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ab Anno Domini 1546, usque ad Annum 1607, Libri CXXXVIII. Accedunt Commentarium de Vitâ suâ Libri VI. &c." In Seven Volumes*, folio; a work which reflects a considerable degree of credit on the memory of Mr. Buckley; and for which

These letters were translated into Latin by Mr. Professor Ward, with an elegance worthy the place they hold in the front of the work." Dr. Maty, Life of Mead, p. 39.-In Mr. Buckley's third letter to Dr. Mead the writer says, he has "the pleasure to acknowledge that Lord Carteret from time to time had favoured him with his directions and information concerning Thuanus, and among other things had the goodness to put into his hands a character of that Historian §."

* In the title-page of each volume, the name of the bookseller only appears, "Excudi curavit Samuel Buckley, 1733." At the end of the first, stands "Londini imprimebat Henricus Woodfall;" of the second, "Samuel Richardson;" of the third, “ Jacobus Bettenham;" of the fourth, "Jacobus Roberts;" of the fifth, "Thomas Wood." No printer's name occurs either in the sixth or seventh; but the eight first books of vol. VII. were printed by Mr. Bowyer; and the remainder, I believe, with the whole of the sixth volume, by Mr. Edward Owen. These were all very excellent printers.-An Act of Parliament was obtained, "for granting to Samuel Buckley, Citizen and Stationer of London, the sole liberty of printing and reprinting the Histories of Thuanus, with additions and improvements, during the term therein limited." Whilst the Bill was depending

in Parliament, Mr. Buckley published "A Short State of the public Encouragement given to Printing and Bookselling in France, Holland, Germany, and London. With Reasons humbly offered to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, for granting to Samuel Buckley such Privilege for Thuanus in Latin, as is already granted to every British Subject who is possessed of the copy of any book in English."

+ Mr. Samuel Buckley (who has been briefly noticed in vol. I. p. 290) is represented in The Tatler, No. 18, in the character of a News-writer, as a literary Drawcansir, "who spares neither friend nor foe, but usually kills as many of his own side as the enemy's."-Seven volumes of the original Spectator in folio were published by Samuel Buckley at the Dolphin in LittleBritain. The Spectator being discontinued at the close of the seventh volume, was succeeded by The Guardian; and Pope informs us, that Steele was engaged in articles of penalty to Jacob Tonson, for all the papers he published under this last name. The same author says, "the true reason that Steele laid down The Guardian was a quarrel between him and the bookseller above mentioned;" he adds, "that Steele, by desisting two days, and altering the title of his paper to that of The Englishman,

§ Park's Edition of Royal and Noble Authors, vol. IV.

got

Proposals had been printed by Mr. Bowyer, and circulated in the year 1730 *.

66

Appendix ad Marmora Oxoniensia ; sive Græcæ trium Marmorum recens repertorum Inscriptiones, &c. By the Editor of the Oxford Marbles. Sold by W. Bowyer." Price 1s. 6d. folio. Bishop Hare's Hebrew Psalter," 8vo. The celebrated Psalmanazar had some years before

got quit of his obligation." Additions to Pope's Works, 1776, vol. II. p. 84, et seq. In 1713 the periodical paper to which Steele gave the title of The Englishman, was in the course of publication; it was printed by S. Buckley in Amen-corner, and announced as The Sequel of the Guardian. The title of Spectator was resumed some months after; number first of the VIIIth volume, printed by Buckley in Amen-corner, folio, is dated on the 18th of the June following, in 1714.-He was afterwards appointed writer of the Gazetteer, and was put into the commission of the peace for the county of Middlesex. He was a man of an excellent understanding and great learning, very sincere where he professed friendship; a pleasant companion, and greatly esteemned by all who knew him.

In Hornsey-church, Middlesex, on the North wall, and close to the pulpit, on the West side, a very neat and elegant mural monument of white marble is thus inscribed:

"To the memory of

SAMUEL BUCKLEY;

who, having not only discharged
all the duties of life

with ability, industry, and tenderness to each relation;
but offices likewise of state and trust,

with prudence, fidelity, and gratitude to his benefactors;
concluded his days in the study of letters,

and the enjoyment of honest and honourable friendships, Sept. 8, 1741, in the 68th year of his age."

