Before Class, Tory is the BEST renaissance man & Chapter 8

Geoffroy Tory is the BEST renaissance man!

As the book says "The term renaissance man is often used to identify a unique individual of genius whose wide-ranging activities in various philosophic, literary, artistic, or scientific disciplines result in important contributions to more than one field. Such a person was Geoffroy Tory." After reading these few opening lines, I think my group is going to win the debate on who is the best renaissance man.

Tory has had a number of accomplishments throughout his lifetime. Some of them include a designer, engraver, professor, and calligrapher, just to name a few because the list is never ending. Tory is very well known and one of the best and influential graphic designers of the century. Below are a few of Tory's accomplishments that make up Tory's success:

- Developed the French Renaissance school of book design and illustration
-Established a new open and lighter style using the collaboration of both the master printer and graphic artist
-Opened a book-selling business where he produced printed books. He even illustrated, published and bound these books himself
-Designed Roman capital initials that caught French printers eyes
-Produced a series of Horae (which means Book of Hours) that set the style of design for the era
-Made very complex illustrations and borders by using fine contour lines with curves that consisted of typographic lightness
-Cut woodblocks and produced the illustrations all by himself
-Tory was named imprimeur du roi by King Francis I (which means printer to the king)
-Champ Fleury is one of Tory's best and more important work that consists of three books. The first book discusses fixed rules of pronunciation and speech by the French tongue, the second book discusses the history of roman letters and the third book discusses geometric construction of the Latin alphabet

I didn't even list all of Tory's accomplishments because there are so many but these few helped Tory gain popularity by other artists and designers of his time and the title to be the best renaissance man ever!

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Chapter 8:

The eighteenth century was a time where visual communications were transforming rapidly. Following the 1600's, which was a time when graphic design creativity was running low, new types were being produced by a number of men. New typefaces were emerging such as Romain du Roi which then consisted a category of types called transitional roman. French art and architecture was on the rise between 1720 and 1770. During this time, a man named Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune produced an independent type-design and then made a book presenting more than 4,600 characters! Engravings were also on the rise because of its delicate detail and fine lines used for business cards, announcements and letterheads. John Pine was one of the most skilled engravers of this time.

Other fonts were being produced as well. Caslon Old Style, which was used by all English printing at the time, was made by William Caslon. John Baskerville produced Baskerville's type designs which are types that fall into the gap of Old Style and modern type design. Louis Rene Luce designed lots of types that were narrow with very sharp serifs. Giambattista Bodoni made letter forms that were very simple and had thick and thin elements in the type. As you can see, all different letter forms and types were being produced during this century. Visual communication, from this point on, was very much changed.

One thing I learned and found very interesting was about John Baskerville. I never knew his types were still used today. I opened up word document after reading about him and I discovered that Baskerville, Baskerville Old Face, and Baskerville Semibold are all fonts you can choose from. I found that very interesting that the same type he produced during the eighteenth century is still being used today. Congrats Baskerville, your name lives on!