BLACK LETTER

Is the name now applied to the old English or modern Gothic letter, which was introduced int.i England about the middle of the fourteenth century, and became the character generally used in MS. works before the art of printing was publicly practised in Europe. On the application of that art to the multiplying of books, about (lie middle of the fifteenth century, the block books, and.subsequently those written with moveable types, were in this character, to imitate writing, and were disposed of as manuscripts; and so perfect was the imitation, that it required great discrimination to distinguish the printed from Hie written. The first printed Bible, known as " the Mentz liible without date," was an instance of this. Fust, the 150 [s. 164]