3150 BCE–1450 CE By Kevin Buglewicz, Pha Nguyen, and Sydney Rotthaus
Survey of the History of the Western Alphabet Years of Study: 3150 BCE – 1450 CE By Kevin Buglewicz, Pha Nguyen, and Sydney Rotthaus Spring 2015 GRPH 223 – Stacy Asher Typeset in ITC Caslon
4
Table of Contents 8
Zeitgeist
10
The Origins of Writing
14
Egyptian Typography
18
Typography in Greece
24
Typography in the Roman Empire
28
Christianity Influences Typography
32
Typography Spreads Worldwide
38
References
5
Zeitgeist c. 1350 BCE – 1450 CE
T
he turn of the first century, or what is now referred to as the “Common Era,” was a time
of great transition in the world. From typography to technology, and all the way to civilization and culture; the way people interacted with their peers and their environment evolved significantly in this specific time period, which is certainly exciting as a surveyor of history. Beginning in the 14th Century BCE, the people of the world had only what they could see, which limits understanding of the world, but at the same promotes curiosity and innovation. Knowledge of the world beyond one’s immediate location was nonexistent, meaning the people were forced to make sense with what they could. Some worshipped Gods, who seemingly brought upon the goodness in life. Others researched and learned. As time went on, and humans’ methods of recording history improved, a general uprising of knowledge occurred. People not only began to understand the world, but also each other. Really, the world grew–though not in size. At the beginning of the Common Era, the worldly religions began to emerge, and as the people on Earth realized their differences, conflict arose. Battles over territories and belief systems ensued, and a toll was taken on the way history was being recorded. Thankfully, many records survived, and what we can see now is how the evolution of the human condition had a direct correllation with the discovery, development, and creation of typographic traditions that are still commonplace today.
Lascaux Cave discovered in 1940 in France. This section of the cave is the “Hall of the Bulls”.
The Origins of Writing North Africa, c. 1350 BCE
11
W
riting is relatively new to man compared to spoken languages which evolved over tens of
thousands of years ago. Writing started as signs that were understood as symbolic values to communicate with. Then proto-writing began to take shape in the form of tokens and seals after 10,000 BCE. By 3000 BCE advancements in carvings and inscriptions began to occur. Specialized tools were made to support different writing surfaces such as clay, stone, papyrus, skin, bone, wax, metal, and wood. The great thing about written language is that it offers access to nearly the entire history of some scripts. The earliest known script is the Sumerian cuneiform. The Sumerian cuneiform is considered the ancestor of all writing and offers an abundance of documented evidence about its beginnings. Several alphabetic scripts also document evidence about their beginnings such as the ancient Greek and Latin provide much information that maps their evolution. The earliest indications of writing were cave drawings and carvings from the Upper Paleolithic (35,00015,000 B.C.), which are scattered in the caves at Lascaux, France. Theses drawings and carvings are still questioned if they can in fact be considered writing, since it challenges the definition of writing, however cannot be completely ruled out. After 8000 BCE numeric and pictography signs began to appear on clay tokens. “Pictography” (or “pictogram”) is seen as another early stage of writing.
Pictorial signs show early stages of writing and development of phonetic scripts.
12
P
ictography connects us to the development of phonetic scripts. Pictograms are seen
everywhere in today’s world, such as the signage on the women’s and men’s restroom doors. These pictograms were combined with logograms and ideograms, and were used from there to communicate. These images were arranged in an order so it could be more easily communicated. Pictography and the rebus system is not applied the same in all non-alphabetic scripts, which gives each written language it’s own uniqueness. The shapes we see in the first glyphs, letters, and signs are similarly related to our present day alphabet. Letters used in some type first appeared in Development of the alphabetic letterforms from ninth to the first century BCE
a schematic system that consisted of around twenty signs and used Egyptian hieratic script and principles of cuneiform syllabaries. The early alphabet was flexible and easy to make changes to and advance over the years. Mark making has always been one of the most basic forms of graphic expression and we have been doing it for thousands of years through writing. Fully developed writing represents language in a strong system of signs that has been used for years and has only advanced.
