Blue Pencil no. 48—One Hundred Books Famous in Typography, Part 3 [The First Golden Age] nos. 10–19

Note: When I began this dissection it was intended as a single post—even as it grew much longer than expected. However, I was forced to break it up into smaller chunks when I ran into an unexplained “failure error” when trying to save the draft one day. Rather than try to break up the dissection into equally sized posts based on word counts, I decided instead to make separate posts based on the divisions used in the Grolier Club exhibition for the one hundred books entries; and on divisions in the catalogue for the material that was not part of the exhibition (e.g. foreword, introduction, Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography, bibliography, etc.). Note that the divisions used in the exhibition itself (e.g. “The Golden Age” or Looking Back”) were abandoned for the catalogue.

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The First Golden Age
pp. 46–47
10. Simon de Colines (c.1490–1546)
Jean Fernel / De Proportionibus Libri Duo
Paris: Simon de Colines, 1528. Folio.
[There is no provenance given. The online exhibition says the lender is Jerry Kelly.]

• Possibly set in an early version of Coline’s First Great Primer (Gros Romain) [R 117] of 1528.

• Text is c.350 words
• There should be a link to no. 4
• De proportionibus libri duo contains two books in 24 folios.

“Colines cut his important gros romain (about 17-point, using the modern measuring system) font, based on Italian models, in 1528, years before Garamond’s [sic] first types appeared around 1535.* The capitals are completely classical in style, the lowercase is narrow and very closely fit, and the punctuation can be quite unusual (especially the complex period, made up of four marks arranged in a diamond shape). Over the next few years Colines revised this font a couple of times, making improvements to the spacing and some of the letterforms, but it was the appearance of this font in 1528 that initiated the French old style which remained extremely popular in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: both Monotype Garamond and Adobe Garamond are still among the most used types today.” p. 46

The typeface Kelly is describing is definitely not the one that appears on the page from Fernel’s book illustrated on p. 47. His description applies to Coline’s Second Great Primer (Gros Romain) [R 119] of 1531, known as the Terentianius Roman. Of it Vervliet says, “With the new Estienne Romans (which preceded it by a few months) it has been heralded as the best expression of a true Renaissance roman.” (The Palaeotypography of the French Renaissance: Selected Papers on Sixteenth-Century Typefaces by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet [Leiden: Brill, 2008], vol. I, p. 83.) Coline’s Third Great Primer (Gros Romain) [R 116] (1533) may be a revision of the Second Great Primer, but Vervliet has chosen to list it separately. (Vervliet 2008, vol. I, p. 86). This is the Colines type that best epitomizes the “French old style” mentioned by Kelly.

But what is the typeface used in the Fernel book? Is it the first version of Coline’s First Great Primer. Vervliet describes the typeface as having a “broad E; downwards beaking G; M with half top-serifs; broad R… narrow lower case c; tilted-bowl e; broad upper and lower counters of g… Lozenge-shaped colon, period, question-mark; oversized comma.” (Vervliet 2008, vol. I, p. 81). The Fernel typeface has all of these features, except that its M has full top serifs in the Jensonian mold. The M is a hold-over from the beginning of Coline’s mature period, which Vervliet says began in 1523. It is one of several archaisms that it took him awhile to fully shake off. (Vervliet 2008, vol. I, pp. 65–66). Unfortunately Vervliet does not show this state of the First Great Primer in either of his books.

Kelly’s asterisk is a reference to French Renaissance Printing Types: A Conspectus by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet (London: The Bibliographical Society and The Printing Historical Society; New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2010), p. 39 which discusses Garamont’s career. The reference has nothing to do with Colines.

“Colines also produced several highly influential and very beautiful italic and Greek types, again building on Italian models.” p. 46

This comment should be more specific. Colines cut two varieties of italics: some in the style of Griffo (Bourgeois (Gaillarde) Italic [It 64] (1530), Pica (Cicéro) Italic [It 81] (1534)) and some in the style of Arrighi (Chancery Italic on English (Saint-augustin) [It 91] (1528), Great Primer (Gros Romain) Chancery Italic [It 118] (1532)). (See Vervliet 2010, pp. 278, 298, 308, and 316.)

Although his focus is rightly on Colines, Kelly should have at least devoted a sentence to Fernel and his book. Jean Fernel (1497–1558) was a physician and a professor of medicine at the Collège de Coenouailles in Paris. The mathematical importance of De Proportionibus Libri Duo is explained by Sabine Rommevaux in Historia Mathematica vol. 40, issue no. 2 (May 2013).

