Page:Historic printing types, a lecture read before the Grolier club of New York, January 25, 1885, with additions and new illustrations; by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914; Grolier Club.djvu/53

DUTCH TYPES. 49 AD DANIELEM ELZEVIRIUM, BIBLIOPOLAM AMSTELODAMENSEM. Ecquidnam video ? O Dei Deseque ! Nostros scilicet Elzevirianis Excuses video typis libellos. O typos nitidos & elegantes ! O comptum & lepidum novum volumen ! Atro literulae picem colore, Et candore nives papyrus aequat. Codex sindone non quotidiana, Et membrana nitet novo umbilico. Fulget pagina cuncta purpurisso, Et sunt omnia pumice expolita. Tarn comptum & lepidum novum volumen Invitos trahit & tenet legentes ; Et, quas non habuere, dant habere Typi versiculis amoenitates. Sic nuptae, invida Fata quos negarunt, Ornatrix tribuit novos lepores. At, 6 dulce decus meum, Elzeviri, Prsestantissime quot fuere, quot sunt, Typorum pater elegantiorum, Ecquid, die mihi, die, venuste noster, Hoc pro munere, muneris reponam ? Quas possum tibi gratias referre? Sic semper lepidos tuos libellos Facundus probet & requirat orbis. Sic vestras adeat frequens tabernas Emptor. Sic decus Elzevirianum, Doctorum volitans per ora vatum, Terras impleat, impleatque ccelum. Turnebos simul atque Vascosanos, Et vincas Stephanos, Manutiosque. TO DANIEL ELZEVIR, BIBLIOPOLE AT AMSTERDAM. O ye gods and goddesses ! what do I see ? My verses reproduced by the Elzevir types ! O types elegant and exquisite ! O gracious and charming volume ! The dainty types are as black as pitch ; the paper is as white as snow. * * * * So gayly attired, the book attracts and retains the reader in spite of himself. The types give charms to my verses which they never had before : like the bride to whom a skillful hair-dresser gives the graces that a jealous fate has denied. But thou, Elzevir, my sweet ennobler ! thou, the father of types of incomparable elegance, thou, I say it again, most amiable of friends ! what can I offer thee in return for such a gift? How can I acquit myself of this debt? May men of letters forever prize and collect thy bewitching books ! May crowds of buyers be steadily pressing forward to thy store ! May the name of Elzevir, transmitted from age to age by the songs of poets, fill the great globe, and fill the heavens. Mayst thou vanquish Turnebus and Vascosan ; surpass the Stephens and the Alduses. GILLES MENAGE" Imitation of Roman Types used by John Elzevir at Leyden in 1659. From the foundry of Gustave Mayeur, Paris.