Page:Historic printing types, a lecture read before the Grolier club of New York, January 25, 1885, with additions and new illustrations; by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914; Grolier Club.djvu/19

 GEKMAN BLACK LETTEE. 15 date ; it was reserved for the xixth century to appraise the book at its true value. We have to ask, why was this book so long neglected I One has but to look at this fac-simile of a part of a page see page is. to get the answer. The text is not easy to read. The types are black, compressed, and closely fitted to indistinct- ness; the text is not divided in verses; contractions are fre- quent. The eye aches for that relief of white space within and around each letter which is to be found in all modern book types. No one who wishes to read a Latin Bible, to read it and not look at it, would ever select the Bible of 42 lines if a modern copy of the text could be had. It Not a readable is for this reason, and this reason only, that this edition book, of the book fell into disuse. It was supplanted by editions in smaller types that were more easily read; editions that had the divisions of book, chapter, and verse more clearly marked by the printer than had been done by the illu- minator ; editions in plainer types that did not offend the eye with blackness. I put special stress on this quality of being easily read, for, whatever may be the merit of a book in other features, it will be ultimately approved or condemned by the reader on the test of its legibility. The fac-simile appended does not show the beauty of see page is. the full page as that page appears in the few copies that have been enriched by the professional illuminators of the xvth century. The size and splendor of the many colored its beauty largely made initial letters, and the grace of the painted decorative by decoration.