The beautifully proportioned letters of the classic Roman alphabet are best exemplified in the inscription cut in a marble slab at the base of the Trajan Column erected in Rome A. D. 113. Father Edward M. Catich is widely regarded as the world’s foremost authority of that inscription having made multiple rubbings from the monument and published two major books detailing the Trajan letters and how their images were written with a brush before incising. That process is explained in his book, The Origin of the Serif, 1968. Then there is Father Catich’s one-piece, full-sized cast taken directly from the monument in Rome which is believed to be the most accurate replica now in existence.

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I am very familiar with Father Catich’s work in stone, having been his principal cutter during his final years. Most of our commissioned work involved Imperial Roman letterforms cut in slate. All of that experience led me to a project that has been on my mind for quite some time. It seemed natural for me to take on the challenge of cutting a half-scale replica of the Trajan Inscription in slate. Of course, I used Father Catich's documented research as the source for my piece.

I started by reducing his drawings from the portfolio in his book Letters Redrawn from the Trajan Inscription, 1961. Those letters were traced from the rubbings he made directly from the monument in Rome. I then measured the space between the six lines from his full-sized partial cast at St. Ambrose University and reduced those measurements by 50 percent. Another essential reference was to take his photograph (Plate 70) from Letters Redrawn and enlarge it to the size I needed. That provided me with the proper layout for the lettering. Finally, I used a drawing of his that does not appear in Letters Redrawn to fill in the missing letters at the center bottom of the Trajan Inscription image. In summary: I went to the best source and took the most care to create this half-scale replica.

The finished piece is black slate. The letters are gilt in 23 karat gold leaf. Black slate and gold are the most common elements that Father and I used in our work. That is why I chose them for this piece.

My finished slate measures 25 1/4 inches in height by 57 5/8 inches wide by approximately 1/4 inch thick and sits in a black oak frame. It now resides on the classroom wall of the Letterform Archive in San Francisco, CA

letterformarchive.org