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 VI.

USE OF QUILL FEN NECESSARY IN THE STUDY OF LETTERING — THE ORNAMENTATION IN LETTERING OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN SCRIBES COMPARED: THE ITALIAN, GOTHIC, VISIGOTHIC, LOMBARDIC, ROMAN, VENETIAN, ARABIC — THE FIRST PRINTED LETTERS: TYPE OF CAXTON, GUTENBERG, ALDUS — THE ITALIC (LUCIDARIO PAGE), MODERNIZED, BECOMES THE JENSON AND MORRIS TYPE, THE FRENCH OLD STYLE, ENGLISH OLD STYLE, AND OUR MODERN ROMAN LOWER CASE: THE ALDUS TYPE BECOMES OUR ITALIC — THE PRINTER MUST HAVE EDUCATED TASTE IF HE WOULD DESIGN CORRECTLY — APPROPRIATENESS OF CERTAIN LETTERS BECAUSE OF THEIR HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS — THE BAD TASTE OF ORNAMENT AT THE EXPENSE OF CLEARNESS — AIMLESS, UNBALANCED ORNAMENTATION — OVERORNAMENTATION — GRASSET’S LETTERING STUDIED — IN AURIOL’S LETTERING THE SPIRIT OF PLANT FORM IS EXTENDED BY LETTERING, AS IN GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE PLANT FORM IS BUILT UPON.

IT is to be hoped that upon our advice the printer, after reading Chapter I, attempted to copy some font, and that, not following any special method, he found it pretty tedious work: that he then read Chapters II, III and IV, and found, with the help of our information about the Latin capitals in a square, and about the Gothic letter being dependent upon the spreading of a quill pen, that things seemed clearer, more intelligible. But we think that, with the help of the present chapter, he will make still more progress. If he, fully appreciating our reference to the quill pen, procured one, and set to work studying the Grasset letters {198} he must have made rapid progress; for it is only by using the quill pen that the Grasset and Auriol letters can be understood. So we say that if a printer will procure one and practice the Caroline alphabet given in the last chapter, next the Burgomensis, next the Minnesinger, and then the Stimmel and Rogel alphabets, he will find that he has a solid foundation on which to study lettering, and a clear idea of the genius of letters. He will begin to realize that the Caroline is the simplest, the Burgomensis and Minnesinger the more complex, but not very ornamental, though in them the caligrapher had begun to assert himself, using a flourish from time to time to ornament the letters. And he will notice that these flourishes are such as are made naturally with a quill or reed pen, and that upon these curves and swellings are based not only the Gothic capitals, but also what are known as lower-case letters.

It so happened that most of the southern scribes (Italians and Spanish) confined themselves to a very simple letter, while the northern ones took pleasure in variety. The southern style is called the Italian, or italic; the northern, the Gothic. There are many historical instances, however, where northern manuscripts are simple; and on the other hand, the letters of Visigothic and Lombardic writers, though southern, were more ornamental than those of their Roman and Venetian brethren; and our Burgomensis specimen we call Gothic, though it was originated in Italy. The true southern ornamentation was originated under the Arabic influence in Spain (at the time of the Saracenic conquest), and traveled up to France, where it is found in the elongated d, s and f in the French diplomatic hand.

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Facsimile of the title-page of an Aldine Horace, 1519. Showing Latin monumental letter now known as upper-case roman; and Italian cursive hand, now known as italic. [see larger]

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You, of course, know that when the art of printing was invented the types had to be cast, and the dies were naturally cut in the form of the letters of the manuscript of the country in which the printing was done. Caxton imitated the manuscript of the Low Countries and not that of England, when he printed the first book printed in English movable type. So, too, Gutenberg’s type imitated the German manuscript, while that of Aldus, tradition says, was cast after the manuscript of Petrarch, and that form has been called Italian or italic ever since. We give a specimen of Aldus’ “Horace”: copy with a quill the lower case in it till you can write with ease, and you will be able to write as Petrarch did. It is harder to associate it with quill pen writing than to associate the Gothic with the pen letter. Nevertheless, if you will write for a little while with an old quill, lettering like the Minnesinger, and then with a new quill imitate the Aldus italic, you will soon see that the italic character depends upon the pressure of the quill pen, just as the Gothic does, though not to such a degree. Make lower-case a, d and s, or an m several times, and you will see what I mean. The other Italian form, which printers do not call italic, is like the Lucidario, which is less cursive than the Petrarchian form. When modernized, the Lucidario becomes the “Jenson” and Morris type (while the Aldus is our italic); it only needs a little investigation to realize how easily it became the French Old Style and English Old Style, and then our modern, roman lower case.

