Typographic Firsts

by John Boardley

How were the first fonts made? Who invented italics? When did we figure out how to print in color?

Many of the standard features of printed books were designed by pioneering typographers and printers in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Johannes Gutenberg is credited with printing the first books in Europe with moveable type in the fifteenth century, but many different European printers and publishers went on to find innovative solutions to replicate the appearance of manuscript books in print and improve on them throughout the Renaissance. The illustrated examples in Typographic Firsts originate in those early decades, bringing into focus the influences and innovations that shaped the printed book and established a Western typographic canon.

From the practical challenges of polychromatic printing and sheet music printing to the techniques for illustrating books with woodcuts and producing books for children to the design of the first fonts, these stories chart the invention of the printed book, the world’s first means of mass communication. Also covering title pages, maps, printing in gold, and printing in color, this book shows how a mixture of happenstance and brilliant technological innovation came together to form the typographic and design conventions of the book.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, History

208 pages, Hardcover

Published November 5, 2021

About the author

Author of ‘Typographic Firsts.’ Founder of ILT blog.

Reviews

[H James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcoming, clear, and richly illustrated, this is a remarkable journey through the rise of printing in the West. The chapter‐by‐chapter focus (first italics, first female typographers, first printed music, etc.) invites a natural looping through the same decades of the late 15th century that has the potential to enhance the reader’s understanding of and appreciation for that chronology. As much as I’ve loved Mark Kurlansky’s Paper: Paging Through History and Keith Houston’s The Book: A Cover‐to‐Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time (and I do relish them), Mr Boardley's focus on the Bodleian Library’s collection makes the subject matter even more accessible.

Typographic Firsts itself is exquisite it its design and editing. While I was sometimes wishing for more in‐line references to the illustrations, I was more often feeling awed by the simple beauty and clarity of every spread. From the typography to the margins, Mr Boardley chose well. (In case the author is collecting errata for the next edition, I’ll confess that I was nettled by a missing comma on p. 108 and an awkwardly large dollar sign on p. 132—but emphasize that the overall attention to detail is evident, fantastic, and appreciated.)

[Dave Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before starting, I feared that perhaps this would be rather dry, but it was in fact very readable. Thoroughly interesting to anyone with any curiosity about typographic history, it starts with the beginnings of moveable-type printing in the west, and well-known names such as Gutenberg, and goes on to look at firsts in various sub-fields: music printing, cartography, illustration, colour, children's books, and so on. No chapter overstays its welcome, and the whole is (thankfully) elegantly designed and generously illustrated.
The harshest criticism that could be levelled is that here and there you get a bit of an info-dump of names, dates, and locations, but that's perhaps inevitable in any history.

[John Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book, with a text that is just personalised enough to make it a nice friendly read. I realised as I read, though, that many of the names and events should be better known to me, and they come at a pace through the short chapters. So I need to go elsewhere to bone up on this stuff. I have plenty on material on the shelves, so it won't be hard.

[Karen Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a gorgeous book – and true to its subtitle, it does describe “Adventures in Early Printing.” For all of us who complain about digital media, let’s remember that, as the Middle Ages turned into the Renaissance, manuscripts turned into printed books. Not suddenly, not in a year or a decade, but over time. I imagine a curmudgeon in the year 1520 or so griping, “These new books made by machine, they’re not real books! Get me a scribe and some vellum!”
Boardley structures the book around the very idea of firsts in mechanical book production: the first fonts, the first use of title pages, the first illustrations, the first printed music and maps, etc. This thematic structure allows the reader to zero in on a topic rather than a time period; I found it very effective and enjoyable, since it allows for amusing historical and legendary anecdotes as well as history.
FMI see my blog post at A Just Recompense.

[Mrin]

"Parchments are dyed purple, gold is melted for lettering, manuscripts are decked with jewels: and Christ lies at their door naked and dying." but why is Saint Jerome kinda right (im kidding)

[Tim Milligan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting content, dry form. I suspect that's what the author and/or editor were going for, however, so that's okay. Wonderful photos of pages of early printed books.

[nam · Rating 4 out of 5]

for diss 1b
unexpectedly interesting