E U R O T Y P O

The Roman Modern

New standards of accuracy and beauty.

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The Origins:
The Etruscan and the Greeks colonies. The Roman Empire:
Capitalis Monumentalis
and Rustic letters. Middle Ages:
Uncial, Half Uncial, Carolingian minuscule. Renaissance:
Italian humanistic types. Roman Modern style:
Giambbattista Bodoni.

Officina Bodoni, cassical Roman Modern. The abrupt contrast in the width of the letterstokes is mirrored by the contrasting weights of the bolder rules.

1- Giambattista Bodoni, page from his "Manuale tipogrfico". Parma, 1788.

About 1600 the next development in writing history was to begin, this was due to the gradual influence of the pointed pen and engraving. This change from the square nib to the pointed flexible pen led to a style of extreme contrasts, with hairline thins to heavy, thick down strokes.

John Baskerville had an inspirational effect on European typefounders. Fermin Didot a Frenchman, was a printer to the King, his first type, cut in 1784, was based on Fournier's type of 1750, which was very similar to the Romain du Roi, cut by Grandjeand but, he was influenced by Baskerville's designs. Didot's type was characterized by an abrupt contrast between the strokes of thick and thin letters, vertical stress and straight unbracketed serif. It can be regarded as the first in a new style called Roman Modern.

Technology and new materials played their part in the creation of Modern Roman types. The invention of the engraving tool enabled delicate letterforms to be cut, and the manufacture of smoother paper made it possible to reproduce them successfully.

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