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Front Cover |
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Back Cover |
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Title Page The Book Of Ornamental Alphabets, Ancient and Mediæval, from the eighth century, with numerals, including Gothic; Church Text;, Large and Small; German Arabesque; Initials for Illumination, monograms, crosses, &c., for the use of architectural and engineering; draughtsmen, masons, decorative painters, [...] [more...] |
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01. 8th Century. Vatican. |
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2. 8th Century. British Museum. [more...] |
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3. 8th and 9th Centuries. Anglo-Saxon. Calligraphy from England in the 8th and 9th centuries. |
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4.—9th Century. From an Anglo-Saxon MS. Battel Abbey. Today called Battle Abbey. Someone made a font from a Dover reprint of this alphabet—Rob Anderson, I think. There is no coyright statement on the font, which was probably originally a PostScript Type 1 font converted to TrueType. I don’t think [...] [more...] |
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51.—16th Century A set of decorative initial letters from the sixteenth century; it is missing “J” “O” “W” “X” and “Z” so that there are only 21 letters here. They have an appealing playfulness: A has a bird biting a moth; B has a king and a grotesque figure; C has a boar with a bird on its back; D has a log file; E has a dragon with wings and a forked tongue; [...] [more...] |
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07. 7.—11th Century and Numerals The odd title really means that this image is a plate made from Eleventh Century AD initial letters; the “numerals” are actually Roman numbers done as ligatures. [more...] |
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34. 34.—16th Century. Vatican. Alphabet from a 16th Century manuscript in the Vatical Library. The letters are A B C D E F G H I K L M N P Q R S T Y, so that J, V, Y and Z are lacking. For J one would use J at that time, and U for [...] [more...] |
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50.—16th Century This is not a good scan; I plan to replace it with one made at a higher resolution. Decorative initials suitable for use as drop caps or initial caps. They were printed in light brown in the book, but for this 300dpi alphabet scan I converted them to [...] [more...] |
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52.—16th Century from Wood Engravings This is not a good scan; I plan to replace it with one made at a higher resolution. It is an alphabet with some ornate decoration and flourishes. [more...] |
