University of Virginia Library

COLOPHON

Type for the main text, 12 point Monotype 108, Italian Old Style,
2 point leaded, is set in columns 25 picas wide, with measures of 52 picas
used for prefatory or introductory matter. Footnotes without exception
are set in 10 point 108, 2 point leaded, with 9 and 8 point sizes used for
other notes. Extended captions to illustrations generally are set in 11
point 108 italic, 3 point leaded, with smaller sizes used with relatively
small illustrations.

Display type is Monotype 258 Perpetua Titling in 42 point or 36 point
for main openings, with smaller sizes used in subordinate position to
relate with the text type.

Typographic composition is by William Clowes Ltd., London. The
three-column chronological tabulation preceding the Index is set in
Linotype Cloister by Halle-Cordes, San Francisco.

Printing of The Plan of St. Gall is by offset photolithography. Tonal
black and white illustrations are printed in two passes of ink (extended
range technique) from plates of 200-line screen. Certain illustrations,
such as several subjects from the Utrecht Psalter, employ a variation of
extended range using three different inks. The Note on page 13 briefly
discusses technical procedure concerning the many color illustrations of
the Plan reproduced at original size, and 1.5 times original size. Printing
including all camera work, stripping, and plate work was done by the
Southeastern Printing Company, Inc., Stuart, Florida.

Paper, Colophon Text, 90 pound weight, made as a mill run for this
work, was produced by the Curtis Paper Company Inc., James River
Corporation, Newark, Delaware.

Bookbinding is by the Nicholstone Bookbindery, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee.
End papers are "Thistle" Multicolor, produced for and marketed
by Process Materials Corporation, Rutherford, New Jersey, and were
printed by Southeastern Printing Company from identical plates using
three ink colors in three combinations of two colors, producing a different
color combination for each volume. Binding cloth is Centennial (35200),
Joanna Western Mills Company, Chicago, Illinois.

Nota e commiato

At a time, long ago it seems by now in May 1979, when the many divisions
of this work were being put in order and named, the last link in the chain of
parts was christened "Colophon." The name seemed appropriate for a traditional
sign-off: wording terse, content brief, usually limited to identification
of type or types used in printing the work, and possibly the paper on which
it was printed, sometimes with a laconic reference to the printer—all matters
neatly disposed in a slender paragraph.

This taciturn and habitual practice certainly seems restrictive in circumstances
where so many have done so much to advance this work as it evolved
from concept to realization. This note is thus intended as a supplement to the
Acknowledgments, in order to include a few remarks concerning persons
whose assistance has gone beyond routine courtesy in bringing these volumes
to a superior level of printing design, craftsmanship, and artisanship.

The manuscript for this work was already taking form in 1966, the year
following the Council of Europe exhibition "Charlemagne" in Aachen. Notes
of that year indicate an exchange between authors, by letter, memorandum,
and conference, of an array of queries: what format, what manner of presentation,
what drawings particular to the work and how many, and of what kind.
In addition, to the "whats" were "wheres", often "whys", and a myriad
other matters to be resolved.

Enter here the University of California Press.

August Frugé, Director of the Press, now retired, at that time was complemented
by Conrad Mollath, Manager of Production. Mollath, one-time
printer and of a printer's family, was familiar with printing practice and the
many techniques currently in use, and, as well, with printing house resources
in this country and abroad.

Conferences between Mollath and this author, and Kendrick Stark at
Clowes, resulted in a splendid eight-page specimen received from William
Clowes and Sons Ltd., London, dated 27 September 1967. It was followed by
revised second specimen of 28 October 1969 and a third dated 13 December
1969. (The third piece for the first time showed the use of the horizontal-stroke
lower case "e" in the roman font of Monotype 108. Of this, more follows.)
These pieces, in addition to setting typographic style and standards for The
Plan of St. Gall, firmly established a close working relationship with Clowes
which continues to the present day.

