Stephen Harvard spoke of bridge people, a bridge person being one of those fortunate or unfortunate souls, depending on your point of view, who lives through a time of abrupt change in a writing system.

Twenty years ago, when the three of us gave our lectures here at Dartmouth, typography on the personal computer had only begun. It was very exciting to be part of the phenomenon. Right now, serious deliberations are going on about how to facilitate making all digital fonts available on the web. The abrupt change is not over.

In this presentation we will look back at the most radical change of all, from no writing to writing. We will look at the work of some of the first bridge people in the Roman tradition – those pioneers who wrestled with the straights and the rounds.