![]() ![]() ![]() Morison found this style somewhat excessive and sought in engaging Gill to create a typeface that would be artistic yet avoid such eccentricities. Ī text showing types printed by the Kelmscott Press of William Morris, in a medieval style. There was no lack of fine calligraphers or fine printers in Britain and Germany the possibility was remote of securing from this source a satisfactory set of drawings of a new roman and italic suitable for work of every sort…with the possible exceptions of the Doves and Golden Type, their efforts had been new and peculiar. It still remained desirable to cut…an original face required a living artist capable of the work. Morison sought Gill's talent to design a new typeface for the foundry, asking for a " roman letter suitable for book reading, which while being new, was to be of general utility and in no respect unusual." In his memoir and assessment of Monotype's work, A Tally of Types (1953, after Gill's death), Morison claimed that he had chosen to collaborate with Gill because of a desire to create a new typeface on a pattern following no past model, and an impression that previous artistically inclined typefaces cut as niche products for the private use of fine press printing companies had been too eccentric: Gill began work on Perpetua in 1925 at the request of Stanley Morison, typographical advisor to Monotype they had met in 1913. Perpetua Italic is used for the heading and Baskerville for body text. ![]() Background Ī 1947 publicity manual advertising Hopton Wood stone, a limestone often used by Eric Gill for his carvings. In structure, Perpetua appears relatively light in colour and rather "small" on the page, although this is less problematic in the carefully designed metal type, in which every size was carefully drawn differently, than in digital facsimile. Examples of this are the flat foot serifs on letters like 'h', 'm' and 'n', where most body text italics would have a curl or no serif at all. However, rather than being fully cursive in style, some characters resemble oblique type or the "sloped roman" style, a style rarely used for serif fonts in which letters are slanted but do not take on as many handwriting characteristics as in a "true italic". Perpetua's italic also has some flourishes in the capitals. ![]() Historian James Mosley suggests that a rubbing of a 1655 engraving at Rye may have been an influence on the design. The top of the 'f' has a wedge-shaped serif. In italic, the 'a' has a smooth top and the 'g' is a "single-storey" design recalling handwriting. Fine book printer Christopher Sandford of the Chiswick Press, who knew Gill, commented that "all Gill's types…are variants of Gill's own very lovely, very personal hand-lettering." Letter designs in Perpetua common in Gill's work include the 'a' that forms a sharp point without serif, the extended leg of the 'R' and the flat-topped 'A'. Perpetua in a metal type sample, showing the flourishes on italic 'B', 'D', 'P', 'Q' and 'R'Īlong with these characteristics, Perpetua bears the distinct personality of Gill's characteristic preferences in carving monumental lettering for uses such as tombstones, dedications and war memorials. The choice had appeal to Morison and Gill, both of whom were converts to Catholicism. Its companion italic is named "Felicity" for her companion of that name. Perpetua is named for the Christian martyr Vibia Perpetua, an account of whose life was used in one of its first showings. Perpetua was released with characters for the Greek alphabet and a matching set of titling capitals for headings. Perpetua is commonly used for covers and headings and also sometimes for body text and has been particularly popular in fine book printing. Perpetua was intended as a crisp, contemporary design that did not follow any specific historic model, with a structure influenced by Gill's experience of carving lettering for monuments and memorials. Perpetua was commissioned at the request of Stanley Morison, an influential historian of printing and adviser to Monotype around 1925, when Gill's reputation as a leading artist-craftsman was high. Perpetua is a serif typeface that was designed by the English sculptor and stonemason Eric Gill for the British Monotype Corporation. ![]()
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