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    BOHN'S CATALOGUES. To the Editor of the ...

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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

• Citation
  • 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/