University of Virginia Library

Common Names and Dates

The common names are provided in the right part of the tables following the type measurement information. As Updike points out, "at first the name was descriptive of both body and face. Later it was applied to the body only" (p. 25). Because this table is based on other scholars' work, there are minor variations in the spelling. Of course, variation in orthography is natural in the period before dictionaries when there was no standardized spelling. In any event, no attempt has been made to rationalize this situation. If two names are used for the same size of type, then that information appears in the table in a special way. For instance in Germany, Petit or Jungfer are both used for type measuring fifty-six millimeters. Consistently throughout the table, when two names are used for the same size, then these are divided by a slash, with one exception.

In France the two systems, Fournier and Didot, resulted in different names, primarily because Didot took Cicéro (like Pica in England) as the standard but changed it from twelve to eleven points. Thus, in the French column only, the slash shows from which system the name derives. More specifically, when the slash appears before the common name it means that the name is taken from the Didot system. Similarly, if a slash appears after the

name, it was given by Fournier. Occasionally, within the same point system one size of type has two names. If that occurs in France, then they are so indicated by an "or"; for instance, forty-three millimeters is "Jolie or Nompareille." Elsewhere, the slash simply means either name has been used by printers.

Note that these common names cover many different millimeter measurements because of variations in the books each source examined. For example, Spanish Lectura ranges from 78 to 90 mm. Sources for each millimeter figure are provided, however.