View of Trajan column in Rome, Italy.
Source: http://www.crystalinks.com/trajanscolumn.html
Another sculptural wonder of Rome is Trajan’s Column. Standing at 100 feet tall and made of marble, it is known for its spiraling sections of low relief sculpture. These reliefs commemorate Trajans victory over Dacia and tell of his tactics for winning. Underneath the columns is a pedestal with inscriptions above its door. These Roman letterforms are the basis of most typefaces that we know of today. The inscription contains all capital letters without word breaks, using various abbreviated forms. The King Library Press collection at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky owns a rubbing of the Trajan pedestal inscription that was done in 1920 by Ernst Detterer. The rubbing shows the scale of the letters, measuring about 3 ¾ inches high at the bottom of the pedestal and ranging to 4 ¾ inches at the top.
This is the transliteration of the text:
SENATVSPOPVLVSQVEROMANVS
Senatus populusque Romanus
IMPCAESARIDIVINERVAEFNERVAE
Imperatori Caesari Divi Nervae Filio Nervae
TRAIANOAVGGERMDACICOPONTIF
Traiano Augusto Germanico Dacico Pontifici MAXIMOTRIBPOTXVIIIMPVICOSVIPP
Maximo tribunicia potestate XVII Imperatori VI Consuli VI Patri Patriae
ADDECLARANDVMQVANTAEALTITVDINIS
ad declarandum quantae altitudinis MONSETLOCVSTANTISOPERIBVSSITEGESTVS
mons et locus tantis operibus sit egestus
A slightly expanded translation of the text:
“The Senate and people of Rome to the Emperor Caesar Nerva Trajan Augustus, son of Nerva of blessed memory, conqueror in Germany and Dacia, High Priest, vested with the tribunician power 17 times, proclaimed Imperator 6 times, elected consul 6 times, Father of the Nation: as an illustration of the height which this hill and place attained, now removed for such great works as these.”
The modernized typeface that is a direct reflection of the type seen on the Trajan column is called Trajan Pro. The letterforms are nearly directly reminiscent of ancient Roman letterforms. Myfonts.com writes about Trajan Pro:
“The inscription on the base of the Trajan column in Rome is an example of classic Roman letterforms, which reached their peak of refinement in the first century A.D. It is believed that the letters were first written with a brush, then carved into the stone. These forms provided the basis for this Adobe Originals typeface designed by Carol Twombly in 1989. Trajan is an elegant typeface well-suited for display work in books, magazines, posters, and billboards.” This serif font is what is called a all-capitals typeface in which lowercase letters are small capitals and capitalized letters are slightly larger. Trajan Pro is probably more common than many people may realize. It has been featured in many movie posters and promotional pieces for motion pictures. Titanic, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, I Am Legend and various other movies, specifically horror movies.
Another fact my fellow Kutztown University students may find interesting is Trajan Pro is actually the same font Kutztown uses for their logo, identity and promotional items. The University of Kansas also uses the same font, and actually pressed legal charges against Kutztown University for replicating their logo to look too similar to Kansas. Both schools have the same capital KU letters for their university logos and both used Trajan. The case was settled when it was proven by preliminary sketches that the Kutztown logo was original and wasn’t copied. Trajan Pro definitely has an appeal to people other than in just the movie industry. Here is the link to a story covering the controversy.
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/oct/15/clash_logos_rages/
Perhaps it is the elegant curvature of the letterforms, the variation of thick and thin strokes or just the prestigious quality about the font that draws so many people to use it. Whatever the case may be, there is no denying that Roman design in many aspects has shaped the modern world as we know it today.
Lindsay Derecola 