Typography and Printing

1 ‘A Tour-de-Force of Calligraphic Ingenuity’
Cresci, Giovanni Francesco. Il Perfetto Scrittore di M. Gio. Francesco Cresci cittadino
melanese. Doue si veggono i veri caratteri, & le natural forme di tutte quelle sorti di
lettere, che à vero scrittor si appartengono. [colophon: Rome, the Author, engraved
by M. Francesco Aureri da Crema, 1570.] Two parts in one volume, oblong 4to (230 x
269 mm), ll. [x], 45; ll. 36; prelims of part two bound at the beginning; this copy bound
without the second copy of the privilege leaf for the second part and one blank after
I1; some finger marking in the margins of the plates; but generally very good;
contemporary pasteboards, mss title to spine, spine with paper tear; bookplate of the
Prince of Lichtenstein to front pastedown. E 8500.00
Becker, The Practice of Letters, no 24; Berlin Katalog 5167; Bonacini
426; Hagelin, Ekström Collection, pp. 20-21 (imperfect copy); Jessen
2460; Johnson 38; for a detailed assessment see S. Morison, Early Italian
Writing-Books, ed. by N. Barker, pp. 96–111. First edition, privately
printed, of ‚one of the most superb, perhaps the finest, of the Italian
writing manuals‘ (A.S. Osley), Cresci‘s second manual of calligraphy. This
‚most sumptuous of writing books‘ includes Roman capitals printed in
white on black and gray, Cresci‘s innovative cursive script, which was to
dominate the Italian writing books for the next eighty years (see Morison,
p.110) and effectively transformed European hand-writing by the mid
seventeenth century. The second part includes two fine alphabets of
antique capitals, printed white on black and grey background respectively,
and a magnificent fantasy alphabet of entrelac letters within elaborate
Renaissance engraved borders, one signed by Andrea Morelli, a ‚tour de
force of calligraphic ingenuity‘ (Morison p.106).
3