The first Greek typographic school

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Coincidentally or not, most Greeks who were connected with the early press were active scribes and calligraphers. For this good reason A.F. Didot devotes a small chapter of his book to the Cretan calligraphers. The boundaries between Greek calligraphy and the then current handwriting cannot be easily defined; this is probably due to the idiosyncratic development of Greek writing. No such thing as the black letter has ever existed in Greek writing because of the overall cursiveness of the characters; this may well be one of the reasons why high levels of individualism have been introduced into Greek writing. After the appearance of small letters in the ninth century at the Studios monastery in Constantinople, a variety of hands were to follow. The main characteristic was their great individuality.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)75-86
JournalHyphen, a typographic forum
Volume1
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 1998

Keywords

  • Typography
  • Greek printing history
  • Greek printing types
  • Graphic design history
  • graphic design
  • Greek typefoundries
  • Greek typefaces

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