The twenty-first edition of Hart’s Rules was published in January 1909 by Henry Frowde in London and printed in Oxford by Horace Hart. It ran to 96 pages, this edition included a new addition to the preface, as well as a comparative examples of ‘Some English Names of Types’ (pp. 88-89) following the appendixes.

• Front and back cover (click to see pop-up image, 45k)
• Full-title (click to see pop-up image, 30k)
• Pages 2 and 3 (preface, text below with additions), 4 and 5 (preface cont’d), 6 and 7 (contents), 88 and 89 (sizes of type)
  

PREFACE

It is clearly set out on the title-page in all editions of these Rules and Examples, that they were intended especially for Compositors and Readers at the Clarendon Press. Consequently it seems necessary to explain why an edition or impression is now offered to so much of the General Public as is interested in the technicalities of Typography, or wishes to be guided to a choice amidst alternative spellings.

On the production of the First Edition at the Oxford Press, copies were placed in the hands of all Readers, Compositors, and Compositor-apprentices; and other copies found their way into the hands of Authors and Editors of books then in the printers’ hands. Subsequently, friends of authors, and readers and compositors in other printing offices, began to ask for copies, which were always supplied without charge. By and by applications for copies were received from persons who had no absolute claim to be supplied gratuitously; but as many of such requests came from Officials of King’s Government at Home, in the Colonies, and in India, it was thought advisable, on the whole, to continue the practice of presentation.

Recently, however, it became know that copies of the booklet were on sale in London. A correspondent wrote that he had just bought a copy ‘at the Stores’; and as it seems more than complaisant to provide gratuitously what may afterwards be sold for profit, the writer has no alternative but to publish this little book.

As to the origin and progress of the work, it was begun in 1864, when the compiler was a member of the London Association of Correctors of the Press. With the assistance of a small band of fellow members employed in the same printing-office as himself, a first list of examples was drawn up, to furnish a working basis.

Fate so ordained that, in course of years, the writer became in succession general manager of three London printing-houses. In each of these institutions additions were made to his selected list of words, which, in this way, gradually expanded – embodying what compositors term ‘the Rule of the House.’

In 1883, as Controller of the Oxford Press, the writer began afresh the work of adaptation; but pressure of other duties deferred its completion nearly ten years, for the first edition is dated 1893. Even at that date the book lacked the seal of final approval, being only part of a system of printing-office management.

Ultimately, Dr. J. A. H. Murray and Mr. Henry Bradley, editors of the New English Dictionary, were kind enough to revise and approve all the English spellings. Bearing the stamp of their sanction, the booklet has an authority which it could not otherwise have claimed.

To the later issues Professor Robinson Ellis and Mr. H. Stuart Jones have contributed two appendices, containing instructions for the Division of Words in printing Latin and Greek. A third appendix has been added, on the authority of Sir J. A. H. Murray, showing how to print some Proper Names in the Possessive Case.

H.H.

Mar., 1904.

In due course, Sir J. A. H. MURRAY and Dr. HENRY BRADLEY, editors of the Oxford Dictionary, were kind enough to revise and approve all the English spellings. Bearing the stamp of their sanction, the booklet has an authority which it could not otherwise have claimed.

To the later issues Professor ROBINSON ELLIS and Mr. H. STUART JONES have contributed two appendices, containing instructions for the Division of Words in printing Latin and Greek; and a third appendix has been added on the authority of Sir J. A. H. MURRAY, directing the compositor how to print some Proper Names in the Possessive Case.

In the Eighteenth Edition two other appendices appeared for the first time, giving rules for composing works in French and German.

For the Nineteenth Edition, among other changes the words ending in –able were more fully recorded; the section on Punctuation remodelled; and directions for printing in the French language elaborated and brought up to date.

For the Twentieth Edition, the section on printing in the German Language (Appendix III) was considerably improved by the addition of some valuable suggestions by Dr. KARL BREUL, Reader in Germanic in the University of Cambridge.

For the present edition the changes have been chiefly of a minor character.

H.H.

January, 1909.

 

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