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The Collation

Print or manuscript? Civilité type in early modern England

Have you ever received a fundraising letter in the mail that looks handwritten, or has a “handwritten” postscript or post-it note? This is an attempt, of course, to make the letter feel more personal. The recipient of the request is supposed to be intrigued: “Gee, this organization actually put some thought and time into their message, and I owe them a response.” This can backfire, of course, when the recipient realizes that the letter is a direct mail campaign, with nothing personal about it.

Fundraising is a time-honored tradition. Hark back to the seventeenth century, when James I began his own money raising campaign with a series of handwritten privy seal letters requesting loans, to be paid back within eighteen months.

Below is an example of an appeal for a loan to fund military provisions in Ireland. It has the equivalent of a James’s signature at the top (“By the King”) and is counter-signed at the bottom by Frances Mylles. 

  1. See Harry Carter and H.D.L. Vervliet, Civilité Types (Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society, by the Oxford University Press, 1966), p. 11.
  2. The inventory of the Henry Bynneman’s (the publisher’s) goods made after his 1583 death includes “One mattris of secritary xls” and “lettres cut in wood for the secritarie xii” (Carter and Vervliet, 37-38).

Comments

Really interesting find! I look forward to the next post!

Chelsea McKelvey — July 22, 2014

Reply

Interesting to learn that Granjon touted civilité as “French” — I’d subconsciously filed it under “Dutch” in my mind because of the way Jan David used it in the three-language engraved captions to the illustrations in Veridicus Christianus:
— Latin = Roman
— Dutch = Civilité
— French = Italic
(see http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/s/1j053o for example)

Erin Blake — July 22, 2014

Reply

Great stuff! I’ve come across documents in civilité type (most of which seem to do with money), but didn’t know that’s what it was called. I wonder how many printers had a set of the typeface – I understand most of what was printed was ephemera so I guess the incentive to invest in all necessary types would have been quite strong.

But you also get e.g. bills of debt in secretary script which have been engraved – here’s an example from 1636: https://twitter.com/samklai/status/492225291444842497
(The fact that this engraving is of a mixed hand is also interesting – although of course it would’ve been, by the 1630s). Why was this not typeset? I’m sure there are all kinds of reasons for variation. It would be very interesting to know more about texts printed in secretary scripts – so I look forward to your next post!

Sam Kaislaniemi — July 24, 2014

Reply

I’m reminded of typeset versus engraved music, where engraving ended up dominating: you needed a kajillion sorts to provide every possible combination note(s) on five lines, which would have been a huge investment, and error-prone when setting, so even though a copper plate is expensive, it’s comparatively straightforward to make staves and notes. For example, compare typeset music (left) and engraved (right) in these images: http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/s/f191y7. Another similar comparison would be a higgledy-piggledy typeset table of distances and an engraved one, with smooth lines: http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/s/zh0281

Erin Blake — July 24, 2014

Reply

Discussions elsewhere give an impression that civilité had especial use in legal documents because of its extensive variety of flourishes and long forms. Use of these towards line-ends precluded other parties from inserting spurious matter at such points. It is interesting that your main document Folger STC 8475.5 has none such, and uses dashes in manual script to block areas left blank. That said, it is a delightful script, easy to read, and a shame if its delicacy made it uneconomical for widespread use.

David Pinto — September 14, 2014

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