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VIII. 



WILLIAM KEARNEY, THE SECOND EAELIEST KNOWN PEINTEE 



IN DUBLIN. 



By E. E. McC. DIX. 



Read April 11. Ordered for Publication Ariiii, 13. Published July 16, 1910. 



In a paper read by me in July, 1908, upon Huinfrey Powell, Dulilin'.s first 

 printer, there was mention made that the last document printed by Humfrey 

 Powell was in 1566. From that year down to 1571 no specimen whatever of 

 any pruiting in Dublin is known to exist, or has been recorded so far. In 

 that year, 1571, appeared the two first specimens of printing in the Irish type 

 sent over by Queen Elizabeth to Dublin. One of these consists of a poem ; 

 and the only copy of it which is known to exist is the broadside, on each aiile 

 of which it is printed, and which broadside is to be found in the library of 

 Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in the " Archbishop Parker " Collection. 

 It would seem to have been set up and printed as the first specimen of the tj'pe. 

 It consists of twenty-two and a half stanzas of eight lines each, printed in three 

 parallel columns. The whole broadside measures 15j\- by 11 inches. The 

 " Queen Elizabeth " fount of type is an imperfect one ; but Mr. Eobert Steel, 

 the eminent Ijibliographer, told me that the \'arious type-characters are 

 identical with the Old-Saxon characters; and it may be stated as confirmatory 

 of this view that there is written at the top of the broadside in contemporary 

 handwriting these words :— " This Irish ballad printed in Ireland who belike 

 use the old Saxon caracte." I ventiu'e to submit that this type was simply 

 Anglo-Saxon type cast by John Day in 1567 for Archbishop Parker, and 

 used as if Irish type.' The imprmt on the title-page of the " Alphabet and 

 Catechism " (.shortly to be mentioned) clearly stated that it was printed with 

 Gaelic type at the cost of Mr. John Usher, Alderman. There is no reference 

 in it to the actual printer. John Usher was not a printer by trade or 

 business, as far as I am able to learn. In the imprint to the broadside a 

 different Irish plirase is used. It runs thus : — " This is put into print by 

 Mr. John Usher," &c. ; but Dr. O. Bergin, whom I liave consulted, does not 

 consider that the Irish plu'ase means that Usher actually printed the broadside 



' Some contractions nuiy have been specially cast for Irish use. 

 B.I.A. PROC, VOL. XXVIII., SECT. 0. [24] 



