THE USE OF WILLIAM CAXTON'S TYPE 3 BY JOHN LETTOU AND WILLIAM DE MACHLINIA IN THE PRINTING OF THEIR YEARBOOK 35 HENRY VI, ^.1481-1482 W. J. PARTRIDGE WILLIAM CAXTON'S Type 3, which was the second type used by him when setting up his business in Westminster in 1476, was a fresh casting of a sharply cut, well-aligned Gothic by Johan Veldener, a typographer then active in the Low Countries. It measures 135 mm over twenty lines. The typeface shows to good effect in Caxton's Boethius of £-.1478 (fig. i), and was used as a bold face or headline type in his Cicero printed in 1481 (fig. 2), where it was set in line with another Veldener type, a formal bdtarde^ Type 2:i35B,^ cast on the same body. When we come to examine the use the two earliest printers in London, John Lettou and William de Machlinia, made of this same typeface a few years after its introduction by Caxton (fig. 3), and of other typefaces from the Caxton repertoire, a number of interesting questions arise. Let us first examine a typeface which shows an obvious relationship to Caxton Type 2, and is in effect a reduced version of this type. On this ground alone it has recently been thought to be likewise the work of Johan Veldener. It is referred to as Caxton Type 4:95B and it was used by Caxton from 1480 onwards; it was recast on a larger body in 1483 and in this guise is known as Caxton Type 4*: 102B. A version of this face was used in all the books which John Lettou and William de Machlinia printed in partnership. No firm dates can be attached to any of these books, but the activities of this press must have started either late in 1481 or in 1482. When we compare the two earliest versions of this typeface as used by Caxton (Type 4) and by Lettou and De Machlinia (their Type 2:iO2B), the irregularity of alignment in the version used by the two London printers is striking. Throughout all Caxton's publications the alignment of the types which are thought to have come from Veldener is remarkably uniform. This uniformity of casting, which is particularly noticeable in his first book. The Recuyell of the Historyes ofTroye^ which he printed before bringing his press to London, can be seen, for instance, in the Quattuor Sermones (Duff 299),^ the second edition of the Canterbury Tales (Duff 88), and other Caxton titles in which Type 4 has been used. But when we see the same typeface in the Yearbook j^ Henry VI (Duff 420), one of the six books printed by the Lettou-De Machlinia partnership, the alignment is highly irregular even where the page is set in solid text type (their Type 2) with no larger type inserted. Could Veldener, a typefounder of great 56
Transcript
THE USE OF WILLIAM CAXTON'S TYPE 3BY JOHN LETTOU AND WILLIAM DE
MACHLINIA IN THE PRINTING OF THEIRYEARBOOK 35 HENRY VI, ^.1481-1482
W. J. PARTRIDGE
W I L L I A M C A X T O N ' S Type 3, which was the second type used by him when setting uphis business in Westminster in 1476, was a fresh casting of a sharply cut, well-alignedGothic by Johan Veldener, a typographer then active in the Low Countries. It measures135 mm over twenty lines. The typeface shows to good effect in Caxton's Boethius of£-.1478 (fig. i), and was used as a bold face or headline type in his Cicero printed in 1481(fig. 2), where it was set in line with another Veldener type, a formal bdtarde^ Type2:i35B,^ cast on the same body. When we come to examine the use the two earliestprinters in London, John Lettou and William de Machlinia, made of this same typeface afew years after its introduction by Caxton (fig. 3), and of other typefaces from the Caxtonrepertoire, a number of interesting questions arise.
