A Type Specimen of Garamont: Several Fables of Aesop.

Abstract

See my two other editions from Berliner, using Lutetia (1970) and Baskerville (1971). A first page gives a lovely little history of Garamont, which was first created in 1540, only eleven years after French printing first used roman type. Six fables from Handford's Penguin translation give Berliner a chance to show off specimens of his lovely type with 12, 10, and 8 point Roman and Italic. The illustrations are done in a style I would call psychedelic. It may be hard, as in SS, to get the gestalt of the picture. The Wasp on the Snake's Head in fact has the wasp buzzing around away from the snake's head! I enjoy most BW, TB and the cover picture of a lion reading Aesop's Fables. I had missed this booklet before in Sebastopol; now I had to pay for the miss, since this booklet does not show up frequently! There is one printer's goof, alas!, to note in this little book. In the story about the fox learning to divide for the lion, Handford's Penguin has the following sentence: The lion asked who taught him to share things in that way. 'What happened to the donkey,' he answered. This booklet has: The lion asked who taught him to share things in that way. 'What happened to the donkey?' he answered. What a difference a question-mark makes!