remote it is, or farther from the face. Such letters may be firmly imposed upon a cylindrical surface, in the same manner as common letters are imposed upon a flat stone. 2dly, The ink or colouring matter is applied to the types, forms, or plates, by causing the surface of a cylinder, smeared or wetted with the colouring matter, to roll over the surfaces of the said forms or plates, or by causing the forms or plates apply themselves successively to the surface of the cylinder. The surface of this colouring cylinder is covered with leather, or with woollen, linen, or cotton cloth. When the colour to be used is thin, as in calico-printing, and in almost every case, the covering is supported by a firm elastic stuffing, consisting of hair, or wool, or woollen cloth wrapped one or more folds round the cylinder. When the covering consists of woollen cloth, the stuffing must be defended by leather or oilskin, to prevent its imbibing too much colour, and by that means losing its elasticity. It is absolutely necessary that the colouring matter be evenly distributed over the surface of the cylinder; and for this purpose, when the colour is thick and stiff, as in letter-press printing, he applies two, three, or more small cylinders, called distributing-rollers, longitudinally against the colouring cylinders, so that they may be turned by the motion of the latter; and the effect of this application is, that every lump or mass of colour which may be redundant, or irregularly placed upon the face of the colouring cylinder, will be pressed, spread, and partly taken up, and carried by the small rollers to the other parts of the colouring cylinder; so that this last will very speedily acquire and preserve an even face of colour. But if the colouring matter be thinner, he does not apply more than one or two of these distributingroilers; and, if it be very thin, he applies an even blunt edge of metal, or wood, or a straight brush, or both of these last, against the colouring cylinder, for the purpose of rendering its colour uniform. When be applies colour to an engraved plate, or cylinder, or through |