Just my type Ch 5 and 6
The first halve of chapter 5 in the book goes on to describe the state and rise of printmaking and type around the 15th century.During the 15th century printing became a new commodity on the market with venice as the heart of this emerging market. In fact by the end of the century venice had produced 2 times as much in editions then its rival paris did. This era was effectively the the equivalent of a gold rush for printmaking and font type production with anyone being allowed to get in on the business which resulted with main great innovations such as the modern book trade and the invention of the semi colon by Aldus Manutius. During this boom of type and book production the best selling books switched from works of religious lit to works composed of what was considered during the time to be lustful and erotic. People like Hieronimo Squarciafico feared that the rapid increase in books would lead people to become less academic as a result and that the authors of the many written works would lament over the fact that their books had fallen into the hands of ignorant men. However during this time a phrase, “the fount of all knowledge”, would originate during this time stating that all knowledge could come from a single fount or font. This phrase represented that there were those who didn’t believe that such an increase in books and fonts would lead to less academic men. Luca Pacioli was one such man and he believe that man would thrive in the worlds of science and art if they heeded the knowledge that the ever growing
The second halve of chapter five in the book went on to describe the story of the dove font and what had happened to it and why it happened. The dove type font was made by the dove press group started in 1900 which was composed of Cobden-Sanderson, Emery walker, and funded by Cobden-Sanderson wife. Cobden-sanderson created the company as he set out to create the book beautiful which one would assume to be a book with the most beautiful type ever to be designed and he would not stop until he did. The partnership between Cobden-Sanderson and Walker did not last too long as they ended said partnership only a few years later. As a result the rights to the Dove font came under debate between the two and ended with Cobden-Sanderson owning the rights to it until his death before Walker would own it. Cobden-Sanderson was not happy with the end result as he believed that font was his own creation being stolen from him by his ex-partner. So he chose to give the type away to the river thames instead and destroy the dove type which would take a few years, first to destroy the matrices and then the metal letters themselves. He ultimately got away with destroying the font and no one knew about until after his death had come for him as his wife discovered his dairies containing the records of his act which caused her to suffer a 700 pound fine. This ends the major events of chapter 5 before moving on to chapter 6
The first half of chapter 6 deals with the history of the Ampersand and Garamond’s contribution to today’s modern style of type. The ampersand is symbol that is composed of two letters the E and the T. This was because the ampersand meant et which was the latin definition of and during its time. The original ampersand appeared as an E that with a T coming of the end of the E. The most popular version of the ampersand was created by Claude Garamond who really made it shine in his time. As a result of his work Garamond types would be extremely popular for nearly 200 years after his death and is still common today. Despite the fact that Garamond’s type is considered old in today’s world during it day around the 1540s it marked a final transition from the gothic letters and fonts of gutenberg to the roman alphabet of today’s world. Garamond’s type is most often then not to be one of the very first typefaces that people encounter in their lives as it used in popular media such as in the Harry Potter and dr Seuss books. It would be a long time until anyone could rival the work of Claude Garamond.
The second half of the chapter deals with William Caslon and his contributions to the font and type and a bit more information on the ampersand. It took about two hundred years before anyone could rival the work of Garamond but around 1720s a man by the name of William Caslon came along. While Caslon’s work would not be the same impact as Garamond did during his time and in the current era, Caslon fonts were no less important as his font help to establish a strong english style which contained confident serifs, heavy capitals, and an important wide M to the alphabet. Caslon originally began not as a font designer but as a gunsmith who engraved rifles with Fancy swirls and initials. Caslon’s work with the ampersand however was different than his work with his letters as the ampersand seemed to be more surreal as if it came from a different style than the rest of the type. Caslon’s work with ampersand is still found in today’s world as both font type and even on shirts. The company that he started is still going strong today and is still owned by his descendants as a family owned business. The ampersand also has a meaning outside just being an abbreviation as it is considered to represent a long and friendly partnership between partners. A modern example of this would be the Famous ice cream makers Ben & Jerry and their company compared to a duo like Tom and Jerry who hate one another. Ultimately the ampersand has a long history as more than just a letter or abbreviation it's also a meaning and even a graphic design that can be stylized on a shirt and the ampersands will continue to interest designers for years to come.