THE ALPHABET.*
TEE author of The Alphabet should really need no introduction to those who care for good lettering. If they have not known to whom they were indebted for their pleasure in the reading of some exceptionally beautifully printed book, inquiry as to the designer of the type would quite probably have elicited the name of Frederick Goudy. In the very valuable " Print- ing " Supplement issued by the Manchester Guardian his name is to be found in the most honourable typo- graphical company—Caslon, Baskervillc, Morris, Emery Walker, St. John Hornby, and the like.
As is only proper, Mr. Goudy's book is printed on fine hand-made paper in his own beautiful " Kennerley " type, of which it has been said, " This type is not in any sense a copy of early letter, it is original ; but Mr. Goudy has studied type design to such good purpose that he has been able to restore to the Roman alphabet much of that lost humanistic character which the first Italian printers inherited from their predecessors, the scribes of the Early Renaissance. Besides being beautiful in detail, his type is beautiful in the mass. . . . Since Caslon first began casting type in 1724 no such excellent letter has been put within reach of English printers." Those who are observant of such things will certainly agree.
The author's method as to his plates is an admirable one. He gives a whole quarto page to each letter of the alphabet, which he shows in fifteen different forms—that used on Trajan's column, that produced by the reed pen, Gothic black letter, the type of Nicholas Jenson, Caslon, Bodoni, his own, and that of others. The large scale of the letters alone marks an advance on all other books of this sort (and there are now many), as it enables his readers to analyse and study the proportion and structure of the characters with ease and accuracy.
Previous page
