With regard to the types, which concern us most, the following is the list of the characters employed, as extracted by Rowe Mores:―
ORIENTALS.― _Hebrew_: Two-line English, Double Pica, English. _Samaritan_ (with the English face): English.* _Syriac_: Double Pica, Great Primer.* _Arabic_: Double Pica, Great Primer.
MERIDIONAL.― _Ethiopic_: English or Pica.
OCCIDENTALS.― _Greek_: Great Primer and Small Pica. _Roman and Italic_: Two-line English, Double Pica [Day’s],[322] Great Primer, English, Pica, Long Primer, Brevier, five-line Pica, two-line Great Primer, Small Pica.
* Of the founts marked thus (*) in the present and following summarised lists of the contents of the English foundries, the matrices or punches, and in some cases both matrices and punches, still exist.
[Illustration: FOUNTS OF THE LONDON POLYGLOT, 1657.
40. ETHIOPIC. From the original matrices.
42. SAMARITAN. From the original matrices.]
The matrices of three of these founts, the Samaritan, the Ethiopic, and the Syriac, have survived to the present day, and in the course of this work we shall have occasion to trace their descent from the original makers to the present owners. Meanwhile, it is with great satisfaction that we are able here to show a specimen of types actually cast from these venerable relics as they now exist.[323] Of the Arabic fount, some of the punches and matrices also exist, but in too incomplete and dilapidated a state to allow of their being used.
Of the Orientals, the Hebrew is, perhaps, the least good. The Syriac and Arabic are fine bold characters. The Greek is neat, though somewhat insignificant. The Ethiopic[324] and Samaritan[325] are both good and elegant faces. The Italic is particularly neat. As might be expected from founts procured from various foundries in that day, there is a certain absence of uniformity in the { 175} bodies on which the different founts are cast. This only makes the more remarkable the accuracy and precision with which the columns are arranged. In most copies the columns are divided by red lines, ruled by hand—in itself an enormous task.
Nine languages are used in the _Polyglot_, but no single book is printed in so many. The following is the arrangement of texts according to volumes: