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A title from The Old School Press Bembo's Aetna Pietro Membo describes
the climbing of Mount Etna | |
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About the book Perhaps one of the most influential incunabula in the history of typography is De Aetna by Pietro Bembo, printed and published in 1496 by Aldus Manutius. The type in which it is printed, cut for Aldus by Francesco Griffo, was nearly five centuries later the inspiration for the twentieth-century Monotype face, Bembo. But our interest here is in the book as a narrative about place more than about type, and an example of an early excursion into scientific enquiry. The Press rarely reprints existing texts but we have made an exception (again) here: Bembo's Aetna reprints an English translation from the Latin of a fictional dialogue between Pietro and his father Bernardo about an excursion the son made with a friend to Mount Etna during an eruption. In the latter half of the dialogue, which is the part we are printing, Bembo fils describes in detail the topography of the mountain and his clearly perilous, even foolhardy, ascent of it: 'while I was viewing the place with rapt fascination a fiery stream poured out through where it had collected in a crevice, and burning rocks popping out of the stream sprang between my very feet'. The natural questions arise: 'where do the rocks and the pumice stones and the material the volcano shoots out come from? . . . the fact that the rocks themselves have not run out and the mountain subsided - isn't that strange?'. Answers come from numerous ancient sources, from Pythagoras, Empedocles . . . : the earth is always reproducing itself, and giving birth to itself spontaneously'. All told, Bembo's essay provides a wonderful first-hand description of a natural phenomenon that is still as threatening today but now the subject of scientific research. About the edition The obvious choice of typeface for our reprint is . . . Bembo. But we have put the obvious aside in favour of Hunt Roman, a fine face that looks so commanding on the page. We will be hand-setting the text in the 14pt on a longish measure, which the optically large 14pt demands. (We used the same approach for Zapf and Stauffacher.) Over the years we have accumulated various stashes of fine papers and we recently decided we should be using them, rather than buying in yet more paper for new books. One paper from our stock was a clear contender here; we have the right quantity in the right size: a handmade paper from Barcham Green's Hayle Mill called Boswell. It comes in a royal sheet which makes a good-size quarto. Its special property is its colour: a pale chrome-green. The ream pack bears the date February 1972. (Unusually the watermark is 'F. J. Head' and it turns out that the royal mould used in the paper's making came from the stock of F. J. Head who were bought out by Barcham Green after World War I.) The end-papers and cover paper are Canson Mi-Teintes and there is a graphical image printed on the front board. The binding will be quarter leather with the title gold blocked on the front leather. There will be fifty-five copies of which about fifty will be for sale. 28pp. The price will be around £200. We are taking reservations now (no obligation). | |