Further Reading p. 315
The Scythe and the Rabbit: Simon de Colines and the Culture of the Book in Renaissance Paris by Kay Amert; edited by Robert Bringhurst (Rochester, New York: Cary Graphic Arts Press, 2012).
• Suggested additional reading: Simon de Colines: An Annotated Catalogue of 230 Examples of his Press, 1520–1546 by Fred Schreiber (Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Library, 1995) with an introduction by Jeanne Veyrin-Forrer.

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
• There is no digital typeface linked to Colines. This is astonishing given the amount of knowledge about his typefaces uncovered by Kay Amert from the mid-1980s until her death in 2008.

Illustration
Opening page (f. 15r) of the main text with a criblé initial P.

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pp. 48–49
11. Ludovico Arrighi (1465–1527)
Giovanni Giorgio Trissino / La Poetica
Vicenza: Tolomeo Janiculo, 1529. Quarto.
Provenance: John Sparrow,; [sic] the curator.

• Set in italic type

• Text is c.432 words
• There is an extra word space at the beginning of the first line of the header.
• There should be links to nos. 7, 13, and 69.
• The online exhibition: “Lender: John Sparrow; later Jerry Kelly.”
• Giovan Giorgio Trissino (1478–1550)
• Ludovico Arrighi’s birth and death dates are not as secure as Kelly indicates. Treccani gives them as 1475? and 1527? respectively.

“Two to five italic fonts (opinions differ on whether there were five, three, or perhaps only two italics made from his designs, with a worn version of one appearing to be a different typeface) were designed by Arrighi.” p. 48

Kelly does not say which of Arrighi’s italics is shown in Trissino’s La Poetica. The Anglo-Saxon view (e.g. Updike, Morison, and Johnson)—as Luigi Balsamo labels it—sees only two types by Arrighi: a first one (1524) with swashed (flag) ascenders and a second one (1526) with serifed ascenders. However, Emanuele Casamassima contended that there were four typefaces by Arrighi: Corsivo no. 1a and Corsivo no. 1b, both cut by Lautizio Perugino (1524; possibly  1523); Corsivo no. 2 cut by an unknown punch cutter (1526); and Corsivo no. 3 cut by an unknown punch cutter (1526). (See “I disegni di caratteri di Ludovico degli Arrighi Vicentino (notizie 1510-1527)” by Emanuele Casamassima in Gutenberg Jahrbuch 1963, pp. 24–42 and “Ancora su Ludovico degli Arrighi Vicentino (notizie 1510–1527). Risultati di una ‘recognito’” by Emanuele Casamassima in Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1965, pp. 35–42.) La Poetica is set in Corsivo no. 1a. (See Origini del Corsivo nella Tipografia Italiana del Cinquecento by Luigi Balsamo and Alberto Tinto (Milan: Edizioni il Polifilo, 1967), p. 130.)

It is the former—in a variant that is present in the various works of Trissino that Tolomeo Janiculo ([1524?]–1548) published.

“A most interesting feature of Arrighi’s types as used for books by Trissino is the addition of unique characters distinguish between the two sounds in Italian of o, e and z, and consonant and vowel versions of i and u. For the alternate o, e and z the Greek letters ω [omega], ε [epsilon] and a new form of ζ [zeta] were used, a device which did not gain favor; but for the consonant i and vowel u Arrighi and Trissino devised the j and u, which are in use for these sounds today.” p. 48

Kelly’s summary of Trissino’s proposed spelling reforms (first propounded in his 1524 essay titled Ɛpistola del Trissino de le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua Italiana) is slightly garbled. The entry for Trissino in Treccani’s online edition of the Enciclopedia Italiana (1937) says, “Volle ellenizzare anche l’ortografia e la pronuncia italiana con l’introduzione di lettere greche per distinguere i suoni dell’e e o aperte e chiuse e della z dolce e sonora.” Trissino wanted to distinguish between open and closed sounds of e and o; and between the sonorous (sweet) and the harsh sounds of z. Kelly’s “consonant and vowel versions of i and u” should read “consonant and vowel versions of i and v“. Finally, Trissino’s introduction of the j has been largely abandoned in contemporary Italian. (For more on Trissino’s reforms see “Giangiorgio Trissino and the Italian language” by T. Gwynfor Griffith in Hermathena no. 121 (Winter 1976), pp. 169–184.) A type specimen sheet showing the complete Arrighi/Trissino typeface was published in 1529.

