CORNELL _ UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT .FtJND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library NK 3600.G72A4 The alphabet :fifteen interpretative des 3 1924 020 595 934 ''^ Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020595934 THE ALPHABET (tl (talis mbidcrimime im ttm;mtt(8lruQihimt Ibatir mrttSruim wmj^ ftmMwmatm mm ( — THE FIFTEEN INTERPRETATIVE DESIGNS DRAWN AND ARRANGED WITH EXPLANATORY TEXT AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY FREDERIC 'W'GOUDY NEW YORK MITCHELL KENNERLEY M CM XXII COPYRIGHT, I918 BY FREDERIC W. GOUDY "8? "Tn=t A.Hr<\'4-toC9 PRINTED IN AMERICA To his wife Bertha M. Goudy his friend, companion and co^workp; this volume is affectionately ^ inscnhed by the author Whatever success he may have achieved in the fields of typography and design has heen made possible by her unfailing patience, counsel and intelligent craftsmanship FRONTISPIECE, GOTHIC LETTERING FROM MANUSCRIPT, PROBABLY FIFTEENTH CENTURY CHAPTER PAGE Introduction ....... 5 HG. I WORDING FROM THE ARCH OF TITUS AT ROME, A. D. 72 SET IN 'forum' capitals I What Letters Are ...... 9 no. 2 GREEK LETTERS FROM RUINS OF TEMPLE OF POSEIDON ON LAKE TAENARUS IN LAKONIA [476'473 B. C.} 3 PART OF dREEK INSCRIPTION IN TEMPLE OF ATHENE POLLA5 AT PRIENE [third century B. c] ALMOST EXACT SIZE 4 ROMAN CAPITALS FROM A STONE IN THE LOUVRE [2ND CENTURY] II Letters Before Printing . . . 13 FIG. 5 SQUARE CAPITALS OF FOURTH CENTURY WRITING, FROM VIRGIl's AENEID 6 RUSTIC WRITING OF THE FIFTH CENTURY 7 ROMAN UNCIALS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY, WITH RUSTIC INITIAL, FROM SPECULUM OF ST. AUGUSTINE 8 ROMAN SEMI'UNCIALS 9 IRISH SEMI'UNCIALS, SEVENTH CENTURY, FROM BOOK OF KELLS 10 ENGLISH SEMI'UNCIALS, EIGHTH CENTURY, FROM DURHAM BOOK 11 CAROLINE MANUSCRIPT, NINTH CENTURY, TOURS, SHOWING CAPITALS, UNCIALS AND MINUSCULES 12 ENGLISH MANUSCRIPT HAND, FROM A TWELFTH CENTURY SHEET IN POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR 13 GOTHIC TYPES OF ERHARD RATDOLT, ENLARGED III The National Hands . , . .21 FIG. 14 PAINTED LOMBARDIC CAPITALS, FOURTEENTH CENTURY 15 LOMBARDIC WRITING, THIRTEENTH CENTURY 16 LOMBARDIC CAPITALS, THIRTEENTH CENTURY 17 SPANISH CAPITALS FROM MANUSCRIPT, THE ETHICS OF ARISTOTLE, WRITTEN ABOUT 1458 IV The Development OF Gothic . .... it, FIG. 18 MEDIAEVAL GOTHIC MINUSCULES 19 VARIATIONS OF GOTHIC CAPITAL 'a' 20 VARIATIONS OF GOTHIC CAPITAL 'a' CHAPTER PAGE V The Beginnings OF Types . . .26 HG. ai TYPES OF THE 36 LINE BIBLE, NATIONAL PRINTING OITICE, PARIS 22 ASHENDENE PRESS TYPE, AFTER TYPE OF SWEYNHEIM S" PANNARTZ 23 *GOUDY MODERN,' 18 POINT VI The Qualities OF Lettering . . . • 33 no. 24 "hadriano ' type'FAce designed by the author 25 SIX VARLATIONS OF LOMBARDIC ' A' 26 DEVELOPMENT OF LOWER'CASE 'g' FROM ROMAN UNCIAL VII Notes ON THE Plates . . . -38 FIG. 27 REDUCED FACSIMILE OF LARGE PLATES 28 *GOUDY ANTIQUE,' SUGGESTED BY JENSON's ROMAN TYPE 29 'gOUDY open,' TYPE BASED ON ENGRAVED FRENCH LETTERING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY * 30 'kENNERLBy' ITALIC CAPITALS The Plates, A to ^ . . . -47 '^ THE ALPHABET INTRODUCTION THE number ofhook§ dealing with lettering is now fairly large, some go- ing more or less deeply into the history and development ofletter-forms, while others principally present models or facsimiles of existing alphabets for suggestion or copying. The student craftsman will do well to possess, and use, the volumes by Day, Strange.Brown, Johnston andJStevens, together with the several portfolios of alphabets, ^Rhead, Smith, Johnstonl^, as they con- tain matter not within the scope of this wor\ "J^aturally, the author who attempts a contribution in a feld already well cultivated, should either offer new material, or present what he has garnered here and there in a novel and undeniably useful way. For the present essay, the writer claims no fresh discoveries in paleography; but he does feel that he has presented his material in a distinctive and helpful form. As regards the text, he has tak^ his own wherever he has found it, and has incorporated the ccmdusions drawn from twenty years wor\and study. He has not attempted to do more than outline bri^y the results of his ex" perience and explain the examples given; nor has he tried to produce a hand- book, of paleography. He trusts, however, to find his account with the artist and craftsman who has real need in his wor\for letters that are legible and correctly drawn, and that possess character and dignity as well as beauty. Theletters shoivn have not in every instance been selected from identical sources; but, in the case of composite forms, he has endeavored to bring them into exact harmony with the family into which they have been introduced. They serve also to trace the development of lettering, although there has been no intent to present the forms in exact chronological order. They indicate, [5] |[ 6 ^ funher.howletterslmveheeninflvencedhythetoolvisedinjpr^ and should suggest some of the endless variations which the craftsman may play upon traditional outlines. Among the designs are free renderings of letters from sources not easily available to many who require to use lettering in their wor\. T^o attempt has been made to present quaint or peculiar forms, but rather to select the most legible and characteristic, which will readily lend themselves to the needs of designers who wish to develop theirlettering on a sound basis. The author has not in every instance been able to find forms sufficiently legible or decora^ tive, or easily adaptable to the student's use. In such cases, he has not hesv tated to interpolate his own conception of the characters, reserving to himself, as it were, the same rights that the early artists exercised. Scrme of the examples presented in collections of alphabets give the form of the letters, but wholly lose the feeling that is an essential quality. In this wor\ ther^ore, special pains have been takpn to convey the feeling and pre" serve the delicate irregularities — practically lost in most reproductions — which contribute so largely to the character of the page in mass.* In type" faces, it should be understood that the feeling and spirit of the letter have been sought, rather than absolute fidelity to precise form, though the drawing, of course, has been done very carefully. Most facsimiles of early manuscripts or printed bo6k§ are unsati^actory because the reproductions are too small to exhibit the subtle variations clearly enough to enable the forms to be studied intelligently. The examples herein have therefore been drawn on a large scale, to ensure easy analysis and com" parison. The author feels that the plates will compare creditably with many others whose chief characteristic is that of uninspired conventionality. The field of typography and type"design can only be touched upon in a *A letter copied from one ofjenson's types by hand by an artist trained to see the suh^ties an artisan skilled in the use of bow pen, straight of line and form, would possess a feeling and edge and compasses might he an exact facsim" character that no mechanical construction can ile of that letter, hut the same letter drawn free' impart. hoo\ Ii% this, but it may he stated that in addition to the text and plates, { 7 } the type in which the text is printed, the arrangement,decorations and initials, are the wor\ofthe author, and the whole volume, which has been printed under his care, represents concretely the principles of typography which he follows. The type composition itself is due to his wife. It is the sincere hope of the author that this handhoo\ of the alphabet unll appeal not only to craftsmen and students,but to bool^lovers too, and prove to be a practical and useful contribution in its field. F.W.G. NEW YORK, OCTOBER I918 SENATVS POPVLVSaVE.