THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
his. It may be that the entry in our accounts is inaccurate and really relates to a
Great Printer Italic by Ulrich Amman.
This face, though of no great merit, is of interest because, as we think, it is an
essay in the manner of the French master Fournier le jeune.1 Strange if so: be¬
cause the reputation of Fournier, once so familiar here in Holland, had by this
time been supplanted by that of Didot. What Fleischman had once been Didot
was then: no typefounder failed to make capital out of his name. We have used the
wording of Amman's specimen for our setting of his Great Primer Italic No. 85/7 (fig. 504,
p. 404) to illustrate the point; for he took as his text some expressions by the
great French typefounder. As much admiration for Didot's types and for any made
in his style was prevalent in other countries. A little specimen from Germany2 is
headed 'Prillwitz's specimen of new French or so-called Didot-style Types' (1791),
and our only specimen by Hendrik van Staden, the probable successor to De Groot,
has this title : 'New Roman on English body after the fashion of M. Didot of Paris'.3
Among our old matrices are some for a Paragon Roman lower-case in this taste,
No. 898 (fig. 505, p. 404) for which we also have the punches, but I do not know
who cut them or how we came by them.
What is more to our purpose is the content of Unger's specimen (see p. 368)
issued at Berlin towards the end of the eighteenth century and described as
'Specimens of Didot-style and ordinary types',4 though it contains nothing in the
way of ordinary types. Under the head of 'Didot-style Types' it makes us ac¬
quainted with a range of Roman and Italic faces of which several, much to my
regret, are now incomplete or absent. I illustrate those that are left (figs. 506—513,
pp. 405, 406), enough testimony to the impressive achievement of this German
typefounder.
To round off" the display of Unger's work I show the ornaments which came
to us from him (fig. 514, pp. 407,408). These he put under two heads. The 'Ordinary
Flowers' ^Ordinäre Röschen) were at the end of the book, while the others came im¬
mediately after the Didot-style types and were called 'New Flowers and English
Nichts ist so ansteckend als Beyspiel, und wir
stiften nie viel Gutes oder viel Böses, was nicht ähn¬
liches Gute oder Böse hervorbrächte. Gute Handlun¬
gen ahmen wir aus Wetteifer, und böse, aus der na¬
türlichen Verkehrtheit nach, die von der Scham gefan¬
gen gehalten und durch das Beysprel in Freyhert ge¬
setzt wurde.
Fig. 513. Bourgeois Roman no. 1555,
from the Unger foundry ('Petit antiqua').
[i] A curious judgment. Fournier's design was much more reasons for dating it in 1792 or for thinking that Van Staden
robust as well as more accomplished. acquired the business of De Groot. A specimen issued by
[2] Prillwitz Proben von neuen französischen oder verbesserten щепатеп De Groot at Malines in 1788 has since come to light, List of
Ditiotsclien Lettern. Jena 1791. With it is a proof of a 'Mittel Syrisch' type-specimens No. 134.
cut in 1787. See List of type-specimens No. 137. [4] See List of type-specimens No. 143.
[3] List of type-specimens no. 138. Enschedé did not give his
406
4995
4989
15=
4986
4987
4993
4991
5006
5005
5000
5002
4988
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4995
4995
4994
4992
4998
5004
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5001
4999
4997
4985 4986
@@®@®®®gg©QQ®®Q©® ®@®®@®@q@®@®©®@®
4984
5003
4996
4983
4997
Fig. 515. Ornaments which appear in the Unger specimen under the title 'neue Röschen und englische Linien',
certainly cut by Unger himself.
5080
5037
5018
5021
ттштщштттт t tmrnîmmnnnmmmm
5016
KXKXKKKKKKKKKKKK К KKKXKKKXXKKKKKKK
5034
5035
JT^lJT^ì JT^l J^t JSfc JSfck JTSiUrSLjrafc. JSfe,
5007
5009 5008 5009
5°Ч
5030 5029 5030
5033
«Ч-1Н-1Н-»ИМ-<Н-!Н-СН-<Н-в+в+(Н-«ч- tU- 50I7 5012 5020 5019 5013 5°i5 (5](a ]( o]( o][o Д п ДоД аДоДaДоДоДдДоДгідЪуoJoTo) fol fa^nToYoT^^^^foX^T^X^^'J"Ja.Г° ЕЕ) 5036 5°23 5025 5024 5fi en» «fi en» engten» ■*► ф енямммммнмм* 50I0 о» о»<і» о» о»<з» о» о» <ï» о» m о» о»m mm m m m Fig. 514. Ornaments which appear in the Unger specimen under the title 'ordinäre Röschen'. 407
5072
5025
5032 5°3! 5°3*
5038
They cannot be ascribed with certainty to Unger himself.