Typefaces influenced by lettering on maps

Café,

I'm still working on C17 handwriting/calligraphy copybooks (which grow
more and more interesting by the day!), and in the process, have begun
wondering about the style of lettering used on early maps (including
"coastal views").

Then, as now, different scripts were intended for different purposes,
and I'm increasingly curious about the evolution of "hands" used for
early cartography and information design.

C17 engravers such as Wenceslaus Hollar (who produced several maps &
views) had a very distinctive hand -- now considered "austere" for the
Baroque period in which he worked, as was Hollar's "visual style" in
general.

I've temporarily posted 5 details of Hollar's handwriting from his

	"A curious new plaine and exact mapp of England, Ireland,
	Scotland, and Wales, with the iles thereto belonging, and
	cheefe citties, & maner of the streetes, never so commodiously
	published before, described by I. S. & others, inlarged by G.
	H. and engraven by W: Hollar."  London: Printed for & by Ro:
	Walton, and are to be sold at his shop at the West end of
	Paules, 1654.

to my website for review:

http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Hollar1654map_det1.gif
http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Hollar1654map_det2.gif
http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Hollar1654map_det3.gif
http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Hollar1654map_det4.gif
http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Hollar1654map_det5.gif

Based on these, and other examples from the early modern period, it
would be easy to over-emphasize a supposed preference for utilitarian
vs. artistic scripts on C17 maps and drawings.

The truth is, though, aesthetic considerations were still very much on
the mind of C17 "mechanics," and engineers, and illustrators -- from
all walks of life -- and even C17 form letters and other routine types
of business correspondence were extravagantly modeled. See, for
example, a sample business letter given in the 1619 printing of
Richard Gething's _Calligraphotechnia_

http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Gething1619_busltr.gif

and a sample bill of indenture (yes, a contract for indentured
servitude!) from this same copybook

http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Gething1619_indenture.gif
	
Unfortunately, the pages of Gething's copybook are badly stained by
now (most of our extant copies were well-used by their owners) but you
can still get a good feel for the style and content, even so ... and
it is a far cry from business type today, such as Officina Serif and
Officina Sans (and we won't even mention Arial ;-).

The picture that is emerging from my research is -- as usual -- mixed,
showing a variety of "hands" used for even the most perfunctory of
communications.


... Which brings me back to the lettering on maps.

Does anyone know if there's much of a critical literature on this?

I'd like to assemble a bibliography on the subject and post it to my
website ... so even though I won't personally read titles that don't
have a historical focus (at least, not in the near future), I'm still
interested in coming up with a well-rounded bibliography with a little
something for everyone, including those involved with mapping today.

At the same time, I thought I would also post a summary list of
digital typefaces derived from/influenced by lettering on maps. (Among
other things, this should provide some free advertising for
contemporary typeface designers, as well as a chance to introduce
their work to a broader scholarly community than they probably reach
presently.)

I know (for certain) of only 2 digital typefaces based on maps:

#1  Emigre's Dalliance (based on a C19 German map maker's handwriting)

	"Dalliance Script is based on the elegant handwriting found on
	a map of a horrific battle between the Habsburg Coalition and
	France which took place at Ostrach, in southwest Germany, in
	1799."

	After which "[a] roman style, and flourishes, were added to
	turn Dalliance into a fully functional typeface family."

http://www.emigre.com/fontpage.php?PDalSc.html  (Dalliance Script)
& http://www.emigre.com/EF.php?fid=87  (Dalliance family)

#2  Incognito and Terra Incognita (by Hungarian designer Gábor Kóthay)
http://www.fountaintype.com/typefaces/incognito
& http://www.fountaintype.com/typefaces/incognito/about
or
http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/downloads/fountain/incognito_terra_incognita/
or
http://www.veer.com/products/typedetail.aspx?image=FOT0000074

and can't believe this is all there is. So, if anyone can think of
others, please tell us.

I believe there may be a 3rd such typeface -- Plazm Media's Hadrian --
although this is sheer speculation on my part, because it somewhat
resembles callouts on the 1628 parchment map titled _Description
hydrographique de la France_, by Jean Guérard; see

http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/Guerard1628map_det.jpg

for a detail from Guérard's map.

Unfortunately, Precision Type (which used to sell Plazm Media's
Hadrian for US$40) has gone out of business, and I can't locate the
typeface at the usual online stores (FontShop.com, fonthaus.com,
MyFonts.com, fonts.com, veer.com, philsfonts.com, typos.net).

Nor does Plazm Media (apparently a Portland, OR design firm) appear to
carry it. As far as I could tell, there's nothing on their website's
fonts page

http://plazm.com/fonts/

other than information and a download button for their typeface
"Capitalis Pirata" (over which they were successfully sued by
McDonald's for trademark violations).

FYI, my information on Plazm Media's Hadrian is quite old by now. I
vaguely remember it being used for heads and sub-heads in a printed
issue of _Publish!_ magazine several years ago, at which point in time
I scanned and printed out a sample headline on a cheap inkjet

http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/PlazmMedia_Hadrian1.jpg

(I was running low on ink at the time, which explains the horizontal
lines running through the image). I had been thinking Hadrian might
work for a logotype design, but after testing this at the Precision
Type website in July 2003

http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/PlazmMedia_Hadrian2.jpg

I changed my mind, and just filed the information I had on Hadrian.

And now, I can't easily find out anything more.

If anyone knows the story behind the mysterious Hadrian (NOT
Hadriano), I would very much like to hear it.

Perhaps Plazm Media has pulled the typeface for some reason?

Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
[email protected]





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