Moxon's Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works Applied to the Art of Printing, Volume I (De Vinne reprint)
Volume I of a line-for-line reprint, made in 1896 for the Typothetae of the City of New-York in 450 copies, of Joseph Moxon's 1683 printing manual, which De Vinne calls the first and most complete of the early manuals of typography.
What it is
Volume I of a line-for-line reprint, made in 1896 for the Typothetae of the City of New-York in 450 copies, of Joseph Moxon's 1683 printing manual, which De Vinne calls the first and most complete of the early manuals of typography. De Vinne's preface covers Moxon's life as an instrument maker and hydrographer to the king, his rough 1669 type specimen, and the Star Chamber decree that allowed only four type-founders. Moxon then sets out the trade in numbered sections: the master printer's duties and the layout of a printing house, down to where the light must fall; the new Dutch press of Willem Blaeu, described part by part against lettered plates; letter-cutting, with stem widths given in parts of a body divided into 42; mold-making; the furnace and type metal; and the casting and dressing of letters. The compositor's work is left for Volume II.
Why read it now
Most of the technical content is now history. Nobody casts type by hand, and De Vinne reports that type-founders call Moxon's rule-and-compass construction of letters absurd and impracticable. What still holds is how the book is built. Each part is named once, given its measurements and tied to a letter on a plate, and every section is numbered so it can be cited. That is what a working SOP or brand production guide needs, and the evidence for written steps is strong: a 2009 study of the WHO surgical checklist in eight hospitals found complications fell by about a third. Two smaller lessons matter to marketers. Moxon says English pressmen kept the old press out of habit, not reason, which is still the main barrier to a better product: the switch has to fit how people already work. And his subscription notice defends the price with three reasons: new material, a small run of 500 on good paper, and the risk of unsold parts. Use: when you write a brand or production manual, name each element once, give its size and a figure reference, and number every section.
Passages worth keeping
There are three reasons why this price cannot be thought dear.
لا يطلب موكسون من القارئ أن يثق بسعره، بل يشرحه بثلاثة أسباب محددة، والسعر المشروح أسهل قبولًا من السعر المجرد.
many Press-men have scarce Reason enough to distinguish between an excellently improved Invention, and a make-shift slovenly contrivance, practiced in the minority of this Art.
يرى موكسون أن العمال تمسكوا بالمكبس القديم بحكم العادة لا لأنه أفضل، فالعادة قد تغلب الاختراع الأجود.
Letter-Cutting is a Handy-Work hitherto kept so conceal'd among the Artificers of it, that I cannot learn any one hath taught it any other
كانت صنعة نحت الحروف سرًا بين أهلها لا يعلّمها أحد لغيره، ولهذا كان تدوينها في كتاب خطوة جديدة.
The object of the reprint is not merely to present the thought of the author, but to illustrate the typographic style of his time with its usual defects.
غاية إعادة الطبع ليست نقل أفكار موكسون فقط، بل إظهار شكل الطباعة في عصره بعيوبه أيضًا، فالشكل نفسه وثيقة تاريخية.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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