January 15, 2003 issue. This file presents an archive copy of the issue of the FYI France ejournal, ISSN 1071-5916, which was distributed via email on January 15, 2003.
Versions of the following have appeared online regularly, since 1992, as a feature of the FYI France ejournal, ISSN 1071-5916, which is distributed for free via email every month except August. Ejournal subscriptions may be obtained via email request to: kessler@well.sf.ca.us
Here this file is one of a number made available -- hopefully
attractively, all in one place, and relevant to libraries and online
digital information work in France and Europe -- as part of FYI France
(sm)(tm), an online service to which anyone can subscribe for 12
months by postal mailing a check for US $45, payable to Jack Kessler, to
PO Box 460668, San Francisco, California, USA 94146 (site licenses also
are available): please write your email address on the front of your
check. Please email suggestions for improvements to me at kessler@well.sf.ca.us
--oOo--
A remarkable exhibit, and a remarkably well - done catalog to accompany it, just have appeared courtesy of the Musée de l'Imprimerie in Lyon:
"Le Romain du Roi :
la typographie au service de l'Etat, 1702 - 2002"
ISBN 2-85682-017-4
This should be of interest to anyone at all curious about type fonts and their history, and printing -- and also about the use, by The State, of the information and communications process --
The wonderfully - presented catalog makes the case clearly: from the unusual birth of this particular technological innovation --
"...comme, pendant ce temps - là, Sa Majesté a voulu qu'on remit en meilleur état son Imprimerie royale, il a fallu que l'assemblée... avec le sieur Anisson, directeur de ladite imprimerie, ledit sieur Simonneau, graveur en taille - douce, & le sieur Grandjean, graveur des poinçons et matrices, se soit appliqué continuellement à trouver moyen de faire une parfaite construction des lettres pour reformer les poinçons et matrices dont on s'est servi jusqu'à présent..." p.40
-- to its curious and contentious beginnings as a type - font - designed - by - a - committee --
"Seulement le sieur Jaugeon & Des Billettes, puis, étant tard & sur le point de retirer, après avoir longtemps attendu, survenus les sieurs Anisson & Grandjean. Monsieur l'Abbé [Bignon] absent, on s'est retiré sans presque rien faire, faute de temps..." p.50
"... le I capital et le bas de casse sont désormais presque identiques, surtout dans les petits corps. Ce problème fut résolu en empruntant une caractéristique de la calligraphie de Jarry et Senault (et utilisée bien avant dans plusieurs écritures traditionnelles, dont la textura gothique carrée sur laquelle fut calqué le caractère de la Bible à 42 lignes): une barre surnuméraire fut ajoutée sur le côté gauche du l..." p.71
"... cette barre ou sécante aide également à la redistribution des plombs. Ce petit trait devint le signe distinctif des caractères de l'établissement d'Etat..." p.88
-- to American printer Ben Franklin's fascination with the font, and his enterprising use of it to "encode" some of the earliest official correspondence of the young United States --
"En 1790, Anisson offrit les avantages des caractéristiques particulières du Romain du Roi aux imprimeurs des assignats, alors en préparation, comme un moyen de garantir leur authenticité... On peut supposer que l'exemple que donna Benjamin Franklin, en utilisant des caractères spéciaux gravés pour lui comme moyens d'authentifier les documents officiels qu'il produisait avec sa propre imprimerie à Passy..." p.73 [with a Franklin "lettre d'order", displaying the technique]
-- to the gradual decay of enthusiasm for the font -- and for the classical and totalitarian mindset which it represented and, to some, even graphically depicted --
"Le Romain du Roi, très beau, mais un peu froid, car construit d'une manière dogmatique, traduit parfaitement l'esprit classique, ennemi du désordre et de la folie..." p.88
["une parfaite construction des lettres", like the King said...]
"Le Romain de Roi est en usage jusqu'en 1816..." p.83
-- to the eventual revival of the technique, if not of the mindset, as at least one of the outstanding aesthetic and cultural monuments of the civilization which produced it --
"On doit le résurrection du Romain du Roi à Arthur Christian, directeur de l'Imprimerie nationale de 1895 à 1906. Ancien préfet, il se passionna très vite pour son nouveau travail et devint même un bibliophile et un ardent défenseur de la typographie..." p.83
"Quand Georges Bonnin prend la direction de l'Imprimerie nationale en 1971, il a pour mission de préserver et de faire vivre le patrimoine typographique de l'Imprimerie nationale. Pour cela il lance la collection Les lettres françaises où pour chaque ouvrage il est décidé d'employer le caractère correspondant à son époque..." p.85
"Pour chaque ouvrage il est décidé d'employer le caractère correspondant à son époque"...
Typography -- and communications generally -- as technique, as history, and as Official Policy... of sadly increasing interest to all of us in these "Internet - centralization" and "filtering" and "communications secrecy" times...
The catalog is immensely readable: wonderful just to hold and to look at -- but then also easily read, in short articles which flow smoothly together. For anyone with any interest at all in the role of printing, and of type fonts, in the history of general culture -- and for anyone at all sceptical about same -- the catalog offers a congenial and fascinating introduction to the entire general subject.
Most interesting of all, to me personally -- in addition to the well - written short articles, and the beautiful illustrations among which the full proofsheet of the original font --
ÉPREUVE
DES CARACTÈRES
DE
L'IMPRIMERIE ROYALE,
Gravés par M.rs GRANDJEAN,
ALEXANDRE & LUCE
========
MDCCLX
========
-- are the six pages, in the catalog at pp. 42-47, which display the matrices actually used in the design of the characters, complete with compass lines and extensions --
"Ludovicus Simonneau fecit 1695"
-- here, pace Edward Tufte, at one stroke a student can see how font design is done, graphically and easily and completely, and in a way which engages students' attention and tempts them irresistibly to try it themselves --
"Le dessin de chaque lettre, construit avec règles et compas, est établi sur une grille carrée de 70 mm de côté. C'est ce dessin qui, après réduction, permettra de graver le poinçon typographique. Chaque côté de cette grille carrée est divisé en 7 carrés, eux - mêmes subdivisés en 6 carrés..." p.91
Anyway, if anyone is interested -- I hope people will be, as it is a beautiful book -- the catalog may be seen at,
where a very good online presentation of the exhibition may be found as well. I am told that catalog copies are available for sale at € 20 each, "port compris".
And if anyone is in the Lyon area, or can get there within the next couple of weeks, the exhibition is on now and does not close until February 2... and Lyon has all of that great cuisine, and all of that chocolate, and the Parc de la Tête d'Or, and so many other attractions as well...
Happy New Year.
--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071 - 5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
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--hjlm--
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