Is this for a personal, academic or professional purpose?

It's for personal/academic. Good friend wrote it over the past 10 years. She believes I can give it the care it deserves since I've seen her working at it since its beginning. (no pressure) She intends have copies of my version created for her own library and for her friends/family/colleagues... while she's trying to get it published.

She's worried that it's too much of an artist book to ever get picked up by a publisher and that even if it does get picked up that it would become just another paperback on the fiction shelf. She wants it to be thoughtful and special. And since I owe her big-time, I'm I'm willing to do whatever I have to, to make this project really fantastic.

Does that help at all?

As a reader, I think I would find the progression of historical accurate typefaces to be annoying and an impediment to the enjoyment of the book as literature. I could imagine a deluxe edition with plates depicting the manuscript as it evolved over the centuries, perhaps...

… an immortal font

Hire one of the gurus lingering out here. Jail him/her in a golden cage on the mediterranean coast for at least one year. Care for sufficient supply of decent beverages. Serve him/her with EVERYTHING desired. Brief him/her with no mercy. Secure optimum work conditions. You’ll get definitely something immortal fonted …

I agree - I rather liked the idea of one unifying font.

That still leaves the question of which font?
Of all of the possibilities out there, what font would the book of fate be in?

This family has an understated calligraphic treatment that would probably wear well over 600 pages...

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/berthold/catull-bq/

as does this family (which is considerably less expensive)

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/urw/hiroshige/

How about Beorcana?

Andreas,

Priceless ;-)

Clearly, Times Roman is right out. So, unfortunately, is, say, Cloister Lightface. And Univers would clearly be the exact opposite of what you want.

I would say that one might sort of squeak by with, say, Caledonia or Garamond. A typographer would peg them to a particular era, but they don't strongly suggest a particular era to the general reader. But I'm pretty sure you want something a bit less ordinary than this. (Weiss Roman and Palatino are a notch more decorative, still not heavily temporalized, but they're still fairly routine as well.)

The suggestions so far given here are excellent ones, but if you want to use a typeface that is more conventional than a calligraphic one... then, although Cloister Lightface or Jenson is not feasible (great for a deluxe edition of something like Lord of the Rings, yes, but not this) I think the closely related typeface Centaur might do very nicely.

I get the feeling that Andreas might be 'volunteering' self for 'imprisonment'.

Fantastic ideas all around - thanks all! - I've lately become a fan of Catull and I will definitely be looking more into Beorcana (somehow I hadn't heard of that one before - thanks for the link).

Centaur was definitely on the short list for the readable version - just above Garamond.

I don't know that the Lord of the Rings is so far off from what my friend is thinking. I believe the image she has floating around is of a small leather bound tome with wood cuts and (1592 GLC Garamond) captions.

I'm trying to convince her that readability is just as important as this grand "look" she wants. After all, if you can't get from one cover to the other, what was the point of ten years of writing?

As for the gilded cage - at least one year? Could it work with a shorter-term lease?

When in doubt ... :)

The swash caps in subheads might work well with fantasy.

"When in doubt ... ," use Curlz ;-D

… Andreas might be 'volunteering' self for 'imprisonment'

Why not?

Depends on the terms, though.

… one year? Could it work with a shorter-term lease?

Well, to speak but for myself: there have been glyphs which took me 15 minutes, there have been others which took me four years. So, ‘one year’ is just a suggested approximation.
And it’s not that much for getting something “immortal” or “fatal” ;-)

"Fatal Attraction' or Death by Chocolate ;-)

How about some vaguely postmodern typeface, including aspects of multiple time periods? Not timeless, but possibly time-free, if you get what I mean.

American Typewriter

In no particular order:

Postmodern? That's an interesting thought. Were you thinking of any specific fonts? That's definitely worth exploring.

American Typewriter. Just thought it needed repeating. : )

Andreas - it's not a question of value versus time. I believe that brilliant minds deserve pampered lifetimes to create timeless pieces. My short-lease comment came strictly from the pocketbook of a sad little in-house designer who also dreams of gilded cages (though mine normally situate themselves in the south of France). ; )

And finally - Caslon, egad, how did I forget Caslon? I apologize for not even thinking of it, my caffeine supply must have dwindled to dangerous levels.

All out calligraphic? I can't think of any calligraphic script that wouldn't be a very obvious "font" over 600 pages. The ones I've seen with lots of alternates and ligatures are either very unformal or way too formal for text. So, in short: the kitch pitfall is definitely present.

A few "object" faces that come to mind: Trinité, Brioso and Maiola. I also second Beorcana. Of these, Trinité is perhaps best suited to handle both the "book" and the "object", with it's variants - no. 4 italic for the most extreme. With Brioso, there's the obvious pair Kazuraki for Hiragana, Katakana and quite a bit of Kanji (I'm no expert on Chinese, but I seem to remember that they share at least the Kanji signs with the Japanese).

