Letterforms

[marnanel]

An interesting point I read in the book by Eric Gill that Mark gave me: The letterforms of medieval books were handwritten in imitation of stone carving, rather than using the Roman cursive alphabet. But by the time moveable type was invented, it used letterforms (blackletter) based on handwriting. In both cases, nobody thought "I'll copy the way engravers/scribes write"; that was just the default kind of writing, so that was what letters looked like.

Comments

[pseudomonas]

I take it you've heard the theory that roman stone-cut letters are shaped as they are because they were applied with a brush first; the serifs are sympathetic to the technique of brush-application.

[marnanel]

indeed-- which adds another cycle to this pattern.

[pseudomonas]

I really should do some more calligraphy and maybe even some more stone lettering one of these days.