* See vol. I. p. 425.

These additional monuments (see p. 1) were brought into England in October 1732, from a town situated between Smyrna and Ephesus. The inscriptions were carefully and exactly taken off on paper by Mr. Joseph Ames, and presented to Sir Hans Sloane; and Mr. Maittaire undertook to communicate them to the publick, with a Latin translation and notes. The first of these, we are told in the Preface, receives considerable light from some of the monuments preserved in the Gallery at Oxford, and particularly from one of those published by Mr. Chishull.

Author of the fabulous "History of Formosa ;" and of a very considerable part of "The Universal History." Psalmanazar's portion of that useful and laborious work is particularly pointed out in his own "Memoirs of Himself," published the year after his decease, which happened May 3, 1763, at the age of 83.

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prepared an edition of the Psalms, with Leusden's Latin Version in the opposite column, and critical Notes;" intending it should be printed by Mr. Palmer, who declined undertaking it, being in treaty with Dr. Washburn to print the edition of Bp. Hare, which passed afterwards through the press of Mr. Bowyer."

* «This performance did not appear in print till seven or eight years after, and then to my great surprize; for Mr. Palmer had amused me with the belief that the design was set aside, either on account of its being found impracticable, or at least too difficult and dangerous. It appeared, however, that Mr. Palmer imposed upon me; and that he knew that the design was carried on in another priating-house, though with such privacy, that I never heard or dreamed of it, though I had been Rong acquainted with Mr. Bowyer, who was employed in the printing of it. So far from it was I, that I began to think Mr. Palmer had only invented that story, to divert me from printing my proposed edition, in order to set me upon another work, in which he was more immediately concerned, and expected greater eredit, as well as present profit from. This was his History of Printing, which he had long promised to the world, but for which he was not at all qualified. However, he designed to have added a second part, relating to the practical part, which was more suited to his genius, and in which he designed to have given a full account of all that relates to that branch, from the letter-founding, to the most clegant way of printing, imposing, binding, &c. in which he had made considerable improvements of his own, besides those he had taken from foreign authors. But this second part, though but then as it were in embryo, met with such early and strenuous opposition, from the respective bodies of letter-founders, printers, and book-binders, under an ill-grounded apprehension that the discovery of the mystery of those arts, especially the two first, would render them cheap and contemptible (whereas the very reverse would have been the case, they appearing indeed the more curious and worthy our admiration, the better they are known) that he was forced to set it aside. But as to the first part, viz. the History of Printing, he met with the greatest encouragement, not only from them, but from a very great number of the Learned, who all engaged to subscribe largely to it; particularly the late Earls of Pembroke and Oxford, and the famous Doctor Mead, whose libraries were to furnish him with the noblest materials for the compiling of it, and did so accordingly. The misfortune was, that Mr. Palmer, knowing himself unequal to the task, had turned it over to one Papiat, a broken Irish bookseller then in London, of whom he had a great opinion, though still more unqualified for it than he, and only aimed at getting money from him, without ever doing

any

A Part only of "Memoirs of the Twentieth Century: being original Letters of State under George