And Borges, with it's Poema cut. But for extended text? Not sure ...

Re: vague postmodernism - maybe something like Nofret with its transitional stress, modern serifs, old-style contrast (more or less) and near-Carolingian capitals?

Or at a more extreme end - Areplos.

Caslon crossed my mind, but it doesn't seem timeless to me (despite having letter forms many will view as canonical)... although that depends on the version. If one is using all caps, tightly spaced, to advertise a bird calling contest, it can be timeless. So I also rejected Baskerville. And Andromache imitates a particular old Greek typeface - plus having inadequate legibility for a whole book, in my opinion.

That's strange that Brioso was mentioned.
I've used it a few times with some success professionally - pairing it with Kanji (Japanese). Brioso was my first thought for the object version, but I didn't think anyone else would read it for 600 pages. I've been fond of that family since it first came out, but I always had a little guilt attached to using it.

I think I'm going to try the first 20 or so pages in Brioso, Trinité and Beorcana respectively - I think those will fit the "object" version very well.

Now for the "readable" version... I think that frode frank is absolutely right in that Trinité can stand up to both versions, but I worry for Brioso and Beorcana. Centaur, Caslon, and Catull and Garamond are the forerunners for the readable - I'd be interested to hear what pairings everyone here would suggest.

This thread has been incredibly helpful - thanks again!

I think Beorcana would do the job. I didn't know the typeface before, but I'm seriously impressed now.

It looks to me, like a typeface that reads rather comfortable, but I haven't seen it in print. You should just print some specimen on a high quality laserprinter to test for legibility.

Look at Art of the Printed Book

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Printed-Book-1455-1955-Masterpieces/dp/0879230827

and see if anything strikes you as "timeless." "Timeless typography" strikes me as an oxymoron.

Charles_e - I agree totally, but I think that's what is making this project as interesting as it is. I've looked at type differently since working on it. I was always quick to label - humanist, old style, transitional, slab - use what is appropriate to the project. (and normally what falls under the company standards). This has been an opportunity to look at fonts that rather blur the edges of the categories I've been a little too tight with - at least in the object version.

Is it possible to take the pieces we like best from different styles and create something new and perhaps, timeless? I like to hope so - I bet the gurus here could do it - but as stated above: a gilded cage, with appropriate beverages and a lengthy lease would be needed.

: )

Excellent book suggestion too.

"Is it possible to take the pieces we like best from different styles and create something new and perhaps, timeless?"

Is it possible to combine all the best parts of recipes for our favorite food dishes and come up with something edible? Let's see, I like Sushi, Chocolate ice-cream sundaes, Hot and Sour Soup, Apple Pie, Huevos Rancheros, Lamb Vindalou...

Ever see a show called Chopped? : )
It's not mixing entire dishes, but definitely mixing ingredients that shouldn't go together in new and inventive ways.
I wouldn't put it past some mad genius to come up with a way to do it typographically - but that's just me and my optimism.

Dead Poets Society [Dead History]
[edit]

my Bad!
I meant to say "Dead History" up there before a senior moment invoked the right to shuffle my brain's database.
P.Scott Makela would at least have a good laugh over it from the world beyond.

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=139317

Lisa, for a +600 pages long fiction book I would go with Adobe Garamond Pro, you can't go wrong with it. A script or a more calligraphic typeface could work for titling/heading (thought I don't see the strict need of it; but if you're after a script face, have a look at Dear Sarah, it's wonderful).

Dear Sarah is delicious. Thanks!

Well, Times Roman is generally considered not to be comparable to combining chocolate ice cream with sweet and sour ribs... although it's definitely not timeless, either.

While the authentic Phemister old style is clearly Victorian, Century Oldstyle... no, it's too condensed, and so it looks like it belongs in the phototypesetter era.

Goudy Friar was admitted to be a "Typographical Solecism" by Goudy... and then there's Goudy Thirty, which, amazingly enough from my point of view, has been digitized. For something with an "old" feeling, and yet not localizable to a particular epoch, they have some merit, although I don't think they are actually quite what you seek.

I would like to suggest the "Garalde" kind of fonts. Such as Galliard, Garamond, Caslon, but my favorite one is Bembo.

How about Albertina from Dutch Type Library, or Documenta from DTL as well?
Other than that, a classic is Sabon.
Athelas is a nice, classic looking but rather recently created, serif font too, with roots in English typography.

If you don't require italics, what about Trump's Delphin or Zapf von Hesse's Alcuin?

André