Trajan Letter Forms and Brush Strokes
Edward Catich, America (1906-79), 1965
Carved and painted slate
330 x 661 x 9 mm.
Inscription, upper left: "For Frank Kacmarcik E. Catich '65".

This slate alphabet stone was carved, painted and inscribed to Frank Kacmarcik by Edward Catich in 1965. Catich's seminal book The Origin of the Serif, published in 1968, reconstructs the method used by ancient Romans to make their classic capital letter shapes by studying the inscription chiseled into the Trajan Column (112 - 113 C.E.). In Arca Artium's alphabet stone Catich demonstrates his theory that the architecture of Roman capital letter forms was sketched quickly using a chisel-shaped brush to achieve wide variations in line thickness within a single stroke simply by changing the cant of the brush. Brush marks were chiseled into a deep V-cut, allowing shadow to create the illusion of form. Finally, the incised letters were painted to enhance legibility. The stone's first row of letters, SPQR, are initials for Senatus Populusque Romanus: the senate and the people of Rome.