Edward Johnston papers on his type-designs for the Cranach Press

Edward Johnston designed four types for the Cranach Press of Count Harry Kessler:

1. 2-line Brevier italic lower case (1912-1913)

2. 8-, 10- and 12-point blackletter (1912-1930)

3. 16-point Greek (1929-1930, abortive)

4. 2-line Brevier italic capitals (1930-1931).

This collection contains papers arising from all four of these projects, as well as from some earlier design work by Johnston for Kessler starting in 1904.

These papers also cover Stanley Morison's purchase of the punches for Johnston's Cranach Press types from Stevens Shanks & Co. in 1945 and their conveyance to Cambridge University Press ca. 1950.

The original papers in this collection were bought from Johnston's daughters by Stanley Morison in 1955, and were deposited at Cambridge University Press. (For the transaction see MS Add 9812 item B2/71.) Some additions have since been made: see series D and the note on series A.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Edward Johnston papers on his type-designs for the Cranach Press, MS Add.9818

Publications using this collection are:

Alan Fern, 'The count and the calligrapher; a chapter in the history of modern typographic design', in Apollo 79 no. 25 (Mar. 1964), 214-220

John Dreyfus, Italic quartet (Cambridge 1966)

Renate Müller-Krumbach, Harry Graf Kessler und die Cranach-Presse in Weimar (Hamburg 1969): Exkurs II über die Schriften der Cranach-Presse by John Dreyfus, pp. 83-122; also the English translation of this chapter by L. M. Newman in John Dieter Brinks, ed., The book as a work of art (2005), 238-259

Petra Cerne Oven, Edward Johnston and the Cranach Press Hamlet (Reading 1999).

Johnston's punches are now in the University Library historical printing collection. See Thomas Balston, The Cambridge University Press collection of private press types (1951).

Housed in 6 green cloth boxes. The labels on 5 of these boxes cover Morison's former gold-stamped title 'The Johnston Papers'. This finding-aid was prepared by J. F. Coakley in March 2010 and revised in July 2011.