13
Egyptian Hieroglyphics Paint on Papyrus
Egyptian Typography North Africa, c. 2500 BCE
15
F
rom African pictography in etchings on clay tablets directly to beautiful inks on the walls
of great tombs and ornate pottery, the imagery of humankind’s early typography quickly spread around 2500 BCE to the great Egyptian Empire in the form of Hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphics show pictures, human beings or object that were familiar to most people in ancient Egypt. Upon their creation, Hieroglyphs were written with the intention of being read from right to left, left to right or in a column from top to bottom. This complex system showed evidence that great thought went into the iconography and pictography in the creation of the individual symbols. Moreover, all Egyptians alike were able to discern what each message meant individually. Knowing “how to read” was not the same thing as it means today; one needed
Along with Hieroglyphics was the Egyptian discovery
only the knowledge of simple cultural symbols to
of a new form of paper called Papyrus. The earliest
understand the stories being told with them. In this
papyrus roll is Egyptian, dating to c. 3000 BC.
way, Hieroglyphics were somewhat universal to
Papyrus was made from the pith of a water plant
the Egyptian Empire, and successfully became the
growing mainly in the Nile River. The pith was sliced
vernacular of the people. Hieroglyphs can be divided
vertically into thing strips, and one layer of strips
into three categories: sound signs which we call
with fibers running vertically was superimposed on
phonographs, ideograms which are both sound and
another layers were hammered together and adhered
sense signs, and determinatives which are sense signs
by means of the plant’s natural gum. The sheet was
that cannot be pronounced.
dried and the surface polished. The sheers were about 16 in wide and 9 in high and were pasted side by side to form a continuous roll (khartes) (as papyrus does not fold well). It was also written on wooden tablets, metal or stone. There were 2 types of ink people can choose from. One was made from carbon mixed with a thing vegetable gum to give it adhesive properties. Most writing on papyrus rolls was done with this type of ink. And the other type is iron-tannin ink. Pens were made of reed, and a stylus was used for wax tablets.
16
Egyptian Hieroglyphics
T
Jean Francois Champollion
here are over seven hundred Hieroglyphic
For the next fourteen hundred years hieroglyphic
symbols, and each one is something familiar
writing remained a mystery that no-one could
and relatable to the ancient Egyptian culture.
solve, though many people have tried. The key
Hieroglyphs were carved and painted on the walls of
was finally discovered in 1799 at a place known as
tombs, temples, pyramids, and statues, along with
Rosetta. They found something that was about four
everyday objects and personal possessions. The
feet high and was covered with what seemed to be
ancient Egyptians called their writing ‘words of the
three completely different kinds of writing. One of
gods’, because they believed that Thoth, the god of
the texts was written in Egyptian hieroglyphs. A
learning, had invented writing. The word ‘hieroglyph’
second of the three texts was written in demotic, an
was first used to name these signs after 300 BC,
extremely cursive script that developed around 700
when the Greeks in Egypt saw them carved on the
BC from hieratic; the latter is itself a cursive version
temple walls. After the Greeks, under the command
of hieroglyphic writing. Although the Egyptian scripts
of Alexander the Great, took control of Egypt in 332
could not be read, the third inscription was in Greek
BC, Greek became the official language of Egypt,
and could therefore be translated. Young
spoken by the Greeks themselves and used for official
Frenchman named Jean Francois Champollion
documents. But the ancient Egyptian language
eventually solved the mystery, under twenty years
continued to be spoken and its scripts written by the
of studying and learned eleven languages, including
Egyptians for at least another seven hundred years.
Greek and Hebrew.
17
16th Century Map of the Greek Islands
Typography in Greece Greece, c. 1500 BCE
19
A
lthough Greece was divided into numerous regions and states, the same language was
spoken, distinguishing Greeks from barbarians (a word they applied to all non-Greek speaking people, especially the Persians in the 5th century BC). Greeks were therefore monoglots. Greek is an Indo-European language, originating at the end of the 2nd millennium BC with the migrations of Indo-European language. During the 17th and 16th century BCE the Greek language began to develop and is recognizable in the Linear B script written on clay tablets in the Mycenaean period. From about 1200 BC there were widespread movements of people throughout Europe, these events may have resulted in the distribution of various dialects in historic Greece. There were three major dialects in ancient Greece, Aeolic, Doric and Ionic. Each of these were from different tribes, the Aeolians lived in the islands of the Aegean, the Dorians, from the Greek coast of Peloponnesus, including Crete, Sparta and other parts of West Coast Asia Minor. With the unification by conquest of many parts of Greece by Phillip II of Macedonia, and many parts of the east by Alexander the Great, local dialects declined, and a new uniform Greek dialect emerged known as koine (common dialect). It was based on the Attic dialect rather than the semi barbarous Macedonian dialect. Its use spread throughout the Greek Empire.
20
North African Hieroglyphics, which served as the inspiration for Greek Symbology.
