ELZEVR, (Lewis, Bonaventure, Abraham, Lewis, and Daniel), five celebrated printers at Amsterdam and Leyden; who greatly adorned the republic of letters by beautiful editions of the best authors of antiquity. Lewis began to be famous at Leyden about the year 1595; and was the first who distinguished the v consonant from the u vowel. Daniel died about the year 1680, and was the last of the family who excelled in the printing art. The Elzevirs printed several catalogues of their editions; but the last, published by
Emancipation Daniel, is considerably enlarged: it was printed at Amsterdam in 1674. The types of these printers were so elegant, that their name has been given to all beautiful types, particularly of the small kind, ever since.