Edward Johnston

“ Ruskin and Morris, it came to be seen that it was impossible to detach design from craft in this way, and that, in the widest sense, true design is an inseparable element of good quality, involving as it does the selection of good and suitable material, contrivance for special purpose, expert workmanship, proper finish, and so on, far more than mere ornament, and indeed, that ornamentation itself was rather an exuberance of fine workmanship than a matter of merely abstract lines. ”

“ And though calligraphy is a means to many ends, a fine MS. has a beauty of its own that—if two arts may be compared—surpasses that of the finest printing. This in itself would justify the transcribing and preservation of much good literature in this beautiful form (besides the preparation of “Illuminated Addresses,” Service Books, Heraldic and other MSS.) and make the practice of formal writing desirable. And furthermore as the old-fashioned notion that a legible hand is a mark of bad breeding dies out, it may be that our current handwriting will take legibility and beauty from such practice. ”

“ And it is good to carve an Inscription on the actual wall of a fine building, and better still to work in the inspiriting atmosphere of building in progress, or to work in the open air where the artificial notions of workshop or studio are dissipated and the feeling of life and freedom gained. ”

“ Yet Ordinary Writing and even scribbling has had, and still might have, a good influence on the art of the Letter maker, and at least the common use of pen, ink, & paper makes it a simple matter for any one to essay a formal or ‘book’ hand. A broad nib cut to give clean thick and thin strokes (without appreciable variation of pressure) will teach any one who cares to learn, very clearly and certainly. And though much practice goes to the making of a perfect MS., it is easier than people suppose to make really beautiful things by taking a little pains. ”

“ The finest decoration is really part of the work itself, and may be described as the finishing touches given directly to the work by the tools which are properly employed on it.
The illuminator has, as a rule, to decorate a given manuscript with pen or brush work—it may be with the simplest pen flourishes, or with the most elaborate figure “design.” How to make that illumination part of the work, he can learn only by patient practice and by careful handling of his tools. ”

“ The scribe can vary the forms which his pen produces, and the colours which he gives them, with a freedom that the set form and the method of using the binder’s tools do not allow. But the skilled penman will find that his pen (or, at any rate, his penmanship) largely determines the forms of his freest flourishes and strokes, and that the semi-formal nature of such ornament demands a certain simplicity and repetition of form and colour, which do not unduly tax his skill as a craftsman. ”

“ And the whole duty of beautiful typography is not to substitute for the beauty or interest of the thing thought and intended to be conveyed by the symbol, a beauty or interest of its own, but, on the one hand, to win access for that communication by the clearness and beauty of the vehicle, and on the other hand, to take advantage of every pause or stage in that communication to interpose some characteristic and restful beauty in its own art. ”

“ And while the penman inevitably gains some power of pen decoration it is well for him as an illuminator to practise in bright colours and gold; for illumination may be as brilliant and splendid in its own way as stained glass, enamels, and jewellery are in theirs.1 At first, at any rate, hues that have the least suspicion of being dull or weak are to be avoided as though they were plainly “muddy” or “washed-out.” The more definite we make our work the more definitely will our materials instruct us ”

“ This is of the greatest importance, for the manner of making a letter, or even a single stroke, affects its form and character with a definite tendency (see p. 416 & fig. 172) . And this becomes more marked the faster the writing. An apparently right form may yet be wrongly—if slowly—made; but in rapid writing, a wrong manner of handling the pen will inevitably produce wrong forms. As the real virtue of penmanship is attained only when we can write quickly, it is well worth training the hand from the beginning in the proper manner. ”

“ Workmanship when separated by too wide a gulf from fresh thought—that is, from design—inevitably decays, and, on the other hand, ornamentation, divorced from workmanship, is necessarily unreal, and quickly falls into affectation. Proper ornamentation may be defined as a language addressed to the eye; it is pleasant thought expressed in the speech of the tool. ”

