Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Lace Typography

Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography m


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography n


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography a


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography b


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography c


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography d


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography e


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography f


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography g


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography h


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography i


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography j


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography k


Bertozzi + Zanilla 1604 Lace Typography l


The above images are an intriguing mix of patterns for lace making surrounding various alphabet and script styles. The suite of engravings was produced in 1604 by Antonello Bertozzi and Sebastian Zanilla in Padua and is simply known as 'Book on Lace'.

I have found exactly zero background (again) to this work and only a passing reference to Bertozzi on this page.

The book belongs to the University of California Libraries* and, as mentioned a few weeks ago in the Ornamental Typography post, is available in various formats from Archive.org. I have taken the liberty of removing the holepunched library markings as well as the digital trade watermarks from the above images. I won't embarrass the Redmond outfit who digitised the work by mentioning their name. It could only have been an oversight on their part that the company brand name and statement was plastered onto the actual illustrations in this public domain book right?

All of the images were taken from a pdf file and a dozen more (slightly cropped but otherwise untouched) pages from the suite can be found in this Webshots album. That is all or very close to all of the images in the book.

8 comments :

Island Bookworm said...

How beautiful! You've done a tremendous amount of work removing the holes and watermark. Thank you!

Mercurius Politicus said...

Wonderful post - thank you!

Anonymous said...

great post, and knowing how much work goes into fixing that kind of image, I really appreciate the work you're putting in here. Here's one of my favourites in return:
The Art of Modern Lace Making

meggiecat said...

Two of favorite things in one post!
Nice work. Thanks.

Karla said...

I itch to know how to make the lace. (The calligraphy I can sort of do, when I put my mind to it.)

Anonymous said...

karla, come on over to Arachne, the lace list (see subscription information at http://www.geocities.com/heartland/fields/1404/handbook.html);
we'll be delighted to get you started on lacemaking. I know we have lacemakers near you!

Karla said...

J, thanks for the link, I've tagged it for future reference (no time currently to learn any new fun skills).

Marcel Douwe Dekker said...

Amazing - thank you

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