150 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Gospels and other books edited by the Ai'chbishop in loT-i, etc. {Vide 

 Johnson's Typographia, vol. ii., p. 455.) 



Latin. 



The earliest "book" printed in the Latin language in Dublin was a 

 medical work, by Dr. Derniod Meara, or O'Meara, entitled " Pathologia 

 Haereditaria Generalis," &c. (a ti-eatise on hereditary disease). It was 

 printed in Dublin in the year 1619, and is a duodecimo of 146 pp. A copy 

 is in the Library of Tiinity College, Dublin ; and there are three copies in 

 English libraries. It is very rare. The printei-s were FelLx Kingston and 

 Thomas Downes, the London stationere who acquired John Franckton's 

 Patent and position as "State Printer " in Ireland m 1618. 



For printing Latin no special fount of type was required ; and so it is not 

 surprising to find that Latin words, phrases, and sentences are to be found in 

 still earlier Dublin printing. Latin was then the language of the learned of 

 all countries, and was better known than English by some of the Irish 

 chieftains, for which reason, probably, and for use, it may be, abroad, one of 

 the State Proclamations, issued in 1605, was printed in Latin. In a pamphlet 

 issued in 1606 and printed here by Franckton, occur several phrases or 

 sentences in Latin. Thus in Merick's " Abstract of the Statutes " (Dublin, 

 1617) occur two or three Latin sentences and some odd words. Similarly, 

 in Bolton's edition of the Irish Statutes, printed in 1621, several Latin 

 passages will be found, and the same may perhaps be also found in earlier 

 books or proclamations printed in Dublin prior to 1619, to which I have 

 not access at present. After that date many books were printed in Latin 

 in Dublin in the seventeenth centurj-. 



Greek. 



The Greek language having a character of its own, printing in it involved 

 the use of special type cast for the purpose. All type, so far as I know at 

 present, used in Dublin in the seventeenth century, was procured from 

 England or the Continent. I mean it was not cast or made in Ireland. 



The earliest use of Greek type by a Dublin press that I have found so far 

 occurs in Sir C. Sibthorp's "Friendly Advertisement," &c., and in 

 Archbishop Usher's " Epistle concerning the Religion of the Ancient Irish," 

 &c. ; both printe«l in Dublin in 1622, and again issued in 162.3, attached 

 together in one volume, but with separate pagination. In the former volume 

 there is Greek type on thirty-three pages, chiedy in a very small fount, both 

 in text and margin ; but there also occurs a larger fount in the text only, i.e. 

 on the veraoes of signatures h3 and c2 (Preface) and on signature c5 — in all 



