Eye Magazine

The history of type has often been reliant on printed materials in the absence of punches and matrices, the physical artefacts of metal type. Historians investigate, analyse and discuss the visual imprint of type, not the actual type itself. With type printed by letterpress this has meant taking into account the effects of printing pressure, ink viscosity, paper texture and density, as well as the quality of casting. The principal tool for analysing printed type has been the photograph. The better the photograph the better the analysis. Riccardo Olocco, one of the younger type historians that I mentioned in my recent essay on type history’s current golden age (Eye 106), has taken photographic documentation of printed type to a new level with his macro photographs augmented by digital layering of images.

Over the past decade Olocco has been using his technique as the foundation for a steady stream of articles on types from the Incunabula period: the Manzolus roman, the Scotus roman, Christopher Valdarfer’s romans, Francesco Griffo’s romans and Nicolas Jenson’s rotunda types. Now he has consolidated and expanded that research into a slender but dense book titled The Jenson roman, or the most influential type in the history of printing. Despite the cheeky subtitle – part of the modern trend of books with subtitles proclaiming the history-altering impact of their subjects no matter how seemingly prosaic (e.g. salt and cod) – Olocco makes a convincing case for his assertion …

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Olocco’s close scrutiny, masterful analysis, and outstanding supporting images leave one hoping he will write a sequel, a book that will continue the story of roman type up to the nineteenth century and the moment when the explosion of jobbing types upended everything. For now, we must content ourselves with one of the most important books on the history of type written this century.

Paul Shaw, letter designer, design historian, New York

First published in Eye no. 108 vol. 27, 2025