VENETIAN
TYPE DESIGN OF THE RE NAISSANCE
“The spoken word dies away, the sculptured stone stands firmly in its place, the painted fresco stays on the church of one wall forever. But the book travels and it may be seen and copied in remote lands the writer has never heard of.� -Ernst Goldschmidt, The Printed Book of the Renaissance
CONTENTS
introduction........................................................6 history.................................................................... 8 notable designers.............................................12 modernization & production.......................16 glossary................................................................22 bibliography.......................................................23
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INTRODUCTION
6
venetian type design of the renaissance
T
ypography in its essence is the art of designing and arranging letter forms to create a written language. It enhances legibility and aids in expressing a certain emotion or idea often in conjunction with imagery. Although it is but a small field within the larger umbrella of art and design, typography is an essential asset that has helped mark the transition from primitivism to civilization by enabling mankind to communicate and record history.
A crucial location that contributed to the advancement of typographic discoveries was Venice, Italy during the years between 1460 and 1530. Venice is a key landmark within design history as it served as home to the most prolific period in printing history and the greatest concentration of typographic discovery. Although type design in the modern day is generally perceived as a quiet industry, the Renaissance demonstrated a vastly different narrative. Owing to the fact that materials were far less accessible, and producing books by hand was both a precarious and time consuming process; Printing a single book could often result in losing all financial stability. Despite this significant financial risk, many people felt that publishing the written word in multiples was an opportunity that held too much promise to neglect, and thus caused the print industry to forever prosper throughout Europe.
The history of typography extends back to the second millennium B.C., when impressions that reused identical characters, creating uniform text,were found on brick stamps in the Mesopotamian cities of Uruk and Larsa, As time went on, this art form traveled and evolved all over the globe, and its production methods and technology continued to advance. 7
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HISTORY
venetian type design of the renaissance
GLOBAL SPREAD OF PRINTING FINLAND
SWEDEN NORWAY
From 1428 when the first printing press was created by Johannes Gutenberg to the late 1990’s when Adobe started releasing their own digital fonts, typography has continued to transform how we learn and communicate.
Edinburgh
DENMARK
Belfast
NETHERLANDS UNITED KINGDOM
PRINT CAPITOLS
POLAND
London
GERMANY
BELGIUM LUX
Mainz
Paris
CZECH REPUBLIC SLOVAKIA
Strassburg
FRANCE AUSTRIA HUNGARY SWITZERLAND ROMANIA
SLOVENIA Lyons
DECADE OF FIRST PRI NT
Venice
NUMBER OF EDITIONS
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA MONACO
1452-1460
CROATIA
ITALY
ANDORRA PORTUGAL
SPAIN MADRID
SERBIA
Florence
MONTENEGRO KOSOVO
Rome
MACEDONIA
1461-1470
ALBANIA
1471-1480
GREECE
1481-1490 1491-1500
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BULGARIA
venetian type design of the renaissance
TIME LINE 1465
1428
1476
German printers Sweynheim and Pannartz opened their press in Subiaco and almost immediately produced a Cicero (De oratore) printed in an early and interesting antiqua type that would with time become roman.
1470
The first title page created by Erhard Ratdolt in Venice used it on an astronomical and astrological calendar.
The first notable roman type had been cut by Jenson for a text by Cicero.
Johannes Gutenberg creates the first printing press.
1469
The brothers Johann and Wendelin von Speyer opened the first printing press in Venice.
1455
1470
The first printed book is created (the bible) Started by Johannes Gutenberg and then completed by his son following his death.
Printing came to Paris (later than other cities) because scribes felt it was a dangerous invention. 10
venetian type design of the renaissance
1501
1996
Aldus Manutius of Venice began to print classical works in small octavo format which were easily portable.
1518
1492
Aldine press creates the first printed Greek Bible, "The Septuagint".
Florence becomes a center for woodcut printed art books.
1486
Robert Slimbach designs Adobe Jenson Pro; the most notable digital revival of Nicolas Jenson's first roman type revival.
