IV. Type and fleurons

Gerbrandus Furmerius. De rerum usu et abusu = Recht ghebruyck ende misbruyck, van tydlycke have. – Leyde: Christophe Plantin, 1585. In-4.

For a short period of time (April 1583 – October 1585), Plantin left Antwerp to set up shop in Leiden as printer of the young Calvinist university.

   There, he produced in particular the bilingual edition of this book of emblems on the theme of the good use and abuse of worldly goods. Embellished with 25 illustrations designed by Gerard van Groeningen and engraved by the talented Jan Wierix for each double-page opening, it offered the original emblems, Latin titles and epigrams on the left-hand side, and their Dutch translation on the right-hand side. The latter was set in ‘civilité’ type, a new type designed in 1557 by the French punchcutter Robert Granjon (1513-1590). Like italics, which offered a cursive variant to roman type, the civilité was devised as a cursive counterpart to black letter. Plantin, who introduced the new type in the Low Countries in 1558, bought some civilité type from Granjon in 1567 and took them with him to Leiden. The use of civilité type would die out at the end of the century, except in France, where it experienced a revival in the 18^th century (for printing pedagogical works).

Cultura Fonds: CS 176

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