Michael Everson wrote:

>
> 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.

Did co(m)pac return many copies?

> 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.

I think mine is just published by the Author. That hexonymic publisher
is the precursor of Longman, Green, which was important in Orientalist
publishing later in the century.

I don't understand why it doesn't get mentioned in the standard
histories of printing. Despite what the description says, neither you
nor I knew of it!

> 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:

How much? What was the name of the French volume you showed me when we
met?

> 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.

--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...