This site may be going away; please consider the Donate link above... or LiberaPay:


Ornamental Alphabets, Ancient and Mediæval (page 1/10)

details...
[picture: Front Cover]

Scans from The Book of Ornamental Alphabets, Ancient and Mediæval collected and engraved by Freeman Gage Delamotte (1814 – 1862); London, Crosby Lockwood and Co., 1879

If anyone is interested, I’ll try and do some better scans of the alphabets and examples of calligraphy and calligraphic initials in this book.

(Note: Mediæval is the older British English spelling of Mediaeval, or Medieval).

The full title page is transcribed alongside its image. This is an oblong octavo with alphabets printed in various colours including red, green and brown.

Title: Ornamental Alphabets, Ancient and Mediæval

Author: Delamotte, F.

City: London

Date: 1879

Total items: 102

Out of copyright (called public domain in the USA), hence royalty-free for all purposes usage credit requested, or as marked.

Some sample images

[picture: 50.---16th Century]

50.—16th Century

This is not a good scan; I plan to replace it with one made at a higher resolution. Decorative initials [more...] [$]

[picture: Decorative initial letter ``G'' from 16th Century]

Decorative initial letter “G” from 16th Century

This ornamental capital “g” in white on black is suitable for use as a drop cap (dropped capital) or a decorative initial. It is taken from a sixteenth-century alphabet in white on black. [more...] [$]

[picture: 34.  34.---16th Century.  Vatican.]

34. 34.—16th Century. Vatican.

Alphabet from a 16th Century manuscript in the Vatical Library. The letters are A B C D E F G H I K L M N P Q R S T Y, so that J, V, Y and Z are lacking. For J one would use J at that time, and U for [...] [more...] [$]

[picture: 53.4.---Decorative Cross]

53.4.—Decorative Cross

A decorative cross. The outer part is an anchor cross or a fleur-de-lys cross. I have no further information on this one. [more...] [$]

[picture: 53.28.---Trifoliate Calligraphic Ornament]

53.28.—Trifoliate Calligraphic Ornament

A piece of religious or spiritual ornament. [more...] [$]


Tags in this source:

alphabets animals arrows astrology backgrounds birds blue book covers borders brown calligraphy cartici christmas colour crosses crowns decoration dogs dragons drawings faces fire fleurs de lys floriated initials flowers foliated initials fonts frames games green greyscale heraldry holly inhabited initials initials insects jesters leaves lettera letterb letterc letterd lettere letterf letterg letterh letteri lettering letterj letterk letterl letterm lettern lettero letterp letterq letterr letters lettert letteru letterv letterw lettery letterz lizards monograms mythical creatures numerals ornaments outlines page images people phoenixes playing cards purple red religion rodents royalty spirit squirrels sun symbols tendrils title pages typography victoriana wallpaper yellow

Places shown:

none

Note: If you got here from a search engine and don’t see what you were looking for, it might have moved onto a different page within this gallery.