I’m not alone in my obsession…
This blog features occasional digressions in ancient manuscripts, printing, and the like. So I’m delighted to find a similar tangent on words / myth / ampers & virgule:
“The Museum Plantin-Moretus (Moretus was Plantin’s son-in-law) houses the oldest extant printing press (amid several other presses that are not much newer), punches cut by Claude Garamond himself, over six hundred manuscripts dating back to the ninth century, the company’s nearly complete business archives, and other treasures that earned the museum the designation of a world heritage site.”
Yes, Garamond was a person before he was a font name.
About the author
Dick Margulis
Tangent? Tangent you say?!? I’ve been studying the history of letterforms, typography, and printing since the late 1950s. The most astounding thing about the seventeenth-century technology in the museum was how familiar it all looked. Okay, composing sticks and galley trays were wooden (and you needed a different stick for every measure); and the most modern quoins on display were unlike modern ones (although the served the same purpose). But overall, I was able to provide a guided tour to my family without resorting to the recorded guide.
Anyway, it was worth the trip. I recommend you find a way to get yourself there.