CENTAUR
Bruce Rogers
“I have often been asked what I think of
CENTAUR ...My opinion, then, is whatever its intrinsic
merits may be, it is too definitely
AN ITALIAN RENAISSANCE LETTER ,
which I have tried to suggest by the classic column in my initial drawing. It is a little
TOO ELEGANT AND THIN FOR,OUR MODERN PAPERS AND METHODS OF PRINTING
and seen at its best when printed on dampened hand-made or other antique papers, with more impressions than you can ordinarily get a pressman to put on it. The three qualities [named] sharp, hard, and definite, are no doubt admirable ones in their place; but Centaur does not take them too readily and naturally, and profits most when somewhat carelessly printed on paper that wouldn’t be passed as perfect in any modern paper mill.” BRUCE ROGERS, 1949
BRUCE ROGERS AN AMERICAN TYPOGRAPHER 1870-1957
Albert Bruce Rogers, called “B.R.” by friends, was “one of the greatest artificers of the book who ever lived,”1 according to Francis Meynell, the founder of the Nonesuch Press. Rogers was born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1870, and is among the best-known and well-regarded typographers of the twentieth century. He designed some of the finest books ever made, such as the Oxford Lectern Bible, The Centaur, T.E. Lawrence’s famous translation of The Odyssey of Homer, and Fra Luca de Pacioli. If it were not for his typeface, Centaur he would be best remembered as one of America’s greatest book designers. However his design of Centaur placed him among the ranks of America’s great type designers as well.3
2
From 1896 through 1900, Rogers worked as a book designer at Houghton Mifflin in Boston. There he developed his hallmark style, which, according to his biographer, was characterized by a “direct and forthright approach, a subtle lightness in the seemingly easy placement of words on a page, and above all, a sense of order. Rogers believed that books were meant to be read; his were rarely precious or flamboyant; never objects d’art to be preserved behind glass.”5 In 1900, Houghton Mifflin created a Department of Special Collections and Rogers was placed in charge of the design and productions of limited edition books. The projects produced by the department were printed exclusively with metal type and not electrotype plates. In his new position, Rogers had complete freedom of conception, design, use of materials, and choice of printing.
Left: Title page from The Centaur Types, The October House, 1949 Right: detail of page from The Centaur, The Montague Press, 1916 Next Page: 72 pt metal type Centaur for the letterpress
3
4
In hindsight, it was Rogers’s belief that the Montaigne typeface was not entirely satisfactory. It did, however, pave the way for his next typeface design, produced between 1912 and 1914 and ultimately named Centaur.
FROM BOOKS TO TYPE ORIGINS OF THE TYPEFACE
Rogers’s first attempt at type design, around 1903, resulted in the Montaigne face. Nicolas Jenson’s 15th century types served as inspiration for Roger’s typeface. “At an exhibition of books at the Boston Public Library, I saw for the first time a copy of Nicolas Jenson’s Eusebius of 1470,” he later recalled. “I was at once impressed by the loveliness of its page, indifferently printed though as they were. The early judgment was confirmed for me many years later (though by then it needed no confirmation) when Berkeley Updike wrote of them: ‘to look at the work of Jenson is to think but of its beauty, and almost to forget that it was made with hands.’”6
5
In creating Centaur, Rogers once again turned to the work of Jenson and the Da Evangelica Præparatione for inspiration. Rogers thought the design of Centaur to be of historic importance because it exemplified “an original design of cultivation and grace. Because of its classical elegance and its aristocratic Renaissance ancestry, the type calls for special handling. On the other hand, among the devotees of fine printing, the typeface has been accepted as one of the great type designs, and once the cutting was completed for the Monotype machine, it was welcomed by sensitive designers and printers for many of the best books and ephemera.”8
M
Early uses of Centaur were exclusively for the signage and titling work produced at the Metropolitan Museum in New York as well as for Rogers’s personal book projects. It wasn’t until 15 years later in 1929 that a commercial version of Centaur was made available to machine composition by the English Monotype Company.