1501
Erhard Ratdolt creates the first ever type specimen book (a broadsheet displaying all the typefaces he designed).
Manutius and Francesco Griffo create the first italic typeface.
1495
1929
Aldus Manutius began publishing the first printed edition of Aristotle.
The Monotype Corporation produces the font "Bembo" based off the work of Francesco Griffo. 11
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NOTABLE DESIGNERS
venetian type design of the renaissance
ALDUS MANUTIUS
A
ldus Manutius was born in 1452 in the small town of Bassiano, about 40 miles southeast of Rome. He initially spent his days studying humanism and the ancients until 1494 when he moved to Venice to open his own print shop: The Aldine Press. Manutius was considered the “scholar-printer” of the Italian Renaissance, as he was well regarded for his meticulous work ethic and his fluency in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Although his strong linguistic background allowed Manutius to design typefaces in multiple languages, he did not have the production experience most Renaissance printers possessed to successfully cut his typefaces (not to mention operate a printing press). Aware of this obstacle, Manutius reached out to a well-known metal worker, Francesco Griffo (also known as Francesco da Bologna), to partner with him at his print shop as his punch cutter. Griffo, the son of a goldsmith and engraver, was incredibly seasoned in his craft and had already gained a great deal of experience working with typography prior to working with Manutius. The skills Griffo contributed were crucial to the success of both The Aldine Press and typography as a whole, but have often been undermined by the credit given to Manutius’ throughout history. Despite Manutius’ lack of technical skills, he remained an incredibly important figure in the history of type design, as he not only expanded the stylistic possibilities of letter forms but additionally made learning more accessible to all across the globe. Through his ability to create books in other languages, including a Greek-Roman Dictionary, his development of the first Italic typeface, which was designed to aid in the conservation of space on a page, and most importantly his invention of Octavos (pamphlet-sized books which are considered as the equivalent of the modern paperback), Manutius had a remarkable influence on the development of type design and its influence on literacy. 13
venetian type design of the renaissance
NICOLAS JENSON
N
icolas Jenson was born in Burgundy, France in 1420 and is considered to be the most technical print master, type designer, and engraver of the Renaissance. Prior to his printing endeavors, he was trained as a goldsmith and cut dies for coinage at the French Royal Mint. He later traveled to Mainz (the birthplace of printing) where he studied the art of movable type under Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the first printing press. In 1470, Jenson moved to Italy and opened his print shop in Venice- the new epicenter of publishing, where he printed about 150 books during the ten years before his death. Although his print career was fairly short, his familiarity with casting metal on a small scale allowed for Jenson to easily pick up the new profession and work efficiently. In fact, it was during these ten years that Jenson made one of the greatest contributions to design history: Roman type. Derived from a conglomeration of the inscriptions on Roman monuments for uppercase letters and Carolingian minuscules for lowercase letters, Jenson catalyzed the gradual shift away from Medieval blackletter to the much more legible and contemporary humanistic alternative that remains in use today. Although there are records of attempts at Roman typefaces made by Jenson’s predecessors, it was Jenson’s unparalleled sense of precision that resulted in the most complete and polished design. Jenson’s work served as a model for roman type throughout Europe and, furthermore, helped form the typographic canon of proper design technique. 14
venetian type design of the renaissance
E R HARD RATDOLT
E
rhard Ratdolt was a German printer born in Augsburg, Germany in 1447. Although little is known about Ratdolt’s life prior to his move to Venice in 1476, he is regarded as the most creative of the designers of the Renaissance, as his work presents a unique aptitude for ornament and craftsmanship. Upon Ratdolt’s arrival in Venice, he began work on his Kalendarium of 1476, a lunar calendar spanning 55 years, which was based on the studies of the astronomer Johannes Regiomontanus. The Kalendarium signified an incredibly pivotal moment in history for both the arts and sciences, as it was the first application of modern methods for astronomical calculation, the first book to ever include a title page, and the first known attempt at color printing! In fact, Ratdolt’s title page was only the beginning of his remarkable typographic discoveries. Following his Kalendarium, he went on to produce the first edition of Euclid's Elements in1482, which bears the first