Typophile

The typeface of The "Whole Works of Homer" as translated by George Chapman

Kristoffer Li

Hello Typophile!

This is my first post here, so I hope that I am doing this correctly, sufficiently and within the guidelines of the forum :)

I am looking for the typeface used in the 1616 "The Whole Works of Homer" translated by George Chapman, which (to my knowledge — and please correct me if you know otherwise) is the first substantial English translation of Homer's The Odyssey.

Now, I am guessing that it won't be possible to find an exact match of the typeface used in the images referenced further down, but I am looking for a typeface which is as close as possible to the looks, time-period and origin, in a (revived) digitized font today.

So the criteria, I guess, is that it has to be a typeface which was used around the beginning of the 1600's in England (where the book is published) and is revived in a usable font today, which matches the characteristics of the typeface used in the book.

Also other probable typefaces of the time can be a solution if that is the closest possible match.

Thus far I have been able to find some info about the Fell types, but these I don't think are the ones used in the book.

Anyway, here is the material for reference, and thank you all very much in advance!

Also, please check this Google search for more material if you please

Donald H. Tucker

1. Link to Google search broken.
2. The first page is an engraving, not type faces. The printer of the engraving i.e. William Hole Sculp. [i.e. engraver] is not necessarily the printer of the book.
3. So it seems that what we are searching for is is the text font & italic used by an unknown printer for the body of the second image. It would be helpful if we could pin this down to a specific printer. also the scale is too small to say anything for certain.
3. Here are some images of another Chapman book from 40 years later printed by Humphrey Moseley. If you have a larger scale printed image you should be able to determine if this is the same, or at least very similar type, to the ones in it uses.



If it matches we can think about digital substitutes.
If not we can try something else.
don

Donald H. Tucker

There is very little that is suitable to reproduce these pages.
Garamond and several others based on designs of the 1500s could be a possibility but modern digital versions lack the ligatures etc then used by printers.
We have at least one text and Italic based on printing from the mid 1600s, but they also lack ligatures. Jeff Lee has created JSL Ancient and JSL Ancient Italic and has made them freely available
http://www.shipbrook.net/jeff/typograf.html
Another possibility
http://fontdeck.com/typeface/aliz
You could also wade through this selection at Myfonts
http://www.myfonts.com/search/tag%3A1600s/fonts/

don

Kristoffer Li

1. Hi Don, thank you for your help.
2. Sorry, I can't seem to fix the problem with the url.
3. As I tried to explain in the post, I am not expecting an exact match to the references provided, so in other words: What typeface would be a common use by English printers in the beginning of the 1600's in a usable revived font today?

4. Thanks in advance.
5. PS. here's the link that didn't work embedded in the first post: https://www.google.dk/search?q=The+Whole+Works+of+Homer+George+Chapman&e...

Best,
Kristoffer

Donald H. Tucker

You're welcome.
As for your question "What typeface would be a common use by English printers in the beginning of the 1600's in a usable revived font today?" the answer is that there were a variety of dissimilar typefaces, some Garamondesques, others Dutch, some Venetians, etc. In the absence of an image from your book approaching the detail of the mid 17th century specimen I posted, it is not possible to recommend a specific digitized font. About all I can say is that it would be pre-Caslon with low contrast. If you don't have a more detailed image you could check the facsimiles of Shakespeare first folio 1623
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/overview/book/F1.html
and pick something digital from the references I posted earlier.
There is a real gap in digitized typefaces for anyone wanting to recreate books from this era. Perhaps at some future date a publisher might commission a fontmaker to produce a font that would be used for a re-issue of the Shakespeare first folio 1623, complete with it's ligatures, contractions and other printer's quirks. At least that would be something.
don

Donald H. Tucker

I checked the Shakespeare 1623 against modern digital typefaces and in my opinion it is printed in a Garomondesque type style. I suggest that would be best rendered by using "Garamond Premier" designed by Robert Slimbach. After he finished Adobe Garamond, Slimbach created a more "authentic" Garamond revival that was closer to its sources than other digital Garamonds. The Pro versions include Italic swash variations and Roman alternates. It is not perfect for all of the letter variations, contractions etc. in Shakespeare 1623, but is as close as I can find.
If your examination of Chapman shows that it seems to resemble the Shakespeare facsimiles in the link I posted, then Garamond Premier is as close, in my opinion, as you are going to get for a match to Chapman.
don

Captured from web.archive.org on 6 Nov 2013. view this capture