and the evolution of Greek typography 1 History of printing and the evolution of Greek typography Klimis ThessalonikiMastoridis2022
History of printing and the evolution of Greek typography 27
and the evolution of Greek typography 1
A brief overview of the history and development of Greek printing, from the appearance of the ‘first Greek typographic school’ in the 15th century until the introduction of major technological changes in the 20th century.
Klimis Mastoridis
History of printing and the evolution of Greek typography
2 History of printing © Klimis Mastoridis, 2022 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the author. Produced in Patras by Future Format and distributed to all the 8th ICTVC 2022 participants.
Introduction
History of printing and the evolution of Greek typography
History of printing and the evolution of Greek typography 3
An overview of the history and development of Greek printing, from the appearance of the ‘first Greek typographic school’ in the 15th century until the introduction of major technological changes in the 20th century. A brief discussion of specific typographic characteristics that shaped modern Greek printing and publishing.
Any conscious attempt by an originator to leave a mark on a surface with the purpose to communicate a message produces an imprint; printing can be described as the process that enables the multiplication of an original by the employment of mechanical means. Cylinder seals and stamps, employed more than 3.500 years ago in Mesopotamia (Tsouparopoulou 2014, pp.37–40) or other impression devices, such as wooden rollers in different sizes brought to light during the excavations at the Late Bronze Age Kourion in Cyprus, (Smith 2012) constitute ancient examples of such mechanical means. The ‘Phaistos Disc’ (Gaur 1992, pp.143–145) can be regarded as one of the earliest products created by means whose basic principles would be employed almost 3.000 years later in the process of developing the art of printing in East Asia and, later, in Europe. Stone, wood, and metal are some of the basic materials humans have used in different eras to engrave upon and all have also been employed in
Printing in Europe In the western world the German Johannes Gutenberg is regarded as the inventor of printing, for he managed, by bringing old and new techniques together, to build a complete, fully functional and efficient apparatus that was to give an admirable impetus to human civilisation.
A Diamond Sutra that bears the statement “printed on 11 May, 868, by Wang Chieh”, is the earliest known dated and complete printed woodblock book. (Jubert 2006, p.35)
History of printing the construction of impression devices capable of reproducing an original ‘image’ throughout the centuries.
After years of experimentation, Gutenberg managed to solve most of the production problems fulfilling his dream: to mechanically multiply an original by a method other than handwriting or woodblock printing. (Twyman 1998, p.12) The earliest dated artefact of European typography is the indulgence of 1454 granted by Pope Nicholas V for the defence of Cyprus against the Turks. A year later, a pile of large volumes of the Bible in
Xylographic printing, however, had been initiated at a much earlier stage in East Asia and we now know that craftsmen had worked with individual type almost four centuries before the appearance of the printing press in Europe. They had even cast and used metal types for printing well before the beginning of the 15th century.
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Establishments like the University of Padua, which gradually became the main university of the Venetian Republic, gave hospitality to a number of Greek scholars. Through them Renaissance Italy discovered two Greek worlds: the ancient Greek world through the manuscripts of classical works, and the Byzantine
and the evolution of Greek typography 5
The term prehistory may be used to denote the first of two different eras in the production of Greek-language printed matter: the former covers more than three centuries, starting from 1476, the year when the first Greek book was printed, (Didot 1875, pp.35–36; see also Layton 1979, pp.63–79); the latter begins with the outbreak of the Greek Revolution in 1821 and continues to the present day. In the first period, Greek texts were printed outside Greece; in the second, they were produced within the country. The Ottoman army swept into Constantinople in 1453, only a few years after Gutenberg introduced the art of printing to Europe; this signalled the expatriation of Byzantine scholars to the Western world.