“ Straightforwardness is perhaps the greatest virtue in a craft, and whatever “rules” it may break through, it is refreshing and charming.
An excellent example for the scribe or inscription maker is the method of an early printer, who had only four or five sorts of type—say, “Small-Letters” and “Capitals” (Roman and Italic) and “Large Capitals,” and who, without any elaborate “design,” simply put his types into their proper [p268] places, and then pulled off his pleasant sheets of “commonplace” printing. ”

“ It is well to recognize at once, the fact that mere taking to pieces, or analysing, followed by “putting together,” is only a means of becoming acquainted with the mechanism of construction, and will not reproduce the original beauty of a thing: it is an education for work, but all work which is honest and straightforward has a beauty and freshness of its own. ”

“ Writing is for us the most universal of the Arts, and most craftsmen have to deal with lettering of a more formal kind. It is a commonplace of historical criticism to point out how much the Italian artists owed to the general practice amongst them of goldsmith’s work, a craft which required accuracy and delicacy of hand. ”

“ CHAPTER XI A THEORY OF ILLUMINATION Illumination — “Barbaric, or Colour-Work, Illumination” — “Filigree, or Pen-Work, Illumination” — “Natural, or Limner’s, Illumination.” ILLUMINATION It is convenient to give a wide meaning to the word when we speak of an “illuminated manuscript,” for the scribe works with a very free hand, and when he wishes to decorate his pages he can [p194] write the words themselves in red, green, or blue, as easily as he could have written them in black. He can take a clean pen and a new colour and initial and “flourish” any part of the work to his heart’s content. ”

“ In the blending of handwork and thought in [p-ix] such arts as we propose to deal with, happy careers may be found as far removed from the dreary routine of hack labour as from the terrible uncertainty of academic art. It is desirable in every way that men of good education should be brought back into the productive crafts: there are more than enough of us “in the city,” and it is probable that more consideration will be given in this century than in the last to Design and Workmanship.
· · ·
Of all the Arts, writing, perhaps, shows most clearly the formative force of the instruments used. ”

“ In so far as tradition fails to bound or guide us we must think for ourselves and in practice make methods and rules for ourselves: endeavouring that our work should be effective rather than have “a fine effect”—or be, rather than appear, good—and following our craft rather than making it follow us. ”

“ Thy sickness, they say, and thy puny habit, require that thou do this or avoid that, but know that thy life is a flitting state, a tent for a night, and do thou, sick or well, finish that stint. Thou art sick, but shall not be worse, and the universe, which holds thee dear, shall be the better. ”

“ Small surfaces highly burnished very often do not show the effect of, or “tell” as, gold, unless they catch the light by accident. It is well, therefore, where the forms are small to have several on the page, so that one or another will always shine out and explain the rest. And while the proper craftsman tries always to get the best finish which he reasonably can, the natural, slight unevennesses or varying planes of small gilded forms may be of advantage to the whole effect. ”

“ A limited number of specially prepared printed books can likewise be illuminated. But the greater the number of copies, the less labour may be spent on each one, and the more their illumination tends to be simple “rubrication”—adding coloured capitals, flourishes, and the like (see p. 127) . And, if a large edition is to be decorated, the printer must be content to use black, or black and red, in woodcut or “process” work (see pp. 365, 372) .
Illumination proper may be defined as the decoration by hand, in bright gold or colours, of writing or printing. ”

“ Line-finishings are used to preserve the evenness of the text when lines of writing fall short. When the space left is small, or occurs in the middle of a sentence, a quick stroke of the pen—often a continuation of the last letter, or springing from it—is sufficient (fig. 125) ; but where there are many and long gaps (as, for example, in a psalter at the ends of the verses) , they may be filled in with dots (see Plate VIII.) or flourishes (a, b, c, fig. 126) either made in black with the script pen, or with another pen, in colour or gold. ”

