Figurative Alphabets

Just as there are pictures composed of letters: calligrams, for example; there are, inversely, letters made from pictures. An interesting sub-set of the latter are those alphabets contrived out of human figures…

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There are many examples of figurative initials in mediæval manuscripts. One of the earliest known alphabets wholly drawn in such a way is that of Giovannino de Grassi (active 1389-98), as detailed in the first of the two images above. The second image shows part of an engraved 15th Century alphabet, strongly reminiscent of de Grassi’s, executed by a German artist known only as ‘Master E.S.’ (active ca. 1450-67), after the initials found on several of his prints.

Geofroy Tory (ca. 1480-1533) was a printer, designer and engraver best known today for his book Champ Fleury, ‘wherein he explains and illustrates the theory governing his designs of Roman capitals.’ These designs, in the best Renaissance fashion, derive from human proportions, and such derivations are illustrated in the book, as in the latters A and H pictured above.

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A complete figurative alphabet was published by one Peter Flötner (ca. 1485-1546) in 1534. In Flötner’s alphabet, naked or nearly-naked figures are posed singly or disposed in pairs to form the various letters. Unlike de Grassi’s alphabet, we find only human figures here, no other animals. And unlike Tory’s illustrations, these letters seem an end in themselves, rather than the means of demonstrating a design strategy. Flötner’s alphabet was imitated by other engravers. The letters G and N above are reproduced from an alphabet published by one Martin Weygel in Bavaria in 1560. Weygel’s alphabet can be found complete at this site.

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Giovanni Battista Braccelli, creator of the mysterious Bizzarie di Varie Figuri, was also responsible, we learn, for the design of a figurative alphabet (in 1632). Another odd alphabet, which, alas, I have been unable to find entire, is that by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli (1634-1718), entitled Alfabeto in Sogno (Dream Alphabet), in which each figurated letter is illustrated together with other items meant to suggest or exemplify a word beginning with that same letter. For example, D stands for Diligenza, or, perhaps, Disembodied Ears! Mitelli, like Flötner, is also notable for his creation of a design for a deck of cards…

Had I the stamina, I could continue with further examples from the 18th through to the 20th century, with the figurative alphabets produced varying from the surpassingly elegant to the crudely indecent (for more examples of the latter, see Max Bruinsma’s essay on The Erotics of Type.) For further related reading, see these sites.