Gutenberg’s workshop was ready for sale. After that, it was just a matter of time until the establishment of printing shops in all major European cities. As Clapham wrote, “a man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in AD 330”. (see Eisenstein 1979, p.45) Greek incunabula
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History of printing Greek world through the lectures and writings of the Greek teachers residing there. “By the early 1490s there were a number of signs that Hellenic studies, [...] were beginning to gain more general prestige and academic recognition. Once the tendency became well marked, the printers would be tempted to follow it”. (Lowry 1979, p.79) As a result, the printing of Greek texts was boosted in fifteenth-century Italy where the learning of Greek was in fashion. An almost similar scene was to be repeated four centuries later, when Western classicism, among other things, rediscovered the descendants of the ancient Hellenes living under Ottoman occupation. Both historical moments bore their marks on the history of Greek printing. All sixty-seven recorded Greek incunabula were printed in Italy; (Koumarianou 1986, p.265) the production of most of these works can be attributed to Venetian printing establishments. A small number of those establishments were owned by Greeks, who were actively involved in their production, as a number of their compatriots were acting as editors, correctors, authors, or even as type designers and punchcutters. They targeted the European humanists’ market while also keeping an eye on their native market. It could be argued that the Greek printer in Italy composed and arranged his material in a very different way from his European colleagues and such differences have also been attested between the work of say a German and a French printer. This seems even more reasonable if we consider that the look of the fifteenth-century books was influenced by the manuscripts, and that Byzantine manuscripts were distinct from Western
and the evolution of Greek typography 7 ones. The Byzantine style, achieved by the use of ornaments, arabesque borders and colour, the care taken in type designing and cutting, the distinct –as opposed to the European– austerity in the arrangement and composition of their material (which did however allow for experimentation), established the first, and unfortunately the last, Greek typographic school to be founded over a four-century period. Greek printing in the Renaissance Laonikos, Kounadis, and Sophianos followed different paths from Aldus, Blado and other non-Greek printers of Greek texts and differences are apparent when comparing a double spread of Aldus’s 1495 Mousaios or his 1497 Psalterion, both printed in Venice, with the Homer that had been done by Damilas nine years earlier (Florence, 1488), or Kalliergis’s Etymologikon Mega of 1499 (Venice). On the other hand, approaches like that of Gilles de Gourmont (which resulted in nontight setting but required very skilled compositors), experiments (such as the flattening of the hypersticha [ascenders] and hyposticha [descenders]) by the Cretan printers Laonikos and Alexandros, and treatments like the greatest possible diminution of the ascenders and descenders (as in the Alcalà type used by de Brocar), indicate the existence of a continuous dialogue among craftsmen involved with the printing of Greek. Greek printing, from its beginnings to the middle of the sixteenth century, was characterized by the involvement of the most progressive Byzantine Greek scholars and craftsmen. Their knowledge and experience
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History of printing as scribes and calligraphers were applied to printed matter but also, being esteemed scholars, they managed to transform the printed book into a creditable product. Attempts by Kalliergis in 1510 and Sophianos in 1545 to produce books for their compatriots met with no success, and both returned to classical texts and their European readership. The non-Greek market for Greek books, which by definition was not big, shrank even more as a result of the European social and political turmoil. Moreover, the market within Greece was too general to preserve printing establishments dedicated to the printing of Greek books. Only later, establishments such as those of Estienne, Plantin, the Elseviers, and Didot, which were organized on a tight professional basis, published treatises which were aimed at the small Greek book market. This market mainly consisted of Greeks who lived under Venetian rule in Cyprus or the Aegean Islands.