“Other chancery italic typefaces in the vein of Arrighi’s followed from designers such as Granjon and Castiglione.” p. 48

Kelly should have included Simon de Colines in this list since his chancery italics in the Arrighi style (an English in 1528 and a Great Primer in 1532) preceded those by Castiglione and Granjon.

“In the twentieth century many italics have been produced in the chancery style pioneered by Arrighi, including fairly close replicas of Arrighi’s designs such as Frederic Warde’s Arrighi and Stanley Morison’s Blado…” p. 48

It is unclear which typeface Kelly is referring to when he says “Frederic Warde’s Arrighi” since Warde’s typeface existed in three versions, two with the same name. Warde’s first essay at designing a typeface based on Arrighi’s types was Arrighi (1925), cut by Charles Plumet in Paris. That design, with the swashed ascenders, was derived from Arrighi’s 1524 type. In 1926 Warde redesigned the ascenders, replacing the flags with serifs. The resulting type was named Vicenza. In 1929 Bruce Rogers suggested that Warde’s Vicenza be cut by Monotype for its machines as a companion to his Centaur roman. The typeface was renamed Arrighi—which is how generations of designers knew it prior to its digital incarnation as Centaur Italic. Blado (Monotype 1923) was copied from Arrighi’s second style and named after Antonio Blado (1490–1567), a Roman printer who used the typeface for several decades after Arrighi’s death. Morison oversaw its production, but can hardly be credited as its designer. (See Simon Loxley’s review of High Hard-Country Poems by Michelangelo Buonarroti Simoni, translated by Robert Bringhurst; and The Typographic Legacy of Ludovico degli Arrighi by Robert Bringhurst in Parenthesis 32 for an overview of Warde’s typefaces and his relationship with Morison; “Notes on Frederic Warde and the True Story of His Arrighi Type” by Herbert Johnson in Fine Print vol. 12, no. 3 (July, 1986), and A Tally of Types by Stanley Morison [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953] for the genesis of Blado.)

Further Reading p. 315
“The Chancery Types of Italy and France” by A.F. Johnson and Stanley Morison in The Fleuron: A Journal of Typography no. III (London: The Fleuron, 1924).
• Suggested additional reading: Origini del Corsivo nella Tipografia Italiana del Cinquecento by Luigi Balsamo and Alberto Tinto (Milan: Edizioni il Polifilo, 1967).

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
p. 276—Arrighi Italic / Ludovico Arrighi 1527 / Interpreted by Frederic Warde / Monotype / See no. 11
p. 277—Blado Italic / Ludovico Arrighi 1529 / Interpreted by Stanley Morison / Monotype / See no. 11

Illustration
A single page (f. 12r). (The exhibition displayed a spread from the “Terza Divisione” of La Poetica.)

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pp. 50–53
12. Geofroy Tory (1480–1533)
Champ Fleury
Paris: Printed for the author and G. de Gourmont, 1529. Folio.
Provenance: The Grolier Club.

• Set in the “Tholoze” Pica Roman (Cicéro) [R 78] (1499). The punchcutter is unknown. (See Vervliet 2010, p. 128.)

• Text is c.252 words
• There is a link to no. 40, but there should also be links to nos. 10, 11, and 12A.
• “G. de Gourmont” should be “Giles Gourmont”
• The original spelling of the title of Tory’s book is Champfleury, though it has been widely known as Champ Fleury for a long time.

“Even more important [than his efforts to reform French orthography], he [Tory] pushed for the use of roman types, in place of the bâtarde and textura fonts then prevalent in French typography.” p. 50

Vervliet says, “Letterforms closer to the newer designs, fashionable in Italy and Germany, beginning in the late 1490s and the mid 1510s respectively, were introduced in Paris early in the 1520s, years before Tory’s treatise on the Roman capital (Champfleury, 1529), by two Paris engravers, [Simon de] Colines and the relatively unknown Jean Vatel.” (See Vervliet 2008, vol. I, p. 171.) Champ Fleury itself was set in a Jensonian roman that Vervliet has traced back to 1499, a fact that Kelly omits.

“It is illustrated with 116 woodcuts which Tory designed and cut himself.” p. 50

The auction house Christie’s says, “The woodcuts in the second section [devoted to the origin of roman letters] demonstrate proportions of letters based on the human form, and Bernard suggests they may be attributed to Jean Perréal, whom Tory credits with designs elsewhere.” Bernard refers to Geofroy Tory, Peintre et Graveur, Premier Imprimeur Royal, Réformateur de l’Orthographie et de la Typographie sous François Ier by Auguste Bernard (Paris: Librairie Tross, 1865), p. 24: “Je crois même qu’il eut pour complice son ami Perréal, auquel on peut attribuer la majeure partie des dessins des bois qui figurent dans le deuxième livre, à en juger par celui du troisième, qui lui est formellement attribué par Tory, comme nous le verrons plus loin.”