printed mathematical diagrams. In addition to the first woodcut diagrams, Ratdolt also printed a dedication copy of Euclid’s Elements, which contained a dedication letter printed entirely in gold and was the first piece of printed matter to utilize metallics in printing to be presented to the Doge of Venice. Ernst Goldschmidt the author of The Printed Book of the Renaissance, wrote of him: “Of all the fifteenth-century printers Ratdolt stands out as the most inventive experimenter and as the originator of a greater number of technical innovations than any other. His whole career is distinguished by his constant willingness to tackle any new technical printing problem that presented itself.” There are few typographic revivals of Ratdolt, mainly due to the ornamental nature of his type being unfit for contemporary publishing. However, while his typography may not serve as an eternal model for Roman-style type design, it was his illustrative approach to his work that allowed him to break new ground in the print industry, as well as perceive the numerous possibilities and promising developments in the typographic arts. 15
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MODERNIZATION & PRODUCTION
venetian type design of the renaissance
W
hen thinking about the way art has evolved from the Renaissance to 2019, it is evident that there has been constant evolution in terms of style, medium, and ideals. Yet, the typographic designs that emerged out of Venetian printing have continued to remain the same to this very day. In fact the very type on this page is called "Adobe Jenson Pro"; It is based off the work of Nicolas Jenson and is often used by many designers today.
Although technology has advanced and society has adapted new methods of production, many of the typefaces we use today remain rooted in the same design developed in the 15th and 16th centuries. That being said, while it is easy to argue that the typefaces we see on our computers are not designs made by the exact hand of Nicolas Jenson or Aldus Manutius, it is worth noting the extreme care that modern type foundries put into maintaining the integrity of the original typography. “Revival type� is the term modern designers use to refer to digital typefaces that have been inspired or recreated from the past to work in digital formats. While the process of designing typefaces today is not nearly as variable, time-consuming, or labor-intensive as it was during the Renaissance, it is still a very delicate art that requires a unique sense of precision. Furthermore, the process of reviving a typeface is an incredibly complex process that entails extended periods of research along with ample technical skills, as designers try to retain as much of the original design possible. When edits are made, they call for much deliberation and are implemented with the utmost intentionality. Type design is among a very few art forms that go to such extreme lengths to preserve historical aesthetics.
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venetian type design of the renaissance
EARLY TYPE DESIGN 1.
The punch cutter carves a letter on the end of a steel bar of a fixed width. The bar is then plunged into a square of softened copper creating a hollow pit of the letter form called a matrix ( acts as a mold for the type that is cast from lead).
5.
Next, printers ink would be rolled onto a goose skin-covered bag stamp that is repeatedly beaten onto the letters to ensure the ink has been properly applied to the metal.
6.
Once the type has been inked, a piece of paper is pinned in place on a separate leather-covered board that aligns the paper in place.
7.
Another wooden board hinged to a leather board comes down over the paper, leaving only the area where the text is to be printed exposed, which ensured the paper did not get ripped or smeared.
8.
The boards are then folded over the slate of type and slid into place to get pressed.
9.
Finally, a lever is pushed to lower a rectangular weight over the boards, which presses the type against the paper.
2. To help speed up the typecasting process, Gutenberg invented the “hand mould� also known as the hand casting instrument. The contraption consists of two pieces of wood that held a rectangular metal tube in place.
3.
4.
The matrix would then be inserted into a slot at one end and molten lead would be poured into the opposite end. When the instrument was opened again, a letter cast in lead was ready to be used. Since the matrix could be reused, this process would be repeated multiple times so that there were enough letters for each word on a page. After the letters have been created, a typesetter slides each letter onto a board to form each sentence and adds in blank strips of lead to adjust the line spacing and margins until a mirror image of the page layout has formed on the board. 18
venetian type design of the renaissance
TYPE DESIGN TODAY
1.
Most typeface designs begin on paper and are sketched, traced, and refined as many times as the designer feels necessary.
2. The final sketch is then scanned at
7.
