Nicholas Jenson (c. 1420 – 1480) was a French engraver, pioneer, printer and type designer who carried out most of his work in Venice, Italy. Jenson acted as Master of the French Royal Mint at Tours and is credited with being the creator of one of the finest early Roman typefaces.[1][2] Nicholas Jenson has been something of an iconic figure among students of early printing since the nineteenth century when the artist William Morris praised the beauty and perfection of his roman font. Jenson is an important figure in the early history of printing and a pivotal force in the emergence of Venice as one of the first great centers of the printing press.[3]
In October 1458, while acting as Master of the French Royal Mint, Jenson was sent to Mainz, by King Charles VII, to study the art of metal movable type. By the time Jenson arrived in Mainz, there were a number of established printers under which he could have been apprenticed. Jenson left Mainz in 1461.
Some hypothesize that Jenson studied under the tutelage of Johann Gutenberg, although there is no verifiable evidence of this.[4][5] By this time Gutenberg's first press had been seized by Johann Fust, and historians are unsure of his activities during this period.
In 1468 Jenson went to Venice, opening a printing shop in 1470, and, in the first work he produced, the printed roman lowercase letter took on the proportions, shapes, and arrangements that marked its transition from an imitation of handwriting to the style that has remained in use throughout subsequent centuries of printing. Jenson also designed Greek-style type and black-letter type.[6] The printer was prodigious in his publishing, eventually producing around 150 titles.[5]
By the end of his life, Jenson was a wealthy man, producing liturgical, theological and legal texts in a variety of gothic fonts, the roman type left only for the odd commissioned work.[7]
Printing history
Working separately but concurrently with Johann and Wendelin of Speyer (de Spira), Nicholas Jenson is popularly thought to have made the final definitive break from blackletter style towards a fully evolved roman letterform.[8]
During the 1470s Nicholas Jenson's technical skill and business acumen helped establish Venice as Italy's publishing capital and in centuries since he has been celebrated for perfecting roman type, the rebirth of Latin inscription.[4]
In 1477 Jenson was able to run as many as twelve presses at the same time. To lower prices and force out less productive rivals, he cut cursive gothic type, enabling him to print text and gloss on the same page for the first time.
Jenson's printing
Roman type of Nicholas Jenson, 1472.
A specimen of Nicolas Jenson's archetypal roman typeface, from the "Laertis", published in Venice c. 1475.
Capitals of Nicolas Jenson's roman typeface, from a translation 'in Fiorentina' (in Italian) of Pliny the Elder, published in Venice in 1476.
During the time of his arrival in Venice Jenson was quite successful as an artist but was financially successful as well. His early training as a goldsmith allowed him even greater sensitivities to the sculptural nature of type; the letters Jenson employed were often beautiful capitals that could summon the spirit of Rome.
Jenson's highly legible and evenly coloured typeface, based upon Humanistic scripts, has been reinterpreted through the centuries by numerous type designers, most notably William Morris. Jenson's fame as one of history's greatest typeface designers and punch cutters rests on the types first used in his edition of Eusebius's Praeparatio Evangelica, which presents the full flowering of the roman type design.[9][10]
Jenson's letters are clearly borrowing their shapes from the calligraphic shapes that preceded them, called littera Antica. These were in turn based on Carolingian minuscules, to which serifs, borrowed from the Imperial Roman capitals, were added. It was first in use in his 1470 edition of Eusebius. In 1471, a Greek typeface followed, which was used for quotations, and then in 1473 a Black Letter typeface, which he used in books on medicine and history.[citation needed]
In distinction to his contemporary printers, Jenson was able to expand his financial base. By 1477 he could run as many as twelve presses simultaneously.[11] He was also responsible for launching two book trading companies, first in 1475 and then in 1480, under the name of Johannes de Colonia, Nicolaus Jenson et socii.[12]
The Manual Of Linotype Typography, Published 1923 by Linotype Company