“ And it is by such a course that we, who wish to revive Writing & Illuminating, may renew them, evolving new methods and traditions for ourselves, till at length we attain a modern and beautiful technique. And if we would be more than amateurs, we must study and practise the making of beautiful THINGS and thereby gain experience of Tools, Materials, and Methods. For it is certain that we must teach ourselves how to make beautiful things, and must have some notion of the aim and bent of our work, of what we seek and what we do. ”

“ The most effective decoration is the plain coloured or gold capital, and the finest ornament is a coat-of-arms (see “Heraldry,” below; and for general, [p361] simple Illumination, see Chapters VII. to XIII.) . A symbolical mark, such as a crest, badge, monogram, cypher, or other device (p. 362) , boldly and decoratively treated, may be used in place of a coat-of-arms.
There is too much “Illumination” in the conventional “Address,” which looks like a “piece of decoration” with a little writing. A really reasonable and effective Illuminated Address is a piece of writing suitably decorated. ”

“ THE SIZE & SHAPE OF THE BOOK
A book is thought of by the scribe chiefly as an open book, and the width and height of its pages are chosen with a view to its convenient shape and pleasant appearance when open. The most economical sizes into which a suitable sheet of paper can be folded (or a skin of parchment can be cut) may commonly be allowed to decide these proportions.
When a printer is about to print a book he chooses a sheet of paper which will fold into a suitable shape and size. If the sheet be folded [p102] once to form two leaves, the book is called a folio (fig. 69) ”

“ There is here no collection of all sorts of lettering, some sensible and many eccentric, for us to choose from, but we are shown the essentials of form and spacing, and the way is opened out to all who will devote practice to it to form an individual style by imperceptible variations from a fine standard. ”

“ While, as in the case of black and red, the strongest effects are obtained by a marked contrast, gold may yet be very effectively used for small capitals throughout the black text. It does not lose or blend its brilliance with the black of the writing as colour is apt to do, but lights up and illuminates the page. ”

“ And the majority of examples show a debased type of Letters—often so unlike their originals, and so like one another, as to be scarcely readable. For the sake of readableness the stems should be made longer (fig. 128) . The more slender “Roman” type of initial, commonly used in Italy (Plate XVIII.) , is in every way a more legible letter. The Roman Alphabet still remains the finest [p211] model, and it is better that fine lettering should be almost too slender and delicate, than that it should be at all heavy or clumsy. ”

“ Sketching is right in its proper place, and, where you know exactly what you wish to do, it is useful to sketch in lightly the main parts of a complex “design” so that each part may receive a fair portion of the available space. But do not spoil your MS. by experimental pencilling in trying to find out what you want to do. Experiments are best made roughly with a pen or brush on a piece of paper laid on the available space in the MS., or by colouring a piece of paper and cutting it out to the pattern desired and laying it on. ”

“ This is a type of illumination which can safely be attempted by one who, having learnt to write, is desirous of illuminating his writing; for it is the direct outcome of penmanship (see p. 204) , and consists mainly of pen flourishes, or semi-formal lines and shapes which can be made with a pen, suitably applied to the part to be decorated. Its effect may be very charming and restful: no colour standing out as in a positive colour scheme, no individual form catching the eye; but the whole having a richness of simple detail and smooth colouring more or less intricate and agreeably bewildering. ”

“ Although the demand for good work is at present limited, the production of good work will inevitably create a demand; and, finally, the value of Quality is always recognized—sooner or later, but inevitably—and whatever “practical” reasons we may hear urged in favour of Quantity, the value of Quality is gaining recognition every day in commerce and even in art, and there or here, sooner or later we shall know that we can afford the best. ”

“ THE CUSTOMARY MANNER.—The ancient scribe probably held his pen in the manner most convenient to himself; and we, in order to write with freedom, should hold the pen in the way to which, by long use, we have been accustomed; provided that, for writing an upright round-hand, the pen be so manipulated and cut as to make fine horizontal thin strokes and clean vertical thick strokes (see fig. 40, & footnote, p. 304) . ”