Figure 331
Page of Bibliographical Decameron: Bulmer, London
From a copy belonging to Mr. C. E. Lauriat, Jr., Boston (facsimile), Internet Archive (scan)
1817
An extremely good specimen of a real modern face roman type was used…in three volumes. This work is one of the most successful typographical achievements of the early nineteenth century. The typography is excellent, the pages splendidly imposed, and the reproductions of old printers’ marks and other illustrations beyond praise. In presswork it is one of the finest of modern volumes. It needed, however, all that the printer could do for it; for its author wrote an affectedly playful style which makes his books among the most tiresome and irritating in the language.