#dante type

Typography Tuesday

Cinque stili di piombo per una misura di bellezza (Five Lead Types for a Measure of Beauty), letterpress printed in Verona, Italy by Alessandro Zanella (1955-2012) in a limited edition at his Edizioni Ampersand in 1988, presents five classic typefaces presented in typographic arrangements and representative quotes. The typefaces from top to bottom are:

Monotype Greek 90

Baskerville

Dante

Bembo

Bodoni

Spectrum

Born in Vicenza and raised in the Valdonega neighborhood of Verona, Alessandro Zanella became a student of American expatriate printer Richard Gabriel Rummonds (b. 1931) in 1976 and founded his own press, Edizioni Ampersand, in 1982, producing almost 200 titles until his unexpected death in 2012. Our copy of Cinque stili di piombo is another donation from our late friend Jerry Buff (1931-2025).

View other type specimen books.

It's Fine Press Friday!

Today’s fine press book is an English translation of ancient Roman playwright Terence's romantic comedy of errors Andria, hand-printed in Verona in an edition of 170 copies by Giovanni Mardersteig (1892-1977) at his Officina Bodoni in 1971. The book uses Richard Bernard’s 1598 translation of the play from the Italian, with revisions and edits by Betty Radice.

In 1492, legendary German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) drew illustrations on wood blocks for a planned edition of Andria, but they were never cut. The blocks have been preserved, however, in the Kupferstichkabinett of the Kunstmuseum Basel. For this edition, those drawings were copied onto 25 new blocks and cut for the first time by noted German American artist and graphic designer Fritz Kredel (1900-1973).

The text was handset in Dante type, designed by Mardersteig, and printed on handmade Magnani paper, with the edition signed by Fritz Kredel. The edition maintains all the qualities Mardersteig established for his press when he founded it in 1922: "The book in its noblest kind should always be a work of art. And the instrument with which this end can be achieved most fully is the press.”

View more posts relating to Albrecht Dürer.

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Staff Pick of the Week!

This week I am sharing The Bridge: a poem by Hart Crane with photographs by Richard Benson, printed in 1981 for the members of The Limited Editions Club in New York in and edition of 2000 copies signed by the photographer.. 

This book caught my eye with its bright blue paste papers wrapping the box and making up the end sheets in the book. The papers are reproductions of the originals made by Carol Blinn. Paste papers are made by mixing pigment with a starch to create a paste that can be painted on a paper to decorate it, the paste mixture allows you to push the pigment around, moving it with different tools until the desired effect is created. Once you have seen some decorated paste papers they are hard to miss. Blinn’s designs suggest a body of rolling waves under blue sky, perhaps they are the waves bustling beneath the Brooklyn Bridge which inspired Hart Crane to write his first long poem.

This edition maintains many of the visual themes of the first edition of The Bridge, first published in 1930 by the Black Sun Press, which is wrapped in a blue paper cover and features photos of the bridge by Crane’s friend Walker Evans. 

This book was designed by Stephen Stinehour. The font of the main text is Fourteen-point Monotype Dante, the headings are also Dante in other sizes. The text was set and printed by Michael & Winifred Bixler in Somerville, Massachusetts. The five photographs are by the photographer Richard Mead Atwater Benson and were printed by The Meriden Gravure Company in Meriden, Connecticut.  The smooth white papers were produced specially for this edition at the Mohawk Mill in Cohoes, New York. The edition was bound at The Stinehour Press in Lunenburg, Vermont. 

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Teddy- Special Collections Graduate Intern

It’s Fine Press Friday!

We end the week with a fine press printing based on a medieval legend, Robert the Devil, translated by the American poet W. S. Merwin from an anonymous 14th-century French play. The book was published in 1981 with original wood engravings in a late 15th-century style by Roxanne Sexauer and printed by the legendary Kim Merker at his Windhover Press in Iowa City in Dante and Bembo Italic types on handmade Windhover paper in an edition of 310 copies.

The legend of Robert the Devil had its origins in 13th-century France, which served as the basis for many literary and dramatic works, including the 14th-century miracle play that Merwin’s translation is based on. The story is about a Norman knight who discovers he is the son of Satan through a deal his mother struck with the devil. His corrupt origin leads him to a sinful life, but he eventually overcomes his inheritance to achieve repentance.

Originally, the Windhover edition included 35 copies hand colored by the artist. Our copy, which is another gift from our friend and benefactor Jerry Buff, includes a printed errata sheet that notes the number of hand-colored copies increased to 50. At the time, Sexauer was still a BFA student at the University of Iowa, and at the end of print run Merker did not have enough money to pay the artist for her work, so he increased the number of copies with hand-colored prints and sold these copies at a greater price in order to equitably compensate Sexauer for the work she contributed. 

View our other posts of works by the Windhover Press.