I
n Minoan Crete in the 2nd millennium BC a pictographic form of writing (found mainly on sealstones or selaings) emerged, sometimes miscalled hieroglyphic. The small number of symbols probably represented open syllables.
From this script Linear A probably developed early in the second Palace Period. Linear A was a syllabic script used throughout Crete and some other Aegean islands c. 1700-c. 1450 BC, and it is only partly deciphered. It sees to have been used for administrative documents and in religious sites, and is found on clay tablets, stone vases and double axes. During the Mycenaean period a syllabic script known as Linear B was used 1450-1200 BC. It was written on clay tablets, as many of the signs are similar or identical, Linear B probably developed from Linear A at Knossos during the early Third Palace Period. Clay Tablets: Linear A and B scripts have been found on thousands on unbaked, sun-dried clay tablets.
21
The signs of the Greek lettering system were most commonly written on damp clay with a sharp instrument. Parchment and papyrus: Skins or parchments may have been used for writing from an early date. Parchment (pergamene) was made from skins of cattle, sheep and goats, and manufacture may certainly have been improved at Pergamum. It was made up in to leather rolls known as diphtherai.
22
23
Majuscule typography on the Pantheon in Rome
Typography in the Roman Empire Italy, c. 1500 BCE
25
Lapis Niger, mid-sixth century BCE, is one of the
Roman inscriptions from the
oldest Latin inscriptions in Rome.
Colosseum in Rome.
T
26
he alphabet clearly did not begin with the
a permanent part of the letter. The Romans had
Romans. However, the Roman alphabet is
guidelines to provide them for overcutting letters,
where we start to see the alphabet become slowly
but there was no distinct serif treatment. This serif
modernized. The Roman alphabet has a lot to them
however was just a simple detail that really helped
that can and has been studied for years. The early
complete the Roman alphabet. The way each Roman
stages of the Roman alphabet no explanation to the
letter was made was also not explained. Roman
creative process on how it came to be. Which is one
letters varied in widths, and some strokes were thin,
of the reasons we analysis and try to understand it
while others were thick. Stylistically the Roman
now. No Roman ever explained the serif and why
alphabet has a lot going on, and a lot we can study
it was used, the serif was taken for granted in the
such as open-lobed P’s, splayed M’s, long-tailed R’s
Roman alphabet. It was a common item in ancient
and other alphabetic facts. The Roman culture used
Rome and after the late Republic the serif never
written language all the time, because the Roman
left the Romans side. The Roman alphabet is one of
culture was highly literate. The streets of Rome were
the main origins of the serif. It is believed that the
covered with signage. Scales in these inscriptions
serif was originally a guideline that was accidentally
often demonstrated social hierarchy. Carving letters
made when carving letters, which then turned into
in stone was a common theme for the Romans.
Carving letters was a multiple-stage process. Rusted
In 281 BCE, after the Romans conquered the
letters were carved into marble and were often not
Etruscans at Cumae the Romans took 21 letters from
read in a system that made sense, but seemed to be
their script’s 26, and then added some of their own.
everywhere. A good example of carved lettering is
The, in 410 CE when Rome was attacked by northern
the Lapis Niger from mid-sixth century BCE, which
invaders marks the end of the Classical period.
is one of the oldest Latin inscriptions found in Rome. The marks from this milestone also provided evidence of political power and cultural influence. When you observed signage in Roman culture you automatically knew the social hierarchy and the impact of Roman authority.
The Roman Alphabet
27
A page from the original Gutenberg Bible, the first artifact created using movable type. (Late 1400s)
Christianity Influences Typography Europe, c. 400 CE–900 CE
29
A
s the Roman Empire rapidly transformed the traditions of culture, art, architecture and
typography in Europe, knowledge and traditions were kept alive within Christian monasteries. Here, highly-trained Christian monks would spend hours in dark studies hunched over desks producing manuscripts in scriptoria. Scriptoria comes from the root word scriptorium which translates to “place of writing.” During this time period, later dubbed the medieval era, a vast number of monastic scriptures were drafted, thus creating an era that is – to this day – extremely well documented. Different monasteries within the Christian faith had opposing beliefs of typography’s true role in scriptures, and the duty of scribes changed over time as a result. In the beginning, monks would enhance upon the teachings of their religion, making them more clear and relatable to the public through personification of objects and the transformation of the religious law into thematic parables and stories. As time went on, however, the scripture became less and less about Christianity itself, and began to reflect more on the time period historically. This is one of the reasons why historians know so much about this era – Christians did a thorough job in recording their presence on Earth.
