Addendum to Blue Pencil no. 61—a missing type specimen

Blue Pencil no. 61 Type Specimens 1486 to 1704 is a list of type specimens that have been digitized and made available online. It is not an attempt to list all known surviving type specimens. However, there is one undigitized specimen from this time frame that deserves to be mentioned: the 1525 Johannes Petri specimen that was in the library of the Börsenvereins in Leipzig prior to World War II and whose whereabouts today is unknown. Here is what Riccardo Olocco has written about it:

There is another type specimen printed in the early 16th century that is shown by Gustav Mori in his Das Schriftgiesser-Gewerbe in Süddeutschland und den angrenzenden Ländern (1924) and also by Harry Carter in A View of Early Typography Up to about 1600 (p. 114 and fig. 77). It was printed by Johannes Petri in Nuremberg in 1525.

Unfortunately this specimen is not available right now, and probably got lost during World War II. In the summer of 2020 I contacted the library of Leipzig, where it was supposed to be held. The Leipzig librarians were very kind, they checked carefully but could not find the specimen. They found hints of it. It was part of the ‘Börsenvereinsblattsammlung’ acquired from the former Lempertz collection. It is one of the numerous materials from this collection not yet described in detail, because they were lost during World War II.

However I attach a scan of its facsimile from Mori’s publication. I think an entry could be added to your list. There is always the possibility (however improbable) that the specimen will show up in the future.

Schriftprobe des Buchdruckers und Schriftgießers Johann Petrieus Nürnberg 1525. From Das Schriftgiesser-Gewerbe in Süddeutschland und den angrenzenden Ländern by Gustav Mori (1924), Tafel IX.