Antiqua als deutsche Normalschrift: ihre Anwendung im Buchsatz
Berlin: Wiking, 1942. First edition. Paperback. Quarto. 38pp. Original printed dust-jacket over blind wrappers. Scarce work on the Antiqua typeface class, a style of text used to mimic the hand. Antiqua typefaces are those designed between about 1470 and 1600, specifically those by Nicolas Jenson and the Aldine roman commissioned by Aldus Manutius and cut by Francesco Griffo. Antiqua letterforms were modelled on a synthesis of Roman inscriptional capitals and Carolingian writing. They are also known as Venetian types and occasionally as old style, differentiated from modern styles by the more or less uniform thickness of all strokes and by slanted serifs. The term "Antiqua" later came to sometimes be used for Roman type in general as opposed to blackletter, as in the Antiqua-Fraktur dispute in the German-speaking world. Antiqua's Germanic opposite is blackletter, in which the letter forms are broken or fractured. In 19th-and 20th-century Germany there was a dispute over whether German should be written in antiqua or the highly-developed Fraktur blackletter. In 1911, the German Reichstag rejected an official switch by only three votes: 85 to 82. Hitler advocated a switch in 1934 but took no action until 1941 when a decree in Germany outlawed the use of blackletter in favour of antiqua. This work contains no less than 23 striking examples of typography in book publishing. Dust-jacket slightly creased and foxed along edges. Minor staining on fly leaf. Text in German. DJ in overall good-, wrappers and interior in good+ to very good condition. g+. Item #37245
Price: $150.00