A history of alphabets from around the world

The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering by Frederic W. Goudy Chapter 8: The Beginnings of Types TYPES constitute the simple & inevitable corollary of the written books that preceded them. Written forms of letters were shaped for easy reading, the scribes simplifying and dropping everything difficult for the pen to shape easily. Types based on those pen forms were simplified still more because of technical and mechanical limitations, but not at the expense of beauty, as printing came at a time when the illuminated manuscript 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 the art of the scribes, not as an independent art, and at first was used mainly, if not entirely, to supplement their work. In this connection "printing" does not here mean pages of text printed front movable types, but the use of engraved blocks, many bearing engraved legends, which were printed before the descriptive text was written in. Examples of such manuscript books with printed illustrations are to be found in the British Museum and in Continental libraries. The illustrations were printed because the skill of the copyists was unequal to so great a task and, although it was expedient to engrave the pictures, it was as yet inexpedient to engrave the whole text. This was at the beginning of the fifteenth century. With the invention of movable types the situation took on a new aspect and the work of the copyist fell into disuse, while that of the illuminator or decorator of books correspondingly increased in importance; but the invention of printing was the death blow to the beautiful book letters of the scribes. At the time of the invention of printing from movable types, two styles of writing were in general use & so there naturally came into being two styles of type faces roman and black-letter. For nearly a century after the invention, black-letter was the preferred form not only in Germany, but also in Holland, England, France, and Spain, FIG. 38 TYPES CUT FOR THE NATIONAL PRINTING OFFICE AT PARIS FROM THE TYPES OF THE BAMBERG BIBLE OF 36 LINES although as early as the year 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 cannot understand, for the roman alphabet certainly required no defense after more than fourteen centuries of use in the preservation of literature. One reason for the general use of blackletter 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 so readily as the roman form. The greater compactness and boldness of the black text to which the ordinary book buyer had been familiar all his life is probably what impelled Nicolas Jenson, designer of the most nearly perfect letter, to print in Gothic text in order to make his books more salable in northern Europe; just as Ulrich Gering in Paris was obliged 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 size, open & 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. Continue to page 2

Sign up for our weekly newsletter Email: The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering by Frederic W. Goudy Introduction What Letters Are Letters in General The Development of the Roman Capital Letters Before Printing The National Hands The Development of Gothic The Beginnings of Types The Qualities of Lettering Some Practical Considerations Notes on the Plates Greek alphabet Hebrew alphabet Sign language alphabet Cherokee alphabet Russian alphabet Phonetic alphabet Braille alphabet Egyptian alphabet Cyrillic alphabet Aramaic alphabet Morse code alphabet Runic alphabet