Bruce Rogers describes the design process in his booklet ‘An account of the making of the Oxford Lectern Bible’: ‘The Centaur capitals were not heavy enough for the three-line chapter initials: so a new fount was cut. The first cutting proved to be too heavy, but the second cutting produced the initials shown here.’
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-ZeQ-eAZCiqBv3MMdiABIqg_kyC1oKngA_Z67HnHicHtXbx-Os2l-Byu6nbwkL8orCB0sMPv0d9jWRav00hNnzbh5CdLeV3F2t5-511tPnuqdvvH-HKHFgjawjIxpa9sfp7HVVEnkik_/s400/brinital.png)
You might expect this to be a full titling alphabet – but why the note ‘No “X” available’?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTooR_XLV_lt7ArUWFSqZv055etwTwsHUgcqb14x1yunnSvPUGCOAMCfH-obkYKkMe3ekSm-FFGaSw3aL8buVVNp-0tumZ06Ld9fprUOh1PxpwZT5pGLIse0rtxZI5q8qAmX3SiJCUm9tC/s400/centaur.png)
Another OUP specimen, ‘List of Monotype founts’ provides the answer. An Authorized Version of the Bible requires an initials of every letter of the alphabet – except X. The full table is shown below:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizVQl-Q9uacMC0M-2dfIwrvKNKscNG8S-uG2i95DqSI7Oi0fEuucl6tJZ0NMetVvQqfngoGx-4uJ9t_1ytY8hmN2pRwHiaZW779C4IZAgYfa2GHEA83t42B3PlHXiZVMh4w8tBMimqtKGh/s400/bibleinitials.png)
Being mean with letters you didn’t need was a bit of a Bible tradition at Oxford. The New Emerald Bible type, designed by Harry Carter, was only equipped with two small capitals, D and R. These were quite sufficient to set the only two words that appear in cap and small cap in the Authorized Version, ‘LORD’ and ‘GOD’. The lower-case o doubled as a small capital in this typeface.
‘An account of the making of the Oxford Lectern Bible’, Philadelphia: Lanston Monotype Machine Company [c. 1941]
‘List of | JOBBING | FOUNTS | Monotype and foundry | at the | UNIVERSITY PRESS | OXFORD | [swelled rule] | OXFORD | Printed by VIVIAN RIDLER | at the UNIVERSITY PRESS | October 1962’
‘LIST OF | MONOTYPE FOUNTS | AND SPECIAL SORTS | AT THE | UNIVERSITY PRESS | OXFORD | [university arms] | OCTOBER 1976’
Photograph of ‘An account …’ by Raph Levian