Editor’s by the mason, the cutting being merely a fixing, as

Preface jt were, of the writing, and the cut inscriptions

must always have been intended to be completed
by painting.

The “Rustic letters” found in stone inscriptions

of the fourth century are still more obviously cursive,
and in the Catacombs some painted inscriptions of
this kind remain which perfectly show that they
were rapidly written. The ordinary “lower case”
type with which this page is printed is, in its turn,
a simplified cursive form of the Capital letters. The
Italic is a still more swiftly written hand, and comes
near to the standard for ordinary handwriting.

All fine monumental inscriptions and types are
but forms of writing modified according to the
materials to which they are applied. The Italian
type-founders of the fifteenth century sought out
fine examples of old writing as models, and for their
capitals studied the monumental Roman inscriptions.
Roman letters were first introduced into English
inscriptions by Italian artists. Torrigiano, on the
tombs he made for Henry VII in Westminster
Abbey and for Dr. Young at the Rolls Chapel,
designed probably the most beautiful inscriptions of
this kind to be found in England.

This volume is remarkable for the way in which
its subject seems to be developed inevitably. There
is here no collection of all sorts of lettering, some
sensible and many eccentric, for us to choose from,
but we are shown the essentials of form and spacing,
viii

and the way is opened out to all who will devote
practice to it to form an individual style by imper¬
ceptible variations from a fine standard.

Writing is for us the most universal of the Arts,
and most craftsmen have to deal with lettering of a
more formal kind. It is a commonplace of historical
criticism to point out how much the Italian artists
owed to the general practice amongst them of gold¬
smith’s work, a craft which required accuracy and
delicacy of hand. We cannot go back to that, but
we do need a basis of training in a demonstrably
useful art, and I doubt if any is so generally fitted
for the purpose of educating the hand, the eye, and
the mind as this one of writing.

Editor’s

Preface

W. R. LETHABY