Further Reading p. 316
Geofroy Tory by Auguste Bernard (translated by G.B. Ives) (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1909); and “Champ fleury revisited” by Frans A. Janssen in Quaerendo 26 (1996)

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
• There is no digital typeface linked to Champ Fleury.

Illustrations
Three pages: f. 18r (showing capital I related to the human body), f. 20r, and f. 36v (showing two methods of constructing capital C). Surprisingly (or [erhaps refreshingly), he did not show the most celebrated pages from the books such the one in Book Two where a man’s face is superimposed on a grid or the one from Book Four showing Tory’s version of Vitruvian man forming a K. (The exhibition displayed a spread of f. 34v and f. 35r.) None of these pages match those shown for Bruce Rogers’ Grolier Club edition of Champ Fleury (no. 12A) which is unfortunate since that would have allowed one to make a direct comparison between the typography and printing of the two books, especially Rogers’ fastidious retouching of photoengraved cuts of Tory’s illustrations.

“…Tory’s Champ Fleury… is not a great example of typography or printing…” p. 19

“…Tory’s Champ Fleury (1529) is far from the best example of Tory’s work as a designer…” p. 20

“Beautifully printed… it is one of the finest editions published by The Grolier Club, and among Rogers’ thirty favorite examples of his work as a book designer.” p. 54

Kelly’s assessment of the Champ Fleury is borne out by the three pages he reproduces. Why was it necessary to show more than one?

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pp. 54–55
12A*. Geofroy Tory (1480–1533), Auguste Bernard (1811–1868), translator
Champ Fleury
New York: The Grolier Club, 1927. Folio.
Provenance: The Grolier Club.

• Set in foundry Centaur and ATF Garamond Italic

• Text is c.252 words
• The translator of the Grolier Club edition of Champ Fleury was not Auguste Bernard, as indicated in the header, but George B. Ives. Kelly has conflated this book with Geofroy Tory by Auguste Bernard; translated by G.B. Ives (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1909).

“The numerous diagrams were meticulously redrawn by Rogers to be reproduced as line engravings, coming as close as possible to the original woodcuts used in the 1529 edition.” p. 54

If this is the case, why not show a page that matches one of the three illustrations accompanying no. 12?

Further Reading p. 316
Bruce Rogers: A Life in Letters, 1870–1957 by Joseph Blumenthal (Austin, Texas: W. Thomas Taylor, 1989).

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
• There is no digital typeface linked to the Grolier Club edition of Champ Fleury.

Illustration
A single page (p. 83) which corresponds to f. 31v in the Third Book of the original 1529 edition of Champ Fleury. (The exhibition showed pp. 56–57.)

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pp. 56-57
13. Giovanni Antonio Castiglione (c.1484–c.1557)
Bonaventura Castiglione / Gallorvm Insvbrvm Antiqvae Sedes
Milan: G.A. Castiglione, 1541. Octavo.
[There is no provenance given. The online exhibition says the lender is Jerry Kelly.]

• Set in a chancery italic type cut by Giovanni Antonio Castiglione. Luigi Balsamo says that it is c.18 pt in size.

• Text is c.280 words
• There is a link to no. 7.

Bonaventura Castiglione (1487–1555), a prelate and inquisitor, is the author and Giovanni Antonio Castiglione, the son of an enigmatic Milanese printer, famous for printing music is the printer of this book and the designer of its type. Kelly says nothing about either man and I have found no indication that they were related. His text never mentions Bonaventura Castiglione or his book Gallorvm Insvbrvm Antiqvae Sedes. Luigi Balsamo cites it as the first instance of G.A. Castiglione’s chancery type. (See Origini del Corsivo nella Tipografia Italiana del Cinquecento by Luigi Balsamo and Alberto Tinto [Milan: Edizioni il Polifilo, 1967], p. 155.)

“While Castiglione’s italic is well known and much admired, and it might possibly be called ‘famous,’ it was not very influential…. The Garamond [sic] / Granjon italics have prevailed in part because they were better punchcutters, producing types which are finer, more precise, with better alignment and fit.” p. 56

That last sentence is poorly constructed, though its gist is clear. However, it is more likely that the Garamont/Granjon model prevailed over the chancery one because italics had become subsidiary types to romans by the mid-16th century. A chancery italic such as Castiglione’s was too narrow, too upright, and too flowery to mate well with a roman or be used successfully in a supporting role such as for sidenotes.

