Writing and Books at the National Museum of Wrocław
See how a method of communicating ideas or sounds using pre-arranged signs preserved in suitable material can become a museum exhibit!
By National Museum in Wrocław
Jakub M. Łubocki — Department of Publishing Art, National Museum in Wrocław
Antiqua Półtawski (1933) by Jan KasprowiczNational Museum in Wrocław
What is this story about?
Writing is the primary means of communicating a civilization’s achievements, but there is no clear evidence of when the first writing system was created. Throughout history, many types of writing have been invented, implemented using various tools, and used to record documents in various forms.
6.000 years of writing
From pictographs via ideographs to phonetic writing. The alphabet is a form of writing in which each sign corresponds to one sound. Abugida is a form of writing in which a sign represents a syllable with a default vowel. Abjad is a form of writing in which only consonants are represented.
Reproducing and recording writing
Writing can be produced by hand or printing, or represented digitally as a font. Handwriting is a type of writing characterized by single strokes, while lettering is a type of writing consisting of overlapping shapes. If the lettering is tidy and complete, it becomes a typeface.
Manuscript (beginning 2 thousand b.c. (period of the 3rd dynasty of Ur)) by UnknownNational Museum in Wrocław
Cuneiform
It is assumed that the first cuneiform in the world was the Sumerian cuneiform, which was created in Mesopotamia around 3,500 BCE. Cuneiform was also known as arrow-headed writing or mismari. Essentially, cuneiform represents the ideograph type of writing.
Clay tablet
This is the oldest form of book. A manuscript (cuneiform) is created in soft clay in which wedge-shaped marks of various appearance depending on gradient and pressure force were imprinted using a kalam (stylus) made of a cut reed stem.
Old Testament (Unknown) by UnknownNational Museum in Wrocław
Hebrew script
This is an example of abjad. This script, which consists of 22 characters, is used to transcribe Jewish languages. In contrast to the Latin alphabet, there is no distinction between lower-case and upper-case letters. It is written from right to left.
Scroll
The original form of a book, a long ribbon wound onto two bars (umbilicus). These bars (most commonly made of wood or ivory) were longer than the width of the scroll and were not attached to it. The first scrolls originate from Egypt and date back to 4,000 BCE.
Manuscript (Unknown) by UnknownNational Museum in Wrocław
Nepalese script
This is an example of abugida. This script appeared in the 10th century CE. One of the types of abugida scripts is prachalit. This Sanskrit manuscript was actually written on paper made from bamboo leaves using a prachalit script.
Leporello
Leporello (concertina, folded screen) is a paper ribbon folded several times or sheets of paper glued together with the folds alternating between front and back to form a concertina. The name comes from Leporello, a manservant and confidante of Don Juan, who kept a tally of his mistresses' images in this way.
Letter sketch (c. 1943) by Tadeusz GronowskiNational Museum in Wrocław
Lettering sketch
Before the character shape convention of a script is expressed in print, a typographer sketches the shape architecture so that it later comprises a uniform set. This is a creative process of assigning an individual form of expression to a general concept of characters in a script.
Typeface design (beginning 1970s) by Bronisław ZelekNational Museum in Wrocław
Typeface design
This documents the final shape that a typographer wants to assign to characters of a script. In this form, the design is taken to a type foundry, where it can be reproduced using matrices and patrices and supplied to the print shop. These days a design is generated on a computer, and can be bought via the internet right away.
Typeface template (1979)National Museum in Wrocław
Specimens, catalogs, typeface specimens
The abundance of typefaces, the variety of shapes, and the possible uses have led to the creation of separate catalogs of type resources in print shops, matrices in type foundries, and typefaces to be sold by font publishers.
Typeface template (1979)National Museum in Wrocław
Specimens, catalogs, typeface specimens
This kind of catalog contains all the necessary information about the architecture of a specific typeface: its varieties, grades, diacritic marks, etc.
Typeface template (1979)National Museum in Wrocław
Specimens, catalogs, typeface specimens
Sometimes it is only possible to notice the subtlety of some typographic solutions when looking closely.
Codex
This is the form of a book we know today. It is a wad of sheets bound or glued on one end, known as the spine of a book. It can be made of papyrus, parchment or paper.
Antiqua Półtawski (1933) by Jan KasprowiczNational Museum in Wrocław
Jan Kasprowicz, “My Evening Song” (Moja pieśń wieczorna), Poznań 1933.
The title illustration of this presentation deserves special attention. This is the first print performed using Półtawski’s Antiqua, one of the national typefaces, adapted at a microtypographic level specifically for Polish text typesetting.
National typefaces
Jeżyński’s Antiqua, first used in 1929, is another example of a Polish typeface. For this reason, it is considered chronologically the first Polish typeface since Januszowski’s Antiqua (1584).
Emil Zegadłowicz “Gawęda poety z typografem” (page) – Antiqua Jeżyński (1929) by Emil ZegadłowiczNational Museum in Wrocław
National typefaces
Typefaces tailored to language-specific characteristics improve typesetting in terms of visual perception. In Polish, the dominant letters are k, w, and z, while f is rare, which is opposite to English. Other relevant issues are the proximity of letters, their ligatures (sz / ff), and the diacritic mark set for that particular language.
Jakub M. Łubocki – Publishing Department of the National Museum in Wrocław
