typography – SHARP News

Nancy Stock-Allen. Carol Twombly: Her Brief but Brilliant Career in Type Design

Published by Padminirm on March 6, 2019

Nancy Stock-Allen. Carol Twombly: Her Brief but Brilliant Career in Type Design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2016. 176 p. ill. ISBN 978-1-58456-346-4. $US49.95. Nancy Stock-Allen’s book is an unapologetic homage (“Her brief but brilliant career in type design” is the subtitle) to the work of type designer Carol Twombly, whose career bridged the critical moment that typography moved from cold type (photo-based creation and capture that never successfully found its legs) to digital. Adobe Systems, where Twombly worked,…

Theo Rosendorf. The Typographic Desk Reference

Published by CI on August 10, 2018

Theo Rosendorf. The Typographic Desk Reference. 2^nded. Forward by Erik Spiekermann. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2016. 350p. ISBN 9781584563119. $45.00 (hardcover); $25.00 (paperback).

This extensive desk reference is divided into six parts: Terms; Glyphs; Anatomy & Form; Classification & Specimens; Further Reading; and Index. Originally published in 2009, the new edition is greatly expanded to include updated terminology for type specimens, more glyphs, and an extensive index, itself a sixth of the physical book.

Stephan Füssel, ed. Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, no. 92

Published by CI on January 8, 2018

Stephan Füssel, ed. Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, no. 92. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017. 288 p. ISBN 9783447108324. EUR 75.00.

Frustrating as the delayed arrival of this volume was, it had the effect of whetting my appetite all the more to read the contents. I will first discuss the contributions which caught my eye as closest to my own interests. A regular contributor, Marvin J. Heller, continues his survey of Hebrew printing in early modern Europe by focusing on the town of Verona, which had a thriving Jewish community, amounting to some nine hundred at the end of the eighteenth century. A feature of Jewish life there was the sporadic printing of Hebrew books from the late sixteenth to the mid seventeenth century, first by Francesco dalle Donne who issued a small number of Hebrew and Yiddish books from 1592 to 1595, and then by Francesco de’ Rossi between 1645 to 1652.

Konstantinos Staikos. The Greek Editions of Aldus Manutius and His Greek Collaborators (c. 1494-1515)

Published by CI on November 22, 2017

Konstantinos Staikos. The Greek Editions of Aldus Manutius and His Greek Collaborators (c. 1494-1515). Trans. Katerina Spathi. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2016. xv, 293 p., ill. ISBN 9781584563426. US$ 65.00 (hardcover).

The recent unveiling of Simon Fraser University’s online resource ALDUS @ SFU: The Wosk-McDonald Aldine Collection allows visitors to examine fully digitized versions of Latin, Greek, and Italian books printed by Manutius Aldus (1452-1515). A contemporary of Gutenberg, Manutius played a significant role in the development of early printing. Konstantinos Staikos’s new volume, The Greek Editions of Aldus Manutius and His Greek Collaborators (c. 1494-1515), provides a visually stunning account of Manutius’s Greek editions that should complement Simon Fraser University’s website by allowing readers a chance to see images from these editions that may otherwise be out of immediate grasp.

Carl Dair. Epistles to the Torontonians, with Articles from Canadian Printer and Publisher

Published by SB on December 10, 2016

Carl Dair. Epistles to the Torontonians, with Articles from Canadian Printer and Publisher. William Ross, Introduction, and Rod McDonald, Notes. Toronto and New Castle, Delaware: Coach House Press with Sheridan College and Oak Knoll Press, 2015. 127p. ISBN 9781584563396. US $75.00.

There is something magical about discovering old letters. Whether it be in the attic or the archive, reading old letters provides a personal insight into the lives of both the sender and receiver that stands apart both from histories of their lives and the more self-conscious writings of autobiographies and diaries. Through letters we can eavesdrop on the past.

Epistles to the Torontonians captures the conversations that Canadian typographer Carl Dair (1912–1967), and his wife Edith, had with other members of the Toronto typographical community during 1956–57.

Valerie Lester. Giambattista Bodoni: His Life and His World

Published by CI on August 21, 2016

Valerie Lester. Giambattista Bodoni: His Life and His World. Boston: David R. Godine, 2015. 280p. ill. ISBN: 9781567925289. US $40.00 (hardback).

Eminently readable and informative, Valerie Lester’s handsomely produced volume brings to life Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) as he progresses as a provincial printer’s son from an aspiring young man keen to be recognized for his skill in the art of typography to the author of the Manuale Tipografico.

W. A. Kelly and G. Trentacosti, eds. The Book in the Low Countries

Published by CI on July 3, 2016

W. A. Kelly and G. Trentacosti, eds. The Book in the Low Countries. Edinburgh: Merchiston Publishing, 2015. viii, 182 p., ill. ISBN 9780956613622. Price not available (paperback).

The Book in the Low Countries features seven essays elaborating on topics and themes discussed at a Scottish Centre for the Book seminar held in April 2010 at the National Library of Scotland. With support from the London-based Culture Department of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, this seminar broadly addressed Flemish and Dutch book history from the manuscript era to the present day.

Tag: typography