It will not be difficult for you, if you will really obtain the quill pen and practice as I propose, to realize the truth of the following suggestions:

A printer should show an educated taste in his {201} designs. Few people know this, and your fight will be continually against this ignorance, both in yourself

First page of Larousse’s New Dictionary, showing a scholarly style of decoration. This can be best studied under a magnifying glass. [see larger]

and your customers. You will think that anything you like is artistic and appropriate and you will be tempted {202} to undertake it. Your customers will say that they “know nothing about art” but they “know what they like”; so they will pick out some ill-executed and inappropriate job and insist upon your following it. But my business is simply with that which is established as standard, and not with what people like or dislike. Now, historic association plays an important part in designing for printers. The first page of the Larousse dictionary is a superb example of historic association introduced into a design. Here, to illustrate the letter A we have letters from many different periods, but they are all harmonious because of their ornament and their execution. And they are appropriate because they are historical. So if you are designing an announcement of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a prospectus of a genealogical society, a book of early English poetry (earlier than the tenth century) you could use the sixth or seventh century A because that belongs to the very best Irish-English lettering used between the sixth and tenth centuries. The other letters that go with the Larousse sixth century ornamented A specimen you will find in an example from the “Book of Kells,” given in Strange’s “Alphabets,” and perhaps in the “Durham Book.” This identical A is probably from “The Rule of St. Benedict.” Now, if you should obtain an Anglo-Saxon alphabet and master its style and apply it as we have suggested, it would be properly associated with these historic subjects; so you, as an educated printer, would know that you were right, and any criticism would not deter you from using it.

I take it for granted, however, that you use such letters as this A only as initials, or in designing a title {203} of a line or two; and that you would not let it occupy too much of the page: for it is not only necessary that a letter should be associated historically with a subject and that it be well designed, but it must also be associated with printing or bookmaking. It is true that some introductory pages in the sixth and seventh century Irish-English manuscripts were sometimes very ornamental, but the reading pages were, as a rule, quite

This is a design by Eugene Grasset for the heading of a department in “La Revue Encyclopédique.” It represents French designing art at its best. It is free from conventionality, and yet orderly and well balanced. The Auriol design for “La Revue Encyclopédique” is bold and striking, but not as perfect as this.

simple. The good bookmaker never forgets his pages are for reading. So, a Gothic ornamental letter that might be appropriate in a stained glass window or on a hand-painted testimonial might be offensive throughout a printed book. I know of nothing more inartistic, more nauseating to critics, than the millions of lithographed mottoes, Christmas cards, etc., that the English lithographic publishers have put out for the last decade—overburdened with ornament that should be painted and not printed. And so the whites in this sixth century A, and the dotted outline around it, make {204} it in a way less appropriate for general printing than the solid black, twelfth century A.

The middle A is in the style of the wood-cut Venetian letter of the sixteenth century; and while on general principles a gray background like this is not so satisfactory as a black one, yet this is not a bad specimen of designing, for the stipple could be punched into the wood very deeply, and is so near together that if one hole did fill up it would not be missed. However, it, too, must not be used for general printing, but only as rich ornament. It is well balanced, mind you, and therefore the detail is not so worrying as would be as much detail put in freehand, aimlessly and unbalanced.

If you will now turn to the cover design of the Larousse given in the August number, you will find it a beautiful production by Grasset, wherein we see also some decorative elements that may be studied in conjunction with what we have written in this and preceding chapters about letters. For example, the use of line with silhouette—we find a dandelion leaf reduced to silhouette, and another laurel wreath like the one pictured on the head of Goethe’s mother. But the lettering of the title is the most interesting part of it. Grasset has studied the Caroline letter, and reproduces it with very scholarly fidelity. Only when you have studied an example like the Caroline alphabet we give from Strange’s book can you appreciate the workmanship and good taste in the Grasset. A companion piece to this is the heading by Auriol where we see a modification of the monumental letter and the uncial as in the d and the r. Here the initials J J and the initial L are Gothic in principle, and you will not fail to see how {205}

Design for an article in “La Revue Encyclopédique” on “Le Théatre Moderne et L’Influence Étrangère, par Jean Jullien,” with an initial letter and design embracing a half-tone portrait of the author. A harmonious design, showing the use of silhouette; and Caroline lettering not so well understood as in the work of Grasset. Designed by George Auriol.

{206} harmoniously the L below the leaves extends the spirit of the plant design, so that if you have ever read essays upon Gothic art, like the writings of Ruskin, you will readily see the plant form is here built upon, as in Gothic architecture. What we have said so far ought to have prepared you for a historic survey of the topic of lettering. Our space is much too limited to make such a survey very extensive, but what we shall give in the next chapter will serve as a foundation on which you can build, by reading, a much more exhaustive study of the subject.