Further Reading p. 316
Origini del Corsivo nella Tipografia Italiana del Cinquecento by Luigi Balsamo and Alberto Tinto (Milan: Edizioni il Polifilo, 1967).

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
• There is no digital typeface linked to Castiglione’s chancery italic. But an excellent digital typeface based on a variety of calligraphic chancery italic sources is Poetica by Robert Slimbach (1992).

Illustration
A single page (p. 38). (The exhibition showed pp. 37–38 with the text of the verso set entirely in letterspaced capitals which, although lovely, have no bearing on the book’s inclusion.)

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pp. 58–59
14. Claude Garamond (c.1490–1561)
Appianus / Romanvm Historiam
Paris: Charles Estienne, 1551. Folio.
[There is no provenance given. The online exhibition says the lender is Jerry Kelly.]

• Set in the Two-line (Palestine) grec du roi [Gk 150] cut by Claude Garamont (1550).

• Text is c.420 words
• Edited by Robert Estienne (1503–1559) and Charles Estienne (1504–1564).
• “Angelo Vergetiuss” should be “Angelo Vergecio” or “Angelos Vergikios” (1505–1569).
• There are links to nos. 12, 15, and 18. There should also be links to nos. 6, 16, and 60.
• Most English-language writers italicize grecs du roi. Kelly leaves the phrase unitalicized.
• Hendrik D.L. Vervliet, the preeminent historian of 16th century French typefaces, prefers the spelling “Garamont” to “Garamond”. Throughout One Hundred Books Famous in Typography Kelly has chosen the older spelling.

“Originally produced in one medium size, the type had a smaller and larger size added later, all cut by Garamond [sic]. The three sizes comprising the complete grecs du roi [sic] appear together for the first time in a double-page spread of this edition of the History of Rome by Appianus….” p. 58

Kelly does not identify the three sizes of the grecs du roi nor the dates of each. In French Renaissance Printing Types: A Conspectus by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet (London: The Bibliographical Society and The Printing Historical Society; New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2010) they are: Great Primer (Gros-romain) Royal Greek [Gk 118] first used 1543 (p. 376), Pica (Cicéro) Royal Greek [Gk 80], first used 1446 (p. 360), and Two-line Pica (Palestine) Royal Greek [Gk 150] first used 1550 (pp. 382–383). (Note: In his conspectus Vervliet refers to the different sizes of the grecs du roi by their English names.)

Further Reading p. 316
The Palaeotypography of the French Renaissance by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet (Leiden: Brill, 2008).
• Suggested reading: French Renaissance Printing Types: A Conspectus by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet (London: The Bibliographical Society and The Printing Historical Society; New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2010); and Pica Roman Type in Elizabethan England by W. Craig Ferguson (Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1989).

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
p. 272—Garamond Greek / Claude Garamond c.1550 / Interpreted by Robert Slimbach / Adobe / See no. 14
• Garamont’s original punches for the grecs du roi survive at the Imprimerie Nationale in France.

Illustration
A single page (p. 13). The page is set in the Two-line (Palestine) grec du roi (Gk 150) (see Vervliet 2010, pp. 382–383.). The double-page spread with all three sizes of the grecs du roi that Kelly mentions is unfortunately not shown in the catalogue.

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pp. 60–61
15*. Robert Granjon (1513–1589)
Innocentio Ringhieri; translated by Jean Louveau / Dialogue de la Vie et de la Mort
Lyons: Robert Granjon, 1557. Octavo.
Provenance: American Type Founders Company Library & Museum at Columbia University.

• Set in Pica Civilité [Civ 85] (1557) cut by Robert Granjon

• Text is c.364 words
• There is a link to no. 12. There should also be links to nos. 8, 9, 40, 55, and 97.
• The online exhibition: “Provenance: The American Type Founders (ATF) library; later Columbia University Rare Books [sic] and Manuscripts [sic] Library”.
• The book is not part of the American Type Founders Company Library & Museum purchase. It came from the library of George Arthur Plimpton which was donated to the Rare Book Department at Butler Library in 1936. The call number is PLIMPTON 244 1557 R47 13V.