Let us first examine a typeface which shows an obvious relationship to Caxton Type 2,and is in effect a reduced version of this type. On this ground alone it has recently beenthought to be likewise the work of Johan Veldener. It is referred to as Caxton Type 4:95Band it was used by Caxton from 1480 onwards; it was recast on a larger body in 1483 and inthis guise is known as Caxton Type 4*: 102B. A version of this face was used in all thebooks which John Lettou and William de Machlinia printed in partnership. No firm datescan be attached to any of these books, but the activities of this press must have startedeither late in 1481 or in 1482. When we compare the two earliest versions of this typeface asused by Caxton (Type 4) and by Lettou and De Machlinia (their Type 2:iO2B), theirregularity of alignment in the version used by the two London printers is striking.Throughout all Caxton's publications the alignment of the types which are thought tohave come from Veldener is remarkably uniform. This uniformity of casting, which isparticularly noticeable in his first book. The Recuyell of the Historyes ofTroye^ which heprinted before bringing his press to London, can be seen, for instance, in the QuattuorSermones (Duff 299),^ the second edition of the Canterbury Tales (Duff 88), and otherCaxton titles in which Type 4 has been used. But when we see the same typeface in theYearbook j ^ Henry VI (Duff 420), one of the six books printed by the Lettou-DeMachlinia partnership, the alignment is highly irregular even where the page is set in solidtext type (their Type 2) with no larger type inserted. Could Veldener, a typefounder of great
/ . Caxton's Type 3 : r35G used as title type in his Boethius. TB.55O[8, leaf [a]2 recto
f
of Caton
of ^c g of
of
of ^rfolh fom«ttc e O T " 5 % ^ ^
. 2. Caxton's Type 3:135G used as a bold face in his Cicero. C.io.b.6, leaf 1.2 recto
skill and experience, have been responsible for such indifferent casting? It seems muchmore likely that for the smaller typeface, punches or a set of duphcate matrices werebought or borrowed, and used on the printers' behalf by someone new to the business ofcasting type, and less skilled than Veldener.
The second and more complex question is to do with the way in which Lettou and DeMachlinia used their versions of Caxton's large Type 3:135G in the role of a bold face foremphasis inserted into solid pages of their founts of the text type.
omh^mmlB
cit frevue ccutt Ee rog cc'qi mocucra Ec ^offi ^ ' i oa
Fig. J. Abbreviamentum Statutorum, printed at London by John Lettou and William de Machlinia,showing their two typefaces. IB.55421, leaf c 4 recto (detail)
In tht journal of the Printing Historical Society^ Nicolas Barker referred to this oddand difficult practice when he described how De Machlinia 'continued to use Caxton'stype 3, squeezing it on to the same line with the smaller batarde, which had a bad effect onhis page make-up' (this can clearly be seen in the centre of fig. 4). In 1979 Lotte Hellingainvited me to examine and comment on the way in which Lettou and De Machlinia'scompositors had set about the task of 'squeezing in' this larger type into the solid pagesettings of the smaller text type.
It was obvious from a glance at the British Library copy of the Yearbook that the textwas in fact set sohd and that there was no possibility of spacing leads or reglets havingbeen cut to let in the larger type. The next possibility to be ruled out was that of doubleimpression printing as used at this time by Veldener and others for printing in red andblack. It will be seen in fig. 5 that the lower-case y in 'Danby' is trapped against the 1 belowand is thus held proud of the line below, consequently printing blacker, while the upperpart of the 1 is starved of ink by the ink ball being held off by the y. A simulation of thiseffect is shown in fig. 12. This effect could only have been obtained if the printing wasdone at one impression. There is other evidence, connected with ink density andimpressional strength, that quickly disposes of any question of two printings in this case.
We are now left with two alternative possibilities. The simplest answer is that all thecharacters of the large type, except the descenders, have had their beards filed off,reducing the body size to the same as the smaller text type, and the descenders have beenaccommodated either by filing the letter below or by respacing the following hne to allow
59
ccmpaignorce%h^ttci?Cceoaitia *5 m a r e ^ q ^ i ^ h foif cnC mcrcpl-
fcripf IV 02 ftStffo fuofi^Ka? pf«t qp^Ctffif ao ^fu pDicn r^^ni cit:a
5.6 a.' «8C m eft cnaoR fur CRr? oonoie g rc^rcs ic ccnDic ^ Oit enit q au RmpeixC-xn^c? itC mcfm? Co6e nefaitafcwn cnfvoft 'njEc
tout e 0? qi£ au^r en m?fm?Ce Die manjt auOtt a:.:!? g «oout s fcaS!