^3S^^^ FIG. 7 ROMAN UNCIALS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY, WITH RUSTIC INITIAL. FROM SPECULUM OF ST. AUGUSTINE into general use in the fourth. They were based mainly on the square cap' itals, were very simple in form, and indicate clearly the firm use of a soft reed or quill pen. Uncials are typically pen'drawn capitals and differ from capitals only in the letters A,D,E,G,H,M,,T,Q.and V. None have been found more than fivceighths of an inch in height, although the name is derived from unda, an inch. Paleographers call them 'majuscules,' that is, large letters. The nature of the uncial form does not permit it to be made very small, 6r rather, perhaps, if made small it ceases to be an uncial; in the oldest books many were so large that comparatively few could find place even on a large page. This waste of space and the increasing diflSculty in pro' curing pardiment compelled a reductioji in si2;e of characters used. The illustration shows some Roman uncials of the seventh century; note the letters A,D,E,H and M, which differ most from the original models. Compare also with the rustic capitals of the fiftii century. When bookmakii^ became more general and the need grew for a great' er number of books, the scribes found it necessary to increase their pro' duct. Neither the uncial previously in use nor the cursive script enabled them to meet the conditions. The uncial writing, beautiful as it was, was too slow,* and the cursive too ordinary for good book work; therefore a ♦Sometimes indicated by the appearance of allowed his writing to take on a more cursive impatience at ends of lines, where the scribe character. £ i6 J compromise hand developed which was more readily written than the capital book hand and more legible than the ordinary business hand. This new hand was written in small characters which came to be called 'min' uscules.' When completely developed it superseded all other writing for ponieiMJMxr. FIG. 8 ROMAN SEMI'UNCIALS books, except for Bible manuscripts or lives of the Saints, which were still issued in the older uncial character. At first little distinction was made be' tween the minuscule forms and the capitals from which they developed, FIG. 9 IRISH SEMI'UNCIALS but by writing capitals more rapidly certain modifications took place, fi' nally evolving an entirely new character, which reached its relative perfec tion in the tenth and eleventh centuries, then degenerated with use as do PoDCOi yoftCR qui FIG. lO. ENGLISH SEMI'UNCIALS all scripts. Fig. 8 shows an enlargement of some of the Roman semi'uncials, of historical interest rather than of any artistic value. Cursive or running characters gave rise to a variety of hand'writings, of which the Irish 'semi'uncial' is the most important. No Irish hand is known on which it could have been formed, yet in the sixth century Ire' land was the chief school of western calligraphy, and in the seventh, the Irish writing had attained an excellence since unrivalled. It is said that Ireland borrowed the forms for her hand-writing from the manuscripts which the Roman missionaries brought to them in the fifth century. These [17] manuscripts were usually in a half-'uncial character, — ^that is, a mixture of uncials and minuscules or smaller letters. The illustration f %. 9] shows typical letters of the Irish half-uncial writing and is from the book of Kells, a volume written about the end of the seventh century, decorated with wonderful initials. With the revival of learning which took place in the e^hth century, the Emperor Charlemagne compelled the employing of skilled writers,* DIALOGIIM; (J BI ODuLTITUDobocnj cxucltrc-5-cclturr> dcfcTmctr' xi wiuirrun bur^LocuTu no CJLbipudlam duodccchiuem ab utseromuttxro cur^ccuit? VJ btoLeum fubciurbeMCx/iczio no. 1 1 FROM A CAROLINE MS. [tOURS, NINTH CENTURY,] SHOWING SQUARE CAPITALS, UNCLALS AND MINUSCULES who rdntroduced the smaller Roman character, the use of which had dc clined with the decadence of the Roman Empire. From their writing was derived the so-called Caroline minuscule, which was specially developed at the famous school at Tours founded by the Englishman Alcuin, the learned friend of Charlemagne. Alcuin, trained in the schools of North' ♦Charlemagne ordered that "every abbot, entreated the monks to ziealousness in their bishop and coxmt should keep in permanent work. He said: "It is a most meritorious employment a qualified copyist who must work, more beneficial to the health than write corredtly, using Roman letters only, &' working in the fields, which profits only a that every monastic institution should main' man's body, whilst the labor of the copyist tain a room known as a scriptorium.''^ Alcuin profits his souL" (^ i8 ] umbria, was for some time Abbot of the Convent of St. Martin at Toiirs, and under his guidance the school became celebrated for the excellence of its calligraphy. He took for his models the best features of the classical hands of the sixth century, added su^estions of contemporary French and Italian lettering, and produced a halfoincial and minuscule of great beauty, more legible than any earlier script. From the eighth to the thirteenth century, the Caroline hand gradually developed in different directions and its influence spread thro>jghout Eu' rope — ^in fact throughout the civited world. Developed in different parts A ocHs tgjt tu^ ctwmne infill'' nofawm0.-^|)uncmimMfiJnltunt ' FIG. 12 ENGLISH WRITING OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY of the Empire, it acquired varying national characteristics, with a general tendency to a loss of breadth and a substitution of a regular angularity in the curves, due possibly to the imitations of the coarse characters of monk' ish manuscripts. At the end of the twelfth century, when a period of dc cadence set in, a class of letters was produced to which the name 'Goth- ic' has been given. Curves almost entirely gave way to straight lines, at first of scarcely varying thickness,but gradually emphasizing the thickness of the perpendicular strokes, while evolving a fine or thin line for the slop' ing ones. By the end of the thirteenth century, new forms and essent^ ckinges in alphabets had arisen out of the changing Caroline minuscule, brought about by the greater facility acquired by continuous pradice. The letter we call *lower'case' was the final step in evolution firom the Caroline hand, but it did not reach the definite and fixed form familiar to our eyes until after the invention of printing.* Lower'case forms were rare *It is an interesting fad;, the first Roman low bly becaxise type designers continue to copy ei'case types have not been surpassed, proba' copies of copies fldin^nitum lad nauseam.'] in liie fourth century, more common in the eighth and quite universal [ 19 ] in the tenth. Let us go over the foregoing and set down more concretely the devel' opment of the Roman alphabet, including mention in proper sequence of the National hands, the Gothic letter and first types, which will be treat' ed more fully hereafter. FIRST: CAPITALS LAPIDARY a The Roman capital as cut in stone, of which the inscription on LETTERS the base of the Trajan column is the finest example. Note that a characteristic of this alphabet consists in the varying widths of the letters, of which some are square €?* some round — ^the square having thehori^ntal lines at right aisles to the vertical strokes. [See large plates} MANUSCRIPT b Square Roman capitals, which, carefully written, became the FORMS formal literary hand, and were used until about the end of the fifth century for important books. The external angles invariably are right angles, and the curves regular and symmetrical, [fig 5} c Rustic capitals, a variety of square capitals used in manuscripts of the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries, less formal than the care fully drawn Roman letter on which they are based. They were used for years as ornamental letters for titles, etc., after they had gone out of ordinary use. [fig. 6} Rustic capitals written between the year 3 1 B. C. and A. D. 79 are known, but no examples have survived to fill the gap between the first and fourth centuries. d Roman uncials or true pen forms, more quickly written than the square capital on which they are based, and clearer than the rus' tic form, characftoized by simple round shapes natural to pen handling, [fig. 7] Perfed:ed in the fourth century. SECOND: CURSIVE MANUSCRIPT a Roman half'undals, which were mixed uncial and cursive forms FORMS adopted by scribes for quick and easy writing and which mark the change from capitals to small letters. [£g. 8} b Irish half^uncials based on the Roman forms, [fig. 9} . c English halfomcials modelled on the Irish, later developtfigsmto a pointed writing, the result of slanting the pen. [fig. 10] ^ . r 20 1 MANUSCRIPT d The Caroline miniiscule, a revival of the round, open earlier FORMS Roman forms, [fig. 1 1] which under Alcuin took on a simple €?