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fome People have now- a- days. It was certainly ufed 
on Paper or Membranes, being firft dipt into Ink, 
or fome fort of Paint, becaufe of the Protuberance 
of the Letters, the hollow Letters being fitter for 
foft Subftances, on which they leave the Impreffion 
(landing up, and confequently more legible. An- 
other Argument to me, that this Stamp was not to 
be ufed on any foft Subftanoe into which it might 
be preffed quite down to the Ground, is the Un- 
evennefs and Roughnefs with which, the Ground is 
finifh’d, which, was it to have made part of the Im- 
preflion, the Workman would have finifh’d with 
more Accuracy ; but he, knowing that the Surface 
of the Letters was to perform the whole Work 
requir'd, was only attentive to finifh them with that 
accurate Evennefs that thefe have. 
The learned Mr. Matt air e y in his Annales Typo - 
gr aphid, Hag£ 1719. in 4°. p. 4. concludes from 
the beft Authors, that our modern Art of Printing 
was firft thought of about the Year 1440. A Copy 
of the Book he mentions, ibp. 13. called Speculum 
nofir£ Salutis , being Pi&ures of Stories out of the 
Bible, with Verfes underneath, in "Dutch , I have 
feen in the Stad-houfe at Harlem. Each Page was 
printed from a Block of Wood, like a forry wooden 
Cut $ and this was the firft Effay of Printing, which 
Hint was taken from Engraving, and is what he 
means p. 4. by Typi fixi s after which they foon im- 
prov’d to ufe feparate Types, .as we now do, which 
he terms, ibid . Typi mobiles. This Stamp is, in 
Reality, a fmall Frame of fixt Types, and prints 
with our modern Printer’s Ink, which is only a fort 
of black Paint, as readily as any Set of Letters, cut 
E e e in 