nOu? a ccCe conOif ^r e ptcc eft q ^m?rfiK Coee nc fuiff afa aiftoffc (3J Cc Oit mancrfmon 3 :3P tm Donqcaf[ Ce coTioie ^rt c? q ^ fi Jol)€o J^ it oms ag Ti qut fmt f offaft ?e Conq?ccffip:e ^rteJatrejfuff^meifuJPcCcptctit? [tnempCc ^fcnt ecmpaCD)n aiefc cc tfiOu Qon^6 per Cc aj.ioi? :^uv q fueP cnftoff^«? Cc oit mantt ocuatC:^5 ixSo6a| OuifTc ^^^ '^ t aiiji puitejiP q ecetn pcifb«c3futP cn'voff ^uant E^j^faunct EtC o6CiS?OifTtiorc nefontM^"? enN t mc3W)Oroit(?iG(3futP^offejm:e ore m font Jtlmt mop fc5-.eoitDunt q Ce conDie eft fi qui f uc? Cc qEC eft Ce p? txwpe ^ fV crtttiOu)q CUV q 1 ucPcnl^offecre^^ ai€t tnDu q autPnips isCf^fau^cs ge t:ef*afe oif^off? ?e e« C« qE M p* c: rri3 a no? n-.ee fi CC ccnOie ^ f t « ft qutfmttonq6C?ptccfPaffej6cnmeoO?artia cnttntiCnc ^ u t i ^ e J i ftcUonC ^ a ^ a cntcnt oeu^ poC;? !t qut fucP fP p ' i s come iC6 poioitfoConrq? CcnDttemcnt OcE conDir ^ nemj) jDuP 0:£ gtamcP qr wj 0m«9oifesCe p?cempefuCcapurCeprer<?tta'»iip9CK>mCC»)a>6fi"5n ^me^oiOee fbire ^n fait &?e ^offemcnf Cc ccc fcfaimcc Oe tee c^r?? OtOi oonaffi ore fi i f P ptio foConcqj Ce "B^trap ruCc Dc graufeP iC eo«era 5cu5tCJ/cfancc 5cE frit Cc qGE nc:fta iffmt prie come tC puet fi Ca Ccp I? com€ ieputt eft? cnttr.^? I? e cfi pur Ce pfcnf temps ifTwt mop rcm6Ce oi aftca5 ft qt fueP p ' ?5 prto p' 2e ptefcnt ttrnpe aujoi 5n comC 9t) Ce me qci-o ap Dtt axuatit ^ ifTmt mopfcmSCe Cc pCecQon Cl)Oll£ wop fc>ti6Cc
cii^ q nouo ncpciom? ^r.oPCcnttnt ficC cottDi?
p ^ f p Cl)Oll pCc ccutraric [? icooitcii^ q nouo ncpciom? ^r.oPCcnttnt ficC cottDi?
Ftg. 4. Yearbook 35 Henry VI printed at London by John Lettou and William de Machlinia.IB.55423, leaf b 4 verso
5 ittmt icp a tns
^nt EC pt occifi5. Yearbook js Henry VI. IB.55423, leaf c 1 recto
(detail, enlarged)
Fig. 6. Yearbook ss Henry VI. IB.55423, leaf b 4 verso (detail, enlarged)
them to drop between the words. In fig. 3, which shows a detail of the AbbreviamentumStatutorum (Duff 375), the cross-heading in the large type is, for no apparent reason,placed tight up against the first line of the text and it can clearly be seen that the large typeis a full face on the body with no beard. The z in 'dez' has been fitted in above the n byfiling away the top of the shank of the n. But no self-respecting compositor in his rightmind would have gone to the trouble of filing down the beards of all the other characters ina cross-head in this situation. The beards were missing before the line was set.