In 1928, Rogers finally decided to take on the project to create a digital Centaur. He provided Monotype with new drawings specifically for the company’s typesetting machines. Now living in London, Rogers also served as design director, personally editing the proofs of the various font sizes. The process took almost a year, and the new fonts were first used to set The Trained Printer and Amateur in 1929. The most famous use for the type, however, came six years later when a special 22-point size was cast to set the 1,238 page Oxford Lecturn Bible. Both of Rogers’ earlier versions of Centaur were roman-only designs, but at Rogers’ request, the Monotype version added an italic based on drawings by Frederic Warde. Warde’s italic is an interpretation of the work of the 16th century printer and calligrapher, Ludovico degli Arrighi.
The Happy Hypocrite A FAIRY TALE FOR TIRED MEN
6
Opposite Page: detail of the title page of The Happy Hypocrite, John Lane Company, 1922. Designed by Bruce Rogers. Left:Book, Bag and Exhibition Catalogues from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Today the museum uses a number of digital old-style typefaces that share several characteristics of Roger’s early museum press capitals and other fonts that he used in his book designs.
7
A BCDEFGHIJKL MNOPQRSTUV WXYZ
A MONOTYPE MASTERWORK CHARACTERISTICS OF DIGITAL CENTAUR
In the 1990s, Monotype produced digital fonts based on the original drawings of Rogers and Warde, adding new bold and bold italic weights and a suite of alternate and swash characters. The Centaur type continues to be generally acclaimed as the best revival of Nicolas Jenson’s original design–a true Monotype masterwork. Centaur an Oldstyle-style typeface is characterized by Roman proportion, organic contrast of line weight—from brush or pen drawing—an angled, or oblique axis in the curved forms: and a small x-height defining the lowercase letters. The font also has large aperatures and several other defining characteristics, which are displayed on the following page.
8
abcdefghijkl mnopqrstuv wxyz 1234567890 ! @ #$%^&*()-_+=[ ]{};’:”,<.>?\|
MJ Ee 9 AaO The uppercase Mâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s upper serif of the are single-sided and point outwards.
The tail of the uppercase J descends below baseline and points down.
There is a serif on the center bar of the uppercase E.
Slab Serif and curved Fillet
Large Aperature
9
The bowl of the lowercase e has a diagonal bar.
Diagonal Axis
The ball of 9 does not close.
Jj Jj
COMPARISONS
CENTAUR, CENTAUR ITALICS & ADOBE JENSON
Centaur & Adobe Jenson
10
Centaur & Centaur Italic
Aa Aa Aa Centaur
Adobe Jenson
Centaur 36 pt
Both Bruce Roger’s Centaur and Adobe Jenson were inspired by Nicholas Jenson’s1475 Laertis, which is considered the model for the modern Roman alphabet.
Adobe Jenson 36 pt
The Italic of the Centaur family was designed by Frederic Warde, based on Ludovico Arrighi’s 1520 chancery face.
Centaur Italic 36 pt
11
Centaur Italic
Form & Detail Form & Detail Form & Detail
REFERENCES
1 Joseph Blumenthal, Art of the Printed Book 1455-1955 (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973), 48. 2 Joseph Blumenthal, Bruce Rogers: A life in Letters, 1870-1957 (Austin: W.T. Taylor, 1989), 3. 3 “Centaur”. Monotype Imaging. November 10, 2009 <www.fonts.com/ FindFonts/HiddenGems/Centaur.htm>. 4 Ibid, 5. 5 Ibid, 10. 6 Ibid, 13. 8 Ibid, 33. 13 Bruce Rogers, The Centaur Type (Chicago: October House, 1949), 13. All the above taken from: Sheilah M. Barrett, Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces (New York: RC Publications), 72-79.
BIBLIOGRAHY
Carter, Sebastian. Twentieth Century Type Designers. Great Britain: Lund Humphries, 2002 (A&A: Z250 A2 C364 1995 and Vault ) Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. Vancouver: Hartley and Marks, 1997. (A&A: Z246 B745 1996 and Vault) Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces, essays by Carolyn Annand ... [et al.]; edited by Philip B. Meggs and Roy McKelvey, New York: RC Publications, 2000. (A&A: Z250.R45 2000) www.linotype.com www.fonts.com www.rightreading.com
This book was created by Alexandra Odiamar in Typography Fall 2009. Fonts used in this book include: Titles-Centaur 32pt Subtitles-Centaur 12 pt Body-Centaur 10 pt Captions-Centaur 8pt
The Story Behind The Typeface