ation of the Gothic letter
('appele du nom de certains peuples qui vinrent s'etablir
dans la Gothie, plus de quatre cens ans avant J.C.') in one
of the plates of Fournier's _Dictionnaire Typographique_:
vol. ii. p. 205--which, in truth, resembles anything but the
Gothic type, as understood by modern readers.--Smith and Mr.
Stower have the hardihood to rejoice at the present general
extinction of the black-letter. They were not, probably,
aware of Hearne's eulogy upon it--'As it is a reproach to us
(says this renowned antiquary) that the Saxon language
should be so forgot as to have but few (comparatively
speaking) that are able to read it; so 'tis a greater
reproach that the BLACK-LETTER, which was the character so
much in use in our grandfathers' days, should be now (as it
were) disused and rejected; especially when we know the best
editions of our English Bible and Common-Prayer (to say
nothing of other books) are printed in it.' _Robert of
Gloucester's Chronicle_: vol. i., p. LXXXV. I presume the
editor and publisher of the forth-coming fac-simile
re-impression of Juliana Barnes's Book of Hawking, Hunting,
&c., are of the same opinion with Hearne: and are resolved
upon eclipsing even the black-letter reputation of the
afore-named Wynkyn De Worde.--A pleasant black-letter
anecdote is told by Chevillier, of his having picked up, on
a bookseller's stall, the first edition of the _Speculum
Salutis_ sive _Humanae Salvationis_ (one of the rarest
volumes in the class of those printed in the middle of the
fifteenth century) for the small sum of four livres!
_L'Origine de l'Imprimerie_; p. 281. This extraordinary
event soon spread abroad, and was circulated in every
bibliographical journal. Schelhorn noticed it in his
_Amoenitates Literariae_: vol. iv. 295-6: and so did
Maichelius in his _Introd. ad Hist. Lit. et Praecip. Bibl.
Paris_, p. 122. Nor has it escaped the notice of a more
recent foreign bibliographer. Ameilhon makes mention of
Chevillier's good fortune; adding that the work was 'un de
ces livres rares au premier degre, qu' un BON BIBLIOMANE ne
peut voir sans trepigner de joie, si j'ose m'exprimer
ainsi.' _Mem. de l'Institut_. vol. ii. 485-6. This very
copy, which was in the Sorbonne, is now in the Imperial,
library