Greek printing abroad
The percentage of Greek books published annually almost doubled in the seventeenth century when 74% of such book production was allocated to liturgical and religious publications. (Patrinelis 1981, p.27) However, after the period of the ‘first Greek typographic school’ up to 1670, no Greek craftsmen worked in the printing field. Most of these books came out of Italian printing offices. The ‘dark ages’ of Greek typography that were to last until the nineteenth century were interrupted by short intervals due to three printing establishments in Venice which were owned and run by Greeks and also by some sporadic attempts in places such as Moschopolis and Iasio. (Simpson 1935, p.80) Typographically the results are of minimal interest. This is not because of the bad printing or their crudely cut type, but because they are lacking in freshness and experimental flavour. The output of the presses of Glykis, Sarros and Theodosiou (1670–1820) cannot compete with the work executed by their pioneer compatriots who belonged to the ‘first Greek typographic school’. These few Greek printers imitated their Italian colleagues, using baroque style borders and ornaments and producing heavy title pages. A surviving specimen from 1812, produced by Glykis, shows his use of types from the sixteenthcentury period and hence reveals his lack of innovation. As Italy stopped being the heart of the production of Greek printed matter, other countries, such as Austria, England, France, Germany and the Low Countries, gave hospitality to Greek people and their publishing ventures. The economic and political collapse of the Venetian Republic at the end of the eighteenth century
and the evolution of Greek typography
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The printing houses that produced Greek books in 1801–1820 were now dispersed in 33 different
10 History of printing had an immediate effect on the wealth of its Greek community and consequently on printing in the region.
The end of the eighteenth century and the first two decades of the nineteenth century are characterized by an impressive growth in the number of Greek books, especially for school use (Sioki 2012, pp.101–116; see also Eliou 2005). Grammar books, dictionaries, and scientific and literary publications were added to the long list of religious editions. This can be seen as a result of political, social, and economic fermentation as well as change taking place not only in the Greek communities outside Greece, but also in those within the country. The merits of the National Enlightenment Movement are of great importance here too as, among other things, the movement accounts for the printing of a large number of non-religious books as well as for the publishing of the first group of the Greek ephemerides (newspapers), which appeared abroad. This can be seen as a result of the growing intellectual needs of the Greek diaspora. Apart from the Greeks who, for various reasons sought refuge in countries outside the Ottoman state, there were also the Greeks who studied at foreign institutions, as well as the expatriated elite of academics, scientists and other cultured people (Koraes, Psalidas, Koumas, and many others). Finally, the fact that ‘the Turks traditionally scorned commerce as unbefitting a Muslim’, led to the establishment of a strong Greek commercial bourgeoisie that lived and worked in large European centres such as Vienna, Paris, London, Venice, Odessa and elsewhere.
The second decade of the nineteenth century can also be seen as the frantic period of the Greek pre-revolutionary Press. Although the first Greek ‘newspaper’ is known to have been published in the 1780s, the first two decades of the next century are very important for the history of Greek journalism. This period finds the Greek reading audience having a choice of subscribing to a number of different newspapers and periodicals, an achievement which was to be repeated only after the establishment of the first modern Greek state in the 1830s. Newspapers were the first mass medium that reflected what happened in society, constituting at the same time a comprehensive case study about the technological developments which determined the history of printing in Greece. Their ephemeral nature and broad readership made them an ideal field for typographic and print technology experimentation as opposed to books’ conservatism. Moreover, competition turned them into fast learners, forcing them to adopt innovations such as the telegraph and the building of railway and postal networks.
