Just finishing off editorial stuff on my end and thought I'd share this reference, which has relevance to our publication.
Noordzij, Gerrit, 2005, The stroke theory of writing, Hyphen Press, London
Here's Noordzij's investigative distinction of writing and type:
'It is inadmissible to suggest that type is writing, because such speculations undermine the prejudice (a prejudice is a viewpoint that may not be placed in question). When the facts still compel us to compare type with handwriting, the facts are suppressed. The history of the 'romain du roi' is a good example of this. The 'romain du roi' was cut around 1700 according to the directives of a scientific commission. The proposal was worked out on a grid - the traditional way of transposing drawings to scale. The minutes of the commission confirm what anyone can ascertain: the designs follow in detail the handwriting of Nicholas Jarry, who worked around 1650 as calligrapher for the Cabinet du Roi. This history leaves us no other choice than to view the 'romain du roi' - the type - in terms of the handwriting of Jarry. But if this were the case the foundation beneath the sciences of writing would fall away. Scholars forestall the landslide by keeping the affair under wraps. In its place they present the 'romain du roi' as a turning point in history. The grid would then have had to have been the true starting point of the design, and the typographical letter would have become, once and for all, independent of handwriting.' (p17)
Here's Hyphen Press's review: http://www.hyphenpress.co.uk/books/978-0-907259-30-5
Sachiko
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