* graceful form that gradually excluded all other hands. In the eleventh century it assumed a more finished form and continued to improve until in the twelfth century its beauty was unsuT' passed. In England the writii^ of this century is particularly fine. THIRD : THE NATIONAL HANDS \^ MANUSCRIPT I Lombardic or national hand of Italy, founded on die old cursive. FORMS MANUSCRIPT FORMS TYPES 2 Visigodiic, or national hand of Spain. 3 Merovii^ian, or national hand of France. 4 Celtic, or national hand of Irdand, based on Roman s^ni>uncials. FOURTH : THE SO-CALLED GOTHIC A written form evolved from the national hands, but which be- came a distinct style in the twelfth century. It is not properly *Grothic,' as it was not derived from the Goths, but was in fad: the bad writing of monkish scribes, who endeavored to conceal their lack of skill and errors in form by a sort of ornamentation. FIFTH : PRINTING a The Gothic black'lctter of Gutenberg and the early printers. b The transitional form used by Sweynheim and Pannarts, the German printers at Subiaco [near Rome]. c The well-nigh perfedt Roman form developed by Nicolas Jenson, the Frenchman who printed at Venice. d The Aldine or ItaUc, by Aldus Manutius, the great Italian print' er at Venice. It was at first called 'Venetian' in Italy, and 'cur' siv' in Germany and Holland, where it was copied almost at once; in France it was called 'italic,' the name by which it is still known to French and English readers. All of these tjrpcforms are dealt with fiilly in another chapter. FIG. 1 3 GOTHIC TYPES OF EHRHARD RATDOLT [eNLARGED] Chapter III. The Kiational Hands WITH the decline of the Roman Empire, the writings of other na' tions rose in importance and we see a variety of characters which the evolution of national hands broi:^ht about. The text hands in use in ■western Europe up to the age of Charlemagne may be classified into four FIG. 14 PAINTED LOMBARDIC CAPITALS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY kinds, — each developing its own form, but later all merging gradually into one, that we now^ call 'Gothic' First, Lombardic, or the national hand of Italy, which was a develop' ment of the uncial and was first used in northern Italy. The Lombardic characfter is a most useful and interesting form and presents less of the fixed quality of the Roman. There are many and wide variations of it as devel' oped by the scribes in difierent countries. It was the favorite form selected for initials and versals in manuscripts, which were usually painted in, in colors and gold, the solidity of the bodystrokes ma Icing it especially adap- table for this purpose. At its best this Lombardic letter preserves much of the feeling of the uncials of the sixth and seventh centuries. Lombardic capitals do not combine well in words or sentences,although frequently so used.* Occasionally, where the decorative quality sought is of more importance than easy legibility, they oflFer an opportunity for richness difl&cult to attain with other forms. If drawn carefully and well ♦Ifrfiecraftsmanwill study carefully the vat' own, he is more likely to produce capitals ious forms of the same letter, and then try to that will combine well, than if he simply reproduce the spirit ot them in one of his copies existii^ forms. mi treatment, care must oe exerciseo ii Nomine- Hity . 1 hose shown in ng. 14 are not too Ae6T5 |[ 22 ^ spaced, there is no reason why they should not be used, except for the reader's lack of famiHarity with them. For ecclesiastical Avork they are par- ticularly suitable. While the Lombardic capital is capable of reajly beauti" fill treatment, care must be exercised in the selection of models, as the majority of examples show^ a de- based type. After the fourteenth century they were often vulgar- FIG.15 LOMBARDIC WRITING OF THE THIRTEENTH izicd and over omamcntcd, losing CENTURY theirtypical forms and showing a tendency to confusion and illegibility. Those shown in fig. 14 are not too ornate. The existing type-forms of the Lombardic character most- ly lose all the freedom of the hand drawn letter and seldom grace the p:^e where used. In the tenth ^g- '^ lombardic capitals, thirteenth cent. and eleventh centuries this form of letter attained its greatest beauty. Visigothic, or the national hand of Spain, is similar to the Lombardic and became an established text in the eighth century, persisting until the twelfth. It was at first extremely crude and illegible, later becoming fine and handsome. Acharacteristic of the text was a tendency to extreme elon- gation of the limbs of tiie letters. Merovii^an, die national hand of France, was made up largely of loops and angles in a cramped irregular way. Its derivation is the same as that of the Vis^othic, and though die writing of the seventh century is pracftically illegible, that of the eighth is read almost easily. One characteristic of the hand, as in the Vis^othic, was the elongation of the up and do^vn strokes, occurring even in the case of the capitals. This hand and the preceding one present little of value in the way of pattern for the student craftsman. Celtic, the national hand of Ireland, was founded on the semi-uncial Roman and developed from manuscripts taken into Ireland by mission- aries. It is bold, clear, and frequently of great beauty, lending itself to some of the most wonderfril achievements of penmanship in the history of cal- ligraphy ; but it does not present much material for the present-day artist in his everyday work, although of intense interest to the student. FIG, 17 SPANISH CAPITALS. ETHICS OF ARISTOTLE WRITTEN ABOUT I458 Chapter IV. The Development of Gothic THE four varieties of writings which finally merged into the one we now call ' Gothic,' are variations upon the Roman capital. The Gothic form is charad:eristic. By the thirteenth century it had become a distinct style and within the next hundred years had reached its highest perfection, although some individual scribes clung tenaciously to the older forms, which ^vere round and free and more easy to write. The later, more regU' lar and straight-backed letter was revived by the early printer after it had gone out of fashion for a time, as he found it more easy to imitate in type.* It was the use of the reed pen by the mediaeval scribe in writing the Ro' man letter that gave it its Gothic character. The quill pen "which the Ital' ians employed, held the ink better and was more pliant than the reed, mak' ing the minuscule letter rounder and with greater variety in the thick and thin strokes; it came into general use with the use of paper which re- placed vellum. This leads to the statement that the characfter of all lettering is diredily due to the tool employed. The stylus merely scratched the surface of the clay or wax, and gave us the cuneiform character; the chisel gave us the clesir'cut classic inscriptions in stone; the reed pen, blunt strokes with thick ink on papyrus; the quill, the round fuU'bodied form. In the stonc'cut capital, the cutter felt the need of a neat square cut to end the stem of his letter. To define the free end, a sharp cut was made *Not the form of the letter itself, but as writ' arate type bodies, except by the use of a great ten, the letters ran together and interlocked many 'tied' characters, [two or more letters in a way too difficult to accomplish with sep' on one typcbody}. [ 24 ] across it widi the chisel, and as the chisel was usually wider than the thin line, diis cut extended beyond it on each side. Probably for the sake of uniformity corresponding extensions were added to the thick strokes, and what was at first merely an attempt on the part of the craftsman toward neat workmanship later became an essential part of the letter itself. These endings are called 'serifs' or 'comua.' With die pen the serif definitely fin' ished the free endings and added to the squareness and finish of the letter, but as the fluid ink was inclined to drag and bracket at the junction of the stem on the side