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HE bibliography of printing has recently had important additions, at the hands of the foremost American printer, who is devoting the remainder of his days to the compilation of works on typography that will insure him a niche in the hall of world-wide fame. The reference is to the truly important works on printing written by Theodore Low De Vinne, A. M., famous as the head of the celebrated press that bears his name.

Mr. De Vinne has for years been an important contributor to the Century Magazine and the technical press on typographic topics, and two of his books, the "Printers' Price List" and the "Invention of Printing," have long been recognized as standard works. The past three years have seen the publication of three more volumes on the subject of which he is a master. These works on the practice of typography deal respectively with the methods of typefounding, correct composition, and title-pages, and form a charmingly informed miniature library. An attentive study of their contents leads to but one conviction-that they are invaluable to every printer with a love for his art and its lore. "Charmingly informed"

nveys but a slight idea of the wealth of information and knowledge contained in them.

Without doubt it has been the aim of Mr. De Vinne in these productions to furnish authorities for the craftsman. He has succeeded, and there is no reader who will not benefit by the exposition of his practical and æsthetic ideas. His manuals will prove of immense importance, not only to the humble typographer but also to the ever

increasing number of bookmakers, writers, authors, etc. If of the making of books there is no end, it will henceforth be incumbent on the makers to study Mr. De Vinne's text-books, for such, in a measure, they are. They teach and enlighten and please, and what more can one want? Whether these volumes will have the sale they deserve is another question, in view of the well-known fact that printers have a well-defined tendency not to purchase works bearing on their craft. Even that work of interest to all members of this International Union, the history of the International Typographical Union, by former President John McVicar, failed to meet the financial success it deserved. And so with other works on printing, whose tale is mostly of financial loss.

It is not, however, with the failure or success of works on typography that it is proposed to deal. Instead an effort will be made to convey some of the ideas presented by "Title-Pages," Mr. De Vinne's latest publication. He modestly calls it a treatise on this interesting subject, but he has been careful to give the reader the benefit of his practical knowledge and his taste. Therein lies the chief value of the work to the printer, particularly to the man whose time is devoted mainly, in large bookmaking houses, to the setting of title-pages.

There are few, if any, printers who do not freely recognize that the setting of titlepages involves care, discrimination, taste, and a correct judgment as to proportions and spacing. In fact, to set a title-page well is one of the difficult propositions of the art. That the task is frequently rendered more difficult by the author, who