and the evolution of Greek typography 11 cities of which only three or four can be regarded as representative centres of Greek book production. Although more than 54% of all titles were being published in Venice, the vast majority of these were produced by the Greek firms of Glykis and Theodosiou. Vienna, Constantinople and Paris followed; the latter owing much of its importance to Koraes and his circle of Greek intellectuals. (Eliou 2005, p.68)
Creating a print culture
In chronological order and up to 1821, the year of the Greek Revolution, the following titles were published in Vienna: Ephemeris (1790) by the Markidis Pouliou brothers, Ermis o Logios (1811) by Gazis, Pharmakidis and Kokkinakis, Ellenikos Telegraphos (1812) and Philologikos Telegraphos (1817) by Dimitrios Alexandridis, and Kalliopi (1819) by Stagiritis. In addition, Melissa and Athena (both in 1819) were published in Paris. Also in Paris in 1819, the short-lived Mouseion (only one issue) came out. Furthermore, an announcement in Logios Ermis (issue 8, 15.4.1819, p.307) informed readers about the forthcoming publication of a periodical that was to be printed in England. As we now know, this operation failed. (Koumarianou 1974, pp.363–375) All these publications were printed in places other than Greece. Their Greek editors, who, sometimes, as in the case of Ephemeris, were also printers, were particularly
12 History of printing
and the evolution of Greek typography 13 concerned with their typographic arrangement. In their “first announcements” they referred to the quality of the paper and the types, expressed their mood for experimentation, and apologized for the regular occurrence of mistakes in their publications. However, it was still too soon to discern some kind of Greek contribution to the technical aspects of type design and engraving. These tasks were still accomplished mainly by foreigners and the typefoundries, which had already turned into large enterprises with organized sales networks, regularly presenting Greek letters in their type specimens under the title “exotic”! Some of them, as for example the English typefoundry Caslon and the French Didot, were of primary importance to the development of Greek typography since they constituted the basic suppliers of Greek presses, not only during the period of the revolution but also afterwards. An interesting note by Bartholomew Kopitar about the Greek printing types used by printing offices in Vienna was published in the Wiener Allgemeine Literaturzeitung in 1813. The famous philhellene was at that time the official censor of Alexandridis’s newspaper. Kopitar started with a wish for the Greeks to acquire a better printing type than Trattner’s “miserable” letters, explaining that he favoured Baskerville’s and the Glasgow Greek fonts over the new Parisian design and other attempts by Bodoni, Göschen and Tauchnitz. He urged the punchcutters to seek advice from wise and tasteful scholars, wondering whether Greek printing type could have, like the Latin, an “antiqua” in addition to the existing “cursive”. As for the Didot types, Kopitar
The modern upright Didot, which finally prevailed in Greek printing during the first decades of the nineteenth century, had reversed a three-hundred-year tradition. Its fight with English types, as for example those produced by the Caslon foundry, unfolds before our eyes as we rummage through the first revolutionary papers. Ellenika Chronika of Messolonghi were printed from April 1824 with an English press and material sent by the British Philhellenic Committee, whereas, Philos tou Nomou was printed in Hydra from May 1824 onwards with the types and press of the Didot establishment which were sent to revolutionary Greece by the French philhellene printers. Finally, the scale turned in favour of the Didots, who imposed their material on the printing offices of the first independent Greek state. Their types in several variations, most known as ‘Apla’ (Simple) were, and to a great extent still are, the most popular choice among Greek printers for text setting. It would not be an exaggeration to say that, in the middle of the nineteenth century, Greek printers considered all other typefaces old-fashioned, as they struggled to acquire the modern upright letter of the Parisian typefoundry. The reign of the Didots was fully established in 1910, when the ‘Upright series 90’ appeared in Monotype’s specimen, confirming the general acceptance of a design which questioned the previously existing view that Greek characters were by nature a kind of inclined letter. Inclined characters turned into an auxiliary alphabet used either for emphasis in the text or for footnote setting. For
14 History of printing was critical only of the execution and not of the idea. (Mastoridis 2006, p.314)
and the evolution of Greek typography 15 many generations Greeks were taught the “beautiful handwriting” in calligraphy lessons based on the form of ‘Apla’ and this may partially explain the longevity of this printing type. (Sioki 2019, pp.120–137)
Involved in the production of the newspaper were some of the most prolific figures of that time, not only in the editorial field but also in the area of printing.
Printing in 19th century Greece
The first recorded attempt at printing a Greek newspaper within Greece was the Salpinx Elleniki, (Greek Trumpet). Its publication began on 1 August 1821 in Kalamata, where the first temporary revolutionary headquarters was set up, and was the first newspaper to be printed in a free Greek territory a few months after the War of Independence began. Salpinx’s second issue was dated 5 August and the third one, which was the last to be printed, 20 August 1821.
