Figure 230
Roman Type used by Andres de Angulo, Alcalá
From a copy in Harvard College Library (facsimile), De Rebus Gestis a Francisco Ximenio, Cisnerio (scan)
1569
One of the few beautiful Spanish books of the late sixteenth century, printed in a pure and elegant roman type…a contemporary life of Cardinal Ximenez, still held as a very high authority. This book might have come from an Italian press, so spirited and delicate is the roman font used for it, compared with the most contemporary Spanish roman fonts, and so simple and elegant is it in composition and imposition. To be sure, the title-page bears a pretentious wood-block, out of keeping with the severity of the text-pages, and the prefatory matter is obtrusive. But its simple text-pages are almost Jensonian in their reliance upon pure typography for beauty.