Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	king_n	knight_n	sir_n	4,137	5	6.2955	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51552	Regulæ trium ordinum literarum typographicarum, or, The rules of the three orders of print letters viz. the Roman, Italick, English capitals and small : shewing how they are compounded of geometrick figures, and mostly made by rule and compass, useful for writing masters, painters, carvers, masons, and others that are lovers of curiosity / by Joseph Moxon ...	Moxon, Joseph, 1627-1691.	1676 (1676)	Wing M3019; ESTC R21244	27,439	130

Regulae Trium Ordinum LITERARUM TYPOGRAPHICARUM OR THE RULES OF THE THREE ORDERS OF Print Letters viz. The ROMAN CAPITALS and Small The ITALICK CAPITALS and Small The ENGLISH CAPITALS and Small Shewing how they are compounded of GEOMETRICK FIGVRES and mostly made by Rule and Compass Useful for Writing Masters Painters Carvers Masons and others that are Lovers of Curiosity By Joseph Moxon Hydrographer to the Kings most Excellent Majesty LONDON Printed for Joseph Moxon on Ludgate Hill at the Sign of Atlas 1676. To the Worshipful Sir Christopher Wren Knight Surveyor of His Majesty's Buildings SIR TO You as to a Lover of Rule and Proportion I humbly Dedicate these my Observations upon Letters If they prove Acceptable to you I have my whole Wish and shall be careless of the Sleightings or Censures of the Ignorant Contemners of Order and Symmetry Sir I am Your most Humble Servant Joseph Moxon THE RULES OF THE THREE ORDERS OF Print Letters AMong the many curious Inventions of Humane Wit the communicating Conceptions by the Complication of Characters is worthily accounted the most Ingenious most Necessary and most Admirable that an High-flown Fancy in its greatest Sublimity could have produced into the World But who those lucky persons were that first invented it themselves and all other Authentick Authors have left Succession in ignorance of and consequently their Memories have lost those due Celebrations that their Merits have justly deserved Nor are we onely ignorant of the Persons that first invented Letters but of the Time wherein they were first invented And though smaller matters of great Antiquity stand recorded for the Information of Posterity yet no other certainty have we of the Time than that they were invented before any History was writ All the light we have of its Original is among Fabulous Authors who attribute it to several persons and some of them no less than Gods but their Authority being denied their Say-so stands for no Proof I might amplifie this Discourse by saying somewhat of the Hieroglyphicks of the Egyptians and the several Characters of other Nations but they are largely handled by others and are alien to my purpose for my Intentions are onely to insist upon three sorts of Characters which are commonly used in Print among us viz. the Roman the Italick and the English Letters Nor are the Originals of these three sorts of Letters certainly known but that we received the Roman Letters from the Romans the Italick from the Italians and the English is that Character which is handed down to us from our Forefathers in their Records and other Manuscripts How much Printing has improved the Regularity and Beauty of these Letters is visible by comparing Printed with Written Letters but especially the curious Printing of Holland which does indeed of all others merit the greatest Applause it being from the cutting of the Steel Punches to the pulling off at the Press managed with greater rCuiosity than hitherto any Nation hath performed it Neither is it strange it should be so For if I may be pardoned for the Excursion I will say There is one general Cause why they must and several particular Reasons why they may out-do all other Nations in this and other Handicrafts which will yield them a Profit The general Cause is the Necessity of their Countrey which forces them to deal by Whole-sale in all Manufactures And this Cause draws in the particular Reason for by this means Manufactures are so improv'd that most rare Artists flock thither as to a Market where they are likely to find Trading And it must necessarily follow that where so many Curious Artists meet each for his Profit or Credit or both strives to out-do the other And by this means Art must needs be more improved there than in those Countries where the Emulation of a Competitor is no Spur to Perfection I finding therefore that the Holland Letters in general are in most esteem and particularly those that have been cut by the Hand of that Curious Artist Christofel van Dijck and some very few others have elected them for a Patern in Romans and Italicks and have given you those Proportions and Dimensions they observed Even as Vitruvius did by his Columns for he finding that among the many sorts of Columns that were standing in his time Five onely were most acceptable viz. the Tuscan Dorick Ionick Corinthian and Composite surveyed their exact Dimensions and called that Survey The Rules of the Five Orders of Arthitecture which Rules are followed to this day but had else doubtless ere now been lost or at least corrupted The Roman Capitals have already been treated of by Albert Durer but he medled neither with the Small Letters nor Italicks Nor were these Proportions in mode in his time for he makes his Stem one tenth of the length when-as now the Stem is made much fatter for it is one sixth part of the length which does not onely adde a great Grace to the Letter but renders it more easie to the Eyes in Reading and more durable either for Inscriptions or Records It is possible my Pains and Endeavours may lie under the Censure of Detracting Momes who neither know or are capable to learn the Excellency of Rule and Proportion and account those Fantasticks that either prescribe or follow them For say they what needs all this ado about Letters when every Painter or Mason can make them well enough without these Directions And if they are not so exact Print Hand yet they may very well be read and are as significant as if they were made by these Rules In answer I may say that every Carpenter can build a great Fabrick but if he have not consulted the Rules of Architecture it is very likely his Building may be preposterous his several Offices unapt and his whole Structure deficient ungraceful and ridiculous But since we all strive to make Columns and other Ornaments in Architecture by Rules because they should be strong beautiful and graceful to the Eye 't is surely necessary that the Inscriptions which are commonly placed in the Architrave or some other eminent place should be likewise regular and beautiful lest they disgrace both Builder and Building too When the Stadhouse at Amsterdam was finishing such was the Curiosity of the Lords that were the Overseers of the Building that they offered C. van Dijck aforesaid 80 Pounds Sterling as himself told me onely for drawing in Paper the Names of the several Offices that were to be painted over the Doors for the Painter to paint by Now had these Rules been published in that time every Painter might indeed have done them as well as van Dijck himself For where many Figures are made by the same Rules every one shall be like every one although they are made by several Hands So that I hope no Artists will grudge either at the Rules or Price of the Book since by it they may easily arrive to the same Perfection of Letters as he did who