147. Italian Blackletter Title-Page. Jacopus Foresti, 1497. details

“The examples of old lettering reproduced in figures 147, 148 and 149, together with the drawings by Mr. Goodhue, will indicate the proper spacing of Blackletter; but in most of the pages here devoted to illustrating the individual forms the letters have been spaced too wide for their proper effect [so] that each separate shape may be shown distinctly.

The style appears at its best in compositions which fill a panel of more or less geometrical form, as, for example, the beautiful title-page reproduced in [figure] 147. Could anything be more delightful to the eye than its rich blackness, energetic lines, and refreshingvirility? In this design surely we have a specimen that, from the proportion and balance of its blacks, is more effective than anything which could have been accomplished by the use of the more righid Roman letter; but despite its many beauties it suffers from the inherent weakness of the individual letter forms,—it is more effective than readable!” (p. 136)