Bembo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Typeface | Bembo |
|---|---|
| Category | Serif |
| Classifications | Old style |
| Designer(s) | Stanley Morison |
| Foundry | Monotype |
Bembo is the name given to an old style serif typeface based upon a font cut by Francesco Griffo, first printed in February 1495. Griffo worked in the Venetian press of the humanist printer Aldus Manutius. The face was first used in the setting of book entitled De Aetna, a short text about a journey to Mount Aetna written by Italian Cardinal Pietro Bembo. The typeface would serve as a source of inspiration for typefaces of the Parisian publisher Claude Garamond, that are collectively called Garamond. The typeface Bembo we see today is a revival designed by Stanley Morison for the Monotype Corporation in 1929.
Griffo was the first punch-cutter to fully express the character of the humanist hand that contemporaries preferred for manuscripts of classics and literary texts, in distinction to the book hand humanists dismissed as a "gothic hand" or the everyday chancery hand. The typeface called Bembo has a calligraphic feel that is particularly evident in the serifs. It has a delicate transitional curve that rises up into the stem of each letter. Many lowercase letters exhibit hints of sinuous curves reminiscent of those generated by hand-drawn letters; the termination of the arm of both the r and the e flare slightly upward and outward. The lowercase c has a subtle forward slant, a reversal of the oblique stress of the o. Characters h, m, and n have a slight returned curve on their final stem. Letter k has an elegantly curved descender. One of the main characteristic that distinguished Griffo's types from earlier Venetian forms is the way in which the ascenders of the lowercase letters stand taller than the capitals.
According to the authors of Typographic Specimens: The Great Typefaces, Bembo is noted for its ability to "provide a text that is extremely consistent in color and texture," helping it to "remain one of the most popular book types since its release."
Aldus employed the typeface for Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499), often considered the most beautiful book printed in the fifteenth century.
[edit] References
- Meggs, Philip B. and Rob Carter.Typographic Specimens: The Great Typefaces. Wiley: 1993. ISBN 0471284297
- Meggs, Philip B. and McKelvey, Roy.Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces. RC Publications: 2000. ISBN 1883915082
- Meggs, Philip B. History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons: 1998. ISBN 0470042656
