AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF PRINTING TYPES

effect... Of his ornaments and ornamented initials one may say that he touch¬
ed nothing that he did not adorn'. [149]

87. Our examples are from the Specimen de Caractères Typographiques Anciens
issued by Joh. Enschedé et Fus, Haarlem 1870. We have already noted that
J. F. Rosart (bom at Namur in 1714) modeUed his decorated letters on those
of Fournier. In the preface to the Enschedé specimen issued in 1768, Johannes
Enschedé wrote 'Mr Rosart cut nearly aU the large Roman, Italic and Shaded
Capitals ; the great and smaU Canons ; the Paragon ; and most of the Flowers
and Borders'.

For the foUowing facts about the two decorated letters we show the writer
is gready indebted to Dr В. Frans Enschedé: 'The Deux Points de Cicero
Romain Omé, N01 was cut by Matthais Rosart (the son of Jacques François
Rosart) and bought from him by Johannes Enschedé on the 28th September

1768. He paid for the 39 strikes 58^ gudders----The Deux Points de Cicero

Romain Orné, No 2 is to be found in the specimen of theWidow DeceUier at
Brussels, issued after 1779. In this year she bought the foundry off. F. Rosart
who died in i777.Though this type does not appear in any of the Rosart
specimens which are referred to at page xxv of Dr Enschedé's book (Fonderies
de caractères et leur matériel dans les Pays Bas du XVe au XIXe siècle), it
can be safely derived from its appearance in the DeceUier specimen that it
was cut by Jacques François Rosart.The Enschedé typefoundry acquired ma¬
trices of these capitals in 1799, when the typefoundry of Ploos van Amstel was
bought'. [!5о]

88. From the 1780's the first shaded and decorated letters were cut, or procured
for use, in England. Sir Francis Stephenson thinks that some of the early ex¬
amples of decorated types in this country were cast from matrices bought by
our founders from HoUand.

In the book issued byWilliam Caslon ПІ (bom 1754—died 1833) in I786he
shows specimens of Cast Ornaments which include (white) transitional-style
roman capitals on shaded backgrounds & what might be caUed shaded roman
capitals drawn with a double outline.The interiors of these double outline
letters are shaded with lines running diagonaUy.

The Eight lines Pica Ornamented letters are from the specimen of S. and
С Stephenson, London, i796.ThebeautifulFryOrnamentedletters are pre¬
sumed to have been cut by Richard Austin (who started business as a punch-
cutter about 1786) in 1796 & the line of Canon Ornamented capitals is from
the William Caslon III specimen of 1816. Another example of ornamented

250

Decorated

capitals is shown on page 176 of this book. It is from the 183 3 specimen book
of Vincent Figgins where it appears at thefootof a page ofTwo-line Letters
in Shade. rISIi

89. Theülustrious famdy of the Didots has been mentioned in the notes to ülus-
tration46, page 229. In our example we show two early nineteenth century
alphabets of decorated modern capitals by P. Didot l'ainé (1761-1853) repro¬
duced by permission of Dr Frans Enschedé. [152,153!

251