After weights are created, designers will also create a set of widths such as: ultra condensed, condensed, wide, and extra wide.
8.
Depending on how much effort one wants to put into the typeface, one might then create symbols, character for other languages, swashes, or ornaments.
9.
Once all the designs have been created, the design is then compressed into a file and sold through the foundry's website.
a high resolution and traced over with digital software such as Adobe Illustrator, FontLab, or RoboFont.
3.
Typefaces are then printed out to see how the typeface looks in print.
4.
Refinements made on the computer.
5.
Repeat previous four steps until complete.
6.
After the main roman typeface is created, the type expands into a family as the designer creates a series of weights for the type. The weights dictate the boldness of the typeface and weights can range from hairline (being the lightest), thin, light, roman, book, medium, semi bold, extra bold, and black. 19
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GLOSSARY
venetian type design of the renaissance ASCENDER: Lowercase letters such as ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘h’, ‘k’, and ‘l’ are all ascenders. This is because the main body of the letters extend above the X-Height. BASELINE: The Baseline is the imaginary line on which most letters and other characters sit. BLACKLETTER: Used to define scripts and types of the gothic period. These typefaces are usually heavy, geometric, and condensed. COLOPHON: Tailpiece, Summary, or printer's device at the end of a printed book that gives details about where and how the book was made. COUNTER: Counters are found in letters that have enclosed or partially enclosed areas of white space. DESCENDER: Descenders are the opposite of ascenders. Ascenders go above the x-height while descenders go below the baseline. DROP CAP: A large initial capital letter inserted into a deliberately indented space at the beginning of a page or a chapter. FOLIO: A book or pamphlet consisting of one or more full sheets of paper, on each of which four pages of text are printed, two on each side; each sheet is then folded once to produce two leaves. FOUNDRY: The workshop or studio where typefaces are made. GLYPH: An individual character from a typeface. GOTHIC: Originally meant to describe barbaric art of northern and western Europe.
HUMANIST: Typography that relates to the Renaissance period.Italic: In typography and calligraphy, letters which are cursive in character, often forward sloping and condensed. Originally they were stand alone typefaces used to preserve page space. Now they are supplementary types, providing emphasis or contrast with roman text setting. KERNING: The spacing between individual letters of a word. LEADING: Originally, extra strips of metal (lead alloy) inserted between lines of type to increase interlinear space. Now leading refers to the spacing between each line of text. LIGATURE: The character that is formed by the combination of two letters linked together such as fl or fi. MATRIX: A mould usually made of copper, created from the strike of a punch. The matrix is inserted into the adjustable mould, and enables the casting of type. MOULD: A piece of equipment used to cast metal type, while maintaining consistent body size, and allowing for different widths for individual letters like i (the narrowest letter in the alphabet) and w (the widest letter in the alphabet). OCTAVO: Books or pamphlets consisting of one or more full sheets of paper on which 16 pages of text are printed, then folded three time to produce eight leaves.
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PUNCH CUTTING: The craft of cutting letter punches in steel as the first stage of making metal type. Cutting punches and casting type was the first step of traditional typesetting. QUARTO: A book or pamphlet consisting of eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. ROMAN: In typography, the name given to typefaces which were derived from Humanist minuscules (lowercase letters) of the 15th century. Now used to denote upright, seriffed type. SANS SERIF: A Sans-Serif generally refers to a category of typefaces that have been designed without a Serif and contain no embellishments. SERIF: A stroke attached to or extending from the open ends of a letter form is known as the serif. Serif also refers to the general category of typefaces that have been designed with this feature. TERMINAL: A terminal is the end of any stroke that doesn’t include a serif, but instead includes ball terminals and finials (curved or tapered in shape). TRACKING: The spacing between characters in a complete section of text instead of between only two consecutive characters. VELLUM: A type of paper often used for books and manuscripts and made from calf skin. X-HEIGHT: The height of a typeface’s lowercase letters (disregarding ascenders and descenders) that rest on the Baseline.
