Designing the Word of God by the Czech Brethren: the Role of Pilcrows and Printer's Ornaments

0550864 - KNAV 2022 eng A - Abstract
Sladká, Veronika
Designing the Word of God by the Czech Brethren: the Role of Pilcrows and Printer's Ornaments.
[RSA Virtual 2021. On-line, 13.04.2021-22.04.2021]
Event organizer: Renaissance Society of America
URL events: https://www.rsa.org/page/Virtual2021 
Institutional support: RVO:67985971
Keywords : typography * Unity of the Brethren * Bible * Hymnbook
OECD category: 6. Humanities and the Arts

The visual appearance of the text is what attracts the buyer and helps the reader to understand its meaning. However, we rarely know the person who made decisions about this crucial moment in the making of a book. A case apart (at least in Czech history) is the richly decorated Hymnbooks and New Testaments published by a moderate protestant group called the Unity of the Brethren whose bishops determined the textual and typographical form of every book printed on an illegal press in Ivančice (Moravia) between 1562-1618. This paper elucidates the innovative role of pilcrows and printer's ornaments in the Brethren's religious songs and biblical editions. The analysis of the Brethren design features conducted as a part of my dissertation revealed that it was the sophisticated mise- en-page that helped the Brethren to maintain and spread their ideology and attracted protectors and benefactors.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0326684