88 
that could be desired for a folio volume, being as white as 
desirable without the use of bleaching materials. It was said 
that the ink in early books was mixed with gum and not with 
burnt oil, which formed the basis of the printing ink to-day. If 
this were so, the fact would account for the absence of the brown 
stain which disfigures so many sixteenth and seventeenth century 
novels. The next photograph showed both print and M§., 
being a part of a page of a missal printed at Bainberg, by 
Sensenschmidt, in 1481, and some lines from a MS. missal 
written at Wartzburg in 1470 or 1480. In the fifteenth century 
the gothic form of letter—black letter as it is called—was in 
universal use in the north of Europe. In Italy the gothic writing 
had already been abandoned, and when printing was introduced 
into that country by Sweynheim and Panwartz, in 1465, it was 
found those printers cut the punches for their types on Italian 
models. A page from an Italian MS., dated 1451, was shown. 
The book was ‘An epitome of the history of Pompeius, ” 
by Justin, a Latin historian of the second or third century. 
From that form of handwriting the type that nearly all western 
nations have adopted, originated. It was the parent of our Roman 
letter. The next photograph was an early example of the type 
alluded to. It was a page from Livy’s “‘ History of Rome,” 
printed at Rome in 1469, by Sweynheim and Panwartz, It was 
remarked that the large initial letter was added by hand by an 
illuminator, who, at the same time, added touches of colour to 
the capital letters. The Italian writing of this period, the 
lecturer remarked, was so beautiful, and its connection with 
contemporary type so intimate, that he hoped to emphasize the 
point by showing other slides. The next was an example of an 
exquisite handwriting, with more relation in the shapes of the 
letters apart from the angle of inclination to the type called 
italic. It was from a treatise upon agriculture, written about 
the years 1480 or 1490. A page was shown from the first book 
printed in Venice, by John Spiers, in 1469, printing in Venice 
being introduced four years after its introduction into Italy. A 
page from Cicero’s letters to Brutus, printed at Venice, by 
Nicholas Jenson, in 1470, was also shown. 
From this point the lecturer went on to tell his audience about 
Aldus, who was the first publisher to start cheap books, who 
dropped abbreviations, and had his type cut by Francia pictor et 
aurifex who was said to have taken it from Petrarch’s hand- 
writing. He exhibited a page of the copy-book of Vicentino, 
the great Venetian writing master, which was greeted with a 
spontaneous round of applause, and made some_ excellent 
suggestions about improving modern copy-books and avoiding 
slanting writing. A superb Plautus, printed at Florence in 1514, 
for Lorenzo di Medici, Polydore Virgil’s History with the fine 
ee 