venetian type design of the renaissance
Supremo. “Type Terms.” Supremo. https://www.supremo.co.uk/typeterms/.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY An Exhibit of Rare Books. Accessed November 10, 2019. http://www.kalamalkapress.ca/bookexhibit/jenson.html. Boardley, John D. “Erhard Ratdolt - Renaissance Typographer.” Academia.edu. Accessed November 16, 2019. https://www.academia. edu/10246736/Erhard_Ratdolt_Renaissance_Typographer. “Erhard Ratdolt and His Work at Venice: A Paper Read Before the Bibliographical Society, November ... : Gilbert Richard Redgrave , Bibliographical Society (Great Britain) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. The Society, January 1, 1894. https:// archive.org/details/erhardratdoltan00britgoog/page/n21. “Euclid, Elementa Geometriae (Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 1482).: StJohns.” Home. Accessed November 16, 2019. https://www.joh.cam. ac.uk/library/special_collections/early_books/euclid.htm. Goldschmidt, Ernst P. The Printed Book of the Renaissance: Three Lectures on Type, Illustration and Ornament. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950. Heller, Steven. “Aldus Manutius: The Visionary Who Pioneered Italics.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, March 5, 2015. https://www. theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/03/highlights-of-a-printer-who-invented-italics/386845/. “Johannes Gutenberg and the Printing Press - YouTube.” Accessed December 2, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ojyCDRc8uc. Kane, John. A Type Primer. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012. Knight, Stan. Historical Types: from Gutenberg to Ashendene. New Castle: Delaware, 2012.
LUPTON, ELLEN. Thinking with Type: a Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students. NEW YORK: PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL, 2010. Metmuseum.org. Accessed November 16, 2019. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Renaissance_Ornament_Prints_and_ Drawings. Monotype GmbH, info@linotype.com. “Font Designer – Francesco Griffo.” Francesco Griffo - Linotype Font Designer Gallery. Accessed November 20, 2019. https://www.linotype.com/407/francesco-griffo. html. Olocco, Riccardo. “The Jenson Roman: Its Mutations and Spread in Fifteenth-Century Italy.” Journal of the Printing Historical Society, 2018. “Pietro Bembo (1470–1547) De Aetna.” Aldus Manutius. Accessed November 20, 2019. https://exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk/manutius/artifacts/bembo-de-aetna/. Prytherch, Raymond John. Harrods Librarians Glossary and Reference Book: a Directory of over 9,600 Terms, Organizations, Projects, and Acronyms in the Areas of Information Management, Library Science, Publishing, and Archive Management. New York: Routledge, 2017. Rarebooks, and Rarebooks. OPEN BOOK. Accessed November 20, 2019. https://openbook.lib.utah.edu/tag/erhard-ratdolt/. Schuessler, Jennifer. “A Tribute to the Printer Aldus Manutius, and the Roots of the Paperback.” Suffield, Laura. "Jenson, Nicolas." Grove Art Online. 2003; Accessed 12 Nov. 2019. https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/ gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000044614.
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“The First Roman Fonts.” I Love Typography, April 20, 2019. https:// ilovetypography.com/2016/04/18/the-first-roman-fonts/. The New York Times. The New York Times, February 26, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/arts/design/a-grolier-clubtribute-to-the-printer-aldus-manutius.html. Thompson, Wendy. “Woodcut Book Illustration in Renaissance Italy: The First Illustrated Books.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www. metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wifb/hd_wifb.htm (October 2004) Thompson, Wendy. “Woodcut Book Illustration in Renaissance Italy: Venice in the Sixteenth Century.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www. metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wivs/hd_wivs.htm (October 2004) Thompson, Wendy. “Woodcut Book Illustration in Renaissance Italy: Venice in the 1490s.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum. org/toah/hd/wivf/hd_wivf.htm (October 2004) “UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW.” Johannes Regiomontanus: Calendar. Accessed November 20, 2019. http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/ month/aug1999.html.
COLOPHON
This book was designed, and printed by Sara Jaye in December of 2019.The type is set in Adobe Jenson Pro designed by Robert Slimbach and Gotham designed by Tobias Frere-Jones
