Before Class, Chapter 7 / 8

The person we are talking about is Erhard Ratdolt. Ratdolt was a master printer from Augsburg, Germany, who worked in Venice from 1476 - 1486. Thanks to Ratdolt, was the first to make a complete title page to identify a book. He also started using woodcut borders and initials as design elements. Benhard Maier was assumingly the designer for Ratdolt's borders. Three-sided borders used on the title age became Ratdolt's trademark. He was also the first to issue a printer's type specimen sheet. He was an active printer until he died at age 81.

In france, from 1720-1770, the Rococo style was huge. C and S curves were a really big part of it. In 1737 Fournier le Jeunne finally standardized type sizes since each type had its own size and nomenclature. Jeunne's pounce was divided twelve lines, each were divided into six points. It is said Jeunne "stocked the arsenals with a complete desin system". Later Jeunne planned four volumes of a typography manual but only got to see two of them published.

In 1720, William Carlson took up typography and was an almost immediate sucess. Even though his types weren't fancy, they were legible and had a sturdy texture. They were said to be "comfortable and friendly to the eye". His operation continued with his heirs until the 1960s. John Baskerville continued also worked in similar typography as Carlson. Baskerville earned a fortune in manufacturing japanned ware. Baskerville eventually returned to type though and was able to make type that bridged a gap between old and modern type design. Baskerville was always trying to improve his press machines, and eventually he achieved a paper so glossy and smooth that no one had ever seen before. Baskerville published 56 books and his type became important influences on the continent.

Bodoni and Didot familes are big printing people who lasted through the years. (their section was boring).

William Blake started printing illuminated as etched relief printings.

The most interesting things from these things was that France was huge for printing. A lot of things came from Germany but I always thought France did their things via hand because it was so script-ish. It was nice to hear that France had such a huge part in this.