FOULIS, ROBERT AND ANDREW, two learned printers of Scot land, were, it ie supposed, natives of Glasgow, and passed their early days in obscurity. Robert is asserted to have been a barber. Inge nuity and perseverance however enabled them to establish a press, from which have issued some of the finest specimens of correct and elegant printing which the 18th century has produced. Even Bodoni of Parma, and Barbou of Paris, have not gone beyond some of the productions of the Foulia press. Robert Froths began printing about 1740, and one of his first essays was a good edition of 'Demetrius Phalereus,' in 4to, published in 1743. In 1744 he brought out his celebrated immaculate edition of Horace,' 12mo, and soon afterwards was in partnership with his brother Andrew. Of this edition of 'Horace,' the sheets as they were printed were hung up in the college at Glasgow, and a reward was offered to those who should discover an inaccuracy. It has been several times reprinted at Glasgow, but not probably with the same fidelity. The two brothers continued to produce for thirty years a series of correct and well.printed books, particularly classics, which, whether in Greek or Latin, are as remark able for their beauty and exactness as any in the Aldine aeries. Among them may be enumerated ' Homer,' Greek, 4 vols. fol., 1756-58 ; Thusydides,' Greek and Latin, 8 vole. 12mo, 1759; 'Herodotus,' Greek and Latin, 9 vole. 12mo, 1761 ; 'Xenophon,' Greek and Latin, 12 vols. 12mo, 1762-67; with small editions of Cicero, Virgil, Trbullue and Properties, Cornelius Nepos, Tacitus, Juvenal and Peraiva, and Lucretius. To these may be added a beautiful edition of the Greek
Testament, In small 4to ; Gray's 'Poems,' Pope's 'Works,' &o.
It is a melancholy reflection that the taste of these worthy men for the fine arts at last brought about their ruin; for having engaged in the establishment of an academy for the instruction of youth in painting and sculpture in Scotland, the enormous expense of sending pupils to Italy to study and copy the ancients, gradually brought on their decline in the printing business, and they found the city of Glasgow no fit soil to transplant the imitative sits to, although their success In printing the Greek and Latin Classics had already pro duced them ample fortunes. Andrew Foulis died on September 15, 1775, and Robert in 1776 exhibited and sold at Chriatie'a, in Pall Mall, the remainder of his paintings. The catalogue formed three volumes. But the result of the sale was, that after all the expenses were defrayed, the balance in his favour amounted only to the sum of 15s. He died the same year on his return to Scotland. A. person of the name of Foulia, a descendant of one of the brothers, continued to print at Glasgow as late as 1806. His Virgil ' of 1778, and his "./Eschylns; printed in 1795, are considered beautiful productions.
(Lem oine, History of Printing ; Nichols, Lit. Aneed.,vol. iii., pp. 691, viii., 475; Chalmers, Biog. Diet.)