The Grabhorn Press

The Book of Job.
San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1926.
(AEP0206 Oversize)

Printed by Edwin and Robert Grabhorn – Frontispiece by Valenti Angelo

The Book of Job is one of two Biblical texts printed in 1926 by brothers Edwin and Robert Grabhorn at San Francisco’s Grabhorn Press, the other being The Book of Ruth. The text was taken from the Authorized Version of 1611 as arranged by the Temple Bible. The handset text was printed black in Goudy Antique. Headings and significant transitions were printed red in Hammer Uncial, designed by Victor Hammer (1882–1967). Hammer’s typeface was also used for the blue and red caption title.

The layout of the text is both striking and meaningful. The narrative of Job’s life and the background to his story is printed in a large block paragraph making up a single column that spans the width of the page. Individual lines of verse are marked by paragraph symbols known as pilcrows. The words spoken by Job appear in two columns. This pattern of single-column narrative and two-column dialog persists in the pages following, with the dialog between Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, laid out as poetic verses. The frontispiece illustration is a color woodblock print by Valenti Angelo (1897–1982), one of the first by Angelo for the press. The print is signed by the artist. Printed in an edition of two hundred ten, the copy on display is number 170.