Books Contributed To

José Mendoza y Almeida

Authors/editors: Martin Majoor and Sébastien Morlighem

• Ypsilon Éditeur, Paris (Bibliothèque typographique)
• 2010
• French, English

In 2010, type historian Sébastien Morlighem convinced Ypsilon, a small Paris literary publishing firm owned and managed by Italian philosopher Isabella Checcaglini, to start the Bibliothèque typographique. This became a series of publications on type design, curated by Morlighem with a little help of some friends, including Martin Majoor and yours truly. Their French edition of Gerrit Noordzij’s De Streek (which I reviewed) was to be reprinted several times; this second book was published almost simultaneously. I contributed the introduction, translated Sébastien’s essays from French to English, and proofread the other texts. I was also lucky to meet Mr. Mendoza in person, when we shared an afternoon of lecturing at the École Estienne in Paris. In front of the class, I asked him a few questions about the design of Pascal (his first published typeface, based on capitals by his father, and developed for the Amsterdam Typefoundry). A fascinating encounter.