The Typographic Arts : Two Lectures.

Cloth, 8vo, 24 cm, 106 pp, 32 pp of plates. From the blurb: "The present volume brings together two essays by Mr. Stanley Morison that, from different approaches, consider the nature and purposes of the typographic arts. The first - The Typographic Arts - beginning with an inquiry into the reasons for the decline in the standards of book-production in Gt. Britain from the fifteenth century, is a survey of typography from its invention to the present day. Analysing the factors at work that influenced artistic standards and changes of taste in printing, Mr. Morison exhibits those aspects of the history of book-production which can provide lessons and guidance for all those concerned with the future of the typographic arts. This essay concludes with an appraisal and interpretation of the work and doctrines of William Morris, in which is implicit a statement of Mr. Morison's own principles, particularly in reference to the function of ornament in typography. The second - The Art of Printing - considers the properties and purposes peculiar to printing by investigating its calligraphical and inscriptional antecedents and by considering its nature as revealed in its process. From the definition of printing that results from these two lines of inquiry, Mr. Morison is able to examine the status of photographic technique and to show that they are in no way alien to the nature of printing. " Good in soiled and chipped dustwrapper.…