Calligraphy 1535-1885

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  Dalla calligrafia alla fotocomposizione

  € 68,00

  The Printing Office catalogue is enriched by an extraordinary new title, which has now become a cult for typography enthusiasts.

  If fonts such as Optima, Palatino, Melior exist in the graphics industry today, we owe it to their creator, Hermann Zapf. This first book by Zapf, published in Italy by Edizioni Valdonega in 1991 – with a preface by Bruno Munari – aims to introduce a character known worldwide for his fonts and his extraordinary skills in the field of calligraphy and publishing graphics.

  Over 300 illustrations are distributed in the volume, which is divided into two parts. The first consists of 144 pages of plates, printed in various colour scales, which significantly represent Zapf’s work. In the second, numerous biographical texts are used to trace the various stages of his studies on calligraphy and type design, and to describe his most recent research in the field of digitalisation.

  The volume is aimed at enthusiasts of typography, lettering and calligraphy.

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  Published by Edizioni Valdonega
  Texts by diy Hermann Zapf
  Preface by Bruno Munari

  20.5 × 30 cm
  280 pages
  Over 300 illustrations
  Canvas board with dust jacket and slipcase
  Italian
  Isbn 88-8503-20-2

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  Alphabets of Wood

  € 50,00

  Alphabets of Wood is the first study to survey the hitherto unknown history of wood type in Italy. The archive of the craftsman and wood type maker Luigi Melchiori, collected in the Tipoteca, was the starting point to broaden our gaze and investigate the history of the wood type manufacturers.

  The book is enriched by two inserts letterpress printed from original wood type from the Tipoteca’s archive: a more than natural choice, since the topic of the book. The most incisive form to “highlight” them was their impression on paper.

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  Published by Antiga Edizioni
  Texts by James Clough, Chiara Scattolin

  21,5 × 25 cm
  208 pages
  Printed in offset with two letterpress inserts, printed on Atena Nebiolo with original wooden typefaces
  Hardback
  English
  Isbn 978-88-95932-00-2

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  A new method of analysing printed type: the case of 15th-century Venetian romans

  Riccardo Olocco

  € 65,00

  This research introduces and discusses a new method of analysing printed typefaces and applies it to 15th-century Venetian romans. It aims to revise and improve the traditional methods of type analysis used in bibliographic research. It is based on photographic enlargements of printed types, image editing and detailed analysis of letterforms. Comparisons of printers’ typeforms are made by superimposing images – a practice that clearly highlights differences and similarities between letters.

  Drawing on printed material preserved in Italian and British libraries, this new method is applied to four important samples of early Venetian type design, including Nicolas Jenson’s Roman, which can safely be considered the prototype of all Roman types to date. The historical scope of the research covers the last three decades of the 15th century and focuses on the presses operating in Venice and the Venetian territories. Also taken into consideration are presses in the rest of Italy and throughout Europe that employed the Venetian types discussed here, both before and after 1500.

  Olocco’s work documents the trade in typographic material (cast and matrix typefaces) and the widespread use of certain types – areas that historians have generally ignored for this early period. It also documents the punchcutters’ ability to imitate existing types so well made that it can be very difficult to distinguish them from their original models – a practice that has not been studied previously.

  This research is supported by an extensive apparatus of images of letterforms shown at different magnification sizes. It is intended to provide new insights into the early development of Roman types and to aid bibliographical research by providing more in-depth information on the typefaces in use.

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  Text and book design by Riccardo Olocco

  29.7 × 22 cm
  454 pages
  English

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  20 alfabeti brevemente illustrati

  € 23,00

  Raffaello Bertieri (1875-1941), a diligent and passionate protagonist of the vicissitudes of Italian typography, published one of his most important books in 1933 – the crucial year of the modernist graphic turn: 20 alfabeti brevemente illustrati (20 Alphabets Briefly Illustrated), printed in 275 copies and now almost impossible to find. A text addressed to “bibliophiles, the curious, connoisseurs of the Art of Printing…”, and written in a style as simple and clear as the illustrated typefaces of its pages.

  Bertieri bears witness to a typographic taste firmly anchored in tradition, but also tempted by modernism, as is emblematically shown by the review in this book, which includes typefaces characterised by Art Nouveau traits together with alphabets functional to the new graphics that was being imposed.

  This extremely rare work by Bertieri is now finally re-published, with an introductory essay by Alessandro Corubolo on Bertieri and typefaces (also accompanied by an English translation). The scans of the images and the printing are carried out by Trifolio of Verona; the letterpress cover, in two colours, is printed with a hand press. The book, like the first edition, was printed in 275 numbered copies.

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  Published by Ronzani Editore
  Preface by Alessandro Corubolo (translated into English)

  16.3 × 24 cm
  96 pages
  Paperback
  Italian
  Isbn 978-88-94911-37-4

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