toward the direction of the stroke, the scribe deliberate' ly added to the opposite side to make both uniform in shape. Serifs pre serve and accentuate the regularity of the Hne of lettering. With the pen the pressure is not naturally in die middle of the stroke, but at one end. In forming the letter O, instead of the symmetrical Ro' man formi, the Grothic O is the more natural one. It was easy to cut the Roman form in stone and preserve symmetry. Godiic letters are essential' ly written forms made with one stxoke of die slanted pen, and while the Caroline letters written in die same way kept an open round appearance, in the Gothic, for the sake of greater economy of space, the curves were re duced to straight lines [at first of scarcely varying thickness] making the ptliir mmmit no. 18 MEDIAEVAL GOXmC MINUSCULES letters narrower, more angular and stiflfer, until the written page was made up of rows of perpendicular thick strokes, connected at the top and bot' tom by oblique hair lines. Grothic capitals, however, tend to roundness, and in a way are incongruous; but they do break the monotony of an ex' ceptionally rigid form of minuscule, perhaps happily.although they seldom seem to belong to them. The glory of the Roman alphabet Hes in its cap' itals, while that of the Gtothic letter lies in its lowercase. This is but nat' ural, since the Roman alphabet originally was an alphabet of capitals only. In Italy alone the earlier roundness was preserved, and while of course af- fed:ed later by the Gothic tendency, the letters never entirely acquired Mb® [No.i} * •^^- '■' •-^^- ■' HG. 19 Vi the extreme angularity of northern European writii^s. The fifteenth cen' [ ^5 ] tury formal writing of the Italians became the foundation of the Roman types which now supersede all other forms for printii^ books. Figs. 19 &* 20 show six varia' tions of the Gothic 'A' drawn by craftsmen of different na' tionahties at different periods: No. I by Albert Durcr, early sixteenth century, No. 2 from [No. 1} * [No. 2] [No. 3] the tomb of Richard II about "'°' '^ ^^^^^^^^ ^v gothic capital « A' jl^^^i ^^ ^^ ^-^ 1400, No. 3 from an Italian ms. ^T^ ^j L \ \D^J I °^ ^^ sixteenth century, No. 4 21^1 ^IL y^^l ^^^ ^^ alphabet by the well' ^ 3^^ ^ ^^/w '♦^^l' known Gothic axchited:, Ber' ^■^^^^^"'^ tram G. Goodhue, 1901, No. 5 [No. 4] [No. 5] [No 6] from an English Chancery ms. FIG. 20 VARIATIONS OF GOTHIC CAPITAL A - , .- ^' ^ of the fifteenm century, and No. 6 is a seventeenth century Flemish Gothic type form. Late Gk)thic is narrow^ and condensed in the extreme, the letters have aiigular and acute corners, and the ascenders and descenders are shortened with marked loss of legibility. [[See fig. 18] When a form was evolved in which the amount of black over'balanced the white, it was called 'black- letter.' As in all pen-drawn forms, the broad lines are the down right' sloped strokes; but as the intrinsic value of Gothic lies in its freedom, no absolute rule for the form can be laid down. Gothic qxiality applies rather to the spirit than to exact form, as every individual letter may have several quasi-authoritative shapes, each accepted, if preserving an intelligent con' ception of the spirit of freedom, which is the essential of Gothic lettering. The large word 'Alphabet' on the title page, drawn by the writer, is based on the Gothic lettering shown in the large plates and illustrates the slight changes necessary to give an entirely fresh asped: to traditional forms. The lower'case letters are variations of the Italian round'hand. Chapter V. The Beginnings of Types TYPES constitute the simple and inevitable corollary of the written books that preceded them. Written forms of letters were shaped for easy reading, the scribes simplifying and dropping everjrthing difficult for the pen to shape easily. Types based on those forms were simplified still more because of technical and mechanical limitations, but not at the ex' pense of beauty, as printing came at a time when the illuminated manu' script had reached its greatest period of perfection, and fifteen centuries of artistic traditions furnished beautiful models for the printers' use. Printing began as an aid to die art of the scribes, not as an independent art, and at first was used mainly, if not entirely, to supplement their 'work. In this connedion 'printing' does not here mean ps^es of text printed from movable types, but the use of engraved blocks, many bearing engraved leg- ends, -which were printed before the descriptive text was written in. Copies of such manuscript books with printed illustrations are to be found in the British Museum and European libraries. The illustrations "were printed be- cause of the deficient skill of the copyists, and while it was expedient to engrave the pidrures, it was yet inexpedient to engrave the ^vhole text. Tliis v^ras at die beginning of the fifteenth century. With the invention of movable types the situation took on a new asped: and the -work of the copyist fell into disuse, while that of the illuminator or decorator of books correspondingly rose; but the invention of printing was the death blow to the beautiful book letters of the scribes. Atthe time of the invention of printing from movable types, two styles of writing were in general use, so naturally there came about two styles of type-faces, Roman and black-letter. For nearly a century after the in- vention, black-letter was the preferred form, not only in Germany but in Holland, England, France and Spain, aldiough as early as 1464 Roman type letters of a crude form appeared in Germany, nearly as early as at Rome. Why the hostility to the simpler Roman forms was so widespread we can- not understand, for the Roman alphabet certainly needed no defense after over fourteen centuries of use in the preservation of literature. One reason |[ 27 } for the general use of black'letter was that its heavy face and lack of fine lines made it easier to cast and in printing it would not show signs of wear as readily as the Roman form. The greater compactness and boldness of the black text to which the ordinary book buyer had been famiHar all his life, is probably what impelled Nicolas Jenson, the des^ner of the most Vjoxa m teat tttams n vsma : n tmdKE ttm (^ Eamm abffltrtt {jiitnt? tmt fodmir 0$ ee^m * Wim^ im* ffmlm* iBtfsaiatSiim* ikvMtim lore tp tflh toma : a Kititftt tttmn a ttue^ b2i$« agsUamttp Itimn i^ a tettdms FIG. 21 TYPES CUT FOR NATIONAL PRINTING OFFICE AT PARIS FROM THE TYPES OF THE BAMBERG BIBLE OF 36 LINES nearly perfedt letter, to print in Gothic text in order to make his books salable in northern Europe; just as Ulrich Gering in Paris was obHged to discontinue printing in Roman letter and revert to black. In order not to prove huddled and ineffective, light face Roman types were of large si2ie, open and round of form, with abundant white space within each letter as well as between lines.Large types meant large books and additional cost in the making. The first attempt at economy in production was the reducing of white space between lines and words, and the negled: to paragraph; next, the reduction in si2;es of types. Jenson, Ratdolt and Renner had put black'let" ter on small bodies, but there had been no attempt to crowd the round- faced Roman into smaller space. Aldus found that his beautiful books in large t5^es and broad margins were unsalable. To get buyers he must make smaller and cheaper books and make smaller types for them. Type shaped itself, we may say, accidentally. First it was based closely on manuscript forms, probably with the intention to deceive readers into [ 28 ] the idea that the printed books were manuscript, but whether with that intention or not, it was the only way to make books readable to eyes ac customed only to manuscript pages. But in a short time it became apparent that the considerations which controlled the scribe no longer concerned the printer. He discovered that one shape was as easy to print as another, and this discovery broi:^ht about an attempt at a revision of the alphabet in the direction of greater legibility. At first, thought was given to beauty of form as well, but later attempts to bring letters into a given space by com' pression or r^dudion did not necessarily satisfy the true ends of