RENAISSANCE ROMAN AND ITALIC

Renaissance Roman

As part of the pervasive reorientation
that took place during the fifteenth
century in Italy in practically all areas of
learning and culture, the art of lettering
was also affected. The Italian humanists
found much of the ancient literature
written in Carolingian minuscule and
adopted this as book type (to paraphrase
Muzika, lettere antiche nuove). The type
was purged of all archaic remnants, the
sequence of moves became conscious,
letters like a, g, and r assumed a new
shape. Capitals from the Roman monu¬
mental capitals were added, the stems of
the minuscules were fitted with serif-like
strokes. The Gothic tradition was over¬
thrown in several stages. Arabic nu¬

merals first appeared in the fifteenth
century.

During the sixteenth century the
printed word supplanted the handwrit¬
ten one in the production of books. Ever
since, the history of letters is the history
of printing type, which continues to draw
inspiration from handlettering. Until the
end of the nineteenth century, however,
type forms moved ever further from
their origins at the time of Gutenberg.

The first Venetian types show a
strong effort to copy handlettering as
closely as possible, for example, the
Jenson roman of 1470. Characteristic of
early Venetian forms are the slanted eye
of the letter e, still evident in Centaur, a
modern version of the Jenson. But the
engraver of Aldus Manutius's type for
De Aetna (1495) and Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili (1499) started using his tools

not only to re-create but to create. Bold
type became pronounced, serifs more
differentiated. Capitals were modeled
after classical roman types.

The Hypnerotomachia served as model
for the French Renaissance roman. The
type created by and after Garamond
(1544) soon could be found all over
Europe.

In use today are replicas of the Renais¬
sance roman types by Aldus Manutius,
Bembo and Poliphilus. French types in¬
clude replicas of Garamond and Jannon.
Other modern creations using French
and Venetian inspirations are Weiss
Roman, Palatino, Trump Mediaeval, and,
in Germany, Tschörtner.

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Figure 275
Figure 276

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106

275 Humanist minuscule (historie form). From
Arndt/Tangl, Schrifttalfeln zur Erlung der lateinis¬
chen Paläographie, Berlin, 1904.

276 Roman of Nicolas Jenson, Venice, 1470.
From D.B. Updike, Printing Types, 3rd edition.
London, 1962.

Z77 Ductus of crossbars and serifs.

278 Renaissance roman. Study by the author.

Figure 277

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Figure 278

107