37& Account of Stereotype Printing, 



*' Above a hundred years ago, the Dutch were in poflefiioi* 

 of the art of printing with folid or fixed tvpes, which in every 

 Eefpec~b was fuperior to that of Didot's ftereotvpe. It may, 

 however, be readily comprehended that thew letters were 

 not cut in fo elegant a manner, efpecially when we reflect on 

 the progrefs which typography has made mice that period. 

 Samuel and J. Leuchtmans, bookfellers at Leyden *, have- 

 itill in their pofleflion the forms of a quarto Bible which were 

 oonflructed in this ingenious manner. Many thoufand im- 

 preffions were thrown off, which are in every body's hands, 

 and the letters are itill good. 



" The inventor of this ufeful art was J. Van der Mey, 

 father of the well-known painter of that name. About the 

 end of the 16th century he reftded at Leyden. With the 

 aintlance of Muller, the clergyman of the German congre- 

 gation there, who carefully fu'perintended the correction, he 

 prepared and call the plates for the above-mentioned quarto 

 Bible. This Bible he fuiblifhed alfo in folio, with large 

 margins ornamented with figures, the forms of which are 

 1U11 in the hands of El we, bookfeller at Amsterdam * : alfo 

 an Englifh New Tellament, and SchaaPs Syriac Dictionary, 

 the forms of which were melted down ; and likewife a fmall 

 Greek Teilamcnt in i8mo. 



" As far as is known, Van der May printed nothing elfe 

 in this manner; and the art of preparing folid blocks was 

 loft at his death, or, at lea ft, was not afterwards employed. 

 Tjhe caufe may readily be conceived ; for, though this pro- 

 cefs in itfelf is very advantageous, it is far more expend ve 

 than the ufual method of printing, except in thofe cafes 

 when fuch works are to be printed as are indifpenfably ne- 

 cefTary, and of (landing worth. The number of thefe, how- 

 ever, is certainly fmall ; efpecially as we are acquainted with 

 no inflance in the annals of Dutch printing, that any de- 

 pendance can be placed on the fale of 150,000 copies, as 

 was the cafe with the brothers Guyot." 



The publifher of the preceding notice fuppofes, nay, af- 

 ferts, that the expenfe of ftereotype precludes its ufe, ex- 



** Should the prefent article chance to meet the eyes of Mcflrs. LeuchfJ 

 mans -or Klwe, the gentlemen mentioned in ihis extract as being pofleiied 

 oe lome or" Van der May's forms, they would confer a perfonal favour on 

 the author of the prefent article, and at the fame time a fcrvicc to truth, if 

 they would have the goodnefs to part with the plates or blocks of a few 

 pages, and forward them to his addrefs in London by any of the vefTels 

 which bear his Prufftan majesty's flag, and which are daily patting between 

 the two countries. By inipeoYmg them, he thinks he could determine 

 whether Van der May's procefs was the fame that he himfclf has pra&ifed. 



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