GOOD COLOUR.

Sheet printed neither too black nor too white—M.

GOOD COPY.

Printed copy, or manuscript that is written in a clear and legible hand.

GOOD OF THE CHAPEL.

Forfeitures and other chapel dues are collected for the good of the chapel, viz. to be spent as the chapel approves.—M.

GOOD WORK,

is called so in a twofold sense: the master printer calls it good work when the compositors and pressmen have done their duty; and the workmen call it good work, if it be light easy work, and they have a good price for it—M.

GOTHIC, ANCIENT.

The Scythian or Gothic tribes, descended from Magog, were the second source of European population. They entered into Europe from Asia, like the Kelts, about 680 years B. C. In the time of Herodotus they were on the Danube, and extended towards the south. In Cæsar’s time they were called Germans; and had established themselves so far to the westward as to have obliged the Kelts to withdraw from the eastern banks of the Rhine. They became known to us in later ages by the name of Goths.

From this Scythian or Gothic stock sprung the Saxons, who occupied the north-west part of Germany. We may here observe, the terms Kimmerians and Scythian are not to be considered merely as local, but as generic appellations; each of their tribes having a peculiar denomination.

As a distinctive denomination, they prefixed to Goths the name of the country they inhabited or subdued; as, the Mœso-Gothi, Scando-Gothi, Norreno-Gothi, &c. Their chief seat is reported to have been in Gothland, now a part of the Swedish dominions. The Mœso-Goths, as their name imports, were those Goths that inhabited Mœsia, on the frontiers of Thrace. The language of these Goths is not only called Mœso-Gothic, but Ulphilo-Gothic, from Ulphilas, the first bishop of the Mœso-Goths. He lived about A.D. 370, and is said to have invented the Gothic alphabet, and to have translated the whole Bible from Greek into Gothic. These Gothic characters were in use in the greater part of Europe after the destruction of the western empire. The French first adopted the Latin characters. The Spaniards, by a decree of a synod at Lyons, abolished the use of Gothic letters A.D. 1091.—Bosworth.

The ancient Goths were converted to Christianity by the Greek priests, and they probably introduced their letters with their religion, about the reign of Galienus. Towards the middle of the third century, Ascholius, Bishop of Thessalonica, and a Greek priest named Audius, spread Christianity among the Goths; the former of these is much extolled by Basil the Great, and the latter by Epiphanius. The ancient Gothic alphabet consisted of sixteen letters; they are so similar to the Greek, that their derivation cannot be doubted.

Those writers are certainly mistaken, who attribute the invention of the Gothic letters to Ulphilas, Bishop of Mœsia, who lived in the fourth century. The gospels translated by him into the Gothic language, and written in ancient Gothic characters about the year 370, were formerly kept in the library of the monastery of Werden; but this MS. is now preserved in the library of Upsal, and is known among the learned, by the title of the Silver Book of Ulphilas, because it is bound in massy silver. Several editions of this MS. have been printed. See a specimen of it in Hickes’s Thesaurus, vol. i. pref. p. 8. Dr. Hickes positively disallows this translation to be Ulphil’s, but says it was made by some Teuton or German, either as old, or perhaps older than Ulphil; but whether this was so or not, the characters are apparently of Greek original.—Astle.

The Mœso-Gothic Alphabet.

[1] And as n before another g.

[2] As j in jour, or y in your.

[3] Hw in Saxon, or wh in English. The proper sound of these letters can hardly be ascertained; but that which is given appears the most probable. Astle gives this character as Q.

[4] And in middle of words sometimes c.

[5] W in the beginning, and u in the middle of a word.

[6] Astle says ch or x.

Gothic in the British Founderies.

GO UP THE FORM.

Beating from the hither towards the farther side, is in pressmen’s phrase called, “Going up the Form.”—M.

GOVERNOR.

The master printer is generally styled Governor, when spoken of by the workmen in the house; as, The Governor said thus. The Governor ordered that.

GREAT NUMBERS.

Above 2000 printed on one sheet are accounted great numbers.—M. We now more commonly say long numbers. See Lay On, and Small Numbers.

GREAT PRIMER.

The name of a type, one size larger than English, and one smaller than Paragon. See Types.

GREEK.

The Greek alphabet consists of twenty-four letters, as under.

The Greek Alphabet.

[1] Ϲ, initial; σ, middle; ς, final.

There are twelve diphthongs or compound vowels, viz.

Six proper—αι, αυ, ει, ευ, οι, ου; and

Six improper—ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ, ηυ, υι, ωυ. The dot below signifies that ι is subscribed.

