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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 131 garet, Westminster, to the year 1491 or 1492, in which we read, " Item : atte bureyng of William Caxton for iiij, torches vj s viij d . Item : for the belle at same Bureyng vj d ." Wynkyn de Worde no doubt referred to this time. Caxton, Mr. Warton observes, by translating, or procuring to be translated, a great number of books from the French, greatly contributed to promote the state of literature in England. In regard to his types, Mr. Dibdin says he ap- pears to have made use of five distinct sets, or fonts, of letters, which, in his ac- count ot<Caxton's works, he has engraved plates in fac-simile. Edward Rowe Mores, in his " Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Foun- dries," says Caxton's letter was originally of the sort called Secretary, and of this he had two fonts ; afterward he came nearer to the English face, and had three fonts of Great Primer, a rude one which he used anno 1474, another something better, and a third cut about 1482 ; one of Double Pica, good, which first ap- pears 1490 ; and one of Long Primer, at least nearly agreeing with the bodies which have since been called by those names. All of Caxton's works were printed in what are called black letter. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS* BY A. R. SPOFFORD, LL.D. (1436-1506) T HE discovery and the discoverer of America have furnished an almost inexhaustible theme for the critic, the biographer, and the historian. In the year 1892 there was celebrated an event which has come by common consent to be regarded as a world-famous epoch, worthy to be held in everlasting remem brance. We commemorated the man whose discovery almost doubled the ex- tent of the habitable globe. The life, the voyages, the brilliant triumphs, and the mournful end of Co- lumbus are already familiar to most readers. To recount them at length would be here a needless repetition. Let us rather attempt to glance at some of the historic disputes involving the character and acts of the great discoverer, to sketch briefly the sources of information about him, and to characterize some of the more important writings upon the subject. Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess