ADAM COLE

Perpetua and Felicity.

"Letters are things not pictures of things" Eric Gill

The type, based on Gill's inscriptional lettering, is intended to have a chiselled quality characteristic of engraving.

First used in the book The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity; therefore the roman was named Perpetua, and the italic was named Felicity.

Designed by gill in the Black Mountains of Wales around 1924 based on the letter forms of the font on roman Trajan columns. The story goes that this is of many fonts commisioned by Stanley Morrison who said:
"The design expresses a note of particularity and self-consciousness not universally acceptable. . . . Perpetua may be judged in the small sizes to have achieved the object of providing a distinguished form for a distinguished text; and, in the large sizes, a noble, monumental, appearance."

calligraphic italic g looks something like a backwards, upside-down B
sharp, small, horizontal serifs
despite a general old face character, stress is vertical in O o
A has a flat top
a has an unusual tapered top
g has rather a long link

In the italic, D, J, and R are cursive, others are "inclined momnumental characters" (S.Morison); nonetheless, the face as a whole has a happy and original harmony.

Morrison commisioned the font on behalf of what was know as the Monotype corporation (now known as Agfamonotype). This is one of most important commissioning by Morrison rivaled by Times Roman, which has had a fairly big impact. Whilst on the subjects surrounding Gill, too Oftern he is credited with the 'london underground font' infact the signage is entirly credited to E. John. Although Gill recieved a 10% production fee for the signage work, the story goes that this is the basis for the idea of Gill Sans.