CHAPTER II

You know the story of the Alphabet from its beginning so long ago in far Egypt to the time when it came to the Romans and how it changed from pictures to signs and from signs at last to the letters of the Alphabet. You know, too, how hard it was for the people to write in those days when they had no better material than papyrus, wood and stone. That was a long, long time ago. Would you like to hear a story about what has happened to writing since the time of the Romans and the changes that have taken place in the Alphabet in its travels through the countries of Europe?

The first great thing of importance was the discovery of a new material to write on. What do you think it was?--the skins of sheep and calves! That seems strange to us and we like the paper we use today better, but think what a great improvement this discovery was then and how much easier writing could be done on the smooth surface of the skin with a pen and ink. In all of the countries except Italy this change of writing material brought about a change in the style of lettering too. The Romans alone kept to the simple form of lettering they had always used and did not change it when writing on the skins. The other European countries gradually came to vary this style and make the letters more pointed, heavier and blacker and in some cases more elaborate. This style of lettering was called the Gothic. Do you see the difference between these two alphabets?

The Alphabet had not been in these countries long enough yet for all the people to have learned to write. Only a very few knew the letters, and as all the writing was done by hand, it took a long time to write a whole book. The few books that were written were so precious that they were chained in the churches and monasteries and the people were only allowed to read them there. At last in the country of Germany a man by the name of Gutenberg thought of a way to make more books and make them faster. And this way was by printing. Just as the Alphabet spread to the different countries so this new way of writing spread, until all of the people of Europe were using printing machines and making many books.

In Germany the Gothic lettering had been used when the writing was done by hand and Gutenberg copied this style in printing the first book. When the art of printing spread to the different countries the Gothic alphabet, of course, came with it and was accepted as the correct style of letter. The Romans, however, still believed their Alphabet to be the better and cut their printing type after the Roman model. So a great quarrel sprang up between the different countries as to which Alphabet should be used, the Roman or the Gothic. In Italy a man called Manutius tried to settle the quarrel by making a letter which all the printers would use and he called his style of lettering the Italic. The printers who used the Gothic and Roman letters also used these Italic letters, but were not willing to give up their own style and use the Italic entirely.

We are so used to seeing and using the Alphabet today that we never ask ourselves how the letters came to look the way they do now. Look at Plate I, which shows a beautiful Alphabet of Gothic letters made by a famous German artist, Albert Dürer. There are twenty-nine of them, all entirely different, but still you can see that they are all brothers and sisters in one big family. Do you wonder how this came about? Look at Plate II and you will learn. The first letter _i_ is made by putting together a number of small squares in a certain way. Can you see the way the other letters are made from this letter _i_?--the _n_ is made by putting two _i_'s together; the _m_, three _i_'s, and the _r_, one _i_ and an extra square at the top. Go through the rest of the Alphabet and see if you can find out the way it is made.

Now look at Plates III, IV, V, VI, and VII showing another Alphabet by the same artist, which he patterned after the Roman letters. He found that they were made according to a certain rule and proportion, and it was these he worked out in making his Alphabet. Here you see the pattern is a large square, and the letters are drawn very carefully in them. Did you know before there was as much figuring and measuring done in the making of the Alphabet as there is in building a house? Look at the letter _E_, for example, and all the circles and squares that have been measured and drawn to make it. You will find that every letter is made just as carefully.

Here are the three _A_'s that you see in Plate III. You will find that they are not exactly alike. Can you see the difference between them?--_A_, 1, is cut off in a curve at the top, _A_, 2, goes straight up in a sharp point, and _A_, 3, is cut off flat. Do you notice, too, the difference in the thickness of the letters?

Look at the other letters in this Alphabet (Plates III, IV, V, VI, and VII) and see if you can tell me about them in the way I have told you about the _A_'s.

For many, many years, the printers in the different countries used Alphabets the artists had made for them, without being able to decide which they liked the best, the Roman, Gothic or Italic. On Plate VIII you will find a little poem by Shakespeare printed in these three Alphabets. Which one do you like the best? I am sure you will choose the one that is the simplest, the easiest to read and at the same time the most beautiful--the Roman. In the quarrel which had been going on for so many years, the Roman alphabet won the victory, and that is how it came about that the Roman is used in printing all our newspapers and books today. At last after so many hundreds of years it has traveled through the other countries to us. Many times you cannot recognize the letters, and they look very different from the Roman models from which they were patterned, but that is because we are not as careful with the measurements and proportions as were Albert Dürer and the other Masters in that time long ago.