The Book of Ornamental Alphabets, Ancient and Mediæval. From the eighth century with numerals, including Gothic Church Text, Large and Small; German Arabesque, Initials for Illumination, Monograms, Crosses, &c.

Oblong 8vo, (3) 51pp. Complete. Third edition, printed almost immediately after the success of the second and bound in the covers for the earlier 'Ancient and Modern Alphabets' series, which covered the ninth to nineteenth centuries. This volume includes alphabets from the eighth through seventeenth centuries, largely culled from historical sources such as the Bodleian Library, British Museum, Vatican, the works of Albrecht Dürer, illuminated manuscripts, etc. The manuscript origins of many of the examples make them particularly ornate in comparison to the modern alphabets, as well as later collections intended more specifically to draughtsmen and commercial artists. A Very Good copy: faint residual pencil marks to the first eight plates, plate 2 has a small chip at the edge, shallow ink tidemark at the upper edge of about 5 plates; upper corner clipped from the title page (apparently an effort to remove a previous owner's signature). Plates are monochrome but printed in a variety of color inks that celebrate their exquisite forms. A complete and well preserved copy of the scarce (and typically battered) production. Housed in mylar.