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/26

22 If we had never been provided with better forms of Roman type, Black Letter might still be in use everywhere.

John died 1469. Nothing is known of Vindelin after 1477.

The first fair Roman types were made by John and Vindelin de Spira, of Venice, and were shown by them in

their edition of Cicero, of 1469. Here we have something of the roundness, simplicity, and perspicuity of the Roman character. Yet it was but an approximation: the proportions of the letters are not good.

Printed from 1470 to 1510.

The first printer in Paris, Ulrich Gering, was almost as unsuccessful as his German brothers in the art had been at Rome. His idea of a proper form of Roman letter is shown in this fac-simile of his types in 1470. This is not