My address is:
Dan Reynolds
Geisbergstr. 3
D-65193 Wiesbaden
Germany

I haven't started drawing yet, as I'm currently swamped with other work, one small group exhbition, and another small competition. But I have my source materials waiting for me in a nice pile on my desk.

I read in the PostScript exhibition catalog today that the use of RdR was limited to the royal court, on the pain of death!

But some people (including Grandjean's former teacher!) soon copied it anyway.

hhp

There's something in that article of Bringhurst's that I'd like to ask him about. I remember once running into his email address, but apparently have failed to keep it handy. Anybody out there who can give it to me? If privacy protocol dictates please first ask him if that's OK.

hhp

Hrant, I got your article in the mail today� that was super-fast. Thank you. Looking through the article, two things jumped out at me, which hadn't been at the fore of my thoughts in a while.

The first is that Baskerville Italic is just beautiful. I mean fantastic, wow� I don't know how I could just forget things like that�

The second was Bringhurst's idea about neoclassical type design, and its place as the "missing link" between Baroque type and Modern faces (which he calls Romantic). I was familiar with this from Elements� already, but I'm glad to have something that expresses his ideas deeper.

Part of what I find so interesting about these faces is that they seem to have a dillemma between the hand and the mind. They are conscious, thought out designs (so were older faces�), but it seems that 18th Century designers wanted you to KNOW that they were thinking about form, and that they weren't going to make forms just by using the easiest methods� i.e., the way that the humanists did when they cut forms that were inspired directly by handwriting styles.

Of course, Didot and Bodoni take this even further, and create type that is more about style and interpretation more than anything esle. Their work is brilliant, but I can't identify with it personally. It feels so remote, cold, technical, or even mathematical. Even though it isn't.

Ahh, back to RdR� I'm going to work on the the slanted roman first, curved v's and everything. I'll post something in the critique forum by the end of the year.

Baskerville italic: Yes, it's quite nice, especially in the lc. But I think the distribution of swashiness in the UC is a bit hare-brained.

Transitional (Neoclassical) versus Modern (Romantic): I much prefer the former; I would say the latter is too much of a good thing. And the duality you mention in the Neoclassical genre is an astute observation; it's something that I'm trying to resolve well in my revival, by balancing lachrymal and pointy terminals, soft and hard transitions, etc.

hhp

I think the identification of neoclassical type design as the stage between baroque and romantic is fairly obvious, both in terms of the chronology of Baskerville's work and its relationship to contemporary art, music, architecture, etc. It is precisely the ability to put type design in the broader cultural context that makes this art-historical terminology so much preferable than the specialised terminology of 'transitional' and 'modern', which are meaningless in any broader context.

Robert's real piece of brilliance in this area is, I think, the identification of rococo type design: the final flourishing of baroque before the restraining order of the neoclassical. This has contributed to a new interest in the work of Rosart and Fleischmann, which is very welcome.

Hmm� would you call RdR roccoco, or Neo-Classical then? From a time frame perspective, it was made in the late baroque/roccoco era��Neo-Classicism was later on�

The RdR marks the beginning of neoclassical type design. Although aspects of the style of the type belong to the baroque, the rationalist circumstances of its design make it part of the neoclassicist project. One could take the view that the work of the committee was neoclassicist, and Grandjean's interpretation of that work was more baroque.

That's a tough call. If I had to choose one bucket (eh, John? :-) it would be Neoclassical.
But it's not simple, especially when you consider all that ruler-and-compass action.

hhp

Hrant, I think I found another book for you to look at. This is a sweet little small edition, I think. It is called Von der Romain du Roi zu den Schriften J.G. Justus Erich Walbaums: Eine Schriftstudie, which means--"from RdR to the typefaces of J.G. Justus Erich Walbaum; a study." It was written by Gustav Bohadti, and published by H. Berthold AG in Berlin and Stuttgart, 1957.

It has a print of RdR paired with Granjean's true italic, from 1702. And then the same text is printed again with RdR and Alexandre's true italic, from 1712.

Then come copies of specimen pages from Fournier, Didot, and Bodoni. Here's the cool part: it has one print comparing text set in RdR with Fournier, Didot, and Bodoni texts.

And there is also a lot of text about Walbaum and H. Berthold AG, but that isn't as relevant to the forematter about RdR.

Hey, that does sound sweet!
Unfortunately the only book by Bohadti at UCLA is "Die Buchdruckletter; ein Handbuch für das Schriftgiesserei- und Buchdruckwerbe", and bookfinder.com shows nothing.

hhp

do you want scans or photocopies?

That's very nice of you, but it really sounds like too much good stuff to either scan (mucho effort) or copy (some effort and some expense).

hhp

There are two copies of Von der Romain du Roi zu den Schriften J.G. Justus Erich Walbaums for sale at www.abebooks.com (there used to be three copies )

I've also just remembered that there is an article on the RdR in the first issue of the Journal of the Printing Historical Society (the UK organisation, not the American one). Unfortunately, my run of this journal is not accessible at the moment.

Strange - I wonder why bookfinder.com didn't show that.
But anyway, I'm about to buy "Dutch Type" (finally) so I'll have to wait on this...

hhp

Actually, Hrant, the book is slim. Just about 75 pages. And there aren't that many images. It is just that even peripheral images of RdR are rare. So, I can still scan the images (half of the images are Walbum stuff anyway), or just photocopy the whole book.

OK, you twisted my arm. ;-)
I guess if you don't mind please snailmail me copies of pages you think might interest me - certainly not the whole thing!
http://www.themicrofoundry.com/s_contact.html
(But just so you know guys, never bother with those spam-infested email addresses.)

hhp

I guess the bulk of the book (pages of German text set in walbaum) is of no interest/use, right? You can't read German, too, can you?

No, not just yet. :-)

hhp

ok. it wouldn't have surprised me if you could have. you seem to be able to at least glean something from every other language that comes up here�

Well, we only get the big languages around here. :-) BTW, one of my greatest idols is Sir Richard Burton (the explorer, not the actor) who was fluent in 30 languages and reportedly knew a smattering of another 100. And then they say humans can't handle ligatures.

hhp

Oh dear, something else that Hrant and I have in common.