Granjon's flowers

Description

Robert Granjon (1513-1590) was a younger contemporary of Claude Garamont (c.1510-1561) and with him one of the great names in the history of type-design. His typefaces have been studied in some depth, but except for a dozen combinable type-ornaments surveyed by the author previously, his printers' flowers, however elegant and innovative, have attracted only cursory attention in such broader works as Morison's on the 'Fell' types (1967).0This book, by typographic scholar Hendrik Vervliet, examines which 'printer's flowers' -- alternative terms are fleurons or type-ornaments -- may be attributed to Granjon. Building on earlier researches into sixteenth-century vine leaves and Granjon's combinable ornaments (2012; 2015), the author describes one hundred and three ornaments with first appearances during Granjon's active life, either in his own publications and at presses of his associates and regular customers -- such as Fezandat in Paris, de Tournes in Lyons, Silvius in Antwerp, and Basa in Rome -- or in potential sources, such as Giolito's publications in Venice.0At the end of the author's research, however, it became clear that only about half of them could be attributed to Granjon on more or less sure grounds. The other half seems attributable to ornamentists, as yet nameless, working for de Tournes in Lyons or Giolito in Venice. The chapter on Giolito's ornaments aims to clear up the problem of whether Gabriele Giolito was Granjon's first customer, or rather, as is surmised here, a source for some or all of his designs. The main user of Granjon's founts in Lyons was Jean de Tournes. Previous studies of de Tournes either evaded the problem or were sketchy and unillustrated. - See more at: https://www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/127576/hendrik-d-l-vervliet/granjons-flowers-an-enquiry-into-granjons-giolitos-and-de-tournes-ornaments-1542-1586#sthash.Na10NUyL.dpuf.

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