398 Mechanic Avis, 



pense, nor greater number of types is required in 

 this than in the common mode of printing." 



Another improvement in the art of printing, 

 which belono[S to the last ao^e, is the kind of im- 

 pression called Facsimile, or formmg the types in 

 such a manner as precisely to resemble the manu- 

 script intended to be copied. The first approach 

 to this method of printing was the Medicean 

 Virgil, printed ^t Florence, in 1741. This, how- 

 ever, though an approximation to the plan, was 

 by no means, strictly speaking, what is now meant 

 hy fac-simile printing, as the resemblance of the ma- 

 nuscript was not complete. The first great work 

 of this kind v/as the New Testament, of the Alex- 

 andrian MS. in the British Museum, published by 

 Dr. WoiDE, in 1786, which exhibits its prototype 

 to a degree of similarity scarcely credible. Since 

 that time, a few other works, of considerable ex- 

 tent, have been published on the same plan, par- 

 ticularly Dr. Kipling's edition of the four Gospels 

 and the Acts of the Apostles, according to the 

 MS. of Beza. But, for the most part, the prac- 

 tice in question has been confined to manuscripts 

 of small extent, and to objects of especial cu- 

 riosity.^ 



The art of forming types, for printing, has also 

 received considerable improvements in the course 

 of the eighteenth century. Among the numerous 

 authors of these, the celebrated John Baskerville, 

 an English artist, deserves particular notice. The 

 diligence, zeal, and success w^ith which he applied 

 himself to improve the mode of founding types, 

 and to give them a more beautiful form, are well 

 known; as well as the numerous editions which 

 he was enabled to give of important works, parti- 

 cularly the Latin classics, in a style of elegance far 



Encyclopedia i Art. Logography. 



p Monthly Revieivy of London, vol. xii. N. S. p. 24 1. 



