PRINTING.

Ill

of typography may be attributed to the effects observedfrom ancient seals and medals, as the arts of sculpture, dye-sinking, &c. dependent thereon, had long arrived at thezenith of perfection, anterior to the meridian of Romanimperial splendour. The forms of animals, letters, &c.impressed on Grecian and Roman medals, and as we haveseen in a former article, (upon Chaldaan productions, bricks,Egyptian coins, &c.) were in effect the same as modernprinting, and may be, perhaps, called printing on metals;as the impressions made upon Chaldaic clay, upon the terrasigillaris, and subsequently on wax, from their seals, &c. cutin metal, agate, crystal, cornelian, and other preciousstones, may be said to be printing upon those substances.Lastly, it evidently appears, the Grecian potters had a modeof impressing characters and figures upon their most finishedproductions at Samos , particularly their lavatoria, sudato-ria, vases, and other curious pieces of fine Samian wares,as we have seen many beautiful specimens so impressed inthe large collection of our friend Mr. John Cranch, ofBath. Further, Dorm. Bernard Montfaucon , in his Antiq.Explicat. gives the figures of many large sigilla of theRomans, in which the names are sunk in creitx, and in hol-Idw capital letters, which he imagines were used to impresslarge earthen vessels whilst the clay was soft, particularlythose in which the Romans kept their wines. This verylearned and diligent antiquary never appears to have metwith any of those sigillce, like the one previously described,as belonging to his Grace of Rutland, or he would not havefailed to have mentioned it.

The ancient printers used the same name for their firstforms, as were used by the Romans for similar purposes;they called their printing blocks, in which the letters wereimmoveable, typi Jixi , somewhat resembling stereotype;whilst those where the letters could be changed, they deno-minated typi mobiles, the same as are said to have been usedin ancient Rome , and also similar to the present letters.Cicero , in his work before cited, directs the letters to bemade of metal; he calls them forma literarum, the expresswords used by the first printers to denote theirs.

The Haerlem book, called Catholicon, and those previ-ously mentioned in the Bodleian , and also one in Ben’etCollege, Cambridge, were printed the same, it has beenconjectured, as modern playing cards are manufactured;but we think without sufficient authority. These specimensare unquestionably the very primitive mode of printing wepossess, when they were printed upon one side of a sheet