It’s this particular time of the year when I recall one of the more interesting discoveries about the printed word in my Typography class while I was pursuing my masteral degree in journalism in the American Midwest.
As I have written in the past, Typography, a one-unit course, was one subject that unexpectedly gave me practical life-long lessons – something that has been useful in my journalism and media career, particularly in publication production tasks.
My widely-travelled professor, the late Glenn Hanson, who was also an editor and an artist (he drew sketches of places he had visited in the country and abroad), always flashed his warm smile each time I dropped by his kingdom, the Typography Lab, each my regular consultation.
“Come in, Del (that’s how most of the guys in the Journalism Department called me),” he would say as he ushered me into the basement room that smelled of printer’s ink and was filled with galleys, linotype fonts, other items representing various stages in the printing industry history, as well as several computers, which was starting to be popular then as the university was a frontrunner in the development of computer-assisted instruction system then known as PLATO.
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While explaining early in the Fall Term the lasting value of the course to our future careers, our professor mentioned a facet in ancient typography that struck me most.
“Who are a Christians here?” he asked one day and practically everybody raised hands. Sometimes during summer, you observe Good Friday, he said (I later realized that my Holy Week memories were far richer than those of most of my classmates, except for a couple of Latinos as Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are not federal holidays, thus it’s business as usual for most).
My Latino friends and I shared stories of how the Lenten holiday is observed – processions, rituals and Seven Sayings services among others prior to Easter, or Resurrection.
In the U.S., Sunday, is more anticipated as it is observed with secular parades, feasts, bunny visits, Easter baskets, egg hunts and gift-giving in addition to the Resurrection Sunday church activities.
Good Friday was a class day, an experience new to me and my Latino friends.
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I listened intently from my rear most seat in a class of less than 20 students.
Professor Hanson went on to refresh our minds of the Crucifixion scene, with Jesus Christ nailed on the cross, which bore the inscription “INRI”.
Until today, the word is found in classrooms in local Catholic schools, with some of my former students writing it with the drawing of the cross on top of their test papers as an apparent way of asking God for guidance (and obviously for a passing score).
The detail shared by the professor that day was a revelation for us who belonged to the pre-Internet Age, while today that information is readily available to anyone of all ages with just a keyboard click.
“The Latin word ‘INRI’ on Jesus Christ’s cross should read JNRJ,” he said, to stand for Jesus [Iēsous] Nazarenus Rex Judeorum [Iudaeorum] – or Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews.
And he went on to explain that apparently, in ancient times, it was unusual to use curves in font types (like the inscription of MVNICIPALITY in town halls we see in some areas even until today).
Apparently, it’s a quirk in typography, I remembering my professor as saying.
And this week, that classroom session decades ago still rings in my mind.
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INRI or JNRJ, it makes no difference for those who believe on the rhyme and reason for the birth, life and death of Jesus which we are remembering this season, especially His Resurrection.
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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
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I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live. (John 11:25) | NWI
