At 13:50 -0500 2005-12-08, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> > >My most treasured possession is "Johnson's Typologia" (1826), two tiny
>> >(32mo, I think) volumes amounting to more than 1000 pages covering
>> >everything a printer could possibly want to know -- including scores of
>> >pages on exotic (nonroman) types. Libraries list copies of the work in
>> >larger sizes, but I can't imagine that he set the text more than once;
>> >the same formes must have been printed on various sizes of paper.
>>
> > What is this book? I have tried searching the title "Typologia" with
>> and without the author name "Johnson" and the date 1826, to no avail.
>> Perhaps there just isn't a copy in any of the British and Irish
>> libraries listed at copac.ac.uk.
>
>I don't know what copac is, or how comprehensive,

http://www.compac.ac.uk is the catalogues of 24 research libraries in
Britain an Ireland.

>but several copies are listed, with different years and different
>sizes, at nypl.org. (CATNYP, not LEO)

Ah, it is a typo. I find Johnson's Typo*graph*ia, not Johnson's Typo*log*ia.

Typographia, or the Printers' instructor: including an account of the
origin of printing, with biographical notices of the printers of
England, from Caxton to the close of the sixteenth century: a series
of ancient and modern alphabets, and Domesday characters: together
with an elucidation of every subject connected with the art. By J.
Johnson, printer.
London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1824.

Actually, I am pleased to know about this book, and I have ordered
one from a used bookseller in Texas, which gave this very nice
description:

TYPOGRAPHIA, OR THE PRINTER'S INSTRUCTOR. London: Longman, Hurst,
Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1824. 2 vols. First edition, regular
issue, 32mo. Original purple muslin, labels, uncut. Chipping at crown
of first volume, some rubbing, labels rubbed and a bit chipped along
upper edge, but a good solid set of this "printer's classic" often
found quite shabby, rebacked, or rebound. The subtitle accurately
explains the scope of the work: ". Including an account of the origin
of printing, with biographical notices of the printers of England,
from Caxton to the close of the sixteenth century, a series of
ancient and modern alphabets . together with an elucidation of every
subject connected with the art." The most comprehensive and famous of
all the English printing manuals, issued in four sizes (royal octavo,
octavo, 16mo, 32mo). Copiously illustrated with charming cuts of
presses, early printers, printer's marks, diagrams, and alphabets. As
with several copies we have seen, volume one is bound upside-down, as
issued. Hart 68. "One of the few standard works on the art of
printing in the English language" --Bigmore & Wyman I:371-73. Birrell
& Garnett 227.
--
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com