Theoklitos Pharmakidis, editor of the Viennese Logios Ermis, was the main editor of Salpinx while Constantinos Tobras was in charge of printing. It is obvious that in Greece at that time a trained printer constituted an invaluable asset. This cannot be better illustrated than in the case of Tobras in connection with the printing of Salpinx. Although D. Ypsilantis had all the necessary equipment in order to print his declaration of war against the Turks, he was forced by the lack of a printer to give it to the public in handwritten form (Hydra, 12 June 1821). Furthermore, a knowledgeable printer was indispensable not only in order to print and set type but also to dismantle and reconstruct the press, when it
After the three issues of Salpinx, Greek printing, as far as newspaper production was concerned, came to a complete standstill. More than two years passed until
Finally, Pharmakidis’s reaction against D. Ypsilantis’s attempts to exert control on the Press, recorded after the printing of a couple of issues of the first newspaper ever produced on free Greek soil, made clear that the way to the establishment of a really free Press in Greece would be a rough one. (see Mastoridis, 1999)
History of printing had to be transferred. This explains why a Greek rowing boat had to be sent from Peloponesos to Psara specially to get Tobras of whom Ambroise F. Didot had written: “excellent jeune homme, il apprit à connaitre et à executer par ses mains toutes opérations de la gravure, des poinçons, de la fonte des lettres, de la composition et de l’ impression des caractères”. (Didot 1826, p.389)
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Part of that infrastructure, which survived the struggle, constituted the basis for the “Printing Office of the Administration”, the “National”, and later, in May 1835, the “Royal Printing and Lithography”, the latter based in Athens, the new capital of the state.
and the evolution of Greek typography 17 the appearance of the first issue of Ellenika Chronika (Greek Chronicle) on 1 January 1824, the year that has to be seen as a landmark in the development of the Greek Press. During that year three newspapers were printed on free Greek soil and their basic design elements set the standards for many years to come. (see Mastoridis, 2005) Moreover, their publication made clear to the Greeks –of whom many were suspicious and even hostile to this new medium of communication– the importance of the newspaper as a platform to claim their rights. The Greek Chronicle in Messolonghi, O Philos tou Nomou (The Friend of Law) in Hydra, and the Ephemeris Athenon (The Athenian Newspaper) in Salamina –after its first issue, in Athens–, were the three 1824 newspapers, followed by Geniki Ephemeris tis Ellados (General Newspaper of Greece) printed in 1825, and Anexartetos Ephemeris tis Ellados (Independent Newspaper of Greece) of 1827. Despite their small runs and short lives, the revolutionary newspapers influenced the design of later papers as from this moment on there were no chronological gaps in the history of Greek newspaper printing. Moreover, these ad hoc newspaper printing establishments used their infrastructure and human resources to cover, as much as possible, the printing needs for the production of revolutionary leaflets, motivation pamphlets, and the official laws published by the provisional governments.
punchcutter and typecaster Konstantinos Dimidis awarded for his type in the 1859 Olympia, of whom F. Wilberg wrote: all printing types employed in Greece from 1828 until about 1845 were produced by K. Dimidis, who was the first to introduce this art and for many years the only one who exercised it in Greece. (Wilberg 1901, pp.158–159; see also Mastoridis 2006, p.318) After the establishment of the new Greek state, Andreas Koromilas was the first to create an impressive in size printing and publishing enterprise. In 1840, he introduced stereotype printing, to be able to cope with the huge number of reprints of the new school books that started being used in public education, managing to expand his business outside Greece. After his premature death in 1858, the business was run by his widow and in 1884 it was sold to Anestis Konstantinidis. For the
18 History of printing (see Sklavenitis 2000, pp.199–202). A number of editors, punchcutters and typesetters, as well as printers, who had offered their specialised, much needed services during the revolutionary years, either started their own private businesses or were hired to support the development of the state printing office; such examples constitute Konstantinos Tobras and the
and the evolution of Greek typography 19
The 1870s, when the first dailies appeared, signalled the beginning of the modern Greek Press and can also be seen as a landmark in the national history of printing; it is of no surprise that the son of Andreas, Dimitrios Koromilas, was the director of the first daily, titled Ephemeris, in 1873. Newspapers were leading developments in the area of printing and the graphic arts introducing the latest technologies in order to keep up with the demands of a constantly growing readership and competition; print production needed to be done fast and be of good quality. An example is the fact that most of the largest Greek newspapers were already, by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, using Linotype machines in their printing offices. Similarly, the reflexes they developed enabled them to employ, quite fast and in some cases in innovative ways, new technologies in the areas of image and colour reproduction.
