Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination

Rating:
Summary: Missing the Point
Review: A reader reviewed this book by Joanna Drucker as not being enough informative on the alphabet history in itself. It's unfair and not informate to review the book like this. Its manifesto is all in the evocative title: The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination. Joanna Drucker traced an history of the alphabet from the very beginning talking about the interesting and often left apart complex variety of meanings of the letterform, embodied by mystery, symbolic, alchemic, religious, esotheric and many other values, offering an unique showcase of the history of writing. Saying the book is unsatisfying equals to say you have not even read the title, which explains quite well its content!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Going against the flow of reviews here, I found this book disappointing.

For a book of this scope, it is woefully short and lacking meaty details.

It rather ends up giving more space to the subjects of mysticism and the like, than to actual discourse on historical writing systems.

For instance, the "section" on runic languages is effectively two pages long, and half of those pages are taken up with diagrams; while parts of entire, multiple chapters are dedicated to illustrating calligraphic styles thru the ages. Fascinating on its, but perhaps better studied in a different volume.

Rating:
Summary: Review of Chapter Two: Origins and Historians
Review: In Chapter Two, Drucker takes the reader on a trip back in time as she traces the evolutionof writing systems. The trip begins with Egyptianhieroglyphics (~3500 BC), continues through Semitic inscriptions and Phoenician letters in the Mediterranean, to modern European alphabets. While a single, direct line tracing the alphabet back to one source does not emerge, the reader is beguiled by the mysteries of alphabetic history: the adaptability to other languages of the alphabet developed by Semitic speakers, the simultaneous development of ancient writing systems, and the search for connections among different writing systems. The reader is introduced to major historians in the field of epigraphy and their search for origins of the alphabet by painstakingly comparing scripts of different writing systems, looking for relationships among them. Drucker emphasizes the importance of archaeological evidence on the study of ancient writings. The progress (and accuracy!) of alphabetic analysis was greatly aided by the confirmation of archaeological discoveries. This chapter includes many illustrations of ancient writing systems and an excellent chart depicting the basic lines of alphabet development over the past 5,000 years. Drucker demonstrates vast knowledge about the alphabet and conveys this information in a very scholarly manner. Her book is intended for an informed, educated audience. Additionally, Drucker has great respect for her subject matter, so that the reader comes away with a sense of awe and admiration towards this ingenious human accomplishment.

Rating:
Summary: Chapter VIII
Review: In Chapter VIII, Johanna Drucker focuses closely on how Renaissance humanism and the invention of printing rationalized the alphabet. Further attention is given to theories of divine origin and mystical significance. These theories still proliferated and continued into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, becoming involved with nationalism and revolutionary political theory. Johanna Drucker, art history teacher at Yale University, writes with great command of facts about the letters of the alphebet. Chapter VIII, The Social Contract, Primitivism and Nationalism: the Alphabet in the 18th Century, is well-written, full of fascinating theories, and displays more than 35 significant illustrations that will interest the reader. The Alphabetic Labyrinth will prove intriguing to cultural historians, art historians, and anyone interested in the history of typograph

Rating:
Summary: Drucker opens the Labyrinth
Review: In The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in
History and Imagination, Johanna Drucker
presents a thorough investigation of the
alphabet as it relates to the Western
tradition of intellectual development. Her
purpose is to trace alphabet symbolism through
the course of history and tradition while also
discussing the origins and development of the
alphabet itself.

Chapter seven, titled "Rationalizing the
Alphabet: Construction, Real Character and
Philosophical Languages in the Renaissance"
covers alphabet history during the Renaissance
- an age that favored a cosmological view of
the world, an age when the highly structured
and the rigidly hierarchial were considered
manifestations of the divine and an age that
saw a blend of mystical, occult and intellec-
tual traditions.

Drucker interweaves these cultural threads
with the various people of the Renaissance who
used and seriously studied the alphabet during
that period in history that is recognized by
the invention of printing.

After Guttenberg's bible in 1456, the spread
of printing throughout Europe was a quick
process that produced many ripples in the
fabric of culture. Printing was responsible
for the production and dissemination of books
and for a proliferation of type styles as
well. Page design became more linear and
regularized. Alphabetic writing itself became
standardized. Text types took their visual
form from manuscript faces and the development
of capital letters returned to the tradition
of Roman capitals which became even more
elaborate and decorative during the
Renaissance. However, letter designers recon-
ceptualized the forms of majuscules or
capitals in this period through a process of
complicated, highly rationalized construction.
The compass and the square were often
considered necessary to achieve a set of
proportions for the width of the major strokes
to fit theoretical models.

Constructed alphabets were designed by a
profusion of geometers, mathematicians,
writing masters and printers. Fra Luca de
Pacioli's designs were possibly developed with
Leonardo de Vinci. Durer's idiosyncratic
letter forms were based on Italian theories
of perspective. His remarkable constructed
form of the blackletter alphabet is based on
the use of method for its own sake. Tory's
constructed letters were an integration of
classical and mystical knowledge that used
the proportions of the human body linked with
systems of mythology and the Muses. Tory made
assessments of the characters of each letter,
giving some human personality characteristics.
Tory's work on the alphabet also includes the
symbolic opposition of good and evil, virtue
and temptation - cosmological elements of the
Renaissance.

