Figure 291
Engraved Text of Pine’s Horace, London
From a copy in Harvard College Library (facsimile), Quinti Horatii Flacci Opera (scan)
1733–1737
…a book appeared in London which, though not printed from type, had some influence on typography.… Pine, who was an engraver, could not satisfy himself with current letter-press printing. So the text was first set up in type and an impression transferred to copper and then engraved, space being left for the decoration. Thus the whole book—a very exquisite performance—was printed from copper plates. The brilliancy of this engraved roman text struck a new note, and thus Pine’s Horace may have had a good deal to do with the taste for more “finished” types which waxed as the century waned. In that connection it is mentioned here.