The Evolution of Typography 1 Typography is an evolution of the written word, and as such it participates in a history of visual communication extending thousands of years. That evolution is presented here in the form of a timeline that traces a development from hand, to mechanical, to digital practice, in the context of world-historical and art-historical events. The history treated in the first section of the timeline predates typography. It begins with the invention of writing over five thousand years ago and ends with the invention of movable type in Europe during the middle of the fifteenth century. The second section covers the long era of the handpress and hand-set metal types. This period, from Gutenberg’s invention of movable type to the end of the eighteenth century, lasted about 350 years. In the third section, the Industrial Revolution and nineteenth century are revealed as an era of technological innovation and an outpouring of new typographic forms. The fourth section begins with the year 1900 and covers the twentieth century,COPYRIGHTED a time when type was MATERIAL shaped by the aesthetic concerns of modernism, the need for functional communication, technological progress, and the digital revolution in typography. The final section showcases typographic design in the twenty-first century, as it expands to mobile devices and embraces the many possibilities afforded by digital production. 1 td6-Chapter1_evolution_p1-30.indd 1 9/5/14 4:15 PM From the origins of writing to 1-4 Gutenberg’s invention of movable type: 3150 BCE–1450 CE 1-8 c. 3150 BCE 1-1 1-6 1-6 c. 1800–1400 BCE: 1-8 Stonehenge, a megalithic 1-3 c. 2600 BCE: monument of 30-foot-tall Completion of the stones set into circular pyramids at Giza, Egypt. patterns. 1-1 c. 3150 BCE: 1-2 c. 3000 BCE: 1-4 c. 2400 BCE: False- 1-5 c. 2100 BCE: 1-7 c. 1570–1349 BCE: 1-8 c. 1450 BCE: The earliest written Cuneiform, a very early door stele inscribed with Cuneiform tablet listing Polychromed wood Detail, The Book of the documents, impressed writing system utilizing hieroglyphic writing, expenditures of grain and sculpture from New Dead of Tuthmosis III, clay tablets from Sumer. wedge-shaped marks on from Old Kingdom animals. Kingdom Egypt, with hieroglyphic writing on The impressions represent clay tablets, was invented Egypt. hieroglyphic inscriptions. papyrus. clay tokens, which were by the Sumerians. 1-5 used for record keeping c. 2500 BCE: Egyptians before the invention of begin to make papyrus, writing. a new writing material derived from the stems of the papyrus plant. 1-2 1-3 1-7 2 td6-Chapter1_evolution_p1-30.indd 2 9/5/14 4:15 PM 1-14 1-11 1-15 c. 1500 BCE 1-9 1-12 1-16 1-12 448–432 BCE: The Parthenon, temple of the goddess Athena, on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. 1-9 c. 1500 BCE: The 1-10 389 BCE: 1-13 414–413 BCE: 1-14 c. 50 BCE–500 CE: 1-15 c. 79 CE: Brush 1-16 c. 100–600: twenty-two characters of Inscription in the Fragment of a Greek Roman square capitals writing from a wall at Roman rustic writing the Phoenician alphabet. Phoenician alphabet on record of sale, carved on (capitalis quadrata) were Pompeii, preserved by (capitalis rustica) a fragment of a marble stone. carefully written with a the volcanic eruption of conserved space by using c. 800 BCE: Homer bowl. flat pen. Vesuvius. condensed letters written writes the Iliad and the c. 160 BCE: Parchment, with a flat pen held in an Odyssey. 1-11 Fourth century a new writing material c. 33 CE: Crucifixion 105 CE: Ts’ai Lun almost vertical position. BCE: Greek manuscript made from animal skins, of Christ. invents paper in China. 540 BCE: The first public writing. is developed in the library is established in 150 CE: The Roman Greek state of Pergamum. Athens, Greece. codex, with folded 44 BCE: Julius Caesar is pages, begins to be used murdered. alongside the rolled scroll. 1-10 1-13 THE EVOLUTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 3 td6-Chapter1_evolution_p1-30.indd 3 9/5/14 4:15 PM 118 CE 1-19 1-20 1-17 1-21 1-19 312–15: Arch of Constantine, Rome. Carved into marble, monumental Roman 452: Attila the Hun capitals survived the invades and ravages thousand-year Dark northern Italy. Ages. 476: Emperor Romulus 325: Emperor Constantine Augustulus, last ruler adopts Christianity as of the western Roman 1-20 533–49: Church 1-17 118–25: the state religion of the Empire, is deposed by of Sant’Apollinare in The Pantheon, Rome. Roman Empire. the Ostrogoths. Classe, Ravenna, Italy. 