From: Edward Hobbs (EHOBBS@WELLESLEY.EDU)
Date: Mon Feb 22 1999 - 11:29:25 EST
Colleagues:
Edgar Krentz writes that he doesn't mind the UBS4 font:
------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I confess that I do not share the dissatisfaction with the Greek font in
UBS4 that so many have expressed. Part of studyding Greek is getting to the
point that fonts no longer matter. I agree that all italic fonts make for
slower reading--unless one gets used to them. But, as a regular user of
Linguist's Software fonts [primarily Graeca], I find their fonts well
designed and quite legible. [I also use other Greek font packages at times.]
I no longer own the 16th and 17th editions of Nestle, which I first used
back in the 1940s. Those older "Teubner fonts" gave me a bit of trouble at
first [coming from the font used in a text like Crosby and Schaeffer]; but
two weeks of translating removed the difficulties.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<-------------------
He is blessed indeed! I have been reading English since 1930, when my
older brother taught me how to do it. That's 67 years of reading English,
and I STILL find that the fonts matter greatly! My speed doubles with some
fonts over some others. And as for pleasure and pain--- some lovely
fonts continuously give me a sense of pleasure as I read (English OR
Greek), and others are like a constant buzzing in the background, or
like reading in bad light. This means I am thin-skinned when I am
reading, and Edgar is not.
In the case of Greek, I STILL find the old Teubner fonts distressing,
though nowhere nearly as bad as the UBS4 font-cum-thin-cheap-paper.
And the old Nestles in later editions, when the plates were badly worn
and pitted, were irritating. Even the Grossdruck edition (large print)
was ugly, since it merely magnified the flaws in the plates.
On the other hand, reading the Greek texts
published by the Clarendon Press of old (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press)
was a constant pleasure. (My first Greek professor, Benedict Einarson at
Chicago, once said that it was a style designed by a Spanish monk.)
Edgar concludes:
>The solution seeems relatively simple to me. Don't use UBS4; read Aland 27.
>Or get a copy of the old Alexander Souter text with its very clear type
>font.
Right! If one buys a new copy. NA27 is the only choice.
Used: UBS1,2,3,3c OR BFBS Nestle-Kilpatrick2 OR Souter
I happen to use, when I am in my office, the Grossdruck NA27
which Rod Decker mentioned. It is quite nice and readable, but needs
to stay on your desk; it's not that portable. The "Grossdruck" (Large
Print) designation is on the spine, and also just above the Copyright
notice on the verso of the title-page.
Edgar: You have a copy of Beza 1567 ????? Incredible!
(I have ACCESS to a copy in our Special Collections at the library!)
In 1947, I had a chance to buy a beautiful copy of Stephanus 1550
(THE Textus Receptus, Editio Regia), for $50 (when post-WW-II economic
collapse in Europe led to panic selling of treasures). I was a
poerty-stricken student, who decided he couldn't afford it.
(The worst decision I ever made.)
Edward Hobbs
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