Augustino da Siena

To honor Alfred Fairbank on his eightieth birthday in 1975, David R. Godine in the United States and The Merrion Press in England collaborated in publishing this facsimile of the rare and superb writing manual of Augustino da Siena. This is the last of the great writing manuals to be cut in wood, and to examine its place in the continuum of calligraphic manuals and to elucidate its text, Alfred Fairbank, the grand master of calligraphers, has written a scholarly introduction. This first modern critical edition has been prepared from the British Museum copy of the 1568 edition, of which the only other known copy is in Florence. As were researching this we thought, oh, we’ll need to get a copy (or borrow a copy) of this book when we do a show about alphabets cut in wood. Then in writing this we learned that probably won’t be possible. . . .