In fig. 6 the descending g in 'Billing' falls above the ascending ligature le and there is nomeans of getting over the difficulty without resorting to very wide word spacing andcarrying over a word into the next line. Happily, wide word spacing was not tolerated, butthe next five lines are left curving downwards in misalignment, which will have caused thispage to be almost impossible to lock up and lift from the stone to the press. Perhaps thefinal page make-up was actually done on the press and not, as later would have been thecase, in a chase on the stone to be lifted onto the press.
The alternative to all this filing of characters, a possibility which to me seems the more
61
compacgno tee %h 5cf 6 g m
n;J) fur 5M O56 G qffi o6e fait mcome i u? c6Et| caCie eft qj ft 3
ao Sfu oicft J -if OeFig. 7. Yearbook 35 Henry VI. IB.55423, leaf b 4 verso (detail, enlarged)
urf Cp graiifJ5 //^wr}/ VI. IB.55423, leaf b 5 verso (detail, enlarged)
credible, is that a small fount ofthe large type excluding the descenders was cast for thisspecific purpose on the same body size as the smaller text type. This would be a sensible,practical solution considering the number of books other than the Yearbook in whichLettou and De Machlinia used this particular method of emphasizing key words or propernames.^ The word 'Litteltone' shown in fig. 4 and used frequently in the Yearbookpresents no problems. The type beard is missing, the face is full on the body like a titlingand is aligned with the descenders ofthe smaller type; but at the beginning of line 15 on thesame page a lower-case g has been carefully slotted into a word space in the line below(fig. 6). This also occurs with the y in 'Danby' (fig. 5). In fig. 7 it can be seen that the p in'porte' overlaps the fin 'fuit' below. This would have required some very careful filing.Other examples of careful fit can be seen in fig. 8 in the capitals M and B, fig. 9 where three
62
f ra prte Be >>e? fbtf cncottter Pupfate p' f pteri? ttmpc g ifTmt
De DcCte £utt pO2te enuc
ieottqucCcOitCptiour^. 9. Yearbook js Henry VI. IB.55423, leaf c 3 verso (detail, enlarged)
B0U6 co' purem
^. 70. Yearbook j ^ Henry VI. IB.55423, leaf b 6 recto (detail, enlarged)
lines ofthe large type are dovetailed into three lines of text type, and fig. 10 where the u in*issue' has been damaged by filing to allow for the p descender. The number of words set inthe large type in some of these pages is considerable, fifty-eight words appearing in onefairly typical gathering of eight leaves. Even if not more than six or eight pages were setup at the same time (before distributing the type for reuse), it does look as if a completesmall fount of the filed down or full-face-on-small-body type must have been madeavailable.
To confirm the practicability and check the time taken for the filing method, and havingno type in the sizes ofthe faces discussed here, I have set in type two examples (fig. 11 and12) fitting 18 point Plantin bold (20 lines = 126 mm) into lines of 14 point set solid(20 lines = 98 mm), the amount to be filed off being 1.4 mm as against 1.6 mm differencebetween the two Lettou-De Machlinia types. The time taken on filing and fitting, using afirm vice and a sharp file, averaged twenty minutes per word. The word 'Litteltone' took
63
Phellipe ad use pdicti thometune and Litteltone Pur lesur eert eondit and reheree le
Fig. II, Typographical experiment by the author
trauers issint ici ama ententepunisshe D a n b v nioy sembet pfent qiit le pi occist le di
Fig. 12. Typographical experiment by the author
more filing and less fitting than the word 'Danby' which has fewer characters but includesthe descending y which had to be fitted into the next line.