next twenty years, Konstantinidis’s is undoubtedly the largest and more complete printing and publishing firm; he focused on the constantly developing school book market and initiated a publishing programme producing good quality, low cost “People’s books”. Moreover, by either hiring or collaborating with highly skilled professionals, he improved and expanded Koromilas’s infrastructure being able to offer specialised services to other printers; for example, in 1889–89, he issued a voluminous type specimen advertising his typefoundry’s products. (Mastoridis 2006, p.319) Towards a modern printing industry
Until the midtwentieth century a number of well organised enterprises were operating mainly in the capital city of Greece, Athens, covering most of the printing and publishing needs of the country; Saliveros, Sakellarios, PapachrysanthouAspioti–ELKA,Rodis,Eleftheroudakis,Papadimitriou,Phexis,Estia,Pehlivanidis,andare some of these largesized companies that shaped the field for almost half a century. Most of them had their own printing equipment and dedicated personnel, covering the prepress, production and post-production (binding) stages. Their paper needs were sufficiently supported by Greek paper manufacturers, such as “Aegion Paper Industry” (1924), “Ladopoulos” (1928), and “Athenaiki” (1927). (Katiforis 1965, pp.205–206; see also Loukos 2008) After the war, printing houses were to be found in most Greek cities, some of them competing with the quality offered by Athenian firms. Quite a few of these, technologically advanced units with highly skilled personnel, the result of serious investment, managed to sell their specialised services abroad;
20 History of printing
and the evolution of Greek typography 21 such a case is “Hatzopoulos packaging”, established in 1931 and based in Thessaloniki. Furthermore, a number of inspired individuals have tried through collaborations with foreign companies to introduce leading edge technologies in the Greek graphic arts field. For example, the “Athens Publishing Center” of the Doxiadis Organisation, established in the midsixties, made persistent, innovative efforts to create a photocomposition, highly advanced service bureau. At the same time, a large number of small letterpress printing businesses, in Greece traditionally called ‘kallitehnika’ (fine print/artistic), were to be found all over the country, a few thousands of which being still active in the early 1980s. Nevertheless, the advent of photocomposition for text setting, but even more so, the prevalence of low-cost Desk Top Publishing (DTP) technology in the 1990s, drove the largest part of kallitehnika out of business, exactly as mechanical setting confined hand setting in the beginning of the 20thThecentury.large shifts in the printing and publishing industry, mostly due to the rapid development of digital technologies over the past three decades, affected the working environment and consequently the working lives of individuals in these fields. Their ability to adapt and grow, however, clearly indicate that their products are to remain indispensable for the cultural development and educational aspirations of societies for generations to come.
History of printing References Didot, A.F., Notes d’un voyage fait dans le Levant en 1816 et 1817, Paris, Didot,1826.A.F,Alde Manuce et l’Hellénisme à Venice, Paris, 1875. Eliou, P., Stories of the Greek book, Crete (in Greek), 2005.
Lowry, M., The world of Aldus Manutius, business and scholarship in Renaissance Venice, Oxford, 1979.
Mastoridis, K., Casting the Greek newspaper: A study of the morphology of the ephemeris from its origins until the introduction of mechanical setting, Thessaloniki, 1999. Mastoridis, K., “Typographic experiments in 19th century Greek newspapers”, in Droulia, L., (ed.), The Greek Press, 1784 until today: Historical and theoretical approaches, Athens, pp.185–190, (in Greek), 2005.
