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/60

56 HISTORIC PRINTING TYPES. Catholic Queen Mary, Roman was the proper text letter for books of devotion; but, under the reign of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, prayer-books in Black Letter had the preference. Fox's "Acts and Monuments," intended to strengthen Protestant zeal, appeared, in the first edition of 1560, in the old-fashioned Black Letter. But even then there were indications of an abatement of the prejudices against Roman types. The printers of that time, who must Roman types preferred by have preferred the Roman letters, so much easier to print, printers and literary men. timidly introduced Roman types in the titles and head- lines, and Italic types in the prefaces of Black Letter books, and gradually accustomed their readers to the innovation. They distinguished the classics of England as Archbishop Parker did those of ancient Rome ; the writings of Bacon and Shakespeare appeared in Roman types. Black Letter was really out of fashion as a popular text letter at the close of the xvith century, but it was not obso- lete. Moxon's book of 1683, from which these specimens are taken of the form of his time, shows that it was then regarded as indispensable in the equipment of a printing- It was largely used as a display letter, and, to some extent, for texts of devotional works. It is not out of use yet. According to a recent British reviewer, the laws of Great Britain are still printed in their official form in Black Letter. In my belief, the most admirable form in which the Book of Common Prayer has ever been printed is the Black Letter folio of Pickering, commonly known as the Black Letter not entirely out of fashion. OmCe.