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ABOUT

Nicolas Jenson

Or Nicholas Jenson. French printer and artist born in Sommevoire, France in 1420. He worked mostly in Venice as a printer, type designer, punch cutter, and engraver from 1468 until his death in Venice in 1480. In 1475 he was made a papal count by Pope Sixtus IV. He produces his first roman type in Cicero, Epistolae ad Brutum (1468), which is described as perfect and unequaled. A Greek typeface which is used for quotations was made in 1471. In 1473, he creates a blackletter typeface which he uses in books on medicine and history. In 1475, he founds his first book trading company, Nicolaus Jenson sociique, whose partners include the Frankfurt businessmen Peter Ugelheimer and Johann Rauchfass. In 1480, his second book trading company is launched under the name Johannes de Colonia, Nicolaus Jenson et socii.

Jenson's typefaces influenced many new alphabets:

• William Morris based his Gold Type on Jenson' type in 1890. Cobden-Sanderson modeled his typeface for Doves Press on Jenson's alphabets in 1900.
• Bruce Rogers emulated them with his Centaur font (1914; called Venetian 301 at Bitstream).
• In 1926, Jenson's roman is recut by Morris Fuller Benton as Cloister Old Style.
• Eusebius (Ernest Detterer and Robert Hunter Middleton, Ludlow) is a further extension. Jim Spiece's NicolasJensonSG is a digital type family that builds on and extends Eusebius.
• Perhaps the most prominent of digital Jensonian typefaces is Robert Slimbach's Adobe Jenson (1996).
• Other derived typefaces include Hess Old Style (Sol Hess, 1920-1923 and Steve Jackaman, 1993), Jenson Oldstyle (ATF), Montaigne and Hightower (Tobias Frere-Jones, Font Bureau).

Brief bio by The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology of UCLA. Linotype link. FontShop link. Klingspor link.

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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ History of type ⦿ Type design in Italy ⦿ Type design in France ⦿ Venetian or antiqua typefaces ⦿