#frederic warde

Happy St. Valentine’s Day!

On this day of love and affection we present some images from Richard Aldington’s long poem Love and the Luxembourg published in New York by Covici, Friede in 1930, with two lovely, amorous putti printed on the title page. The book was designed by Frederic Warde and printed by William Edwin Rudge in an edition of 475 copies signed by the author and the designer.

Love and the Luxembourg is about Aldingtion’s love for American writer Brigit Patmore with whom he had an intimate relationship from 1928-1936. The affair did not end well, but we won’t let that spoil our Valentine’s Day commemoration.

To all our faithful followers, we wish you a very Happy Valentine’s Day.

warde’s arrighi

«Lodovico degli Arrighi da Vicenza [more commonly known as ludovico vicentino] was employed at Rome as ‘scrittore de’ brevi apostolici’ and as a writing master he was the first to print specimens of his hand»;¹ «no details are known as to the date upon which he entered this post»; ² «The writer of apostolic briefs in 1522 had by 1524 become printer and publisher [in rome] to a gifted group of humanists and writers.»³ arrighi had two italic founts based on his calligraphic models cut for his printing/publishing venture at rome:  the first (≅16pt), modelled on arrighi’s cancelleresca corisvo, having kerned projectors with pear-shaped terminals & upright roman capitals «is assumed to have been cut for Arrighi by his partner Lautizio Perugino (who is generally equated with Lautizio Bartolomeo dei Rotelli, the goldsmith praised by Cellini). It includes a large number of variant sorts, including a number devised by Arrighi’s patron Giangiorgio Trissino as part of his phonetic spelling reform.»⁴ [4th image] «He [arrighi] was first to found those free letters which we know as ‘swash capitals’».⁵ «…poor sorts were to some extent replaced [presumably by lautizio] during the nine or ten months during which the type was used.» & it is characterized by «predominance of cursive g».⁶ The last book containing the name of lautizio perugino was published in april of 1525.  «The second type [slightly larger than the first] is altogether different. If the first is what one might expect from a goldsmith instructed by a calligrapher, elegant in mass but irregular and uncomprehending in detail, the second is a thoroughly professional design, with a sharper angle of stress and serifed ascenders and descenders (including long s and f).» & is characterized by «more frequent antica g».⁷ this 2nd fount appears in two states/versions spanning 1526–7; the cutter remains unknown.

in 1925 frederic warde organized a revival of the lautizio fount—he called it «arrighi». a 2nd version having serifed ascenders (presumably modeled on those of arrighi’s 2nd fount) he came to call «vicenza». he also sorted six ornaments, these not from arrighi’s oeuvre. punches were engraved for warde by charles plumet of g&h plumet, paris; with matrices struck & founts cast by p. ribadeau-dumas, also of paris . the arrighi types were first used by warde & stanley morison in a private printing of selected robert bridges’ poems.⁸ after which warde took founts to switzerland for the printing of The Calligraphic Models of Ludovico Degli Arrighi [1st image shows vicenza, 2nd arrighi].⁹ warde set one further edition in the vicenza version & later sold arrighi: the material—punches, matrices, types, along with documentation—was acquired in 1934 by henry watson kent of the metropolitan museum of art for use at their museum press.¹⁰  much of the history of warde’s arrighi is recorded by will carter in his «Typographical Note» appended to a poem printed by will & sebastien carter [3rd image] at their rampant lions press:¹¹ the book was set in a last casting of vicenza (matrices borrowed from the metropolitan museum of art & cast at oxford university press, 1962). confusion still exists as to the originator of the idea for the arrighi revival, but, given morison’s copious research into the origins of italic type at the time, i must agree with carter’s opinion «that the type is plainly another, little-known triumph of Stanley Morison’s, for I am convinced that it was he and not Warde who was the moving force behind the whole project.»¹²  the final journey leg of warde’s arrighi is given in the comprehensive account by herbert h. johnson,¹³ who received the donation of the arrighi material that now reposes in the cary collection at rochester institute of technology. johnson takes the view opposite to carter: he is unsympathetic to morison—arrighi was warde’s alone.

Typography Tuesday: Arrighi Types

Ludovico degli Arrighi (1475-1527) was an early 16th-century Italian writing master, papal scribe, and type designer. Little is known about his personal life beyond that he was from Vicenza, was living in Rome by 1510, worked as a scribe in the Apostolic Chancery, and died in Rome, possibly as a consequence of that city’s sacking in 1527.

In 1524 Arrighi turned to printing, producing 24 editions using types he designed based on his own cancellaresca italica script. His italic types were widely emulated in his own day by printers such as Tolomeo Janiculo who worked in Arrighi’s native city. Arrighi’s letterforms were revived in the 20th century by designers such as Stanley Morison and Frederic Warde.

Book historian Roderick Cave writes, “In the great revival of classical typefaces in the 1920s, Arrighi was well served . . . . Warde’s version of the first Arrighi face needed a good deal of revision for machine composition as a companion face to a roman type, but when issued by the Monotype Corporation married to Bruce Rogers’s Centaur type . . , it was an entirely happy union. To accompany the fine recutting of the type used by Aldus Manutius in the Poliphilus, which the Monotype Corporation undertook in 1923, Arrighi’s second italic was used as a model.“

Shown here are:

Giovanni Giorgio Trissino‘s Rime del Trissino, printed in Vicenza by Tolomeo Janiculo in 1529. This is one of the first books printed in Janiculo's cancellaresca type, derived from the first Arrighi type of 1524.    

Alfred W. Pollard‘s The Trained Printer and the Amateur, And the Pleasure of Small Books, published in London by the Lanston Monotype Corporation in 1929, and designed and printed by Bruce Rogers. This work is the first printing of Rogers’ Centaur type and Warde’s Arrighi. In a printer’s note, set in Arrighi, Rogers writes, “Being incapable of devising a suitable Italic letter I induced Mr. Frederic Warde to make a modified version of his beautiful Arrighi Italic to accompany my Roman characters. His type (which you are now reading) seems to me one of the finest and most legible cursive letters ever produced.”