Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination

First Edition, First Printing. Fine in a fine dustjacket. A major study that traces the history and evolution of writing from ancient times to the present, and discusses how the letters of the alphabet have been invested with political, mystical, and religious significance over the centuries. Folio. A wonderful copy.

Long regarded as a divine gift, the alphabet has been seen not just as a collection of arbitrary signs but as the direct visual embodiment of meaning. Pythagoreans, Kabbalists, neo-Platonists, and medieval Catholic mystics regarded the alphabet as a code that explained the universe. Drucker (art history, Yale) examines these and other ideas about the origins and inherent meanings of the alphabet, relating them to their intellectual milieu. She also discusses developments in the forms of the letters. She notes, for example, how modern typefaces, first developed in the late 18th century, embody Enlightenment philosophy. Her well-written discussion is enriched with over 300 illustrations drawn from important texts and documents.