Joshef Moxon lead of imaginary langage made for John Wilkins

Benjamin Dumond

Hello everyone !

I've been studying for few month a book from John Wilkins, an Anglican clergyman from XVIIe century, who invented a langage supposed to remplace all the existing ones. Of course, back in his time, I wasn't the only one who pursue this pipe dream but what got my attention was the title of the book where the explanation of its langage is made : An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language.

I was intrigued by what a "real character" could be.
Turns out it's pretty common, here is some photo of the font :

 

Ok, not that common, but it's not a latin font, only a invented one.
But I was surprised to see that it was made by Joseph Moxon himself.

Therefor, there's is two things I wonder :

1) Does anyone know where I could find more information about this work ? Maybe documented by Moxon ?
2) What was the first font of an invented langage ever made on lead ?

Thanks in advance for you help !

Simon Cozens

There's a pretty decent explanation at Wikipedia; the first place I would look for more details is Eco's "Search for the Perfect Language", which is my go-to guide for Victorian invented language stuff.