art. The styled of the early tjrpes were not invented by the punch cutter; usually he was directed by the printer to imitate the letters of some pre ferred manusciqipt as closely as he could. We of tO'day have been reared on print, widi aU its mechanical smooth' ness and precision. We have little, if any, ideal of lettering, and little feeling for the charm of character and individuality that only hand work gives. No one can look at an early printed book without feeling the beauty of the type pa^e, for the old printers' types were inspired by the letters of the hand'written books, and with these for models they played endless variations on the alphabet, while our present types in the main are abso' lutely monotonous, with no artistic flavor or thoughtfiilness. The first types were Gothic and the earliest specimen of printing to bear an authentic date is the Letter of Indulgence issued by Pope Nicholas V to the King of Cyprus in his war with the Turks. It consisted of a single sheet of vellimi 11x7 inches, printed, on one side only, at Mzinz in 1454, and it is now preserved at The Hague. Some of it is printed in the same type as that used in the Maziarin Bible, and as it is issued from the press at Maim;, it is reasonable to imagine it was printed by Gutenberg. The first book to bear a printed date is the SchoefFer Codex of 1457. I am assuming that Johann Gutenberg of Strassburg was the inventor of movabletypes,and that John Fust, a goldsmith and rich burgher of Maim;, assisted him with money, the two jointly printing the Maziarin Bible. It is conjectured that the metal types used by the early printers were cut by goldsmiths, and it is therefore easy to conclude that Fust's skill as well as his money contributed to Gutenberg's service. Their type was based on the familiar manuscript hand of the time. The Bible bears no date, but in [ 29 ] the copy preserved in Paris, the rubricator s inscription shows that it was finished before August 15th, 1456. The type is l^oivn to have been in ex- istence in 1454, and it is not likely that it was cut before 1450, the date Gutenberg entered into partnership with Fust. Printing did not spread rapidly for many years after its birth. In 1462 there was one shop at Maim; under Fust and Schoeffer, possibly Guten- berg was still working there, too; Pfister was at Bamberg, MenteHn and Eggestein were at Strassburg ; these four were all. After the sack of Mainz;, Ulrich Zel established a press at Cologne, and gradually printing spread throi:^hout Europe. We come now to the first radical improvement in the art — the begin' ning of the Roman type character, which took place in 1465. Then it was that Sweynheim and Pannartz; began printing in the monastery of Subiaco near Rome. Theirs was the first press established in Italy, and the first book printed in that country was Cicero's 'De Oratore' in 1465. The type used was neither black-letter nor Roman, but a type that was black-letter in color but nearly Roman in form. Their type shows plainly an unconscious leaning of its designer toward the mannerisms of the Gothic black-letter — the only form of letter used until these printers estabHshed their press. This transitional type, then. Here ends The Treatyse of Fyssbynge wytb an Angle, set in type by St]obn Hornby and Meysey Turton fii printed by tbe first^named at tbe Asbendene Press, Sbelley House, CbeU sea in tbe year 1903 after tbe text oF tbe Boke of St Albans *enprynted at Westmestre by Wynkyn tbe Worde tbe yere oF tbyncamadon FIG. 22 ASHENDENE PRESS TYPE, BASED ON FIRST TYPE OF SWEYNHEIM &> PANNARTZ marks the beginning of the Roman type-form; it is the prototype from which all other Roman types are descended, and for that reason it is ex- tremely interesting, and also, it presents a valuable pattern for radical departure. Exactly as the designer of this type used the Gothic letter widi £ 30 ^ which he w:ls familinr and created a new form, so should we make use of the letters of the great periods as a source of inspiration. In the same year, 1465, that Sweynheim and Pannarts; were printii^ in their transitional type at Rome, another printer at Strassburg was using a distinctly Roman letter, as was Gunther Zeiner at Augsburg in the follow ing year; while in 1470 at Paris, Ulrich Gering and his associates printed from the first Roman types in France. The types of these early printers, while unlike those of Sweynheim and Pannartz, were all simple and legi' ble, and not without beauty;but the realdevelopment of the Roman letter had its beginnings in Venice. John of Spires and his brother, followed by Nicolas Jenson, began printing there in 1469. "Jenson,^'' William Morris said, "carried the Roman type as far as it can go." This type, which has been the inspiration for all fine Roman tjrpes since 1470, is the first Roman type-form of distinction; round and bold, it has great beauty, and the in- dividual forms are in perfect symmetry and accord in combination- £ A lower-case letter is shown on each of die full-page plates J Jenson had an instinctive sense of that exact harmony in types, and he was so intent on legibility that he disregarded conformity to any standard — an innovation that modem designers m^ht well consider. Jenson s original inspiration was, no doubt, some fine manuscript book; but realising the essential dif- ference between the written character, where every repetition of a letter took naturally some subtle quality of difference and variety, and print, where every repeated letter was in exact facsiroile, he conceived his types as forms cut in metal and considered his model forms only as su^estions. He brought to this work his experience as Master of one of the French mints, where he engraved coins. It is said that in 1458, at which time ru- mors of the new art of printing had reached France, Charles VII sent him to Main^ to learn the secret and bring it back to France. He did return to France in 1461, but meetii^ with a cool reception from the son of Charles, who had not the interest of his father in such matters, he did not loi^ remain there and turned to Italy, where the printing tide flowed. Here his ad:ivity was great, and the fame of his work spread beyond Ven- ice, so that Pope Sixtus IV called him to Rome and conferred on him the title of Count Palatine. Even during his lifetime his types were acclaimed as the true Venetian characters, as "sublime reprodudions of letters." [31] It would seem that the wonderful type of Jenson, the designs of Rat' dolt and the excellent work of contemporary printers should be sufficient glory for one city, but the fame of Venetian typography is further enriched by the great Aldus Manutius, first for his celebrated editions of the Greek classics and later for that slanting character which he called 'chancery,' but which was named 'Aldine' by the ItaHans in honor of the maker. In France, where this new form was counterfeited, it was called 'italic,' the name by which it is still known to French and English readers, while in Germany and Holland, where it was almost immediately copied, it is called 'cursiv'. In a decree dated November 14th, 1502, the Senate of Venice gave Aldus the exclusive right to his character; but although his patent was renewed by Pope Alexander in 151 3, he had no real protection, as the man who cut his type for him from the hand-writing of Petrarch made dupHcate punches for a rival printer, who reprinted Aldus' edition of Virgil, not only stealing the new form of letter, but his editorial work as well. Other printers made imitations, and one at Lyons known as 'the Honest Man Bartholomew Trot' reproduced the Virgil and other Aldine classics in close imitation, even bearii^ the trade mark of Aldus, and sold them as productions of Aldus' press. From this time on printing sank lower and lower — ^French or Low Country printing remaining neat but without distinction. But the worst of all was the English, and it was not until about 1724, when William Gas- Ion cut the fine fount of type now known as 'Gaslon old face,' that any revival of early excellence was realizied. Before Caslon's type was cut it is said there was more Dutch type in use in England than there was English, and his letter is probably based on an Ebevir model. His type is clear and neat, well