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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
memorials are found. Under what tuition, there- i fore, he was enabled to la^ the foundation of that transcendent skill in classical literature, to which, notwithstanding the disadvantages of such a period, he attained, must continue a matter of conjecture.
At the time of his father's decease, having attained the age of seventeen years, he may he supposed to have acquired considerable experi- ence in the typogrraphic art. In the year 1622, after the marriage of Simon de Colines with the widow of Henry Stephens, Robert had become the assistant of his father-in-law, and the direc- tor of his press.
Probably it was in the ^ear 1524, that he be- came sole proprietor of his paternal " Imprime- rie." In 1525, he gave the first of his impres- sions recorded by Panzer, viz. Ajndeii liber de deo Soeratit, 8vo. He commenced the follow- ing year with an impression of CiceronU eputoUB ad familiares, 8vo.; and from that period till about the year 1552, when he foisook his native city, the productions of his press were multiplied with mcreasing enterprise, activity, and perfection.
Robert united himself in marriage with Petro- nilla or Perrette, one of the daughters of Jodo- cos Badius, with whose professional merits and character the reader is already acquainted. This lady appears to have been worthy of an origin and a matrimonial connexion both so literary.
andaU other necenaryes to thatpaleyi they destroyed and waited." At a time when there were ao manr powerftil barons rivalling their aorereigTi, in conrtly sidendoar, we can hardly sappose that the beat apartments of t^elr dwellings would have windows sheltered by nothing more than lattices. That Chaaoa'B chamber-windows wei« glazed, we certainly gather Cram his Drtmt :
" My wyndows weretn sbet echone. And through the gloMte the aunne jfthone Upon my bed with bright bemis With many glad gildy stnnnis."
From a patent granted In the flrst year of Richard II.> IS78, we learn that John de Brampton was not only made
eUutier to the king within his tower of London, bat in all is casUes and manors. Aproof either that the profession was a rare one, or that Brampton was an extraordinary workman. William Harrison, the author of the Deeerip. tkm of England, prefixed to HoUngihed'i Chnmiele, says, '* Heretofore also the houses of our princes and noblemen were often glazed with beryll (an example whereof is yet to be seen in Sodleie Castle; but this, especially In the times of the Romans, whereof also some fragments have been taken up in old mins." From Sir John Cnllam's Hietorp of Hawkeied, it should seem that so late as 161S, glass windows were a luxury not every where introduced even Into the better kind of farm-houses. The fraternity of the " Glaziers and Painters on Glass," Is reported by Stow to have been a society of very ancient memory. The trades seem always to hare gone together, although they were not incorporated till the thirteenth year of Charles I, As a company, they had a coat of arms and crest, con- firmed to them by Robert Cook, Clarencieux, 1588.
Venice, for a long time, excelled all Europe in the mannfactore of glass, but it was subsequently rivalled by France. The first plates for looking-glasses and coach windows were made in H73, at Lambeth, by Venetian artists, under the protection of the duke of Buckingham. That which is now made at Rarenhead, near 8t. Helen's, at Liverpool, and London, is equal or superior to any im- ported from the continent.
It it difflcult to form any precise estimate of the value of the glass annoaUy produced in Great Britain. It Is con- jectured, however, that it cannot amount to less than ^^,000,000 ; and that the workmen employed In the dillte. ent departments of the mann/actore exceed so,0(lo.
She well understood and could converse fluently in the Latin language. That learned " Decem- virate," as it has been termed by Henry Stephens, or society of scholars, whom Robert entertained in his family, as the assistants of his labours and correctors 01 his press, being of different nations, and holding their common intercourse in the Latin tongue, gradually communicated a literary tinge to the whole domestic establishment; so that even the children and servants, instructed by their table-talk and social conversation, be- came so familiar with the Latin idiom, as both to understand and to express themselves with con- siderable fluency in the same language.
Some have affirmed, that it was a custom of Robert Stephens to hang up the separate leaves or sheets of his impressions, for the examination of students, in the streets and precincts of the university; and to propose a stated reward to any who should detect in them an error of the press.
In 1528, Robert Stephens was occupied in the preparation of that ^reat original work, by whicn he evinced himself a profound critic and etymologist, as well as a skilful printer; I mean his IHctumarium teu Latituc Lingua Thaaunu. To correct the />irftomirtt(m Calepini was a task difficult, invidious, and nugatory. The students of the university required a new Dictionary, more accurate, and better furnished with classi- cal authorities. Finding no other peison at once willing and competent to engage in such an undertalung, he at length consented to take it upon himself: and when he had digested a few sheets into an alphabetical form, submitted them to the examination of several learned men, by whom he was encouraged to persevere. He consequently applied himself two years to this work, day and night, with little intermission, regardless of health and domestic concerns; and by it two presses were kept in constant exercise.
His acknowledged erudition, and great pro- fessional zeal and ability, having long before attracted the royal notice and favour, Francis I. in the twenty-fifth year of his reign, and the thirty-sixth of out ivpofrrapher's age, conferred upon him the hon.Mniililc distinction of Impri- iiieiir Royal for Hebrew and Latin works : Regii in Hebraicis et Latinis Typographi. After uie year 1538, we no longer find the mention of his oflicina e regione schoke Decretorum. From the moiitli of June, 1.^.39, more especially, he styles hinist'lf, Regius Typographus, or Librarius ; sometimes more preeisely, Kegius Hebraicanim et Latinarum litcrarum Typographus ; very sel- dom omitting these lionours.
As yet be bad iiut obtained Uielil^c IjuuuumUc disliiietion with regard to the Greek. The office of Regius in Grsecis literis Typographus was first given to Conradus Neobanus, as we have already mentioned. Francis conferred it upon him I)robaUy about this same period ; for in several of Iiis impressions of the year 1539, he is found with this distinction. But the impressions of Neobarius were few ; he died anno 1540, a vic- tim, if we may believe Henry Stephens, to the labours of his office. Until this event took place.
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