A Specimen of the Types in John Moncur's Printing-House, Being a Sermon
A type specimen printed in Edinburgh in 1709 by John Moncur, whose title page says it was printed "by the Owner of the Types, on the North-side of the Trone." Instead of alphabet lines or a Latin sample, Moncur set a complete sermon on Jeremiah 50:5, "Come, and let us Join our selves to the Lord, in a perpetual Covenant." The type steps down as the pages turn: the text page carries three or four words a line, and by page VI the lines run long and dense, so each size is read at length.
What it is
A type specimen printed in Edinburgh in 1709 by John Moncur, whose title page says it was printed "by the Owner of the Types, on the North-side of the Trone." Instead of alphabet lines or a Latin sample, Moncur set a complete sermon on Jeremiah 50:5, "Come, and let us Join our selves to the Lord, in a perpetual Covenant." The type steps down as the pages turn: the text page carries three or four words a line, and by page VI the lines run long and dense, so each size is read at length. The sermon sets out four observations: people who covenant with God are in danger of slipping from it, seriousness in keeping it is the proof of sincerity, it must be remembered in practice, and the means is holding fast to God. It cites Peter's denial, the golden calf and James's forgetful hearer.
Why read it now
The idea that still holds is the demonstration: show the product doing the buyer's own job. Sermons were standard work for an Edinburgh press, so Moncur showed his types setting a sermon, with a title page, drop caps and italics, not a bare list of faces. The buyer sees the finished book before ordering one. It is the logic of a software demo run on the prospect's own data, or a template gallery filled with real copy instead of lorem ipsum, and Nielsen Norman Group advises real content in prototypes for the same reason: people judge a layout by reading it. What has dated: the readable pages name no faces or sizes, which later specimens such as William Caslon's 1734 sheet labelled line by line, so a buyer here had less to order by. The theology belongs to its time. Use it when building a sample, demo or portfolio piece: fill it with the exact kind of content your target client publishes, in their language and format, and let them read it through.
Passages worth keeping
Printed by the Owner of the Types, on the North-side of the Trone. MDCCIX
صاحب المطبعة يعلن أنه مالك الحروف نفسه، ويذكر موقع ورشته في إدنبرة وسنة 1709، فالعينة إعلان عن ورشة قائمة يمكن زيارتها.
Come, and let us Join our selves to the Lord, in a perpetual Covenant, that shall not be forgotten.
هذه الآية التي بُنيت عليها الموعظة، وقد جُمعت بأكبر مقاس في الكتيب ليبدأ العرض بالحرف الأكبر.
This is the great Design of all Preaching, to bring them within the Covenant, who are without, and to make those who are within the Covenant to walk suitably to it
للوعظ غايتان: أن يُدخل من هم خارج العهد، وأن يعين من هم داخله على الثبات عليه.
The Second is, That the great evidence of right entring in Covenant with God, is to be serious and much concerned in keeping of it, even as much as in entring into it.
علامة صدق الالتزام أن يهتم المرء بالوفاء به بقدر اهتمامه بالدخول فيه.
Supposeth that there is a sort of Covenanting that slips like a knotless thread (to speak so) and abides not.
بعض العهود تنفلت كخيط لا عقدة في طرفه، أي أن الالتزام الذي لا يُشد بعمل مستمر يضيع سريعًا.
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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