
“Alphabetvm Græcv” by Johann Theodor Bry, 1596
☛ Harvard Library: Alphabeten vnd aller Art Characteren, “Alphabetvm Græcv” (cropped), published in Franckfurt by Johann Theodore and Johann Israel de Bry, Anno M.D.XCVI (1596). HOLLIS no. 007303732. Two more similar images are available online via the HOLLIS catalogue (same link). They are part of a larger portfolio described as follows: Consists of letterpress title-page […]

The origin and development of the quotation mark
The earliest book discovered in which appeared indicia which may properly be termed marks of quotation was printed in 1516 at Strasbourg, Alsace (then in Germany), by Mathias Schurer. It was “De Vitis Sophistarum” by Flavius Philostratus. The marks consisted of two commas in the left hand margin of each page outside the regular type […]

Type Matters! by Jim Williams (2012)
☛ Merrell: Type Matters! by Jim Williams, New York: Merrell, 2012, 160 pp. Amazon (with preview), Google Books (no preview). From the publisher website: Once upon a time, only typesetters needed to know about kerning, leading, ligatures and hanging punctuation. Today, however, most of us work on computers, with access to hundreds of fonts, and […]

Jean-Luc Godard’s interview with The Guardian, July 2011
The Greeks gave us logic. We owe them for that. It was Aristotle who came up with the big ‘therefore’. As in, ‘You don’t love me any more, therefore . . . ‘ Or, ‘I found you in bed with another man, therefore . . . ‘ We use this word millions of times, to […]