deseed, and as originally cut, full of variety and life; but as re- cut [and it has been imitated by all the tjrpe foundries] it has lost every thing of feeling and vitality, retaining the form only. As Gaslon cut each character painstakingly on the end of a steel punch, with few instruments of precision, judging form and proportion solely by eye, his type shows considerable variation in the forms and proportions of the same letters in different type si2;es, and exhibits plainly those natural irregularities and £ 32 ^ deficiencies in execution that are always the indication of a mind intent on design and personal expression. Caslon's business advanced rapidly; he met obstacles, of course, but for fourteen years he worked with so much industry and excellence that he was without a rival at the head of the profession of letter-founders. Toward the end of the eighteenth century Giambattista Bodoni, an Ital- ian printing at Parma, exercised a tremendous influence on the types of his contemporaries. While his types are absolutely devoid of any artistic quality, being so regular and precise in line that a monotonous effect is produced, Bodoni and his school furnished the models for type-founders until 1844, when the Ghiswick Press of London revived Caslon's famous founts. The new vogue of Caslon's 'old face' influenced other founders to cut new *old style' letters. Bodoni's type displayed in a marked manner an attenuation of the thin lines, with a reduction of the graduated portion of the curves to a minimum. The letters are thereby weakened in con- struction and turn a page into a miaze of heavy lines fretted here and there with greyness, so that the eye is constantly readjusting its focus. Morris says of it tJiat it is the most illegible type ever cut, with its preposterous thicks and thins; he even speaks of "the s^velterir^ hideousness of the Bodoni letter." Newd^te, the English writer, says the ugly modern face •which we owe to Bodoni is still used almost exclusively for certain classes of work. Most of the text pages of our ma^a^ines and newspapers are set in a modem face. The type shown in fig. 23 is the result of an attempt to produce a type face whidi will redeem "the ugly modem face we owe to Bodoni" from the charge of illegibility it now rests under. COMPARATIVELY FEW PEOPLE CARE an^ything about Art, and when tkey do it is because they mistake it for something else. FIG. 23 18 PODTT 'GOUDY MODERn' Chapter VI. The ^alities of Lettering IN preparing this manual the author has endeavored, as far as possible, to present the subject in the order that appeared to him most helpful to the student of letterii^, and it may seem to some that he has given un' due space to the 'Beginnings of types' and printing. His reason is that as practically all of the dra-wn lettering employed to-day is to be printed as t3^e or in combination with types, and as the lettering should be in exact harmony ^th those types, no better models for drawn letters can be found than fine types based on the letters of the hand'written books. Before the year 1500, letters were chiefly pen'/brms and pen produced, and while indeed they did influence the shape of the forms we now use, it is no longer necessary, except in the case of the occasional formal writ- ten book, to carry the qualities inherent in pen-forms into letters produced by other methods and for other purposes. It is to be understood in all that follows regarding lettering, that formal writing is not meant, but instead, letterir^ intended for book-covers, title pages, advertisements, types, etc., and such lettering is properly 'draw^n,' not 'written.'' One writer has gone so far as to maintain that drawn letters are wrong and written ones only are right. He does admit that the Roman capitals of the Trajan inscription are not entirely pen-forms; if there is one exception, why not others? There is no doubt that the capitals of the Trajan colimin w^ere first pointed in before cutting, but that is hardly writ- ing. In formal writing, where the actual work of the artist is seen and read, neither reproduced nor duplicated by mechanical process, the Hnes should be formed without sketching, retouching or correctii^. Each letter should be simple |]having no unnecessary parts^, distinctive and legible, and should show, too, the obvious use of the pen. But if the work is to be re- produced by mechanical process in which any corrections or retouchii^s will not be discoverable, there can be no good reason for omitting or neg- lecting such corrections if greater clearness or better appearance is gained. The author does not feel that fonnal writing should be reproduced by [33} £ 34 ] process at all; it is the form in which the personality of the craftsman is strongly expressed, a quality that is practically lost when dupHcated by process, which takes no account of the varying degrees of color, etc., and the reproduction presents only a flat and lifeless copy. In this handbook formal writing* is only touched upon as a matter of historical interest. Letters are not to be measured nor is there any canon of proportion to set up. Broadly speaking, they must be either ItaHan [Roman] or Gothic. It does not matter whether they are based on the circle or on the square, whether 'old style' or 'modern,' the essentials are the same; the chief dif- . ference lies in the matter of proportion. One word, however, as to the use of Gothic, to'day little used as a text letter; for lines where the decora' tive quality is of greater importance than easy legibility, this style presents an opportunity for compactness and color impossible in the Roman forms. Pleasing legibility is the primary consideration. One point to avoid is extreme attenuation of any lines, as this involves constant alteration of the focus of the eyes, which though slight in reading a few^ -words or a line, is extremely wearing in the a^regate. Ruskin struck the right note when he advised the craftsman not to make lettering illegible whose only merit is in its sense, by attempting beauty at the expense of use. He says "write the commandments on the church wall where they can be plainly seen, but do not put a dash and tail to every letter." Where the eye can rest is the place for decoration. The idea that a page is made beautiful only at the expense of legibility is a vagary of artists lacking a knowledge of the art -with which they meddle. In the first place, simpHcity of form is necessary; this requires a study of the essential root forms, which are practically those of the lapidary capi" tals of two thousand years ago. Each of those characters had an individ' uality. By emphasizjing this characteristic quality in such a way that noth' ing in it inclines us to confound any letter with its neighbor, we may get a new expression or quality of personaHty, which is as far as we may go, since those forms are now fixed. One possessing individuality will express himself in his work and endow it with character, with th^t personal singw ♦Formal writing is adequately dealt with in tering " by Edward Johnston. Macmillan 6? the volume "Writing, Illumination and Let' Co., New York. larity which is the quality that gives distinction to any work. There should [35] be no attempt to niake designs of individual letters, since design implies invention, and what already exists cannot be invented. Some alphabets are in themselves in the highest degree so decorative that there is danger in using them except for a word or two, as the repc tition of the elements contributing to their decorative quality is bound to be irritating. In the manuscript page every repetition of a character took J. VASQpES, FIRST TO PRINT IN THE CITY OF TOLEDO, MCCCCLXXXVI FIG. 24 HADRIANO TYPE, BASED ON STONE' CUT LETTERS OF FIRST CENTURY on a subtle quaHty of difference; in print every repeated letter is in fac- simile. The artist should then study his model until he has grasped the spirit of it, selecting characteristic forms and simplifying them for his use, to avoid any element of restlessness. In the construction of a letter the artist must decide first what is its in- trinsic shape — ^that is, in what degree are the lines, curves and angles, or the diredions the Hnes take, that compose it, fixed. His next thought should be for