Frank Romano’s exhaustive history is an impressive chunk of research and I highly recommend picking it up. The design of the book is ok, but the choice of New Caledonia at 9–10pt is a disappointment. Linotype’s digital version of this great Dwiggins face is far too light and contrasty for this size, and it’s especially strain-enducing when it falls to 7–8pt for footnotes. I would have set everything larger with less leading, or chosen something sturdier for the smallish body text required for this information-dense volume. Metro Nova works well as a supporting family and is quite readable even when tiny, but there are also cases of unnecessarily loose leading in captions and sidebars.