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De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543
Posted by jp romo in
10 May 2010 — 11:33am
10 May 2010 — 11:33am
These are images from Andrea Vesalius' De Humani Corporis Fabrica, printed in 1543 in the workshop of Johannes Oporini.
If anyone knows who cut the type and/or whether there's a good digital typeface based on it, that would be great! Otherwise, suggestions of the most similar typefaces you can think of are very welcome.
Thanks!
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10 May 2010 — 12:08pm
This family is based on historical sources from the same time period, although it's a little more erratic than the sample shown...
10 May 2010 — 12:43pm
Oh, I'd love to get some more background knowledge about this type too!
A snippet of context – Oporin (Latin: Oporinus; Oporini is the genitive) was one of the Basel printers, working out of a building that still stands incidentally. He was a student of Froben's, arguably the most important Basel printer of the early 16th century.
I have a few more photos of the same book here, in case it helps (some closeups of both the Roman and Italic):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninastoessinger/sets/72157616517306105/
The German Wikipedia has some info on Oporinus ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Oporinus ) and also links to some more photos of the Vesalius book here (but this is less focused on getting the type large): http://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wantz/vesd1.htm
10 May 2010 — 1:05pm
Oh wait a second – jp romo, where exactly are your photos from, might this be a later edition* or a reprint or something? I just realized the type is quite different from the one in my shots (which are of the original, I believe the first edition).
Sorry if I caused confusion.
[* Jelmar noted here that there was a second edition with different type.]
10 May 2010 — 1:23pm
I made this trial 3 or 4 years ago:
You can read also: http://www.typophile.com/node/17260?page=1 (unluckily two of original four pages) and http://www.typophile.com/node/31349
BTW I have got somewhere roman to fit this italic...
Edit: Nina this ę is ecaudata, medieval latin character hijacked in XVI cent. as polish eogonek.