Accents.—Accents are nothing more than small marks, which have been introduced into the language, to ascertain the pronunciation of it, and facilitate it to strangers. Wherefore the ancient Greeks, to whom it was natural, never used them, as is demonstrated from Aristotle, old inscriptions, and ancient medals. It is not an easy matter to tell, what time the practice of writing these accents first prevailed, though it is probable not till after the Romans began to be more curious of learning the Greek tongue, and to send their children to study at Athens, that is, about or a little before the time of Cicero.

Accents, by the Greeks called τόνοι, tones, are the rising or falling of the voice in pronouncing: which may be considered either separately in distinct syllables, or conjunctively in the same syllable.

Wherefore there are two sorts of accents; two simple, viz. the acute, οζὺς, figured thus (´), which denotes the elevation of the voice; and the grave, βαρὺς, shaped thus (`), to signify the falling or depression of the voice; and the circumflex, περισπώμενος, which was formed first of these two lines or points joined together thus (^), and afterwards was changed into a round sort of a figure like an inverted Upsilon, thus (⁀), but at length came to be figured like an s drawn crossway (~).—Bell’s Greek Grammar.

The acute accent raises the voice, and affects one or more of the three last syllables of a word, if it has so many.

The circumflex lengthens the sound, and affects either the last syllable of a word, or the last but one.

The grave depresses the voice, and affects the last syllable only.

There are two spirits, or breathings: the asper (῾), which the Greeks use instead of the letter Η; and the lenis (᾿) which denotes the absence of the asper.

The apostrophe (’), marked at the head of a letter in the end of a word denotes that the vowels α, ε, ι, or ο, and sometimes the diphthongs αι or οι are cut off, the next word beginning with a vowel.

Accents and Aspirates.

Points.—A colon in Greek is a point at the head of a letter; as (·)

An interrogation is a Latin semicolon; as (;)

All other points in Greek are the same as in Latin.

The Greeks express their Numbers by Letters, thus:

The first of the above ranks is units, and consists of the eight first letters with the character ϛ’, called στίγμα, which signifies 6, and is therefore ranged in the sixth place.

The second rank consists of tens, and is formed of the eight following letters with this character ϟ’, κὄππά, which signifies 90.

The third rank consists of hundreds, and contains eight letters with this character ϡ’, σάνπι, which signifies 900.

The accent under each letter in the fourth rank signifies a thousand, and the letter itself expresses the number of thousands signified.

The letters of the three first ranks are marked with a dash on the top to distinguish them from the letters marked with an accent below.

By compounding the above letters any number may be expressed; thus, ι’α’ makes 11; κ’β’, 22; λ’γ’, 33; ρ’δ’, 104; ‚αε’, 1005; ‚αψ’ο’ϛ’, 1776, &c.

Also the Greeks sometimes use these capitals instead of the numbers, of which they are the initial letters, viz. Ι for one, because ΙΑ signifies one (being formerly used instead of μ’ια), Π for five, Δ for ten, Η for a hundred, Χ for a thousand, and Μ for ten thousand. And these letters may be all four times reduplicated (except Π), thus ΙΙ, 2; ΙΙΙ, 3; ΙΙΙΙ, 4; ΔΔ, 20; ΔΔΔ, 30; ΔΔΔΔ, 40, &c. So ΔΙ, 11; ΔΔΙΙ, 22; ΠΙ, 6; ΔΠ, 15, &c.

Sometimes the above initials are enclosed in a great ∏, and then the number is five times repeated, thus |Δ̅| is five times ten or 50; and |Χ̅| is 5000: but Ι is never enclosed.

Fournier, in his Manuel Typographique, gives a great number of Greek ligatures: these I have copied, with additional ones from Fertel, and others from Jones’s Greek Grammar; together they make a more complete list than any that I have met with. Fournier, speaking of the article Greek, says, We see by the multiplicity of the sorts, that the Greek character is the most extensive and complicated of all characters. The founders may not always be able to give the Greek founts thus complete in sorts; but I give the representation, because, as I have before said, the engravers who have worked upon the characters have followed the ligatures which they found in the manuscripts which they imitated. There were never any but the Greek characters engraved by Garamond for Francis the First, which have been complete in all sorts of ligatures. It is this which has obliged me to give in different lines the figures which compose this fount, in which there are still some wanting, which I have been obliged to suppress in order not to multiply them without necessity.

For the classical works in Greek the ligatures or double letters are considerably diminished. I have adopted this usage in the little fount, which contains but the figures most in use.—Fournier.

I have been induced to give this extended list of Greek ligatures, because the present taste in printing Greek is to discard them entirely, and to use a distinct character for each letter of the alphabet. Under these circumstances, should an old edition of a Greek work be put in hand as copy to be reprinted, it would be mortifying not to be able to decypher the ligatures, nor have any thing to refer to for explanation. I have myself been placed in this situation in a large house, with no person in it who could give me the necessary information, although there were some there that professed themselves good Greek scholars; neither could the editor of the work himself give me any assistance.

Greek Ligatures.