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Ameet Tavernier

Ameet (or Aimé) Tavernier (b. Bailleul, French Flanders, between 1522 and 1526, d. 1570) was a Belgian punchcutter and typefounder. He made a type which we shall call the Tavernier Civilité. Some claim it was made independently of Robert Granjon's Civilité (1556). However, Dr. Maurits Sabbe and Marius Audin in their wonderful 17-page treatise, Les caractères de civilité de Robert Granjon et les imprimeurs flamands (1921) (see also Die Civilité Schriften (1929), the German translation published by Herbert Reichner, Vienna), doubt that claim. They note that surely, Tavernier must have seen Plantin's Civilité. Besides, Tavernier's Civilité is first seen only in 1559 in La civilité puerile distribuée par petitz chapitres et sommaires ... traduictz par Jehan Louveau en Anvers chez Jehan Bellere (Imprimerie Aimé Tavernier). Considering that Sabbe was director of the Plantin Museum in Antwerp, and Audin a well-known type historian from Lyon, it is likely that they were right in their conclusion that Tavernier had indeed seen the Plantin version. Tavernier became well-known and started making type for export to neighboring countries. Unfortunately, he died very young in 1570. Plantin said in 1574 that after the death of Tavernier and François Guyot, his land had no outstanding typefounder left, but that there were some in Germany, but that he would not recommend the Germans because they were "irrgläubig". He said of Tavernier that he was the last good typefounder of the sixteenth century.

Regarding revivals, we refer to George Tulloch's text typeface Cunaeus (2018) who explains: Cunaeus is intended primarily for use in running text. It brings together the types of two renowned sixteenth-century punchcutters: the roman is an interpretation of a pica font cut [in 1551] by Ameet Tavernier, and the italic that of a pica font [from 1565] of Robert Granjon (1513-1589/90). Granjon's italics have inspired a number of revivals in the past, but usually of his more slanted styles; the present digitization features the lesser slant of his so-called droit style typical of the mid 1560s.

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Ameet Tavernier
The Belgian type scene ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Civilité ⦿