‘The curves in the Trajan capitals are not simple geometrical lines, but are carefully considered qualities which impart a character to the forms that no mechanical construction can possibly give. So far as we of today are concerned, the Trajan alphabet, in its spontaneity, is primal’ (69). Thus the acclaimed twentieth-century calligrapher and typesetter Frederic W. Goudy sets the tone for this exploration of what for many is (and no less than) the alphabetic apotheosis of Western culture. Paul Shaw's The Eternal Letter gives life to the richness of the Trajan alphabet and its evolution through stone-cut letters, wood carvings, parchment writing and as pixels on screens. The first in a series by the MIT Press on ‘Codex Studies in Letterforms’, the volume consists of thirty short essays from leading international historians, calligraphers, craftsmen and designers. While the overall structure of the book is somewhat less than clearly defined, its interests stretch from aesthetic meditations on the Trajan letterform through its historical evolution to case studies of twentieth-century craftsmen and calligraphers.

The Forum of Trajan and its column, erected in a.d. 113, stand as a watershed moment in representing traditional letterforms. The new Imperial Roman capitals (capitalis quadrata) differed from their classical counterparts (capitalis monumentalis) substantially in terms of variations in thickness and width as well as bearing ‘more fully bracketed’ serifs (1). S. begins the volume with essays templating the alphabet's aesthetic attraction and offering a technical hypothesis for the letters' character as falling within a golden ratio, whereby their visual weight remains ‘not too heavy, not too light, but just right’ (23). Next, essays dealing with the historical evolution of the Trajan letterform are offered, opening with Frank Blokland's piece on the evolution of capitals within printed Roman type. Blokland tracks their development starting with changes in the classical proportions of lowercase letters in the fifteenth century with the eminent French engraver Nicolas Jenson (1404–1480). Here the key rôle played by punch letters in harnessing an increasingly complex industrial process spread typesetting across Europe leading to early Renaissance humanist (as distinguished from Gothic script) typesetting. This continued historical interest in the alphabet is traced through an essay by James Mosley on the brilliant sixteenth-century calligrapher Giovanni Francesco Cresi (1534–1614) who, as official ‘writer’ to the Vatican Library, replaced the formal chancery cursive scripts with greater variability and fluid curves whose influence can still be seen in the building inscriptions of the Vatican City.

The book's focus then shifts with essays highlighting, albeit briefly, three of the past century's most enduring craftsmen of the Trajan letterform. Firstly, Steve Matteson on Frederic W. Goudy (1865–1947) who was responsible for, amongst other things, the typefaces of Record Title, Trajan Title and Goudy Oldstyle as well authoring the acclaimed The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering (1942). Then Ewan Clayton on the British designer and letter carver Eric Gill (1887–1940) who, as student of the doyen of modern calligraphy Edward Johnston, came to reflect the values and tenor of the Arts and Crafts Movement, gaining great prominence as a sculptor as well as designing the block letter typeface still used by the London Underground. Finally, there is a useful survey by Martin Majoor of the work of Jan van Krimpen (1892–1958) notable for his contributions to twentieth-century typesetting and stamp design.

The next set of essays focuses on the contemporary work of artisans beginning with Richard Kindersley on The John Stevens Shop, the longest operating business in the United States, whose contributions include the John F. Kennedy memorial in Virginia. This is followed by a helpful discussion by Gregory MacNaughton of The Origin of the Serif (1968) by Father Edward Catich (1906–1979), who argued that Trajan letterforms were the result not of the use of the pencil or of complex geometry, but rather the dexterity of the flat-edged brush of Roman calligraphers.

The volume concludes with a block of essays on technological innovations in type design with the technically demanding development of Abode Trajan and Trajan Pro 3 fonts respectively, the continuing importance and need of calligraphers in the process of type design as well as the return of the classical Trajan in advertising and contemporary media. There are also useful references to prominent collections of Roman inscriptions as well a survey of practical ‘methods and tips’ for their recording.

The Eternal Letter is a lustrously illustrated and eruditely informed tour de force. Though the volume moves in a broadly historical examination of the Trajan alphabet, it would perhaps have benefited from a clearer definition of structure, with subheadings in the contents or references made in the Introduction which clearly explicate the areas to be discussed by the contributors. It would certainly have been very helpful to have an index. Likewise there is something of an imbalance in the coverage (and in the length of the essays): certainly more might have been said about the revival of the Trajan alphabet during the Renaissance. Perhaps too, the often rather snapshot biographical accounts of individual craftsmen might have offered a more critical appreciation of their achievements (and failings). That said, despite some problems of structure and in the organization of material, this edited volume is a very welcome contribution — and with a broad appeal. It will certainly find an interested readership not only amongst specialists (classicists, calligraphers and palaeographers), but amongst all those interested in the history of — what remains an enduring symbol of human civilization — the written alphabet.