Author’s the penman’s point of view,1 but a chapter on

Preface inscriptions in stone has been added and various

types and modes of letter making are discussed. The
essential qualities of Lettering are legibility, beauty,
and character, and these are to be found in number¬
less inscriptions and writings of the last two thousand
years. But since the traditions of the early scribes
and printers and carvers have decayed, we have
become so used to inferior forms and arrangements
that we hardly realize how poor the bulk of modern
lettering really is. In the recent “revival” of print¬
ing and book decoration, many attempts have been
made to design fine alphabets and beautiful books
—in a number of cases with notable success. But
the study of Palaeography and Typography has
hitherto been confined to a few specialists, and these
attempts to make “decorative” books often shew a
vagueness of intention which weakens their interest,
and an ignorance of Letter-craft which makes the
poorest, ordinary printing seem pleasant by com¬
parison. The development of Letters was a purely
natural process in the course of which distinct arid
characteristic types were evolved and some know¬
ledge of how these came into being will help us in
understanding their anatomy and distinguishing good
and bad forms. A comparatively little study of old
manuscripts and inscriptions will make clear much
of the beauty and method of the early work. And
we may accustom ourselves to good lettering by care¬
fully studying such examples as we can find, and
acquire a practical knowledge of it by copying from
them with a pen or chisel or other letter-making

1 Dealing with the practical and theoretical knowledge of
letter-making and arrangement which may be gained most
effectively by the use of the pen.

ХѴІ

tool. A conscientious endeavour to make our letter¬
ing readable, and models1 and methods chosen to
that end, will keep our work straight: and after
all the problem before us is fairly simple—To make
good letters and to arrange them well. To make
good letters is not necessarily to “design” them
—they have been designed long ago—but it is to
take the best letters we can find, and to acquire
them and make them our own. To arrange letters
well requires no great art, but it requires a work¬
ing knowledge of letter-forms and of the reason¬
able methods of grouping these forms to suit every
circumstance.

Generally this book has been planned as a sort of
“guide” to models and methods for Letter-crafts-
men and Students—more particularly for those who
cannot see the actual processes of Writing, Illumi¬
nating, &c. carried out, and who may not have
access to collections of MSS. Much of, if not all,
the explanation is of the most obvious, but that, I
hope, gives it more nearly the value of a practical
demonstration. In describing methods and processes
I have generally used the present tense—saying that
they “ are—this is to be taken as meaning that
they are so in early MSS. and inscriptions, and in
the practice of the modern school of scribes who
found their work on them.

Regarding the copying of early work (see pp. 161,
287, &c.), it is contended that to revive an art one
must begin at the beginning, and that, in an honest
attempt to achieve a simple end, one may lawfully

1 In making choice of a model we seek an essentially legible
character, remembering that our personal view of legibility
is apt to favour custom and use unduly, for a quite bad, familiar
writing may seem to us more readable than one that is far
clearer in itself but unfamiliar.

xvii

Author’s

Preface

THE SCOPE
OF THIS
HANDBOOK