MDMD(Pt 1) The Sum is Greater than Part 1

[Sherwood, Harrison]

>From: 	David Casseres

[snippaggio: Screw the forest; *trees ahead*!]

>So there is a different texture to the experience (well Mine, at least), 
>just as the typography signals, with its Old Style (is it Caslon?) and 
>generous leading giving it an easy, open, friendly, well damme, *English* 
>appearance to contrast to the Germanic density of the pages of Gravity's 
>Rainbow.  

Bodoni. A perfect choice, aesthetically and historically. 11-point type,
15-point lead--very generous indeed, and--paper prices being what they
are--a not insignificant factor in the high price of the book (not that
we're counting, of course).

And you are close with the "Englishness" of it, in the sense that you
have at least got the right continent. If anybody deserves credit for
easy, open, and friendly typography, it's the Eye-ties.

>From http://slip.net/~graphion/bodoni.html, an online collection of
capsule biographies of the lights of typography:

Giambattista Bodoni was born into a printing family in Saluzzo, Italy.
At the age of 18, he was hired by the Vatican printing house in Rome. By
1768, he was given the position of director of the press of Ferdinand,
Duke of Parma, which he retained for the rest of his life.Bodoni was the
most successful early proponent of what is (somewhat misleadingly)
referred to as the "modern" typeface, distinguished by a strong contrast
between the thin and thick strokes, and vertical, rather than oblique,
shading. His books were produced for the wealthy and the aristocracy,
and were more advanced in elegance and refinement than anything else
being printed in Europe. Intended more to be admired than used, his
publications were often badly inaccurate and difficult to read. His
Greek typefaces, as seen in his masterful edition of Homer, are more
enduringly successful.

(Please do take a look at http://slip.net/~graphion/boddetl.html, a
detail of Bodoni type: Slightly unsettling experience, for those of us
who've been staring at M&D every night for these past months. Notice the
unconventional orthography, the allusions... And is that a _Euphroe_
about to come into view up there in the upper right-hand corner?)

Interesting snippet from a (somewhat cranky) Dutch typography site
(http://www.icce.rug.nl/erikjan/bluefuzz/taalletter.html):

The development of national fonts is strongly related to the differences
between those languages. Garamond is purely French design, Caslon is
English and Bodoni is Italian. When one uses such a strong nationally
coloured font to typeset a body of text in a different language, a lot
of the original beauty may disappear, which might render a completely
different total look. When e.g., the Bodoni is used for a German text,
it even looks like a completely different font. This happens because the
letter is used for a purpose which the designer never had in mind. The
other letter combinations, the strange accents plus the much larger
number of capitals do great injustice to the original beauty.

Harrison "Typographical Apartheid" Sherwood
>