Joseph Tscherkassky- Orientalist and Typefounder
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Stephen Lubell Joseph Tscherkassky- Orientalist and Typefounder The history of print, and more specifically ty-po of his life and the reasons for his later obscurity or at graphy, has often produced individuals who blaze least those facts known to me at present. forth for a brief moment of time, and then retreat The rp_?_i_I)_@f!~ of TscheQ::as~_!<:[~ life are~-~0~. into obscurity. Such was partially the case of Jo _lQ~~-~-Ji~~~ born in I8J2JD. ..!~!l,krai~~ and b~, hannes Gutenberg, of whom little vmuld be known f~m-~.--l2_~~Q~_Q{J!-"JYQ~J9.~!!.9£YJ~.--~~~"~~-~-~-~~~.!::! of his actual invention and life, had he not been so _l:_l_i.!Q_,_ He says, in his introduction to his Hebrew type unlucky as to be sued by his creditors. Another oase catalogue: "During my long year's activity as ov1.rner is that of Mikl6s T6tfalusi Kis, the Transylvanian of the typefoundry joseph Tscherkassky in Kiew I printer, scholar and punch cutter who has left us had no chance of carrying out the long-entertained with that marvellously legible and humanistic type idea of perfecting the Hebrew types. Only by assis face- Kis janson. For some 250 years his typeface tance on the part of the firm H. Berthold AG, the was accredited to the German typefounder Anton largest type-foundry in the world, was I able to real Janson, until Kis was rescued from obscurity and his ize my plans to this great extent."S true history brought to lightr. Yet another such I have not been able to discover any details about figure is the notable r6th French punchcutter Guil theJoseph Tscherkasskytypefoundry in Kiev: its ori laume Le Be who produced some of the most beau gins, ty-pe of production or final fate. Nor do we tiful Hebrew founts ever cut- some of them used by know why Tscherkassky became interested in orien Christopher Plantin2 • At least Le Be left us some tal t:y-pefaces, an area for which he evidently had memoranda on his types, but little is known of his some expertise and reputation. His introductory actual life. note, hOiA.rever, implies that he had long been inter A possible explanation for these lacunae is the ested in Hebrew type, yet had been unable to do fact that in printing we are dealing vvith an indus anything about it. The fact of his being_j~~~-~- trial process, which merited scant attention at the would have naturally exposed him to the Hebrew time. Except for scholar printers such as Plan tin~ language and an aesthettC"Se;Sibi'iitYffiight"ieCChiiD records or original drawings vvere kept and trade se to .£_~-~-!~!'~SE?D"-~:EB::t~~t:-~_[r~~:~:~!YP~I~~~-~-:!li~ crecy Often shrouded their work-.-ftis.incliCa~tive-tiiJ:t available. the first actual description of the printing and ·-·-·At··so·_IT_l·e_\tage, g_uit~_ possiblv about the time of typesetting process that we have is Plantin's mock vV~~;ict·w;r·· r;- T;~h~~kaSskv est~blished htinseiClii ·--··-- ........................................ ---~-- ... -... C........ _--···---·-- ................... ----- .....