Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	know_v	time_n	2,755	5	3.2913	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B00949	The pen's exellencie, or, The secretaries delight ... together with an insertion of sondrie peeces, or examples of all y[e] vsuall hands of England : as also an addition of certaine methodicall observations for writing, making of the pen, holding the pen, &c. / written by Martin Billingsley ... ; the Greeke & Hebrewe with other peeces never yet extant are hereunto by the authour exactlie added.	Billingsley, Martin, b. 1591.; Holle, H.	1618 (1618)	STC 3062.3; ESTC S123486	11,492	63

The Pens Excellencie or The Secretaries Delight Wherein aswell the abuses which are offered vnto the worthines of the Pen by vnworthie Pen men are trulie discovered as the Dignity of the Art it selfe by the Antiquitie Excellencie diversitie thereof is breifly demonstrated Together wih an insertion of sondrie Peeces or Examples of all the vsuall Hands of England as also an addition of certaine methodicall observations for Writing Making of the Pen Holding the Pen c. Written by Martin Billingsley Mr in the Art of Writing Non satis est benè aliquid facere nisi etiam fiat venustè The Greeke Hebrewe with other Peeces never yet extant are hereunto by the Authour exactlie added Are to be solde by Io Sudbury George Humble in Popeshead 〈◊〉 W. Holle sculp 2 To the most Excellent Prince Charles c. Most Gratious Prince This humble worke of my hands labour with my hearts loue first deuoted to yor Highnes Gratious Regard and nowe with an Addition for a publiq good with yor fauourable Patronage putt forth into the world Humblie present to yor Princely patience Beseeching the height of all perfection so to blesse yor Highnes in all perfections as may giue iust cause to the vertuous in all Professions to admire yor Excellence with all loue and seruice and make my happines vnder heauen to be a seruaunt to so gratious a Maister Your Highnes in all humblenes Martin Billingsley The Preface to the READER IT is an opinion amongst some not so erronious as ignorant That Coppy-Bookes of this nature are of no validitie What reason they can alledge to strengthen so fond a conceit I know not sure it is some priuate one they are so loath to produce it For mine owne part I see no reason why these that are grauen should not bee as profitable to a Learner as those that are meerely written so they bee exactly performed according to the naturall straine of a true Artist each Letter being cut according to its true proportion and losing not the life deliuered in the Example Certaine I am there is no man liuing can write so exactly but that euen in the writing of sixe lines hee himselfe shall bee conscious to himselfe of some imperfections which by directions to the Grauer being a good Worke-man and carefull may bee easily helped and made perfect for imitation Howbeit I deny not but that oftentimes the Grauer may wrong the Writer if hee bee not very obseruant in euery touch of a Letter and the amends which hee may make him in the well cutting of some one or two Hands will not counteruaile the credit which hee shall lose by his ill grauing and vnnaturall mishaping of some few Letters in one very Example For this Booke ensuing I know there are some through an enuious Curiositie rather then a true Iudgement which will herein finde many infirmities yet let me tell them it is an easier matter to pry into the imperfections of another then it is to amend their owne errours and hee that findes the greatest faults commonly is the vnablest to amend the least since Art hath no greater enemy then Ignorance This is my glory That I haue not plaid the Theefe with any man though it were in my power to haue done it But quicquid scripsi scripsi whatsoeuer I haue written I haue done it my selfe For I would bee much ashamed that any man should thinke I had beene brought vp in a place of such scarcitie and vnder so bad a Master or that there were in mee such a pouerty that I must needes goe a thieuing for my skill I thanke God there is nothing in it which I am not able vpon an instant to better And therefore if any man list to be contentious let him be contentious but let him not wrong him in his doings who is able to doe better then himselfe I speake of those that thinke themselues excellent and past compare who indeed be their names neuer so famous beare about them but the shadow of Art And howsoeuer the spirits of such men are so eleuated and raysed euen beyond themselues that they thinke basely of euery mans doings but their owne though their consciences tell them they are but as empty vessels which alwayes make the greatest sound It shall suffice mee that I know what they haue in them and how farre their skill extendeth and so rest my selfe contented till Time and Truth the Tryers of all mens actions shall distribute to euery one according to his desert In the meane time as this little Booke hath found gracious acceptation at the hands of him to whom it was first priuately intended So I hope it will haue the approbation of all such as are well disposed and beare affection to so excellent commendable and necessary an Art assuring them that had I had my right I should haue giuen them better content and greater satisfaction of the Penns perfection As for Carpers and ouer-curious-ey'd men I passe not as knowing my selfe euery way in the Art I professe a Worke-man that needeth not to be ashamed From my house in Bush-lane neare London-stone Decemb. 22. 1618. M. B. The Pens Excellency Exordium THe Profession of the Pen at this day being so vniuersall and the Professors themselues for the most part so ignorant and insufficient to vndertake so worthy a function together with the desire I haue according to my small talent to benefit such as are or would be Practitioners in that commendable Art of FAIRE WRITING were the onely motiues that induced mee to manifest vnto the view of the world these few lines heereafter ensuing Wherein before I enter into discourse concerning the Art it selfe giue me leaue cursorily to demonstrate the manifold abuses which are offered vnto the Pen by a number of lame Pen-men who as they doe intrude themselues into the society of Artists and vsurping the name of Pen-men seeke detinere Artem in ignorantia so by their audacious brags and lying promises they doe shadow and obscure both the excellency of the Pen and the dignity of those that are indeed true Professors thereof But I purpose not to heape vp all the abuses which they may be conceiued to offer vnto the Pen for that were to lose my selfe in an endlesse discourse I will only poynt at a few which I hold to be the chiefest and doe belong principally to matter of Teaching And those I finde to be foure First you shall obserue that these Botchers for they deserue no better Abuse 1 title are for the greatest part of them of no standing nor euer haue had any ground in the Art onely haue a certaine confused kinde of writing voide either of Life Dexterity or Art it selfe and yet notwithstanding they professe and in their Bills clapt vpon euery post promise to performe as much as any whosoeuer For let any man obserue their Ly-bills for so I may very well tearme them and hee shall see how liberall they are in their promises this way