A hardcover book containing 256 pages of type specimens and typographic recommendations. From the introduction: "This "Manual of Linotype Typography" places before . . . printers pages based on the best typographic standards of today, presented with the greatest possible variety in order to promote versatility, and accompanied by explanatory remarks. Thus the composing-room force has the opportunity to copy something really good and do it with understanding." This page in the Manual shows Linotype's version of Jenson's type. Beautifully preserved production printed in black, green, and vermillion with a tipped-in frontis illustration and decorated endpapers.[13]
Caesar, Julius. Works, 1471. Printed in Venice by Nicolas Jenson, 1471
Nicolas Jenson printed one of the earliest and most beautiful editions of Caesar. We note here, especially the remarkable clarity and simplicity of the printer's Roman typeface, which drew its inspiration from etchings on Roman monuments. On this opening page, we are also treated to a wonderful illuminated initial and border.[14]
VK 405, Bible in Latin, Nicolas Jenson, Venice, 1479
The Bible was written by forty different human authors over a 1500-year period. While the original Autographs were "perfect", the process of hand-copying resulted in derivations from the original texts. Of the French printers of the era from Nicolas Jenson came nearly a hundred of the finest books produced in the fifteenth century. This is the first Bible to be issued from Jenson’s press, of this Latin Bible, issued in 1479, Pope Sixtus IV conferred upon him the honorary title of Count Palatine.[15]
Pliny, Natural History, 1476. Printed in Venice by Nicolas Jenson. 1,025 copies (1,000 paper, 25 vellum).
The Pliny the Elder text was printed as a partnership venture between Jenson and the Strozzi family, who backed the venture financially. It is a vernacular text, with translation by Cristoforo Landino. "The Pliny text was printed (in a font closely simulating the modern humanist handwriting in which the manuscript of the work might have been written) with wide margins, without initial capital letters at the beginning of chapters, and with its titles isolated in a sea of blank paper on the frontispiece, crying out for illustration and decoration."[16]
The Manual Of Linotype Typography, published 1923
VK 405, Bible in Latin, Nicolas Jenson, Venice, 1479
^Bullen, Henry Lewis. Nicolas Jenson, Printer of Venice: His famous type designs and some comment upon the printing types of earlier printers. San Francisco. Printed by John Henry Nash (1926).
^Olocco, Riccardo. "Nicolas Jenson and the success of his roman type". Medium. University of Reading. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
^Nicholas Jenson and the rise of Venetian publishing in Renaissance Europe / Martin Lowry.Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts, US : B. Blackwell, 1991. xvii, 286 p., [16] p. of plates : ill.; 24 cm.
^ ab"Type, Typography and Fonts". www.graphic-design.com.
^ ab. Archived from the original on 2009-08-14. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
^"Nicolas Jenson | French printer". Encyclopedia Britannica.
^Nicholas Jenson and the rise of Venetian publishing in Renaissance Europe / Martin Lowry.
^ ab. Archived from the original on 2011-12-11. Retrieved 2011-12-08.
^"Nicolaus Jenson – Linotype Font Designer Gallery". www.linotype.com.
^Type and Typography. Jim Martin. Encyclopedia of Journalism. Ed. Christopher H. Sterling. Vol. 4. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2009. pp. 1405–1409.
^"Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions | Type to Print: The Book & The Type Specimen Book". exhibitions.library.columbia.edu.
^. Archived from the original on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
^Jardine, Lisa, Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1998, pp. 144–7, ISBN978-0-393-31866-1
Bibliography
Lowry, Martin: Venetian Printing. The Rise of the Roman Letterform. With an Essay by George Abrams. Edited, introduced and translated into Danish by Poul Steen Larsen. Herning: Poul Kristensens Forlag, 1989. The first book to present the typeface Abrams Venetian, designed by George Abrams.
v. Lieres, Dr. Vita. "Nicolaus Jenson." in: Schriftgießerei D. Stempel AG [ed.]: Altmeister der Druckschrift. Frankfurt am Main, 1940. (pp. 35–40). (In German)
Sources
Meggs, Philip B., Purvis, Alston W. History of Graphic Design. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2006.
"Nicolas Jenson." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. Nicolas Jenson | French printer.
