“Early in the eighteenth century, William Caslon, an English
type founder and letter cutter of great industry and repute, cut
the original of this letter [see Caslon Text], following the traditional old
English character as first used by Wynkyn de Worde, receiving
special commendation for the quality and faithfulness of his work.
Some thirty years ago it was reproduced by the Dickinson Type
Foundery, and introduced to the craft under the title of
Priory Text. Recently the American Type Founders
Company, of which the Dickinson is now a part, realized the need of
a more complete showing, and four larger faces were produced, the
full series comprising nine well graded sizes.” [Inland
Printer, 1898]
“Priory Text was the blackletter of the Fry Foundry
in England, with some sizes dating back to about 1600, and most
sizes shown in 1785. It was revived by Talbot Baines Reed for his
History of the Old English Letter Foundries in
1887, and De Vinne used it for
his edition of Philobiblon in 1889. The Dickinson
foundry, a forerunner of ATF, issued it as Priory Text
about that time. It is very similar to Caslon Text. BB&S made a near-duplicate
type, originally called Reed Text, but later shown as
Priori Black Text. Although the latter was shown as
late as 1925, these faces had generally been
replaced More…
“Early in the eighteenth century, William Caslon, an English type founder and letter cutter of great industry and repute, cut the original of this letter [see Caslon Text], following the traditional old English character as first used by Wynkyn de Worde, receiving special commendation for the quality and faithfulness of his work. Some thirty years ago it was reproduced by the Dickinson Type Foundery, and introduced to the craft under the title of Priory Text. Recently the American Type Founders Company, of which the Dickinson is now a part, realized the need of a more complete showing, and four larger faces were produced, the full series comprising nine well graded sizes.” [Inland Printer, 1898]
“Priory Text was the blackletter of the Fry Foundry in England, with some sizes dating back to about 1600, and most sizes shown in 1785. It was revived by Talbot Baines Reed for his History of the Old English Letter Foundries in 1887, and De Vinne used it for his edition of Philobiblon in 1889. The Dickinson foundry, a forerunner of ATF, issued it as Priory Text about that time. It is very similar to Caslon Text. BB&S made a near-duplicate type, originally called Reed Text, but later shown as Priori Black Text. Although the latter was shown as late as 1925, these faces had generally been replaced earlier by Cloister Black and other Old English faces with more refined draftsmanship.” [McGrew 1993]
Modernized at ATF as Cloister Black (1904).
