KETHAM'S "FASCICULUS MEDICINÆ." (VENICE, DE GREGORIIS, 1493.)] [Illustration: ITALIAN SCHOOL. XVTH CENTURY. POMPONIUS MELA. (VENICE, RATDOLT, 1478.)] Even in these days, however, books have been entirely produced by hand, and, for that matter, if beauty were the sole object, we could not do better than follow the methods of the scribe, illuminator, and miniaturist of the Middle Ages. But the world clamours for many copies (at least in some cases), and the artist must make terms with the printing press if he desires to live. It would be a delightful thing if every book were different--a millennium for collectors! Perhaps, too, it might be a wholesome regulation at this stage if authors were to qualify as scribes (in the old sense) and write out their own works in beautiful letters! How it would purify literary style! There is no doubt that great attention has been given to the formation of letters by designers in the past. [Sidenote: THE DÜRER ALPHABETS.] Albrecht Dürer, in his "Geometrica," for instance, gives an elaborate system for drawing the Roman capitals, and certainly produces by its means a fine alphabet in that type of letter, apparently copied from ancient Roman inscriptions. He does the same for the black letters also.[10] [10] Reproduced in "Alphabets," by E. F. Strange (pp. 244-250), Ex-Libris Series. Bell. For the Roman capitals he takes a square, and divides it into four equal parts for the A. The horizontal line across the centre gives the crossbar. The sides of the square are divided into eighths, and one eighth is measured at the top of vertical dividing line, one eighth again from each bottom corner of the square to these points, the limbs of the A, are drawn; the up stroke and cross-bar being one-sixteenth, the down stroke being one-eighth of the square in thickness. Circles of one-fourth of the square in diameter are struck at the top of the A where the limbs meet, and at lower corners, to form the outside serifs of the feet, the inside serifs being formed by circles of one-sixteenth diameter; and so the A is complete. Various sub-divisions of the square are given as guides in the formation of the other letters less symmetrical, and two or three forms are given of some, such as the O, and the R, Q, and S; but the same proportions of thick and thin strokes are adhered to, and the same method of forming the serifs. For the black letter (lower case German) text the proportions are five squares for the short letters i, n, m, u, the space between the strokes of a letter like u being one-third the thickness of the stroke, the top and bottom one being covered with one square, set diamond-wise. Eight squares for the long letters l, h, b; the tops cut off diagonally, the feet turned diamond-wise.