Moxon's Mechanick Exercises

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. Joseph Moxon's practical manual opens with a spirited defense of the compositor's art, insisting that judgment, English usage, and trained attention matter as much as formal learning. From there, it plunges into the working life of the printing house: the layout of the type case, the careful rinsing and stripping of a form, and the exacting task of returning used letters to their proper places without breaking alignment or damaging delicate type. Moxon shows how wet letters, old lye, and slippery shanks make the work harder, and how small remedies and disciplined habits help keep the shop running. The manual then follows the compositor line by line as he judges copy, sets type from memory, spaces and justifies lines, marks signatures, and prepares pages for assembly. It closes with the pressman's preparations—selecting, soaking, cutting, stuffing, and fitting the ball leathers, then mixing and applying ink with a practiced eye. Throughout, Moxon presents printing as a demanding craft of speed, precision, and physical skill, where every tool, movement, and decision shapes the quality of the page.