foule businesses are contracted and thereby much hurt effected Is this to be laid vpon the Art it selfe Or is not rather the ill disposition of those to be charged herewith who make it the instrument whereby they bring to passe euill actions For not the vse but the abuse of a thing is it which makes it odious If it were otherwise why then foule imputations may be laid vpon the best vertues which of themselues are immaculate To bee briefe the Art of Writing is so excellent and of such necessary vse that none ought to be without some knowledge therein since the excellency of no Art without it can be made knowne or manifested And if any Art be commendable in a woman I speake not of their ordinary workes wrought with the needle wherein they excell it is this of Writing whereby they commonly hauing not the best memories especially concerning matters of moment may commit many worthy and excellent things to Writing which may occasionally minister vnto them matter of much solace Hereby also the secrets that are and ought to be betweene Man and Wife Friend and Friend c. in either of their absences may bee confined to their owne priuacy which amongst other things is not the meanest dignity Lastly the practise of this Art is so necessary for women and consequently so excellent that no woman suruiuing her husband and who hath an estate left her ought to be without the vse thereof at least in some reasonable manner For thereby shee comes to a certainty of her estate without trusting to the reports of such as are vsually imployed to looke into the same whereas otherwise for want of it she is subiect to the manifold deceits now vsed in the world and by that meanes plungeth her selfe into a multitude of inconueniences Wherefore their opinion who would barre women from the vse of this excellent facultie of Writing is vtterly lame and cannot by force of argument be maintained And although the Excellencie of this Art to speake of the curiositie thereof be somewhat shadowed by the dulnesse of some Mechanicall spirits who seldome haue skill in any thing out of their owne element that thinke Writing to be onely a hand-labour and so they can write to keepe a dirty shop-booke they care for no more neuer esteeming the commendable manner of faire and orderly Writing which ought in all businesse to be obserued as well in keeping of Bookes for Merchants and others as in all kinde of Engrosments appertaining to the Law c Yet notwithstanding the splendor grace of writing shines most excellently in the scrols of skilfull Artists as in the writing of some may appeare to thē that haue insight And what should I say of the Excellency of this Art Is it not one of the hands by which not only this but al other common-wealths are vpholden The key which opens a passage to the descrying and finding out of innumerable treasures The handmaid to memory The Register and Recorder of all Arts And the very mouth whereby a man familiarly conferreth with his friend though the distance of thousands of miles be betwixt them Infinite other things might be spoken concerning the Excellency of this Art of Writing and where I faile in the setting forth thereof assist me with your manifold imaginations The third and last thing to be discussed of in commendation of this Art Part. 3 is the Diuersitie thereof I meane the diuers kindes of hands which are now vsed among vs. For although they all goe vnder the name of writing yet they are to be distinguished according to the diuersitie of them Howbeit my purpose is not to clog my discourse with an enumeration of euery idle hand that may be written for that were absurd and out of the element of a Pen-man I will only entreat of those which are the principall and wherin the most Art the greatest curiositie and the rarest dexteritie of the Artist is to be manifested and they are these which follow viz. 1 Secretary 2 Bastard-Secretary or Text. 3 Roman 4 Italian 5 Court 6 Chancery Of each of which I will briefly speake somewhat onely by way of distinction in regard I would not willingly weary the Reader with superfluous circumstances or detaine him long from That which followeth 1 Secretary For the first viz the Secretary which is so tearmed as I conceiue partly because it is the Secretaries common hand and partly also because it is the onely vsuall hand of England for dispatching of all manner of bunes●es for the most part whatsoeuer I might adde hereunto the super-excellency of this hand in respect of any other hand for that the very denomination thereof imports some things in it that are not easily to be found out And true it is that whosoeuer doth practise it according to the true nature of it shall perceiue Secretarius à secretis therein many secret and subtill passages of the hand which few but those that haue beene well grounded therein by a true Artist are able to comprehend but I affect breuity To speake of the kindes of Secretary is in these dayes no easie matter for some haue deuised many and those so strange and disguised that there is hardly any true straine of a right Secretary in them For mine owne part I make distinction betwixt the Sett Facill and Fast hands of which three I shall God willing by and by propose some few examples 2 Bastard secretary The next is Bastard-Secretary and so named by the best because it is gotten of the Secretary as those that haue any skill may perceiue This is a Hand not so vsuall as the former yet of great validity and for diuers purposes exceeding gracefull as for Engrossements Epitaphs for Tombes Titles of Bookes and many other vses which would bee too tedious for me heere to recite 3 Roman The third is Roman which hath his denomination from the place where it seemes it was first written viz Rome A hand of great account and of much vse in this Realme especially in the Vniuersities and it is conceiued to be the easiest hand that is written with Pen and to be taught in the shortest time Therefore it is vsually taught to women for as much as they hauing not the patience to take any great paines besides phantasticall and humorsome must be taught that which they may instantly learne otherwise they are vncertaine of their proceedings because their mindes are vpon light occasion easily drawne from the first resolution 4 Italian The fourth is Italian a hand in nature not much different from Roman but in manner and forme of much incongruity thereunto This is a hand which of late is growne very vsuall and is much affected by diuers for indeed it is a most excellent and curious hand and to bee written with singular command of hand else it will appeare but very ragged and vile and if the Pen be taken off in coniunction of the letters it is neither approueable nor Pen man-like but