Painting of a Spanish monastic scriptorium 14th Century
30
No two manuscripts were alike, but most used the same typographic systems and nomenclature. This means that the general identities of the typefaces used in scripture were the same, in terms of individual letterforms and their components. Primarily, the typography seen in this context would be majiscule, meaning all capital letters. More precisely, the common type form used was called uncial, which was an early relative to the Roman alphabet, characterized by broad single strokes and round majiscule forms. In classical Latin uncialis could mean both “inch-high” and “weighing an ounce”, and some have even drawn conclusions to the translation, “block of wood”. This typography was not unfamiliar to change, however. Over the years, uncial majiscule typography evolved greatly in detail, becoming significantly more ornate as time went on. Later manuscripts created by the Roman Catholics can be observed having several flourishes, stroke width exaggerations, and more contrast in size. Other characteristics of uncial script include definitive spacing between words, wide gutters, and justified alignment.
Greek-Coptic manuscript of the New Testament using uncials, 10th Century
31
Gutenberg printing press, invented in the mid–1400s
Typography Spreads Worldwide Eighth-Century CE Onward
33
A Renaissance–Style printing press, utilizing Gutenberg’s movable type.
C
34
ontrary to popular belief, the most innovation
At this time in Europe, people were perfecting
in the world of typography did not occur in
letterforms rather than creating typography.
Europe (or Western culture at all, for that matter).
Rotunda, for example, is a form of rounded Gothic
It was in China, in truth, where typography sprang
letter flourished in southern Europe, which was
towards the future around the eighth century.
made around the thirteenth century. A few attempts
Everyone in the world knew that books were
at masss printed typography were made, including
becoming more and more necessary for recording
woodblock transfer type, but this method was not
observations of the world, preserving history, and
fast enough to keep up with the demands of reading
marking stories for future generations to learn
consumers. Around 1450, a German goldsmith,
about. In Western Christian culture, the need for
Johannes Gutenberg, developed a printing system
books was especially important, as scribes wanted
by both adapting existing technologies and making
for the teachings of biblical script to be preserved
inventions of his own. By utilizing new tools for
forever. It was around this time that the Chinese
typesetting, mass-produced “assembly-line-style”
produce the first extant printed manuscript, the
typography was possible. This creation of what is
Diamond Sutra, which was a printed book descibing
now called “movable type” in Europe led to the first
the teachings of Buddha.
books, and – ultimately – the future of typography.
T
he first widely produced book using Gutenberg’s printing style was, not
surprisingly, the Bible. Characterized by closelyset Latin type in 42 lines per page, water-based ink, wide margins and gutters, and – in some copies – ornate illlustrations, the “Gutenberg Bible” as it came to be called, had a total of 48 copies printed, and was distributed around Europe around 1455. It’s good reception among viewers made Gutenberg’s printing style the standard of typography to come. The copies of the Gutenberg Bible that remain in existence today are considered some of the most treasured artifacts of human history, and are valued at millions of US dollars.
35
36
37
38
References
Catitch, Edward M. The Origin of the Serif. Davenport,
Iowa: The Catfish Press, 1968. Print.
Senner, Wayne M. The Origins of Writing. Lincoln, Ne-
braska: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. Print.
Diringer, David. The Alphabet A Key to the History of
Mankind. New York: Philosophical Library Inc., 1948. Print.
Baker, Arthur. The Roman Alphabet. New York: Art Direc-
tion Book Company, 1976. Print.
Ober, J. Hambleton. Writing: Man’s Great Invention.
Baltimore: Peabody Institute, 1965. Print.
Drucker, Johanna and McVarish, Emily. Graphic Design
History A Critical Guide. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2013. Print.
Watson, Rowan. Illuminated Manuscripts and their Mak-
ers. New York: Abrams Books, 2003. Print.
Davies, W.V.. Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 1987. Print.
Katan, Norma Jean and Mintz, Barbara. Hieroglyphs The
Writing of Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Publications Limited, 1980. Print.
Adkins, Lesley and Roy A. Handbook to Life in Ancient
Greece. New York: Facts On File, 1997. Print.
Allan Haley, Richard Poulin, Jason Tselentis Tony Sed-
don, Gerry Leonidas, Ina Saltz, Kathryn Henderson with Tyler Alterman. Typography Referenced. Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2012. Print.
Wiles, Kate. Secrets of Scriptoria. London: History Today,
2014. Print.
39
Survey of the History of the Western Alphabet Years of Study: 3150 BCE – 1450 CE By Kevin Buglewicz, Pha Nguyen, and Sydney Rotthaus Spring 2015 GRPH 223 – Stacy Asher