Today we present a few pages from a new acquisition, Titel und Initialen für die Bremer Presse, a specimen book of the titling and initials produced by the German calligrapher and type designer Anna Simons (1871–1951) for Willy Wiegand’s Bremer Presse, printed letterpress in Munich at the Bremer Presse in an edition of 220 copies in 1926. A student of the renowned British calligrapher and type designer Edward Johnston, Simons taught Johnstonian design concepts at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Dusseldorf and later at Munich under the direction of German architect and type designer Peter Behrens. She began doing design work for the Bremer Presse beginning in 1918, and along with her assistant Franziska Kobell, Simons designed some 1400 titles and initials for the Presse. Simons continued to teach and work in Germany through the Nazi regime and died at 80 in Prien, Germany.
Veronese calligrapher and Roman antiquary Felice Feliciano composed the first known treatise on the construction of classic Roman inscription letters, ca. 1460. Called the Alphabetum Romanum and found in the manuscript Codex Vaticanus Latinus 6852, it also represents the first attempt to construct Roman letters within a circle and a square, which would be found in later printed works, such as De divina proportione by Luca Pacioli in 1479 and the Champfleury by Geoffroy Tory in 1529.
Published for the 500th anniversary of the manuscript, this edition of Alphabetum Romanum was edited by the great German-Italian printer and typographer Giovanni Mardersteig (1892-1977) and printed on a hand press at his Officina Bodoni in Verona in an edition of 400 copies in 1960. The 25 letters are hand-colored in two colors (after the original manuscript) with corresponding construction grid on facing verso. Of the manuscript, Mardersteig writes:
As the oldest treatise on the construction of Roman capital letters, Felice’s “Alphabet” has considerable importance, for the ancient doctrine of the geometrical construction of letters subsequently became the basis of the work of many type-designers.
Our copy is from the collection of book collector and Grolier Club member Robert Elwell, with his bookplate designed and engraved in wood by Reynolds Stone.
Although much of the life and career of Dutch type designer and punchcutter Christofel van Dyck (ca. 1601-1669) are not well documented, the influence of his type designs had a powerful impact on Dutch typefaces which were prominent in northern Europe during the 17th century, especially through their use by House Elsevir. These Dutch typefaces, generally, also had a profound influence on later English type designs, especially through the Fell types and the designs of William Caslon.
Dutch types were in high demand during the 17th century and Van Dyck was the most prominent Dutch type founder of his day. His types were influenced by the types of Claude Garamond and other Parisian type designers of the previous century. Van Dyck’s renditions were more condensed and robust in weight than his French models. Clarity, openness, and high contrast are their chief characteristics, especially for their readability in the smallest sizes, which the mid-century production of House Elsevir was most noted for.
After van Dyck’s death, it was his son and successor Abraham (not to be confused with the Dutch painter of the same name and time period) who famously sold some of his father’s matrices to Dr. John Fell and the Oxford University Press, which became part of the famed Fell types, some of which have survived to the present. When Abraham died in 1671, the entire van Dyck foundry was purchased by Daniel Elsevir, who made ample use of the typefaces.
Shown here are examples of van Dyck types printed in Amsterdam by Daniel Elzevir in 1672 for an edition of Seneca’s works, L. Annei Senecae Opera, quae exstant. There are two versions of van Dyck’s “Augustin Cursive” shown here, and some of his Roman faces. We also had to include the delightful, engraved title page from volume one and the van Dyck-printed title page with a version of the Elzevir printer’s mark. It was Daniel and Louis III Elzevir who established the Amsterdam printing house in 1638 (the family business originated in Leiden), and used this version of the family mark with Athena, goddess of wisdom, accompanied by her owl, holding a banner which reads “Ne extra oleas” (Nothing beyond the olive tree), which is taken to mean that one should stay within the bounds of wisdom.
The image of the type specimen sheet of van Dyck foundry types owned by Daniel Elzevir was pilfered off the interwebs. It was printed in 1681, a year after Daniel’s death, when the foundry was acquired by the Dutch publisher Joseph Athias. By 1799, most of the foundry’s possessions were ultimately acquired by the Enschedé foundry in Haarlem. In 1993, Gerard Daniels redesigned a family of van Dyck typefaces and ornaments for the Dutch Type Library.
View our post on Garamond types.
View our posts on the Fell Types.
View our posts on Caslon types.
View our posts on printer’s marks.
View our posts on types from the Enschedé Type Foundry.
