Every individual Gothic letter has several quasi-authoritative shapes, and all of these variants may be accepted, as long as they display an intelligent conception of the spirit of the style as a whole. Unlike the Roman letters, which attained a complete and final development, Gothic letters never reached authoritative and definitive forms, any more than did Gothic architecture. Their effect is often tiring and confusing to the eye because of the constant recurrence of very similar forms with different letter meanings yet this very similarity is the main cause of the pleasing aspect of a page of Gothic lettering. The same spirit of freedom and restlessness characterizes the architecture of the period wherein this style of letter was developed and Gothic letters are in many ways akin to the fundamental forms of Gothic architecture. The name “Gothic” applies rather to the spirit than to the exact letter forms of the style. This helpful passage from Frank Chouteau Brown’s Letters and Lettering (1921) explains the origin and the original understanding of the term “Gothic” as applied to type: One of the most interesting things about Franklin Gothic is that, as Lawson points out, it has nothing to do with Benjamin Franklin and is not really a “gothic” font. For most of the history of typography gothic type meant Blackletter, like the original typeface used by Gutenberg in his famous printing press. Developed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1903, Franklin Gothic was named after the American statesman Benjamin Franklin.* But is it Gothic?
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