The Noblest Roman: A History of the Centaur Types of Bruce Rogers

San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 2016 One of three hundred copies printed for the Book Club of California. Signed and numbered by Jerry Kelly and Misha Beletsky. Buff paper boards stamped in gilt with Bruce Rogers' device. Includes a laid-in supplement printed by Kelly for the Book Club of California (reproducing a quote from Joseph Blumenthal's biography of Rogers). . Large octavo. . Frontisportrait of Rogers. With many type specimens, reproductions of pages from books printed with Centaur, and color photo reproductions chronicling the design process of the type. Text set in three digital versions of Bruce Rogers' types (a Foundry Centaur revival (truncated) by Jerry Kelly, a new caption Centaur by Toshi Omagari, and Monotype Centaur) and printed in black and red. Design and typography by Kelly. In the publisher's brown paper slipcase, which is somewhat sunned. Otherwise, a fine copy. "Writing about the work of Bruce Rogers, and his celebrated Centaur type in particular, presents a special challenge today…[F]ew other designers and types have ever been written about, examined, adulated, and described at such length and breadth…In this book we will endeavor to unravel some of the key elements of the story and set the record straight. Examining the muddled origination of the design, the intellectual property issues involved, and the curious story of the font's recutting for machine composition, we hope to shed new light on the evolution of this seminal typeface. Along the way, we address the aesthetic legacy of the type…and how the various iterations of Centaur that Bruce Rogers produced reflect not only the evolution of his tastes, but also shed light on the history of twentieth-century typography" (p. 9). (Inventory #: 17872)