1-18 Undated: c. 400–1400: During the 1-21 Third–sixth 1-22 Third–ninth 1-23 Sixth–ninth The fluid gestural quality, thousand-year medieval centuries: Uncials are centuries: Half-uncials, centuries: Insular harmonious proportions, era, knowledge and rounded, freely drawn a lettering style of majuscules, a formal and beautiful forms learning are kept alive in majuscule letters. the Christian Church, style with exaggerated of Roman writing are Christian monasteries, introduce pronounced serifs, are developed by effectively translated where manuscript books ascenders and Irish monks from the into the permanent stone are lettered in scriptoria. descenders. half-uncials. carving of monumental capitals (capitalis monumentalis). 1-18 1-22 1-2 1-23 4 td6-Chapter1_evolution_p1-30.indd 4 9/5/14 4:15 PM 732 CE 1-32 1-24 1-31 1-24 c. 800: Portrait of Christ from the 1-30 Twelfth century: 1-26 c. Eleventh Book of Kells, a Celtic Bronze and copper century: Round tower manuscript. crucifix from northern on the Rock of Cashel, 1-32 Thirteenth Italy. 868: The earliest county Tipperary, century: Byzantine extant printed text, of Ireland, a lookout and 1-28 1163–1250: 1215: The Magna Carta school, Madonna and the Diamond Sutra, is refuge against Viking Construction of Notre grants constitutional Child on a Curved printed in China. invaders. Dame Cathedral, Paris. liberties in England. Throne. 732: The Battle of Tours 1-25 Tenth century: 1-27 Eighth–twelfth 1-29 Eleventh–twelfth 1-31 Thirteenth– ends the Muslim advance High Cross at Kells, centuries: Caroline centuries: Early Gothic fifteenth centuries: into Europe. Meath County, Ireland. minuscules become the lettering, a transitional Gothic Textura Quadrata, standard throughout style between Caroline or Textura, the late- 800: Charlemagne is Europe after Charlemagne minuscules and Textura, Gothic style with crowned emperor of the issues his reform decree has an increased vertical rigorous verticality and Holy Roman Empire by of 796, calling for a emphasis. compressed forms. Pope Leo III. uniform writing style. 1347–51: First wave 1034: Bi Sheng (Pi of the Black Death, a Sheng) invents movable plague that decimates the type in China. European population. 1096–99: The First Crusade. 1-25 1-27 1-28 1-30 1-26 1-29 THE EVOLUTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 5 td6-Chapter1_evolution_p1-30.indd 5 9/5/14 4:15 PM 1-38 c. 1200 1-35 1-33 1-35 1420–36: Filippo Brunelleschi, dome of Florence Johann Gutenberg Cathedral. invents movable type in 1-34 Fourteenth 1-37 1-40 The cathedral Mainz, Germany. century: Lippo Memmi, 1431: Joan of Arc is Fra Filippo Lippi, in the medieval city of Saint John the Baptist. burned at the stake. Madonna and Child. Mainz, Germany. 1-33 Thirteenth– 1-36 Fifteenth 1-38 c. 1450–55: Page 1-39 Woodblock print of fifteenth centuries: century: First page of a from Gutenberg’s forty- the hand printing press, Rotunda, a more rounded block book, the biblical two-line Bible, the first with compositors setting Gothic letter, flourishes book of Apocalypse. European typographic type from a typecase in in southern Europe. Woodblock printing book. the background. probably appeared in Europe before 1400. 1-34 1-36 1-37 1-39 1-40 6 td6-Chapter1_evolution_p1-30.indd 6 9/5/14 4:15 PM Typography from Gutenberg to the nineteenth century: 1450–1800 CE The humanist philosophy that flowered during the Renaissance embraced the study of classical literature, a belief in human dignity and worth, a spirit of individualism, and a shift from religious to secular concerns. 1465 1-47 1-41 1-45 1-42 1-45 c. 1485: Filippino 1-43 Lippi, Portrait of a Youth. 1-41 1465: Germans 1-42 1467: Konrad 1-43 1470: Nicolas 1-44 1475: William 1-46 1486: Erhard 1-47 c. 1494: Scholar Konrad Sweynheym Sweynheym and Arnold Jenson, early Venetian Caxton, typography from Ratdolt, the earliest and printer Aldus and Arnold Pannartz Pannartz, the first truly roman typeface. the first book printed in known specimen sheet Manutius established the design the first type in Roman-style type, the English language. of printing types. Aldine Press in Venice Italy. It had some Roman influenced by Roman to publish works by the 1492: Christopher features. inscriptional capitals and great Greek and Roman Columbus lands in manuscripts written in thinkers. America. Caroline minuscules. 1-48 1495: Francesco Griffo (punch cutter for Aldus Manutius), roman 1-44 1-46 type first used in De aetna by Pietro Bembo. 1-48 THE EVOLUTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 7 td6-Chapter1_evolution_p1-30.indd 7 9/5/14 4:15 PM 1501 1-55 1-56 1-49 1-50 Home of Albrecht 1-55 1519–47: Pierre Dürer, Nuremberg, Nepveu, château of Germany. Chambord, France. 1-49 1501: Francesco 1-51 Woodblock 1-52 1523: Lodovico 1-53 1525: Albrecht 1-54 1529: Geoffroy 1-56 c.