A View of Early Typography: Up to About 1600

by Harry Graham Carter, James Mosley (Introduction)

A View of Early Typography has long been regarded as the classic text on the production and use of type in the first 150 years of printing. By focusing on type, Harry Carter goes to the heart of design, the point at which the material processes of printing meet the intellectual concerns of publishers and the nature of the texts they publish. Among the topics covered: the diversity of letterforms (blackletter, roman, italic, and more); the tensions between Latin and the vernacular languages; and the establishment of standards of norms in type design. This is a facsimile of the original edition, of 1969, augmented by a new introduction in which James Mosley explains the significance of the book and gives a short account of Carter's life and work.

Genres: History, Design

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this detailed look at the technology of printing books with moveable type in Europe. I was surprised to read that, despite his religious publications that so many cite, Gutenberg is only mentioned a couple of times in the book. Turns out many others had important roles, too. I read this on Kindle, which was a challenge because all the illustrations were at the end of the book, making it difficult to examine the type details discussed in the text. Since the text was originally presented as a series of lectures, I assume the illustrations were shown as slides during the lectures, and, no doubt, Carter could exactly point out the fine details.