Grecs du roi
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Gospel_Estienne_1550.jpg/220px-Gospel_Estienne_1550.jpg)
Les grecs du roi are a celebrated Greek typeface designed by Claude Garamond in 1541 and containing a very large number of ligatures.
The grecs du roi were ordered by Robert Estienne on behalf of King Francis I of France. The design was based on the handwriting of the Cretan copyist Angelo Vergecio, and include a vast variety of alternate letters and ligatures to achieve this.[2][3][4][5] Arthur Tilley calls the resulting books "among the most finished specimens of typography that exist".[6]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Grecs_du_Roi_punches_1.jpg/220px-Grecs_du_Roi_punches_1.jpg)
The grecs du roi design placed significant demands on printers, since it requires manual choice of the many alternate characters for every word, in contrast to Latin-alphabet general-purpose typefaces which do not attempt to simulate handwriting as closely. As a result, most following typefaces for Greek have been much simpler. Gerry Leonidas, a leading expert on Greek typesetting, has commented that Vergecio's handwriting "has all the marks of a script that is unsuitable for conversion to [printing]. That it was the model for the widely-copied grecs du roi was, with hindsight, unfortunate."[7]
References
- ^ Valerie R. Hotchkiss, Charles C. Ryrie (1998). "Formatting the Word of God: An Exhibition at Bridwell Library".
- ^ "Garamont's early career: the grecs du roi". French Ministry of Culture. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
- ^ "The Greek Typefaces". French Ministry of Culture. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
- ^ Mosley, James. "Porson's Greek type design". Type Foundry. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
- ^ Elizabeth Armstrong (28 April 2011). Robert Estienne, Royal Printer: An Historical Study of the Elder Stephanus. Cambridge University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-521-17066-6.
- ^ Tilley, Arthur (1900). "Humanism under Francis I". The English Historical Review. 15 (59): 456–478. doi:10.1093/ehr/xv.lix.456.
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(help) - ^ John D. (ed.). Berry (2002). Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode. ATypI. pp. 80–3. ISBN 978-1-932026-01-6.
External links
- Graphê, association pour la promotion de l'art typographique -- includes a photo of the punches for les Grecs du roi, Vergecio's manuscript, and the first book printed with the Grecs du roi.