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Eisenstein, E., The printing press as an agent of change, Cambridge, 1979. Gaur, A., A history of writing, London, 1992. Jubert, R., Typography and graphic design: from antiquity to present, Paris, 2006. Katiforis, P., Paper and the Graphic Arts, Athens (in Greek), 1965.
Koumarianou, A., Droulia, L., Layton, E., The Greek Book 1476–1830, Athens, (in Greek), 1986. Layton, E., “The first printed Greek book”, Journal of the Hellenic Diaspora, 4, pp.63–79, 1979. Loukos, C., (ed.), Paper making industries in Greece (19–20th century), Athens, (in Greek), 2008.
Koumarianou, A., “Η ΄Ίρις ή τα νυν Ελληνικά’: The Journal of the Ionian Academy”, O Eranistis, 11, pp.363–375, (in Greek), 1974.
Simpson, P., Proof-reading in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Oxford, 1935. Sioki, N., Dyson, M.C., “Serving the reader: Typography and layout in Greek alphabet books”, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis, 19, pp.101–116, 2012.
Tsouparopoulou, C., “Progress Report: An online database for the documentation of seals, sealings, and seal impressions in the Ancient Near East”, Studia Orientalia Electronica, 2, pp.37–68, 2014. Twyman, M., The British Library guide to printing: History and techniques, London, 1998. Wilberg, F., “The National Printing Office, historical notes”, Armonia, 4, pp.145–149, (in Greek), 1901.
and the evolution of Greek typography 23 Mastoridis, K., “Cutting and casting Greek types in the nineteenth and twentieth century”, Gutenberg Jahrbuch, pp.306–341, 2006. Patrinelis, C., The Greek book in the Turkokratea, 1474–1820, Thessaloniki, 1981.
Sioki, N., “A contribution to the history of book design in Greece: printing the Primer with the Sun”, in Mastoridis, K., Sioki, N., Dyson, M.C., (eds.), Design for visual communication: Challenges and priorities, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2019. Smith, J.S., “Seals, scripts, and politics at Late Bronze Age Kourion”, American Journal of Archaeology, 116, pp.39–103, Staikos,2012. K.S., Sklavenitis, T., 500 years of printed tradition of New Hellenism, 1499–1999, Athens, (in Greek), 2000.
24 History of printing and the evolution of Greek typography Images Page 2. Interior of a house of a Greek family. Drawing by A. Proust, 1857. The man is reading the Athenian newspaper Aeon. Page 4. The Phaistos disc, side A. 1700–1600 BC, Crete. Page 8. Sébastien et Gabriel Cramoisy, Αρριανού Κυνηγετικός, Paris, 1644. Page 12. Karl Tauchnitz, Homer, Odyssey, vol.II, Leipzig, 1839. Page 16. Dimitrios Koromilas, Ephemeris, Athens, 19.10.1881. Page 18. John Johnson, Πλάτωνος Ακαδημεία, Oxford, 1937. Page 20. Α.Χ. Πογιατζιάν, Αχτή τζετιτ γιανι, Νέα Διαθήκη, Ίστανπολτα, 1892.
History of printing and the evolution of Greek typography 27
The content (text and images) of this 24-page “brief overview of the history and development of Greek printing, from the appearance of the ‘first Greek typographic school’ in the 15th century until the introduction of major technological changes in the 20th century” is based on material either published in the past or to be published in Greek in 2024. The booklet has been distributed to all the ICTVC 2022 participants; its production was kindly sponsored by Future Format and the graphic used on the cover has been created by Neville Brody especially for ICTVC.
beyond the obvious typography & visual communication in times of disruption 8th international conference on typography & visual communication thessaloniki, greece | 5–9 july 2022 institute for the study of typography & visual communication
2 History of printing