This is a detail from a ‘Design for a British Senate House’ (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London) that was drawn by John Soane when he was in Rome, and which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1779. It is the earliest known example of the monoline sanserif inscriptional letter of Republican Rome that was revived at this date and became widely used for signs and typography.

Отсюда: http://www.typoholic.ru/quotation/figgins.htm Об истории возрождения рубленых форм в Англии можно почитать в подробнейшей записи Джеймса Мосли в его блоге.