Jenson, Nicolas, ca. 1420–1480. The last will and testament of the late Nicolas Jenson, printer, who departed this life at the city of Venice in the month of September, A.D. 1480. [Chicago, Ludlow typograph co., 1928] 15 p. 30 cm
Jenson, Nicolas, ca. 1420–1480. Pliny the Elder: Historia Naturalis [S.l. : s.n.; 19—] / Lowry, Martin.
Nicholas Jenson and the rise of Venetian publishing in Renaissance Europe / Martin Lowry. Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts, US : B. Blackwell, 1991. xvii, 286 p., [16] p. of plates : ill.; 24 cm.
Gross, Hanns. "Nicholas Jenson and the Rise of Venetian Publishing in Renaissance Europe." January 1, 1993
Type and Typography. Jim Martin. Encyclopedia of Journalism. Ed. Christopher H. Sterling. Vol. 4. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2009. pp 1405–1409.
Book, the Printed. V. E. LEWIS. New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. pp 520–524.
Bullen, Henry Lewis. Nicolas Jenson, Printer of Venice: His famous type designs and some comment upon the printing types of earlier printers. San Francisco. Printed by John Henry Nash (1926); some typographic examples held at the Brooklyn Public Library under – Kurt H. Volk Inc. "Master Typographers of the Ages."
An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History by Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott (Editor), Bernard Stein, published by Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
External links
(English translation)
Examples of Nicolas Jenson's printing
Nicolaus Jenson's Romans
January 12, 2023
nicolas, jenson, nicholas, jenson, 1420, 1480, french, engraver, pioneer, printer, type, designer, carried, most, work, venice, italy, jenson, acted, master, french, royal, mint, tours, credited, with, being, creator, finest, early, roman, typefaces, nicholas,. Nicholas Jenson c 1420 1480 was a French engraver pioneer printer and type designer who carried out most of his work in Venice Italy Jenson acted as Master of the French Royal Mint at Tours and is credited with being the creator of one of the finest early Roman typefaces 1 2 Nicholas Jenson has been something of an iconic figure among students of early printing since the nineteenth century when the artist William Morris praised the beauty and perfection of his roman font Jenson is an important figure in the early history of printing and a pivotal force in the emergence of Venice as one of the first great centers of the printing press 3 Nicholas JensonBornc 1420Sommevoire FranceDied1480Venice Venetian RepublicNationalityFrenchOccupation s TypographerFrench engraver type designerKnown forRoman TypefaceNotable workcreation of Roman typeface made the final definitive break from blackletter style Contents 1 History 2 Printing history 3 Jenson s printing 4 Published works 5 See also 6 References 6 1 Bibliography 6 2 Sources 7 External linksHistory Edit Jenson s typographer s mark In October 1458 while acting as Master of the French Royal Mint Jenson was sent to Mainz by King Charles VII to study the art of metal movable type By the time Jenson arrived in Mainz there were a number of established printers under which he could have been apprenticed Jenson left Mainz in 1461 Some hypothesize that Jenson studied under the tutelage of Johann Gutenberg although there is no verifiable evidence of this 4 5 By this time Gutenberg s first press had been seized by Johann Fust and historians are unsure of his activities during this period In 1468 Jenson went to Venice opening a printing shop in 1470 and in the first work he produced the printed roman lowercase letter took on the proportions shapes and arrangements that marked its transition from an imitation of handwriting to the style that has remained in use throughout subsequent centuries of printing Jenson also designed Greek style type and black letter type 6 The printer was prodigious in his publishing eventually producing around 150 titles 5 By the end of his life Jenson was a wealthy man producing liturgical theological and legal texts in a variety of gothic fonts the roman type left only for the odd commissioned work 7 Printing history EditWorking separately but concurrently with Johann and Wendelin of Speyer de Spira Nicholas Jenson is popularly thought to have made the final definitive break from blackletter style towards a fully evolved roman letterform 8 During the 1470s Nicholas Jenson s technical skill and business acumen helped establish Venice as Italy s publishing capital and in centuries since he has been