While printing was the chief means of book
production during this period, documents used
in business, legal and financial transactions
continued to be handwritten. Arrighi,
Tagliente, Palatino were the skilled penmen
of the Renaissance who published manuals and
engravings. Their best work was then incor-
porated into designs of type which still bear
their names.

Contributors to the field of cryptology during
this period include Johannes Trithemius
followed by Porta and Selemus who each offered
various prescriptions for codes and ciphers.

Proposals for translation systems were devel-
oped during the Renaissance by such scholars
as Top, Dalgarno and Wilkin. Such projects
reflect the new belief of the period -
that languages were inconsistent, imperfect,
subject to change and not necessarily evidence
of divine inspiration.

Drucker covers all these and more alphabetic
developments that occurred during the
Renaissance period in rich detail, carefully
citing sources and making relevant connections
to both the intellectual development and the
major philosophy of the period. Although
larger print in this text would certainly be
helpful, illustrations that accompany the text
are attractive and generous, particularly
those of the various constructed alphabets and
the intricate letter designs of the writing
masters. Drucker also provides charts and
schematics for theories developed during the
period but later rejected, giving the reader
insight as to why such theories were rejected.

For those who study culture, art, linguistics,
typography, calligraphy or printing,
The Alphabetic Labyrinth is full of unexpected
twists and turns. For educated readers who
particularly enjoy the Renaissance, Johanna
Drucker's seventh chapter of The Alphabetic
Labyrinth is a rich tapestry.

Rating:
Summary: All encompassing story of the alphabet
Review: Johanna Drucker gives us a comprehensive history of the alphabet, or should I say alphabets. She tells us about everything from the history of type face, to groups using various alphabets to justify their existence as a nation. Drucker also examines the various ways individuals have interpreted the alphabet; as a divine gift from a higher being to a necessary creation of "civilized" governments. This book was a fantastic read, although some sections required more than one reading for complete comprehension. A very informative book.

Rating:
Summary: informative, insightful and well written
Review: This book is truly a history of the alphabet. The author is very informative. She gives a good historical background and overview of written language. I especially liked Chapter VI The Kabbalah. The author writes in a clear, detailed manner as she traces the alphabet through history and the imagination. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the book is trying to relate the way different people in different epochs have veiwed the alphabet, letters, and written language. Druker does this well. She includes many helpful examples and diagrams. Anyone interested in written language would enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Poetic, mystical, and literary associations of the alphabet
Review: This book on the history of the alphabet is focused on Western and Semitic scripts; it pays little heed to the alphabetic scripts of South Asia. This book seems more concerned with mystical and artistic elaborations of the alphabetic symbols than with its actual use as a writing system. It focuses on things like the Kabbalah, calligraphic styles, and the changes wrought on attitudes to the alphabet wrought by the invention of printing. Parts of it seem a history of concepts used by other scholars attempting to determine the history and origin of the alphabet, rather than a new contribution to the alphabet's history.

Those who wish a more sober account of the alphabet's history, and tracing the family tree of the various alphabetic scripts, will get more mileage out of David Diringer's -The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind-. The information presented in this book, however, is interesting, if only for the fanciful ideas various people have devised around the alphabet.

My copy seems to have a number of typographical errors and other mistakes in it. A long passage discusses the thought of "Marcos the Gnostic." From the context I am reasonably certain that Marcion, not "Marcos," was intended. The people of Mount Seir in the Bible are identified in the book with Kenites and Midianites; if my memory serves me, the inhabitants of Mount Seir were Edomites and Horites. These mistakes tend to make me less inclined to trust the many passages that present data that is entirely new to me.

Rating:
Summary: Poetic, mystical, and literary associations of the alphabet
Review: This book on the history of the alphabet is focused on Western and Semitic scripts; it pays little heed to the alphabetic scripts of South Asia. This book seems more concerned with mystical and artistic elaborations of the alphabetic symbols than with its actual use as a writing system. It focuses on things like the Kabbalah, calligraphic styles, and the changes wrought on attitudes to the alphabet wrought by the invention of printing. Parts of it seem a history of concepts used by other scholars attempting to determine the history and origin of the alphabet, rather than a new contribution to the alphabet's history.

Those who wish a more sober account of the alphabet's history, and tracing the family tree of the various alphabetic scripts, will get more mileage out of David Diringer's -The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind-. The information presented in this book, however, is interesting, if only for the fanciful ideas various people have devised around the alphabet.

My copy seems to have a number of typographical errors and other mistakes in it. A long passage discusses the thought of "Marcos the Gnostic." From the context I am reasonably certain that Marcion, not "Marcos," was intended. The people of Mount Seir in the Bible are identified in the book with Kenites and Midianites; if my memory serves me, the inhabitants of Mount Seir were Edomites and Horites. These mistakes tend to make me less inclined to trust the many passages that present data that is entirely new to me.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible information
Review: This book presents so much information, but does it in such a way, that I could not put this book down, with the exception to absorb what I had just read.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in not only the genesis of the alphabet and it's morphology, but of other symbols as well, including alchemy symbols.