PRINTING AND BOOKMAKING.
 

PRE
 

Free Subjects.—Those prints which are objection¬
able from their indelicacy. —Maherly.

Freeman's Oath.—The initial production of the
printing-press at Cambridge, Mass,, when it was estab¬
lished there two hundred and fifty years ago.

French Canon.—The name of a type formerly used
in England, which was a little larger than four lines of
pica. The French name is gros canon ; German, Missal;
Dutch, Parijs romein ; and Italian, canone.

French Finish. —In bookbinding, having upon them
bands only, with no tooling whatever; extra clear leather,
simply titled in gilt.

French Furniture.—A former name in England
for metal furniture.

French GoYornment Printing-Office.—Every
branch of the printing trade, from type-founding to
bookbinding, is represented in this office in Paris. On
the staff there are, besides the director and assistant
director, fourteen managers, deputy managers and fore¬
men, and forty clerks, and it is estimated that the total
number of persons employed is about one thousand.
About two hundred and fifty compositors are engaged,
fifty usually upon works in Oriental languages. The
cases used are double, similar to those in England and
the United States, instead of the single case, with both
capitals and small letters in it. The original alphabetic
arrangement of the lower case is shown more clearly
here than by any other case known. Beginning at the
left hand the upper tier of large boxes runs b, c, d, e,
*'^, *, f, g, h, and the next tier 1, m, n, *, o, p, q. In 1879
there were fifty hand-presses and one hundred hand-
press men, with forty-four power-presses. In this de¬
partment there are about two hundred hands. Some
women are employed here; they get about five dollars
a week. There is a type-founding department. Here
a wonderful number of punches and matrixes are pre¬
served. In the Roman fonts certain letters are made
with a distinctive mark to them, so as to distinguish
them from those used in private establishments. Lith¬
ography, copperplate work and stereotyping are also
done, as well as ruling. Many complaints are made in
France that the government printing-office, in addition
to handling official work, takes books which otherwise
would be executed in other printing establishments, and
thus deprives private printers of a portion of the revenue
they might naturally expect. This printing-office was
founded by Louis XIII. in the year 1640. He acted under
the inspiration of Cardinal Richelieu. Sebastien Cra¬
moisy was the first director, and the first book printed,
which was in Latin, was the Imitation of Jesus Christ.

French Language.—This language is found in the
printing-offices of America to be more commonly used
in single words and quotations than any other outside
of English, and consequently needs much study by com¬
positors and proof-readers. Its literature, taken as a
whole, is more considerable than that of Germany, as
much writing was done in it while German was still
regarded as a barbarous dialect, and German and Eng¬
lish scholars thought it more necessary to understand
French well than to be proficient in their own tongues.
Frederick the Great prided himself more upon his French
than upon his victories, although the battles produced
marked effects upon the history of the world, while his
writing, although fluent, was characterized by Voltaire
as incorrect. Gibbon thought of writing his Decline and
Fall in French, and Sir William Jones composed several
works in it. It is now the language of diplomacy, of
war and of cookery; it is much more abundant in its pro¬
ductions than Spanish or Italian, and it is clearer and
neater in its forms of expression than any of the Ger¬
manic tongues. These causes alone, independent of the
vast accumulations of writings of previous ages, must
tend for many years to make a study of it highly im¬
portant.
 

Modern French results from the decomposition or dis¬
integration of ancient Latin. It is very doubtful whether
the ordinary people of Rome ever spoke a language so
highly complicated in its grammar as we now find the
remains of classical Latin to be, and some have even
asserted that the common language of the lower classes
bore a closer resemblance to modern Italian, with its
prepositions and articles, than it did to the speech of
Cicero and Csesar. At the time of the downfall of Rome,
in the fifth century, the Roman legions were in many
lands. In some they left very little impress upon the
common speech; in others, as in Spain, Portugal and
France, the Latin thus spread became the speech of the
majority of those who dwelt in these countries. So far
as we are able to tell by ancient writings the inflected
form continued in use in each land for four or five cen¬
turies, and then diverged into something more national.
Latin, after a time, ceased to be spoken, except in the
church and among scholars. Celtic and Germanic words
were added in France; the adjective, instead of follow¬
ing its noun, generally preceded it; articles derived from
the Latin demonstrative pronouns were introduced ;
prepositions took the place of case endings, and affixes
were generally dropped. An example of rustic Latin,
the oldest form of French, translated into modern French
and into English, is here given. It is the oath of Louis
the German in the year 842:

Pro   Deo    amur   et pro Christian   poblo et nostro
Pour de Dieu Tamour et pour Chretien  le peuple et   notre

3          4           12                                               2                 13

For   of God the love and for    Christian the people and     our

commun salvament dist di en avant, in  quant Dens
commun        salut               clorenavant,          en tant que   Dieu

common       salvation               hereafter^           in so much as   God

(to the degree that)
savir    et    podir  me dunat, &c.
savoir    et    pouvoir me donnera, &c.

to know and   to he able me tvill give, &c.
(knowledge)  (ability)

Two principal dialects were soon developed, distin¬
guished from each other by the name which each gave
to the word yes. That south of the Loire was called the
Languedoc, and that of the north Languedoil. The lat¬
ter finally became the chief tongue, but to this day vast
numbers of Frenchmen do not understand book French.
Their languages differ widely, both in vocabulary and
grammar. Attention has within thirty years been called
by many scholars and poets to the beauty of the Proven-
9al tongue, the modern name of the ancient Languedoc,
and to several romantic poets who have recently been
produced in the South of France. Literary French began
to be developed at the beginning of the twelfth century.
Froissart's Chronicle is believed to be the first extensive
work in genuine French. Montaigne and Rabelais en¬
riched the vocabulary as well as the forms, and many
modifications resulted from the wars, the Reformation
and the infiuence of the printing-press. Since Paris has
had the art of printing the language has altered much
in its spelling, and accents have been much more largely
introduced. The Lord's Prayer in Old French is as fol¬
lows :

''Sire Pere, qui es ^s Ciaux, sanctifier soit li tuens
nons; avigne li tuens Regnes; soit faite ta volants, si
comme ele est faite el ciel, si soit ele faite en terre; nos-
tre pain de chascun jor nos done hui; et pardone nos
nos meffais, si come nos pardonnons a cos qui meffait
nos ont; sire ne soffre, que nos soions tempte par mau-
vesse temptacion ; mes sir delivre nos de mal."

Modern French thus has it:

''Notre Pere, qui es aux cieux, ton nom soit sanctifie;
ton r^gne vienne ; ta volonte soit faite sur la terre comme
au ciel; donne-nous aujourd'hui notre pain quotidien;
pardonne-nous nos peches, comme nous les pardonnons

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