
a new book in hand: Bembo's Aetna		Pietro Bembo discusses with his father his climb of Mount Etna - an extract from his 1495 De Aetna.
planned for late 2026
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, became 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. We rarely reprint existing texts but we have made an exception (again) here: Bembo's Aetna reprints an English translation from the Latin of the fictional dialogue between Pietro and his father Bernardo about an excursion the son made 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. 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; 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 will also be from Barcham Green: sheets of the last paper that the mill made, Finale. We have still to finalise the style of the binding, and indeed the price, but we will of course be saying more in future newsletters as the project proceeds. There will be fifty copies of which about forty-five will be for sale.


Stockholm Reflections		A book from our backlist
one copy left £295 plus shipping
This is one of our collaborations with artist Leslie Gerry. Leslie prepared eleven images for the book, his personal response to the beauty of central Stockholm, to the colour and vibrancy imparted by the boats, the buildings, the sky and the water. Each image occupies a landscape sheet 370mm tall by 560mm wide (that's about 14.5 inches by 22 inches) and they are compiled as a concertina-fold book, with a further illustration on the title page and two more on the front and back covers of the book. The text, reflections of travellers from earlier days, occupies an eight-page section printed letterpress on a pale-blue hand-made paper from the Velké Losiny mill in the Czech Republic, and set in Gill’s Joanna in the 14pt size, with headings in variations of Gill Sans. The book's binding is quarter-cloth with illustrations by Leslie on the boards and it is presented in a solander box covered in a dark blue-grey cloth. Our website has full details and pictures, including a short video that takes you through the book and a link to our online shop. One of Leslie Gerry's images from the book

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Copyright © Martyn Ould 2026