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BOHN'S CATALOGUES. To the Editor of the ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Old And New Styles In Rmtt\/\ S~*D Tt"W ...
various artists , and of those forms which at different __ - times had - competed for the distinc ——— - -
j ^ ^^ ^ — — - - — — — — — — — — — tion ^^^ ^ of realising the perfect ^ model . The model Am , » VJ V— " —¦ of — a letter — — — was - imag ___ ^^_ inary _ ^ J and — arbitrary . _ ___ ^ ; y
the man who has to make an alphabet has no but that left him by former artists .
copy ^ What s »_^ r" f criterion then should mj be — — — adopted — — — 1 He ventured to think it lay primarily in the
legibility of the character ; and secondly , in j its — - — beauty yl . He thoug tJ ht that as a rule the j
truest beauty in art was that which suggested utility . Type that was not legible could not be 1 called good type . The first test of an
exo i / i . cellent letter was its legibility ; the second , its grace and beautywhich might easily be a
, consequence of the first . Mr . Reed then went on — to say »/ that Dr . Javal ' s theories were - - full — ~ of
suggestion as to what are the tests of legibility in type 1 / X . Dr . Javal held that in reading CJthe
eye does not take in letters but words , or groups of words . The type which by its
O J . J . t / regularity of alignment , its due balance between white and black , its absence - of dazzling O
contrasts between thick and thin , by its simplicity and unobtrusivenesslends itself most
± readil * s y to this rapid and comprehensive , action of the eye , is the most legible . Mr . Reed said
he held this kind of type was on the whole the most beautiful , and- . proceeded J to submit a
very interesting historical survey of the different epochs of the Roman character in typography .
«/ Jl O X «/ The pioneer of the classical Roman letter was Nicholas Jensen of Venicebut his merit
was that he selected the best letters , of the best models , and broug ht them with an artist's touch
in subordination to the rules and requirements of typograp « 7 X QJ JL hy «/ . Jensen ' s models were destined J
to achieve European fame . His letters are round and clear . Claude Garamond ' s Roman became the model type of Europe , for it had grace and proportion . His fine strokes have a
definite thickness , and his triangled serifs are j eminently calculated both to resist wear and retain their clearness _ . The Step _ _^_ hens _ of Paris j
^ , j Plantin at Antwerp , John Day in our own ' country—three of the greatest printers of that
golden age—all owed their inspiration , if not their actual types , to the French genius , i
Garamond's pupil , Le Be " , is said to have furnished Plantin with the magnificent Roman which made his press so famous . And in the '
typography of the equally famous Elzevir the influence of the Parisian artist is clearly
discernible . The Elzevir types were cut by Ohristophel Van Dijck , who , while preserving
[ to a considerable extent the general form of the Garamond lettercompressed and com- |
pacted it into the trim , and business-like form which adapted it so well for the special work
of the Dutch typographers . Referring to FrobenMr . Reed went on to observe that his
fashion , was copied , sometimes exaggerated , by northern printers . He adopted for his
founts a curious mannerism which consists in ¦ thickening the round sorts—for instancethe ibv
*¦ v ^ ^ fe ^ n f ^^ 4 ^ ^ v 4 B Hl ^^ h ^ ** w ^ ' * " ^ n . ^ r ^ v M Um ^^^^^ n ^ I n «« ^ h r *^ ^ m * -v ^ r * n ^^ m # ^ r ^^ ^^ ^^ ^™ > v ^"" ^^^ ^^ w ^ , ^ p ^^ ^*^ " ^ . " ^ obli * o * — quel not y . at The opposite fount sides is what of the type letter -founders , but
would call cut * on its back , ' an effect which relieves the general appearance from
commonplace , while interfering comparatively little > = ¦ ' - ¦ —
with its regularity or grace , or—in Froben ' s case at any rate—with its legibility . An epoch
of backsliding and degradation now set in when the sense of beauty gave way to sordid
economy , and readers suffered patiently whatever print was imposed on them . Continental
nations fell away from their models , and England drifted back so far that she could
hardly boast a Roman fount worth the name . ¦ | The seventeenth century printing in England
is is a a melancholy melancholv study stud v . . At Ah the th « close f ^ lnsA of this f . hi « npn cen- ! tury Dutch influence was increasingly marked . The renaissance of English — almost of
European—typography dates from the establishment of William Caslon as a letter-founder
in 1720 . Caslon ' s Roman was modelled on the best form of the Elzevir letter . It is
bold , regular , and clear ; the fine lines retain a distinct thickness , while the thick
are redeemed from the uninteresting clumsiness of the degenerate Dutch school . His serifsmoreoverwhile somewhat more delicate
than , those of the , Elzevirs , are strong and durable . Caslon's brilliant success was no
doubt mainly due to the excellence of his models . The new English fashion gave the
coup de grace to the Dutch , naturally provoking many */ imitators . The most distinguished * Z 7 of
these was Baskerville . What he attempted and succeeded in doing was to refine the serifs and thin strokes , so as to bring into
stronger relief the thick , preserving at the same time the roundness and openness of the ! Caslon model . The effect was showy and
attractive , and when printed , as his books were printed X , in brig ht ink on a hig hly v -ga lazed
paper , the result was very brilliant . The ^^ ! next thing to note is the rising fame of the
Italian typographer , Bodoni , whose magnifi-\ cent jproductions . _ became - _ - the - envy of European ± His st
printers . yle was a marked departure from the old classical models . He sharpened his fine lines and thickened his heavy ones
simultaneously . Didot closes the epoch of the Renaissanceand leaves us with our modern ,
Roman . The present epoch was ushered in about 1845 by the revivalunder the auspices
of Mr . Whittingham , of the , Caslon old face . Side by side with the new and improving
Romans of the letter-founders appeared founts cut after the antique J . , with all the superior L
finish of modern workmanship . Founders did not venture in their reproductions to copy all the strong lines of the old models , but embellished their * mediaevals' with the delicate
tapers and hair lines of the modern school . Mr . Reed added that the continued favour of the old styles was a hopeful sign for the future .
. / JL O Under the present conditions the Roman must of necessity form the stap JLle character of
typography , and in its present serviceable forms it is likely to hold the field for a good while yet . He took it as a hopeful sign that
«/ X £ 7 the aesthetics of typography are at the present time being studied by men of artistic taste and
authority .
Ar01502
May i , 1890 The Publishers' Circular 499
Bohn's Catalogues. To The Editor Of The ...
BOHN'S CATALOGUES . To the Editor of the Publishers' Circular .
' The Sir Booksellers , —In vour interesting of To-dav' article u No . Mr II . . J , yosay
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Citation
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Publishers’ Circular (1880-1890), May 1, 1890, page 499, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/pc/issues/tec_01051890/page/15/
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