form, and on his decision here will largely rest the measure of his abihty. If the form is fundamentally wrong, no added ornament by way of disguise will redify it. Its charad:er mxist be organic, and more often than not a form developed simply without conscious effort toward beauty but widi due recognition of its essential quality, will result in real beauty. The ancient craftsmen who cut the old inscriptions in stone were more concerned for a consistency in the proportion of their letters than with mere details of execution; their -work was not a matter of conscious or elaborate design. Apart from the proportion of the forms, the character'of the stonc'cut letter is that given by the tool used in its making, but the form itself is that produced by brush or pen. This is natural, since the letters were probably painted in before cutting. Hadriano type, shown in fig. 24, was des^ned by the author, who re versed the process, and from a rubbing of a few letters from an inscription j^ 3^ J of the first or second century, produced a type conceived in the same spirit as the original cutting, a design unique in the annals of type founding. Study the accepted model until the essential form can be reproduced without conscious effort; but do not forget that a letter or style good in one material and suited to a definite purpose cannot always be adapted [even by brute force] to another material, place or purpose, although the FIG. 25 SIX VARIATIONS OF ^ LOMBARDIC *A underlying principle of its structure may be used as a basis for a new ren- dering. Many letter-forms are indeed interchangeable; but if it is desired to adapt lettering of one class to the purposes of another, certain differ- ences of treatment are inevitable to make them suitable to the medium employed. Thought based on knowledge, good taste developed by anal- ysis of beautiful forms, and modesty, will go far toward attaining style. Fig. 25 presents six drawings of the Lombardic capital A, freely ren- dered from a sixteenth century service book,to illustrate a point the author desires to impress on the beginner, — ^that he is free, if it seems advisable, to copy exactly any letter shown herein; but copying is not the best way to develop individuaHty. Rather let him get at the underlying form and cautiously work out his own variations. These six drawings show the slight changes necessary to give each letter a different aspect without de- stroying its harmonious quality or losing the generic Hkeness. [See also the 'A' in the word 'Alphabet' on the title-page.] The main reason for the use of drawn lettering is that it is more easily addressed to the artistic sense than the use of set and fixed type-forms and becomes itself the decoration of the page. Beautiful letters, as such, are [ 37 ] out of place for the text of books, where easy reading is the chief desider' atum and where symmetry is of less importance. But for the decoration of the pa^e, the tyipe ready to one's hand as a rule does not serve. Qualities of greater account than mere mechanical precision or regularity are need' ed, making the drawn character necessary; but no Hcense is thereby per" mitted to the artist to take undue liberties with the proportions of letters. True, the cross-bar of an A or an H may be shifted up or down ^within limits] etc., but that is not what is meant. It is one thing to disregard tra' dition, but quite another to go beyond the bounds of moderation. In let' tering itself th^e is not much scope for originality, but there are so many varieties of letters from which to choose that the artist may devote all his arts of design to their arrangement and expression without finding it necessary to invent mock forms. UNCIAL ENGLISH CAROLINE ENGLISH ENGLISH ITALIAN ITALIAN F. W. G. 7THCENT. 8th CENT. QTH CENT. lOTH CENT. II TH CENT. 12TH CENT. i6tH CENT. 20TH CENT. FIG. 26 DEVELOPMENT OF LOWER'CASE 'g' FROM ROMAN UNCIAL Chapter VII. J^iotes on the Plates EACH plate shows fifteen fonns of one letter of the alphabet, each corresponding form occupying a similar location on every plate, so that a note regarding a form of letter shown in fig. 27 on this page will re fer to any letter shown in the same position on each of the large plates. Each plate includes a brief historical note of the letter shown which the craftsman may find of interest, even if of no great aid in making variations from the forms given. DDD I 10 I n ddidlii u J±. JL FIG. 27 KEY TO LARGE PLATES 7s(o. I Aletterfromthe inscription on the base of the Trajan column atRome, cut A. D, 114. The stone on which the inscription appears is three feet nine inches h^h by nine feet three-fourths of an inch long, within the moulding, with lettering in six lines, prad:ically filling the free space. The letters in the two upper lines are each about four and onchalf inches high, in the next two lines [38] four and three-eighths inches, in the fifth line four and Gne-eighth inches and f 39 1 in the last line three and seven-eighths inches. The serifs are small and carefully formed, the thin or hair lines about half the thickness of the thick steins. The curves of B, P, and R, should be noted. The charadters H, J, K, U, W, Y, Z are not present, but forms such as might have been cut are shown in their appro- priate places. These capitals have been very carefully drawn by the writer from a photograph of the inscription purchased by him at the British Museum, and with the utmost care to retain all the subtleties of form and proportion. No finer capitals on which to base new expressions are to be had, and they may be accepted as the root forms of western European lettering. The Forum capitals shown in the title page and on page 8, were designed by the author in an attempt to render the spirit of the classic lapidary inscrip- tions. They are the first types ever cast "distinguished by their successful ren- dering of classic feeling . . . The capitals known as Forum are the most beauti- ful and have been widely used and imitated." [Bruce Rogers} Forum capitals re- tain the spirit of the ancient lapidary letter, although comparison with those of the Trajan inscription will show differences in the forms of individual letters. 7ERN TYPE FACE a broader pen than anyone else had ever attempted to use. The copperplate quality of his types gave his print a sharpness and brilliancy that is somewhat da2;2iling. [Not clearly indicated here owing to the large si2;e of the letter.} The type shown in fig. 29 is the result of an essay by the author to design a mod' em face letter with a quality of interest and legibiHty not present in the types of Bodoni and his school. Tio. 15 Kennerley italic, designed by the author to accompany the Roman face shown in Nos. 9 6r> 12. It is the face used in the Introduction to this volume. The inclined dotted line shows the slight degree of slope, probably as little in' f 43 1 cHnation as that of any italic known, the italic quality of the forms not making greater inclination necessary. The capitals are shown below, [fig, 30} In 1497 Aldus described his printii^ in his new italic letter [said to be copied from the handwriting of Petrarch} as "like writing by hand, but with a hand of metal." Kennerley italic is used for the chapter titles in this book. ACTA PAGAT^A RESURGUHT FIG. 30 24 POINT 'kennerley' ITALIC CAPITALS. The last plate shows four renderir^s of the ampersand or short 'and,' a char' acfterwhich is pradically a monogram of the letters E andT, or the Latin 'et,'i.e. 