- .......... Platonic dialogue of 1567 (Dialogues Fran~ois pour les Berlin and became the ~Eag~?!_t_~_:~~~':::~L~ec- jeunes Enfants of rs6;3), written over roo years after the first book was produced and some rzo years x GYbRGY HAJ:o..V,_,._.: Mikl6s T6tfolusi Kis, Designer of the Type >)onson<. fn: The Hungarian Book Review 4 (r984), before Moxon's more expansive Afechanick Exer pps. 8-9. cises4! 2 YoNA FlSCHER: Plo.ntin of Antwerp- Books and Prints In this essay, I should like to concentrate on the from the Collections of the Plantin-Moretus Museum. life of yet another ':i.Dsg_rrn_y": the orientalist and Antwerp. (Catalogue of the exhibition). The Israel Museum. jerusalem r98r, pp. rm-ro4. typesetting specialist J~.s~pl!__~~P~It~~~ky - or 3 An Account of Calllgraphy and Printing in the Sixteenth Tscherkasskv in the German spelting. :rsc)!-~_r_k_(lS~k~· Century from Dialogues attributed to Christopher Plantin. -;as head o/the Oriental department of·B~rtho!d .~c--- Ed. RAY NASH, Horvord College Library. Cambridge, Mass. -_i_fl ___~-~!!X~~~t!:i~i~~~~X?~~~~P-~}:~~~.E~GI~~~~~~~:~~~~---·· I940. 4 JOSEPH ivfoxoN: Mechanick Exercises on the VVhoie Art of on two p~blic9-tions in the area of "oriental" !YJ2_e Printing. Ed. HERBERT 0AVID and H. .\RRY CARTO:R. New York setting (~_ebrew and Arabic). These were produced !962. by him for Berthold AG. They are rare enough to 5 !OSEPH TSCHERKASSKY: Kotalog Hebri:iischer und fiidischer find today. I will try to uncover some of the details Schriften der SchriftgieGerei H. Berth old AG. Berlin r925. joseph Tscherkassky 223 Fig.1 joseph Tscherkassky (1879-1958) Fig. 2 Dr. Oscar jolles {1860-1929) I tion of Berthold AG. Due to the unsettled condi bam8. Sometime beh\'een r?z4 and r~9 he pub- ( tions produced by the combined effects of the 1917 _U~-~~d a type specimen book of some 19 pages with 1 .A.~, I' Russian Revolution and \Vorld ·war I, many]ev•'S did ..2?..P'lE.I~~-·-;f7!p h~bets--·anE ·e-xam p-Ies- ot~se-ttTr-ig--·tor ~ -------~-- ----~----------------·--~-~·---.. "--·-··-~-·--·-------- 6 settle in Germany at that time . Hov·: exactly he the:e ne'i\'.. !Y£~!~-~~-~- The magere Stam is a slightly achieved this position is unknown, but it is possible lighter version of the basic Stam, which follo•'\'S fair that he had previous contacts with Berthold ,..,.·hen ly closely the dark coiour of the Ashkenazic model. still in the Ukraine. There are clues that he qui!~ The other two type faces are adaptation in that Ram soo_n began to use his positio_n to advance his ovm barn is a condensed version and Rahel an incised .PE?j~<=:~~- The first project ,,vas possiblv the.....lllQ.G.1L<:: version. The specimens have a title page in Yiddish tion of the type face Miriam, '':hich \·vas produced in <written --in-··Hebfe\:~~-Ci1af-~Cte·;s)~----a~~-}!jtfO(j~~t'i:?·_~_·.)n."_ He b~-~~'"?_l]_d ..Y~~9!~ 0_,_ -~-~~-_p-~g~-~--~ f. ~-~~-t- .~.t:.!~i-~g_ .f_~_?E~~-1__ .. r~~}-~~%~~~~7~~;:J~t]~~~~-~~~~~:~~~e~~~~~~~~ Y:'-~"~P-~: --~-~-~ 2~-P.~-~~-~ ...?.~"~-~~"~-~-~-~. !YE~!