Comments on: 2.06 Beyond the Donat

By: Paul F. Gehl

Paul F. Gehl — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:55:13 +0000

Traditionalizing, certainly. And your point is well taken that we need always to be careful about anachronisms. But in this case I really think the package is, especially from a design point of view, medievalizing. Nowhere in Italy at this date would this degree and type of ornament have been used for anything but a prettified children’s book. I wish I had photos to insert here, but the 1597 and 1611 editions are hard to find. I consulted a copies of both at the Brera –perhaps I can get images eventually.

By: Dan Sheerin

Dan Sheerin — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:24:40 +0000

Interest might be heightened by some reference to the printing history of the Doctrinale and commentaries thereon. The humanists did not have it all their way, not at first, anyway, for there was a struggle between advocates of humanist culture in which choice Latinity was of central importance and retailers of the traditional scholastic culture in which Latin was essential, to be sure, but a Latin taught with less emphasis on style and a Latin that produced and tolerated the languages-for-special-purposes of all disciplines and trades.

By: Dan Sheerin

Dan Sheerin — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:23:32 +0000

medievalizing package] Yes, from our perspective – in its time the book would have been “traditionalizing” in its content and appearance, yet it contains additional texts, advertised and not, which would make it “new and improved”