celebrated for perfecting roman type the rebirth of Latin inscription 4 In 1477 Jenson was able to run as many as twelve presses at the same time To lower prices and force out less productive rivals he cut cursive gothic type enabling him to print text and gloss on the same page for the first time Jenson s printing Edit Roman type of Nicholas Jenson 1472 A specimen of Nicolas Jenson s archetypal roman typeface from the Laertis published in Venice c 1475 Capitals of Nicolas Jenson s roman typeface from a translation in Fiorentina in Italian of Pliny the Elder published in Venice in 1476 During the time of his arrival in Venice Jenson was quite successful as an artist but was financially successful as well His early training as a goldsmith allowed him even greater sensitivities to the sculptural nature of type the letters Jenson employed were often beautiful capitals that could summon the spirit of Rome Jenson s highly legible and evenly coloured typeface based upon Humanistic scripts has been reinterpreted through the centuries by numerous type designers most notably William Morris Jenson s fame as one of history s greatest typeface designers and punch cutters rests on the types first used in his edition of Eusebius s Praeparatio Evangelica which presents the full flowering of the roman type design 9 10 Jenson s letters are clearly borrowing their shapes from the calligraphic shapes that preceded them called littera Antica These were in turn based on Carolingian minuscules to which serifs borrowed from the Imperial Roman capitals were added It was first in use in his 1470 edition of Eusebius In 1471 a Greek typeface followed which was used for quotations and then in 1473 a Black Letter typeface which he used in books on medicine and history citation needed In distinction to his contemporary printers Jenson was able to expand his financial base By 1477 he could run as many as twelve presses simultaneously 11 He was also responsible for launching two book trading companies first in 1475 and then in 1480 under the name of Johannes de Colonia Nicolaus Jenson et socii 12 Following his death respective typefaces were employed by the Aldine Press and have continued to be the basis for numerous fonts Examples include William Morris s Golden Type Bruce Rogers Centaur in 1914 Morris Fuller Benton s Cloister Old Style in 1926 and Robert Slimbach s Adobe Jenson in 1996 8 Published works EditThe Manual Of Linotype Typography Published 1923 by Linotype Company A hardcover book containing 256 pages of type specimens and typographic recommendations From the introduction This Manual of Linotype Typography places before printers pages based on the best typographic standards of today presented with the greatest possible variety in order to promote versatility and accompanied by explanatory remarks Thus the composing room force has the opportunity to copy something really good and do it with understanding This page in the Manual shows Linotype s version of Jenson s type Beautifully preserved production printed in black green and vermillion with a tipped in frontis illustration and decorated endpapers 13 Caesar Julius Works 1471 Printed in Venice by Nicolas Jenson 1471 Nicolas Jenson printed one of the earliest and most beautiful editions of Caesar We note here especially the remarkable clarity and simplicity of the printer s Roman typeface which drew its inspiration from etchings on Roman monuments On this opening page we are also treated to a wonderful illuminated initial and border 14 VK 405 Bible in Latin Nicolas Jenson Venice 1479 The Bible was written by forty different human authors over a 1500 year period While the original Autographs were perfect the process of hand copying resulted in derivations from the original texts Of the French printers of the era from Nicolas Jenson came nearly a hundred of the finest books produced in the fifteenth century This is the first Bible to be issued from Jenson s press of this Latin Bible issued in 1479 Pope Sixtus IV conferred upon him the honorary title of Count Palatine 15 Pliny Natural History 1476 Printed in Venice by Nicolas Jenson 1 025 copies 1 000 paper 25 vellum The Pliny the Elder text was printed as a partnership venture between Jenson and the Strozzi family who backed the venture financially It is a vernacular text with translation by Cristoforo Landino The Pliny text was printed in a font closely simulating the modern humanist handwriting in which the manuscript of the work might have been written with wide margins