Only 20 Remaining!

 

A trove of early American history, The Eastern Shore of Maryland acquired its historical pedigree partly due to the region’s inextricable bond with the Chesapeake Bay—and its 2,000 miles of shoreline, inlets and rivers. Explored for its link to the fabled Northwest Passage, prized by British business interests for its potential and a strategic pathway for both trade and maritime war, the Chesapeake Bay floated  the keels of many an historical vessel, none more significant than Capt. John Smith’s shallop.

The original account of John Smith's Chesapeake explorations appeared in Books Two and Three of his General History of Virginia published in 1624. The journals are a compelling glimpse into the early exploration of an uncharted America: the hardships, dangers, and discoveries. Even the quest for fresh water risked a hail of arrows from wary Indians.

Our appreciation of these explorations was enhanced by the recent construction and launching of a reproduction of the "shallop,” or the open boat Smith and his explorers sailed on the Chesapeake, and the re-enactment of the voyages which took place during the summer of 2007.

To share our appreciation of this adventure with the reading public, we decided to publish the two Chesapeake exploration voyages in a reader friendly, stand alone volume. We have included the original John Smith map and the later Farrer map of the Chesapeake.


Originally we considered publishing a facsimile of the text, but decided against reproducing a mirror image of the journals for reasons of legibility and also to offer the true “voice” of the narratives without distraction.  The ligature structures in the 17th Century typeface, the long “s” for f’s, as an example, make the reading more of a chore than a delight; and besides, facsimiles already exist. Type historians aside, we felt that in its original form, the book would not meet the interests of modern readers.

To drop the 17th century look of the original page and clarify the voice of the narrative, while retaining a sense of its origins, presents another set of choices. We are of the opinion that type is the vehicle of the writer’s thought. Except in terms of the page’s balance, type shouldn’t call attention to itself. It should conform to the thought on the page: content imploring its own form, as it were.

For The Chesapeake Voyages of Capt John Smith we have chosen "'Dante,“ a type designed by Giovanni Mardersteig (his last and most agree, his best), which carries with it the unmistakable tinctures of classical type design with a brightness and grace emblematic of the designer’s genius for contemporizing the older styles. We feel that the Dante type face allows the Voyages to find us in the 21st Century and allow us to participate in Smith’s dangerous and exciting exploratory voyages along the Chesapeake Bay.

The books are bound in 1/4 blue goatskin with Japanese blue-green rayon and silk cloth over boards and slipcased in the same material with brick red Bugra paper.

To the right, we offer links to everyone who has been of help with this project. We hope you will visit them and participate with Smith’s reenactment shallop trip, details of which may be found at the Sultana Projects website.