Hierogliphifch Alphabeth.

&г #aerïem/0Eb2uftt Up Izaak enjoh. Enfchedé, §>Ш$ЩиШп$. 1751.

C.V. Noorde. inv: del: & iculp:

Fig. 410. Resetting of the specimen-sheet showing Ornamental Initials no. 848, cut by С van Noorde.

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ORNAMENTAL INITIALS

Jews. ' Paragon Hebrew No. 845 (fig. 407, p. 299) can have been only a little later in date :
it was used to distinguish the auxiliary from the radical letters in Bibles and gram¬
mars.2 The typefounder at The Hague, De Groot, also had two Hebrew types
which, for the sake of completeness, we reproduce, though they have not much
merit. They are the Small Pica No. 846 and the Nonpareil No. 847 in figs. 408,409, p. 298.

Ornamental initials, a kind of printer's equipment much favoured in the eighteenth
century, were cut for Johannes Enschedé by his friend and fellow citizen, Cornelis
van Noorde, who was born at Haarlem in 1731 and died there in 1795,3 and by
[Hendrik] Numan (1728—88), who was drowned near Amsterdam.4 More were
bought at auctions of printer's material. Van Noorde cut the alphabet, the orna¬
mental initials no. 848 of our inventory (figs. 410, 411), which had a certain reputation
for its facetious design. The letters H—Z in the set of Ornamental initials No. 849 (fig.
412, p. 302) were also cut by Van Noorde. The small ones A—G are to be found
before 1730.

Initials of this kind were got for the printing office, not for the typefoundry.
Enschedé had our Ornamental Initials No. 850 (fig. 413, p. 303) before 1743, the year when
the typefoundry of Wetstein was bought. The Ornamental initials No. 1420 of our inven¬
tory (fig. 414, pp. 304,305) came from Wetstein's printing office, where they were
used in many books, among others in their famous edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses
in 1732.5 Later, when Enschedé made a specialty of Bible printing, he got [Hendrik]
Numan to engrave him a set of initials partly from drawings by Cornelis van Noorde
and partly copying some in older Bibles. They are the Ornamental Initials No. 851 of
our inventory (fig. 415, p. 308). The Ornamental initials No. 852 (fig. 416, pp. 306, 307)
were bought at the sale of Michiel van Leeuwen at Haarlem in 1772,6 and com¬
pleted by letters cut for the purpose.

Fig. 411. A variant of initial H, belonging to the set

of Ornamental Initials No. 848, but not shown

in the specimen of 1751 (fig. 410).

[1] This seems doubtful: it is certainly used for secular, [5] De gedaant-wisselingen van P. Ovidius Naso, in bet Lotyn en

including mercantile, correspondance. Possibly Enschedé Nederduitsch, Nieulyx vertaald, ... door Isaali Verbürg. Amsterdam,

confused it with German Rabbinical. R. en J. Wetstein, en W. Smith, 1732.

[2] Type of the kind was first used by Elias Hutter in his [6] Sale catalogue, Copy and Print p. 131, List of type-speci-

Hebrew Bible printed at Hamburg in 1587. Outline type was mens No. 118. The A, R, and W are shown, headed no. 3.

used for the auxiliary letters. Such an aid was only intended Dito op hont gesneden, 8 stubs (No. 3. The same [refers to no. i.

for learners. Figuur-Letteren, figurated initials] cut in wood, 8 pieces). It seems

[3] Waller, p. 240 ; von Wurzbecli 2, pp. 240-241. that the majority of the Ornamental Initials no. 852 came from

[4] The Numan who was drowned was Hendrik, and not another source. The last H was used by Abraham Casteleyn
Hermanus as Charles Enschedé wrote. Moreover, Hendrik in his edition Hugo de Groot Voor de waerheyt des Christelycbn gods-
was a woodcutter and Hermanus an engraver (Waller p. 241; diensts. Haarlem, Abraham Casteleyn, 1667.
von Wurzbach 2, p. 246).

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