Type spaces: in-house norms in the typography of Aldus Manutius
Ash Smith / 2022.08.22
The books of Aldus Manutius possess an enduring appeal, for their sense of order and visual-semantic structure. After intensive examination of some Aldine books, Burnhill proposes a hypothesis about the co-ordination of the dimensions in type in this printing. It seems that a system of typographic measurement informed this work, two hundred years before such a system was made explicit in printing.
‘Type spaces’ download
Ash Smith / 2019.03.11
Peter Burnhill’s book Type spaces, published in 2003, has been out of print for several years. The author died in 2007 and there is no question of revising the book – though one might write another one, extending its material and qualifying its ideas. As a service to readers, we are making the work available again as a free download
The memory lingers on
Ash Smith / 2018.08.20
This poster by Peter Burnhill has emerged from a tidy-up in the office. It’s a nice example of his talents as an artist, and of his activity as a political campaigner. Peter worked for his local, Stafford branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, helping to run a weekly CND stall in the town. This was at the time of Cold War escalation, with the installation of US missiles in Europe.
Risen spaces
Ash Smith / 2016.07.04
Comments on the picture-sharing service Instagram have pointed to an interesting detail in Harry Carter’s book A view of early typography. Our edition of this work was a facsimile reprint of the book published by Oxford University Press in 1969, with added editorial matter.
‘Type spaces’ sold out in Europe
Ash Smith / 2011.11.20
We have sold the last copy of Peter Burnhill’s book Type spaces. Our North American distributor, Princeton Architectural Press, still has some copies left.
‘Type spaces’ discovery
Ash Smith / 2009.09.11
In another of those warehouse discoveries, a few copies of the late Peter Burnhill’s Type spaces have come to light, after we had declared it out of print here (our North American distributor still has some left). There are several reasons to get hold of this book, which we are unlikely now to reprint. The […]
Burnhill obituary
Ash Smith / 2007.06.22
Paul Stiff’s obituary of Peter Burnhill is published in The Guardian today.
The x-height ribbon
Ash Smith / 2007.05.08
Sergei Egorov (it must be him) has made an analysis of a column of Aldine text that seems to correlate with Peter Burnhill’s findings in Type spaces.
Remembering Peter Burnhill
Ash Smith / 2007.04.17
Peter was there in Stafford as a constant point of reference for me for about thirty years. I remember making what seemed like a pilgrimage from Reading to Stafford, in 1977, to meet him for the first time, and the others around him in the group that made and ran the typography course at the College of Art and Design.
Peter Burnhill
Ash Smith / 2007.03.13
Peter Burnhill died in hospital at Stafford on Sunday 11 March, aged 84. We will publish something here soon about him and his work.
The Stafford papers
Ash Smith / 2007.02.22
The ‘Optimism of modernity’ project has posted its first ‘documents’.
‘Type spaces’ reviewed
Ash Smith / 2004.05.24
n an unusually perceptive appreciation of the book in his ‘Schrift & Charakter’ column (Institut für Textkritik), Roland Reuß defends Burnhill against the charge of over-interpretation.
‘Type spaces’ coming
Ash Smith / 2003.05.10
The next Hyphen Press title to be published will be Peter Burnhill’s Type spaces. Page make-up and proofing of the book is in its final stages.
‘Type spaces’ reviewed (2)
Ash Smith / 2003.03.02
An appreciation of the book by Jacques André is published in La Lettre Gutenberg (number 29), with some lamentations about how such a work could not possibly be published in France.
‘Type spaces’
Ash Smith / 2000.12.31
The new issue of Typography papers (no. 4), published by the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading contains an article by Peter Burnhill, ‘Type spaces’, and a symposium on these ideas.