TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Thu Mar 14 10:50:45 EDT 2024

SEARCH THIS SITE:

IMAGE SEARCH:

FONT RECOGNITION VIA FONT MOOSE

LUC DEVROYE


ABOUT







Robert Granjon [Jacques de Sanlecque the elder]

Born in Rome, Robert Granjon (1513-1589) worked for various printers in Lyon, Paris, Frankfurt, Antwerp, and Rome. In Lyon, he was active as librarian, printer, and engraver of typefaces. Granjon is an exponent of the French renaissance. Granjon's designs live on in the balanced Plantin family, designed by Frank Hinman Pierpont in 1913 at Monotype, and available at Linotype (and elsewhere).

The Gothic italic typeface Civilité (1566; some say 1557) is also due to him. The first book in this typeface was Dialogue de la vie et de la mort by Ringhieri (1557). The first modern metal version of Civilité is due to Morris Fuller Benton (1922, ATF). Among the digital versions, Ralph M. Unger's Civilité (Profonts / URW++) is noteworthy.

W.A. Dwiggins' Eldorado (1953) was based on an early roman lowercase of Granjon. Font Bureau's Eldorado (1993-1994), developed by David Berlow, Jane Patterson, Tobias Frere-Jones and Tom Rickner for Premiere Magazine, was a far-reaching extension of that.

Brigitte Schuster did a revival of Monotype Plantin at KABK in 2010.

In 1578, he moved to Rome, where he worked on types for Oriental characters needed by the Catholic missionaries: Armenian (1579), Syriac (1580), Cyrillic (1582), and Arabic (1580-1586). He collaborated with Giambattista Raimondi, the scientific director of the Stamperia Medicea Orientale, and Domenico Basa, the technical director of the Stamperia Vaticana, and contributed the earliest printed editions in certain Oriental languages. He also created a Greek typeface, Parangonne Grecque.

The Linotype Granjon typeface designed by George W. Jones in 1928 is a Garamond though---Jones used Granjon's work as a model for his italic---, and the name seems to suggest that Granjon created the model for this garamond, which is not the case. Image of Linotype's Granjon. For related typefaces, see ITC Galliard (1978, Matthew Carter). In 2020, Aad van Dommelen released his 4-style revival of Granjon's Ascendonica as Romaine at Fontwerk. He writes: There are two digitizations of Granjon Ascendonica available: the previously mentioned Granjon LT [by Linotype: it deviates too much from the original and shows some inconsistencies] and Matthew Carter's ITC Galliard. Carter's version is quite rightly very popular and widespread, but he allowed himself significantly more freedom, especially with the italic. The fine details of the template led to a special feature of Romaine. While all other digital Garamonds or Granjons have rounded or cut serifs, Romaine has sharp ends.

In 2021, Juanjo Lopez published his Graveur, which was based on original artifacts by Granjon kept in the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. Also noteworthy is the Granjon-inspired text family Allrounder Antiqua (2020) by Moritz Kleinsorge, who was able to experience first-hand Granjon's work in the Plantin Moretus Museum in Antwerp.

References include Maurits Sabbe and Marius Audin: Die Civilité-Schriften des Robert Granjon in Lyon: und die flämischen Drucker des 16. Jahrhunderts. [This is Vol. 3 of Bibliotheca Typographica, 1929].

Images of digital typefaces that descend from Granjon's work.

FontShop link. Klingspor link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Robert Granjon
 [Designer info]
Klingspor Museum page
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
Google search

INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ History of type ⦿ Type design in Italy ⦿ Type design in France ⦿ Civilité ⦿ Garalde or Garamond typefaces ⦿








file name: Robert Granjon Ex Libris 1557


file name: Robert Granjon French Civilite 1566


file name: Ralph M Unger Profonts Civilite 2005


file name: Ralph M Unger Profonts Civilite 2005b


file name: Ralph M Unger Civilite


file name: Ralph M Unger Civilite


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Juanjo Lopez Graveur 2021


file name: Moritz Kleinsorge Allrounder Antiqua 2020


file name: Moritz Kleinsorge Allrounder Antiqua 2020 350979


file name: Moritz Kleinsorge Allrounder Antiqua 2020 350980


file name: Moritz Kleinsorge Allrounder Antiqua 2020 350981


file name: Moritz Kleinsorge Allrounder Antiqua 2020 350982


file name: Moritz Kleinsorge Allrounder Antiqua 2020 350989


file name: Moritz Kleinsorge Allrounder Antiqua 2020 350991


file name: Moritz Kleinsorge Allrounder Antiqua 2020


file name: Granjon Saint Augustin 1580


file name: Granjon Gros Cicero 1569


file name: Granjon First Italic 1543


file name: Granjon Italique Petit Romain 1543


file name: Monotype Plantin110 Monotype Plantin113


file name: Robert Granjon Parangonne Cursive 1555


file name: Aad Van Dommelen Romaine 2020 after Robert Granjon Ascendonica 1570


file name: Aad Van Dommelen Romaine 2020 after Robert Granjon Ascendonica 1570


file name: Aad Van Dommelen Romaine 2020 after Robert Granjon Ascendonica 1570


file name: Aad Van Dommelen Romaine 2020 after Robert Granjon Ascendonica 1570


file name: Aad Van Dommelen Romaine 2020 after Robert Granjon Ascendonica 1570


file name: George William Jones Chauncey H. Griffith Linotype Granjon 1928 1930


file name: Robert Granjon Dialogue De La Vie Et De La Mort 1557


file name: Robert Granjon Dialogue De La Vie Et De La Mort 1557b


file name: Matthew Carter I T C Galliard 1978


file name: Matthew Carter I T C Galliard Italic 1978







Luc Devroye ⦿ School of Computer Science ⦿ McGill University Montreal, Canada H3A 2K6 ⦿ lucdevroye@gmail.com ⦿ http://luc.devroye.org ⦿ http://luc.devroye.org/fonts.html