any thing towards it, except amusing him with fair promises for near three quarters of a year. He had so long dallied with him, that they were come within three months of the time in which Mr. Palmer had engaged to produce a complete plan, and a number or two of the first part by way of specimen of the work, viz. the invention and improvement of it by John Faust at Mentz. `And these were to be shewn at a grand meeting of learned mea, of which Dr. Mead was President that year; and, being his singular friend and patron, was to have promoted a large subscription and payment, which Mr. Palmer stood in great need of at that time; whereas Papiat had got nothing ready but a few loose and imperfect extracts out of Chevalier, Le Caille, and some other French authors on the subject, but which could be of little or no use, because he frequently mistook them, and left blanks for the words which he did not understand. These, however, such as they were, Mr. Palmer brought to me; and earnestly pressed me that I would set aside all other things I might be then about, and try to produce the expected plan and specimen by the time promised, since he must be ruined both in credit and pocket if he disappointed his friends of it. It was well for him and me that the subject lay within so small a compass as the consulting of about twelve or fourteen principal authors; so that I easily fell upon a proper plan of the work, which I divided into three parts; the first of which was, to give an account of the invention of the art, and its first essays by Faust at Mentz, and of its improvement by fusile or metal types, varnish, ink, &c. by his son-in-law, Peter Schoeffer. The second was to contain its propagation, and farther improvement, through nost parts of Europe, under the most celebrated Printers; and the third, an account of its introduction and progress into England. This, together with above one half of the first part, were happily finished, and produced by the time appointed; and met with more approbation and encouragement from his friends than I feared it would, being conscious how much better it might have turned out, would time have permitted it. And this I chiefly mention, not so much to excuse the defects of so horrid a performance, as because it hath given me since frequent occasion to observe how many much more considerable works have been spoiled, both at home and abroad, through the impatience of the subscribers; though this is far enough from being the only or even the greatest inconvenience that attends most of those kinds of subscriptions. As to Mr. Palmer, his circumstances were by this time so unaccountably low and unfortunate, considering the largeness and success of his business, and that he was himself a sober industrious man, and free from all extravagance, that he could not extricate himself by any other way, but by a Statute of Bankruptcy, which caused his History to go sluggishly on; so that, notwithstanding all the care and kind

assistance

the Sixth; relating to the most important Events in Great Britain and Europe, as to Church and

assistance of his good friend Dr. Mead, a stubborn distemper, which his misfortunes brought upon him, carried him off before the third part of it was finished. This defect, however, was happily supplied by the late noble Earl of Pembroke, who being informed by Mr. Pain the engraver, Mr. Palmer's brotherin-law, what condition the remainder was left in, and that I was the person who had wrote the former parts, sent for me, and, with his usual generosity, enjoined me to complete the work, according to the plan; and not only defrayed all the charges of it, even of the paper and printing, but furnished me with all necessary materials out of his own library; and, when the work was finished, his Lordship reserved only some few copies to himself, and gave the remainder of the impression to Mr. Palmer's widow, not without some farther tokens of his liberality."

To return to the edition of the Hebrew Psalter-the cause of Mr. Palmer's delay is thus related by Psalmanazar: “His Lordship had excepted against Mr. Palmer's Hebrew types, which were of Athias's font, and a little battered, and insisted upon his having a new set from Mr. Caslon, which greatly exceeded them in beauty. But Mr. Palmer was so deeply in debt to him, that he knew not how to procure it from him without ready money, which he was not able to spare. The Bishop likewise insisted upon having some Roman and Italic types cast with some distinguishing mark, to direct his readers to the Hebrew letters they were designed to answer, and these required a new set of punches and matrices before they could be cast; and that would have delayed the work, which Mr. Palmer was in haste to go about, that he might the sooner finger some of his Lordship's money. This put him upon such an unfair stratagem, as, when discovered, quite disgusted his Lordship against him; viz. representing Mr. Caslon as an idle, dilatory workman, who would in all probability make them wait several years for those few types, if ever he finished them. That he was indeed the only Artist that could supply him with those types; but that he hated work, and was not to be depended upon; and therefore advised his Lordship to make shift with some sort which he could substitute, and would answer the same purpose, rather than run the risk of staying so long, and being perhaps disappointed. The Bishop, however, being resolved, if possible, to have the desired types, sent for Mr. Bowyer, and asked him whether he knew a letter-founder that could cast him such a set out of hand; who immediately recommended Mr. Caslon; and, being told what a sad and disadvantageous character he had heard of him, Mr. Bowyer not only assured his Lordship that it was a very false and unjust one, but engaged to get the above-mentioned types cast by him, and a new font of his Hebrew ones, in as short a time as the thing could possibly be done. Mr. Caslon was accordingly sent for by his Lordship; and having made him sensible of the time the new ones would require to be made ready

for

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