Biciclettering with James Clough
A bike ride around Modena old town, hunting for signs, plates and inscriptions with the typography historian James Clough as our guide.
For our 10-year anniversary, we organized a tour of the historic signs in Modena old town, led by James Clough. Born in London and living in Milan, he’s an historian and calligrapher, author of the book “L’Italia insegna / Signs of Italy” that we designed for Lazy Dog Press.
Our typo-tour started from Piazza San Francesco with one of the most famous signs – the one of “Telesforo Fini”, made with 23k gold leaf – and continued along Corso Canalchiaro, among antique inscriptions, the frequent “IHS” in its various styles, monograms on doorways, and unexpected surprises, like the hat shop in Corso Duomo, inside which we can find writings and calligraphic logos on glass.
In the afternoon, our group toured from “Torrefazione Caffè” in Piazza XX Settembre, to “Bottega dell’Antiquariato” in Corso Canalgrande, “Forno S. Giorgio” in Via Taglio, “La Messicana” and “Bottega Giusti” in Via Farini, and ended in Palazzo dei Musei with its lapidary inscriptions.
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