BLACK LETTER

Is the name now applied to the old English or modern Gothic letter, which was introduced into 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 the middle of the fifteenth century, the block books, and subsequently those printed 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 the written. The first printed Bible, known as "the Mentz Bible without date," was an instance of this. Fust, the printer, sold copies in Paris as manuscripts; and as the demand increased on account of their beauty and correctne , he not only promptly supplied that increased demand, but even lowered the price: this L 3 [s. 162]