A Dissertation Upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies (1778) [with an Appendix by John Nichols. 1779]. With A Catalogue and Specimen of the Typefoundry of John James (1782). Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Harry Carter & Christopher Ricks.

Mores, E.R. ; Nichols, J. ; Carter, H.G. ; Ricks, C.B.

Published by Oxford Bibliographical Society, Oxford, first edition, 1961, 1961

About this Item

Cloth-backed boards, 8vo, lxxx, 104, 20, 48, 105-145 pp, plates. From the blurb: "The 'Dissertation' of Edward Rowe Mores 1710-1778 was the pioneer history of English typefounding. The author printed eighty copies at his home just before he died, and John Nichols added an appendix and sold them. The book has been much quoted by later writers, and it is a valuable authority for the typography of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in England. A good deal of curious information is given in its digressions. A reprint of 1924 is now rare; and the reasons for editing the work are chiefly that the text is not easy to come by, that it needs notes to make it intelligible and an index, and that it gains greatly by being produced, as Mores intended that it should be, with a specimen of many of the old types described in it, which were the stock of the James typefoundry. The present edition supplies these wants and a life of Mores in more detail than it has been written before. He is remembered now mainly for his researches in the history of printing; but as an antiquary he was typical of his age in the range of his interests. The work he did on Anglo-Saxon literature and local histories is respectable, and he was prominent in developing life-insurance. His eccentricity and quarrelsomeness give piquancy to his biography.The Dissertation needs correction. An essay introductory to it in this edition and footnotes to the text try to redress its account of the early history of this trade. The Catalogue and Specimen of the Printing-Type-Foundery of John James issued in 1782, is included, reproduced entire by photo-lithography. The Specimen bears the marks of editing by Mores. It is the only record of a miscellaneous collection of types of the sixteenth and later centuries used by London printers, many of them associated with famous books. Only two copies are known of this document and few of its pages have been reproduced before. Identification and attribution of the types shown in it are attempted in a series of notes." Minor marks and scratches to boards, otherwise Very Good. Laid in is a printed notice that copies were originally issued omitting pp 129 and 130 and supplying a leaf for insertion (our copy has the leaf bound in). Also laid in is a leaf of corrections and additions.

Seller Inventory # ABE-60568

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Dissertation Upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies (1778) [with an Appendix by John Nichols. 1779]. With A Catalogue and Specimen of the Typefoundry of John James (1782). Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Harry Carter & Christopher Ricks.
• Publisher: Oxford Bibliographical Society, Oxford, first edition, 1961
• Publication Date: 1961
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Type & Typography