The facsimiles on the previous page, from two books of the fifteenth century, are fair exhibits of the frequency of early abbreviations.
When books in roman type were printed in the sixteenth century for the unschooled reader, the abbreviations were used sparingly, but they were not entirely under ban in descriptive writing even in the eighteenth century. They might have been frequent in print if compositors could have put them in diminutive letters and on a higher line as readily as the writer of the manuscript, but the selection and adjustment of small type in the text made composition more difficult. When the pub- lisher found that this use of small type delayed work and increased cost, abbreviating with small
These for Mr Clerke att his house in Holy Well in Oxford.
Octobr 29th : 1668. Mr Clerke I haue rec' both yor lettrs 5 & had sooner giuen you answer : butt yt I was out of towne ; now first for Mr Lee, I find hee is willing to Comply in all yt ye Vniuersity hath desired & will shortley giue mee some letters wch shall bee as a Standard for ye mettall, . . . this is all att prsent from Sr
Yor Serut to Comand
Robert Scott.