It is interesting to note how precise the alignment is of Lettou-De Machlinia's large typewhen compared with the irregularity of his text type. This evenness of the large typewould have been difficult to maintain if the sorts had been individually filed and it wouldhave been difficult not to have damaged occasional characters with the file when taking offthe beard flush with the face. (I nicked 20 per cent of the characters I filed down.) I havenot found any file damage on the lines in large type but a number of cuts do show on thetext type lines where descenders have been let in from lines above. The Lettou-DeMachlinia version of the larger type, incidentally, can be seen to be a different casting fromthat used by Caxton (Type 3) in his Boethius and Cicero and some of the letters have beenrecut. The lower-case o, for example, has a different shape at the base of the letter, the e isrounder, the capital I has a flattened base stroke; as in Type 2 the ligatures et, te, ti, to, and tthave not been observed.
My conclusion is that the pages of the Lettou and De Machlinia Yearbook 3s Henry VIwere printed at one impression and the words in the large typeface were fitted into the lines
64
of text type by a combination of filing down individual characters, and having a fount ofthe large type, except the descenders, cast on the same body size as the text type. Thissolution would occur instantly to any printer who planned his book far enough ahead toallow him to order the special fount or, with less foresight needed, to anyone who could gethold of a set of matrices and a mould and had the ingenuity to set up his own smallfoundry. A special casting on the smaller body would have been the sensible, practical,economic solution, and there is plenty of evidence to show that practical, economicbusiness sense was not in short supply in printing circles at that time.
1 Types as used by printers are indicated by theirnumber in Proctor's chronological arrangement,their measurement in mm over twenty lines, andtheir style (G for Gothic, B for bdtarde). ForCaxton's Types 2 and 3 see Wytze and LotteHellinga, The Fifteenth-Century Printing Types ofthe Low Countries (Amsterdam, 1966), p. 24, pis.35-8, 61-4. For Type 3 and its affiliated types seeLotte Hellinga, Caxton in Focus. The Beginning ofPrinting in England (London, 1982), pp. 69-76,figs. 31-40.
2 Duff: E. Gordon Duff, Fifteenth Century EnglishBooks. A Bibliography of Books and DocumentsPrinted in England and of Books for the EnglishMarket Printed Abroad (London, 1917).
3 Nicolas Barker, 'Caxton's Typography', PapersPresented to the Caxton International CongressI gj6. journal of the Printing Historical Society., xi(1976/7), PP- 114-33-
4 Books printed by John Lettou and William deMachlinia in which use was made of a version ofCaxton Type 3 in conjunction with other type-faces:
John Lettou alone:Thomas Wallensis, Expositiones super Psalterium
(1481), Duff 396. (Only the words 'Eatus qui'at the beginning ofthe text.)
John Lettou and William de Machlinia in partner-ship:Abbreviamentum Statutorum., Duff 375.Yearbook ss Henry F7, Duff 420.Sir Thomas Littleton, Tenores novelli. Duff
273-Dialogus inter Hugonem., Catonem et Oliverium
super libertate ecclesiastica. Duff 116.Yearbook jj Henry VI., Duff 418.Yearbook j6 Henry VI, Duff 421.
William de Machlinia alone:Nova Statuta (before March 1483), Duff 378.Promise of Matrimony (early 1483), Duff 351.The Revelation of St. Nicholas to a Monk of
Evesham., Duff 357.Sir Thomas Littleton, Tenores Novelli (2nd edn.).
![[Compiled and Captioned by William John Cummings ...Compiled and Captioned by William John Cummings] 1 ... [Compiled and Captioned by William John ... in about 1890 shows a group of](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/5af992aa7f8b9abd588d18cc/compiled-and-captioned-by-william-john-cummings-compiled-and-captioned-by-william.jpg)
![Sir William John Thompson Slides - rcpi-live-cdn.s3 ... · Sir William John Thompson Slides 2 WJTS Sir William John Thompson Slides Collection [1910s-1920s] Extent: 4 boxes Creator:](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/5c0e07d709d3f258548c65ae/sir-william-john-thompson-slides-rcpi-live-cdns3-sir-william-john-thompson.jpg)