For the main text many type faces were carefully considered. The one
chosen, Italian Old Style Monotype 108, was issued originally as Veronese,
series 59, in response to the interests and needs of J. M. Dent (of Everyman's
Library and Temple Classics fame); it appeared about 1911. Of notable Morris
flavor, its vigor and strong color were too emphatic for wide acceptance in
trade printing. In the early 1960s Veronese (range of sizes, 11 to 36 point) was
declared obsolete as a name and was combined with series 108 (in range 6 to
12 point) under the name Italian Old Style (not to be confused with Goudy's
type of the same name). The face adapts well to offset printing and large page
format. In the smaller sizes (8, 9, 10 point) it is one of the most legible of types.
It has, however, like most "Venetian" faces, a slanting-stroke lower case
roman "e", a characteristic that seemed, to me, to savor too much of "period"
design for the purposes of this scholarly, historical—not antiquarianistic—
book. Moreover, no alternative character was available in the face for this
letter.

The replacement of the unwanted "e" with an alternative character of
straight horizontal stroke came to mind; but how to get it was the trick. I
turned to Albert Sperisen, a bibliophile friend who seemed to know everybody
who was anybody in printing, type, books. In a long letter dated 20 April 1966
I explained my concern and need for a special lower case roman "e" with
horizontal stroke in text and note sizes. My problem was just crazy enough to
catch his fancy. Long a friend of Beatrice Warde, he addressed himself to her

with a copy of my many paged letter. Her response, dated 12 May 1966, came
promptly:

"Dear Albert . . . if necessary I will doubtless be able to get a special character
cut. All the same, I agree with Stanley Morison—to whom I showed the
correspondence—that the book would gain in elegance if it was set throughout
in Bembo. Or if a darker tone is required, Plantin 110. . . . That, however, is
only a personal opinion. Born will make a handsome book of it in any case. . . .
With best wishes to you always, Beatrice."

Not long afterward in a letter dated 23 June 1966 she wrote to Albert
Sperisen, after a lengthy technical typographic discourse:

". . . if I were to do a book on the Plan of St. Gall I should be very inclined to
use Poliphilus. Apart from its aesthetic and antiquarian appeal, it is remarkably
adaptable. . . . And the Blado [companion italic] is still my favorite Italic. . . ."

Both letters were written from Pomfrets, Mrs. Warde's home in Epsom,
Surrey. Her incredible drive and energy and enthusiasm continued as though
this were the most important thing in her life. At this time, still radiating her
magic powers, she had not long been in retirement from The Monotype
Corporation and Fetter Lane.

Then on 5 October 1966 a letter arrived from Albert ringing with triumph:
"At last an answer . . . I hope you can go through with this." He enclosed a
letter from John Goulding at the Monotype works in Redhill written to Mrs.
Warde:

"Dear Mrs. Warde, Thank you for your letter dated 25 August 1966 regarding
the needs of Mr. Ernest Born and the special horizontal stroke lower case `e'
required in Series 108. . . . You can let this gentleman know the cost for
making this alternative `e'. . . ."

The quotation given by Mr. Goulding was most modest. Conrad Mollath had
been kept advised of my quest and the rest was routine procedure for him
with Kendrick Stark at Clowes. The trick was turned.

Thus Albert Sperisen and the great Beatrice Warde are hero and heroine
in the prologue to the choice of type used, and design of these volumes.
Without their collaboration the books would never have been seen in the
manner in which they appear. With the death of this remarkable woman on
14 September 1969—the history of printing knows no person like Beatrice
Warde—I shall never know how she would have viewed in its printed form
a work for which, with Albert Sperisen, she did so much to help its designer
at a critical period of development. Her great Perpetua broad sheet for The
Monotype Corporation, THIS IS A PRINTING OFFICE, has correctly been
called "immortal."

In the closing months of production, a decision was made to set the body
type of the Chronological Table in San Francisco, since its preparation
required a closely linked pattern of relationship among authors, editor, designer,
and typesetter; it also facilitated a publishing schedule of some
urgency. Linotype Cloister had sufficient color resemblance to Italian Old
Style 108, at least for the purpose of narrow columns. Matrices for it were
held here by Halle-Cordes; and in that face the columns of the Chronology
are set, with supervision by Robert Elliott. Cloister Old Style, created for
American Type Founders in 1897, an adaptation from Morrisonian models,
was later applied to Linotype and issued as Cloister, then to Intertype (which
uses a horizontal-stroke roman "e").

