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a new title on our
list
The Bricks of Venice
written and illustrated with
watercolours by Peter Harris |
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Another book on a favourite theme.
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to be published in Autumn 2004
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Our first book, Venice Approached,
was an excerpt from John Ruskin's The Stones of Venice, in particular
the passage where he describes arriving in Venice from Padua, taking a gondola
from the Brenta.
Peter Harris was Professor of Cardiology at
the National Heart Hospital. When he retired he was asked to edit an
international journal of cardiology, Cardioscience. The journal was
published in Italy, which resulted in his being invited to live in Venice in an
apartment overlooking the Grand Canal, near the Ca d'Oro. He lived there for
seven years, with enough leisure to study in real depth the architecture of
Venice and to read extensively about the city. The Bricks of Venice was
years in writing and in research, and is a memorial to his great love of
Venice. In his own words 'My title is no parody of Ruskin's masterpiece, The
Stones of Venice, but offered in homage.'
Harris achieves a pleasing balance between
contemporary observation and historical context and the 72 delightful
watercolours fill out the story perfectly. We plan to publish the book later
next year in an edition of 250. It will be a significant text, running to about
128 pages. |
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Here is Peter Harris's own introduction
to his book: |
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'Scattered among the hidden corners of
Venice, in private houses, on bell towers and under the eaves of churches, is a
group of brick and tile designs dating back to the eleventh to fifteenth
centuries. It needs the single-mindedness of a ferret to find many of them,
hidden in the gloom of a narrow calle or secret courtyard. Ruskin knew
and admired them; but even that indefatigable researcher did not find them all,
and the breathtaking vision of The Stones of Venice is, naturally for
the most part focused on Gothic stonework. It is surprising that here, in the
most researched city in the world, such a treasury of medieval architecture
could have been so ignored. The present book is the first to draw attention to
the diversity and charm of this neglected side of Venice. |
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Publication may be timely. Apart from their
intrinsic artistic and architectural interest, these unconsidered fragments are
at danger from neglect, insensitive repair, even vandalism. Windows in the
Campielo S Rocco that Ruskin described as 'amongst the most ancient efforts of
Gothic art in Venice' have completely disappeared. Awareness of their value may
help draw the attention of the charitable organisations such as Venice in
Peril to the possibility of preserving a unique heritage at a relatively low
cost. |
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I have tried to keep my writing hand free
from the cobwebs and dry brick dust that the title might lead one to expect,
enlivening the text with many vignettes of personalities and life in medieval
Venice. In addition, these little brick relics are part of the changing face of
a living city that expresses its underlying economic and religious forces. To
this end, many chapters are centred around mini-essays: brick making, the
bricklayers, pavements, bell towers; but also the social hierarchy, a fashion in
women's footwear, the mendicant friars, defence architecture, air pollution.
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Illustrations and text bear equal
responsibilities, the two having been conceived together and fused from the
beginning, text drawing the eye to relevant details and providing a background.
The illustrations are designed both for accuracy and for aesthetic presentation.
I have used a limited palette of earth colours to give cohesion and reinforce
the sense of a work designed as a whole. Those water colours also bring out the
character of brick better than photos can.' |
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recent progress on
Fedor Tiutchev
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Fourteen poems by the reticent Russian poet Fedor
Tiutchev, translated by Avril Pyman, with engravings on vinyl by Kirill Sokolov.
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to be published in late 2003
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Having corresponded with the translator and
artist for this book over some months, it was a pleasure to meet them here in
early May. Kirill brought the blocks and we had a useful discussion about how he
liked to see his work printed. It was also a chance to discuss some points in
the text with Avril before starting to think about the design of the book. I
must say that when we met I had absolutely no idea what I would do with their
work !
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There is a natural first impulse with a set
of poem/image pairs to think in terms of poem and image facing each other on the
opening. The moment I realise this is my first impulse I try to put it aside and
think what my second might be! The poems vary considerably in length - this sort
of thing can be a major test of a design. To cut a long story short I decided
that image and poem would appear together on the same page ... but on a large
page that would take all of the text of the longest poem, and with the image
close to the poem. The 14pt Octavian that I am using for the text is a strong,
self-assertive face, matching the images which are boldly chiselled in perspex -
the two stand well shoulder to shoulder. I decided to use the heavy Somerset
mould-made that the Octavian had worked so well on in Jump of the Manta Ray.
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The shape turned out to be landscape - a
format I am rather fond of, even if it is a complete menace for the average
bookshelf. But I found out when we met that Kirill also shares my love of lots
of white space. The sheets are folded on the fore-edge and I plan to sew them
with broad tapes of two colours between similarly folded sheets of Fabriano. |
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The edition will be small - just 100 copies
- and only 60 will be for sale. I have decided to keep the price as low as I
could and I reckon it will not exceed £20 (US$35, Euro35). Contact us now
to reserve a copy. |
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recent progress on
Stanley Morison
& 'John Fell'
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The story of the writing and printing of a
masterpiece of printing in the 'Fell types' in the twentieth century: Stanley
Morison's John Fell, the University Press and the 'Fell' Types published
by Oxford University Press in 1967
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to be published October 2003
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Stanley Morison's great work John Fell,
the University Press and the 'Fell' Types took over four decades from the
moment of its conception in 1925 to its final publication in 1967. It is not
surprising therefore that a strong theme running through Stanley Morison &
'John Fell' is the occasional exasperation and even desperation of those
involved to get John Fell finished. At one point Vivian Ridler, Printer
to the University and the man who finally had the task of getting it through the
Press, wrote plaintively to Morison 'Do you think that . . . some way might be
found of moving the Fell opus again? . . . even if I am spared, I have only
another 19 years to go.' Stanley Morison & 'John Fell' will, by
contrast, only have been about four years in the making but I felt much the same
earlier this year, really wanting to draw a line under the text and say 'that
will do'. New leads would constantly emerge from the woodwork, questions
unresolved would find an answer, the text would always benefit from one more
read through. But finally I did call it a day, with the book now running to 144
pages. |
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I prepared a set of Word documents - one
per chapter - and e-mailed them to Harry McIntosh at SpeedSpools. Harry has a
wonderful facility for casting metal type on a Monotype composition caster
directly from digital copy. (You can read about it at his
Mactronic website.)
In this instance however, he is punching the Monotype spools for me from my
digital copy, and then sending them to Stan Lane at Gloucester Typesetting. Stan
has the necessary diecase for 12pt Van Dijck, which is the typeface I shall be
using for the book. Stan loads up the spools on his caster, puts a 14pt mould in
(to give me 2pt of leading) and the Van Dijck diecase, and away it goes casting
galley after galley for me. |
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One great advantage of Harry's Mactronic
system is that he can produce and e-mail back to me PDF files that show the text
as it will appear in metal, most importantly with all the lines exactly as they
will be. This means that I can produce a full page-by-page paste-up of the book
before a single sort has been cast. This allowed me to prepare an index (which I
then e-mailed to him etc etc), sort out where tip-ins and photographs will go,
and generally get the whole thing planned. In particular I have an accurate
figure for the amount of paper I shall need, and that has all been ordered. It's
very daunting when 7,000 sheets of paper arrive and one realises that each has
to be wound through the press by hand - twice! |
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There will be a dozen photographs covering
all the characters who played a significant part. These have all been scanned
and are ready for printing by off-set litho. There will be four tip-ins of
leaves printed in four sizes of Fell type. I have also started work preparing
the materials that will go with the fifty de luxe copies. I should be
able to finalise the price soon and, if you have placed a reservation, I shall
to confirm it with you. |
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