2 volume set. Vol. 1. Title: Typographia, | OR THE | Printers' Instructor : | INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT | of the | ORIGIN OF PRINTING, | with | Biographical Notices of the Printers of | England, from Caxton to the close | of the Sixteenth Century : | A Series of | Ancient and Modern Alphabets, | and | DOMESDAY CHARACTERS : | Together with | An Elucidation of every Subject con- | nected with the Art. | By J. JOHNSON, Printer. |{stanza}| Vol. I. | In frame: Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, | Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, Pater- | noster Row, London | Under the frame: 1824. || Typographical frame with the names of distinguished printers; on the cornerstone: William Caxton, 1474. Pagination: ffl / blank, blank / engraved frontis., engraved t.p. / blank, engraved dedication / list of club members, engraved arms vignette / blank, [4] pedigree, [i] ii-xii – preface, [1] 2-610, [10] – index, bfl. Text printed in the frame. To ffl : previous owner’s inscription: Herbert Heath | from | William Blades. | Xmas 1886; Frontispiece: Portrait of John Johnson at age 46, engraved on wood by W. Hughes; t.p.: TYPOGRAPHIA, | OR THE | PRINTERS INSTRUCTOR | BY | J.JOHNSON | PRINTER. VOL. 2. | 1824 | frame with lettering, top: GUTTnbg – FAUST – ELZEVIR – ALDUS, bottom: MENTZ – STRASbg –HARLAEM | below: BIBLIOTHECA • BODLEIANA. | below the frame: G.W.BONNER SC ||; Dedication to Earl Spenser, K. G., and the members of The Roxburghe Club, dated 1824, engraved on wood by W. Hughes; Arms vignette: Roxburghe Club | Instituted | June XVII | M D CCCXII || engraved on wood by William Harvey. Provenance: Admiral Sir Herbert Leopold Heath, KCB MVO (1861 – 1954); William Blades (1824 – 1890) – English printer and bibliographies. Inscription to ffl in both vols:D. Bateman. Vol. 2. Pagination: ffl, t.p. (similar lettering, but Vol. II.) / blank, [2] advert., [i] ii-iv contents, [1, 2] 3-663 [664] [16]. Points: Vol. 1.: Frontispiece portrait of Caxton replaced by a portrait of J. Johnson from Vol. 2, engraved t.p. of Vol. 1. replaced by t.p. of Vol. 2; Vol. 2 without engraved t.p., and without frontispiece. Edition: First Edition. Size: 16mo. 12.5 x 8.5 cm Binding: Mid-nineteenth century polished calf, the covers with a border of a gilt double fillet and blind roll. Spine divided into six panels with raised bands flanked with gilt fillets, lettered on new red goatskin labels, marbled endleaves and edges. Seller's description:

John Johnson (1777-1848) operated Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges's Lee Priory Press before a falling-out. Typographia was printed at his Apollo Press, in Brook Street, Holborn, with the financial support of Edward Walmsley, and came out in four sizes. "Of the few standard works on the art of printing in the English language, this is perhaps the most familiar. [The first volume contains] a table of the introduction of the art into the different countries, after which comes the "introduction and art in Great Britain", with a list of the productions of the first printers up to 1599. The second volume may be described as practical, in contradistinction to the first, which is historical. It gives a description of types, directions for composing, for press, and warehouse work, &c. It is particularly rich in foreign alphabets, a feature which has gained of it great estimation. It has long since become, and deservedly, a printer's classic" - Bigmore & Wyman, I, pp.371-2.

Note: This is the book that served as a source of plagiarism for  Adams's Typographia: a brief sketch of the origin, rise, and progress of the typographic art published in Philadelphia by himself in 1837. The copy returned to the seller for the reason stated in section Points above and replaced with the unaltered copy LIB-2693.2021.