Classic Italian Typography
Out of context: Reply #20
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- gramme0
@ Countryman: By Garamond, you mean Gutenberg, right? Who was German, and thus has nothing to do with this discussion?
The first forms of typography that were replicated as movable (wooden) type were actually Chinese (ca. 11th century AD), but next in line was Gutenberg with his blackletter. Humanist miniscules (Carolingians) came later, which influenced the Venetian serifs that came after that.
Claude Garamond was a Frenchman. I believe you're right in that the first metal types were Italian (created in Venice by another Frenchman, Nicolas Jenson), but Garamond's oldstyles were French and distinct from Italian contemporaries, with less of a calligraphic influence than the fonts coming out of Venice around the same time.
So, yeah... you really schooled CuriousGeorge. Well done.