eric gill on typographygill’s philosophy of art & craft from his seminal An Essay on T
eric gill on typographygill’s philosophy of art & craft from his seminal An Essay on Typography, here set in digital reissue of monotype perpetua . perpetua was completed by eric gill august 1928 [uk monotype 239]; & first shown in a private printing of The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity — english translation by walter shewring of the latin hagiography Passio sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis, «a journal recounting her [vibia perpetua’s] trial and imprisonment that was continued by a contemporary who described Perpetua’s death in the arena» [www.britannica.com]. «the roman was named ‘perpetua’, the italic cut later ‘felicity’» [stanley morison, A Tally of Types, cambridge university press, 1973, p101]. morison’s ultimate analysis: «They are creations. There never was anything of that kind before he [gill] did this, and never been anything since. And these things were not ad hoc designs, they were designs that he had been cutting on stone for a generation before it was ever proposed that he should design a type: with the result they are both very successful in terms of unselfconscious design. The capitals that he did, I think, will be immortal. They’ll be used as long as Roman alphabet is ever used anywhere. And probably those Perpetua capitals—the titling, so called—I suppose are the finest capitals ever done since Sixtus V—1589. They’re far better than the classic Trajan and Augustus pattern—far better.» [Stanley Morison | 1889—1967 | A Radio Portrait, w.s. cowell, ipswich, 1969, p24]. first commercial showing of perpetua was gill’s Art Nonsense [cassell & co, london, 1929]—vide ‹belle sauvage›. An Essay on Typography [first edition: sheed & ward, london, 1931] was the first showing of gill’s joanna typeface, printed at hague & gill, printing office of gill & son-in-law rené hague. for more on the joanna face vide ‹life drawing›.the illustration atop is Eye and Hand, wood engraving, gill’s device c. 1906. -- source link
#typography#eric gill#typesetting#perpetua#stanley morison