Woodcut J

 #woodcut #letterJ #15thcentury #initial #typography 

WOODCUT J AND 

July J and some thoughts on books and blogging.

Those who have been following glyphika for a while may have noticed I sometimes use the initial letter of a month as inspiration for themes? And it is July.

J as a letter form may have changed out as a lengthened I but it soon developed ornate forms like this one from a French 15th century woodcut illustration for a book. 

One reason for these ornate wide forms may have been that some woodcut illustrations had color added by hand or simply that the carving and  inking process for wood followed for less detail than the so to be introduced metal engraving plates? 

Another thought although fully colored illuminated manuscripts were luxury items for the wealthy there were varying grades of book and text copying from the fully painted Book of Hours of the wealthy through to copies of texts with just a few pages colored or just initial letters to copies that were just ink on paper or black and white drawings with no color.

Though these cheapest copies were expensive which is why we see images of private libraries with only one or two shelves of books! Such as this German painting of St Luke !

Printed books supported literacy. Gutenbergs press might there was a boom on woodcut production and artists designing for them since publishers soon realised there was a demand of pictures plus words not just for pamphlets and newsheet but a variety of books.

And even further ...

this morning I am typing on a laptop into a blogging template. No ink No paper. So Google and the Internet and tagging and yet still just one scribe working on a page!