“If Robert Granjon had his way, works from different nationalities in different languages would be printed in different types… [he] hoped that a unique gothic cursive style would be adopted as the preferred type for French texts.” p. 60

Granjon called his type nostre lettre Francoyse and based it on the lettre courante, a derivative of bâtarde, that contemporary scribes like Pierre Hamon (c.1530–1569) employed (see Recueil d’alphabets et d’exemples d’écritures anciennes… [1566], ff. 55–56, 150–151).

“This category of types is named after De civilitate morum puerorum by Erasmus, originally published in 1530, and re-issued by Granjon as the first book in his new type in 1558.” p. 60

The civilité types were named after the title of the French translations of Erasmus’ book, not after its original Latin title: La Civilité puerile distribuée par petitz chapitres. The first use of the new style of type was in Dialogue de la Vie et de la Mort published by Granjon in 1557.

“Granjon went on to cut seven more fonts in the civilité style, as well as two sizes of large initials to go with the text types.” p. 60

Vervliet describes nine civilités cut by Granjon, with one being an adaptation or variant. In order of their numbering they are: Pica Civilité [Civ 85] (1557) A1; English-sized Civilité [Civ 98] (1562) A2; “Silvius” English-sized Civilité [Civ 98] (1563) A2a; “Silvius” Great Primer Civilité [Civ 120] (1565) A3; “Dutch” English-sized Civilité [Civ 98] (1566) A4; Great Primer Civilité courante  [Civ 120] (1567) A5, Great Primer Civilité bastarde [Civ 120] (1567) A6; Long Primer Civilité [Civ 68] (1566) A7; and “De Tournes” Long Primer Civilité [Civ 68] (1582) A8. (See Robert Granjon, Letter-Cutter, 1513–1590: An Oeuvre-Catalogue by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2018), pp. 21, 89–90 and 106–111). As for Granjon’s companion initials, Vervliet lists three sets of script initials, all sand cast: Two-line English (1557), Six-line Pica (1558), and Two-line Double Pica (1573). His attribution of the latter to Granjon is conjectural. (See Vervliet 2018, pp. 43-44, 98–99 and 179–180.) But neither Kelly nor Vervliet identify the large bâtarde typeface that appears in the first line of the title of Dialogue de la Vie et de la Mort.

Further Reading p. 316
Civilité Types by Harry Carter and H.D.L. Vervliet (Oxford: The Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1966); and Robert Granjon, Letter-Cutter, 1513–1590: An Oeuvre-Catalogue by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2018).

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
p. 274—Civilité / Robert Granjon 1557 / Interpreted by Jonathan Hoefler / Hoefler Typefoundry / See no. 15

Illustration
Title page overlapping an unidentified text page. (The exhibition showed the spread that contained the same text page.)
• The unidentified text page is the opening page (recto) which is visible—along with the Plimpton designation—in the online exhibition.

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pp. 62–63
16. Claude Garamond (c.1490–1561)
Paolo Giovio / Historiarvm svi Temporis Tomvs Primvs [sic]
Paris: Michel Vascosan, 1553[–1554]. Two volumes. Folio.
[There is no provenance given. The online exhibition says the lender is Jerry Kelly.]

• Set in either English-sized (Saint-augustin) Roman [R 93] (1549) or Great Primer Roman (Gros-romain) [R 113] (1542) cut by Claude Garamont. [I cannot be sure which type it is; see pp. 166 and 190 in Vervliet 2010.] Kelly says the book “displays Garamond’s roman in a 16-point size” which falls between English (approximately 14 point) and Great Primer (approximately 18 point).

• Text is c.448 words
• There are links to nos. 6, 14, 24 and 69. There should also be links to nos. 55, 84, and 97.
• The title should be Historiarvm svi Temporis. (Some libraries list the full title as Novocomensis Episcopi Nvcerini Historiarvm svi Temporis.) “Tomvs Primvs” indicates the first of two volumes. The second volume was published by Vascosan in 1554.

Further Reading p. 316
French Renaissance Printing Types: A Conspectus by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet (London: The Bibliographical Society and The Printing Historical Society; New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2010).

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
p. 270—Garamond Roman / Claude Garamond c.1540 / Interpreted by Robert Slimbach / Adobe / See no. 16

Illustration
Opening (recto) page. (The exhibition showed a recto page set in Garamont’s Second Great Primer Italic of 1549.)
• The online exhibition shows the same page as in the catalogue.

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pp. 64–65
17. Christopher Plantin
Index Sive Specimen Characterum
Antwerp, 1567. Quarto.
[Shown in the facsimile produced by Douglas C. McMurtrie, New York: 1924.]
Provenance: The Grolier Club.

