Moxon Lower Case

j                   ae  oe       e            s                               |l    fl  
'bcd i|fg |h||ff
&|ifi
ctlmnh oypqw ?
;enem
zvutspacear ,:quad
x.-

The typecase lay is that shown by Moxon: Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (1683) (edit Davis & Carter 1962, Dover reprint). Moxon remarks that the letters are not disposed alike in every printer's house. The box above the z has been amended to contain ; not , as this was an error in the 1962 edition, being correctly shown in the 1958 edition, acccording to John Lane. The Universal Magazine of June 1747 also shows the case lay with ; here, as does Savage: A Dictionary of the Art of Printing (1841). The lay is also shown by Lockwood: American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmaking (1894), and Legros & Grant: Typographical Printing-Surfaces (1916). The companion upper case lay is Moxon Upper.

Note that | represents the long s. The typecase overall dimensions are 2ft 9in x 1ft 4½in. The empty configuration is Moxon Lower.

Note also that at this time, k is still in the upper case. Also, thicks, mids and thins are all in one box. Davis & Carter note that Johnson was the first to show these spaces being split up, eg see Johnson New Lower.

Other empty cases
ie with the boxes left blank
Other type layouts
ie with characters assigned to boxes
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and Double Cases
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This page was written in 1997 by David Bolton and last updated 16 April 2009.