Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering

Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering

The arts of WRITING, ILLUMINATING, & LETTERING offer a wide field for the ingenious and careful craftsman and open the way to a number of delightful occupations. Beyond their many usessome of which are referred to belowthey have a very great educational value. This has long been recognized in the teaching of elementary design, and the practice of designing Alphabets and Inscriptions is now common in most Schools of Art. Much would be gained by substituting, generally, WRITING for designing, because writing being the medium by which nearly all our letters have been evolved from the Roman Capital (see p. 35), the use of the penessentially a letter-making toolgives a practical insight into the construction of letters attainable in no other way. The most important use of letters is in the making of books, and the foundations of typography and book decoration may be masteredas they were laidby the planning, writing, and illuminating of MSS. in book form. Of this a modern printer (see also p. 368) says: And though calligraphy is a means to many ends, a fine MS. has a beauty of its own thatif two arts may be comparedsurpasses that of the finest printing. This in itself would justify the transcribing and preservation of much good literature in this beautiful form (besides the preparation of Illuminated Addresses, Service Books, Heraldic and other MSS.) and make the practice of formal writing desirable. And furthermore as the old-fashioned notion that a legible hand is a mark of bad breeding dies out, it may be that our current handwriting will take legibility and beauty from such practice. And even the strict utilitarian could not fail to value the benefits that might some day come to men, if children learnt to appreciate beauty of form in their letters and in their writing the beauty of carefulness. Of the practice of ILLUMINATINGproperly associated with writingit may be observed that, among various ways of acquiring a knowledge of the elements of design & decoration it is one of the most simple and complete. Moreover, a fine illumination or miniature has a beauty of its own that may surpass the finest printed book-decoration. And pictures in books may be as desirable as pictures on the walleven though like the beautiful household gods of the Japanese they are kept in safe hiding and displayed only now and then. [p-xv] ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 47089
Author: Johnston, Edward
Release Date: Oct 10, 2014
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Illustrator: Rooke, Noel, 1881-