• The page shown is set in Garamont’s Paragon (Petit-paragon) Roman [R 128] (1557) with what appears to be Granjon’s Great Primer (Gros-romain) Italic [It 115] (1554). (See pp. 204 and 324 in Vervliet 2010.)

• Text is c.308 words
• The book shown is Plantin’s Index Characterum of 1567. Facsimile reprint with an introduction by Douglas C. McMurtrie (New York: 1924).
• There should be links to nos. 14, 15, 16, 18, 30A, 66 and 66A.

Further Reading p. 316
Type Specimen Facsimiles II (16–18) by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet and Harry Carter (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972).
• The facsimiles include Christopher Plantin’s Index Sive Specimen Characterum 1567.
• Suggested readings: The Golden Compasses: A history and evaluation of the printing and publishing activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp by Léon Voet (Amsterdam: Van Gendt and New York: Abner Schram, 1969–1972), 2 volumes; and The Plantin Press (1555–1589): A bibliography of the works printed and published by Christopher Plantin at Antwerp and Leiden by Léon Voet and Jenny Voet-Grisolle (Amsterdam: Van Hoeve, 1980-1983), 6 volumes.

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
p. 271—Garamond Italic / Claude Garamond c.1540 / Interpreted by Robert Slimbach / Adobe / See no. 17
p. 278—Galliard Italic / Robert Granjon c.1560 / Interpreted by Matthew Carter / ITC / See no. 17
p. 279—Galliard Roman / Robert Granjon c.1560 / Interpreted by Matthew Carter / ITC / See no. 17

Illustration
Single page ([7]r).

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pp. 66–67
18*. Guillaume Le Bé (1523/4–1598)
Jean Cinquarbres and Pierre Vignal / Linguae Hebraicae Institvtiones Absolvtissimae
Paris: Officina Gulielmi Le Bé, 1609. Quarto.
Provenance: American Type Founders Company Library & Museum at Columbia University [sic].

• The roman text type looks like Garamont’s English-sized (Saint-augustin) Roman [R 95] (1556) while the italic looks like Granjon’s Pica (Cicéro) Italic [It 82] (1548). The Hebrew is probably Le Bé’s Two-line Great Primer Hebrew (Trismégiste) [Hb 6] (1566) (See Vervliet 2010, pp. 170–171, 302, and 418.) However, Stanley Morison apparently claims the types are Petit parangon italic by Granjon and Gros parangon Romain by Jacques de Sanlecque I (1558–1648), who studied punchcutting under LeBé. (See L’inventaire de la Fonderie Le Bé selon la transcription de Jean Pierre Fournier. Documents typographiques français I by Stanley Morison [Paris: André Jammes, 1957] which I have only seen as a Google snippet.)

• Text is c.252 words
• There is a link to no. 14. There should also be links to nos. 22 and 30.
• There is an online edition of Lingave Hebraicae Institvtiones Absolvtissimae
bound with Exercitatio Grammatica in Psalmvm XXXIII by Roberto Bellarmino. Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library has three copies, all with this same combination of texts. Their third copy is the one from the former Typographic Library and Museum of the American Type Founders.
• The online exhibition: “Provenance: The American Type Founders (ATF) library; later Columbia University Rare Books [sic] and Manuscripts [sic] Library”.
• “Hautlin” should be “Haultin”
• “the Belgian printer Christopher Plantin” should be “the Flemish printer Christopher Plantin”.

Kelly’s text entirely ignores the book by Jean Cinquarbres. Instead it focuses on Le Bé’s Hebrew types cut for Christopher Plantin and especially on the various types used in the Polyglot Bible (1569–1572)—though there is no mention of Granjon’s civilité (see no. 15). Plantin’s Bible would have been a more logical choice to display Le Bé’s Hebrew types.

“A fortuitous artifact in the history of typography are some refined drawings of a Hebrew alphabet, for use as a model for typefaces, drawn by Le Bee in 1573, which survive to this day in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.” p. 66

A reproduction of one of these drawings was on display as part of the One Hundred Books Famous in Typography exhibition at the Grolier Club.

Le Bé wrote an account describing, in chronological order, all of the types he cut between 1545 and 1592, titled Espreuves des lettres que j’ay taillées, tant en six et sept sortes de poinsons de lettres hebraïques que autres lettres, en divers temps et pour diverses personnes, et partie aussi pour n’oy. The manuscript text was reprinted (with some images) as Spécimens de Caractères Hébreux, Grecs, Latins et de Musique Gravés a Venise et a Paris par Guillaume Le Bé (1545–1592) (Paris: H. Omont, 1889).

