Nicolas Jenson, printer of Venice, his famous type designs and some comment upon the printing types of earlier printers

Folio. Limited Edition. 10 pages, I original leaf. Limited to 207 numbered copies. The present copy is #63. Laid in is an original folio leaf from Jenson's 1478 printing of Plutarch's "VItae Parallelae Illustrium Viroum. Caxton Club's Disbound and dispersed #26. ed from his press including this one. As D.B. Updike notes: "The characteristics of Jenson's font were its readability, its mellowness of form, and the evenness of color in mass. Analyzed closely, his letter forms were not very perfect; had they been so, their effect would not have been so good; for, as an authority has said, 'a type too ideal in its perfection is not an ideal type. The eye becomes tired when each character is perfect. Jenson's roman types have been the accepted models for roman letters ever since he made them, and repeatedly copied in our own day, have never been equaled. There were other printers in Italy whose types rivalled his, but no other man produced quite so fine a font or had better taste in the composition of a page and its imposition upon paper. Laid in is a bookseller card from the Chiswick Bookshop with a typed description that notes Plutarch's Lives. Bound in ¼ original vellum over marbled paper covered boards, morocco label gilt, (lacking the frequent darkening), light wear to corners and a few edges. A very nice copy.…