without initial capital letters at the beginning of chapters and with its titles isolated in a sea of blank paper on the frontispiece crying out for illustration and decoration 16 The Manual Of Linotype Typography published 1923 VK 405 Bible in Latin Nicolas Jenson Venice 1479 Julius Caesar s Works printer Nicolas Jenson 1471 Pliny the Elder s Natural History printer Nicolas Jenson 1476See also EditBembo History of western typography Typeface Adobe Jenson Roman typeface William Morris Bruce Rogers typographer References Edit Bullen Henry Lewis Nicolas Jenson Printer of Venice His famous type designs and some comment upon the printing types of earlier printers San Francisco Printed by John Henry Nash 1926 Olocco Riccardo Nicolas Jenson and the success of his roman type Medium University of Reading Retrieved 7 May 2017 Nicholas Jenson and the rise of Venetian publishing in Renaissance Europe Martin Lowry Oxford UK Cambridge Massachusetts US B Blackwell 1991 xvii 286 p 16 p of plates ill 24 cm a b Type Typography and Fonts www graphic design com a b Nicholas Jenson Typophile Archived from the original on 2009 08 14 Retrieved 2011 12 08 Nicolas Jenson French printer Encyclopedia Britannica Nicholas Jenson and the rise of Venetian publishing in Renaissance Europe Martin Lowry a b Typographic Milestones Archived from the original on 2011 12 11 Retrieved 2011 12 08 William Morris Printing www marxists org Nicolaus Jenson Linotype Font Designer Gallery www linotype com Type and Typography Jim Martin Encyclopedia of Journalism Ed Christopher H Sterling Vol 4 Thousand Oaks CA Sage Reference 2009 pp 1405 1409 Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions Type to Print The Book amp The Type Specimen Book exhibitions library columbia edu Linotype Orcutt and Bartlett THE MANUAL OF LINOTYPE TYPOGRAPHY Prepared to aid Users and Producers of Printing in Securing Greater Unity and Real Beauty in the Printed Page Brooklyn Mergenthaler Linotype Company 1923 Archived from the original on 2012 04 06 Retrieved 2011 11 30 Winter 2004 Volume 101 Issue 1 Vassar the Alumnae i Quarterly vq vassar edu The Van Kampen Collection www solagroup org Jardine Lisa Worldly Goods A New History of the Renaissance W W Norton amp Company Inc 1998 pp 144 7 ISBN 978 0 393 31866 1 Bibliography Edit Lowry Martin Venetian Printing The Rise of the Roman Letterform With an Essay by George Abrams Edited introduced and translated into Danish by Poul Steen Larsen Herning Poul Kristensens Forlag 1989 The first book to present the typeface Abrams Venetian designed by George Abrams v Lieres Dr Vita Nicolaus Jenson in Schriftgiesserei D Stempel AG ed Altmeister der Druckschrift Frankfurt am Main 1940 pp 35 40 In German Sources Edit Meggs Philip B Purvis Alston W History of Graphic Design Hoboken N J Wiley 2006 Nicolas Jenson Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Encyclopaedia Britannica 2011 Web 12 Oct 2011 Nicolas Jenson French printer Jenson Nicolas ca 1420 1480 The last will and testament of the late Nicolas Jenson printer who departed this life at the city of Venice in the month of September A D 1480 Chicago Ludlow typograph co 1928 15 p 30 cm Jenson Nicolas ca 1420 1480 Pliny the Elder Historia Naturalis S l s n 19 Lowry Martin Nicholas Jenson and the rise of Venetian publishing in Renaissance Europe Martin Lowry Oxford UK Cambridge Massachusetts US B Blackwell 1991 xvii 286 p 16 p of plates ill 24 cm Gross Hanns Nicholas Jenson and the Rise of Venetian Publishing in Renaissance Europe January 1 1993 Online Type and Typography Jim Martin Encyclopedia of Journalism Ed Christopher H Sterling Vol 4 Thousand Oaks CA Sage Reference 2009 pp 1405 1409 Book the Printed V E LEWIS New Catholic Encyclopedia Vol 2 2nd ed Detroit Gale 2003 pp 520 524 Bullen Henry Lewis Nicolas Jenson Printer of Venice His famous type designs and some comment upon the printing types of earlier printers San Francisco Printed by John Henry Nash 1926 some typographic examples held at the Brooklyn Public Library under Kurt H Volk Inc Master Typographers of the Ages An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History by Friedrich Friedl Nicolaus Ott Editor Bernard Stein published by Konemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbHExternal links EditThe will of Nicolas Jenson English translation Examples of Nicolas Jenson s printing Nicolaus Jenson s Romans Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Nicolas Jenson amp oldid 1128745490, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