During the decade and a half that has elapsed since the work started, both
Stark in London and Mollath in Berkeley have retired from their respective
posts. Retirements brought successors: Czeslaw Jan Grycz, appointed by
August Frugé before he retired, became new Manager of Production succeeding
Mollath; Geoffrey Armstrong of Clowes succeeded Stark. James Clark
soon afterward received appointment as Director of the Press and gave warm
support to the St. Gall project. Under Grycz contracts were thoughtfully and
carefully awarded for production of the work. Despite changes in corporate
and administrative staff, trade practice, and technological upheavals of revolutionary
dimensions in the printing arts, this effort comes to a close in 1979
with no diminution of standards or deterioration of quality: no mean achievement.

In these fifteen-odd years a work of considerable complexity in all its parts
has been produced. Many men and women have assisted in the creation, and
by more than labor, in the formation of these books, often stretching competences
to the utmost in a reach for better than "good enough." Here, how
can fitting acknowledgment be expressed by the images of the alphabet?
Their endeavors transcend "business as usual" and reveal uncommon human
spirit, perhaps a touch of inspiration. We are most particularly aware of our
indebtedness to the staff at Clowes—typesetters, readers, compositors, printers
—whom we know only by evidence of these, their presents: skilled practitioners
in a most honorable profession.

In all phases of printing and procedures Leo Hussey, president of Southeastern
Printing Company, extended his personal attention unceasingly,
together with Charles Wood, himself a printer of vast reputation and now in
retirement. Wood willingly served as consultant to supervise the work for its
entire course of production. We are likewise aware of the discriminative attention
to task by the job staff of Southeastern Printing and their warm
response to fastidious and insatiable requests seemingly beyond reach.

During the period of his active practice in photolithography, George Waters
gave generously of time and counsel over seven years, in regard to technical
problems and camera in photolithography as related to the making of drawings
for their most effective reproduction. This assistance, given without stint or
charge, was invaluable in the preparation of a large part of the line drawings
specially made for this work.

Irwin Welcher, former owner of General Graphics, San Francisco, bestowed
on this work from its inception an encyclopaedic knowledge with a
lifetime of experience in photographic shop technology that may be seen in
each of the volumes. Besides supplementary and supportive services to the
maker of the drawings, he photographically reduced them to various scales for
correct reproduction, and also applied photography in an opposite manner to
transform certain classes of copy in order to make them usable as line copy
with a minimum of (subjective) alteration by hand (see Note, Hatton 48
inscription illustration, I, 345).

Carol Kummer translated and sensitively interpreted each of the designer's
original work sheets into camera-ready copy for the printer. Her expertise in
page assembly is complemented by a rare dexterity that enabled her to make,
even in final proofs, minor corrections or small changes deemed necessary or
desirable, thereby giving invaluable assistance to both authors and editor.

The authors are fortunate that Norma Farquhar, Los Angeles, could accept
the difficult responsibility of creating the Index for the three volumes. Consulting
as necessary with the editor, but working nearly alone, she brought one
mind, alert and trained to the special task of text analysis. A manuscript forged
from about 10,000 entry cards emerged in a style of great elegance and spareness,
practically pre-edited and even a pleasure to specify for type. A reader
may never find the perfect index, but then, no cellar has every wine.

In conclusion I choose to be redundant of Walter Horn's acknowledgment
of the place of editor Lorna Price in this book. For to serve one author to a
book is problem enough—but to serve two of a kind, to the same book, is
analogous to life among the demons. Her survival, rational and radiant, identifies
her to be a number-one grade-A angel, for that is what she has been to
Walter and me. But I knew it all the time.

[ILLUSTRATION]

DOLPHIN WITH TRIDENT

from an inscription in the Priscilla Catacomb, Rome, A.D. 375

Redrawn from Nordenfalk,
Die Spatantiken Zierbuchstaben, Stockholm, 1970

[ILLUSTRATION]

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
PRESS

1979

BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON