Name Robert Granjon | ||
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Granjon (Ascendonica Romain)
Robert Granjon (1513-November 16, 1589/March 1590) was a French type designer and printer. He worked in Paris, Lyon, Frankfurt, Antwerp, and Rome for various printers. He is best known for having introduced the typeface Civilité and for his italic type form, the design of which in modern days is used in Garamond Italic.
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He worked in Lyon as a librarian, printer, and engraver of typefaces. He married the daughter of Bernard Salomon. The first book in his typeface, Civilité, was Dialogue de la vie et de la mort by Ringhieri (1557). The invention made such an impact that King Henry II, on December 26, 1557, gave him an exclusive privilege to use the type for ten years. Granjon's italic had a greater slant angle, slanted roman capitals, and reduced weight and rigor. These qualities and its contrasting thick and thin strokes gave it a dazzling appearance that made it difficult to read. It was nevertheless the main influence for italic type design until the Arrighi model was revived in 1920.
In 1578, he moved to Rome, where he worked on types for Oriental characters needed by the Catholic missionaries: Armenian (1579), Syriac (1580), Cyrillic (1582), and Arabic (1580-86). He collaborated with Giambattista Raimondi, the scientific director of the Stamperia Medicea Orientale, and Domenico Basa, the technical director of the Stamperia Vaticana, and contributed the earliest printed editions in certain Oriental languages.
He also developed several important music founts, including one that became the most widely used music typeface until the middle of the eighteenth century. In Paris and Lyons printed several books of music.
Some of the materials used by Granjon are preserved in the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp.