France, 13th Century, just after the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Open edition typography. Black ink only.

A Counterblast to Tobacco by King James I.

Open edition digital print. Black ink only.

Image Size: 12 x 18

England, 16th Century. Consisting of a single printed page overlaid with thin transparent horn and mounted on wood, the Elizabethan Hornbook was a child’s first primer. It taught the alphabet and elements of syllabication; it also included the Lord’s Prayer. Discipline was severe in Elizabethan schools, and the school day was unmercifully long, running from six or seven in the morning until five or six in the afternoon, six days per week.

Limited edition screen print (400) from a hand-cut stencil.

Woodcut from Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff, Basel, 1494. Image and border restored by re-drawing.

Open edition digital image. All 5 ink colors available.

Alphabet and border derived from Irish sources.
Typographic sample sheets such as this are traditionally made by small pressesand independent printers as holiday gifts.

Open edition engraving

Typeface designed by Geoffroy Tory, Paris, 1522-1529.

Open edition engraving. Red or green ink only.

Adapted from Drinke and Welcome by John Taylor (1580-1653)

Open edition digital image, Black ink only.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. - Aristotle
Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something. - Plato
All 5 ink colors available.

I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence wished us to abandon their use, giving us by some other means the information we could gain from them. - Galileo
To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine
All 5 ink colors available.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, or perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. - Machiavelli
Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has. To be a Christian, you must pluck out the eye of reason.
- Martin Luther
All 5 ink colors available.

My advice to you is to get married. If you find a good wife, you’ll be happy; if not, you’ll become a philosopher. - Socrates
While farmers generally allow one rooster for ten hens, ten men are scarcely sufficient to service one woman. - Giovanni Boccaccio
All 5 ink colors available.

Compiled from various 12th century treatises on the proper manner of courtly romance including Capellanus' De Arte Honesti Amandi and Marie de France's Equitan.

Open edition engraving. All 5 ink colors available.

The Seven Mortal and Venial Sins plus Other Real and Ridiculous Offences.

Open edition typography

From the Boke of Curtasye (c. 1430) and the Boke of Nurture, or Schoole of Good Manners: compyled by Hugh Rhodes of the King’s Chapell (1577).

Open edition engraving. All 5 ink colors available.