formatting-the work not seen

[glittersweet]

A lot of this is already in my blog and searchable :).

The reason for my desire to hunt down a particular font is that I want to publish my work and have it directly comparable to our extant resources. To this end there has been a lot of reading of the history of printmaking in Europe. Just as an example canons of page construction.

I have all the Spanish Tailors books and I have both Drei Schnittbucher (with images taken from the three cutting books we know of from Northern Europe. I even have the Schwabach book (which appears to be a later reproduction.

They are so vastly different- one set being hand drawn the other printed.

The hand drawn cutting books have the advantage that markings can be anywhere and notes can be right on the illustration. 

sample of the Leonfelter cutting book

Sample of the  Schwabach manuscript

Writing at this time though was varied between personal and legal writing. Too complicated for a single post in a site primarily about costuming. But it’s easy to see over on wikicommons.

I do have plans to make my own fully hand drawn and hand written work. But that may not happen due to how very difficult it is to hold a pen now. So there are a few “kanzlei” style fonts that really do mimic the style seen in the Leonfelter book especially.

So I’d ideally like to have my work mimic the effects I no longer can do. 

I am a realist though so have also drawn inspiration from printed works.

Books printed in this region at this time also have a very idiosyncratic look.

Anna Wecker’s cookbook printed 1598

ANother printing of Anna Wecker’s work

Other illustrated books show this same use of typeface.

Jacob Frolich

So looking at the trachtenbucher this trend follows

Exceptions seem to be that a latin font is used for latin. 

Blackletter typeface is fairly easy to track down, and even a lot of Fraktur (which is seen above in both red and black ink.) Antiqua style fonts seem to be used for dates as per the above example as well.

Even Schwabach fonts are fairly easy to find. I can read them very easily even when my monitor is not within focal distance. Which is most of the time to be honest.

The spanish pattern books all use latin typesets and are much easier to read to the modern eye, at least for those who use US or UK centric sites.

Sample of Alcega 1580

Sample of Freyle 1588

Sample of Alcega 1589

Sample of Burguen 1618

Sample of Anduxar 1640

I do prefer both the second Alcega, Burguen, and Anduxar’s layouts as they fit so very well in a modern publishing world. The use of bounding lines around the page and around illustrations especially.

There are enough similarities to the Northern layout that this seems to be at least a suitable enough 

And then we move over to the Netherlands. And it’s different again. I think Garamond is used a lot (there is an explanation on prepressure.)

But specifically in de Bruyn’s trachtenbuch yet another totally different kind of font.

de Bruyn- here in Latin but with a long font and italics.

This is I think the sort of style I should aim for. Technically what was happening in Cologne is more like the very first few pages, and this print of de Bruyn may be post 1600. But I need to do a lot more looking at trades books from the Netherlands to really get a good idea. 

Okay so I think it may be a later style as per 1604, Karel van Mander, Het schilder-boeck

So I’m trying to find a balance between many wishes, but I have to ultimately think of the work as mine. As for me. And that other people can use it but it is my project.