'and.' The notes preceding regarding Nos. 2, 3 and 8 apply to these. No.i is the Caslon italic form. The figures given direAly imder and on each side of '6?' are from an old brass [A. D. 1520], and the lower set is a free rendering of Caslon's old style figures. Arabic figures were introduced into Spain A. D. 950, into France in 991, and into Ei^land in 1253. As a matter of graphic convenience the letters * v' and 'u' began to vary, uu' til in the tenth century the v form was by preference used as the initial and u" as the medial letter. Similarly, in the fifteenth century, T was lengthened and turned to the left at the beginning of words as a sort of ornamental initial, and as the consonantal sound usually occurred at the beginning and the vocalic in the middle of words, the two initial forms of V and J became speciali2;ed to dc note consonants, and the medial forms u and i to represent the vowels. The form 'U' is of recent introducftion as the early printers used a 'U' with two thick ver' tical strokes to which our lower'case form is similar. The dot over the i was introduced in the fifth or sixth century A. D., although at first it was merely an accent to indicate 'double i,' die single i being written without any accent. The preceding chapters present no royal road to lettering. The student must do his own work, draw his own conclusions, and rediscover for himself the fiindamentals the writer has attempted to outline. When the craftsman has mastered the essentials, he may then devote all his efforts to new departures. r 44 1 Mechanical affecftation of finish will not in any degree take the place of real knowledge of forms; imitations of early craftsmen's work will not necessarily produce results fit to present needs. Study shows that their productions were stridily within the boimds of severe conventions, influenced by the environments and conditions under which they worked. To make our work meet present requirements and satisfy human needs, the craftsman must now, as then, enter sympadietically into the details and inci' dents of the lives of the users of his work, and recogni2;e fully their necessities and obvious habits; therefore work produced imder other and different con- ditions will seldom present more than a basis for new expressions. In using the older patterns we may depart radically from the su^ested forms, or even engraft upon them a charadter derived from other sources or styles, if alAvays we can persuade them into something fit, harmonious, consistent and satisfadiory. Nor should we forget that the best work includes a degree of beauty aside from its strict utilitarian purpose, as beauty in any useful thing supplies a very real demand of the mind and eye. To present properly and fully a history of the development of each of the Re TLsr ^OTms we use Tvould require many more words than the limited space under the Trajan capitals on the plates following, will permit. The meagre notes given are mere outlines and intended only to present those fads that can be given in a few words, and should be read in connection with each other and not indepen' dently, as the evolution of many letter-forms is dependent upon that of others. THE PLATES A corresponds to the first symbol in the Phoeni' cian alphabet and did not represent a vowel, but a breatidng, the vowels not being represented by any symb(3. This breathingnot being necessary in the Greek lai^uage, the Greeks who adopted the Phoenician alphabet,used it to represent a voweL im B corresponds to the second symbol of the Phoenician alphabet, and is the seC' ond letter in all Exiropean alphabets ex' cept those derived from mediaeval Greek — ^Russian, etc. C originally had the value of hard G. The pres' ent form is from the Latin [third century B. C.} with the value of Greek g and k; during die clas' sical Latin period it was pronounced k, becoming sibilant preceding i soxrnds after 6th cent. A. D. / D is from the Phoenician A . The present form is that borrowed from the Greeks of south' west Italy who avoided the Phoenician form jjecause of a possibility of confusion with their symbol for K which was similar. £ originally did not represent a vowel but an aspirate, the Greeks oeing the first to em' ploy it as a vowel, as we do. In English writ' ing it is the most frequently used letter in the alphabet. F is from the Greek F which had the value of w. The Greeks had no sound correspond' ing to the Latin f. The Romans, who adopt' ed the Greek letters with the Greek values, used F to represent the sound of Ph. Gmm G is an invention of the Romans, who at first used C for the sounds of both k 6? g; but after the middle of the third cent. B. C. to signify the hard sound of G they converted C into G by adding an upright bar to the lower curve. G H, as an aspirate, was borrowed from the Phoe' nidans by the Asiatic Greeks, but they, soon los* ing the aspirate, used it to represent long E. The western Greeks retained the aspirate longer and the Romans who adopted their alphabet used H as an aspirate only, as we now do. / I is from the Latin where it was used for both vowel and consonant. Now simple in form, originally it was very complex, talang the form of S, and a form resembling sigma, ^, etc. The Phoenician form stood for y, the Greek for L J, at first a calligraphic variation of I, which stood both for the consonant y and the vowel i. In 1630 J had come to be xised only for the consonant sound. K has changed very little, appearing on the Moabite stone [early 9th cent. B.C.,} but writ' ten from right to left, J|, probably changing to the present form when the Greeks transposed the Semitic mode of writing. It was sometimes written Ic. lKu L hsis in its history changed form many times but ending with one aunost identical with that of 900 B. C. [L] The Romans gave it its present form. The Corinthian form was / . M as we make it is a late Roman form, the early Greek M with legs of equal length rep' resenting not m but s. The oldest latin in' scriptions show M with a fifth stroke, |W. N in its earliest form had its first limb longer than the others, the Greek and Latin tend' ing to make all of equal length. The Trajan inscription shows no serif at joining of &:st and diagonal strokes. QffiO O in the Latin was vised always for the long as well as the short O'sovind. The ordinal form was a more or less roughly formed circle, occasionally lozenge'shaped and rarely redangular. In the SJB cent. Ionic Greeks invented a new sign, ome^^^ for the long o^soiind. Q O P in its earliest form was Greek in shape, f, later becoming rovinded in the Roman; in Imperial times the semi'circle was completed, giving the present form, although early Roman inscriptions show lower curve not joined to stroke, P. Qis never used alone [except as an abbrevia' tion and sometiines in transliterations of He' brew to denote a more gutteral k}, but is al' ways combined with u, with the sound of cw, which qu replaced to avoid the ambiguity of c. R in the Phoenician was written like the symbol for d [A }, the tail being introduced later, [although not a universal pradice,] to avoid confusion with D. S, one of the foiir Phoenician sibilants, took a form similar to our W, which when turned at an angle of 90 d^ees, became the Greek sigma. rflie early Greek form was angular, [ ^ } which later becomii^ rounded, is die ori' giti of the Roman form. / ♦ T in its Phoenician form was that of a St. Andrews cross, X, which is the form shown on the Moabite stone. The Greek and Latin forms were pra V is a graphic variation easier to cut in stone than U, and was originally, like Y, one of the earlier forms of u. The cluradters V and U meant the same so\ind in Latin and English as late as the Elizabethan period. V Y V Y V IB W is a ligature of W. In Latin V always had the vowel vame of u, and double u [w} was employed to represent the consonant value. In the 9th century in Ei^land, a special Anglo-Saxon charadter [p] was adopted to represent the sound of w, which in 1280 was in turn rq)laced by w. W WWW w w w IV X is the form derived from the Latins who adopted the alphabet of the western Greeks, in which X had the value of ks. Except for expressing ks[its ijsuai value} with a sii^le charadier, X is almost superfluous. Y as a vowel is a mere callkraphic variation of i, and one of four variants [u, v, w, y} of one Greek symbol. Y was a late importation into the Latin and was originally used only in words borrowed ftom the Greek to denote a sound peculiar to the Greek language. Z like Y was a late importation into the Latin and used only in Greek loan'words. In early Latin the 2'sound passed into r, and G was put in its place. In the first cent. B. C., Z was re'introduced into the alphabet to represent more precisely the value of Greek Z. THIS book has been set by Bertha M. Goudy at The Vilkge Press, Forest Hills Gardens, New York, with types designed by the author, under whose supervision the book has been printed by V/illiam Edwin Rudge,NewYorkCity,October, 1918. Theplates for the text illustrations and Alphabets were made by The W