Further Reading p. 316
French Renaissance Printing Types: A Conspectus by Hendrik D.L. Vervliet (London: The Bibliographical Society and The Printing Historical Society; New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2010).
• Suggested reading: Sixteenth-century Hebrew typography: A typographical and historical analysis based on the Guillaume I Le Bé documents in the Bibliothèque nationale de France by Stephen Lubell (2014 PhD thesis) and Le livre hébreu à Paris au XVIe siècle: inventaire chronologique by Lyse Schwarzfuchs (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2004).

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
• There is no digital typeface linked to the Hebrew types cut by Le Bé. However, Sabon Next by Jean François Porchez (2002) is based on some of his romans along with some by Garamont.

Illustration
A single page (p. 2). In the Google Books edition online it is unpaginated. It can be found 26 pages from the end of the compound document. However the Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent copy online is paginated and this is clearly p. 2. (The numbering goes from the back of the book to the front in the Hebrew manner, even though the text is in Latin!) Kelly’s image is not from the Columbia copy, even though that copy was part of the physical exhibition. The folio 2 is missing and the inking does not match.
• A toned flat has been added to the background of the page. Note the heaviness of the type overall as well as some broken or imperfectly printed letters in the sidebar. The online exhibition confirms that this is a second-hand image. There is no folio, yet there is a rule at the top of the page and the credit “Cinquarbres · Linguae Hebraicae” at the bottom. The latter two elements have been scrubbed from the catalogue image.

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pp. 68–69
19*. Joseph Moxon (1627–1691)
Mechanick Exercises
London: Printed for the author, 1683. Octavo.
Provenance: The Grolier Club.

• There seems to be no information on the identity of the type(s) used to set the text of Mechanick Exercises. When Theodore Low De Vinne reprinted the text in 1896, he had it reset in Caslon. In Note 15 at the end of volume 2 he says, “The type used by Moxon in his book is of the same English body as the type in which this reprint is set, but the Moxon face is a trifle taller and much more compressed.” (p. 405) The annotated reprint edited by Herbert Davis and Harry Carter in 1958 reset Moxon’s text in Monotype Van Dijck. They say this: “The founts of type used for the text and headings vary from one part to another…. The section dealing with Letter-Cutting (Sheets N–8)… seems to have been printed from newer type….” (p. lvi) Volume two of the 1677–1683 edition of Moxon is available at the Internet Archive and (see above) at Google Books. The types are fairly crude and do not match any of those shown by Moxon in his 1669 specimen. Moxon’s second edition of 1693 has been digitized and put online. Its text typefaces are more sophisticated, resembling the romans and italics of Christoffel Van Dijck which Moxon admired.

• Text is c.266 words
• For provenance the Grolier Club catalogue cites Thomas Kirke (1650–1706), a professional acquaintance of Moxon, as the former owner of its copy.
• There is a link to no. 21. There should also be links to nos. 37, 39, 59, 67, 75, 92, 93, and 100.

Further Reading p. 316
Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing by Joseph Moxon; edited by Herbert Davis and Harry Carter (London: Oxford University Press, 1958).
• Davis and Carter’s annotated edition includes fold-out facsimiles of the type specimen broadsides Proves of several Sorts of Letters Cast by Joseph Moxon (1669) and Proeven Letteren, Die gesneden zijn door Wylen Christoffel van Dyck Soo als de selve verkoft sullen werden ten huyse van de Weduwe Wylen Daniel Elsevier (1681).
• Suggested reading: Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works Applied to the Art of Printing: A Literal Reprint in Two Volumes of the First Edition Published in the Year 1683 with Preface and Notes by Theo. L. De Vinne (New York: The Typothetae of the City of New-York, 1896).

Fifty Typefaces Famous in Typography
• There is no digital typeface linked to Moxon’s. However, several of the contemporaneous Fell types have been digitized by Igino Marini; and some are part of Historical Allsorts by Jonathan Hoefler (1992).

Illustration
Title page with a tonal flat added.
• This is not the title page of the Grolier Club’s copy of the second volume of Mechanick Exercises which bears the TK monogram of Thomas Kirke, its original owner. See the black-and-white image in the online exhibition which is the source of the catalogue’s image. Why Kelly substituted the title page from another copy is a mystery, though it does explain the addition of the toned background. The Grolier Club’s Flickrstream photographs of the exhibition confirm that the Kirke copy was on display.