Notes on the Designing of the
Ludlow Nicolas Jenson Type,
Later Renamed Eusebius

In 1921 Mr. George O. Cromwell, Vice-President of the Ludlow Typograph Company, communicated with the late Ernst F. Detterer for the purpose of obtaining a design for a typeface based upon the roman type of Nicolas Jenson, 15th century Italian printer. At that time Mr. Detterer was head of the newly established Department of Printing Arts of the Art Institute of Chicago School.

In a letter, dated October 18, 1921, addressed to Mr. Cromwell, Mr. Detterer made the following statement related to his training and work:

      Graduated from the Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Latin-scientific course.
      Studied in the Chatauqua, New York, Summer Schools. Printing, Henry Turner Bailey. Lettering, James Hall.
      Studied in the School of Industrial Art of the Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia. Illustration course - two years.
      Travelled in England and France studying manuscript writing and illumination in libraries and museums. Studied lettering with Edward Johnston. One summer.
      Travelled in Belgium, Holland, and Italy, continuing the studies in museums and libraries, and studying also Roman inscriptions. One summer.
      Taught lettering, design, and general public school art at the Chicago Normal College. Nine years.
      Taught lettering and design at the Art Institute School. Four years. At present, I am head of the Printing Arts Department of the Art Institute School.
      In addition to these notes it may be pertinent to add that I have made quite a reference collection of fragments of medieval manuscripts, of early printing, and of books from the modern private presses which represent the finest contemporary printing. I have also written three pamphlets on the teaching of lettering in the public schools and have prepared a chart of alphabets to be used there.
      I hope that this series of notes will give you the information you desire, and I am, Yours Sincerely."

In February, 1923 Mr. Detterer was engaged on a part time basis by the Ludlow people to start work on the design of a Jenson type. At the beginning of this engagement Mr. Detterer spent considerable time at the Ludlow plant familiarizing himself with the Ludlow machine, matrix manufacturing, and the Ludlow method of composition.

The first step taken by Mr. Detterer was to obtain photostatic enlargements (10 times) of a Jenson roman type. For this purpose he selected the Newberry Library copy of "Leonardus Aretinus De Bello Italico", [ed. Not the Eusebius history] printed by Jenson in 1471. Photostatic enlargements were made of a page of lowercase; also a page containing three lines of capitals and the remainder in lowercase. He also obtained a photostatic enlargement of a 15th Century humanistic manuscript page corresponding with a manuscript model such as Jenson might have used when cutting the punches for his type. It was Mr. Detterer's intention to not only produce a faithful model of the Jenson roman, but also to become familiar with, and limit himself to, the source material available in Jenson's day.

Drawings — ten times the Jenson type size — for the lowercase alphabet were completed in July, 1923. These were arranged in word combinations and photographic reductions to type size made for comparison with the Jenson type. After several revisions the drawings were used to obtain zinc etchings reduced to type size. The zinc etchings were printed on severe1 kinds of paper to observe the different printed effects influenced by paper surfaces. A handmade paper similar to Jenson's paper was also used, and impressions obtained by printing damp, for a comparison with the Jenson type.

At this stage Mr. Robert Wiebking, punch cutter and engraver, was consulted on the progress made thus far. He gave his general approval of the proofs from the zinc etchings, but warned that the set should not be too close .

Following consultation with Mr. Wiebking, punch patterns were produced from Detterer's lowercase drawings and a few trial lowercase punches were engraved and trial matrices driven. Casts were made of the trial characters and proofs pulled for study.

By January 1924 a complete set of drawings for capitals and lowercase were completed and released for pattern making. A considerable period lapsed between the completion of the drawings and the completion of patterns. It was not until March 1926 that the complete set of patterns were (sic) delivered to Wiebking Engraving Company for cutting the initial 16 Pt punches. These punches were cut to duplicate the Jenson size, and were completed by the Wiebking Engraving Company in April, 1926. The first font of matrices were (sic) completed in June, 1926. After considerable study, the re-cutting of several lowercase characters, and the establishing of many fitting revisions, the first 16 Pt size was considered completed in January, 1927.

This initial size was used as the basis for developing the Jenson type series, but was discarded later and a new 16 Pt size cut, [ed. Our surviving patterns?] since the form was somewhat larger than standard Ludlow 16 Pt size.

The first use of the Nicolas Jenson was a setting of the original 16 Pt size for an introductory book Ludlow entitled "The Last Will and Testament of the Late Nicolas Jenson ", issued by the Ludlow Typograph Company. The colophon of this book contains the following statement:

"Here endeth the Last Will and Testament of the late Nicolas Jenson, Printer, who departed this Life at the City of Venice, in the month of September, A. D. 1480. Which Will is preserved in Authentic Copy among the Archives of that Noble City. It is now, after four hundred and forty-eight years first turned from Latin into the English tongue by Pierce Butler at the Newberry Library in Chicago.

"This book is Ludlow-set in a trial font of sixteen point Nicolas Jenson, a new type designed by Ernst Detterer, interpreting as faithfully as possible the original roman type of Jenson, and printed in limited edition on Rives paper by the Ludlow Typograph Company of Chicago in the month of November, 1928."

The Nicolas Jenson Italic, drawn by R. Hunter Middleton, was issued in 1929, and in subsequent years Bold, Bold Italic, and Roman Open series were added to the family. In 1937 the family was renamed Eusebius.

The originals of these letters are in the Middleton papers at the Newberry Library.