Atkins, Kathryn A. Masters of the Italic Letter : Twenty-Two Exemplars from the Sixteenth Century , Boston: David R. Godine, 1999.

Illustrated by Numerous Illustrations. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. Obl 4to 0879235942 Card folder in vg condition. Dust jacket comlete, unclipped. Original cloth eith bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership inscription. 183 pages clean and tight. presents a comprehensive survey of the copybooks of sixteenth-century writing masters with accompanying pictoral displays of their italic letters. In this elegant and scholarly book, Kay Atkins has provided a unique and invaluable source document annotating and illustrating twenty-two copybooks in elaborate detail, supplying extensive biographical and historical information about both the books and the scribes, and providing a complete description of the upper and lower case italic letters found in their pages. From Fanti in 1514 to Beauchesnes in 1610, each letter of the alphabet and its variant forms has been reproduced and enlarged, presenting the lay reader with the opportunity of comparing 2,500 minuscules and majuscules, letter by letter and in chronological order. But this is by no means all. Ms Atkins has also provided a wealth of scholarly information. For every writing master she has recorded place and date of birth, occupation, and age at the time the book was published. For each of the copybooks discussed, the name of the publisher and engraver, the dimensions of the edition, and the audience for which it was written is given. Finally, the majority of the editions are displayed in actual size with the scribe's name, the title page, sample exemplar pages, and page enlargements. Pages have been translated into English from the original languages by twelve scholars. Wherever possible, a signed example of the scribe's actual handwriting is also shown so that the reader can compare woodcut and manuscript letters. (Book ref. 127677)  £30.00

The payment methods accepted by the seller, Charles Bossom , are shown in the right-hand column.

Click here to order

Back to search