MUSICA ANTIQUA

THE SIXTH VOLUME IN A SERIES OF MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE POSTSCRIPT CLIP
ART

January 31, 1993 -- BBL Typographic has released its sixth volume of
medieval and Renaissance graphic images in digitized form for the
Macintosh and IBM PC compatible computers.

Similarly to the previous five volumes, the new volume contains a complete
alphabet of initial letters (31 in total, with some repetitions), and
forty ornaments, all with a musical theme. Thus the title--Musica
Antiqua.

The alphabet is based on the 16th century Italian design created in Venice
by Cresci. The letters are very ornate and calligraphic in appearance. The
structure of the letters is often distorted and elaborated, but they are
recognizable by a modern reader with a few exceptions for which
alternative designs were provided.

The ornaments include musicians playing and singing, a wide variety of the
instruments of the Renaissance (citterns, harps, lutes, organs, pipes,
etc.), and some musical scores and notations of the period. All are
reproductions of the authentic 15th and 16th century typographic art form
Italy, France, Germany and England.

We have attached a high resolution copy of a few letters and ornaments in
the volume. On the first page, a figure of a boy under the trees is based
on a vignette from the title page of Scelta di Madrigali, published in
Florence in 1582, which is a collection of madrigals by various Italian
composers. The table of Gamma vt is taken from A Short Introduction into
the Science of Music printed in London in 1564. The book says: (...) in
this table of Gamma vt, is contayned all what is necessary to y knowledge
of singing: Wherefore it must be diligently wayed, & must also be
perfectly commited to memory, so that ye can redely say it without booke,
both forward and backward, that is upward and downeward (...). The musical
score comes from The New Interlude probably published in England in 1539.

The elaborate border on the second page comes from Symphoniae Iucundae,
published in Wittenberg in 1538--a collection of Protestant church music.
The border is separated into seven images, which can be used to form the
original design (as shown) or in various combinations to create different
borders. The images can be further separated into single instruments etc.

All the images were created as clusters of single elements which can be
ungrouped and then used as individual illustrations. New illustrations can
be easily created by separating complex pictures, modifying single
elements, and combining modified elements from various pictures into new
groups. The extent of manipulations depends only on the capabilities of
the application program used. In general terms, graphics programs will
allow for full scope of editing, while word processing and page layout
applications typically provide only image sizing capability.

The collection is available in two formats for Macintosh computers:

* EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) saved in Adobe Illustrator 3 
  with PICT screen preview
* native Aldus Freehand 3 Illustration and in three formats 
  for IBM PC compatible computers:
  * .EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) with 75dpi screen preview
  * .CDR, native CorelDRAW! format editable in CorelDRAW!
    versions 2.x and 3
  * .YAL, Arts & Letters Editor symbol library 

The other five volumes in the series are:

* vol. 1, Westminster Abbey, based on XV century monuments 
  at the Westminster Abbey
* vol. 2, Pontificale of John II, based on late XV century 
  French manuscripts
* vol. 3, The Golden Bible, based on XV and XVI century 
  printed bibles from Germany
* vol. 4, St Mary of Soest, based on XIV century embroidered
  altar cloth from Germany
* vol. 5, Paris Book of Hours, based on XVI century woodcuts 
  from France

All six volumes in the series include a full set of initial letters and
decorative elements, borders, grotesques, etc.--over 70 images per volume.
The letters and illustrations are suited for many different kinds of
display purposes--advertising, flyers, newsletters, books, brochures,
letterheads, various occasional prints etc. Formats available offer full
compatibility with almost every modern application software, like word
processors, page layout, graphics programs, etc.

All volumes can be ordered directly from BBL Typographic. The price of a
single volume is US$90, or US$80 for orders of three or more volumes. Full
library of six volumes (over 430 images) is available at a special price
of US$460. A demo diskette containing 18 sample images (3 images from each
volume) is available for US$10, credited to the first purchase. All prices
include Air freight.

THE COMPANY PROFILE

BBL Typographic was established in 1990. We are a small family owned and
operated company located in Australia. Our goal is to preserve old
typographic art and facilitate its use by modern graphic artists and
typesetters.

Currently our collection of clip art consists of six volumes of digitized
images. Each volume offers a complete alphabet of ornate initial letters
and matching typographic ornaments--in total over 420 images. Each volume
has its distinct style. All our images are faithful reproductions of
medieval and Renaissance letterforms and embellishments created by various
artists in bronze, stone, wood and other materials. The images are
hand-drawn with meticulous attention to detail. When the original
letterforms or ornaments are incomplete we recreate the missing sections.
In some cases we provide an original letterform, and a letterform modified
by us for readability.

It is our intentions to produce more volumes in the future. We are
constantly researching new sources and materials. Our growing library
provides the customers with images which are different, sometimes curious,
but always historically acurate and applicable to their needs. We also
make sure that the formats offered by us are and remain compatible with
all the accepted standards for Macintosh and IBM PC compatible computers.

BBL Typographic
137 Narrow Neck Rd, Katoomba
NSW 2780 AUSTRALIA
Tel: 011-61-47-826111;  Fax: 011-61-47-826144

  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
  |   From the America Online - New Product Information Services  |
  +===============================================================+
  | This information was processed from data provided by the      |
  | above mentioned company. For additional details, contact the  |
  | company at the address or telephone number indicated above.   |
  |    All submissions for this service should be addressed to    |
  |   BAKER ENTERPRISES, 20 Ferro Drive, Sewell, NJ 08080 U.S.A.  |
  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
