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typography

Pop Shakespeare's typography
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Pop Shakespeare's typography

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Author
Sarah Werner

If you’ve been spending any time on social media recently, you’re likely to have come across Pop Sonnets, a new Tumblr that provides, in their words, “Old twists on new tunes, every Thursday.” Here, for instance, is their deft rewriting…

Miracles lately vvrovght: the use of “vv” for “w” in 17th-century titles
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Miracles lately vvrovght: the use of “vv” for “w” in 17th-century titles

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Author
Goran Proot

In earlier posts I surveyed the use of “v” for “u” in titles and imprints of books printed in the Southern Netherlands. In both cases, this habit clearly faded out in the course of the seventeenth century. These findings, in…

The use of paragraph marks in early 16th-century Flemish editions
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The use of paragraph marks in early 16th-century Flemish editions

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Author
Goran Proot

(UPDATE January 23: In editing this post, I inadvertently inserted an inaccurate use of “Dutch” as a modifier in the post title; I’ve now updated it to the correct “Flemish”. SW.) The Folger Shakespeare Library has very strong Continental holdings.…

Fingerspitzengefühl
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Fingerspitzengefühl

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Author
Goran Proot

Just like “Fernweh”—the opposite of “Heimweh” or one’s longing for distant countries—the German word “Fingerspitzengefühl” is almost impossible to translate. Literally it refers to the sensitivity of one’s fingertips and it expresses an accurate knowledge or a delicate feeling that…

"Printed at Antwerp the fiue and twenty day of March"
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"Printed at Antwerp the fiue and twenty day of March"

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Author
Goran Proot

This title page shows a strange combination of typographical features and language. Strange, at least, for someone who has seen a lot of title pages printed or published in Antwerp, and probably less so for people who are mainly dealing…