Drawing for Printers. / A practical treatise on the art of designing and illustrating in connection with typography. Containing complete instruction, fully illustrated, concerning the art of drawing, for the beginner as well as the more advanced student.

by Ernest Knaufft

CHAPTER V.

THE DISTINCTION IN LETTERING BETWEEN SUPERFLUOUS ORNAMENTS AND ORGANIC LINES — A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR THE STUDY OF LETTERING — STUDIES, WITH THE QUILL PEN, OF THE CAROLINE ALPHABET AND ITS MODERN REVIVAL IN FRANCE BY GRASSET AND AURIOL — THE MINNESINGER LETTER NOT VERY ORNATE BUT MORE COMPLEX THAN THE CAROLINE — THE MINNESINGER CORRESPONDS TO THE STIMMEL AND ROGEL ALPHABETS — THE BERGOMENSIS LETTER MORE COMPLICATED AND MORE REGULAR THAN THE MINNESINGER — THE ITALIC LETTER MORE SIMPLE AND ROUNDER THAN THE MINNESINGER.

IN the last chapter we said, “The distinction between the superficial ornament and the organic lines of a letter is easily understood by first practicing the Caroline letter and then the Gothic.” Let us explain the benefit of this practicing; the keynote to the matter is found in our Caroline example. Draw the second I and you will find that it is virtually a simple shaft with a little spreading at the top and bottom. If you draw with a quill or reed pen it is very easy to get this swell by a little extra pressure as you begin to draw and as you finish; and in almost all Caroline writing the I is made freehand and the shape depends upon pen pressure and varies a little each time the letter is made. It is not mapped out beforehand. The thin curved line on top of the first I is superfluous ornament; that line is made by a second stroke. We find several such ornaments in the first two lines which form the head of a chapter, just as we find much ornamentation of the initial letter; but we {192} do not find any ornamentation of the I’s in the eight lines of text. There the I’s are all made with a single stroke of the pen, so that the top and bottom of each one is a trifle different from that of the others. In the first line of text there is superfluous ornamenting of the T’s, and of the H. Otherwise this is a true pen hand; the I made with one stroke, the C, D, L, O, P, Q, U, X, etc., with two strokes, the A, B, E, M, N, R, S, with three. The reader is advised to copy this alphabet with as large a quill pen as procurable, making the letters from half an inch to an inch high, and then, turning to the Grasset “Nouveau Larousse Illustré,” it will dawn upon him that he knows exactly how the letters there were made; and he will have little trouble in imitating almost to perfection the three words, “En Six Volumes.” When he tries the words, “Nouveau Larousse Illustré,” he may have some trouble with the A, the S and with the O, which does not show its separate halves as in the Caroline: the horizontal line of the L also is more difficult to make than if it were the same width throughout. The I, R, N and V he will find quite simple. As he familiarizes himself with the Caroline M, D, V and I; with the H in the second line of the text under the ornamental H; and with the P, S, C, he will begin to realize that upper and lower case letters were originally the same. He will also be surprised, if he next falls to studying the Minnesinger letters (last chapter) under a magnifying glass, to find how like they are to the Caroline. Is not the capital I somewhat clumsier than the first I in the Caroline top line? Are not the c, d, h, i, o, p, s, u, v and y clumsier, more angular drawings of the same letters as in the {193}

TITLE-PAGE BY JACOBUS PHILLIPPAS FORESTI BERGOMENSIS. (Ferrara, 1497.) A splendid example of Gothic lettering. It is to be remembered that this was originally designed with a reed or quill pen, and the ornamentations are such as may be easily made with that instrument. But its regularity is also due, in a small measure perhaps, to its having been engraved on white metal. In an entire book written in this style the letters would be less regular—a little more like the Minnesinger letters.

{194} Caroline alphabet? You find the s more decidedly four strokes, while in the Caroline it may be considered three. You find the m slightly different: turn to our last chapter and note the Hans Rogel m, which is upper case, and see how it corresponds to the Minnesinger lower-case m.

The Caroline e you think, differs from the Minnesinger e, but if you will look at the e in erat, third line of text, you will see how decidedly the e there is a lower-case e.

Now turn to the Bergomensis letters and recognize that they have certain characteristics. One characteristic is that the final letters and several others are ornamented with the same kind of curved lines as in the first Caroline I. Then that the letters are made with a pen stroke, but that three strokes are frequently used where one is satisfactory in the Caroline. This is plainly seen in the letter I. And of these three strokes, one is the shaft of the letter, which is long, the other two are the top of the shaft, which extends a little to the left, and the bottom which extends to the right. And these three strokes become the basis of the letter i, of u which is a double-i, of n which is a double-i, and of m which is a triple-i. The o is made of the main shaft and the right-hand base, and the left-hand top and the main shaft. So you will then see that the Bergomensis is nothing less than a more complicated and more regular letter than the Minnesinger, which in turn is nothing less than a more irregular letter than the Caroline! In order to make the Bergomensis letter you must have your pen cut to a comparatively blunt point the exact width of the letter—a letterer uses such a pen almost always. {195} When you study the Italic specimen (see last chapter, “Lucidario” page), however, you find that the lower-case letter is very much like the Minnesinger, except that it is more simple and a trifle more rounded, but note that it is evidently written with a comparatively sharp-pointed quill pen. But it is not to be overlooked

Example of seventh century lettering from a Latin manuscript, reproduced from Strange’s book on lettering. In this letter, freed of the curves in the capitals I, T, L, V, C, etc., we find the principles of a very simple and graceful style of lettering, virtually the Caroline, which is being revived by Grasset and Auriol in France today.

that the variety in the letters is still due to the pressure of the pen. The Italic letter is best practiced with a new quill; and then when it gets a little out of order it may be cut a trifle and be used for a Gothic letter, like the Minnesinger; and then when it spreads again it may be cut a second time and then used for a broader Gothic letter like the Bergomensis. {196}

Now, I do not claim that this chapter will be intelligible to a mere reader—I feel sure that it will not be—but to anyone who will put in practice all the exercises I have suggested, I feel sure that it will be intelligible, and that it will give him the foundation for the whole study of lettering so that he may pick up any alphabet and master its principles after a few days’ practice.