~~-~-~ .. :-:~~~~-.. ~~--· Itype version this typeface -.vas commonly used for emphasis for Frank-RU.hl, due to its position in the upper magazine of the Linotype machine. (No true bold or italic version of Frank Ri.ihl was ever cut by E~}"~~~---~-~-~---~-~,?i.&!_'l~~ -~s credited with the design, but Berthold to my knowledge.) Exactly ,.,,hat part Tscherkassk'Y '"'rites in his introduction that "after a ~~Q~I.~~-~L~~.LJ?!~l~~~--~-r:~_!0.~_Er_~~~c-~~.?~~.-9.~~-~-gn 1ongp~~:!~~~<i!~-~~~:.L§j:~~~~j1~~~:~i:.. ~·~~!::_~~}.~_5?__ P!.<?~ .. of Miriam is not knovm. \!Vhat is known of that peri0d-~i·S--th3.T-Tscherkassky worked .;.VIth-SfOIT-i"a·· 6 Dr Zohur Shavitl quotes a source w·hich puts the number ~Ji~~;-~~2-r~!~!:~~~~~p-~:~'f~!l.~~).~-ori·en·t~(-~~~?.~~-;· of Jews in Berlin in 1925 at 172,672, as opposed to 6s,6n in -~~:~.?.. _!~-~-~----~_I?i~_rated ___ to Cai.r? and eventually to 1895- ZoHAR SHAVlTT: On the Hebrew Culturai Center in Geneva, \vhere he died in 1988i. Beriin in the Twenties. In: G)1993, p. 372. 7 Personal communication from Mr Sergio Haberfeld of YSCh·e-r"k3.SskV was, how€,~er, most defmitelv in- ---------··-"·---·--'--.. -----~----"~--~----~~~--·----!c·------ Toga, Sao Paulo, Brazil. ;::_~~~U!2J.b~~2.~9.~~£~9D¥.9.fJSJ.YlJl~'-"~£J?rew~!J12~- 8 JOSEPH TSCHERKASSKY: Magere Stom. Stam, Ram born, __f.~.~-~~"!!l~~!.:.:=._ ..~-~~-?-~L~~~-:E.~~5~-~~2~. an~~~- Rahel. Schriftglel1erei H. Berthold AG. Berlin nd. "'l!!l 224 Stephen Lubell 0 er!l0ee0 ~~~F\ ee 0 ee ~ ·.,.·',~.···~.. ·· ... ······ 1!JC ·····... ~~~/' 0"',:1!1 \~~ 0 0 ;000 000 0000000 000-:>0 0 0000000 00000 1l1)7:l 1l1' 1'"1!l ilt'l\ lt''l\0 'ilt'l\ ':>:l1 ':>1::1' R':> 1~':>}'1 l1\t)l:l 17;; R? ·n'';>~' 71!11)7' iWR 1ii:l1 tl'9lt'"1 '~ tl')llt'i0 p R':> ;~yl\? tl'l\~n ilt'l\ f1~:l tll\ tl'~' :llt'1~:11 p ':>)7 ·n1i 1J!lil1 tll\ '::l :llt'' l\? ' tl')llt'i 1~1P' R? ;:mn " n;;n:~ tl'R~m ~!llt'~:l ;;l;;' 1l1i1n:l1 "=> ,O'P"1l n1y:1 .;,,,,, tl~i' 1ii , 9i1' ?;nw fJI::l ;m; tl')llt'i ,,,, tl'f''i~ l:l'~ 'l'!l ,, •i:ll\l1 1lt'l\ ..., Fig. 3 Page from the Hebrew catalogue. Original in black with borders in fu!l colour; the text is in Hebrew and set in Frank-RDh! duce this catal~zy~"9_ He raises the further hop~ ---~9-~i.... ____~l~-~~"~~~----~!E-~L_, __ :~!~t:zis~~--~EE~?l:~E~-~ th(i~---~-h-~~~--~~fgi!~~-~"2!1 il1].J2.!:.~~~ the !~vel of Heb_rew ~sc'rJ.e~k<l:ssky, in_ charg~ of Hebrew and oriental type typ?~~~E~!-~.-~.!.. ~~l!.~.E~~~-~!~--~.9!J~~L~.f.£~lnt~gjg_ cutti;g -at.. th~--B~~-th'~Td ·:r~~~;·ct~;y·t;·s~n;,~ ...!b.~.-.:0:·.~.?.!_ (Eur91?f.2.-... The Hebrew sounds oddly ar _!lye was faithfully rendered into lead a_nd issued chaic to modern ears - perhaps a comment on _l!nct_~~~-~~!E-~"5~.L~!~~JJal~_;-~p~~)et·te~~S"_-~:~cter Tscherkassky's own knowledge of the language. The the name Rahel and a condensed v~rsion named typefaces are set without points (vowels) and_ are no- Rambam we~e addec!_, tvit_~-()~t Franziska's coopera "ticeable'fOfth€3fte~03te··fO'fffiS"OTthe"Glffied ·an·cTe~x~ tion or permission ... The young artist was never ~!~-~-~~---~.!l-~.u~.!-~IE.